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MANCHESTER: The swashbuckling Carlos Brathwaite and Chris Gayle did their brutal best to upstage him but, ultimately, it was Kane Williamson who was the match-winner as New Zealand and West Indies combined to produce an ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup thriller. Skipper Williamson dug his New Zealand side out of a huge hole with a match-winning knock at Old Trafford that showed precisely why he is ranked alongside Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Joe Root as the finest batsmen of the modern era. Put into bat after losing the toss,…

Haris Sohail batted with a point to prove, while Mohammad Amir has a glint in his eye back, according to coach Mickey Arthur after the duo led Pakistan to a vital victory over South Africa. With both teams’ ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 knockout chances on the line, Pakistan came out firing as Haris – playing only his second match of the tournament after being preferred to Shoaib Malik – blasted a brilliant 89 off 59 balls. That helped lead his side to 308/7 from their 50 overs and…

LEEDS: Lasith Malinga didn’t even take his jumper off for this latest masterclass. In the white-hot heat of a must-win ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup game – against the tournament hosts and world’s No.1 side no less – the great man remained predictably ice cold. And while the midriff may be a little more rotund, the ambling run-up slower than ever, and the beard flecked with grey – there remains no sight in world cricket quite like Malinga in full flight. The slower balls, the yorkers and the short stuff…

Leeds (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Jofra Archer moved joint top of the World Cup bowling charts as England restricted Sri Lanka to 232-9 in a group match at Headingley on Friday. The fast bowler took 3-52 — his fifth three-wicket haul in six matches this World Cup — to join Australia’s Mitchell Starc on 15 wickets. Fellow quick Mark Wood followed up with 3-40. Sri Lanka’s total represented something of a recovery after a collapse to three for two. Angelo Mathews’ painstaking 85 not out helped them bat their full…

NOTTINGHAM: The 381/5 that Aaron Finch’s Australia amassed in Nottingham, in what proved a 48-run victory over a spirited Bangladesh side, set up a match featuring more runs – 714 – than we’ve ever witnessed before at a single ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup encounter. Built upon David Warner’s fine tournament-high 166, where he became the only man ever to record two 150s in the competition, this was the second highest total the five-times champions have ever accumulated at any World Cup, also a figure that only England have bettered…

BIRMINGHAM: This ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup has served up bouncers and big hits but until now there had not been a tense finish. Perhaps we should have guessed that the first would come when South Africa faced New Zealand. Four years after their semi-final classic, these two served up another and almost inevitably, it was Kane Williamson who proved the difference. There might not have been as much riding on it for the Black Caps as in Auckland, but the final overs were every bit as tense. Exactly two…

MANCHESTER: England has without a doubt the most powerful batting line up at the World Cup and this was underlined yesterday when they took a record-breaking victory over Afghanistan at Old Trafford in Manchester. Skipper Eoin Morgan led the mayhem with a superb 148 off just 71 balls as a number of records tumbled on the day. His efforts put his team in a position to force an emphatic 150-run win over Afghanistan. Firstly, he struck 17 sixes the most by a batsman in an ODI inning and this together…

TAUNTON: In this must-win game for both sides, the approaches of West Indies and Bangladesh – with bat and ball – could not have been more different. And given that no side had successfully chased more than 248 in this tournament until now, West Indies’ cautious tactics looked to have delivered a very serviceable total of 321, even in Taunton’s tightly-knit environs. But Bangladesh’s pursuit was bold, brash and brilliant. Led first by Tamim Iqbal and then taken up by the in-form talisman Shakib Al Hasan, who also picked up two…

It was fitting that on his first Father’s Day as a new dad, Rohit Sharma should produce a match-winning performance for India – especially as he credits his daughter for his current stellar form. Sharma’s wife Ritika gave birth to the couple’s first child, Samaira, back in December and the opener claims that life-changing moment off the field has provided him with the serenity needed to excel out in the middle. Pakistan certainly won’t argue that the 32-year-old wasn’t at his brilliant best as he plundered 140 from just 113…