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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:20

‘Stoked to get a win’ – Borren

Netherlands shook off a rocky start in pursuit of Oman’s 146 – left-arm seamer Bilal Khan was on a hat-trick in the first over – as a 93-run stand between Man of the Match Michael Rippon and Wesley Barresi set the platform for their five-wicket victory. The top-seeded team in Group B hardly broke a sweat until two wickets in four balls accounted for both Rippon and Barresi to leave Netherlands needing 46 off 28 balls with two fresh batsmen at the crease.Roelof van der Merwe shone at the end, scoring an unbeaten 35 off just 15 balls. Oman’s bowlers continued to scratch and claw, claiming captain Peter Borren caught behind as Netherlands required 18 to win off the final 12 balls. But Max O’Dowd’s straight six into the Oman dugout four balls into the 19th over brought the equation down to a run a ball and van der Merwe’s sixth four clinched victory with four balls to spare.Self-inflicted woundsOman were competitive for long stretches of the match, but shot themselves in the foot several times to give the momentum back to Netherlands. Opener Zeeshan Maqsood was the only top-order batsman to fire for Oman. He creamed the first ball he faced for four over mid-off and continued to hum along – he struck three fours through the off side against Ahsan Malik in the sixth over – with the only trouble provided by Paul van Meekeren’s height and bounce.At the opposite end, Khawar Ali was bogged down scoring just 2 off his first 10 balls. In an effort to get unshackled, Khawar charged on the last ball of the ninth over and drove firmly back to Rippon, who deflected the ball onto the stumps with Maqsood run-out backing up too far.Khawar made it a double-whammy in the 14th over when he was involved in a comical run-out. He skied a slog against Rippon who backpedaled chasing the ball as Khawar took a lackadaisical start to make sure a new batsman wouldn’t be on strike, but Rippon spilled the catch and soon fired a throw. He missed and Timm van der Gugten mishandled the backup at short fine leg. A mix-up ensued between the batsmen for the overthrow and Ajay Lalcheta was halfway down the track when Khawar decided against the run and van der Gugten relayed the ball to Barresi at the striker’s end.Three balls later, Khawar ended a forgettable stay at the crease by dragging his back foot out on another attempted heave and was stumped for 17 off 26 balls. A 57-run stand between Naseem Khushi and Khurram Nawaz salvaged some respect for Oman to get them to 146 but much of the damage had already been done.Roelof van der Merwe finished on an unbeaten 35 off 15•Peter Della Penna

Van der Merwe gives the finishing touchFifteen deliveries, 15 scoring shots and zero dot balls for van der Merwe after arriving with the pressure rising in the chase. He tickled the first ball he faced – a yorker – past short fine leg for four and turning yorkers into runs was a recurring theme in his innings.The pivotal sequence came in the 17th over as Bilal returned after his first-over gems on the off stump line to Stephan Myburgh and Ben Cooper. Four of the first five balls in the 17th over bowled by Bilal were yorkers, but Netherlands scored off every one.The crème de la crème came on the third ball when van der Merwe took a step forward to convert it into a low full toss, carving it perfectly between point and backward point for four. Bilal dropped short on the last ball and van der Merwe pulled him with ease past short fine leg for another four to conclude a 12-run over. Van der Merwe dug out a yorker for the winning shot over point as well.”I think that in my time with the Netherlands, that’s Roelof’s best performance so far,” Netherlands interim coach Chris Adams said after the match. “We expect him to bowl well, we expect him to field well and we expect him to bring a lot in the change room. We also expect him to play innings like that and I think he’s been a little bit shy of doing that so far. It’s a tough time to come in and it was a tough ask today but he played the sort of innings which tends to determine T20 games.”Unsung heroPaul van Meekeren’s 1 for 21 in four overs made him the third-most economical bowler on the day, but that does not do justice to how much difficulty he posed for Oman’s batsmen. He set the tone for Khawar’s nightmare by greeting him with a bouncer in the fifth over and continued to use the short ball to great effect, something every fast bowler struggled with on the first day.Van Meekeren’s first three overs went for just nine runs. Even after an overstep in the 11th, Lalcheta couldn’t lay bat on the free hit. Several balls in his final over were mistimed in the air before falling safely in no man’s land. His only bad ball was his last delivery, a length ball swatted by Khushi that just cleared a leaping Pieter Seelaar on the midwicket rope for six. He may prove a handful for Scotland on Tuesday in a battle of Group B unbeatens.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA succession of soft dismissals left Sri Lanka in danger of a big defeat in the first Test despite their batsmen, almost without exception, looking comfortable at the crease in their pursuit of 488. No team has successfully chased more than 418 to win a Test match, but Sri Lanka suggested they were capable of giving South Africa a serious scare only to gift away four of the five wickets they lost on day four. Angelo Mathews, who witnessed two of these gifted wickets from the non-striker’s end, was batting on 58 at stumps, and with him was Dhananjaya de Silva on 9.A mix-up between Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva ended an 87-run stand for the first wicket, while a moment of overconfidence cost Kusal Mendis his wicket after he had added 75 for the fourth wicket with Mathews. Kusal Perera and Dinesh Chandimal frittered away their wickets as well, and at stumps, 248 adrift of their target, Sri Lanka were left counting what-ifs, with an entire day remaining on a pitch that seemed to have flattened out entirely after starting out as a green seamer.South Africa declared 10.5 overs into the morning session, after Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock had completed half-centuries and stretched their overnight partnership to 129. The declaration arrived when Rangana Herath had de Kock lbw for 69, missing a sweep against a ball that was probably too full and too close to off stump to play the shot against safely.

