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Heather Knight shines for Somerset as Essex succumb
Ex-England captain stars with bat and ball at Taunton
ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
01-May-2025
Somerset 185 for 5 (Knight 45, Dean 45*) beat Essex 184 (Carr 67, Knight 3-7) by 5 wickets
Heather Knight staged an outstanding all-round performance to propel Somerset to a comfortable five-wicket victory over Essex in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup women's competition at Taunton Vale.
The England international claimed 3-7 with the ball and then added 45 crucial runs with the bat as the cider county ultimately made light work of chasing beneath blue skies and sunshine to register a second win in three games and send a crowd of several hundred home happy.
Full postVince leads Kings' batting effort as Sultans are eliminated
Warner and Khushdil's cameos also helped Kings post 204, before Sultans folded for 117
Danyal Rasool
01-May-2025
Karachi Kings 204 for 4 (Vince 65*, Irfan 40, Ubaid 2-49) beat Multan Sultans 117 (Ghulam 29, Nabi 3-14, Hamza 2-15) by 87 runs
Karachi Kings dumped Multan Sultans out of a tournament they never really got into, with former Sultan James Vince scoring a majestic unbeaten 65 to ask Sultans to chase 205. Sultans never looked to have the belief they would get anywhere close, and, eventually, didn't. Kings were tidy, if not spectacular, letting Sultans' tame, limp display on a blistering afternoon in Lahore do the job for them, and helping themselves to an 87-run win.
This game was moved from Multan to Lahore despite Sultans' objections. But it would have taken more than home advantage to overcome the gulf in the two sides' performances on Thursday. David Willey conceded just 24 runs in his four overs, but when Michael Bracewell bowled the second over and conceded just as many in those six balls, it was more representative of what Sultans would dish up. That onslaught from David Warner on the New Zealand spinner set the tone for the innings, even if the Kings captain miscued Willey to point for an entertaining off just 30 13 balls.
Full postRauf and Raza break United's winning streak to give Qalandars big win
Lahore Qalandars became the first team to beat Islamabad United in nearly 14 months, snapping a PSL-record ten-match winning streak
Danyal Rasool
30-Apr-2025
Lahore Qalandars 209 for 6 (Fakhar 44, Raza 39, Billings 38*, Imad 2-26, Holder 2-54) beat Islamabad United 121 (Gous 41, Agha 36, Rauf 4-31, Raza 3-20) by 88 runs
Lahore Qalandars became the first team to beat Islamabad United in nearly 14 months, snapping a PSL-record ten-match winning streak, beating United by 88 runs. Qalandars, who were also the last side to beat United before this streak, had the path paved for them by a near-perfect T20 batting performance. Each of the top six scored between 22 and 44, four boasting strike rates in excess of 145, as they posted 209. It was followed by a professional bowling performance that picked up enough wickets at regular intervals to ensure - one partnership aside - that United's response would not be a serious attempt at a chase.
United made five changes to a side that had won each of their first five matches, but Qalandars came out hungrier. Mohammad Naeem has struggled for fluency all season, but signalled a shift with three boundaries on the trot against Ben Dwarshuis in the fourth over, which Fakhar Zaman followed up by with a pair of sixes against Naseem Shah. The team nature of the innings was epitomised by Fakhar launching Jason Holder for a six off the final ball of the powerplay, one ball after a superb bit of fielding saw Naeem run out.
Full postShreyas, Prabhsimran and Chahal eliminate CSK
Chahal's second IPL hat-trick turned a topsy-turvy game in PBKS' favour
Karthik Krishnaswamy
30-Apr-2025
Punjab Kings 194 for 6 (Shreyas 72, Prabhsimran 54, Khaleel 2-28, Pathirana 2-45) beat Chennai Super Kings 190 (Curran 88, Brevis 32, Chahal 4-32, Arshdeep 2-25, Jansen 2-30) by four wickets
A four-wicket 19th over from Yuzvendra Chahal, including his second IPL hat-trick, turned a topsy-turvy game at the MA Chidambaram Stadium around, putting Punjab Kings (PBKS) on the road to a four-wicket win and confirming the end of Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) playoffs hopes.
Until that over, CSK were poised to breach 200 for only the second time in IPL 2025, and for the first time at home, with Sam Curran scoring 88 off 47 balls. The Chahal over, however, triggered a collapse that saw them lose their last five wickets for six runs in the space of seven balls.
Full postSophia Dunkley, Alice Capsey set up Surrey thrashing of Durham
England pair put on 155 in mammoth total that leaves visitors well short
ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
30-Apr-2025
Surrey 348 for 6 (Dunkley 92, Capsey 79) beat Durham 244 (Dobson 53, MacDonald-Gay 3-38) by 104 runs
Surrey chalked up their first ever Metro Bank Cup win in emphatic style, beating Durham by 104 runs at Beckenham. The home side posted a daunting 348 for 6 off their 50 overs, in an innings dominated by a third-wicket stand of 155 between Sophia Dunkley, who hit 92, and Alice Capsey, who made 79.
With the ball, Ryana MacDonald-Gay did the initial damage with 3 for 38, before Bryony Smith, Dani Gregory and Kalea Moore all claimed two wickets each. Leah Dobson showed some resistance with 53, in a stand of 93 with Katherine Fraser, who made 43, but when they were out in quick succession the required rate was over 11 and beyond the reach of the Durham tail. They were all out for 244 in 45.1 overs.
