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ScorecardJhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj helped India build towards the Women’s World Cup with a title win•Getty Images

Veterans Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj combined to help India women clinch the quadrangular series by beating South Africa by eight wickets in the final in Potchefstroom.Goswami, the record holder for most wickets in women’s ODIs, and Poonam Yadav, the legspinner, picked up three wickets apiece as South Africa were shot out for 156 in 40.2 overs after being put in to bat. Raj then struck her sixth successive fifty, the joint most along with Lindsay Reeler, Charlotte Edwards and Ellyse Perry in women’s ODIs, as India knocked off the runs in 33 overs.While Goswami and Raj played stellar roles, Punam Raut continued to present her case for a berth in the first-choice XI ahead of the World Cup next month. Raut, who returned for the series after more than a year on the fringes, struck an unbeaten, 92-ball 70 to steer the chase after Deepti Sharma and Mona Meshram fell in quick succession. Earlier in the series, she had struck 109 not out against Ireland in a record opening stand of 320 with Deepti.Raj walked in with India 33 for 2 in the 12th over. She added an unbeaten 137 with Raut as India, who were denied a record 17th consecutive ODI win by South Africa four days ago, continued to enjoy a successful run in tournament finals this year. In February, India had beaten South Africa in the final of the Women’s World Cup qualifier in Colombo.South Africa started poorly today, losing Andrie Steyn and Trisha Chetty by the sixth over. Sune Luus, the opener who top-scored with 55, and Mignon du Preez, who made 30, added 73 for the third wicket to steady the innings before Shikha Pandey, the pacer, broke the partnership.Luus’ dismissal six overs later sparked a collapse, with South Africa losing their last six wickets for 25 runs. India’s spinners returned combined figures of 26-2-100-5. South Africa’s spinners, in comparison, went wicketless.

Opening batsman Aiden Markram will remain with South Africa’s Test squad in the UK. His availability for the Test series will be determined on a match-by-match basis as he may yet return home for the A series against India*.With Australia A cancelling their tour to South Africa because of the ongoing pay dispute, the selectors have decided to keep Markram with the senior side to gain experience and provide an extra batting option. South Africa are in the process of confirming a replacement for Australia A later this week.Markram was initially included in the squad as cover for Faf du Plessis, who missed the first Test because of the birth of his child, and was due to head home on du Plessis’ return. Markram did not play in the warm-up match in Worcester or at Lord’s because Theunis de Bruyn was preferred and will likely still have to wait his turn for a Test debut. But with South Africa’s line-up struggling and pressure on the top four, Markram may yet be called upon.The Under-19 World Cup winner enjoyed a breakthrough season at franchise level where he finished 10th on the first-class run-charts with 565 runs at 51.36 from seven matches. He captained the South Africa A side in England and scored a century in their match against Hampshire and 71 against the Lions.He did make an appearance as a substitute fielder in the first Test, but he was unable to get hand on a chance from Joe Root early in the England’s captain’s first-innings 190, having moved in from the boundary at long leg.*July 11, 10.45amBST: this story was updated to reflect further detail of Markram’s availability

