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Sri Lanka Under-19s stormed back into contention in the five-match series by beating Bangladesh Under-19s by six wickets

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Apr-2013
ScorecardSri Lanka Under-19s stormed back into contention in the five-match series by beating Bangladesh Under-19s by six wickets in the rain-affected fourth game in Mirpur. After rain interrupted play towards the end of the Bangladesh innings, the visitors were set a target of 197 runs from 29 overs.They reached the target in the 23rd over, thanks to Chamika Karunaratne’s unbeaten 49 off 47 balls, which had five fours and a six. His job was made slightly easier by Sandun Weerakkody, who blasted 42 off 16 balls with six fours and two sixes. Sadeera Samarawickrama also gave the visitors a fast start with his 20-ball 33.After winning the toss, Bangladesh had made 244 for 8 in the 48th over before rain stopped play. Joyraz Sheik scored 58 while the offspinner Ramesh Mendis took 5 for 43.The final match will be held on April 29, the series is level at 2-2.

Apart from trying to help win a Test match for the West Indies over Australia, Shillingford is playing for the right to have his name inscribed on a grandstand

Daniel Brettig in Roseau22-Apr-2012Entering the third Test in Dominica, Shane Shillingford is in a novel position. Apart from trying to help win a Test match for the West Indies over Australia, Shillingford is playing for the right to have his name inscribed on a grandstand.Roseau’s picturesque cricket ground and the newest Test match venue in the Caribbean, Windsor Park has major stands adorned with the names of two of Shillingford’s relatives, Grayson and Irvine Shillingford, alongside Norbert Phillip and Adam Sanford. They were the only Test cricketers to have emerged from Dominica before Shillingford’s debut, leaving the island’s one international umpire Billy Doctrove to have his name emblazoned on the players’ and officials’ pavilion.One stand remains unnamed on the far side of the ground, open to Shillingford to earn his place over five days from Monday. “I’m looking forward to get a chance to play at home, being the first one to play a Test from Dominica [at home],” Shillingford said. “I’m pretty much looking forward to that. I know the Dominican people will be coming out in big numbers to support.”I’m definitely confident coming on from the game in Trinidad, even more so knowing my family, my fans are coming out to support, so I really want to do well and we come out with a victory to level the series.”Most of the players have played here a number of times already and seeing for the Australians this is their first time, the environment, first time being here, playing here, so I think it’s a bit of an edge for us. But we do have to do the basics to come out with a win.”Shillingford made a fine impression on a helpful surface in Trinidad, spinning the ball while maintaining a very sturdy line and length. In the second innings he also showed plenty of variation, befuddling Ricky Ponting with a top spinner and keeping his end quiet while Kemar Roach charged in at the other. Speaking about his repertoire, Shillingford said he had deliberately held the top spinner back from initial viewing, but used it more as his confidence grew.”Yeah definitely. It was a case where you didn’t want the batsman to know all about you right there and then,” he said. “And coming in the second innings we needed to get wickets and stuff. Most of the time I try to bowl and build pressure and then try it, but in the second innings I did bring it in earlier. We were trying to get early wickets to give ourselves a chance to win the game.”There is added incentive for Shillingford and all the West Indies players ahead of an England tour that follows closely on the heels of the Australia series. The squad is likely to be named towards the end of the Test, the players then having two days off before flying across the Atlantic.”Well it definitely is something I’m looking forward to,” Shillingford said. “I’ve always wanted to play … I’ve played club cricket in England so the experience is there. I’m really looking forward to going there and playing Test cricket.”On past evidence, Windsor Park’s pitch will offer some spin, but there is also grass on the surface two days out from the match, offering hope of a little more pace than the surfaces used in Barbados and Trinidad. Shillingford reckoned his home track would provide some incentive for all bowlers, and batsmen.”I’ve not had a good look at the pitch but I know playing here in a first-class game there’s been a good deal of spin,” he said. “I’m not sure what preparation has been done to the wicket. All I know is that it’s an allround pitch where the batsman has to put in and the bowler has to put in.”Should he put in adequately across this match, the Shane Shillingford Stand may soon be unveiled.

