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Worcestershire team-mate Jake Libby unbeaten on 137 after 395-run stand for the third wicket

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay29-Jun-2025Worcestershire 456 for 3 (Hose 266, Libby 137*) vs HampshireAdam Hose provided retribution to Hampshire for snubbing him as a youngster by scoring 266 – the highest ever score by a visiting player at Utilita Bowl.Top-order batter Hose played for Hampshire at Under 13 and Under 17 levels, having been born and raised on the Isle of Wight, but never progressed into the professional ranks.He returned with an epic second career Rothesay County Championship hundred during a mammoth 395-run third-wicket stand with acting captain Jake Libby.Libby scored 137 unbeaten runs of his own on a lifeless wicket with a joyless Kookaburra ball as Worcestershire ended day one on 456 for 3.Worcestershire have not had a good time batting this season. They came into the match with the fewest batting bonus points (three), had only passed 300 on three previous occasions – twice in their second innings – and only two centuries had been made by their batters.They also came into this match on the back of a shellacking by Surrey at Visit Worcestershire New Road last week.By the end of the day, they had four more batting points, two more centuries, and well over 100 runs more than they had managed in two innings against the defending champions.Libby, once again leading in place of the injured Brett D’Oliveira, couldn’t wait to bat having won the toss.Despite some morning overheads, the air was warm, the pitch looked flat, and the Kookaburra ball was expected to offer next to no assistance to the bowlers.All that proved correct – and the number of centuries would be doubled by 19:00 BST – but not until Hampshire had a little glint of optimism.New Zealander Henry Nicholls was tested outside his off-stump throughout his runless 12-ball innings, before chasing a wide James Fuller delivery to edge behind.Kashif Ali was punchy in his 44 off 38 balls, and particularly tucked into Scott Currie, before he was lbw stumbling over a straight delivery from Fuller.At 60 for 2, things felt even, but from then, and for the next five-and-a-half hours, it was anything but.The sunbathing crowd – including a gathering of past Hampshire players including Barry Richards and oldest living Hampshire cricketer Dennis Baldry – had just Libby’s stoicism and Hose’s perpetual run scoring to watch.Once Hose found his rhythm, he bypassed each one of Hampshire’s plans with gusto.A short-pitch effort, saw pulls and hooks to the boundary. A defensive idea with an umbrella field saw punchy drives down the ground. Everything Hampshire’s beleaguered bowlers tried resulted in runs for Hose.Other than an incredibly tricky short leg chance on 69, he raced through the milestones – 50 in 74 balls, 100 in 126, 150 in 178, 200 in 208 and 250 in 240.The more runs he got, the harder and further he hit the ball – one of his seven sixes causing injury to a spectator some 10 rows back at long on.Hose was eventually dismissed on 266 – scuffing the ball to gully to give debutant Dom Kelly his first Championship wicket – in the penultimate over of the day.His score surpassed the 243 scored by Phil Jaques for Yorkshire on this ground in 2004, and sat just one run behind Zak Crawley’s marathon for England and John Crawley and Michael Carberry’s triple-centuries in scores by anyone at the Bowl.Hose did play one first-team match for Hampshire, a non-first-class three-day game against Cardiff MCCU – ironically, one of his opponents in that fixture was Libby.With him on this occasion, runs flowed like a tap.Libby isn’t one for showy shots, at his best when he occupies the crease – he has the second longest County Championship innings by minutes to his name to demonstrate his stickability.He offered the Hampshire bowlers even less hope than Hose, scoring at his own pace to reach his second ton of the campaign in 219 deliveries.”It has been a great day,” Hose said. “We have had a tough couple of months from a group and batting perspective so to have a big partnership with Jake and score some runs was a satisfying feeling.”In the past, I have gone into my shell and put a higher price on my wicket as opposed to today, I just saw the ball and reacted with my natural instincts. Fortunately, today it worked.”It was my first double-hundred so it’s cool getting the runs here. It is a long time since I left this club as a teenager, so there isn’t much on that front. It is about trying to put as much pressure on with the bat as we know it could potentially be a tough couple of days with the ball.”

Visitors make it four ODI wins in a row in England as familiar nemesis strikes again

Valkerie Baynes16-Jul-2025Deepti Sharma gave India the upper hand against England again, although in more conventional style this time, with a match-winning half-century at Southampton for a 1-0 lead in their three-match ODI series.The last time these sides met in an ODI in England, in 2022, Deepti scored an unbeaten fifty to rescue her side from an early stumble then ran out Charlie Dean while backing up on the last ball to seal a 3-0 ODI series sweep at Lord’s.On Wednesday night, Deepti’s unbeaten 62 off 64 balls allowed India to chase down 259 to win by four wickets with 10 balls to spare. Her 90-run partnership for the fifth wicket off 86 balls with Jemimah Rodrigues trumped the corresponding century stand between Sophia Dunkley and Alice Davidson-Richards, who both passed fifty to take England to 258 for 6.Both sides made a scrappier start than they might have liked to their build-up for the World Cup, which starts in India and Sri Lanka in 11 weeks’ time. India missed chances in the field and made hard work of their pursuit early, while England were forced to defend a modest total after suffering an early batting collapse and ultimately couldn’t take the wickets they needed.India’s top order made starts but could not convert. Lauren Bell removed the threat of Smriti Mandhana, the leading run-scorer by some way on the T20I leg of the tour, via a faint edge to wicketkeeper Amy Jones for a 24-ball 28 in the eighth over.Fellow opener Pratika Rawal faced 51 deliveries for her 36 before she was bowled by Sophie Ecclestone to make it 94 for 2 in the 19th.When Harleen Deol was unnecessarily run out via a direct hit from Davidson-Richards because she left her bat hovering off the ground well beyond the crease while her foot was short of the crease, England were in the contest.And Dean bettered the hosts’ position when she got one to grip from outside off and strike Harmanpreet Kaur on the knee-roll, England’s review bearing fruit when the ball was shown to be hitting middle stump. At that point, India needed 135 runs at just under a run a ball.Deepti took control, striking the only six of the match when she launched Bell over deep midwicket to move into the 30s.She was on 40 when Bell beat her attempted pull and hit the pad, the ball racing away for four leg byes when replays suggested she would have been given out lbw had England reviewed.Rodrigues was on 48 when she messed up an attempted scoop of Lauren Filer, gloving the ball to Jones to give England another opening.Sophia Dunkley’s fifty lifted England•Getty Images

Deepti brought up her fifty off 52 balls sweeping Dean to deep square leg.When Dean had Richa Ghosh stumped advancing down the pitch in her final over, India needed 30 runs off 33 balls but Deepti and Amanjot Kaur saw them home.Dunkley, reprieved on 23 and 43, reached 83 off 92 deliveries before she fell on the final ball of the innings. She shared a 106-run stand for the fifth wicket with Davidson-Richards, who scored 53, to rescue England from 97 for 4.It could have been worse for the hosts had India held their chances. Davidson-Richards was on 16 when Kranti Goud fumbled an attempted return catch and Nat Sciver-Brunt, England’s captain back from a groin injury which kept her out of the last three T20Is, was put down by Mandhana at midwicket off Sneh Rana before going on to score 41.Off-spinner Rana went wicketless from seven overs across her four appearances in the T20Is in her comeback to the format after more than two years. But she took 2 for 31 from 10 overs to be the pick of India’s bowlers in this match, Goud the other multiple wicket-taker with 2 for 55 from nine.Unable to reprise the success of their opening partnership which yielded 424 runs in two matches against West Indies earlier this summer, Jones and Tammy Beaumont both fell cheaply as England slumped to 20 for 2 in the first four overs.That was thanks to Goud, the 21-year-old right-arm seamer making just her third international appearance. She started inauspiciously with a dot ball then three consecutive wides before sending down an absolute gem that nipped back off the seam, beat Jones’s bat and crashed into the top of off stump.It took an India review to give Goud her second when she rapped Beaumont on the front pad as she strode across her stumps, with ball-tracking confirming impact on the top of middle and off.Sciver-Brunt and Emma Lamb repaired the damage with a 71-run partnership for the third wicket. They struggled to find the boundary through overs 13-17, however, as India mixed up their bowling options and it was Rana who removed both in the space of 12 deliveries.Lamb tried to break the shackles and picked out Harmanpreet at mid-off, and a wonderful catch by Rodrigues at short midwicket sent Sciver-Brunt on her way.Shree Charani, Player of the Series with 10 wickets in the T20Is, broke the union between Dunkley and Davison-Richards when she had the latter stumped, despite a fumble from wicketkeeper Ghosh.Dunkley fell on the last ball, bowled by Amanjot’s full-length cutter, a neat cameo of 23 not out from 19 balls by Sophie Ecclestone adding valuable runs but it wasn’t enough.

