Big picture If their Asia Cup tilts are anything to go by, these are evenly matched teams. A quick recap of what happened roughly two months ago: Afghanistan thumped Sri Lanka in the group stage, their quicks ripping through the Sri Lanka batting order to have them 105 all out, before Afghanistan’s top four ran down the target in 67 deliveries; next match, in the Super 4s, Sri Lanka comfortably…
Fall of wickets: 1-118 (Caleb Jewell, 34.3 ov), 2-186 (Jake Doran, 56.5 ov), 3-211 (Tim Ward, 70.2 ov), 4-253 (Ben McDermott, 89.2 ov), 5-298 (Tim Paine, 97.4 ov), 6-304 (Beau Webster, 99.3 ov), 7-423 (Jarrod Freeman, 113.4 ov), 8-429 (Jackson Bird, 115.1 ov), 9-466 (Peter Siddle, 119.5 ov), 10-535 (Riley Meredith, 128.1 ov) Source: ESPN Crickinfo
With England now virtually playing knockout cricket at the T20 World Cup, assistant coach Paul Collingwood has backed Ben Stokes to come the fore after an indifferent start to the tournament as questions linger about his position in the side. Stokes made 2 off 4 balls against Afghanistan in Perth, and then was cleaned up by a wonderful delivery from Ireland’s Fionn Hand at the MCG for 6 off 8…
Toss Ireland opt to bowl vs Australia Ireland are looking to cause another upset at the T20 World Cup and have chosen to chase against an under-pressure Australia side at the Gabba. “It’s obviously a big game for us and it’s always nice knowing what you have to do, particularly in that second innings. We are going to embrace the challenge,” Andy Balbirnie said. Aaron Finch also wanted to bowl…
New South Wales 1 for 99 vs South Australia Kurtis Patterson edged past Don Bradman in the New South Wales record books after making it to stumps on day one of the weather-affected Sheffield Shield match against South Australia in Wollongong. Rain stopped play for almost three-and-a-half hours in the middle of the day, before bad light forced another stoppage only seven overs after the resumption. “The game’s probably sitting…
Virat Kohli has reported an alleged breach of privacy in his hotel room in Perth, where India played their men’s T20 World Cup Super 12s match against South Africa on Sunday. Kohli posted a video on his Instagram page, which was originally posted on TikTok by an unidentified user with a caption that said “King Kohli’s hotel room”. It scanned through the room where Kohli was staying. ESPNcricinfo has contacted…
South Africa needed 25 from 18 balls with six wickets in hand when India captain Rohit Sharma decided to bring R Ashwin on for his final over. The Perth surface had assisted fast bowlers throughout the game, but India had one over of spin left to squeeze in. David Miller took advantage of that and hit Ashwin’s first two balls for two sixes to all but seal the game. While…
South Africa 137 for 5 (Miller 59*, Markram 52, Arshdeep 2-25) beat India 133 for 9 (Suryakumar 68, Ngidi 4-29, Parnell 3-15) by five wickets South Africa moved to the top of the group 2 points table and boosted their chances of making the semi-finals after recovering from 24 for 3 to successfully chase 134 against India. Aiden Markram and David Miller were the architects of South Africa’s triumph, scoring…
Suryakumar Yadav‘s T20 game is at a stage where “it’s difficult to find an area of weakness”, former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has said. Fleming was speaking on the ESPNcricinfo show T20 Time:Out after Suryakumar scored his second successive half-century of the T20 World Cup to help a struggling India post a total of 133 for 9 against South Africa. On a bouncy Perth pitch where the rest of…
Shaheen Shah Afridi might not be playing this T20 World Cup at full match fitness after he had been out for three months with an injury to his right knee. He is trying though, but it has not been easy to get back to his best after such an injury. There has been some criticism in Pakistan for playing Afridi when not fully fit, but Afridi did say his pace…