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Joe Root readies himself for a bigger role with the ball in Moeen Ali’s absence

George Dobell12-Jan-2021Joe Root has hinted that England will opt to field an extra seamer in the first Test of their series in Sri Lanka, rather than adding a third spinner to their attack.Despite playing at Galle, a venue with a long-earned reputation for favouring spin bowling, England are set to select only two specialist spinners in Dom Bess and Jack Leach. They are likely to pick three seamers and turn to the part-time spin of Root and Dan Lawrence as required.Ahead of the tour, it had seemed likely England that would pick three spinners in each Test. Since 2016, spinners have claimed twice as many wickets as seamers in Tests at Galle – the venue for both Tests in this series – and have done so at a lower overall average, strike rate and economy rate.Related

• Bess and Leach have their work cut out for them in India

• England mull third spin option with Moeen ruled out

• Woakes resigned to first-Test absence

• Moeen faces extended quarantine in SL

• Bess 'can't wait' to renew Leach partnership

On England’s last tour to Sri Lanka, in late 2018, spin accounted for 100 wickets – the most ever in a three-Test series – while James Anderson and Stuart Broad claimed only one wicket between them. England used a three-man spin attack comprising Moeen Ali, Jack Leach and Adil Rashid in all three Tests, who claimed 48 wickets between them in a 3-0 win (Root’s offspin accounted for a 49th).But illness and absence have reduced their options. Moeen, England’s joint leading wicket-taker with Leach on the last tour, has been ruled out of contention having contracted Covid-19, while Rashid has limited himself to limited-overs cricket as he comes to terms with a long-term shoulder problem. Other options, such as Liam Dawson, are also unavailable through injury.That leaves England with three choices for third spinner. Although none of Matt Parkinson, Mason Crane and Amar Virdi are officially part of the Test squad at present, they are all part of the tour party as reserves and are considered to be available for selection.Only Crane has previously played Test cricket – he took 1 for 193 in Sydney at the start of 2018 – but he underwhelmed in the warm-up match (he conceded 37 from five overs, though he did dismiss Zak Crawley when he attempted to run a short ball to third man). Virdi didn’t bowl at all in that match, while Parkinson’s last first-class appearance was in September 2019. It is a situation which raises familiar questions about the lack of opportunities provided to developing spinners in the county game.England’s options have been diminished further by the likely absence of two seam-bowling allrounders. Ben Stokes has been rested for this tour, while Chris Woakes was obliged to spend the first week of it in quarantine having been deemed a close contact of Moeen. As a result, Woakes was unable to participate in the warm-up game and may be considered a little short of match fitness in conditions which are expected to be hot and humid.Sam Curran is set to play ahead of Chris Woakes or a third spinner•ECB

Those draining conditions – and the lack of the usual preparation time – might persuade England not to place too many demands on individual bowlers. And with Sri Lanka’s batsmen not always looking comfortable against pace, England are likely to want one of their quicker bowlers – Olly Stone or Mark Wood – alongside the allrounder, Sam Curran, and one of Broad or Anderson.That means Root, who took his Test-best figures of 4 for 122 at Port Elizabeth at the start of 2020, may well be obliged to contribute with the ball, while Lawrence and, to a lesser extent, Dom Sibley provide further part-time options.”I’ve readied myself for it [a role with the ball],” Root said. “I’ve prepared for it in practice and it does seem to be coming out OK at the moment. If it is the case that I need to bowl longer spells than previously and take a bigger workload in this series, then I’m looking forward to that challenge. It’s certainly an option and it will come down to the balance of the side.”As you’d expect in Galle, it’s going to spin. It’s just when in the game it’s going to spin – that’s the question.”But the pitch does look very different here from memory to what it did on previous tours. I don’t think it’s going to be miles away from what you’d expect a Galle wicket to play like, but if there’s weather around in the Test match and there’s a tacky nature to the pitch and it sweats with the covers on that probably brings seam into the game a bit more than it might normally do. Everything is pointing towards it being a bowlers’ game.”While Root will wait for another look at the pitch and the weather conditions before confirming his side – Galle has been hit by unseasonable rain in recent days – he did confirm he will bat at No. 4, with Jonny Bairstow at No. 3. He also said that Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley will open, and has previously confirmed that Jos Buttler will keep wicket.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

