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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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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.”

United Arab Emirates 148 for 3 (Waseem 50, Rizwan 43, Scholtz 1-22) beat Namibia 141 for 8 (Wiese 55, Hameed 2-17, Zahoor 2-20) by seven runs.It has taken UAE six matches in two tournaments, spread over eight years, but finally they have notched up a win at a T20 World Cup. They scored their second-highest tournament total and defended it fiercely, dismissing Namibia for…From 69 for 7, Namibia had no business being in the Super 12s but they have got there, and got there by topping their group and breaking Dutch and Emirati hearts in the process. Namibia’s win means both they and Sri Lanka advance, with Netherlands’ hopes hinging on a UAE win and UAE being denied their first win at a T20 World Cup.Actually, in a match to confound every writer of match reports, it was UAE who triumphed despite David Wiese and Ruben Trumpelmann putting on 80 off 56 balls for the eighth wicket after Namibia were 69 for 7. Namibia needed 14 runs off the final over, bowled by Muhammad Waseem, but Wiese was dismissed off the fourth ball and Namibia did not have enough muscle at the end.The result matters most to Netherlands, who will advance in second place to the Super12s alongside Sri Lanka, with Namibia knocked out despite being the favourites. UAE will also depart the tournament, but with a some points to show for it.Related

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They very nearly dropped their chance of victory when Waseem, who had set up UAE’s total with a half-century and was tasked with bowling the 17th over, dropped Wiese off his own bowling on 33. Wiese slogged and the ball went straight up, giving Waseem time to get there but he could not hold on. He then bowled the final over and had Wiese well-caught by Alishan Sharafu at long-on – the ball was heading for six had Sharafu not timed his jump and held on – to end Namibia’s chances. Incidentally, Waseem had bowled only 22 balls before in 19 T20 games and one of his three victims before Thursday was Wiese.Earlier, on a surface that seemed to get better for batting as the ball got older, UAE’s innings began with a slow burn but finished strongly. They were 58 for 1 in the first 10 overs and only reached 100 in the 16th over. But, they scored 51 runs off the last five overs to push the total close to 150 and notch up their second-highest total in T20 World Cups. Namibia’s effort in the field was mostly disciplined but the left-armers JJ Smit and Jan Frylinck conceded 69 runs in seven overs between them while opening bowler Ben Shikongo only delivered one over, the 15th.In contrast, the UAE’s captain Chundangapoyil Rizwan made some inspired decisions in the field. Basil Hameed became the first bowler to deliver three successive overs in the powerplay in Geelong in this tournament and took two wickets to leave Namibia on 26 for 3 inside five overs. Karthik Meiyappan removed Namibia’s captain Gerhard Erasmus and ran out Smit to open up the middle-order. From 46 for 5, even with David Wiese to come, Namibia could not find a way back and that was underlined when Zahoor Khan was brought back in the 13th over. He took two wickets in his second over to leave Namibia in tatters but Wiese and Trumplemann resurrected their cause only to fall short in the end.Waseem leads the way
UAE’s most accomplished batter anchored their innings with the right mix of energy and aggression to set them up for a competitive score. He found his first boundary when he went down on one knee to sweep Bernard Scholtz over deep backward square and then worked the the ball around through a quiet period before showing off his strong footwork against Jan Frylinck.Waseem advanced down the track to push him over mid-off and then straight back over his head for one of the group’s biggest sixes. His fifty came off 40 balls and despite the slow scoring rate, Waseem maintained a strike rate of over 100 and he did that by running well. He ran 16 singles and six twos and shared partnerships of 39 for the first wicket and 58 for the second to give UAE a base to build on.David Wiese raised hopes of an unlikely Namibian win with his big-hitting•AFP/Getty Images

