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Trent Rockets women have appointed Chris Read as their new head coach.The former Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper and captain has been promoted from his assistant role held under previous incumbent Jon Lewis, who left the Women’s Hundred side at the end of the 2025 campaign after three years in charge.Read is a cult hero at Trent Bridge, having made over 700 appearances in all formats for Nottinghamshire across 19 years, serving as club captain for 10 seasons. He earned 15 Test caps for England, alongside 36 ODI appearances.Rockets will enter the 2026 season under new management following the acquisition of a 49% stake by Cain International – whose co-founders Todd Boehly and Jonathan Goldstein are part of the consortium that owns Chelsea FC – and private equity firm Ares Management. They will run the organisation, with Nottinghamshire retaining a 51% stake.Read’s move into coaching has recently included success as with Lancashire Women, marshalling them to two trophies this year. Last week, he signed a two-year deal to remain as their head coach through to the end of 2027.Read’s coaching staff at Rockets will include another former Nottinghamshire team-mate, Luke Fletcher, as assistant coach.”It’s a deeply proud moment to take on a head coaching role based at the ground that I have a huge number of unbelievably special memories at,” said Read in a statement. “I’ve really enjoyed developing my coaching skillset with the Rockets over the last three summers, and the opportunity to continue that journey is really exciting.”I felt the impact of a sold-out Trent Bridge crowd first-hand over many years, and I know how much their support can change the course of games.”With all the fresh energy and investment into the Hundred, I’m really looking forward to starting the preparation for 2026 and beyond as we bid to deliver success.”Rockets general manager Mick Newell, who coached Read at Nottinghamshire, added: “It’s a real full-circle moment for Chris to return to Trent Bridge to lead Trent Rockets, and we’re delighted to welcome him back.”Having established himself as a true club legend here with years of outstanding service as a player, he has now shown himself to be blossoming into an excellent coach and leader too.”His fantastic start to a coaching career at Lancashire, and his experience from previous years with the Rockets, will stand him in great stead, and we can’t wait to see him in his new role.”Despite boasting a strong group, which includes current England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, Rockets have yet to reach the final of the Women’s Hundred. Their best finish came in 2022, losing the Eliminator to Southern Brave.

Pakistan and Oman will kick off the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) Rising Stars T20 tournament in Doha, Qatar, on November 14, with the showpiece India vs Pakistan match slotted for November 16. On Friday, the organisers announced the two groups: Group A has Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka, while Group B has India, Oman, Pakistan and UAE.The tournament, earlier known as the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup, will be played in the T20 format and pit the ‘A’ teams of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The three Associate teams, Hong Kong, Oman and UAE, will field their main teams. Two games will be played each day from November 14 to November 19, before the semi-finals are played on November 21 and the final on November 23.This will be the first cricketing exchange between the men’s teams of India and Pakistan since the senior Asia Cup in September, though the senior women’s teams faced off at the ODI World Cup earlier this month.

ACC Rising Stars tournament schedule

Nov 14 – Oman vs Pak; Ind vs UAE
Nov 15 – Ban vs HK; Afg vs SL
Nov 16 – Oman vs UAE; Ind vs Pak
Nov 17 – HK vs SL; Afg vs Ban
Nov 18 – Pak vs UAE; Ind vs Oman
Nov 19 – Afg vs HK; Ban vs SL
Nov 21 – Semi-finals: A1 vs B2; B1 vs A2
Nov 23 – Final

When the men played the Asia Cup, there were no handshakes or any other form of greetings between the players of the two countries, and it ended with India, the tournament champions, leaving Dubai without the trophy. It emerged that they had decided not to receive the trophy from the ACC chief, Mohsin Naqvi, who is also a parliamentarian in Pakistan and the chairman of the PCB. An ACC official removed the trophy from the dais after a long delay once it became clear that the victors would not be coming up to collect it.The Emerging Teams tournament began in 2013 and has had six editions so far, having started as an Under-23s tournament before being switched to a competition featuring ‘A’ teams. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have won it twice each, while India and Afghanistan have won it once apiece – Afghanistan won the last edition, in 2024 in Oman, beating Sri Lanka in the final by seven wickets.

Middlesex 217 (Geddes 48, De Caires 43, Lintott 5-37) beat Warwickshire 189 (Shaikh 42, Hollman 4-27) by 28 runsMiddlesex’s completed back-to-back Metro Bank One-Day Cup victories on the road as they beat Warwickshire by 28 runs at Rugby School.The visitors chose to bat on a turning pitch and were bowled out for 217 as Jake Lintott equalled his career-best List A figures of 5 for 37. Captain Ben Geddes struck 48 off 57 balls but while four of Middlesex’s top six passed 30, none reached 50.Warwickshire replied with 189 all out as Luke Hollman added a List A best 4 for 27 to his valuable 33 with the bat. Hamza Shaikh top-scored with 42 off 72 but in a losing cause as the game yielded no individual half-century.Fresh from chasing down a record 387 at Durham two days earlier, Middlesex chose to bat first, forcing the home side to chase on a pitch likely to turn more the longer the match went. The early loss of Joe Cracknell, bowled by Olly Hannon-Dalby, brought in Sam Robson, hero of that record runfest with 169 not out, but this time Robson reached only 17 before a Hannon-Dalby in-ducker shattered his stumps.Joshua De Caires batted fluently for 43 (59) but then lifted Adam Sylvester to deep midwicket. Geddes and Jack Davies added 50 in 11 overs to take their side to 157 for 3 in the 33rd over but attacking the spinners was a risky business and the last seven wickets fell for 60 in 16 overs.Geddes and Davies were lbw to flighted balls from Lintott and Rob Yates respectively. Nathan Fernandes also perished lbw, providing Vansh Jani with his first wicket for Warwickshire.Hollman (33, 40) struck Tazeem Ali out of the ground but skied a reverse sweep at Lintott who then wrapped up the innings with a triple-wicket maiden. With the first two balls of an over he dismissed former Bear Henry Brookes (bowled) and Bear-to-be-next-season Nathan Gilchrist (lbw). Four balls later, James Feldman became the innings’ fifth lbw victim and Lintott had his second career List A five-for.Warwickshire’s reply reached 61 for the loss of only Ed Barnard, whose off stump was disturbed by Toby Roland Jones, but Hollman then struck in successive overs. Zen Malik was bowled and Alex Davies chipped a full toss to mid-off.Brookes struck a big blow against his former club, uprooting the anchor as Yates (38, 55) played on. Hollman collected his third wicket when Kai Smith hammered to backward point. As the spinners turned the screw, Shaikh charged and missed at Fernandes and Jani pulled and missed at De Caires and was lbw.Hollman extracted bounce to find Tazeem Ali’s edge through to wicketkeeper Cracknell and when Lintott lapped Gilchrist to Cracknell, Warwickshire’s last wickets had to find 30. They found just one before De Caires bowled Hannon-Dalby.

