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Sohail Tanvir slams one away•CPL via Getty Images

The logjam at the top of the CPL has grown from two to three sides as Guyana Amazon Warriors snuck a four-wicket win at the wire over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots to join Trinbago Knight Riders and Jamaica Tallawahs on eight points in a tie for first place. It was a result of an unbeaten cameo from Sohail Tanvir, who struck two fours and three sixes in his 20-ball 37, and a haul of 4 for 22 from Imran Tahir that vaulted him from ninth to a tie for second on the CPL 2018 wickets chart with 11 scalps in six matches, and helped restrict the Patriots to a manageable total.Y2KChris Gayle and Evin Lewis fired the Patriots to a blistering Powerplay, ending on 62 for no loss. Gayle came into the match already a few hundred runs clear of Andre Fletcher as the leading scorer in CPL history, and on Tuesday night in St Kitts, he also become the first batsman in the six-year history of the league to cross 2000 runs.Gayle did it in the fifth over against Tanvir. Entering the match, the Jamaican had never hit Tanvir for six in a CPL match since the fast bowler arrived in the tournament in season two. But Gayle made up for it, cracking Tanvir for 6, 4, 6, 4, 4 across the last five balls of the over. The middle delivery sailed straight over Tanvir’s head, over the Warner Park roof and took Gayle past 2000. It took Keemo Paul’s arrival in the eighth over to finally dislodge Gayle, who smashed a cut straight to backward point for 40 off 27 balls.Tahir the runaway trainOnce Paul struck, Tahir was unleashed in the ninth over and within four balls he struck for the first of his four wickets. The first blow was fairly innocuous, Lewis slashing at a wide delivery to send a catch to short third man, but Tahir was off and running halfway to the boundary in his customary celebration.Brandon King, who outlasted Mohammad Irfan’s near-flawless opening spell to strike his maiden CPL fifty on Saturday, could not survive Tahir’s first ball after drinks as he played around a skiddy straight ball that knocked back the leg stump. Devon Thomas was then pinned lbw by a googly from Tahir in the 13th over. His final over was saved for the 17th, where he nabbed Mahmudullah with a miscued drive to extra cover. From 71 for 0, Patriots had slipped to 124 for 6 by the time Tahir’s work for the night was done.Emrit misses a trickAmazon Warriors kept Patriots in the match thanks in part to some curious strategic moves by Rayad Emrit, who took over as captain on Tuesday night after Shoaib Malik went back to Pakistan to begin preparations for the Asia Cup. Paul had bowled superbly in the eighth and 10th overs, tying down Patriots after the wicket of Gayle for figures of 1 for 7 in two overs but was mystifyingly absent from the attack for the rest of the innings.Despite Paul’s experience as a death bowler, Emrit then chose to bowl the last over himself with figures of 3-0-32-0 and conceded 24 more runs. The sloppy over included two sixes by Ben Cutting followed by five wides sprayed well down the leg side and another thigh-high full toss that was lucky not to be hit by Cutting for a third six. Carlos Brathwaite muscled Emrit down the ground off the final ball for a four to take the Patriots to 168 for 7.Hanging ChadLast year’s leading scorer and Player of the Tournament continued to struggle at CPL 2018. Chadwick Walton scratched his way to 8 off 17 balls and was trapped lbw by a Sheldon Cottrell slower ball in the fifth over. Walton had 458 runs in 2017, but has just 75 in six innings so far this tournament.Wide berthThe best contribution from the top five of the Amazon Warriors batting order was Jason Mohammed’s 36 off 25 and their best partnership was just 46, summing up a night of fits and starts. But they were aided immensely by some poor Patriots fielding and a total of 15 wides, the joint-most bowled by any team in a match this season.Cutting took a pair of spectacular catches on the long-on boundary, the second of which resulted in the wicket of Roshon Primus off Brathwaite towards the end of the 18th over to make it 149 for 6, but they were lost in the shuffle of the sloppy misses that followed. Tanvir should have been out the very next ball for 20 when he skewed a low full toss high over cover, but Anton Devcich overran the chance haring back from the 30-yard ring only to see the ball land in between the painted markers as Tanvir took a single to keep the strike.Needing 19 from the last two overs, Tanvir clubbed the first ball of Cottrell’s next over flat over square leg for six, and then heaved a slower ball over midwicket for six more for a total of 16 from the over. With only three needed off the final over, Patriots then blew three clear-cut run-out chances on three singles as the Warriors made it home with a ball to spare.

