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England vice-captain Anya Shrubsole has been ruled out of the first two ODIs against West Indies due to a side strain. But she is working towards being fit for the final three matches of the series, which begin from October 14 in Kingston and count towards the Women’s Championship. England are at third, with nine wins from 15 games.Shrubsole picked up the injury playing a warm-up match against a Jamaican representative XI on Thursday. The 24-year old seamer had been named England’s player of the year for 2015. She is also No. 9 on the ICC bowlers’ rankings in ODIs.”Anya Shrubsole is a world class cricketer and our vice-captain, so of course we want her fit and helping the team to win matches for England,” England women’s coach Mark Robinson said. “But her absence from the first two matches here in Montego Bay creates an opportunity for someone else to put their hand up and show what they can do. The squad is ready and raring to go tomorrow.”The top four teams from the Women’s championship gain direct entry into the 2017 World Cup. Australia have already qualified. West Indies are at second place with 10 wins from 15 games.

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has said he pulled out of the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe because an MRI scan revealed several injuries to his leg. He said the decision was taken to help him recover in time for the tour of South Africa in December.”I had about one-and-a-half months to recover and I was preparing myself to be ready for the Zimbabwe tour,” Mathews, who had torn his calf during the ODIs against Australia in August and September, said. “Unfortunately there has been a setback.”We did an MRI scan, which revealed that I had multiple injuries on the same leg. I had to pull out after the expert medical panel advised me and [told] SLC not to send me to Zimbabwe because it might jeopardise my chances of playing in South Africa. We are planning to take a closer look at why this is happening. The doctors have advised rest, and the recovery can be earlier than that or more; we will have to play it by ear.”Mathews had been named in the original squad for Zimbabwe, but was ruled out last week. He is expected to be out of action for three weeks and is doubtful for the tri-series in Zimbabwe, also involving West Indies, that follows the Tests.Rangana Herath was appointed captain for the Tests in Zimbabwe, while batsman Upul Tharanga took Mathews’ place in the squad.Sri Lanka have a depleted team for Zimbabwe. Vice-captain Dinesh Chandimal, and fast bowlers Dhammika Prasad, Nuwan Pradeep and Dushmantha Chameera were also ruled out due to injuries. The pace attack in Zimbabwe will be led by Suranga Lakmal.Chandimal was unavailable for the Tests due to a thumb injury for which he underwent surgery in September, but was hopeful of playing the tri-series, which starts from November 14.Herath, who will be only the second bowler to lead Sri Lanka in Tests, said the team was confident of a good performance in Zimbabwe after a 3-0 series sweep of Australia at home in August.”If you take our performance in the recent Test series against Australia, the confidence we gained from the 3-0 win will be very beneficial to us,” Herath said before the team’s departure. “The team’s confidence levels are very high after that victory. The team that I have I am confident can perform well in Zimbabwe.”SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala blamed the spate of injuries on poor player management and said the board will address the issue of workloads.Suranga Lakmal’s workload is worrisome, says SLC president•AFP

“We have not managed our players properly for the last three years,” Sumathipala said. “We have good cricketers who have come in from Under-19, U-23 and club level, but once they reach the top level they can’t sustain their physical condition because they have been badly managed.”Mathews is a world-class allrounder and there is so much demand and so much of pressure on his body that it’s not easy for a person like him to be without an injury unless he has a proper scientific approach.”Mathews had the highest number of match days in the past 18 months. At this level a player simply cannot go on. He has to pull out and take a genuine break for the body to recover. We don’t have enough recovery time.”Sumathipala said the possibility of Lakmal going on the South Africa tour without a proper break highlighted how important workload management was for players, particularly bowlers.”You have to make an assessment of the player and then based on the assessment you make a permanent study of the player, which you call player management,” Sumathipala said. “If there is a fast bowler who has bowled 100 overs, there should be a study saying that after 18-20 overs you have to stand him down and pull him out of the game to let him recover physically, which we don’t do. We never had proper player management.”Someone like Suranga Lakmal is being excessively used. Our most important tour is definitely to South Africa. Can we go on this tour without Lakmal being given a break?”Sumathipala said SLC was studying players during matches and practice sessions and would give them a programme to follow. He also said poor practice facilities resulted in injuries to fast bowlers.”We don’t have a single strip in this country with the impact pads on the bowlers’ run-up,” Sumathipala said. “The indoor nets have normal concrete run-ups and the bowlers go and land their foot at such speed and with so much weight of the body every day. This is one way they get injured. We have to change all the run-ups and have impact pads on them.”Sri Lanka’s first Test against Zimbabwe will be played in Harare from October 29, while the second match is scheduled to start from November 6. The two teams last played a Test in May 2004 in Bulawayo.

