County game has much to consider as early-season Championship dishes up thin gruel

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2022 season has been defined by slow pitches, faulty balls and only sporadic entertainment

David Hopps24-May-2022Lie back and think of England, a phrase first attributed to the advice of prudish Victorian mothers to their soon-to-be-married daughters, might easily have been adopted by the poor, put-upon spectators of the LV= County Championship as the competition reached the end of its first phase.Flatter pitches are widely justified as essential to the rehabilitation of England’s failing Test side, and with some sound reasons, but the Championship has always had two functions – not just to produce Test cricketers, but to be entertainment in its own right. That entertainment has been sporadic, better in some counties than others. While coaches have understandably praised their charges for admirable dedication and discipline, what spectators remain have sometimes struggled to find delight.Spectators are all for England batters learning to concentrate, but few see why they also have to learn stoicism in return – especially when it is too cold to just do the crossword and soak up the sun.Four-day Championship cricket, of course, is understood to be another world. Outside Headingley, around 5pm on Saturday, a typically hedonistic weekend was in full swing. Inside the gates, Will Rhodes and Sam Hain, were dutifully saving the game for Warwickshire with a stand of extreme self-denial that began at barely one run an over and then stoutly added a wicketless Sunday, centuries for both and a stand of 227 in 104 overs. The different mindsets on either side of the Headingley walls were quite something, a game out of kilter with the society in which it must find a future. It cannot afford any false steps.Just as the counties’ ever-improving live streams are making the game more accessible than ever, too many games have died a death. Half the matches in Division One have been drawn (Yorkshire and Warwickshire have drawn nine out of 12 between them) and many such stalemates have been laboriously signalled hours, sometimes days, in advance. It is no way to persuade new converts that the four-day game is worth preserving and no way to protect what little coverage remains in the mainstream media.Regular ball changes have been a feature of the season so far•MI News/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesSix matches in seven weeks (seven in seven for Durham and Leicestershire), each of them almost the equivalent of a Test match in terms of overs, have allowed bowlers no let-up. They are being asked for both intensity and endurance. Some have been up to the challenge and their penetration in difficult circumstances has identified them as England prospects as a result, Durham’s Matthew Potts, with 35 wickets at 18.57, among them.Meanwhile, county stalwarts such as the 46-year-old Darren Stevens, who was understandably piqued last year to find himself presented as an example of what is wrong with the professional game in England, has found life rather harder going. Many will argue that, however much Stevens’ longevity deserves colossal respect, the shift has been long overdue.An average first-innings score over 55 matches of slightly more than 350 also sounds about right. But there have been too many times over the first seven weeks of the season when the progress of the game has slowed rather than quickened and tedium has been the end result. The perfect scenario – help for the seamers on the first day, the best batting conditions on the second and third, with spinners coming to the fore on the final day – has been a rarity.Too many pitches are not wearing and when they do there is a terrible dearth of quality spin bowlers to take advantage. Somerset’s Jack Leach, Notts’ slow left-armer, Liam Patterson-White and Lancashire’s leggie, Matt Parkinson, are the only regular English spin bowlers to have taken their wickets this season at an average below 30. Surrey haven’t even picked Amar Virdi yet and he is potentially one of the best young spin bowlers in the country. As they are top of the table, it is not easy to question their decision – but Virdi needs to be bowling.If better batting surfaces persist then there will be no magical appearance of spin bowling overnight as a consequence, especially if so many matches are packed into April and coaches do not adjust their selection thinking: Lancashire left out Parkinson at the Ageas Bowl in favour of five right-arm seamers. It will take at least five years’ concerted efforts, maybe 10, to bring about change. Along with spin bowlers, English cricket also hankers after fast bowlers capable of bowling at speeds above 90mph (145kph), but they have always been a rare commodity and will remain even more so as long as development pathways remain damagingly narrow.Lancashire played five right-arm seamers and left Matt Parkinson out at the Ageas Bowl•Getty ImagesThe season has been dominated instead by bowlers of traditional virtues, struggling to keep body and soul together while seeking limited seam and swing at 80mph (130kph). In the meantime, can county cricket withstand the pain? And with English cricket in another power struggle, with the future structure of professional cricket under review (again), there is scant encouragement anyway for counties, or indeed ambitious young players, to make long-term plans.While bowlers are being found out in more exacting conditions, by the same token, hundreds have become devalued, too many made in sedate fashion against moderate and weary attacks. As many as 32 players average more than 60 as the first stage of the season comes to a close, compared to only six when the 2021 season came to an end. Tot up the number of absent pace bowlers from an average round of Championship matches and the figure can exceed more than 30 as injuries, IPL opportunities and England withdrawals take their toll. English cricket, as so often, has swung from one extreme to the other.Fast bowling, in any case, appears to be more of an occupational hazard than ever before. For all the medical analysis, all the individually-designed programmes, all the gym work, all the well-meaning protection of young bowlers as they grow, we live in an age of inactive lifestyles. Rarely can quick bowlers put in the sort of bowling shifts of 85-90% intensity that can allow their bodies to strengthen. In short-form cricket especially, 100% intensity is demanded all the time. Many of the county bowlers with the best injury records, those who have allowed a responsive pitch to do the work, now face conditions that are alien to them.Related

