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It was like Scott Boland had never been away. Against India in Adelaide, in his first home Test for two years, he could have had a wicket with his first delivery of the match if not for his heel being on the line rather than behind. Instead, Boland struck with his first ball of the second innings, one of his five wickets in a game where he got the crowd into as much of a frenzy as Mitchell Starc’s dramatic opening to the Test or Travis Head’s thrilling century.And yet, Boland’s comeback could last just one match. Josh Hazlewood, the pick of the attack in the first Test in Perth, is making good progress in his recovery from the mild side strain which kept him out of Adelaide, and there is confidence he will be ready for the the third Test that starts on December 14 at the Gabba.”If someone needs to make [way], they’ll be pretty unlucky,” Pat Cummins said.Related

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Boland had expected to play a role at some point last season, but none of Australia’s first-choice quicks suffered a problem, and that left him as a spare part throughout. The last time he featured for Australia was in Ashes 2023, the one occasion he has struggled in his Test career as England’s Bazballers used his metronomic length against him and took him at 4.91 per over across his two outings where he claimed just two wickets.At times, India tried to do the same in Adelaide – Nitish Kumar Reddy hammered Boland for 21 off an over in the first innings, and Rishabh Pant took him on in the second – but they were brief interludes rather than sustained takedowns. By the end of the Test, Boland’s home record read 33 wickets at 13.54.”Just feels like something’s going to happen with Scotty,” Head had said after the second day’s play in Adelaide. “He’s been high quality his whole Test career. We said that at the start of the week it’s nice to have someone like him being ready to go. He can come back in, and you know the impact he’s going to have. He’s taken some huge wickets for us. The hill was going mad for him. [He’s] a hugely important guy for us in the squad: he’s a great person, boys absolutely love him, the public love him. Whenever he does get a chance, you can’t be happier for him.”Boland’s ability to land it on the ideal spot from the beginning of a spell was on no better display than in Adelaide. KL Rahul was walking when Boland’s first delivery zipped through to the wicketkeeper, before the no-ball call came; bizarrely, Snicko suggested there wasn’t a nick, although the daylight was less clear than with Mitchell Marsh’s none-edge against R Ashwin on the second day.Josh Hazlewood on the side injury: “I was very happy [with] where I was, and it still happened. So I was pretty annoyed”•AFP/Getty Images

Later in his first over, Boland again found Rahul’s edge, but Usman Khawaja couldn’t take the chance at first slip. Boland got on the board by trapping Shubman Gill lbw, and then removed India captain Rohit Sharma with a trademark delivery which nipped sharply off the seam. There was no problem with Boland’s foot when he angled one across Yashasvi Jaiswal with his first ball of the second innings. A few overs later, he moved one the other way to take Virat Kohli’s edge.”[It’s] just admiration, he just sticks to his guns,” Hazlewood said. “He does his job, he doesn’t try and be anyone else. Whether he’s playing for Victoria or Australia, it’s the same thing, it’s the same areas. We’ve seen him take multiple wickets in an over, so once he gets on a roll, it’s just bang, bang, bang. In these conditions, [with the] pink ball under lights, there’s not many better.”But Hazlewood himself has 278 Test wickets, and will return if fit. He had a full bowl in the middle of Adelaide Oval on Monday, sending down two spells. Then it would be a case of how well he pulls up from those in the following 24 hours. Hazlewood explained that the latest injury was not “a typical side strain”, but was part of an ongoing issue he has had which has left him frustrated and searching for a solution.”You’re running in to bowl, and you just grab your hat and you’re off and you’re out for six weeks – it’s not that sort of side strain,” he said. “It’s from sort of repetitive use. It’s caused me a lot of trouble over the last few years, but [had] perfect prep this year, played the Shield game and ticked all that off.”I was very happy where I was, and it still happened. So I was pretty annoyed there for a few days. There was plenty of meetings from CA’s point of view [with] physios, [and] doctors, all that stuff. So [we will] come up with a few options and see if we can stop it from happening again. I’ve ticked every box so far this week. The side’s obviously been a troublesome area for me in the past. So if I can lean on the side of caution, I guess [I will] a little bit.”Hazlewood continued to bowl for a brief period after first feeling pain in Perth, but past experience came into play.”I remember the time in quarantine before the Ashes, I probably pushed it for quite a while,” he said. “The time against West Indies, I think it was in Perth… Pat did his quad, and we had to bowl a few more overs. It feels every over you bowl in that situation sort of adds another few days [more recovery] every time.”While in India’s case, Jasprit Bumrah looks in need of greater support, Australia’s pace depth could prove a decisive aspect of this series.”Obviously [we’ve] got Scotty there, who does a fantastic job every time he plays,” Hazlewood said. “That sort of makes the decision a little easier. Sometimes you’ve sort of got to be pretty much 100% to play. And if not, Scott is there [ready] to go.”If Boland is back carrying the drinks at the Gabba, Australia know that should they need their super sub again, it’s very unlikely he will let them down.

