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Lancashire 264 (Harris 77, Balderson 51, Scriven 5-46) and 90 for 3 (Bohannon 45*) drew with Leicestershire 491 for 8 dec (Handscomb 142*, Rehan 100, Hill 64)The Rothesay County Championship match between Lancashire and Leicestershire ended in a draw after the home side’s fourth-wicket pair, Josh Bohannon and Marcus Harris, safely negotiated what could have been a tricky final session at Emirates Old Trafford.Resuming on 16 for 3 at 4.30pm after persistent rain had prevented play getting under way in the first two sessions at Manchester, Bohannon and Harris extended their stand to an unbroken 79 and had taken their side to 90 for 3 by the time the draw was agreed with a minimum of eight overs left to be bowled.At that point, Bohannon was 45 not out and Harris was unbeaten on 34. However, the last session was not without its alarms for the home side. Bohannon was dropped twice in the opening seven overs by wicketkeeper Ben Cox off the bowling of Ian Holland, although neither chance was easy.Leicestershire take 15 points from the game to Lancashire 11 and the visitors will have left the ground disappointed not to have had a longer opportunity to press home their advantage.The home team had gone into the final day still needing 212 runs to avoid an innings defeat and Keaton Jennings’ players might be grateful for the week off they will have before their next game, at home to Gloucestershire on May 2-5, when it is expected that James Anderson will make his first appearance of the season.Leicestershire, on the other hand, are certain to remain among the Division Two leaders after this round of fixtures and will travel to Bristol for their match against Gloucestershire in good spirits.

Lancashire produced a convincing display with bat and ball at Taunton’s Cooper Associates County Ground to beat Somerset by seven wickets and extend their winning start to the Metro Bank One Day Cup women’s competition.Inserted on a green-tinged pitch, Somerset slumped to 89 for 6 in the face of incisive bowling from Kate Cross and Hannah Jones, who returned figures of 2 for 27 and 2 for 23 respectively. Alex Griffiths top-scored with 46 and added 56 for the seventh wicket with Amanda-Jade Wellington to threaten a meaningful recovery, but Emma Lamb bowled well at the death to claim 2 for 30 and help restrict the home side to 205 for 9.Eve Jones and Lamb then confirmed Lancashire’s superiority in a match-winning opening stand of 151 in 28.1 overs to render the outcome a foregone conclusion. Jones posted an assured 97 from 11 balls with a six and 14 fours, while Lamb contributed 52 in an innings that spanned 68 deliveries and included a quartet of fours.Seren Smale and Fi Morris saw the job through as the red rose county reached their target with 13.1 overs in hand to register a second win in as many matches in the 50-over competition. For their part, Somerset were left to reflect ruefully upon their first home game of the professional era.Ellie Threlkeld won the toss, opted to field and watched from behind the stumps as her new-ball seamers made short work of Somerset’s much-vaunted top-order. Talismanic batters Heather Knight and Sophie Luff both fell in single figures and in identical fashion, pushing half forward to deliveries outside off stump from Cross and offering regulation catches behind. Undone by late movement, fellow England international Fran Wilson was bowled by Tara Norris as the home side slipped to 36 for 3 inside 14 overs, their most experienced batters already back in the pavilion.Having pulled Norris for six to get off the mark, Charlie Dean was bowled in the act of cutting by slow left armer Hannah Jones, who then pinned Katie Jones lbw in the crease, raising the number of batters to fall short of double figures to five. When the hitherto obdurate Emma Corney, who had chiseled 35 from 79 balls, pushed a delivery from Dani Collins to deep mid-off and set off for a risky single, she was brilliantly run out by Grace Potts, whose pick up and throw scored a direct hit, reducing Somerset to 89 for 6 in the 32nd over.Overseas all-rounder Wellington inspired a fightback, hoisting successive balls from Norris over the square leg boundary to put Lancashire on the back foot for the first time. She repeated the feat against Emma Lamb, her third six raising a hard-hitting half-century stand in 43 balls in partnership with Griffiths, who made 46 from 58 deliveries. Wellington holed out to deep mid-wicket off the bowling of Lamb for a 20-ball 26 and, when Griffiths was bowled by Collins soon afterwards, the red rose county were back in charge.Somerset’s lower order continued to fight hard and an unbroken alliance of 30 for the last wicket between Chloe Skelton (24 not out) and Laura Jackson (13 not out) pushed the score beyond 200 to at least give the home bowlers a chance.Lancashire openers Lamb and Eve Jones afforded the reply solid foundations, adding 50 from 73 deliveries to see off the new ball threat of Ellie Anderson and Jackson. Pinning their hopes on spin, Somerset soon turned to Dean and Wellington, only for Jones to hit the latter back over her head for six on her way to an imperious 73-ball half century.Lamb gave half chances to Dean at cover point off Wellington and Katie Jones behind the wicket off Skelton, but survived to see the hundred partnership come up, the second 50 having come at a run-a-ball. Introduced at the River end, Skelton’s off spin proved expensive as Jones and Lamb warmed to their task, advancing their partnership to 132 after 25 overs. Lamb moved to her 50 from 63 balls and the partnership passed the 150 mark as Somerset skipper Luff rotated her spinners without reward.Wellington eventually made the breakthrough, removing Lamb lbw, while Anderson had Jones held at short third man three runs short of her hundred as Somerset at least salvaged some pride. Dean removed Katie Mack, but it proved too little too late as the visitors cruised to victory.

