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Pakistan only scored 80 in the back 10 despite being only one down at the halfway mark

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Sep-2025

Pakistan got to their highest T20I score while batting first against India, 171 for 5. If India win, it will be the highest successful chase of Asia Cup 2025. Yet, the total looked insufficient after the start Pakistan had. They scored just 80 runs in the back 10 despite being just one down at the halfway mark.There was a period of 39 legal deliveries without a boundary leading up to the death overs, which completely derailed what looked like a promising innings that could finally give the tournament a game to remember. It would have frustated Pakistan even more that they had got the better of India’s spin threat, hitting three sixes in the first three middle overs, but succumbed to the sixth bowler, Shivam Dube.Dube ended up with figures of 4-0-33-2, taking the wickets of the two set batters, Sahibzada Farhan and Saim Ayub, who put on 72 for the second wicket after the latter’s demotion to No. 3. Farhan, who reached 51 off just 34 balls, ended up with just 58 off 45. It was only Faheem Ashraf’s unbeaten 20 off 8 in the end that gave Pakistan respectability.Pakistan, the slowest side bar Oman and UAE in the middle overs during this Asia Cup, had looked set to correct those numbers, but Dube’s breakthrough and the quality of Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav proved to be too big a challenge. Varun went for just 25 in four overs, and Kuldeep returned figures of 4-0-31-1.

Stobo took 4 for 7 to leave Queensland 67 for 7 after Edwards made 95 in the home side’s big total

AAP and ESPNcricinfo staff06-Dec-2025

New South Wales were charging towards a desperately-needed Sheffield Shield win, dominating an under-strength Queensland at the SCG.Declaring on 471 for 7 midway through day two, the Blues, led by a spell of 4 for 7 from Charlie Stobo, tore through Queensland’s brittle batting line-up.At stumps on Saturday, Queensland had crashed to 67 for 7, still trailing NSW by 404. They crumbled from 43 for 2 to 58 for 6 as Stobo claimed all four wickets in that collapse.Related

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Sam Geyer was forced to retire hurt late in the day after being struck on the helmet twice in two balls as he ducked into bouncers.NSW captain Jack Edwards fell painfully short of his fourth first-class century, out for 95 to former Australia legspinner Mitch Swepson.In the field, Edwards took a stunning one-handed catch at second slip to remove Jack Clayton and another excellent one to claim Jimmy Peirson during Stobo’s inspired spell.Ryan Hicks was the only member of the NSW top seven not to register a fifty. Axed Australia opener Sam Konstas brought up a confidence-boosting century on Friday, his first for NSW since October 2024.Second-placed Queensland are missing key quicks Michael Neser, who is playing his third Test for Australia, and Xavier Bartlett who is on Australia A duties.They are also undermanned in the batting department, with star opener Matt Renshaw at Allan Border Field playing for Australia A, veteran Usman Khawaja injured, and Marnus Labuschagne having been recalled to the Test team.NSW entered the match fifth on the ladder, having won just one of their five Shield matches this season.It comes just a week after they suffered an embarrassing defeat to Tasmania at Cricket Central when they capitulated on the final day on a flat pitch.

Big picture: World Test Champions’ toughest test

The variety of conditions Test cricket offers is evident from how the format’s world champions, South Africa, have not been able to even compete in their previous seven Tests in India, the country of their next challenge. They lost six of those Tests comprehensively, and were on their way in the seventh but for the rain.Even within India, South Africa have struggled in a variety of conditions. In 2015-16, they were outdone by a young side for whom the team management considered raging turners a necessity. Then, in 2019-20, against an established home team, South Africa were blanked by huge margins on good batting surfaces that had nothing for the home spinners, who averaged 27.18 compared to their fast bowlers’ 17.50.The world champions make this trip in 2025-26 not with any significant new faces in their attack but with more experience, and thus more equipped to compete during what has to be South Africa’s toughest tour. Keshav Maharaj was their lead spinner on the previous tour too. Simon Harmer toured in 2015-16. Senuran Muthusamy played two Tests in 2019-20. Kagiso Rabada remains the banker fast bowler.Related

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South Africa will also hope that India, who suffered a shock loss against New Zealand last year and are still a team in transition, still haven’t nailed the method to win home Tests. They blanked West Indies earlier this season, but they weren’t entirely invulnerable.Still, South Africa will need nearly everything to go their way to win a Test on this tour, just like it did for New Zealand last year. While India are currently third on the WTC points table, having drawn 2-2 in England and beaten West Indies 2-0, South Africa have only just begun their title defence with a 1-1 draw in Pakistan last month.

