Attrition in Ahmedabad: Shami and Khawaja headline old-school day of Test cricket

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The day started in extraordinary fashion, before the teams fought hard on the best batting pitch of the series

Karthik Krishnaswamy09-Mar-2023On December 8, 1959, Ayub Khan and Dwight D Eisenhower, the presidents of Pakistan and the USA, attended the fourth day of a Test match in Karachi. Striving to save the Test against Australia, Pakistan scored 104 for 5 over that five-and-a-half-hour day. Only once have fewer runs been scored over a full day’s play in Test cricket.Sixty-three years and three months later, Narendra Modi and Anthony Albanese, the prime ministers of India and Australia, were in attendance on day one of another Test match, at a stadium named after one of them. Runs came quicker in Ahmedabad than they did in Karachi, but there was a similar attrition to proceedings, and it felt especially so coming after the frenetic contests in Nagpur, Delhi and Indore.You could almost call it a day of normalcy after the frenzied action of those three Tests, but there was nothing normal about it in other respects. The players didn’t warm up on the field of play. Before the toss, the prime ministers went on a lap of honour around the outfield, on a buggy decked out with stumps and bats, to the accompaniment of patriotic Bollywood tunes composed by AR Rahman and Salim-Sulaiman.Related

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Tickets for days two, three, four and five of this match had gone on sale days before tickets for day one, as the organisers sought to balance the presence of the paying public and special invitees. There was talk before the match of record attendances, but the world’s highest-capacity cricket stadium was perhaps only 60% full through the first hour of play, which the prime ministers sat through. A curious thing happened once they left; the lower tiers, initially packed with men and women wearing badges around their necks with the word “volunteer” on them, began to clear out, while the upper tiers began filling up.All this was unusual, but the cricket was relentlessly old-school.It was the kind of day on which your attention could wander, but whenever you turned your eye back to the action, whether it was at 10am or 4pm, you were likely to find Usman Khawaja defending off the back foot, with his front pad pulled smartly away from the line of the ball.Khawaja’s timeless, unhurried grace was the one constant on a day of subtle shifts in mood and tempo. The new ball swung around corners, but India’s quicks took time to find their lines, and Travis Head, slashing at everything, rode his luck while scoring 32 off 44 balls. He played and missed constantly, survived a dropped chance, and achieved a control percentage of 77 on the flattest pitch of the series, but India could do little against him but wait for the next mistake. Once it came, a miscue to mid-on off R Ashwin, the bowlers got into their groove, and gained control over Australia’s run rate.A simplistic narrative has developed around this generation of India players, that they represent a new-age vision of India fuelled by a brook-no-questions aggression, but the cornerstone of their Test results both home and away has been the patience and control of their bowling attack. It was fully on display now, on this flat, first-day pitch. It took India 289 balls to pick up their next two wickets after they’d dismissed Head, but they only conceded 90 runs in that time.The pitch was slow and low with barely any turn on offer, and India met its challenge with time-tested methods. They tried to keep the stumps in play, and set fields for drives and flicks in the wide V from extra-cover to midwicket, primarily to protect runs against those shots, while also hoping for catches if the batters played too early.A frequent sight on day one in Ahmedabad: R Ashwin reacts after a close call•BCCIThe spinners looked to mix up their pace and angles and turn the batters’ muscle memory against them, hoping to get them playing for turn when there was barely any available. Steven Smith kept trying to clip Ashwin to mid-on, and kept playing the ball back to the bowler off the outside half of his bat. Ashwin’s hands kept going towards his head, but while he was troubling Smith with his drift and lack of turn, he wasn’t necessarily going to get him out with just those tools.India waited for mistakes, and kept the runs down while they waited. Marnus Labuschagne and Smith both looked good without managing to wriggle out of India’s stranglehold, and both were out in classic slow-pitch fashion, playing on with their bats drawn a mite too far from their bodies.So far, so attritional. It took until the 71st over of the day for an India bowler to do something spectacular at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Mohammed Shami produced that moment, as he somehow often seems to on seemingly lifeless pitches. He did it during a spell of reverse-swing, but he did it with a hint of seam movement, and in a manner that seemed almost inevitable.When he last came to India, Peter Handscomb had the reputation of being an lbw candidate; he’d stand deep in his crease, go back and across in his trigger movement, and often end up on the back foot against full deliveries with his pads in line with the stumps. On this trip, he’s changed his set-up slightly, at least when the ball has reversed. He still stands with both feet inside the crease, but he doesn’t go across his stumps quite so much, and stays leg-side of the ball.Watching this, you may have felt that a skiddy ball straightening to hit the top of off stump could get him in trouble. Umesh Yadav tried to bowl this for a while, before Shami took over. There’s probably no one in the world better at bowling that particular delivery, and Shami took exactly one ball to land it perfectly to Handscomb. Outside edge beaten, off stump cartwheeling, thank you very much.Mohammed Shami sent Peter Handscomb’s off stump cartwheeling in Ahmedabad•BCCIFor India in home Tests, this sort of moment has often opened the floodgates after hours and sessions of patient probing. For a while, Shami continued to threaten. Cameron Green shouldered arms to a ball he could have left on length in Perth or Brisbane, and was lucky to come away with his off stump intact.Shami then peppered Green with the short ball. As a towering man with a crouched stance, low hands, and a recently fractured finger, Green may well have expected to face this line of attack, particularly on this low-bounce pitch against skiddy fast bowling. He knew, however, that the bigger threat was the full ball at his stumps, and he was prepared to use methods to repel that mode of attack even if it left him looking awkward when it was up near his ribcage.Green got through the barrage, and India took the second new ball, an over after it became available. They may have hoped it would swing, while also giving their spinners a bit more purchase late in the day. It didn’t quite work that way, and from 201 for 4 in 81 overs, Australia sped to 255 for 4 in 90 with Khawaja bringing up his century, to pockets of warm applause, in the last over of the day.Australia had perhaps enjoyed the better of the day’s exchanges, but India had kept their scoring down for large periods. They will have had an anxious eye on the pitch throughout; it remains to be seen how long it will hold together under the harsh Ahmedabad sun.The turning pitches laid out for the first three Tests of this series were partly an effort to minimise the impact of the toss. Now, with a series win and a place in the World Test Championship final on the line, India had prepared – by design or otherwise – the flattest surface of the series. These pitches tend to stay flat through both teams’ first innings when India play Test matches in October and November; in the heat of March, there’s a chance they can start off flat and deteriorate rapidly.The course of the Test match may well hinge on how long it takes for this pitch to offer serious turn. Both teams can expect plenty more old-fashioned attrition until then, under the watchful eyes of a thousand larger-than-life likenesses of their respective prime ministers. They’ve left the stadium, but they’re still watching.

