Shoriful Islam, Haider Ali, Jayden Seales and Ravi Bishnoi, among others, are making their presence felt in senior cricket

Sreshth Shah14-Jan-2022AustraliaAttacking legspinner Tanveer Sangha has developed into a mainstay at his BBL side Sydney Thunder and domestic side New South Wales. He has even been part of multiple T20I squads for Australia, including the one that was scheduled to play in South Africa, a tour that was cancelled because of Covid-19, while he did not get a start in New Zealand. His T20I call-ups were on the back of the 2020-21 BBL season, where he was the leading wicket-taker among spinners.BangladeshShoriful Islam, the left-arm seamer, is now a regular member of the senior side. His variation-packed bowling has made him a go-to death-overs bowler, and he has contributed to series wins at home against Sri Lanka (ODIs), New Zealand and Australia (both T20Is).Related

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After an underwhelming T20 World Cup in the UAE, he went to New Zealand and did his bit in Bangladesh’s historic Test victory in Mount Maunganui with his first-innings wickets of Tom Latham, Ross Taylor and Rachin Ravindra.In the same Test, Mahmudul Hasan Joy was one of the chief contributors with the bat. After his impressive performance – 376 runs at 41.77 – in the National Cricket League, Bangladesh’s premier first-class tournament, Joy made his Test debut against Pakistan in Dhaka. He was dismissed for 0 and 6 but in Mount Maunganui, his 78 in the first innings helped Bangladesh take a substantial lead.Batting allrounder Shamim Hossain smacked 60 runs off 28 balls in two innings as a lower-order finisher in his debut T20I series in Zimbabwe. Bangladesh tried to harness his potential in the run-up to the T20 World Cup, with games against Australia and New Zealand at home, and despite single-digit scores in all those outings, they picked him for the World Cup. He played two games there, scoring 11 off 20 against South Africa and 19 off 18 against Australia.Yashasvi Jaiswal was retained by his IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals, ahead of the 2022 auction•BCCIIndiaRavi Bishnoi, the highest wicket-taker at the 2020 World Cup, earned a handsome IPL contract with Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) soon after the tournament. His quick-arm action, and excellent googly, has made him a difficult bowler to score off. In 23 IPL games, he has an economy rate of 6.96 and is expected to earn good money at the mega auction before the 2022 season.Yashasvi Jaiswal, the Player of the Tournament in 2020, had a lukewarm step up to the IPL with Rajasthan Royals, but despite that the opener got to play regularly through the last two seasons. Seeing his potential, Royals named him as one of three retained players ahead of the next auction. He has also become a regular in Mumbai’s domestic white-ball sides.PakistanSoon after the World Cup, Haider Ali became the youngest to score a fifty in the PSL representing Peshawar Zalmi. He then travelled to England and made his T20I debut in style, with another fifty. An ODI debut followed against Zimbabwe, and in domestic cricket, he has piled on the runs representing Northern, including hitting a double-century. He has played on away T20I tours in New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, and most recently scored his highest T20I score of 68 against West Indies.Haider Ali struck a half-century on his T20I debut•Getty ImagesMohammad Wasim, the fast-bowling allrounder, came into national prominence after a stunning run for Islamabad United in PSL 2021. That led to him going to the West Indies, where he made his T20I debut in a rain-affected series, and later to the T20 World Cup. Although he did not get a game there, he took five wickets in three T20Is in Bangladesh and followed it up with eight wickets in three T20Is against West Indies at home. Last week, he was named the Emerging Player of the Year at the 2021 PCB awards.Mohammad Huraira was Player of the Match in the highly anticipated Afghanistan vs Pakistan game at the 2020 World Cup. After going under the radar for most of the last two years, there was interest in him last month, when he struck a triple century in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, becoming the second-youngest Pakistani after Javed Miandad to do so in first-class cricket. What stood out most in that knock was his strike rate of 90.67.West IndiesFast bowler Jayden Seales had an excellent start to his international career with the wicket of Keegan Petersen in his very first over in Test cricket in June 2021. Then, when Pakistan toured the Caribbean, he took a five-wicket haul in the second innings in a match-haul of eight wickets to take the Player of the Match award in West Indies’ win. That made him the youngest West Indian to take a Test five-for since Alf Valentine in 1950. He also played in the Lanka Premier League for eventual champions, Jaffna Kings, and was part of West Indies’ white-ball squads against Ireland in December.Jayden Seales dismissed Keegan Petersen in his first over in Test wicket•AFP/Getty ImagesZimbabweBoth middle-order batters Dion Myers and Wessley Madhevere, captain and vice-captain in 2020 respectively, are now regular members of the senior side in all formats.Madhevere has three half-centuries in ODIs and four in T20Is. He has also been used as a sixth-bowler in the white-ball formats. Myers made his international debut in all three formats in July 2021 against Bangladesh at home and has 13 international caps to his name.Batter Tadiwanashe Marumani has played three ODIs and 11 T20Is, but his returns have been below par.But allrounder Milton Shumba, meanwhile, is developing into a finisher in T20I cricket. His unbeaten scores of 46, 45 and 66 in the second half of 2021 against Ireland and Scotland makes him one of Zimbabwe’s brightest prospects.

Tall swing bowler who can bowl dry when needed, or a skiddy swing bowler who might test both edges but could go for runs?

