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Tickets for the Perth Ashes Test will belatedly go on sale at the end of July after unsuccessful efforts to have the match staged at the city’s new multi-purpose stadium rather than the unpopular WACA Ground.As recently as May, CA’s chief executive James Sutherland had expressed hope that the match could be played at the new stadium located in Burswood, but cricket administrators admitted defeat after meetings with stadium management and the Western Australian government.That left tickets to be organised for the WACA instead, which has hosted Ashes matches dating back to the ground’s very first Test in 1970-71. “The Perth Test holds a special place in the summer of cricket and in an Ashes year we are expecting capacity crowds at the WACA throughout the Test,” Sutherland said.”We know that many fans, both in Western Australia and abroad, are eagerly awaiting this Test and are keen to secure their place so we are pleased to be announcing an on-sale date for tickets to the match.”Given the strong demand we expect to see for this match we urge people to purchase their tickets early to avoid disappointment, and only purchase from the official ticket agency to ensure they obtain a valid ticket for the official ticket price.”Christina Matthews, the WACA chief executive, said the match now afforded the opportunity to celebrate the ground’s Ashes history. “There is a rich history and tradition for Western Australians associated with attending the Ashes Test matches at the WACA Ground, with plenty of wonderful memories along the way,” she said.”This summer’s Test represents a unique opportunity to celebrate one final Ashes Test match at the WACA Ground. We anticipate tickets will be in high demand as fans will want to secure their piece of history, so we encourage people to purchase their tickets early to avoid disappointment.”Tickets will be on sale to preregistered fans on July 31, then WACA members from August 3 and the general public from August 4.

Former South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman Nic Pothas has been appointed Sri Lanka’s interim coach days after Graham Ford quit the job, following the team’s group-stage exit at the Champions Trophy this month. Pothas, who has served as Sri Lanka’s fielding coach since August last year, will oversee the team until the end of the India tour, SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala said.Pothas’ role as interim coach will begin at home with the five-match ODI series against Zimbabwe, which starts on June 30, followed by one Test. Before taking over as Sri Lanka’s fielding coach, Pothas was the academy director at Leicestershire County and has also served as the director of cricket at Guernsey.Pothas played three ODIs for South Africa in 2000 but did not manage to find a regular spot in the team, with Mark Boucher holding the incumbent post. A long-time Hampshire player, Pothas scored over 11,000 runs and effected 659 dismissals in 218 first-class games.”We have a strategic plan to engage the next coach and Nic Pothas is also a good contender for it,” Sumathipala said. “There are professional coaches who are currently engaged and shown a lot of interest and we are confident we will have one at the end of the Indian tour. We will not have to look too far to find somebody who will be competent to take this team till the 2019 World Cup.”Sumathipala also said that there were also Sri Lanka Cricket coaches who have shown interest in the job but added, “we will have to first discuss with our cricket committee and our support team the plan and structure – what kind of coach that we are looking at. When we looked at Dav Whatmore he was a developing coach, he could develop an ordinary team to a world-class side. There are coaches very good at looking after professional advanced ongoing teams. We have to make an assessment on the situation and deploy the right person with the right spirit.”

