They will invariably be looking to put on massive totals – like Kings tonight, it might lead to their downfall, but it also might be their only chance

Karthik Krishnaswamy01-Apr-20222:37

Zaheer on dew: ‘Need to accept challenges and deal with them’

That dew has had an exaggerated impact on IPL 2022 is clear not just from the results so far – chasing teams have won seven of the first eight games – but also from how the players and coaches have spoken about it.”We’re going to bowl first,” Shreyas Iyer, the Kolkata Knight Riders captain, said at the toss on Friday, “and the reason is obviously the swimming pool in the evening, which we’ll see.”Related

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Just under 24 hours before that, Moeen Ali had worn a haunted look while being interviewed by host broadcaster Star Sports between innings. “It’s going to be difficult because of the dew and they [Lucknow Super Giants] have a brilliant batting line-up,” he said. “We are going to have to bowl well.” These were the words of a man whose team, Chennai Super Kings, had just scored 210.Super Kings duly lost that game. It was the third time the 200-mark had been breached by a team batting first this season, and the second time it had been chased down.Punjab Kings had chased down 206 against Royal Challengers Bangalore on the second day of the tournament, and had done so with an entire over to spare. You can understand, then, why they batted the way they did when Knight Riders sent them in on Friday.It’s a strategy that can look spectacular when it comes off, and for a while it looked like it might, particularly when Bhanuka Rajapaksa clattered Shivam Mavi for 4, 6, 6, 6 in the fourth over of the match.It can also bring about flurries of wickets, and cause teams to be bowled out inside 20 overs. This was Kings’ eventual fate on Friday, as they folded for 137 with ten balls of their innings unused.Punjab Kings’ attacking approach didn’t come off on Friday•BCCITeams batting first know, of course, that they risk being bowled out for 135 if they set their sights on 220. But Kings still chose that approach. So did Knight Riders two days ago; they went just as hard and collapsed just as spectacularly against Royal Challengers.That these teams chose this approach over a more conservative one that might have brought them 170 at best or 150 at worst should tell you all you need to know about their assessment of the conditions. They didn’t think they could win with 150 or 170. As the ESPNcricinfo columnist Kartikeya Date might put it, they chose competitiveness over respectability.It didn’t come off for Punjab on Friday, just as it didn’t come off for Knight Riders on Wednesday. But equally, it came off for Super Kings on Thursday, but it didn’t matter; they still lost, their bowlers powerless to defend 210 in another second-innings swimming pool.It’s too early to predict if the rest of the season will follow the same pattern, but it’s hard to see it change too much, given that the same four venues will host all of the league phase, and that three of them experience the coastal humidity of Mumbai.The dew probably won’t go away. At least some of the teams will continue setting their sights on mammoth first-innings totals in a bid to overcome the disadvantage of losing the toss. It will come off sometimes, it won’t come off at other times, but it will probably remain their only way to give themselves a chance.

Time and again he has been written off, time and again he proves people wrong

Shashank Kishore12-May-2022″Most of Australia hate me. There’s no doubt that I’ve had a lot of opportunity and haven’t quite nailed it, but hopefully they can respect me for the fact I keep coming back… hopefully I’ll win them over one day.”This was Mitchell Marsh, speaking after picking up his maiden Test five-for in 2019. It was supposed to be a happy occasion, but it was overshadowed by a decade of under-performance. After all, Marsh had first made heads turn in 2010, at the Under-19 World Cup, and later that year for the Deccan Chargers as an 18-year-old.At the time, Adam Gilchrist, captain of the defending champions, spoke glowingly of the boy from Perth who could hit a long ball and take big wickets. He was deemed the “perfect package”.Little did Gilchrist, or anyone else, know that Marsh would play all of 27 IPL games over the next 12 years. Or for that matter, no more than 36 T20Is for Australia since his debut in October 2011. But he kept coming back. Not quite as the finisher that everyone expected to be, but as a No. 3 who would go on to win a T20 World Cup.Related

