Following their participation in the just-concluded FairBreak Invitational—where they were both included in the Team of the Tournament—Barbadian and West Indies duo, Deandra Dottin and Hayley Matthews will next fly to India to compete in the Women’s T20 Challenge. Dottin and Matthews are set to feature for the Supernovas and the Trailblazers, respectively.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and Deepti Sharma as captains of Supernovas, Trailblazers, and Velocity, respectively. The three teams will compete in the upcoming Women’s T20 Challenge to be played from May 23 to May 28 at Pune’s MCA stadium.
The best of Indian women’s cricket will combine with some of the leading stars from South Africa, England, West Indies, and Australia. A total of twelve international players will compete in this year’s Women’s T20 Challenge.
When the Tornadoes won the toss and elected to insert the Falcons, they had the knowledge it was a far more dangerous team than they’d come up against in the league stages, as the South African all-rounder, Marizanne Kapp had been added to the batting side’s playing XI.
Destructive Falcons opening duo, Danni Wyatt and Chamari Athapaththu were looking set to continue their onslaught on the tournament, taking the first over from Diana Baig for 12 runs. But a stunning catch from Sita Magar sent Wyatt packing the first delivery of the second over.
The Falcons were still able to take 9 runs from the over but that would be followed by a period of 7 runs from 10 deliveries leading up to the dismissal of Athapaththu. The batting side would then find themselves on the verge of an embarrassing collapse at 59/4 in the 10th over. But then, Marizanne happened.
There is great excitement among the six franchises as they prepare for the much-anticipated resumption of the West Indies Championship. The marquee regional four-day tournament will restart on Wednesday, May 18 with the third round.
The first two rounds were played in February ahead of the Apex Test Series between West Indies and England.
Barbados Pride stands at the top of the table, followed by Trinidad and Tobago Red Force. Barbados head into Round Three on 42.0 points, with the home team on with 38.6 points and the Leeward Islands Hurricanes rounding out the top three with 24.6 points.
Next on the table are Guyana Harpy Eagles on 21.4 points, followed by Windward Islands Volcanoes on 10.9 points and Jamaica Scorpions on 8.8 points.
Speaking to the media via Zoom on Friday, the six head coaches indicated that their teams have been identifying their shortcomings from the first two rounds and will be looking to improve performance.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Guyana Harpy Eagles are going into their third-round match against West Indies Championship leaders Barbados Pride next week cognizant of the tough challenge they will face but confident of doing well if the game plan is executed.
Part of that game plan, said head coach Esuan Crandon on Friday, is for batsmen to put their opponents under pressure early and build on that upper hand.
“Barbados is always a tough match-up for us. They have some really good quality players in their batting line-up and their team, so a lot of experience – a lot of guys who would have played for the West Indies and so on. So, I don’t expect any different in this game,” he said ahead of their May 18-21 match at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain.
“It is important that we are able to execute our plans really well – get an upper hand early and have a good start in that game and try to put them under some pressure.”
Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma agreed with the team’s decision to leave him out of the squad ahead of Thursday's encounter against Chennai Super Kings.
Much-like compatriot and fellow power-hitter Chris Gayle was last year, Pollard was left out of the line-up on his 35th birthday. Instead, the team opted to go with South Africa big-hitter Tristan Stubbs on debut.
"Keeping an eye on the future, Pollard is out and Stubbs is in. He (Pollard) was the one who came up to us and he was ready for it,” Rohit told Star Sport.
