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An opening partnership of 171 between Nicole Bolton and Beth Mooney paved the way for Australia women to begin their title defence with an eight-wicket win against West Indies

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy26-Jun-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:37

‘Felt like I was in a dream’ – Bolton

An opening partnership of 171 between Nicole Bolton and Beth Mooney paved the way for Australia women to begin their title defence with an eight-wicket win against West Indies, the team they beat in the 2013 final. Mooney made 70, while Bolton remained unbeaten on 107 as Australia completed their chase of 205 in 38.1 overs.At no point were West Indies on top after they chose, after all manner of toss-related confusion, to bat first. Four of their top five got starts, but none of them got past fifty, as Australia’s bowlers, led by Ellyse Perry, kept striking regular blows to ensure that an innings struggling to get out of second gear never built significant momentum.Wickets through the middle overs cut short any partnership that threatened to blossom. Jess Jonassen, who dropped the opener Hayley Matthews on 27, made amends by bowling her with an arm ball just when she was looking dangerous, having added 19 off her last 18 balls. That ended a second-wicket stand of 52 between Matthews and Chedean Nation.Then came a cameo from Deandra Dottin, who put on 34 in 29 balls with her captain Stafanie Taylor for the fourth wicket. Dottin may have just begun to worry Australia’s think tank when Perry brought a swift end to her innings. Having just conceded two successive fours – a pull and a flick, both placed wide of midwicket – she came up with the perfect riposte, an inducker that bowled Dottin through the gate.West Indies, 157 for 4 at that point, simply couldn’t pick themselves up, with Taylor finding no support at the other end. The last seven wickets fell for 47 runs, Taylor eighth out for 45 off 57 balls.”It’s not the start we wanted,” Taylor said. “There were a couple of mistakes that we made but we just need to go back to the drawing board. We have more games coming up so we can use this as an example. We didn’t bat well, we had a platform but the middle order didn’t push on to get us to that total.”Australia were never going to sweat over a target of 205 unless they lost wickets up front. Bolton and Mooney ensured that wouldn’t happen, serenely seeing off West Indies’ new-ball bowlers. Shakera Selman found late swing into the stumps from over the wicket to the two left-handers, while the taller, quicker Shamilia Connell went round the wicket and extracted bounce from just short of a good length. The first five overs brought only 15 runs, but neither batsman looked anything but secure.Then Mooney, profiting from Connell dropping too short, picked up two fours in the sixth over before Bolton clipped Selman to the square-leg boundary in the seventh. Australia were away. Mooney and Bolton barely had to stretch themselves thereafter, as the spinners and medium-pacers kept offering up a boundary ball roughly every second over.Mooney led the scoring through two-thirds of the opening stand, bringing up her fifty 2.5 overs before her partner, before Bolton left her in her wake with a blaze of boundaries. Stepping out whenever she saw some flight and punishing the inevitable short balls that followed, Bolton raced from 45 off 69 balls to 92 off 96, her sprint to her third ODI hundred interrupted only by Mooney’s dismissal at the other end, bowled by Taylor’s offspin.Taylor picked up another wicket, Meg Lanning miscuing a big hit, but it was only a consolation, as Bolton and Perry steered Australia home with no further drama.”When we were out there that it felt like we were in a dream,” Bolton later said. “To share an opening partnership like that of 171 is special, we didn’t play the scoreboard but instead the way we normally play, tried not to put too ourselves under too much pressure.”It was a pretty damaging partnership, there was a period where it kicked into gear for me – I was mindful of getting the job done but the closer I got to a century the more the nerves kicked in.”It was a pretty special feeling, the result is exactly how we want to play as a team and the bowlers played a massive part in that.

It might have been the England captain’s day after three early lives, but he encountered a familiar nemesis, and a familiar ball

