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Sparks crushed by 56 runs despite Amy Jones half-century as Blaze make it three from three

ECB Reporters Network26-May-2023England batter Nat Sciver-Brunt showed she is warming up nicely for this summer’s Ashes with a brutal unbeaten 96 as The Blaze crushed Central Sparks by 56 runs in the Charlotte Edwards Cup in Leicester.It’s three wins from three in the tournament for Blaze after a powerhouse performance with the bat saw them pile up 212 for 5. Sciver-Brunt led the way with her high-class knock from 50 balls and it was her third-wicket partnership of 94 off 49 with Georgie Boyce that took the game away from Sparks.The flow of the match never changed after that as accurate bowling restricted Sparks to 156 for 6. Sciver-Brunt’s England team-mate Amy Jones made a sprightly 55 but Kirstie Gordon’s 1 for 19 from her four overs and Lucy Higham’s 1 for 12 off three kept a brake on the scoring while Nadine de Klerk picked up 2 for 26.Blaze were put in but imposed themselves from the start. Tammy Beaumont chipped the fourth ball of the innings over mid-wicket for six and former Sparks batter Marie Kelly struck three successive fours in the second over.The openers added 35 in four overs but then fell in the space of three balls. Grace Potts bowled Beaumont through a quixotic ramp and Kelly chipped Georgia Davis’s second ball to mid-off.Sciver-Brunt and Boyce were sooner scoring rapidly against bowling which offered them too much width. The former greeted Hannah Baker into the attack with a sweet six over long-off on the way to a 28-ball half-century.Issy Wong broke through with a slower ball that bowled Boyce but Kathryn Bryce and Sarah Glenn batted brightly for a brief time to offer Sciver-Brunt valuable support and keep the momentum high.With 200 on the board already, the question going into the last over was whether the England star could reach 100. She began the over on 90 and hit the first ball for four, her 15th to go with two sixes, but then lost the strike for three of the last four balls.Under immense scoreboard pressure, Sparks lost Bethan Ellis in the third over when she chipped Higham to mid-off. Higham conceding just four runs from two overs to deny the Sparks the flying start they desperately needed.Skipper Eve Jones’s quest for rhythm was not helped by facing just 16 balls in nine overs and when she lifted de Klerk to long-on, she departed with her side needing 147 from 11 overs.Amy Jones struck seven fours and two sixes but when she fell lbw slog-sweeping, Sparks were left needing a miracle. Erin Burns departed in similar fashion to Gordon and the visitors entered the last five overs requiring 102. Abi Freeborn struck three fours in the first of those overs but, even then, the over came in well short of the required amount and, in glorious sunshine, Blaze cruised to victory.

Australia do not have any T20s on their schedule until next August

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Nov-20223:40

Glenn Maxwell: Every time we were one wicket too many down to go hard

Aaron Finch won’t rush into a decision over his international future following Australia’s exit from the T20 World Cup, instead giving himself a chance to see how this season’s BBL goes.Having retired from ODIs in September, there are no international commitments for Finch until next August when Australia have T20s in South Africa. The next T20 World Cup is in West Indies and the USA in mid-2024 when Finch will be 37.”No, I’m not going to retire. Not just yet,” Finch told as he arrived back at Melbourne airport on Sunday. “I’ll play Big Bash and see where we sit after that, but I’m still enjoying playing cricket, playing T20.”It still feels unlikely that Finch will pad up again for Australia and if that’s the case he will finish with 3120 T20I runs at 34.28 and a strike-rate of 142.53 including a top score 172. He continued to struggle for form at the World Cup with a painful innings against Sri Lanka, but rebounded somewhat with 63 off 44 balls against Ireland in what may have been his last international innings after a hamstring injury keeping him out of the Afghanistan game.Related

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“There’s not another international T20 until August, so there’s quite a long break,” he said. “Still plenty of time to be able to weigh all that up. It’s been a pretty good ride regardless of what happens.”Finch’s BBL season with Melbourne Renegades will start on December 15 against Brisbane Heat.Speaking earlier in the day, head coach Andrew McDonald did not preempt any decision from Finch but noted that once conversations about retirement start that’s often the way they play out.”Any time that you, I suppose, start to think about it then the end will be one day closer, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “I think the Big Bash will probably determine his future – how he goes there, his performances, how his body is holding up.Is it the end? Aaron Finch won’t be making that call just yet•ICC via Getty Images