Shashank Singh was only ten-balls old at the crease. At the other end, with one over to go in Punjab Kings’ innings against Gujarat Titans, was his captain Shreyas Iyer on 97. He was the set batter, having hit nine sixes, and he had never scored an IPL hundred.But Shashank said he was told “to hit every ball for a four and a six,” and not to think about giving Shreyas strike. He did just that, scoring five fours to take 23 runs off the final over to lead PBKS to 243 for 5 in their IPL 2025 opener, a total that was only 11 runs too many for GT’s chase.”I didn’t see the scoreboard to be very honest, but after the first ball I hit, I saw the scoreboard and Shreyas was on 97,” Shashank said after the match. “I was going to ask him if I should take a single or something but he only came and told me to not worry about his hundred. It takes a lot of heart and courage to say that because obviously hundreds don’t come easily in T20, especially in IPL. That gave me even more confidence.”Related

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Iyer and Shashank added an unbeaten 81 off just 28 balls to help PBKS score 77 off the last four overs. Iyer, batting at No. 3 for the first time in the IPL since 2022, faced just four balls in the last three overs of the innings. Shashank scored 44 off 16, while Iyer finished unbeaten on 97 off 42.”It’s a team game we all know, but then in those situations, it’s difficult to be that selfless but Shreyas was one,” Shashank, who began his domestic career with Mumbai before moving to Chhattisgarh, said. “I know him for the past 15 years, he is the same. He told me just to be calm, to play cricketing shots that I usually play, to maintain my balance and by God’s grace, I think we had a good finish.”Shashank Singh and Shreyas Iyer added 81 in just 28 balls•IPL

GT were faced with pulling off the second-highest chase in the IPL, but Sai Sudharsan kept them on course with 74 off 41 balls. Jos Buttler and Sherfane Rutherford also kept the big hits coming as GT scored 87 runs in the six overs between 9 and 14. The ask of 75 off 36 balls seemed achievable with heavy dew hindering the bowlers, until PBKS’ Impact Player Vijaykumar Vyshak bowled an incredible spell.Vyshak conceded just ten runs in his first two overs, bowling ten dot balls, and PBKS strung together three overs without conceding a boundary. GT couldn’t recover from the slowdown.”Shreyas is someone who works on instincts as a captain. That’s why he’s one of the best captains in in in the world right now,” Shashank said. “Even I feel that that was the right time to get Vyshak and the way he bowled… in the bowling meeting, we usually plan all those things. So this was a planned thing. The way he executed the plan was commendable. Those were the hard overs he bowled because there was some dew.”These are the moments you have to win. Vyshak came and he nailed it. It is very difficult to bowl those yorkers but he did his job to perfection and kudos to him.”

