Allan Donald, who has worked with the South African and Australian teams in the past, has been hired by Sri Lanka ahead of the Champions Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Apr-2017Sri Lanka have appointed Allan Donald as a consultant fast bowling coach for the Champions Trophy to be played in England in June.Donald was due to join Kent this summer as assistant coach but his arrival had been delayed because of work-permit issues and the county has agreed to release him for a two-month stint with Sri Lanka. Donald will now take up his role with Kent in 2018 after completing his Level 3 coaching qualification.Sri Lanka have been investing in resources to beef up their pace attack with the services of Chaminda Vaas, Champaka Ramanayake, Ravindra Pushpakumara and Nuwan Zoysa. Donald will work with the coaching team and conduct train-the-trainer sessions apart from working with the national team.He is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on May 1 and join the team at their pre-tournament camp in Pallekele where they will undergo a training and conditioning programme from May 9 to 16.Donald, who was the first South African to 300 Test wickets and retired with 330, worked as a bowling coach for South Africa for four years until the 2015 World Cup. He was also hired by Australia to mentor their bowlers for the Sri Lanka tour in July 2016 and has worked with two IPL franchises – Pune Warriors and Royal Challengers Bangalore.”I’m 100% committed to Kent despite the frustration of not being able to join Matt Walker and the boys as planned,” Donald said. “In the meantime, I’m working towards my Level 3 and this opportunity to work with Sri Lanka means I can return to coaching before joining Kent in time for next season.”I’m following this season closely and hoping the boys can get promotion and compete in white-ball cricket.”

India making the final was not a surprise. Pakistan was. But here they are and if they play like they did against England, the contest could be one for the ages

The Preview by Andrew Fidel Fernando 17-Jun-2017

Match facts

June 18, 2017
Start time 1030 local (0930GMT)

Big picture

How is it that we have got here? It seems surreal. In the age of skirting around stereotypes and upending norms, here comes a contest almost as old as partition itself: Pakistani bowling v Indian batting, and still, though we have all tasted this and read some version of this script, it doesn’t feel even slightly hackneyed, not even a little stale.How could it be? Australia might be the winningest outfit in the game, but are there two prouder cricket nations than India and Pakistan? Close your eyes. Bring to mind the players of yore. Waqar Younis and his yorkers, with tails like comets, making matchsticks out of the stumps; Mohammad Azharuddin, his flicks like brushwork, the ball teleporting through the leg side, reappearing so far into the distance you only knew it had arrived when it thwacked the boundary board. Here is Sachin Tendulkar tapping his bat, so poised, so zen at the crease; there blows Shoaib Akhtar like a hot wind, limbs whipping through that elastic action. An India v Pakistan match is not so much a new chapter in a rivalry, as a clash of cricketing bloodlines.And an elemental force has each side been in this tournament. India, sleeker now than they have been in previous decades, have overpowered oppositions to get to this final. Not since Australia in the last decade, has an ODI team looked quite so clinical, quite so bristling with purpose. They have a formula about their game too: start steady with the bat, surge through the middle, and finish big. With the ball: strangle up front, make incisions through the middle, and let the opposition innings bleed out. They stand now, muscles rippling, only once – against Sri Lanka – having had to break a sweat.Pakistan, meanwhile, have been the same old manic vortex: awful sometimes, amazing at others, transitioning from one to the other between matches, or within the same over – who knows how the mood will strike? While India are a knowable, quantifiable outfit, Pakistan’s strength is their imperviousness to any kind of rational breaking down of their game. How can you plan against that?Still, it is Pakistan who will have to spring the surprise here. They are the team that has to make the charge on Minas Tirith. It is up to them to gird up their strike power for the raid on the Death Star.At these global events, they have long been the race-car that goes from zero to a hundred quicker than anyone else, it’s just that sometimes, that is while tumbling off a side of a cliff.

