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Time in the middle for South Africa’s bowlers was the most important takeaway from their tied warm-up match against West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI on Sunday, according to Hashim Amla. The match was affected by rain, with only 24.1 overs possible in the second innings, but it gave South Africa’s attack enough time to find rhythm.”It was a really good sign that our bowlers got some time in the middle before it started raining. It was turning out to be a good game,” Amla said. “They bowled well. It started raining and the ball got really wet, but even then they bowled decently. Getting overs under the belt is the most important thing.”The match was set up for a tense finish after President’s XI had reached 127 for 3, chasing 281, and all of South Africa’s bowlers used in the fixture got in more than one over. Morne Morkel and Tabraiz Shamsi were the only two bowlers in the squad who did not get a bowl.Despite not having played competitive cricket in nine weeks after the World T20, Kagiso Rabada did not show any signs of rust and took 1 for 13 in five overs. Wayne Parnell was the only player coming off a long lay-off. Parnell had last played in the first week of April, for Cobras in the Sunfoil Series, and took a five-wicket haul in the first innings against Titans. But he struggled to replicate that form and conceded 35 runs in four overs. Kyle Abbott (1 for 11) and Chris Morris (0 for 18) have some form behind them, both having been part of the IPL, while the spinners were just getting started when the rain came down.Imran Tahir (1 for 15) and Aaron Phangiso (0 for 8) both seemed to settle in easily. They will be crucial to South Africa’s success in the triangular series where conditions are expected to favour the slower bowlers. There is a strong possibility of sides fielding more than one specialist spinner, especially at Providence, the venue for the first three matches. “The wickets in West Indies can differ, but a lot of the guys are saying that Guyana may be a bit slower and lower. But you will only really know when you get there,” Amla said.Amla was the most successful batsman and scored an aggressive 92 for the South Africans, who were also propped up by contributions from the lower order. Morris, Abbott and Phangiso were among the runs, after Rilee Rossouw had been dismissed for a duck and JP Duminy fell for just 6. South Africa missed Faf du Plessis – out with a finger injury – Quinton de Kock – necessitating the use of an opposition wicketkeeper – and AB de Villiers, who will join the squad shortly, having just played in the IPL final.Out of the 15 members in the squad, de Villiers is one of 11 to have taken part in the IPL, which meant South Africa’s players were not going into the tri-series cold. In fact, Amla said their time at the tournament would be an advantage. “I don’t think (the difference between T20 and ODIs) is that big. The only thing is that you have a lot of time to set the game up,” he said. “You have to remind yourself that there is a lot of time still left in the game, but it’s a lot easier to go from T20s to one-dayers than from a Test match.”South Africa and West Indies play the series opener on Friday.

Middlesex 217 (Geddes 48, De Caires 43, Lintott 5-37) beat Warwickshire 189 (Shaikh 42, Hollman 4-27) by 28 runsMiddlesex’s completed back-to-back Metro Bank One-Day Cup victories on the road as they beat Warwickshire by 28 runs at Rugby School.The visitors chose to bat on a turning pitch and were bowled out for 217 as Jake Lintott equalled his career-best List A figures of 5 for 37. Captain Ben Geddes struck 48 off 57 balls but while four of Middlesex’s top six passed 30, none reached 50.Warwickshire replied with 189 all out as Luke Hollman added a List A best 4 for 27 to his valuable 33 with the bat. Hamza Shaikh top-scored with 42 off 72 but in a losing cause as the game yielded no individual half-century.Fresh from chasing down a record 387 at Durham two days earlier, Middlesex chose to bat first, forcing the home side to chase on a pitch likely to turn more the longer the match went. The early loss of Joe Cracknell, bowled by Olly Hannon-Dalby, brought in Sam Robson, hero of that record runfest with 169 not out, but this time Robson reached only 17 before a Hannon-Dalby in-ducker shattered his stumps.Joshua De Caires batted fluently for 43 (59) but then lifted Adam Sylvester to deep midwicket. Geddes and Jack Davies added 50 in 11 overs to take their side to 157 for 3 in the 33rd over but attacking the spinners was a risky business and the last seven wickets fell for 60 in 16 overs.Geddes and Davies were lbw to flighted balls from Lintott and Rob Yates respectively. Nathan Fernandes also perished lbw, providing Vansh Jani with his first wicket for Warwickshire.Hollman (33, 40) struck Tazeem Ali out of the ground but skied a reverse sweep at Lintott who then wrapped up the innings with a triple-wicket maiden. With the first two balls of an over he dismissed former Bear Henry Brookes (bowled) and Bear-to-be-next-season Nathan Gilchrist (lbw). Four balls later, James Feldman became the innings’ fifth lbw victim and Lintott had his second career List A five-for.Warwickshire’s reply reached 61 for the loss of only Ed Barnard, whose off stump was disturbed by Toby Roland Jones, but Hollman then struck in successive overs. Zen Malik was bowled and Alex Davies chipped a full toss to mid-off.Brookes struck a big blow against his former club, uprooting the anchor as Yates (38, 55) played on. Hollman collected his third wicket when Kai Smith hammered to backward point. As the spinners turned the screw, Shaikh charged and missed at Fernandes and Jani pulled and missed at De Caires and was lbw.Hollman extracted bounce to find Tazeem Ali’s edge through to wicketkeeper Cracknell and when Lintott lapped Gilchrist to Cracknell, Warwickshire’s last wickets had to find 30. They found just one before De Caires bowled Hannon-Dalby.

