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England spinner stepped into big shoes for the Hundred, but has guided her side to the Eliminator

Andrew Miller30-Aug-2025Twelve months on from London Spirit’s victory over Welsh Fire in the 2024 Women’s Hundred final, Charlie Dean breaks into a grin as she recalls Deepti Sharma’s winning six over long-on, and her team’s agog reactions in the dugout by the boundary’s edge.”Every time you look at that clip, you see something different,” Dean tells ESPNcricinfo, thinking back to Spirit’s tightly fought four-wicket win, sealed in euphoric style with two balls to spare, and with Dean herself 1 not out at the non-striker’s end.Cordelia Griffith was the star of the subsequent meme: eyes out on stalks as she tracked Deepti’s shot, all the way off the bat and just out of the reach of a backpedalling Shabnim Ismail, but every player in the frame lived the moment in a different way.”There’s Eva [Gray] taking her helmet off, then putting it back on, then throwing it away,” Dean recalls. “I’d faced one full-toss and hit it straight to the fielder, so when Deepti hit the ball over the boundary there’s just a lot of relief. I’ve seen so many replays of the girls celebrating off the bench. It brings back a lot of good memories, a lot of good feelings. That’s why you play the game, isn’t it? To win big games like that. If we can replicate any of those feelings again this year, that would be amazing.”Spirit have certainly done the needful to give themselves a shot at back-to-back titles. For the second year running, they have qualified third in the table, meaning they will once again have to come through Saturday’s Eliminator at the Kia Oval to give themselves a chance to face Southern Brave in the Lord’s final.If there’s a slight nervousness about the weekend’s weather forecast, and the danger that a washout could send second-placed Northern Superchargers straight to the final without a ball being bowled, then Dean is unfazed. Not only has her team been in this position before, but now – as captain, in the wake of Heather Knight’s season-halting hamstring injury – she feels all the more ready to cope with whatever circumstances crop up in the coming days.Grace Harris opened the tournament with a blistering 89 not out•ECB via Getty Images”I’ve really enjoyed this year,” she says. “I’m in a place where I know my game quite well, and I can think about other people, and I feel like I’ve had a lot of personal development. I’ve gained a bit more confidence with my public speaking, and bits like that … things that would probably have challenged me a lot more in previous years.”The core group of girls is pretty similar to last year and the year before, with a few brilliant changes, so be able to lead this group is a bit of an honour,” she adds. “It’s lovely to have Heather still here with us, offering a bit of guidance and advice, then there’s Chris Liddle – it’s his first time being head coach, but you wouldn’t know it – so I’m incredibly lucky that I’m really well supported.”We work really well as a core leadership group, and that just makes my job so much easier. I trust my gut and go with how I see the game playing out on the pitch. The girls have performed really well, and different people have stood up at different times, so it certainly makes a captain’s job easier when that is the case.”The chance to captain Spirit – untimely though it has been for Knight – has the potential to transform Dean’s standing within English cricket. Back in March, when Knight left her role as England captain, Dean’s name had been one of many tentatively mentioned for the succession, but everywhere you looked, the problem was the same. Knight’s sheer longevity – eight years in the role – had inadvertently prevented anyone else within the England set-up from honing their leadership skills.Related

