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Laura Wolvaardt

Barmy Army Women go down by eight wickets to Falcons Women in FairBreak Invitational despite Dottin's 80*

The hard-hitting West Indian’s innings came off just 59 balls and included 12 fours and two sixes.

Dottin, alongside England captain Heather Knight (20) and South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt (17), helped Barmy Army Women get to 152-3 off their 20 overs.

The Falcons then needed only 17.3 overs to get to 156-2 thanks to 76 not out off 49 balls from captain Danni Wyatt.

Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu and West Indian Britney Cooper were the next best scorers with 41 and 32 not out, respectively.

The 2022 FairBreak Invitational is taking place in Dubai and is an ICC-sanctioned tournament. The inaugural edition of the competition organized by Cricket Hong Kong will comprise six teams that will have players from across the globe.

The first match was played on May 4 while May 9 and May 13 will be rest days. Both the semi-finals are slated to be played on May 14, while the third-place playoff and the final will be held on May 15.

There will be six teams that will be taking part in the inaugural season and there will be ninety players from 36 countries who will feature in the competition. Among these, 40 come from ICC full members and 50 from associate members.

Stafanie Taylor, Hayley Matthews, Deandra Dottin, Britney Cooper, Shemaine Campbelle, and Shamilia Connell are the West Indians participating.

Dottin's 62, 2-28, leads Supernovas to Women's T20 Challenge title with four-run victory over Velocity

The Barbadian all-rounder scored 62 (1x4, 4x6) from 44 balls while sharing in an opening stand of 73 with Priya Punia (28) and then 60 with Captain Harmanpreet Kaur (43) as Supernovas raced to 133-2 after 15 overs.

Kaur, whose 43 came from 29 balls and included one four and three sixes helped take Supernovas to 165-7 from their 20 overs.

Deepti Sharma who took Dottin’s wicket was the best of Velocity’s bowlers with 2-20 while Kate Cross (2-29) and Simran Bahadur (2-30) provided valuable support.

Needing 166 to deny Supernovas their third title, Velocity lost three wickets for 38 runs midway through the sixth over. Dottin claimed the first wicket dismissing Shafali Verma for 15 with the score on 29.  Sophie Ecclestone (2-28) then weighed in dismissing Yastika Bhatia (13) and Kiran Prabhu Navgire for a 13-ball duck.

Laura Wolvaardt helped stop the rot with an unbeaten 65 even as wickets fell with regularity around her, Alana King being the main destroyer with 3-32.

Wolvaardt found a useful partner in Bahadur and together they took the score from 117-8 in the 17th over to 161 when they ran out of balls. Dottin took the wicket of Cross for 13 as Velocity tried to rally. She finished with 2-28 from her four overs including a crucial maiden.

Dottin was also named Player of the Series scoring 100 runs and taking four wickets in the series.

Dottin's unbeaten 68 in vain as Northern Superchargers defeat Manchester Originals by seven wickets

Dottin’s 30-ball 68 that included five fours and six sixes helped MO to 160-3 from the hundred balls. Opener Lizelle Lee's 27-ball 40 and Sophie Ecclestone’s 17-ball 24 were significant contributions to what seemed like a winning score.

However, Northern Superchargers recovered from 106-3 with 24 balls remaining to snatch victory at the death thanks to a whirlwind knock from Laura Wolvaardt, who smashed an unbeaten 90 from just 49 balls.

The South African batter clubbed 13 fours and two sixes to propel her side to what seemed like an unlikely victory.

Alyssa Healy contributed 28 from 18 balls and Hollie Armitage 24 from 20 also made useful contributions.

Dottin proved a tad expensive with the ball conceding 34 runs from 19 balls.

Kate Cross 1-26 from 20 balls and Emma Lamb 1-23 from 15 were MO’s best bowlers.

Matthews among nominees for ICC Women’s Player of the Month award for April

A past winner of the award and current holder of the ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year, Matthews is another top-ranked performer to have grabbed headlines in April.

The 26-year-old skipper piled on the runs in her six outings for the West Indies, notching two brilliant ODI centuries followed by back-to-back half-centuries in the T20I contests against Pakistan.

Alongside her 451 runs in April, Matthews also flourished with the ball, taking 12 wickets; six in the ODI matches at an average of 14, and six more in the T20Is at 10.50.

Matthews’ competition for the award are South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt and Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu.

The South African opener is looking to claim her maiden Player of the Month award in what is her fourth nomination, and is a strong contender after another historic series of displays in April.

Wolvaardt started the month with a half-century in the final T20I contest against Sri Lanka before carrying her excellent form into the ODI series.

Her innings of 41 in the first match preceded an emphatic 110 not out in the second to claim a vital win, but the 25-year-old saved her best score for the last game, blasting a national record score of 184 in 147 balls only for South Africa to be outdone by the brilliance of Athapaththu.

Athapaththu, last year’s ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year, continued her dominance in the 50-over format, reclaiming the top spot in the ICC Women’s ODI Batting rankings after a stellar showing in April.

Records tumbled for the Sri Lanka skipper, thanks to a sparkling unbeaten 195 in Potchefstroom against South Africa as the tourists won in a record run chase.

