Cricket news round-up – 29 June: South Africa beat Sri Lanka; Brathwaite fined for dissent

South Africa beat Bangladesh by nine wickets; Carlos Brathwaite got fined for showing dissent to a wide call; Deepti Sharma will play for Western Storm in Women’s Super League; and Jonny Bairstow lashed out at England critics.

Consolation win for South Africa

Already out of contention for a place in the semi final, South Africa got a consolation win by beating Sri Lanka by 9 wickets at Chester-le-Street in the ICC World Cup 2019. South Africa won the toss and elected to field, and were rewarded immediately as Kagiso Rabada got Dimuth Karunaratne caught in the slips on the very first ball. The bad start was compensated to some extent by 67-run second-wicket stand between Avishka Fernando (30) and Kusal Perera (23) but wickets in quick succession sent Sri Lanka on a slide that the rest of the batsmen couldn’t resist.

Chris Morris and Dwaine Pretorius got 3 wickets each and Rabada returned with two as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 205. Kusal Mendis (23), Angelo Mathews (11), Dhananjaya de Silva (24) and Thisara Perera (21) all got starts but none of them could go on to convert into big scores. In reply, South Africa strolled on their way to victory with Hashim Amla (80*) and Faf du Plessis (96*) sharing an unbeaten 175-run stand.

Brathwaite fined for showing dissent

West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite has been fined 15 percent of his match fees for showing dissent to an umpire’s decision. One demerit point was also added to Brathwaite’s record. The incident happened in the 42nd over of West Indies’ clash against India at Old Trafford when Brathwaite seemed displeased with the umpire declaring one of his deliveries as a wide ball.

It was reported by on-field umpires Richard Kettleborough and Richard Illingworth, third umpire Michael Gough and fourth umpire Aleem Dar as a Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct. Brathwaite accepted the sanction imposed by match referee Chris Broad and there was no need for a formal hearing.

Deepti Sharma to play for Western Storm

India Women all-rounder Deepti Sharma has signed up to play for Western Storm in the Women’s Super League, England’s domestic T20 competition. She will be turning out for the same team her India teammate Smriti Mandhana played for last season. “I am looking forward to the challenge of playing in the KIA Super League. Every player wants to play alongside and against the best in the world, and this will give me the opportunity to do that. I have heard good things about Western Storm from Smriti and I can’t wait to contribute to the team’s success on the field,” Sharma said.

Sharma, 21, made her India debut in 2014 and is ranked second on the ICC rankings for all-rounders. She has played 30 T20Is and has 28 wickets to his name at 22.92. “Deepti is a quality player with a huge amount of experience at the very highest level and she will bring something different to our squad this year,” said Trevor Griffin, head coach of Storm.

Bairstow lashes out at critics

England opening batsman Jonny Bairstow lashed out at critics who he said were waiting for England to fail in the World Cup, and were ready to jump on an opportunity to criticize the team. England suffered back-to-back defeats, against Sri Lanka and Australia, and now need to win both their remaining games to be absolutely sure of making the semis. The defeats drew criticism from fans and former cricketers, including former captains Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen.

“I was on the radio this morning. I was surprised with a clip of [Michael] Vaughan’s comments at 8.30am. Bloody hell. That’s pretty rich,” Bairstow said. “Because we’ve done so well, any opportunity for someone to see we’ve lost two games, they were always going to jump on it. People were waiting for us to fail. They are not willing us on to win, in many ways, they are waiting for you to get that loss, so they can jump on your throat. It’s a typical English thing to do, in every sport.”

Bairstow said the team remains unfazed in the face of criticism and will not “change the way we go about it.” He said, “The comments and things like that, you can give it too much air time and then all of a sudden, before you know it, it’s a big thing and it’s actually really not,” adding, “So just because we’ve lost two games – yes it’s in a crunch tournament – and people start talking, it’s not going to change the way we go about it.”