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Wicketkeeper-batter hits 132 off 89 balls as hosts scrape to victory with one wicket to spare

ECB Reporters Network30-Jun-2025Somerset wicketkeeper-batter Thomas Rew scored a sensational 131 to break the record for the fastest century for England Under-19s and propel his country to a dramatic one-wicket win in this second one-day international against India at Northampton.Rew reached three figures off just 73 balls, beating Ben Foakes’ 79-ball ton against New Zealand in 2012. In all, Rew faced 89 balls in a display of brutal hitting and deft strokeplay, smashing 16 fours and six huge sixes.England captain Rew shared a stand of 123 in 21 overs with Lancashire’s Rocky Flintoff (39) but a clatter of late wickets left England nine down, needing seven off the final over. Middlesex’s Seb Morgan held his nerve to hit a boundary to seal the win with three balls to spare as England levelled the five-match series 1-1.With the ball, Surrey seamer Alex French took 4 for 71, while Leicestershire’s Alex Green and Worcestershire’s Jack Home each claimed three wickets as India were bowled out for 290 in exactly 49 overs.All of England’s seamers were guilty of spraying the ball, contributing an extra 26 runs in wides towards India’s eventual total. But after 14-year-old batting sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi (45) set the tone up top with Vihaan Malhotra (49), England pegged India back to 171 for 5. A quickfire sixth-wicket partnership of 78 in 12 overs between Rahul Kumar and Kanishk Chouhan reinvigorated the innings, allowing India to set a competitive total before French wrapped up the tail. RS Ambrish took the bulk of the wickets for India, finishing with figures of 4 for 80.England had elected to field and while French conceded six wides in his opening over, his first legal ball proved effective, knocking over Ayush Mhatre’s off stump.Suryavanshi set the early pace with two sixes off French, contributing the lion’s share of a stand of 67 in 10 overs. After Suryavanshi hooked Home for his third six over fine leg, though, Morgan took a well-judged boundary catch as the batter attempted to upper cut.Maulyarajsinh Chavda played his first shot in anger over extra cover off Home as he mounted a 50-run stand with Malhotra in 11 overs. Chavda attacked Green’s pace, but the Leicestershire quick sent his off stump flying when he attempted a big booming drive.Malhotra, who played some pleasant drives, then shared a stand worth 44 with Abhigyan Kundu before Malhotra top-edged Home to deep square leg. Kundu departed two overs later, caught at backward point, flashing outside off stump against Green.Kumar and Chouhan pressed the accelerator, taking the score to 249 before Home picked up his third wicket, Kumar heaving into the leg side where Joe Moores took a good catch. Then when Chouhan flat-batted Green down the wicket, he was well caught by Morgan, French nipping in to claim the last three wickets, all to catches in the outfield.England lost opener Ben Dawkins early, caught behind when he flashed outside off stump against Yudhajit Guha, while Ben Mayes hit a speedy 27 before cutting Ambrish straight to point. England lost a third wicket nine balls later as Isaac Mohammed prodded outside off stump and was caught low at slip off Ambrish to leave England 47 for 3 in the 12th over.Flintoff led the rebuilding initially, powering Ambrish over mid-on and punching him straight down the pitch. But Rew soon warmed up, taking consecutive boundaries off Chauhan, then driving him through cover to bring up the 50 partnership off 70 balls.Rew dismissively pulled a half-tracker from Mohammed Enaan for six, but after 25 overs England were 112 for 3 and behind the run rate. Needing to accelerate, Rew took the attack to Suryavanshi, swinging him over deep midwicket for six and four as England started to close in on the requirement.Rew motored on, blazing consecutive sixes over deep midwicket off Enaan, but lost Flintoff when he cut too close to his body, keeper Kundu taking a sharp catch.The runs kept flowing as Rew swung Chauhan away leg side for another six before celebrating his century, and then plundered 22 off one over from Ambrish, taking England past 200 before powering another six over midwicket and consecutive boundaries over the covers. But his valiant innings ended when he was caught in the deep off Patel, attempting another big leg-side shot, leaving England needing 61 more off 10.2 overs.They lost a sixth wicket next over when Guha had Moores caught at deep square leg. Ralphie Albert played some shots, but pulled Ambrish to midwicket, while Patel comprehensively bowled Home three balls later.With nerves jangling, Green and Morgan took 14 off Ambrish’s penultimate over, while Morgan hooked Guha for six, leaving England needing 12 from the last two overs. Green holed out at deep midwicket off the first delivery from Ambrish in the 49th over, but with seven needed off the final over, Morgan finished the game with elan.