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On Wednesday, nearly six months after that surreal innings in the final in Dubai, Marsh was at it again. And like then, there was no inkling of this being his night. Covid-19 had pushed him to the sidelines of an IPL season which began while he was nursing a hip flexor injury.When you’ve been as injury prone as Marsh has been, you’re playing as if every game is possibly your last. Remember the opening game of IPL 2020? A hobbling Marsh, who was one of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s big-ticket signings, had to leave the tournament due to a “moderate- to high-grade syndesmosis injury” in his right ankle and saw his season go up in smoke.This wasn’t a final, but the stakes were still high. Delhi Capitals, his third IPL franchise, had outbid Sunrisers, his former team, and new entrants Gujarat Titans to secure his services of INR 6.5 crore (USD 866,000 approx) for precisely magic like this. A chase of 161 a sluggish pitch was no walk in the park for a team that had to win to keep their playoff hopes alive.Then, he walked into bat at the fall of the first wicket in the very first over. The scoreboard didn’t move for the next two, as Rajasthan Royals, perhaps the best bowling attack in the competition, kept coming at him. Marsh’s season – not to mention his whole team’s as well – was going to be defined by the passage of play over the next 90 minutes.He was initially at sea when Prasidh Krishna tested him with hard lengths. Inside edges rolled off the pads, out swingers whizzed past the outside edge, cut shots going nowhere, playing and missing at deliveries that reared up – it was all happening. But Marsh didn’t seem agitated, not even after playing out a maiden over.In the third over, he had a massive slice of luck. The ball from Trent Boult swung in late and struck him on the boot right in front of the stumps. Royals appealed but the umpire was unmoved. Everyone thought there had been an inside edge. There wasn’t. Marsh was on 1 off 9 deliveries. As he looked at the replay on the giant screen, there was a grin and a fist bump with Warner.Marsh: Warner opening and me batting at three, we’ve had a lot of great partnerships•BCCI”If you looked at the powerplay tonight for both teams,” Marsh said later, “the ball was swinging around, also nipping around, probably one of the toughest powerplays I’ve batted in since I started playing T20 cricket. We just had to get through that unscathed. If we are two or three down, the game gets really hard. So we assessed that we have got to cut back on our runs and make sure we’re just one down at the end of the power play.”Lot of credit to them [Royals], they bowled exceptionally well in the powerplay to us and made it really tough, but chasing 160, you only need that one big partnership and that was our main focus. The last 18 months, I’ve loved batting with Davey [Warner]. Him opening and me batting at three, we’ve had a lot of great partnerships. Tonight was a memorable one for the Delhi Capitals.”Marsh made the plan sound simple, but it needed a lot of work, starting with a change in stance. Normally, he bats on leg stump and then shuffles across just as the ball is delivered. But that was leaving him wide open to Boult’s inswingers. So, he took guard just a little outside leg stump. Now he could keep his natural trigger movement and not worry about the lbw.R Ashwin came on for the next over. Marsh had seen enough. Length deliveries into the pitch were causing batters some discomfort. He knew that because that had been his earlier in the night – mixed in with cutters and slower ones – to pick up two massive wickets. At the first sign of something full, Marsh opened his shoulders and crunched Ashwin for six over long-off. He had picked the carrom ball off the hand and went inside-out. It came as a massive relief. The fist bump with Warner after the shot, which he stood back and admired on the giant screen, told you how much he enjoyed it. It was the start of superb spell of batting.Marsh was in control even without really imposing himself. He played to his strengths rather than trying to outfox the bowler or second guess what was coming. It was just simple and clean hitting that comes from picking the lengths – and the spin – early. It must have helped that he was batting with a great mate. Warner was with him at the other end on that famous night in Dubai. And he was with him again, just turning the strike over so he could sit back and watch from the best seat in the house.As if to say thank you, Marsh provided a power-hitting exhibition. The two sixes he hit off Kuldeep Sen in the seventh over – dead straight and over the sight screen – were right out of the top drawer, By then he’d raced to 39 off 28 even as Warner was a run-a-ball 12. The six to bring up his fifty as he took on Chahal was a sign of complete mastery over his batting. From there on, it was a cruise.”In terms of the way he goes about it, he’s someone I’ve looked up to for a long time now,” Marsh said of Warner. “I’ve been very lucky, over the last 18 months, to have been able to bat with him a lot and form a great partnership and great friendship. The friendship side of things comes out in the middle of the game. His experience, calmness – you can all see how much he loves winning. It feels like he’s back to where it all began for him. He’s been super consistent this year, I love batting with him.”Marsh couldn’t quite finish the job, but by the time he was dismissed in the 18th over, he’d made 89 off 63 and taken the Capitals to the doorstep. As he walked back, soaking in the applause, he had served a quiet reminder, something that he has had to right through the career. That he wasn’t to be counted out. Not now, not for the next few years. At 30, the possibilities are endless.

And what’s the lowest score a batter has a Player-of-the-Match award for?

Steven Lynch14-Jun-2022I spotted that Mustafizur Rahman took 28 wickets in his first ten ODIs. Was this a record? And what’s the most by anyone in any spell of ten ODIs? asked Khaled Hossain from Bangladesh
Mustafizur Rahman’s tally of 28 wickets in his first ten one-day internationals for Bangladesh – starting with 5 for 50 and 6 for 43 against India in June 2015 – has been bettered only by another left-arm seamer, New Zealand’s Mitchell McClenaghan, who managed 29; the West Indian Ottis Gibson also took 28.The purplest ten-match patch at any stage in ODIs belongs to Pakistan’s Waqar Younis, who claimed 35 wickets in ten games between April and November 1990, a run that included five five-fors, three of them in succession, and even one wicketless match. Ajantha Mendis once took 34 wickets in ten ODIs for Sri Lanka, while Rashid Khan of Afghanistan and Oman’s Bilal Khan (earlier this year) have both managed 32.All nine Bengal players who batted reached 50 in their recent match against Jharkhand – is this a record? asked Peter Dayson-Smith from England, among others
This was reasonably fresh in the memory, as a few weeks ago I answered a similar question after seven Surrey players reached 50 in an innings against Kent. And so it’s easy to confirm that Bengal’s nine half-centuries against Jharkhand in Bengaluru last week is a record for any first-class innings, beating eight by the Australian tourists in their match against Oxford and Cambridge University Past and Present in Portsmouth in 1893. There have been 26 instances of seven scores of 50 or more in an innings, including Surrey’s total of 671 in that match in Beckenham in May, which remains the highest in first-class cricket without an individual century.In the same round of Ranji Trophy quarter-finals, in Alur, Mumbai thrashed Uttarakhand by 725 runs, another first-class record: the previous-heaviest defeat by a runs margin was 685, by New South Wales against Queensland in Sydney in 1929-30, in the match in which Don Bradman made 452 not out, the highest score in first-class cricket at the time. There have been heavier innings defeats, the grand-daddy of them all being Pakistan Railways’ victory over Dera Ismail Khan in Lahore in 1964-65, by the little matter of an innings and 851.What’s the lowest all-out Test total that included a 200-run partnership? asked Vipul Shah from India
There have so far been four completed innings in Tests which were less than 300 but nonetheless featured a partnership of 200 or more. Lowest of all is Australia’s 284 against West Indies in Brisbane in 1968-69, which included a stand of 217 between Bill Lawry and Ian Chappell (no one else made more than 17).When Pakistan made 288 against West Indies in Georgetown in 1999-2000, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Abdul Razzaq put on 206, quite a recovery from 39 for 5. India’s 293 against England at Headingley in 1952 included a partnership of 222 by Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar, while South Africa made 296 vs India in Kolkata in 2009-10, with a stand of 209 between Alviro Petersen (who was making his debut) and Hashim Amla. New Zealand’s 283 against West Indies in Kingston in 1984-85 included a stand of 210 between Geoff Howarth and Jeff Crowe – but only nine wickets fell in that one as Jeremy Coney had broken his arm and was unable to bat.If we look at innings which were not all-out, Pakistan’s 230 for 3 to beat New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1984-85 included a partnership of 212 between Mudassar Nazar and Javed Miandad.Asif Ali faced only seven balls and made 25 runs in his Player-of-the-Match performance against Afghanistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup•ICC via GettyI noticed that Aiden Markram has played 31 Tests, and has not yet taken part in a draw – is this a record? asked Keith McKenzie from South Africa
You’re right that the South African batter Aiden Markram has so far taken part in 19 Test victories and 12 defeats – and no draws yet. This is indeed a record: Jason Gillespie took part in 26 Tests before playing in a draw, while his Australian team-mates Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden had 22 and 21 respectively; the 19th-century England allrounder Johnny Briggs played 20 Tests before his first draw.Markram currently has the most Tests in a complete career without a draw, although he might yet lose that distinction. George Lohmann, another 19th-century Englishman, played 18 Tests without ever featuring in a draw; next comes Alok Kapali, who played 17 Tests for Bangladesh and lost them all. Keaton Jennings has so far appeared in 17 Tests for England, all of which ended in definite results, while Shimron Hetmyer has played 16 for West Indies.In the second match in Sri Lanka, Matthew Wade was Man of the Match for his 26 not out from 26 balls; he didn’t bowl, or make any catches or run-outs. Has anyone won the award after scoring fewer than this as their only formal contribution to a T20 international? asked Rohan Kennedy from Australia
Australia’s Matthew Wade won the match award in the second T20 international against Sri Lanka in Colombo last week for his run-a-ball 26, which came after he entered at a tricky time – 80 for 5 in the ninth over, chasing only 125. You’re right that he didn’t otherwise feature on the scorecard, although that wouldn’t show, for example, any particularly good pieces of fielding; Wade did keep wicket through a Sri Lankan innings that included no extras.However, Wade’s 26 balls is a long way from the smallest involvement by a player who ended up with the match award in a T20 international. Playing for Pakistan against Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup in Dubai in October 2021, Asif Ali was given the award after having an active involvement in only seven deliveries, from which he hammered 25 not out. Brad Hodge (21 not out) faced eight balls for Australia against South Africa in Durban in 2013-14, as did Dinesh Karthik (29 not out) for India vs Bangladesh in the Nidahas Trophy final in Colombo in 2017-18 (he did also complete a run-out while keeping wicket). Against England at The Oval in 2009, Ramnaresh Sarwan won the award for his nine-ball 19 not out as West Indies chased a rain-reduced target.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The unsaid competitiveness between these two Mumbai players was such that if one scored 200, the other wanted to score 300

