Their line-up has taken shape so well towards the end of the league stage that no total is safe in front of them

Vishal Dikshit10-May-20233:28

Moody: Wadhera ensuring the chase wasn’t entirely on Suryakumar was critical

One of the big questions for Mumbai Indians’ batting line-up in the last couple of years was how they would fill the massive hole in the middle order left vacant by Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard. Hardik moved on to another franchise in the mega auction before 2022 and Pollard retired from the IPL recently, giving Mumbai a headache that couldn’t be cured overnight.Somehow, in their second IPL season without Hardik and in their first without Pollard, Mumbai have assembled a batting line-up that just mowed down its third consecutive total of 200 or more while chasing, that too without any major contributions from Rohit Sharma.Rohit’s last five scores have been in single digits, and in those three 200-plus chases, he managed only 7, 0 and 3. Yet, Mumbai have raced to 62, 50 and 65 in the powerplay of those games, largely thanks to Ishan Kishan, who has blasted 42 off 21 and 75 off 41 in the last few days. Kishan is not just picking those boundaries; he is also finding that rhythm again as a clean six-hitter that had made him a mainstay at the top of Mumbai’s batting order.Related

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On Tuesday too, against RCB, Kishan took charge of the 200 chase with back-to-back sixes in the third over against Mohammed Siraj, one of the best powerplay bowlers this season. Nor did he spare Josh Hazlewood and Wanindu Hasaranga, striking at at least 250 against each of them.Mumbai have also been rewarded for their bold decisions. At two down in the powerplay, after Rohit and Kishan fell in the fifth over, they sent out Nehal Wadhera, who was playing only his sixth T20 innings, instead of Cameron Green, and in the absence of the injured Tilak Varma. Against Chennai Super Kings three days ago, Wadhera struck his maiden T20 half-century by taking on the international names of Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana, while none of his team-mates could score 30.Against RCB, the task was stiffer because the openers had just walked back with the score at 52 for 2 in a big chase. Wadhera, 22, didn’t seem perturbed by that, and he decided he was not going to merely play second fiddle to his senior partner, Suryakumar Yadav, and be content with giving him the strike for the heavy lifting. And nobody would have blamed Wadhera had he done that. Nor was he scared of taking risks in the powerplay by pulling a short ball for six despite there being a deep midwicket at the boundary. In fact, he nearly matched Suryakumar stroke for stroke in the century partnership before the latter took off for his fifty.Suryakumar Yadav and Nehal Wadhera put on a partnership of 140 off 66 deliveries•BCCIWhen Suryakumar pulled Harshal Patel for four – with the help of a misfield from Virat Kohli in the deep – to start the seventh over, Wadhera drilled a cover drive two balls later for a four of his own. When Suryakumar dispatched Wanindu Hasaranga beyond midwicket for six in the 11th over, Wadhera slog-swept the same bowler two balls later for six to put a dent in the car on display beyond the boundary. If Suryakumar was striking at 156.25 at that time, Wadhera was blazing with as much fire at 157.14. Two overs later, when their partnership had swollen to 89 off just 48 balls, they had brought the equation down to a very gettable 59 off 42, and Tim David and Green were yet to bat.David had blasted three consecutive sixes in the final over of the chase to stun Rajasthan Royals barely ten days ago. He has been striking at nearly 166 this IPL and has struck the most sixes in T20s since 2022. All that only adds to the brutality of Mumbai’s lower middle order and its finishing qualities.For acquiring David and Green, two established global names in the T20 format, Mumbai still had to break the bank and spend over INR 25.75 crore (USD 3.1 million approx.) over the last two auctions. In unearthing the talent of Wadhera, handing him a T20 debut this IPL after he had played just five first-class matches, and buying him for his base price of INR 20 lakh, Mumbai have again shown the pricelessness of their scouts.Their batting might has taken shape so well towards the end of the league stage that they scripted the fastest chase of 200 or more in the IPL, and the second-fastest overall in T20s. Their last three successful chases – 200, 216, and 214 – rank among the best chases in the IPL ever, and they also hold the record for the most 200-plus chases in a single T20 season.Since no total is safe in front of them, it makes Mumbai arguably the most feared batting line-up in the IPL currently, and it’s possible they may even want that “arguably” taken out soon.

Plus, Alex Carey is a secret agent, and Bazball is a doomsday cult

Alan Gardner14-Jul-2023It was the bucket hats that should have warned us. England’s players rocked up for the start of the summer looking like they had just returned from a music festival, complete with the wide-eyed intensity that comes from having spent all night sitting in a muddy field discussing the healing power of, say, crystals or Test match scoring rates of 4.50 RPO and above.Bazball is many things – including golf and living your best life – but there’s always been a hint of rock’n’roll around its iconoclastic approach. While John Lennon famously declared the Beatles bigger than Jesus, Ben Stokes’ England are coming in more like the Stone Roses shortly after the release of their eponymous debut album. “I am the resurrection,” sang Ian Brown, to which England have simply tagged on “of Test cricket” and continued shuffling around and bopping their heads to the tunes on Brendon McCullum’s boom box.Brown, of course, was most recently in the news for spouting conspiracy theories around the Covid vaccine, which tells you a bit about the dangers for those of a messianic persuasion. And after a psychedelic couple of weeks for the Ashes, some might be beginning to worry about how much of a headache the inevitable post-Baz comedown is going to be for English cricket.Related

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The near-diplomatic incident at Lord’s over Jonny Bairstow’s stumping was another moment for those charting the journey from inspirational sportsters sportsing their hearts out to doomsday cult ready to barricade themselves in for the final firefight. As Stokes and McCullum spoke to their post-match interlocutors with glassy-eyed zeal about the spirit of cricket, the logical thought was: what level of proof is this spirit and did somebody mix it into the dressing-room Kool Aid?Meanwhile, down in the Long Room, some MCC members had started behaving like they’d just got back from whatever the shoes-and-slacks equivalent of a rave is, attempting to twist the melon of any passing Australian – thereby adding to the increasing number of legitimate reasons people have for wanting to knock the old ground down and replace it with a community outreach project.Alex Carey’s role in all this should not be underestimated. Carey is like one of those CIA agents sent undercover in the 1970s to infiltrate the counterculture movement, sowing confusion and discord at every turn (including, allegedly, on trips to the barbers). Perhaps Australia’s wicketkeeper succeeded in flipping his opposite number, with Bairstow wandering blindly out of his crease as a message to the authorities that he is ready to come in. Some might argue that pretty much his entire output during the series has been a cry for help.Either way, what goes up must come down – as anyone who has accidently set fire to their tent at Glastonbury and spent the rest of the night with their head between their ankles knows. And if the Bazball Ashes reduces the English game to rubble in the process, at least it would mean not having to watch the Hundred. Now that’s a suicide pact the Light Roller could sign up to!

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Meanwhile, more signs that woke nonsense has infiltrated Australia’s cricket culture. After defeat to England in the second T20I, at The Oval last week, Australia captain Alyssa Healy shockingly revealed: “We’re allowed to lose games of cricket.” As if that wasn’t enough baggy-green blasphemy for one evening, she added: “It’s the game of cricket. You win some, you lose some.” Rumours that none of the England players were invited to prepare for “broken f***ing arms”, and that some of Healy’s team-mates don’t even drink beer, are yet to be confirmed – but a CA-commissioned review can’t be far away.

