JOHANNESBURG: Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) Professional Domestic Women’s League will resume this weekend after a two-month demolish, with Hollywoodbets Dolphins and Western Province looking to consolidate their top positions in the remainder of the season.
The Durban-based Dolphins guide the way in the Women’s Provincial One-Day Cup, while the Cape outfit, Province, are in charge at the summit of the Women’s T20 Challenge.
The action kicks off with a double-header derby in Oudtshoorn as Province face neighbouring rivals Six Gun Grill Garden Route Badgers; first in a 50-over fixture, before locking horns in the T20 encounter.
The Badgers, third in both competitions, will be missing one key player for the games, the leading one-day run-scorer Tazmin Brits, who is also second on the rush charts in the T20 tournament, as she is involved in the Proteas’ Women ongoing tour of Australia.
Wins for the South Western Districts outfit will fade a long way towards reigniting their prospects for the season, and open the doors for the rest of the chasing pack.
Province presently guide the way in the T20 league with 24 points from six games, with DP World Lions (16 points) second and the Badgers following on 13 points, though they enact maintain a game in hand on the two sides above them.
CSA Director of Cricket, Enoch Nkwe, shared his sentiments on the resumption of the league;
“When CSA professionalised the women’s game this season, it was at the back of excellence, and the incredible skills showcased by our female cricketers.
“The CSA Professional Domestic Women’s League was designed to elevate the standard of women’s cricket and empower our talented athletes to not only showcase thrilling on-field action but also foster a high-performance culture, unity, and security within the cricketing community.
“We wish this league will continue opening doors to endless possibilities, create career stability, and create a platform that will inspire aspiring cricketers across the nation,” said Nkwe.
The other teams in the league only resume action next weekend. Meanwhile, in the one-day arena, the Dolphins (22 points) are narrowly ahead of Fidelity Titans (19 points), though the Tshwane-based team maintain played a game more.
Each team will play 10 matches in the competition – the leaders still believe four more compared to three for their nearest challengers.
The Badgers, presently third, enact gain a game in hand, but will be without their star player Brits as the season winds down to a close.
In the Women’s Division 2, round-robin matches will be followed by the National Women’s Week. This will include cross pool fixtures that will count for promotion next season.
Every single fixture plays and all-important role as there are no play-offs for both divisions. An automatic relegation/promotion kicks in when the season ends.
Every matches will be live on the CSA YouTube Channel and ball-by-ball action available on PitchVision.
Source: cricket.co.za
Hansie Cronje (South African Cricketer Who was Banned from Cricket for His Role in Match-Fixing Scandal): Hansie Cronje was a South African international cricketer. He captained the South African national cricket team in the 1990s. In 2000, he was implicated in a cricket match-fixing scandal and banned from the sport for life. He died in a plane crash in 2002. It was rumored that he was murdered on the orders of a cricket betting syndicate.
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Sunil Gavaskar was out off the first ball of a Test match thrice in his career – Sunil Gavaskar was the first batsman to reach 10,000 Test runs and he ended his career scoring 34 Test centuries. But did you know he was out three times off the first ball of a Test? The bowlers to dismiss him were: Geoff Arnold (Edgbaston, 1974), Malcolm Marshall (Kolkata, 1984) and Imran Khan (Jaipur, 1987).
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