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It’s an issue Dean recognises and accepts. “It’s hard, as an England player, to be in and out of domestic teams and still be a leader. You can’t captain a domestic team if you’re not there all the time. So opportunities to captain are few and far between, but I always relished the chance to step up in other leadership ways. This has been a perfect opportunity for me to test out how I’ve grown, and see where it takes me.”In the immediate future, Dean hopes it will take her north of the river once again, after this afternoon’s Eliminator, and back to the base-camp that she has been proud to call her midsummer home for the past five seasons.”Lord’s massively feels like home for us,” she says. “It really does feel like the norm to be able to go out and play there, which is crazy when you think, 5-10 years ago, you really wouldn’t be able to say that at all. Women’s cricket deserves that platform … the skill levels are increasing, day in, day out, with more professionalism and the chance to showcase our skills.”Even so, the Lord’s factor is a very real aspect of Finals Day, and so the chance for Spirit to have familiarised themselves with the surroundings, and the ground’s idiosyncrasies (“I don’t know if you know, but there is a slope here,” Dean jokes…) is undoubtedly a bonus.Lord’s ‘massively feels like home’ for London Spirit women, Dean says•ECB/Getty Images”It does give it a little home advantage, but a final is a final,” she adds. “You have to be the better team, but you also have to be smart. It’s not like The Oval or Headingley, where it’s a batter’s paradise most of the time. But equally, those are the games of cricket that really excite you as a player, when you have to engage a bit more, and plan for different scenarios – left-hand, right-hand, a smaller boundary, or whatever it is. Those are the things that really excite me as a player. It gets the brain ticking.”As Dean acknowledges, many of the same characters from the 2024 victory are still present in the Spirit dressing-room, from Georgia Redmayne at the top of the order, via Griffith and Dani Gibson in the middle, through the spin duo of Dean herself and Sarah Glenn, and with Gray topping their averages with nine wickets at 17.77.But Kira Chathli’s arrival as Knight’s replacement has been a revelation – 214 runs at a strike-rate of 150 has helped to propel their powerplays – while the return of Grace Harris alongside the marquee signing of Issy Wong has given Spirit a sprinkling of extra impetus as they seek to become only the second team after Oval Invincibles to land back-to-back women’s Hundred titles.”We picked up Kira before the wildcard draft, and that was gold-dust, really,” Dean says. “She’d had brilliant form in the Vitality Blast for Surrey, so it was a no-brainer for us to promote her to the top of the order and just encourage her to play the way that she’s been playing for Surrey.”As for Harris, she announced her return in irrepressible fashion in the tournament opener against Invincibles, where she clubbed a matchwinning 89 not out from 42 balls. Her returns since then may have been more hit-and-miss, but her threat has been ever-present, along with her indefatigable dressing-room attitude.”She’s a fantastic cricketer to have in your team,” Dean says. “The energy that she brings and the way she goes about her business, she just cracks on and gets it done. She set the tone with that opening game, and has been just fantastic for us. We let her go and express herself. And she does it really well, even though at times you may be like, ‘Wow, she really doesn’t stop!’ But it is fantastic to have someone in your dressing-room who just exudes energy, because it really brings everyone up with her.”And then there’s Wong, a player whose personal journey in recent seasons has arguably epitomised that of the women’s game as a whole. The huge promise, the inflated expectations, the inevitable dip in performance amid the glare of ever-building scrutiny. But now, still only 23, she’s been on the comeback trail for Warwickshire, England and Spirit all season long, and after a series of critical contributions with bat and ball alike, Dean believes she’ll be ready to deliver when her team needs it most.”Issy is someone that will always stand up under pressure,” she says. “That’s one of the qualities you really want in a player. She thrives in the battle and she’s really become resilient, and developed ways of bouncing back, because she’s had a few struggles.”She’s a fantastic bowler to have in our armoury. She’s come in and really owned what she’s doing, and she’s back with a bang, which is so exciting for English cricket. And for her, on a personal level, knowing how much work that she’s put in over the past couple of years.”

Ellyse Perry keen to get started under new head coach Ali Maiden, who steered Bears Women to Blast runners-up spot

Alan Gardner06-Aug-2025Ellyse Perry says Birmingham Phoenix will be approaching the new women’s Hundred season with “very much a clean slate” as they look to make significant improvement on last year’s seventh-place finish and reach the knockouts for the first time since the competition began in 2021.Perry is back for a third campaign in Phoenix orange, and second as captain, but there have been extensive changes throughout the set-up at Edgbaston, with a new head coach – Ali Maiden replacing Ben Sawyer – and significant turnover among the playing group.Perry’s Australia compatriots, Megan Schutt and Georgia Voll – the latter a £65,000 (US$86,350) signing in March’s draft after her stellar rise – will help fill the overseas slots, with former Phoenix captain Sophie Devine having moved to Southern Brave, while the core of the squad that Maiden, who was on the coaching staff of title-winners London Spirit last year, has assembled features an increased number of the players that he works with in his joint role in charge of Bears Women.Stir in another international recruit in Emma Lamb, who arrives from Manchester Originals having returned to England colours in recent weeks, and with Sterre Kalis, the Netherlands batter who was a key cog of the Bears side that reached the final of the women’s T20 Blast last month, leading the social side of things and Phoenix will hope to begin their season on Friday against Trent Rockets in buoyant mood.Related

