Harry Conway joins Northamptonshire on four-match deal

Australian seamer Harry Conway has signed a deal with Northamptonshire to play in the County Championship during May.Conway will join Wantage Road for four Division Two matches. His first will be against Leicestershire (May 2) before fixtures against Lancashire, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire.The 32-year-old has made three appearances for Sheffield Shield finalists South Australia this winter, taking eight wickets at 27.12. A quick bowler capable of extracting decent bounce, Conway reinforces Northamptonshire’s seam options which were diminished by the loss of Jack White to Yorkshire at the end of last season.A former Australia U19, Conway came through at New South Wales, before eventually swapping states with a move to the Adelaide Oval in 2022. He boasts a first-class record of 119 wickets at 28.86 across 46 appearances.Conway joins fellow South Australian Darren Lehmann who now heads up the coaching team at Northamptonshire. Both he and South African Matthew Breetzke are the club’s overseas options for the first half of the season, before the arrival of India leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal from June until the end of the season.”I’m super excited for the opportunity to come over and try and win games for an awesome County,” said Conway in a statement released on Friday. “The team is full of young talent, and I can’t wait to play under an international standard coach in Darren Lehmann.”Lehmann believes Conway’s skillsets will see him thrive during his stint. “Harry perfectly fits the mould of English conditions and will hopefully help us get off to a positive start.””The experience that he brings will be invaluable, especially on the wickets that we’ll play on early in the season.”

Daniel Bell-Drummond breaks century drought to lead Kent fightback

Kent skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond led his side’s fightback by posting his first red-ball hundred in over a year on the second day of their Rothesay County Championship clash against Middlesex at Lord’s.Bell-Drummond, who averaged single figures this season going into Kent’s second innings, finished unbeaten on 103 as his side progressed to 226 for 4 – a lead of 117 – when bad light ended play.He shared a second-wicket stand of 109 with England’s Zak Crawley, who was dropped at second slip off Dane Paterson on three and recovered to score 68, his third half-century of the season.Middlesex failed to gather any batting bonus points earlier in the day, with Ryan Higgins top-scoring on 54 as they lost their last six wickets for 61 and were bowled out for 238.The home side began the day with a 29-run advantage and Higgins soon advanced to his second successive half-century, swishing George Garrett through the vacant second slip region for four.But, having stretched their overnight partnership to 81, Higgins and Ben Geddes departed within the space of three balls – Joey Evison judging a catch in the deep perfectly to remove Geddes before Garrett castled Higgins with a beauty that hit the top of middle stump.It needed a robust stand of 42 between Jack Davies and Toby Roland-Jones to extend the hosts’ lead into three figures as Davies pulled Evison for the game’s first six and struck Matt Parkinson for successive boundaries.However, the leg-spinner tempted Davies to drive again, pouching a return catch that sandwiched Evison’s dismissals of Roland-Jones and Henry Brookes to wrap up Middlesex’s innings.That left Kent to negotiate five overs before lunch – and Crawley was fortunate to do so, his third delivery looping off a leading edge to fall just short of point before Sam Robson spilled the chance to dismiss him in the next over.Robson made amends by snapping up Ben Compton’s edge at head height off Roland-Jones, but that was Middlesex’s sole success until mid-afternoon as the clouds dispersed and the visitors capitalised on the improved batting conditions.Bell-Drummond gradually settled into the groove, pulling a short ball from Brookes to the rope to raise his 50 partnership with Crawley, who adopted a merciless approach towards anything wide from the seamers.The 27-year-old drove confidently on both sides of the wicket, dispatching a loose delivery from Higgins to the cover fence to reach his third half-century of the campaign from 62 balls as Kent wiped out their first-innings arrears.Paterson finally achieved the breakthrough, bringing one back down the slope to pin Crawley on his back leg shortly before Bell-Drummond passed 50, hammering a Roland-Jones half-volley to the boundary.Tawanda Muyeye fell soon after tea, lbw prodding at Higgins and there was a scratchy start for Jack Leaning, caught on the shoulder by a ball from Roland-Jones that reared up just after his inside edge had zipped narrowly over the stumps for four.Leaning’s innings ended when he skied an attempted pull to mid-on before his successor as Kent captain chalked up a 19th first-class century from 168 balls – albeit in untidy fashion, slicing Paterson just over the slip fielder’s head for four.That boundary came just in time for Bell-Drummond, with umpires Rob Bailey and Anthony Harris taking the teams off the field three balls later.

