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Peter Roebuck fell to his death from his Cape Town hotel room while being questioned by police about an alleged sexual assault, it has been reported

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Nov-2011Peter Roebuck fell to his death from his Cape Town hotel room while being questioned by police about an alleged sexual assault, it has been reported. A police statement said the circumstances surrounding Roebuck’s suicide were being investigated.Western Cape provincial police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk was quoted by Reuters as saying that “a cricket commentator committed suicide by jumping from the sixth floor of his hotel.” He died on impact.A report in the , Roebuck’s employers, said he was questioned in his room at the Southern Sun Hotel by a Cape Town detective and a uniformed police officer from the sexual crimes unit from around 9 pm.Roebuck, who the report said was agitated, asked a fellow cricket journalist for help. ”Can you come down to my room quickly? I’ve got a problem,” he said. He asked for help to find a lawyer and for contact to be made with the students he helped to house in Pietermaritzburg, near Durban.Minutes later, the reported, Roebuck fell to his death from a window. It is believed only the uniformed officer was in the room. Paramedics rushed to the hotel but Roebuck was pronounced dead.Police established a crime scene and took personal items from the room, including a laptop.Colonel Vishnu Naidoo of the South African Police Services, told ESPNcricinfo that they suspect no foul play and that it was a suicide. He said there would be an inquest, after which the SAPS would make a statement; he said he expected that to be “next month”.In 2001 Roebuck received a suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to common assault for caning three young South African cricketers he had been coaching. ”Obviously I misjudged the mood and that was my mistake and my responsibility, and I accept that,” he’d said at the time.

A round-up of the fourth day of the first round of matches in the Super League of the Ranji Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Nov-2010Sunil Sam took four wickets to cut through Assam’s middle and lower order in the second innings and set up a chase for Tamil Nadu’s batsmen, who responded by completing an outright victory with seven wickets in hand at at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Tamil Nadu needed to play urgently to force a result and had to dislodge Assam’s overnight pair of S Sriram and Tarjinder Singh early on the final day. They added 71 more runs, however, and Sriram reached a century before he was bowled for 121 by R Ashwin. The collapse began after that and Assam lost their last five batsmen for 34 runs. Tarjinder was the last man out, for 99. Sam finished with 4 for 56 as Assam were shot out for 281. Tamil Nadu needed 120 to win outright and their openers Abhinav Mukund and S Anirudha added 65. They suffered a minor hiccup, losing two batsmen on 65, but Anirudha’s 48 ensured the home side earned five points from their season opener.Having already conceded a first-innings lead, Punjab’s middle order used the final day for batting practice against Uttar Pradesh in in Meerut. The overnight batsmen, Uday Kaul and Pankaj Dharmani, went on to make 74 and 135 not out. Kaul was bowled by Piyush Chawla, ending a 130-run partnership, but Dharmani found another steady partner in Vishwas Bhalla. They added 141 for the sixth wicket, with Bhalla contributing 76. Only two wicket fell on the last day as Punjab finished on 354 for 6.Ambati Rayudu, playing his first match for Baroda, scored an unbeaten double-century which prevented Orissa from pushing for victory in Cuttack. Having already secured first-innings points, the hosts would have harboured hopes of an outright win because Baroda trailed by 122 with nine wickets in hand. Those hopes would have lifted when Connor Williams and Rakesh Solanki fell with the score on 164. Both batsmen were dismissed by Dhiraj Singh and Baroda, still trailing, had only six second-innings wickets remaining. Rayudu, however, rallied with 27 fours and three sixes in his innings of 200 off 255 balls. The game was called off soon after he reached the landmark.Mumbai might have earned three points from a first-innings lead against Saurashtra but they were the first to object to playing on such an ineffective surface at the Bandra-Kurla Complex which, they said, had robbed them of an outright victory. For more on this match, click here.A drawn Ranji Trophy match is usually an exercise in tedium, especially if a television screen close by is showing Virender Sehwag carving up slices of Motera as though it was pizza. Hundreds of kilometers away from Ahmedabad, the Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi and Bengal were engaged in a bitter tussle for the better part of a day. While the contest wasn’t gripping, it was between equals. The game was eventually and predictably drawn and it was the unfashionable Bengal team that left Delhi with bruised ego, limb and three points from their Ranji Trophy season opener. For more on this match, click here.On the final day at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi, Railways’ batsmen wiped out the deficit of 104 and took a lead in their follow-on against Gujarat before the game ended in a draw. They started the day on 54 for 1 and V Cheluvaraj and Sanjay Bangar reached half-centuries during their 94-run partnership. Wickets began to fall at regular intervals after they were separated but Railways managed to draw level with Gujarat with five wickets in hand. They finished the day on 246 for 8, 88 runs ahead.Himachal Pradesh fared better in the second innings, reaching 168 for 2, after conceding first-innings points to Haryana in their season opener in Dharmasala. Sangram Singh and Vinit Indulkar made 89 and 62 not out but they were chasing an improbable target of 360 after a steady second-innings performance from Haryana’s batsmen. The visitors had resumed on the final morning on 132 for 2. Nitin Saini missed his century, falling for 92, but Manav Sharma reached his half-century and was unbeaten on 51 when his captain, Rahul Dewan, declared on 249 for 5.

