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The loss of Cameron Green’s overs are not viewed as vital, but the frontline bowlers will likely need a break at some point

Tristan Lavalette21-Nov-20245:56

Cummins: ‘Smith’s hands have made their way to Perth’

On the eve of the first Test, as he went about various media duties, Australia captain Pat Cummins appeared extremely relaxed and seemingly sported a permanent smile.He seems to have good reason to feel at ease. While much of the focus ahead of the series has been on the uncertainty over India’s line-up, Australia’s XI has been settled ever since uncapped Nathan McSweeney won the race to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the order.It’s an experienced group of players and they are relatively refreshed with a lot of forward planning having been made in a bid to get them through a gruelling five-match series played within seven weeks.Related

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But if there has been a cause for concern, it’s the fitness of allrounder Mitchell Marsh who has only bowled four overs since tearing his hamstring during the IPL.All of those overs were in the fourth ODI against England at Lord’s in September. He then pulled up sore and missed the subsequent match before playing as a specialist batter for Western Australia in two Sheffield Shield matches in October.Marsh had publicly declared ahead of the second Shield match, against Tasmania, that he would return to bowling but his body was not quite ready. His role with the ball has grown in significance for Australia with Cameron Green missing the entire series due to a stress fracture of his back.Having become a father a day earlier, his wife Greta giving birth to their first child, Marsh on Monday pushed through weariness and built up his bowling loads in a lengthy centre wicket session as Australia started their first Test preparations. There were no signs of discomfort as Marsh powered through the crease and he also impressed during Australia’s training session on Wednesday.”He will definitely bowl this Test. He is an allrounder and with the way us four bowlers set out, we never really budget around an allrounder bowling heaps,” Cummins said.Marsh, however, is unlikely to be able to cover Green’s workload. He was used sparingly during the seven Tests last summer where he never bowled more than nine overs in an innings.Marsh, 33, is set to be utilised across a couple of short spells, possibly relatively early in the innings given his ability to produce outswing and also around the 60-70 over mark with the old ball.”We never put an upper limit [on overs] on anyone,” Cummins said. “But he’s ready to go and happy to bowl as much as we need. I would imagine a few spells each innings. He’s been bowling great this week, his body is the best it has been for a while.”Mitchell Marsh has barely bowled since an injury in the IPL earlier this year•Getty Images

Along with Marsh and Travis Head’s handy offspin, Cummins might also revert to Marnus Labuschagne, who has emerged as an unlikely seam bowling option after lengthy stints in the Shield caught many observers by surprise. He has almost exclusively bowled seam rather than legspin, which has yielded him some success previously at Test level.Having taken the captaincy reins of Queensland, Labuschagne has utilised himself with the ball and took 2 for 5 from 6.2 overs in the season opener against Western Australia at the WACA. He then bowled 27 overs across the match against South Australia at Allan Border Field.His bowling has been marked by short-ball aggression, which he has also unfurled during Australia’s training sessions ahead of the first Test, providing a potential tactic for Cummins to utilise.”He’s always trying to impress the ball, which is great,” Cummins said. “He loves bowling. He’s one of those guys, as we know, who always wants to be involved. He’s bowled some handy overs for Queensland. Obviously, he’s got legspin, a bit of offspin in the past and then this year, it’s been on to pace bowling.”I’m sure he’ll get the ball at some stage and bowl quite a few bouncers as well. So that’s maybe something we’ll turn to at some point as well.”While there is intrigue over Australia’s back-up bowlers, a refreshed Cummins and his frontline attack are hoping to mostly shoulder the workload. He will enter the series having not played red-ball cricket since March in New Zealand.Cummins was earmarked to play a Shield match for New South Wales, but has instead played one domestic 50-over game and two ODIs against Pakistan.”I feel great. Couldn’t have asked for a better lead in, so hopefully it translates into a good summer,” he said. “I’ve been really lucky to have four or five months off to build up, get strong. I feel as strong and as fresh and as fit as I have for a long time.”

