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After their batters got only around 20 overs of crease-time across their first two games against UAE and Pakistan, India batted first for the first time in the Asia Cup and posted 188 for 8 against Oman. All their batters got a hit in the middle except their captain Suryakumar Yadav, who did not come out to bat despite India losing eight wickets. Though Oman made a creditable impression with both ball and bat, they could not overcome India’s might and depth.Abhishek Sharma did Abhishek Sharma things, clattering 38 off 15 balls. He was the only India batter with a strike rate of over 200 on an Abu Dhabi pitch that offered grip and turn. Sanju Samson, who slotted in at No.3, was less fluent, but moved to a 41-ball fifty. Cameos from Tilak Varma (29 off 18), Axar Patel (26 off 13), and Harshit Rana (13* off 8) then pushed India up towards 190.India had rested their bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and newly minted No.1 T20I bowler Varun Chakravarthy, but Kuldeep Yadav befuddled Oman’s batters with his variations. Oman openers Aamir Kaleem and Jatinder Singh struck up a 56-run partnership but by the time Kuldeep broke it in the ninth over, the asking rate had shot up to 12. Though Kaleem and No.3 Hammad Mirza made battling half-centuries, they could not find the higher gears that could have hurt India. In pursuit of 189, Oman finished with 167 for 4.Having applied so much scoreboard pressure on Oman, India could afford to experiment with their bowling too. Tilak and Abhishek were among eight bowlers India used on Friday.2:20

Abhinav Mukund: This is how Abhishek should always bat

Abhishek’s opening salvo

Left-arm seamer Shah Faisal dealt India an early blow when he castled Shubman Gill for 5 with a sharp inswinger in the second over. However, that didn’t stop Abhishek from lining up Oman’s bowlers in the powerplay.Abhishek claimed 38 of the 60 runs India had scored in the first six overs. Left-arm fingerspinner Shakeel Ahmed got away with the first ball he bowled to Abhishek, but the batter took him for two fours and a six in the third over. Shakeel tried to drag the ball away from Abhishek’s reach with his sharp angle from left-arm around, but the left-handed opener still found a counter.Oman’s seamers then took pace off, but nobody can take Abhishek’s power away. When Mohammad Nadeem bowled a slower ball into the pitch, Abhishek forayed down the track and scythed it over point. Then, when Jiten Ramanandi dug a 104kph delivery into the pitch, Abhishek pumped it for a straight six.He got a reprieve on 21 when he tickled Nadeem down the leg side, but Vinayak Shukla, the Oman keeper, shelled the catch and umpire Raveendra Wilalasiri eventually deemed it as a wide ball. Abhishek added 17 to his tally before nicking another one behind, Shukla making no mistake this time.2:07

Jaffer: Wasn’t a fluent innings from Samson

Samson’s stop-start innings

After having chalked up two DNBs, Samson had a slow start – he was on 13 off 14 balls at one point – but a six and a four off Madhya-Pradesh-born wristspinner Samay Shrivatsava got him out of first gear. Samson proceeded to crash Zikria Islam for a straight six in the tenth over, but slowed down once again thereafter.Having got to 42 off 32 balls, he took a further nine balls to bring up his half-century. Then, when he looked to turn up the tempo, he holed out to deep midwicket for 56 off 45 balls in the 18th over.India cobbled together 21 off the last three overs and managed to find the boundary just once during this period – off the last ball of the innings when Harshit scythed Faisal for six over point.2:00

Jaffer: Inspired performances from Kaleem and Hammad

Oman’s spirited chase

After bagging the wickets of Axar Patel and Shivam Dube, Kaleem, who will turn 44 in November, stood up to India’s bowlers. He was cagey during the powerplay – he scored only 15 off 13 balls during the period – but then laid into Dube’s medium-pace, taking him for 18 off nine balls.Kaleem’s knock ended on 64 when Hardik held onto a screamer at the long-leg boundary off Harshit, putting a smile on fielding coach T Dilip’s face. Mirza also showed his batting chops with a half-century of his own, giving Oman hope for the T20 World Cup Asia & East-Asia-Pacific Regional Qualifier, a tournament they will host next month, even if they bowed out of their maiden Asia Cup with no wins in three matches.For India, Arshdeep Singh, who was playing his first game of the tournament, picked up his 100th T20I wicket when he had Shukla holing out in the final over. Arshdeep became the first India bowler to the landmark and closed out the game for them, with Bumrah and Varun applauding the effort from the sidelines.

