Sports
Brydon Carse makes his mark on debut as England power to seven-wicket victory
England’s rejigged T20I team powered out of their mothballs with a crushing seven-wicket victory under the floodlights at Chester-le-Street, as they hunted down a sub-par target of 140 with six full overs to spare.
A fine home-town debut from the seamer Brydon Carse denied New Zealand any momentum despite a misleadingly run-laden first over from Finn Allen, whereupon a brace of forceful knocks from Dawid Malan and the inevitable Harry Brook allowed Jos Buttler to sit back in the dressing-room with his feet up, resting up for more meaningful contests to come.
In their first white-ball outing since the tour of Bangladesh in March, England showed once again that their depth of options is second-to-none in the world game. Despite losing two prospective fast-bowling debutants, Josh Tongue and John Turner, to injury, and resting a third, Gus Atkinson, for later in the series, England’s line was led instead by Carse and the left-armer LukeWood, who claimed three wickets apiece.
In reply England never looked like letting their grip on the contest slip, despite the first-over loss of Jonny Bairstow, and once Malan had anchored the chase with his 17th fifty-plus score in 56 T20I innings, Brook and Liam Livingstone, with a huge blow for six over deep midwicket, closed out the chase in short order.
Allen’s most recent on-field act, in the green of Southern Brave, had been to slam 69 from 38 balls in a riotous (but unsuccessful) opening onslaught in last week’s Hundred Eliminator. And so the die seemed to have been cast when he climbed into a massive yahoo at Wood’s second delivery of the match. He didn’t connect on that occasion, but each of the next three flew out of the park – one down the ground, two high over midwicket – in an apparent signal of another powerplay charge.
What followed, however, was a near-complete lockdown from England’s new-look seam attack. Sam Curran applied the handbrake with a five-run second over before the debutant Carse conceded a solitary run off the bat with his relentless deck-thumping approach.
A switch of ends for Wood then paid early dividends as Devon Conway snicked a drive with no footwork to fall for 3 from 8, and after Carse had burst through Allen’s defence with an 87mph leg-stump-seeker, Wood made it two in three overs as Tim Seifert was suckered by the angle from round the wicket to lose his off stump for 9.
With the introduction of spin in the seventh over, New Zealand’s innings suffered a similar false dawn. Mark Chapman picked Adil Rashid’s first-ball legbreak and smoked him over midwicket for six… but his team managed just five more runs in the next nine before Moeen Ali, a scourge of left-handers, bowled Chapman with a beauty that held its line from round the wicket to take the top of off stump.
At 49 for 4, New Zealand were once again in need of a big performance from Daryl Mitchell, but on this occasion, even his long levers couldn’t turn the tide. Liam Livingstone entered the attack with a startlingly sharp legbreak that leapt past Mitchell’s edge, and – seemingly spooked – Mitchell climbed through the line of his very next ball, but could only pick out Brook on the long-off boundary. Rashid was then rewarded for an unremarkably excellent three-over spell with the soft dismissal of Mitchell Santner, who toe-ended a cut to point.
Thereafter, it was all about the scramble to the bottom of the innings. Glenn Phillips was New Zealand’s best hope of a competitive total, but his subdued 41 from 38 was ended by the sharpest take of the innings, as Curran in the covers read the fade on a sliced drive at a Wood slower ball, and leapt to his left to cling on in both hands.
Adam Milne and Ish Sodhi then landed a six apiece off consecutive balls to at least hoist England’s target past a run a ball, but Carse was on hand to shut down the innings in style. His first ball of the 20th over was an inch-perfect offcutter, on that hard in-between length that skidded past Milne’s wipe to leg; his fifth was fired into the toes, demanding that Sodhi took on the longest boundary, and he duly failed.
Carse had opened his account with 1 for 3 in his first two overs. Now he closed the innings down with 3 for 23 all told, his best in all T20s, and delivered with that familiar pitch-battering poise that Liam Plunkett once brought to England’s white-ball attack. For a man who wasn’t initially picked for this T20I squad, it was quite the way to celebrate becoming England’s 100th cap in the format.
