6:09 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Virat Kohli smashed his highest ever T20I score, making 94* off 50 balls as India chased a massive target of 208 against West Indies in the first T20I in Hyderabad. Kohli’s innings was played in two parts, both sharply contrasting with each other. Off the first 25 balls he faced,
8:00 AM GMT Toss India chose to bowl v West Indies Bhuvneshwar Kumar made his way back into international cricket since the West Indies tour in August; he was likely to enter the contest immediately as India elected to bowl first with dew expected to affect the game later. In the previous two home series,
11:05 AM GMT Thabang Moroe, the chief executive of Cricket South Africa, has been suspended with immediate effect, but with full pay, following allegations of misconduct. An investigation into his actions, which will include an independent forensic audit, is expected to be conducted soon. Chris Nenzani, the CSA president, has been tasked with appointing an
2:19 PM GMT The dismal tour of Australia has hurt the “pride of the nation” according to Test captain Azhar Ali. The Tests ended in innings defeats; the T20Is were not any better even though the perception was Pakistan, ranked No. 1 in the format going into the series, would compete better. “We are a
3:48 PM GMT Even as he waits for the Supreme Court to consider rolling back certain reforms, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has cautioned that without experienced people at the helm, even the richest and most powerful cricket board could fall swiftly. Ganguly said “continuity” was “a very important” yardstick in running a sport and so
1:25 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff The ECB remain confident that that the forthcoming Test tour of South Africa will go ahead as planned, despite another day of administrative chaos that culminated in the suspension of Cricket South Africa’s chief executive and the loss of the team’s title sponsor after a 30-year association. England are set
5:39 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Rachel Trenaman, the Sydney Thunder and New South Wales allrounder who has named in the Australia A squad to face India A, has taken time away from the game to focus on her mental health. Trenaman, 18, played twice for the Thunder during this season’s WBBL and was part of
3:33 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff New Zealand have had a major boost ahead of the first Test against Australia next week with Trent Boult and Colin de Grandhomme both making good progress in their recoveries from injury. NZC confirmed the pair would travel to Perth with the squad on Saturday having come through a training
1:44 PM GMT The BCCI will have to wait for the New Year to see if the Supreme Court will approve the amendments to the board’s constitution which would roll back some of the key reforms recommended by the RM Lodha Committee. On Wednesday, the court “tentatively” listed January 14 as the next date of
6:14 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Bob Willis, legendary England fast bowler, dies aged 70The former England captain and fast bowler, who will be forever synonymous with England’s 1981 Ashes victory, died on December 4. Icon, survivor, grandee: Farewell Bob Willis, the man with the longest runAndrew Miller, ESPNcricinfo’s UK editor, writes a moving tribute in
Jess Duffin carves one through the covers © Getty Images There is someone playing in the WBBL finals this weekend who has been player of the match in a World T20 final and a World Cup final. Someone who has reached the highest level of two sports and still plays both concurrently at the domestic
8:00 AM GMT Match abandoned Tshwane Spartans v Jozi Stars Tshwane Spartans had to settle for two points against Jozi Stars, which keeps them in third place on the MSL table, after their match was abandoned at SuperSport Park. This is the third time the Centurion-based side were unable to play at home, but the
11:10 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff The limited-overs series between India and West Indies, which begin from Friday with a T20I, will have front-foot no-balls exclusively monitored by the third umpires. Announcing the development on Thursday, the ICC said that the on-field umpires would be responsible for all other decisions “in the usual way” while the
5:55 PM GMT What, in all honesty, have England learnt from their two-Test stopover in New Zealand? In one sense, it was a trip that lived down to its pre-series expectations, as a superbly well-drilled home team handed out a succession of lessons to a side that has neglected the longer format for several years
9:21 AM GMT Communication has been the word on almost everyone’s lips when it came to the decision to make George Bailey a selector alongside the selection chairman Trevor Hohns and the national team coach Justin Langer. It is an area in which, it is widely acknowledged, things need to improve between players and panel.
