15 h. ago New Zealand smash South Africa to set up Champions Trophy final with India

Lahore: NZ, 362-6, beat South Africa, 312-9, by 50 runsBlack Caps hit record score to book place in Dubai finalNew Zealand will take on India in the final of the Champions Trophy after centuries from Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson enabled them to outmuscle South Africa in their Lahore semi-final.The Black Caps piled on the pressure with a new tournament-record score of 362 for six, Ravindra with 108 and Williamson adding 102, and their bowlers finished the job in clinical fashion to seal a comfortable 50-run win. Continue reading...

Sport

15 h. ago New Zealand beat South Africa by 50 runs to reach ICC Champions Trophy final – as it happened

Centuries from Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson set up an ultimately comfortable win for New Zealand, whose captain, Mitchell Santner, bowled superblyOne of my favourite writers, Andrew Fidel Fernando of Cricinfo fame, has this to say on X:I hope, today, NZ and South Africa put on a semi final for the ages in Lahore. I hope it is a match the city will revel in. The cricket world is increasingly unkind, held to ransom by the lowest impulses of South Asian geopolitics, and now a near-slavish worship of commerce. Continue reading...

Sport

19 h. ago New Zealand set South Africa target of 362: ICC Champions Trophy semi

Live updates from 9am UK timeWhy not email Daniel with your thoughtsOne of my favourite writers, Andrew Fidel Fernando of Cricinfo fame, has this to say on X:I hope, today, NZ and South Africa put on a semi final for the ages in Lahore. I hope it is a match the city will revel in. The cricket world is increasingly unkind, held to ransom by the lowest impulses of South Asian geopolitics, and now a near-slavish worship of commerce. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago Afghanistan v Australia abandoned due to rain at Champions Trophy – as it happened

Updates from the final group match at Gaddafi StadiumAny thoughts? Get in touch with Jim on email5th over: Afghanistan 23-1 (Ibrahim 3, Sediq 6) Johnson, who is moving the ball both in the air and on the pitch, beats Sediq with three successive deliveries. As Ian Smith says on commentary, Afghanistan just need to get through this spell – it’s fine if they are 40 for 1 after 10 overs.4th over: Afghanistan 20-1 (Ibrahim 1, Sediq 5) So far Dwarshuis has been able to control the swing pretty well; two from his second over. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Afghanistan set Australia 274 to win: Champions Trophy cricket – live

Updates from the final group match at Gaddafi StadiumPlay starts in Lahore at 2pm local/8pm AEDT/9am GMTAny thoughts? Get in touch with Jim on email5th over: Afghanistan 23-1 (Ibrahim 3, Sediq 6) Johnson, who is moving the ball both in the air and on the pitch, beats Sediq with three successive deliveries. As Ian Smith says on commentary, Afghanistan just need to get through this spell – it’s fine if they are 40 for 1 after 10 overs.4th over: Afghanistan 20-1 (Ibrahim 1, Sediq 5) So far Dwarshuis has been able to control the swing pretty well; two from his second over. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Australia v South Africa: Champions Trophy cricket match washed out – live

Updates from the match at Rawalpindi Cricket StadiumPlay was due to start at 2pm local/8pm AEDT/9am GMT“Just a heads up Rob...” begins Alistair Connor. “Check out weather.com , the rain’s only getting worse in Rawalpindi. Can’t see any sort of match happening. Or are you contractually or diplomatically obliged to avoid mentioning that?”It’s more that I’m one of nature’s optimists you can’t always trust the weather apps. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Australia v South Africa: start delayed in Champions Trophy cricket – live

Updates from the match at Rawalpindi Cricket StadiumPlay was due to start at 2pm local/8pm AEDT/9am GMTStill raining in Rawalpindi. It’s very light, frustratingly so, but the outfield is in good condition so the turnaround should be very quick if/when the rain stops.Here’s something to read while we wait. The bogeyman is back. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Unfamiliar faces: who has a chance to shine for Australia at Champions Trophy? | Martin Pegan

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...

Politics

1 week ago Champions Trophy 2025: Australia’s second tier up against it in absence of bowling big three | Geoff Lemon

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...

Politics

2 w. ago Darren Gough makes bold England Champions Trophy prediction despite 'disarray'

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

Politics

2 w. ago The tournament that refuses to die: Champions Trophy back for more

Favourites India come into tournament on sour note after refusal to play in Pakistan gives superpower tactical edgeAs the ICC Champions Trophy resurfaces in Pakistan this week, nearly eight years since the last one, folks will be forgiven for a few double takes, for feeling a bit like Ian Wright reuniting with his old teacher in that lovely viral clip, jaw dropped to the floor and gasping: “You’re alive! Someone said you were dead!”Although did anyone seriously think the Champions Trophy was toast? They say cockroaches and microbes would survive a nuclear apocalypse but there is every chance international cricket’s 50‑over tournoi would also spring up in the wasteland, glowing with radiation but still ready to stick its presumably mutated winners in those Miami Vice-style white blazers and deliver that sweet, sweet broadcast money. Continue reading...

Events