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Shubman Gill may be only 25 years old, but Kane Williamson has no doubt that he has all the qualities of a good captain. Williamson, who briefly played under Gill’s captaincy at Gujarat Titans (GT) during IPL 2024, said that he “communicates clearly” and has “conviction in his thoughts”, virtues that every good captain needs to have.”He’s a very well put together human,” Williamson told ESPNcricinfo. “A great cricketing brain and cares about his team-mates. He’s very sure on how he wants to go about his business, which I think it’s a really strong leadership quality and quite infectious, so there’s no surprises really that he’s touted for leadership for some of the Indian sides in the near future.”He’s got some really clear thoughts about how he wants to captain. And you know, that’s important. You have some thoughts and you do it with conviction and you learn and you try and get better – and he’s got all of that. He’s got that capability, and you see it in the way he plays, the way you can adjust from format to format, from Test cricket to T20 cricket. He’s done it all at the highest level. So yeah, I think he’s a special player and going to be a fine leader as well.”Related

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Williamson also said that when Gill speaks up, his team-mates take heed. He also liked Gill’s authenticity and his strong desire to be the best.”He’s clear, concise and to the point, so when it was time to speak, he would stand up, and when he spoke people listened,” Williamson added. “And that’s a really strong quality to have – to know when to say something, and when not to. There’s messages within both those sort of situations.”He looks after his body. He trains really hard. He spends a lot of time in the gym, conscious of what he eats. The game demands a lot from you, and if you want to play all formats and you want to be at the top, that’s what it takes, and he’s more than willing to give his time and energy to be the best. He has a strong desire to be that.When you watch him train and you watch him play, something that stands out is the time that he has. He’s got so much time, whether the wicket’s doing a little bit, whether he’s facing guys bowling high speed or moving the ball, he’s so still. He hits the ball in conventional areas, but very, very hard. He’s a beautiful timer of the ball and has a lot of time.”‘I’ve never really seen him too overawed’•Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

Even though Gill has the potential to be an all-format player, he has not cemented his place across all three formats just yet. Williamson says that being a leader is one thing, but the player still has to fulfil their format-specific roles in the team first. Gill is already India’s ODI vice-captain, and Williamson feels his addition to the national team’s leadership group is a sign of who takes India forward in the next few years.”Every leader has a job to do with the skills that they have. With bat, ball, whatever it is, but you’re trying to pick the best leader for the group that you have. They’ve clearly identified Shubman as that person by bringing him into perhaps some of the vice-captaincy roles to get a closer understanding of how the leadership of the team works under Rohit [Sharma], who’s done it so successfully for such a long period of time.”I think that’s probably what that vice-captaincy role really means. That there’s a guy here that we know is going to perhaps take this team forward. So how can we bring him in a little bit closer to get an understanding of how the Indian team have had so much success. There’s a lot of good that’s happening there clearly, so sharing that information is really important.”I’ve never really seen him too overawed. He’s on this path of getting better and better. He’s got strong aspirations to keep doing that, and, and I’m sure we’re just going to continue to see it in these other formats.”IPL 2025 will be Gill’s second season as a full-time IPL captain. In his first season after taking over from Hardik Pandya, GT finished eighth last season, their worst performance across their first three seasons. Armed with a new-look team after the auction, Gill will be keen to make GT consistent again, like they were in IPL 2022 and 2023, finishing as debutant champions and runners-up in successive years.

