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West Indies allrounders Dwayne Bravo and Carlos Brathwaite as well as England batsman Alex Hales are among the prominent players who have been ruled out of the second season of Pakistan Super League which begins on February 9.Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh and Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, will only be only partially available. A number of reasons have forced the changes, from injury to some players to others not getting no-objection certificates to scheduling clashes with international cricket.

Squad changes

Peshawar Zalmi
In: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Marlon Samuels, Andre Fletcher
Out: Shakib Al Hasan, Alex Hales, Mohammad Shahzad
Quetta Gladiators
In: Moeen Ali, Nathan McCullum, Thisara Perera, Rilee Rossouw
Out: Carlos Brathwaite, David Willey, Rovman Powell, Mohammad Nabi
Lahore Qalandars
In: James Franklin, Chris Green, Jason Roy
Out: Anton Devcich, Shaun Tait, Dwayne Bravo

Each PSL team has a squad of 16, plus four supplement players. Overseas players among supplements are automatically available for selection. But the local players will only get to play if someone from the main squad is injured. A short player draft was thus held in Lahore on Monday to allow the five franchises to replenish their supply of overseas talent.Lahore Qalandars chose Jason Roy, the England opener, to fill in for Bravo for the first five matches. Bravo suffered a hamstring injury while playing for Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League earlier this month. He said he would be undergoing surgery and recovering in time for the PSL in February seemed unlikely.Lahore have also called up James Franklin, the New Zealand allrounder, to take the place of his countryman Anton Devcich, whose knee injury has flared back up. Australia fast bowler Shaun Tait was the third Lahore player ruled out – due to shoulder problems – and has been replaced by Sydney Thunder offspinner Chris Green.Andre Russell, who hurt his hamstring and knee in the BBL, is another high-profile player who might not play the PSL this season.Russell, who helped Islamabad United win the title last February, is also awaiting the verdict from an anti-doping hearing and if found guilty, he could be banned for a maximum of two years. Although Islamabad did not drop Russell at the draft, it is understood England fast bowler Steven Finn has been kept on standby.Quetta Gladiators decided to swap Brathwaite for England allrounder Moeen Ali after learning he would not be available for the entire duration of the league.Shakib Al Hasan has been replaced by Tillakaratne Dilshan by Peshawar Zalmi•AFP

With the WICB making it mandatory for players to take part in the domestic one-day competition to earn a national call-up, Brathwaite committed to the Regional Super50, which continues till February 18, nine days after the start of the PSL. Additionally, it is likely that he will be with the West Indies side when they take on England at home in the first week of March, which is when the PSL knockouts are scheduled.Quetta have also dropped England fast bowler David Willey and bought back a player they relinquished at the October draft – New Zealand offspinner Nathan McCullum. Sri Lanka allrounder Thisara Perera joined them as well, taking the spot of West Indies batsman Rovman Powell, who will be busy with the Regional Super50.Shakib and Tamim were set to miss the initial part of the PSL in any case, as they will be involved in Bangladesh’s one-off Test against India starting from February 9. Both men were due to fly out to Dubai and join Peshawar Zalmi the day after the Test ends. For now though the franchise has named former Sri Lanka batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan as a replacement for Shakib. Peshawar have also brought in senior West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels for Hales, who is nursing a fractured hand.PSL rules state that a team can keep five overseas players in the squad at any given time. With Hales ruled out Peshawar currently have six but on February 21, when Morgan leaves to captain England in the Caribbean, that count will dip again. It will sink below the required limit if a Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka in February is confirmed. While it is learnt Shakib and Tamim will ask the BCB’s approval to rejoin the team if they make it to the final, Peshawar are in talks with the Afghanistan Cricket Board and are expected to recruit one of their players on Tuesday.Mohammad Nabi and Mohammad Shahzad will miss the PSL since it runs parallel to the Afghanistan-Zimbabwe limited-overs series. Quetta have replaced Nabi with Rilee Rossouw, who recently ended his South Africa career by signing Kolpak deal, and Peshawar have called up West Indies opener Andre Fletcher as cover for Shahzad.The PSL will organise another draft in the final week of February featuring those foreign players who are willing to go to Lahore where organisers say the final will be staged.

