All posts by csb10.top

Big picture: A mouth-watering knockout

After 72 matches and two gruelling months of play-travel-play, with a break in between, only three teams are left standing in IPL 2025: Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Mumbai Indians (MI). While RCB have already qualified for the final, MI will meet PBKS in another crunch game on Sunday to identify the other finalists.Five-time champions vs a team that is in quest for its first title. Hardik Pandya vs Shreyas Iyer. Jasprit Bumrah vs Arshdeep Singh. Suryakumar Yadav vs Josh Inglis. Trent Boult vs Kyle Jamieson. It promises to be a mouth-watering contest.Related

• Batting first 'to set the tone' PBKS' best chance vs 'red-hot' MI

• Chahal likely to play Qualifier 2, Chahar desperate to as well

• Why Bumrah's IPL 2025 could be the greatest IPL for a bowler

• How PBKS marched into their first IPL playoffs in 11 years

The two teams have had contrasting paths to Qualifier 2. Around mid-April, MI were second from bottom, with just a solitary win in five games. But they went on to do MI things to storm into the playoffs and knock out Gujarat Titans (GT) on Friday. As for PBKS, they were the form team in the league phase, topping the points table before they suffered a rude jolt in Qualifier 1 against RCB.The reward for finishing in the top two is another crack at the final. PBKS had earned that reward after beating MI in Jaipur earlier this week. Another win against MI on Sunday will guarantee a first-time IPL champion.It’s quite unusual for an IPL team to have four uncapped Indian batters in their top seven, but Ricky Ponting and Iyer have unlocked their potential, transforming PBKS into an explosive batting line-up that has posted 200 in seven of their 15 innings. While their style of play fell flat on a New Chandigarh surface that offered substantial seam movement and variable bounce, it could work on the truer pitches in Ahmedabad.In contrast, MI’s batting revolves around battle-hardened internationals, with just one uncapped player in their top seven. After Ryan Rickelton’s departure, Jonny Bairstow seamlessly slotted into the opening slot on his franchise debut, his salvo setting the base for a 200-plus total on Friday. Suryakumar and Hardik have been reeling off the big hits in the middle order, but it is Bumrah who continues to be their potent point of difference, turning 20-over innings into 16.In the Eliminator, MI were without Deepak Chahar (hamstring niggle) and were even hindered by dew, but nothing could stop Bumrah from yorking Washington Sundar with perhaps the ball of the tournament. Can PBKS find a way to stop him on Sunday?8:30

Aaron: ‘Ahmedabad surface will suit Punjab Kings more’

Form guide

Punjab Kings LWLWW
Mumbai Indians WLWLW

In the spotlight: Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya

In Qualifier 1, Shreyas Iyer tried to slog-pull a Josh Hazlewood delivery that was neither short nor full, and ended up nicking it behind. His dismissal precipitated PBKS’ slide in New Chandigarh, where he has managed only 27 runs in five innings this season. A potentially flatter pitch in Ahmedabad could suit his – and PBKS’ – attacking approach. Iyer has hit 31 sixes in 302 balls this season. Only Suryakumar (35), Mitchell Marsh (37) and Nicholas Pooran (40) have struck more.When he was captaining GT, Hardik Pandya was more of an anchor than a hitter, but this season as MI’s captain, he has been less of an anchor and more of a hitter, giving their innings the finishing kick. Between overs 17 and 20, he has clattered 109 off 53 balls at a strike rate of 205.66, the second highest among 16 batters who have faced at least 50 balls in this phase. Only Heinrich Klaasen is ahead of Hardik with a strike rate of 237.03.Both PBKS and MI have hitting depth, which has perhaps allowed Iyer and Hardik to bat with greater freedom this IPL.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Team news and likely XIIs: Chahal set to return

