Agar, Renshaw, Morris: Australia's Sydney balancing act

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Could Scott Boland be forced out of the team? Where does Marcus Harris stand after a summer as a reserve?

Alex Malcolm01-Jan-20233:27

McDonald on Green: ‘Challenge will be to be creative in the way that he trains’

Australia can book a spot in the World Test Championship final with a win over South Africa in Sydney. But for one of the rare times during this WTC cycle, Australia’s selection is very much an unknown. They have added Matt Renshaw and Ashton Agar to the squad in place of the injured pair Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc, but what the XI will look like will remain unclear until they see the pitch at the SCG, which is expected to offer turn.”One thing I’ve learned around wickets recently is never assume anything,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “I think we’ll just wait and see what unfolds from the ground staff in terms of the wicket they prepare. But what I will say around that is that we feel as though we’ve got a squad for whatever that surface may be. We’ve got pretty much all bases covered.”Green’s injury is what makes the selection complex. Pat Cummins described him as irreplaceable, and Australia haven’t opted for an allrounder to replace him. They need to decide whether they pick seven batters or five bowlers.The case for Ashton Agar
Firstly, the decision to include Agar as the second spinner in the squad has raised eyebrows. Agar’s first-class average and strike-rate are significantly inferior to a host of Australia’s domestic spinners including Mitchell Swepson, Todd Murphy, Jon Holland and Matthew Kuhnemann. Even South Australia’s Ben Manenti and Western Australia understudy Corey Rocchiccioli have better records from small sample sizes. But McDonald confirmed Australia’s selectors wanted a left-arm orthodox to complement the right-arm offspin of Nathan Lyon.Related

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“We feel as though the complementing type of spinner that we’ve picked here with the left-arm orthodox is the way that we wanted to go,” McDonald said. “Sometimes the second spinner isn’t necessarily the best next spinner if that makes sense. It’s the one that complements what you have and we feel like the left-arm orthodox can be successful in Sydney and also as we venture the subcontinent.”The control of a left-arm orthodox spinner, as opposed to a right-arm legspinner, seems to be the preference. However, Agar has a higher career economy rate, average and strike-rate in first-class cricket than the other two left-arm orthodox options in Holland and Kuhnemann. Agar has been focusing on his white-ball bowling in recent years, with great success, and has only played three first-class games since October 2020 including two in the last five weeks. Crucially, though, he also averages 28 with the bat with three first-class centuries, which is a major reason why he has got the nod and it gives the selectors two ways of picking him for Sydney and India.”It could be two spinners, two quicks,” McDonald said. “It could be we could play a slightly more aggressive team with Alex Carey going into six and play five bowlers [with Agar at No.7]. We feel pretty comfortable that Ash has got that skill set and he’s a very mature player now and we feel that if he was to get that opportunity in India, or firstly here, that he’ll be able to step up.”Ashton Agar’s batting has tilted things his way in the race to be the second spinner•Getty ImagesThe case for Matt Renshaw
Renshaw has returned to opening for Queensland this year with success. He also opened for Australia A in Sri Lanka in the winter and for the Prime Minister’s XI against West Indies where he made 81 and 101 not out. However, Renshaw is clearly being looked at as a middle-order option because of his skill against both the new ball and spin bowling and his experience from Test tours of India and Bangladesh in 2017.It seems Renshaw would likely play if it was going to be an old-school big spinning pitch in Sydney, like the Sheffield Shield pitch between New South Wales and Western Australia earlier this summer, where Australia would only need four bowlers, including two spinners, and then an extra batter at six with good skill against spin who could play a vital role in a low scoring game.”We feel with Matt in particular, he’s got the flexibility to bat anywhere in the order from the top through the middle as well and we’ve seen over time his spin play has improved,” McDonald said. “We feel as though he could potentially fill that middle-order position.”McDonald noted that Peter Handscomb, one of Australia’s best players of spin and the leading Shield runscorer in the past two summers, could consider himself unlucky not to be called up for Sydney and remains in the frame for India.The case for Marcus Harris
Harris has been the spare batter in the squad all summer and last played in the Sydney Ashes Test 12 months ago. Harris’ best chance to feature is if the SCG pitch is a batting-friendly, non-spinning track, similar to the modern Test pitches in Sydney. In which case, Australia could pick seven batters, three quicks, and one spinner. Harris would come in as the next batting cab off the rank and he could open, with Usman Khawaja sliding to No. 5 as a one-off, the position he batted on his recall last year where he made twin hundreds.”With Marcus Harris, we feel he’s an opening batter or top three,” McDonald said. “We’ve seen him bat at three at times across his career. We don’t want to give too much away. The Khawaja one, yeah, he could bat in the middle. But we do like the combination of him and David [Warner] at the top and that’s probably where we’ll head in the future as well unless things shifted significantly on us.”The case for Lance Morris or Josh Hazlewood
There is a scenario where Morris, the fastest bowler in Australia, could play in front of Hazlewood, who has declared himself fit after a side strain, or even Scott Boland (Test average 12.21). It would likely come if Australia picked a five-pronged attack and felt the third quick needed to be a short-burst strike bowler with high pace, given Cummins, Boland or Hazlewood, and two spinners would be able to shoulder the majority of the overs and control the run-rate.”All scenarios are on the table,” McDonald said. “If we feel as though we need some airspeed then no doubt Lance is the obvious one. The conditions will determine that. I’d love to be able to speak in more depth around it. In two days’ time, I’ll probably be better positioned to be able to discuss and talk about that. I think that’s one that’s possible if the conditions present that way.”

Suzie Bates is back and so are New Zealand

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The opener’s unbeaten 81 propelled New Zealand to the tournament’s highest score so far

Firdose Moonda18-Feb-2023From carding the two lowest totals at this T20 World Cup – and their own second and fourth lowest score overall – New Zealand went on to post the tournament’s highest score in their resounding comeback win over Bangladesh.They were a batting line-up transformed from the one that was shot out for 76 and then 67 thanks largely to their experienced opener, Suzie Bates, who was dismissed for two ducks in the first two matches but scored an unbeaten 81 against Bangladesh. Truth be told, she was pleased to just get one run.Related

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  • Suzie Bates and Maddy Green keep New Zealand alive

