West Indies 250 for 5 (Louis 97, Athanaze 90, Taskin 2-46) vs Bangladesh

After the Louis-Athanaze pair fell to the spinners, Justin Greaves and Joshua Da Silva scored freely against the second new ball towards the end of the day. Play was called off after 84 overs when a drizzle started, while the light was not great either.

Bangladesh’s fast-bowling trio of Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam and Taskin challenged West Indies early in the day, but Louis held his own. Hasan kept beating him outside the offstump. Shoriful tested him around the off-stump with the delivery always threatening to shape in. Taskin used the wobble seam, sometimes bowled the odd yorker, and pressing Louis to fish outside off-stump.

Shoriful, who got more swing from the Sir Curtly Ambrose end than the Andy Roberts end, was playing his first Test since mid-August. He missed the previous five Tests but looked in tune with the red ball. He roubled Kraigg Brathwaite, who tried to dig in despite the runs not flowing from his bat. Louis meanwhile waited for the short ball, which got him two fours with the pull shot.

Taskin then removed Brathwaite, trapping him lbw with a hint of inward movement that beat his bat. Taskin then had Keacy Carty caught at mid-on when he couldn’t keep his wristy whip down, ending up as a tame dismissal. Brathwaite made four runs in 38 balls, while Carty ended on a eight-ball duck.

Louis then found Kavem Hodge a little more forthcoming as they tried to rebuild the innings. The pair struck four boundaries before the lunch break, but then consolidated in the second session.

Louis brought up his fifty when he struck Taskin with a punch down the ground for a boundary. Hodge then slapped Taskin with a square cut, but he wouldn’t last too much longer. Attempting a second run off Mehidy’s bowling, Hodge was run out for 25 after Taijul’s throw from long leg had him well short despite a dive.

Athanaze made efforts to push the run-rate but he was met with Bangladesh’s continued discipline. In the afternoon, it was the spinners Mehidy and Taijul who kept things tight. Athanze skied a couple of balls that fell slightly away from the fielder’s reach. One of them, a top edge towards mid-on could have become a catch had Taskin moved slightly faster from mid-on. Athanaze struck Mehidy with a sweep for four, but couldn’t quite connect with his several reverse sweeps in the second session. Louis, who lifted Taskin for a four over the bowler’s head towards the end of the second session, remained mostly quiet in his approach.

Athanaze took the initiative to raise West Indies’ scoring rate after tea. He started the the final session with two square-cut boundaries, before he finally got a four with a reverse sweep, off Mehidy.

Louis then lofted Mehidy for the first six of the day, which took him into the eighties. Then, Mehidy dropped Louis at slip when he reached 90. Louis picked up Mahmud for his ninth boundary as he edged closer to his maiden century, while Athanaze opened up at the other end too.

He swept Taijul before hitting Taskin for consecutive fours in the 71st over, cut and flicked away. Athanaze then slog-swept Taijul for his first six, and then came another reverse-swept boundary.

Against the run of play, Mehidy removed Louis, charging at him, caught at slip where Shahadat Hossain took a good catch. Three overs later, Taijul had Athanaze caught behind. In the space of four runs, both batters were gone, allowing for a small opening come day two.

Forde was initially included as cover for the suspended Alzarri Joseph, playing the second match of the series, in Barbados. He was replaced in the XI by Joseph in St Lucia, as West Indies conceded the series after going 3-0 down.

McCoy was not available for the start of the T20I series after sustaining an injury during the CPL. He last played for West Indies during their home series against South Africa in August.

England secured their first series win in the Caribbean in any format since 2019 with victory at the Daren Sammy Stadium on Thursday, with the remaining two games set to be played at the same ground over the weekend.

India 283 for 1 (Tilak 120*, Samson 109*, Abhishek 36) beat South Africa 148 (Stubbs 43, Miller 36, Arshdeep 3-20, Axar 2-6, Varun 2-42) by 135 runs

Bat like nobody’s business.

Runs, runs, runs

How many different words are there to describe the way that India have batted in most of this series?! But it’s our job to try. We can come up with outrageous, expressive, unbelievable, or we could just let the numbers do the talking. India were 73 for 1 after the powerplay, 129 for 1 after 10 overs, 200 for 1 in the 15th over, and smashed 84 more runs in the last six overs. The 210-run second-wicket stand between Samson and Tilak was the highest for any wicket by India in men’s T20Is and they did not spare any part of the ground. Samson’s six-hitting was particularly impressive in the V, which accounted for four in his total of nine. The other four came on the on side but his wagon wheel was pretty even with 54 off-side runs to 55 leg-side.

Tilak Varma had a clear preference. He hit 74 runs on the leg side, including eight of his 10 sixes, and 46 on the off side. In the end, the direction would not have mattered to South Africa’s bowlers. Only Marco Jansen conceded at less than 11 runs an over and everyone else went at an economy rate of 14 or more. And a word for the pair’s celebrations. While Samson hardly raised a fist, he had the dugout all flexing their biceps, and Tilak pointed to his captain Suryakumar Yadav – who is likely to allow him to bat at No.3 for as long as he wants – and blew him an air-kiss.

