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New Zealand overcome Dottin’s all-round brilliance for first T20 World Cup final since 2010
New Zealand stormed into the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup after 14 years, beating the 2016 champions West Indies by eight runs in a low-scoring thriller in Sharjah. New Zealand will meet the 2023 edition’s runners-up South Africa as the tournament is set for a first-time champion.
Opting to bat first, Sophie Devine’s side huffed and puffed their way to 128 for 9 on a pitch where the ball was not coming onto the bat Deandra Dottin starred for West Indies, taking 4 for 22. However, West Indies’ chase did not take off as expected with Eden Carson and Co keeping them to 25 for 2 in the powerplay.
Hayley Matthews and Stafanie Taylor toiled hard but could manage only a combined 28 off 41 balls. That left West Indies 51 for 4 and needing 78 from 55. Dottin once again kept West Indies in the game. Her fireworks – a 22-ball 33 where she hit Lea Tahuhu for three sixes in an over – brought the equation down to 34 from 24. But Amelia Kerr, the highest wicket taker at this World Cup, ended Dottin’s innings in the 17th over when she top-edged a sweep to short fine leg.
New Zealand were not flawless, having dropped five catches in the field, but their bowlers found a way to stop West Indies to 120 for 8.
Carson has been New Zealand’s go-to powerplay bowler, having taken four of her five wickets prior to the semi-final in this phase. On Friday, she once again set the tone with the ball. After conceding two fours to Qiana Joseph, the offspinner bowled a length ball on middle that spun past the batter’s swipe to knock her stumps. Soon 16 for no loss became 20 for 2 when Carson darted one full and wide of off for Shemaine Campbelle to step out and miscue one towards extra cover, where Suzie Bates took a diving catch. The wickets slowed down West Indies with Matthews and Taylor moving at a snail’s pace. Carson came back again for the ninth over when Matthews and Taylor smashed a four each to pick up pace but the offspinner had the last laugh, bowling Taylor for a 20-ball 13 as she mistimed a slog sweep. She ended with figures of 3 for 29 and the Player-of-the-Match award.
Matthews was happy to bowl first, which was evident in the way they started with the ball. In the first six overs, bowled equally by spin and pace, West Indies kept New Zealand quiet, leaking just 32 runs. Fast bowler Chinelle Henry bowled three of her four overs inside the powerplay, hitting the hard lengths and extracting movement in the air and off the surface to not let Bates and Georgia Plimmer get going. Two of New Zealand’s three fours in this phase were freebies – a full toss off Zaida James and an overpitched delivery from Henry. Plimmer struggled to find her timing early on. Bates tried to move across and come down the track to find quick runs but to little effect.
It didn’t matter that Dottin was bowling only for the second time in this T20 World Cup. She put her decade-long experience to use on a pitch that was not easy to bat on. She bowled mostly full and straight, and mixed it cleverly with slower deliveries which was enough to trouble New Zealand. Dottin struck with her second ball to remove Kerr for 7. But Brooke Halliday and Devine’s quick starts revived the innings; the duo added 27 off the next 14 balls.
But in Dottin’s second over, the 15th of the innings, swung the momentum once again towards West Indies. There was a short break in play after Halliday was hit on her left foot by a throw from deep midwicket. Dottin fired in a yorker the next ball. Halliday missed jamming her bat down at it and saw her off stump pegged back. She made 18 off nine balls.
In the following over, Afy Fletcher dismissed Devine for a run-a-ball 12, and New Zealand, at 98 for 5, needed Maddy Green and Isabella Gaze to step up. But Dottin denied them that opportunity. She first sent back Green and then trapped Rosemary Mair lbw with the help of DRS. At 104 for 7, New Zealand seemed to have lost the plot. But they managed to eke out 24 from the last three overs, which proved to be decisive in the end.
Brief scores:
New Zealand Women 128 for 9 in 20 overs (Suzie Bates 26,Georgia Pimmer 33, Isabella Gaze 20; Deandra Dottin 4-22, Karishma Ramhaeak 1-11, Aaiya Alleyne 1-31, Afy Fletcher 2-23)beat West Indies Women 120 for 8 in 20 overs (Deandra Dottin 33; Fran Jonas 1-21, Eden Carson 3-29, Amelia Kerr 2-14, Lea Tahuhu 1-33, Suzie Bates 1-06) by eight runs
[Cricinfo]
Pakistan withstood a middle-order counterattack from Pavan Rathnayake and Janith Liyanage to see off Sri Lanka by 37 runs. In the first match of a tri-series that also includes England, the pair appeared to have put Sri Lanka on course with a 119-run fifth wicket partnership, with the visitors well in front and requiring just 55 from the last seven overs. Liyanage’s wicket, however, saw the bottom fall out of the side, with Sri Lanka losing their last five wickets for 15 runs to allow Pakistan to breathe a sigh of relief.
The win had been set up by Salman Agha, who marked his return to the Pakistan side with his fourth ODI hundred to hold off a collapse and steer the hosts past 300. By the 22nd over, Pakistan had lost four wickets, and looked vulnerable with a relatively long tail. However, Salman’s 90-ball 107 navigated Pakistan expertly out of danger with sizeable partnerships with Hasan Nawaz and Arafat Minhas.
Sri Lanka deprived Shaheen Afridi’s side of a big finish, though, with Eshan Malinga and Asitha Fernando striking multiple blows in the death overs to ultimately bowl Pakistan out for 305. Those runs they had left on the table looked set to cost them dear at the climax of the context. The dew had set in, and Rathnayake and Liyanage were beginning to reverse Pakistan’s early dominance that had seen them skittle Sri Lanka’s top four with few dents made to the chase.
Afridi rotated his cast of bowlers, but aside from Naseem Shah, there appeared no remedy to the free flow of runs. Haris Rauf, Minhas, Saim Ayub and Afridi himself were all worked over, particularly by Rathnayake, who was especially methodical in the way he timed his innings to dance in tune to the required rate. Afridi was sensationally blown out of the attack with a pair of pulled sixes off the hips, in stark contrast to Pakistan’s own struggles against the short ball.
A pair of tight overs from Faheem Ashraf finally induced Rathnayake into a false stroke as he spooned one to Salman at short cover, only for Dasun Shanaka to pick up the slack. But with 53 runs to go, Liyanage chipped Rauf to long-on, and Pakistan blew the house down. Afridi prised Shanaka out the following over, and though the tail limped on briefly, it was only a matter of time.
Pakistan will look back fondly at their dominance in the first 25 overs, which closely mirrored Sri Lanka’s own success in the first innings. Sri Lanka’s top order was ineffective in keeping pace with the asking rate, and Naseem bowled a tidy spell up front, which included the wicket of Avishka Fernando. Ashraf took a sharp catch after Saad Baig dropped the skier, the allrounder showing good reflexes to scoop the ball up. It was, all told, a difficult evening behind the stumps for the debutant, and, in truth, a poor day out for Pakistan’s fielders throughout the innings.
Sri Lanka’s fortune with the toss had carried over to the ODI series, and they inserted Pakistan in Rawalpindi. There was early swing on offer, but it was the extra pace from Dilshan Madushanka that accounted for both openers. Ayub and Fakhar Zaman were both undone by the short delivery, leaving Babar Azam and Baig to rebuild.
The duo put on 74 and were beginning to get the asking rate ticking upwards. However, Babar’s frustrating recent knack of giving away auspicious starts reared its familiar head once more. Malinga was Sri Lanka’s quickest bowler through the innings, and he landed one short that rushed onto Babar, who was late on the pull just five shy of a half-century. Soon after Baig, who had shown promise as well as a willingness to pull rather than back away from bouncers, miscued one himself, holing out to deep fine leg.
It was precisely the sort of situation Salman – dropped from both the Test side and T20 captaincy in the last two months – thrives in, rebuilding during the middle overs of an ODI. He did so flawlessly, halting Sri Lanka’s momentum while staying on top of the run rate, keeping the strike ticking along, and adeptly covering for Nawaz, who had made a more sluggish start. He capitalised when Sri Lanka erred by turning prematurely to Kamindu Mendis’ spin, taking 11 off the 25th over to turn momentum around.
Sri Lanka began to look more toothless with the ball through those middle overs as Salman’s comfort grew. He dominated the stand and brought up his half-century off 48 balls. Nawaz had begun to loosen his shoulders too, illustrated by a six off legspinner Sachindu Colombage, but Asitha rooted him out the following over, ending the fifth-wicket stand ay 97. Salman played a similar shepherding role with Minhas for the sixth wicket, the pair putting on 64, with Salman once again taking on the lion’s share.
Twenty-six runs came off the 44th and 45th overs, but just as Pakistan looked for a big finish, Sri Lanka’s bowlers hit back. Minhas and Salman fell trying to hit sixes, and Pakistan’s lower order soon followed, with Malinga getting rid of Ashraf and Naseem off successive balls. A pair of lusty blows from Afridi allowed Pakistan to scratch past 300.
For long stretches of Sri Lanka’s chase, it appeared as if Pakistan’s unproductiveness in those death overs would cost them. Instead, on a dewy early autumn night in Rawalpindi, Pakistan’s pace attack – which shared nine wickets between them – ensured Salman’s efforts would not be wasted.
Brief scores:
Pakistan 305 in 49.5 overs (Babar Azam 45, Salman Agha 107; Eshan Malinga 4-46, Asitha Fernando 3-59, Dilshan Madushanka 2-67) beat Sri Lanka 268 in 48.1 overs (Kamindu Mendis 44, Pavan Rathnayake 79, Janith Liyanage 60; Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-55, Naseem Shah 2-43, Haris Rauf 2-48, Faheem Ashraf 2-49) by 37 runs
[Cricinfo]
An estimated 550,000 people took part in demonstrations across France today to protest against teaching conditions in schools, rising fuel prices and the cost of living.
Marches were largely peaceful and took place in several major French cities, including Paris, where 110,000 people attended.
“We just want to study, we just want a future” one student taking part in the protest in the capital told BBC News, while another said they were ” just trying to make things change”.
But French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said some groups “at the margins of these protests” caused the situation to “degenerate”.
According to the French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, 1200 people were arrested. Officials also reported looting in cities such as Marseille, where masked 8ntruders also entered the city hall. In Lyon, the tourist office was set on fire and shops were damaged.
French President Emmanuel Macron said any vandals and looters would be “prosecuted and punished”, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of left-wing party La France Insoumise, said demonstrations had been calmly mobilised.
Meanwhile, firefighters are continuing to battle a blaze at Limoges City Hall after a reported break-in and arson inside the 19th-century building during protests there.
(BBC)
A large fire near a Canadian military base in Alberta has killed and injured some people, the defence minister said, without confirming the number of casualties.
The Canadian Armed Forces were working with local authorities to manage the fire and were looking into what caused it, David McGuinty said, describing the situation as “very, very active and delicate”.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said on X that a “serious incident creating a major fire” had occurred, adding his “thoughts are with all the brave women and men affected”.
Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, where the fire broke out, is one of the country’s busiest military training bases.
The blaze “spread rapidly due to high winds” and had torn through the fences of the base, the Municipal District of Wainwright said.
McGuinty told reporters he “cannot recall an incident like this in recent memory”.
It is unclear when the fire broke out, but the district first posted about the incident at about 17:30 local time.
Local authorities have urged residents to avoid the area and give all emergency vehicles right of way.
(BBC)
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