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“I’ve chatted to Ali for the last six months or so, since he has come into the role, and he’s obviously also taken on Warwickshire over the summer, and I think it was really clear the way that they wanted to play, especially in the Vitality Blast,” Perry said at a KP Snacks event in Charlton Park, helping to celebrate their achievement of installing 100 all-weather, grassroots community cricket pitches across England and Wales.”It’s a really positive brand of cricket, which I know is spoken about all the time in the shorter format, but I think he’s got a real emphasis on athleticism, and creating opportunities with bat and ball through that. So that’s really exciting for us. He’s obviously had some really great success with Warwickshire in the first season of the new competition, and he just brings some great energy and enthusiasm to the group. I know the girls are really excited to play under him.”Perry led both the batting and bowling averages in 2024 but lacked support, notably in run-scoring, with Kalis, Devine and Amy Jones the only other Phoenix players to aggregate more than 100. Although the team finished second from bottom, their tally of three wins was three more than the season before, when they came last in the group.Perry said that recruitment for the upcoming campaign had focused on building “some really strong batting depth, which is something we’ve spoken about a lot in terms of being able to take the game on earlier, probably something that we struggled with last year”.”When you build depth, it gives you a little bit more leeway to do that [bat aggressively] and confidence and sort of buy in from the entire group, knowing that we’ve got a lot of weaponry in the cupboard to do that right throughout. So yeah, it will definitely be a focus for us, and I think we’ve got the blend to do that.”Joining Kalis in the squad are fellow Bears, Em Arlott, Hannah Baker, Phoebe Brett, Bethan Ellis and Miller Taylor. Alongside confidence built from the team’s Blast form, as they narrowly lost out to Surrey in the final, Perry said the group would benefit from Maiden’s “clarity” in the way he wants to play.”Ali is quite distinct and prescriptive about how he wants us to play in some respects, which is a really nice thing with when you see that be effective. And, yeah, I thought the Bears played some really great cricket across the Vitality Blast, and got some girls in some really good form. But equally someone like Emma Lamb’s had a great summer so far. It’s just nice to have that real clarity and confidence in the way that you want to play and know that it can be effective.”I guess every season in a franchise competition is really very much a clean slate. You look at how much changes across the board, whether that’s personnel or, in particular in women’s cricket, the depth of the competition and just and how close teams are now becoming in terms of lists.”So we’ve got a really fresh team this year, new staff, right across the board. So I think it’s probably just a really great opportunity to lay a new foundation, play a style of cricket that we’re really keen on playing. In terms of results, the things that you can control are really just the effort that you put in and how you want to play. The rest of it is kind of a bit of madness in franchise cricket, and to see how that pans out.”Perry was able to observe Maiden’s Bears at reasonably close quarters, having spent the last month playing for Hampshire; she made 58 off 44 balls before falling to Phoenix team-mate Baker when the Hawks were beaten at Utilita Bowl. The switch to lining up alongside those same players is one that regulars on the franchise circuit such as Perry are used to.”In this day and age, that’s not really a foreign concept. You play against and with team-mates all the time across various competitions. I had an absolutely amazing time at Hampshire. Was a really great experience, and a wonderful group of people. And just really lovely to be able to make new friends.”In terms of the Phoenix girls, we’ve got a pretty fresh group, not too many players from last year. So there’s quite an air of excitement around the group, some nerves, but in a good way, and just lots of energy, which is really cool. I know some of the girls from various instances, and then there’s some girls I don’t know as well. So it’ll be really cool to bring all that together.”KP Snacks, the Official Team Partner of the Hundred, are celebrating the installation of 100 new community cricket pitches across England and Wales. To find out more and search for your nearest pitch, visit: www.everyonein.co.uk/pitchfinder

Having played 13 internationals across all three forms on the potential, Connolly delivered with a clutch 61 not out to show why he has been so heavily invested in

Alex Malcolm24-Oct-20251:43

Connolly admits being ‘starstruck’ by Rohit and Kohli

Fairly or unfairly, there had been plenty of scepticism from Australian fans about Cooper Connolly.None of it is his fault. But it has bubbled because he has been picked to play for Australia in all three formats on the potential of his skillset more than his output at domestic level. So rare are left-arm spin-bowling allrounders in Australia, in the mould of Ravindra Jadeja, Australia’s selectors eagerly picked him in T20I cricket without a T20 40 and one three-wicket haul, in ODI cricket with just four List A scores of 42, 2, 13, and 11, and three one-wicket hauls, and in Test cricket without a first-class century or a first-class wicket in just four matches. Jadeja, by contrast, had multiple first-class centuries, including a double, and multiple five-wicket hauls before making his international debut for India in any format.Australia’s selectors weren’t the only ones who had gambled on his talent almost sight unseen. Perth Scorchers picked him for a BBL final after three games while Western Australia handed him his first-class debut in a Sheffield Shield final and he delivered with 90 in his maiden innings.Related

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But no such first-time luck followed Connolly into international cricket. Before Thursday, in 13 matches across all forms for Australia he had only batted six times and had reached double figures just once with a top score of 13 in a T20I. One of those innings was a nine-ball duck in the Champions Trophy semi-final where he had been inexplicably asked to open.But all that investment and belief in his talent came to the fore in Adelaide where Connolly, 22, showcased composure beyond his years to deliver a near-flawless 61 not out from 53 balls to guide Australia to a series victory.”I don’t think I’d got to double digits yet [in ODIs],” Connolly said after the match. “It’s always nice to sort of get that breakout innings just to, I guess, feel that I can play at this level.”To get the opportunity and I guess showcase what I can do is nice.”There had been evidence of his talent, and his ability under pressure at BBL level having made a match-winning 25 not out off 13 in a BBL final as a 19-year-old. He was also named joint player of the tournament in last summer’s BBL, albeit through consistent performances rather than eye-catching ones like Mitchell Owen produced.

