All posts by h716a5.icu

Shamar Joseph’s role in stubborn 10th-wicket stand carries faint echoes of Tino Best

Alan Gardner20-Jul-2024Now let’s hear from our fictional correspondent, T. Wayne Mark, at Trent Bridge: “Reports of the death of West Indies cricket have been exaggerated – again!” Not that they aren’t still up against it after three days of the second Test. And we won’t get into the structural inequalities that mean they are required to regularly serve up miracles in order to quieten the noise around their continued viability as a Test nation.Those facts can’t be overlooked, but nor should another display of guts and grit that has helped keep this contest in the balance going into the fourth day. True, Kraigg Brathwaite’s side are perhaps not the likelier winners, with the expectation that they will be asked to pull off a record chase on this ground. There’s an element of regret, too, given the errors on day one that prevented them from bowling England out for a score in the region of 300-350, and how that might have tipped the scales.It is also the case that (spoiler alert) a mention for Tino la Bertram Best, the fast-living former fast bowler whose charisma outshone his record during a colourful international career that came to an end a decade ago, does not evoke the halcyon days of West Indian Test dominance on these shores in the way that some other names might. But bear with me.Related

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That West Indies were able to build on the fine platform provided by Kavem Hodge’s maiden Test hundred and overhaul England’s first-innings total to post 457 – their highest score overseas since Dunedin 2013, and the biggest in England since The Oval 1995 – ultimately came down to a brazen counter from Joshua Da Silva and last man Shamar Joseph that had the crowd ducking for cover and Ben Stokes scratching his head.Their stand of 71 off 78 balls included one almighty Shamar pull that smashed into the tiles on the roof of the Larwood & Voce bar and sent debris raining down on the crowd seated below. “He’s going to have to pay for that,” Da Silva joked afterwards.It was West Indies’ second-highest tenth-wicket stand in Tests against England, although some way off claiming top spot – the 143 added by Best and Denesh Ramdin at Edgbaston in 2012. Best memorably made 95 in that match, at the time the highest score by a No. 11. It was also, spookily enough, the last occasion before this one that England went into a home Test without either James Anderson or Stuart Broad in their XI.Da Silva, for his part, was thinking of another recent encounter: the deciding Test of England’s 2022 tour, when his maiden hundred turned the screw on a beleaguered opposition. “It was pretty much what I expected,” he said of England’s tactic of spreading the field for him, seemingly only focused on getting Joseph out. “The same that happened in Grenada, so I was just trying to replicate the innings I played there.”Joshua Da Silva and Shamar Joseph added valuable runs for the tenth wicket•AFP/Getty ImagesThere’s nothing like tail-end humpty to scatter the pigeons and get the beans going, and Joseph lived up to his billing as an agent of chaos. Momentum has ebbed and flowed in this Test but West Indies looked to be subsiding meekly after losing 4 for 31 in little more than an hour’s play on the third morning. Enter Joseph, with his megawatt grin and an Acme hammer straight out of a Warner Bros cartoon in place of a bat.Having seen off Chris Woakes’ hat-trick ball, he was soon demonstrating some of the shots that made his position at No. 11 in the order – below Jayden Seales, who was bowled through the gate by Woakes first ball – seem an anomaly. A jaunty 36 off 41 on debut in Adelaide six months ago was precursor to his heroics with the ball in that series and, while we have so far not seen the best of his bowling in England, this was another slice of brawling brilliance from the boy from Baracara.Joseph clobbered 32 of his 33 runs in boundaries, with Gus Atkinson bearing the brunt. Two attempts to bounce the smaller man disappeared into the stands in the space of three balls: the first a flat smear into the Fox Road Stand that could have been hit by fellow Guyanese Roy Fredericks, followed by the exuberant hoy over deep backward square leg that left its mark on the roof.Here was another Tino echo, a “mind the windows” moment but with England as the punchline instead. As West Indies galloped into an unexpected lead, there was plenty to enjoy for those wearing maroon dotted around the ground, particularly a clutch of supporters in the lower tier of the Radcliffe Road Stand.”He was pretty confident but I still had to shield him because he’s still No. 11,” Da Silva said. “He backs himself with the bat, he played some terrific shots, he broke a couple of tiles, which was good to see. But at the end of the day, it was my job to try and get the team as far as we can.”Shamar Joseph swung at will from No. 11•Getty ImagesWoakes, while conceding that the partnership had got away from them, said that England were content with the eventual outcome after West Indies had resumed on 351 for 5.”Once a field goes out, as a bowler, it’s easy to not try and get [the set batter] out and try and think of the No. 11,” he said. “But at the same time, you don’t just want to give away easy boundaries, and I think particularly here at Trent Bridge it is easy to leak boundaries, especially when a guy is in and the field’s up. So that was in our mindset, and also you don’t probably always expect the No. 11 to hit a couple into the stands either.”Fair play to them, I thought they played it pretty well. [But] I think we committed to it for long enough and eventually got the reward.”With Zak Crawley then run out while backing up in unfortunate circumstances at the start of England’s second innings, there was a frisson of tension around the ground. And while the hosts wrested the momentum back during the afternoon, West Indies bowled better to containing fields after tea, another ball change helping Alzarri Joseph to dislodge both set batters. England may yet close the door on them, as an unbroken stand late in the day between Joe Root and Harry Brook took the lead past 200 – but we’ve surely all learned not to write off West Indies just yet.

