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Alex Hales is set to skip both the T20 Blast and the Hundred after signing a deal which will see him represent Knight Riders franchises in both Major League Cricket and the Caribbean Premier League.Hales, 36, retired from international cricket in 2023 but has continued to play franchise cricket around the world, and became the second-highest run-scorer in T20 history earlier this month. He has played for Nottinghamshire since 2008 but has recently relocated to Dubai and will not return to the club this summer after opting not to sign a new contract.The decision will put Hales’ long-term association with Trent Bridge on hold, though he has not ruled out a future return. He has called the venue home throughout his professional career and is the leading run-scorer for both Notts (in the Blast) and Trent Rockets (in the Hundred), winning titles with both teams.Last year, Hales missed six of Nottinghamshire’s 14 group games in the Blast to fulfil a contract at the Lanka Premier League but the ECB has since tightened regulations on No-Objection Certificates (NOCs). As a result, signing a contract with either Notts or Trent Rockets would likely have rendered Hales unable to play overseas throughout the English season.Related

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ESPNcricinfo has learned that he will instead take up an offer from the Knight Riders franchise, which will see him play for their Los Angeles and Trinbago teams in MLC and the CPL respectively. Depending on final dates, he may also return to the LPL in between the two tournaments, or alternatively feature in the new European T20 Premier League in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands.Knight Riders own four teams around the world – Los Angeles, Trinbago, Kolkata and Abu Dhabi – and several players have represented them in two or more territories, including Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. Venky Mysore, their chief executive, has previously suggested that players signing year-round contracts with an IPL franchise would be “nirvana” and Hales’ move appears to be another step towards that.”The last 17 years playing at Trent Bridge for Notts have been an absolute pleasure, and it remains my favourite place in the world to play cricket,” Hales said in a statement. “Some of my best memories have come in a Notts shirt, and some of my closest friendships in the game have been made in that home dressing room.”Having spent more and more time playing around the world in recent years, heading back to Trent Bridge has always been something I’ve looked forward to. But given the current landscape of the global game as well as having recently moved abroad, unfortunately I won’t be able to return this season… Hopefully I will be able to return at some point in the future.”Mick Newell, Notts’ director of cricket, said that Hales would be welcome to return to the club if his schedule allows in future. “While he won’t be joining us this summer, we are by no means closing the door on him making a return to Notts at some stage in the future, and his achievements mean he will forever have a place in Trent Bridge history,” Newell said.”Both his life and the global cricketing landscape have changed immeasurably since he made his debut 17 years ago. We appreciate the challenge he has faced in balancing his personal life, having recently married his South African fiancée and moved abroad, with the opportunities that a player of his calibre earns across the globe.”Hales will become the second Englishman to feature in MLC after Jason Roy, who terminated his ECB incremental deal early in order to play in the first season. Roy featured for Knight Riders again last year but has not been retained for 2025, and is likely to play for Surrey throughout the Blast season.He will still require a “No Objection Letter” from the ECB to play overseas but is not anticipating any issues, despite recent changes in the board’s policy. Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, told talkSPORT in December: “If [players] choose not to have a contract with a county and they want to be a complete global freelancer, that’s fine.”The changes – which Gould said are designed to “defend our game” from the threat of franchise cricket – played a role in James Vince’s decision to quit first-class cricket this season in favour of the Pakistan Super League. Tom Kohler-Cadmore will also play in the PSL, and has therefore been renegotiating his Somerset contract accordingly.

Allrounder Delano Potgieter did not think he would be part of MI Cape Town’s (MICT) bowling attack on the opening day of SA20 2025. Yet, he was at the front and centre with his seam bowling, helping his team hand two-time defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape a 97-run drubbing in Gqeberha. That was in part because his “phenomenal captain” Rashid Khan backed him with the ball, a trust he repaid with a five-for.”Everyone’s got different plans, for different venues and all of that,” Potgieter said. “We have an amazing bowling line-up: KG [Rabada], Trent [Boult], Boschy [Corbin Bosch], with the spinners George [Linde] and Rash [Rashid]. They bowl the bulk of the overs. So there was no need for me to bowl. And, yeah, the captain threw me the ball tonight and I was extremely happy about it, and it turned out perfectly.”Earlier in the day, Potgieter had scored an unbeaten 25 off 12 balls to lift MICT to 174 for 7. In the second half of the game, coming in as the sixth bowler, he took 5 for 10 from three overs to give MICT their first win against Sunrisers in five outings.”I also looked at that stat this morning,” Potgieter said. “It’s only the first game of the tournament but it’s nice to start off with the win.”Before Thursday, Potgieter had 34 wickets in 64 T20 games. But this was the first time he was bowling for MICT across 12 matches in three seasons of the SA20.”I couldn’t ask for a better day for it,” he said. “It happened so quickly. I was standing at the top of my mark, and I just said, ‘I’m just going to try to hit the top of the stumps,’ and fortunate enough for me, it worked out perfectly.”

