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New Zealand captain Sophie Devine was left “extremely frustrated” after their second washout in as many matches in Colombo and has asked for better work in organising matches at ICC events.”You wait four years for a World Cup and to have rain play such a massive part in it is disappointing,” she said at the presentation. “I hope that in future editions they think about playing the games earlier in the day. We’ve obviously seen here that the rain usually comes in the afternoon, so [there is an] opportunity to potentially play these games at 10-11am in the morning and try and get a game in. Because that’s what all these teams want, is to be able to play cricket. You’ve waited for so long and you want to test yourself against the best and to be scuppered by rain, it’s a real shame for me.”All games barring one at this World Cup have a 3pm local time scheduled start, and four of the nine matches so far in Colombo have been washed out, including three of the four last four. While their washout against Pakistan on Saturday kept them fifth on the points table, New Zealand thought they were “in a decent position” after reducing Pakistan to 80 for 5. The points eventually had to be shared because of rain.”I thought we had a little bit of hope seeing the South Africa game [against Sri Lanka] the other night, where they were off for five hours, and managed to squeak a game in,” Devine said. “Look, we thought we were in a decent position, we just needed the rain to hold off and unfortunately it didn’t happen for us today.”Rain has played spoilsport in Colombo at the Women’s World Cup•AFP/Getty Images

New Zealand had opted to bowl in pretty overcast conditions on Saturday afternoon. Despite putting down two catches, they took five wickets within the first 20 overs. With two must-win matches coming up, against India (Navi Mumbai) and England (Visakhapatnam) as the semi-finals race heats up, New Zealand would have fancied their chances against Pakistan, who remain winless in the tournament.”Oh, look, to be honest, it’s pretty flat,” Devine said of the mood in the dressing room. “I mean, we wanted to play today, we were really up and about for today’s match. We just want to be playing cricket, so for us now, we know that the situation’s extremely clear. We just need to win both games, starting with India in Mumbai – so, a real big challenge for us – but we’re really excited about it. I know that the girls don’t need to be pumped up anymore to be able to take them on so, we’ll head back to India tomorrow and look forward to those challenges.”Related

• New Zealand in must-win territory with rain in the Navi Mumbai air

• Road to the semis: Five teams in contention for one spot

• Another washout for Pakistan; SA through to semis

When asked if New Zealand have had any time to prepare for their next two games, Devine said: “Not yet. We’re probably so focused on these games here in Colombo that we really wanted to make sure we gave it that full focus for us. So luckily, we’ve got a few days now [till] our next game against India [on Thursday]. So we’ll certainly prepare really well and we’ve had some good experiences against them of late in terms of the [T20] World Cup last year and we’ll be calling upon those. We also know that they’re huge favourites playing at home, in conditions that suit them, and they’ve got threats throughout, but again, this is what you want to be doing.”You want to be playing against the best teams at home and putting yourself under pressure, so we’ll really look forward to that challenge.”New Zealand had started their campaign with two matches in Indore, which they lost, before going across to Guwahati for their first points of this World Cup, against Bangladesh. They then flew down to Colombo, where they got only 75 overs of action across two matches. Two more matches remain in Colombo, on October 21 and 24, when Pakistan will take on South Africa and Sri Lanka respectively.

