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O Corinthians encerrou sua preparação para enfrentar o Botafogo, de Ribeirão Preto, na estreia do Campeonato Paulista. Pela segunda vez desde que chegou ao Timão, o técnico Tiago Nunes pôde comandar uma atividade na Arena Corinthians. O treinador montou a equipe titular e fez alguns ajustes táticos.

A pedido da comissão técnica, o treino desta quarta foi fechado aos jornalistas – algo que é corriqueiro nos dias que antecedem as partidas. De acordo com a assessoria de imprensa do Corinthians, os jogadores receberam orientações de posicionamento e fizeram uma atividade tática no gramado de Itaquera.

As baixas ficaram por conta de Danilo Avelar, diagnosticado com uma pubalgia e fora de combate de três a quatro semanas, Michel Macedo – com uma lesão no músculo reto femural -, Everaldo e Léo Santos, em fase final de recuperação física. Por fim, o colombiano Victor Cantillo treinou com o grupo, mas não poderá jogar já que sua documentação não foi regularizada.

A tendência é de que o Corinthians inicie o duelo contra o Botafogo escalado com Cássio; Fagner, Pedro Henrique, Gil e Lucas Piton; Camacho e Richard; Ramiro, Luan e Janderson; Mauro Boselli.

O jogo contra a equipe de Ribeirão Preto será na próxima quinta, às 21h30, na Arena Corinthians. Será o primeiro jogo oficial de ambas as equipes na temporada 2020.

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Confira os relacionados do Corinthians:

Goleiros: Cássio e Walter
Laterais: Fagner, Lucas Piton e Sidcley
Zagueiros: Bruno Méndez, Gil e Pedro Henrique
Meio-campistas: Camacho, Gabriel, Luan, Mateus Vital, Ramiro e Richard
Atacantes: Boselli, Gustavo, Janderson, Madson, Matheus Davó e Vagner Love

In the battle for the inaugural Pakistan Super League title, Quetta Gladiators, the first team to make it to the final, will face an in-form Islamabad United on Tuesday evening in Dubai

The Preview by Nagraj Gollapudi22-Feb-2016Match factsFebruary 23, 2016

Start time 2000 local (1600 GMT)Islamabad United have relied a lot on their top order•Chris WhiteoakBig PictureIslamabad United v Quetta Gladiators. Buddha-esque Misbah-ul-Haq v restless Sarfraz Ahmed. Eccentric Dean Jones v street-smart Moin Khan. Strategic Wasim Akram against emotional Viv Richards. Powerful Andre Russell against an equally powerful Kevin Pietersen. Ever-confident Ahmed Shehzad v only PSL centurion Sharjeel Khan.The above mini-duels within the main battle have all the portents to make the final a contest to look forward to. Both teams have taken a different route to the summit: Quetta did not break too much sweat during the league phase losing just two matches and became the first team to make the final. Islamabad took the more arduous route as they lost four matches in the group phase, but then bounced back with four consecutive wins.If Quetta hold the edge on paper, it is only because they won both times the teams met earlier. On both occasions, Quetta successfully chased down the targets: they won the tournament opener with a whopping four overs to spare and a week later they won with 23 balls still in the bag.However, both teams are back on the starting blocks for the final. Quetta were lucky to scamper into the final after their one-run win over initial and fans’ favourites Peshawar Zalmi in the 1st Qualifying final. It once again exposed Quetta’s reliance on their foreign imports Pietersen and Kumar Sangakkara. Of the two times they batted first, they collapsed the first time and then put up a sub-par total in the second attempt. Shehzad and Sarfraz will need to play responsibly if Quetta need to negate the in-form Islamabad bowling line-up.For Islamabad, too, the runs have come mainly from the top order comprising Sharjeel, Dwayne Smith, Brad Haddin and, before he was forced out due to injury, Shane Watson. Although they have started well in the first 10 overs, Islamabad have shown the habit of not accelerating as much towards the end. Islamabad’s run rate in the first 10 overs is 7.09 which is second only to Quetta. That rate climbs to just 7.83 in the final 10. The team has also had to deal with veterans Misbah, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Sami along with Andre Russell and Mohammad Irfan sitting out due to injuries.The PSL had started with a maiden. The build-up might have been quiet but there have been quite a few last-over and last-ball thrillers. And Tuesday evening’s finale, despite being a weekday, is sold out.Form guideQuetta WWLWW

