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Sune Luus, Hayley Matthews and Chamari Athapaththu also named as the first nominees for the inaugural WBBL overseas draft

Alex Malcolm02-Aug-2023Five international captains in Harmanpreet Kaur, Sophie Devine, Sune Luus, Hayley Matthews and Chamari Athapaththu are the first players unveiled as nominees for the inaugural WBBL overseas draft to be held on September 3 ahead of the upcoming season.Four of the five players have been regulars in the WBBL with Devine and Harmanpreet both winning Player of the Tournament awards. Devine is the only player in WBBL history to have been named Player of the Tournament twice doing it in back-to-back seasons in 2019-20 and 2020-21 for two different clubs in Adelaide Strikers and Perth Scorchers, where she is currently the captain.Previously, WBBL clubs have been free to recruit overseas players privately but for the first time this season the WBBL will have an overseas player draft after it was introduced in the men’s BBL last season. Both drafts will be held on the same day on September 3 and will have the same format. Sydney Thunder have the first pick in the draft following the draft lottery on July 13.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

International players will nominate for various salary bands with WBBL Platinum players to earn AUD$110,000 to be paid by the clubs from the AUD$732,000 salary cap. Gold players will earn AUD$90,000, Silver AUD$65,000 and Bronze will earn AUD$40,000.Harmanpreet and Devine will almost certainly be Platinum players available to be selected in the first round. Four of the five will be eligible to be retention picks. Harmanpreet will be available to be retained by Melbourne Renegades as will Matthews and Athapaththu. Matthews only spent one edition there last year, having played five seasons previously with Hobart Hurricanes, but captained Renegades in two matches last season. Athapaththu played two seasons at Renegades in 2017-18 and 2018-19 but played in 2021-22 for Scorchers before returning to Renegades last year.Sophie Devine latches on to a cut•Getty Images

Devine can be retained by Scorchers but not Adelaide Strikers having been captain of the Scorchers for the past three seasons. Luus did play nine games with Brisbane Heat in 2018-19 but WBBL rules state that a player who was not on a team in the previous season can only be retained by a club if they have played at the club for a minimum of two seasons and haven’t been contracted to another team. Luus has only played for one season at Heat.Each club is only allowed one retention pick, meaning Renegades will need to choose between Harmanpreet, Matthews and Athapaththu as to which player they would like to retain. They can opt not to retain any of them. They could also re-draft all three if no other club chooses to take them when they are available.The WBBL will announce further draft nominations in the coming weeks.

England have scored at 4.86 in their second innings, ensuring they go into the final innings of the Test as standout favourites

Vithushan Ehantharajah29-Jul-2023Saturday at The Oval was never going to be quiet. After Australia had tried and failed to quieten the crowd here on day two of this fifth Ashes Test, England turned the volume back up to 11 on day three with a sensory overload of a second innings to assume control of this final round of a tumultuous series.But it is a day that will be remembered for what happened at its end. Speaking at stumps, after England had reached 389 for 9, leading Australia by 377, Stuart Broad announced this would be his 167th and final Test. Before attempting to ensure he goes out on a win, he will resume his innings with fellow veteran quick James Anderson. They were able to tough out the day to give them a shot at some bonus runs on Sunday before they strap their bowling boots back on in the pursuit of a 2-2 series scoreline.Unsurprisingly, a team driven by entertainment used their final Test innings of the summer to produce a “best of” performance. There were contributions throughout the line-up, with the biggest from the main headline-grabbers over the last six weeks. Such has been their speed of play in both innings, they have even stolen a march on the rains forecast for day five.Zak Crawley’s 73 took him to a final tally of 480 runs for the series, with the Kent batter the clubhouse leader on the run-scoring charts, 56 ahead of Usman Khawaja. Joe Root fell short of a second century of the series, for the second time in ten days, with an engaging 91. And Jonny Bairstow, who has had more words dedicated to his wicketkeeping – most of them unflattering – provided a reminder of his batting prowess with a punchy 75 that ensured one of these sides went into the final innings of a match as standout favourites for the first time this series.Such was the flow of play, and thanks to a hugely partisan south London crowd, Australia’s attack seemed secondary to proceedings. They bowled their overs – slowly, as per this series, managing just 80 in the day – but beyond that, runs came as and when England wanted, and wickets, too. Mitchell Starc’s 4 for 94 and Todd Murphy’s 3 for 110 spoke of their endeavour among the carnage. The pair combined for day three’s last five wickets, which fell for just 47 runs.Australia’s first-innings lead of 12 coming into the weekend was considered nominal in the grand scheme of things. The key question was whether England had learned from mistakes made at Edgbaston and Lord’s, where batting miscalculations bordering on over-indulgence spurned promising positions and, ultimately, led to two defeats that put the Ashes beyond their reach.Joe Root ramps a boundary over deep third•Getty Images