ScorecardFile photo: Billy Godleman reached new T20 heights•Getty Images

Experienced Derbyshire duo of skipper Billy Godleman and Wayne Madsen powered Derbyshire Falcons to a third win in four Natwest T20 Blast matches to leave Worcestershire Rapids still searching for their first success of the campaign.The Rapids had posted a challenging looking target of 187 thanks to the efforts of Joe Clarke, Ross Whiteley and Ben Cox. But the Falcons made light work of their task and achieved a seven wicket win with 10 balls to spare once Godleman and Madsen joined forces and added 93 in 10 overs for the third wicket.Godleman achieved his career best score in T20 cricket and his 70 came off just 42 balls and contained two sixes and seven fours. It was his first half century for Derbyshire in the short format and he also surpassed his previous best of 69 for Middlesex.Madsen finished unbeaten on 58 from 35 deliveries with nine fours to add to his tidy spell with the ball.Falcons skipper Gary Wilson said: “At half-time I thought it would be a tough chase. They potentially did have enough runs.”But credit to Billy and Wayne with the way they played. I knew Wayne was a good player but probably didn’t realise how good he was until I played with him. He has been unbelievable so far in this T20 competition and it was great to see Billy strike the ball the way he did.”Worcestershire have lost their opening three T20 Blast matches – all at New Road – and already are facing an uphill battle if they are to maintain hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals.The Rapids were put into bat under murky skies and Daryl Mitchell, who has become their highest ever T20 scorer, holed out to wide mid on in Madsen’s opening over.Joe Clarke reeled off a series of impressive strokes, mixing power with delicate ramp and scoop shots, in making 42 off only 18 balls with seven fours and a six. The England Lions batsman was eventually bowled by a Hardus Viljoen full-toss as the Rapids reached 63 for 2 by the end of the powerplay.Madsen and Imran Tahir then slowed the run rate and Brett D’Oliveira was trapped lbw by the former attempting a reverse sweep.Tahir claimed his 199th victim in domestic T20 cricket when Mitchell Santner was caught behind but his last over cost 16 runs and the Rapids regained momentum via Ben Cox and Ross Whiteley.Whiteley produced typically big hitting against his former club but he had an escape on 23 when Derbyshire debutant Callum Brodrick spilled a straightforward chance at deep mid wicket off Henry. To add salt into the wound for Academy product Brodrick, the ball trickled from his grasp and to the boundary.Whiteley eventually fell in the final over from Henry to deep extra cover after making 39 off 28 balls with two sixes and two fours. But Cox continued his recent good form in making 40 not out and John Hastings pulled and straight drove Henry’s last two deliveries for six.Derbyshire openers Godleman and Matt Critchley gave their side a hurricane start and plundered 57 from the opening four overs. Worcestershire skipper Joe Leach conceded 28 runs in two overs and spinner George Rhodes was taken for 19 in his initial over.Jack Shantry, who passed a fitness test on an ankle injury, had Critchley (31 off 16 balls) safely pouched at deep mid wicket.Then the introduction into the attack of Santner quickly paid dividends as Luis Reece was caught at long on.New Zealand spinner Santner bowled two typically tight overs and scoring was not so straightforward with the pace taken off the ball.The Falcons 100 came up in the 11th over and Madsen wrestled the initiative back with the Falcons by striking three fours in a third over from Santner which cost 15 runs.Madsen had a let-off on 36 as Leach at mid off spilled a chance off Ed Barnard. Godleman was stumped by Cox off Santner, who finished with 2 for 27 from his four overs, but by then only 18 were needed for victory.