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July 5: Bangladesh lose first ODI against Afghanistan by 17 runs (DLS method).July 6: Tamim Iqbal makes tearful retirement announcement. “This is the end for me. I have given my best. I have tried my best. I am retiring from international cricket from this moment.”July 7: Tamim reverses decision after meeting with Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. “The honourable prime minister invited me to her residence this afternoon. We had a long discussion after which she instructed me to return to cricket. I am withdrawing my retirement.”July 8: Bangladesh, led by Litton Das, lose second ODI by 142 runs.
Which is certainly an elaborate way to ensure that Afghanistan’s first bilateral ODI series win over Bangladesh doesn’t go against your captaincy record, but fair play to Tamim. That, people, is what they call 4D chess.

Regional pride and outsider input combine as club completes long journey back from 2016 relegation

Vithushan Ehantharajah02-Oct-2023An hour has passed since Durham lifted the Division Two trophy, but Scott Borthwick is still on the outfield at Chester-le-Street.His team-mates are no longer around him, but he is not alone. David Bedingham’s dog – “a beautiful labrador” – is chasing him. After a couple of drops of the shoulder, he finds a moment to stand in one place and look up at the home dressing room.Related

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He sees players and coaches celebrating. Matt Parkinson, on loan from Lancashire, on his way to Kent, has his cap on backwards, beer in one hand, cigar in the other. Director of cricket, Marcus North, is up there too, along with family members, the groundstaff and stewards. Everyone, but him.”It feels like one club again,” Borthwick tells ESPNcricinfo. “It feels how Durham should be. How Durham always was.”Now, for the first time since 2016, they are back in Division One – where they belong.

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It was only January, but the players left their first meeting with new head coach Ryan Campbell desperate for the season to begin.The key message was simple: draws were no good to them. There was a deeper reason for that, far more ingrained into the former Netherlands coach than Bazball or the fact that draws were worth fewer points this summer.Growing up in Perth under the tutelage of Rod Marsh, Campbell was bred on the fundamentals that a batter’s job was to entertain, and doing so would allow the bowlers ample time to take 20 wickets. That, after all, is how you win first-class matches.It informed how he opened the batting in the Sheffield Shield for Western Australia, notably in a career-best 203 off 222 deliveries against Queensland at the WACA in March 2000. And now, his coaching.That he was in the northeast owes much to his wife, Leontina, “who never gets involved in cricket”. But Campbell was finding it hard to square two offers – Sussex was the other – and turned to her for some rare advice. She asked one simple question: “Who has the best squad?” Despite the two clubs finishing side-by-side near the bottom of Division Two in 2022 (Durham 6th, Sussex 7th), there was a clear answer.A collection of young players and seasoned pros, plenty with England caps, aligned with a steady stream of talent from their academy – Test match captain Ben Stokes the crown jewel – made Chester-le-Street the destination of choice. A squad capable of embracing Campbell’s vision.

“When I signed back, within the first couple of months, there was a lot of change. It was a very different Durham to what I was expecting, a different Durham to what I had left”Ben Raine on returning to the club in 2019

Yet, as the season drew nearer, something was missing. Something that had been playing on allrounder Ben Raine’s mind enough to discuss privately with Campbell. Fines meetings.”Fines” are administered for various reasons – the more ridiculous, the better, with the money accrued going into a pot. Cricketers at all levels of the game will be familiar with the practice.They are a minor yet key tenet of dressing-room culture. Perhaps it is their nature – self-policing, chaotic fun – or the fact everyone is involved in a season-long score-settling exercise where no one is above the ad-hoc laws. They were a regular feature at Durham – until they weren’t.After leaving for Leicestershire in 2013, Raine returned to the club in 2019 to find they had been scrapped. He had offers to go to Essex and Warwickshire, two Division One clubs he greatly admired, but the pull of coming home was too great.”When I signed back, within the first couple of months, there was a lot of change, which I didn’t really know about,” Raine says. “New coaches, things like that. It was a very different Durham to what I was expecting, a different Durham to what I had left.”It was a much more ‘professional’ look on things – colder, more calculating. It caught us a bit by surprise.”The reason for that shift is linked to 2016’s relegation, a punishment for financial mismanagement, requiring the ECB to bail out Durham to the tune of £3.8million along with a 48-point deduction the following season. Chester-le-Street was also stripped of Test status.Borthwick and Mark Stoneman left for Surrey at the end of that season. Likewise, Keaton Jennings the year after – all three regularly bankers for four-figure runs a season – along with seam bowler Graham Onions (both to Lancashire) while allrounder Paul Coughlin went to Nottinghamshire before returning in 2019. At the end of 2018, director of cricket, Geoff Cook, who had led Durham to three titles between 2008-2013, and his replacement as head coach, Jon Lewis, ended 28- and 22-year spells at the club, respectively.”Even for me, looking around the dressing room in 2019, it felt a completely different squad to be honest,” says Graham Clark, who has been there throughout having debuted in 2015. “A lot of the personnel had changed.”Keaton Jennings was among a number of high-profile departures from the Riverside•Getty ImagesThe turnover aligned with increasing desperation to return to the top flight, particularly after Covid-19 narrowed the club’s focus. James Franklin was installed as coach in 2019, adopting a more hardline approach which created a divide between the coaches and players. After little progress, Franklin stepped down at the end of the 2022 season.”For me as a Durham player, I used to go for drinks and dinner with Jon Lewis, who was the coach, or Geoff Cook or Alan Walker,” says Borthwick, who returned at the end of 2020.”The old head coach was ‘nah, we’re the coaching staff and the players do what they want.’ Players started developing fear of the coaches, which should never be the case.”Raine was tentative when he broached the subject of “fines” because of “the old regime”. Campbell was taken aback he even asked. All he requested was the coaches be involved, too.Every training day now begins with a “young vs old” game of football, in itself a boost to morale given football had previously been banned. Yellow cards are £2.50, reds a pricier £10, with Campbell as the referee. “He’s been a good earner,” says Raine, who is in charge of the kitty which went towards the end-of-season blowout in York over the weekend.”He reminds me a bit of Ted Lasso when he referees,” Borthwick says. “He actually doesn’t know the rules, but he laughs his head off throughout.”

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You could take the Campbell-Lasso comparison a little further. An outsider coming in, putting smiles on faces and, in turn, bringing the soul back to a group of players who had lost the thread of what playing cricket in Durham was all about.”I think we did lose touch, to be honest,” Borthwick says. “Over the last couple of years, we [the players] felt a bit distant from the club and the fans.”This friction can be attributed to the fallout from 2016. Losing talent led to an on-field malaise, which exacerbated the anger among supporters who will never forgive the ECB for their part in all this.Did it need an outsider to bring the club back together? Borthwick doesn’t think so: “It just needed a Campbell. He is an Aussie from Perth, he’s lived in Hong Kong, he’s lived in Holland. But what he has done is buy into the region.”Quite literally, having bought a house and moved his family over. Campbell’s kids are schooled in the area, and members have noted an appreciation of day-to-day life and the overall vibe of what makes the region what it is.”I talk to Marcus a lot about it, we see a lot of similarities to where we’re from” Campbell says. “Western Australia, you’re isolated. You feel like you’re against the rest of the country. Against everyone.”I never thought I’d live anywhere other than Western Australia, because I’m very parochial and I love the place. But coming here, there’s so many similarities.”Ryan Campbell and Marcus North have overseen a revival in the northeast•Getty ImagesAt a time when counties as sporting entities seem an antiquated notion, Durham, the youngest having only been granted first-class status for the 1992 season, remain a standard bearer for meaning. There is a broader sense of community even with its internal factions – loosely characterised by their football teams.”It’s a very different way of living from a lot of other places around the UK,” says Raine, who is from Sunderland. “I know people take the mick out of us, but people are a lot more friendly, they’re a lot more relaxed.”Life isn’t as serious, even with a lot of hardships.”(At the start of 2023, the Office of National Statistics revealed the northeast of England had the highest proportion of households – 54.6%, compared to a nationwide average of 51.7% – deprived in at least one dimension of education, employment, health and housing.)”When it’s time to have fun, it’s time to have fun, and I think sport is such a huge vessel for that. It’s a release from other aspects of life, and it translates into professional cricket.”Borthwick reiterates that sentiment: “Everything Rainey’s said there, it’s the nail on the head. We are working-class people. We go to work, we work hard, but we enjoy our time off.”That sense of outsiders sneering at the area prevails within English cricket. Beyond the suspicion of the London-based ECB over its treatment of Durham, compared to the leniency shown Middlesex this year for similar financial irregularities, has been a struggle to recruit from other parts of the country.”I do think the perception of the region in general has not been good,” says Clark, who hails from Whitehaven, Cumbria, more than 100 miles away to the west. “It has been quite a hard place to attract people to come to.”

