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Australia’s spin-bowling consultant Fawad Ahmed has tested positive for Covid-19 and started his five-day isolation period. A media release from Cricket Australia stated he was experiencing mild symptoms and would leave isolation only after returning two negative results.Fawad, who was born in Pakistan and played three ODIs and two T20Is for Australia, was part of Lahore Qalandars’ squad at the recently concluded Pakistan Super League. He arrived at the Australia team hotel on Monday, where he was due to start his role as the spin-bowling consultant.Fawad was tested immediately upon arrival, and returned a positive result. It is believed he did not interact with anyone from the Australian travelling party before testing positive. ESPNcricinfo understands all of Australia’s squad and touring party underwent Covid tests today, returning negative results.Fawad, who had also tested positive for Covid-19 at the PSL last year, is the second person to be impacted by Covid-19 on this tour. Earlier this week, Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf – also part of Qalandars’ setup – tested positive and was ruled out of the first Test.The first Test begins on Friday in Rawalpindi, which will be the first international match for Australia in Pakistan in 24 years.

Look at any famous Bangladesh win from the past, and you’d invariably notice how a freak performance got them home. Think 2005 and it’s hard to look beyond Mohammad Ashraful’s special at Cardiff. Think 2007 World Cup and you have to look at Tamim Iqbal’s trigger against India’s pace attack. Think South Africa at the same edition and Abdur Razzaq comes to mind. Bangladesh needed that extra push from one individual to get them over the line.Now, things are looking slightly different. Gone are the days when they wait for Shakib Al Hasan to turn up at every corner of the field. If Tamim is injured, like he had been lately, they’ve got people to step up and open the batting. If Mushfiqur Rahim can’t keep wickets to manage his workload, they’ve got Nurul Hasan to do an equally capable job.Because of how specialised cricket has become, a team like Bangladesh need a lot of cylinders to fire at the same time. The openers need to lay a platform for the middle order. Regardless of conditions, fast bowlers and spinners have to bowl well in different phases of the innings. Fielding too has to be of a certain quality to get the important stop and catches done.In a nutshell, Bangladesh did all of this and much more in beating South Africa for the first time away from home. The short tour couldn’t have gotten off to a better start; all these elements synced together to deliver a 38-run win in the first ODI in Centurion.Litton Das and Tamim provided solidity at the top, followed by Shakib and Yasir Ali tearing into the South African attack in their fourth wicket partnership. When defending the big total, Taskin Ahmed’s wicket in the first Powerplay were crucial, and when Tamim desperately needed his fifth bowler to get through nine overs, Mehidy Hasan Miraz turned his 0 for 39 of his first five overs into 4 for 61 from his nine.But for Yasir, the one who took a brilliant catch in the square-leg boundary at a crucial stage to go with his maiden ODI fifty, the win over South Africa was waiting to happen. He said that after Bangladesh’s miraculous Test win over New Zealand in Mount Maunganui in January, the team had already started talking about doing something similar in South Africa.”It was certainly a win that we had expected,” Yasir said. “When we beat New Zealand in Mount Maunganui, the Bangladesh team started believing that we can beat any team in overseas conditions too. There was no difference here. When we were in New Zealand, we were talking about having the belief to win in South Africa. We have to follow the same game plan in the next match, but we also have to ensure that we keep having a positive frame of mind.”Yasir spoke of how Shakib’s words at the start of their 115-run fourth wicket partnership made him comfortable at the crease. He said that after doing poorly against Afghanistan, he needed a good knock to give him confidence. He was also boosted when AB de Villiers, invited by head coach Russell Domingo, met the Bangladesh players at the team hotel the day before the first ODI.”When I asked Shakib bhai about the wicket, he told me straightaway that it is a very good wicket,” Yasir said. “You will understand if you play 5-10 balls. Then you can go for your shots. AB de Villiers came out our hotel the other day. He said some stuff which really helped me. I didn’t do well in the Afghanistan series, so this knock will boost my confidence.”Yasir wasn’t done just with the bat. On the field, when Rassie van der Dussen swung towards the square-leg boundary, Yasir ran to his right for a few yards and then put in a full-length dive to complete a catch. van der Dussen was gone for 86, South Africa still needed 123 in 12.5 overs. The wicket was important as he had added 70 with David Miller, who went on to make 79.”It was getting a bit tense,” Yasir said. “The partnership was growing, but we kept them under pressure. They were getting boundaries but we were bowling a lot of dot balls too. The run-rate was always rising. I was thinking that I need to do something special on this wicket. I wanted to grab any opportunity that came my way. Everyone appreciated the catch.”The man who got the wicket, Taskin, was Bangladesh’s best bowler on the day. Yasir said that Taskin’s regular wickets for Bangladesh is due to his tremendous turnaround since the pandemic hit in 2020 when he worked harder on his fitness and corrected his bowling action.”He has changed himself since the pandemic. He is in good shape. Everyone contributed in this win but Taskin made a special contribution. He took two wickets in an over, which was a major setback. One has to appreciate him.”Yasir himself has also been through quite a journey since last year. He was not picked for ten months even though he was in every Test squad against West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Since his debut in November, he has so far struck a fifty each in Tests and ODIs.”It was a lesson for me,” he said. “I understood the environment of the national team. How the game is played out in the field. Interacting with the senior players. It was a blessing in disguise for me. Now that I am playing, it is going well, and sometimes it is not going well. There are ups and downs in life.”

