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Australia’s bowlers almost turned the game around but New Zealand’s lower order came through

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-2021Beth Mooney believed Australia’s bowlers could close out the second T20I in Napier, but conceded the visitors had been under par with the bat on a surface where they were not able to significantly accelerate.Despite only having 129 on the board, Australia had squeezed the chase after the fall of Frankie Mackay to the extent that New Zealand needed 21 off the last two overs which they were able to achieve through Maddy Green and Hannah Rowe, the last ball being edged to fine leg.”I’d back our bowlers to defend 21 off 12, but Hannah Rowe and Maddy Green were outstanding,” Mooney said. “When you need three of the last ball, it can go anywhere.”Australia’s innings included nine fours and a six, while the home side managed 13 fours and two sixes. Mooney batted through the first innings for 61* off 54 balls, but Rachael Haynes scored 11 off her first 16 deliveries before lifting herself above a run-a-ball.Related

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Throughout the third wicket stand of 49, Ash Gardner, who struck a superb 73 off 48 balls in the first T20I in Hamilton, was sat in the dugout and eventually walked in with a just ten balls remaining, but Mooney said the team had faith in all their batters to perform in any situation.”They were tricky conditions and it was really hard to start on,” she said. “Even someone like me, I was out there the whole game and never felt I could get the ball out of the middle. New Zealand bowled really well, had some great plans so credit has to go to the way they played. Thought they were an outstanding fielding outfit today, too.”Anyone in our batting line-up can bat anywhere. Rach Haynes has done really well in the middle order for our team and been going beautifully. [We] would never question the decisions the coaching staff make because at the time it’s the right one.”You look at the top six in our team we have some of the best batters in the world so we have batters who can play any role in any situation on any given day. Whilst it might seem from the outside that we don’t try too much or change too much within our group we are really confident and supportive of each other. We were probably 10 or 15 runs short. Whether Ash came in earlier or not, who knows, but it was definitely a really hard wicket to start on considering how tight they were bowling.”The victory was more notable for New Zealand as they achieved it without captain Sophie Devine, who was ill. It meant a reshuffling of the batting order with Mackay, who was due to be left out a few hours earlier, opening the innings and then she suffered a calf injury which left her largely restricted to trying to hit boundaries.Despite not being able to secure victory in Hamilton after reducing Australia to 14 for 3, stand-in captain Amy Satterthwaite said the performance had lifted the team’s confidence after the difficult time against England.”Really proud of the way everyone stood up,” she said. “The belief in what we were doing was getting bigger and bigger, the last game probably gave us more belief than people probably realised in the way we carried ourselves. It was a step forward of where we’d been against England. Today we talked about lifting that again. Thought the fielding had been setting the tone we were outstanding again. That lifted everyone and the bowlers were all brilliant.”

The incident occurred in the 19th over of Kings XI’s Super Over thriller against Delhi Capitals on Sunday

Nagraj Gollapudi21-Sep-20203:10

IPL 2020: ‘Decorum’ v ‘Common sense’: Manjrekar and Moody discuss the short-run incident

