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Beaumont, Sciver unbeaten fifties help England chase down below-par 202; Raj’s 72 not enough for India

Annesha Ghosh27-Jun-2021A combined eight wickets from Sophie Ecclestone, Anya Shrubsole, Katherine Brunt, and Kate Cross, followed by fifties from Tammy Beaumont and Natalie Sciver helped England hand India an eight-wicket thrashing in Bristol to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.Related

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Chasing 202, and their 100th ODI win at home, England surpassed the opposition’s powerplay score of 27 for 2 in just 5.1 overs, their tally in the first ten overs 61 for the loss of Lauren Winfield-Hill’s wicket. The run rate throughout the innings remained a study in contrast to India’s: 82 for 1 in 15 overs as opposed to India’s 45 for 2 and 100 in the 19th over against India’s in the 32nd. The 150 came inside 29 overs and in another six overs, the hosts overhauled the target, the winning run – tellingly for India’s lacklustre all-round performance – coming off a wide.Leading the charge in England’s pursuit was opener Beaumont, who remained unbeaten on 87. She spearheaded the chase with two fifty-plus partnerships – for the second and third wickets – worth 59 and 119 with Heather Knight and Sciver respectively. Sciver was also unbeaten, on 74.Beaumont blunted India’s three-pronged spin attack with nimble footwork down the track, powerful drives on the off side, and copious use of the sweep shot. She reached her fifty, 13th in the format, brooming an innocuous offspinning delivery from Deepti Sharma past a diving Harmanpreet Kaur at deep square. A glorious inside-out lofted drive for four was the highlight in Beaumont’s gallery of pristine strokes that featured 12 fours and a six. Her six off Kaur to level the scores off the penultimate ball of the match was equally emphatic.After Ekta Bisht provided the second breakthrough, taking the top of the off stump of Knight, who made a 30-ball 18 in what was her 50th ODI appearance as England captain, Sciver joined in the fun. India’s six-bowler attack looked far from threatening, as did their field placements and the fielding itself, and at no point did the visitors force errors off Beaumont or Sciver in a sustained manner.Having begun cautiously, Sciver upped the tempo through a gradual acceleration en route to her 15th fifty in ODIs and the 2000-run milestone in the format. Dropped on 12 by Bisht, who pipped Sneh Rana to the second spin-bowling slot in the Indian line-up, Sciver brought up the century stand with Beaumont with a glorious hit over the bowler’s head, off Kaur.Carting 10 fours and a six in her run-a-ball knock, Sciver took Bisht for the most runs – 22 off 14 – among India’s bowlers. The second free hit she swatted off seamer Shikha Pandey’s back-to-back front-foot no-balls in her fifth over was the pick of Sciver’s boundaries and it helped England near the 150-mark. Her offensive in Beaumont’s company ensured debutant Sophia Dunkley had to wait longer for her maiden ODI innings.Earlier, under overcast, windy conditions, on a fresh pitch with decent carry and movement that changed little as the match progressed, five-over opening spells in the powerplay from Brunt and Shrubsole denied India any room to make an early imprint on the proceedings. In an exemplary display of discipline and reliance on scrambled-seam variations, the fast-bowling tandem parched India of scoring opportunities after England opted to bowl.The short ball was also employed to good effect. Debutant Shafali Verma, who, at 17 years and 150 days old, became the youngest player – male or female – to represent India in all formats of the game, fell to a failed pull while backing away to a Brunt offcutting bouncer.In keeping with the overarching trend of sluggish scoring that underpinned India’s innings, No. 3 Punam Raut, too, failed to inject any urgency to their approach. First-change Sciver, who finished wicketless, conceded two fours in her second over, both to Raut’s front-foot punches. She struck a further two fours in her 61-ball 32 before her 56-run, 96-ball third-wicket stand with Mithali Raj ended with Ecclestone catching Raut off Cross at mid-off.That England didn’t introduce spin, in the form of left-arm spinner Ecclestone, who finished with 3 for 40, or legspinner Sarah Glenn until the 21st over and could hold back the second spells of their premier quicks, Brunt and Shrubsole, until well past the 30th over was a measure of the hosts’ control over the innings.Kaur was the next to depart. Attempting to guide an Ecclestone arm ball towards third man, the India vice-captain’s back-foot stroke ended up offering the slightest of edges to wicketkeeper Amy Jones.India crawled to 100 in 31.5 overs after Deepti Sharma joined Raj in the middle and reinstated the left-right combination. Shrubsole returned for her second spell in the 42nd over. Off the first ball, Raj reached her 56th ODI fifty to a loud cheer from the 1200-strong crowd with a lofted four over mid-on. A ball later, though, Sharma became England’s fifth – and Shrubsole’s second – wicket on the day, after her attempt to nudge one off the pads saw the ball ping her in front of the leg and off. India reviewed but without any success.Pooja Vastrakar’s arrival at the crease marked a shift in gears for India. Raj showed more urgency at upping the run rate thereafter, slicing past point and picking the region behind short fine for back-to-back fours off Shrubsole, who gave away 15, the most in an over up to that point, in the 44th over.An unsure attempt at dabbing the ball past the keeper in Ecclestone’s first over of her second and final spell had Raj lose the top of her off stump. An innings that had everything from her copping a blow on her forearm owing to a seeming reluctance against taking the short ball head-on to dropping anchor to allow for a rebuild, Raj’s 108-ball 72 proved pivotal in India’s pursuit of a respectable score.Had it not been for No. 7 Vastrakar’s 17-ball 15, though, India may not have even got to 200. In the end, 201 proved far from adequate to challenge the defending ODI world champions.

