Haryana’s strike bowler talks about how he found consistency and had a dream 2019-20 season

Hemant Brar26-Apr-2020″I felt I was not good enough to play red-ball cricket anymore.”In February 2019, Haryana allrounder Harshal Patel had doubts about his abilities in long-form cricket. He had taken only 23 wickets from nine games in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season. After Haryana’s regular captain, Mohit Sharma, was sidelined with a bad back midway through the tournament, Patel was handed the dual responsibility of leading the side and its bowling attack. That compounded his dejection when he failed to pick up wickets, and made him feel he was letting his side down.Haryana finished the season with three wins, two draws and four losses, including an innings defeat to Assam. They were fifth among the ten teams in Group C.”I had always enjoyed playing red-ball cricket, so my performance that season was something that bothered me a lot,” Patel says. “As a team, we were losing against weaker sides, by an innings at times, and that hurt even more. Being the main fast bowler of the team, I felt if I cannot deliver, I should start thinking whether I am good enough to play red-ball cricket anymore.”He missed the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that came next, due to a tear in one of his glutes, but recovered in time to join the Delhi Capitals for the IPL, where, after being benched for the first two games, he had figures of 2 for 40 and none for 37 in the next two. “It didn’t show in my figures but I was pretty confident my performance was going to get significantly better,” Patel says. Unfortunately, his campaign was cut short when he fractured his hand, which added to his frustrations.Fast forward to now and Patel has not only been stellar in this season’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he also seems to have got his confidence back with the red ball. In the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy, he took 52 wickets in nine games, breaking left-arm spinner Rajinder Goel’s 36-year-old record for the most wickets in a season for Haryana.The turnaround didn’t come about by chance.Something the Capitals’ coach, Ricky Ponting, said to Patel during last year’s IPL provided a lightbulb moment.Patel has been handy with the bat in the shorter formats, and also in four-day cricket. This Ranji season he made 292 runs at 22.46, batting mostly at No. 8•Haryana Cricket Association”Ricky told me that I was brilliant at preparation but needed to get better at performance,” Patel says. “That sort of cleared things for me because I always felt I was pretty confident in practice but probably 10% less confident in the match. On the field, I was getting worried about not being able to execute my plans.”He talked about visualising what might happen in the game and going through those scenarios in the head. If you are prepared for all those scenarios, then you are more likely to succeed and not succumb to the pressure.”While Patel’s 2019 IPL ended prematurely and he started the next domestic season with an indifferent Vijay Hazare Trophy, he reaped the benefits of the new-found wisdom in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. His 19 wickets at an economy of 7.04 were the joint second most in the tournament, one fewer than the table-topper, R Sai Kishore, took. Patel shone with the bat too, making 374 runs at an average of 31.16 and a strike rate of 165.48.He opens the innings for Haryana in T20s, where his primary job is to take the pressure off other batsmen by scoring quickly. This season, though, he tweaked his approach. “Earlier I used to try smacking every single ball, but now I have realised that’s not sustainable. So I tried to play more low-risk shots”Patel emphasises range-hitting during training, but he is looking to be calculating too. “I know I am not Andre Russell that I can hit every ball out of the ground. So I need to understand what areas bowlers will try to bowl to me and how I can exploit that without taking too many risks. For example, I never used to play the cut, but now I am pretty confident playing it.”He has been watching Virat Kohli as well. “If you see what he does, it is pretty exceptional,” Patel says. “Like, where there is a single, you try for two, where there is a double, you push for three. If you are fit enough and can do that over a period of, say, five, seven, ten overs, you end up adding probably another eight to ten runs to your tally. Now that is a massive, massive margin. That’s a margin of victory and defeat. So that’s something I have incorporated into my game.””Ricky told me that I was brilliant at preparation but needed to get better at performance”•Delhi CapitalsWhen it comes to his primary trade, bowling, he has been experimenting with a number of slower balls. “I have been trying the knuckleball but it hasn’t worked for me so far,” he says. “I have a brilliant offcutter which I am pretty confident of bowling to right-handers, to left-handers, with the new ball, with the old ball, fuller, shorter. I can bowl that ball in probably 15 different ways. I used to bowl a really good back-of-the-hand slower ball as well. I stopped bowling that because I was pretty confident of my offcutter, but now I have started bowling it again.”After the struggles of the previous Ranji season, Patel sat down to figure out what exactly was going wrong with his bowling. “When you are not bowling well, you try to make a lot of adjustments without having the patience to bowl in the channel throughout the day,” he says.Along with the likes Jaydev Unadkat, Saurashtra’s strike bowler and captain, Patel stands out as one of the sharper minds in Indian domestic cricket. Self-analysis has helped him keep improving.”I watched every single ball I bowled in the previous season. I made a pitch map of that and realised I was lacking consistency. The pattern showed that I was bowling too full, and when I tried to correct that, I was straying on the pads.”To make sure he set that right, Patel went back to the basics.”I realised I didn’t need any technical changes. I told myself I was just gonna bowl good length at fourth stump. Every single thing I did during practice was targeted towards achieving consistency. I recorded every single ball from practice sessions and tried to achieve at least 80-85% accuracy.”His efforts paid off. Among the bowlers from the Elite Group teams who took at least 30 wickets, no one struck as frequently as Patel (every 27.1 balls) this season, while only Unadkat (13.23) got his wickets cheaper than Patel’s 14.48. He had his best batting season too, tallying 292 runs at 22.46, with two half-centuries.Haryana play their home games in Lahli, considered the fastest track in India, but Patel says his performances haven’t had much to do with the conditions. “People think you just go bowl in Lahli and you get wickets,” he says. “It’s not like that. Last season I had 23 wickets from nine games. I played five of those games in Lahli. If you don’t bowl well, you don’t pick up wickets anywhere.Patel analysed every ball he bowled in the 2018-19 Ranji season on video to improve•Haryana Cricket Association”I know when I am bowling well and when I’m not. Of course, when you get 52 wickets, sometimes you are gonna get wickets off bad balls, and that happens everywhere. The only important thing for me is whether I bowled well, whether I won the game for the team, whether I contributed to the team’s victory. That’s my only gauge to measure how I performed.”***”Earlier, once my spell was over, I used to hang out at fine leg and not worry about a thing.”But captaincy has helped Patel enhance his overall awareness during games, just like it has with Unadkat. “As a captain you have to be present all the time,” he says. “Not only be present in the game, you also have to be proactive. You need to make decisions and every decision you make has consequences.”Haryana narrowly missed out on qualifying for the knockouts, but Patel has been trying to develop his leadership skills, using methods not many young Indian cricketers might adopt. “I have read a lot of leadership books – . Then the all-time great book by Dale Carnegie, . There’s another book – by Jocko Willink, a former US Navy SEAL – called , which is something I strongly believe in: that everything that happens around you is your responsibility.”Patel is a man of diverse interests. If he was not a cricketer, he says he would have taken up medicine. His other passion is strength and conditioning, which he wants to take up professionally after retirement. He also wants to learn to surf and scuba dive, and get into mountaineering.It doesn’t end there. “The other day I was watching , and I was like, ‘I want to be an astronomer.’ Then I realised I knew little about maths beyond basic arithmetic. I cannot even think of stuff like calculus or probability.”But I believe you don’t have to be formally educated to be educated. If you are genuinely curious about something, there is enough information on the internet. There are enough free courses, enough paid courses, that you can opt for.”I was desperate to learn guitar. So I followed a few online lessons. But it requires a lot of dedication, plus you need to be okay with failing, and at the moment I am okay with failing at very few things.”This thirst for knowledge, to have new pursuits, might make Patel come across as lacking focus. The truth is, he is anything but. “Right now my only priority is to become the best cricketer I can be.”

