A look back at today’s women’s world cup match between India and Pakistan and a photo gallery.
Yesterday’s women’s world cup match between Australia and Sri Lanka was washed away without a single ball bowled meaning that the points were shared. Today saw India taking on Pakistan in Colombo. India had won their opening match against Sri Lanka, while Pakistan had been beaten by Bangladesh.
A LOW SCORING BATTLE
Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl, perhaps reckoning that dew would make bowling more difficult in the second innings. They bowled pretty well, and no Indian managed to reach 50 (Jemima Rodrigues with 46 was top scorer). India did have other useful but not major contributions, and an explosive innings from Richa Ghosh at the death boosted them to a final score of 247. India bowled excellently, and only Sidra Amin played an innings of any substance for Pakistan. Kranti Goud, right arm medium fast, led the way for India, recording figures of 10-3-20-3. Renuka Singh Thakur, right arm medium, was economical but wicketless, ten overs for 29. Sidra Amin fought her way to 81, but was playing a lone hand. Pakistan rustled about a mere 159, going down by 88 runs. Kranti Goud was correctly named Player of the Match for a near flawless bowling performance.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
There was some seriously unpleasant weather around both on Friday and yesterday.An autumnal wall near Kettlewell Lane.The evening was a bit brighter.This one was in my kitchen the night before last.A crane fly not far from the station.The autumnal wall again.A muntjac viewed through the Lynnsport Railway tunnel.A splendid crane fly.A ‘reverse video’ ladybird – red markings on a shiny black carapace.
A look back at yesterday’s matches in the Women’s T20 World Cup – two small run chases, and two very different approaches from the two chasing sides. Also a photo gallery.
Although a test match got underway today between the Pakistan and England men’s sides in Multan, which I will be writing about in due course my focus for this post is yesterday in the Women’s T20 World Cup.
INDIA v PAKISTAN
Pakistan had won their first match of the tournament, India had lost theirs heavily. India bowled well and had moments in the field, though they were far from unblemished there – two easy catches went to ground. Pakistan messed up their batting order, with the captain coming in too late. In the end Pakistan left themselves with a mere 105 to defend. Surely this was time for India to stamp on the accelerator right from the start in an effort to undo some of the damage their shellacking by New Zealand had done to their net run rate. However they were consumed by caution, and in the end they completed the job with only seven balls to spare, which was not what they needed. Unless India can somehow beat Australia it now looks like the game between New Zealand and Pakistan will be a virtual play-off for a semi-final slot due to India’s poor net run rate.
SCOTLAND v WEST INDIES
Scotland never really got going at all, and in the end they failed even to reach 100, finishing their 20 overs with 99-8. West Indies did what India hadn’t earlier in the day and went hard at the chase. Qiana Joseph atoned for her horror innings in the previous game by scoring 31 off 18 balls, Deandra Dottin, in the second match of the second phase of her international career scored 28 not out off 15 balls, and Chinelle Henry hit 18 not out off 10 balls. West Indies needed only 11.4 overs to complete their task and had six wickets to spare. Joseph and Henry hit a six each along the way, and Dottin had two sixes, the second of which was the winning hit. West Indies with the boost to their net RR currently sit top of their group, though they will be displaced by whoever wins today’s match between England and South Africa.
A look at today’s fixture in the ODI Cricket World Cup – a small matter of India v Pakistan. Also a photo gallery – though the temperature is more October like today than it has been for the previous 12 days of the month the sun has been out, making walking pleasant.
Today’s match in the ODI Cricket World Cup is the biggest clash of the group stage – bitter rivals India and Pakistan are in opposition. These two sides rarely meet outside tournaments because of the strained relations between the two countries. This post looks at the match that is currently in progress.
PAKISTAN MAKE A GOOD START…
India won the toss and put Pakistan in to bat. Pakistan looked to be going very well for much of their innings. Both openers got going but then got out (Abdullah Shafique for 20, Imam-ul-Haq for 38). However Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan looked like setting Pakistan up for a very respectable total, pushing the score up to 155-2.
…THEN COLLAPSE
The Pakistan innings unravelled spectacularly from this point – Babar Azam was out for exactly 50, Saud Shakeel failed outright (these two falling in the space of four balls from Kuldeep Yadav, the left arm wrist spinner), then Rohit Sharma cashed in on this double strike by calling Jasprit Bumrah back into the attack at the other end. Bumrah clean bowled Rizwan for 49 and Pakistan were five down. Both the two new batters failed cheaply, one to Jadeja and one to Bumrah (Yadav had completed his 10 overs, with superb figures of 2-35), and Pakistan were suddenly 171-7. The eighth wicket pair cobbled together a stand of 16, at which point Score Predictor had Pakistan somehow mustering a final total of 237, which looked very optimistic indeed. It soon looked like a fantasy land prediction, as both batters were out with the score on 187, and with 9.5 overs to go Pakistan had numbers 10 and 11, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf batting together. They advanced the score by four runs before Rauf was pinned LBW. From 155-2 at high water mark Pakistan had surrendered their last eight wickets for just 36 runs. While the failure of the middle and lower order batters was shocking the real problems had actually happened earlier – three of the top four had topped 30, but none went on to play the sort of major innings around which a respectable total can be built. Rizwan took 69 balls to accrue his 49 runs, a rate of progress that can only be justified if you do actually bat all the way to the end of the innings AND you considerably increase your rate of scoring in the late part of the innings.
INDIA IN TOTAL CONTROL
Pakistan’s only hope after posting such a poor score themselves was to start fast with the ball, with early wickets being imperative. In the event it was India who got away to a flier, and their tempo has never slackened. Rohit Sharma followed his astute captaincy with a batting masterclass that had commentators speculating on him reaching a century before the end. That was not to be, as he was caught by Iftikhar Ahmed off Shaheen Shah Afridi for a superb 86, but as I type these words India are 161-3 after 23 overs, needing a mere 31 with 27 possible overs remaining.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Today’s photo gallery is not as large as some of mine, but I think it is good one…
While I have been preparing this for publication India have moved on to 168-3 after 26 overs – 24 needed off a possible 24 overs.
aspiblog 