Cricket news round-up – February 3: Indians record historic series win against New Zealand

Indian team registered a historic series win after claiming the T20I series 5-0 against New Zealand. Unfortunately, the India Women failed to win their second T20 against Australia in the ongoing Tri-Nation series.

India win T20I series 5-0 against New Zealand

Indian cricket team made history as they whitewashed New Zealand 5-0 thanks to their 7-run win in the 5^th T20I at Mount Maunganui. India rested Virat Kohli as Rohit Sharma led the team and also scored a brilliant 41-ball 60 before getting retired hurt due to a cramp. KL Rahul continued his good form to score 45 off 33 balls and later had to take the captaincy responsibility in the second innings in Rohit’s absence. Shreyas Iyer’s laboured 33 helped India reach 163/3 as Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube failed again.

Indians had a great start while bowling as Martin Guptil, Colin Munro and Tim Bruce were dismissed within the 4^th over and Kiwis were struggling at 17/3. Tim Seifert continued his good form and added 99 runs with Ross Taylor which also included a 34-run over from Dube. With less than 50 runs to defend the Indian bowlers kept pressing and were eventually successful. At one stage, New Zealand lost six wickets for 25 runs as the Man-of-the-Match Jashprit Bumrah finished with 3/12 and his fast bowling partners Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur got two wickets each. Finally, it was too much for the Kiwis and despite two huge sixes by Ish Sodhi in the final over it was an easy win for the Indians led by Rahul who also got the Man-of-the-Series award for his 244 runs.

Winning T20I World Cup is the goal for team, says KL

The Man-of-the-Series and the second interim skipper for Indian cricket team said that the players do not plan much as all are aware of their individual roles. “Obviously we have the confidence, we have been doing well (in ODIs) and the recent form in the last 3-4 months has been great too. Personally, and as a team we have been performing phenomenally well. We don’t really plan much. All of us know what we need to do, all of us know what our strengths are so we try to stick to our strengths.”

KL captained his side for the first time that saw a nail-biting and record finish. Speaking about this he said, “It was a special feeling, leading your country is always the second dream – the first one’s of course to play for your country. It was unfortunate what happened to Rohit. Every day I wake up, everyday I’m thrown a new responsibility. I’m very grateful and I’m loving the challenges being thrown at me. It was great to see how we responded without our main leaders – Rohit and Virat.”

He further added, “We are all focused on winning the (T20) World Cup – that’s a common goal, and we’re trying to maximise our preparations for the World Cup.”

Australia win their second game of Women’s Tri-Nation T20 series

An all-round performance from Ellyse Perry took Australia Women to a comfortable 4-wicket win in their second match of the Tri-Nation T20 series. All three teams now won one match each and tied on two points.

India Women were sent to bat first and had a steady start as they crossed fifty in the 9^th over with losing only two wickets. Smriti Mandhana did not get many strikes but scored a 23-ball 35 with three fours and two sixes. However, once Mandhana was dismissed in the 10^th over by Jess Jonassen, India lost the plot and started losing regular wickets. Only the captain Harmanpreet Kaur scored 28 as rest of the batters could not handle the pace of Perry and Tayla Vlaeminck. Perry finished with 4/13 in her four overs, whereas Vlaeminck picked up 3/13 as India finished on 103/9 in 20 overs.

The Australian chase did not start well as they lost Alyssa Healy in the second over. Ashleigh Gardner scored a quick-fire 22 but Australia were tottering at 31/3 with her dismissal. However, Perry took the charge and scored a brilliant 49 off 47 balls with eight fours. There were wickets at the other end as Rajeshwari Gayakwad picked up 2/18 but Perry ensured that the match was in control before she was dismissed with only five runs left for the win.

Kyle Jarvis to miss Bangladesh tour for injury

Kyle Jarvis has been ruled out of Zimbabwe’s tour of Bangladesh due to a lower back injury. He sustained the injury during the first Test against Sri Lanka in Harare two weeks ago for which he had to miss the second one. The initial scan confirmed a bulging disc and further scans will be followed for detailed assessment.

Zimbabwe will play the only Test against Bangladesh scheduled to begin on February 22 in Dhaka which will be followed by three ODIs and two T20Is. In Zimbabwe’s first Test tour of Bangladesh in November 2018, Jarvis ended as the leading wicket-taker for Zimbabwe and so his presence will be missed terribly this time as well.