Form guide

India WWLWL (completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan WWWLW

In the spotlight

No one has quite lived out India’s dominance in the Champions Trophy, nor their appetite for the big events, like Shikhar Dhawan, whose 317 runs at an average of 79.25 (and a strike rate of 102), places him at the top of the run scorers’ list. Much like with his team, there is a brooding confidence in Dhawan’s game at the moment. He is resplendently unflustered by slow starts, backing himself to score quickly later on. So well-placed is India when he typically departs, that it’s not just that he has laid the foundation, he has helped complete most of the building. All that remains for the likes of MS Dhoni to do is stick a spire on the top, and run the flag up the pole.And who better embodies the campaign of what was the eighth-ranked team in the tournament than the man who was thought to be only the fourth-best quick in the squad. Hasan Ali has a hint of the old Pakistan sorcery about his bowling: the in his approach, the theatrical celebration, the wisps of reverse swing. With ten victims at an average of 17.20, and a wonderful economy rate of 4.52, he has the potential to be the pebble that jams up India’s cogs, and brings the machinery tumbling down.

Team news

R Ashwin was seen with a heavily-taped right knee on the eve of the match, and had appeared to pull a muscle. He required the physiotherapist’s attention and was then seen doing short run ups followed by stretches later. If he is ruled unfit, Umesh Yadav, who took 3 for 30 in the opening match against Pakistan, may slot back into the XI. Such is the quality in India’s squad, that they can lose a player of Ashwin’s stature and still not be too badly dented by it.India (possible) 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin/Umesh Yadav,10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Jasprit BumrahMohammad Amir has been ruled fit after missing the semi-final with a back spasm, meaning Rumman Raees is likely to exit the XI, despite his excellent debut.Pakistan (possible) 1 Azhar Ali, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Mohammad Amir, 9 Shadab Khan, 10 Hasan Ali, 11 Junaid Khan

Pitch and conditions

A fresh pitch is being used for the match and appears mostly dry, so perhaps the track will favour batsmen and scores in excess of 300 are likely. The forecast is for a slightly cloudy, but mostly dry day, with temperatures reaching the high twenties.

Stats and trivia

• Although Pakistan have an overall lead in the head-to-head stakes, having won 72 matches to India’s 52, they have lost eight of the 10 matches the teams have played in global tournaments.
• India have scored 1098 runs at a per-batsman average of 91.50 in the tournament, which makes them by a distance the best batting side on show. The next-best average is England’s 41.11
• Pakistan’s 31 wickets are the most taken by any team in the Champions Trophy. Since that opening loss to India, they have taken 28 wickets at 23.78 and maintained an economy rate of 4.46.
• Three of India’s top-five average higher than 43 against Pakistan – Rohit Sharma (37.90) is the lone exception.
• Junaid Khan has taken eight wickets at an average of 21.50 in five matches against India. He has dismissed Kohli three times, and conceded only two runs to him.

Quotes

“I don’t see any relevance of the first game here because you can never tell how a particular team starts a tournament. Some teams start very confidently and then they fade off. Some teams might not have the best starts, and they come back amazingly, which Pakistan have done. So everyone is aware of the kind of talent they have in their team, and on their day they can beat any side in the world.”
“I said before the Edgbaston game [against India], that I thought they were really, really calm. But they’re very, very excited now, and there’s a hell of a good vibe in that dressing room. Let’s hope we can pull out our ‘A’ game again tomorrow. If we play our ‘A’ game together and do the basics well, we can beat anybody.”