Within the first over, England were into the lead. Crawley did as he had done at the very beginning of this series, striking the first ball for four through the covers, as 13 were scored off the first six deliveries – almost as many as Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne managed in the first hour of play on day two.Both Crawley and Ben Duckett raced out of the blocks, bringing up their fifty stand in 8.4 overs before Duckett was adjudged caught behind on review, at the end of the 17th over. The 79 they managed took their opening partnership tally to 359 for the series, at a rate of 4.72 – just 0.01 shy of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer’s scoring pace during the 2002-03 Ashes.With Moeen Ali unable to bat higher than five because of time spent off the field after picking up a groin strain while batting on day one, Ben Stokes strode out at No. 3 for the first time since November 2018. It has long been a position others have suggested for him, particularly given Root’s preference of No. 4. And he showed the necessary application in a stand of 61 with Crawley.The pair made it to lunch on 130 for 1 from 25 overs, and were keen to add plenty more. Those hopes died just nine deliveries into the afternoon session, when Crawley edged a smart delivery from Pat Cummins to Steven Smith at second slip.No bother. Out bounded Root to join Stokes, two best mates who are England’s best at gauging a situation, which, given the lead was only 128, was one of controlled hurry. First, however, a huge dose of luck. With just four to his name, Root was hit in front by Josh Hazlewood and adjudged not out, presumably because contact with bat and pad were close enough to suspect bat first. Cummins opted for a review, which confirmed pad as the first point of contact. Alas, the umpire’s call on line of impact meant Australia had to suck up a not-out call that got bitter as Root clicked through the gears.Mitchell Marsh was the unfortunate recipient of the reverse-ramp for six, over-correcting the next ball to see a full toss tickled down leg for four. At one point, Root had raced to 35 from 32, just two behind Stokes on 37 from 30 more deliveries. Then, with three successive fours off Starc – driven, fortuitously under-edged up and over Alex Carey, and guided more deliberately over the wicketkeeper’s head – took him ahead of Stokes. England’s lead, meanwhile, was up to 200.A single off the start of the very next over brought up Root’s second half-century of the series, from 42 deliveries. Stokes, however, would not join him, becoming the first of two wickets to fall in the space of nine deliveries. An attempt to channel Root’s aggression saw him cloth Murphy to Cummins at wide mid-on. Harry Brook walked in and closed out that Murphy over with the straightest of straight sixes, but he could not resist feathering a wide-ish Hazlewood delivery to have him heading back to the dressing room.Pat Cummins contemplates his options as England pile on the runs•Getty Images

The early work cushioned the mini-collapse (England were still 210 ahead) and Root’s presence at the crease meant there was always calm in the middle. Bairstow’s entrance has usually been cause for some kind of manic passage, but there was little of that here. The most productive partnership of the innings – 110 – was as normal as we have seen in the Bazball era. No undue risks, especially as Australia were the ones having to do the probing, meaning the Yorkshire duo just had to wait for the bad balls to come.Bairstow brought up a seven-boundary fifty from 60 deliveries, in keeping with a reserved domination by his standards that saw him contribute 70 of the century stand he and Root brought up from 142 deliveries. It was a stand that would only last an over more, as Murphy found some quality drift and bite off the surface to spin into Root’s stumps via an inside edge.The annoyance of falling nine short of a 31st Test century was eased somewhat by the lack of bounce from the delivery, which Root will look to exploit as the sole, functioning spinner. With the lead at 320, Bairstow and new batter Moeen were happy to go for broke.Bairstow could not get going, eventually falling to Starc attempting to find a second boundary after Root’s dismissal, but Moeen did find 29 more runs himself. Some were classy – a picture-perfect straight drive off Starc – while others were not, like when Hazlewood missed a catchable chance at fine leg, which ran away for four.A classy looking ramp off Starc allowed Hazlewood to make amends with a catch on the rope running to his right from fly slip, before England were whittled down to their final pair of Broad and Anderson, who managed to see things through to stumps. Though Anderson was struck on the arm, he toughed it out to take the innings into day four, even overturning an lbw decision off the penultimate ball of the day.The ovation when Anderson walked out at 379 for 9 was akin to a farewell, greeted to the field with a standing ovation and the singing of his name. None of those in the stands knew it was actually the man already out there who was about to finish up for good. No matter – they can make it up to Broad on day four.

