Sports
Kapp, Luus score fighting half-centuries after India post record total
South Africa showed great fight to reach 236 for 4 on the second day of the one-off Test in Chennai after India declared their first innings at a record 603 for 6. At stumps, the visitors were still 367 runs behind. But on a pitch where Indians bowlers were able to extract sharp turn and bounce from the second session of the day, Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp with their half-centuries and a 93-run stand for the third wicket, displayed commendable resilience and technique.
After a 3-0 defeat in the ODI series and conceding 525 on the first day of the Test, South Africa did not let India dent their confidence on Saturday.
After India declared their innings in the morning, Laura Wolvaardt and Anneke Bosch looked composed in the six overs before lunch, with the captain punishing a half-tracker from Sneh Rana and an overpitched delivery from Pooja Vastrakar for four. This was before Wolvaardt struck a confident drive through mid-off in the first over of the innings by Renuka Singh.
However, Rana – who got the ball to spin more than any other spinner – got the first breakthrough in the eighth over when she bowled one rare short ball. But it kept low and Wolvaardt completely missed her pull to be trapped lbw. Bosch and Luus stayed on for the next 23 overs, stitching 63 runs. However, Bosch, who hit four fours and a six, fell a few overs before tea. Rana was at it once again. After the previous ball spun sharply, Rana bowled one full outside off. Anticipating the turn, Bosch leaned forward and nicked it to Deepti Sharma at slip.
At 96 for 2, South Africa found stability via Kapp and Luus who blended caution with aggression. Luus respected the good deliveries, scoring almost equally on the off and leg side. In all, she scored 65 off 164 balls that included six fours and one six over long-on against Rana.
The duo put on 93 before Deepti broke the stand when she beat Luus’ inside edge and trapped her lbw. Luus reviewed the on-field decision but it was in vain. Delmi Tucker became Rana’s third victim when Richa Ghosh took a sharp catch to dismiss her for an eight-ball duck.
Kapp, like Luus, played more off the back foot and scored predominantly on the off side, with seven of her eight fours coming in that area. She reached 50 off 87 balls and remained unbeaten on 69 off 125 at stumps. She fought cramps and a stiff back towards the end of the final session, but didn’t throw her wicket away.
Once Tucker departed, Nadine de Klerk joined Kapp with the pair stitching an unbroken 38-run stand off 56 balls. De Klerk showed good intent in the final hour and hit five fours in her unbeaten 27 off 28 balls.
Earlier, Ghosh and Harmanpreet Kaur started sedately but soon converted their starts into half-centuries. The pair stretched their stand to 143 runs. Harmanpreet made 69 off 115 balls before being dismissed in the 15th over of the day when fast bowler Tumi Sekhukhune trapped her in front to leave India at 593 for 5.
Ghosh hit seven more boundaries on Saturday, 16 in all, her 90-ball innings, using her strong wrists to good use to play powerful cut shots. She fell for her career-best 86 when she missed a sweep off left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba and was lbw.
Brief scores:
South Africa Women 236 for 4 in 72 overs (Laura Wolvaardt 20, Anneke Bosch 39, Marizanne Kapp 69*, Sunee Luus 65, Nadine de Klerk 27*; Sneh Rana 3-61) trail India Women 603 for 6 dec in 115.1 overs (Shafali Verma 205, Smriti Mandhana 149, Jemimah Rodrigues 55, Richa Ghosh 86, Harmanpreet Kaur 69; Delmi Tucker 2-141) by 367runs
[Cricinfo]
Rain in Bulawayo allowed just ten overs of action between Bangladesh and New Zealand .
The match began an hour later than scheduled, and as a 47-over contest after Bangladesh opted to bowl. Iqbal Hossain Emon cleaned Hugo Bogue up for 8 in the second over, but just as Aryan Mann and Tom Jones steadied New Zealand, rain returned, only for no play to be possible after that.
It was New Zealand’s second washed-out game in a row, and they will hope to beat India in their final group game so that they don’t have to depend on the result of the Bangladesh-USA match to progress to the Super Sixes.
No result: New Zealand 51 for 1 vs Bangladesh
The first over of the 202 chase set the tone for what followed as Australia cruised past Japan at the Under19 World Cup in Windhoek. Will Malajczuk smashed Nikhil Pol for 14 runs, and never looked back, racing to a 23-ball fifty and a 51-ball hundred as Australia chased down the target with eight wickets and nearly 20 overs to spare to seal a Super Sixes berth.
By the time Japan finally got rid of Malajczuk, he had thumped 102 off 55 balls, with 12 fours and five sixes. He brought up his half-century midway through the sixth over, by which point Australia were already 66 for 0, with Malajczuk contributing 57 of those runs off 26 balls. At the other end, his opening partner Nitesh Samuel scored 7 from ten deliveries.
The pair added 135 for the first wicket, with Malajczuk doing the bulk of the damage as Samuel settled into a calmer role. While Malajczuk fell shortly after reaching his hundred, Samuel carried on to bring up his fifty off 62 balls in the 25th over and finished unbeaten on 60. He had scored an unbeaten 77 against Ireland in Australia’s opening game of the tournament.
