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Half-centuries from Hope, Solozano, Brathwaite drive Team Brathwaite to 280-4

Half-centuries from Shai Hope and Jeremy Solozano proved to be the foundation for Team Brathwaite’s first innings score of 280-4 at stumps on the first day of the second BestvBest match against Team Blackwood at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua on Monday.

Captain Kraigg Brathwaite, who opened the batting with Solozano, also scored a half-century before he retired hurt after he and Solozano had taken Team Brathwaite to 98-0 at lunch. Brathwaite faced 118 balls and struck six fours and a six but did not return to the crease after lunch.

Read more at SportsMax

Over 800 officers, SWAT teams, special forces assigned to protect Windies Women for Pakistan tour

The West Indies Women will be guarded by a massive security detail for their upcoming tour of Pakistan with the total security team engaged for the tour expected to be above 800.

The Windies Women arrived in Karachi on Monday, ahead of a three-match ODI series against the hosts.  The tour is part of a reciprocal arrangement after the regional team hosted Pakistan in the Caribbean earlier this year.

International cricket returned to Pakistan in 2019 after a near 10-year absence, following a deadly terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009.  Things have, however, not returned to normal with both New Zealand and England pulling out of tours earlier this year, with security concerns being pointed to as an underlying issue. 

Read more at SportsMax

Nkrumah Bonner: The plan was to spend time at the crease

WEST Indies batsman Nkrumah Bonner says time in the middle was his major objective as he notched a century in the drawn three-day 'Best versus Best' preparation match at Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua.

“The score was irrelevant for me — time at the crease was very important. That was one of my main goals, and obviously, I got that,” the 32-year-old Jamaican said after the patient knock in which he faced 367 deliveries.

“Over the last few weeks it's all been [training in the] nets, and obviously you want to put your skills into practice. To play a game was brilliant for me,” he said referring to the lack of competitive local cricket in Jamaica due to the Government's measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Bonner finished on an unbeaten 166 as Jermaine Blackwood's XI racked up 384-6 declared. Left-hander Raymon Reifer scored 71 as off-spinner Rahkeem Cornwall claimed 2-79.

Read more at the Jamaica Observer

Pollard suffering from thigh strain, to be assessed ahead of crucial Sri Lanka match

T20 World Cup performances embarrassing to West Indies’ selectors

Prior to the start of the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup, Cricket West Indies’ Facebook Page had labelled the West Indies team’s campaign to regain its title as the tournament’s reigning champions “Mission Maroon!” With two defeats and just one win, a highly squeaky last over three-run win over Bangladesh, the West Indies team’s Mission Maroon has for all intents and purposes become Mission Improbable, if not altogether impossible.

The first three matches played by the West Indies have also been a major source of embarrassment to its Selectors both at home and at the actual tournament itself.

Having accumulated just two points after its first three matches, the West Indies still has a mathematical chance of emerging as one of the two Group A teams that will progress to the tournament’s semi-final matches. In order to do so, the West Indies will have to win both of its remaining matches against Sri Lanka and Australia by very sizeable margins so as to ensure it has a better run rate than any of the other likely semi-final spot contenders. Sri Lanka, in its very close loss to South Africa, has indicated that it will not in any way be an easy pushover!

Read more at SportsMax