Sri Lanka have been penalised for a slow over-rate during the second Twenty20 international

Cricinfo staff14-Dec-2009Sri Lanka have been penalised for their slow over-rate during the second Twenty20 international against India in Mohali on Saturday. The ICC match referee Jeff Crowe said the team fell two overs short of its target at the end of the match after taking various stoppages into consideration.The captain Kumar Sangakkara was fined 40% of his match fee while the rest of the team was docked 20% each. As per the new ICC Code of Conduct, if Sangakkara is found guilty of two further similar over-rate offences in Twenty20 internationals over the next 12 months, he will receive a one-match suspension.Crowe said Sangakkara just escaped a much bigger penalty. “Kumar was kept informed throughout the match by the on-field umpires of where his team was with its over-rate,” Crowe said. “Under the revised code of conduct, Sri Lanka was very close to being three overs behind and charged for a Serious Over Rate Offence which would have resulted in its captain being suspended in the next two ODIs.”India won the game by six wickets and squared the two-match series.

Despite his solid performance, he was unhappy not finishing the game off

Firdose Moonda14-Jul-2025Most batters would be satisfied with top-scoring in their first international match, especially if their team went on to win the game. Rubin Hermann, who made 45 in South Africa’s winning chase of 142 against Zimbabwe, was not.”I was a bit more irritated that I left 12 runs on the table before I could actually shake hands with the guys and say I’ll pull the stumps out and end this game,” Hermann said at the post-match conference. That was effectively my role – just to be there at the end. So I was disappointed I couldn’t do that but maybe I am just nitpicking. Probably anyone would have taken that. But I want to be a guy to win games for South Africa, and I should have been there at the end.”Related