Matthew Forde equals AB de Villiers' record of fastest ODI fifty

Matthew Forde of West Indies has equalled AB de Villiers’ record for the fastest ODI fifty, getting there in 16 balls against Ireland during the second ODI in Dublin. De Villiers had set the record in 2015, during his 149 off 44 against West Indies in Johannesburg.At one point, Forde was on 42 off 13 balls and had a chance to break de Villiers’ record. That did not happen as Forde missed a ramp off Barry McCarthy on the following delivery, but the back-to-back sixes off the next two balls, over long-off and cover, helped him draw level.In all, Forde made 58 off 19 balls, with two fours and eight sixes, which meant 96.55% of his runs came in boundaries – the highest for a 50-plus score in men’s ODIs. The previous record was 96.15% by Andre Fletcher, who scored 50 off his 52 via boundaries against Bangladesh in Basseterre in 2009.

Forde had started his innings with a second-ball six off Barry McCarthy and then clubbed Josh Little for four sixes in an over. In the following over, the 46th of the innings, Forde showed he had more than just power in his arsenal as he scooped Thomas Mayes for a four and six off consecutive deliveries.Riding on Keacy Carty’s second ODI hundred, West Indies had reached 246 for 5 in 43.1 overs when Forde came out to bat. His knock powered them past 300 in the 47th. A few more blows from the lower order meant West Indies finished on 352 for 8.

PBKS bowling coach Hopes: 'MI were looking at 220, we kept pegging them back'

The Punjab Kings [PBKS] batting unit, led by Shreyas Iyer’s unbeaten 87 off 41 balls, will get all the plaudits after they topped Mumbai Indians’ [MI] 203 with an over to spare. But bowling coach James Hopes was also effusive in his praise of the PBKS bowling group, particularly the way they “just hung in there the whole night” on a belter of an Ahmedabad surface in Qualifier 2.Sent into bat, MI had raced to 65 for 1 inside the powerplay and regularly went at better than ten runs an over through the middle phase. But the PBKS bowlers struck at regular intervals to prevent the death-overs assault.”There was a stage where I reckon they [MI] were looking at 220, 225 and we just kept pegging them back at the right time,” Hopes said in a press conference after PBKS qualified for their first IPL final in 11 years. “We never went for that big over of 18, 19. We kept pegging them at 10, 11 knowing that we got Arshdeep [Singh] coming at the end and Azmatullah [Omarzai] bowled beautifully as well.Related

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“We gave them a few extra runs, yeah, but that’s why I was saying I thought they were going to get 220. There was a bit of confidence in our group when they only got 200 [203], thinking we’ve dragged them back here. You could even tell our first over batting the way the ball came off the bat, it was just skipping off the bat a little more and you could tell there was just a little bit of dew, a little bit of wetness out there, that was going to help us, and it did.”Chasing 204 against five-time champions MI, who had never before lost a game defending a score in excess of 200, was going to be a tough ask. Especially when the bowling group was led by Jasprit Bumrah, who was coming into the game with an economy rate of 6.36.But Josh Inglis was determined to not let Bumrah settle down, crashing him for two sixes and two fours in his opening over – the fifth of the innings – to give the chase the momentum it needed.”The way Josh Inglis attacked Boom [Bumrah] up front to get him off his game a little bit… if you’d told us we were chasing 200 at the start of the day and we were going to take 40 off Jasprit, we would have taken that every day of the week and liked our chances,” Hopes said. “Josh has got a pretty good record against him in short-form cricket. He plays him well.”I don’t think it was a conscious decision to go after [Bumrah in that] over. He just got some balls and he put them away, and on another day, those balls go to the fielder and he’s not taking what he did off that over. So doing that to him in the first over not only has a flow-on effect for his bowling but has a flow-on effect for the rest of their team as well.2:31

