The Ranji Trophy 2024-25 knockouts start on Saturday with the four quarter-finals. Here’s a quick primer. Fixtures Jammu & Kashmir vs Kerala in Pune, from 9.30am ISTVidarbha vs Tamil Nadu in Nagpur, from 9.30am ISTHaryana vs Mumbai in Kolkata, from 9am ISTSaurashtra vs Gujarat in Rajkot, from 9.30am IST How they got here: J&K topped
Month: February 2025
Following a hiatus for the BBL, Sheffield Shield cricket returns on Saturday for the final four rounds of the regular season to see who will make it into the final at the end of March amid what is a very tight table after six rounds. Here’s a reminder of how things stand. 1. South Australia
Big picture: Opportunity for precious game time in Pakistan A triangular ODI series is something of a curiosity that belongs in a museum more than it does in 2025. Pakistan last hosted one in 2004, and there have been none in the ODI format anywhere since 2008. When this particular series was announced not long
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur believes the upcoming WPL will “play a very big role” in the lead up to the home ODI World Cup later this year, as the T20 league will help the India players fine-tune their game and “raise” their fitness levels in the free window after the tournament. This year’s World Cup
When is Champions Trophy 2025 starting? It has been a while since we had a Champions Trophy, right? Why has there been such a long gap? Since its inception in 1998, the tournament was played every two years till 2009. After that, it was moved to a four-year cycle. India were supposed to host the
Australia 85 for 2 (Khawaja 34*, Smith 23*) trail Sri Lanka 257 (Kusal 85, Chandimal 74, Starc 3-37, Kuhnemann 3-63, Lyon 3-96) by 172 runs Marnus Labuschagne‘s woes continued as Australia’s top-order faced sustained pressure early on day two against a Sri Lanka spin attack relishing a deteriorating Galle surface. But despite the wickets of
Sunrisers Eastern Cape 177 for 2 (de Zorzi 78, J Hermann 69*) beat Paarl Royals 175 for 4 (R Hermann 81*, Pretorius 59) by eight wickets Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SEC) will play in a third successive final after winning two matches in two days. They will take on first-time finalists MI Cape Town on Saturday,
Sri Lanka won five World Test Championship Tests in 2024, putting them in contention for making the World Test Championship final in 2025, as recently as December. Three of those victories came away from home, which is what made that run especially impressive. Since his big runs have dried up, Sri Lanka’s totals have become
Shreyas Iyer, who scored a match-winning 36-ball 59 in the first ODI against England in Nagpur, was originally meant to sit out the match. Iyer revealed this in a post-match interview with the broadcasters. India were without Virat Kohli, who was ruled out of the match with a swollen right knee, and they handed the
The ECB board has confirmed that England’s men will fulfil their fixture against Afghanistan at the Champions Trophy this month, despite describing the “appalling oppression” of women in the country as “gender apartheid”. Richard Thompson, the ECB’s chairman, said in a statement following a board meeting on Thursday that a “coordinated international response” would achieve
Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have both been officially ruled out of the Champions Trophy. The two of them “are managing some ongoing injuries and haven’t come up in time for the Champions Trophy,” selection chair George Bailey said on Thursday. Australia have until February 12 to finalise their Champions Trophy squad, and they will
Ireland 260 (McBrine 90*, Adair 78, Muzarabani 7-58, Ngarava 2-65) trail Zimbabwe 72 for 1 (Welch 33*, Kaitano 26*, McCarthy 1-25) by 188 runs What started out as a potentially one-sided day in Bulawayo was anything but. Ireland zig-zagged through multiple ups and downs, however, Zimbabwe ended up dominating the day. In reply, Zimbabwe lost
Harshit Rana in action during the India vs England 1st ODI© PTI Harshit Rana came back from a tough start to his India ODI career to pick up three wickets in the first game vs England at Nagpur. Rana was hit for 11 and 26 runs respectively in his first and third overs, but then
Mohammad Abbas, the Pakistan seamer, has swapped Hampshire for Nottinghamshire, where he will be available for six fixtures in the forthcoming Rothesay County Championship. Abbas, who has claimed 758 first-class wickets at an average of 20.66, will begin his stint in May, following the conclusion of Fergus O’Neill’s month-long spell with the side. He will
India captain Rohit Sharma said at the toss that Kohli had injured his right knee while training on Wednesday evening. Jaiswal was slotted to open with Rohit on the BCCI’s team sheet with vice-captain Shubman Gill, who would have opened if Kohli was fit, listed at No. 4, though it remains to be seen if
