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• Imlach puts Harpy Eagles’ West Indies Championship success down to togetherness- “We had different players stand up at different times”

  Togetherness was the main reason for the Guyana Harpy Eagles successful defence of their West Indies Championship title according to skipper Tevin Imlach.

  The Harpy Eagles recovered from a draw and a loss in their first two games to win their final five games on their way to winning their second straight title.

  “We had different players stand up at different times which is very important,” Imlach said in an appearance on the Mason & Guest radio show on Tuesday.

  “You never want to rely on one or two players. We have a lot of depth in our batting and we have three very good spinners that would’ve played for the West Indies already in Gudakesh Motie, Veerasammy Permaul and Kevin Sinclair,” Imlach added.

  Sinclair and Imlach finished third and sixth on the top run scorers list with 508 and 485 runs, respectively.

  Sinclair made one hundred and two fifties and finished with an average of 63.50 in his seven games while Imlach, who missed the first two rounds of the tournament while on West Indies duty, made two hundreds and three fifties in his five games and finished with an average of 53.88.

  The Harpy Eagles also had two more batsmen cross the 300-run mark in Kevlon Anderson (332) and Tagenarine Chanderpaul (323). Kemol Savory narrowly missed out on joining this club after finishing with 289. Chanderpaul and Savory also both scored a century, each, this season.

  It was also a collective effort with the ball for the champions. Permaul led the way with 29 wickets in seven games followed by pacer Nial Smith who finished with 20 wickets from four matches.

  Motie and Isai Thorne followed with 19 wickets from five and six matches, respectively, while Kevin Sinclair took 13 wickets in seven games and Ronaldo Alimohamed took 12 wickets in six outings.

  This season was also Imlach’s first captaining the Harpy Eagles in the four-day format after taking over from the retired Leon Johnson who led Guyana to six regional four-day titles.

  “It was challenging,” Imlach said about filling Johnson’s shoes.

  “Big shoes to fill obviously with Leon Johnson retiring but it was good. It is much different when you play with these guys and when you’re in a leadership position because you have to be the one making the calls that they may not necessarily always like. These players want the ball in their hands at all times and want to make a difference so sometimes it is difficult. It’s a good learning experience. I’m learning about them and they’re learning about me as well,” he added.

  Imlach was also a member of the West Indies Test squad to Australia in December last year. He said that despite not getting a game, he took some things from his net sessions down under into this first-class season.

  “It was very good. It was different to what we are accustomed to in the Caribbean. The pitches are a lot bouncier and the ball tends to seam around a bit more. I didn’t manage to play in the games but I spent some time in the nets and it was good. It was fruitful. I learned a lot that I took into this season,” he said.

  Imlach's next assignment could be as part of the regional side to take on England in three Tests from July 10-30.

   

   

   

   

• West Indies trump Pakistan in thrilling final-over finish to take unassailable 3-0 lead

  A stunning death-overs implosion from Pakistan amidst more all-round heroics from Hayley Matthews helped West Indies take an unassailable 3-0 series lead over Pakistan in the T20I series at the Karachi National Stadium on Tuesday.

  Another commanding half-century from Matthews - 68 off 49 balls - guided West Indies to the series' highest total of 132 - but Pakistan were cruising at 115 for 2, spearheaded by Sidra Ameen's 63 off 58, needing 18 off the last 23 balls.

  Matthews then took two wickets in as many deliveries to kickstart a stunning collapse and Pakistan lost six wickets for 10 runs in 20 deliveries. The hosts fell apart spectacularly, with West Indies sneaking home by two runs.

  Pakistan won the toss and put West Indies in to bat. Fatima Sana struck early to remove Rashada Williams, but the hosts ran into the familiar brilliance of Matthews and couldn't find a way to stem the dazzling stroke making that followed. The best they could do was work around her, and although taking wickets was a problem, Pakistan's success in keeping one end relatively quiet ensured West Indies did not get up to the 150 mark, something Matthews said the side had been aiming for.

