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Kent are the first county to charge for their T20 stream and it was a persuasive option on a cold early-summer evening

David Hopps30-May-2023Somerset 154 (Lammonby 34, Agar 3-18, Hogan 3-33) beat Kent 112 (Green 3-19) by 13 runs via DLS methodSomerset’s 154 had always resembled a defendable score on a seaming pitch and, as squally showers increasingly played havoc on a cold Canterbury night, they held their nerve impressively in the field to claim their fourth successive win and maintain their position at the top of South Group.Ben Green had spent some of the Kent innings off the field injured on a mucky night when Somerset badly wanted a full bank of seamers, but crucially he returned in the nick of time to complete an impressive all-round bowling performance.With the final recalculation leaving Kent needing a further 54 from 4.1 overs, Green returned 3 for 19 in two overs, the highlight a cleverly-disguised yorker to bowl George Linde. Matt Henry helped him to another, keeping his feet well enough on a well-oiled outfield to throw the ball up at long-off as he crossed the rope and completed the catch.

Pakistan fought back after poor starts in either innings of the game but fell well short

Danyal Rasool16-Nov-2024It looked like it would be a run fest, but then it evolved into a low-scoring thriller. In a shapeshifting T20I in Sydney, Australia adapted better than Pakistan, holding their nerve to defend a modest total of 147 and edging to a 13-run victory, which gave them the T20I series.Spencer Johnson was the star of the show with 5 for 26, taking wickets at the top and the end and keeping Pakistan penned in, but he had plenty of support from his mates in a disciplined bowling effort. It was matched by a first innings where six batters reached double-figures, the clump of cameos ensuring the batters gave their bowlers enough to work with.Pakistan looked like they were on track for a hammering when Australia reached 50 in 3.1 overs – the fastest they have ever got to the mark in a T20I. But Pakistan, led inevitably by Haris Rauf, hit back through the middle overs. However, their fielding lapses proved costly, and in a game of fine margins, that proved to be one of the points of difference between the sides.They will also rue their lack of intent early on with the bat. Pakistan limped along for the first half of the innings and left themselves too much to do at the back end. Usman Khan – who scored his first T20I half-century – and Irfan Khan made a fist of it to get within 13 runs of victory, but just couldn’t do enough to undo the damage of the first part of the innings.Australia made sure they did just enough things better than Pakistan, and on that count, ended up worthy winners.Matthew Short played his part in giving Australia a rollicking start•Getty Images

The flight, and the uncontrolled descent

Australia began the game as if they had drawn inspiration from India’s batting show against South Africa on Friday. Shaheen Afridi was bowling into the arc as if feeding a slot machine, and Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk were only too happy to oblige. Naseem Shah similarly failed to keep it out of the arc, and 15 balls into the game, Australia had sped along to 47, having hit five fours and three sixes already.As Pakistan have learnt over the white-ball tour, when in doubt, give Rauf the ball, and that worked the charm again. He was the only man who could arrest the slide, and it didn’t take him long. A pacy bouncer that Fraser-McGurk couldn’t get on top off and slogged to the cover fielder punctured Australia, before a leading edge sent Josh Inglis on his way.Abbas Afridi – who bowled beautifully all innings – struck with the slower ball to dispatch Short, and suddenly, it turned into an even contest. After the first 15 balls of the powerplay had leaked 47 wicketless runs, the last 21 balls saw just 14 scored, with Australia’s top three back.Haris Rauf struck twice in an over to check Australia’s rapid start•Getty Images

Pakistan sloppy in the field, again

Pakistan tend to take one of their most famous characteristics each game, and turn the dial up to 11. Sometimes it’s the unpredictability, at other times it’s the fast bowling. Today, they went for the comic ineptitude in the field they have picked up a reputation for.The warning signs were there from the first over, which was when Naseem made a mess of a Fraser-McGurk top edge, and it only got worse from there.Salman Agha put Marcus Stoinis down off Rauf, while Shaheen reprieved Glenn Maxwell off Sufiyan Muqeem in the eighth over. Rauf made a mess of an effort in the field off Naseem that went for four, while Babar Azam put Tim David down before the batter went on to get ten runs off the next three balls. Those were just the highlights and, in a low-scoring game, it all counted.Mohammad Rizwan struggled during his 26-ball 16•Cricket Australia via Getty Images

