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Teenage sensation Chloe Ainsworth continued her scintillating start to the WBBL, helping Perth Scorchers to a 74-wicket win over the ladder-leading Sydney Thunder.Ainsworth claimed figures of 2 for 15 at Drummoyne Oval on Tuesday night, as Thunder were all out for 97 in the 20th over in pursuit of Scorchers’ 171 for 7. The seamer set the win up for Scorchers, taking 2 for 4 from her opening two overs.The result ended the Thunder’s four-match winning streak and helped heavyweights Scorchers climb from fifth to second on the WBBL ladder.It came amid some drama, with one of Drummoyne Oval’s light towers going out early in Thunder’s chase. Umpires stopped play to ask if both teams were happy to continue, before Thunder captain Phoebe Litchfield opted to stay on with the bat.”I don’t think I would like to be batting out there with Ainsworth out there firing, but that’s the umpire’s call,” Thunder coach Lisa Keightley said on afterwards. “And they gave it to the players, so that is interesting.”Already behind in the chase after Ainsworth’s wickets, Litchfield and Heather Knight offered the Thunder a brief hope with a 32-run third-wicket stand. But when Litchfield was caught off Amy Edgar the innings unravelled.Earlier, Sophie Devine helped set up the victory with 48 from 34 balls, turning around her run of two straight ducks before Tuesday night, alongside India’s Dayalan Hemalatha who made brisk 41 off 26 balls after not passing 13 in her first five innings.Devine pulled Sammy-Jo Johnson for one six, cut her for four the next ball and provided a deft late-cut to send Shabnim Ismail to the deep-third boundary. She was bowled by Ismail later in the same over, but with the assistance of Mikayla Hinkley Scorchers’ win had been set up.Devine has been one of the world’s best batters for more than a decade, but Ainsworth showed on Tuesday night why she could soon enter Australian calculations.The 19-year-old had last year’s WBBL MVP Chamari Athapaththu caught in the first over, before removing her opening partner Georgia Voll in her next over. She also should have had Hannah Darlington caught in the deep late, only for the chance to be dropped by Lilly Mills.Ainsworth’s wickets saw her add the duo to a high-profile list of victims this season, including Meg Lanning, Annabel Sutherland, Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Alice Capsey. She has now taken nine wickets at 12.88 this season, after taking 15 at 19.66 in her rookie campaign last year.

At 37, in his first full Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) season, R Ashwin is expanding his range as a batter. He has always been good at finding boundaries down the ground, a skill that Rajasthan Royals leverage when they send him up the order in the IPL in order to provide their finishers a more suitable point of entry. But at this year’s TNPL, Ashwin has been working on playing boundary shots square of the wicket, and it’s paying off.In the Qualifier 2, against Idream Tiruppur Tamizhans at Chepauk on Friday, Ashwin dismantled left-arm fingerspinners R Sai Kishore and S Ajith Ram with a number of reverse sweeps. He was particularly severe on Sai Kishore, scoring 28 off nine balls at a strike rate of over 300. In all, Ashwin has 200 runs in eight innings in this TNPL at a strike rate of 166.66, with five of those innings coming right at the top or No. 3 for Dindigul Dragons.”Look, everything is work in progress, right?,” he said on the eve of the TNPL final against Shahrukh Khan’s Lyca Kovai Kings in Chennai. “You can even ask Shahrukh Khan about it. How does he do power-hitting… how do you hit the ball through the off side and leg side? It’s all about repetitions, and understanding angles and triggers.”Obviously, in the last IPL, I felt like I needed to widen my game and widen my horizons square of the wicket because I know I can hit the ball down the ground, and I can use my feet. Do I want to explore other options is something I had to ask myself. So if I can ask that question and if I can find an answer, it gives me a new avenue to explore and keep myself interested in the game.”Dindigul’s rookie left-arm fingerspinner P Vignesh had missed the Under-19 World Cup cut for India earlier this year but has been particularly impressive with his accuracy and control in this TNPL. In Qualifier 2 against Tiruppur, he came away with figures of 3 for 8 and the Player-of-the-Match award. Like Vignesh, Tiruppur’s offspin-bowling allrounder Mohamed Ali was excluded from India’s Under-19 World Cup squad but has made a mark in the TNPL. Ashwin has urged the next generation of cricketers to embrace setbacks and keep upgrading their skills.”Look, firstly I think missing the Under-19 cut is not the end of the world. Looking at how fragile our next generation can be, I really urge people to look at this game as a part of life,” Ashwin said. “Failure and success is very, very normal, and people become better only through failures. So I know P Vignesh, he has been coming to the Indian team nets, and I think he has improved every day. And this sort of a tournament gives these guys opportunity to be able to express and expand their game. I really hope that they’re ready to expand it constantly, and find answers to the questions that are going to be asked.”Lyca Kovai Kings captain Shahrukh Khan with the TNPL trophy•TNPL/TNCA

