The loss for Lahore Qalandars dented their net run-rate, and now leaves them on the brink of not making the playoffs for the fourth season in a row

The Report by Peter Della Penna09-Mar-2019How the game played outA day in which batting records tumbled one after another was won by one of the finest bowling spells in T20 cricket by Faheem Ashraf as Islamabad United clinched a playoff berth with a 49-run win over Lahore Qalandars on the opening night of matches at Karachi in PSL 2019.

List of records broken

1) Highest PSL score of all time (238)
2) Most PSL sixes (16) in an innings
3) Joint-fastest PSL half-century (Asif Ali, 17 balls)
4) Highest ever T20 total in Karachi
5) Most expensive spell in PSL (Shaheen Afridi, 62 runs)
6) Least number of twos in a completed PSL innings (one, Islamabad)
7) Fastest PSL hundred (Cameron Delport, 49 balls)

Cameron Delport produced the fifth century in the history of the PSL – the fastest of the lot too in just 49 balls – as he propelled United to the largest total in PSL history, eclipsing the previous best – 204 for 4 by Lahore Qalandars earlier this year – by 34 runs. Delport added 118 for the third wicket with Chadwick Walton, then another unbroken stand of 88 with Asif Ali to take United through to the end of the innings.Delport struck the first five balls he faced to or over the boundary in a fiery knock, but appeared out of gas after slog sweeping Sandeep Lamichhane for six on back-to-back balls to bring up his century in the 16th. He only scored 13 runs off the last four overs, opening the door for Asif to take control on the way to bashing the joint-fastest PSL fifty off just 17 balls.Delport’s century was worth its weight in gold, though it was achieved on a flat pitch with incredibly short boundaries. By comparison, Ashraf’s 6 for 19 was platinum-encrusted. He took three wickets in his first two overs to slow down a rampaging start to the Qalandars chase, then followed it with three more in a later spell to see off the last remaining threat.Cameron Delport drives through the off side•Pakistan Super League

Turning points

• In the fourth over of the match, Delport was on 27 when he miscued a flick in the air over midwicket off Shaheen Afridi but was spilled badly by Sohail Akhtar running back from inside the ring. He added another 90 runs after the second life.
• Qalandars were 51 for 0 in four overs, but Ashraf got momentum to shift back towards United in the field for the first time with a five-run fifth over that included the wicket of Anton Devcich driving to Walton at extra cover.
• Sohail Akhtar was the last recognized bat for Qalandars and primed for a big finishing kick on 75 with his side needed 64 off the last three overs, tough yet doable under the conditions on the day, before Ashraf induced a mistimed pull to Shadab Khan at long-on for his fifth wicket.

Star of the dayFaheem Ashraf was bowling with a different magic ball compared to every other bowler on either side. After dismissing Anton Devcich, he nabbed Fakhar Zaman for 38 thanks to a sharp sliding catch by Phil Salt at long-on in the seventh before ending the same over getting Haris Sohail driving to backward point. He began his second spell claiming Agha Salman with a miscued slog to deep midwicket for a sharp catch by Shadab Khan, and teamed up with Shadab later to get Sohail Akhtar for the five-for. Faheem rounded off his day yorking Afridi for the second-best figures in PSL history.The big missPoor Luke Ronchi. On a pitch that served up an all-you-can eat buffet for most batsmen, he was out on the first ball of the match to Shaheen, edging a drive that was well taken by a diving Haris Sohail at slip.Where the teams standIslamabad United end the regular season on 10 points and will play either Karachi Kings or Qalandars in the first eliminator. In order for Qalandars to claim the fourth playoff spot, they need to beat last-place Multan Sultans in their final match with a fairly large margin, and hope Kings lose both of their remaining matches to Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi.

Neither man is seen in India’s limited-overs sides much these days, but with the IPL, they have a chance to return to the national consciousness

The Preview by Alagappan Muthu24-Mar-20194:15

Agarkar: Gayle could have a big say in the result

Big Picture

They seem to have match-winners galore but, put together, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals have only one IPL trophy between them. And addressing that fairly important issue are two captains who have been left by the wayside and aren’t particularly thrilled about it.Any conversation about Ajinkya Rahane in limited-overs cricket circles back to his strike-rate but the man himself suggests he has not been given enough chances by India. Facing him on Monday will be R Ashwin, who will not stand for becoming a one-format cricketer. India’s captain Virat Kohli has said that IPL performance will not matter towards World Cup selection, but these two will be keen to test that statement.

