All posts by h716a5.icu

The ECB’s new format seems to work but we may still be counting its cost for years to come

George Dobell23-Jul-2021There was a moment, during a briefing designed to underline the simplicity of the playing conditions in the Hundred, when Alan Fordham found himself explaining what would happen in the event of a rain-affected match.Fordham used to open the batting for Northants. These days he’s the ECB’s head of cricket operations. He’s been good in both roles.But he is very much not the sort of fellow you would find in a DJ booth whipping a crowd into a frenzy. And, as he elaborated on the amended Duckworth-Lewis-Stern algorithm to be used in the event of poor weather, the thought occurred that the Hundred was in danger of becoming rather a lot of things it said it wasn’t. For, as a wag on Twitter observed, nothing says simplicity like an amended DLS algorithm.Did anybody ever say, “That cricket stuff looks good, but I it when they call ‘over’ after every six balls!” Has any protest ever featured the chant: “What do we want? The introduction of the decimal system in cricket. When do we want it? We don’t mind, as long as it’s in increments of five or 10”? Is the game really any more accessible for the introduction of the umpire holding a white card up at the end of five balls rather than shouting “over” a delivery later? It seems unlikely. All these simplifications… they’re complicated.Just as Atomic Kitten seemed – like ketchup on the table of an excellent restaurant – superfluous on that first T20 Finals Day in 2003, so the musical acts seem unnecessary here. That’s no slight on them. But setting up a stage overlooking a pitch on which no spectators are allowed hardly sets the musicians up to thrive. If you like chocolate and you like baths, it doesn’t necessarily follow that you want a bath of chocolate.In truth, there’s not much new here. Shortened formats? We’ve done that. Music? We’ve had that for years. Fireworks? The best display I ever saw was after the final of the Stanford Super Series. It was incredible. Really, the man spent a fortune on them. Sadly, it turned out not to be his fortune. Ultimately, cricket doesn’t need gimmicks. It remains a great game. Whether it’s played over 100 balls, 100 overs, five-days or four, cricket is a great game.Related

Did we really need the Hundred?

New and weird, but a strangely satisfying experience

Billings leads scrapping Invincibles to opening night win

Beaumont misses Hundred opener after attending family wedding

Chris Benjamin cameo caps Birmingham Phoenix's rise after Moeen Ali anchors 145 chase

