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Daryl Mitchell has been promoted to become chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) after filling the role on an interim basis for the last six months.Mitchell, who scored 39 first-class hundreds and captained Worcestershire, spent four years as PCA chair from 2017-21 before becoming director of cricket operations and then chief operating officer. He has served as interim chief executive since Rob Lynch stepped down to join MCC as director of cricket and operations, and has now been appointed on a permanent basis after the role was advertised publicly before Christmas.The appointment comes at a time when the PCA is looking to mend its relationship with the ECB after a testing period, which prompted the players’ union to suggest the sense of “genuine collaboration” between the two parties had evaporated late last year. Mitchell said in a statement he will try to build “closer working relationships” with the ECB and counties in his new role.Related

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The PCA were particularly frustrated at what they described as “a severe lack of communication and consultation” in two policy areas late last year: the new stance on No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) and the split of extra money in the Hundred’s salary pot. The men’s county schedule has been another long-standing pressure point between the two parties.”I am delighted to have been entrusted by the PCA players’ committee and the board to lead the association as the chief executive,” Mitchell said. “Representing players has been a key part of my life since I became a PCA rep in 2009.”Evolution is the key to the future of our members and the PCA and forging even stronger relations with players is crucial to the future of our game. Being a cricketer in today’s world provides a wealth of opportunity, albeit with challenges and greater complexities than ever before for our members to navigate, both collectively and as individuals.”Mitchell will be working with a new chair, with James Harris’ second term set to run out in February, while his previous role is now vacant. Harris was part of the interview panel for the chief executive hiring process, along with PCA president Eoin Morgan, and said Mitchell was “the standout candidate from a very strong field”.

Mark Robinson has left his role as Warwickshire’s first-team coach after the club conducted a restructure of coaching and support staff. He will be replaced in the role by former Warwickshire batter Ian Westwood.Robinson was appointed in early 2021 and went on to lead Warwickshire to the County Championship title in his first season. They finished eighth in 2022, avoiding relegation on the final day, and then seventh last year, winning just once in the Championship. They also lost at the quarter-final stage of the Blast four seasons running.Warwickshire’s chief executive, Stuart Cain, said there had been disappointment at the recent performance of the men’s teams but the club wanted to avoid “a kneejerk response” to last season. Following a high-performance review, a number of changes have been made to the coaching structure, in part to reflect the advent of a professional women’s team and the continued integration of Birmingham Phoenix.Related

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In addition to Westwood overseeing the first team, Tony Frost has been appointed head of cricket operations after the retirement of Keith Cook, while Simon Kerrigan will become 2nd XI coach as well as offering spin bowling support. Stuart Barnes remains as bowling coach, with the club seeking a new batting coach.Laura Macleod will continue as head of high performance for Bears Women, working alongside Ali Maiden, recently appointed head coach of both Bears Women and Birmingham Phoenix.With Warwickshire retaining 51% majority ownership of Phoenix following the ECB’s Hundred equity sale, those teams will also be integrated into the new structure from 2026. Warwickshire are also in the process of appointing a new performance director after the departure of Gavin Larsen before Christmas.”It’s no secret we’ve been disappointed in our men’s performance in recent years,” Cain said. “We also wanted to proactively address the biggest changes the game has seen in a decade with the long-overdue formation of a professional Bears Women’s team and the integration of Birmingham Phoenix into our elite set-up.”It was important not to make a kneejerk response to last season. We allowed time for a thorough analysis of our high performance structure and worked with the club’s cricket audit committee and board to create a new approach that recognises the need for improvement and also addresses the challenges created by moving from managing one professional team to four, playing four different formats of cricket.”Robbo has worked hard for the Bears since joining in 2021 and we shouldn’t underestimate his achievement in winning the County Championship in his first season. He is a quality coach and will be an asset to any club.”However, considering recent performances and feedback from the review, we felt it was time for change. Ian Westwood is a Bear through-and-through. He understands our history, culture, and DNA. He is competitive, structured and a quality leader having previously been club captain and 2nd XI coach. He understands how to win red-ball matches as well as the demands of white ball, having most recently coached at Sharjah Warriors in the ILT20.”The new head of cricket operations role means we have somebody focused on running the machine, making sure everything from hotels and kit through to wickets and the indoor centre are set up to support the players and ensure there are no distractions or frustrations. Frosty will take over from the retiring Keith Cook who has given such incredible service to the club for more than 50 years.”We’re confident this new structure gives us the skills, resources and focus needed for the men’s and women’s teams to put themselves in a position to win domestic tournaments, as well as develop local talent from the many diverse communities that surround Edgbaston.”Robinson, who previously coached England Women and Sussex, pointed to the 2021 Championship success as well as the recent elevation of Jacob Bethell and Dan Mousley to full England duty as highlights during his time in charge.He said: “There are many things we’ve celebrated during my time as a Bear, and things we know could have gone better. Winning the Championship was a huge highlight, as was overseeing our T20 team from one that was struggling to qualify to one that topped the group three years running.”Losing the quarter-final last year hurt badly but I’m sure it won’t be long before the boys take that next step to silverware.”Seeing two Academy boys, Bethell and Mousley, go from regular Bears players to making their England debuts made everyone, myself included, very proud.”Lastly, thank you to the supporters who are the most important part of the club for your support. I know it will only be a matter of time before you get the success you deserve.”

