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Three of Bermuda’s squad members who should have appeared in their side’s Stanford 20/20 campaign are facing lengthy bans after failing a drugs test.”If any athlete has tested positive with us we then send a portion of the specimen to the government lab for confirmation,” Cathy Belvedere, a spokesman for the Bermuda Council for Drug Free Sports, told newspaper. “And if it is confirmed positive they then get a one year infraction.”They can apply for the domestic application whereas they won’t be able to represent Bermuda during that year but can go back to playing gymnastics, football, cricket or whatever sport they are involved in,” Belvedere added. “They would also have to agree to some counselling, but that’s only if there’s a positive find.”Although the identity of the players is not yet known, it was confirmed that two of the trio represented Somerset – one of Bermuda’s domestic teams – while the other is “a prominent member” of St George’s, the domestic champions.”All of the players [in the national team] were tested, but unfortunately not everyone cleared the process which has policies in place that all national bodies must adhere to,” Reggie Pearman, president of the Bermuda Cricket Board, said. “All of the players knew what was required of them and what the consequences were.”

AB de Villiers has dropped a hint that he might be willing after all to lead South Africa’s Test team in the longer term, after stating that it was pressure, not personnel, that led to the side’s downfall on a catastrophic third day at Johannesburg.De Villiers, who had been rumoured to be on the verge of retirement from Test cricket amid concerns about his workload, quashed any such rumours in the wake of South Africa’s seven-wicket defeat at The Wanderers.Faced with an inspired spell of bowling from Stuart Broad, who claimed 5 for 1 in ten overs after lunch, South Africa crumbled to 83 all out in their second innings. The result confirmed the end of South Africa’s reign as the No.1 Test team, and may just have galvanised South Africa’s new Test captain to stick to his guns and lead a side in transition out of their current malaise.”I was never thinking of leaving Test cricket at all. I was just to find a way to rest a little bit throughout the year,” de Villiers said after the match. “Lots of thoughts have been crossing my mind but this [defeat] has got absolutely no influence on that.””Playing on the cricket pitch has never been an issue for me, it’s just a matter of keeping myself fresh. It’s really tough to stay on top of your game if you play up to 12 months a year. I just have to try and find a balance to keep my fight going and keep that skill level up.”South Africa’s skills may have been lacking in the decisive third Test, and the absence of several key members of their team – Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, JP Duminy and Quinton de Kock, not to mention a specialist opening batsman – cannot have helped. However, de Villiers believes the team still has plenty raw materials with which to rebuild their fortunes.”The players we have are not really the issue, there’s still something to work with there,” he said. “The talent is there, it’s just a matter of finding consistency and applying pressure more often”They [England] kept applying the pressure. Every time we looked like starting a good partnership, they took a good catch or bowled a good delivery, and it just kept going like that. I guess when momentum is on your side, things tend to happen that way. Credit to them for creating that kind of pressure.”It was a tough day for AB de Villiers but he wants to carry on•Getty Images

