Also, everything you needed to know about venues, reserve days, and… checks notes … boundary countbacks

Karthik Krishnaswamy29-Sep-2023A World Cup! That glorious celebration of a truly global sport, with 32 teams representing every region on the pla…
Er, no. Not that one. This is the men’s World Cup, featuring ten teams.Ah, right. That one. So ten teams, then? No room for the… what do you call them… Associates?
Well, no. Not entirely. There was, you see, a Qualifier, featuring a bunch of Associates plus the teams that finished outside the top eight of the World Cup Super League…The what?
It’s too complicated to explain here, but this should give you an idea. Anyway, it’s been scrapped now, or maybe not, but to get back to your previous question…Related

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Which was?
I’m not entirely sure, but I vaguely remember talking about the Qualifier? So it involved six Associate teams plus Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland. Ten teams in all, fighting for two World Cup spots.So who made it?
Sri Lanka and Netherlands.Netherlands?
Indeed. A weakened Netherlands team, that too, who did this to West Indies and this to Scotland in a gloriously improbable turn of events.And that means West Indies, two-time champions, are…
Yup, not at the World Cup for the first time ever.Brutal, eh? So where is this World Cup happening?
India. They have co-hosted it before, in 1987, 1996 and 2011. Now they are hosting the entire thing themselves.Netherlands grabbed a World Cup spot at the expense of two-time champions West Indies•ICC/Getty ImagesAll part of their grand plan to win it themselves, no doubt?
True, it has become a thing for host teams to win World Cups. India beat co-hosts Sri Lanka to win the 2011 final, then Australia beat co-hosts New Zealand in 2015, and four years later it was England’s turn to win by virtue of being hosts.Hey, that’s not fair. They also won by virtue of … *checks notes* … boundary count-back. Is that going to be a thing again?
Ah, no. Super Overs will decide tied games throughout the tournament, and if the Super Over is tied, they will just play another, and another, until they get an actual winner.Cue the final that never ends. Anyway, before we get that far, what’s the format of the tournament?
Just like 2019. Each of the ten teams plays every other team once in the league stage, and the top four go through to the semi-finals.Super Overs will decide tied games in the knockout stage, and if the Super Over is tied, they will just play another•Tom Jenkins/Getty ImagesWho are the favourites to get there?
India are hosts, and they are also the No. 1 ODI side in the ICC rankings. They have a team with almost every base covered, particularly in their home conditions. England may not have the same aura they went into the 2019 World Cup with, but they are defending champions, won a T20 World Cup last year, and remain the deepest and fastest-scoring batting line-up in ODIs. Then there is Pakistan, who held the No. 1 ranking until India took it from them – their top order and fast bowling are serious strengths, though they have weaknesses elsewhere.New Zealand were losing finalists at the last two ODI World Cups as well as the 2021 T20 World Cup. They have a core group of highly experienced, skilful players who will want to go one better this time. And you can expect Australia and South Africa, who recently tussled in an incredibly high-scoring five-match series, to be fiercely competitive at a world event.Won’t the conditions negate non-Asian teams’ strengths somewhat?
Possibly. Even though pitches at ICC white-ball events tend to be flat, spin could be hugely influential at least at some of the venues. Australia might find themselves seriously tested by Sri Lanka in Lucknow, for instance, and New Zealand by both Bangladesh and Afghanistan in Chennai. Afghanistan may also pose a big threat to Pakistan, who don’t really have a gun wicket-taking spinner, when they meet in Chennai.Where and when will the really high-profile contests take place?
Well, mostly in Ahmedabad. The biggest, highest-capacity, and most self-congratulatory venue in the world can’t stop hosting big games. The opening game on October 5, pitting 2019 finalists England and New Zealand, will be in Ahmedabad. So will Australia-England on November 4. And the final, of course, on November 19.Not to mention the small matter of India-Pakistan on October 14.Ahmedabad will host several big-ticket games, including the final on November 19•AFP/Getty ImagesIndia-Pakistan! I to be in Ahmedabad for it.
Lol.Okay, what other big games should I call in sick for?
India and Australia have played some cracking games in Chennai, including a thriller during the 1987 World Cup. They meet again in Chennai, on October 8, to open their respective campaigns. England and South Africa are among the most power-packed batting line-ups in the tournament, and their meeting at the Wankhede Stadium on October 21 should be full of runs. There could be a bit of help for fast bowlers in Dharamsala, where Australia meet New Zealand on October 28. The two best ODI teams of the last two World Cup cycles, India and England, face off in Lucknow on October 29, and then there is the rivalry to end all rivalries, the derby, on November 6 in Delhi.Right. So at what time do these matches begin?
There will be six day games, starting 10.30am IST (0500 GMT), but every other match will be day-night contests, starting at 2pm IST (0830 GMT).Are there reserve days in case of rain?
Yup, there will be reserve days for both semi-finals – which are scheduled to take place in Mumbai and Kolkata on November 15 and 16 – and the final.

