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Zimbabwe’s tour of Bangladesh – their first international assignment following the ICC suspension in July – got off to a promising start with the tourists registering a seven-wicket win in a T20 tour game against Bangladesh Cricket Board XI.Brendan Taylor steered the 143-run chase with an unbeaten 57, and shared an unbroken 78-run fourth-wicket partnership with Timycen Maruma.The Zimbabweans had got off to a good start: Taylor and captain Hamilton Masakadza added 42 for the first wicket in nearly five overs, with Masakadza hitting six fours in his 32-ball 31. Offspinner Afif Hossain, however, pulled things back for BCB XI, striking in three consecutive overs to remove Masakadza, Craig Ervine and Sean Williams to leave Zimbabwe at 66 for 3 in eight overs. Taylor and Maruma, however, controlled the chase thereafter, sealing victory in the 18th over. Taylor’s 44-ball knock included two fours and three sixes, while Maruma struck five fours and a six in his 28-ball 46.BCB XI’s innings had faltered after their top four were dismissed, all after making promising starts. Sabbir Rahman (30) and Mushfiqur Rahim (26) were the top-scorers in the side but once they fell in the 15th over, the local side managed only 35 in the last five overs. Sabbir and Mushfiqur had added 53 for the third wicket, building on the side’s quick start, but they fell within three balls to the left-arm spin of Williams, who also claimed the wicket of opener Mohammad Naim in his haul of 3 for 18.Zimbabwe and Bangladesh will play the first match of the T20I tri-series on September 13 in Dhaka, followed by a game between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan the next day.

Zimbabwe opener Kevin Kasuza was taken off the field on a stretcher after being struck flush on the helmet for the second time in two Tests.He was rushed to the hospital for scans and was later diagnosed with a mild concussion.* Although he is stable, medical staff will continue monitoring him. Timycen Maruma has been named as his replacement.Kasuza sustained the blow on the third morning of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Harare when Kusal Mendis nailed a powerful back-foot pull, which hit the side of the helmet of forward short-leg fielder Kasuza, who immediately hit the ground even as the ball ricocheted to square leg, where Carl Mumba took the catch to send back Mendis for 22 off 73 balls.Kasuza was in visible pain and was consequently stretchered off the field by the Zimbabwe medical staff.Incidentally, it was a repeat of what happened in the first Test. Then, too, it was Mendis, who had struck Kasuza on the helmet when he was fielding at the same position on the third day of the match. In that game, Kasuza had not immediately felt the effects of the blow, but suffered a delayed concussion and was eventually substituted out of the match, which was his international debut. As a result, Zimbabwe named a like-for-like replacement in opener Brian Mudzinganyama.While Kasuza has endured a tough time on the field in his first two Tests, he has shown promise with the bat, following up his 63 in the first Test with an equally solid 38 in the second. Kasuza helped see off the new ball in the second Test and set the base for Zimbabwe’s first-innings total of 406.*The story was updated at 13.15GMT with the concussion news.

