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Nottinghamshire 544 (Haseeb 208, James 72, Haynes 70) drew with Somerset 438 (Rew 166, Abell 156, Abbas 3-60) and 200 for 5 (Abell 51, Banton 43*) A half-century from the experienced bat of Tom Abell was key as Somerset secured the draw that had seemed inevitable for much of their Rothesay County Championship visit to Trent Bridge.In the context of the race for the title, the result leaves Surrey, who won at Durham earlier in the week, with a nine-point advantage over Nottinghamshire at the top of Division One as they seek a fourth consecutive title, although they still have to meet Haseeb Hameed’s side at The Kia Oval next month.Nottinghamshire were all out for 544 in their first innings – 208 of those runs scored by Hameed – after their last four wickets fell in the first 40 minutes of the final morning as former Nottinghamshire seamer Jake Ball finished with three for 76 on his return to Trent Bridge.It left Somerset, who began this match in third place, with a deficit of 106 and a potential 85 overs minimum remaining in the match, but after former skipper Abell and Tom Banton (43 not out) had shared a vital partnership of 87 for the fifth wicket under some pressure, they were 94 in front at 200 for five when the players on the field shook hands on a draw shortly after 4.50pm.Though a draw had looked the likeliest result after the slow progress of the opening three days, there were some moments of jeopardy for Somerset to survive, mostly induced by the leg spin of Calvin Harrison, who finished with three for 57.When Harrison, bowling his leg breaks into the rough outside off-stump, dismissed the left-handers Tom Lammonby and James Rew in quick succession early in the afternoon, Somerset were four down and still in arrears.But Abell and Banton guided them out of trouble to the extent that they were 84 ahead by the time Harrison had Abell caught behind for 51 with time running out for Nottinghamshire to take the remaining wickets and chase even a modest target.Given the amount of time that lay ahead of them at the end of the Nottinghamshire first innings, a flurry of early wickets might have set Somerset nerves jangling.They lost two in the space of three balls after Josh Davey and Lewis Gregory had shared 32 for the first wicket, but in the event they had reduced their arrears to 34 in the 15 overs they faced in what remained of the opening session, going to lunch looking comfortable.Davey well caught at second slip off Dillon Pennington, with Gregory smartly taken off an inside edge by wicketkeeper Joe Clarke as he drove at Mohammad Abbas.As Lammonby and Rew went about their business, adding 68 at a run a ball, the visitors were looking increasingly secure.But it became a different story as the fourth-day pitch began to offer help to the slow bowlers, Harrison bowling Lammonby before finding bounce and turn to have Rew caught at short leg.Earlier, Nottinghamshire’s plan to add substantially and quickly to their overnight lead of 73 unravelled rather swiftly, in contrast with the slow pace of developments over the first three days as the Kookaburra ball combined with an unresponsive pitch to produce somewhat stiltifying cricket. For all that Hameed (208), Rew (166) and Abell (156) had excelled with the bat in the first innings, it had been largely uninspiring fare.Liam Patterson-White was the batter most likely to impose himself on a Somerset attack weary and frustrated from 151 overs in the field – all of them using only one ball after Gregory stuck with the original through the whole innings. But he had added only a single to his overnight 47 before chipping Ball to midwicket.Harrison, keen to make the most of his first innings of the season in a red-ball match for Nottinghamshire, made 31 from 34 deliveries but Brett Hutton fell first ball, caught and bowled by Davey, Ball cleaned up Dillon Pennington and Harrison departed in similar fashion to Patterson-White before him.

Bangladesh quick Khaled Ahmed was the star of the show as defending champions Rangpur Riders began their Global Super League 2025 campaign with a narrow but solid win over hosts Guyana Amazon Warriors at Providence.Having opted to bat, Rangpur put up 162 for 5 with contributions from Kyle Mayers, Soumya Sarkar and Iftikhar Ahmed, before Khaled’s four-for and two-wicket hauls from Tabraiz Shamsi and Azmatullah Omarzai mande sure Amazon Warriors fell short by eight runs.Chasing 163, Amazon Warriors lost Rahmanullah Gurbaz cheaply to countrymate Omarzai, but Johnson Charles (40) and Moeen Ali (27) put together 48 runs in five overs to keep the chase on track.Kyle Mayers top-scored for Rangpur Riders•Global Super League via Getty Images

After they were felled in back-to-back overs, contributions continued to come, but none of them were impactful enough. All of Jewel Andrew, Shimron Hetmyer, Sherfane Rutherford and Dwaine Pretorius, the Nos. 4-7, got into double-digits but couldn’t carry on and make a difference.And it was largely because of medium-pacer Khaled, who removed the dangerous Rutherford and Hetmyer in back-to-back overs, the 15th and 17th, and then got Pretorius and Shamar Springer on consecutive balls in the 19th.Omarzai finished it off first ball of the last over by sending back David Wiese that saw Amazon Warriors bowled out for 154.Earlier, Rangpur were slow off the blocks. They were 40 for no loss at the end of the powerplay – Amazon Warriors would get 49 for 1 later – with Saif Hassan going at a run a ball and Sarkar even slower. The impetus came only after Mayers went out and scored 44 not out in 31 balls and there were key lower-middle order contributions from Nurul Hasan (18 in ten balls) and Iftikhar (34 not out in 21).

