The West Indies Women are on their way home following 11 days of quarantine in Oman after the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Women’s Cricket World Cup qualification tournament in Zimbabwe was cancelled over Covid fears.
In the wake of the discovery of the new Omicron Covid variant, more severe global restrictions against travellers from a number of African countries, including Zimbabwe, forced the ICC to abandon the tournament prematurely and to send competing teams home as quickly as possible.
The West Indies squad was flown to Oman by an ICC private charter, with a short stopover in Namibia, along with eight other international squads. Oman was used as a staging area for the West Indies Women’s squad while they awaited an available route home.
“We are pleased to confirm that the West Indies Women’s squad will soon be making their way back home. We want to thank them for their patience and understanding as we worked with our counterparts at the ICC and Oman Cricket to facilitate their return at the earliest opportunity,” said CWI CEO Johnny Grave.
“We want to express our appreciation to the ICC, Oman Cricket and our operations team, who have worked tirelessly to ensure everyone was comfortable and remained safe.”
Meanwhile, Head Coach Courtney Walsh the players and coaching staff are relieved to be heading home after enduring challenging times in quarantine.
“The team is relieved by the good news that we will be home with our families before Christmas. The sudden cancellation of the Qualifiers and transition period in Oman has been mentally taxing on the entire team, both for the players and management staff,” Walsh said.
“As a management group, we tried to ensure that the players remained in a positive frame of mind. Our Strength and Conditioning Coach created a fitness challenge for all of us to participate in for the duration of the quarantine period, as it was something to take our minds off what was happening. I must say thanks to our Team Manager, the ICC and Oman Cricket, for all their logistical work, in ensuring we’re on our way home as quickly as possible.”
The players and team management are expected to arrive at their various West Indian home territories over the course of the next few days.
Following the termination of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers, ICC announced that the West Indies Women along with Pakistan Women and Bangladesh Women secured the final three qualification spots for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup by virtue of the existing ICC Women’s ODI rankings. The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup will be played in New Zealand from March 4 to April 3, 2022.
IPL: Royals downed by big-hitting Capitals
Rajasthan Royals failed to chase down the Delhi Capitals, who claimed a 20-run victory in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.
Sanju Samson struck 86 off 46 balls for the second-placed Royals, but the Capitals successfully defended their haul of 221.
Jake Fraser-McGurk's 20-ball 50 set the tone for the Capitals, who are well in the play-off hunt with two matches remaining.
Fellow opener Abishek Porel plundered 65, with Tristan Stubbs adding a useful 41 towards the end of the innings, with Ravichandran Ashwin (3-24) the only Royals bowler to do significant damage.
Kuldeep Yadav (2-25) and Mukesh Kumar (2-30) led the way with the ball for Delhi, with the latter taking the vital wicket of Samson in the 16th over, leaving the Royals with too much to do from 162-4.
Delhi have won three of their last four matches and are making a late run for the play-offs, as one of four teams tied on 12 points.
Data Debrief: Samson soars
It took Samson just 31 minutes to amass 86 runs before he was eventually dismissed, with the loss of his wicket all but ending the Royals' hopes.
In the process, he moved into third place in the IPL run-scorers chart, up from 11th, with 471 runs to his name this season. He trails only Ruturaj Gaikwad (541) and Virat Kohli (542).
Seales takes 5-29 in second innings to help Sussex complete innings and 124-run rout of Derbyshire
Jayden Seales is now the leading wicket-taker after five rounds of the County Championship Division Two after another stellar performance to help Sussex rout Derbyshire by an innings and 124 runs at the County Ground in Derby from May 3-5.
Seales took 1-54 from 14 overs in the first innings as Derbyshire were bowled out for 246 in 63.3 overs after Sussex won the toss.
Luis Reece (50), Blair Tickner (47) and Aneurin Donald (44) were the top run-scorers against 2-6 from James Coles and 2-65, each, from Ollie Robinson and Fynn Hudson-Prentice.
Cheteshwar Pujara then starred with the bat with 113 off 186 balls as Sussex piled up 479 off 109.4 overs in their first innings.
James Coles (72), Tom Alsop (64) and Tom Haines (58) provided good support for Pujara against three-wicket hauls from Daryn Dupavillon and Jack Morley.
Seales then produced an excellent spell of bowling to help restrict Derbyshire to just 109 all out in 26 overs.
He took 5-29 from his eight overs, taking his tally this season to 18 in four games. Danny Lamb also bowled well with 2-10 from four overs.
Full Scores: Derbyshire 246 off 63.3 overs (Luis Reece 50, Blair Tickner 47, Aneurin Donald 44, James Coles 2-6, Ollie Robinson 2-65, Fynn Hudson-Prentice 2-65) & 109 off 26 overs (Jayden Seales 5-29, Danny Lamb 2-10)
Sussex 479 off 109.4 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 113, James Coles 72, Tom Alsop 64, Tom Haines 58, Daryn Dupavillon 3-89, Jack Morley 3-117, Luis Reece 2-32)
IPL: Yadav century ends Mumbai's losing streak in style
Suryakumar Yadav scored an unbeaten century to lead Mumbai Indians to a seven-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League on Monday.
Yadav hit a sensational 102 not out off 51 balls with six maximums as Mumbai successfully chased a target of 174 with 16 balls to spare, lifting them off the foot of the table.
Despite a slow start to the Indians' innings in which SRH took three wickets in the first five overs, Yadav’s introduction turned things around as he put on a partnership of 143 with Tilak Varma (37 not-out).
Sunrisers had started well, with Travis Head reeling off a quick 48, but Piyush Chawla (3-33) and Hardik Pandya (3-31) limited Hyderabad to 173-8, with Anshul Kamboj claiming his maiden IPL wicket by bowling out Mayank Agarwal.
Pat Cummins finished with a flurry, knocking 35 runs from 17 balls, and the Australia captain helped SRH put the Indians on the ropes when he dismissed Rohit Sharma in the fourth over.
Yet Mumbai would lose only one more wicket as Yadav inspired them to victory that snapped a four-match losing run.
Data Debrief: Yadav star of the show
This was Yadav's first IPL hundred of the season, with his knock including 18 boundaries (12 fours, six sixes), taking him up to 334 runs so far this campaign.
He is 16th in the overall rankings, and some 108 runs behind leader Virat Kohli.
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