Franchise Cricket

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Lucknow Super Giants secured an impressive and comprehensive five-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad to earn their first win in this year's Indian Premier League.

Lucknow did well to limit Sunrisers' destructive batting line-up to 190-9 and then cruised to their target with 3.5 overs to spare.

Nicholas Pooran crashed 70 from 26 balls and Mitchell Marsh hit a typically powerful 52 from 31.

Sunrisers piled up 286-6 against Rajasthan in their opening match but, with some predicting a score in excess of 300 on another flat pitch, were checked by the loss of regular wickets.

Seamer Shardul Thakur dismissed Abhishek Sharma for six and Ishan Kishan a duck in consecutive balls, while Travis Head threatened in hitting five fours and three sixes.

But Head was bowled by seamer Prince Yadav for 47 and contributions of 32 from Nitish Kumar Reddy, 26 from Heinrich Klaasen and 36 by Aniket Verma were not enough.

Shardul finished with 4-34 and is the tournament's leading wicket-taker after eight matches, despite being unsold in the auction and being signed as a late injury replacement.

Scorecard, IPL fixtures & results, table

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After seven matches, Shardul Thakur is the leading wicket-taker at the 2025 Indian Premier League - a tournament he should not have even been part of.

India all-rounder Shardul surprisingly went unsold at last year's auction and was instead due to line up for Essex in the County Championship next week.

But, with Essex's players preparing in the English spring, Shardul got the call from Lucknow Super Giants after an injury to Mohsin Khan.

He took 2-19 in Lucknow's first match against Delhi Capitals and followed that with 4-34 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, including the big wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan.

"All of these things keep happening in cricket," Shardul said.

"There were few enquiries. LSG approached me first so I had to give them preference.

"[Lucknow mentor] Zaheer Khan had called me when I was playing in the Ranji Trophy and he told me that you may be called in as a potential replacement so don't switch yourself off.

"Ups and downs are a part of life. I have always backed my skills."

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Quinton de Kock's 97 not out led Kolkata Knight Riders to a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.

Chasing 152, De Kock batted throughout, timing the ball well on a slow pitch to hit eight fours and six sixes in his 61 balls.

He went on after former England all-rounder and fellow opener Moeen Ali was run out for five from 12 balls.

England quick Jofra Archer, who conceded the worst figures in IPL history in the Royals opening-game defeat, started better in an opening two-over spell of 0-15.

But Archer returned with only 17 needed from 18 balls and De Kock struck a four and two sixes to secure victory with 15 balls to spare. Archer finished with 0-33 from 2.3 overs.

He had earlier struck two late sixes in the Royals' 151-9 - a score that always looked below par.

They lost regular wickets - Dhruv Jurel the top-scorer with 33 - and struggled to score against KKR's spinners.

India international Varun Chakravarthy took 2-17 while Moeen returned figures of 2-23 on his KKR debut.

After defeat in their opening game, KKR earned their first victory of the season but the Royals remain winless.

Scorecard, IPL fixtures & results, table

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The Oakland Coliseum, the iconic former home of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, will host nine matches during the 2025 Major League Cricket season.

The Athletics played at the Coliseum in Bay Area, California for 56 years before leaving in 2024 as part of the franchise's move to Las Vegas.

The stadium, which has also previously hosted football and American football matches, will have a reduced capacity of 12,000 spectators when it hosts cricket for the first time.

It will host the opening match on 12 June, as San Francisco Unicorns meet last year's winners Washington Freedom, and eight further matches, including two more Unicorns home fixtures.

MLC matches will also be played for the first time at the 25,000 Broward County Stadium in Florida, which has been preferred to Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina.

The Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas will again hold a chunk of group games in addition to the knockout stages and final on 13 July.

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Former Australia batter David Warner will captain Karachi Kings in the forthcoming Pakistan Super League.

Warner has taken over the role from Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood for the 10th edition of the T20 franchise tournament from 11 April to 18 May.

The 38-year-old, who was unsold in this year's Indian Premier League mega auction, is taking part in the PSL for the first time.

"We have a fantastic line-up and I'm super excited to take on the role of captain this year," Warner said.

Warner skippered Sydney Thunder to the final of the 2025 Big Bash League after Cricket Australia lifted a leadership ban last year.

In 2018, Warner had been banned from cricket for 12 months and prevented from holding leadership positions as part of his punishment for a ball-tampering scandal.

Warner played 110 T20 internationals for Australia between 2009 and 2024 scoring 3,277 runs at an average of 33.43.

The left-handed opener will also play for London Spirit in The Hundred in August.

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Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey has been picked by Islamabad United as a partial replacement player for the Pakistan Super League.

Carey, 33, was selected by the defending PSL champions in a mini replacement draft on Monday due to the unavailability of Rassie van der Dussen for a portion of the tournament.

United said 36-year-old South Africa batter Van der Dussen will miss a chunk of the PSL for "personal matters" and does so with their "full support".

Carey had made himself for the original PSL draft in January but was not picked.

Elsewhere, Peshawar Zalmi have drafted all-rounder George Linde as a full replacement for fellow South African Corbin Bosch.

Bosch withdrew from the PSL earlier this month to sign for Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians.

Bangladesh fast bowler Nahid Rana and wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das have been reserved as replacement picks for Peshawar Zalmi and Karachi Kings respectively.

Quetta Gladiators and the Kings have reserved their replacement picks for New Zealand batters Mark Chapman and Kane Williamson.

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St Kitts & Nevis Patriots will face Antigua & Barbuda Falcons in the opening match of the 2025 Caribbean Premier League.

The Patriots, who won their sole CPL title in 2021, finished bottom of last year's standings while the Falcons finished a place better off in fifth.

The two sides will meet at the Warner Park Sporting Complex in St Kitts on 14 August with the tournament set to run until 21 September.