ScorecardM Vijay began to work off his frustration about India’s tour of England by making a battling half-century for Essex in his maiden innings in the English county championship.Vijay reached 50 from 89 balls on a bowlers’ day at Trent Bridge, but then became a third victim for Nottinghamshire’s Lyndon James, grazing the ball through to wicketkeeper Tom Moores.Released from India’s touring party after playing in the first two Test matches of the current series, Vijay helped Nick Browne add 56 for Essex’s first wicket. Mullaney made the breakthrough, nipping one back through the gate to bowl Browne for 24.Vijay was put down by a diving Duckett when on 43 but the unlucky bowler, James, soon had reasons to be cheerful. Tom Westley became his maiden scalp, with an lbw decision and two balls later Fletcher pulled off a stunning, one-handed leaping catch to remove Dan Lawrence.Within the space of 11 balls Essex had slip from 93 for one to 102 for four as Mullaney got a deserved second wicket, with Bopara clipping to Patel at second slip.James, a 19-year old former academy graduate on his first-class debut, altered the complexion of the opening day.The Worksop-born allrounder recovered from the disappointment of only making a single in his maiden innings by snaring three wickets for 34 during his opening spell, to leave the contest on an even keel.Earlier, Notts had been bowled out for only 177 in 58.1 overs, after winning the toss and opting to bat first. Ben Slater top-scored for the home side with 33 but Essex’s three front-line seamers held sway and shared all the wickets to go down.Things could have been even healthier for the title-holders, who had reduced Notts to 104 for 8 by mid-afternoon, before the lower order plundered a further 73.Notts had gone into the contest in third spot in the Division One standings, seven points clear of their opponents but having played a game more.Porter pinned Kraigg Brathwaite lbw for nought from the second ball of the match. The same bowler struck again in the ninth over, bowling a full-length delivery to clip the top of Jake Libby’s off stump.Slater and Ben Duckett added 50 for the third wicket, getting to the milestone in unusual circumstances with 11 runs from just two deliveries.An over from Simon Harmer ended with a five as a Ravi Bopara shy went away for four overthrows. Then Coles started a new over with a no ball that was slashed through the slip cordon by Duckett for four.Coles exacted revenge later in the same over, having Duckett caught behind for 21. Slater was bowled from around the wicket by Coles and Steven Mullaney nibbled at Quinn and was caught behind as Notts went to lunch on 82 for 5.The hosts were rocked straight after the interval when Quinn picked up the wickets of Moores and Samit Patel.Moores moved across his crease and was given out lbw and then Patel nicked into the hands of Simon Harmer at second slip. James edged Coles to slip, the only wicket in the innings to fall from the pavilion end of the ground.Luke Wood initiated the Nottinghamshire fightback by plundering 27 from 30 balls before being bowled by Porter.Last wicket pair Luke Fletcher and Mark Footitt frustrated Essex for 16 overs in adding 45 together – with both hitting huge sixes – before Porter ended their fun.

Veteran television journalist Rajat Sharma will be the new president of the Delhi District Cricket Association, after winning the elections at the Annual General Meeting on Saturday.

Full list of DDCA office bearers after the AGM

President: Rajat Sharma
Vice-President: Rakesh Kumar Bansal
Secretary: Vinod Kumar Tihara
Joint Secretary: Ranjan Manchanda
Treasurer: Om Prakash Sharma
First-class Cricket Director: Sanjay Bhardwaj
Women Director: Renu Khanna
DDCA Directors: Alok Mittal, Apurv Jain, Nitin Gupta, Shiv Nandan Sharma, Sudhir Kumar Aggarwal

Sharma beat Madan Lal, the former India allrounder and member of the World Cup-winning team in 1983, to the post. He secured 1521 votes, while Lal got 1004, with the remaining 266 votes going to others in the fray.Another former cricketer, Surinder Khanna, was also unsuccessful. He lost to Sanjay Bhardwaj in the contest for the first-class cricket director of DDCA. Surinder, a wicketkeeper-batsman, played 10 ODIs for India and 106 first-class matches overall. He has the distinction of scoring a century in each innings of the Ranji Trophy final in 1978-79, against Karnataka, to give Delhi their first Ranji title. Bhardwaj is also a former first-class cricketer, though he played only five matches in the late 1980s.Meanwhile, Shashi Khanna, the wife of the acting BCCI president CK Khanna, lost to Rakesh Kumar Bansal for the vice-president’s post. Bansal got 1364 votes to her 1086.In other decisions, the balance sheets for the financial years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 were all passed with more than 94% of the members in each case.The DDCA also appointed Justice Badar Durrez Ahmad, a former Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, as the Ombudsman.

