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Homegrown batter turns down offer of contract extension at Wantage Road

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2024Emilio Gay will leave Northamptonshire at the end of the season after turning down the club’s offer of a new contract. It is understood he will sign for Durham.Gay, 24, a talented batter who came through the talent pathway at Wantage Road from the age of 15, made his first-class debut for the county in 2019 and went on to establish himself in Northamptonshire’s top order.The left-hander boasts a solid first-class record, averaging 35.71 from 47 red-ball matches, with 19 fifty-plus scores including six centuries. His form has stepped up a level in 2024, with 860 runs at 61.42 in Division Two of the County Championship – a tally boosted by a career-best 261 against Middlesex in April. Gay has also represented Northants in 39 white-ball matches.”After the most important, and memorable decade of my life, this season will be my last with Northamptonshire,” Gay said in a statement released on Thursday. “Northamptonshire enabled me to fulfil my childhood dream, to become a professional cricket player.”Thank you to everyone at NCCC. Hopefully I will make the club proud. Over the last decade at Northants there have been so many people who have helped me progress. I will never be able to thank all my team-mates, the coaches, staff and fans enough. Northants will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you.”Northamptonshire put on record that they were “naturally disappointed” to lose a homegrown they had nurtured, and wished Gay well for the next chapter of his career.John Sadler, the club’s head coach, said: “From early we always believed Emilio would become a high-class batsman. He has a great work ethic and this is one of the reasons his game has developed so rapidly over the last two years. It is a shame that Emilio’s future doesn’t lie with us, but he is very ambitious and believes a fresh challenge will be the best thing for him on his quest to play international cricket. We wish him well and will all enjoy watching his career unfold.”Durham’s acquisition of Gay, regarded as one of the most naturally gifted batters in the country, is a shrewd bit of business and would come alongside the signing of Will Rhodes, who will join from Warwickshire after turning down the offer of a contract extension.

Captain points to pivotal evening session when five wickets fell as West Indies’ quicks seized the moment

Matt Roller12-Jul-2020Jason Holder has described the fourth day of the Ageas Bowl Test as “by far the best effort” he had seen from a West Indies team during his time as captain and “one of the best” in his tenure.West Indies took five wickets at a cost of just 30 runs at the end of a long day in the field, with Holder making the vital breakthrough in dismissing his opposite number Ben Stokes for the second time in the Test before Alzarri Joseph and Man of the Match Shannon Gabriel shared four more.”It was a long hard toil and a hard-fought day for West Indies, and a day that definitely went in our favour at the back end,” Holder said. “The reason I say that it was the best day for me is down to the fact that every single time I asked for effort from those bowlers, no one said: no, I can’t, I’m too tired. They just all kept running in.ALSO READ: Blackwood writes history in his own way“At that stage when Stokesy and Zak [Crawley] were batting, the game started to look a little bit less likely for us to win. We knew we couldn’t lose – we backed ourselves not to lose – but we wanted to win the game, and we knew how important it was for us to win.”Yesterday’s effort was by far the best effort I’ve seen from this group. And not only the bowlers – the fielders kept running round, getting through the overs, and we all kept our energy up right throughout the day.”Holder said that once Stokes and Crawley had fallen within an over of each other, he sensed that “something special” was around the corner at a crucial moment in the Test.”We’ve had so many dark days in the past that we understand moments in the game that we need to seize,” he said. “If we wanted to win the game, we had to break the partnership. I was fortunate to come on and to get Stokesy out, then Alzarri got Zak caught-and-bowled and that was a very sharp chance.”When those two wickets fell, I knew we were in for something special, but it was just a case of us executing again. Then we got Jos [Buttler] and at the very end we were able to get Dom Bess who was a little bit annoying in the first innings.”West Indies have a wretched recent record in the first match of series away to major opposition, with their last win in such a fixture coming in Port Elizabeth some 13 years ago. Holder said that record, combined with the absence of England captain Joe Root, meant that he had considered a good start to the series to be “really important”.Jason Holder and John Campbell celebrate victory•AFP via Getty Images