“That’s when I knew I’d got them. Thankfully we won and it drilled home the message. But every player wanted to put the game on the line for us to win. I thought to myself then, ‘I think we’re going to win this competition'”Ryan Campbell on beating Worcestershire in the second game of the season

And yet, success this season has been aided by those from beyond the borders. Alex Lees came from Yorkshire and led the run charts with 1347 runs, while many regard the acquisition of wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson from Kent as one of the best signings in the club’s history. Lees is a close second.”It helped that Leesy was a northerner, as it’s not that big a move from Yorkshire,” Clark says. “But we were lucky we had Ollie Robinson on loan in the T20s in 2022. I think that’s what opened his eyes to the place and made him want to sign for us.”Even Parkinson, who had been shut out by Lancashire as he entered the final months of his deal, found a temporary home where he least expected.”I’ve played against Matt Parky for years at the Riverside,” Raine says, “and he’d always be moaning saying, ‘this is a hell hole, how can you lot play here?’ Now he can’t get enough of it.”Borthwick ensures cap presentations reiterate you do not just represent Durham, but the whole of the northeast. Newcomers are made to feel welcome from the off.When Netherlands allrounder Bas de Leede arrived in February, he was nervous. He describes himself as “tongue-tied” in his first week, unable to converse with team-mates beyond the usual pleasantries.One day after training, he was walking into town to get a feel for the place when a shout came from a passing car.”Ollie Robinson and Ben Raine were driving out,” de Leede says. “They saw me so they stopped the car and said ‘Basi, hop in’. We went out to have coffee, and then that turned into a long evening with plenty of wonderful conversation around life, cricket.”They didn’t need to do that, but it made me feel so much more welcome. That was really special when I think back.”

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There are a few ways of unpacking just how emphatic Durham’s performances were this season. They topped Division Two by 66 points, winning seven and losing just once.A line-up full of positive cricketers did as Campbell preached. Their top five run-scorers boasted strike rates over 60 – Bedingham (second) and Robinson (third) going at 77.08 and 88.66 – ensuring they collected 54 out of a possible 70 batting points. In turn, their bowlers managed 39 out of 42 bonus points.Promotion was confirmed in their round off, with many of the squad oblivious to the fact it was a possibility. Leicestershire’s failure to earn any batting points against Sussex meant Durham would finish in the top two. Robinson, who had been checking the score, posted a celebration emoji into the WhatsApp group. Some of the replies queried what it was about.If that felt like an anti-climax, the penultimate match of the campaign at New Road made up for it. Needing a five-point swing to be certain of top spot, Durham dismissed Worcestershire for 313, earning three bonus points with the ball to the hosts’ three spurned with the bat, winning the title with a round to spare.”That was really cool in the middle of the pitch, everyone coming together,” says Raine, who dismissed Dillon Pennington for the title-sealing wicket. “I felt bad for the two opening batters, they had to run off to get padded up when everyone’s hugging in the middle. Everyone’s over the moon and these two are trying to switch on to go in and bat.”Ben Raine gets a hug from Matt Potts after securing a one-wicket win over Yorkshire•Getty ImagesThat night’s celebrations were understandably raucous, spilling into Bushwackers – a Worcester institution among students and county cricketers. Board members and office staff had also made the trip, with a few too many beers consumed. Durham posted 371 for 4 the following day, a marvel given how some of the top six pulled up that morning.This, however, does not necessarily feature as a standout highlight. Raine mentions the opening defeat against Sussex, who chased down 231 with just two wickets to spare, as a seminal moment.”Everyone was disappointed about it, but it seemed to bounce off people,” he says. “I could tell looking around the room at Hove that no one was sitting worrying or lacking confidence. It was just disappointment of how we played. Even a loss, when we got back on the bus, I felt we had a different mindset.”Campbell regards this defeat as crucial to the whole project. “We played a very poor 20 to 30 minutes,” he says, referring to cluster of wickets at the start of Durham’s second innings which meant they only posted 189.”I pointed that period out to say, you know what, there isn’t any other reason we lost than the fact you went into your shells. You became defensive and you stopped backing your abilities to score, and stopped looking to score.”The following week, the season-opener at Chester-le-Street, was another thriller. Chasing victory on the final day, they pulled out of their second innings on 254 for 4 to give Worcestershire 314 to chase in 70 overs. They won with 5.2 overs to spare.”The question that I ask my players all the time and they get sick of me asking is ‘how are we going to win this game of cricket?'” Campbell says. “That morning, I didn’t even need to ask. They were all saying, ‘we’re going to declare, we’re declaring now’.”And that’s when I knew I’d got them. Thankfully we won and it drilled home the message. But every player wanted to put the game on the line for us to win. I thought to myself then, ‘I think we’re going to win this competition’.”That willingness to risk it all is why Borthwick references the one-wicket win over Yorkshire in which Raine finished unbeaten on 50, after vital support from No. 10 Matthew Potts (25), to knock off a target of 246.”I think that game proved to me that we weren’t scared of losing. When you get a dressing room with that mentality, it’s so special.”Even when choosing a standout individual, the name that pops up most is not on the podium in either discipline.Raine – the brains of the bowling attack, according to Campbell – finished with 60 dismissals. Borthwick considers England’s clean bill of health over the summer a blessing as it meant Potts could play as many as 11 matches and take 54.Lees, Bedingham and Robinson churned out international-quality runs. Parkinson, along with Australian Matt Kuhnemann and New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel, combined to ensure “the spinning position” returned 45 wickets.Graham Clark scored three centuries this season – tripling his tally in first-class cricket•Getty ImagesBut the player singled out is Clark. His 818 runs, from various situations, was his best return in a season, with three centuries quadrupling his first-class tally.”I reckon he was the one I took the biggest risk [on],” says Campbell, who wondered why such a clean ball-striker had been pigeonholed as a white-ball batter, restricted to just seven first-class matches in the previous three years. “People were shaking their heads when I said he was going to bat six for us, because I love his aggression.”There was another reason Campbell wanted to push Clark. He noticed he was the glue in the dressing room: “If I could succeed with Graham, because he’s so popular – ‘Mr Durham’ – then the whole team is going to be elated and take to another level.”I have a beer occasionally and think I’m pretty proud to have given him the opportunity to shine. I think every single person in the northeast is so happy for him.”The sentiment is reiterated by Raine: “I think his [Clark’s] success this year has epitomised what we’re about. Seeing him doing well lifts everyone around him.”Clark, naturally, dismisses that notion, instead throwing praise on the other batters. “They made my job easy.” But he does concede a more positive approach with the bat has seen him flourish.”I had an idea how a four-day batter should look, and I think I have just stuck with that tradition. I realised you can be a bit more expansive and protect your wicket. The style has suited me, to be super positive.”And it helps that it feels like a team of friends rather than players pushed together. It’s been such a fun environment. I’ve loved every minute of it.”

