Favourites booked automatic place in final at Kia Oval, after one loss in group stages

Valkerie Baynes26-Jul-2025With a home T20 World Cup just a year away, the inaugural Vitality Blast Women’s Finals Day offers an enticing stage for international and domestic aspirants alike.Surrey are the favourites on their home ground, especially as they are direct entrants to Sunday’s final, having lost just once all season (alongside a rain-affected tie with Essex). The team that beat them, however, are The Blaze, who take on the Bears in the semi-final.Bryony Smith, Surrey’s captain, is looking for a big score this season, having played 13 games for 225 runs at 17.30 with a strike rate of 125.00 and highest score of 44. But she knows she has it in her after a 33-ball 62 in a winning England Development XI against India, which acted as a warm-up to the international tour, which concluded on Tuesday.And while it won’t be at the forefront of her mind this weekend, Smith has set her sights on next year’s T20 World Cup as an opportunity to break into the senior England side. She played one ODI against West Indies way back in 2019 and 10 T20Is sporadically between 2018 and the tour of Ireland last September.Related

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“I feel like I’ve not had a real go at it yet,” Smith said. “I’ve been in and out of squads over the years, had that Ireland tour, but only ended up playing two games. So I see myself looking forward to the T20 World Cup next summer and that’s something I’m going to aim for.”I’m getting on with things here at Surrey and if England come calling that would be great but if not, we’ve got a good enough set-up here to play loads of games, so I’m happy doing that.”Danni Wyatt-Hodge, recruited by Surrey this season from the now-defunct Southern Vipers, is the third-highest run-scorer in the competition with 372 at 62.00 and a strike rate of 158.29. She racked up five half-centuries from eight games, played around her duties with England’s T20I side, with a best of 74 not out.Wyatt-Hodge was left out of England’s ODI squad this summer with a World Cup looming in October, and it won’t only be national head coach Charlotte Edwards who might be keeping an eye on Surrey’s gun fielder with a view to strengthening that department.”We’ve seen what Danni Wyatt-Hodge has done for us throughout the comp,” Smith said. “She played the first eight games for us and was leading run-scorer and to have her in your team is massive, not just with the bat but with the field as well.”She’s new to us this year but she’s fitted in so well and she loves batting here at The Oval, so we’re excited to see what happens.”Sarah Bryce and Kathryn Bryce were instrumental in the Blaze’s victory in last year’s Charlotte Edwards Cup, the previous T20 women’s competition•Getty ImagesThe hosts qualified for Finals Day when they defended 132 for 9 to beat The Blaze on July 11, Ryana MacDonald-Gay and Kalea Moore taking two wickets each to restrict The Blaze to 122 for 5 despite an unbeaten fifty from Kathryn Bryce.And while the win was arguably more gritty than pretty, Surrey got the job done and Smith believes her side’s all-round strength and depth has been their best asset.”We’ve had to use a lot of players so far this comp with England duties and England A girls away as well, so it’s been a real squad effort,” Smith said. “We’ve got top-class players throughout the order and we have that real trust in each other to go out and play your own game, no matter what the situation.”Some of the scores we’ve produced, we back ourselves to chase anything, and then we’ve got the bowlers and the fielders to back that up as well. We’ve been able to protect low scores.”You see that Blaze game… our fielders pretty much won us that game. We’ve got an all-round package and that closeness within the group is something that we really rely on.”The Blaze and Bears have won eight games each this season but the Bears have five losses against them compared to The Blaze’s two. The sides tied in the opening match of the season while the Bears won by 25 runs in the return fixture.The Bears boast the competition’s second-highest run-scorer, Davina Perrin, and the second-leading wicket-taker in left-arm wrist-spinner Millie Taylor with 19 at 16.10 and an economy rate of 7.46 with best figures of 3 for 13. Bryce is third on the wicket-taker’s list with 17 at 14.82 and 6.66 with a best of 4 for 13.Surrey defeated Warwickshire in a dead rubber in their final match of the regular season with Kira Chathli striking a timely half-century during a second-wicket stand of 93 with big-hitting Australian Grace Harris.That was before Harris’s sister, Laura, responded with a 42 off just 14 balls, although Surrey’s bowlers swung the match back in their favour to claim the upper hand ahead of the season’s showcase.