Tom Hartley, the Lancashire left-arm spinner, has been ruled out of England Lions’ tour of Australia, after suffering a fractured right hand during training in Brisbane on Thursday.Hartley, 25, played in all five of England’s Tests on their tour of India in January-March last year, claiming 22 wickets at 36.13, including a matchwinning 7 for 62 in the second innings of his debut at Hyderabad.However, he has not been called upon since, with the offspinner Shoaib Bashir emerging as England’s favoured option. Hartley did earn a call-up to England’s T20 World Cup squad in June, but did not feature in the team’s run to the semi-finals.His injury is a blow to his hopes of staking a claim for a Test recall, particularly with England’s senior team set to return to Australia in October for the 2025-26 Ashes. Both he and Bashir had been selected for the Lions trip, which will feature three red-ball matches, including an unofficial Test against Australia A in Sydney from January 30-February 2.Hartley will now return to the UK, where he will undergo further assessment by the Lancashire medical teams. No replacement player has been called up to join the squad.The tour, which will be overseen by Lions head coach Andrew Flintoff, begins in earnest on January 14, with a four-day fixture against a Cricket Australia Select XI in Brisbane.

Gerald Coetzee could be a doubt for the second Test against Sri Lanka after picking up a groin niggle during the first Test in Durban, which South Africa won by 233 runs on Saturday.Coetzee bowled in the morning session, beginning proceedings with Kagiso Rabada, but stopped after a three-over spell. His second spell of the morning was off just two overs, as Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal staged a spirited fightback for Sri Lanka after they had started the day five down and looking at a bigger defeat than they eventually suffered. Coetzee didn’t bowl again after that in the session, but did bowl three overs after lunch, sending back Chandimal caught and bowled.Shukri Conrad, the South Africa coach, said after the day’s play that Coetzee had spoken to him at lunch and told him he “felt a groin niggle”, and went back after the break “strapped up”. Coetzee, who picked up four wickets in Durban, will undergo scans tomorrow.That will be something fro South Africa to worry about ahead of the second Test, since Wiaan Mulder, the fast-bowling allrounder, is also injured – fractured right middle finger – and has already been ruled out of the second Test, to be played from December 5 in Gqeberha.”Not a big break between,” captain Temba Bavuma said in the presentation ceremony. “Wiaan is out of the series, we have to find a replacement. Gerald Coetzee, the medical team will have do to their best.”Two of South Africa’s three quicks that played the Durban Test – Rabada and Player-of-the-Match Marco Jansen – are fit for the second Test, and Dane Paterson is the other quick in the squad. South Africa might struggle to find another fast bowler to fit into the squad, though, with Nandre Burger out for the summer with a lower back stress fracture, and Lungi Ngidi out till January.Matthew Breetzke, the top-order batter, was named Mulder’s replacement earlier. “We will more than likely add another player to our group,” Conrad said.

Jos Buttler’s return as England white-ball captain has been delayed by at least three more matches, after he was ruled out of next week’s ODI leg of their tour of the Caribbean due to his long-standing calf injury.Buttler, 34, has been plagued by the injury for four months, and has not played a competitive match since England’s elimination from the T20 World Cup, with their semi-final defeat to India in Guyana in June.He missed the entirety of Manchester Originals’ Hundred campaign, and then withdrew from the T20I and ODI series against Australia in September as well. According to the ECB, he has now suffered a “slight setback” in his rehabilitation, and will consequently fly direct to Barbados ahead of the five-match T20I series, which begins on November 9.Related