Sri Lanka’s opening stand and Quinton de Kock’s 2016

• 87 Runs added for the opening wicket by Kaushal Silva and Dimuth Karunaratne. This is the best opening stand for Sri Lanka in Tests in South Africa beating the 70 added by Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lahiru Thirimanne in Cape Town. It is also the second-highest opening stand for Sri Lanka against South Africa, after the 193 between Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya in Galle in 2000.

• 196 Number of balls faced by Silva and Karunaratne in their partnership of 87. This is the fourth longest that any opening pair has played in the fourth innings of a Test in South Africa. Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten played 261 balls against Australia at Durban in 2002.

• 7 Number of fifty-plus scores for Quinton de Kock in 2016.This is the most by a South Africa batsman in 2016. Hashim Amla and Stephen Cook have five such scores each. De Kock has had a great year scoring 695 runs at 63.18

Both Sri Lankan openers missed out on half-centuries, but showed they had worked on the weaknesses that had caused their first-innings dismissals. Silva was eventually lbw for the second time in the match when Rabada nipped one into him after tea, but had till then shown improved balance and alignment while dealing with South Africa’s concerted effort to attack his stumps, and had looked particularly good while driving straight. Rabada’s extra pace and bounce had discomfited him a couple of times before that. Before lunch, he had gloved a rising ball, managing to drop his bottom hand and keep the ball down in front of Quinton de Kock diving to his right behind the stumps. Then, in the second session, he had taken a blow to the shoulder while ducking into a bouncer delivered from wide of the crease.Karunaratne, apart from a couple of moments when he lost concentration, was alive to the danger of playing away from his body. The seamers looked to get him nibbling with the angle across him, and then tried to go around the wicket as well, but he handled both lines well, making sure his hands didn’t follow the ball when he was beaten. He was just getting into stride when he was dismissed, having moved from 20 off 90 balls to 43 off 113. He had hit three fours in that period of acceleration, including a sweetly-timed flick off Philander and a reverse-sweep off Maharaj immediately after the left-arm spinner had got one to spit at him out of the rough.The opening stand ended when Silva pushed Maharaj into the covers and set off immediately. Karunaratne responded after a moment’s hesitation, and that little stutter was enough to find him short of his crease when he dived to beat JP Duminy’s throw to the keeper.Then Perera, his place at No. 3 in question after his dismissal to a wild slash in the first innings, fell to another injudicious stroke, top-edging a cut against the turn off Maharaj when he was getting consistent turn and bounce out of the rough.When Mathews walked in, Sri Lanka had lost three wickets for 31 runs either side of tea, but he immediately showed the positive intent of a man with a fourth-innings average of 69.37, rotating the strike comfortably at the start before stepping out to his 17th ball and drilling Keshav Maharaj back past him for four. Rabada fed him a wide long-hop and a full-toss in the next over, and he put both away to the boundary, before a back-foot whip off Maharaj took him to 25 off 27 balls.Then, with Vernon Philander returning to the attack, Mathews made a strategic retreat, scoring only six runs off the next 29 balls he faced. He was perhaps mindful that he needed to be at the crease when the second new ball became available on a pitch where the old ball was doing almost nothing. By then, though, Silva had fallen to the daftest of shots, taking on the returning Rabada’s around-the-wicket attack by making himself room and looking to ramp over the slips. All he managed was an edge to the keeper.Mendis’ innings had always promised that sort of end. His 58 had displayed a vast range of shots – notable among them an off-drive off Philander and a number of sweeps off Maharaj – but also a tinge of impetuosity. In the over before his dismissal, he had run down the track to Maharaj and looked to hit him over mid-on, mistimed his shot horribly, and fortuitously managed to hit the fielder on the bounce.Chandimal didn’t learn from Mendis’ close shave against Maharaj. Having already been dropped once while going after the left-arm spinner – Dean Elgar putting him down at short extra-cover – he tried it again, with the new ball 2.4 overs away, and spooned the ball straight to mid-on.South Africa took the new ball as soon as it was due, and came very close very early. Abbott, starting the 82nd over of Sri Lanka’s innings, caught Dhananjaya de Silva shuffling too far across his stumps, and Bruce Oxenford upheld his lbw appeal immediately. De Silva reviewed – perhaps more in desperation than any real hope of getting the decision overturned – and ball-tracking saved him, suggesting the ball would have carried on to miss leg stump.