In the news

• Steven Smith is all set to resume his IPL career and said he expected to be available from the first game onwards despite coming off an elbow injury that required surgery and lengthy rehab. This on top of the one-year ban for ball-tampering. So it’s likely he’ll have a few camera lenses trained on him.
• Kings XI fast bowler Andrew Tye is still in Australia and so won’t be part of this game. David Miller too may not make it in time considering he was part of the South Africa squad that played the T20I against Sri Lanka on Sunday.

Likely XIs

Rajasthan Royals: 1 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Steven Smith, 4 Sanju Samson, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Rahul Tripathi 7 K Gowtham, 8 Shreyas Gopal, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Jaydev Unadkat, 11 Dhawal Kulkarni/Varun AaronKings XI Punjab: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 KL Rahul (wk), 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Karun Nair, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Mandeep Singh, 7 R Ashwin (capt), 8. Sam Curran, 9 Ankit Rajpoot/Varun Chakravarthy, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Mujeeb Ur RahmanAshwin and Rahane will be keen to change perceptions about their white-ball abilities•BCCI

Strategy punt

• Jos Buttler is phenomenal in the first six overs of an IPL game, averaging 92 – which means he rarely gets out early – even as he maintains a strike-rate of 168.5. But he’s not had great success against Mujeeb Ur Rahman. The head-to-head in the IPL reads: 27 runs in 21 balls and two dismissals. Both are Powerplay specialists and their battle could prove crucial to the outcome of the game.
• Offspin has always been a good ploy against Chris Gayle (strike-rate of 117) and in K Gowtham the Royals have a good option: he took 11 wickets last season (joint third-highest among uncapped spinners) at an economy rate of 7.8.
• Expect a (one-sided) captain v captain battle. Rahane v Ashwin in the IPL reads: 25 runs, 26 balls, three wickets.

Fall of the empire: Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes erupt in celebrations after Chris Gayle is stumped•BCCI

Stats that matter

• Gayle has made 3994 runs in 111 IPL innings. With one shot, he could break yet another record, the fastest to 4000 runs in the IPL. David Warner (114 innings) beware. Really, all those self-made claims about his being the best there ever was were not entirely unfounded.
• If Royals fancy objecting to that, they should put Dhawal Kulkarni up to make their arguments. The fast bowler has dismissed Gayle three times in 31 balls in the IPL. Also, the batsman’s strike-rate in this head-to-head is only 113. Kulkarni is favourite against KL Rahul too: three wickets in 18 deliveries.
• There’s another West Indian powerhouse on the block as well. Nicholas Pooran. He does his dirty work in the middle order, with T20 statistics from IPL 2018 indicating that No. 5 is his best batting position (strike-rate 171, average 50). That may also help make sure he’s around in the death overs because he hits a boundary every four balls between overs 16 and 20.
• The average score in Jaipur in day-night T20Is and IPL matches since 2013 is 158. Also, Kings XI have never beaten Royals at this venue.

Giant quick signs after fellow Australia international Kane Richardson pulled out of planned T20 stint with Derbyshire

