Fitter, stronger, quicker Renuka produces dreamy spell against the best

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

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.

What is the biggest difference between player numbers in the same Test team?

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And which bowler has taken the last wicket most often to win a Test or an ODI?

Steven Lynch20-Sep-2022I was wondering about the biggest difference between player numbers in the same Test team. I wondered about Jimmy Anderson, then remembered Brian Close! Is he the record-holder? asked Brian King from England

In the final Test against South Africa at The Oval last week, Jimmy Anderson (who was cap No. 613 in 2003) played alongside debutant Harry Brook, England’s No. 707. That’s a difference of 94 (including the special cap No. 696 given to Glamorgan’s Alan Jones, 50 years on from his appearance against the Rest of the World in 1970).I was surprised to discover that there are actually 73 combinations from all countries that equal or beat 94, including a difference of 122 between Brian Close (England’s No. 344 in 1949) and Mike Selvey (466 in 1976). But top of the list is the Yorkshire and England allrounder Wilfred Rhodes, who was cap No. 121 when he made his Test debut in 1899. During his final series, in the West Indies in 1929-30, the 52-year-old Rhodes played alongside Leslie Townsend (No. 254), a difference of 133. He also played with Bill Voce (253),
Freddie Calthorpe (252) and Les Ames (244), so occupies the first four places on this particular table.The record for a side other than England is a difference of 98, between Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies cap No. 204) and Shai Hope (302), against Englandin Bridgetown in May 2015. It was Hope’s first Test, and Chanderpaul’s 164th and last.How many Test matches have been shorter, in terms of balls bowled, than the one that’s just finished at The Oval? asked Michael Templeton, and many others

The third Test between England and South Africa at The Oval last week was over in just 909 balls, the shortest Test with a positive result anywhere since February 2021, when India needed only 842 deliveries to polish England off in Ahmedabad.It was the shortest completed Test in England since 1912, when the match against South Africa at The Oval lasted only 815 deliveries. The shortest anywhere was the match between Australia and South Africa on a rain-affected pitch in Melbourne in 1931-32, which was done and dusted in 656 balls.For the full list, which also includes drawn Tests (look down the fifth column to see when there was a winner), click here.Which bowler has taken the last wicket most often to win a Test, or an ODI? asked Ahson Atif from India

There’s a tie at the top of this list for Tests, as two bowlers have taken the match-winning (final) wicket on 22 occasions: R Ashwin for India, and Australia’s Shane Warne. Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker Muthiah Muralidaran comes next with 18, ahead of his compatriot Rangana Herath with 14, and Waqar Younis on 13.Things are more clear-cut in one-day internationals: Wasim Akram took the last wicket to win a match no fewer than 27 times, well clear of Murali and Glenn McGrath (21). Waqar, Lasith Malinga and Shahid Afridi all did it on 20 occasions.Arthur Milton (left) had one international cap in football and Mike Smith (right) played one rugby union international for England•S&G/PA Photos/Getty ImagesWhen was England’s batting in a Test opened by a football and a rugby international? asked George Clarke from England

This unusual double happened in the third Test against New Zealand at Headingley in 1958, when Mike Smith faced the new ball with Arthur Milton, who went on to score a century on his debut.Even though he wore spectacles, Smith had played one rugby union international for England, against Wales (who won 8-3) at Twickenham in 1956. “I played as an outside centre during my final year at Oxford,” he said. “But I had a poor game and was not selected again.” Milton – a nippy winger for Arsenal, and later Bristol City – won one England football cap, in a 2-2 draw against Austria at Wembley in 1951. “The attack was spoiled by the relative failure of Milton on the right,” concluded the Times. “The occasion and the tension generally were too much for him.”I noticed that Yuzi Chahal batted only once in his first 13 T20Is. Has anyone batted less often? asked Arun Nissar from India

You’re right that the Indian legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal batted only once in his first 13 T20 internationals – but there is someone who didn’t bat at all in his first 13: the Afghanistan seamer Fareed Ahmad, who didn’t bat until his 14th such match, in which he made 24 not out. Despite that promising start, he’s batted only once more in six further matches.Chahal has now played 66 T20Is, and got to the crease only four times. That’s easily the fewest innings by anyone who played so often – next comes another legspinner, New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi, who batted 12 times in his first 66 T20Is. At the other end of the scale, David Warner has played 91 T20Is so far, and batted in all of them.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

SA20 aims to bring light to dark times

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South African cricket has not exactly been switched on for the past few years, but there is every hope that could slowly change

Firdose Moonda07-Jan-2023When the lights come back on after a power cut in South Africa – and they happen as often as four times a day – people cheer. They don’t do it because they’re particularly pleased (who would be, given that the country is into its 16th year of rolling blackouts?), or even with a sense of irony – they do it because they’re relieved that their two-and-a-half hour outage has ended on time, and in the light.”People feel it’s a dark time right now,” Faf du Plessis, in his role as captain of the Joburg Super Kings said, and he wasn’t talking about the electricity.Just like its power utility, South African cricket has not been switched on over the last few years, and their problems are worsening. The Test team is currently in Australia, facing the possibility of being swept 3-0 there for the first time since 2001. Less than two years ago, du Plessis was the most experienced batter in that side. Now, he is a T20 league specialist and part of the brigade that has promised to bring the light back into the country’s game through the SA20. “We need this competition for the game to grow,” du Plessis said. “Hopefully it will make people very optimistic about the future of South African cricket.”Related

