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A solid innings of 47 by returning captain Kane Williamson and a dashing 33 from 15 balls by Jimmy Neesham propelled New Zealand to a 13-run win over West Indies in the first of three T20Is in Jamaica.Neesham struck three fours from the last three balls and 23 runs from the last over of the innings as New Zealand made 185 for 5 after being sent in to bat at Sabina Park. Left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner took 3 for 19 as New Zealand restricted West Indies to 172 for 7.”There was a lot of spin which was a big surprise,” said Santner, who was voted the Player of the Match. “I think the lengths are key against these guys. They can hit you pretty far, so back of a length worked today and as a unit we were able to pick up wickets which was pretty key.”New Zealand’s innings had two parts, separated by a lengthy rain break. Openers Martin Guptill and Devon Conway gave the tourists a strong start, putting on 62. But the pair fell to consecutive deliveries from Odean Smith, who went on to take career-best T20I figures of 3 for 32.Guptill fell to a brilliant one-handed catch by Shimron Hetmyer, who was backed up against the boundary at deep point, while Conway’s innings of 43 from 29 ended when he top-edged a catch to wicketkeeper Devon Thomas.The rain came in the 12th over with New Zealand on 95 for 2 and Williamson at the crease with Glenn Phillips. Players were off the field for almost two hours and when play resumed New Zealand immediately lost Phillips for 17.The New Zealand innings briefly lost momentum but Williamson re-established the impetus of the innings by taking 33 runs from his next 18 deliveries. He finally was out to another brilliant catch on the boundary, this time from Hayden Walsh who dashed from midwicket to pocket a comfortable catch at speed.Neesham struck a six from the second ball of an over in which he also was dropped by Romario Shepherd from the bowling of Jason Holder. West Indies paid the price with Neesham’s three fours from the last three balls.”We want to get better as a group but in saying that I was happy with the performances,” West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran said. “Santner bowled very well and Ish [Sodhi] got away with a few. Scores above 175-180 are tricky for us. Unfortunately losing is contagious and we’re a losing side at the moment.”Shamarh Brooks anchored the top of the West Indies innings with 42 at almost a run a ball. But there was a lack of consistent momentum afterward. Pooran with 15 from eight balls, Holder with 25 from 19 and Rovman Powell with 18 from 12 all threatened to take control of the game but couldn’t carry on.Finally, Shepherd and Smith shared a 50 partnership from 23 balls for the eighth wicket to fan West Indies’ hopes. Shepherd struck an unbeaten 31 from 16 balls and Smith 27 from 12. But West Indies came to the last over needing 26 runs and the task proved too much.

Australia are set to play six matches in fewer than eight weeks next summer, after a gap of 312 days since their last assignment against India in January, meaning an idling Test team will have to re-learn the fundamentals of the longest form of the game in an almighty hurry.A one-off Test against Afghanistan at Bellerive Oval in November-December – Hobart’s first Test match since November 2016 – will be followed by an Ashes series that will take in matches at the Gabba, Adelaide Oval (day-night), the MCG, the SCG and concluding at Perth Stadium in mid-January. It’s the first time Sydney has not hosted the conclusion of an Ashes series since 1995, when the WACA Ground was the scene of the final match in early February.The women’s international calendar is also heavily stocked, with a series against India in September that ESPNcricinfo has reported will include a Test match, before the multi-format Ashes series against England that will take place after the conclusion of the WBBL. The men’s and women’s international fixtures have been devised with virtually no clashes between the two.Covid-19 risk management, combined with a concentration by Cricket Australia on the home fixtures that bring in the vast majority of the governing body’s revenue through broadcast-rights deals, has left the team led by Tim Paine and his deputy Pat Cummins to play just 10 Test matches over the course of more than two years, after going 345 days between Tests in 2020. None will take place away from home between September 2019 and (at least) February 2022 when a tour of Pakistan is very lightly etched into the calendar.Getty Images

