Sri Lanka 287 for 3 (Mathews 79*, Chandimal 68*, Masood 1-34) lead Afghanistan 198 by 89 runs Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal strode to their fifties and beyond, batting out a wicketless session together as they stretched Sri Lanka’s advantage on the second afternoon. Afghanistan looked mostly to their spinners after lunch. But although each
Month: February 2024
Victoria 71 for 0 trail South Australia 173 (Manenti 47*, Nielsen 45, Perry 3-43, Crone 3-46) by 172 runs Fringe Test quick Scott Boland will undergo scans on his knee after pulling up sore while bowling for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield The 34-year-old left the field after being unable to complete his 17th over
Australia 106 for 2 (Mooney 50*) beat South Africa 105 (Kapp 50*, King 3-19) by eight wickets Australian quick Megan Schutt celebrated her milestone match with a miserly spell in an eight-wicket thumping of South Africa in the series-opening ODI. Schutt took 1-1 from five consecutive overs as the tourists were restricted to 105 at
Tasmania 33 for 0 trail Queensland 282 (McDermott 146*, Bell 4-40, Stanlake 4-50) by 249 runs A brilliant unbeaten century from Ben McDermott steered Queensland out of trouble to give them a fighting chance in their Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania. Playing against his former state, McDermott smashed 146 not out after coming to the
The head coach Rahul Dravid had asked for big hundreds in the aftermath of the loss in Hyderabad and Jaiswal delivered at the first time of asking, but the rest of his team-mates were unable to back him up. The next highest score in the innings so far is Shubman Gill’s 34. The partnerships for
All said, though, it was India’s fifth win on the trot in the tournament proper, and they go into the semi-finals as one of the favourites to win the trophy – they have won it five times, a record. Dhas’ 116 in 101 balls and Saharan’s 100 in 107 balls were solid efforts, which meant
The ECB has made an unsuccessful request to New Zealand Cricket (NZC) to move the dates of England’s upcoming women’s tour, with four players deemed unavailable for the first three T20Is as a result of their Women’s Premier League (WPL) commitments in India and two others pulling out of their franchise contracts. NZC confirmed the
Bangladesh will play the two World Test Championship (WTC) matches against Sri Lanka in Sylhet and Chattogram in March. It will be the first time since they started playing at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, that Bangladesh won’t play at the ground in a Test series, as the venue will be busy hosting
The fifth round of the Ranji Trophy produced a number of compelling performances on Friday. Here are the key takeaways. Dube celebrates elevation in style Shivam Dube is enjoying a memorable 2024. A month after being named Player of the Series during his return to the national team against Afghanistan, he has now earned the
India 336 for 6 (Jaiswal 179*, Bashir 2-100, Ahmed 2-61) vs England You can only judge a pitch after both sides have Bazballed on it, or so the saying might now go, after England’s preposterous exploits in Hyderabad. On Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s watch, India appeared in the mood to make amends for their first-Test failings, thanks
Australia batter Cameron Bancroft will return to Gloucestershire this year after signing a deal to represent the club across formats in the 2024 season. Bancroft was recently overlooked by Australia’s selectors for the Test opening spot vacated by David Warner, but has been prolific for Western Australia in the last two Sheffield Shield seasons. He
Shoaib Bashir, England’s debutant offspinner, has described the dismissal of Rohit Sharma for his first Test wicket in Visakhapatnam as “very, very special” – and said that the lengthy delay in being granted his visa had made his debut “more memorable”. Bashir bowled 28 overs on his first day as a Test cricketer, returning figures
No one predicted Xavier Bartlett would be playing for Australia this summer. Not even Xavier Bartlett. The fact that he made his debut in an ODI, having not played a 50-over List A game for Queensland since September 2022, makes it even more remarkable. Before the BBL, where he dominated the tournament taking 20 wickets
They were first preyed on by Vishwa Fernando, who, in an intense spell, had wicketkeeper-batter Ikram Alikhil caught by a diving Nishan Madushka at gully, before he pinned debutant allrounder Zia-ur-Rehman in front some overs later. Qais Ahmad was then out lbw trying to sweep Prabath Jayasuriya, reviewing unsuccessfully before walking off.