From the depths of despair after the insipid performance against India, there’s now a far more upbeat mood in the Pakistan camp. They kept their Champions Trophy campaign alive with an incisive display in the field against South Africa, and did enough with the bat to ward off a collapse, and know a position in the semi-finals is in their control. It would be a very handy stepping stone in the long-term project of rebuilding the one-day side.After the dismal opening performance, coach Mickey Arthur spoke about the fear that inhibited Pakistan’s players and nothing has changed his mind that they were “intimidated” by India. But the response has been heartening for him and he praised the open appraisals that had taken place after that match which enabled the turnaround against South Africa.”I looked around the dressing room before that [India] game and we didn’t believe that we could beat them,” Arthur said. “It was such a contrast to the South Africa game were we believed in our skills and ability.”I’m pretty honest and straightforward. We had some honest conversations and the good thing about it is that the players are contributing to that conversation now whereas a year ago they didn’t. They are starting to take responsibility and once that happens it’s a massive psychological barrier they have broken down in the dressing room. I come out of an environment where you have mature conversations all the time and they can’t be sugar-coated, they have to happen for you to move forward. The guys responded fantastically well.”The victory was set up by an attack which found its teeth on a used pitch at Edgbaston – “I was happy they stuck us on a used one,” Arthur said – with Imad Wasim removing AB de Villiers for the first golden duck of his ODI career and Hasan Ali producing one of the balls of the tournament to castle Wayne Parnell. Between them, Hasan and Imad took 5 for 44 off 16 overs. Along with a lively ODI debut from Fakhar Zaman, whose 31 off 23 balls gave Pakistan breathing space to absorb Morne Morkel’s impressive spell, it was an impressive match for a clutch of the youngsters, something which gave Arthur great satisfaction.”To see them perform is the best thing that can happen to any coach,” he said. “Hasan Ali is one of those. If you saw him now and remember him a year ago he’s developed, he’s stronger and fitter, his skills are developing and he will be a fine all-round cricketer. He can field, he can bat, he can bowl. He’s in great shape so I’m very proud of his development. He stands out as one of the beacons; him Babar Azam, Imad Wasim – we have some good young players coming through and we have to keep them believing.”There will also be two more experienced foes up against each other in the Group B match in Cardiff with Arthur pitted against Sri Lanka’s South African-born coach Graham Ford. “Fordy and I have been very close over a long period of time so it’s taking on an old friend. Sri Lanka are very dangerous, they played exceptionally well against India,” Arthur said. “It’s fearless cricket. They hit the ball hard, play outrageous shots. They will be a tough side to beat. We’ll have to be on our game.”Though the focus is firmly on Cardiff and Monday’s match, events thousands of miles away have also given Pakistan another boost. Afghanistan’s victory against West Indies, inspired by Rashid Khan’s 7 for 18, has widened the gap in the race for an automatic World Cup spot. Pakistan hold that position at No. 8 with West Indies’ defeat leaving them further adrift ahead of the September 30 cut-off.”It’s been a focus of ours, we’ve had it over heads for a year and we’ve had some tough one-day series – England away, Australia away, they are tough – so to almost qualify is a huge relief but that doesn’t stop where we want to take the one-day team,” Arthur said. “We have to keep improving all the time, playing with intensity, keep the freshness so we can put a shake on at that World Cup.

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County Championship Round-up: England hopefuls make their case

Ian Westwood is, in many ways, an unlikely saviour. Fifteen years into a first-class career in which he averages in the low 30s, he has endured prolonged periods out of the side, is out of contract at the end of the season and has prepared for life after his playing career by starting the qualification process as an umpire.But here, and not for the first time, he was exactly the man Warwickshire required in a crisis. Reeling from the worst start to a season most can remember – they have never previously lost their first two Championship matches by an innings – Warwickshire desperately required some resistance from a batting line-up that looks so strong on paper but has, of late, folded as if made of the stuff.Westwood responded with perhaps the best innings of his life. His century, studded with powerful pulls and sweetly-timed flicks off the legs, was the quickest (130 balls) of his Championship career and came when his side had been inserted under lights and against a bowling attack that inflicted one of those innings defeats. It helped Warwickshire not only register their first batting bonus points of the season – a pretty remarkable statistic given that this is their third game – but get within eight runs of doubling their tally of total points as well. Nobody else reached 50.We shouldn’t be surprised. While Westwood has never been rated as highly as the man he developed alongside in the Warwickshire Under-10 side a quarter of a century ago – Ian Bell – he has, in his own way, served the club with the same level of commitment. So it was Westwood who produced the century (against Durham) that buffered his side against relegation last year, Westwood the club turned to when they required a captain in the tough, transition years of 2009 and 2010 and Westwood who was left out of the side for the 2010 Lord’s final when a stronger combination of players was available.That’s the way it is for players like Westwood. On days like this, with few spectators in attendance and a back-to-the-walls relegation fight to be had, he is just the man. But he knows that, when Warwickshire have recruited once more, when the transition is over, when they find themselves back on a more glamorous stage, he will be probably be deemed surplus to requirements once more.The early part of this innings was typical Westwood. Scrappy and dogged. He got off the mark with an edged boundary – the generous assessment would be he was keen to make use of an unusually short boundary towards the Pershore Road side of the ground – and three of his early fours came to third man. On 46, he edged just in front of third slip and, on 104, he may have been missed by Ben Foakes down the leg side.But it was, at least until he reached three-figures, a chanceless affair. And, once he settled, there were some elegant strokes. Jade Dernbach was punished for dropping short by two sixes – one upper cut over that short boundary, the other pulled over it – and he utilised the vast boundary to the other side of the ground by picking up three all-run fours.The real difference between this innings and other Warwickshire efforts this season, however, was not the attacking shots but the defensive ones. Whereas his colleagues have prodded and poked, Westwood left and waited. He refused to be drawn into searching for the ball outside off stump and, by forcing the bowlers to wait, persuaded them to go searching for wicket-taking deliveries. He picked off the resultant loose balls with gratitude and has given Warwickshire not only a foothold in this match but some belief at the start of a season that was slipping away from them fast.In doing so, he showed what Warwickshire had been missing. Playing his first game of the season having recovered from a foot injury – he replaced the somewhat unfortunate Alex Mellor, who was signed as a reserve keeper and pressed into service as an opening batsman – Westwood provided the grit his side have lacked in the first couple of games. The unsettling concern remains, though, that his runs – more than 50 per-cent of Warwickshire’s total when he was dismissed in murky light a delivery before play was abandoned for the day – did not represent a collective return to form from the batsman as much as a masking agent for their continued troubles.Ian Westwood made a vital hundred on his return for Warwickshire•Getty Images

