Category Uncategorized

Opener’s 89 holds her side together before Katie Levick, Phoebe Turner defend modest total vs Thunder

ECB Reporters Network13-Sep-2023Northern Diamonds gave their chances of qualifying for the final stages of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy a massive boost with a comprehensive 48-run victory over cross-Pennines rivals Thunder at Sale Sports Club.Lauren Winfield-Hill continued her brilliant white-ball form for Diamonds with a barnstorming 89, before Katie Levick with four wickets and Phoebe Turner with three, sealed the win in a game which the hosts looked to be in control of at the interval after bowling out the visitors for a below-par 196.Diamonds got off to a quick start with Winfield-Hill beginning where she left off against Western Storm by hitting a trio of boundaries in the first few overs as the score raced along in the early morning sunshine.But Thunder hit back when Phoebe Graham produced a cracking delivery which nipped back and removed Sterre Kalis’s bails for eight.Winfield-Hill continued to dominate the bowling, hitting fours at will as Graham and fellow opening bowler Tara Norris proved expensive with the visitors reaching the end of the powerplay on 63 for 2.With Hollie Armitage departing just before that in the ninth over for nine, attempting to reverse sweep Hannah Jones, Diamonds gave a hint of the trouble that was to come as Thunder successfully introduced the spin of Jones, Fi Morris and Olivia Bell to brilliant effect.Jones had Emma Marlow trapped in front for nine before Bell ripped out Diamonds’ middle order with a succession of wickets which dragged the home side back into a game Winfield-Hill had threatened to take away from them.Rebecca Duckworth played well for her 27 off 54 balls as she and Winfield-Hill put on 46 runs for the fourth wicket before she was bowled by Bell leaving the former England opener struggling to find another partner of note.The pressure of carrying the innings eventually became too much for Winfield-Hill. who was bowled by the returning Norris for 89 off 90 balls including 14 fours. It was a superb knock but her departure hastened the end for Diamonds who quickly lost Leah Dobson and Turner to the rampant Bell before Levick became the Thunder off-spinner’s fourth wicket.By then the score was 169 for 8 and Naomi Dattani mopped up the tail’s dogged resistance with the wickets of Grace Hall and Jessica Woolston to leave Diamonds posting an underwhelming 196 all out off 46.4 overs.With both sides desperate for the win, nerves were jangling as Thunder began their innings with one delivery from Lizzie Scott’s first over going for five wides.Runs flowed for the first five overs until Liberty Heap was bowled by a fine delivery from Woolston for 14 to leave Thunder 27 for 1.Dattani looked to rebuild and the hosts passed 50 before she was brilliantly caught down the leg side by Winfield-Hill off Levick’s third ball with the spinner’s fourth ball trapping Morris in front without scoring to leave Thunder suddenly up against it at 54 for 3.A captain’s innings was required and Ellie Threlkeld looked up for the challenge as she and Seren Smale began to build a fourth-wicket partnership which slowly pulled Thunder back into the contest.A wicket looked vital for Diamonds and Turner obliged as she began a spell that would turn the match the visitor’s way with Smale top edging a delivery to depart for 33 before Threlkeld’s vigil ended slightly unluckily when she found Marlow on the leg side boundary for 31.With that the stuffing was knocked out of the Thunder reply and Turner took another one to claim Daisy Mullan without scoring with Levick accounting for Norris lbw for one.Graham quickly followed the same way to the same bowler for a third-ball duck and despite some resistance from Laura Delaney and Bell the game was up when the latter was run out for eight and Jones fell the same way as Thunder were dismissed for 148.

