All posts by csb10.top

Yorkshire achieved the second highest successful run chase in their history in Vitality Blast cricket to keep alive their qualification hopes thanks to a brilliant innings from opener Dawid Malan against Worcestershire Rapids at New Road.The Vikings chased down a 206 target to win by six wickets in a perfectly-paced innings to secure a sixth victory of the campaign with three balls to spare.Malan was the hero with an unbeaten 93 off 50 balls with five sixes and seven fours and now Yorkshire will look to defeat Notts Outlaws in their final game at Headingley and hope results go in their favour.The Vikings never panicked despite being well behind the required run rate at 74 for 1 at the halfway stage and requiring another 132 from the final 10 overs.After Adam Lyth’s slow start, James Wharton and Jordan Thompson provided important cameos in support of Malan. Only once have Yorkshire chased a bigger total to win when they reached a 208 target against Durham at Headingley two years ago.Worcestershire topped 200 for the first time this season thanks to aggressive batting all down the order from Brett D’Oliveira, Josh Cobb, Ethan Brookes and Rob Jones. It was the fourth successive match that they had achieved their highest score of the campaign after making 181 for 4, 184 for 8 and 187 for 8 against Lancashire Lightning, Leicestershire Foxes and Birmingham Bears respectively.The Rapids total would have been even higher but for another splendid performance from Vikings leg spinner Jafer Chohan. He followed his 5 for 14 on his previous outing against Durham with 4 for 29 in another top-class display from the South Asian Cricket Academy product.Worcestershire suffered a double pre-match setback with Kashif Ali (side strain) and T20 vice-captain Adam Hose (groin) ruled out but D’Oliveira returned after a shoulder injury. Yorkshire kept faith with the side which defeated Durham before Friday’s derby with Lancashire was washed out. Vikings captain Shan Masood won the toss and put the Rapids into bat on a fresh pitch.Ben Cliff took the new ball and struck in his second over when Ed Pollock (10) holed out to Adam Lyth at mid-on. But a succession of boundaries from D’Oliveira and Cobb meant the Rapids 50 came up in 4.2 overs. Cobb tucked into Cliff with 4-4-6 off successive deliveries as the Rapids ended the powerplay on 67 for 1.Jafer Chohan was in the wickets again•Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images

D’Oliveira carved Thompson over backward point to complete a 23-ball half-century stand. Three times in the opening seven overs the Vikings conceded 18 runs. The introduction of Chohan ended the partnership on 64 with D’Oliveira (42) easily stumped after coming down the pitch to the spinner.Gareth Roderick then tried to reverse-sweep Chohan and was bowled but the Rapids were well placed at 106-3 at the half-way stage. Cobb became Chohan’s third victim after he switched ends when picking out long off. There was more success for Chohan when Brookes, having hit 44 off 21 balls, perished at cover.Jones sustained the momentum for Worcestershire by making an unbeaten 35 from 25 balls. When Yorkshire batted, Lyth and Malan played themselves in against some accurate bowling from Tom Taylor and Cobb before gradually accelerating to reach 41 for 0 at the end of the powerplay. The rate climbed above 12 runs an over and Lyth was pouched out cover off Brookes with 66 on the board in the 10th over.Malan struck Matthew Waite for six over midwicket to complete a 32-ball half-century. Brookes came back to end a cameo 24 off 12 balls from Wharton as he picked out long-off and in the same over Donovan Ferreira went after D’Oliveira backpedalled from cover.Malan struck 20 off a Cobb over to reduce the target to 64 from the final five overs. But Brookes had more joy when Masood found the hands of long-off. It was the Rapids’ last success as Thompson delivered a series of massive blows to see his side over the finishing line with three balls to spare.He ended unbeaten on 40 from just 14 balls with four sixes, and the unbroken fifth-wicket partnership was worth 49 in three overs.