Wayne Madsen was the scourge of Leicestershire again to give dominant Derbyshire a great chance of celebrating their first victory of the season

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Apr-2011
Scorecard
Wayne Madsen was the scourge of Leicestershire again to give dominant Derbyshire a great chance of celebrating their first victory of the season.The South African opener scored a century against Leicestershire at Derby last year and he completed another hundred on a day the visitors will want to forget. Madsen made 106 and Greg Smith 99 before Luke Sutton declared on 439 for 9 – a lead of 209 – leaving the visitors a tricky three overs which they survived to close on four without loss.But the odds are heavily stacked against Leicestershire saving the match, with Will Jefferson unable to open after he had to leave the field in the morning with a thigh strain. The contest had been in the balance when play began but an opening maiden proved a false dawn as Leicestershire delivered a shocking performance in the field.Madsen and Smith batted well but they were helped in no small measure by wayward bowling and shabby ground fielding which allowed Derbyshire to seize the initiative. But the day might have taken a different course if the visitors had taken a chance to break the fifth-wicket stand in the first hour.Madsen was on 54 and Derbyshire were 160 for 4, still 70 behind, when he was beaten by Claude Henderson but Tom New missed the stumping and the ball went away to add to the total of 20 byes, half of the total extras.The visitors became increasingly ragged, prompting skipper Matthew Hoggard to take the unusual step of calling his team together between overs to try and lift them. It did not achieve the breakthrough as Madsen, who reached his century off 189 balls just before lunch, and Smith batted through the first session, adding 152 runs in 32 overs.The pair stayed together for another 11 overs to take their stand to 189, beating the previous Derbyshire fifth-wicket record against Leicestershire of 170 set in 1895, before Hoggard’s men finally celebrated a wicket.Madsen had made 106 when he swept Henderson to square leg and was caught by James Taylor, but Smith missed his second century of the season when he played across the line at Nadeem Malik and was lbw.Derbyshire’s lead was only 60 at that stage but Leicestershire could make only one more breakthrough before tea, with Jon Clare caught behind off a rising ball from Hoggard.Luke Sutton drove back a return catch to Henderson as he tried to accelerate but Tim Groenewald followed his first-day five-wicket haul with a half-century that included two sixes and six fours before Sutton called a halt.With Jefferson unable to take his place at the top of the order, Paul Nixon opened with Greg Smith to negotiate an awkward 10 minutes but Leicestershire have it all to do on the last two days, with little prospect of any help from the weather.

Yuvraj Singh and Preity Zinta have reacted strongly to media reports that the batsman had been deliberately underperforming after losing the captaincy to Kumar Sangakkara

Cricinfo staff02-Apr-2010Kings XI Punjab’s star batsman Yuvraj Singh and franchise owner Preity Zinta have reacted strongly to media reports that the batsman had been deliberately underperforming after losing the captaincy to Kumar Sangakkara.Yuvraj has had a lean trot in the tournament so far, scoring just 101 runs in seven games at 14.42. His performance has mirrored his team’s woeful showing, with just one win from seven games and a semi-final slot looking extremely unlikely. That has led to speculation that the poor form was due to an alleged rift between him and Sangakkara. An upset Yuvraj vented his feelings on his Twitter page.”I am disgusted and horrified that a news reporter can stoop down to such a level. I, in all my career, haven’t seen such a disgusting piece of news,” Yuvraj wrote. “Media has no right to fabricate stories, they just want eyeballs.”His views were shared by his team’s co-owner. “There is no truth to the speculative reportage that is being carried in various segments of the media and these get accentuated when the tide is not in our favour,” Zinta said. “We are focused on the game today (against Royal Challengers Bangalore) and by reporting such stories we are distracting the players hence we request the media not to resort to such speculative reporting.”Yuvraj stressed that his batting form was linked to his return from injury and nothing else. “To come out of injury is not easy and I’ve had three in a row and I hope to bounce back soon,” he wrote. “I always try to give my best no matter what the circumstance and right now am struggling with my form. It happens to every player.”There was also speculation that he wanted to transfer to another franchise and that Punjab had complained to the BCCI about the developments but the board denied receiving any such complaint. “There is no truth in such claims that a complaint was made to BCCI regarding Yuvraj,” BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla told PTI. “Yuvraj is a great player but is currently out of form, which can happen to any cricketer. People should not read too much into the issue.”