It’s a shame that cricket administrators don’t have more faith in it. Given decent weather, decent surfaces and decent teams, this game will sell. Whatever the format. What it requires is exposure. Even billionaires suffocate without oxygen. All this gimmickry, all this fighting, all this money, it’s all so unnecessary.There is some good news here for the organisers. There is nothing in the actual game of 100-ball cricket that need worry or offend anyone. We’ve had eight-ball overs in living memory. We’ve had four before that. We can probably cope with “sets” of five. If they wanted to change the entire T20 Blast to a 100-ball Blast well, most of us could live with that. Here’s a prediction, though: with games regularly spilling beyond their timeframe, what are the chances we are watching T10 cricket within a few years? It’s a format that would, at Olympic level, make a lot of sense*. And even professional cricketers can get through a game of T10 within a couple of hours.There is, of course, plenty to worry (some of) us about other aspects of the competition. The threat it poses to the existing formats; the threat it poses to the 18-county system; the threat it might even pose to the value of T20 leagues around the world. It really is incredible the divide that this tournament has created within the English cricket-loving world. That cannot be good.For all the breathless excitement of the commentators – some of who seem to have graduated from the Kim Jong-un school of journalism – who seem unable to see poor fielding or any empty seats, we’ll be in a better position to judge the impact of that tournament when we see how England do in the next 50-over World Cup or how they fare in the Test series against India. We should assess attendances at the T20 Blast, too, and the Royal London One-Day Cup. Sometimes the world changes very fast and there is a danger any of us could be left behind with our outdated beliefs. But this seems a mightily strange way to prepare for either challenge. When England are 40 for 5 against India, it might not look very clever.There is unquestionably some good here. So, while the official attendance of 6317 at the women’s match is a little misleading – at the start of the match, there were probably fewer than 1,000 in the ground (the ECB have subsequently said there were 1,887 there at the start); no doubt some of this audience had arrived in time for the men’s match and with an open mind towards catching the end of the women’s – it is encouraging nevertheless. It’s not so much it was, supposedly, a record for a domestic women’s match outside London (it wasn’t, actually; that’s held by a match between Yorkshire and Lancashire in 1949), as there’s no reason many of them will not have enjoyed what they saw and seek out more women’s games. The increase in cricket on free-to-air TV is welcome, too. It might all have been the game ever needed.But just gimme some truth, as John Lennon put it. While trumpeting the record figures, let’s also acknowledge that the crowd for Thursday’s men’s Hundred game at the Kia Oval was well, below what Surrey would expect for a domestic T20. And let us acknowledge that the crowd for the men’s game at Edgbaston was, at 12,137, below what Birmingham Bears (or are we calling them Warwickshire again now that there’s a second Birmingham team in town?) would expect for a T20 local derby against Worcestershire, and in line with a Friday night fixture against Lancashire or Nottinghamshire.The crowd experience at Edgbaston seemed a familiar one•Getty ImagesGiven the vast marketing outlay – the primetime TV adverts; the thousands of free tickets; the hubris and bluster – that seems a modest return. And while there were some signs of the mythical “new audience” at The Oval on Wednesday, the crowds on Thursday and Friday have seemed very similar to the normal T20 audience. We had the same chants, the same behaviour, the same enthusiasm. In no way should that be perceived as a problem – T20 audiences have kept counties afloat for two decades now; they deserve more respect than they are sometimes given – but let’s just be straight about where we are here.The use of the name Phoenix in connection with Birmingham is revealing. For those with any real association with the city, it surely evokes memories of the Phoenix Consortium. They were a group of four businessmen who bought the Rover name for £10 – yes, £10 – in 2000. Five years later, having taken £42m – yes, £42m – in pay and pensions from the company, they called in the administrators. A history of car-making that stretched back a century in the city was ended. The Longbridge area, where the car-plant once employed over 25,000 people and stretched over 70 acres, has never fully recovered.Calling a Birmingham team Phoenix, then, might be compared to founding The Margaret Thatcher Coal Mining Museum. It suggests the link between this team and the city it purports to represent is as flimsy as some of the marketing rhetoric that has accompanied it.If the idea was really to cut the length of games, they wouldn’t have introduced timeouts; if the aim was really to appeal to non-white communities, they wouldn’t have employed a coach who has been suspended for hurling racist abuse; if the ECB really wanted to protect the 18-county system, it wouldn’t have introduced a format which could endanger them. What was it the US major supposedly said all those years ago: something about being necessary to destroy a Vietnamese town in order to save it? Just give us some truth; we’ll respect it much more than the bluster we’ve been fed so far.So, what have we learned so far? The format seems to work. Just as the T20 format works. But the cost? Well, we may be working that out for many years to come.*You’re wondering why it would make a lot of sense, aren’t you? Well, it would enable more teams to participate in the very narrow Olympic window. And at an event which is meant to help develop the popularity of the game, that is a big deal

It’s clear a number of selectors across the world don’t quite know what they need to be looking for

Ian Chappell16-Jan-2022In the past few weeks we’ve witnessed opposing aspects of Test cricket. It has been shown in all its glory, but we’ve also seen many of the game’s flaws fully exposed.The Australia-versus-England series has often been frustratingly one-sided. It was apparent again when the ebullient Travis Head, aided by Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green, launched a defiant counterattack in Hobart.In the first three Tests it was mainly the home side displaying the grit and application that five-day cricket requires. That led to 12 days where Australia steamrolled their way to a series victory, while English cricket was exposed for all its ineptitude.Related

Why all the fuss about coaches? It is captains and players who win or lose matches

