England got off to a dominant start in the first Metro Bank ODI as they thumped Sri Lanka by seven wickets at Chester-le-Street.
It was a morning to remember for debutants Mahika Gaur and Lauren Filer as both bowlers took three wickets each, along with Sarah Glenn, while Alice Capsey picked up the other as the visitors were all out for 106.
On their return to the one-day squad, Tammy Beaumont and Emma Lamb put on a 61-run opening partnership before another debutant Maia Bouchier hit the winning runs with a mammoth 32 overs to spare.
The victory was the perfect response after England lost the T20 leg of the series on Thursday, with the next ODI taking place at Northampton on Tuesday.
Gaur got her ODI career off to a flying start by claiming her first wicket when she struck the top of Chamari Athapaththu’s off-stump in the fifth over to dismiss the influential captain before shortly sending Anushka Sanjeewani’s middle stump flying.
Sri Lanka’s troubles deepened when Glenn came into the attack in the 11th over and made an instant impact to pin Vishmi Gunaratne lbw.
Filer then struck when Hasini Perera feathered the ball through to Amy Jones behind the stumps and her debut got even better with two wickets in the 20th over to spark Sri Lanka’s collapse.
The 22-year-old had Kavisha Dilhari caught behind, with Jones making a fine grab to her right, and then dismissed Nilakshi de Silva the very next ball in a similar fashion.
Harshitha Samarawickrama looked to get Sri Lanka up to a competitive total, but she fell for 35 off Capsey after a review showed the ball just brushing her bat on the way through to Jones.
And, just after Sri Lanka had brought up their 100, Glenn had her second victim, with another thinly-edged ball well taken by Jones before bowling Achini Kulasuriya.
Gaur wrapped up the innings by getting one through the gate to bowl Udeshika Prabodhani and set England a 107-run target.
Beaumont and Lamb returned to open for England and, after a gentle start, Lamb thrashed two successive fours as the hosts began to put their foot on the gas.
Beaumont also began to pick out the boundary and took advantage when Udeshika Prabodhani came into the attack for Sri Lanka, smashing a glorious four on the off-side before firing one straight down the ground.
Lamb also found the boundary in an expensive over for Prabodhani, which brought up England’s 50 before Beaumont hit towards cover again off captain Athapaththu.
Inoka Ranaweera found the breakthrough with her first ball of the afternoon in the 11th over as Beaumont fell for 32 following a fine catch from Perera at first slip and captain Heather Knight came in, hitting a great cover drive to earn her first boundary.
Lamb fell for 27 after scooping the ball into the air for mid-off De Silva to comfortably take and Bouchier earned a promotion up the order to help England chase down the target, opening her ODI account with a boundary.
Needing eight runs to win, Dilhairi took Knight’s wicket as the England captain edged behind to Sanjeewani before Bouchier hit the winning runs with a four to seal victory.
Windies A end Nepal tour with six wicket defeat; top five-match series 3-2
West Indies A concluded their tour of South Asia on a losing note, as they were handed a six-wicket beating by Nepal in the final encounter of a five-match T20 series at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, on Saturday.
Despite the loss, the Caribbean side topped the series 3-2, but had very little to celebrate, as they failed to really put together a dominant collective display. Instead, the series win was lined with individual performances, namely from captain Roston Chase, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Alick Athanaze, as well as stellar efforts from Gudakesh Motie and Obed McCoy with the ball.
It was more of the same in the curtain call contest, where Athanaze’s unbeaten 29-ball 42 and Chase’s 33 off 23 balls, were the highlight of the West Indies A innings, which ended at 172-7, after they opted to take first strike.
Sagar Dhakal (3-17) and Sompal Kami (3-16) did the damage for Nepal with the ball.
In reply, Nepal, courtesy of half-centuries from Aasif Sheikh (51) and Anil Sah (58), easily got to their target with seven balls to spare.
McCoy led West Indies A bowlers with 3-36.
Scores: West Indies A 172-7 (20 overs); Nepal 173-4 (18.5 overs)
After losing opener Kushal Bhurtel (13) to McCoy in the second over, Nepal had very little trouble fending off West Indies A’s bowling attack, as Sheikh and Sah put together a 96-run second wicket stand, which laid the platform for the victory.