Trials were conducted in 2011 to determine minimum levels of light required for play to reasonably and safely continue in Tests

Osman Samiuddin27-Aug-2020The ICC and its officials, it would appear from events of recent days, can’t ever get it right. First, they are roundly criticised for going off for bad light too readily in the second Test between England and Pakistan in Southampton.Then, after the third day’s play in the third Test at the same venue, having played on to make up for lost time on a rain-affected day, Dom Bess says the light was poor enough to be dangerous. Playing on that day seemed like a corrective response to the earlier criticism, with a renewed resolve to get as much cricket in as possible, although Bess didn’t think it was the umpires over-reacting. It won’t be forgotten that three catches were shelled in quick succession in that period by England.That has brought the ICC’s bad light regulations into scrutiny, something that happens so often now, we’re all familiar with the key bits of playing condition 2.7.1; the umpires alone decide if it is “dangerous or unreasonable” for play to continue, but that play shouldn’t stop “merely because [conditions] are not ideal.”Given that it is humans ultimately making the decision, there’s not going to be one standard interpretation of ‘ideal’. Floodlights bring another variable to a decision that is guided – but not dictated – by light meters: why not just play on?The answer to that lies in trials conducted by the ICC in March 2011 in Dubai, but also replicated at four venues in England the same year, and at the Gabba in 2012. The previous October, amendments to the laws of the game had left umpires as the sole decision-makers on bad light, without needing to consult the batsmen. At an ICC meeting a fortnight before that, the ICC’s then GM cricket David Richardson had said, “There is a clear instruction to match officials that the players should only go off the field when conditions are considered dangerous or unreasonable. In addition, players should not go off the field when the ground floodlights are switched on and these were deemed before the series to be adequate.”The England v Pakistan Test series brought the issue of bad light into sharp focus•Getty ImagesThe ICC doesn’t often get credit for the research-based findings that underpin the game’s on-field developments. Their work with academic and science institutes on illegal actions, or in convincing the BCCI of the viability of DRS tools, for example, flies under the radar. In that light it was no surprise they set up these trials, the aim of which was to establish the appropriate minimum levels of light required for play to reasonably and safely continue in Tests, while also assessing the impact of floodlights. The key finding was that there is definitely a level of light beyond which it is unsafe to continue playing even under floodlights with a red ball. Results from England and Australia corroborated that finding.The Dubai trials involved cricketers from the ICC Academy (in England and Australia, county and state cricketers took part) and took place on two late afternoons in March, starting each day in the post-tea session – at 4.15pm – in sunshine. An established lighting company was contracted to set up six light meters in different positions, all recording light readings every 15-20 minutes. Bowling machines were used to replicate match conditions as far as possible although crucially, because this wasn’t a match situation it meant nothing was at stake for the batsmen. They could, as a result, be relied upon to give as objective an account of the light as possible and not – as had historically been the case – use it tactically depending on the situation of the match. Using bowling machines (with no bowler to lock onto visually for a batsman) could, however, potentially affect reaction times.The Ring of Fire lights at Dubai Stadium were only turned on one of the days. Red balls were used against white sightscreens, but orange, pink and white ones were also trialled for comparative purposes. The key reading was taken from where the batsman stood, looking at the sightscreen.When play began in sunshine, the lux levels – a measure of the intensity of light – were around 19,000 on both days. There was a sharp drop – partly because of how shadows form in Dubai’s stadium – but by 5.35pm, the lux level was down to between 3800-3900 both days. At this time, players felt the light was unfit for fast bowling. Ten minutes later all kinds of bowling had become unsafe (lux level 2750 on the first day and 3270 on the second).After a change in the playing regulations, the umpires are the only people who can decide whether or not to go off for bad light•BCCIOn the second day, the lights were turned on at 5.45pm and within five minutes, the lux level went up to 5510, supplementing the natural light. But it didn’t last long. As the natural light continued to fade, by 6.05pm – 20 minutes after the lights had been switched on – conditions were considered borderline: batsmen and fielders were struggling to sight the ball. Five minutes later, conditions were deemed unsafe, lights having bought 20-25 minutes in all.It became clear that once light levels dipped below 3800 lux, play would have to stop. Floodlights did definitely help but for how long would depend on their quality, and the rate at which natural light deteriorated at that venue. It’s important to understand that number wasn’t a universal level. In England, for example, the same city could have different findings: the unsafe level at The Oval was found to be lower than at Lord’s. Even at the same ground, light conditions could be different at different ends, because of how the grounds were built and the sun set.Because of this variation, there can’t ever be one standard level and why the decision comes down, ultimately, to the judgment of the umpires. The light meters they use don’t measure light in lux levels and they only look at a reading after they’ve made the decision to go off the first time; subsequently they use the meter before making a decision as a benchmark, not as an absolute level of the light.Back in 2011, the ICC’s suggestions were that using a pink ball would allow play to go on longer (switching between different-coloured balls has never been considered a practical solution though); that umpires were still best-placed to make a call on when light is unsafe; and that earlier start times would see finishes before natural light fades. Those were also the suggestions presented the last time there was in-depth discussion on the matter, in 2013.Nearly a decade on from the trials, they are likely to remain the suggestions when the ICC’s cricket committee meet next to discuss it.

Also, is Rashid Khan losing his spark with teams opting to attack him late?