From the highest of highs almost a year ago, when he made his T20I debut before his 21st birthday to the lowest of lows, when a stress fracture forced him to be withdrawn from the South Africa A tour of England during the English summer, Lungi Ngidi has finally been able to have his happily ever after at his home ground this weekend.”That [the injury] was one of the biggest challenges I have had in my career, going from such a high to such a low in such a short space of time,” Ngidi said. “It was tough for me because I thought I was doing all the right things but the results just weren’t going my way. I got a lot of time to reflect and get to know myself as a person, and I got through it. I am a lot stronger than I thought I was. It helped me with a lot of confidence going forward.”Instead of spending the months between July and September auditioning for a place alongside Kagiso Rabada, Ngidi was on the physiotherapist’s bed, in conversation with Titans’ coach Mark Boucher and at university picking up extra modules in his Labour Law degree. He committed to his fitness and to getting stronger so he could be faster, when he would eventually make his return.”The whole off-season I was in the gym. I had to lose a lot of weight. That was tough,” Ngidi said. “One of the main things was diet and changing my lifestyle. That was also pretty difficult, but it’s helped me in the long run. And our coach [Boucher] as well – we had to have a few hard chats behind closed doors. Some honest chats as well. But they have helped me in the long run.”The end result is that Ngidi is eight kilograms lighter, more muscular, and trusts his action. He has picked up a few yards of pace and was considered ready to make his Test debut after playing only one first-class game this season. Ngidi took nine wickets at the Wanderers earlier in the summer. He had never been seen by captain Faf du Plessis before Friday but was picked on the evidence of one practice session in which Ngidi impressed Ottis Gibson and du Plessis.It’s easy to see why Ngidi caught their eye. He is quick – and bowled upwards of 150kph – while asking constant questions of world-class line-up. Ngidi’s basic principle was to “stick to my lengths,” and “keep it as basic as possible.” Even though the wicket was not a “typical Centurion pitch,” which usually has a “lot more bounce,” Ngidi hit the wicket hard and challenged Virat Kohli to the max.Ngidi revealed his plan was similar to Vernon Philander’s at Newlands, and he was aiming for the pads. He had an lbw decision reviewed against Kohli and a faint edge denied him his first Test wicket. “In my first spell I hit the pad a few times, so I thought that was a vulnerable area for him,” Ngidi said. “He kept shifting across and getting more into my bowling line, so I thought maybe shoot one into the stumps. I nearly got him. I thought I had him. I thought he had hit the ground. When I saw that edge, I kind of dropped a bit, but I knew I had to get back on the ball.”The maiden Test wicket eventually came when he had Parthiv Patel caught behind. Ngidi put that down to Philander’s advice of bringing the ball into the batsman. “I actually had goosebumps. I was talking to Vernon in terms of gameplans on how to get that wicket. Listening to someone with so much knowledge, and it planning out exactly the way he was telling me, it made me really happy and believe that I can perform at this level.”And that is a height Ngidi has now scaled.

Heino Kuhn has become the latest South Africa international to take the Kolpak route into county cricket after signing a contract with Kent.Kuhn, the Titans wicketkeeper-batsman, opened for South Africa in all four Tests on their tour of England last year, although he only averaged 14.12 with a top score of 34 and has since been replaced by Aiden Markram. Kuhn, 33, has also been capped seven times in T20Is. He will be available for Kent in all formats.”I’m delighted to get the opportunity to play county cricket and I’m looking forward to joining the Kent squad,” Kuhn said. “I want to contribute positively to the team and bring my experience from winning trophies in South Africa.”Kent have been in need of a top-order batsman after the departure of Sam Northeast and will be strengthened by the arrival of a player who has scored almost 10,000 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 43.48, with 23 hundreds.He will join another South Africa-born top-order batsman, Sean Dickson – who has a UK passport – at Canterbury, as well as former fast bowler Allan Donald, who has recently started in the role of Kent’s assistant coach.Paul Downton, Kent’s new director of cricket, said: “We’re delighted to welcome a player of Heino’s quality and experience to the club. We believe Heino can complement our talented batsmen across the three formats and serve as a mentor to those coming through the ranks.”The South African game has seen a drain of players giving up on their international careers in order to take advantage of the financial security offered by county deals. Last year, Kyle Abbott was the most prominent Kolpak departure, while Morne Morkel has been linked with several clubs after announcing his South Africa retirement last month.