ScorecardRilee Rossouw ended his Ageas Bowl hoodoo by scoring his first home century for Hampshire as they beat Essex Eagles by six wickets in the Royal London One-Day Cup.Batsman Rossouw scored 99 on his debut for Hampshire and 90 during Monday night’s victory over Surrey, but his only hundred had come on the road, at Somerset last year.But he collected 111 against the Eagles to send Hampshire top of the South Group as they kept up their 100 per cent record in the competition.Hampshire, who had lost five of their last six List A matches against Essex, had been set 304 to win after Adam Wheater, Tom Westley, Ravi Bopara and Ashar Zaidi had all plundered half centuries.Sam Cook managed to strike early to dismiss Hashim Amla, the South African flicking around the corner to Dutch debutant Shane Snater at short fine leg.But Rossouw and James Vince comfortably compiled no-risk runs as the pitch flattened.Both scored half centuries, Rossouw in an uncharacteristically restrained 62 balls while Vince only needed 41 balls, in a stand of 126 of the second wicket.Vince tickled behind to end on 66 and Joe Weatherley was bowled, both by Ravi Bopara, however Rossouw, who passed his 5,000 List A run, wasn’t to be stopped as easily.The South African did have one minor scare on his way to three figures when he required medical attention after diving into the crease while taking a quick single on 92. But composed himself after a ten minute delay to reach the milestone.Rossouw was eventually bowled by Bopara, who ended with figures of three for 49, for 110 but Jimmy Adams, striking an effortless run-a-ball 51, and Brad Taylor scored the remaining 51 runs.Earlier, Hampshire captain Vince won the toss and inserted Essex on a used track, which slowed throughout Monday night’s game with Surrey.Varun Chopra and Wheater negotiated the power-play comfortably, but leg spinner Mason Crane’s introduction to the attack in the 11th over broke the 67-run opening partnership when he deceived the former with a googly.Wheater appeared in fine fettle for a brisk 70, his half century coming off 49 balls, as he used a lightening quick outfield to his advantage.But after a 76-run stand with Westley he failed to hook a Brad Wheal bouncer away from the prying hands of Vince at mid-on.The loss of Dan Lawrence, run out by Brad Taylor’s direct hit at point, two overs later saw Essex stick to an almost regiment six runs an over for the remainder of the innings.Westley clocked his fifty in 48 deliveries, brought up with slog-sweep maximum, before he was bowled by off-spinner Taylor.Skipper Ryan ten Doeschate edged Gareth Berg behind, to start an 84-run collective between Bopara and Zaidi.Both attempted to push the run-rate up, Zaidi cleanly striking a pair of maximums with Bopara bring up his half century, from 58-balls.But despite Zaidi, who ended up 57 not out from 43 balls, Essex seemed below par as they posted 303 for six – Bopara the last wicket to fall in the innings as he ballooned to Vince at long-on.And so it proved as Rossouw’s century made sure Hampshire chased them down with 16 balls to spare.

Dale Steyn is slowly getting back to his best and just in time for South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka. With only about a month left for the first Test in Colombo, the 34-year old fast bowler has been getting “overs under his belt” playing for Hampshire in county cricket, and said his “rhythm seems to be coming back.”Steyn began his stint going for 80 runs in 10 overs in a List A game against Somerset. Then he got through 26 overs in a first-class game against Surrey and picked up a couple of wickets along the way. And most recently, he helped secure victory in a one-day game against Yorkshire with figures of 1 for 34 in seven overs. The wicket was of India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, caught at first slip as a result of extra bounce.”The body’s fine, body feels good,” Steyn told . “I’ve got no problems. I’ll have a look [at my bowling footage] in the computer when I get back up [to the dressing room]. One thing is I’ve got overs under my belt, the rhythm seems to be coming back. I’ve got a good followthrough going on which means there’s good pace at the crease and I’m hitting the crease nice and hard. Yeah, everything seems to be ticking over nicely.”Injuries have plagued Steyn over the past couple of years, limiting his appearances for South Africa to only one match in 18 months. He suffered a fracture to his bowling arm in November 2016 and was benched until January 2018, when he played the first of a three-Test series against India. But things didn’t go quite to plan.”I love playing cricket,” Steyn said. “I guess it’s my job as well but I also love playing it. I’ve been out for two years now. I broke my shoulder and then really bad luck, rotten luck really, I came back and my first game back, I landed in a foothole and tore a little muscle in my heel. I’ve never had a foot injury in my life. So just rotten luck.”I’m just chomping at the bit to get out and play. I went for 80 the other day but I absolutely loved it. It was great to be back out and playing again and I felt this is where I needed to be rather than petting my dogs and driving and getting stuck in traffic and doing the rehab thing. I need to be on a cricket field so I’ll play for as long as this body can hold.”Dale Steyn strives to make an impact•Getty Images