Islamabad WWWWLIn the spotlightAndre Russell said he is dying to raise his bat, raise his level of performance in the PSL where he has not exactly delivered. He is the joint second-highest wicket-taker, but has found it hard to bowl on the slow and sluggish pitches of Dubai. He has not clocked enough batting time as the Islamabad top and middle order have finished the job easily. Russell was the IPL’s most valuable player last season, he won the Big Bash League with the Sydney Thunder, but was underwhelming in the final. Now, Russell has another opportunity and he is itching to prove why he is regarded as one of the biggest T20 assets across the world.Mohammad Nawaz won the first Man-of-the-Match award of the PSL with his all-round performance against Islamabad. He is the joint second-highest wicket-taker along with Russell and will fancy signing out with another impactful performance.Team newsIslamabad have two injury concerns: fast bowler Rumman Raees has a hamstring issue while Saeed Ajmal, who has sat out the previous two matches, is recovering from a minor foot injury. Ajmal was hit on the right foot while he was bowling on the eve of the play-off encounter during Islamabad’s training and since then has been nursing a mild stiffness. But it is understood that he can play if the team management prefers him over Mohammad Irfan.Luke Wright, who was forced to sit out in the previous two matches for Quetta due to some stiffness, is back in contention and likely to return as an opener. Fast bowler Aizaz Cheema, after his last-over heroics in the play-off, is likely to keep senior fast bowler Umar Gul out.Stats and trivia Out of the nine matches they have played, Quetta have chased on seven occasions and lost only once. Sharjeel Khan needs 49 runs to become the highest run-scorer of the tournament. He already has the most sixes (18). The highest wicket-taker in PSL is Peshawar’s Wahab Riaz (15). But next two in queue are from Islamabad and Quetta – left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz and allrounder Andre Russell with 13 wickets each. Quetta Gladiators have the highest innings total in the tournament – 203 – which they chased against Lahore Qalandars.Quotes”It is a very big opportunity for Quetta and the population of Quetta and for its cricket if we are to win. Whether we bat first or bowl doest not really matter. The key to us performing is our team bonding which has been very good throughout the tournament.”

Mohammad Amir’s possible appearance in the Big Bash League didn’t materialise as Sydney Thunder weren’t keen on signing the fast bowler

ESPNcricinfo staff19-May-2015Mohammad Amir’s possible appearance in the Big Bash League didn’t materialise as Sydney Thunder weren’t keen on signing the fast bowler. Amir’s London-based agents contacted Thunder to find out their interest in Amir, but the franchise’s general manager Nick Cummins said they were looking for an allrounder rather than a bowler to join Jacques Kallis as their second International player.”We approached the Sydney Thunder and at that point we thought they still had a spot left for a similar type of player,” Simon Auteri, whose company Insignia Sports International represents Amir, was quoted as saying in the . “With the World Twenty20 coming up early next year we thought it might have been a decent fit.””We appreciate with a lot of these teams abroad it will probably be a tough sell especially until he gets back playing at the highest level. He’s back fully playing and he wants to play abroad, and he’s still so young. We think that he does deserve another go and that’s what we’re trying to do.”Amir, banned for five years in 2010 for his role in spot-fixing, was allowed an early return to domestic cricket in January after he adhered to criteria stipulated by the new anti-corruption code. He picked up three wickets in a Grade-2 game, his first competitive fixture since 2010. Amir also turned up for Rawalpindi Rams in the Super 8 T20 Cup.