India captain Shubman Gill has said his team was “pretty confident” of taking the remaining four wickets on the final morning at The Oval to square the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series.Late rain on day four dragged the game into the fifth day, leaving England needing 35 runs and India four wickets. Mohammed Siraj picked up three of the four to seal a stunning win.”Yeah, we were pretty confident,” Gill said at the post-match presentation. “Even yesterday, we knew that they [England] are a little bit under pressure. We just wanted to make sure that they’re feeling the pressure throughout. Pressure makes everyone do things that they don’t want to, and we just wanted to make sure that they’re feeling the pressure throughout.Related

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“I think the way both the teams played in the entire series, every day coming on day four, day five, and never really knowing which team is going to win… it shows that both the teams came up with their A game and very happy to get over the line in this one.”Joe Root had said that the use of a heavy roller would benefit England on the fifth morning, but Siraj and Prasidh Krishna worked in tandem to give no respite to Jamie Smith and the tail.”When bowlers like Siraj and Prasidh are bowling like that then 35 runs is also too much,” Gill said at the post-match press conference. “As a batsman, you are under pressure as you feel the ball is doing something and it takes just one ball. And that is what we were reminding them about frequently. If the conditions are like this and the momentum is with you, then 30-35 runs is enough, then you know it is a matter of one or two balls falling in the right place and the game will get over there and then.”Gill said that India never thought about taking the second new ball, considering the movement both his strike bowlers had been getting since day four. “Also, we had the wicket-taking option on this wicket,” Gill said. “If they had to make the runs, they would need to score boundaries. We knew they were under pressure because in such a position the batting team is under pressure because it is matter of one ball.”Having been left heartbroken after he was the last man dismissed in the Lord’s Test last month, Siraj finished the game this time with the ball, when his pinpoint yorker uprooted Gus Atkinson’s off stump. Siraj put in a big shift, with his 30.1 overs in the fourth innings bringing him five wickets.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“Yes, definitely, he’s a captain’s dream”, Gill said of Siraj. “Coming in five Test matches, every ball, every spell that he bowled gave his all out, and every captain, every team wants a player like him. We are very fortunate to have him in our team.”While Siraj won the Player-of-the-Match award, Gill was chosen as India’s Player of the Series by the opposition coach Brendon McCullum for his chart-topping 754 runs in ten innings at an average of 75.40. Gill’s series aggregate is the second-highest for a captain behind Don Bradman’s 810 against England in the 1936-37 Ashes. No other batter has scored more runs in a series between England and India, going past Graham Gooch’s 752 runs in 1990.”Feels very rewarding,” Gill said. “I worked pretty hard before the start of the series. There were certain things that I wanted to work on as a batsman, and it was my goal to be able to be the best batter of the series. And to be able to accomplish that goal feels very satisfying and very rewarding.”I think once you are sorted mentally, you would be in a good space. But you’re only sorted mentally when you’re feeling technically correct. So, I think they’re both kind of correlated. If you feel like you’re getting in good positions, you’re always mentally more stable.”3:49

Bangar: Series result proves India is growing in stature

‘We want to be looked as a gun team’

Having started the new WTC cycle with a series-levelling win, India are currently third on the table with 28 points in five matches. “This series was very important for us because the kind of maturity every player would feel [at] the end of the series would really help us in the long run in this WTC cycle,” Gill said.Asked if he would have felt the same had England chased the target, Gill admitted that his “feelings would definitely be slightly different”.”I think the scorecard of the series could not have really depicted what kind of cricket we played,” he said. “But this scorecard of the series that we have right now really shows how both teams played. This win was important for us to be able to get that morale high, especially after the kind of cricket that we have played over the course of two months.”When Gill’s India had landed in the United Kingdom in June, there were several questions asked – whether his team had the experience and the personnel to challenge Ben Stokes’ men. Two months later, India depart with the series shared. Gill credited head coach Gautam Gambhir for building the confidence of the team.”At the start of the series Gauti [Gambhir] said: ‘yes, we are a young team, but we don’t want to be looked as a young team; we want to be looked as a gun team’. And the way we played it today showed us that why we are a gun team, and we have gun players like him [Siraj] in our team and that’s what makes this team so special.”