Renuka Singh, Alyssa Healy set to return to action in what will be the first international at the New Chandigarh stadium

Sruthi Ravindranath13-Sep-20251:11

Healy: ‘India a sleeping giant for a long time now’

Big Picture: A dry run for the ODI World Cup

Can either team get better preparation than this in the lead-up to the ODI World Cup? India get to face the defending champions, while Australia get to play one of the tournament hosts and have a chance to acclimatise to the conditions well before other competing teams.Having won nine of the 11 ODIs they have played this year and having beaten England in their backyard in July, India will carry a lot of confidence into this series. However, Australia can be a formidable opponent: they have beaten India in 12 out of the 13 ODIs since Harmanpreet Kaur’s epic knock in the 2017 ODI World Cup semi-finals.India were whitewashed 3-0 in the last two series they had played against Australia. Four out of the last five times they’ve met in an ICC tournament, India have lost, including the semi-final of last year’s T20 World Cup. India will want to use this series not just as a dry run to get their team combination right but also to come up with plans to get past the Australia hurdle. If India win this series, they will enter the World Cup as favourites.Australia, meanwhile, haven’t played ODIs this year since January, when they wiped England out 3-0 in the Women’s Ashes. The last tournament they played was the T20I series against New Zealand in March. But they have ten players who were also part of the 2022 ODI World Cup side in this squad, and have lost just three out of 28 matches they played since that tournament. So, they will back themselves to shake off the rust and hit the ground running. They will be playing in New Chandigarh, a non-World Cup venue, but they will benefit from some quality practice, specifically against spin in the middle overs, which is expected to play a big role in the ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.Related

• Harmanpreet says India believe they can beat Australia 'any day'

• Australia ready to embrace 'little bit of unknowns' at ODI World Cup

• Healy hopes wicketkeeping 'tinkering' avoids recurrence of injury

• She gets knocked down but she gets up again: Sneh Rana's journey

Form Guide

India WLWWW (last five matches, most recent first)
Australia WWWWW

In the spotlight: Alyssa Healy and Sneh Rana

A ruptured plantar fascia at the 2024 T20 World Cup, a knee injury during the WBBL, and a stress fracture in the right foot during the Women’s Ashes. Australia captain Alyssa Healy has been dealing with recurring injuries since late last year which also affected her wicketkeeping. But she made a strong comeback for Australia A in the recent white-ball series against India A, making scores of 91 and 137 not out in the last two one-dayers and also keeping wicket, saying she made a few wicketkeeping ‘tinkering’ to avoid such injuries. A force for Australia in World Cups, she will hope to remain injury-free as she gears up for her first ODI World Cup as captain.Offspinner Sneh Rana has been on a roll ever since her comeback into India’s white-ball sides. A superb WPL season resulted in an ODI call-up, and she impressed immediately with 15 wickets in five games in the tri-series in Colombo in May. She followed that up with three wickets in the ODIs against England. With India expected to go spin-heavy for this series, and the World Cup that follows, Harmanpreet indicated during the squad announcement press conference that Rana will continue to be crucial in the middle overs.Alyssa Healy is set to return to action from injury•Getty Images

Team news: Renuka Singh returns from injury

With Renuka Singh back for the series from injury, she is expected to start ahead of Arundhati Reddy, who had played the ODIs against England, with Kranti Goud as the other fast bowler. India are also likely to go in with Rana, N Sree Charani and Deepti Sharma as spin options.India (probable): 1 Pratika Rawal, 2 Smriti Mandhana, 3 Harleen Deol, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Jemimah Rodrigues, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Deepti Sharma, 8 Sneh Rana, 9 N Shree Charani, 10 Kranti Goud, 11 Renuka SinghWill Australia tinker with the XI that last played against England in January? Though left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux is back in the side after a lengthy injury lay-off, she has not been given the green light to play. Healy said Molineux wasn’t “quite ready for the ODI format” and that Australia are “ready to have her back when she’s ready to go” at the press conference on the eve of the first ODI.Australia (probable): 1 Alyssa Healy (capt, wk), 2 Phoebe Litchfield, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Beth Mooney, 5 Annabel Sutherland, 6 Ash Gardner, 7 Tahlia McGrath, 8 Georgia Wareham, 9 Alana King, 10 Kim Garth, 11 Megan Schutt

Pitch and conditions

This will be the first international fixture at the New Chandigarh stadium, which has hosted 11 IPL matches in the last two years, so the conditions are a bit of an unknown for both sides. The weather is expected to be a bit cloudy on Sunday, with the possibility of showers in the afternoon, and clear for the rest of the day.Georgia Voll and Ash Gardner at the nets•PTI

Stats and Trivia

• India last beat Australia in an ODI at home in February 2007. They have lost all ten encounters since.
• Harmanpreet is set to become the third Indian to feature in 150 Women’s ODIs.
• Megan Schutt is set to become the ninth Australian to feature in 100 Women’s ODIs.
• Since June 2024, Smriti Mandhana has scored 1346 runs in 23 ODI innings, 581 runs more than the next best batter. She has scored six hundreds in this period, three more than any other batter.