ESPNcricinfo staff18-May-2019Billy Stanlake, the towering Australia fast bowler, will replace compatriot Kane Richardson as one of Derbyshire’s overseas signings for this season’s Vitality Blast.Richardson was recently called into Australia’s World Cup squad, leading to him pulling out of his planned Derbyshire stint in order to manage his workload. The club have instead recruited Stanlake – who last year pulled out of a T20 deal with Yorkshire on Cricket Australia’s advice – for their Blast campaign alongside New Zealand allrounder Logan van Beek.”Billy is an excellent white-ball bowler and with his height and pace, he has the qualities to trouble batsmen in this format,” Derbyshire’s head of cricket, Dave Houghton, said.”He’s someone we’ve kept an eye on and we’ve been impressed by what we’ve seen. We were disappointed to lose Kane, but I believe we have found a replacement who will not only complement our side, but bring in new skills to keep taking us forward.”We’ve seen improvements already this summer and we want to continue that momentum into the Vitality Blast and reward our supporters with good performances.”Standing at over 2m tall and capable of bowling above 90mph, Stanlake has been capped in both white-ball formats for Australia, taking 25 wickets in 17 T20 internationals. He helped Adelaide Strikers win the Big Bash League in 2017-18 and has also featured at the IPL.His arrival will strengthen the hand of Derbyshire’s new T20 coach, Dominic Cork, who has taken over from John Wright looking to replicate their run to the knockout stages in 2017.”The T20 will come around fast now and I’m looking forward to getting going,” Stanlake said. “It’ll be my first experience of the tournament, and having spoken to the guys I know how important the competition is.”It’s a good side and a quick, bouncy track at Derby, so I hope to use my skills and contribute to performances out in the middle for Derbyshire.”

Paceman returns to scene of Champions Trophy glory with hopes of emerging from lean 50-over form

Osman Samiuddin07-May-2019Mohammad Amir’s last-ditch audition for a role in Pakistan’s World Cup campaign could begin at the very ground where he was one of the architects of their memorable Champions Trophy triumph of 2017.Amir was not picked in Pakistan’s preliminary squad for the tournament but has been included in the 17-man squad for this England series, which begins tomorrow at The Oval. If he does start, it will be with the understanding that performances here could squeeze him into the final World Cup 15.So far on this tour Amir has appeared in just one of the four games Pakistan have played – a warm-up 50-over game against Northamptonshire in which he picked up 1 for 45.But it is understood that he will be part of Pakistan’s match-day 12 and depending on what the weather and surface look like in the morning stands a good chance to start.”As far as fast bowling goes, we will be flexible in this series, we will try and give Amir a full opportunity,” captain Sarfaraz Ahmed said. “The good thing is we have this opportunity to try out what we need to try out before the World Cup. We have till May 2 so we’d like to give Amir a full opportunity to stake his claim in the side.”If he does make it into the squad, it will hold some extra personal significance for Amir, being his first World Cup. He missed the 2011 and 2015 tournaments because of his five-year ban for spot-fixing.The word around Amir’s non-inclusion is that it is the kick he has long needed to put things right in the 50-over game. But given how lean a drought he has endured since that Champions Trophy final, he will still need to show some solid wicket-taking form to get back in.In the 14 ODIs since the final, he’s taken just five wickets, going wicketless in an innings as many as nine times. It’s been a strange run in which, though he’s rarely looked like taking a wicket, he’s also not looked awful. His economy rate in that period is 4.58, though if you take out games against Zimbabwe and Hong Kong that goes up to 5.28.But Pakistan already have two left-arm pacemen in the World Cup squad; the emerging Shaheen Shah Afridi, against whose dazzling and swift rise Amir’s own form has paled; and Junaid Khan, an exact contemporary of Amir’s through their earliest years, who without ever attracting the same attention has picked up far more wickets since the Champions Trophy.The arrival of Mohammad Hasnain has also made it harder for Amir. Hasnain has the one thing Pakistan’s squad has missed: genuine pace. It is something that Mickey Arthur in particular is very excited about, enough to overlook his extreme rawness. Hasnain has only played four List A games in his career, of which three were ODIs.If Amir were to perform in these ODIs, however, Hasnain or to a lesser degree Junaid might be most at risk of losing a spot.