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“It’s funny,” Borthwick says, still on the outfield but now being shouted at by his team-mates to join them. “When the opportunity came up to go back to Durham, I had a year left on my contract with Surrey. So I said to Alec Stewart [director of cricket], that how he feels about Surrey and Chelsea is how I feel about Durham and Sunderland. There’s no place like home.”It’s at this point Borthwick starts to get a bit emotional: “I’ve had a few beers, so I apologise.”This is my fourth trophy with Durham – two Championship titles, the One-Day Cup and now this. But this feels like the most special one, being captain, getting us back to where we belong. I mean, it’s a Division Two trophy but, honestly, there were members in tears.”Durham celebrate after being crowned Division Two champions•Getty ImagesMany of those members have spent the last couple of months thanking Campbell. He diverts the praise elsewhere: the players deserve all the credit, and North for assembling the squad. He is just grateful to be here.It is over a year since Campbell suffered a heart attack while on holiday with his family in the UK. He was taken to Royal Stoke University Hospital and spent a week in a coma.The regular hospital visits and the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator in his chest – “my insurance policy” – are constant reminders of what might have been. The wife and kids get hugged a little longer each day. Even for a man who has always seen coaching as a form of guardianship, those under his care now mean that little bit more to him.”I’m very humbled to be given a second chance at life but also a second chance at coaching,” he says. “This could have all been so different.”Life and sport often run in parallel, but it is hard not to wonder if the presence of Campbell at Durham is a rare perfect intersection. There are strands of the multiverse where only one or neither are around, and yet here they are, key factors in second chances for both.None of that is lost on Campbell. And thus, there may be no better person to lead Durham back into the top flight. Someone who himself has come back from the brink and has a deep appreciation for what is still to come.”I wasn’t here when things went bad in 2016,” he says. “I’m hoping we can put it behind us, and all the Durham faithful can let it be and we look ahead, never look back.”We want to be winning the first division, we want to be one of the big boys. That’s my job – making us one of the biggest clubs in the country. And I’m going to do all I can to put that in place.”

The hill city, which is home to the Palace of the last King of the island, is set to stage one of the world’s great sporting rivalries

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Even in the hinterlands of the hill city of Kandy, excitement has built over their hosting of one of the world’s great sporting encounters.It is not an unassuming city. The elites here will deride the capital as a crime-ridden, sweat-festival, on account of Kandy and its surrounds being a whole 500 metres higher than Colombo, and supposedly superior for its having resisted colonialism for three centuries longer than the coasts of Sri Lanka. The city has also just this week finished hosting the Esala Perahera – the most glittering Buddhist procession on the island, which starts from the Palace of the last King of the island. Do not trifle with this place.But even here, who can possibly resist India v Pakistan. On the eve of this match, the Abeetha Ground, a little under 2kms from the Pallekele Stadium, was packed with potential match-goers, seeking tickets to the big show. The Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh match had been only about 60% full, partly due to the high price of tickets, controlled largely by the Pakistan Cricket Board, the official hosts of this Asia Cup.Related

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When Ifti-mania swept Multan

An Asia Cup XI featuring the best from the subcontinent

But for this game, the PCB has released lower-cost tickets to locals, particularly in the very popular grass banks at Pallekele. This works out to almost the same price (roughly LKR 1500 – Approx USD 5) as tickets for Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka. But perhaps helped by the fact that the India v Pakistan match is on a Saturday, these tickets are in greater demand.On the field, while the teams trained, it felt pretty low key. It has often been said that two nations that share so much (language, culture, food) should not be so irredeemably opposed. And on the eve of this big match, both India and Pakistan shared a desire to train under lights. Pallekele had the facilities to have them both in at the same time, and so, Shaheen Afridi and Babar Azam were running through their warm-ups and later fielding drills, less than 50 metres away from where Mohammad Siraj was bowling bouncers to Virat Kohli.The India-Pakistan bromance was in full swing at the tandem practice session in Pallekele•Getty ImagesThe Pakistan coaching staff was cracking jokes with their players. Morne Morkel, Pakistan’s bowling coach, ran in off a few steps to bowl mostly rank off-side wides to the batter in the centre net. In the nets area beside the ground, Babar paused to watch every time Suryakumar Yadav or Shreyas Iyer, batting three nets away, sounded like they middled a ball.Sometimes fireworks let off in the western reaches of Amritsar can been seen in east Lahore.In the next week, BCCI officials are scheduled to visit Pakistan. PCB officials are set to be at the border to meet them. This is the way plans stand for now. But this is South Asia. Calls from high-ranking ministers happen. Nationalist sentiments frequently trump meaningful reaching out.On the field, it is 11 guys playing cricket against 11 other guys. The tandem practice session at Pallekele ended with Shadab Khan and Mohammad Rizwan being greeted by Kohli at the top of the steps, just by the dressing rooms. Shadab and Kohli stopped to speak.At the press conferences, in a small room near the nets, where dozens of sweaty media dudes (it was almost all dudes) gathered to vacuum up every word said by the captain of each team, Rohit Sharma said this: “They are a very good team, last few years they’ve done really well, whether it’s at the T20 World Cup or in the 50-over format. No team becomes No. 1 just like that. Pakistan has worked hard a lot to get there, looks like a unit. We’ll have a good challenge to play against them.”In the past, Babar has been equally generous to India’s cricketers. Though both teams are no doubt aware of the immensity of the occasion, on this neutral ground, there seemed to be a straightforward, no-big-drama, going-through-the-motions vibe to their preparation.When the game goes live on Saturday, perhaps hundreds of millions will be watching. In the stands will be tens of thousands, whose alliegances may be split (Sri Lankans are historically supporters of Pakistan, but have lately grown fond of India as well, though this has often been when India are playing teams outside South Asia).Perhaps because of its airs, Kandy seems an appropriate place to host this match. A fitting seat of kings.

After the WPL, 30 cricketers were picked for an intense camp in Bengaluru to improve fitness levels

Shashank Kishore21-Jun-2023Remember Ellyse Perry’s acrobatic save on the boundary to deny India in the T20 World Cup semi-final in February?Here’s a recap: she sprinted along the rope from deep square leg, covered at least 20 metres, threw herself towards the ball at full stretch and pushed it back while airborne. It saved Australia two crucial runs in the penultimate over in a game they won by five runs.Four months have passed since that heartbreaking day for India in Cape Town. The women’s team is preparing for a new bumper season that begins with a limited-overs tour to Bangladesh in July, followed by home white-ball series against South Africa and New Zealand in September and October. Then England and Australia also visit for a full tour that includes Tests on either side of the new year.Given the volume of cricket coming India’s way, it’s fair to say that moment of athletic brilliance from Perry has had significant impact on their approach towards fitness and fielding.In May, the senior women’s selection panel picked 30 “targeted players” for an intense camp in Bengaluru. The notable highlights were the implementation of the Athlete Monitoring System (AMS) and Injury Prevention (IP).These systems aren’t new. Teams across sporting landscapes have used them in high-performance environments. That it’s being embraced in women’s cricket in India, starting with the Women’s Premier League (WPL), is noteworthy. With two world events – the 2024 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and the 2025 ODI World Cup in India – in the next 24 months, the BCCI hopes the steps they have taken will help the team finally win that trophy.So, what is AMS?It’s a software that monitors fatigue, sleep, mood, menstrual cycle and non-sport stressors to mitigate injury risks and maximise performance. It helps monitor data, workloads, past injuries, rehab cycles, performance post-injuries.Why is it significant for women’s cricket now?It has helped the National Cricket Academy tailor roadmaps for each player to ensure their fitness levels continue to remain optimum. For starters, the yo-yo test has been replaced by the one-mile test, a DEXA scan to measure body-fat percentage, vertical jumps, broad jumps, 10- to 20-metre dash, and several endurance routines.”Because it was the off season, we went heavy,” explains Vidarbha’s Disha Kasat, one of the top domestic T20 run-getters in the past two seasons who was part of the camp. “With the lifts in gym, with our runs. Even fielding, we were taking 50 catches in every session. Everyone’s parameters improved from day one to the end of the camp.”Australia have been undisputed leaders when it comes to fitness standards•AFP/Getty ImagesJhulan Goswami, the former India captain, believes this new outlook can be pathbreaking. She had a ringside view of these processes as a bowling coach with Mumbai Indians in the WPL. This, she thinks, can help narrow the gap with Australia, the undisputed leaders in the women’s game.”There’s no comparison [with Australia] on the fitness front,” Goswami says. “They’ve set the benchmark in women’s cricket and it’s a start for us in India to try and aspire to match those standards. Today, players realise skills alone aren’t enough.”It can only take you to a certain level. But to have long-lasting careers and take your game beyond, fitness is very important. You need that ruthlessness, the aggressive mindset. And for that your fitness plays a key role. Hopefully the preparation for next year’s T20 World Cup has started with this.”