“I think it was a superb performance. Cooper, especially. Being a youngster coming in, showing so much maturity to finish off the game, that shows a lot of character. And he’s someone I’ve seen even in the India A versus Australia A matches, he was charging on the bowlers and very selective in terms of which bowler to target, so credit where it’s due.”Shreyas Iyer on Cooper Connolly’s innings

He even cast his mind back to that BBL final winning innings on Thursday night to calm his nerves as he steered his country home.”I actually had a moment out there today where I was just thinking about how I felt when I was out there [during the BBL final in 2023],” Connolly said. “To bring myself back down to earth and control my emotions, I like to sing a song to myself.”I started singing between every ball just to relax myself, take myself off the game and try to embrace it as much as possible.”I was a little bit starstruck walking out and Virat and Rohit are there. It’s always nice to challenge yourself with the best opponent.”What he delivered in Adelaide was the fruits of the work he had done on two recent tours of the subcontinent to Sri Lanka with the Test and ODI team in February and to India with Australia A in the last two months.While his batting in Sri Lanka had been skittish, his returns in India showed rapid growth. He scored three half-centuries in five matches across two first-class games and three 50-over matches. That growth was evident when he walked out to face Axar Patel and Washington Sundar with Australia needing 133 from 138 with only six wickets in hand.Unlike Matt Renshaw and Alex Carey, who had perished premeditating on the front foot, Connolly showcased what he had learned on the subcontinent playing deep in the crease off the back foot to rotate the strike early. It forced Axar to press fuller and Connolly caressed him through cover. Axar erred leg side three balls later and Connolly swept him fine without risk for a second boundary in the over.Where Matthew Short, who played well for his 74, should have been caught at point trying to square drive Sundar on the up, Connolly went back to a similar length and line and carved a risk free cut shot to the rope.Cooper Connolly made his maiden ODI half-century•Getty Images”I think that trip in Kanpur was one of the trips that sort of helped me get my game back in some good stead,” Connolly said. “I felt like I hadn’t found the middle of the bat for awhile, and to go out there and play against a pretty good India A attack when we were over there, built some confidence in me leading into this.”He then unfurled three stunning shots off the quicks, scything Harshit Rana through cover, clubbing Mohammed Siraj over cover, and pulling Siraj forward of square before tucking him neatly behind square to bring up a maiden international half-century. None of it was wild swinging. They were calculated, classy shots at critical times. His decision-making and execution was noted post-match by India batter Shreyas Iyer.”Credit where it’s due, I think they played brilliantly,” Iyer said of Connolly’s partnership with Owen. “The way they batted, they rotated their strikes. I think it was a superb performance. Cooper, especially. Being a youngster coming in, showing so much maturity to finish off the game, that shows a lot of character. And he’s someone I’ve seen even in the India A versus Australia A matches, he was charging on the bowlers and very selective in terms of which bowler to target, so credit where it’s due.”Connolly’s bowling is developing too. He took a maiden five-wicket haul against South Africa in August and was under-bowled in Adelaide, having conceded just 11 runs in three overs with 10 dots and only one boundary while Iyer and Rohit Sharma were rolling. Mitch Marsh oddly opted for five overs of offspin from Short and Travis Head that cost 39 runs including four boundaries and only four dots between them.In the context of Australia’s build towards the 2027 World Cup it was a significant performance. Australia had lost seven of their last eight completed ODIs prior to the series starting, including their last three bilateral series and the Champions Trophy semi-final against India. In the wake of the retirements of Steven Smith and Glenn Maxwell, they have been searching for new blood to stand tall. The performances of Connolly, Short, Owen and Xavier Bartlett were as much a key to Australia’s win as Adam Zampa’s four-wicket haul and Josh Hazlewood’s mesmerising new-ball spell.”I think we’ve got a lot of depth in Australian cricket, and that was showed tonight,” Connolly said. “Obviously with Smudge and Maxi retiring from one-day cricket earlier in the year. There was obviously some room for some younger guys to come through. And it was nice for myself, Shorty, Mitchy, X [Xavier Bartlett], to put our hands up and I guess almost feel like we’re welcome to this stage and being able to play some good cricket now. But there’s a lot of depth in Australian cricket. And I think there’s some positive signs to come.”