Sai Sudharsan’s remarkable season, and one to forget for Rashid Khan also feature

Sampath Bandarupalli30-May-20251:29

Two lives for Rohit ‘unlocked the freedom’

228 for 5 – Mumbai Indians’ (MI) total on Friday is the second-highest in the IPL playoffs (or knockouts), behind only the 233 for 3 posted by Gujarat Titans (GT) against MI in 2023.4 – Totals in the IPL for MI higher than their 228 in the Eliminator. Three of those four totals came in the 2024 season. MI’s 228 is also their third-highest while batting first in the IPL.7038 – Runs scored by Rohit Sharma in the IPL. He is the second batter to complete 7000 IPL runs, after Virat Kohli, who leads with 8618 runs.Related

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302 – Sixes hit by Rohit in the IPL. He is only the second batter to hit 300-plus sixes in the league, after Chris Gayle (357). Two-fifty-one of those sixes by Rohit have been for MI, while the remaining 51 were for Deccan Chargers. Only Kohli (291 for RCB) has more sixes for one team in the IPL.759 – Runs scored by B Sai Sudharsan in IPL 2025, the fifth-highest by a batter in an edition of the IPL. Only Shubman Gill (890 in 2023) has scored more runs for GT in an IPL season than Sai Sudharsan.11.45 – Run rate of the opening partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Rohit, who added 84 in 7.2 overs. It is the second-fastest in terms of run rate for a 50-plus opening stand in the IPL playoffs (or knockouts), behind 11.80 by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler’s 61 off 5.1 overs against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in 2022.Rohit Sharma and Jonny Bairstow gave MI the perfect start•BCCI18-0 – MI continue their winning streak of defending targets of 200 or more in the IPL. In all T20s, they have a 19-0 record while defending 200-plus targets, which is also a record.436 – Runs scored by GT and MI on Friday in New Chandigarh. It is the highest aggregate for an IPL match in the playoffs (or knockouts), surpassing the 428 by Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2014.33 – Sixes Rashid Khan conceded in IPL 2025, the most by any bowler in one edition of the IPL, going past the 31 conceded by Mohammed Siraj in 2022. The 33 sixes conceded by Rashid are also the joint-highest by a bowler in a men’s T20 tournament, alongside Dwayne Bravo in CPL 2018 (where ball-by-ball data is available).

The crew gets together to answer questions like why is Shami not being picked, is he better than any current fast bowler in the side, how can he make a comeback, and more

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Nov-2025Why has Mohammed Shami – one of India’s top fast bowlers – been sidelined? Join Dustin Silgardo, Sidharth Monga, and Karthik Krishnaswamy as they dive deep into Shami’s legendary career, the chatter around his selection, and what makes him unique in Indian cricket. Hear untold stories from his journey, data-driven analysis, and the inside track on Indian fast bowling with banter and perspective.

The fast bowler conceded his first return from injury was rushed and he has sought outside advice to help his latest comeback

Alex Malcolm02-Oct-2025As Australia allrounder Cameron Green takes his first tentative steps back to competitive bowling this week in the opening Sheffield Shield round ahead of the Ashes, a word of warning has been sounded from across the Tasman.When Green, and team-mate Lance Morris more recently, were discussing the possibility of back surgery with the medical staff at Cricket Australia, the staggering success rate of New Zealand-based surgeons Grahame Inglis and Rowan Schouten was a huge part of why both went down the path of having screws and titanium wire reinforced into their spine.But at the time of Green’s surgery a year ago, one of the very rare examples of a player suffering a setback out of 20-plus success stories globally was another two-metre quick in Kyle Jamieson.Related

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His fracture had reopened at one of the screws in February 2024. “They hadn’t really seen that before or at all, so they were pretty stumped,” Jamieson told ESPNcricinfo.Jamieson, 30, has fought his way back again without going back under the knife and is playing against Australia in Mount Maunganui this week in a T20I series that Green has been rested from to prioritise his bowling return in red-ball cricket.But it’s been a long process to get back to this point after having surgery in February 2023. “What I’ve learned is that just because you get a couple of screws and some wire and stuff in your back doesn’t make you bulletproof,” Jamieson said.”You’ve still got to respect the loading process. You’ve got to work through what the actual issues were and still address them. For me, it was none of that. It was just [a case of] have the surgery, sit and wait and then just go and never really adjust the stuff that was putting you at risk. Then you sort of start chucking loading and red-ball cricket and all these different dynamics into the mix, and it just ended up not being able to hold.”So whilst it gives you a better chance, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee you. So that would be probably be my advice, make sure you sort of dive deep and work out what are the things that are causing it, and what are the things you need to fix. If surgery helps with that process, then great, but it doesn’t give you the right to neglect the stuff that’s causing the issue in the first place.”Cameron Green is set to return to competitive bowling this weekend•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesJamieson’s second journey back has been slow and deliberate. He is still yet to play any red-ball cricket, having rushed back into international cricket only seven months post-surgery in August 2023 and into first-class and Test cricket only two months later. Following the recurrence in February 2024, he did a 10-month rehabilitation before playing again. Green, in comparison, will have gone more than 12 months without bowling a competitive delivery.”We just stripped back my whole body, the way I moved, and really took a deep dive into what are the things that were actually causing it and actually found a whole lot of stuff,” Jamieson said. “Obviously I had the surgery and had some time off, but never really addressed any of the issues around the way my body was sort of stacked up, how I was using it, how I actually activate the right things.”And then mechanically as well, just a couple of shifts to make sure I can actually make the most of my body and use it in the right way, rather than finding ways to compensate to execute the skills that you need.”I kind of got into a really bad pattern of finding a way to try and be effective. But that kind of led to my body not being able to hold up as well. So [it was] a long process, but I’m in a pretty good spot now.”

