Cricket News
West Indies 205-9; Australia 206-7 | Australia win by three wickets
Green and Inglis hit 50s as Australia take 4-0 lead in T20 series
For the fourth time in as many games, Australia impressively chased down a West Indies total in their best-of-five Twenty20 series.
Glenn Maxwell lived up to his Big Show nickname and Cameron Green and Josh Inglis continued their hot form, as Australia swept to a 4-0 lead in the T20I cricket series against West Indies in St Kitts.
Continue reading...Third T20I: WI 214-4, Aus 215-4; Australia win by 6 wickets in St Kitts
Middle-order powerhouse hits 11 sixes in 37-ball unbeaten hundred
A remarkable record-breaking innings from power hitter Tim David has carried Australia to a six-wicket win and an unassailable 3-0 lead in their five-match T20I series against the West Indies.
Chasing a testing target of 215, Australia were struggling at 87 for 4 in the ninth over of their run chase at the small Warner Park ground in Basseterre, St Kitts.
Continue reading...Root races up to second in all-time Test runs list
Friday in Manchester belonged to Joe Root as 20,000 people inside Old Trafford watched a master at work. Inevitable is a dangerous word in a fickle sport like cricket and yet the events that transpired felt as close to this as is possible: the likeliest of outcomes once Root gambolled out to the middle first thing under an azure blue sky.
The first expectation was that England, trailing India by 133 runs on 225 for two, would take control of this fourth Test and, sitting 2-1 up, the series as a whole. Ben Stokes, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had inflicted such damage on day two that it was going to take something remarkable from the tourists to turn their fortunes around.
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Continue reading...The young spinner took 13 wickets and scored a century as the Division Two leaders eased past Derbyshire, while Essex routed Sussex in the top tier
My Friday brain hadn’t clicked that Glamorgan were already in a run chase – 143 more needed, seven wickets in hand. Parky M, 2-13, has already removed nightwatchman James Harris this morning.
In other chase news – Warwickshire, 71-2, need another 322 to beat Worcs and Derbyshire, 119-4, another 327 to beat Leicestershire.
Continue reading...Sussex lag well behind Essex despite James Coles’ best efforts at Hove
Fifty and out for Simon Harmer, Essex finish with a hearty lead of 300. Now then Sussex.
Within a glut of Leicestershire centuries, Rishi Patel falls cheaply for the second time in the match. Leicestershire 14-1.
Continue reading...Wicketkeeper’s participation at Old Trafford in doubt
After the row about time-wasting at Lord’s came an unscheduled 10-minute delay on the opening day in Manchester, but this time no one was grumbling. Rishabh Pant was being driven off on a golf buggy nursing a suspected broken foot, the agony on his face as clear as the egg that had swollen up within seconds.
This was a very Pant way to get injured, India’s zany wicketkeeper having attempted a reverse sweep off Chris Woakes only to bottom-edge the ball on to his right boot. England burned a review for the lbw but it was as good as a wicket, Pant retiring on 37 and his further participation in this pivotal fourth Test left very much in doubt.
Continue reading...Pair put on unbroken partnership of 131 off 64 balls in Jamaica
Adam Zampa claims 3-29 from four overs to halt host’s brisk start
Josh Inglis and Cameron Green have smashed half-centuries to power Australia to an eight-wicket win over West Indies in their second T20 clash in Jamaica.
The hosts posted 172-8 before Inglis (78 not out from 33 balls) and Cameron Green (56no from 32) led Australia to 173-2, and victory with 28 balls to spare.
Continue reading...Series victory would offer chance to experiment in fifth Test but Stokes and McCullum are trying to be here now at Old Trafford
The last time India were in Manchester for a Test match was back in 2021 and it was a pretty bleak affair. An outbreak of Covid-19 among their backroom staff saw the series finale called off just 90 minutes before the toss, even if many suspected the proximity of the rescheduled Indian Premier League also had a role to play here.
“I saw Lanky the Giraffe walking into the ground with his head slumped,” said Tom Harrison, then chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, after crossing paths with Lancashire’s club mascot that morning. “It summed up my feelings too.”