In any case, he is chasing a few records, not least the one for most wickets by a South African bowler in Tests. Steyn is three short of beating Shaun Pollock’s mark of 421.”I’d love to play all formats. Like I said, I love playing cricket. I think Test cricket is the pinnacle. I’d love to try and play 100 Test matches, I don’t know whether I’ll get there. I’m at 86, so that’s about 14 more, but being a World Cup year, there’s a lot of white-ball emphasis right now. So I think we’ve only got five Tests until around this time next year.”So if I’m going to look to play the 100 Test matches, I’m going to be around for the next three years. That’s 38. I think I can do it. The body seems fine. I’ve always been fit. It’s a mental thing. How long do you actually want to do it for. If you’ve got a family and if you’ve got kids – which I don’t but I do have a girlfriend and two dogs that miss me – and how much are you willing to give up. I think AB [de Villiers] hit the nail on the head. He’s got two young kids and he’s looking at life after cricket right now. He’s reached that point but I’m not there right now.”Steyn is also keen to play alongside an exciting crop of young fast bowlers. “[Kagiso] Rabada is so special. [Lungi] Ngidi’s coming through nicely. I just hope there’s a spot there for me when we get to Sri Lanka. In those conditions you’re always looking at playing possible two spinners. So good headache for the coach to have. When you get the opportunity to represent your country, you go and you make the most of it. I’m looking forward to going out there with some serious talent. The Proteas have someone to look forward to in Ngidi but Rabada’s been special for about two years no already. We all know that.”

Saif Zaib continued his prolific summer, becoming the first Northamptonshire batter to score six Championship tons in a season since Lance Klusener in 2006 as he posted 145 (186 balls) on day three of this Rothesay County Championship against Glamorgan at Wantage Road.Zaib, the second leading run-scorer in Division Two, extended his overnight score of 76, smashing a total of 22 fours and two sixes as he shared a ninth-wicket partnership of 56 in 15 overs with debutant Ben Whitehouse (6 not out).Despite Mason Crane taking 5 for 126, his second five-wicket haul this season, Zaib’s innings further held up Glamorgan’s promotion hunt as Northamptonshire moved to 413 for nine, 54 runs behind, when rain ended play early after just 95 minutes. With Ben Kellaway off the field injured, part-time spinner Kiran Carlson finished with 2 for 43.Earlier heavy morning rain prevented play getting underway until 1.50pm, Northamptonshire resuming on 309 for five. New batter Aadi Sharma (25) came out determined to make up for lost time, saving the follow-on when he pulled a dragdown from Carlson for six before flicking Crane through midwicket and slog sweeping him for another maximum. Sharma’s aggression ultimately proved his downfall though as he pulled Carlson straight to the deep midwicket fielder on the side with the longer boundary.Zaib moved through the 80s as he reverse swept Carlson for four, while Lewis McManus ran a single to take Northamptonshire to 350 and secure a third batting bonus point.But McManus soon became Crane’s fifth victim when he went to cut and edged behind, Northamptonshire quickly losing an eighth wicket when Liam Guthrie was adjudged lbw to Carlson.Zaib though was undeterred, advancing closer to his century when he reverse swept Crane for four to move to 99. He turned down a single to protect Whitehouse, before crunching one straight down the pitch to reach three figures off 136 balls.Whitehouse proved an admirable foil as Zaib continued to attack the Glamorgan spinners, sweeping a full toss from Crane for four and depositing Carlson over deep midwicket for six.With the skies starting to darken, Timm van der Gugten and James Harris took the new ball under the floodlights, Zaib responding by playing a remarkable pull shot over fine leg for six.Despite Whitehouse’s stoic defence, Glamorgan’s seamers will regret not targeting his stumps more, the debutant bringing up Northamptonshire’s fourth batting bonus point when he edged Harris low through the slip cordon for four. Zaib then emphatically pulled the Glamorgan quick through midwicket to bring up the 50 partnership off 74 balls.It took a dazzling bit of fielding from sub fielder Zain ul Hassan at deep cover who initially fumbled the ball, before turning in a direct hit to run out Zaib coming back for a second run without putting in a dive to ground his bat.With the rain returning shortly afterwards, the players took an early tea, but hopes of a resumption at 5.30pm were dashed by further downpours.