Chennai Super Kings have been dealt an injury concern after allrounder Moeen Ali hurt his ankle during a training session. ESPNcricinfo has learned that the franchise is waiting for scan results after he picked up the injury on Saturday.As a consequence, it is likely that Moeen is in danger of missing Super Kings’ next few matches. The defending champions are scheduled to play two games this week: on Monday against Punjab Kings, and on May 1 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Moeen last played on April 17 against Gujarat Titans, a close match that Super Kings lost by three wickets.Related

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Two days before getting injured, Moeen was dropped for the match against Mumbai Indians, which his team won, and where New Zealand spin-bowling allrounder Mitchell Santner replaced him.As opposed to his stellar form in the 2021 season, Moeen has struggled in this IPL. He arrived late this year, and thus missed the tournament opener owing to a delay in getting a visa to travel to India from the UK. In the five matches he has played, Moeen has scored 87 runs at an average of 17.40, including a 48 against Sunrisers. Even with the ball, he has gone wicketless so far: in eight overs, he has conceded 68 runs.Super Kings have been saddled with injuries this season with fast bowlers Deepak Chahar and Adam Milne both ruled out. At the halfway stage, Super Kings, who this season appointed Ravindra Jadeja as the successor to MS Dhoni as captain, have recorded just two wins in seven matches, and currently occupy the ninth position in the points table.

Former New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter BJ Watling has been appointed Wellington Firebirds’ white-ball head coach, ahead of the upcoming domestic season. This will be the 36-year-old’s first role as head coach of a senior side, having been in charge of the Northern Districts A side after playing his last Test against India in the WTC final in June 2021.Watling takes over from Glenn Pocknall, who had coached Wellington to titles in all three formats and even had a stint with the New Zealand national side for a tour of Bangladesh last year, when Gary Stead was absent. Pocknall will now lead Cricket Wellington’s talent acceleration programme, which aims at producing more players for the men’s and women’s national sides.While Watling will oversee the one-day and T20 teams, Bruce Edgar, the former New Zealand batter and selector, will take charge of the red-ball side. The 65-year-old will also serve as Cricket Wellington’s director of cricket until the end of 2022-23. The dual role marks his return to the Wellington set-up since stepping down as Wellington’s head coach at the end of the 2018-19 season.Watling said that transitioning from playing to coaching was something that was always on his agenda. Since his retirement, Watling has been active as Northern Districts’ network coach in the Waikato. He even assisted Northern Brave men during their triumphant Super Smash campaign.Related

