On Friday night, when New Chandigarh lights up to host Qualifier 2 of IPL 2026, two teams with a lot of similarities yet poles apart in their philosophy will come face to face for the ticket to the final.

Gujarat Titans GT), who are coming off a defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Qualifier 1 and Rajasthan Royals (RR), who beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Eliminator, have plenty in common. Both rely heavily on their top three, both have a weak middle order, and both have incisive new-ball pairs. But their approach to the game could not have been more different.

Even in the age of the Impact Player, GT’s openers, Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudarshan, prefer a low-risk approach to collect their runs. Their scoring rate in the powerplay this season has been 9.66, which puts them in the bottom half. They are happy with just-above-par totals and back their bowling unit to defend those.

RR, meanwhile, are led by the 15-year-old phenom Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who tries to send every ball over the boundary. Gill and Sai Sudharsan combined have hit 59 sixes this season; Sooryavanshi alone has smashed 65. Even with  Yashasvi Jaiswal not at his best, RR’s run rate of 11.66 in the first six overs has been the best in the tournament.

Half-centuries to Jemimah Rodrigues and a resurgent Yastika Bhatia, combined with three wickets on international debut for Nandanai Sharma, led a somewhat experimental India side to a 38-run victory in the opening game of their three-match T20I series.

After a troubled start at Chelmsford in which Lauren Bell took two wickets in the first over to leave the tourists 7 for 2, Yastika and Rodrigues shared a century stand for the third wicket as captain Harmanpreet Kaur was rested. Playing her first T20I in two years, Yastika struck 54 off 40 balls – her maiden T20I fifty – and Rodrigues faced as many deliveries for her typically poised 69. England overcame a rash of fielding errors after winning the toss to contain the target after the pair departed, with Deepti Sharma’s 13-ball cameo worth 22 the only other double-figure score.

Amy Jones scored fifty from the unfamiliar position of No. 3, dominating a 64-run partnership with Heather Knight, who overtook head coach Charlotte Edwards to become England Women’s most-capped player in history across all formats with 310 caps in all. But Jones’s 48-ball 67 couldn’t save her side in the face of Nandani’s 3 for 34 which gave India an added boost with the T20 World Cup just over two weeks away.

For a third match in a row, Bell struck in the first over, this time with the big wickets of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma. Smriti, standing in as captain for Harmanpreet, spooned the first ball – a half-volley outside off stump – straight to cover, where Charlie Dean gleefully accepted the offering. Then, off the last ball, Shafali skied one towards mid-on, where Alice Capsey ran in to take a sharp, diving catch.

Bell had taken wickets in the first over against New Zealand twice – with the first ball in the opening T20I in Derby and the last ball in the second match at Canterbury – before she was rested for the third match at Hove. Earlier, she had snared three lbw dismissals within her first four overs of the third ODI against the White Ferns in Cardiff.

Against India, however, some of her work came undone when the second over, bowled by Issy Wong, went for 27 runs through a combination of wides and Yastika making a fast start of own.

Making her first T20I appearance since April 2024 and after undergoing knee surgery last year, Yastika looked like she’d never been away. From her four boundaries off Wong’s wayward first over to a glorious six muscled over wide long-on off Sophie Ecclestone, she settled in beautifully, raising her fifty off 31 balls and simultaneously taking India past 100 at the end of the 10th over.

She and Rodrigues brought up their 100-partnership off 58 deliveries in the face of some sloppy England fielding but chiefly through exquisite footwork and timing. Rodrigues brought up her half-century with a six down the ground of debutant Tilly Corteen-Coleman and their union yielded 126 runs in all off just 76 balls. It took a combination of a good throw from the 18-year-old Corteen-Coleman and questionable decision-making to break it. As Charlie Dean struck Yastika on the pad and the ball trickled to short third, she and Rodrigues chanced a single and Corteen-Coleman fired the ball back to the bowler, who broke the stumps with Yastika well short of her ground. Dean closed the over with a sharp return catch to remove Rodrigues and give England hope of containing the target.

Wong handed Corteen-Coleman her maiden T20I wicket with a superb over-the-shoulder catch running from backward point to collect a reverse-sweep from Richa Ghosh, who departed for just 4. Wong took the ball in the next over and bowled Bharti Fulmali for 6 with a slower ball that beat an attempted slog and deflected off the pads onto the stumps. India were 148 for 6 in the 17th over but a spirited 39-run stand between Deepti Sharma and Arundhati Reddy raised the target before Bell returned to remove Deepti, pulling a short ball straight to midwicket.

England promoted Jones as Maia Bouchier, who is not part of England’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup, made way with Nat Sciver-Brunt still injured and regular opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge poised to return from maternity leave from the second match of this series onwards. The hosts persisted with their opening experiment of Alice Capsey and Sophia Dunkley – Wyatt-Hodge’s usual companion at the top of the order – and while it had paid off with Capsey’s fifty in the first T20I against New Zealand, both fell cheaply on Thursday as the hosts stumbled to 37 for 2.

Jones had enjoyed a fruitful stint as an ODI opener against West Indies last summer but she hadn’t batted at No. 3 in a T20I since the rain-hit home match against the same opponents in 2020. She had limited opportunities with the bat in the New Zealand series, batting just once in the T20s for 1 not out, but she relished her chance against India, picking the gaps expertly on her way to nine boundaries.

Jones’s dismissal, slog-sweeping Nandani to deep midwicket sparked a mini collapse from which England would never recover. Nandani, the 24-year-old quick, was on a hat-trick after Dani Gibson holed out next ball, Shafali again doing the work in the outfield, as she had done to end Jones’s innings. And while Dean negotiated the next delivery, Nandani had her third wicket two balls later, a slower one that deceived Wong and clattered into off stump.