India bowling coach Morne Morkel has been “blown away” by Jasprit Bumrah’s rhythm and intensity in the three sessions the team have had so far on their tour of England, but reiterated that the management would be “smart” in managing him through the summer.Prior to departure, head coach Gautam Gambhir said it was likely Bumrah would play in just three of the five Tests, as part of his workload management given his history of back injuries. But India are yet to take on call on which Tests he’ll play – that will depend on the state of the series and how Bumrah is holding up.Related

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“Bumrah knows how to get himself ready, he knows how to prepare,” Morkel said on Wednesday. “I was blown away to see the energy on the ball the last three days. That’s very exciting to see. I’m happy his body is in good shape at the moment.”We’ll manage him with that. We’ll be smart with him because he’s obviously key for us, but in terms of the first three net sessions, lot to be excited watching him bowl with the Dukes ball.”The Indians will tune up for the series-opener at Headingley in Leeds from June 20 by playing a three-day intra-squad fixture from June 6 in Beckenham. The match is expected to be a closed-doors affair, with the teams drawn from players in the Test squad as well as those from the India A team that played two four-day matches against the England Lions.The make-up of India’s bowling attack will be a key focus area in the lead-up to the first Test. Apart from Bumrah, India have Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna and Akash Deep as their frontline pace options, with Shardul Thakur and Nitish Kumar Reddy as the seam-bowling allrounders.Jasprit Bumrah prepares to bowl at the nets in Beckenham•Bipin Patel

It remains to be seen if India will prefer Thakur or Reddy as their fourth seamer, if they are inclined to include a seam-bowling allrounder instead of a specialist fourth quick or a second spinner. Thakur and Reddy looked rusty in both India A games, and neither seems certain to start at Leeds.Morkel, though, has high expectations from Reddy.”The more bowling options we can have, that’s great. He’s skillful. He’s a guy that can bowl that magical ball, so for him it’s about creating that consistency, it’s something we want to work on, it’s important for his game as well,” Morkel said of Reddy. “I’ve had conversations where I’ve challenged him to bowl a bit more.”I want to see the ball more in his hands, we all know what he can do with the bat. For a team, if we can have the bowling options especially in these conditions, I think he’ll be exciting and can complement this bowling attack.”Morkel believes the key for India to start well will be for their bowlers to hit the ground running immediately against an aggressive England line-up that will look to take toll of errors ruthlessly.”England – the brand of cricket they play, we need to be on top of our game,” he said. “We can’t afford to find our feet in this series. That’s one of the things that has impressed me so much in the two days, the few sessions we’ve had.”The guys have stepped up by themselves, they’ve taken the ownership and responsibility, they’ve realised it’s going to be a tough tour. That’s the pleasing thing for us as coaches, to see guys taking that leadership and ownership at practice.”

Test hopeful Cameron Bancroft fell for a duck to cap an untimely double failure, but Western Australia batters Mitchell Marsh and Hilton Cartwright repelled a Queensland rally late on day three in the Sheffield Shield.After gaining a 98-run lead, WA slumped to 47 for 3 in their second innings before Marsh and Cartwright combined for an unbroken 59-run partnership.Batting at No.4 as a specialist batter, Marsh played mostly watchfully but did occasionally bludgeon the ball in trademark style. He finished 40 not out, while Cartwright was unbeaten on 19 to get WA back on track after Bancroft fell in the first over.The leading Shield batter over the past two seasons, Bancroft has been a model of consistency. He last played Test cricket in 2019, overlooked earlier in the year after David Warner retired, and hoped to push his case for a return with allrounder Cameron Green facing a long stint on the sidelines due to a back injury.But once again he succumbed to quick Michael Neser after nicking off in an almost identical dismissal to his golden duck in the first innings.”It’s unfortunate timing,” WA coach Adam Voges said of Bancroft post play. “I’m sure he would have loved to have scored some runs in this game. It wasn’t to be, but he has scored a lot over the last few years.”Cameron Bancroft walks off after bagging a pair•Getty Images