While he acknowledged that England’s lack of preparation time – they go into the series having played just one day of warm-up cricket – is far from ideal, he knows they have to start well to have a hope of winning the two-match series. The fact that they’ve lost the first Test in five of their last six series is not lost on him.”The preparations and build-up time is not ideal,” Root said. “There’s no point hiding behind the fact: we haven’t had the ideal lead-up to this series. It’s probably the shortest lead-up we’ve ever had going into an away Test match series. But regardless, it is about making sure we start the game well. So many times in these two-match series, it’s imperative you get off to a good start.”It’s something we’re desperate to keep improving on. We’ve started series poorly, as was mentioned last summer, and if we are to keep improving as a team we can’t be behind the eight ball going into the second Test match of every series.”The way we are going to do that is by scoring big first-innings runs and controlling the game. If we can manage to do that I think we’ll have success here.”

At the 14th attempt, the unthinkable happened: the team asked to bat first managed to win a match

Matt Roller03-Mar-2021At the 14th attempt, the unthinkable happened: the team that lost the toss and were asked to bat first managed to win a match in the 2021 Pakistan Super League.Winless in their first four games of the season, Quetta Gladiators were unlikely candidates to break the infamous chasing streak, and it was an unlikely contender who fired them to a defendable total. Usman Khan, making his official T20 debut at the age of 25, hit 81 off 50 balls to lead them to 176 for 7, a total which could and should have been significantly higher but for a stumble in the middle overs.Related

• PCB offers Covid-19 vaccine to all PSL 2021 participants

• PCB mulls playing entire PSL in Karachi after recent Covid-19 cases

• Dale Steyn: PSL more rewarding, cricket can get forgotten at the IPL

With the ball, the wizardry of their two main spinners, Qais Ahmad and Mohammad Nawaz, was key, as Multan Sultans became the first side to fall short in a chase despite yet another half-century from Mohammad Rizwan – his third in five innings to date in this tournament.Usman Khan’s debut fireworksAll of the talk about Quetta Gladiators coming into this season revolved around their top-order batting, and specifically their two platinum picks at January’s draft. In Chris Gayle and Tom Banton, they had a ready-made opening partnership between the one of the GOATs in the shortest format and one of its brightest young talents.Things have not played out as planned. Gayle played two innings at No. 3 before departing for Antigua, winning a recall to West Indies’ T20I set-up at the age of 41, while Banton was dropped after making nine runs in two innings and watched Wednesday night’s game from self-isolation after testing positive for Covid-19.In their absence, the unknown Usman was plucked from obscurity and played one of the innings of the season to date. He was last seen playing in the D20 tournament in the UAE in December, having made a couple of first-class appearances for Karachi Whites in October 2017, but was thrown in at the deep end alongside the 18-year-old Saim Ayub and got the Gladiators off to a flying start.Usman was strong all around the ground, but particularly square of the wicket, with a preference for the leg side. He was particularly punishing against Carlos Brathwaite, whom he hit for 27 in 11 balls including a four and two sixes at the end of the 13th, but his best shot was a clean strike over long-on against Imran Tahir.Sultans fight backTahir was making his first appearance of the season, coming into the side alongside Imran Khan and Shan Masood as Usman Qadir, Shahid Afridi and Chris Lynn were left out. It was an emotional night for him, as he dedicated his first wicket to his close friend Tahir Mughal, who passed away in January following a battle with cancer.And Tahir’s second wicket, which saw him trap Usman lbw when reverse-sweeping on 81, sparked a mini-collapse. Faf du Plessis had struggled for timing, making a run-a-ball 17 and playing on off Sohail Khan the ball after Usman’s dismissal, and it took a pair of cameos from Azam Khan and Mohammad Nawaz to drag the Gladiators to 176 for 7 after their 20 overs.Shahnawaz Dhani bowled some superb yorkers at the death, managing to extract movement from the old ball at high pace, but struggled for consistency and ended up conceding 44 from his four overs.Rizwan’s strong startRizwan and James Vince started the chase well, racing to 53 for 0 inside the powerplay to stay level with the required rate as they took advantage of a loose start from the Gladiators’ seamers and feasted on the legspinner Zahid Mahmood. Sarfaraz Ahmed also burned both of his side’s reviews early on.But Qais and Nawaz came on after the powerplay and immediately put the brakes on. Qais removed Vince in his first over, feathering an edge through to Sarfaraz, and pinned Shan Masood lbw trying to sweep in his second. The four overs immediately after the powerplay brought only 16 runs, leaving the required rate up at 10.8.Rizwan led the rebuilding job, surviving an optimistic stumping shout from Sarfaraz on 49 but batting with the fluency that has defined his tournament, but Qais struck for a third time as Rilee Rossouw spooned a catch to fine leg. Sohaib Maqsood holed out to long-on, leaving Khushdil Shah as the only real support for Rizwan, and despite an expensive third over from Dale Steyn, the rate continued to look beyond them.The curse is brokenMohammad Hasnain made two breakthroughs bowling at high pace in his third over, removing both Shah and Brathwaite, leaving Rizwan as the last man standing. He holed out off Mahmood, who had Sohail caught at long-on a ball later, and should have had a hat-trick but for Ben Cutting’s drop at mid-off. Tahir whacked a six over the covers off Hasnain, but the Gladiators managed to close the game out regardless.The Gladiators are still bottom of the pile on net run-rate, level on points with the Sultans. Both sides have identical records, having lost four games out of five, and are already in real danger of missing out on the play-offs.