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It has already made people more interested in the game. The opening match between MI Cape Town and Paarl Royals on Tuesday – which is also the first match with fans at Newlands in the post-Covid-19 era, is a sell-out. More than 20,000 people have bought tickets to the game. Who knows if the same number of South Africans woke up at 1 AM to watch their already-defeated Test team try to save face in Sydney?Ask around and you’ll hear that interest in the national team is lower than ever before. The combined embarrassments of losing to Netherlands and being booted out of the T20 World Cup, teetering on the brink of not being able to automatically qualify for the ODI World Cup and two successive Test series defeats – including seven innings where they could not cobble together 200 – has taken its toll.”That’s been the state of South African cricket for a while now,” Graeme Smith, SA20 league commissioner, told ESPNcricinfo.But Smith and the tournament he is putting together have taken it on themselves to change that.”One of the things we really wanted to do was to re-energise and revive the cricket fan. It’s a hard job in a negative climate,” he said. “Season one and that first week for us around the country is going to be big for us. I’m not sure when last we had a full house for a domestic game.”And for an entire competition? Maybe never.”Trying to sell out 33 games almost back-to-back is different for South Africa but we are seeing a very positive response,” Smith said. “The goal for us is to bring the cricket community together and to revive those dormant fans.”But they’re also looking to lighten the mood, after three heavy years that saw CSA fall into an administrative abyss, grapple with the much-needed Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings, and begin to rebuild, from the ground up. It’s been a time of introspection and angst, two words that were nowhere near the SA20 captain’s press conferences.Instead, there were jokes about du Plessis wearing a normal-sized (not “mannequin-sized”, as he likes to call the rest of his wardrobe) yellow-shirt, and being envious of David Miller in pink. “This feels like a fashion press conference,” du Plessis quipped at one point.There were giggles when Rashid Khan, the only foreign captain in a team, was asked a question about the Stormers (the Cape-Town based domestic rugby team) and whether MI Cape Town could draw on them for inspiration. “What is that?” Rashid asked, as he looked around at the other captains. “A ballerina,” du Plessis told him. Happily, Rashid was not fooled.Quinton de Kock brought his dry humour when he said his only hope for the Durban Super Giants team he will lead is that they “get some game time in,” referring to the rain that often cancels play at Kingsmead at this time of year and revealed his partnership with coach Lance Klusener has not yet involved much talking. As two of the least chatty cricketers about, they will know that that’s probably not likely to change. “We like to keep things relaxed,” he said.South Africa are on the brink of a 3-0 defeat in Australia for the first time since 2001•Getty ImagesWayne Parnell temporarily shed his identity as an out-and-out Cape Town influencer to head up the Pretoria Capital and already understands what’s expected of him.”Centurion is a place where there has been a lot of success. There’s pressure from the people of Pretoria to do well and we hope we can live up to that,” he said. And Aiden Markram admitted to being “refreshed” (and may also slightly relieved) after being dropped from the Test side and is ready to take a new role as the skipper of the Sunrisers Eastern Cape. Markram has cut a particularly dejected figure in his last few international outings and to see him upbeat was something of a metaphor for the new frame of mind.The six captains and Smith then headed off to the colourful Bo-Kaap, where they posed with the trophy, which has been designed by the same people who made the Test mace. In a video explaining the process by which the SA20 cup was conceptualised, there was an image of Smith, a decade-younger, holding the mace after South Africa became No.1 in the world in England.

“We want to play our role in reviving cricket. We want to get people into the stadium and cheering again.”Graeme Smith hopes the SA20 can do for South Africa what the IPL did for India

For a moment, time stopped.We were taken back to the glory days, when South Africa won series in England and Australia, challenged India at home, and looked as though they were heading towards a World Cup trophy. The 2010-2016 period was a golden age in the country’s game but they missed one massive step. CSA was slow off the blocks to launch a T20 league and then failed in their attempts to do so, twice. That meant the country’s domestic cricketers, in particular, were not exposed to the innovative thinking of league cricket, and the system has stagnated to the point where the players it produces cannot make the step up to the international stage successfully enough. The Test top six is a clear example of this but now, with them at their lowest ebb, that could start to change.”The professionalism that’s going to come from the franchises, who are the most experienced franchise teams in the world, brings huge credibility on and off the field in terms of coaching, management, medical staff, media,” Smith said. “All of that is now coming into South African cricket.”Much like the way the IPL allowed India to deepen and develop its talent pool, Smith hopes the SA20 can do the same for South Africa. “My wish is that there’s one or two great storylines that come from younger players, that they put in great performances and use this platform and make a name for themselves,” Smith said. “We want to play our role in reviving cricket. We want to get people into the stadium and cheering again.”

Stats – Azhar Ali: Pakistan's most prolific top-three batter

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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.