Former India captain Rahul Dravid believes the lack of “big ticket players and game changers” will hamper Pakistan’s progress at the 2015 World Cup. Dravid was speaking on Contenders, ESPNcricinfo’s build-up show to the tournament in Australia and New Zealand. Dravid’s co-panelist on the show, former South Africa captain Graeme Smith, said Pakistan’s batting was “a real weakness” and the failure of their younger generation of batsmen to perform consistently has been holding the team back.”Other than [Shahid] Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq and maybe Younis Khan, I don’t think any of these players would have played ODIs in Australia,” Dravid said. “This gives me the impression that they lack experience. They have got young exciting players, and players with skill as well, but it lacks those big-ticket players or game-changers which you would associate the Pakistan teams of the past.”The loss of offspinner Saeed Ajmal, who withdrew from the tournament because his remodelled bowling action needed further work before it was re-tested, will also be a huge setback to Pakistan’s chances. Before he was banned, Ajmal was Pakistan’s go-to bowler in all formats. “Every batsman in every team is breathing a sigh of relief that Ajmal is not around anymore,” Smith said. “Believe me, I wish I could go play a Pakistan team without Ajmal in it. They have lost a bowler who bowled in pressure situations, and in games where they didn’t even deserve to win. He had that ability you know, so it’s a big loss for them and how they replace that is extremely challenging for them.”Though the odds are loaded against them after a poor year in limited-overs cricket, Pakistan will be inspired by the fact that their only World Cup win came in Australia and New Zealand in 1992 under the captaincy of Imran Khan. According to Dravid, one of Pakistan’s biggest challenges will be to find the right “balance” in the playing XI.”They don’t have that all-round player, with questions over whether Mohammed Hafeez can bowl or not. That’s a big blow for them,” Dravid said. “They’ll always have a good bowling attack, they have some exciting bowlers. Afridi has become a more dependable legspinner than a batsman. He can’t bat anywhere higher than 8. And then you’ve got a wicketkeeper, so it’s a hard one for them to mix and match. Their batting just looks really light for me at the moment.”The key for them is to try and find their best 11. When you go back to ’92, charismatic captain, who can forget Wasim Akram in the final of the tournament, and they had some x-factor,” Smith said. “That’s what they need to find now, early in the tournament find their best eleven, hopefully get some of the younger players performing well, and who knows as the tournament goes on they may grow in confidence. That’s their challenge.”

Around 11,000 spectators created a festive atmosphere as Younis Khan made his fifth Test double century to leave Australia reeling in Abu Dhabi. It was his third hundred on the trot, and came against the backdrop of his exclusion from the one-day squad last month.The decision to axe him had prompted Younis to stridently question the selectors. He was retained in the Test squad though and while he has broken a slew of batting records, he insisted this wasn’t about showing up the selectors. “I am not here to prove anything to anyone,” he said after another productive day in Abu Dhabi. “I just wanted to show my character and wanted to win the games for my country after Pakistan lost four matches to Australia. So the intentions were never to prove a point but to help Pakistan.”Younis, though, said that the week after being dropped was an important period for him. “I still remember that one week that I spent with my family. I am not able to forget that moment. My family and friends were tense. The media was tense, the entire Pakistan was tense for me, wondering he could retire now, who knows what he could do now after having spoken out. The media has supported me a lot. Each and every moment from that week is with me and [I am] thinking positively from that.”He was also pleased with his preparation for the series. “It was my good luck that I landed here in UAE a week earlier and worked a lot on my batting with the help of the batting coach. The Australians would also practice nearby and whenever I got the opportunity, I would observe their body language and try to learn about them. So that week really made a difference.”During this series, Younis became Pakistan’s highest Test century maker, and reached 8000 Test runs, prompting debates over whether he is Pakistan’s greatest Test batsman. “I don’t think I can become a great… like Javed, Inzamam, Yousuf, Saeed Anwar, Zaheer Abbas, Hanif Mohammad … I can’t compare myself with them,” he said. “The era I am playing in, many things are easy for me compared to the time they have played their cricket. It was so difficult for them. I want to be remembered as a team man who served the team and as someone whose performances made his country proud.”He said he drew energy from the large holiday crowd in Abu Dhabi to complete his double century just before tea. “When I was around 160 or 170, my body’s response started to go down, but when I saw so many fans were coming in, I thought that if I push myself a little more, then I could get to 200…”When I saw so many people coming in for a Test, I felt very happy, I took motivation from the crowd, I wanted to hang in there and reach 200, so that all the people who have come to see me, I shouldn’t disappoint them.”The situation looks hopeless for Australia, but Younis, while hoping to win the Test, expected some tough days ahead. “Obviously when you score runs and contribute a lot in the game you want the team to win comprehensively so I hope we manage to pull off a whitewash.”But it isn’t going to be easy for us, we still have to put in the hard work. Though we have good spinners, Australia have been in this situation several times… they have Warner, Clarke, Smith and Haddin who had played a big role for them to win the Ashes. So it won’t be easy. We aren’t thinking that the contest will be over tomorrow or day after and I think the Australian team is capable of making a comeback.”