He rewrote the record books, piled on runs for fun, and once again put Sri Lanka in a position of dominance

Madushka Balasuriya27-Sep-2024Grab the popcorn, guys, another Kamindu Mendis century/milestone/diss track has dropped.It’s eight fifties in eight straight Tests now, five centuries in 13 Test innings – his latest, 182 not out, being his best yet – making him the fastest Asian to that feat, and oh, he’s also the third-fastest ever to do so equalling Don Bradman.Wait, he’s not done yet? Oh yeah, he reached 1000 Test runs, the third-fastest to do that too – again equalling Bradman.Related

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All of which makes the fact he was dropped for two years from the Test side after making a half-century on debut against Australia in 2022 kinda hilarious. One could question the selectors’ thinking, but at this point maybe we should be grateful. I mean, the guy really does make us all look bad.New Zealand for one were definitely fed up with his antics, with throws from the deep after a point resembling an angsty teen asked to play catch with his absentee father. Just a token gesture, waiting for the misery to be brought to a hopefully swift end.Even the weather gods seemed to have been stunned into inaction, perhaps taken by his majestic drives on the up. See, there’s actually been an extreme weather warning issued for the entirety of the Galle district, but while grey clouds shielded the sun across the day’s proceedings, the rain never arrived.Sure, it was there overnight – quick shoutout to the always excellent Galle ground staff for sorting out the covers blanketed in rainwater promptly – and it had definitely arrived all around Galle, and probably will again later in the evening. But in the middle, the mugginess from the previous day had dissipated, replaced by a comforting breeze, all seemingly to make Kamindu’s day of fun all that more pleasant.But all these records and achievements aside, perhaps the best thing about Kamindu is that his mere presence has forced a quiet transformative change in the playing XI.

“Kamindu, he has just taken off, hasn’t he? He has been unbelievable over the eight games that he has played. So happy that one of our own is breaking all the records”Angelo Mathews

