Month: December 2019

7:20 PM GMT Just when you’re about to change that stupid lock and ask them for that key, England turn up at your door with a bottle of wine and bunch of roses. That’s how it felt by the close of day three in Centurion. For as awful as England had been at the start of the day – and truly, the morning session was probably their worst in the…

4:17 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Somerset have confirmed that they have agreed personal terms with South African seamer Vernon Philander ahead of his signing as a Kolpak player, but do not expect to complete the signing until the new year. It had been widely reported that Philander would move to the county following news of his international retirement at the end of the ongoing Test series against England, and the…

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly arrives for a press conference at the board’s headquarters  4:15 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Last year, India completed a historic 2-1 triumph in Australia, their first-ever Test series victory in the country. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly believes India will face an even bigger challenge when they go back down under in 2020-21 for a four-Test series against a “full-strength” Australia side. Back in 2018-19, the hosts…

8:00 AM GMT England 181 and 121 for 1 (Burns 77*) need a further 255 to beat South Africa 284 and 272 (van der Dussen 51, Archr 5-102) True to their hard-earned reputation for perversity, England’s cricketers gave themselves a fighting chance of victory in the first Test at Centurion, mere hours after seemingly tossing away their only opportunity in one of the most wasteful morning sessions of recent memory….

Krishmar Santokie (extreme left) celebrates a wicket with his Sylhet team-mates  2:36 PM GMT The BCB’s anti-corruption unit has completed its investigation on Krishmar Santokie, the Sylhet Thunder fast bowler who bowled a big no-ball on the opening day of the BPL, earlier this month. Jalal Yunus, the board’s media committee chairman, said the next course of action would be based on the usual procedure followed by ACSU, which acted…

7:44 AM GMT New Zealand’s sorry Australian tour took another turn for the worse as Trent Boult was ruled out of the third and final Test in Sydney with a finger fracture on his right hand, sustained while batting. Boult had been struck on the gloves by Mitchell Starc at the back-end of New Zealand’s first innings at the MCG, and went to hospital for x-rays during the tea break….

6:40 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff South Africa opener Aiden Markram will miss the remainder of the four-match Test series against England after sustaining a fracture to his fourth left finger. A CSA press release stated that Markram picked up the injury during the second day of the ongoing Centurion Test; he scored 20 and 2 in South Africa’s two innings. Markram is scheduled for surgery early next week and will…

Alex Hales, Tom Curran have been on fire (5:19) Here are our fantasy picks for the match between the Sydney Thunder and Sydney Sixers (5:19) 3:45 AM GMT December 28: Sydney Sixers v Sydney Thunder in Sydney Our XI: Josh Philippe, Alex Hales, James Vince, Usman Khawaja, Callum Ferguson, Chris Morris, Tom Curran, Benjamin Manenti, Chris Green, Daniel Sams, Sean Abbott NOTE: We might not always be able to tip…

2:52 AM GMT New Zealand’s former captain Brendon McCullum has counselled his successor Kane Williamson one-on-one after he delivered stinging criticism of the visitors during his commentary stints on the second day of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. McCullum had questioned Williamson’s tactics on the second day, notably his use of the very occasional off-spin of Tom Blundell immediately after lunch, claiming that New Zealand had “just rolled…