Mitchell Owen says he was more nervous with the ball than he was with the bat in his dream T20I debut against West Indies in Jamaica, revealing that his game plan in an unfamiliar role at No. 6 was no different to when he has dominated as a franchise opener.Owen, 23, joined Ricky Ponting and David Warner as the third Australian man to score a half-century on T20I debut, clubbing 50 off 27 balls to help Australia to a three-wicket win over West Indies in the opening match of a five-game series at Sabina Park.He earlier took his maiden T20I wicket in his first and only over, removing Shai Hope for 55 at a crucial moment in the innings which sparked a West Indies collapse of 6 for 30 that was critical in Australia’s win.Related

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Owen admitted he was very nervous in his first over, especially after Shimron Hetmyer launched his first ball for six.”I thought I was on 36 off the over there when he smacked me for six first ball,” Owen said after the match. “But I was lucky Shai hit one up the shoot and got my first wicket. I was pretty nervous running in those first six balls, but nice to get it out of the way.”Owen’s innings with the bat was even more remarkable given it was his first half-century in T20 cricket batting in a middle-order position. He had earned his call-up to the Australia squad on the back of stunning returns as an opener in the most recent BBL where he made two centuries for Hobart Hurricanes. Prior to Sunday, in 16 career T20 innings batting from No. 3 to 8, he had scored just 174 runs at 14.50, with a strike-rate of 148.71 and a highest score of 34, and had only twice batted at No. 6.Owen said he was unperturbed by starting against spin with five men on the rope.”I honestly tried not to look at the field too much and just sort of react to each ball, which I think held me in good stead,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a little bit different, but I think my process, my game plan, wasn’t too different to opening the batting coming in at six. We had to strike at 10s or nines when I came out. So I still had to be nice and positive. If I took my time to sort of try and get into innings, I feel like I sort of dig myself a hole. So, yeah, just try and get after them from ball one.”With captain Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head likely to be Australia’s first-choice openers for T20 World Cup next year, and Matthew Short the first-choice back-up, the selectors were keen to trial Owen in the middle-order and will be delighted with the early returns.His fearlessness against spin would have pleased them most given Australia’s middle order has often been bogged down by left-arm spin and legspin through the middle stages in the past. Owen blasted three sixes in four balls off left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein in the 12th over. He also launched two sixes off Andre Russell and one off Alzarri Joseph.Owen combined beautifully with new No. 4 Cameron Green, who himself worked two twos of Gudakesh Motie in the middle phase before smashing him for a six and a boundary to go with the four other sixes he hammered off Joseph and Jason Holder. The pair added 80 off 40 balls after coming together at 78 for 4 in the ninth over.”It was a lot of fun,” Owen said. “It’s the first time I’ve been on the same side as Greeny. So it was nice to be out there with him and contribute to a pretty good partnership. We kept each other nice and calm and just stuck to our processes.”Mitchell Owen and Cameron Green put up a match-winning stand•Getty Images

Ben Dwarshuis, who starred with the ball in Australia’s win taking 4 for 36, told ESPN’s Around the Wicket that Owen’s batting is on a different planet at the moment.”I’ve been on the receiving end of this bowling to him over the past nine months, and he’s just in a different world at the moment,” Dwarshuis said. “I think anything that’s remotely missed the mark from a bowling point of view, he seems to clear the rope. You see zero fours and six sixes. I think that shows that he’s ultra aggressive and if you miss your line and length, he’s going to make you pay.”It capped a dream debut for Owen after he received his T20I cap from close friend and Hobart Hurricanes captain Nathan Ellis, with his parents and his partner at Sabina Park to watch it.”Really special,” Owen said. “He had some really nice words for me. I was obviously stoked to get the hat and stoked to have my parents over here. Obviously, it’s a bit of a messed up travel getting to the West Indies, but yeah, they’ve sacrificed a lot my whole life, and this trip’s only just another one. So super grateful that they got to experience that.”