The ICC has refused to get involved in the BCCI’s tussle with the Lodha Committee, ICC chief executive David Richardson has indicated.Richardson told that BCCI president Anurag Thakur had asked the global governing body to address a letter to the Indian board, asking it to clarify whether the reforms of the Lodha Committee – forced on the board by the Supreme Court of India – did not amount to government interference in the board’s running. As per ICC regulations, member boards cannot have government interference in their running.ICC chairman Shashank Manohar, Richardson said, was reluctant to get involved in the matter unless “formally” requested to.”The BCCI president Mr Thakur did verbally ask the ICC to write a letter to the BCCI asking the BCCI to explain whether the recommendations of Lodha Committee might constitute government interference,” Richardson said, according to PTI. “But Mr Manohar said that the ICC should not write such a letter unless the BCCI first writes to the ICC requesting ICC to intervene, or ICC receives a letter from another of its member boards to do so. But no such letters have been received.”So I understand that Mr Manohar is reluctant to interfere in the domestic affairs of a member country. He will not do so without being formally requested to do so by the member concerned and nor is he prepared to put the ICC in a position where it could be perceived as challenging the authority of the Supreme Court of India.”Don’t forget… the consequences of the government interference could lead to the suspension of a member board and nobody really wants the BCCI to be suspended.”Richardson said Thakur was not happy with the ICC’s refusal to write the letter. “There were other board members present when that request was made by Mr Thakur,” he said. “As far as I [could] see, Mr Thakur actually criticised the ICC for not sending the letter.”BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke responded to Richardson saying: “First of all, any verbal discussion is not a request. Informal discussions take place on so many issues.”Shirke added that it had been Manohar’s call, when he was still the BCCI president and the board had submitted its affidavit to the Supreme Court after the Lodha recommendations, to highlight the threat of suspension.”When these affidavits were made, it was Shashank who approved them as BCCI president and lawyer. He was the one who said, ‘we should include this point’,” Shirke told the . “He was already heading the ICC and was holding both portfolios at that time. Now, either he has conveniently forgotten about this or this Richardson has been tutored to say what he’s saying,”Earlier, Thakur said at a press conference that the ICC had stepped in when there were administrative issues with other member boards, but it was ignoring what was happening with the BCCI. “Here there is an outside interference,” Thakur said. “ICC takes a decision on Nepal, Sri Lanka on the basis of outside interference, [but] they are keeping mum here when BCCI is concerned.”In July, India’s Supreme Court accepted a majority of the recommendations put forward by the Lodha Committee covering wide-ranging aspects of Indian cricket at the central and state level, and gave the BCCI a maximum of six months to implement the reforms. The Lodha Committee, comprising former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges, Ashok Bhan and R Raveendran was formed by the court in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for the franchises involved in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and propose changes to the BCCI’s functioning.Last week, Thakur had said the “ICC regime” was trying to “sideline the BCCI, one of the most important stakeholders in global cricket today”.Manohar, meanwhile, had said he was concerned with the interests of the ICC and world cricket, not the BCCI. Manohar had seemed to take a similar tone when, soon after taking charge of the ICC in November 2015, he said he wanted to stop the “bullying” caused by the constitutional revamp of 2014 – the “Big Three” episode, which left the BCCI, the ECB and Cricket Australia better off than other member boards financially and in terms of administrative powers.