Kira Chathli’s belligerent first half-century in the 2025 Vitality Blast led table-toppers Surrey to a 25-run win over The Bears to strike a psychological blow ahead of final’s day.In what may prove a dress-rehearsal for the final itself in nine days’ time, the Surrey keeper thrashed 65 in 31 balls, including five sixes. She shared a second-wicket stand of 93 with Grace Harris (37 from 25) as the hosts piled up 204 for 5.Laura Harris replied with a blistering 42 from 14 balls and Amu Surenkumar, who took 3 for 33 with ball weighed in with 36, but Priyanaz Chatterji’s 3 for 23 and 3 for 38 for Kalea Moore meant The Bears came up short on 179 for 9.Bryony Smith began with a spate of early boundaries before losing her off-stump with Harris was the one to initially pick up the baton, three fours from one Issy Wong over taking Surrey to 59 by the end of the powerplay.It was Chathli though who cut loose. Having survived an lbw shout from Hannah Baker’s first ball, the wicketkeeper/batter belted a full toss for six. It was the catalyst to a cascade of shots that cleared the ropes, the pick of which were two fabulous lofted drives which crashed into the sightscreen.Chathli’s 50 came in 24 balls and there would be one more maximum before she holed out, ending a gem of a knock.Harris, starved of strike lost patience and was caught trying to clear the long boundary at mid-wicket and despite cameos from Alice Monaghan (24) and Paige Scholfield (15) Surrey needed successive boundaries by Moore to get beyond 200.Davina Perrin was given a life on one when Moore just failed to cling on to a catch in the deep diving forward, but she quickly atoned, safely pouching Meg Austin next ball to give Chatterji an early scalp.Perrin didn’t make the most of her reprieve, lifting one from Moore to the safe hands of Harris at deep mid-off and Chatterji struck again to remove the dangerous Sterre Kalis, caught by Chathli standing up to the stumps.The Bears’ woes worsened when Wong clubbed Monaghan’s first ball straight to Harris and the former Hampshire academy graduate should have had two when Laura Harris lofted one into the off-side but Alexa Stonehouse failed to cling on.Harris, sister of Grace, celebrated by clearing the long boundary as she took 18 from one Tilly Corteen-Coleman over and Monaghan was similarly dismissed in the next as the Australian’s strike rate soared over 300. Monaghan though had the last laugh as Harris attempted to drive through the off-side and was bowled.Surenkumar cleared the ropes as the teenager and Natasha Wraith added 60 to keep the visitors hopes alive, but both fell in quick succession and despite a few dropped catches in the deep, Surrey closed the game out.