Surrey were not especially impressive in the first session. Just as Bell was criticised for bowling first at The Oval, Gareth Batty may be criticised by those who see that Warwickshire’s openers posted 126 and conclude that conditions were good for batting. But as Surrey’s assistant coach, Stuart Barnes admitted afterwards: “We weren’t pleased with the first session at all. We didn’t get as many balls in good areas as we have done in other games so far this year and we paid the price for it.”Certainly Footitt struggled to replicate the rhythm and pace he demonstrated at The Oval a couple of weeks ago – you suspect he doesn’t quite understand why some days it clicks and some days it doesn’t – Tom Curran conceded 18 fours in his 20 overs and Jade Dernbach suffered for his aggression. Only Sam Curran offered control throughout the day.They showed they had learned their lesson by the time they took the second new ball, though. The first four overs with it produced only two runs and earned two wickets as Tim Ambrose was defeated by one that nipped back sharply and Westwood’s defiant innings ended when he poked at one that bounced and left him a little on his off stump.Earlier Bell was, for the third time this season, caught in the slips by Scott Borthwick off Mark Footitt – this time Bell prodded at one he could have left – while Jonathan Trott and William Porterfield both edged deliveries from Tom Curran on or just outside off stump.Curran also dismissed Ateeq Javid. Having beaten his man often and seen a strong appeal for a catch declined, Curran was fired up, but the send-off he gave Javid slightly took the gloss off the moment. He’s a fine young bowler; he doesn’t need to roar in anyone’s face to prove it.Javid, playing ahead of the dropped Sam Hain, never really settled. Only winning selection after Matthew Lamb, a highly-rated 20-year-old, sustained an injured foot in the seconds, he looked understandably nervous – he is playing his first Championship game since mid-2015 – and, perhaps, as if he were playing for his future.His wicket was the first of three for the addition of just 29 runs that left this game pretty much even. The absence of a heavy roller may render first innings runs at a premium but, while this was, thanks to Westwood, a much-improved day for Warwickshire, Surrey will fancy they are still very much in this game.

James Vince and George Bailey will share Hampshire’s captaincy responsibilities for the 2017 season.Vince, who was appointed Hampshire captain in 2015, will remain as club captain and continue to lead the side in limited-overs fixtures but Bailey, who returns to Hampshire on a two-year deal this year following a previous stint in 2013, will captain the side in the County Championship.A club statement said: “The move will allow both batsman an opportunity to focus on their own games during a busy campaign, whilst still affording them the opportunity to contribute across each format with their leadership skills.”Vince is highly-rated as a captain, having led England Lions and The South in the pre-season competition in the UAE. But a disappointing 2016 season – both personally and for Hampshire – left him jaded and Hampshire have taken the decision to ease his workload a little while retaining his position within the club. He retains realistic England ambitions, too, despite a tough start to his international career and this decision may allow a little more time to concentrate on his own game.Bailey, meanwhile, has captained Australia at international level and continues to lead Tasmania. Experienced, relaxed and at the stage of his career when personal ambitions are less likely to burden him, he should not only ease the burden on Vince but provide advice and support when appropriate.”We are fortunate to have two excellent captains within the squad and a split between the formats seems a sensible option for us,” Hampshire Director of Cricket, Giles White, said. “James will captain the white-ball teams and George the Championship side; this will allow them to channel their focus in the different formats which should benefit the squad as it looks to compete across all formats.”Bailey will not be available all season, though. He is expected to captain for the first time at Chelmsford on Friday 19 May and could also be absent in June when he could be involved in the Champions Trophy with Australia.

