Six things we learned from the first Test between England and New Zealand

George Dobell06-Jun-2021Ollie Robinson has what it takesIf we ignore, for a moment, the off-field issues, Ollie Robinson enjoyed a hugely impressive debut. Only two England bowlers this century have claimed more than seven wickets on Test debut, while only Rory Burns scored more runs in England’s first innings. Robinson’s 42 played a significant role in helping England avoid the follow-on.But bowling is his primary skill. And it was the excellent, probing length he hit, combined with the ability to nip the ball both ways that bodes particularly well for the future. He gained more swing than any of his colleagues in the second innings and, even with New Zealand looking to accelerate, conceded under two-an-over. He looked a captain’s dream, really. On the pitch, anyway.But, after the furore of the first day, he did show strength of character in being able to compartmentalise things and retain focus on the job in hand. None of this makes what went before OK, but it does show he’s a cricketer with a future at this level. You’d think he’d quite enjoy Australian pitches, too. In fact, he found the MCG quite fun with England Lions last year. Whether he gets a chance to experience them again… well, that’s another issue entirely.Ollie Robinson is jubilant after dismissing Devon Conway•AFP/Getty ImagesEngland’s young batters have much to proveNew Zealand’s declaration was intriguing. It wasn’t so much that it was generous – it wasn’t, really; not on a surface going up and down and against a line-up which has lost their last three Tests and is missing Ben Stokes and co – but that it suggested they really didn’t rate the England batting.And you can understand that. In the first innings, England’s five young middle order batters – from Zak Crawley to James Bracey – contributed 24 runs between them. Three of them (Sibley, Bracey and Dan Lawrence) were out for ducks. None of them average more than Ollie Pope’s 31.76 with Crawley having scored nearly 40% of his Test runs in one innings. Given that he has now had 22 innings, that is a worry.But it might be unfair to expect too much more. This was the youngest top seven England had fielded in a home Test in history. It’s is probably inevitable they will take time to come to terms with the higher quality bowling.Related

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Still, some of the shot selection – Crawley pushing at balls in both innings and Lawrence trying to thrash a wide one without foot movement – will be a concern to the England management, as will the technical issues which saw Pope fall over to the off side and Bracey leave a gate wide enough to let through a cow.It’s been almost a decade since England produced a specialist batter who has been an undisputed success at Test level with Joe Root making his debut at the end of 2012. The likes of Pope, Crawley and Lawrence really are just about the best options England have from county cricket. But they’ve a lot to do to prove they can make it at this level.Mark Wood can be a point of differenceNew Zealand were 288 for 3 at one stage in the first innings. A total of well over 400 seemed likely. But then Mark Wood, on a slow pitch and against set batters, made the breakthrough. His spell helped England claim four wickets for six runs. His pace (over 150kph at times), skill and control combined to test the batters in a variety of ways and the manner he was able to sustain his effort underlined the impression that, since he lengthened his run-up and recovered from his latest bout of ankle surgery, he has the stamina to at least rotate with Jofra Archer and Olly Stone in the fast-bowling role. England are blessed in terms of fast-medium bowlers who can provide control and dominate in conditions where they have some assistance. What they have not had, until recently, were a batch of fast bowlers who can provide a point of difference in the attack and perhaps get some life out of the sort of pitches in India and Australia on which they have tended to struggle. Wood offers that.Mark Wood offers something different•PA Photos/Getty ImagesThey are half the team without their allroundersIt goes without saying that England missed a player of Stokes’ ability. But they missed Sam Curran, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali, too. Without them, it’s almost impossible to balance their side to ensure the requisite amount of batters, seam and swing bowlers. In this match, they opted to go without a spinner but there was no perfect option. Had they picked Jack Leach, they would either have had just three seamers – an issue when one of them is 39 and another has a bit of a dodgy fitness record – or one fewer batter. And you can understand why they wanted to bolster that batting line-up; it looks disconcertingly brittle. If nothing else, this match was a reminder of the incredible value of Stokes to England cricket.England’s openers have valueRory Burns and, in particular, Dom Sibley are going to divide opinion. For some, they will appear appallingly negative. For others, they provide the old-fashioned determination which builds a platform on which the more fluent middle-order can attack. Few would pretend they’re in the class of Boycott and Gooch or Atherton and Trescothick. But after years of England struggling with poor starts, Sibley and Burns at least hint at more solid contributions ahead.Rory Burns sends one to the leg side•AFP via Getty ImagesBoth men played huge roles in England saving this match. Burns’ first-innings century – the only score in the innings above 42 – ensure his side did not have to follow-on, while Sibley’s second-innings half-century ensured England claimed a draw. There will be days, no doubt, when Sibely’s pace of scoring causes some frustration. Indeed, you could feel that from the crowd at Lord’s on Sunday. But with a middle-order as fragile as England’s, some old-fashioned grit is probably rather valuable. And remember: a day of this match was lost to rain. It wasn’t, perhaps, England’s tactics as much as the weather that caused the frustration.Both men have work to do to cement their places. Burns’ previous eight Test innings had realised just 78 runs (including three ducks) while none of Sibley’s previous eight had reached 20, but Burns has now made three Test centuries.English stadiums need a roofHad this game not lost a full day, it could have developed into a classic. Instead it petered out into a bit of a dull draw.Is it really so fanciful to suggest a ground with a roof could be built in England? A new ground if it’s too expensive to alter an old one. It’s happened in Australia, after all. Surely, in a country where it seems to rain relentlessly, it makes more sense to do so here.An MCC member takes an early lunch as the rain falls•Getty ImagesNo doubt the costs would be vast. But have you seen how much money English cricket has spent in recent times? The MCC, for example, have just spent in excess of £50m to add a couple of thousands seats to the capacity at Lord’s and, not so long ago, spent £25m on a Warner Stand which has poor visibility in some seats.And then we come to The Hundred. Rather than gambling more than £50m a year on a competition which nobody was calling for, couldn’t the ECB have used the reassurance a roof might provide to TV schedulers to increase the value of broadcast deals?

