His rapid pace and bounce gives cutting edge against Bangladesh

Deivarayan Muthu13-Oct-20231:36

Why is Lockie Ferguson’s form important for New Zealand?

Lockie Ferguson running in hard and pounding the pitch harder can spook batters. Just ask Imam-ul-Haq, who was floored by a rip-snorting bouncer in Abu Dhabi in 2018. Or Eoin Morgan, who fell on his backside during World Cup final at Lord’s in 2019. In his very first World Cup, Ferguson’s rapid pace and bounce gave New Zealand’s attack the cutting edge.Four years on, Ferguson continues to intimidate batters with that pace and bounce. That he has managed to do so at Chepauk, which is usually a paradise for spinners, is extraordinary. It was almost like Neil Wagner in operation with one-day restrictions in place, as my colleague Karthik Krishnaswamy described it. With a square-ish gully, backward point, deep third and often two men patrolling the leg-side boundary, Ferguson unleashed a no-holds-barred short-ball assault on Bangladesh.Forty-five of his 60 deliveries on Friday were either short or short of a good length, according to ESPNcricinfo’s logs. Forty-five! Bangladesh weren’t in control against 20 of those balls.Related

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New Zealand had actually planned this and executed it to perfection. Friday’s fixture was not played on the black-soil turner that was rolled out for the India vs Australia game. This was a mix of red and black with truer bounce. Yet, other teams might have had a temptation to pick an extra spinner at Chepauk. New Zealand are not other teams.They benched legspinner Ish Sodhi once again though he had bagged a six-wicket haul against Bangladesh in Mirpur about six weeks ago. They trusted Ferguson to bounce batters out on an atypical Chepauk pitch. And he did bounce them out. He kept bouncing them out.After the ball didn’t swing – or seam – much in the early exchanges for both Trent Boult and Matt Henry, Kane Williamson tossed the hard, new ball to Ferguson. The fast bowler’s first delivery to Tanzid Hasan was a lifter from over the wicket, which immediately pushed Tanzid onto the backfoot. Ferguson then switched to round the wicket and had the batter spooning a full ball to square leg. Shortly after, he rushed Mehidy Hasan Miraz into splicing a hook to long leg.Nothing could throw Ferguson – and New Zealand – off their best-laid plans. Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh’s best batters tried to counter Ferguson with ramps and hooks, but Ferguson kept hitting the middle of the Chepauk deck like he owned it. The ball after Shakib had flapped a hook for six, Ferguson let rip an even more brutal bouncer at the ribs and had him top-edging it to the keeper for 40 off 51 balls.Lockie Ferguson was New Zealand’s most successful bowler, picking up three wickets•AFP/Getty ImagesWorking his way back from stiffness in the back, which had put him out of the World Cup opener against England in Ahmedabad, Ferguson put in a big shift in Chennai and set up a big win for New Zealand with his 3 for 49 in ten overs.The Chennai crowd had turned up to watch their IPL Super Kings Devon Conway and Mitchell Santner – the DJ even introduced Conway as “Chennai’s very own opener” – but they walked away with Ferguson’s spell from hell.”When it [the ball] was not swinging and on a fuller length, it actually looked pretty defendable,” Ferguson said after his Player-of-the-Match performance. “So, we just tried to change things up – go short – and do what I do in the middle [overs]. I suppose it was different to the New Zealand conditions where you can sort of hit a good length and movement off the pitch.”In India, it’s a bit different, so we’re trying to be a bit creative in the middle period. Obviously, we’re just trying to take wickets and it’s important here in India. I thought we did that as a group really well in the first three games. Once again, [I’m] just trying to find different ways to put the batters under pressure and hopefully get a wicket.”When Ferguson was out on the boundary, New Zealand trainer Chris Donaldson and reserve player Will Young kept ferrying drinks to him and helped him cope with Chennai’s inhospitable heat.”That’s one of the hotter days of cricket I’ve had – that’s for sure,” Ferguson said. “Fortunately, have had some experience, which is nice, finding ways to get through it, but energy levels were fine. Once I start sweating, I can’t stop. So just trying to stay dry, change the shirt and things like that.”Boult, the leader of New Zealand’s attack, also delivered Ferguson a glowing appraisal. “Lockie plays a huge role for us and a guy that can bowl 150ks and has some great skills,” he said at his post-match press conference. “It’s nice to see him get some reward today. He’s very clever with his plans and he likes to attack in the role that he’s in. Hopefully he’s going to play a big role for us over the next couple of weeks.”New Zealand went into the World Cup without the injured pair of Michael Bracewell and Adam Milne. Plus, there were questions around captain Williamson’s fitness. They started the tournament without Ferguson against England, the defending champions. They are now the early pace-setters in the tournament, with three wins in as many games. #JustNewZealandthings

Key numbers after day one of the Dharamsala Test, where the Indian spinners left England in tatters

