New Zealand finding it difficult to field full strength batting unit against South Africa

AUSW vs ENGW | 3rd ODI: Australia thump England in final showdown to remain unbeaten in Ashes 2022

Australian women's team remained unbeaten against England after defeating them in the third ODI by 8 wickets in Melbourne. Chasing a target of 164, Australia were off to a good start after Alyssa Healy and Rachael Haynes stitched a partnership of 74 runs for the first wicket before Healy departed for 42 off 56. Haynes soon followed her after she was dismissed for 31 of 46, leaving Australia at 74/2. But captain Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry then came in for the rescue with an unbeaten 90-run stand for the third wicket. While Lanning went on to score a fifty, Perry remained unbeaten at 31 off 46 to take the side home. Sophie Ecclestone was the pick of the bowlers after she scalped one wicket at the cost of only 18 runs in 10 overs. Earlier, in the day, England had a disappointing start as they lost a couple of early wickets but Beaumont and Sciver then tried to steady the ship. The two batters scored 88 runs for the third wicket before Beaumont was sent back in the hut for 50. Her wicket certainly broke the shackles as the visitors lost wickets at regular intervals to get reduced to 138/8 before eventually getting bowled out for 163 in the final over. Sciver scored 46 for the side. Sutherland scalped a four-wicket haul for 31 runs in 9 overs while Schutt had two wickets to her name for 25 runs in 10 overs. "It's been an outstanding series. First of all, big thank you to England and their support staff for coming here and playing. There are always a few spanners that are thrown at us during a series. But it was good to see different people stand up and perform for us. I think we have had pretty good games in different patches," Lanning said after the match.

Cheteshwar Pujara returns to Ranji Trophy in search of form

Indian veteran Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara is set to return to Ranji Trophy in search of runs. Having been criticised for several months now, Pujara has put his name in the Saurashtra squad to play the premiere red ball competition which is set to begin on February 10. Board of Control for Cricket in India President Sourav Ganguly teased earlier last week that Pujara along with Ajinkya Rahane might go back to the Indian domestic set up to revive their form. While Rahane will be playing under Prithvi Shaw for Mumbai, Pujara will be captained by one of the best red ball bowlers in the domestic circuit - Jayadev Unadkat. Ranji Trophy is scheduled to begin on February 10 and will be played in two halves this year. The first half of the tournament will be played till March 15 and then the tournament will go on a break for BCCI to concentrate on the Indian Premier League. The second half will be played from May 30 to June 26. Saurashtra are placed in Elite Group D alongside Mumbai, Odisha and Goa.

PSL 2022 | Quetta chase down 205 with incredible Jason Roy 116 in final game at Karachi

The Karachi leg of the Pakistan Super League came to an entertaining end on Monday, 7 February with Quetta Gladiators chasing down 205 runs against Lahore Qalandars. With a bowling attack as good as Qalandars, it was expected that they would defend such a huge total with ease, but as it turned out, Quetta had other things planned. Jason Roy, who joined the side flying out from his national duties at the Caribbean shores, announced his arrival in style hitting a breathtaking century in just 49 runs. Jason Roy show Roy’s exploits while chasing is well known in the cricketing circles, with the specialist white ball batter being much better in the second innings than setting a target. But nobody could have ever imagined the onslaught that he would bring with himself on Monday. With 205 to bring down against the likes of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Rashid Khan, Roy set out on his path in the very first over, hitting captain Shaheen for 15 runs. Barely giving strike to his partner on the other end, Roy stormed to his half century in just 20 balls, while his partner had barely played 2 deliveries. Quetta Gladiators lost opener Ahsan Ali in the final over of the powerplay after scoring 7 off 8 balls, but it would be a lie to say that a single soul cared. It was a Jason Roy show after all. He carried a struggling Vince on his shoulders and scored a 49 ball hundred before getting out for 116 in 57 balls. He had helped Quetta post 172 runs by the 16th over, and it seemed like the chase was in their bag. The wicket of Iftikar Ahmed slowed things down a little bit, but promoted Mohammad Nawaz’s lusty blow to Haris Rauf in the penultimate over made sure that there was enough margin for error for both the batsmen out there to make some mistakes. Needing 5 to win from the last over, Zaman Khan did very well to stay away from James Vince’s arc, but a single and a six buried the game with three balls remaining. A very different first innings In heavy contrast to the second innings, Lahore found it very hard to get underway in the first few overs. Batsman of the tournament - Fakhar Zaman struggled to read the pace of the pitch and Lahore were able to put up just 44 runs in the powerplay. But after the departure of his opening partner Abdullah Shafique (32 off 27) things changed. Fakhar knew that his second of hesitation resulted in Shafique’s runout and chose to bat himself into form. A counter-attacking stay in the other end from Kamran Ghulam helped as he hit 2 sixes enroute his 13 ball 19 before getting out to an exceptional boundary line catch from James Vince. Ghulam’s departure in the 12th over led to a flurry of wickets in the next few overs and just when Quetta seemed to have gotten a hold it, young Harry Brook and the veteran David Wiese hit back. The last three overs resulted in 50 runs as Harry Brook went on to make unbeaten 41 off just 17 balls, finding support from Wiese who scored 22 off 9. That was not to be enough, but Lahore Qalandars captain Shaheen Afridi argued that it was just not their day and he still had good belief in his own team. The Pakistan Super League will now go on a two day break, before resuming in Lahore from 10 February.

