Records tumbled as Sri Lanka and South Africa played out 127 scoreless balls between them

Sampath Bandarupalli03-Jun-202477 – Sri Lanka’s total against South Africa in their Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 clash in New York is their lowest in men’s T20Is. Their previous lowest was 82 all out against India in 2016 in Vishakhapatnam.It is also the lowest total by any team against South Africa in men’s T20Is. The previous lowest was Afghanistan’s 80 all out during the 2010 T20 World Cup.7 – Runs conceded by Anrich Nortje on Monday, the fewest by a bowler completing their four-over quota in the Men’s T20 World Cup. The previous fewest was eight runs, by three bowlers – Ajantha Mendis (vs Zimbabwe in 2012), Mahmudullah (vs Afghanistan in 2014) and Wanindu Hasaranga (vs UAE in 2022).Related

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Nortje also conceded the fewest runs by a South Africa bowler in their four overs in a men’s T20I.3 – Hauls of four or more wickets for Nortje in T20 World Cups, the joint-most by any bowler at the tournament, alongside Saeed Ajmal and Shakib Al Hasan.4 for 7 – Nortje’s figures are the best for South Africa at the Men’s T20 World Cup, bettering his own record of 4 for 10 against Bangladesh in 2022.Nortje’s figures are also the best by any bowler against Sri Lanka in the men’s T20 World Cup and the third-best in all men’s T20Is against them.Most dots in a men’s T20 WC match•ESPNcricinfo Ltd20 – Dot balls bowled by Ottniel Baartman, the joint-most by a bowler in a Men’s T20 World Cup game. Kemar Roach bowled 20 dot balls against Ireland in 2010, while Ajantha Mendis did the same during his six-wicket haul against Zimbabwe in 2012. Baartman’s 20 dots are also the most for South Africa in a men’s T20I.1 – Nortje and Baartman became the first pair to concede less than ten runs apiece in an innings at the Men’s T20 World Cup (while bowling their full quota of four overs).Only twice before have a pair of bowlers from Full Member teams done this in men’s T20Is – Chris Mpofu and Ray Price for Zimbabwe against Canada in 2008, and Ajaz Patel and Rachin Ravindra for New Zealand against Bangladesh in 2021.11 – T20 World Cup matches played by Nortje, taking at least one in each. It is now the longest wicket-taking spree for any bowler in the Men’s T20 World Cup. Nortje bettered Ashish Nehra, who has taken at least one wicket in all ten T20 World Cup matches.4.42 – The scoring rate in this South Africa vs Sri Lanka match was the lowest for a Men’s T20 World Cup game (min: 150 balls). None of the previous 252 T20 World Cup matches lasting 25-plus overs finished with a run rate below five an over.127 – Dot balls played out on Monday were the most for a Men’s T20 World Cup match. The previous highest was 123 dots in the 2007 game between South Africa and India, and by Oman and Namibia during last night’s tie.Sri Lanka’s batters played out 72 of the 127 dots, the joint-most by a team in a Men’s T20 World Cup game, alongside Afghanistan against England in 2012.

There was unbridled joy in one camp, gloom in the other. But if South Africa need any inspiration, they need to look no further than India

Sidharth Monga30-Jun-20242:23

Manjrekar: Rohit’s World Cup win a great reward for a champion cricketer

I am supposed to explain this to you?No, I don’t think you want explanations. For a while, nobody does.As I sit in the dugout vacated by the players, some uneaten nuts and unfinished bottles of energy drinks around me, I am thinking of pieces of broken heart that I can’t see. Explanations are the last thing on my mind.I can see India are hoisting Rahul Dravid up and catching him on the way down. Behind the podium, where nobody can see them, Quinton de Kock is down on his knees, playing with a little girl in a South Africa top and a pink tutu. Heinrich Klaasen is with another little girl. Daughters, I think. The partners are milling around. There is an older gentleman in a Klaasen top around. Perhaps his father. One of the partners is running after another kid with a writing tablet that looks like an old-fashioned slate.Related

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South Africa were winning, then came Jasprit Bumrah