It wasn’t long before his stirring form in 2024 resulted in a clamour for him to be pushed up the order. The solution, therefore, was to push Dinesh Chandimal up to No. 3 and give the gloves to Kusal Mendis, who in turn would go down to No. 7. As for Kamindu, he would push up to No. 5.It may be a small sample size since the switch, but the results speak for themselves.Kamindu, of course, hasn’t missed a beat, merely continuing from his performances at No. 7. If anything, he’s gotten better, only being deprived of a maiden double-century by virtue of a pre-planned declaration. “At tea, the talk was to bat for 15 overs before declaring,” Angelo Mathews explained after the day’s play.Chandimal’s flexibility in approach, meanwhile, has seen him thrive at three since taking it up at the start of the series – 30, 61 and 116 in three innings – while Kusal has flourished at seven, where his natural attacking instincts can be the difference between a competitive total and a winning one.Kusal Mendis and Kamindu Mendis added an unbroken 200-stand for the sixth wicket•Associated PressIt might have been a welcome change as well for a batter that has long been seen as underperforming. Kusal’s unbeaten 106 was his third century since the start of 2023, but it was his first against opposition that wasn’t Ireland or Zimbabwe since December 2018. In terms of strike rate, it was also his fastest at 71.14 (excluding his centuries against Ireland).”All three of them have responded well, and it worked perfectly – most importantly for the team,” Mathews said. “It’s all about the team, it’s all about the balance. And it’s all about every individual, where they’re suited to playing in the team. I think it all worked really well, and it was a very good decision by everyone.”And for Kamindu? Well, at this point there’s not much more that can be said. The most striking aspect of his batting has been the seemingly effortless repeatability of it, and a measuredness that many only find much later in their careers. Something Mathews himself touched on.”Kamindu, he has just taken off, hasn’t he? He has been unbelievable over the eight games that he has played. So happy that one of our own is breaking all the records,” Matthews said. “He has been unbelievable, he has got the skill, he’s got the temperament, he’s got the courage, he’s got everything that a batter and cricketer needs.”His maturity also belies his age. None of us were able to do the kinds of things he’s doing at that point in our careers. Definitely one of the best batters I have seen in recent years.”This purple patch of course isn’t going to go on forever, but for now, more than speculating on how long he can carry on this form, maybe we should all just sit back and enjoy the show.

India’s selectors don’t have recent ODI form to go on when they pick the squads for the England series and Champions Trophy

Nagraj Gollapudi09-Jan-20254:39

Refresher course: remember how good Gill and Rahul are at ODI cricket?

