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Gibson’s muscle and Deepti’s cool lift London Spirit to maiden Women’s Hundred title

Published

2 years ago

2024/08/19

Priyan

Heather Knight holds the Hundred trophy aloft (Cricinfo)

Two years on from Deepti Sharma sending Charlie Dean into despair by running her out at the non strikers end , the pair were jumping into each other’s arms on the same side of the pitch. Deepti had just struck the winning runs in the 2024 women’s Hundred final, a six launched high rather than far, but far enough to send Shabnim Ismail over the sponge with it.

And with that, London Spirit were champions for the first time, and whatever diplomatic chaos that England-India ODI conclusion wrought back in 2022 had well and truly been blown out of the water. Foes were now friends. Spirit now champions Heather Knight ‘s charges, having grown into this tournament just in the nick of time, scraped into third place and then turned over the top two in the space of a weekend to secure championship status.

Victory over Welsh Fire by four wickets, with just two balls to spare, was perhaps closer than it should have been after restricting the league-leaders to 115, a score which relied heavily on Jess Jonassen’s 54. But it was Ismail’s 3 for 24 that sprinkled doubt into Spirit minds with the prime cuts of Meg Lanning, Knight and Danielle Gibson falling to some exceptional pace and movement from the South African quick. It was cruel the final moment had the ball slipping through her grasp.

Ultimately, Spirit dug deep, courtesy of a measured 34 from Georgia Redmayne, coming off the back of an unbeaten 53 south of the river 24 hours earlier in the Eliminator.

Redmayne did to Fire as she had done to Oval Invincibles; pacing out the chase with a level of calm that this time was broken when Freya Davies nipped one down the slop from around the wicket to pin the left-hander in front. By the time Redmayne had departed, the ask was 12 from 11, but the nerves were evident when Abigail Freeborn was finally run out after a couple of close shaves. Thankfully for Spirit, that brought Dean’s “Future England Captain” calm to the crease, which she used to charge and find a single off her only ball, handing matters back to Deepti, who finished it off in style.

Ultimately, Fire will rue a stuttering start after being asked to bat first, that was only salvaged by Jonassen’s maiden half-century in this competition. Three wickets were lost in the first 29 balls. Sarah Glenn’s two in three deliveries – the first accounting for Tammy Beaumont; the second sending Sarah Bryce back to the dugout with a two-ball duck – allowed Spirit to maintain control for most of the first innings.

It was at that point Jonassen stepped up a gear, lacing four boundaries in six deliveries – the first three off Gibson, the fourth off Dean – finally giving Spirit something to think about. It did not last long; just 10 runs came off the final 10 deliveries, with four wickets – two of them run-outs.

But it did at least lead to a sense of jeopardy when Ismail nipped one down the slope to bowl Knight, and then again to end Gibson’s breezy, momentum-shifting cameo. Five boundaries in her first six deliveries – a couple of neat guides down to third sandwiching clubs to midwicket and through the covers – took the required runs below balls faced for the first time in the second innings, pushing Welsh Fire into a Strategic Timeout with 33 needed from 34.

Gibson’s dismissal at the start of Ismail’s final set ended the torrent of boundaries, but it did introduce Deepti to the crease. And though the allrounder was far from fluent upon arrival, missing out on a host of loose deliveries as she tried to manufacture sweep shots that were not quite there, there was a sense that something outlandish was in the offing as we entered the final set of the 2024 competition with six needed. Her bowling may be steady – as it was again on Sunday with 1 for 23 – but Deepti’s batting is often about the devil on her shoulder.

The match-up with Matthews for the final set made sense from Fire’s perspective, even if the West Indian had been expensive with 25 off her first 15 deliveries. The lack of pace meant batters had to do something different. And Deepti, charging down to just get to the pitch of the ball and contorting her wrists to heave over wide long on for the only six of the match, did just that.

Brief scores:

London Spirit Women 118 for 6 in 98 balls (Georgia Redmayne 34, Heather Knight 24, Danielle Gibson 22; Shabnim Ismail 3-24, Freya Davies 1-21, Georgia Devis 1-15) beat Welsh Fire Women 115 for 8 in 100 balls (Tammy Beaumont 21, Hayley Matthews 22, Jess Jonassen 54; Tara Norris 1-18, Sarah Glenn 2-17, Eva Gray 2-26, Deepti Sharma 1-23) by four wickets

(Cricinfo)

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Sun directly overhead Madampe, Thorayaya, Thotagamuwa, Rattota and Kalavanchikudy about 12.09 noon today (03)

Published

1 hour ago

2026/09/3

Priyan

The sun is going to be directly over the latitudes of Sri Lanka from 28th of August to 07th of September due to its apparent southward relative motion.

The nearest places of Sri Lanka over which the sun is overhead today (03) are Madampe, Thorayaya, Thotagamuwa, Rattota and
Kalavanchikudy about 12.09 noon.

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Nilakshika fifty, Athapaththu seven-for rescue Sri Lanka against Indonesia

Published

7 hours ago

2026/09/3

Priyan

Chamari Athapaththu (3.3-0-5-7) produced the fifth-best figures in women's T20Is [ACC]

A Chamari Athapaththu seven-wicket haul and Nilakshika Silva’s 50 off 35 saw defending champions Sri Lanka withstand a valiant Indonesian side to register a resounding 75-run victory in their Asia Cup match in Dubai.

