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Zimbabwe denied Netherlands their third straight championship at the T20 World Cup Qualifier as the hosts defended a total of 132 to secure a 37-run win in the final in Bulawayo. Netherlands – who have already claimed a spot at the T20 World Cup – collapsed from 45 for 2 to be bowled out for 95 in 18.2 overs as Sikandar Raza’s extraordinary tournament concluded in a Player-of-the-Match performance as he took 4 for 8.The result means that Zimbabwe will go to Hobart for the opening round of the T20 World Cup in Australia this October, where they will be in a group with Ireland, Scotland and West Indies. Netherlands will be sent to Geelong for their opening round fixtures against Namibia, Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates. The top two teams in each opening round group will advance to the Super 12 stage.Both teams had produced dominant performances with the bat throughout the tournament before a low-scoring thriller unfolded on Sunday in which nobody made more than the 28 off 25 balls by Sean Williams at No. 3. But along with Regis Chakabva’s 27 off 16 balls, it was significant enough to put Zimbabwe in a defendable position.Logan van Beek struck in the third over for Netherlands, bowling captain Craig Ervine, who was attempting to back away from leg stump for a booming drive, for 10. Chakabva paid the price for trying one too many reverse shots to Bas de Leede’s medium pace and was given lbw in the fifth. Wessly Madhevere was next to go, sweeping a full toss from left-arm spinner Tim Pringle out to deep midwicket for 9 to make it 54 for 3.But Williams and Raza came together for the biggest partnership of the match, adding 39 for the fourth wicket to get Zimbabwe back on solid ground. The stand finally ended when Williams heaved a half-tracker from legspinner Shariz Ahmad out to deep midwicket.Van Beek returned in the 13th and was on a hat-trick a short time later during a double-wicket maiden. A one-handed swipe to the leg side by Milton Shumba produced a swirling top edge taken by wicketkeeper Scott Edwards. Raza crossed with the ball in the air and fell on the next delivery for 19 playing across the line to a back of a length delivery and was given lbw.Zimbabwe only scored two more boundaries the rest of the innings, but both were struck by Ryan Burl to start and finish a pivotal 10-run over bowled by Fred Klaassen in the 17th. Burl was run out for 15 in the first ball of the 18th over, and the tail was wiped out a short time later with three balls left unused.Madhevere trapped Netherlands opener Max O’Dowd heaving across the line for 12 in the third over of the chase before de Leede, the hero of semi-final win over USA, became Madhevere’s second lbw victim in the space of five balls. But Netherlands recovered well from 17 for 2 to speed along to 43 by the end of the powerplay thanks to Stephan Myburgh and Tom Cooper.That was until chaos erupted in the seventh when Cooper was run out by a direct hit from short fine leg to the non-striker’s end for 9. After hitting two fours and three sixes during the powerplay, Netherlands did not find the rope again until the 17th over as spinners Raza and Williams strangled the run rate.The mounting pressure finally burst in the 10th when Myburgh was pinned in front for 22 during a wicket-maiden for Raza. Another false sweep followed from Edwards in the 11th as he top-edged Williams to short fine leg for 7.Raza then bowled Logan van Beek in the 12th for a third-ball duck before ending his spell with wickets on his final two deliveries, bowling Pringle for 4 and pinning Klaassen in front for a golden duck. Netherlands slid from 17 for 6 to 62 for 8.A late burst of sixes from Paul van Meekeren and Teja Nidamanuru off Burl’s legspin in the 17th produced a 14-run over. But van Meekeren was dismissed by Jongwe two balls into the 18th for 10 before Richard Ngarava removed Nidamanuru in the next over to end the match.Papua New Guinea defended a total of 97 to beat USA by five runs in the third place playoff at Bulawayo Athletic Club. USA needed 11 runs to win off 12 balls with three wickets in hand before captain Assad Vala struck twice with his offspin in the 19th, including No. 6 batter Vatsal Vaghela for a top score of 29 chipping a skied drive to extra cover. Chad Soper then speared a yorker into middle stump on the first ball of the 20th to bowl Yasir Mohammad for 16 to clinch a dramatic consolation win.In the fifth place playoff, Uganda held on in almost identical circumstances, defending 102 to beat Hong Kong by four runs. Hong Kong needed six runs off three balls with four wickets in hand, but Cosmas Kyewuta bowled Zeeshan Ali for 26 and then removed Ehsan Khan first ball. No. 10 batter Aftab Hussain could only manage a single after entering to face the final ball. Jersey comfortably chased down a target of 141 with 26 balls to spare to beat Singapore by six wickets in the seventh place playoff.