Another top-order collapse for Sri Lanka meant they were always behind in the chase, and got nowhere close to concede the ODI series 2-0

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Jan-2025
New Zealand strode to 255 for 9 in their 37 overs, with a 112-run second wicket stand between Rachin Ravindra and Mark Chapman the bedrock of that innings. And then Sri Lanka’s top order crashed and burned again. They were 4 for 22 inside the first five overs, their hopes of levelling the series almost completely dashed.Kamindu Mendis attempted to revive the innings, but his 64 was not nearly enough to revive this innings. Sri Lanka slipped to a 113-run defeat, having also lost heavily to New Zealand in the first ODI. New Zealand take the series despite being significantly depleted by absences and injuries. Sri Lanka are essentially at full strength, but the failure of their top five continues to dog them, even in a rain-reduced match such as this.New Zealand had some stutters too. They were modest at the death, as Maheesh Theekshana in particular was effective, taking a hat-trick across his last two overs, as New Zealand mustered no more than 63 in the last 10 overs, losing five wickets in that period. But they did not stumble so spectacularly as to undo the work of the Ravindra-Chapman stand. They had contributions through the middle, with Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, and Mitchell Santner chipping in.Maheesh Theekshana became the seventh Sri Lanka bowler to bag an ODI hat-trick•Getty Images

And then they had their confident seam bowlers, who imposed themselves even with the older ball. Will O’Rourke took 3 for 31, Jacob Duffy 2 for 30, while Matt Henry and Nathan Smith claimed a wicket apiece. The only semblance of a partnership had been between Kamindu and Janith Liyanage, as the pair put on 57 together for the fifth wicket. Outside of that, New Zealand were picking their way through the batting order, and ultimately had them all out inside 31 overs.Sri Lanka’s required rate was 6.92 right from the beginning. Although this seems a monumental challenge, the pitch was good to bat on, and with rain having delayed the start of play by two-and-a-half hours, a damp ball was also proving a challenge for some bowlers. But Sri Lanka needed a strong start to put some wind in the sails of this chase, and what they got instead was a collapse.Pathum Nissanka holed out to mid-off in the second over, badly miscuing a lofted drive against Duffy. Kusal Mendis then edged behind in Duffy’s next over, before Avishka Fernando slapped a ball from Henry straight to point immediately after. Captain Charith Asalanka’s horrendous judging of a run extended Sri Lanka’s nosedive. He’d blocked one towards Mitchell Santner at mid-off and called his partner through. Santner swooped in the ball, hit the stumps with an under-arm throw, and caught Asalanka metres short. Kamindu had been out in very similar fashion, taking on the same fielder, only on Sunday.Captain vs captain: Mitchell Santner ran out Charith Asalanka•Getty Images

At Asalanka’s dismissal, Sri Lanka still had 234 runs to get off 194 deliveries, and only two specialist batters and two allrounders left to do it with. They didn’t get especially far.Contrast this to New Zealand’s top order, who put their team in a powerful position inside the first 22 overs, with Ravindra stroking 79 off 63 and Chapman hitting 62 off 52.What was most impressive about their stand was how comfortable both batters made brisk run-scoring appear. Ravindra was strong through the offside as usual, but found plenty of runs to leg, using the sweep and the pick-up shot off the pads to especially good effect.Chapman meanwhile, was decidedly stronger on the legside, scoring 46 off his 63 runs in that direction. He hit two sixes – one top edged over the keeper, and another over midwicket off a short ball from Eshan Malinga to bring up his fifty off 44 balls as well as the century partnership. Ravindra had also got to his half-century with a six – down the ground off Hasaranga. He took 43 balls to get there.Rachin Ravindra and Mark Chapman added 112 runs off 91 balls for the second wicket•AFP/Getty Images

Earlier, Asitha Fernando had bowled Will Young with an outstanding jagging delivery, but neither Ravindra or Chapman were tested for long by Sri Lanka’s seamers. In fact, it was the spinners that introduced even a little discomfort – between them, Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga took six wickets.Sri Lanka fielded well, and induced errors at a greater rate in the back half of the innings. Asalanka pulled off an excellent diving catch at short cover to get rid of Ravindra, and Theekshana’s hat-trick featured some tumbling catches in the deep from Chamindu Wickramasinghe and Kamindu.But even in the field, New Zealand outdid them. Their ground fielding was spectacular again, and the catch of the day belonged to Nathan Smith, who bounded along the deep-third boundary, threw himself off his feet and got his outstretched right arm to a ball that might otherwise have landed over the boundary to dismiss Malinga.