Heather Knight moved to the top of the scoring charts, and Western Storm to the Kia Super League summit, as she lead her side to a nervy three-wicket victory over Southern Vipers.Storm and England skipper Knight has scored 129 runs in the KSL 2019 so far after scores of 41, 50 not out and 38 here. She added 71 with India star Smriti Mandhana for the second wicket, before Fran Wilson’s impeccable 40 off 30 balls took Storm above Vipers and Surrey Stars to the top of the table.Both sides had come into the clash unbeaten in their opening two KSL fixtures but Storm’s powerful batting line-up proved too strong in front of an almost 1500 strong crowd at the Ageas Bowl.Stafanie Taylor, Tammy Beaumont and Suzie Bates had given Vipers 142 defend, on the same pitch Somerset had smashed 202 on in the Vitality Blast on Friday night.In reply, Rachel Priest square cut Lauren Bell to the boundary before the fast bowler exacted her revenge by flattening the New Zealander’s leg stump with an inswinger next ball. Storm motored in the third over as Mandhana’s three boundaries helped take 16 runs off Bell, before Heather Knight slog-swept Taylor for six.Mandhana and Knight cruised past a fifty partnership, from just 32 balls but the stand ended on 71 as Tash Farrant returned to the attack. Left-armer Farrant found Mandhana swinging to fine leg before Knight was castled four balls later to break the game open again.But Sophie Luff and Wilson, who eased the pressure with a straight maximum, intelligently ticked off 58 of the remaining 66 runs before the former offered a simple catch to mid-off and Deepti Sharma was run out. With two needed off the last over, Wilson was lbw and Anya Shrubsole lbw to Bates before Sonia Odedra tip-toed Storm over the line with a ball to spare.Earlier, Tammy Beaumont decided to bat after winning the toss, but Vipers lost Danni Wyatt to the second ball of the match, when Claire Nicholas bowled her with a loopy yorker.Beaumont and Bates scored carefully in a 66-run stand for the second wicket, with the former the more attacking with a pair of sixes. Curiously the England star had only collected a single maximum in her first three KSL campaigns – she has seven now this year – although she fell attempting an eighth to the deep square rope.New Zealander Bates was finding timing more difficult, with two boundaries in her 38-ball 33, before she slapped to midwicket and Thea Brookes was caught behind.At 94 for 4 with just five overs remaining, Vipers needed a pick-me-up and Taylor’s boundary hitting and Maia Bouchier’s quick-running gave it to them. West Indian Taylor thrashed seven boundaries, including a pair of smartly struck sweeps and a beauty over mid-off, in her 44 not out off 28 balls.Bouchier was run out off the last ball as the hosts posted 142 for 5, to set-up a record chase in the KSL at the Ageas Bowl.

Pakistan and England were both spoken to by the umpires at Trent Bridge for the frequency with which their fielders threw the ball in on the bounce from the outfield, a tactic commonly used by sides to get the ball into shape for reverse swing.Though reverse did not have any noticeable or decisive impact in either innings, both sides were reminded by the umpires to ensure that their throws from the outfield came in, at most, on one bounce.Jos Buttler seemed to inspect the ball just after he was dismissed for 103, but England captain Eoin Morgan revealed later that much the same had gone on in both innings.”There were discussions throughout the whole of the two innings,” he said. “The umpires came to me, mid-innings, and seemed to think that we were throwing the ball in on the bounce too much, or it was being over-exaggerated.”They emphasised it would be the same for both. It was really about us then… the conversations that were stopping the game were that Pakistan were doing the same thing. Jos was just intrigued to see the ball. When the ball is hit against the LED advertising boards it does scuff it up quite a lot so he was just interested to see if one side was tougher than the other, natural or unnatural.”Soon after having been spoken to when Pakistan were in the field, at one stage Mohammad Hafeez made a deliberate show of gathering the ball and running right up to the umpire to hand it over to him.Hafeez said Pakistan were warned of the threat of a penalty if they continued throwing the ball in on more than one bounce.”It’s their job and they were doing their job,” Hafeez said. “A couple of incidents for both sides where the throw didn’t come in one bounce, but on two or three bounces. We got a warning after 20 overs that if we threw in on two bounces, we would get a penalty, so I made a point of running in to hand them the ball. You don’t want to have to do it but they were just doing their job and they did it right.”Joe Root, who made a hundred alongside Buttler, refused to be drawn on the subject. “I’m not going to get involved or I’ll only get myself in trouble.”