Having drawn the series level, the Zimbabwe captain said his side always believed they could chase down big totals and that the pressure will be more on Sri Lanka going into the decider

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jul-2017If touring a much higher-ranked cricketing nation after 16 years weren’t much of a challenge in itself, Zimbabwe also had to contend with the history of not having won an ODI against Sri Lanka on their home soil. Prior to this series, they had lost all their eight ODIs to Sri Lanka in the island nation, but now have two resounding victories to their name – both of which came in pursuit of 300 or more. After drawing level with the hosts with a four-wicket victory in a rain-curtailed match on Saturday, Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer underlined what outperforming Sri Lanka at home meant to his side.”I think [Zimbabwe have performed above what people had expected]. Sri Lanka is always a hard place to tour,” he said. “It’s hard to get games off the Sri Lankans here. I would say it is unexpected. They play so well at home and are a very hard team to beat here. So credit to our guys for sticking with it in a tough series. They probably didn’t expect us [to win], especially today after scoring 300. But we always believed in it.”Yeah, very happy [about the performance in the last two games]. We thought 300 was a gettable total on the wicket. The way we bowled in the last 10-15 overs to restrict them to 300 because at one stage they were looking at 340-350, maybe. The way their openers started, credit to the bowlers for pulling it back there.”In assessing the anchoring role some of the middle-order batsmen have played in the line-up over the years, Cremer spoke highly of Craig Ervine, whose unbeaten 55-ball 69 steered Zimbabwe’s win after rain had set them a revised target of 219 in 31 overs.”He was under a bit of pressure coming into this game,” Cremer said. “He’s been in good form but just hadn’t had a score in the last couple of games. It just takes him to get post 20 for him to get us the score and actually win us the game. And he’s done it a few times. It just shows his potential and his experience to control the game like he did, which was good.”Much of the eventuality of the match was decided upon the fading light and rain, which interrupted the chase after 21 overs, when Zimbabwe were 139 for 3, ahead of the par score of 130. When play resumed an hour and 35 minutes later, the equation was reduced to 80 runs off 60 balls for the visitors, with seven wickets in hand. Even though the stadium at Hambantota has flood lights, it had been decided before the series that they were not going to be used for cost-cutting measures.”On this instance, if we had the lights, the full quota of overs might have been bowled,” Angelo Mathews said. “So it could have gone either way. If the facilities are there, we’d like to have it. But, at the same time, it’s up to the SLC to decide.”Cremer, however, conceded that Zimbabwe weren’t too concerned about the Sri Lanka board not opting to use the floodlights.”It’s always a tough one. They could have talked to the ICC; they make the rules on that. It’s always nice to get a 100 overs of cricket, you know, as many as we can get. But sometimes it’s never possible. I don’t think we would have an issue with that.”Having taken the series into the decider, Cremer was confident of putting up a good showing on Monday, irrespective of the toss.”I assume, the pressure is more on them because they are expected to beat us,” he said. “We won’t take any pressure into the final because we will take the confidence from this game and know that if we have to bat first, we’ll have to set a good score and if we have to chase, we can chase down the score. The confidence is pretty high.”With six wins from 19 ODIs as captain, Cremer is yet to lead his side to a series victory. The opportunity that the 2-2 result now offers him to achieve the feat is not lost on Cremer.”We’ve had a few good games and stuff while I’ve been the captain, but nothing like this. A series win would obviously be excellent for us and myself. To beat a top team like Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka will be huge for us.”

Reigning champions Southern Vipers lost their first game in this season’s Kia Women’s Super League despite another impressive innings by Suzie Bates

ECB Reporters Network20-Aug-2017Suzie Bates continued her stunning form but it wasn’t quite enough•Nathan Stirk / Stringer

