Month: October 2018

2:18 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Worcestershire have completed their second signing in the space of two weeks with Riki Wessels moving from Nottinghamshire. Wessels, 32, has been released from his contract to take up a three-year deal after Nottinghamshire strengthened their batting resources with the signings of Ben Slater, Joe Clarke and Ben Duckett. He leaves after seven seasons at Trent Bridge and follows South African-born seamer Wayne Parnell, who…

1:20 PM ET Liam Brickhill Imran Tahir will turn 40 two months before South Africa pack their bags for the 2019 World Cup. Any thoughts of retirement, however, are far from his mind as he focuses on staying at his best for what could be a career-defining event. When he does go, he wants to make sure it’s with his head held high. “I’m trying to go as long as…

3:00 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Pakistan A 278 (Abid 85, Aslam 51, Lyon 8-103) and 261 for 7 (Shafiq 69, Abid 52, Holland 5-79) drew with Australia 494 for 4 dec (Mitchell Marsh 162, Shaun Marsh 94, Maqsood 2-66) Jon Holland gives the ball a twirl Getty Images Jon Holland added to a slew of impressive individual performances for the Australians in the four-day tour game against Pakistan A, which ended…

12:35 PM ET Deivarayan Muthu The 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy game between Bengal and Jharkhand ended in controversial fashion amid fading light at the TI-Cycles Ground in Chennai, with Jharkhand declared as the winning team via VJD method, with one over left in their chase. This, after slow over rates from both sides had dragged the match to 6pm after it had started at 9am. After Jharkhand opted to bowl,…

10:05 AM ET Andrew Fidel Fernando Kumar Sangakkara has labelled England the best all-round side “in any conditions”, and expects them to challenge Sri Lanka in the three-Test series in November. Although England will begin the ODI series as favourites – they are the top-ranked team, while Sri Lanka are eighth – Sangakkara said Sri Lanka will “have to be on top of their game” in Tests, in order to…

8:02 AM ET Angelo Mathews‘ recent fall in limited-overs cricket was dramatic. Following Sri Lanka’s embarrassing Asia Cup exit, Mathews was first stripped of the captaincy, then dropped from the one-day team altogether, only 10 months after the same coach and selectors had requested him to lead the team. Chandika Hathurusingha and chief selector Graeme Labrooy have since attempted to publicly explain the decision to axe him, and have landed…

7:17 AM ET Liam Brickhill Chris Wilkins, the former South African provincial and county opening batsman, has died at the age of 74. Cricket South Africa announced Wilkins’ death “with shock and sadness” on Tuesday morning. An aggressive opening batsman who could also bowl nippy medium pace, Wilkins represented Border, Eastern Province and Natal in a career that spanned nearly 20 years. Wilkins settled in KwaZulu-Natal after his retirement, becoming…

3:00 AM ET Big Picture South Africa’s bowlers did a sterling job in the series opener and the hosts are 1-0 up, but there are questions over their batting. In Bloemfontein’s Mangaung Oval, they may have the perfect stage to set right some of their batting errors and get the middle order flowing smoothly. An untested middle order clearly got the memo about playing aggressive cricket, but in the first…