It might, from a distance, look like a wild punt on youth. But Grace Scrivens, England’s former Under-19 captain, is emerging as a contender to be Heather Knight’s long-term successor in the senior women’s team, after being named as captain for the T20I leg of England A’s multi-format tour of Australia.Scrivens, 21, will take charge for the first of three matches against Australia A at Hurstville Oval in Sydney on Wednesday, with Durham captain Hollie Armitage set to lead the 50-over team next week*. Even though she has yet to make her full England debut, Scrivens’ director of cricket at Essex, Andy Tennant, believes she could thrive in the role, just as Graeme Smith did when he was appointed as South Africa captain at a similarly young age back in 2003.”It reminds me back to when Michael Atherton was called the ‘Future England Captain’ when he was at Lancashire,” Tennant said. “That mantle has been placed on Grace’s head. Hopefully, one day, she will become the England captain. I think she would be a bloody good one. But we still need to remember, she’s still only 21.”England A’s tour has taken on heightened significance in the wake of a turbulent weekend for the women’s set-up. Earlier this year, England’s 16-0 points defeat in the Ashes prompted an extensive review by the ECB, and the upshot is now the departure of both the captain and head coach, Jon Lewis, who was sacked on Friday after just over two years in his role.The ECB had not initially named any captains for the seven-match tour, although Scrivens and Armitage, along with The Blaze’s Kirstie Gordon and the withdrawn Bryony Smith, were the only players in the multi-format squads with extensive leadership experience. Last season Scrivens led Sunrisers to victory in the final staging of the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy, while in 2023, she was named in the ICC’s team of the tournament after leading England to the final of the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa, where they lost to the favourites, India.Sunrisers have since moved their set-up across to Chelmsford, following Essex’s successful bid to be a Tier 1 professional women’s county. Speaking prior to Knight’s departure, Tennant – who has joined the club alongside 14 of last year’s 16-person squad – was unfazed about the speculation surrounding the team’s young leader.”One of the beauties of Grace as a leader is she recognises she’s young, she recognises she’s got a distance to go, but that in itself is so powerful, because she’s hungry to learn,” he said. “She’s hungry to get better. We’ve seen those leadership qualities in her, and we’re keen to help her grow with them.”Grace Scrivens holds the 2024 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy aloft•Getty Images for Surrey CCC

England have had just three full-time women’s captains since 2000 – Clare Connor, Charlotte Edwards and Knight – with the latter pair’s tenures spanning 11 and nine years respectively.Knight’s long stint has left alternatives within the current set-up thin on the ground. Nat Sciver-Brunt, her official vice-captain, does not appear to covet the role, while similar doubts surround other senior players, such as Amy Jones, Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Sophie Ecclestone. Tammy Beaumont, Welsh Fire’s captain, is a potential short-term appointment although, at 34, she is the same age as Knight, and is not currently a part of England’s T20I set-up.Scrivens herself has yet to make her senior England debut, although a step-up seems only a matter of time given her strong Under-19 record of 293 runs at 41.85. And if, ultimately, another long-term appointment is deemed to be the way to go for England, then Tennant is confident that she would be ready to grow with the role.”She feels to me a little bit like the English Graeme Smith,” Tennant said, referencing South Africa’s former captain who was appointed at the age of 22, after just eight previous Test appearances. He went on to captain his side in 109 Tests across 11 years, before retiring while still in the role in 2014.”She’s that feisty left-hander,” Tennant said. “She plays the game aggressively. She’s a scholar of the game. She loves it. So I think down the line, I’d love her to captain England, and I think she’d be very good at it.”England A’s preparations for the T20I series suffered a blow when Danielle Gibson, one of the squad’s more experienced players, was ruled out of the tour with a stress fracture of the back. She will fly home to undergo rehabilitation at Somerset, with Essex’s Eva Gray called up as a replacement.2pm GMT – This story was updated following the captaincy announcements and Gibson’s injury

