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A whirlwind century from hometown hero Travis Head blew India’s attack away and thrilled the Adelaide crowd on day two of the pink-ball Test. Head’s 140 off 141 balls swelled Australia’s first-innings lead to 157, leaving India facing a challenging final two hours under the floodlights. The visitors fell further behind when they lost half their side during that period when the pink ball was at its most potent. At stumps, India were 128 for 5, still 29 runs behind.Head had walked out to generous applause from his home crowd and into a bit of trouble in the middle after Jasprit Bumrah had taken out both Nathan McSweeney and Steven Smith in a space of 13 balls. While McSweeney nicked a Bumrah special behind to Rishabh Pant, after managing to add just one to his overnight tally of 38, Steven Smith was caught down the leg side for 2.After the floodlights had blacked out twice on the opening day, Australia’s batting threatened to black out on the second afternoon. Head, however, had other ideas and torched the innings with his no-holds-barred approach. He played and missed four of his first nine balls, but that certainly didn’t stop him from playing his shots. He stayed true to his method of staying leg-side of the ball and cracking it away into the shorter pockets of the ground square on the off side.He also cleared the longer straight boundary when he crashed R Ashwin over mid-off and then over his head for sixes, including a 110-metre monster hit over the sightscreen.Head scored his first fifty off 63 balls and took only 48 more balls to convert it into a hundred. He celebrated the landmark by rocking his bat like a baby in tribute to his family’s new arrival, with his wife and newborn among a 51,642-strong home crowd. A hug from fellow South Australian Alex Carey was also part of the revelry.Indian fans would be sick of the sight of Head by now. Since 2023, he has hit 1052 runs in 19 innings against India across formats at an average of 61.9 with three centuries, including tons in the previous cycle of the WTC final and 2023 ODI World Cup final.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Head had set to work on Saturday by adding 65 with Marnus Labuschagne and then 74 with Carey. Labuschagne’s innings was as fluent as Head’s but it was one that he needed to work his way back into form after having managed just 123 runs in his last ten Test innings, of which 90 came in one knock against New Zealand, before the Adelaide Test. Having been afforded some fairly comfortable leaves on the first evening, India’s seamers made Labuschagne play a lot more on the second afternoon. Whenever they erred too straight or into his pads, Labuschagne picked them away with compact drives and flicks.Labuschagne got to his fifty off 114 balls and celebrated it by taking the erratic Harshit Rana for three fours in four balls. After having late-cut the taller, quicker Rana with ease, Labuschagne was caught at gully when he tried a similar shot off the shorter, slower pace of Nitish Kumar Reddy.Head was more brutal on Rana, hitting him for 41 off 29 balls. It didn’t really matter what came down at Head. Short. Full. On the stumps. Outside off stump. Everything was dispatched.Mohammed Siraj, though, gave India some control and backed Bumrah up. He picked up his first wicket in the game when he extracted extra bounce and coaxed an outside edge from Carey.R Ashwin’s only wicket was Mitchell Marsh but that was down to some good fortune. After shaping to defend a non-turning offbreak from Ashwin, Marsh walked off even before umpire Richard Illingworth raised his finger and didn’t even contemplate a review. There was nothing on Snicko, with replays also indicating that the ball had missed the outside edge.Head attacked the second new ball as well, whipping Bumrah for a brace of fours. He then picked Siraj up for an imperious six over square leg in the next over, but Siraj struck back the next ball to york Head. Siraj released his pent-up emotions and gave Head a send-off that didn’t go too well with him or his beloved Adelaide crowd.The boos rang out but Siraj proceeded to dismiss Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland soon after tea to wrap up Australia for 337. Bumrah, who had gone down with some discomfort, which prompted medical attention, four balls into his spell with the second new ball, recovered to knock Cummins over.Related

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• Travis Head and India's bowlers – the one-sided love story continues

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Cummins then took centerstage with the ball and cramped KL Rahul with a lifter for 7 off 10 balls. Just before stumps, he hit the top of Rohit Sharma’s off stump with an absolute peach.Rohit had a shaky stay, having been struck on the helmet by his first ball from Starc. He was then bowled next ball, but a no-ball reprieved him. Cummins did Rohit in just before the close of play, with no error in the placing of his heel.It was Boland who had prised out Virat Kohli by pushing a length ball on a fourth-stump line and drawing an outside edge from him. Boland had earlier struck with his first ball to dislodge Yashasvi Jaiswal for 24 off 31 balls. He has seamlessly slotted into the bowling attack and could pose an interesting selection question for the Brisbane Test though Josh Hazlewood is hopeful of returning to action for that fixture.Starc not striking with the pink new ball in his first spell might be an aberration, but he came back with the older one to storm through the defences of Gill with a hooping inswinger that also seamed in late.Pant, however, continued to do Pant things. Despite the rush of wickets, he charged out of the crease and manufactured swinging room to smash his first ball over mid-off for four. He then unfurled the reverse pull and the falling scoop to counter Australia’s quicks briefly. He remained unbeaten on 28 off 25 balls.India will need more of this from Pant – and more support from Reddy – if they are to somehow pull off another heist in Australia.