Finishing strong
The UAE entered the final two overs on 115 for 3 and were still being kept fairly quiet but with 140-plus in their sights, had to hit out. Hameed began the assault when he carefully ran Wiese wide of Zane Green to third for four and then tucked into a short ball and pulled it over deep square for six. Wiese’s final over cost 12 runs but the best for the UAE was still to come. JJ Smits was preferred over Ben Shikongo to deliver the 20th over and immediately missed his yorker.Rizwan sent a waist-high full-toss over fine leg for six. He then ran three to put Hameed back on strike and he finished by whacking a length ball over midwicket and then reverse-scooping another over the wicket-keeper’s head. In between Smit got one in the right place but his final over went for 21. UAE scored 33 in the last two overs.Namibia begin to bottle it
Namibia made a nervy start to their reply as UAE made good use of a short-ball strategy upfront. Stephen Baard faced five of the balls from Junaid Siddique: got one away for a single, mistimed another, swung and missed at a third, sent the fourth to deep third for four and then inside-edged to give Ahmed Raza at short cover catching practice. Michael van Lingen faced three from Hameed, cut the first one for four, defended the second and then tried to hit the third over deep backward square but found Sharafu, who was perfectly positioned for the catch.But the biggest blow came when Rizwan opted to keep Hameed on for a third over in the powerplay and Jan-Nicol Loftie-Eaton missed a sweep. Though it looked like the ball was going down leg, Rizwan was persuaded to review and ball-tracking showed it would go on to hit the stumps. Namibia were 26 for 3 after five overs.Karthik’s over of mania…
Karthik took a hat-trick against Sri Lanka and made the major incisions into the Namibian line-up and will leave this tournament having made a name for himself. He was brought on to bowl the eighth over and foxed Erasmus with a back-of-a-hand delivery outside off that the Namibian captain made room to slice way and was bowled instead. Three balls later, Smit pushed the ball to a vacant mid-wicket region and wanted two runs. But Frylinck turned down the second, so Smit had to head back to the non-striker’s crease. By then, Karthik had chased the ball and fired a throw to the bowler’s end, leaving Smit short of his ground and furious.…and his other over of mania
Namibia entered the final five overs on 85 for 7, needing 64 runs. That may not have seem completely improbable given that UAE scored 51 in their last five, but with only three wickets in hand, it was going to take some doing. Pressure was building on both sides and UAE were first to let it affect them when Siddique misfielded on the sweeper cover boundary to turn what should have been a single to Wiese into four. Wiese kept strike but then gave it up with a single, clearly trusting his partner, Trumpelmann. He got out the slog and scored 12 runs off the next three balls, all with the same shot, including a four and a six. The over cost Meiyappan 18 runs and shifted momentum to Namibia.

Mayank Agarwal isn’t focusing as much on a Test comeback as he is on emulating the kind of Ranji Trophy season he had in 2017-18, when he topped the charts with 1160 runs in 13 innings.Agarwal isn’t part of India’s Test tour of Bangladesh, having endured a slump in form over the past six months. This has coincided with Shubman Gill and Abhimanyu Easwaran doing everything they can to impress the selectors. Added to that is the fact that he’s also been released by his IPL franchise, Punjab Kings, whom he captained earlier this year.Related

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It’s in the midst of all this that Agarwal has been handed Karnataka’s captaincy. The team reached the knockouts of both T20 and 50-overs competition. Now, he’s set to lead them in the Ranji Trophy, replacing his contemporary Manish Pandey, who was removed from the top job following a mediocre 2021-22 first-class season where Karnataka lost out in the quarter-finals.”I’ve been working on emulating what I did in 2017-18, when I had that good season,” Agarwal said in Bengaluru, ahead of Karnataka’s Ranji opener against Services on Tuesday. “I’ve gone back a little bit, looked at those videos, gone through those game plans and worked around that.”For me, that result or the end goal [India selection] will take care of itself. I want to look at my processes, areas I need to improve on and what I need to do to keep performing the way I was doing. And I back myself to deliver those performances.”Agarwal has a strong batting line-up to lean on, with all of R Samarth, Devdutt Padikkal and Pandey in the mix. The only notable absentee is Karun Nair, who has fallen out of favour with the selectors following a bad run of form that stretches back three seasons. However, there were times during the last campaign that he seemed to be rediscovering his touch again.Mayank Agarwal: There are no two ways about it. We want to win trophies for Karnataka•BCCI