“In the past we haven’t started series well and we’ve always had to play catch-up. England missing Root was a big miss [because] he’s a high-quality player. We thought it was an opportunity to really get into their inexperienced batting line-up.”It’s a massive, massive win. To beat England in England is no easy feat. We were able to do it last time we were here in 2017 so we all know what the feeling is like but things have changed drastically since then. They’re a massive unit in their backyard so to start the series this well is very promising for us and we feel proud about the way we performed.”This morning I woke up and I just wanted to fast-forward to the end of the day with us winning. At the start there were a few nerves… but we knew once we got a partnership the English bowlers would go flat. Credit to England, they threw a lot at us.”Holder also praised the 10 reserves on this tour, and suggested that a nets session at the Ageas Bowl before the first Test had been vital preparation. The majority of the reserves impressed in the intra-squad warm-up matches – in particular Joshua Da Silva, who made an unbeaten hundred in the second game – and Holder said they had been crucial to West Indies’ ability to hit the ground running.”I could have seen it [coming], the way we prepared. Our preparation was spot-on. Before this game we had one of the best nets session I’ve ever had, and it was led by those reserves who ran in and challenged our batters – they got them out quite a few times.”That sparked something within the group. I can’t ever forget the reserves who have come on this tour. I think a lot of credit has to be given to them for this victory, too.”

The captain says players are showing a willingness to learn in a bid to turn around their ODI fortunes

Deivarayan Muthu21-Jul-20223:21

Pooran: ‘The obvious goal is to bat 50 overs’

West Indies’ white-ball captain Nicholas Pooran has called for greater fight and game awareness from his players, irrespective of the conditions, after they were recently swept 3-0 by Bangladesh at the Providence.”As a group we felt like in international cricket 9.30 [am] games, you can’t control certain things. For us I felt the biggest learning is believe that we can fight – doesn’t matter the conditions,” Pooran said on the eve of the ODI series opener against India.”We need to assess as players really quickly and understand that if it’s difficult for us, it’s difficult for the opposition as well. For us as a batting group, we need to hang in there as long as possible in tough conditions and tough times and believe that whatever we got is respectable and gives us a chance in the game.”That’s the most we can ask of ourselves. I think Guyana was challenging for us, but we still learnt a lot being there as a group, coming from Pakistan as well, then into the Bangladesh series…the results wasn’t in our favour, but as a new group this is our challenge.”Related

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The challenge will only get stiffer against India although the visitors are missing several of their frontline players, but Pooran embraced it and lauded his team for their willingness to learn from the errors made against Bangladesh.”As I always tell the guys, no story ever starts well and it has started so for us in ODI cricket,” he said. “But I believe in the guys and believe in the talent that we have here and willingness of the guys to learn. Everyone wants to get better; everyone is asking questions. Everyone is asking how to get better and that’s something I admire from the guys so far coming from the Bangladesh series. We’re just looking forward to some things going our way because the guys have been putting in a lot of work and we’re looking forward to this India series to correct some rights and wrongs.”The forthcoming series against India is not part of the Super League, and West Indies have lurched from one defeat to another in ODI cricket of late, but Pooran insisted that they aren’t lacking any motivation to turn things around.2:14