Facing up to the loss of the series, and their No.1 Test ranking, de Villiers conceded, somewhat dramatically, “I almost feel like all hope is gone”. However, throwing ahead to the final dead-rubber Test in Centurion, he struck a more upbeat note.”I’m still the kind of guy that will get myself going for that last Test match, and get the team going,” he said. “I felt we were in the game lots of times throughout the Test match and just didn’t grab those opportunities.”South Africa’s chances came in the first innings when they were 117 for 1 against an England attack struggling with a stomach bug and with a big total on the cards. Instead, they squandered that chance and threw their wickets away, with every batsman reaching double figures but none going past Dean Elgar’s 46, to put themselves under unnecessary pressure.”There were quite a few opportunities that we had throughout the match and one was in the first innings,” de Villiers said. “We were getting a lot of partnerships going, a lot of guys got in. There was a great opportunity to get 400-plus and we didn’t take that. 400-plus on this wicket is very tough to play against. Unfortunately we missed that trick.”Then, South Africa had England 91 for 4 in reply and “let it slip.” De Villiers struggled to use his four quicks effectively, primarily because they all did the same job. Among them, there was no designated holding bowler and, without a spinner, there was no way to slow the game down. However, de Villiers did not blame team selection or player unavailability for the leaked runs.”We miss Dale, there’s no excuse with that. We miss Vern, we miss Kallis as well. But this is the team we have and the team I believe in,” he said. “It’s up to the 11 here and the 11 that get picked at Centurion to do something special. That’s the way past players like a Kallis and a Smith did it. They had some tough times and they found a way to get through it to get to the top of the rankings. We’ve now got to find a way with what we have to become the best.”De Villiers does not know how to find that way at the moment, but he knows the fundamental reason why. “We’re not the same side anymore,” he said. “There are lots of different players. We’re still up there in the rankings, but that means absolutely nothing. I believe our form of late has been really poor and it will take something really special to turn it around. It’s important for us to try and find that mould of cricket we’re looking to play. We’re a little bit offbeat at the moment, that’s for sure.””The youngsters will learn a lot. Not long ago I was that youngster in the team, going through ups and downs at Test level, personally and as a team a while back. You learn a lot from that. It’s important just to survive and for a youngster to get through this and not to give up and gain a lot of experience. If guys like Kagiso [Rabada] and Hardus [Viljoen] and a few others get through this patch, they’ll become much better cricketers.”De Villiers hopes to be the man to guide them through that, even if his captaincy stint is clipped at the end of these two Tests.”It’s a big responsibility for me, and a great opportunity to have an influence on younger players. I would love to walk away from the game knowing I’ve had an influence on the young guys turning into senior players in the team,” de Villiers said. “There’s a group of about four or five players that have the responsibility on their shoulders, and it’s important for us to keep things intact. And to keep the hope going. I’d love to be captain, I’m hopefully still captain in the next game, we’ll see.”In this match, de Villiers could not inspire his players, even though he said he gave it his all. “The message in the change-room was to keep fighting, there’s no doubt in my mind all 11 kept fighting but we just got a good hammering from the opposition,” he said. “I tried everything I could personally, I believe my fellow team-mates also did. It’s difficult to explain how these kind of things happen, we have to give credit to the England bowlers and the team.”That was where de Villiers had to concede South Africa were simply outgunned by a man with a trained eye. Broad dealt them a blow they will take a long time to recover from and for which, at the moment, they have no explanation for.”That’s some of the best bowling I’ve faced from their whole unit. Conditions suited them really well and they made full use of that,” he said. “They asked a lot of questions, right throughout our innings. They didn’t ask as many questions in the first innings and that’s where I thought we missed a trick.”This time around they were spot on, they were a little bit fuller in their lengths and they asked questions all the time. The ball was moving around a lot, but they showed some good skill and you have to give them credit for that, especially Broady for getting the results.”

ScorecardAl-Amin Hossain had a good game, picking up 2 for 34, including Tamim Iqbal•BCB