After being dropped from the Test team, seamer’s surging form for Hampshire is remaking his case

Umar Farooq23-Apr-2021Until last week, Mohammad Abbas was an overlooked name in Pakistan cricket. But then at the Ageas Bowl, he reclaimed the spotlight with a remarkable performance for Hampshire against Middlesex in the LV= County Championship, to reignite his belief that his recent axing from the Test team will only be a temporary measure.After picking up three cheap wickets in an innings victory over his former club Leicestershire in the opening round, Abbas confirmed his rhythm was right back where he wanted it to be against Middlesex, as he claimed a hat-trick inside seven balls.The method he used was familiar: understated and deadly. A perfect line to a succession of batters, with just enough wobble off the seam to confound their defences. Max Holden was the first to go, to Abbas’ fifth ball of the innings, as the left-hander poked on an off-stump line and deflected a thick edge to Joe Weatherley at third slip. Nick Gubbins was pinned on the crease one ball later, as Abbas jagged a leg-stump delivery into his knee-roll, then with the first ball of his second over, he grazed Stevie Eskinazi’s outside edge as he pressed forward on off stump again.Before the end of his third over, Abbas had picked up each of the first five wickets to fall as Middlesex crashed to 14 for 5, at which point his figures were an extraordinary 2.5-1-3-5. When Sam Robson fell for 18, with Middlesex 31 for 6, he briefly looked on course to claim all ten in the match but had to settle for the final innings figures of 6 for 11. Though Middlesex put up more of a fight in the follow-on, no one could get to grips with Abbas, as he finished with match figures of 9 for 39 in 31 overs.The hat-trick, though, was the undoubted highlight. It was his first in an extensive 12-year first-class career, having previously failed to convert various opportunities in Pakistan, and Abbas believes that – with the national team still in need of a senior bowler to anchor their attack – his efforts for Hampshire could his route back to Test cricket, after admitting to a tail-off in recent international form.”It great to have a hat-trick in my profile,” Abbas told ESPNcricinfo. “These are kind of records every bowler wishes to have. I am happy that I will be able to decorate my career with this distinction.”I previously had various hat-trick chances in my career but missed it. So when this opportunity arrived, I never wanted it to let it go. With all the experience, I had an idea that the batsman might expect the ball to seam in but I thought to bowl an outswinger and it worked. I am grateful for it, and happy about it.”Ben Stokes winces as Mohammad Abbas bowls him for a duck•Getty ImagesAbbas, 31, is with Hampshire for an initial two months that covers as many as eight games, but his contract could be extended if the side reaches the league stage of the competition in August and September, which is very much on the cards after their flying start to the season.However, Pakistan could well come calling once more on the evidence of his current form. They are scheduled to play three Tests against West Indies in July and August this year, and having picked up 15 wickets at 19.20 in his debut series in the Caribbean in 2017, Pakistan’s chief selectors know plenty about his effectiveness in such conditions.However, he was dropped after a drastic slump in his form in the past two years. At the end of Pakistan’s tour of South Africa in January 2019, Abbas had picked up 66 wickets at 18.16 in 14 Tests, and at one stage he had the lowest average – 15.64 – for any bowler with 50-plus Test wickets in the last 100 years. Against Australia in Abu Dhabi, he became the first Pakistani bowler in 28 years to claim a ten-wicket haul, en route to a crushing 373-run win.Since then, however, Abbas has added just 18 more wickets in nine Tests, at an average of 37.27 and a strike rate of 94.5. He believes, however, that a combination of injury and a lack of match practice due to the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to this down-turn, as well as a dip in form from Pakistan’s attack as a whole.”I really had a great start to my career but unfortunately I got a shoulder injury,” Abbas said. “When you touch a peak and have a sudden fall you obviously need time to regain yourself. I did struggle after my return but then, in the second stint of my career, I lost the experienced bowlers at another end. Things started to break away. New management came in and I got to bowl with a fresh bowler, with Shaheen Afridi at his early stage. Musa [Khan], [Usman] Shinwari, Naseem Shah, they all were inexperienced and Yasir [Shah] also stopped taking wickets so it all comes down to me alone as a senior bowler.

“With all the experience, I had an idea that the batsman might expect the ball to seam in but I thought to bowl an outswinger and it worked”Mohammad Abbas on his hat-trick delivery

“Bowlers also need partnerships similar to in batting,” he added. “When I am bowling I usually develop chemistry and it takes time to find one. If one end is getting wickets, that is mainly because the other end is taking all the pressure of containing runs. One is attacking, the other is containing and controlling the flow of runs.”Given his central role in Pakistan’s victory at Lord’s in 2018, where he claimed four wickets in each innings to set the side up for a highly creditable 1-1 series draw, Abbas’ returns in England last summer were a disappointment, as he finished with five wickets at 35.80 in the three Tests – albeit one of those was arguably the ball of the series, a peerless outswinger to bowl Ben Stokes for a duck at Old Trafford. He fared little better on the subsequent tour of New Zealand, with four wickets at 45.00. But he believes a bowler of his type is particularly hampered by the Covid restrictions on tour.”In New Zealand, when I thought Afridi started to develop, we were suppressed with the 14-day quarantine,” he said. “It basically was a killer for a sportsperson. For a bowler, it’s about adjusting to the away conditions, understanding the length, and with pre-series prep, you get in your groove. But we were largely deprived so it was a missed opportunity for me to revive after injury.”Related

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Abbas’ expanding strike rate started to become a concern for Pakistan as the wicket tally started to shrink, even though he did well to contain the runs on both tours. But he was dropped for the home series against South Africa and overlooked again for the ongoing Zimbabwe tour.Pakistan left him to work on his game with the bowling coach Waqar Younis, who decided that his game didn’t need any major tweaks after injury. But in his absence, Pakistan have had a drastic change in their bowling line-up, with Afridi now the leader of the pack with a host of new faces.He accepts that a yard of extra pace might not hurt his chances of a recall, but also believes that his innate skill with a cricket ball will continue to stand him in good stead, particularly now that the Covid restrictions are limiting the use of saliva to help the ball swing.”I know I still have a lot to offer and Pakistan needs an experienced bowler,” Abbas said. “There is a lot of Test cricket coming up later this year and next year, and I think I can contribute. This ongoing County Championship is a big opportunity for me to revive myself. I know people often talk about my pace, and I had few words with Umar Gul, and he suggested me to bowl with the older ball as much as I can to generate more pace.”So it’s about getting into my method and helping me to bowl with extra pace. When you are not getting wickets as a player and as a team, your chips are down and your pace drops automatically. But once wickets are falling in your way, you start flying, and with every over you feel reinvigorated.”This county season came at the right time and I am going make the most out of it. Also, this new rule not to use saliva is basically allowing the ball to rough up pretty early than usual… like only after 15 overs instead of after 30 overs so more opportunity to take upfront wickets.”