Karthik Krishnaswamy08-Jan-2022Among the India seamers who’ve played at least 10 Tests since the start of 2018, they have the best averages in that period: 21.26 and 21.37.It’s a reflection of India’s fast-bowling depth that Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma haven’t featured in the first two Tests in South Africa, but even as they donned fluorescent bibs and watched their colleagues from afar, they would have known they might be required at some point.For at least one of them, that moment could come on Tuesday, when the decider begins in Cape Town. Mohammed Siraj may or may not have recovered by then from the hamstring strain he picked up in Johannesburg, and even if he has, India could look to freshen up their pace attack given the physical demands of playing back-to-back-to-back Tests with only three-day gaps (not accounting for the early finish at the Wanderers) between them.Related

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The last time India had such a short gap slotted in between away Tests before this tour was in England, where there was just a three-day gap scheduled between the third and fourth Tests. When the fourth Test began at The Oval, both Ishant and Mohammed Shami were out – Virat Kohli said at the toss that both had “niggles”, without going into further detail.Umesh came in for that Test match, and ended up as India’s most successful bowler in a come-from-behind win, picking up three wickets in each innings. It was a performance that showed just how far his bowling has come over the last few years.Nearly all of Umesh’s wickets at The Oval came about via unpredictable behaviour from a more-or-less predictable line. Delivered from the middle of the crease, his stock ball would typically angle inwards and land on or just outside off stump, while swinging away late to hold its line. Every now and again, though, he’d deliver something that came out of his hand looking like that stock outswinger, only with the seam wobbling by accident or design; the ball would end up either following its initial angle or nipping inwards.Neither the outswinger nor the in-ducker deviated extravagantly, usually, and each magnified the other’s threat. Joe Root, in the first innings, played for outswing and left a hint of a gap for the ball to nip back through. Craig Overton, on the final day, played for the initial angle, only for the ball to swing away with extra bounce and square him up to bowl him off the right elbow.It was the kind of smart, purposeful overseas Test-match performance that had been latent in Umesh for at least three years, but he’d only gotten scattered opportunities to show it. It’s hard to prove you’re no longer just a home-conditions specialist when you hardly ever play overseas.Umesh got that chance at The Oval because of the niggles that laid Shami and Ishant low, but it’s possible India might have left Ishant out anyway, after he’d endured a rare bad match at Headingley. It wasn’t just a bad match in terms of his figures – he went wicketless in England’s only innings, while conceding more than four runs an over – but also in terms of his rhythm, with the ball sprayed around as if he’d stepped into a time machine and gone back to 2011.Ishant Sharma prepares to bowl at the nets•AFP via Getty ImagesIshant’s lack of rhythm at Headingley may well have been an outcome of what had been an extended stop-start phase in his career. He had injured his ankle during a Ranji Trophy match in January 2020, and had looked unlikely to make India’s tour of New Zealand in late February, only to miraculously play the first Test – and take a five-wicket haul while jetlagged – before missing the second. Then, following a long period of inactivity in the early months of Covid-19, his 2020 IPL season ended early with a side strain, which also caused him to miss India’s 2020-21 tour of Australia.After recovering from that injury, Ishant had played all four home Tests against England – but only bowled 25 overs over the last three Tests, where the spinners did the bulk of the work. Then, in the closing stages of the World Test Championship final against New Zealand in June, he walked off the field after taking a blow to his finger while attempting to stop the ball in his follow-through.That stop-start phase hasn’t gone away. Since Headingley, Ishant has only played one of India’s five Tests, against New Zealand in Kanpur. Only those within the team environment will know whether he’s regained his rhythm fully or not.But you only need to go one Test back from Headingley to know how valuable Ishant can be when he’s on song. Jasprit Bumrah and Siraj may have delivered the most instantly recallable deliveries of that frenetic final day at Lord’s, but Ishant’s bowling was just as crucial. He picked up five wickets in the match, and his lbws of Haseeb Hameed and Jonny Bairstow in the second innings broke open England’s top order after Hameed and Root had seen out a tense hour of play. Those lbws were typical Ishant 2.0 dismissals: full balls swinging prodigiously into the right-hander.So who do India go for if they need one of Ishant or Umesh in Cape Town? The answer will depend heavily on conditions. Inconsistent bounce was a massive feature of the first two Tests of the series, and India were significantly disadvantaged in the second Test by a lack of height in their pace attack. Ishant is easily their tallest bowler, but his new-age avatar doesn’t necessarily thrive on hitting the deck and getting the ball up to throat height. He’s now more of a swing bowler, and, when in rhythm, an accurate throttler of batting line-ups.This may well suit India’s needs, though, given that batters traditionally worry more about sideways movement than bounce in Cape Town. This was certainly the case when India last played there in 2018, when Bhuvneshwar Kumar was their most dangerous bowler, and Vernon Philander was South Africa’s match-winner.So, assuming that both Ishant and Umesh are fit and in rhythm, it could come down to this: do India want a tall swing bowler who can bowl dry when needed, or a skiddy swing bowler who’s a little quicker and possibly a little likelier to test both edges of the bat, but could go for runs every now and then?

The opener’s assault against the fastest bowler in IPL 2022 changed the complexion of the game

Hemant Brar02-May-20222:40

Vettori: Gaikwad looks fearless against pace

Ruturaj Gaikwad doesn’t have the big frame of Kieron Pollard. Nor does he possess the bulging biceps of Andre Russell. He has a “six-pack” but he doesn’t muscle the ball. And on Sunday, against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he showed he need not, as he took down Umran Malik – the fastest bowler in IPL 2022 – with sheer timing.The pitch for the game in Pune was slightly on the slower side, but this being Gaikwad’s home ground, he knew that once he got his eye in, things would become easier.He started slowly. At the end of five overs, he was on a run-a-ball 18. After he reached 90, he slowed down again, scoring only nine runs off the last seven balls he faced. In between, though, he smashed 72 off 32 balls, his onslaught against Malik changing the complexion of the game.Related