Matt Roller13-Oct-2020Why did Sam Curran open the batting?No team had scored as slowly as the Super Kings in the powerplay this season ahead of this game, and they decided it was time to change things: after 68 runs off 31 balls in the middle order, Curran was promoted to open the batting for only the second time in his T20 career.The move looked to have backfired after three overs, with Curran struggling to time the ball and batting uncharacteristically defensively on 10 off 15, as Faf du Plessis nicked off for a first-ball duck. But Curran heaved two fours and then two sixes in the fourth over off Khaleel Ahmed, and had done his job by the time he was bowled by Sandeep Sharma in the fifth over for 31 off 21.Why did Super Kings pick Chawla for Jagadeesan?The Chennai Super Kings picked only five frontline bowling options in their side for the tournament opener against the Mumbai Indians. But they started the second half of the season with seven, as Piyush Chawla came in for N Jagadeesan for Tuesday night’s game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.That allowed MS Dhoni to use specialists in certain phases and target individual batsmen with specific bowlers: new-ball specialists Deepak Chahar and Sam Curran split the first seven overs between them, while Dwayne Bravo was held back until the 14th over. Chawla bowled only six balls, being used in the 16th over to take the pace off against a set Kane Williamson and conceded just eight runs.Why did Karn Sharma bowl the 18th over?Given their plethora of bowling options and with two death-over specialists in Bravo and Shardul Thakur, it was a surprise to see Dhoni turn to legspin in the 18th over. Dhoni is not a captain who relies on analytics, and may not have known that Williamson’s strike rate against legspin in the IPL since 2018 was 112.09 coming into this match. He seemed to have clearly decided from his reading of the game that Williamson was desperate for pace on the ball.Dhoni’s ploy worked initially: Williamson lofted a one-bounce four over square leg before holing out to long-on, seemingly ending the Sunrisers’ chances. When Rashid Khan and Shahbaz Nadeem took 15 from the next four balls between them, it looked as though it might have backfired, but Thakur’s excellent 19th over made the game safe for the Super Kings.Did umpire Paul Reiffel change his mind in the 19th over?2:21

Did Paul Reiffel change his mind after seeing Dhoni?

With 25 required from 11 balls, Thakur sprayed a ball just outside the tramlines that Khan couldn’t reach, and umpire Reiffel rightly gave a wide. The next ball was almost a carbon copy, but Reiffel stopped halfway through calling another wide as Dhoni and Thakur protested.Replays showed that the ball had clearly jagged past the wide line again, and David Warner was visibly frustrated with the call in the Sunrisers’ dugout. It might not have made a difference given the collapse that followed, but it left the required rate at 14.40 runs per over rather than 12.50.Why did Shane Watson score so slowly?Curran’s promotion meant that Watson batted at No. 3 – the first time in 40 innings that he had not opened while playing for the Super Kings. Notoriously a slow-starter, Watson eked out only four runs from his first 11 balls before flicking a trademark pick-up over square leg to hit T Natarajan for six.There were moments in the middle overs against Nadeem – whom he has struggled against in the past – and Khan when he looked as though he was about to put his foot down, like he had against the Sunrisers in the 2018 final. But when Watson eventually holed out to long-off, he had managed only 42 runs while chewing up nearly a third of the Super Kings’ overs by himself.It is surely too soon to write Watson off – he has proved in the past that he can recover from slow starts in a tournament, as well as in an innings – but with his strike rate this season down at 122.33, he will know that he has to start firing soon.Shane Watson flogs away a short ball•BCCIIs Khan losing his spark?After eight wickets with an economy rate of 4.83 in his first six games of the season, Khan has returned combined figures of 2 for 55 in eight overs across his last two appearances. Those numbers are still good by normal standards, but there have been signs that teams are increasingly willing to take him on.In particular, it has been instructive to see how teams have approached the fourth over of his spell. In the first six games, teams looked to play him out, taking a combined 28 runs for three wickets across his six final overs. But needing 36 off 18 balls when he returned for his last over in the Sunrisers’ previous game against the Rajasthan Royals, they had no choice but to attack; and Rahul Tewatia did just that by hitting him for three fours. On Tuesday, Watson and Ambati Rayudu hit him for a six each in his fourth over.It will become apparent over the next two weeks whether those two assaults were the result of circumstances or a sign that teams are now willing to attack him.Has Dhoni decided to follow the trend of batting first?After winning 22 tosses out of 27 in a remarkable streak dating back to the 2018 season, the Super Kings had lost their last four tosses in a row coming into this game. They had chased in every game in the first half of the group stage, losing five and winning two.On Tuesday, Dhoni won the toss, batted first and continued the trend in this tournament of teams successfully defending scores. Discounting games that went to Super Overs, the team batting first has won 20 out of 27 matches this season. With pitches slowing down and thus becoming increasingly similar to their Chepauk home ground, there are reasons for the Super Kings to believe they can extend their record of making the playoffs every season.

Twenty runs off 18 balls. Two established batsmen at the crease. It unravelled for Sunrisers Hyderabad from there

Deivarayan Muthu25-Oct-20202:54

Gambhir: ‘Kings XI seem to have ticked most boxes’

