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Warriorz became the first team to successfully defend a total in WPL 2025 despite Rodrigues’ 56

Srinidhi Ramanujam22-Feb-2025Chinelle Henry’s late onslaught, uncapped seamer Kranti Goud’s four-wicket haul, Grace Harris’ last-over hat-trick. UP Warriorz had brilliant moments on the field and produced a thumping win over Delhi Capitals to finally get off the mark, in their third attempt, in WPL 2025. In the first reverse fixture of this season, Warriorz defended 177 by bowling Capitals out for 144 for a 33-run victory. They are also the first team to defend a total in this edition.The Chinnaswamy Stadium came alive late in the first innings thanks to Henry’s fireworks. From 89 for 6, her entertaining 23-ball knock lifted Warriorz from a potential below-par total to a match-winning one. Striking at an astonishing 269.56, Henry smashed eight sixes and two fours to reach the joint-fastest fifty, off 18 balls, in WPL history.In the chase, Jemimah Rodrigues’s 56 held the fort but Capitals collapsed from 97 for 3 to 111 for 7 and couldn’t recover. Niki Prasad and Shikha Pandey’s handy contributions at the death weren’t enough as Goud and Harris shared eight wickets between them to topple Capitals.

Goud’s dream spell

Goud, 21, bowled just four overs in the first two matches in her debut WPL season. Warriorz lost both games and she leaked 47 runs. But Deepti Sharma persisted with her.Kranti Goud celebrates dismissing Meg Lanning•BCCI

Goud quickly found her feet and repaid the team’s faith in the team’s first game in Bengaluru this season. She was hit for a first-ball four by Meg Lanning but, two balls later, nipped one back sharply to disturb the stumps of Capitals’ captain. She conceded just two off her next over, the seventh overall, and dismissed Shafali Verma in her next over with a short delivery. Three overs, 16 runs and two wickets. When Goud finished her first spell, Capitals needed 126 runs from 66 balls.When she came back for her final over, Capitals had to chase 76 off 36 with Rodrigues going strong. But Goud had Jess Jonassen caught and bowled and Rodrigues caught at extra cover in the same over to leave Capitals 111 for 6.

Henry’s rescue act

Deepti batted at No. 4 in the opening game, making a 27-ball 39. In the next two games, both against Capitals, she came in at No. 3 and made a run-a-ball seven in Lucknow, and 13 off 19 balls in Bengaluru. Whether it’s the ideal slot for her is something to keep an eye on especially when the middle order isn’t firing.In the last WPL, she accumulated 295 runs at a strike rate of 136.67 in eight innings. She came in at No. 3 only once and scored 59. But mostly she batted in the middle order, where she remained unbeaten four out of five times and smashed 218 runs including two fifties, at a strike rate of 143.42.Deepti Sharma’s has had a tough time batting at No. 3•BCCI

In this WPL, the likes of Tahlia McGrath and Harris not stepping up in the middle order has been a concern for Warriorz. It has left Henry with a lot of rescue work to do late in the innings. In the last match, she blazed away an unbeaten 33 off 15 to power them to 166.On Saturday, Henry came in at No. 8 in the 14th over when Warriorz were 89 for 6 and straightaway dispatched two sixes off Arundhati Reddy to ease some pressure. She then targeted Pandey, smashing a four and two sixes in the 17th over, and threw a few more big blows before eventually losing her wicket to Jonassen on the final ball of the innings.Warriorz have been the poorest team in the middle phase (from overs seven to 16) this WPL, having lost 15 wickets in the three games including five on Saturday, but Henry helped them fight back on this occasion.

Rodrigues fights but Capitals fail to adapt

The ball was swinging and nipping around at the start of the second innings, troubling the likes of Shafali and Lanning. But Warriorz were sloppy in the field; Saima Thakor, brought back but not given a bow, dropped two catches and wicketkeeper Uma Chetry failed to hold on to chances; however Goud pulled them back. Barring Rodrigues, no one in the Capitals top seven was able to adapt to the conditions in Bengaluru.Jemimah Rodrigues made 56 off 35 balls•BCCI

Even Rodrigues took 19 balls to score her first 23 runs and once she found her rhythm, she grew in confidence and smashed eye-pleasing boundaries to the cover region. She raced to her first fifty of this season, off 30 balls. And her eight fours and one six gave Capitals some hope but the middle order let the game slip away from them in the end.

Harris bags a hat-trick

In her own words, Harris is a batting allrounder. But she has not set the stage on fire in this WPL yet, scoring just 18 runs in three games. However, with the ball, she had picked up two wickets in her first two matches and went one better on Saturday. She first dismissed Capitals’ Player of the Match from last fixture, Annabel Sutherland, in the 14th over of the chase.In the final over, with 34 needed for a win, Harris removed Prasad, Reddy and Minnu Mani off successive deliveries to become the third player in the WPL to bag a hat-trick after Deepti and Issy Wong.