If England and West Indies win
That will leave three teams – England, West Indies and South Africa – on four points each. West Indies’ huge win against USA means they will finish with a higher net run rate than South Africa if they beat them by any margin on Sunday night. So West Indies will qualify for sure with a win, regardless of the England-USA result.For England to go past South Africa’s NRR, the sum of margins of the two results will have to be 10 runs (assuming first-innings totals of 160). That means, if England win by 10 runs, they will go ahead on run rate even if South Africa lose in the Super Over. If the margin of result is under 10, South Africa will stay ahead and qualify with four points.If USA and South Africa win
South Africa will top the table with six points, while the other three teams will finish on two points each. If England lose in the Super Over chasing 160, West Indies will have to lose by 43 or more runs for their NRR to drop below that of England. If England lose by a bigger margin, West Indies will have more leeway, which means in such a scenario South Africa and West Indies are the likely semi-finalists.Related

• Brook's near miss could yet be vital for England's hopes

• Shai Hope silences strike-rate critics, with bat and words

• South Africa hold nerve against England to continue unbeaten march

• Buttler: De Kock innings 'the difference' in narrow South Africa win

• How de Kock's local knowledge helped win the powerplay, and the match

USA’s poor run rate means they’ll need two huge results to stand any chance of finishing in the top two: they will first need to beat England by at least 56 runs (assuming a total of 160) to go past them on NRR, and then hope that West Indies lose by at least 91 runs for their run rate to drop below USA’s.If USA and West Indies win
In this case, West Indies and South Africa will qualify with four points, while England and USA will finish on two.If England and South Africa win
South Africa, with six points, and England, with four, will be the semi-finalists.

Darwish Rasooli will once again lead Afghanistan A team at the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Rising Stars Asia Cup, previously the Emerging Teams tournament, to be played in Doha from November 14 to 23. The squad includes 10 players from last year’s tournament, which Afghanistan won, including Sediqullah Atal, AM Ghazanfar and Qais Ahmad.Atal will have fond memories of the tournament, having scored a half-century in the final to beat Sri Lanka A last year. He is a regular presence in the Afghanistan senior team as well, with 22 T20Is, 12 ODIs and one Test to his name.Abdollah Ahmadzai, who made his T20I debut in September and was part of all three games in the recent T20I series against Zimbabwe, will lead the Afghanistan A fast bowling attack.

ACC Rising Stars tournament schedule

Nov 14 – Oman vs Pak; Ind vs UAE
Nov 15 – Ban vs HK; Afg vs SL
Nov 16 – Oman vs UAE; Ind vs Pak
Nov 17 – HK vs SL; Afg vs Ban
Nov 18 – Pak vs UAE; Ind vs Oman
Nov 19 – Afg vs HK; Ban vs SL
Nov 21 – Semi-finals: A1 vs B2; B1 vs A2
Nov 23 – Final

Mystery spinner Ghazanfar, 19, came through as a bright prospect and has played all formats for Afghanistan since his debut last year. But he was left out of the T20I squad against Bangladesh in September after average returns. Qais, meanwhile, last played for the Afghanistan national side in 2024. The likes of Bilal Sami, Zubaid Akbari, Mohammad Ishaq and Nangeyalia Kharote, who have all played for the senior side, also feature in this squad.Afghanistan A have been placed in Pool B, alongside Sri Lanka A, Bangladesh A and Hong Kong. Their campaign will begin on November 15 against Sri Lanka A, followed by matches against Bangladesh A on November 17 and Hong Kong on November 19.

Afghanistan A squad

:Darwish Rasooli (capt), Sediqullah Atal (vice-capt), Noor Rahman (wk), Mohammad Ishaq (wk), Zubaid Akbari, Imran Mir, Rahmanullah Zadran, Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai, Nangeyalia Kharote, Farmanullah Safi, Qais Ahmad, AM Ghazanfar, Bilal Sami, Abdollah Ahmadzai and Faridoon Dawoodzai.
Reserves: Wafiullah Tarakhil, Sediqullah Pacha, Yama Arab

Queensland 26 for 0 trail Michael Neser continued his hot start to the summer with he and Mitchell Swepson taking four wickets each to bowl South Australia out for 228.Queensland went to stumps on day one of their Sheffield Shield clash at 26 without loss in reply to South Australia, with Usman Khawaja unbeaten on 22 at Adelaide Oval.Related