Labuschagne, Head tame England in their own conditions

England's dereliction of Test cricket threatens the format

Petersen the hero of South Africa's iconic home victory

India's Newlands nemeses: Risky full length, SA's height and home edge, the Jadeja void

It was only when Joe Root’s batting skill was duplicated and England finally applied some bowling nous that a Test was saved. Even then it was a close call. At the SCG, Australia were still by far the better side, expertly led and prepared to expend the required energy, but at least England unearthed some much needed fight.Some nine hours away South Africa surprisingly defeated India in an old-fashioned dogfight that included some enthralling cricket. It also involved ample emotion of the sort that has notably been missing from an Ashes contest that has been surprisingly uncontroversial so far.The South Africa series featured bowling domination on pitches that were probably too much in favour of the fielding side, but there was also some exquisite batting. Because defiant batting wasn’t prevalent, gutsy innings by Dean Elgar, Temba Bavuma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli stood out. The exhilarating shot-making extravaganzas of Rishabh Pant and Keegan Petersen proved that aggressive batting with scoring in mind could be achieved even on testing surfaces.In particular, Petersen’s sudden rise to fame has been a revelation and raises the question of where he has been all this while. This example exposes one of the mysteries of Test cricket: do some selectors know what they should be looking for?Petersen is in his prime, at 28, but he has only played five Tests. Despite lacking experience he has all the requirements of a Test No. 3, including a wide range of shots that he is prepared to play, plus a solid defence. So why is he only playing now? Sometimes players deserve an opportunity on potential and temperament alone and this is where good selection stands out.

Test cricket has for a long time been included in the entertainment bracket and a recognition of this has to be part of the selection process

The England side contains further selection mysteries. Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope are two talented young batters who have the credentials to be long-term successes at Test level. Sure, they’ve had their failures and like many before them they need a confidence boost but technically they are far better equipped than the style-challenged Dom Sibley or Rory Burns.There’s often a temptation to choose gritty players and there are times when this can be a wise selection. On the other hand, fans expect to see a few aggressive young players selected, and when these players come off, they provide great entertainment.Ever since the introduction of T20 cricket we’ve been told that Test batting is now more aggressive and fielding has improved. Well, how come the public is often being told “That’s a good leave” and “That ball was left on length”?Commentary statements should be qualified so that outfielding is described as more entertaining; slip catching has regressed.Also, I wouldn’t mind betting that of late more balls are being allowed to pass. When a classy stroke-maker like Kohli fails to score off nearly 40 balls it’s time to sensibly apportion the aggression in the game.There is a time for determination and discipline. However, Test cricket has for a long time been included in the entertainment bracket and a recognition of this has to be part of the selection process.A good Test selector is capable of including both considerations in his choices and that is why they are highly regarded. When it comes to financial rewards, cricket should start valuing selection more highly than coaching; it would make a pleasant and worthwhile change.

Debutant has left team management with difficult decisions to make

Sidharth Monga28-Nov-20211:30

Jaffer: Iyer backs his game, whatever the situation

You don’t usually look at the strike-rate of a batter making his Test debut, but when he is the only man since strike-rate records have been maintained to have scored 4000 first-class runs at a strike-rate of over 80 while maintaining an average of over 50, strike-rate is the first thing you talk about.Such a high strike-rate tells you a few things. The obvious one is that Shreyas Iyer is a good batter, a dominating batter, but you also wonder if he has bullied some ordinary bowling or filled up his boots on flat decks. You also wonder if he can play the restrained game when a situation or opposition demands it.That last bit has been answered amply as Iyer has become the first India batter to have scored a century and a half-century on his Test debut. Both the innings came in strife in a line-up that two experienced batters are lacking runs and others lacking experience. Despite all the restraint, he ended up with strike-rates of 61.4 and 52 in a Test that runs have been scored at 43.17. That speaks to the free-flowing nature of his batting.Watch live cricket on ESPN+ in the US

Sign up for ESPN+ and catch all the action from India vs New Zealand live in the US. Match highlights of India vs New Zealand Day 4 is available here in English, and here in Hindi (US only).

