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Australian allrounder Charli Knott starred with ball and then bat as defending champions Southern Vipers put Lancashire Thunder in a spin at Emirates Old Trafford en route to a crucial seven-wicket victory in the race for Charlotte Edwards Cup Finals Day later this month.Vipers bowled their hosts out for just 85 in 19.5 overs as spinners Linsey Smith and Knott returned 3 for 9 and 3 for 15 respectively from their excellent four-over spells.That virtually settled a clash between a Thunder side who started the day fourth in the table, one point ahead of Vipers in fifth. After impressing with her offspinners, Knott opened the batting for the Vipers and dominated their chase with 45 off 28 balls.Vipers won with 55 balls remaining. No side in CE Cup history has ever claimed a quicker victory.Vipers, champions in 2022 and 2023, continued their dominance over Thunder in the regional era and won this one with a bonus point, claiming the maximum five points available for their third win in six games. Thunder have now won two and lost four. Both have four group games left.Across both 50-over and T20 cricket, Vipers are unbeaten in 10 matches against the Red Rose, winning nine. One was last season’s T20 semi-final. The odd one out was a 50-over tie.Unfortunately for Thunder, they didn’t get anywhere near victory here – in spin-friendly conditions – and only just avoided posting the lowest ever total in the three-and-a-half-year history of this T20 competition.That still belongs to the now defunct Lightning side, who were bowled out for 81 by Central Sparks at Leicester in 2021. Thunder, however, did post their own lowest T20 regional total. Former Viper Tara Norris top-scored with 13 down the order.Eight of Thunder’s 10 wickets fell to spin amidst a flurry of injudicious shots. England offie Charlie Dean and captain Georgia Adams both struck once, added to two for seamer Freya Davies.England fringe left-arm spinner Smith set the tone in a three-over spell with the new ball, bowling Australian Katie Mack, Seren Smale and Emma Lamb.The departures of Mack and Smale, one trying to cut a ball too close to her and the other playing across the line, came in successive deliveries in the third over, leaving Thunder 11 for 3. Smith later had Lamb bowled off an under-edge trying to sweep.Two of Knott’s wickets came courtesy of Rhianna Southby stumpings as Danni Collins and Kate Cross departed. She also had Ellie Threlkeld caught at mid-off.Dean had England team-mate Sophie Ecclestone caught at cover for 4.As wickets fell, Thunder continued to attack – until the point of no return. Norris came in at 58 for 7 in the 13th over and compiled her 13 without hitting a boundary. In hindsight, more of her team-mates should have adopted the same calm approach.Overseas allrounder Knott then drove the first ball of the Vipers’ chase, off Cross, to the cover boundary, and latched onto anything full or short in hitting nine fours.By the time England spin legend Ecclestone came on to bowl the fourth over, Vipers were set at 25 without loss.They never looked like letting things slip, despite Ecclestone getting Knott stumped by Threlkeld – 55 for 1 in the sixth. Ella McCaughan fell without adding to the score as Ecclestone claimed two of the three consolatory wickets for Thunder.

10 overs Melbourne Stars suffered a costly WBBL loss just before finals as Sydney Thunder captain Phoebe Litchfield dominated a rain-affected encounter. Unable to reach the finals, Thunder destroyed the title-contending Stars by nine wickets in their last game of the tournament at the Junction Oval in Melbourne.Due to persistent rain, the match was shortened to ten overs a side as the Stars managed just 66 for 6 after being sent in to bat. Litchfield and fellow Australia young gun Georgia Voll made light work of the DLS-revised target of 76, securing the winning runs with 17 balls to spare.With just 11 runs needed and rain starting to fall again, Litchfield attempted one big shot too many and was out to Annabel Sutherland for a destructive 37 from 23 balls. Voll was untroubled by losing her opening partner, making an unbeaten 33 from 18 balls.Fellow big-hitter Laura Harris smashed the winning runs with a reverse ramp for four. Voll also chimed in with 2 for 13 to be named player of the match.The defeat is bound to have serious ramifications for the Stars, who entered the match placed second on the ladder. Hobart Hurricanes are locked in to host the final on December 13 as minor premiers, but the other three spots in the four remain up for grabs.Stars will wait nervously on other results, with Perth Scorchers hosting the winless Brisbane Heat on Saturday night. If the Scorchers, as expected, win, they will jump ahead of Stars into second.In the last game before finals, Sydney Sixers can also overtake Stars if they beat Adelaide Strikers at North Sydney Oval on Sunday.Thunder will finish the tournament in seventh, winning four of their 10 games.

Former New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent has swapped the pitch for the stage, addressing a conference in Melbourne about match-fixing.Just over ten years ago, Vincent was banned for life for his involvement in attempting to manipulate multiple matches around the world, including in England, South Africa, India and Bangladesh.Ahead of a Victoria Police symposium on Tuesday that will look at a range of integrity-related issues in sport, Vincent told AAP it’s not just international cricket that is susceptible to match-fixing, but any sport that is live-streamed.Related

