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With Washington Sundar likely to miss a chunk of the TNPL, he went to Trichy Grand Cholas for a fairly low price of INR 6 lakh

Deivarayan Muthu15-Feb-2025Vijay Shankar, Swapnil Singh, M Mohammed and C Andre Siddarth were among the major buys at the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) 2025 mega auction that was held in Chennai on Saturday.Former UAE international Karthik Meiyappan, who has now moved back to Chennai, his city of birth, headed to Madurai Panthers for INR 9.2 lakh. The wristspinner had bagged a hat-trick in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia and brings with him the experience of having played in the ILT20 and Global T20 Canada.In the lead-up to the auction, the likes of R Ashwin and Varun Chakravarthy (both Dindigul Dragons), Shahrukh Khan and Sai Sudharsan (both Lyca Kovai Kings) and Tamil Nadu captain R Sai Kishore (Tiruppur Tamizhans) were retained by the franchises.Vijay had kicked off the auction by triggering a bidding war, having at least four of the eight franchises, including Ashwin’s Dindigul, raising the paddle for his all-round skills before Chepauk Super Gillies scooped him up for INR 18 lakh. It was Mohammed who fetched the highest bid of INR 18.8 lakh, with Salem Spartans staving off competition from his former team Kovai Kings and Madurai.Mohammed hasn’t played in the IPL yet but has had a stint with Punjab Kings as a net bowler in the past. Swapnil, the UP-born left-arm fingerspinner, who often bowls in the powerplay for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), was picked by Chepauk for INR 10.8 lakh. In the IPL 2025 auction, RCB had used their right-to-match card to get Swapnil back for INR 50 lakh.Karthik Meiyappan bagged a hat-trick for UAE in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia•ICC via Getty Images

Swapnil, who had started his domestic career with Baroda, left the side during the Covid-19 pandemic after not getting regular game-time with them. He moved to Uttarakhand as an outstation player and since he has enrolled himself into TNCA’s first-division league, he is eligible to play in the TNPL.Sudharsan had returned to action from sports hernia in Tamil Nadu’s Ranji Trophy quarter-final clash against Vidarbha recently, but his availability for the TNPL is unclear as he might be picked in the India A or India squad for the England tour. In a bid to fill that void, Kovai Kings snapped up Siddarth for INR 8.4 lakh. Siddarth, the nephew of former Tamil Nadu stalwart and current national selector S Sharath, has also broken into the IPL, earning a deal worth INR 30 lakh with Chennai Super Kings. Siddarth had also played for India Under-19s in the 50-overs Under-19 Asia Cup in late 2024.With Washington Sundar set to slot into Ashwin’s spot as the frontline offspinner in India’s Test side, and likely to miss a chunk of the TNPL, he went to Trichy Grand Cholas for a low price of INR 6 lakh.Dindigul are the defending champions of the TNPL, having won their maiden title under Ashwin’s leadership in August 2024.

Veteran rolls back the years to overcome favourites Surrey and secure place in Finals Day