Barisal Bulls’ batting revival came at the perfect time for them, although it was not quite so for Chittagong Vikings who were crushed at their home ground by 33 runs. Mahmudullah, Seekkuge Prasanna and Mehedi Maruf played without fear, on a good pitch to pile on 170 for 7, which was more then enough for their bowlers.While Chittagong slipped to their fourth loss in five matches, Barisal put up their third win in four matches and did so only after overcoming some stutters.The start of the Barisal innings was a grim reminder of how they got bowled out for 108 and 89 in their last two innings. Evin Lewis, Rony Talukdar and Sabbir Rahman all fell lbw to leave the score at 12 for 3 in the third over. Maruf, playing in his first match of this campaign, mounted resistance when he whacked Enamul Haque jnr’s full toss for a straight six. Then he paddled Elton Chigumbura over the square leg boundary, a shot that stood out among the nine sixes and eight fours in the innings. But Maruf was dismissed in the 10th over for a bright 28 off 25 balls, and Barisal slipped again when Nadif Chowdhury was the fourth leg-before victim in the 12th over.Mahmudullah and Prasanna ensured there wasn’t a lull in the scoring though and eventually they started hitting sixes almost at will. Their partnership for the sixth wicket provided 61 runs in 33 balls.Prasanna bashed Ziaur Rahman for two sixes over midwicket and Mahmudullah smashed Enamul over long-on. With runs leaking and pressure mounting, Chittagong played a hand in their own undoing. Ziaur and Naeem Islam, at long-off and long-on, dropped Prasanna and parried the ball on both occasions for sixes in the 16th over. The second instance was a no-ball as well. Prasanna was finally dismissed for 36 off 20 balls, after hitting a four and four sixes. A measure of Barisal’s misfiring batting until this match was that this partnership was only their second fifty-plus stand in the competition.Mahmudullah pushed on and made his second half-century in the competition. He was caught behind at the end of a nine-ball over by Chigumbura, who conceded 16 and 22 in his two overs, not to mention the four wides and a no-ball. All of them added up to a total that became too much to chase.Chittagong’s reply would have depended heavily on their top order but Al-Amin Hossain dealt a major blow when he had Tamim Iqbal caught at mid-on. Kamran Akmal, playing his first BPL game this season, was run out after he ran wide of the crease and then failed to drag his bat in the third over. Mohammad Sami then took an excellent catch at mid-on to get rid of Dilshan who made 19.Al-Amin struck again in the sixth over, drawing Anamul’s leading edge which was easily taken at point. In came Chigumbura, with his team at 40 for 4 before the Powerplay was even done, and his day only got worse as he was caught behind after making 5 off 11 balls.When Ziaur was caught at long-on off Sami in the 14th over, Chittagong’s chase was all but over. They were 77 for 6, with only the tail to rely on to handle an equation that read 94 needed off 37 balls. Naeem Islam was the only notable contribution – 38 off 40 balls. Kevon Cooper ended up with three wickets to take him to second place among the top wicket-takers in the BPL so far, while Al-Amin took 2 for 34.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Rajasthan Royals strolled to the top of the table with an eight-wicket win over Deccan Chargers, who offered little resistance in a match that was effectively decided in the first innings. Deccan posted a below-par 140 and looked listless as Rajasthan’s efficient batting chased the target with four overs to spare.After their batsmen collapsed in spectacular fashion following Adam Gilchrist’s dismissal, Deccan’s fielders, perhaps hindered by the dust storm blowing across the stadium, failed to save runs and apply any pressure on Rajasthan. Deccan have now lost six matches out of eight and, with six games to play, their chances of making the semi-finals look dim.It all looked very different at the start. Gilchrist, the stand-in captain, said his batsmen had the challenge of putting up a total that his bowlers could defend. He led the way, starting off the evening with a cover drive off the first ball and following it with a cut to backward point as Sohail Tanvir went for eight runs in the opening over. Shane Watson was flicked for a massive six to square leg when he sent down a half-volley and Munaf Patel was glanced for a four to fine leg.Herschelle Gibbs joined the fun by lifting Watson for four over cover soon after he was dropped by Graeme Smith when attempting the same shot. Gibbs struggled to pick Shane Warne and was nearly stumped off Warne’s first delivery – his foot was in the air and Mahesh Rawat removed the bails just as he brought it down to the ground. Gilchrist had no trouble negotiating Warne, but fans eager to watch a contest between the legspinner and the man who kept wickets for him, were to be disappointed for Gilchrist only faced four balls from Warne; he took singles from each.Only after he reached his fifty did Gilchrist, dropped on 52 by Siddharth Trivedi, start throwing his bat at nearly every delivery. He was dismissed when, in reaching for a wide one off Trivedi, he edged the ball to the keeper.At the end of ten overs, Deccan were at 74 for 1. When Gilchrist was dismissed, four overs later, they were 97 for 3. In the next three overs they lost three wickets for five runs – Shahid Afridi, who charged down the track to Warne and edged to third man, Rohit Sharma, run out by a direct throw from Warne, and Sanjay Bangar, who edged Watson to the keeper.

Much of this was, however, down to Rajasthan’s bowlers and fielders, who kept their cool while Gilchrist was batting and put the brakes on the scoring after his dismissal. Watson and Tanvir went for 20 and 16 respectively in their first two overs but they came back for their second spells determined to make amends. In his third over Watson picked up Bangar’s wicket and after Venugopal Rao hit Tanvir for successive fours, the bowler countered with skidding yorkers to slow Deccan.Deccan appeared uninspired by their low score and their lack of confidence may have worked to Rajasthan’s advantage as Smith and Yusuf Pathan edged and slogged their way to a 109-run opening stand. Yusuf lifted a good-length delivery off Scott Styris for six just after he was nearly stumped by Gilchrist. He then targeted Pragyan Ojha, hitting him for 17 runs in one over where he pulled a short ball for six, slog-swept to mid-off for four and then had a two converted to four after Rohit Sharma touched the boundary rope with his foot while fielding the ball.There was little answer to the attack. Gilchrist spent a lot of time talking to his bowlers – six were used in the first ten overs – and fielders but nothing seemed to work. Their spirit – or lack of it – was best summed up in the life given to Yusuf at 30. He top-edged a delivery from Afridi to midwicket and DP Vijaykumar ran uncertainly towards it and slowed down just as the ball fell in front of him.Deccan now lie just above the Bangalore Royal Challengers at the bottom of the points table and winning this game would have eased a little pressure in their bid to avoid elimination. They now face three tough games – two at home, against the resurgent Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians and one in Delhi against the Daredevils.

