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Few games are worth waiting three months for, but on the resumption, the PSL served up a UAE-style thriller. In a game that the Lahore Qalandars dominated but somehow found a way to lose control of in the final few overs, Rashid Khan smashed three fours off the final over, when they needed 16, to rescue a game that had slipped away for his side, condemning Islamabad United to a stunning last-ball defeat. With one needed off the final delivery, Tim David’s top edge cleared the keeper, and United’s fate was sealed.The Qalandars had got off to a brilliant start thanks to three wickets up top from James Faulkner in the first innings. United struggled for fluency throughout the innings as wickets fell regularly, with only a cameo from Faheem Ashraf, who top-scored with a 24-ball 27, taking them past 120. That late surge dragged Shadab Khan’s team back into the game, with the 143 they posted looking like the sort of total that was just about defensible in the UAE; the very notion would have been unthinkable in Karachi.Fakhar Zaman and Sohail Akhtar got the Qalandars off to a fluent start, but accurate, disciplined bowling from United derailed the chase fairly soon. Zaman lost fluency and was cleaned up by Ashraf , and as the asking rate began to climb, captain Akhtar became increasingly key for his side. When he smashed Shadab for 15 in the 12th over, the Qalandars were back in the game, but the true consequences of that over were yet to emerge.With wickets falling regularly and Ben Dunk nowhere near his best, the game looked dead and buried for the Qalandars when Hasan Ali removed the Australian in a superb penultimate over. Singaporean international David’s six off the final ball meant United needed to defend 15, and Shadab threw Hussain Talat the ball instead of taking it himself. Rashid smashed him for three successive boundaries, and a rollercoaster of a contest was suddenly done and dusted.The decision
Shadab’s confidence with the ball isn’t what it might have been, but even so, backing Talat, who didn’t otherwise bowl all day, to line up for that final over seemed an unnecessary risk. Shadab would later say he didn’t fancy bowling at the left-handers, and with Dunk there till the 19th over, he kept himself away from the bowling crease. But Dunk was gone, and with Rashid and David batting, there were two right-handers out in the middle for the Qalandars. Shadab, nevertheless, didn’t quite trust himself at the moment. Talat’s over was fairly ordinary, in truth, but given it was his first, laying the blame at his feet would be excessively harsh.Faulkner’s military medium
Faulkner was a surprising pick in the replacement draft for the Qalandars anyway, but when he was thrown the ball to open alongside Shaheen Afridi, the faith the Qalandars had placed in him seemed excessive. Even more so when he shuffled to deliver what could most generously be termed medium-fast deliveries and Colin Munro took him apart with a four and a six off successive deliveries.But it was that lack of pace that would prove especially destructive on a slow pitch, particularly when the Australian mixed it up by deliberately taking the pace off some. Munro was undone when he played down the wrong line, but Faulkner was only getting started. While Afridi was unfortunate not to pick up wickets, his less celebrated new-ball partner was more than making up for it. Rohail Nazir was undone by an offcutter that slowed off the surface, while Shadab found no timing on another slower delivery as United reeled. Akhtar was so impressed that Faulkner went on to bowl his full allotment of four on the trot, and by the time he was done taking three wickets, his side was in charge.The Rashid Khan masterclass
It’s difficult to overstate the enormity of the impact Rashid’s availability had on the Qalandars’ chances. While it seemed initially he would be lost to Sussex for the T20 Blast at this time of year, he chose to stick with the PSL, and with the opportunity to bowl in these conditions, why wouldn’t he? Rashid in the PSL is just about as close to a cheat code as T20 cricket has these days, and with United already under pressure when he was introduced, the Afghan asphyxiated them through the middle overs.His four overs conceded just nine runs, along with the wicket of Talat, as the wheels came off entirely for the batting side. The combination of the quicker, flatter delivery, the conventional legbreak, and a devilish googly ran United ragged, and by the time he was done, United had only managed to hobble on to 101 for 7 in 16 overs. And all that without mentioning his later exploits with the bat.Where they stand
United slip to fourth, with three wins in five, whilethe Qalandars go top with eight points and four wins in five matches.