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Sep-2025Ravi Bopara rolled back the years with a sensational century – his third in a T20 career that has now spanned 22 years and almost 500 individual contests – to power Northamptonshire into Vitality Blast Finals Day at the expense of the tournament favourites, Surrey, on a thrilling night at the Kia Oval.Bopara has been on the scene so long that he is old enough to have featured in the second-ever day of T20 fixtures – for Essex, also against Surrey, in the original Twenty20 Cup in June 2003. But now, at the age of 40, he produced arguably his greatest knock in the format, to give Northants a shot at their third Blast title, and first since 2016.The contest had already been reduced to 14 overs a side due to heavy evening rain when Northants – asked to bat first – slumped to 1 for 2 in the first over. Jordan Clark removed Ricardo Vasconcelos with his first ball and David Willey with his sixth, also for a duck.Bopara, however, remained unfazed by the tough conditions, insisting that Northamptonshire’s gameplan was to “just keep going”, irrespective of the threat posed by a Surrey team that had topped the South Group with eight wins out of 11 in the competition’s group stages.”It was an amazing win,” Bopara told Sky Sports as he accepted his player-of-the-match award. “We knew there was going to be a bit of rain about, and we knew that this pitch might nibble at the start, but our philosophy was ‘just keep going’ and it will come off. And today it did.”We’re always going to stick with it. Because if someone has a day out, you end up posting a score like that. If someone gets a quick 80 or 100, you’re away.”That someone turned out to be Bopara himself, with 12 fours and five sixes in a magnificent unbeaten 105 from 46 balls. Afterwards he said that an inner calmness had been the key to his composure.”I don’t know if I’m getting better, but I was thinking about it all night,” he said. “I didn’t have that fire in my belly today, and that’s when I prefer it, when I feel a bit dead. That’s when I feel like I’m going to perform my best. It doesn’t always work, but [when it does] it’s good.”He also praised his team’s bowling effort for closing out the contest, despite a battling 69 not out from 38 balls from Surrey’s captain, Sam Curran.”It was very slippery out there,” Bopara said. “The chat was just to hold length. Length was the hardest ball to hit because it just nipped a little bit, and didn’t come off the surface at the same pace. We faltered from our plan a little bit in the middle, which brought them back into the game, but then went back to it towards the death. So that was good stuff.”Willey, whose composure with the ball was key to Northants’ successful defence, heaped praise on his team-mate, who will head to Edgbaston next week hoping to land his second Blast title, after a match-sealing knock of 36 not out from 22 balls in Essex’s victory over Worcestershire in 2019.”We got him for his experience, and that’s exactly what we got … big game, and he stood up,” Willey said. “He’s had a few murmurs of hanging the boots up, but hopefully we can prise him out for one more year, when he can play like that. It was just exceptional power, and also the skill that he showed there in that innings, from two-down for next to nothing, was fantastic.”Northants are now two games away from joining Leicestershire and Hampshire as the most successful team in T20 Blast history, with three titles each.”For a small club like us to get to Finals Day [is huge],” Willey said. “We’re obviously delighted to be there. It was a fantastic game of cricket here tonight. Hopefully we can build on that going into next weekend.”For Curran, the loss came just days after his pivotal role in Oval Invincibles’ third consecutive Men’s Hundred title. He is on course to land a second trophy this season, with Surrey favourites to claim the County Championship for the fourth season in a row. But he admitted he was ‘gutted’ at letting this contest slip.”It was a great game of cricket, credit to everyone for getting it on,” he said. “We’re gutted, it hurts very much when you get so close but credit to Northants – they held their nerve and nailed their skills in tough conditions. Good luck to them on Finals Day.”I thought anything around 140 would be a decent score and obviously with a wet outfield and wet ball it was tough. When I was batting and we kept it at two a ball, I felt like we were in the game, with the batting we had to come.”Ravi played an incredible knock and showed that world-class experience – in these kind of games, it just takes that one innings. Sometimes you just have to say ‘well played’ and learn from it.”It hurts now and it should – this is a tournament we’ve struggled to win over the years. The boys are in a good place with the four-day stuff and we’ll dust ourselves down, keep our heads up and hope to come running in hard on Monday (in the County Championship).”

Sussex pay price for a lack of acceleration, though local seagull steals the show, and banana

