Smriti Mandhana’s half-century took India to 165 but it proved inadequate

Srinidhi Ramanujam28-Jul-2024 • Updated on 29-Jul-20242:58

Sri Lanka show they aren’t solely reliant on Athapaththu

Sri Lanka created history on Sunday, dethroning India to clinch their maiden Women’s T20 Asia Cup. Fighting half-centuries from top order batters Chamari Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama, and Kavisha Dilhari’s all-round heroics stood out as Sri Lanka cruised to an eight-wicket victory in front of a packed crowd in Dambulla.Samarawickrama and Dilhari’s valuable contributions in the final once again highlighted a crucial point that Sri Lanka are not just dependent on their captain to deliver. They have now won 14 of the 17 T20Is this year and go into the T20 World Cup slated in October with massive confidence and pride from their performances.Smriti Mandhana’s 60 and quickfire knocks from Richa Ghosh and Jemimah Rodrigues helped India post a competitive total of 165 for 6 but in the end, it proved inadequate.

Athapaththu vs left-arm spin

Things were quiet until the fifth over. Then, with Sri Lanka on 28 for 1, Athapaththu targeted the inexperienced left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar. After lofting a short ball to deep square leg for six, she punished two full length deliveries for a four and a six to score 16 runs off the over and end the powerplay on 44 for 1. Radha Yadav, another left-arm spinner, bowled the next over and conceded nine runs with six coming off Athapaththu’s bat. With only Deepti Sharma as the specialist offspinner, Harmanpreet had to use Radha and Kanwar against the two left-handers Athapaththu and Samarawickrama. In the end, 29 of the Sri Lanka captain’s 61 runs came against left-arm spinners, at a strike rate of 170.58.

Samarawickrama, Dilhari step up

Samarawickrama has been playing at the international level for six years now and her most important knock came in Dambulla. She had hit only four half-centuries in 61 matches prior and her career strike rate in T20Is is less 100. But on Sunday, Sri Lanka needed her to stay as long as possible and not think about those numbers.When Deepti bowled Athapaththu in the 12th over, the crowd was stunned to silence. Sri Lanka needed 72 runs from 48 balls and there was a chance of an Indian comeback. After getting set, scoring 29 off her first 27 balls, it was on Samarawickrama to take her side through and she did it in style. She brought out her A game with pull shots and slog sweeps to eventually top-score for Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 69. When 25 was required from the last three overs, Radha’s 17-run 18th over – where Samarawickrama smashed two fours and a six – blunted India.Smriti Mandhana’s half-century went in vain for India•ACC

Dilhari, a strong bottom-handed player, chipped in with an unbeaten 30 off 16 and sealed the victory with a six in the penultimate over. The duo shared a match-changing unbeaten 73 off 40 balls for the third wicket. Meanwhile, India endured misfields and two dropped catches and were also tactically tested as the game slipped away. This included a fumble from Harmanpreet when she dropped a simple catch in the 15th over when Samarawickrama was on 45.

Mandhana marches on to another fifty

Mandhana brought all her experience to the fore in the final. Sri Lanka dominated the first five overs of the powerplay, and Mandhana made a run-a-ball 14. But in the final over, she tried to up the ante by shuffling across to manufacture runs against left-arm seamer Udeshika Prabodhani. She hit three fours, and India ended the powerplay on 44 for 0. Soon after Shafali Verma and Uma Chetry were dismissed, Mandhana punished anything too short or too full, especially from Athapaththu as she raced to her 26th T20I fifty off 36 deliveries. She was dropped by Samarawickrama at cover on 10 off 10 in the fifth over.Mandhana also got a life when she hit one straight to Athapaththu, the bowler, in the 16th over, but the ball bounced twice before reaching the batter and so was declared a no-ball. However, in the following over, Athapaththu took an excellent running catch off Dilhari’s bowling to dismiss the India opener.