Reigning champions Southern Vipers lost their first game in this season’s Kia Women’s Super League despite another impressive innings by Suzie Bates.Bates has yet to be dismissed in the tournament after making an unbeaten 50 to add to earlier scores of 47 and 119.But Vipers’ pursuit of a target of 128 against Surrey Stars at the Ageas Bowl stalled when they lost four wickets for one run having reached 78 for 3 in the 13th over.Rain forced the players off after 16.2 overs with Vipers 100 for 7 as Stars won by four runs under Duckworth-Lewis to claim their third straight win and virtually seal their place in finals day at Hove on September 1.Bates and West Indies’ Hayley Matthews had launched the chase with a stand of 35 before Vipers lost three wickets in nine balls, two of them to England off-spinner Laura Marsh.Bates and Arran Brindle then put on 37 for the fourth wicket and looked to be steering the hosts to victory before the dramatic collapse.Brindle was leg before to Nat Sciver who then ran out Georgia Adams from midwicket in the next over. In her next over, Sciver bowled Vipers’ captain Charlotte Edwards round her legs and trapped Carla Rudd lbw two balls later.Vipers took 16 runs off the 16th over with Bates moving to her half-century with successive fours as they tried in vain to get ahead of Duckworth-Lewis before the rain got too heavy.Earlier, Stars were indebted to their two South Africans, Lizelle Lee and Marizanne Kapp, to get them to 127 for 8 after winning the toss with 56 runs coming in the Powerplay.Lee, making her first appearance in the competition, crashed 40 off 24 balls with eight fours as she dominated to the extent that no other batsman scored a run until the fifth over. She looked in prime form until mis-timing a drive to extra cover in the seventh over.Kapp held the rest of the innings together with 42 from 48 balls but some accurate bowling restricted Stars to 50 runs between the 6th and 16th overs, during which time they lost three wickets including Sciver, who was run out by Matthews’ direct hit from mid-off.

West Indies coach Stuart Law has revealed that Shai Hope was confident in victory at Headingley before the final day started

George Dobell at Lord's05-Sep-2017Shai Hope has the potential to be a “great” player, according to West Indies coach Stuart Law.Hope came into the series against England averaging just 19.57. But he played a huge role in the victory at Headingley with a century in each innings and has impressed Law both with his talent and temperament.While 23-year-old Hope had long been recognised as a talent within Caribbean cricket, there were a couple of moments at Headingley when Law was impressed by his composure under pressure and his hunger for further success.One of those came before play on the final day.”I remember sitting down next to him in the dressing room before the last day and said ‘Look, the plan is we’ll bat to tea, see where we are and if we’ve got wickets we’ll work out if we’re going to have a go or not’,” Law said.”He looked at me and I said ‘What’s wrong with that?’ He looked at me again, shook his head and shrugged his shoulders and I said ‘Okay, what’s your plan?'”‘We’re going to win’, he said. That’s God’s honest truth. And he went out and won the game.”He’s a rock. He’s a guy with a lot of talent who looks very good at the crease. We hadn’t seen that in international cricket, but Headingley showcased his talent.”The other moment that impressed Law came after victory was achieved. Instead of wild celebrations, Hope remained calm and controlled.”I think the fact he wasn’t over the top in his celebrations just means he’s hungry and he’s driven,” Law said. “He doesn’t want to stop where he’s at now; he wants to keep going. I think that’s a great sign.”The challenge for Shai is to stay fit and healthy. If he does that, with the drive he’s got and the mental toughness and will to work, that will just make him better and better. He’s pretty good now, but he’s got the potential to be great.”Law hoped the success of Hope and Kraigg Brathwaite would inspire their team-mates and suggested the side’s success might convince some of their detractors – not least Nasser Hussain, who wrote a newspaper column that underwhelmed the West Indies dressing room – to think again.”There’s probably a couple that doubted their ability to cope at this level,” Law said. “But I hope those doubts are now well and truly put to bed and they can start flourishing.”I thought guys like Chris Woakes, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad bowled the house down at Headingley. And we had answers to them. It’s not the fact that they under-estimated us: we actually stood up and competed against some high-quality batting and bowling, so credit where credit’s due.”Nasser’s entitled to his opinion: people make assumptions all the time. But he doesn’t know the group of players. I think it was great we sent a big humble pie to go and chomp on in the commentary box.”Meanwhile West Indies captain Jason Holder reassured the people of the Caribbean they were “in our thoughts and prayers” as they prepare for Hurricane Irma.”Please take all necessary precautions as you prepare for this hurricane,” Holder said. “Our love and our wishes go to everybody in the Caribbean as you go through this tough time.”