‘Such a big over’ – Aaron on Inglis taking 20 off Bumrah in the fifth

“We were having the chats at half-time that if Bumrah bowls four overs for 26, what do we need off the other 16 overs? So there’s just an expectation he’s going to be at a certain level every game, and even tonight he bowled well.”Varun Aaron and Tom Moody agreed that Inglis’ assault on Bumrah formed the base of PBKS’ successful chase. That they were all “cricketing shots” and Inglis was not “trying to just hit the cover of the ball” was the highlight.”Big over, such a big over,” Aaron said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out. “It was down to someone to take him [Bumrah] on tonight. These are those big games where somebody has to show up and be like, ‘you know what, I’m going to take the bull by the horns and I’m going to take down their biggest bowler’, and that’s Jasprit Bumrah, and he did that so well. Just played cricketing shots.”Moody pointed to Inglis’ technical acumen against Bumrah.”He [Inglis] has got a really good technique,” Moody said. “So when it comes to playing high-quality bowling, like Jasprit Bumrah, he’s got the ability to play proper cricketing shots that have penetration – whether that be the cover drives, the shot down the ground; the six he hit, it was the slower ball, he was technically in perfect position [to play it].Shreyas Iyer led Punjab Kings’ chase with a composed half-century•Associated Press

“So it’s not like he is trying to just hit the cover of the ball. Just identified it was an off-pace delivery and hit straight through it. And most batters when they are facing Bumrah, they are more in the defensive position. He is still engaged in the contest – ‘okay, you’re bowling it short, I am still comfortable because I back myself to get into that position; if you’re slightly fuller, I’ll take advantage and cover drive; slower ball, I’m hitting you over the top’.”

‘Shreyas a sensational captain, a sensational player’

While Inglis’ 21-ball 38 put PBKS’ chase in top gear, it was captain Iyer who formed the spine of the innings with a clinical knock. He measured his innings, rotated the strike well, before going on an all-out attack. Hopes, who has worked with Iyer previously at Delhi Capitals (DC) in 2020, said that his calmness stood out.”He doesn’t get flustered very easily and he knows his match-ups,” Hopes said. “He knows what he has to do at certain times and he’s prepared to take that risk. When he was a younger player in Delhi, he was a little bit more explosive and gung-ho, but he scores at a high strike rate now strictly because he knows when a bowler comes on that that’s his match-up and he’s going to take it and with his captaincy.”Tonight we kept them to 200 when I reckon they could have got 220, 230 and just because the way he pulls the strings out there and manoeuvres bowlers around. We had [Vijaykumar] Vyshak with one over left. He took his gut call to bowl Azmat. He’s a sensational captain and he’s a sensational player.”

