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Bangladesh survived for another couple of days in the T20 World Cup after a hard-fought 26-run win over Oman. The home side rode high until Jatinder Singh was at the crease, but Bangladesh removed him in the 13th over, and used their experience to close out the game in the last seven overs.Earlier, Mohammad Naim’s 64 had given Bangladesh a good platform for the last five overs, but they failed to build on it, slipping from 101 for 2 in the 14th over to 153 all out. Shakib Al Hasan contributed with 42 off 29, while fast bowlers Bilal Khan and Fayyaz Butt got three wickets each.Jatinder kept Oman in the game with his 40 off 33 balls, that included four fours and a six. He also put together two good partnerships in the top order, but Mahedi Hasan bowled a superbly tight spell, before Mustafizur Rahman, unusually erratic in his first spell, finished with 4 for 36.A quiet spell
When Oman moved to 57 for 2 in the seventh over, Bangladesh were really looking down the barrel. Mahedi coolly bowled two overs for six runs, slowing down Jatinder and Zeeshan Maqsood in the process. Mahedi is good at mixing his pace, but keeps a fuller length. He has a good record against both left and right-handed batters.In the midst of a messy bowling performance from Bangladesh, Mahedi stood out. Maqsood couldn’t resist anymore with the changes of pace, finally holing out in Mahedi’s next over, before the offspinner finished off with a six-run over. This 4-0-14-1 spell went by mostly unnoticed, but it was Mahedi who brought Bangladesh back in the game.Jatinder’s near one-man show
Oman, however, had hope as long as Jatinder was at the crease. So good is Jatinder’s form these days that even when he gets out, it’s off a very well-timed shot. He was dismissed when he swept for a catch to Liton Das at deep square leg off Shakib. But it was an innings worth remembering against a top quality bowling attack. At times Bangladesh looked under pressure against Jatinder.Jatinder Singh kept Oman’s hopes alive for a while•ICC via Getty

He started with a switch hit four off Shakib early on, pulled him over deep midwicket in the seventh over, and his only six came on the next ball when he struck Shakib inside-out through extra cover. Off Taskin Ahmed’s bouncer, Jatinder slammed a pull, and was generally strong against the short ball as well. He also survived a dropped catch on 10, but when he got out, so did Oman from the match. They hit just one four and a six after his dismissal.Mustafizur’s nightmare and Mustafizur’s recovery
Mustafizur trapped Aqib Ilyas with his first ball of the match, but thereafter had a forgettable 15 minutes. He conceded five wides in the first over, as his attempt to bring the seaming ball back into the right-handed batter kept slipping down the leg side. In the next over, Mustafizur dropped Kashyap Prajapati at short third man. It was a regulation diving chance to his favourable left side, but it popped out.As if all that was not enough, Mahmudullah dropped Jatinder on 10, off Mustafizur. The bowler fumed with his hands over his head, but because this was his captain, he couldn’t really react like he would have wanted. Mustafizur’s four-wicket haul and a good running catch more than made up for his nightmare start, but Bangladesh can ill-afford an erratic main bowler.Naim to the rescue
When Bangladesh batted, they story of poor powerplays continued. They scored only 29 runs on this occasion, but at least one of the openers made a considerable score. Naim had been struggling in the Dhaka pitches against Australia and New Zealand, except for one innings, but in Muscat, he opened up with some bright shots. He tonked three of his four sixes delightfully over the range between midwicket and wide long-on, also bringing out a thumping straight drive and an equally hard-hit reverse hit. Naim added 80 for the third wicket with Shakib but his dismissal in the 17th over, having already lost Afif Hossain earlier in the over, was slightly unnecessary.Oman blow hot and cold in the field
Oman could have had a better day had they held on to all their catches. Particularly that of Naim who survived two drops on 18 and 26. Prajapati, who had earlier dropped Liton at deep square leg, spilled Naim at midwicket. And Jatinder let the ball slip through his fingers at the sweeper cover boundary in the eighth over. But their luck changed with two moments of brilliance: Butt’s return catch off a Mahedi bunt and Ilyas’ direct hit from point running out Shakib. The mood lifted, Oman now took all their catches, including Jatinder, who took two near the boundary line.Bangladesh end meekly
If there was one chance to make up for their poor powerplay, it was the last five overs. But Bangladesh disappointed with just 41 runs, losing six wickets. It started with Naim hitting a beautiful six, but Kaleemullah removed Afif and Naim in the following over. It left Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah to make the most of the last 20 balls, They hit a six and a four, before Mushfiqur was caught behind, while Bilal yorked at Mahmudullah’s wild swing. Mohammad Saifuddin got a golden duck in between, before Oman bowled out Bangladesh off the last ball of the innings.

