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Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya won the toss at the team’s first home game of IPL 2025 and chose to bowl against Kolkata Knight Riders.There were three changes to the XI that lost the last game to Gujarat Titans with allrounder Will Jacks, left-arm wristspinner Vignesh Puthur and uncapped left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar coming into the line-up. Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Satyanarayana Raju were left out of the bowling first XI, and with Rohit Sharma likely to come in as the Impact Player for the chase, it means Robin Minz will miss the game as well.Kumar, 23, has played four T20s for Punjab picking up two wickets at an economy rate of 8.50.KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane confirmed Sunil Narine had recovered from the illness which kept him out of the previous game against Rajasthan Royals. As a result, Moeen Ali missed out. KKR are likely to bring in Vaibhav Arora when they bowl second.Rahane, who plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket, said he was “confused” by the pitch, since it had a little grass on it, and thought it was a good toss to lose.Mumbai are still searching for their first win of IPL 2025, having lost away games to Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans.Kolkata Knight Riders batting-first XI 1 Sunil Narine, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 4 Venkatesh Iyer, 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Ramandeep Singh, 9 Spencer Johnson, 10 Harshit Rana, 11 Varun ChakravarthyKKR’s Impact Player options: Anrich Nortje, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia.Mumbai Indians bowling-first XI: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Will Jacks, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 Naman Dhir, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Ashwani Kumar, 11 Vignesh PuthurMI’s Impact Player options: Rohit Sharma, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, Satyanarayana Raju

New South Wales opener Sam Konstas batted maturely on a tricky WACA surface late on day four to fend off Western Australia’s unlikely push for victory as the pivotal Sheffield Shield clash ended in a draw.It means both teams will have to rely on results going their way in the last round to make the final after Queensland leapfrogged them into second-placed with their earlier victory against Tasmania.The WACA has hosted the previous three finals, but South Australia locked up hosting rights with their thrilling victory against Victoria. Three-time champions WA will play fifth-placed Victoria, still mathematically able to qualify for the final, in the last round while NSW travel to Tasmania who have been knocked out.Related

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WA declared their second innings at 346 for 4 early in the second session with Hilton Cartwright finishing unbeaten on a first-class career best score of 171 not out.NSW needed 282 runs off 57 overs for the victory needed to move into second spot, but they did not attempt to chase down the total on a surface that proved particularly difficult for batters against the new ball.Konstas was a steadying presence with 50 off 107 balls before Matthew Gilkes and Ollie Davies held firm in the final hour.All eyes at the start of NSW’s innings were on Konstas and whether he would try to make a play at the total. But he was watchful from the get go much like during his limited time at the crease in the first innings. The fireworks happened at the other end when opener Nic Maddinson fell for a duck on the third ball of the innings after edging left-arm quick Joel Paris to second slip.Konstas was unperturbed and intent on defence, taking until his eighth delivery to register his first run. In a big moment, Kurtis Patterson had a let off on 1 after he was dropped by Paris at gully in a tough chance.Paris and Cameron Gannon produced considerable seam movement, but Konstas was rock solid and only had one scoring shot from his first 23 balls. Lance Morris entered the attack in the 11th over and there was an unknown over how many overs he would bowl. Under a restriction of around 30 overs per game to manage his body, Morris took career best first-class figures of 5 for 26 off 20.3 overs in NSW’s first innings.Morris ended up bowling 12 overs, but he was unable to rediscover his accuracy and control as Konstas played him with relative ease.Batting became easier as Konstas and Patterson, NSW’s first innings top-scorer with 86 off 262 balls, made it through to tea and they knocked the ball around after the resumption.Hilton Cartwright finished unbeaten on a career-best 171•Getty Images