Dale Steyn will not be available for Thursday’s World Cup opener between South Africa and England at The Oval. And he may only be ready in time for South Africa’s third game of the tournament, against India on June 5 – even that coach Ottis Gibson seemed to suggest was not a nailed-on certainty at the moment.Steyn has not yet recovered fully from the shoulder injury which cut short his IPL campaign with Royal Challengers Bangalore. He did train with the squad on Tuesday, but only jogged in to bowl off a very short run-up and with no real pace. He then walked off the field fairly early in the session though he did come out to bat later.”He’s not quite ready yet,” Gibson said. “He’s not far away but not ready yet. We think with a six-week tournament there’s no real need to force the issue.”Steyn has not bowled in a game yet in England. He was in the 15 for the warm-up against West Indies but South Africa batted first before the game was rained off. He wasn’t in the line-up for the game against Sri Lanka.Steyn has not bowled competitively since pulling out of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s IPL campaign in late April, having played only two games there. That was because of an inflammation in his right shoulder, the same one in which he snapped a bone back in November 2016.Steyn’s fitness and availability has been the subject of much scrutiny since he returned from India. He had already been named in South Africa’s World Cup squad at that point, on the back of a successful and uninterrupted home season.But even until the day before the team’s departure for England, there was uncertainty about whether he would be in from the first game. And now, it isn’t entirely clear when he will be back, Gibson admitting that they hadn’t yet identified a date when he could return.”We know that he’s close and he’s getting closer every day,” Gibson said. “We’ll give him as much time as we can to get ready. We’re hoping if not Sunday [when they play Bangladesh at The Oval] then possibly by India.”Will Steyn play at all in the tournament? Gibson believes so. “With Dale we believe he’s going to be ok. We’re not thinking about a replacement yet. As I said, there are 3 or 4 guys working in our performance center to get themselves ready in case anything happens. We’ve got reserve batsmen, bowlers, spinners so all of those things are taken care of back in South Africa.”Steyn’s absence means South Africa will choose a replacement from among the allrounders Chris Morris, Dwayne Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo to support a pace attack spearheaded by Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi. The latter pair are, happily for South Africa, fit and ready to play, having overcome injury issues of their own in the run-up to the tournament.”We looked at the pitch today and it’s got a tinge of green to it,” Gibson said. “I suspect over the next two days that might change. At the moment we have three allrounders – Morris, Phehlukwayo and Pretorius – one of those three could come into the equation and we also got [Tabraiz] Shamsi, he could also come in to the equation.”

Though Royal Challengers Bangalore are at the bottom of the table with just eight points, there are still a couple of ways by which they can reach the playoffs.The first condition, of course, is that they win their remaining two games, which gives them 12 points. That would obviously mean a loss each for Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad, which will mean Royals reach a maximum of 12 points, that if they beat Delhi Capitals.The second condition is that Sunrisers must lose to Mumbai Indians on May 2, and stay on 12 points.Whoever wins the Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders match must then lose their final game. Kings XI play theirs at home against Chennai Super Kings, while Knight Riders play theirs away, in Mumbai.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The winners of the Kings XI v Knight Riders game will then have 12 points, while the losers will have either 10 or 12 points depending on the result of their final game.So, basically, if Royal Challengers win their final two games, Sunrisers lose theirs, Royals beat Capitals, the Kings XI v Knight Riders winners lose their final game and the losers win theirs, then five teams – Royals, Royal Challengers, Kings XI, Sunrisers and Knight Riders – will be on 12 points, leaving net run-rate to decide who qualify for the playoffs.The best-case scenario for Royal Challengers is (a) Royals lose to Capitals, and (b) Kings XI and Knight Riders both lose their final games. That will leave just three teams on 12 points: Sunrisers, Royal Challengers and the winners of Kings XI v Knight Riders, while the other two teams will be on 10.The other part, though, is that Royal Challengers need to get their net run-rate up. It’s currently the lowest (-0.694), so they need to win their remaining two games by big margins and hope the teams around them lose by big margins too. Sunrisers’ net run-rate of +0.709 is a big problem for them. They not only have to beat Sunrisers by a big margin but hope Mumbai do too, so that net run-rate slides. Knight Riders also have a positive net run-rate (+0.1), so ideally Royal Challengers would want Kings XI to beat them and stop them getting to 12 points. If Royal Challengers, Kings XI and Sunrisers are the teams to finish on 12 points, then there’s some hope for Royal Challengers, but again, only if Sunrisers lose their last two emphatically.

