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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsEvin Lewis battled cramps to raise his maiden ODI century, but West Indies’ unsuccessful streak chasing 300+ scores continued•AFP

Evin Lewis, with just a handful of internationals under his name, struck a counter-attacking maiden ODI century to give West Indies more than just a sniff in their attempt to gun down a 300-plus chase for the first time in ODIs. Carlos Brathwaite and Jason Holder then came up with sprightly cameos to take West Indies to within 24 of Sri Lanka’s 330 for 7. Then, in a mirror image of Saturday’s collapse that resulted in a tie, West Indies stumbled, this time to a one-run loss triggered by panic, poor shot selection and lackadaisical running between the wickets.The result meant Sri Lanka were assured of a berth in Sunday’s final, while West Indies and Zimbabwe will play a virtual semi-final on Friday to earn the right to meet Sri Lanka at the same venue. A tie or no-result would knock Zimbabwe out and ensure West Indies’ qualification.West Indies were in control until the last five overs of their chase. Carlos Brathwaite and Holder put together 45 for the seventh wicket, before Nuwan Kulasekara delivered an inswinging yorker that beat Brathwaite and hit middle stump. Suranga Lakmal then took over, bowling full and taking out Ashley Nurse in the next over. Suddenly, West Indies, who were cruising for most parts of the chase, needed 19 off 10 balls.

Tharanga fined for slow over-rate

Sri Lanka captain Upul Tharanga has been fined 40% of his match fee, while his team-mates have been docked 20%, for a slow over rate during the tri-nation ODI series match against West Indies in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka were ruled to be two overs short of their target when time allowances were taken into consideration. Tharanga could be suspended if Sri Lanka commit another over-rate offence in an ODI within the next 12 months under his captaincy.
Match referee Javagal Srinath imposed the fine in accordance with Article 2.5.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel. Tharanga pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing.

It eventually boiled down to the final over, bowled by Nuwan Pradeep, with West Indies needing 10. After a single and a dot off the first two balls, Sulieman Benn muscled the third over deep midwicket to spark excitement in the West Indies camp. With three needed off three, Pradeep speared another yorker, before Benn holed out to sweeper cover, leaving Holder to score three off the final delivery. Pradeep bowled another one into the blockhole, with Holder only managing to squeeze it to cover for a single as Sri Lanka pulled off a heist.That meant Lewis’ 148, which contained 15 fours and four sixes, went in vain. His enterprise ensured West Indies rode the mini-wobbles and stood abreast with the asking rate for most parts of the chase. Then with the equation back into familiar territory – 154 off the last 20 overs with seven wickets in hand – he slowed down just a bit before recovering from a bout of cramps for one final hurrah.Brute force was just one element of his knock. It was the other element – luck – that had played an equal part in West Indies’ chase. He was first put down on 26 by Kusal Mendis at backward point off Lakmal. Pradeep then reprieved him on 41 at mid-on. Then on 53, a close lbw shout went Lewis’ way. Given out, he reviewed the decision only for the third umpire to find the ball had pitched fractionally outside leg stump.That wasn’t it. He survived a run-out chance on 114 when Niroshan Dickwella dislodged the bails before he could collect the ball cleanly. He continued to swing his way to make 148 before being stranded mid-pitch courtesy a mix-up with his captain Holder, with West Indies slipping to 262 for 6, needing 69 off 57 balls.Niroshan Dickwella made his maiden ODI half-century•AFP

Sri Lanka’s fielding nightmare extended to the end overs, with Upul Tharanga dropping a skier at mid-on to reprieve Carlos Brathwaite on 3. Sri Lanka’s fast bowlers, however, hit the blockhole with regularity in the end overs to bail the side out.That the bowlers had as many to defend was courtesy enterprising 94s from Kusal Mendis and Dickwella that contributed to Sri Lanka’s highest ODI score against West Indies. They lost Kusal Perera, cleaned up by Shannon Gabriel in the third over, but quickly got back on track courtesy Dhananjaya de Silva’s exuberant 58. At one stage, Dhananjaya and Dickwella matched each other stroke-for-stroke; the shot of the innings being Dickwella’s adventurous ‘Dilscoop’ off Carlos Brathwaite.Dropped on 39 when Shai Hope put down a tough chance behind the stumps, Dickwella made them pay as he stitched together a 107-run stand with Kusal Mendis, who gradually switched gears. The hallmark of Kusal’s effort against spin was in sharp contrast to his measured approach against the fast bowlers – Gabriel constantly clocked average speeds of 145kph in a lively opening spell despite battling through a hamstring niggle – on a grassy surface that was half as menacing as it looked.Getting outside the line of the stumps, the sweep and the pull was his preferred mode of operation as he peppered the leg-side boundaries with five sixes. He fell six short of a maiden ODI century while trying to play a late dab, before Tharanga, the stand-in captain, and Pathirana then lent the finishing touches with cameos which made a difference in the end.

