Franchise Cricket

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The Pakistan Super League - Pakistan's T20 franchise league - returns for its 10th season on Friday.

The tournament is taking place later in the year than usual because of a clash with February's Champions Trophy that Pakistan hosted.

There will be six teams taking part: Islamabad United, Karachi Kings, Lahore Qalandars, Multan Sultans, Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators.

Each side faces the other five teams home and away in the group stage, which runs between 10 April and 10 May.

The top four sides progress to the knockouts, which culminate in the final at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on 18 May.

The knockouts work as follows:

13 May: Qualifier - first v second

14 May: Eliminator 1 - third v fourth

16 May: Eliminator 2 - loser of qualifier v winner of eliminator 1

18 May: Final - winner of qualifier v winner of eliminator 2

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Seven English players are set to feature in the 2025 Pakistan Super League.

Batter James Vince returns to Karachi Kings after scoring 214 runs in 2024, while all-rounder Tom Curran and Sam Billings have been signed by Lahore Qalandars.

Bowlers Chris Jordan and David Willey return to Multan Sultans after taking six and 15 wickets respectively in 2024.

Batter Tom Kohler-Cadmore and left-arm seamer Luke Wood will play for Peshawar Zalmi again.

Former England all-rounder Ravi Bopara has taken his first head coach role with the Karachi Kings.

English players in the 2025 PSL

Karachi Kings: James Vince

Lahore Qalandars: Tom Curran and Sam Billings

Multan Sultans: Chris Jordan and David Willey

Peshawar Zalmi: Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Luke Wood

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Australia batter David Warner and New Zealand's Kane Williamson will play in the Pakistan Super League for the first time when the 10th edition begins on Friday.

Both will play for Karachi Kings with Warner set to captain the 2020 champions.

Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi and New Zealand duo Adam Milne and Tim Seifert are also on Kings' roster.

Defending champions Islamabad United's squad includes Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey and all-rounder Ben Dwarshuis, plus West Indies' Jason Holder.

New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell, Sri Lanka's Kusal Perera and T20 franchise regular David Wiese will be with Lahore Qalandars.

Last year's runners-up Multan Sultans have West Indies duo Shai Hope and Gudakesh Motie and New Zealand's Michael Bracewell in their squad.

West Indies seamer Alzarri Joseph, South Africa's George Linde and Australia's Mitchell Owen are with Peshawar Zalmi.

Quetta Gladiators have signed some impressive batting power including Sri Lanka's Kusal Mendis, New Zealand's Finn Allen and South Africa's Rilee Rossouw.

These players will add to an exciting Pakistan players with Babar Azam (Peshawar Zalmi), Mohammad Rizwan (Multan Sultans) and Shaheen Afridi (Lahore Qalandars) among the players set to captain their sides.

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Brisbane Heat and Sydney Sixers will get the first picks at the Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League draft in June.

The top four picks were drawn between the sides that did not reach the knockout stages in this year's competition, with a second draw between the finalists determining picks five to eight.

The Heat came out on top in the men's draw, giving them first pick of the elite international players in the draft, with the Sixers getting the same honour in the women's draft.

The draft will take place on 19 June, with overseas players able to put themselves forward from 28 April.

BBL15 draft order

1. Brisbane Heat

2. Adelaide Strikers

3. Melbourne Renegades

4. Perth Scorchers

5. Hobart Hurricanes

6. Sydney Sixers

7. Melbourne Stars

8. Sydney Thunder

WBBL11 draft order

1. Sydney Sixers

2. Adelaide Strikers

3. Melbourne Stars

4. Perth Scorchers

5. Hobart Hurricanes

6. Sydney Thunder

7. Melbourne Renegades

8. Brisbane Heat

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Opener Sai Sudharsan hit 82 as Gujarat Titans thrashed Rajasthan Royals by 58 runs to go top of the Indian Premier League.

The 23-year-old hit eight fours and three sixes from 53 balls, passing 50 for the third match in a row, before he was caught behind off the bowling of Tushar Deshpande in the penultimate over of his side's innings.

Chasing 218, the Royals slipped to 68-4 in their reply, and while Sanju Samson (41 from 28) and Shimron Hetmyer (52 from 32) offered the visitors some hope, they were ultimately bowled out for 159 in Ahmedabad.

