Virat Kohli has returned home from South Africa for personal reasons, but is likely to rejoin the Test squad ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Centurion. Kohli didn’t take part in the Indians’ three-day intra-squad match, the only red-ball outing for a number of senior players including captain Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah, ahead

Toss South Africa chose to bowl vs India There was an international debut for 30-year-old Rajat Patidar in the ODI series decider at Boland Park, as an unchanged South Africa chose to field against India. Patidar was one of two changes for India, with him replacing Ruturaj Gaikwad, who picked up a finger injury in

Big picture: We have an ODI series decider If this series felt like an afterthought before, the ODI on Tuesday night confirmed it, when the broadcast in India kept talking about the IPL auction instead of the cricket that was happening. A South Africa victory though has given this upcoming game proper stakes. It’s a

After a curious sequence of events during the accelerated round at the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai on Tuesday, where Punjab Kings bid successfully for Shashank Singh and then tried to convince Mallika Sagar, the auctioneer, that they didn’t want the player, the franchise has put things down to a case of mistaken identity. Kings

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has shattered the record for the most expensive player at an IPL auction after being bought by Kolkata Knight riders for INR 24.75 crore (US$2,982,000 approx.). He surpassed the winning bid of INR 20.50 crore (US$2,470,000 approx.) that Sunrisers Hyderabad had made for Pat Cummins, Australia’s ODI World Cup winning

South Africa 215 for 2 (de Zorzi 119*, R Hendricks 52) beat India 211 (Sudharsan 62, Rahul 56, Burger 3-30) by 8 wickets South Africa levelled the ODI series by bowling India out for 211 in the surprisingly seam-friendly conditions of the usually slow and low St George’s Park. It came as no surprise to

Renuka Singh has 38 wickets in women’s T20Is, at an average of 21.13. Since her debut in October 2021, only Ireland’s Arlene Kelly has taken more among fast bowlers from Full-Member teams. Also among the top ten is Pooja Vastrakar, who has picked up 21 wickets in this period, at 24.80. Renuka and Vastrakar were

The full list of players sold and unsold at the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai. (Conversion rates as follows: USD 1 = INR 83 approx; INR 50 lakh = USD 60,000 approx; INR 1 crore = USD 120,000 approx; INR 10 crore = USD 1,200,000 approx) IPL 2024 auction sold players Rovman Powell (Base price

IPL 2024 will allow bowlers to deliver two bouncers an over in a bid to facilitate a more even contest between bat and ball. This change in playing conditions was trialled during the 2023-24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s domestic T20 tournament. Saurashtra veteran Jaydev Unadkat, who has played for various IPL sides and has

Mohammed Shami will miss the upcoming two-Test series in South Africa because of an ankle injury. Shami wasn’t part of the Test contingent that left for Johannesburg on Friday, and is currently under the watch of the BCCI’s National Cricket Academy. India will also be without Ishan Kishan, who had kept wicket for them in

Wanderers is usually a high-scoring venue with the thin Highveld air, small boundaries and good quick pitches, but the turn on offer in the T20I meant the two captains looked at the surface with caution. Both XIs had a debutant: left-arm fast bowler Nandre Burger for South Africa and left-hand opening batter Sai Sudharsan for

A month ago, South Africa and India lost ODIs that may have felt like the most pivotal matches of their lives. On Sunday, they will return to the format for the first time since Kolkata and Ahmedabad, and things will feel a lot less life-or-death. This ODI series is sandwiched between a T20I series in

Will KL Rahul follow his ODI template and move into a middle-order role to revive his Test and T20I careers? With India set to play seven Tests over the next two-and-a-half months, that question has cropped up a few times already. On Saturday, Rahul, India’s stand-in captain, addressed those lingering questions ahead of the first

Harmanpreet also said that Shubha had picked up the injury while warming up prior to the start of play on Friday’s second day. She was seen with the ring finger of her left hand in a splint in the dugout when India bowled on Friday. She now faces a race to be fit for the

Amol Muzumdar, head coach of the India women’s team, called Deepti Sharma the “Ben Stokes of the team” after her match haul of nine wickets – to go with knocks of 67 and 20 – led India to a famous 347-run win at DY Patil Stadium on Saturday. The margin of victory was the highest