Babar Azam, the Pakistan captain, wants his side to be done with the traditional style of playing one-day cricket. He wants his batsmen to eradicate any sense of doubt in their minds; to be fearless so they can post totals in the region of 350 a lot more often. And all that might just start with the first ODI against South Africa on Friday.Pakistan teams have shown improvement in this regard in the domestic circuit, with run-rates on a steady increase over the past few years – 2016 (5.25), 2017 (6.34), 2018 (6.62), 2019 (6.45). But in 2020 it plummeted to 5.90. The trend of 320-plus scores, however, has increased. There were 15 of these in last year alone – a marked rise from the seven each in 2018 and 2019.Having played only five ODIs since the end of the 2019 World Cup, Pakistan haven’t had a lot of occasion to translate those numbers into international cricket. But the chance has finally come now.”Definitely, we need improvement all the time,” Babar said ahead of the Centurion ODI in a virtual press conference. “You might see a fluctuation in performance between two games but we need to be consistent and with every passing day and the more games we play, we are gaining more experience as a team. We try to go fearless and we understand that is the best way forward. The World Cup is in two years and we have to be consistent in playing a set of players and keep on playing the same combination which will eventually bring in confidence in the team as well as in individual players.”Pakistan have been tweaking their combination a lot lately, but their focus now appears to be on finding a set of seven or eight players who can serve as the team’s nucleus. “When you play the same group of players, this will actually set the momentum and then you see a difference in every aspect of the game either about strike-rate, total we score, or the overall performance,” Babar said. “We definitely have to match up with modern-day cricket and we are figuring out how to adapt the approach.”There is a sense of responsibility among players to keep on lifting their strike-rate and only then we are able to have our required total. We have a settled top order and with any one of them going till the end with finishers in late middle order we can easily touch 350. We have given everyone their individual plans and even they themselves know how to go out and play according to the demanding situations these days. Going fearless isn’t impossible. We have to eradicate this sense that we cannot do it, rather we should instill that we can, we will and we have the capability. We have an approach in mind in line with what is required in modern-day cricket and prepared accordingly.”Pakistan were the first subcontinent side to win a bilateral ODI series in South Africa in 2013-14, and either side of that lost two five-match series by the deciding game. Since 2010, Pakistan has a 6-7 win-loss in 50-overs cricket in South Africa and Babar hopes they can be competitive again.”Of course you have to move on according to the modern cricket and set your targets but you have to be watchful about the opponent’s strength as well,” he said. “They are good at home in their own conditions but we have played well in the past. The difference has been the bounce, but in white-ball cricket, it actually helps batsmen. These are true pitches and as a batsman when you settled in, you have the ball coming on your bat nicely and you enjoy a lot. South Africa have got a good combination but we have our bases covered and expect a good series. We are here with a point of view to win it as the games are going to win us important points for World Cup qualification.”