• Abbott first to be subbed out under new Sheffield Shield injury rule

• Konstas' Test hopes fade with a duck on 13-wicket day

• Haskett makes an impression as Weatherald misses out

Almost the forgotten man in the great pace-bowling debate ahead of the Ashes, Neser ripped the heart out of Tasmania with 4 for 75 in the opening round. And he backed it up again on Wednesday with 4 for 30, after South Australia had done well to build a base of 133 for 2.After taking the top of Nathan McSweeney’s off stump when the right-hander left a ball after lunch, Neser claimed the last three wickets on day one. He first had a pulling Wes Agar caught at slip, edged off a driving Liam Scott for 44 and also had Jordan Buckingham caught behind.While the wickets came late in the innings for Neser, it still won’t have hurt his push to add to his two Tests for Australia.Scott Boland is all but certain to replace Pat Cummins for the first Test if Australia’s captain does not recover from a back injury in time.But Neser could well be the next option if Cummins does not return for later in the series and one of Australia’s quicks needs resting. That situation appears even more serious after fellow-hopeful Sean Abbott split the webbing on his bowling hand while playing for NSW on Wednesday.While Neser’s wickets could have Ashes implications, former Test spinner Swepson was the pick of the bowlers for Queensland on day one.He took four wickets in South Australia’s collapse from 133 for 2 to 188 for 7, including the crucial wicket of Conor McInerney lbw for 60.The legspinner also had Jason Sangha well caught by Khawaja close to the ground at slip, before the in-form Jake Lehmann hit him straight to square leg.Swepson’s fourth scalp came when Nathan McAndrew drove him on the up to cover, capping a fine day for the Queenslander.

David Warner has urged Australia’s selectors to stick with Sam Konstas for the first Ashes in Perth believing he has the game to take on England’s fast bowlers.Australia have been through a revolving door of partners for Usman Khawaja since Warner’s retirement in early 2024. Konstas, who is the incumbent but made just 50 runs in six innings against West Indies earlier this year, is one of five options used across the last 15 Tests.The selection race will resume this week with the second round of the Sheffield Shield, where Konstas will feature for New South Wales against Victoria at Junction Oval, facing an attack including Scott Boland and Fergus O’Neill.Related

• 'Stripped back' Labuschagne takes leap towards Ashes recall

• Ashes tracker: Labuschagne shines as Konstas stumbles

• Who will be the spear to Usman Khawaja's shield for Australia?

Konstas endured a difficult first outing of the domestic season with scores of 4 and 14 against Western Australia in Perth on what Nathan Lyon termed a “naughty” WACA pitch while NSW coach Greg Shipperd also urged context around Konstas’ returns.Meanwhile, Marnus Labuschagne peeled off 160 for Queensland, which came between two one-day hundreds as he makes a compelling case for a recall and looms as another opening option.”I’d like them to try and probably stick with Sam and give him a crack,” Warner said at Kayo Sports’ Summer of Cricket launch in Sydney. “He scored that hundred in the Australian A series [in India last month]. He batted outstanding there.”I don’t think we’ve seen exactly what we know Sam Konstas can do. Last year… he probably got overwhelmed by the occasion and we saw some very highlighted cricket. But I’ve seen him build innings, I’ve seen him play some fantastic innings and I’d like to see him go back to just doing that.” When Konstas made his debut at the MCG against India he was picked with the specific role of disrupting Jasprit Bumrah, who had dominated Australia’s top order. He was an immediate success in that role with 60 off 65 balls and then produced two cameos at the SCG. However, he was left out in Sri Lanka, when Travis Head opened in a conditions-specific selection, before being tasked with taking on difficult batting conditions in the Caribbean.Warner believes his early salvos in Test cricket left him uncertain about the tempo needed for sustained success but, while acknowledging England have a stock of fast bowlers, does not see their attack needing such a left-field approach.”They don’t have a Jasprit Bumrah so he doesn’t have to worry about that,” Warner said. “They’ve got some fast bowlers but he can tackle that.”Last year, I felt like he just got caught up in the occasions. He got caught up in thinking it was the only way to play that way against Bumrah and then did it to the other players.Marnus Labuschagne brought up a century in his first Shield innings of the season•Getty Images