Excellent bowling from veteran seamer James Fuller, inexperienced slow left-armer Andrew Neal and pacy 16-year-old Manny Lumsden proved too much for Surrey at the Kia Oval in what became an embarrassingly one-sided nine-wicket Hampshire victory.The Hawks dismissed Surrey for 160 in 46.3 overs before skipper Nick Gubbins anchored a buccaneering chase with 87 not out from 60 balls. Hampshire’s fourth win in five Group A matches, clinched with a massive 30.5 overs to spare, boosts their ambitions of qualification for the Metro Bank One-Day Cup knockout stages.Gubbins was initially joined in an opening stand of 54 with Ali Orr before Fletcha Middleton arrived to hit an unbeaten 35 from 24 balls in an unbroken second wicket stand of 108 in just 9.3 overs.Fast bowler Nathan Barnwell was thrashed for 50 from his three overs – Gubbins twice hoicking him for six in an opening over costing 21 – and left-arm spinner Yousuf Majid’s three overs went for 31 as Gubbins and Middleton accelerated brutally towards the finish line. Gubbins hit three sixes and 13 fours in all, while Middleton’s contribution was two sixes and four fours.Earlier 35-year-old Fuller finished with 4 for 34 after polishing off a Surrey innings that never got going and was in danger of complete implosion at 89 for 6 before keeper-batter Josh Blake and bowlers James Taylor, Barnwell and Majid provided at least some lower order resistance in front of a near-5,000 crowd.Blake was Surrey’s joint top-scorer with 22 alongside South Asian Cricket Academy graduate Nikhil Gorantla, who was Fuller’s first victim when he was excellently caught low down by Neal diving forward at mid-on in the 18th over.That left Surrey 68 for 3 and rookie tyro Lumsden had already made his mark by then, first forcing Rory Burns to miscue a pull to his fourth ball – to be caught and bowled for 20 – and then seeing Adam Thomas chop on to his stumps for 12 in his third over.At 16 years and 288 days, Lumsden bowled with genuine pace in just his second List A appearance and although there were a number of wild deliveries, including an intended bouncer that flew for four wides, he impressed across two spells in his 2 for 46 from 10 overs.Even more impressive was 25-year-old spinner Neal, who played two first-class matches for Leeds-Bradford MCCU in 2019 but only made the first of his previous four List A appearances earlier this month at the start of Hampshire’s One-Day Cup campaign.His 3 for 33 from 10 nicely-controlled overs now gives him nine wickets in the competition and here he numbered the Surrey middle-order of Ben Foakes, Ollie Sykes and Cameron Steel as his scalps. Foakes mishit to long on for 5, Sykes was brilliantly held by a diving Felix Organ at long on for 7 and Steel drove tamely to short extra cover to go for 5.Blake’s 22 was ended by a fatal nibble at Fuller, Taylor offered a few meaty blows before skying Scotland allrounder Brandon McMullen to long-on and Barnwell departed for 15 miscuing high to keeper Ben Mayes.Majid was left 13 not out when No. 11 Alex French fenced Fuller to slip to go for a fifth-ball duck and all that remained was to see how quickly Hampshire’s top order could knock off the runs. Thanks to Gubbins, Orr and Middleton the match was over by 4.10pm.