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  • Rhodes, Hain guide Warwickshire to battling draw against Yorkshire

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  • Dukes admit 'quality issue' with batch of balls for early stages of county season

Another problem with the ECB’s lobbying for pitches to be shaved lower, and to possess less moisture content, is that such instructions have come with many other variables. Any scientist will tell you that the best experiments test for one variable at a time with everything else constant. But this county season has several variables in play – and they have all increased the likelihood of drawn games.So much Championship cricket in April and early May condemns the Championship to slow pitches. The sort of pace the ECB hankers after is hard enough to produce in England in midsummer and almost impossible to find in early spring which has led groundstaff in the past to zest up their surfaces with greener pitches.Squares are under heavy pressure in terms of usage as the Hundred and the rise of women’s cricket increases demand. With most outgrounds abandoned long ago for reasons of cost and convenience, finding faster, fresher, turning surfaces is not an easy task. Rob Key, the MD of England men’s cricket, has wondered aloud whether improved outfield drainage, which has been massively successful in reducing rain-affected games, has had a detrimental effect on the pace and bounce of pitches. Another variable to consider.Supporters have had to endure slow pitches and high scores in the early rounds of the county season•Getty ImagesThen there is the performance in 2022 of the Dukes ball. Perhaps the biggest influence of all. Bowlers have complained the balls have been going softer quicker, they have repeatedly had to be changed for going out of shape, and the seams have been less prominent. They have found swing harder to come by. although that might also be partially explained by a cold and dry Spring. New-ball wickets have always been important, but rarely to this extent.
.It took five rounds of matches for Dilip Jajodia, the owner of British Cricket Balls Ltd, to concede that the company had suffered Covid-disrupted production lines, and six rounds for the counties to receive fresh stocks. It should have happened quicker. Stuart Broad joined up with England complaining that it had been like “bowling with Plasticine”.Last week, the ball appeared to swing more at some grounds, the first two days at Headingley for one, but then the weather was more unsettled, so perhaps it would have done anyway. But it was another variable to consider.And we must not overlook that old favourite – the debate over the regulations surrounding the heavy roller. Its use is intended to help replicate conditions found in international cricket, but the pitches are dry and there are few dents to flatten. When combined with the lack of pace in most county surfaces, it results, all too often, in colourless, attritional cricket that rewards patience more than skill. If drier, shaven pitches are the future, then the heavy-roller regulations need changing.Ottis Gibson, Yorkshire’s coach, knows he is supervising one of the weaker seam attacks in Division One, but after four draws from winning positions at the start of the final day, he recognised that demoralisation was creeping in. “The first two innings the ball did a bit, but maybe it was the four heavy rollers – two per innings – which then deadened the pitch,” he said.Finally, the biggest bugbear of all: eight points for a draw. English football introduced three points for a win, rather than two, as long ago as 1981 to shift the balance against negative football; English professional cricket has increased draw points to 50%, enough to avoid relegation without winning a single game.County cricket, in recent years, has been a game of survival. Players, especially captains, have had little need for ambition or imagination. Just hang in there and the game will naturally take its course. For the moment, the batters are dipping their bread. But bread and dripping is no sort of diet.”A balance between bat and ball”. It is what everybody wants. It appears to be notoriously hard to achieve it and constant meddling makes it harder still. Not for the first time, the county game has a lot to consider. And the game, lest people forget, is the thing.

Suryakumar Yadav's pyrotechnics leave Trent Bridge in awe, solidify spot for T20 World Cup

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Batter hit 117 at No. 4 filled with shots that defied limitations of physics and human strength

Sidharth Monga10-Jul-2022Before we knew physics or angles or athleticism or strength or fitness, most of us have visualised ourselves playing shots nobody plays to hit balls into areas nobody hits. Then we grew up and learnt of the limitations physics and human strength impose on batting, of how well bowlers can make batters hit to spaces they have fielders in. Despite all the ramps, scoops and even the Ollie Pope sweep with his back foot in front of the front, we are aware of certain limitations to batting.At Trent Bridge, Suryakumar Yadav was that child inside us, challenging the limitations we have learnt exist on batting. One of them is that you can’t hit a full ball on leg stump for a six behind point without getting into an unorthodox position. It is a fairly reasonable assumption. Except that Suryakumar made a little room, collapsed the back leg, scythed the ball with a face so open that only the trailing edge was visible from front-on, and used his wrists at an impossibly late moment to make sure it went away from that deep point fielder.And it went deep into the stand. He had no business getting the elevation or the distance that he did. It was a ball that might have perhaps yorked him had Suryakumar played well forward. It was an almost perfectly executed delivery bowled to Chris Jordan’s field. Instead he created the time and the angle and whippage to send it over square third.Related

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  • Malan 77 helps England weather Suryakumar 117