No.3 Jayden Goodwin, who also fell first ball in the first innings, avoided the same fate as Bancroft but on 18 slashed seamer Jack Wildermuth to gully.Captain Sam Whiteman was unable to back up his brilliant century in the first innings after playing an uncharacteristically loose shot to edge debutant quick Tom Straker to second slip. It was the 19-year-old Straker’s maiden first-class wicket and he impressed in his five-over spell with fiery bowling.The flurry of wickets in the back half of the day has raised the prospect of a result after the match had appeared to be headed for a dull draw.With the surface flattening considerably since the early day one fireworks, Jack Clayton and Ben McDermott batted with relative ease in the first session against the old ball.WA relied on offspinner Corey Rocchiccioli, who celebrated his 27th birthday on day one, but he was thwarted on a surface providing little assistance.Whiteman turned to the left-arm spin of Cooper Connolly, but Clayton reverse swept to good effect as Queensland chipped away at WA’s massive first innings total of 465.The match went through a lull until the second new ball and quickly sparked back to life when quick Cameron Gannon had Clayton caught down the leg side by diving wicketkeeper Josh Inglis for 85.McDermott appeared to get Queensland back on track either side of lunch until falling lbw to Cartwright for 68. It sparked a collapse with Queensland losing 6 for 66 as the ball started to shoot through off divots.Playing against his former team, Gannon left off from his impressive finish last season when he was an unexpected hero in WA’s Shield triumph. Unleashing an unnerving line and length, he was the pick of the bowlers to finish with 5 for 57 from 25.2 overs.Recruit Brody Couch had a mixed debut for WA after crossing over from Victoria in the off-season. He was lively at times, the fastest of WA’s trio of quicks clocking at 140 kpm, and did unfurl a short-pitched barrage to liven a sedate period of play.Couch did struggle for consistency, conceding 86 runs from 21 overs, but claimed a maiden wicket for WA when he clean bowled Wildermuth for 24.Marsh did not bowl as expected and spent most of his time in the slips, while he also occasionally helped carry the drinks.

In his seventh season – and second as captain – at Guyana Amazon Warriors, Imran Tahir, now the oldest player in the CPL at 45, became the first overseas bowler to take 100 wickets in the league. Tahir reached the milestone when he had Antigua and Barbuda Falcons’ Hassan Khan holing out to Gudakesh Motie right at the edge of the midwicket boundary in Amazon Warriors’ successful defence of 135 on a Providence turner.Tahir cherished the landmark, saying it was a game-changing moment. When Hassan, who is adept at playing spin, holed out for 10 off 12 balls, Falcons were reduced to 41 for 3 in the eighth over and were eventually bowled out for 108.”I think he [Motie] took a really good catch,” Tahir said after Amazon Warriors secured their spot in the playoffs. “I was quite pleased because Hassan is very dangerous and can play spin really well, so getting him out at that time was really crucial for the team. I am just glad it came off and it was a totally great effort from Motie. For me, that was the turning point to get back into the game.”After Motie completed the catch, Tahir set off on a signature celebratory sprint and even mimicked Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Siuuu’ celebration. In his next over, Tahir trapped Kofi James with another slider, for 27 off 23 balls.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

It was not a popular move when Tahir, 44 then, was named captain of Amazon Warriors last season, but he led the team to their first title. Continuing as captain, Tahir faced a stumbling block this time when he was injured midway through the season, but he returned to action and marshalled Amazon Warriors into the playoffs once again.”I just wanna be really grateful to Guyana for giving me the opportunity over the years to come and play here in this beautiful country,” he said. “Look, it’s a personal achievement [100 CPL wickets] but I hope my achievement includes whatever I’ve helped for the team and that’s what I look to do always. It’s a very good milestone and I’m very pleased.”Tahir also credited Moeen Ali for his calculated 42 off 33 balls, which propped Amazon Warriors up to 135 for 7 from 85 for 5. While Moeen was circumspect against Chris Green’s offspin, he lined up left-arm fingerspinner Imad Wasim for an electric sequence of 4, 6, 6, 6, 0, 4 in the 19th over.Related

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Amazon Warriors’ batters have been particularly good at acing their match-ups this season. For instance, when they met Falcons in North Sound earlier this season, Romario Shepherd played out Fabian Allen and Shamar Springer, who has quite a few slower variations in his repertoire, and instead smashed Mohammad Amir for 15 off five balls.”We knew it was going to be difficult from the start,” Tahir said. “I think we wanted to have a better powerplay, to be honest, but I still think we were okay because we didn’t lose a lot of wickets. It’s actually totally different than last year – it’s quite tough for the batters to adjust themselves. I think Moeen played really, really well.”Obviously, he had a chance, but then, I think, he capitalised on that all the way and he was incredible. One over changed the game. We were still thinking we could have done better but we knew 135-140 we can defend as a bowling unit.”The Providence has been a fortress for Amazon Warriors: their win-loss ratio of 1.71 at this venue is the best among all teams at home in the CPL. While Amazon Warriors have always had a deep and varied spin attack, which suited these conditions, Tahir attributed their sustained success at home to the Guyana crowd.”The support we get here from people,” Tahir said, “they are always here every single game and it’s sold out. As a professional sportsman, you want to play somewhere where you really enjoy and that’s what we felt over the years. I’ve been very lucky to be part of this franchise for the last seven years. It’s been incredible and that’s the only thing I can think of. The skills are there and obviously you’ve done your homework, hard work, this and that, but I think it’s the support and I just want to thank all the people in Guyana and all over [the world] where Guyanese people are. It’s incredible and we love playing here.”Jewel Andrew, 17, is among the positives for Antigua and Barbuda Falcons in CPL 2024•CPL T20 via Getty Images