Having been put into bat the Titans lost Shubman Gill in the third over, bowled by England's Jofra Archer for two, but Sudharasan was joined by Jos Buttler (36 from 25) and the pair put on 80 for the second wicket.

Sudharasan, who is now the tournament's second leading run-scorer, was one of two wickets to fall in Deshpande's 19th over, but finisher Rahul Tewatia closed with an unbeaten 24 from 12 as the home side concluded their innings on 217-6.

Having seen his side lose four early wickets, Royals captain and opener Samson added 48 with Hetmyer before he was caught at short third off Kulwant Khejroliya.

The visitors' hopes then lay with Hetmyer, and the West Indies batter struck four fours and three sixes before he was caught by Sai Kishore at deep backward square off Prasidh Krishna (3-24).

The wicket effectively ended the match as a contest, leaving the Royals 145-8 in the 16th over, and Sudharasan got to finish the match off himself, catching Maheesh Theekshana at long-off.

The win sees the Titans leapfrog Delhi Capitals to lead the table by two points, while the Royals remain in seventh with two wins and three losses.

• Scorecard, IPL table, fixtures & results

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Lucknow Super Giants held on to deny Kolkata Knight Riders in an epic chase and win a high-scoring thriller by four runs.

Lucknow piled up 238-3 after being asked to bat but, attempting the second-highest chase in Indian Premier League history, their hosts gave themselves every chance in pursuit.

They raced to 162-2 in the 13th over but the loss of captain Ajinkya Rahane for 61 from 35 balls sparked a slide of five wickets lost for 23 runs.

Rinku Singh hit 38 not out from 15 balls to keep KKR in it but could not do enough at the death.

He was left needing to hit the final three balls for six to force a super over but only cleared the rope once, along with two fours.

Lucknow were powered to their total by 81 from Mitchell Marsh and a 36-ball 87 not out from Nicholas Pooran.

Australian Marsh, who put on 99 for the first wicket with Aiden Markram, became the season's leading run-scoring during his innings, only to be overtaken by Pooran who hit seven fours and eight sixes.

Scorecard, IPL table, fixtures & results

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Jos Buttler was out for a duck but Gujarat Titans inflicted a fourth successive defeat on Sunrisers Hyderabad with a comfortable seven-wicket win.

England batter Buttler, who made two half-centuries in his first three innings at this year's Indian Premier League, nicked his third ball behind off Australia captain Pat Cummins but the Titans still chased 153 in 16.4 overs.

Opener Shubman Gill batted through for 61 not out, Washington Sundar added 49 and Sherfane Rutherford finished unbeaten on 35.

It came after Sunrisers' hard-hitting top order disappointed again in making 152-8.

They made 286-6 in their opening victory against Rajasthan Royals but have since failed to fire.

Travis Head was caught for eight, fellow opener Abhishek Sharma out for 18 and Ishan Kishan 17.

Nitish Kumar Reddy top-scored with 31 and South Africa batter Heinrich Klaasen made 27 but neither were able to kick on.

Mohammed Siraj took 4-17 for the Titans on the back of 3-19 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

The win lifts Gujarat up to second in the table, level on points with leaders Delhi Capitals. Sunrisers, last year's finalists, are bottom with four defeats from five.

Scorecard, IPL fixtures & results, table

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Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming says he has "no idea" if veteran captain MS Dhoni is set to retire but says the 43-year-old is "still going strong".

Iconic former India and CSK skipper Dhoni, who famously led his country to the World Cup title in 2011, is playing his 18th Indian Premier League season but in a bit-part role.

His parents were attendance as he played in Saturday's 25-run defeat by Delhi Capitals, leading to online speculation the wicketkeeper could retire.

"I'm just enjoying working with him still," New Zealander Fleming said.

"He's still going strong. I don't even ask these days."

Dhoni retired from India duty in 2020, having played 90 Tests, 350 one-day internationals and 98 T20s.

He hit the winning runs in India's 2011 victory at home and also led his side to wins in the 2007 T20 world title and the 2013 Champions Trophy.

Since then he has continued to play for CSK in the IPL and led them to the title for a fifth time in 2023.

