Jacob Duffy, the New Zealand seamer, has signed for Kent on a short-term deal that will see him play two County Championship matches. Duffy, 27, was part of New Zealand’s enlarged squad for their ongoing Test series against England but was trimmed from the initial 20-man group ahead of the first Test at Lord’s, having played in both warm-up games. Kent have struggled with injuries to seamers throughout this season…
Bowling allrounder Sean Abbott has been ruled out of the rest of the Sri Lanka tour after fracturing his finger in the nets, while Peter Handscomb has also left the Australia A squad to be with his pregnant partner in Melbourne. Abbott was part of Australia’s T20I squad that was preparing for the first T20I of a three-match series in Colombo on Tuesday, although he was not selected in Australia’s…
Adil Rashid has insisted that he has “not closed the door on Test cricket” and has been in contact with Brendon McCullum, England’s new coach, about the possibility of returning to red-ball cricket after an absence of three-and-a-half years. Rashid’s last Test appearance came in Barbados in January 2019 and he has not played a first-class game since then, focusing instead on the ODI and T20 World Cups in 2019…
Yorkshire 202 for 5 (Tattersall 48*, Brook 40) beat Nottinghamshire 179 for 7 (Mullaney 79, Christian 56, Drakes 3-31) by 23 runs Nottinghamshire are wobbling. Nobody should be unwise enough to write their obituary because in recent years there has been no finer T20 side in England, but two wins in six, their latest defeat by 23 runs against Yorkshire at Headingley, leave them which much to do as the…
When Australia play the first of three T20 internationals against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Tuesday, the man who hit the winning runs in their most recent game will be more than 5000 miles away in the Hertfordshire village of Radlett, playing for Hampshire in the Vitality Blast. Ben McDermott flicked Haris Rauf off his pads for four to seal a three-wicket win over Pakistan in Lahore two months ago,…
South Africa Women 107 for 2 (Goodall 52, Bosch 32*) beat Ireland Women 106 for 7 (Lewis 31, Sekhukhune 2-17, de Klerk 2-26) by eight wickets A much-improved South Africa levelled the T20I series against Ireland with a dominant performance in the second match. After struggling to find their lengths on a slower surface on Friday, South Africa’s attack adjusted well and proved difficult for the home batters to get…
Colin de Grandhomme has been ruled out of the second and third Tests between England and New Zealand through injury. de Grandhomme pulled up short in his run-up with a ball left in his fourth over on the third day of the first Test at Lord’s and immediately left the field. Subsequent scans revealed a tear to his right plantar fascia, the ligament which connects the heel bone to the…
If Stuart Broad learned one thing from his dramatic post-Ashes axing, it was to not look too far beyond his next match. The old “one game at a time” phrase couldn’t be more yawn-inducing but Broad’s approach is much more nuanced than that. So, like his wise words to the England team mid-Ashes drubbing about focusing on the present rather than a future that might not come, Broad’s advice to…
Naseem Shah, the Pakistan fast bowler, has returned home from his stint in county cricket with Gloucestershire after his father was taken ill. Shah, 19, signed for the first half of the summer but saw his involvement in the Championship curtailed by a shoulder problem, which led to Gloucestershire bringing in Mohammad Amir as cover. Shah has since played three times in the Vitality Blast, taking five wickets. Related Naseem…
Afghanistan 229 for 2 (Ibrahim 120*, Rahmat 88) beat Zimbabwe 228 (Kaia 63, Burl 51*, Fareed 3-56) by eight wickets Ibrahim Zadran scored his first ODI century and shared the highest second-wicket stand against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe, of 195 runs with Rahmat Shah, to ensure a successful chase of 229 and a series win for Afghanistan, with a game in hand. This victory takes Afghanistan to 90 points from 11…