Kent 17 for 0 drew with Leicestershire 459 for 7 dec (Patel 114, Cox 93, Masood 90, Hill 54)Leicestershire’s promotion as Division Two champions in the Rothesay County Championship was confirmed despite the final day of their clash with Kent going the same way as days one and three, abandoned without a ball bowled to consign the contest to a draw.Early morning rain topped up an already saturated outfield at the Uptonsteel County Ground, where umpires Hassan Adnan and Simon Widdup, mindful of their duty to minimise the risk of injury to players, determined after a number of inspections that there was no prospect of it drying out enough for play to resume.With Leicestershire taking a 25-point lead into the last two rounds of games, the 13 points they take for a draw in this match is enough to put them out of reach of second-placed Glamorgan, who took only nine from their drawn match in similar conditions 30 miles away at Derby.”We’ve been the best team in this division,” Alfonso Thomas, Leicestershire’s head coach, said. “We’ve been at the top of the table since the first game and I’m just glad that we saw the job through. It was tough going towards the end, with a few injuries and guys getting called up to England.”But it’s just fantastic to see a reward for the work that everybody’s put in – the backroom staff, ground staff, administrators, players, support staff. The whole club as a collective has really bought into it and that’s a testament to the players and the way they went about it throughout the season. To win six games and lose only one is a great effort.”We have a little genius in Rehan Ahmed. He can do things that nobody in this team can do. But then there’s the other guys that do the hard yards, bowling up the hill, bowling into the wind, the batters that have to go out and face a second new ball, or pad up as a nightwatcher. But at no point has anybody moaned about the job that they have to do. And all of those things add up.”Getting to where we are now, winning this title, has been a process. When I came here we were a bit soft-centred, and we had some players who probably weren’t good enough. But the changes you are trying to implement can’t happen overnight, so it was just baby steps.”The first thing we needed to do was become harder to beat and competitive over four days. To an extent we did that last season. We only won one game, but we only lost two. The next step was to try to win more games. And to do that we came up with simple plans, keeping things simple rather than trying to think outside the box. The guys bought into that and we have worked hard to make sure that the players we have brought in have had the right character and bought into it too.”Leicestershire, who will play Division One cricket next season for the first time since 2003, would have preferred their title-winning moment to have come on the field, to be followed by a trophy presentation in front of their own supporters. In fact, they will not get their hands on the silverware until the conclusion of their final fixture, against Northamptonshire away, which starts next Wednesday.Nonetheless, they did their best to create their own excitement, celebrating with champagne and fashioning a ‘Champions’ board from part of the boundary board, while cheered on by enthusiastic supporters.The only member of their team who might have felt a little frustrated not to get on the field was veteran seamer Chris Wright, who is retiring at the end of this season at the age of 40.Although his retirement has been marked by his team-mates off the field, the conditions denied him the chance of a send-off on the field in front of a home crowd. He also needs three more wickets to reach 600 in his career in first-class matches and is one away from 800 in all formats.Leicestershire’s season has finished in something of an anti-climax, with four of their last six matches ending in draws, this one being a third in a row in which the weather has been a major factor. Yet they have been short-priced favourites to emerge with the title since the end of May, having won five of their first seven matches to establish a commanding advantage.It is their second silverware in three seasons after lifting the Metro Bank One-Day Cup in 2023 but their first in the Championship since 1998 – two years before the competition adopted a two-division format – when they took their second County Championship pennant in three years, coached by the club’s current president, Jack Birkenshaw.Thomas added: “I have to give credit to Pete Handscomb, the captain. He’s not here today but he’s been a big driver of that. He’s made it easier for me as a coach because we both sing from the same hymn sheet.”I know we won a trophy two years ago, and that was important for the players to give them a reward for all their hard work, but this is playing consistent cricket over a period of time.”On a personal level I’m extremely proud. I won things as a player but I would probably go as far as to say it’s given me a lot more satisfaction to win as a coach than as a player. As a player, you only have to look after yourself whereas as a coach, you have to look after about 20 guys. You don’t have the power yourself to execute the things you are asking for, and that makes you vulnerable.”For Leicestershire, I would like to think that it’s the start of something really special. We’ve won two trophies in the last three years. That doesn’t just happen – and it certainly doesn’t just happen to Leicestershire.”

Oval Invincibles 226 for 5 (Cox 86*, Henry 2-39) beat Welsh Fire 143 (Bairstow 50, T Curran 4-15) by 83 runsOval Invincibles, led by an inspired Jordan Cox, smashed the highest score in the history of the Hundred, racking up 226 for 4 from their 100 balls as they crushed Welsh Fire by 83 runs at the Kia Oval.Asked to bat first in front of a packed home crowd, the Invincibles’ innings sprung into life inside the first 10 balls, Will Jacks hitting Matt Henry for back-to-back boundaries.Tawanda Muyeye then deposited David Payne for two sixes in a row as the home side started to put their foot down, racing to 54 for 0 after the 25-ball powerplay.Saif Zaib came into the attack and made a fortunate but much-needed breakthrough, Muyeye pulling a half-tracker into the hands of Payne on the square-leg boundary.Henry returned to the attack to remove Jacks, Chris Green taking yet another fine running catch in this year’s tournament. Invincibles reached the halfway mark of the innings on a very healthy 89 for 2.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Cox deposited Ajeet Singh Dale, playing his first game in the Hundred, for three consecutive sixes over the leg-side boundary and then sent him over the rope again from the final ball of the set with an incredible reverse-scoop.Sam Curran joined the party, hitting Green for back-to-back sixes to bring up the Invincibles 150, both he and Cox targeting the shorter boundary to devastating effect.Singh Dale dropped Cox at short-third and the batter took advantage of the life, striking Paul Walter for three sixes in a row, bringing up a 21-ball fifty in the process.Curran went caught in the deep off Green, which brought Donovan Ferreira to the middle, the South African promptly clubbing his first ball down the ground for six.Ferreira launched another six before being caught at long-on by Steve Smith to a chorus of boos. Cox, notably not named in England’s white-ball squads for the upcoming matches against South Africa and Ireland, closed out the innings with 14 runs from the final three balls, finishing 86 not out from 29 deliveries, with 10 sixes.Welsh Fire’s chase started dreadfully, Steve Eskinazi slapping the first ball from Jason Behrendorff to Muyeye who moved well to hang on at backward point.This set the tone for what would be a muted second half, the task just too tough. Jonny Bairstow made an aggressive 50 and Tom Kohler-Cadmore played enterprisingly for 31 from 16, but Fire could only make 143 all out, Tom Curran taking 4 for 15.Cox, named Meerkat Match Hero Cox, said of his power hitting: “Last game I unfortunately lost that front leg and basically had no power then. I did a bit of work in the nets with Donovan, he’s all about base, and it helped.”On the Invincibles, he added: “It’s a proper team and a privilege to be a part of it, to be honest. The depth we’ve got is incredible and it gives you that freedom for sure. We’re playing some pretty good cricket.”