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Mumbai Indians captain Harmanpreet Kaur believes her wicket was the turning point that led to a five-run loss that eliminated them from WPL 2024. Mumbai were in the driver’s seat while chasing 136, when they needed 16 runs off 13 balls with Harmanpreet and Amelia Kerr batting and seven wickets in hand.But once Harmanpreet holed out to long-on at the end of the 18th over, the rest of the Mumbai line-up failed to score the remaining runs which became 12 off six after Sophie Molineux conceded just four in the 19th over and dismissed S Sajana.”In 12 balls we just needed one boundary and we were not able to get it,” Harmanpreet said after the match. “That is what this game always teaches you. It puts you under pressure and you have to keep learning from it.”When we lost my wicket, after that our batters could not hold their nerve, that was the turning point.”Related

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Mumbai had restricted RCB to 135, a total that looked chasable in the conditions, especially when Mumbai were 60 for 2 at the halfway mark and required 76 from 60. Harmanpreet and Kerr steered them once Nat Sciver-Brunt fell in the 11th over with a steady partnership of 52 that saw them strike regular boundaries after the 15th over. From 43 off 30, they reduced it to 20 off 18 when Harmanpreet survived a stumping chance off Shreyanka Patil when Richa Ghosh failed to collect the ball cleanly. But five balls later Patil had Harmanpreet caught by Sophie Devine at long-on.”We fought really hard,” Harmanpreet said. “This season has been a little up and down for us. Last season as a team we did really well but this time our performance was little up and down. But we learned a lot this season and hopefully next season we prepare really well and come [back] hard.”Harmanpreet, however, praised Sajana who had hit a stunning six off her first ball of the WPL in the opening game of the season to register a last-ball win against Delhi Capitals.”We got SS (Sajana) during this tournament, she is someone who can hit the ball really hard,” Harmanpreet said of their find of the year. “And that is what we want the WPL to do, to create more young players and it’s good to see young girls are coming and giving their 100%.

Sherfane Rutherford hit an unbeaten half-century and earned a five-wicket win for Quetta Gladiators over a depleted Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League on Thursday.Rutherford smashed 58 not out off 31 balls with six towering sixes and a match-winning boundary off the final ball as Quetta recovered from a middle-order collapse to chase down 166 for their fourth win in five games.Karachi couldn’t cash in on James Vince and Tim Seifert’s impactful batting in the powerplay before they got tangled against the Quetta spinners and were restricted to 165 for 8. It was Karachi’s third loss in five games.Several frontline Karachi players including Mir Hamza, Tabraiz Shamsi and Leus du Plooy missed the game because of a viral infection. Du Plooy was hospitalised.Legspinner Zahid Mahmood, playing in his first game of the season, and Hasan Ali brought Karachi into the game with two wickets each and Shoaib Malik had the key wicket of half-centurion Jason Roy as Quetta stumbled to 89 for 5 in the 12th over.But Rutherford led the counterattack – with Akeal Hosein – with his powerful hitting before smashing fast bowler Anwar Ali in the final over. Quetta needed 15 from six balls, and Rutherford’s two sixes off the first two balls tilted the game in their favour.Earlier, Shan Masood’s below-par first season as Karachi captain continued when he was bowled for 2 by left-arm spinner Hosein in the first over.Vince smacked eight fours in his whirlwind knock during the power play before spinner Usman Tariq changed the complexion of the game by trapping both Seifert and Vince lbw in his first over.Abrar Ahmed came back well in his last two overs and got three wickets as Kieron Pollard was bowled by the legspinner in the death overs. Anwar provided a late flurry with an unbeaten 25 that included 20 off Mohammad Wasim’s last over but it was not enough.