It was a shot that defied all we have learnt. And yet it was not the only one. There was a similar six off Richard Gleeson, but, more mundanely, it went over cover-point. There was a sweep off David Willey early doors. The drive over extra cover to Jordan’s perfectly executed hard length was sensational. One short-of-a-length legbreak from Liam Livingstone landed over short fine leg.All this done not in the nets or a lab but out there in the middle, in a chase of 216 in which nobody other than Suryakumar went past 28. He scored 117 off 55 balls in near-perfect fashion, playing only five false shots. In all T20 matches that we have control data for, there have been only five hundreds with fewer mistakes. Only three of those have had a strike-rate higher than 200.This was an innings that challenged the whole idea of batting. To manoeuvre the ball into vacant places – often behind square – you need to take risks. Rishabh Pant is another Indian batter who does it incredibly, but he takes risks for it. Suryakumar batted with the efficiency of someone coasting through the middle overs of an ODI but at a pace befitting a T20 at a ground that has made mockery of all standards of the pace of run-scoring.Suryakumar Yadav’s knock reintroduced us to the child in us who used to day-dream of playing shots that nobody else tried (for good reason)•Getty ImagesSuryakumar’s captain, Rohit Sharma, was left in awe of what he saw. “One of the best in the T20s that I’ve seen,” Rohit said of Suryakumar’s innings. “Especially when you’re chasing a score like that and you come out and bat the way he did shows the quality of the batsman. We were three down and we wanted to dig in, get that partnership going and bat as long as possible.”He pretty much did everything right today. Just that, I’m pretty sure he’s slightly disappointed that he couldn’t be there right till the end, but taking nothing away from that kind of knock. You don’t get to see that every day. So we will take that with both hands as a team and pretty sure he will be very happy with how he responded to that situation. We know the quality of him. He’s got shots all around the ground, as you saw clearly… manoeuvring the field, playing all sides of the ground. It’s a very rare quality that a batter can have and Surya definitely has all of that.”In the end, in the face of nearly insurmountable asking rate, Suryakumar tried one improbable shot too many. With 40 required off the last two overs and with no specialist batter left for company, Moeen Ali kept trying to hide the ball wide outside off and just short of a length. The shots that are logically on for these deliveries get you one, two or four in the arc from extra cover to square third, but looking for a six, Surya tried to muscle the ball down the ground. He had neither the length nor the pace to work with, but by the end of it he had dispelled any doubts there might have been on who should be the first name in the middle order come the T20 World Cup in Australia.It was a bonus that it was an innings of such high quality that it left the whole ground on its feet, and reintroduced us to the child in us who used to day-dream of playing shots that nobody else tried (for good reason).

Stats – Jonny Bairstow's quick century and England's record chase

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Boundaries and dropped catches galore

Sampath Bandarupalli14-Jun-2022The Bairstow-Stokes blitz
77 Balls needed for Jonny Bairstow’s century, the second-fastest fourth-innings hundred in Test cricket. The fastest came off 76 balls by Gilbert Jessop against Australia in 1902 at The Oval. Bairstow’s hundred is also the second quickest in terms of balls for England in Tests, behind Jessop’s 76-ball effort.ESPNcricinfo Ltd8.87 Run rate during the 179-run partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes, the third-fastest century stand in Tests in terms of run rate (where balls data is available). It is also the quickest partnership by run rate in Test cricket, that lasted 20-plus overs.10.00 England’s run-rate in the final session of the match. They needed 160 runs in 38 overs but took only 16 to score those. Their scoring rate of 10 is the highest for a team in a single session of a Test match since 2016 (where a team batted 15 or more overs).The previous highest run rate was 8.29 by New Zealand during the post-lunch session on the first day of the Christchurch Test against Australia in 2016. New Zealand scored 199 runs in only 24 overs, while losing three wickets.England’s record chase
5.98 England’s run rate during the 299-run chase, the fourth-highest for any team in a Test innings where they scored 250-plus runs. The highest is 6.80 by South Africa when they scored 340 for three in 50 overs against Zimbabwe in the 2005 Cape Town Test.0 Number of 200-plus targets successfully chased in Test cricket, faster than England’s run rate of 5.98 in Nottingham. The previous fastest 200-plus chase in Tests was by England, who chased 204-run target against South Africa in 1948, scoring at 5.77 runs an over.ESPNcricinfo Ltd299 The target chased by England in this match is the highest successful Test chase at Trent Bridge. England broke their own record, having chased 284 in 2004 against New Zealand. The 299-run chase is also the third-highest by any team against New Zealand in Tests and the fifth-highest for England.1 Previous instance of a team chasing down a 250-plus target twice in a Test series before England in the ongoing series. The other instance was recorded by England when they chased 282 and 284 respectively at Lord’s and Nottingham against New Zealand in 2004.Boundaries galore and high-scoring rate
1 The Nottingham Test between England and New Zealand became the first-ever Test match with 1000-plus boundary runs. The previous most boundary runs in a Test was 976 runs during the Sydney Test in 2004 between Australia and India.ESPNcricinfo Ltd249 Number of boundaries hit by England and New Zealand – 225 fours and 24 sixes. These are the most boundary hits in a Test match, surpassing the 242 during the Australia-India Test match in 2004 in Sydney. Although, the 225 fours at Trent Bridge are the second-most in a match, behind only the 238 fours in the 2004 Sydney Test.4.10 Scoring rate in this match is the highest for a Test match (Where 2100-plus balls were bowled). The previous highest run rate in a Test was 4.08 during the Test between England and India in 1990 at Lord’s.ESPNcricinfo Ltd1675 Runs scored by both teams in this match, the eighth-highest aggregate in Tests and the highest in the last 15 years. It is also the second-highest match aggregate for a Test match in England, behind the 1723 runs in the 1948 Leeds Test between England and Australia.837 runs in vain
837 New Zealand’s match aggregate at Trent Bridge is the second-most runs scored by a team in a Test defeat. The highest aggregate to lose a Test is 861 runs by England (496 all-out and 365 for 8) against Australia in the 1948 Leeds Test.ESPNcricinfo Ltd6 Test matches with a result where both teams scored 500-plus runs in their first innings, including the Nottingham Test. In all those six matches, the team conceding the first-innings lead ended up on the winning side.Butter fingers
11 Catches dropped by both the teams in this Test match. In the last four years, only two Test matches had higher number of dropped chances – 12 in the 2021 Harare Test between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, and 12 dropped catches during the Chattogram Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka earlier in May.