The selectors have rewarded 22-year old Nikin Jose for his Vijay Hazare Trophy form – he was Karnataka’s leading run-getter, and Vishal Onat, who has had a stellar run in age-group cricket. One of them could well be handed a debut cap on Tuesday.As he takes over a young team in a transition, Agarwal is mindful of creating an environment similar to the one in 2013-14, when he broke through to make his first-class debut after years of being pigeon-holed as a white-ball player.”We have to keep encouraging them, create a good environment for them to flourish,” Agarwal said. “They’re in the team because of the performances they have put in age-group cricket. Nikin did very well in the Vijay Hazare as well. We want him to continue that form. As a team, we want to have an atmosphere where they can come, learn, execute and flourish, put up match-winning performances for Karnataka and play for the country.”I want to encourage them [youngsters], because they’ve put in performances. They’re skilled, they have the temperament and talent. We want to back them and help them learn. The environment we want to create in the team is one of wanting to win trophies, and we’re hungry for it.”The more we win and the more we enjoy each other’s success, that will come. Each of us has to be part of this environment, it’s not about one or two players coming in and creating that. If 20-25 of us create that, it will all stack up together. And when things stack up, results will take care of itself.”Karnataka last won the Ranji Trophy in 2014-15 and have stumbled in the knockouts for three seasons in a row. In 2018-19 and 2019-20, they lost in the semi-finals, to Saurashtra and Bengal respectively. Last season, they were upset in the quarter-final by Uttar Pradesh. Agarwal doesn’t want the team to be weighed down the baggage of being nearly men.”We’ve spoken of the legacy [of Karnataka cricket] and realised if we keep thinking off winning, winning, winning all the time, it’s not going to happen. That said, we’ve spoken of how hungry we are, but we also have to make a plan and be adaptable. Be disciplined. If we can do that, with the skillsets we have, the results will take care of itself. We are determined to win, there are no two ways about it. We want to win trophies for Karnataka.”

Andrew Tye, the Australia seamer, has signed for Northamptonshire for the 2023 T20 Blast.Tye was the stand-out performer in Durham’s Blast campaign last season, claiming 21 wickets in 10 matches, to take his overall record in the competition to 67 wickets in 48, following a previous spell at Gloucestershire between 2016 and 2019.He joins Northants off the back of his fourth BBL title, having helped Perth Scorchers overcome Brisbane Heat in last week’s final. In the course of that match, he picked up his 300th T20 wicket in just his 211th match, surpassing the previous record set by Rashid Khan (213 games).”I’m very excited to be joining Northamptonshire for the Blast,” Tye said. “They’re a good team that’s had success in the competition in the past so I’ll be hoping that we can recreate that success this year.”Tye, 36, will be reunited with his Australia team-mate Chris Lynn at Wantage Road, and has also played alongside the club’s bowling coach, Chris Liddle, during their Gloucestershire days.”I’m looking forward to joining Lynny, it’s always better to have him on your team than to try playing against him,” Tye added. “I’m excited to work with John Sadler too, I’ve heard really good things about him plus Chris Liddle and I go back to his playing days at Glos so I’m excited to see him and work together again.”Sadler, the head coach, added: “To get AJ on board is really pleasing, he’s an amazing addition and gives our team a great balance.”His experience and skill set is exactly what we needed and he knows what’s required to win games and win competitions too. He’ll be a super asset for us this season.”Northamptonshire, two-times winners of the T20 Blast in 2013 and 2016, have struggled in the competition in recent years, with a solitary quarter-final appearance in the past five editions. However, with England’s David Willey also returning to the club after his spell at Yorkshire, the captain Josh Cobb believes they will have a “world-class” core in 2023.”AJ’s got a fantastic record in T20 cricket and we were looking for someone to come in and bring real experience to the attack, someone that can bowl the tough overs in the latter part of the innings and be a banker for us at the death,” Cobb said.”Willo [David Willey] coming back is a great addition for us as an allrounder, then we’ve got Lynny [Chris Lynn] at the top of the order and AJ now with the ball. It gives us a real solid core of world class experience throughout the side.”We know we fell away last year but we played some excellent cricket in the tournament, so hopefully with these two coming in alongside Willo we can push and go one step further this summer.”