‘Hiring full-time S&C coaches a turning point’

A significant step in this fitness revolution is the formation of a core group of strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches for the women’s set-up. Anand Date coming on board full-time has been a game-changer. Date has over a decade’s experience in S&C, having worked under Rahul Dravid at the NCA and with various men’s India A and age-group squads.Date’s responsibilities now include working with several franchise S&Cs and other coaches that women’s players work with to help maintain continuity in monitoring fitness.”Earlier, we didn’t have a full-time S&C coach. They were all appointed on a series-by-series basis. Now, having Anand Date on board full-time has helped push fitness pedals,” says former India batter VR Vanitha. “He used to build on the fitness parameters of players once they came back to the NCA or national camps after a break.”AMS has ensured players aren’t under-training or over-training. Each player’s workload is mapped and it ensures there’s accountability from their part, even when they aren’t at the NCA. Now even the state teams are embracing this system. The data helps bring everything under one roof.”

“There’s no comparison [with Australia] on the fitness front. They’ve set the benchmark in women’s cricket and it’s a start for us in India to try and aspire to match those standards. Today, players realise skills alone aren’t enough. To have long-lasting careers and take your game beyond, fitness is very important.”Jhulan Goswami, former India captain and Mumbai Indians bowling coach

Workload management is just one aspect. There’s injury prevention too, a system that determines through a series of tests – on shoulders, hip flexors, and hamstring for example – certain markers that are then assessed to tune workloads.”This system determines the extent of injuries, what the fitness levels of a player is at any given time,” Vanitha explains. “It monitors a player’s physical state even before they break down. Essentially, it’s an alarm to those monitoring. It helps tapering workloads if there are markers that suggest potential injury.”While fitness was the focus of the camp, the players did skill-work too. They were divided into groups, handed specific tasks and put through a series of match simulations. They were assisted by experienced net bowlers and side-arm specialists.”Hrishikesh Kanitkar sir [interim head coach of India Women] made me work on my batting, find my own way to do it,” Kasat explains. “He was very flexible. He told me ‘these are your options, see what works for you and find your way out with this as your end goal,’ rather than saying ‘this is the only way you should go about it’. Practice sessions were intense.”

‘WPL will close gap between domestic and international cricket’

Goswami believes the WPL will have a wide impact on the women’s game in India. “This year, we didn’t have time to prepare for WPL. Teams just went with the flow, picked players on raw numbers,” she says. “Next year, teams will have an opportunity to prepare, conduct camps, scout players, shortlist performers. That will automatically lift the domestic tournaments because players know there’s an added incentive to get noticed.”Previously, the gap between domestic and international cricket was massive. Players found it too steep and took time to bridge this gap. This won’t be the case going forward, because there’s a massive platform now.”Disha Kasat (far left): ‘If I have to go to my training venue, which is at least an hour from my gym, I have to ensure I’m spending my time productively when I’m at the nets’•BCCIThis is where preparatory tournaments play a massive role. Currently, a high-performance squad, comprising several age-group players that featured in India’s victorious Under-19 Women’s World Cup campaign and WPL performers, is in Hong Kong to play in the Emerging Nations’ Asia Cup. Most of the games have been washed out, but the tournament held significant potential because the previous women’s A tour was before the pandemic.”Tournaments like the Emerging Nations Cup is good, but India’s level is way above, say, the A team of Sri Lanka, Pakistan or any of the other teams,” Vanitha says. “What we need is exposure to the A sides of England, Australia. Also, we need to expand our base. While the focus should be on the Under-19s, we shouldn’t lose sight of those who are in the 20 to 23 age group.”Goswami has noticed players having that motivation to be a part of the franchise system, now that they’ve seen what the WPL offers, both in terms of opportunities and money. Vanitha has also seen players go out of their comfort zone.”I’ve seen some people joining better training centres, more people taking their nutrition seriously, which is vital for athlete progress,” Vanitha says. “Cricketers are going and accessing top coaches in India. This itself speaks there’s internal motivation from the girls to invest in themselves.”Kasat is an example of someone who has gone the extra mile. The Vidarbha captain, who hails from Nagpur, lives in Bengaluru during the off-season to train under a private coach. Kasat, who played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the WPL, also has access to training facilities set up by Rajasthan Royals in Talegaon.”In Nagpur, everything comes too easy,” she says. “In Bangalore, there’s a price you put on everything. Time spent in traffic to go from A to B can be exhausting. There’s a sense of purpose. If I have to go to my training venue, which is at least an hour from my gym, I have to ensure I’m spending my time productively when I’m at the nets. You want to get something out of every session. I’ve lived and trained in Bangalore for two years now. It’s not easy, but it’s made me a better cricketer.”Kasat had the opportunity to train with Perry at RCB and observe her work ethic. Her takeaway from that experience is simple: “If she can, I can too.”

The fiery quick had the Centurion crowd buzzing, as he expertly took on the cloak of responsibility in an inexperienced South African pace attack

Firdose Moonda26-Dec-2023″He’ll hit your head… hit your head… Kay-Gee… Kay-Gee, Kay-Gee-Gee-Gee…”Except he won’t.That’s Gerald Coetzee’s job but his name doesn’t quite work to the “Zombie” tune.But Kagiso Rabada will hit you elsewhere. Your forearm, if you’re Shardul Thakur. Your glove, if you’re Jasprit Bumrah. Your ego, if you’re almost anyone else.Nevermind that he hasn’t had a taste of competitive action in five-and-half-weeks, has been nursing a bruised heel in the lead-up to this game and had bowling partners with all of 13 Tests between them, Rabada had the SuperSport Park crowd composing lyrics with his name in it. He took his 14th five-for, and first against India, and put South Africa into a position of relevant satisfaction after they chose to bowl first with helpful overhead and ground conditions. He even looked like he wanted to hit someone on the head when he started with a clear short-ball plan upfront. It worked when Rabada had Rohit Sharma caught on the hook at long leg, and, as another great South African quick used to say, cut the head off the snake early on.Related

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At the other end, Marco Jansen followed his example and sent down three overs of mostly short balls, none of which looked entirely menacing. Since being mauled by India at Eden Gardens in the World Cup, Jansen has not quite looked the same – and Rabada believes it’s part of the growing pains of getting into international cricket which he just had “ride out and find a way”, and he was replaced by Nandre Burger.The angle from the left-armer caused immediate problems for Yashavi Jaiswal and Burger beat his outside edge twice in the first six balls and stuck to that line in his next over to take the edge. Then came the line on the pads, which India were wise to, which was intended to tempt the batters into following the ball. “We could see they are using it as a tactic,” Vikram Rathour, India’s batting coach said. “And because the bounce is more and there’s tennis ball bounce, it’s difficult to control as a batter.”Shubman Gill fell into the trap and gloved Burger behind but that was not the dismissal that South Africa felt justified in their approach in the morning. It was two overs later, when Virat Kohli flicked a Burger legstump half-volley to square leg and was put down by Tony de Zorzi. “Seeing as though we have two left-armers in our attack, we were trying to swing the ball in and with the bounce we could extract, that was a tactic. Temba had a gut feel about the best way to get a wicket, so it did make sense and it almost worked for Virat,” Rabada said.But when it did not, South Africa took a little long to adjust to their Plan B. From 38 for 3 when Kohli was dropped in the 14th over, India got to 91 in 26 overs at lunch – and scored 53 runs in 12.1 overs and just over four runs to the over. That’s not necessarily a catastrophic momentum shift but it was also at that time that South Africa lost Temba Bavuma to a second hamstring injury in as many games and had had to regroup. They returned after lunch having “readjusted” their plans, as Rabada put it and “looked to bowl in the channel”.