“His body has failed him here in terms of a hamstring strain that put him out of the World Cup…the next game is not until August next year so that gives him a lot of time to repair if he is willing to go on.”If not, then I am sure that over the next couple of weeks he will have a think about that and call it a little bit similarly to what he did in the one-day international scene.”McDonald, who took over as head coach from Justin Langer earlier this year, offered no excuses for Australia’s Super 12s exit of their home tournament.”We have only got ourselves to really blame,” he said, while forecasting personnel changes ahead of the next T20 World Cup. “We will go through what that looks like in terms of building towards the next World Cup”There will be some natural turnover because of the gap and space and also the age profile of the team. So there will be some people that get some opportunities, albeit next August when we play T20 again.”Australia’s next international action is a three-match ODI series against England which starts four days after the World Cup final. McDonald hinted that the early end to their tournament could mean a stronger-than-expected squad will be named. Pat Cummins was announced as the new ODI captain last month although he is not expected to feature in every series.

Spinner takes encouragement from Beaumont double-century and prospect of day-five turn

Andrew Miller24-Jun-2023Despite a tough day in the dirt at Trent Bridge, courtesy of Tammy Beaumont’s career-best 208, Ashleigh Gardner says that Australia remain quietly confident of forcing victory in their one-off Test against England, and claiming four precious points in their bid to retain the Women’s Ashes.Gardner’s attacking offspin returned Australia’s best figures of the innings – 4 for 99 in 25.2 overs – and, with two days of the Test remaining and an overnight lead of 92 thanks to an ominously composed opening stand of 82 between Phoebe Litchfield and Beth Mooney, she’s confident of having an even greater say in the fourth-innings endgame.Not only has she already had the encouragement of watching England’s star spinner Sophie Ecclestone bowl 28 consecutive first-innings overs en route to her maiden Test five-for, but Gardner believes that the Trent Bridge surface is now showing signs of cracking up, and could be ripe for Australia’s spin-laden attack come day five.”We’ve got a lot of bowling options, we’ve got three spinners,” Gardner said at the close. “So when I get the opportunity, I want to make sure that I use it. We’ve never played a five-day Test match, so knowing that that wicket will deteriorate at some point, spin is going to play a huge role for the rest of the game. I would certainly say there’s going to be a result, and that’s what we’re going to be pushing for.”Australia’s openers made a strong start to their second innings before the close•Getty Images

Both teams are about to enter into the unknown, given that previous women’s Tests have been contested across four days and therefore this sort of match situation would previously have been a nailed-on draw – much like England’s last five Tests since 2015.Instead, the contest is set to be a battle of stamina as much as skill – a point that Beaumont acknowledged at the close, after sensing that even Australia’s multi-faceted attack had been short of ideas for long tracts of her innings, not least when she and Danni Wyatt were stepping up the tempo in a lively afternoon stand of 72 that spanned 18 overs.”It certainly ebbed and flowed all day, but most of the time I feel they were a bit flat,” Beaumont told Sky Sports at the close. “But that’s Test cricket. On a hot day, and when you’re batting well and there’s not a lot in the pitch, it is difficult, so fair play to them, really.”I don’t think they expected us to play the way we did and take it to them, and get as close as we did,” Beaumont added, after England conceded a mere ten-run deficit in their first-innings 463. “The key moment was myself and Danny Wyatt’s partnership. I feel like that was where we really could have stretched them, and taken the game away from them.”Gardner, however, believed that her own team’s struggle for breakthroughs augured well for their second innings, given that it will be England facing the tough challenge of batting last.”Tammy batted really well, pretty much any bad ball that was missing the stumps, she put it away to the boundary,” Gardner said. “I guess that shows, from a batting point of view, that whenever they do miss the stumps, there’s almost a free shot out there. On the flip side, when we’ve got the ball in hand again, we’ve got to make sure that we really hone in on the stumps and just be really relentless.”We don’t necessarily want to draw a Test match. And we’re certainly in a pretty good position to push the case forward, but we just need to think small, and not think about the endgame,” she added. “We just need to work in small periods of the game, and get ourselves into a really good position to hopefully go out there and try and win it.”The speed of Litchfield’s and Mooney’s progress in Australia’s second innings rather confirmed the impression that they’d absorbed those lessons from England’s innings, as they rattled along to the close at 4.31 runs per over. And though Lauren Filer’s extra pace caused a couple of deliveries to skid through low to Litchfield in particular, that prospect could be something of a double-edged sword for England come day five.Related