Yash Rathod’s century set Mumbai a target of 406, before Vidarbha ended the day with three key wickets

Shashank Kishore20-Feb-2025Yash Rathod struck a superb 151, his fifth hundred this season, as Vidarbha set Mumbai 406 for a place in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy final. Mumbai will be chasing history – the highest successful chase in the tournament’s history is 378 that Railways achieved against Tripura last season.But that job got that much tougher as they ended the day in Nagpur on 73 for 3, with Ajinkya Rahane, the captain, being dismissed in the last half hour. Shivam Dube, and not Suryakumar Yadav, came out to bat at No. 5 to join first-innings centurion Akash Anand. It wasn’t clear if Suryakumar was suffering from a niggle – he was off the field for the entire duration of Vidarbha’s batting innings.All three wickets fell to the left-arm spinners. Harsh Dubey, the season’s highest wicket-taker who surpassed the 60-wicket mark in the first innings, accounted for Mhatre and Lad, while Parth Rekhade, who triggered a mammoth collapse in the first innings with the wickets of Rahane, Suryakumar and Dube in the space of two overs, dismissed Rahane with one that kept low.But the story of Vidarbha’s day lay in how Rathod ground Mumbai’s bowling to construct his century, first with Akshay Wadkar and then with Rekhade. Rathod and Wadkar lifted a floundering innings from 56 for 4, adding 158 before Wadkar’s dismissal prior to lunch opened up the game again.Having dug in to make a half-century of 200 balls, Wadkar was out bowled off a beauty from Shams Mulani as he played down the wrong line to one that turned away sharply. Dubey and Darshan Nalkande soon fell to the spinners as it became clear the surface was now beginning to open up and aid spinners if they were prepared to bowl into the rough created at both ends.Not until the No. 10 was dismissed that Rathod looked to play a shot in anger – this partly stemmed from the confidence of having someone as accomplished as Rekhade, who was the No. 3 in the first innings, come in at No. 9. Rathod brought up his 150 shortly before being the last man out, by which time their lead crossed 400. Mulani finished with figures of 6 for 85 across 44 overs.Vidarbha quickly turned to their spinners with the new ball and Dubey got it to turn and kick off the rough, even as the odd ball kept low. This played a part in each of the three dismissals. All said, Anand, fresh off a century in the first innings, looked compact and showed a solid defence to finish unbeaten on 27, with Dube on 12 as Mumbai have to do something that has never been done before, on the final day, to try and gun for title No. 43.

Giants ended their losing streak to post their second win of this WPL

Shashank Kishore27-Feb-2025A close finish was in the offing. Gujarat Giants (GG) were stifled early in a small chase. Then came an expensive ninth over that went for three fours and a six as Ashleigh Gardner took on rookie Prema Rawat. It turned the scales the way of GG emphatically, as a tricky chase against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) turned into a canter.It left RCB winless at home in three games so far this season. It also meant three sides – RCB, GG and UP Warriorz – are now tied on four points. This lights up the prospect of a tight finish to the group stage next week in Lucknow and Mumbai.

Perry’s rare failure

She came into the tournament under a hip injury cloud, but her batting form didn’t seem to suggest any problem. Coming in on the back of 90*, 81, 7 and 57, Ellyse Perry was out for the first duck in her WPL career when she mistimed Gardner to Tanuja Kanwar at square leg off her fourth ball. That wicket, coming on the back of Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s lbw in the first over to Deandra Dottin, left RCB 16 for 2 in two overs.

