India’s sports ministry has reiterated that the BCCI be brought under the transparency-enhancing Right to Information (RTI) Act

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jul-2013India’s sports ministry has reiterated that the BCCI be brought under the transparency-enhancing Right to Information (RTI) Act, a move that was last proposed in 2011 but ran into political resistance.”The BCCI, like all other national sports federations, will have to come under the RTI and anti-doping regulations,” sports secretary PK Deb told the . “We will stick by the recommendations made to us by the Justice Mukul Mudgal-led panel.”Mudgal, who heads the committee charged with finalising the National Sports Development Bill, said the BCCI will have to meet the requirements of the RTI Act, failing which it will not be allowed to use “India” in the titles of its teams. “It is important that the BCCI, like all [sports] federations, is brought under the RTI,” Mudgal said. “Apart from a few exemptions – like, one cannot raise questions regarding why a particular player/coach is selected over another, or the contents of a player’s contract, medical health and fitness etc – the public is authorised to raise questions. Unless the BCCI adopts this rule, it won’t be able to use ‘India’ for its teams.”The sports secretary also criticised the BCCI’s clearing of the owners of Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings before the completion of the police investigation into alleged corruption in the IPL. “The board should have waited for the police probe to get over before clearing them,” Deb said.The secretary’s comments came just before the Bombay High Court ruled that the BCCI’s two-member committee that investigated and subsequently cleared the franchise owners was constituted illegally.

Darren Lehmann, the Australian coach, admits that he and his team have a lot to learn after their 3-0 Ashes defeat to England

Daniel Brettig26-Aug-2013Australia must improve and so too, by his own admission, does their coach Darren Lehmann. In the aftermath of a 3-0 series defeat that ended with an ICC fine for too readily taking the bait thrown by England fast bowler Stuart Broad, Lehmann said he had learned much from his first international assignment, including the fact that even a “jovial” radio interview back home can ping around the world if he does not choose his words more wisely.Lehmann arrived in the job only two weeks before the start of the Ashes bout, and while he has been credited with lifting Australia’s team spirit and preaching an aggressive, flair-filled brand of the game, he has been unable to bring about the lift of standards required for the team to win a Test match. They have now gone nine Tests without singing the team song, and as Lehmann acknowledged his error in responding to Broad, he also spoke of unearthing a “winning attitude”.”It was a good learning curve for a new coach, wasn’t it?” Lehmann said. “You know, a jovial setting but you’ve got to learn from that. I’ve got to learn and improve from that. The players aren’t on their own in trying to improve. Coaches have got to improve so that’s something I’ve got to get better at. I’ve had a chat with him (Broad) already. We just move on.”I’m still loving it, it’s a great job. I’d like to win a Test match though, but it’s a fantastic job. Now I’ve seen all the players here, and the one-day and Twenty20 players are obviously [arriving] Thursday, so you get to deal with them and look at how we’re going in that format of the game as well. By the end of the tour I’ll have a really good mindset on all the players, which will be quite comforting for me as coach.”Lehmann did not retreat for one moment from the version of cricket romanticism he and captain Michael Clarke have shown an evangelical zeal for, even though England’s shrewdness and pragmatism has stonewalled them repeatedly across the series. He took pride in having setup a thrilling final day of the Oval Test, though the generosity of Clarke’s declaration meant the tourists were ultimately left cajoling the umpires into using their light meter and ending play – the object of a crowd’s well-oiled booing at the end of the match.”Look, I can’t control the crowd. They’ve been pretty good all series. We’ve kept them quiet most of the time, even though we are 3-0 down, so it shows how close it probably is,” Lehmann said. “In regards to that you can’t do anything about that. What I do know is that game was set up totally by the Australian cricket team and I think the crowd probably enjoyed that more than the other days so far. That’s the brand of cricket we want to play. We want to push the boundaries.”We were quite happy to lose a game to set up the game. English fans have been great all summer, but to come out and see that on the last day, I think it was outstanding from Michael and the set-up what we tried to do. We want to keep challenging our players in those situations to get better, learn from the mistakes we make. We’re going to make mistakes, we understand that. But we’ve got to improve from there. If we do that, then we can challenge.”Having had so little preparatory time ahead of the series and also no say in the touring party that was chosen, Lehmann said that while he had been impressed overall by the work ethic of the players, changes could be expected before the return matches in Australia. It may be that Lehmann asks for his own choices of assistant coaches, as has become fashionable in 21st century sport.”It’s great learning about the players how they are. I’m very impressed with their work ethic on and off the ground, how they go about it,” Lehmann said. “I think there’s a lot of improvement in our setup, which is exciting for me. Would I change too much? Really hard when you’ve just come into the setup and the touring side’s been picked. When we’re back home you’ll probably see different things happen, but in terms of hearing a lot of things from outside and not being in that circle for many years, to come in and see how they’re trying to improve all the time was impressive for me. Now it’s just a matter of improving that skill level for us to compete better than we have.”

