Fatima Sana played a useful cameo down the order before Pakistan’s spinners tied down Sri Lanka on a slow-ish wicket in Sharjah to complete a resounding 31-run victory in the first T20 World Cup face off between these two teams in 10 years. Pakistan, who opted to bat first, were bowled out for 116 but successfully managed to keep Sri Lanka at bay, with the Asia Cup champions struggling and failing to find any momentum with the bat once Chamari Athapaththu fell early in the chase.

There may have been questions about Fatima Sana’s decision to bat but the Pakistan captain stood vindicated with Sharjah seeing little to no dew in the second innings, thereby allowing her spinners to hold sway despite the loss of fast bowler Diana Baig to an apparent calf injury early in the target defence.

Incidentally, Athapaththu was happy to chase and had even set sights on restricting Pakistan to under 120. Her team came good on that count with a good bowling performance before Sana played the defining knock of the game right at the end. True to their recent style, Pakistan tried to go hard while the fielding restrictions were in place but were constantly pegged back by wickets falling at regular intervals. Sugandika Kumari struck with the last ball of the second over thanks in large parts to a sharp catch behind the stumps by Anushka Sanjeewani to dismiss Gull Feroza.

Muneeba Ali swung left-arm medium-pacer Udeshika Prabodhani for a six before becoming the second batter to fall to Sugandika. This time too, it was Sanjeewani behind the stumps who held on to a tough catch after Muneeba got a big edge on an attempted cut to an arm ball from the left-arm spinner. Pakistan were three down for 32 inside the PowerPlay with Athapaththu completing a return catch after getting Sidra Amin to miscue an attempted slog.

Nida Dar and Omaima Sohail set about putting the innings back in order with a steady 25-run stand but just as Pakistan could begin to harbour hopes of pushing up the scoring rate they were pegged back once more. Kavisha Dilhari, who had been slog-swept for six earlier in the over, bowled a floaty delivery to Omaina, who ended up playing the sweep shot way too early and toe-edged a catch to square leg.

Prabodhani then returned to the attack and cleaned up Dar for 23 with a change-up around the wicket angle. In the next over, Athpaththu dismissed Tuba Hassan and Aliya Riaz off successive balls in the 14th over, the former to another excellent catch behind the stumps and the latter to a straightforward LBW decision.

At 74 for 7, which soon became 84 for 8, Pakistan seemed unlikely to even get to 100. But captain Sana led a fine rearguard with Nashra Sandhu for company. The ninth-wicket pair added 28 of which Sandhu contributed only 4 runs off 12 balls. Sana on the other hand struck three fours and a six and farmed strike expertly before she fell for a 20-ball 30 to the first ball of the final over. Pakistan managed to add only four more singles before they were bowled out off the last ball of the innings.

Pakistan lost Baig to an injury after just one ball of the second innings but once again had their captain stepping up and making a mark. After bowling a pair of length balls, Sana slipped in a fuller delivery and got her opposite number, Athapaththu, to chip a catch to extra cover. Omaima took over and dealt a double strike by cleaning up the in-form Harshitha Samarawickrama and Hasini Perera to leave Sri Lanka reeling at 35 for 3. The second of those dismissals was an off-spinner’s delight. It drifted into the left-handed Perera and then turned 4.7 degrees to spin past the bat and hit the top of off-stump.

Sandhu added two of her own wickets while Sadia Iqbal picked up three lower-order wickets as Sri Lanka’s batters struggled to find a way to force the pace. In fact, Sri Lanka managed only three boundaries in their innings and none at all after the eighth over as the game petered off to a predictable and insipid finish.

Brief scores:

Pakistan Women 116 in 20 overs (Fatima Sana 30; Chamari Athapaththu 3-18, Sugandika Kumari 3-19, Udeshika Prabodhani 3-20) beat Sri Lanka Women 85/9 in 20 overs (Sadia Iqbal 3-17, Fatima Sana 2-10, Nashra Sandhu 2-15) by 31 runs.

[Cricbuzz]

Under 19 Cricket

by Reemus Fernando

Abheeth Paranawidana took five wickets for S. Thomas’ to fight back after being bowled out for 99 runs, but St. Anthony’s Katugastota were ahead as they posted 129 runs on day one of their Under 19 cricket encounter at Mount Lavinia on Friday.

In a Tier ‘A’ match played at Campbell Place, Nalanda scored first innings points against Gurukula as Malsha Fernando took five wickets to restrict the visitors to 154 runs. In their second essay the home team were 187 for seven wickets at stumps.

At Thurstan ground, Thurstan earned first innings points against Mahinda as Sethru Fernando with five wickets and Thanuga Palihawadana with three wickets restricted the visitors to 205 runs.

In the other Tier A match which commenced at Moratuwa, St. Sebastian’s were in the box seat as they reached 243 for two wickets at stumps after restricting Royal to 222 runs. Ryan Dissanayake top scored with an unbeaten 92 runs inclusive of six sixes and seven fours.

Match Scores At Mount Lavinia

Scores:

S. Thomas’ 99 in 42.2 overs (Avinash Fernando 21, Sadev Soyza 15, Dineth Goonewardene 31; Charuka Ekanayake 4/27, Dinura Ganegoda 2/16, Imeth Rajapakshe 2/27) and 27 for 1 in 13 overs

St. Anthony’s 129 all out in 39.1 overs (Sanuka Kalpana 31, Kaushika Kumarasinghe 33; Abheeth Paranawidana 5/42, Aaron de Silva 2/17, Anshen De Silva 2/06)

New Zealand opened their women’s T20 World Cup with a resounding 58-run win over pre-tournament favourites India and ended their ten-match losing streak in T20Is in the process.

