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Indian captain Sourav Ganguly grinned from ear to ear when he met the press after his side waltzed to an eight-wicket win over England to set up a semi-final clash against South Africa.Centuries from Ganguly and Virender Sehwag ensured that that India overhauled the target of 271 with more than 10 overs to spare.”We should not have allowed England to get to 270, but Sehwag’s 100 took the game away from England,” began the Indian captain.Not too many people expected India to beat England with such ease and Ganguly echoed this. “This game is never easy,” said the skipper.He was effusive in his praise of Sehwag’s knock, saying, ” Sehwag’s innings was absolutely brilliant and took the pressure away from us. The way he played was took the sting out of the game. By the time he was dismissed the game was already in our pocket. Unless something went terribly wrong, we were going to win from that position.”Nasser Hussain for his part admitted that his England side were totally outclassed on the day.”Nothing went wrong really. India just played exceptionally well on the day. The first eight overs they bowled were very difficult for our batsmen and again when they batted their first 15 overs were very good. Sometimes you just have to give credit where it’s due.”The England skipper seemed powerless to stop the onslaught of the Indian batsmen and conceded that nothing he tried on the day worked for him.”We’ve played against India a lot and have studied their game carefully. We know what areas they do most of their hitting in and have thought of a few ways to restrict that. It just didn’t work today though.”Both openers came at us strongly and we didn’t have an answer. We need to show more character in situations like this. We’re all right when teams don’t quite come at us as strongly as this and we’ll have to work out ways to counter this.”Hussain acknowledged that his side had problems when batsmen came at them and pointed out a couple of areas where England need to improve to counter this.”We need to show more character in these situations. And variations become important too. We tried a few variations today, slower balls and bumpers and the like. But today everything we bowled seemed to go for four. In English conditions where the ball does a bit more off the wicket and in the air you don’t need to do much more than put the ball in the right place. In conditions like this you need more variations.”Not totally distraught at the loss, Hussain did look back positively at the way the batting fared.”As far as the batting is concerned I’m quite pleased with the way we’ve done. In the last year or so the batting has not been a cause for worry. Even today I thought the middle-order batted exceptionally to take us to 270.”Ganguly has now led India to more than one dramatic win against England. He did however say that there were other wins that gave him more satisfaction.”Every win is satisfying really, at the international level. But I would have to say that the win at Lord’s in the NatWest trophy final and the Test win at Headingley probably mean more to me.”

Will the unbeaten century at Lord’s be the turning point in Ajit Agarkar’s career? Not only Agarkar himself, but also the entire country will be wishing just that. For while Agarkar needed that knock to consolidate his place in the Test team ­ no one doubted his immense capabilities as a limited-overs cricketer ­ what India has required for a long time now is a genuine all-rounder. The lack of one has caused an imbalance in the side, and how one wishes that Agarkar is the answer to our prayers.

When Agarkar burst upon the scene in the late ’90s, he was reckoned by some in Indian cricket to be potentially the most exciting player since Kapil Dev. The lad had loads of talent, and it remained to be seen whether he had the temperament for the big occasion.But over the years, Agarkar remained the prime example of the maxim that talent alone is not enough. While he remained an effective enough performer in one day cricket, he was in and out of the Test side, unable to cement his place despite his obvious skills – nippy bowling that could be disconcerting for the best of batsmen and aggressive batting that could lay any bowling low.While his bowling fulfilled, at least to some extent, the early promise ­ he did head the averages in the disastrous series in Australia in 1999-2000 ­ his batting became something of a joke, particularly after he got five ducks in a row in the same rubber. There was also a pair in his next Test against Australia at Mumbai the following season, and the critics by now were unsparing in their derisive comments, comparing his batting to BS Chandrasekhar’s and reasoning after numerous opportunities, his Test career must be near its end.By this time, talk about Agarkar being the country’s next all-rounder had also ceased. The Indian Test team had been without an all-rounder since Manoj Prabhakar had been axed after an indifferent World Cup in 1996. Since then, Sunil Joshi had shown some qualities as emerging as a competent utility cricketer, if not an all-rounder, and early in the 21st century, it seemed that Agarkar could at best be just another such utility player.There is of course a marked difference between a genuine all-rounder and a general utility player. An all-rounder is termed as one who can hold his place in the side solely on the strength of his batting or his bowling. He is the kind who can win matches virtually on his own, can smite a hundred or take 10 wickets in a match ­ or better still, do both in the same Test like some of the greatest names in the game have done. A utility player, on the other hand, is one who scores 30 or 40 runs and takes two or three wickets. Once in a way, he steps on the bigger stage with a near-hundred or a five-wicket haul.Indian cricket has had the good fortune of producing all-rounders of the calibre of Lala Amarnath, Vinoo Mankad, Dattu Phadkar, Gulabrai Ramchand, Bapu Nadkarni, Chandu Borde (till a shoulder injury caused him to give up bowling his leg-spinners), Salim Durrani, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Manoj Prabhakar. These players all have at least one Test hundred and – except in the cases of Ramchand and Borde – more than one five-wicket haul.But it is not possible for everyone to be genuine all-rounders, and again it has been Indian cricket’s fortune to have produced a number of utility players who have served the country admirably. Players like Amar Singh, Rusi Surti, Abid Ali, Madan Lal, Karsan Ghavri and Roger Binny would fall into this category. Not one of them scored a hundred, and all finished with averages in their early or mid-20s with the bat and in the 30s or early 40s with the ball. Barring Ghavri, none of them took over 100 wickets in Tests. After Binny played his last Test in 1987, Arshad Ayub flickered brightly for a brief while, but he faded away too soon, and since then only Joshi can be termed as a utility player.