Edgbaston hotel plan approved

Warwickshire also confirmed on Thursday that they have received planning permission from Birmingham City Council for a £42 million redevelopment at Edgbaston that will include a new on-site hotel. Work is expected to begin in September and be completed ahead of the 2027 men’s Ashes Test.The proposals will see the existing Raglan and Priory Stands on the northwest side of the ground redesigned to include a 146-bed Radisson Red hotel with rooftop terrace, pitch-view rooms with balconies, and other rooms that can be converted into hospitality boxes during games. The new stand, which will see a slight increase in capacity, will also feature a concourse with enhanced food and drink options, and improved facilities for disabled spectators.Craig Flindall, Edgbaston’s strategy director, said: “We’re grateful to Birmingham City Council for approving the plans and for sharing our vision to bring increased economic and social benefits to the region through international sport.”Cricket will always stay at the heart of our thinking. But it’s important we develop a stadium that operates all year round, supporting new jobs in this part of the city and creates wider community opportunities.”We are creating a mixed-use destination that will combine elite sport, conferencing and events and residential and hotel accommodation with community facilities that will improve education, employment and social cohesion in the area.”

Australia captain Alyssa Healy will miss next month’s T20I tour of New Zealand, but there is “no doubt” over her status for the ODI World Cup as she rehabilitates after a wretched run of injuries.With Healy absent as expected due to a foot injury, Melbourne Renegades wicketkeeper-batter Nicole Faltum has been called up in Australia’s 14-player squad for the three-match series starting in Auckland on March 21.Tahlia McGrath will captain with Ashleigh Gardner to be her deputy, while Beth Mooney will again take the gloves in Healy’s absence.Related

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Faltum, 25, has yet to play international cricket but is coming off a strong season for WBBL champions Renegades and captained the Governor-General’s XI against England in January. She beat out Tahlia Wilson and Maddy Darke for the New Zealand tour.”We just see Nic slightly ahead of the others, particularly for the T20 format,” Australia chief selector Shawn Flegler told reporters. “It’s really unlikely that she will play. Obviously, Beth will take the gloves for this tour and she did a really good job during the Ashes replacing Alyssa.”But we just thought it was a great opportunity for Nicole to come in and be around the group, train with them and get to see the environment first hand.”Healy, who turns 35 in March, was not named in the squad due to the stress fracture in her right foot. She missed the T20I portion of the Women’s Ashes and had to prove her fitness for the MCG Test before playing as a specialist middle-order batter.Healy had ruptured her plantar fascia in her foot at the T20 World Cup in October last year which saw her miss Australia’s final group match and the semi-final against South Africa. She also suffered a knee injury in the early stages of the WBBL which meant she missed the remainder of the season and the subsequent ODI series against India.Healy had to skip the ongoing Women’s Premier League, but a return to the field could take place at the women’s Hundred ahead of an ODI series in India in September that runs straight into the World Cup.”My understanding is that there’s no doubt that she’ll get through to the World Cup, that’s for sure,” Flegler said. “She’s had a complicated last couple of years with some different injuries that’s been related to foot…some Achilles and stuff.Nicole Faltum will be part of her first Australia tour•Getty Images