Shahrukh: GT helped improve my game against spin

Shahrukh has often struggled against spin, especially at the start of his innings, but he has been working on a technical tweak – a trigger movement where he pushes his weight forward – and he believes this will help him be a more rounded batter.”When I was with the Gujarat Titans, we had a camp for about a couple of months there, so I started working a lot on my spin game because they wanted me to bat up the order,” Shahrukh said. “And when you bat up the order, obviously for a batter like me having my concerns against spin bowling, especially, opponent teams would bring in spin when I come out to bat.”So their role was to help me improve my spin game, and it really helped. The front press I’m doing [in the TNPL] is quite obvious now, and it has helped me to score off the front foot and off the back foot as well.”While Shahrukh’s overall strike rate against pace in the IPL is 161.11, it falls sharply to 112 against spin. But in IPL 2024, he managed to lift his strike rate against spin to 168.75 while maintaining a similarly high strike rate against pace. And when Kovai met Dindigul in the league phase in Tirunelveli, Shahrukh took on mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and left-arm spinner Vignesh on his way to an unbeaten 51 off 25 balls.Having lost that game to Dindigul, Shahrukh has called his team to put together their “best cricket” in their quest for a three-peat in the TNPL.”I really don’t know [about the law of averages]. We’re taking it as just another game,” Shahrukh said. “The law of averages and the hat-trick [of titles]… all these things on social media are there, but we aren’t focusing on that. Out of the eight games we’ve played, only in two games we’ve stepped up to the expectations we have as a unit.”I hope even in this game we try and bring it out. As far as I’m concerned, we still haven’t played our best cricket this year, and we will try and do that.”

Hubli Tigers won a supremely thrilling Maharaja T20 Trophy game that required three Super Overs to separate the two sides at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.With three wickets standing, Bengaluru Blasters could manage to score just five of the six runs remaining to beat Hubli in regulation time.Gneshwar Naveen put Blasters in front with a boundary off the very first ball off the 20th over, but fell off the next delivery.LR Kumar then bowled two dot balls before Lavish Kaushal was tactically retired out on the fifth ball, even as he and his partner Kranthi Kumar sneaked in a bye. Having to defend one off the last ball, Kranthi was run out to force the game into a Super Over.

First Super Over: Pandey gets lucky

Mayank Agarwal, the Bengaluru Blasters captain, was out first ball, but they recovered to score 10, courtesy a last-ball six from Aniruddha Joshi.Manish Pandey unlocked a big hit with Tigers needing eight of three. But with the equation down to 2 off 1, Pandey was dropped by Kaushal, the bowler, who let the ball slip through his fingers. Tigers sneaked a single to tie the Super Over.

Second Super Over: Kaverappa holds his nerve

Pandey walked out to open this time with 20-year-old allrounder Manvanth Kumar. Manvanth had played an influential role in the game until then; picking up 4 for 33 while defending 164, which incidentally had been achieved on the back of his late 15-ball 28. But in the second Super Over, he and Pandey could manage just eight.Having to defend a modest score, seamer Vidwath Kaverappa answered his team’s call. India’s selectors had seen fit to give him a fast-bowling contract earlier this year and he showcased the potential.Despite conceding a boundary early on, he held his nerve to concede just four more to force the game into a third Super Over.

Third Super Over: Manvanth gets third-time lucky

Joshi fell first ball to Manvanth to put Blasters in front, but it took a last-ball six over backward point by Shubhang Hegde to push Blasters up to 12 in the tie-breaker.Having failed to close out the game first in regulation time and then in the second Super Over, Manvanth had a third opportunity, and he set the ball rolling by lofting a boundary off the second ball. But Kranthi came back strongly to give up only three runs off the next three balls (one of them an extra).The Tigers now needed four off the final ball, and Manvanth broke the deadlock by heaving a full toss into the vacant square leg region to clinch a thriller as there was finally something to separate the sides.

