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Australia overhauled their target in the 37th over to send an ominous warning ahead of the upcoming World Cup

Tristan Lavalette08-Feb-2022All-conquering Australia crushed England by eight wickets to complete an unbeaten Ashes triumph in the third and final ODI at the Junction Oval.Having restricted hapless England to an underwhelming 163, a confident Australia overhauled the target in the 37th over to send an ominous warning ahead of the upcoming World Cup. Captain Meg Lanning, coming off a duck, struck a commanding 57 not out off 70 balls to again underline her chasing prowess.Australia shakily chased down a paltry 130 in the second ODI but showed intent from the get go here with opener Alyssa Healy smoking a boundary off the first ball. After a scratchy display on Sunday, Healy was in a belligerent mood and smashed a trio of boundaries off left-arm quick Tash Farrant in the sixth over.She received a life on 24 when dropped by wicketkeeper Amy Jones off seamer Freya Davies’ first delivery and Healy made her pay with a thundering pull to the boundary two balls later. But Davies got her revenge when she dismissed Healy for 42 to end the 74-run opening stand, and then Rachael Haynes fell in the next over to provide England with a glimmer of hope.But Lanning and No. 4 Ellyse Perry, who made a fluent 40 two days ago, shut the door on England’s unlikely attempts at a consolation victory. Perry started aggressively and then was overtaken by Lanning, who sealed Australia’s dominant Ashes campaign in style with a six.Having claimed the Ashes outright after a five-wicket victory in the second ODI at the same venue, Australia won the multi-format series 12-4 to ensure England – like their male counterparts – endured a barren Ashes campaign.Australia, who have lost just one of their last 30 ODIs, swept the three-match ODI series and gained another psychological edge ahead of the World Cup, where the teams meet on March 5.In a familiar tale of woe, England struggled after electing to bat in sunny conditions and were bowled out for a meagre 163 in the final over. They crawled for much of the innings and were unable to break the shackles with only an 88-run partnership between opener Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver offering any resistance.The pair had given England hope of mustering a competitive total but suffered a shocking collapse of 8 for 56 after Beaumont fell for 50. In a major headache for England, their batting frailties resurfaced with only three batters reaching double figures.A ruthless Australia took full advantage and their relentless bowlers shared the wickets with young quick Annabel Sutherland finishing with her first ODI four-wicket haul. Australia’s seamers tortured England with menacing full-length deliveries while Perry continued her rejuvenation after a starring role on Sunday with 1 for 18 off eight overs.England were dealt a blow when quick Kate Cross was ruled out of the series finale with a wrist injury sustained in the field on Sunday. It was a precautionary measure ahead of the World Cup, where England will go into their title defence short on confidence after a miserable Ashes campaign.

Her 26-ball 51 gives stellar Originals bowling attack something to defend in low-scoring game

ECB Media17-Aug-2025Manchester Originals 117 for 5 (Dottin 51) beat Northern Superchargers 112 for 7 (Litchfield 31, Kerr 2-20, Ecclestone 2-21, Bryce 2-26) by five runsAn inspired performance in the field from Manchester Originals held off the Superchargers in one of the games of the tournament.In front of a bumper crowd of 11,952 – a record for the women’s competition at Emirates Old Trafford – the home side held their nerve and took their catches to clinch a potentially season-defining victory.Defeat here to the high-flying Superchargers would have put the Originals’ campaign in jeopardy; yet they finished the day on level points with their opponents, in joint second, and with the table wide open.The catching was spectacular. The hinge point of the run-chase came from the 61st ball of the innings, when the in-form Australian southpaw Phoebe Litchfield, having just unfurled a stunning switch-hit for six, climbed into a conventional sweep against Kathryn Bryce. She got a lot of it, but Fi Morris, running full tilt not far from the boundary rope, leapt to pluck it out of the skies.Morris then took another good tumbling catch to remove Annabel Sutherland, before Deandra Dottin flung herself full stretch at cover to grab a fingertip-catch and remove Bess Heath with just seven balls remaining. That gave Sophie Ecclestone her second wicket.Left-arm spinner Ecclestone – working in tandem with the brilliant wrist-spinner Amelia Kerr, who also claimed two wickets – applied a further clamp to the Superchargers’ momentum which had began with an excellent new-ball spell from Mahika Gaur, who conceded just 10 runs from her 15 deliveries.After Ecclestone, the final set of five was coolly delivered by Lauren Filer to spark huge celebrations.Beth Mooney, Originals captain, later acknowledged that her team’s depth of bowling was crucial to the outcome.”It’s a huge result,” she said. “We’ve got to win these scrappy games and sometimes it looks a little bit ugly, as it did at times today for us, but it puts you in good stead at the back end of tournaments like this. I’ve got six international bowlers that I’m working with and they’re great at executing their skills. To have Sophie Ecclestone and Amelia Kerr, two of the best spinners in the world, in our team, certainly makes my life easy.”The Meerkat Match Hero award went to Dottin, who registered just the second fifty of the Originals’ tournament. It was her intervention, coming to the crease with just 42 balls left in the innings after the openers Mooney and Bryce had both fallen for single-figure scores, that changed the course of the match and perhaps the Originals’ season.Her unbeaten 51 was vintage Dottin, especially lethal on the pull to anything short, and clumping three sixes in her 26-ball stay. The momentum generated from Dottin’s knock carried over to the second innings, keeping the Originals very much alive in the tournament.”It was a really good game,” said Dottin. “So exciting and we’re just so pleased to get over the line. After the feedback and the info from the players who’d already been in the middle, the main thing for me was to see what it was actually doing and then taking it as deep as possible. It’s a big win but we’re not too overconfident.”