I can’t tell you how thankful I am that the families and partners can travel with the players these days. This is not going to be an easy night for South Africa. It is best they are not alone with their thoughts tonight. They had played almost the perfect game, and needed just 30 off 30. And yet, they are left with the ghosts that have haunted their cricket teams for more than 30 years.Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and the others know this feeling all too well. They have led the ODI World Cup league table – a format where you play every team once – twice but have not laid their hands on the trophy. They have been to both the WTC finals but haven’t won despite being the best Test side over the last seven-eight years.They have had sleepless nights following the last ODI World Cup in which they were unbeaten until the final. Rohit has spoken openly about how he struggled coming out of that flux. If South Africa need any inspiration, they need to look no further than Rohit, who has dusted himself off to go through it all over again. Despite the year he has had at the IPL.Rahul Dravid gets a champion’s farewell•Getty ImagesRohit is celebrating with his family, he is fulfilling his commitments as the captain. In between he has found the time to kiss Hardik Pandya on the cheek. After the year they have had. Hardik said two years ago in Australia that he has risen above the results. Then life hit back. Injuries. Ruled out of the World Cup midway. Leading Rohit in the IPL that left a sour taste in the mouth everywhere. He has bowled the slower one to get Klaasen. He has bowled the final over to seal the win.Rohit’s accomplice, Dravid, has forever seemed cursed to not win a trophy. He led India to their first Test win in South Africa, took them to series wins in England and the West Indies after decades, brought about a philosophical shift in the way they approached the game, but he is remembered for his failures. Even as a coach, despite being the master team-builder that he is, Dravid has had no titles to show for. Even at the IPL. Now he is exulting.They didn’t have the perfect team. They have made it perfect. They have picked two left-arm-spin allrounders. Not perfect but they want depth in both batting and bowling. Crucially, they have managed to free Kohli of the in-born notion in champion competitors that they can’t leave the job for someone else. They have managed to convince him T20 is not a sport for the main characters.Kohli has bought into it. He has taken the walk-on part in a war ahead of the lead role in a cage. His innings in the final, we can discuss another day. It is almost identical to what he scored in the 2014 final, which India lost, but that batting depth of India has allowed him to repeat it. Rohit works a lot with analysts but he also believes in runs on the board in finals. So perhaps he has a higher tolerance for Kohli delaying the trigger in the final.Kohli is retiring from T20Is with a Player-of-the-Final trophy. Rohit too. Kohli slips out of the celebrations and pulls out his AirPods. They connect just in time for him to take the call. He is visibly talking to one of his children: he is making faces and gestures you make to babies. He has earned everything a man could wish for, he has carried Dravid’s work forward in Tests to an extent Dravid himself couldn’t, but for 13 years he has not been part of a team that has had a world title.Tabraiz Shamsi lets the emotions sink in•ICC/Getty Images”I believe in destiny,” Rohit says when asked if he had begun to start doubting that good things happen to good people. “This was written. Of course, we didn’t know before the match that this was written, otherwise it would be so easy. That [to keep doing your best not knowing what’s written] is the game.”Now tell me how I am supposed to explain this to you. Those who were there have been reduced to talking about destiny. The closest thing to an explanation is that the scrappy side with more multi-skilled players beat the one with specialists who, barring one or two, are perhaps more suited to the format. The much-ridiculed depth, for which India have tried to accommodate many an allrounder who was not ready, has trumped.South Africa, like the Mumbai Indians of 2013, are bossing the game with six gun batters and five full-time bowlers. Except they are against what looks like a scrappy Mumbai Indians of 2017 with plenty of multi-skilled options. Rohit has led both kinds of teams. His experience tells him to just hang in for longer than many would. In a 17-year career, he has seen T20 matches turn on much less than two Jasprit Bumrah overs.In the end, it has come about in a messy manner. They don’t take the braver option when at crossroads with the bat, which they have done almost all tournament. Kuldeep Yadav has had a tough day. Axar Patel, the unsung hero so far, is taken for 24 in his final over.The ball is reversing, even if slightly; hitting down the ground is easier; and they just move those fielders cutting singles straighter. It still shouldn’t work but it does. Sport is messy. Hardik is bowling only wide outside off, trying to stay away from Klaasen. Not looking for a wicket. On another day, he doesn’t get the edge to finish off the game. Here he does.Rohit ends up prone on the ground, slapping it in pure joy. Sport is a messy thing. It has played with Rohit’s spirit again and again before he can finally say: “This is what I wanted. I wanted to win the cup and say…” He doesn’t say anything. He just salutes a goodbye.It has played with South Africa here, but like Rohit and Kohli and Bumrah and Hardik, they must dust themselves off and give themselves the chance again. In the words of Rohit, that is the game.