India captain gained 47 rating points and moved up one slot following scores of 73 and 77

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Mar-2021India’s captain Virat Kohli has moved back into the top five of the ICC’s T20I rankings for batsmen, while England’s Jos Buttler jumped into the top 20 as a result of performances in the ongoing five-match series in Ahmedabad.Kohli, who has led the T20I rankings before and currently tops the ODI table, gained 47 rating points and moved up one slot after making unbeaten scores of 73 and 77 in the last two matches. Buttler meanwhile advanced five places to 19th after his match-winning 83 had fired England to a 2-1 lead on Tuesday.Jonny Bairstow, who shared a 77-run partnership with Buttler in the third T20I, jumped two places to 14th, while Jason Roy was rewarded for scores of 49 and 46 in the first two matches by moving up to 24th. In the bowlers’ rankings, Jofra Archer (34th), Mark Wood (39th) and Sam Curran (74th) all made gains.For India, Shreyas Iyer (31st) and Rishabh Pant (80th) made up ground in the batting list, while Washington Sundar (11th), Shardul Thakur (27th) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (45th) all advanced in the bowlers’ rankings.Related

• Whom should India open with in the fourth T20I?

• Stick or twist for England, India with series at stake

• Test rankings: Pant, Rohit joint-seventh; Ashwin moves up to No. 2

• Ashton Agar and Ish Sodhi move up in T20I bowlers' rankings

In the ODI rankings for batsmen, West Indies’ Shai Hope shot up to joint-seventh, after he had been named the Player of the Series against Sri Lanka for his recent scores of 110, 84 and 64. Following West Indies’ 3-0 series win, Nicholas Pooran (32nd), Evin Lewis (44th) and Darren Bravo (99th) also climbed up the rankings, while seamer Alzari Joseph advanced seven places to a career-best 27th in the bowlers’ list.Afghanistan’s Hashmatullah Shahidi was the biggest mover in the Test rankings for batsmen, leaping 47 spots to 90th, after becoming the first person from his country to score a double-century, against Zimbabwe. The team’s captain Asghar Afghan, who scored 164 and shared a fourth-wicket stand of 307 with Shahidi, moved up to a career-best 65th on the list. Rashid Khan, who bowled almost 100 overs in the second Test, vaulted nine places to 32nd in the bowlers rankings.Zimbabwe captain Sean Williams, who had kept Afghanistan waiting with his defiant 151 after following on, moved to a career-high 24th on the batting list with 621 rating points, the most by any player from the country since Brendan Taylor in 2014.