Seamer Anupam Sanklecha completed his second successive ten-wicket haul in a match – also bettering his career-best in consecutive games – to bring Maharashtra within four wickets of an innings victory against Assam in Chennai.Assam, 132 for 3 overnight in response to Maharashtra’s 542, lost Kunal Saikia (39) in the second over of the third day. Sanklecha claimed his wicket, before an 85-run stand between Rishav Das (86) and Arun Karthik (47) steadied Assam briefly. However, Arun Karthik fell to the part-time offspin of Chirag Khurana with the score on 219, and Sanklecha removed Rishav in the next over, to initiate a collapse of 6 for 37 that saw Assam fold for 256. Sanklecha ended with figures of 8 for 73.Assam were then asked to follow-on and were quickly reduced to 51 for 4. Left-arm medium-pacer Mohsin Sayyed was primarily responsible for the early damage, removing opener Rishav and Amit Verma off consecutive overs. Karthik was involved in another half-century stand for the fifth wicket, but the wickets of Saikia and Syed Mohammad late in the day pinned Assam down to 107 for 6. Sanklecha took 3 for 37 in the second dig.Delhi restricted Rajasthan to 221 and reached 51 for 3 in their chase of 153 at stumps in Wayanad. Rajasthan began the day on 19 for 1, and lost two more wickets before they wiped out the deficit of 69. They were soon reduced to 99 for 5, before Rajesh Bishnoi’s half-century and his partnerships of 45 and 55 with Salman Khan and Chetan Bist took them close to 200. Bishnoi was the ninth batsman dismissed, on 89, before Rajasthan’s innings folded for 221 in 85.4 overs. Left-armers Manan Sharma and Pradeep Sangwan shared six wickets between them.Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Rishabh Pant all managed only single-digit scores, but the fit-again Shikhar Dhawan, who was unbeaten on 35 off 45 balls, including six fours, kept Delhi on track for their second win of the season.Odisha opened up the prospect of an outright win against table-toppers Karnataka, after they inflicted yet another top-order collapse on Vinay Kumar’s men at Palam in Delhi.The day began with Odisha’s last-wicket overnight pair adding 24 and bringing up their fifty partnership, before Basant Mohanty was dismissed with the score on 342, and the lead on 163.Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal then fell for his second single-digit score of the match, before opener R Samarth and Robin Uthappa put on 58 for the second wicket in 10.4 overs. The pair’s second half-century stand of the game was cut short when Uthappa was trapped lbw by Dhiraj Singh in the 17th over. The wicket triggered yet another collapse as Karnataka went from 74 for 1 to 108 for 4 and then 133 for 5.It was left to CM Gautam – who scored 54 in the first innings – to rescue Karnataka again. He joined Vinay to add 98 for the sixth wicket. Vinay fell late in the day for 41 off 108 balls, but Gautam held firm with Shreyas Gopal to remain unbeaten on 68 off 180 balls. Karnataka closed the third day at 244 for 6.Saurashtra offspinner Vandit Jivrajani took his third four-wicket haul in his third game but Vidharba took the first-innings lead at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi.Vidharba began the day on 242 for 3 and had lost just one wicket, that of Shalabh Shrivastava, when they went past Saurasthra’s first-innings total of 301. However, a crucial spell from Jivrajani saw them fall from 303 for 4 to 318 for 7. He took all three wickets and opened up Vidharba’s tail, which managed only four runs between the four batsmen – including three ducks – before they were eventually bowled out for 347.Saurasthra opener Snell Patel’s unbeaten 60, his maiden first-class fifty, took them to 92 for 2, with a lead of 46 runs, at stumps.