Gautam sizzles; Mandhana fizzles

It was an uneasy stay at the crease for Smriti Mandhana, repeatedly squared up and beaten on the outside edge by 21-year-old Kashvee Gautam, one of the brightest Indian fast bowlers on show in WPL 2025. Mandhana struggled against late movement as Gautam’s first two overs went for just four. All that pressure led to a wicket at the other end when Mandhana was predictably out to spin yet again when she slog-swept Kanwar to Harleen Deol at deep midwicket for 10 off 20 balls.Kashvee Gautam has been the brightest young Indian fast bowler at the WPL•BCCI

Ahuja injects momentum

During the season spent away at rehabilitation after a back injury last year, Kanika Ahuja set herself clear goals. She didn’t want to be known as a “five-ball batter” in the WPL anymore. She worked hard on her power game, shades of which were on display on Thursday as she laid into Priya Mishra, the legspinner.She read the googly off the hand and her manner of stepping out to imperiously loft her twice in the over, including the first six of the innings, spoke volumes of her growth. Ahuja would repeat that two overs later when she stepped out to launch Gardner. Her 33 off 27 before falling to Kanwar led to another RCB slip-up. Georgia Wareham’s cameo of 20 then helped them to 125 for 7, their joint-lowest total in the WPL.

Renuka gives RCB hope

GG went with a third opening combination in five games. Dayalan Hemalatha, the latest to join the game of musical chairs, did little to repay the faith following scores of 9, 0 and 4 in her precious three innings. Having been reprieved early when Wyatt-Hodge misjudged a catch at mid-off, she was out stumped looking to heave Renuka Singh for 11. Mandhana’s decision to bowl Renuka out up top paid dividends when Beth Mooney holed out to deep midwicket as GG were reduced to 32 for 2 in the seventh.

Gardner tees off

A 19-run over off Rawat in the ninth turned the tide for GG as Gardner fed off Rawat’s inexperience, expertly using the depth of the crease to pull, while also showing her driving abilities when the ball was tossed up. The surge in momentum was such that even Deol’s brain fade in trying to hit out against Wareham didn’t lead to any panic.

Litchfield reverse-sweeps away to glory

Phoebe Litchfield, playing in only her second game of the competition, exhibited tremendous game awareness and played a succession of reverse sweeps to negate Sneh Rana’s threat to quickly offset any pressure, while ensuring the required rate swiftly went down. She was also aided by some luck when Richa Ghosh put her down on 11 off Rana with GG needing 39 off 42.This didn’t affect her tempo or her adventurousness, which also greatly helped Gardner, who hit Wareham for back-to-back sixes on her way to her third half-century of the season, this time off 28 balls. Gardner and Litchfield’s 51-run stand off just 36 ensured the match was won with 21 balls to spare, greatly helping GG boost their net run-rate even though they stay fifth.

South Africa’s coach said their WTC win will have people fall in love with Test and first-class cricket

Firdose Moonda15-Jun-20251:53

Steyn on SA’s WTC win: ‘We saw the biggest of the biggest come through’

South Africa have “created our own reality” to become World Test Champions, and for head coach Shukri Conrad, that is significant beyond the present moment. It is something that as players, neither he nor his father Sedick could do.Both were active during the Apartheid era, when players of colour, no matter how good they were, could not represent South Africa. On March 11, Sedick Conrad passed away, exactly three months before Shukri would oversee the opening day of the WTC final.”With two runs to go, I remember the old man saying to me, ‘I just want to see you beat Australia one day’,” Shukri told reporters on the outfield at Lord’s, wearing dark glasses to hide his eyes.”They [The eyes] are worse than Kesh’s,” he’d told the broadcasters after Keshav Maharaj, whose father Athmanand was also a cricketer for whom national representation was impossible, broke down on air.Related