Ian Holland's four-for gets Washington Freedom off the mark

Seattle Orcas had no answers to fast bowler Ian Holland’s variations as they slumped to 145 for 9, which Washington Freedom chased down with 39 balls to spare. Holland finished with career-best T20 figures of 4 for 19 to restrict Orcas after a flying start, before Rachin Ravindra set up the chase at the top and Glenn Maxwell finished things off with an unbeaten 38 off 20.Orcas were in a strong position of 66 for 1 at the end of the powerplay as MLC debutant David Warner and his opening partner Kyle Mayers peppered boundaries. Warner stood outside the crease to bash the ball around while Mayers went 6, 4 and 4 off consecutive deliveries against Glenn Phillips in the fifth over to power Orcas past 50.Warner, however, holed out in the next over for 31 off 17. Mitchell Owen then removed Mayers on the first ball after the powerplay for 27 that brought out Orcas captain Henrich Klaasen for his first game since announcing international retirement.But it all went downhill for Orcas once Holland came on in the tenth over. A flurry of slower deliveries ended the over with Klaasen’s wicket as he ended up holing out to deep backward square leg for 17.Aaron Jones took on Holland in his third over, starting with back-to-back boundaries before three more slower deliveries fetched Holland two wickets, of Jones and Harmeet Singh. In his last over, another slower legcutter removed Cameron Gannon and Orcas were reeling at 120 for 7. Sikandar Raza’s 26-ball stay couldn’t get him more than 15 runs as Jack Edwards and Saurabh Netravalkar bowled frugal spells in the death.Freedom were hardly bothered in the modest chase. Ravindra started with his serene drives on off and down the ground while Owen muscled the ball around in his 11-ball stay for 25. Ravindra kept the sixes coming as he and Andries Gous propelled them to 90 for 1 in the powerplay, which ended with three sixes off Gannon.Gous was foxed by Waqar Salamkheil for 16 as soon as the field spread out and Ravindra was trapped lbw by Obed McCoy for 44 off 18 next over with the help of a review. Maxwell, who went through a drought of runs in the IPL – 48 runs in just six innings before getting injured – turned his form around by smashing Salamkheil for 6, 4 and 4 off consecutive deliveries in the ninth over which eased Freedom’s nerves again.Freedom lost two more wickets before Maxwell struck more boundaries and Mukhtar Ahmed sealed victory with a four in the 14th over.

Cummins to sit out white-ball matches against South Africa

Pat Cummins is set to sit out the white-ball matches against South Africa next month as part of his build-up towards the Ashes later in the year.Cummins had already been rested for the five-match T20I series against West Indies along with Mitchell Starc and Travis Head. Now Josh Hazlewood has been added to those returning home after the Test series, having originally been included in the squad, with Xavier Bartlett named his replacement.While Hazlewood will feature against South Africa in the Top End during August – a tour which includes three T20Is and three ODIs across Darwin, Cairns and Mackay – Cummins will move into a period of fitness work ahead of the home summer.Related

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He is eyeing being involved in a short T20I tour to New Zealand in early October and some of the limited-overs matches against India ahead of the Ashes in late November. There is also the potential of a Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales, which he didn’t do last season before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.”I’ll have a good training block for the next couple of months, six weeks or so,” Cummins told reporters at Sabina Park. “Probably not bowling, but lots of gym work. [My] body feels pretty good, but there’s always little bits and pieces you’re always trying to get right and then build up for the summer. So it’ll probably look like white-ball [cricket]…we’ve got some [matches against] New Zealand, India, potentially a Shield game and then into the home summer.”Cummins remains Australia’s ODI captain but has only led them twice in the format since the 2023 World Cup final. He missed the Champions Trophy earlier this year due to an ankle problem he managed during the Tests series against India.The early stages of next season’s Sheffield Shield are shaping as key for Australia’s Ashes plans amid the continued search for a settled top order. Sam Konstas will have two more innings to make a mark in the West Indies and Usman Khawaja two more to settle the talk around his form. Cameron Green, meanwhile, will be looking to build on the second-innings half-century in Grenada.Attention will then turn to how those players perform ahead of England’s arrival. Green is part of the T20I squad in the West Indies and will likely feature against South Africa before focus shifts to a potential return to bowling. Konstas is expected to be part of the four-day matches on the Australia A tour of India in September, but Khawaja is unlikely to play again until the domestic season starts for Queensland.”There’s a lot of Shield cricket to come and some Aussie A stuff as well,” Cummins said on the significance of the final Test in the West Indies. “I think [if] you do well at Test level, any time it’s going to kind of make your case more compelling. I think there’s a bit of a connection to the summer, but it feels a long way away at the moment.”Xavier Bartlett picked up 18 wickets in 11 innings in MLC•MLC

