He produced a knock for the ages in conditions favouring the fast bowlers but fell five short of what would have been a maiden ODI century

Andrew Fidel Fernando09-Jan-2024In only his second ODI, Janith Liyanage produced a match-defining performance, one that took his side to a thrilling win against Zimbabwe in Colombo on Monday. His 95 off 127 balls was by far the highest individual score for Sri Lanka in the second ODI, the next-best score being 21 as the hosts sneaked home by two wickets.Liyanage did, however, fall five runs short of a maiden international ton, when he attempted to thump Blessing Muzarabani down the ground for six in the 43rd over, and was caught at mid-off instead. On the surface, it appeared an unnecessary stroke as Muzarabani was one of Zimbabwe’s most threatening bowlers, and Sri Lanka still had 46 balls in which to get the 37 runs they needed. What’s more, Liyanage’s departure left Sri Lanka with only two wickets remaining and put Zimbabwe again into the ascendancy.The hosts would hobble to their target of 209 eventually, as rainfall intensified in the roughly half hour of play. Liyanage explained that it was the rain – rather than the scoreline, or the desire to reach a century – that forced him to take the risk in the 43rd over.Related

• Liyanage, Theekshana, tailenders give Sri Lanka thrilling win

“More than the century, what I wanted was to get the team to victory,” he said. “At that time, we were about five runs behind the DLS score. So I thought if I hit a six in that over, we’d be able to win even if the match stopped because of rain. All I thought of was winning the match, and I’m glad we were able to get there.”Liyanage had also earlier put on a 56-run seventh-wicket stand alongside Maheesh Theekshana, to lift Sri Lanka from a scoreline of 112 for 6. Theekshana contributed only 18 to this partnership, which saw Liyanage bat more aggressively than he had earlier in the innings. But he chose his targets carefully.”When Maheesh and I were batting, they [Zimbabwe] were bowling their best bowlers, and they only had a few overs left,” Liyanage said. “So our plan was to get two or three runs an over off their best bowlers, then take the game into the last five or six overs, and score our runs there. “The rain had been in the air for much of the chase, with it forcing a long delay 13 overs into Sri Lanka’s innings. The moisture had assisted Zimbabwe’s quicks, according to Liyanage.”We lost two wickets at the start, and with the rain, the ball started to move a bit. So I thought at time that they’ve got two fast bowlers, so I’ll defend against them and if I bat for a while and get set, I could bat till the end. Their tall quicks got a bit extra out of the conditions with the rain.”

Ireland’s run chase never got going after Naveen had struck with his first two deliveries

Himanshu Agrawal18-Mar-2024Ibrahim Zadran smashed an unbeaten 72, his highest T20I score, Azmatullah Omarzai took more wickets than the amount of runs he has scored in the entire series and Naveen-ul-Haq found himself in plenty of action on the field. As a result, Afghanistan won the third T20I against Ireland by 57 runs, and with it, came back from 1-0 down to win the series 2-1.Related

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Ibrahim’s sixth T20I half-century took Afghanistan to 155, and Ireland’s chase was never on. Naveen struck twice and Fazalhaq Farooqi once to reduce them to 15 for 3 in the third over. There was a brief recovery when Harry Tector and Curtis Campher added 24, but that was that. Campher and Gareth Delany briefly gave hope when they countered from 46 for 5, but Ireland lost 5 for 16 in a lower-order collapse, as Omarzai bagged a career-best 4 for 9, and Naveen finished with 3 for 10.

Sloppy Delany all around

Ibrahim was on 10 when Delany dropped a simple catch off Campher in the sixth over. Placed at deep square leg, he didn’t move as much forward as he should have even while keeping his eyes on the skier.When Delany came on to bowl the seventh over, he failed to collect a throw from short third, and allowed Sediqullah Atal an extra run. Next over, Delany dropped a difficult catch of Omarzai after turning around and running forward from point off Campher again. But on 1 at that point, Omarzai fell for 3 just two balls after. Then there was another misfield from Delany in the ninth over.As if that was not enough, Ireland faced more misfortune – exactly like in the first T20I. Ben White had Mohammad Ishaq caught at deep midwicket in the 13th over, but the umpire ruled it to be a no-ball even as replays indicated that the heel, which was the first point of impact, had landed just behind the line. Ishaq was on 15 at the time, and went on to score 27, before a great catch by Paul Stirling off White had him caught in the 15th over.

