The India and Zimbabwe women’s teams are all set to play an international fixture against each other for the first time when Zimbabwe tour India for white-ball fixtures this October.

The tour comprises three T20Is and three ODIs and will be Zimbabwe’s first visit to India; India are yet to tour Zimbabwe for bilateral fixtures.

The three T20Is will be played in Raipur on October 16, 18 and 20, and the ODIs are on October 23, 25 and 28 in Baroda.

The fixtures were announced by the BCCI on Wednesday, along with two home series for the India A women’s side against Australia A in September and England A in December. Both those series comprise three T20s, three List A games and one multi-day fixture.

The India Under-19 women’s team will also host Sri Lanka U-19 in June and July for three T20s and three 50-over games, and England U-19 in November and December for five T20 fixtures.

The Australia A men’s side will tour India for two multi-day fixtures and three one-dayers in September and October, while the Australia U-19 side will visit India for two multi-day fixtures and three one-dayers also in September and October.

[Cricinfo]

Oil prices have dropped and global stock markets have risen following reports that the US and Iran are close to a deal to end the war.

Brent crude futures, the global benchmark oil price, fell to $97 (£73) a barrel after the reports before rebounding to over $101. The price was over $108 earlier in the day.

The FTSE 100 index of London’s largest public firms and Germany’s Dax index closed over 2% up while the French Cac 40 was up 3%. Asian indexes also ended the day higher while the US S&P 500 was up by more than 1% over the day.

The market movements come after Axios reported that the US believes it is close to a one-page document which will end the war and set up detailed nuclear talks.

Hours later, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson told Iranian Students’ News Agency that the US proposal to end the war with Iran was still being considered.

However, not long after that, Trump suggested a deal could still be a way off.

He said on Truth Social that any agreement by the Iranians is “a big assumption” and that a failure to come to a deal will result at bombardments “at a much  higher level and intensity ” than was the case during Operation Epic Fury.

Oil prices are still much higher than the $70 a barrel they were hovering around before the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, which has caused caused production and transportation of oil in the region to slump.

Central to the conflict is Iran’s threat to attack oil ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway south of the country, in response to US-Israeli strikes since 28 February.

About a fifth of global oil and gas shipments usually cross the strait, which has been effectively closed for weeks. Global gas prices have also soared since the conflict began.

As for stock markets, the big European bourses are lower than they were at the end of February, while the S&P 500 climbed by more than 1%.

The main Asian markets all rose on Wednesday, with the South Korean Kospi closing up 6.45%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng ending the day up 1.22%, and the Japanese Nikkei finishing 0.38% higher.

The Hang Seng is down since the start of war, but the other two are up.

[BBC]