Meanwhile, South Africa slumped to their third straight loss in the World Cup

The Report by Alagappan Muthu05-Jun-2019
As it happenedWhoooooooosh.That’s the sound of ball beating bat. South Africa were not in control of nine of the first 12 balls that Jasprit Bumrah bowled.Crrrraaaccckkkkkk.That’s the sound of ball hitting bat. And breaking it. Kagiso Rabada made sure the entire world could hear it. But outside of that match-up, South Africa really had nothing to offer India.They’d lost Dale Steyn. They don’t know when Lungi Ngidi will be fit again. And they can’t ask AB de Villiers to come back. Meanwhile, the other team had the world’s best batsman, one of the bowlers of this generation, and two highly-skilled wristspinners. Essentially, this game was like an Angry Bird fighting Thanos.The impression hit home even further when Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav worked in tandem. From 78 for 2, it was quickly 89 for 5 as the revolutions those two put on the ball produced dip, drift and sheer magic.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Rassie van der Dussen tried to reverse sweep his way out of trouble and was bowled. JP Duminy figured he might read the turn better if he played off the back foot. Out lbw. Even their captain, Faf du Plessis, couldn’t keep a slider from crashing into his stumps.South Africa were on a recovery mission from that point on and though Chris Morris did rather well in the final overs, walloping 42 off 34 balls, the early damage was just too much. That is why Bumrah was the biggest influence in this game and watching him was a pleasure.The fast bowler’s glare tends to go down in history. But it’s even cooler when they smirk. It’s almost as if they’re telling the batsmen, “heh, is it that easy to beat you?”Bumrah’s upper lip curled several times in his first over on World Cup debut. He had Quinton de Kock – a legitimate contender for Man of the Series in this tournament – looking like a cardboard cut-out. Everything zipped past the edge and each time, the bowler just smirked. Each time, all he did was smirk. WATCH – Highlights of Chahal’s magical spell on Hotstar (India only)A wicket looked around the corner, except it was Hashim Amla who fell, caught at first slip, off the first ball he faced from Bumrah. Du Plessis walked in with four catchers behind him.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The level of cricket at this World Cup is also a function of the pitches being rolled out (and maybe the 10.30am starts as well). Groundsmen all across England have been good enough to leave a little grass on the pitches – it was uneven in Southampton, resulting in uneven bounce – and that’s made the contest between bat and ball all the more compelling. So making runs here mattered. It signalled that you had the bottle to succeed. And Rohit Sharma showed plenty.A few of his 122 runs came off mis-hits. He was even dropped on 1 when Rabada was in the middle of a scary good spell. But then, in the eighth over, he hit a glorious pull shot and never looked back. Braving through very difficult spells of fast bowling is a part of his game that doesn’t get enough credit.”Couldn’t play my natural game,” Rohit said at the presentation. “You have to play out and see what the ball was doing and take your time to play those shots. Certain shots that I love to play, I had to cut it down and make sure I play close to the body and make sure I leave as many balls as possible in the initial spell. Those are the basics that you had to do on a pitch like that and that’s what I was trying to do.”Sticking to that gameplan meant he was there to help India recover from a poor start (They lost Shikhar Dhawan for 8). He was there when South Africa got rid of Virat Kohli thanks to a perfectly executed plan (consistently bowl back of a length and along the line of fifth stump). And he was still there when the winning runs were hit (Hardik Pandya putting the final flourish with a violent cut shot). You can’t ask more of an opener.South Africa, meanwhile, have a lot to think about. They’ve lost all three of their matches at this World Cup, and although the format allows for a slow start, the team is short on resources and practically bereft of confidence.Rabada was the only one trying to make things happen. Nine of his first 18 deliveries made the batsman lose control. “Come oooonnnn!” he’d screamed watching the Rohit catch go down, fists clenched, head slanted upwards, a vision of pure anger. He used that emotion to fuel his performance, harassing the Indian batsmen with his pace, bounce and laser-like accuracy.But the problem was, even when he generated those wicket-taking opportunities, his team-mates kept messing it up. Rabada fooled Rohit on 107 as well only for David Miller to drop an absolute dolly at cover. And that basically summed up South Africa. One captivating genius. Ten others struggling to keep up.