Sampath Bandarupalli07-Mar-2024220 – Number of balls bowled by Indian spinners in the first innings of the Dharamsala Test. These are the fewest that a team’s spinners have bowled to take all ten wickets in the first innings of a Test match. The previous record was 250 by Pakistan, also against England, in 2022.1871 – The number of balls Kuldeep Yadav took to reach 50 wickets in Test cricket, which is the fewest for any Indian bowler. Axar Patel was the previous fastest, he reached the 50-wicket milestone in 2205 balls.Among all spinners, he’s the second fastest to the landmark, behind England’s Johnny Briggs, who took only 1512 balls to get there.Fewest balls to 50 Test wickets by Indians•ESPNcricinfo Ltd16 – Innings needed for Yashasvi Jaiswal to complete 1000 runs in Test cricket, the second-fastest for an Indian in the format. Vinod Kambli remains the quickest, having got there in only 14 innings.Jaiswal is the fastest Indian to reach 1000 runs as an opener in men’s Tests, bettering the record held by his captain Rohit Sharma: 17 innings.Related

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239 – Number of days from his debut that Jaiswal took to complete 1000 Test runs, the fifth-quickest for a batter. The fastest is Michael Hussey, who reached the milestone just 164 days after his debut.Jaiswal took nine Tests to breach the 1000-run mark in Test cricket, the joint second-fastest in history along with Herbert Sutcliffe, George Headley and Everton Weekes. Only Donald Bradman is ahead, having reached the milestone in his seventh Test.1976 – The previous instance of Indian spinners taking ten wickets on the first day of a Test match. It came against New Zealand in Auckland. The last time Indian spinners took all ten wickets on the first day of a home Test was in 1973, also against England, in Chennai.1 – This is the first instance in 58 first-class matches at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala of spinners picking up all ten wickets in an innings. The previous highest was nine by Saurashtra against Himachal Pradesh in 2007.Most runs in a bilateral Test series for India•ESPNcricinfo Ltd712 – Runs by Jaiswal so far this series, the most by an Indian batter in a Test series against England, surpassing Virat Kohli’s 655 in 2016. Jaiswal’s series tally is currently the third-highest for an Indian in a Test series, behind Sunil Gavaskar’s 774 in 1971 and 732 in 1978-79, both against West Indies.2 – Instances of an Indian spinner dismissing five of the oppositions’ top six in a Test innings in the past seven years. Both times it was Kuldeep who did this – against West Indies in the 2018 Rajkot Test and against England here.

This is the final T20I series for them before the T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies in June

Alex Malcolm19-Feb-20241:43

Where does Glenn Maxwell rank in T20 cricket?

Should Steven Smith be picked for the World Cup?
Steven Smith’s role in Australia’s T20I side has been diminishing in recent years. In 2019-20 when Australia were the No. 1 ranked T20I side he was locked in at No. 3. In the 2021 T20 World Cup triumph he was shifted to a floating No. 4, behind Mitchell Marsh, who would only bat there if Australia lost powerplay wickets. He lost his place from the first-choice XI for the 2022 T20 World Cup when Australia opted to promote Glenn Maxwell to No. 4 and select Tim David at No. 6, with Smith only playing the final game when Aaron Finch and David were injured. He has only played twice for Australia in the format since. He was supposed to get the opportunity to open in a series in South Africa last year but suffered a wrist injury then played the first two games of a five-match series in India but was clearly fatigued and went home to rest from the final three.Australia’s first-choice top three looks fairly settled with the ballistic Travis Head likely to open alongside David Warner with Marsh at No. 3. Australia will want to replicate their powerplay pyrotechnics from the ODI World Cup. Smith can’t match Head’s aggression as he has only struck at more than 146 once in his last 21 T20I innings, and there is an expectation that anchors are going to be rendered obsolete in this World Cup.Related

