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The Women’s 100: Spirit await top three fate after thumping London Derby win

Published

6 months ago

2025/08/26

Priyan

A fine all-round display saw victory achieved with 38 balls to spare [Cricinfo]

With progress to the next stage in play at a sun-kissed Kia Oval and The Hundred Eliminator next Saturday looming on the horizon, London Spirit completed a brilliant derby demolition by eight wickets.

Spirit needed to win this, their final game, and hope Manchester Originals lose to Northern Superchargers tomorrow to avoid progress coming down to net run-rate. But having romped home with so much to spare, their qualification now looks almost assured.

Put in to bat, Invincibles started steadily if not spectacularly, Meg Lanning and Paige Scholfield ambling to 23 off the Powerplay before a brace of boundaries by Lanning (19 from 20) from Sarah Glenn and a huge six from Scholfield off Issy Wong got the home side moving.

Charlie Dean then made the breakthough, having Lanning caught and bowled while conceding just three from her first ten. Scholfield (22 from 21) followed soon after as Spirit took all the pace off the ball. At halfway Invincibles were an underwhelming 56 for 2.

After one straight six, Alice Capsey (11 from 9) holed out, and Spirit spinners kept a lid on things, Marizanne Kapp (32 from 25) the only batter to break the shackles before her innings was ended by a stunning one-handed catch from Dean, who then bowled the last five to finish with an exceptional 2 for 12 from her 20 balls, the same figures as Eva Gray, as Invincibles ended on 108 for 8.

With a run rate-boosting win in mind, Kira Chathli and Georgia Redmayne came out hard, Chathli in particular taking the attack to her former team with the Powerplay bringing a season-high 47 without loss, her own contribution being 35 off 16.

The two continued past Spirit’s highest opening partnership of the season – and ended up with the team’s highest for any wicket – Chathli going to a 26-ball half century with a majestic straight six. An eight-wicket win came soon after, with 38 balls left unused. Redmayne departed with just three needed, having made an excellent 42 off 30, and Chathli followed one run later for 53 off 29, but it was much too little, much too late for Invincibles.

Talking about her wonder catch, Meerkat Match Hero Charlie Dean said: “I should have been on the ring! But I managed to time my jump and hung on.

“That was an impressive victory. We went out wanting to bounce back and to win by a margin like that… we did not discuss too much about NRR but the way we went about that, it was fantastic. Kira has been brilliant. At the top of the order, trying to punch first

“We have a rest day and hope for the best. We have done everything to put ourselves in the best position to qualify so it’s fingers crossed.”

Brief scores:
London Spirit Women 112 for 2 in 62 balls (Kira Chathli 53 Georgia Redmayne 42; Phoebe Franklin 2-10) beat Oval Invincibles Women 108 for 8 in 100 balls (Paige Scholfield 22, Meg Lanning 19, Alice Capsey 11, Marizanne Kapp 32; Issy Wong 1-29, Eva Gray 2-32, Charlie Dean 2-12, Sarah Glenn 1-31, Charli Knott 1-16) by 8 wickets

[Cricinfo]

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Eight skiers found dead after California avalanche

Published

2 hours ago

2026/02/19

Priyan

Rescue teams combing through the backcountry of California’s Lake Tahoe region say they have found the bodies of eight skiers who went missing in an avalanche on Tuesday.

The search for a final missing skier continues but that person is presumed dead, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Officials said one of the deceased was the spouse of someone on one of the search-and-rescue teams, making continued rescue efforts “challenging emotionally”.

Fifteen skiers were reported missing on Tuesday after a “football-field” sized avalanche came barreling down in the Castle Peak area around 11:30 PST (19:30 GMT). Six have been rescued.

“I want to offer my condolences to the family in this very trying time,” Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said on Wednesday.

The bodies of the eight dead skiers are still trapped in the snow and can’t yet be recovered due to “pretty horrific” conditions, officials said.

Since the avalanche, another 3ft (.9m) of snow has fallen on the area, Tahoe National Forest supervisor Chris Feutrier said.

“The hazard remains high,” he said.

Once the bodies are recovered, they will be transported to the Placer County morgue.

Families of the deceased have been notified. Authorities have not yet released any of their names.

Officials say the victims are seven women and two men.

Sheriff Woo said the rescue operation was a joint effort involving two teams and roughly 50 crew members who had to traverse “extreme weather conditions” using specialised equipment.

At 17:30 local time on Tuesday, search teams arrived to an area roughly two miles (3.2km) from where survivors were sheltering in make-shift tents, and had to ski in from there.

Two of the six survivors had to be carried back and “could not walk because of the injuries they sustained during the avalanche”, Sheriff Moon said. They were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Among the survivors, one was a guide and five were clients of the Blackbird Mountain guided tour.

The entire ski group consisted of a mix of 11 recreational skiers and four ski guides.

The avalanche on Tuesday occurred as they were making their way back at the end of a three-day trip.

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said in a post on X that state authorities were “co-ordinating an all-hands search-and-rescue effort” with local emergency teams.

Conditions on Wednesday remained dangerous, multiple officials said, with Woo describing the climate as “treacherous”.

“Avoid the back country,” he said. “Please allow us to focus all of our resources on continuing to recover these bodies for the family and bring them home.”

The avalanche that trapped the skiers was rated as a D2.5 on a destructive potential scale of D1 to D5, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center, which would mean it was over half a mile in length and would have a deposit of around 6.5ft (2 metres).