The match unexpectedly sparked to life when Paris bowled Patterson with a delivery that crept low. Paris continued to target divots as he troubled left-handed batter Gilkes, while offspinner Corey Rocchiccioli started to menace with sharp bounce.He had Konstas on 38 poking to short-leg, but it was given not out. Konstas reached his half-century and the match again appeared to be fizzling away until he missed a straight Rocchiccioli delivery and was stumped before Josh Philippe was caught at short-leg on his first ball.But Rocchiccioli could not get his hat-trick or produce the necessary heroics as the match petered out to a draw.Earlier, WA resumed their second innings on 209 for 2 with a lead of 144 runs. There was intrigue over how WA would play the situation and when they would eye a declaration. Cartwright and Cameron Bancroft batted cautiously against the new ball with runs hard to come by as the clock started to tick.Bancroft’s 276-ball stonewall ended on 86 after he edged Jack Edwards to first slip. Playing his 100th Shield match, Bancroft trudged off disappointed but satisfied in his return to the field after a horrific on-field collision during a BBL game in early January.Bancroft’s wicket didn’t prompt a change of tactics from WA with batter Sam Fanning struggling with his timing. Emerging left-hander Fanning does tend to either bat in two modes – aggressively or dour – and he was stuck in the latter with just three runs off his first 31 balls faced.But with the ball losing its shine, Fanning eventually got into his groove and runs flowed after lunch. The batters had fun for 30 minutes after the interval with Fanning launching offspinner Chris Green down the ground on several occasions.Cartwright overtook his previous highest score of 170 before he soon walked off the field to a rousing ovation.

Shaun Pollock, the media representative of the ICC’s cricket committee, has said that the body is “working on something” to give bowlers “bit more leeway on wides”, particularly with batters often moving around the crease in limited-overs formats.”If a batter jumps across [at the] last minute, it doesn’t really work out for me,” Pollock told PTI on the sidelines of the SA20. “I think a bowler, at the start of his run-up, needs to know where he can bowl it.”The current rule tends to suggest that if he [the batter] moves and it’s that point of delivery where the batter is, and that’s according to where the wide will be called, I want a little bit of a change. I want them to know exactly when they’re running up why or how – how can a bowler be expected to change his game plan at the last second when he’s bowling? He needs to have a clear idea where he can go.”So it’s in the pipeline, we’re all discussing. We need to give a little bit back to the bowlers.”As things stand, though, the ICC’s playing conditions specify that a ball should be called a wide if it “passes wide of where the striker is standing and which also would have passed wide of the striker standing in a normal batting position”, and also, it is not a wide “if the striker, by moving, either causes the ball to pass wide of him, or brings the ball sufficiently within reach to be able to hit it by means of a normal cricket stroke”.That aside, at the IPL and the WPL in India since 2023, players – bowlers and batters – have been empowered to review wide calls by umpires using DRS.Simon Taufel, though, has not been in favour of it.”I’m really conscious around trying to turn the art of officiating into a science and seek perfection, whatever that looks like, with decision making,” Taufel had told ESPNcricinfo. “So with wides for example, and here we’re going to, potentially according to you, or according to the player or the debate, take a wide call and throw that back to the third umpire for them to judge on something that might be marginal and is still a judgement call.”

Pollock hopes SA’s ‘IPL stars’ make a difference at Champions Trophy

Pollock said South Africa should look to leverage their players’ experience in subcontinent conditions during the upcoming Champions Trophy, which will be played in Pakistan (with the exception of matches featuring India, which will be played in Dubai).”You’ve got basically the similar players that were at that [2023 ODI] World Cup, where we got to the semi-final and lost to Australia,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of IPL stars who play for South Africa. In those situations, everything looks good. The amount of IPL players, people like [Heinrich] Klaasen, [David] Miller, even [Quinton] de Kock, all those guys who spend so much time over there, getting an understanding for conditions, that can only help South Africa.”They [have] got the ICC Test Championship [final] now as well, so it’s been some good stuff and, hopefully, some younger individuals come up. We’ve seen it starting to develop in the Test arena.”

‘South African cricket needed SA20 injection’

The SA20, South Africa’s pre-eminent franchise-based T20 competition, is now in its third season, and Pollock said it had “gone from strength to strength” in its short existence.”Some of the activities at the ground as well, the Catch 2 Million competition this year has been added,” he said. “I know the young kids are taught ‘you’ve got to get to the ground’, because we need some money these days with the economy the way it is. But it’s definitely gone from strength to strength.”South African cricket needed this injection – there’s no doubt about it. They needed something to create a bit of unbelievable interest in the game.”