Quotes

“No doubt, they [Australia] have been very dominating. They have played well all over the world and dominated. But we are also at a stage where, as a captain, we have the belief we can beat them on any day. The processes in the last one and a half years has been good, we have improved quite a lot. Even in England, we beat one of their best sides. These show that we are on the right track.”
“This is the most stable Indian team I’ve seen and I think they’re in a really good place heading into this World Cup, so I’m looking forward to that challenge. The rivalry continues to grow. I know how much they love beating Australia and I know how good they are in their home conditions and that’s really a challenge for us. I think it’s going to be a really enjoyable, hard-fought series.”

Having opened in the first three matches against India, he was dropped for the final two games in favour of Sam Konstas

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Dec-2024Nathan McSweeney has spoken of his heartbreak at being dropped from the Australia Test squad after three matches against India, and revealed trying to counter Jasprit Bumrah was a key to the selectors’ decision, but is determined to turn his mind towards pushing for a recall.McSweeney, who had never opened before playing for Australia A against India A in the game before the squad was selected for the first Test, was axed on Friday in favour of 19-year-old Sam Konstas who is now the favourite to open on Boxing day at the MCG.Related

• Konstas' MCG debut confirmed, Head faces a fitness test

• McSweeney seals thriller for Heat days after Test omission

• Konstas handed Boxing Day Test call-up as changes loom for Australia

• Will Konstas put an end to Australia's musical chairs at the top?

McSweeney made 72 runs in six innings in the face of challenging batting conditions but appears to have paid the price for the selectors wanting more impetus from the top order.”Yeah, I mean devastated, I get the dream come true and then didn’t quite work the way I wanted,” McSweeney told as he flew back to Brisbane from Adelaide. “But it’s all part of it and I’ll get my head down and get back in the nets and work really hard and hopefully be ready to go for the next opportunity.”While low on runs, McSweeney had been praised for his role in soaking up overs, especially the first innings under lights in Adelaide where he and Marnus Labuschagne made it through a crucial session on the first day, but his other five dismissals were between 0 and 10.”It’s the game we’re in,” he said. “If you don’t take an opportunity and you’re not performing as well as you want to, your position’s never safe. So I missed out a few times with the bat and unfortunately wasn’t able to take my opportunity but as I said I’ll work really to make sure that if the opportunity comes round again I’m definitely ready.”Speaking subsequently to on arrival in Brisbane, McSweeney detailed the challenges of Bumrah.”They had seen my results against Bumrah in the first three Tests and George said they wanted to try someone else who has a slightly different skill set and that suits the batting order,” he said. “I faced some balls and spent a bit of time out there so that helped my confidence but I did not get the scores that I wanted. As everyone was saying it probably does not get much harder.””But learning on the go is a different challenge. In Sheffield Shield cricket you face a good bowler and you might see him again after Christmas. It’s different and unique playing a five Test series and fronting up against him a week later so you are thinking on the run a lot.”McSweeney’s route back to Test cricket would now appear to be in the middle order although he will need to wait for a vacancy to open up. The return of Cameron Green from injury later in the year will create competition for those batting positions.Chair of selectors George Bailey admitted it had been a difficult message to relay to McSweeney.”[It was a] really hard decision for Nathan and one that we spent a lot of time deliberating over,” he said. “Particularly after a small sample size of three Tests… That’s never a great phone call, is it? Nathan was disappointed and really the message to him was much the same as at the start of the series, that we believe he has the ability and temperament to succeed at Test level.”Whether McSweeney is available for Brisbane Heat on Sunday, when they face Adelaide Strikers at the Gabba in the BBL, will be confirmed later on Saturday.

England cash in on 151-run first-innings lead thanks to brutal hitting on third day