Oshada Fernando has been subbed in for the second match running

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jul-2022Sri Lanka have been hit with another Covid-19 case after opener Pathum Nissanka tested positive, taking the number of players since the start of the Australia series to six.”He was found to be positive during an Antigen test conducted on the player yesterday morning, following the player complaining of feeling unwell,” an SLC statement said. “A PCR test carried out later in the day confirmed the result. Nissanaka was immediately isolated in a different hotel upon identification and will undergo Covid-19 protocols.”For the second time in two matches, Oshada Fernando has been brought in as the Covid substitute after he replaced Angelo Mathews, the first player to test positive, during the opening game in Galle.Since then Praveen Jayawickrama, Dhananjaya de Silva, Asitha Fernando and Jeffrey Vandersay have also been positive with the quartet ruled out of the second Test.Mathews was able to take his place in the side for this game having completed his five-day isolation period.With two days of the series remaining, Australia have managed to avoid any Covid cases within their squad. Andrew McDonald, the head coach, arrived late for the tour last month after testing positive before leaving.Sri Lanka have a short turnaround to their next Test with the opening match against Pakistan getting underway in Galle on June 16.

Akila Dananjaya had a day to remember and a day to forget in the space of an over

Madushka Balasuriya03-Mar-20210:25

Pollard on six sixes in an over: ‘An achievement that’s right up there’

In one of the more ridiculous T20 run-chases you will witness, Kieron Pollard became just the third player to hit six sixes in an over in international cricket off the same bowler, Akila Dananjaya, who had rocked West Indies’ chase just an over earlier with a hat-trick.It felt like it was either sixes or wickets for most of West Indies’ innings as an opening stand of 52 in 3.2 became 52 for 3 when Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle (on his comeback) and Nicholas Pooran fell in three balls to Dananjaya. Eight balls later Lendl Simmons also departed, lbw to the impressive Wanindu Hasaranga, before Pollard’s immense response.Facing the next over from Dananjaya he joined Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh in having taken 36 off an over with some of the shots almost going out of the small ground in Antigua. West Indies’ powerplay tally of 98 was also a new record and the wild ride continued when Pollard was also lbw to Hasaranga before relative calm was brought to the game’s final minutes by Jason Holder, who was returning to the T20I fold.His 29 off 24 balls saw West Indies home with four wickets and 41 balls to spare after they had limited Sri Lanka to a sub-par 131 for 9, on what was a good batting surface. Such was the feast and famine nature of West Indies’ batting – 75% of their runs (102) came in boundaries off just 19 deliveries – that the innings required Holder’s steadying touch despite all the preceding pyrotechnics.So devastating was Pollard’s innings that it took off most, if not all, of the sheen off what would have otherwise been a dream return to international cricket for Dananjaya. That said, much of the uncertainty in West Indies’ chase was brought on by Hasaranga, whose back-to-back scalps of Pollard and Fabian Allen – the hosts still needed 31 runs with four wickets in hand at that point – had sown doubt.In the first innings of the rain-interrupted game, Obed McCoy’s 2 for 25 was the pick of the figures, but it was an all-round effort for West Indies with each of the six bowlers used picking up a wicket. Aside from a brief period when debutant Pathum Nissanka and Niroshan Dickwella put on a 51-run second-wicket stand, the West Indies bowlers were always in control. The fact that just the three boundaries were conceded in final 10 overs tells its own story.Kieron Pollard became the third batsman to hit six sixes in an over in international cricket•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