Kyle Verreynne will return to Nottinghamshire in 2025 and will hope that the first part of his stint ends up being preparation for South Africa’s potential involvement in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.Verreynne, the wicketkeeper-batter, played three games for Notts in the County Championship last year, and scored 248 runs including an unbeaten 148 against Warwickshire which helped to confirm their survival in Division One. He will return to the club next summer, and Notts expect him to be available for 12 out of their 14 Championship fixtures around his international commitments.Those could include the WTC final at Lord’s on June 11, with South Africa well-placed to finish in the top two if they continue their recent form. Verreynne scored an unbeaten 105 on the second day of their ongoing second Test against Sri Lanka after their convincing win last week, and they will complete the 2023-25 cycle with two Tests at home to Pakistan from Boxing Day.Related

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“I thought the competition was of a really good standard,” Verreynne said in a club statement. “When you’ve played international cricket, you still want to be tested at domestic level, so I really enjoyed adapting to English conditions. I know the challenge could be different next year in the early part of the summer, but I’m sure that will be beneficial for me.”I felt really comfortable playing cricket at Trent Bridge last season – it’s an awesome place to play… I was glad to be able to play my part in helping us stay in Division One at the end of the season, but we want to push further forward next season – and the players are definitely there for us to do so.”Peter Moores, Notts’ head coach, said: “Kyle provided an important injection when we needed it last season, bringing all his experience and qualities as an international player. We know conditions will be different in April to the time he spent with us at the end of the season, though his record in Test match cricket shows he has the ability to adapt and still be successful.”Notts announced last month that Australia’s Daniel Sams will be one of their overseas players for the T20 Blast next year.

Danni Wyatt-Hodge will play for Surrey in the new Women’s Tier 1 county competition next season, after transferring her allegiance from Hampshire-based Southern Vipers.Wyatt-Hodge, 33, is currently in action for Hobart Hurricanes in the Women’s Big Bash League, having recently featured in England’s T20 World Cup campaign in the UAE.Last summer, she represented Southern Vipers in the Charlotte Edwards Cup and Rachel Heyhoe Flint Trophy, as well as Southern Brave, who are also based in Southampton.However, she has chosen to make the move to Surrey for the 2025 season, where she will link up with England top-order team-mates Sophia Dunkley and Alice Capsey.”I am both excited and honoured to be joining Surrey,” Wyatt-Hodge said. “The club has an incredible history with a culture of success, which I want to contribute to.”I love playing at the Kia Oval and can’t wait to entertain the Surrey supporters. The South East Stars’ positive brand of cricket was an important factor in me joining the club and I’m looking forward to getting started!”Wyatt-Hodge has played 278 England matches since her debut in 2010, at the age of 19, scoring over 5,000 runs across the three formats. She’s England’s all-time leading run-scorer in women’s T20Is with 2,979 runs from 164 matches, at a strike-rate of 127.85.She made her county debut for Staffordshire at the age of 14, but has been based at the Utilita Bowl since 2020. She is also due to play for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in this year’s WPL, after making the move from UP Warriorz.”We are incredibly excited that Danni Wyatt-Hodge has agreed to commit to Surrey for the 2025 season,” Emma Calvert, Surrey’s Director of Women’s Cricket, said. “Danni’s career speaks for itself, and we believe she will add strength and depth on the field as well as adding to the team off the field.”After chatting to Danni it was clear to see that she will be an incredible fit for our new team. They style of cricket she plays is exactly how we want to go about our business, and I am excited to see what she achieves wearing the Three Feathers.”