After almost two decades of waiting, when Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) finally became IPL champions, it wasn’t just a title triumph for Virat Kohli. It was the culmination of a journey that began in 2008 when he was a fiery young batter who would go on to become one of the most influential cricketers of his generation. It was also a full-circle moment for a player and a franchise that have become one and the same over time.As former RCB pacer Varun Aaron put it on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out show, “He [Kohli] has been the king of the castle in RCB for 18 years.” Aaron went to say, “At the end of the day, if they haven’t won a trophy, the first person they’re going to look at is Virat Kohli. And Virat Kohli, he loves to win. He can’t take second as even an option. So this is huge for him. Also, the kind of adoration and love he gets from the fans, from the franchise, is just huge.”And this is what they’ve been expecting for the longest time. It has come good. RCB have been the most loved team in the Indian Premier League by far. And now I don’t know where Virat’s going to go after this.”Tom Moody summed up Kohli’s IPL journey, saying it was a story of how a career was born, shaped, and lived out within a single franchise.”His cricketing career was nearly born at RCB,” Moody said. “So that’s why I think he’s so emotional, because he’s been so invested as a young player with a young mind, without knowing the body of work that he’s going to do in the game and that status that he was going to get in the game.”So you can see the connection that this has to him, because he’s been through all those ups and downs. We saw the stats earlier on about how many times RCB have made the finals in the 18 seasons. Ten times [in the playoffs]. Four times final. You can see why he’s emotional.”It’s nearly like the young Virat Kohli coming out of him, just celebrating and rejoicing in an emotional way.””When fans see the main player give everything on the field, they’re obviously going to feel that this guy deserves something”•AFP/Getty Images

Kohli has grown, faltered, risen and roared – all in RCB colours. With 8661 runs in 259 innings at a strike rate of 132.85 and an average of 39.54, he is the highest run-getter in IPL history.Between 2011 and 2023, he led RCB 143 times, the third-highest number of matches played as a captain in the IPL. He led RCB to the final in 2016 where they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). His 973 runs in that massive season still remains a record in the IPL.”The biggest Indian player after Sachin Tendulkar, I would say, who’s played day in day out for 18 years, he’s hardly ever missed matches, he’s hardly ever missed IPLs, he’s turned up season after season,” Aaron said looking back. “And given everything, when fans see the main player give everything on the field, with bat and even on the field, they’re obviously going to feel that, you know what, this guy deserves something.”While RCB gave Kohli a stage, it’s equally true – as Aaron put it – that “RCB has had its role in making Virat, but Virat has also made the franchise.”

