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Lunch England took a huge step towards a series-clinching win just before lunch on the fifth day in Manchester when Jofra Archer finally dislodged Shubman Gill after 87 overs of resistance.When Gill walked out to face a hat-trick ball in the first over of India’s second innings, his team trailed by 311 runs and looked certain to lose within four days. But a doughty, defiant century – the fourth in his first series as India captain – kept the match and the series alive, trimming the deficit to under 100 and slowly wearing England’s bowlers down.Gill was given a life early on the fifth day when Ollie Pope failed to hold onto a stinging chance at short cover, and was hit on the glove and helmet as Ben Stokes broke through the pain barrier to bowl an eight-over spell from the James Anderson End. Stokes did not bowl on the fourth day due to cramp and grimaced after every ball due to a shoulder niggle.But he was the man that gave England their first breakthrough, pinning KL Rahul on the back pad to trap him lbw and break a partnership worth 188 with Gill. Stokes exploited the variable bounce on offer throughout his spell, with some balls shooting through low and others – like the brute that struck Gill – leaping unexpectedly.Chris Woakes took the new ball alongside Archer and occasionally beat the bat, with Gill surviving an incredibly tight leave soon after a celebratory yelp on reaching three figures. But he played away from his body to a back-of-a-length ball from Archer shortly before lunch, and edged through to Jamie Smith to make England clear favourites.

Australia were left contemplating the possibility of needing to replace over 10,000 runs after Steven Smith suffered a compound dislocation of the little finger on his right hand on the third day of the World Test Championship final at Lord’s, leaving him a major doubt for the upcoming tour of the West Indies, as a rare loss in a tournament decider loomed into view.Smith suffered the injury when he dropped a sharp chance offered by Temba Bavuma on 2 as the South Africa captain edged Mitchell Starc to first slip where Smith was standing so close that he was wearing a helmet.Smith immediately knew he was in trouble and started to leave the field in significant pain even before the medical staff reached him.”He was assessed by Australian team medical staff at the ground and taken to the hospital for X-rays and further treatment,” a CA spokesperson said.The dropped catch was a pivotal moment in the day as South Africa would have been 76 for 3 chasing 282 had it been held, but instead Bavuma was unbeaten on 65 at the close as fought through a hamstring injury.Since 1996, Australia’s men have lost just one of the 10 global finals they have been in – the 2010 T20 World Cup against England – but barring a spectacular South Africa collapse on Saturday will relinquish the mace.”We understand the magnitude of the task, that 8 for 70 or whatever it is, is incredibly tricky and conditions would have to go away,” assistant coach Daniel Vettori said. “I think with the nature of where the ball is at and the surface, it’s a difficult task, but it is a task that the group has probably done at times throughout the last three, four, some of them five, six, even longer years.”Meanwhile, Smith’s injury also leaves Australia with the prospect of having a big hole to fill in their batting order in the West Indies, where the first Test begins in Barbados on June 25, although the extent of Smith’s injury was still being assessed at the close of play with him not having returned to the ground from hospital.Earlier this year left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann was able to make a swift return to action after suffering a similar blow in the BBL before going on to take 16 wickets in the series against Sri Lanka.Australia already have significant uncertainty around their top order with Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green struggling in the WTC final. After a relatively lean period by his high standards, Smith has been prolific in recent Tests with four hundreds in five matches against India and Sri Lanka before 66 in the first innings at Lord’s.Should Smith be ruled out of all or part of the West Indies tour, it could create an opening for Sam Konstas’ return, with Labuschagne going back to No. 3 and Green dropping down to No. 4 where he made 174 not out against New Zealand before his back injury.Josh Inglis is the other spare batter in the squad for the WTC final, which will be the same group that travels to the Caribbean. Should reinforcements be needed, Nathan McSweeney could come into consideration while the resurgent Kurtis Patterson could be another option.

