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IPL 2025 has brought back positive memories for Prasidh Krishna, marking his return to competitive T20 cricket after multiple injury layoffs. His previous T20 appearance was a tough outing against Australia in November 2023, conceding 68 runs in four wicketless overs. His most recent IPL game was in 2022, when he played 17 matches for Rajasthan Royals, which is perhaps why a strong start to this season was imperative.After a challenging time against Punjab Kings, Prasidh proved to be the point of difference in the middle overs, picking 2 for 18 in a match-winning effort against Mumbai Indians. Now, he returns to the Chinnaswamy, hoping to give his Gujarat Titans colleagues intel at a ground he’s played a lot of his cricket at.”It’s great to come back home and play in the stadium that we’ve grown up playing,” Prasidh said. “It is exciting, first game in Bangalore as well, so we’re looking forward to how it’s going to be. And yes, the team is excited about how the tournament has started. We’ve done quite a few things well; we’re trying to get better at a few things. So yeah, it is going to be exciting.”Prasidh admitted he felt some nerves upon his return to the IPL after two seasons. But feeling in great shape physically, after coming back from a lengthy back and quadriceps injury, has alleviated a lot of his fears.”As much as I try to tell myself that it’s just another tournament, just another game, I did feel that I’m coming in after a few years and especially coming in not having played a lot of T20s in the last two years,” Prasidh said. “Because the pace of the game has changed from 2022 to 2025.”So, it did take some time, but that’s the game, I think. It keeps moving forward and you have to keep up with the game. And not much has changed for me physically. I have thankfully been playing some cricket now [he was with India on their Test tour of Australia in 2024-25] and the body is letting me do what I want to do.Prasidh Krishna picked up 2 for 18 in his last game for Gujarat Titans•Getty Images

“Having played a lot of cricket here, you have an idea of what the pitch is going to be like. But no matter how well you know, I think that it comes down to execution that day. It comes down to how the game momentum goes and if you’re able to execute your plans well, I think you’ll be more or less doing well most of the time.”Prasidh has also enjoyed connecting with Ashish Nehra, the GT head coach. Among the areas he’s working on, apart from using his height to extract disconcerting bounce, are variations in the death overs.”Having played for so long and been so successful, I think it’s really important for me to pick his brain,” Prasidh said of Nehra. “The conversations have been on similar lines about the decisions that you make as a bowler, the preparation that you would go into games with.”Handling the situation, handling pressure, what would you do when you’re coming up against a challenge. So those are the kind of things that he’s been talking to me about, and it is great. You learn different things from different people and this is what I get to learn from Ashish Nehra.”Nehra aside, there’s also a boisterous energy in the fast-bowling group that was evident at training. There’s Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj and a big-brother-like figure in Ishant Sharma, who has been seen working with a lot of their young uncapped players.”That’s one lovely thing about the IPL. We have a lot of great bowlers in the team. We have a lot of youngsters that have a lot of potential. So, every time we get into the net session, there’s so much for us to watch and learn from each other.”And when you’re together, you build a relationship where you go and speak to people, find out how they approach the game, what they are thinking, what differently do they do compared to everybody that we play along with. So it is great to be rubbing shoulders with such experienced guys and also the new guys that are coming on.”

Australia are likely to have to alter their top order for the Champions Trophy semi-final after Matthew Short picked up a quad injury against Afghanistan which is expected to rule him out.Short suffered the injury late in Afghanistan’s innings and though he did open the batting alongside Travis Head, laboured between the wickets and was largely restricted to trying to hit boundaries.He managed to club his way to 20 off 15 balls in what became a useful opening stand of 44 in 4.3 overs before being caught at mid-on but captain Steven Smith admitted time wasn’t on Short’s side.”I think he’ll be struggling,” Smith said at the post-match presentation. “I think we saw tonight he wasn’t moving very well. I think it’s probably going to be too quick between games for him to recover.”Related

