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Nottinghamshire 210 and 37 for 1 trail Surrey 592 (Burns 153, Clarke 111, S Curran 70) by 325 runs
ScorecardFor an hour or so during the morning session, Nottinghamshire seemed to have it in them to put behind them their dismal showing on the opening day and battle their way back into this match. With Stuart Broad and Luke Fletcher at last able to apply sustained pressure, Surrey lost four wickets for 62 and their dominance looked at risk for the first time.In the end, though, it was an effort Nottinghamshire could not sustain as Surrey, with a relentlessness to match the heat of the afternoon, simply reimposed their superiority.Rory Burns consolidated his position as the Championship’s leading run-scorer with a superb 153, the rejuvenated Rikki Clarke made his first Championship hundred for six years, and with Morne Morkel and Jade Dernbach responding to Sam Curran’s 10 fours and a six by inflicting further pain on a wilting Nottinghamshire attack, Surrey comfortably exceeded the largest total of the season.Three Nottinghamshire bowlers went for 100 or more runs, the left-armer Harry Gurney conceding 119 off just 16 overs. He did claim the wicket of Ollie Pope, thus restricting the second-most prolific batsman in the Championship to only 30 runs, but his excitement as Pope carelessly flailed at a wide one to give him his 300th first-class wicket passed quickly. Collectively, the home attack did not help themselves by handing Surrey 30 runs in no-balls.Fletcher was the worst offender in that respect, overstepping six times, although by all other measures he was Nottinghamshire’s best bowler, going for only a little more than three an over when the collective went at almost six. He tested Burns time and again during that opening session to the extent that the Surrey captain not only had to draw deeply on his skill and patience but also needed a bit of luck as the ball several times almost found the edge of his bat. When Fletcher did get his reward, as Scott Borthwick nicked one, it was the most deserved wicket of the day.Burns, 97 overnight, needed 26 deliveries to complete his hundred, at last pushing one firmly towards the vacant long-off boundary off Broad and running three. It had been the most challenging passage of his innings by far.Broad, playing in this match to measure his fitness and sharpness ahead of the first Test against India, bowled with pace and hostility and picked up wickets in consecutive overs. Aaron Finch helpfully chipped straight to mid-on but Broad then produced a ball that was too good for Ben Foakes, taken at first slip at the second attempt by Riki Wessels.After Pope’s moment of instantly regretted rashness, Surrey were 297 for 5, their lead healthy at 77 runs but not yet grounds for thinking the match was in the bag.Rory Burns acknowledges his third hundred of the season•Getty Images

Burns moved to 153 by sweeping Samit Patel for his 23rd four soon after lunch but the sense that Nottinghamshire were not quite out of it returned with the next ball, when the left-arm spinner hurried one through and the Surrey captain, taken by surprise, edged it to slip. The feeling did not last. The fall of Burns merely introduced Clarke, a man of 16 first-class hundreds, one on this ground, coming in at No. 8. He was into his stride quickly, collecting five boundaries from his first 20 balls.He and Curran added 125 in 26 overs before the latter, whose 70 from 101 balls was a solidly accomplished effort, was leg before on the back foot to Patel. Clarke’s century, his first since his unbeaten 110 against Sussex for Warwickshire in July 2012, was one of joy and adventure, completed when he pulled Jake Ball behind square for his 19th four.For the second day running, there was a unexpected postscript as Billy Root, whose offspin has been employed in only six first-class matches so far, took three wickets for the second time, his first when Clarke’s attempt at a reverse-sweep went horribly wrong.Nottinghamshire faced 16 overs to the close. They lost Jake Libby, trapped in the crease when Morkel came up with a toe-crusher second ball, but young Will Fraine showed some bottle for the second time in the match to help skipper Steven Mullaney limit the damage. A lot more grit will be needed if this match is to need a fourth day.