The security risk for foreign players travelling to Pakistan remains “unmanageable” according to independent consultants, the international players’ association FICA has said, after the PCB announced that the 2017 Pakistan Super League final would be held in Lahore.The league stage and the semi-finals of the PSL, the PCB’s T20 tournament along the lines of the IPL and the Big Bash League, is scheduled to be held in the UAE in February and March, with only the finals being played in Pakistan.”The consistent advice we have received from independent security consultants over the last few years is that playing cricket in Pakistan for foreign teams and players constitutes an unacceptably high security risk,” Tony Irish, the FICA chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo. “Although we are sure that PSL and PCB would do their very best to implement security plans, the advice of our consultants is also that this risk is unmanageable in the current environment.”FICA has a duty to relay that advice to players and, given that players are participating as individuals in PSL and they are not participating as part of a touring foreign team, it will be up to each individual player to decide whether or not to take that advice.”Irish said that FICA would seek an update on the security advice nearer to the tournament. “We understand how much people want to see foreign teams and players playing in Pakistan and therefore sympathise with cricket lovers and fans in the country. We hope that normal cricket will return to Pakistan as soon as it is safe to play there.”Zimbabwe is the only Full Member nation to have toured Pakistan since March 2009, when gunmen attacked the Sri Lanka team bus as the players were travelling to the Gaddafi Stadium during a Test match. However, there was a suicide attack near the Gaddafi Stadium during that tour as well in 2015, but Zimbabwe stayed on to complete the three-match series. Over the last seven years, Pakistan have hosted their home series at neutral venues, predominantly the UAE.Chris Gayle joined Karachi Kings and will be captained by Kumar Sangakkara•AFP

The PSL chairman Najam Sethi had said there was a clause in the PSL player contracts that stated they would need to travel to Lahore if their team made the final. Summarising the nature of the clause, a PSL team official said players would be offered extremely high security and cash incentives if they were willing to go. However, there would also be no repercussions if they did not.Two player agents who manage cricketers from different countries told ESPNcricinfo the clause did not say that travel to Pakistan was mandatory. “There is a clause, but several international players have made their participation subject to security advice at the time and they cannot be compelled to go,” one agent said.Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, who were part of the Sri Lankan team that was attacked in Lahore in 2009, are set to play in the PSL, as are England’s Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales, both of whom had pulled out of the ongoing tour of Bangladesh because of security concerns, although they are likely to be on England duty in West Indies when the finals are staged. The Karachi Kings team also announced Sangakkara as captain, and there are several other international players from Australia, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, South Africa, and New Zealand.During the inaugural season of the PSL in February this year, West Indies allrounder Andre Russell was the first international player to hint at a willingness to travel to Pakistan, though he admitted he would be “scared” too.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:33

Tait: Pakistan save their best for last

If the 2017 Champions Trophy were to have had another two games, Pakistan might be scoring 750 and bowling teams out for negative 12 by the end of it. Even for a side that is routinely unpredictable, even for a team with a long history of starting slowly then making a white-hot charge through a tournament, what Pakistan have pulled off here is some diamond-studded, galactic-scale nonsense.