Sri Lanka Cricket will conduct an inquiry over allegations that Dasun Shanaka left a first-class match in Colombo hours early, in order to play for the Dubai Capitals in the UAE that same evening, on February 2.The board’s chargesheet to Shanaka includes the allegation that first-class match referee Wendell Labrooy had been led to believe Shanaka had a concussion, in order to approve a substitute. This is according to SLC CEO Ashley de Silva, who told ESPNcricinfo “SSC [Shanaka’s first-class club] would probably be conducting their own inquiry as well”.Shanaka, however, told ESPNcricinfo that de Silva and others had been aware that he would have to leave the first-class match early. According to Shanaka, he had left the ground soon after being dismissed on the third morning of the the three-day match. He said he visited a doctor at a nearby hospital first, to inspect a blow to the neck he had sustained while playing a sweep shot that morning, and then headed off to Dubai to play that evening’s T20, after a separate physiotherapist had cleared him to play.”SLC and the club knew I had to leave,” Shanaka said. “I only came back because there was a request from the SSC to play this first-class match. But my other team wanted me back, as I’d helped win two games for them earlier in the tournament.”For SLC, however, exiting a league game early, particularly with suspect reasons, is problematic, not that it has yet been established if there actually was any pretense involved. The board CEO de Silva explained that while Lasith Malinga had also famously played a Mumbai Indians match and then broken records in a domestic match in Pallekele match the next day, Malinga had played until both those matches reached their conclusion.On the surface, though, Shanaka’s looks like a spectacular cricketing feat. He had been among the three players called back from the ILT20 by the SSC for their fixture against Moors Sports Club in the Major League Tournament, as SSC strove to avoid relegation. Shanaka had played the first two days of this three-dayer, bowling 21 overs and taking a wicket in Moors’ innings, before finishing on 39 not out at the end of day two.Day three is when the absconding is alleged to have occurred, but before he left, Shanaka crashed a further 84, hitting 123 off 87 balls in total, 88 of those runs coming in boundaries. Though SSC’s innings ended not long after he got out, Shanaka did not bowl an over in the next Moors innings (the third of the match), and played no further part in the game.What is clear is that several hours later, he appeared for the Capitals in Dubai, and struck 34 off 12 at No. 5, helping his team to 217 against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders. He didn’t bowl in the Knight Riders’ innings either, however.Capitals would go on to win the ILT20, Shanaka playing three further games for them. He has not appeared for SSC since February 2.

Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 161 in the second innings of the first Test against Australia in Perth was “probably his best Test innings”, captain Jasprit Bumrah said after India’s 295-run win. Bumrah was also all praise for Virat Kohli for his unbeaten 100, saying he had never looked “out of form” despite having endured a run of low scores heading into the series.”Out of all these innings, he [Jaiswal] had a great start to his career,” Bumrah told the host broadcaster. “But the way he played in the last innings was probably his best Test innings so far because he left the ball. He has an attacking nature, but he left the ball well and played long. That really helped us.”Jaiswal broke several records on his way to 161, one of which was becoming the second player to convert his first four centuries into 150-plus scores. He bounced back after a duck in the first innings, playing a patient innings in tricky conditions, putting up a 201-run opening stand with KL Rahul. Jaiswal is just 15 Tests into his career and averages 58.07.Related

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Kohli, coming into this series on the back of averaging 15.50 over three home Tests against New Zealand, brought up his century in 143 balls to lift India’s total to 487 for 6 declared, setting Australia a massive 534 target.”I have said this before, Virat Kohli doesn’t need us, we need him,” Bumrah said at the press conference. “He is an experienced player. This is his fourth or fifth tour. So he knows his cricket better than anyone else. He looked in good shape, he was mentally switched on. Sometimes when you have such a long career, you bat in tough conditions and he has batted in tough scenarios for a long time, but it’s difficult to do that all the time in every match.”But he looked to be in a good space and obviously, he got a good delivery in the first innings, but he was still in a great space and he capitalised in the second innings. We needed an experienced batter then. He also played well, and helped his partners play well as well. So obviously, when he gets confidence at the start of the series, you can’t ask for more than that.”After being bowled out for 150 on day one, India came back strongly with the ball thanks in particular to an excellent bowling display from their captain. Bumrah revealed what he said to his team at the end of their first innings.”We were put under pressure in the first innings, but the way we responded after that, I’m really very proud of the team,” Bumrah said.”I played here in 2018, so I remember that when you start here, the wicket is a little soft and then becomes quicker and quicker. So I was relying on that experience. Obviously this wicket was a little less spicy than the last one that I played here, but we were really well prepared.”So I was just telling everyone to have faith in their process and ability because over here at this moment you have an opportunity to do something special. So on a given day, experience does matter, but if you have faith in your ability, you can do something special.”