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Chennai Super Kings were 47 for no loss after seven overs when Kane Williamson gave the ball to Malik. Most teams turn to their spinners to control the middle overs but Sunrisers rely on Malik’s pace. His 12 wickets are the most by a seamer in overs 7 to 16 this season.However, Gaikwad decided to take Malik on. On the fast bowler’s very first ball, he skipped down the track, and even though he didn’t get the timing right, he got enough on it to clear mid-off for a couple of runs.But then, as if a switch was flicked. Two balls later, Malik bowled one short outside off. Gaikwad stood tall and slapped him over covers for four. The next ball was fuller around off. Gaikwad wasn’t caught on the back foot. He planted his front foot forward and punched it over long-on for a six.Malik is an out-and-out fast bowler. He rarely bowls a slower one, but here he tried that variation too. Gaikwad was up to it, though, and dabbed it towards backward point with little fuss.Ruturaj Gaikwad holds the pose after hitting Umran Malik for a six over long-off•BCCIThe best was yet to come. In his next over, Malik bowled a 154kph thunderbolt – the fastest delivery of IPL 2022 yet – only for Gaikwad to drive it on the up towards long-on, where a misfield gifted him a boundary. That was followed by a top-edged four, which took him to a 34-ball half-century.Sunrisers were also handicapped by the absence of Washington Sundar, who once again hurt the webbing on his right hand while trying to prevent a boundary. T Natarajan too had a niggle, for which he was off the field for quite some time and, therefore, was allowed to bowl only towards the end of the innings.This resulted in Aiden Markram bowling to a well-set Gaikwad, who lined him up for back-to-back sixes. Gaikwad’s all-out attack meant despite Devon Conway languishing on 29 off 28 balls, Super Kings reached 100 inside 11 overs.Then came, arguably, the shot of the match. In the next over, the 12th of the innings, Malik pitched one fuller. Gaikwad took a short stride forward and extended his arms to drive it over mid-off. Such was the timing that the ball sailed all the way.In all, he took 33 off 13 balls against Malik, without playing a shot in anger. All he did was maintain his shape, and convert timing into power.”I thought the wicket was a little bit slow, and he provided the right pace [to bat against],” Gaikwad said of his attack against Malik. “So I just tried to put him under pressure right from his first over.”

“I don’t like to believe in form because in every game, you start from zero. Irrespective of whatever you have scored in the last game, you have to start again”Ruturaj Gaikwad

He eventually fell for 99 off 57 balls, and while Sunrisers did manage to pull things back somewhat at the death, his innings had already set up the win for Super Kings.This is Gaikwad’s third IPL season. In 2020, he had scores of 0, 5 and 0 in his first three outings before notching up three successive half-centuries. In 2021, he started with 5, 5 and 10 and still finished as the leading run-scorer for the season. This year, it was 0, 0 and 1 and now he has scores of 73 and 99 among his last four knocks.To outsiders, it might feel as if he has a magic wand to turn his form around. But the man himself had an even interesting take.”Personally, I don’t like to believe in form,” he told Star Sports, “because in every game, you start from zero. Irrespective of whatever you have scored in the last game, you have to start again. I believe in that, I believe in starting from zero in each and every game. That’s what has helped.”

The right captain, a blend of data and intangibles, and steering clear of bias – the recency or emotional kind

Gaurav Sundararaman05-Feb-20222:53

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It is IPL auction week and the umbrella term ‘auction dynamics’ will be thrown around a lot. But the most significant part of those dynamics is auction strategy. A good auction strategy translates into success – Delhi Capitals is a good recent example. After struggling during the first decade of the IPL, Capitals invested heavily in a strong and young Indian core during the 2018 mega auction, which helped them make the playoffs the last three seasons in a row. Similarly, Sunrisers Hyderabad believed in compiling a strong bowling attack, mostly Indian again, and that helped them be a contender for the playoffs. Multiple-time champions Chennai Super Kings have forever invested in experience and succeeded. What you do at the auction determines whether you will finish as a top-team consistently.We look at the key building blocks necessary to compile a strong squad at the auction.Leadership
Pick the captain. Then empower the captain. MS Dhoni believes that experience is a key ingredient to winning crunch situations, and he got a team that delivered that. There have been instances where franchises have chosen a team and then picked a leader.Force-fitting captaincy could be challenging. R Ashwin at Punjab Kings in 2018 and 2019, and Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith at Rajasthan Royals are some of the examples in recent years where players were bought at the auction and then given captaincy. Unlike Test cricket, T20 is not won purely on skill but on how certain decisions are taken dynamically. It is important to not be predictable and always be one step ahead of the opposition. Sometimes, making fewer obvious errors is good enough to prevail over an opposition, which a leader like Dhoni does repeatedly.MS Dhoni gestures to his team-mates•BCCILeadership in the IPL is not just about the results but it also involves dealing with many decision makers outside the cricketing ecosystem. This could mean picking a player in the squad for marketing purposes, convincing owners once the season begins on why a particular eleven has been selected, or backing a player who is not in form. In the case of some franchises, the captain has to answer to multiple decision-makers. In case the equations don’t match, the relationship is bound to break as it has happened on many previous occasions with multiple franchises.Avoiding bias
Bias is a huge factor in an auction. It could be recency or it could be emotional. It is human nature to favour one player over another, but it could pose a challenge at the auctions. One of the biggest challenges is to manage bias consciously, especially while dealing with high profile decision makers. We have seen enough evidence of recency bias being a huge failure. Almost every BBL recruit in the last few seasons has faltered at the IPL. Some recent examples include the Australian bunch of Ashton Turner, D’Arcy Short, Riley Meredith and Jhye Richardson. Similarly, a quickfire century before the auction could increase the price point by a few crores, but is it a smart buy? None of these buys have been very beneficial in the end.Related