Alan Gardner at The Oval12-Sep-2019How’s your luck, Joe Root? Fighting for pride and, ahem, World Test Championship points at the end of a gruelling Ashes series and a summer flushed with emotional highs and lows, Root must have felt things were going his way as he went to tea on 57, his side reasonably placed on 169 for 3. Then Pat Cummins strolls in, rips the old ball past his outside edge and rattles the top of off with a stonking delivery that might as well have been a laser-guided replica of his dismissal at Old Trafford.Two innings, two dismissals, two unplayable deliveries. Well, maybe only unplayable if you are not coming forward as much as you should be – a minor quibble but they are fine margins at this level. Root had in fact looked much better with his footwork in compiling a fourth half-century of the series, but after benefiting from three drops earlier in the day, he finally saw his luck desert him as Australia tightened up after tea.Plenty has been said about the role of luck in sport, and life in general. England’s head selector, Ed Smith, wrote a book about it: . ESPN has the Luck Index, to try and fully quantify its effects. Some people prefer to imagine you make your own luck, falling back on a phrase often attributed to Gary Player: “The harder I practise, the luckier I get.”In cricket, the very first action is a game of chance. One captain tosses the coin, the other calls “heads” or “tails”. Sometimes, it’s a game you’d rather not win, and there was a hint of that uncertainty on a crisp, clear morning at The Oval. This is a ground on which it is possible to construct scores with the imposing solidity of the famous gas holders that squat behind its north side, as well as one given to spinning later in the game, but there was just a hint of mottled grass and a forecast for cloud cover throughout the day.As it turned out, Root lost the toss, but was still handed the chance to bat by his opposite number, Tim Paine, who wanted to extract any possible early advantage for his seamers. England’s openers then diced with danger during a testing new-ball spell from Cummins and Josh Hazlewood to post the highest first-wicket stand of the series (albeit a modest 27). Burns was given out lbw on 3, Hazlewood snaking the ball back to strike him on the back thigh – but Burns is a Surrey man, knows there’s a bit of bounce on this ground, and reviewed straight away.If that was more judgment than luck, Root was soon to benefit from a few helping prods from Dame Fortune. Coming in during the ninth over, after Joe Denly had finally run out of lives in his game of pin the tail on the donkey, Root attempted to strike the carefree notes that characterise the best of his batting, latching on to some unexpected width from Peter Siddle to squire his fifth and eighth balls for fours through backward point.Ground down through the series by the tight lines Australia have bowled to him, Root may well have resolved to play his shots and be damned. He dabbed and missed, inside-edged into his pads and generally threw some shapes before twice surviving presentable chances in the space of four balls delivered by – that man again – Cummins.The first, an airy pull on 24 that flew straight to deep backward square, was butchered by Siddle, who received a tongue-in-cheek ovation from the crowd when he walked back out towards the OCS Stand a couple of deliveries later. Cummins then induced a thick outside edge in his following over, only for Paine to do Root another favour by palming it over David Warner at first slip.A third gift was bestowed shortly after lunch, Steven Smith this time the man to prove that incessant practise can’t completely overrule the whims of the sporting gods. Root, on 30 at the time, drove Hazlewood authoritatively through cover a couple of overs later, bringing up his 7000th Test run and it looked like he might be on his way. He duly jinked past 50 for the 16th time in Ashes contests, only for Cummins to prolong his conversion issues. If captaincy, as Richie Benaud said, is 90% luck and 10% skill, then the delivery to dismiss Root flipped those numbers around.So it goes. Fourteen years ago to the day, Kevin Pietersen memorably rode his luck to a hundred on this ground that not only sealed the return of the Ashes but brimmed with the showmanship worthy of a series almost without parallel. They came hoping to see something similarly uplifting from an England team rallying around their captain, even with the urn already gone, but the 2019 Ashes have turned into a contest that threatens to slink away quietly, from an English perspective, just as Root did from the crease during mid-afternoon. And luck hasn’t had much to do with that.

Jos Buttler scored a half-century and England then struck four times with the ball, but Sri Lanka were undermined by their own errors on day three in Colombo