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There will be those questioning how he is even playing in this series against New Zealand, let alone be in the frame for the World Cup when someone like Matthew Short could be given a chance at the top. The issue is that Smith has outperformed Short at BBL level in the last two seasons, even though Short has been player of the tournament for two seasons running. The sample size is small, but Smith has two hundreds and two fifties from seven innings, averaging 67.83 and striking at 168.87 opening the batting for Sydney Sixers. Short has one hundred in 25 innings for Adelaide Strikers, averaging 45.40 and striking at 149.10. Smith’s career BBL record is far superior to Short’s, highlighting the difficulty for the selectors of rewarding BBL performances when Australia’s Test players don’t get to play.There is one other factor in Smith’s favour. Whilst the World Cup could be a power-hitting bonanza, which would play against Smith’s inclusion in Australia’s final 15, there is always the possibility that a knockout game is played on a worn, spinning surface. Smith’s prowess against spin at the top of the order in a low-scoring game could be a valuable resource. He will get an opportunity in very different conditions in New Zealand. What he will need to show is an ability to go up the gears, like he has done at BBL level, to prove he can be an asset in more scenarios than just low-scoring scraps on spinning tracks.Is the middle order set in stone?Australia’s middle-order has long been a weak point in T20I cricket but it has become a strength in the last three years with the axis of Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David and Matthew Wade proving a very versatile and powerful combination in a multitude of different scenarios.Stoinis’ injury is untimely, and his injury history would have the selectors wary going into a World Cup. Many have conflated his underwhelming batting form in ODI cricket with his T20I place, but he has been very consistent for Australia in the shortest form and his bowling has become invaluable. Taking him out of the middle-order, even temporarily, disrupts Australia’s balance.Josh Inglis could force his way into Australia’s middle order•Getty ImagesMaxwell will be Australia’s first-choice fifth bowler in spinning conditions but Stoinis is a vital sixth option if an opponent collars Maxwell or Australia’s quicks in the powerplay on a slow surface. Stoinis’ cutters and changes of pace are crafty. If he’s not there, that role falls to Marsh, who is not as skilled, and Head’s offspin is the only other option.Josh Inglis will be in Australia’s World Cup squad as the second wicketkeeper and a versatile back-up batter. His skill against spin would mean he is an easy option to slide into No. 5 and could even be a better batting option than Stoinis in certain conditions against opponents with high-quality spinners. But that robs Australia of a bowler. The other option to strengthen Australia’s batting against spin is to play Inglis instead of Wade and rejig the order slightly with David moving lower. That may happen in game one against New Zealand in Wellington with Wade missing on paternity leave. But Wade is Marsh’s vice-captain and his presence at No. 7 is highly valuedHe has proven the ability to get either 41 off 17 or 7 off 3 depending on what is required. He is one of Australia’s best death overs pace-hitters and the only left-handed batter outside of Warner and Head.Short gets the chance to push their case in New Zealand as a back-up allrounder in that middle-order, especially with Aaron Hardie also ruled out. But he does not have much experience in the specialised role and although New Zealand may provide him with chances, it will be very different to the conditions and pressure of a World Cup in the Caribbean. The only other allrounder in the mix for the World Cup is Cameron Green. But he is not in New Zealand with the selectors preferring him to focus on his Test preparations. He will have to prove his case in the IPL and like the other two, is better suited to batting up the order.Who is the back-up quick?Australia will go to the well for a fourth straight limited-overs World Cup with Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc as their first-choice pace trio in a four-man attack alongside Adam Zampa. But it’s worth remembering that Cummins and Starc have not played a T20I since the 2022 World Cup when Starc was dropped for the final game.Nathan Ellis currently leads the race to be Australia’s back-up quick at the T20 World Cup•Getty ImagesNathan Ellis is the fourth quick chosen on the tour of New Zealand and has edged ahead of Sean Abbott, Jason Behrendorff and Spencer Johnson as the fourth option for the World Cup although Johnson has been called into the squad after Stoinis and Hardie were withdrawn. Death bowling in New Zealand is as difficult as it gets, and he will get the chance to cement his place although he will also have a full IPL with Punjab Kings in conditions that are far closer to what Australia will face at the World Cup.Do Australia need two spinners in the World Cup 15?Based on Australia’s last two World Cup triumphs in the T20 version in the UAE and the 50-over version in India, the answer is no. Zampa has been the main spinner and Maxwell the second option. Head also chipped in with vital wickets in the ODI World Cup semi-final. But the pitches in the Caribbean can sometimes spin even more than the UAE or India.The chair of selectors George Bailey did state on record recently that a second spinner would travel to the World Cup. The question for the selectors is then, do they carry a spare spinner in the 15 on the off chance they need to play two in the same side? Or do they do what they did in India and carry a 16th travelling reserve in case Zampa gets injured? The problem is each equation potentially requires a different player.Tanveer Sangha was Zampa’s reserve in India as the 16th player who could only play if Zampa was ruled out of the tournament. But they won’t want to play two legspinners in the same XI. If they wanted a second spinner in the XI, then left-arm orthodox Ashton Agar comes back into the mix.The problem for Agar and Sangha is neither will get any cricket between now and the Caribbean, as neither were selected for New Zealand. Both have one 50-over Marsh Cup final to play in the domestic summer and neither are involved in the IPL.

He came back strongly after a few below-par outings at the start of IPL, with his game awareness and skills making him a match-winner

Deivarayan Muthu25-May-20242:20

Moody: ‘Chakravarthy has grown in confidence with the team’

“How are you feeling?”These were the first words of Varun Chakravarthy’s personal coach to the spinner after he had a bad night at the Eden Gardens, where Punjab Kings pulled off a world-record chase of 262 against Kolkata Knight Riders. It was his worst spell, in terms of economy rate, in T20 cricket.Jonny Bairstow alone hit Varun for 25 off nine balls, including three sixes, on an easy-paced, bash-through-the-line pitch surrounded by small boundaries. At least two of those sixes were mis-hits and most certainly one was parried over the boundary. Varun, however, wasn’t too fussed about it and embraced the chaotic nature of T20 cricket.Related