David Warner ended a glittering Test career on Saturday at his home ground after 112 Tests with an eight-wicket win against Pakistan that culminated in a 3-0 series sweep. An emotional Warner spoke to the host broadcaster after the game in a farewell interview, on his Test career, watching the Australia Tests on the TV going ahead, the role his family played and how he would want to be remembered.Could you have ever dreamed it would finish like this – runs, 3-0 series victory, a Test win in front of your friends and family and an adoring SCG? They talk about fairytales, I can’t imagine it could get much better?
“It’s pretty much a dream come true. Win 3-0 and cap off what’s been a great 18 months to two years for the Australian cricket team. On the back of the World Test Championship win, Ashes series draw and then the World Cup and then to come here and finish 3-0 is an outstanding achievement and I’m just proud to be with a bunch of great cricketers here.”What do these guys mean to you? You’ve spent a lot of time with a lot of them, especially the bowlers, Starc and crew, it’s been a long journey.
“I think their ears are going to get a break in the change room which is great. These guys they work their backsides off. The engine room, the big three quicks plus Mitchell Marsh. They work tirelessly in the nets and in the gym and credit to them to stay in the park, the physios, the staff that are behind that is outstanding. Look at them, they’re amazing. And I don’t have to face them ever again in the nets. Which I don’t do anyway. So that helps.”Tell us about your own day. You woke up this morning. I’m sure your family was surrounding you. What were your thoughts at that stage, David?
“Just a casual walk up to the local cafe and get a cup of coffee with the young one. I just got into the car and packed a wine or two. Shouldn’t say that too loud, I’ll get in trouble. I felt happy and really, really proud. And just to come here in front of your home crowd with the support that they’ve shown me and the Australian cricket team over the my last decade or my career, I can’t thank them enough. Without you guys we aren’t able to do what we do and it’s really really much appreciated.The innings itself, talk us through the innings. You finished like the way you started, full of shots, through midwicket, reverse sweeps, pulled out every trick in the book and I can see you smiling about it.
“We’re in the entertainment business and I’m just happy to come out here and showcase what I try to do all the time. I started with T20 and tried to come out here and tried and emulate that but I tried to play my shots, go out the way that I have played. And yeah, managed to get a win on the board which is great.We saw your girls and your wife Candice up there in the stands, your mum and dad. What does family mean to you? Obviously, it’s an enormous part of your life, David.
“Massive part of your life and without their support you can’t do what you do. I owe credit to my parents for giving me a beautiful and great upbringing. My brother Steve, I followed in his footsteps. And then [my wife] Candice came along and sort of got me in line. We’ve had a beautiful family and I cherish every moment I get with them. I love them to death and I’m not going to keep carrying on because I’ll get too emotional. But thank you, Candice, for what you’ve done. You mean the world to me, and I appreciate it.These boys are up against the West Indies in a few weeks time. What do you think that will be like for you?
“I think it’d be quite emotional to watch the guys go out there and not play and knowing that I was able to come out here and do what I could do. But as I just mentioned you got a great bunch of cricketers here. We are all almost over 30 years of age. So as time goes by, we’re not getting younger, but this team, they’re energetic, they’re world class and they’re a great bunch of guys.How would you like to be remembered? David Warner was …
“[Would like to be remembered as] exciting, entertaining, and I hope I put a smile on everyone’s face with the way that I played and hopefully the young kids out there can follow in my footsteps. White-ball cricket to Test cricket. It’s the pinnacle of our sport. So keep working hard to play the red-ball game because it’s entertaining as well.”

Sanath Jayasuriya has been appointed Sri Lanka Cricket’s full-time “cricket consultant” for a year. In this role, he will oversee both players and coaches working at SLC’s high performance centre in Khettarama, will be engaged in “individual skill development strategies” for players, and will monitor coaching staff as well.”[Jayasuriya] will also establish national specialist skills programs with key staff aligned to lead roles within each skill discipline, among several other tasks,” the board release said.This is Jayasuriya’s first role with SLC after having been banned from all cricket for two years by the ICC’s anti-corruption unit in 2019. He had incurred that ban after admitting to two charges – the failure or refusal to cooperate with an investigation, and obstructing or delaying an investigation, under the anti-corruption code.Related

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He had previously been Sri Lanka’s chief selector in two controversial stints. In the first he had been accused of favouring a player close to the government he was part of as a member of parliament. The second stint had been characterised by substantial turnover in the men’s national team. The ACU’s charges are understood to have related to his second term as chief selector.Jayasuriya’s appointment is the second significant appointment over the past few days, with the Upul Tharanga-led selection committee also having been named this week.

