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Chennai Super Kings signed off their home league campaign with a win, giving themselves a decent chance of coming back to Chennai for the last two playoff games. Despite losing their 11th toss out of 13 and being asked to field in the afternoon heat 40 hours after finishing their last match in Ahmedabad, the CSK bowlers used a slow pitch expertly to keep Rajasthan Royals down to 141, which they chased down with relative ease.The slow pitch was right up the home bowlers’ alley, and they kept Royals quiet in a wicketless powerplay after which Simarjeet Singh kept getting wickets every time Royals tried to push back. Royals never really succeeded in mounting an attack, which CSK’s New Zealand batters, Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell, successfully did to put their chase on course with a Shivam Dube putting them on top.Related

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The win took CSK up to 14 points from 13 matches, level with Sunrisers Hyderabad who have a game in hand, and two points clear of the nearest challengers outside the top four. Royals suffered their third straight defeat, which will be a cause for concern for them going into the playoffs, especially with Jos Buttler not expected to be available for the final week.RR’s power-less-play
These are the two slowest teams in the first two overs of the IPL. They like to suss the pitch out before they start attacking. Royals stayed true to form, scoring just seven off the first two, but they couldn’t kick on even after that with Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana and Shardul Thakur giving them nothing to drive. Their 42 for 0 was the slowest wicketless powerplay of IPL 2024, one run behind their 43 for 0 against Punjab Kings, but that came in a small chase.Simarjeet Singh exults after dismissing Jos Buttler•BCCI

Simarjeet cashes in
Usually CSK go to Ravindra Jadeja in the seventh over, but perhaps because of the right-left combination, which didn’t let their orthodox spinners bowl in their last match against Gujarat Titans, they bowled Simarjeet in the seventh over. Playing only his third match this year, Simarjeet had ground to make up after going for 60 in that Titans match. On this slow pitch, he was immediately on target: hard lengths and no room. When Yashasvi Jaiswal tried to take him on, the ball got big on him and resulted in a skier to cover. In his next over, Simarjeet became the beneficiary of an odd shot from a frustrated Buttler: a ramp on a slow pitch with fine leg back on the fence.With Royals’ only left-hand top-order batter gone, Jadeja rattled through his four overs for just 24 runs to go with Theekshana’s four overs for 28. Sanju Samson just kept looking for singles while Riyan Parag tried the odd boundary. It seemed as if Royals had decided they needed to get somewhere around 160 and not aim too high.The final kick doesn’t arrive
Even to get to 160, they would need two a ball for the last six overs after getting to 89 for 2 in 14 overs, which is when the spinners bowled out. Royals were banking on cashing in on pace, but just when they tried to go hard they handed Simarjeet another wicket: Samson caught at mid-off. Again Royals were pushed back.Deshpande and Thakur stuck to their plans in the death overs, and Royals never got the big overs. Only Parag’s 47 off 35 took them to 141, which was 23 less than the lowest total successfully defended in this IPL. Royals attacked just 30 balls in their innings, the sixth-lowest figure this season in non-all-out innings when setting a target.Shivam Dube played a crucial cameo after CSK had gone 39 balls without a boundary•Associated Press

Ravindra, Mitchell get chase going
CSK have been the only team slower than Royals in the early goings but they were mindful of not letting the bowlers settle into their defence. Ravindra flicked Sandeep Sharma for a six over midwicket in the second over, and went after compatriot Trent Boult in the third. Even though R Ashwin got Ravindra out in the fourth, Mitchell kept up the intent. Their 56 for 1 was their fourth-highest powerplay of this IPL.Royals claw back but Dube breaks chase open
In the middle overs, Royals clawed their way back. Yuzvendra Chahal got Mitchell, the spinners kept Moeen Ali and Ruturaj Gaikwad quiet, Moeen got out for 10 off 13, and 39 balls went without a boundary. Still it was 50 needed off seven overs. This was when Ashwin came on to bowl his last over with Dube on strike. Dube took the veteran spinner on for 6, 4, 4, with a leg-side wide in between, and while Ashwin came back with Dube’s wicket, CSK needed 35 off the last six.Captain Gaikwad stayed true to his anchor role for this chase, and saw his team home despite Jadeja getting himself out obstructing the field.

Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, says there is a “strong consensus” within English cricket that the Hundred should be opened up to private investment and that the owners of American and British sports teams, as well as IPL franchises, have made their interest clear.The ECB has consulted with the first-class counties since the end of the Hundred’s third season in August, discussing the ownership model of the competition’s eight clubs which each comprise a men’s and women’s team. Several options have been tabled, with host counties likely to be given equity stakes in the teams that play at their home venue.Counties would then be free to sell those stakes on to interested investors, or retain them if they choose. The governing body would retain ownership of the competition as a whole, which is reportedly valued at over £1 billion, but could sell its own stake in the teams.Discussions will continue but Gould’s comments were the clearest indication yet that private investment is imminent. “The future of the Hundred is very strong in terms of ticket sales, broadcast interest, and franchise interest now in terms of third-party investors who are interested in it,” he said at an event launching the 2024 season at The Oval.”We’re having really good discussions with the game. There is a strong consensus that we would like to see private investment come into the Hundred. There’s a very strong consensus that that should be through investment into the teams rather than the central competition, and now we’re working through the options of what that could potentially look like, in terms of how control, revenue and capital is shared.”Gould does not expect English cricket to follow South Africa’s lead in selling all eight Hundred teams to IPL team owners. “Our interest won’t just be with IPL franchises,” he said. “We have got a lot of interested sports owners from the [United] States and from this country. So we’ll be looking at all those options.”The ECB would keep overall control of the Hundred, which has been valued at £1 billion,•Getty Images for ECB

The ECB initially told counties it intended to confirm changes by the end of May and implement them in time for the 2025 season, but has since cooled on that timeframe. “We’re not putting huge deadlines on it,” Gould said, with the consensus over the broad principles around the Hundred’s future not yet reflected in the detail.”The game has suffered from divisions over the last five or six years, and we would rather take a bit of time in order to get to the conclusions that we think the game is seeking, rather than rush people,” Gould said. “We can, frankly, create more value with a game that is operating as one.”The ECB are still resigned to the fact that the BCCI will not grant active men’s players No-Objection Certificates to feature in overseas short-form leagues. “It’s not something that we are working into our proceedings,” Gould said. “I can see why: they [the BCCI] have got a dominant global position there, and they want to try and make sure that they can retain that.”Indian broadcast money generally follows Indian players… the BCCI and the IPL have just said, ‘No, we want the IPL to be the No. 1 global tournament and in order to do that, we need to make sure that we rely on our strengths which is the size of our market and the quality of our players’. That may change at some point… but we are not basing any of our models on that, at this point.”Related

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Some smaller counties have raised concerns that proposed ownership models may further entrench the chasm between them and the biggest clubs, but Gould denounced the idea that the ECB’s management are hoping to kill some counties off by stealth as “a totally mad conspiracy” theory.”I’ve been in the game 20-odd years and that conversation has always been around, but we’re the one professional sport that hasn’t lost a club [in England] and we’ve been going 140-odd years. Look at rugby and football. We’ve done extremely well as a sport to maintain that 100% record, and that’s where our intent lies.”The depth of our talent pool, both in terms of men and women, is our superpower at the moment… having more teams and more players and more depth to our talent pool is ideal. It’s where we want to be. It increases competition. It provides more opportunity for talent to come through. I don’t see any backward step in terms of 18 first-class counties.””But we also need to make sure that clubs do not feel restricted by that, so that we can make sure that [counties] that are particularly good at delivering talent or crowds through the doors… we need to make sure that they’re celebrated too. We can’t run it all at a median denominator. We have to let clubs and counties fly.”

Dushmantha Chameera will miss Sri Lanka’s second ODI against Afghanistan, with Asitha Fernando drafted into the squad as his replacement.Chameera had limped off midway through his eighth over during Sri Lanka’s 42-run victory in the first ODI. He had picked up two wickets at the time but could not continue after that. It has now been confirmed that he injured his left quadriceps.It is understood the injury is not related to any of his previous injuries; last year he had missed a chunk of Sri Lanka’s games with a torn pectoral muscle, and prior to that he had undergone surgery for an ankle injury.The extent of the current injury is unknown. The 32-year-old fast bowler underwent a scan following Friday’s game, the results of which have been sent to a specialist in the UK for consultation.”He’s feeling better now, but we won’t know for sure the exact nature of his injury until we hear back from the specialist,” Sri Lanka’s team manager Mahinda Halangoda told ESPNcricinfo.Fernando, his replacement in the squad, last played an ODI in November 2022, also against Afghanistan. He has played five ODIs in all, picking up the solitary wicket.However, he has impressed in Tests, most recently against Afghanistan when he picked up six wickets in the match to help Sri Lanka on their way to victory.