At the conclusion of an emergency meeting in Delhi on Sunday, the BCCI said its members have cited “practical difficulties” as the reason for not implementing all the recommendations of the Lodha Committee.The top brass of the BCCI as well as heads of various state associations said nothing had changed in their stance since the special general meeting on October 1. At the SGM, the BCCI had decided to selectively adopt the Lodha Committee recommendations, thus defaulting on the Supreme Court order from July 18, which had mandated the board to adopt all the reforms.A prominent BCCI office bearer said that its senior lawyer Kapil Sibal would, at the next hearing on October 17, argue that without a two-third majority the board could not enforce a diktat on its members to adopt the reforms. During the hearings last week, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had asked the BCCI to “unconditionally” accept the reforms and not “precipitate” the matter. The board’s emergency meeting in Delhi was a reaction to this, and was attended by all of its Full Members.”Our lawyers will put forward all our reservations and practical difficulties concerning implementing certain recommendations one by one on Monday,” the senior office bearer said. “We are confident that the court will allow us to present our arguments, after which we will decide the future course of action.”This office bearer also said BCCI president Anurag Thakur would file the personal affidavit that the court had asked of him on Monday. Thakur was asked to clarify whether he had sought ICC intervention against the implementation of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations, as ICC chief executive David Richardson had said last month.The BCCI’s emergency meeting on Sunday was about finding clarity regarding their next course of action. Both the board and its state associations need a two-third majority to pass any resolution.”The meeting was convened by BCCI to be more transparent and offer more clarity. We already had taken a stance at the SGM recently to stay together and today it was the case of just taking that forward,” a secretary of a West Zone state association said.The members also supported the board’s stance of taking the court on. “Why is the Supreme Court bothered about such a successful organisation like BCCI. It has been good to so many people, has developed such a successful product. It is not the court’s area,” the secretary of the state association said.In an attempt to up the ante, the court passed an interim order on October 7 stating the BCCI stop all funds to the state associations until they submit a resolution in writing to the court and the Lodha Committee about adopting all the reforms in toto.

USA have picked three uncapped players – Ali Khan, ambidextrous spinner Prashanth Nair and Abdullah Syed – in their 14-man squad for ICC WCL Division Four in Los Angeles from October 29. The same squad will also take on Canada in the three-match Auty Cup series from October 13 in Los Angeles.Khan, a fast bowler contracted to Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League, emerged onto the USA national scene via the open trial process conducted by ICC Americas last September in Indianapolis. The Dayton, Ohio resident was also included in a 15-man USA and Canada combined ICC Americas squad that participated in the WICB Nagico Super50 in January.

USA squad

Danial Ahmed, Timroy Allen, Alex Amsterdam, Fahad Babar, Akeem Dodson (wk), Elmore Hutchinson, Ali Khan, Prashanth Nair, Timil Patel, Srini Santhanam, Jessy Singh, Nicholas Standford, Abdullah Syed, Steven Taylor

Two other players included in USA’s squad for the first time are dual-spinner Nair and hard-hitting batsman Syed, both from New York. Nair was injured on the first day of USA’s five-day national squad camp in Indianapolis earlier this month, dislocating his left thumb during fielding drills and was unable to bowl. However, he impressed the selectors during the team’s seven-day camp in July and August in Florida, taking wickets with both arms against a CPL Invitational XI.Syed was not in USA’s preliminary 30-man squad announced in July, but earned an invitation to the 22-member squad camp in Indianapolis earlier this month after a pair of blistering cameos playing for a New York XI against a touring Marylebone Cricket Club side. He cemented his place in the final squad by striking 71 off 89 balls in an intrasquad trial match, the highest score by any USA player during the camp.”I have been pleased to see the application of the USA players to date. Indianapolis was a great camp and it was good to see the squad work hard together to drive performance standards and expectations,” USA coach Pubudu Dassanayake said at the announcement of the squad. “I’m excited to be working with these players over the next month as we build towards our goal of winning on home soil. We hope the USA will get behind the players and support their efforts.”Alex Amsterdam, Nicholas Standford and Jasdeep Singh are also set to make their debut 50-over appearances for USA during the Auty Cup and Division Four. They were all part of USA’s World T20 Qualifier squad in Ireland last summer. Amsterdam made 73 off 87 balls on List A debut in January for ICC Americas against Barbados in the Nagico Super50.The two other inclusions are Timroy Allen and Akeem Dodson. Allen, 29, has not played for USA since a falling out with then coach Robin Singh while serving as vice-captain for USA at the 2013 World T20 Qualifier in the UAE. However, he made a comeback last year at the Indianapolis Combine and earned a contract with Jamaica Tallawahs, making six appearances this summer for the 2016 CPL champions. Dodson was USA’s leading scorer at the 2015 World T20 Qualifier in Ireland and Scotland.Former captain Muhammad Ghous (right) has been excluded from USA’s 14-member squad•ICC/Sportsfile