Sunrisers Eastern Cape 184 for 6 (Markram 62*, Tahir 2-21) beat Joburg Super Kings 152 for 7 (Bairstow 37, Overton 2-20) by 32 runsSunrisers Eastern Cape remain on course for the SA20 three-peat after beating Joburg Super Kings in the Eliminator in Centurion, having recovered spectacularly from three defeats in their opening three games. They will play Paarl Royals in the second qualifier in less than 24 hours’ time to determine who will face MI Cape Town in Saturday’s final.SEC have the advantage of having the most recent experience of conditions up country while Paarl, who played in the first qualifier in Gqeberha, have had to travel. They’ve also lost their last three matches and their best batter, Joe Root, to national duty, so SEC can consider themselves favourites to reach a third final, if not the title itself.While they are a franchise that has often billed themselves as the epitome of an outfit that relies on team efforts, there was one individual who cannot be ignored: Marco Jansen.Even before the match, he was already the leading wicket-taker for this season, and in SA20’s history, and what we might call the only genuine allrounder in this tournament. None of the other bowlers who have taken 10 wickets or more have come close to scoring even 100 runs – Mujeeb Ur Rahman is closest with 55 – and, naturally, none of the batters who have scored 100 runs have taken 10 wickets.In the Eliminator, Jansen also became the joint-leading wicket-taker in the Powerplay, level with Paarl’s Bjorn Fortuin. He removed Devon Conway, the batter who had scored the most runs against him in T20s without being dismissed, in the fifth over when Conway played a leaden-footed tame drive to start JSK’s slide.Jansen did not find himself among the wickets again and the accolades from the Eliminator will go to others but his 12-ball 23, and his role in the 53-run sixth-wicket stand that ultimately proved match-winning with Aiden Markram, deserves special mention and got it from Markram. “It’s small chip-ins (with the bat) that help us a lot,” Markram said. “And then a guy like Marco comes in and whacks it.”Jansen was in in the 17th over, when Tristan Stubbs was bowled by Imran Tahir, and SEC were 131 for 5, with a target under 170 still within JSK’s grasp. They scored 15 runs off the next 11 balls and were 146 for 5 with two overs to go. Arguably, JSK made a tactical blunder by bringing back Lutho Sipamla, whose first three overs had cost 44 runs, but in the absence of many other options, they chose to back a player who has been good for them through the tournament.Jansen made sure he had an ending to forget. He picked his slower ball early and sent Sipamla’s first ball for six and then took 16 more runs off four balls he faced in that over, including ending it with another six. In total, 21 of Jansen’s 23 runs came off the five he faced from Sipamla and his contribution pushed SEC over 180.Markram said at the post-match press conference that he was “hoping for 195-plus”, but in the end 184 proved enough, despite JSK getting off to a good start. Conway and Faf du Plessis put on 40 inside five overs before Jansen dismissed Conway to open JSK up and set SEC on course for victory. According to his team-mates, that is ultimately the thing Jansen does best.”His attitude to win is unmatched,” David Bedingham told ESPNcricinfo before the Eliminator. “If you ask him if he went for 100 runs and took zero wickets in a Test match and scored a couple of ducks, I don’t think he’d care unless we won. His desire to win is why he is who he is. It also helps that he’s super talented. He’s seven foot tall, he bowls quick, he bats well so that also helps. But I think it’s his desire to win that makes him so special.”Markram echoed the idea that contributing to the team is the most important thing to Jansen. “He’s a very quick learner and he absolutely hates losing. He just gets fired up every time he plays and he’s marrying that fired up energy with better smarts,” Markram said.There’s also something else Jansen does before every game which may actually be the secret to his success. “He eats a triple-decker pizza before every game on the bus,” Markram said. “And a Coke. That’s not a joke.”Jansen’s dietary habits aside, if there is an individual who has played the biggest part in SEC’s success, it’s him – which means he is playing the game exactly as he wants to. JSK can only look on in envy, especially after their bowling resources were “decimated”, as coach Stephen Fleming put it.Nandre Burger and Lizaad Williams were ruled out before the tournament began, Gerald Coetzee could only play one game and David Wiese four, while Beuran Hendricks withdrew after the tournament started and was replaced by Sipamla, who finished as their highest wicket-taker. On the eve of the Eliminator, they also lost spin-bowling allrounder Donovan Ferreira to a side strain and du Plessis joked that he was struggling to find 11 fit players to field. He did, but only just.Maintaining a tournament run that lasts for 13 games over four weeks with so many players missing cannot be easy but for JSK, it will also not be an excuse.”I hate looking for excuses, but the turnover was high,” Fleming said. “If you look at our squad, when we first put it all together, it was very strong with South African bowling and overseas batting but it’s not the only reason. You do have to adapt. It is part of franchise cricket. But we just weren’t able to settle enough. I take some responsibility with that as well as we’re trying to find the team that’s going to take us forward: the right batting order. So we were chopping and changing and the whole thing just felt a little bit confusing. We just weren’t good enough.”