Ibrahim powers Afghanistan

Coming into this game, Ibrahim’s T20I strike rate was just short of 105. But on Monday night, be scored his runs at 141. He had hit only one four in a sedate start before he was dropped, as he managed just 12 from his first 13 balls. But his next 38 deliveries saw him smash 60.Ibrahim kept finding the occasional boundary during the fourth-wicket stand of 54 with Ishaq, while also ticking over singles and twos. He pulled and slog swept off White, and drilled Josh Little to extra cover after making room. But Ibrahim reserved two stylish shots for Mark Adair, whom he swatted wide over long-off for six, and scooped over short fine for four in the 18th over.

Naveen sets the tone in powerplay

Bowling the second over, Naveen’s first ball saw massive seam movement and extra bounce. The ball landed on a good length on sixth stump, but went on to hit the top of Andy Balbirnie’s leg stump. His second ball swung well in to bowl Lorcan Tucker for a golden duck. Fittingly, Naveen also cleaned White up to end Ireland’s innings for 98, this time foxing the batter with a slower ball.

Omarzai chips in with the ball

Omarzai came into the game after successive first-ball dismissals, and ended the series with only three runs to his name. But he got going with the ball. Moving one away from Tector, he had the batter caught at deep midwicket in the eighth over, before Ireland threatened to rebuild. In the tenth over, Omarzai spotted George Dockrell’s front leg was out of the way, and followed him by angling one in. Dockrell also ended up finding deep midwicket, where Naveen took his second catch.With the game all but done, Omarzai had Adair chopping on before taking a return catch of Barry McCarthy – both in the 16th over. While the slowness of the pitch had Adair pulling early, Omarzai saw McCarthy skipping down, and went short to cramp him for room. A comfortable take to his left gave him four wickets, and Afghanistan the match.

Glamorgan captain makes hay on dank day as home attack suffer uncomfortable return to second tier

Andrew Miller05-Apr-2024Glamorgan 370 for 3 (Northeast 186*, Carlson 77, Root 67) vs MiddlesexIn a dank start to the year, few would be able to state with any confidence that they’ve yet heard their first cuckoo of spring. But cock an ear to the shires on this cold grey day in April, and you’d hear loud and clear the mocking laugh of the Kookaburra – an invasive species in these parts, and one that’s been flown in direct from the Antipodes to disrupt the habitat of county cricket’s native seamers.By the close, Glamorgan’s own man from the south east, Sam Northeast, was laughing longest and loudest. Ashford in Kent is not quite so far flung as the Eucalypt forests of Queensland, but for Middlesex’s toiling bowlers, Northeast might as well have been Ricky Ponting at the Gabba in 2002-03, for all the effortless dominance he exerted after being handed first use of a characteristically flat Lord’s deck.For it was a case of four washouts and one wipeout on the opening day of the 2024 County Championship. The legendary status of the Lord’s drainage meant that London’s morning downpours were never likely to cause the issues encountered at Derby or Old Trafford, but when Toby Roland-Jones won the toss for Middlesex and chose to bowl first, he could not have envisaged a first-day scoreline of 370 for 3 grinning back at him, or that his incorrectly calling counterpart would be sitting pretty on 186 not out from 266 balls.Perhaps, like Nasser Hussain in that fateful Brisbane Test 20 years ago, TRJ’s was an instinctively defensive decision, borne of his team’s memories – almost exactly a year ago to the day – of being reduced to 4 for 4 by Essex’s Jamie Porter and Sam Cook. More likely, though, it was an unthinking assumption that the ball, any ball, would do enough talking to fast-track Middlesex’s bid for an instant return to the top flight.Not so fast. Although the impact was more apparent at Lord’s than elsewhere, if you squinted through the clouds that enveloped this first day of county action, a common theme emerged, with many of the contests reflecting precisely the type of clear-skied Ashes scoreline that this ball-switching experiment has been designed to do away with – a smattering of breakthroughs within the first 15 or so overs, including Ethan Bamber’s snicking-off of Zain-ul-Hassan for this year’s maiden Championship wicket, then scant reward and a lot of hard yakka thereafter.Billy Root notched a fifty after moving up to open the batting•PA Photos/Getty Images