371 Runs scored by England batters after reprieves in this Test. Both centurions in England’s first innings – Ollie Pope (37 to 145) and Joe Root (27 to 176) – scored more than 100 runs after been dropped by the New Zealand fielders.

Stats – A rare bat-first win in Dubai, and Sri Lanka's remarkable comeback

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All the statistical highlights from Sri Lanka’s 2022 Asia Cup win

Sampath Bandarupalli12-Sep-20223:18

Maharoof: ‘These young lions will be treated like heroes’

4/18 – Win-loss record of teams batting first in men’s T20Is in Dubai since the start of 2021. Sri Lanka’s total of 170 for 6 was the lowest among the four instances of teams successfully defending in Dubai in the last 12 months.0 – Previous instances of Sri Lanka winning a men’s T20I after losing their first five wickets inside ten overs when batting first. Before the 2022 Asia Cup final, only once did Sri Lanka win a T20I – batting first or second – despite losing half their side in fewer than 8.5 overs (as was the case on Sunday) – against Australia in 2017, when they lost their top five within 4.3 overs.Related

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2013-14 – Last time Sri Lanka won five consecutive men’s T20Is before this Asia Cup was in the 2013-14 season. They won five T20Is in succession before losing to England in the group phase of the 2014 T20 World Cup.3 – Sri Lanka is only the third team to win a men’s T20I final while defending a total [among the 13 finals involving two Full-Member teams]. India won by five runs against Pakistan in the 2007 T20 World Cup final, while West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 36 runs in the 2012 T20 World Cup final.5 – Consecutive wins for Sri Lanka in T20Is against Pakistan, all with Dasun Shanaka as captain. Shanaka also led them to a 3-0 series win in 2019. Before this winning run, Sri Lanka had only five T20I wins against Pakistan in 18 meetings.Sri Lanka had bowled Pakistan out four times in this five-match winning streak but had done it only twice in the first 18 games against them.2:05

Arthur: Hasaranga is reliable, incredible and loves playing on the big stage

2 – Fifty-plus partnerships for Sri Lanka in the final, after losing their fifth wicket. It is only the third instance in men’s T20Is where a team had two fifty-plus stands for the last five wickets. Pakistan had done it against Sri Lanka in 2015 and Norway against Switzerland earlier this year.71* – Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s unbeaten innings of 71 is the highest individual score while batting at No. 5 or lower in a men’s T20I knockout game. The previous highest was 68 by Tamoor Sajjad of Qatar while batting at No. 6 against Saudi Arabia in the final of the 2019 Western Region T20.2 – Players with 30-plus runs and three-plus wickets in a men’s T20I knockout between two Full-Member nations. Carlos Brathwaite is the only player to have achieved this double before Wanindu Hasaranga in this match. Brathwaite scored 34* and took three wickets in the 2016 T20 World Cup final against England.

Siraj and his favourite toy: the wobble-seam delivery

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Fast bowler lost his inswinger in 2018 and relies on this variation to test both edges of the bat

Sidharth Monga15-Dec-2022There have been, in the last couple of months, reasons to feel low about Indian cricket with the way they lost the semi-final of the T20 World Cup and the ODI series in Bangladesh. However, if you need some cause for optimism, don’t look beyond the second day’s play in Chattogram.Two bowlers who probably wouldn’t have played but for injuries struck in their first overs and kept striking to take seven wickets between them. Mohammed Siraj gave India the perfect start by taking out Najmul Hossain Shanto with the first ball of the Bangladesh innings. It was the classic outswinger (for a left-hand batter) that pitched and then seamed away, which he didn’t intend. If the bowler doesn’t intend to do something, there is little chance a batter can react to it.However, Siraj’s next two wickets came with the ball that has drawn criticism from certain quarters. The dangerous-looking Litton Das and the patient debutant Zakir Hasan both fell to the ball that came out of the hand with a scrambled seam and moved in (for the right-hand batter) after pitching. Zakir is left-handed. So this ball would move away from him, and when it comes down from round the wicket, he really doesn’t have a lot of choice. He had to play. And he was caught behind.Related

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  • Siraj emerges as India's ODI new-ball trump card