Australia feel what it's like to be on the other end of the World Cup juju

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

A team that invariably played their best cricket when it mattered most produced one of its poorest displays in recent memory

Alagappan Muthu12-Oct-20231:39

Moody: This Australian team is far from the previous champion sides

Of all the legends around Australia and the World Cup, there is one that stands on its own and it might not even be real.Those five shiny gold trophies that they have in the cupboard don’t showcase the aura they carry into ICC tournaments nearly as well as seven little words that may or may not have been spoken just before the start of the millennium.Twenty-four years later, another very good middle-order batter hit the ball straight to the fielder and this one ended up on the ground too.Related

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Smith, Stoinis calls put spotlight on TV umpire in Australia-South Africa World Cup game

Did you say it, Aiden? Did you say it back?On a balmy evening in Lucknow, a strange thread kept unfolding. Glimpses of it were first seen a few days ago in Chennai. Australia could have had their opposition at 20 for 4 but they dropped the catch and spent the rest of the evening wondering what if.That doesn’t happen. Certainly not in World Cups. South Africa know this feeling more than most. Of all the teams that have fallen prey to the Aussie juju, they stand on their own.Everything was going perfectly in 1999 at Edgbaston. Shaun Pollock five-for. Allan Donald four-for. Just 214 to chase to win the semi-final and the openers get em off to a flier. 48 for 0 in the 13th over.And then, completely against the run of play, Shane Warne arrived, did some things that didn’t make sense, inspired the rest of his team-mates to follow suit and the game of cricket itself was changed forever.The other protagonist from that unbelievable day managed to inflict even more wounds on South Africa. Glenn McGrath, who produced two wickets in the 49th over to force that tie, was still around in 2007 when the two teams met in yet another semi-final. He was 37 and perhaps because of that alone there were questions about whether he was still good enough. Well, five overs of his bowling reduced South Africa to 27 for 5.Pat Cummins spilled a caught-and-bowled chance in the 30th over•Associated PressFor the longest time, this has been Australia. Especially at World Cups. They dropped jaws. They defied logic.In 2023, one of their own has called them “a side put together at the last minute.” In 2023, they are only 0.061 net run-rate points off the bottom of the championship table. In 2023, they are the worst fielding unit, with a catching efficiency of 54%. In 2023, their juju has deserted them. Worse yet, it seems to have shifted allegiance.Australia’s best batter was dismissed lbw after he had struck South Africa’s best bowler for back-to-back fours and the decision left both him and his partner at the other end in open-mouthed disbelief. Steven Smith was rapped on the pads by Kagiso Rabada and it looked to be missing the wickets. Or at the very least umpire’s call – which in this case was not out – but all of a sudden the big screen flashed three reds showing only the final still HawkEye projection of the ball hitting leg stump. The ball-tracking bit had gone missing. Smith had to walk off the field, shaking his head. The broadcast eventually showed the full replay with ball tracking and it was going on to hit enough of the target.Until that moment, Australia’s frustrations were directed only at themselves. They dropped six catches of varying difficulty – two in the space of three balls – but the most galling of them was Marcus Stoinis letting a regulation chance slip through his grasp in the 49th over. Having worked hard to come back from a hamstring injury, he was meant to provide ballast to Australia’s middle-order, especially with his ability to swat spin bowling. But none of that would come to pass as he was given out caught behind in another contentious umpiring decision.Australia have twice found themselves in a World Cup game with their seventh-wicket pair at the crease and the score a paltry 70. But that was pre-juju, in 1975 and 1983. That South Africa have put them back there is a nice, neat little twist in one of the game’s greatest rivalries replete with highlights such as Mitchell Marsh basically tripping over himself and watching the ball sail over him for six and Sean Abbott palming a relay catch to thin air.These fielding lapses can be addressed in training – and they really should be – but of greater concern is how Australia have misread the conditions and ended up fighting them at every point in this campaign, a self-inflicted wound because they won both tosses. With seven matches still to play, there is hope for Pat Cummins and his men to mount a fightback. The only thing is it no longer looks inevitable. It used to be. But no longer.