There was a point last year when the injury happened that I wasn’t playing cricket again. So to be able to, not just get back to playing, but also playing the highest form of the game would be just an achievement in itselfKyle Jamieson on his difficult time

The search for answers also took him away from New Zealand Cricket for advice. He found Auckland-based couple Chelsea Lane and Matt Dallow. Lane, an Australian, was the head performance therapist for the Golden State Warriors during their NBA Championship winning seasons of 2015 and 2017, working with some of highest profile athletes on the planet including Stephen Curry. Dallow, Lane’s husband, competed for New Zealand in two winter Olympics in the bobsled before transitioning into being a performance coach in track and field.”They’ve done a huge amount of work in rebuilding athletes and biomechanics and just how to stack up your body properly,” Jamieson said. “They advise on everything, right from how my body’s moving, what my gym program looks like, what the [bowling] load numbers look like.”I have reflection and review processes with them after pretty much every day that I bowl, my sort of weekly, monthly calendar is mapped out with them, my total load tracking is done through them. So I’m pretty much fully through them at the moment, and then apply it into the different cricket environments that I end up in.”It has worked so far. Jamieson got through the Super Smash and a domestic 50-over return last summer before four Champions Trophy matches and two T20Is in Pakistan. He also played two PSL matches and four IPL matches without any issue.Kyle Jamieson is still some way off a potential return to red-ball cricket•AFP/Getty ImagesThe beginning of the home white-ball summer against Australia and England are the next challenges to tick off but a red-ball return is still some time away.”I’m building up my loads towards red-ball cricket,” Jamieson said. “But we’re in a daily discussion around how are you pulling up, where are you at. With my history and where I’m at on the comeback trail, we probably just want to be a bit more respectful of that, and always analysing where I’m at.”A rare winter at home while fully fit, due to the birth of his first child Archie, has put him in a different head space about what his future may look like.”I’ve sort of been wrestling with that little bit of late over this winter now that I’ve moved from a returning athlete to now just a performing one,” Jamieson said. “And probably in the past I have looked far ahead with long-term goals but it’s something now that I feel like is quite hard for me to do.”If I get too far ahead of myself, I probably neglect the things that I need to do that make sure that tomorrow I’m safe and able to do my job. So at the moment, I’m very much only looking to the rest of this year with a little bit of an eye on that T20 World Cup.”Red-ball cricket would be nice. There was a point last year when the injury happened that I wasn’t playing cricket again. So to be able to, not just get back to playing, but also playing the highest form of the game would be just an achievement in itself. But I just want to play cricket really. That’s probably the biggest part. I’m not really too fazed on where it is or what form it is. I just want to be playing cricket and doing what I love.”

More grass on the surfaces, and changes to the Kookaburra ball, have made Test batting in the country difficult over the past half-decade

Andrew McGlashan14-Nov-20251:45

Will Australian pitches affect England’s Ashes chances?

One of the many areas of interest leading into the Ashes is what type of pitches the series will be played on. Questions abound about whether it’s better to take on England on flatter surfaces or on more lively pitches that may narrow any gap between the two attacks but also make it harder for the Bazball batters to flourish. Steven Smith recently endorsed the latter approach.There is no doubt that batting has become tougher in Australia in recent years. Anyone with a top-order spot is usually happy to mention that, and the numbers back it up. In some cases, especially at the MCG, more grass is being left on the pitches – the 2017-18 Ashes Test, which included Alastair Cook’s double-century, finally persuaded those in charge that change was needed. The tweaks to the Kookaburra ball around 2021 have also had a significant impact.The way England’s ODI top order – consisting of at least four Test players – floundered against the moving ball in New Zealand won’t have gone unnoticed, either.Related

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“England play pretty well on the flatter wickets, the way they play,” Smith said last month. “So, if there’s a bit in it like there has been the last three or four years, with our bowling attack, it certainly makes things a lot more difficult for their batters.”

The ten-year trend

In the last five seasons, since 2020-21, when Australia faced India in the Covid summer, the collective Test batting average in the country has been 26.75. Globally for the same period – excluding the handful of Tests staged in the UAE and Ireland – that places Australia seventh between Bangladesh and India.Although conditions had already started to change, in the five summers previous, the average was 34.46, which, for countries that had hosted at least ten Tests, gave Australia the highest collective average. Last summer’s series against India had a collective average of 24.43, which was the lowest for an Australian home season since 1978-79.