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Maharaj’s many tears were the least expected, given his usually poker-faced public demeanour, but the most emphatic as South Africa allowed their emotions to pour out after ten sessions of tense Test cricket.”It was probably the two worst hours of cricket for me, but the two best at the same time,” Shukri said. “We were living every emotion, almost sketching everything that potentially could go wrong. The mind just plays weird and wonderful games. When Scholsy (Kyle Verreynne, who is nicknamed after English footballer Paul Scholes) smacked that one, there was just an outpour of applause from everyone. I’m thrilled for these guys.”Equally, they will be thrilled for him. Shukri is the ultimate home-grown coach, is little-known outside of South Africa’s cricket circles. But he has walked every path within it. He has coached two of the most successful provincial sides (Gauteng and Western Province), the national academy, the under-19 side and A side and can make his selections based on wide and deep knowledge of the country’s game.7:27

Bavuma: We’ve wiped all doubts with the way that we’ve played

Some of them have raised eyebrows including recalling Aiden Markram for his first series in charge, appointing Temba Bavuma captain, dropping and then going back to Verreynne, sticking with Dane Paterson and most recently, putting Wiaan Mulder at No.3 and opting for Lungi Ngidi, who had not played a Test in ten months, for the final. All of them have paid off. He created a reality in which a South African side others may have considered a mish-mash came together to make a dream come true.”This is not me trying to justify my selections in any way. This is purely a case of every single guy on this side wanting to deliver and play his part. And everybody did,” Shukri said. “We’re the world champions. We create our own reality. (People were saying) we haven’t played any of the big three. Well, now we’ve played one of them and we beat them. This is not me being arrogant. This is me saying when we play against the supposed top three, we will perform. And we’re the world champions.”South Africa played, and drew a series, against India at the start of this WTC cycle and did not play England or Australia in the two-year period and faced criticism over a so-called easy run to the final. Shukri always dismissed that as bluster and continued to in the aftermath of the final.”We play whatever’s put in front of us. There’s a lot of things we’d like, but we can’t get, so we just play the cards we’re dealt with. And it’s often not what you dealt, but how you play those cards. And I think we’ve done nicely.”Now, he has additional ammunition because of who South Africa overcame in the final. It’s not just that it’s Australia or that they are the defending champions but they have historically bossed world cricket and won more trophies than anyone else. So there was no surprise that Shukri’s voice was bolder when he reflected on how tough the opposition was. “Arguably the best side in the world – we’ve just beaten them,” he said.South Africa ended their ICC title drought with the WTC mace•ICC/Getty Images

He took the wide-lens view of what the match itself, where the advantage crossed the floor several times on each day, said about the appeal of the game. “It’s easy to say this because we’ve won, but if the result was different, it’d still have been the best cricketing experience we’ve ever been a part of,” Shukri said. “It’s an absolute spectacle. Everything about this place is spot on: the vibe, the crowd support, it was wonderful. And for people who take time off and spend hard-earned cash at 24 Rands to a Pound to come out here and support, we’re just thrilled that we could deliver for them as well.”Over 100,000 people packed Lord’s across the three-and-a-third days and a majority of them were supporting South Africa. While the South African expat population made up a lot of the crowd, a healthy number had flown into London for the week, including over 400 hosted by sponsor of Cricket South Africa. They sang songs of home including (the unofficial national anthem that was sung by mine workers and symbolises undying resistance), Ole Ole (the eternal football chant) and “Oh Temba Bavuma” to the tune of Seven Nation Army, over and over and over again.Scenes like these are hardly ever part of a South African Test summer, where only Newlands and SuperSport Park sell out but Shukri hopes the WTC win will inspire interest in the longest format. “I just want people to fall in love with first-class and Test cricket again and I think people will, because the spin-offs are immense,” Shukri said. “T20, the most popular format, benefits if you’ve got a strong first-class system and a strong Test team. You only need to look at the IPL. Our players are the most sought after, and today we become World Test Champions as well.”South Africa will have to wait more than a year to find out if that will be the case. There are no home Tests this summer, as the tour to India ends in mid-December and the SA20 starts shortly after, and grounds are being refurbished for the 2027 ODI World Cup. But next season they host eight Tests, including three each against England and Australia. It seems like too long to ask South African fans to wait to see their champion team, but they waited long enough just to be able to label them that. Perhaps the long break will give them a chance to realise that winning a world title is now their reality too.

