Peter Handscomb tests positive for Covid-19

ENGW vs INDW | 2nd T20I: India level series after a dramatic finish

India women’s team levelled the T20I series against England after winning the second match by 8 runs in Hove. Chasing 149 in 20 overs, the home side was restricted to 140/8. England had a disappointing start to the chase after losing Danielle Wyatt and Natalie Sciver early in the chase after the hosts were reduced to 31/2 before opener Tammy Beaumont and captain Heather Knight stitched a stand of 75 runs for the third wicket to steady the ship for the team. But Beaumont’s departure for 59 off 50 broke the shackles and the Indian team made a strong comeback. England lost wickets at regular intervals, courtesy some brilliant bowling and impressive fielding efforts and were left tottering at 137/8 to eventually suffer a defeat. In the eight wickets that went down for England, four came in the form of runout. Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma were the pick of the bowlers for India. While Yadav returned with figures of 2/17 in 4 overs, Sharma picked up one wicket at the cost of 18 runs in four overs. Earlier, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma gave India a solid start after the two put 70 runs on the board for the first wicket before Mandhana departed for 20 off 16. Verma who was looking in some good touch fell short of a fifty and was dismissed just a couple of runs after Mandhana’s wicket. Later, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma stitched a partnership of 40 runs for the third wicket. Kaur notched up a 25-ball 31 while Sharma remained unbeaten at 24 off 27 as India managed to score 148/4 in 20 overs. Harmanpreet Kaur hailed the team’s effort. “I think it was a great effort from the whole team. They were on the toes and I am very happy. We got a very good start. Two three overs, we didn't get many. Then I had to go as we thought we needed 150 at least to win. I would give credit to our bowlers. Was very important on these wickets as the ball was coming nicely on to the bat. Credit to the fielders as well for doing well. We always want to win wherever we go,” she said. England captain Knight lauded the efforts from the bowling unit while admitting that her dismissal did change the game. “I think we were very good for large proportions of the game, the way we pulled it back after that start was outstanding. Really proud of the bowlers. I couldn't get back in and it's just one of those things and it wasn't deliberate by Deepti. It was given out and that changed the game. We were in a great position and asked the batting group to be ruthless, we got to be better in the next game,” Knight said. The two teams will now play each other in the decider in Chelmsford on Wednesday.

Mahmudullah retires with Man of the Match performance as Bangladesh blow Zimbabwe away in Harare

Four wicket hauls each for Mehidy Hasan Miraj and Taskin Ahmed blew Zimbabwe away on the final day and Bangladesh registered a big win of 220 runs in the only Test between the sides Harare. The match turned out to be a special one for Mahmudullah who shockingly announced his retirement from the format in the middle of the match and he was adjudged Man of the match for his splendid performance with the bat in the first innings. He had remained not out and powered Bangladesh to a big first-innings score. Chasing a mammoth total of 477 runs was never on cards for the Brendan Taylor-led Zimbabwe side and Bangladesh bowlers incisive enough to cut short their ambitions every now and then. Taylor tried to change the momentum of the game towards his side but the cushion of a lot of runs meant that Bangladesh could afford to wait for him to commit a mistake. It was a complete performance from Bangladesh as both the batting and bowling unit upped their game in the hours of desperation. The side had found themselves in trouble on the first day with six wickets gone for just 132 runs on the board but Mahmudullah and Liton Das stitched a valuable 138 run partnership to put them in a commanding position. In the bowling department as well, they were found wanting initially as Zimbabwean top-order batsmen Milton Shumba, Takudzwanashe Kaitano and skipper Taylor held their positions strongly. They were once at more than 200 runs with the loss of just two wickets before things started to unravel. From 225/2, Zimbabwe floundered to 276 all out and allowing Bangladesh to set the proceedings of the game with a big lead of 192 runs. The matter went from bad to worse for Zimbabwe as Bangladesh top order turned things around in the second innings on the back of strong centuries from Shadman Islam and Najmul Hossain Shanto. They along with Saif Hassan denied Zimbabwe any breathing space to get back in the game and put them on the brink with sublime batting. The win in Harare would have come as welcome relief to Bangladesh team management including skipper Mominul Haque after the disastrous series loss against West Indies at home earlier this year. On the other hand, the loss will further strengthen the realities around Zimbabwe’s decline on the world stage.

All first-choice Sri Lanka players test Covid-19 negative

In a welcome sign for both Sri Lanka Cricket and the BCCI, all first-choice Sri Lankan players, who have returned from the UK have tested covid-19 negative in the latest round of RT PCR testing in Colombo, PTI reported. "Normally, the moment we get any positive result we announce. There has been another round of RT-PCR tests conducted yesterday and the results were supposed to come today. We only get the results if there is any positive cases. Since we haven't got any positive report, which we normally receive by mid day, it can be presumed that all players have tested negative," PTI quoted an unnamed BCCI official as saying. The report also suggested that the players will soon be allowed to go for the outdoor training in the next 48 hours and will be shifted to biosecure bubble where they will be able to train for the series against India. "If all goes well, the UK-returned players would be able to come out of their hard quarantine and enter the bio-bubble. The robust testing is expected to continue as per norms," the source added. Two members of the contingent that came back from England such as the batting coach Grant Flower and an analyst tested positive for the virus after arrival in the country. Those two cases and subsequent stringent protocols forced the BCCI and the SLC to postpone the ODI series originally scheduled to start on July 13 to July 18.

Mitchell Marsh doesn't want to get into 'headlines', says all not lost for Australia in T20 series

Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has said that all is not lost for his side in the T20 series against West Indies after the loss in the first two T20Is. He took pride in recent history when the Australian sides bounced back strongly after facing defeats early on and said that the team has had a history of doing well when pushed against the wall. “There are no excuses, but certainly (it's difficult to adjust) when you play international cricket after a gap of three months or so. But this Australian team was 2-0 down in India and won the series, was 2-0 down in New Zealand and made it 2-2. The Australian teams we love always won when they had backs against the wall,” Marsh said in a virtual press conference. Australia have made a lot of changes in the XI in the absence of big players such as David Warner, Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell and Marsh chose not to lie about not missing them in the Caribbean. However, he refuted that Australia have struggled because of an unstable batting lineup in the series so far. "No, that’s not the case at all. We all know what our roles are. It’s all execution and against a good team like West Indies, we were unable to execute our plans,” Marsh added. "I’d be lying if I say I don’t (miss Warner and Maxwell). But that’s the situation we are in and I have full confidence in this team that we will turn things around. The absence of big players allowed the team management to try Marsh at an all-important position at number three and he has made good progress in the series. It was his innings in both the games that kept Australia in the hunt before collapses and Marsh said that he is using his experience of batting at three with the Perth Scorchers to bat longer and lead Australia home in chases. However, he did not make public if he wishes to bat at the number three or not and instead said that his focus is limited to providing Australia with something substantial at the top. "I don’t want to get into headlines saying that I want to bat at No.3," Marsh said with a chuckle. "It’s always great to be batting there for Australia. I have already done that for (Perth) Scorchers (in the Big Bash League) but all I wanted to do was to bat a bit longer and get us home. Currently, I am not thinking about what’s my batting position’s gonna be in two months of time. I just want to perform to the best of my abilities for the team," the all-rounder said. Marsh has had a good run of form both with the bat and the ball in the series and Australia will bank on him to turn things around in the last three games of the series.