Latest News
Rain prevents England push after Sri Lanka struggle with bat again
England showed off their burgeoning depth to take command of the second ODI against Sri Lanka before rain descended on Northampton and rendered it a washout with one game left in the series.
Offspinner Charlie Dean and allrounder Alice Davidson-Richards came into the home side for a resting Mahika Gaur and injured Emma Lamb and claimed two wickets each with Lauren Filer, the 22-year-old quick who impressed on her ODI debut in the opening match of this series, also taking two as England moved within one wicket of bowling Sri Lanka out well inside their 50-over allocation for the second time in a row. Then the morning drizzle which had delayed the toss by half an hour returned much heavier, just as some stealthy fielding by Kate Cross ran out Achini Kulasuriya for the ninth wicket, and play never resumed.
After England had opted to bowl, Cross conceded nine runs first up, fours from Chamari Athapaththu – threaded fine and slammed in front of point – bookending a wide. Athapaththu peeled off two more fours through the covers in Cross’s next over, but Cross responded with the last ball – her first to right-hander Vishmi Gunaratne – who edged behind to Amy Jones, punctuating a bright start by Sri Lanka at 26 for 1.
Filer chimed in with the wicket of Harshitha Samarawickrama with a fuller ball that found a faint edge and Jones’ gloves. But Athapaththu was looking dangerous, particularly against Cross. Her four lofted over mid-on sounded like a gun going off and two balls later, she despatched a full delivery over the rope at deep midwicket.
Dean had been called up as part of England’s workload management of Gaur, the 17-year-old seamer who was Player-of-the-Match on ODI debut as England thumped Sri Lanka by seven wickets in Durham on Saturday, and she entered the action in the 10th over to devastating effect. Dean’s first three balls were dots and followed immediately by the prize wicket of Athapaththu, trapped lbw in front of middle and leg stump, ending her innings on a run-a-ball 34 and putting the tourists in trouble at 53 for 3.
Davidson-Richards, making her first England appearance since the winter tour of the Caribbean after Lamb was struck down with a back spasm, accounted for Hansima Karunaratne, who top-edged an excellent short ball to Sarah Glenn at fine leg and Sri Lanka’s slide continued.
Kavisha Dilhari was yet to score when Heather Knight spilled a chance at slip off Dean, but Dean covered her skipper’s error two balls later with a return catch that was a lot simpler than it looked as she fell to her left in her follow through. Davidson-Richards then had Anushka Sanjeewani out chopping on and Sri Lanka were six wickets down with only 79 runs on the board.
Tammy Beaumont put down a chance at point off Hasini Perera, on 19, after Filer had been brought back into the attack. But Filer and Jones combined again to remove Udeshika Prabodhani and when Cross pounced on the chance to run out Kulasuriya at the bowler’s end with a direct hit from midwicket as the batter strolled back to her crease without grounding her bat, Sri Lanka were 106 for 9 from 30.5 overs.
At that moment, the rain that had been hovering round the ground began to fall and the players left the field, only for it to set in and leave the hosts heading into Thursday’s final match in Leicester still with a 1-0 series advantage.
Davidson-Richards received her call-up on Friday and promptly scored a century for South East Stars as they upset competition leaders Blaze in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy on Sunday. And while she felt that playing her first international match this year was like going back to “business as usual”, she said a return to grassroots cricket had been key to her most recent innings with the bat.
“I was out on a bike ride so I could see it coming and I was like, ‘I’ll just deal with this afterwards’,” she laughed when talking about her latest England selection after being released from the Ashes squad ahead of the June Test. “I went to some club cricket on Saturday and remembered how wonderful cricket is seeing it in its actual true form, which obviously put me in quite a nice position for Sunday. I just remembered how fun cricket is and what it’s like to play on those little club grounds. So it’s been quite fun a few days and I tried to bring that into today.
“If I put pressure on myself that’s when it tends to go a bit tits up. I think just remembering how relaxed I was when I was playing club cricket, I was watching mates I used to play with when I was 15 and stuff and just seeing people playing just for fun… seeing it played in that sort of way, on Sunday I was actually just envisioning playing on that little club ground and remembering how stress-free it was. That really helped calm my brain down and not let Alice get in the way of Alice.”
Competitions like the RHFT, Charlotte Edwards Cup and the Hundred have been crucial in developing England’s talent pool, including the likes of Gaur and Filer, and Davidson-Richards said that would be a “massive factor” for the international side.
“The best teams come from environments where there’s a lot of competition for places,” she said. “You don’t want the same people being picked every single time. You want people pushing the XI that are there and I’m doing my job if I’m making it difficult for them to pick an XI.
“Charlie Dean’s exactly the same. If you’re leaving her out then you’re probably in quite a good place aren’t you because she’s an unbelievable player. The more people that we can get up to that level, the better for the England team, then obviously we’ll just keep pushing each other on.”
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 106 for 9 in 30.5 overs (Chamarie Athapaththu 34, Charlie Dean 2-12, Alice Davidson-Richards 2-16, Lauren Filer 2-25) vs England – Match abandoned
(Cricinfo)
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]
US sports envoys to Lanka to champion youth development
Rahuman questions sudden cancellation of leave of CEB employees
