Cricket
ESPNcricinfo staff 6y

In Case You Missed It: Stokes is back, Nasir Jamshed is banned, and St Lucia finally win

Cricket

The biggest news of the week was Ben Stokes being found not guilty on charges of affray for his involvement in a fight outside a pub in Bristol last September. England would have celebrated while India would have felt uneasy about their chances at Trent Bridge. (Although things have taken quite a turn since then.)

Watch: Stokes returns to the England camp
He signed autographs, posed for photos, and played football - business as usual, but perhaps with some additional perspective on life.

India in command after Pandya five-for
Sixteen wickets fell on day two at Trent Bridge, five of those to Hardik Pandya as England were bowled out for 161 in reply to India's 329. In swinging conditions, Pandya bowled in a controlled manner, with 83% of his deliveries pitching full or at good length, writes Nagraj Gollapudi. Alastair Cook was England's top scorer in their paltry total, but it's hard to deny that he is in an inexorable decline, writes George Dobell.

Dobell is multi-talented, you know. On Polite Enquiries, he does impressions of England players doing Winston Churchill's famous "We shall fight on the beaches" speech.

Former India captain Ajit Wadekar dies aged 77
Wadekar, who led India to historic series wins in the West Indies and England in 1971, had been ill for a while. Anil Kumble and Mohammad Azharuddin remembered him as "a father figure", and Ajinkya Rahane recalled the time Wadekar advised him to "play khadoos". Suresh Menon recalled the man who oversaw Indian cricket's transition from an also-ran to a world power. Sunil Gavaskar paid tribute to the one who was always "my captain".

Darren Bravo, McCullum turn tables on Stars in breathtaking chase
In the second week of the Caribbean Premier League, Darren Bravo and Brendon McCullum chased down 85 runs in the last five overs to give Trinbago Knight Riders a close win over St Lucia Stars in a high-scoring game. A day later St Lucia turned around their miserable losing streak of 14 matches (last having won a game in July 2016) after Kieron Pollard's maiden T20 century helped them beat Barbados Tridents by 38 runs.

Imran Khan is sworn in as Pakistan's prime minister
While the elections had confirmed Imran's victory, he was formally appointed PM after winning a parliamentary vote against rival candidate Shehbaz Sharif by 176 votes to 96. Inzamam-ul-Haq, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed - part of Imran's 1992 World Cup-winning squad - were among those who attended his inauguration. Former India batsman Navjot Sidhu was the only foreign cricketer present at the event.

Watch: Searching for Sachin
In 1990, Andrew Miller went to watch England v India at The Oval as a young boy and tried to get the autograph of a rising superstar on his bat. The pen didn't work then, so 28 years later he sought out Sachin Tendulkar once again to get his signature on the bat for reals this time.

Gary Stead named New Zealand coach
The former New Zealand and Canterbury batsman takes over from Mike Hesson for a two-year term.

What We Remember: 1993-2018
It's our 25th anniversary, so we're getting nostalgic. Watch: our look back at Sri Lanka's World Cup win in 1996, and Brian Lara being totally epic against Australia in Barbados in 1999.

Watch: Sileby CC get the ESPNcricinfo match-day experience
Club cricketers everywhere dream of having their moment of glory on camera (and possibly also of having ESPNcricinfo player pages?). We partnered up with NatWest's #NoBoundaries campaign to offer this experience to the players playing the Sileby Town Ladies v Charlbury Women game at Loughborough - ball-by-ball, interviews and lots more.

AB de Villiers has absolutely 'no regrets' about leaving 'unbearable' pressures behind
After retiring from international cricket in May, de Villiers opened up about the toll the game can take on a player's body and mind: "I truly believe that players who tell you they don't feel the pressure of international cricket, of being away from home for months at a time, are lying to everyone and themselves."

Nasir Jamshed banned for ten years on corruption charges
Pakistan batsman Nasir Jamshed has been banned for ten years after an independent anti-corruption tribunal found him guilty of five of the seven breaches of the PCB's anti-corruption code he had been charged with on after news first emerged of spot-fixing in the Pakistan Super League last year. According to the PCB, he was the "lynchpin" connecting several corruption cases and he faced charges of approaching and soliciting other players for fixing.

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