The home series defeat to India last summer, in spite of a raft of injuries and withdrawals from the touring team, was put down partly to the difficulties of adapting from cricket’s short formats to its longest without much in the way of preparation in between. CA is looking at re-filling the position of batting coach that sat vacant last summer, in order to give the top six – which underperformed badly against India – greater one-on-one assistance this time around.Equally, the selection chairman Trevor Hohns has spoken firmly of the need to return to a system of squad rotation for the fast bowlers in particular, after the gains made in the 2019 Ashes were abandoned over the past two home summers, much to Australia’s cost against India.”Particularly now, when most Test matches are programmed pretty closely on the heels of each other. We can’t ask them to continually back up, day after day after day,” Hohns said when naming the central contracts list in April. “It’s only natural they are going to get tired. Sure, they might feel okay within themselves, but we’ve really got to monitor that a bit harder.”But the challenge will be all the greater with another year devoid of Test or first-class matches for many of the players, namely those who will also be involved in Australia’s Twenty20 World Cup campaign in the second half of the year. Among established members of the Test team, only Paine, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood and perhaps Marnus Labuschagne can expect to play much Sheffield Shield cricket prior to the Afghanistan Test, which will be left to serve as a sort of Ashes preparation game for the rest.Related

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“Certainly the home summer preparation and particularly the preparation for the home Ashes is front of mind for us so we’re working through our planning for that at a team level but also at an individual level, and exploring a number of different options for the winter,” the head of national teams Ben Oliver said this week. “Fortunately, a number of our players will have competitive cricket either internationally or domestically here and overseas.”So we feel across the players that are likely to feature in that, in the home Test series, that they’ll all be well prepared. Obviously we’ll have a significant amount of Sheffield Shield cricket to assist in that preparation for those that don’t have the opportunity to be part of a World Cup or other overseas competitions.”Paine said that the Hobart match would be critical to Australia’s chances of putting together a cohesive and settled unit for the Ashes matches that would follow so closely afterwards.”We haven’t got any red-ball cricket in the lead-up to the Ashes except that Test match,” Paine said in Hobart. “So from a preparation point of view it’s going to be a really important Test match to set us up for the Ashes and Afghanistan have got some highly talented spinners in particular, which will create a real challenge. Any Test match we play, we want a full-strength side, and it’s not always possible these days, but fingers crossed we can make it happen.”Last summer wasn’t our best in key moments, but I think over the last couple of years we’ve played some pretty consistent cricket. We’re now talking about going from being a good team to a great team, and that Afghanistan Test and the Ashes this year is a really important part of that.”Other men’s fixtures announced on Wednesday include three ODIs and a T20I against New Zealand in late January and early February, and five T20Is against Sri Lanka, who have stepped in for South Africa.

It’s August 2013 and England have just lost an ODI to Ashes rivals Australia at Lord’s. Tammy Beaumont is emotional. She thinks it’s her fault. She made nine runs. She questions whether she’s good enough to play international cricket.”Yes you are,” three words from then-assistant coach Carl Crowe set in motion a plan to find out what makes her tick, what’s going to make her a better player.Having made scores of 13 and 1 in the preceding Test match, Beaumont played no further part in that Ashes series – won by England who prevailed in the remaining two ODIs and two of the three T20s. Beaumont toured the West Indies later that year and was part of the 2014 World T20 in Bangladesh, where England finished runners-up to Australia but where Beaumont failed to reach double figures in four innings.It’s 2016 and England have hastily arranged an extra warm-up game before starting their World T20 campaign in India. Beaumont – who had so far been batting in the middle order, just as she had on that fateful day at Lord’s – opens alongside then-captain Charlotte Edwards. Beaumont scores 50. She knows she can open the batting at international level.”That was a bit of a turning point for me,” Beaumont said. “Opening, I’ve always felt most natural there. For a long time at the beginning of my career I was not opening the batting and almost having to fit into positions that didn’t suit me, didn’t make me feel quite at home and there was a little period where I kept getting picked for England and completely underperforming to what I wanted to do and what the coach at the time wanted me to do, so I’d end up on the outside of the team again.”It took me having that setback and realising I really wanted to open the batting for England and I could really set my stall out and be motivated to really work hard towards that. That was before I even got the chance to open, then when I did get that chance I made sure that I took it.”Tammy Beaumont of England is seeking some big scores in the Ashes•Getty Images

