Central Districts fast bowler Brett Randell has created history by becoming the first bowler in the history of first-class cricket to pick up five wickets in five balls. He recorded the feat on day two of a Plunkett Shield game against Northern Districts in Napier on Sunday.

In a spell from hell, Randell ran through the Northern Districts top-order, as they slipped from 4 for no loss to 9 for 5 in the space of five Randell deliveries.

Randell started the slide with the last ball of his second over when he removed opener Henry Cooper with a peach of an in-dipper that swung in late and crashed into Cooper’s off pole, the batter having shouldered arms.

With the first ball of his next over, Randell went around the wicket to Jeet Raval, and left his stumps in a mess. Randell then claimed a hat-trick with Joe Carter caught behind, though the batter looked displeased with the decision. There was no doubt with his fourth wicket when Robert O’Donnell edged Randell’s outswinger to Curtis Heaphy in the slips.

Randell then added a fifth wicket in five balls to his tally when Kristian Clarke flirted at a delivery well outside off, got a thin inside-edge with the ball bouncing back onto his stumps and disturbing his leg bail. Randell’s bowling figures at this stage read a barely believable 2.4-1-2-5. Ben Pomare denied Randell a sixth wicket in six, but history had already been made by then.

Soon after, Randell also became the first to take six wickets in eight balls in first-class cricket

Retiring skipper Alyssa Healy did not get a chance to bat one last time, but she ended her legendary international career on a winning note after Australia crushed India inside three days in the one-off, day-night Test at the WACA ground in Perth. The one-sided result meant Australia recorded a decisive 12-4 triumph on points in the multi-format series.

Seam bowling had dominated the opening two days on a grassy surface, but spinners Alana King and Ash Gardner claimed the final four wickets as India’s second innings came to a close just over an hour into the day’s play.

No. 3 Pratika Rawal played a lone hand on debut with 63 off 137 balls and she was the last wicket to fall with India leading by only 24 runs. Having led her team off the field to a thunderous ovation, Healy resisted the temptation to put the pads on as regular openers Georgia Voll and Phoebe Litchfield walked out for the chase.

Voll was adjudged lbw by debutant Sayali Satghare, who claimed four wickets in Australia’s first innings, in the second over but was successful on review as she and Litchfield made light work of the chase.

In the aftermath, Healy was swamped by her team-mates with Gardner and Ellyse Perry lifting her on their shoulders in heartwarming scenes.

It capped a terrific bounceback for Australia after a 2-1 defeat in the T20I leg in an underwhelming start to Sophie Molineux’s captaincy reign. Healy’s return ignited Australia as they thumped World Cup champions India 3-0 in the ODI series before they claimed their first Test victory over India since 2006.

Annabel Sutherland was the standout after an astounding all-round performance, where she made an imperious 129 and returned match figures of 6 for 61 off 23 overs.

It was a disappointment for an India side returning to Test cricket after mid-2024, although they had solid contributions from debutants Rawal, Satghare, Kranti Gaud and Kashvee Gautam. The defeat was India’s first in Test cricket since February 2006 when they lost to Australia in Adelaide, ending an unblemished run of nine straight matches.

India resumed their second innings in a forlorn position at 105 for 6 and still needing 20 runs to make Australia bat again. India’s slim hopes rested on Rawal and Sneh Rana,  who had defied Australia’s charge under lights on day two to prolong the match.

Having only bowled three overs in the match, King was handed the ball much to the delight of the local fans and she spun the ball sharply to beat the bat on several occasions.

Unlike several of her more experienced team-mates, Rawal was unruffled and calmly defended while putting away the rare loose delivery to reach a deserved half-century off 105 balls.

Darcie Brown created Australia’s first chance when she had Rana edging to second slip, where Sutherland could not complete a blinder of a one-handed catch high to her right. Rana remained unconvincing and was lucky when she edged between the wicketkeeper and first slip before being clean bowled on the next delivery by Gardner.

Gautam had made a well-compiled 34 not out to bump up India’s first-innings total, but she had no answer for King to fall for a duck before Rawal’s resistance came to an end.

The truncated match was also the long-awaited official launch of the revamped WACA ground with plenty of patrons enjoying the new outdoor pool and waterslides in the terraces amid sweltering heat. Crowds of around 3500 attended each of the opening two days at a ground with a 10,000 capacity

Brief scores:
Australia Women 323 in 90.4 overs (Annabel Sutherland 129, Ellyse Perry 76; Sayali Satghare 4-50, Kranti Gaud 2-72. Deepti Sharma 2-67) and 28 in 4.3 over [Georgia Litchfield 11*)Voll 16*,  beat India Women 198 in 62.4 overs (Jemmimah Rodrigues 52. Kashvee Gautam 34*; Darcie Brown 2-41, Lucy Hamilton 3-31, Annabel Sutherland 4-46) and 149 in 48.2  overs (Pratika Rawal 63, Sneh Rana 30; Lucy Hamilton 3-32, Annabel Sutherland 2-15. Alana King 2-23, Ashleigh Gardner 2-08)  by 10 wickets 

[Cricinfo]

Mitchell Santner won the toss in the final and elected to chase in Ahmedabad. Chasing in the night has been the way to go in matches between evenly matched side, but India have come to the final having launched a successful defence of a total in a night-time knockout match for the first time since the 2014 World Cup semi-final.

After all the talk of an offspinner against India’s left-hand heavy top order, New Zealand omitted to play the one who took out Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton in one over in the semi-final. They instead gave Cole McConchie’s place to tall seamer Jacob Duffy. Amateur lip-readers suggested Suryakumar Yadav, India’s captain, asked Santner “no offspinner?” when the two captains exchanged team sheets.

In McConchie’s absence, New Zealand do have an offpsin option, that of Glenn Phillips, who didn’t bowl in the last match but was a handful on turning tracks in Test cricket when New Zealand whitewashed India in 2024-25.

India continued to put their faith in mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who went at 11.6 per over in the Super Eight. Eight of his leakiest sppells have come in the last two-and-a-half months. However, he has also picked up at least one wicket in his last 21 matches, the fourth-longest such streak.

As expected, Abhishek Sharma kept his place despite a run of low scores. He has scored only one half-century in this World Cup.

India  Abhishek Sharma,  Sanju Samson (wk),  Ishan Kishan,  Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt.),  Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube,  Axar Patel,  Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah,  Varun Chakravarthy.

New Zealand  Tim Seifert (wk),  Finn Allen,  Rachin Ravindra,  Glenn Phillips,  Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell,  Mitchell Santner (capt),  Jimmy Neesham, Jacob Duffy,  Matt Henry,  Lockie Ferguson