We can calculate how effective a batter or bowler is against a specific type of opponent in each phase of a game

Himanish Ganjoo17-Apr-2021In the 54 matches in which he has bowled for England in a T20, Adil Rashid has opened the bowling four times. All four were in the recently concluded five-match series against India. While opening with a spinner in the powerplay is no longer novel in the shortest format, this move was prompted by specific knowledge: googly-wielding legspinners spell trouble for members of India’s top order.In the first T20I, Virat Kohli holed out to a rash shot against Rashid. In the third, Rashid’s googlies kept Rohit Sharma circumspect in the very first over. In the fourth game, he had Kohli stumped, and in the fifth, he troubled Sharma with the wrong’un once again.Rashid’s promotion to open the bowling to counter Kohli and Sharma was the most recent instance of match-ups being used in T20 cricket. In Tests, each strategic play unravels over a long time. In contrast, because time is so limited as a resource in T20, each ball is a substantial determiner of the result. Teams look to optimise every moment to squeeze out the tiniest advantage, making T20 the format where gameplay is most closely “managed”.Related

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Using the bowler who takes the ball away from a batter, or sending a left-hander in ahead of schedule to counter a certain bowler can be the ten-run difference that massively tilts a match in your team’s favour.In Tests, “how” you execute is important, while in T20 the “what” and “when” gain equal importance because each play has a major bearing on the course of the game.With match-ups attaining ubiquity in the T20 landscape, it is important to look at statistics contextualised by various batter-bowler combinations. It is well known that the ball turning in to the batter is advantageous for him. Do the numbers bear that out? If you look at the baseline run rate and dismissal numbers from the last three years of the IPL, they do.The following table shows you the run rate (runs per ball) and dismissal rate (probability of being dismissed) for left- and right-hand batters against different styles of bowling. (Left-arm wristspin is excluded because of very small sample sizes.)Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoFor left-hand batters, their overall dismissal rate facing offbreak bowlers is 4.3 compared to just 3.6 versus slow left-arm. The run rate is also lower against offspinners, by 0.26 runs per ball. Similarly, for right-handers, the runs-per-ball figure is almost 0.1 runs higher when facing offspinners as compared to against legbreak bowlers and slow left-armers, both of whom take the ball away from right-handers.Legspinners concede fewer runs to right-handers and are also likelier to get left-handers out. This can be illuminated by further splitting their performance by innings phase. Phase one is the powerplay (overs 1-6), phase two the middle overs, and phase three the death overs (17-20).Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoThe table above shows that right-handers play legspinners more conservatively in the middle overs, possibly “playing out” the dangerous match-up while conserving wickets for the end overs. Left-handers try to utilise the advantageous match-up by going harder in the middle overs – scoring quicker but also getting out more often.It’s a similar story when you look at slow left-arm numbers by phase. In the powerplay, right-handers score much slower compared to left-handers and get out more frequently. In the middle overs, they moderate their approach, scoring slowly while preserving wickets. In comparison, left-handers score faster but get out slightly more often.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoThe data shows that match-ups work in a broad sense, but what happens when you look at players individually? Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are both classified as right-arm fast bowlers, but they execute their skills very differently. A right-arm seamer is expected to perform at a certain level versus right- and left-hand batters, but how much does an individual deviate from that baseline?This can be quantified by dividing their rates of conceding runs and taking wickets by the average runs per ball and wicket probability for each match-up. For example, right-hand seamers overall concede 1.27 runs per ball to right-hand batters in the powerplay while picking up wickets 3.61% of the time. In comparison, Bumrah concedes only 1.1 runs per ball and 4.1% of his deliveries get wickets. We can condense these facts into two simple ratios that tell us how well a bowler (or a batter) performs compared to a particular match-up in a given phase of the innings.Match-up Run Index (MRI) = (runs per ball by a player for given match-up) / (overall runs per ball for given match-up)Match-up Dismissal Index (MDI) = (dismissal rate for a player for given match-up) / (overall dismissal rate for given match-up)An MRI value of 1 means a bowler is as expensive as the average bowler of his kind for a given match-up. A value lower than 1 means he is economical. On the contrary, a higher MDI value than 1 means he is more likely to pick up wickets given that match-up. Continuing from our example, for Bumrah in the powerplay, the MRI is 0.86 (1.1/1.27) and the MDI is 1.14 (4.1/3.61). Here is a breakdown of Bumrah’s performance on these metrics:Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoFrom a strategy perspective, this shows that Bumrah is exceptionally miserly versus left-handers in the powerplay but not a great wicket-taking option. He is exceptional against both batting styles in the middle overs, and especially effective against left-handers in both run-saving and wicket-taking skills.Because spinners work with lateral deviation off the pitch, match-up indices are much more relevant for assessing their roles. Here is the same match-up-based performance table for Yuzvendra Chahal, which shows that he is a defensive option compared to other legspinners in the powerplay, but a wicket-taking one in the middle overs, with MDI values of more than 1 against both left- and right-handers, which means he is better at taking wickets than the average legspinner against both batting styles. In terms of economy he is almost as expensive as the average leggie to both kinds of batters (MRI values close to 1), but he is a lot more expensive against right-handers in the death overs.