The batting coach suggests a small change to the opener’s mindset in the Powerplay may make a big difference

Mohammad Isam02-Mar-2020Neil McKenzie, Bangladesh’s batting coach, has said that Tamim Iqbal’s game is in need of a slight adjustment. The left-hander has not given any hint of being out of form after returning from his short hiatus from international cricket, but his anchor role has, in some quarters, been misinterpreted.In the first ODI against Zimbabwe, for example, Iqbal took 43 balls to make just 24 runs. While that suggests he is slowing down at the crease, in the end, Bangladesh got to a total of 321 for 6 which proved plenty more than enough. McKenzie, who has worked closely with all of Bangladesh’s frontline batsmen in the last two years, stressed that Iqbal is an important cog in laying the platform for a big total, but perhaps needed to hit a couple of more boundaries in the Powerplay to give himself a better strike-rate.”Tamim knows what he needs to do,” McKenzie said. “It is boiled down to the specifics. We feel he needs two more boundaries in the Powerplay. Where he is going to get it, and what he is going to do, is his approach. No one is going to bat for Tamim, he will bat for himself. I don’t see it as batting too slow or quickly.”We know how important he is for the platform. He plays good shots to quality bowling. We probably just want an extra shot or two in the Powerplay. He has that covered; we know what he can do. We saw in the BPL last year, when he got that big hundred.”McKenzie said that Iqbal is well aware of his role in the team, and doesn’t need any guidance on how to construct an innings. “He knows his gameplans. We are not school masters here. We don’t tell anybody what to learn or what to do. We give opinions, thoughts and technical advice, and then it is upto the player to implement it into his game. We are not talking about a young guy. We are talking about a senior man. Believe me, he knows it before you guys or any of us do that he has made a mistake.”Tamim puts a lot of pressure on himself. He values his wicket a lot. It is what has made him successful. Maybe it is about trying to loosen him up for one or two balls. If he can get one or two more boundaries, all you guys will get off his back.”ALSO READ: Can in-form Bangladesh look past Mashrafe retirement drama?McKenzie was also pleased with how Liton Das understood that he needed to curb his shot-making in order to bat longer periods. “We didn’t tell him to play less shots. We have given him ideas of how we want the team to play. We don’t want to take away his natural instinct as a player. It is heartening for me to think that he has gone away and thought, ‘you know what, I have to match up risk versus reward. I keep getting out for twenties and thirties, I have to put that shot away.'”You saw yesterday how many times he kept the ball on the ground, and he got a hundred. It is good for Liton.”McKenzie dispelled the idea that Bangladesh are having it too easy against Zimbabwe, and won’t be tested against this bowling attack. He said that kind of complacency is what he wants the Bangladesh players to avoid at all costs.”You have to be hungry. You have to look for the badge or country you are playing for. Whether it is Zimbabwe or Australia, it is international cricket. These guys are hungry to do well for Bangladesh. You can only play against the opponent in front of you. There’s no opponent you can take lightly,” he said.”I think as soon as you are talking in that attitude, we don’t want that in Bangladesh cricket. Whether we are facing Australians, South Africans, Zimbabweans or the Afghans, you are playing for Bangladesh, representing millions and millions of people.”