ScorecardMark Wood picked up three wickets in his comeback spell•Getty Images

Mark Wood struck in the first over of his first-class comeback on day of contrasts at the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton, as 17 wickets fell on the first day of the Specsavers’ County Championship game between Somerset and Durham.Having chosen to bat first, Somerset were bowled out for 184 with Durham’s four-man seam attack taking all 10 wickets inside 42 overs. When Durham took to the crease, it was the Somerset spinners Roelof van der Merwe and Jack Leach who did the damage. The pair took six of the seven wickets to fall as Durham finished the day on 154 for 7.Somerset found themselves in early trouble with the bat, as Chris Rushworth and Graham Onions grabbed a wicket apiece to remove openers Tom Abell (0) and veteran Marcus Trescothick (6).Captain Chris Rogers and James Hildreth did stem the tide with a 55-run stand for the third wicket. However, when Rogers drove a Paul Coughlin delivery to point, Somerset were 61 for 3 after 13 overs.Enter Wood, who hadn’t featured in a first-class contest since the second Test against Pakistan in Dubai last October. After undergoing ankle surgery earlier in the summer, he struck with his sixth delivery when Hildreth was bowled for 34, and followed that up five balls later when van der Merwe edged to Borthwick for a duck. Wood later added the scalp of Peter Trego, bowled for 16, to finish with the impressive figures of 3 for 24 in seven overs.Thankfully, for Somerset, Craig Overton pitched in with a useful 42 off 51 balls, with eight fours, and Ryan Davies 31. The wicketkeeper struck two fours and as many sixes before he departed at 166 for 8.Overton was next to go and when Tim Groenewald became Chris Rushworth’s third victim off the first ball of the 42nd over, Somerset were all out for 184.Durham, in reply, looked in little or no bother as Mark Stoneman (35) and Keaton Jennings put on 38 for the first wicket, off one ball short of 11 overs. However, for the visitors, it was the calm before the storm.Stoneman was dismissed by Leach at 38 for 1 and with Somerset holding their catches, the visitors capitulated, either side of tea. Scott Borthwick (16) and Jennings (14) played one or two decent shots, but with the ball turning off a length, they became van der Merwe’s first two victims of the day, at 58 and 65 respectively.Michael Richardson fell to Leach, four runs later, for 0 and after van der Merwe had sent back Stuart Poynter (7) at 73 for 5, Gordon Muchall (13), who had travelled down from Durham during the morning as a replacement for the injured Paul Collingwood, was trapped lbw by Leach.Coughlin, who bowled so well during the morning and early afternoon, batted well too. He helped himself to 30 and with Adam Hickey, added 39 for the seventh wicket before being bowled by Overton at 141 for 7.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:21

Manjrekar: Rahane will be proud of his workman-like innings

A Test match can be a bit like a pup: great players can lead it wherever they want. This West Indian XI does not have great players. They have great triers. Captain Jason Holder and coach Phil Simmons put the men on defence – understandable considering the opposition had a fat lead. Their best efforts have taken the Test to a point where the weather can threaten what once looked a certain victory for India. A tropical storm has been forecast to hit the region on the fourth day with India declaring 304 runs ahead and West Indies yet to bat in the second innings.Ajinkya Rahane found himself part of a pattern, one that has been central to India’s success on this tour of the Caribbean. They have batted eleven-and-a-half sessions in this series. And a set batsman had been out there most of the time. Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and R Ashwin began the trend in Antigua. It continued with KL Rahul on day two and Rahane on day three, who went on to score his seventh Test hundred. This is the eighth straight series that he has scored a score of at least 90 in.India were not panicking about the weather. The mountains on the horizon were obscured by heavy cloud. The rain break came 10 overs after lunch and spirited 52 minutes out of the game. Offspinning allrounder Roston Chase took two wickets in two balls and had them eight down soon after play resumed. The run-scoring stayed sedate.Virat Kohli, sipping a hot beverage in the dressing room, was still in his training gear. He was clearly not thinking about the declaration. Perhaps Rahane approaching a Test century away from home had something to do with that. And with only Nos. 10 and 11 for company, he began to farm the strike. This was where West Indies’ discipline paid off. They had given away only 142 runs in 46.1 overs. They made India bat long for a lead they liked.Rahane squirted an outside edge between slip and the wicketkeeper in the 170th over to reach his third hundred in four innings, captured on camera by the coach Anil Kumble and celebrated vigorously by his team-mates. The locals at Sabina Park had something to cheer too when Chase induced a top edge from Umesh Yadav to wrap up his first five-for in his second Test. With a high-arm action resembling Nathan Lyon, he got the ball to dip and bounce. Earlier, Amit Mishra failed to get to the pitch of one and was caught at short leg. Seconds later Mohammed Shami was bowled playing down the wrong line. Chase wore a sheepish grin on day two when he conceded he hadn’t liked going without a wicket on debut. Now he was leading his team off.While it will be debated if India needed to bat on after the first rain break, or if they batted on to let Rahane reach his hundred – he was 83 when the rain came down – the fact remains that India had now batted West Indies out of the match. It remained to be seen if India would give enough time to register their first set of consecutive wins outside Asia since 2006, but they were assured they were not going to lose this one.

