9:34 AM GMT New Zealand captain Sophie Devine refused to hide behind the lack of the Decision Review System (DRS) after their T20I series opener defeat against Australia in Brisbane, saying her team will need to take “a long, hard look in the mirror” in the short turnaround before Sunday’s second outing. The absence of DRS, which is currently being used in the England-West Indies series, the first such instance…

12:50 PM IST Australia 6 for 138 (Gardner 61, Devine 3-18) beat New Zealand 7 for 121 (Bates 33, Schutt 4-23) by 17 runs On a day Australia’s cricketers made a public statement of solidarity with Aboriginal Australia in their opening match of the new season, it was the ferocious counterattack of the Muruwari woman Ashleigh Gardner that gave Australia enough runs to comfortably defend against New Zealand for victory…

4:56 AM GMT Jane Jones, Dean Jones‘ wife of 34 years and the mother of their two children, has spoken of the family’s grief at losing the 59-year-old to a heart attack and of their gratefulness for the global outpouring of gratitude for his eventful life in cricket. A major commemorative celebration will take place for Jones, with his wife indicating that the family was eager for his life and…

8:14 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff It’s not often that the Chennai Super Kings find themselves struggling at the start of an IPL season. This time round, though, they lost key players even before the tournament began, and an injury to Ambati Rayudu has weakened their batting to the extent that they’ve fallen out of contention within the first ten overs in back-to-back chases. Their bowling hasn’t quite clicked yet either….

12:20 AM IST Alastair Cook produced an innings of the highest class to put Essex on top in the final of the Bob Willis Trophy at Lord’s. On a surface on which all his team-mates struggled for fluency, Cook made 172 – the 67th century of his first-class career and his 20th score in excess of 150 – to give Essex a good chance of establishing a first-innings lead. Essex’s…

11:21 PM IST Karthik Krishnaswamy Delhi Capitals 175 for 3 (Shaw 64, Pant 37*, Dhawan 35, Chawla 2-33) beat Chennai Super Kings 131 for 7 (du Plessis 43, Rabada 3-26, Nortje 2-21) by 44 runs Three nights ago, they had settled for protecting their net run rate after falling too far behind the asking rate in a chase of 217 against the Rajasthan Royals. Today the Chennai Super Kings were…

Fantasy pick: Put Warner and Bairstow at the top of your order (5:11) Ajit Agarkar helps you pick your fantasy XI for the clash between Hyderabad and Kolkata (5:11) 5:27 PM GMT Rohit Balaji Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Abu Dhabi Pro Tip Go with the formidable Sunrisers openers who could give the Knight Riders’ bowlers a tough time. Our XI: Jonny Bairstow, David Warner, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik,…

9:14 PM IST Shashank Kishore Big picture Sunil Narine‘s batting in the powerplay threw opponents off gear for quite a while after the Kolkata Knight Riders first adopted the strategy in 2017. However, that experiment may be on its last legs if the short ball continues to trouble Narine. The numbers don’t paint a pretty picture for him: 76 balls, 13 dismissals, an average of 7.53. Till 2018, he struck…

1:15 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff There is a raging debate over the Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni pushing himself down the order, and while he isn’t the type to respond to them, the Delhi Capitals may well be happy that all the focus is on their opposition. The Capitals have a strong core of young Indian batsmen and a strike bowler who basically rejects the concept of pressure. Maybe,…