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More irritated because he was actually asked if he was disappointed that he didn’t get a half-century in his maiden outing but, as has been the theme for South Africa on this tour, the landmark didn’t matter as much as collective cause. “It’s disappointing to fall five runs short of a milestone but that’s just an added bonus,” Hermann said. “It’s not a focus of mine to maybe have personal achievements in that regard.”His words echo those of stand-in Test captain Wiaan Mulder, who last week declared South Africa’s innings closed on 626 for 5 in the second Test. He was on 367*, 34 runs away from breaking Brian Lara’s world-record as the player with the highest individual Test score. Afterwards, Mulder explained that he felt the record should be, “left to the legends,” and he stuck to that line even when he revealed that Lara himself later told him he should have gone on to better Lara’s score of 400. Mulder’s broader explanation was about putting the team’s goals before his own and that seems to be the South African way under Shukri Conrad, who has taken over all formats.Hermann said he has “fit into the environment quite easily,” and understands exactly what is expected of him. “It’s a holistic picture coming from the Proteas all the way down to domestic cricketers, which made the step up a lot better, because I knew what I did to get me here was what they’re looking for,” he said. “It’s not a situation where you have to go and impress anyone, you just have to be yourself because they’ve selected you for you and because you fit the brand they want to play.”In Hermann, who finished fifth on the overall SA20 run-scorers’ list earlier this year, where he played for the Paarl Royals, South Africa are looking for an attacking top-order player who also has the ability to rebuild an innings. Hermann found himself doing that on occasion for the Royals, especially in situations where Lhuan-dre Pretorius did not come off and once Joe Root had left the campaign. His experience in that tournament helped him when he found himself called on with South Africa 17 for 2 against Zimbabwe and in need of stabilising.”I was quite fortunately, or unfortunately possibly, in that role quite a lot in SA20, so I’m quite comfortable playing that role. I really do enjoy the pressure situations where we have to take control of the game again, and I was glad I could do it again today,” he said. “I know if I just give myself a chance, I’ll catch up with my strike rates in any game.”Hermann had 17 runs from the first 20 balls he faced, which included a four and a six, but then went on to take a hat-trick of fours off Wellington Masakadza. He had 30 from 25 balls and finished on 45 from 37 balls, a strike-rate of 121.62. By the time he was dismissed, South Africa were two shots away from victory, which speaks to the way in which he changed the complexion of the innings. Instead of seeing himself as being under scrutiny to perform, he analysed the situation as an opportunity to show what he can do.”It’s an absolute pleasure and privilege. I don’t see any tournament or any innings I play now as pressure. Obviously there’s expectation, but expectation and pressure are two different things,” he said. “There’s always expectation to perform and obviously it’s just more highlighted here. “I’ve had a longer journey than most. I’m very thankful because it built certain characteristics in my game and maybe some mental resilience that will stand me in good stead. This is the first step. I hope there’s another couple more steps to go and I can have a decently long career playing for South Africa.”At 28, Hermann has been active in the South African domestic system for the last eight years and has played for three different teams – Northerns (and the Titans), Mpumalanga and North West. He had his breakthrough season with the Paarl Royals, where he averaged 41.62 and is now among the national plans as South Africa build towards the 2026 T20 World Cup.

‘I just hope other formats outside of T20 aren’t left behind,’ says England Test and ODI opener

Valkerie Baynes05-Dec-2023Tammy Beaumont has made an impassioned plea to preserve the ODI format as a cornerstone of women’s cricket, amid the explosion of T20 franchises and a push by a handful of top-ranked nations to play more Tests.Speaking to ESPNcricinfo on the eve of England’s three-match T20I series and four-day Test against India in Mumbai – and just a fortnight after the men’s 50-over World Cup ended, igniting debate over whether the format was on the brink of extinction – Beaumont said it was crucial for the women’s game to nurture all three versions of the international game.”The more the game goes on, I think the more it’ll diversify and there’s more talent in every country, so now you can almost field very different teams depending on the format,” Beaumont told the podcast on Tuesday. “I just hope that other formats outside of T20 aren’t left behind because that’s a real issue that has happened in the men’s game.Related