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“We’ve just got to be patient, keep the sticks in play, and if it stops swinging, maybe go to that cross-seam,” Beaumont said. “It’s a really big morning session, I reckon. If we can get a few wickets, we can get on a roll and you’re seeing now that the wickets are starting to come a bit in clusters. It’s quite hard to start on this surface so you’ve just got to stay positive.”Nobody came here for a draw so, if they set us a target, I have a feeling that we’ll be giving it a good old crack,” she added. “We’ll have to wait and see what the Australians do. You’d hope that they’d want to be pushing for a result and set something up, but you never know really. It’s so early on in the Ashes and every single day, it’s been like, the team doesn’t want to crack first.”Gardner, for her part, said she had no idea yet what an appropriate fourth-innings target would look like, but said her side would be focussing on “ten-over blocks” as they look to capitalise on “any bad bowling that [England] do dish up”.”That’s super-important when you’re going into day five of a Test match, which we don’t normally do,” she said. “There’s still so much time in the game. There’s still 180 overs to go, so we’re not used to that, but it’s an exciting prospect.”

The rule allows Indian players who have not played international cricket in the last five years to go into the auction as uncapped

Nagraj Gollapudi29-Sep-2024If five-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) want, they can retain their former captain and talisman MS Dhoni as an uncapped player.This is because the IPL has decided to bring back a rule that it had started in 2008, allowing Indian players who had retired from international cricket at least five years before the relevant season to go into the auction as uncapped players. The rule was scrapped in 2021. However, during the broader discussion on uncapped players, the IPL informed the franchises that it was reviving the rule.In a media release on Saturday, the IPL said: “A capped Indian player will become uncapped if he has, in the five calendar years preceding the year in which the relevant season is held, not played in the starting XI in international cricket and does not have a central contract with BCCI. This will be applicable for Indian players only.”Related

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• CSK waiting on go-ahead from Dhoni before retention deadline

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• October 31 set as deadline for IPL teams to finalise retentions

Ahead of the 2022 mega auction, Dhoni was retained as the second player by CSK for INR 12 crore. Dhoni, who turned 43 in July, last played an international match at the 2019 ODI World Cup. In case, CSK want to retain him as an uncapped player, they can do so by spending just INR 4 crore.The question of whether Dhoni will continue to play in the IPL or not has been doing the rounds for the last few seasons. After a knee surgery in 2023, he handed over the CSK captaincy to Ruturaj Gaikwad ahead of IPL 2024 and played a limited role with the bat, coming in late in the innings as a boundary-hitter. More recently, at an event, Dhoni said he and CSK would wait for the player retention rules to be finalised before taking a decision on his future as a player.

Najmul Hossain Shanto’s match-readiness and Nahid Rana’s pace are worries, but Simmons is hoping for things to fall in place in time

Mohammad Isam10-Feb-2025Bangladesh are cramming extra training sessions into their schedule in a bid to shift their mindset from T20Is to ODIs ahead of the Champions Trophy. Head coach Phil Simmons is confident that the players can get themselves accustomed to the format despite not playing an ODI since December.The BPL ended on February 7, and the following day, some of the players turned up at a training camp at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. These were mainly cricketers whose BPL teams had been knocked out before the final. The team will train in Dhaka till February 12, after which they leave for the Champions Trophy – their first match is against India in Dubai on February 20.”I agree that it is not the best preparation, but they were playing white-ball cricket, which means that they are sharp skills-wise,” Simmons said. “We have to get their minds up to 50-over cricket in the next six or seven days. They have the skills. They are performing. It is about getting to that 50-over mentality now. We will have double practice sessions in the next couple of days. We bat and bowl in the morning, and then do the same under the lights.Related