The season begins on November 9 but the MCG could still host the WBBL final as it will be a Saturday night game on December 13

Alex Malcolm11-Jul-2025There will be no WBBL matches scheduled at the MCG or the SCG in the upcoming home and away season but the possibility of another MCG final remains open after Cricket Australia committed to a Saturday night final that will be held the day before the start of the BBL season.CA released the schedule for the upcoming WBBL season on Friday. The tournament is going to be completed in a tight 35-day window between November 9 and December 13, squeezed between the Women’s ODI World Cup in India and the men’s BBL which begins on December 14.The WBBL season will get underway with a grand final rematch between Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Renegades at the Allan Border Field in the first game of a double-header with Sydney Thunder and Hobart Hurricanes also facing off at the ground in a twilight match.Related

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There are 10 double-headers in all, but just one at a major international venue with the Adelaide Oval hosting two matches on November 28. The WBBL made a bold move last season to host matches at major venues as part of a ‘Stadium Series’, with three matches hosted at the Adelaide Oval, two at the SCG, one at the Gabba and three at the MCG including the final.But Big Bash League general manager Alistair Dobson said it was a difficult year to promote stadium games due to the tightness of the schedule.”Each season when we look at the schedule, we are always looking for the balance of the right venues and the right opportunity to promote those games,” Dobson said. “We’ve enjoyed playing in bigger stadiums for the past couple of seasons, and are really looking forward to being back at Adelaide Oval this year.”The other games, largely due to scheduling reasons and needing to optimise those games in those big stadiums, we haven’t found the right slot for them this year.”That’s not to say we won’t be back there in the future, because [playing] the world’s best cricket league in the world’s best stadiums is still a part of our thinking going forward, but not for this season.”WBBL schedule 2025-26•Cricket Australia

There is a possibility though that the MCG could hold the final if one of the Melbourne teams earns the right to host it given the CitiPower Centre (Junction Oval) will not have lights erected in time for the WBBL season, with the final scheduled to be a Saturday night game after last year’s final was played during the day.The North Sydney Oval, the Allan Border Field and the WACA all have lights which means the SCG, the Gabba and the Perth Stadium would unlikely be used for the final if required. The Adelaide Oval will also be unavailable on December 13 due to the third men’s Ashes Test being hosted on December 17 but the Karen Rolton Oval has lights for Adelaide Strikers to host there.There has been some raised eyebrows among clubs regarding parts of the schedule with each team having to host a game at a neutral venue. Melbourne Stars and Perth Scorchers will play in Adelaide just two days before Strikers and Scorchers play against each other in Melbourne. But the request of the broadcasters Channel Seven and Foxtel to minimise the amount of movement of broadcast equipment across the tightly condensed season has forced some compromises in the schedule.

He last played for India in 2017, while his previous competitive fixture was for LSG in IPL 2024

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Sep-2025India legspinner Amit Mishra has announced his retirement from cricket at the age of 42. He played all forms of international cricket from 2003 to 2017 and finishes with 22 Tests, 36 ODIs and 10 T20Is. His last competitive fixture came for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL 2024.”I’ve played cricket for 25 years across three decades with legends like Sachin Tendulkar, under leaders like MS Dhoni, and with current stars like Rohit Sharma,” Mishra told PTI. “Now that I’m slowly stepping away, it’s emotional, of course. Cricket gave me everything – respect, identity, and purpose.”Not everyone gets a grand farewell or big press conference, and that’s okay. What matters to me is that I gave everything I had. I played with heart. I performed whenever I got the opportunity.”