England’s first appearance in the men’s cricket World Cup final since 1992 will be shown on free-to-air TV in the UK

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jul-2019The first appearance by the England men’s cricket team in a World Cup final since 1992 will be shown on free-to-air TV in the UK. Sky and Channel 4 announced an agreement to share live coverage following England’s victory over Australia at Edgbaston.The subject of the World Cup’s visibility has been much discussed, with the tournament being broadcast behind a paywall in its host country. However, Sky had previously indicated it would be willing to share the feed if England beat Australia in their semi-final at Edgbaston.Sunday’s final at Lord’s will also be broadcast free-to-air on Prime TV in New Zealand. Kane Williamson’s side shocked India in the first semi-final, which was concluded on Wednesday after rain forced the game into a reserve day.Channel 4 has been showing highlights of the competition in the UK, and will now broadcast the final – while managing to also fit in coverage of the Formula One British Grand Prix. Cricket coverage will begin at 9am BST on Channel 4, move to More 4 at 1.15pm while the Grand Prix is on, and then return after the race is over.England’s last appearance in the cricket World Cup final came in 1992, when they lost to Pakistan. They have never won the tournament but were one of the favourites this time around having risen to the No. 1 ODI ranking under Eoin Morgan’s captaincy.”This is fantastic news for cricket fans and the nation,” Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon said. “This Sunday is a massive day for British sport with England tantalisingly close to lifting the Cricket World Cup for the first time and Lewis Hamilton setting his sights on his seventh season win at Silverstone – all live on Channel 4.”The big winners of this strong partnership between Channel 4 and Sky are sports fans and viewers who want to come together for these big sporting occasions.”Cricket has largely been absent from free-to-air TV in the UK since 2005, with some blaming the ECB’s decision to sell the rights to Sky for recent declines in participation.”England in the Final on home soil is a huge moment for sport in this country and we are proud to be the host broadcaster,” Sky UK and Ireland Chief Executive Stephen van Rooyen said. “Thanks to our strong relationship with Channel 4, we are partnering to make the game available to everyone, so the whole country can get behind England, and be part of a special national sporting event.”As well as showing the game on its sports channels, Sky will broadcast the World Cup final on Sky One.

Allrounder’s five mammoth sixes steal show in seven-over game, as Surrey slump to third defeat in five

ECB Reporters Network30-Jul-2019Mohammad Nabi smashed five sixes in a remarkable 43 not out off only 12 balls as Kent Spitfires overwhelmed Surrey by nine wickets in a rain-shortened Vitality Blast contest at The Oval.Nabi’s assault included three sixes off Rikki Clarke in the third over of Kent’s reply to Surrey’s seven-over total of 54 for 4. He then finished things in the next over by slamming legspinner Imran Tahir for six, four, and six from successive balls.It all meant Kent had raced to victory with three overs to spare, and strengthened their position in the South Group with a fourth win from four games.Tahir had given Surrey some hope of defending what always looked a below-par total by having Kent’s acting captain Daniel Bell-Drummond lbw for one in the first over of their reply.But Afghanistan allrounder Nabi soon snuffed out those hopes with his big hitting, while Heino Kuhn looked on admiringly from the other end with nine not out.Bell-Drummond said: “Mohammad strikes the ball so well, doesn’t he? It is a pleasure to have him around. It was a big toss to win tonight, especially with the rain around, and we were able to know exactly what we had to chase.”Things are going very well – there’s a lot of experience and a lot of pace in the team, so it makes my job easy.”Surrey captain Aaron Finch said: “There was no doubt that our total was short of what we needed, but you are never sure how to go about it when you bat first in these circumstances. To walk out of the sheds after rain delays and immediately go hard from the start is always difficult.”Only opener Finch broke the shackles of Kent’s disciplined bowling, finishing 36 not out from 20 balls with two sixes and a four. Play did not start until 8pm, initially because of afternoon and early-evening rain with the match starting as a 13-over affair. But after just one ball – bowled by Adam Milne to Will Jacks who played and missed – more rain drove the players off again and, eventually, the match re-started at 8.50pm as a seven-over contest.Milne, remarkably, completed a maiden in that opening over with three byes the only runs scored, but Jacks cut the first delivery of the second over from Hardus Viljoen to the square third-man boundary to get Surrey’s innings going.Paceman Viljoen soon had his revenge when Jacks mis-hit to extra cover to go for five, leaving Finch to loft the last ball of the powerplay – the first ball of the third over – straight for four before bludgeoning Nabi’s offspin for six and, in the final over, reverse-flicking Milne for another maximum.Ollie Pope managed just one four, a brilliant reverse-flick off left-arm seamer Fred Klassen before hitting to deep mid-wicket off Nabi and Jordan Clark lost his off stump swinging at Viljoen. Surrey’s fourth wicket fell when Tom Curran skied to extra cover in Milne’s second over.Their total looked way short of par, even on a pitch offering plenty to the seamers, and so it would prove.

