SMAT | Vidarbha pacer Darshan Nalkande takes rare double hat-trick in a T20 game

SMAT | Tamil Nadu reach finals three editions in a row

Hyderabad were no match for Tamil Nadu in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy semi-finals after the latter demolished the minnows for a hefty margin of eight wickets. Bowling first in the game, Tamil Nadu’s P Saravana Kumar was too hot to handle for the Hyderabad batters and the medium-fast bowler exploited the morning conditions and moved the ball. The Hyderabad team crumbled under tremendous pressure and were reduced to 30/4 at the end of the powerplay. The misery did not end there for the batting side as the rest of the bowling unit complemented Saravana Kumar well to bundle out Hyderabad for just 90 runs in 18.3 overs. P Saravana Kumar finished with the figures of 3.3-2-21-5. Batting second in the innings, the defending champions were in no hurry to chase the total down and took their own sweet time to chase the meagre total. Captain Vijay Shankar top-scored with an unbeaten 43 off 40 balls to anchor the innings and seal the deal in 14.2 overs. The routing means that Tamil Nadu have now reached the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for the third edition in a row and face the prospect of going up against either Karnataka or Vidarbha in a game that is scheduled to take place on 22 November.

Adelaide Strikers seal final four after butchering Sydney Sixers in a 8-wicket victory

Adelaide Strikers sealed a place in the Women’s Big Bash League 2021 finals with one game remaining in the group stages of the tournament. Tahlia McGrath-led team routed the Sydney Sixers with a dominating 8-wicket victory, to sink the Sixers ship further into oblivion in their awful season. McGrath was exceptional with the ball on the night, picking up one wicket from her four overs. She finished with figures of 4-1-8-1 in their home game with Strikers wrapping the Sixers innings for just 82 runs in 19.2 overs. Sarah Coyte was the pick among the bowlers clasping three wickets from 3.2 overs along with Darcie Brown who picked up the crucial wickets of Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner to dismantle the Sixers lineup. Darcie was adjudged the man of the match for her 4-0-25-2. That kind of a score was never going to be defendable for the Sixers and a strong opening partnership of 54 runs from Dane van Niekerk and Katie Mack ensured that there were no twists to the tale. With the loss, Sydney Sixers find themselves languishing at the bottom of the table having lost eight of their 13 games. The Ellyse Perry-led team have lost five on the bounce and it does not look like they are going to get any better in their final league stage game against Perth scheduled to be hosted on 21 November. The finals of the WBBL 2021 is scheduled between 24-27 November. Along with the Strikers, Perth Scorchers, Melbourne Renegades and Brisbane Heat have qualified for the finals.

Charith Asalanka breaks into Sri Lanka Test squad on the back of tremendous T20 World Cup

Charith Asalanka has been called up for the home Test series against West Indies on the back of his T20 World Cup exploits earlier this month. Asalanka was in tremendous form for Sri Lanka in the World Cup and finished the tournament as their highest scorer. He scored 231 runs batting at #3 for the team and averaged over 46 runs per game. Apart from Asalanka, the selectors have also called upon the services of Lakshan Sandakan, a left arm wrist spinner, who was last seen playing against India in the ODI series. He will be partnering Lasith Embuldeniya, the left arm office, who terrorised England in their home series in January 2021. Embuldeniya will be returning to international cricket after the thigh injury that he sustained against West Indies in April 2021. The squad also sees the return of Dushmantha Chameera who chose to opt out from the last series. Barring Chameera, Minod Bhanuka, Chameera Karunaratne and others return to the squad as well. West Indies are scheduled to play a two match Test series in Sri Lanka starting 21 November. Sri Lanka Squad Dimuth Karunaratne (C), Oshada Fernando, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva, Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Minod Bhanuka, Roshen Silva, Ramesh Mendis, Kamil Mishara, Chamika Karunaratne, Lakshan Sandakan, Lasith Embuldeniya, Praveen Jayawickrama, Suminda Lakshan, Suranga Lakmal, Vishwa Fernando, Dushmantha Chameera, Lahiru Kumara, Asitha Fernando, Chamika Gunasekara West Indies squad Kraigg Brathwaite (C), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Roston Chase, Rahkeem Cornwall, Joshua Da Silva, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers, Veerasammy Permaul, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Jeremy Solozano, Jomel Warrican

It’s raining sixes at the Abu Dhabi T10 League

The Abu Dhabi T10 League was up to a flying start on Friday, 19 November with the teams hitting a combined total of XX sixes on the opening day of the tournament. In the inaugural game, which was played between Northern Warriors and Delhi Bulls, the latter chased down 108 runs with 6 balls remaining. There were no signs of nerves from batsmen in either team as they put the long handle to good use to hit a total of 13 sixes in the game. However, the Bulls turned out to be far superior in terms of the batting total with Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Mohammad Hafeez and Sherfane Rutherford playing exciting cameos to clinch a clinical victory. Gurbaz was the pick among the batters, having scored 30 runs off just 10 balls. Hafeez and Rutherford played crucial innings of 31 off 18 and 29 off 15 respectively but none were as explosive as their Afghan teammate. In the second game of the day, Team Abu Dhabi ripped into the bowling of Bangla Tigers with their top four batsmen scoring at the excess of 200 SR. They finished the first innings of the game at a gobsmacking 145/4 at the end of 10 overs, hitting 13 sixes in total. Chris Gayle and Paul Stirling were pick among the batters in the Abu Dhabi innings scoring 59 and 49 runs respectively. Both batsmen hit 5 sixes each in the course of their innings. Coming out to chase in the final game of the day, Tigers did not have a good time with South African speedster Marchant de Lange breathing fire in the 22 yards. The right arm pace bowler picked up 5 wickets in his registered 2 overs giving away just 23 runs. Tigers could only manage to put up 105 for the loss of 8 wickets in their 10 overs. They only managed 5 sixes in their innings, with Andre Fletcher hitting two of those sixes en route his 24 off 8 deliveries. He was clean bowled by Marchant de Lange in the second over itself.