Cricket news round-up – January 24: Sri Lanka take 1-0 lead against Zimbabwe

Cricket news round-up – January 24: Sri Lanka take 1-0 lead against Zimbabwe

Sri Lanka New Zealand

Sri Lanka’s record-breaking win against Zimbabwe helped them take 1-0 lead in the ongoing Test series. Australia and West Indies reached the quarter-final of the Under-19 World Cup. ICC revealed the name of the host cities for ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021.

Sri Lanka register 1-0 lead

Zimbabwe fought hard for the first four days of the Harare Test and also showed good resistance for the most part of the day five. However, the Sri Lankan bowlers toiled hard and their pace duo finally provided them a relatively easy win.

Starting the day on 30 for no loss, Zimbabwean openers faced a ferocious Suranga Lakmal who picked up three wickets in his first spell including the and number three Craig Ervine, the top scorer of the final innings. Brendon Taylor and Sean Williams stitched together to break the primary threat of Lasith Embuldeniya’s spin and added 79 runs to take the score to 120. Lakmal came back to the rescue, picked up Taylor and Williams followed soon.  There were two long partnerships involving Regis Chakabva, with Sikandar Raza and Donald Tiripano, but nothing worked in front of Lahiru Kumara’s new ball blast of 3/32. Zimbabwe were bowled out for 170.

The Sri Lankan openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Oshada Fernando chased down 14 runs in three overs to record a 10-wicket victory to take a convincing lead in the 2-match series.

Connor Sully takes Australia to quarter-final

The Australia and England Under-19 teams played one of the most exciting matches of this year’s Under-19 World Cup in a do or die contest in Group B. Finally, it was the Australians who moved to the next round with a 2-wicket victory on the last ball of the 50th over. Batting first, England Under-19 posted a challenging 252/7 in their 50 overs, thanks to Ben Charlesworth’s 82 and Dan Mousley’s unbeaten 51. For Australia, all of the bowlers took at least one wicket apiece including Connor Sully who picked up 2/39. Sully was again under the spotlight as his unbeaten 35 helped Australia Under-19 to snatch the victory from a relatively hopeless situation. Despite Mackenzie Harvey’s 65 and Lachlan Harne’s 45, they required 64 runs in 6.4 balls when Sully came to bat. His 20-ball 35 took Australia Under-19 to quarter-final.

An easy win leads West Indies to quarter-final

In the other match of Group B, West Indies continued their winning streak with an easy victory against Nigeria. Batting first, they posted 303/8 in their 50 overs based on Matthew Patrick’s 68 and Kimani Melius’ 65. In reply, the Nigerian Under-19 team’s top order was blown away by Jayden Seales who picked up four wickets by conceding only 19 runs and Nigeria were wrapped up for 57.

With wins in all three games, West Indies qualified for the next round as the group topper.

Christchurch to host ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021

ICC revealed the name of the six cities in New Zealand that would be hosting the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 early next year. The tournament will begin at Eden Park, Auckland and then travel to the top venues like Wellington, Hamilton, Tauranga, Dunedin and Christchurch. A total of 31 matches will be played between February 6 and March 7 in the spectacular tournament as the finale will be staged at Hagley Oval in Christchurch after the semi-finals in Hamilton and Tauranga.

ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup CEO Andrea Nelson said “Our goal was to ensure all 31 matches will be played at the best venues, encompassing a geographic spread that ensured as many Kiwi sports fans as possible get to engage with the tournament.”