Among the six returning players from USA’s WCL Division Three squad in 2014 is Fahad Babar, who was the team’s leading scorer at that tournament with 247 runs at 49.40. Babar scored 59 off 35 balls against a CPL Invitational XI in Florida and scored an unbeaten century in an intrasquad trial match a few days later. Also included is Steven Taylor, who played six games for Barbados Tridents in this year’s CPL.The most notable exclusion was Muhammad Ghous, who had been struggling to retain his spot after captaining USA at the World T20 Qualifier last summer in Ireland. Ghous took 3 for 20 in 10 captaining a New York XI against the MCC tourists early in September, then claimed figures of 3 for 22 for USA against the MCC in Indianapolis, but didn’t do enough after poor performances in Ireland and at the 2014 Division Three in Malaysia.”It is encouraging that there is strong competition for spots,” USA selection chairman Ricardo Powell said. “Some very good players have missed selection on this occasion but those players and even players who may have missed selection in the initial squad of 30 will have an important role to play in the future of USA cricket. The selection panel is confident we have a strong team, a good mix of experience and some new players who will make their USA debut. We wish the group and coach every success in our bid to win the World Cricket League Division Four.”Perhaps the most surprising omission from the final 14-man squad is Ravi Timbawala, who was the second-highest scorer at the team’s seven-day camp in Florida behind only Babar. Timbawala, 27, was also the only specialist batsman in the 22-man squad who plays his home club matches at Woodley Park, the suburban Los Angeles venue hosting both the Auty Cup and Division Four.Seven Woodley Park local league players were in USA’s initial 30-man squad, but only two – Timil Patel and Elmore Hutchinson – made the final 14. Left-arm seamer Hutchinson and legspinner Patel currently sit atop the wicket-takers list in Division One of the 2016 Southern California Cricket Association 45-over league.USA will be competing in Division Four with Bermuda, Denmark, Italy, Jersey and Oman. The top two teams in the single round-robin tournament will be promoted to WCL Division Three, due to be held in the first half of 2017. No captain was named to replace Ghous for USA, with a decision to be taken at a later date.