“I joked in the bus today about having one goal in the game and that was getting off the mark,” Bates said, laughing after the game. “So when I got off the mark on the first ball I looked up to the dugout and it was a nice feeling.”Bates spent a significant amount of time in the nets on Thursday’s optional training session, working more on the feeling of being out in the middle than her technique. “As soon as I hit the first ball, I was like ‘oh these are nice nets’. It was good pace and bounce, so that helped after two low scores,” she said. “I just wanted to bat and bat and we had lots of young bowlers running in. I was just getting in the zone of just batting in the nets, knowing that I wanted to spend time out in the middle.”Bates batted through New Zealand’s innings and found her timing early on when she drove Marufa Akter wide of mid-on and also beat the deep midwicket fielder. She went on to tease fielders at long-on, deep midwicket again and fine leg as she found gaps and drilled the ball through them. Importantly, she also stayed away from the cross-batted shots that had been her undoing in the previous games and concentrated on “playing straight for longer”, which worked well on a pitch with more pace and bounce than New Zealand got in Paarl.”It felt like you got value for shots, so it allowed me to just stand still and play my natural game,” Bates said. “A lesson is that that’s probably when I’m at my best. [In] the first two games, I was taking the high risk early or playing across the line. That’s not when I’m at my best. It was nice to talk about that as a batting group and me leading from the front after a tough start.”Suzie Bates was just happy to get off the mark after two consecutive ducks•Getty ImagesThe conversations came after both Bates and captain Sophie Devine were left “pretty distraught” with their back-to-back defeats and “sort of tried to get together to work out how we were going to move forward as leaders of this team”.While they knew “some of our young girls just take it all in their stride”, Bates admitted that she and Devine are among those who “take it a bit harder” because they know how much is expected of them given their experience. It’s also that experience that led them to formulate a plan to go back to their own game ahead of this match against Bangladesh.”Yesterday, Dean Brownlie, the batting coach, showed us some footage of the Bangladesh bowlers but then we kind of stopped that and said ‘okay how do we want to play? And when are we at our best?’ And that was almost that bully mentality that we’re strong girls and hitting hard and straight down the ground, early in our innings, is how we all play at our best. So we just talked about what we were going to do,” Bates said.It worked for Bernadine Bezuidenhout, who opened the batting with Bates and was outscoring her in the initial phase, and for Maddy Green, who finished unbeaten on 44 off 20 balls but Devine, batting at No.4, went scoreless for the second time. Still, Bates credited her with being the fulcrum of the turnaround.”It’s been really hard for her but it’s amazing that she’s actually playing. She had a stress fracture in her foot, so for her to do the hard work to get here is kind of unbelievable but then she’s not been able to perform. She’s had such limited cricket so it’s sort of understandable,” Bates said. “She picked herself back up as a leader. The energy around the group when we started training was brilliant.”Suzie Bates and Maddy Green propelled New Zealand•ICC/Getty ImagesDevine’s dry sense of humour may also have helped New Zealand not take themselves too seriously as they entered their third group match, even with the knowledge that anything less than a big win would guarantee them an early flight home. After New Zealand’s second defeat, Devine joked that they would have to score around 8,000 runs and skittle Bangladesh and Sri Lanka out for 20 to stand a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals, but the situation is not that dire. Their 71-run win has improved their net run rate from -4.3 to -.1.5, which is still worse than Sri Lanka’s -0.19 but not by all that much.If South Africa lose to Australia and beat Bangladesh, and New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by a big enough margin, they may be able to sneak into the knockouts and back to the ground that Bates said is in her “top three” in the world – Cape Town.”Coming here to train and just looking up at the mountains, it’s absolutely stunning and gives you perspective. You sort of take a moment. And you’re like, how lucky are we that we get to play in these beautiful places,” she said. “We’d love to play again here but unfortunately the schedule doesn’t allow.”Then she realised that it could. “Oh yeah, the semi-final, sorry! Yeah we’re still in it.”

Axar Patel and the chicken-and-egg problem of being India's third spinner

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It is hard to get enough overs because of which it is hard to get into rhythm because of which it is hard to get enough overs

Karthik Krishnaswamy04-Mar-20232:15

Axar: ‘Against spinners, the bowler in me tells me how to bat’

In the days leading up to it, all the talk surrounding the Border-Gavaskar series revolved around India’s spin attack, and how Australia would handle its triple threat. R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel were inevitably mentioned in one breath.Ashwin and Jadeja came into the series with vastly more experience than Axar, of course, but it didn’t seem like there would be a clear pecking order in how India would use them. Axar, at that point, had taken 47 wickets in eight Tests, at the ridiculous average of 14.29. Three wickets in Nagpur would have made him the joint-fastest Indian bowler, alongside Ashwin, to 50 Test wickets.Nagpur has come and gone, and so have Delhi and Indore, but Axar is still waiting for his 50th wicket. He’s only taken one wicket in the series, at an average of 103.00.Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar continue to be spoken of in the same breath, but that’s usually when their batting is being discussed. All three have made important runs in this series, most of all Axar, who is India’s second-highest run-getter with 185 at an average of 92.50. He’s passed 50 twice in the series, a feat managed by only one other player on either side, Usman Khawaja.Axar’s contributions in Indore summed up the weirdness of his series. He bowled 13 overs in an Australian first innings that spanned 76.3 overs, and none in their brief chase. He was not out twice, scoring 12 and 15, and was left stranded both times by Mohammed Siraj’s seeming lack of game awareness. In the first innings, Siraj was run out, late to respond to a call for a gettable second run that would have kept Axar on strike. In the second, Axar watched helplessly as Siraj was bowled slogging at Nathan Lyon.At that point, Axar turned his back on Siraj and marched to the dressing room, his partner remaining a pitch’s length behind him as the players made their way off the field. Being stranded was irksome enough; in that second innings, Axar was left stranded after being demoted to No. 9, behind Ashwin.India may have had sound reasons for this choice. It may have had something to do with Axar’s left-handedness. Or they may have felt that Ashwin and Axar were both capable of constructing a partnership with a set Cheteshwar Pujara, but reckoned that Axar’s six-hitting ablity would make him the handier option if one of the allrounders had to bat with Nos. 10 and 11.India may have had their reasons, but if you had watched Axar bat through this series, and seen how organised he had looked both in attack and defence, you may have wondered why he wasn’t batting at No. 7, above KS Bharat.Instead, Axar had come to occupy the strangest of roles: high-performing batter and occasional bowler slotted at No. 9.Axar Patel has had a lot of success with the bat but not so much with the ball in this series•BCCIThese things can and do happen when teams have multiple allrounders. It’s hard enough managing three spinners even if they can’t bat. They typically bowl a lot of overs, and often need to bowl long spells to get into rhythm, so when a team has three of them, it’s natural for one to be underbowled.In that sense, captaining Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar in India is nothing like captaining Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in Australia – a comparison Rohit Sharma made after India went 1-0 up in Nagpur. Rotating three fast bowlers is far easier than rotating three spinners.Rohit alluded to this himself on the eve of the Indore Test.”Look, Ashwin and Jadeja have bowled really well so I’ve to continue to make them bowl as much as possible. If you have three spinners, you know that the third spinner is always underbowled. This time it has been Axar in these two Test matches; you never know who that guy will be in the next two Test matches.”Because if guys are getting wickets from both sides, you have to continue to bowl them, as simple as that. That’s how it is. When Axar, Ash and Washington [Sundar] played in Ahmedabad against England [in 2021], Washi was the one who was underbowled. Probably didn’t even bowl too many overs. That’s how it is.”When you have guys taking wickets and are in good rhythm, you can sense that they need to bowl longer spells. Like fast bowlers, they take a little bit of time to get into rhythm. You need those fingers to come good for you. So you need at least 3-4 overs to get into that rhythm. Then the spinners can bowl longer spells than the fast bowlers.”It’s not necessarily a slight on Axar’s ability, then, that he’s only bowled 39 overs in the first three Tests, when Jadeja has bowled 106.1 overs and Ashwin 95.1.But over the course of the series, it’s become a chicken-and-egg situation. Because Ashwin and Jadeja have bowled well and taken wickets, Axar has only got to bowl short, infrequent spells. He has bowled his 39 overs over 11 spells, of which only two have lasted longer than five overs. Four have spanned just one over – he may only have bowled those overs to allow Ashwin and Jadeja to swap ends.By bowling so little, it’s possible Axar has lost a bit of rhythm, and that in turn has hurt his chances of getting longer spells. As the series has worn on, Australia’s batters have just looked more comfortable against Axar than against Ashwin and Jadeja, and ESPNcricinfo’s control data bears this out. Where they’ve managed control percentages of 75 and 79 against Ashwin and Jadeja, they’ve gone at 88 against Axar.