Durham have ended a sequence of bad news by signing an Australian pace bowler awash with experience

David Hopps26-Oct-2017Durham have signed the experienced Australian pace bowler Nathan Rimmington who will feature across all three formats as the club begins to chart a recovery from a host of departure.Rimmington, a renowned T20 death bowler who featured for the Melbourne Renegades in last year’s Australian Big Bash League, will be well beyond his 35th birthday before he takes up a deal with Durham which will take him until at least the close of the 2019 season.He will bring a wealth of limited-over and red ball experience and offer an additional strike option in the Specsavers County Championship, although a first-class average slightly over 30 suggests he is unlikely to offer a miracle cure for a county that was relegated into Division Two because of financial irregularities last year..Rimmington said: “I’m incredibly motivated to see Durham do well and I feel like I have a lot to offer in terms of experience and leadership. I’ve always enjoyed playing in the UK and believe the conditions at Emirates Riverside will suit me.”Durham’s chairman Sir Ian Botham, banged the drum determinedly as Durham began to fight back from a year that has seen them lose Mark Stoneman, Scott Borthwick, Keaton Jennings and Graham Onions.”We are delighted that Nathan has chosen to play his cricket at Durham for the next few years as there was a lot of clubs interested in his signature,” Botham said. “Many people will have watched him in both the IPL and BBL and know the quality and experience he will bring to our side”.Nevertheless, Botham’s assertion that his contacts would be invaluable in securing new arrivals for Durham are not backed up by financial clout as the club operates under tight financial constraints, some of them demanded by the ECB, and Rimmington’s arrival – a player who is both worthy and relatively unswung – illustrates the level of their ambitions.

Jonny Bairstow in the spotlight as England embark on a must-win second Ashes Test under the floodlights at Adelaide

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale01-Dec-20172:18

We played the game in good spirit – Smith

Big Picture

A pink ball? Ashes cricket at night time, under lights? What would Ivo Bligh and Billy Murdoch think? The inaugural Ashes captains would probably be just as bewildered by this development as the idea of batsmen wearing helmets, or players reviewing umpiring decisions, or boundary ropes, or covered pitches. Or, dare we mention it, stump microphones. The game moves with the times. Still, this Adelaide Test does represent a milestone: it will be the 330th Ashes Test and the first played as a day-night affair. The first, you suspect, of many.Australia enter this match with a 1-0 series lead after their 10-wicket win in Brisbane, and the teams have carried to Adelaide a degree of acrimony that arose from that Gabba Test. The England camp in particular seems to have retained some bitterness from the Jonny Bairstow head-butt saga. James Anderson has likened the Australians to bullies for the way in which they sledged Bairstow about the incident, and captain Joe Root was unhappy with the manner in which his counterpart Steven Smith laughed throughout a press conference about the issue. Smith, in reply, said his laughter was at his team-mate Cameron Bancroft, not at England’s expense, and suggested that Anderson himself was “one of the biggest sledgers in the game”. And yet this is all distraction from the task at hand.It is technically possible for England to lose in Adelaide and still retain the Ashes, but it would take a monumental turnaround to achieve that from 0-2 down. In terms of pink-ball experience, England have a disadvantage, having played their first day-night Test in August this year against West Indies – albeit for an innings victory. This will be Australia’s third consecutive day-night Test at Adelaide Oval, and they have played one in Brisbane as well. Australia have won them all.The swinging pink ball will be a challenge for both sides, but perhaps England’s biggest task is to find a way to negate the impact of Smith with the bat. His dogged century at the Gabba was the defining contribution of the match, and he showed remarkable patience to not become frustrated by the defensive fields set for him from early in his innings. “Take Steve Smith’s innings out of it and they were 160 all out in the first innings,” Root observed. Of course, remove any team’s highest scorer and their total will look significantly inferior, but Root’s point – that few other Australian batsmen contributed anything of substance – is a valid one. If England get Smith cheaply, they will go a long way towards turning their fortunes around.