A total of 77 slots (30 overseas) lie vacant across the 10 IPL squads, ready for filling up at the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai on December 19. The franchises have a combined purse of INR 262.95 crore (USD 31.58 million approx.) available to spend at this auction – this is the highest combined purse

South Africa A 319 (Jean du Plessis 106, Hermann 95, Prasidh 5-43, Saurabh 3-83) and 152 for 2 (Valli 72*, du Plessis 50*) drew with India A 419 (Paul 163, Shardul 76, Sarfaraz 68, Jones 4-100, Plaatjie 3-65) Prasidh, who is in India’s Test squad for the two-Test series in South Africa, could make his

Toss: South Africa chose to bowl vs India Aiden Markram decided his team would chase as they look to close out the series against India at a dry Wanderers on the eve of a public holiday. South Africans have been given the day off tomorrow to commemorate the Springboks Rugby World Cup win in October

Haryana 293 for 7 (Himanshu 116*, Yuvraj 65, Sumit 48, Natarajan 3-79) beat Tamil Nadu 230 (Indrajit 64, Kamboj 4-30) by 63 runs Haryana stormed into their maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy final by thrashing five-time champions and a star-studded Tamil Nadu in the first semi-final in Rajkot. Haryana’s historic win was set up by an

Embracing T20 leagues as a feeder system for international cricket, instead of viewing franchise tournaments and bilateral matches as being in conflict with each other, will benefit both forms of the game, according to South Africa wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi. Speaking after South Africa beat India by five wickets in Gqeberha, with both teams fielding experimental

Pujara will be available for the first seven County Championship matches in his third successive season with Sussex. Hughes, meanwhile, will be available from the start of the T20 Vitality Blast until the end of the season, playing in both the Blast and County Championship. They join bowlers Jayden Seales, of West Indies, and Australia’s

A marked change in conditions after a sharp spell of rain in Gqeberha played its part in India’s defeat to South Africa in the second T20I on Tuesday, in Tilak Varma‘s opinion. After being asked to bat first, India lost both their openers for ducks, but quick fifties from Rinku Singh and Suryakumar Yadav, along

Losing the ODI World Cup final to Australia hit India captain Rohit Sharma so hard that “it was very hard to get back and start moving on”. Speaking to fans helped him heal, he said in a social-media video on Wednesday. Twenty-four days after the final in Ahmedabad, which India lost after winning all ten

Punjab batter Uday Saharan will lead India’s title defence at the 2024 ICC Under-19 World Cup in South Africa in January and February. India are the most successful side in the tournament’s history, having won it five times in 2000, 2008, 2012, 2018 and 2022. Saharan, who is currently captaining India at the Under-19 Asia

If Pant is cleared by the NCA by February next year, as the franchise expects, the IPL will be the first tournament he will play since featuring in the Bangladesh tour in late 2022. In Pant’s absence last season, Capitals had appointed David Warner as interim captain. They finished second from bottom, with five wins

The next edition of the Men’s Under-19 World Cup, which was shifted from Sri Lanka to South Africa, will be held from January 19 to February 11 next year, with the final taking place in Benoni. The four groups are the same as they were announced earlier: India, Bangladesh, Ireland and USA are in Group

The first T20I between South Africa and India – one of only six matches in the format for each side before next year’s T20 World Cup – was called off without even the toss taking place in Durban. Steady drizzle through the day meant that a capacity crowd was denied any action as the fixture

The second edition of the Women’s Premier League will take place in “one state” of India, starting from the “second or third week” of February. BCCI secretary Jay Shah confirmed as much on Saturday, talking to journalists after the WPL auction in Mumbai. “It is decided that we will have the tournament in February,” he

India have just six T20Is left to identify their XI before next year’s World Cup in the West Indies and USA, but Suryakumar Yadav, who is their captain for the three-match series in South Africa, isn’t too perturbed by the limited game time. Suryakumar added that IPL 2024, which will precede the T20 World Cup,

The uncapped Indian pair of Kashvee Gautam and Vrinda Dinesh walked away with top honours at the WPL auction in Mumbai, attracting bids of INR 2 crore (Gujarat Giants) and INR 1.3 crore (UP Warriorz) respectively. Australia allrounder Annabel Sutherland was the most expensive overseas player, attracting the auction’s joint-highest bid at INR 2 crore,