Form guide

India: WWWDL
South Africa: WLWWWShubman Gill has been hopping formats frequently since September•AFP/Getty Images

In the spotlight: Keshav Maharaj and Shubman Gill

Keshav Maharaj comes to India with experience of 60 Tests; he’s second only to Ravindra Jadeja among left-arm spinners in Test cricket. With India unlikely to offer square turners or assistance for traditional seam bowling, Maharaj will have to bear a heavy workload, and provide wickets and control.Starting September, India’s newest all-format star Shubman Gill has had no break. He got three days, including the travel day, between the T20 Asia Cup in the UAE and the first Test against West Indies in India. Then just four days to travel to Australia and switch to ODIs before going back to playing T20Is in three days. After that, a five-day break, which included travel from eastern Australia to eastern India to captain the team in an important series. Gill is young and fit, and must be itching to play as much as he can, but keep an eye on how well he readjusts to the longest format.

Team news: Jurel and Pant both set to play

Against West Indies, India got away with playing practically a ten-man side. Given India’s need for a seam-bowling allrounder, Nitish Kumar Reddy was understandably given games to develop his skills, but he hardly had a role to play in the series. Now, with their No. 1 Test wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant fit again, India have decided to keep Dhruv Jurel in the XI as a specialist batter and release Reddy to the India A side. The rest of the team should remain unchanged.India (probable): 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 B Sai Sudharsan, 4 Shubman Gill (capt), 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Dhruv Jurel, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed SirajTemba Bavuma should replace Dewald Brevis in South Africa’s XI•Associated Press

South Africa should look to replicate the combination that won their previous Test, against Pakistan in Rawalpindi. The batting ability of their first-choice attack gives them depth without compromising the bowling. Marco Jansen should pip Wiaan Mulder to the XI because there’s unlikely to be assistance for traditional seam bowling. The returning captain Temba Bavuma should take Dewald Brevis’ spot.South Africa (probable): 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Ryan Rickelton, 3 Tristan Stubbs, 4 Tony de Zorzi, 5 Temba Bavuma (capt), 6 Kyle Verreynne (wk), 7 Senuran Muthusamy, 8 Simon Harmer, 9 Marco Jansen, 10 Keshav Maharaj, 11 Kagiso Rabada

Pitch and conditions

Early indications suggest a good batting track at Eden Gardens, which could possibly bring reverse swing into the picture. There will be little grass on the pitch but it is not expected to be excessively dry or cracked either. A potentially tough task awaits the side that loses the toss.

Stats and trivia

• Gill has won only one toss in seven Tests as captain. South Africa have not won the toss in their previous seven Tests in India. One of these unlucky runs will end on Friday.
• Kyle Verreynne is five short of becoming only the fifth South Africa wicketkeeper to reach 100 Test dismissals.
• Jadeja is just ten runs short of becoming only the fourth player in the world to achieve the double of 300 wickets and 4000 runs in Tests.

Sri Lanka put in a spirited display, but couldn’t stop England from going top of the table

