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The chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Lt Gen Tauqir Zia onSunday defended the inclusion of former captain Wasim Akram in thesquad for next month’s tour to England.”There is no loss if a player of his (Wasim Akram’s) class, experienceand calibre has been included,” the general told newsmen.He added: “He had to be included in the second half of the Englandtour for the one-day tri-nation competition.”Zia, using his veto power, had added the former captain as the 17thplayer against the wishes of skipper Waqar Younis.The PCB boss, who was in a relaxed mood after a morale-boosting visitby Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf, said the announcement of the teamwas delayed to give little time to the mediamen to comment on thecomposition of the squad.The announcement of the team, for the crucial tour of England had beendeferred till Sunday, however it was abruptly announced at 10.30pm onSaturday night, something which has happened for the first time in thehistory of Pakistan cricket.The general explained that the team was released to allow the peopleconcerned to “sleep comfortably”.

Mark Lavine smashed 113 runs off 108 balls to temporarily keep North West’sheads above water in Potchefstroom on Friday.However, by the close Border were 86 for three in their second innings for alead of 102. Border were dismissed for 274 in their first innings onThursday, and ended North West’s reply at 248 on Friday.Glen Hewitt and Lavine held together an otherwise lacklustre North Westfirst innings in which the first three wickets fell in the space of 18deliveries with just 23 runs on the board.Vasbert Drakes bowled Riaan Niewoudt for 15, before Piet Botha had AndrewLawson caught behind for four and trapped Morne Strydom in front for afourth-ball duck.In fact, the home side dwinded to 68 for five before Hewitt and Lavineintervened. The next 33 overs belonged to them as they took on thepreviously rampant Border attack.Their partnership grew to 165 before Hewitt was trapped in front byoff-spinner Geoff Love for a 62 that included 10 fours.However, Hewitt’s dismissal was the start of another slide that claimedthree wickets in the space of five deliveries – the last of them Lavine’s,caught off Tyron Henderson for a sparkling 113 struck off just 108 ballswith 16 fours and three sixes.Henderson had Alfonso Thomas caught first ball and dismissed Lavine twoballs later on his way to figures of four for 53.Allrounder Botha then put on his other hat and featured in a solid-lookingopening stand of 57 he shared with Craig Sugden and then in scoring acompetent half-century.However, medium pacer Francois van der Merwe refused to allow Border to getgoing. He removed Sugden in the 23rd over and accounted for Botha and LadenGamiet, for a duck, in the space of four balls six overs later to head forthe showers with figures of three for 27.

Mumbai Indians can still make the playoffs. Even though Sunrisers Hyderabad’s victory over Rajasthan Royals has made their task tougher, Mumbai can still make the top four with 14 points.As things stand, it’s still possible for MI to be tied for third spot on 14 points, if RR and Kolkata Knight Riders win most of their matches and take the top two positions. For example, if Lucknow Super Giants and Sunrisers lose all their remaining games except the ones they play against each other on May 8, then the winner of that match will finish on 14, tied for third place with MI if they win their last four. It’s even possible for the six remaining teams to be tied on 12 each.

What if Mumbai lose to KKR?

If MI lose to KKR and the other matches follow the result pattern mentioned above, then MI will be one of seven teams tied on 12, fighting for one spot. That means mathematically they’ll still be in the mix even if they lose on Friday.

What about RCB’s chances? Are they still in the mix?

With six points from 10 games, RCB are in the same position as MI, except that they are on a two-match winning streak, compared to three losses in a row for MI. Fourteen points could keep them in the mix but at this stage, even 12 gives them a mathematical chance.

Rajasthan Royals have all but qualified, right?

Well, not quite. They are, of course, in the best position among all teams with 16 points from 10 games, but if they lose their four remaining matches, then it’s possible for four teams – KKR, SRH, LSG and Chennai Super Kings – to finish on 18 or more points. Even if they win one, RR could still be one of five teams with 18 or more.So, with 50 games done in IPL 2024, no team has qualified for the playoffs, and no team is out of the race yet.