Warwickshire wicketkeeper Michael Burgess has made a sudden retirement from professional cricket.Burgess had been at Warwickshire since 2019 having initially joined from Sussex on a two-year deal. With his current contract due to run until the end of the 2025 season, the 30-year-old has decided to step away from the game altogether and will pursue other career options in London.Having come through the age-group set-up at Surrey, Burgess took up a three-year Sports and Excercise Science degree at Loughborough, making his first-class debut for the UCCE side in a pre-season fixture against Sussex in April 2014. A year later, he joined Leicestershire and struck an impressive 98 on first-class debut during a tour match against Sri Lanka in 2016 before being released at the end of that season.After considering other options at the time, including a city job in London and at Royal Hospital School in Ipswich, he was able to secure a trial at Sussex which soon evolved into a permanent deal. Two years later, having found his first-team opportunities limited, he swapped Hove for Edgbaston as one of Paul Farbrace’s first signings as Warwickshire’s director of sport.Burgess went on to score exactly 3,000 runs in 65 first-class matches for Warwickshire, including a career-high 178 against Surrey at the start of the 2022 County Championship. In 2021, he helped the club secure the double of a County Championship title and the Bob Willis Trophy. Last summer, he struck 745 runs at 43.82, scoring his sixth and seventh red-ball hundreds.Speaking on his retirement, Burgess said: “It’s been a very difficult decision. I know it will come as a surprise to many people around the club. But I’ve decided the time is right to step away from the game and pursue other opportunities.”I’d like to thank all the members, fans and the wider club for their support over the last six years. Warwickshire is a brilliantly supported club and the members make it a great place to play cricket.”Winning the Championship in 2021 will always be an incredibly special part of my career and something I’ll forever be proud of. It’s been great sharing a dressing room with this group of players, who I know will bring lots of future success to the club.”In a statement released by Warwickshire on Wednesday, performance director Gavin Larsen said: “On one hand it’s extremely disappointing to lose a player of Michael’s experience, but also we recognise all player’s careers come to close at some point and Michael has decided now is the time for ‘life after cricket’.”What I loved about Michael was his combativeness and toughness with the bat when presented with challenging situations. I’ve lost count of the number of times he has rescued a Championship innings, batting superbly with the tail.”He’s a gifted wicketkeeper who always showed the ability to deliver classy performance behind the stumps. There’s no doubt we’ll miss his all-round skills. He’s made the call right at the start of the new season, as the players return to training, so it gives us time to consider options.”We wish Michael all the very the best, and like we say to all our departing players ‘Once a Bear Always a Bear’. Michael will be welcomed back at Edgbaston at any time, and we wish him all the very best for his new career start in London.”The onus is now on Warwickshire to reinforce their squad, with Burgess’ retirement another loss ahead of the 2025 season following the departures of Will Rhodes and Chris Benjamin, to Durham and Kent respectively. Fast bowler Liam Norwell, who was forced to retire through injury this week, was released in August. Their only incoming so far has been seamer Ethan Bamber from Middlesex.

James Sales hit an excellent career-best 135 as Northamptonshire piled on the runs on day two of this Vitality County Championship match against Leicestershire at Wantage Road.The Northamptonshire youngster made the most of his recent elevation up the order, stroking 16 boundaries in more than four hours at the crease, facing 197 deliveries in an innings of real maturity.While he was dropped on 86 and 121 off two rare false shots, his innings was notable for his fluency, placement and timing. It stood in contrast to his maiden first-class ton in April, scored against the kookaburra ball on a docile pitch which had offered little for the Middlesex attack.Sales and Rob Keogh (49) extended their overnight partnership to 117, before runs kept flowing during Sales’ stand of 131 off just 134 deliveries with a resourceful Saif Zaib. Stroking a run-a-ball 71, Zaib garnered most of his runs from the sweep and reverse sweep as he put the spinners to the sword, a wayward Rehan Ahmed taking the brunt of his offensive.Leicestershire seamer Ian Holland, who found some inswing with the second new ball to end Sales’ innings, helped wrap up the Northamptonshire tail to finish with figures of four for 53 as the hosts were bowled out for 383 to take a first innings lead of 180.When Leicestershire replied, Northamptonshire tied them down, runs coming at a pedestrian rate with legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal finding plenty of turn. The Indian international claimed two wickets as Leicestershire closed on 69 for four still trailing by 111.Earlier Sales, 21, quickly got into his work, driving Sam Wood through the covers for four and dispatching him down the ground as he reached his half-century off 82 balls. He smashed Rehan over long-on for four, but otherwise manoeuvred the ball into the gaps nicely, driving sweetly and playing a delicate late cut.Despite nursing a bad back, Keogh provided good support, twice pulling Rehan over long-on before he was trapped lbw, struck on the back leg as he went back to a full delivery from the England legspinner.Zaib got off the mark first ball, cutting Ahmed square for four and sweeping Liam Trevaskis effortlessly behind square. Proving an ideal partner for Sales, he ran sharp ones and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking over and the pressure on the fielders.Sales survived his first false shot when Louis Kimber put him down at short cover off Trevaskis, the fielder injuring his hand in the process.Undeterred, Sales reached his century shortly after lunch by slapping Rehan through the covers for his 13th boundary as he and Zaib plundered 86 off the first 10 overs after the interval.Zaib meanwhile was tucking into some increasingly loose bowling from Rehan, sweeping with ease as he brought up his half-century off 55 deliveries before pulling a half-tracker square for six. At the other end, Sales benefited from another drop in the covers off Trevaskis, responding by smashing the bowler down the ground for four.But both batters departed in quick succession to spark a mini Northamptonshire collapse, four wickets falling for 21 in 6.1 overs. First Zaib was trapped lbw as he played another sweep, to give Sol Budinger his maiden first class wicket. Then, when Leicestershire took the new ball, Holland swung one back in to bowl Sales as he attempted to drive.Justin Broad was next to go when he pushed at one from Holland and was well caught by a diving Rishi Patel at first slip. Next Ben Sanderson was denied the three runs he needed for 1,000 career first-class runs when Holland trapped him lbw without scoring.A counterattacking Lewis McManus extended Northamptonshire’s lead as he took on the new ball clubbing five boundaries in a knock of 27 before becoming the sixth lbw casualty of the innings, Holland claiming his fourth wicket. Wood then wrapped up the innings by demolishing Jack White’s stumps.White struck immediately with the fifth ball of Leicestershire’s reply. Budinger, top scorer in the first innings, fell without scoring when he played inside the line of one which hit the top of off-stump.Patel (35) and Holland (11) found scoring tough going, accumulating at just 1.5 an over. Holland was eventually stumped off Chahal as he advanced down the wicket.With Keogh unable to bowl due to his back injury, Northamptonshire turned to Zaib to bowl his slow left-armers and he soon accounted for Patel when he flicked a half volley on leg stump straight to Sales at short midwicket. Leicestershire quickly lost another when Rehan danced down the wicket to Chahal, missed and was stumped by McManus.

