Surrey 270 (Pope 91, Abbas 6-64) and 247 for 1 (Pope 122*, Sibley 79*) beat Hampshire 254 (Brown 95, Lawes 4-58) and 258 (Gubbins 84, Worrall 5-40) by nine wickets Sometimes, scorecards can lie. This one for the first meeting of Surrey and Hampshire in the 2023 County Championship is doing just that. Because this was a close game. No, really. At least for the most part. For the first…
Twelve overs into their chase at Motera, Rajasthan Royals were going at less than a run a ball, and they needed 14 runs an over with four batters already back in the dugout. It seemed lost-cause territory, Gujarat Titans well on their way to their fourth successive win against this opposition. But Shimron Hetmyer, Royals’ big finisher, had been training for just this kind of situation. After the game, which,…
Rajasthan Royals 179 for 7 (Samson 60, Hetmyer 56*, Shami 3-25, Rashid 2-46) beat Gujarat Titans 177 for 7 (Miller 46, Gill 45, Sandeep 2-25) by three wickets Rajasthan Royals had almost reached a point of no-return. Their chase of 178 was going nowhere at 66 for 4. They needed a further 112 more off 48 balls. Twelve of those were to be bowled by Rashid Khan. Samson went 6,6,6…
Durham 425 for 9 dec (Bedingham 118, Raine 71, Lees 70, Gibbon 4-92) and 242 for 4 dec (Borthwick 108*, Bedingham 86) beat Worcestershire 366 for 5 dec (Haynes 134, Potts 3-110) and 192 (D’Oliveira 42, Haynes 40, Kuhnemann 5-53) by 121 runs Matthew Kuhnemann claimed a five-wicket haul to guide Durham to a dramatic final-day victory over Worcestershire in their LV= Insurance County Championship Division Two clash at Seat…
Leicestershire 451 for 9 dec (Hill 162*, Ackermann 114, Chappell 4-115) drew with Derbyshire 254 for 7 (Guest 92, Wright 4-38) Centuries from Colin Ackermann and captain Lewis Hill, followed by a fine spell of seam bowling by Chris Wright, saw Leicestershire secure the bonus points they needed to go to the top of Division Two in their severely rain-affected championship fixture against Derbyshire. No play had been possible on…
Warwickshire 453 for 4 declared (Hain 165*, Yates 128, Mousley 94) beat Kent 158 (Bell-Drummond 40, Hasan 3-36) and 281 (Evison 99, Compton 88, Rushworth 3-58, Woakes 3-59) by an innings and 14 runs Warwickshire overcame a superb Kent rearguard action to claim a thrilling LV=Insurance County Championship victory with six overs to spare in the final-day gloom at Edgbaston. The home side won by an innings and 14 runs…
Essex 219 (Critchley 78, Anderson 4-70) and 128 for 4 (Westley 43, Critchley 35*) drew with Lancashire 207 (Bell 60, S. Cook 5-42) and 351 for 7 dec (Jennings 96, Hartley 73*, Bell 56) Essex captain Tom Westley dug in for two and three-quarter hours to deny Lancashire the LV= Insurance County Championship victory their batting fireworks looked to have set up. Westley faced 120 balls in scoring 43 as…
Kusal Mendis has a theory: Test batting is becoming more and more like ODI batting. This came at the end of a day in which Sri Lanka scored at 4.38 an over on a supremely flat surface at Galle. But still, in the Bazball era, perhaps everyone else is ramping up scoring rates too. On day one, against Ireland, Mendis made 140 at a strike rate of 73. But he…
The BCCI has announced an increase in prize money for the domestic tournaments, with the Ranji Trophy winners set to receive a whopping cash reward of INR 5 crore this year. According to the new pay structure, the Ranji Trophy winners, who currently get INR Rs 2 crore, will receive INR 5 crore, while the runners-up and losing semi-finalists will get INR 3 crore and INR 1 crore respectively. “I’m…
Mumbai Indians 186 for 5 (Kishan 58, Suryakumar 43, Suyash 2-27) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 185 for 6 (Venkatesh 104, Shokeen 2-34) by five wickets The all-round effort from the Mumbai team overshadowed Venkatesh Iyer‘s 51-ball 104 that had single-handedly lifted the Knight Riders to 185. Iyer broke Knight Riders’ jinx of no IPL centuries since Brendon McCullum’s 158* from 15 years ago, but the other batters were not fluent….