Simmons: We need to win for the Caribbean people

“I think all the players are motivated and everyone wants to do well, which is really fantastic to see,” he said. “I don’t have to do too much to be honest. We just need to have really good conversation and believe in each other and continue to back our skills. I think the guys are gelling really well at the moment.”Pooran echoed head coach Phil Simmons’ comments in saying West Indies’ first goal in ODI cricket is to find a way to bat out 50 overs. He also wanted to hold his judgement on the batters and see how they fare on a Port-of-Spain pitch that is likely to be conducive to run-scoring.”Not only from my side but from a coaching side as well, our focus it to balance ODI cricket between T20 cricket and Test cricket,” Pooran said. “I think we haven’t found the right template yet and everyone can see that. We’re not batting 50 overs and that’s the first box we want to tick.”At the moment, when you ask me what brand of cricket we want to play in ODI cricket it’s difficult to say yet. For example, if you want to play aggressive cricket, it’s difficult to play aggressive cricket in tough conditions. So, for us, it’s all about finding ways to bat 50 overs – it doesn’t matter how we bat 50 overs – but I believe conditions do play a part in how we play our cricket.”For us, it’s ticking one box at a time and one step at a time. I believe that in T20 cricket we’re starting to know what kind of cricket we want to play; in Test cricket same thing, but the more games we play as an ODI unit I think we’re going to get better and a lot of the guys are going to have more games under their belt and they can have more experience and confidence as well. It will be nice if I can answer this question maybe after the New Zealand series, going by conditions and how guys react to certain situations as well.”Hetmyer working on fitness
Batter Shimron Hetmyer has linked up with the West Indies squad in Port-of-Spain, but Pooran made it clear that he isn’t available for selection for the ODI series. He is currently working with the coaching staff on his fitness, having missed out on West Indies’ recent squads on those grounds. Hetmyer last played international cricket for West Indies in November 2021.”Obviously, would love for him to be in this ODI series, but obviously he’s been doing a lot of work on his fitness and he has been putting in a lot of work,” Pooran said. “He wants to play for West Indies; the trainers and the coaches are working with him, so expect him to play sooner or later. I think he has a fitness test to pass shortly and so he’s preparing for that.”

Spinners Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Chahar added to India’s squad

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Feb-2021Left-arm spinner Axar Patel has been ruled out of the first India-England Test in Chennai with a knee injury. A BCCI statement said Patel, who is also handy with the bat down the order, felt “pain in his left knee during Team India’s optional training session on Thursday”, and while “detailed reports are awaited”, he will not be fit to play the first game.The BCCI added two other spin options to India’s squad in left-armer Shahbaz Nadeem and legspinner Rahul Chahar. Both bowlers had already been on stand-by and training with the team, so they will already be part of the bio-secure bubble.Related

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Nadeem brings immense experience with him. Having played 117 first-class games, he has 443 wickets in the format, 83 of which have come for India A at an average of under 30. Despite all that, he has played just the one Test though, against South Africa in Ranchi in 2019, finishing with match figures of 4 for 40.Chahar, 21, on the other hand, has only 17 first-class games to his name after debuting in the format in 2016. But he offers a legspin option and is coming off an IPL in which he showcased some fearless tactics. He finished the IPL with 15 wickets at 28.86 for Mumbai Indians. Following the IPL, in the recently concluded domestic T20s, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he claimed 11 wickets in five games for Rajasthan.While India did not name a playing XI on match eve, captain Virat Kohli did confirm Rishabh Pant will keep.

Mohammed Shami and Prasidh Krishna have been ruled out of IPL 2024

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Mar-2024Rishabh Pant has been cleared to keep wickets for Delhi Capitals at IPL 2024 by the BCCI’s fitness and medical teams. Fast bowlers Mohammed Shami and Prasidh Krishna, though, have both been ruled out of the tournament.There is, however, no update on KL Rahul, the designated Lucknow Super Giants captain. He hasn’t played since the first Test against England in January because of a quadricep tendon injury.The BCCI also said that Prasidh, who had surgery on February 23 on his left proximal quadriceps tendon, is set to begin his recovery at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. For Shami, who recently underwent surgery for a heel issue, there is no return date set. The BCCI’s medical team is monitoring his progress.Related

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The update on Pant came just a day after BCCI secretary Jay Shah had told the media that Pant was “batting well and keeping well,” and could be in contention for a place in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup in June.”If he can play the T20 World Cup for us, that will be a big thing for us. He is a big asset for us,” Shah said. “If he can keep, he can play the World Cup. Let’s see how he does in the IPL.”Pant, who last played senior cricket in December 2022, suffered a severe right knee injury that required a ligament reconstruction surgery, besides a fractured wrist and ankle in the car accident. Now with the BCCI’s green signal, Pant might return to action as early as March 23, when Delhi Capitals travel to Mohali to take on Punjab Kings in their opening fixture.In February 2024, Pant began match-simulation exercises in Bengaluru, and even played a 20-over practice game in Alur, Karnataka, under the supervision of NCA physios and trainers. At the time, Pant was understood to have experienced no discomfort while batting for the entire 20 overs, and the people monitoring him were believed to have been satisfied with his endurance levels. Pant, however, didn’t keep wickets back then, and was advised to resume that aspect of his training in March.Last month, Capitals co-owner Parth Jindal had announced Pant as the captain for IPL 2024 and said that Pant would play as a batter alone for the first half of the season. At the time, Jindal had said that “depending on how his body reacts, we will take a call for the rest of the IPL”.Mohammed Shami hasn’t played since the 2023 World Cup final•Associated Press