56 for 1
In pursuit of a modest target of 127, the “old-school” Warner turns up and takes on the Kings XI’s gun bowler Mohammed Shami. The Sunrisers’ captain lofts Shami over cover for six, then flat-bats him over his head and pulls him past mid-on for fours. All up, Warner scores 22 runs off 13 balls from Shami. The Sunrisers are 52 for 0 in six overs.Enter Ravi Bishnoi. Exit Warner. Having reverse-swept a googly for four first ball, Warner aims another reverse-sweep off the second, but Bishnoi finds more turn and bounce. The ball flicks Warner’s glove and Rahul hangs on to a catch. Paul Reiffel, the on-field umpire, though shoots down the appeal, which Rahul reviews successfully to overturn the on-field not-out decision. Warner gone for a rapid 35.58 for 2
M Ashwin had harried Bairstow with googlies in his first two overs. Ashwin, like fellow legspinner Bishnoi, relishes bowling the googly more than the legbreak. It was the same variation that impressed Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni so much that they shelled out INR 4.5 crore in the 2016 auction to get him on board at the Rising Pune Supergiant.In the past couple of seasons, Ashwin has got the googly to skid off the pitch. Bairstow is ready for the googly in Ashwin’s third over. He shapes to sweep with the break through square leg. However, Ashwin gets a legbreak to drift into Bairstow and bowls him around his legs.ESPNcricinfo Ltd67 for 3
Manish Pandey is taking his time to settle as the Dubai pitch is slowing down. Abdul Samad is promoted to No.4 to perhaps target the bowlers and shorter boundaries. Or perhaps the Sunrisers just don’t want to risk Vijay Shankar, who had hurt his thumb in the field, in a small chase. Shankar had suffered back spasms earlier in the tournament as well.Rahul searches for another breakthrough and brings back Shami. The Kings XI’s main bowler will finish his quota by the ninth over. Another batsman may have opted to see Shami off, but Samad is a six-hitter, and that’s why he has been picked ahead of Abhishek Sharma.Shami pitches it right in the slot, but Samad doesn’t quite get underneath the length and feebly chips it to mid-off, where Chris Jordan pouches the overhead catch. The Kings XI start to believe.100 for 4
Pandey and Shankar threaten to close out a second successive chase. They work past the early blows by dropping the ball into the gaps. Pandey, in particular, struggles to read Bishnoi’s googly and so once Jordan comes back, he looks to chance his arm. He swishes at a leg-side full-toss and misses.Jordan then shifts his line outside off, but overpitches it. Pandey, like Samad, doesn’t quite get under it, and chips it in the air. J Suchith, the sub fielder, tears across to his right, and plucks a catch out of thin air in front of the Kings XI dugout.In the 2017 IPL final, Suchith had ran out Washington Sundar off the last ball as a sub fielder to seal a one-run win for the Mumbai Indians. Pandey’s grab will turn out to be a match-winning fielding effort as well.Ravi Bishnoi, M Ashwin and Chris Jordan are all smiles•BCCIThe Sunrisers need 27 off 23 balls.110 for 5
All of the Sunrisers’ hopes are on Shankar. He had lined up his Tamil Nadu team-mate Ashwin and driven him straight for a brace of fours. Then, there was a languid lofted drive over mid-off for four off Jordan. After that boundary, the Sunrisers need only 20 off 18 balls. At that stage, ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster pegged Kings XI’s chances at a mere 5.47%.Jason Holder jabs Arshdeep Singh to point and Shankar responds for the single, taking on Nicholas Pooran’s arm. Pooran misses the stumps, but Shankar cops a nasty blow on the grille of his helmet as the ball skids off the turf and bounces extra. After the Sunrisers’ medical staff tend to Shankar, he composes himself and signals that he’s ready to bat on.Shankar wants to finish back-to-back games for the Sunrisers. He expects a short delivery and ventures leg side, hoping to manipulate the gap between backward point and short third man. Singh keeps it short, but it’s an off-pace cutter that grips and has Shankar edging behind to Rahul.It comes down to the Sunrisers needing 17 off 12 balls.112 for 6
Jordan v Holder. The Kings XI’s seniors Rahul, Chris Gayle, Glenn Maxwell, and Pooran are all part of an intense discussion with Jordan. He will be bowling into Big Jase from over the wicket, with the leg-side boundary being the shorter one. Arshdeep will have the cushion of bowling of the last over, with the leg-side boundary being the bigger one.Jordan brings him with him the reputation of being a bonafide death bowler for England, but he hasn’t quite had his IPL moment. Super Over against the Mumbai Indians could’ve gone awry for him if not for Mayank Agarwal’s stunning save at the boundary.BCCIAgarwal is out injured now, but Jordan has a chance to stamp his authority on the IPL. His first ball is a middle-stump yorker and Holder stabs it down to long-on for one. Priyam Garg squeezes a single off the second to bring Holder back on strike. Jordan’s plan is simple: hide the ball away from Holder’s reach and deny him access to the shorter leg-side fence. Jordan executes his plan and has Holder carving a catch to Mandeep Singh at extra-cover.Mandeep had lost his father on Friday evening, but here he is stepping up under pressure for the Kings XI.112 for 7
The Sunrisers need 15 off nine balls. They need more magic from Rashid Khan after he had ripped out Rahul with a perfect wrong’un earlier in the evening. Jordan goes wide of off once again, and Khan only scythes it straight to Pooran at sweeper cover for a golden duck. Double-wicket penultimate over. Four years after having been yanked out of Sky Sports’ panel of IPL analysts as a late replacement for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Jordan has his IPL moment. It’s panic stations for the Sunrisers.114 for 8
Arshdeep has 13 to defend to pull off a coup. He has only played three first-class and 18 white-ball games for Punjab in domestic cricket. He is up against Sandeep Sharma, his senior state mate, who is Sunrisers’ swing bowler in the IPL. Sunrisers need him to swing with the bat now. Arshdeep, however, digs in an offcutter and has Sharma splicing a pull to midwicket.114 for 9
Garg has crossed over and the Sunrisers need 13 off four balls. He’s probably wondering how it came down to this? Arshdeep digs in another cutter at off stump and dares Garg to manufacture pace for himself. However, the batsman is cramped for room and only drags it to long-on, where Jordan runs in, dives forward, and snaps up another smart catch.114 all out
With the game up, Arshdeep gets another cutter to stick in the pitch, drawing a weak push from No.11 Khaleel Ahmed to point. Ahmed simply dawdles for the single and is emphatically beaten by a direct hit from Bishnoi. It raises his coach Anil Kumble off his seat and even has him applauding animatedly.

****

From having lost games from seemingly winning positions, the Kings XI pulled off a great escape to secure their fourth victory in a row, boosting their playoffs chances. As for the Sunrisers, they’re still not out yet, but how will they recover from such a cataclysmic collapse?

And who opens with David Warner? Our panelists put their heads together to pick a powerhouse combined XI from the two sides

Sreshth Shah16-Dec-2020With India and Australia set to face off for the first Test of their series this week, this time on Dream Team we’re picking the best current Test XI from the two teams. Australia and India are the top two teams in the World Test Championship rankings, and so we’re looking to pick a team that can beat the rest of the world in a one-off Test if played today. Which country will have more players in the XI? What’s the best combination? Our panelists, Raunak Kapoor, Andrew McGlashan, Shamya Dasgupta and Shashank Kishore have a crack at it.The openers: Warner… and who?
Neither team has had set openers, with both units trying different combinations over the last 18 months. David Warner has not had a regular partner, and the India openers, Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma and Prithvi Shaw have shown sparks of brilliance but still have a lot to prove. Will the panelists go with one of the these choices, or will they shoehorn in a makeshift opener from all the brilliant middle-order options that both teams have?Plenty of pace options, but no space for all
Six quicks stand out. Australia have Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. India have Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma. But not all can make it. Who misses out? Which combination provides the most variety? Three fast bowlers or four?What does the middle order look like?
Virat Kohli and Steven Smith are two of Test cricket’s greats. Cheteshwar Pujara can really get stuck in. Marnus Labuschagne has been the most prolific Test batsman since his debut. At first glance, all four should make it to the XI but it also means Nos. 3 to 6 are full up, leaving no space for a wicketkeeper and allrounder. Will the panelists sacrifice one of them? Or will they find a solution to play all four while also making a perfectly balanced XI?