The BCB has made two amendments to its constitution at the 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Dhaka on Sunday, with a view to launching its own TV channel. The board wants to ensure all competitive cricket that it runs in the country is broadcast, with this channel plugging any gaps.BCB president Nazmul Hassan said that the TV channel will generally show domestic matches and those international matches that their broadcast partners can’t show. “T-Sports and Gazi TV show most of our matches. If they cannot show some matches, we want to show those matches,” Hassan said. “They are showing the men’s Test match, so they can’t show the women’s series. We want both to be on TV, so we need to have an option.”We also want to show domestic cricket on TV. Everyone thinks that it will raise the standard of cricket in the country. People can then see the standard of umpiring in domestic cricket, for example.”The amendments were made to sub-clauses 6.17 and 6.20, which fall under the “scope and responsibility” section of the BCB’s constitution. The new 6.17 sub-clause allows the board to enhance its financial transactions and banking activities. The new 6.20 sub-clause talks of the option to form “one or more trusts, companies, societies/foundations as necessary to achieve ancillary objectives including enhancement of infrastructural, economic, commercial and social facilities for the development of cricket across the country”.BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said the idea was not to turn the national board into a “business enterprise”, but launching a TV channel would require the board to strengthen its legal framework.”According to our legal advice, we have made the amendments to bring more dynamism to our financial transactions and banking activities,” Chowdhury said. “As you know there are many criteria of Bangladesh Bank that we have to meet to make banking transactions.”[That BCB is looking to become a business enterprise] is misleading information. There’s a difference between company formation and floating shares of a company in the share market. We have a plan to form BCB TV, for which we have to come into a legal framework through the BCB’s constitution.”The AGM brought together the BCB’s 170-plus councilors (or members) from different backgrounds, the majority of whom are from Bangladesh’s 64 districts.The BCB has long promised to form regional cricket bodies and while most cricket in these regions is being run by ad-hoc committees, the board officials, mainly based in the capital Dhaka, have not allowed them autonomy. According to BCB chief Hassan, the regional bodies have to prove themselves first before independence is granted.”Regional cricket associations cannot be free of the centre’s interference unless we are satisfied with their work. They aren’t independent right now. But our big picture plan is to make them independent bodies. It is not decentralisation. It is de-concentration. We are reducing concentration away from Dhaka. Eventually it will be decentralised.”The BCB has allocated each body BDT 2 million (USD 17,400 approx) to organise a tournament in the coming months. “We have told them to organise a T20 tournament as a test case. We will pay them BDT 2 million initially. We will see how they perform and expend this money,” Hassan said. “We are not paying them blindly. Not all districts get money. Only those who are organising cricket are getting money.”

Centuries from Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra at entirely different stages of their careers – and both of varying styles – made South Africa pay for the lack of experience and pace, and the chances they put down of both batters. The duo had put on 219 runs for the unbroken third wicket by the end of the first day to deflate a spirited South Africa line-up that had reduced the hosts to a tricky 39 for 2 in the first session.Williamson was the more patient and circumspect of the two as he put a scratchy start behind him, whereas Ravindra smoked a six on his 11th ball to get going for his best Test score as both batters picked up pace in the last session to just about touch the run rate of three an over.Ravindra and Williamson had to steer New Zealand out of troubled waters after debutant Tshepo Moreki started his Test career with a first-ball wicket by trapping Devon Conway lbw for 1 in the second over of the game. In his accurate first spell of 5-1-10-1, Moreki beat Williamson three times in 15 balls for just five runs.Dane Paterson also tested the batters with his seam movement with wobble seam, and he soon drew Tom Latham’s outside edge for 20. The jitters continued as Williamson was nearly run-out when Ravindra tapped his fifth ball towards cover point for a quick single, only for the throw to be wayward. Had Williamson been dismissed, the hosts would have been 44 for 3 then.Ravindra’s start was much more confident, as he welcomed Moreki back for a second spell with a six over the long-leg boundary. Moreki continued to impress nonetheless, and even drew Ravindra’s edge three balls later, but it fell well short of second slip. Ravindra enjoyed some more luck off Moreki on 23 when his inside edge just missed the stumps which made him a bit more watchful.The duo batted patiently through a wicketless second session of 27 overs for just 60 runs, with plenty of leaves and blocks because of the tight bowling from the four South Africa quicks. South Africa were fielding an all-pace bowling attack and six debutants in Mount Maunganui, including their captain Neil Brand. Since 1995, it was the first instance by a Test nation apart from Ireland and Afghanistan who had their captain on debut when the side wasn’t playing its first Test.1:54