Meanwhile, Bartlett, who holds a Cricket Australia contract, will get the opportunity to build on his impressive early T20I record of 11 wickets at 14.72 from seven matches. He will arrive in the Caribbean after a productive MLC campaign for San Francisco Unicorns which, as of Friday, put him as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker.He has been joined as a late call-up by Jake Fraser-McGurk, who has replaced left-arm quick Spencer Johnson with the selectors altering the balance of the squad. Johnson is nursing back soreness that he picked up during the IPL. Fraser-McGurk, who played alongside Bartlett at Unicorns in MLC, started the tournament strongly but finished with four single-figure scores in five innings.He has made 113 runs in seven T20Is with a top score of 50 against Scotland last year. He was dropped by Delhi Capitals during this year’s IPL where he averaged 9.16, which came after a lean BBL for Melbourne Renegades that produced 188 runs at 18.80, 95 of which came in the last match of the season against Brisbane Heat.The T20I series against West Indies starts on July 20 with two matches at Sabina Park before the final three are played in St Kitts.

Afghanistan bring back former Ireland allrounder John Mooney as fielding coach

Afghanistan have appointed former Ireland allrounder John Mooney as their new fielding coach, and Nirmalan Thanabalasingam as the new physiotherapist.Both Mooney and Thanabalasingam have joined the Afghanistan set-up for the ongoing training and preparation camp ahead of the T20I tri-series in the UAE (with Pakistan as the third team) starting August 29 and the men’s T20 Asia Cup from September 9.Mooney had previously served as the Afghanistan fielding coach from 2018 to 2019, when they made their Test debut in India. He had also worked with the West Indies men’s team in 2019 and has been a temporary coach for the Ireland women’s team since January this year.Related

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A left-hand batter and right-arm quick during his playing days, 43-year-old Mooney played 64 ODIs and 27 T20Is for Ireland from 2006 to 2015, which included three ODI World Cups (2007, 2011 and 2015) as well as two T20 World Cups (2009 and 2010). He had famously hit the winning runs in Ireland’s historic win over England in the 2011 World Cup in Bengaluru.He retired in 2015 and went on to complete Level 3, 2, and 1 coaching certificates from the England Cricket Board.Thanabalasingam has been the physiotherapist for Desert Vipers in the ILT20 since 2020. Prior to that, he had worked as the high-performance training and rehabilitation manager for Sri Lanka Cricket from March 2017 to June 2018 and has also worked with Cricket New South Wales, Rangpur Riders (BPL), Montreal Tigers (GT20 Canada), ICC World XI, SydneyThunder (BBL), and the West Harbour Rugby Union Club.Afghanistan are currently undergoing a training camp in Abu Dhabi.

Hampshire face Championship relegation battle after eight-point deduction

Hampshire are facing a battle to stay in the top flight in this season’s County Championship, after the club were docked eight points for the preparation of a “below average” pitch for their fixture against Sussex in May.Hampshire, who are currently taking on Sussex in the return game at Hove, have slipped from fifth place to eighth in the first-division standings following Thursday’s ruling from the independent Cricket Discipline Panel (CPD). With a revised tally of 124 points, they are now just six clear of Durham in the relegation zone, with two further rounds of the Championship to come.The contest in question took place at the Utilita Bowl from May 23-25. Sussex won the match by nine wickets, with their spinner Jack Carson claiming second-innings figures of 5 for 26 in ten overs. On June 3, Hampshire were charged with a breach of the Pitch Regulations, following a report from match umpires Rob White and Tom Lungley, match referee Wayne Noon, and an investigation by the Cricket Regulator.Related

