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Karnataka overcame a scare against Baroda to clinch a thriller by five runs and secure a place in the semi-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Devdutt Padikkal’s 102 off 99 balls not long after he got off a flight from Australia won him the Player-of-the-Match award, but it was Karnataka’s catching that made a massive difference to the resultBaroda were cruising in their chase of 282, with their captain Krunal Pandya and centurion Shashwat Rawat bringing the runs required under 100. But from 185 for 2 in the 34th over, Baroda lost 3 for 16 to give Karnataka an opening.Wicketkeeper Krishnan Shrijith dismissed Krunal by flinging himself full stretch to his left to pull off a one-hand catch off V Koushik. In the next over, Shreyas Gopal had Vishnu Solanki lbw. Mayank Agarawal, the Karnataka captain, then ran back 30 yards from mid-off with the ball swirling away to catch Shivalik Sharma.Even as Baroda lost wickets, they had hope as Rawat approached a century. He eventually got to the mark in the 44th over and Baroda went into the last six needing 59 with four wickets remaining. Bhanu Pania, who had smashed an unbeaten 51-ball 134 when Baroda broke the record for the highest T20 score last month, went after Prasidh Krishna in a 15-run over.The wickets of Pania and Rawat in the space of three balls turned the game again. Having gone for 58 in nine wicketless overs, Prasidh bowled a slower bouncer that got Rawat’s leading edge to wicketkeeper Shrijith.Still, Bhargav Bhatt and Raj Limbani kept hitting the vital boundaries to bring the equation down to 13 off the last six balls. But rookie left-arm seamer Abhilash Shetty was not fazed by the pressure. With Baroda needing 8 off the last two, they attempted to steal a second to get Bhatt on strike with six to get off the last ball, but an accurate throw by R Smaran at deep midwicket to the wicketkeeper had Bhatt run out to end the game.That Karnataka had a sizeable total to defend was down to Padikkal, who helped his team overcome the early loss of Agarawal on a pitch that had plenty of assistance for the quicks early on. Padikkal and KV Aneesh put on 133 for the second wicket to lay the foundation of the innings.Padikkal was severe on Baroda off spinner Mahesh Pithiya, using his feet regularly to score boundaries as Karnataka looked to accelerate. He fell soon after getting to a century off 94 deliveries, top-edging a pull to the wicketkeeper off Limbani. From 172 for 2, Karnataka lost a clutch of wickets, but cameos from Shrijith and Abhinav Manohar took them to a match-winning score of 281.

England captain Heather Knight has become the latest player to agree terms with Somerset ahead of the launch of Tier 1 professional women’s county cricket next summer.Knight had previously represented Berkshire, having come through the Devon pathway, and captained Western Storm to two Kia Super League titles in the regional system. She was appointed to the Somerset board in an advisory role earlier this year.Her signing follows that of England spinner Charlie Dean and allrounder Danielle Gibson, a Western Storm team-mate of Knight’s, whose moves were announced earlier in the week. All three are centrally contracted to England, and will play for their county when international commitments allow.”Somerset is a club that holds a special place in my heart, so I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity,” Knight said. “The South West has played an integral role in my journey and it’s a privilege to be able to represent the region that means so much to me.”We have a genuine opportunity to create something special. This is the first Somerset women’s team of the professional era, and we have a duty to those who have gone before and laid the foundations to make sure that we are a team that competes on the field and inspires young people across the region. There is a special heritage surrounding the club and that is something that we will be taking very seriously.”The Cooper Associates County Ground is a special place to play, and I can’t wait for some of the younger players to experience the atmosphere that the members and supporters can generate. The Taunton crowd is passionate and knowledgeable, and we will be doing everything that we can to win games of cricket and give them something to celebrate.”A World Cup-winner, Knight has captained England across formats since 2016, and is currently leading the team on their tour of South Africa.Somerset Women head coach, Trevor Griffin, said: “Heather is a player I’ve worked with for many years, and I’m delighted she will be playing for Somerset when her England commitments allow. She is a true professional who impacts games both on and off the pitch and is an invaluable addition to any side.”I’m sure our supporters will be looking forward to seeing Heather in a Somerset shirt and winning games of cricket for us.”Somerset’s director of cricket, Andy Hurry, added: “Heather is a world-class performer who has shown her quality on the biggest stages across the world. She is hugely respected within and outside the game, and the experience she can share both on and off the field will have a major impact on the team, the club and the region.”It’s an honour to have the England captain committed to the club, and there is no doubt that she will inspire future generations of Somerset players, members and supporters.”