Besides from picking up Anthony Elanga for a whopping £55m, Newcastle United has been quiet with incoming signings this summer transfer window so far.

Unfortunately, multiple advances, away from securing the ex-Manchester United winger’s services, have fallen to the wayside, with James Trafford looking more likely to move to Manchester City now over relocating to Tyneside, alongside long-term Magpies target Hugo Ekitike also favouring Liverpool over St James’ Park.

Thankfully, time is still on the Toon’s side as the early September deadline is a month and a bit away, with Newcastle now wanting to press on with securing some other new additions, away from cursing any failed captures.

Newcastle send scouts to watch £34m star

Clearly, the Magpies want to add another exciting striker to their ranks this summer – even if Alexander Isak does remain put – as the likes of Benjamin Sesko and Yoane Wissa appear on Eddie Howe’s ambitious shopping list.

Reports do suggest that Sesko would cost an extortionate £78m to obtain, on top of Wissa being valued around the £40m mark, with far cheaper targets on Newcastle’s radar when trying to bolster their personnel defensively.

Indeed, as per a development from NUFC Blog, Newcastle are now interested in a £34m deal to bring Inter Milan centre-back Yann Bisseck to England, having even sent scouts out to Italy to watch him in action.

The report also states that further Premier League interest has come Bisseck’s way from Aston Villa, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur, but the Magpies will hope they can land the 6-foot-5 titan’s signature at the expense of their rivals, as they bid to replicate their Sandro Tonali magic with another gem from Italy.

How Bisseck can be a Tonali repeat

Much like Bisseck has managed at the San Siro, Tonali would rise from being a promising starlet at Inter’s foes in AC Milan to becoming a dependable first teamer worthy of a pricey move to English shores.

Tonali would tally up a promising seven goals and 13 assists on the books of the Rossoneri before St James’ Park came calling, and the battling 25-year-old has never looked back since, with the Toon number eight only missing two Premier League clashes all of last season as one of Howe’s first, concrete names on the teamsheet.

Four goals and two assists would also come Tonali’s way across those 36 top-flight outings, with this wonderfully struck effort the pick of the bunch from the efforts that were cannoned home.

Bisseck will pray that if a move to Newcastle gets off the ground, he can make similar strides and become a key first-teamer under Howe’s wing, with his numbers in the Serie A this season just gone pointing in the direction that he could soon make these dreams a reality.

Games played

27

Goals scored

3

Assists

2

Touches*

55.4

Accurate passes*

43.0 (92%)

Ball recoveries*

2.4

Clearances*

2.3

Total duels won*

2.9

Clean sheets

3

Looking at the table above, there is plenty to be encouraged by if Newcastle were to land the £34m titan, with Bisseck putting his towering 6-foot-5 frame to effective use when chipping in with three goals last season in Serie A action, on top of also being assured with the ball at his feet as an imposing presence with 43 accurate passes averaged per league game.

He does have room to improve, too, but he has also shown flashes of his “commanding” excellence – as he was once labelled by football analyst Ben Mattinson – in the Champions League with eight duels won in total across two legs versus Barcelona last season, whilst also silencing Man City menace Erling Haaland in a 0-0 stalemate versus the Citizens during a group stage affair.

Newcastle will be competing on Europe’s grandest stage again next campaign, meaning Bisseck might well be just the buy to pursue to improve Howe’s options as the fixture list grows in size, with a golden Tonali-like repeat hopefully in the offing.

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2 ByTom Cunningham Jul 19, 2025

T20s will feature at the Olympics’ next edition, which will be in Los Angeles in 2028

PTI11-Aug-2024

Ricky Ponting: “I’m really excited about where the game’s headed”•Getty Images

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels that cricket’s return to the Olympics in Los Angeles in four years’ time [LA28] will be beneficial to the game.”It can only be a positive thing for our game. I’ve sat on various committees over the last 15 or 20 years, and it’s always been on the top of almost every agenda – how do we get the game back into the Olympics? And finally, it’s there,” Ponting said on . “It’s only four years away. I think it also gives cricket a chance to break into the grassroots level in the US.”Cricket is returning to the Games after 128 years, with the only time it featured previously being in 1900, with two teams – Great Britain and France – participating, and the former winning gold.”The thing about the Olympic Games, it’s not [about] the host nation. It’s about the audience that it opens up,” Ponting said. “The Olympic Games being viewed by so many people all around the world, it just opens up completely different audiences to our game that’s seemingly growing on a daily basis anyway. It can only be a real positive thing for the game.”Ponting said infrastructure and qualification pathways would still need to be appropriately figured out but, with its inclusion, the game is moving in the right direction overall. “Facilities and infrastructure and those things are going to be key, and how many [participating] teams they actually decide on. I think it’s only six or seven teams that they’re talking about, so qualification is going to be at a premium – how you actually qualify to get into the Olympic Games.”So all those are things to think about, [but] I’m really excited about where the game’s headed and the growth of different markets that we’re seeing emerge.”Cricket at LA28 will be played in the T20 format, with both men’s and women’s teams set to feature.The game had been in the spotlight in the USA earlier this year too, when the country co-hosted the men’s T20 World Cup with the West Indies.