Chennai's home defeat by Delhi was their third in four matches this season, however Dhoni ended 30 not out from 26 balls in their chase of 184 as his side ended well short on 158-5.

Once one of the game's great finishers, Dhoni came in at number seven - two places higher than he batted earlier in the tournament in defeat by Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

After that match, Fleming said he "can't bat 10 overs" because "his knees aren't what they used to be".

Jonty Colman
BBC Sport journalist

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India's KL Rahul (77) inspired Delhi Capitals as they continued their winning start to their Indian Premier League campaign with a 25-run victory over Chennai Super Kings in Chennai.

Wicketkeeper-batter Rahul, scored 77 runs off 51 balls that included six fours and three sixes to give the Capitals their third win in as many matches.

Batting first, the visitors got off to a poor start when opener Jake Fraser-McGurk was dismissed after five balls without scoring.

From there, Rahul took charge and built quick-scoring partnerships with Abishek Porel (33), captain Axar Patel (21), Sameer Rizvi (20) and Tristan Stubbs (24 not out) to post a total of 183-6 after 20 overs.

Khaleel Ahmed was the pick of the bowlers for the Super Kings, returning figures of 2-25 from his four overs.

In response, the Super Kings lost their New Zealand opening duo of Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway cheaply.

Australia international Mitchell Starc removed Super Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad for five before impact substitute Shivam Dube holed out on 18.

Vijay Shanakar was the Super Kings' shining light with the bat, making an unbeaten 69 off 54 balls and putting on a 84-run partnership with MS Dhoni (30 not out) as Chennai finished 158-5 from their 20 overs.

The Capitals' first win over the Super Kings since 2010 moves them two points clear at the top of the IPL table, while the Super Kings remain eighth.

• Scorecard, IPL table & fixtures

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Australia's Mitchell Marsh smashed 60 from just 31 balls at the top of the order to set up Lucknow Super Giants' comfortable 12-run win over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.

Marsh was used as an impact player and registered his third half-century in four innings as Lucknow posted 203-8.

The chase went to the final over but with 22 required from it, Lucknow seamer Avesh Khan held his nerve as Mumbai fell short on 191-5, with captain Hardik Pandya unbeaten on 28.

Lucknow raced to 69-0 inside the six-over powerplay, with Marsh scoring 60 of those runs and Aiden Markram had just seven.

Makram went on to score 53 from 38 balls before cameos of 31 from Ayush Badoni and 27 from David Miller helped them past 200, while Hardik took 5-36.

Mumbai lost openers Will Jacks and Ryan Rickelton cheaply, but Naman Dhir's 46 and an entertaining 67 from 43 balls from Suryakumar Yadav kept them in contention.

But his dismissal left 52 runs required from the final four overs and swung the game back in Lucknow's favour, and they closed out the victory with spinner Digvesh Singh Rathi bowling a brilliant spell of 1-21.

The result takes Lucknow to sixth in the table while Mumbai are in seventh with just one win from four matches so far.

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Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders secured a comfortable 80-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, who slipped to the bottom of the Indian Premier League (IPL) table.

Set a target of 201, Sunrisers' powerful but inconsistent top order failed as they slipped to 9-3 and 66-5 before being bowled out for 120 in 16.4 overs.

Australia's Travis Head fell for four from the second ball of the chase while Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan were both dismissed for two.

Sunrisers had a glimmer of hope with destructive South Africa batter Heinrich Klaasen in the middle but his dismissal for 33 in the 15th over all-but secured a vital win for KKR, who were bottom of the table going into the match.

KKR chose seamer Vaibhav Arora as their impact player and he starred with figures of 3-29, including the wickets of Head and Klaasen, while spinner Varun Chakravarthy took 3-22.

Earlier, KKR's 200-6 came from a late flourish of 78 runs scored from the final five overs of their innings. Venkatesh Iyer struck 60 from 29 balls with seven fours and three sixes, while Rinku Singh made an unbeaten 32 from 17.

They capitalised on a platform set by skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who added a third-wicket stand of 81 following the early departures of openers Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine.

Sunrisers started their IPL campaign by posting 286, the tournament's second-highest total of all time, but have since lost three matches in a row.

• Scorecard, IPL fixtures & results, table