Andrew Miller30-Nov-2024Close – New Zealand 348 (Williamson 93, Phillips 58*, Carse 4-64, Bashir 4-69) and 155 for 6 (Mitchell 31*, Smith 1*) lead England 499 (Brook 171, Stokes 80, Pope 77, Henry 4-84) by four runsFor a man who answers – as modestly as one can – to the nickname “Wizard”, Chris Woakes’ overseas record has become such a millstone that, in December last year, the man himself all but conceded his days as a touring Test cricketer were over, when he was omitted from England’s trip to India.But the retirements of Stuart Broad and James Anderson, and England’s insistence that their remodelled Test attack still needs a wise old head to lead it, have redefined his role within the squad. On the third day at Christchurch, he delivered the spell that justified that faith; three top-drawer wickets in New Zealand’s second innings, including the priceless scalp of a well-set Kane Williamson, that have put England within sight of victory in the first Test.Woakes dovetailed superbly with Brydon Carse, the newest addition to that seam attack, who utilised his heavy ball and unstinting energy to bomb his way to three wickets of his own, including Rachin Ravindra to his first ball of the evening session, and Glenn Phillips in the day’s closing moments.After two days of even toil, England had secured a day of outright dominance. It was set in motion by their belligerent batting in an overcast morning session, in which Harry Brook’s mighty 171 underpinned a total of 499 in 103 overs, and Ben Stokes made a hard-hitting 80, his highest score since the 2023 Ashes. Some free-wheeling hitting from an allrounder-stacked tail then put the seal on their innings, with Gus Atkinson and Carse clattering a total of 81 runs from 60 balls between them.Duly emboldened by a lead of 151, Woakes carried that attacking mindset into the field, serving up a performance that evoked his series-turning displays in the 2023 Ashes. He had gone wicketless across 20 overs in the first innings, reiterating those doubts in the process, but this time found an extra degree of nip from a fractionally fuller length, to finish the day with figures of 3 for 39 in 13 overs – already his third-best figures in 41 overseas innings.Woakes’ first breakthrough came with his ninth delivery of the innings. Tom Latham had been New Zealand’s most fluent performer on the opening day with a quickfire 47, but this time he played fractionally across the line to a wobble-seam delivery that straightened into his edge and looped to Brook at second slip for 1.Carse, bursting with energy once more, then struck in his first over as Devon Conway scuffed a pull to mid-on, where Atkinson stooped to gather a brilliant reaction catch, inches from the turf.Brydon Carse claimed the key wicket of Devon Conway•Joe Allison/Getty Images

Williamson and Rachin Ravindra confirmed that the pitch was still perfectly playable in reaching tea unscathed in a third-wicket stand of 39, with Williamson notching his 9,000th run in the process. But that serenity was shattered when Carse returned for the second over after the break, with no slips in situ and a clear intention to play on the batter’s ego. Ravindra duly went for broke first-ball, and Jacob Bethell backpedalled well at deep square leg to snap the trap shut.At 64 for 3, New Zealand were in desperate need of a partnership, and in Williamson and Daryl Mitchell – their outstanding performer on the 2022 tour of England – they found two wise heads who drew the sting from the situation, and set about nudging their team back towards the lead. But Woakes’ second spell cracked that resolve wide open.The signs that he’d found his rhythm were plain when Williamson, fresh from making his second fifty in a Test for the tenth occasion in his career, was forced into a brace of awkward fences past gully, and in his next over he produced the killer blow – a superb inducker that started on a tight off-stump line and kept coming back into Williamson’s pads, leaving him blowing his cheeks in exasperation as he called for the futile review.One ball later, Woakes was on a hat-trick – mobbed by his ecstatic team-mates in the process – as the out-of-form Tom Blundell was undone by the opposite delivery, one that nipped half a bat’s width away, and grazed the thinnest of edges through to the keeper. Glenn Phillips kept the hat-trick delivery out, and subsequently managed to erase the remaining deficit, but he couldn’t hold out to the close. Carse went wide on the crease, hit the pitch hard once more to find nip back off the seam, and umpire Rod Tucker’s onfield lbw verdict was upheld on umpire’s call.It continued a remarkable turnaround from England, who had been on the ropes at 71 for 4 early in their first innings, but scarcely took a backwards step after resuming on 319 for 5 in the morning session, a deficit of 29. Brook and Stokes both emerged with belligerence, determined that they would not be caught cold under the morning cloud cover, as had been the case in their stuttering start to the innings, with Brook becoming only the third England batter after Wally Hammond and Joe Root to pass 150 twice in New Zealand.And yet, having survived four drops on the second day, Brook was gifted a fifth life on 147. Phillips – who had handed him his first reprieve on 18 before grabbing a screamer to dislodge Ollie Pope – made a mess of another relatively straightforward catch that bounced out of his grasp at gully.Harry Brook flashes one away behind square•Joe Allison/Getty Images

The new ball was Brook’s cue to take his innings into overdrive, particularly against Tim Southee, whom he launched onto the pavilion roof with one especially contemptuous swipe. Just when it seemed there was no respite in prospect, Brook nibbled tamely outside off at Matt Henry, and snicked off to Blundell behind the stumps. He left the stage with an overseas Test average of 89.40, and exactly 500 runs at 100.00 in New Zealand alone.Woakes would save his impact for the ball, as Southee found his edge for 1 with a trademark outswinger that Latham – the spiller of three chances on day two – scooped up low at second slip. But England have brought some rare batting depth to this Test, and Atkinson – a centurion against Sri Lanka in the summer – and Carse each came out swinging from the get-go.Atkinson brought up England’s 400 with a swivelled pull for six over square leg off Henry, en route to 48 from 36 balls, but the shot of the day was Carse’s outrageous, wristy lap over deep fine leg for the second of his three sixes. He was left unbeaten on 33 from 24 when Shoaib Bashir become Henry’s fourth of the innings, although he had been dropped off his sixth ball by Phillips in the over after lunch – the eighth lapse of New Zealand’s fielding effort, and the third by Phillips alone. For all the dominance that England had exerted by the close, it wasn’t hard to spot where the tide had turned.