No return date yet for Shami and Prasidh

Shami’s complete unavailability will have come as a big blow to Gujarat Titans, who will be led by Shubman Gill after Hardik Pandya returned to Mumbai Indians. Shami picked up 28 wickets in IPL 2023 and won the purple cap for Titans as they finished runners-up to Chennai Super Kings.Shami’s last appearance was at the ODI World Cup final. Playing through pain during the tournament while taking injections to treat his ankle, Shami ended up with the most wickets at the World Cup.In January 2024, Shami had said he aimed to return for the Test series against England, but was subsequently ruled out of the entire Test series as well as the IPL following ankle surgery in February. He is also unlikely to be fit for the T20 World Cup.For Rajasthan Royals, it will be a second season without Prasidh. He missed out with injury in 2023 too. Prasidh picked up his latest injury during the Ranji Trophy season while representing Karnataka. He had played an important role in IPL 2022 for the Royals, with his 19 wickets in 17 games a key factor in the team’s run to the final that year.

Rob Key, England men’s managing director, says full squad will convene ahead of Pakistan series

Matt Roller30-Apr-20241:49

Why Hartley beat Rehan to England’s second spinner spot

The ECB has made members of England’s T20 World Cup squad unavailable for the IPL play-offs and will call them home ahead of a four-match T20I series against Pakistan which starts on May 22. As things stand, the decision is likely to affect Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals), Phil Salt (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Moeen Ali (Chennai Super Kings).Rob Key, England men’s managing director, spoke to the players selected in their provisional World Cup squad on Monday to tell them that they had been picked, and told those involved in the IPL that they will not be available for the knockout stages. The play-offs run from May 21 until May 26, clashing directly with England’s Pakistan series.The other players who are involved in both England’s World Cup squad and the IPL are: Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone (all Punjab Kings), Will Jacks and Reece Topley (both Royal Challengers Bengaluru). Both franchises have struggled this season and may need to win all of their remaining group fixtures to qualify for the play-offs.ESPNcricinfo understands that players will be expected to return to the UK on the weekend of May 18-19, which could rule them out of their respective franchises’ final group-stage fixtures. The group stage runs until May 19 and England are keen for their World Cup squad to have a few days together before their first T20I since December.Phil Salt has been in formidable form for KKR but will miss their likely play-off matches•Associated Press

“You can’t just call people back for no reasons: there are protections,” Key said on Tuesday after announcing England’s provisional squad. “Without injury or England commitments, we couldn’t say to Phil Salt, for example, come back and have a rest for the next 15 days. But there is a window just before an England series when you can bring players back for England duty or injury.”Key revealed that Buttler, who has hit two centuries for table-topping Rajasthan Royals, had instigated the decision to come home before the end of the IPL. “I asked him very early on in the piece and said, ‘Look, as England captain, you’re obviously going to have this series against Pakistan. How do you see it?’ And straightaway, he said, ‘No, no, I want to come back and start getting ready for the World Cup in that series that’s just before it.’Buttler and his wife Louise are expecting their third child next month, so he may miss the start of the Pakistan series on paternity leave regardless. “When the due date is and when the baby comes is slightly fluid,” Key said. “But whatever happens, I think you put your family first and make sure you’re at the birth of your child. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”Key told players when they left for India: “Look, there is a good chance that you’ll be coming back [early],” he said. “There is a chance you could stay out there. We may feel that if you get through to an IPL final that, maybe, that’s the best thing to do. It might be that if there’s only one of you then you’d let you go on and do that… we have to keep it pretty fluid.”Related