Ollie Pope and the curious case of his second-innings struggles

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

England’s Test No. 3 aware of disparity between his first- and second-innings returns

Matt Roller26-Jun-2023There was not much that Ollie Pope could have done about the ball that dismissed him in the second innings of the first Ashes Test in Birmingham last week.After a brace of boundaries early on the fourth morning, Pope was cleaned up by Pat Cummins, whose yorker tailed in sharply to sneak under the toe of his bat and rip the off stump out of its groove. Despite a grimace as he walked off, Pope knew that he had been beaten by a world-class bowler – and a world-class ball.Related

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But Pope’s dismissal for 14 off 16 balls extended a trend that has been apparent throughout his 37-match England career, which has spanned nearly five years. In his first innings of a Test match, Pope averages 47.91, a record that puts him among the best batters in the world; in his second, that figure sinks to 16.56.It is hardly unusual for a batter to have a stronger record in his team’s first innings than their second; in Test cricket worldwide, batting averages drop with each innings of a match as pitches become worn. It is the extent of Pope’s drop-off that marks him out as unusual, with a ratio that is unmatched among top-seven batters across Test history.”I’m aware that that’s the case,” Pope said at Lord’s on Monday, after batting in the nets two days out from the second Ashes Test. “I think, in the past, I’ve put it down to wearing myself out too much, maybe, in a Test match. Last game, I put it down to a nice ball – which I don’t normally do.”ESPNcricinfo LtdBy his own admission, Pope struggled with the intensity of Test cricket early in his international career – particularly during the Covid era, when players were unable to escape their hotel rooms and switch off during the course of a five-day match. At the end of the 2020 summer, he reflected: “Going back to a room that overlooks the pitch, it’s quite hard to escape.”In first-class cricket for Surrey, where both stakes and scrutiny are lower, his record in the first innings (70.55 average) and second innings (69.57) are nearly identical. It is no surprise that he has had so much success playing at The Oval, not far from his home in south London, where he has scored 11 of his 18 first-class hundreds.The trend is not exclusive to Pope, or to England. In the Australia dressing room during this series, the batters with the biggest drop-offs are the two who describe themselves as “nuffies”: Steven Smith (who averages 75.47 in the first innings and 39.00 in the second) and Marnus Labuschagne (64.63 and 40.72).Both men and their obsessive tendencies would appear to back up Pope’s theory that he has tended to expend too much mental energy in his first innings of a match – as would the fact that his only second-innings half-century in Test cricket, against New Zealand at Headingley last year, came after a cheap first-innings dismissal.Pope believes that he will be able to close the gap. “I’ve managed to sort of work out what works well for me over a Test match,” he said. “It’s just keeping a bit more relaxed throughout, to be honest, rather than putting all the emphasis on the first innings. I used to probably get too mentally fatigued during a game, potentially.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I think the way we’re playing, it’s very enjoyable and a bit more of a relaxed environment that we’re in. That just allows you to wake up mentally fresher every day… hopefully, the rest of this series and the rest of this summer, I can contribute in the first and second innings.”In fact, when Pope reflected on the first Test, his main frustration was that in the first innings, “I got myself in, got to 30-odd and didn’t play a great shot.” He was trapped lbw by Nathan Lyon, playing across the line. “Whenever you walk off for 30-odd on a good pitch, you have left some out there.”It was the first of Lyon’s eight wickets in the match, but Pope insisted: “We’re going to keep being really positive against him, and try and take our strong options. Those eight wickets he got will make us think, ‘Right, what was the best option for me?’ a little bit more. That’s the way we see it; we don’t see it as changing things.”We obviously don’t want to lose eight wickets to him but on a pitch like that, it’s probably more suited to him than a lot of other English pitches,” Pope said of Edgbaston. Two days out from the second game of the series, there is a heavy covering of live grass on the Test strip at Lord’s. “He’s a highly-skilled bowler and knows how to bowl when people are coming at him… it’s going to be a good game of cat-and-mouse, I think.”

A record-breaking series for England's Bazballers

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

It ended with honours even, but on most counts – especially the run-scoring charts – England left Australia well behind

Sampath Bandarupalli01-Aug-20232:24

Stokes ‘proud’ of England team and ‘inspiring’ Stuart Broad

England go bang-bang, Australia do the grind1.39 – The difference in the scoring rates of the two sides. England went at 4.74, while Australia’s run rate was 3.35. This was the highest difference between two teams in a series of four or more Tests, topping the 1.32 in favour of Australia against South Africa during their home series in 1931-32.ESPNcricinfo Ltd10.06 – Percentage of balls left alone by England batters in this series. Australia batters did the same to 19.25% of the deliveries they faced, almost twice that of England.36 – Maiden overs faced by England in the series out of the 645 completed overs. Australia batted out 171 maidens out of 894 completed overs, which meant the England bowlers earned a maiden once every five overs, while it was one in every 19 for Australia.1 – England batted 90-plus overs in this series only once of the seven times they were bowled out. In contrast, Australia lasted 90-plus overs on seven occasions, including in six out of the eight innings where they were bowled out.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4.41 – Difference in the batting averages of England (34.35) and Australia (29.94) during this series. This was the first time England ended an Ashes series with a higher batting average than Australia since the 2013 edition, also in England.England redefine Test-match battingNot only did England top Australia in terms of scoring rates, they also showed that their method was not just about big hitting, but scoring at a steady – and fast – clip right through their innings.4.74 – England’s run rate in this Ashes was comfortably the highest for any team in a Test series of four-plus matches. Australia held the record at 4.26, from the 2001 Ashes in England.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2 – Instances of a team not winning the Ashes series despite winning the first two matches, including Australia in 2023. England failed to win the 1936-37 tour of Australia after going 2-0 up as Australia bounced back with three straight wins to win the series.6 – Batters with 300-plus runs for England in this series, including four who ended the series striking at 70-plus and averaging 40-plus – Zak Crawley, Joe Root, Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow.Never before have four players scored 300-plus runs in a Test series with a 40-plus average and a 70-plus strike rate, let alone four players from the same team (where data of balls faced is available). The nearest example was of three players doing the same in the 2001 Ashes, all for Australia – Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist.5.27 – Percentage of completed maiden overs faced by England in this series, the lowest for a team in a Test series of four-plus matches. The previous lowest was for Australia against West Indies in 2003, where only 8.13% of the overs they faced were maidens (65 out of 800).