Concern over South Africa’s disciplines

In between the over-reliance on the short ball, ineffective use of the slower one, and the odd full toss, South Africa also did themselves no favours by conceding 12 runs off wides and bowling a no-ball. That’s after they also conceded ten runs in wides and bowled three no-balls at SuperSport Park, where India only bowled one wide. At the Wanderers, India conceded six runs off wides, so there may have been some issue with bowlers finding their lines. South Africa’s biggest culprit was Gerald Coetzee, who conceded five wide runs, and left the field with a hamstring concern five overs into the match. He retuned to bowl the 15th over but was taken for 20 runs. It was not the most expensive over of the innings – Andile Simelane’s first over, which cost 24, was – but it was bruising nonetheless.

Swing when you’re winning

He went on to beat Aiden Markram with more exquisite away-swing in a dangerous warning of what was to come. At the other end, Hardik Pandya moved the ball away from Ryan Rickelton once, twice, three and then four times before Rickelton could not resist. He reached for the fifth ball and got an edge to Samson to leave South Africa 1 for 2.

South Africa finally find a six, but it’s far too little

India’s 23 sixes were the most in an innings in a T20I between two Full Member sides, which suggested conditions were suited for big hitting, but it took South Africa a touch over 50 balls to strike their first six. Ramandeep Singh bowled a half-tracker to Tristan Stubbs, and he dispatched it over deep midwicket. Two balls later, Stubbs moved across his stumps and hit Ramandeep over deep square.

In the next over David Miller sent Varun Chakravarthy, the series’ highest wicket-taker, over cow corner before smashing two more sixes, but South Africa’s surge came too late. Varun shifted to around the wicket and made Miller fetch a ball from outside off and he found Tilak at long-on. Stubbs was dismissed lbw by Ravi Bishnoi off the next ball and all Marco Jansen’s 29-ball 12 could do was ensure South Africa finished with a bit more than half of India’s total.

Brisbane Heat 47 for 1 beat Melbourne Stars 46 for 6 (Jonassen 3-8) by nine wickets

Brisbane Heat secured a WBBL finals spot with a nine-wicket win over the Melbourne Stars in a rain-affected fixture.

Heat cruised to 47 for 1 from 5.2 overs – they can’t miss the finals and remain a strong chance of pinching top spot from ladder-leaders Sydney Thunder. They joined Melbourne Renegades on 12 points, one behind Thunder.

Renegades play Thunder on Saturday in their last game before the finals while Heat’s last match is against Sydney Sixers on Sunday.

After heavy rain delayed the start on Friday night, the last-placed Stars scored 21 for 0 from their initial two overs. But Heat’s 18-year-old quick Hamilton – who destroyed Stars five days ago when taking 5 for 8 – again turned tormentor.

She claimed two wickets in three balls and, next over, skipper Jonassen collected two more.

Heat were untroubled in their run chase: Grace Harris set the tone by smacking the first three balls of the innings for four. She and sister and Laura Harris put on 34 for the first wicket as Heat cruised to victory.

“It’s definitely has played in my mind. When you’re injured and you start in a rehab process, it’s always tough,” he said in Pretoria, where South Africa are involved in a preparation camp ahead of their home Test summer. “It’s just [about] trying to get over all those mental demons and get yourself into a space where you accept what it is that is happening and you try to deal with it. It has been a tricky couple of weeks.”

“As much as the guys played as well as they did against Bangladesh, it was quite frustrating from my side not being able to take part in that,” he said. “But obviously, I had a lot of joy in how the guys performed.”

“I don’t know what the next couple of weeks or months look like. I’m just happy that I’m able to speak to you guys at this point in time,” he said. “I’ll try to prepare as much as I can from a physical and mental point of view. And hopefully the gods can smile on me a little bit longer.”

So far, Bavuma said his “elbow feels good”, the intensity of his training “has definitely ramped up” and he is mentally ready to go. “I feel quite fresh and excited as well to have the opportunity to be batting, to be putting on my pads, to be running on the field. From a skill point of view, it’s always just got to build it, just build that confidence – feel yourself hitting the ball out the middle and feel your movements are the way that you want them to be.”

“I feel quite fresh and excited as well to have the opportunity to be batting, to be putting on my pads, to be running on the field.”

Temba Bavuma

While Bavuma continues to regain his own sense of self-belief, South Africa’s is soaring, not only because they have not lost a Test series under Shukri Conrad but because their WTC fate is in their own hands. If they win all four of their remaining Tests (two each against Sri Lanka and Pakistan), they will be guaranteed a place in the final. Considering that South Africa have played fewer matches than anyone else and effectively forfeited a series in New Zealand, where they were without most of their first-choice players who were committed to the SA20, that they remain in contention itself is impressive, and they know it.

“There’s lots of excitement,” Bavuma said. “Obviously, as a group, starting the WTC cycle, that’s one of the things that we spoke about in terms of what we’d like to achieve. Things became a bit tricky for us after the New Zealand trip but there was always a goal at the back of our minds. We understand that the expectation and the pressure will probably ramp up.”

There is also renewed hope in South African cricket. After reaching three T20 World Cup finals in 18 months (twice by the women and once by the men) and the men’s ODI World Cup semi-final against expectations, there is a feeling something big (read: trophy) must be on the horizon. Whether that comes now or in the future, Bavuma can feel the positive shift and hopes his team will lean into it.

“From a belief point of view, that’s definitely grown within the team,” he said. “We’re playing at home during festive times and playing in front of our home fans. Hopefully the stadiums will have a little bit more people than we are accustomed to. We’ve been putting in some good performances so from a confidence, belief point of view, it’s been good to see. As a team, we’ll ride that for as long as it lives within us.”