Highlights from Day 3 of the sixth round of Ranji Trophy matches

Shashank Kishore25-Jan-2025J&K beat Mumbai after 11 years
Eleven years after they first beat them in the Ranji Trophy, Jammu & Kashmir pulled off another heist against Mumbai to strengthen their knockouts hope. Chasing 205, they wobbled at different times with Shams Mulani picking up four wickets, but starts from each of the top five helped J&K win by five wickets. Opener Shubham Khajuria top-scored with 45, while Abid Mushtaq, who had minimal contribution with the ball, hitting a crucial 32 not out to seal victory.Gill century in vain as Karnataka stay aliveShubman Gill struck a combative 102, but couldn’t prevent Karnataka from running through Punjab for a second time in three days. After being bowled out for 55, Punjab batted out a little more time in the second dig to make 213, but still went down by an innings and 207 runs. Outside of Gill’s innings, the second highest from the top seven was Anmolpreet Singh’s 14. The bulk of the damage was done by young seam-bowling allrounder Yashovardhan Parantap, who picked up 3 for 37.Related

• Ranji round-up – TN close in on knockouts; Maharashtra stun Baroda

• Accuracy in, pressure off: How J&K took down mighty Mumbai

• Gill rediscovers red-ball gears in 'satisfying' century for Punjab

• Rahane lauds J&K seamers, admits he misread the conditions

Patidar, Venkatesh Iyer put Madhya Pradesh on topHaving conceded the first-innings lead, Madhya Pradesh responded strongly in the second innings, declaring on 369 for 8 to set Kerala a target of 363. Rajat Patidar top scored with 92, while Venkatesh Iyer hit an unbeaten 70-ball 80 at No. 8 as MP recovered from 247 for 6. MP picked up one wicket by stumps to keep themselves in line for an outright win.Vijay Shankar scored a century•PTI

Vijay Shankar century powers Tamil NaduIn Salem, Vijay Shankar’s 14th first-class century, his second of the season, helped Tamil Nadu put themselves in line for six points against Chandigarh. Having taken a 97-run lead, Vijay Shankar helped extend TN’s lead with an unbeaten 150 after N Jagadeesan set the foundation of the innings with 89. By stumps, Chandigarh had slumped to 113 for 5, still needing 290 with the left-arm spinning duo of S Ajith Ram and R Sai Kishore picking up two apiece.Gaikwad among the runsBatting at No. 4 with an eye on being a top-order batter, instead of just playing a specialist opener, Maharashtra captain Ruturaj Gaikwad hit 89 in a marathon Maharashtra innings – they were 464 for 7 in the second innings, extending their lead to 616 by stumps against Group C toppers Baroda. This is only the third game Gaikwad has featured in this season, as he was away during the first half of the tournament to play for India A in Australia. With them out of knockouts contention, it remains to be seen if Maharashtra declare overnight and try for an outright.Wadkar leads Vidarbha’s fightVidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar hit an unbeaten 102 to revive a floundering innings. Vidarbha, who conceded a lead of 100, went to stumps with a lead of 258 with three wickets still remaining. At one stage, they had effectively been reduced to 44 for 5, before Wadkar stood tall to play a typically gritty knock to help last year’s runners-up take the fight into the final day. Vidarbha are currently Group B toppers and are primed to Mae the knockouts.Haryana through to knockoutsA game that was fought on an even keel in the first innings turned decisively in Haryana’s favour thanks to a massive second-innings batting effort, led by half-centuries from Himanshu Rana and Nishant Sindhu as they opened up a 32-run lead into a 369-run target. Bengal, sans the injured Abhimanyu Easwaran, were bowled out for 85 in 21.4 overs, with Wriddhiman Saha, playing in his penultimate first-class match, unbeaten on 25. Anshul Kamboj, who earlier in the season picked up a perfect ten, finished with four wickets./

Reece Topley clinches one-wicket nail-biter after Tymal Mills stars with ball

ECB Media06-Aug-2025Reece Topley carved his first ball and the penultimate ball of the match for four to take Southern Brave to a dramatic and unexpected one-wicket win against Manchester Originals in the Hundred.Last man Topley walked out with three runs needed from two balls, after Craig Overton (18 not out off 8) and Tymal Mills (8 off 4) had wrestled the game back from the home team’s grasp with a vital 25-run partnership.The equation was 28 needed from 13 when Scott Currie (4 for 28) had Michael Bracewell caught behind, and the smart money would have been on Manchester Originals. Indeed, Phil Salt might wonder how his team didn’t get over the line, across an innings that saw both 43-year-old James Anderson (0 for 36) and 17-year-old Farhan Ahmed (0 for 8 off five balls) make their debuts in the competition.Reece Topley and Craig Overton were the unlikely heroes with the bat•Joe Prior/Getty Images