302* Azhar’s highest score in Test cricket – against West Indies in 2016 in Dubai. It was the first-ever hundred scored in a day-night Test match and currently the second-highest individual score in a pink-ball Test. Azhar is only one among the four Pakistan batters to have scored a triple-hundred in Tests.101.6 Balls-per-dismissal in Test cricket for Azhar, the fourth-best ratio for any batter with 100-plus innings since his debut. Only Younis Khan (107.7) had a better balls-per-dismissal than Azhar in Tests during this period for Pakistan.

1198 Test runs by Azhar in 2016, the second most by anyone for Pakistan in a calendar year, behind Mohammad Yousuf’s 1788 runs in 2006. Azhar faced 2569 balls in 2016, which is also the second most in a year for Pakistan after Yousuf’s 2854 in 2006.57.25 Azhar’s batting average during a three-year period in Tests – between October 2014 and September 2017. He scored 2748 runs in 52 innings with nine centuries and 11 fifties. Only three players had scored 1500-plus runs at a better batting average during this period.

6 Test matches missed by Azhar since his debut in July 2010. Only one player with 50-plus Test caps had missed fewer Tests for Pakistan during their career – Hanif Mohammad, who missed only two of the 57 Tests by Pakistan during his 17-year career.37 Innings where Azhar opened for Pakistan – in 20.8% of his innings in Tests. Among players who’ve batted at No. 3 or lower at least 100 times in Test cricket, only two others – David Boon (33.2) and Alec Stewart (32.8) – have opened in a higher percentage of innings.With Pakistan perennially on the lookout for a stable opening combination, Azhar – a solid No. 3 until that time – took on the responsibility in the third Test of the series against England in November 2015, opening in Test cricket for only the fourth time in his career.

Azhar, however, had the experience, having opened in 59 of 80 first-class innings before his Test debut in 2010. He scored 1359 runs as a Test opener between 2015 and 2017 at 59.08 – the second-best average among openers with at least 500 runs in this period.6853 Test runs by Azhar while batting in the top three, the highest by any batter for Pakistan. His tally in the top-order for Pakistan is 2798 more than the next highest – Younis Khan (4055). Azhar scored 5297 runs while batting at No.3 alone, the seventh highest for any batter in Test cricket.

Time for Mumbai to let Pollard go? Do Sunrisers hold on to Williamson?

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

And what about Mayank Agarwal, Jason Holder and Devdutt Padikkal – will they be retained?

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Nov-2022
Kieron Pollard
Team: Mumbai Indians
Current price tag: INR 6 crore (USD 800,000 approx.*)
IPL 2022 stats: 11 games, runs 144 at 14.40 with a strike rate of 107.46, four wickets at 31.25 with an economy rate of 8.92

He is a T20 legend. He has the immense experience of 600-plus T20 matches. He has won five IPL titles with Mumbai Indians, who bought him in 2009 and have retained him ever since. But Mumbai would be lying if they said the question of releasing Kieron Pollard this year has not crossed their mind. Since he retired from international cricket in April, Pollard, who is 35, has had a knee operation followed by a weak CPL, where he led Trinbago Knight Riders who failed to make it to the tournament’s knockouts for the first time. But it was a weak IPL 2022, where he sat out the last three matches and Mumbai endured their worst season, finishing bottom of the table, that would have set the franchise thinking. In Dewald Brevis, Tim David and Tristan Stubbs, Mumbai have young powerhitting options in their squad, ready to take over the baton from Pollard. But will Mumbai dare to cut the deep emotional bond with him? Or will they retain him in the belief that he can reinvent himself?Is Kane Williamson’s price tag too high at present for Sunrisers Hyderabad?•BCCIKane Williamson
Team: Sunrisers Hyderabad
Current price tag: INR 14 crore (USD 1.8m approx.*)
IPL 2022 stats: 13 games, 216 runs at 19.63 with a strike rate of 93.50

Last year Sunrisers Hyderabad faced a lot of criticism when they retained Kane Williamson as their first pick – meaning he got the biggest price tag – while letting go of serial match-winner Rashid Khan, their best bowler since he joined the franchise in 2017. The Sunrisers management was clear about the logic: they wanted Williamson to lead the franchise after the bitter fallout with David Warner, he was seen the most capable hand to take over. But a nagging elbow injury has affected Williamson’s batting and possibly had a knock-on effect on his leadership too. From the start of IPL 2021 till date, Williamson has scored 1080 runs at 32.72, with a strike rate of 110.88, across 42 T20s. While New Zealand reached the semi-finals of the recent Men’s T20 World Cup, Williamson’s diminished ability to construct impactful innings remained a big talking point. The possibility of letting him go and buying him back cheaper at the auction is an option Sunrisers will mull. That will significantly swell their purse, which currently is INR 5.10 crore (0.10 crore left over from the last auction, plus this auction’s purse of INR 5 crore) and allow them to be more of a force at the auction.Pat Cummins confirmed on Monday that he would skip IPL 2023•BCCIPat Cummins
Team: Kolkata Knight Riders
Current price tag: INR 7.25 crore (USD 966,000 approx.*)
IPL 2022 stats: Five games, seven wickets at 30.28 with an economy rate of 10.68, 63 runs at 15.75 with a strike rate of 262.50