Players will be chasing a slice of Cricket Australia’s digital revenue, arguing the content could not exist without them, when negotiations for a new payment memorandum of understanding (MOU) formally begin in Melbourne on Friday.Ahead of talks that are set to be among the most willing since the threat of a player strike, in 1997, led to the creation of the Australian Cricketers’ Association, ESPNcricinfo has learned that the players union will be seeking a more expansive definition of Australian Cricket Revenue (ACR), the pool of money from which the players’ fixed revenue percentage of around 25% is drawn.The last MOU, negotiated in 2012, predated CA’s current broadcast rights deals, which included a substantial digital component for the first time. Lavish funds have been spent on the project, including the CA website, a subscription-based mobile app and extensive live streaming services. Yet the players, whose cricket the project covers, only have access to the money brought in by television deals, not their digital equivalents.While the players have been happy to help the project get off the ground over the past three summers, there is an eagerness now to “future-proof” the next MOU so new sources of revenue are not excluded from ACR. Though the cricketers’ pay model is the envy of the Australian sporting world, the ACA argues that the players actually get less than a fifth of all money in the game, termed Total Cricket Revenue.There has already been some furious spin on both sides of the argument, which will be led on the players’ side by the ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson and on CA’s by the senior executive and former board director Kevin Roberts. While CA has said little about the looming talks, even to the point of refusing to guarantee the retention of the fixed revenue percentage model, Nicholson moved onto the front foot on Thursday.”It’s important that the facts are known because they paint a very different picture to that suggested,” Nicholson said. “Most think that the players are getting a bigger and bigger slice of the cricket pie. This is wrong. The opposite is actually true. And this is despite the fact that it is the players who have helped grow the game to make it what it is.”For the last 20 years, Cricket Australia and the players have worked together as genuine partners in the growth of the game, and the game in Australia has never been stronger. To suggest that players try harder or perform better due to the size of their contracts is not only wrong, but doesn’t respect the work that the players put in.”In reality, the players know more than anyone that they need to continue to fight to be the best in world cricket, and every time they pull on the Australian cap, they do so with immense pride and respect. The players have outlined their priorities including ongoing investment in grassroots cricket and a greater say on scheduling. This, along with including all cricketers, male and female in the one MOU, provides cricket with a fantastic opportunity to grow in the right way.”