Pakistan know that defeat to South Africa on Sunday is virtually not an option if they are to stem the backlash the team are facing at home after their defeat to India. Ever since the loss, speculation in Pakistan has been rife once again of factionalism within the side and of deteriorating support for the captain Sarfaraz Ahmed.That was rubbished by Mohammad Hafeez on Thursday and on Friday one of their most resolute World Cup performers, left-arm paceman Wahab Riaz, turned up at Lord’s to remind fans that, “none of us like the fact that we lost to India, we feel very strongly at having disappointed people, I’d say we are more hurt and disappointed than people back at home.”When asked whether the public disappointment to the defeat had affected the team, Wahab said “there is demoralisation when they are personal attacks on us in the media. Criticise us, criticise our performances and we will accept it because we want to do perform better.” He said that what bothered players was when the criticism of the players involved their families as it has in the case of Shoaib Malik. “I think if people stay away from getting our families into it and focus on our game, that’s more important.”Wahab is in his third World Cup, one of the team’s more experienced players, and said that the team has found a way to band together to prepare for the South Africa match. “The players are each other’s strength. When we speak to people at home, they tell us why did you do this, if you’d done that, you’d have done better. So as a team we know we can lift each other up more than what even our families can do.”He reminded the public back home that “Pakistan plays better under pressure and inshallah, we will quality for the finals and semi-finals.” Accepting that the team’s progress in the competition was beyond their direct results, Wahab said, “Our focus is on beating South Africa, and we know we shouldn’t get ahead or think about the future. We need to go one by one on what do every day. On what we do in the now and not what is happening elsewhere. We shouldn’t be thinking about the future beyond the one by one. Everything one by one.”He did say that he thought the Pakistan team had “more talent” than the South Africans despite the quality of the opposition bowling. “But execution of skills is everything,” he added. “They have failed in that aspect as well like we did, we had matches we could have won. In this match it depends on who handles pressure better and plays better. They will win.”The team had spoken about their cricket and their mistakes in past matches “openly.” “Good teams are those that discuss and talk about their mistakes openly to each other and we’ve done that. Inshallah we will make up for our mistakes.”The “small things”, Wahab said, was keeping control of their innings with the bat and taking early wickets with the ball. Pakistan conceded more than 130 runs before taking a wicket in their defeats to Australia and India. Against Australia, he said, “it was a 260-270 wicket [Australia scored 307] and we didn’t bowl well at the start. In England it is important to strike with the new ball. If you take wickets up front it affects that batting team. If you don’t…this a high scoring World Cup.”The match against India, where Pakistan conceded 336 he said was “a pressure game and every player feels it. But we didn’t play as well as we can. We didn’t play as good as we are. And we need to play better. We were in very good positions with our batting against Australia and then we gave it away. We did the same against India. We will need to do the small things better and we need to be in control of those. We need to play our A game throughout.”

The season premiere of MSL 2019 was an evening to remember, as defending champions Jozi Stars nearly went the distance in a steep chase in front of a home crowd, before falling just 15 runs short to Cape Town Blitz’s 213.Opener Reeza Hendricks impressed with a 53-ball 80 for Stars, their new captain Temba Bavuma struck a crisp 15-ball 38, and Rassie van der Dussen hit 31 in 21, but Blitz’s Dale Steyn struck twice in his final spell to take the fizz out of Stars’ chase.In the first innings, the fans at The Wanderers were given a show by Blitz opener Janneman Malan, who struck an unbeaten 99. Fate was in his own hands to reach triple figures, but he failed to get a run off the final ball of the innings. Brisk contributions from the rest of their batting order lifted Blitz to 213 for 3.De Kock, Malan punish wayward bowlersStars had asked Blitz to bat at the toss, and that decision seemed to backfire right away when Malan and Quinton de Kock took 12 off the first over of the season. Malan flicked offspinner Simon Harmer to the fine leg boundary off the game’s first ball, and that set the tone.Kagiso Rabada then conceded 11 at the other end, with Malan hitting him for a four and a six. Malan followed it up by clubbing a flurry of boundaries off Dane Paterson. From 32 for 0 after three overs, Blitz finished the Powerplay on 69 for 0 as de Kock began to find his footing too.Ample support for MalanDe Kock was the first to fall, out for 35 in the seventh over, failing to clear deep midwicket off Harmer. But Blitz didn’t did the tempo drop. Moeen Ali walked in at first drop and tonked three fours and a six to add 25 in 17 balls, and after he was out caught in the deep to Dan Christian’s slower ball, Liam Livingstone emulated his compatriot with 10-ball 21 that included three sixes.Livingstone went hard, in particular, against medium-pacer Nono Pongolo, hitting his slower balls for two consecutive sixes. His dismissal in the 14th over brought in allrounder George Linde, and he added a further 24 in 13 balls to remain unbeaten at the end of 20 overs.From the other end, Malan kept punishing any width that the pacers offered. His proficiency in off-side play was evident as he cut and drove Rabada, Paterson and Duanne Olivier through the innings. He anchored the innings after de Kock’s dismissal while the batsmen at the other end went for riskier shots.Malan entered the nineties in the 18th over by pulling Rabada for a six, but Dane Paterson and Daniel Christian kept him quiet in the last two overs. Needing a single off the final ball of the innings, he failed to connect with Christian’s slower ball.Bavuma, Hendricks return the favourStars opener Chris Gayle engaged in some cat-and-mouse play with Steyn, Anrich Nortje and Vernon Philander in the first three overs of the chase, outfoxing the pacers by making room and carving the short balls square on the off side. He made 17 off 12 before Steyn’s slower ball dismissed him in the fourth over.Bavuma then counterattacked with some nifty footwork, finding boundaries off the pacers to keep the run-rate hovering around ten an over. He lasted only 15 balls, but his strike-rate of 253 kept Stars in the chase, and allowed Hendricks to take a bit of time settling in at the other end. Hendricks was on 12 off 11 before he burst into life by taking 15 off the sixth over, bowled by Mohammad Nawaz. Stars were 68 for 1 at the end of the Powerplay, and needed 99 to win when they reached the halfway mark, having lost Bavuma in the ninth over.Steyn shows his classVan der Dussen was innovative against the spinners. He hit back-to-back fours off Moeen in the 11th over, and brought up Stars’ 150 when he did the same against Linde in the 14th over.That forced Blitz captain de Kock to turn to pace again, and after a tidy over from Magala, Stars needed 54 off 30 balls. Steyn returned to strike almost immediately. Van der Dussen tried to flick a full ball to the leg side but a leading edge sent the ball in the other direction, and Magala ran in from point to complete a diving catch and break the 53-run stand.Hendricks kept Stars in the hunt with three fours in the next over, but he fell in a similar fashion to van der Dussen in the 18th over, miscuing a big hit off Steyn.Stars needed 27 off 13 at that point, but they only managed 12 as Magala and Anrich Nortje closed out the game to earn Blitz a hard-fought opening-night win.