ScorecardHamish Rutherford’s rapid hundred powered Derbyshire’s chase•Getty Images

Derbyshire continued their positive response to last week’s backroom upheaval when successfully chasing 296 to beat Worcestershire by seven wickets in their opening Royal London Cup fixture at New Road.Hamish Rutherford led the way with a brilliant 104 from 76 balls, putting on 132 in 22 overs with Billy Godleman as Derbyshire registered their second win since Graeme Welch, the elite performance director, resigned on Friday.Having beaten Leicestershire in the NatWest T20 Blast within hours of Welch’s departure, they turned in another strong performance on a good batting surface.When Chesney Hughes was brilliantly run out by Ross Whiteley from deep point in the 10th over, Rutherford took charge with clean hitting in front of the wicket for seven sixes and six fours. Godleman may not have been quite as fluent but still reached 50 in 66 balls.Although they were bowled in quick succession, the wickets going to Daryl Mitchell and Ed Barnard, there were no signs of a wobble.Wayne Madsen and Neil Broom, the New Zealander unbeaten with 45, cleared off 104 runs in 12.1 overs to see their side home with 11 balls to spare.Madsen was as cool as ever, reaching 50 from 41 balls. In all he hit seven fours and a six while his partner picked off five boundaries as he also scored at better than a run-a-ball.Worcestershire won only one game in this competition last season, and although they began a new campaign with a challenging total of 295, their innings lacked a coherent pattern.When Mitchell won the toss, he took the chance on batting under early cloud cover and there were some problems as Andy Carter and Ben Cotton dismissed the openers with only 17 runs scored by the eighth over.Tom Kohler-Cadmore edged Cotton to second slip without scoring and Mitchell himself was bowled, middle stump, as Cotton took two for 24 in his new-ball spell.Alexei Kervezee led the initial counter-attack with a 33-ball half-century, which included three sixes, in his first List A appearance for the county in two years.Following on from his match-winning 52 not out on the same pitch in Thursday’s NatWest T20 Blast clash with Yorkshire, he dominated a partnership of 115 in 14 overs with Joe Clarke.Kervezee was eventually out for 77, lbw to Shiv Thakor, and Clarke was run out for 44 when new batsman Brett D’Oliveira played the ball straight to Madsen at midwicket.With D’Oliveira soon bowled by Thakor, Worcestershire had lost half their side for 143 and it was left to Whiteley to lead a second phase.The former Derbyshire left hander made 61 from 49 balls, hitting six fours and two sixes before he as lbw to Matt Critchley, a consolation for the legspinner as he conceded 101 runs in his 10 overs.Ben Cox and Joe Leach chipped in with useful runs, but Cotton came back to take two more wickets for an impressive return of four for 43 and Carter struck in successive overs to close the innings with two balls left.