Following his Ranji Trophy century for Delhi against Tamil Nadu on Sunday, batter Yash Dhull expressed his gratefulness to be back in action following a heart surgery in July. It was a “minor” issue, he said, but one that could have caused serious issues later on if not addressed.Dhull held Delhi together with an unbeaten 103 out of 264 for 8 in reply to Tamil Nadu’s mammoth 674 for 6 declared at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. This is Dhull’s first competitive tournament since his surgery.”This was a very important innings for me because this is after surgery,” Dhull said after the day’s play. “I have seen a lot. When you come back to playing on such a platform and start a new innings, this is good motivation and a positive sign.”Speaking of the issue that forced the surgery, Dhull, who will turn 22 in November, said: “I got to know it is minor and from birth [congenital]. [But] I am playing at the ground again, this is God’s doing. I am blessed.”I got to know [of the issue] during a camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. This is life. Something or the other happens.”This was a congenital problem. Normally the surgery happens after birth. Mine has happened very late. That we got to know was very important. Because after the age of 35, this would have harmed. Being back on the field makes me very happy.”Dhull, who has previously captained India’s Under-19 team, completed his sixth first-class century here, in his 25th first-class game. He scored 10 in his previous game, against Chhattisgarh, which was his first since February. He said he was just looking to go about his batting as usual. “I haven’t made any changes. I am focusing on doing what I have always done and I believe in that.”This was a very important innings personally. I told to myself that and visualised [what I would do].”With one day to go in the game, Delhi will be looking to hold Tamil Nadu off and prevent them from growing their lead at the top of Group D.

A frustrating wait over the Gabba’s future has prompted a joint plea for a new 2032 Olympic stadium from tenants Queensland Cricket and AFL club Brisbane Lions.A letter has been sent by the sporting bodies to Premier David Crisafulli urging him to reconsider his new stadium ban, backing a proposed AU$3.4 billion Victoria Park venue as the Brisbane Games centrepiece.They now want to meet with the premier to discuss the Gabba’s future, seeking assurances over a venue plan to ensure both sports will survive and “doesn’t send us broke”.Related

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Mr Crisafulli threw out Labor’s Olympic venue plan after winning the October 26 election, with an independent body set to launch a 100-day review and provide a new 2032 blueprint.However the Liberal National Party leader has repeatedly ruled out building a new Olympic stadium.Queensland Cricket and the Brisbane Lions are unfazed, saying they hope “common sense will prevail” when they speak with the premier after enduring an anxious wait over the Gabba’s future.”We’re hoping to meet with the new premier and his team over the next couple of weeks,” Queensland Cricket CEO Terry Svenson told reporters on Friday.”[It is] just really to talk about what our expectations are but I guess more the frustrations that we have had over the last 18 months.”The Gabba was initially set to be knocked down and rebuilt for AU$2.7 billion under the Labor government for the 2032 Games before that was scrapped amid a backlash over rising costs.It was then set for a $600 million Olympic facelift under Labor before plans went back to square one under the new LNP government.Mr Svenson said “everything is on the table” for their government talks but backed the proposed 55,000-capacity Victoria Park stadium pitch.An independent Olympic venue review earlier this year claimed the Gabba would reach the end of its life in 2030 and was in “poor condition”.Uncertainty over the ageing facility’s future has ensured the Gabba is scrambling to host prestige international cricket matches as Australia’s No. 5 ranked Test venue.Mr Svenson said Queensland Cricket and the Lions wanted a decision on the Gabba’s fate sooner rather than later so they could plan for the future.Both sporting codes would need to find another home venue if the Gabba is revamped or replaced, with Queensland Cricket alone facing up to AU$40 million in displacement costs.”If displacement is back on the table we actually need to have that conversation with the government,” Mr Svenson said. “If this place gets knocked down and rebuilt where do the Lions play, where does Australian cricket play? It’s important for us to have certainty that it doesn’t send us broke.”Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie on Friday said he had not seen the letter but was “happy to look into it”.However, he backed its 100-day review, sticking with the government’s “no new stadium” mantra.