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“I bowled well, but I was just slightly unlucky,” AC Prathiban, the former Tamil Nadu and Puducherry spinner who works closely with Varun, recalls his charge telling him matter-of-factly after that game.Prathiban was particularly impressed with Varun’s maturity and game-awareness after a chastening outing. Having quickly put that Bairstow blitz behind him, Varun has picked up 12 wickets in five innings since at a strike rate of 9.5 and economy rate of under six. In a rain-hit game against Mumbai Indians at the same venue, where he had been expensive against PBKS earlier, Varun came away with 4-0-17-2, including the prized scalp of Rohit Sharma.”Varun hasn’t changed [his game] much,” Prathiban says. “In one game, the ball lands five yards beyond the boundary; in the other it lands five yards inside the boundary and is caught. Like the [Heinrich] Klaasen wicket in the first qualifier on a bigger ground in Ahmedabad. This IPL season has had many 200-plus totals, and it has been an eye-opener for many bowlers. Varun hasn’t panicked and it’s his game-awareness that makes him a match-winner.””Honestly, Varun’s best ball is the googly, which I think everyone knows,” Prathiban says. “But we wanted to develop the away-going ball for the googly to be more effective. It was entirely Varun’s idea to bring this ball out and we were just trying to make it easier for him rather than complicate it. When everyone waits for the googly, they might play him [like an offspinner], so we wanted to nullify that.”There are other bowlers who have a lot of skills. Varun may not have all of those skills, but he knows when to use his skills. He reads the situation when to bowl the googly or legbreak to that particular batsman.”After KKR’s match against Delhi Capitals, where Varun had claimed 3 for 33, he spoke about the significance of defensive skills in an IPL season where average scores and run rates have shot through the roof.”The defensive ball is the offensive ball,” Varun had told . “I’ve been bowling wide lines and that has also ended up giving me wickets. Nothing was happening when I bowl at the stumps. That’s how much the batters have pushed us.”T20 moves at a frenetic pace. Varun was left behind in 2022. But he has since kept up with it, with both his attacking and defensive skills.Since the start of IPL 2023, Varun has taken 40 wickets in 27 innings at an economy rate of 8.16. No other bowler – fast bowler or spinner – has more wickets than Varun during this period. Having also improved his fitness, Varun had returned to 50-over action after five years, becoming the joint-highest wicket-taker in the most recent Vijay Hazare tournament, with 19 strikes in eight games at an economy rate of 4.27. He was also at it in other T20 tournaments such as the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) and the DY Patil tournament in Mumbai.

“Varun is focussed on making a comeback to the India team and we’ve been working towards that.”AC Prathiban, Varun Chakravarthy’s personal coach

“100%, this has been Varun’s best year in his career,” Prathiban says. “He hasn’t taken a break in white-ball cricket since the last IPL. Varun even played the Jamia Millia tournament, and he also played a quadrangular T20 tournament with the Tamil Nadu team in Andhra before the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.”If you look at the TNPL, you can speak about the boundaries being small, but you come across quality batters like Sai Sudharsan, Shahrukh (Khan), DK (Dinesh Karthik) and Vijay Shankar. Playing various tournaments and 50-over cricket was not to prove a point [that he’s fit] but I feel Varun gets better when he bowls to different kinds of batters on different kinds of pitches.”Despite his stellar run, Varun hasn’t had a chance to add to his six T20I caps – he last played for India in the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE. It just so happens that India already have two elite wristspinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Then, there’s Ravi Bishnoi, who couldn’t make India’s T20 World Cup squad, despite having sealed a remarkable victory for India in a double Super-Over finish at the Chinnaswamy Stadium no less.”Varun is focussed on making a comeback to the India team and we’ve been working towards that,” Prathiban says. “Before the last IPL, he asked me if he can make that comeback. I told him he stands a chance if he gets 20 or more wickets. He has done it in back-to-back seasons now, but selection is not in our control. Playing for India again is the destination for Varun.”Varun could take a big step closer to his destination if he caps the season with his first IPL title, in hometown. His professional cricketing journey had begun right here at Chepauk when he “tortured”, in the words of Stephen Fleming, the CSK batters during his stint as a net bowler in 2018.Post the Covid-19 pandemic, Varun has played two games for KKR in Chennai, but on both occasions his family had turned up in yellow to support MS Dhoni and CSK. With the home team knocked out of the tournament, Varun will have his family swap the yellow for purple and cheer him on to win the (other) purple cap in the final at Chepauk this Sunday.”I’m feeling more responsibility again and [going] back to my home,” Varun told , KKR’s in-house channel, on the flight from Ahmedabad to Chennai. “And this time, hopefully, the people, who all I call, will be supporting for KKR rather than CSK.”

One bloc of countries approaches them with maturity and flexibility; for players from the other teams, they need to like it or lump it

Osman Samiuddin20-Jul-2024Let’s say there are two kinds of players in world cricket: Player A and Player B. (If it’s easier to picture Player A as, say, a New Zealand men’s international and Player B as, I don’t know, a Pakistani men’s international, by all means go ahead.)Player A is employed by an organisation. On top of basic financial remuneration, the player receives a range of perks of a kind most stable jobs offer: holidays, parental leave, sound medical care. They are also represented by a labour association that looks out for their best interests, during their playing career and after. Their employer is sensitive to the fact that the work landscape is changing and that this is the age of the gig economy. There are ever more opportunities out there for their employees, which allow the players not only to future-proof themselves financially but also to evolve and develop as cricketers while active. A central contract for Player A offers security and is, broadly speaking, a tool for empowering them.This an unexceptional paragraph of fact in most situations except in the situation of cricket because Player B is also, on paper, employed by an organisation. But that is where the similarities end. In reality Player B is not so much an employee as someone on the wrong side of an unbalanced power equation. Player B could have a 60-page contract with not a single mention of holiday policy or time off. Player B’s contract reads more like a thin book of strictures, fattened by a detailed spelling out of the punitive consequences should they do that which they should not. Player B has no recourse to a player association that looks out for their best interests. A central contract for Player B offers the employer a means of control, emasculating the employee in a manner that takes their status close to indentured servitude.Related