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoSplitting open a batter’s performance in terms of MRI and MDI is also useful – it shows their relative strengths against particular bowling styles. For instance, here is Kohli’s record in the powerplay and middle overs the last three years:Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoEngland’s decision to bowl Rashid to Kohli is vindicated, albeit with a small sample size. Kohli scores at the par rate for a right-hander facing a legspinner in the powerplay, as evidenced by his MRI of 1, but with an MDI of 1.15, he is likelier to get out than the average right-hander.But a closer comparison within Kohli’s own record split by match-ups reveals that his real kryptonite might be offbreak bowling. In both the powerplay and the middle overs, he scores slower and gets out slightly more frequently than the average right-hand bat versus offspinners. He falters in a match-up that should be advantageous to him.Last year AB de Villiers, Kohli’s partner in the Royal Challengers Bangalore middle order, was shunted down the line-up to avoid facing legspinners, but he has an MRI of 1.09 and an MDI of 0.79 facing that style of bowling in the middle overs in the past three seasons, which signals that he is less likely to lose his wicket to them compared to the average right-hander.Sharma, Kohli’s partner in the Indian top order, has scored nine runs for two dismissals against legspin in the powerplay, but plays it much better when he’s settled in the middle overs, with an MRI of 1.06 and an MDI of 0.55.Different varieties of spin to differently handed batters are match-ups often used by bowling sides. To find out who is the best at run-scoring and wicket preservation for a match-up, we can calculate the MRI and MDI values for each batter in every phase and take a weighted average of these values to find a combined MRI and MDI for a batter.For instance, the following graphic shows the average MRI and MDI values for all batters who have faced 60 or more balls from legspinners in the last three IPL seasons. The average MRI and MDI account for the match-up and the expected scoring rates in each phase of the innings. Both batting hands can be combined on one plot because the MRI and MDI already account for match-up strength.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoAn MRI of over 1 and an MDI of under 1 are better for a batter; a value of 1 means the player is average.The best batters are in the lower-right quadrant. Nicholas Pooran with his middle-overs aggression and Chris Gayle with his disdainful six-hitting are the best against legspin. A bunch of right-hand openers, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw and Robin Uthappa, form a high-risk high-reward group in the top-right quadrant with high MRI and MDI values. Surprisingly, Krunal Pandya occupies the dreaded top-left quadrant, which implies slow scoring and a high risk of losing your wicket.How do batters do against offspin? David Warner outshines his left-hander peers in terms of strike rate and preserving his wicket, while fellow southpaws Gayle and Ishan Kishan are weaker than the average left-hander against offspin when it comes to striking the ball. Hardik Pandya is in a league of his own, with a high MRI and low MDI. MS Dhoni manages to not get out too often, but fails to score against offspin, his numbers heavily influenced by his match-up against Sunil Narine, who himself perches on the far right of this plot, fulfilling his role as an attacker of spin who does not need to value his wicket too highly.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoPlotting the MRI and MDI values summed across phases for a bowler can tell us the kind of role he should play in a bowling attack. As an example of how this can be used, the following plot shows the aggregate MRI and MDI values for spinners who have bowled more than ten overs to left-hand batters in the last three seasons of the IPL. A higher MDI and a lower MRI is better for a bowler.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoPlayers in the bottom-left quadrant are holding bowlers who concede fewer runs than one would expect given the match-ups they face, but who are less likely to get wickets. Such a bowler could be brought on as a defensive play to stem the flow of runs and force the batter to “play out” his overs, as teams have tended to do against Rashid Khan.The tactic of using Washington Sundar as a run-stopper in the powerplay is another great example visible on the plot. Moeen Ali has a small sample size of 108 balls over three seasons, but his high MDI indicates he fares well in comparison to the average offspinner against left-handers.Here is the same plot for spinners bowling to right-handers:Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoSurprisingly, R Ashwin is better bowling to right-handers than to left-handers in T20, opposite to his Test bowling strengths. Narine too fares better against right-hand batters. The four best legspinners – Rashid Khan, Chahal, Rahul Chahar and Amit Mishra – are expectedly in the top-left quadrant. Krunal Pandya was slightly high on the wicket-taking MDI against left-handers, but becomes a run-saving bowler facing right-handers.This method of summing MRI and MDI values over different phases is an attempt to integrate context into raw cricket numbers. The aim is to split the ball-by-ball records of each batter or bowler by the phase of the innings and the match-up, and then scale their run rate and dismissal rate by the par rates for that “context”.This adjusts rudimentary statistics by accounting for what the average player does against the same type of bowler. We can then take averages of these scaled numbers to find combined statistics, and then calculate MRI and MDI values for each combination of phase and match-up. We can then add these numbers up across phases and batting styles to get overall MRI and MDI values for each player. This pair of numbers tells us their run-scoring/saving and wicket-preserving/taking ability while accounting for the handedness of the batters and the style of bowler.The concluding plots show aggregate MDI and MRI values for both batters and bowlers in the last three seasons.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoHimanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfo

Also: which captain lost the toss but went on to win the match most often?

Steven Lynch23-Mar-2021With England’s one-dayers in India coming up, I wondered who had the most runs and wickets overall in matches between the two countries? My guesses are Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh! asked Mafat Lal from India

The top five run-scorers in England-India one-day internationals are all Indians – but, surprisingly perhaps, Sachin Tendulkar lies only third on the list with 1455, behind Yuvraj Singh (1523) and the leader Mahendra Singh Dhoni (1546). Before the current series, Virat Kohli had 1178 runs, and was set to overtake Suresh Raina (1207). The leading Englishman is Ian Bell, with 1163, just ahead of Kevin Pietersen (1138). Two more Indians, Rahul Dravid (1012) and Virender Sehwag (1008) made it into four figures.As for the bowlers, James Anderson leads the way with 40 wickets in England-India ODIs, three ahead of Andrew Flintoff and Ravindra Jadeja; next comes Harbhajan Singh with 36, one more than R Ashwin and Javagal Srinath.I noticed Jofra Archer batted for the first time in his 11th T20I the other day. Has anyone else played so many without needing to bat? asked Michael Templeton from England