There’s a generation of South Africans whose memories of watching their Test team play in Australia are the complete opposite of Faf du Plessis and his team’s. Generation now. Anyone 10 or younger has never known a South African side that has lost a Test series in Australia and to have added a layer to that legacy is this team’s greatest joy.”We know how hard it is. We watched on TV for so many years how hard it was to was for South Africa to come here and do well,” du Plessis said. “I suppose the younger guys looking from back home can see that it’s possible to come here and to an extent and dominate an Australian team. It is extremely special for us. It’s something we will remember as a team. That’s exactly what we came here to do, we want to create memories together.”Not since the West Indies between 1984 and 1992 has a team won three successive series in Australia but that is not the only thing that stands out about this South African victory. It is that they did it without the two players who have been stalwarts for a decade – AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn who are both injured – and Morne Morkel about whom there are concerns about match fitness. Also Hashim Amla, the leader of the batting line-up, contributed only 48 runs across three innings.Kyle Abbott was central to South Africa’s third consecutive series win in Australia•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

It has taken a total team effort, something du Plessis has lauded. “This team has been very close to exceptional,” he said. “There haven’t been many things we’ve done wrong. We have been consistent in the way we perform. We are not relying on one or two players. All XI are putting our hands up at different times and that’s what you want from your team.”Australia were warned of South Africa’s ability to spread the load last month in the ODI series. Albeit in a different format, in different conditions, South Africa’s 5-0 victory did provide the springboard for this series. “We came across here with a lot of confidence,” du Plessis said.Self-belief helped South Africa bounce back from a poor first day in Perth to take 10 for 86 and set themselves up for victory there. It also propelled them to pluck Australia for 85 in the first innings in Hobart. The twin collapses showed South Africa that Australia had weaknesses they could exploit, especially if they targetted their senior players.”When you are a team that’s under the pump and under pressure and not playing as well as you like, confidence will fade away,” du Plessis said. “It’s hard to fake it. We didn’t give them the opportunity to do it [assert themselves over a long period of time]. It was important to keep the important guys in the team quiet – David Warner and Steve Smith. If you can put a lot of pressure on them, the younger guys won’t have that same punch. We made sure those guys have been relatively quiet in the series. Even guys like [Mitchell] Starc, he bowled well in that one spell but if you are on top, that’s when you get a five-for and you clean the tail up. We were just really good in making sure we stopped that.”Faf du Plessis: “This team has been very close to exceptional. There haven’t been many things we’ve done wrong.”•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

On the other hand, once South Africa got an opening, they were unstoppable. It took just 95 minutes for them to finish Australia off on the fourth morning. Du Plessis did not expect the series win to come so quickly, although he suspected victory was inevitable after the pressure his bowlers piled on late on the third day. “I didn’t expect it to happen that quickly,” du Plessis said. “Yesterday, our bowling was exceptional. The last hour and a half, we were so good in our areas and relentless. We didn’t get the results we wanted but we knew today if we came back, it would change for us. This is one of those sessions we will always remember as a team, that won us the series and it was unbelievable.”It was unbelievable because it was more dominant than a South African side has ever been in Australia. Four years ago, South Africa battled through the first two drawn Tests and then won the third. Eight years ago, they won the first two Tests and lost the third. This time, du Plessis wants to take everything South Africa can from this trip, which means a win in their first day-night Test in Adelaide.”That is the mission for us now,” he said. “We want to do that very badly. We won’t rest on our laurels and be happy with 2-1 or even 2-0. We’ve got Australia in a position where they are under pressure and we don’t want to let that go. It’s hard enough to get them in this position so we will do everything we can to make it 3-0.”What memories that will make.

Australia are missing Mitchell Starc a lot more than South Africa are pining for AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla. That much was true in the aftermath of South Africa’s 142-run hiding of the visitors at the Wanderers, taking a 2-0 lead in the five-match ODI series. South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said the obvious thing following the result, that Starc had left a huge hole in Australia’s team.”You throw Starc back into that team, it’s completely different,” du Plessis said. “He’s proven many times he gets wickets … he’s got that extra pace. He’s extremely good to the tail-enders. He gets the ball to reverse.”In the West Indies he did that to us twice, came in and just rolled over the tail. Extra pace in all formats is a weapon that a captain wants to have in his side.”Starc had been rested from the tour of South Africa but later in September, during a training session, injured his leg in a freak accident. He suffered a deep shin laceration after colliding with training equipment, following which he underwent surgery and received 30 stitches.Du Plessis lauded his team for what he described as a “complete” performance. He also noted that these victories demonstrated the depth that existed in South African cricket.”That was a complete game,” du Plessis said. “A great disciplined batting performance and as good a performance I think you’ll see from us. To beat Australia, which is a fantastic one-day team, to beat them like that means we’ve competed in every aspect of the game.”Our performances have been extremely good and it’s without the two best players in the world. It shows that there is a future without AB de Villiers. Hopefully we can have him back and Hashim Amla, but it shows that there is a lot of talent in South African cricket.”