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“To be honest – for the whole way through – I kind of have been planning for this,” Watling said during a virtual media interaction. “Been doing whatever ones and twos and what not throughout playing and probably started my network coaching three or four or five years ago with ND [Northern Districts] here. So it has always been on the backburner. Obviously, once I retired I started to dive in a bit more.”Watling shrugged off any apprehensions around his quick elevation to the head coach’s role, less than a year after he retired, and looked forward to working with Edgar and Toby Radford, who has also joined the Wellington support staff as a specialist batting coach.Notably, Radford was West Indies’ batting coach when they won the 2012 T20 World Cup and recently worked as the head of high performance in Bangladesh. Radford was also England Under-19s batting coach at the 2022 Under-19 World Cup in the Caribbean, where they finished runners-up.”Not yet [apprehensive]. I’m quite excited to be fair,” Watling said. “It is something that might have come in a little bit early, but I’m definitely ready for the challenge and looking forward to working with what I see as a very talented young group and core senior players as well and some Black Caps. It looks like a fantastic squad to be in charge of, especially in the white-ball stuff, and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”[My role is] to lead and I’ll try to do that through my attitude. I know I will get a good little preparation time with Bruce in charge there. I will have some good learning off him and obviously Toby as well – two very experienced coaches I can lean on and use throughout the season. I plan on doing that and basically connecting with the playing group and staff will be the first priority and trying to find my feet at Wellington.”Watling said he would also draw motivation from the success of countrymen Brendon McCullum, Stephen Fleming and Daniel Vettori who are all now active coaches in top-flight cricket.”It’s great to see the boys out there coaching,” Watling said. “Obviously, recently was exciting to see him [McCullum] get the England role. I know he will do a fantastic job. I’ve kept an eye on Flem with the Chennai Super Kings there [IPL]. Yeah, I guess that has inspired me, but throughout my career, I love cricket and I’m passionate about the game and I’m really looking forward to get back.”Cricket Wellington CEO Cam Mitchell was confident of Watling making an impact at the province as coach.”We have no doubt that BJ will be a successful elite coach, and we are pleased to be able to help support his career development,” Mitchell said in a Cricket Wellington statement.”His work ethic, strong values and recent playing experience will be so valuable for our young playing group, and his strong track-record of success as a player shows what we are trying to achieve.”

Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal are not part of India’s 18-member squad for the five T20Is in the Caribbean starting later this month. The squad led by Rohit Sharma has KL Rahul potentially making a return subject to a fitness clearance.ESPNcricinfo has learnt Kohli, Bumrah and Chahal have been rested, and Kohli, who picked up a “mild groin strain” in England, continues to remain in the team management’s plans for the T20 World Cup later this year despite his lean form.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Offspinner R Ashwin, who hasn’t featured in India’s T20I side since the home series against New Zealand last November, has made a comeback to shore up a spin department that includes Kuldeep Yadav (subject to fitness), Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant, who have been rested from the ODI leg, will play the T20Is.Umran Malik, the rookie tearaway quick, did not find a place in the squad, with the selectors picking left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh in the seam bowling department along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel.Related