“We managed to somehow get ourselves in a position where it was in our hands, one hit away,” Mills said. “Credit to Manchester Originals, they bowled really well for the best part of the innings but Craig pulled out some big hits at the end. It’s always good to win close games like that and it stands us in good stead for the rest of the season.”Bat on ball was the main thing. We needed to hit every ball and scamper as best we could, and obviously we managed to get a couple of boundaries in there as well – that was a brilliant knock from Craig. We just wanted to take it as deep as we could and Toppers finished it off brilliantly.”Mills was awarded Meerkat Match Hero partly for his efforts with the bat, but he had earlier taken 3 for 22 – with the wickets of Salt, Jos Buttler and Heinrich Klaasen – as Originals made 132 for 4. Salt was the stand-out for the home team, making a 41-ball 60 and overtaking James Vince to become the all-time leading run-scorer in the men’s Hundred as he did so.Tymal Mills dismissed Phil Salt, Jos Buttler and Heinrich Klaasen•Joe Prior/Getty Images

Mark Chapman added some late impetus to the Originals batting effort and the home faithful would have been confident throughout much of the Brave’s reply that their total would be enough to see them to a winning start, but they weren’t counting for the late intervention of Overton, Mills and Topley.”I think it was a wicket that rewarded you for hitting the pitch hard,” Mills added. “We saw in the Powerplay that we were perhaps a little bit full, but once we dragged our lengths back and hit the pitch hard there was a little bit of bounce there and we saw that when Manchester Originals were bowling as well. We were happy halfway with that score, and we were confident of chasing it, but we probably made a little bit more hard work of it than we would have liked.”

Pakistan were hurt by dot balls while batting and in managing the fifth-bowling options while bowling

Danyal Rasool10-Aug-2025West Indies overcame Pakistan’s spinners as well as the weather to power home by five wickets to level the ODI series 1-1. In a chase which ebbed and flowed, a blitz from Sherfane Rutherford and a controlled innings at the death by Roston Chase saw them home with ten balls to spare.Their task was made significantly harder than it might have been when Jayden Seales’ standout fast-bowling performance had restricted Pakistan to 171 for 7 in 37 overs. The target was slightly upwards (181 in 35 overs) of what was scored owing to multiple rain delays in the first innings.Pakistan were put in to bat first and played stodgy cricket inconsistent with the decade they were playing in. Abdullah Shafique and Saim Ayub found the occasional powerplay boundary but interspersed it with strings of dot deliveries; the first ten overs had just five singles taken. When Seales’ extra pace and Shai Hope’s canny field placement extracted an outside edge from Ayub in the ninth over, it was the ninth successive ball the left-hand batter had faced that had not produced a run.Mohammad Rizwan couldn’t make up for a slow start•AFP/Getty Images

Three balls later, Babar Azam was cleaned up by a Seales special that burst through the gate and made a mess of his stumps, and put West Indies firmly on top.It brought Mohammad Rizwan out, but he appeared to have left positivity behind in the dressing room – he scored just 4 off his first 23 deliveries. A shower that delayed play by 90 minutes did not help Pakistan find their rhythm. Jediah Blades took his maiden ODI wicket by drawing an edge from Shafique that ended his battle of an innings the over after play resumed.As run-scoring increasingly became a struggle, West Indies’ bowlers – spinners and seamers alike – kept making inroads. Gudakesh Motie trapped the Pakistan captain in front. Chase got a ball to keep low and produce an under edge off Hussain Talat’s bat to conclude his comparatively brighter innings. Salman Agha struggled to see any scoring area beside the little dab to deep third, and when Shamar Joseph surprised him with the straighter bouncer, a top edge sent him packing.Multiple rain breaks curtailed Pakistan’s innings•AFP/Getty Images

A further rain delay truncated the game to Pakistan’s benefit with the innings winding down, allowing Hasan Nawaz to go for broke in what became seven death overs. Cruelly for Pakistan, though, that stubborn cloud unloaded its contents upon the Brian Lara Stadium once more just as he had begun to get going. That little passage of play saw 32 scored in 3.1 overs, but Pakistan were denied a big finish with their final three overs wiped out.West Indies were set an entirely manageable target, though Hasan Ali’s opening salvo soon cast that expectation into jeopardy. Wickets in each of his first two overs sent the openers back, and the hosts found themselves stuck in the same mire that had dogged Pakistan. Rizwan, sensing an opportunity to strangle, brought the spinners on after six overs, with Mohammad Nawaz and Abrar Ahmed producing the desired results.The scoring rate briefly slowed to a trickle, particularly as far as Keacy Carty was concerned. His first 26 balls produced just three singles, piling the pressure on his captain at the other end. An intriguing plot point concerned Pakistan’s fifth bowling option; the one over Ayub had bowled leaked 10, and another from Salman shed another 11.Sherfane Rutherford took Shaheen Afridi down in the 17th over•AFP/Getty Images