Jofra Archer was not required to bat in his first ten T20I, before finally going in during the fourth match of England’s current series against India in Ahmedabad.He was the sixth man who did not bat in his first ten T20Is. Of the others, Mohammed Shami has now played 12, and has still not made it to the crease, while another India seamer, Jaydev Unadkat, is stuck on ten (he also played seven one-day internationals without having to bat). Ben Shikongo of Namibia finally had to bat in his 11th match – he was out first ball, and he hasn’t played another one since. South Africa’s Wayne Parnell did not bat until his 11th match either, but now has a fairly respectable average of 28.50, helped by a few not-outs.But the leader in this list is Fareed Ahmad of Afghanistan, who did not bat in his first 13 T20Is, before making 24 not out in his 14th. He’s played two more since, in their current series against Zimbabwe, and hasn’t batted in those either.Which captain lost the toss but went on to win the match most often? asked Jeet Banerjee from England

In Tests there’s a tie between Ricky Ponting of Australia and South Africa’s Graeme Smith, who both won 23 matches after losing the toss. MS Dhoni and Steve Waugh come next with 18, then Stephen Fleming and Viv Richards with 17.Ponting also leads the way in one-day internationals, winning 75 after losing the toss; Dhoni is next with 53, ahead of Fleming (51), Hansie Cronje (49), Allan Border and Graeme Smith (48) and Arjuna Ranatunga (45). The T20 specialist is a bit of a surprise: Afghanistan’s Asghar Afghan has won 25 matches after losing the toss, two more than Dhoni, with Eoin Morgan next on 16. In all three formats Ponting leads the way with exactly 100 wins after losing the toss, with Dhoni on 94 and Smith 79.Graeme Smith and Ricky Ponting have both won 23 matches apiece after losing the toss in Tests•Getty ImagesIndia and England have just played a rare five-match T20 series. Who has scored the most runs in one T20 series? asked Ghulam Dhanpade from India

The leader in any T20I tournament is Virat Kohli, who scored 319 runs in the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2013-14. He inched past Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka, who made 317 in the T20 World Cup in England in 2009. Next come Australia’s Aaron Finch, with 306 runs in a tri-series in Zimbabwe in 2018, and Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka, who made 302 in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies in 2010.The most in a bilateral series is 233, by Mozambique’s Damiao Couana, in a seven-match rubber against Malawi in 2019-20. Colin Munro thrashed 223 in just three games at home to West Indies in 2017-18 (he scored 53, 66 and 104).Apart from the current series in India and the seven-match one in Malawi mentioned above, there have been just five other bilateral series of T20Is containing five matches, only three of them involving Test-playing nations: Malaysia vs Vanuatu, New Zealand vs England, New Zealand vs India and Hong Kong vs Malaysia in 2019-20, and New Zealand vs Australia in 2020-21.Who has made a T20I hundred from lowest in the batting order? asked Kristoff Alkemade from the Netherlands

There have now been 58 centuries in men’s T20Is. Of these, 38 have been made by openers, ten by the No. 3, and six from No. 4. Three No. 5s have reached three figures: David Miller for South Africa against Bangladesh in Potchefstroom in 2017-18, Sivakumar Periyalwar for Romania vs Turkey in Ilfov in August 2019, and Sudesh Wickramasekara for the Czech Republic against Turkey the following day, also in Ilfov.That leaves a lone century from No. 6 in the batting order in T20Is. It came from Belgium’s captain Shaheryar Butt, who came in with his side 41 for 4 after eight overs, and blasted an unbeaten 125 from 50 balls – with nine sixes and 11 fours – against the Czech Republic in Walferdange, Luxembourg, in August 2020.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

In their quest for Eldorado, English cricket may have saddled itself with fool’s gold

George Dobell15-Jul-2021″You’ve got a lot of nerve, to say you are my friend,” sang Bob Dylan in the opening line of . It was the song Bob Willis had playing in the background when he died after a long battle with cancer in December 2019.To celebrate Bob’s life – Bob Willis’ life, that is – Edgbaston (his old ground) was tangled up in blue during the third ODI against Pakistan on Tuesday night. Spectators had been encouraged to wear blue to both celebrate his life and raise awareness and funds for the fight against prostate cancer. It’s a surprising choice of final song, in a way. It’s not a peaceful song. Nor gentle or even kind. It’s furious, really. Hateful, even. It sneers at hypocrisy. It angrily demands honesty. And it remains as relevant now as it was when he wrote it almost 60 years ago.Maybe that opening line is a phrase that could be directed towards the ECB executive right now. They are meant to be the guardians of our game, after all. But Tuesday’s was the final ODI before the domestic 50-over competition in England (and Wales) is downgraded into what has been termed a “development” competition. Its final, once a showpiece event in the season, will now be played on a Thursday.It will take place at the same time as the Hundred, you see. And that means it will be without many of the best white-ball players in the land. Surrey, for example, lose 12 players to the Hundred; Sussex lose eight; Somerset lose seven as well as their head coach. And that’s even before we consider the impact of Covid.In a format in which we are told attention to detail and role definition are so important, you wonder what impact this will have when England next play a 50-over World Cup, in India in 2023. It means the best new, white-ball players could be picked for the ODI side without ever having played a professional 50-over game. This week’s success, achieved by a third-choice side against a strong Pakistan team, might prove a high-water mark in the history of England’s ODI cricket.England’s 3-0 clean sweep may come to be seen as the high-water mark of England’s 50-over fortunes•Getty ImagesIt’s not just the 50-over competition which has been forced to compromise, either. The T20 Blast, a competition which has kept the counties afloat in recent years, has been squeezed into a window 40% shorter this year. Even before Covid intervened, clubs had almost no chance to retain the spectator numbers that had been so impressive in previous years based on the premise of regular Friday night fixtures, with room for variance for local factors. This year, Surrey, for example, played six home games in the space of 12 days. Two of them were on Mondays and two more were on Wednesdays. Really, it’s almost as if some people wanted it to fail.Some will scoff at that suggestion. But given the potential direction of travel – the decreasing relevance of the county game and the growing dominance of those based at Test-hosting grounds – many of us fear that the Hundred is an attempt to reduce the number of counties by stealth. And even if it isn’t, might it not be easier to justify the new format if you can demonstrate the existing competitions have failed? It would explain the ECB’s reluctance to sing the success of the Vitality Blast from every rooftop. It has, let us remember, sold out almost every game at several venues – including the London ones – for years. It’s attracted some great overseas players, too. Had it been embraced by a free-to-air broadcaster, it really could have been the vehicle to growth.And remember: these new team identities, some of them based many hours from the regions which they supposedly represent, have never produced a player. They have no pathways, no academies and no existing support base. They are parasites feeding on the players and supporters the county game has produced. It’s a bizarre act of cannibalism to stage a new competition at the same time as an existing one. Even if the new tournament works, it could push existing teams into obsolescence.We haven’t even talked about the first-class game yet. But it’s hard to dispute it has been compromised in the desire to create a white-ball window. At the start of this century, when the Championship was split into two divisions playing four day-cricket, it produced a Test team that went to No. 1 in the world. So well did it prepare people for Test cricket, that four of the top seven (Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior) made centuries on Test debut and two more (Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen) made half-centuries. One of the bowlers (James Anderson) took a five-for on debut and another (Graeme Swann) claimed two wickets in his first over. The County Championship worked.The County Championship produced players good enough to propel England to No.1 in the world in 2011•Getty ImagesNow? Well, aspects of it are still outstanding. But instead of nurturing it, the ECB have devalued it. It starts before Easter and ends to a backdrop of the boys from the NYPD choir singing Galway Bay. It’s played on surfaces which are sometimes more crazy golf than Masters. It provides little opportunity for spinners or fast bowlers and has proven unable to develop batters with the technique and temperament for Test cricket. The evidence of recent times would suggest it isn’t really working.But let us not talk falsely: there are some good reasons behind the birth of the Hundred. Much as it may pain some of us to admit it, the game’s relevance was diminishing in England and Wales. It had largely disappeared from state schools and free-to-air television. Unless you were privately educated or had a family member interested in sport, it was entirely possible you would never experience the game. It was well on the way to becoming a niche sport.And much as some of us cherish the counties, we might also accept that some of them were failing in their duty to embrace working-class and non-white communities. While some counties have worked hard to remain relevant and solvent, others had been a little too willing to pocket the centrally distributed resources and do an absolute minimum to justify it. Even those of us who passionately care for the 18-county system will admit privately that one or two counties are tough to defend. The fact that one of those is hosting a Hundred side is ironic.More than that, the reputation of the game was tainted. Perhaps unfairly – okay, undoubtedly unfairly – many broadcasters and potential spectators weren’t interested in it. The length of games was stretching a bit long. There probably was room for a re-launch. There probably was logic in the need for change. There almost certainly are good intentions at the root of all this. But never forget: the BBC signed up to the new competition when they thought it was a T20 tournament.There are quite a few such misconceptions about the Hundred. One of them is that it provides a high-profile women’s competition. Which sounds reasonable. But then you remember that the ECB abandoned the Kia Super League (KSL), the women’s domestic T20 competition, at the end of 2019.