It is suggested that Siraj’s “obsession” with the wobble-seam ball prevents him from maximising the use of traditional swing. To Siraj, though, it is a necessity that he has come to love. And contrary to common perception, it is not recently that he has discovered the wobble-seam ball. He owes part of his success in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2020-21 to this variation. His accuracy with the movement back into the right-hander allowed India to bowl with leg-side fields and exercise control.”I lost my inswinger in 2018,” Siraj said when asked about the wobble-seam delivery. “The ball was swinging out well, but once I lost the inswinger, I got confused why the ball is not swinging in. That’s when I worked on the wobble seam because movement back in also causes batters headaches. The batter can pick the outswinger from the hand, but the wobble-seam ball moves only after pitching like a fast offcutter. I trust it more, and get a lot of success with that ball.”Siraj’s magic with this delivery was at its peak during the 2021 tour of England. R Ashwin joked on his show to the coaches that they got him into the team saying he is a seam bowler, but he is just bowling extremely fast offbreaks. R Sridhar, the fielding coach, joked it was a newfound toy for him.However, it is no newfound toy. Siraj himself says he started working on it in 2018. Bowlers at least as far back as Shaun Pollock have been deliberately scrambling the seam to surprise the batters with movement off the pitch. If it lands on the edge of the seam, the ball tends to move in; if it lands on the leather, it goes straight on. Pollock was the real master of it, mixing seam-up deliveries with wobble-seam ones.Stuart Broad and James Anderson are the modern masters of this variation. It provides Tim Southee a change-up because he doesn’t really bowl an inswinger. Siraj uses the same logic. Southee probably uses it more sparingly because he has a better, more consistent outswinger than Siraj.On slow pitches with low bounce, like the one in Chattogram, Indian quicks anyway like to attack the stumps. The movement back in helps Siraj stay within the stumps, but with movement. It gives him better control.Having said all that, there is no metric for the opportunity cost. Does he really overdo it? What does he lose out on by overdoing it? Does he lose the wrist position required to bowl the outswinger? That is something only Siraj, the team management and the batters who face him know.

Ihsanullah, the young speedster who has taken the PSL by storm

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Here’s everything you need to know about the fast bowler, who impressed with figures of 5 for 3 in the match against Gladiators

Umar Farooq17-Feb-2023So, what is Ihsanullah’s story?
He was born and raised in Arkot village, a hilly area in Matta Tehsil in Swat valley, the northern part of the country. He lost his house during the 2022 Pakistan floods, which affected millions of people, after which he had to rebuild his life from scratch.How did Ihsanullah get into cricket?
Ihsanullah and Sirajuddin (another emerging bowler in the Peshawar Zalmi squad) were called up by Rashid Latif in Islamabad for trials. The duo had enrolled in the Kamyab Jawan Sports Drive, a talent programme by former Prime Minister Imran Khan in collaboration with Lahore Qalandars’ player development programme. He was recommended to three PSL franchises – Qalandars, Karachi Kings and Multan Sultans – and Multan managed to get him registered in the PSL 2022 draft.In 2017, he played in PCB’s Under-16 tournament representing FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Area) and was the second-leading wicket-taker for the region with 12 scalps. He was selected to play PCB’s U-16 Pentangular T20 Tournament in 2018 but soon fell off the radar. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) picked him to play three-day cricket in 2021. But he shot in prominence only last year when Sultans got him in the supplement category half-heartedly as their last pick, just to have a back-up fast bowler on the bench.Did Ihsanullah play PSL last year?
He did. He had bowled one over against Karachi and got injured in his very next game against Lahore Qalandars and was never able to complete his quota of overs. He touched 138kmph and was a reluctant starter for competitive cricket. He was ruled out of the remainder of the tournament last year. A year later he was among the eight players that the franchise preserved as their core.What did Ihsanullah do to earn back Sultans’ faith?
He finished his rehabilitation and recovered ahead of the domestic season with KP under head coach Abdur Rehman (also an assistant coach at Sultans). He played seven first-class matches, the National T20 Cup and the Pakistan one-day Cup – where he become the second-leading wicket-taker with 25 dismissals at an average of 19.96 and a strike rate of 18.2. An improved Ihsan managed to hit the form right in time before the PSL.Wasn’t Ihsanullah a bowler with 130kph speed? How did he work on it?
He was always quick. In domestic cricket, his average speed was in the 130s but often crossed the 140kph mark. According to his coach Rehman, “he had minor issues in his action like running with bigger steps in early days but with time, with minor tweaks, he started to get fluent. He [has] got height, his muscles are building and he is growing with every game he is playing. He is understanding the importance of fitness and the mechanic of fast bowling and now getting into the right frame. A proper fast bowler. The good thing about him is not just pace but he is economical with speed as well and it’s a complete package. He, with time, has room to add another 2kph to what he bowled yesterday (150kmph). We entered into the tournament with him among our main bowlers we can rely on.”

Should Kings have retired Atharva Taide out earlier?