Iyer’s limited-overs internationals and IPL career offer more clues. He can bully spin bowling all right, and good spin bowling at that. So those first-class runs are not to be scoffed at. In fact his main role when he was a lock in the T20I side was to be a spin power-hitter. It showed in how he pounced on the spinners the moment Tim Southee went off with injury, forcing Kyle Jamieson to come back for a spell.Iyer has had issues against seam bowling even in ODIs, but he is not the only one. It is not the absence of issues but how you overcome them that makes a batter. That’s a question that will be properly asked of him at a later date in Test cricket, but on his debut, Iyer has done well against a side whose seamers have taken 14 of the 17 Indian wickets.The most impressive part of both of Iyer’s innings has been his awareness of when to attack. Apart from the first aerial shot that he tried, you can’t really say the bowlers forced him to play an attacking shot when he would rather not. That shows the value of first-class experience even though it has been three years since he last played the longer format. It also perhaps shows the lack of accuracy of New Zealand’s spin bowlers, who couldn’t create enough pressure after the seam bowlers had to be taken off.Shreyas Iyer followed up his century with a vital second-innings fifty•BCCI”I have been in these situations before as well,” Iyer told at the end of the day’s play. “Not in the Indian team but during my Ranji days, I remember I used to walk in in similar situations. So my mindset was to just play the session and play as many balls as possible. I wasn’t thinking way ahead, I was just trying to be in the present and play one ball at a time.”Iyer does average better and strikes slower in the third innings in Ranji Trophy, but more often than not the third innings in Ranji Trophy carry much less pressure. In five-day cricket, third innings can make or break Tests. When asked about batting with restraint here, Iyer said: “It was really tough because Rahul sir [Dravid, the India coach] had told me we need to play as much as possible. To stay till the end, only then we can get to a good total. I decided I will play as many balls as possible and see to it that we get to a good total. I felt that 250-odd runs including the lead would be really good. Fortunately, we got more than that.”Related

Dravid: 'Hopefully it is a matter of one innings for Rahane'

Anatomy of a stalemate on a dead Kanpur pitch

Crucial fifties from Iyer and Saha set NZ 284 target

Luke Ronchi: 'Pitch holding up better than expected'

Vikram Rathour: 'Pujara, Rahane will play important knocks for us in future'

When it comes to listening to Dravid, the story is now famous how the first time Dravid saw Iyer was when he hit a six in the last over of a day’s play in a four-day match. Some eyebrows would have been similarly raised when you see Iyer in a Test match giving up all his stumps and late-cutting with and against the turn and well before having seen the team out of danger.Then again, you don’t strike at 82 over 4000 runs without taking a risk or two. Risks are subjective, though, and batting is all about managing risk. Apart from that first miscue, you wouldn’t really say Iyer’s intent involved significant risk. Dravid and Iyer will be talking all about that when they review the Test, but for now Dravid and Virat Kohli have some talking to do: how do you not retain Iyer after this debut, and if you do, who makes way for Kohli?

Yes, it was a case of merely aiming “to hit every ball” and having it come off, but also the various skillsets in play did set Cummins up to steal the show

Sidharth Monga06-Apr-20222:55

Lynn: ‘Offence is the best form of defence for Pat Cummins’

How do you even describe a 14-ball fifty?It is, of course, an extraordinary knock. Any 14-ball fifty is. More so on a night when almost every other batter has struggled to tame the steep bounce. In all, 48 not-in-control runs will be scored behind the wicket in this match, the most for a single game in the last six IPL seasons.Related

Aussies abroad: Cummins, Warner, Stoinis among the runs in the IPL, Bird Cook-ed again

