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Ireland top Group B of ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, Scotland maintain momentum
Two more matches were decided in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in Abu Dhabi on Monday afternoon.
Ireland made a statement when they beat Zimbabwe by a comprehensive 56 runs, to rising to the top of Group B at Zayed Cricket Stadium, while Scotland put behind their disappointing 10-wicket loss to Sri Lanka on Saturday by outplaying the United States of America (USA) by 44 runs at the adjacent Tolerance Oval.
Ireland’s opening pair of Amy Hunter (71) and Gaby Lewis (69) shone for their side with a brilliant, 130-run opening stand, while Scotland’s captain, Kathryn Bryce, produced a memorable all-round performance, returning unbeaten for 57 with the bat and taking four for 17 with the ball spearheading her side to a comfortable win in the Group A clash.
Ireland vs Zimbabwe
Amy Hunter and Gaby Lewis sizzled with a 130-run, opening partnership to help Ireland post their fifth-highest total in women’s T20Is. Hunter began the innings with a bang, slamming a hat-trick of fours from the first three deliveries from Josephine Nkomo, who came into the game fresh off a four-wicket haul.
With Lewis joining hands, Ireland got off to a flyer, racing to 59/0 inside the Powerplay. Lewis was the first to make a half-century, reaching the landmark off 36 balls. Hunter joined her soon, taking 34 balls for her fifty. It was Kelis Ndhlovu who finally put an end to the opening partnership when she had Lewis caught out for a brilliant 47-ball 69.
Nkomo sent back Hunter for 71 in the 17th over, but the damage was already done, by then Ireland had already crossed the 150-run mark and eventually finished on 176/3 in their 20 overs.
In Zimbabwe’s reply, Ava Canning struck twice in the Powerplay, sending back Sharne Mayers and Chipo Mugeri-Tiripano cheaply to give Ireland an even stronger grip on the game.
Skipper, Mary-Anne Musonda and Modester Mupachikwa combined to lift Zimbabwe out of trouble and at the end of 10 overs, the team moved to 65/2. Laura Delany broke the stand with the wicket of Mupachikwa (27), but Musonda (48) held on for as long as she could, finishing just short of her own half-century.
Zimbabwe went on to lose their next four wickets in the space of 22 balls and eventually finished on 120/8. They have one win in three games and will need a big one in their final game to stand a chance of making it to the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, with two wins in two games, Ireland are at the top of Group B and are favourites to make the semis now.
Scotland vs USA
Scotland’s skipper, Kathryn Bryce, led from the front to help them to a 44-run victory over the USA and make it to two wins in three matches.
Asked to bat first, Scotland encountered early jitters as they lost their openers Saskia Horley and Megan McColl inside the Powerplay, but it was the fourth-wicket partnership between Bryce and Ailsa Lister that steadied the ship for the team. The duo added 66 runs in just 39 deliveries to swing the momentum back into Scotland’s favour.
Lister’s knock of 34 (22) came to an end when she decided to step down the track against Aditiba Chudasama, only to be stumped by keeper Sindhu Sriharsha.
ICC Women’s Associate Player of the Decade, Bryce, held the innings together from her end, bringing up her ninth T20I fifty in 42 balls.
Her unbeaten knock of 57* along with Lorna Jack’s cameo of 20 (17) took Scotland to 149/6 in their 20 overs.
In the bowling department too, it was Bryce who made the headlines. Opening the bowling, she picked up a wicket from her first delivery, dismissing Gargi Bhogle without scoring.
She returned with her lethal in-swingers in her second over and snared two more wickets – first rattling Disha Dhingra’s stumps and then trapping Sriharsha in the front. Both batters departed for ducks.
USA could only manage 26 runs for the loss of four wickets at the end of the Powerplay.
Leg-spinner Abtaha Maqsood was brought into the attack to dismantle the middle-order.
Maqsood dismissed Jessica Willathgamuwa (10) and Geetika Kodali (3) to reduce USA to 50/7.
Isani Vaghela and Jivana Aras combined to stop the flow of wickets and added 39 runs in 45 deliveries. Vaghela played a crucial hand of 30 off 26 balls before Chloe Abel dismissed her while Aras remained unbeaten on 24.
