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Dhananjaya de Silva, Sri Lanka’s captain, has revealed that his team wanted to play more than one warm-up match before their Test series against England but were denied the chance to do so.Sri Lanka lost by seven wickets in their four-day, first-class match against an inexperienced England Lions team at New Road last week. They were bowled out for 139 on the opening day but grew into the match, with Nishan Madushka, Angelo Mathews and Dhananjaya all scoring second-innings half-centuries.Eight of the side that will face England at Emirates Old Trafford in Wednesday’s first Test were involved, with Kamindu Mendis, Vishwa Fernando and Asitha Fernando due to come into the side. Milan Rathnayake, the 28-year-old seamer, will make his Test debut at the age of 28 after taking a wicket in each innings against the Lions.”The conditions are quite different to Asian countries,” Dhananjaya said. “We wanted to play a few matches, but that’s what we get. We didn’t go with the full-strength [team]. We have tried out a few players as well. The result didn’t go our way, but we had the preparation, I think. It’ll work in this match.”Dhananjaya said he had “no idea” why Sri Lanka’s desire for a second warm-up match had been overlooked, but suggested that the schedule was tight ahead of their first Test series of more than two games since 2018. “I have no idea about it,” he said. “Maybe because we are playing a three-match series after a long time; maybe that’s the reason.”Related

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Sri Lanka have not played a Test since April but come into this series after beating India 2-0 in an ODI series, and have a 100% record in Dhananjaya’s three matches as captain. “Our mental state is good,” he said. “Yes, we lost the practice match, but that match is there for our training. Within that, we got the preparation we wanted.”He is expecting the weather to play a significant role in the Test match, and hopes that Prabath Jayasuriya – whom he described as a “world-class spinner” – will play a role later in the match. “From the looks of it, it’ll be a rain-affected match,” Dhananjaya said. “I thought because of that, it’s best to go with three quicks, because we will go in and out of the game.”Dhananjaya made his Test debut immediately after Sri Lanka’s most recent Test tour to England in 2016, but will lean on the experience of Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne throughout the series. “It’s been long since we played here the last time,” he said, “but there are a few experienced players… They are sharing the experience with me.”

A stingy display from Southern Brave’s bowlers paved the way for a comfortable seven-wicket win over winless Manchester Originals at the Utilita Bowl. After restricting the Originals to 116 for 6 the hosts, who were without the rested Jofra Archer, cruised home with 22 balls to spare in front of 10,337 fans.Craig Overton was the pick of the home attack, returning 2 for 11 from 20 balls, while England duo Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan both also claimed two wickets apiece. Brave opener Alex Davies immediately broke the back of the chase with 24 from 12 balls and Laurie Evans finished it off with an unbeaten 25 from 15 balls.Victory moved Brave level with four teams on four points at the top of the table while Originals, without injured skipper Jos Buttler, remain bottom.Brave captain James Vince opted to bowl with the threat of rain but an inspired bowling performance meant the game didn’t last long enough for the wet weather to arrive. Craig Overton quickly removed openers Phil Salt and Max Holder as the visitors managed only 16 for 2 from the 25-ball powerplay.Veteran batter Wayne Madsen tried to piece the innings together with an unbeaten 43 from 37 balls and eventually found some support through Jamie Overton.The pair combined for 57 valuable runs, after Originals were 41 for 4 at halfway, with Jamie Overton swiping one of just two sixes in the innings. Mills bowled Jamie Overton with a slower ball before Usama Mir hit his own stumps to finish a limp innings.Davies got Brave off to a fast start by crashing 24 from 10 balls before Vince had even faced. Tom Hartley got the opener to chip a catch to Paul Walter before steady 20s from Vince and Leus du Plooy kept Brave above the required rate. Evans completed the job alongside James Coles with a misfield handing the hosts the winning runs.Meerkat Match Hero Craig Overton said: “It was obviously a great win. We just needed to bash the top of the stumps for as long as possible and make it tough for their batters. Home games here are massive for us – we need to win them and if we can nick one away then we’ll be there or thereabouts to reach the knockouts.”Vince said: “Al got us off to a rapid start to get us ahead of the game. We didn’t want to let them back into the game – Laurie finished it well for us tonight.”

Jason Gillespie’s first tour since being named Pakistan’s Test coach will see him back in Australia as he oversees two four-day matches for the Shaheens (Pakistan A) in Darwin next month.Pakistan Shaheens will play two four-day games against Bangladesh A between July 19-22 and 26-29 with Gillespie head coach for those matches before returning to Pakistan to prepare for a two-Test series against Bangladesh.Related

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The Shaheens will remain in Darwin during August, playing 50-over matches against Northern Territory and Bangladesh A, before taking part in an expanded nine-team Top End T20 series for the second year running.”The opportunity to be the head coach of Pakistan’s Test side is fantastic,” Gillespie, who quit as South Australia and Adelaide Strikers coach, told a PCB podcast shortly after his appointment. “It’s an honour. I’ve been coaching for quite a while now in various roles around the world, but one thing I haven’t done is coach an international Test side. When this opportunity presented itself, I jumped at it.The Top End series, staged from August 9 to August 18, will also feature a Bangladesh High Performance side. Perth Scorchers and Adelaide Strikers will send teams while Tasmania will also feature. Academy sides from Melbourne Renegades and Stars will again take part as in previous seasons while defending champions NT Strike and the ACT Comets make up the tournament.The PCB has announced a Shaheens’ squad, with one further player and a captain to be confirmed before the tour, which features fast bowler Khurram Shahzad who made his Test debut against Australia in Perth last year before his tour was ended early by injury.”I am grateful to Northern Territory for inviting the Pakistan Shaheens for the second successive year,” PCB director of international cricket Usman Wahla said. “Last year, the players had a memorable experience and enjoyed playing and performing in excellent playing conditions, in front of enthusiastic cricket fans.”This year we have added red-ball cricket matches to give more exposure to our cricketers and I am confident the players will benefit from this tour and will return as better cricketers.”During the Test series, which Pakistan lost 3-0 but pushed Australia in Melbourne and Sydney, then team director Mohammad Hafeez said there were discussions between the PCB and CA on future touring opportunities for development teams.For the Australian domestic cricketers involved, the Top End T20 series will provide pre-season opportunity for those not in action overseas.”The competition adds another layer to what our pre-season would typically be, exposing players to tournament conditions ahead of the Australian domestic season,” Kade Harvey, Perth Scorchers’ general manager, said. “It’s also a great opportunity for some of WA’s most promising prospects to test themselves against quality opponents from Australia and Asia.”Last year the tournament featured Jake Fraser-McGurk and Will Sutherland who have since represented Australia, and in Fraser-McGurk’s case taken the T20 world by storm at the IPL.”To have two cricket powerhouses in Pakistan and Bangladesh now participating alongside half of the Big Bash League franchises is a testament to the potential of winter cricket in the Territory.” NT Cricket CEO Gavin Dovey said.Further squads for the Top End T20 series will be confirmed in the coming weeks.Pakistan Shaheens to tour Darwin Haseebullah, Hunain Shah, Kamran Ghulam, Kashif Ali, Khurram Shahzad, Mehran Mumtaz, Mohammad Huraira, Mubasir Khan, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Omair Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Shahnawaz Dahani, Tayyab Tahir, Umar Amin

Australian quick Ben Dwarshuis defended eight off the last over to complete a thrilling come-from-behind Durham victory to beat Yorkshire and leapfrog them into the North Group’s top four places.Yorkshire, chasing 171, were cruising at 113 for 2 in the 12th over before leg-spinner Nathan Sowter bowled buccaneering Will Luxton for 33 and had Jordan Thompson brilliantly caught and bowled on the run towards long-on.Left-armer Dwarshuis then claimed his first wicket for Durham in the last over and defended four off the last ball against George Hill. The Vikings, replying to 170 for 6, finished on 167 for 7, handing Durham a fourth win in eight games – this by three runs. Yorkshire lost their fourth in eight.Dwarshuis was the hero in only his third game. The overseas man had been dropped after the first two games. Opener Graham Clark top-scored with 49 off 35 balls for Durham, while Adam Lyth top-scored for Yorkshire with 54.Visiting left-arm spinner Dan Moriarty impressed with two for 26, a return matched by Durham’s excellent seamer Ben Raine. But Sowter, who also affected a run out, contributed massively to the comeback.Considering Durham, who elected to bat, took 10 off the first over – a boundary piece for Clark and Alex Lees – Yorkshire did well to limit them to 44 for 1 after six overs.Clark struck the ball sweetly, but David Bedingham struggled to get going amidst a run-a-ball 21, ended when he pulled Jafer Chohan’s leg-spin to deep midwicket – 59 for 2 in the ninth over.Clark took back-to-back boundaries off Jordan Thompson to take the score to 88 for two after 12 but fell agonisingly short of a fifty when he dragged Moriarty on in the next, Durham now 91 for 3.And they were struggling to get going.But that impetus did come in the final five overs, with Ollie Robinson, Bas de Leede and Michael Jones all finding or clearing the boundary, the former two contributing useful scores of 33 and 28 before falling to Thompson and Dom Bess.Thompson had Robinson caught behind and bowled Raine, but 64 came off the last five overs.Lyth continued the flow of runs at the start of Yorkshire’s chase with a couple of leg-side sixes before losing opening partner and captain for the night Dawid Malan.He was brilliantly caught at cover by a diving Lees off George Drissell’s off-spin, leaving Yorkshire at 35 for one in the fourth over.Malan, who scored only seven, was leading Yorkshire after Shan Masood was injured in the Roses win 24 hours earlier.That dismissal brought Joe Root to the crease for his last domestic appearance before England Test commitments, and he breezed to 20.But when he was caught behind off Raine’s seam – 60 for 2 in the seventh over – Durham’s hopes were raised.Luxton tried his best to dash them in only his fourth career T20 appearance and his first of 2024.He hit two leg-side sixes and a four down the ground as 19 came off Drissell in the 10th over, taking the Vikings to 100 for 2.It seemed as if they were, by now in an unassailable position. Not so!Sowter bowled him and had Thompson superbly caught and bowled running towards mid-on. Lyth reached 50 off 35 balls but was also lbw to Raine. With those three dismissals, Yorkshire were 130 for 5 in the 16th and the game in the balance again.Sowter brilliantly ran Donovan Ferreira out with a direct hit from deep midwicket before Dwarshuis had Dom Bess caught at long-on in the last, which ended by Hill missing an attempted ramp off the last ball.

A bowling blitz from allrounder Ash Gardner powered Sydney Sixers to an 11-run win that snaps Hobart Hurricanes’ undefeated start to the WBBL.Her side chasing 148 for victory, Elyse Villani helped Hurricanes overcome some middle-order wobbles and take control at Bellerive Oval. The hosts required 19 runs from the last three overs with four wickets in hand.Related

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Gardner had been expensive, going at 1 for 34 across her first three overs, but was thrown the ball with Saturday’s game hanging in the balance.The Sixers captain dispatched of Hayley Silver-Holmes as she attempted an audacious sweep shot before also collecting Molly Strano’s stumps as she attempted a hero shot of her own on the next delivery.Lauren Smith mistimed Gardner’s last ball of the over and picked out Sophia Dunkley at extra cover, leaving Hurricanes with only No. 11 Linsey Smith to partner Villani.When Smith skied to midwicket off Lauren Cheatle, Hurricanes were all out on 136 and left to wonder how the game had slipped so quickly out of their hands.The victory ended Hurricanes’ winning streak on five – their equal-longest in WBBL history – and helped Sixers bounce back from a disastrous 111-run loss in a rain-affected last start against Melbourne Stars.Earlier, the summer’s leading wicket-taker Heather Graham came up with WBBL career-best figures to help consign the Sixers to 147 for 9 at the close of their innings.That was no mean feat after the visitors won the toss and looked in command during a 75-run opening stand between Dunkley and Ellyse Perry.Dunkley notched her second half-century of the summer after surviving a scare on 7, the third umpire ruling her bat came down in time to thwart Lizelle Lee’s stumping effort.But Sixers’ innings never hit the same heights after Dunkley lobbed Graham’s slower ball out to Rachel Trenaman at long on.Only Gardner joined Perry and Dunkley in passing 50 as the Sixers lost 4 for 6 to finish their innings with Graham on song. Graham had her four-fer by collecting Erin Burns’ stumps as the veteran stepped back and mistimed her shot.

Nikhil Chaudhary became the first Indian to hit a Sheffield Shield hundred this century, helping put Tasmania in a position of utter dominance against New South Wales.Chaudhary blazed his way to 163 for Tasmania before they declared at 623 for 8 late on day three and with a lead of 232 at Sydney’s Cricket Central.Sam Konstas and Ryan Hicks then survived a tricky five overs as the Blues went to stumps at nine without loss and needing to fight to hang on for a draw.After Caleb Jewell hit 102 for Tasmania on Sunday, Tim Ward and Chaudhary both reached triple figures on Monday in the team’s second-highest Shield score.Ward was dominant through the offside against his native state for his first red-ball century of the Shield summer, but it was Chaudhary who made history.Born in Delhi and having represented Punjab in one-day cricket, Chaudhary moved to Australia in 2020. He became stuck in the country through the Covid-19 pandemic, and has since become a permanent resident while still being an Indian citizen.The spin-bowling allrounder was spotted in Queensland club cricket by Tasmania’s assistant coach James Hopes, who recommended him to Hobart for the BBL two summers ago.Chaudhary then moved to Tasmania at the start of last summer, and got his chance in the one-day cup this season. He took a five-wicket haul on Shield debut against Queensland last month, before having his way with the bat on Monday.The 29-year-old hit five sixes in his 184-ball knock, going after Tanveer Sangha late in the day.Four times Chaudhary slog-swept Sangha over the rope in the final hour of play, bringing up his 150 when he put the legspinner on the grandstand roof.A handful of Indian players have previously featured in the Shield, with former Test allrounder Rusi Surti hitting a century and taking a hat-trick for Queensland in the 1970s.Aside from Chaudhary, Ward was the other Tasmanian to impress on Monday with 119.He was dominant through the offside, regularly cover driving, and brought up his ton when he hit Sangha to the boundary.Bradley Hope also threw away the chance to join Chaudhary, Ward and Jewell as centurions, when he cut a Sangha lop hop to point.Tasmania entered the round last on the ladder, one of four teams with one win, two losses and a draw to start the season.

Big picture: Pakistan 0, Australia 16

Pakistan have never beaten Australia in any format of women’s international cricket. And if that trend continues on Wednesday, their path forward in the ODI World Cup will become very complicated given they have already lost their opening two matches to Bangladesh and India.What might be even more concerning for Pakistan is that in 16 ODIs against Australia, they’ve not even come close to victory, with the narrowest margins of defeat being 37 runs and four wickets, both way back in 2014.Pakistan’s most recent contest against Australia, a three-match rubber in 2023, had these results: eight-wicket defeat, 10-wicket defeat, 101-run defeat. And while they are also yet to beat India (12 tries) or England (15 tries) in women’s ODIs, their 16 defeats to Australia make them, statistically, the toughest opponent.Related

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All this is to say that Pakistan have a considerable mountain ahead of them. As for Australia, their opening game against New Zealand was an ultimately comfortable win, and their second against Sri Lanka was washed out. They are also a team in near-invincible form. In 32 matches since the last World Cup, they’ve won 27 and lost just four. Pakistan in that same period have played 34 ODIs, won 13 and lost 18.So what exactly are the straws Pakistan might look to clutch here? One, Australia haven’t played since October 1 as a result of their washout against Sri Lanka. They are also yet to play at the R Premadasa stadium, where conditions don’t necessarily seem conducive to free-flowing batting. With Pakistan already having experienced these conditions in their defeat to India, there could be an advantage to be exploited.Finally, Pakistan will be hoping the law of averages catches up and gives them the crucial win and points that they need.2:40

Australia exude an attitude of ‘we know how to win this’

Form guide

Australia WWLWW (last five ODIs most recent first)
Pakistan LLWLL

In the spotlight: Sandhu and Mooney

Since the 2022 World Cup, no Pakistani bowler has picked up more wickets than spinner Nashra Sandhu – her 42 strikes in this period coming from 28 matches. But more interestingly her 248.1 overs are the sixth-most bowled by any bowler in the last three and a half years. This serves to highlight just how much Pakistan lean on Sandhu. This year has also been her most impactful one – she’s picked up 17 wickets in 10 games, including a six-wicket haul against South Africa. The only thing is, in her past five matches, she’s gone wicketless three times. Pakistan will need her at her best if they are to upset Australia.You’d be hard pressed to find a team Beth Mooney doesn’t like batting against, but even so, her ODI record against Pakistan is better than most. Across eight innings she’s struck 279 runs at an average of 69.75, an average that has been boosted by the fact that she’s only been dismissed four times. Mooney’s recent form too has been ominous, with a century and two fifties across her last five innings.Megan Schutt has a good record against Pakistan: 10 wickets in nine ODIs•Getty Images

Team news: Will Schutt get a look in?

With a week’s break since their last game, Australia will be itching to get out on the field. Their biggest dilemma is down to healthy competition, as it remains to be seen if Darcie Brown continues to keep Megan Schutt out of the XI.Australia (probable): 1 Alyssa Healy (capt & wk), 2 Phoebe Litchfield, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Beth Mooney, 5 Annabel Sutherland, 6 Ashleigh Gardner, 7 Tahlia McGrath, 8 Sophie Molineux, 9 Alana King, 10 Kim Garth, 11 Darcie BrownOmaima Sohail was replaced at the top of the order by Sadaf Shamas last time out, but with both openers struggling Sohail might find herself back in the side.Pakistan (probable): 1 Muneeba Ali, 2 Sadaf Shamas, 3 Sidra Amin, 4 Aliya Riaz, 5 Natalia Pervaiz, 6 Fatima Sana (capt), 7 Rameen Shamim, 8 Diana Baig, 9 Sidra Nawaz (wk), 10 Nashra Sandhu, 11 Sadia Iqbal

Pitch and conditions: Tricky batting conditions

Rain has been pestering Colombo and its surrounding suburbs over the past week, but Wednesday should arrive with clear, if cloudy, tidings. The pitch at the Khettarama has stayed true to form in the first two games its hosted at this World Cup, making life tricky for batters – expect that to stay the same.