While acknowledging Athapaththu’s contribution, SL coach was pleased others played their part in the historic win too

Valkerie Baynes07-Sep-2023Sri Lanka Women’s coach Rumesh Ratnayake has described his team’s T20I series triumph over England as “really huge” for cricket in the country.Sri Lanka blew their hosts away by seven and eight wickets respectively to come back from 1-0 down and hand England their first T20I series defeat by a side other than Australia since 2010.It followed Sri Lanka’s home 2-1 ODI victory against New Zealand in June and coincided with Pakistan’s 3-0 sweep of South Africa in their T20I series.Related

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Given that Sri Lanka are ranked six places lower than England and Pakistan two spots behind South Africa in the format, the results have fuelled hopes that the gap between the top-ranked nations and the rest can be closed. Ratnayake’s prediction that his side’s victory will make people sit up and take notice in Sri Lanka can only help the cause.”If I say it’s huge, it’s not good enough because it’ll be really huge,” he told ESPNcricinfo after Wednesday night’s victory in the series decider in Derby, led by captain Chamari Athapaththu’s 3 for 21 and 44 off 28.”It’s really huge because when we left Sri Lankan shores, they didn’t think that we would do so well. Everybody thought maybe you might win one out of six. But I just told the girls that we are here not just to play and participate, we are here to win. I think it is going to be huge there. The awareness of girls playing and wanting to be people like Chamari and the likes would be huge.”Athapaththu had been instrumental in the win at Chelmsford also, her brutal half-century helping mow down another meagre target after England were bowled out inside 20 overs for the first of two successive games. Her scintillating form this year – she has two unbeaten centuries and four half-centuries across white-ball formats in 2023 – has only emphasised Athapaththu’s position as the lynchpin of her side, but Ratnayake was pleased that others had contributed to their latest victory too.Kavisha Dilhari, the 22-year-old off-spinner matched Athapaththu’s five wickets for the series and was key to their latest victory with her variations in speed and tight lines, claiming 2 for 16. Seamer Udeshika Prabodhani also bagged 2-16 in Derby and, along with left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera and offspinner Inoshi Priyadharshani, rounded out the series’ top-five bowlers.Chamari Athapaththu has been in superb form lately•Getty Images

“It’s huge,” Ratnayake said of Athapaththu’s influence on the team. “But our challenge is to win without her. I saw the others sort of stepping into it as well. We’ve got some good players, but to have another Chamari would be a freakish outcome in the future.”That’s the way we play back home. Sometimes I keep Chamari with me and we play matches without her, and we see where we stand against good opposition, and that’s a challenge for the future. It’s working out well.”You’ll be surprised, even the smallest can hit sixes now. So we are there, but it’s a collective thing, it’s a cohesive thing where everybody gets together and works as a team.”We know where we can be and we can see the picture and that’s how we are here and that’s what we came for. We spoke of playing cricket for moments like this, for tours like this.”Ratnayake also attributed practice matches against men’s sides to helping his players’ development, but he highlighted a change in mindset as critical.”I recognised what we need to do and created an environment which was a learning environment where they were free to express themselves in a fearless manner because I saw them playing cricket in a very fearful way,” he said. “When they started to play like that, we saw some good things coming out. It was a challenging environment where they learned a lot of things.”A fearless approach is precisely what Jon Lewis, England Women’s head coach, asked of his players when he took charge last year. He even applied the philosophy to selection for Sri Lanka’s visit, opting to rest some senior players to test younger, less experienced ones at international level.Even after the loss to Sri Lanka, Lewis stood by the approach, saying it was about “trying to give people opportunities who’ve been sat on the edge of our squad or just outside our squad, to try and learn about what they’re capable of under pressure”.While England will welcome back star allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt and opener Tammy Beaumont for the three-match ODI leg starting in Durham on Saturday, that series could hinge somewhat on whose courage wavers first.