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Having made his T20I debut in Ireland, Malik was also part of the recently concluded T20I series in England, which India won 2-1. In his lone outing in Nottingham, Malik conceded 1 for 56 off his four overs. Arshdeep, meanwhile, took 2 for 18 in an impressive debut in the opening T20I, when he troubled England’s openers with swing.Prior to the T20I series in England, Rohit publicly backed Kohli despite his lean run of scores that have sparked continuous debate over his position in the team.”I don’t know who the experts are,” Rohit had said last week. “I don’t even understand why they are called experts. They are watching it from outside, they don’t know what is going on the inside. We are building a team. A lot of deliberation goes behind it. There is a lot of thinking behind it. Boys are backed. Boys are given chances. People outside don’t know all these things. It is not important what is going on outside.”Ishan Kishan has been chosen as the reserve opener and second wicketkeeper for the West Indies T20Is, should Rahul slot back into the XI. Rahul is currently at the NCA in Bengaluru, having returned from a surgery for sports hernia in Germany late June.He has been out of action since early June, when the illness flared prior to the start of the home series against South Africa. Initially diagnosed as a groin injury, Rahul was withdrawn from the squads for the tour of England. Prior to that, he had led new franchise Lucknow Super Giants to the IPL 2022 playoffs. He ended the season as the second-highest run-scorer, with 616 runs in 15 innings at an average of 51.33 and a strike rate of 135.38.Deepak Hooda, who made his maiden T20I century in Ireland in June, has been retained in Kohli’s absence, as have Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav.India begin their Caribbean tour with an ODI series, in which they will be captained by Shikhar Dhawan in the absence of the senior players. The five T20Is begin on July 29 in Tarouba, followed by matches on August 1 and 2 in St Kitts, before the series moves to Florida in the USA for the final two matches on August 6 and 7.India’s squad for the five T20Is: Rohit Sharma (capt), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul*, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.*The inclusion of KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav is subject to fitness.

After falling agonisingly short of a Test century on debut, then returning with a fiery spell in the final session, Jamie Overton was refreshingly philosophical at the end of day three of the third Test at Headingley.Both efforts contributed to England’s cause, ensuring a first innings of 360 for a lead of 31, before cutting New Zealand down to 168 for five late on. The tourists led by 137 at stumps, with in-form batters Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell at the crease.After an initial spell of five overs for 17, Overton came out after tea and immediately took the wicket of Tom Latham, who had looked back in form in reaching 76 before succumbing to a misjudgement outside off stump from round the wicket. Overton then hit Devon Conway in the head with the very next ball, setting the tone for what was a engaging four-wicket session for England.However the pain earlier of falling for 97 earlier in the day was the main point of conversation when it came to Overton’s work on Saturday. He was crestfallen after nervously waving at a wide delivery from Trent Boult which nestled into the hands of Mitchell at first slip. By stumps, however, he had just about made his peace with the three runs he did not get.”Obviously I was very disappointed getting out on 97,” he said. “But me and Jonny put us in a great position [a partnership of 241 – a new record for the seventh wicket]. And that knock from Broady (42) coming in and getting us into a lead has put us in a great place going into the second innings. It was obviously disappointing but I feel I’ve contributed to the team more than enough.”Understandably, Overton did not get the best night’s sleep on Friday, having come in on 89 not out, and that reflected in a quiet start the following morning, in which he only managed eight runs in the 40 minutes before his dismissal.”I was tossing and turning for quite a lot,” he admitted. “I’m always going to be a little bit nervous but I felt like I was in sort of in a great place this morning and just didn’t quite get over the line. The ball was there to hit and I just hit it to the wrong place.”Related

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Bairstow, who was eventually dismissed for 162, accompanied Overton for a portion of his slow walk-off, putting his arm around him and offering some consoling words: “He just said, soak it all up, you played a great knock.”Overton was good by those words come the evening. England’s middle session lacked a little something, allowing New Zealand to move into a strong position of 125 for one at tea, and a lead of 94. With the help of the crowd, they responded with far more urgency and endeavour to take four for 43 in the 18.5 overs they were able to get in before the rain.”We chatted at tea that potentially the afternoon session wasn’t that great for us,” Overton said. “We obviously didn’t go for loads of runs but we didn’t feel like we bowled and fielded the way we wanted to, so coming out after tea it was just trying to enjoy ourselves, put the New Zealand guys under pressure, and that’s what we did. The crowd obviously got involved a little bit and we tried to gee them up because that always helps us as well.”There is still work to be done, especially given how Mitchell and Blundell have performed – in this match alone, never mind the series, with 109 and 55 in the first innings, respectively. Overton, though, feels England are ahead.”I think that last session put us right in the box seat. We would like to go back out there at the end but couldn’t quite get out there with the with the covers needing time to get them off.”But yeah, we’re in a great position going into tomorrow and hopefully we can get the two early wickets, the two key wickets. But we feel like we’re in a good place. And if we can get those two early, then we’re in a great place to win the game.”

