England’s one-day problems continue despite notching the highest total and individual score in competition history

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Josh Inglis ensured England’s one-day struggles continued in Lahore despite Ben Duckett brilliance

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Group B: Australia 356-5 bt England 351-8 by five wicketsHighest successful run chase in ICC tournament historyThey say good things come to those who wait and after nearly three decades without a global tournament in their city, the people of Lahore saw their patience rewarded. A good number are too young to remember the 1996 World Cup but they will not forget Australia’s five-wicket win over England in a hurry.Set 352 to win this Group B encounter after Ben Duckett’s sublime 165 from 143 balls – the highest individual score at a Champions Trophy – Australia wobbled initially. Travis Head and Steve Smith were wiped out for single-figure scores during a fiery new ball burst from Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. Continue reading...

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Over-by-over updates from Group B game (9am GMT)Get in touch with Tanya here | Sign up to the SpinOH MY GOOD GOLLY WHAT A CATCH! Alex Carey has pulled off a blinder to get rid of Phil Salt!1st over: England 12-0 (Salt 10, Duckett 0) Yep the wicket and outfield look like the sort a batter would drool over. England get twelve off the first over as Salt bunts down the ground for four and then flicks off his pads in real style for SIX! Flamboyant from the opener. Continue reading...

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All the way across the field there are mouthwatering head-to-heads with players pushing for the tour to AustraliaFor British & Irish Lions hopefuls, time is running out. Three Test matches left to stake their claim, to catch Andy Farrell’s eye and book a place on the plane. Farrell is due to be at Twickenham on Saturday and he will be analysing everything. As a player that’s precisely where you want to be.At this stage of the Six Nations, England against Scotland feels all the more pivotal for Lions hopefuls. We can safely say that there will be a large Ireland contingent and, unless something dramatic happens in the coming weeks, a relatively small group of Wales players. That congested middle is full of England and Scotland players and that makes Saturday’s match all the more mouthwatering. Continue reading...

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After defeat in India, England start tournament against Australia, who are without their feared fast-bowling trioIn contrast to the drawn-out 50-over World Cup and its T20 equivalent, the Champions Trophy is quite a cutthroat affair, with one slip-up in the group stage manageable but two likely terminal. Jos Buttler called it a brutal format before England’s opener against Australia in Lahore on Saturday, while his opposite number, Steve Smith, spoke of needing a “quarter-final” mentality.As unforgiving as it is, there is a fair bit riding on this Champions Trophy for Buttler, a captain who lifted the T20 World Cup in 2022 straight after replacing Eoin Morgan but has struggled to live up to it since. Series results have nose-dived, both world titles were surrendered meekly, and the messaging has often been confusing. Matthew Mott paid the price as head coach last year but not every shortcoming was his. Continue reading...

Politics

Six players with minimal international experience are at the tournament in Pakistan and can expect to play a role Fewer than three months have passed since Australia’s Test team was seen to be in crisis as an ageing side that had shoehorned in a first debutant in almost two years was dismantled by India in Perth. A dramatic turnaround for a 3-1 series victory, followed by a clean sweep in Sri Lanka, went a long way to justifying selectors’ steadfast faith in the proven performers. Presenting baggy greens to five debutants across seven matches was an added bonus while suggesting the selectors might have had a much grander plan in mind all along.Planning around Australia’s white-ball sides has been much more haphazard. Opportunities have been handed out to emerging talents and second-stringers while frontliners have been on personal or parental leave, injured, or simply rested with eyes on bigger, more lucrative prizes. In the past 18 months alone, Australia blooded enough ODI players...

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In 33 ODIs since being appointed permanent white-ball skipper in June 2022, Buttler averages 33.13.

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The wicketkeeper-batter has been promoted to back up openers Phil Salt and Ben Duckett

Politics

The wicketkeeper-batter has been promoted to back up openers Phil Salt and Ben Duckett in the Champions Trophy.

Politics

Brendon McCullum’s reign as England’s white-ball coach got off to an inauspicious start with T20 and ODI series defeats in India.

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Their attack has a distinctly Sheffield Shield flavour to it but the main thing in the two-times winners’ favour is the relative weakness of their groupFor a long time, a strange situation continued in Australian cricket. Through a one-day World Cup in 2023, through a T20 World Cup in 2024, through a Test summer that sat between them, and through the lead-ups and warm-ups before all of the above, the same three fast bowlers showed up almost all of the time. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Patrick Cummins, in aeternum.Things don’t work that way. Fast bowling is a horrifically taxing art, and the mad operators who pursue it across any level of the game share a gruesome delight in cataloguing their lifetime’s injuries, discarding sneakers and peeling back socks and rolling up trouser legs to show you toes bent sideways or lurid half-moons of scars around ankles or knees. At the top level, fitness and availability are sporadic, and that’s before you come to the changes driven by each fo...

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Wicket-keeper to come in ahead of Joe Root, Harry Brook and Jos Buttler

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Joe Root moves down to No 4 in batter-heavy lineupSmith has batted first-drop just once in his List A careerIt was as if they could not wait to share the news, England naming their XI for Saturday’s Champions Trophy opener against Australia well in advance of the toss and springing a surprise too. Jamie Smith is back from a calf injury and will keep wicket but, more eye-catchingly, he will bat at No 3.The team emerged as Jos Buttler’s side trained under lights at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday evening and, on the eve of a major tournament, represents something curve-ball. Talented but inexperienced, Smith has batted first-drop just once in his List A career at Surrey, while Joe Root, England’s record centurion in ODI cricket, has moved down a spot. Continue reading...

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The 24-year-old missed England’s last two T20s against India and the three-match ODI series owing to a left calf injury.

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The opener is not under-estimating Australia’s first opponents in the Champions Trophy.

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Duckett, Archer and Smith all likely to be fit for AustraliaYoung and Latham hit tons in 60-run win for Black CapsEngland begin their Champions Trophy campaign against Australia in bustling Lahore on Saturday and, while recent results have set alarm bells ringing, there is growing optimism that a previously lengthy injury list is at least beginning to ease.So much so, in fact, that Jos Buttler, the captain, and Brendon McCullum, the head coach, may even be able to select from a fully fit squad for their Group B opener, with all 15 players taking part in their first training session at Pakistan’s National Academy on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Sport

Archer missed the final two ODIs against India due to a cut on his right hand.

Politics

Darren Gough has backed England to reach the semifinals of the ICC Champions Trophy despite their recent poor form and lack of preparation

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Competition finally returns after eight-year hiatus

Events