New Zealand all but booked their place in the World Cup semi-final against India with a dominant five-wicket win – with 160 balls to spare – against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru. The result took them to ten points, and a net run rate (NRR) of 0.743, leaving Pakistan needing to beat England by 287 runs, while Afghanistan need an even more fantastical 438-run win over South Africa, if they are to surpass New Zealand’s NRR.If Pakistan were to chase, they would have no chance of qualifying.As for Sri Lanka, the margin of defeat against New Zealand left them languishing in ninth place, thus out of qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy. They now need one of England or Bangladesh to suffer defeats – while Netherlands also need to lose to India – to the extent that their respective NRRs drop below Sri Lanka’s.New Zealand’s win was the product of an all-round performance with bat and ball. While the threat of rain in Bengaluru ultimately proved to be a red herring, winning the toss and putting Sri Lanka in seemed to be the most prudent way to ensure both an NRR-boosting victory as well as hedge against any rain interruptions and DLS interventions.And so it proved. Despite the loss of some late wickets, Sri Lanka’s total of 171 was comfortably dealt with, as Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell all pitched in with forties.On a pitch that proved even better to bat on under lights, Ravindra and Conway put on 86 to break open the chase, before Mitchell’s 43 off just 31 balls rammed home the result. All three fell before the finish, but the win was never in doubt.Kusal Perera counterattacked for Sri Lanka amid plenty of early blows•AFP/Getty Images

That it was so easy in the end was down to a solid bowling effort and a haphazard outing with the bat for Sri Lanka. New Zealand shared the wickets around, with Lockie Ferguson, Mitchell Santner and Ravindra picking up two apiece, though Trent Boult’s 3 for 37 was what had set his side up at the top of Sri Lanka’s innings – and earned him the Player-of-the-Match award.Such was New Zealand’s dominance that they won so comfortably despite dropping three catches. The first was of Kusal Perera without scoring, as Tom Latham grassed a straightforward caught behind. Latham got his shot at redemption a ball later though, with Pathum Nissanka nicking through for an even more simple chance.Kusal Mendis fell a few overs later, splicing a leading edge to deep third while looking to hit over midwicket, with Sadeera Samarawickrama following soon after edging through to Mitchell at first slip. Both those wickets were grabbed by the excellent Boult, taking him past 50 wickets in World Cups – he ended the game with that tally on 52.But even as wickets fell at one end, Perera functioned as a one-man army, finding boundaries all around the Chinnaswamy Stadium, and punishing New Zealand for that early drop. Two picked-up sixes over long-on off Tim Southee were the highlights of some belligerent ball striking, as he brought up his 50 off just 22 deliveries – the joint second-fastest by a Sri Lankan in ODI World Cups.Trent Boult went past 50 World Cup wickets•ICC/Getty Images

An over later, though, Charith Asalanka was adjudged lbw off Boult after a well-taken review, before Perera fell a few deliveries later, getting under a delivery from Ferguson that was not full enough to drive and slicing it to cover.Sri Lanka were in free fall at 70 for 5 in the tenth over, before Angelo Mathews and Dhananjaya de Silva put up mild resistance. Dhananjaya was reprieved too, courtesy Latham’s second drop of the game, a tough chance off Santner during that stand of 34. Santner’s guile, control and subtle variations in pace, however, were eventually too good for the pair.Mathews was the first to go in what might have been his last World Cup innings – perhaps even ODI innings – lunging forward at one that was floated up and then dipped. He failed to get to the pitch, and the bounce and turn did the rest, grazing the outside edge to Mitchell at slip. It was a similar story for Dhananjaya, after another flighted delivery with some added bounce found its way into Mitchell’s hands.Maheesh Theekshana batted for 91 deliveries•ICC/Getty Images

Chamika Karunaratne, making just his second appearance at this World Cup, did not fare any better, edging behind Ferguson. A swift end to the innings seemed imminent but Maheesh Theekshana, in partnerships with Dushmantha Chameera and Dilshan Madushanka, showed the resistance that was lacking throughout the rest of the innings.In facing 91 deliveries, Theekshana played more balls than all of Sri Lanka’s frontline batters combined. Even Madushanka’s 48 balls were more than what any other batter faced apart from Theekshana.Theekshana remained unbeaten on 38 – the second-highest scorer of the innings – as the ninth and tenth wicket stands, despite only contributing 58 runs, spanned 139 deliveries. Sri Lanka lost their eighth wicket in the 24th over, but it wasn’t until the 47th that New Zealand dismissed them, with Ravindra finding Madushanka’s edge for Latham to complete a sharp take.It took a while for New Zealand to get there, after winning their first four matches and then losing their next four, but this victory has all but ensured a fifth consecutive ODI World Cup semi-final.