“I don’t think he needed to change his game to the other bowlers. He could have just stayed there and played the normal way. There was one guy that was getting a lot of people out and… [Konstas] just didn’t want to get out to him because he was bringing the ball back in.”He countered that and he could have went back in and just batted normally. So I think if he can work out that and identify those periods, I think he’ll go a long way.”Warner added that Labuschagne had probably already done enough to return to the line-up but was less convinced about him opening. “I think when you’ve got a lot of Test cricket under your belt, you know what he’s capable of and know what he can do,” he said. “If someone’s averaging 50 in Test cricket, you’ve probably got to go back to that. Does he open? I wouldn’t like to see him open. I’d like him to shuffle back down to three.”If Labuschagne did return at No. 3, it would mean pushing Cameron Green down the order and would leave Beau Webster struggling to retain his place. Webster has been forced to sit out the opening two rounds of the Shield with an ankle injury but, barring a major form slump on his return, is expected to be part of the squad for Perth.

Shan Masood is set to lead Pakistan in the 2025-27 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. The PCB reaffirmed its confidence in the current Test captain after Masood met with PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, along with Pakistan’s red-ball coach Azhar Mahmood.A PCB statement said Masood and Mahmood have been given “free hand” of the Test side, without elaborating what specifically that entails. The captain and coach are not in the selection committee for the Test side, which comprises a five-member panel including Aleem Dar, Aqib Javed, Asad Shafiq, and Azhar Ali.There was speculation on Masood’s future after the 2023-25 WTC cycle, where Pakistan finished bottom of the table. He was captain for the entirety of that cycle. Last month, when the PCB announced player contracts for the 2025-26 season, Masood was demoted from the ‘B’ category to ‘D’, the lowest rung of central contracts.Related

• Masood wants turning pitches in Pakistan domestic cricket to give batters 'exposure'

• No Pakistan player gets category A contract due to poor performances

• Gillespie: I was 'completely and utterly blindsided' by the PCB

In that time, the position of Pakistan’s Test coach underwent several changes, including the brief reign of Jason Gillespie, which ended on acrimonious terms. In that context, the PCB’s declaration of confidence in Masood represents a major upswing his fortunes and the possibility of a fresh start. He is Pakistan’s longest-serving current captain, with the ODI and T20I captaincy changing hands multiple times since he took over the red-ball side.While consistency with the bat has remained elusive, Masood made useful contributions at the top of the order, having established himself as an opener over the last four Tests following an extended stint at No. 3. Two big hundreds, one at home against England and one in South Africa, took his average into the mid 30s; it is higher as captain than it has ever been under any other skipper. However, Test wins have been in short supply under Masood, with Pakistan losing nine of 12 matches.Masood’s first test of the new WTC cycle is against defending WTC champions South Africa, who play two Tests in Pakistan in October.

Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg says an investigation into allowing private investment into the BBL is “unashamedly” with a view to making it the second best T20 league in the world behind the IPL, but stressed it would not go ahead if it came at the cost of Australia’s traditional New Year’s Test at the SCG.CA released a statement last week regarding the next evolution of the BBL after Boston Consulting Group (BCG) had been commissioned by the CA Board earlier this year to assess the current model and future structure of the BBL, with a series of recommendations presented to the board earlier last week.A “recommendation of alternative forms of investment and ownership to realise the potential for growth, including consideration of private investment” was one of the key points presented by BCG.Related

• CA bracing for 'generational' change amid tough financial calls

• Ashwin signs with Sydney Thunder in major BBL coup

• SA20 not threatened by BBL's aim to be second-biggest league after IPL, says Smith