Report’s authors predict ‘tensions’ in wake of windfall, particularly in light of ‘yawning gap’ between haves and have nots

Andrew Miller16-Jul-2025County cricket will face “tensions” as it seeks to manage the £520 million windfall that it is due from this year’s sale of stakes in the Hundred. However, it is well placed to avoid the pitfalls that Premiership rugby faced following its own injection of private equity capital in 2018, according to a new in-depth report into the financial health of the domestic game in England and Wales.The Leonard Curtis Cricket Finance Report, an 89-page study compiled by a team of sports business journalists, former and current cricket professionals, advisers and sports finance academics, was launched at the Kia Oval on Tuesday.Within it, the report described a “yawning gap” between the seven counties that host a Hundred franchise and the 11 that do not, with three clubs – Surrey, Warwickshire and Lancashire, all of whom hosted Ashes Tests in 2023 – responsible for 44% of the £306.1 million generated by domestic cricket that year. By contrast, the three poorest clubs – Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire – contributed just 5.56% between them.Professor Rob Wilson, the report’s co-author, acknowledged that, without the anticipated Hundred money, “three or four” counties might by now be facing bankruptcy. However, he was also broadly optimistic that the windfall could provide the “medium-term relief” necessary to shore up the county game’s long-term viability.Related

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“English cricket really is on the cusp of a transformational injection of capital,” Wilson said. “That represents an extraordinary opportunity for the game. But it has to be managed with real prudence, long-term thinking and probably a degree of creativity.”Michael Vaughan, the former England captain who wrote the report’s foreword, added that the Hundred money will allow the 18 first-class counties to “look to the future rather than simply survive from one summer to the next” and called on the smaller counties to invest in player pathways and facilities to generate homegrown talent, rather than seek to compete directly with the bigger clubs.”There needs to be a strategic plan of how to create a sustainable county cricket club,” Vaughan added. “I would like to see counties being transparent with each other and sharing knowledge about what works for them. Sometimes petty rivalries prevent that from happening and divisions between the Test host counties and the others develop.”The contrast with rugby’s experience of private investment is potentially instructive for English cricket. In 2024, Leonard Curtis compiled a similar report on that sport’s finances, six years on from CVC Capital Partners’ groundbreaking £200 million deal for a 27% stake in Premiership Rugby.The rugby report found that not a single club made a profit in the 2022-23 season, with seven of the ten clubs considered to be balance-sheet insolvent. “Old-school thinking”, it added, had contributed to three teams – Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish – going out of business in the preceding seasons.”The ECB has a lot more control over the distribution of that Hundred money than we saw with the CVC deal in rugby union,” Wilson explained. “That money went to the clubs, then straight into player wages, and there was no real improvement in infrastructure.”In cricket, I think it will be much more akin to what we see in American sport, which is ownerships working together for the benefit of the competition, rather than owners against each other for the benefit of the club. Over time, that will mean the franchise values increase, and that then provides a lot more financial resources for the counties that sit beneath them.”However, the authors did acknowledge that the wide range of stakeholders in the Hundred could create separate pressures on county cricket. In addition to multiple investors from India and America, including owners of IPL and MLC teams, almost a third of the Hundred windfall was generated from outside the county system, with a US tech consortium bidding £144 million for a 49% stake in MCC-owned London Spirit.”It certainly creates increased tension, because of the range of different opportunities that the various bodies will be looking to capitalise on,” Wilson added.”With the BCCI investing fairly heavily through the IPL franchise system, that gives them the opportunity to get into the grassroots, and dominate the game at a franchise level, which could then have a tangible impact on the county game.”I’m encouraged that the ECB are regulating how that money will be distributed, so that it goes into the right areas to protect the fabric of the game. But there will be some significant tensions in making sure we can deliver an optimized franchise competition, alongside an 18-county first-class system.”