The champions of 1975 and 1979 can still make it, but they’ll need the stars to align in their favour

S Rajesh27-Jun-20232:03

Will West Indies qualify for the 2023 World Cup?

The World Cup Qualifier has now moved to the Super Six stage, which means six teams will be fighting for two spots that are up for grabs for the World Cup in India later this year.However, all six teams don’t start as equals in the Super Six; Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe take four points into that stage, based on wins against the two other teams which have qualified from their respective groups. Netherlands and Scotland have two points each, which brings us to the major talking point going into the Super Six: can West Indies, currently on zero points, still finish in the top two and qualify for the World Cup?Related

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Going by the way they have batted, bowled, and, especially, fielded in the tournament so far, you’d have to say no, but mathematically they are still in with a chance. In fact, even if they lose to Oman or Sri Lanka and finish with four points, it’s still possible for them to be tied with four other teams, fighting for the second spot on net run rates. However, that isn’t the route they would want to take.Victories in their three matches will obviously give them the best chance of qualification, but even then they will be at the mercy of several other results going in their favour.To start with, they will have to hope that both Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe lose at least two of their three games; if they win two, they will both move to eight points, which will guarantee qualification.Losses to Zimbabwe and Netherlands mean West Indies begin the Super Six with zero points•Getty ImagesEven if either of these two teams, or any of the others, finish on six points, West Indies will have to ensure they finish ahead on net run rate. On that parameter, Sri Lanka are far ahead (2.698), owing to their thumping win against Oman, when they chased down a target of 99 with 35 overs to spare. (Only the result margins against the two other teams that qualified are used for NRR calculations. So Zimbabwe’s 304-run demolition of USA won’t count.) A very faint silver lining for West Indies is that their NRR didn’t suffer when they lost to Netherlands via the one-over eliminator. Therefore, they are ahead of Netherlands and Oman on that aspect.West Indies could still qualify without NRR coming into the equation if, for example, Zimbabwe lose all their Super Six games, Sri Lanka lose to West Indies and win their other two matches, Oman win two, and Scotland and Netherlands win one each. Then Sri Lanka will finish on eight points, West Indies on six, and the others on four each. On the other hand, if Zimbabwe win all their games and Sri Lanka lose theirs, then Zimbabwe and West Indies could finish as the top two.However, if West Indies lose to Scotland on Saturday, they will be eliminated for sure, as at least two teams will surely finish with at least six points. The champions of 1975 and 1979 will need all the stars and net run rates to align in their favour to even have a chance of contesting the 2023 crown.

Gardner’s fourth-innings and match figures were both the second-best in all women’s Tests

Sampath Bandarupalli26-Jun-202321 Test match wins for Australia women, the most by any team in this format, going one ahead of England’s 20 wins. The Nottingham Test was also the first Women’s Test with a result since Australia defeated England in 2015. The six previous Tests in this period had ended in draws.Related

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1371 Total runs scored by England and Australia at Trent Bridge, the highest aggregate in a women’s Test, surpassing the 1143 runs between England and Australia in 1998 in Guilford. The scoring rate in this match was 3.67, the highest for any of the 145 Women’s Tests played to date.8 for 66 Ashleigh Gardner’s bowling figures in England’s second innings. These are the second-best bowling figures in Women’s Tests, behind only Neetu David’s 8 for 53 in 1994, also against England, in Jamshedpur.ESPNcricinfo Ltd12 Wickets for Gardner in the Nottingham Test, including the four in the first innings. Only one player had picked up 12 or more wickets in a Women’s Test before Gardner – Pakistan’s Shaiza Khan, who had match figures of 13 for 226 against West Indies in 2004 in Karachi.1 Sophie Ecclestone and Gardner recorded the first-ever instance of two bowlers claiming ten-plus wickets in the same Women’s Test. The duo had three five-wicket hauls between them, the joint-most for a Women’s Test, alongside the 1934 Brisbane Test between Australia and England, which was the first-ever match in the format.ESPNcricinfo Ltd305 England’s second-innings total against India in the 2006 Taunton Test, the highest women’s Test total in a defeat until the 463 all out by England in Nottingham. In fact, only one other team had aggregated 450-plus runs in a women’s Test and ended up losing – New Zealand’s 468 runs in the 1969 Christchurch Test against Australia.230 Runs aggregated by Tammy Beaumont in Nottingham, the second-highest match aggregate for a batter in Women’s Tests, behind only Kiran Baluch’s 242 runs against West Indies in 2004.ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 Beaumont’s 208 was the first-ever double-century for England in Women’s Tests and the fifth-highest individual score in the format. Before Beaumont, no player had aggregated even 150 runs in a losing cause in a Women’s Test match.4 Players with five-wicket hauls in both innings of a Women’s Test match, before Ecclestone in Nottingham. Ecclestone’s ten-wicket match haul was the first in women’s Tests to end up on the losing side.