IPL 2024 is likely to be played between March 22 and the end of May, with the final schedule to be announced once the polling dates for India’s general elections have been finalised by the Election Commission.On the eve of the 2024 auction, the IPL also notified franchises about the availability of players in the auction for next season:

Australia: Hazlewood not available in March and April

Josh Hazlewood will be available only from the first week of May if he is bought at the auction. It is understood that he and his wife, Cherina Murphy Christian, are expecting their first child. He was released by RCB and entered the auction with a base price of INR 2 crore (USD 240,000 approx).All the other Australian players in the auction are expected to be available for the whole IPL season. With the Sheffield Shield final scheduled from March 21 to 25, Cricket Australia has left the choice to the individual players if they have to choose between playing the Shield final and the IPL.Related

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England: Rehan withdraws from auction

England are scheduled to host Pakistan for a T20I series between May 22 and 30 but the ECB has told the IPL that its players will be available for the whole season “subject to fitness and international duty and any periods of unavailability that players submitted on their auction applications.”The ECB also pointed out that if any players “require specific management in the build-up to the T20 World Cup” its managing director Rob Key would “liaise directly” with both the player and his franchise.Harry Brook, Phil Salt, Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid are among some of the top England players who have entered the auction. Rehan Ahmed, the 19-year-old legspin allrounder who listed his base price as INR 50 lakh (USD 60,000 approx), has been withdrawn from the auction at short notice, ESPNcricinfo has learned. Rehan will be in India early next year for a five-Test series and the ECB is keen to avoid him spending too much time away from home at a young age.

Sri Lanka: Hasaranga, Chameera available

Sri Lanka Cricket has made all its key white-ball players available for the whole of IPL 2024. This includes Maheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana, who play for Chennai Super Kings, and Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera, who are in the auction after being released by RCB and Lucknow Super Giants respectively.None of those four players will be part of Sri Lanka’s Test squad, which is scheduled to play a two-Test series against Bangladesh until April 3. The other Test players who get bought at the auction will be available for the IPL after the series against Bangladesh.Mustafizur Rahman has listed his base price at INR 2 crore (USD 240,000 approx.)•BCCI

Bangladesh: Taskin, Shoriful withdrawn from auction

Left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman has been permitted by the BCB to play IPL 2024 between March 22 and May 11 if he is bought at the auction. He was released by Delhi Capitals and has listed his base price as INR 2 crore (USD 240,000 approx.). Fast bowlers Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam will not be available for the 2024 season because they are likely to play Bangladesh’s home series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in March and April.

Ireland: Josh Little available

Ireland left-arm fast bowler Josh Little will be available to Gujarat Titans for the whole of the 2024 season and will not play the one-off Test match against Bangladesh from March 22 to 26. He will also miss Ireland’s T20I series against Pakistan (May 7-14), and against Netherlands and Scotland (May 19-26).Afghanistan, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe have made their players fully available for IPL 2024 if they are bought at the auction.

Alyssa Healy has declared herself a near-certain starter for Australia’s Test against India in Mumbai.The star wicketkeeper-batter missed all-but one match of the WBBL after badly hurting her finger while trying to break up a fight between her two dogs.Healy has returned to training and is preparing to face India at the famous Wankhede Stadium in the red-ball Test, starting on December 21.Related

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“I assume I’ll be out there [for the Test], they’re going to have to do a lot to stop me walking out there and catching the first delivery,” she said at the Kayo Summer of Cricket launch on Friday. “Everything’s going really, really well.”I started back in the nets the last week-and-a-half so I’m all on track to fly to India on Wednesday for a big series over there.”Healy will be confirmed as Australia’s new captain as early as this weekend after the Cricket Australia board met on Friday.The 33-year-old will step into the role full-time after long-time teammate Meg Lanning’s shock international retirement. Healy has filled in for Lanning as captain for extended spells over the last two years, including this year’s Ashes.”Obviously we leave on Wednesday so having some sort of clarity and assurance for the team before we fly out would be great,” she said. “If it was me, it’d be unbelievably exciting.  I feel like I’ve been warming the seat for 18 months for Meg to come back and obviously with Meg’s news it was a bit of a shock.”To go over to India and captain a multi-format series would be really exciting for whoever does get the job. If it’s me, then you beauty!”The match in Mumbai will be the first Test in India for the Australian women since 1984. The tour of India will also feature three ODIs and T20s, and run over the Christmas and New Year period.