Only 64 overs were possible on the day as England’s lack of discipline even in helpful conditions kept India afloat

Alagappan Muthu31-Jul-20252:37

‘England would be a little disappointed with the score’

Stumps After four Tests on flat pitches that took bowlers from both teams to the brink and counted among its casualties Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Jasprit Bumrah, The Oval, which has been profoundly seam-friendly in recent times, provided margin for error. England played like they needed it; there were 30 extras but also six wickets and just 204 runs.India came to the ground facing humongous odds. But they beat them. The probability of losing a 15th toss in a row was 32728 to 1. There’s a chance unicorns are easier to find than a coin that will fall the way Shubman Gill wants it to.England got first use of a pitch with 8mm of grass on it and their fast bowlers benefited from the weather in more than one way. Rain through most of the afternoon helped keep their legs fresh and the threat of it, hanging over the entire day, created overhead conditions that were perfect for swing and seam. Only 64 overs were possible but there was enough help to bowl a team out. England’s lack of discipline is the reason why India are still standing. That and Karun Nair scoring a Test fifty after 3149 days dreaming of it. His hopes of becoming a permanent fixture in this batting line-up are still alive, with his opponents lending him a helping hand.Josh Tongue could only create 13 false shots in 13 overs. Watching him bowl raised the suspicion that the stumps aren’t inanimate; that they can get up and move wherever they please. Otherwise why would a Test match bowler stray so far and so often. His first over produced 11 runs in wides. And yet this was the same man who eventually made England feel comfortable about their decision to bowl first when he found his radar – briefly – to dismiss B Sai Sudharsan and Ravindra Jadeja in the space of four overs. India went from a respectable 101 for 3 to a shaky 123 for 5 and it was because Tongue wasn’t bowling line and length. He was bowling filth and jaffas.Karun Nair celebrates his fifty•Getty ImagesGill will take a portion of the blame as well. He was looking good in testing conditions, rendering England’s most experienced bowler – Chris Woakes – toothless by batting a foot and a half in front of his crease and exploiting the mistakes from the rest of the attack – who have 18 caps between them – by cutting and pulling handsomely. In doing so, he went past Sunil Gavaskar’s tally of 732, against West Indies in 1978-79, to become the India captain with the most runs in a Test series.No batter who reaps such a big bounty does so without something special about him. In Gill’s case, it is the sound of bat hitting ball. Often times, it is deafening, a sign of shots well-chosen and perfectly executed. Ironically, though, his dismissal here was the result of a ball he middled. He thought he could get a run off a front-foot block but he hadn’t placed it wide enough of the bowler. Gus Atkinson had a head start thanks to his follow through; he picked the ball up comfortably, took aim at the keeper’s end, and broke the stumps. Gill wasn’t even in the frame. Five minutes later, rain swept the players off the field. It was as untimely as a wicket could be.Sai Sudharsan enhanced his reputation while he was out there on the ground he calls home in county cricket. He didn’t look quite so susceptible to being caught down the leg side, even though England kept targeting him there. There was a moment where a pigeon flew right across the pitch just as Atkinson let go of the ball. It was an inswinger. Nicely pitched up. Searching for lbw and bowled. But Sai Sudharsan, on instinct, prevented his front leg from going too far across and was able to bring down a lovely straight bat.That was the kind of delivery that was taking him out early on in the series. It raised the question that maybe this is the real him and that in Leeds and Manchester, he was just a mess of nerves because he was playing his first few Tests. It took an unplayable delivery from an unlikely source – Tongue – to dislodge him for 38 off 108.1:48

What will be a good score for India?

Nair took over from there, playing some gorgeous drives, particularly through the covers. He still appears vulnerable to the ball in the channel because his bat comes down in an angle and his front foot doesn’t move too far, but England didn’t test him there enough.Atkinson was their most reliable bowler. He only had a second XIs game to prove his readiness for Test cricket again after a hamstring injury and apparently that’s enough of a testing ground. His first spell was pristine 6-1-7-1, where he took down Yashasvi Jaiswal early and caused problems throughout. But the rest of the attack only got their act together in the final session.Tongue and Jamie Overton did point to some extenuating circumstances for their rhythm being awry. They kept slipping as they powered their weight through their bowling action because the landing spot for their front foot kept giving way. Sawdust came to the rescue but it still wasn’t ideal. When you’re running in worried you could twist your leg, you run in less hard.Nair and Washington Sundar saw India through to the close of a strange day’s play. Neither team will be disappointed with their efforts, though England will be mulling the injury that Woakes sustained. His efforts to stop a boundary late in the day might have led to a suspected dislocated left shoulder.

The World Series goes through the National League. At least if you go by the top of the betting odds. 

The top three teams in the MLB World Series betting odds currently reside in the NL, starting with the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers at +230 on FanDuel Sportsbook. The NL East rival Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets are next on the odds at +850 each. Both teams made big swings at the deadline, adding bullpen help and, for the Phillies, Harrison Bader as well.

The New York Yankees are fourth on the oddsboard at +900. They added Pirates closer David Bednar at the deadline, but are waiting on MVP/All-Star/heart-and-soul-of-the-team Aaron Judge to come off the 10-day IL. They are also four games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East and only 2.5 games ahead in the wild card standings.

The Detroit Tigers (+950), Houston Astros (+1200) and Blue Jays (+1400) are next on the oddsboard. All three are at least four games ahead in their respective division races and the Blue Jays made some moves at the deadline that suggest they’re all in on this season. They’re currently battling the Tigers for the best record in the NL while the Astros remain the Astros in a solid AL West. 