Having already welcomed Carlton Morris from Luton Town, Derby County are now reportedly in talks to sign an experienced winger at a bargain price this summer.

Derby sign Carlton Morris

Leaving relegated Luton in favour of a move to Pride Park, Morris became the first signing of the summer at Derby earlier this week and will be hoping to ensure that they, unlike The Hatters, push beyond the Championship’s dropzone next season. At 29 years old, he’s now a player with plenty of experience and his versatility to play all across the frontline could prove pivotal for John Eustace.

After putting pen to paper, Morris told Derby’s official website: “It’s a massive club that I’ve heard a lot of good things about. When they came in for me, it was a bit of a no-brainer, really.

“[The move is] a big change, especially with my family. You want to know about the football club, about the area, and I’ve heard nothing but good. I’ve heard it’s a great family club, so I’m excited to get going.

“I think I’m entering the prime stage of my career as a striker now. I spoke to Rob Edwards, who has told me how good Keith Downing is and that Matt Gardiner is exceptional to work with as well.

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“They’re only going to make me a better player which is crucial as I’m at a place where I’m probably the most coachable I’ve been in my career and ready to kick on.”

In their second season back in the Championship, Derby are seemingly ready to welcome more experience after Morris this summer and that includes one particular winger. As Eustace’s side aim to push on, they’ve reportedly opened talks in pursuit of a bargain deal.

Derby open talks to sign John Swift

As reported by Birmingham World, Derby are now in talks to sign John Swift alongside three other EFL clubs. The former West Bromwich Albion winger is now a free agent after leaving the Hawthorns and is believed to have already met with two managers regarding his future, one of them being Eustace.

Whilst he endured a mixed spell for the Baggies, Swift’s experience may prove invaluable for a side in Derby’s position. Meanwhile, at his best, Swift is someone who has often found himself at the centre of impressive praise.

That includes from former West Brom manager Tony Mowbray last season, who told reporters after Swift scored a free-kick against Burnley last season: “John Swift’s free-kick was a fantastic goal. He’s a wonderful player and he’s very talented. Certain games need certain types of players to give us the best chance to win.”

With three other EFL sides interested, there’s no doubt that signing Swift would represent an impressive coup for Derby, who have already made a statement by signing Luton’s Morris this summer.

It is practically indisputable that Arsenal are in the market for a new striker this summer, and Mikel Arteta’s side have now been handed the chance to get one over on arch rivals Tottenham by signing a key target of Thomas Frank’s side.

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New sporting director Andrea Berta is currently busy attempting to negotiate agreeable terms on a deal for RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko, but find themselves some way off the Bundesliga side’s asking price of around £68-85 million, according to Sky Germany’s (Florian Plettenberg).

19/20 – winter

£0

20/21 – summer

£81.5m

20/21 – winter

£900k

21/22 – summer

£156.8m

21/22 – winter

£1.8m

22/23 – summer

£121.5m

22/23 – winter

£59m

23/24 – summer

£208m

23/24 – winter

£0

24/25 – summer

£101.5m

24/25 – winter

£0

Arsenal negotiations for Sesko have been ongoing since late May, but if a deal cannot be struck for the Slovenia international, Berta does have other reported striker targets on his shortlist.

Arsenal have also worked on a deal for Sporting CP’s Viktor Gyokeres, who is currently keen on a move to north London and open to joining other high-profile Premier League suitors like Man United.

“Viktor Gyökeres prefers a move to the Premier League, and would welcome an Arsenal bid,” reported Ben Jacobs on X recently.

“Arsenal still deciding between Benjamin Sesko and Gyökeres. Andrea Berta simultaneously advancing both deals. Gyökeres would be open to Manchester United. There has been no formal rejection, but a deal to date has also never been at an advanced stage, despite suggestions.

“United have not made any formal approach to Sporting. Swedish striker one of several striker options discussed. Gyökeres believes he’ll still be allowed to leave Sporting for €70m. Arsenal have always been one to watch, but it will depend on Berta now because he is also in ongoing talks for Sesko at the same time, with a bid for one of the two targets expected soon.”

Either centre-forward would be an upgrade on Arteta’s current options. Sesko is fresh off a career-best Bundesliga campaign at Leipzig, while Gyokeres has just guided Sporting to their first domestic double in 20 years after scoring 54 goals in all competitions.

However, Arsenal now also have a new left-field option.

Arsenal offered Dynamo Kyiv striker Vladyslav Vanat

According to website Just Arsenal, Dynamo Kyiv striker Vladyslav Vanat has been put forward to Arteta’s side.

Vanat scored 21 goals in all competitions last season, helping Kyiv to lift the Ukranian Premier League title whilst ending the season unbeaten. He also finished 2024/2025 as the division’s top scorer with 17, and this has attracted some attention from England.

