All posts by h716a5.icu

A last-ball six for a WPL debutant to win a thriller for Mumbai Indians followed a star-studded opening ceremony headlined by superstar Shah Rukh Khan

Ashish Pant24-Feb-20243:36

Takeaways: Overseas stars, Indian batters shine in MI’s thrilling win in opener

An uncapped Indian batter walks out with her team needing five off the last ball. She’s just watched her captain fall, and is going to face a bowler high on confidence after taking two wickets in the first five deliveries of the final over. The odds are stacked against her. She sees the ball looped up a touch, takes two steps down the pitch, swings with all she’s got, and bam: the ball flies towards wide long-on where the fielder thinks she has a chance, moving to her right and leaping, but the connection is clean. A last-ball six to seal a dramatic victory on the opening night of the season.Sounds rather Bollywood, doesn’t it? The opening game of WPL 2024 sure felt like a box-office blockbuster. A night that began with the movie industry’s leading men shaking a leg at the opening ceremony ended in a thrilling climax, with 29-year-old allrounder S Sajana lofting Alice Capsey over the wide long-on boundary to clinch a four-wicket win for Mumbai Indians over Delhi Capitals.As the WPL made its debut in Bengaluru, the fans flocked to the Chinnaswamy Stadium in numbers. Most of the stands open to the public were packed. They screamed their lungs out and danced to the fullest during the song and dance, but also watched the cricket with equal enthusiasm. The glitzy opening ceremony headlined by Shah Rukh Khan was a draw but the quality of cricket ensured they stayed through the game to witness a finish for the ages.Related

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Last season’s finalists went at each other like boxers, trying to assert dominance and take a grip on the game. They both had their moments but a punch was quickly followed by a counter-punch. Mumbai struck the first blow through South African fast bowler Shabnim Ismail, who clocked 128.3 kph on the speed gun while also taking out Shafali Verma.Then came the Capitals’ recovery and surge, led by 19-year-old Capsey. She struck her England team-mate Nat Sciver-Brunt for two fours off her first three balls to say: what’s the fuss?Capsey is a sucker for ice cream. She also loves Prue Pizza. And hitting boundaries. She struck 11 of them on opening night – eight fours and three sixes – during her 75 from 53 balls to give Capitals a rush after a slow start. It wasn’t the easiest pitch to bat on. Capitals head coach Jonathan Batty said the covers on the surface during the opening ceremony had made a difference: “It sweated a little bit and gave the Mumbai opening bowlers assistance”.Once Capsey got going, she ensured the Capitals’ innings did not stall, adding 64 with her captain Meg Lanning for the second wicket and 74 off 40 balls with Jemimah Rodrigues. The run rate jumped from 4.33 after the powerplay, to 6.50 after ten overs, and 7.93 after 16. Marizanne Kapp’s cameo helped them finish on 171 for 5. Advantage Capitals.S Sajana is surrounded by her team-mates after her last-ball heroics•BCCIMumbai had a perfect record in chases last season – five wins out of five. But now they were faced with pulling off their highest chase in the WPL, and they lost West Indian star batter Hayley Matthews second ball. Sciver-Brunt, their rock at No. 3, also fell not long after.Yastika Bhatia threw the counterpunch to begin Mumbai’s recovery. More accumulator than aggressor, Bhatia started sedately, but laid into Annabel Sutherland and Shikha Pandey to race to 30 off 18 balls before raising her maiden WPL fifty off 35 deliveries. While she couldn’t carry on much longer, Bhatia had picked Mumbai up off the mat.”When I went to bat today, I had the freedom. The MI management has given me the freedom to express my shots, and hit the through-the-line shots”, Bhatia said after the game. “I just wanted that we have a good powerplay and play according to the situation.”At the other end was the Mumbai captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who was coming into the WPL with five single-digit scores in her last five white-ball innings. So she decided to change the narrative.Harmanpreet began with a fluent cover drive but took charge only after Bhatia was dismissed. With the asking rate hovering around 10.66, Harmanpreet struck Sutherland for back-to-back fours in the 15th over, but saved her best for last. She hit only one six in her innings off 55 from 34 deliveries, and it came at a crucial time: bringing the equation down to 12 off six balls.Mumbai seemed poised to land the knockout blow but Lanning had one more move to make. She gave the final over to Capsey, despite the offspinner going for ten runs in her first over. This had start as her night and so it continued, with Pooja Vastrakar and Harmanpreet falling off the first five balls. Celebration time for Capitals, right?But in strode “the Kieron Pollard of the Mumbai team”, and Sajana proved the comparison was not unfounded with a match-winning six off the first ball she faced in the WPL.”She has been smacking sixes throughout the practice sessions. She showed what she had. Because of Sajana, I am standing here [as Player of the Match],” a beaming Harmanpreet said after the match.As far as opening games go, the contest was breathtaking. It had begun with a dash of Bollywood, and ended with cricket fittingly making the headlines.

A low-scoring game dominated by the bowlers was not the ideal way to launch a tournament which hopes to embrace a new audience

Sidharth Monga04-Jun-20242:06

Maharoof: Pitch in New York ‘not good enough’ for a T20 game

Were we not entertained?
Even for a traditional cricket fan, this match was a bit of a hard-sell. A diehard fan might have found some excitement during some tight overs when South Africa were chasing 78, but otherwise it was just too loaded in favour of the bowlers. There was just too much bounce, and unpredictable bounce, which made six-hitting next to impossible. It was going both up and down, left and right. And it was happening not in the air but after the ball bounced, which gives batters very little time to adjust. They can defend their wicket but can’t possibly score quickly.Why was the pitch so difficult? Surely they didn’t do it on purpose?
It is hard to say. These drop-in pitches were prepared by an experienced groundsman from Adelaide who knows the assignment. Perhaps they haven’t had enough time to settle down with enough cricket played on them. There are four pitches at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, and six for the nets at Cantiague Park. They were all prepared at the same time. India have done the most training at Cantiague Park, and they have seen them behave better day by day. Perhaps these will too.Related