The Dilhari-Ghosh battle

Dilhari has been crucial to Sri Lanka’s recent success. Of her 16 T20Is this year, only thrice has she gone wicketless. She usually doesn’t concede many either. At the end of 17 overs, the legspinner’s had gone for 18 runs and picked up two wickets in her three overs. But her final over, the penultimate of the innings, against Ghosh, was bittersweet. The first ball was a legbreak which Ghosh looked to cut and probably got an edge to the wicketkeeper. There was a huge appeal from the bowler and the keeper, but the umpire was unmoved. Dilhari pleaded and kicked the turf in disappointment, but there was no DRS in this tournament. The next three deliveries saw Ghosh muscling away two fours and a six to take India past 150. Dilhari ended up conceding 18 runs off her final over. Ghosh eventually finished on a 14-ball 30

Worcestershire’s 263 was knocked off with 33 balls to spare in professional fashion by group leaders

ECB Reporters Network09-Aug-2024Lewis Goldsworthy led the way with 95 as Somerset boosted their chances of reaching the knock-out stage of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup with a convincing five-wicket win over Worcestershire at Taunton.The Rapids were bowled out for 263 in 47.3 overs after losing the toss, Tom Taylor lifting a limp batting display with 73, off 65 balls, including seven fours and three sixes. Ben Green claimed 3 for 58In reply, Somerset reached 267 for 5 with 5.3 overs to spare, Goldsworthy hitting his runs off 108 deliveries, with nine fours and a six, while James Rew contributed 70 and Andy Umeed 44. Left-arm spinner Fateh Singh returned career-best List A figures of 4 for 52.Worcestershire openers Ed Pollock and Gareth Roderick set about Somerset’s opening attack with gusto, taking the score to 55 in the eighth over before Pollock lofted a catch to deep square off Ned Leonard and departed for 30.Roderick looked in good touch, moving to 35 off 41 balls but then carelessly helped a ball from Ogborne around the corner to be caught at fine leg. At 68 for 2 in the 13th over, Worcestershire needed to rebuild.Hopes that Jake Libby and Rob Jones could do the job ended with poor shots by both off Green, Jones, on 14, mistiming a catch to mid-wicket and Libby, having progressed comfortably to 24, guiding a short ball straight to Goldsworthy at point.Another soft dismissal saw Rehaan Edavalath offer a simple return catch to Jack Leach and at 117 for 5 the Rapids were in a hole. Ethan Brookes followed the pattern, having struck four fours, when he advanced down the pitch to Goldsworthy and lofted to Leach at mid-off.The same over saw Singh, on four, dropped by Umeed at short extra cover. Singh profited to hit a six off Goldsworthy before being bowled for 14 making room to cut off-spinner Archie Vaughan’s third ball of the game.Taylor cleared the ropes off Kasey Aldridge and Goldsworthy and Tom Hinley followed suit off successive short balls from Aldridge as the pair launched a spirited counter attack. Hinley’s 32 came off just 18 balls before he skyed Green to Ogborne a long-on.Tommy Sturgess was run out in a mix-up over a second run with Taylor, who went to an impressive half-century off 53 balls before being last man out.Somerset’s reply got off to the worst possible start when George Thomas shouldered arms to the first delivery from Taylor, an inswinger that clipped the stumps. But Goldsworthy and Umeed soon settled in to put the outcome beyond much doubt.They had added 96 for the second wicket in 18.4 overs when Umeed was caught at deep square for 44 attempting to slog-sweep Singh in his first over. Goldsworthy went to a 63-ball fifty soon afterwards, having struck six fours.Rew hit two glorious drives through extra cover and then straight and Goldsworthy cleared the ropes at mid-wicket off Hinley to bring up a half-century partnership in ten overs.Rew then smacked fours of three successive Hinley deliveries in the 31st over in reaching fifty off 43 balls. It was young wicketkeeper’s fourth half-century in seven Group A matches and contributed to the stand with Goldsworthy that reached three figures off 88 balls.Rew fell to a catch at cover off Singh trying a reverse sweep and the bowler followed up by dismissing Goldsworthy, bowled by a full ball, and Sean Dickson, caught at slip, with successive deliveries in the 39th over.But by then Somerset only needed 45 and 18-year-old Vaughan’s rapid unbeaten 31 off 24 balls sealed a comfortable success.