Cheteshwar Pujara became the second Indian batsman, and ninth ever, to score three first-class triple-centuries, as India A took a 296-run lead against West Indies A in Hubli

Sidharth Monga in Hubli11-Oct-2013
Scorecard Cheteshwar Pujara became the ninth batsman ever, and the second Indian, to score three first-class triple-centuries•BCCI

While the fans of Indian cricket were struggling to come to terms with the inevitable retirement announcement of Sachin Tendulkar, wondering what life will be like without him, doubting if things will ever be normal again, Cheteshwar Pujara delivered immediate normalcy in the remote town of Hubli. Resuming the day at 139, he first accumulated, then looted, even as he farmed the strike, and became only the ninth batsman ever, and the second Indian, to score three first-class triple-centuries. His two previous triples came against Karnataka and OrissaIt wasn’t a personal pursuit. Pujara’s innings gave his side, trailing 1-0 in the series, four sessions within which to force a result. India A declared 296 ahead, and all three of their quicks delivered an early wicket each before the Guyanese pair of Narsingh Deonarine and Assad Fudadin saw them through to stumps.Pujara’s innings was just the feeling of serenity and calm that the Indian cricket fan needed. Nothing was done in a hurry, not one shot was uncouth. Pujara scored 60 in the first session, happily lapped up the life given to him in the last over before lunch, then hit away 107 of the 142 scored in the middle session, and declared the innings closed at the stroke of tea. Pujara’s control was so comprehensive that he let the last man Ishwar Pandey face only three balls in a 5.2-over-31-run unbeaten partnership. Pujara scored 71 off the last 55 balls he faced.Outside the usual drives and pulls, Pujara also manipulated the field with a reverse lap and a regulation lap off successive deliveries. How the fielders must have felt mocked. Two of the fielders weren’t all that amused when a third bouncer in a Miguel Cummins over was called a no-ball. Ashley Nurse spoke to Pujara for more than two minutes with Chadwick Walton joining in.

Others with three triple-centuries or more

Don Bradman 6
Bill Ponsford 4
Wally Hammond 4
WG Grace 3
Graeme Hick 3
Brian Lara 3
Michael Hussey 3
Ravindra Jadeja 3

Six overs later – as it happened on day two in the last over before lunch – Nurse had a chance coming his way at second slip, and dropped it. Pujara was 198 then. He took a single off the last ball and went off to sate the lesser of his hungers. When he came back, he had one delivery from Nikita Miller jump at him, but benefitted from the absence of a short leg. A leading edge in the next over fell short of point, but then he tucked one off the hips for his 22nd four and his eighth first-class double-century.You knew a session of Pujara punishment was around the corner. In the back of your head was his sprint from 150 to 200 in 17 balls when Saurashtra were pushing for a declaration against Madhya Pradesh on the last new year’s eve. Here he waited for a bit. Time wasn’t quite right yet. With Uday Kaul he added a largely patient 93. Once Kaul got out, the switch was flicked. He was 235 off 360 when he pulled over the infield for a four.Dhawal Kulkarni scored only six out of a 39-run seventh-wicket stand. Pujara wasn’t muscling the ball, but hardly ever hitting to the fielder. At Kulkarni’s fall, Zaheer Khan came out and swung a few, so Pujara took the back seat and let him do that. Zaheer’s wicket brought another, and Nurse was now on a hat-trick, and Pujara was 273. Pandey played out the remaining two balls of that over, and bought himself a parking ticket at the non-striker’s end.For the next 23 balls, Pujara kept refusing singles, kept placing couples, kept hitting the boundaries, and eventually took a single off the fifth ball to reach 299. Pandey duly played out the last. As the field came up with Pujara on 299, he survived a lbw appeal from Delorn Johnson bowling left-arm quick from round the stumps. He played a scintillating cover-drive off the next ball to bring up the triple. The lead was now approaching 300, the clock was nudging 2.10pm, and the declaration was perfectly timed, merging the 10-minute changeover into the 20-minute tea break.In the fifth over after the break, Zaheer trapped Powell who played across the line. Four balls later, Kulkarni struck the off stump of a left-hand batsman for the second time in the match, this time Leon Johnson, to make it 18 for 2. Kraigg Brathwaite fought hard, but didn’t have the runs to show for the time spent at the wicket, and when he fell lbw to Pandey in the 18th over, the score had reached only 57.That Deonarine and Fudadin played out the semi-new ball without many alarms made Pujara’s innings seem even more significant in terms of time needed to level the series.0:00