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Jake Fraser-McGurk, himself a replacement for the injured Mitchell Marsh, is the spare batter in the squad and would be a like-for-like swap for Short at the top of the order. However, there are other options Australia could consider with allrounder Aaron Hardie a possibility if someone else is moved up to open.”We’ve got a few guys there to come in and we’ll be able to fill a job,” Smith said.Cooper Connolly, the left-handed batter and left-arm spinner, is a travelling reserve and could come into the squad if Short was officially ruled out for the rest of the tournament.Matt Short injured himself in the field•AFP/Getty Images

Short’s absence would also remove a spin-bowling option from the attack. He did an excellent job against Afghanistan with his seven overs costing just 21. However, Australia do have a number of batters who can bowl spin with Head and Marnus Labuschagne, who took two wickets against England, not used on Friday.Australia suffered a number of injuries leading into the tournament with Marsh (back), Pat Cummins (ankle), Josh Hazlewood (hip) and Mitchell Starc (ankle) all missing while Marcus Stoinis announced his retirement.A complicating factor for both the teams who qualify from Group B – South Africa are favourites to join Australia – is that they won’t know whether they are playing the semi-final in Dubai or Lahore until the conclusion of the India-New Zealand game on Sunday night.Group B finishing positions will be known after South Africa play England on Saturday but while India (Dubai) and New Zealand (Lahore) are locked into their venues for the semi-finals their final group position will determine who they face.If South Africa beat England and top the group, Australia will play the winner of New Zealand-India; if England win, Australia will face the loser of that game.Both qualified teams will fly to Dubai early, to give whoever plays the first semi-final an extra day to prepare, but one side will then have to return to Pakistan*. Conditions in Dubai, where India play all their matches, have provided some assistance for the spinners. Australia do have legspinner Tanveer Sangha as another frontline option in their squad.Playing in Lahore would provide more familiar conditions for Australia with two of their group matches having taken place there including the one victory when they chased 352 against England. But there would still be a chance of them needing to travel to Dubai with the final hosted in the UAE should India qualify, otherwise it will be played in Lahore.10.30am GMT: This story was updated after confirmation of travel schedules

South Australia’s triumphant cricketers are setting their sights on an historic double. After soaking up their success in winning the one-day title, Nathan McSweeney’s team now want a long-elusive Sheffield Shield.McSweeney led SA to its first one-day title in 13 years with a comprehensive 64-run defeat of Victoria at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night. The double of a winning a one-day crown and the Shield in the same season has been achieved 11 times – but never by SA.Related

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Western Australia (five times), NSW (four times) and Victoria (twice) have completed the double. But McSweeney knows his adopted state, for so long the proverbial whipping boys of the domestic scene, may never have a better chance than now.”It’s a little bit of a monkey off the back,” McSweeney said after collecting the inaugural Dean Jones Trophy. “We’ll enjoy it but there’s a bigger picture – there’s a Shield final to play. Everyone loves winning. And for us to get a taste of it, hopefully it kick-starts us – I don’t think we’ll get sick of it.”SA haven’t won a Shield since 1995-96 but currently lead the four-day competition and are in prime position to host the final. With two games remaining, offering six points for each win, McSweeney’s team hold an 11-point break from next-best NSW. And McSweeney believes SA’s 50-over success will feed into the four-day format.

States to complete domestic double

Western Australia: 5 (1976-77, 1977-78, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24)

New South Wales: 4 (1984-85, 1992-93, 1993-94, 2002-03)

Victoria: 2 (1979-80, 2018-19)

*Domestic one-day tournament started in 1969-70

“It has obviously been a long time between titles,” he said. “The players we’ve got in our stable now have shown over the last couple years that we can do it.”It’s just, unfortunately, we had a bad hour in a Shield game or we had a bad hour in a one-day game and it has taken us out of the competition. We’re getting a little bit more consistent, as seen in the Shield table as well. So hopefully it’s the start of some strong years and it’s not just a one-off.”McSweeney said Ryan Harris, who replaced Jason Gillespie as SA’s head coach for this season, deserved much credit.”Something Ryan Harris has brought in to us is the belief,” he said. “We have defended 160 twice this year in the one-day comp. We got bowled out for 90 in the last Shield game and won. From positions that we shouldn’t be winning, we are. It’s a massive hats off to Ryano and the coaching staff.”

