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Devine’s 95 trumps Lee, Wolvaardt fifties in see-saw thriller
Gujarat Giants (GG) put on a commanding 209 and would have thought they were well ahead when Delhi Capitals’ (DC) equation read 48 off 18. But Laura Wolvaardt turned things around – almost – for DC with a 19-run over to make it 29 off 12 and then seven from six. But GG turned the tables again when Sophie Devine , who had smashed a belligerent 95 off 42, removed the two set batters in the last over and conceded just two runs to snatch a four-run victory to help GG top the table.
GG’s second win in a row became DC’s second loss on the bounce and placed them at the bottom even though their batters buried the ghosts of being bundled for 145, under 24 hours before this game. The run-fest that swung wildly throughout at the DY Patil Stadium saw a total tally of 414 – the second highest in WPL – and was the second day in a row that GG posted a 200-plus total.
Their total could have been a lot more had DC not pulled things back through Nandani Sharma’s hat-trick after Devine’s demolition of the bowlers. DC, however, came agonisingly close, within seven runs of sealing the highest WPL chase. But Devine took the pace off the ball and the steam out of DC’s chase.
Devine came out all guns blazing and muscled the ball to all sides of the park as the DC bowlers failed to keep it outside her hitting arc. After a thick edge off her bat fell short of the keeper in the first over, Devine got going with a couple of fours in the next, off Chinelle Henry, and took off properly in the fourth by smashing Nandani for a 16-run over. The real damage came in the sixth over with the introduction of spin, when Devine smoked Sneh Rana for 32 in an over, which became the most expensive in WPL history.
After starting the over with two consecutive fours – the second nearly taken by a one-handed Marizanne Kapp at cover point – Devine bludgeoned Rana for four sixes, all on the leg side as the ball was aimed for the stumps again and again. By the time the over ended, Rana had lost her length so horribly that she bowled a full toss and Devine lapped it up for her fifth six, soon after her 25-ball fifty.
N Shree Charani and Henry managed to pull things back briefly by conceding just 15 off the next 14 balls and also sent back Beth Mooney, but there was no stopping Devine. She hammered another three sixes in four balls even as Charani took the pace off the ball and Devine raced into the 90s, looking set to become the first centurion of the tournament.
But Devine’s wait for a century continued; she had also scored 99 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru a couple of seasons ago. Nandani, who made her WPL debut on Saturday, sent down a back-of-the-hand variation which Devine top-edged behind the wicket and Charani, running back from short fine leg, hung on to a catch that nearly touched the sky before coming down. Charani got her second wicket when Rodrigues flung to her right at cover in the next over to send back Georgia Wareham and the promising Anushka Sharma soon holed out for 13.
Gardner then took charge after getting a life on 22, even as DC exposed GG’s inexperienced lower order, and peppered the boundary regularly. She went after both pace and spin alike before finding long-on to finish on a quick 49 off 26 before DC conceded just eight runs in the last two overs. GG suffered a collapse of 4 for 8 in the end with Nandani striking thrice in a row in the last over to take the fourth hat-trick and the first by an uncapped player in the WPL
Renuka Singh put down Lizelle Lee’s tough return catch on the second ball of the chase, and the DC opener showed how costly the drop was. She crashed the next ball through the covers and finished the over with a no-look six straight down the ground. She continued to pepper the boundary even as Shafali Verma struggled for rhythm. Though DC’s powerplay score read 47 for 1 compared to GG’s 80 for 0, Lee ensured they weren’t too far behind.
If Devine’s innings was about brute force, Lee combined her well-timed drives with the odd aerial shot to keep the run rate close to nine an over. She went 4, 4 and 6 against Wareham for her 33-ball fifty as Wolvaardt played second-fiddle with GG still needing 120 from the last 10. The equation became a lot stiffer when GG’s spinners conceded just 23 in the three overs after the halfway mark before Lee tore into Wareham again.
Wolvaardt was on 28 off 20 when Lee eventually found Devine at long-on for 86, which left DC to get 79 of 34. DC promoted the big-hitting Henry ahead of Jemimah Rodrigues and Kapp, but she also holed out after just one six. Rodrigues eventually walked out at No. 5 and crashed her first ball wide of long-on for a 17-run 16th over.
GG were still well ahead with the equation reading 60 off 24. Wolvaardt then used her long limbs to attack the spinners, especially going after Gardner in the 18th over when they needed 48 from 18. She often went straight down the ground when she had the length and otherwise found the gap square or through the covers to find the boundary regularly. After three fours and a six off Gardner, she dispatched Kashvee Gautam, who started the 19th over with two no-balls, for a six over midwicket which swung the game further for DC.
When Rodrigues ended the penultimate over by lofting Gautam over the covers, DC would have thought they had it in the bag with just seven to get from six. But Devine, who had earlier leaked 19 in two wicketless overs, first had Rodrigues glove one behind off a slower ball, kept Kapp to just one run off two balls, and then had Wolvaardt caught at deep midwicket with five to get off two. Rana walked out for the last ball and could’t even connect, and GG scraped through
Brief scores:
Gujarat Giants Women 209 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 19, Sophie Devine 95, Ashleigh Gardner 49, Anushka Sharma 13, Kashvee Gautam 14; Chinelle Henry 2-43, Nandani Sharma 5-33, Shree Charani 2-42, Shafali Verma 1-21) beat Delhi Capitals Women 205 for 5 in 20 overs (Lizelle Lee 86, Shafali Verma 14, Laura Wolvaardt 77, Jemimah Rodrigues 15; Kashvee Gautam 1-48, Sophie Devine 2-21, Rajeshwari Gayakwad 2-34) by four runs
[Cricinfo]
From their last completed game against Australia, Zimbabwe ought to bring Richard Ngarava back into the XI, with the left-arm seamer rested for that outing as a precautionary measure. Leggie Graeme Cremer could miss out, although the possibility of resting Blessing Muzarabani cannot be ruled out either, should Zimbabwe want an additional spinner.
