Superchargers’ second-place finish proves the difference as bad weather curtails Eliminator after 75 balls

Vithushan Ehantharajah26-Aug-2023Northern Superchargers have progressed to the final of the women’s Hundred after their Eliminator with Welsh Fire was abandoned during a torrential downpour at the Kia Oval.Superchargers, who will play Southern Brave at Lord’s on Sunday, progressed by virtue of finishing second in the group stage. It was a position they sealed by beating Fire on Tuesday in both teams’ last match of the group stages, taking Superchargers to 12 points, one ahead of their opponents.The Eliminator had already been reduced to a 95-ball affair after rain pushed back the start by 45 minutes. And the agony for Fire, who finished bottom in the first two editions, is that the strong progress they made to reach 104 for 2 after 75 deliveries, having won the toss and opted to bat first, was ultimately for nothing.An engaging 38 from Sophia Dunkley set up a platform of 59 for the first wicket, before fellow opener and Fire skipper Tammy Beaumont – 37 not out off 30 – prepared for a late assault with Laura Harris, who had 14 from 5 balls. At that point, standing umpires Sue Redfern and Mark Newell opted to take the players off the field due to the threat of lightning in the area.In accordance with the playing conditions, the players were only permitted to return to the field once officials were confident the storm had passed. However heavy rain set in, bringing the Fire innings to a close, before the match was called off at 4.41pm local time, 30 minutes before the latest time Fire’s 25-ball second innings was permitted to start.”You never want the result to go into a final to be how it is today,” Hollie Armitage, Superchargers captain, said. “But I think that shows why finishing second is so important, just like finishing first and going straight to the final. Obviously, it is a little bit bittersweet, but we’re happy to be on the side that’s going to Lord’s tomorrow.”We’ve won six out of eight games in the group stage and that’s why the group stages are so important. You’ve got to treat every game as a final so you can try and finish at the top of the table, which was obviously our ambition. But luckily today, by finishing second, it’s going to take us to the final.”Having finished bottom in both of the first two editions, Fire’s about-turn, in tandem with their men’s team, has been one of the stories of 2023. To have their tournament ended in such fashion was a tough pill to swallow.”Devastated, absolutely devastated for the girls,” Beaumont said. “The game was going nicely towards what would have been a decent total and I would have backed the girls to defend anything. It would have been easier to take had we been absolutely thrashed or beaten in a close one and actually lost the game.”To go on previous results and table finishes is tough. Everyone is absolutely devastated. But that is cricket. You can’t book the weather. It’s been a pretty poor summer on the weather front, hasn’t it? Sport is cruel, isn’t it?”Rules are rules, aren’t they? At the end of the day, if we’d have won at Headingley on Tuesday and finished second we wouldn’t have been complaining.”Asked if, like the final, the Eliminator should have a reserve day, Beaumont was phlegmatic. Though Fire ended up on the wrong side of the calculations here, she appreciates the nature of the Hundred, and indeed a point of difference with other franchise competitions around the world, is its compact schedule.”They want The Hundred to be condensed and I think that is what sets it apart from any other competition. Just eight games and an Eliminator and final – that is what makes it good.”You hear people saying the Big Bash is too long, the IPL being far too long, the games and the format. In terms of the women’s team, they’ve had the same overseas players throughout and that is what makes it good. [With reserve days] it would have to be another four days. That is pretty good – it has just stitched us up this time.”

After being snubbed at overseas draft, she was added as an overseas replacement player for Thunder

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Oct-2023Just over a month after being snubbed at the WBBL overseas draft, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu has been signed by Sydney Thunder as an overseas replacement player for the upcoming tournament.Athapaththu was not initially selected in the inaugural WBBL draft despite having played four seasons in the WBBL for both Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Renegades. She was a retention option for Renegades but they selected Hayley Matthews and Harmanpreet Kaur before signing Tammy Beaumont after the draft was completed.Related

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Athapaththu made her frustration at being overlooked known on social media in the midst of producing a player-of-the-series performance for Sri Lanka against England in England.But Thunder have come calling, adding the experienced left-hander to the squad as cover for the three overseas players they have drafted in Marizanne Kapp, Heather Knight and Lauren Bell.Knight has been named captain of Thunder for the upcoming season while Athapaththu and Kapp played together at Scorchers in their 2021 WBBL title run.Thunder start their campaign with a local derby against Sydney Sixers at North Sydney Oval on October 22.