Tom Alsop’s smashed his one-day career best to help Hampshire continue their 100% record in the Royal London Cup as they thrashed Glamorgan by seven wickets. Holders Hampshire sailed past Kent earlier in the week and had few worries in seeing off winless Glamorgan with 8.1 overs to spare.Alsop and captain James Vince were the catalysts for the victory with a 161-run stand for the second wicket – with Alsop ending on a classy unbeaten 130 and Vince falling five runs short of three figures.On a good-paced wicket under blue skies, Hampshire lost Aiden Markram in the ninth over when he thumped to Billy Root at deep square leg. But Vince and Alsop put Glamorgan to the sword with their crushing partnership.Vince, on the back of a half-century in the competition opener against Kent on Wednesday, continued his form in a typically attractive style. Instead of his usual off-side bias, Vince hit eight of his 11 fours through the leg side, with some powerful, yet perfectly placed, shots clubbed between midwicket and square leg.The skipper reached his fifty in 43 balls and looked set for a ninth List A ton, but picked out Craig Meschede at point on 95.But it was Alsop who sparkled. He was the more watchful early on, not scared to soak up pressure but relieving it by dispatching boundaries when needed, including two huge sixes.The former England Lions batsman scored 72 in last summer’s final and picked up where he left off as he collected his second century in the format, and his first for two years, in 93 balls. Sam Northeast fell for 14 when he was lbw to Marnus Labuschagne but Alsop continued his raid with another six fours and a maximum to take Hampshire home.Glamorgan’s innings was a curious one, having won the toss and elected to bat, with two collapses but managing to reach a creditable total.Kyle Abbott was the instigator of the first wobble of the innings as he restricted the visitors to 28 for 3 in the first eight overs with high-quality line-and-length bowling.Meschede was the first to depart when his attempted hook was top-edged into the gloves of Alsop. Charles Hemphrey and Labuschagne were also early victims – both caught off edges, the former to Liam Dawson at first slip, the latter to Alsop.Just as Glamorgan appeared to be faltering towards a low total David Lloyd and Billy Root steadied things by adding 100 for the fourth wicket – helped by Abbott and the equally efficient Chris Wood being withdrawn from the attack.Lloyd was the more attacking of the duo and reached his fourth List A half-century with a six to the longest square boundary off James Fuller. But another dip saw them fall to 140 for 6.Root reached 39 before he was bowled by part-time spinner Markram and Lloyd’s entertaining knock was ended by a run out. Kiran Carlson was then lbw to Mason Crane but Glamorgan’s tail wagged, through Graham Wagg.Veteran Wagg took control, carting Dawson for a pair of maximums in an over on his way to a 47-ball fifty. Chris Cooke was given a life when he was dropped by Fuller at point and added 95 with Wagg to take their side over 200.Cooke, run out by a stunning swoop by Vince at cover, and Wagg, caught for a career-best 68 slapping to Vince off Dawson, departed within an over of each other, before Marchant de Lange was stumped.

The former England batsman Tom Graveney will be MCC’s president in 2004-05. His appointment was announced on Wednesday afternoon by the current president, Charles Fry, at MCC’s annual general meeting at Lord’s. Graveney, who is 77 in June, will become the first former professional cricketer to hold the honorary post.Graveney started his first-class career with Gloucestershire in 1948, and moved to Worcestershire in 1961. He retired from county cricket in 1970, but played a few more matches for Queensland, as their player/coach, until 1971-72. In all he scored 47,793 runs – a number exceeded by only eight other players – at an average of 44.91, and hit 122 centuries.An elegant batsman who played largely off the front foot, Graveney won 79 Test caps for England between 1951-52 and 1969, scoring 4882 runs at 44.38, with 11 centuries. His highest score (in both Tests and first-class cricket) was 258 against West Indies at Trent Bridge in 1957. He captained England once, against Australia at Headingley in 1968 when Colin Cowdrey was injured, but his Test career ended in some controversy the following year, when he was banned after playing in his own benefit match on the Sunday – a rest day – in the middle of the first Test against West Indies. Already 42, he was never chosen again. He was a TV commentator for several years after his eventual retirement.Graveney, who takes office at Lord’s on October 1, was one of Wisden‘s Five Cricketers of the Year in 1953. He is the uncle of David Graveney, England’s current chairman of selectors.