The opener made a timely hundred against the pink ball following Usman Khawaja’s fitness problems in the first Ashes Test

AAP23-Nov-2025Matt Renshaw’s golden summer continued with a magnificent 112 in front of Australia selector Tony Dodemaide at the Gabba.His innings drove Queensland to 352 for 7 at stumps on day two of the top-of-the-table Sheffield Shield clash after Victoria had declared late on the opening day.Renshaw had made scores of 128, 29, 101 and 51 in the Shield before Sunday’s knock. He also had a consistent ODI series against India which included an accomplished 56 in Sydney.Related

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Runs are runs and Renshaw has filled his cup with them. The 29-year-old doesn’t have to do anything more to convince Australia selectors that he is ready for a return to the Test arena. All he needs is an opportunity.”I’m just keeping it really simple and having a lot of fun out there and having good intent,” Renshaw told AAP. “It’s been a good start and hopefully it amounts to something at the end of March. I will keep trying to put in performances to help win games for Queensland. I’m just concentrating on what I can control and that is trying to do my job for the team.”There is doubt over who will open in the second Test of the Ashes series at the Gabba, which starts on Thursday-week.Usman Khawaja’s back spasms in the first Test have put him in some doubt while Travis Head’s blistering century as opener has also put him in the frame to stay at the top of the order alongside Perth debutant Jake Weatherald.Renshaw now has 421 Shield runs for the summer, putting him on top of the aggregate list with 19 runs more than Marnus Labuschagne.He was patient early in his innings against Victoria before finding a more aggressive tempo and his drives down the ground were exquisite. Once Renshaw reached his half-century the runs started to flow all around the ground.He brought up his century with a controlled cut for three off spinner Todd Murphy. A healthy contingent at the Vulture St end of the ground gave him a rapturous reception, realising what a vital innings it was in the context of the summer.His stay ended when he nicked a delivery that just moved away from Fergus O’Neill, who toiled manfully all day with his tight lines.Renshaw received solid support from Angus Lovell in an 88-run opening stand and Hugh Weibgen.Former Australia Under-19 captain Weibgen, playing his second Shield match, looks a promising prospect with his classy strokeplay and composure. The tall 21-year-old will play for the Prime Minister’s XI against an England XI in a two-day, pink-ball match that starts on November 29 in Canberra.He was caught in a juggling effort by Mitchell Perry trying to loft Murphy over the long-on boundary.Lachie Hearne (47) continued the momentum until he was brilliantly caught on the deep midwicket boundary by Campbell Kellaway.

Pakistan head coach admits Bangladesh are favourites, but hopes his bowlers create some “drama” on the last day

Danyal Rasool02-Sep-2024The day might have ended with covers spreadeagled across the Rawalpindi Stadium as monsoon rains lashed the ground, but Pakistan head coach Jason Gillespie has been through a baptism of fire in his new role. With one day to go in a Test Pakistan must win to ward off a first ever series loss against Bangladesh, Gillespie acknowledged the visitors were favourites, calling for more discipline from his bowlers, and application from the batters.”Admittedly, the odds are probably in favour of Bangladesh,” he said at the press conference once play had been suspended. “We don’t shy away from that, but we’ve already lost if we walk out there expecting to lose. We took 6 for 26 in the first innings so we know that we can have an impact with the ball if we bowl really well.”That situation arose a little more than 24 hours earlier, but in the way the Test has gone, might easily have happened a lifetime ago. Since then, Bangladesh dug in with a 165-run seventh-wicket stand to eventually finish at near-parity; the 262 they posted was the highest score in Test history for a side that lost their first six wickets under 50. Gillespie said Pakistan’s bowlers needed to understand how to manage those situations more effectively than was on evidence on Sunday.Related