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In Buttler’s absence, Liam Livingstone has been named as England’s ODI captain. It will be his first opportunity in the role, with Harry Brook – Buttler’s stand-in in the ODIs against Australia – currently in Rawalpindi preparing for the third Test against Pakistan.Michael Pepper, the Essex wicketkeeper-batter, has been added to the squad as cover, although the selectors had always intended to add two extra players to the tour, depending on the team selection for the third Test in Rawalpindi. Jordan Cox, England’s spare Test batter who made his white-ball debut against Australia, is one likely inclusion, while Olly Stone – back with the squad after his honeymoon but omitted from the match – could also feature.Pepper has only played seven List A games but was third third-highest run-scorer in 2024 Vitality Blast and finished the season with Essex in good form, scoring his maiden first-class hundreds.Buttler’s continued absence will raise speculation around his international future, despite the assurances from Brendon McCullum, England’s incoming white-ball coach, that he would remain front and centre of his plans, with McCullum pointedly saying that “he’s been a little bit miserable at times.””He’s an incredibly gifted player,” McCullum added at his unveiling. “He’s a fine leader. My job is to get the best out of him so that all those that sit in the dressing-room feel like they can be ten-feet tall and bulletproof when they walk out to play, and they know that the skipper is going to give them that extra pat on the back and and enjoy the ride with them.”Buttler was a non-playing presence during the Australia series, with Marcus Trescothick, England’s interim white-ball coach who will be leading the Caribbean tour, insisting: “There’s no reason why Jos won’t fit back into that mould, score millions of runs, captain well and fit back into the team perfectly.””Let’s make it clear,” Trescothick said. “He will come straight back in. At what position, I don’t know. We’ll look at that for the Caribbean.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is set to undertake a wholesale review of all aspects of international and domestic cricket in a bid to “restore the pride and excellence” of Pakistan cricket.For the review, the opening form of which will be a meeting called a “connection camp”, the board will invite both head coaches Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie to Lahore, with chairman Mohsin Naqvi also in attendance. Several centrally contracted cricketers, including both international captains Shan Masood and Babar Azam, will attend the camp, which will be held on September 23. The goals of the camp involve a rebrand of the kind of cricket Pakistan play across formats right down to grassroots levels, with a view to reverse the steady decline in international performances from the Pakistan national side across formats of late.The formation of the camp is the idea of the PCB chairman himself. It is not understood to be designed around specific, short-term concerns such as any proposed changes to the men’s national captaincy in either format, or the squad selection for any upcoming series. Its scale, instead, is a rather more ambitious review. Privately, PCB officials have compared it to the kind of review England undertook in 2015 following their group stage exit at the ODI World Cup that year. Held as the gold standard for the speed at which the cultural reset was achieved, England went on to become the number one ranked white-ball side, and won the 2019 ODI World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup.Related

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The specifics around how they achieve that are somewhat less clear, but Naqvi believes the connection camp is the first step towards reversing the course of the national side. The PCB feels it needs the camp to set out a unified vision and shared purpose, and to understand how it is perceived by fellow cricketing nations, as well as its own fans.It is not surprising to see why the comparison with the England review appeals to the PCB. Its success was achieved at great speed, with a series against New Zealand immediately following that disastrous World Cup demonstrating how quickly a tide could be turned.One significant challenge is the quality of talent Pakistan can draw from. After their cultural reset, England were able to draw from a pool that has come to be seen as their white-ball golden generation, while just last month, Naqvi acknowledged Pakistan’s reserves of talent in domestic cricket were worryingly low, dampening the prospect of a quick reversal.The PCB has also gone all in on the domestic one-day competition, rebranded as the Champions One-Day Cup. It is set to be held in Faisalabad from September 12 to 29, a week before the start of Pakistan’s Test series against England, with the connection camp taking place on a rest day during the tournament. Naqvi expressed confidence this tournament would be able to begin restocking the domestic player pool, and with the connection camp, he believes he has the opportunity to reshape the board’s vision.There is, however, recognition that any such discussion, camp or meeting will be met with huge scepticism from the fans. The PCB is understood to accept there is a massive gulf of trust between the board and the game’s followers, who do not believe Pakistan cricket is heading in the right direction, or indeed that the right people are running it. While the camp looks to begin bridging that trust, the only tangible way to do that will involve better results on the field in international cricket.