Moreki: We knew it would be difficult against NZ

But the conditions started to get better for batting after the initial swing subsided and once the ball got older. Williamson opened up with imperious boundaries off Moreki in consecutive overs, and Ravindra soon caught up when he broke the shackles against Paterson with a cover drive and a mighty pull for a one-bounce four.While Williamson played the ball very late and used soft hands to ensure his edges weren’t carrying, Ravindra drove, scythed and pulled the loose deliveries with hard hands and a lot more punch. Williamson got a life on 45 just minutes before tea when he uncharacteristically slogged against Ruan de Swardt’s medium pace, but the leading edge was shelled by Edward Moore while running back from extra cover.And Williamson reached his fifty in the next over with a boundary, while Ravindra reached his own in the over after the break. Both scored a lot more freely with boundaries to tick at above four runs an over in the half hour after the tea break as Ravindra closed in on his partner. By then, Duanne Oliver’s pace had started to drop below 125kph, and South Africa’s captain Neil Brand came on to bowl left-arm spin but for no success.Soon after, Ravindra got a life on 80 when his top edge flew to deep backward square leg where Olivier ran in and dived forward, and got both hands to the ball, but couldn’t hold on. As South Africa started bowling shorter consistently before the second new ball was taken, Williamson pulled to reach his 30th Test century – off 241 balls – while Ravindra’s landmark moment came in the next over, off 189 deliveries.South Africa’s fortunes didn’t change even after the second new ball, which was slapped straightaway for a four by both batters. Ravindra continued to collect boundaries off Moreki, whether he pitched it full or short, to overtake Williamson and finish the day unbeaten on 118, ten ahead of the former captain.

Mitchell Starc was “jittery” on Tuesday evening as he followed the IPL 2024 auction at his home in Sydney. It had already been a busy day for Starc: he had mowed the lawn, walked the dogs, done his shopping rounds and made himself dinner.Starc waited anxiously for his name to come up for bidding in the fourth set comprising capped fast bowlers. His Australia captain and friend Pat Cummins had already gone to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 20.5 crore (US$2.569 mn approx.), surpassing the record set by England allrounder Sam Curran at the 2023 auction to become the IPL’s most expensive player ever.Related

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That distinction, several pundits and franchises heads had believed in the lead-up to the auction, would belong to Starc. Nearly two-and-a-half hours into the auction in Dubai, player Number 28’s name came up for bidding: Starc.Starc and everyone else following the auction wouldn’t believe what was about to transpire. Mumbai Indians owner Akash Ambani and his counterpart at Delhi Capitals, Kiran Gandhe, started the bidding. At the INR 9.4 crore mark, Gandhe pulled out. Enter Kolkata Knight Riders at the INR 9.8 crore mark. The Knight Riders had been favorites to bid for Starc on the eve of the auction. After all, they had signed him for INR 9.4 crore at the 2018 auction, but Starc had to pull out due to injury.After Mumbai, too, dropped out, Gujarat Titans locked into a bidding contest with Knight Riders. Several tense minutes followed as both franchises raised their bidding towards Cummins’ price tag. The auction room let out a sigh of excitement when Starc surpassed Cummins. Finally, after nearly 17 minutes of bidding, Knight Riders had Starc at INR 24.75 crore. The most expensive player tag had moved from Cummins to Starc in less than two hours.Starc was as gobsmacked as his wife Alyssa Healy, who was relaying updates from Mumbai where she is part of the Australia women’s tour of India, which starts with a one-off Test this week. In a chat with , Starc said he had been “intrigued” about how he would fare, and wasn’t prepared to end up making history.”I’m not sure any words would do it justice, really,” Starc said with a chuckle, asked to recount his reaction to Knight Riders’ winning bid. “Alyssa was over there with the Australian team at the minute, so her coverage was slightly ahead of mine here in Australia. So she sort of saw the numbers before I did, so I was getting the updates through her. But, yeah, a fair bit of shock, and certainly excitement with how it was all unfolding. But nothing that I could’ve ever imagined. Thoroughly thrilled to be joining KKR.”Starc has played only two seasons of the IPL – in 2014 and 2015, at Royal Challengers Bangalore, who had picked him up at INR 5 crore. He then decided to manage his workload for a few years before deciding to enter the auction ahead of the 2018 season. Even then the Knight Riders had bet big money on Starc who they believe has all the skills to be a serial match-winner. These included his ability to bowl in the 140-150 kph range while generating conventional and reverse swing, flooring batters and breaking stumps with toe-crushing yorkers, mix things up with a wicked slower ball, all this with the added threat of his left-arm angle, as well as provide depth to their batting with his lower-order hitting.Unfortunately, Starc hurt his tibia, ruling him out of the 2018 season. But six seasons later, Starc is happy to play in Knight Riders’ colours. “Firstly, it’s exciting to be back involved,” he said. “Secondly, it’s more of a bit of a shock and a surprise, I guess.”The Knight Riders had come to the auction with a remaining purse of 32.7 crore with the most slots to fill of any team – 12 including four overseas players. As soon as the auction began, they got to work by raising their paddle for West Indies allrounder Rovman Powell, who ended up going to Rajasthan Royals. The Knight Riders would eventually walk out with 10 new signings.0:34