It was the length Australian spinners bowled that helped them take 20 Sri Lanka wickets so easily. This is what the stand-in captain Steven Smith felt after his team inflicted a record innings-and-242-run victory on Sri Lanka in the first Test.The Sri Lanka batters struggled substantially against the spinners, losing 17 wickets to them in Galle. Left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann took 9 for 149 in the match, to top the wicket-chart for the series so far.”I just think he bowls nice balls consistently,” Smith said of Kuhnemann. “Left-arm spinners to right-hand batters – it just works in the subcontinent.Related

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“He did a wonderful job when he bowled in India [where he took nine wickets across five innings in early 2023], and he bowled beautifully again in this game. It’s a pretty good effort.”Australia, unusually, played only one frontline seam bowler. Mitchell Starc has an outstanding record in Sri Lanka, but spin nevertheless claimed a bulk of the Sri Lanka wickets to fall in this Test, leaving just three for Starc.”I thought all the spinners worked really well together, and that’s the beauty of having three frontline spin bowlers,” Smith said. “You can sort of chop and change them, and as soon as one’s not looking quite as effective, and the batter gets a bit of a read on them or they get a little bit tired, you put the next one on and wait to see what’s happening.”But, while Australia’s spinners took 17 wickets in the Test, Sri Lanka’s spinners managed only the six.”For me, for [the] spinners it’s more length than pace,” Smith said. “If you can consistently hit a good length, then regardless of what’s going on, you’re going to be in play. If you can get the ball to skid or one to rag – the length where they’re lunging forward and can’t get back to it or they can’t drive at that length. If you’re hitting that consistently, your pace is kind of irrelevant, I think.”Australia scored 654 for 6 declared in the first innings. This is generally a position from which teams tend not to lose, and Australia felt especially confident, considering how quickly the pitch was deteriorating.”I think they lost 7 for 17 [7 for 15] across the day today at one point. It was one of those where it was really tough to start on, and as soon as we got a breakthrough, we always felt we could get another one quickly.”

No Result Persistent rain in Pallekele meant the final ODI between Sri Lanka and New Zealand was washed out, with Sri Lanka, who had won the first two games, taking the series 2-0. This is Sri Lanka’s fifth ODI series win this year.It was an anti-climactic end to a game that had begun with much promise, courtesy a fresh pitch that was expected to suit the batters as opposed to the more sluggish surfaces served up in the first two games.New Zealand, having won the toss, decided to take first lease of it and proceeded to get off to their best start of the series. The first ten overs saw them ticking along at a touch under six an over, despite not taking many risks. That was primarily down to the fact that nearly 40% of those runs had come off the wayward Dilshan Madushanka, whose two overs went for 23 runs.Related

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That was the last of Madushanka with the ball, but some sloppy efforts in the outfield meant it was a day to forget for the left-arm seamer who had just 12 months prior been one of the most sought-after seamers in world cricket following a stellar World Cup in India. That, though, seemed to be a lifetime ago as he struggled to maintain consistent lines and lengths. The first five boundaries of the New Zealand innings came of his bowling.At the other end though, Sri Lanka kept things relatively tight – first through seamer Mohamed Shiraz and then their bevy of spinners. The solitary wicket of the innings had in fact come courtesy Shiraz, playing just his second ODI and his first of the series, though it had also owed much to skipper Charith Asalanka who leapt high to his left at mid-off to hold on to a mistimed drive from Tim Robinson. Shiraz’s five overs went for 23 runs as both Robinson and Will Young were troubled by his late swing – 20 dot balls out of 30 legal deliveries spoke of his control.New Zealand, though, managed a scoring rate nearing six even after the powerplay, comfortably knocking the ball around despite Sri Lanka cutting off the boundary opportunities. Young and Henry Nicholls were largely untroubled, with the pair unbeaten on 56 and 46 respectively, and their partnership at a threatening 88 off 106, before rain brought play to a permanent end after just 21 overs.The abandonment of the game is a missed opportunity for both sides as they sought to test their bench strength. For the visitors, there was a debut for seamer Zakary Foulkes, who had impressed in the T20I leg, while fellow seamer Adam Milne also got his first game on the tour. They had come in for Nathan Smith and Jacob Duffy.Sri Lanka, meanwhile, made no less than five changes, with Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Kamindu Mendis, Dunith Wellalage and Asitha Fernando all making way. In came batters Nishan Madushka and Nuwanidu Fernando, seamers Madushanka and Shiraz, while there was also a debut for seam-bowling allrounder Chamindu Wickramasinghe – he bowled just two overs and gave away 14 runs.