Australia’s batters were at home on Sri Lanka tracks in ways Sri Lanka’s batters weren’t. This was one of the take-aways from a Test that Australia dominated, according to head coach Sanath Jayasuriya.Sri Lanka’s batters also largely fell playing attacking strokes.”There was a serious problem with shot selections, as well as with handling situations,” Jayasuriya said. “I don’t think certain players have handled situations well. They’re experienced players, and they have to be more mature.Related

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“These players have played a lot of cricket and should know how to play. I’ve talked to them about this. But we’ve got to talk to them in detail about this now. Also, we cannot blame the wicket. Because we saw how the wicket behaved. This was a very good wicket. For a long time, we haven’t seen such a good wicket in Galle, on the third and fourth days.”The problem, Jayasuriya said, is batters not converting their starts into big scores. In Australia’s first innings of the first Test in Galle, six batters faced 50 balls or more. In Sri Lanka’s first innings, only Dinesh Chandimal faced more than 50 balls.”The biggest problem is the batters who are taking a start but are not going to play a long innings,” Jayasuriya said. “This is something I always mutter. We saw [Usman] Khawaja, [Steven] Smith and [Josh] Inglis, all three of them took a good start and they converted them to big hundreds. This conversion must be there. We’re not consistent in that. Our players should know that these are our conditions and we must make use of these conditions. There were lots of opportunities but we didn’t make use of them.”Australia’s spinners did tend to bowl faster than Sri Lanka’s, but at the time, Sri Lanka’s spinners had felt their slower pace was better suited to this surface.”They were bowling a little faster than us, but we were thinking that our pace was the best. That’s what we’ve been doing. The wicket was on the slower side and we were trying to bowl a little faster, but we ended up bowling as we usually do here.”After the third or fourth day, we saw the normal Galle wicket. What the Australia spinners did was bowl a little faster than us. That’s normally what they’re doing.”We’re used to bowling at a slower pace, but it didn’t work in this match. We need to discuss all that also.”

Worcestershire sealed their highest position in the Vitality County Championship since it was split into two divisions in 2000 after drawing with relegated Lancashire at Visit Worcestershire New Road.They secured sixth spot in Division One after recovering for the second time in the game from a precarious position with the bat thanks to the efforts of Matthew Waite, Adam Hose and Logan Van Beek.It enabled them to surpass their previous best performance of finishing seventh in Division One in 2011.Worcestershire have defied the pre-season predictions of being favourites to make an instant return to Division Two after last summer’s promotion campaign.A run of three successive wins against Durham, Kent and Essex effectively made sure of top-flight cricket in 2025.It was a fitting way for long-serving all-rounder Joe Leach to end his career after being Worcestershire’s leader of the attack for the past decade and a haul of 467 first-class wickets for the County.He received a standing ovation when he came out to bat for the second time in the game and signed off with 30 not outWorcestershire can be proud of their efforts after the well-documented challenges on and off the field that have confronted them during the past 12 months.They have shown a tremendous team spirit and an abundance in skill but also their determination in adversity when recovering from challenging positions in games.Worcestershire triumphed away to Durham after being bowled out for 112 in the first innings and then recovered from 10 for 4 on the first morning to defeat Essex at Chelmsford.Relegated Lancashire’s fate had been sealed on Saturday after their failure to secure a single batting bonus point for the ninth time in 14 games this season.But there was the encouraging sign of a return to form of pace bowler Tom Bailey.He had picked up just 16 wickets in his first 10 Championship appearances of the summer but was back to his best against Somerset and Worcestershire with a haul of 11 scalps.West Indian paceman Anderson Phillip also impressed during his short spell at the club and ended this game with nine wickets.Phillip struck with his first ball of the day as Jake Libby played too early at the delivery and offered a gentle return catch.Phillip struck again when Kashif Ali, Worcestershire’s leading run-scorer in the Championship this summer, went for a flashing drive and edged through to keeper Matty Hurst.Gareth Roderick completed 2,000 first class runs for Worcestershire when he reached nine but added only five more before he was run out.Rob Jones turned Phillip towards cover and he and Roderick set off for a single but the keeper-batter was unable to make his ground before Will Williams direct hit at the non-striker’s end.Jones (17) was lbw after aiming to drive Tom Bailey and Club Captain Brett D’Oliveira lost his middle stump to the same player.Ethan Brookes was lbw to a delivery angled in by Williams at 78 for 6.But for the second time in the game Waite led a counter-attack, this time in partnership with Adam Hose.He pulled Phillip for six and a similar shot off the same bowler brought another boundary.Hose provided excellent support, mixing solid defence with a series of fine strokes, on driving George Balderson and straight driving Williams to the ropes.Waite raced onto 37 from 27 balls before he aimed another pull at Phillips but this time picked out Harry Singh at deep square leg.The seventh wicket pair added 55 in just nine overs.Hose’s determined knock of 41 off 109 balls came to an end when he was lbw to give Bailey his third wicket.Van Beek advanced to 44 before he holed out to deep mid-wicket off Phillip but then Leach had time to end with a flourish in making 30 not out before bad light halted play at 3,30pm with 41 overs remaining.