Riyan Parag is not thinking about the prospect of being appointed Rajasthan Royals captain, but is ready to take on the responsibility if the management wants to give him the job.He could be among the candidates to take over as RR captain after the franchise traded Sanju Samson to Chennai Super Kings ahead of the IPL 2026 auction in December.”There haven’t been any discussions about captaincy at RR yet,” Parag said. “Manoj (Badale) sir (the team owner) has told us that the decision will be made only after the auction. I’m not thinking about it right now either. If I start thinking about it now, it will mess with my mindset, and a significant amount of mental space will be occupied by just one thing – captaincy, captaincy, captaincy.Related

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“If the team and management feel that I’m the right fit for the captaincy role, then I’m more than ready. Similarly, if they feel that I can contribute more effectively to the team as just a player, I’m ready for that too. My main goal is to have a season where I score 500-600 runs and take 10-15 wickets and help the team win the trophy.”Parag stood in as RR’s captain for eight games in IPL 2025 when Samson was injured, with the team winning two of those matches. He has also captained Assam across formats in domestic cricket, first given the role in T20s in 2021. In this year’s SMAT, Assam have won two of their five matches so far and are fifth in Elite Group A.Parag said the experience has helped him improve as a player and a person.”Last year, I captained in seven or eight IPL matches, and I don’t know what people outside think, but when I went into the dressing room and analysed my decisions with the coaches and data analysts, about 80 to 85% of my decisions were correct,” he said. “You learn a lot from that, and when you go to the big stage, you don’t feel the pressure of how to captain or how to manage the team and the field. Overall, I always enjoy captaincy, and it has helped me evolve a lot as a person.”Parag is also not concerned about RR heading into the IPL 2026 auction on December 16 without picking a captain.”In RR, any major decision that is made involves all of us. Any big decision is made only after consulting everyone. For example, now that Jaddu (Jadeja) has joined, he will definitely be a part of our leadership group,” he said. “There are around four or five people in this leadership group. If we need to trade a player in the team, or if we need to bid for a player in the auction, we discuss it with this leadership group and the coaching staff, and only then do the team owners make a decision. So I don’t think we need a captain before the auction to go there and raise the paddle for us.”Riyan Parag captained Rajasthan Royals in eight games in IPL 2025•BCCI

Parag also spoke about his close bond with Samson. “Sanju has played a huge role in my career. I don’t want to think about him leaving because if I do, I’ll feel bad,” he said. “I was very close to him, and when I first joined the team, he never made me feel like I was just a 17-18-year old kid from Assam. Perhaps that was also because he had a similar background and had also come from Kerala as a young player of 16-18 years old, a place from where not many cricketers emerge.”He has taught me a lot and given me a lot of love. In the last few years, whenever Jos bhai (Jos Buttler, who was with RR from 2018 to 2024) would go back to England before the playoffs, [Samson] would make me his vice-captain, tell me to attend team meetings, and take the lead in team meetings, deciding what to discuss and what the team should do. So I’ve learned and understood a lot from him.”Parag has been going through a lean patch in domestic cricket, but he is confident of being back in India’s white-ball plans once he completely heals from a shoulder niggle.In September, he had scored three List A half-centuries for India A against Australia A but his form dipped in the unofficial ODIs against South Africa A. Then, in three Ranji Trophy games, he made just 100 runs, averaging 20. In the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), he made scores of 5, 15, 14, 0, and 5.Riyan Parag hasn’t fully recovered from a shoulder injury•PTI

“Having played in the IPL and domestic cricket for so long, I’ve gone through these phases (of bad form) many times. Just because I’m not scoring runs here doesn’t mean I won’t score runs in the IPL,” he said. “There have been three or four instances where I’ve struggled in the domestic season but then performed well in the IPL. There have also been two occasions where I scored runs at an average of 45 or 50 in seven SMAT matches, but in the same season, I couldn’t even manage 70 runs in 14 IPL matches.”I even cried in the bathroom wondering why I wasn’t scoring runs. I used to think, ‘what should I do? Should I practice a little extra, or not practice at all, or just go on a holiday?’ I’ve tried everything. Now I don’t think about all that too much. Now, my frame of mind is the most important thing for me, and I focus on enjoying my game and my life; the runs will come eventually.”So I wouldn’t say this form is a cause for concern for me. I don’t see any technical issues in my batting at the moment either. If there were any problems, my dad would tell me; he watches all my matches. It’s just that I’m coming back from a shoulder injury, so I have to play a little cautiously. I think it’s because of this injury that I’m not currently in the Indian team. Otherwise, I think I can play in both formats of white-ball cricket. As soon as my shoulder is completely healed, you’ll see me back in the Indian blue jersey again, because I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong or played bad whenever I’ve been given an opportunity in the Indian team.”Parag made his T20I debut in July 2024 and has played nine games. His lone ODI appearance came in August 2024.