It is now believed that Arsenal have been offered the chance to sign Vanat, who has a reported £17 million release clause in his contract. Arteta doesn’t view the 23-year-old’s signing as an urgent need right now, but is fully aware of Vanat’s quality, so it’s apparently a situation they could revisit later in the window.

However, if they do decide they want him, Arsenal will need to be wary of rival interest. Manchester United, Leeds United, Everton, and Tottenham are all keen on Vanat, with the latter even viewing him as a “priority signing” for new manager Frank.

While the dream for many Arsenal fans this summer will be to see Alexander Isak arrive in a big-money deal, the fact of the matter is that he feels pretty untouchable.

A reported £150m asking price has been slapped on his head and despite Mikel Arteta’s need to strengthen in attack, it’s unlikely you’ll see the Gunners fork out that amount of money, particularly considering they need fresh faces in other areas of the pitch too.

It perhaps explains why they’re currently working on a deal to sign Viktor Gyokeres, then. Reports in recent days suggest that they are in talks and an agreement may well be close.

But, if that move doesn’t come to fruition, attention could be turned to Benjamin Sesko and one other alternative.

Arsenal could sign £59m Sesko upgrade

Last summer, it looked as though Arsenal were going to sign Slovenian centre-forward, Sesko.

The striker had a release clause at RB Leipzig and despite interest from the north Londoners, he penned a new contract in Germany and decided to stay another year.

Well, a year on, Arsenal are still interested in the 21-year-old, with The Athletic’s David Ornstein noting earlier in the week that they have done a lot of work to potentially sign the player.

The player still has a release clause with certain conditions, meaning it could see Arsenal pay in the region of £67m.

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If they are seeking a cheaper alternative, then they need to look no further than Borussia Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy.

England’s elite clubs have all been presented with the opportunity to sign the striker this summer as according to German publication, BILD, the player has a release clause of £59m, which can only be triggered by a certain set of teams.

Those clubs are Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Barcelona.

It’s a strange situation but due to the nature of the release clause, if any of the sides above submitted a bid of £59m, Dortmund would have no choice but to accept.

How Guirassy compares to Sesko

Sesko, described as “the new Haaland” by talent scout Jacek Kulig is clearly one of the most promising and exciting young strikers in the game right now.

In the Bundesliga, he’s scored 13 goals in 33 matches and registered a further eight across other competitions. It’s a solid tally considering his age, but Arsenal want to win now. Thus, signing Guirassy for a cheaper fee may well be the answer.

After all, when it comes to finding the net, he’s certainly more prolific. Aptly described as a “goal monster” by journalist Michael Adjei, also playing in Germany’s top-flight, Guirassy scored 21 in 30 league outings this season.

In all competitions, the 29-year-old has found the net on 34 occasions in 45 fixtures. While he was a menace domestically, it was in the Champions League where he racked up some astonishing numbers.

Guirassy most notably scored a hat-trick in the quarter-finals against Barcelona, which were three of 13 goals he scored in 14 European ties this season. He’s a man for the big occasion and being in his prime, he’s ready to help Arsenal now. Unlike Sesko, he’s not a project striker.

So, where else does he beat the Slovenian? We’ve crunched the numbers.

Guirassy vs Sesko in 2024/25 (league only)

Metric (per 90 mins)

Guirassy

Sesko

Goals

0.73

0.49

Assists

0.14

0.19

Shots

2.98

2.50

Pass success %

73%

68%

Key passes

0.87

0.72

Progressive passes

1.52

1.74

Successful take-ons

0.38

1.48

Aerial duels won

3.77

2.65

Stats via FBRef.

Analysing certain metrics, it’s no surprise to see that Guirassy is more dangerous in front of the goal considering he takes more shots. He’s also involved in the build-up play, registering more key passes every 90 minutes.

Sesko is certainly the more progressive and quicker of the two, certainly judging by the number of take-ons he achieves, but what’s crucial for the way Arteta uses his centre-forwards is that Guirassy trumps the Leipzig sensation for aerial duels won.

We’ve got two different profiles here, but at the end of the day, goals win you games of football and that’s what the Gunners have missed most this season.

The Dortmund star may well be 29 but he’s in his prime, he’s in the form of his life, and for £59m, you won’t find many better options.

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Posts ByJack Salveson Holmes May 16, 2025

The next seven matches of Ipswich Town’s voyage this season in the Premier League rest on attempting to restore some pride, with survival looking a very distant possibility at this moment in time.

12 points is now the sizeable gap between Wolverhampton Wanderers sat in 17th spot and the Tractor Boys stuck in that last relegation spot in the division in 18th, meaning upcoming games against the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle United this April are somewhat free hits.

If the Suffolk underdogs stand any chance at picking up a shock result at Stamford Bridge later today, they will need Liam Delap to be firing on all cylinders, with the ex-Manchester City man also eager to keep up his rich vein of goalscoring form before a likely summer departure.

Delap's goalscoring heroics this season

Even as Ipswich sink closer and closer to the relegation drop, Delap continues to be a blistering goal machine.