Nikhil Sharma19-Jun-2022The tales of competitiveness in Mumbai’s school cricket are well known. Stories of players scoring 200, 300 and even 500 have set high standards in the school circuit, and are often heard about in the corridors of Mumbai’s schools. The same players who score big there go on to play for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, but at school level they have a unique sense of competitiveness between them.The case of Sarfaraz Khan and Armaan Jaffer is one such example. Once competitive team-mates at school, they are now scoring runs in heaps together for the Mumbai Ranji team.Sarfaraz and Jaffer – one year apart in age – met for the first time in 2008 when they were at Rizvi Springfield High School, and the unsaid competitiveness between them was such that if one scored 200, the other wanted to score 300; and if one crossed 300, the other wanted to smash 400.Related

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The pressure to do so also came down from their fathers who coached their sons. So it was no surprise that in the 2009 Harris Shield tournament, Sarfaraz had smashed 439 off 421 balls to break Sachin Tendulkar’s 45-year-old record, and the very next year in the Under-14 Giles Shield, Jaffer scored a mammoth 498.”I met Armaan for the first time in 2008; he was already at Rizvi School, and I joined a year later,” Sarfaraz tells ESPNcricinfo after Mumbai’s semi-final win over Uttar Pradesh in Bengaluru. “That’s when we started playing together. He used to bat wearing keeping pads because batting pads were too big for him. He used to knock the whole day in the nets. Even when the match was on, he used to continue knocking on the side.”Even though neither will admit the competitiveness that existed between them at the time, they used to spend the whole day on the pitch out of fear of their fathers, because if Sarfaraz had scored less than Jaffer, he had had it.”There was no competitiveness as such, but it was about who was going to score more,” Sarfaraz said. “Armaan’s father did not hit him but Prithvi [Shaw]’s father and mine were hard task masters, so we were always under pressure to score.”Now Sarfaraz and Jaffer are so close that they call each other “slow local” and “fast local”, after the famous local trains that run in Mumbai. Their bond is also such that they try to take adjacent hotel rooms when they go for matches.”Armaan is the same as he was before – he plays slow,” Sarfaraz said. “That’s why we used to call him ‘slow local’ because that’s how he used to bat then and that’s how he bats now. The others used to get out but once Armaan would go out to bat at No. 3, he would bat the whole day. In Under-14, he scored 101 and 105 not outs at the end of the day.”

“It feels like we’re still playing school cricket. We don’t think or talk about pressure, bowlers, Ranji Trophy, and such things.”Sarfaraz on batting with Jaffer

The soft-spoken Jaffer said, “There was no such pressure to score from my family. And no competition either that he will score more or me. Sarfaraz used to score quickly then and that’s how he bats even today. So he’s called the ‘fast local’. We both have bonded a lot since our school days and we know each other very well.”After all these years, Sarfaraz and Jaffer also understand each other’s game very well now.”Against Odisha we lost two wickets in two balls, but Armaan played a crucial knock of 125. When I go out to bat with him, it’s a different level of comfort because it feels like we’re still playing school cricket,” Sarfaraz says.”We don’t think or talk about pressure, bowlers, Ranji Trophy, and such things. We never get negative either. We just discuss with each other how to plan against what kind of bowler and so on. We don’t even think or talk about getting out.”When asked what changes had he seen over the years in Jaffer’s batting, Sarfaraz said, “The only change I’ve seen is that now he hits sixes (laughs), and he has also started scoring quickly now. He has just come back to Ranji Trophy, and it’s only his seventh game in the tournament. He was injured earlier so now he is looking to cement his place by scoring runs. Once he scores 100 [or] 200, then he can also hit big sixes. If he plays his natural game, he can hit sixes.”When Jaffer was asked the same question about Sarfaraz, he said, “Whatever the team’s situation, Sarfaraz always keeps the atmosphere light. He says such things that people end up laughing. And he’s always been like this since school days. The atmosphere is always great when he’s in the dressing room.”

