BREAKING | Rahul Dravid appointed as India's head coach

T20 World Cup: Tymal Mills ruled out of the tournament

England left-arm pacer Tymal Mills has been ruled out of the ongoing T20 World Cup with a right thigh strain, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed. The left-arm bowler Reece Topley has been named his replacement. Topley was one of the reserves for the tournament. This essentially changes England's strategy of death bowling with Topley not having the same prowess that Mills possesses. "Mills sustained the injury bowling in the T20 World Cup Super 12s match against Sri Lanka on Monday in Sharjah. Results of the scan on Tuesday night revealed the extent of the injury," ECB said in a release. “Surrey’s Reece Topley has been added to the England World Cup squad following his role as travelling reserve,” it added. Mills had played all the four matches for England so far and scalped a total of seven wickets during the course. England have been in some brilliant form in this tournament as they have clinched wins in all the four matches so far and are sitting at the top of the table in their group. The Eoin Morgan-led side will now play South Africa on Saturday in Sharjah.

WBBL 2021 | Beth Mooney becomes third centurion this season, guides Scorchers to comfortable win

Perth Scorchers opener Beth Mooney was at her prime form as she blasted away to a 63 ball hundred to register her name as the third woman to hit a century in this season of Women’s Big Bash League 2021. She is also the second Scorchers woman after skipper Sophie Devine to score a hundred this season. Courtesy of Mooney’s 101 off 63 balls, in which she hit 13 fours and Devine’s 72 off just 49 balls in which she hit eight fours and two sixes, the Scorchers reached 194-2, the highest team total this season. Their partnership of 165 was also the second-highest partnership of this season, the highest is also in the name of these two only, which was 173 and came against Sydney Thunder Women. Chasing 195 was never going to be easy for the table topper Melbourne Renegades Women. Losing two wickets in the powerplay didn’t help the cause one bit either. The wickets however kept tumbling one after another as Indian talents in Jemimah Rodriguez and Harmanpreet Kaur failed to make a mark. Courtney Webb’s 46 combined with Jess Duffin’s 23 and Sophie Molineux’ 31 could only take the Gades to 154-6 as they lost the game by a huge margin of 40 runs. Lilly Mills took four wickets for 25 runs for the Scorchers. In another game today in the WBBL, Sydney Sixers Women beat Hobart Hurricanes Women by 31 runs to notch back to back wins. Ashleigh Gardner scored a priceless 51 and along with Ellyse Perry’s 47, guided the Sixers to 141 in their 20 overs. Later on, Nicole Bolton and Maitlan Brown picked two wickets each to restrict Hurricanes to only 110-7 in their 20 overs.

T20 World Cup | NZ vs SCO: After few hiccups, New Zealand eventually steal the show

Scotland’s Michael Leask’s late surge had New Zealand in a spot of bother while they were defending a target of 173 in Dubai but a good penultimate over from Tim Southee ensured that the Kiwis were in front. Needing 39 off the last two, Southee gave 13 runs in the 19th over after he was hit for maximum on the final delivery but the required rate was still very high for Scotland as they needed 26 off 6 balls. Later, Adam Milne who bowled the 20th over of the innings made sure that the Blackcaps end the match on the winning podium as he only gave 9 runs to clinch victory for his side. New Zealand won by 16 runs. The Scotland side had a decent start to the chase after they put 66 in less than 8 overs at the cost of two wickets. But the New Zealand bowling unit made a solid comeback and scalped a few wickets at regular intervals to reduce them to 106/5 in the 16th over. Leask though took the onus on himself and provided the side with some resistance but his efforts weren’t really enough to take Scotland over the line as they were restricted to 156/5 eventually. For New Zealand, Trent Boult returned with figures of 2/29 in 4 overs while Tim Southee picked up one wicket for 24 runs in his allotted 4 overs. Apart from these two, spinner Ish Sodhi also bagged a couple but he had an expensive economy rate. Sodhi gave away 42 runs in his 4 overs. Earlier, in the day, Scotland were off to a flying start with the ball after New Zealand lost the first three wickets for 52 runs with the likes of Kane Williamson and Devon Conway back in the hut. But what unleashed next was simply a masterclass from Martin Guptill who along with Glenn Phillips steadied the ship for the side and stitched a stand of 105 runs for the fourth wicket. The two batters played in a cautious manner and then Guptill took on the bowlers after getting their eye in. Guptill struck a 56-ball 93 which included seven maximums and six fours while Phillips scored a 37-ball 33 to help New Zealand put 172/5 in 20 overs on the board. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lauded Guptill’s knock. “We certainly knew coming into this tournament that there were match winners all around. It ebbed and flowed and we got a good first innings total. We were patchy with the ball but we need to move on. Credit to Scotland for the way they played and hit the ball out of the park.We were tested and we need to learn from this. Guptill is a power player. He is hitting the ball beautifully,” he said in the post-match presentation. New Zealand will now play Namibia in Sharjah while Scotland will be up against India in Abu Dhabi on Friday.