ScorecardRavi Bopara made his best Championship score of the season•Getty Images

Essex’s batsmen piled on the agony by batting all day to establish a 273-run lead over promotion rivals Kent.Kent toiled in the field as Essex feasted on some indifferent and uninspired bowling to add 373 runs on the second day. Essex claimed maximum bonus points to reclaim their place at the top of Division Two.Four Essex batsmen went past fifty, but three of them – Tom Westley, Ravi Bopara and Dan Lawrence – perished within sight of three figures. Captain Ryan ten Doeschate, meanwhile, remained unbeaten on 77.The foundation for Essex’s big score was laid by a third-wicket stand of 169 in 44 overs between Westley and Bopara. The pair completely dominated the Kent attack throughout the morning session and deep into the post-lunch one as well.Westley scored heaviest in the early part of the partnership, being particularly severe on Mitch Claydon. He hit two fours in one over, steering the ball through midwicket and then another through gulley.Westley also dealt with the questions that South African quick Kagiso Rabada had posed early on for Ravi Bopara, to whom he bowled 23 consecutive dot balls. Westley smashed four off the second ball he faced from the man who dismissed England captain Alastair Cook late on Sunday.Bopara started circumspectly, and when he bounced down the wicket to hit Darren Stevens over the top it was a rare outbreak of aggression. But once he was settled, Bopara matched Westley’s scoring rate.Westley reached his fifty first, off 75 balls, when he pushed a single off Adam Ball to mid-off. Bopara’s half-century took 102 balls and arrived just before lunch when he swept James Tredwell for two.Both batsmen, though, survived sharp chances. Westley had added one more to his eighth Championship fifty in 13 innings when he hit low and hard to Sam Northeast at short mid-on, but the Kent captain couldn’t cling on. Soon after, Bopara swished at Tredwell and the ball flew over and through a diving Ball at first slip.Bopara accelerated after lunch and twice advanced down the wicket to hit first Stevens and then Tredwell over the top for fours. The assault ended when Westley became bogged down against Claydon and chased a delivery that was both short and wide to be caught behind. He departed, deeply frustrated, for 88 off 150 balls, with a dozen fours.Bopara went within five overs, attempting to drive but playing loosely at Stevens and being caught low down by Sean Dickson at short extra cover for 94. It was Bopara highest Championship score of the season and took 157 balls and included 11 fours.Jaik Mickleburgh and Lawrence put on 59 for the fifth wicket in 20 overs of sensible batting before Mickleburgh nibbled at one from Ball and gave Tredwell a catch at first slip.Essex were still 43 runs short of maximum batting points at that point with eight overs remaining. Ten Doeschate hit his first two balls for four, and then cut Stevens for a third to show his intent. Lawrence also hit Stevens for successive fours, the first past square leg bringing up a 78-ball fifty, and later lofted Tredwell over long on for six.The pair passed the 400-run threshold, and the fifth batting point, with nine balls to spare, having put on 45 in little more than seven overs. Ten Doeschate took two successive boundaries off Joe Denly to pass 50. He needed just 54 balls to get there, hitting nine fours along the way.The sixth-wicket pair had just brought up the 100 partnership in 18 overs when Lawrence went for another big shot and found substitute fielder Matt Hunn at long-off.

ScorecardScott Borthwick’s second hundred of the match built on Durham’s lead•Getty Images