Opener reveals his improved game against offspin bowling following his match-winning ton in Bengaluru

Shashank Kishore04-Nov-20231:47

Mumtaz on Fakhar’s knock: ‘Pakistan’s dreams and hopes alive due to one man’

Fakhar Zaman was in a reflective mood in the aftermath of a pulsating chase in rainy Bengaluru on Saturday that kept Pakistan’s World Cup hopes flickering. He resonated a sense of being a deep thinker who sticks by his methods, and those who’ve helped him on his path to redemption, through thick and thin. There was also palpable relief.”At this level, there are always ups and downs,” he said after his century. “The Asia Cup didn’t go well for me. I had a highest of 30? [27]. It wasn’t a good time. I went over to Peshawar to work with Aftab Khan [Pakistan’s fielding coach] at his academy. He’d pointed out my weakness against offspin. He was an offspinner, so I worked a lot with him.”Related

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• Babar: 'Fakhar was playing on a different pitch'

When Fakhar made three successive ODI hundreds against New Zealand in April, including a seminal 180 not out that helped seal Pakistan’s second-highest ODI chase, it seemed inconceivable that he’d have to wait his turn to come back into the side if he picked up an injury or niggle along the way.Yet when Fakhar went through a string of low scores in the lead-up to the World Cup – 11 innings without a half-century – there had been a growing pressure on him to emerge from a rut which got magnified that much more with every passing day.If the pressure of performance was tough enough to contend with, Fakhar injured his knee at training one game into the 2023 World Cup. It meant two weeks on the sidelines. Fakhar kept the faith in his abilities and has now racked up scores of 81 and 126* in two match-winning performances that has kept Pakistan alive.”Every player who performs says ‘I did this, I did that’. But when I had the time off [after the Asia Cup], I didn’t rest,” Fakhar said. “I was at home for just two days and then I went straight to Peshawar to train. I want to dedicate this performance to Aftab Khan.”Fakhar was a tad emotional at this point, but he wasn’t being generic in praising his coaches because he had to. There seemed to be a genuine sense of gratitude and warmth that stemmed from an acceptance that he had a few areas to work on.Fakhar Zaman brought up his fourth ODI hundred against New Zealand in 2023•ICC/Getty Images

“The things he’s shared with me, the time he’s given me – not many people give you that kind of dedication. You need such people. When performances happen, the hard work is seen. When you don’t, it’s not seen. But it doesn’t mean we haven’t put in the work.”Fakhar then elaborated on Pakistan’s methods towards trying to scale down New Zealand’s 402. They decided to “play properly” for the first four overs and then take the attack to the bowlers. It’s within these four overs that he and Babar Azam decided to step up and “be ahead of the target at all times.””The wicket was very good, there was no turn, nothing,” Fakhar said. “Rain was at the back of our mind. We knew [of the forecast] from yesterday. That’s why after 15 overs, we [Babar and himself] went a message upstairs to the management to give us the target for 20 overs.”We wanted to try and make it up [in those five overs]. At this level, planning is important. It’s difficult otherwise. We had planned for this. So when we got 10 runs ahead, close to the 20th over, we played out [Trent] Boult because we knew we were well ahead.”Fakhar praised the team management for resonating “positivity at all times”, even when they went on a downward spiral after two opening wins. There’s belief in the camp now. And there’s a sense of “rhythm” that he feels has the potential to get them on a roll. Of course with some luck from a few other results.”The good thing about this team management is they always stay positive, they never show us that we’re out of it, they back each and every player,” Fakhar said. “We believe we can make the semi-finals, maybe even the final. We’re closely going to watch the Sri Lanka-New Zealand game. We are hopeful.”

Retiring allrounder says he was “upset, angry, disappointed” after not being offered a deal

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-2023David Willey has described not being awarded a central contract by England as “the final nail in the coffin” of his international career, following the announcement of his retirement earlier in the week.Willey, 33, called time on an eight-year England career that had seen him play more than 100 times in the white-ball formats, as well as collecting a T20 World Cup winner’s medal. But speaking to Sky Sports, he admitted to being “upset, angry and disappointed” at being the only member of England’s ODI World Cup squad left out of the batch of contracts for 2023-24 and beyond, saying it had made his decision to retire easier.”That for me was probably the final nail in the coffin really, and made my decision a lot easier,” he said. “These conversations around contracts all happened before we came out. So when we joined up at Lord’s [before flying to India for the ODI World Cup], I knew I was the only one that didn’t have one. It was difficult.Related