Opener uses vast experience to demonstrate attacking “balance” sought by Jon Lewis

Valkerie Baynes19-May-2024It’s the halfway point of the innings and England are doing okay on 69 for 2, then Danni Wyatt appears to flick the switch.Up to that point she had contributed 42 of her team’s runs. Then she charges at Nida Dar and lifts the ball towards the long-on fielder who backpedals over the boundary rope as the ball sails beyond. She thrashes the next delivery through square leg to bring up a 34-ball half-century. Not done there, she helps herself to two more boundaries – making it 20 runs in all off the over – to seize control of the game.She was the only England player to do so, with Amy Jones their next-highest scorer with 26. But a lofty target of 177, thanks to Wyatt, proved beyond a Pakistan side whose batting depth has been wanting despite a doughty effort in this match.What this series has shown England is that they are building good depth with different players contributing with bat and ball throughout. In the opening match at Edgbaston it was Jones, Heather Knight and Dani Gibson who rescued them from 11 for 4 before Sarah Glenn’s four-wicket haul. At Northamptonshire Alice Capsey, Maia Bouchier and Nat Sciver-Brunt all made runs without pressing on to big scores before a strong all-round bowling display led by Sophie Ecclestone bundled Pakistan out for 79.Related

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It also shows there is work to be done with a T20 World Cup looming in Bangladesh later this year, given that Pakistan are six places below them on the ICC T20I rankings.Wyatt was dropped by wicketkeeper Muneeba Ali on 12 then, having overturned an lbw decision on 35 when DRS showed she’d hit the ball, was put down twice more in the space of three deliveries, Aliya Riaz grassing a chance at mid-off when she had 79 and Sadaf Shamas unable to hold on as she ran in from deep cover. Sadaf made amends two balls later, however, when Wyatt smashed Diana Baig straight to the same region to fall for a blistering 87 from 48.Wyatt, who joked that she was making a beeline for the casino after play, felt she was due a meaningful innings after previous scores of 1 and 6 in this series and a highest score of just 21 in five innings across both white-ball formats on the recent tour of New Zealand.”I failed in the first two games so I really wanted a score today,” Wyatt said. “But I also wasn’t getting too stressed about it. I’ve had ups and downs most of my career and I think it’s the way I play with intent. I’m going to fail more times than I come off, but Lewy wants us to go out there and take the game on from ball one, which is what I do when I’m at my best.”It was the type of aggressive innings Jon Lewis, England Women’s head coach, has set about instilling in this group since taking on the role some 18 months ago. It also carried the sort of risk-and-reward element he says his side is still seeking to balance. Before Sunday’s third and final T20I against Pakistan at Headingley – which England won by 34 runs for a 3-0 series sweep – Lewis told Sky Sports: “It’s the balance between forcing the game and playing really smart shots.”Asked how to find that balance Wyatt, a veteran of 266 international games, indicated that she leaned heavily on experience. “It’s just about making smart decisions and not being reckless. For me, I play my best when I’m showing intent but I do it in a calm and relaxing way.”Obviously you want to feel good going into games, but most of it is up here [tapping her temple]. I’ve got a lot of experience. I’ve had ups and downs most of my career and every batter will say there’s always a score around the corner and cricket is a brutal game, you’ve just got to keep going and back yourself.”Wyatt believes her first century in the format – during the 2017 Ashes in Australia – was the innings that really got her batting going.”I showed the world what I could do and I always knew I had that in me,” Wyatt said. “People forget I was actually a bowler the first half of my career. I used to open the bowling, which I really enjoyed, and then started to get lower-back trouble and my bowling just went downhill. Then my batting was overtaking. So I always knew deep down I was actually more of a batter. But I used to be a pinch hitter and I knew deep down I was a better batter than a pinch hitter.”She also revealed that while in the 70s she allowed herself to think about scoring her third T20I century, although she was at pains to point out that it hadn’t cost her wicket. Had she done so, she would have become only the third woman to reach the milestone, after Fatuma Kibasu of Tanzania and UAE’s Esha Oza. She is among eight players with two.”I’ve been after that third T20 hundred for years,” she said. “I just thought, ‘I’m just going to keep going.’ That was the easiest way to play on that pitch. Hopefully I’ll get there one day.”

How will it affect selection for the Border Gavaskar Trophy and why will North India get games earlier?