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Or perhaps the curator is leaving extra grass because the square of four pitches has to host eight matches in 10 days. He obviously doesn’t want them to die down by the time the New York leg is nearing its end.But aren’t these expert batters? Why couldn’t they adjust and score at least a run a ball through grounded shots?
The outfield wasn’t great. There were quite a few shots that would have fetched fours in standard conditions, but this is a heavy sandy outfield. Even aerial shots that clear the infield were bouncing in it and plugging.Can anything be done about the outfield? Perhaps shave some of the grass?
That could make it dangerous for the fielders. Already they are not too keen on diving. Perhaps they could consider bringing the boundaries in.Hang on, why do we want standard conditions?
Because T20 is the shortest format of cricket. It is the vehicle to take it to newer outposts. There is just not enough time to adjust to such variable conditions. It creates competitive imbalance, giving the bowling side a huge advantage. As you saw, the side batting first didn’t have the time to realise 120 was a good score and kept losing wickets trying to aim for a bigger total.Especially in tournament play, cricket always aims for standard conditions because you want the players to shine and not the conditions. In the ODI World Cup in India last year, the governing body kept rating pitches “average” whenever they deviated a bit from the norm.Looking good, but what about the pitch?•ICC via Getty ImagesBut didn’t Sri Lanka win the toss? Why did they choose to bat first?
They possibly didn’t know what to expect from these pitches.And why is that?
They only just arrived two days ago after spending their entire night in the Miami airport because of a flight delay. Then the actual facility doesn’t have practice pitches. Looking at how they would be practising elsewhere, they chose to rest rather than make the trek all the way from downtown Brooklyn to Long Island. Even on match day they woke up at 5.30am to make it in time. They were practically sleepwalking.Why are they staying so far?
The other hotels in the vicinity are fully booked by the other teams who are here for longer.That sounds like a nightmare. Why go through all this to come to New York when you can’t get a cricket field in the city where there are enough hotels to house all the teams?
New York is arguably the best city in the world. Like any business, cricket wants to expand. It is aiming for the richest consumers of sport.Then why play at 10.30am on a Monday?
In the biggest existing market for cricket, India, it was 8pm on a Monday. That’s primetime. You can’t completely ignore the existing audience in order to make an outreach to a newer one.There was significant help for the fast bowlers•Associated PressWere they entertained at least?
Going by the texts I received, no. They are generally traditionalists so most of them were laughing laughs of vindication. It was the loudest I told you so.I can understand they must be feeling like that girl in the meme where the boy is walking with her but looking at someone else.
That’s not a question but I will grant you this one. It is quite accurate.So is this a total disaster?
No, there is a cheat code. India vs Pakistan, arch rivals with a shared bloodied history. It has already sold out two stadiums in and around New York. It will rescue everything.Did it really need a World Cup for that particular game to be sold out? Because from what I understand it is a completely inconsequential match, which tells me these two teams can sell out anything.
Yes, it is inconsequential unless at least a couple of big upsets take place in other matches in this group. It is also correct that you don’t even get easier opponents in the next rounds if you win this match.But no, those two teams can’t play each other outside multi-nation events because of the politics between the two countries. Between you and me, the governing body even rigs the draw to make sure they play each other at least once.Hmm. But it’s not like the 1800s when Canada and USA played international cricket for the first time. The conditions needn’t have been such an unknown. Surely if the expat fans are selling out two stadiums, they must be wanting to play too? If they had stadiums here, you wouldn’t need to bring in untested pitches from Australia.
Yeah, but you can’t blame the ICC for that. Developing grounds and pitches is the job of the national board.Why didn’t they do it then?
USA Cricket? Now that’s a whole can of worms even the ICC opens with a visor and gloves on.How much did they spend on this makeshift stadium again?
Well, that really is the $30 million question.

Jemimah Rodrigues, Laura Wolvaardt, Kate Cross, Shreyanka Patil, Tanuja Kanwar, Alice Capsey and Shweta Sehrawat on what they have learned about their Australian team-mates in T20 leagues

Interviews by S Sudarshanan 29-Sep-2024Out of the first 15 Women’s World Cups across the ODI and T20I formats, Australia won nine. Then they lost the semi-final of the 2017 50-over World Cup, which stung them so much that they changed the look of their line-ups – pushing up Alyssa Healy to open the batting being one of those – in a bid to get back to the winningest of ways.Since then, they have added another ODI World Cup and three more T20 World Cups to their cabinet. They also finished gold medalists at the inaugural Commonwealth Games women’s cricket competition in 2022. In short, they have swept it all – every single multi-team tournament since the start of 2018.How do Australia manage to build a winning mindset? What does it entail? And how do their players prepare for matches or deal with pressure? We asked players from other countries to tell us what they had observed about their Australian counterparts while playing alongside them in T20 leagues across the world.Is there an Australian player you love watching play or train?
Kate Cross (*with Ellyse Perry, Georgia Wareham, Sophie Molineux in WPL; Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Phoebe Litchfield, Heather Graham in the Hundred): I think Phoebe Litchfield is probably one of the more fun players to watch at training. She often commentates on her batting, which can be hilarious at times, and she really puts a lot of time into her funky shots. So, it was interesting watching how she tries to develop and improve her game – even in the middle of competitions.Related