BPL 2022 | Change in captaincy fails to bring change in fortunes for Sylhet Sunrisers

Change in captaincy did not bring much change in the fortunes for Sylhet Sunrisers as they lost yet another match to totter at the bottom of the table in the Bangladesh Premier League 2022. If that was not enough, their new captain Ravi Bopara was on the end of a possible ball tampering controversy that saw a 5-run penalty for Sylhet and might incur further sanctions after the match officials sit with the matter after the match. Sylhet were defeated through and through in either innings as Khulna proved to be much better than them in crunch moments. First Sylhet got blown away by a Soumya Sarkar counterattack in the first innings, and then later could not chase the target down owing to some exceptional fielding from the Khulna side. However, Khulna did survive a last over scare as tailender Alauddin Babu hit three sixes from the first three balls while looking to get 30 from the final over. The last three balls weren’t so fortuitous and Sylhet lost the game by 15 runs. Bringing down a target of 183 was always going to be difficult, but Sylhet had a good start to the innings with Anamul Haque taking the attack to the opposition. After a good powerplay, Khulna got their bowling back in order and started building pressure from the eighth over of the game. With no boundaries on offer, the onus fell on Anamul to deliver, but he chipped a ball to mid off that ended his stay of 47 from 33 balls. Two quick wickets of Mohammad Mithun and Ravi Bopara built further pressure and Sylhet were down by four wickets for 73 runs in 12.2 overs. A rebuilding act was taken up by Colin Munro and former captain Mosaddek Hossain and lasted till the early part of 18th over before Munro was dismissed trying to slog at everything. He scored 37 off 28 balls. Needing 30 from the final over, three sixes in the first three balls bought Sylhet close, but it would have been too much to ask considering that they had hit a total of 5 sixes before that in the game. Earlier in the day Sylhet had a great start to their day dismissing the dangerous Andre Fletcher and Mahedi Hasan when Khulna had just one run on board. Fletcher fell victim to an ill-judged run and was run out on the striker’s end by Alauddin Babu. It looked like Ravi Bopara’s tenure as a captain would start on a good note, but Somya Sarkar dug deep, first with Yasir Ali (23 off 18) and then with Mushfiqur Rahim. After Ali’s dismissal in the final ball of the powerplay, Sarkar and Rahim built the innings back very patiently soaking in the pressure for the first few overs. The attack began from the 13th over of the game where the batsmen started hitting at least one boundary in the over and kept the fielders busy while converting ones into twos. The risk taking mixed with a little fortune kept the scoreboard flowing and Khulna had more than made up for their run rate by the 19th over of the game. With Somya Sarkar taking on the quicks and Rahim hitting the spinners, the duo added 131 runs between them in just 84 balls. They took the score up to 182/3 to make sure that it would be near impossible for Sylhet to reach against a bowling attack of Thisara Perera and Khaled Ahmed. With the win Khulna did the double over Sylhet this season and now stand at third in the points table with four wins under their belt.