Amad Butt, the uncapped 21-year-old fast bowler, has been included in Pakistan’s 13-man squad for the one-off T20 against England, at Old Trafford, next week.The match will be Sarfraz Ahmed’s first as T20 captain after he was named in April as Shahid Afridi’s replacement following the World T20 in India.Butt, who was part of the recent Pakistan A tour of England, has 12 wickets in six T20 matches. He played in the Pakistan team that knocked out England in the semi-final of the 2014 Under-19 World Cup in the UAE.The top-order batsman Khalid Latif is also included alongside left-arm pace bowler Sohail Tanvir. Mohammad Irfran, who was a late addition to the one-day squad after Mohammad Hafeez was injured, is retained for the T20.From the one-day squad current playing in England, Sami Aslam, Yasir Shah, Umar Gul, Hasan Ali and ODI captain Azhar Ali are not included.Squad Sarfraz Ahmed (capt), Khalid Latif, Sharjeel Khan, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Mohammad Nawaz, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan, Sohail Tanvir, Amad Butt

Mitchell Starc may finally be about to become the dominant Test match bowler he has occasionally threatened to be, having passed 100 wickets amid the fine returns of 5 for 44 on the opening day against Sri Lanka in Galle. Having made his debut in December 2011, only five Tests after Nathan Lyon, Starc is more than halfway to the spinner’s tally of wickets, having played fewer than half the number of matches.For a long time Starc was a bowler who never played more than one Test in succession – following his first two appearances against New Zealand, he dropped out of the Test XI no fewer than 13 times for reasons of form, team balance, fitness or “informed player management”. Now 26 and free of the ankle spurs that afflicted him for much of that time, Starc is now ready to turn the glimpses he showed in playing 11 consecutive Tests in 2015.”Physically I think the six-month break I had with my foot and my ankle was really good for me to get some really good time in the gym and build up that strength that I lost probably through the Ashes series and the one-day series there,” he said. “I’ve been really happy with where my body’s at physically leading into the triangular series in the West Indies and this Test series.”I’m starting to get that consistency back in Test cricket anyway. The first Test here definitely wasn’t the best I’ve bowled, but started to get a bit of rhythm back through there, so I was pretty happy with how they came out today. Josh [Hazlewood] and I really enjoyed bowling with each other in partnerships. He hits a spot and is a genius at doing that, and allowing me to bowl as fast and aggressive as I can from the other end. We work really well together there, so it’s nice to be back and hopefully be around for a lot longer than I have in the past.”The display at Galle may have started with the good fortune of a leg-stump half-volley flicked fortuitously to Joe Burns forward of square leg, but otherwise Starc posed a constant threat, offering bounce with the new ball and then sharp reverse swing with the old – movement that Hazlewood was able to extract as early as the 22nd over. He was able to prosper, too, without conjuring much in the way of conventional swing with the new ball: a method he has leaned on at times in the past.”Sometimes it just doesn’t swing as much for some guys,” Starc said. “For me it didn’t swing too much in the first Test but did enough to create a few chances. Today was finding a different way to take wickets and get the ball reversing. There’ll be days where it swings a lot more and other days where it doesn’t, but Joshy bowled pretty well with the swinging ball early and then with the reversing ball.”Josh started getting a bit of reverse, so we talked about if we could hit that rough side a little bit more we might get more reverse and obviously it did. Josh bowled really well, I was lucky to get a bit of movement, and Mitchy Marsh bowled pretty well with the reversing ball as well, so I think we did that a lot better this game, and looked after the rough side of the ball better than the first Test.”One reason Starc was all to utilise reverse movement was the fact he now possesses greater control of an away swinger to the right hander from over the wicket. In times gone by, he has mainly concentrated on using it from around the wicket, angle in then swing away. However, his work with Allan Donald on this tour has featured more use of the angle from over the stumps, and both bowler and interim coach were very satisfied to see Kusal Mendis fall to one such delivery. After this series, David Saker will take over as Starc’s mentor on a three-year deal, heralding a period of continuity that he hopes will be mirrored by his bowling and body.”With AD I’ve been working pretty much on that delivery that got Mendis out with that reversing ball,” Starc said. “Pretty pleased that’s come off and something I’ve worked on with him since being in Colombo and obviously the last couple of weeks as well. AD’s been great, we’ve all got a lot out of him so far and hopefully that continues for the rest of this Test and the third as well.”I haven’t worked with David before, I’ve heard good things about his time in England and speaking to a few of the Victorians on the triangular series tour I’ve only heard good things. So I’m excited to work with him later on, but at the moment it’s working alongside Allan Donald to try to win this series. We’ve always got great guys around us, whether it be Craig McDermott, Allan Donald here or David Saker coming up. To have a guy locked in for the next three years, having that one guy there to work with us is really good for a young group.”