And has anyone scored as many runs at a higher strike rate than Heinrich Klaasen in ODI?

Steven Lynch19-Sep-2023Was Sri Lanka’s total of 50 the other day the lowest in an international final? asked Vivek Naik from India
Sri Lanka’s collapse to 50 all out in the Asia Cup final in Colombo last weekend was indeed the lowest all-out total in any major international final, undercutting India’s 54 in the Champions Trophy final against Sri Lanka in Sharjah in October 2000. There have been only nine lower all-out totals in all one-day internationals.The lowest in the 50-over World Cup final is 132, by Pakistan against Australia at Lord’s in 1999. West Indies managed only 140 when they famously lost the 1983 final to India, also at Lord’s.The lowest in the final of a T20I tournament is Ireland’s 71 against Afghanistan in the Desert Challenge tournament in Dubai in January 2017. The lowest in the T20 World Cup final is Sri Lanka’s 101 against West Indies in Colombo in October 2012.Heinrich Klaasen blitzed 174 at a strike rate of 209 last week. Has anyone made more runs in an ODI more quickly? asked Nick van Vuuren from South Africa
That brutal knock by South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen against Australia in Centurion the other day brought him 174 from 83 balls, at a strike rate of 209.63.No one has scored more runs at a faster rate in one-day internationals: Shane Watson clattered 185 not out from 96 balls – a strike rate of 192.70 – for Australia against Bangladesh in Mirpur in April 2011.The only innings over 150 in ODIs that came at a faster rate than Klaasen managed were two cases of 162 not out – by AB de Villiers from 66 balls (strike rate 245.45) for South Africa against West Indies during the 2015 World Cup in Sydney, and by Jos Buttler in 70 balls – a strike rate of 231.42 – for England against Netherlands in Amstelveen in June 2022.If we look at all ODI innings of 100 or more , de Villiers leads the way with the astonishing strike rate of 338.63 during his 149 from just 44 balls against West Indies in Johannesburg in January 2015. He came in during the 39th over, and was out in the 50th, after smashing 16 sixes and nine fours.Adam Zampa conceded 113 runs in the high-scoring ODI at Centurion. Was this a record? asked Billy McAlpine from Australia
The Australian legspinner Adam Zampa’s forgettable day against South Africa in Centurion last week – rounded off by a tenth over that cost 26 – left him sharing top spot in the list of most runs conceded in a one-day international innings. Zampa matched another Australian, seamer Mick Lewis, who also went for 113 in the famous 872-run match in Johannesburg in March 2006.In all, there have now been 16 instances of a bowler conceding 100 or more runs in a men’s ODI: the only other Australian is Andrew Tye, with 0 for 100 (from only nine overs) against England at Trent Bridge in 2018.Only Viv Richards, with 189, has a higher score from No. 4 or lower in an ODI than Ben Stokes’ 182•PA PhotosWas Ben Stokes’ 182 against New Zealand the highest score from No. 4 or lower in a one-day international? asked Jeremy Newman from England
In a high-scoring few days for international cricket, Ben Stokes clattered 182 against New Zealand at The Oval on September 13. The only higher score from No. 4 in any ODI is Viv Richards’ 189 not out for West Indies against England at Old Trafford in 1984, in an innings that lasted 55 overs.Ross Taylor made 181 not out for New Zealand vs England in Dunedin in 2017-18, and Richards also battered 181 against Sri Lanka in Karachi during the 1987 World Cup. For the list of the highest ODI scores from No. 4 and below, click here.Stokes’ 182 was the highest for England in an ODI, beating Jason Roy’s 180 against Australia in Melbourne in 2017-18.A recent column here mentioned a Sussex player with seven forenames, but my county Northamptonshire also had a multi-initialled man a few years ago. Sadly I’ve forgotten his name! What was it? asked Ted Richardson from Northampton
You’re probably allowed to have forgotten him, because George Arthur Adam Septimus Carter Trenchard Sale Pennington played for Northamptonshire nearly a century ago, in 1927. He played 12 matches that season as a batter, with his highest score of 47 coming on debut, against Glamorgan in Northampton.The son of a vicar, Pennington was also a talented rugby player. He served in the Royal Naval Air Service (the forerunner of the Royal Air Force) during the First World War, and is said to have sunk a German submarine in the Mediterranean Sea. He continued flying after the war, but was only 34 when he died in September 1933, after the aircraft he was piloting crashed on take-off near Doncaster in Yorkshire. His six passengers, who included the famous jockey Gordon Richards, escaped with minor injuries.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

A former India bowling coach runs the rule over India’s most impressive bowler this World Cup