Deivarayan Muthu and Vishal Dikshit10-Oct-2024

Ranji Trophy with timeout

The Ranji Trophy will be played in two phases this time, with the 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy sandwiched in between. There are quite a few reasons behind the Ranji season being split including minimising weather-related disruptions especially in northern India as well as to look after players’ workloads and manage better the fitness of fast bowlers.Each team will play five league games during a five-week window between October-November before the focus shifts to the two white-ball competitions. Several players, especially fast bowlers, have endorsed the first-class tournament being split into two phases because it could potentially facilitate better recovery.Related

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After going through the grind of five Ranji Trophy league matches, the fast bowlers could attune their bodies to bowl shorter spells in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which will begin on November 23, and then steadily ramp up their load and prep again for the second phase of the Ranji Trophy, which will commence on January 23, 2025, five days after the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. As for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, it will conclude on December 15.Last season, when many teams had just a three-day break between Ranji matches, Mumbai allrounder Shardul Thakur was critical of the schedule, saying “there will be a lot of injuries across the country”. The BCCI has taken the suggestions from the players and coaches on board introducing an extra day’s gap between matches for better workload management in the forthcoming season.While the focus will move quickly to the white-ball tournaments, the initial leg of the Ranji holds a lot of significance for several players on the fringes of national selection. The selectors would be keenly following the initial rounds with an eye on both the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia as well as the shadow red-ball tour by India A which will be played between October 31 to November 10.

Players for whom this season could mean a big deal

As far as India selection is concerned, this Ranji season could be particularly significant for the likes of Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad and B Sai Sudharsan.After having lost their central contracts in February earlier this year, both Iyer and Kishan are back in the domestic mix in their quest to return to India’s Test team. While Kishan marked his domestic return with 111 off 126 balls in the Duleep Trophy in Anantapur, Iyer has made three fifties in his last four first-class games, including a first-innings 57 in Mumbai’s Irani Cup win.

Notable player transfers

• Mandeep Singh – from Punjab to Tripura

• Wriddhiman Saha – from Tripura to Bengal

• B Aparajith – from TN to Kerala

• Rajneesh Gurbani – from Vidarbha to Maharashtra

• Kuldeep Sen – from TN to MP

• R Samarth – from Karnataka to Uttarakhand

Meanwhile, Easwaran, Gaikwad and Sudharsan are in a three-way race for the reserve opener’s slot for the tour of Australia. If recent form is anything to go by, Easwaran has pulled ahead with three centuries in his last four innings, including his 191 in the Irani Cup. He will feature in his 100th first-class game, at home, in the second round before he potentially boards the flight for India A’s tour of Australia.

Don’t forget the old horses: Pujara and Rahane

By picking 60 of the “finest players” from the country [as was stated in the BCCI release] for the four Duleep Trophy squads last month, the Ajit Agarkar-led election committee had chalked out the pool of players they were keeping tabs on and grooming for the near future. And even though there is a tour of Australia around the corner, they left out two batters who played massive roles in winning the last two Test series there – Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. Both are 36, both coming off fairly successful county stints in the UK, and now both will get back to the platform budding players use to vault to the Indian team.Cheteshwar Pujara currently has 20,899 first-class runs•PTI They have barely anything left to prove in domestic cricket with nearly 21,000 first-class runs to Pujara’s name and over 13,500 to Rahane’s, along with Ranji titles in recent years, and all the respect they can earn in the domestic circuit with their feats . Yet, it is their passion for the game that will bring them back in the whites in this October heat. It could also be certain personal goals, perhaps the fading dream of playing 100 Tests for Rahane – like he had said last season – but it is India’s domestic circuit that becomes richer with their presence at the end of the day as it makes the tournament more competitive and worth following for the big names.

Scheduling tweaks – north India first, the rest later

The last Ranji season had commenced on January 5, in the extreme and biting cold of many parts of India, after the white-ball tournaments had concluded. Not surprisingly, many red-ball games were affected by weather interruptions such as fog and bad light. There were a fair few games in the early rounds where not a single ball was bowled on the first day in Meerut, Mohali and Chandigarh which irked the home teams as it poured water on their chances of progressing to the next round. There were several hours of play lost in Lahli, Jammu, Delhi, Kanpur, Mullanpur and other cities as well.When the first leg kicks off this time – October 11 to November 16 – a bulk of the matches will be held in Srinagar, Delhi, Dharamsala, Lucknow, Rohtak, Chandigarh, Shillong, Dehradun and Mullanpur before the winter season kicks in properly, and they’re unlikely to get interrupted by poor weather. That will bring respite to the host teams like Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Services, Uttarakhand and Punjab, and give them a chance to play completed matches instead of seeing out forced draws. For the second leg in January, hardly any matches have been slotted for north India when the race for the knockouts heats up.The knockouts will be played from February 8 to March 2.