Pooran is also captain of the MI franchises in the MLC and the ILT20

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Aug-2025Nicholas Pooran has been named Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) captain ahead of CPL 2025. He will take over from Kieron Pollard, who has led the team since 2019, when he replaced Dwayne Bravo in the role.”It means a lot, first and foremost, to represent Trinbago Knight Riders. It is a privilege that I’m getting the opportunity to lead this franchise,” Pooran said. “I want to give it my best shot, and hopefully make as many correct decisions as I can. It’s a responsibility that has been passed on from Bravo to Pollard, and now to me.”For me, the most satisfying thing is that Pollard is still playing; Sunil [Narine] and Andre [Russell] are here too. That’s a lot of experience I can bank on. To lead them on the field – it means a lot to me.”Related

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Pooran, who is one of the most sought-after players on the T20 circuit, made his debut in the format as a 17-year-old in the inaugural season of the CPL for TKR, who were then known as Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel. He switched to Barbados Royals (BR) and Guyana Amazon Warriors before returning to TKR in 2022. He’s played in all the CPL seasons so far except for 2015, when he was out injured due to an accident. Overall in the CPL, Pooran has 2447 runs at a strike rate of 152.27 in 114 matches. At present, he is also the captain of MI New York in the MLC and MI Emirates in the ILT20.Under Pollard’s leadership, TKR not only won their fourth CPL title in 2020 but had a record unbeaten season – with 12 out of 12 wins – before making two more playoff appearances. In 2024, they lost the Eliminator to BR. Bravo was named head coach this season after he retired last year.”I believe grooming the next generation is very important,” Pollard said. “With Bravo coming on board this year as the new head coach, we felt this is the right time to get a new captain in. Pooran is homegrown, and I think this is the right opportunity for him. We’ve actually been preparing him for this over the years.”I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be playing for, but I’m happy for the opportunity to still be on the field and help Nicholas ease into this role. He’s someone who we’ve seen grow in front of us and he understands our values and principles. He understands how we want to play cricket, he understands the winning culture that we want to create, and he shares a lot of respect with a lot of players around the world. So for me, it was an easy decision to hand over the captaincy to Pooran.”TKR start their CPL 2025 campaign against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots on August 17.

Aiden Markram says the squad tried to simulate spinning conditions during a training camp in Pretoria

