Big picture: The year India embraced T20 In a fickle, unpredictable format, India have had arguably the greatest year for a team, winning 23 of their 25 T20Is in 2024. It was also the year where they truly embraced the format, shedding their safety-first approach with the bat to play attacking, modern-day T20 cricket. The…
Abhishek Sharma has matched Urvil Patel for the second-fastest T20 century, reaching the landmark in 28 balls in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match for Punjab against Meghalaya. Urvil had got there last week, when he scored 113 not out in 35 balls for Gujarat against Tripura in the same tournament. The record belongs to…
The talking points from the first half of 2024-25 Vijay Hazare Trophy, which has just veered past the halfway mark. Mayank Agarawal, the Karnataka captain, recorded his third straight List A century, in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. However, it wasn’t enough as Hyderabad chased down 322 with two balls to…
Prabhsimran’s opening partnership with Abhishek Sharma has been particularly formidable. Against Saurashtra, they put on 298, the joint second-highest opening stand in the tournament history, equalling the record set by Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sudip Gharami in 2022. Abhishek, Punjab’s captain, hit a career-best 170, off just 96 balls, while Prabhsimran hit 125.
Sri Lanka 144 for 7 (Mathews 46, Shanaka 26*, Raza 3-13) beat Zimbabwe 143 for 5 (Raza 62, Theekshana 2-16) by three wickets Sri Lanka stole to their target for the second time this tour, scoring the winning runs off the last ball to deny a tenacious Zimbabwe defence of a modest target. A top-edged…
Zimbabwe 178 for 6 (Ervine 70, Jongwe 25*, Theekshana 2-25) beat Sri Lanka 173 for 6 (Asalanka 69, Mathews 66*, Jongwe 2-32, Muzarabani 2-36) by four wickets Spectacular striking in the final over from Luke Jongwe and Clive Madande, saw Zimbabwe tear to a rousing win, in the third tense finish of this tour. Madande…
Zimbabwe allrounder Luke Jongwe had Angelo Mathews wallpaper when he was younger (whether this was a physical poster or the background screen on a device wasn’t clear). Mathews was also Jongwe’s social media profile picture for a while. So what did Jongwe do to thank Mathews for the years of inspiration? He smashed him for…
Sikandar Raza, Zimbabwe’s captain and premier allrounder, has agreed to join Northamptonshire for the 2024 Vitality Blast. Raza, 37, is currently ranked as the fifth-best allrounder in T20I cricket, and recently became the first player in the format’s history to score five consecutive half-centuries. He has been nominated as the ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of…
Sri Lanka 88 for 1 (Nissanka 39*, Mendis 33, Williams 1-13) beat Zimbabwe 82 (Bennett 29, Hasaranga 4-15, Theekshana 2-14, Mathews 2-15) by nine wickets The first two matches had tense finishes. This one was a walkover. Zimbabwe had begun with promise, hitting 35 off their first three overs. But they crumbled rapidly to spin…
In response, Nepal had a shaky start with Deepak Bohara being dismissed in the first over for a duck. Arjun Kumal, the other opener, led Nepal’s fight with 90 off 104 balls, including 12 fours, but he lacked support from the other end – the next-best score in Nepal’s chase was captain Dev Khanal’s 36…