Both Billy Root and Kiran Carlson might have had designs on centuries of their own when each fell to a glaring misjudgement – with Root’s waft across the line to a decent deck-hitting delivery from Henry Brookes giving Middlesex’s new signing his first and only scalp in 12 energetic but under-threatening overs.Northeast did had a moment of luck on 11, when Max Holden spilled him at backward point off Bamber, but he could hardly have made it count with more aplomb. With a short boundary down the hill to the Mound Stand, he peppered his drives as the shine went off the ball and the Kookaburra’s more slender seam resolutely refused to grip.Notwithstanding a schoolboy hundred for Harrow versus Eton in 2007 (when Gary Ballance, no less, had been a team-mate), in three previous Championship matches at Lord’s, dating back to his first-ball duck for Kent as a 21-year-old in 2011, Northeast had mustered a total of 50 runs at 10.00. Now, en route to what he later described as a “bucket-list” century, he rushed past that total from just 51 balls in a joyous spring offensive. At the other end, Root was scarcely any more sluggish in getting to his fifty from 63 balls, in a second-wicket stand of 129.And, in a direct rebuttal of one of the most pervasive pre-season narratives, by mid-afternoon, the home attack was being carried by the unlikely spin twins of Josh De Caires and Leus du Plooy, a man who might already be feeling a touch of buyer’s remorse after his high-profile move from Derbyshire. Du Plooy even found some purchase in his six exploratory overs, including a snorter that bit past the outside edge to clip the back pad, but it wasn’t enough to dislodge a free-flowing Glamorgan captain.By the time he’d flicked the under-used Ryan Higgins off his toes for the 26th and final four, Northeast had romped along to 179 from 241 balls, and with almost an hour of the day still remaining, he seemed odds-on to rack up a remarkable first-day double-hundred.Instead, with the second Kookaburra offering perhaps just a fraction more assistance than the first, he took his foot off the throttle as the close approached – as is the wont of a man who, two seasons ago, racked up the Championship’s most recent quadruple-century. At the rate this innings has progressed, and with the new ball already primed for its mid-life crisis at the age of 16 overs, there’ll be plenty more where those have already come from.”I plan to be very greedy on day two,” Northeast said at the close. “It’s been a fantastic day and I’m not sure we could have dreamt of it this morning. I want to lead from the front, so it is a nice way to start that, but I’d like to be walking away from here with a victory, that’s the most important thing.”It’s been a good toss to lose at the minute. I would have had a bowl as well, but that’s the way things go. We’ll see what it’s like when our bowlers get on it. We were expecting the wicket to do a little bit more, maybe that is the Kookaburra ball. We may have to get a bit imaginative with how we go about things.”Brookes added: “The Kookaburra is different. You don’t get as much movement and the ball doesn’t stay as hard for as long, but it’s here to stay for a few games this year so we have to work hard with it, see what movement we can get and do things a little bit differently.”