Shamarh Brooks scored 79 and shared a 75-run partnership with captain Nicholas Pooran which guided the West Indies to a five-wicket win over top-ranked New Zealand on Wednesday in the series-opening ODI in Barbados.Brooks reached his fourth ODI half century from 58 balls and had faced 91 deliveries when he was out in the 34th over with the West Indies closing on New Zealand’s inadequate total of 190.Jason Holder and Jermaine Blackwood were at the crease when the home team reached its target with 11 overs to spare.Earlier, Akeal Hosein took 3 for 28 and Alzarri Joseph returned 3 for 36 as West Indies bowled out New Zealand in 45.2 overs after choosing to field.It was the first time New Zealand has been dismissed in an ODI since March 2020.”Watching the Kiwis bat I realized it was a bit tough going early for them,” Brooks said in a television interview. “I guess credit must go to our bowlers for reducing them to a score of 190. I was just focused on going out there, getting some partnerships and getting that total off.”Rain breaks punctuated the West Indies innings but couldn’t disturb the steady momentum set by Brooks. The first came in the opening over of the innings and the second in the 29th when West Indies were only 42 runs from victory. At that point they were well ahead of a winning total under the DLS system.Pooran was out for 28 immediately after the second rain break but Brooks retained a strong guiding hand on the run chase.Hosein, Joseph and debuting spinners Kevin Sinclair and Yannic Cariah turned the tide of the New Zealand innings with accurate bowling in the middle overs on a pitch which rewarded spinners with bounce.Shamarh Brooks got off to a good start after West Indies lost early wickets•AFP/Getty Images

New Zealand made a solid start with a 41-run partnership between Martin Guptill and Finn Allen, who struck two sixes and a four from Holder’s bowling in the seventh over.A short rain break followed at the end of the eighth over and Allen was out for 25 four balls after the resumption. From then on New Zealand lost wickets regularly and struggled to build the partnerships that were necessary to reach a more challenging total.Allen was Hosein’s first wicket, caught by Pooran who had to run back and hold onto the ball as it came across his shoulder. Guptill fell in Hosein’s next over, caught by Kyle Mayers at slip for 24 when New Zealand were 53 for 2.Captain Kane Williamson attempted to lead a recovery with an innings of 34 from 50 balls. But he lacked support with Devon Conway and Tom Latham out cheaply as New Zealand slumped to 88 for 4.Williamson’s partnership with Daryl Mitchell held promise and the pair had added 28 for the fifth wicket before both were out to Joseph in the 30th over. Mitchell had made 20 from 32 balls when he was trapped lbw and Williamson followed when he edged behind.Allrounders Michael Bracewell and Mitchell Santner added 40 for the seventh wicket but weren’t able to tip the match back in New Zealand’s favour. Bracewell was trapped lbw to give Cariah for his first international wicket as the Trinidadian wristspinner finished with 1 for 49 from nine overs.The New Zealand lower order often comes to the rescue of the team but on this occasion there was no fightback. Santner was out for 25 with the total 189 for 8 and the last two wickets fell quickly.”Obviously it was challenging out there to get some rhythm and some momentum,” Williamson said. “Credit to the way the West Indies bowled. They got a lot out of that surface and executed their plans well and ultimately played a very good game of cricket.”The second game will be played Friday at the same venue.