In the end, the visitors’ own record – their team total including Jordan Silk’s century – was enough on a run-laden day

AAP08-Oct-2023South Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk set a new world record for the fastest century in a one-day match but it was not enough to stop Tasmania winning by 37 runs in the Marsh Cup.After being sent in to bat at Karen Rolton Oval on Sunday, Tasmania broke the competition record for largest total, with captain Jordan Silk contributing 116 runs of their 435 for 9.Tasmania’s effort was 15 runs greater than the 420 South Australia managed against the Cricket Australia XI in 2016.Related

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But a hot start from Fraser-McGurk put South Australia in position to make history themselves. Despite never having scored a century in any form before Sunday, he needed only 29 balls to reach triple figures, two fewer than South African great AB de Villiers in an ODI in 2015.The next-fastest ton by an Australian in a domestic one-day match, scored by Luke Ronchi, was 22 deliveries slower.In total, the 21-year-old smacked 23 boundaries, 13 of which were sixes. Prior to Sunday, he had only hit 18 sixes in the 49 games of his professional career.Jordan Silk struck a century in Tasmania’s record total•Getty Images

Fraser-McGurk’s formidable innings finally came to an end when he hit Beau Webster’s offspin to midwicket and was caught by Jake Weatherald.Without him, South Australia were never able to fully take advantage of the flat Adelaide deck.Allrounder Mitchell Owen was the pick of the bowlers for Tasmania, taking 3 for 46 including Daniel Drew and Jake Lehmann before they could truly kick on.South Australia were all out for 398 in the 47th over, which was still the fifth-highest total in Marsh Cup history and the largest one not to win.Earlier, Silk helped steady Tasmania’s ship after the loss of openers Caleb Jewell and Jake Weatherald in the space of two overs.On a day of carnage, the 31-year-old showed his maturity by moving slowly through the nervous 90s before launching into party mode after passing triple figures.His innings came to a halt in the 45th over, when he attempted to slog McAndrew for a 15th boundary but was caught by Ben Manenti at deep midwicket. Silk’s century was his first in 57 List A matches.The result comes after Tasmania dropped their first two games and sat bottom of the ladder and leaves South Australia chasing their first 50-over win of the summer.

India’s captain also revealed how the pain of Melbourne 2020 spurred her on in this tournament

Valkerie Baynes29-Jan-2023″This is just the beginning,” smiled Shafali Verma, the Under-19 India captain who had just led her country to a maiden World Cup title in women’s cricket. The beauty of that statement was that it is – and isn’t – just the beginning.For many of its participants from 16 nations, the inaugural ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa was a first foray into representing their country and playing overseas. And it will surely provide a spark for several promising careers, including that of Grace Scrivens, Player of the Tournament and Shafali’s defeated opposite number as India romped to victory by seven wickets with six overs to spare in Potchefstroom.Related