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“One of the few good things about the women’s game, being quite a long way behind the men’s game still, is that we can learn from the mistakes of the men’s game. The WPL and all the franchise leagues, and the investment, and the amount of money that has come into the women’s game are absolutely amazing and some might say overdue, but also I think we need to protect where the game’s come from.”We see the men’s game talking about 50-over cricket: ‘is it even worth doing?’ Well, if only four nations are playing Test cricket in women’s cricket, then we have to protect 50-over cricket at all costs.”I think everyone would love to have loads of Test-playing nations and play big Test series but, at the moment, that’s not a reality. At the same time, if you’re just a Test match player and you play two Tests a year, you’re not playing much cricket. Hopefully we can keep and protect all formats of cricket and not just jump on the wave of T20 and leave everything else behind.”Beaumont hasn’t played a T20I in nearly two years, having lost her place following the 2022 Women’s Ashes in Australia as then-head coach Lisa Keightley plumped for a more youthful squad, ahead of England’s failed home Commonwealth Games campaign later that year.And while current head coach Jon Lewis has said the door is not shut on Beaumont’s T20I career, she remains out of that squad in India, despite setting this year’s Hundred alight with a 61-ball 118, the competition’s highest score across genders, en route to becoming the season’s second-highest run-scorer in the Women’s competition.In Danni Wyatt, Sophia Dunkley, Alice Capsey, Maia Bouchier and captain Heather Knight, England have a wealth of top-order batting options and, while Beaumont is a mainstay as ODI opener and automatic pick for the December 14-17 Test following her double-century against Australia in June, breaking back into the shortest format has proved extremely difficult.But her desire to promote the 50-over format feels less motivated by her personal circumstances than from her broader perspective as a broadcaster, having branched into that field while still playing. She regularly commentates on England Women’s internationals she is not involved in, as well as Hundred games, and has covered some England Men’s fixtures too.”If we’re going to say teams want to play Test matches, we want to push it in the women’s game, but realistically at the moment the money-maker is T20, and T20 franchise cricket in particular. You can’t go from T20 cricket to Test match cricket, it’s so different,” she added. “The only thing that is a bridge between the two is 50-over cricket.”England, Australia, India can afford to put on Test matches, that maybe people aren’t coming to yet, and invest in the marketing and put an event on for four or five days. Other cricket boards can’t afford that. A 50-over game they can do, they can invest in it and see the game grow and then, when they might be ready to take on Test cricket, players know how to potentially build an innings.”Not an innings over six hours, over two days or whatever, but a longer innings, whereas T20 is only going to go one way, where you’ve got to go at a strike-rate of 150-plus from the off. There’s definitely room for all three, and the Hundred in my opinion… but we’ve got to work with all three formats at the moment across the globe and protect all of them.”Beaumont admits, however, that Women’s internationals have posed the toughest challenge of her commentating career, not least during England’s 2-1 T20I home series defeat to Sri Lanka, after they had beaten Australia in both white-ball legs of the drawn Ashes. Then, the inevitable noise swirled around whether she should be back in the T20I side.”It’s probably the most difficult thing, but I think it’s about having quite clear principles in what I want to be as a commentator,” she said. “Sharing a dressing-room with the players, my key principle is if I wouldn’t go and say it to their face, I don’t say it on air because at the end of the day their parents are watching, their family’s watching at home, friends. Anything you do say, if it’s overly critical or overly harsh and you wouldn’t say it to their face, they’re going to find out.”I’ve said to the girls, if I do say something on air that you don’t agree with, just come and talk to me because I would never want that to jeopardise anything at all. But at the same time, I am outside the T20 squad. It only takes an absolute gun opening batter to come along and I’d probably be out of the ODI side squad as well at some point. So I’ve got to think about the future.”Not that she doesn’t harbour ambitions to return to the shortest format at international level, where she is stranded on 99 T20I caps.”That’s up to the selectors,” she said. “They’ve got a good idea of what their World Cup team might look like and you’ve just got to keep putting your hand up and churn out runs and put in match-winning performances.”At the same time, you can’t control everything. There’s so many good T20 players in England now, particularly opening the batting. Everyone’s putting their hand up to try and have a go in the powerplay. If I got an opportunity it would be amazing but at the same time, just keep going.”

Visitors lurch to 9 for 4 as rain halts play after 14 balls on third day

ECB Reporters Network22-Sep-2022Durham took one wicket at Seat Unique Riverside before rain intervened to halt their charge for victory against Sussex and take the game into the final day.On a day which only saw 14 balls delivered, Ben Raine still found time to pin Dan Ibrahim lbw for a duck before showers ended the session and eventually the day after just 10 minutes of play, Sussex adding three runs to their overnight score to be 9 for 4.The inclement weather continued to keep the players off the field when eventually the umpires called the close at 3:40pm local time, with the visitors still 288 runs behind and likely needing to bat the final day out to rescue a draw.

The selectors are expected to pick an enlarged squad with enough reserves to cater for any contingency

Nagraj Gollapudi07-May-2021The Indian squads for both the World Test Championship final and the five-Test England series are set to be picked over the weekend. It is understood that the Virat Kohli-lead Indian squad is likely to depart for England on June 2.Keeping in mind the extensive length of the tour, spanning between June and mid-September, the selectors are expected to pick an enlarged squad with enough reserves to cater for any contingency. Even the ICC recently approved increasing the squad strength from 23 to 30 (including support staff) for global events during the Covid-19 pandemic.Related