ScorecardFile photo – Partex captain Irfan Sukkur was one of only three batsmen to reach double figures•BCB

Khelaghar Samaj Kallyan Samity confirmed their stay in next season’s Dhaka Premier League with an eight-wicket win over Partex Sporting Club in the first relegation play-off game at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium. Khelaghar moved to eight points, meaning both Victoria Sporting Club and Partex, who are on two points each, were relegated to the Dhaka First Division Cricket League. The remaining relegation playoffs will now be formalities.Left-arm spinner Tanvir Islam took six wickets for just 18 runs from his 9.1 overs as Partex were shot out for just 73 runs in 25.1 overs. Tanvir’s figures were the best by a bowler in this year’s DPL, which also saw Rubel Hossain, Taijul Islam, Abu Hider and Arafat Sunny take six-wicket hauls.Only three batsmen – captain Irfan Sukkur, Jubair Ahmed and Nuruzzaman Masum – reached double figures for Partex who had elected to bat. Khelaghar only needed three batsmen to reach double-figures as they completed the second-shortest chase in Bangladesh’s List A history; Robiul Islam Robi’s 34 led the chase which they completed in 15.1 overs, with 209 balls to spare.

ESPNcricinfo is set to start the County Championship Cricket season with a bang as it sets off on a cross-country road trip which aims to take in action from every match on the opening day of the season.Dan Norcross and Ebony Rainford-Brent will be taking on the ESPN #CountyCricketLive Road Trip as they try to see a ball of cricket at each match on Friday, April 7. The pair will attempt to visit six grounds, witnessing cricket in three Division One matches and three Division Two contests on the day.To mark their arrival at each venue, the pair will reprise their familiar roles as radio broadcasters by attempting to commentate on at least one delivery of the BBC’s local radio coverage.The challenge starts at 11am in Leeds at Headingley with Yorkshire v Hampshire, then Norcross and Rainford-Brent will travel down the M1 to Grace Road for Leicestershire v Nottinghamshire, followed by Northampton where Northamptonshire host Glamorgan at the County Ground.After navigating the M25, Chelmsford will be their next stop, for Essex v Lancashire at the County Ground, before they head down the M2 to visit the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury as Kent face Gloucestershire. The final leg of the journey will see the duo race down to London and The Oval, where Surrey are playing Warwickshire, trying to catch some action before play ends at around 6pm.The journey will see the pair competing against traffic as well as the clock, and they will keep cricket fans up to date using ESPNcricinfo’s #CountyCricketLive, sharing live updates, pictures and video throughout the day. The hashtag is an extension of the site’s comprehensive county coverage and live county cricket blog, which in October 2016 won “Online Publication of the Year” for the fifth year running in the ECB’s County Journalism Awards.”The first day of the county cricket season is one of the great days in the British sporting calendar,” said Andrew Miller, ESPNcricinfo’s UK editor. “We’re very excited to start the campaign with this celebration of the game. Dan and Ebony are a great pairing and they are looking forward to the challenge. It’s the perfect complement to ESPNcricinfo’s in-depth coverage of the day, which includes writers covering the matches at all three of the Division One venues.”You can track our progress throughout the day on ESPNcricinfo’s social media channels across Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

Victoria have recalled legspinner Fawad Ahmed for the Sheffield Shield final against South Australia, to be played in Alice Springs from Sunday. Ahmed has replaced fast bowler Jackson Coleman in Victoria’s 12-man squad for the decider as they aim to win the Shield title for the third consecutive summer.Ahmed has played only one match in this year’s Shield campaign, taking five wickets against Western Australia at the same ground earlier this month. However, the conditions at Traeger Park could favour slow bowling, in which case Ahmed could form a twin spin attack with Jon Holland, who is third on the wicket tally this summer with 42 Shield wickets at 21.11.The Victoria side will be captained by Cameron White in the continued absence of regular skipper Matthew Wade, who is with the Test squad in India.”It’s an amazing achievement to be involved in a third straight Sheffield Shield final, and it’s also a golden opportunity to make history as the first Victorian side to go back-to-back-to-back,” Victoria chairman of selectors Andrew Lynch said.”Everyone from the players to the coaches have worked incredibly hard to get to this point again, and we also can’t wait to take the final to Alice Springs for the first time. The squad we’ve named will thrive in the conditions at Traeger Park, and hopefully can bring home another title to Victoria.”Victoria squad Travis Dean, Marcus Harris, Rob Quiney, Aaron Finch, Cameron White (capt), Daniel Christian, Seb Gotch (wk), James Pattinson, Chris Tremain, Scott Boland, Jon Holland, Fawad Ahmed.

