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Brendon McCullum still believes in Zak Crawley despite his pair in the first Test against Australia, and has called on England bat with more conviction following their two-day defeat in Perth. The visiting head coach even cited Travis Head’s match-winning 123 as an example to follow.Head made light work of what looked a more-than-competitive target of 205, driving Australia most of the way home to an eight-wicket win in just 28.2 overs. With Usman Khawaja yet again suffering from a back injury, Head replaced Marnus Labuschagne (who opened in the first innings) and proceeded to slap 20 boundaries, including four sixes that belied the size of the Optus Stadium boundaries.As well as flaying an England attack that 24 hours earlier had put the frighteners up the home batters, Head was responsible for the first runs for an opening partnership in the Test. The first overs of the previous three innings had brought ducks. Crawley was responsible for two at the hands of Mitchell Starc. Jake Weatherald – knocked off his feet by Jofra Archer on day one – maintained his footing with 23, his first runs in Test cricket.A careless waft outside off stump six balls into the match was followed by a checked-push five balls into his second innings, brilliantly caught by Starc. With that, Crawley became the first English opener dismissed without scoring in both innings of an Ashes Test since Michael Atherton at Melbourne in 1998.Pegged as a batter to thrive on Australian pitches, England have groomed Crawley as an X-factor player ahead of this tour. He has been backed to the hilt by captain Ben Stokes since the start of his tenure.Though Crawley was the leading run-scorer in 2023’s Ashes, and England’s standout run-scorer on the following tour of India, he has averaged just 32.26 since the start of 2022. His career average – 30.96 – is close to dipping under the thirty mark.McCullum has previously insisted Crawley is not picked to be “a consistent player”. Essentially, he is a scorer of great runs rather than a great run-scorer. That point of view remains undimmed, as is his importance in an opening partnership with Ben Duckett that remains the fastest since 1998. Travis Head starred as an opener with an extraordinary 69-ball century•Getty Images

“We believe he is a quality player,” McCullum said, when asked if Crawley was undroppable. “Particularly in these conditions against this sort of opposition. How many balls did he face? 10 or 11? He got out cheaply, but we believe in Zak.”He’s been around this group for a long time, he’s done really well. The combination with Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley has allowed us to enter games as best as we think we can. And I’d expect to see a strong bounce-back from Zak in the next little while. Sometimes you get out early, right? It would have been nice if he hadn’t. But that’s life. If he can get going, he can do some damage.””If” being the operative word. Crawley is now joint-fourth on England’s duck list from 96 innings – the only member of that top five to have batted fewer than 142 times in Test cricket. And the suggestion he cracks on when he gets a start is not backed up by the statistics. The 27-year-old has 24 fifty-plus scores, but of openers with at least 20, his average of 85.80 is the third lowest.Of course, Crawley is not the sole batter to blame for the fact England are 1-0 down. It was a top-order collapse of 5 for 23 – including Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Joe Root across six deliveries for no run – that relinquished what had been a lead of 105 with nine second-innings wickets in hand.It was Scott Boland who thrived during this passage, eventually finishing with 4 for 33, making amends for a difficult 0 for 62 in the first innings.Related

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Having bested the 36-year-old on Friday, England were unable to get a hold of him on Saturday. A mistake, in McCullum’s eyes, which he puts down to batters not wholly committed to their respective methods. Unlike Head.”Maybe just back away and slay it over point, or slog it to cow?!” McCullum said, tongue in cheek, when asked how England might have batted better. “I’m not saying they didn’t go hard enough, but there was a player [Head] who had total conviction in his method and has done it across different formats and on different stages over the last few years.”‘Have conviction’ – that’s been what we’ve said. Choose a method and have conviction in it. If it works then great. But if it doesn’t at least you’ve done it your way.”Despite the early finish, England are set to remain in Perth for the time being before heading straight to Queensland ahead of the second Test, a day-night affair in Brisbane, which begins on December 4.A decision is yet to be made on whether any of the main squad will drop into the England XI – originally the Lions – for the Prime Minister’s XI match in Canberra (November 29), which will offers them pink-ball practice. Most importantly for McCullum is shedding the pain of this whirlwind defeat as quickly as possible.”We will let the dust settle, but we are bitterly disappointed for us, but also all the fans who have turned up here to support us so well here and we know we will be throughout the series.”We can’t carry this one onto the next. We’ve been trying to insulate against things going wrong for a while. For us that connectivity and camaraderie is something we pride ourselves on. We will need it over the next few days.”