Last season, Cummins missed KKR’s first three games but on arrival, he hit the joint-fastest fifty in the history of the tournament, off 14 deliveries against Mumbai. Knight Riders, it seemed, had made the right move to acquire Cummins in 2020, but then his main skill – bowling – failed, with his economy rate jumping past 10. However, Cummins will not play* IPL 2023, he announced on Monday, because it is sandwiched between Australia’s four-Test India tour and the five-match Ashes, which starts mid-June. Besides, having acquired New Zealand fast man Lockie Ferguson from Gujarat Titans via a trade, Knight Riders might think they have an able replacement on the team sheet.Mayank Agarwal has lost the Punjab Kings captaincy, but will he keep his place in the squad?•BCCIMayank Agarwal
Team: Punjab Kings
Current price tag: INR 12 crore (USD 1.6m approx.*)
IPL 2022 stats: 13 matches, 196 runs at 16.33 with a strike rate of 122.50

The big question confronting Punjab Kings is whether to release Mayank Agarwal, who led them last year, and then buy him back cheaper. Agarwal was one of the two players Kings had retained before the auction last year, but the pressure of captaincy seemed to eat into Agarwal’s batting form, his stats falling away from the the three previous seasons, when Agarwal played 47 matches for 1317 runs at 29.26 with a strike rate of 144.24, including a century and eight fifties. Kings have appointed Shikhar Dhawan as their new captain for the upcoming season.Will his relatively sedate strike rates come back to haunt Devdutt Padikkal?•BCCIDevdutt Padikkal
Team: Rajasthan Royals
Current price tag: INR 7.75 crore (USD 1m approx.*)
IPL 2022 stats: 17 games, 376 runs at 22.11 with a strike rate of 122.87

Devdutt Padikkal courted attention with his attractive strokeplay when he made his IPL debut in 2020 at Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he played as an opener. At the 2022 mega auction, Rajasthan Royals bought him, having seen off rival bids from Royal Challengers, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai, but then shuffled him around the top order, from Nos. 1 to 4. While he primarily played the No. 4 role, another young Indian left-hander, Yashasvi Jaiswal, known for his fearless approach to batting, largely opened with Jos Buttler. Contrary to Jaiswal’s reputation, questions over strike rate have swirled around Padikkal ever since his Royal Challengers days, and it might have an impact on his future at Royals. In IPL 2022, both his strike rate and average were his lowest in the three seasons he’s had at the IPL.Would Lucknow Super Giants consider Ben Stokes over Jason Holder?•BCCIJason Holder
Team: Lucknow Super Giants
Current price tag: INR 8.75 crore (USD 1.16m approx.*)
IPL 2022 stats: 12 games, 14 wickets at 27.92 with an economy rate of 9.42, 58 runs at 9.66 with a strike rate of 131.81

Gautam Gambhir thumped Lucknow Super Giants’ table at last year’s auction to signal his happiness at securing the services of West Indies allrounder. Super Kings, Mumbai and Royals were all keen to get Holder, but Super Giants stayed resolute. But Holder was not at his best with bat or ball in IPL 2022, and there are two other reasons for Super Giants to consider letting him go. One, they were the only franchise last auction to burn their entire purse of 90 crore, meaning they could enter this auction with a purse disadvantage unless they let some people go. Also, their owner Sanjiv Goenka is a big fan of England Test captain and allrounder Ben Stokes, whom he had brought in for what was a record sum in 2017 at the now defunct Rising Pune Supergiant. Stokes played a key hand in RPSG making the 2017 final, and he currently does not have an IPL franchise – he pulled out of the auction last year. Could Super Giants consider releasing Holder to be in a position to afford big names like Stokes, should they become available?* The story was updated after Cummins announced he will not feature in IPL 2023

Evin Lewis: Early T20 World Cup exit 'was a tough pill to swallow'

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“I see a bit of myself in him,” Lewis says of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who he is expected to open with at Sharjah Warriors in the ILT20

Deivarayan Muthu02-Jan-20231:41

Evin Lewis: ‘UAE players should use ILT20 as a stepping stone’

Evin Lewis has called West Indies’ first-round exit from the T20 World Cup in 2022 “a tough pill to swallow”, but says he has moved on and is ready for the inaugural ILT20, where he will represent Sharjah Warriors.During the T20 World Cup, Lewis had also sustained a hamstring injury, which sidelined him from the Super50, West Indies’ premier domestic one-day competition, but he is good to go now.Related

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  • ILT20 will start with Knight Riders vs Capitals on January 13