To make the semis, Cape Cobras will have to win this game by a big margin, do the same in their next, and then hope other results go their way; Barbados Tridents will be hoping to win, so that they keep their chances of progressing in their own hands

The Preview by Nikita Bastian25-Sep-2014

Match facts Friday, September 26, 2014
Start time 1600 local (1030 GMT)Big PictureHaving lost two games out of two, both by big margins, Cape Cobras find themselves on the brink of exiting the tournament. To have any chance of progressing, they will have to win their remaining two games emphatically, and then hope other results go their way. Perhaps this fact will free up Cobra’s minds, allowing them to play with a measure of freedom, since the mandate – win, and win big – is clear and they have but little to lose. Maybe this will help their batsmen to kick on from the starts they have made and thrown away so far in the tournament. And maybe this will help their bowlers put the scars of two big totals conceded out of their minds – so far, only seamer Charl Langeveldt, who came out of retirement for this tournament, and part-time offspinner Sybrand Engelbrecht have managed to bowl spells at under seven to the over. They will be hoping offspinner Dane Piedt, who had hurt his bowling arm while trying to field off his own bowing in their previous game, is good to go.Conditions-wise, Cobras will have to start from scratch once more. After games in Raipur and Hyderabad, they move northwards, to Mohali, to take on Barbados Tridents. Tridents have already played at the venue, in their only game of the tournament so far, which they lost to Kings XI Punjab. In that game, Tridents’ death bowling failed them after their top order had fired them to 174. Cobras’ line-up might not seem as threatening all the way through, as Kings XI’s, to the international new-ball pairing of Ravi Rampaul and Jason Holder, but they would know they both cannot afford to go at over 10 to the over once more. If they do, and Tridents subsequently lose, they will find themselves in the same place as Cobras: having lost two from two and in a dicey position in the semi-finals race.Form guide Cape Cobras LLLWW (most recent first, completed matches only)
Barbados Tridents LWWWLWatch out for Vernon Philander might not be quite the same bowler in T20 cricket as he is in Tests, but he still is much better than his tournament stats of 2 wickets at 40.50, with an economy rate of 11.57. Even if he is coming off an injury break. The conditions in Mohali – arguably the most seamer-friendly international venue in India – might be more conducive to his style of bowling, and with the team already missing the services of two frontline quicks in Dale Steyn and Beuran Hendricks, Philander will be eager to deliver.Elton Chigumbura is the only Zimbabwe player on show in this tournament. He did not have a memorable start to it, holing out for 3 off 5 against Kings XI and then not being called upon to bowl. Having recently been named Zimbabwe’s limited-overs captain, the allrounder will be keen to show off his explosive batting skills, especially since his team is already quite weakened in the department, having lost Dwayne Smith, Kieron Pollard and Shoaib Malik to other sides in the tournament.Stats and trivia Cape Cobras’ bowlers have taken nine wickets in this CLT20 at an average of 48.62. This is the worst any team – including the ones to not make it through to the qualifiers – have averaged The fifty opening partnership in the last match was Barbados Tridents’ first in 19 T20s. Their openers have averaged 17.57 in these games. Among teams in this CLT20, only Cape Cobras have done worse (17.39) during this periodQuotes”We have a lot of experienced players, guys that have played international cricket, except one or two. Experience is our strength, and we have got a lot of allrounders, which helps as well.”

