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Australia are confident Shaun Marsh will be fit to play the third Test against India despite being struck down with gastro. Marsh flew home to Perth on Sunday following Australia’s victory in Sydney and he was scheduled to speak at a media conference on Monday, but was unable to do so due to his illness.The Australian squad was due to convene in Perth on Monday afternoon ahead of the Test, which begins on Friday at the WACA, where Australia will be aiming to take a 3-0 lead. Michael Hussey, a fellow Western Australian, said Marsh would be keen to play his first Test at his home ground.”I’m sure he’s fine,” Hussey told reporters in Perth. “He’ll be at training tomorrow I’m sure with the boys and preparing as well as he can. He’ll be really looking forward to playing on his home ground. His first home Test. The WACA crowd always give the local guys a huge welcome and a louder roar than any other player, so he’s got plenty of motivation to play exceptionally well in this Test.”Marsh has had a lean time in the first two Tests, with scores of 0, 3 and 0 in the victories in Melbourne and Sydney. It was quite a change from the first three Tests of his career: he made a century on debut in Sri Lanka in September, followed by 81 in his second Test and a fighting 44 in Cape Town, where he provided the only serious support for the captain Michael Clarke during his century.However, a serious back complaint that he picked up in Cape Town sidelined Marsh for the next six weeks, and he returned to the Test side after just one Twenty20 match for the Perth Scorchers. But Hussey believes Marsh can regain his best form on his home ground at the WACA, where he has averaged 45.02 in first-class cricket.”I wouldn’t be surprised if he performs very well in this Test match,” Hussey said. “He prepares very well with his training leading up to games. It’s always tough when you have been out of the game for over a month to be able to come straight back into Test match cricket and perform straight away.”It does take a bit of time, but he has been working very hard and he’s been hitting the ball very well in the nets. So it’s just a case of him being able to get through that first half an hour of his innings and then if he gets a start, I’m sure he’ll want to turn it into a big hundred.”Marsh has been trusted with the No.3 position after Ricky Ponting’s move down to second drop, although the New South Wales batsman Usman Khawaja is hovering on the fringes should Marsh continue to struggle at home. Australia’s coach, Mickey Arthur, said Marsh had been tentative in Melbourne and Sydney but that he was worth persevering with at the top of the order.

West Indies are lucky to have a leader like Darren Sammy. Throughout this series – as he has so far in his captaincy tenure – Sammy once again proved that with commitment, his team can achieve many things. Only South Africa have known the taste of beating India in India in the last five years. Yet Sammy’s inexperienced bunch came very close today to nearly shock India on a cathartic final day’s play which ended with the game being drawn off the last ball.It was a dramatic day of Test cricket, which would not have been possible without the courage displayed by West Indies. Their captain could not bowl with a sore hamstring and hobbled around the field all afternoon; their specialist spinner, Devendra Bishoo, also limped with a thigh strain picked up while batting in the first innings; their experience-thin bowling attack had to not only counter the formidable Indian batting but also a vociferous home crowd hurling abuses.Sammy had to keep thinking on one leg if he had to stop India from securing a 3-0 whitewash. The day had started off with the West Indies batsmen shockingly throwing away their wickets in complete contrast to the admirable application they had shown on the first two days. “We took the position for granted,” Sammy said. “Knowing that we had scored 590 in the first innings we relaxed a little bit. Some of the shots played were not called for. At the end we paid the price for it. I know the coach will definitely talk about it. It is about us being mentally prepared to bat in both innings of a Test.”A target of 243 in 64 overs did not seem out of hand for India. Virat Kohli had said the previous evening that India could chase down a target in one-and-a-half sessions. The game was on when Virender Sehwag, having started steadily, was clocking boundaries at his usual rate as the Indian boat streamed at five runs an over.It did not deter Sammy and his troops. He had read the final day pitch well and made Samuels bowl for nearly three hours for a marathon spell of 25 overs. From the other end, Bishoo gamely challenged the Indians to take him on.Sammy knew the pressure would get to India once the wickets fell. He changed his field constantly but purposefully, encouraging his bowlers to pitch attacking lines. Ravi Rampaul got the old ball to reverse wonderfully. On Friday, Rampaul bore the brunt of abuses from the Wankhede crowd once he cut short Sachin Tendulkar’s fairy tale. He said he would not step out of the team hotel last evening. Today afternoon he stepped out to deliver an attacking spell of fast bowling that accounted for VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni.Eventually the nerves got to the Indians as partnerships were broken at critical times. Even when 55 runs were need off the 15 mandatory overs, West Indies knew they had a chance. “I did not foresee that to be happening to be honest,” Sammy said of the drawn result. “But you know every disappointment is a blessing in disguise. We didn’t bat well but the way the bowlers came out there and showed character, fight … Bishoo, on one leg, bowling 50-plus overs in the match; Samuels bowling 20 [25] straight overs; Ravi, Fidel, unfortunately