Eoin Morgan believes that England must recall Joe Root and Ben Stokes to their white-ball set-up ahead of next year’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan.Root and Stokes last played ODIs at the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, where England’s attempt to defend the title they won for the first time under Morgan’s leadership in 2019 culminated in an ignominious group-stage exit. Neither player will feature in the three-match series against West Indies which starts later this month, but England have hinted they are still in the mix.Stokes was unavailable for England’s 3-2 series defeat against Australia last month due to injury, though would have been unlikely to feature regardless, while Root was rested to give him a break between Test series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. England were also missing Mark Wood and Jos Buttler through injury, with Harry Brook captaining in Buttler’s absence.Related

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“At the moment, I’m happy to back the younger players,” Morgan said at the launch of the International Masters League in Mumbai on Tuesday. “In the recent series against Australia, they found a template. Australia, you have to commend how good they are at the moment in all formats of the game. But when you put them up against a side that, at stages, didn’t have [Jofra] Archer, no Wood, Stokes and Root as well, no Buttler, that’s half your England team.”The run chase at Durham, when Harry Brook scored that magnificent hundred and then just went on to find his feet as captain… the template that they found in that game, I thought, is one that really suits the players that they’ve selected. I would encourage them to continue with that template and look ahead to the Champions Trophy.”England only play six more ODIs before the Champions Trophy next year: three in the Caribbean, and three more in India in early February. Morgan believes that the West Indies series will provide their younger players with an opportunity to make their cases for inclusion, but that Brendon McCullum should bring the big guns back when he takes over as white-ball coach in January.”Ben Stokes has already said that he hasn’t had the call yet from Baz as to whether he will play or not,” Morgan said. “If that call comes, obviously he would love to play. In my eyes, they’ve got to come into a major world tournament and look to win it, and that means trying to find the best team – and for me, Stokes and Root are in that best team.”The younger players playing in the upcoming series against the West Indies, and then coming here [India] in February, the opportunity is there in front of your face. And that opportunity can be quickly taken away when those big names come back.”

West Indies 176 for 3 (Pooran 65*, Hope 51, Athanaze 40, Baartman 2-30) beat South Africa 174 for 7 (Stubbs 76, Kruger 44, Forde 3-27, Shamar 2-40) by seven wicketsWest Indies pulled off the highest successful T20 chase at the Brian Lara Academy in Tarouba to go 1-0 up in the three-match series against South Africa.After deciding to bowl first, moments before heavy rain delayed the start of play by an hour, West Indies took control when they had South Africa 42 for 5 after eight overs. South Africa recovered thanks to a sixth-wicket partnership of 71 runs from 50 balls between Patrick Kruger and Tristan Stubbs, before Stubbs and Bjorn Fortuin shared a seventh-wicket stand of 60 off 25 balls to give the innings much needed acceleration. Matthew Forde, playing his third T20I, equalled his career-best figures of 3 for 27.West Indies were always in control of the chase. Shai Hope and Alick Athanaze put on 84 in 49 balls for the opening wicket before Hope and Nicholas Pooran’s 54-run partnership, off 33 balls, broke South Africa’s back. Pooran was particularly severe on an inexperienced South Africa’s attack and scored his fastest T20I fifty – off 20 balls – and finished unbeaten on 65 off 26.Without the core of their attack, especially as Lungi Ngidi was ruled out of the series with a calf strain before the match began, South Africa’s depth was tested. They fielded their youngest-ever debutant, Kwena Maphaka, at 18 years and 137 days, and he picked up his first international wicket when he had West Indies captain Rovman Powell caught at extra cover. By then, West Indies needed just three runs to win and Roston Chase finished things off with a four off the next ball. West Indies won the match with 13 balls to spare.

West Indies’ early triple-strike

Powell’s decision to bowl first paid off almost immediately when, after an impressive three-run opening over from Akeal Hosein, Forde made the first incision: Ryan Rickelton reached to cut a short, wide ball and toe-ended to Pooran. Aiden Markram countered with a strong reverse sweep and pull off Hosein but then hit Forde straight to Gudakesh Motie at mid-on. Two balls later, Reeza Hendricks got a leading edge to Shamar Joseph’s first delivery, which swirled to Hosein at deep third and continued a miserable run for the opener. Hendricks has gone past 20 in only two of his last 11 T20I innings.South Africa struggled through their powerplay and ended on 33 for 3. Rassie van der Dussen was strangled down leg as soon as the fielding restrictions were lifted and Joseph had his second.