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay 24-Aug-2025Yorkshire, the outstanding team in Group B of the Metro Bank One Day Cup, made sure of qualification for the climax of the competition with their sixth win in seven games. The Sussex Sharks, meanwhile, with one game remaining, cannot progress.A second wicket stand of 196 in 33 overs between Imam-ul-Haq and James Wharton provided the foundation of Yorkshire’s ultimately comfortable win, with 14 balls to spare. Imam continued his outstanding form with 106 from 105 deliveries, with ten fours and three sixes, while Wharton struck a List A best 85 from 103 balls.But the pair’s failure to accelerate put Yorkshire under some pressure when they lost both batsmen in successive overs, followed by the quick dismissal of Finlay Bean. That meant they needed 58 off seven overs, and 51 off six, before some late hitting by Matt Revis and George Hill saw them over the line.The Sussex innings was one of two halves, in which they scored 97 in the first 25 overs and 187 in the second as Matt Milnes took seven wickets for 38 runs, Yorkshire’s third-best bowling figures in List A cricket and their best since 1997. Milnes also took a hat-trick and almost managed a second.Sussex have had a number of batting collapses in this year’s competition and here they managed two, losing three wickets for six runs in 12 balls early in their innings and then three in three balls to Milnes towards the end.Between these low points, however, they staged a remarkable recovery, led by Oli Carter, whose 94 from 79 deliveries was , and it required some late hitting by his best score in List A. The first building blocks of the Sussex fightback were put down by Charlie Tear (35) and John Simpson (65) who came together at 24 for three and put on a patient 60 from 15 overs.But it was the partnership between Simpson and Carter, who added 79 for the fifth wicket in 12 overs, which transformed the match before a depth charge from Danny Lamb, who thumped 53 from 45 deliveries, gave his side a challenging total.Carter reached his fifty from 55 balls when he pulled Hill for the second of his five sixes (there were also seven fours) and it was then that he accelerated, judging length very well and scampering his runs when he failed to find the boundary.He was out in the 45th over, caught as he attempted to ramp Milnes. Jack Carson lifted his first ball to long-on and then Archie Lenham was lbw to give Milnes his hat-trick. But the bowler almost had three in three when he dismissed Tom Haines and Tom Clark with successive deliveries and then saw Hudson-Prentice scoop his first delivery just short of midwicket.Shortly after this, a Sussex-supporting seagull descended on Milnes, who was fielding at long leg, and robbed him of his banana.

The women will also host Zimbabwe, for the first time, and South Africa for limited-overs matches in early 2026

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jun-2025New Zealand Cricket (NZC) have announced a busy international schedule for both the men’s (BlackCaps) and the women’s (White Ferns) national teams. The men will host Australia, England, South Africa and West Indies across formats, while the women have 14 games lined up, against South Africa and Zimbabwe. All this, along with their respective World Cups: the women play the ODI World Cup through September and October in India and Sri Lanka and the men take part in the T20 World Cup early next year, also in India and Sri Lanka.Australia, England and West Indies will visit New Zealand before Christmas for men’s fixtures, with the T20 World Cup taking place soon after, followed by South Africa’s tour, which will feature double-headers with the women’s games. Australia will play three T20Is, all in October. The England series comprises three T20Is and three ODIs, starting in October and running into November. Then West Indies will feature in five T20Is, three ODIs, and three Tests to round off the tour, which starts on November 5 and runs till December 22.The women don’t have any fixtures scheduled before the ODI World Cup, and get into action in February 2026 with three ODIs and three T20Is beginning February and ending in March against Zimbabwe in what will be the team’s first visit to New Zealand for a bilateral series.This will be followed by the double-header T20I series against South Africa. Both the men and the women will play five T20Is between March 15 and March 25, and the women will then play a series of three ODIs between late March and early April.This adds up to 46 days of international cricket across nine venues in New Zealand.”It feels like a marquee summer,” Kyle Jamieson said in a NZC statement. “The calibre of opposition means we’ll be constantly tested for the duration of the season and that’s what you want as a cricketer.”It’s great to have another three-Test series at home and I’m sure the fans will get in behind the Test team as they have in seasons gone by. It’s always special to play in front of a home crowd and we’re hoping Kiwis will get out in force to support us once again this summer.”Compared to the 25 matches, including three Tests, that the men will play, the women have 14 fixtures lined up.”We can’t wait for the international season and the chance to play in another ICC Cricket World Cup,” Georgia Plimmer said. “We want to play as much cricket as we can, especially in front of our home fans and it’s exciting to have a 14-game home summer to prepare for.”It’s great to see more T20I doubleheaders as they are such a great experience for teams and fans alike and it was awesome to see such strong crowds last season.”