Here’s what Mominul, Whatmore and others had to say ahead of Mushfiqur’s milestone Test

Mohammad Isam18-Nov-2025Tamim Iqbal”It is a humongous achievement for Mushfiq. He is someone who genuinely deserves to play 100 Tests for Bangladesh. Many international cricketers who debuted after him, have already retired playing more than hundred Tests. There was a time when Bangladesh played only a few Tests in more than two years.”It wouldn’t be possible to play so many Tests without having a long career. At the same time, discipline, hard work and vision were also necessary. This achievement should be celebrated by every cricket lover of this country. Mushfiq should be praised and celebrated throughout this Test match. He should be free of judgment from this match, whether he scores 20 or 200.Related

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“I have played with him for 17-18 years. I have seen him get big runs, but I have never seen him get tired after a long innings. I have seen other cricketers get tired after scoring big hundreds, but never Mushfiq. The way he prepares himself, and his hunger. It is built in him or he has worked to build it within him. I think he will have his hunger even in the last game in his career.”Mominul Haque”I still can’t believe that someone from the Bangladesh team has played for 20 years, and is about to complete 100 Tests. I am so pleased to share the dressing room with such a legend for so many years.”I sometimes think that he leads a very boring life. How can a person be so disciplined and dedicated to cricket? We could never be like him. He is very quiet off the field. He is disciplined about his food, sleep, etc. I don’t think we will ever get someone so dedicated and disciplined to his craft.Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque have played 65 Tests together•BCB”He does so many small things so well. I think he is a proactive individual. He is very organised. He does specific training. Mushfiq knows exactly what he wants to do. Like after this Test series, I am sure he will start working on the Pakistan bowling attack. Even though it is three months away. I think top players plan well ahead. He has tremendous attention to details.”Dav Whatmore”Mushfiq is someone who knew exactly what he wanted to achieve and was self-motivated and disciplined to achieve. I am very happy to see him stand the test of time, of his ups and downs as well as recovering from injuries. Since I left in 2007, I did follow Mushy’s career periodically. Along with Shakib [Al Hasan] and later Tamim [Iqbal], he began to make his country proud and did so well on the 50-over game as well. His slog-sweep is legendary!”Chandika Hathurusinghe”As Mushfiqur Rahim walks out to play his 100th Test match, Bangladesh cricket celebrates not just a milestone, but a man whose impact on our game goes far beyond statistics. I have had the privilege of coaching Mushfiq in two different periods of Bangladesh cricket–first from 2014 to 2017, and again from 2023 to 2024–and what remains constant is his unwavering professionalism, commitment, and leadership.”Mushfiqur is one of the most meticulous cricketers I have ever worked with. His preparation is world-class–intentional, disciplined, and consistent every single day. Whether we were playing at home in Mirpur or away in foreign conditions, Mushfiq never allowed standards to drop. He arrives early, studies conditions, and makes sure every session has purpose. For younger players, simply observing him is an education in what it means to be a true professional.Hathurusinghe: Bangladesh cricket is richer because of Mushfiqur•Associated Press”Beyond his technical skill and mental resilience, what stands out most is his character. Mushfiq is one of the most trustworthy and genuine leaders I’ve had in any team I have coached around the world. He sets the cultural tone. He leads through action, not words. When he speaks, players listen – not because of seniority, but because they know his intentions are always for the team.”Reaching 100 Test matches is a monumental achievement for any cricketer, but for someone who has represented Bangladesh with such pride and humility, it feels particularly special. Mushfiqur Rahim has carried the hopes of a nation with grace, discipline, and unwavering dedication. His journey is not just a testament to talent – it is a story of relentless hard work and a deep love for the game.”As he takes this historic step in his career, I congratulate him not only as his former coach, but also as someone who has immense respect for the professional and the person he is. Bangladesh cricket is richer because of him, and his legacy will inspire generations to come. Congratulations, Mushfiq. You deserve every bit of this moment.”Habibul Bashar”He is a true legend of the game. I am really, really proud of Mushfiqur Rahim. He did a fantastic job. It is a huge deal. You have to perform to play a hundred Tests. To go through the grind for so long. You reach a point when your heart doesn’t want, your body doesn’t want to continue. You reach a point when you tell yourself. ‘I have had enough’. I don’t think the phrase ‘I have had enough’ exists in Mushfiqur Rahim. He is Mr Cricket, our Mike Hussey.”We also have to bear in mind that Bangladesh doesn’t play a lot of Tests, like England, India or Australia. I think holding onto the dedication and interest is a huge achievement in itself. I think his passion makes it special, and makes him stand apart from the rest of the players. I wish he continues for longer.”