This is the time of TOO. MUCH. CRICKET. Which is a good problem. Let’s start internationally, at Emirates Old Trafford, where England won the only T20I game against Pakistan so far that had a result and is playing the third game today. The first game saw rain halt it in the 17th over of England’s innings and never relenting. The second game looked like a chance for Pakistan to win something in this series, as Babar Azam and Mohammad Hafeez posted 50s on their way to setting up Pakistan with 195 runs. England’s M&M boys, Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan, were unimpressed, and put together a 112 partnership en route to a relatively easy win with 5 balls left.
The CPL this week saw an almost-loss by the Knight Riders until Kieron Pollard went berserk against the previously stingy bowling attack of the Barbados Tridents and hit 72 off 28 before getting run out in the last over by a perfect peg from Jason Holder from deep mid-wicket. TKR pulled it over the line with one ball remaining, thanks to Pollard almost getting them there. That was a fantastic game, one of the best I’ve seen in years. TKR remain undefeated, with the surprising St. Lucia Zouks in second place at 5-2.
Elsewhere in England, the Bob Willis Trophy took a week off so that the Vitality Blast could get started. There’s nothing more aggravating than trying to locate 18 different county YouTube streams while you try to follow this competition, with some streams captive on the ECB web site, some non-existent, and others, like Worcestershire’s, behind a ridiculous £99 paywall (£99! For a YouTube stream!). In any event, it rained constantly and not many games had results. Essex and Surrey and Middlesex and Kent managed to each tie their matches, the last one at Lord’s, which had a famous tie last year, as New Zealand fans will tell you. Northants, Notts and Lancs are all 2-0, and Durham has dodged the raindrops enough to lose all three of their games so far.
Last but certainly not least, the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy started among the six women’s teams that made up the Kia Super League last year plus two new teams, the Central Sparks and Sunrisers (Eastern counties), with the Surrey Stars becoming the South East Stars and the Yorkshire Diamonds becoming the Northern Diamonds. This is a one-day 50-over competition. If you thought finding streams for the Blast was difficult, finding these streams is damned near impossible because the teams represent multiple counties and the county sites bury the games under several menu picks or don’t have any menu picks at all and you have to spend 20 minutes clicking on everything that looks remotely like a “live stream” link. Both sets of games had full results, amazingly (the rain gods must like women’s cricket!), with the Northern Diamonds and Southern Vipers leading their respective groups at 2-0.
Whew! That was a lot of typing. Type some more in the comments.