Even those of us who passionately care for the 18-county system will admit privately that one or two counties are tough to defend. The fact that one of those is hosting a Hundred side is ironic.

Why? Well, maybe because in its absence it was easier to build a compelling argument for the development of the Hundred. It allowed them to claim that this wasn’t all about money, but also about diversity and inclusion. As if those who oppose the Hundred in some way oppose opportunities for women.There’s the much-repeated argument that the first-class counties needed the money that the Hundred will bring in, too. But, again, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Before the Hundred was introduced, the ECB had reserves in excess of £70 million. They could easily have shared some of that with the counties. Instead, they kept them in need to ensure their compliance. The counties have managed to be bribed with their own money. And now those reserves have gone; squandered on a competition which is costing more than it will earn.Equally, supporters of the Hundred – and it’s noticeable that a sizeable proportion of those supporters have some financial incentive for wishing it well – like to portray the county game as reactionary and staid. But again, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Where was one-day cricket born? Where was T20 cricket born? Where were free-hits and DLS born? County cricket, that’s where. The ECB should have been wooing and seducing broadcasters, not telling them their existing competitions were rubbish.And that’s an issue to which we keep coming back here: the Hundred is the ECB’s answer to problems they created. If they hadn’t allowed cricket to disappear behind a paywall and if they hadn’t cancelled the KSL, there would be no need for it. We have a great sport. We just need to ensure more people have the opportunity to experience it.Related

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It could yet work. Whether it’s played over 100 overs, 100 balls or five days, cricket is a great game. Perhaps the increased broadcast exposure will counteract all these other factors. But make no mistake: the ECB has bet the farm on this competition. If it fails, it could set the sport back a generation. And if it succeeds, the collateral damage to the other formats and the counties could still lose more than we gain. It feels like a wild, unnecessary gamble.Maybe, had the initial launch been handled differently, existing supporters would have been more accepting of the shortened format or amended regulations. We’ve lived with overs of almost every length over the years, after all. We’ve accepted many other innovations.But the first impressions were awful. The ECB seemed to delight in offending existing cricket lovers. They seemed to revel in sneering ‘we can do without you’. And by the time they realised their hubris had let them down, it was too late. In years to come, you wonder if the initial roll-out of the idea will be studied as a text-book example of how not to do it. If they had their time again – and the ECB has a much-improved communications team these days – you can be quite certain they would do it differently.Partially because of this, The Hundred has become the of its time. And that doesn’t mean the fabled city. It means the BBC soap opera whose reputation was so poor before the first episode was broadcast in 1992 that it was doomed from the off. Many people (63 percent according to a recent survey conducted by the Cricket Supporters’ Association) who love cricket resent and fear and hate the Hundred. The inability of the ECB to bring many cricket lovers with them on this journey may be the defining mistake in this whole saga.The point of all this? Eden is burning, as Bob Dylan put it. The game we knew is being compromised to accommodate a competition we shouldn’t need. A county game which helped England to No. 1 in the world in all three formats, which attracted record attendances, which could, with just a little adaption of the broadcast deal, have been the vehicle to a new audience, is being dismantled. It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there. Really, the ECB have a lot of nerve to pretend they are county cricket’s friend.