Bharat Arun14-Nov-2023Bharat Arun was India’s bowling coach for two stints between 2013 and 2021. A former Tamil Nadu and India fast bowler, he played a significant role in India developing one of the most rounded and successful fast bowling groups across formats in the 2010s and after.I remember Mohammed Shami saying once, “I need to run in like a horse to be successful.” All this World Cup, Shami has been running in – galloping, you could say – fluently, with an amazing rhythm that complements his bowling skills.Fast bowling is all about a feeling inside that drives the bowler to run in with rhythm and confidence, which in turn enable him to pull off special feats. Shami is being driven by that feeling now.With the kind of momentum he builds in his run-up, and his smooth, repetitive action, he has been able to pitch the ball like he is skimming a flat stone on water, skidding through batters’ defences.Related

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The best example is the mouth-watering ten-ball spell he delivered to Ben Stokes in Lucknow two weeks ago, easily one of the most memorable passages of play at this World Cup.Shami was bowling his first over, the sixth of the England innings. Stokes had come in after England had lost Dawid Malan and Joe Root to consecutive balls from Jasprit Bumrah in the previous over.The first five balls he faced from Shami, Stokes was beaten four times, outside off, and hit on the pads once. The next two balls he got his bat to, but no runs came off them. He was beaten outside off again the following delivery.There were various factors at play that made the pressure mount on Stokes. When the batter is standing deep in the crease, like Stokes was, he allows the ball to move more after pitching. Also, the length that Shami was bowling, he was going to hit the stumps more often than not. Most times when that is the case, the ball is skidding onto the batter rather than bouncing as such, because of the angle and trajectory at which the ball is being delivered.Stokes thought that by attacking Shami, as he attempted to do, he might force him to alter his length. When a batter is charging, though, in such situations, it is usually because he is uncomfortable. Shami will have understood the lengths he was pitching were troubling Stokes. Most bowlers in such situations would think to go shorter when the batter charges them. That lets the batter win the battle.Shami worked Shai Hope out in six balls in the 2019 World Cup game between India and West Indies•AFPShami, though, saw that Stokes was looking to clear his front leg to hit over the 30-yard circle, so he could break out of survival mode. He stuck to his plan of bowling wide of the crease, cramping Stokes for space and forcing him to become increasingly desperate. The tenth ball was pitched fuller. It skidded on faster and went on to break the stumps.Using his fantastic run-up, Shami is able to exploit different angles while delivering from various points on the bowling crease. This is a special skill. A fast bowler with an uncoordinated run-up will struggle to utilise the crease, unlike Shami, who makes the most of the crease to cleverly vary his delivery angle.Shami has the best seam position at release I have seen apart from Sreesanth’s. It’s absolutely straight. Coupled with that, it’s very difficult to predict which way the ball will move after pitching. Movement off the wicket is harder for a batter to counter than movement in the air. For the latter, expert batters are able to look at the position of the seam and often correctly predict the swing. With movement off the pitch, the further up the ball pitches, the less time a batter has to respond.The seam position depends on the position of the bowler’s wrist at release, which in turn depends on how far the arm is from the head laterally at the point of delivery. Bowlers who can swing the ball both ways have a subtle change of arm position: when they want to bowl outswing, their arm is slightly further away from the head than when they bowl inswing, for which the arm is as close to the head as possible. It’s difficult for a batter to read these changes in arm position because the difference is tiny.In Shami’s case, he has a high-arm action. With that and the straighter seam when he pitches really full, the ball tends to move very late upon pitching. And he also induces the batter to offer false shots with such a tempting length.

There is pressure on Shukri Conrad’s team to play an attractive brand of Test cricket and keep the fans interested, but results, as always, are paramount

Firdose Moonda25-Dec-2023Cricket is changing, they say, so much so that South Africa’s Test coach Shukri Conrad – a campaigner for the “proud traditions and heritage” of the long format – had this to say about the state of the game today:”We are in the entertainment business, and we have to make sure we make the product enjoyable not only for fans but for players alike.”Words like “business” and “product” are part of professional sport, but had not really been seriously mentioned in conversations about Test cricket before Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes created a brand that was intended to put bums on seats. Their surge to 11 wins in their first 13 Tests together (which now sits at 13 in 18) puts the onus on others to follow suit and Conrad’s comment indicates South Africa are contemplating jumping aboard the aggressive run-scoring train. But can they and can they do it right now? Is it realistic for a team with their resources and schedule? And is that what their players want? Let’s investigate.England have played more Tests than anyone else in the last 10 years and will play more than anyone else in the next FTP cycle, which gives them plenty of room to experiment with style of play and to gain points on the World Test Championship (WTC) table. If they slip up now and then, it may not matter as much as it would to a team like South Africa, who enter this cycle in a squeeze.Related