By getting a hundred at Lord’s the other day, Agarkar would seem to have leapfrogged the utility level and proceeded straight to all-rounder status. Going into the Test, his batting average was 7.81 with a tally of 125 runs from 11 games and a highest score of 41 not out. His bowling average was 41.84 from a tally of 26 wickets with a best bowling of three for 43. As I said, his bowling is quite nippy, and the pace and bounce he generates belies a bowler of his wiry frame. But even here, Agarkar is often wayward in length and direction, a weak spot in his bowling armoury that was spotted even at Lord’s.But the main problem concerned his batting. Now having broken away from those shackles, the Shivaji Park product has it in him to live up to his early promise and emerge as the all-rounder the country has been praying for. He certainly is a fiercely competitive and potentially even exciting cricketer. In addition to all the laurels he has garnered in limited0overs cricket – the quickest bowler to get 50 wickets (surpassing Dennis Lillee), the fastest half century (off just 21 balls) by an Indian, surpassing Kapil Dev’s record ­ there is little doubt that he has the talent to succeed in the longer version of the game too. Sometimes just one performance can be a major turning point for a cricketer. Will the hundred at Lord’s be the watershed in Agarkar’s career?

Simon Jones enjoyed an outstanding debut with both bat and ball in Test cricket duringEngland`s 170 run victory over India at Lord`s.On Friday, Jones marked his international debut with a most entertaining 44 offjust 43 balls, with seven fours and one towering six that after the match was adjudgedthe champagne moment of the match by the B.B.C. Test Match Special commentary team.As the table below shows, it was the also the best score a Glamorgan player had ever made intheir first ever innings for England in Test cricket, and remarkably, Simon in the course ofhis debut innings scored more runs for England than his father Jeff made in 17 knocks in Testsbetween 1964 and 1968.On Saturday, Simon produced a most impressive spell, and might have dismissed Sachin Tendulkarwith only his second ball of the morning, as the Indian maestro almost chopped the ball into hisstumps. A few overs later, Jones` raw pace hurried Tendulkar into edging the ball into the slips,but Graham Thorpe spilled a catch inches above the turf.Jones finally got the wicket his bowling deserved, as wicket-keeper Ajay Ratra slashed at afast rising ball and edged into the safe gloves of Alec Stewart. Then Ajit Agarkar snicked adelivery from Jones into Andy Flintoff`s hands at second slip. As the table shows, Jim McConnon`s haulof 3-19 from 13 overs against Pakistan at Old Trafford in 1954 remains as the best bowlingfigures on debut for England in Test cricket.

DEBUT PERFORMANCES BY GLAMORGAN PLAYERS IN TESTS FOR ENGLANDMaurice Turnbull 7 v New Zealand, 1929/30Johnnie Clay Dnb and 0/30 v South Africa, 1935Austin Matthews 2* and 1/52 v New Zealand, 1937Allan Watkins 0 and 0/19 v Australai, 1948Gilbert Parkhouse 0 v West Indies, 1950Jim McConnon 5* and 3/19 v Pakistan, 1954Peter Walker 9 and 0/13 v South Africa, 1960Jeff Jones 5 and 0/48 v India, 1963/64Tony Lewis 0 v India 1972/73Greg Thomas 0 and 82/2 v West Indies, 1985/86Matthew Maynard 3 v West Indies, 1988Steve Watkin 2 and 2/55 v West Indies, 1991Hugh Morris 3 v West Indies, 1991Robert Croft 5* and 2/116 v Pakistan, 1996Steve James 10 v South Africa, 1998