Jayden Seales and Odean Smith, the West Indies internationals, have listed their base price at Rand 1,750,000 (US$101,000 approx), the maximum for any player at CSA’s SA20 player auction. Eoin Morgan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Tymal Mills, David Willey, Jimmy Neesham and Chamika Karunaratne have listed themselves at the second-highest base price of Rand 1,700,000 ($98,000 approx).Related

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The auction longlist has 533 players, out of which 248 are from South Africa. Eleven out of those 248 – Dean Elgar, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorious, Janneman Malan, Keegan Petersen, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie van der Dussen, Reeza Hendricks, Tabraiz Shamsi and Temba Bavuma – have set themselves a base price of Rand 850,000 ($49,000 approx.), the highest among South African players.Of the 52 players who are in the Rand 850,000 ($49,000 approx.) category are Sri Lanka’s Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka and Pathum Nissanka, England’s Craig Overton and Matthew Potts, West Indies’ Alzzari Joseph, Keemo Paul, Carlos Brathwaite and Shamarh Brooks, Afghanistan’s Hashmatullah Shahidi, Samiullah Shinwari and Karim Janat, and Ireland’s Harry Tector. New Zealand’s Ross Taylor, who has retired from international cricket, has also listed himself at this base price.The final auction pool will be confirmed by CSA once it receives the wishlist from the six franchises, the deadline for which is September 8. The auction is on September 19 in Cape Town.Fast bowler Seales is uncapped in T20Is but has proved to be effective both in the powerplay and death overs during his time with Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL and at the LPL with Jaffna Kings. He has played nine Tests and seven ODIs so far, and recently earned his first national contract. In LPL 2021, which was dominated by spinners, Seales emerged as the most prolific seamer, with 15 wickets in seven matches at an economy rate of 7.81.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Smith has played 19 T20Is and five ODIs apart from playing for Punjab Kings in the IPL and a bunch of teams in the CPL, and has showcased his big-hitting both at the international and franchise levels.Although all six franchises are owned by IPL owners, there are no Indian players on the list, because of the BCCI’s policy against allowing its players to play overseas T20 leagues. Former India Under-19 captain Unmukt Chand, who announced his retirement last year, has signed up as a USA player at a base price of Rand 175,000 ($10,000 approx.). Chand began a Minor League career in the USA last year. He is also the only Indian male cricketer to feature in the Big Bash League. He played two matches for Melbourne Renegades last season.Khaled Ahmed is the only Bangladesh player who has put his name in the auction, listing himself at a base price of Rand 175,000 ($10,000 approx.). Ben Dunk and Jerome Chinia are the only two players from Australia to have signed up.As reported by ESPNcricinfo, there were no Pakistan players on the list. There have been suggestions that they were not picked because the franchises are owned by team owners from the IPL, where Pakistani players are, in effect, barred. But a league official, while clarifying that the league doesn’t get involved in selections, said Pakistan’s schedule constraints – they have home series and then the PSL this year – have played a part in their players’ non-availability.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The six teams have already signed between two and five players apiece from a pool of 30 marquee players as part of the direct-acquisition process. The franchises have an overall purse of $2 million and can buy as many more players as they can, or want, with the maximum squad strength set at 17.The money available to them at the auction will be based on what is left of the purse after acquiring the pre-auction players [the five included a maximum of three overseas players, one South Africa international, and one uncapped South Africa player]. In total, franchises will be permitted to sign up to seven international players and ten South Africans, with a view of fielding an XI with a maximum of four overseas players, the same as in the IPL.The English contingent dominated the marquee list, with the pair of Jos Buttler (Paarl Royals) and Liam Livingstone (MI Cape Town) standing to earn up to half a million dollars each. Moeen Ali (Super Kings) is the third most expensive on the list at USD 400,000 followed by Faf du Plessis (Super Kings) at USD 350,000.