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Between 2023 and 2026, they will play two-Test series, both as a consequence of cost-cutting (hosting Test matches is loss-making unless it is against the Big Three, and South Africa do not play England or Australia at all) and to accommodate for the SA20, and so every match will matter. Winning, or at least not losing, has to matter more than the style of play, and South Africa have shown they are capable of thinking that way. Remember the Test against India 10 years ago – almost to the day – where South Africa settled for a draw, eight runs away from pulling off the highest successful chase in the format? They did that because they knew the importance of going into the second Test in a two-match series without having conceded the first. Was it what people wanted to see? Perhaps not, but in the end South Africa won the series and India have yet to beat them in a series at home.Conrad recognises the importance of South Africa holding on to that record this summer. “If it was ever possible to make this series bigger, that makes it bigger: India have never won here. We are certainly going to hold on to that proud record, and make sure that it [loss] doesn’t happen,” he said. “And India is the biggest series we are going to play this year. It has been dubbed the final frontier back in India and we are going to be doing our damnedest to make sure they don’t conquer this final frontier.”There is also more to the desperation to deny India than just pride because it’s a crucial cog in the bigger wheel. On paper, India are South Africa’s toughest opposition in this WTC cycle. After this series, South Africa travel to New Zealand – and New Zealand have never beaten them in a series home or away – with a makeshift side, as the first-choice players are unavailable because of the SA20. With no option to reschedule the matches, Conrad has already prepared a squad, has used them over the last few months in an A series against West Indies and is confident they can compete. “I am going to back myself to come back with something from New Zealand,” he said.South Africa have never lost a home Test series against India•Getty ImagesEven if he is only saying that because he has to, and South Africa lose 2-0 there, their next assignments against West Indies and Bangladesh, both away, and Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home, are ones you would expect them to win. Though upsets happen (Sri Lanka beat South Africa in 2018 but were badly beaten in 2020-21), if South Africa play to their reputation and get positive results in those four rubbers, then, depending on the outcome of the India series, it’s possible South Africa could be contenders for the WTC final. And that’s why Conrad has to take the long view for the next year, with the understanding that almost everything in this cycle could hinge on what happens over the next two weeks.”There’s nothing bigger than the present. And India is present. That makes that the biggest Test series,” he said. “When we leave for New Zealand, then that becomes the biggest and so on. We try to stay in the present but there’s also a little bit of forward planning. I cannot focus only on the now. I’ve got to keep on eye on how things are going to play out – New Zealand, West Indies, Bangladesh and then the home series. But as it stands right now, it’s all about India.”That means South Africa will make every effort to put the energy of labelling themselves as a particular kind of Test team on the back burner while concentrating on results. “I am still very much convinced that Test cricket is a massive thing for all our players but have we got a certain brand? I don’t have a name for it but I am always going to go for the character over the cover driver.”There’s a message in that. The South African way, if you will, is not about the aesthetic but the outcome, not about the pretty but the performance and about far more walk than talk. And that’s not just the cricketers. The national rugby team won a record fourth World Cup earlier this year by scrapping their way to one-point wins in all three knockout matches. It was messily magnificent and made the point that sometimes success is nothing more than a long, hard slog. That’s the opposite of what the business of entertainment is but given the fixtures Conrad has to work with, it may be what he demands from his players even though it will not take away from the wider problem that red-ball cricket faces in this country.South Africa have played three Tests this year thus far•AFP/Getty ImagesLower down the supply chain, in domestic cricket, the South African Cricketers’ Association’s (SACA) 2023 player review revealed that there is a desire for “more cricket to be played to reduce the gap in standard between domestic and international cricket.” They asked for a minimum of 10 games a season, an increase of at least three from the seven they play now, and for the season to start with four-day games before progressing to T20 to “help prevent injuries.” What they might have meant was that four-day cricket needs to be better prioritised so that it can produce Test-ready cricketers.Currently, the red-ball competition has to take place on the margins of peak summer, because the SA20 has claimed the main window, between early January and mid-February. Tests will be played in December and players get a window to prepare in October and November. In places like the Western Cape, summer is only beginning (remember the 47 all out Test in 2011? That took place in November) and pitches are not at their peak. It’s hardly surprising then that coaches and ex-players “unanimously” told the SACA reviewers that they believed domestic standards in the last 10 to 15 years had dropped. It also means that selection criteria could change and instead of the best-performing domestic red-ball players automatically earning call-ups to the Test squad, the best ODI players could. “The formats are so close together now that you can almost use lateral form lines from T20s into ODIs and from ODIs into Test cricket,” Conrad said.It’s an imperfect workaround which will only cause the stature of the domestic game to dwindle more but at a time when the only form of cricket in this country that is financially viable is the SA20, what else can anyone do? At least, the change is coming while the Test side is being coached by someone who has seen a massive amount of it. Conrad played cricket when South African sport, and society, was racially segregated, he coached before, during and after the domestic overhaul that went from provinces to a six-team franchise structure and then back to the provinces and he has learnt to take things, even things like being tasked with being a great entertainer, in his stride because that is what South Africans do. “We can bemoan every fact but that is not typically South African,” he said. “Typically South African is that we have to get up and find a way and make a plan and that’s what we’ll do.”

