Bangladesh 40 for 2 (Alzarri 1-2, Seales 1-15) trail West Indies 450 for 9 (Greaves 115, Louis 97, Athanaze 90, Roach 47, Hasan 3-87) by 410 runs

Greaves’ unbeaten 115 justified his Super50 form, where he struck three consecutive centuries earlier this month. He made a patient effort, striking just four boundaries in his 206-ball stay. It was the perfect follow-up to the nineties that Alick Athanaze and Mikyle Louis had scored on day one to lay the foundation.

West Indies declared with Bangladesh needing to bat out a maximum time of an hour and 45 minutes. But there was no respite for them against the four-man West Indian pace attack. Zakir Hasan fell for 15 after he under-edged a Jayden Seales delivery onto his stumps. The left-hander struck three fours in his short stay, all off Seales, but was slightly unlucky with the ball shaving the leg-stump. Mahmudul Hasan Joy edged Alzarri Joseph for 5, shortly after he was dropped on the same score.

It was a long way from the start of the day for the visitors, having started the day in the best possible way by taking two early wickets.

Mahmud removed Joshua Da Silva with the fifth ball of the morning session, trapped lbw with a delivery that darted into his front pad. This was Mahmud’s first wicket in the game despite bowling well on the first day. It was also his 24th wicket this year, making him the highest wicket-taker in a calendar year among Bangladesh’s pace bowlers.

That number became 25 when Alzarri fell in Mahmud’s next over. Zakir took a superb two-handed catch at gully, reminiscent of how he opened the Pakistan tour with Abdullah Shafique’s catch at gully in August. If Bangladesh sensed they had their opening to bowl out West Indies for under 300 runs, that was blunted by Roach.

He was the right type of foil for Greaves, who was willing to grind out the Bangladesh attack. Greaves handed the strike to Roach from time to time, as the pair didn’t allow any more wickets in the first session. There were only two boundaries in those 26 overs too, but that hardly bothered the home side who needed a recovery.

Greaves started the second session with his third boundary when he pulled Taskin through midwicket. He, however, survived a caught-behind chance on 77 with neither Taskin nor wicketkeeper Jaker Ali (who was deputizing for Litton Das after the first session) hearing a faint nick. it was only a replay on the big screen that showed what Bangladesh missed out on.

Shortly afterwards, a Roach single brought up the team’s maiden century partnership for the eighth wicket against Bangladesh. It was followed by a rain break of seven minutes, after which Roach slammed Mehidy over his head for his first boundary. Mahmud finally removed Roach with a fine angling delivery, clipping the top of his middle-stump. Their 140-run stand was West Indies’ third-highest for the eighth wicket.

Greaves soon reached his century with his fourth boundary shot, driving Taijul through the covers. It was potentially his best shot of the innings and the landmark was only his second first-class ton.

West Indies declared in the 145th over of their innings, after their tail-enders Seales and Shamar Joseph struck some meaty blows. That left enough time for the bowlers to have a crack, which they successfully did.

With seven matches across three formats looming in the coming weeks, followed by the women’s Ashes in Australia in January, Knight insisted that now was not the time for “big change” to a team that came through an unbeaten home summer against Pakistan and New Zealand, and had been highly fancied to challenge for their first T20 World Cup title since 2009.

“We don’t become a bad side because we played poorly in 10 overs in the World Cup,” Knight said on the eve of the first T20I. “Leading up to that, we played some brilliant cricket, so it’s obviously a bit of a bump in the road. It’s going to keep us quite humble, and keep us motivated to get better, but I think it’s really important that we don’t rip up trees.”

Knight, 34 next month, has encountered a fair few ups and downs for England in her 14-year career – including captaining the team to their 50-over World Cup victory in 2017. However, she acknowledged that the reaction to their exit was more vitriolic than anything she had previously encountered, with her former team-mate Alex Hartley leading the inquisition with her suggestion that some of England’s players were letting the side down with their fitness levels.

“It’s the biggest response that I’ve seen as a player, for sure, and it’s a good lesson for us,” Knight said. “As the game grows and there’s more eyes on us, and there’s more reward for being an international cricketer, naturally that scrutiny is going to increase, and actually it’s a real good sign of where the game is at.

“How we deal with it, and how we move forward from it, is really important,” she added. “It’s about looking at the people around you, and staying strong within the group. Ultimately, the biggest opinions that are important to us as players and staff are in this circle, in the people around us.”

“We’ve been pretty clear with Alice around the reasons behind why we left her out,” Knight said. “That’s probably in terms of consistency of performance. We’re excited to see what Sophia does. She’s obviously gone through being dropped and having to improve, and force her way back into the side. We feel like she’s done that, with the form that she’s shown in the nets. Now it’s for her to transfer those changes to the middle.”