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I love watching Georgia Wareham go about her business. She’s a pretty quiet character off the field but she’s outthinking a lot of people on it. Her skill level is ridiculously high too, so having her as a team-mate recently has been something I’ve really enjoyed.Shreyanka Patil (with Perry, Wareham, Molineux in WPL): I enjoyed playing with Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham as fellow spinners. Even during practice, they were coming and helping me out, and asking questions as well, so it was a two-way learning.Laura Wolvaardt (with Gardner, Garth, Sutherland, Wareham, Litchfield, Mooney in WPL; Mooney, Garth, Wellington in the Hundred; McGrath, Wellington, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown in WBBL): Tahlia McGrath, obviously played a lot with her at [Adelaide] Strikers. I think she is a really good cricketer, good at everything – batting, bowling, fielding, captaincy. She is a really cool and humble person off the field as well.Alice Capsey (with Lanning, Sutherland, Jess Jonassen in WPL; Lanning, Sutherland, Kim Garth in WBBL; Amanda-Jade Wellington in the Hundred): Growing up, I was more attracted to the Jos Buttlers, Jason Roys, Charlotte Edwards. I wasn’t really Australian-driven, I didn’t know many of the players that well. But now it has been great to share the dressing room with someone like Meg Lanning. It is not just about their experiences but [observing] how they go about training, preparing for a game, what they look for, what kind of prep they do and just learning how they had done it themselves. I am never going to be same as a Lanning, but I can pick up on different things she does based on what works for me.Shweta Sehrawat walks out to bat with Alyssa Healy for UP Warriorz: “My first experience playing alongside Healy and Tahlia [McGrath]… I had to adjust a bit mentally, because in my mind they were my opponents”•Deepak Malik/BCCIHow has your impression of them changed from that of an opponent to a team-mate?
Capsey: You see these players on TV and you play against them, but it is nice to understand them as a person as well and just build really good relationships and have a relaxed conversation. Every time I have been in the changing room with Meg, she has been very open, very welcome. She is one of the cricketers who just knows her game so well.She’s been a good sounding board for when I have been playing for Delhi Capitals and Melbourne Stars. People don’t realise how valuable it is batting alongside her in the middle. At the end of the day, you can do all the training and have all the conversations off the pitch. But it is how they manage the in-game situations, which is one of the aspects that makes them so great. Meg’s one of those – she manages her innings so well. She knows what’s happening and is so in control. Being able to play alongside her is so amazing.Shweta Sehrawat (with Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Tahlia McGrath in WPL): It was a bit different for me. I always imagined wanting to play for India against Australians as opponents. But my first experience itself was playing alongside Alyssa Healy and Tahlia McGrath in the first season of the WPL. I had to adjust a bit mentally, because in my mind they were my opponents. But there was no fear, and I lapped up the opportunity to learn from them. I gelled better in the second season, so much so that I am in regular touch with Tahlia and we went out for dinner when I toured Australia as part of the India A side last month.Tanuja Kanwar (with Litchfield, Garth, Sutherland, Wareham, Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner in WPL): I used to watch Australian players only on TV before the WPL. But when I met them, I realised they are very chill people. I used to feel, “Oh, how do I speak to them”, but it was very easy when I met them and we became a team.Cross: I think it was just nicer to have Ellyse as a team-mate for once and not worry about how to get her out! But the beauty of changing from rivals to team-mates is that it gives you an insight into how and why they have got to the very top of their game. Also, just getting to know someone on a personal level – it almost makes me look forward to the Ashes more, knowing you’ve got mates to go up against.Meg Lanning, Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey at a Delhi Capitals event: Capsey says her understanding of the game has grown in the time she’s spent with Lanning•Bhushan Koyande/Hindustan Times/Getty ImagesHow do they train and prepare for a game?
Wolvaardt: The level of training and preparation at Strikers is equal to an international set-up, whereas our domestic systems are very much behind. They have an analyst, physio, strength and conditioning coach, a manager, because they are just so far ahead development wise. They have 200-300 players at a professional level every single day whereas we maybe only have the national side that is at that level of training.Cross: I didn’t notice any differences, but it’s their diligence that stands out the most. How well they train is admirable and is a huge indication of how consistent they are on the pitch because of how they train behind the scenes.Capsey: Everyone does it differently; someone like Meg does it differently to someone like Nat [Sciver-Brunt], who does it differently to someone like Marizanne Kapp, who does it differently to me or anyone else. Everyone has different things that works for them. Meg’s one of those people that’s so consistent, she just churns runs for fun, and it’s amazing to watch. You can also see the hard work that goes behind the scenes, how she goes about her net sessions and how specific she is. Then you get a pretty good understanding of the process that makes her successful.That is important in cricket. You are always going to fail more than you succeed. As a batter, more often than not, you are going to get out for low scores. It is about understanding and creating a process that works for you and allows you the best chance to be successful. There are so many variables that if you have your process it makes it a little bit easier.Kanwar: I am a bit superstitious; I don’t do knocking just before toss, but I do bowl a bit to warm up. With Australian players, I have seen that they prepare fully. They do knocking, take a few catches and do fielding drills, too, just to be ready in the match.Tanuja Kanwar: “I have noticed that the Australians do not get overly dejected [by defeat]. They are focused on what to do next and how to better the performances”•Prashant Bhoot/BCCIHow do they react under pressure?
Jemimah Rodrigues (with Lanning, Jonassen, Sutherland in WPL; Jonassen in WPCL; Sutherland in WBBL): Lanning is so calm and cool, even under pressure. I feel that is one of the biggest qualities a captain can have. Everyone’s under pressure, but if you see your captain calm, it just helps calm the entire team. That is an amazing thing with Lanning.Wolvaardt: They are very good under pressure. Just as you think they are about to finally lose a game, they find a way to win. They can find a way to win from any position. That comes with time and being exposed to those scenarios. It is like a momentum type of thing – the more you win in those situations, the more you will be able to win. It’s hard when you are in those situations and you lose ().Rodrigues: I think the one thing I will really take from Lanning is that she just knows what she’s doing. That’s what helps her be calm even under pressure.Cross: Nothing massively stood out that I wasn’t expecting, but Pez would be in the nets all the time. I’m now really not surprised she has that massive hotspot in the middle of her bat. She uses it that often!Sehrawat: I hadn’t really looked at Tahlia from that perspective, but come to think of it, I can recall one thing from during the A series. I was standing at slip, and against a left-arm spinner, she hit a lovely inside-out lofted shot that beat long-off. I then remembered her playing that shot on a few occasions before as well, so I now want to steal that shot and play it as adeptly as her.Capsey: Playing with Meg, I have learnt to manage my innings a lot better. The little bits and pieces that I have taken from her have been about my mindset and how I go about reading a game. She’s one of the most successful captains in world cricket – just how she reads the game, she’s good at speaking. She’ll tell you why she’s done certain things. She just doesn’t do it and you notice it, but she speaks to you and helps you understand why she’s done it. So, mindset and my understanding of the game and reading the game, I think, has a lot to do with playing and being in an environment with her. How to be ruthless once you are on top, I think she is good at that – sensing moments and pouncing at that.*Includes Australian team-mates in T20 leagues from March 1, 2023