To be an up-and-coming English cricketer that summer was to get a glimpse of the stuff myths are made of

Mark Nicholas16-Jul-2021Wednesday, July 29, 1981: Prince Charles marries Princess Diana. Thursday, July 30: play begins in the fourth Test of the 1981 Ashes – a series of matches as daft and dramatic as any played – the series known to this day as Botham’s Ashes because of the gargantuan part Sir Ian played in further lifting the mood of the nation. Botham’s nicknames were the stuff of legend: Beefy, Beefcake, Monster, and Guy the Gorilla foremost among them. The stakes are a little higher now. Late last year he was appointed by the prime minister to the House of Lord’s for his support of Brexit among other things, so we know him as Lord Botham of Ravensworth. Or, as the lads like to say, the Baron of Beef.Come those heady days of late July 1981, the score in the five-match series was 1-1 after England had drawn level in extraordinary circumstances at Headingley about ten days earlier.On the first Sunday of that August, Hampshire were playing a Sunday League game against Kent at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury. The dressing rooms were alongside each other back then but only the home dressing room had a television. I poked my head into the open door and changing right there, under the telly, was Alan Knott, the great wicketkeeper.Related

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“What’s the score?” I asked. “Not good, still three down.” I groaned. “Don’t worry,” Knott added with typical enthusiasm and a bright smile, “the Gorilla will come on in a minute and take five for none.”Which was pretty much exactly what he did.In a match that echoed some of the random cricket played at Headingley by both teams, the Australians had done enough at Edgbaston to leave themselves just 151 to win in the fourth innings. But 151 was 21 more than they had needed in Leeds, and though Mike Brearley, the England captain, doubted lightning would strike twice, he was encouraged by a nervous start from the Australian top order on Saturday evening.Ahead of the second Test of the series, at Lord’s, Botham, the captain, introduces his team to the Queen•PA Photos/Getty ImagesAt lunch in Birmingham on Sunday, the score had crept to 67 for 3. In Canterbury, Kent chose to bat first and as we left our dressing room for the field of play, the fourth Australian wicket fell – Graham Yallop a victim of the wily John Emburey. Then Emburey had Allan Border caught at silly point from a brute of a delivery.Upon which Brearley threw the ball to Botham, who had been strangely reluctant to bowl. He took 5 for 1.The match was over before the beer queues had woken up to the fact it was even alive again. In the field in Canterbury, we heard six reactions from the spectators whose radios were tuned in to Edgbaston.The first, Border’s wicket, was the sort of titter that comes from an embarrassed giggle and says, “Phew, at least we won’t be humiliated.” The second, the uprooting of Rodney Marsh’s middle stump, was louder and almost feral, partly because it was Marsh, the archetypal Australian, whose bet against his own team during the Headingley Test – more of that in a moment – had caused something of a stir.The next reaction was different: it had the men and women of Kent out of their chairs and sharing the detail of Ray Bright’s first-baller, lbw to the Gorilla – whisper, whisper, murmur, murmur; surely not. This had nothing on the roar that followed 20 minutes later: arch-villain Dennis Lillee well caught at the wicket by Bob Taylor after a defiant 19-ball innings of 3 in a partnership of 6 with Martin Kent, which, from afar, seemed to be turning back the tide. That Lillee wicket provoked a guttural roar, a bloodthirst, and was the moment when Kentish folk came together with Hampshire fielders to agree that the possibility of a miracle had become the probability of a victory.Ahead of the Headingley Test, new captain Mike Brearley bats in the nets while Botham, his predecessor, watches from the stairs•PA Photos/Getty ImagesBriefly, none of us gave a stuff about Kent versus Hampshire, only Botham versus the Aussies.Sensing the country alongside him, the Gorilla then ripped one through the game defences of Kent and triumphantly knocked over Terry Alderman with another very fast, full and straight ball. It was over. He ran, right fist in the air, to claim a stump and a famous victory. Indeed, he might have been Caesar returning to the Colosseum for his triumph, so ecstatic were the people.If Charles and Diana had stoked the fires of national fervour, ignited by victory in the third Test, Botham had lit them in the first place in that game and was now fanning the flames at Edgbaston.This brought the most unlikely and visceral reaction from the bleachers in Canterbury. Our match came to a brief halt as the news sank in, whereupon an extraordinary communal feeling of euphoria spread around the ground. Yes, the garden of England had become momentarily triumphalist itself before getting a grip and returning to the polite applause given to boundaries struck in the more sedate environment of the Sunday League. The facts still being digested by all of us were that Brearley’s team had won back-to-back Test matches from nowhere.And by nowhere, I mean nowhere.That a Cowdrey was making a few against Hampshire was irrelevant. England were 2-1 up in a series that only a few weeks previously had offered no hope. Of course, Edgbaston was not story; that was at Headingley a fortnight earlier, and what a story. But Edgbaston underlined the movement on the dial.Little did they know: spectators at Headingley on day one as Australia went about compiling their first-innings 401 for 9 declared•Adrian Murrell/Getty ImagesThe 40th anniversary of Headingley ’81 – a Test that began on 16th July – is, of course, today. In the Times of London last week, Michael Atherton wrote a superb piece about the match and its surrounding events and players. It was accompanied by contemporary black-and-white photographs of them all, except Knott, who lives in Cyprus. They are dressed in black T-shirts and have been asked by Phil Brown, the photographer, to reflect rather than rejoice. These pictures are both a stark and evocative reminder of the passage of time and its effects on a man. We remember these cricketers as heroes and see them now as a part of our history.Bob Willis is missing, and of course, missed, in a way his own self-deprecation could barely believe. It was rather special that the “Blue for Bob” day at Edgbaston last Tuesday went so well and that a huge amount of money was made for research into prostate cancer.Bob Woolmer and Graham Dilley are missing too, men lost to the unpredictable cycle of life and death.It is worth spending a moment on the transformative powers of Botham in his playing pomp. He was more than just a cricketer; more, indeed, than a man of the people, as he has been called so often. By throwing caution to the wind at every turn he single-handedly created hope for a whole nation in a way that few sportsmen have done.Seve Ballesteros – at his best – and Viv Richards are two others but it is a short list.Botham tore at the opposition, not always coming out on top, of course, but always telling them he was around. He laughed in the face of doubt and paid little attention to the weight of public