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Shafali’s T20I best blasts India into the semi-final

Published

2 years ago

2024/07/24

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Shafali Verma blitzed her way to a 26-ball fifty [Cricinfo]

Shafali Verma’s career-best 81 and a disciplined bowling effort propelled India into the semi-finals of the Womens Asia Cup 2024 with an 82-run win over Nepal. With three wins from three games, India topped Group A. Pakistan, who defeated UAE earlier in the afternoon, were the second team to advance to the knockouts, with two wins out of three.

Opting to bat first, the Smriti Mandhana-led India posted 178 for 3 thanks to Shafali’s breezy knock and a solid opening stand with Dayalan Hemalatha. It was an uphill task for Nepal, who don’t play under lights and, against an in-form bowling attack, they could only manage 96 for 9 in 20 overs.

With the semi-final spot almost in the bag, India rested their regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur and allrounder Pooja Vastrakar and gave some game time to S Sajana and Arundhati Reddy. There was also a change at the top of the order, with India promoting Hemalatha to open with Shafali. The openers took their time to assess the conditions and several loose deliveries went unpunished early on. But soon enough Shafali found her feet and accelerated. The same cannot be said of her opening partner on the day.

After an unbeaten 41 against Bangladesh in April in her comeback game, Hemalatha had crossed 30 only once in the next eight innings across ODIs and T20Is before Tuesday. This however was a golden opportunity for Hemalatha to cement her spot in the XI, batting against an Associate team on a slow surface. She did get a few good shots away thanks to a strong bottom hand, but in general struggled to find her timing in a 42-ball 47.

Shafali, on the other hand, capitalised on the Nepal bowlers’ struggle to find the right line and length. She used her feet and wrist well to flick, hit straight drives down the ground, slog sweep to deep midwicket and, overall, played with good intent. India finished the powerplay on 50 for 0 and Shafali brought up her tenth T20I fifty in the eighth over, off just 26 balls. At the halfway stage, India were 91 for 0 and looked set to breach the 200-run mark again.

However, Nepal’s experienced left-arm spinner Sita Rana Magar pulled things back and removed Hemalatha and Shafali in the 14th and 16th over respectively. Shafali ended her knock with 12 fours and a six, and the duo’s 122-run partnership was the highest opening stand across editions of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup and the second-highest for any wicket.

India’s scoring rate slowed down when the new batters came in but Jemimah Rodrigues’ clever batting, which fetched her five fours in her 15-ball 28 not out, helped India get close to 180. Sajana, like Hemalatha, also struggled in her 12-ball stay. Whether India persist with Hemalatha or give more opportunities to Sajana at No. 3 is something to keep an eye on, leading up to the T20 World Cup in October.

An injury to Titas Sadhu opened the door for Reddy to get back with the Indian squad, following impressive performances in domestic cricket and the WPL. In the limited opportunities she has got since her comeback against South Africa last month, Reddy has stepped up to the challenge. Against Nepal, she delivered again, picking up 2 for 28 in her four overs. Having worked on her variations and the ability to swing the ball both ways in the last 12 to 15 months, Reddy struck off her fourth delivery, bowling opener Samjhana Khadka. She went for 11 runs in her second over, but fought back to dismiss Magar for a 22-ball 18 with a delivery that seamed back in to hit the middle stump.

Nepal were rocked early in the chase, and never really recovered.

Brief scores:
India Women 178 for 3 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 81, Dayalan Hemalatha 47, Jemimah Rodrigues 28; Kabita Joshi 1-36, Sita Rana Magar 2-25) beat Nepal Women 96 for 9 in 20 overs (Sita Rana Magar 18; Renuka Singh 1-15, Deepti Sharma 3-13, Radha Yadav 2-12, Arundhati Reddy 2-28) by 82 runs

[Cricinfo]

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Stage set for Sri Lanka to turn the tide and pounce on England

Published

4 hours ago

2026/02/22

Priyan

Harry Brook speaks to media ahead of the clash against Sri Lanka (Cricinfo)

It’s a measure of England’s messed-up psyche right now that the start of the Super Eight might finally be the moment that they can relax into their T20 World Cup campaign. The prologue is done, the terrifying mights of Nepal, Scotland and Italy have been put (just about) in their places. Harry Brooks’s men can take a deep, cleansing breath, and prepare to face the tournament co-hosts at the scene of one of the most wildly acclaimed victories in their recent history.

Pallekele was the stage, just under a week ago, for Sri Lanka’s turbo charged victory over a shell-shocked (and soon-to-be-eliminated) Australia. One minute the Aussies were 104 for 0 in the ninth over, and the hosts themselves were the ones contemplating an anxious exit from an unexpectedly competitive Group B. The next thing you knew, their spinners had ripped out Australia’s soul, and Pathum Nissanka had come howling through the breach with his wonderful 52-ball century.

Pallekele’s passionate, opinionatwd, fanbase made their presence felt that night, and as the concurrent scenes in Colombo have indicated, Sri Lanka is somewhat gripped by World Cup fever right now – notwithstanding their team’s shock loss to a surging Zimbabwe in their final group game.

That six-wicket defeat made no odds to the Super Eight, with the pre-seeded pools now awkwardly featuring all the group winners on one side of the draw and all the runners-up on the other. But it was conceivably an untimely bump back to earth, just in time for Sri Lanka’s reunion with a familiar set of foes. England won five matches out of six on their white-ball warm-up tour of the country last month, including three out of three in the T20I leg.

