Sports
Nat Sciver-Brunt, Maia Bouchier plunder Sri Lanka before Charlie Dean seals series
This time, it was Nat Sciver-Brunt’s turn. Playing her 100th ODI and captaining the side after Heather Knight was forced to return to the team hotel feeling unwell, she plundered 120 off 74 balls, including a 66-ball century – which was the fastest by an England Women’s player in ODIs – to lead her side to a thumping 161-run victory over Sri Lanka in the third and final match in Leicester for a 2-0 series win.
Maria Bouchier was far more than just a bit-part character with her blistering 95 from 65 balls as the pair rescued their side from 18 for 2 with a 193-run partnership for the third wicket. Between them they set Sri Lanka a daunting target of 274 in a match reduced to 31 overs a side, after rain delayed the start by more than three hours (along with mopping-up efforts and pitch inspections). Then Charlie Dean appeared, taking a maiden international five-wicket haul to put the ending beyond doubt.
This entire tour by Sri Lanka has produced some gripping narratives. The visitors’ 2-1 upset in the T20I series, including their first victories in the format against England – ranked six places higher – was built on captain Chamari Athapaththu’s stellar year with the bat and exposed the hosts’ weakness against spin. Then followed the dream ODI debuts of young seamers Mahika Gaur and Lauren Filer in the opening match as the hosts turned things around before taking a stranglehold of the second fixture which was ultimately washed out.
Yes, this victory also came against a side ranked considerably lower than England in the 50-over format but that takes nothing away from the performance of Sciver-Brunt.
It was less than a week ago that Sciver-Brunt returned to the England side, having been rested for the T20I series after being England’s Player of the Women’s Ashes, although she helped Blaze to victory over Central Sparks with an unbeaten 66 in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy during that time. Her comeback match came in a seven-wicket win in Durham, a year after she left an England training camp in the same city to take an extended mental health break.
Just as Ben Stokes did with England Men, Sciver-Brunt has led by example in terms of enabling players to speak up when they need to care for their mental well-being. And, just as Stokes did with his 182 in the third ODI against New Zealand the previous day, Sciver-Brunt again highlighted her indispensability to any side she is part of, taking charge of the storyline after a fraught start when the visitors won the toss and opted to bowl under heavy skies.
Tammy Beaumont survived on 1 when she struck Udeshika Prabodhani hard but straight to Harshitha Smarawickrama, who fumbled the chance at deep midwicket. Achini Kulasuriya then beat Beaumont’s outside edge with an excellent ball which also just missed off stump, then tempted Beaumont to advance on the next ball, only to be caught by Hasini Perera at slip.
Bouchier, opening alongside Beaumont with Emma Lamb out with a back spasm, despatched Prabodhani over deep midwicket for six next over. Prabodhani responded by castling Alice Capsey, who managed just 6 batting in Knight’s place at No. 3, and England were struggling inside the six-over Powerplay which they ended at 28 for 2.
But by the 10-over mark that had become 72 for 2, thanks in no small part to Sciver-Brunt, who helped herself to 15 of the 16 runs conceded by Inoka Ranaweera in her first over, her back-foot drive through cover followed by a thunderous pull to the rope at deep midwicket and a monstrous six into the stands beyond long-off.
Bouchier, who made her ODI debut in Durham having played 22 T20Is, kept pace beautifully, launching a free hit of Hansima Karunaratne following a no-ball for height, over the fence with disdain at cow corner for her second maximum. She brought up her maiden 50-over fifty with the second of three fours in a row as she peppered the leg side off Oshadi Ranasinghe.
Sciver brought up her half-century in just 32 balls with four off Ranaweera and she raised England’s 150 with a nonchalant scoop to the fine leg boundary off Kavisha Dilhari, one of three fours conceded by the young off-spinner in her first over as the England batters continued picking them off at will.
Prabodhani did her best to end their union just before they reached the 200-mark in the 23rd over with one that beat Sciver-Brunt’s back-foot swipe and somehow evaded off stump. Sciver-Brunt brought up her century moments later with a single off Kulasuriya, but then Dilhari pinned Bouchier lbw to end a brilliant innings.
Sciver-Brunt didn’t flinch, peeling off three fours from the same Dilhari over and another off Ranaweera through extra cover, but she perished next ball, picking out long-off.