With a newly arrived Rutherford at the crease and the asking rate over six, Rizwan made the fateful decision of turning to Shaheen Afridi, and the batter picked his moment. Two fours and a six saw him plunder 17 that over, and with Rizwan turning immediately to the part-timer Salman, another 20 were lopped off the target.It bought West Indies the cushion to see off the primary spinners Abrar and Mohammad Nawaz more respectfully, but the pair wasn’t content with containment. Nawaz found extra turn to have Hope stumped before, in what felt like a game-turning moment, he induced Rutherford into a smear that found square leg. It was part of an eight-over period that saw just 17 scored, but just as significantly, Pakistan had bowled out Nawaz.Chase slapped a couple of sixes the following Ayub over to wrench the asking rate below six once more, and it was there that it would stay for the rest of the game.The returning fast bowlers never packed the same threat, and West Indies began to milk them in addition to finding the odd boundary that took the game further out of the visitors’ reach. Justin Greaves had looked uncertain against the turn, but was impressively assured now, a wristy flick over mid-on for six off Hasan perhaps the shot of the innings. By now, the equation was purely mathematical, With Chase’s crisp drive through the off side sealing a topsy-turvy win on a day that promised each outcome at certain points, before settling on the one the Trinidad crowd had come to witness.

Alex Doolan’s maiden first-class half-century is unlikely to save Tasmania from defeat at the Gabba, where Ben Cutting’s three wickets put Queensland within sight of victory at stumps on the third day

Cricinfo staff04-Nov-2009Queensland 382 beat Tasmania 156 and 219 (Doolan 59, Marsh 49, Cutting 6-37) by an innings and 7 runs

Scorecard
Ben Cutting picked up 6 for 37 and finished with eight wickets for the match•Getty Images

Ben Cutting scythed through Tasmania’s tail to deliver Queensland victory by an innings and seven runs within the first hour of the fourth day at the Gabba. Tasmania began the morning at 6 for 209, needing a miracle to avoid defeat, but the speed of their capitulation was surprising all the same.It took the Bulls 45 minutes to pick off the final four wickets and Cutting grabbed three of them to finish with his best first-class figures of 6 for 37. First he had Brett Geeves caught behind for 17, having added one to his overnight total, and then Cutting removed Brady Jones and Brendan Drew for ducks.Chris Swan finished the task when Daniel Marsh was caught behind for 49 and the Tasmania collapse was so sudden that they had only added 10 runs to their overnight score. It meant Queensland did not have to bat again and consigned the Tigers to their second defeat from their opening two matches.Queensland have one win and one draw, having taken first-innings points against Western Australia last month. The Bulls now travel to Adelaide to begin a match with South Australia on Sunday, while Tasmania have a fortnight off before their next game against New South Wales in Sydney.

On ESPNcricinfo’s Match Day show, Agar said Kohli’s ability to rotate strike leaves bowlers with little chance to exert pressure

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Mar-2025Bowlers struggle to build pressure on Virat Kohli in ODI cricket, and one key reason for that is his ability to rotate the strike, Ashton Agar said on ESPNcricinfo’s Match Day show after the batter’s match-winning 84 in the first semi-final of the Champions Trophy in Dubai.Agar also said Kohli’s ability to manage the pressure from one end by finding the gaps makes him among the most difficult batters to bowl to in ODI cricket, and that combined with the other batters’ big shots makes it very difficult for teams to defend totals against India. Terming his innings as a “masterclass”, Agar said bowlers rarely feel like they’re on top of a batter of Kohli’s quality.”That’s the frustrating part about bowling to him,” Agar said in the post-match show on ESPNcricinfo. “It is not the damage that he can do to the fence, it’s just the fact that you cannot build pressure on him. So it’s really hard to get him out in a sense. You never really feel like you’re on top of him unless the ball is really spinning. And you don’t get a lot of pitches in one-day cricket like that.Related

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“He has this fantastic ability to hit your best ball, the top of middle stump, slightly spinning away, he holds the bat’s face slightly longer than other batters do, opens it in the last second, and hits it in the cover point gap. He’s probably the best in the world at doing that and he’s very difficult to build pressure on.”India batted around Virat beautifully. The guys who came in kept pushing the rate and allowed Virat to do his thing, hit the odd boundary and just keep ticking over. I saw a stat that Virat has scored the most singles since the year 2000, which is phenomenal. It was a bit of a masterclass from him and all the batters contributed nicely.”1:55