If Sri Lanka didn’t have enough problems to deal with, concerns have emerged over the fitness of Suranga Lakmal, their leading seam bowler, on the eve of the second Test in Canberra with him suffering from a stiff back.Already stripped of three pace bowlers originally in the squad – Nuwan Pradeep, Lahiru Kumara (both hamstring injuries) and Dushmantha Chameera (ankle) – they now face making a late call on Lakmal who was a shining light for Sri Lanka in Brisbane as he claimed 5 for 75.That followed a five-wicket haul in his previous Test in Christchurch as he shoulders the burden of leading the pace attack. Sri Lanka desperately need him to be fit if they are to compete in Canberra, but will also need to be mindful that there is the tour of South Africa to follow.”We are monitoring his situation,” captain Dinesh Chandimal said. “No decision as yet whether he will be available.”Chandimal confirmed that Sri Lanka would retain the same balance to their side with seven batsmen including wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella, who was one of the few players to stand up in Brisbane, and a four-man attack of which three would be pace bowlers.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

If Lakmal was ruled out that would open up a debut for the uncapped Chamika Karunaratne who only arrived in Australia yesterday with Kasun Rajitha and Vishwa Fernando already earmarked to come into the side.”It’s disappoitning that we lost Lahiru Kumara and Dushmantha Chameera after the first game. We had big hopes on them,” Chandimal said. “Chamika Karunaratne turned up yesterday and we hope to play three of the four seamers on tour.”We are playing seven batters and four bowlers. We have to play positive and we need four bowlers to win a game. We have to take more responsibility as a team. We have to score 300 runs batting first if we were to win a Test match. This Test match I hope all the players will focus on what is required.”There are a host of off-field issues in Sri Lankan cricket at the moment ranging from the ongoing corruption investigation to coach Chandika Hathurusingha being removed as a selector-on-tour and Thisara Perera’s arguments with SLC following a social-media spat with the wife of Lasith Malinga.”It’s a big challenge for us as players,” Chandimal said. “Whatever happens off the field we need to keep aside and control what we can control. We know that quite a few things are taking place and we are discussing how to sort these issues and play our best.”

Ankit Bawne will lead India A in their first four-day game against England Lions, which is scheduled to begin on February 7 in Wayanad. Bawne led India in the fourth unofficial ODI against Lions in Ajinkya Rahane’s absence on Tuesday. KL Rahul finds a place in the squad, as does long-time domestic performer Jalaj Saxena, who gets into an India A squad for the first time since 2013. The Kerala allrounder averages 44.00 with the bat and 20.41 with the ball over his last two first-class seasons, with 73 wickets in 17 matches.Gujarat’s Priyank Panchal (898 runs in nine matches) and Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran (861 runs in six matches) are the two openers besides Rahul, and are the batsmen in the squad with most runs in the ongoing Ranji season.Other players rewarded for their Ranji form are Andhra’s Ricky Bhui (775 runs in eight matches), Madhya Pradesh fast bowler Avesh Khan (35 wickets in seven matches), and Punjab legspinner Mayank Markande (29 wickets in six matches). This is the first India A call-up for all three of them.Karun Nair, who captained India A in their last red-ball series in New Zealand, has been dropped from the squad, as have his Karnataka team-mates R Samarth and K Gowtham, who were among the top performers on that tour. The trio endured poor bouts of form after returning to the Ranji Trophy. Other notable names not in the squad are Vijay Shankar and Shubman Gill, who are currently with India’s ODI squad in New Zealand.India A squad for first four-day game: Ankit Bawne (capt), KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Priyank Panchal, Ricky Bhui, Siddhesh Lad, KS Bharat (wk), Jalaj Saxena, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mayank Markande, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Avesh Khan, Varun Aaron