The hosts chased down 154 against Delhi Capitals with ease to boost their NRR to 1.096, the best of any team in the competition

Karthik Krishnaswamy29-Apr-20243:14

Finch: ‘No consistency to Starc’s bowling’

Having just hosted a run-fest where 262 was chased down with eight balls to spare, Eden Gardens reverted to a former template familiar to fans of its home team, and Kolkata Knight Riders returned to winning ways and moved to second place on the IPL table with a confident, net-run-rate-boosting seven-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals.After a succession of flat pitches, Eden served up one with a little bit of grip, and KKR’s bowlers made full use of it after Capitals chose to bat first. Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora took three wickets inside the powerplay, after which the spinners took over, with Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine combining for figures of 8-0-40-4. Reduced to 111 for 8 at one stage, Capitals set KKR a 150-plus target thanks to an unlikely, unbeaten 26-ball 35 from Kuldeep Yadav.Related

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With Kuldeep and Axar Patel in their attack, DC had the tools to create a bit of pressure on this pitch, but KKR were well on their way to victory before either spinner had bowled a ball. Phil Salt made his fourth fifty in five home games this season, dominating a powerplay in which KKR rushed to 79 for no loss.Axar Patel removed both KKR openers when he came on, but it was too little, too late for DC, as Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer put on an unbroken 57 off 43 balls to end the match with 21 balls remaining.KKR now have 12 points from nine games, and a NRR of 1.096, the best of any team in the competition.

Starc vs Fraser-McGurk, a glimpse of the future

Jake Fraser-McGurk faced just seven balls on Monday night, and five of the seven were attempted yorkers, two of which ended up as full-tosses. The other two were banged into a hard length. The bulk of these balls were from Mitchell Starc, but Vaibhav Arora also stuck to the same plan with his two balls. This wasn’t two fast bowlers searching for swing from a fullish good length with the new ball. This was death bowling inside the powerplay, and as T20 batting leans more and more towards all-out attack, it’s likely we’ll see a lot more of it in the future.On the day, Fraser-McGurk hit a four and a six and picked out deep square leg while looking to flick Starc for another six.By then, DC had already lost Prithvi Shaw, who had begun ominously with three fours off Starc off the first three balls of the match. He had fallen in innocuous manner, strangling Arora down the leg side.Arora took one more wicket, delivering a peach that straightened off the deck to hit the top of Shai Hope’s off stump. That ball suggested there would be grip for the spinners too, and so it proved.Phil Salt’s successful IPL continued with another fifty•AFP/Getty Images

Chakra-party

Before this match, Varun had endured a difficult season, going at 9.72 while picking up eight wickets in eight games. While Narine had defied flat conditions, particularly in Kolkata, and prevented batters from accessing the boundaries, his spin partner had gone for plenty like every other bowler in KKR’s games.Now, though, Varun had a bit of help from the pitch, and he could have struck first ball had Harshit Rana – who had just dismissed a dangerous-looking Abishek Porel in the previous over – not dropped a sitter off a Rishabh Pant miscue at short third. Pant, though, would go after Varun again in his next over – the 11th of the Capitals innings – and miscue again, with Shreyas pouching him safely in the covers on this occasion.Varun was getting the ball to bite on the surface, and he quickly picked up two more wickets, of Tristan Stubbs and Kumar Kushagra – who came on as Impact Sub in a failed attempt to lengthen DC’s batting and stem the collapse. With Narine dismissing Axar Patel at the other end, Capitals were eight down inside the 15th over.They managed to see out their 20, though, with Kuldeep getting them that far with a mixture of skill and luck. He hit two edged fours in his first four balls, and then hit a six off Starc that was very nearly a catch at deep backward square leg, and eventually finished with a control percentage of 41. They were important runs for DC, though, ensuring that they got to 150.Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer took Kolkata Knight Riders home with 21 balls to spare•BCCI