West Indies 157 for 2 (Lewis 94) beat England 209 (Livingstone 48, Motie 4-41) by eight wickets (DLS) The only way is up as England seek to reboot their once-glorious white-ball fortunes, but on the evidence of a deeply one-sided first ODI against West Indies, the journey to the 2027 World Cup will be long, arduous and – perhaps most significantly – unfamiliar to a new generation of cricketers whose lack of experience in 50-over cricket was all too plain to see in Antigua.The format’s rhythms weren’t quite such a mystery to the man who gunned them down, however. Evin Lewis had been absent from West Indies’ ODI plans for more than three years until last weekend, when he announced his second coming with a 61-ball century in Sri Lanka. Now he added a startlingly violent 94 from 69 balls, making light of a two-paced pitch and a stodgy outfield to blaze eight sixes – one for each of the wickets by which his team eventually won. It might even have been nine for nine had he connected properly with the shot that got him out, an inside-out slap to wide long-off, with victory already in the bag.The result had scarcely been in doubt after Gudakesh Motie’s four-wicket haul had wrecked England’s hopes of a competitive total, but the only real challenge to West Indies’ dominance was the rain, which arrived at the end of the 15th over of their chase to briefly raise the prospect of a very unjust washout. West Indies were 81 for 0 by that point – with Lewis himself on 51 – but after an hour-long delay and the loss of 15 overs and 53 runs from the target, the skies cleared sufficiently for justice to be served on a red-raw England line-up featuring no fewer than four debutants.The power and poise of the run-chase was at total odds with the tentative fare that had preceded it. Whereas England had had to wait until the 32nd over of their innings before their stand-in captain Liam Livingstone struck the first of their two sixes on the night, Lewis himself outdid that tally four-fold, having waited just 11 deliveries before hoisting the lively pace of John Turner over the ropes at deep backward square.Gudakesh Motie claimed four wickets including Liam Livingstone•Getty Images

