All posts by n8rngtd.top

They needed less than half an hour on the fourth morning to take the last four Bangladesh wickets

Madushka Balasuriya28-Jun-2025Sri Lanka needed just 28 minutes on the fourth morning to pick up the final four Bangladesh wickets, and with it wrap up a win by an innings and 78 runs. It was Sri Lanka’s ninth innings-victory over Bangladesh, which gave them the series 1-0 and also some crucial World Test Championship points.Prabath Jayasuriya did the bulk of the damage – with some handy assists from wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis, who had been off the field the previous day nursing a sore shoulder – picking up figures of 5 for 56, his 12th five-wicket haul in Tests.It took just three deliveries into his first over of the day for Jayasuriya to take Litton Das’ edge on the forward defence, with Kusal holding on to a sharp chance. Then in his next over, he had Nayeem Hasan attempting to drive one tossed up on off, only for it to dip and rip past him. Nayeem, who had slid his back foot out of the crease in the process, was unable to get back before Kusal flicked the bails off.Jayasuriya completed his five-for pouching a return catch to his right, as Taijul Islam got a leading edge looking to work one through midwicket. Tharindu Ratnayake got in on the act then, trapping Ebadot Hossain in front of middle the very next over, as Bangladesh folded 34 balls into the morning session.Related

• Sri Lanka focusing on better scoring rate, bowling more maidens this WTC cycle

• Shanto: Not batting well in first innings 'major reason we lost'

• How captain Dhananjaya is turning Sri Lanka into an image of himself

• The Taijul light shines bright on Bangladesh's day of gloom

It was Jayasuriya’s best against Bangladesh, a welcome return for Sri Lanka’s lead spinner who had gone wicketless in the first innings, and struck just once in Galle.In total, nine wickets fell in the innings to spin, with Tharindu and Dhananjaya de Silva sharing two apiece to go with Jayasuriya’s five. Bangladesh though will no doubt feel this was a game they lost control of in the first innings itself, when a sub-par batting effort – followed by some loose bowling – allowed Sri Lanka to take a commanding grip of proceedings.While the spinners wrapped things up for the hosts, it was Pathum Nissanka that was named Player of the Match for his match-winning 158 off 254 deliveries. Nissanka also clinched the Player of the Series award following his 187 in the first Test.

He is set to feature in domestic cricket between two ODI series, against South Africa and New Zealand

Daya Sagar02-Dec-2025Virat Kohli is set to return to domestic cricket for Delhi in the 2025-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy, the domestic 50-over competition, the DDCA has confirmed.Kohli, 37, plays only one format now for India – 50-over cricket – and since the BCCI has made it a mandate for contracted India players to feature in domestic cricket, Kohli will represent Delhi when the tournament starts on December 24 in Ahmedabad.”He will definitely play a few games, but not sure about the entire tournament,” DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma told ESPNcricinfo. “It will depend upon his India matches too.”Related

• Kohli dictates South Africa's reality from within his bubble

• Kohli: 'If I'm arriving somewhere I'll arrive at 120%'

Kohli recently struck his 52nd ODI century, against South Africa in Ranchi, and was named the Player of the Match for his knock of 135 that was studded with seven sixes.Once the last ODI of the ongoing series finishes on December 6 in Visakhapatnam, Kohli will have enough time before the start of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. However, it is not clear yet if he will play all of Delhi’s seven league matches, which will go on till January 8, just three days before the start of the ODI series against New Zealand in Vadodara.Delhi will play five league matches in Alur, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, and the other two at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Kohli’s home ground for his IPL team, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).Kohli last played 50-over cricket for Delhi in September 2013, in the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy which had India Blue and India Red as the other two teams. The last time Kohli played the Vijay Hazare Trophy was in the 2009-10 season. He led Delhi in both those tournaments.In the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – the domestic 20-over competition – Delhi have won two of their four games under the leadership of Nitish Rana.