Rain and the state of the outfield at Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground rendered the third day of the one-off Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand a non-starter. Play was abandoned as early as 9.15 am.With no play possible on either of the first two days, and the toss yet to happen, the chances of a result in the first ever Test between these sides are slim.There was a downpour last evening for about two to three hours and another one from around 7am on Wednesday morning, which was enough for the umpires Sharfuddoula and Kumar Dharmasena call off the day before the scheduled start at 9.30 am.The word from the broadcasters was that “the outlook is quite grim for not just today, but potentially all five days of the Test match”.There has been scrutiny over the choice of venue and its capacity to recover from bad weather, but the Afghanistan Cricket Board cricket manager Menhajuddin Raz sent out a message on the third morning that “there is no blame game at all from anyone, it’s just extremely bad luck.”The previous time the first three days of a Test were abandoned was in 2008, when Bangladesh hosted New Zealand in Mirpur, and the last time three or more days were abandoned in a Test was in 2016, when New Zealand played South Africa in Durban. This Greater Noida Test could join seven others that were abandoned without a ball being bowled – the last of which was in 1998.This is only Afghanistan’s tenth match since they were given Test status in 2017. For New Zealand, the one-off Test marks the start of their subcontinent expedition which includes two Tests in Sri Lanka followed by three in India. Unlike those five fixtures, this one is not part of the World Test Championship.

David Warner, James Neesham, Asif Ali and Carlos Brathwaite are among the direct signings for the second season of the six-team Zim Afro T10 league.The franchises picked their icon and global superstars as direct signings ahead of the draft, which is set to take place on September 8. The 15-member squad will have an additional 16th player as their global icon. The squad will feature as many as six local Zimbabwe players; the icon and global star can also be from Zimbabwe. The tournament will run from September 21 to 29 in Harare.Warner and Brathwaite were picked by Bulawayo Braves Jaguars while Cape Town Samp Army signed up David Willey, Dawid Malan, Gulbadin Naib and Qais Ahmed. Colin Munro and Mark Chapman were also among the direct signings along with Yasir Shah, who all went to Durban Wolves. Zimbabwe’s beanpole fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani was signed by New York Strikers Lagos while Bangladesh legspinner Rishad Hossain will team up with the likes of Neesham and Dasun Shanaka at Harare Bolts.Rishad, 22, earned a deal with Hobart Hurricanes, who have Ricky Ponting as part of their strategy team, at the BBL draft earlier this week. Rishad had emerged as Bangladesh’s highest wicket-taker at this year’s T20 World Cup, with 14 strikes in seven matches at an economy rate of 7.76.

Vaas, Moin, Owais Shah among the coaches

The franchises also announced their head coaches on Saturday and the roster includes Moin Khan, Chaminda Vaas, Owais Shah, among others.Moin, who has coached the Pakistan national team and Quetta Gladiators in the PSL, was roped in by Durban Wolves. NYS Lagos brought in Vaas, who has also had coaching experience at the international level, with New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Ireland.Bulawayo Braves Jaguars appointed Shah, who has coached the UAE national team and Dambulla Viiking in the Lanka Premier League. Cape Town Samp Army will get the services of James Foster, who has worked in the IPL, the T20 Blast in England and the Bangladesh Premier League, whereas Jo’Burg Bangla Tigers brought in Julian Wood, who has worked with some of the big hitters in the game. Harare Bolts handed over the coaching responsibilities to Sri Lankan Pubudu Dassanayake, who has worked with USA, Canada and Nepal as their head coach.The Zim Afro T10 will be followed by the second season of the US Masters League, Abu Dhabi T10 and the inaugural Lanka T10 will conclude the season in December.

Direct signings in Zim Afro T10

Harare Bolts: Dasun Shanaka (Sri Lanka: Global Superstar), James Neesham (New Zealand: Icon), George Munsey (Scotland), Rishad Hossain (Bangladesh), Shehan Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka), Kennar Lewis (West Indies)Bulawayo Braves Jaguars: David Warner (Australia: Icon), Carlos Brathwaite (West Indies), Nick Hobson (Australia), Kobe Herft (Australia)Durban Wolves: Colin Munro (New Zealand: Global Superstar), Mark Chapman (New Zealand: Icon), Will Smeed (England), Sharjeel Khan (Pakistan), Muhammad Irfan (Pakistan), Yasir Shah (Pakistan)Cape Town Samp Army: Haider Ali (Pakistan: Global Superstar), David Willey (England: Icon), Dawid Malan (England), Gulbadin Naib (Afghanistan), Qais Ahmed (Afghanistan), Adam Rossington (England), Shahnawaz Dahani (Pakistan)NYS Lagos: Blessing Muzarabani (Zimbabwe: Global Superstar), Thisara Perera (Sri Lanka: Icon), Asif Ali (Pakistan), Najibullah Zadran (Afghanistan), Binura Fernando (Sri Lanka), Akhilesh Bogudum (USA), Oshane Thomas (West Indies)Jo’Burg Bangla Tigers: Chris Lynn (Australia: Global Superstar), Kusal Perera (Sri Lanka: Icon), Charith Asalanka (Sri Lanka), Hazratullah Zazai (Afghanistan), Adam Milne (New Zealand), Luke Wood (England), Karim Janat (Afghanistan)