Zafar Gohar claimed his 300th first class wicket in taking 6 for 76 as Gloucestershire bowled out Sussex for 311 on the second day of this County Championship match at Bristol.But the left-arm spinner’s efforts could not prevent Sussex, the Division Two leaders, taking a commanding first innings lead of 202, Jack Carson top scoring with 71 and sharing a seventh-wicket stand of 112 with skipper John Simpson, who made 61.By the close, Gloucestershire had posted 140 for 3 in their second innings and still trailed by 62. Chris Dent was unbeaten on 61, having battled away for 157 balls, while Miles Hammond hit 41.The day began with Sussex 149 for 4 and already 40 runs ahead. With the pitch expected to offer increasing turn, Gloucestershire opened with Gohar from the Pavilion End and he struck his first blow with the total on 161, bowling James Coles for 46 attempting a reverse-sweep.With 19 more runs added, another Sussex player perished to an injudicious shot as Henry Crocombe went to hit Gohar back over his head and skyed a catch to mid-on. Simpson also went on the attack early, striking the Pakistani spinner over long-on for six before settling down to build a potentially winning lead with Carson.Neither looked in much bother. A Carson clip of his toes for four off Tom Price moved the score to 250 shortly after the second new ball had been taken and in the same over the Sussex allrounder reached a 76-ball fifty, with nine boundaries.At lunch, the scoreboard read 259 for 6, Sussex having added 110 runs during the morning to lead by 150. Carson was unbeaten on 56 and Simpson 34 not out.The afternoon session saw Simpson produce an exquisite cover drive for four off Price before a quick single took him to a half-century off 96 deliveries, with five fours and a six. He and Carson had extended their side’s lead to 183 when the latter dragged a wide ball from Gohar onto his stumps, having increased his boundary count to 13.Eight more runs secured a second batting point. But it proved a disappointing maiden first-class innings for debutant Bertie Foreman, who had made just 2 when bowled through the gate by a turning delivery from Gohar.With the confidence of four wickets to his credit, Gohar then had Simpson caught behind pushing forward and pinned last man Jaydev Unadkat lbw to notch his 300th first-class victim in a career stretching back 11 years. But Sussex could feel well satisfied with a lead of over 200 on a dry surface starting to fulfil pre-match predictions.Zafar Gohar took his 300th first-class wicket•Getty Images

Gloucestershire openers Dent and Joe Phillips knocked 43 off the deficit with few alarms, Dent striking Carson over long-off for six. But the offspinner had turned his first delivery of the innings sharply as a warning.It was Unadkat who broke the partnership with his fifth wicket of the match, trapping Phillips on the crease and dismissing him leg before for 21. By tea, Gloucestershire were 53 for 1 from 18 overs, with Dent unbeaten on 22, and looking set to make a fight of it.Those hopes suffered a blow early in the final session when Ollie Price, on 11, fell to a reflex slip catch by Tom Haines, who stuck out a left hand to hold the sharpest of chances after the Gloucestershire man had advanced down the pitch to aim an attacking blow off Carson.At 59 for 2, the hosts still trailed by 143 runs. Under clear late afternoon skies, Dent and Hammond set about putting their team back in the game.Dent, who only recently returned to Gloucestershire’s red ball team after a lengthy absence battling anxiety, gave a reminder of the form that has brought more than 11,000 first-class runs, moving to a 126-ball half-century, with seven fours and a six.Hammond looked equally comfortable and had faced 75 balls, hitting 4 fours, when tempted by a ball from Carson tossed up outside off stump and edging an attempted drive through to wicketkeeper Simpson. The stand of 79 with Dent in 26.1 overs had given Gloucestershire hope.