Sahan Arachchige has been called up as replacement as Theekshana will go for rehabilitation work

S Sudarshanan16-Sep-20232:29

Can Sri Lanka cope without Theekshana in final?

Sri Lanka spinner Maheesh Theekshana has been ruled out of the final of the men’s Asia Cup against India because of a hamstring injury, but he will “definitely be ready” for the World Cup starting next month. Theekshana injured himself in Sri Lanka’s last-ball win against Pakistan.While captain Dasun Shanaka said Theekshana had a grade three injury, the chair of SLC’s medical committee said the bowler did not have a big tear and could have even been risked for the final on Sunday had a World Cup not been around the corner. The Sri Lanka selectors have, meanwhile, added Sahan Arachchige into the squad in place of Theekshana, who will return to the high performance centre to commence rehabilitation work.”The MRI scan is showing a tear – not a big tear,” Professor Arjuna de Silva, chair of SLC medical committee said. “Clinically Theekshana is okay though. He’s moving around and not feeling too much pain. He’ll definitely be ready for the World Cup. Actually if we didn’t have a World Cup coming up, we would have somehow tried to get him ready for tomorrow’s match. But we don’t want to take that risk. “Theekshana had hurt his right hamstring while sliding near the boundary against Pakistan on Thursday and was tended to by the physio. He still continued to bowl three more overs, hobbling to his bowling mark and seemingly dragged his right leg to the bowling crease as he ran in.He dished out a few half-trackers but was unlucky when an lbw appeal against Iftikhar Ahmed was not given. While he was getting his right hamstring attended to beyond the rope thereafter, he slammed the turf as the big screen returned three reds in the replays with ball-tracker after Sri Lanka decided against the review. He returned to bowl two more overs before being helped off the field.Sri Lanka could look to bring legspinner Dushan Hemantha into the XI in place of Theekshana for the final. Hemantha has so far played only two ODIs but is also a decent option with the bat with three first-class centuries and one List A hundred.With 31 wickets in ODIs, Theekshana is Sri Lanka’s most successful bowler in 2023. He is level with India’s Kuldeep Yadav and Nepal’s Karan KC and only Sandeep Lamichhane has more. With Wanindu Hasaranga already out of the Asia Cup with injury, Theekshana was key for Sri Lanka, especially since he also bowls with the new ball.Theekshana is now the latest in a long line of injured players for Sri Lanka, with fast bowlers Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Kumara and Dilshan Madushanka all missing the Asia Cup in addition to Hasaranga.

Labuschagne wasn’t anywhere near Australia’s World Cup squad until two months ago… but fate had something else in store for him

Shashank Kishore20-Nov-20232:15

Moody: Labuschagne perfectly suited for pitches like these

Marnus Labuschagne’s most significant contribution at the 2023 ODI World Cup until the final was his assist in a run out from the deep to help seal a tense game against New Zealand in Dharamsala.With the bat, he had made 304 runs at a strike rate of 75.62. It raised questions – did it make sense, especially since Australia had another anchor, Steven Smith, who they wanted in the XI.As it turned out, Australia kept the faith, and Labuschagne delivered in the final with a made-for-the-situation innings, an unbeaten 58 off 110 balls, to help take Australia home.Related

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It was tailor-made for him, to stand alongside Travis Head, who had built a strong platform on his way to a barnstorming century. The target was just 241. Labuschagne had walked out at 47 for 3. He said later that he didn’t need any clarity on how he had to approach it. By the time their 192-run stand ended with Head holing out in the deep, the trophy was just two runs away.”I was quite nervous when I was waiting to bat,” Labuschagne told reporters afterwards. “But when you get on the field, nothing really changes. You’re watching the ball, and you just try and get in the zone, trying to focus, the noise sort of gets blocked out, it gets into the periphery, but it was loud. There was a bit of pressure there, but it was good.”My mindset was you treat it like a Test match. When you’re batting with Travis Head, there’s usually no run-rate pressure. When you’re chasing a lower total like 230 [241], unless you’re really struggling, there’s not going to be much run-rate pressure. It was just about being nice and positive, but also lock-in like I would if I was playing a Test match, just making sure I was defending the ball well and when they bowled a bad ball, score off that. Just make sure you’re building a partnership with your partner out there.”Labuschagne showed off his World Cup medal as he spoke. Prior to speaking to us – when Pat Cummins was speaking to the media – Labuschagne had stood at the corner of the room, clicking selfies as he tried out a few different poses while clutching his medal, chuckling to himself all along.Perhaps there was realisation at how things can change when you least expect. Labuschagne wasn’t anywhere near Australia’s World Cup squad until two months ago. He’d even been left out of their tour party to South Africa, a precursor to their World Cup campaign, after averaging 22.30 at a strike rate of 69.87 in 14 innings prior to that. But fate had something else in store.Marnus Labuschagne acknowledges the applause on registering a half-century in the World Cup final•ICC/Getty Images