Sensational Stubbs

South Africa were in trouble at 42 for 5 after eight overs with all their recognised batters, bar Stubbs, back in the dugout. Stubbs initially played out of character and had just 13 runs off his first 16 balls. His first sign of intent came when he sent Motie over long-on for the biggest six of the innings, but it was only after Kruger’s innings ended that Stubbs took control.Tristan Stubbs accelerated from 25 off 23 balls to finish with 76 off 42 balls•AFP/Getty Images

He took successive fours off full deliveries from Forde either side of the wicket, and then reached fifty off 33 balls when he hit Joseph over cover point. He scored 23 runs off the last six balls he faced, and was going for six more when he holed out to long-on on the penultimate ball of the innings. But with 174 on the board, he had given his bowlers something to defend.

Hope and Athanaze give West Indies dream start

It took ten deliveries before West Indies scored their first boundary, but when they did, the floodgates opened. Athanaze, opening the batting in his second T20I, swept Fortuin over long leg, then Hope deposited Ottneil Baartman over long-off and through deep-backward square-leg, but the real damage was done in the fifth over. Athanaze plundered 20 runs off Nandre Burger, including two sixes over deep square-leg, and a gorgeous late cut that went for four and forced South Africa to turn to a fifth bowler within the powerplay. Aiden Markram bowled himself but was even more expensive as he went for 21. Hope scored 16 of those runs off three balls – two of them down-on-one-knee sixes over long-on and long-off – to help West Indies complete an impressive 75-run powerplay.

Pooran’s four successive sixes all but finishes off

With 70 runs off 54 balls required for the win, Pooran saw an opportunity to end things quickly when Burger was brought back in the 12th over. After Hope got off strike, Burger tried a slower ball to Pooran, who had more than enough time to hit him straight over long-off for a 77-metre six. Burger’s next ball was also pace-off and ended up being a full toss and Pooran helped it over midwicket and into the stands. The next two balls were faster and still full and Pooran had his eye in. He hit Burger down the ground for two more sixes to take the equation down to 45 off 48 balls. West Indies lost a couple of wickets but reached the target comfortably in the end.

It didn’t quite reach the climax the third evening had promised, but the one-off Ireland vs Zimbabwe Test had most results possible for the best part of the morning session on the fourth day till Ireland killed off the contest. Ireland had been reduced to 21 for 5 after a fiery spell from Richard Ngarava on the third evening, which had left the small band of Zimbabwe supporters in Belfast delirious. But Lorcan Tucker’s second Test fifty and Andy McBrine’s third ensured Ireland silenced them quickly – and took away the match – with a 96-run stand on the fourth morning.That paved the way for Ireland’s first home Test win, and also gave them back-to-back victories in the format, after they had beaten Afghanistan for their Test first win this March.Play began on day four with the sun out, and conditions perfectly suited for batting. It was brighter than on previous days, the zip which the pitch had offered Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani the previous evening was missing, and Tucker and McBrine capitalised.Lorcan Tucker played positively from the start of the day despite the shaky position Ireland were in•Sportsfile via Getty Images

Zimbabwe maintained an attacking field to both batters for the best part of the first hour, filling up the slip cordon with three catchers. But that left vacant spaces in the outfield, and Ireland’s left-right combination didn’t hesitate to attack when the line was wide or the length too full. The first instance of that came as early as in the fourth ball of the morning, when Tucker reached out to a full ball slightly wide outside off, and drove for four to deep point.The first 13 overs of the day produced 61 runs, with a boundary virtually every over. McBrine was particularly impressive on the pull, with which he got two boundaries – the first off Ngarava to beat deep-backward square-leg to the right, and the second off Muzarabani in front of square, as Ireland chipped away at the target.Zimbabwe bowled Ngarava and Muzarabani for the first eight overs, in the hope that they would repeat their magic from the third evening. But, by then, Tucker had brought up the fifty stand by clipping Ngarava off his pads. It was a chanceless stand between the Ireland batters on Sunday, unlike what we had seen on the previous evening, when the extra bounce and movement had left their top-order batters searching for answers.There was a spot of the incredulous in the 18th over of the innings. McBrine and Tucker ran five runs despite there not being an overthrow. McBrine had punched Ngarava to beat Tendai Chatara to his right at extra cover off the second ball of the over. Chatara chased it all the way to the longer side of the ground, and pushed the ball back just in time. But he had overrun, crossed the advertising boards, and his momentum had taken him quite a way beyond. By the time he returned to throw the ball back, the batters had enough time to run five without really stretching themselves.Blessing Muzarabani picked up Zimbabwe’s only wicket on the fourth day•Sportsfile via Getty Images