Birmingham Phoenix put themselves back into the knockout positions in the Hundred with an important win at Edgbaston, knocking Trent Rockets out of this year’s competition in the process.Tim Southee claimed a five-wicket haul, to restrict the Rockets to 118, before Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethell helped the Phoenix to overtake Northern Superchargers in third with a measured chase.”It was a pretty good performance,” Southee said. “I think the bowlers assessed the conditions well and then the way the batters went about it towards the end, Bethell and Livingstone knocked it around and chose great options. So, I think it was a pretty good all-round performance.”I think we have had really good consistency over the last few games and have got to know each other a bit better. Obviously, Adam Milne and I have played a lot of cricket together, but for everyone else it’s great to have that experience of playing a few games together.”We adapted to conditions as quickly as possible, which helped us tonight and the surface offered us a little bit which we tried to get as much out of as we could.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The Phoenix won the toss and chose to bowl, which proved a great decision from Moeen Ali, as his pace attack put on an exhibition of swing and seam bowling at the start of the first innings. The dangerous quartet of Tom Banton, Alex Hales, Joe Root and Rovman Powell were dismissed in the first 30 deliveries, as the Rockets fell to 22 for 4.Tom Alsop – making his debut in The Hundred – and Pakistan international Imad Wasim rebuilt for the visitors with a fifty partnership, before Imad was retired out on a run-a-ball 29, to be replaced by Chris Green. The Australian allrounder returned for the Rockets, replacing the injured Rashid Khan, but he was to last just five balls before being removed by Adam Milne, who took a well-deserved wicket.Alsop reached his half-century, and was then dismissed by the excellent Southee, who finished with 5 for 12 and momentarily thought he’d taken a hat-trick before being denied by an overturned LBW decision.Trent Rockets set Phoenix 119 to win, and Ben Duckett got the chase off to a flying start with 30 from 16 before Rockets came firing back at them. Luke Wood dismissed Duckett and Jamie Smith in consecutive balls to put the breaks on Birmingham’s fast start.Moeen Ali and Livingstone steadied the ship for a while before the impressive John Turner (2 for 17) removed captain Moeen and Dan Mousley.Livingstone and Bethell celebrate after taking the Phoenix home•Gareth Copley/Getty Images

The away team sensed it was their chance to build the pressure with the ball in the chase and they began to restrict Phoenix’s scoring opportunities, before Luke Wood released the pressure with a no-ball free-hit that Bethell deposited into the stands to give the home side some breathing room.Bethell (38* off 29) and Livingstone (30* off 32) then took Phoenix home with a half-century partnership, as they chased it with seven balls to spare.With one game left each, the result leaves three teams with a chance of joining Oval Invincibles in the knockout rounds – Phoenix, Southern Brave and Northern Superchargers. Defeat for Trent Rockets means that, like London Spirit, Manchester Originals and Welsh Fire, their tournament is over.

The BCCI has decided to release INR 1 crore for the treatment of former India batter Aunshuman Gaekwad, who is battling blood cancer at a medical facility in London.The BCCI’s decision came after Kapil Dev and Sandeep Patil urged the board to help Gaekwad.”Mr Jay Shah has instructed the BCCI to release INR 1 crore with immediate effect to provide financial assistance to India’s veteran cricketer Mr Anshuman Gaekwad, who is battling cancer,” the BCCI apex council said in a statement.”Shah has also spoken to Mr Gaekwad’s family to take stock of the situation and extend support,” the statement continued. “The board stands by Gaekwad’s family in this hour of crisis and will do whatever is essential for Mr Gaekwad’s quick recovery.”The BCCI will continue to monitor Mr Gaekwad’s progress and is confident that he will come out of this phase strongly.”Gaekwad, 71, played 40 Tests and 15 ODIs for India between 1975 and 1987. Later, he became a selector and then the coach of the national team.