West Indies

The Proteas are fourth in those rankings having been in the top three for most of the competition, although they are now officially out of the running to reach the June final. Nonetheless, they still have plenty to look forward to under the new leadership group and plenty of new faces in a strong squad for the series.

Bidding to build on their win over Ireland, West Indies, who won the title in 2016 in India, opted to bat and posted a below-par 116/6 at Boland Park here. Skipper Hayley Matthews took key Pakistan wickets early and late in the innings to inspire her side to a dramatic victory. Matthews and Rashada Williams flayed 15 from the bowling of Aiman Anwer in the fourth over but navigated the powerplay in a cagey fashion.

The announcement that Lara has agreed to assist CWI as a Performance Mentor - working across all international Teams and with input into the West Indies Academy -- was made on Thursday. Lara's first assignment will be with the West Indies Test squad. He has joined the Test squad in Zimbabwe where he will assist in the team's preparations ahead of the first Test match in Bulawayo starting on February 4.

Batting first, the Asian side's total of 167/2 was far too much for the Caribbean side. Mandhana and Kaur scored at ease throughout their unbeaten 115-run stand, with Mandhana in particular finding the boundary with ease and even clearing the rope from the bowling of Afy Fletcher in the penultimate over of the innings.

Despite missing the services of skipper Harmanpreet Kaur due to an illness apart from Pooja Vastrakar, Renuka Thakur and Shikha Pandey, India were able to get a 27-run win over hosts South Africa in the first match of the tri-series. Though four out of the top five batters, including stand-in captain Smriti Mandhana, fell for single-digit scores, the 76-run partnership between Deepti Sharma and Amanjot Kaur helped India reach a respectable 147 after being 69/5 at one stage.

Labuschagne (120) and Head (114) were unbeaten at the crease when play was stopped on Day 1. They had put on an unbeatable 199-run stand for the fourth-wicket. After Australia won the toss and opted to bat, it was an ominous beginning for the visitors despite dismissing David Warner (21) cheaply once more.

Cummins took to the field on day five but did not bowl after experiencing mild quadricep soreness on day four. But Lyon starred for Australia, picking 6/128 off 42.5 overs. He claimed the last two West Indies wickets off successive balls at the fag end of the second session for Australia to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

Australia were 29/1 at stumps on Day 3 with David Warner (17), and Marnus Labuschagne (3) unbeaten at the crease after bowling out West Indies for 283 in their first innings, taking a 315-run lead. Beginning the day, Tagenarine Chanderpaul got to his maiden fifty but his joy was short-lived as Josh Hazlewood dismissed him in the opening over.

With this, Perth witnessed the rare occurrence of two double hundreds in a single team innings. This was only the 17th instance of two double hundreds coming in a team innings in Test cricket history and also the first such instance since January 2012 when Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke made double hundreds against India in Adelaide.

There are no major surprises in the final XI for the first home Test of the Australian summer, with Cummins confirming one change to the team that featured in the most recent Test match in Sri Lanka. Experienced seamer Josh Hazlewood returns to Australia's line-up, with back-up spinner Mitchell Swepson making way following Australia's demoralising loss to Sri Lanka in Galle in July. Swepson picked up figures of 3/103 in that match, but the 29-year-old was not selected in the squad for the West Indies series as Australia reverted to their standard line-up with three seamers and the solitary spinner.