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“We are getting ourselves prepared to bat for 50 overs. The first part of the preparation is about Dubai. Once we can get ourselves in the right frame of mind, and work on the right things for Dubai, I think we can start [preparations for] the rest the competition as well. We will get familiar conditions in Pakistan after that.”Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto is a worry, particularly because he hasn’t played a lot in the last couple of months. Shanto missed the tour of the West Indies owing to a hamstring injury. His last international outing was in November last year. He returned with the National Cricket League T20s, and then played five games for Fortune Barishal in the BPL.”He was working very hard all of those days when he wasn’t playing,” Simmons said. “We are going to need a strong mental attitude from everyone in the team. I think he possesses that, so I look forward to him continuing his work.”Simmons admitted that Nahid Rana’s drop in pace towards the back-end of the BPL was a concern, but he was relieved since Rana has upped his pace in the training sessions.”He has looked slower than normal in the last couple of games. The run-up was less than normal approaching the wicket,” Simmons said. “They [Rangpur Riders] got knocked out early so he had a bit of rest. He looked sharp in training yesterday. The pace was coming back. The run-up was as quick as it was in the Caribbean.”This is Simmons’ last assignment in his current contract, and there are questions about the future. But Simmons wasn’t giving any clues.”I won’t be here if I didn’t believe [that we can win],” he said. “I think you prepare as best as you could when you go into a tournament. On that day, you play your best games. That’s what I look to do, on every occasion. I think we have made a lot of strides in the Caribbean. I think we have a good chance once we play to the best of our ability.”

Investigation upholds claims of victimisation from former Scotland bowler Majid Haq

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jul-2022The board of Cricket Scotland has resigned on the eve of the publication of a review into institutional racism in the sport in the country.The report, commissioned by SportScotland, is due to be published on Monday, and came in the wake of allegations from the former Scotland bowler, Majid Haq, who did not play again after being sent home from the 2015 World Cup. Haq later claimed he had been victimised on the grounds of race.The report’s findings are expected to uphold Haq’s claims, along with those of his former team-mate Qasim Sheikh, that both men suffered abuse throughout their careers, in a situation similar to the experience of the former Yorkshire cricketer, Azeem Rafiq, who last year told a parliamentary hearing that English cricket was institutionally racist.In their joint resignation letter to interim CEO Gordon Arthur, Cricket Scotland’s board members apologised for the culture that that they had overseen, and acknowledged that the findings of the report would constitute a “watershed moment for Scottish sport and society”.”We are all truly sorry and have apologised publicly to everyone who has experienced racism, or any other form of discrimination, in cricket in Scotland,” the board wrote. “This is, without doubt, the start of another long journey to overhaul and modernise the governance of the sport to ensure its continued success in the years ahead.”The board members acknowledged the “significant support” of SportScotland in their bid to modernise the sport’s governance, but recognised that the “proposed timescales” and “certain mandated actions” for change were not achievable within the existing governance framework.”To deliver a thorough, fair and speedy resolution to the issues raised about racism, and the other [programme] to overhaul and modernise the governance of the sport are individually huge challenges for a small organisation like Cricket Scotland.”Consequently, we believe we must now step aside to enable the required progress to be made in the coming months.”Related

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The board said that it had not yet seen the full contents of the report. However, Aamer Anwar, the lawyer representing Haq and Sheikh, said that its findings were “devastating” and added in an interview with the BBC that he expected the change at the top to be just the start.”Many who have followed in [Haq’s and Sheikh’s] footsteps have complained about a culture of systemic bullying, of racism, of humiliation and there has never been any accountability and transparency,” Anwar said. “What about the selectors, what about some of the umpires, what about the boards on local leagues because it would appear that if you are a person of colour then you face systemic racism.”A spokesperson for Cricket Scotland said: “This has been an exceptionally challenging time for everyone involved in Scottish cricket.”We have been made aware of the board’s decision and as the national agency for sport, we will take immediate steps to provide significant additional governance and leadership support to Cricket Scotland.”