The Rawalpindi leg of the PSL this season has stood out for the surfeit of fours and sixes that have pervaded it, but even by those gluttonous standards, Usman Khan stood out. The former Quetta Gladiators man tormented his previous employers, smashing the fastest PSL hundred as Sultans piled on 262, the highest PSL score in history.Gladiators, needing a win – and in truth, a comprehensive one to stay alive – battled gamely, half-centuries from Omair Yousuf and Iftikhar Ahmed keeping the scoreline respectable. But despite the placidity of the surface, there were simply too many runs to get. Abbas Afridi showed the bowlers could have their say too with a five-fer that included a hat-trick, and though Gladiators took it much deeper than it appeared they might, they fell short by nine runs.Gladiators required a run-rate boosting victory to retain realistic hopes of pipping Peshawar Zalmi to a playoff spot, but the manner in which Multan started put any such notions to bed. It wasn’t until the third over that Usman struck his first boundary, but the four he plundered off that Aimal Khan over was very much a harbinger of what would follow. By the sixth over, Multan were purring, and the hapless Qais Ahmed was clobbered for 27 as Sultans posted 91, the highest powerplay score of the season.The carnage continued with 21 of the next over, and a further 27 off Qais’ second. During that over, Usman had brought up his 36-ball hundred, the fastest this league has ever seen. The following over saw the 150 come up, with the innings still in its first half. Nawaz brought himself once more and, to Gladiators’ relief, deceived him with the flight as Umar Akmal effected a smart stumping, though, having bludgeoned a 43-ball 120, the damage had very much been done.Mohammad Rizwan wasn’t exactly plodding along, but he’d been happy to turn the strike over, facing just 17 of the first 61 balls. He brought up his own half-century off 26 balls, but the carnage often happened at the other end. Tim David was in imperious form and combined with Kieron Pollard to finish strongly after the Gladiators had staged a mini-revival in the middle overs. The fourth wicket partnership between the duo combined for an unbeaten 58 off 33, and while that almost felt snail-paced after Usman’s fireworks, it still powered Sultans to the highest PSL total by 15 runs.Gladiators needed a huge effort from the top three if they were to stage a repeat of the monster chase they achieved against Peshawar Zalmi earlier in the week. But the architect of that triumph, Jason Roy, was dispatched with a slower ball in the second over. Martin Guptill took charge with a blistering powerplay cameo, smoking 37 off 13 balls before a bit of extra pace from Ihsanullah took the outside edge.But cameos weren’t enough in a chase of this magnitude, and to make up for the lack of one huge innings, Gladiators strung together several small, consequential ones. Seven of the ten who batted registered double figures, none of them at a strike rate lower than 170. Yousuf and Iftikhar appeared to be making a game of it with a 57-ball 104-run stand through the middle overs, with both batters scoring half-centuries. Iftikhar, somewhat bizarrely, gestured to shush the Rawalpindi crowd after getting to the mark in 28 balls, even as his side was well on course to be silenced before the playoffs for the fourth successive season.It was Afridi who dismissed him with a slower ball to ease any Multan nerves, but to Gladiators’ credit, they kept hammering away. Mohammad Nawaz struck a four off his first ball, while Akmal and Umaid smashed sixes of theirs, and though the wickets kept tumbling, the runs were steadily being knocked off. When Akmal smashed two sixes in the 17th to leave Gladiators needing 56 off 22, they might even have been narrow favourites, but Afridi would have the final say.Three wickets off successive balls straddling two overs were the icing on the cake, as Afridi achieved just the fifth PSL hat-trick, and though Gladiators raged against the dying of the light, the light truly was going out for them. The scoreline might say they fell short by just nine runs, but this elimination is the fourth first-round exit in a row for the 2019 champions. The narrow margin of defeat cannot detract from the gulf between them in a league where most of their competitors have pulled far out of sight.

