ENG vs PAK: It’s raining sixes at Nottingham as Pakistan register their highest ever T20I total

Pakistan equalled its record of most sixes in an innings as they hit 12 of them against England in the first match of the three-match ODI series against England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The 12 sixes that they hit is equal to what they had hit against Bangladesh in Nairobi in 2007. The team also recorded its highest ever total in T20Is, scoring 232-6 in their allotted 20 overs. They surpassed their previous high score of 205-3 which they had achieved against Bangladesh and West Indies in 2008 and 2018 respectively.

On their way to this, the Men in Green hit 20 fours as well. Skipper Babar Azam top-scored with 85 from 49 balls as he and wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan recorded 150 runs partnership for the opening wicket. This is the second-highest partnership for any wicket by a Pakistani pair. Rizwan scored 63 off 42 balls.

The rest of the batters in the lower order including Sohaib Maqsood, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez and debutant Azam Khan played their roles as they chipped in with quick runs. In the end, the team ended up scoring 152 runs in the last 10 overs to get to 232-6.

For England, all the bowlers were naturally expensive. Tom Curran picked two wickets while David Willey, Lewis Gregory and Saqib Mahmood got one wicket each while spinners Matt Parkinson and Liam Livingstone remained wicketless.

In response to that, England have started well and are hitting sixes all over the ground reaching to 82 in just the seventh over, but have lost four wickets in the process as well.

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Highest wicket-taker in ODIs for Bangladesh, Shakib leads team to 155 run thrashing of Zimbabwe

Just as he picked up the wicket of Richard Ngarava on the fifth delivery of the 29th over of Zimbabwe innings to win the game for his country by a huge margin of 155 runs, Shakib Al Hasan recorded his third five-wicket haul in ODI cricket. The 34-year-old all-rounder is now also the proud record holder for most wickets by a Bangladeshi bowler in ODIs. Shakib surpassed former Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza’s previous record of 269 wickets by taking the wicket of Ryan Burl, which was his second wicket of the game and 270th of the 213 matches long ODI career which has all signs of extending up to the next 3-4 years. Apart from Shakib, Mohammad Saifuddin, Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam picked one wicket each to reduce the hosts to 121-9. Since Timycen Maruma got injured while fielding, he could not come out to bat and the Zimbabwean innings ended at this lowly score to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The chase never got going for Brendan Taylor’s men as they kept losing wickets by playing lose shots. Nobody seemed to settle down as wicket-keeper batsman Regis Chakabva top-scored with 54 while Taylor himself scored a free-flowing 24 before a bad shot saw his demise. Earlier in the day, Bangladesh reached a more than competitive total of 276 thanks to a brilliant century by Liton Das and some late order hitting by Afif Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Bangladesh were in a lot of trouble at 74-4 when Liton got together with Mahmudullah and stitched a 93 run partnership to provide much-needed stability to the innings. While Afif scored a 35 ball 45, Miraz and Mahmudullah recorded 26 and 33 against their names respectively. Das, who scored a scintillating 102 off 114 balls was adjudged Man of the Match at Harare Sports Club. The two teams will next meet each other at the same venue on Sunday, July 18 with Zimbabwe trying to stay in the series with a victory and Bangladesh looking to wrap up yet another series win.

IRE vs SA: Lizaad Williams becomes third South African to strike with first ball in ODI cricket

South Africa pacerLizaad Williams struck with his maiden delivery in ODI cricket as he got the wicket of Andy McBrine in the third and final ODI of the three-match series between hosts Ireland and the Proteas being played at The Village in Dublin. Introduced in the eighth over into the attack by skipper Temba Bavuma, Williams got McBrine to knick the delivery which went into wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock’s gloves pretty easily. With this wicket, he also became the third South African in ODIs after Martin van Jaarsveld and Mond Zondeki to achieve this rare feat. Overall, he is the eighth South African and 69th bowler in the world to get a wicket off the very first ball of his career in either of the three formats i.e. Tests, ODIs and T20Is. Williams was given an opportunity to play his first ODI after Kagiso Rabada was rested for the game. The 27-year-old Cape Province born had previously played four T20Is, picking seven wickets in them. As far as the game is concerned, chasing a huge target of 347, Ireland have been reduced to 144-6 in the 30th over and a victory looks like an unlikely scenario for them now.

IRE vs SA: Janneman Malan hits career-best 177, de Kock reaches 10,000 international runs

It was an endearing watch for South African cricket fans, at least for those who would have been able to watch in the ongoing mob loot and clashes in the country, as two openers Janneman Malan and Quinton de Kock scored brilliant hundreds to propel the visitors to a huge total of 347 against hosts Ireland. Under the pump after losing the second game of the three-match series with the first match being washed out, the Proteas showed great resolve as they mounted 225 for the first wicket with both openers reaching their respective hundreds. In fact, on his way top hundred, de Kock became only the second South African wicketkeeper after Mark Boucher and only the seventh in the world to reach 10,000 international runs across all formats. Not only that, de Kock als0 became the youngest and quickest wicket-keeper batsman to reach the 10,000 run landmark in international cricket. The 28-year-old batter recorded his 16th century as a wicketkeeper opener to join Australian great Adam Gilchrist at the top of that list. He is now the fifth quickest overall and second quick among Proteas after Hashim Amla to score 16 centuries. He achieved the feat in his 124th innings while Amla did it in only 94 innings. As far as Malan is concerned, playing only his seventh ODI, the 25-year-old struck his second hundred. His score of unbeaten 177 is also the fourth-highest individual score in an ODI by any South Africa batter, the best being 188 not out by Gary Kirsten in 1996. His partnership of 225 with fellow opener de Kock is also the second-highest opening stand for South Africa in ODIs and fell short by just 10 runs off the highest partnership recorded by Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs against India in 2000. No other batter apart from these two was able to leave as imp[ressive a mark in this game. The Irish team led by Andrew Balbirnie would look to go all ou tin chase of this total and at the time writing this, they were 27-2 after seven overs.

We want to do well in T20 matches: Bhuvneshwar Kumar on preparation for World T20

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the pools for the World T20 scheduled to take place in October-November later this year. India and Pakistan have been kept in the same pool and will lock horns with each other in the league stage. Talking about the World T20 and the preparations, India bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar said that the side is looking to win all the matches and be in the groove. "T20 World Cup is round the corner. We want to do well in the T20 matches, we've got just three matches. It's about how you execute your skills. Sometimes you do well in the skills part but don't get wickets. As a team, we want to win and say that we won the last international series before going into the World Cup,” he said in a presser. Bhuvneshwar is with the other Indian team in Sri Lanka where the two sides will play three ODIs and as many T20Is. Earlier, the selectors handed over the captaincy to Shikhar Dhawan for this bilateral tie while Kumar was named his deputy. Apart from India and Pakistan, the World T20 group comprises New Zealand and Afghanistan and will also have a couple of teams from the qualifiers. The runner-up of qualifying Group A and winner of Group B will join the four teams.