Sports
Sultana fifty in vain as Renuka bowls India to comfortable win
India rode on Renuka Singh’s 3 for 18 to beat Bangladesh by 45 runs in the opening game of the five-match T20I series in Sylhet, on a humid Sunday evening. India have won 15 of 18 T20Is against Bangladesh now.
Barring the Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana, none of the batters could put up a fight in chase of 146, which at the innings break felt like a below-par total given India’s slowdown in the final phase. Sultana’s 51, the top-scorer among both teams, wasn’t enough as Bangladesh mustered only 101 for 8 in 20 overs.
They had a shaky start to the chase, losing their top three of Dilhara Akther, Murshida Khatun and Sobhana Mostary inside the powerplay, with Renuka accounting for two wickets in her three overs and Deepti Sharma one. Pooja Vastrakar removed Fahima Khatun immediately after the powerplay to leave Bangladesh reeling at 30 for 4. Sultana’s five fours and a six in her 48-ball stay dragged the hosts past 100 but she found little help at the other hand as wickets fell around her.
Renuka came back in the 16th over to remove Rabeya Khan to add one more to her tally while Vastrakar picked up two and Shreyanka Patil, Radha Yadav and Deepti took a wicket each.
Young legspinner Rabeya Khan’s three wickets helped Bangladesh restrict India to 145 for 7. Yastika Bhatia’s 36 and cameos from Shafali Verma, Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh pushed India to a moderate total which proved enough at the end.
After reaching 100 in 12.2 overs, India could not touch the 150-mark with several batters failing to convert starts and accelerate at the death overs as the team lost five wickets for 39 runs.
Smriti Mandhana fell early when she found a thick inside edge onto the legstump, in the third over, trying to be aggressive. Shafali started well, scoring three fours and a six in her 22-ball 31 before falling to Rabeya in the ninth over when she tried to play across the line and found the top edge.
Yastika and Harmanpreet then stabilised the innings in the middle overs, providing the foundation for a big finish. Yastika, slotted in at No.3 in place of the injured Jemimah Rodrigues, played a few neat cover drives along the ground, shuffled across and swept past the short fine leg fielder to find boundaries and looked set to take off. In her 28-ball innings, she hit six fours and stitched two crucial partnerships – firstly, 43 off 31 with Shafali for the second wicket and then 45 off 33 with Harmanpreet.
However, Bangladesh fought back with the wickets of Harmanpreet and Yastika in consecutive overs to derail India. Harmanpreet was trapped lbw for 30 off legspinner Fahima Khatun in the 14th over and Yastika found the point fielder after she mistimed a heave off Rabeya.
Debutant S Sajana was promoted to No.6 and with Ghosh at the other end, India expected some fireworks. However, that didn’t happen. Sajana’s stay was short-lived as she was dismissed for a run-a-ball 11 and Ghosh, after notching up two fours and a six, fell to Marufa Akther’s pace in the final over. Marufa converted it into a double-wicket over, removing Vastrakar off the last ball and conceding just two runs from the over.
Bangladesh put on a mixed fielding display, dropping three catches off Shafali, Mandhana and Sajana but also showed excellent effort to save a few boundaries near the rope.
Brief scores:
India Women 145 for 7 in 20 overs (Yastika Bhatia 36, Shafali Verma 31, Harampreet Kaur 30, Richa Gosh 23; Marufa Akter 2-13, Fariha Trisna 1-23, Rabeya Khan 3-23, Fahima Khatun 1-31) beat Bangladesh Women 101 for 8 in 20 overs (Nigar Sultana 51; Renuka Singh 3-18, Pooja Vastrakar 2-25, Shreyanka Patil 1-24, Deepti Sharma 1-15, Radha Yadav 1-19) by 44 runs
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
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]