The Bengaluru Police have filed a first information report (FIR) against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) franchise over the deaths of 11 people and injuries to many more in a stampede during the event held on Wednesday to celebrate RCB winning the IPL.In the FIR, a copy of which has been seen by ESPNcricinfo, the Bengaluru police have claimed that they denied RCB permission to conduct the events at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, around which the stampede occurred leading to casualties. RCB were listed as the first accused in the FIR, along with DNA Entertainment, the franchise’s event partners, and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), which is in charge of the Chinnaswamy Stadium.The FIR was filed based on a complaint by Girish AK, a police inspector from the Cubbon Park Division. The report mentioned six sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita: 105 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 115 (voluntarily causing harm), 118 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous means/weapons), 132 (assault or criminal drone to deter public servant from discharge of their duty), 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 190 (unlawful assembly).In the FIR, Bengaluru police said its personnel had been on duty in the areas around the stadium until 5.30 am on June 4 following RCB’s victory, and on account of it being difficult to manage another large crowd the following afternoon, “permission for the event at the stadium was denied. Despite this, KSCA, RCB, and DNA went ahead with their plans and ignored the police’s instructions.”Related

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“Without any official permission, on June 4, RCB announced their celebration and victory parade on their social media and website, inviting fans to join,” Bengaluru police claimed in the FIR. “Once this news spread on TV channels and social media, we (Police) informed our senior officers and requested security and necessary arrangements. On June 4, 9:00 am, took permissions from the higher officers and asked police personnel from all over the city on urgent basis and the security arrangements were made. And security was provided for RCB players for the felicitation ceremony …”On June 4, the RCB team arrived at Vidhan Soudha for the felicitation ceremony, which went smoothly despite a huge crowd. Around 5:30 pm, the victory parade began towards Chinnaswamy Stadium. Police provided security at the stadium, but KSCA, RCB, and DNA failed to plan how the crowd would be allowed in. The stadium holds only 30,000 to 35,000 people, but lakhs of fans had gathered outside. At 3:10 pm, the gates were opened, and chaos broke out. There was a stampede. Police officers and VIP security struggled to rescue the injured and send them for treatment. Sadly, 11 people died, many were injured, and police had to disperse the remaining crowd outside.”The event started around 5:45 pm and was carried out without further problems. KSCA, RCB, and DNA went ahead with the celebration without police permission and failed to plan how to control the crowd or take safety precautions. The situation worsened because RCB’s social media accounts posted about free entry passes at the stadium gates. RCB did not inform the police or public about how passes would be distributed. This caused confusion among the lakhs of fans waiting outside, which led to overcrowding and the stampede. In total, 11 people died, 64 were injured (including police officers), and public property was damaged.”At a press conference announcing a committee to conduct an inquiry, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah directed the representatives of all parties named in the FIR to be arrested. He also ordered the suspension of top police officials in the city, including the Commissioner and the Inspector of the Cubbon Park police station, which has jurisdiction over the areas where the stampede occurred.On Thursday, the Karnataka government announced that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) will investigate the cause of the stampede. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Siddaramaiah had ordered a magisterial inquiry and said a report must be submitted within 15 days.The state government as well as RCB announced a compensation of INR 10 lakh for the families of the deceased, while covering all medical expenses for the injured. The government is also considering issuing fresh operating procedures for better regulation of public gatherings, meetings and celebrations of any kind.RCB have been contacted for a response.