Continue reading...India captain doesn’t back down over Lord’s spat
Ben Stokes says England did not ‘go over the line’
The India captain, Shubman Gill, has strongly criticised some of England’s behaviour during their current Test series, describing it as not “what I would think comes in the spirit of the game”.
On the eve of the fourth Test at Old Trafford Gill was asked if he regretted confronting the England batter Zak Crawley during the last match at Lord’s, a moment that prompted England to decide, as Harry Brook put it on Monday, “to give them something back and not be the nice guys we have been in the last three or four years”.
Continue reading...Four decades have passed and we’re still reminiscing about Taylor v Davis, Boris Becker, Sandy Lyle … and a lot more
I’ve been putting this off for years, but the recent Live Aid nostalgia has pushed me over the edge. We’ve all had the debate in the pub about the greatest sporting year – no, just me then? – so I’m here to argue the case for 1985. After 40 years, it is time to tell 1985 that I’m crazy for you.
There are, of course, many factors involved when it comes to picking your favourite sporting year. Allegiance matters. Therefore, Manchester United winning a treble, Europe collapsing in the Ryder Cup and Australia winning two World Cups means I don’t want to party like it’s 1999. Yet pushing all this irrational stuff to one side, there can be no doubting the credentials of 1985.
Continue reading...Spinner may have thought his Test days were gone, but consistent performances for Hampshire have been recognised
As the one enforced change in England’s XI for the hotly anticipated fourth Test against India at Old Trafford this week, Liam Dawson replacing the injured Shoaib Bashir represents a 180-degree turn on pretty much every metric.
Bashir has been the long-term investment this past year: a 6ft 4in right-arm off-spinner who, aged 21, struggles to get a look-in at Somerset and has instead been honing his craft at the highest level. His ceiling is fancied to be higher than his towering release point, even if he is a No 11 with the bat and a competent fielder at best.
Continue reading...A walking wicket on the 2018 tour of England, stats suggest Rahul’s average of 35 is more impressive than it seems
The Guardian’s over-by-over coverage is built on reader interaction. We probably receive more than 1,000 emails during an average Test, hundreds of which are published. As an epic Lord’s Test unfolded, the same question kept dropping into our inboxes. “This is the second innings of the series that has left me baffled as to how KL Rahul averages only 35 in Tests,” began one such email from Ned Blackburn. “He seems to have the temperament, technique and discipline to be absolutely elite. What am I missing?”
Rahul’s Test average has become the unsolved mystery of the English summer. But after a day in the statistical dirt – and Ben Stokes thought he went to some dark places on Monday – we can offer some potential explanations. The simplest reason is that after a fine start to his career he became a superstar of Indian cricket, a status that is Kryptonite for an overthinker. “I just couldn’t get out of my own head,” he said in late 2023. “I couldn’t leave cricket or my professional life on the field. It was such a heaviness on me.”
Continue reading...Fast bowler displayed all the attributes which set him apart from others to deliver optimism for rest of series and Ashes tour
The electric return of Jofra Archer in England’s tight victory against India at Lord’s set straight a couple of narratives that arose during his four-year absence from Test cricket. It is often said that a player’s stock can rise when they are sat on the sidelines – yet sometimes, in some quarters, the reverse can also be true.
Chief among them was a reminder that England possess a special fast bowling talent here, Archer displaying the attributes that set him apart from others. As the man himself confidently put it regarding the 89.6mph beauty to Rishabh Pant that angled in, nipped away and gave the snappers the stumplosion they craved: “I guess it was just a matter of when, if I kept bowling like that. I can’t imagine many left-handers getting away with it.”
Continue reading...Hampshire bowler last played Test cricket in 2017
Rest of the squad unchanged for Old Trafford clash
Liam Dawson has been added to England’s squad for the fourth Test against India, ending an eight-year exile from the longest format in international cricket.
Last month the Hampshire all-rounder made a successful return to England’s T20 side after a three-year absence and, with Shoaib Bashir forced to pull out of the India series with a broken finger, he has finally been rewarded for his excellent red-ball form in recent seasons: 49 first-class wickets in 2023 followed by 54 in 2024, by a considerable margin his two most successful campaigns.
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