Wicketkeeper Sheikh smashed two fours and five sixes in his 35-ball knock, while Sah had four fours and four sixes in his 58 off 45 balls.
Even when that partnership was eventually broken by McCoy, who removed Sheikh in the 14th over, the host remained in firm control, and the win was inevitably wrapped up by Kushal Malla, who struck three fours and three sixes in a brisk unbeaten 18-ball 37.
Earlier, West Indies A lost their top order in the eighth over with just 60 runs on the board, as Johnson Charles (24), Kadeem Alleyne (11) and Mark Deyal (11), all failed to repel the attack of Dhakal’s slow left-arm orthodox spin.
Chase, who struck five boundaries in his 23-ball 33, and Athanaze, who had one four and three maximums, tried to repair the damage with a 40-run fourth wicket stand, before the former fell in the 14th over.
Matthew Forde, with a 12-ball cameo of 23, including three sixes, added some impetus to the innings, but when he fell to Kami, West Indies A lucked out, as the right had medium fast bowler also removed Fabian Allen (three) and Motie (one) in quick succession.
Athanaze and Hayden Walsh (seven) were left not out.
West Indies win fifth T20I by eight wickets to secure 4-1 series victory
The West Indies Women defeated hosts Pakistan by eight wickets in the fifth and final T20 International at the Karachi National Stadium on Friday to complete a 4-1 series victory.
Pakistan, after being put in to bat by the West Indies, had an excellent start to their innings with Ayesha Zafar and Sidra Ameen putting on 38 for the first wicket before Zafar fell in the fifth over for 22.
Ameen and Muneeba Ali then put on a further 46 before the latter fell for 25 in the 13th over.
That same over saw Pakistan reduced to 86-3 when Nida Dar fell for two.
What proceeded that can only be described as a collapse as the hosts then lost their next five wickets for just 35 runs in five overs.
They eventually ended their 20 overs 134-8. Ameen was the final person out for a top score of 48 as Afy Fletcher was excellent with the ball for the Windies with 3-17 from her four overs.
Qiana Joseph also bowled well with 2-26 from four overs.
The successful chase was then anchored by superstar batter Hayley Matthews.
The skipper faced 59 balls and hit 11 fours on her way to a top score of 78 as the West Indies needed just 18.2 overs to reach 136-2.
Shemaine Campbelle provided good support with 33.
Matthews was named player of the series thanks to her 205 runs and seven wickets.
Full scores: Pakistan 134-8 off 20 overs (Sidra Ameen 48, Muneeba Ali 25, Ayesha Zafar 22, Afy Fletcher 3-17, Qiana Joseph 2-26)
West Indies 136-2 off 18.2 overs (Hayley Matthews 78, Shemaine Campbelle 33)
IPL: Iyer and Starc boost Kolkata's top-two hopes after Mumbai win
Venkatesh Iyer starred with 70 for Kolkata Knight Riders before Mitchell Starc's four-wicket haul eased his side to a 24-run victory over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.
The Knight Riders only managed to post 169 at Wankhede Stadium as Iyer and Manish Pandey (42) were the only Kolkata batters to pass 15 runs on Friday.
Nuwan Thushara registered figures of 3-42 and Jasprit Bumrah picked up three wickets for just 18 runs as Kolkata limped to a target that appeared somewhat reachable for Mumbai.
Yet Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma and Naman Dhir all failed to get going in response for the Indians before Suryakumar Yadav's 35-ball 56 promised a tense ending.
However, Andre Russell forced Suryakumar to launch a full toss into the sky for a simple Phil Salt catch – with the West Indian one of three Kolkata bowlers to collect two wickets, along with Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy (both 2-22).
Suryakumer's dismissal teed up Starc's three-wicket blitz to end the innings with 4-33, moving the Knight Riders up to second in the table as Tim David's quickfire 24 proved redundant for Mumbai.
Data Debrief: Iyer the hero as Mumbai play-off hopes stunted
Having been reduced to 57-5 in the first innings, Iyer stood up with his season-best 70 off just 52 balls – including six fours and three maximums – guiding Kolkata to a commendable target.
This defeat left Mumbai ninth in the table, some six points adrift of the play-offs with just three games remaining – they may live to rue not capitalising on a promising first-innings position.
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