And has a team ever fielded 11 left-handed batters in an international match?

Steven Lynch09-Aug-2022Has any Zimbabwean player made a higher score in a successful ODI run-chase than Sikandar Raza last week? asked Ollie Hastings from Zimbabwe
Sikandar Raza’s 135 not out as his side overhauled Bangladesh’s 303 for 2 in Harare last week – he ended the match with his sixth six – has been bettered for Zimbabwe only by… Sikandar Raza, who hit 141 when they beat Afghanistan in Bulawayo in July 2014. In all, there have now been 13 centuries for Zimbabwe in successful ODI run-chases, including Innocent Kaia’s 110 in the same game as Sikandar last week, as well as those by Sikandar and Regis Chakabva in the second match in Harare on Sunday.In the second T20 in St Kitts, India’s batters were all out in scorecard order – has this happened before? asked Niraj Mohammed from India
In India’s innings in that match against West Indies in St Kitts last week, No. 1 Rohit Sharma was the first man out, and Nos. 2 to 10 obligingly followed suit in order, leaving No. 11, Arshdeep Singh, not out. This pleasing progression had happened only one before in a T20 international, by Sri Lanka as they slid to defeat against Pakistan in Colombo in August 2009.There have also been two instances in one-day internationals, by India against Australia in Visakhapatnam in April 2001, and West Indies vs South Africa in Grenada the following month.This calculation is more problematic for Test matches, as it’s not always known which opener took first strike (and was therefore No. 1), and occasionally we are not absolutely sure about the batting order, especially if it was changed in the second innings. The ESPNcricinfo database currently shows four cases of Nos 1-10 being out in numerical order, but according to additional research from the Australian statistician Charles Davis, who has studied hundreds of original scorebooks, two of these are incorrect: in England’s second innings against South Africa in Cape Town in 1909-10, Frederick Fane actually went in before Frank Woolley, while for Australia vs West Indies in Georgetown in 1964-65, Bill Lawry took first strike in the second innings, rather than Bob Simpson. Says Charles: “Lawry and Simpson were the first opening pair to regularly swap places between first and second innings. Most (but not all) Australian opening pairs have done the same since. Online scorecards frequently miss this.”That leaves just England’s first innings against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1948-49, and Pakistan vs England at Old Trafford in 2001 (second innings).However, thanks to Charles’ research we can add three more: Australia vs England in Adelaide in 1911-12 (Charles Kelleway took first strike in the second innings, not Warren Bardsley), South Africa vs Australia in Johannesburg in 1966-67 (Graeme Pollock was out before Colin Bland in the second innings), and England vs New Zealand at Lord’s in 1978 (Ian Botham was out before Bob Taylor in the first innings).The last time a team fielded eight left-hand batters in a Test – the most – was by Australia in the 2013-14 Ashes•Getty ImagesHas a team ever fielded 11 left-hand batters in a Test, or any other international match? asked Bijul Raveendran from India
The most left-handers fielded by one team in a men’s Test is eight, which has happened three times: by West Indies against Pakistan in Georgetown in 1999-2000, and by West Indies against England at The Oval later in 2000; and by England against Australia in Sydney in 2013-14. There are 38 further instances of a team having seven left-handers.There’s also one case of nine left-handers in men’s T20Is, by Bangladesh against Zimbabwe in Harare in July 2021; the only right-handers were Mahmudullah, the captain, and wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan. There have been five further cases of eight, all by Bangladesh. In ODIs the most is seven, which has happened on no fewer than 46 occasions.Sri Lanka’s women can match that, however: in successive one-day internationals in 2016 against England in Colombo (November 12 and 15) their side included nine left-handers.Apparently two of the characters in Chess are named after Test cricketers. Which two? asked Kevin Robertson from England
The lyrics for the musical Chess were written in the early 1980s by Tim Rice and Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, with music by Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. I think it’s a fair bet that most of the character names came from Sir Tim, a noted cricket lover and former MCC president. The plot pits an American chess grand-master against a Russian: the American is Freddie Trumper, a nod to the legendary Golden Age Australian batter Victor Trumper. The other hidden Test player is a less famous Aussie: Walter de Courcy, part of Trumper’s entourage (and later his boss), is apparently named after Jimmy de Courcy, the New South Wales batter who played three Tests in England in 1953. De Courcy turned into “Walter Anderson” when the show started on Broadway, but the New York debut came well before Jimmy’s first Test for England.Which cricketer called his autobiography Wrist Assured? asked Michael Mackay from Australia
This is the new book from the elegant Indian batter Gundappa Vishwanath, written with the help of journalist R Kaushik and published by Rupa Books in India earlier this year. It’s been a long time coming, given that Vishy played his last Test in 1982-83, but it is an entertaining trip down memory lane. Best of all, it’s a hardback! More and more books are coming out in paperback only, and they don’t last quite as well on the bulging bookshelves.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The true significance of this win might lie with those who orchestrated it, not the opponents who were defeated

Alex Malcolm26-Oct-20221:22

Fleming draws parallels between NZ cricket and Ireland

Most Irishmen come to Australia to escape the rain.