Bowlers’ inconsistency allows England to recover from 54 for 5 on second day

Nagraj Gollapudi27-Jul-2024Shamar Joseph has a false start as he misses his run-up first ball on Saturday. Edgbaston mocks him jovially. It was similar to the false start Joseph had six months ago as he ran in to deliver his first ball in international cricket, against Australia at the Adelaide Oval: that time, he overcame it to take Steve Smith’s wicket. He has a picture of that dismissal framed in his house in New Amsterdam, in Guyana.At Edgbaston this morning, Joe Root pushes the first ball, a fuller delivery, to mid-on. In Joseph’s second over, Ollie Pope decides to cut a ball in the channel rooted in his crease with a horizontal bat. That’s a big no, no, on this slow-paced pitch. Pope ends up punching the back of his bat more than once after watching his inside edge uprooting his middle stump. It is enough to send Joseph squealing in delight.Pope’s dismissal and the timing comes as balm for West Indies and especially Jayden Seales, who could have actually had the first wicket of the morning had he pressed for a lbw review against Root in the second over of the morning. Replays show the delivery, which seamed into Root and squaring him up, would have clipped the top of leg stump but Joshua da Silva tells Seales that the ball is heading down leg the side.Shamar Joseph made a mess of Ollie Pope’s stumps early in the day•Darren Staples/Getty ImagesBut Seales is not distracted and soon after forces an outside edge from Harry Brook who is caught at slip – exactly in the same fashion as at Trent Bridge. From their overnight 38 for 3, England are 54 for 5 inside the first hour of the morning.Fans in the Caribbean, watching all this in the tender hours of the morning, must have started to believe. Rally, rally, they would have urged their team. In the end, though, emotion is not enough to win Test matches. You need more than one plan. You need to sustain pressure and create it even if nothing is in your favour, including the pitch. You need to find ways to dry up the flow of runs.All this is known to Kraigg Brathwaite, a proud leader who, after Joseph’s miracle spell at the Gabba in January, flexed his biceps to tell former Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg who had derided West Indies as “pathetic and hopeless” at the outset.On Saturday, though, as the afternoon stretched out, West Indies’ plight became more and more hopeless. First, Root and Stokes gradually loosened the visitors’ grip by rotating the strike and picking runs comfortably going into the lunch. Immediately after the break, West Indies seemed to have a plan.Alzarri Joseph banged in short-pitched deliveries into the body of the England captain, but Stokes pulled two fours with ease in the first over of the new session. In his next over, Joseph forced the error from Stokes with consecutive 90mph deliveries that were banged short-of-the-length and rose quickly. Stokes ducked out of the first one, but was sucked into pulling the second one straight to square leg. Stokes cursed himself for falling into the trap.Ben Stokes grimaces after holing out off Alzarri Joseph•Darren Staples/Getty ImagesJoseph continued the short-ball barrage against Jamie Smith in his following over, coming from round the stumps. The first time he attempted to hook, Smith ended up gloving the ball, just over the outstretched hands of the leaping da Silva. Joseph had himself leapt in the air in his excitement, thinking da Silva had pouched Smith. The next delivery, Joseph directed another bouncer, which this time failed to climb up and Smith instinctively pulled it over the roof of the rousing Hollies Stand, forcing a ball change.Instead of sticking to the plan of bowling short and packing the field on the leg side, West Indies drifted away from it. That allowed Root to march towards his century and Smith to settle down quickly. Even after Root departed, Chris Woakes managed to quickly carry forward the momentum alongside Smith as the pair eventually helped England take the lead.Related

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Seales conceded that while the Windies bowlers had “showed great fight” on both Friday evening and Saturday morning, they had failed to do it “consistently, and backing it up all the time.”He cited the example of Smith, who he described as a “compulsive hooker”, someone West Indies should have attacked for longer with the short ball. “If we had stuck at it little bit longer and keep forcing him to do it time after time, one may not have held and he could’ve gotten out.”But Seales disputed the idea that West Indies had failed to keep the pressure at all times on a pitch that was slow and scoring was easy. “We bowled well as a group,” he said. “Collectively we were on the right spots the majority of the time. We forced them to go at it and try and score runs quickly and it paid off for them.”Kudos to them. But I thought we did our job as a bowling unit: we stuck to it as long as we possibly could. And when the time came to try the short ball, we gave our best efforts. It just didn’t go our way.”About 10 minutes before lunch the Hollies stand burst out singing . Da Silva didn’t mind joining in and was heard on the stump mic singing Jon Bon Jovi’s anthem. At the time it was all fun and frolic. By the late afternoon, the lyrics summed up West Indies’ situation in this match – and this series.