The nine members of the triple-triple club

Sunrisers Hyderabad face the problem of finding the best eleven and in Kolkata Knight Riders they have a side that has started to put together clinical performances

Karthik Krishnaswamy21-Apr-20151:56

Agarkar: Sunrisers should get Williamson back

Match facts

Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Start time 1600 local (1030 GMT)

Big picture

Before the start of the season, Sunrisers Hyderabad seemed to have stitched together a fairly good-looking squad on paper, with excellent overseas additions in Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan adding to their core of David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Dale Steyn. Trouble is, you can only play four overseas players at the same time, and Sunrisers have struggled to find their best eleven.In that struggle they have lost three of their first four games, while winning the other convincingly enough – against Royal Challengers Bangalore – to suggest there’s definite potential for improvement. But potential only means so much, and they will have to start stringing together actual performances right away, starting with their home game against Kolkata Knight Riders, to climb out of the crowded bottom of the table.It won’t be easy. Knight Riders’ win over Delhi Daredevils on Monday was a performance that distilled their strengths so clinically – expert constriction with the ball, despite an uncharacteristically expensive spell from Sunil Narine, followed by a sensibly constructed chase – it was a little boring to watch. Knight Riders won’t mind being called boring if they keep playing like that, though. They know their strengths, they know their best eleven, and pride themselves on the standards they set. Unless they have a rare bad day, Sunrisers will have to be at or close to their best to beat them.

Watch out for…

Eoin Morgan came into the IPL on the back of perhaps the worst form slump of his career, and came into the Sunrisers XI in place of a massive name in Kane Williamson. He’s there for a reason – Williamson fits best in the top three, where Sunrisers have a decent number of options, while Morgan is a number five or six, where they have a hole to fill – but he hasn’t really convinced in his two innings so far. A match against his old team might be a good starting point for him to turn his form around.After a seemingly never-ending streak of 40-plus scores last season, Robin Uthappa‘s form has dipped, and he’s made scores of 9, 35, 13 and 13 this season. He’s played some sparkling shots in the brief time he’s spent in the middle, suggesting he isn’t in particularly bad touch, and his run of scores hasn’t really affected Knight Riders’ performances too much, but he will certainly want to contribute more to their cause.

Stats and trivia

• Sunil Narine has been his usual economical self this season, conceding only 6.81 runs an over, but his wicket-taking ability seems to have diminished: he’s only taken two wickets in four matches, at an average of 54.50.
• Yusuf Pathan is the only batsman to score more than 100 runs in matches between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
• No Sunrisers batsman has scored a half-century against Knight Riders.

Sussex’s Natwest T20 Blast fixture with Surrey was abandoned after 18.4 overs following a collision between Surrey’s Rory Burns and Moises Henriques when attempting to take a high catch

Will Macpherson at Arundel14-Jun-20151:41

‘The medics were on immediately’