I could not bowl in that innings.”Sammy said his team showed the same determination evident in June during the final Test of the home series against India in Dominica where Rampaul did not bowl in the first innings. “We showed fight in Dominica when we had three bowlers. Today again, a bowler down, we really showed a lot of fight. That is a positive we could take from this series; we really kept our head up when we were down.”According to Sammy, when India took just 24 runs between overs 40 to 50 and lost Dhoni, he knew that they were switched to the conservative mode after Sehwag had built early momentum. “I thought the way they [Kohli and Dhoni] were batting they might not go for the runs because Ravi was bowling a good spell.”But as the countdown began and R Ashwin took India to the doorstep of victory, Sammy conceded he was edgy and did not rule out even a tie. “All sorts of things were going through my mind coming down to the end. At one point the tied Test went through my mind.”I was speaking to Kirk [Edwards] at cover and he said ‘win or draw, win or draw, we can’t lose this, we won’t lose this.’ That was the belief in the guys. The way we batted (in the first innings), it would have been very heartbreaking for us to come back and lose the game.”Under Sammy, West Indies have become a feisty bunch, drawing series in Sri Lanka and against Pakistan at home before winning in Bangladesh.If there is one person who stands alongside Sammy in this steady revival of sorts, it is the West Indies coach Ottis Gibson. “For me on a personal note, he has a way bringing out the belief in the team. You can see how the bowling unit has progressed and improved well. We came from not being able to bowling out teams twice and then bowling out India who were No.1 back then in the Caribbean; travelled to Sri Lanka and enforced the follow-on; we drew Pakistan at home and here in India we competed really well.”The guys are slowly but surely believing that we could achieve things like we showed in the last Test – following on and scoring over 400 runs in the second innings. In the first Test we were in a position to win. Gibson keeps telling us that in order to win we must create an opportunity. So far we have been creating lots of opportunities to win. It is about getting that belief that we could move on and win.”

There is a secret to bowling on a pitch that glistens with green and Vernon Philander knows what it is. After taking 5 for 53 on the first day against Sri Lanka, his word can probably be trusted.”You have to bowl as you would on a flat wicket,” Philander said. “Sometimes when you see a green top, you think you have to bowl a bouncer, yorker, or a good length ball. But the assistance is already there so you don’t have to look for anything else.”Of all the South African bowlers, Philander was the one who best displayed the characteristic that Graeme Smith said he would ask his bowlers to focus on in this series: control. While Dale Steyn was used in short bursts, Morne Morkel was troubled by inconsistency; which left Philander to become Smith’s go-to man when things threatened to get beyond South Africa’s control.That only happened twice in Sri Lanka’s brief innings, first when Tharanga Paranavitana and Mahela Jayawardene formed a half-century stand for the third wicket and then when Thilan Samaraweera and Angelo Matthews weighed in with a fifth-wicket partnership of 65. Both times, Philander intervened.He bowled Paranavitana with a ball that was just too good for the opener and snuck between bat and pad and he had Samaraweera dismissed on review, after being certain he was caught behind. Philander said his close relationship with the DRS, which also bagged him the wicket of Kaushal Silva, was driven by “gut instinct” but admitted that there was a little bit of luck that went into it.There was no luck involved in his first scalp, that of Kumar Sangakkara who was in two minds about whether to play or leave a delivery which took off from an awkward length. It was that variation in length that Philander relied on, whether bowling to the world’s top-ranked Test batsmen or one who has only played in two Tests to date. “I play the player, not the name,” Philander said. “Even if it’s the No. 10, I will use the same disciplines.”He said South Africa were satisfied with their work in the field, having identified “anything under-200 as a par score to bowl them out on,” and were also pleased with their ability to finish the Sri Lankans off after getting them on the ropes. “We always knew if we can get No. 7 or 8 in there, we would be in with chance of getting them out cheaply,” he said. “When Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11 walk in they should know that the seamers are coming their way.”The pace-friendly surface was not as menacing as it looked and although the pitch did have something in it for the bowlers, Sri Lanka’s batsmen made it look a lot worse than what it was. Philander said only Jayawardene showed the temperament required to play on it while the rest of line-up read the situation incorrectly.”The way [Mahela] approached his innings, they were no signs of fearing the short ball,” Philander said. “A lot of the subcontinent teams come here and see a green top and think they are going to be bounced on later on, so they may as well play a few shots.”He admitted that the South African bowlers could sense the dread in their opponents even before they went out to play. “At the toss some of their guys were looking at the coin to see which way it fell. Subcontinent teams fear a green top.”The only bowler who did not have a profitable outing was Morkel, but Philander brushed it off as just another day at the office. “That’s what happens in cricket,” he said. “Sometimes, one bowler will often have an off day and the rest of us try and make up for it.” Philander made up for it double.