Madushka Balasuriya11-Oct-2025
Nat Sciver-Brunt’s 10th WODI hundred and a four-wicket haul from Sophie Ecclestone helped England brush past a spirited if flawed Sri Lankan side in Colombo completing a dominant 89-run win, as they made it three wins in three at the World Cup – and with it go top of the group. It was Sri Lanka’s second defeat in as many games, though they have a point on board courtesy their washed out game against Australia.Here, Sri Lanka were up against it with just 17 runs on the board when Chamari Athapaththu was stretchered off the ground after she pulled up with what looked like hamstring strain in the sixth over of the chase. It was later revealed to be nothing more than cramps impacting her right calf, allowing her to bat later in the innings, but at that point Sri Lanka might have been fearing the worst.As it transpired the rest of Sri Lanka’s top order responded admirably. Vishmi Gunaratne struck consecutive boundaries off Lauren Bell to kickstart the chase, but before she could do any real damage she was done in by a ripper from Charlie Dean, turning sharply through bat and pad.This brought Harshitha Samarawickrama to join Hasini Perera in the middle, and the pair set about stitching together Sri Lanka’s best partnership of the innings – 58 off 66. During this period, you wouldn’t have blamed the boisterous crowd, one filled with several young fans, from entertaining thoughts of a famous victory.Sri Lanka had moved to 89 for 1 after 18 overs by the time Ecclestone – the number one ranked bowler in WODIs – was brought into the attack, but it wasn’t until her second over that she would begin to tighten her stranglehold on the game.The first to go was Perera, who chipped one to straight to mid-on. That over would be a wicket maiden – one of three maidens she would bowl – as Ecclestone proceeded to almost singlehandedly end Sri Lanka’s chase.Sophie Ecclestone derailed Sri Lanka’s chase•ICC/Getty ImagesSuch was her impact she ended up bowling her entire 10 overs in a single spell, during the course of which she picked up the wickets of pretty much the entire Sri Lankan top order.Samarawickrama was the next to fall, top edging a sweep off Ecclestone to short fine. Kavisha Dilhari then missed an arm ball, before arrived the coup de grace – one that dipped and turned, luring the recovered Athapaththu into a drive, before turning it viciously through bat and pad to crash into the stumps.That last wicket silenced the crowd for good, and the remaining wickets fell with little fuss – even Sciver-Brunt was able to get in on the action, rounding out her day with the wickets of Anushka Sanjeewani and Dewmi Vihanga. Sri Lanka eventually folded for 164.It was the proverbial icing on the cake for Sciver-Brunt who had earlier been on a one-woman mission to help her side overcome a tough pitch and Sri Lanka’s army of spinners.England were helped by a host of misfields littered throughout their innings, though perhaps the defining moment occurred in the 14th over.Sciver-Brunt was on three at the time, when she whipped one from Inoka Ranaweera hard and straight to Udeshika Prabodhani at midwicket, who just couldn’t hold on. It was the only drop of the innings, but ended up costing Sri Lanka north of 100 runs.England had started strong, going at around five an over in the opening powerplay, thanks to Tammy Beaumont’s 32 off 29, but an ill-advised single saw the back of Amy Jones before Beaumont herself sliced one high to point.From that point on though Sciver-Brunt was the common denominator as England strung together a spate of partnerships through the middle overs.Nat Sciver-Brunt gave the England innings momentum•Getty ImagesThe highest was 60 from 73 between Sciver-Brunt and Heather Knight, a stand that had threatened to take the game away from Sri Lanka as the pair worked the field expertly, utilising deft sweeps and dabs, allied with calculated risks over the infield.The partnership was broken against the run of play as Knight gloved a reverse-sweep to slip. It was given not out on the field, but keeper Sanjeewani petitioned heavily for the review to be taken – and it was eventually, with just two seconds on the clock.That wasn’t Sanjeewani’s only intervention, as she also effected two sharp stumpings and helped complete a run out, in what was a consummate day out.Like against India, Ranaweera once more shifted the momentum of the innings, this time through a jarring intervention in the 35th over. Emma Lamb was first bowled around her legs, before a sharp bit of glove work from Sanjeewani saw Alice Capsey short of her crease after she had been deceived in the flight.Suddenly from 141 for 3 in the 31st over, England found themselves 168 for 6 a little over three overs later.Prior to this England had been eyeing up a total in excess of 270 but just as they had been looking to accelerate, they had to hold back. It meant that between the 40th and 48th over just two boundaries were struck, as England and Sciver-Brunt prioritised inching the total up to decent territory, if not imposing.The first real show of intent at the death came in the penultimate over, when Sciver-Brunt struck a sumptuous inside-out six over extra cover – to bring up her century – and followed it up with another loft down the ground.The final two overs brought more runs, as England struck 28 runs in that patch to boost their total past the 250-mark, and in the end it proved to be more than enough.

Should Hong Kong chase the target down, it would be their highest successful T20I chase

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Sep-2025Sediqullah Atal and Azmatullah Omarzai struck half-centuries each to carry Afghanistan to 188 for 6 in the opening match of the men’s T20 Asia Cup. Hong Kong had their moments, their spinners in particular harnessing slow conditions well enough to frustrate their more pedigreed opponents. But the gulf in class eventually showed as Yasin Murtaza’s side dropped catches and committed misfields to hurt their own chances.Sediqullah has brought up each of this three T20I fifties in his last four innings, and as well as he looked out in the middle, standing tall at the crease and largely coping with the lack of pace, he benefited from three missed chances. A man who could’ve been dismissed in the very first over in the end batted through to finish on 73 off 52.Murtaza was involved in all three lives Sediqullah got – twice dropping the catch himself and once having to watch it go down off his own bowling. He did the best he could to make up for it, the three Hong Kong spinners giving the ball such little pace but so much air that this game looked straight out of the 90s. As such, the more modern day T20 batter wasn’t able to adjust. Murtaza, Ehsan Khan and Kinchit Shah picked up 3 for 75 in 11 overs.However, the arrival of pace in the 17th over changed the game with Atal and Omarzai targeting Ayush Shukla. Afghanistan scored 69 runs in the last four overs with Omarzai raising his first T20I half-century. From the simple clear-the-front-leg slog to the cheeky ramp past the keeper, the Afghanistan allrounder has shown impressive range on a difficult batting pitch and finished with a strike rate of 252.38.Should Hong Kong chase the target down, it would be their highest successful T20I chase.

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