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In addition to the eight-point penalty, Hampshire have also been fined £5000 for their breach of the pitch regulations. In its full judgment, compiled after a hearing on September 2, the CDC cited consistent unevenness of bounce, and excessive spin from day two onwards.Ben Brown, Hampshire’s captain, stated in his match report that he was “really disappointed” with the surface that had been prepared by head grounds manager, Simon Lee, adding that “batting on it was a lottery”.”We wanted a good batting wicket so that we could optimise batting points, but we also wanted a pitch that would bring our spinner, Liam Dawson, into the game, when foot holes became a factor,” Brown had added in his report.Paul Farbrace, Sussex’s head coach, stated in the CDC report that Hampshire were “entitled” to prepare a pitch where spin was a factor, but in opting to play on a recently reused surface, they got it “horribly wrong”.”It was not in their interest to deliberately plan an uneven pitch,” Farbrace said. “They have excellent fast bowlers, and would have expected to win with their seam attack. This is not an example of a home side deliberately cheating … the pitch was set up for spin, and I saw a cloud of dust when the hover cover went off. But the pitch was too dry, and I note the fact that they decided to re-use a pitch not that long after using it before.”Hampshire enter the final day of their rain-affected fixture at Hove needing nine wickets for victory, while Sussex need 241 further runs – but after the third day was washed out, rain again prevented play before lunch. They face a tricky run-in in the Championship, with an away fixture to Somerset prior to a final home game against Surrey, the reigning champions who may also need to win to secure their fourth title in a row.In addition, Hampshire are competing on three fronts, with the prospect of two white-ball trophies in the coming weeks, following their progression to T20 Finals Day and the Metro Bank One-Day Cup final against Worcestershire. Adi Birrell, their long-standing head coach, is set to depart at the end of the season.Durham, who are likely to emerge with a draw from their ongoing fixture at Essex, face bottom side Worcestershire in their next Championship fixture at Chester-le-Street on Monday, ahead of a final-round trip to Yorkshire.

Washington joins for relegation battle

Washington Sundar impressed for India in the Test series against England•Getty Images

In a bid to strengthen their hand, Hampshire announced on Thursday morning that they have signed India allrounder Washington Sundar for the games against Somerset and Surrey. Washington, who scored his maiden Test hundred as well as taking seven wickets on India’s tour of England earlier in the summer, has previously appeared in county cricket for Lancashire.The 25-year-old has not played since featuring in India’s dramatic win at The Oval at the start of August, having missed out on selection for the Asia Cup.”We’re delighted to bring Washington to the club for the County Championship,” Giles White, Hampshire’s director of cricket, said. “He had an excellent series against England this summer and he’ll play a key role with two big games coming up against Somerset and Surrey.”

Healy: 'This is just another re-ignition for our group'

Australia’s semi-final exit from Women’s World Cup 2025 ended a chapter of incredible success: they had lost just three of the 30 ODIs they had played since the previous edition in 2022. What will the next ODI cycle look like for the seven-times champions? And what next for the stalwart trio of Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry and Megan Schutt?Healy is 35, and confirmed at the presentation on Thursday that this was her last ODI World Cup. Schutt, 32, had indicated earlier that this would be her last 50-overs World Cup too, though she will take a final call after the T20 World Cup next year. Perry will turn 35 in three days, and hasn’t yet spoken about her international future.Related

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“This next four-year cycle leading into the next World Cup is going to be really exciting for our group and potentially see some really cool opportunities for some of the younger players to get greater opportunities in this side,” Healy, Australia’s captain, said after their semi-final defeat to India.”The opportunity for some of our players to play in a really high-pressure situation like that is going to do wonders for our group. This same thing happened in 2017. We reflected on that and thought we could have done things a little bit better under pressure and where we can be better at little certain aspects of our game moving forward. And I think we made that shift moving forward and we’ve seen it over the last cycle doing that one in 2022.”Thursday’s defeat was Australia’s first in an ODI World Cup match since 2017. That previous defeat had also been a semi-final loss to India; after that result, Australia tore up their template and started afresh, pushing Healy up the order to open, and adopting a batting strategy of relentless attack. That method brought them an ODI-record 26-match winning streak. Healy saw the latest setback as another chance for a reboot.4:58