• Titans land at Lord's as London Spirit sink to new low

• Hundred's 'transition' year is relying on Test star Smith as headline act

CA said in the statement that BCG’s report “will now be subject to a thorough exploratory process before any decisions are made about the potential implementation of recommendations, and any associated timelines.”Speaking on on Wednesday in Melbourne, Greenberg said that BCG’s entire report would not be published due to it containing sensitive commercial information but reiterated that CA were merely investigating the possibility of private investment into the BBL and what it would mean for cricket as a whole in Australia.He did admit that part of the vision CA had for the league was for it to be second only to the IPL in terms of it’s global standing.”Well that’s certainly the vision of everyone in cricket here in this country is to make sure that we run a league and we run a T20 tournament that is sitting just beside or behind or adjacent to the IPL,” Greenberg said. “It’s going to be very hard to chase the IPL, given the scale of cricket in India, but unashamedly, we want to run a league that comes second. And to do that we’re going to need to make sure that player availability and player salaries are commensurate with everything else that goes on around the world, and there’s one thing you need for that, you need money, you need investment. We’d be naive if we weren’t asking ourselves these questions and making sure we’ve got an eye on what’s next.BBL clubs are currently fully owned by CA and operated by the state associations•Getty Images

“Nothing has been decided at this point in time. The report does tell us that the BBL is in a very healthy position, but one thing we’re sure of is we don’t want to take that for granted. So it’s incumbent on us, as leaders of the sport, to look at what the future might hold for us.”Private investment has been a discussion point around the BBL ever since it’s creation as a rebrand of the state-based Big Bash in 2011. But CA has long resisted the idea to maintain 100 per cent control of the tournament and the clubs in order to create a summer schedule for broadcasters where it sits underneath the key Test matches in Melbourne on Boxing Day and in Sydney at the start of each New Year.Another recommendation from BCG was the the BBL started later than it’s current start date of mid-December. News Limited reported that the New Year’s Test in Sydney may be under threat as a result as private investors, if they were to hold majority stakes in BBL clubs, would demand Australia’s Test players be fully available for the tournament as is the case in the IPL and now the Hundred in England.But Greenberg was firm in his belief that the Sydney Test would not be moved to a different date in the calendar.”I hail from Sydney so I’d like to return back there at one point in time,” Greenberg said. “So, no, it’s certainly not on the agenda.”CA has kept a very close eye on how the ECB has handled the sale of the Hundred franchises in England and is continuing to watch closely as the competition enters a transition year with three teams set to be renamed and rebranded next season by the new private owners.Greenberg rejected a notion which has been raised in some quarters in Australia that allowing private investment into the BBL would be akin to “selling the farm” to the highest bidder.”It couldn’t be anything further from the truth,” Greenberg said. “We’re looking at ways to put money into cricket so that all parts of cricket can continue to flourish. So for me, this is much less about selling something. It’s more about what the future looks like and trying to ensure that we can continue to put money and resources into grassroots and performance pathways, and so we can be secure, and we can be the sport of choice, and we can continue to be the country’s national sport. None of that will happen if we sit still on our hands and think that everything tomorrow will be like yesterday. We’re living in a world that’s moving at speed.”What this report’s looking at is certainly not looking at putting any private capital into the league. It’s rather the clubs themselves. So that’s the first point. So retaining control of Australian cricket, I think, is fundamental.”Greenberg said he had already received emails from private investors that he “hadn’t heard of” who were interested in having a conversation about either investing in or owning BBL clubs. But he reiterated that CA were a long way from reaching a point where the conversations with investors could actually take place.He admitted there was apprehension from a large number of current stakeholders in Australian cricket following last week’s release but wanted to allay any fears.”The Chairman (Mike Baird) and I are at pains to point out that this process, this project will only work if it benefits everyone, and when I say everyone, I mean the total circumference of Australian cricket,” Greenberg said. “I mean players. I mean all of our states and territories, and I mean grassroots and the future of cricket too. If there’s opportunities for everyone to thrive and grow from a project like this, then I think it will solve the problems itself. But if clearly we can’t answer that question, then I think the project fails. So we will be very collaborative, as we have been from the start.”