Defending champions St Lucia Kings, who won their maiden title last year, will face Antigua & Barbuda Falcons in their CPL opener at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium three days later.

The CPL group stage will run until 6 September before four knockouts, all of which will be played at the Guyana National Stadium in Providence.

Matches will also be held in Saint Lucia, Trinidad, Barbados in addition to St Kitts and Guyana.

Former England players Moeen Ali and Jason Roy were among those to play in the 2024 edition of the tournament.

The CPL will overlap with The Hundred which also takes place from 5 to 31 August.

• Full Caribbean Premier League schedule, external

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Rachin Ravindra's patient half-century led Chennai Super Kings to a four-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in their opening match of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Chasing 156 to win on a spin-friendly surface, Ravindra finished unbeaten on 65 from 45 balls as Chennai reached their target with five balls to spare.

Chennai captain Ruturaj Gaikwad's more destructive 53 from 26 balls broke the back of the chase early on before a slight wobble to 116-5.

But Ravindra held the innings together comfortably, hitting the winning runs with a six off his New Zealand team-mate Mitchell Santner.

Wrist-spinner Vignesh Puthur was the pick of Mumbai's bowlers with 3-32, while England's Will Jacks bowled his international and Surrey team-mate Sam Curran for four.

Mumbai posted a stuttering innings of 155-9 as they struggled to recover from an early slip to 36-3, with captain Suryakumar Yadav making 29 and Tilak Varma adding 31 but none of their batters were able to accelerate.

Afghanistan leg-spinner Noor Ahmad starred with 4-18, while seamer Khaleel Ahmed took 3-29 including the wicket of India's Rohit Sharma for a duck in the first over.

• Scorecard

• Table

Most ducks in IPL career

• 18 - Glenn Maxwell

• 18 - Dinesh Karthik

• 18 - Rohit Sharma

• 16 - Piyush Chawla

• 16 - Sunil Narine

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India all-rounder Shardul Thakur has replaced the injured Mohsin Khan at Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Left-arm seamer Mohsin, 26, has been ruled out of the tournament with a left calf injury.

Thakur, 33, has taken 67 wickets and scored 307 runs in 95 IPL matches for Punjab Kings, Rising Pune Supergiant, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders.

He last played a T20 international for India in February 2022 and has taken 33 in 25 matches.

The right-arm seamer had signed a deal with Essex to play in the first seven red-ball matches of the season, but the county say, external Thakur will no longer join for the start of the season.

The Super Giants play Delhi Capitals in their opening game on Monday.

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The Indian Premier League returns on Saturday, 22 March and BBC Radio 5 Live will be bringing you commentary from more than 35 matches.

Commentaries will be available on BBC Sounds, BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and the BBC Sport website and app (available to UK users only).

Here is the schedule for the opening week of fixtures:

Saturday, 22 March: Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bengaluru (14:00 GMT)

Sunday, 23 March: Sunrisers Hyderabad v Rajasthan Royals (10:00 GMT) & Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians (14:00 GMT - website and app only)

Monday, 24 March: Delhi Capitals v Lucknow Super Giants (14:00 GMT)

Tuesday, 25 March: Gujarat Titans v Punjab Kings (14:00 GMT)

Wednesday, 26 March: Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders (14:00 GMT)

Thursday, 27 March: Sunrisers Hyderabad v Lucknow Super Giants (14:00 GMT)

Friday, 28 March: Chennai Super Kings v Royal Challengers Bengaluru (14:00 GMT)

All times are match start times and are subject to change.

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Royal Challengers Bengaluru head coach Andy Flower says that "inspirational" Virat Kohli is still "extremely hungry" for success with the franchise.

India superstar Kohli has been with RCB for the entirety of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and led the side between 2013-2021.

He was integral to his side's run to the play-offs last year, winning the purple cap for the tournament's leading run-scorer with 741 runs in 15 innings.

"He's been brilliant to work with," former England Test coach Flower told the BBC Stumped podcast.

"It was great seeing him up close, in the dressing room, in meetings, in training, in competition. He's a really impressive guy, and last season was testing for all of us, particularly for the leadership group because we had such a bad start to the season.

"In our first eight games we'd lost seven of them - luckily we turned it round and part of the reason for that was the leadership from within the playing group and Virat was a huge part of that.

"He was brilliant under pressure. He also evolved his own game as the season wore on which I thought from a 35, 36-year-old player that had done everything in the game, was amazing to witness."

India batter Rajat Patidar has been named as RCB captain for 2025 and Flower also credited Kohli's influence on the younger players as a big motivation for the side.

"When he leads, other people follow. He's a great role model for the way people train, he's still extremely hungry, he's brilliant in the field, and listening to him talk in a team huddle and in meetings, he knows the game inside out and he's an inspirational guy."

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Royal Challengers Bengaluru are still waiting for their first Indian Premier League (IPL) title after 18 years, but head coach Andy Flower says the expectation presents an opportunity rather than added pressure.

They reached the play-offs in 2024 after a remarkable turnaround from losing seven of their first eight matches, but eventually lost to the Rajasthan Royals.

Flower described RCB as "one of the biggest franchises in world sport" which has been aided by Virat Kohli's presence in the side since the beginning of the tournament.

"RCB and its fans should expect success," Flower, who was appointed head coach in 2023, told the BBC Stumped podcast.

"I would not necessarily see the fact that RCB has not won it, as a desperate situation or added pressure. It's a great opportunity, it's never been done before.

"It's a very exciting opportunity for us. If we can bring some of that success and build an organisation or a dressing room that will give us that sort of success, that will be incredibly rewarding for us and our fans."

RCB women won the Women's Premier League in 2024.

Listen to the full interview with Andy Flower on the Stumped podcast on BBC Sounds.