WI vs SA | Lendl Simmons plays one of the worst knocks in T20 World Cup

T20 World Cup | de Kock makes himself unavailable after SA makes anti-racism gesture compulsory

Interesting sets of events unfolded after the toss in South Africa vs West Indies game in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. South Africa captain Temba Bavuma after winning the toss, decided to field first and had a surprise announcement that opener and dashing batter Quinton de Kock had decided to make himself unavailable for the match due to personal reasons. At that time it was thought that the personal reasons were not known but later on it came to light that de Kock might have decided not to play after Cricket South Africa made it mandatory for players and support staff to take the knee in support of the anti-racism movement. The statement by CSA came on Monday night, just a day ahead of today’s game. The CSA has addressed the issue and in a statement said that it understands that it was a personal decision of de Kock, but since the board had already made itself clear that SA would be taking a united stand against racism. The board said that it would now take feedback from the team management and decide on the future course of events. Commentators Pommie Mbangwa and Daren Sammy on-air made allegations that de Kock decide not to take the knee and hence opted out of the game. During the commentary, Mbangwa said, “Lack of support for the initiative essentially means lack of support for people of colour within the team, in SA and in the world as a whole. Excuse me if I sound Political, but I can't shed my skin." While Sammy on the other hand said, “As my mother always said, you've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. Sometimes I don't understand: why is it so difficult to support this movement, if you understand what it stands for?” CSA Board Chairperson, Lawson Naidoo in a press release said, “Race should not be manipulated to amplify our weaknesses. Diversity can and should find expression in many facets of our daily lives, but not when it comes to taking a stand against racism.” As far as the game is concerned, West Indies were 89-2 at the end of 13 overs after a very slow start where they were 6-0 in the first three overs.

WBBL 2021 | Kim Garth’s three wickets, three maidens highlight Melbourne Stars win, Mandhana fails again

It was one of the absolutely humungous achievements pulled up by Irish Women’s bowler Kim Garth, who is playing her trade for Melbourne Stars Women in the Women’s Big Bash League 2021. Playing against the Sydney Thunder Women, the 25-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler bowled three maiden overs in a row and also picked up three wickets to end up with magical figures of 3 overs 3 maidens, 0 runs and 3 wickets. She only conceded 12 runs in her final over bowling the final one of the game while defending 24 runs on board. Courtesy of her amazing spell, the Stars notched up a 12 run win as they defended 108 against a batting lineup that had the likes of Indian superstars Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, and hometown hero Hannah Darlington. This is now the third defeat in four games, one of which was abandoned due to rain for the defending champions, whose defence of the title looks very much in danger. India star Smriti Mandhan failed once again with the bat as she was dismissed for three of 10 balls by Annabel Sutherland even as Garth continued her domination from the other end. In fact, the Thunder Women were reduced to 12-4 in the first four overs before India all-rounder Deepti Sharma, first with Anika Learoyd and then with Darlington put on partnerships worth 42 each. But that wasn’t sufficient for the two times champions to chase down 108. Earlier in the day, choosing to bat first after winning the toss at the Aurora Stadium in Launceston, Tasmania, Stars managed to reach 108-7 courtesy of a half-century by experienced Elyse Villani. English import Maia Bouchier chipped in with a crucial 31 off 28 balls while the rest of the batters couldn’t even get into double figures.

T20 World Cup | SA vs WI: Taking nothing for granted, Rabada hopeful of turnaround by Proteas

South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada is hopeful that with a positive approach and with players having worked out their mistakes in the nets after a close defeat against Australia in the first match of their Super 12 encounters in the T20 World Cup 2021, the team can bounce back. South Africa next play West Indies on Tuesday in Dubai. “They're a dangerous team. You can't underestimate anyone,” Rabada said about the West Indies in a pre-match press conference on the sidelines of the big game. Tomorrow is a new day. We're going to have to go and be as disciplined as we were in our first game [with the ball]. We cannot take anything for granted,” he added. South Africa were indeed very disciplined with the ball, however, it was their performance with the bat that disappointed their fans. Getting to only 118 in 20 overs was never going to be enough. Talking about learning from mistakes, the 26-year-old said that having an ideal game is not an easy thing to achieve and that the players have worked in nets on their mistakes. “It obviously wasn't the ideal start with the bat, and rarely do you ever have a perfect cricket game, although you would want both departments to balance out or balance each other out. We've analysed what we have needed to do, and the guys are on it at the training grounds,” said the fast bowler, who scored crucial 19 runs with the bat to get his team past 100 runs total which looked difficult at 83-7. “It's just one game that we couldn't get over the line. Tomorrow is another day. Why be negative about it? Be positive. Whatever happens, happens,” he added, sounding hopeful of a turnaround in Dubai.

T20 World Cup | Windies will continue being aggressive with better shot selection against South Africa

West Indies coach Phil Simmons blamed the shot selection of his batters for being bundled out for a meagre 55, the third-lowest T20 World Cup total ever and lowest ever for the team from the Caribbean. The aggressive approach adopted by the team was according to the style of play and the coach wasn’t worried about that. He would rather have the team playing aggressively, but with better shot selection. Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Simmons said, "Well, the style in which we play our cricket has always been in the style in which we play our cricket. But we also got to assess the situation at the time and play according to the situation. We will continue to be in our aggressive state, but our shot-selection and assessment of the situation must be a lot better." "For me, Saturday was just about bad shot selection. The bowling wasn't, as we would say, extraordinary. All the guys have played against these guys [England] before, so I just put it down to bad shot selection. We need to improve that tenfold by the time we get to Tuesday,” the coach added. The biggest threat that the West Indies team would have to face in their next game against South Africa would of playing chinaman spinner Tabriaz Shamsi, who also troubled a lot of West Indian batters in Proteas’ tour of the Caribbean in June this year. Simmons was aware of the threat and said that the team is working on it and better results are expected in the next game. 'Yeah, we've been looking back at that [T20I series in the West Indies] and seeing how in the games so far here [in the UAE] how people have played and won but also about how batsmen are going to find a way to score off him and without him being much of a threat,” said the 58-year-old. After losing a close low scoring encounter in Abu Dhabi, the Temba Bavuma led said have moved to Dubai where Windies were drubbed by England.