WICB president has said it is necessary for his board to better peoples’ experience at the ground during Test cricket, to draw bigger crowds. Small turnouts for Tests have been an issue in the Caribbean in recent years – as it is in several countries around the cricketing world – and the poor attendances continued over the first two matches of the ongoing West Indies-India series.”As the West Indies Cricket Board, we need to do a lot more in terms of entertaining people at the ground,” Cameron said. “Right now, a lot needs to be done. We need to have Wi-Fi in the grounds, we need to be able to cater for children in a better way.”Cricket, especially Test matches, is an entire-day experience. Parents want to be able to take their kids to the cricket, to be able to enjoy the cricket, and not be too mindful that their kids are going to drop off a chair. So I think there’s a lot that we can do, in terms of ‘sportainment’, to ensure that the fans come out to the game and not just sit at home and watch the game.””A lot of people, fans out there, are interested in what is going on. So it’s not that the game is dead, it’s how do you get eyes coming into the ground and watching it versus those who are watching on social media or on television.”West Indies’ poor long-format showings added to the flagging numbers, Cameron said, but insisted he was confident of things turning around. “Part of why we don’t have as much crowds today is the team is not the best team, and when I say the best team, meaning we’re not winning at this point in time. But, that said, I can assure you, based on our Professional Cricket League [the regional first-class competition] and where we’re at right now in terms of development, in another year or so we’ll see people coming back to watch Test cricket.”

Patience may be a key virtue for Australia’s Test batsmen in Sri Lanka, according to Joe Burns, who hit 72 in the ongoing practice match at the P Sara Oval. Burns’ half-century was one of three in Australia’s solid 431 for 9. The visitors scored at 3.53 runs an over against a modest Sri Lankan XI attack, but Burns suggested Australia should become accustomed to a slow run rate, given the nature of the surfaces they are likely to encounter on tour.”We’ve talked as a batting group about needing to be patient for long periods on the subcontinent,” Burns said. “If they bowl good areas, it’s tough work and slow going. You have to be committed to trying to bat all day. I guess that’s one disappointing thing to come out of the day – all our batsmen spent some time at the crease but no one went on to get a big score.”When bowlers are bowling straight, with straight fields, you hit the fielders a lot. You go long periods where you’re not scoring quickly, and then you might get a few boundaries away in a cluster. That’s generally how scoring goes on low, slow wickets with reverse swing and spin bowling. You just have to ride the waves and wait for the sets to come in.”Burns was tested by both seam and spin during his stay. He and Shaun Marsh made a quick start against the new ball in the third session of the first day, but were more measured as the innings wore on – particularly to left-arm seamer Vimukthi Perera and the spin bowlers. Burns was eventually dismissed by Perera, who angled a ball in through his defences early on day two.”You just have to be prepared to buckle in and try and go with the conditions,” Burns said. “There’s nothing too much you can do about it as a batter. As a batting group we’re prepared for those long battles. Hopefully we can bat for extended periods of time going into the Test series.”The Australian batsmen largely scored their runs square of the pitch with a few venturing slog sweeps to push the spinners off their lengths. Burns suggested this could be a trend through the Test series.”I guess here – with the lower, slower wickets – you hit more balls than perhaps you would in Australia, especially because bowlers bowl straighter as well. I guess you want to be hitting straight, but that seems to be where the fielders are. Generally you probably pick up your runs quite square, even though you’re trying to hit straight. There are also periods when it’s reversing quite a lot, and then it will die down.”The Australians are 202 runs ahead with one wicket in hand, at stumps on day two of the three-day encounter.