Northamptonshire 123 for 5 (Bopara 46*, Walker 2-20) beat Leicestershire 122 (van Beek 42, Sanderson 4-15) by five wickets Northants Steelbacks maintained their 100 per cent start to the Vitality Blast after comfortably beating Leicestershire Foxes by five wickets at Northampton.The Foxes mustered only 122 after their top order was blown away by Ben Sanderson (4 for 15) and David Willey (3 for 20). It was a meagre total, albeit a decent recovery from 39 for 7 thanks to a Foxes record T20 eighth-wicket stand of 55 between Logan van Beek (42 from 42 balls) and Tom Scriven (23).The Steelbacks did not find run-scoring easy either but were always in control of the chase and reached 123 for 5 with four balls to spare. Ravi Bopara showed his experience and class in decisive fashion with a victory-clinching 46 not out from 40 balls.Steelbacks captain Willey won the toss, chose to bowl and took out two Foxes in the first over. His first ball was chipped straight to mid-wicket by Rishi Patel. His fourth sent Louis Kimber’s middle stump halfway back to Leicester.If that was spectacular, almost as much so was the one-handed slip catch by Ricardo Vasconcelos when Shan Masood edged Sanderson in the next over. Sol Budinger, having lost three partners before facing a ball, got the score moving with a couple of fours but then left his leg-stump exposed and Willey hit it. When Lewis Hill cut Sanderson to point, providing the bowler’s 100th T20 wicket for Steelbacks, the Foxes were 18 for 5 after 20 balls.Sanderson, bowling his stint straight through, pinned Ben Cox lbw and had Liam Trevaskis caught behind to finish with his joint-best T20 figures. At 39 for 7, the Foxes were in a spot of bother.Van Beek and Scriven responded with an intelligent stand of 55 from 46 balls. Scriven hoisted Lloyd Pope to long on and Van Beek pulled George Scrimshire to long leg but those two, along with some late clubbing from Roman Walker at least gave their side a glimmer of a chance.Vasconcelos launched Steelbacks’ reply by flicking Van Beek over mid-wicket for six but edged the seventh ball of the innings, from Matt Salisbury, to slip. Van Beek delivered that T20 rarity, a maiden over, and added the scalp of Willey, brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Cox.At 25 for 2, the door was ajar for the Foxes but Matt Breetzke and Bopara, with time on their side, added a pragmatic 50 in 50 balls. Breetzke and Saif Zaib, fell to successive balls from Walker but Bopara and George Bartlett (26) combined care with watchful aggression to see their side to the brink of victory with a partnership of 46 in 30 balls.

Half-centuries from Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan wrestled momentum back for Pakistan after Jayden Seales’ triple-strike had put West Indies in the box seat in Multan. On a surface tailor-made for spin, it was the fast bowler who proved the pick of the bunch, exploiting pace and slight seam movement to send debutant Mohammad Hurraira, Kamran Ghulam and Babar Azam back for single figures. Pakistan had, at that point, been reduced to 46 for 4, with West Indies looming ominously over the tail. But a gritty unbeaten 97-run rearguard for the fifth wicket, from Rizwan and Shakeel, thwarted the visitors for the rest of the day, to ensure Pakistan would end the day with a semblance of control.After the start was delayed by four hours owing to heavy fog that enveloped the ground, Pakistan won the toss and batted first in hazy conditions with the floodlights on throughout the course of the day. Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie bowled the first ball, an indication of how both sides perceived the pitch upon which each played three specialist spinners. Motie got rid of Pakistan captain Shan Masood early on, squeezing him down to the debutant wicketkeeper Tevin Imlach on the on side, but for the rest of the hour, it was Seales’ show.He had been sniffing right from the outset, and got his reward when Hurraira hung his bat out and edged to the keeper. It was followed up by a beauty to remove Kamran Ghulam, who had just dispatched an outswinger to the boundary. The next ball, he attempted to shoulder arms but it seamed back into him wickedly, rapping the thigh, with Hawk-Eye showing it would have clipped the top of off.Kamran Ghulam was lbw shouldering arms to Jayden Seales•PCB

The big fish came soon after, another glorious use of the seam. Seales hit a hard length which Babar looked to parry into the off side, but it shaped away just enough to kiss the outside edge through to Imlach. Babar would review, but, like Ghulam, he would not be reprieved.The innings threatened to fall apart at that point, but Saud Shakeel, seasoned on surfaces like these, restored some order to proceedings for Pakistan. The sting was taken out of the quicks and the spinners negotiated deftly, while Mohammad Rizwan at the other end kept his concentration levels up as West Indies continued to prowl.There was a notable acceleration from the pair after tea, right from when Shakeel got to his knees and swept Kevin Sinclair for four. It was a shot that brought the pair bounty through the session, giving them a release shot as the ball began to rip. The next six overs produced seven boundaries with Rizwan the chief aggressor, brave enough to use his feet to spin and ensuring the strike kept ticking over.There remained plenty for the visitors to get excited about. A number of balls beat the outside edge by a whisker, and Shakeel popped one up dangerously close to short midwicket just shy of a half-century. But when he got there, and Rizwan followed up soon after, the milestones were both well-deserved. By now, the light had been deteriorating consistently, and midway through Kraigg Brathwaite’s first over, the light-metre came out, and the players went off. By then, Pakistan were arguably the happier side, having been dragged by Rizwan and Shakeel towards a rather less perilous position than they found themselves in after the first hour.