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If Player A foregoes a central contract, they are not ostracised by their board. They have an adult discussion about priorities and commitments and areas of overlap, which might be to the potential benefit of both parties. If Player B foregoes a central contract, on the other hand, they’re dead to the board. Socially they are seen in similar ways to betrayers or deserters.For Player A, an NOC (no-objection certificate) to play in a franchise league is a formality. For Player B, the NOC is merely a symbol of their powerlessness and exploitation. It’s a little like the global tyranny of visas. A sizeable minority of people doesn’t think about visas at all, jetting off to another country at a minute’s notice. The majority, meanwhile, suffocates under the weight of the requirement, spending half their lives filling out visa forms and paying exorbitant fees for the pleasure, and the other half waiting anxiously for them to be granted. If your visa doesn’t come through, tough (and suck up the financial hit) but at least you can envy-scroll through the Insta feeds of that minority, eh?These are broad, non-specific sketches. There are shades of course: some Player As are not as well off as other Player As, and some Player Bs are not as oppressed as other Player Bs. But the point is this: central contracts have become a modern bellwether for the health of the international game. When they were first widely adopted, a quarter of a century ago, they were celebrated as a game-changing step in the professionalisation of the game. (Australia, forever ahead of the curve, have had them since the mid-’80s). Now when players turn them down, it’s a sign that the international game is fading into irrelevance; the ECB chief executive, Richard Gould, called contracting “an existential issue” earlier this year, before overhauling the system to try and make the ECB as attractive an employer in the marketplace as a Chennai Super Kings.Except that it isn’t as simple as that because, as Player A and Player B show, central contracts might have started off with the same promise but they now represent multiple realities. Yes, turning them down (or choosing shorter deals as some England players did) in one part of the cricket world – let’s lump Australia, New Zealand and England together, clumsily, as a western bloc – suggests that international cricket is no longer what it was. But in South Asia, cricket’s biggest population, where the game is that much bigger, the option of turning a central contract down doesn’t really exist. Some players might be minded to, but turning down those who run the game is still seen as a snub in these parts, not an employment choice. So what does it say about international cricket there, where central contracts are desirable exploitative?Kane Williamson can choose to decline an annual contract with New Zealand and not have his loyalty questioned, unlike subcontinental players when they look for similar options•Mark Brake/ICC/Getty ImagesBy opting out of their contracts, for example, Kane Williamson and Trent Boult were essentially making choices for their work-life balance. There are few, if any, who can think of doing that in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or India.On paper, Imad Wasim and Mohammad Amir did pretty much what Boult did: opt out of central contracts, but still be available to return to play in a big ICC event. In reality, both first fell out with the PCB because of tensions over their availability for Pakistan, and NOCs, then had to make a public show of retiring so they could get those NOCs, and then had to take back their retirements to be available for Pakistan again. And that’s to say nothing of the toxicity that surrounded all this, the sniping from ex-players, coaches, selectors and fans; pretty much what Boult did in the same way ice is pretty much like fire.Ishan Kishan took a break for “personal reasons” (a phrasing that in itself puts one in the mind of those old Bollywood days when flowers were used to symbolise on-screen kisses) late last year and promptly lost his place in the side and from the central contracts pool. If Usama Mir had been a citizen of any of the western bloc countries, he would have filed and won a restraint of trade case against the board for refusing him an NOC, as the PCB did. Yet as a Pakistani cricketer he can’t even think about quitting his central contract, because, well, see Player B in the third para above. And because even without a contract, he’ll still need to rely on the board’s good graces to issue him an NOC, so it’s best not to piss them off.Not that long ago, of course, Player A was in a similar bind. Remember the agitations of Kevin Pietersen in 2012, wanting to play a full season of the IPL even as it clashed with his England commitments? It’s taken time for the ECB and NZC and CA to arrive at the pragmatism and flexibility they exhibit today. In truth, they had no choice because of a truly bonkers cricket calendar and labour laws in their countries. And it’s something to hear Tom Latham say that flexibility is needed. By contrast, Player B is discovering that the more complex the calendar gets, the more their board treats it as the Ming vase to their hammer.It would be remiss to not mention West Indian cricketers here, who were the first to collectively push against the inadequacies of the central contracts system in this new world. But they are somewhat unique in hovering somewhere between – or maybe being a bit of both – Player A and Player B. They have agitated and been punished by board administrations, but also been supported by a strong players’ association and reaped rewards. Pioneering, perhaps, rather than unique.West Indies’ players fought long and bitter battles for their right to ply their trade around the world•Getty ImagesUltimately central contracts are only a symptom. It is, as the World Cricketers’ Association (WCA, formerly FICA) has unfailingly been reminding us for over a decade, the scheduling, stupid. Two parallel cricket calendars, international and domestic franchise leagues, running side by side through the year, every year, neither shrinking; two calendars, let’s not forget, designed by the same people, only, pretending as if each were drawn up in isolation from their own selves.No wonder Tom Moffat, the WCA chief executive, says his organisation has all but given up hope that these same people will ever come together and formulate a workable structure. A soon-to-be-published WCA survey, says Moffat, will show that players want the WCA to put forward some solutions. Eighty-four per cent of players surveyed want ring-fenced windows during which either only T20 leagues are being played or only international cricket, and not both concurrently.Good luck with that. The geographical footprint of cricket is one thing: how do you squeeze leagues in North America and the Caribbean, in Australia and the subcontinent, in the UK and southern Africa, into a couple of windows? Plus, the bilateral calendar is hardly uniform, and lately the white-ball portion of it has started feeling especially random. And there are ICC events every year now.Instead, it might be simpler to do what cricket is doing anyway at the moment, which is to sit back and wait for the BCCI to do something about it. And the BCCI is currently engaged in a face-off with itself for which, by way of explanation, I can’t think of anything better than that Spiderman meme. On one side is the richest board in world cricket, doing more than its bit for international cricket, touring as many countries as it can (apart from one, natch), engaging in pointless bilaterals with countries that need them but also playing five-Test series and prioritising the World Test Championship, and paying its cricketers handsomely to play international cricket. On the other is the board that owns the richest, most expansionist T20 league in the game with one window already carved out for it and other windows being created in other parts of the world by franchises from that league. And it doesn’t allow its players to go play in those leagues, or any others.Recently, the BCCI publicly reasserted the primacy of India duty above the IPL, which is – how to put it – interesting times. The rest of the world will have to wait to see how that plays out (or if at all it does because, you know, inertia is not unknown in Indian cricket administration). And then, as the phrase goes, adjust accordingly.