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But he said that England’s management decided the Pakistan series would help them to find clarity in the players’ roles ahead of their opening T20 World Cup fixture, against Scotland on June 4. “We’ve got to the point where actually, we think it’s more important that you come back and that group gets together: the likes of Phil Salt, opening the batting for England, getting that role going with Jos Buttler.”You just want them to get together and spend a bit of time and build up to it. So much of what our white-ball team has done has been turning up a couple of days before and, bang, we’re into a series, whereas I think that Pakistan series is going to be important for that, so they’ll all come back ready for that.”You want people to really start understanding what their roles are, what your best XI is going to be, and that’s what we want to make sure: when we hit Barbados, we know exactly what that is. Last time, for the [50-over] World Cup, Adil Rashid was injured in that series versus New Zealand and we probably didn’t take into account how much, when he came back, that altered the balance.”Other boards’ approach to clashes between T20I series and the IPL play-offs have varied. New Zealand fielded a second-string team in Pakistan earlier this month, while the BCB have pulled Mustafizur Rahman out of the IPL early for a series against Zimbabwe. CSA will allow their players to stay in India for the play-offs, despite a clash with a three-match series against West Indies.

Test captain happy with Australia’s consistency and ruthlessness, but wants to keep trying to improve

Andrew McGlashan in Sydney06-Jan-2020Tim Paine admitted it was hard not to think about the mouth-watering prospect of the Test series against India later this year, after a dominant home season that saw them trample all over Pakistan and New Zealand with five vast victories.The 279-run victory at the SCG, wrapped up deep into the fourth day to mean none of the five matches needed a fifth day, capped a perfect Test summer for the home side and meant a full house of World Test Championship points to put them second behind runaway leaders India, who will arrive in November for four Tests.Before then, Australia’s Test side have a tricky assignment in Bangladesh for two Tests in June and a one-off match against Afghanistan early next summer, but facing off against India over four matches – two seasons after India’s famous win in Australia – is a massive target.ALSO READ: Stats – One win in 26 years, New Zealand’s woes in AustraliaWhile playing down any element of revenge for what happened last season, when Virat Kohli led a 2-1 success, Paine is looking forward to facing India will a full complement of first-choice batsmen and with the benefit of the experience the side has had over the last 12 months.”We are certainly a different side from what they played against last year and there’s more at stake with Test Championship points,” Paine said. “If we can continue our upward trend from the last 12 months, then you are looking at two of the best sides, so it will be an awesome series. They showed last year they have a pace battery that can be every bit as threatening as ours so it will be one to watch.”If we go to Bangladesh and play well and get some wins over there, then you come back to Australia to play India, which is quite a mouth-watering series for players and the fans. It’s hard not to be looking at that. We’ve got some people who’re employed in Cricket Australia who are already looking ahead at that series.”But for the main playing group, your goal is Bangladesh and you certainly can’t take it lightly. We went there before and won a Test and lost a Test. And all the reports from the guys who went there is that it’s a really, really challenging place to play particularly the time of the year we’re going to be there.”Paine had started this summer “expecting” to win all five Tests but said that the margins of victory did not reflect how hard his team were pushed. One of the most pleasing aspects for him was learning from the previous series against India and especially the Ashes in England, where they could not always hold their nerve at vital moments.”Think at times in England when the big moments came up we tried too hard and let the emotion of the game take over us executing our skills,” he said. “It’s about doing your role, and the teams that can do that win the big moments. There were periods of the Test series against India and England that we should have capitalised on, but through wanting it too much or putting too much pressure on ourselves we let opportunities slip.”So confidence, learning and having some experienced Test players back as certainly helped.”While the India challenge looms large, there will be some interesting selection decisions to be made for the tour of Bangladesh including how many of the quick bowlers they take, the extra spin options and the potential need for an allrounder. Paine, who will move into some commentary of the Big Bash before resuming the back-end of the Sheffield Shield season with Tasmania in February, wants his team to keep striving for improvement.”The moment we don’t think we can improve, we are going to be in trouble,” he said. “We certainly all as individual players can get better. If we can all do that, two, three, five per cent, then we’ve going to be a better cricket team again. We’ve got lots of upside as a team. In terms of what we can add to it, we’ve got a lot of options we’ve picked during the summer. We think we’ve got a lot of bases covered and a lot of flexibility. I think, at the moment, we’re in a really good place. But we’ve got a lot of improvement in it.”We’re becoming a more consistent team. We’ve probably been a little more ruthless. It’s a really good sign, after we let some opportunities slip in England. And we’ve got some real match-winners and great quality throughout our side. It’s an exciting team to be a part of.”