India overturned a sequence of three straight losses to beat New Zealand in style to seal the fourth semi-final spot in Navi Mumbai on Thursday. India qualified for the knockouts by virtue of having more wins than New Zealand. The winner of Saturday’s game between South Africa and Australia will determine their last-four opponents.Harmanpreet Kaur lost the toss, but India bettered their previous World Cup best of 330 – achieved earlier in the tournament against Australia in Visakhapatnam – courtesy centuries from Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal, and an excellent unbeaten 76 from Jemimah Rodrigues, who returned to the XI, replacing allrounder Amanjot Kaur.India’s 340 for 3 in 49 overs was then DLS-adjusted to a target of 325 in 44 overs for New Zealand, asking them to achieve the highest-ever chase in women’s ODIs, after over two hours were lost due to rain. While there were no weather interruptions for the rest of the evening, New Zealand’s timid approach left them too many to get (168) in the last 15 overs.Brooke Halliday constructed an 81-ball 84, but New Zealand couldn’t flex their muscle at any point. This was partly down to losing wickets at regular intervals, and partly to India’s spinners making it difficult for their batters after Renuka Singh took the early wickets of Georgia Plimmer and Sophie Devine, both bowled off devious in-duckers.Halliday put on 72 for the sixth wicket with Isabella Gaze, who brought up a career best, unbeaten 76, but they merely delayed the inevitable as New Zealand’s innings petered to a predictable close; they eventually finished at 271 for 8.Pratika Rawal hit 13 fours and two sixes•AFP/Getty Images

The good work by Renuka and Kranti Gaud in the first powerplay – they didn’t concede a single boundary in the first six overs of New Zealand’s chase – allowed India a little bit of leeway, considering they were playing with just five specialist bowlers. Rawal, who top-scored with 122, her second ODI century, played the role of sixth bowler, and even picked up a maiden World Cup wicket when she dismissed Maddy Green off a miscue.But all that paled in comparison to what Rawal did with the bat. She and Mandhana overcame a slow start – India only scored 18 in their first six overs – to put together their seventh century stand, the joint-most by an Indian pair in Women’s ODIs. They shifted gears effortlessly to raise the century stand in 17.4 overs, with Mandhana and Rawal bringing up their half-centuries off 49 and 75 balls respectively.Mandhana wasn’t up and running until the seventh over when she brought out the sweep at the first sight of spin, against Eden Carson. Seemingly keen on dominating the slow bowlers, she was quick to step out and deposit Carson over wide long-off in her second over.Rawal was superb square of the wicket with the cut and pull, taking on Lea Tahuhu as the seamer began expensively after coming on after 10 overs. Rawal took her down for two statement fours — a short-arm jab over midwicket followed by a lofted straight hit that she enjoyed so much that she held the pose for the cameras.Mandhana enjoyed a huge slice of luck on 77 when she reluctantly reviewed an lbw, only because Rawal had coaxed her into it. And when the giant screen replayed her missed slog, Mandhana began to walk off, only to see UltraEdge showing the tiniest of spikes as ball passed bat. She soon brought up her 14th ODI century, which put her just one short of Meg Lanning’s all-time record, off just 88 deliveries.Renuka Singh took the early wickets of Georgia Plimmer and Sophie Devine•Getty Images

By then, Mandhana was tiring and cramping, and she was ready to throw her bat at everything. She nailed one such hit, a perfectly-timed slog for six off Amelia Kerr, and fell attempting a similar stroke when she was caught by substitute fielder Hannah Rowe at long-on off Suzie Bates, which ended the opening stand at 212.Rawal brought up her second ODI century, off 122 balls, and was helped along in her quest to accelerate as Rodrigues picked her spots and executed her strokes with precision. Rawal followed suit by hitting her first six soon after raising her century, and was then put down on 108 by Maddy Green coming in from the long-off fence. Rawal eventually perished for 122 when she miscued Bates to Rowe once again at long-off.Rodrigues then dominated her fourth-wicket stand with Harmanpreet, before rain forced the covers to come on at the 48-over mark. The match was initially reduced to 49 overs a side, endured another interruption after India ended their innings, cutting five more overs out of the chase.Rodrigues was at her cheeky best. She swept, reverse-swept, opened up the off side to play pristine inside-out drives, and scythed full deliveries behind square when the bowlers went full. She exhibited her full range in an innings loaded with intent, hitting 11 fours in 55 balls.On a day when most things went right for India, including the decision to play Rodrigues and give her the No. 3 spot, she may have yet given the team management some food for thought ahead of the semi-finals.