The IPL continues! After a COVID break, the teams are back in the UAE. The most remarkable game of the week was a confounding loss by Punjab Kings to Rajasthan Royals when Kings needed only 8 runs from 12 balls and 4 from 6. Somehow, they lost by 2 runs, with the 20th over reading “dot 1 W dot W dot.” Kartik Tyagi bowled the final over and took Player of the Match. Delhi Capitals top the table at 7-2 and Sunrisers Hyderabad are in last place at 1-7. The playoffs start on October 10th.
The County Championship is in its last day. Two teams still have a shot at the title. Lancashire beat Hampshire in a thrilling 10th wicket victory with a match-winning four by Dane Vilas, who had come in at 6 and was trying to keep 11th man Matt Parkinson off strike as much as possible to get them over the line. This temporarily put Lancashire atop the table, pending the outcome today of the Warwickshire v Somerset match. Warks can win the title if they can get Somerset out before Somerset scores 263 runs. A draw will not be enough for Warks. Somerset is at 35/2 as of this writing. Both Warks and Lancs will go to Lord’s for the Bob Willis Trophy match regardless.
The England women finished their ODI series win against the New Zealand White Ferns with a close 3-wicket victory in Derby to go up 3-1 in the series. They needed all but 3 balls to chase 244. Heather Knight contributed the bulk of the runs with a 101 and Sophie Ecclestone was on strike in the 50th over when Leigh Kasperek bowled a wide after Anya Shrubsole had leveled the match with a single. The final dead rubber will be at Canterbury on Sunday.
India’s women continue in Australia with a second of three ODIs going on right now. India put up 247 and Australia are in control with 29 off 40 balls left. There will be another ODI tomorrow in Mackay followed by a single Test match and three T20Is at Carrara.
The Minor League Cricket playoffs start tomorrow. Empire State Titans travel to Cumming, GA to face Atlanta Fire. New Jersey Stallions have to go to Morrisville, NC because they have no turf wicket and will face Morrisville Cardinals there even though they finished in first place and Morrisville finished in 2nd place, which is MiLC’s way of encouraging franchise owners to install turf wickets at their facilities. Austin Athletics, who found a turf wicket to play on in Pearland, TX some 140 miles from their home, will host Silicon Valley Strikers, and Golden State Grizzlies will play Houston Hurricanes in Davis, CA. These are all best-of-three series with the 1st two games on Saturday and the 3rd game, if necessary, on Sunday. The winners will move on to Morrisville for the semi-finals on October 2nd, and the finals will be played on October 3rd. All games are on the Willow YouTube channel.
The Sheffield Shield is underway in Australia. Western Australia started Day 1 against Southern Australia with 324/4, getting tons from Shaun Marsh and Cameron Green.
That should do it for this week for me. What’s up with you?