West Indies seamers keep batters in check Holder exercised all his considerable experience and showed exactly why the selectors had chosen to put their faith in him. Utilising his entire repertoire of variations – yorkers, slower balls, slower bouncers, you name it – he reeled back the Sri Lanka innings in the middle overs, just as they would have been looking to up the scoring.His four overs went for just 19 runs, and accounted for the wicket of Dickwella, who had been growing increasingly frustrated as a result of the obduracy of Holder and the West Indies bowlers in general.Alongside him, Dwayne Bravo – another veteran returning to the side – and the much greener McCoy used similar variations to keep the visiting batsman quiet.Fidel Edwards meanwhile also enjoyed a fruitful return to international cricket. At 39, he still showed he was able to hit the 140kph mark fairly regularly, and he was rewarded with the wicket of Angelo Mathews.Nissanka impresses in brief cameoBoth Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews were guilty of picking out fielders when it would have been easier not to, while other seasoned campaigners, Dickwella and Thisara Perera, will not want to look back at their shot selection. But in Pathum Nissanka there was Sri Lanka’s one bright spark in an otherwise forgetful performance with the bat.While he has impressed in first-class cricket, here he showed off his T20 chops. Coming in following the early dismissal of Gunathilaka, Nissanka showed no sign of nerves, comfortably rotating the strike initially, before switching gears. A glorious slog sweep for six over deep midwicket off Kevin Sinclair was undoubtedly the highlight of his innings, while a few more well-placed boundaries served to show some of the reasons behind his selection.He will still be disappointed though at his inability to build on what was a promising start, getting bogged down towards the end of his innings, culminating in an ill-judged saunter down the tracks that saw him stumped off a flighted Fabian Allen delivery. He finished with 39 off 34 balls.Akila Dananjaya took a hat-trick to shake West Indies•AFP/Getty Images

All aboard the Dananjaya rollercoasterRarely will a bowler’s emotions have fluctuated as wildly on a cricket field as Dananjaya’s; by the end of his second over, the young spinner could hardly have accounted for a more perfect return to international cricket. He had just picked up his first-ever international hat-trick, one which included the wicket of Gayle. And in the process he looked to have hauled his side back into a game that was slipping away fast, following some lusty hits from Lewis and Simmons.That was the good. What followed next is the cricketing equivalent of being subjected to a pop quiz that you haven’t studied for at all, and having no option but to simply stare at a blank piece of paper, resigned to your fate, as you solemnly evaluate the life choices that led you to that point.Maybe even that doesn’t quite sum up the dread and helplessness Dananjaya must have felt as Pollard proceeded to activate what is known in video game parlance as “boss mode” to pummel, crush and wallop six straight sixes off Dananjaya’s third over.Dananjaya to his credit did try and mix things up, but whether he went length, full, wide of the stumps, around the wicket, or fired it on the pads, the result remained the same. Dananjaya, in his very next over, was hit for his seventh consecutive six by Holder, and on the next ball Holder was dropped at deep midwicket by debutant Ashen Bandara. No support for HasarangaHasaranga continued on from his fine form in the Lanka Premier League, where he had topped the wicket-taking charts. He muddled the West Indies batsman with his precise lines and lengths, and dangerous variations. His four overs brought about three wickets and went for just 12 runs. But more than that, it was clear the West Indies batsman were struggling to execute their plan A – whack everything out of the park – against him.None of the other bowlers could back him up, something they will have to do if Sri Lanka are to bounce back in the series.

The Indian batsman says that he has turned down ‘lucrative offers’ from overseas leagues to play top-tier cricket in India