It isn’t just Ashwin and Jadeja who’ve troubled batters more through this series than Axar has. All three of Australia’s frontline spinners have, too. This, perhaps, has led to a situation where Australia’s captains have found it easier to rotate their three spinners than Rohit has.Steven Smith spoke about the challenge of rotating three spinners after the Indore Test.”I spoke to the spinners on the morning of day one, that they have to take their egos out of play,” he said. “For them, the pitch is spinning and they want to be bowling. But we’ve got three of you. If I take you off, it doesn’t mean you’re bowling badly. It’s just that someone else may be able to do a better job at that point of time. When you’ve got three spinners, you have to work them that way and keep them as fresh as possible. I was pleased with the way I handled the three spinners.”Rohit hasn’t been able to do this in quite the same way, and Ashwin and Jadeja have ended up bowling extra-long spells. In Indore, both struggled for control at times, and while this may have had something to do with the difficulty of adjusting to the sharpest-turning pitch of the series, it may also have been because they weren’t always at their freshest, physically or mentally.In the second innings in both Nagpur and Delhi, Axar was underbowled because Ashwin and Jadeja were running through Australia. Ashwin and Jadeja weren’t always at their best in Indore, but Rohit still felt they were likelier to get him wickets than Axar.It’s a far-from-ideal situation for India, and it’s partly a consequence of the pitches they’ve played on. Flatter pitches that produce longer innings lead to situations where the third spinner, if picked, bowls out of necessity, and this can give someone like Axar a chance to bowl himself into rhythm. On turning pitches, the pressure to take quick wickets is constant, and a third spinner who isn’t causing the batters as much discomfort as the other two won’t get to bowl much at all.India will hope they can use the time they have between the third and fourth Tests to get Axar into better rhythm. If that happens, they can distribute their spin-bowling workload more equitably, which will only increase the collective potency of their attack. It’ll encourage both India and Axar that the fourth Test will be in Ahmedabad; it’s his hometown, and to say he has a good record there is perhaps the biggest understatement in all cricket.

Coach Sammy's first test as West Indies stars take on UAE's bright talents

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This is also a chance for the teams to ramp up their prep for the ODI World Cup qualifier, set to begin on June 18

Deivarayan Muthu03-Jun-2023In focus: Coach Daren SammyDaren Sammy hasn’t even coached West Indies in one competitive game yet, but his selection has already been questioned in the Caribbean. Former West Indies batter Ramnaresh Sarwan is the latest to question Sammy’s appointment ahead of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who had led Jamaica Tallawahs to the CPL title last season.Related

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Sammy is no stranger to taking charge of a side amid turmoil. More than a decade ago, Sammy had been named West Indies’ captain in a major shake-up after having played just eight Tests. He thrived as a leader, particularly in T20 cricket, marshalling West Indies to world titles in 2012 and 2016. Can he find similar success as a coach though he had never done this role in international cricket before?Sammy has already had “in-depth” discussions with Shimron Hetmyer, Andre Russell, Evin Lewis and Sunil Narine about their return to the West Indies side, but for now he has to contend with the absence of the seniors. Among them, Hetmyer had publicly made himself available for the upcoming World Cup qualifier later this month but was eventually left out of the squad.Paul, Drakes returnBoth Keemo Paul and Dominic Drakes have overcome injuries to come back into West Indies’ white-ball team. Odean Smith is also part of the squad for the UAE tour, but among the seam-bowling allrounders Paul seems to be the frontrunner to start at the World Cup qualifier along with Romario Shepherd, who has been rested for the UAE series following his IPL stint with Lucknow Super Giants. Paul was with the Super Giants in India, too, as a net bowler, having worked with the Super Giants franchise in the inaugural SA20.Paul had also proven his form and fitness for Guyana in the West Indies championship in March before heading to the IPL. Paul gives West Indies an extra new-ball option and also has T10 experience in the Emirates, having been part of Delhi Bulls in the most recent edition of the Abu Dhabi T10 league.As for Drakes, he can also bowl with the new ball and has T10 experience with Bulls, but he isn’t part of the West Indies side for the World Cup qualifier. Raymon Reifer is the other left-arm seam-bowling allrounder in the squad for the UAE trip.Keemo Paul was recently with Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL as a net bowler•AFP / Getty ImagesSinclair, Cariah in the spin mixWith Akeal Hosein taking a break after his maiden IPL stint and fellow left-arm fingerspinner Gudakesh Motie injured, West Indies have recalled offspinner Kevin Sinclair. The 23-year-old last played for West Indies in August 2022, but he elbowed his way back into the side on the back of a strong domestic season, where had contributed handsomely with the bat as well.Sinclair also turned in all-round performances for West Indies A in Sylhet last month and is set to step into Hosein’s shoes in the UAE. He will likely be paired up with wristspinner Yannic Cariah, who had travelled with the West Indies senior team to South Africa and then more recently with the West Indies A team to Bangladesh. Roston Chase and Kavem Hodge are the other spin-bowling options for West Indies.If Sinclair starts for West Indies in Sharjah on June 4, he will have a short turnaround, having only finished his West Indies A duty in Bangladesh on June 2.Alick Athanaze was the top run-getter at the 2018 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand•IDI/GettyWill Athanaze make his WI debut?The highly-rated Alick Athanaze is among four uncapped players in West Indies’ squad for the UAE series. Athanaze was the leading run-getter at the Under-19 World Cup in 2018, ahead of Shubman Gill, but early in his domestic career he was dropped by Windward Islands. That snub fuelled him to work even harder to become one of the mainstays of Windward Islands’ batting and the captain of the team.Athanaze had also recently captained Team Weekes in the Headley Weekes tri-series at home. Earlier in the Super50 Cup, West Indies’ 50-over domestic tournament, Athanaze was Windward Islands’ top scorer, with 292 runs in six innings at an average of 48.66 and strike rate of 96.05, and sixth highest overall.Athanze, though, isn’t part of West Indies’ side for the World Cup qualifier, but his left-handedness at the top or middle, especially in the absence of Kyle Mayers and Nicholas Pooran, could help West Indies counter UAE legspinner Karthik Meiyappan and left-arm fingerspinner Aayan Khan.Vriitya Aravind is on the verge of becoming UAE’s highest run-getter in ODI cricket•Peter Della PennaAravind, Waseem, and UAE’s WI connectionThe T10 and ILT20 leagues in the Emirates have somewhat helped UAE bridge the gap between their local tournaments and international cricket. The franchise leagues have also given UAE’s bright talents the chance to work with the West Indian stars. Both captain Muhammad Waseem and wicketkeeper Vriitya Aravind were part of the MI Emirates side in the ILT20, which also included Nicholas Pooran, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Andre Fletcher. Waseem had emerged as MI Emirates’ second-highest scorer in the tournament, behind Pollard, while Aravind got the opportunity to pick the brains of Pooran.