Trent Rockets now in pole position to finish second, which would grant them a Finals spot if the Eliminator is washed out

ECB Media26-Aug-2025Manchester Originals 140 for 3 (Buttler 70, Ravindra 47*) beat Northern Superchargers 139 for 8 (Patel 42, Aspinwall 3-17) by seven wicketsWith the return of Sir James Anderson to the Manchester Originals’ line-up, there was an extra frisson at Headingley for the local derby as the Northern Superchargers looked to record eight wins from eight for the women and men at their northern fortress. Alas for Harry Brook’s side, although they will still be in the Eliminator at the Kia Oval on Saturday, it was not to be.Starting on the same points total as the Trent Rockets but with a significant deficit in net run rate, the Superchargers were looking for a big win to give themselves a decent chance of finishing second in the group stages.The Originals won the toss and chose to field, with Anderson bowling the first ten, and rapidly picking up his first and second wickets in The Hundred, accompanied by a broad grin. He then had Brook dropped in the deep before seeing England’s white-ball captain try his falling-over scoop, the ball merely dribbling a few feet from the bat, Brook ending up on his bottom and Anderson in stitches.Brook (20 off 20) was then caught off Scott Currie and Zak Crawley (17 off 17) holed out, and at 73 for 5 off 67 balls, the Originals were in the box seat.Enter the 40-year-old Samit Patel, three years younger than Anderson perhaps, but still very much a senior citizen in professional cricketing terms. When he was dismissed off the penultimate delivery, he had pummelled four fours and three sixes in his 19-ball 42 and, along with David Miller (30 off 22), given the Superchargers something to defend despite Tom Aspinwall’s impressive 3 for 17.The Superchargers’ opening pair of Jacob Duffy and Matthew Potts were tidy, Phil Salt (9 off 13) and Ben McKinney (6 off 8) struggling to break free but once they had gone, Jos Buttler and Rachin Ravindra (47* off 23) showed just why they are rated two of the best white-ball batters in the world, a thrilling partnership of 99 off 48 ensuring the Originals finished the competition on a high and consigning the Superchargers to a third-place group finish, barring a catastrophic defeat by the Rockets to the Phoenix tomorrow at Trent Bridge.Buttler was imperious, smiting seven fours and five sixes in his 37-ball 70 before being bowled by Adil Rashid, at which point only 10 were needed off 21 balls. Rashid conceded 39 from his 20, the most he has ever leaked in The Hundred, and successive boundaries from Ravindra sealed the deal with seven wickets and 16 balls to spare.Meerkat Match Hero Jos Buttler said: “The surface was a bit tricky, a bit slow. I thought we bowled exceptionally well apart from three or four balls and that allowed us to chase it down. We showed our best cricket in this last game when we were already out of the tournament, which is frustrating.”Overall, over the course of the tournament, we left a lot out there. In a couple of games, we failed to get over the line and we are where we deserve to be in the end. Tonight we showed what we are truly capable of as a team.”

“I don’t think the players are mentally down. We give them lot of confidence,” says Sri Lanka’s batting coach

Andrew Fidel Fernando03-Dec-2024Comebacks can happen. Sri Lanka have proved that already this year, when having lost a Test at Lord’s by 190 runs, they surged back at The Oval to win by eight wickets.This, at least, is what Sri Lanka are trying to believe, having lost their first Test in South Africa by 233 runs.They can look back at other series-leveling come-from behind Test wins as well, such as in 2018, when they won in Barbados having lost in Port of Spain. Or even at home, when having gone down to Australia in the first Galle Test of 2022, they roared back in the second.Batting coach Thilina Kandamby feels there are enough players in the group who have tasted comeback success.Related

• South Africa and Sri Lanka look to keep their WTC final hopes alive

• Paterson, Maphaka or Muthusamy? SA face selection conundrum amid injuries

• Injured Coetzee ruled out of second Sri Lanka Test and all-format Pakistan series