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Scrivens scored 293 runs – four fewer than tournament leader and Shafali’s opening partner Shweta Sehrawat – and took nine wickets. She heads home with hopes of lifting her Sunrisers team to victory after a winless 2022 across both 50-over and T20 domestic competitions, as well as building her fledgling Hundred career with the ultimate aim to “one day soon get in the main England squad”.Shafali, on the other hand, is in the thick of her senior international career already and, along with wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh, will join up with India’s senior side towards the end of this week for the T20 World Cup starting in Cape Town on Feburary 10.”I am someone who focuses on task at hand,” Shafali said. “When I entered the Under-19s, I only focused on winning the Under-19 Cup and we have won that today. I will look to take this winning confidence with me and win the senior World Cup. I will try and forget this and get involved with the senior set-up and gel with the team and win the World Cup.”Shafali, who turned 19 on the eve of the final, entered the tournament with 74 senior international caps to her name. After scores of 45 and 78 against South Africa and UAE respectively, she added only 34 more runs in four innings leading up to the title decider, where she also fell cheaply alongside Sehrawat as India slipped to 20 for 2.But, despite England having also defended a small total to scrape past Australia in the semi-finals, those early strikes by Scrivens and Hannah Baker, the legspinner who has been another revelation at this tournament, could not deny Shafali and her team, who cruised to their target.For her part, Scrivens said she learned plenty to take forward.”As a captain, it’s the first time I’ve done it for a while. I’ve done it when I was younger, but it’s on a different stage with much, much more on it,” she said. “So I think I’ve learned so much from that… learning more about players has been great.”It’s about getting to know your players and learning what makes them tick and what doesn’t and what you need to do to support them. I think throughout the tournament, I’ve been able to do that.”As a team we’ve learned so much, the way we fought in the semi-final was unbelievable. I think the fight shown by every single one of us was great and also being out in South Africa, learning about conditions, playing abroad. That’s just going to give us more experience and improve our career and future.”Archana Devi pulled off this one-handed stunner apart from taking two wickets•ICC/Getty Images

Afterwards, Shafali revealed there was also an element of looking to the past amid all the talk of what lies ahead. The pain of defeat as India tried in vain to chase down 185 against Australia in the T20 Women’s World Cup final three years ago at the MCG provided plenty of motivation and, as she fronted up to the post-match presentation – this time victorious – the emotions spilled over.”Melbourne was a very emotional day for me in that final game, we didn’t win the game. When I joined the Under-19 team, I’m just thinking, ‘you know, we have to win this Cup.’ I’m just telling all the girls, ‘We have to win this Cup, we are here for the Cup.'”We had lost the World Cup and it was tears of sadness. Today, they were tears of happiness because we achieved what we came here for. I tried controlling it but it couldn’t happen. I will look at this as a big achievement and look to use this to learn something more. I will try to score more runs for India and am not going to be satisfied with this Cup. This is just the beginning.”There is a sense of more to come from Player-of-the-Match Titas Sadhu, India’s sole seamer, and offspinner Archana Devi, who took two wickets apiece (not to mention the latter’s blinder of a catch at extra cover) to leave England reeling, as well as 16-year-old legspinner Parshavi Chopra, who also claimed two. Then there were Soumya Tiwari and Gongadi Trisha, who marshalled the bulk of the run-chase, albeit a small one, after Shafali and Sehrawat departed.”I can’t say the words but thanks to all the team, the way they were performing and the way they were backing each other,” Shafali said. “I’m going to miss this batch.”Perhaps she won’t have to wait too long before she is reunited with some of them.

New Zealand batsman “surprised” to be included in the 13-member squad for the first two Tests against Pakistan

Cricinfo staff21-Nov-2009Peter Fulton, the New Zealand and Canterbury batsman, has said he was “surprised” to be included in the
13-member squad for the first two Tests against Pakistan. Jesse Ryder’s absence through injury has given Fulton a chance to cement his place in the middle order a day after he helped Canterbury beat Otago in the Plunket Shield.”It’s a nice surprise to get, especially after a game like that,” Fulton told the . “When I missed out on the [New Zealand Invitation] team to play [Pakistan] down in Queenstown, I was obviously pissed off. At the back of your mind, you always sort of know that if you score enough runs you can force your way into contention, and that’s how it’s worked out.”Missing out on Queenstown was obviously an indication that I wasn’t really in the frame last week, but the runs I’ve scored this week has helped push my case.”Fulton made 172 in the first innings against Otago to help Canterbury post 440 and then hit 77 as they declared on 265 for 5 in the second, setting Otago a massive 471 to win. They were bowled out for 355.”I was really pleased with how I batted, actually,” said Fulton. “Just the amount of time I was able to spend at the crease and the tempo that I batted with. It was quite even all the way through.”Fulton, 30, has not played a Test since December 2008 and was eager to improve on improve on a batting average of 24.72 from eight matches. “The last nine to 12 months have obviously been pretty disappointing selection-wise, and missing out on a [New Zealand Cricket] contract,” he said. “I’ve had time to reassess where I’m at, and Test cricket is where I want to be, and I worked pretty hard over the winter.”