India’s chances of making the semi-finals of the 2021 T20 World Cup is in territory after their comprehensive defeat at the hands of New Zealand on Sunday.Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner take responsibility for this stunning of events – geddit? – their eight overs costing a mere 32 runs while also securing the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

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With Pakistan all but assured of one semi-final spot and New Zealand joining Afghanistan for the other one, India’s campaign is now at risk of coming to an earlier close than expected.The plan that backfiredIndia used to play T20s like ODIs, focusing on singles and twos and believing that boundaries are just bonuses. A consequence of time spent in the middle. Then they were beaten by a six-happy West Indies in the 2016 World Cup and had to wake up.This format demands an experiment or three. A change or five. So they invested in a different kind of player. The kind who could hit sixes from ball one. Like Ishan Kishan. He opened the batting here ahead of the established Rohit Sharma and fell in the third over. #BestLaidPlansEarly wickets are crucial against this Indian team. A lot of their limited-overs success is built on having one of the top three going deep into an innings. New Zealand did well to deny that luxury as Tim Southee and Trent Boult took out the openers within the powerplay and set the stage for the headline act.The spin strangleIndia went 71 balls between the sixth and the 17th overs without hitting a single boundary. Such was the control that Santner and Sodhi had over this game.The trick was in the lengths they bowled. Both spinners were careful not to stray so full that a batter could plant his front foot down and launch them out of the park. They were equally cautious about never giving them the room to free the arms as well.Hitting that in-between spot repeatedly – while also targeting the stumps – enabled Santner and Sodhi to put so much pressure on India that they eventually crumbled to their second-lowest total in T20I history. 110 for 7.The adaptation malfunctionDubai is a tough place to set a total. Conditions are at their hardest at the start of the game before dew comes in during the second innings and helps the ball come onto the bat. Both teams were well aware of this vagary but only one of them could properly adapt to it.Related

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Take Kohli’s wicket, for example. India were 48 for 3 in the 11th over and he’d made only 9 off 16 balls. Dire. Yes, but he needed to forget about all that and just bat the 20 overs. He needed to be like the lead in that meme that goes “this is fine” while the whole building burns. But he panicked.Instead of playing for the back end of the innings, when it becomes noticeably easier to score runs, he succumbed to the pressure and played a low-percentage shot. Sodhi had bowled that ball – a tossed up legbreak that dipped at the last second – looking for that shot and had the Indian captain caught at long-on.With New Zealand’s bowlers having done the lion’s share of the work, their batters were able to go out and chase the target down with zero pressure on them. Daryl Mitchell then made things even easier, top-scoring with 49 off 35 balls, as his team raced to the finish line with eight wickets and 33 balls to spare.

Avishka Fernando, long considered one of Sri Lanka’s finest limited-overs batting prospects, was left out of the squad entirely for Sri Lanka’s first two limited-overs assignments this year (in the Caribbean, and in Bangladesh). The omission wasn’t down to runs or form, but because of failed fitness tests – coach Mickey Arthur having made fitness a non-negotiable for players this year.Although clearly stung by being overlooked, Fernando eventually worked his way back into the national side, having used his months out of the team to improve his fitness. In the last four ODI innings, Fernando now has scores of 33, 50, 76 and 118. Thursday’s match-winning century in sweltering conditions, was made easier by his improved fitness, he said.”I missed a couple of tours because of my fitness, and I tried to learn from that,” Fernando said. “I managed to improve my fitness. Because of that it’s actually much easier for me to bat and to field. I see a big improvement there.”Fernando’s fielding, particularly, in the ring, has also been better over the past two months. He was especially impressive during SLC’s Invitational T20 League in August.”I didn’t do a lot of specialist fielding training, but I think when you improve your fitness, everything becomes easier. I think a lot of the improvements to my game are just down to better fitness now.”Fernando struck up three productive partnerships during his 115-ball 118 on Thursday, the best of which was the 97-run stand for the fourth wicket, with Charith Asalanka, who hit 72 off 62. Fernando and Asalanka have been batting together in Sri Lanka’s age-group teams since they were teenagers, and also play for the same domestic side – the Sinhalese Sports Club. He said the familiarity he and Asalanka share at the crease was a boon to their partnership.”Since we were 15 or 16 we played a lot of cricket together,” Fernando said. “We know each other’s games really well. When he’s batting, I might have something to say to him, and when I’m batting he’ll talk to me as well. There’s a good connection between us. When he and I got together, we’d lost three wickets, so we talked about batting together until the 41st or 42nd over. We knew that then it would be easier for the hitters lower down.”Fernando also revealed that the winning total Sri Lanka eventually put up exceeded the score he thought the team should aim for, early in the innings.”When I started batting, I felt it was a good pitch to bat on, and what we had targeted was a score of about 270 or 280. But because we batted well we were able to go past that to 300.”