Brief scores:
India Women 188 for 7 (Yastika Bhatia 54, Jemimah Rodrigues 69, Deepti Sharma 22; Lauren Bell 3-34, Issy Wong 1-41, Tilley Corteen Coleman 1-19, Charlie Dean 1-26) beat England Women 150 for 8 in 20 overs  (Sophia Dunkley 16, Amy Jones 67, Heather Knight 21, Charlie Dean 11*, Sophie Ecclestone13; Kranti Gaud  2-24, Nandani Sharma 3-34, Shree Charani 1-25, Deepti Sharma 1-42) by 38 runs

[Cricinfo]

New Zealand extended their control on the one-off four-day Test against Ireland in Belfast following a dominating performance on the second day with bat and ball. Building on from the strong foundation set by Rachin Ravindra’s century on the opening day, the visitors posted 490 for 8 after scores of 186 from Tom Blundell and 98 from debutant Dean Foxcroft.

After that, seamer Nathan Smith ran through the Irish top-order, claiming a five-wicket haul within 29 balls of his new-ball spell to finish with 6 for 40. That rolled Ireland over for 179, and New Zealand swiftly enforced the follow-on. By stumps, Ireland were 65 for 2 in their third innings, still 246 runs away from making New Zealand bat again.

With the ball, Smith removed four of Ireland’s top-six batters for ducks in the hosts’ first batting innings – a record in Test cricket – and blazed to his maiden Test five-for after New Zealand had declared for 490 just before lunch.

The Irish top-order collapse started two balls into the Test’s second innings when Smith struck with a full ball that jagged inwards, hitting opener Stephen Doheny on the pads in front of the stumps. Four balls later, No. 3 Cade Carmichael tried to play straight to an inswinger but get an edge to Tom Latham at slip. With both out for ducks, Ireland were 0 for 2 after the first over.

After lunch, and under greyer skies, it was Smith tormenting Ireland once again, with a beauty of a length ball that angled in and opened Andrew Balbirnie’s defense. The exposed bat-pad gap was enough to knock Balbirnie’s middle stump back for 13.

In the same spell, Smith got another full ball to sear back and hit Curtis Campher’s front pad, and he was the third batter gone for a duck. Smith would collect his fourth duck victim and get his five-for when Lorcan Tucker pressed forward for a drive, only for the ball to cut him in half and take out his poles. A wicket for Zak Foulkes to dismiss Harry Tector (16) then saw Ireland reeling at 38 for 6.

A stubborn seventh-wicket stand of 116 between Andy McBrine and Mark Adair, though, brought some respectability to the hosts’ batting response. As they did against England at Lord’s and against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo previously to post Ireland’s two highest partnerships in Test history, the pair held the innings together. Adair didn’t mind playing T20 shots or moving around the crease early on, but once the sun came out, locked in for a more patient batting innings.

McBrine was enterprising with the cut, and survived a Daryl Mitchell drop at slips, to bring up his half-century in the last over before tea. A few balls later, the partnership crossed hundred, and the teams left the field for the session break at 139 for 6.

It was Smith who broke the partnership, with a short ball that rose uncomfortably to Adair. Once he walked back for 40 and with Ireland at 154 for 7, McBrine soon ran out of partners. New Zealand’s seamers opted for a short-ball tactic against the lower-order batters and that saw Thomas Mayes holing out to deep square leg and Reuben Wilson gloving a catch to slip. McBrine remained unbeaten on 73.

After following-on, Ireland made a much better start, with openers Doheny and Balbirnie putting on 42 for the first wicket. Balbirnie was out nicking behind to Blair Tickner, and the bowler added a second by getting Carmichael edging to slip too.

Earlier in the day, overnight batters Blundell and Foxcroft began the morning by wearing down the Irish bowling attack in the first innings after starting from 361 for 5. Ireland were without Adair – the bowler – for the morning session, and as the highest wicket-taker of day one, he was missed.

The two batters were careful against the swinging ball and seaming track in the early stages but once New Zealand went to the first drinks break without any wickets lost, they changed gears with declaration in sight.

Blundell was particularly strong with his pulls and flat-batted shots between midwicket and long on, getting on top of the leg-stump line and short-ball plan that Liam McCarthy operated on. Foxcroft struck six fours and one six in his innings, unafraid to use his crease either laterally or down the track, to get on top of the home side’s bowling.

Their sixth-wicket stand of 158 for the sixth wicket – which followed up from the 217-run fifth-wicket stand between Blundell and Ravindra on day one – pulverised Ireland. Blundell was out for 186 in the 114th over, out at midwicket looking for more big hits off Wilson’s bowling. Foxcroft, two short of a ton on Test debut, got a top-edge to fine leg off McBrine’s offspin in the 119th over.

In between, Nathan Smith was run-out for 17 courtesy a smart team run-out between substitute fielder Jake Egan and wicketkeeper Lorcan Tucker. New Zealand declared on 490 for 8, giving their new-ball bowlers a few overs before lunch, during which time Smith struck twice to add to the visitors’ advantage en route to his six-for.

Brief scores:
Ireland 179 in 45 overs (Andy McBrine 73*, Mark Adair 40;  Nathan Smith 6-40, Ben Sears 2-27) and [f/o] 65 for 2 in 16 overs (Stephen Doheny 36*; Blair Tickner 2-14) trail New Zealand 490 for 8 dec in 119 overs (Rachin Ravindra 121, Tom Blundell 186, Dean Foxcroft 98; Markm Adair 3-66) by 246 runs