Tamim Iqbal to miss T20I series against New Zealand due to personal reasons

The Hundred | Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry joins Birmingham Phoenix

Ellyse Perry, the women's cricketer of the decade (2010-2020) awardee from the International Cricket Council (ICC) has joined the Birmingham Phoenix franchise at The Hundred. The Hundred, the prodigy brainchild of the English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is a 100 ball competition whose inaugural season got postponed due to Covid-19 in 2020 and is now proposed to be held in July this year. Along with Perry, fellow Australian Ashleigh Gardner has also joined phoenix and will be led by New Zealand captain Sophie Devine. The other prominent figures in the team include England wicketkeeper Amy Jones, allrounder Georgia Elwiss and young pacer Issy Wong. "I can't wait to come over to the UK and get involved in The Hundred this summer," said an excited Perry after revealing the joining. The 30-year-old further praised the English board and the organisers for putting women’s cricket in the spotlight through The Hundred platform. "It's fantastic to see how it's put women's cricket in the spotlight and attracted so many of the world's top players to come and play in it. I'm looking forward to helping introduce a new generation to cricket and hopefully inspiring them to pick up a bat and ball themselves," said Perry who has 4840 international runs and 299 international wickets to her credit. With 20 overseas players signed, ECB is looking to rope in Indian women stars and thus four places of the overseas players are still vacant. The ECB hopes that BCCI would grant permission for Indian women cricketers to play in the innovative league. The Hundred will begin on July 21 with the first match of which will take place between the women teams of Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals in London. Phoenix’s first game though is against London Spirit at Edgbaston on July 23.

Toss has been made bigger issue than it is: Mark Wood

England fast bowler Mark Wood feels that the toss issue has been hyped up and it doesn’t deserve the undue attention that it is getting. The toss has been a deciding factor in the five-match series with all three matches being won by the team batting second at the Narendra Modi Stadium. "For the Twenty20s I think the toss has been [made] a bigger issue than what it actually is," Wood said in a press conference. Saying that both teams like to chase, Wood apprehended that it is the chasing mentality of both the teams that are making the captains go for the chase. "I think if either team has to bat first they both still think they can win the game. It's not seen as a huge disadvantage, it's just both teams prefer to chase because you know exactly what you need to go for and have seen how the pitch is playing,” he said. The other reason that Ashington born gave was that chasing gives the batting team an advantage to pace their innings as per their requirement. "If you bowl second, you get to see what the opposition has done, what works for them. Often we know that we are going to be bowling first if we win the toss because that's how we play and we back ourselves,” he said. Wood, who has taken 22 wickets in 13 T20I matches said that the English team can bat first and win games too if the pitch’s behaviour is supportive of the decision. "If the wicket determines something different, then I am sure we will be happy to bat first. We've got confidence in every player in that dressing room that if we need to bat first and get a big score, I am sure we could do that,” added the 31-year-old.

PSL 2021: Shahid Afridi lashes out at PCB for poor planning, lack of plan B

Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi has lashed out at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for being unable to successfully host the Pakistan Super League which he called an ‘important event.’ Speaking at a function in Lahore, Afridi said that the PCB lacked in preparation for the event and also could not come up with ‘plan B’ in case of emergencies related to the Covid-19 outbreak. "The PSL is a very big brand of Pakistan and Pakistan cricket and it is unfortunate that the PCB didn't appear to have a plan B for this important event. But it appears they didn't have a plan B when the COVID-19 cases were detected among some players and officials and this is surprising to me. The postponement didn't send out a good message," Afridi said. Controversies surrounded the sixth edition of PSL even before the start but all hell broke loose when players started testing positive for the highly contagious novel coronavirus. Following the last outbreak, PCB offered foreign players an option to leave the tournament midway before pulling the plug on the whole competition itself. Now, the PCB is mulling to resume the remaining part of the tournament in June later this year.

Nagaland Women get bowled out for 17, Mumbai complete chase in 4 deliveries

In an event of bizarre cricketing madness in the professional stage, the BCCI Women's Senior One-Day Trophy witnessed the Nagaland women's cricket team getting bundled out for just 17 runs. Having achieved this incredible feat, the Mumbai team then went onto chase the target down in just 4 deliveries. Mumbai put on a dominating performance, courtesy, a magical spell of 7/5 by medium-pacer Sayali Satghare, at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. It was actually Nagaland who won the toss and elected to bat first, a move that backfired for them big time. As many as four batswomen returned to the pavilion without troubling the scorers and it was some wonderful display of bowling by the Mumbai skipper in particular. Not even a single Nagaland batswoman could go past double digits with Sariba scoring the highest for them with 9. Meanwhile, the Mumbai openers Esha Oza and Vrushali Bhagat knocked off the target with consummate ease by smashing 3 fours and a six in just 4 deliveries. Incidentally, the lowest score in the international women's game is 22 runs, scored by the Netherlands against West Indies women on 9 July 2008. The Windies won that game with 276 balls remaining, a record in the women's 50-over game.