Jennings century gives Lancashire a strong platform on tacky pitch in Blackpool

Vithushan Ehantharajah17-May-2024″I’ve tried to get Erling Haaland’s signature for one of these, ” said a punter stood on the bank at the Stanley Park End. “But he flat out refuses.” A framed artist’s sketch in his right hand – the winning moment from Headingley 2019 – is waved towards the Pavilion. “But would sign it, wouldn’t he?”English cricket is a long way off football when it comes to ring-fenced superstars, partly because the latter’s stars are all the more super. UEFA had to go as far as publicly warning their officials for autograph-hunting after an assistant referee requested Haaland’s after a Champions League defeat to Manchester City while at Borussia Dortmund. City had to pay around £52 million for the privilege a year later.But here was Ben Stokes, the country’s most recognisable cricketer long before he became Test captain, at Blackpool Cricket Club within badgering distance of around 1,500 spectators. Our man had already put in the request to Stokes in the morning, who advised to catch him at lunch. There were plenty more waiting by Friday evening.Stokes’ first County Championship match for Durham in almost exactly two years was a fact-finding mission. The soft launch of his “new” left knee came in the foothills of the Himalayas following an operation last November, beginning spectacularly with a wicket off his first delivery of the fifth Test against India. But it was here in a quainter setting on the Fylde Coast – as Lancashire, initially thriving through Keaton Jennings’ second century of the season, then hustling to an eventual day-one score of 350 for 9 – where that cleaned-out joint was given a proper test drive following his introduction in the 10th over of day one.The 17 overs for his 2 for 70 were split across spells of four, two, six and five, with the latter two containing his first County Championship wickets since knocking over Tim Murtagh at Lord’s on May 21, 2022. The signs of a full return as an allrounder for the first Test against West Indies at Lord’s from July 10 are promising.The breakthrough came when Josh Bohannon top-edged a misjudged pull out to Callum Parkinson at deep square leg. That last spell, Stokes’ best of the lot as he extracted movement and pace off a tacky surface with the dregs of the first new ball, saw him remove Tom Bruce caught and bowled off a short length delivery, two overs after whistling one past the Kiwi batter’s ears.Related

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“I think he’ll be a little bit sore tomorrow morning,” Jennings said, having been out in the middle for Stokes’ first three spells. “He was good. There was energy on the ball, he swung it. He did get a little frustrated with himself at times. But that’s Stokesy – if he’s not perfect, he wants to make it perfect.””He gives it his all,” added Ben Raine, the pick of Durham’s attack with 3 for 67. “You saw him today running in, and it’s nice to see him now he’s got his knee operation and stuff like that, bowling pain-free, and happy with his bowling. That’s mint and that’s mint for English cricket. I’m looking forward to seeing the summer that he has.”It was by no means a slick day’s work for Stokes, with three front-foot no-balls and plenty of self-flagellation as he looked to shake off the ring-rust ahead of the Test summer. Or indeed Durham, who after winning the toss and opting to bowl first took time to snap out of their hard-wired first-class lengths and go fuller on a club surface. The four drops, of varying difficulties, did not help either.And the visitors’ annoyance was compounded when Saqib Mahmood closed out the day with a cavalier 40 not out – a new high score for the county, short of a personal best of 49 for England on the 2022 tour of West Indies. Three balls before the close, Nathan Lyon was shelled by Matthew Potts, sprawling low to his right at second slip, off Parkinson.It was a neat bookend for Lancashire, who began with a more traditional stand of 87 between Jennings and Luke Wells after losing the toss. Had one of Ollie Robinson or Scott Borthwick reacted to an edge from Jennings on 28, found by Paul Coughlin, that bisected wicketkeeper and first slip, the opening stand would have been capped on 49. Well’s wicket – caught second slip off Potts, who deserved no less – was the only one to fall in a cloudy opening session.Stokes’ removal of Bohannon started a middle-order cascade of 3 for 51, the last of which was Jennings failing to lift Parkinson over mid-on. It was by no means the smoothest of the Lancashire skipper’s 29 red-ball centuries. He acknowledged as much by patting an infuriated Potts on the back, who had dropped to his haunches mid-pitch after an edge wide of the cordon took Jennings to three figures from his 137th ball with his 15th boundary.That Jennings purveyed empathy in a moment of his own glory is not all that surprising, given his personality and the fact that many of these opponents are friends. The former Durham man tapped into his knowledge of those ex-teammates throughout – walking at Raine to put him off bowling fuller and sitting back to Coughlin to try and coax his lengths forward.Durham’s decision at the toss, while not quite vindicated on Friday, could be over the weekend with the best of the batting conditions on offer on a pitch that is expected to flatten out. Around 2,000 are due here on Saturday, no doubt craving the sight of Stokes’ batting – maybe more so than his signature.