Marnus Labuschagne made it five centuries in eight innings for Queensland to start the summer, after helping them to a 96-run One-Day Cup win over New South Wales.Labuschagne hit 101 from 111 balls at Sydney’s Cricket Central on Monday, leading Queensland to 287 for 9 before NSW were all out for 191 in reply.All but certain to return to Australia’s Test team for the Ashes this month, Labuschagne will enter the series as the form batter in the country. Axed from Australia’s side midway through the year, Labuschagne is back playing with the same intent that made him the world’s best batter as recently as 2023.The 31-year-old is clipping the ball off his toes again with precision, driving well, and on Monday swept legspinner Tanveer Sangha for three fours. He also hit Sangha over long-off for a big six, on a day when the spinner was otherwise NSW’s best with 3 for 64 having been released for Australia’s T20I squad for the match.Labuschagne’s near-chanceless century marked his third this season in the one-day format, where he is currently outside of Australia’s first-choice XI.He has also hit two centuries in the Sheffield Shield for Queensland, with all of the hundreds coming batting at No. 3. But it is expected he will be asked to open in the first Test against England in Perth, in a move that will allow allrounders Cameron Green and Beau Webster to both fit in the team.In reply, NSW were never really in the chase on Monday, but Sam Konstas did hit a measured 47 before being caught behind when he gloved a hook shot off Benji Floros.Floros had Jack Edwards caught behind next ball in similar fashion, before finishing with 4 for 22 in his best outing for Queensland.Labuschagne also claimed two wickets with his medium pace, with Chris Green skying an attempted pull shot, before Sangha fell lbw.

Pakistan may be sitting at the bottom of the Super Four table after another fairly convincing defeat against India, but their best performer on the night felt the game showed what Pakistan were capable of. Sahibzada Farhan, who dominated the first ten overs of the contest and scored a 34-ball half-century, was confident Pakistan were well set up to put themselves on the board against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.”The way we batted today, the boys are very confident,” Farhan said, speaking after the game against India. “The wickets in Abu Dhabi are true and the ball comes onto the bat, and we’ll play to win.”Unlike Sri Lanka, who have played two of their four games in Dubai, Pakistan’s four matches at the Asia Cup have all taken place there. Without a formal training session, they will go into a game which may end up proving an eliminator for the losing side, with Sri Lanka having begun the Super Fours with defeat to Bangladesh. Farhan, though, dismissed the idea that preparation was a concern.Related

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“We’re very well prepared. The boys are confident ahead of the Sri Lanka game because this wasn’t a one-sided game; it was one we took right to the end.”That increased optimism is largely down to Farhan himself. His start, particularly in the way he took down Jasprit Bumrah in the powerplay, as well as the aggression against Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel in the four overs that followed, took Pakistan to 91 for 1 in ten overs, their highest midway total against India. Despite a post-drinks slowdown which robbed them of momentum, Pakistan posted 171, requiring India to complete the highest successful chase of the tournament for victory.”I worked a lot on my six hitting,” Farhan, who hit three sixes and is Pakistan’s highest run-scorer of the tournament, said. “When I used to score runs before, there were very few boundaries among them. If we’d won this game, it would have been very valuable to me. Performing against India is very highly rated but I just regret we didn’t win the game today.”The mistake we were making in previous matches was losing wickets early on and not utilising the powerplay. This time around our powerplay was brilliant, with 91 in 10 overs. There was a collapse in the middle and we’ll look to rectify that.”When, with a six of Axar, Farhan reached his half-century, he opted to celebrate in a manner that raised eyebrows at the time, with Farhan cocking his bat and miming the firing of a gun. It was just one of the flashpoints in an ill-tempered game between the two sides, though Farhan said there was nothing to read into it.”That celebration was just a spur of the moment. I rarely celebrate when I get to fifty,” he said. “But when I got there I suddenly got the idea of celebrating, and so I did without knowing or caring how people would interpret it. We should play aggressive cricket against any team, not just India, the way we played today.”Farhan hoped Pakistan and India aren’t done with each other yet in the Asia Cup. “We’d love to be able to meet India again in the final.”Their trip to Abu Dhabi is likely to have a huge say in determining how realistic that ambition is.