Yorkshire 197 for 6 (Bess 45*, Abbott 3-45) vs HampshireGary Ballance continued his Ageas Bowl love affair by helping Yorkshire finish an attritional opening day of the LV= County Championship Division One clash against Hampshire on 197 for 6.Ballance, who has scored more than 1000 runs at the Southampton venue, including a Test high 156, scored 42 hard-fought runs in conditions tailor-made for seam bowling to admirably hold the innings together alongside Dom Bess. Bess hit the last ball of the day for four to be unbeaten on 45 before bad light brought play to a conclusion 10 overs before the scheduled close.On an overcast Bank Holiday Monday morning, Hampshire skipper James Vince had no hesitation in asking the visitors to bat on a green-tinged surface after winning the toss.Kyle Abbott and Keith Barker immediately posed plenty of questions for the openers Adam Lyth and George Hill, who eked out just 13 runs between them in the first 10 overs before the South African quick made the breakthrough. Having beaten the bat on numerous occasions, Abbott finally got a ball to nip back and trap Lyth on the pad for 6, with the umpire, former Yorkshire allrounder James Middlebrook, raising the finger.Despite the tough conditions and some probing bowling from Ian Holland, who conceded just four runs from his first five overs, Hill and Tom Kohler-Cadmore showed great patience and discipline to help Yorkshire reach lunch at 60 for 1. However, Hill’s good early work was undone immediately when Abbott struck with the first ball following the resumption, thumping the 21-year-old’s front pad with a delivery that would have clipped the stumps and he departed for 31.The brought Ballance, who has scored three centuries and a double-ton on his previous three visits to the Ageas Bowl, to the crease. Like his fellow batsmen he was forced to graft for every run with the floodlights turned on half-an-hour after lunch.Abbott picked up his third wicket when Kohler-Cadmore tried to break the shackles with an attempted drive down the ground but could only edge behind to Lewis McManus. Kohler-Cadmore, who ground out 20 runs from 91 balls, threw his head back in frustration following his departure as his side slipped to 84 for 3.Former England Under-19 skipper Harry Brook soon followed him back to the pavilion after playing on to a Brad Wheal ball just before tea.Ballance and Bess looked relatively untroubled, despite the scoreboard not accelerating rapidly. But just when Ballance looked to be heading towards 50 for the eighth time in 13 innings on this ground, he was dismissed in a somewhat tame fashion when he chipped Liam Dawson to Joe Weatherley at midwicket.Wheal struck again to dismiss Harry Duke for 12 to leave Yorkshire on 159 for 6 before Bess and Jordan Thompson added a potentially priceless unbeaten 38-run stand for the seventh wicket.