Jon Filby says non-Test grounds will seek independent financial advice over Hundred future

ESPNcricinfo staff08-May-2024Sussex’s chairman has insisted that the prospect of the biggest counties launching a breakaway league to replace the Hundred is “completely not to be feared” and is not a realistic outcome from discussions over the tournament’s future.The ECB and the 18 first-class counties (plus MCC) have met regularly in recent weeks to discuss the details of proposed changes to the Hundred’s ownership model. There is broad agreement that the eight teams should be opened up to private investment, with 51% of shares being transferred from the ECB to the host county (or MCC) and the other 49% sold, with revenues distributed across the game.But the counties have not yet agreed on the way those revenues should be shared. The ECB initially asked counties to agree on a general direction of travel by May 10, but the 11 non-host counties are collectively seeking independent advice which could delay the process significantly.”The non-host county position is that, as in any financial arrangement of this type – and you’re talking hundreds of millions of pounds – that we would have our own proper, impartial advice and that’s what we’re now seeking,” Jon Filby, Sussex’s chairman, told the BBC’s podcast. “We’ll get that and then I’m sure a deal will very quickly follow.”The published excerpts of a leaked email from Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, to counties on Tuesday in which he warns: “Neither current hosts nor current non-hosts are particularly enamoured with the capital structure of the deal… if we lose momentum now then parties will simply be arguing for a larger percentage of a rapidly shrinking pie.”Related

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Filby added: “I think it’s very important that we’re not rushed into it, but equally, I understand that there is a window of opportunity to get a clear position on this by the time that the Hundred comes around towards the end of this season, and that can then be a shop window for that competition. I get all of that, and I’m sure we’re on track for that.”The prospect of a breakaway by the Hundred-hosting counties has reportedly been raised, with the existing framework agreement expiring at the end of the year. Sean Jarvis, the Leicestershire chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo last week that English cricket was facing “our Premier League moment” and said that “it’s the top six or seven clubs that call the tune”.But Filby said that the non-hosting counties should hold firm. “I think a breakaway’s completely not to be feared,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll happen. Who do the teams think they’d play against, and who do they think would play for them? I don’t think it’ll happen, no.”

Pakistan captain felt “given the bowlers we have, we should have defended that total” against USA

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jun-20241:23

Mumtaz: Pakistan seemed to lose their cool

After losing to USA in the Super Over in their opening match of T20 World Cup 2024, Pakistan captain Babar Azam felt that their total of 159 for 7 in the regular time was a defendable one given the conditions and their bowling attack.Sent in after losing the toss, Pakistan lost three early wickets and were 30 for 3 at the end of the powerplay. Babar and Shadab Khan helped them recover with a stand of 72 off 48 for the fourth wicket but USA tied the game and went to win in the Super Over.”Today’s wicket had help for the fast bowlers in the first six overs,” Babar said at the post-match presentation. “But later on, I didn’t feel it was a different wicket. It settled down a bit. Because of the early start – the matches are starting at 10.30am – the fast bowlers will obviously get a little help. There was some juice in the pitch early morning. So they utilised that and executed their plan.”Even in the second innings, I think we also got help, but we were not up to the mark in terms of our bowling areas. We lacked in that in the first ten overs. We came back after that but they had already taken the momentum. But given the bowlers we have, we should have defended that total. On this pitch, I think it was a defendable total for our bowling.Related

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“We are better than that in the bowling. We did not take wickets in the first six overs. In the middle overs, if your spinner is not taking wickets, then the pressure is on you. After ten overs, we did come back but I think the way they finished game in the Super Over, the credit goes to the US team.”For Pakistan, Mohammad Amir conceded 18 in the Super Over. It included three wide deliveries, and seven extras in all as the USA batters, Aaron Jones and Harmeet Singh, kept running for wides too. Pakistan, in response, could manage only 13.”He [Amir] is an experienced bowler,” Babar said. “He knows how to bowl and we were just trying to bowl according to field. But I think the US batsmen were smart. Even when the ball went to the keeper, they were running. So I think that thing was a plus point for them in the Super Over.”Babar Azam never really got going and finished with a 43-ball 44•Associated Press