Stats and trivia: Australia’s return to Colombo

• This will be Australia’s first women’s ODI in Colombo since 2016
• Only against Ireland (17-0) do Australia hold a more dominant ODI record than the one they have against Pakistan
• Australia have won their last 10 completed Women’s World Cup matches
• Annabel Sutherland is four away from 50 WODI wickets

Quotes

“We do have an edge but it all depends on what the team does with this advantage. We were unlucky to have our warmup game against Sri Lanka washed out but we’ve also played two games here and know the conditions very well.”

Lancashire 105 for 0 (Wells 60*, Jennings 36*) trail Middlesex 211 (De Caires 52, Geddes 52, Aspinwall 4-62, Bailey 4-68) by 106 runsLuke Wells and Keaton Jennings enriched the penultimate evening of the season at Emirates Old Trafford with an unbroken opening stand of 105 but Lancashire’s Rothesay County Championship match against Middlesex looks certain to end in the draw that would almost certainly end the visitors’ chances of promotion.Replying to Middlesex’s 211, a first innings in which Tom Aspinwall and Tom Bailey both took four wickets, Lancashire ended another day shortened by rain and bad light on 105 without loss, with Jennings on 36 not out and Wells unbeaten on 60. However, only 31.4 overs were possible in Manchester on Wednesday and neither side appears to have a credible chance of forcing a win, even if Thursday’s weather permits a full 96 overs’ play. So far 210 overs have been lost in this match.Heavy rain overnight and throughout the morning left the Emirates Old Trafford outfield saturated but after two inspections play got under way at three o’clock and Lancashire’s bowlers took only 6.4 overs to take the two wickets they needed to end Middlesex’s first innings.Tom Aspinwall had Zafar Gohar caught at long leg by substitute fielder Will Williams for 25 and then Henry Brookes followed for two in Aspinwall’s next over when he edged a cut to Matty Hurst behind the stumps. That left Aspinwall with figures of four for 62 while Tom Bailey finished with four for 68.Left with a possible 34 overs in which to bat this evening, Jennings and Wells quickly settled into their work. Wells pulled Toby Roland-Jones towards the party stand for six and Lancashire were 44 without loss at tea.In the evening session, Wells played with even greater fluency levying maximums off both Seb Morgan and Zafar Gohar, reaching his fifty off 71 balls and ending the day just 25 runs of a thousand in first-class cricket this season. Jennings requires another 67 runs to reach the same mark but it is also a reflection of Lancashire’s recent problems that this was only the county’s second century partnership for the first wicket in the last 47 innings, a record stretching back to the end of 2023.Middlesex came into this match lying fourth in the table, 30 points behind second-placed Glamorgan. However, their hopes are almost certain to be scuppered if they fail to win this game and Glamorgan avoid defeat against Derbyshire.

India left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana has announced her retirement from all forms of the game. She played 50 ODIs and 37 T20Is after making her debut in 2008, and last represented India in April 2014. Thereafter, Sultana came back into the limelight a decade later when she featured in the 2024 and 2025 WPL seasons.”To have represented India at the highest level – in World Cups, tours and battles that tested both skill and spirit – has been the greatest honour of my life,” Sultana wrote in her retirement announcement on Instagram. “Every wicket taken, every dive in the field, every huddle with my teammates has shaped the cricketer and the person I am today.”Sultana finished with 66 ODI wickets at an average of 19.39, the third-best for any India bowler to have taken at least 50 wickets in the format.Related

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Sultana played in two ODI World Cups, in 2009 and 2013, and picked up 12 wickets in 11 matches at an average of 30.58. She also played in three T20 World Cups from 2009 to 2014, and took seven wickets while going at an economy rate of 5.81.Sultana was signed by UP Warriorz (UPW) ahead of WPL 2024. She played two matches in the tournament, going wicketless across five overs. In 2025, Sultana again played two games for UPW, and only got to bowl the one over.”There were times when I thought of quitting – seasons I didn’t do well, my mental health was affected,” Sultana told ESPNcricinfo before her comeback tournament in 2024. “But then even when I was about to give up, I was like, ‘No, this shouldn’t be the end. I want to end it the way I want it.’ It was not to prove anything to anybody, but I enjoyed playing and I still enjoy playing. That’s the primary reason I am still here.”Sultana, 37, is also a BCCI Level 2 coach.