New Zealand men’s fixtures

Against Australia

• Oct 1 – 1st T20I, Mount Maunganui
• Oct 3 – 2nd T20I, Mount Maunganui
• Oct 4 – 3rd T20I, Mount Maunganui

Against England

• Oct 18 – 1st T20I, Christchurch
• Oct 20 – 2nd T20I, Christchurch
• Oct 23 – 3rd T20I, Auckland
• Oct 26 – 1st ODI, Mount Maunganui
• Oct 29 – 2nd ODI, Hamilton
• Nov 1 – 3rd ODI, Wellington

Against West Indies

• Nov 5 – 1st T20I, Auckland
• Nov 6 – 2nd T20I, Auckland
• Nov 9 – 3rd T20I, Nelson
• Nov 10 – 4th T20I, Nelson
• Nov 13 – 5th T20I, Dunedin
• Nov 16 – 1st ODI, Christchurch
• Nov 19 – 2nd ODI, Napier
• Nov 22 – 3rd ODI, Hamilton
• Dec 2-6 – 1st Test, Christchurch
• Dec 10-14 – 2nd Test, Wellington
• Dec 18-22 – 3rd Test, Mount Maunganui

Against South Africa

• Mar 15 – 1st T20I, Mount Maunganui
• Mar 17 – 2nd T20I, Hamilton
• Mar 20 – 3rd T20I, Auckland
• Mar 22 – 4th T20I, Wellington
• Mar 25 – 5th T20I, Christchurch

New Zealand women’s fixtures

Against Zimbabwe

• Feb 25 – 1st T20I, Hamilton
• Feb 27 – 2nd T20I, Hamilton
• Mar 1 – 3rd T20I, Hamilton
• Mar 5 – 1st ODI, Dunedin
• Mar 8 – 2nd ODI, Dunedin
• Mar 11 – 3rd ODI, Dunedin

Against South Africa

• Mar 15 – 1st T20I, Mount Maunganui
• Mar 17 – 2nd T20I, Hamilton
• Mar 20 – 3rd T20I, Auckland
• Mar 22 – 4th T20I, Wellington
• Mar 25 – 5th T20I, Christchurch
• Mar 29 – 1st ODI, Christchurch
• Apr 1 – 2nd ODI, Wellington
• Apr 4 – 3rd ODI, Wellington

Sarah Glenn takes four-wicket haul as South Africa slump in pursuit of 205-run target