Glamorgan bundled out for 183 before visiting openers make solid start to reply

ECB Reporters Network17-May-2024Middlesex took charge of their Vitality County Championship match against Glamorgan in Cardiff, finishing the day on 62 without loss having bowled out the hosts for 183.Tom Helm was the most impressive of the bowlers, claiming 4 for 44 as Middlesex made the most of the decision to bowl first. He was well supported by Ethan Bamber, Toby Roland-Jones and Ryan Higgins who chipped in with wickets.The top-scorer for Glamorgan was Zain-ul-Hassan who made 34 after the top order had been removed by the Middlesex seamers.Middlesex batted for 21 overs at the end of the day and were 122 runs behind Glamorgan’s first-innings total at the close.The Glamorgan openers started out positively with Marnus Labuschagne and Eddie Byrom scoring nine boundaries inside the opening hour of the game. Labuschagne was showing a lot of attacking intent throughout his stay at the crease and that led to his downfall. He drove hard at a ball from Helm and was caught by wicketkeeper Jack Davies.It was the introduction of Ryan Higgins that brought about the end of Byrom, a sharp bouncer taking his gloves and ballooning up for a simple catch by Davies. Kiran Carlson was the next to go, and as with Labuschagne he drove at a ball with hard hands to be caught in the slips by Higgins.When these two teams met in the first match of the season Sam Northeast made the highest score at Lord’s when he plundered 335 not out from this attack. It was a different story here as he struggled to get started and never really settled. He was bowled by a snorter of a delivery from Helm that tore his off stump out the ground.When Helm dismissed Chris Cooke two balls later, bowled with a ball the batter left alone, Glamorgan were 92 for 5. That became 92 for 6 when Colin Ingram, the leading run scorer in first-class cricket this season, played a ball onto his stumps for 10 off the bowling of Bamber.Amidst the wickets tumbling at the other end Zain was playing a tidy innings and had reached 34 when he was caught at slip by Leus du Plooy via an attempted reverse pull, as Glamorgan had stumbled to 103 for 7.Andy Gorvin and Mason Crane held up the Middlesex attack for a stand of 31 before Gorvin was caught off a top-edged hook shot for 12.Crane made a career best 61 against Northamptonshire in April and he showed good application with the bat in this game as he finished undefeated on 32. It was his runs that allowed Glamorgan to reach the total that they did after the top-order collapse.Sam Robson and Mark Stoneman made the Glamorgan total look a long way under par as they navigated the new ball without much difficulty. Stoneman was the more fluent of the two as he made it to 42 not out at the close. Robson was undefeated on a patient 18 from 57 balls at the other end.

Mohammad Rizwan and Agha Salman gave Pakistan hope, but the end came swiftly after a dramatic moment

Tristan Lavalette29-Dec-2023Captain Pat Cummins produced an irresistible spell late on day four to crush Pakistan’s audacious chase of 317 as Australia claimed a 79-run victory in the Boxing Day Test to clinch the series.The topsy-turvy contest appeared set for a tense final day finish when Mohammad Rizwan and Agha Salman combined for an enterprising 57-run partnership.They moved Pakistan to 219 for 5 and needing 98 runs for a remarkable series-levelling victory as the match appeared to be heading towards a knife’s edge by stumps.Related

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But 10 minutes before the scheduled close of play, Rizwan attempted to sway out of the way of a short delivery from Cummins and dropped his wrists as the ball flew past.Cummins appealed vigorously in a belief that the ball had touched Rizwan’s wrist band and he was proven correct on DRS. Rizwan was incensed that the decision was overturned as Cummins celebrated his 250th Test wicket and shortly after had Aamer Jamal caught and bowled.Cummins took the extra 30 minutes in a bid for victory and dismissed Shaheen Shah Afridi to claim his 10th wicket for the match. He became just the second Australian captain, after Allan Border, to take such a haul in Test cricket. It capped another heroic performance from Cummins, who had turned the match on its head with a spectacular spell late on day two that included a gem of a delivery to clean bowl Babar Azam.Mitchell Starc claimed Salman and Mir Hamza in consecutive deliveries as Pakistan lost 5 for 18 to slump to their 16th straight defeat in Australia.It was a bitter disappointment for Pakistan, who batted with dare and had shown plenty of fight throughout the Test match. Apart from their late collapse, Pakistan will also rue conceding 52 extras in Australia’s first innings and a drop catch on day three from Abdullah Shafique at first slip when Mitchell Marsh was on 20. He went on to make 96 to help Australia set a daunting total of 317.Pakistan did bat boldly with captain Shan Masood making an aggressive half-century and Babar hitting 41.Pakistan’s unlikely hopes were raised when Masood and Babar combined for a 61-run partnership after coming together at 49 for 2. But they both fell either side of tea as the pressure fell onto Rizwan, who won back his position into the team over Sarfaraz Ahmed.Having made an attractive 42 in the first innings, Rizwan further justified his selection until Cummins prevailed on a MCG surface which offered seam movement and variable bounce throughout.Pakistan did present a sterner challenge than many expected. Facing a tough 40-minute period before lunch, Pakistan had started poorly when Shafique was dismissed for 4 by Starc.Josh Hazlewood is unstoppable after dismissing Babar Azam•Cricket Australia via Getty Images