Innings West Indies 231 (Carty 88, Chase 59, Bartlett 4-17) vs Australia A stunning debut spell from Xavier Bartlett has given Australia the upper hand in the opening ODI at the MCG but excellent half-centuries from Keacy Carty and Roston Chase have given West Indies something to defend as they posted 231 after being sent
All New Zealand and South Africa Test series will now be played for the Tangiwai Shield, starting with the two-match Test series that’s set to begin on February 4 in Mount Maunganui. The trophy commemorates the tragic events of 1953, when 151 people on the train from Wellington to Auckland on Christmas eve – including
One of the first people involved in West Indies cricket to set eyes on Shamar Joseph has recalled the excitement at seeing him bowl. Roland Butcher, who played international cricket for England, was a West Indies selector until earlier this year and was present at various stages through Joseph’s rapid rise which made global headlines
Neser, who played for Glamorgan last year, took 12 wickets for Brisbane Heat as they won the Big Bash League earlier this month. He also contributed in the field, taking a series of spectacular catches in the deep, and with the bat, hitting a vital 64 not out in a win over Perth Scorchers to
It has been a week of celebration in Melbourne for both West Indies and Australia. The smiles on the faces of the West Indies team after their Test heroics on Sunday in Brisbane will last for a long time. And despite being on the losing end of an epic, Australia have also had cause to
Rajat Patidar grew up hoping to be a fast bowler. But an ACL injury in 2014 forced him to shift to batting. A decade on, he’s on the cusp of a Test debut, as a middle-order batter. With Virat Kohli and KL Rahul unavailable, Patidar could well slot in at four or five. If that
Big picture It’s happened before. India have gone 1-0 down at home, and India have bounced back. This is what India will be telling themselves: ‘We’ve been here before. We trust ourselves to find our way out of this. We trust our methods.’ It’s what they should tell themselves too. Change is a fact of
The first thought that came to Rishabh Pant immediately after his life-threatening car crash on December 30, 2022 was that his “time in this world was over.” Having been “fortunate to have a second life”, Pant, who is expected to play in IPL 2024, said the biggest lesson he has learned from this experience is
Mark Alleyne, the former England allrounder who captained Gloucestershire to an unprecedented era of success in the 1990s and 2000s, has been named as the club’s new head coach. Alleyne won nine trophies during his time as Gloucestershire’s captain and also oversaw the club’s promotion to the top flight of the County Championship. He will
This may be a sign that India are trusting the quality of their spin bowling to draw more out of a pitch that may not be as responsive as some of those in the past; that their experience will help them get one over on an opposition that will be fronting up with a debutant
Agni Chopra has become the first batter to score centuries in his first four first-class games after making his debut for Mizoram in the Ranji Trophy Plate League earlier this month. Chopra, 25, is the son of film critic Anupama Chopra and filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who recently made the popular movie 12th Fail. The
Big picture: A fresh chapter for Sri Lanka The Afghanistan men’s team has played seven Tests in their history; for Sri Lanka, this is the first of eight (perhaps nine) scheduled for 2024. This is, on the surface, a mismatch. Rashid Khan is not with Afghanistan to provide his menacing legbreaks and general inspiration –
New South Wales 163 for 5 (Hughes 52) beat Western Australia 161 (Short 47, Edwards 3-14, Salzmann 3-18) by five wickets New South Wales rocketed to top spot on the Marsh Cup table after posting a five-wicket bonus-point victory over defending champions Western Australia at the WACA Ground. Player of the match Jack Edwards snared
Shoaib Bashir, the 20-year-old Somerset offspinner, will make his Test debut at Visakhapatnam on Friday, after being named as Jack Leach’s replacement in England’s XI. Bashir linked up with the squad mid-way through their 28-run victory in Hyderabad last week, after suffering complications with his India visa, but will slot straight into the team as
India batter Prithvi Shaw is set to return to competitive cricket after a six-month injury layoff after being included in Mumbai’s squad for the fifth round of the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy beginning on Friday against Bengal at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Shaw is returning from an knee injury that he picked up during a county
Former Australia captain Meg Lanning would prefer to see women’s Test matches scrapped altogether than continue to have them scheduled sporadically. The longest format of the game is much rarer in the women’s international arena than in the men’s; only 12 Tests have been played worldwide across the last decade. Each featured combinations of Australia,