Award winners

Golden ball: Hasan Ali (13 wickets at 13.69)
Player of the Tournament: Hasan Ali
Golden Bat: Shikhar Dhawan (338 runs at 67.60)

They have not just defied logic, they have spat in logic’s face, questioned the moral inclinations of its parents, kicked it in the shins, kneed it in the groin, strangled it unconscious, then shoved it into the mud and set its trousers on fire.Remember how, before the match (how long ago that now seems), the cricket world thought India’s batsmen would put the match beyond Pakistan if they scored 300? Ha. What actually happened was that newbie opener Fakhar Zaman, playing his fourth international innings, hit 114 from 106 balls in one of the highest-pressure cricket matches of the decade, before a bristling middle order grew the total to 338 for 4, with the kind of power and skill which not even their mothers would have suspected they possessed.Remember how the cricket world thought the key period in the contest would be the middle overs in India’s innings? In actual fact, Mohammad Amir would decapitate the India innings in a scintillating opening burst that brought him the scalps of each of the top three, and then by the middle of the 14th over, India would be 54 for 5, the trophy basically handed over.Thank the cricket gods that Azhar Ali dropped Virat Kohli at slip in the third over, before Kohli was caught the very next ball. Thank heavens that Pakistan’s opening stand of 128 was brought to an end by a running mix-up, whereby both batsmen wound up on the same side of the pitch. Without such moments of incompetence, there is no chance we could plausibly accept this is the same side that lost their opening match to India by 124 runs.The winning margin here was 180, just for the record. But it may as well have been 180 million, so ridiculous were Pakistan in this match.It was also impossible, at times, to believe that India were the side playing their fourth major final in six years. The first mistake – the error that bust open the flood gates – was Jasprit Bumrah overstepping in the fourth over to reprieve Fakhar, who had edged the ball to the keeper on three. Soon, India were a mess of uncharacteristic misfields. By the end of the innings they had delivered 13 wides and three no-balls.And perhaps no top order in the world could have survived Amir today, but the likes of Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni – big-daddy, big-match players – fell away with surprising meekness. Hardik Pandya swatted six sixes off spin and got himself 76 off 43 balls, giving India – six down now – a microscopic speck of hope. But then he was run out when a less-fluent Ravindra Jadeja refused to sacrifice his wicket. Pandya left the field breathing fire. That about encapsulated India’s day.Not that fortune smiled on them either: at one point, in the death overs, a ball had even hit Mohammad Hafeez’s off stump, and failed to dislodge the bail.Beyond Amir’s spectacular opening burst – in which Rohit Sharma was trapped in front by a seaming ball and Virat Kohli sent a thick leading edge to point – Shadab Khan insisted on an excellent review that found Yuvraj to be plumb in front of the stumps. Then after the rapid 80-run stand between Pandya and Jadeja, Hasan Ali wiped out the tail, finishing with match-figures of 3 for 19 (second only to Amir’s 3 for 16), and a table-topping haul of 13 wickets for the tournament. This, after he had missed the first game. India were all out in the 31st over.Hasan Ali was Named Player of the tournament•Getty Images