Yuzvendra Chahal, who missed PBKS’ last three games, including Qualifier 1, with a wrist injury, bowled on the eve of Qualifier 2 and looks set to return and strengthen the attack. If PBKS bat first, Chahal might come in as Impact Player in the second innings when they bowl.Punjab Kings (probable): 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Priyansh Arya, 3 Josh Inglis (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Nehal Wadhera, 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Azmatullah Omarzai, 9 Harpreet Brar/Vyshak Vijaykumar, 10 Kyle Jamieson, 11 Arshdeep Singh, 12 Yuzvendra ChahalChahar and Richard Gleeson are nursing hamstring issues, and it remains to be seen if they are fit for Qualifier 2. While Chahar missed the Eliminator, Gleeson left the field midway through the final over on Friday. He will have a short turnaround before Qualifier 2 on Sunday. If he doesn’t recover in time, his England compatriot Reece Topley is likely to replace him.Mumbai Indians (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 Naman Dhir, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Raj Bawa, 9 Richard Gleeson/Reece Topley, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Trent Boult, 12 Ashwani Kumar

The big question

Pitch and conditions

Sunday’s match will most likely be played on the red-soil pitch that hosted Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR). Six of the seven games in Ahmedabad have been won by teams batting first this season. There were spells of mild drizzle during PBKS’ training session on the eve of Qualifier 2.

Key stats

• Chahal has the wood over both Bairstow and Suryakumar in the IPL. The legspinner has dismissed Bairstow four times in six IPL innings while keeping him to 29 off 35 balls. Chahal has also limited Suryakumar to 83 off 71 balls while dismissing him three times in the IPL.
• Bumrah has dominated Marcus Stoinis in the IPL. The match-up reads: 28 runs, 36 balls, three wickets.
• Rohit Sharma has made four 50-plus scores in an IPL season for the first time since 2016.
• Iyer is one away from 50 wins as IPL captain.

Smriti Mandhana vs Lauren Bell. It’s a contest Bell, spearhead of England’s seam-bowling attack, couldn’t wait to get stuck into on the eve of the opening match of India’s tour, the first of five T20Is at Trent Bridge on Saturday.For Mandhana’s part, she is looking forward to reprising her opening partnership with Shafali Verma, who is making a comeback – in this format at least – having fallen out of favour after India’s group-stage exit at the T20 World Cup last October and lean ODI returns at home against New Zealand later that month.Mandhana stood in for an unwell Harmanpreet Kaur at India’s pre-match press conference on Friday but expected her captain to be fit to play the first match. She was full of praise for Shafali’s efforts to earn her recall through the domestic circuit and the WPL, where she was the fourth-highest run-scorer with 304 runs at a strike rate of 152.76.Related

• Sneh Rana's journey: She gets knocked down but she gets up again

• India's road to T20 World Cup 2026: what's right, what needs a look

• Powerplay: Beaumont talks India, T20I comeback and women's health

• The metamorphosis woman – third time could be a charm for Shafali

“She’s had an amazing year,” Smriti said of Shafali. “Once the setback had come, she went to domestic cricket, scored bucket-loads of runs and had an amazing WPL.”No one had any doubts about her talent, the way she had come into the Indian team and dominated. She is a world-class player and always will be, but for her to go back and do what she did in the last year was amazing to watch. She deserves this comeback and I’m really excited to open with her again.”Shafali was the leading run-scorer in the Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy (527 runs, 152.31 strike rate, 75.29 average) and the Senior Women’s One-Day Challenger Trophy (414 runs, 145.26 strike rate, 82.80 average) – as captain of Haryana.Shafali Verma was the fourth-highest run-scorer at WPL 2025•BCCI