How Pat Cummins hit an IPL record 14-ball fifty

Report: Cummins' 14-ball fifty stuns Mumbai, puts KKR top of table

Venkatesh Iyer, coming off his honeymoon season and coming to terms with the cost of living, is fighting his own form and the conditions valiantly to turn 19 off 21 into 50 off 41. He has hung on for dear life, knowing his side’s fate depends on his staying there till the end. The plan has been for him to be at his most efficient in adverse circumstances but make sure he bats through and delays taking his chances as much as he can. It is making for a great story.And then comes the joint-best fast bowler in Test cricket – not half-bad in limited-overs cricket, mind you – and he hits the other joint-best fast bowler in Test cricket – who is also the best fast bowler in limited-overs cricket – for a six and a four before causing absolute mayhem in a Daniel Sams over that he takes 35 runs off. It is mockery of others who have been trying to play a hard-fought match in difficult conditions.It is apt that a person with unfair amounts of cricketing talent and fitness comes up with the best description of the innings. “I just tried to hit every ball for a four or a six,” Pat Cummins explains, cutting straight to the chase, just as he did with the bat.Of course there will be explanations for why it came off but, at the heart of it, it was just that: trying to hit every ball for a boundary, targeting the short boundaries, and making sure Venkatesh didn’t have to risk his wicket.Pat Cummins mauled Daniel Sams in a 35-run over to finish off the chase•BCCIFor further explanations, we can look at Cummins’ record against pace vis-à-vis spin: after today, his strike rate against pace is 156 at 21 runs per dismissal. Two years ago he hit four sixes off a single Jasprit Bumrah over. He now has the second-most IPL fifties batting at No. 7 or lower. So you shouldn’t probably be shocked that he played a match-winning hand here. But he is not considered a genuine allrounder, despite those numbers, because it is easy to shut him down with spin. Against spin, he doesn’t score at even a run a ball.One of the few teams funky enough to bowl heavy doses of spin even late in the innings is the team Cummins himself plays for, so, more often than not, the best time for him to bat is at the death. Especially if he is batting with a specialist batter who prefers spin to pace – Venkatesh has a strike rate of 142 and an average of 60 against the slow stuff as against 122 and 28 against pace. And here too Venkatesh has had a better night against spin than pace, so the opposition can be forgiven for planning for the more apparent threat – the established batter and his obvious strength.Cummins himself had gone for 23 in the last over of the first innings. Two of the sixes were edges as he tried to bluff Kieron Pollard with short balls despite having third man and fine leg up. Cummins was perhaps unlucky in his final analysis of 4-0-49-2. “Welcome to Twenty20 cricket,” he thought to himself then, having just come off a gruelling Test series in Pakistan where he toiled for 110.1 overs for 12 wickets, the joint-highest in the series, and a 1-0 series win.Then he played the purest form of Twenty20 cricket himself: try to hit a boundary every ball. And the hitting was all clean too. Except maybe for one cue-end to a wide Bumrah yorker, but even there he intended to hit the ball in that general area. “I am at my best when I am not thinking much,” he says later.That is not to dismiss the work that goes on behind the scenes to achieve a skillset where you can hit fours and sixes without thinking too much. Being primarily a bowler perhaps liberates you to attempt that. He has tried just this on many a night but this was the night when it all came off.Any 14-ball fifty is a freak innings, but in hindsight, if you look at the circumstances and skillsets, of all the unexpected sources of such a knock, Cummins is probably the most expected. If that makes any sense. Not much about a 14-ball fifty does, admittedly.

She displayed all the qualities that India thought they would miss with the new ball in the post-Jhulan-Goswami era

Shashank Kishore29-Jul-2022In India’s first outing at a global event in the post-Jhulan-Goswami era, Renuka Singh, 26, displayed all the qualities that India thought they would miss with the new ball: swing, seam, accuracy, large heart.The four Australia batters she nipped out weren’t ordinary wickets. They were of world-beaters who have made a mockery of bowling attacks the world over. Alyssa Healy: one of the hardest hitters of a cricket ball in the women’s game. Beth Mooney: one of the most versatile batters. Meg Lanning: scorer of more white-ball hundreds than any other woman batter, and owner of the most ferocious cut in the game. Tahlia McGrath: among the best young talents in the game currently.Related