Manchester Originals skipper Jos Buttler smacked five sixes in an entertaining 36-ball 62 but his side’s match in the Hundred against London Spirit eventually fell victim to the Manchester weather.The home side had reached 138 for 5 after 80 balls in the game’s only innings when umpires Graham Lloyd and Steve O’Shaughnessy took the players from the field for the second time. They did not return and the no result outcome means that each side have taken one point from their first two matches in the Hundred.The first interruption might have come at a useful time for Spirit’s bowlers and fielders. The former had conceded five sixes in 35 balls, three of the maximums being struck by Phil Salt, who was dropped by Dan Lawrence off Liam Dawson when only 8. Salt was eventually caught by Adam Rossington for a nine-ball 21 when he thin-edged a pull off Dan Worrall.

Captain Leus du Plooy struck his maiden double century as Derbyshire took control of a record-breaking day against Worcestershire in the LV=Insurance County Championship encounter at New Road.Du Plooy and Anuj Dal came together at 320-5 and put on an unbroken 258, the Peakites record stand for the sixth wicket against any opposition in first-class cricket.Derbyshire’s mammoth total of 578 for 5 declared was their highest against Worcestershire and earned them a first innings lead of 341.Dal also emulated his achievement of in the corresponding game last summer of scoring a century and taking five wickets in an innings.Du Plooy was unbeaten on 238 and his marathon knock spanned nine hours and contained two sixes and 25 fours.Dal ended on 141 not out from 193 deliveries with five sixes and 13 fours when the declaration came mid-way through the afternoon session.Worcestershire were left to reflect on a below-par bowing performance, with only Joe Leach emerging with much credit, and a slipshod fielding display.Derbyshire will have aspirations of chasing a first Championship victory in 10 games stretching back to when they recovered from 14 for 5 on the opening morning to defeat Worcestershire at New Road last summer.Their bowlers then made early inroads with Jake Libby and Azhar Ali falling cheaply as Worcestershire reached 70 for two before bad light ended play with 16 overs remaining.Derbyshire resumed on 374 for 5 and Dal survived a chance to Josh Baker at second slip off Leach before he had added to his overnight 20.Du Plooy went past his previous first-class best of 186 for South Western Districts versus Northern Cape at Kimberley in February 2022 when he cut Navdeep Saini for four.The 28-year-old is certainly in prime form after over-taking his Derbyshire best of 170 against Yorkshire at Chesterfield earlier this month.He went onto become the first Derbyshire player to score a double hundred at New Road and a late cut for four off Saini took Dal to three figures.Worcestershire were powerless to halt the onslaught before du Plooy called a halt to the Derbyshire first innings and then his bowlers went to work.Stand-in captain Libby went for a pull to the first delivery from Luis Reece and keeper Brooke Guest ran around to deep backward square to hold onto a skier.Azhar Ali survived 33 deliveries for just three runs before he tried to work Nick Potts to leg and was lbw.There was just time for debutant Rehaan Edavalath to get off the mark – after his first innings duck – before the light closed in with Gareth Roderick unbeaten on 38.