Wanindu Hasaranga has been ruled out of the ODI series against New Zealand, having sustained an injury to his left hamstring while bowling, in the second T20I, on Sunday. Hasaranga was seen hobbling through his later overs, and was also limping between the wickets while running.He has been replaced in the ODI squad by Dushan Hemantha, another legspin-bowling allrounder. Hemantha has played five ODIs and has recently been among the wickets for the Sri Lanka A team.Hasaranga’s absence will be significant for Sri Lanka, particularly as he had been Sri Lanka’s most successful bowler in the T20Is, taking 2 for 20 in the first match, then 4 for 17 in the second, while also producing an important 22 off 23 in the first T20I.Related

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Sri Lanka already had another legspinner in the squad, however, in Jeffrey Vandersay, with Maheesh Theekshana and Dunith Wellalage the other frontline spinners.Hasaranga becomes the second player to be ruled out of the series owing to injuries sustained in that second T20I, with New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson also unavailable due to a calf injury.The series begins on Wednesday, with the first match to be played in Dambulla, and the remaining two games in Pallekele.

Counties will be increasingly discerning in issuing No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) to their players as the number of franchise leagues “encroaching” on the English summer grows. That is the view of Daryl Mitchell, the interim chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) which represents the interests of English players.The number of overseas leagues clashing with the English summer has grown significantly in the last five years. English players have featured in leagues in India, Sri Lanka, the US, the Caribbean, the Cayman Islands and Zimbabwe this year, while a late start to the Pakistan Super League (PSL) will add to the logjam next season.Fourteen English players made appearances in PSL 2024, including white-ball specialists Sam Billings, Alex Hales and David Willey who are all likely to return in 2025. But other players will not be available, with the tournament running parallel to the IPL for the first time, and with counties reluctant for their players to miss the start of the season.Liam Dawson, who has featured in five PSL seasons, will not play in the tournament next year. “I’ll be playing for Hampshire at that time,” Dawson said at Tuesday night’s cinch PCA awards, where he was named men’s player of the year primarily for his performances in the County Championship.Alec Stewart, Surrey’s departing director of cricket, told the on Wednesday that the ECB should take the lead. “Money talks, and if they are earning five times what they earn at our place, their heads will get turned,” Stewart said. “We need the ECB to stand firm on this and not say, ‘It’s up to the counties’, and to bring in regulations.”As things stand, counties have the power to withhold or withdraw NOCs for players who are not centrally contracted – as Surrey did earlier this year, to pull Jamie Overton out of the PSL. But others believe that if they do not meet players’ demands in the middle, then they will lose them altogether – either to other counties, or to the franchise circuit.”The global landscape and how things are shifting there is obviously pretty important to our members – or at least, the top 20% of our membership, who go around playing global tournaments,” Mitchell said. “NOCs are always on the agenda as well, and how that’s going to look moving forwards.Related

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“It’s a challenge, isn’t it? That’s something we are going to have to work through. It’s a bit too early to say what that will look like by the time we get to April next year. The challenges are there. Obviously there’s a lot of tournaments that encroach onto our season now, and we have to work through that, possibly on an individual basis, to see how that aligns.”Daniel Gidney, the Lancashire chief executive, said last month that NOCs and standard county contracts have been “diluted” over the last decade and criticised player agents, saying they “don’t care” about the Championship. Mitchell said he was “confused” by the criticism: “Some of that didn’t actually make sense, particularly around the NOCs.”Instead, Mitchell predicted that counties will increasingly look to wield their power to ensure that the best English players are available throughout the season, rather than skipping Championship games in order to play overseas.”At the moment, they’ve got the right to [deny NOCs] within the summer months – and actually, for some of the smaller competitions in the winter as well… They probably haven’t used their rights as much as they could have done, which is obviously to the benefit of some players when they do go away.”It’s up to the counties, and their discretion… The global landscape is shifting so quickly and the game, players, counties, the ECB – we have to evolve with it and try to find the best fit that works for everyone.”Mitchell said that the PCA’s other main focus during the English winter will be lobbying on the players’ behalf in a bid to resolve the long-running debate around the domestic schedule, with an ambitious aim to have a plan in place for the 2026 season by the start of next summer. “The debate needs to start pretty quickly, in truth,” Mitchell said.”Counties ideally would like to know exactly what they’re playing for. If there are going to be any structural changes come 2026, they want to know what they’re playing for in ’25, I would imagine. It’s really challenging. There’s loads of moving parts in there, and ultimately, the counties will decide what they want the structure of the county season to look like.”Recent changes to the IPL’s regulations are likely to encourage a swathe of English players to enter the mega-auction for the league’s 2025 season. Where, previously, players have been able to pick and choose whether they will enter a certain season, the BCCI have now stipulated that a failure to register for a mega-auction will make that overseas player ineligible for the following season too.