Essex 321 for 8 (Rymell 78, Khushi 77, Wheater 53) beat Sussex 224 (ten Doeschate 4-34) by 97 runsJosh Rymell celebrated his maiden professional half-century as Essex Eagles qualified for the Royal London Cup knockouts with a 97-run victory over Sussex Sharks.Rymell showed maturity beyond his four List A appearances to craft 78 as he put on 115 with Feroze Khushi – who clocked up 77 on the back of a century at Durham last time out.Adam Wheater smashed a quick-fire 53 as the Eagles racked up 321 for 8, which the Sharks never looked like chasing – getting bowled out for 224 with Travis Head top-scoring with 38 in front of a sold-out Cloudfm County Ground, Chelmsford.Essex face Lancashire in their last group game on Thursday; if they lose they’ll play an away quarter-final, if they win and Durham also win they’ll have a home quarter-final, while a victory at Emirates Old Trafford and a Durham defeat to Hampshire will see Eagles progress straight to a home semi-final.Essex, having been put in, lost Alastair Cook and Tom Westley within the first eight overs – bowled and smashed straight at point respectively – before Khushi and Rymell patiently built the foundations of a large total.The 20- and 22-year-olds showed patience and ran hard rather than peppered the boundary for much of their stays – although both the 50 and 100 stands were brought up with sixes off Rymell’s bat, coming in 76 and 127 deliveries respectively.Rymell, who had been promoted to open, reached his maiden half-century in 70 balls but departed for 78 when he was lbw to 78 – ending a 115-run stand.Khushi reached the milestone in one few ball and along with the hard-hitting Paul Walter put on 54 in 39 balls before an Essex wobble.Walter top-edged to fine leg before Ryan ten Doeschate and Khushi were caught in the ring within nine balls of each other.But the Sharks’ fightback didn’t last as Wheater launched an assault of three sixes and three fours to score 53 in 29 balls – his fifty coming after two successive maximums although perished attempting a third, with Simon Harmer lbw soon after.Aron Nijjar teed off with a 16-ball 28 to get the Eagles over 300 and set their highest total of the campaign.The chase began with Ali Orr surviving a regulation drop by Westley on three but chopped Jack Plom on having only added a further seven runs, before skipper Tom Haines edged Plom to slip.Ben Brown slapped spinner Nijjar’s third ball to midwicket and Travis Head was bowled by Harmer – both getting starts but neither managed to settle like Khushi or Rymell.David Wiese exploded with 36 off 20 balls, during a 52-run stand with James Cole, before splicing to midwicket and Oli Carter thrashed out to deep midwicket.Sharks’ inexperienced lower-order couldn’t match Wheater, Walter and Nijjar’s hitting as Coles and Danial Ibrahim were both caught behind.Will Beer was extraordinarily caught by Harmer at mid-on and Archie Lenham was snatched at mid-off – as ten Doeschate returned figures of 4 for 34.