The only double-centurions in women’s ODIs•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Seventeen-year-old Amelia Kerr smashed an unbeaten 232 off 145 balls – the highest individual score in women’s ODIs – going past Belinda Clark’s 229 that was made in 1997 against Denmark in Mumbai. Her record-breaking innings propelled New Zealand women to 440 for 3 – their third successive 400-plus score against Ireland women.Kerr wasn’t done yet. She followed it with career-best returns of 5 for 17 to lead her team to a 305-run win – the sixth biggest in women’s ODIs. New Zealand also hold the record for the biggest victory – by 408 runs against Pakistan in 1997 – and more recently they had secured wins by margins of over 300 runs in the first two ODIs of this series.Kerr was on 217 off 141 balls at the start of 50th over and needed 13 more to topple a 21-year record. She drove the second ball of the over to long-on for a single before hitting two fours and a six on the last three balls of the over to cap the innings to set the new record. She reached the landmark when she smacked seamer Amy Kenealy down the ground for a six off the last ball of the innings. All told, she hit 31 fours and two sixes.After New Zealand opted to bat again, new openers Kerr and Amy Satterthwaite, who scored 61 off 45 balls, set a strong platform by adding 113 runs. The partnership ended in the 15th over when Gaby Lewis had Satterthwaite holing out on the leg side. Kerr then combined with Leigh Kasperek, who was promoted to No. 3, to amass 295 runs at a run rate of nearly nine runs per over in 33.1 overs.Kasperek brought up her maiden ODI hundred off 97 balls when she ramped Lara Maritz over the keeper’s head for four in the 46th over. Martitz bowled Kasperek for 113 two overs later but Kerr was simply unstoppable. Conceding as many as 30 extras, including 18 wides, did not help Ireland’s cause either.Kerr then starred with her legspin to rip through the chase. She began with a maiden and then bowled top-scorer Una Raymond-Hoey (42) around her legs. Ireland were 91 for 4 at that point after 25 overs. They added only 44 more before being dismissed in 44 overs. Kerr made light work of the lower order and fittingly sealed victory when she bowled No. 11 Cara Murray for a duck to end with figures of 7-1-17-5.Kerr ended the three-match series as the highest scorer, with 342 runs at a strike rate of 156.88, and the highest wicket-taker with eight scalps, to be named the Player of the Series.

ScorecardUntil he turned up in Cardiff last week to be introduced as a Glamorgan player, Usman Khawaja’s knowledge of Wales did not extend much beyond the sitcom Gavin and Stacey. It has become one of his favourite TV shows, so much so that top of the list of places he wants to see while in the principality is not Cardiff Castle or the Snowdonia National Park but Barry Island.It is quite likely Wales will take to him, too, after he marked his Glamorgan debut with a century that has given them a chance of achieving their first Championship win at Edgbaston since 1988, when the sometime England fast bowler Greg Thomas took six wickets and Warwickshire, needing 194 to win on the final afternoon, were bowled out five runs short.In doing so Khawaja emulated his compatriot, Shaun Marsh, whose place in the side he has taken, who also made a hundred on his county debut in April. They will play together in the Vitality T20 Blast later in the summer.For now, Marsh is preparing for Australia’s ODI joust with England, which begins on Wednesday. It was Marsh’s call-up that led Glamorgan to ask Khawaja if he wouldn’t mind playing in two or three Championship matches ahead of the T20, an arrangement he is more than happy with, given there is an Ashes tour looming in 2019.Not that he is unfamiliar with English conditions. Indeed, he has made centuries here before, two for Derbyshire – Glamorgan’s opponents in Swansea next week – and one for Lancashire. But he does not have one in a Test match in England, which is another thing on his to-do list following his 171 against Joe Root’s hapless boys at Sydney in January.His 125 here, spanning almost three-and-a-half hours on a slow, used pitch now effectively four days old, ensured that the good work of openers Nick Selman and Jack Murphy against the new ball on the second evening was not wasted, even after Selman had clipped Keith Barker straight to short midwicket in only the fifth over of the morning.It might have been. Murphy added only eight to his overnight score and both Connor Brown and Owen Morgan went cheaply but Khawaja found an ally at last in Chris Cooke, his captain in this game in the absence of an injured Michael Hogan. They shared a partnership of 115 that ended with his own dismissal, lbw playing back to Jeetan Patel, whose offspin to that point he had countered pretty well.There has not been much turn so far and Josh Poysden, who did so well to take five wickets in the first innings, was wicketless this time. Yet it is a surface that needs to be treated with respect, nonetheless, one on which a batsman can become tentative. Not so Khawaja, who paced his innings evenly, scoring his first fifty off 58 balls with seven fours, his second off 63 with another seven.Once he had gone and Cooke followed, gloving a catch as he tried to withdraw the bat against the impressive 18-year-old quick Henry Brookes, the innings did fall away yet Warwickshire, needing precisely 100 more runs than were required 30 years ago, were left with a tall task to extend their winning run and those padded up in the dressing room will have been pleased to see Will Rhodes and Dom Sibley negotiate 13 overs to stumps unscathed.