Even when Adil Rashid did him in flight in his second over, Lewis’ commitment to the aggressive option allowed him to find enough hang-time to leave deep midwicket sprawling for his fifth six in the space of 13 overs. He then followed that up by whipping Sam Curran through backward square for his first four of the night, and after bringing up his fifty from 46 balls, he jogged through for one more single before the rain break to reach his 2000th ODI run.Lewis’ sidekick Brandon King offered a more earthbound assessment of the tricky batting conditions, grinding along to 30 from 56 balls as Jofra Archer and Turner, making his long-awaited international bow, repeatedly harassed his outside edge in a lively but unrewarded powerplay gambit. King’s torturous stay might have ended in the first over after the rain delay, but Livingstone’s half-tracker lbw was found to have pitched outside leg. Instead, he fell to perhaps his most emphatic shot of the night – a full-blooded full through a Jacob Bethell long-hop that picked out deep square leg to end a 118-run opening stand.The damage, however, had long since been done, however, leaving Keacy Carty and Shai Hope to wrap up victory with 24.1 overs of their original allocation left unused. Even allowing for the absence of so many key personnel through injury and Test commitments, England’s shortcomings had been glaring in the extreme.After losing the toss and being asked to bat first, their innings was characterised by timid accumulation, reminiscent of their off-colour displays at the 2023 World Cup, interspersed with moments of frustration, with the majority of their wickets falling to misjudged attempts to clear the inner ring. By the 21st over, England were flatlining at 93 for 4, with each of the top four falling for scores between 17 and 27 – none of them at a strike-rate quicker than 82 – as if overawed by the responsibility of batting for more than twice as long as a standard T20 innings.West Indies did bowl with nous from the outset, not least Jayden Seales, who shrugged off a wicketless tour of Sri Lanka earlier this month by claiming both of England’s openers inside his first five overs.The first to fall was Phil Salt, whose third-ball blaze through the covers belied a notably sluggish outfield that would add to the sense of an innings with no momentum, and would ultimately vindicate Lewis’ decision to take the aerial route as much as possible. On 18 from 29 balls, Salt tried just that, but his toe-ended drive was well caught by Alzarri Joseph, running back in the covers, as his innings came to an end inside the powerplay for the 18th time in 23 ODIs.Will Jacks, promoted to opener in the absence of Ben Duckett and the injured Jos Buttler, then produced a near identical knock of 19 from 27, eventually skying an attempted launch off Seales to Motie at mid-on, to leave England neither here nor there at 46 for 2 in the 11th over.Matthew Forde’s lack of extreme pace was scarcely any less effective on a receptive surface that offered grip and bounce to his cutters. Jordan Cox projected confidence at No.3 in the first act of his extended international audition, with the prospect of a Test debut in New Zealand looming next month, but then ruined the impression with a horrid hack to deep third, while Bethell – another Test debutant-in-waiting – looked sparky as he kept the strike rotating, but also fell to an ungainly slog into the covers to hand Forde his second.Only the team’s relative old stagers – Livingstone and his de facto deputy Curran – found the gumption to thrive briefly in a fifth-wicket stand of 72. But their endeavours were derailed by a familiar recent nemesis. Motie’s wily offerings had been instrumental in West Indies’ twin series wins this time last year, and sure enough, he accounted for the senior men – most crucially Livingstone, who had just begun to step up his tempo with a calculated assault on the offspin of Roston Chase.But, after being given a life on 44 as the returning Shimron Hetmyer spilled a simple chance at short midwicket off Chase’s final delivery, Livingstone then popped a return catch back to Motie four runs later. When Curran holed out to long-on for 37, the tail came as meekly as the rest.John Turner, Jordan Cox, Dan Mousley and Jamie Overton show off their maiden ODI caps•Getty Images

Jamie Overton, making his ODI debut, had been singled out for his long-levered ability to hit sixes down the ground, but fell lbw to Motie as he missed a first-ball sweep, while Dan Mousley’s international debut was scarcely any more memorable, though he did at least connect well on the flat pull off Motie that picked out Lewis on the midwicket boundary for 6.Joseph had been expensive in his initial spell – not helped by some lax work in the outfield – but bounced back well with the late wickets of Archer and Rashid, England’s leading ODI run-scorer in this deeply inexperienced squad, who extended that lead by a further 15 runs to drag England’s total past 200. Not even the onset of the Antiguan rain could delay the inevitable for long.