• Sri Lanka show up with the bat, but there's no forgiving 42 all out

• SA enter new era with renewed hope of emulating the glory days

“We have a very experienced unit, and they have been in situations like this before,” Kandamby said. “We have given comebacks before as well. I don’t think the players are mentally down. We give them lot of confidence.”We started off in a similar fashion in England this year. We came from behind to win a game. We have identified that and we need to be at our best from day one.”Just as in that England series, Sri Lanka’s top order struggled substantially against the moving ball, crashing to a calamitous 42 not out in the first innings. Kandamby said the “options we took were wrong”, particularly the damp surface offered plenty to the bowlers in the first innings.Since that match, however, Sri Lanka have taken every opportunity to train. They’d rocked up to Kingsmead on what would have been day five of the first Test for a long session, and will also train the two days ahead of the Gqeberha Test, with Monday having been their travel day.”We had a chat, and the key here is to see off the new ball. There is no point being too aggressive, but we do have to put the loose balls away. Once we get past the first hour, it gets a lot easier.”Sri Lanka had also been at a significant advantage in Durban, as South Africa allrounder Wiaan Mulder had fractured his right hand while batting, and as such was unable to bowl. And yet, having collapsed inside 14 overs for their lowest Test total, Sri Lanka were in no place to capitalise on this advantage.”It’s so disappointing really – South Africa were one bowler short, and we should have made most of it,” Kandamby said. “Even with Marco Jansen we didn’t force him to a second spell. But the good thing is, we were a lot more organised in the second innings. If we’d batted the whole day in the first innings, it could have been very different.”The major positive for Sri Lanka, perhaps is that unlike for South Africa, there are no serious injury concerns for their bowlers. They’d had to bowl more than 150 overs in the first three days of the Test, but will have had five days potential recovery before the second Test starts. Although privately, some bowlers had expressed annoyance at having to bowl again so soon after dismissing South Africa for 191, at the time, they just got on with the job, Kandamby said.”Hats off to the bowlers. After one and half hours they had to go out and bowl again. They were not bitter. They just took on the challenge.”

With Burger, Williams and Nortje also injured, SA may need to dig deep into their reserves to fill a fast-bowling position for the Champions Trophy

Firdose Moonda17-Jan-2025 • Updated on 19-Jan-2025South Africa’s bowling stocks have taken another hit after Gerald Coetzee, who was expected to be named as Anrich Nortje’s replacement in the the Champions Trophy squad, missed Joburg Super Kings’ match against Pretoria Capitals with a hamstring injury on Thursday and was subsequently ruled out of the remainder of the SA20 on SundayCSA, however, said Coetzee “remains in contention for selection” for the Champions Trophy and that a decision on his inclusion would be made in the first week of February. The deadline for submitting the final squads to the ICC is February 11.Coetzee had played JSK’s previous match against Durban’s Super Giants at Kingsmead, which was his first competitive game since the Test against Sri Lanka in Durban, where he injured his groin. He was ruled out of the rest of the international summer, after he had come back from a hip niggle and a 12-week conditioning block. He did not play any cricket between a game at the MLC in July (his only one in the competition) and a domestic match for the Titans in October. Then, he appeared fitter and faster than before, playing in all four of South Africa’s T20I fixtures against India, and took 4 for 85 in the first Test against Sri Lanka before he was ruled out again.Related

• Ryan Rickelton, the new showstopper at Newlands

• Jury's out on South Africa's Champions Trophy picks as SA20 provides selection pointers

• Rassie van der Dussen consciously evolves his white-ball game amid injury scare

• Back injury rules Nortje out of Champions Trophy

It was confirmed by South Africa’s white-ball coach Rob Walter that Coetzee had been in line for a Champions Trophy place but left out in favour of the more experienced Nortje. With Nortje sidelined with a back problem and Coetzee now injured as well, Walter, who is the sole selector of the team, will have to mine the depths of the reserves.With Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen and Wiaan Mulder already in the squad, Walter could look to 18-year old tearaway Kwena Maphaka or South Africa’s most recent ODI cap, Corbin Bosch, if he is looking for pace or may have to move away from that entirely. Death-bowling specialist Ottneil Baartman is another option with almost everyone else in contention currently injured.Nandre Burger will not return to action this summer after suffering a lower-back stress fracture while Lizaad Williams is recovering from knee surgery. Daryn Dupavillon, who was playing for Pretoria Capitals, is also ruled out of the SA20 with a hamstring concern.Dupavillon is the eighth seamer to be injured this summer. The others were Ngidi (groin), Coetzee, Mulder (broken finger), Nortje (broken toe, then back), Williams, Baartman and Burger. Barring Burger, Nortje, Williams and now, Coetzee, the others have returned to action.