There were low expectations heading into the tournament on the back of a 10-game losing streak, but captain Sophie Devine has instilled a belief

Shashank Kishore14-Oct-2024Shortly after Amelia Kerr claimed Sadia Iqbal’s wicket to seal New Zealand’s first T20 World Cup semi-final since 2016, Sophie Devine was pulled into a team huddle. Devine’s first instinct was to wait until the reserves joined in. As the group got together, Devine was overcome with emotions.Tears flowed liberally. Suzie Bates embraced her in a warm hug, Katey Martin, the former wicketkeeper, who was to do a post-match segment on TV, joined in. Leigh Kasperek, who’d been running drinks and can be a claimant for the softest voice in the team, belted out a roar.Related

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Amelia, an icon not just for her all-round exploits but for her openness about mental health battles that have triggered winds of change within the system, had her arms aloft and eyes closed to soak in the moment before sister Jessica gave her a hug.Izzy Gaze, among the youngest in the group and in her first World Cup, was so overjoyed she wasn’t sure whether to run to the dugout first or to meet her family who were in the stands. For fast bowler Lea Tahuhu, it was a call, possibly back home to her partner, former New Zealand batter Amy Satterthwaite, who took a step back post her retirement to be there for their kids, one of them barely four months old.For Eden Carson, the architect of their first win against India that set up their campaign, this was a vindication of her brave call to have put on hold a career in veterinary nursing. Delivering a knockout blow to Pakistan while securing their semi-final, brought her a Player of the Match award medal that she couldn’t take her eyes off.Rosemary Mair didn’t know she’d be on the plane for the World Cup when she was diagnosed with a back injury in March. But all through her time in rehab, Devine kept pepping her up to say the World Cup would be her grand stage for a comeback. Words that initially soothed pain turned prophetic. When Mair knocked over Sidra Amin’s middle stump, the ecstatic yelp told you what it meant.For Georgia Plimmer, it meant so much that the first person she turned to was Devine. Plimmer had averaged 9.11 in her first 18 T20Is and was only marginally better – averaging 13.80 – in her first nine ODIs up until last November. Devine and New Zealand coach Ben Sawyer’s backed her through this.

The belief’s huge at the moment, so we will celebrate tonight and enjoy that and spend some quality time together as a group. But yeah, we know that the job’s only half done nowSophie Devine

When Plimmer hit 139-ball 147 for Wellington against Northern Districts in a domestic game, it was validation of Sawyer and Devine’s early impressions of watching a precociously talented young girl who had potential but not the scores to justify being in the conversation. At the World Cup, Plimmer’s crucial half-century in a match-winning effort against Sri Lanka set their campaign back on track.Plimmer’s recent performances – she hit her maiden T20I fifty on the tour of Australia just before the World Cup – have somewhat justified Devine’s decision to bat lower down, not because she likes it, but because it’s what New Zealand need looking at the future, especially when Devine and Bates retire.It’s these stories, of hope, grit, resolve and an unwavering never-say-die spirit that remained intact all through their 10-match losing streak coming into the tournament, that came together at that huddle which Devine wanted everyone to join in.It was an exhibition of a leadership trait Devine has imbibed on the long road towards building the future, while allowing her younger players an environment to flourish even if results were as abysmal as they were. Those results are now beginning to show.Last year in South Africa, Devine sat through a press conference asking questions about New Zealand’s decline and their inability to cross the group stages. Here in the UAE, the mood at the end of the group stage wasn’t as sombre. There were tears; these were happy tears.Devine was swelled with emotions of a “proud mum”, not necessarily the “cool mum they want me to be,” for defying expectations and trying conditions to make that step up when “no one expected us to be here.”In a way, the journey of 18 months hasn’t just been a journey in team building but one of constant readjustment for Devine. A readjustment of methods, mindsets, mental make-up and also player-management – essentially an “all-in-one” role with support from the team management.Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine toast New Zealand’s semi-final sealing win•ICC/Getty Images”When I stepped into the leadership and captaincy role I thought I could be everything to everyone and it’s just not possible,” she said. “And the great thing is with our leadership group is that we’ve got people that connect stronger with certain people and that’s natural when you’re in groups.”So, for me to be able to lean on those people if I need them to check on someone or to have a conversation, to be able to lean on them if I feel like I’m not the best person to do that. That’s probably been one of my biggest learnings, because I want to fix things and I want to help people and I want to make sure everyone’s okay, but I’m also not that person for everyone.”This is where Devine underlined how important her core group has been, of which Bates and Amelia have been an integral part. “I feel really fortunate that I’ve got that support around me,” she said. “It’s not managing people, it’s just relationships and caring about people.”That’s one of our greatest values in this White Ferns group; we speak a lot about caring for one another as people before cricketers and I hope that you can see that out there with the way that we celebrate one another’s successes.”We genuinely just love each other and love seeing each other succeed which makes it so much sweeter when you get results like you do tonight. The belief’s huge at the moment, so we will celebrate tonight and enjoy that and spend some quality time together as a group. But yeah, we know that the job’s only half done now.”