But it was the batting that had set Pakistan’s victory up, and of all the surprises they have sprung this tournament, a snowballing innings such as this, in which only one batsman was dismissed for a score of less than 45, seems the most incredible. This was not an innings, really. It was a fantasy.Even after Fakhar was reprieved by that no-ball in the fourth over, the wisps of madness that have defined Pakistan’s campaign were sprinkled right through his knock. Thick edges and mistimed shots off bouncers would become almost reliably fruitful for him – one particularly woeful leg-side heave in the 32nd over landing safe, just beyond midwicket. Constantly, Fakhar got himself into awkward spots and bad positions, and unfailingly, he would find a way to go through with the shot, and survive.But there were also flashes of inspiration and the roaring ambition of Pakistan’s campaign. Uncowed by the near misses, he ran down the pitch to smite India’s quicks to the leg side. He flitted about his crease to manufacture shots against the spinners. With no little help from Azhar, he heaped pressure on key members of the opposition attack.Bumrah was never allowed to recover from the shock of that early missed wicket, going for 24 in his first three-over spell, and 12 off the following two overs. R Ashwin was clattered around almost clinically in his initial spell – this mostly by Azhar – and he went for 28 from his first four overs as well. For the remainder of the innings, both bowlers struggled with their lines and lengths – Bumrah delivering too many hittable length deliveries, Ashwin bowling too predictably straight.It was after Azhar’s dismissal, for which his partner can take most of the blame, that Fakhar raised the tempo to an extent that set Pakistan on track to their eventual score. He hit 15 runs off one Jadeja over (the 26th of the innings), then went after Ashwin next over as well. Having been 56 off 73 balls at one stage, he hit the remaining 44 runs he needed for a hundred off the next 19 balls. The off-balance sweep for four off Ashwin was a fitting way for this innings to go to triple figures.Fakhar was out soon after, leaving Pakistan at 200 for 2 at the start of the 34th over, but Babar ensured the party would carry on. He was regal square on either side of the wicket, and in a particularly memorable sequence, slapped Pandya past point, then cracked him to the square-leg boundary next ball. Mohammad Hafeez and Imad Wasim then took the baton from Babar, and together, added 71 off the final 45 balls of the innings – Hafeez especially effective as he hit three sixes and four fours in all, to wind up with an unbeaten 57 off 37 deliveries.I mean, who even knew Hafeez was capable of such things? Did he? Sarfraz Ahmed, in his first major assignment as captain, played his part virtually perfectly, ceding his batting position to men who went on to score rapidly, then managing his bowlers astutely in the early overs.Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Hardik Pandya delivered good spells, but India’s remaining bowling figures did not make for pretty reading. Bumrah, Ashwin and Jadeja all went at seven an over or higher.There is no shame, though, in losing to a Pakistan side in the kind of nuclear form that if ever harnessed, could solve the planet’s energy needs for centuries. There were a few areas that India could have brushed up, but nothing, perhaps, that might have changed the result.

Armed robbers raided Newlands on Friday, smashing the glass doors of multiple suites at the Cape Town stadium and making away with TVs, liquor and other items. This was the third time since 2015 that the ground had been hit by robbers, according to a Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) release.The raid began shortly after midnight, according to the WPCA, when a woman approached security personnel at Gate A and asked for directions to a nearby church. She returned five minutes later, only this time she was joined by three accomplices who jumped the fences, apart from “more than 15 other men”, some of whom had guns. They forced the security officials to provide them keys to the Presidential Suite.The raid lasted less than an hour, and ended with the robbers making away with the stolen goods in three vehicles.”The South African Police Services are busy with an extensive investigation into the event and we will also reassess our security measures, including the possibility of having more cameras installed,” the WPCA statement said.”As an Association we are disturbed by the robbery and will do our utmost with the help of the South African Police Services to get to the bottom of this and try and prevent a reoccurrence of this type of incident. We will seriously look within our budgetary constraints to improve our security situation at the stadium.”Whilst it is truly appalling for this type of robbery to take place at our iconic cricket stadium where we have enjoyed some wonderful memories this past season, we are thankful that the security guard caught up in this crime was unharmed. He has been offered the necessary counselling in order to help him recover from this ordeal.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:48