Sri Lanka’s regeneration has begun quicker than he had expected, coach Graham Ford said, in light of several encouraging individual performances. Ford had taken up the role at a particularly low ebb for a rebuilding Sri Lanka team, and has since overseen a poor World T20 campaign, and a woeful tour of England.However, having now defeated the top-ranked Test team at home, Sri Lanka believe they have unearthed talented prospects. With Kusal Mendis and left-arm wristspinner Lakshan Sandakan having impressed earlier in the tour, middle-order batsman Dhananjaya de Silva has also made a mark in Test cricket, with a stylish maiden hundred on Saturday. All three players are 25 years old or younger.”In one of the first press conferences that I had when I took over again, I said that you just can’t put a time frame on how long the rebuilding process will take,” Ford said. “But the way some of the young guys are starting to put in high-quality performances – I wasn’t expecting that to happen as quickly as it has, against such high quality opposition.”One of the beauties of selecting young guys is that even if they fail, you’ll get some return. If you make the investment you will get something back down the line. Older guys, who are perhaps past their best – when they fail, you’re not going to get much back. I think that’s been a view of the selection panel as well. It’s been exciting to see and I’m a little bit surprised to see them doing as well as quick they have. But we’ve still got a long, long way to go. They will still disappoint us from time to time. But with the attitude that they’ve got and the work ethic, we’ve seen some exciting signs for the future.”Ford was also impressed with the responsibility assumed by Dinesh Chandimal in the first innings of the current Test. He had arrived with the score on 24 for 4, and quickly saw it slip to 26 for 5, before forging a 211-run stand with de Silva. Chandimal’s innings was notable for its length. Often an attacking batsman, he faced 356 balls for his 132, stitching important stands with Dilruwan Perera and Rangana Herath after de Silva had been dismissed.”Chandi’s probably enjoyed the other fine innings that he’s played, but this was probably the most valuable innings he’s played,” Ford said. “I know he played a blinder against India sometime back, but this one for temperament and fight in difficult conditions goes down as his best hundred.”Chandi’s certainly showed a lot of maturity and he helped Dhananjaya through that big innings of his. Batting in those circumstances is not fun at all. I think Chandi took on the hard work, which shows great maturity. It’s something that the team are talking a lot about – about doing the hard work for the rest of the team, doing the hard work for their mates. Chandi showed a real example of that, digging in and fighting really hard.”Sri Lanka have experimented with their batting order over the past three months, first batting Chandimal at No. 4, before moving Mendis there. Kusal Perera has also had a promotion to No. 3, and Ford said the changes may not end there. De Silva has been talked about as an opener, since he has fulfilled that role for his first-class club successfully.”I think the batting order is still a work in progress. Some of these young guys that are batting in the lower order are top-order players. They may in time be moved up the order. That’s something that we’ll have to think long and hard about.”

Of all the revealing moments in Joe Root’s innings, it was perhaps the irritated swish of the bat upon his dismissal that was most revealing.We have become accustomed to Root displaying frustration in such circumstances. He came into this game having converted just one of his previous eight scores of 50 into a century at Test level, after all, and having suffered what he described as “two poor dismissals” at Lord’s.But this time he had scored 254. He had batted for more than 10 hours. He had registered the 15th highest score in England’s Test history and the third highest by an England No. 3. He had shown he had learned all the lessons from Lord’s – his first Test in his new role of No. 3 – and batted his side to a dominant position. You would think he might feel quite pleased with himself.But instead he was frustrated. Frustrated at the manner of his dismissal and frustrated to tear himself away from the fun.Such an insatiable desire for runs bodes well for Root and England. It suggests that, after a phase of his career where he has been content to produce attractive cameos and fluent half-centuries, he is developing the hardness to complement his talent. The discipline to maximise it and make it count. The hunger that has been a characteristic of the most successful – not necessarily the most talented – batsmen in Test history.Root knows that scores of 70 rarely win Tests. They might on occasions but, generally, on surfaces such as this, they are insufficient.He knows, too, that this team need more from him. They are a bit too flaky, a bit too fragile for him flirt and flicker. He is required to provide substantial contributions.So, after the setback at Lord’s, he returned to the nets and worked on minimising risk. He reminded himself to play straighter, leave more outside off stump and make a point of rolling his wrists on any pulls or slog-sweeps to ensure the ball was played into the ground. If that meant some strokes brought singles rather than boundaries, that was fine.”I wanted to nullify those Lord’s dismissals from my game,” Root said. “That’s why I was so revved up when I reached 200. It seemed like reward for all the hard work. It was pleasing to make one count.”Some context is required for this innings. It has come on another disappointingly slow pitch, for sure. But it has also come against a fine attack with Mohammad Amir bowling far better than his figures suggest and a legspinner who is both No. 1 in the Test bowling rankings and who claimed 10-wickets against England in the previous Test on a pitch that offered him little better. Let’s not always find reasons to diminish excellence. Brian Lara’s two highest scores were made on flat tracks; Matthew Hayden’s 380 against a modest attack. This was a fine innings from a special young player. Don’t be fooled by how easy he made it look.Joe Root takes in the standing ovation for his innings•Getty Images