“I helped build that ground,” said the taxi-driver, “Leastways I helped smooth the outfield and bloody stony it was, too. That’s over thirty years ago now and they tell me it’s settled down nicely. The old field used to be next to the football pitch and was slap in the middle of town but the Buckminster Estate sold it off to Sainsburys and gave the cricket club land out of town. Mind you, there’s a lovely view over the Vale of Belvoir and you can sometimes see Belvoir Castle.”So there is and so, apparently, you can. Fittingly enough I’d only been in Grantham five minutes before being reminded of the power of the market economy. But places transcend the imprint of even their most famous daughters and Gorse Lane certainly deserved what became a day in the sun. Two years ago Nottinghamshire hosted Durham here only to the extent of turning up and watching torrential wash the game away. Covid-19 took care of the two matches scheduled in 2020 so this was fourth time lucky for the ground on the hill.Perhaps it was fourth time lucky for many of the spectators who ringed this field, sometimes six-deep, and if so, they also deserved what became a climax to cherish when Dane Paterson thrashed Ben Sanderson for a straight six to secure the two-wicket win that ends Northamptonshire’s interest in the Royal London Cup but leaves Nottinghamshire to battle for a qualification place on Thursday.Six runs were needed off three balls when Paterson got out the long handle but there had been many other times in the previous half-hour or so when nerves had informed the shot selection of a Nottinghamshire side whose bright-badged caps and fresh faces betray the inexperience of youth. As wickets were lost and dot balls surrendered to the Steelbacks’ three spinners it seemed probable that the match would hinge, unfairly perhaps, on the moments earlier in the game when Ben Slater swung Tom Taylor to James Sales at deep square leg and Ben Compton was bowled round his legs by Saif Zaib.Taylor had made 53 and Compton 71. Notts were 154 for three in the 39th over and needed another 57 runs when the second of those vital wickets fell. It hardly required much insight to conclude that his team had wanted Compton to take them home. Once he and Slater were gone they needed Brett Hutton’s big six off Zaib and 19 runs from a Sunderland-born bowling all-rounder whose 22 years make him almost an old pro in the current Notts dressing room. For yes, if this was a day Grantham CC will always treasure, it will surely also be one on which Liam Patterson-White revealed his wide-ranging ability to affect cricket matches. And it has not always been thus…When Patterson-White made his Nottinghamshire debut against Somerset two seasons and a world ago he was so ill on the first day of the game that he took no part in it. Once recovered, he followed a four-ball nought with a five-wicket return but could not prevent his team losing by 132 runs in a season that ended, so we thought, with their relegation. One or two things have happened since those blissful afternoons in Taunton. Most notably for our present purpose, Patterson-White has taken another 32 first-class wickets and 13 in List A cricket, the last five of which came at a cost of 19 runs this afternoon at Grantham, where the pitch was plainly not averse to turning.Northamptonshire were 112 for 3 in the 22nd over when Patterson-White came on at the Gorse Lane End. By the time he had completed an accurate ten-over spell replete with subtle changes of flight and pace, the visitors were 175 for eight and it needed some shrewd batting from Sanderson and Sales to see them struggle to 210. The slow left-armer was assisted by two factors: the first was a surface that offered help; the second was the presence at the Pavilion End of another slow-left-armer Fateh Singh, who conceded only 33 runs from ten overs in his third List A game. Between them the two spinners constricted the flow of runs that had seemed so free, first when Emilio Gay was batting and later when Luke Procter was making 44, his side’s top score. But the batters were complicit, too: Gay slashed Tom Barber to Slater at deep point and Procter swept Patterson-White straight to Paterson at square leg. Even on a frisky wicket, just the sort of surface that should be used for more List A games, the Steelbacks’ total was perhaps 25 light. It was a deficiency that returned to hurt them.The crowd appreciated it all, of course. We had hardly got beyond the first Powerplay before the festival atmosphere that outground cricket so often engenders was present at Grantham.The pylons beyond Wyville Road may be dull and one could also manage without the growl of traffic on the A1, yet when all these irksome assaults have been considered Gorse Lane remains a lovely home of cricket, a club in which its members obviously take great pride. They will have planned hard and worked long for this day and, as so often, the cricket did not let them down, Nottinghamshire should need no urging to return here and Liam Patterson-White may be especially keen to do so.

Heather Knight marked her return from injury with a nerveless innings to help seal a nail-biting victory for England at Taunton and clinch their T20I series against New Zealand 2-1.Knight, playing her 200th game for England after missing the first two matches of this series with a hamstring problem, struck 42 off 36 balls to get her side most of the way to the target of 145 – although it took an equally calm Sophia Dunkley to see the hosts over the line with a boundary from the penultimate ball.England’s bowlers had contained New Zealand early before an unbroken stand of 36 from 14 balls between Brooke Halliday and Katey Martin took them to a competitive total. Leigh Kasperek’s three wickets put England in danger at 97 for 4 but Knight steadied the innings during partnerships worth 55 with Amy Jones and 40 with Dunkley.Heather Knight played a vital hand in the chase•Getty Images

