New Zealand

India captain Hardik Pandya was surprised by the way the Ranchi pitch behaved in the T20I series opener against New Zealand on Friday. The pitch offered sharp grip and turn to slower bowlers throughout the game, with the dew factor not making much of an impact in the second innings. Chasing 177, India could manage

New Zealand 176 for 6 (Mitchell 59*, Conway 52, Washington 2-22) beat India 155 for 9 (Washington 50, Suryakumar 47, Santner 2-11) by 21 runs New Zealand were put in on a pitch that turned, and were then expected to bowl in the dew, but they managed to score what turned out to be enough

Big picture: Gaikwad injured, Shaw set to wait his turn Rohit Sharma has no plans of giving up on T20Is yet. Rahul Dravid is “not aware” if India have any plans of split captaincy; asked about this during a press conference before the third ODI, he asked the reporter to check with the selectors. But

Mitchell Santner is cool as when he walks out to bat in Hyderabad with New Zealand 131 for 6 in a chase of 350. He is cool as when some reporters at his press conference in Raipur force him into greeting the locals in traditional fashion. He is cool as when he bowls to Shubman

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) is introducing the Debbie Hockley Medal at this year’s annual awards ceremony, to honour the outstanding female cricketer of the year. The medal will be the women’s equivalent of the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal for the outstanding male cricketer of the year, and will be a regular feature at the NZC’s

Siraj was third on the wicket-takers’ table for the series against New Zealand after picking up five wickets in two games, behind Shardul Thakur and Kuldeep Yadav, who both had six strikes. But that haul made it 14 wickets in five ODIs – with the three games against Sri Lanka in the earlier series added

Big picture: Will New Zealand’s top five please stand up? Six-eighty-six runs in the series opener and just 219 in the second game. Even if the total runs scored in the match reduced by nearly 70% from the first ODI to the second, the common and worrying theme for New Zealand was how their top

Big picture: India vs NZ is a battle of titans It finally feels like a World Cup year, doesn’t it? In an age of content saturation – organisers trying to horn in as many big events as possible and writers doing much the same to make you care about their own work – something pure

Wicketkeeper-batter Bernadine Bezuidenhout, who last played for New Zealand in January 2020, has been included in the squad for next month’s Women’s T20 World Cup. Bezuidenhout, 29, is on a comeback trail after two years out of the game to recover from a health issue after being diagnosed with Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S).

His place in India’s ODI side was questioned because the batter who replaced him when he was resting scored a double-hundred. Shubman Gill has now scored one of his own, after making 70, 21 and 116 in his first three innings since his return. This wasn’t the easiest of tracks for batting: the next-best score

Trent Boult is currently in action for MI Emirates in the ILT20 in the UAE, having turned down his New Zealand central contract. And Tim Southee has been wrapped in cotton wool ahead of the home Test series against England in February. The last time New Zealand played an ODI without both Boult and Southee

Big picture: India dominant in ODIs at home too It isn’t spoken about as much as their remarkable home record in Test cricket, but India are perhaps just as dominant in ODIs in their own conditions. Since the start of 2010, they’ve played 25 bilateral home series, and won 22 of them. This record takes

Former South Africa fast bowler Morne Morkel will join the New Zealand coaching staff for the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa in February. Morkel, 38, was recently part of the Namibia men’s coaching staff during the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, and is presently a bowling coach with Durban’s Super Giants in

Toss Pakistan chose to bat vs New Zealand Babar Azam opted to bat in the series decider against New Zealand. This, after choosing to bowl in the opening game, which Pakistan had won. While the visitors remained unchanged after leveling the series two days back, the hosts made two changes from the side that lost:

Mitchell Santner has been named captain of New Zealand’s T20I squad for the series in India that begins later this month. Kane Williamson and Tim Southee will both be absent, having chosen not to travel after the ongoing series in Pakistan. Ben Lister, the 27-year-old Auckland fast bowler, is a first time inclusion in the

Toss: New Zealand opt to bat vs Pakistan New Zealand won the toss in the second ODI and opted to bat first in their quest to square the three-match series after losing the first ODI on Monday. The visitors beefed up their spin attack, bringing in legspinner Ish Sodhi and pairing him up with fingerspinners

His highest score of 90 came in Lahore in 1969, helping New Zealand take a decisive first-innings lead of 127 in a low-scoring game. New Zealand won that Test match by five wickets, and went on to claim the three-match series 1-0. It was New Zealand’s first ever Test-series win, home or away.