The Padres are currently the hottest team in baseball, having won five straight, including a sweep of the visiting Mets. They also went all-in at the deadline, shoring up what is already the best bullpen in the league. 

Here are the odds for every MLB team to win the World Series with odds coming from FanDuel. 

2025 MLB World Series OddsLos Angeles Dodgers +230Philadelphia Phillies +850New York Mets +850New York Yankees +900Detroit Tigers +950Houston Astros +1200Toronto Blue Jays +1400Chicago Cubs +1400Seattle Mariners +1600Milwaukee Brewers +1600San Diego Padres +2500Boston Red Sox +2700Texas Rangers +3000Tampa Bay Rays +9000Cincinnati Reds +10000San Francisco Giants +13000Kansas City Royals +15000Cleveland Guardians +20000St. Louis Cardinals +25000Minnesota Twins +32000Arizona Diamondbacks +55000Los Angeles Angels +75000Washington Nationals +100000Atlanta Braves +100000Pittsburgh Pirates +100000Baltimore Orioles +100000Chicago White Sox +100000Miami Marlins +100000Athletics +100000

Highlights from the fourth round of group-stage matches, with Punjab’s title defence hanging by a thread

Shashank Kishore29-Nov-2024Brar turns hero as Punjab clinch Super-Over thrillerHaving conceded 176, a third loss in four games seemed all but certain when Punjab needed 24 off four balls in their Group A fixture against Mizoram. But Harpreet Brar did the unthinkable – hitting a four and three sixes. Along the way, Punjab also benefited from a wide to help force the game into a Super Over.Brar, who walked in at 151 for 6 with eight balls remaining, hit an unbeaten 23 off seven. Punjab then hit 15 in the one-over shootout to win by eight runs. The defending champions now have two wins in four games, and are currently fifth in their eight-team group with three games remaining. The top two from each group make the knockouts.Thakur delivers joint-most expensive spellIt’s been a tough week for Shardul Thakur. Having found no bidders at the IPL auction just a few days earlier, the India allrounder conceded the the joint-most expensive figures in SMAT history in Mumbai’s 43-run shellacking at the hands of Kerala.Shardul’s figures read 4-0-69-1 as Mumbai conceded 234 for 5 in 20 overs with opener Rohan Kunnummal hitting 87 and allrounder Salman Nizar 99. Nizar hit Thakur for a sequence of 6, 4, 6, 6 in his final over, which went for 28. Ajinkya Rahane responded with a 25-ball half-century to keep Mumbai briefly in the hunt. He finished with a 35-ball 68.Kerala are now second in Group E, with three wins in four games. Mumbai are fourth but have a game in hand.Hardik’s scintillating run continuesFour games in, Hardik Pandya tops the tournament six-hitting charts with 20. Shreyas Iyer comes next with 15. Hardik has married six-hitting with incredible consistency.His 231 runs have come at a strike rate of 211.92. After scores of 74*, 41* and 69, Pandya struck a 23-ball 47 on Friday to help Baroda beat Tripura and stay on top of Group B with four wins in four games.File photo – Ishan Kishan pummelled an unbeaten 77 off just 23 balls as Jharkhand chased down 94 in 4.3 overs•Associated PressDelhi use 11 different bowlersAll of Delhi’s starting XI turned their arm over during their win over Manipur at the Wankhede Stadium. Delhi won in the end by four wickets, chasing down 121 with nine balls to spare, but Ayush Badoni’s move divided opinion. On X, formerly Twitter, the former India seamer Dodda Ganesh termed it a “mockery of professional cricket.”Delhi are table-toppers in Group C with four wins in as many games, while Manipur are at the opposite end with no wins in four.Arunachal come under Kishan’s wheelIt isn’t just Manipur who are suffering. Arunachal Pradesh bore the brunt of Ishan Kishan’s incredible, unbeaten 77 off 23 balls. He opened the batting and hit five fours and nine sixes as Jharkhand chased down 94 in just 4.3 overs. This was Jharkhand’s third win in four games, and they are currently joint second with Uttar Pradesh in Group C.Shami ‘fine’ after brief injury scareEven as speculation builds over a late entry into India’s Test squad in Australia, Mohammed Shami gave the Bengal team management a few anxious moments during Friday’s game against Madhya Pradesh, when he lay on the ground clutching his back.It caused Nitin Patel, the head of the BCCI’s medical panel, who had been flown in to specifically keep track of Shami and update India’s team management on his progress, run into the field to attend to him. A member of the Bengal support staff group later told ESPNcricinfo that Shami was “fine.”For the record, Shami delivered four wicketless overs for 38 as Bengal failed to defend 189. It was their first loss in four games; MP meanwhile are unbeaten in four matches.Shami has so far been wicketless in two of his four games. He has picked up four wickets in all, with a best of 3 for 21 coming in a match-winning effort against Hyderabad. Prior to the SMAT, Shami picked up a match haul of seven wickets in a Ranji Trophy match against MP, his first competitive fixture since last year’s 50-overs World Cup final.