Fernando: Herath a fourth-innings force of nature

Sri Lanka’s slow bowlers imposed their familiar chokehold over another fourth innings of a home Test match, uprooting batsmen as early as the second ball of the day, before sending the Test hurtling to its conclusion by the middle of the afternoon session.Leading the final charge was Rangana Herath. He was unstoppable as ever in defence of a score, and picked up record for most career wickets for a left-arm spinner en route to figures of 6 for 59. This was his 29th five-wicket haul overall, and his 10th in the fourth innings – no one in the history of the game has got more than seven.Batting in the fourth innings in Galle is among the most daunting of Test cricket’s challenges, and although Bangladesh suggested they might approach the task with spunk on the fourth afternoon, fell away quickly on Saturday. This was their third day-five collapse in four matches, having also failed to draw matches in Wellington and Hyderabad. Save for a 19-over stand between Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das, there was little in the way of resistance. They were eventually all out for 197 – 259 runs short of Sri Lanka.Their woes had begun immediately on day five. Soumya Sarkar, who had sped to fifty the previous afternoon, almost sent a catch to short leg off Asela Gunaratne first ball, but was out next ball in any case, Gunaratne’s offbreak jiving away from his defence to shave the top of off stump.The top order then quickly succumbed. Dilruwan Perera came to the crease to bowl to Mominul Haque, and trapped the batsman with much the same delivery that had got him out in the first innings. Flighted in to pitch on around middle stump, Perera turned the ball, beat the shot, and rapped a leaden-footed Mominul dead in front of middle stump. So scrambled was the batsman’s mind, that he even ventured a heedless review of that lbw decision though he never really thought he had a chance of surviving it – walking most of the way to the boundary before the third-umpire could even run the simulations.Tamim Iqbal soon sent a catch to slip off Perera, before Herath made his presence known with a double-strike that drew him level with Daniel Vettori’s career wicket tally of 362. Shakib Al Hasan was caught at leg slip off one that turned a little more than the batsman expected, then two balls later, Mahmudullah was lbw to a delivery that spun past his defence as well. At that stage, Bangladesh had lost five wickets in 12.4 overs.Mushfiqur and Liton mounted a brief fight through the back end of the first session, lending hope that Bangladesh might be able to survive until the afternoon rains came. But by now Galle’s pitch – itself often a force of nature – had become unfriendly, and even the bad balls turned far enough to draw mistakes. Lakshan Sandakan turned a ball way down the legside in the over after lunch, and Mushfiqur got himself out chasing it and offering a thin edge to the keeper. Sandakan had dismissed Shakib in similar style in the first innings.Herath then soon had Liton caught off the leading edge at cover to take his 363rd Test wicket – which made him the game’s most successful left-arm spinner – and the tail exposed now, the result seemed inevitable. Taskin Ahmed, Mehedi Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman all fell to Herath. All up, Bangladesh could only last 45.2 of the 98 overs they were due to bat on the day.

Warwickshire hope to persuade the ECB to let them become the permanent home of T20 Finals Day.While Edgbaston has become the regular home of the event – it has been the scene for the last six finals day – in 2019 Trent Bridge is scheduled to be host.Edgbaston is already scheduled to host an Ashes Test and several World Cup games (including a semi-final) in 2019. Trent Bridge missed out on an Ashes Test and is scheduled to host only group games in the World Cup. The loss of Finals Day would undoubtedly dent their financialplans.But Warwickshire argue that, if Edgbaston is to remain the ‘home’ of T20 Finals Day when the allocation for major matches from 2020 to 2024 is announced in early 2018, it might be considered unhelpful to divert the event for one year. It might also be relevant that, while a recordcrowd of 24,432 attended Finals Day at Edgbaston on Saturday, Trent Bridge’s capacity is around 17,500.”As things stand, Trent Bridge will be staging T20 Finals Day in 2019,” Neil Snowball, the Warwickshire CEO, told ESPNcricinfo. “And there’s no doubt at all they would make a fine job of it.”But we have opened discussions with the ECB and Nottinghamshire making our case for the day to be reallocated.”If we are going to remain the home of T20 Finals day after 2020 – and we very much hope that is the case – then it might make sense to keep it at the same ground. People are used to coming here and we have a really good record of selling the event out.”Clearly Nottinghamshire aren’t going to be giving up the games without getting something else in return. And we don’t see any appropriate games we could swap with them. But our understanding isthat it may be possible they could be allocated something else by the ECB instead. Clearly if that is not the case then Notts will retain the allocation but we felt it was worth making our case.”The move may well reflect an ever more competitive climate in the market for the allocation of major matches. It is anticipated that, from 2020, there will be fewer Tests – it is likely there will be sixTests, six ODIs and six IT20s per season – meaning Lord’s is unlikely to retain two Tests a year and the others will face a fight for regular Tests. The allocation for the 2023 Ashes might proveparticularly intriguing.