Alan Gardner27-Nov-2024A powerful batting performance underpinned England’s 36-run victory in Benoni, sealing the T20I series against South Africa with one to play. Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Nat Sciver-Brunt both hit half-centuries, with their 112-run stand for the third wicket setting up England for their joint-third highest total in T20 internationals, before Sarah Glenn’s four-wicket haul strangled the South Africa chase.Having won while batting second in the first match of the series, in East London, this time around England were asked to put up a score. They hit an early speed bump, when Ayanda Hlubi struck twice in her opening over to reduced them to 15 for 2 – but Wyatt-Hodge and Sciver-Brunt simply floored the accelerator in response to put England in the driving seat.Wyatt-Hodge was particularly aggressive, hitting 66 of her 78 from 45 balls in boundaries and doing the bulk of the scoring during her stand with Sciver-Brunt, England’s second-highest in T20Is against South Africa. Sciver-Brunt then added 54 off 35 in partnership with Heather Knight, before Amy Jones took them past 200 with back-to-back scoops in the final over.Asked to pull off what would have been only the second successful chase of 200-plus in women’s T20Is, South Africa needed to come out firing. But they lost Tazmin Brits in Sciver-Brunt’s first over, pulling tamely to midwicket, and had edged along to 30 for 1 at the end of the powerplay. Glenn took out the middle order as the asking rate rose, and although some late hitting from Chloe Tryon and Nadine de Klerk made the final margin respectable, South Africa were well short.Wyatt-Hodge leads swift counter
England were already going at 10 an over when Hlubi struck with her third and fifth legitimate balls, Maia Bouchier following up consecutive boundaries with a tame chip to midwicket, before Sophia Dunkley played on for a duck. Wyatt-Hodge responded by taking five fours from the next three overs, either side of a tough chance to Sinolo Jafta off de Klerk, as England ended the powerplay in buoyant mood on 48 for 2.She might have been dismissed from the first ball with the restrictions off, but Nonkululeko Mlaba misjudged a swirling top edge to deep third from Annerie Derckson’s first ball. Two more boundaries came in the same over, followed up by Wyatt-Hodge hitting Mlaba for six and then four to bring up her half-century from 31 balls. She continued to find the ropes thereafter, taking Tryon for back-to-back boundaries and doing the same to Nondumiso Shangase, whose sole over went for 16.Wyatt-Hodge finally departed in the 13th over, defeated by a dipping de Klerk yorker (having hit the previous ball for four), for a career-best T20I score against South Africa – and having become the first Englishwoman to pass 3000 runs in the format along the way.Sciver-Brunt continues fine form
Although she was comfortably outscored by Wyatt-Hodge during their stand, Sciver-Brunt eased into another telling display, having been the driving force behind England’s successful chase in the first T20I. She was also dropped, on 32, top-edging a sweep off Mlaba, but kept the momentum of the England innings going, frequently using her feet to manipulate the field while picking off boundaries along the way. Two in a row off Eliz-Mari Marx took Sciver-Brunt to a 33-ball fifty, and she then demonstrated her power with an 88-metre six off Mlaba to end the 18th over.Knight departed at the start of the next, chipping a return catch to the persevering de Klerk, but England were well on track to breach the 200-mark. Across the course of the innings, 11 overs went for double-figures, and all of South Africa’s bowlers took punishment during a wayward effort that left them too much to do with the bat.Glenn harries South Africa
Although South Africa avoided losing more than one wicket in the powerplay, the top order struggled to combine laying a platform and scoring at the required rate. Faye Tunnicliffe, in her first international appearance in three-and-a-half years, made 22 off 28 on the way to becoming Glenn’s first victim, and Laura Wolvaardt had just got her innings above a run a ball when she fell to Charlie Dean.Dean’s third over was an eventful one that went for 18 as well as seeing the back of Wolvaardt, but although Dercksen had got going with back-to-back sixes off Freya Kemp, the requirement was getting out of hand. Dercksen survived being bowled off a no-ball by Lauren Filer but when she and Shangase had their stumps rattled by consecutive Glenn deliveries, the jig was up for South Africa, needing 119 off the last eight – even though Tryon, de Klerk and Jafta all cleared the ropes in the closing stages to give the scoreline some respectability.

“A couple of years ago we would have thrown the towel in pretty early. It shows the mindset of the group that we stay in the fight”

Vishal Dikshit01-Oct-20253:43

Australia’s batting depth comes to the fore

An opening World Cup game. Against the world champions. New Zealand trying to cross the 300 barrier for the first time while chasing. A deflating record of 15 consecutive ODI losses against Australia from the last eight years hanging over their head. And sapping heat and humidity at the end of the monsoon season in Indore that took a lot out of Sophie Devine, who had fielded for nearly 50 overs and bowled eight overs under the sun.If pressure could take different shapes and sizes, it did for the New Zealand captain in their opening World Cup clash against Australia, which resulted in an 89-run loss after she batted for over two-and-a-half hours for a fighting and valiant century, her ninth in the format. Soon after she wrung out the last drop of energy from her 36-year-old body after being on the field for 91.1 overs on an exacting evening, Devine said it was “probably the most demanding” game she played in her 19-year ODI career that will end with this World Cup.Related

