#cricket

#cricket

If you've ever been lucky enough to score a century you'll know how seismic a moment it is when you finally get over the line. Some play the game for a lifetime and never make one, the three-figured kingdom for ever out of reach, a promised land they are destined never to enter. Yet cricket lures you back like a devilish lover. You just can't quit it. Next time might be your time. It could be you. Why not?

The drive to Bowral in New South Wales takes you through some of Australia's most English countryside. Pastoral hills roll right up to the roadside and finish in grassy verges, flecked with yellow and white wildflowers. Alliums stand sentinel around vibrant lawns. Even the eucalypts are cosplaying as beech and oaks. You might be in Hampshire, if it weren't for the dazzling sun. Just a few roads from the high street storefronts full of fancy cookware and country casuals is the Bradman Oval.

No doubt someone, somewhere, in some fevered corner of the internet will come up with a counter view. If the universe of cricketing hot takes really is infinite, then logically there must be a feed, a page, a platform where a voice is saying, Jamie Smith and The Shot: on second thoughts. You might think this was a bad shot, perhaps even the Worst Shot. You might think all surviving footage of the shot should be pixelated in the interests of public safety, classified as a hate crime, scrubbed from the internet under the right to forget.

It's that time of year again, a time of lists and countdowns, of soul-crushing AI brain-vomit ringed by adverts for miracle dental implants. In the spirit of the season the tech website Feedpost produced its own list on New Year's Eve of the Top 100 Kid Influencers on Instagram And YouTube in 2025, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's fine and definitely not strange or creepy [narrator's voice: it is strange and creepy]. Don't think about end times.

Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is a new front row, a one-tonne scrum, a bomb squad if I'm extra good, and a solemn promise that I'll never again to subjected to a match that involves either Rassie Erasmus or Matthew Carley. Speaking of which, please don't send any more cards ...

Sanju Samson, covering for an injured Shubman Gill, used his first T20 since October to open with Abhishek Sharma and smash 63 runs inside six overs and 97 after nine. Samson's and Abhishek's 11-runs-per-over launch was extended by Varma and Pandya, who combined for 105 in 7.2 overs until they both fell in the last over. Varma hit a 30-ball fifty with his seventh boundary, and Pandya got to fifty in 16 balls thanks to his fifth six, over deep midwicket.

Like most other Aussies and people in the world, I was just horrified watching on, Cummins said. We had just put the kids to bed and flicked on the news as that was coming through. Me and my wife were watching in disbelief. It's a place that's just around the corner from where we live and we take the kids there all the time. It's hit home pretty hard. We really feel for the Bondi community and the Jewish community in particular.

Delivering. Like a postman delivers a council tax bill. Like a waiter delivers a round of drinks. Of all the verbs used to describe the bowling of a ball, this one speaks to the deep-seated cultural inequity that has plagued this sport since its inception. If there was ever a word that proves we live in a batter's world, this is it.

We worked as hard as we could in the lead-up to this, we had five days of prep and we did a huge amount of catching, Root said. We made sure we utilised those two [training] sessions under lights well. You can't replicate that surface, the bounce, the way the nicks come. It's never going to be exactly the same, it's never going to be perfect. All you can do is give yourself the best possible chance and I think we've done that.

"Reliance Industries Limited bought a 49% stake in the franchise, which has produced five title-winning teams in The Hundred, from the England and Wales Cricket Board in January. The deal worth about 60m has now formally been completed and the name change aligns the side with four other teams under Reliance ownership: MI Cape Town in South Africa's SA20, MI Emirates in the United Arab Emirates' International League T20, and MI New York in Major League Cricket in the United States."

The 34-year-old, you see, has proven beyond all doubt over an 11-year international career that he is a terrible hindrance to his team. Since the Tamworth-born terror made his Test debut in December 2014 he has played in 76 of Australia's 107 Tests, of which they have won 39 (51%), while losing 24 (32%). Decent numbers, but it's when you strip him from the side that they really thrive, with 22 wins (71%) and just five defeats (16%) in 31 games.

Just beyond the boundary's edge, a cockatoo flew into the hole in a eucalyptus tree where it is nesting. Beyond that, the Swan River flowed. Galahs, chests as pink as those any number of Englishmen will be sporting in a couple of weeks' time, snuffled on the grass. Other birds flitted around the park, even those with less eye-catching plumage sporting eye-catching names: black-faced cuckooshrikes; willie-wagtails. Um, ducks.

Aasif Manzoor, a 32-year-old cricketer from Anantnag, a district in the south of Indian-administered Kashmir, was readying himself on Saturday morning to play a match in a star-studded tournament. Retired global stars, local cricket icons and up-and-coming players were all part of the Indian Heaven Premier League (IHPL), which organisers had billed as a spectacle that they promised would grip the troubled region and draw large crowds.

Austin's cricket club, Ferntree Gully, posted on Facebook on Thursday calling on people to put your bats out for Benny, replicating the gesture that followed Hughes' death. Dozens of other posts under the hashtag #batsoutforben have followed, highlighting the impact the incident has had on Australia's cricket community. Cricket Victoria's chief executive, Nick Cummins, was emotional in addressing media on Thursday.

A chaotically entertaining game characterised by batting that was either and mostly shambolic or sensational was eventually settled by a belated outbreak of calm. Daryl Mitchell's sober 78 not out, most notably assisted by Michael Bracewell (51), took a side floundering at 24 for three and set them on the path to victory, ultimately wrapped up by four wickets and with 13.2 overs to spare.

It is seen on village greens and in Test arenas alike. It is there at the start of the game, just after the coin toss, and it is there at the end when the final run is struck or wicket falls. According to research from the University of Dundee it should last between one-and-a-half and three seconds, just long enough to reassure both participants, but not so long as to feel overbearing.

Surrey have added India spinner Rahul Chahar to their squad for the last County Championship game of the season with the league title going down to the wire.

It's just after 3pm on a Friday and 22-year-old Sinelethu Yaso is in her happy place. Her spotless cricket whites pop against the synthetic green turf, while the upbeat rhythms of kwaito music waft on the breeze as she ambles in to bowl. Beyond the boundary, in the Makhaza area of Khayelitsha township, in South Africa's Cape Flats, laundry flutters on a wire fence and the September sun reflects off a corrugated-iron lean-to.

It is clear that Richard Tice neither believes in free speech nor understands the Christian gospel, since he thinks the archbishop of York should not interfere with international migration policies (Richard Tice hits back at C of E criticism of Reform immigration policy, 31 August). Does he plan to tell Christians the matters on which we are now allowed to express opinions? Michael Sanderson Elsecar, South Yorkshire

Ben Geddes and Luke Hollman hit career-bests as Middlesex raced to a six-wicket win over strugglers Kent at Radlett to keep alive their hopes of a place in the knockout stages of the One-Day Cup.

Temba Bavuma reaches a half-century with a sweep for two runs, making 53 off 64 balls, guiding South Africa’s innings in a composed manner.

James Fuller, 35, showcased his experience with impressive bowling figures of 4-34, playing a pivotal role in dismantling Surrey's innings that collapsed to 160.