Cricket news round-up – March 11: 2021 Women’s World Cup full schedule announced

India Legends won their second match in the Road Safety World Series. ICC announced the full schedule of the 2021 Women’s World Cup to be hosted by New Zealand.

India Legends win against Sri Lankans

India Legends continue their winning run in the Road Safety World Series as they beat Sri Lanka Legends in their second match at Dr. D Y Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai. Batting first the Lankans scored 138/8 and none of their batsmen could able to play a long innings. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chamara Kapugedera top-scored with 23 each. For India Legends, Munaf Patel was the star who took 4/19.

India Legends’ chase had a terrible start as they lost Sachin Tendulkar for a duck in the first over of Chaminda Vaas. They also lost Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh within the 5^th over and it looked like Sri Lanka Legends were on driver’s seat. However, Mohammad Kaif (46) and Sanjay Bangar (18) recovered the innings and later Irfan Pathan changed the tone with his brilliant hitting. Pathan’s 31-ball 57 ensured that India legends reached the target in the 19^th over and won the match by five wickets.

Woakes clarifies IPL withdrawal

Chris Woakes said due to his international cricket calendar he is withdrawing himself from the 13^th edition of the Indian Premier League.  Woakes was picked by Delhi Capitals for INR 1.5 crores at the 2020 IPL auction.

Woakes explained, “International cricket can be draining at the best of times because there’s so much pressure on you to perform. There’s always people knocking on the door and to stay on top of your game all year round is hard. The schedule has just got busier and busier – the only breaks you really get in international cricket are at IPL time.”

He further clarified why he does not think IPL as a good platform for him to make a comeback to the T20 side of England. “If I felt like I had real good opportunity to be in that T20 squad I’d probably still go to the IPL and try to produce some good form. (The selectors) know what I’m about and what I can do but realistically it’d probably take a few injuries for me to be in contention.”

No handshakes between India and South Africa

India are all set to take on South Africa in a three-match ODI series starting from Thursday. Both teams are likely to shaking hands as a precaution under coronavirus threat. Cricket South Africa earlier appointed an expert panel to asses the risk of traveling in this situation. After getting a nod, the board agreed to send their team to play in Dharamsala, Lucknow, Kolkata. The chief medical officer of CSA, Dr Shuaib Manjra will travel with the team.

The teams will probably exchange fist bumps instead of handshakes. Abut apart from this no specific guidelines have been given to both teams for the tour.

2021 Women’s World Cup schedule revealed

ICC revealed the schedule of the upcoming Women’s World Cup to be hosted by New Zealand in 2021. The 31-match tournament will begin with a clash between a qualifier and New Zealand on February 6, 2021, at Eden Park, Auckland.

 Six cities- Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin will host the games and the final will be organized on March 7 in  Christchurch under lights. Tauranga and Hamilton will be hosting two selmifinals on March 3 and March 4 respectively. All three knockout matches will have reserve days this time. Australia, England, South Africa, and New Zealand already qualified for the tournament as four more spots will be confirmed after the end of the Women’s Championship and the qualifying event in July.