Will Somerville and Colin de Grandhomme took a wicket each for New Zealand on a day that saw only 36.3 overs

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu22-Aug-2019
Dimuth Karunaratne led Sri Lanka’s slow but steady progress on a rain-drenched first day at the P Sara Oval in Colombo. The Sri Lanka captain blunted the new ball and grew more fluent against the old one, making an unbeaten 49 off 100 balls, on a truncated day that saw only 36.3 overs. This, just three days after he had broken into the top ten in the Test batting rankings.A persistent drizzle had wiped out the entire morning session before returning to delay the start of the final session of the day. Although it relented, fading light resulted in early stumps on the opening day.ALSO READ: Williamson and Karunaratne, two ends of the control spectrumAfter Sri Lanka had opted to bat, both Tim Southee and Trent Boult found swing and seam movement on a grassy track, but their lengths weren’t full enough. It was offspinner Will Somerville who provided New Zealand with the breakthrough, when he extracted turn and bounce to have Lahiru Thrimanne, the other opener, spooning a catch to short cover for a skittish 2 off 35 balls.Karunaratne, much like Thirimanne, had been uncertain when the ball was pitched up, and threaded the cordon twice when he reached out outside off in the early exchanges. However, when Boult erred short, Karunaratne rose on top of the bounce and crunched him between point and cover for a brace of fours.Karunaratne’s defensive technique was tighter against Somerville and Ajaz Patel although he faced only eight balls of spin. Somerville’s tussle with Thirimanne was more intriguing as the offspinner challenged the edges with fuller lengths. Somerville could have had Thirmanne with his third ball when he drew a bottom edge, but wicketkeeper BJ Watling wasn’t quick enough to close his gloves around the ball.Moments after being dropped, Thirimanne cracked under pressure and loosely drove Somerville to Williamson in the 15th over. Kusal Mendis then played a few lively shots and upset Somerville’s lengths, but he was largely circumspect against the seamers. He contributed 32 to a 50-run second-wicket stand with Karunaratne before Colin de Grandhomme landed the ball on the seam and had him nicking off in the post-tea session.New Zealand had broken up their three-man spin attack and picked seam-bowling allrounder Colin de Grandhomme in place of Mitchell Santner, who not too long ago was their No.1 spinner. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, recalled a fit-again Dilruwan Perera in place of Akila Dananjaya, who risks suspension after being reported for suspect action for a second time in ten months.

“It’s all because of my brother’s sacrifice. I would not have been here otherwise”

Shashank Kishore23-Dec-2022Vivrant Sharma was at an Ahmedabad hotel, packing after a deflating loss to Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy. The IPL auction had been running in the background on TV, but it was only when the capped players’ sets finished that it registered that his name would be up soon.As the 23-year-old allrounder from Jammu & Kashmir watched, he saw Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders battle it out for his services. A base price of INR 20 lakh (USD 24,000 approx.) zoomed past a crore within no time. When the hammer finally went down a few minutes later, he’d been signed up for INR 2.6 crore (USD 317,000 approx.), a sum he certainly “did not expect”. All he had hoped for was to be picked. This was “unimaginable”.Related

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Vivrant’s first move after that was to ring up his elder brother Vikrant, who inspired him to become a cricketer. Vikrant aspired to be fast bowler and even represented his university, but stepped aside to manage the family’s chemical business following the death of their father Sushant Sharma in 2020.Vikrant’s focus alongside the family business was to ensure Vivrant lived his passion. That dream began to take shape in February 2021, when he made his List A debut for his state side. Earlier this month, an anticipated Ranji Trophy debut materialised. On Friday, he took the next step up.”My cricket would have come to a halt but Vikrant ensured that it continued non-stop as he took over the family business and started living his dreams through me,” Vivrant told PTI. “It’s all because of my brother’s sacrifice. I would not have been here otherwise. I was not good at studies, but Vikrant ensured I continued to focus on cricket and kept making progress.”This won’t, however, be Vivrant’s first brush with the IPL. Earlier this year, on Abdul Samad’s recommendation, he was a net bowler for Sunrisers, bowling handy legspin. It was there, during a training session, where reserve players were range hitting, that Vivrant gave glimpses of his big-hitting abilities.He provided further proof of his abilities during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy domestic T20s in October, when he made 128 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 145.45. There was one particular knock, against Karnataka, that he picks out as a turning point.In a chase of 148 on a sluggish surface in Chandigarh’s Mullanpur stadium, Vivrant found himself batting with the lower order as J&K sank to 31 for 6. Vivrant launched a fierce counterattack to make a 46-ball 63 with six fours and two sixes. J&K lost the game, but Vivrant had made a mark. With the ball, overall, he picked up six wickets at an economy of 4.80.He followed that up with solid returns at the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he was the team’s second-highest run-scorer with 395 runs in eight innings at an average of 56.42 and strike rate of 94.72. This included a 124-ball 154 against Uttarakhand that powered J&K into the preliminary quarter-final. He also picked up five wickets in the tournament.Given these numbers, he held on to hopes of an IPL deal, but “I never expected such an amount. I was just hoping someone would pick me.”Vivrant is a die-hard Yuvraj Singh fan. He’s also thankful to Irfan Pathan, the former India allrounder who was a mentor to J&K for two seasons, for his support. “Being a left-hander himself, Irfan too has influenced me a lot,” he said. “He is a player’s coach and is still in touch with us. I’m sure he will be very happy today.”Come the IPL, Vivrant hopes to pick Brian Lara’s brains at Sunrisers. But, for now, his focus is on churning out good performances for J&K in the Ranji Trophy. “There are a lot of expectations [from me]. I just want to stay grounded and keep learning.”