‘Shoulda, coulda, woulda’ – Falcons captain Green reflects on the season

After Falcons suffered a group-stage exit in their first CPL season, their captain Green was left with a tantalising thought: what might have been. With Brandon King injured at the start of the tournament, Green took as captain and oversaw four home defeats in five matches in North Sound. Though Falcons did the double over the mighty Trinbago Knight Riders, they had already fallen out of the playoffs race.”It [captaincy] was a good challenge,” Green said. “I found out at the very last minute that I would be doing it in Antigua. Fortunately, I’ve got some really good people around me in my team. We had so much fun together and we had some really close losses unfortunately in those first two games and reflection on the season: shoulda, coulda, woulda. We showed glimpses of what we could do at times and then we were really poor at times and probably our fielding let us down and lack of big runs let us down as well throughout the tournament.”Green, however, was buoyed by the emergence of Jewel Andrew, the youngest player to ever feature in the CPL, and the re-emergence of Justin Greaves and Shamar Springer.”You look at some individual performances. Justin Greaves coming in and opening the batting and having the tournament he did,” Green said. “Shamar Springer, another one with the ball, and unfortunately he was injured. I’d have loved to see him get up the wickets column and finish a great tournament that he deserved. And then the youngster – Jewel Andrew how he started in the tournament and it’s a pity he didn’t play in the back end as well but at 17 years of age to come out and play the way he did. That’s three off the top of my head. Just outstanding individual performances throughout the tournament and they have got bright futures ahead of them along with other guys in the team.”

Deepti Sharma will return to the Hundred this year after signing for London Spirit as a replacement for the injured Grace Harris. Deepti played for Spirit in the competition’s inaugural season in 2021 and was an unused member of Birmingham Phoenix’s squad the following summer.The Hundred starts on July 23 with Spirit due to play their opening fixture away against Southern Brave the following day, but Deepti will miss the start of the competition due to the Asia Cup in Dambulla. She will be replaced by Erin Burns for the first two games, who is already in the country playing for Northern Diamonds.Deepti is one of three India players due to be involved in the Hundred this season, along with Richa Ghosh (Birmingham Phoenix) and Smriti Mandhana (Southern Brave). Like Deepti, both players are part of India’s Asia Cup squad so will miss the first week of the competition.Related

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The ECB confirmed the latest tranche of replacement players on Thursday afternoon, with Sophie Molineux (Manchester Originals) joining Harris in pulling out of the Hundred. Cricket Australia confirmed on Friday that Molineux had suffered a fracture rib and Harris a calf strain.Molineux has been replaced by Kim Garth, while Bethan Ellis will join her at the Originals after Mahika Gaur pulled out due to a side strain. Tash Farrant has been ruled out with a hamstring injury but is yet to be replaced at Oval Invincibles, while Beth Langston is in for Claire Nicholas at Welsh Fire.As ESPNcricinfo revealed on Wednesday night, England’s Test batters will be released to play in the men’s Hundred immediately after their third Test against West Indies at Edgbaston, while their bowlers and allrounders – including Ben Stokes – are only likely to play the second half of the group stages due to workload management.Further replacements include Leicestershire’s Louis Kimber, who takes up the injured Will Smeed’s spot at Phoenix, while Mohammad Amir has signed for the Invincibles – who are defending champions – for the start of the competition as short-term cover while Spencer Johnson concludes his commitments at Major League Cricket.

Hundred replacement deals:

Birmingham Phoenix: Louis Kimber and Tim Southee replace Will Smeed and Naseem Shah.
London Spirit: James Neesham and Matthew Taylor replace Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope while they are with England; Deepti Sharma replaces Grace Harris, with Erin Burns replacing Deepti until the end of the Asia Cup.
Manchester Originals: Kim Garth and Bethan Ellis replace Sophie Molineux and Mahika Gaur.
Northern Superchargers: Mitchell Santner replaces Daniel Sams.
Oval Invincibles: Harrison Ward and Mohammad Amir replace Gus Atkinson (while he is with England) and Spencer Johnson (while he is at MLC). Tash Farrant has withdrawn, replacement TBC
Trent Rockets: Riley Meredith replaces Joe Root while he is with England.Beth Langston: Beth Langston replaces Claire Nicholas.