As he was preparing to play for Australia A against the touring New Zealand A in Brisbane, he was summoned to South Africa as a batting cover for Smith following an injury scare (wrist tendon). At the time, it was seen as nothing more than a trip to the country he hails from, except his mum, Alta, had an inkling that Labuschagne would play the series opener in Bloemfontein. Maybe it was just a mother’s instinct, but it was prophetic.Labuschagne came in as a concussion sub for Cameron Green in the first ODI and finished the match 80 not out to seal a tense three-wicket win. The situation was similar to the Ashes Test at Lord’s in 2019, when he walked out to bat after Smith had been concussed, and then batted with poise against a raging pace attack like he hadn’t experienced before.”It’s hard for me not to believe in miracles,” he said. “There’s someone above putting the pieces of the puzzle together. I think unofficially I was dropped five times. I wasn’t in the squad in South Africa, someone got concussed, I got an opportunity, got some runs and pushed my case. Then I got on the squad, and played 19 games in a row, since the first South Africa match. I’m very thankful to the coaches and selectors for sticking by me. There are some really good players. Marcus Stoinis missed out this game, and he’s a phenomenal player. I’m just very thankful they stuck by me and I lucked out.”Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne’s partnership pretty much did it for India•ICC/Getty Images

Labuschagne admitted that while his overall output was far from satisfactory, there had been shades of form in the nets. When he saw the surface for the final – a black soil deck that ended up aiding slow turn – he knew it was right down his alley. It also helped that the slightly bigger ground dimensions in Ahmedabad suited him, in terms of being able to hit the ball into the open spaces to milk runs.”I didn’t get a hit against Bangladesh, I missed out on a few games to bat, but I felt like since the start of the South Africa tour, I’d been batting really well. Some of the scenarios that I came in during this World Cup have been tough. Three-four down early, trying to navigate those scenarios have been tough. That contributed a little bit of my demise,” Labuschagne said. “At times, I didn’t score as fast as I would’ve liked but the most important thing is winning games and today was a great example of just absorbing that pressure and making sure that I was there at the end.”I wasn’t going to give it up for anything at the end. They could’ve brought all the fielders around me, inside the circle, I was still going to block it and make sure I wasn’t getting out now.”As victory neared, Labuschagne derived satisfaction from silencing the home crowd. He touched upon how banking on past experience – he played a Test match here earlier in the year – had been beneficial in trying to keep out the noise.”The sound of silence is a great sound in India because it means you’re on top,” he said. “When me and Travis were batting, we were discussing about making sure we got them here, everything’s quiet, just keep playing. We played two different styles, he played an unbelievable innings, but it was about keeping engaged every ball, play every ball on merit and keep the crowd out of it.”

Defending champions Perth Scorchers will need to find a new captain

Andrew McGlashan22-Dec-2023Perth Scorchers have suffered a significant blow to their BBL title defence with captain Ashton Turner ruled out for the remainder of the tournament following surgery on his knee.Turner limped off the field after bowling one delivery against Hobart Hurricanes on Wednesday, but initially the prognosis had sounded reasonably hopeful. However, he underwent surgery on Friday morning to repair a meniscus tear in his right knee and won’t feature again in this BBL campaign.Related

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“The incident saw him leave the field and take no further part in the match, with subsequent scans revealing surgery was required,” a Scorchers statement said. “An exact timeframe for Turner’s return will be determined in due course.”Turner had been managing the knee problem throughout the season and did not feature in Western Australia’s last two Sheffield Shield matches before the BBL break. It’s understood that surgery had always been on the cards but Scorchers had hoped to get him through the competition.Scorchers are now working through who will replace Turner as captain with a decision to be made before they face Melbourne Renegades at Optus Stadium on Boxing Day.