USA could only manage 105/8 in their 20 overs, falling short by 44 runs as they recorded their second loss in a row in the Qualifier.
Along with an unbeaten fifty, Bryce finished with career-best T20I bowling figures of 4/17 to earn the Player of the Match award.
Scores in brief:
Match 9:
Scotland beat USA by 44 runs
Scotland 149 for 6 in 20 overs (Kathryn Bryce 57 not out, Ailsa Lister 34; Isani Vaghela 2-17, Aditiba Chudasama 2-25)
USA 105 for 8 in 20 overs (Isani Vaghela 30, Jivana Aras 24 not out; Kathryn Bryce 4-17, Abtaha Maqsood 2-16)
Player of the Match – Kathryn Bryce
Match 10:
Ireland beat Zimbabwe by 56 runs
Ireland 176 for 3 in 20 overs (Amy Hunter 71, Gaby Lewis 69; Kelis Ndhlovu 1-32, Josephine Nkomo 1-36)
Zimbabwe 120 for 8 in 20 overs (Mary-Anne Musonda 48, Modester Mupachikwa 27; Ava Canning 2-13, Laura Delany 2-19, Cara Murray 2-29)
Player of the Match – Amy Hunter
(ICC)
The aid group Doctors Without Borders has reported recovering 11 bodies and rescuing dozens of people off the coast of Libya as it criticised the migration policies of the North African country and European countries.
In a statement on Friday, the group, known by its French initials MSF, said its Geo Barents rescue vessel managed to recover the bodies following a search operation lasting more than nine hours after being alerted by German nongovernmental organisation Sea-Watch, which also rescues refugees and migrants.
“As we cannot determine the reason behind this tragedy, we know that people will continue to take dangerous routes in a desperate attempt to reach safety, and Europe must find safe and legal pathways for them,” MSF said in a post on X. “This catastrophe must end!”
Sea-Watch said it is unclear whether the bodies were victims of a previously unknown shipwreck, adding that they tried to contact Libya’s coastguard to go and retrieve the dead, but received no reply.
“The so-called Libyan coastguard – financed by the EU – ignored our call demanding that the bodies be recovered,” the group said.
Thousands of people trying to head from Africa to Europe use Libya as a departing point, with the Italian island of Lampedusa the nearest European destination as they undertake the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to escape war, poverty and persecution.
Italy, which wants to put a stop to the migration stream, has said Libya and neighbouring Tunisia must do more to stop people from going to sea. It has also clamped down on the operation of the rescue ships, arguing that they encourage people to head to Europe, a charge that is denied by the charities.
Emphasising its policy on the rescue ships, Italy said on Friday that it forced the MSF rescue vessel to take the 165 people that it had saved from boats in the Mediterranean operation to the northern port of Genoa. The port was more than 650 nautical miles (1,200km) from their position and much farther than the more convenient ports in nearby Sicily, significantly delaying assistance to the rescued.
The route in the central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world, with the United Nations registering more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the area since 2014.
More than 3,000 refugees and migrants went missing in 2023 while attempting to use the route, according to the International Organization for Migration.
According to Italy’s interior ministry, the number of arrivals in the country has dropped in 2024 to fewer than 21,800 people since the beginning of the year, compared with close to 53,300 in the same period last year.
[Aljazeera]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
Afghanistan boosted their Super Eight chances with yet another dominating win, this time thumping New Zealand by 84 runs in Providence. Having beaten Uganda by 125 runs in their opening match, they are now at the top of Group C with a net run rate of 5.225.
After being sent in, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran gave Afghanistan a start of 103 in 14.3 overs. It came off the back of the 154 the pair added against Uganda, thus making them the first opening pair to register two successive century stands in the history of the T20 World Cup.
Afghanistan’s was an innings of two halves. They scored 55 for no loss in the first ten overs and 104 for 6 in the last ten, with Gurbaz contributing 80 off 56 balls. New Zealand, who had decided not to play any warm-up games, looked every bit rusty as their fielders dropped catches and missed run-out opportunities.
With the pitch assisting both seamers and spinners, chasing 160 was not going to be easy. But few would have expected New Zealand to collapse in the manner they did.