Kings XI Punjab have lodged an appeal with match referee Javagal Srinath over what they believe was an erroneous line call in the 19th over of their match against the Delhi Capitals on Sunday night. The “short run” call cost them the game, their CEO Satish Menon has said.Umpire Nitin Menon’s call for one-run short against Chris Jordan in the penultimate over of their chase, Satish Menon believes, could “cost them a playoff spot”. He said that technological intervention could have given them the extra run and possibly a victory.”We have appealed to the match referee,” he told PTI. “While a human error can happen and we understand that, there is no room for human errors like these in a world-class tournament like the IPL. This one could cost us a playoff berth. A loss of a game is a loss of a game. It is unfair. I hope the rules are reviewed so that there is no margin for human error.”Menon also told ESPNcricinfo there shouldn’t be any errors because of the presence of technology: “Even if you give the benefit of doubt to human error, in a Twenty20 match, a crunch match, there should be nothing called an error. Because you have got technology today for everything.”However, as per the playing conditions of both the ICC and the IPL, the umpire can use the assistance of third umpire only in cases of a possible dismissal or an unclear boundary decision. So there was no way under the rules that the on-field umpire could have sought the third umpire’s inputs. The third umpire can’t get into the game without being asked for by the on-field umpires or a player using a DRS review. The only exception to this is the no-ball calls, which he used to keep an eye on in cases of dismissals before he was mandated to check every delivery for overstepping.The incident on Sunday occurred when Mayank Agarwal tapped the ball towards mid-on to comfortably complete two runs. TV replays confirmed Jordan turned for a second run only after dragging his bat inside the crease for the first run. Yet Menon, stationed at square leg, deemed it to be a run short.Eventually, Jordan was caught at square leg off the final delivery with Kings XI needing one run for victory, thereby forcing the game into a Super Over.Is technology foolproof? The incident has reignited the debate about how cricket can utilise technology better for line calls. However, technology itself is not always definitive. On Sunday there was another incident that nearly became a talking point when Paul Reiffel, the TV umpire, called the last ball of the Capitals innings, bowled by Jordan to Marcus Stoinis, a no-ball.However, ESPNcricinfo understands that the two side-on cameras monitoring the line calls for no-ball showed different results for the particluar delivery. While one camera angle showed the Kings XI bowler had stepped over the line, the other one had his foot on the line. Regardless of the conflicting pictures, it was called a no-ball, but the wider point was: for the same delivery and same foot landing, two different cameras showing two different pictures.The short run incident could be similar to the no-ball event. It is understood that in the case of the short run, the camera angle that showed Jordan turning after the first run was from the side opposite to where Nitin Menon, the square-leg umpire, was standing. While Menon is understood to have seen Jordan’s bat touching the line, the camera angle from the opposite end showed the bat crossing the line. Incidentally, the replay was shown on TV only two deliveries later.

The goal of attaining Full Member status was also laid out, but no financial disclosures were made at the AGM