At the same time, Babar also rued not making use of the platform set by Shadab and him. They had taken Pakistan to 98 for 4 in the 13th over but left-arm spinner Nosthush Kenjige dismissed Shadab and Azam Khan off successive balls to dent them again.”In the first six overs, the ball was holding a bit and seaming around,” Babar said. “So it was important to build a partnership. When Shadab and I had that partnership, we got momentum. I think when we lost the wickets back to back, that was the turning point. The momentum we had was shifted towards the other side.”It was difficult in the beginning, but we covered it up. But as a professional unit, the middle order needs to step up in such situations. This is not an excuse – I don’t think it was that they played well, I think we played badly.”Did Pakistan, the runners-up of the 2022 edition, take first-timers USA lightly?”See, whenever you come to any tournament, you do the best preparation always,” Babar said. “You can say it’s a kind of mindset. When you come up against a team like this, you relax a little. If you don’t execute your plan against any team, then whatever team it is, they will make you pay. So I believe that our execution was not up to the mark. We were doing well in the preparation but in the match, we did not execute our plans as a team.”

Bangladesh vice-captain says he was left out on the day for reasons of team combination

Mohammad Isam02-Jul-2024Bangladesh vice-captain Taskin Ahmed has admitted that he missed the team bus on the morning of their Super Eight game against India in the T20 World Cup 2024 in North Sound, but said that was not the reason he did not play the game. He was left out for team combination reasons, Taskin said.”I was a little late, but I reached at the ground before the toss,” Taskin told Dhaka-based newspaper . “I arrived at the ground around 30-40 minutes before the toss. I missed the team bus. The bus left the hotel at 8.35am. I left for the ground at 8.43am. I almost reached the ground with the bus. It is not as if they didn’t pick me because I arrived late. I wasn’t going to play anyway.”Bangladesh had replaced Taskin with Jaker Ali for the game, with Mahedi Hasan and Shakib Al Hasan opening the bowling. Tamim Iqbal, in his capacity as expert on ESPNcricinfo TimeOut, had said then he was “very surprised” by the move to leave Taskin out. Taskin returned to the line-up for Bangladesh’s next game, against Afghanistan on June 24.Related

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ESPNcricinfo has learned that there was no fine levied on Taskin for the incident. Shakib said on Tuesday that the matter ended after Taskin apologised, though he did say the incident made it “difficult” to select him for the India game.”The bus usually leaves at a certain time. It is the rule that the team bus doesn’t wait for anyone,” Shakib told reporters on Tuesday. “If by chance someone misses the bus, they can arrive in the managers’ car or a taxi.”West Indies is a difficult place for transport. He arrived 5-10 minutes before the toss, so naturally it was difficult for the team management to select him. It was also a difficult situation for the player. Taskin apologised to the team, and everyone took it very normally. It was an unintentional mistake. It ended there.”The incident also came up when BCB president Nazmul Hassan addressed a press conference following a board meeting on Tuesday. “When I saw that Taskin wasn’t in the XI, I called [team manager] Rabeed [Imam], who told me that Taskin missed the team bus,” Hassan said. “But [Rabeed said that] he is now in the field, he arrived a bit late.”I will read the report from the concerned department.”

Fast-bowling allrounder returned 4 for 21 before a fighting innings from Athapaththu confined TKR to a runners-up finish

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Aug-2024A four-wicket haul from fast-bowling allrounder Aaliyah Alleyne paved the way for Barbados Royals’ second Women’s Caribbean Premier League title. In a low-scoring final, Royals restricted Trinbago Knight Riders to 93 for 8 before overhauling the target with five overs to spare. Royals were the defending champions and finished runners-up in the inaugural WCPL in 2022.After being asked to bat, TKR started on the right note with captain Deandra Dottin – back in West Indies’ squad for the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 after reversing her international retirement – smacking a six off Chinelle Henry in the opening over. But things went down south for them after Royals’ skipper Hayley Matthews got one to sneak in through Dottin in the second over. Henry then dismissed Jemimah Rodrigues, who ensured TKR’s qualification with a half-century in the previous outing, caught and bowled for just two.Related