expectation. He saw every game as an opportunity – nothing less, nothing more. He might not be the greatest of the allrounders to stand for that title but he might well be the greatest out and out match-winner. (Eighteen months earlier he had made a hundred and taken 13 wickets in the one-off Golden Jubilee Test against India in Mumbai.)Defending in a 148-ball 149 – who woulda thunk it: Botham during his legendary second innings at Headingley•Adrian Murrell/PA Photos/Getty ImagesIn the Times portrait, Botham looks good, less lined than one might think and still strong. In fact, after a second glance just now, he is surprisingly undiminished and it is easy to imagine that on impassioned issues such as the countryside, woke culture and sovereignty, he is a force in the second chamber.Back in 1981, briefly, he was sour at the game, having lost the England captaincy after a thumping in the West Indies and a bad start to the Ashes in the first two Tests at Trent Bridge and Lord’s. With England one down, the selectors turned to Brearley, who knew Botham better than most, having been his first Test captain. They got on well and Botham tended to perform for Brearley in a way that he might not have done for others.In its way, the Headingley win was a fluke but the notion that the best captains and players make their own luck has some truth to it. Botham batted in the second innings as if he were on the village green and in a hurry for his first pint (he had made a lively 50 in the first innings but with a little more culture). There was no sign of any magic from Brearley when England followed on 227 behind and found themselves 135 for 7 – and all but gone – when Dilley joined Botham at the crease. Dilley made 56, playing a relatively straight bat to Botham’s uninhibited form of expressionism. They were lucky. Any edged boundary – and there were plenty – might have gone to hand on another day. From the dressing-room balcony, an animated Brearley encouraged them to keep going as they were.I remember watching this partnership from the café underneath the Hampshire dressing room in Portsmouth, where I was nursing a broken finger courtesy Sylvester Clarke the day before. The longer the pair of them went on, and especially after England got in front, the more I shouted at the screen for them to rein in and take stock. My entirely misguided view was that they now had the Aussies by the proverbials and should grind out a bigger lead. Seeing Brearley egg them on taught me more about leadership in a single moment than in any other during my career as a cricketer.Dream run: Mike Gatting, Bob Willis, Graham Gooch and Peter Willey scarper off the field at Headingley after the scarcely believable win•PA Photos(I also remember Richie Benaud’s terrific commentary that day, and specifically, his sense of theatre when Botham hit a six into a little hut selling sweets and stuff – “Don’t even bother looking for that, it’s gone straight into the confectionery stall and out again.” I also learnt from this, realising that capturing the moment was more important than making perfect sense. As Richie would later say over a beer, “The ball rebounded onto the concourse, everyone knew where it was!”)Botham finished unbeaten on 149 from 148 balls, dynamic by Test match standards of the time. Australia needed 130 in the last innings to win the match. Easy. So much so that Lillee and Marsh were unable to resist what Lillee called “the ridiculous odds offered for a two-horse race”. With Dilley walking out to bat, the odds hit 500-1 against an England win. Lillee asked the Australian team’s coach driver to put on a tenner and Marsh called him back to add a fiver of his own. A few days later, £7500 was delivered in cash to Worcester and landed on the tourists’ dressing-room table. “It looked like a million dollars!” Border recalled.There was never a suggestion of impropriety, only the daftness of the odds exciting a couple of young blokes who could see the main chance. Of course, it turned embarrassing for those two wonderful cricketers but nothing more. As Lillee points out, “The odds quickly disappeared after Beefy’s amazing innings, and with our score at 56 for 1 in the run chase, we had the champagne ready for celebration with the bet already forgotten. I’d have swapped every penny for a win. Simple as that.”For all Botham’s fireworks with the bat, it was Willis who cleaned up the game and there is a story there too. Concerned about his form and fitness, the selectors left Willis out of the side. Then they heard he had suffered from the flu at Lord’s but was well again, so he was added to the extended party of players for the match. Such science! On the way to the ground, Brearley asked him about the balance of the team. “Four seamers” was the reply, which included Bob himself. He insisted on bowling up the slope to counter his frustrating no-ball problem. Only when Brearley switched him to bowl down the hill on that amazing final afternoon did the tide turn in his favour.Rodney Hogg gets despatched for four at Edgbaston by Botham•PA Photos”Give him his head, switch him round,” said Taylor. “Tell him to bowl straight at Lillee, any length, and forget about no-balls,” said Mike Gatting. Bingo! After Willis’ breathtaking six-wicket burst, Lillee and Bright made 30-odd for the ninth wicket in four overs and seemed to be racing home. Gatt’s advice did the trick, Lillee immediately chipping a full, straight ball to the tumbling Gatting, who held on at mid-on.Finally, Robert George Dylan Willis, with his demonic eye and trance-like demeanour, blew Bright’s middle stump out of the ground with a perfect yorker and ran from the field as if lost on another planet, with 8 for 43. These were simple twists of fate and because of them, the times they were a-changing. (I know, but why not. This was the music that Bobby lived for and the music that made him forever young.)I remember most of this as if it were yesterday, when I was starting out on a career in the game and watched and listened with something close to an addiction. At one time or another I played against all of those who took part in the series and on every occasion, I would think back to these two matches – and the fifth Test at Old Trafford too, in which Botham played his finest innings – when our hearts and minds were captured and held all summer long by a group of cricketers and their incomparable talisman. Sure, England had two captains, three wicketkeepers (??) and 20 players, so it was not a perfect world. But to a young wannabe, it was close.I will leave the last word to Brearley. “I was the luckiest man that summer. If I haven’t dined out on it, I’ve become, for better or worse, along with Botham, Willis and others, part of the mythology. It’s not easy to sort myth from reality.” Amen to that. Which is why our dreams live on.

The reactions on Twitter after New Zealand upstaged England in the T20 World Cup semi-final

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2021With 57 required off four overs, it looked like New Zealand’s streak of not winning a men’s T20 World Cup semi-final would continue. But Daryl Mitchell and James Neesham came up with the runs when it mattered, making it a third consecutive major final for the team.

Unreal scenes! What a performance @BLACKCAPS #NZvENG #T20WorldCup21 @ICC

— Mitchell McClenaghan (@Mitch_Savage) November 10, 2021