Match facts

Friday, April 18, 2008Start time 20:00 local time (14:30 GMT)

The Big Picture

After months of hype, excitement, controversy and speculation the high-profile Indian Premier League kicks off in Bangalore with the Royal Challengers hosting the Kolkata Knight Riders. “Eight teams, without any players, only warriors” is the maxim for the inaugural tournament and there’s plenty riding on it. Fans from all around the world will zoom in to see players who have squared off on the international level come together to try and trump others, and many, not least the organisers who have gone to town promoting the event, will follow with bated breath. Not since Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket has an event so divided and stirred up the fraternity. It might be too much for a traditionalist but against the backdrop of a cricket-crazy host country, and with plenty of huge names involved, there’s little going against the lucrative tournament.

Watch out for …

After the Chinnaswamy Stadium is plunged in darkness, a spotlight will focus on the rival captains, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. The duo has been solid for India for over well over a decade and would’ve played against each other on the domestic front but this is something completely new.Dravid and Jacques Kallis are champions for their respective countries, one recently going past 10,000 Test runs and the other soon to get there, but they’ve done little of note in Twenty20 cricket. Kallis was unceremoniously axed from the ICC World Twenty20 at home and has only played seven matches; Dravid has played only two domestic matches. Pitted together in the same team, its going to be interesting to see how they adapt.Just 21 years and six first-class games old, young Debabrata Das could be forgiven for being a bit overawed around some of his acclaimed Kolkata team-mates. But with Pakistan’s Salman Butt on international duty, Das finds himself on the verge of playing in the big opener. He’s up against fellow Bengal batsman Wriddhiman Saha, but being a wicketkeeper may go against Saha given that Kolkata have Brendon McCullum. It’s a great opportunity to impress.Not many in India would’ve followed Ashley Noffke’s career. Ushered in for Bangalore as cover for fellow Australian Nathan Bracken, he can be expected to play the first game. Noffke, 30, has played one ODI and two Twenty20s for Australia, and apart from his skills with the ball he is also a capable lower-order batsman, with two first-class centuries.

Team news

With only four overseas player allowed in a team, its unlikely that Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Cameron White will both play and White’s excellent Twenty20 record puts him ahead. With Anil Kumble ruled out through injury, White is also placed to take the lone spinner’s slot ahead of local lad KP Appanna. Kallis and Mark Boucher were expected to leave for the South African domestic Twenty20 competition but will now stay back but with Dale Steyn absent, Noffke could easily fill in. Misbah-ul-Haq will miss the opening clash because of the ongoing series in Pakistan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul is reportedly carrying an injury so another of the local boys, B Akhil or Bharat Chipli, could come into the middle order.Bangalore (likely) 1 Praveen Kumar, 2 Wasim Jaffer, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Rahul Dravid (capt), 5 Virat Kohli, 6 Cameron White, 7 B Akhil, 8 Mark Boucher (wk), 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ashley Noffke, 11 R Vinay KumarKolkata are without Butt and Umar Gul, in Bangladesh, and that opens up slots for young Das and Ashok Dinda, the Bengal medium pacer. Ganguly has said he will open, which means the explosive McCullum would come in after Ricky Ponting at No. 3. David Hussey and an in-form Laxmi Ratan Shukla strengthen the middle order. Shukla will assist Ishant Sharma and Ajit Agarkar and Murali Kartik – with Twenty20 experience in England – adds variety with his left-arm spin and handy lower-order batting. Chris Gayle has yet to arrive for the match and so his place in some doubt.Kolkata (likely) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Brendon McCullum (wk), 5 David Hussey, 6 Debabrata Das, 7 Laxmi Ratan Shukla, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda.

Stats and trivia

Chris Gayle has been retained as West Indies captain for the upcoming home series against Sri Lanka in March, which involves two Tests and three one-day internationals. Gayle has recovered from a hamstring injury and broken thumb that he sustained in South Africa and the selectors decided to name him as captain ahead of Ramnaresh Sarwan.Gayle was given the captaincy for the tour of South Africa in December 2007 because Sarwan was injured and he led West Indies to their first Test victory in South Africa in Port Elizabeth. However, he had to return home before the third Test because of a hamstring injury and a broken thumb and missed the one-day series that followed after the Tests.”I heard from Sarwan. He called me and congratulated me and we talked and so on,” Gayle told CMC Sports. “There is no noise between us or anything like that. This thing won’t affect us or get between us. But he did call me and I appreciate that.”Sri Lanka’s tour of the West Indies will be their first since 2003 when they lost the Tests 0-1 but won the ODIs 2-1. Australia are scheduled to tour the Caribbean in May, after Sri Lanka complete their tour.