Moises Henriques suffered a broken jaw in three places and Rory Burns facial injuries after the two collided in a sickening blow that saw both left unconscious and hospitalised and Surrey’s match against Sussex at Arundel abandoned after 18.4 overs.Until Steffan Piolet top-edged an innocuous Tom Curran delivery into the offside, this had been an unremarkable afternoon at Arundel. But as Burns, running in from deep cover and Henriques, peddling back from point, collided at pace and with their eyes on the ball, completely unaware of the other’s locality, its entire complexion changed.The severity of the situation was immediately clear, as both players lay motionless on the ground and their Surrey team-mates gestured and called for help. That help arrived instantly, as an ambulance and medical staff rolled onto the field and the remaining players took their leave.Henriques’ jaw had collided with Burns’ cheek, lacerating his face and leaving Henriques with a broken jaw. An update from Surrey on Sunday evening said he was awaiting surgery while Burns would need stitches on “head and facial” injuries.Both had been knocked unconscious by the collision and placed in neck braces and on spinal boards, while being given oxygen and intravenous painkillers.Concern among the 8,500-strong crowd grew as the group around the players expanded. More medics arrived, a second and third ambulance, Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart paced about and captain Gareth Batty remained by his team-mates’ side, utterly helpless. The rest of the players stood huddled on the boundary on the far side of the ground.After 30 minutes or more, there was progress as Australian international Henriques was lifted, on a stretcher, into an ambulance, waving an arm as he did so. A minute later and the ambulance was on the move. Ten more minutes and Burns – who lay motionless longer and whose situation had initially appeared far more serious – was stretchered into an ambulance as well, offering a double thumbs up with his father by his side. Both players were sat upright by the time they left the ground.”Both players weren’t with it when we got out there, but by the time they left the ground they were conscious,” said Sussex physio John Marrale.As the second ambulance crossed the boundary, the announcement of the game’s abandonment was made official. Not a word was uttered in protest. The players were whisked off on the 10-mile journey to St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester, where Henriques’ jaw was x-rayed and Burns – while waiting to see a maxillofacial surgeon – was chatting to hospital staff. More will be learned of their condition on Monday, when Surrey are set to start a County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Guildford. The game will go ahead as scheduled.”Two people were injured but the impact went right across the game,” said Sussex chief executive Zac Toumazi. “The decision to call the game off was an easy one and everyone responded as quickly as possible. It was important that the measures that we have in place, that were tested, worked. The number one priority was the players’ welfare.”A vast crowd had rammed into the most idyllic of all the English outgrounds, but they aired no disappointment at the fixture’s abandonment. A signing session was organised and while most Surrey players left swiftly, Kevin Pietersen – who was playing his last game on English soil, perhaps ever – stayed with Sussex’s Mahela Jayawardene to sign autographs and pose for selfies.Sussex captain Luke Wright described it as an “easy decision”, while umpires Alex Wharf and Jeremy Lloyds had no hesitation in contacting Lord’s and calling the fixture off. There was no alternative course of action and the officials – whether medical or cricketing – handled a horrid situation outstandingly.Lloyds described the incident as “horrendous” and said he had never seen anything of the sort in 40 years as a first-class cricketer and umpire. “You knew there was something horribly wrong as Rory was flat out,” he said. “It was like slow motion, you felt helpless. The response was absolutely brilliant and the paramedics were out very quickly.”Wharf said: “It’s a horrific situation for the players and we wish them a speedy recovery. Player safety is paramount – we spoke to Lord’s and the ECB and got their gauge but we knew straight away that something horrific had happened and our chances of playing again were very slim.”The long shadow cast by the death of Henriques’ friend and team-mate Phillip Hughes in Sydney in November last year meant quiet panic was quick to break out among the crowd at Arundel. The incident bore more resemblance to Jason Gillespie’s collision with Steve Waugh against Sri Lanka in 1999 but the poor state of both players in this case meant the snap reaction was to fear the worst.That an umpire in Israel has been killed and a policeman in India blinded by balls since Hughes’ passing only heightens such fears and reminds of the game’s inherent dangers. This incident will once more be labelled freakish, with the blow sickening, the impact audible and the aftermath – with concern growing as fast as the number of medical staff – horrible.Thankfully, this will be filed under near misses and the signs – if nascent – are hopeful. While a period of recovery will be required for both players – Chris Rogers has missed a whole Test series with the effects of a concussion – the worst appears to have been averted. As the crowd filtered out and the afternoon wore on, Arundel – and the game of cricket – exhaled a great sigh of relief.