As if in playful reproof to those who thought the second half of this game might limp into high-scoring tedium, Tuesday’s cricket galloped along like a Grand National winner crossing the Melling Road and brought riches beyond our imagining. Spectators watching the final three sessions might therefore have something of a treat in store if the forecast rain keeps its distance and Paul Collingwood successfully balances the risk of defeat against the enticement of victory.Thanks to the bowling of Barry McCarthy, an Irish seamer who bats a bit, Durham dismissed Lancashire for 326 just after lunch and had extended their 86-run lead to a prosperous 324 by the close. They did so largely thanks to Scott Borthwick’s second century of the match and for the loss of only four wickets.This represented rather more success than Lancashire looked likely to enjoy for much of the afternoon session when their attack had bowled with the unaccustomed ill-discipline of Rechabites on a pub-crawl. Forsaking the rectitude that had served them so well in their two victories, they offered Borthwick and Mark Stoneman a modest portion of Lancastrian tripe. The Durham pair added some vinegar, sprinkled on a little salt, and tucked in, adding 91 runs for the second wicket in 22 overs either side of tea.Keaton Jennings must have cursed the fact that he had missed out. He fenced at a ball from Kyle Jarvis, the best of Lancashire’s seamers, and edged the ball straight to Liam Livingstone’s bread-basket. This is currently the most fatal of errors. Lancashire’s new slipper treats cricket balls rather as black holes treat matter: nothing that enters ever leaves. Livingstone has pouched ten slip catches this season and dropped none.Stoneman and Borthwick made no such blunders. Instead they pummelled Lancashire’s bowling in fine style, Borthwick driving Neil Wagner each side of cover and Stoneman pulling both Luke Procter and Tom Bailey for sixes, the crack of the bat loud enough to awaken the much-advertised ghost of Lumley Castle.To their credit, Croft’s men fought back in the evening session but they could not prevent Borthwick, whose driving and innings-management were a joy, becoming the second Durham batsmen this season after Jennings, and the fourth in history, to make two hundreds in a first-class game. Borthwick reached his landmark off 160 balls with a single to long leg off Bailey, who also had already enjoyed an eventful day. For example having seen – although “not seen” might be more accurate – a slower ball drilled back past him at an alarming velocity, the young seamer produced a good one in the same over to have Stoneman caught behind by Alex Davies for 62.Three overs later Borthwick and Burnham hesitated over a single like two maiden aunts dilly-dallying over a second amontillado and Burnham was run out for a single. Michael Richardson added a merry 35 before reverse sweeping Simon Kerrigan to Livingstone but the spectators’ attention was by then given exclusively to Borthwick, who is so much a part of this richly-rooted community that his nana occasionally sends a prawn curry and basmati rice to the radio commentators at lunchtime. “With nana bread?” asked a low wit. The warmth of the applause when the 26-year-old Sunderland lad reached three figures was as much affectionate as appreciative.And all this entertainment followed a morning’s cricket which was dominated by the four Lancashire players dismissed, three of them front-line batsmen, and the one who was not, nightwatchman Kerrigan. Two not out overnight, Kerrigan added 42 more runs in two hours in the morning and rarely looked discomfited from the moment he clipped McCarthy’s third ball of the morning to the midwicket boundary.One may argue that the loss of Croft, leg before for 35 to a ball from McCarthy that skidded on and performed a modest limbo, had left Kerrigan as the senior partner in subsequent stands. If so, he responded in appropriate fashion, adding 62 for the seventh wicket with Davies before McCarthy returned to the attack with the not-so-new ball. But the Irishman spent no time griping over his place in Collingwood’s attack. He is one of a trio of Durham seamers trying to make their mark in this match – James Weighell and Brydon Carse are the others – and he made his case by taking three wickets for seven runs in 14 balls just before lunch.This may have left the undefeated batsman a trifle flummoxed. In his 28 years on Earth, Simon Kerrigan has probably run out of money, patience, petrol and nightclubs but he cannot have imagined he would ever run out of partners. However, his confusion was cleared in unwelcome fashion ten balls after the resumption when he became McCarthy’s fifth wicket, leg before when only two runs short of what would have been his second first-class fifty.Such a modest failure matters little in the context of a game which is wonderfully poised for its final day. As he mulls over his declaration, Collingwood might be advised to resist the temptation to think of a total Lancashire would find it tough to reach, add 30 runs and then give his not-out batsmen a couple of good overs for luck. Such a strategy leads to the setting of a target which Chris Gayle and Virender Sehwag would struggle to reach in a first-class game. That said, Collingwood has an inexperienced attack and knows his business better than anyone.It is now early evening and the light is thickening at the Riverside. The riot of greens in Broad Wood and The Haughs are fading a little. Earlier in the day one had been wondering why, if Isle of Lewis has 126 terms for peat, England has about 14 words for green. Tomorrow, with just a little luck, there will be more cricket….and more of all this.