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Ian Bishop says the decision to retire a batter out needs guts, while Dasgupta believes it was the right move and should have been made sooner

Karthik Krishnaswamy18-May-20231:34

Bishop: Decision to retire out needs ‘guts’

With five overs remaining in their chase of 214 against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday, Punjab Kings made a rare tactical call. Atharva Taide, who had scored 55 off 42 balls, went off the field, becoming only the second player in IPL history to retire out.At that point, Kings were 128 for 3, needing 86 to win off 30 balls.Kings had begun their chase with a required rate of 10.7 in 20 overs. Taide had faced the equivalent of seven overs and gone at a rate of just above 6.3. When Taide retired out, their required rate had shot up to 17.2.With six-hitters in Jitesh Sharma, Shahrukh Khan and Sam Curran waiting to bat, it seemed an entirely pragmatic move for Kings to pull off a batter who was clearly struggling – Taide finished with a control percentage of below 70 – but did they wait too long to make it? They certainly let Taide bat on for a considerable length of time: his was the highest score of the 14 T20 innings that have ended in this manner. The previous highest was 50 off 39 balls, by Hevit Jackson for France against Estonia in July 2022.Related

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Reviewing the Kings-Capitals game on , ESPNcricinfo experts Deep Dasgupta and Ian Bishop felt Kings could have retired Taide out earlier in their innings.Bishop, though, hailed Kings for taking the decision in the first place. Only once before in the 16 seasons of the IPL has a batter retired out – R Ashwin during Rajasthan Royals’ match against Lucknow Super Giants last season. Bishop said he had been on the verge of suggesting on social media that Kings follow that example, only for the thought of Rahul Tewatia’s miraculous turnaround from a similar situation, back in 2020, to hold him back.”The over before, I was getting ready to put on social media – retired out, but I was reluctant in case he did a Rahul Tewatia, and that kind of opprobrium being thrown back at me,” Bishop said. “But I want to give them credit for actually making the decision, whoever made it, because it’s not an easy decision to make, even though Ashwin did it and we’re going to see it more and more, it still takes some guts.”So that’s another opening of that pathway now for teams to make that call, but yes, it could have been done a little earlier.”Dasgupta was unequivocal that Taide should have come off earlier.Atharva Taide was only the second batter to retire out in the IPL•Associated Press”Well, to be honest, [the decision] should have come a little earlier, because [Taide] was going at [a strike rate of] about 130 if I’m not wrong, in a 200-plus game, 214 to be precise. You’ve got to go quicker than that. That middle phase is, I think, where it hurt Punjab a lot … Those middle overs, especially those six overs of spin, I think that really, in the end, hurt Punjab quite a bit. A few more runs there, it would have been a very interesting last over – and it was (laughs).”Liam Livingstone’s six-hitting kept Kings in the game, just about, and when the last over began, he was on strike with 33 required – a six every ball. The win seemed to go out of the window when he swung and missed at the first ball from Ishant Sharma, but a no-ball for a high-full toss later in the over put Kings back in contention – at least mathematically – with 16 needed off the last three balls.It wasn’t to be, with Ishant closing the match out with two dots and the wicket of Livingstone, caught on the long-off boundary for 94 off 48 balls.That Kings got as close as they did only reinforced the idea that they may have left it too late to retire Taide out. But on another day, they may not have needed to make the decision at all. In the 10th over, when Taide was on 35 off 28, he stepped out to Kuldeep Yadav and miscued him to long-on, where substitute fielder Yash Dhull put down a sitter.Dhull’s drop was part of a series of fielding lapses from Capitals. Livingstone had been reprieved in Kuldeep’s previous over, when Anrich Nortje dropped him at deep midwicket. And in the over after the Dhull drop, Livingstone and Taide were involved in a mix-up that left the latter stranded halfway down the pitch, only for the extra-cover fielder David Warner to miss the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Then Livingstone, looking to run an overthrow, found himself in no man’s land when Taide sent him back, but an inaccurate throw and a missed collection from keeper Phil Salt gave him another life.Kings would have been relieved that Livingstone survived his near-misses, but they may have had a slightly more mixed reaction to Taide’s lives. The longer Taide’s struggle went on, the more it hurt their chances, and for that reason, it would have been entirely in Capitals’ interests to keep Taide on the pitch.That, then, could be the next tactical taboo for an IPL team to break: the deliberate dropped catch.

A fair and insightful review of the only tournament in cricket that matters – the Asia Cup

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Featuring a look ahead to forthcoming editions of the competition where the rules are made up and the points don’t matter

Andrew Fidel Fernando19-Sep-2023The Asia Cup, which is the world’s premier cricketing tournament for countries that tell their friends they hate each other but constantly send each other “U up?” texts, has finally ended.As is standard for situationships of this nature, nobody is really fully happy with how it all went down.So let’s debrief. I guess.Oh god.

