Cricket news round-up – 12 May: Supernovas clinch title, Pakistan, West Indies triumph in runfests

Supernovas pulled off a last-ball win against Velocity in the final to win the Women’s T20 Challenge, while England beat Pakistan and West Indies beat Ireland in two high-scoring ODIs. And away from the Test world, Germany beat Belgium twice in a day.

Harmanpreet biffs her way to clinch title

Supernovas beat Velocity in the final of the Women’s T20 Challenge, at Jaipur, to win the trophy. Supernovas started well, putting Velocity in and reducing them to 37/5 quickly. Sushma Verma (40* in 32) and Amelia Kerr (36 in 38) then lifted them to 121/6. Lea Tahuhu had 4-1-21-2, Sophie Devine 4-0-19-1, Poonam Yadav 3-0-18-1, and Anuja Patil 3-0-19-1.

Supernovas started well, reaching 53/1 before they lost 4 for 11 in 22 balls. Jahanara Alam (4-0-21-2) was the star, clean bowling Nat Sciver and Devine. They needed 58 in 36 balls.

But captain Harmanpreet Kaur launched a furious assault at this stage, taking 38 off the next 4 overs. They needed 7 off the last over, but Kerr, after bowling a dot ball, had Harmanpreet caught at deep cover. Radha Yadav and Tahuhu then ran three twos before the former hit a four to finish things off.

Buttler, Fakhar star in 734-run match

England beat Pakistan by 12 runs in the second ODI of the 5-match series, at the Rose Bowl, to go 1-0 up in the series.

Batting first, they put up 373/3 thanks mostly to Jos Buttler’s 55-ball unbeaten 110. Key contributions also came from Jason Roy (87 in 98 balls), Jonny Bairstow (51 in 45), Joe Root (40 in 54), and Eoin Morgan (71* in 48).

Fakhar Zaman (138 in 106) led Pakistan’s charge, leaving Pakistan to score 147 in 102 balls with 8 wickets standing. Asif Ali (51 in 36) and Sarfaraz Ahmed (41* in 32) kept the attack going, but it turned out to be too much in the end.

Ambris trumps Balbirnie, West Indies chase down 328

West Indies made a target of 328 look reasonably easy at Malahide. Ireland scored 327/5 thanks to Andy Balbirnie (135 in 124), Paul Stirling (77 in 98), and Kevin O’Brien (63 in 40). Shannon Gabriel took 2/47.

But Sunil Ambris (148 in 126) did not let any sort of pressure mount up even as Boyd Rankin (3/65) created dents in the West Indian line-up. Ambris left West Indies to chase 76 in 10 overs; Jonathan Carton (43* in 27) and Jason Holder (36 in 24) saw them through with 13 balls to spare.

Germans conquer Waterloo

Germany beat Belgium in 2 T20Is on the same day, at Royal Brussels Cricket Club Ground, Waterloo. Izatullah Dawlatzai, who had played ODIs and T20Is for Afghanistan before, made his debut for Germany.

Germany scored 128/7 in the first match, Rohit Singh top-scoring with a 27-ball unbeaten 39. Aziz Mohammad had 4-0-18-1. Then Ahmed Wardak (4-0-31-3) and Muslim Yar (4-0-10-1) restricted Belgium to 119/6. Shaheryar Butt scored 30* in 27 balls.

Later in the day, Germany got 149/6, Talha Khan (40* in 41) and Amir Khan (40 in 20) doing most of the scoring. Ashiqullah Said had 4-0-34-2 and Saqlain Ali 3-0-12-1. Sahir Naqqash had 1-0-3-2, Dawlatzai 2.4-0-9-2, and Ahmed Wardak 2-0-10-1.