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“It’s not so much just cricket, it’s all sports – you’ve got third grade soccer in New Zealand that nobody knows and you’ve got ten people watching but because it’s live-streamed on internet, it can be bet on,” Vincent said. “Anything that’s filmed and [is] live on the internet, they find a way to underground betting sites and anything can be bet on so it’s not so much just the professional sport, it’s the amateur sport.”That’s why we’ve got to do everything possible to protect corruption in all sports at all levels.”While sport governing bodies are doing their bit to educate their athletes, Vincent said nothing beat a first-person warning.”I’ve got a powerful message to the next generation and the future generation of sports players where they can easily be manipulated or corrupted into this dark underworld, which I’ve lived first-hand,” he said. “I pretty much destroyed my life, destroyed my career, destroyed my future in sport, but this is a small part of giving back, to help educate.”The biggest influence I can have and we can have in the sports integrity world is purely education and the more young athletes know about it, the more they’ll be aware of the signs and the people to avoid.”Having played 23 Tests – he scored a century against Australia on debut – and more than 100 ODIs, Vincent became involved in spot-fixing back in 2008 when he had lost his New Zealand contract.Signing up to play in the short-lived Indian Cricket League, he initially rebuffed offers from a bookmaker in a hotel room as a “down payment” and reported it. But the then 28-year-old then decided to take the next opportunity when approached by a team-mate, admitting greed as well as wanting a sense of belonging were motivating factors.”I was a prime target to be dragged in; a brotherhood who will look after you,” he said. “The league that we were playing in wasn’t sanctioned by the ICC, so how it was sold to me was like, these games we’re playing in, it’s not real cricket… so you’re not doing anything wrong and everybody’s doing it.”Vincent said a simple example of how he would spot-fix during a T20 match was to score between 10 and 15 runs off 20 balls, and then get out.With threats to his safety or that of his family, he described it as a “noose around his neck”, which only disappeared when he retired and came clean.Two years ago, the global life ban was partially relaxed and Vincent has been able to “participate” at the professional domestic level or below.Working as a builder in New Zealand, he said he would continue to make amends and share his story. “I’ve had to start life again and missed out on a career in a sport I love,” he said. “In a strange way, by owning what I did and being given an opportunity to use my story as a massive educational lesson for the next generation, it’s kind of been worth it.”

Yash Rathod’s career-best 194, Saransh Jain’s 69 with the bat in the first innings and a match haul of 8 for 179 with the ball, and Rajat Patidar’s quick 101 headlined Central Zone’s first Duleep Trophy win in close to 11 years. Chasing just 65 on the final morning, Central lost four wickets, but Akshay Wadkar and Rathod held their composure to give their side a six-wicket win over South Zone at BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.There was plenty of grip and bounce for left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma on the fifth morning, while fast bowler Gurjapneet Singh also found enough movement to keep South interested. They both picked up two wickets, but the 65-run target was never going to be daunting.Danish Malewar got off the mark with a clip through midwicket for two but fell soon after edging Ankit behind. It was a gently tossed up delivery from Ankit that pitched and turned sharply away from Malewar, who was drawn into a tentative drive.Shubham Sharma got away two streaky fours off Gurjapneet. He first edged the fast bowler to the right of wicketkeeper Mohammed Azharuddeen, who was wrong-footed, and then got a thickish outside edge that flew past gully. However, Shubham’s luck ran out the very next ball when he went after a fuller-length outswinger from Gurjapneet, but could only get an outside edge to Azharuddeen.Jain, promoted to No. 4, flashed Gurjapneet over point first up but fell the next ball, getting a thick inside edge on to his pad with short leg taking a simple catch as Central slipped to 24 for 3.Patidar played and missed a number of times early, but Central kept taking the aggressive route, even as Wadkar pumped Ankit through midwicket off the back foot, and then square drove Gurjapneet.Patidar survived a stumping chance, and once the early morning moisture dried out, he played a few more shots, notably two lovely on-the-up drives to the left of mid-off against Ankit. But he fell with Central 16 runs away, toe-ending a sweep off Ankit straight up, with the fielder at mid-on doing the rest.Wadkar, eamwhile, got the target down to single figures before Rathod fittingly hit the winning runs, punching V Koushik through covers to end the game in 20.3 overs. It was Central’s seventh Duleep Trophy title (including one shared), and their first since the 2014-15 season, where also they beat South.

The back-to-back wickets in the eighth over of Sri Lanka’s innings swung this Asia Cup Super Four match towards Pakistan – this was how Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka, who was the first of the two batters to be dismissed in that passage, saw it.Sri Lanka had been 58 for 3 after 7.1 overs, when Asalanka was caught at deep square-leg off the bowling of Hussain Talat. Next ball, Dasun Shanaka poked at a delivery in the channel and sent a thin edge to the wicketkeeper. Sri Lanka were suddenly five down with more than 60% of the overs remaining. The limped to 133 for 8 in the end.”Although we didn’t get a great start from the openers, at the end of the powerplay we still had 53 runs. We’d lost three wickets, but we were still in a good place, because it’s not easy to score that many in the powerplay,” Asalanka said. “But then myself and Dasun got out off successive deliveries, and that was when the biggest damage was done.Related

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“Neither Dasun or I were going for big shots when we got out. I was trying to put the ball into a gap, but ended up top-edging it. Dasun also played a normal shot first up. But we have to take responsibility.”That Sri Lanka managed to have something to bowl at was down to Kamindu Mendis, who hit 50 off 44 balls, with support from Wanindu Hasaranga and Chamika Karunaratne.”We lost five wickets in the first half of our innings, and against these kinds of teams it’s really hard to come back from that,” Asalanka said. “Kamindu and the others fought hard, but Wanindu also got out at a bad time, when it had felt like we could get to 150. In the end it was not enough.”Sri Lanka are very nearly out of the tournament now, having suffered two big losses in the Super Four stage. They had strengthened their bowling for this match, dropping Kamil Mishara for Karunaratne. Asalanka identified balancing his team as perhaps the primary problem facing Sri Lanka ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup.”We’ve had lots of issues with our combinations, and that’s something we have to get right ahead of the World Cup,” he said. “We tried going with an extra bowler today, but we lost a specialist batsman because of that, and didn’t score the runs we needed. Other times we’ve played an extra batsman and couldn’t defend a score with the ball.”We need to figure out how to consistently score 180 to 200, and also how to use the part-time bowlers – myself, Dasun, Kamindu Mendis – better. Those are things we need to improve in the future.”