“He is such a fantastic player that when you play against him you really have to be on. I’m just glad I got the fainty (faint edge).”Rabada on Kohli’s dismissal

Again, it was Rabada who led the new approach. He brought the stumps into play with a full delivery that beat Shreyas Iyer’s inside edge and bowled him. Iyer was dropped on 4 and dismissed for 31, so South Africa would have been pretty pleased with the way they limited the damage. Similarly, Kohli was put down on 4 and it took an even better delivery from Rabada to remove him. It pitched full, and jagged away to take the outside edge. “(Usually) he just seems to cover those,” Rabada said. “Or play and miss. He is such a fantastic player that when you play against him you really have to be on. I’m just glad I got the fainty (faint edge).”The Kay-Gee chants that had been building at Castle Corner reached their crescendo then. Despite no hitting on the head taking place. In fact, the song probably made the most sense when Rabada generated bounce from a good length that reared up to hit R Ashwin’s glove on the handle and popped up to third slip. That was wicket No.4 and there was more to come.Coetzee was the one who smacked Thakur on the helmet with a fast, short ball that he was late on and Rabada only managed a blow lower down, on the arm. But it was he who dismissed Thakur, in classic fashion, when he nicked off going for the drive and that sent a full house into a frenzy. “We love it. Summer vibes in South Africa,” Rabada said. “I had to pinch myself at a stage because it was a packed house. Last time we played a Test here was against the West Indies and it wasn’t even half-full and before that, we played India (during the Covid-19 pandemic) and there was no one in the stands. It was just fantastic.”Arguably, those who turned up should have made more to cheer about. Apart from the two dropped catches, South Africa were not always consistent or threatening enough but before we criticise them too harshly, there’s a reason for that. Before today, Jansen had only played 11 Tests and Coetzee, two. Burger was on debut. They are young players, who are still learning at this level and will need (and also won’t have a great deal of) more game time to develop their disciplines. They are also not holding bowlers by nature – and we may yet question South Africa’s decision to leave Keshav Maharaj out of their XI – which we need to remember. For now, the trio is in their international infancy and they have Rabada’s full support. “They are magnificent bowlers,” Rabada said. “And they are wicket-takers; they’ve proven it. They have an x-factor about them.”All that also only makes Rabada’s performance all the more impressive. Since his debut against India in 2015 – when he was named in the XI in the absence of an injured Morne Morkel – Rabada has had to step into a role of responsibility but only once did he carry as much as he did today. In the 2019 Test against India in Ranchi, the rest of South Africa’s attack had 12 caps and 45 wickets between them; today the rest had 13 caps and 53 wickets. Then, in very different conditions, Rabada took 3 for 85 and India declared on 497 for 9. This time he has 5 for 44 and India are 208 for 8, a score Rabada says South Africa would have taken.There is more rain around, though the forecast has been incorrect so far, but historically the second and third days are best for SuperSport Park. If the weather continues to puzzle and the pitch plays to reputation, South Africa would be right to consider themselves in front.

Chamari Athapaththu is a favourite in this race, but faces stiff competition from the likes of Annabel Sutherland and Danni Wyatt

S Sudarshanan07-Dec-2023

Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka)

Set 2 – capped allrounders. Base price: INR 30 lakh
Despite having a base price of INR 30 lakh – that is, the lowest bracket for overseas players – Athapaththu found no takers in the inaugural WPL auction. Subsequently, she did not find a place in the Women’s Hundred, the Women’s Big Bash League or the Women’s Caribbean Premier League either. But the Sri Lanka captain showed what teams were missing out on with a stellar show in 2023.Athapaththu starred with two unbeaten centuries in Sri Lanka’s first-ever ODI series win against New Zealand, scored an unbeaten 47-ball 80 for their first win in a T20I against New Zealand and then led the charge in their first T20I series win over England in September. Her outstanding batting form meant a late call-up from Sydney Thunder for the 2023 WBBL as an injury replacement.She took the WBBL by storm and finished with 552 runs – the second-most in the season – at a strike rate of 127.18 and with the Player of the Series award no less. She also returned nine wickets with the ball at an economy rate of just under seven. Expect her to be the most expensive pick at the WPL auction.Annabel Sutherland was on fire at the 2023 WBBL•Getty Images

Annabel Sutherland (Australia)

Set 2 – capped allrounders. Base price: INR 40 lakh
Sutherland played four matches in WPL 2023, scored only 28 runs and picked up three wickets with an economy rate of 10.99, before being released by Gujarat Giants. She turned her form around in the women’s Ashes, scoring her maiden Test century in Australia’s win in Nottingham before picking up 3 for 28 in a narrow T20I loss against England at The Oval.Sutherland’s 47-ball 50 batting at No. 7 proved crucial in Australia’s only ODI win of the multi-format Ashes. She then flourished in the 2023 WBBL, scoring 288 runs – the most for Melbourne Stars – and picking up 23 wickets, joint third-most for the season. She also led Stars for the last three games of the season in Meg Lanning’s absence.Danni Wyatt celebrates the Women’s Hundred title with her Southern Brave team-mates•Julian Finney/Getty Images

Danni Wyatt (England)

Set 1 – capped batters. Base price: INR 30 lakh
One of only three women to have played 150 or more T20Is, Wyatt surprisingly found no takers last time with a base price of INR 50 lakh, something she was disappointed with. Her ability to hit the ball hard at the top of the order as well as take spinners down with ease is something only a few batters possess in world cricket. She topped the batting charts for Women’s Hundred champions Southern Brave and Charlotte Edwards (CE) Cup winners Southern Vipers.Wyatt struck at 141.14 and scored 295 at the Women’s Hundred. Her Player-of-the-Match performance in the final – 59 off just 38 balls with nine fours and a six – only enhanced her reputation of changing gears at will and attacking spin. She also made 273 runs in the CE Cup at a strike rate of 150. Her T20I record in India is also enviable – 459 runs in 16 outings at a strike rate of 143.43 with a best of 124Amanda-Jade Wellington was named player of the WBBL final after taking 3 for 16•Getty Images

Amanda-Jade Wellington (Australia)

Set 5 – capped spinners. Base price: INR 30 lakh
Wellington is a serial winner in 2023. She has been part of title-winning teams at the FairBreak Global Invitational Tournament, the WCPL and the WBBL. She was omitted from Australia’s T20 World Cup squad earlier this year and then did not opt in for the inaugural WPL auction. But she starred in the WCPL final with a four-for for Barbados Royals.Wellington then returned 23 wickets in the WBBL – tied third in the season – including bowling the last over of the final to help Adelaide Strikers defend their crown. She is a handy batter down the order. Strikers’ head coach Luke Williams is with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the same capacity and that could also make Wellington a go-to pick.Shabnim Ismail was a key cog for Hobart Hurricanes in the WBBL•Getty Images

Shabnim Ismail (South Africa)

Set 4 – capped fast bowlers. Base price: INR 40 lakh
Intense bidding saw UP Warriorz pick up Ismail for INR 1 crore at the last auction. But after just three games in the season, she finds herself back in the auction pool this year. The fiery South Africa fast bowler, who retired from internationals earlier this year, showed her wares at the Women’s Hundred, the WCPL and the WBBL.She picked up 11 wickets in the Women’s Hundred, including a hat-trick in the last over that helped Welsh Fire eke out a narrow win over Birmingham Phoenix. She prevented Phoenix from scoring four off the last three balls with nine wickets in hand, one game after her three-for had skittled Oval Invincibles for 80.Ismail also picked up 13 wickets for Hobart Hurricanes in the WBBL, after a four-for for Guyana Amazon Warriors in the WCPL final.