Their T20 World Cup 2024 has contained signs of rot and a hollow win over Canada cannot mask that

Danyal Rasool11-Jun-20241:15

Do Pakistan need to improve their batting approach despite beating Canada?

The two security guards stood there, chatting away idly. They hadn’t clocked Mohammad Rizwan’s increasing frustration, though if anyone needed to learn how maddening it is when someone holds a game up, it’s probably Rizwan. But the guards chatted on, apparently oblivious to where there were stationed. It was hard to blame them; this was, in some ways, a placeholder masquerading as a cricket match.And it was a bit of a tedious one. So much, in fact, some of the fans in the stadium couldn’t take the delay any longer, and took it upon themselves to shoo the guards away. But it wasn’t until someone in a stronger position of authority, wearing a more important-looking uniform, came over did the guards clear off.The game could finally resume. It was drawing to a close anyway. Pakistan needed a handful to win and there was plenty of time to do it in. Rizwan was scratching his way to his half-century; he would finish on an unbeaten 53 off 53 deliveries. Just earlier, Babar Azam, with whom he had put together a 63-run partnership off 62 balls, was dismissed for 33 off 33 balls. If this is to be the end of an era, there could hardly be a more apt way for “RizBar” to sign off.Related

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If anyone turned up in Nassau County expecting a bruised Pakistan to secure some sort of statement win, they witnessed instead Pakistan serving up another sample of the turgid template this team has obsessed with perfecting. The bowling was inconsistent and yet fiery at all the right moments, much too good for a Canada unit that did well to scrape their way to 106. Pakistan approached the chase with all the enthusiasm of a government official tending to a member of the public, taking the greatest possible time to provide the most minimally satisfactory performance possible.Pakistan may have legitimate grievance with a New York surface that seems to take a personal affront to run-scoring, but Babar’s side has never needed extra motivation to rein themselves in. On a much more productive surface in Dallas, they scratched their way to a below-par 159 and ended up getting done in the Super Over. At times, this appeared an extension of the tortured chase Pakistan bungled against India. But in circumstances that weren’t quite as tense, a bowling unit that wasn’t quite as fierce, and a target that was marginally smaller, the margins that had swung against Pakistan two days earlier ended up going their way.Saim Ayub, who gets boomeranged into the side every time the PCB feels the heat on Babar and Rizwan intensifying, and back out as soon as it eases, returned to the top of the order. Having been out of form of late, he wasn’t about to rediscover it on this surface, and was gone for a 12-ball 6, attempting a heave that would have probably flown out of Rawalpindi if this was the PSL. But, as Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Haris, Haider Ali and Azam Khan have all discovered, this isn’t the PSL. And, for some inexplicable reason, when other teams promote high-intent players who have excelled in T20 leagues around the world, they seem to be able to replicate that success. But a hitter getting drafted into a Pakistan side is a bit like Manchester United appointing a new manager; they might be excellent before they joined, but, for some reason, no longer are.The Pakistan team haven’t presented their best selves at this T20 World Cup•Associated PressIt could be that all the players are useless and overpaid. Or, perhaps, if your favourite player had been selected instead of the one you believe is a #fraud, Pakistan might find themselves in a different position. Maybe if they were a little more overtly patriotic, and kissed the badge a few times, that would do the trick. Possibly, a different captain would have solved the puzzle. If only Pakistan had nine rather than seven men on the selection committee, or four team managers rather than the paltry two they sent with the squad. Or, if the chief data analyst had been a former minister for housing and works rather than fisheries and forestry.Or it might just be the case that the PCB has rarely been serious as a cricket board, and it’s little surprise that it often ends up producing teams fundamentally unserious about challenging for the biggest prizes. Their last two ICC finals wouldn’t have happened if Roelof van der Merwe hadn’t taken a stunner, or if Thisara Perera hadn’t dropped a sitter. There is only so long that lamp can be rubbed before even the genie begins to feel they are being exploited.But those miracles are still more likely than structural reform. And so, on the day, Pakistan made sure they took one step closer to yet another shot at salvation. There was none of the flair the Pakistan of yore seemed to have trademarked, but they know their progress depends on sunshine in Miami, not their strike rate in New York. It might end up being a hollow win that only scratches the surface. And for the changes that will likely follow after they exit this tournament, that is perhaps an apt metaphor.