ScorecardWorcestershire’s relegation to Division Two was confirmed as they slumped to an innings defeat against Essex at Chelmsford.After Joe Clarke fell to the third ball of the morning, the task was simply to delay the inevitable, and despite Wayne Parnell’s battling, unbeaten 50 taking things into the day’s second session, Essex wrapped things up with time to spare.The damage in this game was done on the first day, when they were shot out by Jamie Porter, and these three days confirmed the pre-season suspicions of many that, despite an exciting crop of young talent, Worcestershire lacked that little bit of quality to keep them in the division.In truth, it was a cruel way for their Championship campaign to end. Their narrow defeats at Southport and at home to both Essex and Surrey were hard-fought games that could easily have gone their way, and in all three, a poor session or two cost them.Here, they were outplayed by an excellent Essex side who may well go into next season as Surrey’s nearest challengers with the bookies.”We haven’t played anywhere near our best in this game,” said Daryl Mitchell, who suffered his fifth relegation today. “We’ve got an absolute pasting this week – we haven’t competed well at all. The rest of the year, there’s been some near misses and we’ve competed really well, but we’ve been completely annihilated here.”It was hard not to spare a thought for Mitchell this afternoon. In the past week he captained the side against the county champions in one of their toughest games of the season, won the Vitality Blast on Worcestershire’s first appearance at Finals Day, played two days of trials for the Hundred, and now he finds himself relegated again.As is often the case for the club, there is reason for optimism yet. Next year they will be strengthened even further by the returning Joe Leach, and with Parnell signing a Kolpak deal to complement the young trio of Ed Barnard, Dillon Pennington and Josh Tongue, their seam attack will be among the best in either division.And with county heads set to vote on a proposal to expand the top division to ten teams next week, the years of lurching between the divisions may soon be over.Mitchell was not the only county stalwart on the mind today. James Foster, who is leaving the club at the end of his contract, was heralded on the pitch during the lunch interval, came on as a substitute fielder for a final Chelmsford outing, and played football with his young family on the outfield as the ground emptied.Tensions have been high in the final phase of Foster’s Essex career. Negotiating with the club has proved tricky: he has not played for the first team since his mid-season coaching stint in the Global T20 League in Canada, and it has been made clear that his contract is expiring rather than him retiring.While this was not the farewell season he would have wanted, it was clear from the club’s presentation that he will go down as a great in these parts; and after 18 years of service, he deserved every last ripple of applause that came his way.Essex go into next week’s game at The Oval needing a win to have a chance of sealing second place, but third should not be seen as some kind of failure.”In the time I’ve been here, barring last year, we’ve never even finished as high as second from bottom in Div One,” said Ryan ten Doeschate, now the dressing room’s senior citizen, during the defeat to Surrey two weeks ago. “It would be jumping the gun to think Championship, Championship, Championship: we need to be realistic.”And this performance showed that all the ingredients of last year’s success are still there. Porter’s 11 wickets in the match will leave him hopeful of a Test debut before long and Ravi Bopara’s hundred gave a reminder of his immense worth to the club.Today, they were not at their best with the ball, but the pressure was off after Clarke’s early departure, and when Simon Harmer wrapped things up with the wickets of Ben Twohig – whose elegant cameo showed promise – and Pennington, it was some time since the game had been won.