Stuart Broad has suggested that Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss should go for a quiet drink to resolve their differences.

George Dobell07-Jul-2014

Stuart Broad has suggested that Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss should go for a quiet drink to resolve their differences.Strauss reignited the ill-feeling between the pair when he was overheard calling Pietersen “an absolute c***” while commentating on MCC v Rest of the World for Sky Sports at Lord’s on Saturday.While Strauss thought he was off-air, the feed was still live in some territories and, thanks to social media, was soon heard around the world.Ironically, Pietersen was alleged to have referred to Strauss in similar terms – albeit in Afrikaans – in messages exchanged with members of the South Africa team during the summer of 2012.Strauss was captain of England’s Test team at the time and, after the contents of the messages became public, Pietersen was dropped from the England team for the final Test of that summer and the subsequent World T20.But while Broad dismissed the suggestion that the incident would distract the England team ahead of the Test series against India, he did express a hope that the pair – both former England captains – would resolve their differences.”They live pretty near to each other,” Broad told the BBC. “I’m sure Straussy will have KP round for a glass of white or red, and discuss what’s happened. I’m sure the invite will go out.”Two ex-England cricketers having a bit of an issue is not something that is relevant to the England changing room.”

MatériaMais Notícias

O Palmeiras conquistou a vaga para as quartas de final da Copa do Brasil. Nesta quinta-feira, o Verdão venceu o Sampaio Corrêa por 2 a 0, no Allianz Parque, em São Paulo. O autor do primeiro gol, Mayke, destacou a vitória a classificação.

– A equipe está toda de parabéns. Time deles é um time muito bom. Conseguimos impor nosso ritmo em casa. Conseguimos classificar para a próxima fase. Domingo tem jogo importante, já é outro campeonato – disse o jogador.

O atacante Dudu parabenizou a qualidade do Sampaio Corrêa e não
– Foi um jogo difícil pela qualidade do time deles. Veio aqui e fez um jogo duro contra a gente. A equipe está de parabéns pelos dois jogos que fez. Temos que manter os pés no chão e continuar trabalhando. Cada vez que passa fica mais difícil – complementou.

Com o resultado, o Palmeiras, no agregado, venceu por 3 a 0 e avançou na Copa do Brasil. A fase de quartas de final da competição será disputada após a Copa América, com adversário do Verdão ainda a ser definido por sorteio. Os comandados de Luiz Felipe Scolari voltam a campo pelo Campeonato Brasileiro, domingo, contra a Chapecoense, às 19h, fora de casa. A equipe lidera a disputa.

continua após a publicidadeRelacionadasPalmeirasSem sustos! Palmeiras vence o Sampaio e avança na Copa do BrasilPalmeiras30/05/2019

David Saker, the England bowling coach, has admitted his job could be in jeopardy as a result of England’s wretched performance in Australia.

George Dobell23-Jan-2014

David Saker, the England bowling coach, has admitted his job could be in jeopardy as a result of England’s wretched performance in Australia.Saker, who signed a new three-year contract in October, accepted he had to take some responsibility for the disappointing form of fast bowler Steven Finn and for the failure of the bowlers to close out the ODI in Brisbane where James Faulkner thrashed Australia to a miraculous victory.”I’ll be the first to say that anyone on this tour should be worried about their job,” Saker said. “We haven’t performed well enough unfortunately and we’re in the business of winning games of cricket. This has been a poor performance from everyone involved.”I’ve had pretty much a fairy tale run until this tour and it has been a reality check for me. It is something that everyone in our group has to think about. I’m sure they will review everyone’s position and if they see fit to change me, well that is their position, but I’m very much committed to trying to change things around.”The performance of Finn has caused particular debate. 18-months or so ago, it appeared England had unearthed a bowler of impressive pace and hostility who would serve them well for several years. But, under the guidance of the England coaching set-up, Finn has lost pace, control and confidence to such a degree that he was recently deemed “not selectable” by England’s limited-overs coach, Ashley Giles, and sent home early from the tour for a complete break from the game. It meant Finn had not played a single international game on the tour.”It’s disappointing,” Saker said. “And I take quite a bit of responsibility because my job is to get him playing well for England and that hasn’t worked the way we would have liked.Buttler calls for England confidence

