Month: June 2018

3:00 AM ET Toss: Bangladesh chose to bowl v Afghanistan Mujeeb Ur Rahman in his delivery stride IDI via Getty Images Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan has decided to bowl first against Afghanistan in the first T20I in Dehradun. Shakib said a lack of knowledge about the conditions in Dehradun prompted the decision. Asghar Stanikzai, the Afghanistan captain, simply said, “toss doesn’t matter.” From their last T20 against India in the…

10:38 AM ET George Dobell Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the ODI against Scotland and the “first part” of the ODI series against Australia due to his hamstring tear. Stokes, who sustained the injury during fielding practice ahead of the second Test at Headingley, will be assessed again later this week before it is decided how many games in the five-match ODI series against Australia he will miss….

9:08 AM ET Madushka Balasuriya Hashan Tillakaratne has been appointed Sri Lanka’s Under-19 coach on two-year contract set to run until the 2020 World Cup in South Africa. The former Sri Lanka captain and World Cup winner takes over from Roy Dias. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) interviewed six other candidates, but Tillakaratne, a qualified level 3 coach, was always the frontrunner because of his previous coaching experience with the national…

3:00 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Pakistan women 70 for 2 (Nahida 38, Tippoch 1-9) beat Thailand women 68 (Chantam 17, Tippoch 17, Sana Mir 2-7) by eight wicketsScorecard and ball-by-ball details Nahida Khan and Javeria Khan reach out for a fist pump ACC Two-time Asia Cup runners-up Pakistan pulverised Thailand by eight wickets on the opening day of the 2018 edition courtesy four combined wickets between the spin troika of Sana…

3:30 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Dhananjaya de Silva will take his place in the Sri Lanka squad only 12 days after his father was killed outside the family home, just south of Colombo. Dhananjaya had originally intimated that he would withdraw from the tour of West Indies, due to this extremely distressing personal situation. But following the funeral, he is believed to be keen to return to his cricket. As…

3:00 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff India women 169 for 3 (Raj 97*, Kaur 32) beat Malaysia women 27 (Vastrakar 3-6, Poonam 2-0) by 142 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details Mithali Raj‘s unbeaten 97 powered India women to 169 for 3 before the bowlers shot Malaysia out for 27 in a resounding 142-run victory to open the Women’s T20 Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur. Not a single Malaysia batsman managed to make…

3:00 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Sri Lanka 64 for 4 (Hansika 23, Kubra 3-13) beat Bangladesh 63 (Kumari 3-17, Prabodhani 2-6) by six wickets Udeshika Prabodhani in full flow Getty Images/ICC Sri Lanka kicked off their Women’s Asia Cup campaign in style, knocking Bangladesh over for 63 and then chasing down the target with five and a half overs to spare. Shashikala Siriwardene, back in charge of Sri Lanka after four…

4:25 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada has swept the CSA awards with as many as six trophies that include Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year, ODI Cricketer of the Year, Players’ Player of the Year, Fans’ Player of the Year and Delivery of the Year. AB de Villiers, who retired from international cricket recently, was named the T20 International Cricketer of the Year. Cricketer…

Bess rewarded for batting work – Thorpe (1:23) England’s batting coach Graham Thorpe praises Dom Bess and Jos Buttler as the pair play key roles in building England’s lead (1:23) 4:21 PM ET Graham Thorpe, England’s lead batting coach, admitted it is proving harder than ever to produce Test-quality batsmen. Thorpe, who made 16 centuries in a 100-Test career, believes the increased onus on limited-overs cricket and the scheduling of…

3:00 AM ET England 302 for 7 (Buttler 34*, Curran 16*) lead Pakistan 174 by 128 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details The second Test at Headingley has officially been designated the Participation Test – a call to arms from the ECB for everyone with a passing interest in English cricket to get involved, and (so the unspoken reasoning goes…) help dig the sport out of something of an existential crisis. Ever…