Shane Watson, the former Australia allrounder, has parted ways with the San Francisco Unicorns after a three-year stint as head coach of the Major League Cricket (MLC) franchise.The Unicorns have not announced Watson’s successor yet. “In an effort to strengthen the Unicorns’ long-term strategy, the organization is shifting to a year-round coaching model,” the franchise said in a statement. “Watson’s ongoing commentary commitments and the rapid growth of his acclaimed performance coaching brand, BEON Performance, prevent him from taking on a full-time role with the Unicorns.”Under Watson, the Unicorns finished fifth out of six teams in the inaugural edition of the MLC in 2023 before reaching the playoffs in both 2024 and 2025; their best finish came in 2024 when they lost the final to Washington Freedom.”It has been a true privilege to lead the San Francisco Unicorns over the last three seasons,” Watson said. “I’m proud of what we accomplished, and am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with world-class stars and incredible young talent in Major League Cricket, which continues to be an exciting new frontier for the sport.”Apart from the Unicorns stint, Watson has also coached in other franchise leagues; he was assistant coach of Delhi Capitals in the 2022 and 2023 seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and head coach of Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2024.”Shane was the natural choice to be our first Head Coach, and he played a key role in building the Unicorns from the ground up,” Unicorns CEO David White said. “We are eternally grateful for Shane’s dedication across his three seasons in charge, and the Unicorns wish him every success in his future endeavors.”

There was a contest between man and nature to see who was hotter and in the end, try as the elements could, they couldn’t match Azmatullah Omarzai’s fire. Even in 41°C heat, he burned brighter, scoring Afghanistan’s fastest T20I fifty and just kept going from there.Omarzai was responsible for one of two blink-and-you’ll-miss-it run-outs, which, coming on the back of a Hong Kong fielding performance that included three dropped catches, was cricket working a little too hard to highlight the gulf between the two sides. Full Member Afghanistan made 188 for 6. It was 94 too many for their Associate nation opposition.

Sediqullah’s three lives

Sediqullah Atal looked a real good player. Stood nice and tall in his set-up, seemed competent playing shots off both front foot and the back foot, and crucially, he was able to cope with the lack of pace in Abu Dhabi. He is only 24, but already showing signs of what players more experienced than him are known for. The bit between the ears. Atal was 26 off 17 with five fours at the end of the powerplay when the other end had contributed only 14 off 19 balls with one six.Hong Kong slowed Atal down with spin but were never able to capitalise on the pressure they created. Yasim Murtaza gave him two lives – dropping him on 4 off 3 in the first over, then on 46 off 38 off his own bowling and finally had to watch Ehsan Khan put down a clanger just after Atal had raised his third T20I fifty. A man who should’ve been dismissed in the first over batted through the innings to score 73 off 52.

Azmatullah the game changer

Afghanistan were 119 for 4 after 16 overs. Hong Kong’s spinners – Murtaza in particular – provided a challenge that is rarely seen in modern T20 cricket. He pulled pace off the ball, going as low as 70kph at times to deny scoring opportunities. Kinchit Shah, bowling from the other end, got the wickets. The five overs they bowled between the 10th and the 14th yielded two wickets for just 24 runs.As good as that period was for Hong Kong, it also brought Omarzai to the crease and he was so game aware. The fast bowlers returned in the 17th over and it was go time. The next 18 balls yielded 60 runs. Omarzai went 6, 6, 6 and 4 against Ayush Shukla to bring up his half-century off just 20 deliveries. From the simple, clear-the-front-leg slog to the cheeky ramp past the keeper, the Afghanistan allrounder showed impressive range on a difficult batting pitch.2:26

Mukund impressed by Afghanistan’s on-field trial

Hong Kong punished

Hong Kong’s mishaps continued with bat in hand as well. They gave up a wicket for no reason – and one run on the board – when Anshuman Rath was ruled caught behind but replays showed several inches of daylight between bat and ball. Zeeshan Ali, the non-striker, had seemingly persuaded Rath from challenging umpire Virender Sharma’s decision. Then they had to watch as Rashid Khan ran out Nizakat Khan for 0 off 0 balls because he took too long to realise there was no run off a Babar Hayat hit to cover.Two overs – and two dropped catches later, apparently Afghanistan were happy to give themselves a handicap – Azmatullah had Kalhan Challu run-out off his own bowling when the batter strayed out of his crease after pushing the ball down the pitch. The Hong Kong captain had high hopes for Challu at the toss, instead his wicket for 4 off 8 was a cruel reminder of the quality of cricket at this level.Hong Kong went joint-second for most wickets (four) lost by a team in the powerplay in the men’s T20 Asia Cup. Only two of their batters got to double-digits. None of them managed to score at a run a ball. Their focus at 63 for 6 had shifted to playing the overs out and they did that to finish on 94 for 9.