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“I feel with two World Cups in 12 months, knowing my position in the squad, should there be injuries or whatever, I’m a chance and feel like I’m always a chance. I’m not involved in how these [things] are put together, who selects them. I don’t necessarily have to agree with them. But you know, there are decisions that are made and I have to respect them and, and I make decisions based on how I feel around them.”[I was] upset, angry, disappointed. But as I said, I respect their decision. Don’t have to agree with it and it made my decision a lot easier.”Willey has rarely been a default pick for England but battled back into contention after the disappointment of being left out of the 2019 World Cup squad at the last minute, with Jofra Archer parachuted into the side. He was involved in the 2022 T20 World Cup win – although didn’t play a game at the tournament in Australia – having previously been part of the XI beaten in the final of the 2016 event.He has also had to juggle involvement in franchise T20 tournaments with family life and playing for England. Willey has signed up for the ILT20 in January and could be retained for the subsequent IPL, having also appeared in the Big Bash, PSL and SA20.”So over the last six to eight months, the landscape’s changing,” he said. “It’s always been hard for me to make sure I’m in [England] squads and I’ve got no guarantees, and the anxiety leading up to every selection. Then when I am playing, looking over my shoulder, it starts to weigh heavy on you and I’ve done that for a long time now.”I was desperate to play in this World Cup and it was great to be here. But you know all that rolled into one. I just felt I’ve given my all and I don’t think I can to do that anymore.”Having been left out at the start of the ongoing ODI World Cup, Willey has been one of England’s better performers after coming into the side, taking five wickets in three games. But with their World Cup defence effectively over, he decided now was the time to make an announcement on his future.”Towards the back end of the summer, I knew it was always going to be around this time. I knew it was coming. I wasn’t sure what my involvement would be in the white-ball stuff in England before we came. [I] made the side here, and I’ve managed to get into the side and perform.”I just feel that there’s not very many opportunities in cricket to walk away when the time is right for you. And I really wanted to finish my career, whatever my involvement is in these last three games, able to enjoy it, and not carrying the weight of this decision, and looking over my shoulder thinking if I’m not performing, I’m out of the side again”To have played three games …and that game against India, full crowd in a World Cup in India. I walked out to bat there, they were doing a strobe light show, you know, and I thought as I walked down the steps, I thought I’m done.”

Fills the vacant spot left by Duminy after he was named South Africa’s batting coach earlier this year

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Nov-2023Shane Bond, the former New Zealand fast bowler, has been named head coach by Paarl Royals for the upcoming SA20 competition. He takes up the vacant position left by JP Duminy, who between seasons became the permanent batting coach of the South Africa men’s team.Bond has been a part of the coaching set-up of several teams in the past, most recently as head coach of MI Emirates in the ILT20 and as fast-bowling coach with Mumbai Indians in the IPL where he won four titles between 2015 and 2020. Bond left both roles in the ILT20 and the IPL to join hands with the Royals Sports Group last month, and in October 2023 was revealed as the new assistant coach and fast-bowling coach of the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. The latest announcement by the Paarl Royals strengthens Bond’s role with the group that owns both teams, apart from the Barbados Royals in the CPL.Bond has previously also been bowling coach for New Zealand between 2012 and 2015 and head coach at Sydney Thunder in the BBL, a position he held between 2018 and 2021. He has also been part of the England team as their bowling consultant.”It is a new challenge for me personally to be heading to the SA20, but what gives me the belief is the strong squad we have been able to assemble for the upcoming season,” Bond said in a press release. “We have so much experience and immense potential in our ranks, which makes me excited to join the group in January and work towards achieving our target of lifting the trophy.”Royals’ director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara said of Bond: “The inaugural season provided us with a lot of learnings after our semi-final finish, and we believe that his experience, commitment and vision align well with our goals for the upcoming season.”The 2024 edition of the SA20 tournament will be played between January 10 and February 10. The Royals, led by David Miller, begin their campaign at their home ground of Boland Park on January 12.

He announced his resignation after the fourth meeting of the committee in Lahore on Friday

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jan-2024Zaka Ashraf has resigned as the chairman of the Interim Management Committee (IMC), the body heading the PCB. He announced his decision after the fourth meeting of the committee at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore on Friday.Ashraf’s resignation came a couple of weeks before his most recent extension as head of the PCB was due to end in the first week of February. The PCB has not yet announced who will take over the administration of the board.In November last year, Ashraf was given a three-month extension to continue as the head of the PCB via a government notification given by the patron of the board and current interim prime minister of Pakistan Anwar ul Haq Kakar.He was originally appointed head of the IMC in July last year, and the mandate of the ten-member body was to finalise the Board of Governors (BoG) and conduct elections for the post of board chairman within four months. However, when that goal could not be achieved within the timeframe, the committee was given another three months to do so. Ashraf’s tenure has had its share of controversy, with a member of the committee accusing him of “flagrant misdoings and unconstitutional decisions”.Apart from Ashraf, the other nine members of the IMC are Kalim Ullah Khan, Ashfaq Akhtar, Muhammad Mussadiq Islam, Azmat Pervez, Zaheer Abbas, Khawaja Nadeem, Mustafa Ramday, Zulfiqar Malik, and Khurram Karim Somroo.

Meanwhile, the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 fixture between UAE and Scotland in Dubai has been postponed

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Mar-2024Poor weather in parts of the UAE has affected two important international fixtures on Saturday. The second ODI between Afghanistan and Ireland is called off altogether, while the ICC ODI World Cup League 2 game between UAE and Scotland has been postponed.It was announced on Friday itself that the UAE vs Scotland game in Dubai was being postponed “owing to the bad weather conditions across country” following a directive from the concerned government department. On Saturday, the Afghanistan Cricket Board announced that “heavy and persistent rain in Sharjah [the venue for the game]” had forced the match to be called off.”The decision to call off the game was made as the result of extensive discussions between the event’s technical committee, match officials, and ground staff,” the board said in a statement. Afghanistan currently lead the series 1-0 after a 35-run win in the first ODI in Sharjah on Thursday, and the third and final game of the series is expected to be played on schedule on March 12 at the same venue.