Since landing in Pakistan a couple of weeks ago, Glenn Phillips has played four ODIs, scored 215 runs off 162 balls, and been dismissed only once. That dismissal came today, in New Zealand’s Champions Trophy opener against the hosts, but not before Phillips has thumped 61 from 39 to take his side well past 300 on a tricky pitch where run-scoring was hard especially early on.What’s his secret? “I’m just really clear at the moment, I’m seeing the ball really well and I guess being still at the point of contact and I think that goes a long way in being able to be a hitter,” Phillips said after New Zealand’s 60-run win in Karachi. “I haven’t always got it right in the past, but I’ve got a little bit of a feel for it for the moment.”He had scores of 106 not out, 28 not out and 20 not out in the preceding tri-series against Pakistan and South Africa that served as final preparation for the Champions Trophy. Today, he came in at 191 for 4 in the 38th over, joining a well-set Tom Latham, with New Zealand’s run rate at that point hovering at around five to the over. The pair went on to ransack 125 from 74, New Zealand finishing with 113 from the last 10 which was the second-most by any team in the last ten overs (41-50) of a Champions Trophy innings.Related

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What was it that held batters back before this partnership? “I think we’ve played a different pitch and it’s played a different way every time we’ve been here [Karachi].”The pacers I think were definitely harder to play in the day when the ball was going up and down a lot. The way Matt Henry and Will O’Rourke bowled [in the chase], it was a testament to how good they did but I think during the day the way the Pakistan boys bowled, especially at the top, made it quite tough for us to get away early on.”I think we’ve been really adaptable to different styles of pitches, and it was nice to see some turn out there in the evening.”New Zealand’s next game is against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on February 24, before they fly to Dubai to take on India on March 2. They will have to keep adapting for a while more to make the semi-finals and beyond, but this was a fine start in that direction.

In the end, Sri Lanka did enough. That’s not something you’d expect to say about a team that had racked up 218 runs in their first innings, but it speaks towards just how well New Zealand had set about their chase for most of the innings. It was a victory set up largely by Kusal Perera’s maiden T20I ton, the fastest ever by a Sri Lankan, coming off just 44 deliveries.For about 15 overs of the chase New Zealand were keeping up with the nearly 11-an-over required rate, and when Daryl Mitchell struck Charith Asalanka for four consecutive sixes in a 25-run 15th over they might have even been ahead.Sri Lanka then thought they had done enough with a couple of wickets at the death, before Zachary Foulkes’ final-over fireworks provided yet another scare. But despite frayed nerves, Sri Lanka held on to close out a consolatory seven-run win.Having entered inside the powerplay, Perera fell with less than two overs left in the innings, and such was the impact of his innings even a run-a-ball final two overs couldn’t prevent Sri Lanka from registering their second-highest T20I total ever.Asalanka also played a starring role – despite the treatment meted out by Mitchell – backing up his 46 with the bat with a three-wicket haul that derailed New Zealand’s well-planned chase. He also took a scorcher of a catch at extra cover to cap an impressive outing. There was however no looking beyond Perera for the player of the match award.Jacob Duffy, a thorn in Sri Lanka’s side throughout the series, picked up just the solitary wicket this time round, although his economy rate of 7.50 was still the best of any bowler who bowled at least two overs in the game. He was deservedly named player of the series.

SL and NZ trade early blows

The rollercoaster nature of the game was telegraphed right from the start. Sri Lanka lost three of their top four inside the opening 10 overs, and their openers inside the powerplay, but they didn’t let that slow them down.Kusal Mendis struck 22 off 16, Pathum Nissanka 14 off 12 and Avishka Fernando 17 off 12, as Sri Lanka kept a steady rate of around eight an over.Despite the early wickets, it could have been better too, had New Zealand held on to miscued reverse sweep off Perera when he was on just 15.Despite taking two excellent grabs to dismiss both Nissanka and Mendis, it was the chance they will likely look back on and regret.Mitchell Santner celebrates Kusal Mendis’ wicket•MARTY MELVILLE/AFP via Getty Images