Peter Della Penna22-Feb-2020USA Cricket board chairman Paraag Marathe and chief executive Iain Higgins declared their goal to host at least one major ICC global event in the next eight-year TV rights cycle, as well as a long-term objective to attain Full Member status. Both goals are part of a series of ambitious targets laid out in the inaugural USA Cricket annual general meeting on Friday night in New York.The pair also reinforced their commitment to launch a 22-team city-based “Minor League” T20 franchise tournament this summer to lay the foundation for a “Major League Cricket” T20 franchise event launch in 2021. However, USA Cricket did not disclose any specifics about city locations or the scale of the tournaments, nor did they disclose any documents communicating the board’s financial standing at the end of 2019 as part of an annual report published on the same day of the AGM.”To truly make cricket a mainstream sport in the US, we need to work together to tackle five things: to grow engagement, to increase participation, to improve the performance of national teams, to deliver financial stability, and to build trust within the entire community,” Higgins said during the AGM, which was conducted as a 35-minute listen-only conference call for members.”If we are able to grow the sport as we anticipate, if we are able to deliver on all of our strategic objectives in partnership with all of you, we all at USA Cricket – and I can also speak on behalf of the ICC and the international cricket community – we believe the future of cricket in the USA is extremely bright.”ICC officials have previously pinned major plans on expanding USA’s role in the global market and Higgins, the former chief operating officer of the ICC, backed that up on Friday night with the pursuit of hosting an ICC tournament. He also reaffirmed that USA Cricket will support the inclusion of cricket for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which he believes would contribute towards a major transformation for the awareness and engagement of the sport in the USA.”At one end of the spectrum, we ultimately hope of course that USA Cricket, both men and women, can achieve Full Member status and can have regular cricket against Full Members, regular participation in ICC global events,” Higgins said. “At the other end of the spectrum, we’re hoping to see huge growth and rapid growth in the levels of engagement with cricket in schools and in community programs up and down the country.”Along the way we are also pursuing the exciting prospect of staging an ICC global event, if not more than one global event in the next eight-year ICC commercial rights cycle. We’re working with our friends in the international cricketing community now about how we best position ourselves to hopefully stage ICC global events in the future. Of course, we are hoping to seek the inclusion of cricket in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 which we think will have an incredibly catalytic effect on the growth of cricket in this country.”In the last 20 years there have been multiple aborted efforts to launch a franchise T20 competition in the USA, beginning with ProCricket’s lone season in 2004 and followed by a failed partnership between New Zealand Cricket and USA Cricket Association in 2010. But Marathe, who doubles as executive vice president for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, said he believed the launch of USA’s own franchise T20 cricket tournament – starting with the Minor League T20 later this summer – will be a turning point in American cricket history.”The reason why we’re excited about this is because we really have an opportunity to make history together, both with Major League Cricket and ACE, and within USA Cricket and all of you guys with our USA Cricket membership,” Marathe said. “We always knew there is a latent fanbase within the US for cricket. You can see by virtue of the appetite for global cricket there already is here. Here we are the largest media market in the world without a league of our own.”So this is really neat for us to be able to do this partnership, to build this league and really build something that outlasts any of our lifetimes. Something that we look back on this 50 years from now or 100 years from now and people think about, ‘How did the USA become such a dominant global force in cricket?'”The pair were the only two to speak during the AGM. Aside from a passing mention in the annual report about a “dropoff in membership numbers,” there was no discussion for how USA Cricket plans to arrest the major decline in members from 2018 to 2019. After having approximately 5500 members registered and eligible to vote in 2018, just 725 renewed for this past year, an 87% decline. There was also no financial disclosure made during the meeting, other than to confirm that USA Cricket had spent money in the summer of 2019 to professionally contract numerous players as well as hire more technical support staff with funding provided through their commercial partnership with ACE.

After three washouts and two losses, Durban Heat are on a roll, having won their third successive game

Firdose Moonda04-Dec-2019After three washouts and two losses in their first five games, Durban Heat have reeled off three successive wins, the latest coming in a high-scoring chase on Wednesday. This keeps them alive in the playoff race; they currently have 18 points in eight games, one behind third-placed Tshwane Spartans.Nelson Mandela Bay Giants’ record of the highest successful chase of the tournament barely lasted 24 hours as Heat eclipsed them in a 196 chase with seven balls to spare. While the season’s wait for a centurion continues, Alex Hales added to a string of quality 90-plus scores. He made 97 not out of 55 balls.Delport finally comes good Cameron Delport put on middling performances in his first seven matches. But in his eighth, he showed why he is such a sought-after player on the Global T20 circuit. His authoritative 84 off 49 balls included dismantling of two current South African bowlers and one former international. Delport took 15 runs off Kyle Abbott’s first over, including three fours. He sent Andile Phehlukwayo onto the roof of the stand at deep midwicket and dispatched Keshav Maharaj behind square on both sides to set up Paarl Rocks for an imposing total.Faf sustains momentumSo far, Faf du Plessis had only threatened to come good in the tournament. On Wednesday, he actually did by scoring his first half-century of the season at a strike rate of 183.33 despite initially playing second fiddle to Delport. After his dismissal, however, du Plessis was severe on Abbott, plundering 18 runs off his third over to remind the selectors and administrators of his abilities in the shortest format. It was a statement of sorts, given he was left out of the T20I squad that played in India, which also cast doubts over his future in the format. Performances like these will keep those who matter interested as South Africa look to build to the T20 World Cup next year.Look England, its Alex It wasn’t just du Plessis who was looking to catch the attention of the selectors. Hales, who last played for England in March, is also eyeing a comeback. The unbeaten 97 was his first significant score of the season, and it came at the right time. He went particularly hard at Hardus Viljoen’s short balls and struck four consecutive fours off his second over that went for 17. This kept the Heat on track at 53 for 1 in six overs. Yet, at the halfway mark, they needed 110 of the back 10. Hales held his shape and shellacked 61 from the next five to leave them needing just 49 in the final five. Hales remained unbeaten and saw them home.Shamsi calling Tabraiz Shamsi’s two wickets in this match put him joint-second on the wicket charts, alongside Imran Tahir and Junior Dala. He picked up two wickets in this match. The first came when Wihan Lubbe was caught in the deep while the second was the strike of David Miller, who was caught behind while attempting a cut. Miller’s wicket after he’d made a 22-ball 40. It was one of the key moments in the game.