Greater Noida Test against New Zealand was abandoned without a ball bowled, and Trott hoped it was a “good learning case”

Vishal Dikshit13-Sep-20245:26

Stead: This Test would have been useful for SL series

Drainage of the ground. Weather watch in the lead up to a game. Taking care of a wet outfield. Players’ safety on the field after heavy rainfall.These are some of the basic things that are checked at venues before an international game – and not just before a Test match – that have become the norm, but are “sometimes taken for granted”. Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott hopes the one-off Test against New Zealand that was abandoned without a ball bowled in Greater Noida is “a good learning case”.What might have peeved the players from both sides is that the entire match wasn’t washed out; the first two days of the match didn’t see any rain during the hours of play, but both days didn’t have any action either – not even the toss – because of a very wet outfield that had put players’ safety under threat.Related

• Cricketing nomads Afghanistan hurt by lack of dedicated home venue

• New Zealand 'frustrated' to have lost game-time ahead of Sri Lanka and India Tests

• Amid persistent rain, one-off Test between Afghanistan and NZ called off without a ball bowled

• Slushy patches, wet weather prevent Test from starting in Greater Noida

• Tests abandoned without a ball – how many times has it happened?

“We’re disappointed. We’d geared ourselves up, and we’d trained really well,” Trott said in particular about the first two days. “So really disappointed. The thing was we got to train on the square [on] the days before, so we got to see the pitch. The guys were starting to get there; their appetite for the game was growing even more. So heartbreaking not to be able to play.”What I hope it is, it’s just a good learning case that things can crop up… everything has got to be checked out and made sure that it’s ready for Test-match cricket. And I think sometimes we take it for granted when we go and play all these things that have already been done in the past for other nations or other venues – with regards to drainage or ground staff, all those sort of things.”I think the ground staff have worked, obviously, very hard here. It just unfortunately hasn’t materialised, and we’ve had a freakish amount of rain for this time of year because that’s what I’m being told by the locals. They’ll probably know better than me.”Compared to the first two days, the third and fourth days saw overnight rain and early showers too, which led to both days being called off even before the scheduled start of play at 9.30am local time. Since the outfield was not playable even under the sun on the first two days, rain on the next two worsened the ground situation so much that the fate of the fifth day was pretty much known on the fourth morning itself.The third and fourth days’ play in Greater Noida was called off even before the scheduled start•AFP/Getty Images

Trott said that despite being able to play intra-squad warm-up games after arriving in Greater Noida, which is an adopted home ground for them, and getting used to the conditions well before New Zealand’s arrival, seeing the first two days without play was not ideal as his players would have learnt a lot from this experience.”The real sad thing is I think it was going to be a really good pitch, and it would have been a good contest, which is a disappointing thing,” Trott said. “So that’s the most disheartening thing, I suppose, for all of us. I think we could have gained whether we won or lost. I think the players would have learnt a hell of a lot in this format of the game, which is the challenge going forward in red-ball cricket for Afghanistan. But it’s the occasion as well. The historic moment of playing against New Zealand for the players – they would have been very proud of that.”A lot of questions are being raised about the standards of the preparation of the ground, especially the outfield, which were highlighted by how a patch of grass in the midwicket region was plucked out and replaced by a similar patch of the nets, even as Trott rued the fact that no play could occur at all.”I think it’s a case of time of year,” he said. “To try and play a Test match this time of year is always tricky… obviously disappointed that we haven’t been able to play, and the amount of water that’s come down is unprecedented for this time of year or the last three days. But it would have been nice to play some cricket for sure.”Afghanistan had a rare opportunity to play a Test match against a much higher-ranked side, with their next three Test series against Zimbabwe (two series) and Ireland in the following 12 months. Their immediate focus will now move to the ODI series against South Africa later this month, but Trott also wants to see the Afghanistan Test side grow “in the same manner” as they have in the white-ball formats in recent years, including their maiden semi-final appearance in the T20 World Cup in June this year.”For me, it’s a case of making sure that the players are looked after, [and] that the players are able to flourish and grow as a side in this format of the game,” he said. “We’ve seen the development in the last two years in the white-ball side of the game. So I’d like to see that progression, and that desire and hunger for it to grow in the same manner.”And I want to see Afghanistan have the same sort of passion and desire in the red-ball [format] as much as it is in the white-ball formats. So I think it’s attainable. But like anything, it’s going to take time, and it’s going to take a lot of effort. It’s going to take a lot of communication between the management, and the players and coaches.”I think if you want to progress, you need to start at the grassroots before you see the benefit of that. I don’t think enough red-ball cricket is played. But again, it’s very new to the format. I think facility-wise, it maybe is the issue. I think there certainly isn’t a lack of players. People are desperate to play cricket, and so the passion is there. It’s about now being able to match the passion with the ability to allow the players to enhance and get better at this format of the game. But I think it’s maybe an issue worldwide with regards to red ball – the lure of white-ball cricket, and the glitz and the glamour.”