Hasan Ali has been dropped from both Pakistan’s squad for the ODI series in the Netherlands as well for the Asia Cup T20Is later this month. Naseem Shah has been named in both squads. Shaheen Shah Afridi, who missed the second Test in Sri Lanka last month because of a knee injury, has been included in both squads, with a PCB statement saying, “his rehabilitation programme will be overseen by the team trainer and physiotherapist, who will also decide on his return to international cricket”.Babar Azam continues to be in charge of both the set-ups, with Shadab Khan as his deputy.Hasan’s form across formats in the last year has been middling at best, with his T20I bowling strike rate moving to 23.2; he has picked up eight wickets in nine games in this period. In the three ODIs he has played in the last 12 months – all at home between March and June this year – he averaged 76.50 with the ball, picking up two wickets overall. Earlier this year, in the PSL, he had a bowling average of 40.55 and had an economy rate of 10.84 as he got nine wickets in nine games for Islamabad United.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“We have done our homework, especially for the players who have served Pakistan well and have won so many games for the country,” Mohammad Wasim, the men’s chief selector, said when asked about Hasan. “To give them a longer run is a part of the plan, but then there is the stage when you realise that now is the time we think he needs a break for his own and the team’s betterment.”So we had a similar thought process with Hasan Ali, to give him an extended run, but now we think he needs to regather himself and return as a match-winner. We hope going forward we will find the same old Hasan Ali.”It has been a downward spiral for Hasan since last year’s T20 World Cup, where he dropped a catch that could, potentially, have won Pakistan the semi-final against Australia. He ended the tournament with five wicket in six bowling innings, at an average of 41.40 and an economy rate of 9.00.Naseem, who has never played ODIs or T20Is, has taken Hasan’s place after a good performance in the two Tests in Sri Lanka last month, when he picked up seven wickets on not-very-helpful pitches. Naseem had struggled with fitness issues till recently, but has come back stronger.”Naseem Shah is a quality bowler, and we have seen him in domestic white-ball cricket,” Wasim said. “He has got express pace and we wanted to include an attacking option; it is important to take wickets in white0ball cricket. He has that ability. He can swing the ball, he has got pace, and if we talk about his temperament, we have seen the evidence in Tests.”He was a good replacement for Hasan Ali, and we hope he can take his success from red-ball to white-ball cricket.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Agha Salman, the middle-order batter who made his international debut in the Test series against Sri Lanka last month, now has a chance of making his ODI debut in the Netherlands.The selectors have also kept faith in PSL sensational Mohammad Haris, the wicketkeeper-batter, for the ODIs. He made his debut in the home series against West Indies in June, but failed both the times he got a chance to bat, scoring 6 and 0 from the middle order.He has, however, been identified as the back-up to Mohammad Rizwan behind the stumps, which will likely ensure more opportunities, at least in the short term. Haris shot to prominence at PSL 7, scoring 166 runs in five innings at a strike rate of over 185 for Peshawar Zalmi. At the 50-over Pakistan Cup last year, he scored 289 runs in eight innings at an average of 41.28 and strike rate of over 100 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.The selected players will assemble in Lahore on August 6 for a six-day training camp. The ODI side will leave for Amsterdam in the wee hours of August 12 for the three-ODI series – the matches are on August 16, 18 and 21, all in Rotterdam – and the T20I specialists will reach Dubai on August 22, where they will be joined by the T20I members of the ODI squad.

