ICC Women Rankings: Mithali Raj regains her top-five spot among ODI batters

Salman Butt joins PCB's umpiring course

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has found his name in the list of players who had taken part in the umpiring and match referee course. The course was conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Apart from Butt, Abdul Rauf, Bilal Asif and Shoaib Khan were the other international players to have taken part in the course. There were a total 346 personnel who were part of the online Level-1 Umpiring course for umpires and match referees including 49 cricketers. The course was held from June 7 to 25. The PCB had introduced Level 1, 2 and 3 courses for umpires and match referees to develop the match officials. The personnel will now undergo written tests, interviews and fitness tests in the second phase. The Pakistan Cricket Board has said that it wants the former players to get employment opportunities. Butt’s inclusion in the list didn’t really go with the fans and the PCB did face some backlash on social media for the same. The former opener was one of the three Pakistan players apart from Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif to be involved in the match-fixing scandal in England in 2010. The then Pakistan skipper Butt was banned for 10 years. The three players were jailed in November 2011.

ENG vs SL | 1st ODI: Sri Lanka suffer another batting collapse as hosts take upper hand

Sri Lanka’s batting woes continued against England in the first ODI of the series after Chris Woakes and David Willey ripped apart the batting unit at Chester-le-Street as the visitors were bundled out for 185. After being put into bat, Sri Lanka had a struggling start after openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera only managed to put 23 on the board for the first wicket. Nissanka was the first one to depart for 5 after he was removed by Chris Woakes and his dismissal was followed by a couple of more wickets going down in quick succession. The visiting team was struggling at 46/3 when captain Perera was joined by Wanindu Hasaranga in the middle and the two tried to show some resistance after stitching a stand of 99 runs. But Hasaranga miscued a pull stroke on a short delivery from Woakes and was caught in the deep by Livingstone for 54. The right-handed batsman’s departure broke the shackles and the visitors suffered another collapse where they were reduced to 160/8 with Perera who was also back in the hut. He was undone by David Willey for 73. A lot of credit goes to the English bowlers also, especially Woakes and Willey. The two pacers troubled the Sri Lankan batsmen with the pace and some disciplined line and length. Woakes eventually returned with a four-wicket haul while Willey had three wickets to his name during the course. While the home side was impressive with the bowling, the fielding was on spot as well. Sri Lanka lost their last two wickets, courtesy runout with Sam Billings being involved in both of them. Billings repeated what he did in the last T20I when he sent Dasun Shanaka packing. The right-hander came charging in from the deep to hit the bull’s eye at the non-striker’s end and sent Shanaka back in the pavilion. This time it was Praveen Jayawickrama at the receiving end in a similar manner. But this isn’t the first instance where Sri Lanka have suffered a batting collapse. Something similar was witnessed during the T20I series between the two sides which the Lankan side lost 0-3.

Was the toughest period of cricket I’ve been a part: Jamieson talks about WTC final

New Zealand pacer Kyle Jamieson who played a massive role in the side’s win during the final of the inaugural World Test Championship against India in Southampton. The right-arm bowler has now explained how tough it was to watch the match on the reserve day when Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor were out in the middle. “It was probably the toughest period of cricket I’ve been a part of, in terms of watching,” Jamieson told Country Sport Breakfast on Gold AM. “We were sitting inside and actually watching TV. There was a bit of a delay but it seemed like every ball the Indian crowd was up and about and I was like ‘jeez it’s a wicket’ or something like that, but it turned out it was just a block or a single.” The Blackcaps defeated India by 8 wickets after captain Williamson notched up an unbeaten half-century while Taylor remained not out on 47. “But it was nice to have Kane and Ross out there, two of our greatest ever batters really to calm the nerves and finish the job the way they did,” Jamieson said. The right-handed bowler scalped a fifer in the first innings as India were bundled out for 217 and then picked up the prized wickets of captain Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara in the second before the Kohli-led side was bowled out for 170.

ENG W vs IND W | 2nd ODI: With problems aplenty, Mithali Raj and Co. take the field to save series

The Indian Women team was shown a mirror and right into its face by England Women in the first ODI of the three-match series as they were beaten hands down and were proved inferior in all departments. This is the second series in running after the 1-4 drubbing at home by South Africa Women that last World Cup’s finalists have been humbled in all departments. With the 2022 World Cup only months away, the Indian team would not get any better opportunity than this England series to get a taste of conditions and also test their strengths going forward. The middle-order problem The biggest problem of the Indian Women’s team is that the middle order is not firing. Once Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma get out, which is also happening very often, there is no one to provide acceleration in the middle order or to even keep the scoreboard ticking. Harmanpreet Kaur has been quiet with the bat as well and that is an altogether different issue as well. To resolve this issue, what the Indian team could do is slot in Jemimah Rodriguez in between Mithali and Punam Raut, both of whom bat together and jam the scoreboard. With her drop and run technique, Rodriguez could still keep the scoreboard running. But slotting her in the middle would mean cutting on the bowling resources. So she can either replace Raut or the team could go with the batting abilities of Indrani Roy as the wicket-keeper batter and slot her in among Raut and Raj. Roy has opened at the domestic level and is a versatile batter. The fast bowler and finisher problem Indian skipper Mithali after the loss in the first game said that the Indian team needed fast bowlers to develop early and that there was a problem of a finisher. Now, the team has got only four fast bowlers in the squad. So it can either play Arundhati Reddy in the next game, the only untested fast bowler so far, or it can go towards its strength and try and olay Poonam Yadav and Sneh Rana in place of Ekta Bisht and Pooja Vastrakar respectively. Playing Rana and Yadav would solve two problems. Firstly the team can have three finishers if Roy bats at number three and Raut and Raj are pushed one place below each, making Kaur play at six, Deepti at seven and Rana at eight. Also, Rana has greater control over the ball and can turn it as well, so she would be a better spin option than Bisht. Yadav, with her ability to take the ball away from the batters, can pose threat to the English batting order. England Women vs India Women: Match Details Match Number-02 Date and Time: June 30, 2021, 06:30 pm IST, 01:00 pm GMT, 02:00 pm Local Venue: The Cooper Associates County Ground Taunton Broadcast and Live Stream: Sony Sports Network and Sony LIV Pitch Report The last time a Women’s game was played at the Taunton County Ground was in 2017 during the Women’s World Cup. This is ground that supports chasing as out of the 20 matches, 15 have won batting second. It is going to be a day-night match and hence the canes of swinging ball early on would be there as well. Along with it, the nighttime would pose its own challenges with dew and hence bowling first becomes an even better option. Weather Forecast and Toss With less than a five per cent chance of rain, it happens to be one of the rare occasions, where we might not encounter any interruptions during the game. The humidity will increase as the day progresses and ranges between 62-83% throughout the course of the game. With the previous record of the ground in mind and the weather conditions at the display, there would be no second thought about chasing after winning the toss in the minds of the skippers. Team News England Women There was not even a thing that England would like to change about from their previous game. The pacers were on the money, the spinners were great, fielding was perfect and batting was exceptional as well. The only thing that Heather Knight, the skipper would like to have is her form back. She failed on a chance in the last game. Probable XI Lauren Winfield Hill, Tammy Beaumont, Heather Knight (c), Natalie Sciver, Amy Ellen Jones (wk), Sophia Dunkley, Katherine Brunt, Sarah Glenn, Sophie Ecclestone, Anya Shrubsole, Kate Cross India Women As described India can really do with at least three changes. Sneh Rana and Poonam Yadav could take the places of Pooja Vatsrakar and Ekta Bisht respectively and Indrani Roy could be tried in place of Taniya Bhatia. Probable XI Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Indrani Roy (wk), Punam Raut, Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Poonam Yadav Dream XI / Fantasy XI team Tammy Beaumont (c), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Mithali Raj (vc), Heather Knight, Indrani Roy (wk), Natalie Sciver, Sneh Rana, Anya Shrubsole, Sophie Ecclestone