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On the fourth morning, Bangladesh replicated the success Pakistan had enjoyed the previous day, skittling the hosts out for 172, with all ten wickets falling to the quicks. Under dark clouds, with conditions as helpful to the quicks as Rawalpindi will ever provide, Zakir Hasan flayed Pakistan’s new-ball bowlers, helping the team to 42 without loss in seven overs before bad light suspended play.”We’ve spoken to our bowlers about being ruthless, being disciplined and bowling with intent,” Gillespie said. “And we just went away from our game plan and I’ve challenged the bowlers pretty strongly on that. We need to make sure that we’re on each and every time, because Test cricket can get away from you. The opposition is very good and I’m not going to shy away from saying Bangladesh played well. No question. But I know that our bowlers can do better in that situation than what they showed and we just need to make sure that execution is absolutely bang on each and every time.”On reflection, and I spoke to the bowlers about it this morning, we’ve got to identify those periods where maybe the ball’s got a little bit older and maybe the surface settles down. We’ve just got to really hang in. And not try to search for wickets, because you can fall into that trap. And I think that’s probably what we did a little bit.”The tale of this series, though, has been Pakistan’s off-field decision making, where they can’t seem to do right for doing wrong. In the first Test, the hosts, anticipating a bouncy, seaming surface, went all pace, dropping Abrar Ahmed, a decision whose optics aged poorly when Bangladesh’s slow bowlers took seven wickets on the final day to bundle Pakistan out cheaply and race to a 10-wicket win. This time around, having prepared a pitch so seam-friendly, all of their second innings wickets fell to Bangladesh’s pace bowlers – a first – Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah were out omitted from the playing XI, a call that left Pakistan without genuine pace or old-ball threat.Naseem is Pakistan’s most effective bowler at cleaning up the tail, taking a wicket every 16 balls with the opposition seven down. It is a better strike rate than any current Pakistan bowler, or even Yasir Shah, and a quality sorely needed when Bangladesh’s ninth-wicket stand put on 69 runs and batted nearly 25 overs.Gillespie has stuck with a “horses-for-courses” mantra, and struck a similar note this time. “We looked at conditions and surfaces, what we thought the best combination was,” he explained. “We took into account what we saw before the game, reflected on the previous game, and this is where we landed. In the first innings we had Bangladesh in a bit of strife at one point and we bowled quite well. Our lines, our lengths, were excellent.”But on that decision, obviously, there’s a few things we’re hoping [those two] can work on. Shaheen’s obviously had a pretty eventful time in his personal life as well. Naseem’s fine. I think what we’ve got to understand is we’re trying to build a squad mentality and not just rely on a few players here and there. We want to create an environment and a squad where we can look at conditions, look at surfaces, look at what holistically what is coming up and make the best decisions.”Gillespie said he had no issues with the surface or conditions, but also pointed to Mohammad Ali’s absence for the second half of the third day as a factor in Pakistan’s struggles. “That was a bit of a blow. But obviously his health was the most important. He was just struggling out there a little for a while. So we needed to get him off and get him assessed, and thankfully, he’s okay.”And while the odds don’t suggest Pakistan’s bowlers will prevent Bangladesh from securing a clean sweep, Rawalpindi’s weather well might. Steady rain peppered the ground for the best part of three hours after the players walked off the pitch, with plenty more forecast overnight and on the morning of the final day. Failure to get on would still secure Bangladesh their most famous series win, and Gillespie was keen for his side to get an outside shot at preventing that.”I hope we get on tomorrow so we can try and win a Test match,” he said. “We’ve got to have that mindset. Because if we we walk out there expecting to lose, well, I guarantee you will lose. But if we walk out there with the mindset and the belief that we can try and shake this game up, then there’s hope. Sometimes, you need those 50-50 things to go your way but we’ve got to have that attitude and mindset that we’re going to go there to win the Test match for Pakistan.”We need to take our catches, take any opportunity that comes our way and you never know. This game can create all sorts of drama. So I’m hoping that we can create some theatre and put a smile on a few people’s faces here in Pakistan tomorrow.”It would require Pakistan needing to do many things of the final day they haven’t in the first nine, but as Gillespie said, Test cricket can create lots of drama.

Afghanistan’s exiled players launch plea for donations as MCC, ECB show their support

Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda31-Jan-20252:03

Mel Jones: This group of Afghanistan women are trying to rebuild their lives

Pressure is mounting on the ICC to act amid the announcement of fundraising efforts to support Afghanistan’s exiled women’s cricketers, who played their first match together this week.The Pitch Our Future campaign, led by former Australia cricketer turned commentator Mel Jones, launched on Friday aimed at attracting online donations to support the players’ sporting, physical and mental needs so that they can continue to compete regularly as a team.Meanwhile, the MCC and MCC Foundation have set up the Global Refugee Cricket Fund to support refugees worldwide, backed by a £100,000 donation from the ECB and with an initial focus to raise money for Pitch Our Future.Related

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In announcing the fund and the establishment of an advisory board, the MCC “invited” the ICC’s participation, while Clare Connor, the ECB’s deputy chief executive, hoped the fund’s launch would “inspire other cricketing organisations” to lend their support.The announcements follow pleas to the ICC to ring-fence funding for the players on the basis that Afghanistan remain full ICC members despite no longer being able to fulfil the requirement to field a women’s team under its Taliban government.The players wrote to the ICC last July asking for help in establishing themselves as a refugee team. In lieu of a response, they formed an Afghanistan Women’s XI with the help of Jones and a team of dedicated volunteers, and played their first game on Thursday.As told to ESPNcricinfo’s Powerplay podcast, Jones was instrumental in helping 19 players formerly contracted by the Afghanistan Cricket Board and their families escape to Australia after the Taliban took over in 2021 and banned women’s sport in their country. Since then, women have been subjected to increasingly restrictive laws in Afghanistan which have effectively excluded them from public life.Jones was helped by Emma Staples, Cricket Victoria’s Head of Diversity and Community, and Dr Catherine Ordway from the University of Canberra among others, whose efforts resulted in Thursday’s T20 exhibition against a Cricket Without Borders XI.