David Warner has called on Cricket Australia to fully explain what happened when the ball was changed on the final day of the Australia A-India A game in Mackay.The Indian players, particularly wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan, were angry when a different ball was handed to them by the umpires before play. Audio picked up over the stump microphone heard umpire Shawn Craig saying there were scratches on the previous one and telling Kishan he would be put on report for calling the decision “stupid.”Related

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“You scratch it, we change the ball,” Craig said. “There will be no more discussion, let’s play.”Hours after the game finished, a CA statement said the ball had “deteriorated” and that no further action would be taken. “Both teams’ captain and manager were informed of the decision prior to the start of play,” the statement added.Warner, who said he was not across the whole incident but had seen the exchanges in the middle, suggested the issue had been “squashed” ahead of the imminent arrival of India for the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy.”The ultimate decision is with CA isn’t it?,” Warner said. “I think they have obviously squashed it as fast as they could, given that India is coming out here this summer. But if the umpires deemed something happened, I am sure there will be a follow up. I think the umpires or the match referee should be standing here answering questions.””I think the match referee should be coming out and addressing his own staff which are the umpires. And if they’re sticking by the umpire’s decisions, you have to stand up for that. That’s obviously a statement CA have to release. I have not seen anything.”It’s understood there is no footage available of anything untoward being done to the ball.Under the laws, a five-run penalty is imposed if the umpires change the ball after they consider it to have been unfairly altered. However, the CA playing conditions include an extra clause which mean the umpires can make a change without implementing penalty runs if it’s unclear how the ball came to be damaged.Warner’s comments came on the day he was unveiled as Sydney Thunder captain following the overturning of his lifetime leadership ban imposed for his role in the Newlands ball-tampering scandal in 2018.”The punishment that was handed down was there for a reason and I thoroughly accept that,” he said. “You’re always going to be disappointed that you can’t lead but what was done was done and I moved on from that.”But I get the opportunity to lead the Thunder and share my wealth of knowledge about the game and hopefully some of the youngsters can come ask me some questions after the game, decisions that I’ve made or some errors that I might have made and have that confidence and hopefully one day they can grow into a captain as well.”

Pakistan have stepped up attempts to prepare a spinning pitch for their Test series decider against England, using industrial-sized fans, outdoor heaters and windbreakers in a bid to dry out the surface at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.After losing by an innings on a lifeless pitch in the first Test in Multan, Pakistan pulled an unprecedented move and opted to recycle the same strip for a second match in a row. The strategy paid off in style after they won the toss, with spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan sharing all 20 wickets as England were bowled out for just 144 in their final innings.Rawalpindi is typically among the flattest pitches in Test cricket, with minimal assistance for spinners. Mehidy Hasan Miraz, the Bangladesh offspinner, took 10 wickets in their 2-0 series win in Rawalpindi last month, but since the venue returned to hosting Tests in 2019, spinners have averaged nearly 50 runs per wicket there.Related