Desert Vipers batter Shimron Hetmyer has been ruled out of the remainder of the ongoing ILT20 season due to a hamstring injury. Hetmyer got injured while playing against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (ADKR) earlier this week, and has been replaced in Vipers’ squad by former England batter Jason Roy.Hetmyer played in all seven games for Vipers so far this season, but had a quiet time with the bat. He scored just 111 runs in six innings at an average of 18.50, although at an impactful strike rate of 160.86. Hetmyer’s highest score was the 48 off 25 balls he smashed against ADKR on December 5.Roy, meanwhile, enters the ILT20 after three matches for Pokhara Avengers in the Nepal Premier League, where he scored 68 runs at an average of 34. Before that, he was at the Abu Dhabi T10, where he was Royal Champs’ captain. Roy also has previous experience of playing in the ILT20. In 2024, he played two matches for ADKR, while next season, he played 12 games for Sharjah Warriorz, and got 298 runs at an average of 29.80.”We are extremely disappointed to lose a player of Shimron’s quality and experience as he has played a positive role in our squad this season, but securing someone of Jason’s pedigree and experience certainly softens that blow,” Tom Moody, Vipers’ Director of Cricket, said.”Jason ticks all the boxes for us. He knows the format inside-out, he is a versatile batter who can go through the gears, he provides us options up and down the order, he has been playing recently and he has experience in the ILT20.”Vipers are currently at the top of the points table, with six wins in seven games. The one-run loss they suffered against ADKR this week was their first after six back-to-back victories to start the tournament. Vipers are next in action on Sunday evening, when they face Warriorz in Dubai, with their new recruit Roy having already arrived there.

The standoff between the Indian Premier League and the media over controversial guidelines for covering the inaugural tournament looks set to ease after a meeting between officials of both sides on Monday. The IPL has toned down some of its earlier restrictions, especially benefiting the print media, though it has not relaxed its ban on websites covering matches from the ground, nor its ban on news agencies supplying websites with images.It was also disclosed that the date for submitting accreditation forms would be extended beyond the original April 8 deadline.”We have successfully concluded with them [media representatives] the way forward and there are no issues on the table,” Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, said after the meeting in Mumbai. “New media guidelines are being issued this evening, and will be published [on the IPL website].””It was two-way traffic at our discussions and it was a happy ending,” Pradeep Vijayakar, vice-president of the Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI), said.Barry Parker, South-East Asia bureau chief of Agence France Presse (AFP), told Cricinfo that he and the international media coalition that also includes AP and Getty Images are waiting for the written version of the new guidelines before they decide on their next step. Parker had earlier said the terms and conditions as existed “don’t allow us to cover the event.”The day’s bad news was reserved for websites, whose representatives will be granted accreditation for the tournament but not match tickets, enabling them to report on pre- and post-match activity but barring them from the press box during play. This, IPL officials said, is because the league wishes to protect the portal rights it has sold to an American firm.The other contentious clause that remains is preventing news agencies from selling their pictures to websites, who will have to source images from the IPL database. Modi said the IPL’s planned photo database would integrate resources that can take about 10,000 photographs on a single day at various venues.”That makes things difficult,” Parker commented. “There’s more than one issue as far as the AFP is concerned.”However, there was resolution on other major contentious issues, largely surrounding use of images. Contrary to the earlier guidelines, the IPL will not have the rights, free and without restrictions, to all photographs taken at the matches; and news organisations will not have to upload on the IPL site, within 24 hours, all images taken at the ground. The IPL has also allowed newspapers with their own web publication to upload six different pictures on their online photo galleries in addition to the pictures published in print.

The IPL also relaxed its limit of accreditations for each organisation – there will now be two accreditations each for reporters and photographers from any media house.”There has been a misunderstanding to a certain extent as far as the guidelines and there was no clarity on the guidelines,” Modi said.The original guidelines, published last week, had provoked widespread outrage in the media. The influential Editors’ Guild of India criticised the “prohibitive conditions” that it said were “unprecedented and unacceptable to the Indian media.”The SJFI had also issued a statement expressing “alarm and concern” over the IPL’s conditions and asked that the “unfair and unethical restrictions being placed on the media be withdrawn unconditionally”.