Faf du Plessis will be sidelined for six weeks after suffering an acute lumbar disc injury in the third ODI against Bangladesh on Sunday. Du Plessis had to retire hurt on 91 and could not return to lead the team in the field.He had already been ruled out of the two-match T20 series, which starts on Thursday, but will now also miss most of the domestic T20 competition with the aim to be fit for the inaugural four-day, day-night Test against Zimbabwe on Boxing Day.In du Plessis’ absence, JP Duminy will lead the T20 side, which also includes AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla.Du Plessis’ injury should not impact any international commitments with South Africa’s calendar empty until Boxing Day. Thereafter, they will play eight home Tests, including three in a full visit by India that also features six ODIs and three T20s. As South Africa’s all-format captain, du Plessis will be eager to be fully fit for that series.He was also due to captain the Stellenbosch Kings in the inaugural edition of the T20 Global League, which was scheduled to start on November 3, but the tournament has been postponed. Instead, CSA have moved the franchise T20 competition into the same slot.Du Plessis is the first high-profile player who won’t take part in that event. According to the timeline, du Plessis should return in the first week of December, by which time the competition will be in its final two rounds. He may be able to take part in the playoffs in mid-December.His franchise, Titans, are laden with international talent. Test opener Dean Elgar, recent international debutant Aiden Markram, de Villiers, wicket-keeper batsman Quinton de Kock and limited-overs regular Farhaan Behardien all play at SuperSport Park, while they also have Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Chris Morris. All three quicks are expected to make their comebacks from injury in the T20 tournament, alongside Lungi Ngidi, who returned from a back problem to take 6 for 37 in an ongoing first-class match against Lions at the Wanderers.

Northamptonshire have given Doug Bracewell a further opportunity to rehabilitate his cricketing career after a troubled year that included a third drink-driving offence and identified him as one of cricket’s most untamed characters.Bracewell’s career is on the up again after he was restored to the New Zealand side for an ODI against West Indies in Whangarei in December, seeking to put behind him a period in which he suffered a serious knee injury and undertook 100 hours of community service after he was found guilty of driving more than three times over the legal limit.Bracewell told Hastings Crown Court last March that he had driven home from a function when his girlfriend called him in distress after their cockatoo had been killed by dogs she was looking after for a friend.At 27, he still has the opportunity to resurrect his career and will join Northamptonshire in time for the start of the Championship season, stepping in for the veteran South African Rory Kleinveldt who will arrive in time for the start of the Steelbacks’ Royal London One Day Cup campaign in mid-May.Bracewell’s strong-willed, seam bowling style should be perfectly suited to an English spring and Northamptonshire, who have a good track record in unearthing value signings, will gamble that his gratitude for an opportunity will show through on and off the field and help them mount a second division promotion campaign.He has appeared in 27 Tests, taking 72 wickets with best figures of 9 for 60 in Hobart, leading New Zealand to their first Test win in Australia in 26 years. He also has a handy record with the bat, making 2914 runs in 82 games with a high score of 105.Head Coach David Ripley said: “Doug is highly skilled and vastly experienced, with plenty of international experience under his belt, and he will give us the additional firepower we need alongside an already high quality attacking unit. We’re delighted to be getting him over.”Bracewell responded: “It’s a great opportunity to challenge myself in different conditions and I am hoping to improve as a player but also make a difference at the club while I’m there.”Northants will be well aware that Jesse Ryder, another Kiwi with a tarnished reputation, made a great impact at Essex, contributing to the promotion of a side that then went on to win the Championship in his absence last summer.Early in his career, Bracewell twice suffered penalties after drinking incidents with Ryder. He was also ruled out of the Dunedin Test against England in 2013 when he stepped on glass while cleaning up after a house party and gashed his foot.But by going where some counties would definitely fear to tread, Northants, who have recruited shrewdly in recent years on a tight budget, have given themselves a chance of a strong start to the season.As yet there is no suggestion that Ben Duckett, who has also attracted a headline or two recently, has been appointed Bracewell’s minder. But with Northants you never can tell.