South Africa received a thorough workout in the drawn three-day match against the England Lions at New Road in Worcester on Saturday. The home team finished on 266/4 declared after 80 overs, in response to the Proteas’ first innings total of 382/6 declared.

The bowlers all managed to run in for three spells, with Morne Morkel (1/49) and Chris Morris (1/35) the most successful and economical of the pacemen. Keshav Maharaj, the only frontline spinner in the squad, was equally impressive as an effective holding option in his 18 overs.  

England's National Cricket Selectors have named the following 12-man squad for the first Investec Test match against South Africa starting at Lord’s on Thursday July 6.

Yorkshire’s Joe Root, who was appointed England’s Test captain in February, will lead the team out for the first time on Thursday.  Middlesex seamer Toby Roland-Jones, who made his one-day international debut last month at Lord’s against Ireland, is the only uncapped player in the squad and is in contention to make his England Test debut on his home county ground. The 29-year-old has taken 22 wickets in the Specsavers County Championship during this campaign. 

Heino Kuhn and Hashim Amla braved out a challenging opening day of the Standard Bank Proteas’ three-day tour match against the England Lions at New Road in Worcester on Thursday. The Proteas were 58/1 at stumps after persistent rain curtailed the day to 20 overs.

Kuhn (30 not out ) and Amla (16 not out) negotiated a testing new ball to put on 46 runs for the second wicket after the early dismissal of captain, Dean Elgar, for five.  

Maiden centuries by Natalie Sciver and Heather Knight helped England post its highest-ever ICC Women’s World Cup total on way to beating Pakistan by 107 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) Method at the Grace Road in Leicester on Tuesday.

Sciver hit 137 off 92 balls and captain Heather Knight scored 106 off 109 balls as England recovered from 42 for two to finish at 377 for seven in 50 overs, second-highest total in competition history behind Australia’s 412 for three in 1997. 

Cricket South Africa today named Multiply Titans opening batsman, Heino Kuhn, and Hollywoodbets Dolphins all-rounder, Andile Phehlukwayo, as uncapped players in the Proteas Test squad for the four-match Test Series against England, starting next month.

They take the places of Stephen Cook and Wayne Parnell respectively from the squad that played the last series against New Zealand. Dane Piedt also drops out as the selectors have only named one specialist spinner in Keshav Maharaj.

It was a day for the newcomers to take centre stage as Dawid Malan scored a quickfire 78 on debut for England and Dane Paterson claimed career best figures of 4/32, after twice being on a hat trick, for the Standard Bank Proteas before England won the final T20 International by 19 runs at Cardiff on Sunday and claimed the series 2-1.

Proteas legend Shaun Pollock described Paterson’s death bowling when he took 2/8 in his last two overs as the best death bowling he had seen from a Protea in 10 years. Praise doesn’t come higher than that.

England fell to a 35-run defeat in their opening game of the ICC Women’s World Cup against India, despite a fine innings from Fran Wilson. Wilson’s 79 had looked like giving England a chance in what would have been a record-breaking chase but when she was run out with 53 still required there was too much left to do for England’s lower order.

India batted first after being put in and they amassed 281-3 from their 50 overs, opener Smriti Mandhana top-scoring with 90 and fellow opener Punam Raut making 86. England were bowled out for 246 in 47.3 overs with Deepti Sharma and Shikha Pandey scalping three and two wickets, respectively.