Opener completes the task of securing draw after rain wrecked day three

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay01-Aug-2025Kent 445 for 8 (Compton 221, Finch 54*) drew with Leicestershire 471 (Rehan 119, Patel 85) The Rothesay County Championship match between Division Two leaders Leicestershire and Kent at Canterbury ended in a draw, after the hosts reached 445 for eight on day four, trailing by 24 when bad light stopped play.Ben Compton hit a career-best 221 and Harry Finch made 54 not out, while Rehan Ahmed three for 134, but the chances of a positive result were effectively neutered on day three, when a mere 9.5 overs were bowled.Leicestershire remain top of the table, while Kent stay bottom.Conditions were significantly better on Friday morning but as soon as Kent passed the follow-on target of 321 a draw seemed inevitable.The nightwatch, George Garrett, survived 67 balls spread across days two, three and four but he was the first man out when he edged Logan van Beek to Louis Kimber for 10.The first shot of Ben Dawkins’ first-class career was a stylish drive that might have gone for four but for the slope, but he was out for seven, inside-edging Ben Green behind.Compton, 111 not out overnight, reached 150 in the penultimate over of the session when he cut Tom Scriven for four and Kent eased to 307 for four at lunch.Scriven subsequently had Joey Evison caught behind for 38, but an elegant sweep off Rehan saw Compton to 200. He took a single off Patel to pass his previous highest score of 217 and was finally out when he came down the wicket to Rehan and was stumped.Rehan then had Matt Parkinson lbw for two and Kent were 429 for eight at tea, after which Finch cover-drove Rishi Patel to bring up his half-century, but play was suspended at 4.40pm and both sides looked as eager as the umpires to shake hands on the draw.

Glamorgan bowled out for 265, with promotion already secured

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay24-Sep-2025Lancashire 55 for 0 trail Glamorgan 265 (van der Gugten 53, Crane 42, Bailey 5-51) by 210 runsLancashire took control over Glamorgan with early wickets on day one of the final Rothesay County Championship match.Tom Bailey took a five-wicket haul, including a wicket with the first ball of the game to reduce Glamorgan to 114 for 6 at lunch. An 82-run seventh-wicket partnership kept the visitors at bay until they finally wrapped up the innings on 265 with 20 overs remaining in the day.Personal milestones included a half-century in Timm van der Gugten’s 100th match, Kiran Carlson’s 1000th run for the season, and Mason Crane’s highest score of the summer, 42. But they were not enough to prevent Lancashire from dominating the day.Both clubs’ fates had been decided already. Glamorgan’s second-placed promotion was confirmed after a rain-affected round of fixtures last week. Meanwhile Lancashire, currently in sixth, can rise to third if results go their way.Tom Bailey bowled Zain-ul-Hassan around his legs with the first ball of the match, and with James Anderson absent due to a side strain sustained last time out, Jake Blatherwick shared the new-ball duties and quickly helped reduce Glamorgan to 20 for 2. Asa Tribe, even in his remarkable purple patch, was unable to do much to one nipping away.Blatherwick’s success ended there, and though Tom Aspinwall went unrewarded, Bailey and George Balderson had Glamorgan six wickets down inside the first session.Carlson scored typically quickly to reach 22, and his 1000th run, and though he fell soon afterwards, Chris Cooke put up a fight either side of lunch in what was a session dictated mostly by poor shots to explain the scoreline than anything else.Van der Gugten and Crane’s resisted for a while but Bailey fittingly finished the innings off, having claimed a wicket in each of his opening overs of his first three spells. It fell to Keaton Jennings and Luke Wells to ensure an unscathed final 20 overs of the day. The left-handed duo stood strongly against early movement from Van der Gugten, before a flourish of boundaries from Jennings to close the day on 55 for 0.

England went to lunch on 83 for 2

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jul-2025

Jasprit Bumrah in action•Getty Images

Nitish Kumar Reddy removed both England openers in his first over but the hosts escaped the first session only two wickets down after choosing to bat first at Lord’s. Reddy struck twice in four balls after Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley scraped through the first hour unscathed. Ollie Pope and Joe Root then led England’s recovery with an unbroken stand of 39 before lunch.Duckett was repeatedly struck on his body in a probing first spell from Jasprit Bumrah, who replaced Prasidh Krishna in India’s only change from the side that won at Edgbaston last week. But England reached the drinks break at 39 for 0, despite a frenetic start from Crawley which featured four boundaries – one via the outside edge – and several plays-and-misses.Reddy’s double-strike opened up both ends for India. His first wicket was a freebie, a long-hop down the leg side which Duckett under-edged through to Rishabh Pant on the pull, but his second was a beauty. He angled the ball into Crawley, then found late movement away off the seam to take the outside edge, as India sensed an opportunity.Pope was dropped between those two wickets, edging his first ball – a full outswinger – to gully, where Shubman Gill could not hold onto a tough, low chance, diving to his right. But after his early life, he grew in confidence alongside Root, and they saw off Bumrah’s third spell to reach the lunch interval at 83 for 2.Ben Stokes’ decision to bat first on winning the toss – for the third time in a row – was met with cheers at Lord’s, after bowling first had backfired at Edgbaston. Gill admitted he was “a bit confused” about what he would have done but said that he would have leaned towards bowling in the belief that the only assistance from the pitch would come early on the first day.