This time the wickets were shared around with Peter Siddle taking three

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Mar-2021
It took Tasmania rather longer to bowl New South Wales out a second time, but they wrapped up a 298-run hammering with more than a day to spare following yesterday’s record-breaking 32 all out for the visitors.Second time around New South Wales were six down with less than 100 on the board before some lower-order resistance from Mitchell Starc and Trent Copeland. The defeat leaves them fractionally behind Queensland in second place with them facing the Bulls in their last match in early April which could decide who hosts the final, although Queensland have two games to play.On this occasion the wickets were shared around by the Tasmania attack with Peter Siddle’s 3 for 31 worthy rewarded after he also bowled superbly in the first innings when Jackson Bird had his day out.It was Siddle who started things off for Tasmania when Daniel Hughes shouldered arms and lost his middle stump in the eighth over. In his next over, Siddle hit the perfect channel to find the outside edge of Nick Larkin.Related

• NSW set new low with 32 all out, Bird 7 for 18

• Ian Healy Oval to become Australia's newest first-class venue

As they had in the first innings Tasmania’s seamers largely pitched the ball full and found enough movement to make life very tricky for the batsmen. However, Kurtis Patterson certainly wore the expression of someone who had received a rough decision when he was given caught behind off left-armer Sam Rainbird but there was no doubt about Rainbird’s second when Jason Sangha picked out point with a flashing drive.Daniel Solway battled for 100 deliveries before receiving a ball from Siddle that he could do little about as it bounced from just short of a length to take the shoulder of the bat to gully.When Peter Nevill edged Jarrod Freeman to slip – via Tim Paine’s pad – to give the offspinner his first wicket of the game it appeared things could finish very quickly but Starc and Copeland added 60 in 10 overs.Starc then missed a sweep off Freeman and Nathan Lyon was given lbw against Bird but Copeland was able to bring up a 49-ball fifty which included two hooked sixes.

New Zealand allrounder to stay in UK following World Test Championship final

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-2021Hampshire have signed Colin de Grandhomme, the New Zealand allrounder, for the second half of the T20 Blast.Having undergone ankle surgery after missing the home international season through injury, de Grandhomme is expected to be fit enough to take his place in New Zealand’s Test squad for their tour of England, which includes the World Test Championship final against India at the Ageas Bowl from June 18-22.Related

• De Grandhomme 'should be ready' for England tour

• Uncapped Ravindra and Duffy in NZ squad for England tour

• Phillips signs Gloucestershire deal for T20 Blast

• Amir joins Kent for second half of T20 Blast

He will join up with Hampshire immediately after the WTC final – most likely in time for their fixture against Somerset on June 25 – and is expected to be available for the final eight games of the Blast’s group stage. It is unclear whether he would be available for the knockout stages, with a five-week gap between the final round of group games and the quarter-finals. He has become a specialist at attacking spinners in the middle overs of T20s in recent years, and provides an extra bowling option with his cutters.Hampshire are de Grandhomme’s second county after two years playing for the Birmingham Bears in 2017 and 2018. He is the fifth New Zealand international to sign a contract for this summer’s Blast, following Glenn Phillips (Gloucestershire), James Neesham (Essex), Finn Allen (Lancashire) and Lockie Ferguson (Yorkshire).Hampshire have won the Blast twice, in 2010 and 2012, but have endured a poor run in the competition over the last five seasons: since 2016, they have won only 21 of their 60 completed games, fewer than any other county.