Under the left-arm spinner’s leadership, Tamil Nadu have sealed three outright Ranji wins in a row for the first time since 2015

Deivarayan Muthu07-Feb-2024R Sai Kishore listened to his inner voice and dropped out of engineering to become a professional cricketer. That inner voice helped him win IPL titles with Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans and even make his international debut last year. And, having taken over Tamil Nadu’s full-time captaincy in this Ranji Trophy season, Sai Kishore continues to listen to that inner voice.Under him, Tamil Nadu have secured three successive outright wins to top the Group C points table, which also includes Karnataka and Gujarat. This is only the first time since 2015 that Tamil Nadu have notched up three wins in a row and they are now looking to extend that streak when they meet Karnataka in the sixth-round fixture at Chepauk.”I was nowhere on the scene but it is that inner voice that has taken me here,” Sai Kishore tells ESPNcricinfo. “I feel more often than not my inner voice is right and I trust it. But, for example, in that Tripura match, we won the toss and batted first in swinging conditions. It was not a great decision, I admit it. I agree it wasn’t the correct decision, but my instinct wanted to bat first and I took it. From that you learn, but at least I listened to that inner voice.Related

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“Things are just happening for Tamil Nadu. As a captain, I’ve just tried to take the result out of the equation. Whoever is playing – I want to make sure he is secure and he just has to contribute. In my mind, I’m valuing a 30 or a two-wicket haul like a hundred or a five-wicket haul. And because of that, I feel we’re able to enjoy the game more. I still remember ahead of the Railways game, TN had just one point. That was also fine with me and three outright wins is also fine with me. The prep and process remains the same for us.”Sai Kishore draws inspiration from his first IPL captain MS Dhoni and coach Stephen Fleming, who prioritised processes over results and insulated the dressing room from pressure even when they lurched from one loss to another in 2020.”I have learnt from the best of leaders. I’ve been in an environment like CSK with Fleming and Dhoni,” Sai Kishore says. “Fleming used to take sessions on captaincy and leadership at CSK – he runs the team superbly. Coming from domestic cricket, you won’t see a coaching style like that. In 2020, CSK kept losing, there was a lot of outside noise, but Dhoni always handled it calmly and never let the pressure get to us.”When you see such a calming influence, you try to resonate with it. It’s a moment to realise but takes a lifetime to master. The core part of it is the way you play the game and if you focus only on the result, there will be more pressure and you can’t control it.”

“When there’s a need for a tall spinner with a high-arm action, people might come to me. Sadly, out of a billion only 15 can be in the side, right? Till then, my mindset is to keep levelling up and be ready”R Sai Kishore on his ambitions of playing international cricket

Sai Kishore has led by example for Tamil Nadu, taking 27 wickets in five games at an average of 18.85. Only four other bowlers have more wickets than Sai Kishore in this Ranji season so far. Prior to that, he was the joint-highest wicket-taker in the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy, with 19 strikes in eight games. He was also the only spinner – and one of only two bowlers – to dismiss gun finisher Rahul Tewatia in seven innings.”Tewu is one of the smartest players going around,” Sai Kishore says. “I think [in] the first year at GT, I had the upper hand on him and then in the second year, he outsmarted me [at nets]. He can be dominant against both pace and spin. In that match, my inner voice told me I should bowl slower through the air but the ball shouldn’t turn. The ball didn’t turn but had revolutions on it and dipped. I managed to execute it and it went straight on and I got the caught and bowled.”Then we had two practice games against Baroda before the Ranji, and that was enough to get into the red-ball groove from white-ball cricket. In terms of load management, I don’t bowl much at practice because I do a lot of bowling in the match. I’m trying to keep myself fresh mentally and physically during practice. Overall, I think I would have bowled just 60 balls during practice across games. So, I’m trying to be smart with my workload and then try to soak up all the pressure in the match.”

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“We want our top end to get most of the runs, but if we can get that lower order to contribute, then we put ourselves in good positions,” says David Hemp

Mohammad Isam23-Mar-2024Bangladesh’s last five wickets contributed 105 runs to their team total of 188 in the first innings against Sri Lanka in Sylhet, and nightwatcher Taijul Islam’s 47 was the top score of the innings. No. 9 Shoriful Islam and No. 10 Khaled Ahmed struck four sixes between them – the only ones of the innings – while even debutant Nahid Rana, the No. 11, handled a bit of a short-ball barrage.Taijul hung around for two hours and 27 minutes. While his limited ability with the bat and batting average of 8.96 before this Test would suggest that he is a genuine tail-ender, he has stacked up a few rearguard efforts over the years. On this occasion, he brought out his square drives and on drives for four boundaries, while two more came behind the wicket.While the contributions of the lower-order batters was nice to see, the talking point was the specialist batters’ inability to counter Sri Lanka’s fast bowlers. And whether they can get a fix in the final innings where they will have many more to get than they did in the first innings.Related