Toss Pakistan opt to bowl vs New Zealand Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and opted to bowl in the first ODI against New Zealand in Karachi. Legspinner Usama Mir was handed a debut for Pakistan while New Zealand opted to unleash fast bowler Henry Shipley, handing him his maiden international cap. Mir was

Big picture: Pakistan, NZ build for ODI World Cup Very little seems to ride on the ODI series these days, something especially true for this three-match rubber between Pakistan and New Zealand. Both sides have qualified for the World Cup later this year, and hosting the limited-overs matches as the dessert rather than hors d’oeuvre

New Zealand fast bowler Matt Henry has been sidelined from the upcoming ODIs in Pakistan and India with an abdominal strain. He will return home with the other members of the Test squad who are not in the white-ball mix. New Zealand are yet to name a replacement for Henry. Henry’s absence could potentially open

Mitchell Santner, the New Zealand spinner, has signed for Worcestershire to play in next summer’s Vitality T20 Blast. Santner, 30, previously represented the club in 2016 and 2017. He will join fellow New Zealand international Michael Bracewell as Worcestershire’s overseas signings for the Blast. Santner is his country’s third-leading wicket-taker in T20Is and has experience

There was but one member of this New Zealand squad on tour in Pakistan to have ever played cricket in the country, and that was their batting coach. Even so, they were “one ball away from series victory” and the captain Tim Southee took a lot of heart from that. Karachi provided conditions that made

Tea Pakistan 408 and 179 for 5 (Sarfaraz 65*, Shakeel 27*, Bracewell 2-33, Sodhi 2-49) need another 140 runs to beat New Zealand 449 and 277 for 5 dec The Karachi Test headed towards a potentially exciting finish, as Sarfaraz Ahmed and Saud Shakeel rescued Pakistan from 80 for 5 to add an undefeated 99,

Tea New Zealand 449 and 151 for 4 (Latham 62, Williamson 41, Hamza 1-22, Hasan 1-27) lead Pakistan 408 by 192 runs Pakistan’s bowlers combined to push New Zealand onto the back foot, albeit slightly, on the fourth day of the second Test. Both Tom Latham and Kane Williamson fell in quick succession in a

Tea Pakistan 337 for 5 (Shakeel 101*, Salman 4*, Mitchell 1-0) trail New Zealand 449 by 112 runs Eight sessions into the Test, the Karachi pitch continued to be flat and lifeless, as Pakistan posted 113 runs at more than four an over post-lunch on the third day. Amidst that, Saud Shakeel got to his

Tea Pakistan 62 for 2 (Imam 17, Babar 2*, Ajaz 1-20, Henry 1-23) trail New Zealand 449 (Conway 122, Latham 71, Henry 68*, Blundell 51, Abrar 4-149, Naseem 3-71, Salman 3-75) by 387 runs After putting on 104 runs for the tenth wicket for New Zealand, Matt Henry and Ajaz Patel picked up a wicket

Milne, 30, had some tightness in his hamstring at the end of the home series against India in November 2022 and subsequently missed two Ford Trophy games, New Zealand’s domestic 50-over tournament, for Wellington in December. He played Wellington’s first two matches of the Super Smash, the domestic T20 competition, but the workload of six

Lunch New Zealand 119 for 0 (Latham 67*, Conway 51*) vs Pakistan Tom Latham and Devon Conway piled up their second successive century stand for the first wicket, adding 119 until lunch on the first morning of the second Test in Karachi. Both openers passed their half-centuries, ending unbeaten on 67 and 51, respectively. The

Big picture For Pakistan, this game cannot come – and go – soon enough. A home Test season of historically miserable proportions will finally draw to a close for the hosts next week, and regardless of the outcome of the second Test in Karachi, that is precisely how it will be viewed. You might imagine

Lunch Pakistan 438 and 181 for 4 (Imam 81*, Sarfaraz 49*, Bracewell 2-40, Sodhi 2-47) lead New Zealand 612 for 9 dec by 7 runs Imam-ul-Haq and Sarfaraz Ahmed took Pakistan into the lead with their unbroken 81-run partnership for the fifth wicket on the final morning of the first Test in Karachi. At one