Multan Sultans only PSL franchise yet to receive ownership renewal offer

Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen has not received an offer from the PSL to renew his ownership of the franchise. The PCB confirmed that renewal offers, as well as new franchise fees, were sent to “all compliant PSL franchises”. A Sultans representative confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that they were not one of the franchises to receive such an offer.ESPNcricinfo has spoken to some franchises who confirmed they were sent renewal offers following a meeting between the PSL management and the owners, including Tareen, on Thursday. It is believed each of the other five franchises has been given the chance to extend their ownership, with the renewal valid for a further ten years. The Sultans representatives were invited to attend meetings concerning the scheduling and operations of the upcoming PSL, though Sultans believe they were not invited to meetings concerning financial discussions.A PSL representative declined to comment when asked if Sultans’ ownership did not receive a renewal offer owing to potential non-compliance.Related

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The long-running dispute between the PSL and Tareen spilled over into the open when Tareen publicly criticised the league in the build-up to its 10th edition for what he alleged was a lack of transparency and communication from the management. The criticism ramped up in the months that followed, and earlier this year, the PSL threatened to blacklist him unless he made a public apology.Following that threat going public, Tareen issued a taunting video apology to the management, in which he sarcastically apologised for “wanting to make the PSL better”. He ended the video by ripping up a copy of the notice the PCB had sent him.It appears evident that public “apology” is not regarded as such by the PCB. With all franchise rights up for renewal before the next season of the PSL, each franchise had the right of first refusal on renewing ownership. But the PCB had made clear to Tareen this only applied to franchises who were “compliant”, a standard they felt Tareen had fallen short of with his public critiques.According to a couple of franchises, they now have 10 days to respond to the renewal offers. All of them will have to consider paying increased annual franchise fees, at a minimum 25% more than what they pay now. Likely, with increased valuations, it will be 25% of the new value (whichever, ultimately, is higher).This year will also see the addition of two teams to the PSL. The PCB’s statement released a list of cities potential owners could name their new teams after. Hyderabad, Sialkot, Muzaffarabad, Faisalabad, Gilgit, and Rawalpindi are the new potential cities, from which two will be chosen.The new, eight-team PSL is scheduled to take place in April and May next year.

Azhar Mahmood blames shot selection for Pakistan's collapse

Pakistan head coach Azhar Mahmood criticised his batters’ shot selection for throwing away a position of near-total dominance in the first Test. On the stroke of tea on day three, Pakistan found themselves in a near-impregnable scenario, leading by 259 runs on a rapidly deteriorating surface with six wickets still in hand. Within 45 minutes, those six wickets fell for just 17 runs, and South Africa had an unlikely – but not impossible – 277 to chase.”We put ourselves in this situation [where South Africa have a chance in the game],” Mahmood said at the press conference. “We were 150 for 4, and then lost 6 for 17. No one is to blame but our shot selection and decision-making.”It’s simple. If you lose 6 for 17, that’s not ideal. The pitch allowed the ball to break but the pitch didn’t get anyone out. Our shot selection was not good. This is something we need to improve. If we’re going to play on these pitches, we have to have the patience to bat on them.”Related

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Mahmood’s frustration was likely a compound result of Pakistan demonstrating their vulnerability to losing wickets in large clusters on more than one occasion. In the first innings, they lost three wickets without adding a run either side of tea on the first day as 199 for 2 turned to 199 for 5. A 163-run partnership was followed by another collapse as the last five fell for 16 runs.”Against England, we played on a used pitch, and then it spun a lot versus West Indies,” Mahmood said. “But on this pitch, if you bat well, it gets easier. Because the pitch is slow, it’s hard for a newcomer to get set. In the first innings, we had starts, but we couldn’t convert 50s to 100s. In the second innings, Abdullah [Shafique] and Babar [Azam] scored 40s, but we’d like to see them turn into big scores.Shan Masood and Noman Ali celebrate the early wicket of Aiden Markram•Getty Images