The top seven sides at the end of the league stage of the ongoing ODI World Cup in India will qualify for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, along with hosts Pakistan, to compete in the eight-team event.An ICC spokesperson confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the qualification system for the 2025 Champions Trophy was approved by the ICC Board in 2021, when the competition was brought back as one of the eight men’s global tournaments to be held in the 2024-31 cycle.The development has come as a surprise to a few boards – both whose teams are in India as well as others who missed making it to the ODI World Cup – who told ESPNcricinfo that they were unaware about qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy being at stake in this tournament.At present, Bangladesh and England are at No. 9 and 10 on the ODI World Cup points table, and therefore outside the top seven who will qualify for the Champions Trophy along with hosts Pakistan. “Yeah, I’m aware of that,” England captain Jos Buttler said when asked if he knew a place in the Champions Trophy was at stake following their loss to India in Lucknow. “And absolutely, it just proves we’ve still got lots to play for.”This also means other Full-Member nations like West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland will not even have the opportunity to qualify for the tournament, by virtue of not having made it to the 2023 ODI World Cup.In November 2021, the ICC had unveiled several global events for both men and women in the new cycle (2024-31) including two editions of the Champions Trophy – in 2025 and 2029. In a media statement, the ICC had said that the Champions Trophy would be an eight-team event and the tournament structure “will follow previous editions with two groups of four, semi-finals and final”.For the 2013 and 2017 editions of the Champions Trophy, the top eight teams in the ODI rankings at a cut-off date qualified for the event. It is understood that the decision to have the top seven teams at this World Cup qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy was approved originally by the ICC’s chief executives committee following which the ICC board ratified the recommendation.One Full Member board confirmed that the qualification pathways for all the events were discussed and approved at the 2021 ICC meetings. For the 2027 men’s ODI World Cup, which will be a 14-team tournament co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, the qualification process is: the two Full Member hosts – South Africa and Zimbabwe – plus eight highest-ranked teams as of March 31, 2027, and four remaining teams through global qualifier tournaments.The qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy was highlighted this week by Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan more than once. With his team almost out of the semi-final race in the ODI World Cup, Shakib spoke of the importance of finishing in the top eight. “I mean, not the semi-final hope. It is not a semi-final possibility,” Shakib said on Saturday, after Bangladesh were beaten by Netherlands. “At least, do a little better. Suppose, you have to be in the [top] ranking 8 if you want to play in the Champions Trophy. So, there are still three matches left considering that in mind.”

Northern Superchargers have progressed to the final of the women’s Hundred after their Eliminator with Welsh Fire was abandoned during a torrential downpour at the Kia Oval.Superchargers, who will play Southern Brave at Lord’s on Sunday, progressed by virtue of finishing second in the group stage. It was a position they sealed by beating Fire on Tuesday in both teams’ last match of the group stages, taking Superchargers to 12 points, one ahead of their opponents.The Eliminator had already been reduced to a 95-ball affair after rain pushed back the start by 45 minutes. And the agony for Fire, who finished bottom in the first two editions, is that the strong progress they made to reach 104 for 2 after 75 deliveries, having won the toss and opted to bat first, was ultimately for nothing.An engaging 38 from Sophia Dunkley set up a platform of 59 for the first wicket, before fellow opener and Fire skipper Tammy Beaumont – 37 not out off 30 – prepared for a late assault with Laura Harris, who had 14 from 5 balls. At that point, standing umpires Sue Redfern and Mark Newell opted to take the players off the field due to the threat of lightning in the area.In accordance with the playing conditions, the players were only permitted to return to the field once officials were confident the storm had passed. However heavy rain set in, bringing the Fire innings to a close, before the match was called off at 4.41pm local time, 30 minutes before the latest time Fire’s 25-ball second innings was permitted to start.”You never want the result to go into a final to be how it is today,” Hollie Armitage, Superchargers captain, said. “But I think that shows why finishing second is so important, just like finishing first and going straight to the final. Obviously, it is a little bit bittersweet, but we’re happy to be on the side that’s going to Lord’s tomorrow.”We’ve won six out of eight games in the group stage and that’s why the group stages are so important. You’ve got to treat every game as a final so you can try and finish at the top of the table, which was obviously our ambition. But luckily today, by finishing second, it’s going to take us to the final.”Having finished bottom in both of the first two editions, Fire’s about-turn, in tandem with their men’s team, has been one of the stories of 2023. To have their tournament ended in such fashion was a tough pill to swallow.”Devastated, absolutely devastated for the girls,” Beaumont said. “The game was going nicely towards what would have been a decent total and I would have backed the girls to defend anything. It would have been easier to take had we been absolutely thrashed or beaten in a close one and actually lost the game.”To go on previous results and table finishes is tough. Everyone is absolutely devastated. But that is cricket. You can’t book the weather. It’s been a pretty poor summer on the weather front, hasn’t it? Sport is cruel, isn’t it?”Rules are rules, aren’t they? At the end of the day, if we’d have won at Headingley on Tuesday and finished second we wouldn’t have been complaining.”Asked if, like the final, the Eliminator should have a reserve day, Beaumont was phlegmatic. Though Fire ended up on the wrong side of the calculations here, she appreciates the nature of the Hundred, and indeed a point of difference with other franchise competitions around the world, is its compact schedule.”They want The Hundred to be condensed and I think that is what sets it apart from any other competition. Just eight games and an Eliminator and final – that is what makes it good.”You hear people saying the Big Bash is too long, the IPL being far too long, the games and the format. In terms of the women’s team, they’ve had the same overseas players throughout and that is what makes it good. [With reserve days] it would have to be another four days. That is pretty good – it has just stitched us up this time.”