After recovering from her World Cup injury, Knight proved her fitness is back on track during her recent stint with Sydney Thunder in the WBBL. However, she insisted her presence as captain wasn’t fundamental to the team’s fortunes, as they prepare to face a South Africa side that has now reached each of the last two T20 World Cup finals.

“There’s a huge amount of leaders in this group,” Knight said. “That spell [against West Indies] was an unfair representation of the leaders that we do have in the group, and I really do feel like the likes of Nat [Sciver-Brunt], Amy [Jones] and Sophie [Ecclestone] have really grown into that role as more senior players in the last year or two.

“I’m still enjoying leading the group, and part of that role is to try and grow the people around me, and put the younger players in a place where they can almost lead themselves. But I don’t think the team’s completely lost without me. That’s not a narrative that I totally agree with.”

With the Ashes looming in the new year, Knight admitted it was hard not to have “half an eye” on that challenge down under, but acknowledged that the best possible preparation was to compete well against South Africa – the team who ended Australia’s 14-year reign as T20 World champions with their semi-final victory in Dubai last month.

“We’re really excited to play here in South Africa,” Knight said. “It’s a brilliant sporting nation. You know what you’re going to get from South Africa. They’re going to be very passionate, very aggressive, very proud in how they go about their business.

“We’re certainly not expecting an easy South African challenge, that’s for sure. The team just made back-to-back T20 World Cup finals, so no-one is expecting anything less than quite a tough challenge.

“The South Africans have grown a lot in the last few years, and they’ve really become a little bit more aggressive, particularly the bat. So how we deal with that is going to be really important in this series.

“But in terms of proving a point, I think that’s down to the individual. Some people will be driven by that, others will just want to keep getting better and keep doing what they do really well. It’s a good media narrative to write, but we just want to bring our best cricket, keep growing as a side, and adapt to what’s in front of us.”

Western Australia 211 for 4 (Goodwin 87*, Turner 79) vs South Australia

WA recovered from 62 for 3 to reach 211 for 4 when stumps were belatedly called on a stop-start day-night encounter at Adelaide Oval. Goodwin ended the day unbeaten on 87 in a gritty 199-ball knock.

South Australia were made to pay for some poor catching with Goodwin dropped twice and Turner once.

Ninety minutes were lost to start the day following morning rain while the middle session also saw a lengthy break in play.

Acting South Australia skipper Ben Manenti, deputising for Test call-up Nathan McSweeney, won the toss and sent the visitors in to bat. Such were the conditions South Australia began with a five-man slip cordon.

Considered a Test contender at the start of the season, the opener has now compiled just 52 runs at an average of 4.7 from 11 innings, including five ducks.

T20 star Johnson, playing just his sixth Shield match and first in nearly nine months, immediately looked dangerous with the pink ball and could have had Goodwin out early only for Nielsen to spill the catch.

Brendan Doggett, whose good form earned a recent Australia A cap, was soon into the action and had opener Sam Fanning caught at third slip for 7. Hilton Cartwright chopped a Liam Scott delivery onto his stumps to be dismissed for 18.

WA began a lengthy final session under lights at 95 for 3 and enjoyed lucky breaks with Turner dropped on 19 and Goodwin spilled on 50 at first slip off Manenti. Doggett returned to have Turner caught off a top edge in the deep.

Western Australia will be optimistic about their chances of success with the ball as quicks Jhye Richardson and Lance Morris lined up for Shield action for the first time since November 2023.

The former’s most recent visit to Adelaide Oval was a five-wicket haul in the second Test of the 2021/22 Ashes series.

India 150 and 172 for 0 (Jaiswal 90*, Rahul 62*) lead Australia 104 (Bumrah 5-30, Rana 3-48) by 218 runs

Jaiswal closed in on a brilliant century and finished 90 not out, while a resolute Rahul was unbeaten on 62 as India reached stumps on 172 for 0 with a lead of 218 runs.

A remarkable 17 wickets fell on a madcap opening day, but there were long periods of attrition on the second day which yielded only three wickets. It was a return to somewhat normalcy as a crowd of 32,368 at times resorted to Mexican waves and chants for entertainment.

India did not mind playing a sedate tempo. Jaiswal reached his half-century off 123 balls – his slowest 50 of his short Test career – and Rahul registered his in 124 deliveries. The unbroken partnership has exceeded the first innings totals of either team.

After an unlikely first innings lead of 46 runs, the fifth highest by any team making 150 or fewer while batting first, India’s position in the series-opener has been considerably strengthened as Jaiswal and Rahul batted through two sessions.