That brought debutant Bess Heath to the crease and she managed 21 off 14 balls, including a six over deep midwicket off Kulasuriya and a reverse-sweep for four off Dilhari, who then ended Heath’s cameo as she holed out to Karunaratne.
Gaur and Filer again combined to make inroads on the Sri Lanka line-up and when off-spinner Dean trapped Athapaththu lbw for just 12 in the ninth over, Sri Lanka were in deep trouble at 46 for 4.
Dean, called upon to lead the spin-bowling attack alongside Sarah Glenn with Sophie Ecclestone sidelined initially through workload management but now because of a shoulder injury, then produced the epilogue, snaring three wickets in five balls to all but close the book on the match. Her return catch to remove Karuanaratne was followed by Perera, Sri Lanka’s top-scorer with 32, caught behind and then an excellent delivery that turned between bat and pad and crashed into Dilhari’s off stump. Her fifth wicket came as Prabodhani dragged on and Filer sealed victory with her third, rearranging Kulasuriya’s stumps to end her breakout season on a high.
So ended England Women’s international summer, with progress made, talent unearthed, lessons learned and work still to do, all the while leaving that empty feeling that you get at the end of a real page-turner, because we won’t see the results for months to come. That’s what we’re doing here.
England 273 for 8 (Sciver-Brunt 120, Bouchier 92) beat Sri Lanka 112 (Perera 32, Dean 5-31) by 161 runs
Noor Ahmad, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) left-arm wristspinner, continues to head the Purple Cap table with ten wickets from four games. His spell of 4 for 18 in CSK’s first game against MI, remains his best so far.
DC’s Mitchell Starc who picked up his maiden five-for in T20s, against SRH remains second on the list with nine wickets in three games.
GT’s Mohammed Siraj equalled Starc’s tally on Sunday night with his own IPL best, albeit he has played four games to Starc’s three. Siraj picked up 4 for 17 against SRH to hand them their four successive loss, and was named the Player of the Match.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) suffered another batting malfunction, this time on a slow, black-soil surface at home, crashing to their fourth successive defeat in IPL 2025. Having lost Travishek in the powerplay, SRH waited until the 13th over to see the first six of the innings, and managed only one more after that Mohammad Siraj caused irreparable damage right from the start, ending with his career-best IPL figures of 4 for 17.
Pat Cummins’ cameo (22* off nine balls) and then his dismissal of Jos Buttler for a duck in Gujarat Titans’ (GT) chase of 153 gave SRH some hope, but that faded away once Washington Sundar clattered 23 off nine balls in the powerplay. Earlier in the day, GT didn’t need Washington with the ball, but his attacking enterprise at No. 4 settled their chase on a slow pitch. Washington fell agonisingly short of a maiden IPL half-century, but his captain Shubman Gill ushered GT home, with an unbeaten 61 off 43 balls, along with Sherfane Rutherford.
Siraj had sparked the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to life when he gave Travis Head a send-off in Adelaide last December. Four months on, Siraj was bowling to Head for the first time in T20s, and the battle lasted just five balls. After Head scored two fours off Siraj, the fast bowler struck with his trademark wobble-seam delivery, having him chip a catch to midwicket for 8.
Abhishek Sharma hit four fours before Siraj had him miscuing a catch to mid-on in his third over of the powerplay. It was Siraj’s 100th wicket in the IPL and sixth in the powerplay, the most by a bowler in that phase so far this season, with an economy rate of 6.27.
Siraj then returned in the death to york both Aniket Verma, the last recognised batter for SRH, and Simarjeet Singh, their Impact Player.
With both Head and Abhishek gone early,Rashid Khan, who was coming into this game on the back of figures of 4-0-54-0, could afford to ease himself in. He started fairly well by giving away just 10 runs in his first two overs, but when he erred in length, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klassen dispatched him to the fence. Rashid finished with 4-0-31-0, going wicketless for a third successive game, and with tournament figures of 1 for 143 in 14 overs at an economy rate of 10.21
Left-arm fingerspinner Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, on the other hand, showed remarkable control over his length and variations. He claimed the big wicket of Klaasen by knocking him over with a quick dart, which skidded off the pitch, for 27 off 19 balls. Sai Kishore also had Reddy holing out for 31 off 34 balls and finished with 4-0-24-2.