Full postBryce is right for The Blaze as Warwickshire are out-gunned
Sisters star with bat and ball to secure spoils in Midlands showdown
ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
30-Apr-2025
The Blaze 252 for 9 (S Bryce 52, Arlott 3-39) beat Warwickshire 211 all out (Perrin 53, K Bryce 5-38) by 41 runs
The Blaze completed back-to-back wins by defeating Midlands rivals Warwickshire by 41 runs in the Metro Bank Women's One-Day Cup women's competition at Edgbaston.
Their victory was rooted in an impressive collective effort with no big individual performance with the bat but many important contributions.
Full postElla McCaughan 133* highlights Hampshire's cruise to victory
Eve Jones hundred goes in vain as front-running Lancashire suffer first defeat
ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
30-Apr-2025
Hampshire 295 for 2 (McCaughan 133*, Bouchier 77) beat Lancashire 292 for 6 (Jones 107, Lamb 86) by eight wickets
Opener Ella McCaughan's sensational senior career-best 133 not out off 141 balls helped Hampshire cruise a chase of 293 to beat early-season pace-setters Lancashire by eight wickets in a high-scoring Metro Bank One-Day Cup women's clash at Southport and Birkdale.
The Red Rose had won their opening two games and looked well placed for another with Eve Jones and Emma Lamb, who made 107 and 86 respectively, sharing 185 inside 32 overs for the first wicket. But they stumbled late in their innings and finished on 292 for 6, including two wickets for the offspin of Australian Charli Knott.
Full postMehidy's heroics with bat and ball helps Bangladesh level series
He made 104 to help Bangladesh post 444 before taking five wickets to bundle Zimbabwe out for 111 to hand his side an innings win
Mohammad Isam
30-Apr-2025
Bangladesh 444 (Shadman 120, Mehidy 104, Masekesa 5-115) beat Zimbabwe 227 and 111 (Curran 46, Ervine 25, Mehidy 5-31) by an innings and 106 runs
Mehidy Hasan Miraz single-handedly routed Zimbabwe on the third day of the Chattogram Test. He made 104 to help Bangladesh post 444 before taking five wickets to bundle Zimbabwe out for 111 to hand his side an innings win.
Bangladesh broke their streak of six consecutive home Test defeats. They had lost to New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa, before losing to Zimbabwe in the first Test in Sylhet last week.
Full postNarine's all-round show sets up tense win for KKR
Narine and Chakravarthy played a key role in hitting back at DC, who slid from 136 for 3 to 190 for 9
Sidharth Monga
29-Apr-2025
Kolkata Knight Riders 204 for 9 (Raghuvanshi 44, Starc 3-43, Axar 2-27) beat Delhi Capitals 190 for 9 (Du Plessis 62, Axar 43, Narine 3-29) by 14 runs
Sunil Narine's figures at one point: 2.1-0-25-0. Varun Chakravarthy at another: 3-0-31-0. In a chase of 205, having restricted a rampant Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Delhi Capitals (DC) were in the ascendence, having punished the two main KKR weapons. And then the two of them came back with a vengeance: combined, they bowled their last 17 balls for five wickets and 12 runs to get KKR's title defence back on track.
DC's captain Axar Patel topped up his figures of 4-0-27-2 with three sixes off Narine despite an injured bottom hand. Narine found himself captaining KKR after Ajinkya Rahane split his finger open and vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer had been substituted out. Captaining was not the only rare thing he did: he also ran KL Rahul out with a direct hit from short fine leg. His real blows came with the ball: wickets of Axar, Tristan Stubbs and top-scorer Faf du Plessis as DC went from 136 for 3 to 190 for 9.
Full postShahzad, Shakeel and Allen lead Gladiators' demolition of Sultans
Having bowled the Sultans out for 89, the Gladiators wrapped up victory with a record 79 balls remaining
Danyal Rasool
29-Apr-2025
Quetta Gladiators 90 for 0 (Allen 45*, Shakeel 42*) beat Multan Sultans 89 (Rizwan 44*, Shahzad 4-23, Faheem 2-18, Ashraf 2-21) by 10 wickets
Quetta Gladiators pushed Multan Sultans to the brink of elimination after running away to a record-breaking 10-wicket victory in Lahore. After bowling the Sultans out for 89, the Gladiators took just 6.5 overs to gun it down, with openers Finn Allen and Saud Shakeel making it - by 3.1 overs - the largest margin of victory by balls remaining in PSL history. The last 82 runs of the chase came off just 29 balls, leaving Multan nursing their sixth defeat in seven matches as well as a net run rate of -2.355. With this result, the 2021 champions' fate looks all but sealed.
Mohammad Rizwan carried his bat, but he wasn't really going anywhere with it for all the carnage happening at the other end. Khurram Shahzad ripped through the top order, taking four new-ball wickets in his first 11 balls, leaving the Sultans reeling at 20 for 4. He made full use of the early swing, combining it with consistent high-pace bowling. The full delivery got rid of Yasir Khan and Curtis Campher, who saw the ball nip back into him sharply to leave him plumb in front. In between, Usman Khan holed out playing a low-percentage heave, while Kamran Ghulam was squared up by an away-swinger that he nicked to slip.
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