Cricket

Rain wiped out the entire first day of the men's World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand in Southampton. Heavy rain fell throughout Friday, preventing a ball being bowled, and play was abandoned at 14:48 BST. The weather is forecast to improve over the weekend with play set to begin at 10:30 on Saturday. A reserve, sixth day is in place for the showpiece final to allow for play lost to bad weather to be made up. Still, it was a

England Women vs India Women, Only Test Day 1: Heather Knight's 95 and Tammy Beaumont's 66 took England to 269 for 6 even as India made a comeback with wickets late on the first day. Spinners Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma fashioned India's comeback by triggering a batting collapse in the final session but England Women still managed a decent 269 for 6 on the opening day of the one-off Test in Bristol on Wednesday. Playing a Test match after nearly seven years,

New Zealand on Tuesday named a 15-man squad for the World Test Championship final against India, to be played at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton from June 18. Kane Williamson, who missed the second Test of the recently-concluded series against England, returns to lead the squad as does wicket-keeper batsman BJ Watling. Colin de Grandhomme has been included as a specialist all-rounder while Ajaz Patel is the specialist spinner. All of Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Ross Taylor, and Devon Conway have kept their

England's dismal second-Test defeat was confirmed inside an hour on the fourth morning at Edgbaston, giving New Zealand a 1-0 series win. The home side lost their last wicket to the first ball of the day, with Olly Stone edging behind off Trent Boult. That meant New Zealand had only 38 runs to chase, which they did inside 11 overs to win by eight wickets. It is England's first home series defeat since 2014, when Sri Lanka won a two-match series 1-0. And

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India Men's squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series and three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka. Shikhar Dhawan will lead in the absence of regular captain Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma, who are on the tour of England with the Test team. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been named vice-captain. The squad has several new faces in middle-order batsman Nitish Rana, all-rounder K Gowtham, opening batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad and fast bowler Chetan Sakariya among

The England and Wales Cricket Board says it will take "relevant and appropriate action" after historical tweets from several England players were "questioned publicly". On Sunday, the ECB suspended bowler Ollie Robinson from international cricket pending an investigation into tweets posted in 2012 and 2013. It then said it was looking into reports a second England player posted historical "offensive material", before tweets by Eoin Morgan, James Anderson and Jos Buttler were highlighted. An ECB spokesperson said: "Since we were alerted to offensive tweets last week,

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has zeroed in on the date for the resumption of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League to be held in UAE. The first game on resumption will be played on September 19 while the final will be hosted on October 15 -- the day India will be celebrating Dussehra this year. Speaking to ANI, a BCCI official in the know of developments of the recent meetings between the BCCI and the Emirates

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced that the remainder of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 will be played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The board decided to organise the remaining matches of IPL in the months of September and October considering the monsoon season in India in those months. The decision was taken at BCCI's Special General Meeting (SGM) which was held virtually on Saturday. IPL 2021 had been postponed on May 4 after several players and support staff

India's cricket board (BCCI) considering moving IPL resumption date to September 19, avoiding clash with fifth Test between India and England at Old Trafford, scheduled to finish on September 14; IPL postponed earlier this month due to coronavirus cases England's Test series with India is set to go ahead as scheduled this summer, despite reports earlier this week that Indian cricket's governing body, the BCCI, had enquired about moving the fifth Test at Old Trafford. There had reportedly been concerns over a clash

Northamptonshire and Lancashire were frustrated again as bad weather restricted them to just 11.2 overs on day three at Wantage Road. Rain ruled out play until 2.30pm when Gareth Berg struck by having Keaton Jennings (27) caught behind. That ended Jennings' opening stand of 63 with Alex Davies, who advanced to 45 before rain - and a hail shower - intervened with Lancashire on 75-1. The second day was washed out, with only 70 minutes of play on day one.