No batsman has made as many 50-plus scores after 99 Tests as Root has, while his average in Asia is among the best for an England batsman

S Rajesh03-Feb-2021Any mention of Joe Root invariably, and quite unfairly, draws up comparisons with Steven Smith, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson, the other members of the group which, most pundits agree, represents the cream of the batting talent over the last 10 years. The comparisons are, invariably again, not flattering towards Root – “very good player, but not in the league of the other three.”In the process, we might tend to forget how good Root actually is: 8249 runs in 99 Tests at an average of 49.39 aren’t numbers to be taken lightly. They are a tad below those of Smith, Kohli and Williamson, but by any other yardstick, they are terrific. Not many batsmen from England have achieved the longevity success that Root has.ESPNcricinfo LtdAmong the seven England batsmen who have topped 8000 runs, Root’s average is the highest; Geoff Boycott’s 47.72 is second. Even with a 5000-run cut-off, only five batsmen have a higher average, and the most recent of those batsmen, Ken Barrington, retired in 1968. (The other four are Jack Hobbs, Wally Hammond, Len Hutton, and Denis Compton.)ESPNcricinfo LtdThat means Root is easily one of England’s best batsmen in the last 50 years. Among those who scored 4000 or more runs since January 1970 – 23 batsmen make this list – only one, Boycott, has a higher average. And among the England players who have played 100-plus Tests, none had scored as many runs after 99 matches as Root has; the next-best is Kevin Pietersen’s 7887. Root belongs in the pantheon of all-time great England batsmen, and he will further consolidate that position by the time he is finished with Test cricket.ESPNcricinfo LtdConquering Asia
Root’s phenomenal series in Sri Lanka last month, which fetched him 426 runs in four innings, lifted his average in Asia by more than eight runs – from an already-impressive 46.07 to 54.13. His 1624 runs is next only to Alastair Cook’s 2710 for England batsmen in Asia, while David Gower (1138 runs at 56.90) is the only England batsman to score 1000-plus runs in Asia at a higher average.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the series in Sri Lanka, Root scored 426 out of the 960 runs scored by all the England batsmen; the percentage of 44.4 is the fifth-highest for any batsman in a series of two or more Tests. The feature of his batting in the series was his excellence against spin: he scored 381 of his 426 runs against them and was dismissed just twice, for an average of 190.5 and a strike rate of 69.9; all the other England batsmen collectively scored 451 runs against Sri Lanka’s spinners and were dismissed 20 times – average 22.55, strike rate 45.4.In fact, Root scored 200 runs off Lasith Embuldeniya, Sri Lanka’s premier spinner in the series, without being dismissed, which was only the second instance in the last 20 years of a batsman scoring 200-plus runs off a bowler in a series without being dismissed. The first was Rahul Dravid against Stuart MacGill in the 2003-04 series in Australia.ESPNcricinfo LtdBefore this series, Root averaged 44.52 against spin in Asia; his stunning returns in Sri Lanka have boosted that average to 57.21. He is one of only nine batsmen to score 1000-plus runs against spin in Asia since the start of 2002, and his average is second to Jacques Kallis’ 59.10, among these nine.Piling on the fifties
Root has made 68 scores of 50 or more, the most by any batsman after 99 Tests. Sunil Gavaskar had 66 such scores at the same stage in his career, which is the next best. Brian Lara had 64, Sachin Tendulkar and Dravid had 63 each, and Kallis had 62. In terms of innings per hundred, Root’s rate of 2.66 is fifth, ahead of such luminaries like Kallis, Lara, Kumar Sangakkara and Ricky Ponting.ESPNcricinfo LtdEven when compared with his contemporaries, Root is up there in terms of getting half-centuries frequently: among the 14 batsmen with 4000-plus runs since his debut, Root’s rate of 2.7 innings per 50-plus score is next only to Smith and Williamson (2.3), and marginally better than Kohli (2.9).ESPNcricinfo LtdScoring fifties has never been an issue for Root; his problem has always been converting those starts into hundreds. While no batsman has made more 50-plus after 99 Tests, 29 have made more centuries than Root’s 19. Gavaskar had two fewer 50-plus innings after 99 Tests, but he had piled up 30 hundreds, 11 more than Root’s tally.ESPNcricinfo LtdAmong the seven elite batsmen with 5000 or more runs since his debut, Root is at No. 3 in terms of frequency of going past 50, but in terms of the ratio of centuries to fifties, his ratio of 0.39 is poor, especially when compared to the top names in this list: Kohli has an incredible ratio of 1.39 (25 hundreds, 18 fifties), while for Smith and Williamson the ratios are 0.93 and 0.78.The importance of Root’s hundreds to England’s cause is further gleaned from the fact that England have never lost a Test when he has scored a century: in those 19 matches, England have won 15 and drawn four. In matches when he has scored merely a half-century and not a hundred, England have won 18, lost 18, and drawn seven.Troubles at home, but solid abroad
Apart from the recent series against Sri Lanka, the last three years have been tough for Root – he has averaged only 44.08 in this period in 35 Tests. This prolonged lean run has seen him fall to the periphery in discussions around the best current batsmen, especially because the other three protagonists in this debate have had wonderful runs: Williamson averages 67.89 in this period, Smith 55.92 and Kohli 52.56. That Root has still scored 639 more Test runs than any other batsman during this period shows just how skewed the Test schedules have been in this period.ESPNcricinfo LtdEven in these three lean years, Root’s stats away from home are terrific: he averages 53.90, with five centuries in 17 Tests (before the Sri Lanka series, he averaged 46.11 in 15 matches). At home, though, the numbers have fallen away drastically: in 18 Tests he has scored one century, and the average is 20 fewer than his away average. He has played the same number of innings home and away during this period – 32 each – but has scored 653 more runs in away games. These numbers contrast sharply with his home form before 2018: in 35 home Tests from 2013 to 2017, he scored 10 hundreds and averaged 59.46.Consequently, compared to the other members of the Fab Four, it is in the home stats component that Root suffers in a big way. His average of 50.55 is about 15 to 18 fewer than the home averages of Williamson, Smith and Kohli. In away Tests (including those in neutral venues), Root’s average of 48.16 is better than those of Williamson and Kohli.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn fact, Root has scored 500-plus runs at 50-plus averages in four continents – Asia, Africa, Americas (the Caribbean) and Europe (England). Only two other batsmen – Kallis and Barrington – have achieved this feat in Test history.Scoring them young
Just past his 30th birthday, which fell on December 30 last year, Root has already racked up 8249 Test runs. Only Cook and Tendulkar have higher aggregates before their 31st birthday.ESPNcricinfo LtdGiven the amount of Test cricket England play and Root’s general fitness – it has taken him only a little over eight years to play 100 Tests, and he has missed just two Tests since his debut – there is a fair chance that he will have a shot at Tendulkar’s Test aggregate of 15,921. It will help, obviously, if he can get over his recent slump in home Tests.