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A neutral perspective to every pick based on a few metrics such as: how well the batter plays the googly? How is his first ten-ball strike rate? Can he play the sweep shot well? How does a bowler handle a wet ball? How many variations does a bowler have? These factors could go a long way. There needs to be a balancing act between using data and cricketing instincts/experience.The game has still not reached a stage where contextual sample sizes are enough for machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide an advantage. Trusting techniques and ability to counter certain situations are more vital than blindly going by strike rates, averages, economy rates or whether the player is on the list of highest run-getters/wicket-takers. Bowling with a wet ball in Wankhede in April is very different from bowling in Australia or the Caribbean. Once again, it is the scouts that need to relay the right info to the coaches, who in turn have to convince the person raising the paddle.Price Points
What would be the right price point for Shreyas Iyer?•BCCIIn a mini auction, one can understand that the options are very limited and hence prices are elevated due to a demand and supply mis-match. However, this mistake should not occur in a big auction, when one is building a squad. Spending 15-20 crores on one player is approximately 20% of the budget on one player. One player cannot win the league. Rashid Khan still does not have a T20 trophy to his name. Royal Challengers have faced the same challenges in previous season with lopsided budget spends, role wise.No algorithm/model will ever be able to predict the right cost at which a player is likely to go accurately. If they were to be followed, no team would complete even 50% of their budget since algorithms would not predict 15 crores for a Glenn Maxwell (Royal Challengers) or an 11 crore for Manish Pandey (Sunrisers). Hence, it is important to understand the maximum price points of a skillset/role from experience, and work around that. Shreyas Iyer for example could be a beneficiary of this price-point conundrum in the coming auction as franchises might frantically bid for him hoping that suddenly Iyer would have the captaincy skills of Dhoni, the batting skills of Virat Kohli and the power of a Kieron Pollard.Picking the right players
Skillset remains the primary filter while building a squad. Whilst there will always be a wishlist for every role, it is equally important to look at other factors apart from the playing strengths that might make a franchise a good fit for a player. Understanding where the player stands in terms of his goals and his role, is primary. For example Krunal Pandya is a capable allrounder, but does he perform at his best when his brother Hardik is in the team or would he be better if he is on his own? Understanding a player’s background is equally significant, and this is where a good scouting network comes handy.Venkatesh Iyer is pumped after his side’s victory•BCCIWhile owners and CEOs can take the money calls at the auction table, they need to be fed with the right information from the coaching staff, in which scouts should play an integral role – especially while picking uncapped Indian players. Take Kolkata Knight Riders, whose scouts identified Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer early. Now both players are part of the franchise’s core having been retained.Ditto with Mumbai Indians, who have one of the best scouting networks, comprising former international coaches, players and selectors. They picked the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and the Pandya brothers as uncapped talents, and then retained them (or right-to-matched them) subsequently. Scouts at Royal Challengers Bangalore even visit the families of potential buys they have identified from the trials to understand the culture and the environment they come from. In the end a happy player is a free player who can perform at his best.

All the statistical highlights from New Zealand’s innings win in Christchurch

Sampath Bandarupalli19-Feb-20221 Number of times South Africa lost a Test by a bigger margin in terms of innings than they one (an innings and 276 runs) against New Zealand in Christchurch. They lost against Australia by an innings and 360 runs in Johannesburg in 2002.ESPNcricinfo Ltd0 Instances of teams winning by a bigger margin in terms of an innings in Tests in the last ten years. There have been 75 innings victories in Tests in the ten-year period starting February 17, 2012 before the Christchurch Test and the previous biggest among them was by India against West Indies in Rajkot in 2018. India had won that Test by an innings and 272 runs. This win was also New Zealand’s third-biggest innings victory in the format.5 Number of wins for New Zealand against South Africa across 46 Test matches between them. The Christchurch triumph was also their first win in 17 Tests against South Africa since beating them in 2004 in Auckland, their first home Test win against them and also by an innings.206 Runs aggregated by South Africa in Christchurch, their second-lowest match-aggregate in a Test match since their readmission (where they got bowled out twice). Their lowest is 199 runs against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2018. The 206 runs are also the third-lowest aggregate for South Africa in a Test match in the last 100 years.ESPNcricinfo Ltd202 Wickets for Tim Southee in Test cricket at home, the most by any player for New Zealand. Southee eclipsed Richard Hadlee, who had 201 wickets across 43 Tests played in New Zealand.197 Runs conceded by New Zealand pacers while claiming all 20 wickets in Christchurch. Only four times have a team’s pace bowlers bagged all 20 wickets in a Test match while conceding fewer runs (excluding bowlers who bowl both pace and spin).ESPNcricinfo Ltd5 Matt Henry became only the fifth No. 11 batter to achieve a higher individual score than his opponent team’s batters in a Test match (where all 11 players batted twice). There has been only one other instance since 1900 – Zaheer Khan’s 75 against Bangladesh in 2004. Henry scored 58 not out in New Zealand’s first innings, while the highest score for South Africa was 41, by Temba Bavuma, in their second dig. Bavuma and Kyle Verreynne collectively scored 48 runs, the most for South Africa in this Test match, which is still less than Henry’s unbeaten 58.

Batters always know what’s coming when Boult takes the new ball. The problem is doing something about it