Less than a month after becoming the advisor to the PCB chairman on cricket affairs, Waqar Younis’ stint has ended, with the former fast bowler now a mentor for one of the five sides in the new domestic competitions the PCB is introducing this season.Waqar is joined by Misbah-ul-Haq, Shoaib Malik, Saqlain Mushtaq and Sarfaraz Ahmed as mentors, whose first assignments will be the Champions One-Day Cup, which will run from September 12 to 29 in Faisalabad. The PCB confirmed that Sarfaraz, who is part of the Test squad for the ongoing Bangladesh series, would continue with his playing career.Waqar was slated to become the board’s cricket supremo, a role created to take the burden of cricketing decisions away from the PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi. He even appeared alongside Naqvi at a press conference in that role, an unveiling of sorts, at Gaddafi Stadium at the time.Related

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Initially the PCB didn’t give a reason for why Waqar is no longer in that role and had become a mentor instead, which is a three-year contract and was, in the PCB’s words, the result of a “transparent and robust recruitment process”. It had been suggested that both parties thought Waqar might be better suited to a team-building role such as this, with more active involvement in the development of a side. The role of the advisor to the chairman is still being advertised.But at a press conference later in the day in Lahore, Naqvi said Waqar had played a pivotal role in identifying and appointing the other four mentors, before taking on the fifth spot himself. “Waqar Younis assisted us for the last 3-4 weeks,” Naqvi said. “He’s a great name to have, a great cricketer was on board with us. He helped us finalise the other mentors. He spoke to them, did everything. And then he had to handle the fifth team. So in the first 3-4 weeks, in this entire exercise, he spoke to them, convinced them, to get them on board, and now he will handle the fifth team.”As per the constitution we couldn’t hire him as a mentor straight away, only as an advisor. And now he is a mentor handling an entire team.”In an earlier statement, Naqvi had welcomed “five exceptional champions as mentors” for the Champions Cup teams. “These individuals bring a wealth of cricketing experience, knowledge and expertise, which, combined with their passion for the game we all love, will help the Pakistan Cricket Board identify, develop and nurture the next generation of cricketers across all formats. This initiative will not only benefit the Pakistan men’s cricket team but also help bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket.”

Ollie Pope will become the 82nd man to captain England’s Test team when they face Sri Lanka on Wednesday, standing in for the injured Ben Stokes. Stokes is with the squad in Manchester and will remain with them throughout the three-match series, with Pope conceding on Tuesday that “it’s still Stokesy’s team” as he pledged to deliver “the same messages from a different voice”.Pope has only captained one match in his first-class career, a high-scoring draw in the County Championship, but led Surrey in eight T20 Blast matches this season. He has been England’s official vice-captain since the start of last summer and with Stokes out of the series after tearing his hamstring in the Hundred, Pope will have three Tests to find his feet in the role.”When I got appointed vice-captain, there was always a chance that something like this would happen,” Pope said. “It’s not necessarily something you dream about, but it’s one of the greatest honours I see in English cricket. It’s exciting for me, and it’s a chance for us as a team to try and to take a step forward.”Stokes has been at both of England’s training sessions at Emirates Old Trafford and Pope has welcomed his presence. “It’s still Stokesy’s team,” he said. “Everyone’s pretty clear how they want to go about this week, and this series in general. I think having Stokesy in the changing-room is great.”If I want to lean on him, I can lean on him, and I think he’s going to let me do my own thing for the course of this Test series as well. I know how well he’s managed our bowlers especially, and I’ve picked his brains a little bit on that. It’s a lot of the same messages from a different voice, and in my own way… He’s going to let me go and do my thing over the course of this series.”Stokes, who has started his rehabilitation as he targets October’s tour to Pakistan, will be one of a number of influential voices within the dressing-room, alongside Brendon McCullum, James Anderson, and the rest of England’s staff. “He’s obviously going to be watching, chatting with Baz, and I can have those conversations in the intervals if I think anything needs to change and [we can] bounce a few ideas off each other,” Pope said. “I think it’s only a positive having him around.”Related