Indeed, Delap would initially gift his side the lead against Wolves before Vitor Pereira’s men mounted a comeback, with the 22-year-old also on the scoresheet the match before when Kieran McKenna’s side surprised AFC Bournemouth on their own patch.

These two strikes in quick succession have bumped up the clinical number 19’s goal count in the Premier League to a high 12, with one of those goals even coming about in the reverse fixture when Delap and Co unsettled Enzo Maresca’s visitors in a 2-1 victory.

Even if Delap is at his free-flowing best, Ipswich will know a staunch defensive effort will still be necessary to secure a surprise result in West London, with this defender – who has now become as undroppable as the £30m striker – also needing to be at his imposing peak.

The Ipswich "warrior" now as undroppable as Delap

It has been a deeply frustrating campaign at Portman Road, with terrific attacking displays often let down by porous defensive offerings, seen in Ipswich conceding a steep 65 goals across their 31 games to date.

But, there have been some standout performers at the back regardless of error-strewn performances regularly seeping into their game defensively, with Dara O’Shea one figure that’s managed to cement himself as a first-team regular.

O’Shea’s PL performances in April

Stat

Bournemouth

Wolves

Minutes played

90

90

Goals scored

0

0

Assists

0

1

Touches

54

71

Accurate passes

17/28 (61%)

41/51 (80%)

Clearances

14

10

Blocked shots

5

2

Interceptions

1

1

Tackles

1

1

Total duels won

5/6

7/12

Stats by Sofascore

Looking at the table above, O’Shea has managed to show off his well-rounded game as a defender versus Andoni Iraola’s Cherries and the Old Gold, with the Irishman putting in a far more back-to-basics display on the South Coast when tallying up 14 clearances in the slim away win.

Only losing out on one of his duels from six attempted too, the ex-West Bromwich Albion colossus definitely lived up to his previous “warrior” billing from one of his former managers in Valerien Ismael.

But, he also showed off his composed game against Pereira’s side when assisting the only goal of the afternoon, with his concrete presence in McKenna’s starting XI only growing stronger off the back of these standout showings, even as relegation looms large.

Not missing a single minute of Premier League action that has been available to him this year, the 6 foot 1 powerhouse also has bags of Championship experience under his belt with 70 career games at the level managed, meaning his minutes won’t deplete whatsoever when second-tier football likely returns to Portman Road.

Before that eventuality beckons, however, Ipswich will want to add as many points to their low top-flight tally as they can, starting potentially with a bolt from the blue result at Stamford Bridge.

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Posts ByCharlie Smith Apr 8, 2025

On day three of the Galle Test, Herath, New Zealand’s bowling consultant, hatched a plan with Ajaz Patel to get rid of his former team-mate

Andrew Fidel Fernando20-Sep-2024Dimuth Karunaratne is one of cricket’s great nerds. He is also the one of the great openers of his era, and among the most prolific Test batters Sri Lanka has had.Rangana Herath is a massive cricket nerd as well, if in a slightly different way than Karunaratne. He is the most prolific left-arm bowler in Test cricket’s history.The two have played 47 Tests together. Herath has even captained Karunaratne in five of them. And on day three of the ongoing Galle Test, Herath, a bowling consultant for New Zealand, helped bring about Karunaratne’s downfall. This, at least, is the charge that Karunaratne is levelling (playfully) at his former team-mate.Let’s look at some facts.The background
Karunaratne is an outstanding player of spin bowling, and is quite fond of batting in Galle. Of his 7092 Test runs, more than 27% have come at this venue. Partly this is a function of Sri Lanka playing a lot of matches here – 21% of Karunaratne’s innings have been in Galle.Related

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Although he is a reluctant sweeper and reverse-sweeper, he has both of these shots in his repertoire. Against spin, he whips through the legside frequently, and goes back to chop it between point and cover just as often.”I love it when it turns here,” Karunaratne said about one of the most reliably spin-friendly venues on the planet. “With the way I play, and the options I take, it’s much easier for me when it turns.”Herath, meanwhile, is a spectacular reader of opposition batters’ mindset and intentions. We’re not trying to be mean. But had you ever expected him to be a 433-wicket bowler?The act
Not long after tea on day three, Herath came down the steps from the visitors’ dressing room to talk to Ajaz Patel. Karunaratne says it was soon after lunch, but he’d barely swept the ball before lunch, so it couldn’t have been.Here he is describing the situation, but just getting the timing wrong. For the record, Karunaratne was 72 off 109 at tea.”After lunch? Or maybe it was just before lunch? No, it was after lunch,” Karunaratne said. “At that time, Rangana aiya came down to the ground and gave a message to Ajaz Patel. It was after that they changed the field and the set-up against me.”They brought square leg up for me, and set the kind of field that we had set for Tom Latham. So when you have that field, you know as a batter that if you get the sweep slightly wrong, it can go up in the air and square leg can catch it, or short fine leg can catch it. It’s with that mentality that Rangana aiya would have told them to do that.”The result
Not long after tea, Patel sent down a sweepable delivery, Karunaratne got low and tried to sweep it square, but cleanly missed. The ball stayed low, snuck under his shot, and clattered into the stumps.”I had a little doubt in my head – maybe the sweep will go badly,” Karunaratne said. “These things happen. When the opposition has somebody who knows about how we play, they will share those things. So I was playing with that in my head, and that’s why I couldn’t pick that line, and I tried to sweep the ball too hard.”It’s true. Karunaratne very rarely gets out sweeping. But then he is up against not just Patel, a fine bowler all on his own terms, but also the intellect of Herath, who has more than 100 wickets at this ground.Karunaratne was out for 83, which at this stage of his career, feels like too low a score. He has spoken about wanting to get to 20 centuries. He is still stuck on 16.But he was hustled out of his 17th. And you can almost bet good money on him meeting up with the architect of his downfall and the pair talking it through, when life, and coaching contracts, allows for such a thing.