Jos Buttler, the England wicketkeeper, said England must remain confident in their ability as they attempt to stave off a 10th straight defeat in Perth.
Another loss for England in the fourth ODI would see them equal their worst losing run – set in 1993 and matched in 2001 – and Buttler said England needed to play positively to avoid it.
“One day cricket is a tough game to play when your confidence is knocked,” Buttler said. “You need to play with a free open mind and that’s something we need to do. We can’t worry about consequences – if you want to play certain shots you can’t worry about getting out. We need to take that mentality and real positive enforcement.
“Everyone is feeling refreshed and we’ve got to play with confidence. It’s a very tough thing to do when you’re losing games, to not worry about outcomes of getting out or these kinds of things. It’s something we all have to do, to lose that worry, and know what good players we are and be confident in that.
Test selection and the upcoming World T20 are potential targets for Buttler but he is focussed on ensuring England do not leave Australia without a victory.
“If you perform well, the right sort of things happen as a result of that,” Buttler said. “Everyone wants to win a game – no one wants to leave Australia having not won a game of cricket. Personal pride for every player, including myself, comes from knowing you’re putting in those performances and the right things can come from that.
“We talked about remaining tight as a group. Sydney was a very disappointing performance; we should have been there at 1-1 but we missed the chance to win the game at Brisbane. We’ve got to try and move on from that. We’ve had a couple of good days and everyone is feeling refreshed and looking to get back into it.”

“We’ve tried different things; he has worked extremely hard in the nets, as he always does. Some weeks we moved a long way forward and some weeks we moved a long way backwards. That was pretty much the story of the whole trip.”We always want bowlers to be accurate and dry up runs but more than anything we just want him to run in and bowl the way he did when he first broke into the side.”We’ve tried to tinker with certain things but we don’t do any major overhauls of actions. We did shorten his run up in New Zealand and it did work quite well but he didn’t feel comfortable with it and he went back to his long run. That was his decision.”We keep working on different things but at the end of the day he has to decide what he wants. He has to sift through advice and see what is best for him. I’m sure he will bounce back and I’m sure it will be quickly. We want him to get better and are all trying to help him. You’ve got to trust your action and I don’t think he trusts it. Our job is to make sure he gets an action he trusts.”But Finn’s experience was not unique. England selected two other giant fast bowlers for the Ashes but both Boyd Rankin and Chris Tremlett played peripheral parts in the series. In the first Test of the series, Tremlett bowled exactly as he had done in the 2013 county season for Surrey – with skill and accuracy but without any of the menace that rendered him such a dangerous proposition in 2010-11 – before being dropped, while Rankin failed to do himself justice in the final Test of the series with a timid performance. Clearly the England set-up was unable to coax the best out of any of them.”After the results we’ve had, you could say the selection was wrong,” Saker said. “It’s disappointing that one of the tall bowlers didn’t have a big impact. They didn’t put it together.”People are looking for runs and wickets and looking for wrong things instead of just looking for how you played in the back yard with your mum and dad. That’s the way you want to play.”Sometimes it’s not easy to say just run up and bowl; they do read things into it. The game is played a lot of time between the ears and you have to think really strongly about what is going into your mind.”Saker also expressed his disappointment over the “death” bowling in Brisbane, confessing that it was the lowest point in a career as England’s bowling coach that began in April 2010.”It was a hell of an innings from Faulkner, but we handed a lot of those shots to him,” Saker said. “We could have bowled a lot better and I’ll put my hand up straight away. It was a poor finish to an ODI game and in a sense it has to be brought onto me because we should be able to finish an innings off like that and we should be able to close off the last two overs for less than 30, but we didn’t.”That was as devastated as I’ve been since I’ve worked in this job because it was a game we should have won. We’ve been away for a long time and we haven’t won a game and that was a game no doubt we should have won and that really hurt. Not just the bowling group but the whole team. When you’re in the position I’m in you feel a lot of responsibility for that.”