India put on a chasing masterclass in Ahmedabad after their bowlers – led by Deepti Sharma’s 3 for 39 – restricted New Zealand to 232

Ashish Pant29-Oct-20243:55

Mandhana: ‘Team still had half a mind on World Cup, series win will boost confidence’

After scores of 5 and 0 in the first two ODIs, Smriti Mandhana regained her touch in the series decider as she cracked her third ODI century of the year, helping India beat New Zealand by six wickets and take the three-match series 2-1. She was ably supported by first Yastika Bhatia (35) and then Harmanpreet Kaur (59 not out) as India put on a chasing masterclass in Ahmedabad.Batting first, New Zealand rode largely on Brooke Halliday’s career-best 86 off 96 balls as she lifted her side from the depths of 88 for 5 in the 24th over to 232 all out in 49.5 overs. Teams batting first won both ODIs in the series, but India were having none of it as the top order shone through in the chase as they romped home with 34 balls to spare.Mandhana had fallen to the outside-the-off-stump trap twice in two innings in this ODI series. In the first game, she carved Jess Kerr to backward point. Two days later, she did it again, chipping it straight to point for a duck. So, when Mandhana came out in pursuit of New Zealand’s target of 233, she was circumspect to the point that in the first three overs, she shouldered arms to at least five balls. She was ready to be patient and build her innings. The move paid dividends.Mandhana has had a good 2024 in ODIs, having scored two centuries and a half-century in six innings coming into this game. On Tuesday, she played the patient game. She was on 9 off 26 balls at one point, but did not throw it away. She had a slice of luck when she seemingly inside-edged a Lea Tahuhu full-length delivery on to her pad in the third over. Replays later suggested the ball had hit her pad first and had New Zealand reviewed, she would have been out. It was the luck Mandhana needed, and she did not look back.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

At the other end, Shafali, though, had no such luck. She got going with two crips fours, but was caught down the leg side after a faint nick in the fourth over.Mandhana was joined by Bhatia in the middle and the two kept their composure in the chase. Mandhana struck her first four in the ninth over, a swivel-pull against Sophie Devine, followed by a chip down the ground off Eden Carson. Bhatia also struck a few smart boundaries. They added 76 runs for the second wicket before Bhatia was caught and bowled by Devine.Harmanpreet walked out at No. 4 and with a platform set, the two went about their innings calmly. Mandhana brought up her half-century with a short-arm jab through midwicket and soon started finding the fence with more regularity. Harmanpreet, too, was wary initially but soon found the measure of the surface and the runs started flowing from both ends. They brought up the 50-run stand for the third wicket in the 31st over.Harmanpreet did go down with cramps not long after, but that was not going to stop her. She unleashed an array of drives and pulls with Mandhana also going after Devine. Harmanpreet reached her half-century off 54 balls while Mandhana got to her century, the eighth of her career, off 121 balls with a push down the ground. She fell without adding another run, cleaned up by Hannah Rowe, but the job was done by then.Jemimah Rodrigues walked out and immediately got four fours away as India could see the finishing line. She fell lbw to Fran Jonas with India needing a run, and Harmanpreet fittingly finished off the chase in the 45th over.Brooke Halliday hit three sixes despite tiring in the heat•BCCI