But the rain falling from the leaden Melbourne skies brought overwhelming joy to Ireland’s men’s cricket team as it confirmed their greatest-ever T20 triumph, beating England in a T20 World Cup.”I’ve seen a lot of rain in my time playing cricket, and I’ve never been happier to see that rain come down when it did,” Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie said in the post-match press conference.To suggest that rain was the key factor in the result is to diminish an outstanding achievement in Irish sport. England captain Jos Buttler said his side were thoroughly outplayed.Ireland richly deserved their victory. As their players got soaked while celebrating with the small pockets of Irish fans who were singing in the rain in the MCG stands, the achievement was not lost on Balbirnie.Ireland had completed yet another great World Cup triumph to sit alongside Kingston 2007 and Bengaluru 2011. This is the third time they have beaten England in international cricket, including Southampton 2020.But this might be the greatest triumph of all, on one of the world’s great cricket stages. Ireland had never played at the MCG before. Such is the magic and mystique of the place; the Irish players toured the Australian Sports Museum that is housed in the Members stand on Tuesday night and took special note of a particular Irish MCG sporting triumph before adding another just 24 hours later.George Dockrell and Lorcan Tucker get big hugs from the crowd•ICC via Getty Images”It will always be a special place because of tonight,” Balbirnie said. “Ronnie Delany [1500m, 1956] won a gold medal here in the Melbourne Olympics, and you see his name etched in the history of Irish sport forever.”I hope we’ve done something similar. I’ve always said cricket isn’t a big game in Ireland. We’re the flag bearers, and we want to make it as big as possible. But it’s certainly an absolute pleasure to play here, to lead the first Irish team to ever play here.”The true significance of this win might not be in who they beat, or the stage they won on. It might lie with those who orchestrated it.In Melbourne, there were just two members present from the side that won in Bengaluru and neither Paul Stirling nor George Dockrell were significant contributors.There were also four significant changes from the Ireland side that did not progress to the second phase of last year’s T20 World Cup, with two of the new faces, Lorcan Tucker and Fionn Hand playing a major part in the win. Tucker’s 34 off 27 was vital alongside Balbirnie’s half-century, as the pair put together a rollicking 82-run stand in the face of a blistering spell from Mark Wood.Fionn Hand and Josh Little celebrate after the former bowls Ben Stokes•Getty ImagesHand later delivered one of the balls of the tournament, hooping back through the gate of Ben Stokes, to leave England reeling at 29 for 3 in the powerplay. In combination with Josh Little, Mark Adair and Barry McCarthy, Ireland’s attack was the key reason for their success against England as they had been against West Indies.Balbirnie believed his young group is stepping out of the shadows of Ireland’s golden generation that had been led by Kevin O’Brien.”He’s one of the best cricketers we’ve ever produced, but we knew we needed to kind of move on from players like that,” Balbirnie said. “What he contributed was amazing, and I probably didn’t get the opportunity to say that at the time when he retired.”The guys who have come in have shown it’s not just that generation that are a golden generation. This generation, with Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Josh Little, they’re a special group of cricketers, Mark Adair, there’s so many of them. Fionn Hand showed today: he came in for his third T20 and showed that he can have an impact on the game with the ball.”That generation laid the platform for us to be professional cricketers. We wouldn’t be here without them, and we have to acknowledge that. But we also have a duty to take the game as far forward as we can with a group of players.”There is an acknowledgment that this current generation has had to do it slightly differently. For all the positivity around Ireland’s promotion to becoming a full member of the ICC, there was a negative flow on effect. The price of being able to play Test cricket was that Ireland’s best players could no longer cut their teeth in England’s county system as locals before progressing to international level. They’ve had to do it a different way.Related

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Ireland show better rain-smarts than England to stay ahead for just long enough

Buttler laments 'really disappointing day' for England: 'We should let it hurt'

“I did genuinely believe that not playing county cricket would tarnish the way that our youngsters progressed,” Balbirnie said. “I think my opinion’s changed a bit, the way that I’ve seen our youngsters play. It’s always been a bit of a sink-or-swim situation for a lot of our young guys. You have to see how they go at the highest level, and you have the names I mentioned earlier that have stood out and been key members of this squad.”That’s the hand we were dealt. We got the Test status, and we have to produce our own cricketers, and we’re starting to do that.”Tucker believes the different path to Ireland’s golden generation has its own benefits. “We don’t have the opportunities that those lads had,” Tucker said. “But we’ve got so much more international cricket. I think that’s our finishing school now. I’ve played quite a few international games and I think most of it was learning.”The proof is in the results. A more aggressive, fearless mindset under Balbirnie and coach Heinrich Malan has yielded wins over West Indies and England in the space of a week.”The knock-on effect is wins like tonight will hopefully trigger a bit of an interest back home,” Balbirnie said. “Well, I hope so. If it doesn’t, then I give up. We want to see those kids playing the game. It’s a great game, and it’s given me a lot of pleasure. Hopefully, nights like tonight can ignite a future generation of Irish cricketers.”Ireland are no longer troublemakers raining on the big boys’ parade. There’s a belief and a sense of belonging building after a famous day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

With four centuries in six first-class innings this year, the opening batter looks set to make his latest coming count

Ashish Pant21-Sep-2022Sanju Samson is the first, and perhaps only, big name among current players that comes to mind when talking about Kerala cricket. It might not be long before Rohan Kunnummal jostles for space there, especially if he can keep up his fantastic run in red-ball cricket.Heading into the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy, in February this year, Kunnummal, the Kerala opener, featured in a solitary first-class game. Nine months on, 24-year-old Kunnummal is playing the Duleep Trophy 2022-23 final for South Zone, and his 143 and 77 against North Zone in the semi-final were key to taking South Zone to the title round. The overall numbers are impressive too: four centuries in seven first-class innings, three of them in successive Ranji innings; a total of 645 runs at an average of 107.50.Since 2006 – from the time ESPNcricinfo has match-wise data available – only two other batters, Delhi’s Yash Dhull and Madhya Pradesh’s Aditya Shrivastava, have struck four centuries in their first seven first-class innings. Kunnummal and Shrivastava are the only ones to get six 50-plus scores in their first seven innings.Related

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It’s quite a start, you’d think. Except that Kunnummal made his senior state debut in 2016-17, and it’s taken him all this time to make a mark.”For me, it’s like a fairy tale, nothing less,” Kunnummal told ESPNcricinfo when asked about his run of form. “There has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes. But never did I dream about hitting four centuries in six innings, and I am so grateful for whatever is happening.”Having come up the ranks through age-group cricket in Kerala, Kunnummal made his Vijay Hazare Trophy (List A) debut in the 2016-17 season at the age of 19. He was also part of the India Under-19 set-up around that time, and played a four-day game against England in 2017, without much to show for it.Then came a slowdown – there weren’t many runs, and the doors seemed to close on him. But when opportunity came knocking again earlier this year, he was determined to not miss out.”This year I went in more focused and was trying to be more in the present,” he said. “I was not thinking too much, not thinking about the past, and that is helping me a lot while batting. “Before that, I used to have a lot of confusion while batting – what to do, how to approach. This time I just trusted myself and went with my instincts.