Derbyshire captain to move south after agreeing deal to play at Lord’s until 2028

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jul-2023Leus du Plooy, Derbyshire’s captain, will leave the club at the end of the season after agreeing a five-year contract with Middlesex.As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Middlesex were at the front of the queue to sign du Plooy, who had been offered an extension by Derbyshire but has opted to move to London after five seasons with the midlands county.Du Plooy is averaging 98.10 in the County Championship this season, with 981 runs and three centuries. He only took over as captain last year, after Billy Godleman stepped down, and despite his form Derbyshire are currently bottom of Division Two. In the Blast, they narrowly missed out on a quarter-final spot after defeat in their last group game.Born in South Africa but eligible as a non-overseas player due to a Hungarian passport and pre-settled status in the UK, du Plooy has built a productive record across formats, winning contracts in the Hundred with Welsh Fire and Southern Brave, having also impressed in the SA20 for Joburg Super Kings.”We are delighted that Leus has chosen to join Middlesex Cricket and are really excited about what he will bring to the group,” Middlesex’s director of cricket, Alan Coleman, said. “Leus is a player that we have admired for a long time, and he will make a significant difference to our squad in all forms of the game.”The fact that Middlesex were one of several counties chasing his signature, with his contract with Derbyshire finishing this year, is testament to not only his abilities as a cricketer but to him as an individual, and we are just so pleased that he’ll be heading to Lord’s. He is the kind of player and person who will add so much to our dressing room.”The fact that he is Southern Brave’s most expensive domestic signing this year in the Hundred, in the top value bracket of players, shows what a world-class striker of the ball he is, and he will be a huge boost to our T20 squad as well as our red-ball squad.”We can’t wait to welcome Leus to Lord’s and look forward to him enjoying a long and successful career with the club. He will play a big part of everything we are looking to achieve moving forwards here at Middlesex.”In first-class cricket, du Plooy averages 47.17, with 18 hundreds. He has also scored more than 2500 career runs in T20, at a strike rate of 133.50.”I’m incredibly honoured and extremely excited to begin this new chapter with Middlesex Cricket,” du Plooy said. “Lord’s is a special place to play, and it’ll be surreal to call it my home ground next year.”I’m really looking forward to meeting everyone and forming new relationships, creating special memories and improve my game at such a prestigious club.”

The qualifying tournament to be held in Zimbabwe in June-July is the final stepping stone for teams still in contention for the 2023 ODI World Cup

Firdose Moonda06-Apr-2023There will be no DRS system in place for this year’s 50-over World Cup qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe in June-July, but the ICC has confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that there will be a third umpire monitoring run-outs.The absence of DRS mirrors the 2019 World Cup qualifiers, also held in Zimbabwe in March 2018, but is an improvement on the availability of a third umpire. In 2018, the third umpire was deployed in only 10 of the 34 matches – those that were televised. The 2023 edition will see a third umpire available for all games but there will be no other review tools, such as UltraEdge or ball-tracking, which may be a concern for teams considering how the 2018 tournament played out.Related

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West Indies and Afghanistan advanced to the 2019 World Cup in England, but not without controversy. West Indies booked their places after beating Scotland by five runs in a rain-reduced encounter which saw Scotland’s face a reduced target of 131 in 32.5 overs. They were well-placed on 105 for 4 in the 32nd over when Richie Berrington was given out lbw to an Ashley Nurse delivery that looked to be sliding down leg. With no DRS, Berrington could not review.There was also no DRS at the just-concluded Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in Windhoek, Namibia, where the standard of umpiring was under scrutiny in several games. Namibian captain Gerhard Erasmus responded to a Twitter user who commented on a decision made in the match between Jersey and the USA, saying associate teams were made to “eat last” when it came to officiating. Namibia finished third in the tournament and will not compete in the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe.