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Heartbreak for Pakistan as Australia seal final date with India
An unbeaten tenth-wicket stand of 17 between Raf MacMillan and Callum Vidler took Australia past Pakistan in a topsy-turvy second semi-final in Benoni to seal a date against India in Sunday’s final for the 2024 Men’s Under-19 World Cup title.
Chasing only 180 after Tom Straker’s 6 for 24 wrecked Pakistan in the first innings, Australia nearly threw away their advantage with the bat after a few clumsy top-order dismissals brought some parity into the contest. The 15-year-old Ali Raza (4-34) struck thrice late in the day, but the young pair of MacMillan (19*) and Vidler (3*) staved off the challenge posed by the inspired Pakistan bowling attack in the death overs to just about take Australia over the line. The winning runs in the final over were scored off an inside edge that very nearly crashed into the stumps but instead trickled behind for four.
Australia also had opener Harry Dixon and wicketkeeper-batter Oliver Peake to thank for their contributions with the bat that held their fragile innings together.
Dixon, who models his game on David Warner, hit his third half-century of the tournament and perhaps the most important of his youth ODI career with 50 in 75 balls. He held one end up as Sam Konstas (14), Hugh Weibgen (4), Harjas Singh (run out for 5) and Ryan Hicks (0) fell in quick succession to leave Australia reeling at 59 for 4. Along with Peake, he added 43 for the sixth wicket, but a double-wicket burst from left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas brought Pakistan into the game.
Pakistan then went ahead in the contest when Raza with his blistering pace picked off Peake – on 49 – and Straker in the 42nd and 46th overs respectively. He then bowled the No. 10 Mahli Beardman for a duck leaving Australia scrambling with only one wicket in hand. But the tenth and most important wicket remained elusive.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan were inserted to bat by Australia captain Weibgen. On a surface with ample spin and enough lateral movement, four of Pakistan’s top six were out for single digits. Straker, with his height and pace, dismissed Shamyl Hussain (17) and Saad Baig (3) while fellow new-ball bowler Vidler got Shahzaib Khan (4). Offspinners MacMillan and Campbell also found enough purchase to keep the left-hand heavy Pakistan line-up guessing.
Two batters who did look comfortable for Pakistan, though, were the No. 3 Azan Awais and the No. 7 Minhas. They both struck 52 of different styles, to ensure Pakistan could make 179. Awais was more reserved, playing according to the struggling situation Pakistan found themselves in, while Minhas was more attacking in the back end, with the team searching for a respectable total. Their 54-run fifth-wicket stand seemed to set Pakistan up for a score closer to 200, but their dismissals in the 41st and 45th overs gave Australia an opening to exploit.
And that came in the form of Straker’s extreme pace. He picked up a fourth wicket when Ubaid Khan mistimed a shot to cover in the 47th over, and when he returned for the 49th, Straker rattled the stumps of both the No. 10 and No. 11 Pakistan batters. In a game of close margins, the seven balls Pakistan failed to face in the first innings turned out to be mighty expensive.
The result now sets up a repeat of the 2018 Under-19 World Cup final and more recently, the 2023 ODI World Cup final contested between the India and Australia senior sides. That contest will be at the same venue in Benoni on Sunday, February 11.
Brief scores:
Australia Under-19s 181 for 9 in 49.1 overs (Harry Dixon 50, Oliver Peake 49, Tom Cambpell; Ali Raza 4-34, Arafat Minhas 2-20) beat Pakistan Under-19s 179 in 48.5 overs (Azan Awais 52, Arafat Minhas 52, Tom Straker 6-24) by one wicket
(Cricinfo)
Fatima Sana will lead Pakistan at a T20 World Cup for the second consecutive edition after the PCB announced the squads for their upcoming T20I tri-series in Ireland, as well as the World Cup.
The squad features a blend of continuity and fresh inclusions, with 34-year-old batter Iram Javeed retaining her place despite a difficult recent run. Eyman Fatima, Natalia Pervaiz, Rameen Shamim, Saira Jabeen and Tasmia Rubab will travel to their maiden T20 World Cup.
Pakistan will look to overturn a run of indifferent performances at recent ICC events. At the last T20 World Cup in 2024, they exited in the group stage with one win in four games, while in 2022, they finished bottom of the pile with six defeats in seven. At last year’s ODI World Cup, Pakistan propped up the table again and were the only team in the tournament to end winless, though three of their games were washed out.
Pakistan will first travel to Ireland, where they play a tri-series that also includes West Indies from May 28 to June 4 in Dublin. Their first game at the World Cup is on June 14, against India in Birmingham. They play South Africa, the finalists from the 2024 edition, next, followed by Bangladesh, Australia and Netherlands. They will also take part in two warm-up fixtures against Sri Lanka and Scotland.
Pakistan’s most recent T20I series was a dominating 3-0 win over Zimbabwe at home, which included Sana scoring the fastest half-century in women’s T20I cricket, taking just 15 balls.
Pakistan squad for Ireland tri-series and T20 World Cup
Fatima Sana (capt), Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Zafar, Diana Baig, Eyman Fatima, Gull Feroza, Iram Javed, Muneeba Ali (wk), Nashra Sundhu, Natalia Pervaiz, Rameen Shamim, Sadia Iqbal, Saira Jabeen, Tasmia Rubab, Tuba Hassan
Reserves Amber Kainat, Momina Riasat, Sadaf Shamas, Sidra Amin, Syeda Aroob Shah, Umm-e-Hani
[Cricinfo]
After five successive wins in conditions that weaponised their bowlers and masked their limitations with the bat,Gujarat Titans [GT] found their kryptonite at Eden Gardens. In near-perfect batting conditions, Kilkata Knight Riders [KKR] ran away to 247 for 2, the highest total anyone has ever scored against GT.
Finn Allen set the tone, hitting 10 sixes in 35 balls on his way to an awe-inspiring 93, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Cameron Green carried the baton with impressive unbeaten half-centuries. GT had their chances to minimise the punishment they took, but they put down four mostly straightforward catches, including two off Allen.
Everything needed to go right for GT to be able to get to 248; the highest target they had previously chased down was 204. But after a frenetic start in which they rushed to 42 for no loss in three overs, they simply couldn’t keep up with the required rate.
B Sai Sudarshan, who provided much of that early impetus, retired hurt after taking a blow to the elbow, and returned to bat in the 17th over. In between Shubman Gill and Joss Buttler scored half-centuries and put on a 128-run stand for the third wicket. But by the time Sai Sudharsan returned, the match was done and dusted, with GT needing an absurd 71 off 22 balls.
The one man at the ground who could have pulled off that task was relaxing on KKR’s bench: Allen, subbed out at the change of innings. The only sore point of the match for KKR, in the end, concerned the man who came on for Allen. Matheesha Pathirana made his first appearance of the season, but went off the field with a hamstring issue having bowled just 1.2 overs.
At the toss, GT captain Gill suggested that the pitch might start out “sticky” before easing out, and he proved spot-on with his assessment. In the early overs, KKR’s batters couldn’t quite find their timing with Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada extracting a little bit of seam and a little bit of spongy bounce. The first two overs produced just eight runs.
Allen got going with back-to-back fours off Siraj in the third over – one was off the inside edge – but could have fallen next ball had Jason Holder been able to cling onto a one-hander at extra-cover. Allen was on 14 at that point.
The ball continued to do a little bit through the powerplay, and KKR ended it at 56 for 1, with Allen on 31 off 15 and Raghuvanshi, new to the crease, having shown his intent with a scooped six over his own head off Rabada.
Neither team would have believed they were on top at this stage. The match shifted decisively in KKR’s favour towards the end of the seventh over. Holder got a hard-length ball to climb awkwardly at Allen, and he swatted it straight to long-on, where Siraj put down a sitter. Next ball, Raghuvanshi whipped Holder for a big six over backward square leg.
That was the first of ten sixes that KKR hit over the next 23 legal balls they faced. Allen hit eight of them, and it didn’t matter if he was facing pace or spin. If the ball was remotely in his arc, he used his reach and launched it straight and clean with the purest of bat-swings. If it was remotely short, he rocked back and pulled anywhere in the arc from fine leg to wide long-on.
That frenetic period of play completely cancelled out KKR’s somewhat slow start, and the disadvantage they may have had of batting in the trickiest conditions of the match.
R Sai Kishore, bowling his left-arm spin from over the wicket, got Allen to hole out to deep midwicket in the 12th over, seven short of his second hundred of the season. If GT thought they could breathe a little easier, though, they were wrong, because Green and Raghuvanshi continued to find the boundary regularly.
And GT continued to be generous on the field. Arshad Khan dropped Green on 23 in the 16th over, and Washington Sundar put down a low but eminently catchable chance at deep backward square leg to reprieve Raghuvanshi on 52.
As the innings went deeper, Raghuvanshi began to show his range, hitting Siraj for three sixes in the 19th over – an inside-out loft over extra-cover, a scoop over fine leg, a sweep over backward square – as well as a reverse-swipe for four. Having taken 33 balls to get to his fifty, he scored 29 off his last 11 balls.
Green, meanwhile, reached his fifty off 26 balls, getting there with a slog-sweep off Rashid Khan in the final over, which ran away to the boundary via a misfield. A last-ball overthrow completed GT’s woes, as Raghuvanshi and Green walked off having put on an unbroken 108 off 53 balls.
GT made as good a start as they could have hoped for, but when Sai Sudharsan went off injured at the end of the third over, their momentum began to deflate. First, Pathirana – bowling for the first time this season, and bowling in the powerplay for the first time in his IPL career – sent down a seven-run fourth over. Then Sunil Narine, playing his 200th IPL game, came on and struck first ball, getting Nishant Sindhu – who had been promoted above Buttler to keep the left-right partnership going – to hole out to long-off.
Narine conceded just two runs off that over and bowled four straight balls to Gill without conceding a run off the bat.
Gill hit two sixes off Narine’s next over, but by then GT were already falling well behind the required rate. And this story continued. The good overs – such as the 18-run ninth over bowled by Anukul Roy – were surrounded by not-so-good ones – such as the eighth over, from Varun Chakravarthy, that went for just five. Green and Kartik Tyagi were able to extract bounce and a bit of grip by bowling cutters into the surface, and Buttler struggled for timing against both of them.
When Allen had been at the crease, KKR had four straight overs – from the eighth to the 11th of their innings – that brought them 15 or more runs. GT only had two such overs in the first 14 overs of their innings. Gill hit Varun for two sixes and two fours in that 14th over, but KKR immediately responded by bringing back Narine and bowling out his last two overs.
His first one went for 11, and that was still well short of the 16 an over that GT now needed. And his second – the 17th of the innings – pretty much sealed the game: five runs, and the wicket of Gill, caught on the boundary looking to sweep one of those fast, into-the-pitch, stump-to-stump Narine deliveries that generations of IPL batters have tried and failed to master.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 247 for 2 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 14, Finn Allen 93, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 82*, Cameron Green 52*; Mohammed Siraj 1-50, Sai Kishore 1-38) beat Gujarat Titans 218 for 4 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 53*, Shubman Gill 85, Jos Buttler 57; Saurabh Dubey 1-23, Cameron Green 1-25, Sunil Narine 2-29) by 29 runs
[Cricinfo]
A Canadian who sailed on the cruise ship MV Hondius which was hit by a hantavirus outbreak in April has tested positive for the disease, officials in the province of British Columbia say.
The individual, one of four people isolating on Vancouver Island after leaving the ship, had developed mild symptoms.
The province’s senior health officer said the four had not had any contact with the public since arriving in Canada.
The case brings the total number of infections to 11, all among cruise passengers. Three people who travelled on the ship have died, with two confirmed to have had the virus.
British Columbia health officer Bonnie Henry said the person’s test came back as a presumptive positive on Friday, meaning that it still remains to be confirmed by a national microbiology lab.
“Clearly, this is not what we hoped for, but it is what we planned for,” she said, quoted by national broadcaster CBC.
“I want to emphasise that hantavirus is a very different virus than the other respiratory viruses that we’ve been dealing with – like Covid, like influenza, like measles – and it remains one that we do not consider to have pandemic potential,” Dr Henry added.
Of the six Canadians who were on the Dutch ship, two are self-isolating at their home in Ontario.
Two more couples are isolating on Vancouver Island, one from British Columbia and the other from Yukon. The person who tested positive is from Yukon.
None of the other five have tested positive so far.
[BBC]
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