Middlesex, trying to close a 15-point gap behind second-placed Yorkshire in the promotion race, utterly dominated an afternoon in Derby where the home side, attempting to overcome their own 19-point deficit to elude a first wooden spoon since 2016, lost six wickets for three runs in 43 balls.With Toby Roland-Jones returning five for 34 in all, Derbyshire ignominiously sank from 130 for two to an eventual 173. The decline set in when Harry Came fell for 66 as the Middlesex captain extended his recent superb sequence to 36 wickets at 16.92 in six matches.Led by Mark Stoneman’s rampant, unbeaten 79, Middlesex then romped through the evening, too, reaching 125 for one in reply on the first day of a vital Vitality County Championship meeting for them. No home seamer could match the accuracy and late movement on an occasionally two-paced pitch that meant “TRJ” claimed all his five scalps bowled or LBW.Belatedly exploiting conditions after Ryan Higgins’s outswing had undone Luis Reece for 20, he first removed Brooke Guest, missed by Noah Cornwell off his own bowling when three but out for seven 50 minutes from lunch, which arrived at 99 for two.Startling carnage then swept in from nowhere from the afternoon’s seventh over. Came lost his off stump and, after Wayne Madsen top-edged a cut at Ethan Bamber to first slip to go for 20, Roland-Jones knocked over two more for ducks and a then a third without score once David Lloyd had returned a catch to Bamber for two.Derisive applause greeted the single that finally took Derbyshire off 133, the score at which the last hapless trio had fallen, and the former England man’s spell ended with 8-5-6-4. It took the 17-year old bowler Harry Moore, in only his third first-class innings, and spinner Jack Morley, on loan from Lancashire, to add 35 for the ninth wicket.Having resisted 38 balls for one run, Morley unaccountably then leapt out to Luke Hollman’s leg spin and was bowled by his 39th before Moore miscued a lofted drive to deep mid-on for 32, which brought tea two overs early.In five of their last eight completed innings, Derbyshire had failed to better their 173 here. But Middlesex were aware at the interval that Yorkshire were doing well in Cardiff and that Sussex, the other side above them, already seemed well set for success in Bristol.If the obvious task was to make their own advantage now count, it didn’t help that the second ball of the reply, a half-volley from Zak Chappell, was clipped by Sam Robson low to mid-on. But their response to being one down without a run scored was full-on aggression: a dozen fours had come by the twelfth over.Chappell, who’d received his county cap in a presentation at the start, could celebrate no further as the two left-handers, Stoneman and Max Holden plundered 71 in the hour that took the former to his first fifty for eleven innings, off only 41 balls.If the tempo eased against the spinners on a surface already taking turn, Holden, the foil to Stoneman’s belligerence, moved quietly on to 44 not out by the close and the pair will resume their 125-run partnership on Wedneday with Middlesex only 48 in arrears.