Big chases bring all the drama and here is a list of five from the IPL that had almost everything

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Apr-2025Jonny Bairstow made an unbeaten 108 in a chase of 262•BCCIPunjab Kings 262 for 2
In a season where run-scoring and six-hitting scaled new heights, this clash raised the bar for T20 cricket. The match featured a record 42 sixes and produced the highest successful chase in the format – 262. KKR’s 261 for 6 was powered by a 138-run opening stand between Sunil Narine and Phil Salt, with the middle order adding the finishing touches. In reply, Prabhsimran Singh provided the early thrust before Jonny Bairstow’s fiery hundred and Shashank Singh’s 28-ball 68 sealed the mighty chase with eight balls to spare.ESPNcricinfo LtdSunrisers Hyderabad 247 for 2
It was Abhishek’s night in Hyderabad. A stroke of luck came early when he was caught on 28, but it turned out to be off a no-ball. Most times, when he hit the ball in the air, it either disappeared into the stands or dropped safely in no man’s land. Occasionally, as is the case when playing such high-risk innings, the ball went in the general direction of a fielder but PBKS weren’t able to hold onto their catches. Abhishek dismantled PBKS’ bowling attack with audacious ease. He stormed to his maiden IPL century in just 40 balls and went on record the highest individual score (141 off 55 balls) by an Indian in IPL history. Head played the perfect supporting act, hammering 66 off 37 in a dominant 171-run opening stand.Rahul Tewatia was the centre of attention after his spectacular innings against Kings XI in IPL 2020•BCCIRajasthan Royals< 226 for 6
With Rajasthan Royals (RR) needing 51 off the final three overs, Rahul Tewatia’s 17 off 23 balls was turning into a disastrous promotion to No. 4. But what followed was one of the most dramatic turnarounds in IPL history. Tewatia smashed five sixes off Sheldon Cottrell’s over. He and Jofra Archer added three more sixes, and a four, in the next nine balls. RR chased down 224 – the highest IPL chase at the time – with three balls to spare. Earlier, Sanju Samson’s 85 off 42 had kept them in the hunt against PBKS.Jos Buttler pulled off a great one-man rescue act for Rajasthan Royals last year•BCCIRajasthan Royals 224 for 8
The standout performer of KKR’s title-winning campaign, Sunil Narine, smashed his maiden T20 century to lift his side to 223 for 6 and then struck with the ball too. With 103 to defend off 46 balls and four wickets remaining for RR, KKR were cruising. But Jos Buttler had other plans. With a strapped-up hamstring that kept him out of the previous game, Buttler single-handedly turned the chase on its head – scoring 70 of the remaining runs, retaining strike for the final 18 balls, and completing the win with five sixes and six fours.The Pandya brothers run to congratulate Kieron Pollard on taking Mumbai home in a chase of 219•BCCI/IPLMumbai Indians 219 for 6
This was one of those chases that cemented Kieron Pollard’s status as Mumbai Indians (MI) saviour. Ambati Rayudu’s blazing 72 off 27 balls had powered CSK to 218 for 4. MI came out swinging in the powerplay but stumbled with three quick wickets. MI needed 125 off the last eight overs with Pollard batting on 2 off 4. Then the tide started turning – he hit three sixes off Ravindra Jadeja, followed by a barrage against the quicks. Cameos from the Pandya brothers helped bring it down to 16 off the final over. Pollard kept strike throughout and sealed the win off the last ball with a nervy, match-winning double.