Victoria 311 for 2 (Kellaway 117*, Handscomb 91*, Dixon 57) beat New South Wales 310 (Shaw 80, Gilkes 72, Green 57, Murphy 3-46, Siddle 3-54)Victoria secured a spot in the One-Day Cup final after defeating New South Wales by eight wickets on the back of blistering knocks from Campbell Kellaway and Peter Handscomb.In reply to NSW’s 310 in Sunday’s clash at Cricket Central in Sydney, Victoria reached the victory target with a whopping 74 balls to spare. Kellaway (117 not out off 101 balls) and Handscomb (91 not out off 52 balls) led the way, combining for an unbeaten 145-run stand on the way to the bonus-point win.Related

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Victoria will meet South Australia in the March 1 final, with the ladder-leading Redbacks earning hosting rights.Victoria started the last round of the season in fourth spot on the ladder. But third-placed Queensland’s shock loss to last-placed WA opened the door for Victoria to leapfrog NSW, who started the round in second.Things were going swimmingly for Victoria when NSW crashed to 181 for 6 following the departure of Jack Edwards in the 34th over. It looked set to become 181 for 7 next ball – only for Handscomb to drop an absolute sitter at square leg. Chris Green was facing his first ball when he skied Sam Elliott to Handscomb, who bobbled the simplest of catches.Green went on to make 57 off 47 balls among a 117-run partnership with Lachlan Shaw, helping lift NSW above 300.A 106-run opening stand between Kellaway and Harry Dixon set up Victoria’s run chase, with Handscomb joining in on the fun once Marcus Harris departed for 37.Handscomb received a life on 8 when wicketkeeper Josh Philippe grassed a tough one-handed diving attempt.  He was still on 8 when he survived a tight lbw shout. Handscomb made the most of the reprieves to produce a vital knock, cracking 12 fours and two sixes in a raw display of power and finesse.Kellaway was equally impressive, with his 13 fours and three sixes lifting him to a maiden List A century.It marked a disappointing end to the season for NSW, who entered their last match of the regular season in second spot but knowing a loss would cost them a berth in the final.Opener Sam Konstas made a scratchy 18 off 38 balls before charging down the wicket to Todd Murphy and being stumped.Murphy sent Moises Henriques and Oliver Davies packing as NSW went from 96 for 1 to 181 for 6 despite a defiant knock from Matthew Gilkes.Handscomb’s dropped catch was an important turning point, with Shaw and Green taking control of the innings from that point.But Victoria made light work of the big chase, going at more than eight runs an over to not only snare the win, but also the bonus point.

Hardik Pandya will have to resume bowling before India consider him as a Test option again. This much was made clear when Virat Kohli was asked if the management would be tempted to retain the allrounder for the Test series, after a string of important performances in the limited-overs leg of the tour, where he played as a specialist batsman and ended up Man of the Series in the T20s.Apart from bowling an impromptu spell during the second ODI against Australia, Pandya has gone all season – including the IPL – playing only as a batsman, as he continues to build up to full fitness following a back surgery last year. The messaging around his non-bowling, from voices like Mumbai Indians’ Mahela Jayawardene and Zaheer Khan, had been one of caution – of not rushing him back into a bowling workload, and that seems to be the picture in the national team as well.ALSO WATCH: Match highlights: Wade and Maxwell set up win for Australia (Indian subcontinent only) “He’s been outstanding,” Kohli said in a press conference after the T20I series concluded. “He couldn’t bowl and we knew he’s not going to bowl. But what we saw of him in the IPL, and the headspace that he’s in, you know – you can just see in his game – that he’s wanting to make the team win. But Test cricket is a very different challenge altogether and we need him to bowl. We’ve spoken to him about it.”We need him to bowl. That’s when he becomes that one guy who brings a lot of balance for us. If you’ve seen our cricket overseas as well, in South Africa and England, we were able to compete for longer periods through Test matches because of the fact that he brought a lot of balance in terms of his bowling. We’ve communicated that to him.”After the second T20I, Pandya had been asked on air if he would like to stay back for the Tests, and showed brief interest in the idea. “It’s a different ball game I think I need to be…I mean, I don’t mind. But at the end of the day it is the call for the management and everyone (to make),” he had said. By the end of the third T20I on Tuesday, though, he said he was keen on spending time with his family and not thinking of a Test comeback at the moment.Hardik Pandya produced a stunning innings to win India the series•Getty Images