Kumble: Kohli always in control during chases

Kohli scored 64 of his 84 runs on Tuesday with ones and twos to slowly take the game away from Australia. Although he has been dismissed six times to legspinners since the start of 2024 for an average of only 12, he dominated Tanveer Sangha and Adam Zampa to score 35 in 33 balls against the leg-spinning pair before falling to the latter. Sanjay Manjrekar observed that Kohli was back to playing shots off the back foot.”Now you have five fielders inside the circle, so it’s not easy as it used to be – like during our times – when you had four fielders,” Manjrekar said. “Very rarely has he hit the ball straight to the fielder and hasn’t got a run.”So that one issue against spin that he had where he couldn’t rotate strike, hopefully that’s out of his system now. Because today was an affirmation that he is back to that very nice footwork, off the back foot playing late, finding gaps all the time. He was the best batter to find gaps from both sides [on Tuesday].Anil Kumble said he continued to be impressed by Kohli’s propensity to make tricky targets look easy.”He rarely makes a mistake,” Kumble said. “He’s totally in control. Especially in run chases. In a chase of around 265, he’s in total control except for the one chance to Maxwell. It’s not just this innings but every time he bats in a run chase, there’s hardly any loss in control. He’s always in control of this situation.”Kohli’s latest half-century marked his third 50-plus score in Champions Trophy semi-finals and his fifth in ICC knockout games. He is only one half-century away from Sachin Tendulkar’s record of six fifty-plus scores in ICC knockout games, while India are one more win away from making it two ICC titles in a row.

“They are allowed to have some bad games here and there,” the India captain said of the two spinners

Deivarayan Muthu26-Oct-20241:51

How did Santner succeed when Jadeja struggled?

India are unfazed by the recent form of their senior spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, their captain Rohit Sharma has said. On a slow, dry Pune pitch, India’s spin trio, which included Washington Sundar, was outbowled by New Zealand’s as India suffered their first Test series defeat at home since 2012.”I mean, see look, there is too much expectation on those two guys,” Rohit said of Ashwin and Jadeja. “Every game they play, they are expected to take wickets, they are expected to run through the team, and they are expected to win Test matches for us. I don’t think that’s fair, it’s the responsibility of all of us to make sure that we get Test match wins, not just the two guys.”After having conceded 94 runs in 16 overs for just one wicket in the second innings in Bengaluru – his worst figures, in terms of economy rate, in a Test innings where he has bowled at least ten overs – Ashwin went at almost four runs an over in the third innings in Pune. He had started well in the second Test by turning his fifth ball and having Tom Latham lbw for 15 in the eighth over. However, when the New Zealand batters brought out a variety of sweeps, Ashwin struggled to provide India with the control that he is usually known for, especially in these conditions.Related

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Jadeja also struggled to counter New Zealand’s aggressive approach. Despite India posting a short third and deep point, Devon Conway, for instance, kept sweeping and reverse-sweeping with attacking enterprise. Such shots not only messed with the lines and lengths of the senior spinners but also the fields that Rohit had set.At various stages, the India captain was forced into having extra protection on the boundary. Jadeja ended up with just three wickets in 37.4 overs across both innings – two fewer than Ashwin’s match haul of five wickets. In contrast, Mitchell Santner, the New Zealand left-arm fingerspinner, came away with 13 for 157, the third-best figures by any visiting bowler in India.Rohit refused to read too much into these numbers and said it was natural for even Ashwin and Jadeja to have off days.”Of course, by their standards, they know where they stand and what they haven’t been able to do or what they haven’t done really well,” Rohit said. “But again, both of them have played so much cricket here and have such huge contributions to our success of having that home streak of 18 series [wins]. These two have played a major role in that. A couple of series, I am not going to look into too much, especially with those two guys.Ravindra Jadeja took three wickets in the second Test•AFP/Getty Images

“They know exactly what happens and sometimes they are allowed to have some bad games here and there and not go by that expectation that this is the opportunity for me to take wickets and run through the opposition. That’s not going to happen every time. So you got to be ready with the other guys also to step in.”Rohit was also against putting too much pressure on Ashwin and Jadeja and called for the responsibility to be shared among the other spinners.”Like we keep talking about with the batters it is not the responsibility of a few individuals, it is the collective batting unit that needs to come together,” Rohit said. “So it’s the same with the bowling unit as well. If Ash doesn’t do well, it’s Jadeja who needs to come to the party or Washy [Washington Sundar] or Kuldeep [Yadav] or Axar [Patel], those guys.”Washington did step up in the first innings in Pune, marking a serendipitous return to Test cricket after three-and-a-half years with career-best figures of 7 for 59. He took four more wickets in the third innings, which perhaps influenced his selection for the upcoming Test series in Australia.”Washy had a great game, I am really proud of that,” Rohit said. “He is proud of that and we are happy with his performance. He bowled so well.”