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The Men’s 100: Toms Banton and Moores combine to steer Rockets past Brave
A brilliant innings on his home county ground by Tom Moores saw Trent Rockets to a four-wicket win over Southern Brave in the Hundred men’s competition.
Moores, making his first appearance in this year’s competition having only just arrived as an emergency wicketkeeper replacement, hit 55 in a partnership of 76 with Tom Banton as Rockets got home with four balls to spare.
Rockets chose to bowl first on a slow surface and struck early when James Vince was bowled by one that ran across him from David Willey.
Jason Roy and Leus du Plooy began to get to terms with the surface, Roy scooping Marcus Stoinis’s first ball for four. Left-hander du Plooy then slog swept Callum Parkinson for six and smashed Lockie Ferguson for a maximum over long-off.
Stoinis returned to bowl Roy for 23, but du Plooy kept his own momentum going, switch-hitting Calvin Harrison into the stands and bringing up his half-century with another six off Parkinson.
The game then was forced to pause for a while, the players leaving the field as Adam Hose received medical treatment after a nasty slip on the leg-side boundary. Trent Rockets later confirmed Hose had dislocated his ankle and been taken to hospital for further assessment.
When play resumed, Brave looked to accelerate through Michael Bracewell and James Coles. Coles struck Ferguson for two boundaries in the final set to see the Brave reach 140 for 4, a competitive total on this Trent Bridge surface.
Trent Rockets came flying out of the blocks – Banton hit the first two balls of the chase for four and then reverse-swept Coles for six from the fourth.
Jordan Thompson picked up Joe Root for 6, before Jofra Archer was pulled for fours by both Banton and Rehan Ahmed as Rockets closed the powerplay on 41 for 1.
Rehan then went well caught by Roy off Tymal Mills and Max Holden followed, caught by Archer off Danny Briggs. Bracewell removed Willey with his first ball but was later deposited over midwicket for the first of Moores’ five sixes, the left-hander’s arrival shifting the momentum of the match.
Mills picked up his 50th wicket in the Hundred, but it came too late as Rockets reached their target.
Moores, the Meerkat Match Hero, said: “It was a little bit slow at times but ultimately I felt it was a pretty good wicket. It was a nice win.
“It’s great to bat with Tom Banton, he was keeping me nice and calm and we just tried to bat together really and bounce off each other. We score in different areas so we complemented each other well.
“The way I play, I’m always trying to take it to the bowler if I can. It’s always nice to do it in front of a home crowd and I thought the boys stuck at it really well after a tough thing in the field that happened to Adam [Hose] and we hope he’s all right.”
Brief scores:
Trent Rockets 145 for 6 in 96 balls (Tom Moores 55, Tom Banton 49, Rehan Ahmed 13; Jordan Thompson 2-17, Tymal Mills 2-28, Danny Briggs 1-28, Michael Bracewell 1-22) beat Southern Brave 140 for 4 in 100 balls (Leus du Plooy 55, Jason Roy 23, James Coles 25*, Michael Bracewell 28; David Willey 1-20, Callum Parkinson 1-29, Marcus Stoinis 2-18) by four wickets
[Cricinfo]
Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan and Harris Rauf are among more than 950 players to have registered for the Hundred’s inaugural auctions next month, as the ECB faces scrutiny over whether new Indian investors will effect an IPL-style ‘shadow ban’ on Pakistani players.
No active Pakistan international has featured in the IPL since the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, and only a handful of players have appeared for foreign franchises run by IPL ownership groups since their global expansion.
Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, insisted last year that the involvement of Pakistani players in the Hundred would be unaffected by the league’s privatisation, with four franchises now part-owned or fully run by IPL ownership groups.
But the BBC reported on Thursday that no IPL-owned Hundred teams will bid for Pakistani players at the auctions next month, citing messages from a “senior official” at the ECB to an agent. The ECB say that they have not been shown the messages in question and pushed back against the story, but Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, urged the board to address the issue more proactively.
“The ECB need to act fast on this,” Vaughan wrote on X. “They own the league and this should not be allowed to happen .. the most inclusive sport in the country is not one that allows this to happen.”
ESPNcricinfo has learned that more than 50 Pakistani players – including Afridi, Shadab, Rauf, Saim Ayub and Usman Tariq – have registered for next month’s draft, which will be held in Piccadilly, London on March 11 (women’s) and 12 (men’s).
Babar Azam and Mohamed Rizwan are notable absentees from the longlist of nominated players, though in any case their availability would be significantly limited by Pakistan’s scheduled Test series against West Indies in August. Pakistan’s limited-overs teams are not due to play in the Hundred’s window from July 21 to August 16.
Mustafizur Rahman the Bangladesh seamer whose contract with Kolkata Knight Riders was cancelled last month at the BCCI’s request, has also registered for the Hundred auction.
Only nine Pakistani players have featured in the first five seasons of the Hundred, with teams often reluctant to sign them on account of clashes with international fixtures and a handful of high-profile, late-notice withdrawals, including Afridi and Naseem Shah in 2024.
Four IPL franchises are now involved in the Hundred as part-owners or full owners: Mumbai Indians (MI London), Lucknow Super Giants (Manchester Super Giants), Sunrisers Hyderabad (Sunrisers Leeds) and Delhi Capitals (Southern Brave).
Teams run by Capitals co-owners and Southern Brave owners GMR Group have previously signed Pakistani players, including Imad Wasim, Zaman Khan (both Seattle Orcas) and Shan Masood (Hampshire). The other three franchises have not previously signed active Pakistan internationals for any of their teams.
Geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan escalated last year, and the recent group-stage match between the two teams at the T20 World Cup was nearly cancelled after the Pakistani government threatened to boycott the fixture.
An ECB spokesperson said: “The Hundred welcomes men’s and women’s players from all over the world and we would expect the eight teams to reflect that.
“Almost 1,000 cricketers from 18 nations have registered for The Hundred auction, with representation on the longlist of over 50 players respectively from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and West Indies.”
Franchises without IPL investors may see a potential ‘shadow ban’ as an opportunity to sign Pakistani players at next month’s auctions. The American-owned Desert Vipers picked four Pakistanis in the side that won the ILT20 final earlier this year and were the only team in the tournament to select Pakistani players.
James Thomas, Birmingham Phoenix’s performance director, told ESPNcricinfo that the franchise will be “really open” to signing overseas players regardless of nationality.
“Birmingham is a hugely diverse city,” Thomas said. “You’ve got to pick players for what they can bring in terms of performance but when you look at the bigger picture… We want our teams to be representative of the city and the region as well. If we align, and we get players who speak to the different demographics of the city, that’s brilliant.”
The longlist of players for the Hundred auctions includes several high-profile England players such as Jonny Bairstow, Adil Rashid, Joe Root (men’s) and Tammy Beaumont, Dani Gibson, Linsey Smith (women’s), though Ben Stokesis a notable absentee as he tapers his workload outside of his commitments as Test captain.
Sophie Devine, Beth Mooney and Deepti Sharma are among the overseas players available in the women’s auction, while Trent Boult, Aiden Markram and Sunil Narine have registered for the men’s. Most of Australia’s men’s Test players have not registered due to a clash with their home series against Bangladesh in August.
The auctions – which will be live-streamed, though not broadcast live – will both start with a marquee set of ‘hero’ players based on nominations submitted by the eight franchises. Each team has already made up to four pre auction signings, with new investment in the Hundred prompting a “reset” among the squads.
Salary caps in the Hundred have risen sharply for 2026 to £2.05 million (men’s) and £880,000 (women’s). Each team will also be permitted to field four overseas players per match, an increase from three in previous seasons.
[Cricinfo]
US President Donald Trump says he will direct US agencies, including the defence department, to “begin the process of identifying and releasing” government files on aliens and extraterrestrial life.
Trump made the declaration in a post on Truth Social, after he accused Barack Obama earlier in the day of revealing classified information when the former president said “aliens are real” on a podcast last week.
“He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding: “He made a big mistake.”
Asked if he also thinks aliens are real, Trump answered: “Well, I don’t know if they’re real or not.”
Former US President Obama told podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen that he thinks aliens are real in an interview released last Saturday.
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in Area 51,” Obama said.
“There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
After the comment made headlines, Obama sought to clarify he thinks it’s statistically likely life exists beyond Earth, given the vastness of the universe.
In a follow-up post on Instagram, Obama, who served as US president between 2009-17, clarified: “I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Obama’s initial comments were made during a quickfire “lightning” round of questions on the podcast.
There was no indication that Obama relied on classified information when he gave the interview. The BBC has contacted Obama for comment. The Democrat and Trump, a Republican, are longstanding mutual political antagonists.
For his part, Trump said on Thursday on Air Force One that while a lot of people believe in the existence of aliens, he never talks about it, and “doesn’t have an opinion on it”.
Then a few hours later, he posted on Truth Social that “based on the tremendous interest shown” he will seek the release of files “related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters”.
In a 2024 report, the Pentagon said there was no evidence that the US government had encountered alien life, and that most UFO sightings were just ordinary objects.
In 2023, the US House of Representatives held a panel on unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAPs), known more colloquially as UFOs.
The hearing produced no major bombshells or confirmation of alien life.
[BBC]
Oman have suffered three heavy defeats to Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and Ireland at the 2026 T20 World Cup, and had been thumped by Australia the only other time these two teams met, at the 2024 edition. But captain Jatinder Singh says his team sees their final match of this tournament as an opportunity to surprise a wounded Australia team.
Australia have nothing to gain from the match against Oman in Pallekele on Friday, aside from preserving some pride. Perhaps the gloom around the Australia camp will give Oman an opening. In fact it might be “the best time to crush them”.
“One hundred percent this is an opportunity,” Jatinder said. “And our boys are looking forward to it. Because T20 is a game of momentum and the moments, and if you play those moments right, you can do anything on that particular day. Australia is not doing well at the moment… it is the best time to crush them.
“The boys are really positive. They are looking forward to the match against Australia to make their mark.”
On how to make Oman more competitive in the long term, Jatinder believed franchise cricket opportunities for Oman players could be one route. Oman did not have a heavy cricket schedule in 2025, playing only 15 T20Is that year in addition to eight ODIs.
“Well if I have to sum up how Oman can improve, it would be if we have the franchise cricket happening in the country or our guys get a chance to play franchise cricket elsewhere,” Jatinder said. “I think we can fill that gap and they can bring vast amount of experience for our national team.
“But if we don’t get to play competitive cricket, whereas other teams are getting to play the competitive cricket, we will need to fill that gap. There have been instances where we’ve been inviting the teams to come and play in Oman. The response has been really delayed, or we don’t get any response. So I think if we have the franchise cricket, that would really fill the gap.”
[Cricinfo]
ECB push back at Pakistan ‘shadow-ban’ reports ahead of Hundred auction
Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6m in gold bars to fix water system
Trump directs US government to prepare release of files on aliens and UFOs
‘Best time to crush’ Australia, says Oman captain Jatinder Singh
Fairly heavy showers likely in the Eastern province and in Matale, Badulla, Mullaitivu and Polonnaruwa districts
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