Earlier, Halliday braved the scorching Ahmedabad heat as she strung important stands with Izabella Gaze and Rowe, before Tahuhu smashed an unbeaten 24 off 14 balls to get New Zealand past the 230-run mark.It was a much-improved Indian fielding show on display in the third ODI. They had dropped as many as six catches in the second ODI, to go with multiple misfields, as they went down heavily. But they came out as a unit on a mission on Tuesday, led by the two usual fielding stars, Radha Yadav and Rodrigues, as they frustrated the New Zealand openers, Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer, in the powerplay.Rodrigues was into the act in the third over as she almost effected a run-out after a stunning save at short extra-cover, with Bates having to dive full length to just about make her crease. Rodrigues’ brilliance came to the fore in the seventh over again when there was a spot of miscommunication between the two batters and this time Bates was caught well short of her crease despite the dive.Plimmer had, meanwhile, started to find the hang of the red-soil surface. She got her boundary-counter running with a solid on-drive off Renuka Thakur before piercing the gap between mid-off and cover off the same bowler. Saima Thakor was also driven for two fours in three balls in the sixth over, but she bounced back with the wicket of Lauren Down, removing her with a gentle length ball that tailed away late and caught her outside edge.Devine, the star of the second ODI, looked ominous from the get-go, striking two authoritative fours within her first seven balls. But she was undone by a stunning wrong’un from Priya Mishra as she went back to a delivery that she ideally should have been forward to, and the ball crashed into her middle stump.Deepti Sharma was named the Player of the Series•BCCI

Halliday, though, looked the part all the way. She got off the mark with an elegant off drive, but regular wickets at the other end pinned New Zealand down. Plimmer was removed by Mishra, who induced a thick outside edge, with Deepti Sharma taking a sharp catch at slip – she was guilty of dropping three catches in the second ODI.New Zealand then lost half their side when another miscommunication ensued between Maddy Green and Halliday, with the former stuck in the middle of the pitch. Rodrigues was again in the thick of things at point.Halliday had to do the repair job, and she found an ally in Gaze. Halliday struck her first six in the 38th over off Mishra, and soon reached her sixth ODI fifty with a flick in the 40th over.Gaze fell chipping a full toss meekly back to Deepti for her first wicket, but Halliday and Rowe carried on by adding 47 off 41 balls for the seventh wicket. Halliday, who was spent by that time, put her foot on the pedal, even showing off a few innovative reverse hits and paddles. She managed to generate enough power to clear the ropes twice – once off Harmanpreet Kaur and then off Deepti – but fell in the 46th over caught at deep midwicket.Rowe fell soon after but Tahuhu smashed two fours and a six to help New Zealand end on a high. Eventually, they were well below par.

The PCB has adopted a more rigid stance on its hosting of the tournament, ruling out a hybrid model format

Osman Samiuddin10-Nov-2024The PCB is seeking advice from the Pakistan government on how to proceed with its hosting of the Champions Trophy, after the BCCI made clear it will not send India to Pakistan for the tournament in February.The BCCI informed the ICC this week of the decision of the Indian government to not allow India to travel to Pakistan. That decision was formally conveyed by the ICC to the PCB on Friday, who have now gone to their government for next steps.”The ICC emailed the PCB informing them about the inability of the BCCI to send its team to Pakistan,” a PCB spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo. “No reason was given. There is nothing in writing we have received from the BCCI. The PCB has apprised the federal government of the situation.”Related

• Hybrid model for Champions Trophy? ICC likely to take call on November 26

• Champions Trophy: PCB wants an explanation in writing from India for refusal to travel