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The WTC final between India and New Zealand is scheduled to be held in Southampton between June 18 and 22. As per the existing schedule, the Test series is meant to begin only on August 4, with the first match at Trent Bridge followed by Lord’s (August 12-16), Leeds (August 25-29), The Oval (September 2-6) and Old Trafford (September 10-14).As per the previous plan, before the UK government in April put India on the red list of countries from where travellers are barred during the pandemic, the BCCI was looking at picking two separate squads with the first batch meant for the WTC final and the second batch leaving closer to the England tour.That is one of the key questions that the BCCI needs to resolve: what the players would do in the nearly four-week gap before the squad reassembles for the England Test series. In April, the ECB announced that the Indians would be arriving with an inflated squad and would play two intra-squad practice matches in July. Those two matches replaced the original warm-up schedule comprising two previously planned four-day fixtures between Indians and India A in July. The ECB, in agreement with BCCI, had postponed the India A tour due to the pandemic.The other question for the BCCI deals with players wanting to travel with their families keeping in mind the long tour. With the UK imposing a hard quarantine for all in-bound travellers from India (this applied even to the England players and support staff that returned from the IPL this week), the BCCI needs to figure whether it can get exemptions for the families. Currently, the ICC along with the ECB are speaking to the UK government to get exemptions for the players for the WTC final.Both those points are likely to feature when the BCCI’s top brass meets soon, which is even likely over the weekend once the selectors submit the final list of names for the enlarged squad. It is also likely that the BCCI might hold back announcing the squad until it has the nod from the Indian government authorities as well as the ICC and ECB on the travel exemptions and the quarantine rules.

The more condensed BBL schedule has brought new challenges for the team from the west but they won’t make excuses

Alex Malcolm16-Jan-2020Adam Voges had no idea what day it was.The Perth Scorchers coach knew he was in Perth. It was Wednesday, a game day against the Melbourne Stars. But just one game in the midst of a brutal travel and playing schedule.The Scorchers are in the middle of five games in 10 days, including two return trips across the country to Hobart and Melbourne, having already made two of longest trips in the BBL, to the Gold Coast and Geelong, in the first seven days of the new year with a home game in between.Perth is the furthest outpost in the BBL, a three-hour flight from their nearest rivals Adelaide, and they do not play consecutive games either at home or on the road until the final week of the season.After a three-game winning streak, the heavy defeat against the Melbourne Stars should come as no surprise. The Stars flew to Perth on Monday two days out from the match, on the same day the Scorchers beat the Hobart Hurricanes in Hobart. The Scorchers then endured a four-hour flight delay in Melbourne prior to the second flight on their trip home on Tuesday ahead of the game on Wednesday. The Scorchers then have to front up again at the airport on Friday to travel to play the Stars in Melbourne on Saturday before flying home to host the Sydney Thunder on Monday.ALSO READ: Stars romp home after swatting aside feeble ScorchersVoges said the playing group have just endured as best they can. “Winning helps,” he told ESPNcricinfo ahead of the Wednesday’s game against the Stars. “The boys have been playing some really good cricket which I think has taken away a little bit of the schedule. We spoke about it at the start of the tournament that particularly this period was going to be tough. We tried to plan as best we could around recovery and the flights and that sort of stuff just to make sure it was as smooth as possible.”We couldn’t, unfortunately, plan for flight delays. The guys to their credit have been brilliant, they’ve just got on with it even though we got stuck a bit yesterday but they just got on with it really well. It’s been difficult. We’re tired no doubt, but the boys have been excellent.”The Scorchers have been reluctant to be critical of the schedule, as difficult as it has been. Requests for particular home fixtures in Perth, such as Boxing Day against the Sydney Sixers, as well as the new condensed season has played its part. They knew of their predicament well in advance and planned accordingly.”We’ve got massages after most flights,” Voges said. “We give the boys game days, that’s theirs. If they want to sleep all day before the game that’s really up to them. We try and get out for a walk and a stretch after every flight and have massages for the boys and we just focus really heavily on recovery after games particularly in this heavy period.”It builds resilience as much as anything. The confidence that comes with some good performances, there’s no doubt that that’s certainly helping. It’s a credit to all the players and all the staff who have spent a lot of time trying to get this right. We had three staff members at the airport yesterday with a van ready to take the kits to Perth Stadium just to make sure it’s all ready for them when they rock up today. Just the little things like that we’ve done really well. But the resilience in the group to get up and perform the way we have has been great.”There has been no chance to train during this stretch, something that the coach thinks might be helping.”Maybe that’s a blessing in one way,” Voges said. “We’ve literally just had to prepare ourselves to get up for 40 overs. We have a day off tomorrow and that will be a full day off before we jump on the plane again. Time to get some skill work hasn’t really happened. The boys have a bit of a hit before each game. I guess their mental approach has been really important in getting themselves up for each game.”But the travel has taken its toll on a group already hit hard by injuries and absences. Ashton Turner and Ashton Agar are both away with the Australian ODI squad, while Jason Behrendorff and AJ Tye have been unavailable all year through injury. Sam Whiteman was withdrawn prior to Wednesday’s clash after his second child was born much earlier than expected. Kurtis Patterson’s ongoing quad issues meant Perth had to call up Jaron Morgan from grade cricket to make his BBL debut against the Stars.After the mass exodus of title-winning players like Michael Klinger, Shaun Marsh, and Nathan Coulter-Nile, few gave the Scorchers much chance of being competitive this season yet they still sit third on the table.”I think the guys are buying into the game plan which has been really great to see,” Voges said. “The guys at the top, they know that they’ve got a bit of freedom to take the game on and I think Josh Inglis has played exceptionally well.”I think the partnership that he’s developed with Liam Livingstone has been a really important one. They haven’t always got us off to flyers but they’ve contributed in their own way. I think Mitch Marsh has been outstanding as captain and a leader.”Just seeing the things that we’re talking about being implemented out on the field has probably been the most pleasing part.”