Billy Godleman and Luis Reece scored their first County Championship hundreds of the season to put Derbyshire in a commanding position on the second day of the LV=Insurance match against Leicestershire.On a day of records at the Incora County Ground, Godleman, 158 not out, and Reece, 116, shared an opening stand of 251 to severely dent Leicestershire’s chances of ending their winless run in the Championship.The bottom club in Division Two endured three tough sessions in the field, taking only two wickets as Derbyshire closed on 356 for 2, a lead of 107.Leicestershire went into the day knowing they had to make early inroads with a ball that was only 16 overs old but a limited attack rarely looked like taking a wicket.Even Chris Wright was out of sorts by his standards and the lack of pressure on Godleman and Reece allowed them to settle in and accumulate steadily throughout the morning session.The closest Leicestershire came to breaking the stand was when Godleman, whose previous highest score in the Championship this year was 43, tried to hit Callum Parkinson over the top but the ball dropped just out of reach of the fielder running back from mid-on.By lunch, Derbyshire had added 89 runs in 32 overs to move to 146 without loss, only the fourth century stand between Godleman and Reece in six seasons of opening together.Although a dry, hot summer has favoured batting, the pair have struggled in the Championship but on a good pitch and faced with increasingly threadbare bowling, they made sure of ending the season on a high.Reece pulled Ed Barnes for six to bring up the 200 stand in the 62nd over which was Derbyshire’s fifth double-century partnership of the season, a record for the county.Five overs later he reached his century which came off 205 balls and Godleman needed one ball fewer to complete his, which gave the pair another entry in the county record books.It was the 16th instance of both openers scoring 100 in the same innings, the third time they have achieved the feat, equalling the Derbyshire record held by Kim Barnett and Peter Bowler.The next milestone passed was Derbyshire’s highest first-wicket stand against Leicestershire of 233, set by Denis Smith and Albert Alderman at Chesterfield in 1937, and it came as a surprise when Reece was dismissed two overs before tea.He chipped back a return catch as he went to drive Rehan Ahmed’s leg spin but there was no respite for the visitors as Brooke Guest joined Godleman to set another record.When Derbyshire reached a third batting point, they had scored 300 in the first innings of every Championship match at Derby this season for the first time in the club’s history.When the light improved enough for Leicestershire to claim a second new ball, Roman Walker had Guest caught behind for 40 but Godleman reached his 150 before the close on the day he passed 10,000 first-class runs.

Hashan Tillakaratne, the former Sri Lanka captain, has been appointed as the national women’s team head coach for the next two years by the BCB. He will join the set-up in November, with the side starting their build-up for next February’s T20 World Cup in South Africa around that time.”We have spent a long time looking for a coach. Finally we found one,” Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, the BCB women’s wing chairman, said. “We have signed a two-year contract with Hashan Tillakaratne. He will join us in the first week of November.”Tillakaratne’s first assignment will be the tour of New Zealand in December, where the team will play three T20Is and three ODIs – the matches will be played between December 2 and 18.He has some experience coaching women’s teams, having worked with the Sri Lanka national team since July last year. He came on the BCB’s radar when he took Sri Lanka to the Asia Cup final earlier this month in Sylhet. BCB representatives reportedly contacted him and finalised the arrangement during the tournament, where Bangladesh, the defending Asia Cup champions, failed to get into the last four. Tillakaratne had at least another year left on his SLC contract.At the Asia Cup, Bangladesh were being coached by former cricketer Mahmud Emon. Tillakaratne will be Bangladesh’s first foreign coach since early 2020, when former India cricketer Anju Jain left the job.Tillakaratne played 83 Tests and 200 ODIs between 1986 and 2004, leading Sri Lanka in 11 Tests towards the end of his international career. In Tests, he scored 4545 runs at an average of 42.87, and he hit 3789 runs at an average of 29.60 in ODIs.After retirement, Tillakaratne has been an SLC selector and has performed various coaching roles with the men’s senior and Under-19 teams.