Matt Henry had been desperate to play in the final of the Champions Trophy. He had taken five wickets in the previous match in Dubai, against India. He was the tournament’s highest wicket-taker. And even after he suffered the injury to the shoulder as he took the catch that removed Heinrich Klaasen in the semi-final against South Africa, he came back and bowled two further overs, and fielded.And yet, the injury kept him out of the final, against an opposition he has tended to dominate. In 11 ODIs against India, he has 21 wickets at an average of 21.00, with an economy rate of 4.48. India’s chase in Dubai suffered stutters through the middle, but they eventually got home with four wickets to spare, and an over in reserve.Henry was missed, said captain Mitchell Santner. His replacement Nathan Smith only bowled two overs in the final. Henry went through a fitness test just before the game, and was visibly distraught as he was failing it.Related

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“He was the leading wicket-taker going into this game, and he’s an outstanding bowler, as we’ve seen,” Santner said. Henry’s ten wickets at an average of 16.70 still leads the Champions Trophy wickets chart, despite his missing the final. “He seems to be able to nip it on wickets that don’t look like they should nip, so I guess we missed that today. I feel for Matty. He’s a massive team man, and he looked pretty distraught.”We just kind of said, like, let’s do it for him. To come this far and then be injured for the main event was pretty tough for him and I guess for us. He tried everything he could to be ready for this game, and unfortunately for us, he wasn’t quite there.”There were other battles that New Zealand had had to fight through in the course of the tournament. Where India played all five matches in Dubai, New Zealand had to zip between Dubai and all three venues in Pakistan – the only team in the Champions Trophy to play at four venues.Rachin Ravindra, the Player of the Tournament with 263 runs at an average of 65.75 and a strike rate of 106.47, plus three wickets, had also suffered a blow to his forehead attempting a catch in the outfield in the tri-series in Pakistan that preceded the Champions Trophy. Kyle Jamieson, meanwhile, was a late replacement for Lockie Ferguson, who was injured playing in the ILT20.1:27

Southee: Henry not playing the final a ‘massive loss’ for New Zealand

“It’s never going to go perfectly in these tournaments, I guess, with the quick turnaround of games like we had,” Santner said. “But I think what’s most pleasing is different guys got opportunities and stepped up as. I couldn’t be prouder of the group.”There were guys coming in and out due to injury. And then the way Rachin came back straightaway after his head knock and hit the ground running was great. And Kyle Jamieson flying over and coming straight into the team – I thought he bowled extremely well in the games he played.”Although New Zealand made mistakes in the field as they attempted to defend a target of 253 in the final, it was the first innings that had been definitive, Santner said. New Zealand were 57 for no wicket after 7.4 overs, but then lost Will Young, Ravindra and Kane Williamson in quick succession, to be 75 for 3 after 12.2 overs. Varun Chakravarthy struck the first blow, before Kuldeep Yadav dismissed Ravindra and Williamson within his first seven deliveries.”I think the way we went about it for the first eight overs or so was outstanding. And then it took some brilliance from the spinners to really peg us back and make it challenging through that middle phase,” Santner said. “After the start, we were probably thinking of a score around 275 or 280. Credit has to go to Kuldeep for the way he bowled straight after the powerplay, and Varun inside the powerplay.”

England batter Jacob Bethell is set to miss the Champions Trophy after sustaining a left hamstring injury* on the tour of India. Bethell missed Sunday’s second ODI in Cuttack, with England captain Jos Buttler saying afterwards he was unlikely to be fit for the tournament, which starts in 10 days’ time.”I’m pretty sure he’s been ruled out of the Champions Trophy, to be honest,” Buttler said. “That’s really disappointing for him, obviously he played nicely the other day and has been one of the really exciting players so it’s a shame that the injury is going to rule him out.”With Jamie Smith still recovering from a calf issue – the tourists were forced to name assistant coaches Marcus Trescothick and Paul Collingwood as sub-fielders in Cuttack – Somerset’s Tom Banton has been drafted into the squad as cover, and will arrive in India on Monday.The extent of Bethell’s injury will be established in the coming days, with England yet to make an official announcement about his status. England’s Champions Trophy campaign kicks off on February 22, against Australia in Lahore, and there is optimism around Smith’s recovery, with the wicketkeeper-batter taking part in the warm-ups on Sunday. The deadline for announcing replacements to the 15-man Champions Trophy squad is February 12.Bethell impressed with 51 and 1 for 18 with his left-arm spin in the first ODI against India, which the hosts won by four wickets. Having also performed well on his maiden Test tour of New Zealand at the end of 2024, with three half-centuries and an average of 52, he has been earmarked by head coach Brendon McCullum as a vital cog across all formats.Banton, meanwhile, has a chance to reignite his international career, having earned the last of his 20 white-ball caps in 2022. Though he has underwhelmed for England so far, with just three fifty-plus scores across four ODIs and 16 T20Is, he is in a rich vein of form off the back of a stellar ILT20, topping the competition’s batting charts.The 26-year-old struck 493 runs in 11 outings for MI Emirates, including two centuries, as the franchise reached the Eliminator stage where they were defeated by Sharjah Warriors.1900 GMT – This story was updated with Jos Buttler’s post-match quotes