“We certainly don’t want to rush it. As far as I’m aware, there’s no risk that she’ll miss out on that World Cup.”Allrounder Sophie Molineux will continue to be on the sidelines as she recovers from a knee injury that ruled her out of the multiformat Ashes series. “We want to make sure that she’s right for that World Cup, we think she’ll be an important member of that side,” Flegler said.”When she came back into the team, she played a really good role for us across all formats. We’re not going to rush her back. It’s a bit of a complex injury, but we want to make sure that she’s good to go in September.”But there is no set timeline for Tayla Vlaeminck, who dislocated her bowling shoulder just moments into Australia’s T20 World Cup match against Pakistan last October. She is hoped to return at some stage next summer.Australia will enter the T20 series against New Zealand in high spirits after their historic 16-0 Ashes triumph. But Australia should feel extra motivated facing the reigning world champions on their turf in what will be rare matches in the format ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup in England.”We were really disappointed with how the T20 World Cup ended for us, and New Zealand did extremely well to win that World Cup,” Flegler said. “It’s a great chance for us to go up against them. There’s always a great rivalry against New Zealand and I’m sure they’ll be keen to play well against us.”We don’t have that many T20s leading into the next T20 World Cup, so every opportunity we get is really important to keep trying those different combinations and getting players used to those positions that they are now in.”

Australia squad for New Zealand tour

Darcie Brown, Nicole Faltum, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath (capt), Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

MS Dhoni might be 43 but he’s still at his best, especially behind the stumps. That’s what Matthew Hayden felt after watching him complete a lightning-quick stumping of Suryakumar Yadav when Noor Ahmad beat his outside edge during the IPL 2025 match against Mumbai Indians at Chepauk.”He [Dhoni] was on fire,” Hayden, the former Australia batter and Dhoni’s team-mate at Chennai Super Kings (CSK) till 2010, said on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out. “I mean Noor Ahmad was firing down the leg side and it was just a movement across the ball. You know, they’re difficult when you when you’re sitting there sort of partially obscured by the batsman. Then the stumping was just superb, just such quick timing, great hands, good vision. He’s still got it.”Suryakumar was dismissed for 29, and with his wicket, CSK got back into the game, breaking a 51-run stand and restricting MI to 155 for 9.Related

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While CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad said at the post-match presentation that he hardly sees Dhoni doing keeping practice, Piyush Chawla, who has bowled for India and CSK several times with Dhoni behind the stumps, said he would have probably trained to keep for Noor during pre-season camp.”It does happen, it is a challenge if you have not kept against somebody,” he said. “But I’m sure in the camp, he must have kept a lot of balls because if he’s keeping for somebody new, he especially takes that person to the stumps and says, you bowl a few balls.MS Dhoni stumps Suryakumar Yadav•BCCI

“[It has] not [happened] with me because I have bowled against him so many times and bowled to him in the nets also. But whenever somebody new comes, especially a wristspinner, he just makes sure he’s keeping 10-12 balls so that he gets used to the wrist position.”Former India fast bowler Varun Aaron believes Dhoni has changed the way wicketkeepers react to stumping chances.”Traditionally keepers tend to receive the ball,” Aaron said. “He’s just removed that receive completely. It’s just that stumps are here, [he gathers it close to the stumps] and it’s just from there to there [takes his hands forward to finish the stumping].”Hayden gave the example of Sunrisers Hyderabad wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen missing a stumping of Rajasthan Royals’ Sanju Samson in the afternoon game on Sunday.”Klaasen sort of missed, right? I think everyone commented on it at the time that if that was Dhoni, it would have been gone.”