Playing as an opener, Beaumont made steady progress through that tournament, but in her first T20 afterwards, some three months later against Pakistan in Bristol, she hit 82 off 53 balls.Two years later she smashed 116 off 52 in a T20 against South Africa – reaching her century from 47 balls in an England women’s record – amid a hugely successful summer which also included back-to-back centuries in the accompanying ODI series against South Africa and ultimately led to her being named alongside the likes of Jos Buttler and Virat Kohli as one of ‘s Five Cricketers of the Year for 2019.Beaumont’s progress has not been without the odd hiccup. She scored just 54 runs in five innings at the World T20 at the end of 2018 but found form again during England’s tours of India and Sri Lanka in March.ALSO READ: Six players to watch in the Women’s Ashes“I had a really good summer last year in England against South Africa and New Zealand and then had a bit of a blip in the World Cup in my own form, which I found really disappointing, but I came back in January and worked incredibly hard to try and move my game on again and that’s how I feel at the moment,” Beaumont said.”It wasn’t like I needed to develop a whole new shot, there wasn’t a glaringly obvious weakness to my game. It was just a case of say, I’d hit a shot seven out of ten times, trying to take that to nine out of ten so overall I’d get a little bit better in each way and hopefully become a bit more of an all-round player.”In the recent rain-affected series in which England dominated West Indies, Beaumont was clearly seeing the ball beautifully but was unable to convert good starts to big scores, something she is determined to turn around come Tuesday’s first Ashes ODI against Australia in Leicester.”Personally I think I would have liked to score a few more runs in a way,” she said. “As a batter I think you never get bored of scoring runs but I’m pleased about how I’m playing. I just want to see a few more runs on the board next week.”It’s the biggest rivalry in women’s cricket. It’s the battle of the heavyweights, for want of a better term. They’re really well supported and have been very successful in the past but we’re playing really good cricket at the moment and got a really good feeling about this group so hopefully it’s going to be a really good series.”England’s 3-0 sweep of the ODIs against West Indies and victory in the only one of three T20Is not washed out took their winning streak to 14 matches across all formats. They freely speak about keeping that record intact.”We really talk about it a lot,” Beaumont said. “Particularly at the back end of that India-Sri Lanka trip, it was something we were really kind of desperate to hold on to and going into this West Indies series it was really driving us forward in that.”But once the Ashes start it’s all about that particular game that we’re playing and just trying to get points on the board to try and win the Ashes back, which is kind of the main focus and has been for most of the summer really.”

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis has revealed South Africa tried to stop fast bowler Kagiso Rabada from going to this year’s IPL, where he eventually injured his back and was withdrawn towards the end.Rabada, South Africa’s key strike bowler who has six wickets so far in the World Cup at 50.83, confirmed that there had been a plan to have him miss the IPL, but said it had not worked out. He was the IPL season’s second-highest wicket-taker, his 25 wickets one behind compatriot Imran Tahir, despite playing five fewer matches.After South Africa exited the World Cup with another disappointing defeat – this time to Pakistan – du Plessis was asked if he felt Rabada’s workload had been managed well. Since the start of last year, only Nathan Lyon has bowled more overs in international cricket than Rabada. If du Plessis could have had his way, he wouldn’t have had Rabada – playing for Delhi Capitals – bowling the additional IPL overs and instead been working on rehab and recovery.”I don’t think we’ll ever have a perfect answer for that because he’s probably biting on too much,” du Plessis said. “But we did try and get him not to go to the IPL; to try and stay and get fresh. That wasn’t the case of [course] and then when he went there, we were like, let’s try and get him back halfway through the IPL because it’s important, not just for him, but a few other players.”I mean, I spoke about it before the IPL even started, that it’s important that we try and find space to rest our three-format players, because they play all the formats all the time, and then IPL. So I don’t think it’s necessarily just the IPL, but it was important for a few guys to rest; and the fact that they didn’t meant that they came into the tournament not fresh. That’s not an excuse; that’s just a fact.”Rabada himself confirmed that there had been a plan to have him miss the IPL, but said it had not worked out. “That was basically just to rest up prior to the World Cup for obvious reasons like injury and being fresh for an important tournament.” Rabada said, during an interaction with reporters in the mixed zone on Sunday, after South Africa’s defeat to Pakistan.The plan to have Rabada sit out the IPL fell through, and an alternative couldn’t be worked out either – for reasons he did not reveal. “Well, the plan was to leave early but that didn’t work out – don’t ask me about any of that – but eventually I came back earlier as you might know.”ESPNcricinfo understands that Rabada was released by Capitals the moment CSA wanted him back. Scans for a niggle cleared Rabada of injury but CSA didn’t want to take any risks, and Capitals complied.Getty Images

