GROS ISLET, St Lucia (CMC) -- An unbroken 44-run partnership between Kyshona Knight and Anisa Mohammed pulled West Indies Women out of trouble and lifted them to an exciting three-wicket victory over Pakistan Women in the second One Day International here late Sunday night.
Chasing a modest target of 150 at the Beausejour Cricket Stadium, West Indies Women slumped to 106 for seven in the 34th over, with all of their front-line batsmen already dismissed.
However, Knight struck a bold 28 not out and Player-of-the-Match Anisa Mohammed an unbeaten 19, to defy pressure and a confident Pakistan Women attack, to see the Caribbean side over the line with 19 deliveries remaining.
Under pressure, Knight dug deep, facing 65 deliveries and striking a four and a six, while Mohammed occupied the crease for 42 balls and counted two fours to offer great support.
Marlon Samuels, the West Indies allrounder, has been reported for a suspect bowling action during the first Test against Sri Lanka. He will be required to undergo a testing process within 14 days, but he can continue to bowl in international cricket until the results are known.
Samuels bowled 27 overs in Sri Lanka's only innings in Galle and picked up the wicket of Dimuth Karunaratne.
This is the third time that Samuels' action has been reported, the first being back in 2008 when he was called for a suspect faster ball after the third Test against South Africa in Durban. He was later suspended from bowling in international cricket but after remedial work on his action, was permitted to bowl in September 2011.
He was once again reported at the end of the second day of the second Test against India in Mumbai in November 2013. He was subsequently allowed to bowl the offbreak delivery but not his quicker ball.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday issued a statement confirming the news.
"Samuels’ bowling action will now be scrutinised further under the ICC process relating to suspected illegal bowling actions reported in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. He is required to undergo testing within 14 days, and, during this period, Samuels is permitted to continue bowling in international cricket until the results of the testing are known," the statement said.
West Indies versus Sri Lanka’s first Test at wonderfully reconstructed Galle Stadium, one of many important Sri Lankan venues, totally devastated by that terrible tsunami on Boxing Day (December 26, 2004), which killed at least 250,000 people, one of the ‘top ten’ of all-time natural disasters, has produced a study in steely attitudes and massive recoveries akin to Lankan Tigers.
Steel, despite its widely varied usefulness, is not one of the specific “Periodic Table of Elements”, that table which is so essential to chemistry, physics and wealth, even construction. Instead, steel is a combination “alloy” of elements in that table, mostly iron (Fe – Atomic No 26) and carbon (C – Atomic No 6), with other original trace elements from that “PTE” thrown in.
Thus, steel is extremely hard, strong, and particularly tensile, with great flexibility and stretch ability, all characteristics that that wonderful allow(sic) should share with cricketers.
WEST INDIES interim coach Eldine Baptiste should endeavour to get his hands on a copy of the 1954 Wisden.
As he couldn’t contain his frustration at the five dropped catches, one missed run out and overall fielding repeatedly referred to as “sloppy” by the television commentators as Sri Lanka amassed 484 in the first Test in Galle, his first in charge, Baptiste, the suspended Phil Simmons and coaches at every level in the Caribbean should find the Wisden report on South Africa’s 1952-53 tour of Australia instructive.
It would be simplistic to expect the West Indies to emulate the South African example of more than half-century ago in every detail but there are enough similarities to make it a useful template for those responsible for contemporary West Indies teams.
The gloomy predictions that preceded the South Africans as they set out for Australia resonate with the current West Indies. There are no signs they can yet match the remarkable South African story of confounding the doubters by sharing the series 2-2 with opponents manned by basically the same players who had seen off the West Indies 4-1 a year earlier.
Rangana Herath picked up his fifth 10-wicket match haul in Tests as Sri Lanka wrapped up victory by an innings and six runs inside the second session of day four. West Indies, who began the day two down for 67, lost eight wickets on the fourth day for the addition of 160 runs, and as in the first innings, a number of their batsmen failed to capitalise on starts. Their only consolation came from Jermaine Blackwood, who added a fleet-footed 92 to a string of eye-catching recent performances that have marked him out as a definite investment for the future.
Three of Herath's five ten-fors have now come in Galle. Perhaps no one has understood this surface as well as him. Even Muttiah Muralitharan, who ended his career with a staggering 22 ten-fors, only achieved the feat four times here.
The pitch for this match was slow even by Galle's standards, and none of the other spinners from both sides found a way to remain a wicket-taking threat. By attacking the stumps relentlessly and giving the batsmen no breathing space, Herath made every ball count - every subtle variation of pace and trajectory. Batsmen were in trouble nearly every time they went forward instead of back or back instead of forward, or played for turn when there was none.
