Month: February 2018

10:11 PM ET New Zealand are a victory away from equalling their best streak in ODIs of 10 wins on the bounce, and number nine was their most satisfying yet of the current sequence as they overcame a formidable England team in a contest that twisted and turned through 100 overs. West Indies barely offered a fight in the first ODI series of New Zealand’s season and though Pakistan occasionally…

3:00 AM ET Karachi Kings 135 for 5 (Denly 29, Babar 28, Ibtisam 2-25, Jordan 2-29) beat Peshawar Zalmi 131 for 9 (Dwayne Smith 71*, Amir 2-6, Afridi 2-22) by five wickets Shahid Afridi goes through his trademark celebratory routine PCB/PSL In a nutshell Karachi Kings completed a day of low-scoring runs and comfortable chases with a five-wicket win against Peshawar Zalmi to maintain their perfect record in this edition of…

3:00 AM ET Islamabad United 117 for 5 (Talat 48, Tahir 3-19) beat Multan Sultans 113 (Malik 35, Raees 3-14) by five wickets Asif Ali is congratulated by Luke Rochi upon catching Kumar Sangakkara PCB/PSL Not often, in T20s, does a Powerplay decide the direction of a game. When it does, it’s almost always solely down to underfoot or overhead conditions. Under atypically overcast skies in Dubai, after a 25-minute delay…

3:00 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Saurashtra 255 (Vasavada 58, Jadeja 56, Raman 4-69) beat Andhra 196 (Ravi Teja 42, Sumanth, 42, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 4-40) by 59 runs Ravindra Jadeja sported a Freddie Mercury ‘stache Associated Press Half-centuries from Ravindra Jadeja and Arpit Vasavada, coupled with a four-wicket haul from left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja propelled Saurashtra to the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Andhra’s dream run ended with a 59-run defeat…

7:24 AM ET Mitchell Santner “didn’t know what to do” after he struck the winning blow in the first one-day international against England to take New Zealand to a victory that appeared to have slipped away. There was an element of modesty of assessing his performance in the remark, but in a sense it also reflected the role Santner plays in New Zealand’s one-day side where his batting has taken…

7:11 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff England’s preparations for next month’s Test series against New Zealand have suffered a potential setback after Liam Livingstone, their uncapped Lancashire batsman, was ruled out of the remainder of the England Lions tour of West Indies due to an injury to his left ankle. Livingstone, who was handed a maiden call-up to the Test squad in the wake of England’s disappointing Ashes campaign, suffered the…

3:00 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Victoria 392 & 1 for 70 lead Western Australia 302 (Philippe 62, Tremain 7-82) by 160 runs Chris Tremain sends down a delivery Cricket Australia/Getty Images Fast bowler Chris Tremain‘s first seven-wicket haul in first-class cricket gave Victoria the ascendency on day two against Western Australia at the WACA. Tremain had five of his seven victims caught behind the wicket in an outstanding display of fast…

5:42 AM ET After a gap of five months, Ben Stokes resumed his England career following his not-guilty plea to a charge of affray after the incident in Bristol last September. He missed the Ashes, the one-day series against Australia and the T20 tri-series. How did his first day back on the job pan out? 1.30pm (New Zealand time)Barring a bad reaction to his training workload, it is certain that…

5:17 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Joe Root, England’s Test captain, says that he blames the system, not the individuals, for the growing trend towards specialisation that has tempted the likes of Alex Hales and Adil Rashid to accept white-ball-only county contracts. But, Root adds, there could still be a future for such players to help reinvigorate the fortunes of England’s Test team, so long as the game’s authorities can find…