England win toss, bowl first in match reduced to five overs per side against West Indies

1:04 AM IST Valkerie Baynes Close Valkerie Baynes is a general editor at ESPNcricinfo England win toss, bowl vs West Indies England have won the toss and opted to bowl first in the fifth and final T20I of their series against West Indies. Because of heavy rain over Derby’s Incora County Ground, the match was reduced to five overs per side with the scheduled start time delayed by nearly two…

September 30, 2020
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National T20 Cup: Northern, Central Punjab start with wins as batsmen make merry on opening day

September 30, 2020

Kamran Akmal led the Central Punjab chase © AFP via Getty Images The first day of Pakistan’s National T20 Cup saw defending champions Northern get off to a blazing start against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Central Punjab, in the late game, trump Southern Punjab by seven wickets, veteran Kamran Akmal and 20-year-old Abdullah Shafique their heroes on the day. Central Punjab beat Southern Punjab by 7 wickets Shafique became just the…

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Kolkata Knight Riders' quicks rip through Rajasthan Royals to set up big win

11:33 PM IST Deivarayan Muthu Kolkata Knight Riders 174 for 6 (Gill 47, Morgan 34*, Archer 2-18) beat Rajasthan Royals 137 for 9 (Curran 54*, Mavi 2-20, Nagarkoti 2-13, Chakravarthy 2-25, Cummins 1-13) by 37 runs Jofra Archer ambushed Shubman Gill and Dinesh Karthik with blistering pace and bounce, but a collective effort from the Kolkata Knight Riders’ quicks trumped Archer’s 2 for 18 and handed the Rajasthan Royals their…

September 30, 2020
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Bengal cricketers Mukesh Kumar and Shreyan Chakraborty test positive for Covid-19

Mukesh Kumar played a big role in Bengal’s run to the Ranji Trophy final in 2019-20  5:41 PM GMT Press Trust of India Bengal fast bowler Mukesh Kumar and left-arm spinner Shreyan Chakraborty have tested positive for Covid-19, it emerged on Wednesday, after the state association conducted RT-PCR tests on 63 people, including 37 cricketers – male and female. “The Cricket Association of Bengal [CAB] today held a Covid-19 Test…

September 30, 2020
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England players 'not blind to reality' with cuts to new central contracts on the agenda – Ashley Giles

3:45 PM GMT Ashley Giles says that England’s players are “not blind to the reality” of English cricket’s financial situation amid the Covid-19 outbreak, as their representatives continue talks with the ECB over the prospect of pay cuts to their newly announced central contracts for 2020-21. Despite praising the efforts made by England’s players to “keep the lights on” during a pandemic-blighted summer, Giles warned that the new contracts –…

September 30, 2020
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Gareth Batty braced for possible Oval farewell in Surrey quarter-final

September 30, 2020

Still got it – Gareth Batty, who turns 43 next month, belts out an appeal © Getty Images 22 years after his first appearance for Surrey at The Oval, Gareth Batty has accepted that Thursday’s T20 Blast quarter-final against Kent could be his last. It would be foolish to rule out the possibility of him extending his playing career, not least after a Blast campaign in which he has conceded…

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Mid-table Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab beset by bowling worries ahead of key contest

7:53 PM IST Karthik Krishnaswamy Big picture The Kings XI Punjab might still be wondering what hit them after the Rajasthan Royals pulled off the most madcap of heists against them. The Mumbai Indians might still be pondering the what-ifs after a Super Over defeat to the Royal Challengers Bangalore. They will have to put the wondering and pondering away quickly, though, because the IPL carousel is relentless and remorseless….

September 30, 2020
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Ashley Giles backs Jonny Bairstow to fight to regain Test berth after losing central contract

2:02 PM GMT Ashley Giles, England’s director of men’s cricket, believes that Jonny Bairstow still has the hunger to regain his Test place, despite his exclusion from the ECB’s list of red-ball contracts for 2020-21. Bairstow, who turned 31 this week, has played just one Test match in the past 12 months, making scores of 1 and 9 against South Africa at Centurion after being called into the team as…

September 30, 2020
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Warwickshire changes afoot as Paul Farbrace lines up fresh blood

September 30, 2020

Paul Farbrace became Warwickshire’s sport director in 2019 © Getty Images A review of the coaching set-up at Warwickshire is underway with the expectation there could be changes in personnel. Warwickshire finished without a win in their five Bob Willis Trophy matches in 2020 and failed to qualify for the quarter-final stages of the T20 Blast. In 2019, Warwickshire just survived in Division One of the County Championship – they…

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Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL 2020: Rolling Report

1:02 PM GMT Sidharth Monga Welcome to ESPNcricinfo’s Rolling Report of the 12th IPL 2020 match, between the Rajasthan Royals and the Kolkata Knight Riders. We’ll be seeing the likes of Steven Smith, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer locks horns with Andre Russell, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Pat Cummins, Shubman Gill and others. You can also follow ball-by-ball commentary of the game here. If the blog doesn’t load for…

September 30, 2020
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