And who has the most Test runs after their first 15 innings?

Steven Lynch05-Mar-2024Yashasvi Jaiswal had scored 971 runs in 15 innings after the fourth Test. Has anyone ever had more after 15? asked Suhail Badrinath from India
Only seven men have had more runs after 15 Test innings than Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 971. He’s not far behind the West Indians Frank Worrell (980) and Lawrence Rowe (983). Then there are five in four figures: the leading Indian, Vinod Kambli (1005), Australia’s Neil Harvey (1045), Herbert Sutcliffe of England (1050) and another West Indian, Everton Weekes. And as I seem to say so often, it’s not a great surprise to find one name well clear at the top: Don Bradman had no fewer than 1445 runs after his first 15 Test innings.With the final Test in Dharamsala looming, to move up the list Jaiswal would need to have more than Worrell’s 1116 runs after 17 innings. Harvey had 1118, Rowe 1131, Sutcliffe 1158, Weekes 1251, Graeme Smith 1258… and Bradman 1471. Six other men had more than 1000 runs after 17: Len Hutton (1077), Harry Brook (1028), Gary Ballance (1019), Kambli (1011), Sid Barnes (1010) and George Headley (1009),Mumbai’s last two batters scored centuries in the Ranji Trophy the other day. Has this ever happened before? asked Satyam Sinha from India, and several others
Mumbai were 337 for 9 in their recent Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Baroda in Mumbai when last man Tushar Deshpande joined Tanush Kotian. Neither had scored a first-class century before, but by the time Deshpande was out for 123 Mumbai had advanced to 569; Kotian was left with 120 not out.There’s only one more instance of Nos. 10 and 11 both scoring centuries in the same first-class innings. It also involved two Indian players – but a long way from the Mumbai maidans. In the third match of the 1946 tour of England, against Surrey at The Oval, the Indians had an undistinguished 205 for 9 when last man Shute Banerjee joined the No. 10, Chandu Sarwate. Both of them were actually reasonably accomplished batters: Sarwate finished his career with 14 first-class hundreds, and Banerjee with five.In 1946, against an attack containing Alec Bedser – soon to make his Test debut – the last pair more than doubled the score. They eventually put on 249 before Banerjee fell for 121, leaving Sarwate with 124 not out. “Both gave masterly displays and neither at any time appeared in difficulties,” thought Wisden. The watching John Arlott was also impressed: “The stand was chanceless; Sarwate sent one streaky shot through slips but no catch went to hand. The two men batted capably and correctly, defending well against Bedser, who bowled industriously, and scoring chiefly in front of the wicket by strokes made out of confidence and with no trace of last-wicket anxiety.” The Indians went on to win the match, and Arlott concluded: “The last-wicket stand changed the team’s outlook from that of 16 newcomers to that of a team playing the game at which they excelled in their own country.”Going back to the recent match in Mumbai, Deshpande’s century was only the 13th by a No. 11 in all first-class cricket, the highest being 163 by the England legspinner Peter Smith for Essex against Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1947. In last week’s game, Hardik Tamore also scored a century, after going in first: it was only the second time the No. 1 and No. 11 had scored a century in the same first-class innings, after Ferozuddin (133) and Ahsan-ul-Haq (an unbeaten 100 in 40 minutes from No. 11) for Muslims against Sikhs in Lahore in 1923-24.Fourteen of Brian Lara’s 34 Test hundreds came in Tests lost, the last of them in 2006 in a loss against Pakistan•Arif Ali/AFP/Getty ImagesBhargav Bhatt took 14 wickets for 312 runs in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final. Was this the most expensive such haul? asked Minal Acharya from India
Baroda’s slow left-armer Bhargav Bhatt had figures of 7 for 112 and 7 for 200 in the Ranji quarter-final in Mumbai mentioned above.The database-crunchers on the Ask Steven page on Facebook soon tuned up their fingers. Pete Church from Australia worked out there had been only four more expensive ten-fors in first-class cricket: another Indian spinner, CS Nayudu, had eye-watering figures of 11 for 428 (6 for 153 and 5 for 275) for Holkar against Bombay in the Ranji Trophy final at the Brabourne Stadium in March 1945; the great Australian Test legspinner Clarrie Grimmett took 10 for 394 (4 for 192 and 6 for 202) for South Australia against New South Wales in Sydney in 1926; another Aussie, offspinner Jason Krejza collected 12 for 358 (8 for 215 and 4 for 143) on his Test debut against India in Nagpur in 2008; andNorman Williams, another legspinner from South Australia, had 11 for 326 (6 for 134 and 5 for 192) against Victoria in Adelaide in 1928. The Sri Lankan slow left-armerSandaken Pathirana also conceded 312 runs in taking 11 wickets (8 for 184 and 3 for 128) for Moors against Colts in Colombo in 2018.The most runs previously conceded in taking 14 or more in a match was 289, by Grimmett in the course of 16 wickets (9 for 180 and 7 for 109) for South Australia against Queensland in Adelaide in 1934. The most for exactly 14 wickets was 271 (8 for 119 and 6 for 152), by the Uttar Pradesh seamer Ashish Zaidi against Haryana in a Ranji Trophy quarter-final in Faridabad in 1991. (Thanks to Charles Davis for that one.)After Joe Root’s hundred in defeat against India in Ranchi, I wondered which batter had the most Test centuries in a losing cause? asked Thiagarajan Kaushik from India
Joe Root’s unbeaten 122 in the fourth match of the current series in Ranchi was his 31st century in Tests. Of those, 20 have come in victories, seven in draws, and only four in defeats.That puts Root fairly low down on the list you’re asking about: some 24 batters have scored five or more hundreds in Test defeats. Top of the pile is Brian Lara, who made no fewer than 14 centuries in losing causes; Sachin Tendulkar made 11, Shivnarine Chanderpaul nine, and Mohammad Yousuf eight.I was pleased to see Ireland win a Test recently. We seem to have a high turnover of players – how many men have appeared in all Ireland’s Test matches? asked Patrick Newton from Ireland
Ireland have so far used 29 players in their eight men’s Tests, and the only one to appear in all of them – including the victory over Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi last week – is the current captain Andy Balbirnie. Offspinner Andy McBrine played in seven, and batters James McCollum and Paul Stirling in six. Here’s the list of most Tests played by Ireland cricketers.Ireland got off the mark with a win in their eighth men’s Test. Australia are the only country to win their first (the first of all, against England in Melbourne in 1877). England (also in 1877), Pakistan (1952) and Afghanistan (2019) all won their second Test, and West Indies (1930) their sixth.All the other countries took longer in terms of matches: Zimbabwe won their 11th Test (1995), South Africa their 12th (1906), Sri Lanka their 14th (1985), India their 25th (1952), Bangladesh their 35th (2005), and New Zealand their 45th (1956, some 26 years after their first).While we’re talking about Ireland, we should mention that their women’s team won an official Test match – the only one they’ve played so far – back in 2000, when they defeated Pakistan in Dublin in July 2000.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Clarkson’s ability to go bang from the get-go makes him a particularly daunting T20 prospect

