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The Cricket.com Weekly - October 16th
Follow UsFrom Argentina Women smashing records to Cricket getting included in the 2028 Olympics, here's everything that's happened this week
The World Cup came to life on Sunday with Afghanistan’s trouncing of England but what if we tell you that the real madness has been unfolding outside of the Mega Event?
By madness, we mean MADNESS! Such as 400 runs being scored in a single T20 innings, over 60 no-balls being bowled in a single match & more.
Do we have your attention now? Good.
Let’s dive right into this week’s Newsletter!
The complete recap — everything that’s happened in the last 7 days
The Argentina Women have SHATTERED RECORDS
You don’t expect a weekly cricket recap to begin with Argentina but how can we not give the Argentine Women the limelight after what they’ve managed to do against Chile?
In the first T20I of the three-match series in Buenos Aires, they posted 427/1 in 20 OVERS!!
That, FYI, is the highest ever T20 total at ANY LEVEL! They then followed it up by posting 300 in the second T20I of the series.
The margin of wins? 364 runs in the first game and 281 runs in the second. Chile got bowled out for 19 in the second T20I after conceding 300.
This is not even the crazy part. In the first T20I in which ARG scored 427, they did not hit a single six (!!!). The innings consisted of 57 fours and 73 extras, 64 of which were no-balls.
Check out the crazy scorecards for yourself here
What’s been happening in the World Cup?
> You can check out the individual scorecards for yourself here but we’ll just take you through the major happenings
* At the time of writing this, Australia are bottom of the table (!!) thanks to getting hammered in each of their first two matches.
* Afghanistan scored the biggest upset in World Cups in over a decade by beating defending champions England in Delhi. Afghanistan didn’t just ‘beat’ England, they THRASHED them by 69 runs. All hail Kotla for behaving like a classic Kotla wicket.
* It’s India 8-0 Pakistan in World Cups now as the Men in Blue humiliated their arch-rivals in front of 100,000 + people in Ahmedabad. Pakistan were going strong at 155/2 at one point, but then pressed the self-destruct button and lost their next 8 wickets for 36 runs. Led by skipper Rohit Sharma, India chased down the target in just over 30 overs.
* New Zealand and South Africa, along with India, are still unbeaten in this World Cup.
2023 World Cup injury updates
> Kane Williamson has been sidelined for an extended period AGAIN after a freak accident in the Bangladesh clash. The skipper looked like his old self en route a well-composed 78* but then got hit on his left thumb by a wild throw. He left the field of play immediately, and then scan laters confirmed a fracture. New Zealand, however, are still hopeful that Williamson will recover in time for the back half of the competition. Tom Blundell has been called up as cover.
> Dasun Shanaka has been ruled out of the World Cup due to a quadriceps tear. He’s been replaced in the squad by Chamika Karunaratne. Kusal Mendis will lead Sri Lanka for the rest of the competition.
> Shakib Al Hasan, too, injured his quadricep in the New Zealand clash. Shakib has not been ruled out of the competition but is expected to miss the clash against India on October 19th.
> In what comes as positive news for Australia, Travis Head has started batting again and is expected to join the squad in India later this week. The Aussies are hopeful that the left-handed opener will be fit for the clash against New Zealand on October 28.
What else has been happening?
> OFFICIAL: Cricket will be one of the sports at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The proposal was approved by the International Olympic Committee's members earlier today. This means Cricket will be a part of the Olympics for the first time in 128 years. LA28 will see cricket being played in the T20 format (no surprise there!!!)
> The five-match T20I series between New Zealand Women and South Africa Women has ended all square at 1-1. In case you’re wondering how that happened, it’s because the first three games of the series were washed out. After New Zealand registered a resounding win in the fourth T20I, South Africa, led by Nadine de Klerk’s 3-fer, tied the series in the decider in Benoni.
> After a close T20I series, the ODIs between Australia and West Indies Women proved to be a one-sided affair, with Australia registering a convincing 2-0 win. Australia won both the first and the third ODI by eight wickets, bowling out West Indies for 83 and 103, respectively. The second game was a washout. Kim Garth was named Player of the Series for taking six wickets at an average of 7.00.
Missed last week's Newsletter? You can check it out here
In the spotlight
Rohit Sharma
It was a record-breaking week for Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, who feasted on bowlers all week. Against Afghanistan in Delhi, he broke two significant records: he first became the all-time highest six-hitter in international cricket and then broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most hundreds in World Cup history. Against Pakistan, he then breached the 300 mark in ODIs in terms of sixes hit. And oh, he also became the joint-fastest to 1000 runs in World Cups in the Afghanistan clash. At the moment, Rohit is looking unstoppable.
READ: Rohit Sharma, a six-hitting outlier with effortless energy
Alastair Cook
The former England skipper, arguably the greatest English batter of this century, earlier this week announced his retirement from the professional game. Cook retired from Tests in 2018 but continued to play first-class cricket for Essex till this season. He scored 6 & 6 in his final game against Northamptonshire. Cook retires having scored 26,643 first-class runs to go along with 74 hundreds and 125 fifties.
Mickey Arthur
Mickey Arthur has found himself in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Arthur, who is Pakistan’s Director of Cricket, claimed after the India match that he was appalled by how the IND-PAK clash felt more like a bilateral home game for India than a World Cup encounter.
One of his complaints was that the atmosphere was too partisan and for the same, he gave the example of ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ not being blasted through the speakers. Needless to say, Arthur was trolled by Indian fans and criticized even by Pakistan fans for trying to ‘deflect blame’.
Controversy of the week
The India-Pakistan clash in Ahmedabad had an electric atmosphere, but it did come with some controversy with respect to the behavior of the crowds. Videos of a section of fans hurling abuses towards the Pakistan players have been doing the rounds on social media, and there have been multiple people present at the stadium who have come forward and said that they felt a bit appalled by the behaviour of some fans. A big shame, indeed.
Picture of the week
CDC’s World Cup articles
Superhuman Jasprit Bumrah is in a league of his own
When cricket became louder than guns for Afghanistan
TRENDS: A new acceleration point, centuries in super quick time, and more
Video in focus