• PCB 'not prepared to accept' hybrid model for Champions Trophy

• Akram urges India to travel to Pakistan for Champions Trophy 2025

• Champions Trophy without India not an option, say ECB chiefs

The PCB has adopted a more rigid stance on its hosting of the tournament – the first ICC event in the country since 1996 – with the board chairman Mohsin Naqvi ruling out a hybrid host model very clearly on Friday. Such a model, used in the 2023 Asia Cup which Pakistan hosted, would see India play its games outside of Pakistan and all non-India games in Pakistan.Given that Naqvi is Pakistan’s interior minister, that stance can be taken as representative of the government’s in this case. An official familiar with the situation said the Pakistan government will consider directing the PCB to stand firm, reject the hybrid model and insist the entire tournament is held in Pakistan. That would be a directive the PCB would be in no position to ignore in much the way the BCCI is unable to act against its own government’s directive.It leaves the ICC, with 100 days to go to the start of the Champions Trophy, in an especially difficult situation with simmering political issues between its two leading Full Members threatening to spill over – unsurprising given that Naqvi’s BCCI counterpart, Jay Shah, is the son of Naqvi’s counterpart in the Indian government, the home minister Amit Shah. The situation will not become any simpler when Shah takes over as the ICC chair, on December 1.The India-Pakistan rivalry is the marquee match in all global events, and organisers have long made sure they face each other at least once in every tournament since the 2013 Champions Trophy. It is regularly the match that draws the most eyeballs. But indications within this PCB administration are that their government might not allow Pakistan to travel to India for future ICC events – the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup is the next such event. On Friday, Naqvi had warned that “gestures” Pakistan had made in the past might not be repeated: he was referring to Pakistan traveling to India for the men’s ODI World Cup in 2023, right after India had refused to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup.Last month, the ECB chief executive Richard Gould made clear how important India and Pakistan both were to ICC events and the global cricket ecosystem. “If you play the Champions Trophy without India, or Pakistan, the broadcast rights aren’t there, and we need to protect them,” he said, on a visit to Pakistan during England’s Test series in the country.An event in Lahore this week to launch the schedule and start the 100-day countdown has been postponed in light of the developments. Instead, the PCB is expected to push the ICC this week to secure in writing from the BCCI the reason for its decision and on what specific grounds the Indian government is preventing its team from traveling. The ICC has been contacted for comment.As of now, the eight-team event is due to be played between February 19 and March 9, across Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi. Stadiums at all three venues have been undergoing renovation and upgradation to different degrees in order to be ready for the event. Pakistan are the defending champions, having won the event in 2017.

Peirson made 82 and Steketee added 48 not out after Bartlett took 5 for 32 as Victoria crumbled with the bat

AAP07-Dec-2024Jimmy Peirson has batted Queensland towards hope of their first Sheffield Shield victory of the summer against Victoria, after a helter-skelter day two at the MCG.On a day where 15 wickets fell in the first two sessions, Queensland went to stumps at 195 for 8 in their second innings and leading by 244.Peirson was out pulling for 82 just before the close, but not before combining for a crucial 119-run eighth-wicket partnership with Mark Steketee, who made 48 not out.The two-and-a-half-hour vigil between the pair was at complete odds with the rest of the day, and left the low-scoring match hanging slightly in Queensland’s favour ahead of Sunday’s play.After Victoria began on Saturday at 43 for 2, they lost Peter Handscomb in the first over when he edged Xavier Bartlett to Matt Renshaw at second slip.That set the tone for the next four hours of play, as Bartlett finished with 5 for 32 and rain hovered around the MCG for part of the morning.Only Marcus Harris (42), Handscomb (24) and Tom Rogers (11) reached double figures for Victoria as they were all out for 123 to concede a 49-run first-innings deficit.The chaos then continued into Queensland’s second innings. In-form Fergus O’Neill took two wickets in his first over to remove Bryce Street and Angus Lovell, while having another lbw shout turned down.Renshaw looked in imperious form for Queensland, driving in the air and punching the ball off his pads. But he too fell inside the first 10 overs, caught down legside off O’Neill as Queensland’s batting began to falter.Jonathan Merlo also claimed a brilliant one-handed diving catch at point to remove Ben McDermott, as one of three quick wickets for quick Sam Elliott.Queensland then found themselves 67 for 7 just before tea, and a drought-breaking first win of the season against ladder-leaders Victoria was looking shaky.Enter Peirson.He and Steketee became the only batter to look comfortable all day, with the wicketkeeper-batter driving the Victoria quicks when they erred too full. Peirson also cut and pulled well as the innings went on, and hit spinner Todd Murphy for two boundaries through the covers in one over.Steketee also did some damage, hitting four boundaries in his knock and sending Murphy deep over the long-on boundary.And while Peirson was set up by late by Mitch Perry and caught in a stacked legside field, he and Steketee had given Queensland the slight advantage.