India have played only six ODIs since the 2023 World Cup – and just three in 2024 – so the selectors don’t have any recent international form to guide them when they pick the squads for the upcoming bilateral ODIs against England and the Champions Trophy in February.In those six games, India gave exposure to several players earmarked as contenders for the 2027 ODI World Cup. With the T20 set-up already revamped and the Test side facing a period of transition, there are questions around the make-up of the ODI squad too, both in terms of form and fitness of certain players.Should Yashasvi Jaiswal open in ODIs too?It might feel like Yashasvi Jaiswal is a regular in all formats for India but he hasn’t been selected in an ODI squad yet. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill are the incumbent openers and could remain so.They formed a successful partnership in the 2023 ODI World Cup once Gill recovered from dengue and displaced Ishan Kishan at the top, but both were rested from India’s subsequent ODIs in South Africa in December that year. Gill then lost his place to Jaiswal in the T20I squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup, and made scores of 16, 35 and 6 in the 2-0 defeat in the ODI series in Sri Lanka last August. While he scored a Test century against Bangladesh in the home series in September, he failed to convert starts in the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he was dropped for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.With Rohit set to lead the ODI squad and open the innings, and Virat Kohli at No. 3, Jaiswal could be an option if India want to bring a left-hand batter into the top order. He was India’s leading run-scorer in the Test series in Australia and his domestic 50-over numbers are impressive: 1511 runs at an average of 54 and strike rate of 86.19 with five centuries and seven fifties in 32 innings.The other batters who opened for India in South Africa after the 2023 ODI World Cup are Ruturaj Gaikwad, B Sai Sudarshan and Rajat Patidar.Ravindra Jadeja hasn’t played ODI cricket since the World Cup final in November 2023•Associated PressDoes Ravindra Jadeja still make the cut?Jadeja hasn’t played an ODI since the 2023 World Cup, where he formed the middle order with Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Suryakumar Yadav once Hardik Pandya was injured.In contrast to the selection for the ODIs in South Africa under the previous coaching regime, when specialists like Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh played in the middle-order, Gambhir and selectors were keen to have more bowling options and batting depth in Sri Lanka. The competition for allrounder spots has now increased with Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar and Riyan Parag all getting a go while Jadeja and Suryakumar missed the series in South Africa and Sri Lanka.Hardik is expected to return, having proved his fitness while playing domestic 20 and 50-over games for Baroda this season, and Parag is expected to be fit as well after recovering from a shoulder injury, though his selection is not certain. Nitish Kumar Reddy, who was injured around the Sri Lanka ODIs last year, is also a contender.Iyer and Rahul, who played in Sri Lanka, are expected to retain their spots but the case for Jadeja and Suryakumar is not as clear-cut.Rishabh Pant or Sanju Samson for India in ODIs?•BCCI/IPLWho’s the second wicketkeeper in the squad?Rahul was India’s first-choice wicketkeeper in the 2023 ODI World Cup and the bilateral series in South Africa and Sri Lanka. He is likely to retain that position. Sanju Samson was the back-up in South Africa, but Rishabh Pant was preferred over him in Sri Lanka once he made his comeback from injuries suffered in a car crash and was first choice in India’s T20 World Cup winning squad in 2024.Samson’s omission from the ODI squad in Sri Lanka came under scrutiny because he had scored a hundred in India’s previous ODI in South Africa, where he played as a specialist batter at No. 3. Pant made 6 while batting at No. 4 in his only ODI in Sri Lanka.Bumrah and Shami’s fitness in focusJasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were crucial to India’s unbeaten run to the 2023 ODI World Cup final, which was the last international Shami played before undergoing ankle surgery in February 2024. While he had successfully recovered from that injury, Shami’s India comeback has been delayed due to issues with his right knee while playing domestic cricket for Bengal this season. If he comes through the Vijay Hazare Trophy playoffs without a problem, he is a strong contender for the ODI squad.Bumrah’s status remains uncertain with the BCCI yet to disclose the nature of the injury that prevented him from bowling in Australia’s second innings of the fifth Test in Sydney. If Bumrah is not fit, Shami and Mohammed Siraj are likely to lead the attack along with Hardik. India would still want one if not two more seamers in the squad as back-ups.They tried several quicks in the ODI series in South Africa and Sri Lanka and one stood out from the pack. Left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh was the Player of the Series in South Africa, with ten wickets in three games including hauls of five and four wickets. He also took the new ball in two ODIs in Sri Lanka. India’s other options are Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and Reddy – the last two considered as allrounders. Both Nitish and Rana were part of the Test squad in Australia, where Nitish played all five matches and even scored a maiden century.While it was a bold move to pick Nitish and Rana in the Test squad, the plan was to provide them with exposure and facilitate their development as seam-bowling allrounders, a skillset India struggles with. While Nitish flourished as a batter in Australia, his bowling was ineffective and he was unable to fulfil the role of an allrounder.Who are the spinners?There are doubts over whether left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav will be able to prove his match fitness in time; he is presently undergoing rehab after a hernia surgery and hasn’t played international or domestic cricket since October last year. If Kuldeep isn’t fit, India’s leading spin options are all allrounders: Jadeja, Axar and Sundar.Varun Chakravarthy could also be a left-field wristspin option. He is among the leading wicket-takers in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, having played a key role in Tamil Nadu making the play-offs, and was India’s highest wicket-taker in the T20I series in South Africa in November last year.