KL Rahul has been drafted in as the 16th member of India’s squad that will tour Zimbabwe for three ODIs between August 18 and 22. Rahul will also captain the squad, with Shikhar Dhawan, who was earlier set to lead, now named his deputy.Rahul’s inclusion follows a clearance from BCCI’s medical team that has earlier advised a two-week post-Covid-19 recovery time frame. Rahul is believed to have contracted the virus a week prior to his scheduled departure for the West Indies mid-July, for the five match T20I-series. Last week, Rahul was named in India’s full-strength squad for the Asia Cup that will be held in UAE from August 27.Since recovering from Covid, Rahul has had to pass the mandatory cardiovascular test following which he has slowly amped up his training routine. ESPNcricinfo understands Rahul has resumed batting and training full tilt over the past week, following which he underwent a medical assessment. Prior to contracting Covid, Rahul had been recovering from a surgery he underwent for sports hernia in Germany in June.Rahul hasn’t played any competitive cricket since IPL 2022, where he led debutant-franchise Lucknow Super Giants to the playoffs. He was initially set to be part of the England tour party for the fifth Test in Birmingham in early July, but had to pull out due to a groin strain, which was later revealed as a sports hernia.This will be Rahul’s second stint as India captain. His first stint was far from memorable, with India being blanked 3-0 in the ODIs in South Africa earlier this year.

Injury scare for Washington Sundar

Washington Sundar, who is also part of the squad, suffered an injury scare on Wednesday. In the midst of a stint with English county Lancashire, Washington landed heavily on his left shoulder after diving from mid-on to stop a drive in a Royal London Cup fixture against Worcestershire. He left the field immediately and didn’t take any further part in the match as a precautionary measure. Washington is likely to link up with India’s squad directly in Harare after Lancashire’s clash against Hampshire on Sunday.Like Rahul, Washington too has had a run of injuries this year. In February, he was sidelined from the West Indies and Sri Lanka T20Is at home due to a hamstring injury. During the IPL, he injured his bowling hand while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He then underwent a month-long rehabilitation at the NCA in June and it is understood he had a shoulder issue to sort out before making his County Championship debut.The Indian team will depart for Zimbabwe later this week. All three ODIs will be played at Harare Sports Club, with the hosts on a high after an impressive 2-1 win over Bangladesh. While the series is part of the ICC World Cup Super League and massively important for Zimbabwe – finishing in the top eight on the Super League table means direct qualification to the World Cup – India qualify for next year’s World Cup automatically by virtue of being the hosts.Updated India squad: KL Rahul (captain) Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Deepak Chahar.

West Indies have dropped Shimron Hetmyer from their men’s T20 World Cup squad after he missed a “rescheduled” flight to Australia. CWI said the decision had been taken “unanimously” by the selection panel, which also decided to name Shamarh Brooks as Hetmyer’s replacement.The rest of the West Indies squad had flown to Australia in different groups following the conclusion of the CPL on Saturday. When asked about the situation, the white-ball captain Nicholas Pooran said, “To be honest, that’s not my focus at the moment. A decision has been made, there’s consequences for your action. At the moment just want to focus on why we’re here and how we’re going to achieve our goals.”Hetmyer, who was captain of Guyana Amazon Warriors, was originally set to fly out on October 1, but wanted his flight rescheduled due to personal reasons. CWI booked him on a flight that would leave on Monday, only for Hetmyer to later tell Jimmy Adams, CWI’s director of cricket, that he would not be travelling.Related

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“The decision by the CWI selection panel was made as Shimron Hetmyer missed his re-scheduled flight to Australia, which had been changed from Saturday 1 October at his request, due to family reasons,” CWI said in a media statement. “With flight availability a real challenge, a seat was found for him to leave Guyana today, Monday 3 October, meaning he would unfortunately miss the 1st T20 International (T20I) against Australia on Wednesday 5 October at the Metricon Stadium. This morning, Mr Hetmyer, informed the Director of Cricket that he would not be able to get to the airport in time for his flight this afternoon to New York.”Adams said that Hetmyer had been informed that “any further delay” in travel would cost him his World Cup spot.”This afternoon we informed the CWI board of directors that the selection panel had unanimously decided to replace Shimron Hetmyer with Shamarh Brooks in our T20 World Cup squad,” Adams said. “Whilst we changed Shimron’s flight from Saturday to Monday due to family reasons, it was made clear to him that if there were any further delays and issues with his travel to Australia then we would have no choice but to replace him in the squad, as we are not prepared to compromise the team’s ability to prepare for this extremely important global event.”Pooran admitted that Hetmyer was a big loss. “Obviously, yeah, we plan with him but unfortunately he’s not here and we have to plan differently now.”Brooks will fly out later this week but will not feature in the two-match T20I series against Australia. He will instead join the World Cup squad directly in Melbourne, where they will start their campaign in the qualifying round. West Indies are placed in Group B, alongside Ireland, Scotland and Zimbabwe with the top two teams progressing to the Super 12s.Brooks and Hetmyer were pitted against each other in CPL playoffs last week. It was Brooks’ unbeaten 109 in Qualifier 2 that helped Jamaica Tallawahs make the final, which they went on to win against Barbados Royals.

A team under pressure. A captain refusing to give up. The odds piling up against them. And then one fine day, the stars align.Pakistan cranked up the deja vu in Adelaide on Sunday as they sailed into the T20 World Cup semi-finals. If anyone is still working on time travel, please follow this cricket team. They’ve made it 1992 again.This game wouldn’t even have played out this way if not for Netherlands shocking South Africa. Some people might call that destiny.At the receiving end of this unreal series of events were Bangladesh and Shakib Al Hasan. His wicket turned this game, adjudged lbw on field, and upheld on DRS even though he was absolutely certain he’d nicked the ball.Bangladesh were 70 for 1 after 10 overs. Then they lost their captain and could manage only 127 for 8. Advantage Pakistan.Wasim Akram lite
Shaheen Shah Afridi admitted he’s not 100% at this tournament. Someone should splice that press conference video with the ball he bowled to Mosaddek Hossain. Left-arm. High pace. Around the wicket. Reverse swing. Bowled ‘iiiiimmmmmmm!Growing up, he would have shoved Wasim Akram videos straight into his veins. Now, he’s recreated his idol’s most famous dismissal on the grandest stage with everything on the line. How many people get to do that? How many people are good enough to do that?The good, the bad and the collapse
Najmul Hossain Shanto (54 off 48) was smiling. His leading edge had pretty much bunny-hopped for four over point. That was the first over. Back when Bangladesh had gained a sizeable advantage batting first on a used pitch where shot-making got harder as time went on.Even halfway through, they were sitting pretty. Then it happened.Shadab Khan looped one up over the batter’s eyeline. Shakib accepted the invitation and came charging out of his crease. The legspinner’s dip deceived him. A big hit turned into a scramble to put bat on ball.Shakib thought he did. Umpire Adrian Holdstock on field didn’t. DRS came into play, and everything turned murky. UltraEdge showed a spike, but the third umpire Langton Rusere thought that was bat hitting ground. Only there seemed a fraction of daylight between those two things.The on-field decision was upheld. And Shakib was distraught. He kept standing there, swinging his arms around, wondering what was going on. The Bangladesh captain had to literally be pushed out of the field.That wicket was part of a procession: 6 for 36.Mohammad Haris played a crucial innings of 31 off 18 balls•Associated Press

Another expensive no-ball
The Adelaide pitch wasn’t great for strokeplay. Batters kept trying to hit out but it just wasn’t happening. On the broadcast, a telling stat came up: the strike rate when pace was on was 122, but it was only 28 when pace was off.That kept Bangladesh in it. That’s the reason this game was even alive. Remember, earlier in the day, on this very surface, South Africa came undone against Netherlands’ slower balls to turn this into a quarter-final.Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan put on their first fifty partnership of this T20 World Cup. But Bangladesh fought back.They were an angry team. A team raging against the way the world was working. At one point, when an lbw didn’t go Bangladesh’s way, Shakib grabbed his cap and flung it into the turf. They could easily have been distracted by these things but they kept at it.They pushed this game into the death – and then unravelled.Taskin Ahmed, who could have had a wicket in his first over if not for a bad fumble from the wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan, who has carried his team on his back in these Super 12s, overstepped.The equation was 30 off 28. They had taken a wicket five balls ago. The pressure was piling on Pakistan.Then – much like in that game against India – a team that desperately needed a free-hit got one. And 21-year old Mohammad Haris whacked it for six.Pakistan are into the knockouts now. They even returned the favour to Netherlands, giving them a great chance of finishing fourth in Group 2 which ensures they will play the next T20 World Cup.Now, if India beat Zimbabwe in the last group game on Sunday, Pakistan will travel to Sydney, where once again conditions have been very helpful to slow bowling. Conditions that could favour Babar and his men if they go up against New Zealand in the first semi-final.