Shubman Gill makes his much awaited Sher-E-Punjab T20 league debut as…

Indian Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill made a strong start to his Sher-E-Punjab T20 League campaign, scoring 40 off 21 balls on his debut for Fazilka Falcons before his side held off Ludhiana Lions by one run in a thrilling finish at SAS Nagar, Mohali, on Sunday. esporist.org

Gill’s first appearance had been one of the main talking points before the match. The India captain opened the innings after Ludhiana skipper Arshdeep Singh won the toss and chose to bowl. Gill did not take long to make an impact, hitting seven fours and a six during his short stay at the crease.

His innings gave Fazilka early momentum, but the Falcons lost their way after his dismissal. Kartik Chadha removed Gill and went on to finish with impressive figures of 4/9 from four overs. Despite Chadha’s spell, Fazilka recovered through Prerit Dutta, who scored 36 off 23 balls, and Jaiveer Bhinder Singh, who added 21 off 18. The Falcons finished on 170/9.

Ludhiana’s chase looked in trouble as wickets fell at regular intervals. Karteek Sharma tried to hold the innings together with 32 off 29 balls, but the Lions struggled to keep up with the required run rate.

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The match changed late in the innings when Krish Bhagat and Madhav Pathania began attacking the Fazilka bowlers. Their unbeaten 61-run partnership from 29 balls brought Ludhiana back into the contest.

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Pathania remained not out on 37 off 16 balls, while Bhagat finished unbeaten on 28 off 23. The Lions needed 19 runs from the final over and took the game to the last delivery. With six required from the final ball, Pathania could hit only a four, leaving Ludhiana on 169/8.

Fazilka escaped with a one-run win, while Gill was named Player of the Match for his contribution on debut. His 40 was the highest score in the Falcons’ innings and helped set up a match that went down to the final ball.

Gill will be back in action on Monday when Fazilka Falcons face Abhishek Sharma’s Amritsar Royals. The match will give him another chance to build on his first outing in the league.

Melbourne [Australia], September 7 (ANI): Australia have announced a pace-heavy squad for next month’s three-match ICC World Test Championship series in South Africa, with batter Marnus Labuschagne’s retention being one of the highlights.

It will mark their first meeting since last year’s World Test Championship Final at Lord’s and will be pivotal in deciding which sides reach next year’s decider at The Oval, as per the ICC.

The Aussies have included all their experienced fast bowlers in the 16-player squad, while out-of-form batter Labuschagne is retained despite a lean recent run that has not seen the right-hander score a century since July 2023. Since 2023, the batter has averaged below 30 in the 22 matches played.

Labuschagne is included in a batting group that includes Travis Head, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith and Cooper Connolly, while all-rounders Cameron Green and Beau Webster also win a spot in the squad for the series that commences in Durban on October 9.

Three new players are added to the squad that missed out on the recent series at home against Bangladesh, with Connolly, Matthew Kuhnemann and Michael Neser the additions to the playing group as extra cover for the different conditions the Aussies are expecting in South Africa.

“This is a reasonably condensed three-game series, on the back of six one-day internationals, with only short breaks between each game," Chair of Selectors George Bailey said, as quoted by the ICC.

“The squad provides balance and options for each Test and the variety of conditions we may face."

The tour is the first time Australia have travelled to South Africa for a Test series since the infamous series in 2018, with just five players – skipper Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Smith and Renshaw – having previously been included in a touring party.

Australia currently sit in first place on the World Test Championship standings, with reigning champions South Africa in second. Australia will enter the series after they tied 1-1 with Bangladesh earlier this month.

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

Series schedule:

First Test: October 9-13, Durban

Second Test: October 18-22, Gqeberha

Third Test: October 27-31, Johannesburg. (ANI)

(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)

Women’s Asia Cup 2026: श्रीलंका ने वूमेंस एशिया कप 2026 के 10वें मुकाबले में बांग्लादेश को 4 विकेट से हराकर सेमीफाइनल में जगह पक्की कर ली। श्रीलंकाई टीम इस टूर्नामेंट में जीत की हैट्रिक लगाकर ‘ग्रुप-बी’ की पॉइंट्स टेबल में शीर्ष पर रही। दुबई इंटरनेशनल क्रिकेट स्टेडियम में बांग्लादेशी ने पहले बल्लेबाजी करते हुए 20 ओवर में 8 विकेट खोकर 114 रन बनाए। जवाब में श्रीलंका ने 19.2 ओवर में 6 विकेट गंवाकर लक्ष्य हासिल कर लिया।

The timing could not have been better for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.

A month after the disappointment of missing out on a medal at the World Championships in New Delhi, India’s leading men’s doubles pair have responded in the most convincing way possible. They have won the China Masters, a tournament that had twice previously ended with them on the wrong side of the final result.

More importantly, they have done it against a home pair after losing the opening game of the final.

That combination makes the victory particularly relevant with the Asian Games approaching. Satwik and Chirag will not be travelling to the Asiad looking to prove that they belong among the best. They already have that status. They will be going there as defending champions, with the expectation that they should be challenging for gold again.

That brings a different kind of pressure.

Their title in Shenzhen gives them something every defending champion wants before a major event: evidence that their game is working when the stakes are high. Against He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu, they were forced to respond after surrendering the first game 11-21. The second game brought a change in momentum, and the Indians then managed the deciding game well enough to close out the victory.

The scoreline tells only part of the story. The more important point is that Satwik and Chirag were able to stay in the contest long enough to change it. That was the narrative throughout the week, as they were taken to three games in four consecutive matches.

Things have not always been straightforward for them this season. Their attacking game can overwhelm opponents when everything falls into place, but the strongest pairs in Asia are capable of absorbing that first wave of aggression and turning it back on them. At the Asian Games, they will face opponents familiar with their strengths and increasingly comfortable with the challenge of playing them.

The China Masters offered a useful rehearsal. They also had to deal with the weight of history at the tournament. Having finished runners-up in Shenzhen in 2023 and 2025, this was a chance to remove one of the few significant gaps from their record at the Super 750 event. They took it.

There is a psychological benefit to that which statistics cannot quite capture.

Satwik and Chirag now know that they can arrive at a major tournament after a setback and quickly rebuild their momentum. The World Championships had raised questions about their form. The China Masters has provided an immediate answer.

It also gives them a victory over a Chinese combination in China, something that can matter when the next major assignment is an Asian multi-sport event where the home crowd, the atmosphere and the pressure will all be amplified.

The Asian Games, however, will not be won on the back of one tournament. The field remains packed with quality, and the margins between the leading men’s doubles pairs are small. Satwik and Chirag will need to reproduce the discipline they showed in Shenzhen while retaining the aggression that has made them one of the most formidable attacking pairs in the sport.

For now, though, they can allow themselves to enjoy the significance of what they have achieved.

The Asian Games will demand another level of consistency. In Hangzhou, they breezed through the draw, losing a game only to Leo Carnando and Daniel Marthin of Indonesia. Three years on, they have had to slightly modify their tactics in order to nurse Satwik’s shoulder injury. In China, in crucial moments, they played according to one of the tenets Sun Tzu mentioned in The Art of War: “Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.”

Satwik and Chirag will head into their title defence with something they did not have a few weeks ago: fresh momentum and the reassurance that, when a match starts going against them, they have the capacity to turn it around.

For the defending champions, that is an ideal place to begin.

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