Ben Stokes is on track to recover from his hamstring injury in time to play a full role as an allrounder in England’s Test series against Pakistan in October.Stokes tore his left hamstring two-and-a-half weeks ago while playing for Northern Superchargers in the Hundred. He was ruled out for the rest of the summer but has been with the England squad during their ongoing series against Sri Lanka, and has been batting in the nets at Lord’s ahead of Thursday’s second Test.England are due to arrive in Pakistan on October 2 ahead of the first Test five days later, which is scheduled for Multan. They won 3-0 on their most recent tour there in 2022, with Stokes only bowling 35 overs in the series as he managed a chronic knee injury. A return to full fitness ahead of this tour would be a significant boost to their chances.Stokes described his return as “scratching an itch” on Tuesday. “I’m all good, just slowly progressing,” he said in an ECB video. “It’s still very early days in the rehab period… I want to get back as quick as I possibly can, so being around the medical team here with physio and doctors, I thought that was going to give myself the best chance of getting back sooner rather than later.”Ollie Pope, England’s stand-in captain, believes that Stokes will be “as fresh as anyone” heading into their winter tours to Pakistan and New Zealand. “He’s obviously still a fair while away off playing, and he’s not trying to play as a batter and a first slip – just yet, anyway. But it’s been great to see him.Related

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“Injuries are never ideal, but they’re also great chances for people to keep improving their game and have a little bit of time of reflection and think about what he can work on in his game. I’m sure that’s exactly what he’s doing in the nets. Going into that Pakistan series and then into New Zealand, he’s going to be as fresh as anyone.”Zak Crawley, who is also missing the Sri Lanka series, came to Lord’s on Tuesday with his broken little finger in a split. Like Stokes, he is targeting a return for October’s tour to Pakistan, though will not be able to resume batting until later next month. “It’s great to have those guys around,” Pope said.”I know [Crawley] is gutted he’s not here playing in these Test matches, but for him to pop in and catch up with the guys is great and it shows where we’re at as a squad, and how we’re a tight-knit unit. We want to keep driving that forwards because I think that helps us on the pitch as well.”Mark Wood is also out of this series injured, and has been replaced in England’s XI by Olly Stone for the second Test at Lord’s. Pope played with Stone at London Spirit in the Hundred this year, and believes that he will be able to replicate Wood’s impact as a high-pace bowler – even if he may not touch Wood’s top speeds.”He’s obviously had a tough time, and has injuries that unfortunately fast bowlers can just get, especially when they bowl up to 90mph. I’m really excited for Olly to get the opportunity to pull that shirt back on. I know how hard he’s worked and I know how hard it is being injured for such a long period of time.”Stokes described Pope as moving into his interim role “seamlessly” and said that he had enjoyed watching from the dressing-room in Manchester. “I was actually pretty relaxed and pretty chilled,” he said. “I thought I might be a little bit frantic… When you don’t have the emotion of being in the game, you do look at it from a different point of view.”