Eleven venues ‘paired’ with men’s grounds, ‘bespoke player selection’ model for women – ECB

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Sep-2019The ECB have revealed 11 venues which will host women’s matches for The Hundred, along with the selection process that will determine the make-up of each team.Player registration for the new competition starting next July is open this month but, while the men’s edition will have a player draft on October 20, the women’s version will have a two-stage “bespoke player selection process”, according to the ECB.During stage one, which runs until the end of September, each team is obliged to sign two players from the current England Women’s central contract list. During stage two, from October 1 until May 30 next year, each team will sign their remaining 13 players from three different player pools; remaining England Women’s centrally contracted players, overseas players and domestic players.Teams can sign a maximum of one further England women’s centrally contracted player during stage two and can sign a maximum of three overseas players.The head coach of each team will lead their respective player selection process.Former England captain Charlotte Edwards, recently appointed head coach of the Southampton-based women’s team, said: “It’s really exciting that we’ll have an open market system and that all of the teams will be recruiting their own players for the first time. It shows how the women’s game has evolved and developed.”The depth of the women’s game isn’t yet at a stage where a draft would be the best way forward, and it’s important that we don’t just match the template of the men’s game. There are areas in which the needs of the women’s game are different and it’s right that we find the right approach for them.”The women’s venues have been “paired” with the host grounds for men’s matches, with Old Trafford’s partner ground yet to be announced.Women’s competition head for The Hundred Beth Barrett-Wild said: “The venues for the men’s and women’s competitions respectively are working together incredibly closely and that connection will help The Hundred inspire more people to attend, watch and play cricket.”It’s particularly exciting that the Women’s Competition will be seen by fans across all 18 First-Class counties, this represents a huge opportunity to grow women’s cricket – while the double-headers at the men’s venues provide another chance to present the men’s and women’s teams on the same platform.”Men’s venues – paired women’s venues:Sophia Gardens – The Bristol County Ground, The Cooper Associates County Ground, TauntonEdgbaston – Blackfinch New Road, WorcesterHeadingley – York CC, South Northumberland CCLord’s – The Cloudfm County Ground, Chelmsford, The County Ground, NorthamptonThe Oval – The County Ground, BeckenhamOld Trafford – TBCTrent Bridge – The Pattonair County Cricket Ground, Derby, The Fischer County Ground, LeicesterAgeas Bowl – The 1st Central County Ground, Hove

India A take two-match series 1-0 after winning the first game by seven wickets

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2019Priyank Panchal scored a century and Karun Nair hit his second half-century of the match on the final day of the second unofficial Test between India A and South Africa A in Mysuru, before the two teams agreed to call off the game after just 64 overs of action on Friday. The result meant India A won the two-match series 1-0.Opener Panchal’s 109 and Nair’s 51 not out from No. 4 took the home side to 202 for 3 in their second innings, with the declaration coming once Nair had reached his milestone. But with not much time left on the day, South Africa opted not to chase their 220-run target.Panchal – who had batted at No. 3 with Shubman Gill opening in the first innings – was on 9 with his opening partner Abhimanyu Easwaran on 5 overnight. The two built on the Indians’ 17-run first-innings lead with a 94-run stand before Abhimanyu fell, bowled by offspinner Dane Piedt, for 37 off 93 balls with three hits to the boundary.That was in the 34th over, and Piedt struck again in his next over when he had Gill, batting at No. 3 this time after top-scoring with 92 in the first dig, caught by Senuran Muthusamy for a duck.Panchal chugged along though, and proceeded to add 92 more with Nair, bringing up his 22nd first-class century in the process. His innings included nine fours and four sixes. It continued Panchal’s rich vein of form, which had hit a temporary snag in the Duleep Trophy with a top score of 33 across four innings.Muthuswamy, the left-arm spinner, did succeed in sending back Panchal, caught and bowled, but Nair, who had settled down by then, continued his own strong form in recent times with a half-century. His scores in first-class cricket this season read: 99, 166*, 90, 20, 78 and 51*. When the teams shook hands, Nair had captain Wriddhiman Saha, unbeaten on 1 off 33 balls, for company.Earlier, after Aiden Markram asked the Indians to bat, they rode on the half-centuries from Gill and Nair as well as Saha’s 60, Shivam Dube’s 68 and Jalaj Saxena’s unbeaten 48 to put up 417.Kuldeep Yadav and Shahbaz Nadeem combined to then reduce South Africa to 142 for 5, before hundreds by Markram and Wiaan Mulder rescued the visiting side. Markram (161) and Mulder (131*) added 155 runs for the sixth wicket, and though Markram was eventually bowled by Mohammed Siraj, Mulder carried South Africa close to India’s total.Kuldeep and Nadeem picked up seven wickets between them, and Markram was named the player of the match.This match marked the end of South Africa A’s tour of India, which started with a five-match one-day series – India took that 4-1 – and concluded with the two four-dayers, the first of which the Indians won by seven wickets.The senior sides from the two countries are currently engaged in a T20I series and will then play three Test matches.