Nottinghamshire took a hefty stride towards safety in Division One of the Vitality County Championship by reaching 393 for 6 at stumps after a dominant first day against Kent at Canterbury.Openers Ben Slater and Haseeb Hameed demoralised the division’s basement side with a stand of 196 for the first wicket: Slater made 160 from 217 balls, with 22 fours, while Hameed made a more pedestrian 56 from 142.Jack Haynes then inflicted further punishment with 62 and Nottinghamshire, who began the day in eighth, were aided by a total of 37 extras, 30 of which came from no-balls.Games at the Spitfire Ground have followed a pattern for Kent fans this season: a slow erosion of hope during the first innings before despair sets in during the second; there’s admirable but futile resistance in the third and then defeat in the fourth, if it goes that far.Last week’s trend-bucking draw with Hampshire at least allowed members a micro-measure of optimism going into this “48-pointer”, but even that had gone within the first half hour. In a pivotal game for both sides’ chances of staying in the division, Kent chose to bowl, only for Notts to race to 50 in just 53 balls.Kent handed a home debut to Akeem Jordan, but his first three overs went for 36 and he was replaced at the Pavilion End by Nathan Gilchrist.Slater was on 41 when he slashed at George Garrett, only for Jack Leaning to drop him at second slip and his 50 came after a misfield from Jordan. It was 134 for 0 at lunch, and the afternoon was only slightly less lopsided. Slater cracked Gilchrist through point for four to reach three figures and Hameed steered Jordan through third man to bring up his 50, before their stand was finally ended when Joey Evison bowled the latter.Freddie McCann then walked after he edged Gilchrist to Leaning for 8, although replays suggested it may not have carried, and Joe Clarke went for 18 when he pulled George Garrett to Gilchrist at deep fine leg, leaving Notts on 271 for 3 at tea.Leaning had Slater caught at first slip by Tawanda Muyeye but Haynes and Lyndon James responded with a partnership of 60 before Haynes was caught off a bottom edge by Muyeye off Gilchrist.James then fell to Jordan for 34 in the penultimate over, given out caught by Muyeye after a lengthy consultation by the umpires, leaving Luke Fletcher and Dane Schadendorf to bat through to stumps on 10 and 8 respectively.

Worcestershire all-rounder Tom Taylor produced a deadly spell with the ball on his way to career-best figures as Warwickshire were forced to follow on in the Vitality County Championship derby at Visit Worcestershire New Road.Taylor picked up five wickets in six overs this morning as Warwickshire were bowled out for 128 in 42.2 overs in their first innings. The 29-year-old finished with 6 for 28 as he surpassed his best figures of 6 for 47 for Leicestershire against Sussex at Hove in April 2019. His morning analysis was 5 for 6 from five overs and Warwickshire lost six wickets for 16 in 9.2 overs after resuming on 112 for 4.Taylor added one more in Warwickshire’s second innings when they followed on 179 runs in arrears to take his tally to 23 wickets in five Championship games for Worcestershire.The visitors provided sterner opposition the second time around, with captain Alex Davies and Will Rhodes both hitting half-centuries. But Matthew Waite, Ethan Brookes and that man Taylor picked up a wicket apiece to leave Warwickshire still eight runs in arrears.Warwickshire resumed 195 in arrears but were quickly plunged into trouble by Taylor’s dynamic wickets burst. The pace bowler had deserved a greater reward than one wicket for his efforts on the second day but quickly made an impact on the third morning.His second delivery accounted for Hamza Shaikh who pushed forward and was taken by keeper Gareth Roderick away to his right. Michael Burgess fenced at a Taylor delivery and Brookes held onto the chance at second slip.Taylor then struck with the first two deliveries of his third over of the morning to complete his five-for. Danny Briggs was LBW after attempting to work to leg and then Michael Rae was beaten all ends up and bowled. Taylor then had figures for 5 for 27 and had taken four wickets in the space of 13 balls.Oliver Hannon-Dalby was yorked by Taylor to complete his career-best performance, and then Logan van Beek wrapped up the innings as Ed Barnard holed out to club captain Brett D’Oliveira at deep midwicket.D’Oliveira enforced the follow on with van Beek and Matthew Waite sharing the new ball. Waite picked up the wicket in his first over of Rob Yates who was beaten by an in-swinging delivery and plumb LBW.There was still enough in the pitch to encourage the seam bowlers but Alex Davies, who yesterday became the first player to score 1,000 Division One runs this summer, and Will Rhodes provided determined resistance.Young pace bowler Jack Home was on the receiving end of some fine stroke-play from Davies, conceding three successive fours to the Warwickshire captain during a spell costing 41 runs. Davies completed a 73-ball half century with nine fours and a six and also brought up the 100 in the 27th over.The century partnership spanned 162 deliveries and was worth 115 in total when Ethan Brookes accounted for Davies in similar fashion to the first innings. Davies tried to steer the ball square on the offside but it nipped back sharply and he only succeeded in playing onto his stumps for the second time in the gameBrookes delivered an excellent post-lunch spell of 1 for 5 from seven overs, including four maidens, before Rhodes brought up his half-century from 117 balls with seven boundaries.But Taylor came back into the attack after tea and his fourth delivery accounted for Sam Hain, who aimed a blow to the on side and was leg before to a full length ball shortly before the heavens opened.