Leeds is only 65 miles from Scarborough – aka “Scarbados” – so it was perhaps appropriate that a sun-kissed Headingley was the scene for a pair of Bajans to revive West Indies’ hopes on this tour. Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope put on 246, West Indies’ second-highest partnership on the ground, to underpin a day of unexpected domination in their attempts to fight back into the series after being thrashed at Edgbaston.Hope’s unbeaten innings of 147 was his maiden Test century, coming two years after his debut against the same opposition in Bridgetown. Brathwaite, meanwhile, made his second hundred against England – the first was a valiant attempt to stave off defeat in Grenada during the 2015 series – and provided the bedrock for the tourists to go past England’s 258 during the evening session; not since Old Trafford 2004 had West Indies secured a first-innings lead in England.”The key word for us was ‘fight’,” Hope said on Sky TV. “We are not coming here to let people run over us.”Brathwaite, the team’s vice-captain, echoed that sentiment. “It was very important for us,” he said. “We know what we can do. We decided we would show fight, work hard and believe in ourselves and that’s what we did. Looking in the mirror after [Edgbaston], we knew we could do better, as a team we said we won’t give up and we’ll come out and work twice as hard.”While Hope and Brathwaite both hunkered down and made the most of their luck during a tricky morning session, neither got stuck. Brathwaite went to both fifty and a hundred with sixes down the ground, while the pull that took Hope to 99 had more than a touch of Gordon Greenidge’s flamboyance to it, one knee proudly pointing upwards. The next delivery was tucked for the single that took him to three figures, a moment he greeted with a full-throated roar of celebration.”Relief. It was good to get the monkey off my back,” Hope said. “I felt the pressure. As a professional you want to perform to your best. I wasn’t thinking about the 100 as much as I would expect [in the 90s]. I just tried to bat as long as possible and stick it out.”Having won his first cap as a 21-year-old, Hope’s introduction to Test cricket was a difficult one. It was not until his 17th innings that he finally passed fifty – although that helped West Indies to a series-levelling victory against Pakistan in Bridgetown earlier this year – but Brathwaite predicted that a player he has grown up alongside would now go on to establish himself.”I think Shai’s a top-quality player and I know he will do extremely well in international cricket,” Brathwaite said. “He already has a lot of one-day runs. This is the start of a lot of big things for him.”We played from Under-13 right up, so I’ve played a lot of cricket with him – we play first-class cricket together as well. I know him well and I’m very happy for him.”Although England fought back to remove Brathwaite, for 134, and Roston Chase with the second new ball, Hope remained at the crease until the close, in the company of the dangerous Jermaine Blackwood. From a perilous position of 35 for 3, and with last week’s twin capitulations with the bat still fresh in the memory, it was a quite remarkable performance. After West Indies’ impressive display with the ball on the first day, Kemar Roach had said he was expecting “big things” from the batsmen. Brathwaite and Hope ensured they did not disappoint.Brathwaite was involved in four reviews in all – twice overturning decisions given against him, twice surviving England’s attempts to winkle him out via DRS. The majority of his scoring inside the first hour was done behind the wicket, as several edges went to ground, but England were forced to reassess their tactics as the early cloud cover moved through and Headingley’s Janus face decided to smile on the batsmen once more.”I know my strengths and weaknesses,” Brathwaite said of his watchful approach. “I know it won’t be easy but once I’m out there, it’s good for my team. I try my best to be out there as long as possible and make sure I put away all the bad balls and it worked quite well for me.”Of West Indies’ turnaround in form from the previous Test, he added: “We stuck to our plans, as a bowling unit we were a lot more disciplined and, as batters, we just had to believe in what we’re working towards. We work hard in the nets and we believed we could do it. It’s not impossible and we showed our fight.” England will certainly know they are in a fight now.

Sir Richard Hadlee has stepped down from his position as a director of the New Zealand Cricket board after four years in office. One of two directors to resign by rotation this year, the 66-year old former allrounder was happy that his tenure coincided with bringing the game closer to the public.”I’ve been particularly impressed with the determination and commitment within the Board towards making the game more relevant and accessible to all New Zealanders – regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status,” Hadlee said. “I’d like to congratulate and thank the NZC Board for its support and passion on these matters; for the friendships developed along the way, and for the very real progress it’s made over the past few years. It’s nice to be able to step down knowing the governance of the game in New Zealand is in such good hands.”Hadlee is recognised as one of the greatest allrounders in the history of cricket. He played 86 Tests for New Zealand, picking up 431 wickets at 22.29 and scoring 3124 runs, including two centuries and 15 fifties. Later, he became chairman of selectors, and in 2013, he was elected to the post of director. He won the re-election for the same post in 2014.NZC chairman Greg Barclay said that the board would miss his expertise moving forward. “Sir Richard has been a highly-respected member of our High Performance Advisory Group, and a staunch advocate of progressing the women’s game. On behalf of the NZC Board and its directors, I wish him well for the future and look forward to seeing him around the cricket circles over the coming summer.”NZC board member Liz Dawson, who will also resign by rotation this year, has opted to stand for re-election at the annual general meeting in November. Applications for Board vacancies will be advertised on Saturday.