43 – Sixes were hit by England batters in this series, the second-highest for a team in a Test series, next only to India’s 47 against South Africa during their 2019 home series. Australia’s 31 sixes in this series contributed to the series tally of 74, the highest for any Test series.Quick bowlers in focus for both sidesThe lead spinners of both the teams had to go out with injuries. Nathan Lyon’s streak of consecutive Tests ended at 100 after he picked up an injury at Lord’s, forcing Australia to play without a specialist spinner in Leeds, the first time they have done that since 2012.England had to bring Moeen Ali out of Test retirement after Jack Leach’s injury. And then Moeen had to bowl through injury twice in four matches.Mitchell Starc finished as the top wicket-taker of the series after not finding a place in the XI at Edgbaston. Chris Woakes went even further to end as the third-highest wicket-taker without playing the first two games.4.65 – Economy of Australia’s pacers in this series, the poorest for any team’s quicks in a Test series of four-plus matches. The previous record was 4.3 for India during their tour of Australia in the 2014-15 season.

3 – Players to win the Player-of-the-Series award despite missing at least two matches in a Test series, including Chris Woakes on this occasion.Steve Waugh won the series award despite playing only one of the three matches of the 1993-94 home series against South Africa. Waugh made 164 and took a four-wicket haul at Adelaide Oval to help Australia square the series.Much like Waugh, Devon Malcolm was named England’s Player-of-the-Series despite playing only the last game of the three-match series against South Africa in 1994. Malcolm took ten wickets at The Oval, which included a nine-wicket haul in the second innings.4.85 – Starc’s economy rate in this series was by far the poorest for any bowler with 20-plus wickets in the same series. However, his strike rate of 33.4 was the second-best for any bowler in an Ashes series since 1910, behind only Mitchell Johnson’s 30.5 in the 2013-14 home series.

5 – Wickets for James Anderson in this series. It was one less than Joe Root’s tally of six. Anderson’s bowling average of 85.4 and strike rate of 184.8 in this series were his poorest in a Test series where he bowled over 50 overs.

Malan-Brook shoot-out intrigues, but form of England veterans remains the major focus

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

If England are to defend their title, input from Stokes, Root, Buttler, Rashid et al will be key

Matt Roller08-Sep-2023It resembled an old-fashioned shoot-out. With the ICC final World Cup selection deadline looming, Harry Brook and Dawid Malan walked out to open the batting together in the Cardiff sunshine. Naturally, their first task was to help England beat New Zealand in the first ODI – but the subplot was clear.At least one of Brook and Malan will be in England’s 15-man squad for India, and possibly both. England are in no rush to make a firm decision – they have nearly three weeks to finalise their travelling party – and will hope that an obvious solution presents itself, whether through form or through injury.Malan made the stronger case, scoring a fluent half-century – the eighth time he has passed 50 in his 19 ODIs – but fell to Rachin Ravindra for 54 in the first over of spin bowled. Brook, who arrived in Wales late on Thursday night and played after Jason Roy suffered a back spasm, made 25 off 41 before gloving a sharp Lockie Ferguson bouncer behind.What did it all mean? Malan’s innings encapsulated the differences between T20I and ODI cricket. He has long insisted that 50-over cricket is his strongest format and he played several crisp cover-drives to get England up and running in the Powerplay, resembling a completely different batter to the one who lacked tempo in the preceding T20Is.Brook clipped the first ball of the match for four through fine leg but only managed one more boundary, playing second fiddle throughout an opening partnership worth 80. He was thrown in at the deep end, opening in a 50-over match for the first time; this was further proof that even the best young players will have the occasional off-day.In truth, the picture has hardly changed: Malan is still a consistent 50-over run-scorer; Brook remains a hugely exciting young player. There may be some concern over Roy’s fitness, having missed most of the Blast with a calf tear, but England have every reason to be cautious rather than risking players at this stage.Jonny Bairstow was rested as a precaution with a shoulder niggle. “We didn’t want to take a risk,” Jos Buttler explained. Mark Wood was not required either: “He’s still building back up… we don’t need to rush it. Getting him fully fit and ready for travelling to India is the priority.”Dawid Malan stole a march on Harry Brook in the fight for a World Cup squad berth•PA Photos/Getty ImagesIf anything, then, Friday was a reminder that the identity of England’s fringe players is unlikely to be the difference between success and failure at the World Cup. For all the intrigue around selection – and the interest in Brook specifically – major tournaments tend to be won by teams whose senior players perform.Four years ago, at the equivalent stage in their World Cup preparations, there were two spots for England to resolve in their squad: which reserve seamer would Jofra Archer squeeze out, and who should be their spin-bowling allrounder? They backed Tom Curran and Liam Dawson over David Willey and Joe Denly – and at the tournament itself, neither of them played a game.Careers can hinge on such decisions: Willey thought his days as an England player were over after his last-minute omission in 2019 and cherishes the medal he picked up as a member of last year’s T20 World Cup squad, despite the fact he did not make an appearance.But whatever England choose to do this time around, the performance of the players who are guaranteed to feature will be far more relevant to their progress in the tournament than decisions around who should be their spare batter or their sixth seamer.Related