“Yeah, it [the T20 World Cup] was a tough pill to swallow, to be honest,” Lewis told ESPNcricinfo. “I had the help of my family, which was the most important thing. When I came home, I tried not to dwell on it too much. These things can actually hurt you a lot if you go too deep into it. So, I had to give that responsibility to my family and the support that they’ve been giving me since I reached home… I’m very thankful for that.”I think I’m in a good space now – both fitness-wise and mentally. I’m happy with the way I’m going about my cricket at the moment. I think Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah – all these are pretty good wickets for batsmen. I think, as batsmen, we have to make the best use of it.”Lewis: ‘I see a bit of myself’ in Gurbaz
Lewis is particularly excited at the prospect of combining with Rahmanullah Gurbaz at the top of the order for Warriors. Having watched him from close quarters at the CPL – Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batter Gurbaz played for Guyana Amazon Warriors last season – Lewis saw shades of his own attacking style.”I’m looking forward to batting with him [Gurbaz],” Lewis said. “He’s actually a great guy and as everyone knows, he’s a very aggressive batsman and probably someone who can take a bit of pressure off you [while] opening the batting. So, I’m looking forward to opening with him.”I see a bit of myself in him as he’s a guy who looks to get on with the game and tries to score as fast as possible in the powerplay to give the team a good start. So, I think that’s something teams look forward to as an opening batsman.”Evin Lewis and Rashid Khan were team-mates at St Kitts & Nevis Patriots last season•Getty ImagesLewis has played just 12 T20s in the UAE, returning 260 runs at a strike rate of 142.07, but he believes that his most recent T10 stint with Bangla Tigers in Abu Dhabi and the experience of having faced unorthodox spinners like Rashid Khan and Akila Dananjaya at the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots nets in CPL 2022 will hold him in good stead.”I haven’t played much T20 cricket in UAE, but I think the T10 has actually helped me a lot [to get used to conditions] and how to go about my innings,” he said. “You don’t have much time in T10, like in T20, but you always need to get a good start for the team, which is important.”Rashid is someone different when it comes to bowling legspin. I don’t think there’s anyone who is playing cricket like him at the moment. It’s difficult to pick when you’re batting [against] him, but I try my best to pick his mind at times; probably try to analyse which ball he’s going to bowl when. These guys [Rashid and Dananjaya] are professionals and they go about their games very seriously and I respect them for that.”Lewis: ILT20 ‘can open the way’ for UAE players
In a T20 World Cup warm-up game last year at Junction Oval in Melbourne, UAE made West Indies sweat for victory. Fast bowler Zahoor Khan, who picked up two wickets in that game, turned out for Kandy Falcons in the Lanka Premier League last December. Legspinner Karthik Meiyappan, who bagged a hat-trick in the T20 World Cup proper, will now be Lewis’ team-mate at Warriors. Lewis reckons that impactful performances in the ILT20 will open up more opportunities for UAE’s local players in franchise cricket.

“Sometimes, we, as batsmen, tend to focus more on strengths than weaknesses and it’s something we have to learn to do”Evin Lewis

“It would be great for cricket for these guys, playing a huge tournament like this,” Lewis says. “People all around the world will see what these guys can do and probably can open the way for them in terms of different franchises, so I think they should use this competition as a stepping stone more or less and just go out there and perform.”Earlier, Lewis was vulnerable to the incoming delivery, with his head often falling over, but he has recently tweaked his stance, which could serve him well on his return to the Emirates.”Yeah, I’ve worked on that,” he said. “Sometimes, we, as batsmen, tend to focus more on strengths than weaknesses and it’s something we have to learn to do. I made a slight change in my batting stance and not trying to shuffle as much. I try to stay as still as possible and I think that has been going quite well for me thus far.”I haven’t worked specifically with anyone on this. I just have a couple of friends – supportive friends who will go with me when I want to hit balls. Throw balls at me, use bowling machines – these guys have been very supportive in this aspect.”Warriors will open their ILT20 campaign against MI Emirates in Abu Dhabi on January 14.

Has anyone gone past Dwayne Bravo as the IPL's top wicket-taker?

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

And how many Mumbai Indians players have taken IPL hat-tricks?

Steven Lynch18-Apr-2023Is Dwayne Bravo still the IPL’s top wicket-taker? asked Anderson Kentish from Trinidad & Tobago

As I write, Dwayne Bravo is still leading the IPL wicket-takers list, with 183 – but he will probably lose that top spot soon. Legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal went past Lasith Malinga (170 wickets) in his second match of this year’s IPL for Rajasthan Royals. His 2 for 27 last week against CSK – where Bravo is now a bowling coach – and one more against Gujarat Titans on Sunday took him to 177, just six behind Bravo’s tally.Ireland’s Ben White made his first-class debut in a Test match in Bangladesh recently. How rare is this? asked Michael O’Riordan from Ireland

The Dublin-born legspinner Ben White became the 35th man to make his first-class debut in a Test match, when he took the field against Bangladesh in Mirpur earlier this month. Most of those debuts came in the 19th century: there have been only six previous instances since 1900, the most recent being by the Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman Zadran in 2018 (Mujeeb has now played 280 white-ball matches in his career, but still only that one first-class game).White was one of seven Ireland debutants in that Mirpur match, including Peter Moor, who had previously played for Zimbabwe (his last Test for them, in November 2018, was also against Bangladesh in Mirpur) . One of the other newcomers, Curtis Campher, had played just one first-class game previously – and joined an even more select list, as only 24 men had previously made their Test debut in their second first-class match, the most recent being the West Indies fast bowler Jayden Seales in June 2021.In the latest Wisden there’s mention of a player called “JEBBPQC Dwyer”. Did he really have so many initials? asked Martin Palmer from England

This one rang a faint bell, and it seems I answered a similar query a while ago – but it was back in 2006, so there’s probably no harm in repeating it here. John Elicius Benedict Bernard Placid Quirk Carrington Dwyer played for Sussex – usually appearing on scorecards (presumably for reasons of space!) as “EB Dwyer” – in the early 1900s, despite having been born in Australia. Christopher Lee’s 1989 Sussex history From the Sea End reveals:

He inevitably had a somewhat exotic background. JEBBPQC Dwyer was a great-grandson of Michael Dwyer, a Wicklow chieftain who was described as one of the boldest leaders of the 1798 [Irish] insurrection and who was eventually captured and transported to Australia. It was there, in Sydney, that EB Dwyer was born in 1876. He was a tall, dark and handsome fellow with a ready humour, who bowled with a high right-arm action that produced lift and not a little turn. He was encouraged to come to England by Pelham Warner, and persuaded by CB Fry to play for Sussex. In 1906 his registration was approved, and he immediately proved his worth with 9 for 35 against Derbyshire and 9 for 44 against Middlesex.

Sadly, Dwyer died in 1912, aged only 36. He seems to have admitted to more initials than anyone else who played first-class cricket in England – although he has some rivals in Sri Lanka, where I suspect Rajitha Amunugama might be the record-holder.Dwyer gets a mention in the new Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack in a table accompanying the obituary of Robin Marlar, showing the best bowling figures in a match for Sussex – he took 16 for 100 against Middlesex in Hove in 1906.Current Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma took a hat-trick in 2009, but it was for Deccan Chargers against Mumbai Indians•Associated PressIs it right that no Mumbai Indians player has yet taken a hat-trick in the IPL? I thought Rohit Sharma had one? asked Krishna Karthik from India

Rashid Khan’s hat-trick for Gujarat Titans against Kolkata Knight Riders in Ahmedabad last week was the 22nd in an IPL match (Amit Mishra has taken three, and Yuvraj Singh two, both in 2009).None of these hat-tricks has been for Mumbai. You’re right that Rohit Sharma took one, but he was playing for Deccan Chargers that year (2009), and his hat-trick came against Mumbai Indians, in Centurion. Rohit joined MI in 2011, and has been there ever since, although he doesn’t bowl much these days (his last wicket in the IPL came in 2014).Which Test cricketer was nicknamed “Horseshoe”? asked Martin Kindsman from England

This was the 1920s Australia batter and captain Herbie Collins. He was not particularly stylish but was very effective: in 19 Tests he averaged 45, with the highest of his four centuries being 203 against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1921-22.Collins was a keen gambler, who in later life became a bookmaker; he was also known as “Lucky”. He captained Australia in 11 Tests, including the 1926 tour of England. He won the toss in seven of those; Wisden recalled that “he was widely known as ‘Horseshoe’ Collins by reason of his good fortune in connection with racing and in winning the toss at cricket”. An excellent book on Collins’s unusual life, written by the Australian historian Max Bonnell, was published in 2015.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Should Virat Kohli be slowing down after the powerplay?

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

He explained he had to against Punjab Kings, because the conditions were difficult, but caution doesn’t always work out in T20 cricket

Sidharth Monga20-Apr-20233:01

Moody: Kohli’s post-powerplay approach not allowing RCB to maximise their total

It is among the biggest debates in T20 cricket in India: should Virat Kohli be slowing down after the powerplay? One thing is certain: he is not being unmindful or selfish. In an interview with Robin Uthappa, he recently defended the slowing down for the first two-three overs after the powerplay because that is the time, he said, teams introduce their best bowler, and you need to assess what to do.The interview assumed greater importance as only recently Royal Challengers Bangalore had lost a match after scoring 212. In that match, Kohli had gone from 42 off 25 in the powerplay to add just 19 off 19.Related

