WBBL Mini Round Up

 

Three fixtures have played out since the last update – all with something notable to share. First off Perth’s Taneale Peschel contributed 3 wickets in yesterday’s game. Her economical figures of 3-13 will probably be the most economical three-fer the competition will see and helped restrict Hobart to 109 – a total chased down in just 14 overs.

 

Georgia Redmayne impressed in this morning’s match with the highest score of the tournament so far. Her 98* came off 67 balls and contributed to Brisbane’s 180-1 against Melbourne Renegades. Brisbane now have the top two highest scores in the tournament at 179 & 180. This bumper haul of runs puts her atop the run-scoring table with 180.

 

Hobart’s second win of the tournament in the evening game was a most convincing one as they bowled Sydney Thunder out for a mere 95 – their first innings total of 145, therefore handing them a win by 49 tuns. The largest total so far in the tournament.

 

Perth’s win puts them I second place with 2 wins from 2 whilst Hobart are now in second with 2 wins and a loss. Sydney Thunder are in dire straits with three successive losses after their humbling by Hobart today.

 

WBBL Mini-Round-Up

 

Loath as I am to write about the WBBL in a blog called ‘Cricket That maybe Only I Care About’, coverage of it has been so hard to access in the UK that I feel obliged to offer a bit of a round-up.

 

Sydney Sixers have played three times in this year’s tournament, a match more than 4 teams and 2 matches more than 3 others – however that sense of fatigue may well be diminished by the fact they’ve won them all.

 

The data is, of course, skewed by the fact that they have played more games than anyone else but the Sixers women are also clean-sweeping all categories of success. Susie Bates has got the tournament’s highest score – 82* in yesterday’s game – and Elyse Perry is the tournament’s overall top scorer with 141…because of course she is.

In terms of bowling, two players have got fourfers so far with the Sixers’ Sophie Ecclestone being the most economical with 4-17 yesterday whilst Molly Brown has 7 wickets overall making her the leading wicket-taker. 

Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-Day Tournament

 The early rounds of the Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-Day Tournament have seen all 4 games play out to a result. Thus far it is Band-e-Amir who lead the way with 2 wins from two with Speen Ghar having the most to do having lost both their opening games.

 

Bane-e-Amir are leading the way in terms of running making too with the two highest scores of the tournament so far being players that turn out for the Dragons. Karim Janat is the leading batter so far having registered no score less than 50 in his opening 3 innings. His total of 216 lead the way on the overall run scoring table.

 

For a team in the doldrums it a surprising that the best individual bowling figures come from a Speen Ghar player, but it is Noor Ahmed whose figures of 6-105 reflect the best return from a bowler – disappointingly that came against Amo who also managed to accrue the highest total of the tournament so far in the self-same innings. When you turn your eye to overall most wickets you find a Band-e-Amir player once more. Amir Hamza’s 13 wickets @ 8.53 is the best so far – however he does have that advantage of playing twice that 3 other teams have not had.

 

The tournament continues throughout October with the final on the 7^th November.

 

 

Legends League Cricket Mini Round-Up

 

This tournament ended how it started; with the newly retired players excelling. India Capitals beat Bhilwara in the final courtesy of a 41 ball 82 from Ross Taylor – who had previously scored a 39 ball 84 against the same team in the qualifier on Sunday.

Irish eyes were smiling in the tournament from first to last as Kevin O’Brien’s opening night 106 set the tone for the batters and was not beaten throughout the rest of the series. Oddly enough the only two centuries scored in the whole tournament were in that game. The overall highest run scorer was fellow Irishmen William Porterfield who scored 267 across his 7 innings

 

Nobody really wowed with the ball throughout the tournament  - potentially because the bowlers were of an older vintage than their willow-wielding brothers. Pravin Tambe nicked it t the end with 2-19 in the final to see him end with 11 wickets – 1 more than anyone else. Much like with the batters a high bar was set early in the tournament which wasn’t broken. Fidel Edwards 4-30 in the second match of the tournament could only be matched by Pune veteran Rahul Sharma in the final.

 

A fun little tournament that probably will be back next year. 

Zimbabwe's Pro 50 Tournament Update

 Two rounds of the Pro50 championship have been played in Zimbabwe with 4 of the 5 teams playing twice – whilst Mountaineers (weirdly) have not played at all.

 

Matabeleland have hit the ground running with two wins from two games with Southern Rocks in second courtesy of one massive win against the Mid West Rhinos where they chased down 276 with 27 balls remaining and 4 wickets in hand. The Southern Rocks also boast the tournament’s highest run scorer at this early stage.  Cephas Zhuwao has been the tournament’s nearly man – first falling one short of his century and then, today, falling two short of a half century. His 147 is 13 more runs than Mashonaland’s Tadiwanashe Marumani who scored a century today in his sides losing effort to Matabeleland.

 

The tournament’s best bowler is Sheunopa Musekwa whose 7 wickets for Matabeleland puts him two clear of a group of four bowlers with five wickets. The best match tally so far is Tapiwa Mufudza who got 4-26 in Mashonaland’s first round loss to Matabeleland.

 

Matches continue on Friday.

 

 

 

 

Road Safety World Series Mini-Round-Up

 Took my eyes off the prize a bit with this one but India ran out winners in the final against Sri Lanka yesterday and it was their players that dominated throughout the series also.

 

Naman Ojha scored the highest individual score of the tournament with 108* in the final and moved into first place in terms of most runs scored overall with 266 across his 6 games. Whilst India excelled with the bat it was the Sri Lankan bowlers who most caught the eye. By some distance the most effective bowler was Nuwan Kulasekara whose 13 wickets was 6 more than anyone else. On top of this, only four bowlers scored more than 3 wickets in an innings and two of them were Sri Lankans. One was Kulasekara and the other was Sanath Jayasuriya whose figures of 4-2-3-4 were the best in the tournament.

 

 

 

 

New Zealand Women's Tour of the West Indies

 Two fifths of the way through New Zealand Women's Tour of the West Indies and it is one game apiece - but I would say New Zealand have the slight edge.

After falling to a one run loss off the last ball of the first T20, New Zealand looked a little more comfortable in chasing down 107 in the second match today. Despite the fact that the run rate slowed considerably in the middle overs, it never really looked like the White Fearns were ever in danger of throwing it away. The pick of the New Zealand bowlers was Hayley Jensen who got 3-24 and limited the Windies Women to 107. The overall best bowler is also a New Zelander with Amelia Kerr's three wickets coming for the fewest runs of the three other bowlers with the same amount of scalps. The stand out performer for the West Indies is Aaliyah Alleyne whose 49 and 13 make her the highest runscorer.

The third match is tomorrow.