Hosts now find themselves in the familiar scenario of hoping for some outlandish results to go their way

Sidharth Monga23-Feb-20251:54

Urooj: Pakistan have let themselves down again

Pakistan sit at the bottom of the World Test Championship (WTC) table, have failed to make the final four of the last three ODI World Cups, didn’t make it out of their group in the last T20 World Cup, and now find themselves in the familiar scenario of hoping for some outlandish results to go their way to stay alive in the Champions Trophy they are hosting. Nobody is evoking any similarities with 1992. Not even as the dark or self-deprecating humour that Pakistanis tend to use to cope with such times. We are well past that stage.It is a futile exercise to wonder if this is the lowest Pakistan cricket has ever been. However, even when Pakistan have plummeted to spectacular lows in the past, they have done it in a way that justifies the cliché of their mercurial nature. This slide just feels like a terminal, slow decline. Players are not fighting with each other, there is no backdoor intrigue, there are no cliques in the team plotting to dethrone the captain, there are no comical run-outs or misfields, no defeats snatched from the clutches of victory.This just feels wrong. Bad cricket brought hope with it. That there could be a turnaround if they got their basics together or if they could pull in the same direction. That this was not their ceiling. Now it just feels like those revolting nuts and bolts have finally given in after prolonged rust.Related

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Take this defeat to India, for example. This was not down to lack of game awareness or carelessness. They won a good toss, decided to bat first on a pitch that was expected to slow down, had a solid game plan, enjoyed some luck through the injury to Mohammed Shami and generous wides, but just didn’t have the game to keep scoring five an over without taking risks. Dot balls mounted and wickets fell when they eventually tried to take risks.The bowlers stuck to good plans, managed to produce two balls that – as a consolation – will find themselves in the tournament’s highlight reel, but just didn’t have enough quality and depth to challenge India in a middling chase. It is just dispiriting that you can’t fantasise, forget visualise, about a Pakistan comeback from here.This is not a team in transition, but one that should ideally have at least five or six players at their prime. The Babar Azam-led batting has lagged a decade behind the rest of the world for far too long for it to just be an issue of intent and awareness. In today’s cricket, your game needs to keep evolving because oppositions catch up in no time. Since their last great triumph in ODI cricket in 2017, no batter can be said to have made it to the top and have kept on improving.1:31

Urooj Mumtaz: Rizwan chewed up too many dot deliveries

The pace-bowling trio of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf presented a good core, but even they have stagnated to the extent that Mohammad Abbas was recalled for Tests late last year. Naseem has lost pace, and Afridi has been mismanaged to the extent that he was “rested” for Tests in South Africa after playing all sorts of significantly less important cricket. It is damning that Pakistan hasn’t produced a great spinner after Saeed Ajmal. Even at their worst, Pakistan’s bowling used to inspire awe. Now they produce nothing more than an occasional patch of brilliance.Even at the lowest of lows in the past, you could see there were players in the system who could turn it around. There appear to be no players right now who can do so. Or is it that such players are not identified or fully developed because of how poorly administered Pakistan cricket has been of late?During all this churn, every new board leader has come armed with a new vanity project mistaken for a magic wand. Big names have been thrown in, bigger money has been thrown at them, but it has all been an attempt at managing perception. It’s almost as though the PCB has taken over the hilarity duties from the team.Pakistan get into a huddle while trying to defend 241 against India•AFP/Getty ImagesThere is no substitute for properly organised domestic cricket played on regularly relaid and varied pitches that encourage stroke-play and bowling of all varieties. The PCB instead has focused on shiny new tournaments with fancy names and promoters. Players have come up despite the lack of system in the past too, but must we always hope to replicate what is not sustainable?It doesn’t help that Pakistan cricket has been isolated to varying degrees ever since the attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in 2009. Nor does the political turmoil in the country make things easy: the PCB has not been able to insulate itself from the country’s politics, but as cricket becomes more and more professional, getting left behind is not an option. The most practical – and painstaking – solution is to build a system that is immune to changes in government, one that protects its players from external influences, one that invests in infrastructure and matches as opposed to big names.Pakistan cricket appeals to neutrals precisely because it has repeatedly managed to overcome challenges in the past to produce cutting-edge cricket even though it might not have produced as many titles as it should have for the amount of talent and innovation it had. Now that we are seeing the consequences of a complete collapse in the administration, it is worth pausing and asking if we mistook the products of the system, however flawed, for mythical mercurial creatures.