The Report by George Dobell 25-Nov-2018The sight of Suranga Lakmal throwing his water bottle to the ground in frustration spoke volumes for Sri Lanka’s fortunes on the third day in Colombo. The Sri Lanka captain had watched his spinners drag his side back into contention with four wickets in the first hour of play. At 39 for 4 England were wobbling and Lakmal knew it.But then he saw Ben Stokes, who had just driven a catch to extra cover, reprieved after replays showed left-arm wristspinner Lakshan Sandakan had over-stepped. Instead of a taking a key wicket, Sri Lanka had instead conceded a single to a no-ball. Stokes was on 22 at the time.To make matters worse – ridiculously, really – Stokes survived in similar fashion a few minutes later. On that occasion Stokes, by now on 32, appeared to have edged straight to slip only for replays to show, once again, that Sandakan had overstepped. Lakmal a reluctant captain anyway, buried his head in his hands. His side could ill afford such self-inflicted injury.Perhaps Sri Lanka had some grounds for feeling aggrieved. Broadcasters later suggested than as many as 40% of the deliveries in Sandakan’s first spell should have been called no-ball. But with the umpire at his end, S Ravi (they call him DRS Ravi round these parts), not calling them, the bowler may feel he was not given the chance to correct where he was landing.Ultimately, though, the bowler has to take responsibility for keeping his foot behind the line. And for a spinner, in particular, to err in such fashion hinted at a lack of rigour, a lack of discipline, a carelessness that has undermined Sri Lanka’s cricket throughout this series.For the scoreline probably won’t show it now – England are well on their way to a first whitewash in Asia (in series of three games or
more) and their first away anywhere since 1963 – but Sri Lanka have had opportunities in every game of this series. And on each occasion, they have lost the key passage of play as much through their own errors as England’s excellence.Those no-balls weren’t Sri Lanka’s only errors of the day, either. Niroshan Dickwella, the Sri Lanka keeper, was unable to cling on to a thin edge offered down the leg-side by Jos Buttler, on 38, from the first delivery after lunch, while Angel Mathews’ impatient pull in the dying moments of the day seemed oddly naive from such an experienced player.As it was, Stokes and Buttler added 89 for England’s fifth wicket and slammed the door on Sri Lanka’s hopes. In a low-scoring Test, it may well prove to be a definitive partnership.Buttler was easily the most fluent batsman. England managed only one boundary – a clip through midwicket for four by Jonny Bairstow – in the first 70 minutes of play and were in some danger of reverting to the stuttering, timid mess that has characterised much of their batting on previous tours of Asia.But Buttler, skipping down the pitch to the spinners, scored at nearly a run a ball, turning decent deliveries into full tosses and disrupting the length of the bowlers. At one stage, Sandakan conceded four boundaries in 10 deliveries. In the context of this match, it was a feast of runs.Jos Buttler uses his attacking options well•Associated Press

There were some nervous moments along the way. Buttler was given out on 22 – an lbw decision won by Dhananjaya de Silva – only for Stokes to insist he utilise a review, which showed the ball would have bounced over the stumps. It was one of six decisions overturned on an inglorious day for the umpires.Eventually, Stokes lofted a catch to long-on and Buttler was stumped after Sandakan saw him advancing down the pitch and fired the ball down the leg side. Dickwella made a tricky stumping appear straightforward. But by then the damage was done.The day had started so well for Sri Lanka. Dilruwan Perera, with 22 wickets in the series, certainly does not deserve to be on the losing side and gave his side renewed hope with three early wickets on the way to a second five-for in three matches. Keaton Jennings, planting his front foot, was trapped leg before by the first delivery of the day – one that skidded on – while Rory Burns fell in similar fashion a few overs later.When Bairstow became the latest batsman to fall to a sharp catch at short-leg – turning one off his hips nicely enough only to see Kaushal Silva, on as a substitute, cling on – and Joe Root gave a return catch to Malinda Pushpakumara as he attempted to work him against the spin, England were four down, leading by 135, and starting to look uncomfortable.But Stokes and Buttler, with some help from Sandakan’s ill-discipline, put clear water between the sides. And with England’s lower order again showing their worth with the bat – the final three wickets added 59, with Ben Foakes’ unbeaten 36 earning him a decent chance of ending the series as the highest run-scorer and with the highest batting average – Sri Lanka were set 327 runs to win. No team has chased so high a total at the SSC ground.Whatever hopes Sri Lanka may have had of achieving an historic run chase were all but ended within the first few overs of their second innings. Moeen Ali, taking the new ball, had Danushka Gunathilaka caught at slip as he felt for one that left him sharply, before Dimuth Karunaratne was punished for leaving a gate by a straight one that passed between bat and pad.Jack Leach, meanwhile, beat a groping Dhananjaya de Silva with one that straightened – although it took a review to confirm the dismissal.The final wicket, Mathews caught attempting to pull a short ball from Stokes for the second time in the match, was another nail in the coffin. To see an England bowler bounce out an experienced player on a relatively sluggish Asian surface was to see a new, aggressive England finding new ways to win in these conditions. But it was also to see a weak Sri Lanka succumb with disappointing lack of application or spirit. There have been a few moments in this series when they’ve been outplayed; there have been several more when they have played a huge part in their own downfall.