Matt Roller24-Jun-2022Zak Crawley knows what’s coming. Joe Root, at the non-striker’s end, knows what’s coming. Everyone in Headingley’s sell-out crowd knows what’s coming: the guy queuing at the bar, the steward facing the stands and the Yorkshire member who has drifted off in the afternoon sun. And none of them can do anything about it.Trent Boult is standing at the top of his mark and is about to bowl an inswinger. Crawley knows this, because he’s seen him shape balls away from the left-handed Alex Lees and into the right-handed Ollie Pope: the first kissed the top of off stump, the second ripped it out of the ground.He knows it because Kane Williamson has left cover wide open, with a vast gap between point and mid-off. He knows it because Boult has openly, brazenly gestured to Williamson, telling him that he is dragging Crawley across the crease. He knows it because he has offered no shot to three of the first four balls of the over, each of them outswingers, and defended the one that held its line. He knows it because, quite frankly, how couldn’t he?But Crawley has a problem. Twice already in this series, he has edged behind when Boult has bowled him a wobble-seam ball, or as he would call it, a “three-quarter” ball. He has scored 56 runs in the series and is averaging 27.21 after 23 Tests. As Chris Eigeman’s character says in Noah Baumbach’s film : “What I used to able to pass off as a bad summer could now potentially turn into a bad life.”Boult runs in and bowls an inswinger, perhaps the most inevitable inswinger he has ever bowled. It’s full, it’s straight, and it crashes into middle-and-leg stump, three-quarters of the way up. Crawley’s bat comes down at an angle as he shapes to drive him back down the ground, towards mid-on, and marches straight off towards the dressing room, bowled through the gate.It is the finishing touch on a stunning spell of new-ball bowling, the sort of unplayable, unmissable spell that only left-armers can produce: for Shaheen Shah Afridi in T20s and Mitchell Starc in ODIs, read Trent Boult in Tests. Since Boult’s Test debut, over a decade ago, he has bowled 72 batters, more than any other seamer.The scorecard is extraordinary: AZ Lees b Boult 4, Z Crawley b Boult 6, OJD Pope b Boult 5. Top-order batters are meant to be caught behind or lbw in Test cricket; England’s top three have all been bowled. They are 17 for 3 after 6.5 overs and Boult has 3 for 9, without needing anyone else – a wicketkeeper, a fielder, an umpire – to help him out. Of those nine runs, the first four came from an outside edge which burst through Daryl Mitchell’s hands at slip.That outside edge came from Lees, who lost his off stump three balls later. Boult had started just short of a good length, looking to test Lees’ judgment as to whether to play or leave, whether to attack or defend. He flashed hard at the second ball which flew high and fast to Mitchell, and through his fingers for four.Boult’s fifth ball was fuller, but still only a fraction full of a traditional good length. It angled in, jagged away past Lees’ outside edge as he presented a full face, and knocked back the top of his off stump. His celebrations – gently high-fiving his team-mates with a furrowed brow as if to suggest that this near-perfect outswinger at 86mph/138kph was nothing out of the ordinary – portrayed a man who knew there was more to come.Pope faced a diet of inswingers, clipping one off his pads for four but otherwise struggling with Boult’s high-strength cocktail of movement and accuracy at brisk pace. The ball immediately before his dismissal, Pope had jammed down late to cover the swing, pulling out of a punch into the off side; to the next, he came forward to drive, then looked around to see his off stump lying halfway to Tom Blundell after the ball had zipped back through the gate.Ollie Pope loses his off stump•Getty ImagesEngland’s response to Boult’s swing – in keeping with their new style – was to swing themselves. They hit six boundaries in the second half of his spell, taking 34 runs from his next four overs to leave him with surreal, unflattering figures of 8-2-43-3 when replaced by Tim Southee: it was neither subtle nor convincing, and by the time his spell was over, England were in a wreckage at 69 for 6.When he returned for a second spell, Jonny Bairstow and Jamie Overton had changed the game entirely. How different might the day have been if Bairstow’s French cut down to fine leg had hit the base of his leg stump, rather than skewing past it off the inside edge?In a series featuring four of the best seam bowlers of the last 20 years, Boult has been the standout. He is the leading wicket-taker on either side – that, after landing in London two-and-a-half days before the first Test, immediately after spearheading Rajasthan Royals’ attack as they reached the IPL final.”He’s world-class, isn’t he?” Daryl Mitchell said. “That spell up top showed how good he really is. It’s awesome to see him have some success. He’s obviously done seriously well with Rajasthan in the IPL and to see him come out here a few days later and dominate Test cricket is really cool.”Boult told last year that his gameplan has always been as simple as “trying to bring batsmen across the stumps, and then swing it in and try to hit them on the pads”. Batters always know what is coming when Boult takes the new ball. The problem is doing something about it.

The trio lit up the high-octane Velocity-Trailblazers clash with breath-taking strokes

Annesha Ghosh27-May-2022It didn’t matter if a wicket had fallen off the previous delivery. Kiran Navgire was going to muscle a first-ball six anyway.The uncapped Indian batter had already hit a record 35 sixes in seven innings in T20s this domestic season. On Thursday, in her maiden appearance in the Women’s T20 Challenge, she added four more of those to her tally with a blistering 34-ball 69 that included a 25-ball fifty, the fastest in the tournament’s history, and set up her side Velocity’s entry into the final.”The way she batted, she took the final dream away from us,” Smriti Mandhana, the opposition captain, said after the 27-year-old Navgire dashed Trailblazers’ hopes of qualifying on a superior NRR to Velocity. “Somewhere I was a little sad that she was hitting against us but little happy as an Indian player that she was hitting hard and far and it was really good to see someone in women’s cricket hitting into the stands.”Mandhana’s team-mates, S Meghana and Jemimah Rodrigues, were no less a juggernaut with the bat themselves during the high-stakes clash at Pune’s MCA Stadium that had nearly 2500 ticketed spectators, the highest in the tournament so far, in attendance. Making her debut in the tournament, in a must-win game at that, Meghana joined forces with Rodrigues to get the defending champions off to the kind of rapid start they needed.Related

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Having lost the toss, Trailblazers had been after a tall total to defend. Only a win by at least 31 runs could have helped them overtake Velocity on NRR and Meghana’s 47-ball 73 proved the perfect tone-setter for her side to motor to 190 for 5, the highest total across the tournament’s four seasons.

“I believe this will be very close to my heart for a long time because the last few months haven’t been very easy for me. A lot of things to learn, lots of ups and downs, but I think that’s life and these times make you stronger”Jemimah Rodrigues