258 ODI runs was complemented by 148 runs in T20Is, which included two half-centuries in South Africa, plus another against Scotland in the ongoing Women’s T20WC Qualifier in Abu Dhabi, where Sri Lanka eventually sealed their qualification thanks to semi-final success on Sunday.

No West Indian makes ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Team of the Tournament

The West Indies Women started with a seven-wicket win over Thailand before being blitzed by Pakistan and then England. Their final game against South Africa was abandoned on account of persistent showers.

But in those losses there were no individual performances of note, leaving the ICC selectors with the easy choice of leaving them out.

The selectors did have a tough time though, with five players from Australia’s victorious squad being named to the Team of the Tournament.

Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney did damage aplenty with the bat and the two reprise their roles as openers in the final XI.

They’re joined by fast bowler Megan Schutt, who took four wickets in the Final against India to finish as leading wicket-taker with 13, and left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen.

There is also a spot for captain Meg Lanning, who led Australia from the front both with the bat and in the field to guide her country to a fifth Women’s T20 World Cup title.

The side was pulled together by a selection panel featuring commentators and former international players Ian Bishop, Anjum Chopra and Lisa Sthalekar, journalist Raf Nicholson and ICC representative Holly Colvin.

 The team of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 (in batting order) is:

  1.     Alyssa Healy (wk) (Australia) – 236 runs at 39.33, seven dismissals
  2.     Beth Mooney (Australia) – 259 runs at 64.75
  3.     Nat Sciver (England) – 202 runs at 67.33
  4.     Heather Knight (England) – 193 runs at 64.33
  5.     Meg Lanning (c) (Australia) – 132 runs at 44
  6.     Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa) – 94 runs at strike rate of 149
  7.     Jess Jonassen (Australia) – 10 wickets at 14.00
  8.     Sophie Ecclestone (England) – eight wickets at 6.12
  9.     Anya Shrubsole (England) – eight wickets at 10.62
  10.     Megan Schutt (Australia) – 13 wickets at 10.30
  11.     Poonam Yadav (India) – 10 wickets at 11.9
  12.     Shafali Verma (India) – 163 runs at strike rate of 158.25

Healy and Mooney broke their own record set in 2018 with the most runs as a partnership in a Women’s T20 World Cup, with 352 at an average close to 60.

They also made their second century partnership in four innings while Healy lit up Melbourne to record the quickest 50 in a Final and the highest score in the showcase.

The latter was beaten by her partner a few overs later, with Mooney’s unbeaten 78 seeing her reach 259 runs - the most for one player at any edition of the tournament.

The Australian pair are followed in the team by another stellar duo, with nobody bettering the 169-run partnership made by Nat Sciver and Heather Knight against Thailand.

The middle-order batters were in inspired form throughout, Knight becoming the first England cricketer to register centuries in all three formats with her ton against the debutants.

Sciver’s consistency was remorseless in Australia, scoring half-centuries in three of England’s four completed matches to end her tournament with 202 runs and two wickets.

Ensconcing herself in the middle order is Lanning, who steered her country to a historic fifth Women’s T20 World Cup title and the first on home soil.

Her 49 in the semi-final against South Africa will be remembered as one of the most vital innings of the competition, while her tournament-defining captaincy sees her named skipper for this team.

Laura Wolvaardt only batted in two innings but certainly made her mark on the action.

The 20-year-old struck 53 not out to take South Africa beyond Pakistan, with a glorious array of straight and cover drives lighting up the Sydney Showground.

And she almost went one better in the semi-final against Australia, another eye-catching knock of 41 not out seeing her team finish just short of the Final.

As for the bowlers, few could match the feats of left-arm spinner Jonassen, who finished with ten scalps in her six matches.

The Australian took at least one wicket in each, with no better haul than the three for 20 against India in the Final which clinched a fifth title.

She’s joined in the XI by two record-breaking England bowlers in spinner Sophie Ecclestone and pacer Anya Shrubsole.

No bowler has taken more than Shrubsole’s 41 Women’s T20 World Cup wickets, with eight coming in her four matches Down Under.

For Ecclestone, meanwhile, the sky is the limit for a 20-year-old who has taken a wicket in her last 18 T20I matches.

A tournament tally of eight for 49 combines both wicket-taking ability and a stunning economy rate for Ecclestone, who now sits top of the MRF Tyres ICC T20I Bowling Rankings.

Coming in at ten is Schutt, with no player bettering the 13 wickets she took at a single tournament.

That all came to the perfect conclusion at the MCG for Schutt, finishing with four for 18 against an India line-up she had feared to win the Final for Australia.

Rounding off the XI is leg-spinner Poonam Yadav, who had Australia in knots in a dramatic opening game of the tournament.

India’s leading T20I wicket-taker took four for 19 in the opener and didn’t look back, bagging three against Bangladesh before rounding off with wickets in each match.

Taking her place as 12th is teenage sensation Shafali Verma – who broke record after record at the top of India’s order.

Fearless cricket had the opposition running scared of the 16-year-old, with her devastating 163 runs coming at a jaw-dropping strike rate of 158.25.