Knight fell with eight runs needed but Dunkley found the ropes from an Amy Satterthwaite full toss with one ball to spare.The sight of Anya Shrubsole, who hadn’t played any part in the series, on crutches and in a moon boot before play was of concern for the home side ahead of announcing their squad on Saturday for the five-match ODI series with New Zealand starting in Bristol next week. She sprained her ankle at training on Tuesday and, having undergone scans, will be assessed by team medical staff in the coming days.Big three shackled
England’s attack kept a lid on New Zealand’s vaunted top order of Suzie Bates, making her 250th appearance for the White Ferns, Player of the Series Sophie Devine and Satterthwaite, all of whom have played more than 100 T20Is.They scored only seven fours between them and while Bates and Devine made starts there was to be no reprise of the former’s highest T20I score of 124 not out at the same ground against South Africa in the tri-series of 2018, nor of Devine’s rousing half-century which allowed New Zealand to level the series against England at Hove on Saturday.Tash Farrant missed a tough caught-and-bowled chance to dismiss Bates for 7 in the second over. But, after Bates swept her for four in front of square leg in the seventh over, Farrant responded with the next ball, sending leg stump cartwheeling with a fuller, straighter ball to dismiss Bates for 34 off 30.After a brief stoppage when all four floodlight towers went out due to an electrical fault, Sarah Glenn removed Satterthwaite, who picked out Katherine Brunt – back after pulling up sore from the first match – at long-on. When Sophie Ecclestone beat Devine’s attempted leg-side swipe with a ball that clattered into middle and leg, New Zealand were 90 for 3 in the 15th over.But the tourists managed to score 50 off the last four overs, thanks largely to Halliday and Martin, who struck three fours each, contributing 25 and 13 respectively to lift their side.Leigh Kasperek bagged two in two balls•Getty Images

Kasperek comes through
After a sedate start, Danni Wyatt struck Devine for four through midwicket and six over long-off in the third over to get the run chase moving. Jess Kerr struck in the next when Tammy Beaumont miscued to midwicket where Devine swallowed the catch. Wyatt carried on, however, helping herself to five more boundaries, including three on the trot off Kerr in the sixth over, through midwicket, cover and third as England finished the Powerplay 40 for 1 compared to New Zealand’s 37 without loss.But when Kasperek took two wickets in two balls, New Zealand were well and truly in the game. Expensive at Chelmsford, where she took 1 for 54, Kasperek claimed 3 for 25 from her four overs and ended the series as the leading wicket-taker with six at 16.50. She had Nat Sciver caught by Hayley Jensen at deep midwicket and then ended Wyatt’s enterprising knock of 35 off just 23 balls, pulling to deep square leg where Thamsyn Newton took the catch. Amy Jones survived the hat-trick ball and she joined Knight in rebuilding the England innings.After 10 overs, England were 66 for 3 compared to New Zealand’s 61 for 1. Jones struck back-to-back fours off Satterthwaite’s second over, the 12th of the innings, and Knight chimed in two balls later, punishing a full toss through backward square leg. But Kasperek returned to the attack in the 13th over and, after she was pulled for Jones’ fifth boundary, she struck two balls later, luring Jones into an attempted slog and finding an edge on to the stumps.Shining Knight
Knight made a welcome comeback, striking five fours on the way to her score, including a slog-sweep off Kasperek’s final over which bounced and cleared Newton at deep square leg and another off Devine through midwicket in the 19th. When she picked out Bates at mid-off from Devine’s penultimate ball, England needed eight off seven balls. Maia Bouchier, playing just her second match after making her international debut in the previous game, was bowled by Satterthwaite on the first ball of the final over, heaping the pressure on the hosts.But Brunt and Dunkley, who had held their nerve with a 92-run stand to defeat India, also at Taunton, during their ODI series earlier in the summer, did so again in truncated style. A single to Brunt followed by a hard-run two to Dunkley left England needing four off the last two balls. Dunkley needed just one, smashing a four through midwicket to seal the match and the series.

Tuesday’s first IPL game between the Delhi Capitals and the Kolkata Knight Riders produced a momentary argument involving Tim Southee, Eoin Morgan and R Ashwin, which required intervention from the KKR wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, who said he was happy to have played peacemaker.The argument came about in the final over of the Capitals innings, after Ashwin had been dismissed by Southee off its first ball. The prelude, Karthik explained after the game, had come off the last ball of the previous over, when the Capitals had snuck in an overthrow after a throw from point had deflected off Rishabh Pant at the non-striker’s end.”Rahul Tripathi threw the ball, it hit Rishabh Pant, and then ricocheted,” Karthik said. “And Ashwin called for it and they started to run. I don’t think Morgan appreciates that. I think he’s somebody who, when the ball hits the batsman or the bat, he expects them not to run in the spirit of cricket.”Again, it’s a very grey area, it’s a very interesting topic. I have my own opinion on it but at the moment I’ll just say I’m happy I played peacemaker and things have come to a good standstill right now.”There isn’t a clause in the playing conditions that stops a team from running overthrows off of deflections off the stumps, the batters, or their equipment; a relevant clause to look at is clause 37.2 in the IPL playing conditions, which directly deals with exceptions when it comes to obstructing the field, but provides some hints about the legality of taking a run off a deflection. The clause says that a batter is not out obstructing the field if the “obstruction or distraction is accidental, or […] in order to avoid injury”.