Simon picked up a further two wickets as England bowled out the tourists on Monday afternoon.As well as a place in the Test record books, Simon`s hostile bowling won a host of plauditsfrom the media.Peter Roebuck, the former Somerset captain, also wrote “he continually pushed the batsmen backand troubled them with pace and hostility. Nobody looked comfortable against him. His bestdeliveries are hard to play and he must go to Australia.Former England captain Mike Atherton also said “On first showing his selection for thewinter tour is assured.”

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson is unlikely to undergo surgery for his troublesome elbow, but could be out of action for around two months, according to head coach Gary Stead.New Zealand next assignment after the just-concluded India tour is a two-Test series at home against Bangladesh, which begins on New Year’s Day, followed by a white-ball tour of Australia. If Williamson’s rehab goes according to plan, he might be available for the subsequent home Test series against South Africa in February although Stead insisted that no timeframe has been set for his comeback.The elbow injury has been a long-standing issue for Williamson. It had flared up in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup in the UAE, where Williamson cut short his stints at the nets to manage the injury, and troubled him in India as well. He sat out the second Test in Mumbai, with Tom Latham taking over as captain in his place.”I think surgery is unlikely,” Stead said before returning to New Zealand with the rest of the squad. “With the tendon injuries around the elbow, my understanding of the situation from talking to our physio [Tommy Simsek] is all surgery would do is ensure rehab is done. If we don’t have to cut a tendon, our choice is not to do that as well.”So Kane is going along okay. I expect it to be a sustained period of time. Last time, if you look after the World Test Championship [final] and before the IPL and T20 World Cup, was about eight or nine weeks. So, I expect it’s somewhere in that timeframe again… We’re trying not to put timeframes on it at this stage.”Ross Taylor had a horror tour of India, finishing with just 20 runs in four innings•BCCI

‘Got to go home and speak with selectors and Ross’
Ross Taylor had a particularly dismal tour of India, managing a mere 20 runs in four innings. He hit his nadir in New Zealand’s second innings at the Wankhede Stadium where he threw his bat at each of the eight balls he faced before he skied a slog-sweep off R Ashwin and was dismissed for 6.Stead pointed out that Taylor’s lack of game-time – he had not played a single competitive game between the World Test Championship final in June and the Test leg of the India tour in November-December – contributed to his struggles.”Ross has had a disappointing tour by his standards, but he’s been an exceptional player for New Zealand for a long, long period of time,” Stead said. “So he’s not the only guy that has come to India or Asian conditions and struggled over here. I think there’s some factors behind it, with the lack of match-time beforehand. We had a number of trainings or a couple of trainings before the second Test that was washed out as well.”I think Ross will look back and be disappointed at that himself. It’s a fine balance here, though, between trying to play aggressively and put the spinners under some pressure and also trusting your defence to bat for long periods.”If you look throughout the whole Test, I think Mayank Agarwal was one of the few players that actually managed to do that and we still went past his outside edge on a regular basis as well. I think there were only two-three players in the whole Test match that reached 50 and Agarwal was obviously the exception in getting to a 150.”Williamson’s injury-enforced absence means Taylor could still start the home Test series against Bangladesh at Bay Oval in the new year. Taylor is also three Tests away from becoming New Zealand’s most capped player in the format, but considering the progress of fringe players like Will Young, Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra, Taylor’s No.4 spot isn’t as certain as it once was.”I think the thing that’s encouraging for our team is we have more options now than what we did have a year or two years ago,” Stead said. “You’ve seen the emergence of Will Young and Daryl Mitchell, in particular, who have come onto the Test scene and done really well.”But let’s not also forget that Ross Taylor has an amazing record behind him as well. He’s been one of New Zealand’s premier batsmen for a long, long period of time, and you don’t lose that class just over one tour.”I’ve got to get home and speak with the selectors and have a conversation with Ross as well, around where he sees his game going forward.”

Usman Khawaja became the new king of the SCG achieving the stunning feat of twin centuries in an Ashes Test to put Australia in a position to keep the whitewash alive if they can take 10 England wickets on the final day.Khawaja reached rare air in his comeback Test after being left out of the side for two-and-a-half years. His second-innings 101 not out saw him become the third man behind Doug Walters and Ricky Ponting to score twin hundreds at the SCG, the ninth to do it in an Ashes Test and just the 10th player in Test history to score twin centuries in a Test batting at No.5 or lower. Incredibly Khawaja’s match tally of 238 runs moved him past every single England player’s series tally bar Joe Root.Cameron Green made his second-highest Test score of 74 and put on the highest partnership of the series with Khawaja, 179, to take Australia from a wobbly position at 4 for 86, to a declaration where they could set England 388 to win with a day and an hour to play.But England’s maligned opening pair of Zak Crawley and Haseeb Hameed weathered another probing examination from Australia’s quicks to steer the visitors safely to stumps as storm clouds engulfed the SCG. They put on their highest partnership of the series, 30, and survived 11 overs under floodlights to leave England an improbable 358 to win on the final day or 98 overs to survive, weather permitting.Khawaja looked a class above on a surface where most players in the game have struggled. He was patient early as the pitch’s uneven bounce made scoring difficult. He helped guide Green through a nervous period prior to tea as Jack Leach caused some problems with inconsistent spin and bounce.He began after tea on 35 and then unleashed an assault on Leach and Root. Yet again it was a combination of reverse sweeps and slog sweeps that did the damage. Two slog sweeps went 20 rows back while he cut, pulled and drove the quicks with typical elegance. He scored 66 runs off 64 balls after tea and soaked in a standing ovation upon reaching his century.Usman Khawaja brought up his second hundred of the Test•Getty Images

Green was equally destructive in the latter stages of the partnership after fighting through yet another nervous start. His technique has been scrutinised throughout the series having scored 52 runs in four innings. But it was as much his mind as his technique that was tying him in knots.He fought through a stern test of his defence from Leach and the quicks. Consecutive boundaries off James Anderson broke the shackles. Anderson overpitched and he drove him straight, before Anderson overcorrected short and Green unfurled a brutal pull shot. He produced two more cracking pulls off the extra pace of Mark Wood, one to bring up his half-century in fine style. He also thumped a cut forward of square off Wood and launched Leach over long-on into the crowd. He fell unselfishly pushing for more runs prior to the declaration that oddly came three overs after Khawaja reached his century and two overs after the final drinks break.Alex Carey was incredibly sent out to bat after Green fell skying Leach straight up. Carey was out first ball also attempting a sweep. It came off pad onto the back of the bat in his follow-through and was expertly caught by stand-in wicketkeeper Ollie Pope. He was keeping because both Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler were off the field during Australia’s entire innings having had scans on their respective finger injuries.Ben Stokes also didn’t bowl in the innings but fielded for all 68.5 overs. Pope snared four catches, equalling the most by a substitute fielder in a Test and matching Wriddhiman Saha’s efforts for India as a substitute keeper at the SCG last year. Leach finished with four wickets but was denied a chance at a hat-trick when Cummins finally declared.Related

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England’s openers played well under the floodlights as the pitch appeared to play fewer tricks in the last hour after the heavy roller had been on it in the innings break. Scott Boland did get one to leap from a length at Crawley and catch the shoulder of the bat, but it ballooned safely over the cordon.It was a far better display of batting in the last hour of the day than what was seen in the first hour of the fourth day when Boland continued his staggering start to his Test career by claiming 4 for 36 as England were bowled out for 294 in their first innings.Boland knocked over Jonny Bairstow for 113 with some extra bounce, feathering a nick through to Carey. That came after Jack Leach holed out with a wild slog sweep to mid-on off Nathan Lyon while Stuart Broad swung lustily for 15 before skying Boland straight up to be caught by Carey. England made their second-highest total of the series, but they still have not breached 300 for the entire tour.Australia reached 1 for 52 in their second innings after the early loss of David Warner, who edged Wood behind. But they lost 3 for 34 in a nervous 10-over period. Marcus Harris again threw away a start, edging a half-volley from Leach on 27 to be well caught by Pope up to the stumps. Harris has four scores of 20-plus in a row and just one half-century to show for it.Marnus Labuschagne fell caught behind to Wood for the third time in three innings. Again he was flashing off the back foot and again he was beaten by Wood’s pace. Wood has bowled 25 balls at Labuschagne in three innings and taken 3 for 12.Steve Smith looked comfortable until Leach skidded one through him as he tried to play too square off the back foot and lost his middle stump. But that was the last wicket England would take for 40 overs as Khawaja and Green put them to the sword.

England captain Eoin Morgan has played down injury concerns around Ben Stokes, after the allrounder left the field for a few overs due to a sore left knee and bowled only two overs in the first ODI against South Africa in Headingley.Morgan stated that Stokes did not have any significant signs of injury and said that he had opted not to bowl him once he came back on the field as a precautionary measure.”When he came back onto the field he had the green light to bowl,” Morgan said. “I felt bowling him again wasn’t worth the risk. He doesn’t even have swelling – there are no significant signs of an injury – but we can assess that over the next couple of days. He did the right thing to go out and get it checked. A knee can be quite a significant injury if it does happen.”Stokes came into the attack in the 18th over, with South Africa well placed at 97 for 1 in a chase of 340 and was in some discomfort at the end of the over. He had a chat with the team physio by the edge of the boundary between overs and left the field after his second over. He then returned in the 26th over, after South Africa had lost Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis quickly.Ultimately, England did not need Stokes’ services as a bowler, as they defended 339 with considerable ease, winning by 72 runs. Amla, who top-scored for the visitors with 73, felt his side suffered as none of the batsmen went on to make a century to anchor their steep chase. He was fulsome in his praise for Morgan and Moeen Ali, who had slammed an unbeaten 77 off 51 balls to lead England surge in the slog overs.”In any ODI, if somebody gets to a hundred, it will propel you to a good total, specially if you bat lower down the order,” Amla said. “You get guys batting at 4 and 5 coming late in the game and getting a hundred, that’s why Morgan’s innings was a game-changer. Moeen’s 70-odd also allowed England to get 20-30 runs more than what we expected.”Morgan lauded Moeen’s composure at the crease as the pair added 117 runs for the sixth wicket in 81 balls, and England went on to plunder 102 runs in their last 10 overs.”Batting at No. 7 is one of the hardest jobs going because you don’t know whether to shoot or not,” Morgan said. “He was very calm and composed in what he did, gave himself some time at the crease and was able to take the game to South Africa at the end.”Morgan’s 107 against South Africa on Wednesday was his third ODI hundred in 2017, taking his tally to 491 from nine innings with an average of 54.55. He is in the most consistent form of his England career.”I feel in good form. I felt like this against Ireland, I felt like this in India, I felt like this in the Big Bash,” he said. “I have never gone through a stage this long where I have been able to keep it up. I’m not sure what it is down to. Maybe a bit of experience.”

Kusal Mendis said the prospect of raising his average from the low 30s, and the goal of being among the world’s best batsmen, provided motivation to hit a big score on the first day in Galle.Like many in the Sri Lanka top order, Mendis endured an awful tour of South Africa in which he struck only one Test fifty and averaged 23.00 across six innings. That series was preceded by a lean run in Zimbabwe, where he averaged 19.75.His first Test knock at home in six months brought more luck. He edged his first ball to the wicketkeeper but was reprieved when the bowler was shown to have overstepped on review. From there, he played a largely chanceless innings and, thanks to being 166 not out at the close, his average has risen to 37.70. It will not drop below 35 even if he gets out first ball on day two.”When I played Australia at home, I had an average of about 42, but then it deteriorated little by little,” Mendis said. “People told me it’s hard to push it back above 30 if it goes below that. After I failed in South Africa, I wanted to get it back above 35, and you need a big innings to do that. People told me that when you get set, make sure you hit a big innings. I want to be among the best ten batsmen in the world, and to get my average to 40 or 45 eventually.”The return to form was not down to a specific technical change, Mendis said, though perhaps the early reprieve did help. In previous innings, Mendis has been out driving loosely, but following that first shot, he was largely watchful through the first session. Only later in the day did he adopt the positive approach that is more familiar to his game.”I practised hard after Zimbabwe and South Africa,” he said. “The coaches, senior players and captains all told me that I can handle this level – they didn’t put much pressure on me despite my failures. I corrected my backlift a bit after watching previous videos, but there weren’t any major changes. Those little things I tried to change.”I must have played a bad shot to get out first ball, but I was keen to stay there for the team after that.”Mendis’ 196-run partnership with Asela Gunaratne was instrumental to Sri Lanka’s strong position in the match. The two had come together with the score on 92 for 3, and batted with freedom over 43 overs to transform the game’s outlook.”Asela’s in really good form after doing well in the Australia series. I had a feeling he’d get a good score, given the way he was playing. When he was at the other end, it became easier for me as well. At one time, he batted well at the other end and took the pressure off me when I was feeling a bit tired. Unfortunately he got out towards the end of the day. It was easy to bat with him.”While Galle can often be a spin-bowling paradise, so far this surface has been as lifeless as any seen at the venue over the past three years. The previous Test here, against Australia, ended in two-and-a-half days, though Mendis was also impressive in that game, top-scoring with 86.”Last year when we played Australia here, the ball really turned,” Mendis said. “This time it’s easier for the batsmen, and it won’t be a big difference tomorrow – maybe late in the day the ball will spin a bit more. The wicket does seem hard though, so it’s hard to predict what will happen.”