Lancashire have signed opening batsman Keaton Jennings from Durham on a four-year contract.Jennings is therefore confirmed as the third Durham player to leave the club in the past week, following Paul Coughlin, who has joined Nottinghamshire, and Graham Onions, whose was also confirmed as a Lancashire player a few hours later.”I am hugely excited at the opportunity to work with head coach Glen Chapple, a fellow pace bowler who I’ve greatly admired, and join up with Lancashire over the next two years,” Onions said.The Jennings announcement will be a blow to Notts who had high hopes of attracting him but whose uncertain progress towards promotion from Division Two of the Specsavers Championship might have counted against them.Jennings made his international debut in India last year and became the eighth England opener to make a century on Test debut after hitting 112 in the fourth Test in Mumbai.His leadership qualities are highly prized and he has been touted as a future England captain as well as gaining experience with Durham as a 50-over captain. However, the prolific form of 2016, which won him England honours, has been sandwiched between two frustrating seasons and he will calculate that a move to Lancashire will help revitalise his batting.Lancashire’s head coach Glen Chapple said: “I am very pleased Keaton has signed for Lancashire as I know there were other counties chasing his signature. He’s exactly the type of character and player I feel will add strength and depth to our squad. Keaton will be an important part of the squad, in all formats of the game, over the coming years.”Jennings enjoyed an outstanding 2016 season for Durham in all competitions. He was the leading run-scorer in the County Championship with 1,548 runs at an average of 64.50 with seven centuries, including a double-hundred against Yorkshire.”It was an extremely difficult decision to leave Durham, but I am hugely excited about joining Lancashire and playing my cricket at Emirates Old Trafford,” Jennings said. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for me to play Division One cricket at a Test match ground for a club with such a great history and tradition.”I have been hugely impressed by the vision for the future and playing a part in that alongside some hugely talented individuals and strong leaders.”Jennings has also played a key role in Durham’s white-ball teams in recent years. He was an ever-present in the 2016 NatWest T20 Blast campaign, hitting a career-best 88 as the Jets were beaten finalists at Edgbaston. Jennings also has three List A centuries to his name and averages over 40.Paul Allott, who was confirmed as the club’s new cricket director, said: “Keaton is an outstanding cricketer and his record in county cricket is very impressive. Not many players hit a century on their England debut and that tells you everything you need to know about him. There was a healthy competition to sign him and it’s fantastic that he has chosen Lancashire.”Any player we bring into this club has to fit in with the strong, tight knit culture that has been created. The core values of playing for Lancashire are very important to us and any new players need to buy into them. Keaton is a great example of someone who has these values ingrained in him.”

Bangladesh needed one of their No. 3 – 6 – Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Sabbir Rahman or Mahmudullah – to bat through the last ten overs in their chase of 196 against South Africa in the 1st T20I. That, according to batsman Soumya Sarkar, would have given the side the anchor they needed in their steep pursuit. As it happened, however, the four batsmen contributed only 48 runs and South Africa won quite comfortably by 20 runs in the end, leaving Bangladesh winless on the tour so far.”If someone from No. 3 to 6 could have played a big innings in the last 10 overs, it would have helped us,” Sarkar said. “Then we would have had a set batsman at the crease in the last 10 overs, making things easier for us. They made nearly 200 runs but we also made 175. If one batsman did well in the middle overs, we could have won the game easily. But this [performance] will give us confidence that we can also score 200 runs.”Sarkar had his first good outing on the tour on Thursday, with a boundary-studded 31-ball 47 that gave Bangladesh’s chase a powerful start. He shared brief, but brisk, partnerships with Imrul Kayes, Shakib and Mushfiqur, but once Sarkar fell in the tenth over, Bangladesh’s batting gave way too quickly. They slipped to 101 for 5 from 92 for 2, before Sabbir, Mehidy Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin provided some big hits to finish on 175 for 9.Sarkar, who had scores of 9, 3 and 8 in his previous matches on the tour, defended Bangladesh’s selection for this match. The visitors picked four pace bowlers and two frontline spinners, and went with one batsman short in the game.”If you want to talk about negative things, there are a lot of things to talk about,” he said. “If the bowlers did well and we played one less, you would have said we should have picked one extra bowler. Now that the batsmen couldn’t do the job, you are saying we needed one more batsman.”There’s no end to these things; you think that we had one batsman less, but our captain and team management thought this was the best way to go about things,” he said.Sarkar, however, admitted that Bangladesh have to overcome their weakness of playing too many dot balls, something the bowlers are unable to enforce on the opposition.”Dot balls are a big problem in T20s. We have to reduce that in the next game. Even when we bowled or fielded, we should have saved more runs or not given away the no-ball that went for four. They would have scored 20 runs fewer. Chasing 170-odd would have been a different story,” said Sarkar.