Stuart MacGill is seeking an SCG showdown with his old spin rival Shane Warne, hatching a plan to play for the Sydney Sixers in their home match against the Melbourne Stars in this summer’s Twenty20 Big Bash League.ESPNcricinfo understands the Sixers presently plan only to play MacGill in the match against Warne’s Stars, a major box-office draw for the Sixers on December 27, though this may change depending on how his body and bowling develop in coming weeks.The Sixers have two vacant spots remaining in their squad, the other expected to go to an overseas signing.Having retired in the middle of a West Indies tour in 2008, 40-year-old MacGill returned to cricket on the weekend with an appearance for Sydney University in the city’s grade competition.Playing against Fairfield-Liverpool, MacGill returned the figures of 1-26 from four overs, claiming a return catch for his one wicket.The sight of MacGill and Warne taking to the field again as rivals will add another level of drama to the BBL, which is chasing an instant impact with fans and corporate suitors in the first season of the competition.Warne’s signing with the Stars has served to build interest in the Melbourne team but also bolstered membership sales for those scheduled to host the green-clad team in home BBL fixtures.The competition is relying heavily on older names to build initial interest, particularly as it runs head-to-head with Australia’s home Test series against India. In addition to MacGill and Warne, Matthew Hayden (Brisbane Heat) and Brad Hogg (Perth Scorchers) have also emerged from retirement to take part.”It’s got nothing to do with money, if it was about money me coming and playing cricket I’d still be playing in the IPL – I retired from that,” Warne said of his return. “This is something that I’m passionate about, something that I think is unique to Australian cricket, city-based cricket teams are something new and that enticed me.”MacGill’s retirement from cricket was forced primarily by physical ailments, including the ravages of carpal-tunnel syndrome, which robbed the spinner of feeling in his right wrist and fingers. He also suffered from chronic knee trouble, but three years out of the game have allowed for rest and a partial easing of these problems.Since his exit from the game, MacGill has been through several jobs, enjoying success as a wine expert and television host but also making a swift exit from a stint on breakfast radio.

Bangladesh ended the first day on 255 for 4, a solid performance, but their position could have been so much better against a West Indies attack that flagged for periods in Chittagong. The inability to stay focused at crucial junctures – after a big appeal, at the fall of a batsman, celebrations – has often resulted in Bangladesh losing wickets from positions of strength in the past. The challenge of switching on and switching off has been a problem and once again the little distractions played a part in the dismissals of Bangladesh’s batsmen.For the best part of the first hour, Imrul Kayes had found the pace of Fidel Edwards and length of Ravi Rampaul manageable. In Rampaul’s sixth over, Kayes ducked under a bouncer and then wafted needlessly at a delivery that was slightly wide outside off stump. He berated himself with a tap on the helmet. His concentration wasn’t there, though, and Kayes edged the next ball, which was closer to him, to the wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh. By this time, it was clear that Tamim Iqbal was trying to bat long rather than unleash a flurry of shots. Shahriar Nafees did that instead, before he appeared unsettled by a confident lbw appeal against him.In Edwards’s fourth over, Nafees was caught on the crease by a delivery that straightened slightly but the umpire turned down the lbw appeal. In the fifth, having fended off a delivery that bounced awkwardly, Nafees tried to pull an accurate bouncer from Edwards. The ball slammed between his helmet’s grille and peak, pushing the visor on to his nose and cutting it. Nafees went off the field, his injury coming soon after that lbw shout.Tamim began to rebuild the innings and found an ally in Raqibul Hasan. They added 52, 29 of those in singles, and were in control of the situation. Tamim had reached his third half-century in four innings at this venue when a wild slog against offspinner Marlon Samuels resulted in a top edge that was caught by Kraigg Brathwaite at midwicket. Whether the distraction of reaching a half-century had played on Tamim’s mind is debatable, but again a position of control was lost through a poor shot.Tamim, however, did not regret playing the shot. “I don’t have any regrets about the shot I got out to. I have scored plenty of runs with this shot. It is one of my favourite shots,” he said. “I don’t have an answer for this [why I got out after being set]. I try to stay in the middle as long possible and score runs. I have to work this out. I think I’m not at my best but I was satisfied with the way I batted today.”Raqibul did not buck the trend of giving it away. As tea approached, Raqibul had moved to 41 and Darren Sammy was