Earlier, Japan were content to take their time after opting to bat. HUGO Tani Kelly was once again their standout, following up his 101 not out against Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 79. Japan, however, slipped from a position of stability to lose four wickets for 13 runs in a middle-order collapse, during which legspinner Naden Cooray struck three times.
Tani-Kelly added 72 for the seventh wicket with Montgomery Hara-Hinze before Japan eventually finished on 201, although 30 extras from Australia played its part. The target hardly bothered Australia, whose win makes both teams’ next group game a dead rubber.
Brief scores:
Australia Under 19s 204 for 2 in 29.1 overs (Will Malajczuk 102, Nitesh Samuel 60*; Nihar Parmar 1-35) beat Japan Under 19s 201 for 8 in 50 overs (Hugo Tani-Kelly 79*; Naden Cooray 3-31, Will Byrom 2-32) by eight wickets
(Cricinfo)
There is officially a traffic jam in the WPL points tale. A day after RCB qualified for the playoffs, Delhi Capitals (DC) captain Jemimah Rodrigues led her team over the line in a tense and hard-fought chase to extend Mumbai Indians’ (MI) losing streak to three games in a row. That means all four teams apart from RCB now have four points each after DC lifted themselves off the bottom to push Gujarat Giants down to fifth.
Chasing 155 on a slow Vadodara track, DC saw Rodrigues walk out needing 71 off 58 balls. The MI bowlers then dried up the boundaries by taking the pace off on a pitch keeping a little low as well and forced Rodrigues and Laura Wolvaardt to mostly trade in singles and doubles. Rodrigues, however, kept finding the boundaries – square and behind square – to bring the equation down to a more comfortable 27 from 18. She placed the ball in the gaps for three more boundaries before Marizanne Kapp smoked a six to seal victory with an over to spare.
MI were earlier restricted after another slow powerplay with the bat. Once the openers failed again, Nat Sciver Brunt did the heavy lifting once more with an unbeaten 65 after Harmanpreet Kaur fell for 41, as Shree Charani’s 3 for 33 dented MI while they looked to press the pedal. But the total wasn’t enough as almost all DC batters got going and Rodrigues scored her maiden fifty of the season and as WPL captain.
Even though MI stuck to their opening pair from the last game, it didn’t change their powerplay fortunes. They continued to be the worst performing team in that phase, with a score of 23 for 2 against the DC quicks who kept aiming for the stumps. With some movement with the new ball, Nandani Sharma knocked over S Sajana’s off stump in the fourth over and Kapp had Hayley Matthews’ middle stump knocked back by two balls later.
The run rate was starting to plummet further as Sciver-Brunt kept finding the fielders and Harmanpreet got off to her usual slow start of 5 off 13. Until spin was introduced. Harmanpreet found the boundary twice as soon as Shree Charani erred with her lengths, including a trademark inside-out drive over the covers. Sciver-Brunt started to pepper the leg-side fence, and she stylishly brought up the half-century stand and push the run rate over six with an inside-out drive for the first six of the innings.
Just when Harmanpreet had started to turn into Harmonster with three consecutive fours off Shafali Verma square of the wicket, DC dented MI’s middle order. The big wicket came through Shree Charani who had Harmanpreet hole out to long-on for 41 off 33 and even though Sciver-Brunt kept finding the boundaries regularly around the park and brought up her 11th WPL half-century – joint most with Meg Lanning – and third of the season, Shree Charani’s double-wicket 18th over that went for just four runs rocked MI again. After just 11 runs in the 18th and 19th overs, Sanskriti Gupta’s last-ball six helped MI collect 13 from the last over to post 154, their lowest total this season.
DC had the kind of powerplay MI can only dream of this WPL. The MI bowlers strayed often with their lines and Shafali and Lizelle Lee pulled and punched with confidence for boundaries to try and wipe out a good chunk of the target in the first six. They collected three fours each off Nicola Carey and Sanskriti in the second and sixth overs respectively, and the others in between for two fours each. With 57 smashed in the powerplay, DC had brought the asking run rate down to seven an over.
WPL debutant and left-arm spinner Vaishnavi Sharma, a replacement for the injured G Kamalini, started to loop deliveries from wide of the crease that made DC’s job tougher to dispatch the ball to boundaries. Amanjot Kaur was frugal too and she accounted for Lee with a stumping through a wide down leg, although it took several replays for the third umpire Ajitesh Argal to conclude Lee’s bat was in the air and foot on the line when the bails came off. The boundaries dried up for 20 balls, the equation became a stiff 51 off 36, but Rodrigues was determined to see the chase through.
She scooped, swept, reverse swept – all while staying low on the pitch – and smacked a six over midwicket to not let the pressure get to her. One of her shots even had Wolvaardt run-out at the non-striker’s end with a deflection off Sciver-Brunt’s hand, but Rodrigues kept her nerve to beat the defending champions.
Brief scores:
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U – 19 World Cup: Will Malajczuk’s 51-ball century helps Australia blow Japan away
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