Zimbabwe denied Netherlands their third straight championship at the T20 World Cup Qualifier as the hosts defended a total of 132 to secure a 37-run win in the final in Bulawayo. Netherlands – who have already claimed a spot at the T20 World Cup – collapsed from 45 for 2 to be bowled out for 95 in 18.2 overs as Sikandar Raza’s extraordinary tournament concluded in a Player-of-the-Match performance as he took 4 for 8.The result means that Zimbabwe will go to Hobart for the opening round of the T20 World Cup in Australia this October, where they will be in a group with Ireland, Scotland and West Indies. Netherlands will be sent to Geelong for their opening round fixtures against Namibia, Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates. The top two teams in each opening round group will advance to the Super 12 stage.Both teams had produced dominant performances with the bat throughout the tournament before a low-scoring thriller unfolded on Sunday in which nobody made more than the 28 off 25 balls by Sean Williams at No. 3. But along with Regis Chakabva’s 27 off 16 balls, it was significant enough to put Zimbabwe in a defendable position.Logan van Beek struck in the third over for Netherlands, bowling captain Craig Ervine, who was attempting to back away from leg stump for a booming drive, for 10. Chakabva paid the price for trying one too many reverse shots to Bas de Leede’s medium pace and was given lbw in the fifth. Wessly Madhevere was next to go, sweeping a full toss from left-arm spinner Tim Pringle out to deep midwicket for 9 to make it 54 for 3.But Williams and Raza came together for the biggest partnership of the match, adding 39 for the fourth wicket to get Zimbabwe back on solid ground. The stand finally ended when Williams heaved a half-tracker from legspinner Shariz Ahmad out to deep midwicket.Van Beek returned in the 13th and was on a hat-trick a short time later during a double-wicket maiden. A one-handed swipe to the leg side by Milton Shumba produced a swirling top edge taken by wicketkeeper Scott Edwards. Raza crossed with the ball in the air and fell on the next delivery for 19 playing across the line to a back of a length delivery and was given lbw.Zimbabwe only scored two more boundaries the rest of the innings, but both were struck by Ryan Burl to start and finish a pivotal 10-run over bowled by Fred Klaassen in the 17th. Burl was run out for 15 in the first ball of the 18th over, and the tail was wiped out a short time later with three balls left unused.Madhevere trapped Netherlands opener Max O’Dowd heaving across the line for 12 in the third over of the chase before de Leede, the hero of semi-final win over USA, became Madhevere’s second lbw victim in the space of five balls. But Netherlands recovered well from 17 for 2 to speed along to 43 by the end of the powerplay thanks to Stephan Myburgh and Tom Cooper.That was until chaos erupted in the seventh when Cooper was run out by a direct hit from short fine leg to the non-striker’s end for 9. After hitting two fours and three sixes during the powerplay, Netherlands did not find the rope again until the 17th over as spinners Raza and Williams strangled the run rate.The mounting pressure finally burst in the 10th when Myburgh was pinned in front for 22 during a wicket-maiden for Raza. Another false sweep followed from Edwards in the 11th as he top-edged Williams to short fine leg for 7.Raza then bowled Logan van Beek in the 12th for a third-ball duck before ending his spell with wickets on his final two deliveries, bowling Pringle for 4 and pinning Klaassen in front for a golden duck. Netherlands slid from 17 for 6 to 62 for 8.A late burst of sixes from Paul van Meekeren and Teja Nidamanuru off Burl’s legspin in the 17th produced a 14-run over. But van Meekeren was dismissed by Jongwe two balls into the 18th for 10 before Richard Ngarava removed Nidamanuru in the next over to end the match.Papua New Guinea defended a total of 97 to beat USA by five runs in the third place playoff at Bulawayo Athletic Club. USA needed 11 runs to win off 12 balls with three wickets in hand before captain Assad Vala struck twice with his offspin in the 19th, including No. 6 batter Vatsal Vaghela for a top score of 29 chipping a skied drive to extra cover. Chad Soper then speared a yorker into middle stump on the first ball of the 20th to bowl Yasir Mohammad for 16 to clinch a dramatic consolation win.In the fifth place playoff, Uganda held on in almost identical circumstances, defending 102 to beat Hong Kong by four runs. Hong Kong needed six runs off three balls with four wickets in hand, but Cosmas Kyewuta bowled Zeeshan Ali for 26 and then removed Ehsan Khan first ball. No. 10 batter Aftab Hussain could only manage a single after entering to face the final ball. Jersey comfortably chased down a target of 141 with 26 balls to spare to beat Singapore by six wickets in the seventh place playoff.

CSA’s new franchise-based T20 league has been named “SA20”, Graeme Smith, the tournament commissioner, announced in a press interaction on Wednesday. He also confirmed that the player auction for the inaugural season, to be played in January-February 2023, will be held on September 19.The six teams – all owned by groups that own teams in the IPL – have already signed between two and five players apiece from a pool of marquee players as part of the direct-acquisition process. The franchises have an overall purse of US$2 million and can buy as many more players as they can, or want, with the maximum squad strength set at 17.Related

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• Death by T20 leagues? It's real, it's coming