Despite losing her fellow opener Mandhana for 1, Meghana, replacing Hayley Matthews in the opening role, remained unfazed and played aggressor’s role to perfection. Making superb use of the crease and charging down the ground at will to muscle four towering sixes and seven fours, she added 61 in her 113-run stand with first-drop Rodrigues. Fresh off a 21-ball 24 in a losing cause, Rodrigues, by contrast, altered between relying more on touch and timing to hammer seven fours and a six in her 44-ball 66.”The thought processes was only what my team requires me to do I need to be there,” Rodrigues, the Player of the Match, said. “I knew [I could do that] because I was batting well. And even the way Meghana played – I think we were going really well. We were backing each other, supporting each other. When she was striking, I was rotating the strike. In between she was not getting the boundaries, [so] I was getting those odd boundaries.”Kiran Navgire scored a 34-ball 69 against Trailblazers•BCCINeither Meghana nor Rodrigues’ rapid fifties nor Trailblazers’ 16-run victory mattered much in the scheme of determining the finalists of a three-team, four-match tournament itself devoid of much meaning. With a big international season ahead, the pair’s innings could, however, go some way towards breathing new life into their stop-start international careers.”This knock was very special for me, very important, especially coming at this time,” Rodrigues, who was overlooked for the New Zealand tour and the Women’s World Cup earlier this year, said. “I believe this will be very close to my heart for a long time because the last few months haven’t been very easy for me. A lot of things to learn, lots of ups and downs, but I think that’s life and these times make you stronger.””Honestly, I didn’t think too much about the future,” she added when asked if her fifty on Thursday could improve her chances of a spot on the Commonwealth Games squad. “But, yes, definitely that will obviously be playing in my mind because a very important season is going to start now with the Commonwealth and the [T20] World Cup, so I definitely wanted to be in the best touch and the best form and it’s nice to score those runs. It gives you more confidence scoring runs and going back into the Indian team.”Meghana and Rodrigues, both capped top and middle-order batters who have spent more time on the bench than on the field for India in the recent past, made the kind of statements with the bat they needed to. Navgire, a relatively unknown prospect, showed why it might be imperative for the Indian T20I think tank to give her the chance to mould herself into a wrecking ball of a middle-overs accelerator or finisher in the international season ahead.Three days ago, South Africa and Velocity batter Laura Wolvaardt had spoken highly of Navgire’s skills. “I have been watching her in the nets in the last couple of days,” Wolvaardt had said after Velcoity’s win against Supernovas where Navgire didn’t get a chance to bat. “We did a power-hitting drill [at training] and she hit the biggest sixes that I’ve ever seen a woman hit.” On Thursday, Mandhana echoed Wolvaardt and described Navgire as an “exciting” talent with “great, great things to come for her going forward in the Indian set-up.”India are likely to play a bilateral series against Sri Lanka in June. The Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where women’s and T20 cricket make their debut, is set to be played in July-August. The 2023 T20 World Cup, in South Africa, is scheduled for February. With a slew of major events lined up, neither the platform to showcase why the national squad might be richer for Meghana, Rodrigues, and Navgire’s presence, nor the timing of their knocks, could have, therefore, been bigger or more opportune.Two internationals with a future as uncertain as their past in the Indian side, and an uncapped, unheralded player with no big-game experience lighting up a high-octane clash… the seemingly identity-less Women’s T20 Challenge hasn’t felt this relevant since the summer of 2019 when, in Jaipur, Shafali Verma announced herself to the world.

Also: does Bruce Reid hold the record for most Test wickets without ever taking one in England?

Steven Lynch22-Nov-2022Going into the T20 World Cup final, Adil Rashid had played 91 matches, scored 91 runs and taken 91 wickets. Was this the highest such coincidence? asked Michael Clayton from England
That’s a good spot: before the World Cup final in Melbourne earlier this month, Adil Rashid had played 91 T20Is for England, and amassed 91 runs and 91 wickets. He rather spoiled things in the final by taking two wickets and not batting, so is now on 92-91-93.Rashid is easily the leader when it comes to these three figures being the same: next comes the Sri Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana who, after his penultimate game in the year’s World Cup, had played 31 matches, scored 31 runs and taken 31 wickets. He didn’t bat or take a wicket in Sri Lanka’s last game, so is now on 32-31-31.The Kenyan seamer Elijah Otieno stood at 27-27-27 at one point, but has failed to register a run or a wicket in his last four T20Is, so currently stands at 31-27-27. And the Afghanistan seamer Shapoor Zadran had 25 runs and 25 wickets after 25 matches, and neatly collected a run and a wicket in his next game to make it 26-26-26. After his most recent T20I, in March 2020, Zadran stood at 36-27-37.How many batters have scored hundreds in both innings of a first-class match against James Anderson? asked Will Gubbins from England
Four men have scored a century in each innings in a Test match with James Anderson in the opposition: Peter Fulton for New Zealand in Auckland in 2012-13, Shai Hope for West Indies at Headingley in 2017, and the Australian pair of Steve Smith (at Edgbaston in 2019) and Usman Khawaja (in Sydney in 2021-22). Smith didn’t actually face Anderson in that match in 2019, as he limped off (and out of the series) after bowling only four overs.In addition to his 175 Test matches Anderson has also played 105 other first-class games so far, most of them for Lancashire, so I expected a few more cases. But there’s only one, and it happened earlier this year in Southampton, when the Hampshire left-hander Nick Gubbins scored 101 not out and 130. Anderson took three wickets in each innings, but Gubbins escaped his clutches.There have been eight other instances of an opposition player scoring two centuries in a match against Lancashire since Anderson made his debut in 2002 – but he wasn’t playing in any of those games. So that’s a feather in the batter’s cap… and another for our questioner, who turns out to be Nick Gubbins’ brother. As I’ve said before, it’s always nice to get a question from the horse’s mouth (or a close relative’s!), so if there are any other players out there who think they might have done something unique or unusual, please let me know.Apparently two events on the European golf tour in the last couple of years were won by the sons of Test cricketers. Who were they? asked Phillip Bacon from England
The two European (DP World) Tour golf winners with illustrious cricket-playing parents were Dean Burmester, who won the Tenerife Open in May 2021, and Sean Crocker, who came out on top by one stroke in the Hero Open on the Torrance Course at Fairmont St Andrews in Scotland in July 2022. Burmester now represents South Africa, and Crocker the United States – but both of them were born in Zimbabwe, and their fathers, Mark Burmester and Gary Crocker, both appeared in Zimbabwe’s inaugural Test, against India in Harare in October 1992. Actually, they were the first two bowlers to take Test wickets for Zimbabwe: Burmester had Ravi Shastri caught, and later Crocker bowled WV Raman to make it 77 for 2.Litton Das (right) scored his half-century and took Bangladesh to 50 off the same delivery against India, one of only two instances of this happening in T20Is•Getty ImagesWhen Litton Das reached his half-century against India in the World Cup, the team score was just 54. Was this a record? asked Raquibul Ahmad from Bangladesh
During his onslaught in Adelaide, which put Bangladesh in a strong position in their T20 World Cup group game against India, Litton Das reached 51 with a six off his 21st ball, which took the team total to 54 (fellow opener Najmul Hossain Shanto had scored the other three).Given the proviso that we don’t have full details of all T20Is, the only performance that is known to shade Litton’s onslaught came from Vanuatu’s Patrick Matautaava, against Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in October 2019. Coming in at No. 3 in the first over, he hurtled to 50 out of 53 in 18 balls, with his fourth six; batting partner Joshua Rasu scored two singles, and there was also a wide. These are the only known instances in T20Is of an individual and the team reaching 50 off the same delivery.The nearest approach in a match involving Test-playing nations came when Australia’s Cameron Green reached 50 (from 19 balls) out of 58 for 1 against India in Hyderabad in September 2022.Does Bruce Reid hold the record for most Test wickets without ever taking one in England? asked Julien Benney from Australia
The beanpole left-arm seamer Bruce Reid took 113 Test wickets, but none of them came in England. The record at the time was held by his fellow Western Australian and near-contemporary Bruce Yardley (126). They have since been overtaken by another Australian, Stuart MacGill, none of whose 208 Test wickets came in England.The other bowlers to have taken 100 or more Test wickets without any in England are Dilruwan Perera of Sri Lanka (161), the Bangladesh pair of Taijul Islam (158) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (135), the West Indian fast bowler Merv Dillon (131), the Indian spinners Pragyan Ojha (113) and Shivlal Yadav (102), and Nicky Boje of South Africa and Irfan Pathan of India (both 100).Looking briefly at other countries, Bangladesh’s leading wicket-taker Shakib Al Hasan has so far taken 225 in Tests without any in Australia (Taijul is next with 158). Subhash Gupte of India (149 Test wickets) and Pakistan’s Fazal Mahmood (139) never played a Test in Australia either. The England pair of Alec Bedser and Darren Gough took 236 and 229 Test wickets respectively without any in the West Indies; none of Pat Cummins’ current haul of 199 has come in the Caribbean either. Curtly Ambrose took 405 Test wickets, but none in India, where Dennis Lillee (355) and Fred Trueman (307) never played either.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