In-form Dom Sibley’s second hundred in three matches spurred Surrey to end a run of five straight defeats with their first Metro Bank One-Day Cup victory of the season, dealing a blow to Leicestershire’s hopes of qualifying for the knock-out stages.Sibley followed his 149 against Warwickshire and 72 versus Nottinghamshire with 105, sharing stands of 138 for the first wicket with Ryan Patel (72) and 111 for the second with Ben Geddes (61) as Surrey totalled 296 for 6. It proved enough despite losing five wickets in the last eight overs.The Foxes were given a chance as opener Sol Budinger maintained his place as the competition’s leading run scorer by hitting 70 from 68 balls and Tom Scriven’s career-best 55 raised hopes of a gripping finish for a crowd of almost 1,400 but ultimately proved in vain, leg-spinner Cameron Steel taking 3 for 48 for the victors.All-rounders Ian Holland, with 2 for 50, and Scriven, with 2 for 51, were the pick of the Foxes bowlers, with 19-year-old seamer Sam Wood taking 1 for 34 on his List A debut.If the Foxes finished well with the ball, the start provided by Sibley and Patel with the bat was comfortably Surrey’s best of the season.Asked to bat first on an overcast morning, Surrey were 51 without loss from 10 overs and were 125 for nothing by halfway, Sibley having gone to fifty from 59 balls with Patel reaching his from 72.Patel suffered an unlucky dismissal. Shaping to hook the tall Wood, he seemed to be hit on the shoulder before the ball deflected off his helmet on to the stumps.Geddes maintained Surrey’s positive start. Dropped by Chris Wright at fine leg on 35 off Liam Trevaskis, he cashed in to the tune of 26 more runs before falling to a catch at deep midwicket off Roman Walker.Sibley had gone to his hundred from 115 balls in the 42nd over with his 11th four but soon miscued to long-off, giving Scriven wickets in consecutive overs after Rory Burns was bowled sweeping.Holland then had Josh Blake caught at backward point and 19-year-old Surrey debutant Ollie Sykes at long-on, a fifth wicket to fall in seven overs with Surrey slipping from 249 for 1 to 286 to 6.The Foxes’ chase suffered a double stumble to leave them 49 for 2 from 10 after Holland picked out deep backward square off James Taylor and Lewis Hill was caught behind off Conor McKerr.Ajinkya Rahane had an escape when he was spilled at cover on four off McKerr, which was beginning to look like an expensive drop by Steel as he and Budinger began to accelerate, the latter passing fifty for the fourth time in five innings, the run including 120 against Essex at Chelmsford. But Rahane could make only 27 before he was caught at midwicket off Patel, the ball perhaps sticking in the pitch a little.Budinger and Peter Handscomb shared a match-winning 113-run partnership against Essex on this ground last year but could add only 48 this time before Budinger holed out to deep midwicket.It felt like a significant moment at 142 for 4 in the 26th, one that was amplified two overs later as Handscomb hit straight to cover, both batters falling to Steel.Trevaskis was bowled by left-arm spinner Yousef Majid and Cox fell leg-before to McKerr. Scriven’s 45-run eighth-wicket stand with Wood, stumped off Steel for 22, kept the contest alive, Scriven hitting two sixes, but 20 off Taylor in the last over was always unlikely and the match ended with Scriven falling to a stunning catch by Patel at backward point as Leicestershire were all out for 279.With three wins from five, qualification for the knock-out stages is still possible, although Group B leaders Warwickshire and Glamorgan both have five wins from five.Both sides wore black armbands and a minute’s silence was observed at the start of the match as the cricket world mourns the loss of great England and Surrey servant Graham Thorpe.