Aravind’s boundary-line chat with Carlos Brathwaite – they were team-mates at Chennai Braves in the T10 league – was among the most defining images of the ILT20.Aravind, who was the second-highest run-getter in ODI cricket last year, suffered a slump this year, but is back to form once again, having rattled up scores of 185 and 174 in the ACC Premier Cup in Nepal. He is now 19 runs away from surpassing Rohan Mustafa as UAE’s top scorer in ODI cricket.

Has anyone played in more Ashes series than Jimmy Anderson?

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And when was the last time three batters from the same team topped the ICC Test batting rankings?

Steven Lynch20-Jun-2023At Edgbaston Jimmy Anderson embarked on his tenth Ashes series. Has anyone else played in so many? asked Mark Carlisle form England
Jimmy Anderson has played a part in all ten Ashes series since 2006-07, although he might want to forget 2019 in England, when he managed only four overs before suffering an injury that kept him out for the rest of the summer.There’s a complication here in that the Ashes were not officially at stake in several series (including one-off Tests). For a start the Ashes were inaugurated in 1882, after Australia won a Test at The Oval, so were not actually contested until 1882-83. More recently one-off landmark Tests in 1976-77, 1980 and 1987-88 are not official Ashes matches, while the ECB declined to put the urn up for grabs for the three-match series in 1979-80.And so there are two answers to your question, depending whether you’re talking about all England-Australia Tests, or just official Ashes matches. The only other player to have taken part in ten Ashes series since the Second World War is another Englishman, Colin Cowdrey, between 1954-55 and 1974-75, and including six in Australia. Sticking with Ashes-only for now, the English allrounders Johnny Briggs (1884 to 1899) and Wilfred Rhodes (1899 to 1926), took part in 11 Ashes series, while the famed Surrey opener Jack Hobbs featured in ten. Briggs actually almost made it 12 – he was named in England’s team for the abandoned 1890 Test at Old Trafford, which does not count in the records. The Ashes-only record is held by another Australian, Syd Gregory, who featured in no fewer than 15 different series between 1890 and 1912; in all, he played 52 Tests against England. His sometime team-mate, wicketkeeper Jack Blackham, took part in 11 Ashes series.On balance, I think the overall figures for all England-Australia series are more authentic. In all, Blackham played in 17 series against England, to Gregory’s 15; another early Australian, Alec Bannerman, took part in 13 (only eight of them official Ashes encounters). Two more Australians, Allan Border and George Giffen, also took part in 11 (three non-Ashes each). Apart from Cowdrey and Hobbs, there are nine further players who have appeared in ten series, including Cowdrey and Hobbs, as well as Geoff Boycott, Graham Gooch, Rod Marsh and Steve Waugh, who all featured in at least one non-Ashes series.Surrey scored 501 to beat Kent recently. Is this the highest fourth-innings total to win a match in England, or indeed anywhere? asked Chris Harvey from England
Surrey’s 501 for 5 to defeat Kent in Canterbury last week was the fourth-highest successful run-chase in English first-class cricket, and second in the County Championship only to Middlesex’s 502 for 6 to beat Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1925. At Lord’s in 1896, Cambridge University amassed 507 for 7 to beat MCC, while four years later the Players defeated the Gentlemen at Lord’s by reaching 502 for 8 in the second innings.Worldwide, a side has only successfully scored 500 or more to win on five other occasions. The highest is West Zone’s 541 for 7 to beat South Zone in the final of India’s Duleep Trophy in Hyderabad in 2009-10. The highest fourth-innings total, regardless of result, remains England’s 654 for 5 (chasing 696) to draw against South Africa in Durban in 1938-39. For the full list of the highest fourth-innings totals (not just in wins), click here.The ICC batting rankings going into the Ashes series had Australians in the top three places. When was the last time this happened? asked Jamie Constantine from Australia
The ICC Test batting rankings issued just before the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston last week had Marnus Labuschagne at No. 1, with a ranking of 903. Steve Smith (885) was second, just ahead of Travis Head, whose 163 in the World Test Championship final against India at The Oval boosted his ranking to 884, one more than the New Zealander Kane Williamson.The last time three batters from the same team topped the rankings was back in December 1984, when the top three were the West Indians Gordon Greenidge (810), Clive Lloyd (787) and Larry Gomes (773). For more details, click here.All of Graeme Smith’s 27 Test hundreds came in wins or draws for South Africa•Getty ImagesI heard that England never lost when Geoff Boycott scored a Test century. Is that true, and is it a record? asked Michael Richmond from England
Geoff Boycott scored 22 Test centuries, and it’s true that England did not lose any of those matches. It actually equalled the record at the time, which was held by another famous England batter in Wally Hammond. More recently, Ian Bell also scored 22 Test centuries, and England did not lose any of those matches either. The record, however, is now held by Graeme Smith: he scored 27 Test centuries, and South Africa never lost when he reached three figures. Next on the list is Gordon Greenidge, whose 19 Test centuries all came in West Indian wins or draws, with none in defeat.At the other end of the spectrum, five batters scored seven Test centuries, but did not win any of the matches in which they reached three figures: Asanka Gurusinha (Sri Lanka), Vijay Manjrekar (India), Lawrence Rowe (West Indies), and the New Zealand pair of Bevan Congdon and Andrew Jones (whose seven hundreds all came in draws).Louis Kimber was out obstructing the field in a match I was watching last week. How often has this happened in England? asked David Stevenson from Bristol
The Leicestershire batter Louis Kimber was given out obstructing the field against Gloucestershire in Bristol last week, after catching a ball that bounced up against him – he dropped the ball away from the stumps, but was given out on appeal. It’s a dismissal that would have been recorded as “handled the ball” until the Laws were revised in 2017.Kimber’s was the seventh obstructing the field dismissal in a first-class match in England (the fifth in the County Championship). The previous instance was by Surrey’s Mark Ramprakash, also against Gloucestershire, in Cheltenham in 2011. England’s Len Hutton was out obstructing the field – the only such instance in a Test match – against South Africa at The Oval in 1951. Overall, there have now been 35 instances of this type of dismissal in first-class cricket around the world.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