Chris Gayle continued his rich vein of form in Twenty20 cricket, blasting 105 off just 57 deliveries to set up Jamaica Tallawah’s 50-run victory against Trinidad & Tobago at Sabina Park

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jul-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: Chris Gayle drilled six fours and nine sixes during his century•Caribbean Premier League

Chris Gayle continued his rich vein of form in Twenty20 cricket, blasting 105 off just 57 deliveries to set up Jamaica Tallawah’s 50-run victory against Trinidad & Tobago at Sabina Park. Gayle’s assault, his seventh 50-plus score in nine matches, also lifted the hosts up to second in the table, level on points with Barbados Tridents, who have played a game more, while Red Steel were left rooted at the bottom.Gayle came into the match boasting scores of 92, 151*, 85*, 90*, 72* and 64* for Tallawahs and Somerset in the last couple of months, and he did not take long to get going on Thursday, swinging Jacques Kallis for six over long-on off just the fourth ball he faced. Gayle launched two more sixes in the next over, by Johan Botha, before carting three fours off an over from Dwayne Bravo as Tallawahs raced to 70 inside seven overs. Gayle’s opening partner Chadwick Walton contributed just 13 in that stand.Suliemann Benn briefly halted the flow of runs, dismissing both Chris Lynn and Mahela Jayawardene in the 11th over, but Gayle continued to shred the Red Steel bowling, hitting a total of six fours and nine sixes to end with a strike-rate of 184.21. Gayle received ample support from Jermaine Blackwood, with who he added 68 for the fifth wicket off just 42 balls. Gayle eventually fell in the 19th over, but Blackwood’s 28-ball 38 took the team to 180 for 6, Tallawah’s highest of the season. It also meant that Gayle had accounted for more than half his team’s score.Red Steel never really got going in the chase and lost wickets right from the off, with three top-order batsmen getting out for ducks. Kallis top-scored with 46, but received little by way of support from his team-mates, as Krishmar Santokie (3 for 27), Daniel Vettori (2 for 22) and Jerome Taylor (2 for 21) struck at regular intervals to keep the visitors to 130 for 9.

Adelaide Oval will host the first-ever day-night Test against New Zealand in November and a T20 against India on Australia Day next year, with Cricket Australia announcing its international and domestic schedule for the 2015-16 season

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jul-2015Adelaide Oval will host the first-ever day-night Test against New Zealand in November and a T20 against India on Australia Day next year, with Cricket Australia announcing its international and domestic schedule for the 2015-16 season.

Australia 2015-16 at home

v NEW ZEALAND
Nov 5-9 1st Test, Brisbane
Nov 13-17 2nd Test, Perth
Nov 27-Dec 1 3rd Test, Adelaide

v WEST INDIES
Dec 10-14 1st Test, Hobart
Dec 26-30 2nd Test, Melbourne
Jan 3-7 3rd Test, Sydney

v INDIA
Jan 12 1st ODI, Perth
Jan 15 2nd ODI, Brisbane
Jan 17 3rd ODI, Melbourne
Jan 20 4th ODI, Canberra
Jan 23 5th ODI, Sydney
Jan 26 1st T20, Adelaide
Jan 29 2nd T20, Melbourne
Jan 31 3rd T20, Sydney

New Zealand will kick off the international summer with the first Test in Brisbane and the second in Perth before the day-night encounter in Adelaide. That will be followed by another three-Test series, with Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney hosting West Indies in December and January.India will then travel to Australia for a series of five ODIs in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. India will also play three T20s in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, where the SCG will host its first T20 international since February 2010, as part of a new seven-year agreement between CA, Cricket New South Wales and the SCG Trust that will see the SCG play host to all international cricket in the state from this summer.Australia Women will also take on India Women in three ODIs and three T20s during the same period as the men. The T20s will be played as double-headers prior to the men’s matches and will be broadcast live.The Sheffield Shield will be taken outside Australia for the first time with a match between New South Wales and Western Australia to be played in Lincoln, New Zealand. The match will be used as preparation by the Test side for the return series in New Zealand in February.The first round of the Shield will involve day-night matches in Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart in the last week of October ahead of the day-night Test.Also in February, New South Wales and South Australia will play a Shield match in Coffs Harbour as a tribute to the late Phillip Hughes.The Matador BBQs One-Day Cup will kickstart the domestic season in October and will be played at five grounds in Sydney.The schedules for the Big Bash League, starting on December 17, and the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League, beginning on December 5, will be announced later this week.”The ICC Cricket World Cup was the biggest sporting event in our country since the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000,” said Mike McKenna, the CA executive general manager of operations.”Many Australians come from non-cricketing cultures and the World Cup was a great chance for the game to showcase itself and earn new fans from all parts of our increasingly diverse community.”We want to build on this great momentum. Following the World Cup, we are determined that local Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Afghan, Sri Lankan and other overseas-born fans who packed Australia’s grounds with good-humoured noise and colour are able to maintain their passion for cricket as part of their adopted Australian lifestyles.”This summer promises to be another history-making season for cricket in Australia. Test cricket will be played in every state including an inaugural day-night Test match between Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide, a step designed to make following the cricket much easier for fans to attend the game or watch on television.”