toiling without success. Then there was a confident appeal for lbw, which was turned down by umpire Kumar Dharmasena, and on cue Raqibul found himself stuck on the crease against an in-ducker that hit the pad. Bangladesh were 159 for 3.Shakib Al Hasan then batted serenely with Mushfiqur Rahim and they scored the runs promised by Tamim’s sound start. Just when the passage to stumps seemed smooth, though, Shakib began to get frustrated by Samuels’ line. A string of dot balls culminated in Shakib trying to cut a ball that was too close to him and edging to the wicketkeeper. Mushfiqur remained firm at the other end, though, mixing a defensive game with a few strokes that ensured a final burst by Edwards and the rest was thwarted.”I think it is a good achievement that we batted one whole day,” Tamim said. “It is difficult to say how much we’ll score since this isn’t a fast-scoring wicket. Batsmen have to work hard on it. I think 320-350 will be a very good score.”Normally when I drive a ball away from the body, it comes to the bat easily but it wasn’t coming here. Hitting the ball was difficult unless it was pitched up or a really bad delivery.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsGeorge Dockrell picked up a five-for with his left-arm spin•ICC

On a see-saw day in Stormont, George Dockrell and Ireland’s seamers had put Namibia in trouble before a whirlwind half-century from Louis van der Westhuizen got the visitors to a respectable total. Namibia’s opening bowlers then left Ireland reeling at 31 for 4. An unbroken partnership between Andrew White and Kevin O’Brien restored some parity but Namibia will be hoping for a first-innings lead with only two wickets standing between them and Ireland’s tail.Ireland would not have expected to finish the day behind after the first session. Some well-directed swing bowling from John Mooney got them off to the perfect start with two wickets falling in the first nine overs after they had put Namibia in to bat. By lunch Namibia were 80 for 4, and then soon after the break George Dockrell’s second wicket made it 87 for 5. The second session was an eventful one: Ireland took four wickets, with Dockrell claiming three of them, but van der Westhuizen scored a blazing 65 off 54 balls to get Namibia past 200 by tea.van der Westhuizen has developed a reputation for big hitting in recent months. In the ICC Africa Region Division One Twenty20 tournament, he hit a remarkable 159 off 70 balls against Kenya, a marauding 97 off 40 against Ghana and another half-century versus Uganda. When Namibia played the 50-over matches in Ireland in July, van der Westhuizen had already given the opposition warning of his abilities with a couple of lightning-quick cameos down the order. In Stormont today he came out at No. 7 and played himself in before going for some lofted shots.Ireland would still have been satisfied with bowling Namibia out within the day and Dockrell getting his first five-wicket haul for Ireland. But the initiative was seized away from them by a combination of accurate bowling from Christi Viljoen and Louis Klazinga, and some poor strokes.

Australia’s dumped opener, Simon Katich, has said he has no ill feelings towards Phillip Hughes, as Australia prepare for their first Test series since Katich lost his contract this year. Hughes is expected to partner Shane Watson in the first Test, which begins in Galle next Wednesday, and Katich said Hughes deserved the opportunity.”I certainly don’t hold any grudges against him. It’s not (Phil’s) fault,” Katich told the . “He deserves to play for Australia and he was probably unfairly dropped himself during the Ashes in ’09. He hadn’t done too much wrong. He copped a couple of brutal spells from Freddie Flintoff in the first two Tests and paid the price. It was a pretty tough call on him then but he’s obviously bounced back from that.”He knows how to make runs. He knows how to make big scores. He’s already made 16 first-class hundreds, which is no mean feat for a player of his age. I think he’ll be better for the little off period he had last year. All batsmen go through it at some stage during their career. You have to adapt and get better and he’ll do that, I have no doubt. Phil works hard and he’s a good kid.”Katich, 35, hasn’t completely given up hope of bouncing back himself, despite the clear message that the selectors were looking to the future when they left him off the 25-man contract list. However, since then the selectors themselves have been given a shake-up by the Argus review.Andrew Hilditch’s five-year reign as chairman is over and Greg Chappell, the national talent manager, won’t have a seat on the new panel either. The captain, Michael Clarke, will become a selector, along with the coach, as part of a five-man selection panel.”I was told four years ago they were never going to pick me again and I got back in so you never know,” Katich said. “The same guys who told me that are no longer in their jobs so it’s a bit ironic they’ve been given the flick. I have the same attitude I had four years ago. I’m just going to enjoy my cricket with New South Wales.”