England 248 (Buttler 52, Bethell 51, Jadeja 3-26) vs India India bowled out England for 248 in the first ODI in Nagpur, instilling themselves as favourites to take a 1-0 lead in this three-match series. Just as it was during the T20I series that India won 4-1, the spinners did the most damage, pocketing five
Australia allrounder Marcus Stoinis has announced his immediate retirement from ODI cricket, ruling himself out of the upcoming Champions Trophy. Stoinis, 35, will now focus on T20 cricket and remains available for Australia in that format. He scored 1495 runs in 71 ODIs at an average of 26.69 with a best of 146 not out
Champions Trophy 2025 will have no Indian officials with two of the likeliest candidates having excused themselves from travelling to Pakistan. It is understood that Javagal Srinath, one of the most prolific ICC match referees, and Nitin Menon, part of the ICC’s elite panel umpires, had “mutually agreed” with the ICC that they would not
Lunch Sri Lanka 87 for 1 vs Australia Defying expectations so far, the dry surface in Galle has not gone wild and Sri Lanka’s top-order capitalised with opener Dimuth Karunaratne kick-starting his farewell by batting through the first session of the second Test. After receiving a long guard of honour on his way to the
Sunrisers Eastern Cape 184 for 6 (Markram 62*, Tahir 2-21) beat Joburg Super Kings 152 for 7 (Bairstow 37, Overton 2-20) by 32 runs Sunrisers Eastern Cape remain on course for the SA20 three-peat after beating Joburg Super Kings in the Eliminator in Centurion, having recovered spectacularly from three defeats in their opening three games.
Varun, whose performances in the T20Is saw him added to India’s ODI squad against England as well, bagged his second T20I five-wicket haul on the way. He is now level on rating points with England’s Adil Rashid, who had shot up to the top of the rankings during the series only to lose his top
A third IPL franchise owner has emerged victorious in the ongoing Hundred sale with the Sun Group, owners of Sunrisers Hyderabad, making the highest bid to buy a stake in Northern Superchargers, whose host county is Yorkshire. ESPNcricinfo understands that the Sun Group have agreed to buy 100% of the franchise: both the ECB’s 49%
Cameron Green is hopeful of playing some Sheffield Shield cricket for Western Australia before the end of the domestic summer and is eyeing off a stint in county cricket to get himself in the selection mix as a batter only for the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June. Green has
A three-match home Test series against Australia and a two-Test tour to India will be the highlight of West Indies men’s Test fixtures for 2025. They will begin the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle with the Test series against Australia, for the Frank Worrell Trophy, from June 25 to July 16. This will also be
Big picture: Can Ireland shake off the rust? It’s still winter in Ireland but Test cricket is set to come out of the cold after a six-month gap. Their multi-format tour to Zimbabwe, their previous Test opponents, begins with a one-off Test in Bulawayo from Thursday. The game isn’t part of the World Test Championship,
After recovering from a left hamstring injury, right-arm seamer Gerald Coetzee made a comeback to the national team as South Africa announced the squad for the ODI tri-series in Pakistan. Rob Walter, South Africa’s white-ball coach, named a 12-man squad for the first match of the series, including Coetzee, who has recovered from an injury
Big picture: Australia look to build legacy, Sri Lanka hope to salvage series Before the series opener, there were some Australians who hadn’t watched their national team play a Test match in South Asia. After watching Australia submit a near-perfect performance in Galle on free-to-air television, they might be wondering what all the fuss was
Are India giving serious thought to adding Varun Chakravarthy to their Champions Trophy squad? For now, the answer to that question is… possibly. Varun’s inclusion in India’s squad for the three-match ODI series against England is one of the most intriguing eleventh-hour selections in recent times. He is yet to make his ODI debut, but
Big picture: An air of vulnerability in both camps There are two Indias. There’s also, at the same time, another India, an India of an assuredly post-Rohit, post-Kohli era, an India that has flown to dizzying heights over recent months. There are two Indias, but there are three formats. So where exactly do they stand,
“The wicket was very good last time. I’m hoping it will turn more in this match.” When a Sri Lanka captain says this in Galle on the eve of a Test, there might be a dustbowl in the offing. What is clear is that the surface Sri Lanka and Australia are set to play the