The IPL, also called as the IPL 14, is the fifteenth season of an international league of professional cricket, the Indian Premier League. The IPL matches are played across the countries of England, Australia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The first season was held in England, with the teams from both countries meeting at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mumbai. This year's IPL season will be held in Sri Lanka. Both the IPL matches and tournaments are attended by tens of millions of fans. Although

England fast bowler Jofra Archer has been ruled out of the two Tests against New Zealand next month after a recurrence of his elbow problem. Archer was unable to bowl on Saturday during Sussex's County Championship match with Kent, and did not bowl in the game's final day on Sunday either. The England and Wales Cricket Board said the 26-year-old "was suffering from pain in his right elbow". The first Test against New Zealand at Lord's starts on 2 June. "The England and

LONDON: New Zealand's most successful test wicketkeeper BJ Watling will retire from all forms of cricket after their upcoming tour of England, the country's cricket board (NZC) said on Wednesday. Watling, 35, has been an integral part of New Zealand's test team since debuting in 2009, and holds the Black Caps' record for test dismissals with 249 catches (excluding 10 as a fielder) and eight stumpings. Watling, who also represented New Zealand in 28 one-day internationals and five Twenty20s, said the time had

England expect players to be available for their Twenty20 World Cup build-up if there is a clash with the rescheduled Indian Premier League. One possible window for the postponed IPL is before the T20 World Cup in October, when England are due to tour Bangladesh and Pakistan. "If those tours go ahead I'd expect them (players) to be there," said England managing director Ashley Giles. "We're planning on involvement of England players in England matches." The IPL was postponed last week amid the

The remainder of the suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) season will have to be played outside the country, the organising Indian cricket board said, though it is unclear whether a window can be found to play the outstanding 31 games. The popular Twenty20 league was suspended indefinitely last week after several personnel tested positive for COVID-19. India reported 366,161 new COVID-19 infections on Monday, taking the caseload to 22.66 million. Sourav Ganguly, head of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI),

Star batsman David Warner and former Australia opener turned commentator Michael Slater have clearly denied that the duo were involved in an altercation inside a Maldives bar. SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Warner and Slater, who was commentating in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, along with the Australian contingent are staying in the Maldives before they all leave for Australia. The rumour of physical exchange between the duo in the Maldives was first reported by the Daily Telegraph as cited by foxsports.com.au. The former Australian

Rain is affecting Saturday's County Championship fixtures with six matches abandoned without a ball bowled. Yorkshire against Kent was called off shortly after 11:00 BST and the games at Lancashire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Northants and Nottinghamshire followed. Play did start at Lord's between Middlesex and Gloucestershire at 13:10. Hampshire and Somerset began the third day of their Group Two encounter at The Ageas Bowl at 17:30 BST. But while Group Two leaders Gloucestershire managed to beat Middlesex by seven wickets, only 9.3 overs were possible in

NEW DELHI: The Indian cricket board faces losing about US$270 million in revenue after its lucrative and star-studded Indian Premier League (IPL) was halted by the COVID-19 crisis in the country, a senior official told Reuters on Wednesday. The world's richest Twenty20 league was approaching its halfway stage before it was suspended indefinitely on Tuesday following bubble breaches in two venues. "The ballpark figure for revenue loss would be to the tune of 2000 crore rupees (20 billion)," Arun Singh Dhumal, treasurer of

Australian police on Wednesday arrested four men in connection with the armed kidnapping of former Test bowler Stuart MacGill. The men were detained in a pre-dawn raid in Sydney, following the kidnapping of the cricketer in the city's affluent Lower North Shore last month. MacGill was lauded as a talented bowler and played 44 Tests for Australia, but was unlucky that his career coincided with that of Shane Warne, ranked by many as the best spin bowler of all time. Police said that

Some of England's 11 IPL players are already on their way home following the indefinite suspension of the tournament. It is understood Sam Billings, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow have managed to secure flights back to the UK earlier than initially expected. It had been anticipated that all IPL players would be required to self-isolate in India and test negative before leaving the country. The players will still have to quarantine for 10 days at a government-approved hotel upon arrival in UK, as