Legspinner released from tour squad to manage workload ahead of busy rest of winter

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2024Jafer Chohan, the Yorkshire legspinner, is to return home from England’s white-ball tour of the Caribbean before he has had a chance to make his international debut, with the team management choosing instead to manage his workload ahead of the forthcoming Lions tour of South Africa.Chohan, 22, made history last month when he became the first graduate of the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA) to be named in an England squad. Launched in 2021 by Dr Tom Brown, the academy aimed to remedy the under-representation of British South Asian players in the professional game, with Chohan’s opportunity with Yorkshire arising after he had been released by Middlesex as a 17-year-old in 2019.Chohan will not, however, be making the step-up to England international status just yet. Instead, he will fly home on Monday, with the rest of the squad relocating from Barbados to St Lucia, having last night taken a 2-0 lead in the five-match T20I series, following a comfortable seven-wicket win.In addition to the Lions tour, which takes place from November 20 to December 14 and will be Andrew Flintoff’s first outing as head coach, Chohan is also due to play for Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League, with that tournament commencing on December 15.Related

• 'Unknown' Jafer Chohan grateful to SACA after England's leap of faith

• Phil Salt's century, Saqib Mahmood's four, power England to eight-wicket win

• The second coming of Saqib Mahmood, the 'King of Barbados'

• Buttler powers England to 2-0 series lead vs WI

• Rihanna has to wait, it's family time for Salt and Bethell

His release from England’s white-ball squad is a reflection of the T20I team’s current success, as well as the wealth of spin options already available to Jos Buttler and Marcus Trescothick, the interim head coach.In addition to Adil Rashid, Chohan’s mentor at Yorkshire, with whom he has been working in the nets for the past fortnight, England also have Rehan Ahmed waiting in the wings as a back-up legspinner, plus Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Dan Mousley and Will Jacks in the current starting XI.Nevertheless, his fast-tracking into the England set-up remains a notable achievement, given the distance he has come since 2022, when he was playing National Counties cricket for Berkshire.”SACA helped me a hell of a lot,” he told ESPNcricinfo in the wake of his call-up. “I felt like my game was in a pretty good place, but there’s no real way in, once I got out of the system. It was really tough to think, ‘Okay, I want to become a pro cricketer, how can I actually do it?’ And SACA provided that opportunity for me.”

He is still recovering from an ankle injury picked up in January and remains a doubt for the white-ball tour of New Zealand after the Champions Trophy

Danyal Rasool07-Feb-2025Pakistan opening batter Saim Ayub has been confirmed out for at least another five weeks owing to injury; he continues his rehabilitation from the ankle injury he sustained in South Africa in January. It further confirms that he will not be available for the Champions Trophy, which runs until March 9, and the extent of his involvement in Pakistan’s white-ball series in New Zealand after that remains uncertain.A PCB statement said Ayub was “progressing well in his right ankle fracture injury”. He remains in England, where he will complete the remainder of his rehabilitation, and has been ruled out for 10 weeks from the time of his injury, which he picked up while fielding in the second Test against South Africa in Cape Town five weeks ago.Ayub had to be stretchered off the pitch in just the seventh over of the match, when Ryan Rickelton edged a delivery through the slips, sending Ayub off on a chase to deep third alongside Aamer Jamal. Jamal pulled it back in as Ayub stood poised to be the relay fielder, but lost his balance and twisted his ankle. He went down immediately and appeared in anguish holding the lower part of his leg as the physio rushed on.Related

• Pakistan boosted by Rizwan's form but bowling remains a concern

• Fakhar Zaman, Faheem Ashraf back in Pakistan squad for CT25

• PCB chief says Gaddafi Stadium will be ready for Feb 7 inauguration

• CT25 FAQs: Who are playing, what are the venues, where to watch?

Despite prolonged treatment outside the boundary line, Ayub was unable to put any weight on his right ankle, and appeared to be in tears as he was placed on to a stretcher and taken off. He was later seen on crutches in the medical booth.The PCB initially said he would be ruled out for six weeks, which offered some hope of his availability for the Champions Trophy, which Pakistan host. Last week the board announced the squad for the tournament, with Ayub absent from it.A week after the Champions Trophy final, Pakistan embark upon an eight-match white-ball tour of New Zealand, playing five T20Is and three ODIs between 16 March and 5 April. The Pakistan Super League starts on 8 April.