T20 World Cup | With their backs to the wall, Australia face Bangladesh to keep semi-final hopes alive

Two wins in the first two games and an absolute pummeling against England has ensured that Australia are in a pickle going into their fourth group match against Bangladesh. The pickle, better known as the Net Run Rate has put Australia’s place in the semi final in jeopardy, with the Aaron Finch-led outfit currently tottering at -0.627 at the moment. If somehow, they manage to lose one of their next two games, they might end up with the same number of points as their closest rivals South Africa who at the moment have six points from four games with a NRR of +0.742. The biggest advantage that Australia probably have going into this game is that South Africa play their final game against England, and as everyone will attest - England without a shadow of a doubt have been the best team in the tournament. However, a man must make his own luck and Australia have to make sure that they win their next two remaining games to nullify the argument of NRR whatsoever. They will be up against a Bangladesh side, who came into the tournament in high spirits after dubbing Australia and New Zealand in the agricultural tracks of Dhaka. The series wasn’t a pleasant one for Australia who were defeated by a margin of 1-4, and those memories will be fresh in the minds of Mitchell Marsh and Matthew Wade, who were key men for Australia in that series. However, this match is not being played in Bangladesh and the tracks do not resemble Dhaka in any manner at all. And who knows it better than the Bangladeshi squad themselves? Things have gotten horribly wrong for them in the Super 12 stage and they have lost four out of their first four games, making the first exit of the World Cup. This would be their last game of the tournament, and playing without any baggage makes them that more dangerous. Key pointers of the game Where does the Australian batting line-up stand in terms of form? This would be Australia’s fourth game of the tournament, and they have blown hot and cold in their time here. Against Sri Lanka on October 28, it looked like David Warner had batted himself into form, but right in the next game he faltered. Against the quality of Chris Woakes, Warner once again edged the ball to the keeper, a mode of dismissal that has been bothering him for over a year now. Barring captain Finch, none of the Australian top six batters reached even 20 runs and as a result, the team folded for just 125 runs. Bangladesh’s all round problems Bangladesh are one of the worst teams in the tournament in terms of power hitting capabilities. They are also one of the worst teams in the tournament in terms of outfield catching. They have dropped 10 catches till now and it is very possible that they will drop a few more against Australia in Dubai. With Shakib Al Hasan out, the Bangla Tigers will once again go into a match with a tremendous hole of quality - one that is very difficult to manage with the side that they have. Match Details Bangladesh vs Australia Match 34, Group 1, Super 12 Date & Time - 4 November, 3:30 PM IST (2 PM Local) Venue - Dubai International Stadium, Dubai Broadcast - Star Sports Network & Hotstar Team News Bangladesh Bangladesh would one to end their campaign on a winning note and that means they should be playing with their best players. We could see the return of Mustafizur Rahman in place of Nasum Ahmed. Probable XI David Warner, Aaron Finch (c), Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood Australia This is a day game against a depleted bowling line-up of Bangladesh that will probably be down by two spinners (Nasum and Shakib). If that is the case, it only makes sense to strengthen the batting order, which would mean the return of Mitchell Marsh and the axing of Ashton Agar. Probable XI Naim Sheikh, Liton Das (wk), Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad (c), Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam CE Fantasy XI Matthew Wade, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Naim Sheikh, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell (c), Mahedi Hasan, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa (vc), Mustafizur Rahman