“I don’t believe that much in technique. It’s just a matter of hitting the ball, that’s it. However you play, you just want to middle the ball. Don’t play the bowler; just play the ball. That’s how I function”Rohan Kunnummal

“I believe that everyone has his time. Some things are not in our control. Everyone won’t get success at 18 or 19 years of age.”Born in Palakkad and brought up in Kozhikode, Kunnummal was encouraged to try his hand at cricket by his father, Sushil, an offspinner in his university days. Kunnummal sharpened his skills at Sussex Cricket Academy in Kozhikode and, all these years later, is trying to be a new-age cricketer – red-ball basics plus white-ball strike rates.”For me, it is to go hard from the first ball, put pressure on the bowler initially, and take advantage,” he explained. “I don’t believe that much in technique. It’s just a matter of hitting the ball, that’s it. However you play, you just want to middle the ball. Don’t play the bowler; just play the ball. That’s how I function. Just watch the ball and play. If we look at the names, there will be so much pressure.”At no stage, Kunnummal said, was there thought of looking for another career, even when there were no opportunities. “My family is so supportive; they have always said, ‘you just play, and whatever happens, we’ll take care of it’,” he said. “They were backing me so much, and because of that, I have been able to play freely. Cricket is the only thing in my life.”On the back of a year to remember, Kunnummal now has his sights trained on an IPL deal. He has had a bit of a taste, having trialled with Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians last year. If that chance comes, Kunnummal is confident of making it count. For now, there’s a Duleep Trophy to win.

Rookie grows into his first day of Test cricket, with help from a supportive captain and dressing-room

Vithushan Ehantharajah17-Dec-2022There were still 10 minutes left of the lunch break, but Rehan Ahmed was already out of the away dressing room of the Karachi National Stadium and back on the field. With senior spinner Jack Leach for company, he turned his arm over a few times, bouncing on the spot between deliveries into a mitt on the full.The previous few hours had been equal parts historical and emotional. At 9.30am on Saturday, when the toss went up and the teams were confirmed, Ahmed officially became England’s youngest male Test cricketer, having moments earlier been presented his cap by former captain Nasser Hussain, with his father, Naeem, by his side. He had barely started bending the stiff navy-blue peak before dad gave him a hug followed by a kiss. All that was missing from the “Asian dad embarrassing his teenager in front of their new friends” bingo was a squeeze of the cheeks.Then, with 16 overs gone, Pakistan were 59 for 2 after choosing to bat first in this third Test, and Ahmed found himself with the ball in hand at the University Road End. On hand were a slip and a bat pad, though neither was especially in the game in his maiden spell: his five wicketless overs went for 37 runs, through him either being too short or too full. Against Babar Azam and Azhar Ali, two accomplished players of spin, there was never going to be much margin for error or goodwill towards an opponent making only his fourth appearance in all first-class cricket.Was this a kid nervous on Test debut? Absolutely. He admitted he had not been able to eat or sleep on the night before his debut, as he wandered around the team’s Movenpick Hotel twirling a ball in his hand. Just 24 hours prior to that, Ben Stokes had called Ahmed into his room where he and Brendon McCullum informed him of the selection.Ahmed’s emergence with time to spare before the second session, however, was as much due to anxiety as it was of someone keen to continue onto the next step. In the past 11 months alone. a stellar Under-19 World Cup, a first-class debut, a stint in the men’s Hundred and now a Test cap have all come in such quick succession that he has been conditioned to always look ahead. As a self-diagnosed cricket badger, something he revealed earlier this year, he wanted to continue this realisation of all those hours spent behind closed doors, either shadow-batting or working out shadow batters. There is, with Ahmed, a good kind of restless energy.ESPNcricinfo LtdBy the time that second spell came around, those shoulders, joints and wrist were a little looser, and the cap was fitting a little better. The nerves had been shrugged off with the help of supportive team-mates and a captain who couldn’t care less about the runs, and Ahmed truly got in amongst it from the Pavilion End. The googly many had raved about – too short in the morning – was on the money in the 42nd over. Ahmed, from around the wicket, flung himself over his front left leg to rip the ball past Saud Shakeel’s outside edge. As a result, the left-hander played his next delivery a little wider than he would have liked. But this time it was the regulation leggie. With the inside half of his bat more exposed, a inside-edge cannoned off Shakeel’s front pad and dropped into the sprawled, upturned right hand of Ollie Pope at short leg.The comfort of that first wicket, reinforced by the swarm of team-mates offering their own elation at his maiden success all at once, liberated him into his freewheeling ways. And once that seminal five-over burst had come to an end – 1 for 19 – a change of ends back to his original starting point brought about the real spell of note.Across 12 more overs – two before tea – he bedded in like this was all just a manifestation of those childhood moments to himself, when he had little but his own ambition and imagination to riff on. Indeed the wrong’un that brought his second wicket was the stuff dreams are made of. Another leftie hoodwinked – this time Faheem Ashraf – playing down leg, appropriately enough given where the ball landed, but left for dead as the delivery turned past his bat and into his back pad.”I’ve been bowling at left-handers all my life,” Ahmed beamed on Sky Sports at the end of play, once Leach had seen off the remaining Pakistan batters to wrap their innings up on 304. The left-hander in question? Older brother Raheem. “I used the tactic I used against him: googly then legspinner. And it worked.”Rehan Ahmed’s googly played a part in his first wicket, and saw off Faheem Ashraf for his second•Getty ImagesLegspin is hard, and doing it for England seems to make it even harder. Matt Parkinson debuted (as a concussion substitute) six months ago, Mason Crane five years ago and neither are likely to add to their single appearance.Perhaps the hardest thing for both to cope with was the crash: the heights of the hype, followed by the ease with which both were deemed inadequate at this level. It is why Stokes, McCullum, director of cricket Rob Key and performance director Mo Bobat decided to keep the noise around Ahmed as quiet as possible. His progression from three County Championship games for Leicestershire into the Lions in the UAE, and then onto this Pakistan tour, was touted as a “soft launch” rather than the real deal. Ahmed was their exciting prospect they didn’t want you getting too excited about. And now here we are, getting too excited about him.Then again, the whole point of legspin – and the whole point of being young in a sport that no-one ever truly masters – is about being carried away by these moments, whether they happen to you or in front of you. To have both? Well, that’s good fortune.The late, great Shane Warne got excited when he first saw Ahmed in the nets at Lord’s as a 13-year-old in 2017, when he dismissed Joe Root (lbw) and his current captain, Stokes (stumped). “I think you’ll be playing first-class cricket by the age of 15,” Warne said. In the end, he was only two years out.Similarly, Pakistan head coach Saqlain Mushtaq was bursting with reflected pride, given that this debut had come in the birth country of Ahmed’s parents. “It’s a point of great pride that so many Pakistanis are playing for other countries,” he said. “Rehan bowled very well today.”The way he bowled certain deliveries to Babar and all of the Pakistan batters makes me think there’s something about him. I see a bright future ahead for him. He plays for England, but his Pakistani roots make me very proud.”The talent is undeniable, the execution of tough skills exemplary under the most acute pressure he can have experienced so far. Of course, it is not on us to promise the world on Ahmed’s behalf. And yet the compulsion to write a scale-tilting “but” here is just too strong. Especially so in this England team, where the current levels of optimism are such that nothing seems out of reach, not even the notion that they have a future Hall of Fame legspinner in their midst.”I mean, I think it’s the best-ever Test team that’s ever played,” said Ahmed, rolling with the theme of getting carried away. “To play at such a young age is just a blessing. I think you can’t … stuff like this doesn’t come around like this, so it’s great to make your debut at 18.”By the end of the day, with Ahmed having returned maiden Test innings figures of 2 for 89 in 22 overs, his father had his head down in his phone. There were congratulatory messages to respond to, and dismissals to watch on replay. Memories already cast in stone on day one of an international career that is just getting started.Yes, English cricket has been burned many times over by promising more than it should, and that is not just limited to meeting legspinners more than halfway. With Ahmed, though, it feels like the right moves are being made for this latest tale to have a happier ending. The dressing-room Ahmed finds himself in will ensure he can tell his story in his own way, at his own pace.