[Cricbuzz]
Regular skipper Wayne Madsen has missed the last two games due to an injury in the opening fixture and remains a doubtful starter for their last group game as well.
[Cricbuzz]
Sahibzada Farhan settled his side’s nerves with a blazing unbeaten hundred, as Namibia were outgunned by 102 runs in Colombo to end any doubts about Pakistan’s progression to the T20 World Cup Super Eight. With 11 fours and four sixes, Farhan produced a perfect burst of acceleration against a toiling attack. His second fifty of his 57-ball century came from just 20 balls. And his eventual 100 not out from 58 balls would be more runs than Namibia managed (97) before being bowled out.
Needing a victory (or, at the very least, a washout) to keep the hopefuls of USA at bay, Pakistan produced the most comprehensive win of their campaign. It was sealed by their four-man spin cohort. Mohammad Nawaz led a mid-innings squeeze with 1 for 22 in his four overs, before Shadab Khan and Usman Tariq dovetailed for each of Namibia’s last seven wickets.
Shadab was the main character of their victory surge. He had earlier been pushed up to No. 5, ahead of Babar Azam, to help Farhan thrash 78 runs from the final six overs of their innings. He then followed up with 3 for 19, the last of them coming via a superb diving catch at square leg from Saim Ayub, off Zane Green, which spoke of Pakistan’s mounting confidence.
Shadab himself was also in the act with a smart catch at midwicket, to claim the first breakthrough of Tariq’s late entrance. Though he didn’t bowl until the 12th over, Tariq’s extraordinary repertoire of carrom balls and delayed-release leggies proved unfathomable to Namibia’s lower-order. Ruben Trumpelmann and Bernard Scholtz were both bowled through the gate by perfect googlies, before Willem Myburgh snicked off to a legbreak, to cap Tariq’s career-best figures of 4 for 16.
It wasn’t the perfect performance from Pakistan. In particular, their batting powerplay was a microcosm of their campaign: rarely convincing, yet still doing the needful in spite of some ugly moments. Ayub’s 14 from 12 balls comprised two leading edges and a flying nick for four past the keeper; Farhan’s first boundary came via a misfield in the covers, and his second to a similarly wild hack through deep third off Jack Brassell, moments after he had flung his bat through square leg while mistiming a cut through point.
But, by degrees, Pakistan settled into their work, emboldened by every over in which their under-performing middle-order was spared early exposure. Namibia rang in the changes, rotating through six options in their first eight overs. But it was their two bowlers serving up back-to-back overs who inadvertently released the mounting pressure.
Farhan found his range with back-to-back fours off Ruben Trumpelmann, including an unrepentant slog through midwicket, then took his new-found poise out on Willem Myburgh. The legspinner’s first over had gone for just five; his second realized three vast sixes, with Farhan contributing back-to-back slog-sweeps. Though he ended the same over in a heap, after jarring his knee during a drive, the shackles were officially off.
Farhan nudged the first ball of the 12th over through midwicket to bring up a 37-ball half-century. Twenty balls later, he did likewise to Gerhard Erasmus, to cavort through to his maiden T20I hundred. His was also the third of this year’s tournament, a new record.
In between whiles, his acceleration was violent and unrelenting, though it did not begin in earnest until the 15th over, when Trumpelmann’s slower balls were collared for back-to-back fours down the ground. That sounded the bugle charge. JJ Smit’s left-arm spin was then smoked for 17 runs, including two more fours and a baseball slug for six; and Brassell’s last was sent for 20, with Farhan marching into the 90s as he hoisted a slower ball over fine leg for his fourth six.
Salman Agha played a vital part in Pakistan’s uptick. His 38 from 23 balls included three fours and two sixes, as he helped propel his team to 107 for 1 after 12. He was livid with himself when he holed out to mid-off with his job far from done, and Khawaja Nafay’s five-ball stay meant Pakistan were soon in familiar danger at 118 for 3 in the 14th. But in came Shadab, with licence to swing his bat. He was only too eager to deliver.
Namibia needed ten an over from the outset, and they did give it a go in the powerplay. Faheem Ashraf was an unlikely candidate bowling the first over, with Shaheen Afridi paying the price for some leaky displays so far in the tournament – and consequently dropped. Ashraf’s introduction looked doubly sketchy when Louren Steenkamp picked his third-ball slower ball to pump him over the sightscreen.
Pakistan’s frailties were all too apparent in the same over. Nawaz dropped a sitter at deep midwicket off Jan Frylinck. Soon, at 32 for 0 after four, Namibia were putting up a decent challenge.Salman Mirza, however, switched ends to bowl Frylinck through the gate for 9, and when Jan Loftie-Eaton ruined his strong start by attempting a non-existent run to Agha at mid-off, the downturn was swift and decisive. Nawaz made amends for his catching by luring Steenkamp into a top-edged swipe for 23, and four balls later, Shadab snicked off the captain, Erasmus, with a big legbreak in his first over. The end would follow swiftly.
Brief scores:
Pakistan 199 for 3 in 20 overs (Sahibzadz Farhan 100*, Saim Ayub 14, Salman Agha 38, Shadab Khan 36*; Gerhard Erasmus 1-25, Jack Brassell 2-38) beat Namibia 97 in 17.3 overs (Louren Steenkamp 23, Alexander Busing Volschenk 20; Salman Mirza 1-11,Mohammad Nawaz 1-22, Usman Tariq 4-16, Shadab Khan 3-19) by 102 runs
[Cricinfo]
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