Fourth List A final between these sides joins the others in providing memorable images

Paul Edwards17-Sep-2022At its heart, of course, the 2022 Royal London Cup final was a contest between Lancashire and Kent. Yet it was also a challenge to the ECB after its utterly mis-scheduled ham-fisted staging of this event last year, and also to the supporters of both teams to prove that something as 20th century as a 50-over county match could attract a decent crowd to a Test-match ground. So maybe we should say first of all that while Kent won what might become known as Joey Evison’s match, the ECB recovered some kudos and the fans turned up in good numbers.One can always tell a game is poorly attended when the TV cameras greet every dramatic moment by focusing on the same tiny group of manic supporters. This was very different. Trent Bridge was not a sell-out, nothing like it in fact, but the stands behind the bowlers’ arms were full and the 9040 spectators certainly created a sense of occasion. To a degree this was plain in the absolute quietness that descended on the ground well before the players came out for the official minute’s silence in memory of the late Queen. As at The Oval last week, the spectators’ voluntary recognition of solemnity – of life being different – was far more impressive than the orchestrated respect. Somehow one was not quite ready for it.As ever, though the vendors of alcohol were greedily rigged up for anything. Jim and Tonic were offering The Outlaw (£8.50 for a large snifter) comprising Mediterranean gin, Indian tonic, orange and rosemary. Rather more plebeian was Keeton Corner, in tribute to the old Nottinghamshire opener, Walter, or Parr’s Bar, with a nod to George. At both places a pint of IPA could be purchased for £5.50.There was even an EBar which prioritised efficient consumption above human contact by merely requiring customers to place a plastic glass and their credit cards in the right places in order to be presented with a pint of strong lager. Judged in that light, the injunction to “Drink responsibly” seemed a little hapless. One felt it could have been followed with “On the other hand…”For most of the first innings, Kent’s supporters had plenty to enjoy and heaps to toast. Most obviously, this was apparent in Evison’s 97 but there was also Joe Denly’s 78 and the general reassurance that this wasn’t going to be one of those one-day finals in which the side batting first is four down for spit inside the first ten overs. Those matches were played at Lord’s, of course, where inserting the opposition was always a favoured tactic on September Saturdays. Steve Birks’ pitch allowed no such eccentricities; Evison and Denly made that plain.Related

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And it was not only Lancashire supporters who didn’t appreciate the fluency of Kent’s batsmen. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child,” says King Lear when Goneril is telling him some homeless truths and Nottingham-based fans at Trent Bridge might have felt something similar as they watched their former Academy product Evison’s 111-ball innings, an effort which provided the backbone of what seemed a clearly competitive 306 for 5.Kent’s batters also had help from an improbable source. For after a season in which they had prided themselves on their performance in the field, Lancashire’s players had something of a shocker. There were overthrows and misfields, on top of which Wells and Keaton Jennings managed to drop three catches between them, the last of them of Darren Stevens in the final over, when a colossal skier more or less bisected them, Jennings chose, or was chosen by Wells, to take it and spilled the thing. The batters managed two and Danny Lamb looked more or less ready to self-combust. Mind you, Kent had their misdemeanours, too, never more so than when Ollie Robinson discarded his glove to chase a ball and Harry Finch picked up the mitt to take the return, thereby incurring a five-run penalty.At that stage Lancashire’s pursuit was going well. They were more or less up with the required run-rate and better placed than Kent after almost each over of their innings. Then Jennings, after disrupting opposing bowlers with his long-armed drives and praying mantis sweeps, chipped Hamidullah Qadri to Alex Blake at cover and Lancashire were 125 for 3 in the 22nd over.That, though, was nothing like the game’s crucial dismissal, nor was Jennings’ 71 the vital innings. As much as anything, this fine final was decided by Kent’s magnificent catching, first Alex Blake off Croft, then Evison off George Lavelle and finally Grant Stewart off Danny Lamb in front of the Kent supporters in the Fox Road standAnd at once this fourth List A final between Lancashire and Kent joined the others in its ability to provide memorable images. In 1971, of course, it was Jack Bond’s catch off Asif Iqbal; in 1974 it was Alan Knott and Bob Woolmer nudging Kent home in a low-scoring game; and in 1995, Lancashire prevailed despite a conjured century from Aravinda de Silva. In 2022, in a very different, much less confident era, it was Evison’s innings and a series of Kent fielders leaping and swooping to grab cricket balls before being submerged beneath a heap of sky-blue shirts and happiness.So a day that began with “Abide with Me” would end very fittingly, with the darkness deepening and the mid-September eventide falling very fast. Kent’s cricketers will notice neither Saturday’s dusk nor Sunday’s dawn. And quite right, too. Good luck to them.