Jaiswal left the ball well and looked compact in defence. He had learned the lessons from the first innings and made sure he did not push at the ball hard. There was some trademark aggression like when he uppercut Cummins over the slips and swatted Starc over deep square leg, but he mostly unfurled textbook strokes through the covers and down the ground. Late in the day he skipped down at Nathan Lyon to send him into the stands over long-on.

Australia’s pace attack could not replicate their brilliant performance on the opening day. Perhaps feeling weary having to back up so quickly, Australia seemed helpless on a wicket that appeared to flatten amid sunny conditions. There was still some movement off the surface and occasional inconsistent bounce, but conditions were more benign.

Australia, though, were conservative at times with fielders in the deep underlining Jaiswal’s dominance, while seven bowlers were used with Marnus Labuschagne unsuccessfully unfurling his much-publicised short-ball strategy.

Like in India’s first innings, Cummins once again looked slightly underdone in his first red-ball match since the New Zealand Test tour in March. He closed with figures of 0 for 44 from 13 overs.

Australia did not take their chances with Jaiswal having a let off on 51 when he edged Starc only for Usman Khawaja to drop a tough chance low down at first slip. There was a missed run out opportunity on the next delivery when Rahul backed up too far, but the openers regrouped to continue India’s remarkable turnaround.

When play started, there had been an outside chance that the match could end within two days. Bumrah continued to speed up proceedings with a wicket off his first delivery of the morning when he nicked off in-form Alex Carey for 21.

Bumrah’s length and movement off the wicket was a constant menace as he threatened on almost every delivery. But it was debutant Harshit Rana who was rewarded for his hostile spell as he dismissed Lyon with a sharp bouncer that caught the glove and ballooned to the slips cordon.

At 79 for 9, Australia were in danger of being dismissed for their lowest score against India and overtaking their infamous 83 in the MCG in 1981.

But Starc, who after play on day one had stated that the pitch wasn’t as difficult to bat on as the scoreboard suggested, dug in and found a willing ally in Hazlewood. They put on 26 – the highest partnership of the innings – in 18 overs for the last wicket.

Starc had to withstand a short-pitch barrage from Rana as the former Kolkata Knight Riders team-mates engaged in a war of words. There was mock applause from the terraces when Australia reached 100 – a landmark that seemed unlikely for much of their innings.

Debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy and offspinner Washington Sundar, who was surprisingly included over veterans R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, entered the attack and bowled steadily during the match’s first sedate period of play. They could not provide a breakthrough as a frustrated India appeared set to have to ponder their approach through the lunch break.

But just before the interval, Starc lost his running battle with Rana as he holed out in a tame way to end a fighting knock. He top scored with 26 off 112 balls – more than double the next most deliveries faced of 52 from Labuschagne.

England 249 (Crawley 94, Johal 3-25) lead Prime Minister’s XI 136 (Reddy 60, Carse 4-48) by 113 runs

After opting to bowl, England dismissed the Prime Minister’s XI shortly after lunch, with Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson and Carse sharing the wickets. They then raced into the lead, Crawley providing the impetus in an innings that featured 14 fours and two sixes.

Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, sat out day one of the two-day game, with Ollie Pope leading the side in his absence.

The youthful PM XI, which featured five players aged 23 or under, were soon in trouble against England’s new-ball pair of Woakes and Atkinson, who took two apiece up front to leave the hosts 20 for 4.

Crawley launched the reply in typically aggressive fashion, putting on 90 in 15.1 overs alongside Ollie Pope (42) for the second wicket and 50 in seven overs with Joe Root for the third. But Harry Brook and Chris Woakes were the only other batters to reach 20 as the innings ended in a clatter of wickets.

England are expected to give most of their 16-man squad game time in the match, which is their only warm-up fixture before the first Test in Christchurch, starting on Thursday.

Melbourne Renegades 170 for 6 (Faltum 66*, Wareham 34) beat Melbourne Stars 161 for 8 (McKenna 34) by nine runs

Faltum blasted an unbeaten 66 from 42 balls to lift the Renegades to 170 for 6 in the second game of Friday’s double-header at the MCG.

The wicketkeeper then stumped Stars opener Yastika Bhatia off left-armer Charis Bekker as the Renegades restricted their opponents to 161 for 8 although it became close in the closing stages.

The result gave Renegades a positive 5-3 record in second spot on the ladder, while Stars are in danger of missing the finals at 2-4.

Those efforts helped Renegades pull off another impressive win just four days after reaching a target of 186 away to Adelaide Strikers.

“There is just this belief amongst the group that we can win from anywhere,” Faltum said. “We didn’t win our first two games but we still believed that we were right on task. Once you win the belief comes, but I think we had it before then. We’re just really hoping that we can go all the way.”