Du Plessis and Siraj work their magic in Royal Challengers Bangalore victory

In the match against Delhi Capitals, Kohli showed more intent immediately after the powerplay. He hit two boundaries off Kuldeep Yadav’s first two overs – their best spinner, as Kohli pointed out – but also offered a return chance, which was shelled. He ended up with a 34-ball 50, which won him the Player-of-the-Match award in their win.The debates were raging again as Kohli went back to his original approach in the match against Punjab Kings in Mohali. He scored 29 off 19 in the powerplay, and his first boundary after that came at the end of the 14th over, the over immediately after the time-out. It also brought up his fifty off 40 balls, making it a run a ball after the powerplay. He ended up with 30 off 28 after the powerplay, and got out at the start of the death overs.The approach of Kohli and Faf du Plessis, who managed to hit two sixes and improve his overall strike-rate, was expectedly questioned. Tom Moody, former Sunrisers Hyderabad coach and director, said on ESPNcricinfo that RCB need to examine if it is because he is getting stuck against spin or if it is strategy, and question it if it is indeed strategy.We don’t know if it is a question of Kohli’s ability against spin because he doesn’t even try to hit them. His first boundary attempt after the powerplay came in the 14th over, against the pace of Arshdeep Singh. Until then, Rahul Chahar, PBKS’ best spinner, was bowling, and Kohli made sure he didn’t get any wicket although he went for just 24.Glenn Maxwell felt obliged to hit out immediately after Kohli’s dismissal, and got out. Despite starting the last five overs with all wickets in hand, RCB managed only 44 more.All this debate so far has excluded conditions. It was apparent in Mohali that once the field spread and the ball lost its lacquer, it was difficult to hit out. And Mohali’s square boundaries are big. This might become more and more the case as we go deeper into the Indian summer and the pitches lose their freshness.In the end, RCB’s score proved to be plenty. PBKS took the other approach, and tried to hit out against Wanindu Hasaranga, who went for 39 but also took the wickets of Matthew Short and Shahrukh Khan.Kohli, captaining the side as the Impact Player rule allowed them to play du Plessis at less than 100% fitness, said later that the pitch dictated how they played.”The conditions changed drastically,” he told the broadcasters. “It wasn’t easy to hit the big ones. Faf batted outstandingly well on that pitch. It wasn’t easy to get the ball away. We knew that the new guys will find it tougher so we wanted to extend the partnership that me and Faf had for as long as possible, which will give us 20-30 more, which happened to be the case in the end.”The pitch was very rough underneath. It was the grass that was holding the pitch. It wasn’t the shiny pitch. I think there was not enough water there. If it’s watered nicely, the ball skids on. It wasn’t skidding on. There were hardly any sixes hit off the back foot off the spinners. That tells you the story. Even with the seamers, the slower balls were difficult to get away.”Around overs seven or eight, when the ball started getting scuffed up, we felt the conditions had changed. We changed our strategy to bat deeper and try to maximise the last few overs. It didn’t happen because me and Faf got out but had we stayed in, we had a chance to give it a crack towards 190 or 200.”At the halfway mark, Kohli felt 174 was “more than enough looking at the conditions”.Virat Kohli’s approach in the middle overs has invited a lot of debate•BCCIWhat Kohli perhaps doesn’t say – and who will say that in public? – is that outside him, du Plessis and Maxwell, RCB don’t have much batting. Even when he showed more intent against DC and ended up being the Player of the Match, his dismissal brought about a collapse after which they had to scrap to get to 174, incidentally the same score they got in this match.Something similar to this match took place in the last match where KL Rahul started off playing a maiden from Trent Boult, and immediately had a chat with his opening partner and decided to set their sights 20 lower than the 180 they thought was par. They won by 10 even though they fell short of the 160 they wanted.On both these occasions, the captains felt they could have got 20 more if the final few overs went their way, but they felt they had secured a competitive score. Both these instances bear the stamp of MS Dhoni: don’t risk getting out for a really low score in search of a really high one. Aim for par, and take the extra ones as bonus, stay in the game for as long as possible.In the warm afterglow of these two wins, it is pertinent to mention that it doesn’t always work as results have shown in T20 cricket. Now sides are batting even deeper with the Impact Player coming in. And even in theory, you could argue how does it help to say I will bat slower because others might go just as slow?It is perhaps easier for us on the outside to bring it all up because we don’t have skin in the game. Those out there in the middle are making assessments and acting on them with actual consequences in play. Yet the debate is far from settled.

Attack with the new ball, don't lose momentum in the middle: where the 2023 World Cup could be won

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

No clear favourites and the vast range of conditions in India mean the 2023 edition is deliciously set up to intrigue – but there remain some things that have brought teams success of late. Here’s a rundown

Sidharth Monga04-Oct-20232:08

What will this World Cup be remembered for?

Not on boundary countback. This World Cup will not be won that way, given the change in rules.That low blow out of the way, this is an intriguing World Cup not least because it is the most open one since Australia started making a mockery of the tournament in 2003. Because of this even field, the vast range of conditions in India, the unavailability of teams’ best XIs at various points in the years between the World Cups, and the recency of trends, it is extremely difficult to bridge the gap between cricket the story and cricket the sport.Still there are certain things that can inform our understanding of what the teams are trying to do to win matches in this World Cup. For starters, they are not bowling spin early. There’s a good reason for it. The new white ball seems to be doing more. More so in India. And for longer. What used to be some shape for one or two overs is now considerable seam and swing for about eight overs in India.Related