The money available to them at the auction will be based on what is left of the purse after acquiring the pre-auction players [the five included a maximum of three overseas players, one a South African international, and one an uncapped South African player]. In total, franchises will be permitted to sign up to seven international players and ten South Africans, with a view to fielding an XI with a maximum of four internationals and seven South Africans, the same format as in the IPL.The tournament’s fixtures will be revealed soon and will comprise 33 matches, with each team playing the others home and away, two knockout matches, and a final. Sub-Saharan African broadcasters , who own a 30% share in the tournament, also have the rights to broadcast it on the African continent but CSA are in the market for international broadcasters. They are also in discussions to ensure South Africans who only have access to free-to-air television will have some way of keeping in touch with the event, with everything from radio coverage to delayed television broadcasts up for discussion.The league is currently working through player registrations and will present the franchises with a shortlist of candidates ahead of the auction.Smith said they had received an “immense amount” of interest from players, both local and overseas, despite the calendar congestion. The SA20 will clash with both the Australian BBL and the UAE’s ILT20 as well as the BPL in Bangladesh. While the ILT20 will rely on a majority of internationals, the BBL has a similar structure to the SA20 [with a maximum of three internationals in each XI]. Player overlaps between tournaments might become inevitable.To deal with clashing contractual obligations, Smith met with organisers of the ILT20, and the two players signed to both the BBL and SA20 – Liam Livingstone and Rashid Khan – have made themselves available for only part of the BBL, because they had signed with CSA first.”The Big Bash has created a different structure where they have allowed players to play for a portion of the Big Bash. The players that have signed for our league will be there [Australia] for the first couple of days of January and then they will come across to South Africa,” Smith said. “They will be here when their team owners require them in South Africa. They will be available fully for the South African league.”The headlines have obviously been grabbed by the big international names, but the CSA’s focus is also on developing local players.”We’ve been able to attract some big international names to our league. You can see in the pre-signing with Rashid Khan, Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone and the like. We’ve got some real quality but the difference for us is that we focus on South African talent as well,” Smith said. “There will be 60 or 70 SA players on a global platform with their storylines. We’ve seen how that’s benefitted Indian cricket in the IPL and it’s gone to benefit their all-format cricket. We are hoping we will be able to create the same in South Africa.”The SA20, however, has been cited as one of the main reasons for CSA downscaling on Tests in the next FTP, in which South Africa play no Test series of three or more matches in the 2023-2025 World Test Championship cycle.With the prime summer period in January-February now occupied by the SA20, and the IPL due to start in mid-March, South Africa’s Test – and by extension their first-class – window will have to be earlier in the season, in September-December. And concerns around the quality of the red-ball game have already been expressed.However, Smith, also South Africa’s most successful Test captain, does not see the league as having a negative effect on the longer format.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“These are things everyone grapples with in the international game – the growth of T20 and trying to understand how all the formats fit in. It’s an interesting debate and discussion going forward,” he said. “Every year, South Africa has played a T20 tournament. Now it’s just got to a level that elevates it to a standard that we see across the world.”It will bring a lot of expertise into our game. It’s going to bring financial support that hopefully will benefit all forms of the game in South Africa and keep us relevant in the international game. We don’t see it as an issue for Test cricket. We see it as an issue of growing South African cricket and keeping it strong.”CSA will try not to have any international matches when the SA20 is on, but in the first year, it will coincide with three ODIs against England. The matches were postponed from late 2020 and form part of the World Cup Super League. South Africa lie outside the automatic qualification zone and will forfeit points to Australia in January 2023 – they are not playing those matches because it would clash with the league. So they cannot afford not to host England.In subsequent years, the FTP sees some fixture clashes with the SA20, such as an England tour in early 2026, but schedules may be tweaked to allow CSA to keep the league window free.CSA also intends to launch a women’s version of the SA20 in the future, but have not been able do it from the outset because of the T20 World Cup, which will be held in South Africa in February 2023. “It’s 100% in our plans,” Smith said. “In year one, with the Women’s World Cup starting directly post the new league, it wasn’t viable. It’s definitely in our plans to begin one as soon as possible.”

Big picture

An eight-overs-a-side sprint in Nagpur ended with India levelling the T20I series 1-1 thanks to some outstanding bowling from Axar Patel and a supreme display of ball-striking from Rohit Sharma. But it’s difficult for the two sides to gain a lot from the experience on Friday, other than gleaning some insight into how to set up tactically for a rain-shortened game in the World Cup.India selected the extra batter, but Rishabh Pant was not even required, and they only needed four specialist bowlers and Hardik Pandya in an eight-over game, a luxury they can’t afford in a normal 20-overs-a-side contest. The death-overs bowling remains a question mark, although Jasprit Bumrah’s return was a welcome one, and he bowled superbly.Australia are truly experimenting on this tour with so many of their first-choice players missing. They went even further than usual in Nagpur, opting for an extra bowler for the first time since 2021, just to trial something in case the pitch played differently than expected. It did leave them a touch light on batting, though, when Axar ripped through Glenn Maxwell and Tim David.But Matthew Wade’s incredible form and Aaron Finch finding some runs are positive signs. Adam Zampa also bowled an outstanding spell to once again prove himself as one of the best legspinners in T20 cricket.However, like India, Australia have a death-overs problem. Nathan Ellis was injured and missed last night’s game, while Kane Richardson has a minor side niggle and won’t play in the final T20I in Hyderabad. In the absence of Mitchell Starc, Australia haven’t been able to trust their big guns in Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins at the death as often as they would like. They would like to find a solution to that issue ahead of the World Cup.”He’s really grown into that finishing role” – Aaron Finch on Matthew Wade•BCCI

