Cricket news round-up – 2nd September: India 8 wickets away from historic win against West Indies

India require only 8 wickets for a 2-0 series win, New Zealand won the first T20I despite Lasith Malinga getting the world record, Indian selectors included some experienced players in India A squad for four-day matches and Western Storm won their second Women’s Super League title.

India in driver’s seat in Jamaica test

India need 8 more wickets to complete a comfortable 2-0 series win and score 120 points in the ICC World test championship tally. The West Indian batsmen have a herculean task in front of them and need to score 423 more runs for a win.

India took slightly over an hour to complete the West Indies first innings for 117 runs. Rahkeem Cornwall was the first to go, bounced out by Mohammed Shami. Roach batted confidently for his 17 but was the last man to go off Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling.

Despite a huge 299 runs lead Virat Kohli decided to bat again, most probably to give a rest to his bowlers in a hot and humid condition. West Indies dominated the afternoon session as Roach picked up three important wickets of Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli. Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari took control post the tea session and added 111 runs. Both reached their individual fifties before Kohli declared at 168/4 giving West Indies a target of 468 runs.

Ishant and Shami already got rid of the two openers as West Indies ended day three on 45/2.

New Zealand win the first T20I in Pallekele

Key contributions from the New Zealand middle order batsmen Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, and Daryl Mitchell helped New Zealand to register a five-wicket victory with three balls to spare in the first T20 international. The 79′-run partnership between Taylor and Gradhomme turned the match in New Zealand’s favour before Daryl Mitchell and Mitchell Santner completed the chase.

Earlier, Kushal Mendis scored an impressive 79 off 53 balls and added 63 runs off 42 balls with Niroshan Dickwella who scored 33. For the Kiwis, Tim Southee bowled brilliantly to finish with 2/20 in his 4 overs.

He was matched by the veteran Lasith Malinga who started with a wicket in his first over and later came back to break the Taylor-Grandhomme partnership. He finished with 2/23 and in this process became the highest wicket taker in T20 International cricket breaking the record of Shahid Afridi. New Zealand were at one stage 39 for the loss of 3 wickets but thanks to 48 from Taylor, 44 from Grandhomme, and unbeaten 25 from Daryl Mitchell completed the chase comfortably.

India A squad for the four-day matches

India announced the squads for the two four-day matches against South Africa A and included few big names to give them a good match practice before the home season against South Africa and Bangladesh.

The squads for the two matches are markedly different with Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha leading the two squads. There are seven players – Gill, Anmolpreet Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammad Siraj, Shivam Dube, K Gowtham, Vijay Shankar are part of the squad in both games. The other key names to be featured in the squad are Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Priyank Panchal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Kuldeep Yadav, and Umesh Yadav.

The two unofficial Tests will start on 10th and 17th September respectively.

Western Storm win Women’s Super League

Western Storm beat Southern Vipers to win the women’s cricket Super League final, thanks to a match-winning innings by Heather Knight and a late cameo by the Deepti Sharma.

Vipers batted first and put up a respectable 172/7 primarily thanks to Danielle Wyatt’s 73 off 42 balls with 10 fours and 2 sixes. She added 65 runs with Suzie Bates (26) for the first wicket and 69 runs with the captain Tammy Beaumont (33) in quick time. With 134/1 in 14 overs, the Vipers looked good enough to reach 200 but the Storm bowlers made a good comeback to restrict them to just 38 runs in last 6 overs picking up 6 wickets. Deepti Sharma picked up the prized scalp of Wyatt on the 1st ball of the 15th over and finished with 1/40. The most successful bowler for Storm was Anya Shrubsole with 2/26 in her 4 overs.

Western Storm lost Smriti Mandhana for a duck on the second ball of their innings and that brought Knight to the crease. She added 48 runs with Rachel Priest and 40 runs with Fran Wilson in quick time. Wilson and Sophie Luff were dismissed in quick times but with Deepti joining Knight, any hopes of a late Vipers fight back was disappeared. Knight remained unbeaten on a 53-ball 78 with 9 fours and 3 sixes. Deepti scored 39 off 22 balls with 7 fours.