The 23-year-old has the rare gift of slowing down an ultra-quick sport

Sidharth Monga06-Feb-20232:05

The secret to Gill’s back-foot play

Cricket the sport and cricket the spectacle are two entirely different universes.The operative part of sport happens in an extremely brief moment in time. It is actually a sport of milliseconds. If we assume the average pace of a fast bowler is 135kph, it almost translates to two pitches per second. The ball does lose speed, and on average, goes at 32 metres per second off the surface, according to Nathan Leamon, England’s former analyst.The quickest recorded human reaction to a visual stimulus is 120 milliseconds, which is roughly a tenth of a second. Most of the elite batters have to be roughly there or do no worse than being half as quick. That is to say they react to the ball in 20% of a second.Related

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The spectacle, though, loves languid, a word whose dictionary definition is the exact opposite of what the sport is. The spectacle can also, at times, overlook the competitive nature of the sport to whose essence only the cold numbers on the scoresheet matter and not the aesthetics of it.Languid is, admittedly, a guilty pleasure. It can also be high praise. If someone can compete and excel in this ultra-quick sport while looking languid or effortless, it follows that such a player must be extraordinarily gifted.These gifts are spotting the ball perhaps five milliseconds sooner than others, having made half your movements before the ball is released (trigger movement, for short), and having put in millions of repetitions in your formative years to almost make the shots you play your muscle memory.All this translates into a languid Shubman Gill square-drive. Or a low slip catch taken effortlessly that put one of our readers of live ball-by-ball commentary in the mind of Mark Waugh.Waugh is not a bad comparison. Similar height, similar build, similar languid movements, both excellent slip fielders, openers in limited-overs cricket, with their spiritual home in Tests in the middle order.Shubman Gill seems to have that extra millisecond to play his shots than most other players•Associated PressPart of the reason Gill seems to have so much extra time that he can play languidly is his trigger movement. It is not the classic back and across, but along where he stands, which is, unlike many modern batters, well inside the crease. Many a batter these days prepare themselves for the movement by moving forward to cut it down rather than playing the ball after it has moved. They prepare themselves by batting for hours against the sidearm, which can simulate extreme pace. So pace for modern batters is less of a problem than movement. They want to play the ball before it has moved.Gill, though, stays inside the crease with his back foot across and the front foot slightly open. The weight is committed on neither foot. Most of his shots to good balls then are just the transfer of weight back or forward. Because he plays back, he has that extra millisecond or five.A trigger movement is not always set in stone. For bowlers of extreme pace, his back foot actually goes back. His batting against New Zealand in the ODIs in New Zealand perfectly illustrated that. Against Matt Henry, his trigger was parallel and across with the front foot slightly open. Against Lockie Ferguson, he actually went back and across in preparation to face the ball.As a result, there are no frantic movements, the flow of his bat is smooth from his high back lift, and there is no bat tap. If the ball merits a back-foot shot into the off side, he just transfers his weight back. If it merits a front-foot shot, he moves the front foot only to cover the line. To cover for a length that is not exactly a half-volley, he plays on the up. As a result, it looks like things are happening a touch slowly when Gill is batting. This has been hardwired into him from a young age and repeated millions of times.This is where the difference between spectacle and sport is: Gill doesn’t do this to look aesthetically pleasing, he does it to score runs. It is the cold numbers that matter. Ask Rohit Sharma, who will happily trade his aesthetics for runs in the initial years when he was finding his feet in international cricket.Shubman Gill’s technique was put to stern test in his debut Test series in Australia•Patrick Hamilton/AFP/Getty ImagesGill’s technique was put to test in the sternest manner possible when he made his Test debut in Australia. Day one of the Boxing Day Test after India had been bowled out for 36 in the previous Test, 40 minutes or so, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood doing all sorts of things with the ball, a wicket lost in the first over, Gill was beaten three times in his first over of Test cricket, bowled by Cummins. Gill went on to score 45, which was crucial in the low-scoring Test. His 91 in the Gabba chase often goes unnoticed.There are many perks of playing cricket in and for India, but they come with the downside of hyper scrutiny. It is not just external. The competition for slots is so intense it is tempting to look at those outside and forget the natural law of cricket that you will fail more often than succeed. Gill faced question marks too. His luck was such that every time the team management thought of giving him a middle-order slot – he played mostly in the middle order under Rahul Dravid for A teams – a Test opener would get injured.This year, things are coming together beautifully. In ODI cricket, despite a great start to his career, he would have known he was keeping out a double-centurion and a dear friend, Ishan Kishan. He went ahead and became the youngest double-centurion in men’s ODIs. He has averaged 74 and struck at 110 per 100 balls on his way to being the quickest Indian to 1000 ODI runs. There can’t be better news for India in a World Cup year.There should ideally be room for only one anchor in a T20 side, and he went on to become the youngest T20I centurion for India while playing the anchor role at a 200 strike rate.Nobody wants it, but as luck would have it, right when Gill is in the purplest of touches, Shreyas Iyer’s injury has opened up a middle-order slot for him, and for a change, both the regular openers are fit too.If he does well at No. 5 or 6, Gill will be the heir apparent for No. 4 whenever Virat Kohli is done, just like Kohli was in the final phase of Sachin Tendulkar’s career.Gill’s time has arrived. And he has the extra milliseconds to relish it.