Fazalhaq Farooqi picked up three wickets in the powerplay and Rashid Khan three just after it. Eventually, both ended with identical figures of 4 for 17 as New Zealand were bowled out for 75 in the 15.2 overs. Glenn Phillips and Matt Henry were the only New Zealand batters to reach the double digits.
Trent Boult found some swing in the opening over but Gurbaz and Ibrahim showed their intent by picking up three fours off Henry from the other end. Both batters had luck on their side, too. Gurbaz got a second life when he skipped down the track to Santner and missed the ball, which went on to brush the leg stump but the bails did not budge. In the following over, Finn Allen dropped Ibrahim off Henry at the deep-square-leg boundary.
That was not all. Gurbaz got another reprieve after being involved in a miscommunication with Ibrahim. Having taken off for a single, Gurbaz had to retrace his steps and would have been run out had Conway not fumbled the throw.
Two balls later, New Zealand finally seemed to have found success when Santner pinged Ibrahim’s pads and umpire Kumar Dharmasena ruled it lbw. But the batter got the decision overturned on review as the ball was heading down the leg side. Immediately after that, Ibrahim hit Santner for an inside-out four as Afghanistan ended the powerplay on 44 for no loss.
New Zealand went against the prevailing wisdom of not bowling an offspinner when two right-hand batters at the crease, and Michael Bracewell repaid that faith by conceding only six off his first two overs.
Lockie Ferguson was even more frugal, going for five in his first two. He could have had Ibrahim off a slower full toss but a leaping Kane Williamson failed to pull off a one-handed stunner at mid-off. That meant while Afghanistan remained unscathed, they had only 55 on the board after ten overs.
Afghanistan had not hit a single six in the first ten overs, but there were five in the next three, including three in one Bracewell over as Gurbaz and Bracewell stepped on the accelerator. The pair took the side past 100 in the 14th over. New Zealand finally broke through when Ibrahim bottom-edged a short ball from Henry onto his stumps, after having been hit on the grille on the previous delivery.
Promoted to No. 3, Azmatullah Omarzai played his part with 22 off 13, which included two sixes in three balls off Henry. Mohammad Nabi fell for a first-ball duck but Gurbaz kept finding the boundary at regular intervals. However, a three-wicket, three-run final over by Boult kept Afghanistan to 159.
Farooqi gave Afghanistan a dream start with the ball. With the very first delivery of the innings, he uprooted Finn Allen’s leg stump as the ball moved in late. In the seamer’s next over, Conway pushed at one that seemed to come slower off the surface and was caught at extra cover.
The decision to give Farooqi a third over in the powerplay brought further rewards. This time, bowling around the wicket to Daryl Mitchell, he got a length delivery to just straighten and take the outside edge. Gurbaz took a regulation catch to complete the dismissal and leave New Zealand 28 for 3.
It could have been worse for New Zealand. In between, Naveen-ul-Haq had rapped Kane Williamson’s front pad after the batter had moved across to play a delivery. Afghanistan sent it upstairs for an lbw review but the umpire’s call saved the New Zealand captain.
Afghanistan did not have to wait too long for Williamson’s wicket. Rashid brought himself on after the powerplay and struck straightaway as Williamson guided one to first slip. But Rashid was just warming up. In his next over, he dismissed Mark Chapman and Bracewell off successive deliveries to leave New Zealand on 43 for 6. Chapman went for a pull and got bowled; Bracewell was late to bring his bat down and was lbw.
Phillips was New Zealand’s last hope. He did hit a couple of boundaries but was soon caught at long-on when he tried to take on Nabi. That ended any hopes of revival New Zealand might have had.
Brief scores:
Afghanistan 159 for 6 in 20 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 80, Ibrahim Zadran 44, Azmatullah Omarzai 22; Trent Boult 2-22, Matt Henry 2-37, Lockie Fergusoan 1-28) beat New Zealand 75 in 15.2 overs (Glenn Phillips 18; Rashid Khan 4 for 17, Fazalhaq Farooqi 4 for 17, Mohammad Nabi 2-16) by 84 runs
[Cricinfo]
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