Quetta seal PSL final spot with win over Islamabad
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Reuters
2 days ago
- Reuters
Pakistan face fifth bowler dilemma ahead of West Indies decider
Aug 11 (Reuters) - Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan acknowledged a dilemma over the fifth bowler and said they would take a late decision on their team combination for Tuesday's series decider following their defeat in the second one-day international on Sunday. Pakistan, who won the opening ODI by five wickets, posted a competitive 171-7 in 37 overs in a rain-truncated match but West Indies prevailed by five wickets to draw level in the three-match series. Pakistan's part-time duo of Saim Ayub and Salman Agha conceded a combined 66 runs in seven wicketless overs as West Indies cruised home. "You could say our fifth bowler gave away too many runs but in recent years, Salman Agha and Saim Ayub have both bowled well for us," Rizwan said after the match. "Saim didn't have the best day today, but he performed well in the T20Is. That's just part of the game." Rizwan said they could not read the conditions and several rain delays did not help their cause. "Honestly, the weather forecast has been completely different from expectations, and it's hard to read. "We're keeping our options open and will finalise the XI after assessing the conditions." Pakistan had won the preceding Twenty20 series 2-1.
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
Ireland denied clean sweep by Pakistan in third T20
Third Twenty20 international, DublinIreland 155-4 (20 overs): Prendergast 64, Lewis 36; Shamim 1-18Zimbabwe 156-2 (17.4 overs): Ali 100, Riaz 39; McBride 1-4Pakistan win by eight wicketsScorecardIreland failed in their quest to complete a T20 international series clean sweep against Pakistan as they lost the third and final match by eight wickets at the Clontarf Cricket Club in Tennant's side won the first two games to clinch the series, but Muneeba Ali's unbeaten century helped Pakistan on their way to victory on won the toss and decided to bat first as Amy Hunter and Gaby Lewis put on a strong 52-run partnership from 37 they were both dismissed, Orla Prendergast passed a half century as she registered 64 with Ireland setting a target of 155 for then claimed two early wickets as Shawaal Zulfiqar and Natalia Pervaiz fell, but Ali came to the fore for Pakistan alongside Aliya Riaz as the visitors responded partnership brought 101 runs from 70 balls with Ali finishing with a century from 68 deliveries as Pakistan claimed the win with 14 balls up for Ireland are their T20 World Cup qualifiers later this month as they face Germany, Netherlands and Italy.
BBC News
05-08-2025
- BBC News
Which franchise league is most entertaining?
The men's cricket world is awash with franchise the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and the Big Bash is one of the originals, and there are others in the Caribbean (CPL), and United Arab Emirates (ILT20).Then there's The Hundred - the 100-ball to name just a few... but which is the best league?BBC Sport, with help from CricViz, looks at some key metrics to try to answer that very question. How is it possible to compare leagues? Good question!Well, we have looked at a range of metrics, including things like the average number of sixes per game, dot-ball percentage, the impact of home advantage, the style of bowling taking the wickets and how many games went down to the last over or even the last metrics are subjective - some people like lots of runs, other prefer a low-scoring thriller. Fast bowling gets the juices going for some, while others prefer the sheer artistry of isn't in doubt though is that the neutral - and almost certainly those who end up on the winning side in such situations - prefer a match which goes the Hundred was expected to provide those nail-biting finishes because of the squeezed nature of the format. So has it?In short, yes! Only the IPL has had marginally more matches on average go down to the final ball. If we extend the metric to matches which go down to the final over (or five balls in The Hundred's case), the IPL again comes out on top (28.9%), with the PSL second (27.5%) and The Hundred pushed down to third (24.4%).But does home advantage play a key part in how these matches pan out? For this, we could only look at The Hundred, IPL, Big Bash and SA20 was the league containing the highest percentage of matches won by the home side (60%), with the lowest being the IPL (45.4%). Never mind that, I want runs, runs, runs... Fans of T20 leagues are fed on a fast-food diet of fours, with a healthy side of ball one, teams are on the front foot and muscling the ball into the the IPL is the king here, followed by (again!) the PSL and the The Hundred is bottom on this scoring, but is that because there is a more favourable balance between bat and ball?It's hard to look past the fact the runs flow in Asia, while there are fewer boundaries in places you'd expect bowlers to have a fairer shake: England, Australia and South terms of average first-innings total, the PSL (180) edges the IPL (179) by one run. All leagues are in the 160-180 ballpark, with the ILT20 (161) bottom of the pile. The Hundred's average first-innings score is 144 but teams play 20 balls fewer. If we extrapolate to a full T20, the average in The Hundred is 167. What about the bowlers, then? Well, the most prolific place for spinners to take their wickets is not as you might expect - in India, Pakistan or the UAE. It's actually the Caribbean, the home of the legendary fast bowlers of the 1980s and faster bowlers - and this includes medium pace - enjoy the most success in fact, the percentage of wickets taken by pace over spin is similar across the board - only the CPL is closer to a 50-50 split. Are there any other things at play here? One of the things we looked at is the quality of player in each league, based on international caps across all looked at the average number of international caps held by the starting XIs in each game and here is where the ILT20 comes out on top (423), followed by the PSL (351) and the IPL (335).There is a huge disparity here between the top of the pile and the bottom, with the Big Bash average of just 145 almost 300 caps short of the could be attributed to the fact Australia's best cricketers are playing an international summer at the same time as the Big Bash is being contested, whereas in India, for example, the whole cricketing world stops for the IPL factor is that the ILT20 allows up to nine overseas players per team, compared to the three or four spaces given up for players from abroad in other ILT20 manages to attract so many players from overseas because of the money on offer - only the IPL pays its players more, with one report in Forbes suggesting teams in the UAE have a salary cap of more than £2m for a month-long competition, compared to the £1.5m offered by the Big Bash for a competition that runs for almost twice as of the sticks used to beat certain leagues is how long they take to complete. How often have you heard a commentator say that IPL matches last four hours now?Well, in the latest iteration of each competition, it's actually the CPL - the league where spin is king - which takes the longest on average, with matches lasting just six minutes short of that four-hour IPL is second on the list (three hours 44 minutes) with the Big Bash the most economical of the T20 leagues in terms of time (three hours 10 minutes).The average men's Hundred game - which is 40 balls shorter, don't forget - lasted two hours 42 minutes. The conclusion As subjective as it is, we wanted to try to give a sense of what the best league is, so we looked at five key metrics: average fours and sixes scored, average strike-rate of each batter, the percentage of last-ball finishes and the average number of international caps per then scaled each metric from 0 to 1 with the top-performing team scoring 1 and the lowest scoring up these six scores gave us an overall 'Entertainment Index', allowing us to rank the franchises for IPL, the gold standard of short-format franchise cricket leagues, came out on comes the PSL and ILT20, with The Hundred in fourth - a respectable finish for a competition which is about to be turbo-charged by the wealth of its new Big Bash propped up the rest, suggesting a tournament that has for so long been a high point in many cricket fans' winters might need to evolve if it is to compete with the newest, shiniest models of T20 Cricket Australia has started the process of inviting investment suggests this is very much under way. Have your say Tournaments taken into account for this project:BBL 2021-22, BBL 2022-23, BBL 2023-24, BBL 2024-25CPL 2021, CPL 2022, CPL 2023, CPL 2024ILT20 - All editionsIPL 2021, IPL 2022, IPL 2023, IPL 2024, IPL 2025PSL 2021, PSL 2022, PSL 2023, PSL 2024, PSL 2025SA20 - All editionsThe Hundred - All editions Additional reporting by Lee Martin and Soham Sarkhel