Form guide

India WLWLL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Australia LWLWW

In the spotlight

Harshal Patel has found the going tough in this series so far after being preferred to bowl some of the tough overs as India search for a solution to their dearth of death specialists. Wade, in particular, has proved a nemesis for Harshal. The dew factor in both games has not helped him execute his slower balls and yorkers under pressure either. That won’t be an issue when he gets to Australia, and slower-ball bouncers and short cutters are usually very effective on the true and dry surfaces there, especially with the large square boundaries at most venues barring Adelaide. But he and India’s management would love a good outing just to elevate the confidence levels and bed down the structure of India’s bowling unit.Whisper it quietly, but is Pat Cummins still a lock-in in Australia’s best T20I bowling unit? Notionally, it seems blasphemous to say it out loud. But his form since the start of the last IPL does pose the question. It is a small sample size of seven games but his economy rate in that time is 10.91 and he has only had one game where he has conceded less than ten runs per over. Australia’s management are confident he can find his groove given he rarely gets an extended run at T20 cricket because of his Test duties. Part of the problem is that his Test-match lengths don’t translate well in T20s, and it takes a while for him to adjust. Opposition batters feel his natural length is the perfect hitting length in T20 cricket. He executed some excellent slower-ball bouncers last night in Nagpur. He will need to sharpen his execution of those and his yorkers ahead of the World Cup.Pat Cummins showed some good slower-ball varations in the second game•BCCI

Team news

The teams should revert to a more normal setup in Hyderabad. Pant will likely make way given he wasn’t required with the bat, and India will need an extra bowler for a full game. Bhuvneshwar Kumar seems the logical choice to return. India could also consider bringing in R Ashwin for Yuzvendra Chahal.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal/R AshwinAustralia will go back to a seven-batter strategy with Josh Inglis slotting straight back into the middle order. One of Sean Abbott and Daniel Sams will make way. If Ellis is fit, he will come straight back in for the other. Australia may also be very cautious with Cummins and Hazlewood. Three games in six days, albeit one shortened by rain, and several long-haul flights is a recipe for injury. Any hint of soreness in their thoroughbreds and they will be rested. But with Richardson unavailable, they can’t rest both.Australia (probable): 1 Aaron Finch (capt), 2 Cameron Green, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Josh Inglis, 6 Tim David, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Nathan Ellis/Daniel Sams/Sean Abbott, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood

Pitch and conditions

It’s been three years since a T20 match was held in Hyderabad. There have been no IPL matches there since 2019 and the last match was a run feast between India and West Indies. Our man at the ground says that the pitch has a nice beige tinge to it, with little or no grass in sight. It looks full of runs, so it could be another tough night for the bowlers. Virat Kohli will have fond memories walking through the gates. He averages 53.62 and strikes at 139.73 in ten matches there, including 94 not out off 50 against West Indies.The weather, warm and dry in the build-up to the weekend, has changed a bit, with dark clouds hovering on the eve of the match.3:21

Karthik on his 10 off two: I do a lot of scenario practices

Stats and trivia

• The toss may not be as important in Hyderabad. In the last 16 T20s dating back to the start of the 2018 IPL, it is eight wins each to the teams batting first and second.
• In his last four T20Is, Axar has taken eight wickets at an average of 8.62, with a strike rate of 9.7 and an economy rate of 5.3.
• In his last eight T20I innings dating back to his World Cup semi-final heroics against Pakistan in 2021, Wade has scored 228 runs (only dismissed once) with a strike rate of 178.12.
• Hazlewood is two short of 50 T20I wickets. If he gets there on Friday, in what will be his 33rd T20I, he will better Starc’s Australian record of 40 matches.

Quotes

“He can bowl in any phase of the game. That gives me an advantage to use him, especially if I have four overs of his, to use him in the powerplay. That frees up some of our fast bowlers in the middle if I want to use it. So he brings a lot to the table. This guy has been playing cricket for such a long time doing well for his franchise, India, about time he grabs these kinds of opportunity. And in the last two games, what we saw is what Axar Patel is really all about. We are just waiting to see some of his batting skills as well. “
“He’s such a calm customer at the back end of the innings there. He’s really grown into that finishing role. He’s been either at the top of the order or the bottom and I think he’s starting to do a wonderful job down there.”