Buttler will doubtless be back to the top of the order come England’s defence of their T20 title in the Caribbean and the USA next June, but his self-demotion to No. 6 was an acknowledgement that others have greater points to prove with the 50-over version looming.
There’s Bairstow for example – Buttler’s intended opening partner in Australia last winter until his horrific leg injury, and the man expected to front up alongside Jason Roy in India in five weeks’ time. His first England white-ball innings in 13 months at least came at a 200 strike-rate: a first-ball pump for four through midwicket, then a second-ball snick to slip off Tim Southee, after a leg-side wide for good measure.
There’s Will Jacks too, a potential travelling reserve in India, and a definite candidate for T20 opening honours, after his trophy-winning exploits (with bat and ball) for Oval Invincibles in the Hundred this month. His lacerating power was on full display once more as he greeted Lockie Ferguson’s first over with two fours and an inside-out carve for six, and having ignited a 61-run powerplay with 22 in 11 balls, he muffed a pull off Sodhi from his very next ball.
With his habitual faith in his own acceleration, Malan turned a doughty innings of 4 from 10 balls into a formidable 40-ball half-century, with five fours and two sixes – each of them mown with awesome power over the leg side off Sodhi and Santner respectively. He looked aghast to give it away at 54 from 42, but at 116 for 3 in the 13th over, he’d already drained the contest of any jeopardy.
And then, inevitably, there was Brook. The most notable absentee from England’s World Cup plans was clinically violent in belting them over the line with 43 not out from 27 balls, including back-to-back blats for six off Sodhi, over cover and midwicket respectively, and a third massive launch over the ropes as Southee served up a slower ball and was made to travel the distance. Whether it’s too late for him to change any minds that matter, only the selectors know for sure. But on this occasion, he barely broke sweat in looking a class apart.
Brief scores:
England 143 for 3 (Malan 54, Brook 43*) beat New Zealand 139 for 9 (Phillips 41, Carse 3-23, Wood 3-37) by seven wickets
Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi who is on a three day state visit to Sri Lanka met with the Sri Lankan cricketers who lifted the Cricket World Cup in 1996.
Yashaswi Jaiswal scoring runs. Jofra Archer continuing the rhythm he seemed to rediscover against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Maheesh Theekshana and Wanidu Hasaranga coming into their own.
All these things may have been on Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) wishlist coming into Saturday night’s match against Punjab Kings (PBKS). All three wishes were fulfilled, as RR consigned PBKS, playing their first home game of IPL 2025, to their first defeat of the season.
Jaiswal and Riyan Parag provided the sparks at the start and finish for RR to become the first team to post a 200-plus IPL total in Mullanpur. With this only being the sixth IPL game at the venue, it wasn’t yet clear if 205 was a winning total, but only until Archer made his entrance.
Six legal balls into their chase, PBKS were two down, with Archer finding movement at upwards of 145kph to take out Priyansh and Shreyas Iyer. RR struck two more blows in the first seven overs, and PBKS were always playing catch-up thereafter, even when Nehal Wadhera and Glenn Maxwell added 88 for the fifth wicket.
Theekshana and Hasaranga did their bit to stifle the partnership’s scoring rate, and then struck one after the other to remove both set batters. And that was that for PBKS; they only hit one boundary in the last 5.4 overs as RR wrapped up victory by 50 runs.
Jaiswal got off to a scratchy start, slashing and missing against the left-left new-ball pair of Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen, who both found early swing, miscuing a pull just beyond the reach of a backtracking mid-on, and scoring just 12 off his first 14 balls.
But perhaps all he needed, after starting his season with scores of 1, 29 and 4, was a bit of time in the middle and a bit of luck. The fourth over brought him back-to-back sixes off Jansen – a ramp over the keeper and a slog over midwicket – and he seemed to be up and running.
Sanju Samson, captaining RR for the first time this season after a finger injury had restricted him to a batting-only Impact Player role thus far, began more fluently but had less of the strike early on. When RR ended their first wicketless powerplay of the season on 53 for 0, he was on 20 off 14 and Jaiswal on 32 off 22.