Shubman Gill has been the man all through this tour and once again he was able to tick off a record – most runs by an India captain in a Test series – but his poor luck with the toss continued. And just as he was helping get his team past that disadvantage he was run out for his first score past 20 and under 100 since arriving in England, meaning he had gotten a start and, against the odds, gave it away. Ten balls later, the rain came and swept everyone back into the dressing room. It was as untimely as a wicket could ever be, leaving India at 85 for 3.B Sai Sudharsan was the batter at the other end, and although he took a step forward, there was no way he was going to make it across for a single. Of all the ways to get out on a pitch with 8mm of grass and consistent sideways movement – both swing and seam. India were negotiating all that well for the most part. Gus Atkinson, returning to the fold after just a second XIs game to judge his fitness, was the single biggest threat from England. He took down Yashasvi Jaiswal in the fourth over and had a part to play in the Gill run-out as well – quick to spot the opportunity in his follow-through and nailing a direct hit at the keeper’s end.England went into the Oval Test with a vastly changed bowling attack, Chris Woakes the unlikely survivor despite playing all five matches. Ben Stokes was out with injury. Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse were rested and the replacements didn’t seem quite up for it. Josh Tongue gave away 11 runs in wides in his first over and Jamie Overton’s first three overs cost more than five runs apiece. Atkinson was keeping them in it, his first spell a wonderful example of how to keep it simple and reap the rewards on offer. He pitched the ball up, kept a tight line around off stump and walked away with figures of 6-1-7-1.India, though, were recovering from that. Sai Sudharsan was leaving the ball well – a marked improvement from the last Test where he was out for a duck leaving the ball to second slip – and seemed better equipped to handle balls aimed at his body as well. He is 28 off 84, having played some gorgeous drives down the ground. There were only six overs bowled in the middle session due to rain interruptions but that was still enough to cause a significant dent to India, whose hopes now lie with one batter who made his debut on this tour and another on the comeback trail which might not have a lot of trail left. Karun Nair, brought back in place of Shardul Thakur, was unbeaten on 0 off 8 at tea.

Colin Munro enjoyed a triumphant return to the Trinbago Knight Riders, scoring a record-breaking century in his first game back with the CPL team he had represented for seven years until 2022. He smashed 120 off 57 balls – no TKR batter has made more – to set up a total of 231, which paved the way to a 12-run victory over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots.Munro, who has retired from international cricket but continues to be a force in T20 leagues the world over, made his first T20 century in four years, and celebrated it by tossing his bat and punching the air with both fists. He was last seen in the CPL two years ago, playing for the St Lucia Kings, and practically matched the work he did in six games for them (172 runs) with just one innings here.Munro was at his attacking best, hitting 14 fours and six sixes which constituted over 60% of TKR’s 33 boundaries. His opening partner Alex Hales gave him good support with 47 off 27 balls. The start they got – 77 runs in the powerplay, and the hundred up in 47 balls – allowed TKR to cruise to their third-highest total in the CPL.Patriots made a good go of the chase, with Kyle Mayers and Andre Fletcher hammering 80 runs in less than eight overs. But once their partnership was broken, so was the rhythm of the chase. TKR used their spinners to good effect, with Akeal Hosein picking up 1 for 25 in his four overs, and Usman Tariq landing crucial blows, in particular breaking a rampaging first-wicket stand, and finishing with 4 for 33.Patriots captain Jason Holder fought with 44 off 22 balls despite wickets falling around him. His side was left to score 43 runs off the last over, which eventually went for 30. Terrance Hinds started by giving a single to Dominic Drakes, before Naseem Shah hit a six. Five wides followed, and Hinds went off the field clutching his right side.Munro replaced Hinds, and started with a beamer. Naseem then got 4, 6, 1, and Drakes finished with another six. Patriots nearly chased 232 down.