RULES FOR THE NEXT JAYSIA* CUP

For several tournament cycles, the ICC has unashamedly put India and Pakistan in the same group, or created a round robin structure in which they were sure to meet, in order to maximise broadcast and sponsorship revenue in world tournaments.The Asian Cricket Council has tried to make as many Pakistan vs India matches as possible happen as well. But some idiot team, from a country called Sri Lanka, keep screwing up the schedule for broadcasters and sponsors, partly because of their rain.In light of these capitalist misadventures, here is a proposed list of rules for the next Asian tournament.- India vs Pakistan matches will always have a reserve day. This much is obvious.- If the reserve day is not enough to get a completed game, the match will go into a third day. Any matches between lesser teams scheduled on that third day to be played in the car park with a tennis ball or whatever they can find, who cares.- India and Pakistan always start in the same group, but also importantly always have the weakest opposition in the tournament in their group.- If Nepal become a formidable side by the start of next Asia Cup, the tournament expands to seven teams, and Nepal get put in the group with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc, and India and Pakistan play in a three-team group featuring, say, Mongolia.- In the Super Four stage, do away with the pointlessly complicated net run rate. If there are teams on equal points, country with highest population goes through.- This is unless Bangladesh officially pass Pakistan’s population numbers. In which case, we go back to NRR.- Each ACC member takes turns hosting the tournament. Meaning, they rotationally get the chance to guess the exact venues and schedule the BCCI wants, as that is what ends up happening.

TEAM REVIEWS

Afghanistan

Marks out of 10: 432, as a tribute to whoever was doing the calculations in the team’s dressing room when they could have qualified with big shots against Sri Lanka in the last group game.High point: Almost beating Sri Lanka in a major tournament.Low point: Almost beating Sri Lanka, then learning that if they had had better information, they could have knocked Sri Lanka out.

Bangladesh

Marks out of 10: 4, because while they seemed like a team that be able to challenge the traditional Asian powers, in this tournament the good performances came too late.High point: Beating India in the last Super Fours game.Low point: Doing the thing that most people expected them to do – kind of compete, but also fall well short.

Nepal

Marks out of 10: Full marks for playing their part perfectly in this tournament, by letting Pakistan, then India, walk all over them.Low point: Losing by 238 runs against Pakistan.High point: At Himalayan elevations, everything is high.

India

Marks out of 10: Who’s gonna argue with a 10 to India? I want to live.High point: Rohit Sharma jokingly asking those setting off fireworks outside the stadium to just wait till they’d won the World Cup.Low point: No, but really, are these guys safe?

Sri Lanka

Marks out of 10: Let Dasun Shanaka pick this since he can get up to 10 and make a double figure score at last.High point: Charith Asalanka taking the team home, off the last ball, against Pakistan.Low point: Getting blasted out, for 50 all out in the final.

Pakistan

Marks out of 10: Full marks to the seam bowlers. Not so many marks to the spinners.High point: Shadab Khan making Virat Kohli laugh during an exchange during the rain breaks of that first “Pakistan vs India final”.Low point: Having no faith they could do it again.*The Briefing condemns this spelling of the tournament name in the harshest possible terms, and invites ridicule on anyone who would sound it out as “Jaysia” while reading.

When Nepal fans lit up Pallekele on a rainy day

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

A contingent of around 200 Nepal fans made the largely empty stadium feel like a full house

S Sudarshanan05-Sep-2023Stand on the eastern grass banks of the Pallekele stadium and close your eyes, it feels like a full house. The decibel levels rise as the bowler runs in, with cheers accompanying each boundary or a dropped catch. India are quite used to this in a cricket match. Only, this time it was not for them.Pallekele is a quaint town about ten kilometres away from Kandy. The roads leading to the cricket stadium are two-way and winding, which restricts the speed you can drive at. Travel is not the easiest and as a result, the queues for security checks aren’t serpentine for the men’s Asia Cup.Add to that forecast for rain, the prospect of India playing in the vicinity, and Nepal squaring off against them for the first time in international cricket, was not enticing enough for the fans in Kandy on a Monday afternoon. But a contingent of around 200 fans clad in Nepal’s jersey had walked in and took their spots in different stands. And their presence was unmissable once the action began.Related

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Rohit shows his enterprising, inventive side during ruthless knock

A group of about 75 Nepal fans square on the leg side from the broadcast end were creating the atmosphere and revelling in it. In the sixth over of the match, opener Kushal Bhurtel played a straight punch to split mid-off and mid-on. The fans ran to their right, in the direction the ball had been hit. The next ball was pulled way over long leg. The direction didn’t matter; the fans yet again had their running shoes on.A 45-year-old in the group matched an 11-year-old for energy. All of them in the contingent were from Kathmandu. The cricket match was a stop in the week-long educational tour of Sri Lanka organised by Rajarshi Gurukul.”We have a yearly trip and this time we are in Sri Lanka,” Rajeem Dhungel, an economics teacher who was managing the kids, said. “The most exciting thing for us is the historic match between Nepal and India.”The songs – by Nepal’s one of the greatest bands Nepathya – and – the fastest Nepali song to 20 million YouTube views – proved to be perfect for the group to groove to. The cherry on top was Nepal had raced away to a rollicking start: 53 for 0 in nine overs.Even the subsequent wickets, and rain, did not dampen the spirits of the fans. And they were given reason to cheer their throats out when Aasif Sheikh completed his half-century and then when Sompal Kami hit a 56-ball 48 to delay the end of the innings. It was as if the players gave every fan more reasons to cheer for them.The stands largely wore a deserted look. If not for the Nepal fans, an India game would have had an unusually quiet look to it. Not always are India fans outnumbered. And not always is an India win just a footnote.