Australia batter back in the nets less than a week after surgery, with coach Mott declaring her a chance for Thursday’s Test

Alex Malcolm23-Jan-2022Australia batter Beth Mooney has a chance to play in the women’s Ashes Test match on Thursday in Canberra despite having undergone surgery on a fractured jaw last week.Mooney missed the three T20Is in Adelaide, although two of them were washed out, after fracturing her jaw while batting in the nets last Monday. But Mooney returned to the nets on Sunday facing some throwdowns and ran some laps before rain enveloped Adelaide Oval.Australia coach Matthew Mott told that Mooney has a chance to play in the Canberra Test.”She was hitting out the back with Peter Clarke our sports psych, she’s in good nick,” Mott said. “We’ll certainly look at her for the Test match. All the indications are looking very positive. She’s been up and about. She’s a warrior. She’s tough. We can’t wait to have her back in our group. But she’s going ok.”Her team-mate Rachael Haynes said the players were stunned at Mooney’s recovery.”It’s pretty incredible, to be honest,” Haynes said. “It’s been really nice to see how much she’s progressed. Even little things over the last couple of days, the swelling around her face has gone down quite substantially and just having a bit of a chat with her and checking in and seeing how she’s been going, she’s feeling really confident.”She had a hit today in the net and also a run around and by all accounts, she’s not in any pain or anything like that. So I think it’s just about her stepping through those little markers that she needs to get through and without a doubt, she’s definitely got her eye on that Test match in Canberra.”Related

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Mooney opened in Australia’s last Test against India earlier this summer alongside Alyssa Healy but there is a squeeze for places at the top of the order with Haynes returning to the side after missing the India Test with a hamstring injury.Haynes has opened in five of her nine Test innings, however, she has only reached 30 three times in Tests and all three have come batting in the middle order – that includes scores of 98 and 87 in previous Ashes Tests at No.7 and No.5. But Haynes is preparing to bat at the top as well.”Obviously, that’s a conversation probably for Meg and Motty to have,” Haynes said. “I’ve certainly been preparing like I will bat in the top order, facing plenty of the new ball, and those sorts of things in preparation for the Test match. But as I’ve said in the past, I’m happy to bat wherever they need me to. I’ve prepared for that knowing that I could end up in the middle but I’m definitely preparing to open at this stage.”The make-up of Australia’s attack is also unknown with Megan Schutt and Jess Jonassen set to return after missing the India Test. The season-ending injury to Tayla Vlaeminck may open the door for Stella Campbell to play again after making her Test debut against India.Stella Campbell bowling on Test debut•Getty Images

Campbell was left out of Australia’s Ashes squad but is part of the Australia A squad and took 7 for 25 for NSW in a recent WNCL match against ACT at Manuka Oval.”Having watched first-hand the damage she did against ACT and just the wicket as well and [it] had a little bit more bounce and carry in it than perhaps what we’ve seen in the past,” Haynes said. “I think she’d definitely be coming into calculation. She obviously debuted earlier on in the summer as well. And I think particularly in red-ball cricket, where your ability to take wickets is, obviously, fundamental to winning Test matches. No doubt they’ll be sitting down and having a bit of a discussion on who they think the best makeup is for our side to be able to take 20 wickets because that’s ultimately what we’re going to look to do. We do want to be positive and try and win this Test match.”