Punjab Kings created a new record by defending 111 against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2025

Varun Shetty16-Apr-20252:07

Rayudu: ‘Chahal bowled to get a wicket, not to defend’

111

PBKS vs KKR, Mullanpur, 2025
Punjab Kings (PBKS) went from failing to defend 245 one game to defending 111 the next. Chasing 112, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were 7 for 2, then 72 for 3, and then 95 all out. Chahal was clattered for 16 in his last over by Russell, who kept KKR in the game for a little longer, but the legspinner ended with 4 for 28, which proved pivotal. Marco Jansen and Arshdeep Singh chipped in at the end to close the job. The ball turned and gripped but not enough to explain how a team chasing 112 went from cruise control to losing six wickets in 5.2 overs.

116/9

CSK vs KXIP, Durban, 2009
This was back when 116 in T20 cricket could still be competitive, especially if Muthiah Muralidaran was on your side. Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) batting spluttered on a slow pitch, but Kings XI Punjab’s (KXIP) chase was less of a reply and more of a slow surrender. R Ashwin and Suresh Raina bowled eight overs for 30 between them, taking four wickets. Muralidaran went for eight in his four and also took two wickets. KXIP never looked in a hurry.Siddarth Kaul’s three-for helped Sunrisers Hyderabad defend 118•BCCI

118

SRH vs MI, Mumbai, 2018
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) came into this match missing Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake, got bowled out in 18.4 overs and then produced one of the sharpest defensive bowling displays seen in the IPL. Rashid Khan bowled 16 dots in his four overs, taking 2 for 11. Siddarth Kaul hit hard lengths during his three-for and dismissed Mumbai Indians’ (MI) last hope in Hardik Pandya, whose 3 off 19 was a painful crawl. Basil Thampi closed it all out after dismissing the set Suryakumar Yadav in the 16th over. MI lasted a ball more than SRH but made only 87.

119/8

KXIP vs MI, Durban, 2009
KXIP’s three-pronged pace attack bowled canny spells to rock MI’s chase, and despite a composed half-century from JP Duminy, KXIP hung on to complete a nerve-wracking three-run victory. MI hardly set a wrong foot forward from the time they lost the toss, striking early through spin and keeping their hands on the jugular through Lasith Malinga’s late strikes, but they failed to chase 120. Earlier, Sangakkara had kept the KXIP innings alive with an unbeaten 45 and it proved to be decisive.

119/8

SRH vs PW, Pune, 2013
Pune Warriors (PW) needed 19 off 19 balls. They had six wickets in hand. And then Amit Mishra happened. He took a hat-trick and ended with figures of 4 for 19, after making an important 30 off 24 earlier when SRH themselves were 44 for 6. PW batted only 13 off those last 19 balls to lose their remaining six wickets. Mishra walked off with a shrug. It was the third hat-trick of his IPL career.

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.”

Australia’s attack takes advantage of a timid batting display, but could we have expected different?

Andrew Miller11-Jun-20252:55

Hayden: Australia won day one because of SA batters’ lack of intent

The agony was palpable as Wiaan Mulder and Temba Bavuma ground their way through a third-wicket stand of six that spanned 40 interminably accurate balls.Hard length on off stump… nip, bounce, rinse, repeat. Some balls were stared down, and patted straight back whence they came. Others seared past the splice, to the oohs of a stacked cordon and the groans of a packed South Africa contingent in the stands, whose previous sense of a day well dominated was retreating with every non-shot.Despite facing 132 balls in a fraught evening session, close to 50% of South Africa’s 43 runs came from exactly five scoring shots – a trio of driven boundaries from Ryan Rickelton at the top of the order, then two more fours in consecutive deliveries at the absolute close of play, as Pat Cummins over-reached in his bid for an inswinging yorker, and gifted David Bedingham a brace of leg-stump freebies.Related

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Yes, there was a certain dignity in South Africa’s strokeless defiance, most particularly from the captain Bavuma, who will resume on 3 not out from 37 balls on Thursday morning with another vast burden to shoulder. And yet, in between whiles, there were four very emphatic wickets – three of them bowled, and the fourth snicked to first slip – as Australia’s magnificent seam attack, all 955 Test wickets between them before the start of the WTC final, accepted the invitation to come at their opponents and bowl their best balls without any real threat of retaliation.”I thought the guys bowled pretty well, to be fair,” Steven Smith said at the close. “It wasn’t the easiest surface to come out and wallop it. The couple of times they went at it and tried to drive the ball, we got the edges. A couple [of them] played nicely when they were late and defending under their eyes. They were difficult to get out. It’s the kind of wicket you’ve got to be solid in defence and, when you get a loose ball, you pounce on it.”Smith’s logic was sound enough, and earlier in the day, it had been borne out in his own performance – a vital 66 from 112 balls that was as composed in its compilation as Beau Webster’s 72 had been neurotic: “for his first 30 balls, it didn’t look like he could spell ‘bat’,” as Smith evocatively put it at the close. As Kagiso Rabada proved with his own magnificent five-for, this pitch has plenty to offer to the very best in the business.1:45