Hardie, Sangha and more – four new names in Australian cricket

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Also keep an eye out for a left-arm seamer named Johnson, and the BBL’s Player of the Tournament

Andrew McGlashan07-Aug-20232:25

George Bailey: Ideal world would have two captains, not three

Aaron Hardie (T20I and ODI squad)

Mitchell Marsh, Cameron Green and now Aaron Hardie. Australia are being well served by allrounders from Western Australia. Hardie has pushed his claims strongly with red and white ball. Initially it was in four-day cricket where he caught the attention, hitting an unbeaten 174 in the 2021-22 Sheffield Shield final against Victoria to steer Western Australia to the title.Although he struggled to quite hit those heights last summer, he struck a century for Australia A against New Zealand in April. However, he also had a breakout campaign in the BBL for Perth Scorchers where he was the tournament’s leading run-scorer having found a new home at No. 3. His pace bowling is useful with a first-class average under 30.Related

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“One of the silver linings of not being able to bowl much in last year’s Big Bash was it allowed him the opportunity to bat up the order,” chair of selectors George Bailey said. “We saw how destructive he was batting a three for the Scorchers – and think he’s batted everywhere from three to seven – [and] he’s got some good power. So whether that role is in finishing off an innings with his power hitting or he does get an opportunity a little higher up the order, we’ll see.”We make no secret of the fact we like our one-day team to have a number of guys who can bat in the top seven who can bowl some overs. It gives you the ability to structure up differently.”

Spencer Johnson (T20 squad)

Time for another Australian left-arm quick named Johnson? Twenty-seven-year-old Spencer Johnson is one of the most fascinating stories currently in the game. He has enjoyed a rapid rise up the pecking order after impressing for Brisbane Heat in his first full BBL season where his ability at the death stood out, holding his nerve in consecutive games against Hobart Hurricanes and Melbourne Stars. He then claimed his best figures of 3 for 28 in the Challenger against Sydney Sixers. He rounded out the season with impressive returns for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield and went on the A tour to New Zealand.That all came after battling a recurring stress fracture in his foot, which first occurred on his debut for South Australia in 2017, and left him fighting for his professional career. “It was just such a rare bone to get a stress fracture in,” he told ESPNcricinfo earlier this year. “There was no evidence that [surgery] would work but after 12 months of it not healing, it was the only option to try and put in a couple of screws.”He is viewed as a potential replacement for Mitchell Starc when he begins to wind up his white-ball career after the ODI and T20 World Cups, and there could be more beyond that. “Spencer is on the radar for all formats, he’s a pretty exciting talent,” Bailey said. “There’s some genuine pace there, a pretty handy skillset in being able to swing the ball. It is always nice when you have someone bowling left-arm, it’s just a little bit different and can add some real variety to your attack.”First and foremost we’ll get a really good look at him in the T20 series, which is probably the format he’s played the most. But the little bit we’ve seen of him in one-day cricket and even four-day cricket, we like that skillset as well, so he’s one we are keen to invest a bit of time into.”Tanveer Sangha, despite having just five List A matches to his name, could very well make Australia’s World Cup squad•Getty Images

Tanveer Sangha (ODI squad)

It is close to a year since Tanveer Sangha, the 21-year-old legspinner, last played cricket. He missed the entire 2022-23 Australian domestic season with a stress fracture of his back, but the Australia selectors have certainly not forgotten him. To the extent that he is only a couple of selection calls away from making the final ODI World Cup squad despite having just five List A matches to his name.When fit, Sangha has put his name up in lights in the BBL for Sydney Thunder with a 21-wicket haul in 2020-21 earning him a place on a T20 tour of New Zealand. He followed that with a further 16 wickets in the 2021-22 BBL before his injury-enforced layoff.”He’s been on our radar for a long time,” Bailey said. “His Big Bash form when he’s been fit has been excellent so he’s one that we are really impressed with. The common comment around Tanveer is that is he’s very mature on the field and a great thinker about how he goes about it. He had an unfortunate injury last year which meant he lost a bit of a game-time but the age he is, and the skillset he has, I don’t think that’s going to set him back much.”Matthew Short notched up a 50-ball 80 recently for Washington Freedom in MLC•BCCI

Matthew Short (T20 squad)

Matthew Short was the BBL’s Player of the Tournament last season after scoring 458 runs and taking 11 wickets for Adelaide Strikers, backing up a 2021-22 campaign where he had made 493 runs. His standout performance came against Hobart Hurricanes where his unbeaten 100 from 59 balls carried Strikers to a record chase of 230.On the back of those returns, Short was picked up as a replacement player by Punjab Kings in the IPL although he found the going tougher with 117 runs in six innings. However, he recently made 80 off 50 balls playing for Washington Freedom in MLC and on Sunday struck 73 off 36 balls for Northern Superchargers in the Hundred.With David Warner and Cameron Green, who were Australia’s previous T20 opening pair last November, rested for the South Africa tour, and Aaron Finch retired, Short has a strong chance of finding himself alongside Steven Smith at the top of the order. With Adam Zampa the only frontline spinner, Short’s offspin will also likely be called on. He has often bowled with the new ball in the BBL.

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