Shreyas Iyer is “probably the best six-hitter” among current Indian batters. This was Wasim Jaffer’s assessment after Iyer led Punjab Kings (PBKS) to victory over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Chepauk in their IPL 2025 contest on Wednesday.Iyer could always take down spin. Recently, he has upped his game against pace, too. With PBKS chasing 191 on Wednesday, he scored 72 off 41 balls with five fours and four sixes. It was his back-to-back sixes against Matheesha Pathirana that shut the door down on CSK. In ten matches so far this season, Iyer has hit 25 sixes, second only to Nicholas Pooran’s 34.”I am really impressed with the way Shreyas Iyer has been hitting sixes,” Jaffer said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out show. “We have seen since the 50-over World Cup [in 2023]. [He is] probably the best six-hitter across spin bowling as well as fast bowling.Related

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“How easily he dispatches the ball into the crowds – it’s absolutely amazing. He is never in two minds. You hardly see him mistime it. It doesn’t just carry over the boundary, it goes really long. Looks like he has worked really hard at that. Across all the Indian batters, he is somebody who you feel can hit sixes with ease.”Iyer came out to bat in the fifth over of the chase and added 72 off 50 balls with Prabhsimran Singh for the second wicket. When Iyer got out, PBKS needed just three from eight balls.”For me, his mentality when chasing a total stood out,” Daren Ganga, Jaffer’s co-panellist on the show, said. “He has dispelled that notion of taking the game deep. He is someone who will not leave a lot of runs for other batters, which is a critical thing in the modern T20 game.”He really put his team into a commanding position. When it’s two required in the last over, he’s done the heavy lifting that makes it very, very easy for the other batters. Once he’s at the crease, he’s sort of committed to walk the hard yards.”The other thing I’d like to say is when you look at Prabhsimran batting in the powerplay, going deep into the middle phase. And then you have Shreyas Iyer batting all the way into the third phase. You look at the teams that have been successful this season, like a Gujarat Titans (GT), batters are transcending the different phases of the innings. That to me is an essential goal to set internally.”

Alishan Sharafu’s composed half-century under pressure and Haider Ali’s splendid spell of 3 for 7 led UAE to a historic series win against Bangladesh in Sharjah. The hosts chased down 163 with seven wickets in hand to clinch the series 2-1, having already beaten the visitors by two wickets on Monday. It is UAE’s second T20I series win against a Full Member team, having beaten Ireland by the same margin in 2021.Left-arm spinner Haider led the charge to reduce Bangladesh to 84 for 8, before they recovered to reach 162 for 9. Bangladesh, however, couldn’t quite use the momentum with the ball, as Sharafu, only 22, struck his eighth half-century in T20Is to anchor the chase. He struck five fours and three sixes in his unbeaten 47-ball 68 as the chase went down to the last over. He added 87 runs for the unbroken fourth-wicket stand with Asif Khan, who damaged Bangladesh with five sixes in his unbeaten 26-ball 41.

Zohaib steps up on Waseem’s off day

UAE didn’t quite get their chase off to the best of starts, though. After consecutive fifties in the first two games, captain Muhammad Waseem fell early in for 9 this time. Shoriful Islam got him to drive at a slightly wide one, edging to Tanzid Hasan at slip. Muhammad Zohaib then struck Hasan Mahmud for consecutive sixes in the fifth over, both times hitting through the line, one over long-on, and the other through extra cover.Sharafu got his big-hitting going with a top-edged six off Tanzim Hasan in the seventh over, before Rishad Hossain cleaned up Zohaib for 29 with one that spun back into the left-hand batter. Rahul Chopra was the next to go just after the halfway mark, heaving at a slower bouncer from Tanzim to midwicket for 13.