Switch Hit: Bin fire Ashes

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Alan Gardner is joined by Vish Ehantharajah and Matt Roller to discuss Australia’s victory in an eventful second Test at Lord’s

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jul-2023Australia took a 2-0 lead in the men’s Ashes amid extraordinary scenes at Lord’s. Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal sparked controversy, Ben Stokes’ innings sparked England, but there was no escape from Pat Cummins and his men in the end. In the Switch Hit studio, Alan Gardner sat down with Vithushan Ehantharajah and Matt Roller to pick through it all. Was Alex Carey in the right? Should the MCC members have behaved better? (Yes.) And can Stokes emulate Bradman and oversee an England comeback to win the series?

Australia's Test squad takeaways: Warner remains, Marsh vs Green, blooding new quicks

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

There are no surprises in the 14-man squad for the Pakistan Tests, but three vexing questions remain to be answered

Alex Malcolm03-Dec-20231:44

Malcolm: Lance Morris will bring the x-factor

Managing Warner’s exit and life thereafter

David Warner appears on track to get the Sydney Test farewell he desires after he was named alongside Usman Khawaja as the only openers in the first Test squad. It is greater assurance than he had during the tour of England and even last home summer where Marcus Harris was an ever-present tourist and potential replacement as the selectors were careful never to guarantee Warner’s place beyond each Test.Warner did score two half-centuries in the Ashes series including one in his last Test innings and had a better series in terms of starts than the selectors were anticipating. He made 24 or more in eight of his 12 Test innings in England, including the WTC final, but failed to convert any of them into centuries or even 70-plus scores. His ODI World Cup form was sublime and so the selectors believe he is the man to open in the first Test.The question for them is whether the opportunity cost of giving Warner his desired send-off is going to hinder the team down the road. The selectors have stressed that they view each Test in isolation and that they will pick for the here and now rather than the future. Chairman of selectors George Bailey stated as much after selecting Warner for the first Test against Pakistan.Related

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“Ultimately, we still think he’s in our best 11 players to win the first Test,” Bailey said. “I think Test cricket, in terms of the way that the World Test Championship points is set up, each Test is critical. There’s points on the line for each and every game. So our focus is very much on picking the 11 that we think can do the job and obviously there’s roles within that for each individual and how that how that actually structures up the team as a whole and we think David is the right person for that for this Test.”That said, three Tests, and up to six innings, against an undermanned Pakistan attack that will be severely challenged in Australia could be invaluable for another opener to gain some momentum in the role as opposed to just two Tests against West Indies in mid-January ahead of the two-Test New Zealand tour in March. Australia then don’t play another Test until India tour their shores in the home summer of 2024-25. Harris, Matt Renshaw and Cameron Bancroft have all had a good look at Test cricket previously. But all are vastly improved players now and a clear, lengthy run at the role would be better for than the alternative.However, the selectors don’t appear to believe any have made an overwhelming case at domestic or Australia A level to warrant an early call-up and coach Andrew McDonald even queried publicly whether the batting order could be reshuffled after Warner’s exit to accommodate two allrounders.Mitchell Marsh or Cameron Green?•Getty Images

Marsh versus Green or Marsh and Green

Mitchell Marsh keeping Cameron Green out of Australia’s Test team was not a scenario the selectors foresaw prior to the Ashes. Marsh himself thought he going to England on holiday and was only set to play if Green got injured. Green did get injured, picking up a hamstring niggle, and Marsh took his opportunity, making a stunning century at Headingley and contributing with the ball as well. It left the selectors in a quandary.They dropped a spinner to make room for both Marsh and Green at Old Trafford but it left Australia badly unbalanced. They then made the tough call on Green for The Oval. Now they’re in a bind. Green’s upside remains extremely high and five home Tests against Pakistan and West Indies would help his progression immensely. He is also a far more valuable and durable bowler than Marsh in Australia and is the best gully fielder in the world. But Marsh’s form with the bat is irresistible and he deserves to stay as the incumbent. It appears likely the selectors will reward Marsh’s incumbency and make Green bide his time.The one issue they have is if they want to blood Lance Morris at some stage, it will be harder to do it with Marsh as the allrounder than Green. The Ashes was the first time Marsh had played back-to-back first-class games in four years. His body barely handled the bowling load and he had to be carefully managed through the ODI assignments prior to the World Cup as a result. The last time he played more than three Tests in an Australian summer was 2015-16. Morris almost exclusively plays in a five-man attack for Western Australia, which allows him to bowl shorter and more impactful spells. That means the rest of the overs need to be made up by the allrounder, which Green is more suited to doing.The other scenario that McDonald hinted at was Marsh and Green playing together at some stage. He mentioned it in the context that it could happen if Marnus Labuschagne was moved up to open when Warner finishes and Green slotted in at No.4, where he averages 65.09 in first-class cricket and has made four of his nine centuries. But Labuschagne averages 56.81 at No.3 in Test cricket and has made 11 centuries there. It would be a major gamble to disrupt an order that has been very settled and very successful.Bailey confirmed that Green remains firmly a part of Australia’s plans and they would find a way to get him back in when the opportunity arises. “I think there’s some flexibility around where he can bat so that’s another great feather in his cap,” Bailey said. “It’s hard to sort of project where you see the summer going. There’s plenty of things that can happen that are out of your control, but I imagine that won’t be too long before we see him back in the Test team.”Lance Morris waits his turn behind the established trio of Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins•Getty Images