Firdose Moonda06-Oct-2025South Africa are expecting a slew of spin when they begin their World Test Championship (WTC) title defence in Pakistan later this week and stand-in captain Aiden Markram is confident his players are ready.Though this South African unit has not played red-ball cricket together since the previous WTC final in June, some of their players were involved in a two-Test series in Zimbabwe in June-July and others have been at the county championship. Their main preparation took place over the last two days at a training camp in Pretoria, where they tried to replicate the home advantage Markram believes Pakistan have every right to exploit.”If it’s your home game, you can pretty much prepare whatever wicket you’d like to prepare. That’s how I see it,” Markram said ahead of the team’s departure on Monday. ” Ultimately, if it’s going to be extreme like it was in the English series, then it’s going to be difficult for both teams from a batting point of view. For us as a squad, we’ve just got to be happy with what we have, whatever the conditions look like and to back whoever it is on the day to get the job done. So I’m not too fussed by it.”Markram’s reference to “the English series,” harks back to this time last year, when Pakistan hosted England. After losing the first Test, Pakistan won the next two on pitches that turned square after using everything from industrial fans and heaters to windbreakers to dry out the surfaces. Those games were played in Multan and Rawalpindi. South Africa will play in Lahore and Rawalpindi, where 29 of 31 wickets in the England Test fell to spin.No pitch in South Africa can behave that way but they tried at the High Performance Centre. “There’s three pitches that are spinning quite a bit and two out of those three are really exaggerated,” Markram said. “The one that’s a little bit in between is still sharp spin but slightly easier to bat on. And then we’ve got one strip in the middle as well where it’s pretty normal. We try to keep it as dead as possible but it’s not always that easy, just to have the ball squat a bit low. It’s difficult to do that on the Highveld, but we’ve tried our best. We’re trying to tick all the boxes.”South Africa have also picked a spin-heavy squad, which includes left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy and offspinners Simon Harmer and Prenelan Subrayen. “They’re all quite different. If you look at the two off-spinners to start with, Simon and Subs, especially having faced them now where it is spinning, it’s two completely different challenges they throw at you. That’s something great to have as a squad,” Markram said. “You don’t really want similar types of spinners. They are each quite different, different paces, different types of spin in terms of side spin and overspin and stuff like that, which reacts differently off the wickets. They’ll play a massive role for us there if what we’re expecting is going to be the case.”South Africa’s first-choice spinner Keshav Maharaj will only join the squad for the second Test, when they will have four specialist spin options. They will not, however, enjoy the return of their regular Test captain Temba Bavuma, who was ruled out of the series with a calf injury. While Markram is used to standing in for Bavuma, and did on South Africa’s tour to Bangladesh last year, making up for Bavuma’s place in the batting order is not as simple.As South Africa’s leading run-scorer of the last WTC, Bavuma provides stability and experience at No.4, which South Africa will have to find elsewhere. One replacement option is Dewald Brevis, who debuted in Zimbabwe and has an aggressive approach across formats.”He’d definitely be an option, especially with the way he plays spin,” Markram said. “If the conditions are going to be exaggerated, he can quickly change the momentum of the game doing what he does and playing the way he does. He’ll be a definite consideration.”He won’t be the only one. South Africa have also recalled Zubayr Hamza, who recently played for the A side against New Zealand A and scored a second-innings hundred in the first match, and WTC squad member Tony de Zorzi, who proved his credentials in the subcontinent with 177 against Bangladesh last year. “He played incredibly well in Bangladesh and scored big runs there, where it was also quite challenging. So I don’t think it’s necessarily that Dewald is a dead-given straight swap, but I’m very sure he’ll be in the conversation.”The first Test of the series starts in Lahore on Sunday.

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The mood around Anfield has taken a notable downturn in light of a pair of draws against Leicester City and West Ham United, but a timely boost has arrived to lift spirits at the club.

Indeed, according to a recent report from the London Evening Standard, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is ahead of schedule in his bid to return from injury and Jurgen Klopp has selected him in Liverpool’s Champions League squad for the knockout stage of the competition.

The 25-year-old midfielder has been sidelined ever since a tackle from Aleksandar Kolarov unfortunately resulted in a nasty injury, one that cruelly ruled him out of World Cup contention in the middle of a bright period of form which suggested he was a contender to start for England in Russia.

But nearly ten months later it seems that he is edging towards an eagerly-anticipated return, and the supporters couldn’t be happier.

Liverpool’s midfield has been lacking the presence of a direct dribbler and genuine goal threat from deep in recent weeks, but his return could provide Klopp with a weapon to exploit in Europe.

The fact he has been sidelined for such a prolonged period of time suggests the last-sixteen clash against Bayern Munich may come too soon for Oxlade-Chamberlain, but if the Reds progress he might have a chance to play a key role in the latter stages.

Here’s what the Liverpool fans have had to say about the latest update…

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Chris Sutton led the praise for Scott Brown’s unlikely blockbuster against St. Johnstone.

For the first time in two years the Hoops skipper was on the score-sheet with his stunning strike almost worth the wait.

Fans, team-mates, opponents and pundits were left stunned by the goal which killed off St. Johnstone’s hopes as Zander Clark dived in vain to prevent his side going 2-0 down within 10 minutes.

The goal was the highlight of another stellar performance from the Hoops skipper who recently signed a new contract to extend his Celtic career.

Back in November, Celtic hit a purple patch of form that had some fans questioning whether there was a place for the 33-year-old when Brendan Rodgers’ side pass with pace.

Throughout his career Brown has been told what he can’t do but since the winter break he has reminded the doubters why he has been picked more than 500 times for Celtic and been captain under four very different managers.

Here’s a look at how Chris Sutton and other Celtic fans reacted to Brown’s goal on Twitter…