For nearly 80 overs of a fascinating contest, the visitors dug in and matched Australia blow for blow

Sidharth Monga17-Dec-20202:58

Moody: Kohli has mastered the art of batting in Australia

It is a shame that on a day of high-quality Test cricket, a run-out and what followed in the next half hour will be spoken about more than the persistent bowling in what were less-than-ideal conditions for the home side and the expert batting to counter them for close to 80 overs.The run-out, of course, could still have a decisive say in the Test, but this was a day when the engine room of the Indian batting rolled up its sleeve, got dirty and made sure the team didn’t throw away the advantage of winning the toss, never mind the three wickets lost for 45 runs towards stumps.In the first over of the Test, it was clear it would be hard work for Australia’s bowlers to take wickets. A genuine edge with the new ball didn’t carry to the slips. Not a single one would all day. However, it was also soon clear that scoring runs would be hard work, especially when overpitched straight deliveries were hit straight to midwicket or mid-on. It was a slow pitch with steep bounce on which the margin of error was perhaps more for bowlers than batsmen, but then again the edges wouldn’t just carry.India like scoring fast, Australia like nicking batsmen off. Neither was happening. So Australia shifted their attack straighter, and relied more on Nathan Lyon than they would have liked on the first day. In Lyon’s sights was his nemesis, the twinkle-toed Cheteshwar Pujara, who had reduced the champion offspinner to uttering a mercy plea of “aren’t you bored yet?” on the last tour.Related

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At the sight of Lyon, Pujara, his characteristic phlegmatic self until then, on 21 off 104, began to jump out of his crease. He does so not out of some arrogance but out of the need to not let Lyon bowl lengths that draw forward-defensive shots. It is the most dangerous place to be in when Lyon is bowling because he will keep hitting the splice of the bat and eventually get either of the edges. And while it might look risky to some, Pujara can step out to spinners because that is a skill that has been honed over hundreds of hours of spin faced. He backs himself to judge the length and reach the pitch of the ball or get outside the line and thrust the pad should he be beaten in the flight.On the last tour, especially in the pivotal first Test, Lyon had missed a trick by not placing a silly point or a silly mid-off, which allowed Pujara to keep thrusting his pad or kicking the ball away. Lyon had remarked then that it was a fair plan against him, and now he needed to respond.Lyon might not have been able to respond emphatically during that series, but here he had a plan: the silly mid-off. Now Pujara had two catchers to contend with if he stepped out. He even offered a half chance early to that silly mid-off. Forced to play to leg now, he got more inside edges than he usually does, but he kept backing himself. In fact, he stepped out to 14 balls out of 35 he faced from Lyon. At 40%, this rate was significantly higher than his usual 17%.Lyon kept getting bounce, asking tough questions, but Pujara was not in control of only three of the 14 balls he stepped out to. More importantly, he was quick to cash in whenever he forced Lyon to pitch short. Eventually, Lyon was good enough to draw the dreaded forward-defensive out of Pujara. One of those four dipped enough to land out of his reach and take the inside edge onto the pad. Lyon just believes in bowling the hardest-spun offbreaks that draw batsmen forward and play a little with field placements. “That’s what works in Australia,” he said the last time.Virat Kohli lunges forward•Getty ImagesPujara spoke of Lyon with respect at the end of the day: “Just the revs he gets in each and every ball, he likes to bowl. He wants to bowl as many overs as possible. That is another advantage which he has. And his line and length is really good, which has improved a lot I feel. His revs are much better than they were four to five years ago. He likes taking the challenge on. He is someone who enjoys his bowling.”Surely this is not the last we have seen of this fascinating contest, but unfortunately – for cricket lovers, not the Kohli family – we are close to seeing the last of a modern master for this tour. Virat Kohli seamlessly switched to Test mode after months and months of limited-overs batting. He came in with no match-time preparation – it wasn’t physically possible for him to play all the limited-overs cricket, then the warm-up game, and then be fully intense for the Tests – but you couldn’t tell that from the way he batted.There was a time when Kohli’s response to testing spells used to be counterattack. Now, though, Kohli is so sure of his game and confident of others that he knows the exact response for different match situations. And like the No. 4 before him, Kohli is adept at shelving shots or introducing uncharacteristic ones on the go.Cheteshwar Pujara plays one off the back foot•Getty ImagesKohli played just two cover drives to pace, presumably because of the steep bounce. Accordingly he also cut down on the defensive push outside off, which meant he was not getting dragged across, thus lining up the lbw balls better. The trade-off was strike rate: this was his second-slowest fifty in Test cricket but he had done his best to eliminate the two dismissals that teams often attempt against him.To make up a bit, he lofted Lyon only the third ball he faced from the spinner, a shot he is loath to play in Tests lest he give the bowler a chance. He also drove Lyon against the turn even though he usually uses the traditional method of playing with the spin in Tests.In those regards, this was a better innings than, say, Edgbaston, because here he actually eliminated all the risk, which wasn’t the case in Birmingham as was apparent from the edges that didn’t go to hand and the catches that were dropped. Then again, there was less sideways movement to deal with here.In the end, as he looked set to end the century drought, Kohli fell because he stuck to his guns. He likes the quick singles to deny the bowlers a prolonged go at one batsman. Earlier in the day, he saw Pujara deny him one such single. Then Ajinkya Rahane had to put in a dive to make another. Even during the run-out, Kohli did nothing wrong: he trusted his partner as opposed to ball-watching and committed to the run fully. It was just that Rahane had hit the ball a little too well and close to the fielder. It is an error that happens once in a while, and will probably happen more frequently if you rely on these quick singles. The merits of such a strategy can be argued, but not of the rest of Kohli’s innings.If this is the best we get to see of Kohli this series, he has set the bar pretty high already.