The England fast bowler played only 11 matches across the SA20 and the IPL this year

ESPNcricinfo staff09-May-20234:31

Explaining Jofra Archer’s sudden exit from the IPL

February 1, 2022 – Enters IPL mega-auction
Archer’s name is a surprise inclusion on the longlist for the mega-auction, given he was due to miss IPL 2022 with an elbow injury. Hemang Amin, the IPL’s COO, tells franchises: “The ECB has registered Jofra Archer for the auction with a view to potential participation in 2023 and 2024, as due to his current injury it is unlikely that he can participate in IPL 2022.”February 13, 2022 – Signed by Mumbai Indians
Despite his unavailability, Archer’s lot prompts a bidding war between his old franchise Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai at the auction, with Mumbai eventually securing his services at INR 8 crore (£800,000 approx). The franchise’s owner, Akash Ambani, says: “When he is fit and available we believe he will make a formidable partnership with [Jasprit] Bumrah.”May 19, 2022 – Back stress fracture
Archer is diagnosed with a lower-back stress fracture, preventing his planned return in the T20 Blast for Sussex and ruling him out of the English summer. The ECB say in a statement: “No timeframe has been set for his return.”November 23, 2022 – England Lions return
Bowling in England match kit for the first time since March 2021, Archer hits Zak Crawley on the helmet with a sharp bouncer, playing for England Lions against the full Test squad in a warm-up match in Abu Dhabi. “A small day but still a big day,” he says.January 10, 2023 – MI Cape Town debut
Signed as a ‘wildcard’ for MI Cape Town – Mumbai Indians’ franchise in the inaugural SA20 – Archer bowls the third over of the new tournament, and strikes with his third ball. He plays six times for them in total, taking 10 wickets.January 27, 2023 – Full international comeback
Archer plays his first game for England since March 2021, taking 1 for 81 in the first ODI in South Africa. Five days later, he takes 6 for 40 to seal a consolation win as England lose the series 2-1.March 14, 2023 – Back in Bangladesh
Archer finishes England’s white-ball tour to Bangladesh with another five international appearances under his belt, taking five wickets in his two ODIs and four in his three T20Is.April 2, 2023 – Mumbai debut
Mumbai start IPL 2023 with a heavy defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Archer takes 0 for 33 in his four overs, dropping a difficult caught-and-bowled chance offered by Virat Kohli off his first ball.April 8, 2023 – Misses El Clasico
After experiencing discomfort in his right elbow on debut, Archer misses Mumbai’s first home game against Chennai Super Kings with what Mark Boucher, their head coach, describes as “a little niggle”. Boucher adds: “We’ve got a fantastic medical team that are looking after him. He’s obviously a massive player for us, so hopefully they can pass him fit sometime soon.”April 22, 2023 – Returns vs Punjab Kings
Having missed four matches in a row, Archer takes his first wicket for Mumbai – Sam Curran, caught and bowled – in a defeat to Punjab Kings at the Wankhede.April 25, 2023 – Belgium trip emerges
The reports that Archer travelled to Belgium during his lay-off to visit Roger van Riet, his elbow specialist, for a “minor procedure”. The ECB confirms that Archer travelled to Belgium, but do not comment on whether he underwent surgery. Archer responds furiously via Twitter, saying: “Putting out an article without knowing the facts and without my consent is crazy.”April 27, 2023 – All-format ambitions
Archer confirms in an interview with ESPNcricinfo that he retains hope of making a return to Test cricket. “I still want to play as much red-ball [cricket] as possible,” he says. “I’ve never really had a thought of trying to give up on any of the formats as yet.”April 29, 2023 – Boucher confirms surgery
Asked about Archer’s situation at a pre-match press conference, Boucher confirms that he travelled to Belgium. “Yes, he did,” he said. “I believe it was a minor surgery.” Meanwhile, Archer’s close friend and Sussex and England team-mate Chris Jordan is spotted training with the franchise.May 9, 2023 – Leaves IPL 2023
Mumbai announce that Archer has been replaced by Jordan for the remainder of the tournament, after consecutive wicketless appearances against Kings and Super Kings. “Jofra will return home to focus on his rehabilitation,” the franchise said.The ECB confirmed that he has been “recovering from right elbow surgery”, adding: “Pushing through the discomfort whilst recently playing, hoping it will settle, has proven challenging. Therefore, it has been agreed for him to return to the UK for a period of rest and rehabilitation to give him the best opportunity for a full recovery.”May 16, 2023 – Ruled out of English summer
England’s squad announcement for the Ireland Test contains the news that Archer has been ruled out of action for the home season by the recurrence of his elbow stress fracture. “He was making good progress until a recurrence of the elbow injury, which kept him out for an extended period previously,” says Rob Key, England men’s managing director. “We wish him the best of luck with his recovery.”