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Pope had a productive series against West Indies in July, scoring 57 at Lord’s and then 121 and 51 at Trent Bridge. But he has only faced 39 balls in competitive matches since that series ended, scoring 35 runs in five innings for London Spirit in the Hundred, and said that he has learned in his brief experience of captaincy that he will need to compartmentalise his batting.”Hopefully, it’s almost a positive on my batting,” he said. “I’ve still put in the hard work in the nets with the bat like I do for Test cricket. I’m still at No. 3 when it comes to batting and my job for the team is still to go out and score big runs… when I had a bit of a stint in the T20 for Surrey, the first thing I reminded myself was, when it’s batting time, it’s batting time.”Then, the rest of the time, you can be the captain and think a little bit more about the team. I’ve got some great guys to lean upon on the pitch as well, obviously Brooky [Harry Brook] being vice-captain, he’s got a great cricket brain, and guys like Rooty [Joe Root] out there on the pitch too. There’s plenty of experience to bounce off a few ideas.”Pope missed England’s most recent Test in Manchester through injury, when they were thwarted by the rain during last year’s Ashes series, and the forecast is poor again this week. “I’ve not looked too closely at the weather,” he said, when asked if England would consider setting the game up for a result. “Whether it takes us five days or however long, the aim is obviously to go and win the game.”Sri Lanka lost their only warm-up match against an inexperienced England Lions team last week, but recently beat India 2-0 in an ODI series. Pope – who has never played against Sri Lanka before – is targeting a series whitewash, but insisted that they are not taking their opponents lightly on their first tour to England since 2016.”I know they’ve won [against] India, but I think the main focus for us is on ourselves. We know that if we can go and play our best cricket then hopefully, that’s enough. We’ll respect them as a team. We don’t underestimate anyone … Our target is to go out and win 3-0 but at the same time, we realise that Sri Lanka have got some good experience.”

Shreyanka Patil has been ruled out of the women’s Asia Cup after picking up an injury to her left hand. A press release from the Asian Cricket Council on Saturday said the 21-year old India offspinner “sustained a fracture to the fourth finger of her left hand.”Shreyanka took a full part in the team’s only game of the tournament so far, against Pakistan on Friday, bowling 3.2 overs and picking up 2 for 14. She was not needed to bat with India wrapping up the win in 14.2 overs and with seven wickets to spare. Tanuja Kanwar, the uncapped 26-year-old left-arm spinner who plays for Gujarat Giants in the WPL and Railways in domestic cricket, has been called up as replacement.Shreyanka made her debut for India in December 2023 on the back of impressive performances in the WPL. This year, she went on to become champion with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a season where she took 13 wickets – the most by any bowler – at an average of 12.07 and an economy rate of 7.30. Shreyanka has played 12 T20Is for India and has gone wicketless in only two of those games. She’s also represented her country in three ODIs.Kanwar, born in Himachal Pradesh, also made a big splash in the WPL. She was bought by the Giants in 2023 for INR 50 lakh. A week before that auction she had starred with 3 for 26 for Railways in the One Day Trophy final to finish the tournament with 18 wickets while averaging 11.16 and conceding just 2.43 runs an over. Kanwar finished the 2024 WPL season with 10 wickets from eight matches at an average of 20.70 and an economy rate of 7.13. She is known for a variation where she bowls her left-arm spin from well behind the popping crease.India’s next match at the women’s Asia Cup is on Sunday against the UAE in Dambulla.