Narine did everything in his power to propel KKR but Buttler stood in their way with another ‘I’m him’ performance

Ashish Pant17-Apr-20241:39

Rapid fire review: Buttler’s knock among the greatest in a chase?

Sunil Narine did almost everything in his power to keep Kolkata Knight Riders in the hunt for their fifth win of the season. He became just the third KKR batter to score a century, taking them to 223. He bowled with an economy rate of 7.5, the best among all 11 bowlers on display. He picked up two key wickets, and caught the opposition captain back-peddling from mid-on.Yet he finished on the wrong side of the result. And that’s because Jos Buttler happened.Buttler was going nowhere with his innings. Having missed the previous game with an injury, he came in as an Impact Player in the second innings, his left hamstring still heavily strapped. It’s not been the brightest IPL 2024 for Buttler. Before Tuesday, outside of the unbeaten 100 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, his highest score was 13. Against KKR, too, he looked scratchy initially.Related

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At the end of 14 overs, Buttler was only striking at 127.27. The asking rate for Royals had surged to 16 with just four wickets in hand. ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster at this stage had given Royals a 0.44% chance of a win.But Buttler thrives in these situations. With only the lower order for company, he nonchalantly flicked a switch and ransacked every bowler that came in his way. Fast bowler, mystery spinner – he didn’t care. Buttler’s first 42 runs took 34 balls, his next 65 needed only 26 balls. He faced each of the last 18 balls of the chase, declined singles, clearly looked exhausted and in pain but still took his side to the joint-highest successful chase in the IPL.Narine and Buttler’s centuries had one commonality: not to throw away a start. At various stages, they found themselves in a tangle. Narine was at one point on 13 off 14 inside the powerplay. Buttler managed only 22 off 21 balls between overs six to 14. But the thing about great players is they can notch up a gear and hurt the opposition when it matters.Narine did that by ripping to shreds two of Royals’ biggest threats – R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. Ashwin eats up left-handers for breakfast. In the history of IPL, he has 61 wickets against left-handers (joint-highest with Lasith Malinga) at an economy rate under 6.50. The next name on that list is Chahal, who has 60. Chahal has also picked up the most wickets in the middle phase in IPL 2024, and is the current purple cap holder.Someone forgot to give Narine that memo.Coming into the match, Narine had smashed Ashwin for 60 runs in 22 balls in the IPL. By the end of the game, that tally went up to 94 off 39 balls. Ashwin was forced into bowling a defensive outside-the-off-stump line. Only one of the 17 balls he bowled to Narine was hitting the stumps. And yet that didn’t stop the opener from carting him away for four fours and two sixes. Narine’s takedown of Chahal was even more dismissive: 33 off 11 balls, with two fours and three sixes.Sixty-seven runs off 28 balls at a strike rate of 239.3 against two premier spinners in the opposition.ESPNcricinfo LtdNarine’s consistency in IPL 2024 is unfathomable considering he averaged 7.75 in 2021, 8.87 in 2022 and 3.00 in 2023, though he primarily batted lower down the order in those seasons. This year, he has already scored 276 runs in six innings and is currently third in the race for the orange cap. It is no coincidence that Gautam Gambhir’s return to KKR has given Narine’s batting career a second wind. After all, it was Gambhir, who had back in 2017 given Narine the license to go slam-bang at the top.”I think with GG [Gambir] coming back, he gave me the confidence and assurance that I will open the batting, and out of the 14 games, just try to do good in about three or four to give the team a good start,” Narine told the host broadcasters. “The job is just to go out there and try to give a good start. Whatever situation is there, still keep going because if you try to face dot balls in the powerplay, it can hurt you down at the back end, so just go out there and get your team as much of a good start as possible.”At the halfway stage, Narine would have thought he had done enough. Until Buttler intervened.When centurions met: Jos Buttler and Sunil Narine catch up after the match•BCCIAfter struggling for most of his innings, Buttler broke free in the 15th over. The first six balls that Varun Chakravarthy bowled to Buttler in the match were only picked away for four runs; the next six were taken for 22. Buttler struck Chakravarthy for four fours in the 15th and got good support from Rovman Powell over the next two overs. But once Powell fell, Buttler knew it was just going to be him vs KKR.Royals at this stage needed 46 off 18. Mitchell Starc bowled the 18th over and was clobbered for a four and six in an over that went for 18. With 28 needed off 12, Shreyas Iyer asked youngster Harshit Rana to step up. He had already done that twice this season. In KKR’s opening match of the IPL, he defended seven off five against a rampaging Heinrich Klaasen. Against Lucknow Super Giants, he had befuddled Nicholas Pooran with his change of pace.Rana went with his tried-and-tested slower ball again. But Buttler was having none of it. The first ball of the over, a length ball on middle was swatted away miles over deep midwicket. Rana then went pace on and was taken for a four and six. From the depths of 128 for 6 after 14.1 overs, Buttler had lifted Royals to within touching distance of a memorable win. They needed just nine off the final over, and Buttler kept his composure to complete a stunning heist.”Keep believing, that was the real key today. Felt like at times, I was just struggling a little bit for rhythm,” Buttler said after the match. “At times you sort of feel frustrated or you are questioning yourself. I was just telling myself, it’s okay, just keep going. At some point, you will get your rhythm back. There have been plenty of times throughout the IPL, you have seen crazy things happen. Guys like [MS] Dhoni and [Virat] Kohli, the way they stay till the end and keep believing. You have seen it so many times in the IPL, and I was trying to do the same.”As Narine reached his first century in T20 cricket off 49 balls, he punched the air, leapt in delight, and embraced Andre Russell in a bear hug, smiling ear to ear. For someone who shows such little emotion, this was akin to Sreesanth swinging his bat wildly after hitting Andre Nel for six in Johannesburg in 2006. The sort of all-round brilliance Narine displayed would be enough for a win on most days. And it would have been against Royals as well, if not for Buttler coming up with another “I’m him” performance.