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Opening the batting in place of Harshitha Samarawickrama, who was left out, Jannillea Glasgow then added 43 for the third with Shikha Pandey, who was promoted to No. 4. The introduction of Alleyne in the 12th over changed the course of the game. She struck on her first ball to have Glasgow miscue one to mid-off before cleaning up Pandey in her next over.Alleyne’s double-wicket 16th over, where she dismissed Chedean Nation and Zaida James within four balls, brought TKR to a screeching halt. Three of her four wickets broke the batters’ stumps, and she achieved that by constantly keeping the stumps in play.Chasing 94 for back-to-back titles, Royals raced off inside the powerplay with Chamari Athapaththu being the aggressor. She struck three consecutive fours off Jess Jonassen in the fourth over and then a further three off Shamilia Connell in the penultimate over of the powerplay, at the end of which, Royals were 48 for 0.Offspinner Samara Ramnath, TKR’s leading wicket-taker in WCPL 2024, then dismissed Matthews – caught by a diving Dottin at backward point. A few overs later, Connell pulled off an athletic catch at long-on to get rid of Qiana Joseph for Ramnath’s second wicket. A couple of balls after taking a catch to dismiss Alleyne at long-on, though, Connell landed on the boundary cushion in an attempt to catch a Laura Harris hit and hurt her ankle. She had to be stretchered off, and the West Indies management will be monitoring her recovery since she is part of the T20 World Cup squad.Despite losing three wickets for two runs in the middle, Athapaththu kept at it and sealed Royals’ win in the 15th over to set the celebrations off. The result was fitting for Royals, who lost only one match this season. Matthews was the Player of the Tournament, thanks to a chart-topping 11 wickets and the second-most runs in WCPL 2024.

In only fourth match since taking the captaincy, Fatima Sana played a vital role with bat and ball

Valkerie Baynes03-Oct-2024At one point, it looked like Pakistan had no business escaping Sharjah with victory.All out for 116 in a lacklustre innings where no one passed captain Fatima Sana’s ultimately crucial 30 in 20 balls, as she batted down the order at No. 7, and losing opening bowler Diana Baig to injury one ball into their defence, Pakistan looked well out of the match halfway through.But Sri Lanka had no response to their spin attack led by offspinner Omaima Sohail, who proved particularly tricky, keeping the ball low and extracting plenty of turn in taking 2 for 17. Nashra Sandhu also took two wickets and fellow left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal three, while Sana’s medium pace yielded two in a standout all-round performance from the young skipper.Baig took no further part in the match after breaking down during her run-up with what appeared to be an injury to her right calf muscle, which was already heavily taped, and Sana stepped in to complete her over.Related

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Pakistan had already been without Baig at the previous T20 World Cup in South Africa early last year after she fractured her finger shortly before the tournament, but on this occasion Sana said she believed it was just cramp and “she will be okay in the next match”.”When I got the captaincy I decided that I will lead from the front, so that’s the main thing I did today,” Sana said. “Unfortunately we got the early injury, I was under pressure at that time but and Muneeba [Ali] and Nida [Dar] told me that you have to come and do your work and so that’s the main thing because our whole team is banking on it.”At the age of just 22, Sana took over from Dar as captain in August. This was just her fourth T20 match in charge.She may have been quick to credit Dar and Muneeba for their support, but Sana’s captaincy caught the attention of opposite number, Chamari Athapaththu.”I would like to congratulate Pakistan captain, Fatima Sana,” Athapaththu said during the post-match presentation. “She played really good cricket and she is always leading from the front.”Meanwhile, ‘who else besides Athapaththu?’ has been a question following Sri Lanka around for a while now, their skipper enjoying an extended streak of form dating back to mid-2023. Since her unbeaten 80 off 47 balls against New Zealand in Colombo in July last year, Athapaththu has scored 928 runs in T20Is at an average of 44.19 and strike rate of 136.47, compared to her career strike rate of 110.77.And while it looked like it might be asked once more whether she would prove the difference when she took three pivotal wickets for just 18 runs, in truth, Sugandika Kumari had already gone some way to answering it by removing both Pakistan openers inside the first four overs of the match. Sugandika later returned to remove Baig, the eighth wicket to fall.Athapaththu took a wicket in the powerplay and two more in as many balls as Pakistan stared down the prospect of being bowled out inside their 20 overs. They reached the end but only just as Udeshika Prabodhani – who also finished with three wickets – removed Sadia, caught by Gunaratne at mid-off, with the last ball of the innings.When Athapaththu effortlessly scythed Sadia’s third ball to the boundary through point, Sri Lanka fans could have been forgiven for thinking victory would be swift. But that feeling fell away in the third over of the run-chase when Sana struck, luring Athapaththu to attempt a lofted drive which went straight to extra cover.As Sri Lanka wickets steadily tumbled – only Nilakshika Silva (22) and opener Vishmi Gunaratne (20 off 34) reached double figures – the run rate never fired and what might have been had Athapaththu stayed in became a question once more.Vishmi admitted the Sri Lanka batters struggled with the low, slow Sharjah pitch and the lack of pace from Pakistan.”It wasn’t easy to adjust to the conditions,” she said. “It was low pitch and they didn’t give pace to us and it was very difficult after this.”Both sides will expect to face sterner tests in the coming days. Sri Lanka play defending champions Australia next, back in Sharjah on Saturday, and Pakistan will play India in Dubai on Sunday.

