Month: August 2018

3:59 PM ET The jury in the trial of Ben Stokes will retire to consider their verdict on Tuesday morning. Stokes, who is being tried alongside Ryan Ali, denies a charge of affray following an incident that took place in the early hours of September 25. The charge carries a maximum penalty of three years in jail and an unlimited fine. The jury has been asked to reach a unanimous…

‘So much fun’ bowling in those conditions – Anderson (1:35) James Anderson praised the collective effort of the England attack after they dismantled India at Lord’s (1:35) 1:00 PM ET Andrew Miller at Lord’s James Anderson could keep on bowling at his best in Test cricket until he is 40, according to England’s head coach Trevor Bayliss, in the wake of Anderson’s starring role in the second Test win over…

11:38 AM ET Cricket South Africa’s board will be asked to reconsider its equity deal with SuperSport for a new T20 league after meetings between officials and T20 Global League franchise owners last week. The owners collectively reserved their rights to teams and want the 49% share SuperSport currently holds to be handed over to them. The four CSA representatives who met with the owners – CEO Thabang Moroe, acting…

3:00 AM ET Big Picture It could not be more obvious that this game is the hasty post-script to to the tour. The two Tests came first and were always going to be taken very seriously. The five-match ODI series took 17 days to complete, because at least one of the teams wanted to have three days in between matches, to recover and prepare. This game is shoehorned in at…

10:32 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff The ECB has left the door open to recall for Ben Stokes for the third Test against India at Nottingham this week, pending the outcome of his trial for affray. Stokes missed the second Test at Lord’s this week due to his appearance at Bristol Crown Court, and was omitted from an unchanged 13-man squad for the Trent Bridge Test, which gets underway on Saturday….

3:00 AM ET India A 345 & 181 for 4 (Iyer 65, Bawne 64*, Olivier 2-24) drew with South Africa A 319 (Hamza 93, Erwee 58, Second 47; Siraj 4-72, Rajpoot 3-52) Shreyas Iyer bunts one through cover point John Michel Only 58 overs were possible on the final day, but with seven wickets falling it was yet another day dominated by the bowlers. With the post-tea rain not subsiding, India…

‘Everything I did was in defence of myself and others’, Stokes tells jury (1:16) Ben Stokes took to the witness stand for the first time on the fourth day of his trial for affray (1:16) 8:54 AM ET The jury in the Ben Stokes trial has been asked to consider the possibility that Alex Hales inflicted the most serious of the injuries outlined in the incident. The court has heard…

8:45 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff James Anderson has become the first England bowler since Ian Botham in 1980 to break through the 900-point mark in the world rankings, following his match figures of 9 for 43 against India at Lord’s. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli has conceded the top batting ranking a week after his outstanding performance at Edgbaston lifted him above Steven Smith. During the course of the second Test, Anderson…

7:19 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Usman Khawaja says he’s lost up to seven kilos since Australia’s ill-fated tour of South Africa to get into the best fitness of his life ahead of the next stage of his career. Khawaja, 31, has only played 33 Tests since making his debut to much fanfare in 2011, and even though he has been more of a regular over the past three years, he…