No team has ever successfully chased more than Sri Lanka’s 166 in a women’s T20I final

Sampath Bandarupalli28-Jul-20243 – Sri Lanka are only the third team to win the women’s T20 Asia Cup, after India and Bangladesh. India were victorious in 2012, 2016 and 2022, while Bangladesh won in 2018. India also won all four editions of the women’s ODI Asia Cup – 2004, 2005-06, 2006 and 2008.166 – Target that Sri Lanka chased on Sunday, the highest any team has successfully chased in a women’s T20I final. The previous highest was 149 by West Indies against Australia in the 2016 women’s T20 World Cup final.Related

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1 – The chase of 166 by Sri Lanka is their highest in women’s T20Is, bettering their chase of 156 against South Africa earlier this year. It is also the third-highest successful target chase by any team against India.1 – Sri Lanka also recorded the highest successful target chase in the women’s T20 Asia Cup, bettering the 142-run chase by Bangladesh in 2018 against India in Kuala Lumpur.ESPNcricinfo Ltd304 – Runs scored by Chamari Athapaththu in this Asia Cup – the second-most by any woman in a T20I series or tournament. The highest is 310 runs by Hayley Matthews during a three-match series against Australia last season.47 – Runs conceded by Radha Yadav in this match – the most by a bowler in a women’s T20 Asia Cup game. The previous highest was 45 by Aisya Eleesa against Sri Lanka earlier in this edition. The 47 runs by Radha are also the third-most conceded by an India bowler in a women’s T20I.26 – Fifty-plus scores for Smriti Mandhana in T20I cricket, the second-most by a woman, behind Suzie Bates (29). She surpassed Beth Mooney with her fifty on Sunday.5 – Number of fifty-plus scores for Mandhana in T20I knockout matches, the joint-most by any woman alongside Beth Mooney. Mandhana has three half-centuries in the T20I finals, one behind Mooney’s four.332 – Runs scored by Sri Lanka and India on Sunday in Dambulla. It is the highest aggregate for a women’s T20 Asia Cup game, bettering the 324 runs scored by India and UAE last Sunday.

Everyone in the squad can expect an opportunity with six matches in less than two weeks

Andrew McGlashan03-Sep-2024

An opening bat-off?

All eyes will be on Jake Fraser-McGurk. But it’s worth remembering that for all the talk he has generated around the world over the last six months or so, he has yet to make his T20I debut. That will come at some point over the next six matches, but there is no guarantee it will always be in the opening position. Australia are expected to look at a few options as they ponder life after Warner.Related

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It’s been an interesting winter for Fraser-McGurk after shooting to prominence in the IPL for Delhi Capitals following his ODI debut against West Indies last season where he batted as though it was T20s. He was a traveling reserve for the T20 World Cup amid plenty of discussion that he should have been in the main squad, which wasn’t damped by Australia’s Super Eight exit, even if who he would have replaced was never really answered. Then he struggled for runs in the MLC where he made 81 in seven innings for San Francisco Unicorns.It could be that captain Mitchell Marsh partners Travis Head at the top and then the order is built from there. It’s conceivable that over six matches there are six different batting orders. Cameron Green is another option after the success he has previously had at the top of the order, although he expanded his finishing game in the IPL.Jake Fraser-McGurk sparkled at the IPL•Associated Press

Chance for Ellis to be the leader

It’s a curious statistic that among Nathan Ellis’ 25 international appearances to date, only one of them has been at home – a T20I against England in 2022 where he took 3 for 20 in a total of 208 for 6. That will surely change come the November white-ball series against Pakistan, but for now it continues to be on the road where his opportunities come. And this tour represents a chance for him to take the lead in an attack where, through little fault of his own, he has often felt like an understudy.Ellis’ numbers, particularly in T20Is, suggest he could have had more chances than have come his way. He played four matches at this year’s World Cup, but only when one of the big three was rested. Now, with Josh Hazlewood’s withdrawal from the Scotland series, he is the Australia’s most experienced quick.It will be interesting to see which phases of the game he is used in. His reputation has been built on being a superb death bowler, but it’s understood that Australia have highlighted their powerplay bowling as an area that needs work. At the last two T20 World Cups crucial defeats by New Zealand (in Sydney) and India (in St Lucia) have come on the back of being dominated by the opposition batters in the first six overs, while against Afghanistan it took them 15.5 overs to break the opening stand.The swing of Xavier Bartlett will be an option while the pace of Riley Meredith has replaced Hazlewood in the squad. Green will likely have a role with the ball as well in the first six and don’t be surprised to see Australia try and squeeze in an over of spin from someone other than Adam Zampa. But with six matches in 12 days, expect everyone to be given a chance at some stage.