Suryakumar Yadav is set to be appointed India’s new T20I captain ahead of Hardik Pandya, the incumbent vice-captain of the side, for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.Suryakumar will take over from Rohit Sharma, who retired from T20Is, along with Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, after leading India to T20 World Cup glory in the Caribbean last month.Though Hardik was Rohit’s deputy at the T20 World Cup and is a more experienced captain – he has led India in three ODIs and 16 T20Is, apart from leading Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians in the IPL – it is understood fitness concerns and workload management may have tipped the scales against him.Hardik had suffered an ankle injury during the 50-over World Cup at home last October-November and was out of action until the start of IPL 2024, when he returned to lead Mumbai. Hardik has featured in just 46 of the 79 T20Is India have played since the start of 2022.Suryakumar, meanwhile, has previously captained Mumbai in the domestic circuit. More recently, he led India to a 4-1 series win over Australia in the T20I series last November, followed by a 1-1 series scoreline in South Africa. Suryakumar is also among the first names in a first-choice India XI in the format.Related

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The T20Is in Sri Lanka will be India’s first assignment under new coach Gautam Gambhir, who takes over from Rahul Dravid after the T20 World Cup. It’s also seen as the first step towards building for the next T20 World Cup which India is set to co-host in 2026.A young Indian squad, led by Shubman Gill, just returned from Zimbabwe earlier in the week after completing a 4-1 T20I series win. The squad included just three players from the side that won the World Cup.It is understood that the selectors will meet on Wednesday to finalise the touring party. Along with three T20Is, the tour will feature three ODIs.

A devastating 87 not out from Phil Salt, supplemented by an unbeaten 48 from Jonny Bairstow, saw England thrash West Indies by eight wickets in St Lucia. It was the kind of performance that set down a marker for the rest of the teams in the Super Eight of the T20 World Cup 2024.The defending champions made light work of their target of 181, with a clinical 97-run stand between Salt and Bairstow earning victory with 15 deliveries to spare.Played out on a fine batting deck at the Daren Sammy National Stadium, Jos Buttler opted to chase at the toss. Things looked precarious after eight overs, with West Indies getting 72 on the board for the loss of just Brandon King, who collapsed with a side strain early in the fifth over, having scored 23 off his previous 12 deliveries.Related

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A diet of spin restricted West Indies’ batters thanks to Adil Rashid – the pick of the bowlers with 1 for 21 from his four overs – and Moeen Ali, who would go on to remove Johnson Charles.Rovman Powell, promoting himself to No. 4, took 20 from the 15th over, striking Liam Livingstone for three sixes down the ground in four deliveries. But an attempt at a fourth off Livingstone’s final ball brought his downfall, caught low at short third by Mark Wood, returning to the XI in place of Chris Jordan.It was the first of three wickets to fall in the space of 12 deliveries for just six runs. Jofra Archer removed Nicholas Pooran caught behind in the next over, before Andre Russell nailed a Rashid googly straight to wide long on.Rovman Powell hit five sixes in his innings•ICC/Getty Images

That West Indies were able to reach 180 without any further loss from a position of 143 for 4 with three overs to go owes as much to Sherfane Rutherford as it does to Wood. The former was able to find 28 from 15 deliveries, 13 of them off the latter as the 18th over was taken for 19.England’s pursuit began steadily enough, reaching 58 for no loss after six overs. Roston Chase’s flat delivery eventually ended the opening stand on 67, trapping Buttler in front, before Moeen came and went, batting at No. 3 for the first time since March 2023.Salt remained, and though he did end up slowing down, Bairstow was on hand to pick up the slack, striking 46 off 21 up to the 16th over. It was then that Salt tagged back in, and unfurled a brutal attack on Romario Shepherd, striking the seamer for 30 with three fours and three sixes – the joint-most expensive over by a West Indian in a T20 World Cup.The first of those boundaries brought up Salt’s half-century from 38 deliveries, before he skewered any remaining jeopardy. It left West Indies to rue a half chance to remove Salt on seven in the third over, when he toed a hack across the line through to Pooran, who could not hold on.