James Taylor compiled his highest first-class score of 291 to reaffirm his England credentials and give Nottinghamshire control at Horsham

David Lloyd20-Jul-2015
ScorecardJames Taylor fell nine short of a triple-century as Notts took charge at Horsham•Getty Images

There cannot be a bad day on which to score a huge double-hundred and rewrite a few records. But when the country you are desperate to represent once again has been hammered in an Ashes Test just 24 hours earlier, your timing looks absolutely spot-on.James Taylor is unlikely to be first cab off England’s rank – Jonny Bairstow surely deserves his place at the head of the batting queue – but a chanceless innings of 291 suggests quite strongly that the Nottinghamshire player’s engine is running sweetly again after a spluttering early summer.Three years have passed since Taylor made his only two Test appearances, against South Africa, but at 25 he remains a genuine candidate for further opportunities – and they could come sooner, rather than later, if this eight-hour, 385-ball knock proves to be the start of something big in the 2015 Championship programme.

Taylor credits Moores effect

James Taylor highlighted the help given to him by former England coach Peter Moores after scoring 291 at Horsham – the second double-hundred of his career against Sussex. Moores arrived at Trent Bridge recently to bolster the county’s coaching staff and will remain with until the end of the season
“Peter has been outstanding for me,” Taylor said. “It’s no coincidence that over the last three weeks since he joined us I have played some important innings in T20 and now I’ve got this 291. I worked closely with him with England and now for Notts, and he has been brilliant.
“I haven’t scored as many runs this season and haven’t got the big scores I want before now. But as far as England is concerned I’d like to think I’ll be talked about again after this innings.
“It’s three years since I played my last Test and a lot has happened. I feel I have matured as a player and I know my own game a lot better. I’ve got a lot more experience in terms of knowledge of the game too and I’m more mature. I feel in a really good place after that knock and it’s up to me to kick on now.

Splendidly though the little right-hander played while compiling the highest Championship score by a Nottinghamshire batsman for 76 years, and the fourth highest of all time, a couple of points need noting: this Sussex attack – the admirable Steve Magoffin apart – is neither experienced enough nor sufficiently threatening to maintain pressure on a so-far sound pitch while the parched outfield at Cricket Field Road turns even firm pushes into boundary strokes.But, that said, Notts were in a spot of bother at 186 for 5 on Sunday when Taylor and Chris Read joined forces. And, come Monday evening, Harry Gurney – another England possibility should the Ashes continue to go badly from a home perspective – extracted enough bounce from the surface during an impressive, back-bending spell to discomfort Sussex’s batsmen.Back to Taylor, though. Walking out to take guard on the first day, his Championship season had a distinctly underwhelming look about it: a top score of 61 from 16 innings and an average of 29.By the time he left the crease for the final time in this innings, having carved Magoffin to backward point while trying to race to 300, his previous first-class best, of 242, had been put in the shade – as had both the ground record score (262 not out by Ian Bell in 2004) and the biggest individual contribution by a Notts player (268 not out by JA Dixon in 1897) at any venue against Sussex.Much more important to Taylor than any of those statistics, one suspects, is the manner in which he played: careful when required and then supremely confident once in the groove. How much the recent arrival at Trent Bridge of former England coach Peter Moores has had to do with Taylor’s revival is hard for the outsider to gauge but the batsman himself was full of praise for the consultant’s assistance.Resuming on 163, Taylor underlined his determination to cash in by defending resolutely for half an hour while adding just a single and getting his eye in. Thereafter, though, Sussex had next to no answer to either Taylor or Read as a stand of 174 rose, in leaps and bounds, to 365 before the latter thin-edged a catch behind. Oh, and just to keep the statisticians busy, a Notts partnership record against Sussex that had stood for 128 years disappeared along the way.Read’s third Championship hundred of the season was inevitably overshadowed by Taylor’s near triple. But between them the pair had put Notts in a position to dominate – and three wickets for Gurney in a final session that lost eight overs to bad light and drizzle did nothing to help Sussex sleep easy.