Krishnamurthy: India have done something extremely special

“This is just another re-ignition for our group to say, you know what, we can be better at little moments of the game,” Healy said. “For our group to experience that, to be put under pressure and see how we respond, is going to do great things for us moving forward. So that’s really cool.”I hope we see more one-day cricket on the calendar. I think that’s going to be really important in this cycle. We see a lot of teams in this World Cup that, obviously, we’re forced to play against in the Women’s Championship. But more bilateral series are going to be amazing for the global game in that regard and make sure that these World Cups are highly competitive.”And obviously the opportunity to see the next generation come through and play one day cricket the way that they are, the way that they can and really take the game on, which I think we’ve seen towards the back end of this World Cup. I think it’s really exciting times for the women’s game.”Given the quadrennial nature of the ODI World Cup, the end of an edition often feels like the end of an era, with a greater scope for long-term planning than in T20Is, where World Cups take place every two years. It’s clear that Australia’s journey in the next ODI cycle will be led by youngsters such as Phoebe Litchfield, Annabel Sutherland and Georgia Voll, with experienced hands in Tahlia McGrath, Ashleigh Gardner and Beth Mooney, all of whom are either in their late 20s or early 30s, still playing key roles.Young players such as Phoebe Litchfield will be key to Australia’s regeneration through the next ODI World Cup cycle•Getty Images

“The state of the women’s game where it’s going is absolutely phenomenal,” Perry said in a press interaction after the semi-final. “This World Cup has been the toughest one yet, without a doubt and so competitive. The fact that in both the semi-finals, the team batting first posted over 300, and across this competition, it’s probably been more 300-plus scores than ever before.”We want to keep taking the game forward and that means that we’re not always going to be successful. At the same time, we play with a lot of enjoyment and application to what we’re trying to do. So it’s a pleasure to be a part of it. I feel very fortunate to see where things go.”Australia’s cricketing ecosystem is seasoned enough to keep producing players who look ready when they step up, with Litchfield, who scored a 93-ball 119 in the semi-final, a prime example. This ceaseless production line keeps head coach Shelley Nitschke calm about what the future holds.”We haven’t discussed about transition much, we had been just focussing on this World Cup obviously,” she said. “We’ve got some leaders in the last couple of years. We’re always moving and transitioning. I’m not sure if it’ll be a harder conversation or anything, but that’s forever a moving beast.”[Leadership] is something in due course we’ll sit down and have a discussion about. But I don’t think any decision will be made in the near future. We are always going to review and look to get better. We need to be better in the big moments.”Australia have already been the gold standard in women’s cricket. It is scary to imagine what their next chapter will look like.

'Numb' Harmanpreet tries to grasp enormity of India's greatest day

If the semi-final win against Australia was emotional – captain Harmanpreet Kaur was unable to hold back tears in the dugout – the day India finally lifted their first-ever Women’s World Cup was filled with nothing but smiles. A beaming Harmanpreet walked into the press conference room, bringing the trophy along. The emotion this time was of a different kind, like the buzz of a dream realised. And the one word she kept returning to was “self-belief”.One of the first questions, inevitably, was about the feeling of finally touching a trophy that had long eluded India.”I’m just trying to express what I’m feeling. I’m numb, I’m not able to understand,” Harmanpreet said. “So, it’s just that there were ups and downs, but the team had self-belief. I’ve been saying this since day one. We weren’t looking to the left or right. We were only looking at our main end goal.Related

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“We felt we could win from the first ball itself because the way our team was playing in the last three games, a lot of things changed for us, especially our self-belief. We have played good cricket for a long time. We knew what we could do as a team. We knew there would be tough conditions for batting, but credit goes to Smriti [Mandhana] and Shafali [Verma]; they handled the first 10 overs very well.”There was laughter, too. Harmanpreet’s luck with the toss hadn’t improved all tournament – she won one in nine attempts – and she lost it again on the day of the final. “From the first ball itself, I had the belief that it doesn’t matter – because we don’t normally win the toss – we knew we had to bat first,” she said, smiling.There was belief, but there were also nerves. Laura Wolvaardt’s century had kept South Africa in the chase before her dismissal in the 42nd over finally swung momentum India’s way.”Our aim was simple. We knew that if we thought of a big target, we would come under pressure,” Harmanpreet said. “The main thing was to keep batting and keep playing our game. We tried to score 300 runs on the board; we were one run short. But after that, I think we came onto the field as a strong unit. Whenever we needed it, we got a breakthrough. It was a very good match.”It seems easy to say now, but there was a lot of tension in between when they were batting – like Laura, she was not giving a chance. But at the end of the day, I’m feeling great. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m just trying to tell you what I’m feeling.”After the final wicket fell – fittingly, with Harmanpreet taking the catch – India took a victory lap around a roaring DY Patil Stadium. At one point, former India players Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra joined the team and were handed the trophy. Goswami was in tears as she embraced Harmanpreet and a few other team-mates in the middle.Pratika Rawal gets off her wheelchair to celebrate with her team-mates•ICC/Getty Images