Forty women from 29 ICC member countries will be mentored as part of the programme

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jun-2021Brazil captain Roberta Avery, USA Cricket board member and batter Nadia Gruny, and Indian referee Vijeylaxmi Narasimhan are among a total of 40 women from 29 ICC member countries who will be mentored as part of the inaugural ICC 100% Cricket Future Leaders Programme, designed to support emerging women leaders in cricket.Greg Barclay, the ICC chair, former Pakistan Women captain Sana Mir and former West Indies bowler and now broadcaster Ian Bishop are among the mentors.In a statement, ICC described the programme as a part of its “long-term commitment to accelerate the growth of women’s cricket and women in cricket”, and said that there had been more than 300 applicants from 45 different countries before the final 40 had been selected.”The initial intake will be split into two batches and the programme, which (is) designed to address the low percentage of women in leadership positions in global cricket and build a pipeline of new female leaders in cricket will get underway with batch one beginning this month,” the statement said.”The first two batches reflect the diversity of our regions and their areas of focus, and all have received outstanding endorsements from their respective Member Boards,” Claire Furlong, ICC general manager – marketing and communications, said in the statement. “The next six months will be incredibly exciting, and we look forward to a productive learning experience for our mentees.”Batch 1

• Mentor: Greg Barclay (governance and board); Mentee: Nadia Gruny (USA)
• Mentor: Wasim Khan (management); Mentee: Joanna Taylor (ICC)
• Mentor: Andrea Nelson (senior management and events); Mentee: Fizza Abid (Pakistan)
• Mentor: Steve Elworthy (governance and board); Mentee: Tracey Pitt (Bermuda)
• Mentor: Michelle Enright (commercial and business of cricket); Mentee: Ewa Ostaszewska (Ireland)
• Mentor: Hilton Moreeng (coaching); Mentee: Helmien Rambaldo (Netherlands)
• Mentor: Claire Polosak (match officiating); Mentee: Vijeylaxmi Narasimhan (India)
• Mentor: Sana Mir (player growth); Mentee: Benafsha Hashimi (Afghanistan)
• Mentor: Divya Gokulnath (commercial and overall leadership); Mentee: Anna Shaw (England)
• Mentor: Anthony Everard (fan engagement); Mentee: Vaishali Jesrani (Oman)
• Mentor: Sharda Ugra (media and journalism); Mentee: Roberta Morretti Avery (Brazil)
• Mentor: Ian Bishop (broadcasting); Mentee: Xolile Mabuza (South Africa)
• Mentor: Dhiraj Malhotra (game development and events operations); Mentee: Caitlin Spencer (Australia)
• Mentor: Christina Matthews (development); Mentee: Iriho Veronique (Rwanda)
• Mentor: Gemma Davies (digital communications); Mentee: La Donna Williams (West Indies)
• Mentor: Jodie Hawkins (leadership and senior management); Mentee: Mariamma Hyder (Kuwait)
• Mentor: Lisa Keightley (coaching); Mentee: Naome Kayondo Bagenda (Uganda)
• Mentor: Karren Rogers (digital partnerships and fan engagement); Mentee: Nicole Dunn (New Zealand)
• Mentor: Will Glenwright (development); Mentee: Rosy Ryan (Scotland)
• Mentor: Chris Tetley (events and development); Mentee: Charilitah Wambui (Kenya)

Mentees for Batch 2 (starting November 2021)
Tuba Sangar (Afghanistan), Joan Norton (Australia), Lucy Pringle (England), Stephanie Frohnmayer (Germany), Tammy Chu (Hong Kong), Laura Peacock (ICC), Harini Rana (India), Niamh O’Shea (Ireland), Nicky Britten (New Zealand), Ijeoma Azubuike (Nigeria), Marina Iqbal (Pakistan), Margaret Sibona (Papua New Guinea), Samantha Hickman (Peru), Shivani Mishra (Qatar), Stella Siale Vaea-Tangitau (Samoa), Abbi Aitken (Scotland), Karen Smithies (South Africa), Michell Pereira (Sri Lanka), Amanda Reifer (West Indies), Mary-Anne Musonda (Zimbabwe).