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Litton Das’ 25 was the top score among the specialist batters. Litton got out inside-edging a ball that pitched outside off and nipped back in, while Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Shahadat Hossain nicked balls going away from them.”I think the three Sri Lankan seamers bowled really well. If you noticed, they bowled really good lengths,” Bangladesh batting coach David Hemp said. “They bowled at an angle, so they challenged the stumps. I think they [the Bangladesh batters] were guilty of getting stuck at the crease or playing at balls that weren’t hitting the stumps. It is something that we will discuss overnight into tomorrow, so that we are really clear about how we are going to set about being aware of how to cope with their bowlers.”More importantly, we have to look at how we can score off their bowlers. We are trying to score runs here. We probably got stuck on the crease a little bit, and got sucked into playing at balls that were a touch wide. Playing at balls that we should have been defending.”

“It is obviously going to be the mentality. [Tajiul’s contribution] is something that we have talked about as a batting group. He faced 80 balls, which was a great effort”David Hemp

Test specialists like Zakir Hasan, Mahmudul and Mominul Haque last played first-class cricket in December. They were involved in the BPL afterwards, and more recently the List A competition, the Dhaka Premier League.”They were playing in the DPL, so some one-day stuff. They came to us before the Test so we get some red-ball stuff into them. That’s where you trust them on getting some sort of preparation. They are playing cricket,” Hemp said. “You can argue either way but I just think it is more about that mindset. I don’t think it is a big problem. The players cope well enough with that. It is about making sure to know where your off stump is, understanding your opposition, what their threats are. Then to be able to deal with it. Schedule is the schedule. You are still playing cricket. You are still playing on a game of cricket.”I don’t want to get too carried away with white- or red-ball cricket. Players are doing well, they prepared well, from what we saw in the first three days leading in. Feet movement and decision-making was good, so we have to keep trusting that preparation. You have to get around the fact that you are playing the longer version.”Shoriful Islam and Khaled Ahmed added 40 off 35 balls for the ninth wicket•AFP/Getty ImagesSpeaking about Taijul’s effort with the bat, Hemp pointed to the fact that the lower-order batters do spend time batting in the nets. Taijul, for example, spends long hours in the nets after his bowling sessions, especially in the days leading up to a Test.”Everyone gets a hit [in the nets] in the two or three days heading into a Test match. I think Nos. 8, 9, 10 and 11 made 84 runs off 137 balls [counting Taijul’s 47 off 80 and leaving out Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s 11 off 34]. That’s a good amount of balls played,” Hemp said. “Most of them was played by Taijul today but, also, Khaled and Shoriful did contribute to that.”We want our top end to get most of the runs but if we can get that lower order to contribute, then we put ourselves in good positions going forward. It is obviously going to be the mentality. [Tajiul’s contribution] is something that we have talked about as a batting group. He faced 80 balls, which was a great effort. It is something that we pride ourselves on.”Bangladesh will hope that their misfiring top-order batters do better in the second innings but if it becomes a close game, the tail-enders too have to contribute. And they have shown that they can.

Uncapped, even unknown, Indian players have had a greater impact in the first 30 games of IPL 2024 than in previous seasons

Deivarayan Muthu16-Apr-20249:56

The Mayank Yadav story – A 21-year-old boy from Delhi with express pace

The IPL is the premier destination for the world’s best T20 talent. Hundreds of thousands of people pass through the turnstiles to watch MS Dhoni finish games with sixes, Virat Kohli score centuries, and Jasprit Bumrah nail yorkers. Alongside, an important trend has emerged this season: the rise of the uncapped Indian players. In the first 30 games of the season, the average impact of uncapped Indian players is 22.19 points, which is a 30% increase over last season (17.16), according to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats.Of the three players to have won multiple Player-of-the-Match awards this season, two are uncapped Indians. The first player – and the only one not named Bumrah – to have bagged a five-wicket haul this season is an uncapped Indian. An uncapped Indian is also challenging Kohli for the orange cap – remember, Ruturaj Gaikwad is the only uncapped Indian to have topped the IPL run charts over the years, having done so in 2021.Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have had uncapped Indian bowlers doing the job for them while Punjab Kings (PBKS) have turned to uncapped Indian batters for a lift-off. The Impact Player rule has also contributed to more opportunities for uncapped Indian players. Here are six, who have sparkled in IPL 2024 and promise more for the future.Related

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Mayank Yadav (Lucknow Super Giants)

Mayank announced himself in IPL 2024 by becoming the first player in the history of the league to win the Player-of-the-Match award in his first two matches. The 21-year-old’s victims included Jonny Bairstow, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green and Rajat Patidar, who recently made his international debut for India.The sheer pace with which Mayank took out Maxwell and Green at the Chinnaswamy Stadium set the pulse racing. Mayank’s scorching pace – he can repeatedly top 150kph – even reminded Maxwell of Shaun Tait in his prime. Former Australia allrounder and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) coach Tom Moody was so impressed with Mayank that he felt the tearaway would be “in the conversation” for the upcoming T20 World Cup. But an abdominal injury has somewhat tempered the buzz around him for now.