From 40 for 0 after four overs, RR only scored 45 in their next six. The legspin of RR old boy Yuzvendra Chahal and the slower cutters of Lockie Ferguson and Marcus Stoinis had a lot to do with this, on a pitch that was just a touch grippy and two-paced.
Samson fell in the 11th over, trying to force the pace against Ferguson, and Jaiswal seemed to be getting stuck. But from 46 off 39, he found that elusive higher gear, crunching Chahal down the ground to bring up his fifty before slog-sweeping his next ball for six. He hit Stoinis for a six and a four in the next over – the 13th – before becoming Ferguson’s second victim, swinging too early at a well-disguised, stump-bound knuckleball.
Parag, batting at No. 3, began much like Jaiswal had done, struggling initially to get to grips with the surface. At one stage, after four successive dots against Arshdeep’s cutter, angling across the right-hander and turning further away, Parag was on 12 off 14 in the 16th over.
Then he paused for breath, and took strike transformed, a batter able to hold his shape for a split-second longer. He hit the next two balls from Arshdeep for fours, and that began a hitting spree that brought him 31 off his last 11 balls at the crease. With Nitish Rana, Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel contributing cameos as well, RR rushed past 200 in the final over. Stoinis, whose first two only went for 12, leaked 36 in his last two, which again told the tale of RR’s batters coming to grips with the conditions and finding a way to master them.
The first ball Archer bowled could not have been bettered. Perfect length, rooting Impact Sub Priyanash Arya to the crease. Movement from leg to off, at 144.6kph. The left-handed Arya defended down the wrong line and the ball slid past his outside edge to flick the top of off.
None of this seemed to make any impact on Shreyas Iyer, though. The PBKS captain began in a manner befitting someone whose head coach had likened his previous innings to a purring Rolls Royce, stroking Archer for two fours through the covers in his first four legal balls at the crease. Then he got greedy, exposing all his stumps to try and make room for another off-side hit, and Archer burst a 148.6kph ball through him.
Wickets kept falling even when Archer didn’t have the ball. Stoinis popped a return catch to Sandeep Sharma off a fairly innocuous seam-up delivery in the fourth over, and Prabhsimran Singh slog-swept Kumar Kartikeya to deep midwicket in the seventh. The required rate kept mounting too; PBKS needed 163 from 82 balls when Maxwell joined Wadhera.
PBKS’ hopes began to stir when both batters hit sixes off Kartikeya in a 19-run 10th over, but Theekshana and Hasaranga immediately got to work, conceding just five and 12 – the latter an impressive recovery after Wadhera slog-swept the first ball of the over for six – in the 11th and 12th overs.
But as Maxwell ramped and reverse-swatted Yudhvir Singh for a pair of fours in the 13th, Wadhera launched Hasaranga for a straight six to bring up a 33-ball fifty in the 14th, and then began the 15th with back-to-back fours off Theekshana, PBKS began to dream once again.
Then the two Sri Lankan spinners brought their defensive skills to the fore again, asking the batters to try and fetch balls dangled wide of their hitting arcs. Maxwell sliced a catch to long-off at the end of the 15th over, and Wadhera slog-swept to deep midwicket at the start of the 16th. PBKS were six down and needed 75 off 29. It was never going to happen as they continued to lose wickets.
Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 205 for 4 in 20 overs (Yashaswi Jaiswal 67, Riyan Parag 43*, Sanju Samson 38, Nitish Rana 12, Shimron Hetmyer 20, Dhruv Jurel 13*;Lockie Ferguson 2-37, Arshdeep Singh 1-35, Marco Jansen 1-45) beat Punjab Kings 155 for 9 in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 17, Shreyas Iyer 10, Nehal Wadhera 62, Glenn Maxwell 30, Shashnak Singh 10*; Jofra Archer 3-25, Sandeep Sharma 2-21, Maheesh Theekshana 2-26, Kumar Kartikeya 1-21, Wanidu Hasaranga 1-36) by 50 runs
[Cricinfo]
Chennai Super Kings are starting to lose control of their fortress. For the second time this season, a visiting team that hadn’t tasted victory against them at Chepauk in 15 years was able to utterly dominate them. This resulted in the strangest situation. The crowd here bays for MS Dhoni to come out and bat. They cheer their own team’s wickets in anticipation of his arrival. Well, on Saturday, he was there in the 11th over, but there was only silence.