Athapaththu was undoubtedly the pick of the bowlers, as she started and finished Indonesia’s slide with career best figures of 7 for 05, inclusive of a hat-trick – nearly two in fact. Chasing a target of 125, the opening pair of Maria Corazon and Rahmawati Pangestuti struck 16 runs in the first two overs, but once spin came into play scoring slowed down to a trickle and Indonesia were eventually bowled out for 49 in the 19th over.

Sri Lanka, too, had found it tough to combat Indonesia’s mix of spin and slow-medium seamers as they stumbled to 62 for 6 in the 13th over, but their innings received a timely boost as Nilakshika countered with a trademark back-against-the-wall effort to drag her side to a total that seemed about par on a pretty sluggish surface. In the end it proved to be plenty.

Sri Lanka struggle early on

Having been put in to bat on a fresh surface, Sri Lanka were perhaps guilty of a little complacency against their less-fancied opponents. Time and again the top order sought to find the boundary, and time and again they failed to find their timing.

On a wicket where the ball was hardly coming on, the Sri Lankan batters’ tunnel vision focused squarely on boundary hitting and eschewed strike rotation; there were 19 dot balls in a powerplay that had fetched 31 runs for the loss of two wickets.

By the halfway point of the innings, the dot count had risen to 28. The scorecard, meanwhile, read 47 for 5. Indonesia, to their credit, did well to bowl to their fields and frustrate the Lankan batters.

Sanjana Kavindi got to double-digits with a pair of nicely struck boundaries, but she was the only one of Sri Lanka’s top five to do so – and she was eventually done in on 15 missing an attempted cut on a straight one.

Nilakshika brings the Silva-lining

With recognised batting fast running out, Sri Lanka needed someone to take control of the innings, and as she has done so often over recent years it was Nilakshika that stood up to be counted.

She first strung together 17 off 18 with Kaushini Nuthyangana, but when Nuthyangana fell Nilakshika produced a masterclass in batting with the tail. She cajoled Kawya Kavindi to keep rotating the strike, and when the opportunity arose she was unerring in finding the boundaries – including Sri Lanka’s first and only six of the innings in the penultimate over.

Their seventh-wicket partnership eventually ended on 50 off 36, reached simultaneously alongside side Nilakshika’s fifty – her third in T20Is – but by then she had already ushered her side to safety.

Athapaththu steals the show

In Chethana Vimukthi, Sri Lanka might have their first ever genuine fast bowler but on a wicket where the ball was not quite coming on, pace never seemed like the answer. For the first two overs of the chase, Indonesia’s openers did well to find boundaries against Vimukthi and and fellow seamer Kawya, but then Sri Lanka introduced their spinners.

Athapaththu promptly castled Pangestuti before removing Corazon and Rada Rani off consecutive deliveries in her next over. Here she missed her hat-trick by a whisker, a yorker narrowly missing Desi Wulandari’s off stump.

She brought herself back into the attack in the 14th and removed Nanda Sakarini, and she capped things off by achieving her hat-trick at the second time of asking, taking three wickets off what proved to be the final three deliveries of the innings.

Scores:
Sri Lanka Women 124 for 7 in 20 overs (Sanjana Kavindi 15, Nilakshika Silva 50, Kawya Kavindi 15*; Ni Ariani 1-23, Sang Maypriani 2-15, Ni Luh Dewi 3-32, Sofia Velic 1-21) beat Indonesia Women 49 all out in 18.3 overs (Rahmawati Pangestudi 10, Ni Made Putri Suwandevi 12; Kavya Kavindi 1-14, Sugandika Kumari 1-03, Chamari Athapaththu 7-05, Kavisha Dilhari 1-02) by 75 runs

[Cricinfo]

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MoU signed for technology to prevent wild elephant-train collisions

Published

16 hours ago

2026/09/2

Priyan

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) relating to the project to provide technological solutions to prevent wild elephants from being hit by trains was signed yesterday (01) afternoon at the President’s Media Centre, under the patronage of Secretary to the President Dr Nandika Sanath Kumanayake.

Coordinated through the “Clean Sri Lanka” programme, the project is being implemented as a public-private partnership, with the Railway Department, the Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Forest Conservation Department working together, with full financial support from People’s Bank.

The system consists of three-beam detection, passive infrared (PIR) sensors, automatic temperature sensors and a tamper alarm system to detect animals weighing more than 20 kilogrammes and unauthorised interference. Signal lights (red/yellow/green) installed on either side of the railway tracks, together with a special screen installed inside the locomotive cab, will alert the driver in advance to the exact location of an elephant.

A demonstration test of the system was successfully conducted at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage premises in the presence of the relevant officials, following which a report on the system was prepared.

The system will be implemented as a pilot project from next month at 13 locations where wild elephant accidents are frequent. A newly developed website is also scheduled to be launched to enable the progress of the project to be viewed live.

Additional General Manager of Railways P.D.S.B. Chandrasena, Director General of Wildlife Conservation M.S.L.R.P. Marasinghe, Conservator General of Forests S.C. Palamakuumbura and Chairman of People’s Bank Chandana Guniyangoda signed the relevant MoU. Officials from the Clean Sri Lanka Secretariat, including Presidential Additional Secretary (Clean Sri Lanka) Engineer S.P.C. Sugeeshwara, as well as senior officials from the Railway Department, Department of Wildlife Conservation, Forest Conservation Department and People’s Bank, were also present.

[President’s Media Division]