ScorecardFile photo – Daniel Bell-Drummond made his second Lions List A century•Getty Images

“Carbs’ boys,” they called themselves with the broadest of smiles, and for Michael Carberry, back in training with Hampshire after treatment for cancer, their matchwinning combination will be an uplifting moment. Throughout his personal fight against illness, his support for the up-and-coming generation has never wavered. More than 5000 miles away, Daniel Bell-Drummond and Tom Alsop assembled a partnership to give him cause for celebration.Alsop is a Hampshire team-mate of Carberry’s; Bell-Drummond received coaching and encouragement in London schools cricket and still turns occasionally to him for advice. A double-century stand and, finally, a Lions one-day victory at the end of it, meant that Carbs’ boys were riding high. Their partnership of exactly 200 was a new third-wicket record for the Lions in all their guises over the past 25 years and more. James Taylor held it, with Ravi Bopara, which is a reminder to Alsop and Bell-Drummond to treasure every moment.But something divided them. It was as if Donald Trump had suddenly glanced at the scoreboard as they entered the nineties and decided to build a wall. Bell-Drummond had a century to his name at the end of it all, Alsop fell just short. Sometimes the smallest margins can bring a cruel separation.The Lions were 12 for 2 in search of 244 when Bell-Drummond and Alsop joined forces. “Wobbly,” Alsop agreed, considering the one-day tour they had endured. For the next 35 overs, they methodically charted a course to victory. Alsop’s first run fell uncomfortably close to square leg and Bell-Drummond had to stave off a delivery early in his innings that came through unnaturally low, but from that point their association possessed admirable tranquillity. Neither gave a chance.They fell within seven balls of each other, but it is their respective runs tally they will most remember; Alsop fell four runs short of what would have been his second List A century when he was stumped off the offspinner Charith Asalanka. Bell-Drummond, on 99 when Alsop departed, did negotiate the single he needed for what was his second List A hundred – both for the Lions – before he was bowled by Chaturanga de Silva. Joe Clarke then failed before a five-wicket win was secured in fading light with 16 balls to spare.Alsop was a bit of a punt on this tour, a 21-year-old with one strong 50-over season behind him. Things have only come good in the closing days of the tour, a satisfying finale for the England selectors who determinedly push youth at A-team level, especially now when their 50-over batting at senior level is so strong. “It is my first time on a subcontinent wicket and it has been a hard learning curve,” Alsop said. “It was disappointing not to get a hundred but after the tour I’ve had I’ll take that.””I wasn’t that surprised when he got picked for this tour,” Bell-Drummond said, with impressive grace. “The talent is there to see. I am glad he transferred it to the middle today and showed what a good player he can become in the future.”Sri Lanka had made sweeping changes after taking the five-match series with three victories in the cultural triangle, but they still fielded seven players with international experience.With Sri Lanka engaged in a Test down in Galle against Bangladesh, the Lions would readily concede that their victory against Sri Lanka A was not the biggest cricketing story on the island.In fact, it was not even the biggest story in town. Down the road from Colombo Cricket Club, at the Sinhalese Sports Club, old boys of Royal and St Thomas Colleges were engaging in an annual ritual – the 138th Battle of the Blues, a three-day school game that can be expected to attract 10,000 spectators by the final day on Saturday. History suggests that old memories will be retold to the backdrop of young cricketers desperate to avoid the embarrassment of defeat.No matter. The Lions were desperate for consolation on one of Colombo’s most historic grounds – as old as Yorkshire, having marked its 150th anniversary in 2014 – with large portraits of Harold Larwood and Don Bradman on the walls and ancient ceiling fans whirring above timeworn wooden floors in the Members’ Pavilion. It is a wonderful spot.The portrait of Larwood in delivery stride marks his appearance on the ground three years before the infamous Bodyline tour. As the picture fades, with every passing year, Larwood’s whites seem dirtier than ever, even his forearms now look thick with grime. It somehow seems entirely appropriate, whereas to discover Bradman’s whites are no longer pristine might almost seem heretical.There were those, however, who only had eyes for the Lions. Two Northants supporters from Kettering had journeyed up from the beach resort of Bentota to see Graeme White, at 29, make a Lions debut and receive his cap from Mick Newell, the England selector, who as Notts director of cricket had seen him make an amicable departure to his first county, Northants, in 2015 in search of regular Championship cricket.White had a satisfying day, following a slightly nervous first spell with something more considered upon switching to the pavilion end, his 3 for 53 including Asalanka, caught in the deep, Angelo Perera, who pulled a short ball to mid-on, and Sri Lanka A’s new captain, Ashan Priyanjan, who was neatly stumped by Ben Foakes after White turned one past the outside edge.For the first half of Sri Lanka A’s innings, the series continued in familiar vein, with the home side firmly in control at 172 for 2 in the 30th over with heady visions of 320-plus. They made only 242. Liam Livingstone produced a steady-as-she-goes spell of offspin when the assault was at its height, bowling both openers, Danushka Gunathilaka and Ron Chandraguptha. This time, there was no switch to legspin when faced by the right-handers, just a certainty under pressure which once again spoke of a cricketer of strong character.White’s intervention turned the game. Toby Roland-Jones, a late replacement on tour, picked up three wickets in a borrowed shirt emblazoned with the name of his Middlesex team-mate Tom Helm. There was a first wicket of the series, too, for Sam Curran, Ramith Rambukwella’s stumps demolished with a full-length ball, a meaningful celebration bringing consolation on a tough tour in which he has found little swing and his elder brother, Tom, has decamped to the Caribbean for his first call-up with the senior squad.

Four-fors from Varun Aaron (4-20) and medium-pacer Rahul Shukla (4-32) helped Jharkhand defend a total of 125 to beat Saurashtra by 42 runs at Eden Gardens. Saurashtra’s chase lasted only 25.1 overs with all ten wickets falling to pace. Aaron prised out key wickets in the middle order, before Shukla and left-arm seamer Jaskaran Singh cleaned up the tail.Like Saurashtra, Jharkhand, too, lost all their wickets to pace. Kushang Patel carved up the top order, first getting the early wicket of opener Anand Singh and then breaking a 43-run, second-wicket stand to trigger a Jharkhand slump in which they lost nine wickets for 64. Kushang, who was on a hat-trick in the 10th over, finished with 4 for 39, while Shaurya Sanandia cleaned up the lower order for career-best returns of 5 for 47. Jharkhand were propped up by a 40-ball 53 from Ishan Kishan and MS Dhoni’s 24-ball 23.Ashutosh Singh’s 98-ball 65 was in vain as Chhattisgarh suffered a four-run defeat against Hyderabad in Kolkata. Ashutosh’s wicket off the first ball of the final over left Chhattisgarh needing eight runs from five balls, of which they could only manage three. His half-century, however, had helped them rally after they were struggling at 78 for 5 in the 20th over. Ravi Kiran, Chama Milind and Mehdi Hassan and Mohammad Siraj took two wickets each for Hyderabad.Bavanaka Sandeep’s unbeaten 70 off 99 balls was the top score in Hyderabad’s innings as they were bowled out for 197 despite starts from the top order. Three run-outs and a slump in the middle overs – they lost four wickets for eight runs between the 25th and 28th overs – limited Hyderabad’s total.Jammu & Kashmir suffered a 24-run defeat against Services. Chasing 215, J&K were bowled out for 190, having lost their middle order during a four-wicket slide for only 20 runs between the 21st and 27th overs. Puneet Bisht and Ram Dayal resisted for J&K but once Bisht was dismissed for 45, J&K collapsed quickly and were out in the 46th over. Ahmed Bandy top-scored for them with 59 off 65 balls, having contributed heavily at the start. Left-arm spinner Vipin Singh took 3 for 41.Services, too, crumbled in the middle overs, after their top order, particularly Nakul Verma (68) and Shamsher Yadav (52), had done the hard work of establishing a platform with a 99-run partnership for the third wicket. They lost five wickets for only one run between the 37th and 40th overs, collapsing from 164 for 2 to 169 for 7, before eventually being bowled out for 214. Parvez Rasool took 3 for 36 while Mohammed Mudhasir and Manzoor Dar took two wickets each.