“Jhulan was my biggest support,” Harmanpreet said, when asked what it meant to share that moment with former players. “When I joined the team, she was leading it. She always supported me in my early days when I was very raw and didn’t know much about cricket. Anjum , too. Both of them have been a great support for me. I’m very grateful that I got to share a special moment with them. It was a very emotional moment. I think we all were waiting for this. Finally, we were able to touch this trophy.”The campaign itself had been a deeply emotional one. Harmanpreet revealed how injuries to Yastika Bhatia and Pratika Rawal had left the dressing room in tears.”When she [Pratika] got injured, everybody was crying…yet, everybody was so positive. Everyone was thinking that our end goal was this trophy. We had to keep working hard day and night. And this is the result.”India’s journey through the tournament was far from smooth. Two early wins were followed by three straight losses – to South Africa, Australia and England – before a recovery against New Zealand sealed their semi-final berth. Beating Australia in the semi-final was the breakthrough they needed.”The last month has been very interesting,” Harmanpreet said. “It’s very rare that things don’t go according to your plan, and yet you stay so positive. After that day [the loss against England], a lot changed for us. Every time, we cannot go on repeating the same things. We had to come with a strong mind.”That defeat to England proved transformative. The squad turned inward, working on visualisation and meditation sessions to refocus.”That night changed a lot for us,” she added. “It had an impact on everyone. We were more prepared for the World Cup. We started visualisation and meditation. That showed we were here for something, and this time we had to do it.”There have been parallels drawn between this and India’s men’s World Cup win in 1983. For a side that had reached finals and semi-finals but always fallen just short, Harmanpreet saw this win as the long-awaited shift Indian women’s cricket.DY Patil Stadium was a sea of blue on Sunday•ICC/Getty Images

“We have been talking about this for many years – we’ve been playing good cricket, but we had to win one big tournament. Without that, we couldn’t talk about change…we were waiting badly for this moment, and today we got a chance to live it. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m so happy and so proud of this team.”When the final wicket fell, Harmanpreet sprinted across the field, embracing each of her team-mates in celebration. But the longest hug was reserved for Smriti Mandhana, her partner across 106 ODIs.”I’ve played many World Cups with her [Mandhana]. Every time we lost, we went home heartbroken and stayed quiet for a few days. When we returned, we always said, ‘we have to start again from ball one’. It was heartbreaking because we played so many World Cups – reaching finals, semi-finals, and sometimes not even that far. We were always thinking, when will we break this?”The 39,555-strong Navi Mumbai crowd stayed through a two-hour rain delay, unrelenting in their chants for the home side. The DY Patil Stadium, which had hosted several women’s international and WPL fixtures, and long seen as the home of women’s cricket in India, once again proved a lucky venue. Harmanpreet also shared an anecdote about how the side felt relieved when the venue had changed from Bengaluru to Navi Mumbai in August.”As soon as we got to know that our venue had been changed to DY Patil Stadium, we all got so happy because we’ve always played good cricket there. We said, ‘We’ve come home now, and we’ll start fresh.’ We didn’t want to look back at previous World Cups, we left them there. The new World Cup had just started.”Celebrations stretched late into the night. After the victory lap and presentations, the team stayed on the ground with friends and family before heading to their hotel with a procession.”We’ve been waiting for this moment. The celebration will go on all night. And then let’s see what BCCI is planning for us,” Harmanpreet quipped.

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