They added an unbroken 167 – the highest for the second wicket in the BBL – to power Sydney Sixers to second place

The Report by Alex Malcolm23-Jan-2019A record-breaking partnership between Josh Philippe and James Vince led the Sydney Sixers to a thumping win over BBL leaders Hobart Hurricanes at the SCG.Philippe, the 21-year-old tyro, and Vince, the wily English pro, broke all manner of records as they mowed down a target of 173 with nine wickets and 17 balls to spare.The pair came together at 1 for 6 in the first over and put on an unbroken 167 in just 16.3 overs. It was a new record partnership for Sixers franchise, the fourth highest in BBL history and the highest second-wicket stand in the eight years of the competition. Philippe, whose previous best in T20s was 30 not out, batted through the chase, making 86 not out from just 49 balls with nine fours and three sixes. Meanwhile, Vince made 74 not out, his second straight score of 70-plus.Earlier, the Hurricanes’ total of 4 for 172 looked competitive on a turning SCG track but ended up being well under par. Matthew Wade made yet another half-century and put on another half-century stand with D’Arcy Short. But they battled to get the Sixers spinners Ben Manenti and Steve O’Keefe away in the middle overs, and without a late cameo from George Bailey may well have fallen short of 170.1 for 225
Wade and Short just continued from their unbroken 158-run stand to beat the Adelaide Strikers none down. There was sharp spin in the opening over from Manenti, which meant caution was required early. But they found their groove yet again. They were simply flawless while keeping the rate above eight by targeting the pace of Tom Curran and Sean Abbott with five boundaries in the last three overs to get to 0 for 49 after six overs. It was the fifth time in 10 games they did not lose a wicket in the Powerplay. They kicked on to their ninth 50-plus partnership in the BBL, and the total partnership across the last two games reached 225 before Short holed out at deep midwicket.James Vince brought up his half-century off 36 balls•Getty Images

Better Bailey than neverWade reached fifty and was involved in some verbal niggle with Tom Curran and Moises Henriques. But while a 67-run stand between Wade and Ben McDermott appeared to be putting the Hurricanes in a powerful position, the run-rate slipped under eight as the spin of Manenti and O’Keefe proved hard to collar.Wade’s dismissal brought in Bailey, who has been arguably the most valuable player in the tournament for the role that he plays. Under pressure in the death overs he has delivered time and again. He gave himself four balls to get the pace of the wicket in the 18th and 19th overs but none were dots. In the 20thover he hit two fours and an incredible six over long-off, scooping it with the bottom hand. He scored 22 from nine balls to turn a total of 160 into 4 for 172. He now has 264 runs in the tournament at a strike-rate of 161.96. No other player in the tournament with more than 250 runs has a strike-rate higher than 145.Philippe fireworks
Philippe dominated the Powerplays in the JLT Cup 50-over competition for Western Australia in October at the top of the order. He then plundered 57 off 53 balls for the Prime Minister’s XI facing two of the world’s best fast bowlers in Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada in the Powerplay. But it took the Sydney Sixers nine games and four different openers to work out Philippe might be worth a try at the top.After scoring 17 off 11 to give the Sixers a fast start in the win over Brisbane Heat, he stepped up a gear on Wednesday. He lost his opening partner Daniel Hughes in the first over of the chase, but proceeded to smash 46 off 22 in the Powerplay to help the Sixers to 67 for 1, the equal-highest Powerplay score of the tournament. The best attack in the BBL was rendered helpless by Philippe’s fast hands and fast feet. He scored all around the ground, thumping three boundaries off the spin of Clive Rose and three off the pace of Jofra Archer in consecutive overs.Vintage Vince
Philippe cruised to his first T20 half-century off just 25 balls and allowed Vince to settle in. The pair scored at an electric rate without appearing to take too many risks. Not only did they thump 15 fours and five sixes between them, they also ran 12 twos. Vince cruised to his second successive fifty while Philippe crowned his career-best 86 not out with two extraordinary shots to finish the game – an inside out cover drive for six followed by a deft scoop over the keeper’s head.