In a frenetic passage before the interval, Masood successfully overturned a lbw decision after lunging forward to offspinner Nathan Lyon and opener Imam-ul-Haq survived a dropped return catch from Starc.Imam didn’t scored until his 18th delivery, but tried to bat more proactively after lunch. But his struggles reared when Cummins bowled around the wicket with Imam trapped lbw in a decision upheld by DRS.Babar readied to renew his battle with Cummins, but faced a thorough examination initially from quick Josh Hazlewood who had a loud shout for lbw as Australia unsuccessfully reviewed.There was much anticipation over how Babar would confront Cummins having fallen to him in two consecutive innings.He again had a tough time against Cummins and was comprehensively beaten by consecutive deliveries on a perfect length. But he survived and started to find his rhythm alongside Masood, who motored to his half-century in 57 balls with his father and brother watching in the terraces.Masood initially played Lyon mostly along the ground before charging down the track for a boundary through the on-side. It was a similar tactic Masood used during his half-century in the first innings before he holed out.But Cummins once again provided the breakthrough when Masood edged to Steven Smith, who took a sharp catch low down at second slip.Pakistan’s hopes seemingly rested with Babar, who had handled Cummins far better before tea and used his feet to attack Lyon. But Babar was helpless against a brilliant delivery from Hazlewood that nipped back and rattled into the stumps much like Cummins’ magical ball late on day two.After dismissing Babar for the seventh time in Test cricket, the normally mild-natured Hazlewood celebrated enthusiastically with a leap in the air as Australia smelt blood.Mohammad Rizwan makes his point to Joel Wilson•Getty Images and Cricket Australia

Hazlewood continued his brilliant spell by bowling with pinpoint accuracy to dry up the scoring and Saud Shakeel’s frustrations boiled over when he nicked off attempting an extravagant cut shot off a short Starc delivery.There appeared the possibility that Pakistan could crumble quickly much like in Perth, but Rizwan and Salman were defiant and unfurled cavalier strokes to fluster Australia.Rizwan got off the mark with a slog sweep for six then drove Starc exquisitely through the covers. Salman was hit in the helmet by a short delivery from Starc and required medical attention. He preferred facing Lyon and hammered him for consecutive boundaries.Rizwan overcame a torrid period late in the day when he edged Hazlewood through a vacant third slip and survived a couple of tough chances in a Lyon over.But Cummins stepped up in another late twist and Australia were left feeling also grateful for their lower-order wagging earlier in the day.Resuming at 187 for 6, with a lead of 241, Australia added valuable runs with under pressure Alex Carey scoring a half-century.Carey was the last batter dismissed as Australia were eventually bowled out for 264 and finished with a lead that they defended with aplomb despite several scares.

Defending champions drill co-hosts with aggressive top-order batting in Gros Islet, winning with 15 balls to spare

Vithushan Ehantharajah20-Jun-20243:45

Badree: ‘Adil Rashid is such a skillful bowler’

A devastating 87 not out from Phil Salt, supplemented by an unbeaten 48 from Jonny Bairstow, saw England thrash West Indies by eight wickets in St Lucia. It was the kind of performance that set down a marker for the rest of the teams in the Super Eight of the T20 World Cup 2024.The defending champions made light work of their target of 181, with a clinical 97-run stand between Salt and Bairstow earning victory with 15 deliveries to spare.Played out on a fine batting deck at the Daren Sammy National Stadium, Jos Buttler opted to chase at the toss. Things looked precarious after eight overs, with West Indies getting 72 on the board for the loss of just Brandon King, who collapsed with a side strain early in the fifth over, having scored 23 off his previous 12 deliveries.Related

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A diet of spin restricted West Indies’ batters thanks to Adil Rashid – the pick of the bowlers with 1 for 21 from his four overs – and Moeen Ali, who would go on to remove Johnson Charles.Rovman Powell, promoting himself to No. 4, took 20 from the 15th over, striking Liam Livingstone for three sixes down the ground in four deliveries. But an attempt at a fourth off Livingstone’s final ball brought his downfall, caught low at short third by Mark Wood, returning to the XI in place of Chris Jordan.It was the first of three wickets to fall in the space of 12 deliveries for just six runs. Jofra Archer removed Nicholas Pooran caught behind in the next over, before Andre Russell nailed a Rashid googly straight to wide long on.Rovman Powell hit five sixes in his innings•ICC/Getty Images