England winning an Ashes Test Australia had all-but won or Sri Lanka’s marathon fourth-innings chase against a battling Zimbabwe?

ESPNcricinfo staff06-May-2025Update: This poll has ended. The ENG-AUS 2019 Leeds Test moves to the round of 16.The greatest heist Stokes pulled – Leeds, 2019Was it the ending, the unbroken 76-run stand for the last wicket between Ben Stokes and Jack Leach? Or the fact that one of the batters scored 74 (in 45 balls) and the other 1 (in 17 balls) in that partnership? Or that the winners had scored 67 in their first innings and then hit 362 for 9 in the chase in a Test where 246 was the next-best total?Maybe all of the above. But the drama of the Stokes-Leach partnership is what perhaps made it all so memorable.Australia won the first Test and the second was drawn, so England wanted to win this one at Headingley to stay in the contest, harbour dreams of winning the Ashes. But after Australia were bowled out for 179 in the first innings, all England could put up was 67, with Joe Denly top-scoring with 12. Back to Australia, and this time they put up 246.Was the pitch getting better for batting? It didn’t seem so when England were 15 for 2 in their chase of 359, and then 159 for 4 with Joe Root gone, and then 286 for 9. Stokes, the No. 5, was on 61 at the time. Off 174 balls. So 2-0 to Australia? But with last-man Leach for company, Stokes switched something on. He hit four fours and seven sixes from that point, keeping Leach away from the strike as much as possible, before finishing it off with a flay through the covers off Pat Cummins.Sri Lanka pull off a record chase – Colombo (RPS), 2017How difficult could Zimbabwe make it for Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in a Test match?Very, as it turned out.Craig Ervine hit 160 in close to six hours after Zimbabwe had opted to bat. They scored 356. Sri Lanka had two half-centurions – Upul Tharanga and Dinesh Chandimal – as they fell ten runs short.Surely Zimbabwe couldn’t do it again against Rangana Herath and everyone else.Yes, they could.Even top it.This time Sikandar Raza was the star, with 127, again in just under six hours, and Sri Lanka had to chase 388. Only four times had a bigger target been chased down in a Test match at that point, and never in Asia.Again, there was no century-maker. Forget that, Sri Lanka were five down for 203, still 185 in arrears. But Niroshan Dickwella and Asela Gunaratne weren’t done yet. Both scored 80s – Dickwella 81 and Gunaratne 80 not out – and Zimbabwe’s fight eventually fizzled out.

Our crew takes a deep dive into the situation of India’s current crop of fast bowlers, the behind-the-scenes set-up to look after them, and how to create new fast bowlers

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Aug-2025As the fans continue to wallow in the warm memories of the fiery Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, India’s fast bowlers, such as Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, and others, get some well-deserved rest this month. Which of them plays the Asia Cup next month and which one doesn’t is a question for later. For now, the trio of Sidharth Monga, Karthik Krishnaswamy and Dustin Silgardo get together to discuss the workload management of India’s fast bowling contingent: what’s the best way to manage Bumrah; is there a fitness issue with Akash Deep; how should the BCCI – the selectors, the NCA and the coaches – prepare a bench strength for the quicks? Listen to the latest episode of here:

South Africa had an appeal turned down after the Pakistan batter brought day three to an unusual close. What do the Laws say?

