Pat Cummins confirmed to return on Boxing Day Test

Yorkshire invites applications for the role of head coach and non-executive directors

In a bid to revamp the system, Yorkshire has begun their search for a new head coach and six non-executive directors.

The Ashes | Day-Night Test, Day 3: Joe Root, Dawid Malan put on century stand to keep England alive

Skipper Joe Root led from the front and found more than capable support from Dawid Malan to lead England with a wicketless session early on the third day of the ongoing Day-Night Test in Adelaide. The tourists started the day at 17/2 and the duo took them to 140 while remaining not out till the dinner break. Malan capitalised on the desperation of Australian bowlers who bowled too full to him in greed of including outside edge of his bat but he was up to the task and motored along to 68. Root was more circumspect of the two against pacers but employed his usual mode of attack—sweep against Nathan Lyon to keep the scoreboard going in the first session. He remained not out at 57 at dinner break on the third day. Australia looked like missing the experience and relentless discipline of Josh Hazlewood and their skipper Pat Cummins as the other duo of Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser were guilty of bowler either too full or too short against the batsmen. It was the partnership between Root and Malan only that carried England towards some sort of respectability in the second innings of the first Test at Gabba as well and England would be delighted to see them going strong with the bat once again.

ICC clarifies England to lose eight World Test Championship points after slow over rate at Gabba

There is no end of misery for England as the International Cricket Council (ICC) has clarified that they will be docked eight World Test Championship points instead of five as announced earlier for falling short of the required over-rate in the first Ashes Test played in Brisbane. The global governing body said that England fell short of the optimum over rate by eight overs and not five and hence they will be denied exactly the same number of points as the number of overs they failed to bowl. Earlier, after the end of the Gabba Test that ended in a big loss for the Joe Root-led side, the ICC had announced a fine of 100 per cent match fees of Root and company and five World Test Championship points. “However, the points deduction for penalty overs is not capped and must reflect the actual number of penalty overs a team is short of the minimum requirement as per Clause 16.1.2 of the ICC Playing Conditions, hence they have been penalised one point for each over they were short,” said the ICC in a statement. “As per Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, up to a maximum fine of 100 per cent of the match fee,” it added. England are already 0-1 down in the five-match long Ashes series in Australia and they are not in the best position in the ongoing Day-Night Test in Adelaide.

LPL 2021 | Jeffrey Vandersay career-best performance pushes Colombo stars to Playoffs

Jeffrey Vandersay was on cloud nine today as he not only won his team a crucial match with his fantastic bowling to get them through to the Playoff of the Lanka premier League 2021 but also achieved his career-best figures in T20 cricket. The figures of 6-25 from the leg-break bowler are not only his first five-wicket haul in the shortest format, but they are also now the best figures in the two-season long history of the premier T20 league of Sri Lanka. He got past Pakistan Mohammad Amir’s figures of 5/21 which he had achieved in the last season. The leg spinner was introduced in the very first over of the innings by Colombo Stars skipper Dhananjaya de Silva as he wanted to take wickets to defend the total of 182. Though not in the first over, but in his second and the team’s third over, Vandersay fetched his skipper, not one but two wickets. Strangely though he was removed from the attack and this was the same time that Kandy Warriors batters Charith Asalanka and Ravi Bopara started building a partnership. It was only in the ninth over that Vandersay was reintroduced. And right in that very, the leggie did the trick and broke the 54 run stand by removing Asalanka. Once the stand was broken, the Warriors just couldn’t get back on track thereafter. Seekkuge Prasanna then removed two players in the 11th over and the Warriors were reduced to 95/5. Another 30 run stand developed between Kamindu Mendis and Asela Gunaratne to push the Warriors to 122 in 15 overs. Just as it seemed that a match was developing out of this, Naveen-ul-Haq, the Afghan import for the Stars struck in the 16th over and removed Gunaratne. N Vimukthi also got run out in that very over which meant that it was almost over for the Warriors and only formalities were left. Vandersay was once again called in for his last over and boy did he cashed it in, removing all the remaining three wickets and getting his name registered in LPL history books. Earlier in the evening, after losing the toss and being asked to bat first, Stars rode on great showing from their experienced campaigners in Kusal Perera, skipper de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal as all three were among runs to push the team past 180. While Perera scored 58 off 38 and de Silva made 40 off 28 balls, Chandimal, the leading run-scorer in the league now, remained unbeaten on 44 off 29 balls. With this win, the Stars qualified for the Eliminator which they will play against Dambulla Giants on December 19.