England’s exit from the T20 World Cup leaves Rob Key facing the biggest call of his tenure as managing director. Reaching the semi-finals was seen as the minimum expectation for Matthew Mott but the manner of his side’s 68-run drubbing by India in Guyana leaves his position as white-ball head coach at risk during a rare break in the World Cup cycle.Mott is two years into a four-year contract and insisted on Thursday that he is the right man to take England forwards. His team won the last T20 World Cup six months into his tenure but bombed at the 50-over World Cup in India last year. And while they reached the last four in the Caribbean, they only beat one Test-playing opponent across the tournament.ICC events are now annual occurrences but next year is the first in five without a men’s white-ball World Cup: there is a Champions Trophy scheduled for February but that is the least important tournament in the calendar. After Thursday’s semi-final defeat, England now have a 10-week break until their next limited-overs series against Australia in September.Related

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It leaves Key with a series of questions to answer when he reviews this World Cup. Can Mott reinvigorate a side which appears to have stagnated? Are England making genuine progress under Mott’s leadership? If not, is there an obvious replacement? And would they want to take on the scrutiny of a job where a semi-final World Cup exit is a sackable offence?Key has made a number of big decisions across his two-year tenure: appointing Ben Stokes as Test captain, gambling on Brendon McCullum, taking the blame for last year’s World Cup debacle and, most recently, telling James Anderson that his time as an England player was finally up. But working out how to revitalise this white-ball set-up looms as the biggest of them all.Jos Buttler’s position as captain will come under similar scrutiny but the decision may be his rather than Key’s. Buttler has achieved so much that he could happily give up international cricket and earn handsomely on the franchise circuit for the next five years if he wishes. As Key doubtless knows, England need Buttler far more than Buttler needs England.This was a strange campaign. England’s warm-up series against Pakistan was blighted by weather and after their first match against Scotland, featuring an uninspiring bowling effort, was washed out a heavy defeat to Australia left them on the brink of a first-round exit. Another hour of rain in Antigua during their game against Namibia would have sent them home.Then, in St Lucia, they put together a complete performance to end West Indies’ winning streak by chasing down 181 with 15 balls to spare, before losing a tight game to South Africa. They secured their spot in the semi-finals by thrashing USA in Barbados, but conditions in Guyana were never likely to suit them and on a pitch characterised by low bounce, India asserted their authority.”I think we were good without being great,” Mott said at Providence Stadium, assessing England’s tournament. “If we’re being honest, we weren’t quite at our best. We were hoping to peak at the right time and certainly coming up against India today, we needed to peak and we knew that. This was possibly going to be the toughest test we had and we weren’t quite good enough.”England white-ball coach Matthew Mott after the semi-final loss to India•Getty Images