The 21-year-old is still learning on the job but held his own in unpromising conditions

Vithushan Ehantharajah28-Nov-2024″I think I know what you’re going to do…” said Craig McMillan at the toss presentation after Ben Stokes’ tails-never-fails approach had come good. We all did.What we did not know at the time, and certainly did not expect, was that after choosing to bowl first on a typically green Hagley Oval surface, England would only end day one of this first Test on an even keel with New Zealand because of the lone frontline spinner on either side.Their seamers certainly did not bowl that badly. And truth be told, Shoaib Bashir did not bowl that well. But with 4 for 69 – wryly declared as “nice” by the ground announcer as the offspinner led his team off the field on day one – he had already justified his inclusion in the XI.That was never actually in doubt. Since Stokes took over as captain, every England side has featured a frontline spinner, even when they have not had much to do. He views them like mobile phones – functional, versatile, lost without one – and, as far as Bashir is concerned, he has no intention of trading in for another model as we approach the 12-month mark of the 21-year-old’s Test career.Related

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There is a lot to be said for that level of trust, which has been a hallmark of Stokes’ leadership – at times to a fault. But while the Kiwis might be the friendliest people on the planet, their pitches could not be less welcoming to spinners. Even their own; Ajaz Patel, one of the heroes of the historic India series win, has played 18 of his 21 Tests away from home, and is yet to take a wicket in New Zealand.Thankfully for Bashir, Rachin Ravindra improved Kiwi-spinner relations by slapping a full toss to midwicket for his first. Tom Blundell’s skewed back-foot punch to point was similarly generous, though a bit of extra bounce did catch the keeper-batter unawares.Removing Nathan Smith – caught around the corner at leg slip – was a neatly concocted third. When Matt Henry heaved down the ground into the hands of Ben Duckett at long-on, Bashir became only the second spinner to take four wickets here, after Shakib Al Hasan in 2017. He now has the opportunity to become the first to bag five on this ground.Whether he achieves that or not does not make the life and times of Bashir any less remarkable. He has bowled more overs than anyone else in Test cricket this year – 457.3 in 22 innings since his debut on the tour of India in February – while simultaneously not being regarded as the best English spinner at his county.The 45 dismissals at 36.06 rank broadly as a success considering he was essentially plucked from social media. A chastening tour of Pakistan, with just nine wickets at 49.55, portrays a more accurate picture of a raw spinner in the embryonic stages of his career as a professional, not just a Test cricketer.”I’m learning on the job, I’m not perfect,” Bashir said after play. Further self-awareness came when reviewing the 20 overs he did not expect to bowl: “I bowled plenty of bad balls out there and I was still kept on. That just shows how much faith they [Stokes and Brendon McCullum] have in me. That brings the best out of me, and I just really enjoy playing under them.”Though Bashir has bowled better, the was some encouraging in-game problem solving. A nod to unquantifiable nuggets gathered during his 13 caps to date.Almost immediately after he was brought on from the Portis Hills End for the 30th over, just after lunch, a strong breeze picked up from the other side of the ground. He refused to be blown off course. “The wind took away my line a little bit. I knew I had to be stronger in my bowling action.”

“I was just in awe watching Kane Williamson bat, trying to focus on deceiving him outside off and play with the outside edge and inside edge. I got past him a few times but he’s a really, really quality player”Shoiab Bashir

Then there was his back-and-forth with Kane Williamson, the latest in a string of stars he has found himself up against. A succession of drag downs allowed Williamson to smear the leg side boundary for a brace of fours to take him to his half-century. But as Bashir grew into his spell, things became less one-sided.It was to Williamson – on 65 – that Bashir bowled his best delivery: flighted outside off, dragging the right-hander across and out of his crease, beating the edge, with Ollie Pope removing the bails sharply. Alas, Williamson’s right foot was sharper.”When I saw him out the crease I was licking my lips,” Bashir said. “All of a sudden he slides back… it happens.”That delivery had come off the back of a period in which Bashir was nailing the plan England had employed to stifle Williamson with dot balls. Bashir managed 22 from the 36 deliveries sent down to the legendary Black Cap, with the help of Chris Woakes precisely stationed at a three-quarter mid-off.”I felt like if I blocked that off I might be able to get a caught and bowled with one that does turn,” Bashir said. “I’m not saying I did expect it to turn – but if it did I might get one hit back at me if I could cut that off [the scoring shot down the ground]. It’s like a game of chess, but I really enjoyed it.”It is not uncharitable to doubt Bashir’s credentials as England’s primary spinner, but there is an unavoidably endearing quality about how he is dealing with a unique situation as a “project” spinner to be honed ahead of next winter’s Ashes. There remains a “competition winner” disposition, in the courteous sense, unashamedly flittering between straight-eyed competitor and wide-eyed fanboy: “For me, bowling at someone like him, I was just in awe watching Kane Williamson bat to be honest. For me, I was just trying to focus on deceiving him outside off and play with the outside edge and inside edge. I got past him a few times but he’s a really, really quality player.”Bashir will be heartened to know his sparring partner was suitably impressed by his wits. “He did a fantastic job into the wind – they were two very, very different ends,” said Williamson. “The way he did that and picked up a few wickets was obviously an excellent job. He got a bit of bounce as a tall guy. Often that’s a lot of the assistance you get, whether it’s as a seamer or a spin bowler. He made use of that and did a good job for his team.”As stumps approached, so did the swell of fans seeking Bashir’s autograph when he was down at fine leg between his overs. Just as the clock was striking 6.30pm in Christchurch, one local punter removed his foot brace hoping he could get that signed. Bashir promised him he would come back as he charged off to try and squeeze in another over, only for the umpires to call stumps by the time he reached the middle.Both were left disappointed. As one literally hopped away, the other took confident steps into the night having given his team a stable footing in this Test.