Jake Lintott, the Birmingham Bears left-arm wristspinner who signed his first professional contract earlier this year, has been signed by Southern Brave as a wildcard pick for the inaugural season of the Hundred.Lintott, 28, had played only four senior games a year ago, but has taken 19 wickets for the Bears with an economy rate of 6.60 since the start of the 2020 Vitality Blast season, and has earned a £24,000 deal as the final player in the Brave’s men’s squad.Dillon Pennington (Birmingham Phoenix), Sam Cook (Trent Rockets) and Leus du Plooy (Welsh Fire) have also earned wildcard deals on the back of impressive Blast seasons, as have Freddie Klaassen (Manchester Originals) and Ben Raine (Northern Superchargers).ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The two London clubs, Oval Invincibles and London Spirit, have opted for younger players: the Invincibles have signed Kent wicketkeeper-batter Jordan Cox, while the Spirit have signed Middlesex seamer Blake Cullen, who impressed Eoin Morgan in the early stages of the Blast.Raine, who has taken nine wickets and conceded 7.45 runs an over this season, was the first man picked up in the draft following a random draw.”There were a few nerves flying around leading up to this because I think every cricketer in the country wanted to be in the Hundred,” he said. “I thought I’d had a decent Vitality Blast with the ball so I was hopeful of getting a spot.”Looking through our team there will be a real Northern feel to it which will be nice. There’s a lot of Durham lads that I’ve played with and Yorkshire lads I’ve played against so there will be a bit of familiarity. It’s a good sign for the amount of talent in the region and I’m very proud to be picked up by the Northern team.Four other domestic players were also confirmed as replacements on Friday: Jordan Thompson replaced Olly Stone (injured) at Northern Superchargers; Sam Hain and Ollie Robinson replaced Wayne Madsen (injured) and Harry Gurney (retired) at Manchester Originals; and Will Smeed replaced Henry Brookes (injured) at Birmingham Phoenix.Related

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The news means disappointment for a number of county players, including Middlesex’s Stephen Eskinazi, the leading run-scorer in the Blast and second in the run charts last season. Chris Dent, Arron Lilley, Jack Leaning and Ed Pollock are among the batters to have been overlooked, while bowlers Graeme White, Dan Moriarty, Gavin Griffiths and Matt Milnes all missed out.There is still a possibility that a handful of unsigned domestic players will end up being involved in the competition. Teams will be able to sign partial replacements for players who are named in England’s Test squad to India and do not have red-ball central contracts – which will potentially include Mark Wood and Craig Overton – and there are injury doubts over a number of players with Hundred deals including Tom Abell, Pat Brown, Richard Gleeson and Liam Plunkett.Wildcard signings: Ben Raine (Northern Superchargers), Jordan Cox (Oval Invincibles), Sam Cook (Trent Rockets), Jake Lintott (Southern Brave), Freddie Klaassen (Manchester Originals), Blake Cullen (London Spirit), Leus du Plooy (Welsh Fire), Dillon Pennington (Birmingham Phoenix)