England were a tense, downbeat team in India last winter but seemed to have learned from their mistakes, hiring Kieron Pollard as a consultant for his local knowledge and bringing back the psychologist David Young, who was a popular presence. On the eve of the semi-final, Mott insisted that England were making progress under him and reiterated that position after their exit.”You always feel like you’ve made progress when you get to the semi-finals,” he said. “It’s disappointing to finish in that way: whether we lost by one run or the margin we did, we’d be going home very disappointed… [but] there’s not many teams who’d have turned up today and taken that game away from India, given the conditions we faced.”Yet the sense remains that England have lost their aura. Mott has not been helped by a disjointed schedule which sees him go months without access to his players but after two years in the job, their identity under him is still not clear. They are now in a transitional phase and Key must decide whether Mott has a clear vision for what comes next.Mott believes his backroom staff are fully behind him. “Jos and I as a partnership have been galvanised in the last six months,” he said. “You learn more about leadership in times of adversity. If you ask around the dressing room, we’ve got a lot of people in the support staff that have given credit to the leadership group for the way we’ve stuck together in tricky circumstances.”Sometimes it’s not all about results. Obviously we’re in a results-driven business, and you guys [the written press] will have your fun at our expense, I’m sure. But when you wake up in the morning and have a crack and do your best, you can sleep at night knowing that sometimes, results are out of your control.”Some senior players need to be phased out: Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan have been fine servants to England’s T20 set-up but their time is up, while Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wood are highly unlikely to make the next T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in early 2026. Their batting line-up must be rebuilt around Harry Brook, who should bat at No. 3 or 4.Unlike the team of 30-somethings that crashed out in India, this is not an old England squad: seven out of 15 players are in their 20s and in Brook and Phil Salt, there are batters to build around. The English domestic system continues to produce talented young players and further candidates for selection will emerge in the Hundred next month.Buttler is planning a short break before that tournament starts, and will use the time off to take stock. “You take some time to review tournaments and try to plan ahead for the next [one],” he said. “What we need to do better as a team, if that is the way we play, personnel, style of cricket… we will review everything and come up with a plan.”It is Key who will ultimately sign off on what that plan looks like – and English cricket needs him to get it right.

Worcestershire 212 (Libby 77, J Taylor 3-19, Lawrence 3-49) and 207 for 5 f/o (Kashif 66, Roderick 63, Clark 3-31) trail Surrey 490 by 71 runsLeaders Surrey remain on course to win their fifth Vitality County Championship match of the season despite prolonged resistance from Worcestershire’s Gareth Roderick and Kashif Ali on day three at Visit Worcestershire New Road.Surrey achieved the first objective before lunch in claiming the final three Worcestershire first innings wickets and enforcing the follow on with a lead of 278 despite resistance from top scorer Jake Libby, Ben Allison and Adam Finch.Opener Roderick and Kashif then dug in to add 135 from 34 overs in relatively untroubled fashion for the second wicket. But three wickets then fell in three overs to turn the game firmly back in Surrey’s favour in the final session of the day.Jordan Clark was the chief thorn in Worcestershire’s side with three wickets as they closed still needing 71 to make Surrey bat again.England spin bowling coach, Jeetan Patel, was at New Road and put Shoaib Bashir, on loan to Worcestershire from Somerset, and Dan Lawrence through their paces before the start of play.He saw Lawrence quickly strike for a third time in the innings after only nine runs had been added to the overnight 147 for 7. Allison, having added 54 for the ninth wicket with Libby, pushed forward to the spinner and edged to Surrey captain Rory Burns at slip.Finch provided Libby with staunch support during a stand of 15 overs before the latter’s five hour resistance came to an end. He was on the receiving end of a fine delivery from Gus Atkinson which left him and Foakes gobbled up a fifth catch of the innings.The innings was wrapped up when Shoaib Bashir pulled James Taylor straight to square leg to leave Finch unbeaten on 27 spanning 71 balls. The final three wickets held out for 43 overs – the same as the first seven dismissals.When Worcestershire followed on, Libby did the bulk of the scoring but after making 28 out of 33 he went for an expansive drive and was bowled via an inside edge by Jordan Clark.Roderick cut and cover drove Taylor for four but was fortunate when he mistimed a drive against Clark which flew in the air past the bowler and Lawrence at mid-on.Kashif Ali needed treatment after being struck on the hand by Gus Atkinson and then nicked the same bowler for a fortunate four but he also played some delightful late cuts.Roderick was first to his half century off 114 balls with seven fours and just ahead of Kashif whose fifty was completed off 85 balls.The century partnership was completed off 167 balls but the two batters fell in quick succession. Roderick (63) edged Clark and was caught low down at slip and then Kashif (66) went to pull Atkinson and lobbed up a simple catch to square leg.Rob Jones (0) fell to a diving catch by Foakes off Clark from a delivery that was too full to attempt a cut. Ethan Brookes also nicked through to Foakes when trying to force Abbott off the back foot – his eighth catch of the match.