Riyan Parag is set to lead Rajasthan Royals at 23, but there have been three younger captains in the IPL

Harigovind S22-Mar-2025Virat KohliIPL captaincy debut: Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Rajasthan Royals, Jaipur, 2011
Age: 22 years 187 daysKohli was appointed full-time RCB skipper only in 2013, but he got his first taste of leadership two years earlier when Daniel Vettori sat out of RCB’s game against Rajasthan Royals with a knee problem. Kohli, already a regular in the Indian team, was the natural successor. He kickstarted his captaincy career with back-to-back wins but then endured a 111-run trouncing at the hands of Kings XI Punjab. In all, he captained RCB in 143 games in the IPL.Steven SmithIPL captaincy debut: Pune Warriors vs RCB, Pune, 2012
Age: 22 years 344 daysLong before he established himself as a great batter, Smith served as Pune Warriors captain for one match towards the end of IPL 2012. Smith had gone unsold in the auction that year, but Warriors, who boycotted the auction over disagreements with the BCCI, signed him before the season began. At the fag end of a poor season for Warriors, in which they finished bottom of the league, the misfiring Sourav Ganguly stepped down, and Smith, who had captained Sydney Sixers in the previous Big Bash League season, took over. A few years later, Smith went on to captain Royals and Rising Pune Supergiant.Suresh RainaIPL captaincy debut: Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Daredevils, Delhi, 2010
Age: 23 years 112 daysMS Dhoni was hit on the arm by a rising Shane Bond delivery and sidelined for a few days during the 2010 season, and Raina, Chennai’s leading batter in the previous two editions, stepped in for three games. In his first game as the CSK captain, he scored a vital 49 not out in a tall chase against DD, but CSK lost their next two games under him. Raina’s services were needed just twice more for CSK, in 2019, but he did captain Gujarat Lions for their two seasons, in 2016 and 2017.Riyan Parag will become the fifth-youngest captain in the IPL•BCCIRiyan ParagIPL captaincy debut: Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 2025
Age: 23 years 133 daysParag has been in the IPL for six years, but he is still only 23 and is set to captain Rajasthan Royals in their first three games of IPL 2025 as Sanju Samson, recovering from finger surgery, will play purely as a batter. Parag, who has captained his domestic side Assam in 23 matches across formats, had a breakthrough 2024 – he scored 573 runs in the IPL and made his India debut. Leading Royals in Samson’s absence seems like a just reward.Shreyas IyerIPL captaincy debut: DD vs Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi, 2018
Age: 23 years 142 daysDelhi Daredevils, as the Delhi franchise was known then, had lost five of their first six games in IPL 2018 when their out-of-form captain Gautam Gambhir stepped down. Iyer, who had captained India A and Mumbai by then, was one of the few bright spots for Daredevils and replaced Gambhir. While Daredevils could not avoid the wooden spoon, they went out on a high with back-to-back wins against Mumbai Indians and CSK. Iyer went on to captain the Delhi franchise till 2021 before becoming captain of KKR. His new gig as Punjab Kings captain makes him the second Indian, after Ajinkya Rahane, to captain three different IPL franchises.

Australia have now chased 200-plus targets most number of times in T20Is

Sampath Bandarupalli26-Jul-20256 Instances of Australia successfully chasing down a target of 200 and more in T20Is, the most by any team in the format. India and South Africa have five successful chases of 200-plus targets.West Indies have now lost six times while defending a 200-plus target, which is a T20I record. They went ahead of South Africa, who have failed to defend a target of 200-plus runs on five occasions.37 Number of balls Tim David needed to bring up his century in the third T20I against West Indies, the fastest in T20Is for Australia, bettering Josh Inglis’ 43-ball ton against Scotland last year.David’s fifty came in only 16 balls, which is also an Australian record. The previous fastest was off 17 balls, by Marcus Stoinis against Sri Lanka in 2022 and Travis Head against Scotland in 2024.ESPNcricinfo Ltd11 Number of sixes David struck during his unbeaten 37-ball 102. Only Aaron Finch hit more sixes in a T20I innings for Australia – 14 against England during his 156 in 2013 at Southampton. David had hit ten sixes in his first 26 balls; only three other batters in all T20s have hit ten or more in their first 26 balls.128* Partnership between David and Mitchell Owen for the fifth wicket during the chase. It is the highest stand for Australia for the fifth or a lower wicket in men’s T20Is. It is also the highest by any pair for the fifth or a lower wicket in a T20I chase.Related

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1 David also became the first Australian batter to score a hundred while batting at No. 5 or lower. All the previous 11 hundreds for Australia in men’s T20Is have come while batting in the top four.He is only the second batter to score a hundred in a successful chase while batting at No. 5 or lower, after Mark Chapman, who made 104* against Pakistan in 2023.ESPNcricinfo Ltd16.1 Overs that Australia needed to complete the 215-run chase against West Indies. It is the fourth-fastest 200-plus target chase in terms of overs taken in T20Is. All three quicker chases than Australia have come in 2025 only.146 Numbers of runs Australia scored in the middle overs (7-16) during the chase, the most they have scored in that phase in T20Is. It is also the sixth-most runs scored by any team in the middle overs in men’s T20Is. David alone scored 94 of those 146 runs, the third-most by any batter in a men’s T20I. (where ball-by-ball data is available)1 Australia registered their maiden T20I series win in West Indies by going 3-0 up in the five-match series. Australia previously played three T20I series in the Caribbean and won only two of the eight matches across those series.2 Number of players with centuries in all three formats in international cricket for West Indies. Shai Hope joined Chris Gayle in the elite list, following his maiden T20I ton on Friday against Australia.102* Hope’s score against Australia on Friday. He is the first wicketkeeper-captain to score a hundred in T20Is. Scott Edwards’ 99 against Oman in 2024 was the previous highest score by a keeper-captain.