An extra ODI has been added to Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka which will provide the visitors additional preparation for the Champions Trophy.The two matches will now take place on February 12 and 14 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo and will be day games.The first of the games begins just two days after the scheduled fifth day of the second Test in Galle so it remains to be seen how many players featuring in that match can turnaround for the one-dayer if the Test goes the distance.However, Australia have nine players in their preliminary Champions Trophy squad who aren’t part of the Test series, including captain Pat Cummins and fellow quick Josh Hazlewood.But Cummins’ participation remains uncertain as he is carrying an ankle injury which he played with during the India Test series.Australia’s ODI players are expected to arrive in Sri Lanka around the start of the second Test. Their first match in the Champions Trophy is against England on February 22 followed by South Africa on February 25 and Afghanistan on February 28.The first semi-final will take place in Dubai on March 4 with the second in Lahore on March 5 following confirmation of the hybrid model due to India not traveling to Pakistan. The final will be on March 9, in either Dubai or Lahore depending on whether India qualify.

Punjab Kings are likely to retain only two uncapped players – batters Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh – from their IPL 2024 squad. They will go into the upcoming mega auction with the largest purse, likely in excess of INR 100 crore, and also have four right-to-match options which can be used to buy back their players.ESPNcricinfo has learned PBKS were also keen to retain India fast bowler Arshdeep Singh, who was their second-highest wicket-taker last season with 19 wickets. Some of the high profile players not retained by PBKS ahead of the auction include Harshal Patel, Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone.Related

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PBKS will lose at least INR 8 crore from their purse of INR 120 crore for retaining two uncapped players. Shashank and Prabhsimran were their two top-scorers (354 and 334 runs respectively) in IPL 2024, where they finished ninth out of ten. Both batters played starring roles in their high-point of the season though, pulling off a record chase of 262 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens.PBKS have not qualified for the IPL playoffs since 2014 and have made changes to their coaching set-up as well in an attempt to turn their performances around in 2025, bringing in Ricky Ponting as head coach.October 31 is the deadline by which the ten franchises have to submit their lists of retained players to the IPL. The teams have been allowed to retain up to six players ahead of the mega auction before the 2025 season, of which a maximum of five can be capped internationals and two can be uncapped players. While the IPL has set minimum deductions from the auction purse for each player retained – INR 18 crore for the first player, INR 14 crore for the second, INR 11 crore for the third, INR 18 crore for the fourth, INR 14 crore for the fifth, and INR 4 crore for an uncapped player – the franchises are free to pay more or less than those amounts to their retained players.

Ashleigh Gardner has been cleared of concussion after the allrounder’s bizarre collision with Georgia Wareham before Australia’s T20I against New Zealand.Gardner missed Australia’s series-opening win in Mackay on Thursday night, after she and Wareham clashed heads during a warm-up game.Wareham has also been cleared of any concussion symptoms after recovering from the knock to play in the five-wicket win.Gardner, the reigning Belinda Clark Medallist, initially laughed off the incident before leaving the ground in tears. The 27-year-old has had a wretched history with concussions with seven throughout her professional career. The issue prompted Gardner to see a neuropsychologist in 2018, after suffering four in the space of 20 months. Saturday’s news will therefore come as a welcome relief to Gardner, with both she and Wareham a chance to play the second T20 against New Zealand in Mackay on Sunday.Australia also have other injury concerns ahead of next month’s World Cup in the UAE with Grace Harris (calf) and Kim Garth (knee) both missing the New Zealand series.Beth Mooney, who will pay her 100th T20I in the second match of the series, said Australia would be looking to sharpen up.”It was a good game for us, not a great one,” Mooney said. “So we’re looking to sharpen up every facet of the game, maybe getting off to a bit of a better start with the bat in terms of wickets lost, and then with the ball, maybe tidying up a few different areas there.”[New Zealand] got 140 on the board and they perhaps were a few runs short, so we’ll have to adjust tomorrow night if they come out pretty hard.”On the landmark game, which will come at the scene of one of her greatest performances, the unbeaten 125 against India in 2021, Mooney said: “It’s always nice to play one game for Australia, but to play a 100 when there was probably a time where I didn’t think I’d play any is very special.”New Zealand were without Sophie Devine for the first game of the series as she continues to recover from an ankle injury with a cautious approach being taken ahead of the T20 World Cup

Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee are expected to be back in action by November after being rested for South Africa’s white-ball tour of the UAE, where they will play Afghanistan and Ireland. The pair are a third of the way through a 12-week conditioning block as part of a CSA plan to manage the bowlers and help them recover from or prevent injury.Neither has played for South Africa since June, with Jansen rested from the West Indies Tests and Coetzee injured just before the matches. Currently, Jansen has a shoulder concern and Coetzee a hip issue, but even before those niggles, CSA had recognised the need to give them a break as part of a broader strategy to keep bowlers at their best.”Both of these young players were presenting with chronic physiological and physical things that are predisposed to fast bowling and so we realised that we had to step in. We have to give these guys the best chance of being able to perform,” Rob Walter, South Africa’s white-ball coach, said. “Obviously the workload on young cricketers has gone through the roof, especially guys who bowl fast. In order to ensure that their injuries didn’t put up the stop sign [on their careers], we wanted to put them on a conditioning block.”Related

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Similarly, South Africa are giving premier quick Kagiso Rabada an extended period of time off ahead of a busy period of Test cricket, which will start with two matches against Bangladesh in October. CSA is currently waiting on a security assessment to confirm the team’s travel to Bangladesh – the women’s T20 World Cup was moved out of the country to the UAE following political tensions – but expect to play the series at a neutral venue. That will be followed by two Tests against each of Sri Lanka and Pakistan before the SA20, Champions Trophy and IPL, leaving this as the only viable time to rest Rabada.”If you look at what he has in store for him, starting from when the Bangladesh Test series starts, it’s non-stop cricket,” Walter said. “When KG puts on a jersey for South Africa, we want him to be delivering his best and we’ve seen that when his pace is up, that’s when he’s most impactful and effective. It’s just not possible to keep expecting him to do that if we don’t provide these rest, recovery and conditioning windows. This was a perfect time to give him that opportunity. We don’t have a lot of Test matches so to have our best bowlers available and firing for Test cricket is absolutely imperative. So there’s a collaboration between myself and Shukri [Conrad – the red-ball coach] to make sure that that happens.”In Rabada’s absence, Lungi Ngidi and Ottneil Baartman will lead the pace attack in the UAE with Anrich Nortje, who opted out of a national contract as he works his way back from stress fractures, also omitted. Nortje played at the T20 World Cup 2024, but there is no indication of when he will consider representing South Africa in longer formats.South Africa are also resting their two frontline spinners, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi, and middle-order batters David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen, in the UAE as they look to deepen the player pool ahead of more anticipated schedule clashes. The tri-series in Pakistan ahead of next year’s Champions Trophy is one example, as it will coincide with the SA20 knockouts and so, South Africa will not have a first-choice squad available. To prepare for that, they are broadening the international player base on their UAE trip.”The reality is we can’t rely on one group of players to win games for South Africa and so the players that you see in the squad are either high potential players that we believe can make big contributions for South Africa moving forward, or the next best players in the country,” Walter said. “We want to make sure that we have a bigger group of players that can win games for South Africa. If we want to keep relying on the same faces to do that, what happens with injury, what happens with retirement, what happens in all those instances? The only way to know is to keep exposing players to international cricket.”