Shashank Singh (Punjab Kings)

Having picked Shashank for his base price of INR 20 lakh at the last auction, PBKS tried to offload him before they clarified the situation on social media.In his second game for PBKS, against Gujarat Titans, Shashank did the heavy-lifting and then finishing, roles that Liam Livingstone might have been tasked with had he been fit. Shashank, 32, clubbed an unbeaten 61 off 29 balls to bring a chase of 200 within Kings’ reach after they were 111 for 5 in the 13th over. Those who had pilloried Shashank during the auction were now singing praises of him and PBKS for picking the right man.Shashank produced another power-hitting display in his very next innings, against SRH, taking on the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Pat Cummins, but PBKS narrowly fell short in their chase this time. After years of toil in domestic cricket, Shashank has finally stepped into the IPL limelight.Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma have formed a productive partnership for Punjab Kings•BCCI

Ashutosh Sharma (Punjab Kings)

Ashutosh, who had played only 15 T20s before making his IPL debut this season, has formed a deadly tag team with Shashank. They have forged stands of 43 off 22 and 66* off 27 so far. Then, even without Shashank at the other end, he made a sparkling cameo – 31 off 20 balls as an Impact Player – against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on an evening where no other PBKS player struck at more than 150.Ashutosh’s future was uncertain when he was dropped from the Madhya Pradesh team in 2020, but he has found a new home at Railways and now PBKS in the IPL. Amay Khurasiya, the former India batter and Ashutosh’s childhood coach, was so confident of Ashutosh’s ability that he told him: “Whenever you get a chance [in the IPL], you will be a hero!”Ashutosh might have had to wait longer to be a hero had the Impact Player rule not been in place but he’s making up for lost time.2:09

Lara: ‘Want Abhishek to convert big scores to bigger ones’

Abhishek Sharma (Sunrisers Hyderabad)

Abhishek (197.19) has a higher strike rate than Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant and Shivam Dube this IPL. If he continues to tear up attacks, it might not be too long before he becomes a capped player.His strike rate zooms up to 206.34 in the powerplay this season. Only his opening partner Travis Head (207.14 in 2024) and Ajinkya Rahane (208.33 in 2023) have done better than Abhishek across all seasons in that period of play.The match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Hyderabad perfectly demonstrated Abhishek’s explosiveness and role clarity. With the target in front of him and the knowledge that the pitch would slow down later in the night, he tonked left-arm seamer Mukesh Choudhary for 27 runs in a single over.And if he gets past the powerplay, he can be similarly explosive against spin. Against CSK and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Abhishek also opened the bowling, but it’s the opening act with the bat that has bruised oppositions.Riyan Parag has silenced his detractors by putting up a sequence of good scores this IPL•AFP/Getty Images

Riyan Parag (Rajasthan Royals)

In the IPL 2019 auction, RR had snapped up Riyan Parag for INR 20 lakh and then they were so excited by his potential they bid up to INR 3.8 crore to buy him back at the 2022 auction. After struggling in 2023, Parag has finally come of age this season.He has started the season with three fifty-plus scores in five innings – all from No. 4 – which has helped RR adopt a flexible Impact Player strategy. Parag’s run has reduced their reliance on Rovman Powell and allowed them to bring in someone like Nandre Burger as a sixth bowler.Parag has also unlocked his power game this season, clattering 18 sixes in 183 balls. He had shown glimpses of that big-hitting during a sequence of seven successive fifties for Assam in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He has attributed his IPL success to his pre-season prep, which also included training with Zubin Bharucha, one of the senior coaches in the RR set-up, at their academy in Talegaon.Harshit Rana held his nerve in a high-intensity final over despite a rampaging Heinrich Klaasen in the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad•BCCI

Harshit Rana (Kolkata Knight Riders)

Harshit has made an impact in each of the three games he has bowled in so far. He began the season with two-wicket hauls against SRH and RCB, the highlight being stopping Klaasen in the final over at Eden Gardens. Rana, though, didn’t bowl against Delhi Capitals (DC) and missed the next game against CSK with injury, but marked his return with another terrific spell.The scorecard will tell you that he went wicketless, but his defensive skills were critical to KKR’s victory against LSG. Nicholas Pooran has hit a six every seven balls this IPL, but Rana shut him down on the day, restricting him to 16 off 11 balls with wide lines from over the wicket. His ability to bang the ball into the pitch rather than float it on a length is quite rare among uncapped Indian seamers. He is already on the India A radar, and a good IPL season will help him press for higher honours.