Three balls later, Ngarava finally replicated the threat of the third evening. The ball kicked up off a length at Tucker and looped up off his gloves, but fell just short of the gully fielder.Sean Williams was then brought into the attack in the 20th over, but his left-arm spin hardly made any difference, as Tucker and McBrine ticked along steadily.Tucker brought up his half-century when he hit Muzarabani through the covers for three to start the 24th over, and that shot brought Ireland’s requirement to below 50. Muzarabani did clean Tucker up for 56 two overs later, even as McBrine was beaten on an attempted drive, a flash, and one that kept low to hit his front pad outside leg.Zimbabwe would have hoped Tucker’s wicket would give them scope for a late comeback, but there was no such luck for them. McBrine too got to his half-century – he finished unbeaten on 55 – and in the company of Mark Adair, who scored 24 not out with four boundaries, completed the job.It was the perfect end to what was a fantastic Test for McBrine. He picked up 3 for 37 and 4 for 38 in the two Zimbabwe innings, and had contributed 28 in Ireland’s first innings before the unbeaten half-century in the second, all of which made him the deserving Player of the Match.

Middlesex beat the Kent Spitfires by four wickets in Vitality Blast at Canterbury after a brilliant fight back in the field.Luke Hollman pulled Matt Parkinson for the winning six with four balls remaining, after Ryan Higgins 44 hit from 29 balls and Stephen Eskinazi made 40.Middlesex finished on 178 for 6 and the win followed a superb recovery with the ball: at one point they looked likely to be chasing a target of well over 200.Daniel Bell-Drummond made 60 from 38 balls but after plundering 118 from the first 11 overs, Kent were restricted to 173 for 8, Hollman taking 2 for 18 and Tom Helm 2 for 24.The visitors chose to field and Tom Helm got Zak Crawley for four when he drove the third ball of the innings straight to Martin Andersson at extra cover.Blake Cullen then sent Tawanda Muyeye’s leg stump flying for 12 but Bell-Drummond and Marcus O’Riordan countered with a rapid stand of 66 from 29 balls. Higgins had the latter lbw for 28 and Sam Billings was bowled for 10 by Hollman, trying to reverse sweep.The run rate dipped drastically after Bell-Drummond holed out to Hollman and was caught by Leus du Plooy. Joey Evison played on to Josh de Caires and was bowled for four and Kent couldn’t manage a single boundary in overs 15 to 17.The 18th went for 15 but the last two went for just 10 after Joe Denly skied Helm to Eskinazi for 28 and Beyers Swanepoel swiped Henry Brookes to the same fielder for eight.Kent reverted to their title-winning strategy of 2021 by throwing the ball to Denly and he took his 50th T20 wicket when he trapped Andersson lbw for a five-ball duck.Yet the visitors again rallied: Eskinazi hit the first sixes of the match and looked well set until he tried to ramp Swanepoel and played on.Kent’s hopes rose again when Xavier Bartlett pinned Higgins at the start of the 13th and three balls later he sent du Plooy’s off stump flying for 18.Max Holden hit Grant Stewart for successive fours but then ramped him straight to Matt Parkinson and was out for 17.Hollman, however, eased visiting nerves when he hit Parkinson for a six and a four in the 17th and Jack Davies dumped Bartlett’s first ball of the 18th over cow corner for six.Davies then chipped Bartlett to Evison and was out for 23, but by then Middlesex just needed 11 off the last two overs with four wickets in hand.De Caires straight drove Swanepoel for four to leave the visitors one blow from victory and with three needed off the last six, Hollman creamed Parkinson over cow corner.