That SRH passed 150 was down to Cummins’ late blows. He was the only SRH batter in the top eight to have a strike rate of over 160.
It appeared like GT had handed a franchise debut to Washington to primarily match his offspin up with SRH’s left-hander heavy top order. But with Siraj dominating the powerplay and Sai Kishore taking care of the middle overs, GT ended up not using his offspin.
Washington then walked out to bat at No. 4 after his childhood friend B Sai Sudarshan and Buttler fell cheaply in successive overs. Washington took advantage of the last over of the powerplay, smoking Simarjeet for two sixes and two fours. It provided a throwback to Washington of 2016, when he opened the batting, alongside Abhinav Mukund, in the TNPL and showed the intent to hit over the top. Just like that, Washington dumped SRH’s Impact Player out of the attack.
Washington continued to attack even after that. When the ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis darted one on the stumps with his right hand, Washington manufactured swinging room and laced him over extra-cover for four. Washington seemed set for a fifty until he holed out one shy of the landmark in the 14th over.
Gill, who had already crossed 50 by that point, finished the job along with Rutherford, who hit an unbeaten 35 off 16 balls.
Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 153 for 3 in 16.4 overs (Shubman Gill 61*, Washington Sundar 49, Sherfaine Rutherford 35*; Mohammed Shami 2-28, Pat Cumminss 1-26) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 152 for 8 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 18, Ishan Krishan 17, Nitish Kumar Reddy 31, Heinrich Klassen 27, Aniket Verma 18,Pat Cummins 22*; Mohammed Siraj 4-17, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore 2-24, Prasidh Krishna 2-25)by seven wickets
[Cricinfo]
In a diplomatic innings off the field, former Sri Lanka captain and 1996 World Cup hero Sanath Jayasuriya has made a heartfelt pitch to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging his support to build an international cricket ground in Jaffna – a region teeming with raw, untapped talent.
The iconic Sri Lankan side that pulled off a fairy-tale triumph in the 1996 Cricket World Cup – scalping heavyweights like India in the semi-final and Australia in the final – was invited by the Indian High Commission in Colombo to meet the visiting Prime Minister. Modi, a self-confessed cricket aficionado, is currently on a three-day state visit to Sri Lanka.
While six members of the World Cup-winning squad were missing – either abroad on business or deep in the trenches of the Indian Premier League – the rest of the squad turned up for the high-profile meet at Colombo’s popular Taj Samudra Hotel.
“We had about 45 minutes with the Prime Minister, and it became clear early in the conversation that he’s not just a statesman but also a true cricket tragic,” said Jayasuriya, the Player of the Series in 1996 and now Head Coach of the Sri Lankan team, speaking to Telecom Asia Sport. “It gave us the perfect opportunity to thank him for India’s unwavering support during our economic collapse – when we were batting on a sticky wicket.”
The conversation then took a turn towards development and legacy.
“Sanath seized the moment and floated the idea of building an international-standard cricket ground in the north or east of the country,” said Marvan Atapattu, another former Test captain and Head Coach.
“He told the PM that the north and east are brimming with talent. But without proper infrastructure, those future stars are left playing in the rough. The PM was all ears. He nodded, said he’d take it to his team, and would get back to us.”
The meeting ended on a sentimental note. Aravinda de Silva, the architect of Sri Lanka’s historic World Cup final win, handed over a special souvenir to Prime Minister Modi – a commemorative box of medallions, each bearing the signature of the entire 1996 squad.
India and Sri Lanka, bound by geography and a shared cricketing heartbeat, have long been partners both on and off the field. Their friendship stretches back centuries, with recent years seeing a tightening of bilateral ties. Several new agreements were inked during the Indian Prime Minister’s visit.
In the cricketing realm, India has played a pivotal role in Sri Lanka’s journey. It was India that championed Sri Lanka’s Test status in 1981, and welcomed the islanders for a Test Match in Madras the following year.
Now, as both nations prepare to co-host the 2026 ICC T20 World Cup, the hope is that this partnership will grow from strength to strength.
(Telecom Asia Sport)
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