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Rahmat Shah top scored with 50•Zimbabwe Cricket

Afghanistan’s bowlers combined to roll Zimbabwe over for 54, helping the visitors seal a 3-2 series win with a 106-run D/L victory in the final ODI in Harare.Afghanistan elected to bat and were provided a brisk start thanks to opener Noor Ali Zadran’s 49-ball 46, even as Zimbabwe got regular breakthroughs early on. Noor Ali eventually fell at the end of the 15th over, a wicket that put the brakes on Afghanistan’s momentum as captain Asghar Stanikzai and Rahmat Shah tried to steady the innings from 85 for 3. The pair put on 39 off 64 balls, which was followed by a fifth-wicket stand of 35 between Shah and Samiullah Shenwari. After Rahmat reached his fifty, both he and Shenwari were run-out as Afghanistan found themselves at 172 for 6 at the 40-over mark.Allrounder Mohammad Nabi then batted with the lower order, hitting four fours and a six in his 48 off 40 balls. Dawlat Zadran hit 14 off 6 balls to lift them to 253 for 9. Medium-pacer Chris Mpofu finished with figures of 3 for 46 while the spin duo of Graeme Cremer and Sean Williams kept things tight and conceded a combined 74 in 20 overs.Zimbabwe’s response was delayed by rain and a wet outfield, leaving them with a revised target of 161 off 22 overs. They suffered an early blow, losing Peter Moor in the second over. Three balls later, left-arm spinner Amir Hamza removed Solomon Mire, before returning two more wickets off four balls in his next over to reduce Zimbabwe to 13 for 4.There was to be no recovery, with only two batsmen getting into double-figures, as Nabi and Rashid Khan – who were both picked up by the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the IPL auction earlier this week – took combined figures of 5 for 22. Rahmat was named Man of the Match for his fifty.

Australia’s captains Steven Smith and Meg Lanning jointly contacted Cricket Australia to ask that the board respect the Australian Cricketers Association as the players’ collective bargaining agent, and stated that further attempts to the deal directly with the players would be a distraction from the performances of the national teams.As the board and the ACA attempt to work through drastically divergent positions over an MOU due for renewal in June, ESPNcricinfo has learned that Smith and Lanning felt compelled to write to CA chief executive James Sutherland, in a letter co-signed by their deputies David Warner and Alex Blackwell.The correspondence, delivered between the Brisbane and Melbourne Test matches against Pakistan last December, after talks between the two parties broke down, asked Sutherland that CA deal with the ACA as the players’ representative and called for ending attempts to go around the association by communicating directly with the players. The ACA confirmed the existence of the letter when contacted by ESPNcricinfo.It followed the invitation of Smith and Warner, alongside national team coach Darren Lehmann, to a dinner with the CA board directors and executives two days before the Melbourne ODI against New Zealand on December 9. That was trailed by a series of emailed communications from CA to all national and state-contracted players in Australia that sought to explain the board’s position.These included CA’s full initial submission, which stated among other things that only the top male contracted players deserved to continue to earn a fixed percentage of Australian cricket revenue. By contrast, the ACA are seeking, in a unified agreement for men and women, to expand the revenue-sharing model to include all players and also an expanded definition of that revenue. The MOU has not previously included female players.A subsequent email from team performance manager Pat Howard to the players sought to clarify the board’s pregnancy clause after it became the subject of heated argument during the Gabba Test against Pakistan. That email, in which Howard reiterated his view that he did not want to see the players become “the meat in the sandwich”, was a catalyst for the national team’s leaders to indicate to Sutherland that they were feeling quite the opposite.Earlier that week, CA had suspended negotiations with the ACA on the premise that the public slanging match between the two parties had begun to use oxygen that would otherwise be occupied by the Test matches and the Big Bash League.”Cricket Australia is committed to a negotiation that is conducted in good faith between the two parties,” CA said in a statement at the time, “but will not take part in a process which seeks to draw its players into a public dispute. Players deserve the opportunity to focus on the game, rather than being distracted by a negotiation that should be conducted in a professional and confidential manner.”Sutherland had previously kept at arm’s length from MOU negotiations, leaving them largely to CA’s head of strategy and people Kevin Roberts, head of team performance Howard, and David Peever, the CA chairman. Peever, an advocate of industrial relations reform when he was managing director of the mining giant Rio Tinto, has also involved his own IR advisor Ken Bacon.Smith and Lanning’s letter confirmed beyond doubt that the players were not wavering in their stance alongside the ACA, and that they wished to see negotiations resume in a more constructive manner. When Sutherland next spoke publicly about the breakdown in talks, he offered the most conciliatory words from the board in some weeks.”I think the facts of the matter are that both organisations have a lot more in common than they have not, and from that perspective, it’s all in the interest of the game, ensuring the game’s better,” Sutherland told ABC Radio during the Boxing Day Test.This week, Sutherland said the two parties still have an enormous amount of ground to cover. “I don’t think we’re close to a resolution,” he said. “We’ve got to work through a process of discussion on all sorts of different issues, there’s an agreement with a whole lot of different components to it.”Perhaps a little more complicated than it has been before where we’re wanting to professionalise the women’s game even more and to make sure there’s one collective agreement for men and women, so all those things need to be stepped through. We’ve got plenty of time, but at the same time, there are plenty of things to discuss. We’re down to it and we’ll progress, I’m confident of that.”

Faf du Plessis has called Kagiso Rabada the “perfect bowler for a captain” following the 282-run domination of Sri Lanka at Newlands, which he labelled a “perfect performance”. Rabada had not been at his quickest in Port Elizabeth, where he took four wickets at an average of 35, but was easily the most impressive South Africa seamer on the faster Newlands pitch, where he claimed match figures of 10 for 92, and a Man-of-the-Match award.”It was an amazing bowling performance from Kagiso,” du Plessis said. “Look, even when he’s bowling not so well, as a captain I’m really happy to have in my team. He’s just a guy that tries really hard. He’s never got any dramas. Basically the perfect bowler for a captain, because exactly what I ask him to do, he does. If I say I want him to bowl a thousand short balls in a row, he’ll do it. That’s the kind of bowler he is. That works well with me because I can work on a plan with him. He’s an extreme talent South Africa. He’s going to be very valuable to us in the future – to make sure he plays a lot of cricket for us.”Among the concerns about Rabada, however, is his high workload. Though he only made his international debut in mid-2015, Rabada was a fixture in South Africa’s teams for all three formats last year – in which he played each of South Africa’s nine Tests, 15 of their 17 ODIs and eight of their nine T20Is. Rabada faces the possibility of playing continuously in all three formats as South Africa seek to fulfil their transformation quotas, but du Plessis suggested this this was a workload he can handle, for now. He is not expecting Rabada to be rested for the dead rubber at the Wanderers.”We’ll only leave KG out if there are injury concerns,” he said. “If the medical staff feels he needs it. If he doesn’t need it from an injury point of view, I would say: ‘no’. For me it’s really important to make sure we keep winning Test matches.”I can understand the importance of resting players – yes there is a place for that. But I don’t think KG is there yet. Every fast bowler needs to bowl. As you saw in this Test match KG was double the bowler he was in the previous one just because he started bowling again. He would be the first to say that as well, and will want to play that next Test definitely.”South Africa were never put under pressure while they were in the field, but had briefly been in trouble with the bat, when Sri Lanka had them 66 for 3 on the first morning, and then 169 for 5 that afternoon. They would go on to post 392 in the first innings, however, and du Plessis lauded the mettle of the batsmen who saw South Africa through the minor wobbles.”On a tough wicket Dean Elgar batted excellently. For an opening batsman to get a 100 on a wicket like that was great batting. Our whole batting unit put on a decent total in the first innings. It was great from our batters. From then we were in a dominant position. When there are those moments in the game when we are under pressure, every time we’ve stood up. Every single time it’s somebody different, and for me as a captain, that makes it easy.”Rabada and Vernon Philander shared seventeen wickets between them, while Keshav Maharaj took the remaining three. Though Kyle Abbott did not take a wicket in either innings, in what transpired to be his final Test, he had nevertheless been miserly, conceding runs at 2.39 an over.”It’s pretty much the perfect performance, to be honest. There’s nothing that didn’t go the way I wanted it to go. All the plans – everything worked out perfectly. Even the declaration – we got it spot on. We thought it would take till day four lunch in a perfect world, and it did work out that way. We lost the toss on a green wicket. The plan was to try and be a little bit better than we were in Port Elizabeth, and we did that.”