It was arguably England’s best innings from a No. 3 batsman for almost six years. Perhaps since Jonathan Trott’s 168 not out against Australia in Melbourne in late 2010 or maybe his 184 in the famously overshadowed Test against an excellent Pakistan attack at Lord’s earlier the same year. By comparison, Nick Compton contributed 296 runs in the seven Tests (13 innings) he played in his second spell in the side as England’s No. 3.The key difference between this England innings and the two at Lord’s was not the bowling or the pitch. Neither are as different as the scorecards might suggest. The key difference was the English batting.While at Lord’s England were impatient and ill-disciplined, here they – or at least Root and Alastair Cook – played straighter and left better outside off stump. That drew the sting out of the Pakistan bowlers and exploited the dangers of playing a four-man attack in back-to-back Tests. Root, in particular, did his demanding batting on the first day and reaped the rewards on the second.He has so many strokes – Grant Flower, the Pakistan batting coach, described him as “brilliant” after play – that he will rarely be bogged down. And, if there were times he seemed to settle for accumulation rather than savagery, that should probably be interpreted as maturity. Sachin and Bradman didn’t always thrash boundaries; they appreciated the value of low risk, long-term batting. Just about all the greats have.”He made it look simple, left a lot and played the patience game,” Flower said. “And he has great shots to go with that.”Odd though it sounds, Root’s problem in recent months may have been that his form was almost too good. With so much time and so many strokes, his issues have come more with choosing his options rather than being dismissed by deliveries too good for him. In this innings at least – and as he pointed out, he is only three innings into his new role so it is too early to make conclusions – he restricted himself to safer strokes and high-percentage options. James Vince could learn much from watching Root’s development.The identities of those involved the last time two of England’s top three made centuries in a Test innings is revealing. They were Nick Compton and Trott (and New Zealand were the opposition in early 2013); two men who focused on crease occupation first and fluency second. For the first time in some months, England’s top-order took a similar approach in this innings with Root showing that he was quickly adapting to the differing demands of batting at No. 3.Trott always had some reservations about batting at No. 3. He felt that No. 4 was his natural position – he continues to bat there for Warwickshire – and felt that coming in a place higher up the order made far more difference that is generally appreciated. It forced him, he believed, to leave more balls and bat with a more defensive mindset. Having done it for a while, he was no longer able to rediscover the fluency.Maybe it was the same with Root here? Having made an effort to tighten up on day one – to leave more balls and play straighter – he struggled to find another gear when the time came to accelerate. He wasn’t bogged down, exactly, but he could not match the fluency of Chris Woakes in the morning or Jonny Bairstow in the afternoon.But if the new Root is a slightly less flamboyant spectacle, it will be a price worth paying for England. For too long – since Trott’s decline and barring Gary Ballance’s bright start – England have been reliant upon their long middle-order to help them to reasonable totals.Root’s promotion promises to stop the rot before it starts and provide the middle order with the protection it requires to flourish. And this innings, coming after one Test where he struggled to adapt to the different demands of the No. 3 position, suggests he is learning fast. It’s still premature to call him a great batsman, but he may be the closest thing to an English-born one since Graham Gooch and David Gower. And, by the end of his career, we may well have to go much further back than that to find his equal.

ScorecardRiki Wessels ensured Nottinghamshire raced to victory•Getty Images

A brutal innings from Riki Wessels helped Nottinghamshire to their second NatWest T20 Blast victory of the weekend with a one-sided nine-wicket victory over Worcestershire at Trent Bridge.Having toppled Northants on Friday evening, the Outlaws were equally ruthless in dismantling the Rapids to move into second place in the North Group table.Set to score 125 to win, Notts reached their target in only 12.2 overs with Wessels blazing an unbeaten 80, scoring his runs from only 35 balls, He hit six fours and seven sixes in one of the most brutal assaults witnessed on the ground for some time.Worcestershire limped their way to a score of 124 for 8, after morning rain had delayed the start by 15 minutes.Ben Cox made an unbeaten 37 and Tom Kohler-Cadmore scored 22 from 28 balls but far too many of their team-mates were guilty of gifting their wickets away.Put in, after Dan Christian had won his eighth toss out of 10 for the Outlaws this season, the Rapids lost their way as early as the third over when Joe Leach fell for 18.Leach had shown signs of intent by hoisting Harry Gurney for the only six of the innings but then perished to a catch at long-on from Jake Ball’s bowling.Christian took pace off the ball as soon as the Powerplay overs had been completed and was rewarded as Imran Tahir, Steven Mullaney, who took two for 26, and Samit Patel dried up the runs and picked up crucial wickets in the middle overs.Tahir was the only bowler not to take a wicket but was nevertheless instrumental in throwing down the stumps to run out Brett D’Oliveira off his own bowling and then gathered a Ball return to dismiss Daryl Mitchell in the same way.The chase soon became a formality, even though Michael Lumb fell to Matt Henry in the fourth over.By then Wessels had already hit his straps, hitting Leach for 4646 at the end of the second over. The 30-year old continued in the same aggressive manner and brought up his fifty with his sixth maximum, from just 17 balls, the quickest in the competition this year.Greg Smith provided additional firepower from the other end, hitting Matt Henry over the ropes on his way to an unbeaten 32 from 27 balls.