Brendan Taylor will lead Zimbabwe in the one-off home Test against Bangladesh which marks their return to Test cricket. Only eight of the 13 selected, including Taylor, have played Tests, a format Zimbabwe haven’t played in since 2005 when they voluntarily suspended themselves following concerns they were not competitive enough at the top level.The selection of the Test side thus presented the Zimbabwean selectors with an issue that had surely not been felt quite as acutely in the limited-overs sides that have turned out in the interim: that of balance. In the event, Prosper Utseya and Regis Chakabva are unlikely to play and so the probable starting XI includes five specialist batsmen, with Tatenda Taibu at No. 6 – and, considering his pedigree alongside those in front of him in the order, he must surely also be counted as a frontline batsman – followed by two allrounders, a spinner, and two new-ball seamers.Taibu – who had been out of action after the World Cup 2011 with a thumb injury – was included after he kept wicket in the three-day tour game against the Bangladeshis. Chakabva is his understudy, which means that yet again there is no place for Forster Mutizwa, whose unbeaten 87 led Zimbabwe XI to victory over the Bangladeshis. Mutizwa also cracked a fluent 67 in the two-day match against Australia at Kwekwe, and his boundary-hitting ability means he may well come back into contention for national honours in the one-day leg of the series.Brian Vitori, the 21-year old left-arm seamer, was the only player without international experience to make the squad. His elevation to the Test squad is the culmination of a meteoric rise for the Masvingo-born Vitori, who made his domestic debut during the pitiable Faithwear one-day competition in 2005-06 and, until the end of last season, had remained under the radar.While it’s virtually assured that the much-improved Chris Mpofu will take the new ball, it’s not entirely clear whether Vitori or Keegan Meth will partner him. Meth does share new-ball duties with Mpofu in domestic cricket with the Matabeleland Tuskers, and the added control he brings with him may sway the odds in his favour.The return to Tests also means Zimbabwe will have to break up one of their most dependable bowling partnerships, as only one of either Utseya and Ray Price are expected to be included on Thursday. While both men are automatic selections in limited-overs cricket, Zimbabwe are attempting to move away from their reliance on spin as they re-enter the Test arena.”Test match cricket and one-day cricket are totally different animals and when you play Test cricket in normal conditions you’re always going to be looking to play your extra seamer rather than your extra spinner,” said chairman of selectors Alistair Campbell. “We’ll still have a look at the wicket on Thursday morning and see what we think it’s going to do.”It is a bit of a foreign concept for us because we’ve become used to playing a spin-based attack because all of our games have been one-day cricket, but we started thinking about it a long time ago. We knew that this would come about, so for the past six months we’ve been thinking about which seamers would be in the frame. We’ve got four here plus Elton, and those are the guys who’ve shown that they’re best equipped to deal with the rigours of Test cricket.”The most obvious weakness in Zimbabwe’s squad is their opening pair: Vusi Sibanda and Tino Mawoyo. The pair were able to cling to the crease for almost 55 overs in the first innings of Zimbabwe’s match against Australia at the Academy ground in Harare two weeks ago, but neither man lends a feeling of solidity.Sibanda was able to grind out a dogged 91 in that tour match against the Australians, but would be far happier in the middle order, which is where he plays his domestic cricket. That said, there is possibly no batsman with better, more orthodox technique in the country and Zimbabwe, who seem only ever to select Sibanda as an opener, must be hoping that that will be enough to see off the hazards of the new ball.Mawoyo doesn’t have quite as strong a case for inclusion. While he’s showed some tenacity in recent times, his last significant innings was an unbeaten century against New Zealand A last October. At the very least, his experience as an opener in domestic cricket should stand him in good stead, as should Zimbabwe’s extensive preparations for this match.”The team is very much well-prepared,” said coach Alan Butcher. “We have had a fitness programme since back in May and we had extensive match practice from the matches against South Africa A sides.”We’ve had good variety in terms of the experience we’ve gained and the match preparation we’ve had, so I’m very confident that we’re fully prepared and ready for the challenge on Thursday.”Zimbabwe squad: Brendan Taylor (capt), Regis Chakabva, Elton Chigumbura, Craig Ervine, Hamilton Masakadza, Tino Mawoyo, Keegan Meth, Chris Mpofu, Ray Price, Vusi Sibanda, Tatenda Taibu (wk), Prosper Utseya, Brian Vitori, Kyle Jarvis.