Big picture

In less than 24 hours between their stirring performance to eliminate Birmingham Phoenix and the final with Southern Brave, Oval Invincibles will need to have found some amazing powers of re-focus or chosen to simply ride a wave of adrenaline all the way to Lord’s.Whether the latter can sustain them for the duration of a daunting assignment against a side beaten only once in eight matches is uncertain. Whichever approach Invincibles take, the difficulty of backing up a day after winning a match that appeared beyond their grasp should not be underestimated. That said, T20 Blast sides have been doing something similar on the same day for a while now. Neverthelss, Invincibles’ tougher path gives Brave, who already looked the stronger side – certainly with the bat – even more reason to go into the title decider fresh and firing.Invincibles’ 20-run victory over Phoenix in Friday’s eliminator was built on a stellar afternoon in the field, spearheaded by a tournament-best 4 for 10 from 19 balls by the leading wicket-taker in the women’s competition, Tash Farrant, who also took a highlights-reel catch to pre-empt a Phoenix collapse of six wickets for 13 runs. Marizanne Kapp had rescued a flailing Invincibles innings with a run-a-ball 37 before claiming three wickets in support of Farrant. If they can stay sharp and extract a stronger performance from their more-than-capable but yet-to-fire batting line-up, you never know what can happen. Just ask Phoenix… but maybe wait until next season.It seems a long time since Kapp opened the inaugural season of the Hundred, bowling a leg-side wide in Invincibles’ win over Manchester Originals on July 21, sealed with an unbeaten 56 from captain Dane van Niekerk with two balls to spare which, in hindsight, signalled their fighting instinct. In that time, Southern Brave have been the tournament pace-setters with an enviable top order in Danni Wyatt, the now-departed Smriti Mandhana and Sophia Dunkley – not to mention Stafanie Taylor at No. 4. It will take all the fight Invincibles have to beat them.

In the spotlight

Gaby Lewis, the 20-year-old Ireland international has come into the Brave line-up with huge shoes to fill, drafted as a replacement for Mandhana, who forged a formidable opening partnership with Wyatt before flying home to India ahead of their tour to Australia. Lewis had an all-too-brief first outing when she managed 9 off 14 deliveries against Invincibles last Monday, chipping to mid-off when she failed to commit fully to her shot. If she can trust her gut and find her flow, she can help set Brave off to the sort of strong start to which they’ve become accustomed under Mandhana and Wyatt.Fran Wilson reached double-figures for just the third time in eight innings against Phoenix, where she had just looked like getting going with 21 off 17 deliveries when she fell to a Kirstie Gordon return catch. Her strike rate of 94.31 puts her in the bottom third of Invincibles batters and her team can ask more of their vastly experienced No. 3.

Team news

Brave have had a settled side throughout the season. Bringing Lewis in for Mandhana aside, their only other change has been to swap Tara Norris for Charlotte Taylor, the offspinner who has proven a match-winner for Southern Vipers on more than one occasion, including last year’s Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy. But, with Charlotte Taylor having claimed just one wicket from the three matches she played and with Stafanie Taylor and Fi Morris able to complement the legspin of Amanda-Jade Wellington – Brave’s leading wicket-taker – it’s hard to see them plumping for another spin option. Expect to see them keep the same side which defeated Invincibles in their last group game.Southern Brave: (possible) 1 Gaby Lewis, 2 Danni Wyatt, 3 Sophia Dunkley, 4 Stafanie Taylor, 5 Maia Bouchier, 6 Amanda-Jade Wellington, 7 Anya Shrubsole (capt), 8 Fi Morris, 9 Tara Norris, 10 Carla Rudd (wk), 11 Lauren BellOval Invincibles were unchanged between their defeat to Brave and win over Phoenix. Provided everyone pulls up fit from their exertions in the eliminator – bearing in mind Kapp has missed a chunk of Invincibles’ campaign through injury, although she looked in fine form on Friday – they could well opt to keep the same side again.Oval Invincibles: (possible) 1 Georgia Adams, 2 Dane van Niekerk (capt), 3 Fran Wilson, 4 Marizanne Kapp, 5 Alice Capsey, 6 Mady Villiers, 7 Joanne Gardner, 8 Grace Gibbs, 9 Sarah Bryce (wk), 10 Tash Farrant, 11 Shabnim Ismail.Key stats

• Between them Tash Farrant, Amanda-Jade Wellington and Anya Shrubsole hold the top four best bowling figures in an innings.
• Southern Brave own the two highest winning margins by runs for the women’s tournament, 39 runs against Welsh Fire and 30 runs against Oval Invincibles.
• Dunkley needs just six runs to overtake Jemimah Rodrigues as the tournament’s leading run-scorer, with van Niekerk just 11 runs behind her in the race to finish top.