Each of the men’s sides hands out 16 contracts for the summer

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jul-2021All the domestic squads in New Zealand have now been confirmed with the final contract spots handed out among the six teams who will compete for the Plunket Shield, Ford Trophy and Super Smash.Canterbury dominated the 2020-21 season by winning the Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy while Wellington, with Finn Allen and Devon Conway part of their top order, secured the Super Smash.Here’s how the squads line-up for the 2021-22 summer.NZ = New Zealand central contract

Auckland

Adithya Ashok, Cole Briggs, Mark Chapman, Louis Delport, Lockie Ferguson (NZ), Danru Ferns, Matthew Gibson, Martin Guptill (NZ), Ryan Harrison, Ben Horne, Kyle Jamieson (NZ), Ben Lister, Robert O’Donnell, William O’Donnell, Glenn Phillips (NZ), Ollie Pringle, Sean Solia, Will Somerville, Ross ter Braak, George Worker

Canterbury

Todd Astle, Chad Bowes, Jack Boyle, Leo Carter, Harry Chamberlain, Sean Davey, Cam Fletcher, Andrew Hazeldine, Matt Henry (NZ), Tom Latham (NZ), Ken McClure, Cole McConchie, Daryl Mitchell (NZ), Henry Nicholls (NZ), Ed Nuttall, Will O’Rourke, Fraser Sheat, Henry Shipley, Theo van Woerkom, Will Williams

Central Districts

Doug Bracewell, Tom Bruce, Josh Clarkson, Dane Cleaver, Joey Field, Greg Hay, Jayden Lennox, Christian Leopard, Adam Milne, Ajaz Patel, Seth Rance, Brad Schmulian, Ben Smith, Ross Taylor (NZ), Blair Tickner, Ray Toole, Bayley Wiggins, Will Young (NZ)

Northern Districts

Peter Bocock, Trent Boult (NZ), Joe Carter, Katene Clarke, Kristian Clarke, Henry Cooper, Colin de Grandhomme (NZ), Matthew Fisher, Zak Gibson, Brett Hampton, Scott Kuggeleijn, Bharat Popli, Brett Randell, Jeet Raval, Mitchell Santner (NZ), Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi (NZ), Tim Southee (NZ), Neil Wagner (NZ), Freddy Walker, Joe Walker, Kane Williamson (NZ), Anurag Verma

Otago

Matt Bacon, Neil Broom, Max Chu, Jacob Duffy, Josh Finnie, Jake Gibson, Nick Kelly, Anaru Kitchen, Angus McKenzie, Jarrod McKay, Travis Muller, Dale Phillips, Michael Rae, Michael Rippon, Mitch Renwick, Hamish Rutherford

Wellington

Finn Allen, Hamish Bennett, Jakob Bhula, Tom Blundell (NZ), Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway (NZ), Luke Georgeson, Jamie Gibson, Troy Johnson, Callum McLachlan, Iain McPeake, Jimmy Neesham (NZ), Ollie Newton, Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears, Nathan Smith, Michael Snedden, Logan van Beek, Peter Younghusband

Karunaratne, who top-scored in the first ODI, said the fact that most of the batting order had got starts was encouraging

Andrew Fidel Fernando18-Jul-2021Although none of Sri Lanka’s batters hit a half-century in the first ODI, the team has the ability to put up scores that will challenge India – something beyond 300. This was what allrounder Chamika Karunaratne said following Sri Lanka’s drubbing in the match. Karunaratne had top-scored from No. 8, hitting 43 off 35 balls, but five other Sri Lanka batters had made scores greater than 20.Karunaratne said the fact that most of the batting order had got starts was encouraging.”A lot of our batsmen got good starts, but a lot of us weren’t able to continue,” he said. “We were trying to play longer innings – even when I was batting with Dasun Shanaka in the 42nd or 43rd over I asked him if I should go for some big shots, but he told me to wait until the 45th over. If more of our batsmen had been able to bat longer, we could have attacked earlier and gone for a bigger score. We do have the ability to get to 300 or 350, and hopefully that will happen in the next games.”Related

• Dasun Shanaka urges young Sri Lanka side to 'keep faith in the process'