Gareth Harte’s maiden first-class century has put Durham in line for an improbable victory over Derbyshire in their Specsavers County Championship Division Two match

ECB Reporters Network11-Jun-2018
ScorecardGareth Harte’s maiden first-class century has put Durham in line for an improbable victory over Derbyshire in their Specsavers County Championship Division Two match at Emirates Riverside.The home side looked down and out in the contest at 159 for 7 and a lead of only 50 at the start of day three, after losing Cameron Steel in the second over. However, Harte battled with the tail to guide Durham to a total of 376, leaving Derbyshire 268 to win the match.Matt Salisbury and Chris Rushworth took quick wickets to leave the visitors four down, although Ben Slater remains at the crease giving Derbyshire hope of one final momentum swing to turn the match back in their favour on the final day, when they will need another 199 for victory.The home side began the day in dire need of a special innings, holding a lead of only 46 with four wickets remaining, but Steel lasted only three more balls as he edged behind. Durham would have been fearful of a collapse, but Rimmington held firm alongside Harte at the crease.Harte and Rimmington had a to deal with a hostile spell of bowling from Duanne Olivier and Hardus Viljoen, which resulted in Harte receiving a blow to the head. However, he held his composure at the crease, while the accuracy of Derbyshire’s two South African bowlers failed them, allowing the extras total to build beyond 50 runs.Durham’s batsmen picked their moments to find the boundary, with Harte notching his maiden fifty in first-class cricket off 120 deliveries. Rimmington provided an excellent foil at the other end as the duo put on 100 for the eighth wicket to defy the visitors before lunch. The stand was broken just before the interval when Matt Critchley pinned Rimmington in front of his stumps for 42.Harte and Salisbury put forward a faultless effort to see off the threat of the new ball from Olivier and Viljoen, blunting the visitors’ attempt to regain their grip on the contest. Harte was fortunate in the 90s when an outside edge off Olivier just went wide of second slip. He knocked off the final two singles to secure his maiden ton off 218 deliveries.The partnership was ended on 99 when Salisbury was bowled by Olivier, who notched his fifth wicket and 10th in the match. Harte cut loose to add quick runs, but was the final wicket to fall to Wayne Madsen, leaving Derbyshire 268 runs to win following a costly effort in the field, conceding 81 extras.The visitors were under pressure from the off as Salisbury struck to remove Billy Godleman, bursting through his defences. Madsen followed for a second-ball duck, receiving a vicious bouncer that offered a simple return catch to Salisbury.Rushworth then piled on the agony with two wickets in two deliveries, removing Alex Hughes and Critchley lbw. Slater was defiant late in the day, scoring 41 out of his side’s 69, to give Derbyshire a glimmer of hope.

The 40-year old offspinner did not have an extravagant farewell. He walked off the field after his final T20 match in Pakistan, waving to a nearly empty Rawalpindi Stadium

Umar Farooq in Rawalpindi29-Nov-20170:43

What’s Ajmal’s favourite cricketing memory?

With tears in his eyes, a slight tremble in his voice but with nothing to regret, Saeed Ajmal officially brought the curtains down on his international and domestic career, after Faisalabad exited the National T20 Cup following their semi-final loss to Lahore Whites in Rawalpindi.The farewell was not too extravagant: he walked off the field after the match, waving to a nearly empty Rawalpindi Stadium. However, players from both Lahore Whites and Faisalabad gave him a final guard of honour as he left the ground. The PCB, too, arranged for a press conference, which had “Thank you Saeed Ajmal” across its backdrop. Ajmal walked into the packed conference room, with every news channel’s reporters in anticipation, as the nation saw the Pakistan offspinner – via live feed – battle hard to keep from tearing up.”It’s been 25 years…my love for cricket…so when you retire you do get emotional,” Ajmal said, after taking a moment to gather his thoughts. “I am retiring with a heavy heart, but I am satisfied with my career. Although I am retiring from international and domestic cricket, I want to stay in touch with cricket through my cricket academy and want to contribute for the country.”Ajmal, however, did not completely rule out the possibility of playing in T20 leagues elsewhere. “I want to remain available for foreign T20 leagues, other than the PSL, and want to continue to play the format. But for now I have accepted Islamabad United’s offer to be their spin-bowling coach. I think now is the right time to go away. I am 40 years old and I think I am now considered as baggage in domestic teams. So I don’t want to lose respect here. I want to leave with my head held high and it’s time for the youngsters to come in and take my place.”Ajmal, who was captaining Faisalabad in the National T20 Cup, finished his final innings with figures of 1 for 13 in four overs. That, however, did not bring an end to his player duties right away. After the match, PCB conducted a dope test with him, the results of which are due only after a week.Nine years ago, he had made his international debut, when he was chosen by chief selector Salahuddin Salu for the 2008 Asia Cup. Back then, Ajmal was considered one of Pakistan’s best spinners, and was soon one of the world’s most successful bowlers. He ended his Test career with 178 wickets in 35 Tests at an average of 28.10. His form swelled under the captaincy of Misbah-ul-Haq, when he took 141 wickets in only 26 Tests, including the 24 wickets against England in the UAE in 2011-12, when Pakistan won 3-0.The scorecard paid a tribute to Saeed Ajmal•Khurrum Amin / PCB

But for all of Ajmal’s successes until 2014, his career was dented due to his bowling action. He was reported for an illegal action twice in his international career and it brought the potency of his doosra – a delivery he used to devastating effect – under a cloud. He was later cleared to bowl by the ICC, albeit with the doosra still outside the limit, but the remodeled action came with a dip in form. He was eventually discarded from the Test team, with his last foreign tour coming against Bangladesh in 2015. Two ODIs and a T20I later, Ajmal faded away.Ajmal, however, has often been sensitive to criticism on his bowling action, including lashing out at the ICC over their 15-degree flex rule. “I feel only 10% of all bowlers would be able to stay within the limits defined by the ICC protocols,” Ajmal said. “I always felt ICC has been hard on Pakistan and PCB never did enough for the bowlers. Doosra is a regular delivery and it’s purely legal.”I don’t know why there is a false perception about its legality,” he said. “It’s a routine thing and if a bowler works on it it can be done easily. Not every fast bowler can bowl the reverse swing. Similarly, doosra isn’t for everyone. You have to work really hard to master it, and rejecting it is outrageously harsh. It should be encouraged as it was one of the finest deliveries by an offspinner.”Whatever I have done in my career, I am absolutely happy and proud. I came into the national team after the age of 30 and have done great things for Pakistan. What I have done, many take over 20 years to achieve. Therefore I have achieved everything in my career, but I wish my last match could have been in international cricket. However, I am still happy and thank you to every single person who has supported me through my ups and downs.”Since Ajmal’s exit from the national team, Pakistan had been struggling to find even one promising offspinner, but have never looked back after legspinner Yasir Shah took over the spin-bowling reins. Selectors, however, are still on the look out to find Pakistan’s next big offspinner, but haven’t found one yet.”PCB needs to think seriously about it,” Ajmal said on the lack of quality offspinners in Pakistan. “We are never short of talent and I believe we will never face a drought. We do have offspinners in the system, and they need to be developed, but I am afraid offspinners are being discouraged. They [PCB] should plan to bring offspinners back into the cycle and keep this system alive. We have great offspinners and historically, spinners have done a lot for Pakistan.”

Umar Akmal bludgeoned the highest score of the Pakistan Super League, his 40-ball 93 guiding Lahore Qalandars to their first win of the season, against Quetta Gladiators in Dubai

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Feb-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAhmed Shehzad applauds Umar Akmal following his 40-ball 93•PSL

Umar Akmal bludgeoned the highest score of the Pakistan Super League, his 40-ball 93 guiding Lahore Qalandars to their first win of the season, against Quetta Gladiators in Dubai. The 63-run defeat was Quetta’s first of the tournament, after they had set the early pace with three consecutive wins.Not many could have seen Akmal’s blast coming when Lahore crawled to 62 for 1 in 10 overs. But with Cameron Delport providing the initial spark and Akmal the finishing punch, Lahore cruised to 194 for 3 at the end of 20 overs. The pair added 95 runs in only 42 balls, with Delport smoking a 55-ball 73, an innings that featured eight fours and three sixes. Although the carnage could have been cut short – Akmal survived a close lbw shout off the third ball he faced and Zulfiqar Babar was visibly distraught when it was given not out.Babar eventually trapped Delport lbw when the batsman attempted an extravagant reverse flick, but any hope Quetta had of drying up the runs were quickly dashed by Akmal, who treated himself to six fours and eight sixes, including 18 runs off the penultimate over, bowled by Umar Gul. Akmal could not reach his maiden T20 ton, but he made sure Quetta needed to score at nearly 10 an over right from the off. They could not.Lahore’s spinners took wickets at regular intervals and only Mohammad Nawaz (42) and Sarfraz Ahmed (31) offered any resistance. Once Sarfraz was dismissed in the 13th over, Quetta lost their next six wickets for 13 runs and folded for 131. Zafar Gohar was the pick of the bowlers, collecting 4 for 14, while Ajantha Mendis chipped in with 3 for 17.

Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade and Patrick Cummins are all in line to make their international debuts after being named in Australia’s squad to tour South Africa next month

Brydon Coverdale28-Sep-2011Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade and Patrick Cummins are all in line to make their international debuts after being named in Australia’s squad to tour South Africa next month. Australia’s selectors have chosen separate 14-man groups for the Twenty20s and ODIs in South Africa, with Mitchell Johnson axed from the Twenty20 outfit and David Hussey cut from the one-day side.Cricket Australia are still in the process of choosing their new selectors, so the squads were picked by an interim panel led by the outgoing chairman Andrew Hilditch, along with Greg Chappell, Jamie Cox and the stand-in coach Troy Cooley. The captains were also part of the panel – Michael Clarke for the ODI squad and Cameron White for the T20 group.A serious shoulder injury that ruled the allrounder John Hastings out of the trip opened the door for Marsh, 19, who is set to follow his older brother Shaun and father Geoff in representing Australia after being picked in the Twenty20 squad. A promising allrounder who played for Australia A on the recent tour of Zimbabwe, Marsh had been earmarked for higher honours since captaining Australia to the Under-19 World Cup title in 2010.He’s not the only teenager in the touring party, with Cummins, 18, having made both the T20 and ODI groups. A fast bowler who was the bolter in Cricket Australia’s contract list this year, Cummins would be Australia’s youngest ODI debutant if he plays in the series, beating his New South Wales team-mate Josh Hazlewood, who played at 19 last year.It has been a remarkably quick rise for Cummins, who has played only two one-day matches for his state and has not yet taken a wicket in the format. His inclusion in the ODI squad means he will miss the first two rounds of the Sheffield Shield season.The retirement of Brad Haddin from Twenty20 internationals, combined with Tim Paine’s finger injury, meant Wade was the logical wicketkeeping choice for the shortest format. Wade, 23, has been third in line behind Haddin and Paine since playing for Australia A last year, and he confirmed his credentials with a standout summer in the Ryobi Cup.But the news wasn’t so good for two of the older members of the side. David Hussey, 34, lost his ODI place despite being part of the World Cup squad earlier this year and winning a CA contract, while the selectors preferred Doug Bollinger to Johnson in the Twenty20 side.”Mitchell [Johnson] has struggled in this format of the game to date,” Hilditch said. “Most Twenty20 internationals have been at the start of tours and Mitchell has not always been at his best in these matches. Obviously Mitchell has a great skill set for Twenty20 cricket and we are sure he will put a lot of pressure on us to pick him in the future in the Twenty20 team.”We consider we have picked an extremely strong Twenty20 squad, which has a good balance of experience and exciting young talent. There is flexibility in the squad to deal with conditions in South Africa as we continue to prepare for the ICC World Twenty20, which is only a year away.”A key man in the T20 squad is David Warner, who has also been given a chance to resume his career in the 50-over format, having not played an ODI in more than two years. Hilditch described Warner’s recent form as “irresistible”, including three centuries in first-class and one-day cricket on the recent Australia A trip to Zimbabwe.The inclusion of Warner comes after Haddin, who opened with Shane Watson during the World Cup, moved down the order during the recent ODIs in Sri Lanka. That could mean a battle between Warner and Shaun Marsh to become the next long-term opening partner for Watson in the one-day international side.Australia play two Twenty20 internationals, in Cape Town on October 13 and in Johannesburg on October 16, before the series of three ODIs in Centurion, Port Elizabeth and Durban. The squad for the two Tests, in Cape Town and Johannesburg in early November, will be announced in the coming weeks.ODI squad Shane Watson, David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke (capt), Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin (wk), Steven Smith, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Xavier Doherty, James Pattinson, Patrick Cummins, Doug Bollinger.Twenty20 squad Shane Watson, David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Aaron Finch, David Hussey, Cameron White (capt), Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Steve O’Keefe, Brett Lee, James Pattinson, Patrick Cummins, Doug Bollinger.

Laura Marsh and Jenny Gunn gave England the series win with a five-wicket victory in the third Twenty20 in Mumbai

Cricinfo staff08-Mar-2010
Scorecard
Laura Marsh took 1 for 25 and scored an unbeaten 47•Getty Images

Laura Marsh and Jenny Gunn gave England the series win with a five-wicket victory in the third Twenty20 in Mumbai. England were set to chase just 126 but after their collapse in the second match, it was not expected to be an easy chase.And the win had looked doubtful when they lost three wickets with 23 on the scoreboard. Danielle Hazell was bowled when she stepped outside leg stump looking to cut left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana in the second over. Captain Charlotte Edwards fell in the next over for an 11-ball 17. She was followed, two balls later, by Katherine Brunt, stumped off Sultana for 4.But Marsh and Morgan steadied the innings with a 49-run stand – the highest of the series. England’s fifty came up in 6.4 overs as compared to India who reached the landmark in 9.1 overs. While the Indian batsmen had struggled against England’s main spinners, Marsh and Morgan played India’s spinners with ease. Morgan’s dismissal in the 11th over did not put England off course. Gunn assisted Marsh well, rotating the strike and clearing the infield for twos. India were sloppy in the field and lost the opportunity to run out the batsmen.But even by the 19th over, India had a chance to take the series. England needed 10 off 12 balls and Sultana, who had taken two wickets and kept things tight, came to bowl her final over. Gunn tried to sweep her first ball and was bowled by one that went straight. Sultana conceded two off the next three balls and England needed a run a ball. But Sultana gave a wide off her next ball and Marsh picked a four off the final to ease the pressure.Marsh had also bowled well during India’s innings, breaking the 48-run stand between Poonam Raut and Mithali Raj by having Raut stumped for 26 in the 10th over. Raj fell five balls later and though Harmanpreet Kaur scored an unbeaten 30 off 25, their total wasn’t enough at the end of the day.