Throughout the 2015 season, Tom Fell knew something was not right. On the field, he was fine: 1084 Championship runs scored, making him the youngest in Division One to achieve four figures. But off it, he was experiencing discomfort caused by a lump on his left testicle. He’d been complaining about it for quite a while, yet with the packed nature of the summer, coupled with being wary of wasting a doctor’s time, decided not to raise an alarm.It was only in October, once the season had finished, that he sought attention. Even then, it was a chance assessment with the Worcestershire club doctor, who was at New Road to give Fell’s flatmate Tom Kohler-Cadmore a check-up.Fell was due to fly out to Australia a week later for five months of grade cricket in Perth. Had he not been accompanying Kohler-Cadmore and decided, spur of the moment, to ask the doctor to analyse the lump, it could have been a lot worse. “It was very lucky that I got it checked when I did,” Fell said.Straightaway, the lump was identified as cancer and the operation was swift and, initially, deemed a success. Fell was given the all clear to go to Australia later that winter. While he had check-ups out there that showed no abnormalities, it was only when he returned to the UK in March and had a CT scan that a tiny spec was detected in a lymph node around his abdomen. He was going to require three cycles of chemotherapy.The doctors prepared him for the worst, running through the possible side-effects. As an otherwise healthy 22-year-old, he was able to do a bit of exercise around the bad days that occurred during each cycle.Thankfully, the therapy was a success, to such an extent that Fell has a clean bill of health – the testicular cancer no more likely to return in him that other healthy individuals. Had he not had the treatment, he would have had to have monthly check-ups with the constant fear that it may return. “I feel like I can get on with things now.””When I originally found the lump, it didn’t occur to me at all that it was cancer. That’s probably why I took so long to get it looked at. It’s something a lot of people are guilty of. People are often scared to go because they’re embarrassed it might be nothing or scared of what it might be.”It speaks volumes of Fell that the hardest thing for him during this time was telling his teammates he had cancer. “I knew how bad it was and what was going to happen. But as soon as you say the word cancer, people immediately fear the worst. It was difficult to tell my mates and teammates because you always feel a bit bad telling them, because you know they are going to react badly hearing the news. It’s not a nice feeling dumping that on your best mates.”The results of the scan that showed the small cancer in his lymph node came the day before he was due to fly out to Abu Dhabi for Worcestershire’s pre-season tour. He informed his director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, about the setback, then his flatmates, Kohler-Cadmore and George Rhodes (Steve’s son). He then sent a WhatsApp message to the Worcestershire team thread to inform his teammates of why he would not be flying out with them.It was on this preseason tour that the players started discussing a way to show their support not only to Fell but also Worcestershire’s scorer, Dawn Pugh, who is also battling cancer.Fell’s flatmates Kohler-Cadmore and George Rhodes, along with Joe Leach, represented the players in talks with CEO Tom Scott and Jon Graham, the club’s business development director, about putting on an event. With Scott and Graham in full support, the ECB were approached and backed the initiative. #Yell4Fell and the “Cricket v Cancer game” was formed.Taking inspiration from the McGrath Foundation Day and Cricket United, New Road will go yellow on Friday, July 1, for Worcestershire Rapids’ NatWest T20Blast match against Derbyshire. The Rapids will play in special edition yellow kit and supporters are encouraged to wear yellow or purchase t-shirts for a donation. The playing shirts will be auctioned off at the end of the match, with all proceeds split between various cancer charities.”We originally banded around the idea of a naked calendar,” says Leach. “Obviously that didn’t take off…””But we came home and all the lads were constantly chatting about what we could do. It was during one of our pre-season sessions at Kidderminster that we came up with the #Yell4Fell and the club have embraced it. I think it’s going to be an incredible day and a chance to show Felly and Dawn just how much support they have.”As well as #Yell4Fell, Kohler-Cadmore is playing the season with a shaved head in support of Fell and other cancer sufferers, to raise money for their cause. The support has, naturally, overwhelmed Fell. “To see so many acts of kindness, it really does make me feel so grateful.”It is heartening, too, that Fell’s biggest issue right now is big runs in the 2nd XI to get back into a first team that are excelling. “It’s looking pretty hard to get back in!” He says he feels in good order with the bat, as noted with a 72 against Northants 2nd XI at the end of May. “It’s just a case of being patient, not rushing things and scoring consistent runs.”Thankfully, he is able to move forward and, with the help of his teammates, family and friends, raise awareness to help fellow and future sufferers. Fell’s is a survival story to hold dear.