Sophie Devine’s unbeaten 57 off 36 after a flying start from openers Georgia Plimmer and Suzie Bates helped New Zealand post 160 for 4, which proved way too much for India.

India’s batters couldn’t handle the New Zealand pace attack, as Rosemary  Mair  starred with four wickets and Lea Tahuhu picked up three. But it was all set up by legspinner Eden Carson, who struck a double-blow early, removing openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana. With Harmanpreet Kaur – at No. 3 for the first time in 18 months – falling for a 14-ball 15 inside the powerplay, the chase got tricky for India, who were a batter short, and lost six wickets for 60 runs to be bowled out for 102 in 19 overs.

After conceding 55 runs in the powerplay, India fought their way back into the game in the middle overs but they couldn’t keep Devine quiet. Between the last World Cup and this one, she had batted mostly at No. 4 barring two games – this was after playing at the top of the order from 2017 to early 2023 – to bring more power to the middle order. But Devine had not found a lot of success this year, averaging 21.25 in nine innings with just two half-centuries. The New Zealand captain had also come into the tournament with scores of 5, 12, 4, 5. But it didn’t matter on Friday as Devine once again proved her credentials as a big-match player to lift New Zealand.

After seven boundary-less overs, she punished S Asha for back-to-back fours, dancing down the track to smash one through mid-off and pulling one away to deep square-leg off the back foot. She kept the scorecard ticking and didn’t spare the pace of Renuka Singh either, hitting consecutive fours in the 15th over. She found the extra-cover boundary to bring up her 21st T20I fifty. Along the way, Devine shared a 46-run stand off 26 balls with Brooke Halliday for the fourth wicket and gave New Zealand a strong finish.

New Zealand showed their intent from the word go with Suzie Bates pulling the first ball of the innings to deep square-leg for four, and she stepped down the track as early as third ball for a drive past mid-off for her second four, all off Pooja Vastrakar. Plimmer – who is fresh off her first maiden T20I fifty, against Australia – also unsettled Deepti Sharma in the third over. This included a six when she came down the track and lofted one over long-on. They also benefited from India’s sloppy fielding – Richa Ghosh dropped Bates, who got a top edge to the keeper, in the final over of the powerplay. The duo brought up the team 50 in 34 balls, hitting five fours and a six, to end the powerplay strongly at 55 without losing a wicket and set the platform for a competitive total.

Lea Tahuhu celebrates with her team-mates (Cricinfo)

Both Arundhati Reddy and Asha have been in and out of India’s XI this year but when they got an opportunity on a big stage on Friday, they delivered. Bowling the final over of the powerplay, Reddy had leaked 12 runs. Asha was then introduced into the attack and she started with a six-run boundary-less over. Coming back for her second, Reddy removed Bates with a slower one for 27 and provided India the breakthrough they craved. In the following over, Asha tossed one up and forced the well-set Plimmer to step out and heave one into the hands of Smriti Mandhana at long-on, bringing out footballer Leandro Trossard’s goggles celebration to mark the moment. Bowling in tandem after the powerplay, the pair conceded just 20 runs off 30 balls from the seventh to the 11th to slow down New Zealand.

The game wasn’t without its share of drama.

India thought they had run out Amelia Kerr  in the 14th over and the batter also thought she was gone, and headed for the dugout before being stopped by the fourth umpire. The umpires had decided the ball was dead when the dismissal was effected.

Kerr and Devine were trying to sneak a second off the last ball of the over when the ball was in Harmanpreet’s hands, and it seemed the ball was dead. They ran, Harmanpreet threw, Ghosh broke the stumps, and Kerr was well short of getting back to the striker’s end.

Meanwhile, after the first run, Deepti, the bowler, had asked the umpire to hand her cap back and had also collected it.

Play was paused for a few minutes with India coach Amol Muzumdar having a conversation with the fourth umpire. But it was decided the ball was dead, and the run-out dismissal would not be counted as the ball was not “in play”.

India had three fast bowlers in the XI for the first time in a T20I this year, with Vastrakar, Renuka and Reddy all included. Left-arm spinner Radha Yadav, India’s second best bowler this year  in terms of wickets taken, was left out to accommodate an extra seamer. The six-bowler strategy meant Harmanpreet was promoted to No. 3 with Jemimah Rodrigues and Ghosh at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively. But playing with one batter fewer did not help India on a day their batting unit underperformed.

Chasing a competitive 161, India lost their top three inside the powerplay and the middle order faltered against the hard lengths of Tahuhu before Mair’s swing troubled the lower order. Ghosh consumed 19 balls to make 12 and Deepti made 13 off 18. Harmanpreet’s 15 remained the top score.

Brief scores :

New Zealand Women 160 for 4 in 20 overs (Suzie Bates 27, Sophie Devine 57*, Georgia Plimmer 34, Renuka  Singh 2-27, Arundati Reddy1-28, Asha Sobhana 1-22) beat India Women 102 in 19 overs  (Harmanpreet Kaur 15; Rosemary Mair 4-19, Lea Tahuhu 3-15, Eden Carson 2-34, Amelia Kerr1-19) by 58 runs

(Cricinfo)