Sharafu aces the chase

Sharafu didn’t get bothered by UAE being three down and the equation reading 84 required off 56. He ramped Tanzim for a six over deep third two balls after Chopra’s wicket. He pinged the same bowler in his next over for a four through point, but then UAE were kept quiet for about 16 deliveries that left UAE to get 53 to win from 30.Alishan Sharafu led UAE’s chase under pressure•Emirates Cricket Board

Sharafu then hammered Rishad down the ground at the start of the 16th over, with Tanzid parrying the catch at long-off for a six. Asif, always on the prowl for big hits, also smacked Rishad for consecutive sixes in the same over to make it a 19-run over. It brought the required run rate down from 10.60 to 8.50 and 34 to get from the last four.Sharafu finished the next over with a cracking four through the covers and Asif smashed Mahmud over midwicket next ball to bring it close to a run-a-ball equation. With 14 to win from 12, Asif clubbed two more sixes in the penultimate over off Tanzim on the off side before Sharafu aptly struck the winning runs next over, a blistering cover drive off Mahmud.

Haider weaves his magic

Waseem used four different bowlers to bowl the first four overs after winning the toss, and the fourth of those did the trick. Haider struck with his first ball, trapping the Bangladesh captain Litton Das lbw for 14. Litton missed his sweep after going across too far that exposed his middle and leg stumps, but he was disappointed on being given out.Towhid Hridoy was also given out lbw two balls later, as he charged down and missed the ball, which struck the front pad. The raised finger caused pandemonium in the UAE side, with Haider jumping all over the place.Haider finished with a double-wicket maiden, before removing Mahedi Hasan, who was trying to cut against a delivery that came back to hit the top of leg stump. Haider remained accurate in his next two overs too, giving him magical figures in just his third T20I.Asif Khan does the snake gesture as Alishan Sharafu looks on after hitting the winning runs•Emirates Cricket Board

UAE hunt for more wickets

Tanzid batted exactly the opposite to how his team-mates had been going about it. He started with a couple of big hits in the first over, he lofted Matiullah Khan for his second six in the third over, before hammering Dhruv Parashar for consecutive sixes in the fifth over after Bangladesh had lost three wickets. Tanzid sweetly timed two more fours off Akif Raja before the seamer bowled him with the around-the-wicket angle in the seventh over.Both Parashar and Raja supported Haider, as did Matiullah after the halfway mark. Matiullah, who was expensive in the first two games, removed Shamim Hossain and Rishad in the space of four balls. Saghir Khan then had Tanzim caught at long-on, as Bangladesh were in risk of getting bowled out for less than 100.

Jaker scrapes a recovery

Jaker struck a couple of sixes to get Bangladesh past the 100-run mark, all the while needing the physio’s attention due to exhaustion. Mahmud struck Matiullah for his first six in the 18th over, before Jaker struck his third six, a blast down the ground in the penultimate over. Jaker, however, fell next ball, slicing Saghir to deep backward point for an easy catch. No. 11 Shoriful then deposited Saghir over the midwicket fence and Bangladesh had started to put up a respectable total.Waseem’s decision to bowl the last over backfired, as he went for 23 runs in five balls. He was taken off the attack for bowling too many high full-tosses. Sharafu had to complete the over, as his only delivery went for three runs.

Jordan Thompson, the combative Yorkshire allrounder, will make a shock move to Warwickshire at the end of the 2025 season after turning down a contract extension at his boyhood club.Thompson, 28, was born and bred in Leeds and has played for Yorkshire since Under-13s level, graduating from their academy and into the first team. But he has signed an all-format contract with Warwickshire for the next three seasons and said the move will represent a “new chapter” after making the “tough decision” to leave Yorkshire.”I’m incredibly excited to be joining Warwickshire and starting this new chapter,” Thompson said. “While it was a really tough decision to leave my home county of Yorkshire, the clear vision for the club and the opportunity to play alongside a number of familiar faces make this a truly exciting move for me.”Related