When and how to blood the next generation of Australian quicks

Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc have cemented their legacy as one of the great all-format fast bowling trios. Their durability has been a blessing for Australia, yielding a T20 World Cup, a World Test Championship and a World Cup in the space of two years. But as grateful as Australia are for their indefatigable service, it has also been somewhat of a curse as there have been few opportunities to blood younger fast bowlers.Scott Boland took his opportunity when Hazlewood was injured and kept him out of the WTC final when Hazlewood was slightly underdone. But Boland is 34 and older than the big three. Michael Neser, 33, is another who has been in the mix to play but is the same age as Starc and older than Hazlewood and Cummins. Jhye Richardson, 27, is a great hope for the future but he hasn’t played a Test since his maiden five-wicket haul in the Ashes in December 2021 due to a torrid injury run.Morris, 25, is the one they hope will be the like-for-like for Starc as the strike force with extra pace to complement the metronomic accuracy of the others. But Starc has hardly missed a Test in recent years due an amazing run of fitness and performance. He was squeezed out of the first Ashes Test after a slightly off-colour performance in the WTC final and due to surface-suitability reasons but stormed back to be Australia’s leading wicket-taker in the series while battling groin soreness. He wants to play every game. The selectors either need him to miss through injury or soreness to give Morris a chance to taste Test cricket.Morris has had his own injury issues and has been carefully managed at domestic level this summer to be fresh for the Test summer. But life on the fringe has the potential to leave him undercooked if his chance arises. Australia’s selectors would also rather play Morris if Green is in the XI, with or without Marsh, as it will free up Cummins to use Morris more sparingly.Bailey confirmed that Morris would be unlikely for the Perth Test given the big three will be fit. But he said there is value in having Morris in the squad.”It’s unlikely given the three we’ve got but that’s not to say there’s no benefit to having him in the squad and around and being part of that group,” Bailey said. “I think there’s enormous benefit for Lance to be in the Australian squad, to be around most fast bowlers to be around, Dan Vettori and Andrew McDonald, and just having access to that and being a part of it, so whenever that opportunity does arise, he feels as comfortable as he can and hopefully he can make that transition to just rolling out and playing as easy and as comfortable and as a Test debut may be.”

Introducing Jais-ball: contemporary yet timeless

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

So early in his Test career, Yashasvi Jaiswal has already shown incredible and effortless range in his batting – a product of the Bombay school of batting but also the IPL

Karthik Krishnaswamy19-Feb-2024A belief pervades many cultures that showering someone with praise summons the evil eye.Rohit Sharma seemed to be in the grip of just such a belief on Sunday evening, when he was asked about Yashasvi Jaiswal’s run-scoring feats in this series against England. He was asked first at the presentation ceremony in Rajkot.”I’ve spoken a lot about him,” he said. “I’m sure people outside the changing room have also been talking about him. I want to be calm about him, not talk a lot about him.”Related

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He was asked again at his post-match press conference.”I won’t say anything on Jaiswal. Everyone is talking about him. Let him play. He is playing well, it’s good for us and he is in good form. I am not going to say much more than that. [this is enough for now].”At these moments Rohit seemed not so much the captain of a cricket team as the anxious parent of a gifted child fretting about the inadvertent curse of excessive praise. You could imagine him nailing a string of chillies and lime to India’s dressing-room doorframe, and getting a member of the coaching staff to circle Jaiswal’s head three times clockwise and three times anticlockwise with a fistful of rock salt.You could empathise with Rohit, because Jaiswal is that kind of player. So good, so early in his career, that it seems wrong to talk about him. Let the boy be. Let him get on with it. Just watch and enjoy, no?This feeling – no doubt shared by many others apart from Rohit – is perhaps also a product of the names Jaiswal’s recent achievements have twinned him with, Don Bradman and Vinod Kambli: a career so productive that no one will ever be expected to match it, and a sad and curiously truncated career of whys and what-ifs. Kambli, of course, is a Mumbai left-hander who came from humble beginnings and brought to Test cricket both a precocious appetite for runs and a love for hitting sixes.Bradman and Kambli. A bright start, then, is just a start.The Indian camp rises as one to welcome Yashasvi Jaiswal back after his Visakhapatnam epic•BCCIBut what a start Jaiswal has had. He has played seven Tests now, and scored 861 runs at an average of 71.75. He’s already made three hundreds, each of them big, each bigger than the previous one – 171, 209, 214* – and each different to the other too.The debut effort in Dominica was remarkable for how unremarkable it appeared on the surface. On a slow Dominica pitch where India’s batters struggled for timing though not for survival against a limited West Indies attack, he batted time, with only as much fluency as the conditions would allow, and checked off one milestone after another, each appearing more inevitable than the last one. It was an innings you might have expected from Virat Kohli – who, to put the conditions in perspective, took 80 balls to hit his first boundary – but perhaps not from a 21-year-old debutant.Then, over the last two weeks, he’s made two double-hundreds: one that held together a first innings that could have otherwise fallen apart – he made just under 53% of India’s total of 396 – and one that set the tone for a jubilant third-innings surge.Perhaps nothing illustrates how different these two double-hundreds were than the methods he adopted against England’s fast bowlers in both innings. In Visakhapatnam, he faced 67 balls from James Anderson, England’s only quick, and scored 17 runs. In Rajkot, he faced 39 balls from Anderson and Mark Wood and scored 61. In strike-rate terms, he went from 25.37 in one innings to 156.41 in the other.

You could imagine Pant leaving five balls in a row if he really, really had to, but by the fourth leave you’d be off your chair and pacing the floor. When Jaiswal left five in a row from Jason Holder in his debut innings, you were probably fixing yourself a snack while the cricket played in the background.

The shots Jaiswal unleashed on the fourth day in Rajkot were always present in his kitbag: the falling scoop, the bent-knee slap over the massed off-side field, the club down the ground off the good-length ball. But where even the most subdued innings from Rishabh Pant – to take the example of the previous extravagantly gifted India left-hander to treat Anderson with cheerful disrespect in a home Test – is likely to include one or two shots of that type, it feels like Jaiswal could comfortably get through a full series without needing to demonstrate his full range.You could imagine Pant leaving five balls in a row if he really, really to, but by the fourth leave you’d be off your chair and pacing the floor. When Jaiswal left five in a row from Jason Holder in his debut innings, you were probably fixing yourself a snack while the cricket played in the background.Some players are so good that you can’t take your eyes off them. Some are so good that you frequently do, with the certainty that they’ll still be batting when you’ve returned from your fridge-foraging.Jaiswal can be both kinds of batter, but he’s more often the second kind. He’s a product of the Bombay school the Rajasthan Royals school, and while that education has given him a vast skillset, it has seemingly spared him the effects of its inherent contradictions. At this stage, it feels like you could send him out in any situation and expect that he’d make sound choices without having to think too hard about it.That clarity and certainty, of course, is partly a product of the form he’s in, and the fact that he hasn’t yet met a real setback as a batter at the highest level. That will come in its course. Watching him, it’s hard to think he wouldn’t find a way to overcome it.For now, though, it’s perhaps wisest to just let him be. Watch and enjoy. And keep your amulets and rabbit’s feet handy, just in case.