ScorecardBen Slater struck his first limited-overs hundred [file picture]•Getty Images

Ryan Pringle’s brilliant maiden century for Durham was in vain as Ben Slater’s first limited-overs hundred powered Derbyshire to a seven wicket Royal London One-Day Cup victory at Derby.Pringle’s superb 125 from 101 balls was the highest score by a Durham No. 8 in List A matches and saved his side from humiliation after they had collapsed to 75 for 7.Usman Arshad helped Pringle add 62, a Durham eighth wicket record in List A cricket, as the visitors recovered to 216 with Shiv Thakor and Andy Carter both taking three wickets for the Falcons. “Still 100 runs short,” Pringle later estimated.But Pringle’s heroics were countered by Slater who marked his first 50 overs game for Derbyshire with119 from 137 balls as the Falcons eased home with 8.2 overs to spare.Durham had started strongly with Mark Stoneman taking four fours from Carter’s second over but the innings disintegrated in the face of some disciplined bowling on a two-paced pitch.Phil Mustard was bowled playing no shot at Ben Cotton whose opening seven over spell cost only 10 runs and exerted pressure which forced some poor shot selection.Carter had the last word when Stoneman sliced to backward point and Graham Clark miscued a pull to midwicket as Durham limped to 38 for 3 from the opening powerplay.The slide continued when Scott Borthwick was superbly caught by Neil Broom at second slip as he tried to run Thakor to third man and Paul Collingwood played across the line in the next over.Calum MacLeod chopped Thakor into his stumps and Keaton Jennings reverse swept Matt Critchley to gully to leave Durham in disarray after 25 overs but Pringle and Arshad began a fightback that started slowly and then moved into overdrive as Pringle launched a thrilling assault.After Pringle completed his maiden List A 50 from 59 balls, Arshad was lbw to Thakor but Pringle was now playing some inspired cricket and tore into the bowling with a salvo of powerful strokes.Cotton was driven for four and lifted over long on for six before Carter was dispatched over the long off boundary in the next over.Pringle drove Critchley down the ground for another four and two balls later, lifted the leg-spinner high over long on to reach an outstanding hundred which had transformed the contest.He pulled Alex Hughes for his fourth six before he drove over a full length ball from Carter but his stand of 62 from 37 balls with Chris Rushworth had set a Durham 10th wicket record against Derbyshire and given his team a chance.But any momentum Pringle had established was quickly removed as Godleman and Slater took 62 from 10 overs and the opening pair continued to cruise with Godleman hoisting Borthwick over long on for six.Although Godleman edged a drive at Arshad who also pulled off a stunning catch at mid on to remove Hamish Rutherford, Slater accelerated towards his century with two fours and a six from a Borthwick over before holing out two balls short of Derbyshire’s second win in the North Group.Slater said: “Probably over the last year or so I’ve not kicked on when I should have done so it’s been a long time since I last got a hundred for Derbyshire in the first team so it’s good to get over the line again, a weight off my shoulders really.”