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Thompson took 32 wickets as Yorkshire won promotion to Division One of the County Championship last summer but his finest moments for them came in T20 cricket. In the Blast in 2022, he held his nerve with a brilliant 20th over to sneak past Surrey in the quarter-finals at The Oval, then hit an 18-ball 50 in defeat to rivals Lancashire at Finals Day.”The club would have loved to have kept him, but were unable to agree contract terms,” Gavin Hamilton, Yorkshire’s general manager, said. “Whilst it’s obviously disappointing to lose Jordan, we understand his reasons and would like to take this opportunity to wish him all of the best for the future.”Ian Westwood, Warwickshire’s coach, said: “Jordan is a three-dimensional, multi-format player who will be a great addition to our squad both on and off the field. He’s a quality performer who I believe still has his best days in front of him. He’s known for his competitiveness and thrives on being involved in big moments on the field. We can’t wait to welcome him to the Bears.”Yorkshire have struggled in the first half of this season: they are second-bottom in Division One after winning one of their first seven Championship matches and are propping up the North Group in the T20 Blast. Thompson has only featured once in their T20 season due to a side strain but returned in their defeat to Durham on Sunday.Warwickshire also recently announced that Danny Briggs, their left-arm spinner, will rejoin Sussex at the end of the season on a white-ball contract that will see him involved in coaching the club’s young spinners.

Heading into the final day in Galle, players from both teams can see paths to victory.The most likely outcome feels like a draw, but as the World Test Championship points system discourages draws, home teams are especially motivated to pursue victories.With Bangladesh currently 187 runs ahead, though needing to get ten Sri Lanka wickets to seal the result after setting a target, a Bangladesh win also seems a possibility in this match, particularly as there is dust exploding out of the surface most times a ball pitches, and the spin is beginning to become pronounced and fast.Related

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In any case, both teams think they have a shot.”We have every opportunity to go for the win once we have a good total on board,” Nayeem Hasan, who took his fourth five-wicket haul in Tests, said on day four in Galle. “A lot of things can happen on the fifth-day wicket. We have a positive mindset going into the last day.”Kamindu Mendis, who scored 87 in Sri Lanka’s first innings, thinks pretty much any result is possible. “The match is open to both sides,” he said. “They’ve only lost three wickets for now, but in the morning session if we get two or three wickets early, we will be ascendant. What we wanted in the first innings was a lead of about 150, but we didn’t get there.”But tomorrow, if we can get them out inside a session, or even in the second session, that is enough. We’ve been able to have a higher run rate than them, so a session-and-a-half is enough for us. As a team we have confidence that we can win this. The run rate will change as the pitch changes.”Bangladesh, meanwhile, will focus on setting a tough target first, before setting their spinners loose.”If we can give them a good target, they will be under pressure,” Nayeem said. “There’s a difference between playing normal cricket and playing under pressure. They will also be worried about losing the game. We want to give a good total.”