English fiction is replete with characters who repair to the seaside to help them recover from illness or other misfortunes. In Jane Austen’s Anne Elliot has “the bloom and freshness of youth” restored by the fine wind on the coast and even modern novelists such as John Banville and Ian McEwan use littoral settings for literary effect. At first glance, though, the comparisons between the gentle Elliot and Lancashire’s head coach, Glen Chapple, are not obvious. (At second glance, they disappear completely.) But Chapple’s players also appear to be using trips to their coastal outgrounds to restore their summer.In June, having drawn their first five Championship matches and sitting a miserable seventh in Division One, Lancashire went to Southport and defeated Hampshire by six wickets. This week, still bruised by their failure to qualify for T20 Finals Day, Keaton Jennings and his players are in Blackpool, attempting to assuage their disappointment by beating Essex, who will be travelling to Edgbaston for English cricket’s annual hogfeast on Saturday.On Monday, both sides were defeated by the omega block, a meteorological feature that brought fearsome downpours whistling in from the west and restricted the teams to just 28 balls, the final three of which were bowled over six hours after the preceding 25. Indeed, had not Stanley Park’s outfield been relaid at a cost of £180,000 over three years ago, the 100th first-class match to take place on this famous ground might have been abandoned soon after it started.Around three o’clock Chapple might have been wishing it had been given up as a bad job. For rather than build on their removal of three top-order batters on the sweating wicket in the first hour or so of the day, Lancashire’s bowlers had been punished by Tom Westley, who had reached his third century of the season with a cut off Colin de Grandhomme, and Paul Walter, who had clouted Tom Hartley for two leg-side sixes in the over before lunch and meted out the same indignity to Jack Blatherwick when the players returned. The pair had also set a new fifth-wicket record for Essex against Lancashire, beating the 147 stand shared by Sonny Avery and Tom Pearce, also at Blackpool, in 1948. What made things worse was that Hartley had dropped Westley on 78 when he grassed a low chance at midwicket off de Grandhomme. Rather than rebalance Chapple’s delicate humours, it was enough to cause a relapse.Medicine, though, was at hand, specifically the right hand of Blatherwick who clutched a firmly hit clip by Walter off de Grandhomme when the tall Essex left-hander had made 76 off 119 balls and extended his partnership with Westley to 155. That dismissal left Essex on 210 for 5, neither prosperous nor poor one might think on what looks a fine outground pitch. Simon Harmer, whose wicket is rarely donated to his opponents, then joined Westley and the pair added a watchful 65 in 24 overs before Lancashire took the second new ball and the game was changed by Tom Bailey, one of the circuit’s least lauded yet most skilful bowlers.The first breakthrough was made by Will Williams, who had Westley caught at slip by Rob Jones for 135 when the Essex skipper seemed disconcerted by a little extra bounce. The last four Essex batters, however, were removed by Bailey, who bowled Harmer with one that nipped away off a good length and then induced Doug Bracewell to sky a pull to midwicket, where Dane Vilas waited under the catch. Both Sam Cook and Will Buttleman fell leg before to the Lancashire seamer, who had by then taken four wickets in 20 balls to complete an innings return of 6 for 59.So much, so very satisfactory for most of the home supporters, some of whom had watched the rain thunder down 24 hours earlier and might have wondered whether the county match they had worked so hard to stage would be worth remembering. And any misgivings they still harboured can hardly have been eased by the sight of Jamie Porter and Sam Cook warming up on the outfield. Essex’s new-ball pair are skilled in making totals of 282 look mountainous, especially so when left with an evening hour in which they can expend their full efforts.And the prospect of an early tumble of wickets assumed a grim reality when Luke Wells attempted to leave Porter’s fourth ball of the innings but only inside edged it onto his stumps. That success merely spurred the bowlers to greater efforts; perhaps they even expected them. Certainly there was no shortage of appeals or near things as Jennings and Josh Bohannon played out the final 13 overs and home spectators postponed their plans for an early departure in favour of watching some of the day’s most gripping cricket. Three hours earlier, they had enjoyed Westley’s leg-side repertoire and his occasional cover-drive; now success was to be measured in forward defensive strokes and balls survived. The final over was bowled by Bracewell, whose penultimate delivery was leg glanced for four by Bohannon. A minute or so later he was punching gloves with Jennings and the players were leaving the long-shadowed field; the sight was far removed from the floods of the previous 48 hours and it offers a rich prospect for the remaining two days of this game.