The players have been charged with 13 counts of breaching cricket’s anti-corruption rules

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Oct-2019The World T20 Qualifiers have been hit by a corruption scandal just days before its start, with the captain and two senior cricketers of the host team, UAE, charged by the ICC with 13 counts of breaching its anti-corruption rules. Mohammad Naveed, Shaiman Anwar and right-arm paceman Qadeer Ahmed have been provisionally suspended with immediate effect.Along with them, Mehardeep Chhayakar, who has participated in cricket in Ajman, has also been charged with multiple breaches of the anti-corruption code. The players have been charged with attempts to corrupt games at the World T20 qualifiers themselves, which begin on Friday with the UAE in action.Naveed had been stood down as captain of the UAE and removed from the squad earlier this week, replaced by Ahmed Raza, the 31-year-old left-arm spinner. No reason was given for the move at the time, though the ICC’s statement on Wednesday made clear why.Both Naveed and Anwar were charged with “contriving, or being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of matches in the upcoming ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019” – Article 2.1.1 – as well as “failing to disclose to the ACU full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in conduct in relation to the ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019 that would amount to corrupt conduct under the Code” – Article 2.4.4.These aside, Naveed was also found to be in breach of two clauses of Emirates Cricket Board Code for its T10 League: Article 2.1.1 – “contriving, or being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of matches in the upcoming T10 League 2019”, and Article 2.4.4 – “failing to disclose to the ACU full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in conduct that would amount to corrupt conduct under the Code”.Naveed and Anwar, pillars of the UAE team, were expected to play major roles in their team’s campaigns, at home, in the upcoming qualifiers, to be contested between 14 teams with the top six going through to the tournament proper, to be played in Australia in November next year.As for Qadeer, the 33-year-old who has played 11 ODIs and ten T20Is for UAE, the charges were for “failing to disclose to the ACU full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in conduct that would amount to Corrupt Conduct under the Code” in relation to the Zimbabwe v UAE series in April 2019 and the Netherlands v UAE series in August 2019, as well as “disclosing Inside Information to Mehar Chhayakar in August 2019 in circumstances where he knew or should have known that the information might be used for betting purposes”; “failing to disclose to the ACU full details of any facts or matters that came to his attention that may evidence Corrupt Conduct under the Code by another Participant”; “failing or refusing to cooperate with an investigation being carried out by the ACU in relation to possible Corrupt Conduct under the Code”; and “obstructing or delaying an ACU investigation including by concealing information that may be relevant to that investigation”.Chhayakar, meanwhile, was charged with “failing or refusing to cooperate with an investigation being carried out by the ACU in relation to possible Corrupt Conduct under the Code”.The four players now have 14 days from October 16, 2019 to respond to the charges.In a statement issued shortly after the ICC’s, the Emirates Cricket Board said, “The Board fully supports the ICC and the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit in their efforts and denounces any activities of corruption. The Board will wait for the conclusion of proceedings before making any further comment.”