Raúl Jiménez did not hold back after Mexico’s scoreless draw with Uruguay, calling out the Torreón crowd for repeatedly booing goalkeeper Raúl “Tala” Rangel and the rest of the squad. The Fulham striker said the atmosphere left the team “sad,” underscoring the growing disconnect between El Tri and its supporters.

Getty Images SportA frustrating night on and off the pitch

Mexico’s friendly against Uruguay offered little excitement on the field, but the stands became the center of attention. From the opening minutes, fans at the TSM Corona booed goalkeeper Raul Rangel, upset that local hero Carlos Acevedo was not in the starting lineup. The tense atmosphere overshadowed the match itself, turning the night into a reflection of current struggle to reconnect with its supporters.

AdvertisementGetty Images SportJiménez lashes out at fans

After the final whistle, Jiménez spoke bluntly about the treatment his team received. 

“What’s sad is playing at home and getting booed – the ‘Fuera Vasco’ chants, and people shouting insults at our keeper. That’s what hurts,” he told reporters. “Maybe that’s why they always take us to the U.S.” 

His remarks underline a growing frustration within the squad over fan hostility.

Getty Images SportWider implications ahead of the 2026 World Cup

Beyond criticism, Jiménez urged the squad and supporters to move forward.

 “We have to keep going, work hard,” he said. 

The team now travels to Houston for a friendly against Paraguay, aiming for a calmer atmosphere and a chance to reset before competitive fixtures ramp up. Jiménez’s remarks also revive the broader discussion around fan behavior, coming as the Mexican Football Federation continues to face fines for discriminatory chants. With the World Cup set to begin in Mexico next year, the episode adds renewed scrutiny to supporter culture and matchday environments.

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The Mexican national team has arrived in San Antonio ahead of Tuesday’s matchup against Paraguay at the Alamodome.

“We have to take responsibility,” Charith Asalanka says of Dasun Shanaka and himself after they fell off back-to-back deliveries at a crucial stage of the game

Andrew Fidel Fernando24-Sep-20251:39

What went wrong for Sri Lanka’s batters?

The back-to-back wickets in the eighth over of Sri Lanka’s innings swung this Asia Cup Super Four match towards Pakistan – this was how Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka, who was the first of the two batters to be dismissed in that passage, saw it.Sri Lanka had been 58 for 3 after 7.1 overs, when Asalanka was caught at deep square-leg off the bowling of Hussain Talat. Next ball, Dasun Shanaka poked at a delivery in the channel and sent a thin edge to the wicketkeeper. Sri Lanka were suddenly five down with more than 60% of the overs remaining. The limped to 133 for 8 in the end.”Although we didn’t get a great start from the openers, at the end of the powerplay we still had 53 runs. We’d lost three wickets, but we were still in a good place, because it’s not easy to score that many in the powerplay,” Asalanka said. “But then myself and Dasun got out off successive deliveries, and that was when the biggest damage was done.Related

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“Neither Dasun or I were going for big shots when we got out. I was trying to put the ball into a gap, but ended up top-edging it. Dasun also played a normal shot first up. But we have to take responsibility.”That Sri Lanka managed to have something to bowl at was down to Kamindu Mendis, who hit 50 off 44 balls, with support from Wanindu Hasaranga and Chamika Karunaratne.”We lost five wickets in the first half of our innings, and against these kinds of teams it’s really hard to come back from that,” Asalanka said. “Kamindu and the others fought hard, but Wanindu also got out at a bad time, when it had felt like we could get to 150. In the end it was not enough.”Sri Lanka are very nearly out of the tournament now, having suffered two big losses in the Super Four stage. They had strengthened their bowling for this match, dropping Kamil Mishara for Karunaratne. Asalanka identified balancing his team as perhaps the primary problem facing Sri Lanka ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup.”We’ve had lots of issues with our combinations, and that’s something we have to get right ahead of the World Cup,” he said. “We tried going with an extra bowler today, but we lost a specialist batsman because of that, and didn’t score the runs we needed. Other times we’ve played an extra batsman and couldn’t defend a score with the ball.”We need to figure out how to consistently score 180 to 200, and also how to use the part-time bowlers – myself, Dasun, Kamindu Mendis – better. Those are things we need to improve in the future.”

Chelsea have made a solid start to the season under Enzo Maresca despite being presented with a fair few obstacles, and the Blues briefly climbed to second in the Premier League table last weekend.

Maresca’s approach has been defined by extensive squad rotation, a strategy that has drawn both praise and criticism.

The Italian has made 93 changes in total this season, a staggering number and more than any other Premier League side. This rotation policy could reflect Chelsea’s depth and ambitions to compete on all four fronts, even if Maresca reportedly isn’t completely satisfied with the squad right now.