Unbeaten half-centuries from Manprit Juneja and Rujul Bhatt steered defending champions and table-toppers Gujarat to 262 for 4 in a game they would like to win considering how tight things are in Group B. There is the possibility of a two-way tie, even a three-way tie. So to stay safe in such circumstances six points – or seven if they could manage it – could be vital.Jharkhand chose to bowl on home turf but ran into a very stubborn opening batsman in Samit Gohel, who faced 179 deliveries for his 64. Nevertheless, he struck eight fours and a six. His partner Priyank Panchal, who came into the game with back-to-back hundreds, fell for 33. Bhargav Merai (23) and Parthiv Patel (33) didn’t trouble the scorers too much either and when Gohel fell in the 61st over, Gujarat were 179 for 4. That’s when Juneja and Bhatt (who made 40 of his 51 runs in boundaries) came together to string a stand worth 83 runs in 22 overs.Their regular No. 3 was busy scoring a hundred for India so Avi Barot was left to play the innings Cheteshwar Pujara might have, batting almost the entire day to remain unbeaten on 128 as Saurashtra battled for qualification into the Ranji Trophy knockouts. He came to the crease in the 10th over and, with Robin Uthappa (59) and Sheldon Jackson (54*) for support, took the score to 286 for 3 against Rajasthan in Jaipur.With Saurashtra needing nothing short of a win – and even then they could find themselves out of the title – they could not afford a bad start. But the openers couldn’t get past 20 and it was down to the middle order to regain the upper hand. Uthappa struck 11 fours to bring up his third half-century in as many matches and when he fell, Jackson took over striking seven fours in a 93-ball innings. Left-arm seamer Tanvir-ul-Haq was Rajasthan’s most successful bowler, picking up 2 for 48 in 21 overs.Kerala‘s Sandeep Warrier and Vinod Kumar took six wickets between them to reduce Haryana to 207 for 9 in Lahli. The two medium-pacers have kept their team alive in the race towards the quarter-finals, bowling 37 overs between them for only 90 runs.But they had to wrench the upper hand back from Haryana, who at one point were 94 for 1. Then they became 158 for 6 and finally ended the day clinging on to their last wicket. None of the hosts’ batsmen could make a score higher than Rajat Paliwal’s 45. He was dismissed in the penultimate over before stumps, and Kerala received a bigger boost when Warrier picked up a wicket with what became the last ball of the day to push his tally to 4 for 50.

ScorecardGetty Images

Wicketkeeper Seb Gotch fell two short of his maiden first-class century as Victoria piled on 450 on the third day against Western Australia at the MCG. In reply, Western Australia were 0 for 86 in their second innings at stumps, with Jonathan Wells on 46 and William Bosisto on 38, but their side still trailed by 121 runs after Victoria compiled their hefty total.Victoria had started the day on 4 for 247 and soon lost Daniel Christian, who was caught off the bowling of Ashton Agar for 34. Cameron White was lbw to D’Arcy Short for 82 before Agar and Short claimed the wickets of Chris Tremain and Jon Holland respectively to leave Victoria at 8 for 331.However, a fighting ninth-wicket stand worth 98 was built by Gotch and Scott Boland to frustrate Western Australia. Gotch was on 98 when he was caught off a leading edge from the bowling of Agar, who finished with 4 for 119 in his first Sheffield Shield game of the season. Agar was making his return after suffering a fractured finger during Australia’s ODI tour of India in September.