Perera and Sri Lanka turn on the afterburners

Despite losing three wickets, Sri Lanka’s score of 85 after the first 10 overs constituted their best score at the halfway mark of an innings all series. But the 10 overs to follow would put that tally comfortably in the shade.Led by a belligerent Perera, and aided by some short boundaries at Nelson, Sri Lanka proceeded to plunder 133 runs off the final 10 overs – and that could have been considerably more if not for two excellent overs at the death from Mitchell and Duffy.Those two overs went for six each, but that Sri Lanka still ended up on a mammoth 218 speaks towards the damage done in the overs that preceded them – particularly devastating was a four-over period from overs 14-18 that brought 75 runs. Much of that was down to Perera, whose century came at a strike rate above 200 and included 13 fours and four sixes.While he initially targeted the boundaries behind square with a catalogue of sweeps, switch hits and outright slogs, by the end his knock was a true 360 exhibition – a monster six over cover to bring up his century emphatically ramming home the point.He was kept company by an equally combative Asalanka, who struck 46 off 24 during a 100-run fourth wicket stand that came off just 45 deliveries.

Well prepared New Zealand come out firing

Regardless of the match situation you can always count on New Zealand to come out with an effective plan, and their chase in Nelson was a prime example.Most sides would be overawed when hunting down a target of 219, but from the very first over of the chase New Zealand set the tone as Tim Robinson and Rachin Ravindra each took Chamidu Wickramasinghe for a boundary each.This was followed by a five-run over by Nuwan Thushara, but New Zealand made up for that by taking on Sri Lanka’s most effective seamer this series, Binura Fernando, for 18 off his opening over.Sixty-three runs were scored inside the powerplay, but the onslaught only continued afterwards. By the halfway point New Zealand had run up 108 runs and still had eight wickets in hand.Charith Asalanka struck in three consecutive overs•MARTY MELVILLE/AFP via Getty Images

Asalanka the unlikely hero

With Thushara and Binura being saved for the death overs and Theekshana having an off day, Asalanka was left with a conundrum through the middle overs. Was he going to rely on the green Wickramasinghe to handle the fifth bowler quota on his own, or would he bowl a few himself?He ended up opting for the latter, and it might just be what swung the game in Sri Lanka’s direction. In his first over the Lankan skipper removed Mark Chapman, before taking out Glenn Phillips in his second. But it was his third that brought the big fish, sliding one past Ravindra’s inside edge to dismiss the New Zealand opener for a 39-ball 69.Perhaps Asalanka overestimated his capabilities in bowling himself out, and was duly punished by Mitchell. But his breakthroughs meant New Zealand would be forced to score heavily off Sri Lanka’s frontline bowlers at the death.

New Zealand can’t stick the landing

Despite Asalanka’s strikes, Mitchell’s monster striking had brought the equation down to 51 from 30 with six wickets in hand.At that point it seemed like the hard work had been all but done, but New Zealand just couldn’t stick the landing. Hasaranga’s double-wicket 16th over did much to reverse to momentum that had swung New Zealand’s way through Mitchell’s onslaught. And then when Mitchell fell an over later, looking to take on Thushara, the writing seemed on the wall.Foulkes however ensured Sri Lanka were made to work for their win with some powerful hitting at the death, but the visitors just about managed to hold on.

Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, has vowed he has “blood, sweat and tears” left to give to the team, after being ruled out of all cricket for three months following a recurrence of his torn left hamstring during the third Test against New Zealand last month.Stokes, 33, was forced to leave the field during day three of England’s 423-run defeat at Seddon Park earlier this month. He pulled up after the second ball of the 56th over of New Zealand’s second innings – his 13th, and third of the day – immediately feeling the back of his left thigh after delivering a bouncer that Rachin Ravindra pulled for four.It was the same hamstring he tore in August while batting for Northern Superchargers against Manchester Originals in the men’s Hundred, which kept him out for two months. After undergoing a scan on his return to England, the recurrence of the tear was confirmed by the ECB on Monday afternoon, with Stokes set to undergo surgery in January.The extent of Stokes’ injury was flagged earlier this week when it was confirmed he had been omitted from England’s 15-man squad for the Champions Trophy in February. The ECB said he had not been considered on medical grounds, having not played for England’s ODI team since their elimination from the 50-over World Cup in India in November 2023.