Dylan Budge sings ‘Flower of Scotland’ during the anthems ahead of his ODI debut 8:09 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Sri Lanka will hop over to Scotland for two ODIs before making their trip to England and Wales for the 2019 World Cup, Cricket Scotland has confirmed in a press release. They will compete in two ODIs – on May 18 and May 21 – with the venues slated to be…
7:20 AM ET Trevor Bayliss has warned that it is too soon to say whether Rory Burns and Keaton Jennings can be considered England’s answers to their long-term problem at the top of the Test batting order, in spite of the key contributions they made to a memorable 3-0 series whitewash against Sri Lanka. Speaking in the aftermath of England’s 42-run win on the final day in Colombo, Bayliss admitted…
3:00 AM ET Lunch New Zealand 63 for 4 (Williamson 6*, Watling 0*, Yasir 4-31) trail Pakistan 418 for 5 dec (Sohail 147, Babar 127, Azhar 81, de Grandhomme 2-44) by 355 runs Since the slow, hard grind had worked well for Pakistan, New Zealand decided to give it a shot, too. The initial results looked promising, but that was before Yasir Shah demonstrated the gulf in class between him…
3:42 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff A day after the Women’s World T20 2018 concluded in the Caribbean with Australia beating England in the final, ICC confirmed it had submitted a bid for women’s T20 cricket to be included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games that will take place in Birmingham, England. ICC chief executive David Richardson said the move would bring in several new fans and inspire more women to take…
3:00 AM ET Sri Lanka 240 and 164 for 5 (Mendis 77*, Roshen 37*) need a further 163 runs to beat England 336 and 230 (Buttler 64, Dilruwan 5-88) Kusal Mendis swept, cut and pulled his way to an unflustered 77 off 101 balls, while Roshen Silva joined him for an unbeaten 82-run partnership, as Sri Lanka held England at bay before lunch, after England had dismissed nightwatchman Lakshan Sandakan…
12:34 AM ET Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Mortaza is set to contest the country’s 11th parliamentary election, after he received confirmation of his nomination from the ruling Awami League. He will be contesting in the Narail-2 constituency, his home district, with the polls scheduled to be held on December 30. Mashrafe wrote in Facebook post about how he has always felt strongly about politics, suggesting that the 2019 World Cup…
3:00 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff India A 159 for 2 (Samarth 50*) drew with New Zealand A 303 for 7 dec (Young 123, Van Woerkom 54, Siraj 4-59) A severely rain-affected game fizzled out to a draw in Hamilton with only one of the four possible innings coming to completion – and that too because New Zealand A had declared. After the second day was washed out and only 17…
11:45 PM ET Aaron Finch is set to bat No. 3 for Victoria behind Marcus Harris and Travis Dean in what appears a compromise between his likely opening role for Australia in the looming Test series against India and the state team’s clear desire to avoid breaking up their own settled combination at the top of the order. Having led Australia to a six-wicket defeat to India at the SCG…
3:00 AM ET Paarl Rocks 144 for 5 (du Plessis 54, van Jaarsveld 32, Steyn 2-21) beat Cape Town Blitz 140 (de Kock 31, Fortuin 4-15, Paterson 3-23) by five wickets Bjorn Fortuin‘s four-wicket haul and Faf du Plessis‘ half-century helped Paarl Rocks register their first win of the Mzansi Super League. Their victory also halted Cape Town Blitz’s unbeaten streak of four matches, though Blitz still hold the pole…
11:32 AM ET Danyal Rasool For a man with a supposed inaptitude to Test cricket, Babar Azam does end up with an awful lot of big scores in the format. In his last four Test innings, the 24-year old has managed 92, 62, 13 and an unbeaten 127 on Sunday. It was his fifth 50-plus score in 10 innings this year, in which he averages nearly 68 with the bat….