A decade or so ago, a Pakistan batsman was fielding on the boundary at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. There are plenty of big stadiums around the world but Eden Gardens, at capacity, is a big ol’ stadium. It was his first time there and for most of it, he remembered, he could barely hear himself think. But he does recall one piece of advice he got from a spectator right at the front.”See the crowd here, son? It’s bigger than the population of your entire country.”At that time, Pakistan still hosted matches at home but crowds had begun to dwindle for Tests and only the really big ODIs would draw full houses. And no stadium in Pakistan could come close to matching Eden Gardens for capacity. It was, the player felt at the time, as intimidating an atmosphere he had come across in his career until then.But that Eden Gardens moment was a long time ago and as at least eight of the Pakistan XI will turn up at the MCG in an atmosphere unlike any they would have come across before they too will know that they have just stepped up into the big time. Sixty thousand are expected on the first day and only Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Mohammad Amir know what it is like to perform in front of a Boxing Day crowd.Pakistan did play to full houses on days of their England tour earlier this year, but this will be on a far larger scale. Only the non-breathing will not be affected by it. The significance of the occasion, and the place it holds in the Australian calendar is not lost on Pakistan’s players.”We know the importance of the game,” said Asad Shafiq. “It’s a big Test match, the Boxing Day one. We all grew up watching this match in Pakistan. We know the value of this Test.”We will feel it [pressure] a little because we probably haven’t played in front of such a big crowd. And this ground has a really prestigious history and playing here is a big honour for me, for everyone but especially for those playing here for the first time there is also a lot of excitement. But the way we played that first Test, we’re very united and are hopeful that we can get a good result in the next two Tests.”Brisbane was as good as a foregone conclusion before the series began (Pakistan had lost three and drawn one there before the last Test), though the nature of the defeat was a bonus. Pakistan’s chances in this series were always dependent on the less lively surfaces of Melbourne and Sydney; their four wins in Australia are equally divided at the two venues.The surface is not expected to turn unduly, not towards later in the Test in any case and conditions should ease up for batting as each day progresses.”Yes, I have heard about this [record] and seen it too that this wicket suits Pakistan a bit more,” Shafiq said. “This is in everyone’s mind, that if we do get to bat first and put up a good total, we are capable of winning the match. But every day is a new day, every match is a new match. You have to work hard and play hard for every win.”All week, word from the Pakistan camp – backed up to a degree from the evidence of their training sessions – is that the spirits are high, and so too their confidence, or at least that it is more than what a number of previous Pakistan teams ahead of playing a Test in Australia had.Not least Shafiq himself, whose hundred came on the back of a wildly fluctuating run of form – in his last 13 Tests, he has three hundreds, six fifties and five ducks (including two pairs). “We are hopeful, we are positive, especially after the first Test,” he said. “We are playing positive and good cricket. Nobody was expecting we would come back like that.”But we all showed the character, we all showed courage. And these kind of matches always give you confidence as a team, as a player. Especially if it’s the first Test of the series – it always helps in the next Tests.”

ScorecardFile photo: This was Ashton Agar’s fifth five-for in first-class cricket•Getty Images

Ashton Agar collected a career-best 6 for 110 as Western Australia fought back on the second day against New South Wales at the SCG.After Western Australia were dismissed for 216 on day one, New South Wales had moved along to 4 for 250 before Agar sparked a lower-order collapse on a dry pitch that has suited spinners right from the start.Nic Maddinson anchored the New South Wales’ innings with 116 and combined with Kurtis Patterson for a 126-run stand that ended when Patterson was bowled by Jason Behrendorff for 60. Behrendorff also got rid of Maddinson and finished with 4 for 83, but it was Agar who then destroyed the lower order, having dismissed both openers as well.Agar claimed Moises Henriques for 41, which began a mini-collapse of 6 for 48 as New South Wales were dismissed for 298. It meant an 82-run lead for the New South Wales, but given the state of the pitch and the turn on offer, they could still face a difficult chase in the fourth innings.By stumps Western Australia were 0 for 14 in their second innings, with openers Cameron Bancroft on 6 and Jon Wells on 8.