Moeen Ali, the England allrounder, has announced his retirement from all internationals.”I’m 37 years old and didn’t get picked for this month’s Australia series,” Moeen said in a Daily Mail interview. “I’ve played a lot of cricket for England. It’s time for the next generation, which was also explained to me. It felt the time was right. I’ve done my part.”Following an international debut in 2014, Moeen played 68 Tests, 138 ODIs and 92 T20Is as an allrounder. He finishes with 6678 runs, eight centuries, 28 fifties and 366 wickets for England across all formats. His last international outing was England’s semi-final loss to India at the T20 World Cup in Guyana.Related

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“I’m very proud. When you first play for England, you don’t know how many games you’re going to play. So to play nearly 300…My first few years were all about Test cricket. Once Morgs [Eoin Morgan] took over the one-day stuff, that was more fun. But Test cricket was the proper cricket.”Even now, I’ve tried to be realistic. I could hold on and try to play for England again, but I know in reality I won’t. Even retiring, I don’t feel it’s because I’m not good enough – I still feel I can play. But I get how things are, and the team needs to evolve into another cycle. It’s about being real to myself.””People forget the impact you make in games. It might only have been 20 or 30, but it was a crucial 20 or 30. For me, it was about making an impact. I know what I brought to the side, on and off the field. As long as I felt people enjoyed watching me play, whether or not I did well, I was happy with that.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Moeen will continue playing franchise cricket, and hopes to be involved in coaching moving forward.”A bit of franchise cricket, because I still love playing. But coaching is something I want to do – I want to be one of the best. I can learn a lot from Baz [Brendon McCullum]. I hope people remember me as a free spirit. I played some nice shots and some bad shots, but hopefully people enjoyed watching me.”Moeen is currently set to play his maiden CPL season in the Caribbean, having signed up as a replacement player for defending champions Guyana Amazon Warriors. In terms of franchise cricket over the last 12 months, he has also represented Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, the Joburg Super Kings in SA20 and Comilla Victorians in the BPL.On his greatest moment, he said: “Winning the Ashes and two World Cups was great, but from an individual point of view it was my Test hat-trick against South Africa at the Oval to win us the game. And I’m proud to have the fastest T20 50 for England [16 balls vs South Africa in 2022].”

Career best performances from Andy Gorvin and Eddie Byrom helped Glamorgan maintain their 100 percent record in this year’s Metro Bank One Day Cup as they beat Notts Outlaws by eight wickets at the Gnoll in Neath.Glamorgan’s seamers did a fantastic job at keeping the Outlaws’ batting line up under control with Gorvin’s 5 for 56 the star performance with Jamie McIlroy and Dan Douthwaite picking up two wickets eachThe Outlaws finished on 274 for 9 and Glamorgan chased that down with relative ease with Byrom finishing on 123 and Colin Ingram making 103.This victory means Glamorgan sit at the top of Group B ahead of Warwickshire on net run rate.Notts Outlaws made a slow start in the face of some excellent new ball bowling from Timm van der Gugten and Jamie McIlroy as they scored 23 runs for the loss of two wickets inside the powerplay. Six of the first 10 overs were maidens and van der Gugten was perhaps a little unlucky to finish wicketless after regularly beating the bat.McIlroy picked up both wickets inside the fielding restrictions with Ben Slater going for 1 and Jack Haynes falling for his fourth consecutive duck in this competition. From there a stand of 86 from Freddie McCann and Haseeb Hameed brought the Outlaws back into the match.McCann fell for a career-best 48 when he inside edged the ball onto his foot and he was caught by Will Smale off the bowling of Gorvin.Wickets fell regularly throughout the Outlaws’ innings, and it was Hameed who held things together. He did well to survive the early movement from the Glamorgan seamers and he was in a position to counter attack against the leg spin of Colin Ingram which went for 22 runs in his two overs. Hameed was dismissed for 89 when he looked to accelerate towards the back end of the innings.The Outlaws went past 200 thanks to contributions from Tom Moores and Liam Patterson-White who both made scores in the thirties. The tail added some important runs to take Notts to a total that they could hope to defend.It was a completely different start to the Glamorgan innings as Byrom and Will Smale put on 103 for the first wicket to break the back of this chase.Smale had made 37 when he was caught by Lyndon James in the covers and Kiran Carlson fell in the next over when he nicked James through to wicket-keeper Moores to leave Glamorgan 108 for 2 and to give Notts Outlaws some hope.From there it was all about Byrom and Ingram who look Glamorgan to victory thanks to a brilliant stand of 170 that made the Outlaws’ total look a long way short of par on this pitch.Both batters were brutal on anything short and the small boundaries at the Gnoll presented no real challenge for the two set batters as the pair hit 27 fours and six sixes between them. Ingram went to his 10th List A hundred when he struck the winning runs.