Du Plessis went on to say Rabada’s pace has been down this tournament. The South Africa captain also said he couldn’t have rested Rabada in international series. To do so, you need a second line of bowlers. “That challenge we are going to have as a team all the time,” du Plessis said. “You can’t unfortunately go back with the national side and say to KG: ‘Listen, you’re going to rest for the next two series.’ He’s such a big player for the team; it’s a difficult thing to do.”You know, you need guys that can… you need three or four or five bowlers in the wings waiting, so you can have a bit of a rotation system. I mean, that was the plan with Anrich [Nortje] in the back-up and pipeline, and he got injured as well. So therefore all our pace is gone and there’s so much responsibility on KG to carry that load of being the lone fast bowler.”CSA, however, can’t compensate the players enough for missing the IPL the way Cricket Australia and ECB do. It is tempting to imagine if AB de Villiers would have retired in the first place had there not been an IPL to go to, where he actually said the IPL was “better than the World Cup”. South Africa also lost Dale Steyn for the World Cup as he could not recover in time from the injury he sustained playing the IPL ironically as a last-minute replacement. Steyn’s absence has also hurt South Africa, leaving Rabada to do all the striking work.”KG at the moment is feeling like he needs to do something, but it’s not happening for him; and therefore, you’re not seeing that same intensity when he bowls – or not bowls; or when he celebrates a wicket or when he’s going through after the over back to his mark,” du Plessis said. “Obviously Dale is a special bowler, and the fact that he’s injured, we can’t use that as an excuse. There’s enough good bowlers in our team to still be better than what we did today. There was a lot of bad balls bowled on a wicket that if you just bowled really good lines and lengths, it was tough for the batters to score.”Du Plessis said this is a challenge Rabada will have to find ways to get the better of. “You know, he’s a great bowler. He will be able to fix that. His career has been one that’s been probably just going up and up and up and up and up every time he’s played for us.”So this is probably his first stumbling block as a great fast bowler. So for him now, it will be to see how he responds, how he learns in this period and how he makes sure he gets better. Because he has been great for us, but now he needs to take stock of where his bowling is and then try and get better as a bowler.”Nortje had been ruled out of the World Cup in the first week of May itself with a thumb injury. Once the tournament started, South Africa suffered a blow when Steyn was ruled out too, and Lungi Ngidi hurt his hamstring in the game against Bangladesh which didn’t let him complete his quota of 10 overs. Ngidi further sat out three matches before returning for the clash against New Zealand, which was South Africa’s fourth loss in five completed games.GMT 1400 The story was updated to include Rabada’s quotes.

No result Tamil Nadu qualified for the semi-finals of the 2019-20 Vijay Hazare Trophy on the basis of more wins in the league stage after rain washed out their quarter-final against Punjab in Alur. The match was evenly poised at the time of the call off, but Tamil Nadu’s nine out of nine wins to Punjab’s five out of eight saw them through.Due to a wet outfield, the game itself started 45 minutes late, as a 47-over contest, and was further reduced to 39-overs-a-side when a passing shower brought a pre-mature end to Tamil Nadu’s innings. At that stage, Tamil Nadu were 174 for 6, thanks to B Aparajith’s 56.Chasing a VJD-adjusted target of 195, Punjab reached 52 for 2 in 12.2 overs before it started raining again, this time bringing a complete end to play.ALSO READ: Dinesh Karthik tells the story of Tamil Nadu’s nine wins in a rowTamil Nadu had a nervy start after being put in. Abhinav Mukund tried to impose himself but ended up chopping Sandeep Sharma onto his stumps. M Vijay struck two fours, flicking Sidharth Kaul’s pace with ease over midwicket, but he missed the same shot against left-arm spinner Karan Kalia and was lbw for 22.When Mayank Markande dismissed Vijay Shankar, Tamil Nadu were 82 for 3. Aparajith and Dinesh Karthik took the side past 100 before Karthik pulled a long hop from Markande straight to short midwicket.Aparajith though kept chipping away and took his tournament tally past 500. Along the way, he smashed a free hit from Sanvir Singh over long-on, pulled Sandeep over deep-backward square leg and brought up his fifty in 68 balls. Washington Sundar held it together at the other end as the duo added 51 in 59 balls. Aparajith was looking set for a big score but he ended up hitting an innocuous Gurkeerat Mann delivery straight to deep midwicket. In his next over, Mann dismissed Shahrukh Khan in the same manner as well.Punjab lost Abhishek Sharma in the fourth over of their chase. Anmolpreet Singh hit a couple of boundaries before Sai Kishore got him caught-behind, leaving Punjab 37 for 2 at the end of seven overs. Sanvir hit a couple of good-looking drives to keep the chase on track but the rain had other plans.

This IPL has been one of two distinct halves for Anrich Nortje in IPL 2021.In April, it was all frustration, first at having received a false positive for Covid-19 that sidelined him from the start of the season. Then, once he was available, he was overlooked, because fitting him into the Delhi Capitals XI would’ve hampered team balance, especially with the management preferring Amit Mishra’s leg spin and Steven Smith as batting insurance. This meant seven frustrating games on the sidelines.

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Cut to September and he’s already the toast of the season, sending down one thunderbolt after another, roughing up batters, getting them hopping and ducking, and then using that two-card trick to eventually snuff them out.In two games, his figures read a combined 8-0-30-4. The experience of bowling in familiar conditions – he was the fourth-highest wicket-taker when the IPL was played in the UAE last season – he says has helped him plan better.”One of the things I do is I chat with the batters, and we try and share as much info as quickly as possible, and then let the individuals decide a plan they want to stick to,” he said after helping the Capitals to the top spot all but secure them a place in the playoffs.Anrich Nortje impressed on IPL return•BCCI

So far this season, Nortje has proved hitting the hard Test-match lengths are as valuable as the variations bowlers work on. He says the old-cliche of “trying to hit the top of off” irrespective of the format or conditions is wired into his muscle memory. And everything else he does is simply a by-product of this simple routine.”Today the wicket was quite slow. Speaking to Shreyas Iyer at the break [the innings’ top scorer with 42], he said it was difficult to hit straight, so we made them [Rajasthan Royals] to do that. We hit the good lengths, not too short or full. End of the day, all our bowlers, Avesh [Khan], KG [Kagiso Rabada], all of them did a great job.”The surfaces in Abu Dhabi are definitely slower than Dubai. Sometimes simply bowling variations on a good length is a very good option. Even if you simply change the grip on the ball while hitting the hard length, they’re as good as any variations. Essentially, you try and hit the stumps. You don’t always need to bowl a slower ball or anything [on such wickets].”Such insights, of course, has come about through a lot of planning, awareness and, according to Nortje, chats with his bowling partner and friend Rabada. They share the new ball in Test cricket, ODIs and here at the IPL, too. One of the things he learnt was “not search for high speeds on the field” and “to try and take pitches out of the equation.””It’s nice having him around, we play a lot together, talk a lot of cricket,” he said. “We talk about bowling, variations, our spells. We communicate as best as possible. What balls do you bowl in these conditions, what do you want to try and what do you want to avoid, essentially, we share as many ideas as possible.”And from there, we learn off each other. At the end, having him there, seeing what he’s doing right, what I’m doing right, and learn. Sometimes certain things work, certain things don’t work, but just being able to communicate as freely as possible [has been beneficial].”

India’s men’s domestic calendar will begin with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on November 4, while the Ranji Trophy, the country’s premier first-class competition, starts on January 13, 2022. The Vijay Hazare Trophy will get underway from December 8, with neutral venues being used across all tournaments.In an extensive list of domestic fixtures released by the BCCI on Monday, the board also confirmed that Delhi will host the Syed Mushtaq Ali final, on November 22, while Kolkata will stage the Ranji finale, on March 16.Related

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The Ranji Trophy will begin after the teams complete a five-day quarantine, with the matches being held at Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum and Chennai. Kolkata will host all the knockout matches, which will begin on February 20 after the teams serve another five-day quarantine period.The tournament will consist of six groups, including five Elite ones of six teams each and one Plate group featuring eight teams.Domestic heavyweights Mumbai, Karnataka and Delhi have been clubbed together in Elite Group C, while defending champions Saurashtra have been paired with Tamil Nadu, Railways, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Goa in Elite group D. Last year’s runners-up Bengal will begin their campaign in Elite Group B alongside Vidarbha, Haryana, Kerala, Tripura and Rajasthan. The Plate group will comprise Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh.The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, meanwhile, will be held across Lucknow, Guwahati, Baroda, Delhi, Haryana and Vijayawada, with the knockouts starting in Delhi from November 16. The BCCI, however, did not announce the venues for the Vijay Hazare Trophy yet.The Men’s Under-25 State A one-day competition will be held from November 20 to December 10, with Bangalore hosting the knockouts, including the final on December 10. The four-day CK Nayudu Trophy will run from January 28 to March 31. Nagpur, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Mohali, Jaipur and Ranchi will host all the matches, with the knockouts being held exclusively at Vijayawada.Meanwhile, the Women’s Under-19 One Day Fixtures will begin on September 28 and run till October 18, with teams split into five Elite Groups and one Plate Group. Rajkot, Nagpur, Bhubaneshwar, Vizag, Surat and Jaipur will host all the matches, with Surat hosting the knockout phase, from October 11 after the teams complete a mandatory five-day quarantine period. The Senior Women’s One Day tournament gets underway on October 31, with Bengaluru hosting the final, on November 20.