With just 48 more runs to get in 45 balls, eight wickets standing, and two set batters at the crease, Bangladesh Under-19s looked set to beat Afghanistan Under-19s rather comfortably in their 284 chase. Although they scored 28 runs in the next four overs, these came at the cost of four wickets. At that stage, Afghanistan sniffed a comeback win.Earlier in the innings, the Bangladesh openers Zawad Abrar and Rifat Beg had added 151, while captain Azizul Hakim and Kalam Siddiki stitched together a partnership of 66 for the third wicket.Roohullah Arab got the first breakthrough for Afghanistan, when he dismissed Beg for 62 to end the first-wicket stand in the 27th over. Arab also took Abrar’s wicket in the 31st – the batter missed out on a hundred, falling for 96. Although Hakim and Siddiki looked like they were going to make it a one-sided affair, a middle-order collapse threatened to take the win away from Bangladesh. Eventually, though, Rizan Hossan’s speedy 17* ensured Bangladesh scraped through in the 49th over with three wickets remaining.Afghanistan had centurion Faisal Shinozada (103) to thank for putting up a big total. Shinozada put up stands of 66 and 89 for the second and third wicket with Osman Sadat and Uzairullah Niazai, respectively. His knock came in only 94 balls, and included eight fours and four sixes.Despite a strong start, Afghanistan found themselves at 225 for 7 in the 46th over. Azizullah Miakhil (38*) and Abdul Aziz (26*) provided the finishing kick with an unbroken partnership of 58 in only 28 balls to propel Afghanistan to 283. Eventually, their total proved to not be enough.

Texas Super Kings 153 for 6 (Mukkamalla 30, Harmeet 2-24, Jasdeep 2-34) beat Seattle Orcas 60 (Jones 17, Burger 3-10, Zia 3-16, Noor 3-18) by 93 runsTexas Super Kings romped to their third successive victory while Seattle Orcas suffered their second loss in a row in MLC 2025 as TSK bundled Orcas for just 60 on a pitch that had variable bounce in Oakland. Orcas were chasing a modest target of 154 but never looked like getting even close to it after they were reduced to 21 for 5 in five overs by the TSK quicks and were eventually bowled out in 13.5 overs for a 93-run thrashing.Orcas openers couldn’t replicate their strong opening stand from their opening game and fell within the space of seven balls. Kyle Mayers spooned an easy catch to cover point off Nandre Burger and David Warner was sent back by an excellent diving catch from Faf du Plessis towards cover off left-arm quick Zia-ul-Haq. Steven Taylor also miscued Burger but it was Zia who dented the chase with a massive double blow in the fifth over when he yorked captain Heinrich Klaasen for a duck and had the experienced Sikandar Raza feather behind a short delivery to leave Orcas five down.Left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad – Chennai Super Kings’ highest wicket-taker in the recent IPL – handed Orcas another double blow and was on a hat-trick after trapping left-hand batters Sujit Nayak and Harmeet Singh lbw. He missed the hat-trick by sending down a full toss to Jasdeep Singh but it hardly had an effect on the result as Aaron Jones, the top scorer with 17, soon handed a catch to Noor, who finished with 3 for 18. Burger wrapped up the game to end with 3 for 10 and Zia had picked up 3 for 16 from his three overs in the powerplay.TSK had earlier opted to bat and saw a slow opening stand of 22 between du Plessis and Devon Conway. Du Plessis’s struggles were ended when an Obed McCoy delivery roared off the pitch to take his glove and Conway was trapped lbw three balls later. USA top-order batter Saiteja Mukkamalla took the run rate over six an over with a few boundaries. Marcus Stoinis’ 28 off 12, studded with four sixes, took them past 100 and the run rate over seven an over. Orcas, however, pulled things back again with the wickets of Stoinis, Daryl Mitchell and Calvin Savage to make it 122 for 6 before Milind Kumar and Shubham Ranjane powered the side past 150 with an unbroken stand of 31 from 15 balls.