That West Indies were able to reach 180 without any further loss from a position of 143 for 4 with three overs to go owes as much to Sherfane Rutherford as it does to Wood. The former was able to find 28 from 15 deliveries, 13 of them off the latter as the 18th over was taken for 19.England’s pursuit began steadily enough, reaching 58 for no loss after six overs. Roston Chase’s flat delivery eventually ended the opening stand on 67, trapping Buttler in front, before Moeen came and went, batting at No. 3 for the first time since March 2023.Salt remained, and though he did end up slowing down, Bairstow was on hand to pick up the slack, striking 46 off 21 up to the 16th over. It was then that Salt tagged back in, and unfurled a brutal attack on Romario Shepherd, striking the seamer for 30 with three fours and three sixes – the joint-most expensive over by a West Indian in a T20 World Cup.The first of those boundaries brought up Salt’s half-century from 38 deliveries, before he skewered any remaining jeopardy. It left West Indies to rue a half chance to remove Salt on seven in the third over, when he toed a hack across the line through to Pooran, who could not hold on.

Bairstow clicks himself, and Salt, into gear

Salt deserved the Player-of-the-Match award. But without Bairstow’s help, he – and maybe even England – might not have had something to celebrate.Salt had emerged from the powerplay with a respectable 35 off 20. But with the field spread, twirlers working in tandem and less of the strike, he had stalled. Going into the 14th over, he had scored just 12 more from 15 deliveries.That was when Bairstow set about a jump-start. For some reason, Powell returned to Alzarri Joseph instead of persisting with the frugal Chase. Bairstow used the pace on the ball to send the first delivery over the deep midwicket fence – the longer side, no less – before ramping the next delivery for four.Adil Rashid delivered the big wicket of Andre Russell•Getty Images

Powell attempted to correct his error by bringing Akeal Hosein back on for his final over. Bairstow, though, was in an unforgiving mood. An attempted reverse sweep brought a subdued lbw appeal before a conventional sweep, a 76-metre six heaved into the stands at midwicket, and a fortuitous inside edge brought 14 from three deliveries. The 16 from the over outright made it Hosein’s most expensive of this World Cup.It was at that point, with 40 needed from 30, that Salt set about his assault on Shepherd. Bairstow watched on from the other end, settling into the role of cheerleader as his partner went ballistic. He eventually had the honour of striking the winning run, raising his personal best at T20 World Cups to 48 not out.”Once Jos got out, I had to be the better to bat through,” explained Salt. “For Jonny to come out and take the pressure off me by taking calculated risks. I couldn’t be happier about that as a teammate.”

Windies given the run around

Intent comes in many different forms. England blitzed the six-count on the tournament’s truest batting pitch, but the difference between the running out in the middle told as true a story.West Indies, for all their might, set a new unwanted record of 51 dot balls – the most any team has registered in a T20 World Cup when posting a score of at least 180. They were also responsible for the previous highest – 50 – in the 2016 edition, albeit when they chased down 193 to take down India in the semi-final on their way to their second title.Moreover, they were second-best when making use of this ground’s lop-sided dimensions, failing to rotate the strike as much as they could, and running just nine twos across their 120 deliveries. Not only did England run three more in 15 fewer deliveries, but they even managed a three in the fourth over when Buttler could not quite time a cut to the cover point sponge. It brought Salt on strike for the final ball of the over, which he used to get going by charging at Russell and launching him back over his head and onto the roof for the first of five sixes.Jofra Archer was consistently around the 90mph mark•ICC/Getty Images

Archer glee

At the time, the purchasing of Powell’s wicket for 20 runs from Livingstone’s only over did not seem a smart deal. Powell was only averaging 16.25 coming into this match. Having cooled a partisan St Lucian crowd, watching their captain hoist three quick sixes was a surefire way to get them warmed up for the arrival of Russell to assist Pooran, who was set on 32.Both were back in the hut 11 deliveries later. And while Rashid’s snaring of Russell was the icing on the cake in this little stanza that shifted the match England’s way, it was Archer’s in the 17th over that vindicated Buttler’s investment.Over the wicket to Pooran, Archer hammered a tight line across the left-hander. Ranging from full and yorker length, barring one misstep – a full toss third ball which Pooran guided through point for four – Archer had it all his own way.He was too sharp – consistently around the 90mph mark – and too unwavering for a batter slowly falling into a funk, desperate for room to access his favoured hitting zones down the ground. The least full of all the deliveries was the one that took the edge through to Buttler, Pooran presenting the face of the bat in defeat rather than defiance.With six wickets, Archer is now England’s joint top wicket-taker alongside Rashid, boasting an economy rate of 6.58, which is lower than any of his teammates barring Reece Topley (5.50), who has played two fewer games and is still yet to register a dismissal.But the best stat of all is that Archer has now turned out five times for England in the last 15 days. The previous five caps came in the space of 448 days. After the nightmare run of elbow and back injuries over the last two years, the 29-year-old may finally be out the other end.