1:38 PM GMT Hyderabad. It’s where the Kieron Pollard story burst to life a decade ago, when he smashed an unbeaten 18-ball 54 for Trinidad & Tobago against New South Wales in the Champions League. That innings changed his life, and it changed T20 too, setting him on a trailblazing path towards becoming the format’s
8:34 AM GMT A second independent director has resigned from the Cricket South Africa board, deepening the crisis within its administration. Mohamed Iqbal Khan, who also acted as chairperson of the finance committee, stepped down on Wednesday evening alleging serious misconduct in the organisation, including credit card abuse. On Tuesday, Professor Shirley Zinn resigned as
8:00 AM GMT Big picture You look at the ICC T20I rankings and wonder, how the mighty have fallen. The reigning champions of T20Is enter the three-match series ranked tenth. But as it often is after the Caribbean Premier League, rankings mean very little because the team composition is so different from the one only
11:30 AM GMT India’s tour of Australia in 2021 could become the first series ever to feature more than one day-night Test. A Cricket Australia (CA) delegation, led by its chairman Earl Eddings, is set to meet the new BCCI administration on the sidelines of a limited-overs series in January with the question of day-night
3:32 AM GMT Ali Bacher, the former South African Test captain and managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (now CSA), has called on CSA’s current administration to take responsibility for recent events which has seen the game teetering on the brink of crisis. Bacher called on the board to be held
7:43 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Robin Morris, the former Mumbai first-class cricketer, has been arrested along with four others in Mumbai over an alleged kidnapping, the Indian Express reported. The case revolves around an unsuccessful attempt by Morris to obtain a loan, as per the newspaper’s report. The Express quoted a police officer from the
6:02 PM GMT England batting coach, Graham Thorpe, has urged those players in the Test set-up to keep focusing on how to improve their games as Chris Silverwood and Joe Root seek to build a team that can challenge to win back the Ashes in Australia. A rain-affected draw in Hamilton extended England’s poor away
8:00 AM GMT Durban Heat 197 for 4 (Hales 97*, Miller 40, Shamsi 2-37) beat Paarl Rocks 195 for 2 (Delport 84, du Plessis 66) by six wickets After three washouts and two losses in their first five games, Durban Heat have reeled off three successive wins, the latest coming in a high-scoring chase on
10:02 PM GMT A bit like the relationship with one’s parents, or the pictures on the walls in your childhood home, some memories are set in stone before you’re even aware of who or what they represent. Take the Headingley Test of 1981. How many people aged 40 or under can say for certain when
4:45 AM GMT The Australia squad named for the Test series against New Zealand was probably one of the simpler discussions the selectors have had in recent times following back-to-back innings victories over Pakistan. However, there could be some tricky decisions on the horizon, most significantly around who would be the second spinner should one
© Getty Images The South African Cricketers’ Association will discuss the possibility of a player strike at its board meeting on Friday, after a second breach of commercial rights by Cricket South Africa. On Wednesday, the SACA commenced a formal process against CSA for using the names and images of players in a fantasy league
11:25 AM GMT Just a day after Karnataka State Cricket Association president Roger Binny said his administration was striving to keep cricket “clean”, a senior official of the state’s managing committee has been arrested as part of the ongoing investigation into corruption in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL). Sudhindra Shinde, a former Karnataka player, was
4:05 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Bob Willis, the former England captain and fast bowler who will be forever synonymous with England’s 1981 Ashes victory, has died at the age of 70 after a short battle with thyroid cancer. Willis claimed 325 wickets in a 90-Test career that began on the Ashes tour in 1970-71. He
© BCCI The baton of No. 1 Test batsman in the world has changed hands between Virat Kohli and Steven Smith once again, with India’s Kohli surpassing Australia’s Smith following a century in his team’s inaugural day-night Test in Kolkata. While Kohli enjoyed that success against Bangladesh, Smith failed to go past 36 in Australia’s
4:46 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff West Indies have appointed Monty Desai as the batting coach of the senior men’s team on a two-year contract. Desai, who has held coaching roles with Afghanistan, Nepal, Indian regional teams and IPL teams Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Lions in a career of over 12 years, most recently worked with