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Seam bowlers have fared better, taking a wicket every 34 runs, with the average assisted by a Test against South Africa in January 2021. On a surface that offered assistance to the seamers right through the game, Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali took nine of South Africa’s ten wickets in the fourth innings, eight of them on the final day. All four innings registered scores between 200 and 300, and the PCB has previously considered that the gold standard for a Pindi Test wicket.Those days are decidedly in the past, though. Shan Masood, Pakistan’s captain, made clear after their 152-run victory in the second Test in Multan that he would like to see an uncharacteristic Rawalpindi pitch for the decider, which starts on Thursday. England are prepared for another turner, with their head coach Brendon McCullum predicting the surface would be “the antithesis of a green seamer”.On Sunday, groundstaff had set up three large heaters and an industrial-sized fan at each end of the pitch, drying it out with hot air, with a windbreak at each end to keep the heat in. Pakistan’s players and staff inspected the surface when they trained on Monday morning, at which stage only the fans remained. It continued to dry out in the afternoon heat.Notably, the Test strip is one of only three that has been cut across the square; the other two are practice strips, one on each side of the pitch. England’s seamers used a dry, abrasive square to get the ball reverse-swinging in the second Test in Multan, but a grassy square and a lush outfield may make that more challenging this week.England did not train on Monday and are open-minded ahead of their session on Tuesday. “I don’t know what to expect. I haven’t seen anything,” Jack Leach, who is the leading wicket-taker in the series, told the BBC. “We’ll go to training and have a look at it. I feel quite clear about what I’m doing and that doesn’t really change depending on the wicket. We’ll see what it is.”

Yorkshire have announced the acquisition of Anthony McGrath as their new men’s head coach to replace the outgoing Ottis Gibson.McGrath, who joins on a five-year deal, returns to his home county having developed through the age-groups at Headingley as an allrounder, going on to earn 28 England caps, including four Test appearances. The 49-year-old began his coaching career at Yorkshire following his retirement in 2013 before moving to Essex, where he was appointed director of cricket as recently as July.The move south proved particularly fruitful for McGrath. He joined Essex initially as assistant coach to Chris Silverwood, and helped oversee promotion in 2016 followed by a County Championship title the following year.He was promoted to head coach when Silverwood left to take the England job and led Essex to a Championship and T20 Blast double in 2019, followed by the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020. A second-place Division One finish came in the 2023 season, in which they were also beaten finalists in the Blast.This season, McGrath juggled coaching duties at Chelmsford with a director of cricket role as part of a management restructure triggered by the resignation of chief executive John Stephenson in July.He inherits a Yorkshire team that has returned to Division One following relegation in 2022. The club were then docked 48 points in the 2023 season over their handling of the racism scandal that centred around allegations made by former player Azeem Rafiq. McGrath’s remit will be the performance and management of the men’s first team, and starts officially from November 1.”It is a great honour to be appointed Head Coach of Yorkshire Cricket’s Men’s team, and I am hugely excited by the challenge ahead,” McGrath said.”I know the history of this great club and the passion of the members and supporters, and I am absolutely determined to develop a team capable of delivering the success they deserve.”It was an extremely tough decision to leave Essex, and it’s one that I have taken a great deal of time to think about. I’ve been part of this club for almost nine years, and we’ve achieved so much together and created so many unforgettable memories in that time.”While I obviously spent all of my playing career at Yorkshire, Essex has become a second home to me, and I’d like to thank everyone for the warmth of their support over the last nine seasons.”Tom Westley, Essex’s captain, hailed McGrath as “one of the most influential figures I have come across during my career”, and wished him well in his new role.”Everybody within the club knows of his qualities as a coach and leader, but it’s the person that he is that we will all miss the most. It’s no coincidence that the success we have achieved over the last decade has coincided with [McGrath’s] time here. Although he would never accept it, he has been a huge factor in the trophies we have won in recent years.”Sanjay Patel, Yorkshire’s interim CEO, said: “We’re delighted to appoint Anthony as Head Coach.”During the past nine years with Essex, Anthony has proved himself to be one of the most exciting and successful coaches in English cricket. He is renowned for his team’s attractive, attacking cricket, supporting and developing world-class talent, and commitment to youth.”In the club’s conversations leading up to this appointment, we were deeply impressed with his long-term vision for returning Yorkshire Cricket to the level we want to be competing at, and his drive and determination to achieve that.”We look forward to welcoming him to the club this Autumn.”