They will look to expose India’s middle and lower orders, even as Shaheen Afridi will hope for a better outing

Danyal Rasool27-Sep-20251:49

Wahab: Additional pressure on India in the final

A former Pakistan captain, Mohammad Rizwan, once famously said about his team that they “either win or learn”. While there is an inherent truth to that, the quote has taken on a life of its own, weaponised by critics of the national side both within Pakistan and outside it, to lampoon the team when it is undergoing a period of sustained failure.In this Asia Cup, Pakistan have won every game bar the two they played against India. With the sides set to meet for the first time in an Asia Cup final on Sunday, India’s two comprehensive victories over Pakistan mean the best Salman Ali Agha’s team can hope for is focus on the few things they have learned from their defeats.No room to consolidatePakistan have had it drilled into them that the powerplay is a time of maximum aggression. They didn’t lack in intent during the fielding restrictions in either game against India, but invariably, India found a way to tip the Pakistan innings into quicksand. On the first Sunday, it came immediately following the powerplay, with the next four overs producing just seven runs as Pakistan shrank in the face of India’s accurate spinners.Related

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On the following Sunday, Pakistan avoided getting sucked into that void, going after the spinners and scoring 36 runs, including four sixes, in the four overs after the field spread out. However, the wicket of Saim Ayub, followed by some curious decisions in the batting order, resulted in a slowdown following the halfway mark. In the seven overs after drinks, Pakistan scored just 38, the fewest by any side this tournament in that phase. It resulted in what appeared to be a 190-200 total petering out at 171, and India chasing comfortably once more.The final will carry its own pressure, but that does not detract from Pakistan’s goal; if they are setting a target, they will have to go all out all the time. It is what makes their task so unenviably hard, but as the previous two games have shown, no other path leads to victory.India’s soft underbellyPakistan didn’t get to go too deep into India’s batting order in either of the games, as almost all the damage India did to Pakistan occurred at the top. This has been a recurring theme in almost all of India’s matches, which means No. 6 and lower have had limited exposure in this Asia Cup.More intriguingly, what little time the lower order spent at the crease hasn’t been nearly as explosive as their upper-order counterparts. In the Super Fours, India slowed down in each of the three games once the top order was gone. Against Bangladesh, the last nine overs produced 56 runs, with just one player outside the openers registering a strike rate over 100. The fall of the third wicket, that of Abhishek Sharma against Pakistan, caused India to slow down in pursuit of 174, with the next 28 balls producing just 30 runs.An off day for India’s openers could pose a problem for them•AFP/Getty ImagesSpanning out across all teams, India’s batters from Nos. 6-11 have faced the fewest deliveries among the five Full Member teams this tournament. Notably, they have also been the slowest scorers among those five sides, with a strike rate of 110.58.Pakistan, meanwhile, are the second-fastest at 142.48. Their last six batters have also, by far, faced the most deliveries – nearly three times India’s number. While that is down at least partially to misfiring openers, Pakistan will draw hope from a belief that an off day for India’s openers represents a much bigger problem for them than a similar failure for Pakistan’s own openers.Shaheen Afridi vs IndiaAfridi has grown into this tournament. He took three wickets in each of the last two games, both must-win matches for Pakistan. Agha kept Afridi on for three overs in the powerplay in those two games, and he took that once customary first-over wicket both times. Afridi is now the joint second-highest wicket-taker in this Asia Cup.None of his nine wickets, though, have come against India, who have smashed 63 runs off his 5.5 overs across two games. In fact, since that famous Player-of-the-Match performance in Pakistan’s ten-wicket victory over India at the 2021 T20 World Cup, Afridi against India has been cannon fodder, with just one wicket in nearly 14 overs across four matches.In T20Is against India, Shaheen Afridi has just four wickets at 39.25•Getty ImagesEven including his performance in that famous victory in Dubai, where he took 3 for 31 – that featured the early wickets of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul – Afridi’s T20I figures against India make for grim reading, with four wickets at 39.25. Afridi has a worse strike rate and average against India than against any other side he has played at least twice, and his economy rate of 8.80 is the second worst – just behind the 9.06 he has against Australia.These numbers from their frontline fast bowler are not conducive to Pakistan’s chances of an upset in the Asia Cup final. This is particularly true due to India’s reliance on their openers, and their tendency to fly to fast starts. In the two games this tournament, Abhishek hit Afridi for a four and a six off his first two balls in the group game, and a first-ball six in the Super Fours. Whether Afridi can keep his streak of first-over wickets alive might prove crucial to Pakistan’s hopes.The pressure isn’t on PakistanThis is perhaps the most vital thing those two matches should teach Pakistan. India have been curiously eager to take the pressure off Pakistan, with captain Suryakumar Yadav suggesting that recent results meant India vs Pakistan wasn’t even a rivalry anymore. On some level, this is obviously not true; an India-Pakistan rivalry has never been contingent on specific merits or weaknesses of their on-field ability, with each side enjoying extended dominance across history without diminishing the game’s status. But on another, India have demonstrated that if they bring their best, there is little Pakistan can do to live with them.6:02

How did Pakistan go from being pioneers to falling behind in T20 cricket?

Perhaps the second game showcased this more than the first. Pakistan played close to the kind of game they were hoping to play. India were sloppy in the field, dropping several catches. Jasprit Bumrah went for more runs in the powerplay than he ever has, and the spinners copped punishment immediately after. And still India won with relative comfort.Pakistan are searching for an upset, not looking to complete a journey they have inexorably been riding to. Some parallels with the 2017 Champions Trophy have been brought up, where an obviously superior India side was blown away by a perfect Pakistan on the day. The five tournaments featuring more than five teams where these sides have met in the final may give Pakistan a 3-2 edge, but the Champions Trophy is an aberration. It is the only one where the result of an earlier meeting in the same competition has not repeated in the final.Pakistan will, as Rizwan might put it, be Asia Cup champions on Sunday. Or they will learn they are the second-best team in the continent. If it turns out to be the latter, then from the T20 lows they have found themselves in over the last two years, it will not be the worst position to be in.

Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suárez is one of the hottest names as Major League Baseball's July 31 trade deadline approaches.

The question remains whether the Diamondbacks will decide to part with him or keep the slugger in hopes of competing for a National League wild card spot, as they currently sit 5.5 games out of the final slot. According to a new report from the 's Jon Heyman, that question remains unanswered, but Arizona is unsurprisingly receiving calls on Suárez.