India captain Rohit Sharma lauded his team’s calmness under pressure as they beat England in the T20 World 2024 semi-final comprehensively to secure a third straight ICC final across formats. On Saturday, India will play South Africa to try and break their 11-year trophy drought at a world event.”We’ve been very calm as a team,” Rohit said after India’s 68-run win in Georgetown on Thursday afternoon. “We do understand the occasion [of a final], but for us, it’s important to keep calm and composed.”That helps us make good decisions. We need to make good decisions through the 40 overs. In this game too, we were steady and calm, and didn’t panic too much. That has been the key for us. Yes, we do understand the occasion is important, but we need to play good cricket as well.”Related

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• Rohit, Axar and Kuldeep lead India's dismantling of England in semi-final

• Eng vs Ind Highlights – Rohit, Axar and Kuldeep put India in the final

Rohit termed the win over England as “very satisfying”, especially given this contest was a repeat of the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final. Then, in Adelaide, India crashed to a ten-wicket defeat as Jos Buttler and Alex Hales made light work of England’s 169-run target.Two years on, it was India’s spinners who turned the tables on England on what was a slow, low turner where Rohit laid down the marker to help India post 171 for 7, which he felt was well above par.”Yeah, it’s very satisfying to win this game,” Rohit said. “We’ve worked really hard to come to this stage, and to win the game like that was a great effort from everyone. I thought we played to the conditions really well; that’s been the success story for us so far. If bowlers and batters understand and play according to the conditions, things fall in place. It’s very pleasing how we came through.”Rohit top scored in the game with 57 off 39 balls, but the conditions were tough. A spell of rain eight overs into the game added to his challenge of kicking India’s innings into gear with Suryakumar Yadav. The pair added 73 in just 8.2 overs to give India a chance to aim for a competitive score.”At one stage, we were feeling 140-150 was a good score as the game went on,” Rohit said. “Then we got some runs in the middle, me and Surya got that partnership, and then we said, ‘Okay another 25 more’. I can set a target in my mind but I don’t want to let anyone know about it. They’re all instinctive players, so I want them to go out and play freely without thinking about the par score. We know when we understand the conditions well, we will get to a good score; [and] that’s what happened, and the bowlers were fantastic.”Kuldeep Yadav picked three wickets as India outplayed England•ICC/Getty Images

Rohit was effusive in his praise for the Indian spinners who applied the brakes on England. Axar Patel started England’s slide by dismissing Buttler off his very first delivery in the fourth over, and then had Jonny Bairstow with an arm-ball in his second. He finished with 3 for 23 off his four overs to walk away with the Player-of-the-Match award.Axar was complemented by Kuldeep Yadav, who also was magnificent. His dismissal of Harry Brook after being reverse swept was particularly noteworthy because of the subtle change in his line of attack. Kuldeep, like Axar, also picked up three wickets.”They are gun spinners,” Rohit said. “When conditions are like that in front of them, it’s very difficult to play some shots. Yes, the pressure is on them to execute those balls, but they were very calm and knew what to bowl. We had a chat after the first innings: the plan was to hit the stumps as much as possible and keep the stumps in play, [and] that’s what they did.”Amid the cheer, Rohit also backed Virat Kohli to come out of his string of low scores in this T20 World Cup. Kohli was dismissed for 9 on Thursday as he was clean bowled by Reece Topley looking to slog one over the leg-side boundary. Kohli has so far aggregated 75 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 100 this World Cup.”Look, he’s a quality player, and you can go through that,” Rohit said. “We understand his class and importance in big games. Form is never a player when you’ve played for 15 years. He’s looking good, the intent is there, [and] probably he’s saving himself for the final.”Speaking to Star Sports, coach Rahul Dravid also backed Kohli while saying he was loving the “intent” and “attitude” the opening batter was showing.”You know with Virat, the thing is, when you play a slightly high-risk brand of cricket there can be times when it doesn’t come off. Even today, I thought he hit a really good six to set the tempo but he was just unlucky that the ball seamed a little bit more. But I love the intent, I love the way he went about doing it. It sets a good example for the group as well if he’s willing to do it. And you know, for some reason, I don’t want to jinx it but I think there’s a big one coming up. I’m just loving his attitude and that he’s committing himself on the field – I think he deserves it.”