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That’s why you will see bowling teams attacking wholeheartedly in the early exchanges. More so when they are defending, because under floodlights – and before the dew kicks in – is the best time to bowl in India these days. The average cost of a wicket in the first ten overs in matches between the sides playing this World Cup has been 31 and 32 the last two years. In 2019, it was 41. The last time the new-ball bowlers had so much for two years in a row was way back in 2005 and 2006.It is great that most teams are blessed with some pretty good seam and swing bowlers who can make use of the new ball. It will be interesting to see if the batters will look to be watchful or counterattack, as we saw Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill do in their second Asia Cup match against Pakistan after they struggled in the first.India and Australia, in fact, have been leading the way against the new ball in recent times. No side has scored as quickly in the first ten overs across the past year or so as Australia and India have: 7.26 and 6.61, respectively.Not leaving it late in the big chasesIf they are chasing a big total, expect the batters to meet fire with fire. Himanish Ganjoo, cricket analyst and an ESPNcricinfo contributor, has worked out that teams of late are not leaving themselves too much to do in tall chases. There is strong data to support it. Since 2016, in successful chases of above 300, the run rate of the winning side has tended to remain uniform, while the sides batting first have tended to increase their run rate only gradually.The middle overs are where England seem to be making up for sedate starts with the bat•Getty ImagesIt perhaps flies in the face of conventional understanding that anything is possible with wickets in hand in the last 20 overs. In fact, teams batting second have been okay with losing wickets if they can keep abreast with the asking rate: looking at high totals, the first three wickets of sides batting first contribute 60% of the runs, but only about half in the second innings. The sixth and seventh wickets play a bigger role in chases, which is probably why you see sides valuing depth so much.If this informs a chasing strategy, is there something to be gleaned by the fielding side too? In the lead-up the World Cup, I asked Ian Bishop and Tom Moody if it would be smart to try to choke early through spin, and then have seam bowlers operating when the dew is in and the asking rate is high. They both went for the conventional wisdom: wickets. Go for what will get you wickets. If the recent trend of the ball gripping in the second innings continues, it will only support the conventional wisdom.Win the middle overs – a key to successAs ever, teams that do better in the middle overs tend to win. That’s why you see batters like Virat Kohli press more in the middle overs than they did before. That’s why you see focus on point-of-difference bowlers who can pick up wickets through the middle overs. These are the overs where England seem to be making up for sedate starts with the bat, and after non-penetrative new-ball spells. Their spinners have a decent strike rate, the fourth-best between the two World Cups.Pakistan might have the best pace attack, but they need to make up for lukewarm numbers of their spinners•Getty ImagesIt might not show in the numbers because the two haven’t played that much together, but two highly uncommon bowlers in Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah give India a big advantage in the middle overs. And still they might have cause for concern if the pitches keep offering spinners some grip: their batters have not been great against fingerspin.If India and Australia are great in the early goings, they can stutter in the middle overs. England and South Africa are superb from 11 to 50, but they are not the best with – and against – the new ball. Pakistan might have the best pace attack, but they need to make up for lukewarm numbers of their spinners, and also the middle order.The difficult pitches worked a treat for the 2019 World Cup, but it was also a predictable World Cup in terms of tactics: stable start, mid-overs press, extreme pace, and wristspin. This one is more deliciously set up in its unpredictability and the variety of tactics available, especially given how much the conditions tend to change through the course of a match in India.Keep your eyes and ears open. It’s going to be a wild one.

Tarouba Thursday offers glimpses of a future with a lot of Tilak Varma in it

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

In his maiden international game, on a tricky pitch, Tilak scored a 22-ball 39 that almost took India to victory

Karthik Krishnaswamy04-Aug-20231:15

Jaffer: Tilak Varma showed no nerves at all

In Ahmedabad in March 2021, Suryakumar Yadav hit the first ball he faced in an India shirt for six.Just under two-and-a-half years later, he was at the non-striker’s end when another Mumbai Indians batter opened his India account with a six. Tilak Varma did it off his second ball rather than his first, but the shot he hit was every bit as thrillingly nonchalant as Suryakumar’s one-legged pull off Jofra Archer.Alzarri Joseph was the bowler on this occasion, and the ball was the kind a left-hand batter might ordinarily play in the direction of mid-off or extra-cover: on a length, angling across from over the wicket to finish on or perhaps just outside off stump.Related

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  • Tilak Varma combines Hyderabadi artistry with T20 innovation

Tilak sent it soaring over square leg, standing more or less still and playing a shot that was more swipe than flick, except that verb doesn’t do justice to how languid he made it look, with his bat starting over his left shoulder and finishing over his right and his wrists coming into play at the moment of impact.We’ve seen it in the IPL, this way he has of directing balls to unexpected parts of the field with shots that look almost textbook – until you watch them again. You might remember, for instance, a wristy, inside-out loft over the covers off a Mayank Markande wrong’un, when he met the ball outside leg stump with his back foot brushing the return crease.On Thursday in Tarouba, he brought this ability to international cricket, scoring a 22-ball 39 that was match-winning in all but one sense: it put India firmly on the road to victory, and it wasn’t his fault that they stumbled over its last few miles. In a match where no one on either side scored a half-century, he achieved the best strike rate (177.27) of the three batters who passed 30. He did this on a tricky, two-paced pitch where hitting through the line was far from straightforward, and in conditions where hitting into the wind was often treacherous. And he did this in his first innings in the West Indies, in any format.

Nearly every time he faced up, Tilak passed the eye test. He’s done this right through his career; he’s always seemed to have time to play his shots, and a way of seeming in control of his emotions in tricky situations

None of these mitigating factors were visible in Tilak’s batting. He hit three sixes – that flick-swipe to get off the mark, a swivelling pull off his next ball, and a loft over long-off with his back knee on the ground – and each of them was a six from the moment ball met bat. Of all the ingredients that contributed to the purity of his ball-striking, perhaps the most fundamental was his footwork. There was a smoothness to his movements that at times belied their complexity, most tellingly when he sashayed across his stumps to stymie Romario Shepherd’s wide-line attack, but even in quieter moments such as the single he took off the first ball he faced from Akeal Hosein, when he collapsed his back knee to create space for a square cut against a ball pitching on the fuller side of a good length.Nearly every time he faced up, Tilak passed the eye test. He’s done this right through his career; he’s always seemed to have time to play his shots, and a way of seeming in control of his emotions in tricky situations. It’s why he’s already being spoken of as a future all-format superstar, even though he’s only 20, and he’s only played nine first-class games.The future is the future, unknowable and traitorous, but if the sure-footedness of his Tarouba Thursday was anything to go by, there will be plenty of Tilak Varma in it.

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