Form guide

Australia WWLLD (last five matches, most recent first)
England LWLWWThe Adelaide Oval at sunset•Getty Images

In the spotlight

Last year’s Adelaide Test was a watershed moment for Australia, after their Hobart thrashing at the hands of South Africa led to a major selection overhaul. Three debutants were included for the Adelaide Test, plus two recalled players. Of those five, Peter Handscomb is the only one still holding on to his place in the Test side a year later. Handscomb has outlasted Nic Maddinson, Matt Renshaw, Matthew Wade and Jackson Bird, and still finds himself averaging more than 50 in Test cricket. He also holds the distinction of having played more first-class games with a pink ball under lights than anyone in the world, averaging 54.64 from his 10 games. Handscomb will be keen to celebrate a year in the Test side with a contribution in Adelaide, after he was trapped lbw for 14 playing deep in his crease at the Gabba.Who else but Jonny Bairstow? After the Brisbane Test, which ended with Bairstow addressing the media about his was-it-a-headbutt-or-wasn’t-it, there can be no escaping the fact that Bairstow will be under the microscope in Adelaide. The Australians felt that their sledging of him worked at the Gabba, where he fell to an ill-judged shot at a key time, but at his best Bairstow has the potential to be a dominant force in the series. Worldwide, only Joe Root scored more Test runs than Bairstow in 2016, and England will be hoping their wicketkeeper can overcome the mental hurdle created by this saga.

Team news

Australia have confirmed an unchanged XI, with Chadd Sayers missing out on a home Test debut.Australia: 1 Cameron Bancroft, 2 David Warner, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Peter Handscomb, 6 Shaun Marsh, 7 Tim Paine (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Nathan Lyon.England have hedged their bets slightly with a 12-man squad, with Craig Overton entering the equation to challenge Jake Ball for a seam-bowling berth. There’s no room for the legspinner Mason Crane, despite concerns over Moeen Ali’s spinning finger. Moeen will play, even if his bowling load is reduced, with Root also able to contribute some of his part-time offspin.England (probable): 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Mark Stoneman, 3 James Vince, 4 Joe Root (capt), 5 Dawid Malan, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Jake Ball, 10 Stuart Broad 11 James Anderson

Pitch and conditions

A similar pitch to that which was used against South Africa last year was the intention for Adelaide Oval curator Damian Hough, but extreme weather in the lead-up has added to the challenge. He is hopeful of a surface that will offer a good mix of pace, bounce and spin. There could be some rain around on the first day, but the forecast for the remainder of the Test is good, with temperatures in the low 20s.

Stats and trivia

• The two leading wicket-takers in pink-ball first-class cricket are both playing in this match: Mitchell Starc tops the list with 42 victims at 17.90 and Josh Hazlewood has 33 at 18.30
• Alastair Cook has played just one pink-ball Test innings but it was a big one – 243 against West Indies in Birmingham. It remains his only Test hundred this year
• On the ICC’s system of historical batting rankings only four men – Don Bradman, Len Hutton, Jack Hobbs and Ricky Ponting – have ever had a higher batting rating than Steven Smith’s current figure of 961

Quotes

“It looks like a bit harder than we’ve probably seen it for a while for a pink-ball game. It looks like there is slightly less grass. I’d say it’s somewhere between an old Adelaide wicket and the newer wicket we’ve seen over the last couple of years.”
“We just need to make sure we perform like we did in the first three days of the first Test match for the whole game. If we do that and recognise the key moments of the game then we give ourselves the best chance of winning.”