Deivarayan Muthu18-Feb-2024No James Neesham (Bangladesh Premier League). No Daryl Mitchell (injured). Step forward, Josh Clarkson. Josh, who?The biggest hitter in the Super Smash in recent years, that’s who.Since the start of 2020, Clarkson has had a strike rate of 155.70 in New Zealand’s premier domestic T20 tournament – the highest among all batters who have played more than 30 innings during this period. The next best on this list is Chad Bowes with a strike rate of 153.50. And only Finn Allen (66) and Bowes (51) – both top-order batters – have hit more sixes than Clarkson (50) in the Super Smash from January 2020.Clarkson’s ability to go bang from the get-go, like Allen does, makes him a particularly dangerous T20 prospect. This is the opinion of Glenn Pocknall, Clarkson’s domestic coach at Central Districts, who has also had a stint as New Zealand coach.”Look the Blackcaps have plenty of brilliant ball-strikers and Josh can do it (hit sixes) from ball one which is what makes him dangerous,” Pocknall tells ESPNcricinfo. “Finn Allen is another who can hit from ball one and when these types of players get going, they make batting look easy.”Related

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Pocknall has also been at the receiving end of Clarkson’s middle-order onslaughts when he was Wellington’s coach from 2018 to 2022. A strong Wellington attack, which included Hamish Bennett, Logan van Beek and Ben Sears, had reduced Central Districts to 81 for 4 at the start of the 11th over, but Clarkson came out and crashed an unbeaten 71 off 32 balls to lead his team to a match-winning total of 190 for 4 at the Basin Reserve in a Super Smash game in December 2021.Clarkson, 27, is a modern T20 player. His towering frame – 6 feet 3 inches – and long reach gives him a broad range and there are no half-measures about his ball-striking.”Of late he’s worked really hard on his ability to hit the ball behind the wicket which has enabled him to use not only his power but also have some finesse when it’s required,” Pocknall says. “Given his height he can turn good balls into fuller balls and then they go sailing over the bowler’s head. Also, a big development I’ve seen over the last few years is his ability off the back foot meaning he can now access all areas of the ground, which makes him hard to bowl to.”Ross Taylor, who has played alongside Clarkson at Central Districts, also rates Clarkson’s middle-order batting highly and backs him to do a job with the ball as well.”When I played the last season, he [Clarkson] was head and shoulders the best middle-order player, I think, going around,” Taylor told in December after Clarkson was called into the New Zealand ODI side. “Obviously had a few injury issues with elbows, backs, and things like that, but don’t underestimate his bowling.Since the start of 2020, Clarkson has had a strike rate of 155.70 in the Super Smash•Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images”We’ve talked a lot about his batting – probably the biggest hitter going around in the circuit – but his bowling is there, especially on wickets that are low and slow. He’s a tall bowler, probably that Colin de Grandhomme 125-130 [kph] and bowl wicket-to-wicket to give the skipper an option, I think. Hopefully, he can turn that potential into reality in the next sort of a while.”While de Grandhomme more or less kisses the pitch with the ball, Clarkson can actually hit the deck with hard lengths, like he showed on his ODI debut against Bangladesh in Dunedin, where he bounced out opener Anamul Haque. And in his most recent game, in the Ford Trophy, he returned career-best List A figures of 4 for 60 against Canterbury in Christchurch.”His bowling is going from strength to strength and naturally bowls a heavy ball given his height,” Pocknall says. “His accuracy and change-ups have developed over the last few seasons and is becoming more and more a genuine threat with the ball.”Clarkson won’t tinker with his game and will continue to play with the same approach that has brought him domestic success over the years.”Nothing really changes. Obviously picked on your performances in the domestic game, so nothing really changes for me,” Clarkson said recently. “It’s just go out there with freedom and just play the way I do.”The biggest hitter in the Super Smash is finally ready for the big stage. Against Australia, the ODI World Cup champions and T20 World Cup title contenders, in Wellington on February 21, in front of his family.

The allrounder has come out of retirement to win the T20 World Cup in a region where he has had CPL success

Danyal Rasool04-May-2024It is hardly a secret that Imad Wasim’s return to Pakistan’s T20I side has nothing to do with any long-term goal, and everything to do with one singular tournament. The 35-year-old allrounder has struggled with fitness issues in the past, and recognises his healthiest days are behind him; he even quit international cricket last year. But with a T20 World Cup around the corner, much of it in the West Indies, where he has enjoyed so much success at the Caribbean Premier League, he couldn’t help be tempted.So when PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi called him up, Imad’s decision, in truth, was an easy one to make.”I came back for one reason: not just for the sake of playing,” he says in a media interaction. “Amir and I returned for one reason – to have one last go and win the World Cup. For the last while, we’ve been playing T20 World Cup semi-finals and finals, which is a very big achievement. But the truth is no one remembers the semi-finalists and finalists. People remember the champions. Our goal is to play those semi-finals and finals, and then to win that tournament. The result is in God’s hands, but the players’ mentality is to go and win the tournament.”Imad is speaking at the Gaddafi Stadium a few moments after the end of a training session held as part of a three-day camp before Pakistan fly out to Ireland and England for preparatory T20I series ahead of the World Cup.It’s a blistering hot day; Lahore’s summer heat was delayed by a few weeks this year, but now the sun blazes down, as if to make up for lost time. These aren’t exactly conditions Pakistan can expect in Dublin, but as a test of fitness, Imad, and the rest of the side, are being put through their paces.And Imad hasn’t put himself through this because it’s a lifestyle he wants for these twilight years of his career, but because he feels one final tilt at glory beckons. He wouldn’t officially confirm the World Cup as his last international tournament, but it doesn’t take much reading between the lines to work out what he’s saying.”I returned not for my own benefit, but to represent my country in the best possible way and finish on a high note,” he says. “And to try and please this nation of 250 million so we can celebrate together. This is our mission and our goal. Whether we achieve it or not who can say? It does not matter to me whether my contribution is small or big as long as we win the trophy. It’s easier said than done, but I think if we play united and to our potential, we won’t lose to anybody. That is my faith.”Imad Wasim regularly bowls in the powerplay for Jamaica Tallawahs in the CPL•CPL T20/Getty ImagesImad’s return was contentious within Pakistan, stirring a debate around rewarding players who quit with a World Cup spot, but by now, has learned to shut out outside noise. Which is probably just as well for a player who’s perhaps the Pakistani equivalent of Vegemite in human form. He provokes especially strong feelings amongst both his supporters and detractors and while saying he “respects everyone’s opinion”, doesn’t feel like he needs to engage with it.”I don’t feel outside pressure, just the stress of the match,” Imad says. “I only feel pressure centred around my performance, and nothing else. If you start thinking about outside pressure as well, you can’t perform effectively. I don’t say this arrogantly, but with confidence, that what happens and is said outside doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I only worry about what my team needs of me, and whether or not I am delivering it.”This according to him, even extends to the biggest of occasions, with Imad calling the hype around any India-Pakistan clash “huge”, but tries not to think about it at all.Related

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Because ultimately, in that short conversation with Imad, what becomes very obvious very quickly is the one goal that appears to consume his every thought at the moment. “I am back for the World Cup, to be honest with you. I am thinking of nothing else, not even my body. If we win the World Cup, what better way to finish would there be?”