ScorecardJoe Clarke was in good touch for MCC•Getty Images

Joe Clarke put an unproductive England Lions tour of Sri Lanka behind him when he made 89 as the MCC struck 332 all out on the opening day of the Champion County clash against Middlesex in Abu Dhabi.Clarke struck 11 fours to guide MCC past 300 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium before he fell lbw to the Middlesex fast-medium bowler James Harris. Harris also removed Tom Alsop for a sixth-ball duck and Liam Plunkett as MCC were dismissed shortly before the close.He gained support from another England Lions batsman who had an in-and-out Lions tour, Ben Duckett, who played with his usual enterprise in making 69 from 88 balls before falling lbw toMiddlesex’s off-spinner Ravi Patel.Three good wickets for Patel, who also removed MCC captain Alex Lees and Lewis Gregory, was encouraging for Patel who, at 25, will be anxious to make good the early promise that won him England Lions honours.

Kane Williamson lamented a New Zealand batting display which did not adjust to a challenging pitch at Eden Park in the deciding ODI. For the second time in the series they were bowled out well inside the 50 overs, and though Williamson said conditions were difficult he believed the batsman could have been smarter.South Africa did not find it easy, either, until the target came into view and the chase was finished in a hurry. AB de Villiers said he would have been concerned with a chase of much over 200 and had targeted working through New Zealand for 150 after nabbing their big names early.Martin Guptill fell in the fifth over and by the end of the 16th, Williamson and Ross Taylor had also departed, the captain to a run-out after a poor call from Dean Brownlie.  There had only been six lower completed first innings at the ground, the most recent of those being 141 by Sri Lanka in 2004.”It was far from easy, but that’s when fight needs to be shown to get a competitive score,” Williamson said. “A lot of the time at Eden Park it’s hard to know what a good score is. So that’s where that assessment needs to take place and build those partnerships. We couldn’t do that today. South Africa bowled well and made it very tough.”As he had in Wellington, Williamson referenced the difficulty of rotating the strike on a drop-in wicket where the ball does not run easily over the square. That was particularly evident against Imran Tahir who bowled his ten overs for a stifling 14 runs – the thriftiest ten-over spell by a spinner in New Zealand – as he benefited from batsmen hemmed in by the early pressure.”It is tough to rotate the strike out there and when you are under pressure and lose wickets that is something you look to do to bring some momentum back and that wasn’t happening,” Williamson said. “You need to appreciate that at Eden Park and look to skin it another way. Perhaps our batting smarts weren’t quite where we needed to be.”We lost a number of wickets around Imran which made it difficult. We needed two guys to stick there for a death phase so we had wickets in hand so we could go harder.”Although New Zealand set a solid total in Christchurch and had the Guptill-inspired chase in Hamilton, this series has raised questions about areas of the top order, notably Guptill’s opening partner and how they shuffle the middle order to accommodate the allrounders and wicketkeeper.However, despite this hefty defeat which ended their unbeaten home record in ODI series dating back to 2014, Williamson believed it had been another season of solid white-ball results, with victories over Bangladesh and Australia.”We would have loved to have won the series, but there’s been some really, really good cricket played against some highly-ranked opposition. We’ve had a tough summer of one-day cricket,” he said. “There have been some steps of improvement, new guys have come in and done well and that’s all important moving forward. You want to breed that depth so guys can come in and make the difference. We’ve seen good signs of that.”New Zealand’s next one-day cricket is a triangular series in Ireland in May, also involving Bangladesh, before the Champions Trophy. New Zealand’s IPL-bound players, who include Williamson, Guptill, Trent Boult and Tim Southee, will be allowed to skip that series if their franchises are still in the tournament. Batsmen George Worker, Tom Bruce and Henry Nicholls will be in contention to fill in for the absentees, along with Seth Rance, Hamish Bennett and Scott Kuggeleijn with the ball.