Northern Superchargers solidified their place in the top three of The Hundred women’s competition table with another dominant win, this time away at Birmingham Phoenix.Superchargers drew level on points with second-placed Oval Invincibles, as they bowled out Phoenix for just 54 runs, the lowest score ever in The Hundred women’s competition. It comes just days after Superchargers dismissed Invincibles for 64 at The Kia Oval, the previous lowest in the competition.Northern Superchargers won the toss and chose to bat in what was set to be a crucial clash, with just one point separating the sides in the table.The in-form Phoenix captain Ellyse Perry got the home side off to a flyer, taking a wicket with her third delivery of the opening set, getting her opposite skipper Holly Armitage out first ball.That brought the dangerous Phoebe Litchfield to the crease, but again Perry was more than good enough with the ball to get her caught behind in her second set. Perry would finish with Phoenix’s leading figures 2 for 13.Annabel Sutherland and Alice Davidson-Richards rebuilt the innings, taking the visitors from 25 for 3 to 68 for 3 before Emily Arlott got Sutherland out with 40 balls left in the innings.Davidson-Richards remained there stoically till the end, top-scoring for Superchargers and finishing not out on 49 off 42. Davidson-Richards’ knock took the Leeds-based team to 115 for 5 from their 100 balls, a competitive total on what looked to be a tricky wicket to bat on.Phoenix struggled from the start in their reply as they fell to 14 for 4 losing key batters in opener Sterre Kalis, skipper Perry, England wicket-keeper Amy Jones and Indian international Richa Ghosh with very few runs on the board.Superchargers were lively in the field, taking any chances that came their way – Kate Cross taking perhaps the pick of the catches on the long-off boundary.Their bowlers shared the wickets around as five of their attack picked up dismissals. Linsey Smith and Georgia Wareham, the pick of the team in purple’s bowlers both with 3 for 12, Smith taking two wickets in two balls towards the end of the innings.Meerkat Match Hero Davidson-Richards said: “I didn’t actually feel that good out there when I was batting, it was a difficult pitch to bat on, as you can see from it being such a low-scoring game, but we are delighted to have got over the line. I was trying to work out how to build an innings and find the gaps where the boundaries could come from.”We are looking forward to playing top of the table Welsh fire away from home in a massive game next up.”

Manchester Originals 140 for 4 (Wolvaardt 78*, Adams 2-24) beat Southern Brave 136 for 5 (Wyatt 61, Ecclestone 2-17) by six wicketsLaura Wolvaardt’s unbeaten 78 steered Manchester Originals to a six-wicket win over defending champions Southern Brave at the Utilita Bowl.Brave have now failed to win any of their opening three games and were undone by a Woolvardt batting masterclass as the South African timed the chase perfectly to get her side home with two balls to spare.Woolvardt shared an 80-run second-wicket partnership with Eve Jones, who added 39, to break the back of the chase after Brave posted 136 for 5. Danni Wyatt top-scored for the hosts with 61 from 46 balls while Sophie Ecclestone claimed 2 for 17.Wyatt and Maia Bouchier got Brave off to a fast start with a 51-run stand from 35 balls. Kim Garth made the initial breakthrough bowling Bouchier before Wyatt and Charli Knott added 68.England spinner Ecclestone removed both in the space of three balls and Woolvardt held stunning catch running backwards to leave the game evenly poised at the change of innings.Lauren Cheatle won the battle with her countrywoman Beth Mooney, who edged behind dancing down the wicket, but from there Woolvardt and Jones took charge. Woolvardt hit 11 boundaries in her 52-ball innings while Jones kept the scoreboard ticking before picking out Knott at long-off from the bowling of Georgia Adams.Ecclestone launched a six in her brief stay as Woolvardt remained to secure a second win for the Originals and leave Brave’s title defence in need of work.Meerkat Match Hero Woolvardt said: “It’s nice to chase a big score and it will be good for our group. I didn’t get off to the start that I wanted and I think they bowled quite well in the middle. I felt like I wasn’t getting the boundaries I wanted but I knew we had the firepower so I just tried to take it deep. Eve was amazing. She has been whacking them in every game so far and she really played to her strengths.”