Salt continues his Eden project

It was evident through the initial stages of KKR’s chase that the slower ball was gripping the surface and stopping on the batters, but it was also evident that DC’s quicks were offering frequent width to free the arms. With Salt and Narine in the form they were in, this was asking for trouble. And the trouble was compounded when Lizaad Williams, who went for 23 in the first over, dropped a straightforward chance off Khaleel Ahmed at the start of the second to reprieve Salt on 15.The openers raced to 79 for 0 in the powerplay, with Salt, who had the bulk of the strike, reaching a 26-ball half-century in the sixth over.Narine went after Axar’s first ball and perished, picking out deep midwicket in the seventh over while trying to hit with the turn, and Axar bowled Salt with a trademark, inward-angling skidder in the ninth. But KKR’s required rate was well below a run a ball, and it remained so even when Williams dismissed Rinku Singh with a good, hard-length ball in the 10th over.KKR had a long, in-form line of batters still to come, and in the end didn’t require Andre Russell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi or Ramandeep Singh to bat, as the two Iyers ticked off the remaining runs with little fuss beyond a mix-up in the 16th over when the match was already all but won.

Fast bowler Gabriel could make first Test appearance since November 2021

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jan-2023Shannon Gabriel could play his first Test in over a year after being recalled for West Indies’ Test squad to tour Zimbabwe later this month. Spinners Jomel Warrican and Gudakesh Motie will also come back into contention after being included in the 15-man party.Gabriel, 34, last featured in the Test side in Sri Lanka in November 2021. He was subsequently sidelined by a hamstring injury, and spent much of last year working to regain fitness; he had a spell in county cricket with Yorkshire and finished joint-leading wicket-taker in the Super50 Cup but was overlooked for West Indies’ Test tour of Australia.However, with Jayden Seales rehabilitating after knee surgery, Gabriel could be reunited with Kemar Roach and Jason Holder in the West Indies seam attack.Warrican also played the last of his 13 Tests in Sri Lanka in 2021, while Motie could add to the sole cap he won against Bangladesh in June last year. West Indies were hit by numerous injuries during their 2-0 defeat in Australia, and have omitted Shamarh Brooks, Anderson Phillip and Marquino Mindley, all of whom played in the second Test in Adelaide.”This is the start of the international calendar for 2023 and we will hope to start with a win,” Desmond Haynes, West Indies’ lead selector, said. “We appreciate it won’t be an easy assignment as Zimbabwe, like most other teams in world cricket, play very well on their home soil on pitches that will support their style of play.”We looked at the conditions we anticipate playing in, and have included two left-arm spinners who didn’t go to Australia in Motie and Warrican. With our fast bowlers, Seales has done extremely well for us since he started back in 2021, but with him unavailable we have decided that Gabriel would be best able to fill that role. He [Gabriel] is an experienced bowler who has been at the international level for over 10 years and has knowledge of the conditions in Zimbabwe when we won there in 2017.”The two-Test series against Zimbabwe, which begins in Bulawayo on February 4, will be overseen by interim coach Andre Coley, following Phil Simmons’ decision to step down.West Indies Test squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Raymon Reifer, Kemar Roach, Devon Thomas, Jomel Warrican

Nurul Hasan was named as Yasir’s concussion substitute, although he won’t be allowed to keep wicket

Mohammad Isam29-Nov-2021Debutant Yasir Ali was taken for scans at a local hospital in Chattogram after being stuck on the back of his helmet during Bangladesh’s second innings on the fourth morning. Wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan was named as Yasir’s concussion substitute, although he won’t be allowed to keep wicket as Yasir isn’t a keeper.The incident occurred at the end of the 30th over when Yasir ducked into a Shaheen Shah Afridi bouncer. Yasir briefly took his eye away from the delivery while getting under the ball, and was hit on the helmet.Bangladesh’s physio Bayejidul Islam checked Yasir immediately, and he went back to batting. But an over later, Bayejid came back to check on Yasir during the drinks break, after which he walked off.The team director Khaled Mahmud confirmed a few minutes later that Yasir was out of the Test match, with Nurul as his replacement. Yasir has been taken to Imperial Hospital for a CT scan. A BCB statement said later that “he is medically stable. However, as a precaution, he will be observed for 24 hours at the hospital.”This is the third time Bangladesh have needed concussion substitutes. The first instance was during the Kolkata Test in 2019 when Liton Das and Nayeem Hasan were struck on the head. Mohammad Saifuddin was also substituted during an ODI against Sri Lanka in May this year.

The allrounder has pulled up with a stiff quad muscle after heavy workload in the second Test

George Dobell23-Jul-2020Ben Stokes could play the series decider against West Indies at Old Trafford as a specialist batsman due to injury.Stokes became the first seam-bowling allrounder since 2004 to deliver more than 20 overs and face more than 400 deliveries at Old Trafford. While his performance helped England secure victory, it also left him with a stiff quad muscle. As a result, England will delay naming their side until the morning of the game.Stokes pulled out of the attack midway through an over towards the end of the Test reporting stiffness. Although he said at the time it was a precaution, it would appear the quick turnaround between games hasn’t provided enough time for a full recovery.Having risen to No. 3 in the ICC’s Test rankings for batsmen, however, there is no question that he will retain his place in the side. It could also be that he bowls later in the game as required.”We’ll have to see where Ben is at because he’s still feeling it a little bit in his quad and we need to make sure he’s fit to bowl,” England captain, Joe Root, said on Thursday. “Ben pretty much spent the whole of the second Test on the field so it was a long old game for him.”He is definitely okay to play as a batsman. It’s just how much of an impact he can have with the ball throughout the whole game and in the second innings.”We talk about looking after everyone but this summer, with so many games in such a short space of time, when you are 150 percent every ball for six games on the bounce, it’s always going to take its toll at some point. We all want to make sure we get the most out of Ben and I’m sure he wants to ride the wave. We all want him to do that as well but it is important he’s looked after.”Root also had praise for Stokes in recognising the potential of the situation and pulling out of bowling when he did. It was, Root suggested, something that the younger, more impetuous Stokes may have struggled to do.”He’s matured so much and I think we saw that when he said he wasn’t quite right to finish the over,” Root said. “That’s a massive step forward for him. It shows his maturity with his cricket because we wouldn’t have seen that a few years ago. He would have kept going and might have done himself some serious damage. It does take a lot to keep him down and take him out of the action.”One option England are likely to consider is playing an all-seam attack. That would mean Dom Bess sits out with Root providing the spin as required. Another option would see England retain Bess, with the three main seamers required to carry a heavier workload.”We’ve got plenty of good options,” Root said. “Whatever combination we go with is definitely capable of taking 20 wickets.”

Chennai Super Kings cruised to their second victory in as many games – even if it did go down to the final over

The Report by Liam Brickhill26-Mar-20193:16

Why Lamichhane would have been a threat in Delhi

This encounter was billed as one between the youthful exuberance of Delhi Capitals and the vast experience of Chennai Super Kings, and the result added substance to the suggestion that T20 is not necessarily a young man’s game. Shikhar Dhawan’s fifty kept Delhi ticking after they opted to bat in their first home match of the season, but they unraveled to Dwayne Bravo at the death and their 147 for 6 never looked like it was enough despite the slowness of the track at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Shane Watson’s rapid 44 put Super Kings well ahead of the asking rate, and by the time the paterfamilias himself, MS Dhoni, walked in, they needed under five an over. Dhoni took it deep – at one point calmly patting away five dots in a row – and let the game go into the final over before Bravo sealed Super Kings’ second win in two, and sixth victory out of eight matches at this venue. Chahar reins them in On a pitch that historically favours spinners even more strongly than even the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the scene of the season opener, Delhi might have been looking to get after Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur as the potential weak links in an otherwise impregnable attack. A spring-loaded Prithvi Shaw spanked three fours in a row in Thakur’s first over, but by the end of his opening spell, Chahar had more than repaired the damage.As he had done on Saturday night, Chahar bowled all four up front and maintained control throughout, sending down 12 dot balls and striking the vital blow when he cramped Shaw for room and a spliced pull was caught at midwicket. By the time Chahar was done at the end of the seventh over, Delhi’s run-rate was a modest 6.85, and with Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, Ravindra Jadeja and Bravo to come, any attempt to up the rate would not be an easy one. Dhawan anchors On a slow, slightly variegated pitch that made fluent strokeplay difficult, Delhi needed someone in the top three to dig in and bat through if they were to set a defendable total. Dhawan got the job two-thirds done with a 47-ball 51 – his 33rd IPL fifty – that set up the innings before Delhi were reined in by Bravo and co. at the death. Sensing the need to bat deep after Shaw fell early, Dhawan used the crease well, going deep or making room to change the angles and open up scoring options in the field. He also picked his moments to attack, swiping back-to-back boundaries off Tahir and then repeating the treatment in Bravo’s first over.But Dhawan’s dismissal was the fourth in eight balls as Delhi misfired at the death. He then missed a tough chance at slip off Ambati Rayudu’s edge in the very first over of the chase, bowled by Ishant Sharma, and then let a pull from Kedar Jadhav burst through his hands as Super Kings marched inexorably to victory later in the evening.Shane Watson pulls with power•BCCI

Bravo’s comeback While Chahar had bowled his four on the trot up front, Dhoni chose to use Bravo’s overs all in one go at the other end of the innings. No one has taken more T20 wickets than Bravo’s 483, and 84 of these dismissals have now come during the last five overs in the IPL – second only to Lasith Malinga’s 96. He is a master tactician during this period, and his 3 for 33 held Delhi back after they had ended the 15th over with a platform set at 118 for 2.On a pitch Bravo called “two-paced” during the mid-match interview, his changes of pace and variations in line and length brought the dismissals of Rishabh Pant, Colin Ingram and a set Dhawan in the midst of Delhi’s collapse to 127 for 5 in the space of one-and-a-half overs. Bravo’s eventual returns were all the more impressive given the way he had started his spell, having leaked 17 runs in his first over. Watto wins the war With the first innings having demonstrated the need for top-order solidity, Watson v Rabada was set up as a key battle as Delhi desperately hunted an inroad into an experienced line-up. The spark between the two was lit in Rabada’s first over, when Watson backed away into a bouncer as the South African quick focused on two lengths: at the boot or at the head. Watson glanced a 150km/h yorker for four and top-edged a bouncer to further rile Rabada up, and at one point the two engaged in what looked like a heated exchange. As much as he tried to force the issue, Rabada’s pace was defanged by the slow track and he just couldn’t break through.It’s the middle overs that Watson dominated last season, striking the ball at over 200 after the Powerplay in overs 7 to 15, but this time around he did the damage in the Powerplay. By the time he fell, stumped off an Amit Mishra ripper, the required rate was well under a run a ball and with the resources at Super Kings’ disposal, it looked like the rest of the chase would be a doddle. Dhoni time The questions about Dhoni’s starting against spin might have grown a little louder had he edged his first ball to slip, rather than over him and away for four. Super Kings needed 50 from 58 when Dhoni entered, numbers which seemed almost too easy for a player of Dhoni’s legendary vintage in white-ball chases. When no further boundaries had been hit seven overs later, Dhoni might have been the only person at the Kotla who wasn’t starting to get a little edgy, but just as things were starting to get tight again, Dhoni did as Dhoni does, slashing Keemo Paul through cover and shellacking Mishra over wide long on as though he’d had planned it all this way. Graciously, he left it to Bravo to hit the winning runs, but remained not out at the end for the 39th time in a successful IPL chase.

Sydney Sixers dominated Perth Scorchers from the start to lift their second Women’s Big Bash League title in three seasons, drawing inspiration from the exemplary bowling of Sarah Coyte

The Report by Daniel Brettig in Adelaide04-Feb-2018Sydney Sixers won their second straight title•Getty Images

Sydney Sixers dominated Perth Scorchers from the start to lift their second Women’s Big Bash League title in three seasons, drawing inspiration from the exemplary bowling of Sarah Coyte after she returned to the team late in the tournament following a much-publicised departure from the game for mental health reasons.Electing to bat, the Scorchers found the early going hard on an Adelaide Oval pitch offering some moisture to the bowlers, and once Coyte struck to deceive and dismiss Elyse Villani, the West Australian side was never able to build the partnerships capable of building a defendable total. Left with a modest chase, the high-powered Sixers batting line-up was never likely to be tested, and galloped home to victory with five overs to spare.Pressure brings wicketsBoth captains had spoken about the need to cope with the pressure of the occasion on the eve of the final, with the memory of Adelaide Strikers’ horrid batting collapse – 6 for 3 – in the semi-final still fresh in everyone’s minds. To that end, the Scorchers started their innings intent on not losing early wickets after Villani won the toss, while at the same time the Sixers bowlers were intent on tight lines and the denial of runs. Runs duly came at a trickle, and only three boundaries were struck in the Powerplay.The longer this Mexican stand-off went on, of course, the more it favoured the Sixers, who created pressure of their own in the minds of Villani and Nicole Bolton through the knowledge of the power contained up the top of their batting line-up. Ultimately, it was this pressure that forced Villani into error, advancing to a change of pace from Coyte while failing to reading either the length or the subtle movement away from the bat. Alyssa Healy pounced on the stumping chance virtually before Villani had the chance to turn around, and clapped her gloves triumphantly in the prone Scorchers’ ears as she ran past to celebrate the vital first breakthrough.Coyte’s day in the sunThe Sixers’ grip on proceedings went from firm to vice-like in the first ball of the eighth over when Kim Garth seamed a ball back on the line of middle and leg to pin Bolton lbw, with Ellyse Perry following up by coaxing an edge from the bat of Natalie Sciver. When Megan Banting fell to Erin Burns, three wickets had fallen in as many overs, Scorchers’ innings well and truly in free-fall.Sarah Coyte celebrates a wicket with team-mates•Getty Images

Chief beneficiary of the game’s decisive turn towards the Sixers was to be Coyte, who followed up her first over deception of Villani by winning in lbw verdict against Thamsyn Newton and then bowling a driving Heather Graham five balls later. Coyte’s figures of 3 for 17 summed up the Sixers’ dominance, while at the same time capping a wonderful return to the game, following her decision to step away from the game in early 2017 to deal with personal health issues. In four matches, she has scooped 10 wickets at a meagre average of 8.10, providing the fresh impetus the Sixers needed towards the end of a lengthy campaign.A simple chaseDefending 99, the Scorchers needed early wickets but were unable to take them, thanks to Perry and Healy. The Sixers innings began in the manner that Villani had perhaps envisaged for the Scorchers, starting slowly then building steadily to a peak of shotmaking aggression – helped of course by the fact the modest target did not bring too much in the way of scoreboard pressure. As is customary, Healy went a little more eagerly for her shots – striking three fours in the fifth over – while Perry played within herself, and together they had taken the required runs down to a mere 36 from 59 balls when Healy was stumped for a 32-ball 41.The remaining runs were gobbled up without much fuss by Perry and Ashleigh Gardner, who reminded all of the powerful hitting that had made her such a key force in the tournament by depositing Katherine Brunt for a towering six over midwicket. Perry was left to hammer the winning runs with a pair of boundaries, meaning the Sixers had won with a yawning nine wickets and five overs to spare.‘Relaxed but focused’Sciver summed up the Scorchers’ anguish at saving their most inept performance for the biggest of days, and agreed the slow going in the early overs had made a rush of wickets more likely. “In a situation like that, it’s always difficult not to lose wickets in clusters and unfortunately we managed to do that a couple of times and never really got a partnership going, which is what has been one of our strengths throughout the season, so not our best batting day,” she said. “It’s a bad day of cricket really from us and we had to play it on the biggest stage in this tournament. Previously, the girls have done brilliantly and throughout the season different people have stood up…we couldn’t have played any worse really.”As for Perry, there was relief at putting it all together in the final, a year after the Sixers had won far more narrowly over the Scorchers. “It was one of our best games of the season certainly, we started the tournament with a bit of a bang in Sydney when we put on 242 and to finish in the fashion we did today was absolutely awesome,” she said. “I thought our composure was absolutely outstanding today, we seemed quite relaxed but really focused in the field. In hindsight, it was probably not a bad toss to lose because there was just a bit of moisture in the wicket early and I think it just held up and gave our bowlers enough to bowl at Elyse and Nicole. We kept the pressure on them and it showed in the end.”Perry reserved special praise for Coyte, and also noted the initiative of the coach Ben Sawyer, who first saw the possibility of bringing Coyte back into the fold. “Firstly, it was an absolute masterstroke from Ben Sawyer, our head coach, he noticed she’d been playing some grade cricket and gave her a call and asked her if she’d be interested,” Perry said. “Secondly, and most importantly it’s been an inspiration not only for the girls in our team but for lots of young girls who’ve watched her play. Coytey’s got an extraordinary story and she’s so strong and such a fighter and been really brave in what she’s gone through and how she’s spoken about it as well. To see her perform on the biggest stage and slot back into the team is a true testament to the character of her and how brave she is.”