Cricket news round-up – November 10: Mixed day for West Indies teams, Injured Duminy out of MSL

Indian Women took 1-0 lead in the ongoing T20I series against West Indies. West Indies men’s team, on the other hand, won the ODI series against Afghanistan with one more match to go. JP Duminy suffered from a hamstring injury and Nic Maddinson withdrew from Australia A due to mental health.

India Women take convincing lead

India Women recorded a huge victory in the first T20 International at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in Gros Islets to take a 1-0 lead in the 3-match series.

Batting first, India posted a record opening partnership of 143 runs in 15.3 overs. Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana were in brilliant touch as Verma hit six boundaries and four maximums in her 49-ball 73 and Mandhana’s 67 included 11 fours came off just 46 balls. After the openers, the captain Harmanpreet Kaur (21 off 13) and Veda Krishnamurthy (15 off 7) took India to 185/4 in their 20 overs. The wickets were shared between Shakera Selman and Anisha Mohammed.

West Indies lost both openers in the first 13 balls of their innings. Shemaine Campbelle ended as the highest scorer with 33 but she batted with a Strike rate below a hundred. No one from the rest could score more than 15. Radha Yadav bowled brilliantly to finish with 4-1-10-2. Shikha Pandey and Poonam Yadav also picked up two wickets each as West Indies innings was ended with 101/ 9 in their 20 overs.

West Indies win series against Afghanistan

A good show from the West Indian top-order helped them score 247/9 in 50 overs. Shai Hope (43) and Evin Lewis (54) gave a good start on which Shimron Hetmyer (34) and Nicholas Pooran (67) capitalized. Although Pooran stayed almost till the end he did not get any support from his colleagues. Post Hetmyer’s dismissal West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals and only Pooran could save them from further damage. Naveen-ul-Haq finished with 3/60 in nine overs. The rest of the Afghanistan bowlers took one apiece.

Afghanistan lost their first wicket in the first over as Javed Ahmadi was caught and bowled by Sheldon Cottrell. A partnership of 53 runs followed between Rahamat Shah and Hazratullah Zazai but once Rahmat was dismissed for 33 it brought three more wickets for next 55 runs. Najibullah Zadran and Mohammad Nabi lifted the score with a partnership of 68. However, once Najibullah and Nabi were dismissed on consecutive deliveries for 56 and 32 respectively, any chance of an Afghanistan win vanished. They were eventually all out for 200 in the 46^th over and lost the match by 47 runs. Cottrell, Roston Chase, and Hayden Walsh took three wickets each to give West Indies a 2-0 series lead in the 3-match series.

Duminy out of MSL followed by hamstring injury

JP Duminy picked up a hamstring injury in the lead-up to Paarl Rocks’ season opener and will miss the 2019 Mzansi Super League (MSL)  He was diagnosed with a high-grade partial tear to his right hamstring after undergoing an MRI scan. After missing Aiden Markram for a self-inflicted injury in his hand on the tour of India this is a second blow to the Rocks.

Duminy had also missed last season’s MSL because of a hand injury. No replacement has been named in place of Duminy so far. Adrian Birrell, the coach of the team said, “We will assess our options on Monday. [We will] then decide how to best replace JP.”

Mental health deteriorates, Maddinson withdraws from Australia A

Citing mental health issues Nic Maddinson withdrew himself from the Australia A team to face Pakistan a three-day tour match in Perth. After Glenn Maxwell Maddison is the second Aussie player to step down from cricket for such reason in recent times. Western Australia batsman Cameron Bancroft will replace Maddinson in the Australia A team for the day-night game against Pakistan.

Australia A coach Graeme Hick opined, “Nic has made the right decision and we are all behind him. It is braver to speak up than to suffer in silence and I applaud Nic for having the courage to put his health first.” He further added,  “There’s a lot of pressure in the cricket environment at the moment. We wish them well, to us at CA, the players’ welfare and them getting better and doing what they need to get better is the first concern.”