4:21 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Reeza Hendricks and Theunis de Bruyn have been given national contracts for the 2019-20 season by Cricket South Africa, while the retired AB de Villiers, JP Duminy,Imran Tahir and Chris Morris have been omitted from the list for different reasons. CSA named 16 men in the list, covering the 2019 50-over World Cup, men’s away tours to India – in October 2019 and March 2020…
3:22 AM ET Jeet Raval‘s maiden Test century was another piece of the elaborate puzzle that has been falling in place for New Zealand, the No. 2 side in the longest format. Since his debut in November 26, Raval has opened with Tom Latham in each innings of his 17 Tests, giving the side the much-needed stability at the top that many Test teams crave. Raval’s role of seeing off…
3:19 AM ET Mustafizur Rahman‘s fitness limitations were the reason for his exclusion from the Hamilton Test, Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes has said. The team management, Rhodes said, felt it was better to rest him, with a bigger workload planned for him in Wellington. Mustafizur’s absence has come into focus with Bangladesh’s inexperienced three-man pace attack going wicketless while delivering 66 overs so far in New Zealand’s first innings. Mustafizur…
KL Rahul unfurls a reverse-sweep © Getty Images Big Picture Five. That’s the number of ODIs India play between now and the start of the World Cup. Though most Indian players will be in action during the IPL, the selectors need to have firmed up their picks before that. So, when India face Australia in the first ODI of the five-match series on Saturday in Hyderabad, it will be another…
3:00 AM ET New Zealand 197-0 (Raval 109*, Latham 83*) trail Bangladesh 234 (Tamim 126, Wagner 5-47) by 37 runs Jeet Raval’s maiden Test hundred underlined New Zealand’s dominance over Bangladesh’s bowling on the second morning in Hamilton. The unbroken opening partnership between Raval and Tom Latham reached 197, New Zealand’s highest since 2003, and their best against Bangladesh. Raval went to lunch on 109 off 175 balls, with 16…
7:23 PM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Steven Smith has returned to the nets for the first time since his elbow surgery in his bid to be fit for the World Cup. Smith posted a short video on Instagram of him having a hit wearing his New South Wales shirt. “Great to have my first hit back,” he wrote. “The elbow is feeling good!” He and David Warner, who are both coming…