Cricket

England and Pakistan have promised a fight to the finish in the first Test at Rawalpindi, in spite of the turgid nature of the pitch, with both Joe Root and Abdullah Shafique insisting that their teams will be pushing for victory over the final two days of the game. England reached the close on day

With South Africa still figuring out their best XI for the Test tour of Australia, former captain Graeme Smith believes they should stick to an “aggressive mindset” and play six batters and five bowlers. “I’d like to see South Africa back their six batters,” Smith told ESPNcricinfo. “I think there’s always that fear because the

There are some concerns over the fitness of Australia captain Pat Cummins after he failed to take the field for the start of the fourth innings on day four of the first Test against West Indies in Perth due to some right quadricep soreness. Cummins bowled 20.2 overs in West Indies first innings across days

Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher are hopeful that the SA20, South Africa’s new franchise T20 league, will help the national team finally win a World Cup. “I actually thought we had a strong team in this World Cup in Australia, I thought we had a good chance,” Smith, the SA20 commissioner, said at an event

Saurashtra 249 for 5 (Jackson 133*, Desai 50, Jani 30*, Ostwal 2-20, Choudhary 2-38) beat Maharashtra 248 for 9 (Gaikwad 108, Kazi 37, Shaikh 31*, Jani 3-43) by five wickets It was a memorable day for Sheldon Jackson, who struck a fine 133 not out to lead Saurashtra past Maharashtra’s 248 to their second Vijay

Allrounders Pooja Vastrakar and Sneh Rana will miss the five-match T20I series against Australia at home starting December 10. While the BCCI release announcing the squad said Vastrakar was unavailable due to an unspecified injury, it gave no reason for Rana’s absence. There was also a maiden national call-up for the Railways left-arm seamer Anjali

Sam Curran, who was player of the final and the tournament at the 2022 World Cup, is among 21 men who have listed the maximum reserve price of INR 2 crore (approx US$ 246,000) for the 2023 IPL auction. Not a single Indian player is listed in the 2 crore bracket which includes marquee names

Dean Elgar supports the space white-ball captain Temba Bavuma was given ahead of the upcoming Test series in Australia. He is also committed to getting the best out of Bavuma in the longest format. Bavuma was the only specialist batter in the squad who was not required to play a first-class match in the lead-up

Toss England chose to bat vs Pakistan Illness-hit England won a crucial toss and opted to bat in their first Test in Pakistan for 17 years to begin the three-match series in Rawalpindi. Play was set to start as scheduled despite England being struck down by a sickness bug on the eve of the match

“If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.” On Tuesday, Ben Stokes announced Liam Livingstone will be making his Test debut against Pakistan in Rawalpindi. Just 24 hours later, with the start of the first Test up in the air as a virus coursing through the England squad threatened to leave them shy of 11 fit

Stumps Bangladesh A 112 trail India A 404 for 5 (Jaiswal 145, Abhimanyu 142, Taijul 3-148, Khaled 2-71) by 292 runs The Indian openers put together 283 runs, the second-highest opening stand ever for India A, against a bowling line-up that had four internationals – Taijul Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Mosaddek Hossain and Nayeem Hasan –

Former New Zealand men’s international Dean Brownlie has been named batting coach of the New Zealand women’s team. Joining him in the White Ferns set-up is spin-bowling coach Craig Howard. Brownie, who retired at the end of the 2019-20 season with a total of 14 Test caps and 21 white-ball caps, was New Zealand men’s

If you’ve been paying even vague attention, you’ll have heard that James Anderson is the only member of this England touring party to have played international cricket in Pakistan prior to this winter. Back in the winter of 2005, a younger, sprightlier but no less downbeat Anderson was part of the squad that last played

Northern 593 (Hurraira 221, Amin 114, Waheed 109, Rohail 94, Aaliyan 4-96, Umar 4-116) beat Sindh 284 and 254 (Fawad 113, Musa 3-49, Jamal 3-63) by an innings and 55 runs Northern fast bowlers Aamer Jamal and Muhammad Musa shared six wickets between them to wipe out the second Sindh innings inside two sessions on

Test captain Pat Cummins has fired back at former coach Justin Langer’s claim that he was undermined by leaks, saying there are “no cowards” in the Australian team. The first Test between Australia and West Indies starting on Wednesday has been overshadowed by Langer’s recent candid interview on the Back Chat podcast, where he attacked

De Kock, 29, is one of South Africa’s key players. His left-handedness and aggression at the top of the order make him a sought after commodity in the T20 cricket. Alongside his runs – 8497 at an average of 33 and a strike rate of 138 – de Kock also has experience captaining the national

Northern, who resumed with Hurraira on 193 and Amin on 79, didn’t lose any wickets in the opening session but Danish Aziz broke through with Hurraira’s wicket after lunch, and Aaliyan then sent back Amin not long after to raise Sindh’s hopes. But Waheed, playing only his fourth game of the season, and Rohail ensured

New Zealand are set to hand a debut to Wellington wicketkeeper-batter Jess McFadyen in the upcoming home series against Bangladesh, after she was named in the 15-member squad for the three T20Is and ODIs. McFadyen’s selection in place of fellow wicketkeeper Izzy Gaze, who is India with the Under-19 team, was the only change to