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Take Joe Root. He struggled to get going on Friday, making 6 off 15 balls before slog-sweeping Ravindra to deep midwicket, and the next three ODIs will be vital match practice for him in a format he has hardly played over the last four years. Whether he scores 250 runs or 500 in the World Cup will make a huge difference to England’s hopes.Much the same is true of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, who slipped seamlessly back into 50-over tempo in a partnership of 88 off 104 balls. England would have been runners-up but for their 110-run stand in the final four years ago: “The thing about World Cups,” Stokes said on Thursday, “is they can come down to who can handle the pressure best.”England lacked a cutting edge with the ball, with Wood kept in mothballs ahead of more important tests to come and Adil Rashid unavailable to bowl due to cramp while Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell were building their unbroken, match-winning partnership of 180.Rashid’s eventual figures – 1 for 70 in eight overs – were ugly by the conclusion, but redeemed by the context, having to bowl to two set batters with the field up as England chased the game – that too at a ground with notoriously short straight boundaries. Again, England will not be worried so long as he comes good when it matters – as he did in Australia last year.
It is not that England don’t care about results – they were rightly proud to beat Bangladesh 2-1 earlier this year, given Bangladesh’s formidable home record – but they have accepted these shadow bouts for what they are. “Of course, we’re disappointed,” Buttler said, “but there’s a lot of quality in the team.”Tom Latham, New Zealand’s captain, joked that these two teams are playing a five-match series: four September ODIs in England, then a fifth in Ahmedabad on the opening night of the World Cup in four weeks’ time. But England’s approach has long been attuned to the futility of modern bilateral series: these games will be quickly forgotten so long as they win on October 5 … and beyond.

The beautiful desperation of Kane Williamson

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

New Zealand’s captain gave a rare and revealing glimpse of his emotions while playing a brilliant, tone-setting innings

Karthik Krishnaswamy04-Nov-20231:32

McClenaghan: Williamson showed the selfless approach needed from a No. 3

Kane Williamson isn’t the sort of person who kicks out in frustration, normally, but Saturday wasn’t a normal day. There were times during his otherwise silky-smooth 95 off 79 when he didn’t quite hit the ball exactly as intended, and where these moments would normally provoke nothing beyond a poker-faced glove readjustment, they caused him on this day to aim kicks – polite, self-effacing kicks but kicks nonetheless – at nothing in particular.On the surface, there was little cause for this uncharacteristic display of emotion. He was batting beautifully and keeping New Zealand in sight of a 400-ish total, and there seemed to be nothing in Pakistan’s bowling or in the Chinnaswamy Stadium’s pitch and outfield to prevent them from getting there. In 28 attempts in ODI history, only once had a team successfully chased down a 400-plus target.And yet, here Williamson was, kicking out unambiguously.Other bits of Williamson’s innings bore the stamp of desperation too. There was, first of all, the very fact of his presence at the crease. He had carried a knee injury into this World Cup and missed New Zealand’s first two games as he made his way to full fitness. He had played their third game and scored a serenely vital 78 before retiring hurt with a fractured thumb. This had caused him to miss four more games.Related

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On the eve of this game it hadn’t been clear Williamson would play. He was one of four players under an injury cloud. “A decision on their availability will be left until game-day and likely confirmed at the toss.” NZC had said in a statement.Through the course of Williamson’s innings, it was evident he was not 100% healed; more than once he blew on his hand after playing a shot.But it was clear why New Zealand wanted him out there even if it meant batting through pain. Just the second ball he faced was proof enough; a blameless, only-just-back-of-a-length delivery from Haris Rauf, offering no real width, jabbed crisply off the back foot with an open face to bisect backward point and deep third.It was as if he had never been away.But it soon emerged that the Williamson batting at the Chinnaswamy was a slightly different Williamson to the serene, self-contained Williamson you’ve watched hundreds of times. This was, if such a creature can be willed into existence, a kicking, screaming Williamson.Early in his innings, for instance, Williamson aimed a booming drive at a not-quite drivable length from Rauf, and sent a thick edge flying wide of slip.Williamson shifts aesthetics to the back seat•ICC/Getty ImagesThen there were forays down the track, twice in the space of three overs, to hit offspinners inside-out over the covers while leaving all three stumps exposed. This is a shot he’s always played well, but he doesn’t always bring it out when he’s in his 30s, when he’s batting in the 23rd and 25th overs of an ODI innings.Right after the second inside-out chip, he brought out an even more emphatic statement of intent, getting down on one knee to Iftikhar Ahmed and using every millimetre of his reach to slog-sweep him over wide mid-on. There was a certain degree of length manipulation at work here; the ball landed a fair way short of a slog-sweeping arc.After getting himself set with 30 off his first 35 balls, Williamson was all action, all urgency, perhaps even all desperation, scoring 65 off his next 44 balls.The back-foot punch off Rauf that took him from 52 to 56 was perhaps the clearest illustration of this desperation. The back-foot punch is a Williamson trademark, always played with a high left elbow, often with both feet off the ground, and usually described as “pristine” by cricket writers and commentators.There was nothing pristine about this back-foot punch, and it was all the more glorious for it. It was an offcutter from Rauf, and it gripped just enough to force Williamson to manufacture power and placement. For this, he had to abandon the full bat face and the high left elbow, and instead force the ball away, into the gap between cover and mid-off, with a whip of his bottom hand and a half-swivel of his hip.It was a shot of beautiful desperation.It’s hardly sound sportswriting to guess at a player’s mentality from their body language or how they have approached a certain task on the field, but the circumstances were clear enough in this case – or would become clear enough, soon enough – to enable this sort of conjecture.New Zealand had lost their last three games of this World Cup, and with their hopes of a semi-final slot just beginning to fray were facing their most direct competitor for that slot. They were in the midst of an injury crisis, and would soon be defending a total on a belter of a pitch with a far-from-first-choice bowling attack.Where Pakistan had picked four quicks and no frontline spinner, New Zealand had picked a second specialist spinner and no genuine third seamer. Either the two teams had read the conditions very differently, or one of them had been forced into a compromise. New Zealand’s two choices for third seamer were Lockie Ferguson, who was recovering from an achilles injury, and Kyle Jamieson, who had only just flown to India as Matt Henry’s replacement.At his post-match press conference, Williamson said the pitch had played “better than it appeared”, suggesting that New Zealand had initially expected more help for the spinners.”Yeah, I mean we obviously been challenged with injuries and things but we did see that surface and thought that spin would be perhaps most threatening,” he said. “But everybody went for plenty of runs and I think when that’s the case in these sorts of games, it’s more about moments or an over or two that can change the game quite quickly. And that was really difficult to come by. Both teams batted beautifully well and ultimately Pakistan just got their noses in front.”As New Zealand began their defence of 401, and as Fakhar Zaman began taking chunks out of Pakistan’s target with an innings of breathtaking skill and audacity, it became clear that every bowler was going to take a pasting. It fell to Ish Sodhi, the legspinner picked for his first game of the tournament, to take the biggest pasting. Pakistan, fuelled by cricketing skill, a weakened opposition, the grace of the weather gods, and perhaps even , ran away to victory by a thumping DLS margin.None of this may have seemed likely when New Zealand were batting. But if you looked closely enough, the threat of it was always present in the sight of their kicking, if not quite screaming, captain.