After having been outplayed in three days in Dominica, West Indies fought back with four wickets on the first afternoon in Port-of-Spain, but it was India’s day once again, thanks to strong bookends. Captain Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal forged a century opening partnership before Virat Kohli grafted for an unbeaten 87 in what was his 500th international game.Kohli had walked into bat when India were 153 for 2 and he watched them slump further to 182 for 4 by tea. But Kohli defended resolutely, ran hard between the wickets, and was prepared to wait for loose deliveries. He took 21 balls to get off the mark and continued to accumulate in slow but steady fashion. Ravindra Jadeja, too, dug in, contributing 36 to an unbroken 106-run stand for the fifth wicket as India closed out the day like they had begun: playing out a wicketless session.The passage of play in the morning session wasn’t as attritional as the following two sessions. Rohit and Jaiswal ensured that India rattled along at nearly five runs an over to begin, scoring 121 together in 26 overs without losing a wicket.Having shown remarkable restraint on debut in Dominica, Jaiswal dashed out of the blocks on a more benign Port-of-Spain track. Rohit, too, kept pulling in the air, from wide lines as well as from his body, despite the presence of two men in the deep on the leg-side boundary. Rohit needed 72 balls to get to his half-century, while Jaiswal got there off just 49 balls. Rohit and Jaiswal became the first Indian opening pair to have struck up back-to-back century stands in Test cricket in this millennium. S Ramesh and Devang Gandhi were the previous Indian opening pair with back-to-back century partnerships, in 1999 against New Zealand.Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal had West Indies chasing leather in a quick century stand•AFP/Getty Images

West Indies then changed the mood and tempo of play by striking four times in the afternoon session. Jason Holder, who kept threatening the outside edge of Jaiswal, made the first incision when he had him caught by debutant Kirk McKenzie at deepish gully for 57 off 74 balls.McKenzie could have cut Jaiswal’s innings short on 4 had he not let a thick outside edge burst through his hands at gully in the sixth over. Jaiswal could have also been dismissed on 52 in the last over before lunch, but Alick Athanaze grassed an easier chance at first slip off Holder.Holder relentlessly probed away outside off though, often with two gully fielders in place, and earned his reward in the second session, with McKenzie confidently holding on to Jaiswal’s catch this time.Kemar Roach is all smiles after getting rid of Shubman Gill cheaply•Associated Press