Pakistan’s no-power play

Pakistan looked at the way Australia had been dragged back and perhaps thought “this won’t happen to us”. It didn’t, because they never got going at the front end of the innings in the first place. They did lose Babar (pick-up flick to deep square leg) and Sahibzada Farhan (pull straight to deep midwicket) to careless shots, but for much of the first nine overs, there were scarcely any attempts to hit a boundary.Mohammad Rizwan struggled through an especially curious innings where he was either happy with dot balls or poked the ball away for singles. It wasn’t until the tenth over that a boundary off the bat was finally struck as Rizwan cleared his front leg and slog swept Johnson over cow corner to pick up four.But Rizwan attempted the same shot off the next ball, only to miscue it for David to take a superb catch diving forward. By this time, the asking rate was approaching ten, and Pakistan’s top order had written cheques they unfairly expected their lower order to honour.Usman Khan battled hard to give Pakistan a chance•Cricket Australia via Getty Images

Johnson brilliance

When Johnson began the innings with a wide down leg side that went for five, and followed it up with a wide outside off that would have done the same had first slip not done brilliantly, any comparisons with the other Johnson, Mitchell, would have only pertained to the phase in his career that spawned the unfortunate “he bowls to the left, he bowls to the right” chant. But it took the South Australian no time to turn his fortunes around, controlling his high pace and exploiting sideways movement beautifully to rip through Pakistan.Farhan’s soft dismissal was only the beginning, and Pakistan were dented during the middle overs, and that proved telling.Rizwan fell in Johnson’s return spell before Salman fell the very next ball, leaving Pakistan’s ultra-long tail one wicket away from being exposed. When Usman and Irfan put up a 58-run stand, it was once again Johnson who struck, taking two more in an over when his extra pace saw Usman smear a pull into the air before Abbas was dispatched in similar fashion. It allowed Adam Zampa’s double-wicket over effectively seal the game despite Irfan’s presence.

Adam Milne and Noor Ahmad put in the star performances with the ball as Los Angeles Knight Riders were bowled out for 124 to go down by 57 runs

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jun-2025Texas Super Kings were asked to bat for a second game in a row, put up an almost-identical score, and ran out victors again, this time against Los Angeles Knight Riders, to make it two wins in two in MLC 2025.Unlike in the first game, against MI New York, though, the batting effort was a combined one, with no one standing out with a really big contribution. The stars were in the bowling department – Adam Milne, again, and Noor Ahmad.The first partnership of any note for LAKR was the one between Alex Hales and Unmukt Chand for the second wicket. Coming together after Andre Fletcher had become Milne’s first victim in the second over of the chase of 182, Hales (25 in 17) and Chand (22 in 23) added 27 runs, but the going was slow. Chand then added 28 for the fifth wicket with Matthew Tromp, where Tromp showed some initiative on his way to a 12-ball 23, but Chand still couldn’t get any impetus.Milne started and finished LAKR’s fall, adding the wicket of Tanveer Sangha at the end to return 3.1-0-8-2, while Noor ran through the lower-middle order with the wickets of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Tromp – he had sent back Nitish Kumar earlier – to finish with 4 for 25.Earlier, asked to bat, Devon Conway scored 34 in 22 balls at the top, his partnership with Saiteja Mukkamalla, who scored 31 in 22, giving TSK a solid platform after captain Faf du Plessis fell for a low score again. Conway and Mukkamalla put up 57 runs in 5.1 overs, Mukkamalla clearly the aggressor there, and with 74 on the board after eight, TSK looked good for an above-par score.Daryl Mitchell (36* in 33), Shubham Ranjane (24 in 19) and Donovan Ferreira (32* in 16) made sure TSK got what they wanted, and it was way too many for LAKR on the day. In a low- and slow-scoring game on the while, Ferreira and Tromp were the only batters to go at at a strike rate of over 155 – Ferreira 200 and Tromp 191.66.

Smith is brand ambassador for Washington Freedom, who have a high-performance partnership with New South Wales, his state team in Australia

Matt Roller12-Jul-2023Steven Smith could play Major League Cricket (MLC) for Washington Freedom after the 2024 T20 World Cup, having agreed a deal to become a brand ambassador for the franchise.New South Wales (NSW), Smith’s state team in Australia, have a high-performance partnership with Freedom, who are owned by the entrepreneur Sanjay Govil. Michael Klinger and Greg Shipperd, NSW’s head of male cricket and head coach respectively, hold parallel roles with Freedom.Smith, who turned 34 last month, has regularly spent time in New York City and proposed to his wife Dani there in 2017. He has previously floated the possibility of playing in MLC, telling the that finishing his career in the USA “would be pretty cool”.Related

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“As a New South Wales boy, the partnership the Freedom has with my home state means a lot to me,” Smith said in a promotional video. “Cricket in Australia has a rich history and I look forward to being part of taking cricket to the United States of America.”Australia don’t have any fixtures in their Future Tours Programme commitments during MLC’s July window next year, with an away T20I series against Afghanistan at the end of August their first scheduled tour after the men’s T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the USA in June 2024.Smith declined to comment on his long-term career plans at the start of Australia’s ongoing tour of England, ahead of the World Test Championship final against India, but would be able to play in MLC while continuing to play for Australia as a centrally contracted all-format international.”Steve has a close relationship with New South Wales and Sydney Sixers,” Klinger told ESPNcricinfo. “He obviously had five fantastic games in the last BBL, and to have him on board as an ambassador to promote the team is great. He’s going to really lift the profile of the Washington Freedom.”Some of his best mates, the New South Wales guys, are playing in the team, like [captain] Moises Henriques, and to be able to promote the Freedom with someone of Steve’s stature is going to be great for us. We certainly hope it’s a long-term relationship and we’ll see how that goes down the track.”Henriques, Ben Dwarshuis, Josh Philippe and Tanveer Sangha are the NSW players due to appear for Freedom in the inaugural season of MLC, which runs from July 13 to 30. A number of Australia’s most high-profile players are products of the NSW system and Klinger hopes to convince some of them to appear in MLC’s second season.”We’ve got a few very strong New South Wales players who we’d certainly be interested in chatting to,” Klinger said. “Some of the fast bowlers often want to take breaks, especially straight after a World Cup, but in saying that, they’ll be in the America and West Indies area, so hopefully they’ll be keen to come and play for us.”You’ve got [Mitchell] Starc, you’ve got [Pat] Cummins, you’ve got [Josh] Hazlewood. Sean Abbott is involved in that group now as well. We have some really good options next year plus our current high-profile overseas we’ve got this year – hopefully we can retain some of them as well.”Especially coming off the back of the World Cup when they’re already over here anyway, hopefully their schedule allows them to take seven to ten days off on holiday somewhere around this area and then they can join up and be involved next year.”Freedom are due to play their first MLC fixture on Friday night, against Seattle Orcas in Dallas.

Australia’s top four all made fifties to lift the team to 352, and despite half-centuries from Kohli and Rohit, India fell well short in the chase

Ashish Pant27-Sep-20231:00

Have Iyer and Suryakumar settled some nerves for India?

Attacking fifties from the top four, backed up by Glenn Maxwell’s frugal four-for on return helped Australia avoid a clean sweep as they got the better of India by 66 runs in the third and final ODI in Rajkot. India still took the series 2-1 having won the opening two games convincingly.Both sides made a host of changes – Australia five and India six – from the second ODI. Batting first on what looked like a placid Rajkot surface, Mitchell Marsh, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith and David Warner all scored fifties to propel Australia to 352 for 7.Related

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In reply, Rohit Sharma bashed a 57-ball 81 while Virat Kohli scored a more sedate fifty, but the lower middle order failed to get going as India were bowled out for 286 in 49.4 overs.Australia, playing a near full-strength side, took charged up from the get-go. They raced to 90 for 1, with India conceding 11 fours and five sixes in the first ten overs. And it was Jasprit Bumrah they targeted, who had a game of two halves. He conceded 0 for 51 off his first five overs and 3 for 30 off his last five but seemed off the boil with his lengths overall.Marsh creamed the first ball he received from the fast bowler through covers before pummeling him for two fours and six in his second over. Warner took 16 runs off Mohammed Siraj’s second over before thumping Prasidh Krishna was for 19 off his first as Australia galloped to 50 in 6.1 overs.Warner soon notched up a half-century of his own, his third of the series, off 32 balls but failed to carry on. Trying to be a bit too adventurous, Warner pre-meditated a scoop to a Prasidh length ball on the stumps but could only get a bit of a glove and a top edge through to the wicketkeeper.Smith, coming on the back of a duck, was in his elements right away. He started off with a typical across-the-line wristy clip before dishing out a stunning cover drive against Prasidh.David Warner and Mitchell Marsh show some glove-love after giving Australia a rollicking start•BCCI

Spin was introduced in the tenth over but did not make much of a difference with both Marsh and Smith collecting boundaries at regular intervals. Marsh brought up his fifty off 45 balls before the heat started to take its toll even as Australia breached the 150-mark in the 22nd over.Bumrah’s second spell also proved expensive with Marsh laying into him. He hoicked the quick over deep backward square leg before crashing him for three successive fours. Smith and Marsh added 137 off 119 balls for the second wicket and when Australia screamed past 200 in 26.2 overs, 400 was on the cards.But India managed to pull things back well. Marsh, absolutely knackered by the heat, patted a Kuldeep wrong’un to cover to fall for 96. Soon after, Siraj pinned Smith right in front with a length ball that skidded through and missed his attempted flick. Bumrah returned to deceive Alex Carey with a slower offcutter and then rattled Maxwell’s off pole with a pinpoint yorker. And, when Cameron Green holed out to long-on, Australia had lost four wickets for 57 in 11 overs between the 32nd and 43rd.Labuschagne, however, kept his composure to keep Australia going. He smashed 72 off 58 balls with nine fours as Australia crossed 350 in the final over. Despite the tall score, India did manage to pull things back in the last part, conceding 122 runs in the last 20 overs and just 66 off the last ten.Rohit had a new opening partner in Washington Sundar and India’s chase got off to a flying start largely due to Rohit. The duo added 74 for the opening wicket in 65 balls, with Rohit’s contribution being 55 off 35.The pull worked the magic for the India captain on the day with the shot earning him 35 runs off just ten balls. Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were all dispatched to various locations over the on-side boundaries while the extra cover fence was also peppered more than once.Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli added 70 for the second wicket•AFP/Getty Images

Rohit raced to his fifty off 31 balls with the help of three fours and five sixes. Ironically, it was a mistimed pull that got him to the landmark. Green purchased some extra bounce outside off with Rohit managing a top edge on a pull that ballooned straight up. But Starc running back from short third, failed to latch on to a tough catch.Washington was dismissed for a 30-ball 18 with Labuschagne taking a wonderful catch at wide long-off. Kohli then joined forces with Rohit and the duo added 70 off 61 balls to keep the chase on track.A stunning piece of reflex catch, however, sent Rohit back and Australia applied the choke thereafter. Rohit absolutely slapped a quickish length ball by backing away towards the bowler, who tried to take evasive action but also held out his right hand with the ball sticking.Post Rohit’s dismissal in the 21st over, Australia conceded just two fours and a six in the next ten overs. Kohli reached his 65th half-century in the format, but became Maxwell’s third victim when he top-edged a short-of-a-length ball to Smith at midwicket.Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul failed to find the boundaries as the required rate continued to creep up. Rahul was sent back by Starc while Suryakumar Yadav failed to repeat his second ODI heroics. And when Iyer was castled by Maxwell, the end was nigh.Ravindra Jadeja managed to get some batting practice enroute a 36-ball 35 before Green ended proceedings by taking out Siraj off the penultimate ball of the game. For Australia, each of the six bowlers picked up a wicket.

Eight regional sides put out to tender with first-class counties, MCC invited to bid for 2025-28

Valkerie Baynes01-Feb-2024″Show us your vision.” That’s the challenge the ECB has sent down to the 18 first-class counties in a second major overhaul of its professional women’s playing structure in five years.Invitations to tender for one of eight women’s professional “Tier 1 Clubs” are being sent to the counties and the MCC on Thursday. It is a move away from the current regional structure which began in 2020, whereby teams contesting the 20-over Charlotte Edwards Cup and 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy fall under central ECB control and largely encompass more than one county.By aligning teams more closely with existing counties – and their men’s teams – from the beginning of the 2025 season, the ECB is seeking to address an identity crisis that has afflicted some of the regional teams. The expanded marketing of the domestic women’s game will shift ownership, responsibility and governance to the clubs.The eight teams will compete in the top level of an expanded three-tier women’s domestic structure and while it is expected that they could still compete for trophies bearing the same names, one possible scenario is for those matches to be played as part of the Vitality T20 Blast and Metro Bank One Day Cup – which are currently men’s competitions – with the scope for some fixtures being played as double-headers.In October 2019, the ECB announced its ‘Inspiring Generations’ strategy for 2020-2024, aimed at making cricket a gender-balanced sport. That included introducing full-time professional contracts for women playing domestic cricket, the eight regional teams and the domestic 20-over and 50-over women’s competitions. It came after England had been soundly defeated 12-4 in a home Women’s Ashes series in 2019 and the ECB vowed to do better in the wake of Australia’s then-superior domestic structure.Related

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But last summer’s report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket concluded that there was still much work to be done to correct deep-seated discrimination within the game, particularly on the grounds of race, class and gender.Beth Barrett-Wild, ECB Director of Women’s Professional Game, said that while the initial revamp was aimed at professionalising women’s cricket on-field, the next phase had more of a commercial focus. It was hoped that aligning with the counties would help grow audiences, boost teams’ visibility and offer the women’s teams a sense of stability and inclusion, which would in turn attract sponsors to the counties themselves.”The regional model was launched in 2020 with a very clear remit to professionalise women’s cricket domestically on the field as quickly as possible and I think it’s done a brilliant job at that,” she said. “We are now up at around 88 professional female cricketers across those eight teams, over 100 coaching support staff, 102 fixtures this year and they’ve gone up year-on-year.”I spent a lot of time speaking with the players. I think there is an element at the moment with the way the women’s and men’s professional games are set up, they are slightly separate, and there is this sense of otherness around women’s teams. It will give us a better platform to commercialise the women’s game.”I also truly believe that it allows us to protect and enhance revenue streams for the first-class counties themselves. We’re increasingly seeing brands and commercial partners are no longer prepared just to invest in male-only sports properties. Being able to co-present men and women together is crucially important.”The existing regions – South East Stars, Thunder, Sunrisers, Central Sparks, Western Storm, The Blaze, Northern Diamonds and Southern Vipers – will remain for the 2024 season.There is an underlying sense that some of the teams for 2025 and beyond are foregone conclusions (South East Stars, which currently draws players from Surrey and Kent, is expected to become Surrey Stars, while Thunder are likely to become Lancashire Thunder), Richard Gould, the ECB chief executive, warned against counties assuming that would be the case.”We need to make sure that we use the right partners,” Gould said. “People that have got the best facilities, who will show the most love, have got the biggest fan base, are going to be at an advantage, but it’s going to be a mix between the financial and the feeling… who really is going to make their best efforts to try and drive this forward. So you may get a very large club that doesn’t treat the tender process as seriously as they think they should. Well, that will be a mistake.”Surrey chair Oli Slipper recently told members the club intended to bid for the Stars and was exploring opportunities to develop a second ground to address “space and pitch capacity limitations we have at The Kia Oval, particularly as the women’s game develops and its audiences grow”. Essex, who along with Middlesex are represented by the Sunrisers, have impressed during early talks on facilities.Meanwhile, Southern Vipers is a strong existing brand, based at Hampshire and built via the Kia Super League, which could mount a strong argument for retaining its identity. Barrett-Wild said team names would be decided on a case-by-case basis once the successful tenders were known.”We are looking at the three key objectives,” she said. “How are they going to deliver quality cricket? How are they going to grow their fan base? And how are they going to return on that investment from a commercial lens? But for me, actually, the bigger point – and this is the fourth, overarching point – is around show us your vision, show us your ambition, show us how much you care about this. What impact will this have on your organisation?”Because I think that depth of feeling and that sense of belonging, along with cash investment – clearly money matters, money is needed – but it’s that depth of feeling and that ambition, which is the bit that I’m most excited to see.”Southern Vipers are a successful brand•Getty Images

The ECB will invest a minimum of £1.3 million per year into each of the eight Tier 1 teams, a proportion of which will be ring-fenced for player salaries, sports science and medicine and talent pathways. There will be no mandated minimum financial commitment sought from the counties, who will be expected to outline their projected investment as part of the tender process.The deadline for submitting bids for Tier 1 teams is March 10. First-class counties not awarded Tier 1 status, plus all National Counties, will then be invited to take part in a process to determine the make-up of Tiers 2 and 3, which is expected to be finalised by September. Tier 2 is expected to comprise 10-14 teams and Tier 3 16-20 teams.Between the start of 2025 and end of 2028 those tiers will remain “closed” with no promotion or relegation. Counties awarded Tier 1 teams will also be expected to work with Tier 2 and 3 teams in their area to develop effective talent pathways.

Players due to also compete in some fixtures against Indian domestic sides

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Sep-2025When India take on Sri Lanka at the Women’s World Cup 2025 opener, the spotlight will not just be on the players on the field but also on some of those off it.A group of Afghanistan’s women’s cricketers, currently living in exile in Australia, will be in attendance at the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) Stadium in Guwahati in one of the first attempts to integrate them into the global game. The players do not represent Afghanistan as they are not recognised by the ACB but are playing in league structures in Australia. They will have no formal role at the game, where they will be received as spectators.”[BCCI secretary] Devajit Saikia knows exactly what details about this,” ACA President Taranga Gogoi told ESPNcricinfo. “He will guide us and we are awaiting more details. The Afghanistan players will be here tomorrow and we will make arrangements for that.”Related

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Details surrounding the Afghanistan players’ trip to the World Cup have been kept under wraps, with no official announcement from the ICC. However, in April this year, the ICC confirmed it would form a “dedicated task force” to support Afghanistan’s female cricketers which would include coaching and mentorship. Funding for this initiative would be provided by the ICC, and the three most moneyed cricket boards: the BCCI, ECB and CA but exact amounts were never revealed.The idea for Afghanistan’s exiled female cricketers to travel to the World Cup was firmed up at the ICC’s annual conference in July. At the time, a loose plan was put in place for the cricketers to attend a training camp in Bengaluru, which was due to host the opening match of the tournament, play against Indian domestic sides and then attend a handful of World Cup games. As things stand, the players are still due to compete in some fixtures but may not attend any matches other than the tournament opener, although no information has been confirmed.It is also understood that the lack of publicity around the Afghanistan women’s arrival in India is a result of the ICC adopting a cautious approach to any retaliation from the government of Afghanistan. Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, women have been increasingly excluded from public life, cannot attend university or secondary school and their voices cannot be heard in public. As such, the ACB is unable to ratify a women’s team, despite contracting 25 players in 2020.The majority of those players live in Australia but some are resident in the United Kingdom and Canada. Not all those living in Australia have made the trip to India as some faced visa challenges but most of them played in an exhibition match between an Afghanistan XI and Cricket without Borders in January.