India women’s head coach Amol Muzumdar has emphasised the importance of “fielding and fitness” as India gear up for a busy few months beginning with the first ODI against South Africa on Sunday in Bengaluru.”When I took over last December, we had said that fielding and fitness have been the cornerstone and we have been driving that message to the group. They [the players] have responded really nicely to that,” Muzumdar said. “Fielding is a work in progress and we are working very hard towards it and trust me, you will see some results out of it.”India play three ODIs, one Test match and three T20Is against South Africa over the next four weeks. Following that, they will head to Sri Lanka for the women’s Asia Cup starting July 19 and then travel to Bangladesh for the Women’s T20 World Cup which kicks off on October 3.Related

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Muzumdar highlighted the scheduling of the South Africa series as an advantage to be seized upon. “The continuity is very important in the few months leading up to the World Cup,” he said, “This series, the format that we are playing is ODI format, then the Test match, then the last one is T20. It is a very well-scheduled series and we go into the Asia Cup which again is T20s.”By then I think, we should be ready for the World Cup. Then we have a layoff of about seven and a half weeks before we head off to Bangladesh. It is a very well-thought-out series and [we are] really looking forward to it.”India are coming into the series against South Africa on the back of a series sweep over Bangladesh. They played all five matches in Sylhet, the venue for India’s group games at the Women’s T20 World Cup later this year.”We have had a fantastic preparation in the last eight weeks,” Muzumdar said. “We went to Bangladesh and had a desired result; 5-0 we won the T20 series. We also practiced over there, in the same ground where we would be playing the World Cup. We’ve had a couple of camps before this series. We had a split camp. The bowler’s camp was held at NCA here in Bengaluru and the batter’s camp was held in Navi Mumbai. It was a concentrated camp and we had the fruitful desired results for the camp.”Muzumdar was also effusive in praise of Smriti Mandhana, who led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to the Women’s Premier League title earlier in the year.”She is a fantastic leader. We do have a leadership group within the team and Smriti is a big factor in that,” Muzumdar said. “Going forward, she definitely has got a role to play. She has a good camaraderie with the current captain Harmanpreet Kaur and we are all working together. She is definitely a fantastic leader as we’ve seen in the WPL. She has won the title for RCB.”

Pakistan fast bowler Naseem Shah will stay with the squad for the upcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi despite an attack on his house in Lower Dir. Unknown assailants fired at the gate of his family home; no one at the residence was reported to be injured.The assailants fled immediately after firing at the gate, with an investigation opened by police. It is not known who was at the residence at the time, with the attack taking place in the early hours of Monday morning. reported that Naseem’s father met with a police officer, who assured him the assailants would be brought to justice quickly.ESPNcricinfo understands the incident does not affect Naseem’s plans or schedule for the series, with the fast bowler staying with the squad and expected to take full part in the series as required. Pakistan and Sri Lanka begin a three-match ODI series in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, followed by a T20I tri-series that also involves Zimbabwe later this month. Naseem is part of both squads.It is not known whether any of Naseem’s two younger brothers, who are also professional cricketers, were at the residence. Hunain, who hit the winning runs for Islamabad United in the 2024 Pakistan Super League final, last played a Quaid-e-Azam trophy match last week, where he scored a half-century and took six wickets in a ten-wicket win. Ubaid, who plays for Multan Sultans in the PSL, most recently played a game for his Quaid-e-Azam Trophy side Lahore Whites at the end of last month.

Tickets for the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup have gone on sale with less than a month to go for the start of the tournament on September 30 in Guwahati.On Thursday, the ICC announced that tickets for all the group matches in India and Sri Lanka were available on pre-sale on tickets.cricketworldcup.com for four days from 1900 IST and SLST on September 4 via the Google Pay platform. The second phase of ticket sales will begin on September 9 at 2000 IST and SLST (1430 GMT) on tickets.cricketworldcup.com.According to the ICC, ticket prices will start at INR 100 (USD 1.14 approx.) in the first pre-sale phase – “the most affordable pricing for any ICC global event in history.”Related

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The Women’s ODI World Cup will be contested by eight teams – India, Sri Lanka, England, Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand and Bangladesh – across five venues: Colombo, Guwahati, Indore, Visakhapatnam, and Navi Mumbai. India and Sri Lanka open the tournament on September 30 in Guwahati, and the final is on November 2 at a yet-to-be-decided venue.The ICC recently announced that the total prize money for the tournament is USD $13.88 million, nearly a fourfold increase from the USD 3.5 million for the previous women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand in 2022.