“It’s not easy, but we have to adapt different kinds of shots to improve our scoring options on these pitches. The middle and lower order tried, but the pressure got to them. At tea, we wanted to bat the whole session, but we did not. We made those mistakes and we will have a look at that in the future.”With Babar and Shafique falling after scoring 42 and 41, respectively, Shakeel was Pakistan’s best hope of batting South Africa out of the game. He appeared to be doing just that with a chanceless innings as tea loomed, having ticked up to 38. But on the stroke of the break, he launched Senuran Muthusamy towards square leg, failed to hit it cleanly, and holed out to Tristan Stubbs.That dismissal, in particular, appeared to rile Mahmood. “You understand in Test cricket when you’re vulnerable, and it’s often at the end of sessions,” he said. “Saud Shakeel played that expansive lofted shot just before tea. It was unnecessary to put that pressure on himself at that stage. After tea, [Mohammad] Rizwan got out immediately. We sent in Shaheen [Shah Afridi] to up the ante, but the other batters didn’t have to play the same high-risk shots. Even if we had added 25-30 runs when we sent Shaheen in, that would have been hugely advantageous to us.”The upshot was South Africa finished the day two wickets down, with Ryan Rickelton and Tony de Zorzi – their most prolific scorers in the first innings – seeing out the final hour for an unbeaten 33-run stand. Victory for the visitors is still distant, 226 runs away, but not quite out of reach.”We’re not going to bat again, so our focus is on winning this game now. The pitch is deteriorating and we are confident we’ll defend this.”

Gibson, Wilson secure bonus point win to keep Somerset hopes alive

Dani Gibson’s no-nonsense innings of 50 from 30 balls propelled Somerset to a bonus point four-wicket victory over Warwickshire in a one-sided Metro Bank One Day Cup contest at the Cooper Associates Ground, Taunton.Back to her scintillating best after injury, the Bristolian smashed six fours and two sixes and dominated a match-winning stand of 78 from 57 balls with Fran Wilson as the West Country side chased down a victory target of 176 with 22.5 overs to spare. Wilson contributed a brisk 47 not out from 45 balls, while Niamh Holland and Bex Odgers weighed in with 38 and 35 respectively, staging an opening stand of 64 as Somerset won their final group game with something to spare. The pick of the Warwickshire bowlers, Hannah Baker returned figures of 3 for 44 in a losing cause.Struggling to find fluency with the bat, Warwickshire had earlier been dismissed for 175 in 41 overs after being put in on a green-tinged pitch, only Nat Wraith (39), Georgia Davis (36) and Amu Surenkumar (34) offering meaningful resistance. Seamer Ellie Anderson and spinners Olivia Barnes, Chloe Skelton and Amanda-Jade Wellington claimed two wickets apiece as Somerset produced a disciplined performance in the field.Somerset’s prospects of progressing to the last four depended upon them mustering a bonus point victory over Warwickshire and Durham defeating Surrey at Chester-le-Street without earning an additional point.Fulfilling their part in the equation, Somerset won the toss, put Warwickshire in and reduced them to 31 for 3 inside seven overs, new-ball bowlers Anderson and Mollie Robbins inflicting the early damage. Anderson took a return catch off her own bowling to send back Bethan Ellis and then had Sophie Beech caught behind in an impressive seven-over spell of 2 for 21, while Meg Austin, having flirted with danger in raising 21 from 25 balls, holed out to Anderson at mid-on in the act of driving Robbins as the home side assumed control.Dropped by Alex Griffiths at slip off the bowling of Barnes on 10, Surenkumar made good her escape to stage a recovery in partnership with the experienced Abbey Freeborn, these two adding 48 from 65 balls for the fourth wicket.Somerset skipper Sophie Luff called upon her spinners and Skelton and Barnes combined forces to put the skids under Warwickshire, claiming three wickets in five balls with the score on 79. Skelton terminated the fourth-wicket alliance, having Freeborn stumped by Odgers for 11, while Barnes bowled Surenkumar for a 39-ball 34 and then removed Issy Wong without scoring, held by Robbins at short fine leg as the home side reasserted their authority.Coming together with the score 79 for 6 in the 19th, Wraith and Davis acquitted themselves well under pressure, playing sensibly to reach 105 at halfway and then accelerating to establish a 50 partnership via 66 balls as a topsy-turvy contest see-sawed once more. Wraith had advanced to 39 from 47 balls and was looking to move up through the gears when she succumbed to temptation, attempting to drive Skelton and falling to a fine catch-on-the run by Robbins at mid-on with the score 157 for 7.Midlands resistance wilted thereafter, Luff running out the obdurate Davis for 36 and legspinner Wellington accounting for Hannah Hardwick and Hannah Baker in quick succession as the last three wickets fell in the space of 12 balls.Required to overhaul Warwickshire’s total inside 40 overs in order to secure the crucial bonus point, Somerset’s chase was afforded a solid start by Odgers and Holland, who posted 50 in just 7.2 overs against some wayward Bears bowling. Seizing the initiative from the outset, these two mustered 12 boundaries between them in a productive powerplay that yielded 59 and forced the visitors onto the back foot.The aggressor-in-chief, Holland’s fluent innings was characterised by some handsome cover drives, the former England Under-19 international accruing seven fours and contributing a 29-ball 38 to an opening stand of 64. But the introduction of Baker induced a mini-collapse, Somerset losing three wickets in 13 balls as they slipped to 78-3. Baker bowled Holland and removed Luff lbw without scoring, while Odgers, having raised 35 from 44 balls with a six and five fours, was caught at the wicket off the bowling of Phoebe Brett as Warwickshire threatened a fightback.Gibson and Wilson soon calmed any nerves in a forthright partnership that served to put the chase well and truly back on track as rain showers closed in on Taunton. Gibson proved keen to get the job done in quick time, the England international bludgeoning her way to a 29-ball half-century before offering a catch to fine leg off the bowling of Davis. But there was no moving Wilson, the former World Cup winner bringing her considerable experience to bear on the situation to see Somerset home.