England wicketkeeper follows his captain’s lead to play significant innings

Vithushan Ehantharajah26-Aug-2022A first hundred as captain for Ben Stokes on the day his documentary comes out? Who writes his press releases?Dean Elgar said he wouldn’t be watching Ben Stokes: Phoenix From the Ashes on Friday evening, though did suggest if Stokes sent him a screener link ahead of time he might dip in. But after watching his opposite number position himself as the focal point for three hours and 38 minutes in front of a sold-out Emirates Old Trafford, why would he subject himself to an hour and 44 more? For those that are keen, this 12th career century was a welcome spoiler. It all works out in the end.It will do for England, too, at least in this Test. Stokes arrived to the crease after the dismissal of Jonny Bairstow, wings clipped on 49 when he was close to take-off. England trailed by just 17 with six wickets in hand. Off the back of just how badly they crumbled in the Lord’s Test – they lost all 20 wickets inside 83 overs – there were no guarantees. By the time Stokes departed, 103 from 163, the hosts were 169 ahead.Related

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There were glorious straight drives on the charge alongside back- and front-foot defences. Hot steps down the pitch off both spinners – two of his three sixes among nine boundaries – sprinkled around the cold of 107 dot balls. He collapsed to the floor when his knee gave way just after midday, with just 16 to his name, and then went on to scamper ones and twos. The half-century took 101 deliveries, the second-half just 57.It was, in every dissectible way, an innings of necessary contradictions. The day before this second Test got underway, when queried about whether England’s best hopes of squaring the series 1-1 was for Stokes to chill his beans, he spoke of perhaps mellowing some time down the line, when he felt an ethos of expression and selflessness had been coopted by his fellow batters in their own unique ways. Perhaps the biggest example of practising what he preached, of putting the team at the forefront of everything he does, came when he turned to look for two from his 158th ball after Kagiso Rabada had shinned a straight drive into square leg. The single completed had already taken him to three figures.There is an underlying flaw to this “follow the leader” shtick Stokes and Brendon McCullum have installed, especially when it comes to the batting. Batters are creatures of habit, and generally set in their ways once they reach their mid-to-late 20s, which is most of this team beyond the established trio of Stokes, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. And while the rest are finding their own ways of being more demonstrative, one man has been quietly struggling to work out who he is meant to be in this England side and, by extension, what exactly about this new persona he needs to express.But the influence of the “leader” was abundantly clear for the man playing a version of himself. Ben Foakes, Essex-honed, Surrey refined, veritable No. 5, came in at No. 7 and shared a match-turning partnership of 173 with Stokes. Then when the skipper was sent on his way, Foakes took it upon himself to be the leading man among the tailenders and pocketed 113 unbeaten runs. Finally, 29 innings from a century on debut back in November 2018 against Sri Lanka, he had another. No question this one was far more nourishing for the soul.With all due respect to Foakes, it is unlikely he’ll ever command the big screen in the way his partner for 324 deliveries in the guts of this day has. But beyond the movie star looks, there’s a far more relatable, everyday uncertainty about what Foakes has been contending with this summer.Ben Foakes celebrates his first Test hundred on home soil•Getty ImagesIn an environment where no one is under pressure, Foakes has perhaps been under the most. Alex Lees and Zak Crawley have been fairly well-insulated, with plenty of dressing room encouragement to drown out the outside noise. Much of Foakes’ uncertainty has been internal.The summer started clear enough: backed as the No. 1 keeper for the first time in his career and given scope to fashion the No. 7 spot as his own. He was there at the end of the Lord’s victory against New Zealand with an unbeaten 32, then again at Trent Bridge with 12 not out to go with 56 in the first innings.Just as things were looking rosier, a bout of Covid-19 resulted in him being pulled out midway through the third Test against New Zealand at Headingley, though not before registering a maiden Test duck. His symptoms were bad enough to mean he was unable to take his spot in the XI against India at Edgbaston. He didn’t stick around, immediately down south on the train the night before the Test started. If the Covid hadn’t made him feel terrible enough, he’d have every right to feel a bit sick at the prospect of Sam Billings taking his spot given Billings is a more natural fit at No. 7 and far more familiar to McCullum thanks to the franchise circuit.That sense will have been exacerbated after a poor showing at Lord’s, undone twice by Anrich Nortje for 6 and then duck number two. Especially as he found himself privately wondering if he would ever crack being a good fit in this group. Not so much through personality, but purpose. Despite his high-calibre keeping, he was a little anxious at the fact England would not have a wicketkeeping coach for this series. McCullum put him at ease, praising his work so far and politely reminding him he did a bit of keeping in his day.When he goes to bed on Friday night, Foakes will feel more settled. Far more at ease that not only does he have a score of note, but the manner in which it was achieved dovetailed perfectly with Stokes and, more pertinently, the situation (which included seeing off 25 deliveries from Nortje). And maybe he’ll even be comforted by the fact he played as himself.In a line-up where he is the breaker between the heavyweight bashers and the chancers, he needs to be the sensible one. The bass player maintaining a consistent chord. The volunteer passing around the collection tray while Stokes is at the front preaching the word of Bazball. Tim Canterbury frowning into the fourth wall when things are a little off, knowing he’ll have to tell Gareth not to take Bertie.While Stokes charged spin, Foakes got on top of the bounce and smothered into the leg side. For every three full-blooded carves from the skipper, there was one caress by the self-diagnosed pretender. Foakes’ statistical breakdown here – the fifty off 116 deliveries, the century some ninety later – was at odds with Stokes’. However, he did press the accelerator a little harder when the latter had departed. His 45 from the 95 accrued with Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson and Jack Leach came off 53 deliveries, leading to a declaration on 415 for 9 to give England nine overs of South Africa’s openers at the end of day two.That final portion of that knock will have been the most heartening for the management group. Foakes admitted in an interview with ESPNcricinfo earlier this summer that his limited experience working with the tail meant a need to learn by doing. Well, he has learned pretty quickly.After South Africa’s openers survived the mini-session, Stokes forcibly pushed a bashful Foakes out ahead to lead the team off. And with that, all other metaphors were deemed obsolete.