Beau Webster, Tasmania's talisman: 'I'm absolutely ready for the next level'

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

The allrounder has scored more than 900 runs and taken 26 wickets to put himself in contention for the higher honours

Tristan Lavalette18-Mar-2024Whenever doubt creeps in, like reconsidering whether to counterattack on a grassy Bellerive Oval surface, Beau Webster has advice from a mentor ringing in his ears.”Get them [the bowlers] before they get you,” experienced Tasmania team-mate Matthew Wade once told him. It’s words of wisdom that have helped unlock Webster’s aggressive batting in Tasmania’s middle-order as he continues to elevate his standing amid Australia’s sudden stock of seam-bowling allrounders.At almost 6 foot 8 he’s slightly taller than Cameron Green – they compared heights recently – and he has a better first-class batting average than Mitchell Marsh.Related

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'It's a difficult job' – Gannon prepares for Shield final after a career on the fringe

Sheffield Shield team of the season: Webster, Davies, McAndrew… and who else?

Webster was the standout performer during the Sheffield Shield’s home-and-away season after scoring 914 runs and taking 26 wickets at 28.46. Only Norman O’Neill, Sir Garfield Sobers, and Tom Moody have scored 900 runs and taken 25 wickets in a season as Webster has become the talisman for Tasmania, who will play Western Australia in the final starting on March 21 at the WACA.Much like Marsh, Webster, 30, has rejuvenated his career through a fearless approach at the crease and backing his power-hitting. Making No. 6 his own, Webster is the Shield’s leading run-scorer and averages 65.28 with three hundreds. His strike-rate of 57.48 is made more impressive by his home ground of Bellerive Oval generally sporting a notably green surface and being particularly difficult to bat on during the opening two days of matches.”That positive mindset and the line of ‘get them before they get you’ has really stuck with me,” Webster told ESPNcricinfo. “If I’m going through a tough patch, the first thing that comes into my mind is how can I get more balls that I can score off… and that’s by putting pressure back on.”Having the backing of the playing group and coaches is massive because you do look a bit silly when you play a big shot and get out on a green seamer.”From the small town of Snug, with a population of around 1500 in Tasmania’s south, Webster made his way into the state squad at 18 before making his first-class debut in early 2014. He mainly batted in the top four and he bowled offspin due to having to mostly forego seam bowling because of back issues.

Webster showed enough potential that in late 2016, a few months before turning 23, he was selected for Australia A against India A in a two-match red-ball series in Brisbane.He thwarted an attack that boasted Shardul Thakur and Hardik Pandya in a key half-century partnership with Cameron Bancroft to navigate a tricky 159-run target after a deluge spiced up the surface at Allan Border Field.”I got selected off a couple of hundreds at No. 3 in my first 10 [Shield] games,” Webster said. “I definitely got some experience from it [Australia A], but the game has changed a lot since then.”Webster then fell off the national radar after middling results in the top-order, while his spin was effectively part-time. “I don’t think my defence is the best part of my game, so ultimately I was pretty inconsistent batting in the top order,” he said.

It’s going to be a big challenge, but we’re going to tackle it head on. We’ve played some really brave cricket all year and that’s what we’re going to do in the final

His career received an unexpected jolt in early 2020 during a home Shield match against Western Australia. With Green and Sam Whiteman looking impregnable, Tasmania captain Tim Paine was desperate for a wicket and looked beyond his frontline pace attack.He overlooked Webster and instead threw the ball to diminutive batter-wicketkeeper Jake Doran, who was five years into his first-class career but had never bowled at that level before. His innocuous left-arm seamers appeared unconvincing until he nicked off Whiteman with his fifth ball in a dismissal that left an impression on Webster, who was finally given a go only to leak 22 runs off three overs with his spin.”When I saw what [Doran] did I felt like I could have made an impact if I was bowling seam,” Webster said. “The offies were more to give a chop out for a few overs, but I wasn’t really used for the purpose of getting wickets.”Having not long before shifted down to No. 7, with Tasmania’s brains trust wanting to unleash his attacking batting lower in the order, Webster then smashed a typically strong WA pace attack for 187 from as many balls before blasting them over the line in run chase of 235 with an unbeaten 29 from 18 balls.Beau Webster has revived his seam bowling to become a key part of the attack•Getty ImagesIt foreshadowed the future for Webster, who had found the right role. “We needed an allrounder, so batting at No. 7 worked for me and I decided I wanted to seriously take up seam,” he said.Webster excitedly told his then coach Adam Griffith, a former quick, of his plans. “If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it properly and start from scratch and get your action sorted,” Griffith told him.The Covid-19 shutdowns happened not long after with the final stages of the 2019-20 Shield season cancelled. Isolation and boredom was then experienced for many around the world, but Webster decided to use his time wisely and learn the craft of seam bowling.Firstly he hit the gym hard and got physically stronger before picking the brain of experienced seamer and then team-mate Jackson Bird, who played the last of his nine Tests during the Ashes in 2017-18.”Your strength is moving the ball across the left-hander. Don’t try and shape down the line too much and don’t overdo things early,” Bird told him. “Just get to a position where it’s about getting the confidence to hit a length consistently.”Webster had modest success initially in his new role but stuck to his guns and has moulded into a formidable allrounder. He’s averaged 53.46 with the bat in the last three seasons to lift his first-class mark to 36.44, while this season he has emerged as a genuine wicket-taking option, using his towering height to impressive effect.Webster has rekindled the interest of the national hierarchy and was selected in a strong Prime Minister’s XI team against Pakistan in December. With Green and Marsh cemented in Australia’s Test team, and Aaron Hardie being groomed through the shorter formats, international opportunities might not be forthcoming but those around him know Webster’s ready for the next level.”If someone like Marsh got injured, he would have to be the next player in. He’ll be pushing for that. He’s been huge,” Wade said last week.During the Prime Minister’s XI match, Webster had conversations with national chief selector George Bailey, his former Shield captain. “It was nice recognition to be selected. That team was a genuine Australia A team,” he said. “I think I’m absolutely ready for the next level. But I have to stay in-form and help win games for Tassie.”Webster showed off his match-winning abilities in a pivotal late season match against Victoria when he smashed an unbeaten 167 off 180 balls under pressure and combined with Riley Meredith for a 153-run final-wicket stand. It was the biggest tenth-wicket partnership in Tasmania’s first-class history and proved the difference in a 57-run victory that sealed them a spot in their first final since 2017-18.Webster’s explosive performance laced with a succession of mighty blows to the boundary had shades of what Green did alongside Josh Hazlewood against New Zealand in Wellington. “Bellerive is a high boundary ground, so you can get on a roll. It was a helluva lot of fun,” Webster said.Attack first: Beau Webster takes a positive mindset into the middle•Getty ImagesIt’s the type of belligerent knock that might catch the attention of T20 leagues around the world with Webster eyeing opportunities on the franchise circuit.Last year Webster had a county stint with Essex in the 50-over competition and he also played in the inaugural season of Zimbabwe’s T10 league. For the upcoming off-season he’s locked in a gig with Gloucestershire in the T20 Blast and two County Championship matches against Yorkshire and Glamorgan in June.”It’s my first taste of T20 franchise cricket overseas,” says Webster, who has been a solid performer in recent BBL seasons for Melbourne Stars. “I want to play as much as I can and hopefully it opens some doors. I want to throw everything at the Blast. There will be a lot of eyes watching.”Amongst those watching might be IPL powerbrokers. “I think the IPL is a bit of a lottery. A lot of good players miss out,” Webster said. “That’s not really on my radar, but the other big leagues are.”Before all of that, Webster will be hoping to finish the domestic season with the ultimate success of a Shield title. When Tasmania last won in 2012-13, Webster was a wide-eyed youngster coming through the ranks as he watched Bailey and Ricky Ponting inspire Tasmania to their third title.”I was nowhere near getting into the team back then, barely getting a game for Tasmania in the second XI,” Webster laughed. “When we won, the whole state almost stopped. It was a magical feeling, I’ve really strived to be able to experience that feeling again. It would be really special for the state.”In their way will be two-time defending champions WA as Tasmania journey to Perth after blowing a chance of a home final with a shock loss to South Australia at Bellerive Oval.Tasmania will be fuelled by Wade’s red-ball swansong, but their chances of an upset seemingly hinge with Webster being able to produce a dynamic allround performance to cap a spectacular season.”Wadey in the last half of my career has been massive for me, so there is extra motivation to do well for him,” he said. “It’s going to be a big challenge, but we’re going to tackle it head on. We’ve played some really brave cricket all year and that’s what we’re going to do in the final.”