Danyal Rasool22-Oct-2025There was so much that happened on the third day in Rawalpindi that it was easy to miss the odd circumstances of its end. Off the final ball of a day South Africa thoroughly dominated, Pakistan batter Mohammad Rizwan drove Keshav Maharaj to cover. There wasn’t a run on, and so he turned around, and, in one deliberate unbroken motion, tapped the base stump with his bat, knocking off the bails.There appeared no indication he believed he had done anything to get him in trouble, but South Africa wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne threw his hands up in appeal immediately, believing Rizwan was out hit wicket. The umpire hadn’t yet called stumps, and fielder who had collected the drive hadn’t yet thrown the ball back to the wicketkeeper. Thus, the ball was not yet dead.Related

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However, umpire Sharfuddoula at the bowling end almost immediately waved off the appeals with a smile, and square-leg umpire Chris Brown backed him up. ESPNcricinfo understands the umpires did not directly explain to the South Africans why they had ruled Rizwan not out.Conventionally, it is the umpires who take the bails off at stumps, with the bails at the non-striker’s end usually removed first owing to the umpire’s proximity to them. Batters do, on occasion, take the bails off – usually with their hands rather than bats – though it is almost always done after the ball is dead and the umpires have called stumps. That none of those criteria were met led to South Africa believing their appeal might be legitimate.The Laws of the game, though, appear to side with Rizwan, and the umpires’ judgment. Law 35.1 states that a batter can only be deemed out hit wicket after the bowler has entered their delivery stride in the course of any action taken by them in preparing to receive or in receiving a delivery in setting off for the first run immediately after playing or playing at the ball if no attempt is made to play the ball, in setting off for the first run in lawfully making a second or further stroke for the purpose of guarding their wicketNone of those criteria were met by Rizwan’s actions, and it remains unclear how committed South Africa were to the appeal. In the moments after, it appeared South Africa did not seem especially aggrieved anyway, with allrounder Senuran Muthusamy downplaying the incident at his press conference, saying he was fielding too far away and was unaware of what happened.South Africa finished the day with strong hopes of levelling the series, with Pakistan leading by 23 runs at stumps with six wickets in hand.

Pakistan lost six wickets for 40 runs late in the chase to lose the match by 25 runs

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Sep-2025With 11 days to go for the World Cup, Pakistan and South Africa played out a high-scoring thriller in Lahore. There were three centuries: Tazmin Brits posted her career-best 171 not out, Laura Wolvaardt brought up her ninth ODI hundred, and Sidra Amin hit 122. After over 90 overs and a rain break, South Africa won the match and took a 2-0 unassailable lead in the series with a match to spare.Chasing a revised target of 313 in 46 overs due to rain, Pakistan lost their first three wickets for 101, with Omaima Sohail making a brisk 43 and laying a solid platform. From there, Amin and Natalia Pervaiz stitched a momentum-changing 146-run stand off just 111 deliveries to lift Pakistan to a strong position. When Amin was cleaned up by Chloe Tryon, attempting to slog to the midwicket region, Pakistan needed 66 from 49 balls, with Pervaiz batting on 55 off 46. However, South Africa struck again, thanks to Tryon, and that shifted the momentum in their favour.Pakistan lost captain Fatima Sana, Natalia Pervaiz (73 off 60), and Diana Baig in a span of just nine balls, as South Africa seized control late in the chase. The hosts eventually folded for 287 in 44.4 overs, losing their final seven wickets for just 40 runs. Nadine de Klerk led the bowling effort with 3 for 45.South Africa posted 292 for 3 after being asked to bat first, but were sloppy in the field. Sidra Amin, who went on to register her sixth ODI hundred, was dropped several times during her innings.Earlier, Brits and Wolvaardt got off to a steady start and converted it to a 260-run opening stand. Brits was the aggressor in the stand and reached her sixth ODI ton a few overs before rain interrupted play. After 41 overs, South Africa were 238 for no loss, with Wolvaardt unbeaten on 95. Once play resumed and the contest was reduced to 46 overs per side, Wolvaardt reached her ninth hundred in ODIs, and South Africa added 54 runs in the last five overs. Brits, who scored 101 not out in the series opener, remained unbeaten on Friday, scoring 20 fours and four sixes.