How the big-hitting teenager built a career in sport with her father’s help despite the conservatism around her

Annesha Ghosh04-Mar-20201:12

Shafali brings happiness, positivity to the team – Harmanpreet

Last year, on the sidelines of the Women’s T20 Challenge in Jaipur, Shafali Verma told ESPNcricinfo her immediate personal goal: “To make papa proud when I start playing for India and, hopefully, he will be there for the first World Cup I play.”She was 15 years old at the time, hadn’t yet played a single match for India and the T20 World Cup would, for any other teenager, have seemed a world away. Yet here she is in Sydney, the world’s No. 1-ranked batter in T20Is, two matches away from that world title. And her father will be there to watch her.A little over five-feet tall, so remarkably belligerent has the teenager been as an opener for India that her team go into the knockouts undefeated in the tournament and with the most – and quickest – runs in the powerplay across teams.ESPNcricinfo LtdDespite the dearth of runs from Verma’s opening partner, the usually consistent Smriti Mandhana, and India’s premier big-hitting match-winner and captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, India have racked up a competitive 130-plus total in all three matches batting first, and chased 114 in the last game with ease. This has been, to a great degree, down to Verma’s fearless energy. Her scores have got better – 29, 39, 46, and 47 – and she has nine sixes, the most in the tournament’s group stage; Verma has injected an urgency that, for years, India’s limited-overs sides, especially the T20I team, has been chasing.”I used to score a lot of our runs in the last two or three years, especially in the powerplay, but now with Shafali coming in, she’s getting the runs in the way I do,” Mandhana said ahead of the group-stage match against New Zealand last week. “She’s made a huge impact and the team has become more balanced thanks to her.””But she still has one more promise to fulfil,” Verma’s father, Sanjeev, told ESPNcricinfo, as he prepared to board his first international flight on Tuesday night. “Before she left for the World Cup, she told me, ‘Papa, century [I must hit at least one century].”I’m not being unrealistic; I know her potential, perhaps the world has seen it too. Maybe that first World Cup fifty will also be her first World Cup hundred. Maybe it’s meant to happen when I get there.”A jewellery repairer in Rohtak, a conservative district in the north Indian state of Haryana, Sanjeev has gathered the money he needs to be able to watch his daughter live with the help of well-wishers and the Haryana Cricket Association. He is going to watch his daughter taking another decisive step to “proving conservatism wrong”.”Since the start of the World Cup, during my morning walks or on my way to my shop, strangers, neighbours, random passers-by have stopped me to say, ‘ Sanjeev [Your daughter has forced us to follow women’s cricket],” Sanjeev says. “There was a time when people used to say I’m ruining my daughter’s life by making her play because they don’t expect girls to be in sports. [Just make them work at home, then you are a good father, otherwise you are spoiling your daughter].”

“There was a time when people used to say I’m ruining my daughter’s life by making her play because they don’t expect girls to be in sports”Shafali Verma’s father, Sanjeev