That being said, injuries and suspensions have significantly tested that depth this term.

Levi Colwill remains a long-term absentee after sustaining an ACL injury during pre-season training in August, ruling him out for most of the campaign and likely England’s Euro 2026 preparations. Superstar forward Cole Palmer has also been sidelined with a niggling groin injury since September, with Maresca initially expecting him to return shortly after the last international break before the recovery timeline was extended by six weeks.

The England international missed a full month of action and was targeting a return in December, but he is now expected to return before the end of this month and could feature against Barcelona in the Champions League.

The striker department has been particularly affected by injuries. Summer signing Liam Delap sustained a hamstring problem early in the 2-0 win over Fulham in August, leaving him out for two months, and following his return from a lengthy layoff, the forward’s comeback quickly turned into a disaster.

Delap picked up two needless yellow cards against Wolves, prompting fury from Maresca, who labelled his conduct ’embarrassing’.

After Roméo Lavia’s latest in a long line of injuries since joining from Southampton, Chelsea’s medical room is starting to feel overcrowded again, but the west Londoners have done well to navigate it with Colwill, Palmer, Benoit Badiashile, Enzo Fernández, Pedro Neto, Dario Essugo, Delap, Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos and Josh Acheampong all missing at various points.

Chelsea became the first team in history to win all five UEFA club tournaments back in May, and as Maresca looks to build upon that feat, their form on paper suggests the club have every chance of doing so.

BlueCo’s ownership appears to finally be reaping dividends, but it hasn’t always been this way.

There’s been a fair few trial and error, high-profile mistakes since Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly took over the club in 2022, not least their deal for ex-Arsenal star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang admits Chelsea transfer was a "big mistake"

Speaking to YouTube content creator Troopz, via ESPN, Aubameyang himself has now admitted that joining Chelsea was a “big mistake”.

Aubameyang signed for Chelsea in September 2022 for a reported fee of around £10 million, reuniting with his former boss at Borussia Dortmund, Thomas Tuchel. However, Tuchel was sacked just days after the Gabonese’s arrival, setting the tone for a disastrous spell.

He was handed his first Premier League appearance in October, scoring his first goal for the club in a 2-1 away victory over Crystal Palace. The now-Marseille striker made 21 appearances in all competitions for the Blues, scoring just three goals, and all three of them came in the space of ten days that October.

By February, he was dropped from the Champions League squad by Graham Potter, highlighting his fall from grace, and he didn’t fare any better under Frank Lampard either. Aubameyang struggled for form and consistency, and just 10 months after signing, the 36-year-old left Chelsea and signed a three-year deal with Marseille on a free transfer.

He’ll go down as one of, if not the worst signing of BlueCo’s tenure — so the feeling of regret will be pretty mutual in London.

Stats highlights from the opening day at the Oval, where India lost yet another toss

Sampath Bandarupalli31-Jul-2025

Karun Nair crossed fifty for the first time since 2016•Getty Images

3393 – India’s aggregate in the series against England so far, their highest for any Test series, surpassing the 3270 in a six-match series against West Indies during the 1978-79 home season.India’s series tally so far is also the highest for any team in a Test series since 1995.3149 – Days between Karun Nair’s two 50-plus scores in Test cricket – 303* against England in December 2016 and 52* on Thursday. It is the second-longest gap for an India batter between two 50-plus scores in men’s Tests (excluding the gap owing to World War II).Related

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Parthiv Patel has the longest gap, 4426 days, between his fourth (54 vs Australia in October 2004) and his fifth (67* vs England in November 2016). 743 – Runs Shubman Gill has scored in this series so far, the highest by an India captain in a Test series, surpassing Sunil Gavaskar’s 732 against West Indies in 1978-79. This is also the third-highest runs scored by a captain in a Test series.Gill’s series tally is also the second-highest for India, only behind that of Gavaskar’s 774 against West Indies in 1971.Shubman Gill’s bad luck at the toss continued•Getty Images15 – Consecutive tosses lost by India across formats since the the win in January this year against England in Rajkot. It is the longest streak of tosses lost by any team in men’s internationals – the next longest is 12 by West Indies in 1999. The probability of losing 15 consecutive coin tosses is 0.003%.5 – India lost the toss in all five matches in this Test series against England. Only one other team has lost all tosses in a five-match Test series since 2000 – also India against England, on their tour of 2018. India have won the toss only once in 15 matches across their last three Test series against England in England.This was the fourth instance of India losing all tosses in a Test series of five (or more) matches, having lost all tosses against West Indies in 1948-49 and 1983 earlier.4 – England and India made four changes each for the fifth Test at The Oval. This is only the second instance of both teams making four (or more) changes during a Test series since 2003. Sri Lanka and Pakistan made four changes apiece going into the third Test in Kandy in 2015.