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“I’ll just say come and feel my shirt, I think you’ll see how tough that was,” Devine said about her sweat-soaked jersey having walked in for the press conference only minutes after the match ended. “But I guess that’s the thing that I probably took strength from, is the work that the girls have done over the last six to 12 months, it’s been exactly for a knock like that, it’s the hard stuff that no one sees behind closed doors and every single one of this group has been slogging away, making sure that they’re fit and ready to be able to go out there and do a job like I was able to do today.”So I’m incredibly proud that, well I was probably a little bit slow towards the end getting a bit tired and things, but I know every one of our players wants to be there and wants to be contributing throughout the full 100 overs. So to answer your question, yeah, I think it probably was the most demanding; running around in the field, bowling, trying to keep the Aussies under 400. So yeah, I think both physically and mentally as well, it was pretty draining.”Devine had the arduous task of rescuing her team from the pits of 0 for 2 in the second over in a chase of 327, even if on a flat surface in what was the first women’s international in Indore. Devine first made sure she found her feet against the accurate bowling of the Australian attack that swung and turned the ball under the lights, and tried to ensure New Zealand had a somewhat gettable equation towards the end. Her steady half-century came off 69 balls before she raced from 50 to 100 in just 38 balls even as no other team-mate who batted lower than her crossed 30. When Brooke Halliday holed out for 28, New Zealand needed a stiff 200 runs from the last 20. Maddy Green lasted just 18 balls, and it was Devine’s rapid partnership of 54 in 35 balls for the sixth wicket that saw Isabella Gaze take the lead with six fours that saw New Zealand claw back in the game as some tense Australian faces started to appear on the field and in the dugout.They fell short by a distance in the end as Gaze and Devine were dismissed in the space of 13 balls and New Zealand lasted just two more runs after that.”Just happy with the fight this team showed, a couple of years ago we would have thrown the towel in pretty early,” Devine said at the presentation. “It shows the mindset of the group that we stay in the fight.”Sophie Devine’s knock of 111 went in vain•Getty Images

New Zealand would have thought earlier in the game they had a golden chance of downing the world champions early in the tournament when they had Australia on 128 for 5 in the 22nd over. But Ashleigh Gardner struck a counter-attacking 115 off just 83 balls to power Australia to their highest ODI score opposite New Zealand after turning the tables on them.”The fact that we got them in that position is really pleasing and really positive for us,” Devine said. “It is though, about finding ways that we can really put the foot on the throat and skittle them for 200-250 and that’s looking like a different game. I think that’s probably shown the most resilience from this White Ferns side, do you know what I mean? That despite being two down for nothing, we still keep coming out.”The fight and the resilience shown just to knuckle down rather than throw our wickets, it’s something I’m really proud of for this group and the way the likes of Izzy Gaze came out to bat, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, the way that people just keep going to their strengths and taking the game on, that’s something that I spoke at an earlier press conference, it’s about how we play this game. Yes, results are important and we want to win, but the way that we played tonight, it’s made me really proud and I certainly know that we can keep pushing the best teams in the world really hard. But also we can be at the business end of the tournament if we can make sure that we’re playing good cricket for longer periods of time.”New Zealand haven’t beaten Australia in an ODI for over eight years•Getty Images

New Zealand have five days to rest, assess and prepare in Indore before their next game against South Africa on October 6. They would perhaps want that their younger players step up too and not leave the heavy lifting for the seniors, as Devine, Lea Tahuhu (3 for 42) and Amelia Kerr (2 for 54 and 33) were their top performers against Australia.”I think to win a World Cup, it’s going to take 15 players, and at different stages it’s going to be different people,” Devine said about what she expected from the squad. “Expectations are there that everyone wants to be the one that stands up and takes responsibility, and today, you mentioned it, the experienced players are the ones, but I’ve got full faith that anyone in that 15 can go out and win a game for us. And to have that belief and confidence and trust in the group, I think that’s something that’s really special about this group, and I know that everyone feels that too, is that despite the loss today, we pushed the world champs pretty hard, and we got them nervous at different times there, which it doesn’t happen often.”So, absolutely, I know at different stages different people are going to stand up in this group, and it’s going to be their time, and that’s what we’ve spoken about – when it’s your day, you really be selfish, and you take control of it, and you be the one to get this team over the line.”