The left-arm seamer has effectively ended his South Africa career in favour of the county deal and the chance to explore T20 leagues

Umar Farooq17-Sep-2018South Africa pace bowler Wayne Parnell has signed a Kolpak deal with Worcestershire, effectively bringing an end to his international career, having just been part of the county’s Vitality T20 Blast success.Parnell, 29, last played for South Africa in October 2017 against Bangladesh and lost his national contract earlier this year. He said he has not had much communication with the selectors in recent times. However, he still called the decision to go Kolpak as the “toughest” of his life but was “comfortable and content” with his choice. It is a path that has recently been taken by a number of South Africans including Morne Morkel, Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw.”This is probably the toughest decision I’ve had to make in my career,” Parnell told ESPNcricinfo. “Of course this wasn’t an overnight decision, it’s a very difficult decision and I am fully aware and understand the pros and cons of it. I have always enjoyed playing for my country since making my debut. I’d like to thank everybody who has supported me through thick and thin, my family, my friends.”Special mention must go to the Eastern Province and Warriors unions for taking a risk and giving a kid from the dusty streets of Booysen Park a chance play this wonderful game. To all of those people who dislike me for whatever reason I thank you as well, you’ve helped make me mentally and emotionally tougher.”Parnell admitted he had been considering the move for almost a year during which time he has slipped out of South Africa’s teams across all formats and battled with injury.”After my serious injury in January I had three to four months out and really had time to reflect and think about what I want for the rest of my career going forward,” he said. It was a very tough period in my life emotionally and mentally as it could potentially have been a career-ending injury and my wife was heavily pregnant with our first born son so I had a lot going on. You can’t really predict the future so you try and formulate and plot a plan and see how it unfolds.”Parnell played six Tests, 65 ODIs and 40 T20Is during his international career. His six Tests were spread over seven years, having made his debut against England in early 2010. After three appearances he was out of the side for four years before a brief return followed by another three-year absence.Though he still harboured international ambitions, the serious shoulder injury in January and subsequent lack of communication with CSA has made him look to the future.”I am still young and I have plenty to offer to any environment that I’m in,” he said. “I have played more than 100 games for my country in all formats and I’ve loved every time I’ve put on the South African jersey and I’m almost certain that nothing can replace that feeling, certainly on the cricket field.”The reality of life is that that goals and aspirations change all the time and it seems the Proteas have moved passed me since I’ve not really had any communications since I had my injury and then not going to India for the ‘A’ tours was also another indication.”But I’m happy with that and I am comfortable with where I’m at and what I’m doing. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at Worcestershire since joining up with them and I’m excited about my future with them.”Financially, the Kolpak deal will help bring Parnell security and he is also keen to explore the opportunities in T20 leagues around the world. He was part of the Global T20 in Canada earlier this year, and already has a deal to play in the upcoming Afghanistan Cricket League in Sharjah. He is also eyeing a spot at the PSL.”[I have] no regrets,” he insisted. “This isn’t an overnight decision like I’ve mentioned. The goalposts for me have shifted. I’m comfortable and content with my decision and the people in my corner are all fully supportive of my decision. I can’t really predict what the future holds but I’m excited by it at the same time. I’ve never really had the October to March window open to explore the different T20 leagues so that could potentially be in the pipeline.”I expressed to Shahid Afridi, who was my team-mate during the Canadian T20 league, that I would love to play a professional game of cricket in Pakistan before I retire so hopefully I get to experience that in the PSL at some stage. Cricket has taken me to some amazing places and I’ve been lucky to meet some incredible people along the way. And the journey continues but now in a slightly different manner.”

The injury is serious enough that the left-arm spinner is expected to take six weeks to recover fully

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Port Elizabeth21-Feb-2019Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya is almost certainly out of the Port Elizabeth Test after severely dislocating his left thumb while attempting to take a return catch on Thursday, the opening day.Embuldeniya left the field immediately clutching a warped and bloody thumb, before an X-ray revealed the extent of his injury. It is such a bad dislocation that Embuldeniya will likely undergo surgery on Thursday evening. He is expected to take six weeks to recover fully.It also appears unlikely that he will come out to bat, in the first innings at least. There is almost no chance that he will bowl.This is a substantial blow to Sri Lanka’s hopes in the second Test. Embuldeniya, their only specialist spinner on tour, was excellent on debut in Kingsmead, taking a second-innings five-wicket haul. He also batted bravely in the first innings.With only three frontline quicks playing, Sri Lanka will now have to rely on the part-time offbreaks of Dhananjaya de Silva, and perhaps Dimuth Karunaratne’s gentle seam-ups as well.Embuldeniya had been bowling his sixth over when Kagiso Rabada struck a ball firmly back to him, at about knee-height. He went down to attempt the catch, but closed his hands slightly early, and the ball struck him on the end of the thumb, jamming it back against the rest of his hand.The bowler immediately appeared in agony, and gave no further thought to completing the over, rushing towards the dressing room before the physio even had a chance to inspect him. Teammates who saw the injury also recoiled at what was a grisly sight.Embuldeniya is the fourth Sri Lanka bowler to suffer a series-ending injury over the past few weeks, with quicks Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Kumara and Nuwan Pradeep also leaving the team with various ailments.