It hasn't been easy being Kusal Mendis

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

He was already feeling the pressure of captaincy when a stray question about Virat Kohli, and his non-answer to it, blew up social media

Madushka Balasuriya13-Nov-20232:35

Maharoof: Sri Lanka’s batting has been a massive letdown

Imagine the scene. You’re the captain. A captain who had been thrust into the role a couple of matches into a World Cup. And your team? They have just lost two games on the bounce. Actually, five of the last seven. The latest one was against India – a perfectly in-sync, cricketing destroyer of worlds. In that, your team was not just routed, but ground into the Wankhede dust.What’s worse, it’s the second straight game against them in which your side has suffered such a humiliation. The memes make themselves, the social-media trolls are on a tear, and even the fans – hesitant to accept the undoubted superiority of this Indian juggernaut – reach the only conclusion they can: your team is rubbish. And they are not afraid to let you know it.With all this swirling between your ears, you tune out the world. Stay away from the socials, as the kids say. Focus on the job at hand. Which, at this point, happens to be a media briefing in front of the world’s cricket media, ahead of a game that is a must-win for your side. Addressing the media isn’t really your thing either, English a very second second-language.Related

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And so you sit, expecting questions about your next opponents, translating the questions from English to Sinhala and the answers from Sinhala to English in your head, just to try and exude a positivity that you’re not even sure you feel. And suddenly, somebody asks you a question… about congratulating Virat Kohli on his 49th ODI century. You’re bemused at first: have they come to the right presser? And then it all comes rushing back – the memes, the trolls, the abuse, the absolute mockery in your mentions tag.And so you blurt out: “Why would I congratulate him?” Laughing all the while. This is a Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh pre-media press briefing after all, why are they asking about Kohli?Well, Kusal Mendis soon found out. Angering Sri Lankan fans is one thing, angering their northern neighbours quite another.”After that I copped a lot of abuse. Everyone knows how good a player Virat Kohli is so, yeah, I probably should have wished him at that time,” a reflective Mendis said on Sunday, as he provided rare insight into the mindset of a player who is often on the verbally economical side.”That day we went first for practice, after which there was the presser. The day after was the Bangladesh game. When I went there I had no idea how much Virat Kohli had scored, all I knew was that there was a game. So when I was asked that question, I was initially confused because this was a media conference with regard to Bangladesh-Sri Lanka game. But looking back I know I was probably wrong in how I reacted, because scoring 49 centuries is no easy feat. As a batter, I know how difficult that is, but at that point I wasn’t really clear on what was being asked.”Kusal Mendis’ form went down after taking on the captaincy•Associated PressMatter closed then? Yeah… for now. See, for Mendis, this isn’t new at all.A Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and Under-19 World Cup captain, fast-tracked into the national side, and one that within a year of debuting for Sri Lanka had struck 176 on the way to a rare Sri Lanka Test series win against Australia. Mendis was living the dream.But this was a Sri Lanka side post-2014 and the batting had already begun its downward trajectory following the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan. Barely out of his teens, Mendis was hardly the polished final product, but Sri Lankan cricket and its adoring public was crying out for a new hero. And that knock against Australia certainly fuelled the flames of expectation.So when the eventual troughs in form did arrive, Mendis became a lightning rod for criticism – particularly social media, where much of the discourse had begun to shift.”As far [as] the stuff that’s being posted on social media, when we’re doing badly is when we need the most support. If a player is doing badly, if you can post some encouragement that would be better,” Mendis said. “A few years ago, this exact same thing happened to me, where I suffered a lot of abuse online. As a young player, growing in the game, it causes a lot of hurt. And it’s very difficult to recover from that. Sometimes, even when I’m on the road, I’ve heard people say things behind my back.”