“I’m not here to show anyone I should have played the World Cup; I want to find myself, enjoy cricket again,” the Royal Challengers Bangalore player says

Sruthi Ravindranath06-Mar-2023Dane van Niekerk has the chance to get back to playing competitive cricket after a lengthy layoff, and all she wants is to “find the Dane” she might have lost in an emotional rollercoaster of a journey over the past year.”I just want to get back into it,” van Niekerk told ESPNcricinfo on the sidelines of the Women’s Premier League, where she is a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore set-up. “I haven’t played competitive cricket for such a long time, I just want to find the Dane that I’ve lost along the way with all the ups and the downs. And there were a lot more downs than ups, so it’s about finding that Dane, finding that edge again, the fearlessness.”When you go through these tiring times, you don’t like the game as much. As a cricketer, everyone says if you don’t enjoy it it’s probably time to call it [off]. I’m not there yet. But I want to find that love and that fun factor again, find the Dane that I missed, to be honest.”Related

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Just when van Niekerk recovered from a broken ankle she suffered in January 2022 and was all set to make her return to international cricket earlier this year, she was left out of South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad for failing to meet one of the board’s fitness requirements: a two-kilometre run in nine-and-a-half minutes, which she overshot by 18 seconds. She instead served as a commentator during the World Cup, held at home. The last international match she played before the layoff was an ODI against West Indies in September 2021. Since then, she has played three matches in the women’s Hundred and a couple of games at CSA’s Provincial T20 competition.She did not play Royal Challengers’ opening fixture – a loss to Delhi Capitals – and said she did not want to put pressure on herself when her turn finally came.”I think I’m at the right place to do just that [play without fear]; the management has been incredible – you know everyone has been incredible, the RCB setup has been incredible – and they understand where I’m coming from and understand where I’ve been. So I’m just feeling very valued within their environment, knowing that I haven’t played that much international cricket goes a long way.”You don’t have to put any pressure on yourself, I’m not here to show everyone or anyone that I should have played the World Cup or I should have done this – the should have, would have, could have. At the end of the day, I want to find myself, enjoy cricket again.”

Van Niekerk: ‘Women’s cricket is going in the right direction in South Africa’

South Africa might have lost to Australia in the T20 World Cup final, but they did have a few things to cheer about. It was the first time a South Africa team – men’s or women’s – had reached the final of a senior World Cup. The final in Newlands had a record turnout of 12,782 people, the highest for a women’s match in the country.Van Niekerk hoped for her cricket board to capitalise on the rising interest in women’s cricket in the country and wanted them to start focusing on improving domestic cricket.”This South African team reaching the final – the timing was so good,” she said. “The hype around women’s cricket in South Africa, then the WPL… the interest was obviously created. The exciting part is that South Africa now watch women’s cricket. Now it’s the WPL, I hope the demand for a domestic league back in South Africa will come shortly. We still have a lot of work to do, but women’s cricket is going in the right direction in our country and hopefully this can strengthen the demand for women’s cricket and a professional league, and push to professionalise all parts of our domestic cricket in South Africa.”There are four South Africans in the WPL – van Niekerk aside, there are Marizanne Kapp, Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon.”I’m just excited to see them [her three compatriots] here, excited to see how they go and I wish them all the best,” van Niekerk said. “I hope they take off from where they left off in the World Cup and may this be the start for many South Africans to get into the WPL. May this grow South African cricket and its strength as well.”One of the most experienced players in the Royal Challengers set-up, van Niekerk was keen to get to know captain Smriti Mandhana better.”At such a young age she’s so composed when she bats, she’s achieved so much. She’s still young,” van Niekerk said. “You think she’s young, but the way she goes about it, I think I’d like to pick her brain. When I was that age, I didn’t look at the game that way. She’s definitely somebody I’d like to get to know better to see how she thinks and how she feels about it.”