Barbados won their fifth straight game with a 171-run thrashing of ICC Americas at Windward Park on Friday. Kraigg Brathwaite’s second century of the tournament laid the foundation for victory as he scored 108 out of a total of 282 for 9 after Barbados chose to bat. ICC Americas were bowled out for 111 in reply and remain winless in the Regional Super50.Brathwaite lost his opening partner Anthony Alleyne in the second over for 2, but proceeded to compile three successive 50-plus stands with Shai Hope (27), Jonathan Carter (57) and Roston Chase (40) as Barbados cruised to 240 for 3 in the 45th before a flurry of wickets fell in the final overs. Medium pacer Cecil Pervez, who dismissed Alleyne early on, came back late to remove Chase and Ashley Nurse to finish with 3 for 58 while legspinner Timil Patel had Brathwaite, Hope and Jason Holder all out stumped to claim 3 for 57.ICC Americas responded with their worst start of the tournament as five of the top six batsmen fell for 0, 1 or 2. Alex Amsterdam was the only one of the group to reach double-digits, making 30 before he became Holder’s third victim at the start of the 12th over to make it 39 for 6.Timroy Allen led a brief counterattack, striking two sixes off Carlos Brathwaite in the 13th and then one more off both Holder and Jomel Warrican before he fell for a top score of 36 off 25 balls to Warrican in the 21st over. His team was all out by the 34th.Shivnarine Chanderpaul made his 97th List A fifty•WICB Media/Kerrie Eversley

Guyana broke a three-way tie for second place pulling ahead of Jamaica and Combined Campuses and Colleges, whom they beat by six wickets at Kensington Oval. CCC could manage only 188 after deciding to bat at the toss, and Guyana were able to chase it down with half-centuries from captain Leon Johnson and the evergreen Shivnarine Chanderpaul.Ronsford Beaton’s solid tournament with the ball for Guyana continued as he took 3 for 52 while left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul kept the run-rate tight in the middle overs, finishing with 2 for 29 from his 10 overs. Six out of the top eight for CCC reached double-figures but none made more than Amir Jangoo’s 30, with his innings coming to an end courtesy a run-out by Steven Jacobs. With wickets falling at regular intervals, the 41-run partnership between captain Jamal Smith and Nino Henry for the seventh wicket was CCC’s best stand.Guyana stumbled at the start, reaching 19 for 2, before Assad Fudadin and Johnson steadied the chase with a 54-run stand. That was followed by an 85-run fourth-wicket partnership between Johnson and Chanderpaul. Johnson eventually fell for 71 in the 42nd over with 31 left to win while Chanderpaul stayed through to the end, finishing unbeaten on 58.

ScorecardMatt Renshaw added a second-innings 50 to his 108 from the first innings•Getty Images

Queensland opener Matt Renshaw improved his chances of a surprise Test call-up by adding a second-innings 50 to his century from the first innings, but Test incumbents Joe Burns and Callum Ferguson both failed again on the third day at the Gabba. Australia’s squad for the day-night Adelaide Test will be announced on Sunday and with several batting positions under discussion, all three Sheffield Shield games have been under great scrutiny.South Australia resumed on 9 for 222 and after their last pair pushed the total to 258 – wicketkeeper Alex Carey top scored with 76 – Queensland chose not to enforce the follow-on. That gave Burns and Renshaw a final opportunity to impress interim national selector Greg Chappell, who was at the Gabba, but Burns was unable to grab his chance and was lbw to Chadd Sayers for 2.It continued a horror run for Burns, who began the Shield season with a century but has now failed to reach double-figures in any of his past six first-class innings. Meanwhile the 20-year-old Renshaw, in his first Shield game of the summer having suffered a knee injury during the Matador Cup, showed that he can switch gears by striking 50 from 51 balls as the Bulls sought quick runs to set the Redbacks a target.In the first innings, Renshaw had watchfully seen off the swinging new ball before he started to expand his strokeplay, and finished with 108. Renshaw averages 44.39 with three centuries from his 12 first-class appearances, and if selected for Adelaide will be the least experienced specialist batsman to make his Test debut for Australia since Warner, who had played 11 first-class games when he won the baggy green.Usman Khawaja was caught and bowled by Kane Richardson for 17, Marnus Labuschagne was bowled by Sayers for 8, and young batsman Sam Heazlett posted 63 before he was lbw to the part-time offspin of Travis Head. The Bulls declared at 7 for 228, setting South Australia an unlikely 446 for victory, and by stumps the Redbacks were 2 for 71.Ferguson, who made his Test debut in Hobart, was caught behind off Peter George for 4 and is experiencing a similarly lean patch to Burns, having not reached double-figures in any of his past five first-class innings. At the close of play, Jake Weatherald was on 33 and Head was on 13.