Bedingham fuses old-school mettle with new-age urgency

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

It was an innings that oozed class, and showed that even if South Africa hadn’t fielded a makeshift squad, Bedingham would have been right in there

Firdose Moonda15-Feb-2024David Bedingham is a first-choice Test player.Perhaps the only one in South Africa’s squad in New Zealand, but most definitely one.And he showed it with his first Test century in his fourth match; the only hundred of the Hamilton Test so far and a knock that oozed class, confidence and a combination of old-fashioned temperament and new-age urgency. It was an innings that confirmed that even if South Africa were not forced to send a makeshift squad on this trip, Bedingham would have been in the touring party.With a decade-long professional career and a first-class average that sits a shave under 50, you may even wonder why you haven’t seen Bedingham sooner. The answer is because he wasn’t always sure he wanted to play for South Africa.Related

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Bedingham left the domestic system four years ago to take up a deal with Durham – playing as a local on an ancestral visa and flirted with the possibility of qualifying for England.He has since changed his mind, and though he will continue to try and get a British passport for post-career opportunities, he has committed his international playing future to South Africa’s Test team. He even chose not to put his name in the SA20 draft – and because he is not nationally contracted, he had no obligation to – so that he could work on securing a Test spot. Now, he can consider that done.In a line-up where the top order – all debutants last week – has been exposed against high-quality swing, seam and pace in New Zealand, Bedingham has had to come in tricky positions in each of his four innings. In the first Test, South Africa were 30 for 3 and 68 for 3 and he made 32 and 87. In the second Test, they were 63 for 3 and 39 for 3. The most precarious of those situations was the latest, where they had a lead of only 70, more than half the Test still to play, and South Africa desperate to set New Zealand a decent target.He was greeted with a delivery from Will O’Rourke that reared off the surface and that he just managed to fend off with his gloves. In O’Rourke’s next over, Bedingham responded with a crack through the covers off a short, wide ball. And so began the cat and mouse game between the two most impressive players on the day, who only had praise for each other at its conclusion.For Bedingham, the challenge was adjusting to O’Rourke’s high release point and the movement he was getting. “He definitely presented a different challenge,” he said afterwards. “I don’t think I have faced [Morne] Morkel before but it felt like that. He bowled with great energy the whole day and got the ball to move back. He looks very, very good.”

“I don’t want to look back at not throwing my name in the draft. I just hope this innings can win us a game and draw the series. I am not looking at the SA20”David Bedingham

For O’Rourke, it was about keeping his lines tight and trying to bowl fuller because of Bedingham’s strong ability to score runs square of the wicket. “He batted really well on a slower-ish deck. He punches through the off side really well. If you give him any width, he seems to latch on to that,” O’Rourke said. “We tried to attack with some short stuff for a little bit and he played that pretty well too, so we just went back to keeping it simple.”For now, Bedingham has won the battle. His proactive approach meant that unlike someone like Zubayr Hamza, who faced 63 balls for his 17 runs, Bedingham was always looking to score. “The way that I play is a positive brand,” he said. “When they had attacking fields there is always the opportunity to score. I kind of tried to score and I am thankful and lucky enough that it worked.”He targeted Rachin Ravindra, taking 31 runs off the 32 balls he faced from him, and Neil Wagner, who bowled 25 balls to him and conceded as many runs. His overall strike rate was 78.01, and he had a foil in Keegan Petersen, who played a patient role at the other end but may still be wondering if 43 is enough to buy him any more time in the Test side. Petersen was dropped twice in two seasons and has struggled to kick on since his Player-of-the-Series performance against India two summers ago.Bedingham made his debut against India this season and scored 56 in an innings that suggested there was more to come. That more has come at the best time, just as South Africans, including maybe some South African players, are starting to take notice of their national team again after the SA20 concluded at the weekend. Have any of the main players been in touch? Not with Bedingham, it seems. “The time zones are quite tough so when we are playing, they’re sleeping, and most guys have been busy playing the SA20,” he said.David Bedingham did the bulk of the scoring in his 65-run stand with Zubayr Hamza•Getty ImagesAnd has he wondered whether he could have been at the high-octane, big-money event instead of battling it out in New Zealand? “I don’t want to look back at not throwing my name in the draft,” he said. “I just hope this innings can win us a game and draw the series. I am not looking at the SA20.”He doesn’t need to, for now. There’s every chance the tournament will come calling next year, or the year after that, and Bedingham could find himself with another tough decision to make. But that’s a concern for another day. For tomorrow, all he wants is that his 110 – which he celebrated in modest fashion with a raising of the bat and a hug with his partner Ruan de Swardt – and the target of 267 are enough, with the knowledge it should have been more.South Africa collapsed from 202 for 4 to 235 all out, losing six wickets for 33 runs. There will be questions over shot selection – did de Swardt have to sweep when he did, exposing middle and off stump; did Shaun von Berg have to attempt a big shot when all the recognised batters were dismissed? – and they will be moot. It’s worth remembering that this Test team is highly unlikely to play together again.What matters for them is the next 24 hours and how much they can capitalise on de Swardt’s first innings 64, Dane Piedt’s career-best 5 for 89, and, mostly, Bedingham’s first Test century. All those things have given South Africa the unlikeliest of chances to pull off a heist and retain their record of never losing a Test series to New Zealand. Whatever happens, Bedingham has proved he is the real deal.

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