• Series on the line as ailing Sri Lanka prepare to face mighty India again

• Report: Dhawan, Kishan, Shaw lead Sri Lanka rout

Sri Lanka’s innings had been beset by slower-than-ideal batting and the team had especially struggled to rotate the strike against the spinners, through the middle overs. They played out 159 dot balls through the course of their 50 overs.”This wicket was playing a bit slow, so we did talk during our innings about putting the ball into gaps and running hard a little bit more,” Karunaratne said. “But they also bowled really well. They bowled in good areas and their captain managed the field well.”On the field, Sri Lanka were essentially blown off the park. They conceded fifty runs inside the first five overs, and 100 inside 13 overs. Karunaratne said India’s rapid scoring rate was partly down to Sri Lanka going in search of wickets as well.”We tried to get wickets rather than bowl dot balls. We tried to use our bouncers and our pace. They are a top team and we knew they would attack us. If we’d taken wickets we would have been able to pull them back. We were able to get one in the powerplay, and if we’d had another one or two in the powerplay we would have been able to change the game a little bit. “

Eve Jones top-scored for the home side but a total of 128 was never quite enough

Andrew Miller23-Jul-2021London Spirit overcame a late clatter of wickets to scramble to a three-wicket win with four balls to spare at Edgbaston, as a crowd of 6,317 – a record for a domestic women’s game outside of London in the professional era – were treated to another tense encounter in which Birmingham Phoenix did their utmost to defend a sub-par total of 128.In the end, they fell short, but not before giving their visitors an almighty scare – primarily through the efforts of Emily Arlott, whose two wickets in three balls were followed by a third in four moments later, as the well-set Deepti Sharma slapped an Erin Burns full-toss to deep midwicket, to reduce Spirit to a rocky 108 for 6, with exactly 20 from 20 required.That equation had been chipped down to six from seven by Amara Carr and Charlotte Dean, when Katie Mack swept round from deep midwicket with a bullet return to run out Dean as she raced back for the second. However, Danielle Gibson settled the nerves with a first-ball reverse-sweep to level the scores, and the game too one ball later, as Georgia Elwiss was picked off through backward square for Gibson’s matchwinning boundary.Dattani seizes her stage

Spirit had been streaking away with the game in the early exchanges of their chase, thanks largely to Naomi Dattani, an unheralded allrounder who seized an unlikely chance to set the tempo at the top of the order.Had Tammy Beaumont not been a surprise absentee – she is quarantining for Spirit’s first two games after being given permission to attend a family wedding last week – Dattani may not have played at all. Instead she romped to 34 from 19, outgunning her more vaunted opening partner Deandra Dottin in the process. Dottin made a run-a-ball 9 before falling to the up-and-coming speedster, Issy Wong, who pinned her on the crease for a plumb lbw.Devious Davies does for Verma

After winning the toss and bowling, London Spirit’s early objective was a simple one – get rid of Shafali Verma as soon as feasibly possible. A brace of fours in Dattani’s opening spell served early warning of her power and poise, even as Dottin prised an early opening by luring Mack in a cramped hack at a surprise full toss.But Freya Davies, whose lanky, languid action so had so nearly speared a first-ball yorker into Mack’s off stump, returned for a second set with a stupendous piece of trickery. An outstanding slower ball floated down through Verma’s advances to slap her leg stump and send her on her way for a run-a-ball 13, and when the captain, Heather Knight, popped up with a golden-arm first delivery that Arlott could only flash to short cover, Phoenix’s top order were in ashes.The Jones and Jones show

And yet, from 37 for 3 after 36 balls, Phoenix produced an admirable attempt to live up to their own name, as the Joneses – Eve and Amy – came together in a stand of 64 from the next 31.Complementing one another with their left-and-right combination, just as surely as they confounded Spirit’s lines of attack, the pair took it in turns to propel the score forward – 14 fours and a six between them, the latter a fumble over the rope at square leg as Davies failed to cling on to a crashing pull from Amy Jones.The return of Dean brought an end to their stand, as Amy gave herself room for a wipe over the off-side and had her stumps rearranged, while Eve missed out on a well-deserved fifty when she over-reached on a wide one from Dottin and toe-ended a looping chance to short cover.