Heyman named the New York Yankees as a team that has checked in with the Diamondbacks on the 34-year-old slugger. He also named the Chicago Cubs and Seattle Mariners among many other teams that would make sense as a landing spot should the Diamondbacks decide to sell.

Although Heyman didn't explicitly name them in the recent report, another team who may be interested in Suárez's services is the team with the best record in baseball—the Detroit Tigers. Suárez began his career in Detroit and recently said it would mean a lot to him to finish where he started via Evan Petzold of the .

If the Diamondbacks do decide to become sellers, it's clear they won't have an issue moving Suárez, who's slated to become an unrestricted free agent after this season. They have just under two weeks to figure it out.

Through 96 games this year, he's slashing .251/.322/.567 with 31 home runs and 78 RBIs. He's currently tied with Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber for the fourth-most homers across the MLB this season and he's also tied for fourth in RBIs, but with Tigers star Riley Greene.

India’s captain did not have the best start to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and will be desperate to put his best foot forward in Brisbane

Alagappan Muthu12-Dec-20241:27

Pujara: Rohit should continue to bat at No. 6

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy series is at a tipping point. Rohit Sharma’s career might be too. He has not had the best start to his tour, which has extended a prolonged form slump. There are other complications as well. He’s 37 and very recently his team exceeded a lot of expectations without having him in it. India’s regular captain is used to leaving a mark on things. But rarely like this.His first coach saw what most are able to see now when he was shadow practicing. Dinesh Lad was running late and like all bored kids who are suddenly given a surplus of time without an authority figure present, Rohit started fooling around with a bat. And that was that. That was enough.Cricket reduces its participants into numbers both big and small. But there are always those that are too big to capture on a scorecard. Upon arrival at Canberra airport, there was a group of fans waiting for him, chanting “Mumbai (king)! Rohit Sharma!” Upon his departures in the Adelaide Test, for single-digit scores, there has been derision and ridicule.Related

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He doesn’t like being called gifted, but he is, and the greatest one he has as a batter is that he almost always looks good. Cold even. Like nothing fazes him. Even things that should. things that should. In India’s first match of the 2019 ODI World Cup, Kagiso Rabada came thundering in to target his ribs and he pulled him to the boundary like other people scratch their noses. Matter-of-factly. It itches, you scratch. Dude bowled short. He smashed.That shot heralded Rohit’s rise to never-before-seen levels. He became the first man to score five hundreds in the ICC’s 50-over showpiece. He didn’t go searching for that. He never goes searching for anything. Even during the worst phases of his career, where he would make mistakes that would strike down an innings in its prime, he was failing because he was doing too much, not because he didn’t know what to do. Now, averaging 11.83 since his last Test century in March 2024, it feels different.”It’s the line, I think the stump line has been troubling him a lot,” Cheteshwar Pujara said on ESPNcricinfo. “He is getting out lbw and bowled [six of his last ten dismissals] which is a bit of a concern for him.”Rohit’s work across Perth, Canberra, Adelaide and now Brisbane suggests he is working on his defence, with which he hasn’t been on good terms recently•Getty ImagesRohit arrived in Australia on the high of becoming a father again. The joy of that occasion might only be matched by the nervousness, the sleeplessness leading up to it. Then he jumped on a flight, flew straight down to Perth, and landed in the middle of the Test match of India’s dreams. Getting over the whiplash of all the emotions that he would have felt alone might have taken him time, forget acclimatising to a place where he averages 27.80 from eight matches. All this is to say the build-up to his return to the side in Adelaide wasn’t completely ideal. Then he had to go out there and face Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland with the pink ball, whose tendency to jag around a fair bit more than the red one might have forced him to give up his normal opener’s position; a tacit admission perhaps that having arrived late, and with his priorities justifiably elsewhere, he wasn’t yet up to the levels he wanted to be. Also, KL Rahul had done really well at the top.Rohit Sharma’s Test numbers since his last ton•ESPNcricinfo LtdMore than two weeks into his tour now, in Brisbane, Rohit looked a little more comfortable with his brief. He batted for almost an hour, where India paid particular attention to balls coming up at them from back of a length, sharpening both their defensive options and their offensive ones. The pitch at the Gabba is expected to provide its usual mix of pace and bounce. The new ball will once again be tricky. Will India stay with Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal or will there be a change?Rohit’s work across Perth, Canberra, Adelaide and now Brisbane suggests he is working on his defence, with which he hasn’t been on good terms recently. The demands placed on a batter, particularly by limited-overs cricket, which has grown quite intolerant of the old ways, reflected in Rohit himself as he turned himself from a slow-burn, daddy-hundred-maker to a flaming-hot powerplay belter, might be playing a part in his deterioration.1:52

How can India bounce back in Brisbane?

He unlearned a method that translated across all formats – being watchful, avoiding risk, gathering information about the pitch, the bowling, the match situation and then going all-out attack. Began practicing the exact opposite of it – being cavalier, diving headlong into risk, making judgment calls about the pitch and going all-out attack to upend the bowling and the match situation. Now he’s stuck trying to find middle ground, and since it’s Rohit, his failures too tend to leave a strong impression. Against New Zealand in October and November, he seemed to believe going hard at the ball, even though he was playing Test cricket, was the best way forward because the pitches didn’t really give him much margin for error. And yet there were players on the visiting side who were able to cope. Will Young and Tom Latham trusted they had what it took to play normally on those square turners.That is the place every batter wants to be at. With faith in their method. And maybe Rohit is starting to get back there. In a 45-minute session on Thursday morning, he left well, his triggers – that tiny bouncing of the knees as he sees the bowler about to deliver, followed by a small back-and-across movement – were well-timed and he was slowly getting in rhythm. At the very least, it was a far cry from the most poignant image he’s left so far on this tour: dragging himself off the field on Saturday night, darkness all around him.