The first female chief of the Professional Cricketers’ Association in England talks about her new role, and what’s worrying her about the global women’s game

Matt Roller08-Mar-2021English women’s cricket is in a transitional phase. Forty-one players signed professional terms last year as part of a revamped domestic structure, joining the centrally contracted England players in becoming full-time athletes. With a full schedule of regional fixtures due to be staged this summer, the women’s game has never been on a stronger footing nationwide.Charlotte Edwards’ appointment as the new president of the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) is well-timed. Edwards realised when she was approached to take on the role – first by Isa Guha, a PCA board member and her former team-mate, then by chief executive Rob Lynch – that she was better placed than anyone else to help the players union’s new members transition from amateur to professional status.Edwards’ playing career spanned a period in which women’s cricket changed markedly. When she made her England debut in 1996, she paid for her own blazer and wore a skirt; in her final international appearance, some 20 years later, she was playing in a team of full-time professionals under the gaze of the world’s media in Delhi. And she is aware of the scrutiny that professionalism brings, after the dramatic circumstances of her own international retirement five years ago.”We’ve been PCA members for ten years,” Edwards told ESPNcricinfo. “I joined as a player in 2011, three years before we became full-time professionals. I really do feel there’s been a shift: they want to be really inclusive now, and they really want to support the women’s game. There were challenges when I became a professional and hopefully I can share some of those experiences with this group of players and with the PCA, for them to understand what support we can give them.”Edwards highlights three main areas in which she wants to “be really active” in her role as president: helping the professional game navigate the choppy waters of the Covid-19 pandemic and its financial implications; involvement in the Professional Cricketers’ Trust and its fundraising activities; and assisting the women’s game in its shift towards fully professional status, helped by the formation of a new PCA women’s player committee, which was ratified at the same time as her presidency. The third of those, she said, “is probably where my specialism lies”.Related

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On top of her own first-hand experiences as a player, Edwards has been involved with the Southern Vipers since their inception in 2016, initially as a captain and later as director of cricket and head coach, and she has seen the strides made by their five new professionals over the winter. In particular, she acknowledged that in a regional set-up that remains semi-professional, players will respond differently to the challenges involved.”There’s pressure with the contracts,” she said. “Suddenly, it’s these players’ livelihood, and that affects people in different ways, as I’ve seen with my own eyes. With only five contracts [per regional hub], we’ve got an enormous talent pool in this country and there is going to be huge competition for places.”There are 17 centrally contracted England women’s players, who train full-time, like their male counterparts. The ECB awarded domestic contracts to 41 players in December 2020: five at each regional hub, plus a sixth contracted player at the Western Storm. Some players on domestic contracts have continued to work part-time elsewhere as they are contracted for 15 hours a week at their regional hubs.”Players have a platform to perform now. If Georgia Adams, for example, has another brilliant start to the summer, it would be hard [for England] to ignore her sheer weight of runs. I’ve seen the Vipers players kick on enormously over the last six months that we’ve been working with them. If that happens around the country, we’ll have a pool of 40 or 50 players that can firstly make our domestic competition very strong, but equally mean there’s a bigger pool to pick from for England.”There will be players from the England team dropping down onto regional contracts at some stage too. Without doubt, this regional structure is going to create competition now, which is a good thing for English cricket, but we’ve got to make sure that we support the players as much as we possibly can.”But outside of England, Edwards is concerned about the state of the women’s game. This time last year, she was working as a broadcaster at the T20 World Cup and watched a record crowd of 86,174 attend the final at the MCG on International Women’s Day; 12 months down the line, she feels that too few boards have stumped up the required investment to convert that landmark moment into something more tangible.”We’ll have a pool of 40 or 50 players that can firstly make our domestic competition very strong, but equally mean there’s a bigger pool to pick from for England”•Nathan Stirk/Getty Images”It’s hard to think that was 12 months ago,” she said. “This is a perfect opportunity for some of these boards to show how serious they are about women’s cricket. The standard of international cricket is a massive concern: there are two or three teams that are really going away from the pack at the moment, and that gap will only be closed if these countries invest in women’s cricket and put the resources around the teams in place.”I think the ECB have really set the standard, and Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket are clearly alongside them. The worrying thing for me is the likes of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – they just haven’t played any international cricket in 12 months, which can’t be good. A team like India – their male counterparts have played in so many series in that time, so there needs to be some balance there, really.”With a World Cup 12 months away and a Commonwealth Games 18 months away, that really needs to be a priority for them. They need to invest money in their women’s programmes or nothing will change.”In particular, Edwards highlighted the example of West Indies, whose sloppiness in the field and with tactics during their 5-0 defeat in their T20I series against England last September spoke of their recent stagnation.”They won the World Cup in 2016, and in many ways they’ve gone backwards since then. It’s really sad to see. They lit up that World Cup and then it was wonderful to see the public get behind them in their home tournament in 2018. But they just don’t seem to have invested: it’s still the same crop of players who are getting a lot older now.”That comes down to investment in grassroots and in pathways. It’s similar with New Zealand: they don’t seem to have those young players coming through that are competing. England have dominated them in many ways and that is a concern. We want international cricket to be really competitive, and I’m not seeing enough competitive cricket at that level at the moment.”Perhaps the true test will come next year. In the space of 12 months, from March 2022 to February 2023, World Cups will be staged in both ODI and T20I cricket, with a Commonwealth Games in between for good measure. It is not simply because she is a former England captain that Edwards hopes Australia do not blow everyone else away.”You just hope the boards get behind it, really invest, and that we see the best of the women’s game with lots of different countries competing to a high standard. We know that when it’s at its best, it’s a great product and it’s fantastic to watch.”