West Indies’ entire second innings lasted less than a session after tea on the third day in Hamilton, leaving New Zealand a target of 122

The Report by Abhishek Purohit20-Dec-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsTrent Boult took the first three West Indies wickets•Getty ImagesWest Indies had lost 16 wickets on the third day in Wellington to lose by an innings. If one thought their standards couldn’t plummet any further, one was to be proved wrong on the third day in Hamilton. In far friendlier conditions for batting than Basin Reserve, their entire second innings lasted less than a session. It began after tea, and ended so swiftly that New Zealand had time left to face a couple of overs in their second small chase of the series.It was supposed to be a test by spin for New Zealand, and Sunil Narine did as well he could, bowling 42.3 overs, 36 of them on the trot, to take 6 for 91. Ross Taylor batted through that examination to make his third hundred of the series and cut New Zealand’s first-innings deficit to 18. Both feats, outstanding as they were, were consigned to the sidelines by the depressingly familiar drama that West Indies served up after tea.Granted New Zealand’s four-man pace attack, three of them left-armers, were relentless with their tight lines and fuller lengths. Granted there was a bit of cloud cover that afforded some swing. Granted New Zealand came back from their sloppy catching in the first innings with some outstanding grabs. But the pitch was still the same slow one on which the sides had scored 367 and 349.After such scores, it was effectively a second-innings shootout. West Indies shot themselves in the foot instead. It was the same weakness again, an inability to tackle the inswing the left-armers were generating.Their left-handers kept poking at deliveries leaving them, even Shivnarine Chanderpaul falling prey to the malaise, and New Zealand kept snapping up sharp catches in the slip cordon, the highlight being Kane Williamson’s one-handed blinder at gully to send back Chanderpaul for 20 off Neil Wagner. The right-handers drove loosely at inswingers, they prodded at ones going straight across them, they even managed to get strangled down the leg side.The longest anyone lasted was Marlon Samuels, who made 8 off 38 deliveries. The most runs anyone made was captain Darren Sammy, who struck six fours in a hopelessly frenetic 24 off 17 to nudge West Indies into three figures.Like in Wellington, Trent Boult did most of the damage, removing the top three within nine overs on his way to 4 for 23. Wagner and Corey Anderson, a terrific second pair of seamers, kept up the pressure to prise out three more, and Boult returned to trap first-innings centurion Denesh Ramdin in front.Having watched the left-armers take the first seven wickets, Tim Southee helped himself to the final three in one over with his outswingers, also reaching 100 Test victims in the process. West Indies had been blown away for 103 in 31.5 overs, 12 leg-byes helping them scrape past 100.Before tea, Taylor finished with 28 more than 11 West Indies batsmen and the leg-byes put together to pilot New Zealand past 300. Brendon McCullum and Corey Anderson gave it away in the morning, aggression causing their downfall, while Taylor ticked along solidly and calmly, at his own pace, never in doubt.West Indies weren’t able to exert pressure to the extent they had on the second evening, when their specialist spinners Narine and Veerasammy Permaul bowled in tandem. Instead, Darren Sammy gave himself a spell of nine overs at the start, bowling alongside Narine as West Indies worked with the old ball throughout the session. Whatever pressure Narine exerted wasn’t maintained for long enough.Taylor carried on from the second evening, unruffled by the odd delivery misbehaving or by what was happening at the other end. Even as Narine jagged the odd straighter one past the bat, Taylor handled the offbreaks superbly, playing late and softly. West Indies took the second new ball in the 99th over, immediately after lunch, and the change earned them the wickets of BJ Watling and Taylor, who departed after taking 20 runs off Sammy in the 105th over.Wagner and Southee cut the deficit further but the tail could not survive too long against Narine, and he spun out the last three to go to 18 wickets from three Tests against New Zealand. The one over he bowled in the evening signalled that the target of 122 wouldn’t be chased down easily.West Indies had stopped New Zealand short of chasing 112 in Dunedin, but that was on the final day with assistance from rain. Narine is now their only hope, however slender, with two days left. For if you can’t bat, you can at least hope.