Five foreign players, each of whom applied to join counties as Kolpaks, have been refused registration by the ECB. Wavell Hinds (Derbyshire), Johan van der Wath (Northamptonshire), Andrew Hall (Northamptonshire), Hamish Marshall (Gloucestershire) and Justin Kemp (Kent) – who coincidentally are all signed-up members of the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League (ICL) – will play no part for their respective counties all season.The situation is muddied by the Kolpak issue. Any cricketer who has played cricket (domestic or international) in another country 12 months prior to their Kolpak application can be turned away, at the ECB’s discretion. But in recent years, this stipulation has been waived several times, which has led to a number of counties expanding their squads with experienced internationals and former internationals. Now, however, with the ICL alive and kicking, the ECB has chosen not to exercise its discretion, which could be seen as sanctioning an event not officially recognised by the ICC.”We are obviously very disappointed that Wavell will be unable to join us this season,” Tom Sears, Derbyshire’s chief executive, said. “While we support the ECB’s stance on unsanctioned events we can fully understand why Wavell has accepted the Indian Cricket League offer.”Now we have a definitive decision we can turn our attention to securing a replacement and we can assure our members and supporters that we have the resources to compete for the very best players that are available.””It was something we expected and has been on the cards for a few days now,” Mark Tagg, Northamptonshire’s chief executive, told Cricinfo.The ICL signings have caused confusion for weeks. The county circuit has two captains who are also part of the ICL – Dale Benkenstein (Durham) and Nicky Boje (Northamptonshire) – but they are expected to play because they are already registered and no retrospective action will be taken by the ECB.

India began the Super Sixes stage of the Women’s World Cup Qualifier with a comfortable 49-run win against South Africa in Colombo. Mithali Raj and Mona Meshram struck fifties to propel India’s score to 205. In reply, South Africa were bowled out for 156 as fast bowler Shikha Pandey and left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht combined for seven wickets.After India were inserted, opener Deepti Sharma was dismissed in the 12th over for 9 off 38 balls. Meshram and Raj then shared a 96-run stand to set a platform for the end overs. South Africa ensured they kept India in control by picking up regular wickets. India managed to score just 93 runs in the final 20 overs. South Africa were quickly reduced to 8 for 2 in the fifth over, and were always behind the asking rate thereon. Trisha Chetty top-scored with an 81-ball 52. Pandey returned figures of 4 for 34.Eshani Lokusuriyage’s 65 and contributions from the top order ensured Sri Lanka cruised past the target of 213 against Pakistan with five wickets in hand and 14 balls to spare. Nipuni Hansika (37) and Chamari Atapattu (35) set the tone with a 75-run opening stand, before Pakistan hit back with three wickets in the space of eight overs. Prasadani Weerakkody struck 45 off 71 balls and shared an 88-run partnership with Lokusuriyage.Pakistan were helped along to 212 with fifties from Nahida Khan (64) and Javeria Khan (63). The pair shared a 119-run stand off 171 balls. Pakistan, too, lost a cluster of wickets in the end overs, stalling the momentum from the innings. Inoka Ranaweera and Chamari Polgampola added two wickets apiece.File photo – Sharmin Akhter struck five fours during her fifty•IDI/Getty Images

Bangladesh Women skittled Ireland Women for 144 and cruised to a seven-wicket win in their first Super Six match at the Colombo Cricket Ground.Jahanara Alam led the way with figures of 3 for 21 after Bangladesh inserted Ireland. She removed Cecelia Joyce and Kim Garth in successive overs to reduce Ireland to 15 for 2 inside nine overs. Panna Ghosh, Rumana Ahmed, Khadija Tul Kubra proceeded to make further inroads into the Ireland line-up. Salma Khatun was also among the wickets as Ireland were bowled out in 47.1 overs. Their major source of resistance came from Clare Shillington and captain Laura Delany, who struck 37 each. Apart from them, only Isobel Joyce passed 20.The Sharmins – Sultana and Akhter – gave Bangladesh a solid start in their chase with a 40-run partnership. The stand ended when Gaby Lewis got rid of Sultana for 22 at the end of the 15th over. Sanjida Islam then fell cheaply, but Akhter ate into target with a half-century before exiting in the 30th over. Fargana Hoque and Rumana eventually sealed the win in the 40th over with an unbroken 39-run stand.