The Boreal Mountain Ski Resort, which is near where the accident occurred, has reported over 30in (76cm) of snowfall since Tuesday.

The resort decided to close on Tuesday because of high winds and low visibility.

The storm has also closed several highways, including Interstate 80 and Highway 50.

[BBC]

Latest News

Advisory for low pressure area in the Southwest Bay of Bengal to the south-east of Sri Lanka

Published

3 hours ago

2026/02/19

Priyan

Location of the low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal Sea area

Advisory for low pressure area in the Southwest Bay of Bengal to the south-east of Sri Lanka.
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre of the Department of Meteorology at 03.00 pm on 18 February 2026

Multiday boats fishermen and naval community are warned that the low-pressure area still persists over the Southwest Bay of Bengal to the south-east of Sri Lanka. Under the influence of this system, heavy showers or thundershowers, Strong winds about (50-60) kmph, and rough or very rough seas can be expected in these sea areas.

The Meteorological Department is constantly monitoring the behavior of the system.

The naval and fishing communities are requested to be attentive to the future forecasts and bulletins issued by the Department of Meteorology in this regard.

Latest News

Dube’s death-overs batting fuels India’s fourth win on the bounce

Published

4 hours ago

2026/02/19

Priyan

Shivam Dube was the chief catalyst who propelled India to a match-winning total [Cricbuzz]

For some time on Wednesday evening in the biggest cricket ground in the world, Netherlands dared to dream of causing the biggest upset of the World Cup. They had India on the ropes until Shivam Dube began to dispatch balls in his arc, and outside of it, to the boundary en route to a 30-ball 66 that led India to 193/6.

That score was initially beyond India’s imagination against Netherlands’ multiple sleights of hand – slower ones, cutters and knuckle balls, that tied down an otherwise explosive batting order. It worked for long, until Dube took advantage of some of the predictability that came with change of pace, and the skewed square boundary dimensions (60m and 68m).

India’s innings didn’t take off until the 12th over, and even then it looked like a flash in a pan. Life leading up to that point was a constant struggle for India’s top-order as Netherlands’ bowlers nailed their lengths while bowling to their fields. Abhishek Sharma fell for a third successive duck and Ishan Kishan suffered a slice of misfortune – both bowled by off-spinner Aryan Dutt who bowled three exceptional PowerPlay overs for just 17 runs.

Netherlands’ medium-pacers then frustrated Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav for long stretches of play. The middle-overs were a toil against slower ones bowled into the pitch outside the off-stump. A stunning blinder-of-a-catch from Roelof van der Merwe then broke this partnership that was going nowhere as Tilak trudged back for a 27-ball 31. Suryakumar was looking for an outlet to flip the complexion of his and India’s innings like he did against USA, but that didn’t quite come.

On the last ball of the 12th over, Suryakumar ended a 19-ball boundary drought by hitting a six over his favourite fine leg region, and Dube then got in on the act against Colin Ackermann in the 13th over after a scratchy start. He took the medium pacer for two sixes and a four in the over, but Kyle Klein hit back in the 14th. He had Suryakumar caught at long leg for a 28-ball 34, bringing Hardik Pandya to the middle just before the death overs.

Even he, however, couldn’t middle as well as he would’ve liked. But Dube batted like he was playing in a different postcode. He rose from 6 off 11 and raced to a 25-ball half-century. Netherlands’ bowlers offered him a buffet of bad balls at the death – full tosses and slot hit-me deliveries that he gleefully sent to the stands over mid-wicket and long-on.

He went after Logan van Beek in the 20-run 17th over, hit Klein for a four in the 18th and got another six against van Beek in the 20th before being caught on the fine leg boundary by substitute fielder Timm van der Gugten for a 31-ball 66 in the same over. Hardik whose timing was topsy-turvy, managed to connect on three sixes for his 21-ball 30. India added 75 off the last five overs to push the game beyond Netherlands’ reach.

Netherlands opener Max O’Dowd did just about enough to avoid giving his wicket to Jasprit Bumrah in the PowerPlay, but was undone by Varun CV, who cleaned him up in the sixth over. Hardik then struck to remove Michael Levitt as Netherlands’ chase meandered in the middle. Colin Ackermann tonked a couple of sixes to add a spark to the chase, but Varun sent him and Dutt packing off successive deliveries. Dube, who went for a few runs, broke through next, dismissing Bas de Leede for a 23-ball 33.

At the start of the death overs, Netherlands lost Scott Edwards to Bumrah, but threw their bats around to narrow India’s victory margin. Noah Croes and Zach Lion-Cachet took 11 runs off Washington Sundar, 12 off Arshdeep Singh and 18 off Hardik before Dube broke the stand in the final over. In the end, Netherlands fell short by only 17 runs.

Brief Scores:
India 193/6 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 18, Tilak Varma 31, Suryakumar Yadav 34, Shivam Dube 66; Hardik Pandya 30; Aryan Dutt 2-19, Logan van Beek 3-56, Kyle Klein 1-38) beat Netherlands 176/7 in 20 overs (Michael Levitt 24, Max O’Dowd 20, Bas de Leed 33, Collin Ackerman 23, Scott Edwards 15, Zach Lion-Cachet 26, Noah Croes 25*; Jasprit Bumrah 1-17, Varun Chakravarthy 3-14, Hardik Pandya 1-40, Shivan Dube 2-35) by 17 runs

[Cricbuzz]