None of these wins were emphatic, but each of them was sealed by subtly different means – Adil Rashid’s spin strangle in game 1, Tom Banton’s middle-order awakening in game 2, Sam Curran’s guts and glory on a tricky turning deck in game 3, in which England’s back-up tweakers, Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell applied the coup de grace.

The net effect was to give the impression of a well-rounded England team, one that was ready to march into the main event with form to fall back on and faith in their myriad methods. And while that might still be the case in an eminently surmountable Group 2 which also features the known unknowns of New Zealand and Pakistan, the sheer terror of those near-misses against Nepal and Italy cannot be easily forgotten. Nor the disturbing passivity of their old-school trouncing in Mumbai by West Indies.

The stage is therefore set for Sri Lanka to pounce on the big occasion, as they have often done in the recent past, most notably with their wins at the 2019 and 2023 ODI World Cups, when their brace of victories went against the grain of their one-sided bilateral records.

Sri Lanka’s batting has broadly fired across the group stages, with Nissanka leading the line and Kusal Mendis contributing a trio of fifties in four matches, but agonisingly they’ll have to take the stage without the raw pace of Matheesha Pathirana, whose slingy action had England’s top order in all sorts of bother throughout their bilateral engagements. He lasted just four balls of the Australia game before succumbing to a calf strain, and has been replaced by Dilshan Madushanka.

Pathum Nissanka joined a curiously niche club when he smoked Australia to the brink of elimination last week. Only Chris Gayle before him had managed a T20 World Cup hundred, in addition to an ODI double-hundred and a century in all three formats – and if he’s got some way to go to match Gayle’s twin Test 300s, then a career-best 187 in his last series against Bangladesh suggests he’s tracking in the right direction. England did not see the best of him in the bilateral series just gone, but they’ll remember it alright. At The Oval in 2024, he blazed a superb fourth-innings 127 not out from 124 balls to swipe the third Test from under his opponents’ noses. At a time when England’s own batting lacks a touch of bravado, Nissanka is perfectly placed to steal a march once again.

Adil Rashid has been an unlikely barometer of England’s struggles. On his day, he remains absolutely integral to his team’s hopes of adding to the silverware that he has been instrumental in collecting over the course of the past decade. In England’s loss to West Indies, he did not concede a single boundary in serving up figures of 2 for 16 in four overs, while a combined haul of 5 for 69 in 12 in Pallekele last month suggests he will be right back on the mark on his return to a happy hunting ground. In between whiles, however, he has been treated with rare disdain by a succession of Associate batters, serving up combined figures of 4 for 121 in 11 overs, including a brutal outing of 3-0-42-0 against Nepal. Part of that might come down to a lack of inhibition from a succession of unfancied opponents who had licence to take him on. But with Brook’s tournament stratergy lean8ng so heavily on spin, England cannot afford many more bad days from their veteran. They aren’t programmed to cope when he goes missing.

England’s nerves haven’t been settled, but their team certainly has. Their depth of batting and bowling options came to the fore on their previous trip to Pallekele, and while there’s no expectation of wholesale changes, Brook did hint that some tweaks might be needed to avoid becoming predictable. Whether those are personnel or positional remain to be seen, although Luke Wood’s skiddier left-arm seam might be restored in place of Jamie Overton’s heavier lengths. The cut to Jacob Bethell’s bowling hand (sustained during the match against West Indies), may prevent him from bowling, because those fingers are still strapped. Brook hoped he’d recover in time, however.

England: (probable) Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Harry Brook (capt), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Luke Wood, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid

Pramod Madushan made his first appearance of the campaign in the Zimbabwe defeat, with Dushmantha Chameera taking a break with qualification already assured. That short-term arrangement is likely to be reversed, with Madushanka keeping his spot.

Sri Lanka: (probable) Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (wk), Pavan Rathnayake, Kamindu Mendis, Dasun Shanaka (capt), Dunith Wellelage, Dushan Hemantha, Maheesh Theekshana, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushmantha Chameera

(Cricinfo)

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Incessant rain washes out opening Super Eight fixture between New Zealand and Pakistan

Published

5 hours ago

2026/02/22

Priyan

Pakistan captain Salman Agha won the toss and elected to bat (Cricinfo)

New Zealand and Pakistan will share the points after rain forced a washout in Colombo. The officials waited over two hours from the official start time for an improvement in the weather conditions, but the steady drizzle that began at the toss only grew heavier and never quite relented.

With puddles forming on the covers and the overhead conditions no closer to improving, the umpires made the inevitable call.

There was a strong chance of showers as toss time approached. The previous day, Pakistan’s evening training session had to be cancelled due to rain. At the toss, which Pakistan won with Salman Agha opting to bat first, a drizzle began as the captains were speaking, and the ground staff began to move the covers into position. From thereon, the fate of the game was sealed.

Pakistan had left Khawaja Nafay out and brought in Fakhar Zaman, while New Zealand made three changes, including welcoming their captain Mitchell Santner back into the XI.

Both teams got off the mark in the Super Eight, but are left with little room for error. Pakistan will play England next on Tuesday and Sri Lanka a week from today, while New Zealand take on Sri Lanka on Wednesday and England on Friday. All games in this group take place in Sri Lanka.

(Cricinfo)

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Advisory for Heavy Rain issued for the Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in the Ampara, Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa districts

Published

17 hours ago

2026/02/21

Priyan

Advisory for Heavy Rain Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre at 12.00 noon on 21 February 2026 valid for the period until 08.30 a.m. 22 February 2026

Due to the low level atmospheric disturbance in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, Heavy showers above 100 mm are likely at some places in the Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in the Ampara, Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa districts and fairly heavy showers above 75 mm are likely at some places elsewhere.

Therefore, the general public is advised to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by heavy rain, strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.