Mandhana and Shafali are second on the list for most partnership runs as an opening pair in women’s T20Is with 2636 runs and a partnership run rate of 7.90.Bell was keen to catch up with Mandhana, her Southern Brave team-mate in the Hundred, albeit on opposing sides.”I’m looking forward to bowling at Smriti,” Bell said. “I’ve obviously played with her, we’ve had a few net battles at the Brave before, so that’ll be a good challenge, playing against her. It’s exciting to be up against some of the best players and that normally brings the best out when you’re playing against the best.”The last time I played India, it’s always been Smriti and Shafali opening the batting, so it’s a challenge we’ve had before and one that is really exciting. They’re both very talented and play differently, so I’m hoping it just brings the best out of us. As an England player, you really look forward to these series and thrive off the challenge and how good the opposition are.”Last summer, as England went unbeaten through their twin white-ball series against New Zealand, Bell was working on changes to her action, which is now more upright and allows her to swing the ball both ways. She is satisfied with where she’s at but by no means feels that she is the finished article.”In terms of that whole chapter, I’d say I’ve got into a really good place and I feel really, really happy,” Bell said. “But I don’t think you can ever say you’re complete as a bowler.0:56

Bell: ‘Looking forward to bowling at Mandhana’

“There’s always stuff that I want to get better, but the big shift and the big change, I’m feeling in a really good place… hopefully we’ve moved on.”Bell was the leading wicket-taker during the T20I leg of West Indies’ visit, which – like the ODI series – England swept 3-0, with seven wickets at an average of 9.72 and economy rate of 5.66.Her series-best figures of 3-28 in the second T20I at Hove were eclipsed by fellow seamer Em Arlott, with a Player-of-the-Match-winning 3 for 14 having made her international debut just two days earlier in encouraging signs as England prepare for a tougher test from India.”They’ll pose us a few more challenges,” Bell said. “We had people making debuts and some people playing different roles, so they can take a lot of confidence from that. It was a really good series to have first up in the summer.”Meanwhile, India have some new faces in their seam attack, handing maiden T20I call-ups to Kranti Goud and Sayali Satghare for a squad missing the experienced Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar.Mandhana said: “The WPL has been good in terms of finding new people and of course the domestic system as well, the amount of matches the girls play nowadays. All the girls have rich experience in the domestic format.”I’m really excited to see them. Young talent, whenever they come in, it’s always very exciting. Everyone’s been prepping well and what better place than England to come in as a pacer? Of course, they’ll take a lot of lessons out of it and I’m sure they’ll do the job for the team.”

South Africa’s regular white-ball captains Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma will return to lead the T20I and ODI squads, respectively, for next month’s tour of Australia. Markram was rested from South Africa’s Test and T20I series in Zimbabwe while Bavuma missed the Zimbabwe Tests with a hamstring injury he sustained at the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June. Both skippers will have relatively full-strength squads available to them.Notably, the squad was announced a week before Patrick Moroney, the new convenor of selectors, starts work on August 1, which means this was the last squad that all-format Shukri Conrad picked independently.”It’s great to have our senior players back in the mix after their rest following the WTC Final,” Conrad said in a statement. “Their experience and quality add real value to the group as we continue to build a strong core in both formats. Every series from here on plays a part in shaping our squads for next year’s T20 World Cup and the 50-over World Cup at home in 2027.”Of South Africa’s regulars, Marco Jansen and David Miller are the only two not named. Jansen is recovering from surgery to his left thumb from an issue picked up at the WTC final, while Miller will be playing in the Hundred. He is expected to return for South Africa’s white-ball tour of England in September.South Africa’s squads for Australia tour•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The rest of South Africa’s frontline attack, led by Kagiso Rabada in the seam department and Keshav Maharaj in the spin one, are all included. But Maharaj is not part of the T20I squad.Instead, left-arm spinners George Linde and Senuran Muthusamy, who are both currently in Zimbabwe, will play the T20Is alongside legspinner Nqaba Peter as South Africa assess their options for next year’s T20 World Cup. Tabraiz Shamsi, who opted out of a national contract last year, is not included in either squad. Conrad had indicated prior to the Zimbabwe series that he would speak to Shamsi to discuss his future.”Unfortunately, things got away from me, and I was never able to have that chat,” he said. “The spinners who have been selected have the inside track.”South Africa’s T20I playing group sees the return of Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs to the batting line-up, and the retention of Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Dewald Brevis, who are both in Zimbabwe. Lungi Ngidi, Nandre Burger, Corbin Bosch and Kwena Maphaka make up the seamers, but Gerald Coetzee is not included.Rassie van der Dussen was not included in the ODI squad for Australia•Zimbabwe Cricket

“There are only so many quicks you can put in your team in terms of balance,” Conrad said. “The players who have been selected are ahead of Gerald in the pecking order. In the 50-over squad, I wanted to try and get as many allrounders in the squad. You cannot ignore what Corbin Bosch has done. Gerald sits behind him.”The ODI squad’s batting line-up has the four named above as well Matthew Breetzke and Tony de Zorzi. Wiaan Mulder provides an all-round option in Jansen’s absence. While Rassie van der Dussen, who has South Africa’s second-highest ODI average, is not included in the ODI squad, Conrad also conceded that he is “very much in contention for the T20 World Cup”.”He gives you the option of batting at the top and at No. 3, and he is a great in a leadership role. With the 50-over [team], because I’ve got time before 2027, it gives me the opportunity to blood new players and see how they develop.”

T20I squad

Aiden Markram (capt), Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Nandre Burger, George Linde, Kwena Maphaka, Senuran Muthusamy, Lungi Ngidi, Nqaba Peter Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Prenelan Subrayen, Rassie van der Dussen

ODI squad

Temba Bavuma (capt), Corbin Bosch, Matthew Breetzke, Dewald Brevis, Nandre Burger, Tony de Zorzi, Aiden Markram, Senuran Muthusamy, Keshav Maharaj, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Prenelan Subrayen

Tea Joe Root’s 38th Test century took him up to second on the all-time Test run-scorer’s list. And in typical Root fashion, his 121 and counting has raised England to a dominant position in this fourth Test, leading India by 75 in the first innings at tea on day three.Upon moving to 31, Root snuck past Rahul Dravid (13,288) and Jacques Kallis (13,289), bumping the latter off the podium to join Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting. And, four minutes before the end of the second session, he walked down to open the face for a single down to third to move to 120, knocking Ponting (13,378) down a peg, who sung his praises on Sky as part of their commentary team upon being leapfrogged.Related

• Root surpasses Ponting to become the second-highest run-getter in Tests

Root did little more than raise a thumb to his skipper, Ben Stokes, with whom he has so far shared an 84-run stand. They had earlier embraced for his hundred after tickling his 178th delivery around the corner for his 12th boundary around, one which took him level with Kumar Sangakkara’s tally of 38, level fourth on the all-time centuries list. It is also his 12th century against India, the most of any player, now ahead of Steve Smith.

He had batted for most of the day with Ollie Pope, sharing in a stand of 144 which was ended seven balls after lunch. It was Pope first after the break, edging Washington Sundar to first slip. And Washington had his second four overs later when he hoodwinked an advancing Harry Brook on the outside edge to have him stumped.It was a passage out of kilter with an otherwise listless performance from India in the field. They missed a chance to remove Root on 22 with a botched attempt at a run out, and they were unlucky when Root, on 98, inadvertently diverted a ball just past his leg stump after it caught his thigh guard.Otherwise, their lack of energy, partly due to being run-ragged by England’s penchant for quick singles, was compounded when Jasprit Bumrah was only able to bowl one over with the second new ball before having to leave the field with an unknown injury. Mohammed Siraj, lionhearted throughout, limped off after the 99th over to leave Shubman Gill with big headache heading into the final session.

India legspinner Amit Mishra has announced his retirement from cricket at the age of 42. He played all forms of international cricket from 2003 to 2017 and finishes with 22 Tests, 36 ODIs and 10 T20Is. His last competitive fixture came for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL 2024.”I’ve played cricket for 25 years across three decades with legends like Sachin Tendulkar, under leaders like MS Dhoni, and with current stars like Rohit Sharma,” Mishra told PTI. “Now that I’m slowly stepping away, it’s emotional, of course. Cricket gave me everything – respect, identity, and purpose.”Not everyone gets a grand farewell or big press conference, and that’s okay. What matters to me is that I gave everything I had. I played with heart. I performed whenever I got the opportunity.”