Bairstow clicks himself, and Salt, into gear

Salt deserved the Player-of-the-Match award. But without Bairstow’s help, he – and maybe even England – might not have had something to celebrate.Salt had emerged from the powerplay with a respectable 35 off 20. But with the field spread, twirlers working in tandem and less of the strike, he had stalled. Going into the 14th over, he had scored just 12 more from 15 deliveries.That was when Bairstow set about a jump-start. For some reason, Powell returned to Alzarri Joseph instead of persisting with the frugal Chase. Bairstow used the pace on the ball to send the first delivery over the deep midwicket fence – the longer side, no less – before ramping the next delivery for four.Adil Rashid delivered the big wicket of Andre Russell•Getty Images

Powell attempted to correct his error by bringing Akeal Hosein back on for his final over. Bairstow, though, was in an unforgiving mood. An attempted reverse sweep brought a subdued lbw appeal before a conventional sweep, a 76-metre six heaved into the stands at midwicket, and a fortuitous inside edge brought 14 from three deliveries. The 16 from the over outright made it Hosein’s most expensive of this World Cup.It was at that point, with 40 needed from 30, that Salt set about his assault on Shepherd. Bairstow watched on from the other end, settling into the role of cheerleader as his partner went ballistic. He eventually had the honour of striking the winning run, raising his personal best at T20 World Cups to 48 not out.”Once Jos got out, I had to be the better to bat through,” explained Salt. “For Jonny to come out and take the pressure off me by taking calculated risks. I couldn’t be happier about that as a teammate.”

Windies given the run around

Intent comes in many different forms. England blitzed the six-count on the tournament’s truest batting pitch, but the difference between the running out in the middle told as true a story.West Indies, for all their might, set a new unwanted record of 51 dot balls – the most any team has registered in a T20 World Cup when posting a score of at least 180. They were also responsible for the previous highest – 50 – in the 2016 edition, albeit when they chased down 193 to take down India in the semi-final on their way to their second title.Moreover, they were second-best when making use of this ground’s lop-sided dimensions, failing to rotate the strike as much as they could, and running just nine twos across their 120 deliveries. Not only did England run three more in 15 fewer deliveries, but they even managed a three in the fourth over when Buttler could not quite time a cut to the cover point sponge. It brought Salt on strike for the final ball of the over, which he used to get going by charging at Russell and launching him back over his head and onto the roof for the first of five sixes.Jofra Archer was consistently around the 90mph mark•ICC/Getty Images

Archer glee

At the time, the purchasing of Powell’s wicket for 20 runs from Livingstone’s only over did not seem a smart deal. Powell was only averaging 16.25 coming into this match. Having cooled a partisan St Lucian crowd, watching their captain hoist three quick sixes was a surefire way to get them warmed up for the arrival of Russell to assist Pooran, who was set on 32.Both were back in the hut 11 deliveries later. And while Rashid’s snaring of Russell was the icing on the cake in this little stanza that shifted the match England’s way, it was Archer’s in the 17th over that vindicated Buttler’s investment.Over the wicket to Pooran, Archer hammered a tight line across the left-hander. Ranging from full and yorker length, barring one misstep – a full toss third ball which Pooran guided through point for four – Archer had it all his own way.He was too sharp – consistently around the 90mph mark – and too unwavering for a batter slowly falling into a funk, desperate for room to access his favoured hitting zones down the ground. The least full of all the deliveries was the one that took the edge through to Buttler, Pooran presenting the face of the bat in defeat rather than defiance.With six wickets, Archer is now England’s joint top wicket-taker alongside Rashid, boasting an economy rate of 6.58, which is lower than any of his teammates barring Reece Topley (5.50), who has played two fewer games and is still yet to register a dismissal.But the best stat of all is that Archer has now turned out five times for England in the last 15 days. The previous five caps came in the space of 448 days. After the nightmare run of elbow and back injuries over the last two years, the 29-year-old may finally be out the other end.