Pandya has played 11 Tests for India since debuting in 2017, the last one in England in 2018. Recurring lower back niggles have since kept him away. He averages 31.29 with the bat, with five fifty-plus scores, and 31.05 with the ball with one five-for. The management’s requirement for him to be firing as a complete allrounder to be considered for Tests is something he is clear about.ALSO WATCH: Video highlights: Virat Kohli’s 85 (Indian subcontinent only)“He’s definitely in a zone where he wants to get stronger, figure out and iron out all these niggles, and he wants to be able to provide for India with all three disciplines – and that’s always been his X-factor and it will continue to be,” Kohli said. “In white-ball cricket, we’ve found someone who can finish games and consistently. But he himself wants to get back into the bowling space and be available as a pure allrounder in Tests, which becomes way more important. Over five days, you need a little extra from a player in that role. So he understands that and is working really hard to come back.”Shami, Bumrah were being kept fresh for first TestIndia were slated to play two multi-day tour games, one of which concluded on Tuesday without the involvement of senior fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, who were with the T20I team. Bumrah, however, didn’t participate in any of the three T20s and Shami only played in the first one at Canberra. Kohli said this was an attempt to beware the packed schedule and what it could do to fitness levels.”It’s very important to understand that you need guys fresh for the first Test,” Kohli said. “You need to take some calls along with playing so many games. The fact that we’ve played six games in absolutely no time is something that we all need to address and be wary of.”You don’t want guys starting the Test match feeling sore or feeling like their legs have had too many miles in them. So we keep constantly communicating with the bowlers, asking them how their bodies are feeling, and they’ve been pretty professional and pretty good in communicating back what they need. We need to show absolute trust and faith in their processes and make sure they’re in the right headspace heading into the first Test.”ALSO WATCH: Video highlights: Zampa gets rid of Pandya (Indian subcontinent only) In all, India have played six limited-overs matches since the tour began on November 27, and the constraints in the schedule meant one of their practice games overlapped with the last two T20 matches. The time available before the Test series begins is a useful pause, Kohli said, but the overall schedule meant workload management was inevitable for those involved in all formats.”I think before we go into the first Test, the feeling that we’ll want to have is that our games are at an acceptable level,” Kohli said. “But more important than that is that you’re physically fresh. We can’t afford the slightest of niggles or muscle strains. That is the biggest priority for us – to keep our main players physically fit. To start the Test series well, we will need our fittest eleven players on the field.”India’s final tour game starts on Friday, before the first Test in Adelaide from December 17. It will be the only Test Kohli plays before departing on paternity leave. Kohli said he was personally in a good headspace heading into the longer format, after what he called a scratchy start to the tour.”Tonight I felt particularly good. I think I’m in the right headspace now. I think it was a bit scratchy in the first ODI to begin with, but then I addressed a few things and worked on a few aspects of my game that I wanted to. Purely to get into the best headspace that I possibly can, not thinking too much technique. Because when I get into a good headspace is when I feel like I can play and switch between all formats, and adjust according to the conditions as well,” he said.

Match abandonedAlyssa Healy was prevented from testing herself in the middle with the wicketkeeping gloves as the Governor-General match against England was abandoned after less than 29 overs due to rain in Sydney, while quick bowler Lauren Filer endured a difficult start to her Ashes tour with the ball as she repeatedly lost her footing in delivery.Australia captain Healy was using this match to test her readiness to return with the gloves after playing as a batter only against New Zealand late last year, but was only able to have a hit as she made a crisp 38 in a rapid opening stand of 91 with Georgia Voll who again impressed with a 38-ball half-century.After the game had been called off due to frequent stoppages, Healy had a 20-minute keeping session on the outfield with Australia’s coaching staff ahead of Sunday’s first ODI.Related