By the time Monday came around, the rains had ceased in Manchester. The clouds were finally empty after a weekend of showers. And just to rub it in, the sun dipped in and out of view as a reminder it was still up there on this, the first morning in which the 2023 Ashes were no longer live.An abandoned match and a draw in the fourth Test has Australia taking the urn back with them, boasting an unassailable 2-1 lead heading into the fifth Test at the Kia Oval. The great decider that was supposed to send English cricket into the stratosphere is now signposted as the tourists’ chance to win their first overseas Ashes series since 2001.Nevertheless, mimicking the two-all scoreline of 2019 is a huge motivation for this England side. Unlike then, when the fifth Test had a very end-of-term feel, with the only thing missing being both sides playing out the match in jeans, Ben Stokes’ charges have the opportunity to affix an asterisk to Australia’s retention.They believe they have been the most assertive across the series so far, despite the fact they were 2-0 down after two. And while it may only be an asterisk that those in the dressing-room can see, the fact that the weather stopped them from going into the final match on Thursday with it all to play for has England feeling robbed. A squared series at the end, to them, would represent some form of justice.”I think 2-2 would be fair,” said Crawley, whose stunning 189 from 182 deliveries drove England to 592 for a 275-run first-innings lead that they could not cash in. “They had the better of us at Lord’s, Edgbaston could have gone either way. We probably deserved this one and Headingley could have gone either way. So I think two-all would be right. We’ll see, hopefully we can get it.”We’ll play the same way and to know we can make a big score. It suits us to have a little in the wicket – we’ll see what happens. That’s the beauty of a five-Test series; you get a look at them, work out tactics and nuances. I’ve never played a five-match series before this one.”We’re massively up for it. And as Stokesy says, we’re building as a team, this isn’t the end just because it’s the Ashes. It’s very much the start, hopefully.”Even amid the positivity, Crawley admitted the Old Trafford dressing-room was flat when the match was eventually abandoned on day five, at around 5.24pm. A consistent downpour across days four and five meant England were only able to bowl 30 out of a possible 180 overs to push for victory.Up until Friday evening, England had played more or less the perfect game; reducing Australia to 113 for 4 in their second innings, trailing by 162, by stumps on day three. Alas, it was all in vain.”It’s pretty flat,” said Crawley of the mood among the squad. “We’re disappointed we’ve played a lot of good cricket in this game. We wanted to win, we were in a good position to win, and two days of rain cost us. But that’s how it is.”Related

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As for Crawley personally, his innings took him to the top of the run-scorers charts this series – comfort for a player derided as a weak link throughout Stokes’ and Brendon McCullum’s time in charge. He arrived into the fixture with handy starts, including 61 in his first knock of the series, which he marked by striking the first ball of the first Test at Edgbaston for four off Pat Cummins.He continued on in a similar vein and, as such, his 385 runs so far – at an average of 55.00 – have come from just 428 deliveries. Number two on the list, Australian opener Usman Khawaja, has scored his 377 from more than twice as many (961).”I feel I’m as good a player as I have ever been,” Crawley said, having now passed 2,000 career runs and lifted his 38-cap average to 31.01. “I feel good about my game, I’m pleased with how I’m playing – I’ve just got to build on it. I have a bit more experience now, things to fall back on in different conditions, so yes, I feel I can kick on now.”Crawley agreed that Australia’s extra pace throughout their attack has been a contributing factor to his upturn in performance. And on what should be an Oval pitch favouring batters, the Kent batter hopes to cash in once more before the Test summer concludes.”I think so, I certainly feel quicker attacks do. Fast bowling suits my game. The Australian attack is a quick attack and I think a bit less when they’re faster. I think that just suits my game a bit more. They are unbelievable bowlers, they present different challenges.”I love batting at The Oval for Kent, and I have played one Test match there and did okay (five and 69 not out against South Africa last summer). Hopefully it’s a decent wicket and a good game.”

Moeen Ali has been fined 25% of his match fee and handed a demerit point on his return to red-ball cricket after spraying “a drying agent on his bowling hand” on the second day of the first Ashes Test.Moeen admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by Andy Pycroft, the match referee. “In reaching his decision to sanction the player, the match referee was satisfied that Ali had used the spray only to dry his hands,” the ICC said.”The spray was not used as an artificial substance on the ball and consequently it had not changed the condition of the ball, which would have been in breach of clause 41.3 of the ICC playing conditions – Unfair Play – The Match Ball – Changing its Condition.”Related

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Moeen is returning to Test cricket after an absence of nearly two years and bowled 29 overs on the second day, taking 2 for 124. He has not bowled in a red-ball match since September 2021 and ESPNcricinfo understands that he has a small blister on his spinning finger as a result of the increased workload.During the 89th over of Australia’s innings, Moeen was seen spraying a substance from an aerosol can on his bowling hand while fielding on the boundary, before bowling the following over. The ICC said he had defied “the umpires’ pre-series instruction about [players] not using anything on their hands without prior approval”.This being a Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct, one demerit point was added to Moeen’s disciplinary record. It is his first demerit point in the last 24 months and he will not be suspended unless he accumulates three further points in the next two years.The charge had recent precedent. During India’s home series against Australia earlier this year, Ravindra Jadeja was penalised under the same article of the ICC’s Code of Conduct after applying a soothing cream to the index finger of his bowling hand.