Healy: IPL record buy a justification for Starc’s choices

Incredibly, the nine others apart from Starc were all signed at their base price. As Knight Riders CEO Venky Mysore said after acquiring Starc, you can “slice” the purse in different ways.But how do you make sense of a team spending INR 24.75 crore, or 75.69 % of the purse they started the auction with, on a single player? Starc was laughing himself. “They are amazing numbers, aren’t they?” He understands the pressure and expectatins that will come with the price tag as soon as the season begins. But he has qualities not many possess: vast experience, and the experience of winning World Cups in high-pressure situations. “I’m 33 now, so I’ve had to deal with a few ups and downs and pressures of certain games,” he said. “I would like to think that I can keep that in check, but that always comes with the territory when some of those numbers get added to the anticipation of an upcoming season as well.”It’s been a long time since I played in IPL in 2014 and ’15 and have obviously played a fair bit of cricket since then. A lot of it for Australia in different formats. There’s been a lot of white-ball cricket there [in India] across a few World Cup campaigns, and so that experience is there and a little bit of leadership if you like, in terms of the experience side of things in white-ball cricket that hopefully I can bring to bring to KKR as well and play my part there. And being able to bowl at different stages I think is something that’s held firm throughout.”While he sat out of the IPL, Starc never felt uneasy. His had chalked out his priorities, and had been focused on performing for Australia. He played a key role in a historic 2023, in which Australia won the World Test Championship final, retained the Ashes, and then overcame a dominant India in the final of the World Cup in front of a 90,000-plus crowd in Ahmedabad.Starc now believes he is ready for the IPL .”I’ve probably prioritised international cricket firstly for a long time whilst having a bit of a taste of IPL and Big Bash in Australia.” he said. “I’ve always held firm that I’ve wanted to play my best cricket for Australia and make myself available for Australia where I can. At the same time, the temptation to go back to IPL and how exciting it is to be involved in such a great tournament, big names, big players, big stages – it’s too hard to pass up. There’s a place to play all of it. it’s just being mindful and putting the work ethic in to be able to do all of it.”The Eden Gardens also holds good memories for Starc. On November 16, he took a three-for and then batted resolutely with Cummins in a tense chase of 213 against South Africa in the World Cup semi-finals. “I’m very much looking forward to playing as the home team and experiencing that home crowd [at Eden Gardens],” he said. “Some new colors to pull on and a new challenge to look forward to.”What can the passionate Knight Riders fan expect then from Starc? “Hopefully, more of the success that I’ve had over some time – swinging the new ball, reversing the old, and trying to smack those wickets.”As for the present, Starc is looking forward to meeting Cummins ahead of training on Wednesday as they get ready to join the rest of the Australia squad in Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan. “It could be an interesting conversation between the bowling group tomorrow and the gym,” he said, with a laugh.While he and Healy will spend the rest of 2023 indulging in a “Christmas of cricket” in different continents, Starc is happy to share the joy he and Cummins have experienced today with rest of the Australia squad. “The team chat has been going nuts,” he said. “The are all saying it’s our shout, so we’ll just go about our business and get ready for the next Test match. But a few of our Australian team-mates might be waiting for us to treat them.”

Zimbabwe have been knocked out of contention, while Uganda joined Namibia in qualifying for the 2024 men’s T20 World Cup after they beat Rwanda in the last round of matches in the Africa leg of the qualifiers. Though Zimbabwe won their final fixture against Kenya, it was all over for them once Uganda beat Rwanda.After asking Rwanda to bat and dismissing them for 65 in 18.5 overs, Uganda reached their target in 8.1 overs. It’s a historic occasion for Uganda, who have now qualified for a senior World Cup – either format – for the first time, though Uganda was one of the countries that made up the East Africa team at the 1975 World Cup.As for Zimbabwe, who needed Uganda to lose their last game to stand a chance of qualifying, they did their best on the day. Batting first, they scored 217 for 4, with captain Sikandar Raza top-scoring with 82 in 48 balls and Sean Williams hitting a 26-ball 60. With the ball, then, Richard Ngarava, Ryan Burl, Raza and Williams all picked up two wickets each to stop Kenya at 107 for 8 for a 110-run win.