Southern Brave beat them to the title, but Birmingham Phoenix are the best-represented team in our selection

Matt Roller22-Aug-2021Quinton de Kock: Southern Brave, wicketkeeper

Two fifties in eight innings represents a lean return by his high standards, but de Kock set the tone for Brave at the top of the order, regularly getting them off to flying starts in the powerplay. Although he failed in both knockout games, he made crucial unbeaten half-centuries in must-win group matches against the Welsh Fire and the Northern Superchargers. There were also some moments of genius with the gloves, notably his sprawling one-handed take off Josh Inglis and a direct-hit run-out at the death, both against the London Spirit at Lord’s.Ben Duckett: Welsh Fire

Form tailed off as captaincy took its toll, but Duckett led the run charts for most of the group stages, starting the tournament with scores of 41, 53, 32 and 65. He has been developing into a fine white-ball player – and has looked particularly assured against spin when sweeping and reverse-sweeping – and has been timing the ball sweetly through midwicket from a good length. Duckett largely batted at No. 3 in the tournament, but shuffled up in the team due to a middle-order logjam.Related

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Moeen Ali, captain: Birmingham Phoenix

Moeen was at his clean-swinging best against spin during Phoenix’s four-match winning streak at Edgbaston, encapsulated by his demolition of Fire’s Graeme White during a knock of 59 from 28 balls. He captained well too, galvanising a young squad and setting a charge to the final in motion before leaving for England Test duty. However, another switch in formats meant he looked uncharacteristically scratchy in the final.Liam Livingstone: Birmingham Phoenix

Shane Warne dubbed Livingstone ‘The Beast’ during his 46 off 19 balls in Saturday’s final, and James Vince, the opposition captain, joked that his eventual run-out was the only mode of dismissal in play given his form in the Hundred. Livingstone finished the tournament with 27 sixes, a dozen more than anyone else, and his performances on free-to-air TV have turned him into one of the best-known active cricketers in the country in a matter of weeks. He also chipped in with the ball, and won both games as stand-in captain while Moeen was away.The men’s Hundred team of the tournament•ESPNcricinfo LtdHarry Brook: Northern Superchargers

Brook missed the Superchargers’ final two group games after contracting Covid-19, but made enough of an impression in his five innings for global franchises to be on high alert. He took his T20 Blast form into the Hundred with 62 off 31 in their opening game, and saw them home in a tight chase against the Oval Invincibles with 47* off 30. Overall, Brook was seen to be generating remarkable power from a snap of the wrists.Samit Patel: Trent Rockets

Patel missed out in the initial draft two years ago – “it served me right for setting a base price,” he joked – but was snapped up in the re-draft and turned out to be a key performer in the Rockets’ run to the eliminator. He took key wickets in the powerplay, squeezed hard through the middle and made crucial runs from the middle order. Although his England days are long gone at 36, Patel still remains a high-quality allrounder.Benny Howell: Birmingham Phoenix

Howell looked unhittable in the Blast for a number of years, but plenty doubted whether he would be able to back those performances up in a tournament where the best talent was condensed. But a runs-per-ball rate of 1.20 across the season provided an emphatic answer, and he was Phoenix’s main man during the middle stages of an innings. It was unfortunate that Howell’s only off-night came in the final.Rashid Khan: Trent Rockets

More expensive than usual, but Rashid was still a trump card, taking key scalps in the middle of an innings and finishing as the joint-highest wicket-taker in a four-way tie. He single-handedly changed the game in the Rockets’ must-win encounter against the Manchester Originals in their final group game, even while dealing with the grief and dislocation caused by the worsening crisis at home in Afghanistan. Rashid still eventually ended up edging out Adil Rashid after taking the Rockets into the eliminator.Tymal Mills and Jake Lintott both grabbed wickets at a really low runs per ball•Getty ImagesAdam Milne: Birmingham Phoenix

It beggars belief that Milne is only a travelling reserve for New Zealand’s T20 World Cup squad. He was a cheat code in the Hundred, the only bowler to concede less than a run a ball despite bowling at 94mph or 151kph in the powerplay as well as at the death. That accuracy included Milne nipping the new ball off the seam and nailing yorkers at the death. Also, his caught-and-bowled off Ravi Bopara in the Phoenix’s opening game was a contender for catch of the tournament.Tymal Mills: Southern Brave

Mills was challenged by Eoin Morgan to pitch “a really strong case” for T20 World Cup selection through the Hundred, and responded emphatically. Nerveless at the death, particularly when closing out a tight win against Morgan’s own Spirit, he took 4 for 21 in 36 balls across Brave’s two knockout games. Mills also consistently hit 91mph or 147kph, leaving batters unable to sit deep and set themselves for his repertoire of slower balls.Jake Lintott: Southern Brave

Lintott was Brave’s wildcard pick two months ago, and ended up as their leading wicket-taker despite their stock of England seamers. The left-arm wristspinner claimed some huge scalps in the middle phase and bowled tightly, generally trying to cramp batters for room and pushing googlies across right-handers. Lintott had played only four professional games at the time of the initial draft, but Warwickshire took a punt on him aged 27 last summer, with his stunning rise continuing in the Hundred.

All the stats and numbers from the high-scoring game in Abu Dhabi.

Sampath Bandarupalli03-Oct-20213:51

Deep Dasgupta: Yashasvi Jaiswal has figured out his go-to shots

15 – Number of balls remaining when Rajasthan Royals reached the target. Only one team in the IPL had successfully chased down a 190-plus target with more balls to spare – Mumbai Indians. They needed only 14.4 overs while chasing 190 against Royals in 2014, and they defeated Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) with 27 balls to spare during a 199-run chase in 2017. Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) also won with 15 balls to spare in pursuit of a 209-run target against Gujarat Lions in 2017.19 – Number of balls needed for Yashasvi Jaiswal to complete his fifty, the second-fastest by an uncapped player in the IPL. Ishan Kishan’s 17-ball effort against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2018 remains the fastest fifty by an uncapped player.

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1 – Number of IPL fifties for Royals coming quicker than Jaiswal’s 19-ball effort. Jos Buttler holds the record with his fifty off 18 balls against Delhi Daredevils in 2018. Jaiswal’s fifty is also the joint-second fastest IPL fifty against Chennai Super Kings, behind Kieron Pollard’s 17-ball fifty during the first half of this edition.81 – Runs scored by Royals during the powerplay, the most by the side in an IPL game. Their previous highest was 73 runs against Deccan Chargers in 2008. These are also the most runs in a powerplay against Super Kings in the IPL. Mumbai Indians’ 78 runs in 2008 was the previous most conceded by Super Kings during the powerplay overs.1 – Royals’ 81 runs is the most any team has scored in an IPL powerplay in the matches hosted in UAE. It is also the highest powerplay total in the IPL since Mumbai Indians’ 84 runs against Daredevils in 2018, also involving Evin Lewis.4.5 – Jaiswal completed his fifty within 4.5 overs of Royals’ innings. Only seven players before him have reached a fifty in the IPL by this stage. It is the second quickest (in terms of overs) by a Royals player. Buttler got to his fifty against Daredevils in 2018 in the first ball of the fifth over.1 – Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 101 was the first in the IPL for Super Kings when a century went in vain. All the previous eight IPL hundreds recorded by the team’s players came in wins. It is also the first century for Super Kings since Shane Watson’s unbeaten hundred in the final of the 2018 season.