Scorecard
Somerset extended their lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank 40 Group C table but they had to settle for a point after no result was possible in their clash with Lancashire Lightning at Old Trafford.Rain throughout the day in Manchester prevented play starting until 8.15pm, which meant the clash was reduced to 15 overs per side. But there was more wet weather to come after 7.4 overs of Lancashire’s innings with the hosts struggling at 39 for 3 on a turning track.Somerset, last year’s runners-up, may have moved one point clear of Essex after six matches but this result ended their 100 percent record in this year’s competition. Spinners Murali Kartik, Max Waller and Arul Suppiah bowled 5.4 of the 7.4 overs – with the former two taking the new ball.Indian Kartik, a former Lancashire overseas player, struck with the sixth ball of the match when he had Stephen Moore caught at point by Craig Meschede. Lightning stand-in captain Steven Croft, who had earlier won the toss, hit two boundaries off Waller’s first over but he and his partners failed to find the fence again until the seventh over when he pulled Meschede’s medium pace to the fence twice.During that time opener Karl Brown became the second wicket to go, trapped lbw by Alfonso Thomas for one to leave the score at 15 for 2 in the third over. Paul Horton struggled for any rhythm during his innings of 7 not out off 17 balls and he lost Croft lbw to the legspin of Waller the ball before the rain arrived as Jordan Clark made his way to the crease.Croft, whose side have only won two of their six matches, finished with 26 off 18 balls. Kartik claimed figures of 1 for 6 from two overs, and Thomas 1 for 1 from one over.

ScorecardYorkshire’s dismal Championship form carried over into the Friends Life t20 as they made a disappointing start to their campaign by losing to Warwickshire by five wickets with 13 balls remaining at Headingley.It was the Bears second consecutive win and it was Will Porterfield who again led the chase towards a 162 target following his 83 against Durham at Riverside last night. He raced to his 50 from 21 balls – the same as Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale had done earlier – and had hurried on to 64 from 34 deliveries with 10 fours when he was lbw sweeping at Adil Rashid.Porterfield had already put on 71 in six overs for the second wicket with Neil Carter who was caught behind off David Wainwright for 27 soon after being struck on the chin by a short ball from Richard Pyrah.Rashid, who had Varun Chopra lbw in the first over of the innings, also struck the ball after dismissing Porterfield by having Darren Maddy edging to wicket-keeper Gerard Brophy. The leg-spinner enjoyed figures of 3 for 28 from his four overs but Yorkshire’s pacemen came in for some harsh treatment as Warwickshire grew in confidence.Tim Ambrose (26) and Rikki Clarke (21) met few problems in seeing the visitors over the line with an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 42 in four overs.Put in to bat, Yorkshire began at a furious pace as Gale and Jonny Bairstow thrashed 52 together off just 23 balls with Gale going on to complete the third fastest half-century ever recorded by his side in the competition.In Andy Miller’s first over he was clubbed over long on for four and six by Gale, who then drilled Carter for three consecutive boundaries in an over which cost 18 runs. There was no stopping the rampant Gale and two more fours off Miller gave him his sixth boundary from seven deliveries before Bairstow moved into double figures by picking up a ball from Miller and striking it cleanly over midwicket for six.The partnership was broken next ball when Bairstow cut Miller to Keith Barker at short third man and soon afterwards Gale completed his 50 from 21 deliveries with nine fours and a six.But the running out of Gale for 54 applied the brake to Yorkshire’s innings and they never regained their early momentum. He departed when Adam Lyth played to square leg and Steffan Piolet atoned for a misfield by knocking down the stumps with a direct hit with Gale out of his crease.Lyth and Anthony McGrath put on 40 together for the third wicket before both fell to Maddy who also had Brophy caught on the boundary edge to give him three wickets for 10 runs in his two overs. Rashid and Ryan Sidebottom could do little to boost Yorkshire’s score beyond 161 for 9.