Virat Kohli, in irresistible form in Twenty20 cricket and the captain of the Indian Test team, has found himself in the top ten of the global sports fame list put together by ESPN.Kohli was at No. 8 in the ESPN World Fame 100 rankings, which is otherwise dominated by basketball and football players. However, cricket and India had a second entry in the top 20, with MS Dhoni, India’s ODI and T20 captain, at number 13. (Read the full list on ESPN.in, ESPN’s new multi-sport destination for Indian sports.)Tennis player Sania Mirza was the third Indian on the list, at number 41.The rankings for current sportspersons were based on a formula devised by Ben Alamar, ESPN’s director of sports analytics; it combined salary and endorsements with social media following and Google search popularity.The list was led by Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s top-earning footballer. Only LeBron James, the American basketball star, separated Ronaldo from fellow footballers Lionel Messi and Neymar, who both play for FC Barcelona, La Liga rivals of Ronaldo’s Real Madrid.  Tennis legend Roger Federer completed the top five.

As fans clad in red and blue danced in the Sharjah aisles, the result was a foregone conclusion: Zishan Morata was the last man out, caught in the deep by Karan KC, and West Indies had been bundled out for 83. Three days ago, Nepal had never played a T20I series against a Full Member nation. Now, they had sealed it 2-0, with one match to spare.West Indies struggled to move beyond single-digits in the powerplay. Only thanks to a boundary in the sixth over did they reach 16 for 2. By then, Dipendra Singh Airee had scalped the first wicket when he bowled Jewel Andrew (2), while Kushal Bhurtel had taken a stunning catch at cover to send back Keacy Carty (1).Nepal’s vice grip over the scoring rate was the result of their slower balls and full deliveries in the blockhole, with their quicks often marrying the two to great effect. An inexperienced West Indies unit kept mistiming their shots on a pitch where none of their batters, barring Jason Holder’s 15-ball 21, played with any degree of comfort. Eight-three all out represents the former T20 World Champions’ sixth-lowest total. The 90-run defeat is their joint fourth-biggest by runs.Medium pacer Mohammad Aadil Alam – who ended with figures of 4 for 24 – was the next bowler to get on the scorecard, thanks to the biggest point of difference between the two sides: Nepal’s fielding. Nineteen-year-old Gulsan Jha’s diving catch at sweeper cover in the eighth over bettered their previous effort, and sent Kyle Mayers back after a sluggish 6 off 16 balls.The going never got better for West Indies, as they kept losing wickets in the middle overs and found gaps in the field plugged by a Nepal team who threw themselves at the ball. Alam sent back Ackeem Auguste (17) and Amir Jangoo (16) in back-to-back overs. By then, West Indies had slipped to 63 for 5 and the required rate had leaped to above 13.Kushal Bhurtel took three wickets to mop off the West Indies tail•ICC/Getty Images

Bhurtel added to his contributions in the field with a three-for that swept up the tail. Holder – the last nominal hope for West Indies – fell to Lalit Rajbanshi in the 17th over, when Jha took his second screamer of the day. Soon after, Bhurtel came back to toss up a legbreak and fount it caught on the outfield once again. This was a day when West Indies kept finding fielders at the rope instead of clearing them.Earlier in the day, Nepal’s own innings had been one of two distinct halves: in the first ten, they did not hit a single six, but opener Aasif Sheikh had established a burgeoning partnership with Sundeep Jora, and a productive powerplay had taken them to 74 for 3 at the midway point of the innings.In the next ten, the pair raced away and put on what would end up being a 100-run partnership. Jora’s 39-ball 63 eventually ended in the 18th over. He had hit five of the nine sixes Nepal hit in the second half of the innings.Sheikh remained unbeaten on 68 off 47 himself. At the other end, Alam’s 5-ball 11 took Nepal’s total to 173. Alam was playing his first match for Nepal after more than three years, having last appeared for them in August 2022. His cameo would become a footnote to his starring role in the second innings.It would also overshadow the efforts of West Indies’ best bowler on the day – their captain Akeal Hosein – who took 2 for 21 and had reduced Nepal to 14 for 2 in the fourth over. However, any hopes of a rally after their loss in the first T20I were soon left far behind, as his team slipped to 83 all out – the lowest total by a Full Member team against an Associate nation – as well as a 90-run loss – the biggest margin by which an Associate team has defeated a Full Member nation.What makes this result more significant is that Nepal have secured it ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup qualifiers next month, and in the absence of their lead spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, who has sat out both matches of the series. Nepal coach, Stuart Law, said Lamichhane excused himself citing personal reasons.Nepal now know they will be favourites to win the third and final match of the series, to be played on Tuesday, having sealed the most significant series win in their cricket history.