Oval Invincibles claimed the most significant scalp of their title defence so far with a six-wicket over Southern Brave in their top-of-the-table clash at The Kia Oval.Tom Curran claimed four wickets, his younger brother Sam chipping in with two, to restrict Brave to 118 for eight before a curious chase that saw Dawid Malan face 10 consecutive dot balls and Chris Jordan not concede a run from his first 11 deliveries.Jordan Cox, England’s latest call-up to the Test squad, and Sam Curran eventually broke the shackles in a 58-run stand from 27 balls to usher the hosts over the line with 15 balls to spare.James Vince was the only Brave batter who came to grips with the home attack, scoring 52 from 39 balls, as Invincibles moved a step closer to booking their place in the knockout stages.Skipper Sam Curran has been central to a run of five wins in six games, and while he would claim a third successive Meerkat Match Hero award again tonight, it was his older brother Tom who took the limelight with the ball taking 4 for 24 in front of a crowd of 23,948. The visitors slipped to 31 for four as wicket fell too regularly around Vince.Sam Curran was unfurling his airplane celebration early when he bowled Alex Davies before Tom found a regulation edge from Andre Fletcher through to Sam Billings. Will Jacks bowled Leus du Plooy and Laurie Evans top-edged Adam Zampa to leave Brave immediately behind the game.Captain Vince set about hauling his side back into the contest, sharing a 58-run stand with Kieron Pollard, who edged Sam Curran to give Billings his third catch after managing 18 from 15 balls.Tom Curran was on a hat-trick from the final ball of the innings, removing Jofra Archer and Akeal Hossein from successive balls, before Craig Overton just about avoided the field and saw the ball run away to the rope.Jacks thumped the first ball of the reply for six, only to get a leading edge to Overton two balls later, before the chase lost all momentum.Malan did manage a heaved six before he simply could not locate the ball, eventually being well held by Archer at mid-on to depart for 14 from 31 balls.But the in-form Sam Curran joined Cox and immediately set about putting the game to bed, the pair taking 23 from four Hosein deliveries to settle any nerves. Hosein did get Sam Curran, but not before he added 35 from 18 balls, as Cox finished unbeaten on 46 from 29 balls.Meerkat Match Hero, Sam Curran, said: “Huge win. The two form teams at the moment and a top of the table clash. We knew we had to win this to give us the best chance of going straight through to Lord’s (and reach the final).”We have complemented each other really well with the ball this season. Towards the end we just had a swing and hope and it worked out.”I’m really confident and enjoying the environment. I feel this team has got it right and hopefully we can do that for the rest of the tournament.”

New Zealand are about to embark on a period where they will play six Tests in two months. That’s rare, on two counts. First, it’s almost a whole year’s work for them – like in 2020 and 2021, when they went on to become the inaugural World Test Champions. And second, all of those matches are in Asia. In the last decade, they have never played more than three subcontinent Tests in a single year. This eight-week trip, starting with the one-off game against Afghanistan on Monday, then the two against Sri Lanka, and finally the three against India, is essentially uncharted territory.Kane Williamson acknowledged it when speaking to the media on Saturday. “You know such a volume of Test cricket that we don’t usually get, and obviously in this part of the world,” he said in Greater Noida.New Zealand’s record in Asia is underwhelming, with 16 wins from 90 Tests. They have found it even harder to succeed in India – 2 wins in 36 Tests. Lots of effort is being made to improve on this. Domestic teams have been touring the country for a good while now. The next generation of New Zealand batters and bowlers have put in a lot of time trying to expand their game to succeed in conditions where spin plays a huge role. Allrounder Rachin Ravindra and fast bowler Ben Sears joined the Test squad in Uttar Pradesh after a four-day training camp in Chennai with their Wellington team-mates.Related

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Williamson highlighted the importance of New Zealand learning to play differently in Asia and touched on the difficulty of playing long-form cricket in just staccato bursts.”I think it’s absolutely about trying to adjust your game,” he said, “because we’re not here consistently in this format. We go through quite long intervals of not playing here. So you know it is trying to sort of familiarise yourself again and for us, our last Test match was sort of six or eight months ago. So you know, as a team it’s really connecting with that again as a red-ball group and looking to apply our skills, our plans as well as we can.”0:32

Williamson: Root has been something else for a period of time

Williamson, himself, a veteran of over 100 Tests and a leading member of the Fab Four, is yet to fully crack batting in India and Sri Lanka. In 22 innings, he averages 31.36 and has managed only five fifty-plus scores. One of them was his debut innings, back in 2010, when he was at the crease for 299 balls to score 131. Since then, however, only five of his knocks have lasted 100 balls or more. The defensive skill which sets him apart, and enables him to shape so much of New Zealand’s fortunes on their own turf, is severely tested by the quality of the bowling and the nature of the conditions here.Williamson was looking forward, though, to facing that challenge again, starting with New Zealand’s first ever Test match against Afghanistan. “It’s really important that we look to grow as a unit,” he said. “It’s nice and clear on how we want to play over here. We always know that it’s a tough challenge whenever you play in these parts of the world, slightly different from back home. But you know always a great experience and playing against a really, really strong side.”New Zealand have bolstered their support staff, on a short-term basis, with the additions of Sri Lankan spin legend Rangana Herath and former India batting coach Vikram Rathour as they push for a better result in the 2023-25 cycle of the World Test Championship. They finished sixth out of nine teams last time. This time, they occupy third place, behind India and Australia.”In some ways it’s like tournament sport, isn’t it?” Williamson said. “Even though it’s over a longer period of time in the Test Championship, but the value of games is high. The context around Test cricket with the Test Championship is really key and it’s brought out a lot of really exciting games. And so naturally having six Test matches together is a big part of our Test Championship calendar and one that we’re excited about.”