And which team has played the most international matches in a single calendar year?

Steven Lynch31-Jan-2023I noticed that India played 71 international matches in 2022. Was this some sort of record? asked Milind Chowdhury from India
You’re right that India played a grand total of 71 international matches in 2022 – seven Tests, 24 one-day internationals and a record 40 T20Is. That is indeed the most by any team in a calendar year: Australia played 61 internationals in 2009, Sri Lanka 57 in 2017, and India 55 in 2007. England played 54 in 2022, which is their most.India now lead the way in all three formats: they played 18 Tests in 1983, 43 ODIs in 1999, and now 40 T20Is in 2022.Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav played in 44 of those 71 matches, while Shreyas Iyer and Rohit Sharma appeared in 39. However, that was one record that wasn’t broken last year. There are three men who have appeared in 53 international matches in the same calendar year: Rahul Dravid in 1999, Mohammad Yousuf in 2000, and MS Dhoni in 2007.Mehidy Hasan scored a hundred from No. 8 against India in December. Has anyone else managed an ODI century from so low in the order? asked Bilal Hossain from Bangladesh
That innings of 100 not out from 83 balls by Mehidy Hasan Miraz proved just enough for Bangladesh, who beat India by five runs in Mirpur last December; it gave them a 2-0 winning lead in the one-day series.Mehidy was actually the second to score a century from No. 8 in a one-day international, after the Ireland allrounder Simi Singh, who also hit 100 not out against South Africa in Malahide in July 2021.There has also been one century from No. 8 in a T20I – another 100 not out – by Belgium’s Saber Zakhil against Austria in Waterloo in July 2021.Apparently someone once scored six centuries in the space of eight Test innings. Was it Don Bradman? asked Leigh Zanardis from Australia
It’s true that Don Bradman is usually the answer to this sort of question, but actually his best run was six centuries in nine innings, which he did twice during his remarkable career (between 1930-31 and 1931-32, and again between 1936-37 and 1938). The man with an even purpler patch was Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf: in eight successive innings during 2006, he scored 192 and 8 against England at Headingley, 128 at The Oval, and then 192 in Lahore, 56 and 191 in Multan, and 102 and 124 in Karachi against West Indies.Ishan Kishan overtook Chris Gayle’s record for the fastest ODI double-hundred, getting there in 12 fewer balls•Associated PressWas Ishan Kishan’s double-century against Bangladesh the fastest in ODIs? asked Neville Kelaart from Sri Lanka
In the course of his 210 in Chattogram last December, Ishan Kishan reached his double-century in just 126 balls. The previous fastest in men’s ODIs was 138, by Chris Gayle for West Indies against Zimbabwe in Canberra during the 2015 World Cup.Shubman Gill recently made the tenth double-century in men’s ODIs, against New Zealand in Hyderabad (it took him 145 deliveries). The slowest of them – 156 balls – was by Rohit Sharma against Australia in Bengaluru in November 2013, although “slowest” isn’t really the right word for someone who reached 200 inside 50 overs! For the list of the highest scores in ODIs, click here.Which pair of Australian debutants were involved in a century partnership for the tenth wicket in a Test? asked Jigna Devalia from the United Arab Emirates
This one goes back a long way: in the second innings of an Ashes Test in Melbourne in 1901-02, Reggie Duff put on 120 with his fellow debutant Warwick Armstrong. It’s a slightly artificial record, as both of them usually went in much higher than Nos 10 and 11: Duff regularly opened, and Armstrong eventually made six Test centuries, most often batting at No. 7. But on a tricky MCG pitch, Australia’s captain Joe Darling changed the batting order – Victor Trumper went in at No. 8 – and it paid off, as they recovered from 48 for 5 to reach 353, and went on to win by 229 runs. The Sydney Morning Herald said Duff “did not give a chance or make a miss hit. His performance will be reported amongst the extraordinary events in the history of matches between England and Australia.”Their stand was a Test record at the time, but there have been 12 higher last-wicket partnerships since.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions