Cricket

The fifth round of the Ranji Trophy produced only the second-ever one-run win in the tournament’s history. It also produced a few thrillers, along with a rare instance of a match being played in snowy conditions in Dharamsala. Here are the key takeaways. The comeback Saurashtra, the defending champions, pulled off a miraculous win in

Lunch New Zealand 330 for 3 (Ravindra 169*, Williamson 118, de Swardt 1-30, Paterson 1-74) vs South Africa Ruan de Swardt finally had some luck going his way after two dropped catches on the first day, but Rachin Ravindra continued to make merry as he notched up his first Test 150 to consolidate New Zealand’s

England 67 for 1 (Crawley 29*, Duckett 28) and 253 need another 332 runs to beat India 396 and 225 (Gill 104, Axar 45, Hartley 4-77, Rehan 3-88, Anderson 2-29) Ludicrous though it may sound, the chase is on. No team has ever hunted down a target of 399 to win a Test match in

It meant, after bowling two overs to start the day’s play, England were short a bowling option. Nevertheless, they rallied to dismiss India for 255, with the inexperienced spin trio of Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir combining for eight wickets to limit England’s target to 399 to win in Visakhapatnam for an unlikely

England batter Hamza Shaikh ensured his time at the Under-19 World Cup would not be forgotten when he was given out obstructed the field against Zimbabwe. In the 17th over, Shaikh defended a ball down by his feet and Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Ryan Kamwemba started to come from behind the stumps to collect it. Then, with

“When Mukesh started after lunch,” Bumrah said after the second day’s play in Visakhapatnam, where his 6 for 45 gave India a 143-run lead in the first innings, “there was reverse swing so then I got the message the ball is reverse-swinging and the ball is relatively hard, so I might have to come back

India 396 (Jaiswal 209) and 28 for 0 (Jaiswal 15*, Rohit 13*) lead England 253 (Crawley 76, Bumrah 6-45) by 171 runs Ben Stokes’ expression said it all. For the second time in as many first-innings counterattacks, all he could do was shrug his shoulders and marvel at the genius of the man who’d just

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

Bangladesh will play 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 that ground in a Test series, as the venue will be busy hosting 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

Toss Australia chose to bowl vs West Indies Australia will unleash Lance Morris and Xavier Bartlett on ODI debut after winning the toss and bowling first at the MCG in the first match of a three-match series. Morris was handed his first ODI cap by vice-captain Travis Head while Bartlett received his from Queensland and

West Indies Test hero Shamar Joseph could force his way into the T20 World Cup calculations this year despite not playing in the two limited-overs series against Australia with coach Daren Sammy admitting he has created a selection headache. Joseph created shockwaves around the cricket world last Sunday when he took 7 for 68 to

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 –

“Show us your vision.” That’s the challenge the ECB has sent down to the 18 first-class counties in a second major overhaul of its professional women’s playing structure in five years. Invitations to tender for one of eight women’s professional “Tier 1 Clubs” are being sent to the counties and the MCC on Thursday. It

Ben Stokes has confirmed that Jack Leach will not be available for the second Test in Visakhapatnam after failing to recover from a knee injury sustained during the first Test. Leach hurt his knee fielding on the first day of the Test in Hyderabad, before exacerbating the issue on the second morning. Though restricted to

Sylhet Strikers captain Mashrafe Mortaza has taken a break from this season’s BPL to concentrate on his political career. Mashrafe is a member of parliament – he was elected for a second time in the country’s general elections earlier this month. His party, the Awami League, has appointed him as the party’s whip in parliament.

Aaron Finch believes that Australia’s bowling attack has helped paper over some cracks in the batting line-up this season after five Tests that brought just two individual centuries. Australia fell to an eight-run loss against West Indies at the Gabba on Sunday, one of the biggest upsets in Test history, after a collapse of 8

It feels a bit of a missed opportunity to have the second of a five-Test series take place in the ‘City of Destiny’. Perhaps recent history was considered when sorting the order of the off-broadway venues selected for this India-England series. Only the games up front are guaranteed to be live. But as both teams