In the absence of Faf du Plessis, who was not quite fit to play, KL Rahul opened the batting. He needed a little time to get used to the pace of a pitch that was very dry and therefore prevented the ball from coming into the bat. He was 25 off his first 20 balls.
Rahul found release through Noor Ahmad. He took IPL 2025’s highest wicket-taker for 20 off 9 but this wasn’t crash, bang, wallop. The bowler missed his mark a couple of times and the batter was confident enough in both his ability and his method to take full toll.
Noor strayed too full once and Rahul hit the half-volley for four. He pulled his length back once, but offered room to free the arms and Rahul swept him hard for six. Sometimes against spinners who are hard to pick out of the hand, the horizontal bat shots work so long as you pick the length.
This was how from 25 off 20 balls, Rahul hit 36 off 18, which included a reverse scoop off Mukesh Choudhary, the only bowler he actually targeted. Mukesh conceded 40% of the boundaries that DC hit.
Even towards the end of Rahul’s innings, it was apparent that hitting out was becoming difficult. He only scored 16 off his last 13 balls. DC understood that. Mukesh Kumar got one to stick in the surface and drew a leading edge from Rachin Ravindra. Ruturaj Gaikwad timed the pants off a Mitchell Starc short ball but didn’t quite place it well enough. He threw his head back as soon as Jake Fraser-McGurk took the catch at deep backward square leg. CSK were 20 for 2 in the third over. It had been six years since. they’ve been able to chase a total over 180 in the IPL. This was not the start they wanted.
Vijay Shankar had only one boundary from his first 31 deliveries. In that time, he could’ve been dismissed lbw or run-out. He survived both calls and tried as hard as he could to make the most of them, but it just wouldn’t come off. DC were so good in denying him the freedom of his arms. The pitch being slow as well didn’t let him get away with the connections that he made. More than once, he grimaced through an innings that brought him 69 runs in 54 balls. DC attempted to find the boundary off 37 balls and succeeded 21 times. CSK actually went harder – they hit out against 38 balls but were only successful 12 times. DC’s bowlers harnessed a slow, turning pitch beautifully. They out CSK-ed CSK. Winning the toss and batting first helped.
In the last match, Stephen Fleming said Dhoni cannot bat for a long time and therefore they ration his appearances. That’s why he batted at No. 9 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru because there was no point in him coming any earlier.
This time they had no choice. Half the side was in the hut with only 10.4 overs on the board. Kuldeep Yadav had delivered a killer googly to Ravindra Jadeja. The batter did not read it. He wasn’t even allowed the chance to pick it off the pitch. The length was so perfect, bringing him forward and then turning the wrong way to hit his pad instead of his flailing blade.
That brought Dhoni to the crease. He’s won World Cups before. But this might have been the first time he was batting in front of his parents. They were at the ground, to watch him score 30 off 26 and his team lose by 25 runs. It was a difficult evening for CSK fans. Their chances of winning, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster, was down at 9.51% even before the chase was halfway through. Jadeja is yet to bowl his full quota of overs in four matches. Ashwin has done so only twice. CSK have hit the fewest sixes in IPL 2025. Their middle order (4-7) is struggling badly, averaging 21.76 (third-lowest in the tournament) and striking at 116.94 [lowest].
Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 183 for 6 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 77, Abhishek Poral 33, Axar Patel 21, Sameer Rizvi 20, Tristan Stubbs 24*; Khaleel Ahmed 2-25, Ravindra Jadeja 1-19, Noor Ahmad 1-36, Matheesha Pathirana 1-31) beat Chennai Super Kings 158 for 5 in 20 overs (Vijay Shankar 69*, Devon Conway 13, Shivam Dube 18, MS Dhoni 30*; Mitchell Starc 1-27, Mukesh Kumar 1-36, Vipraj Nigam 2-27, Kuldeep Yadav 1-30) by 25 runs
[Cricinfo]
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