Danielle Wyatt recorded the first-ever century by an England batsman in women’s T20Is to set up a record chase in the final T20I, a result that had no bearing on Australia’s hold on the Ashes

The Report by Daniel Brettig21-Nov-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsGetty Images

Danielle Wyatt saw Beth Mooney’s blistering hundred and raised a barnstorming century of her own at Manuka Oval as England took the final Twenty20 match of a series that leaves the Ashes in Australian hands.In a last encounter thrilling for its high-scoring – the highest aggregate in all women’s T20 internationals – but also notable for signs of mental fatigue on both sides after seven matches in less than a month, the hosts seemed content with a tally of 2 for 178 built upon Mooney’s freewheeling 117 from 70 balls.However Wyatt’s response was bolder still, rattling England’s first ever T20I century from 56 deliveries in a victorious chase that was aided not only by captain Heather Knight’s typically mindful contribution, but also the dropping of no fewer than four catches by Australia.In the progression of the women’s game to full professionalism such lapses are likely, much as the advent of domestic T20 tournaments such as the IPL and BBL exposed domestic male players to hitherto unknown pressures from crowds and television cameras.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Rachael Haynes had been happy to win the toss for Australia as they fought to win the match and so claim the multi-format contest on points, having ensured the safety of the urn in the opening T20 at North Sydney Oval on Friday. Mooney was into stride quickly, taking a heavy toll on the usually exemplary Anya Shrubsole, who was so expensive as to only be called on for three overs costing 36.Alyssa Healy, Elyse Villani and Ellyse Perry all offered support, but it was very much Mooney’s show, backing up her equally arresting display in game one of the T20 matches. It left England with plenty to do, but a warm night under the Canberra lights and an effectively dead rubber as far as the Ashes were concerned gave Wyatt plenty of licence.She needed to show all her ability after three early wickets left England a decidedly wobbly 3 for 30, but a measure of Knight’s leadership was provided by how she did not panic, while also supporting Wyatt in her bolder approach. The dropped chances were telling in terms of mental fatigue, but they also served to let Wyatt carry on until the pursuit was all but completed.Like Shrubsole, the otherwise excellent contributions of Megan Schutt were somewhat sullied by a last game blowout. But the final win for England and the overall result for an Australian side shorn of Meg Lanning due to a shoulder surgery meant both sides could finish the night with happiness of different sorts.

Zimbabwe were bowled out for 196 in the warm-up game in Paarl, with Hamilton Masakadza top-scoring with 79

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Dec-2017
Getty Images

Dale Steyn endured a wicket-less return to first-class cricket, returning 0 for 16 from his 12 overs for the CSA Invitation XI against Zimbabwe in the first day Paarl. He did, however, come close twice: Solomon Mire nicked behind in the first over but was adjudged not out and Hamilton Masakadza, who went on to top-score for Zimbabwe with 79, was dropped at point in the fifth over on 1. Zimbabwe were eventually bowled out for 196 on a 13-wicket day.Apart from Masakadza, no other batsman managed to go past 26 against a relatively inexperienced bowling attack. The Zimbabwe bowlers, however, fared much better, with Kyle Jarvis (2 for 15) and Chris Mpofu (1 for 0) picking up three wickets to leave the Invitation XI at 55 for 3 by close of play.For the Invitation XI, medium-pacers Lizaad Williams and Michael Cohen combined for six wickets, while legspinner Shaun von Berg claimed 3 for 64.

Tasmania lost 6 for 17 in 11 overs to give South Australia a shot at a comeback in Hobart

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Mar-2018
ScorecardA huge batting collapse by Tasmania gave South Australia the chance to pull off a stunning comeback in their Sheffield Shield clash in Hobart.The Tigers began their second innings 166 runs in front after bowling out the Redbacks for 227 early on day three. Tom Rogers picked up the last wicket to finish with four for the innings.Tasmania cruised to 1 for 83 with Jordan Silk making a swift half-century. They looked poised to take the game beyond the Redbacks reach but they lost 6 for 17 in 11 frantic overs. Joe Mennie removed Silk before Daniel Worrall and Nick Winter ripped through the middle order. A late fightback from Simon Milenko pushed the lead to 331. Worrall finished with 4 for 17.The Redbacks moved to 1 for 49 at stumps, having only lost debutant Conor McInerney.