The veteran allrounder batted through till the end of the innings in a low-scoring innings, and bowled economically as Bangladesh played meekly in their chase

Varun Shetty14-Nov-2018Sri Lanka kept their semi-final prospects alive in Group A with a comprehensive win over Bangladesh that they would not have counted on at the halfway mark. Put into bat, they managed only 97 from their 20 overs, thanks mostly to former captain Shashikala Siriwardene’s 31. The allrounder batted until the last over of an innings that never found momentum, and returned figures of 4-0-10-2 as Asia Cup winners Bangladesh surrendered early in the chase against their regional rivals.It was Jahanara Alam who had given them a strong chance once again. The seamer managed to utilise the conditions right from the first ball, getting an outswinger to curve back at Yasoda Mendis’ toes and roll onto leg stump. This made it appear like the strategy to not open with Chamari Atapattu would not make much of a difference. But Sri Lanka chose to promote wicketkeeper Dilani Manodara to No. 3.But Alam and the spinners gave away nothing to her or to makeshift opener Hasini Perera, and the Powerplay score of 17 for 1 wasn’t wildly different from what they’d managed against South Africa two days ago. And the batting experiment looked even worse as Sri Lanka fell to 30 for 3 in nine overs, that third wicket a complete mess with Manodara and Atapattu at the same end as Bangladesh got rid of the former at the other.Atapattu and Siriwardene pushed the pace over the next two overs, but with the captain’s top edge and dismissal in the 13th over, another experiment had failed. With the big hitters all gone early, Siriwardene was left with the lower middle-order, using her experience to manoeuvre the gaps on an outfield that was still reeling under the effects of rain that has affected the entire week. She hit two fours and a six, most of which came late in her innings, and fell with two balls to go. Alam, once again, cut short any momentum Siriwardene wanted to provide, and followed it up with her third wicket to stop Sri Lanka from getting to three figures.At the toss, Sri Lanka had wanted 120, and Bangladesh had wanted to restrict them to 120; but Sri Lanka fell 23 short of their target and Bangladesh fell 25 short of that. Such was the shock from left-arm seamer Udeshika Prabodhani’s two wickets in the first over, that Bangladesh looked like they had decided not to attempt any attacking shots. It was the chase of an inexperienced side, and that was visible with the first ball. Sanjida Islam received a poor decision from umpire Jacqueline Williams, being struck well outside off stump, but Ayasha Rahman was not alive to the situation and the review was not taken.Three balls later, Fargana Hoque did review, but her 50-50 lbw decision was deemed umpire’s call, the tracker showing the ball brushing leg stump. Prabodhani continued tormenting them with inswingers, but went off in the fifth over when she dropped a return catch and seemingly split the webbing between middle and ring finger.They wouldn’t need her though. The Sri Lanka spinners took charge, using the wind to drift the ball menacingly away, lobbing it slower and slower at the batsmen. Most of them defended for the most part, two of them looked to drill it through the off side only to be caught at short extra cover, and the occasional slogs didn’t go too far on a sluggish pitch.At the halfway stage, Bangladesh hadn’t even made 30, and their lack of intent made it evident they weren’t getting anywhere close to the target. In all, they hit three boundaries, and played 75 dot balls, the kind of batting performance that fits with an early exit from a major tournament.