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In Tuesday’s case, there was nothing to suggest Pant deflected the ball intentionally. It is, however, common to see batters not taking extra runs when the ball deflects off them – a judgement call not based on law.After Southee dismissed Ashwin off the next ball, he exchanged words with Ashwin, before Morgan chipped in as the batter made his way back to the dugout. Karthik was seen getting in between the two parties before Ashwin turned around and walked out. Pant, who was at the centre of the incident, said he didn’t see anything wrong with the situation on the whole.Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant were among the players involved in the overthrow fracas•BCCI

“I think it’s part and parcel of the game because both teams are striving to win the match, so some things are gonna happen. Whatever is good for the game,” he said. “I think that was in the spirit of the game, nothing much, because at the end of the day Ash and Morgan are trying to win the game for their sides and there can be some miscommunication in between.”The culmination of this mini-contest came during KKR’s chase, when Ashwin was brought on to bowl his last over to Morgan and had him caught at slip for a second-ball duck which he celebrated animatedly. But KKR’s lower-middle order saw them through a nervous phase to seal victory by three wickets.Morgan, incidentally, was England’s captain when they were the beneficiaries of the most famous unintentionally deflected throw in cricket history. In the last over of the 2019 World Cup final, the ball hit Ben Stokes’ bat as he dived to make his ground, and ran away to the boundary, taking the question of whether or not to profit from the deflection entirely out of the batting team’s hands.

West Indies have finalised the dates for their white-ball tour of Pakistan, which will see them play three T20Is and as many ODIs between Dec 13 and 22. All the games will be played in Karachi, with the ODIs part of the World Super League cycle leading up to the 2023 World Cup.The announcement of the tour should assuage any concerns surrounding the uncertainty of the tour after Pakistan’s entire home season was plunged into jeopardy when New Zealand withdrew from a tour on the day of the first match in September, citing security concerns. It was swiftly followed by England calling off their planned four-day tour in October.

Full schedule

Shan Masood will join Derbyshire as an overseas player after being recruited by former Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur for the 2022 county season.Left-handed opener Masood played under Arthur during the latter’s three-year tenure as Pakistan head coach from 2016-19 and was a key target for Arthur upon being appointed as Derbyshire head of cricket last month following a stint as Sri Lanka head coach which started in early 2020.”Playing county cricket in England is something I’ve always wanted to do, so when Mickey approached me to join Derbyshire, I jumped at the chance,” the 32-year-old Masood said. “He’s perhaps been the greatest influence in my career and I’m looking forward to working with him again at Derbyshire.Related

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“It’s an exciting time for the club and hopefully I can contribute at the top of the order and use my experience to help the younger players in their development.”Masood has made 25 Test appearances for Pakistan, scoring four centuries – including 156 against England at Emirates Old Trafford in 2020 – and has six Test fifties to his name. Despite an impressive record in List A matches in Pakistan, Masood has played only five ODIs.In T20s, he captained the Multan Sultans side which topped the PSL table before being knocked out during the play-off stages in 2020 and was part of the team which won the 2021 PSL title last June.Masood first played in England early in his career, scoring a Stamford School-record 1,237 runs at an average of 103 in 2009, and he played three first-class matches for Durham University.He will be available for all formats throughout Derbyshire’s 2022 campaign, starting with their first LV= County Championship fixture in April.Ryan Duckett, Derbyshire’s chief executive, said: “Shan is an immensely talented batter and was a key target for head of cricket, Mickey Arthur, in his plans to develop the Derbyshire squad.”He knows Mickey’s standards and what is expected both in training and out in the middle and I’m looking forward to seeing what his experience brings to Derbyshire.”