Healy hopes wicketkeeping 'tinkering' avoids recurrence of injury problems

Australia captain Alyssa Healy has made some technical adjustments to her wicketkeeping technique in a bid to ease the strain on her body ahead of the ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.Healy has not kept in a competitive fixture since the ODI series against England during the Ashes in January. She played the Test in that series as a specialist batter having suffered a recurrence of a foot injury that she first sustained at last year’s T20 World Cup, while a knee injury curtailed her WBBL season.Healy explained that the changes won’t be hugely visible but consist of her starting in a slightly more upright position, something she termed a hybrid technique between what is generally coached differently in Australia and England.Related

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“We’ve been taught how to wicket keep a certain way in this country for an extended period of time,” Healy said at the announcement of Westpac as a new partner with Cricket Australia. “At the end of the day, it’s not overly efficient on our bodies, and doing it at 35 is not ideal.”We’ve just been looking at ways to make it a little bit easier for some ageing joints and trying to keep things moving the way they should. It’s been a nice learning experience later in my career, so hopefully it pays off.”Speaking separately to ESPNcricinfo, Healy went into more detail on how the changes came about following discussions with a podiatrist she was working with around her latest injury.”One of them actually worded it to me like when, and I’m not comparing myself to him, but when Cristiano Ronaldo started to get towards the back end of his career, they changed positions for him to make it a little bit easier on the body,” Healy said. “It was interesting and I said, well, how do we do that in the game of cricket? Like you can’t really change positions, but can we change things technically to make things more efficient? And we just played around with it.Alyssa Healy has battled injury over the past year•ICC/Getty Images

“[Looking at] some of the stressful parts of my job and what it’s doing to some of the joints in my body and how do I get the best out of myself for the back end of my career. So we just tinkered around with it and it’s just really simply, it’s kind of like a bit of a hybrid model between what the English do and what we do.”We’ve all been traditionally taught to stay low and come up with the ball and that’s fine until your knees and your feet can’t allow you to do that anymore. So just been playing around with how to get to my power position a little bit differently.”Healy will return to keeping in the upcoming Australia A series against India A with the hope she can play a full role behind the stumps at the World Cup which starts in late September. Australia will prepare for that tournament with three ODIs against India.”I’ll get a red-hot crack at it in the ODI fixtures in that A-series, so we’ll get a better look at how things are working,” she said. “My goal is to be there and playing in the World Cup as a wicketkeeper, so hopefully that pans out.”While Australia have a significant prize ahead of them as defending champions at the ODI World Cup, the team won’t be seen on home soil until the middle of February when they face India, with the WPL now permanently in January and forcing them out of the school holiday window.The multiformat series against India involves three T20Is, three ODIs and finishes with a day-night Test at the WACA in Perth.”Not having an international fixture in that school holiday period does hurt a little bit, but in saying that, it kind of extends the cricket season, which isn’t completely a bad thing for our sport,” Healy said. “At the back end of the Ashes [last year], I felt like that was really cool to have it at the end of the Border-Gavaskar, so hopefully there’s similar sort of momentum this year at the end of the men’s Ashes, that there’s still some more cricket to watch.”We’re playing India, which is one of the biggest series for us, so we’ll wait and see how it plays out. I think it’s going to look different for a little period of time until we work out the right balance for us in Australia with WPL shifting.”On the prospect of the pink-ball Test, Healy said: “Hopefully we get a nice fast, bouncy wicket, and we can show the Indians how good our pace stocks are.”