“We never go into a match looking to lose, we always play for the country and ourselves. We’re always looking at how to win. So my humble request to the fans is that they support us as much as possible”Kusal Mendis

In the case of Mendis, though, many may find it difficult to feel sympathy. In 2020, he was involved in a motor accident in which a 64-year-old cyclist was killed. The matter was closed after a settlement. A year later, he was one of three cricketers banned for breaching bio-bubble protocols when Sri Lanka toured England.But, upon his return from that ban, Mendis discovered some of the best form of his career, and now has been entrusted with the captaincy – for however long that may be.He has also been refreshingly forthright about the pressures surrounding the role, going into detail about his slump in form since taking over the ODI side – prior to that he had struck 76 and 122 against South Africa and Pakistan respectively.”In the South Africa game, it was hard for me to play my normal game, which is to play a few balls first and get in [because Sri Lanka were chasing 429 for victory]. So what I tried to do was see how I could score quick runs. That made a difference in the first game, so in the second game [against Pakistan], along with the momentum from the first game and the practice matches, I was able to continue in the same vein.Kusal Mendis scored 76 and 122 in his first two World Cup innings, but scored only 96 in seven innings after that•AFP/Getty Images”But that’s not my game. So after that, when I was made captain, I do think the pressure might have gotten to me because I am human. I wasn’t expecting to get the captaincy, so when you look at my game after that, I felt that I couldn’t play in the same manner as the earlier games.”In terms of captaincy alone, I didn’t feel all that much pressure. I only really felt the role once I went on to the field, but there I received a lot of help from my team-mates. When I went out to bat, I didn’t think much about the captaincy initially, but after losing the first two games and then knowing the team needed to win… I think that along with the captaincy perhaps impacted how I approached my game. But I want to clarify I don’t feel a lot of pressure from the captaincy itself.”And now he has used his position to speak out on the epidemic of abuse athletes across sports suffer.”It’s very difficult to get up when you fall,” he said. “We never go into a match looking to lose, we always play for the country and ourselves. We’re always looking at how to win. So my humble request to the fans is that they support us as much as possible. There are videos of our players getting wickets, videos of our batters scoring runs – share those. And just try and spread some positivity in difficult times like this.”With discussion around mental well-being increasing each day, Mendis’ request should be something fans – and others – should try to get behind. It’s not too difficult.

Swashbuckling. Radiant. High-octane. We have a brand-new SRH

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Between them, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen broke records, Mumbai Indians’ hearts, and T20 batting rules

Vishal Dikshit28-Mar-20241:43

Moody: Head set the tone, and Sunrisers just didn’t look back

If, before Wednesday, you were asked which team would break Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s record total of 263 for 5 from IPL 2013, who would you have picked?Not a team that has traditionally been known as a bowling powerhouse, surely?And yet, it’s Sunrisers Hyderabad. And the great bowling team of the past has not only broken the record by a distance, they have topped 200 in back-to-back matches in IPL 2024.Related

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And even if you had guessed Sunrisers, it would have been because of the presence of Henrich Klaasen, given his T20 strike rate of 193 since the start of 2023. He did top-score in Sunrisers’ 277 with a scorching 80 off 34, but it was the belligerence of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma that “set the tone” – in Klaasen’s words – for a magical night in Hyderabad.Sunrisers were seemingly under pressure coming into this season – they had finished IPL 2023 at the bottom of the table with just four wins from 14 games; they have a new leader with no T20 captaincy experience; they hosted Mumbai Indians knowing that home teams had won all the previous matches this season. When Sunrisers arrived in Hyderabad, they knew they had won just one out of seven home games last season.Sometimes, that sort of pressure can free you up, and when it’s so early in the tournament, you can also free your arms more easily, especially on the flattest of pitches. It helps if the team management gives you a “clear message” to “go out and express yourself”.Head may not need such messages, but it must have done wonders for 23-year-old Abhishek, who had seen Head cart the ball around in the first four overs to race to 32 off 12. When IPL debutant Kwena Maphaka offered pace, Head sent him for a 22-run over. When Abhishek joined him in the fifth over, and Hardik Pandya tried different lengths and pace, Head smashed the Mumbai Indians captain for three fours in a row. And when Jasprit Bumrah was not going to get a second over in the powerplay, Head and Abhishek went all guns blazing.By the end of the powerplay, Head had registered Sunrisers’ fastest IPL fifty off just 18 balls. Head is one of Abhishek’s favourite batters, and the infectious energy was passed on when Abhishek smashed his second ball for a six. Abhishek revealed after the game that Head had told him that if he felt like going after the ball, even if it’s the first ball, “just go for it”. And he did!2:42

Rapid Fire: An absolute nightmare for bowlers

After an 81-run powerplay, Sunrisers’ new record in the phase, Hardik fed the two left-hand batters legspin in the form of Piyush Chawla, and that meant only one thing – the ball sailing beyond the leg-side boundary, which is where Abhishek’s three sixes in that over landed. Sunrisers had crossed 100 in just seven overs. They were not just rewriting record books, they were smashing them to pieces.This batting duo was making the most of not just a flat track but also on a bowling attack that had an IPL debutant, one playing his second IPL game, one spinner turning the ball into them, and the best T20 bowler not bowling to them.Logic suggests that Bumrah should have bowled after Head fell to Gerald Coetzee in the 15-run eighth over, but Hardik persisted with himself and the 17-year-old IPL debutant Maphaka. Abhishek was in his groove by now, and when he clobbered a slower ball into the sight screen, he had broken Head’s record of the fastest fifty for Sunrisers – off 18 balls, set barely 20 minutes earlier – by getting there in 16 balls.”The message was simple for all the batters in the meeting we had before this match, that everyone just go and express yourself. That’s a very positive message,” Abhishek said at the press conference after the game. “If you get it from your captain and coach, I think that’s really supportive for all the batters.”The run rate was almost kissing 15 at the halfway mark and there was still no Bumrah, who, it appeared, was being saved for Klaasen. But when Klaasen came out at the start of the 12th over, there was still no Bumrah. Instead, Hardik brought on a bowler playing just his second IPL game: left-arm spinner Shams Mulani. Possibly because there were two right-hand batters in then, Klaasen and Aiden Markram. But this was despite Klaasen’s phenomenal record against spin in the IPL. Klaasen doesn’t need an invitation from spinners to hit sixes, and he launched Mulani down the ground for the first of his seven sixes off the second ball he faced.By the time Bumrah got the ball again, Sunrisers had soared to 173 in just 12 overs. The match was gone by then because even if Bumrah bowled three maidens after that – which might be beyond even his magical powers – Sunrisers would target the other 30 balls to still get to a daunting total. Hypothesis aside, Head and Abhishek had set the stage so beautifully and brutally for the rest that Klaasen’s seven sixes for his 34-ball 80 seemed routine rather than jaw-dropping.3:16