Pakistan’s six-hitting has seen plenty of growth over recent months thanks to an increased focus on range-hitting under coach Mohammad Wasim

Shashank Kishore05-Oct-2024Fatima Sana, Pakistan’s captain, doesn’t want to her team to feel any pressure ahead of their match against India, but believes it’s inevitable given the magnitude of the occasion.Pakistan opened the tournament with a resounding win over Sri Lanka, and are riding a recent wave of success in terms of development, not just results.For example: Pakistan posted 181, their highest T20I total, during their recent series at home against South Africa. In that innings, they hit as many as six sixes, significantly higher than their average of one every 19 overs between the 2023 and 2024 T20 World Cups.Related

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Mohammad Wasim, their current coach, has incorporated some best practices from the Pakistan Super League, such as the influx of data wherever available, as well as an improved focus on range-hitting that was on full view in that match against South Africa, with Sana at the center of it herself.Six-hitting comes with a certain mindset that Sana believes is slowly being ingrained into Pakistan’s batting DNA. She believes it wasn’t always that way.”If you look at the last series of South Africa, a lot of our girls have improved in power hitting,” Sana said. “In the last South Africa series, our team hit six sixes in one match.”I think the girls believe that even if the fielders are standing behind, if they hit, they can go for six. It’s a good thing that all the girls are confident in this. Personally, I used to bat a lot before, but I didn’t know if I could hit or not. But with that belief now it’s become a lot easier.”Fatima Sana scored 30 off 20 in Pakistan’s win over Sri Lanka•ICC/Getty Images

Wasim has had the support of Hanif Malik, whom he worked with at Islamabad United, to help with the range-hitting. Sana believes that adopting different methods to try and improve – irrespective of results – is a good starting point.”First of all, we always wanted to play attacking cricket,” Sana said. “I have been watching that whichever team we played against – we’ve [tried to play] attacking cricket. As a bowler, I used to feel that whoever used to bowl against us, used to hit us from the first ball. I wanted our team to have batters who can punish the bowler from the first ball. We have worked a lot on this and you will see the result soon hopefully.”Sana believes the best way to bring about this change on the batting front is to lead by example herself. On Thursday, Sana’s crucial 20-ball 30 provided Pakistan the late impetus they needed to apply the squeeze on Sri Lanka.Ahead of the India match, Sana was among the first in for range-hitting with the coaching staff, spending considerable time on her backswing and head position while striking the ball. These improvements come from a deep desire to be the “number one allrounder.””I always wanted to be the number one all-rounder – because obviously bowling is a team sport, but the team wins when you are good at it all – even when you are good on the field,” she said. “So that’s why I was trying to prove myself always in helping the team win. So, I think that was the only challenge for me.”That I should take my batting along. Sir [Wasim] has played a big role in this. He has helped me a lot. Our power-hitting coach, he has helped a lot of girls. I think all the credit goes to him because he has given us the belief that you can become an all-rounder. So he gets the credit for this.”