Big picture We may continue to wonder whether ODIs are still relevant but Shikhar Dhawan clearly loves the format. He said so before the series. He reaffirmed his love by scoring an unbeaten 81 in the first ODI on Thursday, his third half-century in four matches over last month. “It is a balanced format where you should know when to attack and when to defend, for both batters and bowlers,”…

Heather Knight has undergone surgery on her injured hip and will continue to be out of action for the foreseeable future. The England women’s captain reckons she will have to miss the home series against India in September as well as the WBBL in October-November. She said she was hoping to return to the field by the end of the year. Knight is already missing The Hundred, where she was…

Tom Bruce, the hard-hitting New Zealand and Canterbury opener, and Robbie O’Donnell, the Auckland batter, have been named co-captains for the month-long tour. Rob Walter, head coach of the Central Stags, will lead the coaching group and will be supported by Brendon Donkers, Canterbury’s assistant coach, and Paul Wiseman, the NZC High Performance coach. As reported by ESPNcricinfo, the tour consists of three first-class games and as many one-day matches….

Manchester Originals 188 for 3 (Buttler 68, Russell 64*, Salt 38) beat Southern Brave 120 (Walter 3-20) by 68 runs Jos Buttler and Andre Russell smashed scintillating half-centuries as Manchester Originals crushed reigning champions Southern Brave by 68 runs at the Ageas Bowl. Buttler hammered 68 off 42 balls and Russell flayed an unbeaten 64 off 23 as Originals exploited Brave’s under-strength bowling attack to reach an imposing 188 for…

UAE have named CP Rizwan as their new T20I captain. The middle-order batter takes over from left-arm spinner Ahmed Raza, who will continue to lead the team in ODIs. Rizwan’s first assignment will be the Asia Cup Qualifier, which is set to run from August 20 to 24 in Al Amerat. UAE are among the four teams taking part in the Qualifier, from which the winner will go through to…

England allrounder Moeen was also signed up by Johannesburg Super Kings (from the owners of the IPL’s Chennai Super Kings) in South Africa’s new T20 league, which is scheduled to run largely alongside the ILT20 in January-February next year. That aside, Moeen is also expected to be part of England’s limited-overs squad that, as per the ICC’s new Future Tours Programme, is due to play three ODIs in South Africa…

Southern Brave 136 for 5 (Mandhana 43, Wyatt 31) beat Manchester Originals 127 for 8 (Lamb 57, Wellington 3-27) by nine runs Amanda-Jade Wellington picked up three wickets as Southern Brave pulled off a heist to beat Manchester Originals by nine runs and maintain their 100 percent record. Originals looked on course for victory while chasing 136 thanks to Emma Lamb‘s 57 – but Brave pulled things back in style….

Hetmyer, who has been with Amazon Warriors since 2016 and became a regular in the XI from 2018, has played 47 games for them, scoring 1149 runs at a strike rate of 131.76 including one hundred and eight fifties. Chairman of the Amazon Warriors franchise Bobby Ramroop said: “We are pleased to appoint our first Guyanese captain since the 2013 season. Hetmyer has been a main part of our setup…

Tabraiz Shamsi hailed his Trent Rockets team-mates as the “best he has worked with” after thanking them for their support following the hospitalisation of his two-year-old son. Afterwards, Shamsi revealed he had spent the past week with his wife, Khadija Shariff, by his son’s bedside, rushing back after Rockets’ previous match against Birmingham Phoenix on Monday, and praised the support he had received from his team-mates. “This performance, I’d like…

Ish Sodhi will fly straight to the UK after New Zealand’s ongoing tour of the Caribbean after signing a deal with Welsh Fire in the Hundred as a replacement for Adam Zampa, who is one of the four Australians set to return home from the tournament ahead of their ODI series against Zimbabwe. Sodhi’s arrival date is unconfirmed but he is unlikely to be available for Fire’s next game, against…