South Africa's Ryan McLaren claimed a hat-trick to help the Kent Spitfires overcome the Gloucestershire Gladiators by four wickets in the Twenty20 final at Edgbaston on Saturday.
McLaren's hat-trick, dismissing Hamish Marshall, Steve Adshead and Ian Fisher with successive balls, restricted Gloucestershire to a modest 146 for eight.
Despite Gloucestershire's best efforts to strangle Kent's reply, which was led by 45 off 35 balls from Matt Walker, they closed out the win in the final over.
Gloucestershire's challenge was undermined from the start by losing four wickets inside the first nine overs of their innings, including opener Craig Spearman who had inspired their shock semi-final triumph over Lancashire.
Spearman and Kadeer Ali fell in Yasir Arafat's first two overs of the innings and despite New Zealand born Marshall holding the innings together with a determined 65 off 49 balls, their impetus was lost by McLaren's burst.
He made the crucial breakthrough to remove Marshall with just three overs remaining, bowled off an inside edge trying to guide to third man, and followed that by knocking over Adshead's off-stump.
McLaren became only the fifth bowler in Twenty20 history and the first on finals day to claim a hat-trick by removing Fisher leg before wicket with his next delivery and although Mark Hardinges hammered a quickfire 39 off 35 balls, Gloucestershire's total never looked competitive.
In the semi-finals Kent overcame the challenge of the Sussex Sharks, with skipper Rob Key playing a commanding innings of 68 not out, including eight fours and two sixes, to see the Spitfires home with four balls to spare.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set