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Aug-2019Ambati Rayudu’s decision to come out of retirement has widely been described as a U-turn, but according to the batsman, it was nothing of the sort. He has turned down “lucrative offers” to play in overseas leagues, he said, and his top priority is now to “get runs for Hyderabad” in the Indian domestic circuit.”I declined lucrative offers to play in T10 and T20 leagues in Canada and other countries. I have come out of retirement for well-wishers,” he told . “It is not a U-turn as for good reasons I believe I have good amount of cricket left in me. My top priority is now to get runs for Hyderabad.”It has been a strange few months for Rayudu. He had retired from first-class cricket last year to focus on his white-ball career, and was soon announced as India’s first-choice No. 4 batsman for the World Cup by none other than Virat Kohli. He was, however, left out of the World Cup squad in favour of Vijay Shankar and slotted in the list of standby players. If that wasn’t bad enough, when Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay picked up injuries, Rishabh Pant and then Mayank Agarwal – the latter wasn’t even in the list of standbys – travelled to England to join the squad. Rayudu announced his retirement soon after, but has over the past week withdrawn his announcement and reached out to Hyderabad Cricket Association, who have also been welcoming.Rayudu said that being ignored for the World Cup was “shocking”. “I had worked very hard to be ready for the World Cup. I quit red-ball cricket for the World Cup. I was extremely fit and doing the role, which the team asked me to do at No. 4 and suddenly when you are not in the team, it was shocking,” he said. “There was no communication from the team members also.”Was it a matter of poor form, or did not playing first-class cricket hurt his chances?”The main reason was that I wanted myself to be fully fit and fresh for the World Cup. I didn’t regret that move and my sole intention was to do well in World Cup then,” he said of quitting the longer format. “I don’t agree that since I didn’t play in Ranji Trophy, I didn’t get runs for India.”In fact, I had a very, very good tour of New Zealand [a couple of 40s and a 90 in the ODIs]. Of course, it took a game or two to get back to my form. I was the highest run-getter in New Zealand. I was happy with the way I was batting and shaping up. It was unfortunate that [the selectors] had different combinations in mind and that didn’t work out for me.”As for Hyderabad, they have left the door open for Rayudu, with Noel David, the chief selector, saying that Rayudu had “at least five years of cricket” left in him, and hoping that Rayudu would help groom the next lot of players.If he does return to the side, however, Rayudu wants the environment to change from the current one, where, he says, “the Hyderabad colours are for sale”.”It is time there is a good ambience and there should be no pressure on the players. The best team should be selected. I feel that the players are playing under pressure. The infighting in the association is not good for cricket. Sadly, I feel the Hyderabad colours are for sale and it is important the players should perform to earn a place in the team,” he said. “I remember when I had to score a lot of runs to get into the team, whether it was Under-16, Under-19 or Under-22. We were not sure of our places because the competition was very high.”It is different now. I feel sad sometimes when deserving players are overlooked while others get into the team. It is very painful.”
Once back, despite everything, Rayudu might even want to throw his hat in the ring to be the Hyderabad captain.”It is good to lead the side. Red-ball captaincy is crucial as it needs a lot of tactical acumen. I can talk to selectors on captaincy,” he said. “At this stage of my career, I have nothing to prove to anyone. My goal is to take Hyderabad to a new high. We are a young team, which is exciting. I’m part of so many teams. I know how the winning culture would be and I want that in the Hyderabad team whether it is through captaincy or not.”For me, it is not a comeback although I had announced the retirement when it was an off-season. It is important that there is a good environment in Hyderabad cricket. The players should be given confidence and there should not be any sense of insecurity. There was never deficit of talent in Hyderabad.”

Renshaw helped Somerset get to the top the Division One table – taking them within reach of a maiden title win – prior to their innings defeat against Surrey on Friday

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jun-2018Australia opener Matt Renshaw’s stint with his county side Somerset has been cut short after he suffered a broken finger during the four-day match against Surrey at Guildford.Renshaw, who was signed as Cameron Bancroft’s replacement for the club, is currently the side’s top run-scorer. He made 513 in six four-day matches, including three centuries, and 180 runs in six One-Day Cup games. Notably, Renshaw’s 1180 runs in 24 innings is the best by anyone in first-class cricket this year and narrowly so. He is five runs clear of Sri Lanka’s Roshen Silva, who will likely take the top spot once the day-night Test in Barbados begins on Saturday.”Matt sustained a fracture on the top of his finger,” Somerset coach Jason Kerr said. “After speaking with Cricket Australia it has been agreed that he will return to Australia sooner rather than later.”Sadly for us that means it is the end of his time with Somerset this season. It’s a huge blow to us because he has been brilliant both on and off the field. He fitted into the dressing room very well and a player of that calibre is going to be missed.”Renshaw was expected to be available until the end of June, and return to the club in mid-August. His sublime form had helped Somerset get to the top the Division One table – taking them within reach of a maiden title win – prior to their innings defeat against Surrey on Friday. His century on first-class debut for the club also made him the 14th man to do so in Somerset’s history and the first since Alviro Petersen in 2013.