Only an improbable NRR swing can deny champions an automatic return to Lord’s after 22-ball win

ECB Media25-Aug-2025Oval Invincibles all but booked their place in The Hundred Final at Lord’s next Sunday, with a crushing victory over London Spirit in a one-side Bank Holiday clash at the Kia Oval.Sam Billings’ team will be there, barring a run-rate miracle later this week, without the agonies of going through Saturday’s Eliminator, having won the toss and chosen to field against their London rivals.Their day started on the back foot, as Jamie Smith launched into a habitual powerplay onslaught. He sent the first two balls of the match from Jason Berhrendorff to the boundary, but he was then out for 28 from the 20th ball of the innings, having faced 15 of them. The game never looked quite so easy after that, the highlights being a stunning one-handed catch from Will Jacks to get rid of Surrey teammate Ollie Pope from a Sam Curran slower ball, and rapid cameos from Jamie Overton and Ryan Higgins, who exactly matched Smith’s stats despite a slow start. The two put on a tournament-high sixth wicket stand of 54.A total of 152 for 7 seemed a little below-par on a decent surface, but a first-baller for Tawanda Muyeye gave the Spirit hope. Then Jacks and Jordan Cox put on 64 in 35 balls, Jacks taking the lead with some clean striking, a 92-metre maximum over extra cover off Overton the standout moment of his 27-ball 45.Sam Curran joined Cox, so often a profitable partnership this year, and they eased their way towards their target before the Spirit’s most successful bowler, Liam Dawson, tempted Curran with a wide one that he skied to point. Cox (47 from 27), the competition’s leading run-scorer, hit Overton for six and four before he was castled trying to ramp the same bowler.But that merely brought in Donovan Ferreira who again showcased his muscular hitting, ending with 24 off 9 as the Invincibles booked their passage to the final (barring an almost impossible 200+ swing) by six wickets with 22 balls to spare.Of his catch, Meerkat Match Hero Jacks said: “We were struggling to see the ball today, so I picked it up late, pure luck!”And of the batting effort: “It felt brilliant with the bat, the wicket only got better as the lights came on and Coxy made it easy for me. We’ve been looking for that top spot, we know how important it is to get straight to the final and to be able to watch the two teams play the night before. We’ve still got things to improve on… but we’re looking forward to Sunday.”

Mignon du Preez’s half-century guided another good run chase by the Stars

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Nov-2020Suzie Bates’ tournament looked to be over with a recurrence of her shoulder injury in her comeback match as the Melbourne Stars continued their form with a fifth-consecutive victory. Bates was distraught when hurting herself attempting a throw from the boundary having made an encouraging 28 off 23 balls with the bat in her first game since damaging her shoulder against Australia early last month. Mignon du Preez’s 51-ball 61, in a second-wicket stand of 92 with Elyse Villani (46), did most of the work in the chase after a rare low score for Meg Lanning when she drove to cover in the third over. A late cluster of wickets made things a little closer, but Anna Lanning struck the winning runs with three balls to spare. Bates and Laura Wolvaardt had given the Strikers a solid foundation but they couldn’t accelerate during the middle overs. Bridget Patterson used up 16 balls for 6 and when Wolvaardt was bowled giving herself room against Tess Flintoff the innings was withering before Amanda-Jade Wellington struck 29 off 17 balls but it wasn’t enough. Nat Sciver took three wickets in the final over.Chloe Tryon played an important innings for the Hurricanes•Getty Images

The Hurricanes lifted themselves towards mid-table with a hard-fought victory against a Renegades side hit by struggling form and injuries. Their senior players came to the fore as Rachel Priest top-scored while Chloe Tryon added a vital 36 off 23 to counteract the loss of Hayley Matthews and Nicola Carey in consecutive deliveries. Molly Strano removed Tryon in the penultimate over to sit on 99 WBBL wickets, The Renegades, who lost Georgia Wareham for the rest of the season before the game, juggled their tactics with Carly Leeson promoted to open the batting but she was bowled swinging across the line second ball. Molineux and Amy Satterthwaite have both struggled with their strike-rates this season and though both were given lives the trend continued as their innings finished at under a run-a-ball. Lizelle Lee, shifted down to No. 4, kept the Renegades in the chase and when she was caught in the deep Courtney Webb and Josie Dooley kept the pressure on but 17 off the final over was a step too far against Belinda Vakarewa’s skills.