  Once Tuba Hassan managed the wicket of Matthews in the 16th over, the hosts wrested momentum back. Shemaine Campbelle edged one off Nida Dar to the keeper in the following over, and Pakistan ground the visitors down. The last six overs saw just 30 runs scored on a wicket that looked good enough to offer more, and at the halfway mark, Pakistan had the momentum.

  They rode on that momentum in the second innings with a blistering opening partnership dominated by Ameen. Five boundaries in the first four overs, all struck by Ameen, saw Pakistan gallop to 39, instantly reducing the target to below a run a ball. West Indies found ways to stop the bleeding, but Pakistan never really fell behind the asking rate, ensuring they had wickets in hand and never got bogged down for too long.

  A pair of tight overs from Afy Fletcher saw Ayesha Zafar hole out trying to go over long-on, but Ameen once more eased the pressure with a big 13th over, taking 11 off it and bringing up a 42-ball half-century. Pakistan appeared to have timed their push perfectly when Ameen and Dar targeted Karishma Ramharack's 16^th over, plundering 13 and bringing the equation down to 20 needed in four remaining overs, with eight wickets still in hand.

  But having not won a game all series and fallen short by narrow margins a couple of times, the psychological scarring was palpable, and it made its presence felt in a frenzied final half hour. Aaliyah Alleyne cleaned up Nida Dar in the 17th over to keep West Indies alive, but Pakistani panic properly set in when Ameen missed an expansive inside out drive and Matthews knocked back the top of off. The next ball saw Fatima Sana spoon one to short cover-point, and two more wickets fell in the following over, including a needless run out that revealed the nerves that had clouded the hosts' thoughts.

  The three overs before the final one saw just eight runs scored, meaning another 12 were required in the final one. The hosts never looked like getting there, and by the time the final ball was helped away for a boundary, the game, and the series, was already beyond Pakistan.

  West Indies women 132 for 5 (Matthews 68, Campbelle 31, Sana 2-22) beat Pakistan women 130 for 8 (Ameen 63, Fletcher 2-20, Matthews 2-22) by two runs

• Pant selected for India's T20 World Cup squad after car-crash recovery

  Rishabh Pant will hope to lead India to T20 World Cup glory after being selected in their squad, just over a year after undergoing surgery following a concerning car crash.

  Wicketkeeper-batter Pant was involved in a near-fatal car collision in northern India in December 2022 but comes back into the international fold just 16 months after the incident.

  The 26-year-old's performances in this season's Indian Premier League have secured his place in the 15-man squad, having scored 398 runs in 11 innings at a strike rate of 158.6 for the Delhi Capitals.

  Pant is one of two wicketkeepers named in the squad for the tournament starting on June 1 in the United States and West Indies, alongside Sanju Samson.

  Despite not previously featuring in a World Cup squad, Samson has impressed in the IPL after accumulating 385 runs in nine innings, striking at a rate of 161.1 for the league-leading Rajasthan Royals.

  India captain Rohit Sharma and vice-captain Hardik Pandya will lead the side in the United States and West Indies, though Pant and Samson's inclusion leaves no place for KL Rahul or Jitesh Sharma.

  Yuzvendra Chahal did not feature in either T20I squad in the recent series against South Africa and Afghanistan but was another India star included based on their IPL showings this year.

  Leg-spinner Chahal, who will be joined by Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel in the spin-bowling department, has 13 wickets at an average of 23.5 for the Royals this term.

  Jasprit Bumrah heads the pace-bowling lineup with Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh, while Hardik and Shivam Dube present all-rounder options with the ball.

  Dube offers a decisive alternative with the bat, too, having top-scored with 124 runs across three innings in the home series against Afghanistan in January.

  At the top of the order, Yashasvi Jaiswal will likely open alongside captain Rohit, with Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav providing some high-class backup lower down.

  India face Ireland in New York on June 5 to start their World Cup campaign before meeting rivals Pakistan, USA and Canada.

  India's provisional squad:

  Rohit Sharma (captain), Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.