‘Pretty cool to have it in the home changeroom’ – Rabada on his five-for

Even so, it was an atypical day of Test cricket for the many neutrals in the stands – in other words, the regular Lord’s clientele who have got used to watching England take a radically different approach to batting in recent seasons. And there were doubtless some conflicting emotions at play as a consequence.On the one hand, it’s fair to assume that most of those neutrals would have been urging South Africa to start giving it some welly (because, let’s face it, everyone loves an underdog in these parts, especially when they aren’t Australian). But also, for those with memories that stretch back longer than three years, there might also have been a ghastly realisation: yikes, this was us once.Whether or not Bazball is an actual thing that Australians acknowledge as a tactic, Cummins’ team saw the whites of its eyes on this ground two years ago. In the 2023 Ashes, England served up perhaps the diametrically opposite performance to today’s fare, particularly, in a first innings of such self-immolating recklessness that they wrecked their own chances of victory by swinging too high, too hard, and too often. Alex Carey’s instincts in the second innings may have ignited a furious final act, but the match – and the Ashes – were lost in that blizzard of over-eager aggression.Even so, the manner of that defeat was infinitely preferable to – and, in fact, a direct consequence of – the experience England had endured in their previous encounter with the Australians in 2021-22: a trial by paralysis, of precisely the type that South Africa experienced today.The Wiaan Mulder experiment at No. 3 didn’t come off•Getty ImagesThe nadir of that series was reached in the third Test in Melbourne – a strokeless surrender in which Haseeb Hameed, not unlike Mulder today, batted to the absolute limit of his brief in making seven runs from 41 balls across two innings, as Scott Boland served up the ridiculous second-innings figures of 6 for 7.And if England, in that moment, declared “never again”, and vowed to find a different way to shape their narrative, then it needs also to be acknowledged that they did so from a position of privilege: as a Big Three nation, with the financial clout to schedule 22 Tests in a WTC cycle, compared to South Africa’s 12, and with the certainty of selection that allows their players to chase their shots with impunity. Zak Crawley’s entire Test career has been built on the premise that one false move will not bring down either his ambitions, or those of the men around them.It’s not so simple for South Africa at this delicate juncture of their evolution. Win this Test, and the team’s development might yet be self-perpetuating – amid the interest and accolades that come from being world champions. Lose, however, and maybe it’ll be back to the square minus-one that they faced at the start of this cycle, when Neil Brand (remember him?) led a scratch first-class squad to get crushed in two Tests in New Zealand, while the main characters got stuck into the first season of the SA20.So, it’s hard to argue that South Africa played their cards wrong today. “One does not simply walk into Mordor and Bazball,” as that Boromir meme might have put it, not even when you’ve recruited one of the concept’s chief architects, Stuart Broad, to impart some mindset gems.1:28

Steyn: Doing it in big games has become a habit for Starc

But what’s a team to do when faced with one of the very best attacks in Test history, on a pitch which, as Smith put it, was “doing enough all day… [with] a bit of variable bounce and a bit of sideways movement”?More of the same, presumably, when Bavuma and Bedingham resume on the second morning, with brighter sunshine in prospect, but with a dry surface already itching to bring the spinners into play – if and when they are required. For Smith didn’t anticipate any significant deterioration in the ball’s hardness until the 40th over, which was when Webster’s first-innings effort had been able to escape the pressure and develop into something meaningful.But for that to transpire in the current conditions, South Africa’s remaining batters will need to endure for the best part of the morning session without further error – and even then, as Carey showed with the ill-conceived reverse-sweep after tea that triggered Australia’s dramatic loss of five wickets for 20 runs, you’re as likely to be damned for doing as you would be for sticking to your original plan.At moments such as these, though, you’re still entitled to wonder whether it’s more reckless to roll the dice, or to dig in with such blinkered determination that you’re closing yourself off to the inevitable.

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