Stand-in captain Haynes blasts unbeaten 56-ball 89 to set Australia up, Schutt clinically dismantles England’s threat with four wickets

The Report by Daniel Brettig26-Oct-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsGetty Images

If Rachael Haynes is Australia’s temporary captain, then she has put a permanent stamp on the women’s Ashes series. A barnstorming Haynes innings pushed a target beyond England’s reach and gave the hosts two wins from two matches in Coffs Harbour.Haynes’ 89 off just 56 balls, aided by 67 from Ellyse Perry, ensured Australia neared 300 after Alyssa Healy (56) and Nicole Bolton (66) provided an excellent opening stand to set the hosts on the path to a big total.At the same time, Haynes more than vindicated the selection decision to hand her the captaincy from outside the XI in the injury-enforced absence of the team’s long-term leader Meg Lanning.Victory arrived in spite of the loss of Perry from the bowling attack in the early overs, when the allrounder twice delivered inadvertent beamers with a wet ball after a rain delay. Haynes debated the umpires’ decision with some vehemence due to the prevailing conditions, but was unable to change the verdict.Into the breach stepped Megan Schutt, who nabbed a pair of new ball lbws to set England’s chase off-balance, before returning to remove Katherine Brunt, the only Englishwoman to pass 50 on the night. Schutt’s efforts were welcome in greasy conditions that did not afford much help to the spin bowlers.Schutt had wasted little time in striking when England began their chase, pinning Lauren Whitfield, so fluent at Allan Border Field, lbw in the very first over of the innings with an inswinger. Play was held up for some time by the rain delay but no overs were lost, however the adjustment to the wet ball cost Haynes the use of Perry due to the high full tosses.The loss of Perry was offset when Schutt foumd another bending inswinger to confound Tammy Beaumont, as the required run rate quickly started to creep up. Neither Sarah Taylor nor Knight could get going with the sort of run-making pace required, leaving much in the hands of the middle order.While Brunt and Fran Wilson did their best, Schutt had overs up her sleeve that were to be used to good effect. Wilson fell first, before Brunt’s stumps were disturbed in a moment that left little more than mopping up operations for a bowling attack grateful to be defending such a tall total in Perry’s absence.The day had begun with some unwelcome news for the hosts, as the pivotal player of game one with both ball and bat, Ashleigh Gardner, was out of the match after failing a concussion test. Gardner had top-edged a Brunt delivery into her helmet and was ruled out after what were described as “mild concussion symptoms”. She is expected to be fit for game three on Sunday.Sent in to bat by Heather Knight, the Australians made a swift start but, unlike England in Brisbane, were able to make the most of the platform provided by Healy and Bolton, who were not separated until the 20th over of the innings and just two runs shy of a century opening stand.After Healy’s exit, Bolton and Perry built further momentum, keeping plenty of wickets in hand so that when Bolton’s exit was swiftly followed by that of Elyse Villani, there was still plenty of room for Australia’s middle order to go on the attack. The person to do this was Haynes, stepping up admirably as captain with an innings that sent England’s fielders scurrying all over the expanses of Coffs Harbour International Stadium.So cleanly did Haynes strike the ball that the powerful Perry was placed to some degree in the shade, but she remained in the middle until the tally had reached 250 with 27 balls remaining. A further 46 runs piled up from those last 4.3 overs, with Haynes manipulating the strike expertly to ensure she faced the majority. At the end of the innings Haynes walked off satisfied, but not quite as much as when she again left the field as a victorious captain under lights. Australia have stolen the early march.