Gardner 52* trumps Renuka's 4 for 18 as Australia come back from the brink

It was meant to be a trial by spin, but Australia’s top order was undone by seam, quite spectacularly, by a rookie, all of seven games old in T20Is, who simply stuck to the very basics coaches impress upon. Of bowling to your strengths, being accurate, and allowing the surface to do the rest.Healy was out nibbling at a delivery she could have either left alone or cut. Mooney played down the wrong line. Lanning was in two minds of whether to bring out her trademark cut or simply steer the ball behind square, only to be caught at point. McGrath didn’t perhaps know that inswing is Renuka’s most potent delivery, and was in no position to drive one that bent in wickedly to beat the inside edge and flatten leg stump.Last year, Renuka had burst through against the same team in Australia. Back then, she was slightly slower, giving batters a little more time to make adjustments against her. Between last October and now, Renuka has worked on becoming fitter and stronger, and has added a couple more yards of pace.Prior to the Commonwealth Games, India had two 10-day camps either side of a tour of Sri Lanka, where she picked up seven wickets in three ODIs, including a career-best 4 for 28.The camps were intense, with a set daily agenda. The fast bowlers were divided into different groups. Each group was put under a dedicated trainer, who logged in their workloads, their bowling speeds, their spells. A dietician worked through their food charts; every gram consumed was meticulously charted. Every evening’s recovery session was planned to the T.Then there were simulations and video analysis of every practice session. This extra emphasis on developing a young fast-bowling group had been in the works for two years, from when WV Raman took over as head coach in 2019.Renuka Singh Thakur (L) celebrates after dismissing Tahlia McGrath•Associated Press”I’ve been working on my fitness for the past month,” Renuka said after picking up her T20I career-best 4 for 18. “We had a dedicated fitness camp, and I’ve worked on speed, agility and endurance; I’m a fast bowler so those are really important skills. That has helped me a lot. I try and hit hard lengths, so that you can get help from the pitch. That has worked for me. I’m predominantly a swing bowler. The more I swing the ball, that much more help I’ll get.”Renuka hails from Himachal Pradesh, a state known for its hilly terrain and adventure sport. Until 2008, there was not a single academy in the state dedicated for girls. That changed after Anurag Thakur, the former BCCI president, developed a state-of-the-art facility in Dharamsala the following year.At 15, Renuka, who was at an age where she had to decide between pursuing academics or trying her hand at sport, was among the first batch of trainees at the academy. At 17, she broke through into the HP senior team.Now, HP is far from a champion team in the women’s circuit. Most players say landing a Railways gig is their ultimate aim. It offers them a competitive environment apart from guaranteeing several perks such as paid leave, government accommodation, a pension scheme, a monthly salary, and training equipment.Renuka too had a similar dream, and it came true in 2021 when she got a job in the Railways. Within eight months of her playing in the set-up, she made her T20I debut in Australia last year, and has since become a regular member of the Indian team.The debut came on the back of an impressive Senior One-Day Trophy, where Renuka picked up nine wickets in five games. But it wasn’t until she picked up four wickets in her first spell against Karnataka in the final, like she did against Australia, that word spread of this seamer with excellent control and the skillset India had been on the lookout for.If the 50-over World Cup in New Zealand gave Renuka an opportunity to apprentice under Goswami, the safety jacket has come off at the CWG. The start has been promising, and India will hope Renuka continues to thrive.

All the key numbers from Azhar Ali’s 12-year Test career for Pakistan

Sampath Bandarupalli16-Dec-202234.4 Percentage of Test innings where Azhar Ali batted 100-plus balls, the highest by any batter since his debut (min: 100 innings). Azhar faced 100-plus balls in 63 innings, the joint-second most by any batter since his debut. Joe Root had done it 75 times in 232 innings, while Alastair Cook also faced 100-plus balls in 63 innings during this period.7079 Runs by Azhar in Test cricket. He is one of the five players with 7000-plus runs for Pakistan in the format. His 19 hundreds are the fifth highest for Pakistan in Test cricket.