Dion Myers has said that time away from cricket has given him a broader perspective on his game and renewed energy for his second stint. The 22-year-old Zimbabwe batter had taken a break from cricket to pursue his university studies in the UK before returning to the international fold in the ongoing five-match T20I series at home against India.”Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of self-introspection, seeing how my first stint went and things like I did well… things I can improve upon,” Myers said at his post-match press conference on Wednesday. “And watching a lot of cricket, honestly, along with my own training. It just helps sometimes when you’re out of the system or set-up to be able to look from a panoramic view and see what you can achieve or what you can do better to give to the team. The time away from the game [was] a blessing in disguise and it helped me realise a few more things about myself and also I needed to grow up.”Myers had captained Zimbabwe in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup and, in just over a year’s time, he made the step-up to the senior team in a one-off Test against Bangladesh in Harare. He subsequently featured in ODIs and T20Is for Zimbabwe before pausing his cricketing career for academics. In his third international innings upon return to action, Myers struck an unbeaten 65 off 49 balls, his maiden international half-century, against an India side that had three T20 World Cup champions in their ranks.Related

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“It’s surreal, honestly,” Myers said. “It’s something that you dream about as a young boy, and I really thank my team-mates and my family for the support and above all, I thank God. Lots of times were tough in the past few years, but [I] managed to find a way, so very proud of it.”Being back in the team…it’s such a nice vibe, wonderful coaching staff as well and they’re there to support us, so I expect a lot more from this team going forward and very excited for the future.”With Zimbabwe moving on from the likes of Sean Williams and Craig Ervine, the young pair of Myers and Clive Madande offered a glimpse into that future with a counterattacking 77-run sixth-wicket stand off 57 balls after they had been reduced to 39 for 5 in seven overs. Myers was particularly fluent against spin, taking Ravi Bishnoi, Player-of-the-Match Washington Sundar and Abhishek Sharma for a combined 44 off 31 balls. Madande, at the other end, lined up seam-bowling allrounder Dube for a pair of sixes.Dion Myers returned to international cricket in this series•Associated Press

“It was the sort of wicket where you couldn’t really come in straightaway and start going at 150-200 strike rate,” Myers said. “I just tried to play it my way, hitting it on the ground early on, get into the game and as the innings goes on, you pick more areas of the ground. But from the others, the intent was great. You can’t fault that and I think if a couple of guys do well, it’s crazy what this team can achieve. It’s just a matter of time, I can assure you that.”Myers had a rust-ridden restart to his career – he had laboured to 23 off 22 balls in the first T20I before holing out for a duck in the second. Also in that second game, Abhishek Sharma whacked him for 4, 6, 4, 6, 4 in a 28-run over. However, that didn’t dent Myers’ confidence going into the third T20I.”It’s brilliant to learn and it’s brilliant to be in the firing line, and I’m a big believer that if a situation presents a tough circumstance, you’re going to stand up or just let it go,” he said. “So, it was a great experience for me, personally, I didn’t take it in a confidence-down sort of a way and I thought there are some things that I need to work on much like they’re trying to improve. That’s how I’m taking it and the rest of the boys are taking it.”After being particularly sharp in the field in the series opener, Zimbabwe were guilty of a number of lapses in the second and third games. Myers summed it up thus: “It was just different phases throughout the game. Maybe we just bowled a touch too straight and a touch too short [with the ball] on the odd occasion and the mis-fields didn’t help us. So, it was just minute differences [between the two teams] but I thought India played very well.”