Kemar Roach and Jomel Warrican then accounted for the wickets of Shubman Gill and Rohit respectively. It was Shannon Gabriel who capped the afternoon session by sending Ajinkya Rahane’s off stump cartwheeling with a rapid inducker. Gabriel, who returned to the playing XI in place of an ill Rahkeem Cornwall, couldn’t pose much of a threat to India’s openers. His morning shift of four overs cost West Indies 24 runs, but he came back to produce a much sharper spell in the afternoon.Warrican got the ball to grip and turn as the day progressed, but Kohli was fully forward to smother it. Kohli refused to take any risks against the left-arm fingerspinner on a slow surface and just looked to wear him down.Alzarri Joseph targeted Kohli’s upper body with short balls from around the wicket, with a long leg and deep square in place, but Kohli blunted him too. Joseph’s extra bounce – or the lack thereof – caused Jadeja to lose his shape more often at the other end before he finally got the pull away in the 70th over.Kraigg Brathwaite then turned to the part-time offspin of Athanaze and himself, but West Indies couldn’t separate Kohli and Jadeja on day one.

Big Picture: Make or break for RCB

It all boils down to the final four hours. After 69 games across 52 days, the last league match will decide the identity of the players fourth team in the playoffs.The spotlight is on Royal Challengers Bangalore as they return home to the Chinnaswamy to host the Gujarat Titans after nearly a month on the road. They will know exactly what they need to qualify in the top four if net run rate becomes a factor, but the simplest route is to win. If they make it, it will be their fourth successive playoff appearance.So what’s going well for RCB? They are coming into this crucial fixture off two successive wins – against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals. Their strength is their batting, having scored more than 180 in three of their last four games. More specifically, it is their top-order batting, with Faf du Plessis (702), Virat Kohli (538) and Glenn Maxwell (389) doing the bulk of the run-scoring. The dependency on their Big Three could be a crucial factor in a crunch game.Winning at the Chinnaswamy also hasn’t been straightforward for RCB this season. While several teams have struggled to maximise their home advantage, it’s 3-3 for RCB in Bengaluru this year, and 40 wins in 83 games overall.So while RCB have everything to do to qualify for the playoffs, the Titans are already through. Hardik Pandya’s team is only the second side to finish top of the table in two successive seasons, after the Mumbai Indians in 2019 and 2020.

Team news: Will Titans rest players?

Fast bowler Josh Little had missed a few matches to play an ODI series for Ireland against Bangladesh, but he re-joined the Titans squad on May 16. Vijay Shankar had also missed the previous game after getting hit in the nets. With Titans already through to the playoffs, the big question is whether they will rest any of their players, considering they play Qualifier 1 on May 23.Du Plessis said at the toss of their previous game against Sunrisers that one of Hasaranga and Hazlewood was missing due to a niggle without specifying who it was.

The big question

Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis have been prolific at the top for RCB•BCCI

Form guide

RCB WWLLW
Gujarat Titans WLWWL

Impact Player strategy

Anuj Rawat kept wickets for RCB instead of Dinesh Karthik in the last two matches and he is expected to do it again against Titans. Karthik or Mahipal Lomror could sub in and out for for left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed depending on whether they bat or bowl first.Royal Challengers Bangalore (probable XII): 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Glenn Maxwell, 4 Mahipal Lomror, 5 , 6 Michael Bracewell, 7 Anuj Rawat (wk), 8 Wayne Parnell, 9 Karn Sharma, 10 Harshal Patel, 11 Mohammed Siraj, 12 Titans had swapped Shubman Gill with fast bowler Yash Dayal in their previous game against SRH. If Little returns, Gill and Mohit Sharma could be their Impact Players depending on whether they bat or bowl first.Gujarat Titans (probable XII): 1 , 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Hardik Pandya (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Abhinav Manohar/Vijay Shankar, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Josh Little, 10 Noor Ahmad, 11 Mohammed Shami, 12

Pitch and conditions

Bengaluru has been hot and humid this week but i rained on match eve and a couple of spells of rain is likely on Sunday as well. The average first-innings total at the Chinnaswamy Stadium is 194, so expect a run-fest.

Stats that matter

• Kohli is a beast in Bengaluru with 3106 T20s runs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, the most by any batter, at a strike rate of 140.82.
• Rashid Khan has dismissed du Plessis three times in eight T20s, and conceded only 32 runs in 45 balls.
• Gill has scored at 148.14 against Mohammed Siraj in the IPL, with no dismissals in six innings.