In Haryana, a state that for long has held the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of female foeticide in the country, raising a world No. 1 women’s cricketer has required immense steadfastness on Sanjeev’s part. For starters, he didn’t object when a six-year-old Verma wanted to have her hair cropped – a no-no in conservative Indian quarters – upon seeing a group of girls play at a local ground.”Papa being the huge cricket fan he’s always been, he used to take me and my brother to these local tournaments,” said Verma. “Had he not done so, maybe I would not have watched Sachin [Tendulkar] sir play so early in my life.”Verma fell in love with batting watching Tendulkar play his last Ranji Trophy first-class match in 2013 at the Bansi Lal Stadium in Lahli, Rohtak, in 2013. “Papa used to talk a lot about Sachin Tendulkar. When I first saw him bat, I knew I had to try this,” she recalls.During that tournament, Tendulkar’s guesthouse in town would turn into something of a pilgrimage spot for the father-daughter duo, every elusive glimpse of the batting ace spurring her on to learn more about the basics of batting under her father’s tutelage.”When I first picked up the bat, I thought the only way to play was to whack the ball with zero technique,” Verma laughs. “Since I was five-six, I had just been watching my brother bat and bowl legspin, or just used to be at his training sessions to collect the balls. When I actually started training, it felt different but it certainly felt good. Papa, too, started working very hard on me [day in and day out]. He made sure at practice that he never treated me like a ‘girl’.”A few months later, when Verma’s brother Sahil, the oldest of the three siblings, fell ill during an Under-12 all-boys local tournament in Panipat, Verma, 10 at the time, floated the idea to her father that she could fill in for her brother. “She said, ‘My hair makes me look like a boy anyway, so let me just put on a shirt and go play,'” Sanjeev says. “I thought it made sense because girls do not get to play much in our part of the town anyway, so why not just let her do what she wants to do.”Verma ended up winning the “Man-of-the-Match” award and was named “Man of the Series” too. “I felt she’s got this gift, just timing the ball and hitting it a long way,” recalls Sanjeev. “Not many girls had that relatively, so I had to try to give her the best chance to develop it.” This episode has now been turned into a promo for the tournament by the broadcasters in India.Getty ImagesA training set-up for police recruits close to the Verma home soon became the space for Sanjeev to help his son and his daughter build up their strength, especially in their upper bodies. Flipping tractor tyres 20-30 times in a session, turning the handle of a chaff cutter, tying heavy balls around their wrists and flexing them all became a daily routine for the two siblings.”Since my early days of cricket, my strength had been to hit the ball straight. So once I am able to loft one over the bowler’s head or drill one down the ground, I know [things are fine],” Verma says. “I get a lot of confidence in general when I hit a four, and it keeps increasing with every boundary I hit. Shoulder [“My shoulder has power, that’s why I can do it”].That strength lay at the heart of her performance at the U-16, U-19, and U-23 levels for her state, Haryana, starting from 2013. A breakout domestic season five years later, including a 56-ball 128 against Nagaland in a prolific run at the 2018-19 inter-state T20 tournament, put her on the selectors’ radar for the three-team Women’s T20 Challenge, a domestic competition seen as a prelude to an IPL-style league for women.”She stood out for me in the nets from day one,” England batter Danni Wyatt, Verma’s team-mate in the competition, said after her debut. “I didn’t think she was that young, and then when I heard she was only 15, I was like: ‘Wow.'”In four months’ time, the retirement of Mithali Raj from the shortest format coincided with Verma’s maiden India call-up and debut in the home T20I series against South Africa. Although consistently troubled by Shabnim Ismail’s pace and bounce, Verma showed enterprise in a 40-plus knock.ALSO READ: Shafali Verma, Sophie Ecclestone top T20I rankingsThe following month, on her maiden overseas tour, she bested the highest T20I score by a visiting Indian in the Caribbean. Her 73 was part of a stand of 143 with Mandhana, a record for India in T20Is.An even more resounding statement of intent came in the opening game of the A series against hosts Australia in December last year. Verma, 15 at the time and visibly fitter and stronger, scored 124 runs off 78 balls against an attack that featured bowlers with experience of multiple WBBL seasons, some of them even playing for Australia.”I did get into fan mode for a while there,” Australia A coach Leah Poulton told cricket.com.au after that knock. “She’s not your typical Indian opening bat. Over the years they’ve produced these opening bats with these amazing techniques and they’re really crafty, whereas she walked out there and she was just pure power.”At the T20 World Cup, Verma’s approach to building an innings hasn’t altered one bit.

“She is just a kid, she is having a good time, she is enjoying herself, but she is on a journey to find herself both as a cricketer and as an individual”India head coach WV Raman

“I am aware powerplay is where I have to dominate,” she had explained in Jaipur, during the Women’s T20 Challenge. “Whether it’s a domestic innings or somewhere else, I don’t think much or tell myself, ‘You need to stay, be watchful and all that.’ The focus remains to get some runs up top.”A major part of the success Verma has had in the T20 World Cup is also down to the support she’s got from senior team-mates like captain Kaur and vice-captain Mandhana as well as head coach WV Raman. In the lead-up to the tournament, Raman told ESPNcricinfo that India “have everything to gain when she comes off”. Kaur echoed Raman after India topped Group A, saying that “Shafali is someone who loves to play big shots, and we don’t want to stop her”.Raman had made a plea to the media in the build-up to the T20 World Cup to “not to go gaga over her, because she is barely 16, and too much attention is not good for her at this stage”. On the eve of India’s semi-final against England at the SCG, he spoke of how the tournament has been a voyage of self-discovery for the teenager who is still very much a kid – she still likes being “naughty” in the dressing room, Kaur had said.”There is absolutely no baggage in her head, the kid that she is…,” Raman said. “On the other hand she’s also a very intelligent kid. She is at a stage where she is still trying to find herself, as to who she is as a person. She is just a kid, she is having a good time, she is enjoying herself, but she is on a journey to find herself both as a cricketer and as an individual. That’s what it is.”Last year, Verma had spoken to this writer about the film , a biopic of wrestler sisters from Haryana who achieve success thanks to their father’s relentless training and grooming (and battling with the system). The ending is fictionalised – the father is locked up by the team coach and can’t watch his daughter win the Commonwealth Games gold medal.Still in her pre-teens at the time she first watched the movie, that climax is etched on Verma’s mind. ” [They locked him out], so he couldn’t be at that final, but she made sure she implemented the tactics he had taught her and won that medal.”With Sanjeev in the stands, you can be sure that Verma will do everything to fulfil her promise to him.