Durham 343 for 9 (Lees 125, Robinson 79, Worrall 4-49) trail Surrey 820 for 9 dec by 477 runsA brilliant three-wicket burst with the second new ball by Dan Worrall resurrected Surrey’s victory ambitions just when it looked as if Alex Lees and Ollie Robinson’s 152-run stand had raised Durham hopes of being able to force a draw at the Kia Oval.Lees scored a superb 125 and Robinson a 105-ball 79 as Durham eventually reached 343 for 9 by stumps on day three, but earlier both fell to paceman Worrall, as did New Zealand allrounder Jimmy Neesham, in a slide from 266 for 3 to 284 for 7.When Matt Fisher removed George Drissell with the last ball before tea, Durham had lost four wickets for 29 runs in 12 overs immediately before the interval. Afterwards, though, Graham Clark and Matthew Potts added 46 for the eighth wicket in 25 overs to hold up Surrey again as the Kookaburra ball lost its shine and hardness.Potts resisted 79 balls for his 23, until Dan Lawrence spun an offbreak to pin him leg-before on the back foot, and then Worrall returned to hit Clark’s middle stump with his fifth ball back to end a defiant 30.A hobbling Ben Raine, injured when bowling on day one, bravely emerged at No. 11 to keep Daniel Hogg company until the end of play, with Hogg even taking two fours off Fisher in the closing overs.Overall, however, bat has overwhelmingly dominated ball on an essentially flat pitch in a Rothesay County Championship match on which the draw still seems the likeliest outcome despite Durham, in reply to Surrey’s mammoth 820 for 9 declared, still being 477 runs adrift going into the final day.Opener Lees showed immense stamina, as well as notable skill and determination, to frustrate Surrey’s attack for almost six hours in all. The Durham captain began day three on 33, with his side 59 for 1, and forged a fine partnership with Robinson after seeing both Will Rhodes and Colin Ackermann depart before lunch.Rhodes edged the impressive Fisher to keeper Josh Blake to go for 26 in the morning’s eighth over, and Ackermann’s 24 was ended by an excellent piece of bowling from Sam Curran. Angling one across the right-hander, left-armer Curran saw Will Jacks cling on to a sharp catch at first slip.Robinson was fortunate to nick Curran between first and second slips for four, a technical but low chance, before he had reached double-figures and, after lunch, Curran had an impassioned appeal for lbw against Lees, on 64, turned down – much to the allrounder’s dismay.Otherwise, however, the fourth-wicket pair progressed serenely and successive fours off Fisher took Lees to 80 while Robinson went to a 76-ball half-century in style by pulling Jordan Clark powerfully off the front foot for six over midwicket.The 32-year-old Lees, capped 10 times in Tests by England, went to his 31st first-class hundred in the 74th over of Durham’s innings and – having been on the field in sweltering 90-degree temperatures for almost eight sessions – he was finally forced to leave it at 3.41pm on day three.Robinson had just been bowled by a full inswinger from Worrall, and the leader of Surrey’s attack made it three strikes overall in his second, third and fourth overs with the second new ball – taken with Durham on 255 for 3 – when he quickly added the scalps of Lees and Neesham.Lees, who faced 240 balls and hit 18 fours, nibbled fatally at a fine ball that lifted and left him and Neesham’s thicker edge to a similar delivery flew to Jacks at first slip.Clark survived a big lbw appeal from Fisher on 4 and then a mishit pull at Worrall on 5 dropped inches short of Curran, diving forward from the squarer of two midwickets, but Drissell top-edged a pull at Fisher to mid-on as Durham’s sudden decline continued apace.Durham’s innings was steadied, however, by Clark and Potts who made sure of a second batting bonus point while also denying Surrey a third bowling point. As batting conditions eased at the end of another long, hot day, it was noticeable that Worrall and Fisher were given only another five overs between them just before the close.Worrall has figures of 4 for 49 from 23 overs and, if anyone is searching for even one positive from the widely-condemned decision to deploy the lower-seamed Kookaburra (widely-used in Tests overseas) in four prime mid-summer Championship fixtures, it is that the newly England-qualified Australian displayed once again the skill and know-how with it that makes him an intriguing possible selection for this winter’s Ashes series Down Under.

Shubman Gill has missed the 2025-26 season-opening Duleep Trophy encounter against East Zone, which began on August 28 at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.Gill was named captain of the North Zone team, but it is learnt that an illness has forced him to miss the quarter-final. He is expected to be in Bengaluru later in the week before departing for the Asia Cup, which begins on September 9 in Abu Dhabi. In his absence, Haryana top-order batter Ankit Kumar is captaining the North Zone side, while Services batter Shubham Rohilla has replaced Gill in the squad.Meanwhile, wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel, who was named the Central Zone captain in their quarter-final against North East Zone, has also been ruled out after he complained of a groin niggle. Rajat Patidar, who was initially named the vice-captain, is now leading the side. Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar and Kuldeep Yadav are all part of the Central XI facing North East.There was a setback for the East Zone side as well, with regular captain Abhimanyu Easwaran ruled out due to fever. Allrounder Riyan Parag is leading East Zone in the Duleep Trophy opener.Gill had a sensational tour of England in his maiden series as captain, where he amassed 754 runs in five Tests at 75.40. He has also been named vice-captain of the Indian T20I side for the Asia Cup.Apart from Gill, there are two more Asia Cup-bound members in the North Zone side: Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh, who will be in action with the ball later in the game.The two semi-finals will be played at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence ground from September 4, while the final will be staged from September 11 at the same venue.