Improvements have to be made in middle overs while batting: WI coach Phil Simmons

Men 7-0 Women | Double standards reek as Sri Lanka women remain the only game-less WODI team post pandemic

With India playing the Sri Lanka Men’s team in the first of the three-match ODI series in R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday, July 18, it was the seventh series in which the Sri Lankan Men’s team participated post-pandemic of 2020. And what about the Women’s team? Well, the answer is zero. The Sri Lankan team led by Chamari Athapaththu has not had a go at the cherry ever since their last World T20 match against Bangladesh in March 2020. On the other hand, WODI status earned teams that are lower in stature and experience such as Bangladesh and Ireland too have played some form of cricket or the other. Even non WODI members such as Scotland and Zimbabwe Women too have had some game time, but not Sri Lanka. What plagues the association is hard to teel as they have been going all guns blazing against the men’s team for contract signing and in the meanwhile seemed to have forgotten that a Women’s team of their also exists. The most important factor is that Sri Lanka has been scheduled to host the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 (2022) Qualifiers in December which has been postponed many times since July 2020. A nation that would be hosting the Qualifiers hasn’t played a single game while the rest of the teams (except Thailand) participating in the qualifiers have had some game time or the other. While West Indies have played two series, one against England Women and the other against Pakistan Women during the pandemic, Pakistan too have played two series one against Zimbabwe Women (curtailed midway due to Covid) and the other against West Indies Women. Ireland Women have played a T20I series against Scotland Women and are in the process to host Scotland and Netherlands Women ounce again for a tri-nation ODI tournament. Bangladesh’s Emerging Women’s team, which had many main team players in it also played four ODIs against South Africa Emerging Women’s team. All this shows that boards with either similar or fewer resources than Sri Lanka Cricket have at least tried to arrange games for its Women’s teams while Sri Lanka cricket has remained in neglect of their team. With hardly five months to go for the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers, it would be interesting to see how and when Sri Lanka cricket would wake up to the needs of its Women’s team.

England punish clueless Pakistan to stretch T20I series to a finale

It was a total team effort by England led by stand-in skipper Jos Buttler as the trounced Pakistan, who gave up rather easily and timidly. The 45 runs victory by the hosts in their maiden T20I game at Headingley, Leeds would mean that they head to Old Trafford with renewed energy and a chance to win the series which stands at 1-1. Chasing a target of 200, Pakistan had a reasonably good start getting to 50 in the sixth over. However, one shot too many by Babar Azam meant that he was caught at short covers by Dawid Malan off the bowling of Saqib Mahmood on the fourth delivery of the last over of the powerplay. As soon as he was gone, Pakistan seemed to lose the lot as Sohaib Maqsood departed soon after, getting stumped off an Adil Rashid leg spinner which turned just a bit to deceive him. At 71-2 in the ninth over and with Mohammad Rizwan at the crease, the visitors still fancied a fightback, but it wasn’t to be. They lost their next four wickets in a span of 21 balls and 23 runs, slipping to 105-6 at the end of the 14th over. Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan tried to hit as many runs as possible but it was never going to be a problem for the English side as they eventually beat Pakistan by 45 runs. Rizwan top-scored with 37 while Shadab remained unbeaten at 36. For the Three Lions, Mahmood took three wickets while both Moeen and Rashid pick two each. Earlier in the day, it was a bizarre decision by Pakistan to ask England to bat first after winning the toss, given the fact that they won the last game batting first and the wicket was to assist spinners as the day passed. Nevertheless asked to bat, England couldn’t get off to a flier as Roy was removed in the very first over. Malan went out soon as well and it was then that the onslaught from Moon and Buttlerbegan as the pair added 67 in just 31 balls. While Moeen gout out for a 16 balls 36, Buttler carried on his merry ways joined by Livingstone. The former hit a fifty and got out on 59 from 39 while the latter hit enormous sixes for his 23 ball 38. Courtesy of these innings the men in Red and Blue Managed to get to 200 even after getting all out in the 20th over. Moeen was adjudged Man of the Match for his all-around efforts.

SL vs IND | 1st ODI: Fearless Ishan Kishan, Prithvi Shaw help India claim dominance

A controlled innings of 89 from the skipper Shikhar Dhawan and outrageously aggressive batting from Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan helped India win the first ODI of the series against Sri Lanka in Colombo. The tourists were chasing 263 runs and they reached the target in the 37th over at the loss of just three wickets. Dhawan was slow and steady at the start but Prithvi Shaw took off from where he left the 14th edition of the IPL. He was severe on anything loose and Sri Lankan bowlers had plenty of that to offer him with the new ball. He was brilliant both with the timing and the power behind his strokes as India motored past the 50-run mark inside the first six overs. He tried to continue the momentum against the off-spinner Dhananjaya de Silva but could not pick the lack of pace on the delivery and went back to the pavilion. The Indian team management pulled out a big surprising move by promoting one debutant in Ishan Kishan over the other debutant Suryakumar Yadav, who was the favourite to take that position in the absence of Virat Kohli. Kishan started off his ODI career with a bang as he deposited de Silva over the long-on boundary and carried on his merry way to hint at a new approach by the team. He never resisted the temptation to for the big shots and for a major part of his innings, it appeared as if he was wearing the blue jersey of the Mumbai Indians. First Shaw’s belligerence and later Kishan’s confidence allowed Dhawan to settle down at the crease and make sure India don’t allow the hosts to get back in the game. Kishan could not elongate his maiden ODI fifty on debut but the next man in Manish Pandey made sure that the tourists were on course for a seamless victory. Both he and Dhawan slowed down a bit but the run rate was never a concern and Pandey recovered pace before getting out very near the target. Meanwhile, Dhawan reached his fifty and in the process went onto become the fastest batsman to reach the 6,000-run mark in ODI. The second Indian debutant Suryakumar Yadav provided the late blitz to Indian batting and Dhawan sealed the deal with a calm single that epitomised the kind of innings he played on the first night of the series. Earlier, the Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch that appeared to be slow and low in nature. India played two genuine swing bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar but none of them found a considerable amount of movement in the air for a long time. Chahar, in particular, was guilty of searching magic ball and allowed Sri Lankan openers easy balls to get going. The Indians have struggled to get wickets in the first powerplay and the trend continued in the first ODI as well before Yuzvendra Chahal came in the 10th over to dismiss Avishka Fernando on his very first delivery. India played the spin twins of Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav after a gap of nearly two years and the move paid dividends as they shared three big wickets between them. Kuldeep was getting the ball to dip at the batsmen and used his wrist to turn the ball admirably. Of all the positives India would carry from the first game, a possible resurgence of Kuldeep will be the biggest one of them. There are tough competitions among spin bowlers in the side with the likes of Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar sitting on the sidelines and hence the performance would have done both Kuldeep and Chahal a world of good. Hardik Pandya came back to play the role of the third seamer and he bowled with good control over his variations. His return to the bowling crease would have paved the way for the return of ‘Kul-Cha’ and India appeared to be ticking one crucial box leading up the ICC World T20. Sri Lankan batsmen did not help their cause and threw their hard-earned starts away. From Avishka Fernando at the top to the skipper Shanka lower down the order, all have had a good start to their innings but could not prolong their stay to challenge India. However, a 35-ball 43 from Chamika Karunaratne where he smashed both Bhuvneshwar and Chahar to all parts of the ground took the hosts to some sort of respectability. The score of 262 however could not be enough to challenge the might of this Indian batting lineup that was rated a ‘second string’ by former Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga. Sri Lanka would be delighted to post a good score on the board after a disastrous tour of England but they will have to dig deep and play out of their skin to come even close to the Indian side. India, on the other hand, would be delighted to seal a fairly seamless win to start off the series but they would want to improve on their bowling after conceding far too many runs for their linking. The second ODI of the series will be played at the same ground on July 20.

ZIM vs BAN: Patient Shakib leads Tigers to unassailable 2-0 lead; wins a humdinger at Harare

It might have just taken a lucky four on the last ball of the 49th over to ease the pressure put on by the Zimbabwe unit throughout the Bangladesh chase, but star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan caressing the first ball of the 50th over by Blessing Muzarabani to four past the point was probably the fitting end to a match that was fought evenly till the very end. Shakib missed out on his hundred by just four runs but would have been more than relieved to see his team home, which at one point in time looked unbelievable, to say the least. At 145-6 with all the recognised batsmen, except Shakib back in the hut, Zimbabwe fancied themselves to get a win and take the series to the finale. However, the 34-year-old had other ideas as he first added 28 for the seventh wicket with Afif Hossain to take the game close and then an unbeaten 69 off just 64 balls with Mohammad Saifuddin to see the Tigers home. The only real chance that the Zimbabwe players got to remove Shakib was in the 48th over, when trying to go over the inner circle, he almost hit to short third man, but the jump by Richard Ngarava wasn’t well-timed and the ball could only touch his palms and ricochet towards the boundary. The chase of 241 by the Men in Green and Red wasn’t up to the mark at all as captain Tamim Iqbal and last match centurion Liton Das were out even before the team fifty could be reached. Soon, they were 75-4 with youngsters Mosaddek Hossain and Mohammad Mithun letting go of an opportunity to do well. Mahmudullah tried to stitch in partnership together, but it could only last 55 runs as Muzarabaniu removed the right-hand batter. Soon, Mehidy Hasan was removed too to get Bangladesh in all sorts of trouble and that’s when Shakib decided to take things in control. Earlier in the day, on the back of a Wesely Madhevere half-century and some important contributions by skipper Brendan Taylor, Sikandar Raza and Regis Chakabva, Zimbabwe were able to get to 240. However, the highlight of the innings was the bizarre ghit wicket of Taylor. He was given out when he hit the bails with his bat after the ball was out of play and he had already hit a shot and was shadow practising. Having now won the series Bangladesh wouldn’t want to let it go easy in the third match as every match counts for the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League and with three wins from this series they would remain top of the table in the league. While Zimbabwe would look to at least get one back to salvage some pride with the final game on Tuesday, July 20.