Cricket news round-up – 02 July: Sri Lanka beat West Indies; Vijay Shankar’s World Cup over

Sri Lanka won against a spirited West Indies. Vijay Shankar is out of the World Cup following a toe injury. Sanjay Bangar backed MS Dhoni.

Sri Lanka hold their nerve against the West Indies

Sri Lanka added one more win to their World Cup tally when they beat the West Indies by 23 runs at Chester-le-Street on Monday, July 1. However, the result was inconsequential in terms of the teams’ qualification hopes for the semi final as neither side can now make it to the final four despite the result of their remaining match.

West Indies won the toss and elected to filed first on what looked like a flaccid wicket and Sri Lanka made full use of good batting conditions to score 338/6, helped by a maiden ODI century by Vishwa Fernando who got 104 runs off 103 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes. He was well-supported by Kusal Perera (64 off 51) and Lahiru Thirimanne who got a quick 45 off 33 balls at No.6.

In reply, despite Chris Gayle’s steady 35 West Indies lost two wickets inside the first five overs before Shimron Hetmyer (29) gave Gayle company as the duo added 49 runs for the third wicket. Another slide saw them slide from 71/3 to 145/5 before Nicholas Pooran and Fabian Allen got together to add 83 runs for the seventh wicket.

A mix-up led to Allen getting run out but not before the all-rounder had scored 51 off just 32 balls with 7 fours and a six. Pooran continued to register his maiden ton as well, but he was dismissed on the first ball of the 48^th over, just when he had been promising to take the match away from the Lankans. He got 118 off 103 with 11 fours and 4 sixes. Eventually, West Indies were restricted to 315/9.

Vijay Shankar ruled out of the World Cup

India all-rounder Vijay Shankar has been ruled out of the 2019 World Cup due to a toe injury. Shankar was hit on the toe in the nets while facing Jasprit Bumrah and sustained a non-displaced fracture of the left big toe.

The injury will take at least three weeks to heal, which means that Shankar can take no further part in the competition. Uncapped top-order batsman Mayank Agarwal has been named Shankar’s replacement in the squad. Agarwal made his Test debut last year in the Boxing Day Test against Australia and has played 75 List-A games, scoring 3605 runs at 48.71 for his state side Karnataka.

That Agarwal opens for Karnataka plays into India’s hands as they could yet try the uncapped player at the top of the order, pushing KL Rahul back to No.4, a position Rahul vacated when opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out of the tournament due to injury. But that could mean wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant misses out.

Bangar jumps to Dhoni’s defence after England debacle

India assistant coach Sanjay Bangar has come out in defence of wicket-keeper bat MS Dhoni after the latter was criticized for the lack of intent in the final overs of India’s run-chase against England at Edgbaston. Chasing 338, India needed 71 off the last 31 balls when Kedar Jadhav joined MS Dhoni in the middle, and the duo were outsmarted by the England death bowlers who used their variations well. The batsmen could only get singles and doubles and even saw off dot balls as India fell 31 runs short despite having lost only five wickets.

“I don’t think so [there was a lack of intent], because if you look at the way they bowled towards the end, they used the dimensions really well and created difficult angles for our batters to hit,” Bangar said. He also pointed out maintaining the net run rate as a factor behind India playing risk-free cricket at the death when a victory looked improbable.

“In those large boundaries and with the type of balls they were bowling – slower bouncers, a lot of into the wicket deliveries, slower balls, I just felt maybe last one or two overs, the difference between runs required and balls left were a bit too much. Had we tried bigger shots earlier, we might have ended a few runs short. It also helps the net run rate a bit with the extra runs.”

County Championship updates

In Division One, Kent finished 142/0 in reply to Warwickshire’s mammoth 585/7 declared at Canterbury while Hampshire were struggling at 329/8 against Somerset, who got 408 at Taunton. Essex lead Nottinghamshire by 132 runs at Trent Bridge as the visitors got 345/3 in reply to the Notts’ 213, and Surrey were bowled out for 362, leading Yorkshire’s 327 by 55 runs at Scarborough.

In Divison Two, Middlesex are 135/3 in reply to Derbyshire’s 557/6 declared, Worcestershire are 191/5 in their riposte to Glamorgan’s 449, Durham finished 199/5 playing against Lancashire, who were out for 337, and Nothamptonshire were 212/4 in their second innings in addition to 273 in the first against Sussex, who were bundled out for 106.