Litchfield seals Superchargers' win

Northern Superchargers 93 for 2 (Litchfield 55*, Sutherland 29*) beat London Spirit 90 for 8 (Redmayne 29, Sutherland 3-20) by eight wicketsNorthern Superchargers earned a crucial win at Lord’s to leapfrog hosts London Spirit and take themselves to second in the table in the Hundred women’s competition.It wasn’t quite a must-win game for Hollie Armitage’s side but, having lost to Manchester Originals last time out, their prospects of qualifying have increased substantially after inflicting upon Spirit their second defeat of the season.Superchargers started well with the ball, with both Grace Ballinger and Kate Cross bowling their first 10 deliveries through to take a wicket apiece. When Nicola Carey dismissed Grace Harris and Dani Gibson in consecutive balls, all the wind was taken out of Spirit’s sails and they never threatened to post an overly imposing total.As it was the team in purple made light work of the chase, knocking it off two wickets down with 34 balls to spare.Spirit will want to prove that they’re not reliant on Grace Harris’s runs for success, while for Superchargers they’ll be heartened by the up-turn in form of Phoebe Litchfield – awarded Meerkat Match Hero here for her 38-ball 55 with her customary array of switch-hits dotted throughout.On a day that Southern Brave secured their qualification with their sixth successive win, the fight for the next two qualification spots – and a place in at least the Eliminator – looks set to go down to the wire between today’s two combatants and Manchester Originals (all tied on 16 points), who take on Trent Rockets tomorrow.Litchfield said: “I think losing to Manchester Originals stung for our group. I think we got ourselves in a winning position and it was heartbreaking to not come over the other side. We made a conscious effort to rectify that situation and come out here and win.”We weren’t far off in that last game. We were in a winning position. We’ve just got be ruthless in that moment, and I think we did that today with the ball. The way the girls set it up with the ball, pretty much won us the game in that first innings and then made it really easy for us batters to go out and play with freedom.”The switch hits are fully premeditated, and then I just have to adjust on the length and the line when I switch, but also I have to know how to bail out. So that’s probably the most important thing that I learnt is to bail out, but then if it’s in the area, swing.”

Wyatt-Hodge, Strano extend Hurricanes' lead at the top

Hobart Hurricanes have reinforced their standing as the team to beat in the WBBL, bolstering their grip on first spot with an 81-run demolition of Melbourne Stars on DLS method at Bellerive Oval.Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s classy 71 paced Hurricanes’ imposing 176 for 4 from 17 rain-reduced overs in the top-of-the-table blockbuster on Monday night, before Molly Strano (5 for 16) reduced Stars to a paltry 98 in response, after they were set an adjusted target of 180.Wyatt-Hodge moved past Meg Lanning to the head of the Golden Bat standings with her fourth half-century of the season, before pouching three catches.She started slowly with two off her first 11 deliveries, before blossoming in her 47-ball knock.”Sometimes you’ve just got to ride that wave and Lizzy (Lee) was smashing it at the other end, so I didn’t need to panic,” Wyatt-Hodge said.”It was just a matter of digging in, keeping the intent and staying brave. Hopefully we can keep the form up – everyone’s playing really well.”Hard-hitting South African Lizelle Lee was the early aggressor, but a 33-minute rain delay stalled her momentum and she holed out for 32 just after the resumption.Nat Sciver-Brunt (31) found Danielle Gibson in the deep, before captain Elyse Villani was run out late.Stars started horribly in reply and never recovered as their four-game winning streak came to a crashing halt, with tail-ender Sasha Moloney (31) offering the only resistance.Rhys McKenna (1) was trapped plumb in front by a hooping Nicola Carey inswinger, before Linsey Smith (2-29) captured the key scalp of Lanning (9), bowled after missing a cut shot.Smith dismissed Stars skipper Annabel Sutherland (11), before fellow spinner Molly Strano came on and bagged three wickets in her first over.Wyatt-Hodge snared a left-handed blinder at point to remove Amy Jones (19), before Marizanne Kapp (0) was caught behind and Gibson (1) holed out.Strano then picked up a fourth wicket with just her seventh ball when Kim Garth (3) offered Wyatt-Hodge another catch.The offspinner’s fifth scalp was Moloney, caught by player of the match Wyatt-Hodge.

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