No result Incessant rain first reduced the first West Indies-Pakistan T20I to a nine-over shootout before eventually washing away the match. Pakistan had chosen to bowl first under cloudy skies with rain also predicted, but the teams raced off to the dressing room just after completing their national anthems. It took almost three hours for the rain to stop and the ground to dry, with the umpires then deciding to curtail the contest.But of whatever was played, Kieron Pollard and the Pakistan bowlers combined to ensure there was entertaining cricket while it lasted.Debutant Wasim has instant impact
All it took right-arm pacer Mohammad Wasim to land a blow was five balls, although that was not a wicket. In the second over of the West Indies innings, he pitched one short of a length on middle and off, and got it to angle in with the bounce on to Lendl Simmons, who missed his pull. The ball instead hit him on the right side of his neck, immediately inviting the physio on the ground, who decided to take Simmons off with a sling protecting his right arm.Wasim was taken off after that, but returned to bowl the seventh over. After hurting Simmons, he then had Chris Gayle caught at long-on as the bowler now brought out the slower ball. Gayle, who had come in after Simmons, played away from his body to try and heave that, but only found the fielder in search of rapid runs.Just wickets and sixes
Amidst a flurry of dot balls – which were 30 in total – and a bunch of extras, which contributed 14, there were five wickets claimed with as many sixes slammed from the third over until the eighth. Hasan Ali got two, while Mohammad Hafeez, Usman Qadir and Wasim all grabbed a wicket each. Nicholas Pooran cracked twin sixes off Hafeez, before Gayle deposited Shadab Khan over his head and Andre Russell dispatched Qadir over extra cover – all this, before Pollard got into Ali with a whip.Pollard provides late entertainment, but Hasan delivers too
Pollard arrived at the crease with one ball of the sixth over left, but watched from the other end as Gayle fell in the following over with West Indies’ run rate still under nine. With Pollard on strike, Ali was brought back for the eighth after foxing Evin Lewis off his first ball earlier in the innings. This time, Ali was whacked first ball over deep square leg as Pollard swung his bat to a good length ball on middle and leg, and despite not quite finding the middle of the bat, sent the ball sailing over deep square leg.But that was the only boundary Ali conceded off his two overs, digging the slower balls perfectly on a rain-affected pitch to keep the West Indies batters quiet. Ali then got Shimron Hetmyer three balls later – Mohammad Rizwan completed a good diving catch – with the hosts struggling for momentum amidst the numerous cutters from the visiting bowlers.Pollard was on 10 off 5 deliveries when only four balls remained in the innings, and the West Indies captain ensured they were well taken care of. A dot ball later, Shaheen Afridi pitched one short on middle and leg as Pollard pulled fiercely to bisect deep square leg and deep midwicket for four. After nabbing two more runs, he ended with a maximum by sending the ball crashing over deep square leg when he made room to a length ball on middle and off, and pulled with disdain. Although he got 12 runs off the last three balls, rain would have the final say with Pakistan not having to chase the total.

Warwickshire 245 for 4 (Malan 141, Sibley 80) vs WorcestershireWarwickshire haven’t had much luck with overseas players this season. With Pieter Malan, the South Africa batter, missing the first three rounds of LV= Insurance County Championship action due to Covid-related travel complications, they signed Hanuma Vihari, instead. And while he produced one important innings of 52 against Essex, he struggled to adapt to the seaming conditions prevalent in early season England and averaged just 16.66 in his three matches.Carlos Brathwaite, meanwhile, signed for the T20 Blast, contracted Covid-19 and was ruled out of key matches. That led to the club signing Kyle Mayers for the final three games of the T20 group stages, but he missed his first game – a pivotal encounter against Worcestershire a couple of days ago – after a test for the virus proved inconclusive. It left Warwickshire (or Birmingham as they are known in T20 cricket) struggling to qualify for the knockout stages.Related