Moody baffled by Mumbai’s use of Bumrah

It has to be said that for a long time, Mumbai Indians were seriously in the chase of 278. Seventy-six runs in the powerplay, 100 off 45 balls, and sixes flying off the bat like in a highlights package.At 165 for 3 after 12 overs, when their run rate was 13.75 and the asking rate 14.12, it looked not just possible but achievable for Mumbai Indians. But that’s when Pat Cummins proved that despite the lack of T20 captaincy pedigree, he had the smarts – the World Test Championship title and the ODI World Cup trophy are evidence of that.Unlike Hardik, Cummins brought on his key bowlers when it mattered. He summoned his most experienced quick – Bhuvneshwar Kumar – before the death overs for a third over that went for just five runs. And when Cummins himself dismissed the dangerous Tilak Varma with a slow bouncer in a three-run over, he turned to Jaydev Unadkat for his knowhow of bowling mainly slower balls on a pitch where lack of pace was tough to score off. Unadkat’s five-run over continued a streak of 16 boundary-less balls and the asking rate had shot to 22 as Mumbai needed 88 off 24 balls.”Credit to SRH, they bowled pretty well there at the end, taking the pace off on a slowing pitch,” Tim David said at the press conference. “It can be pretty hard to hit to the big side so that’s credit to them.”The bowling was expected to do it, but with this new, improved, swashbuckling batting, Sunrisers have sent a message no opposition wants to show two blue ticks for.

Stats – Multiple records for Williamson as New Zealand end South Africa duck

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

O’Rourke’s match haul of 9 for 93 is the best for a New Zealand bowler on Test debut

Sampath Bandarupalli16-Feb-20241 – It’s New Zealand’s first series win against South Africa in men’s Test cricket, ending a near 92-year wait. With this, each of the first eight teams to play men’s Tests have won at least one series against the other teams.18 – Men’s Test series played by New Zealand against South Africa. It’s the second-longest any team has had to wait for a series win against an opposition. New Zealand hold the unwanted record, too, having taken 21 series to end the drought against England.5 – Hundreds by Kane Williamson in the fourth innings in Test cricket, the joint-highest for any batter, alongside Younis Khan. Four of those five Williamson hundreds have come in successful chases, equalling the record held by Graeme Smith.172 – Innings batted by Williamson for his 32nd century in Test cricket, a record. Steven Smith was the previous fastest in terms of innings – getting there in 174 innings.ESPNcricinfo Ltd8 – Consecutive fifty-plus scores in Tests that Williamson has converted into centuries. The last time he failed to do so was in the WTC final against India in 2021, where he finished on 52 not out. Only one other batter has a streak longer than him – Don Bradman, with 12.5 – Williamson has scored a hundred in each of his last five Tests at home, including two in the previous match in Mount Maunganui. Only Bradman (1937-1946) and Smith (2014-2015) had hundreds in five consecutive Test matches at home before him.9 for 93 – Will O’Rourke’s match haul in Hamilton is the best for a New Zealand bowler on Test debut. Mark Craig’s 8 for 188 against West Indies in 2014 was the previous best for them.13 – New Zealand haven’t lost 13 consecutive home series since their last series defeat in March 2017 against South Africa. They won ten of the 13 series played in this period, with three ending on level terms.

Big numbers and an unquantifiable outpouring of love

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

James Anderson leaves the game enriched far beyond the bare statistics of a monumental career

Vithushan Ehantharajah12-Jul-2024On Tuesday, the eve of James Anderson’s farewell Test match, he received a present from Adidas – a box-fresh pair of commemorative bowling boots for this one-off Test.Stitched onto the straps were two dates: “22.05.03” on the left, “10.07.24” on the right, the starting days of his first and last Test. Billion-dollar corporations can do sentimentality too, you know.”I didn’t ask for them,” Anderson said, with one last rally against enforced pomp. “I thought I’d better wear them to keep the sponsors happy. It wasn’t my idea.”Cricket lends itself to this kind of qualitative imprinting, and Anderson’s era-spanning career only encourages that. His 704 career wickets may as well be carved into stone, likely to stand forever as the third most in Test cricket. His name is already etched into the honours board seven times at Lord’s, but the MCC also went to the trouble of printing scorecards of all 29 of his appearances at this ground. They even handed him a decanter engraved with the details of this last outing.Related

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Everything that can be counted can be printed, visualised, chucked in a graphic and embroidered. Even refunded, as day three fell 2.5 overs shy of the 15-over cut-off. And yet, as a statistical titan bowed out of a numbers-obsessed pursuit, the game’s true quality shone through in his final moments.Cricket, at its heart, is a shared love. Passed on, cultivated, and paid forward. For the last 21 years, Anderson has been a handy vessel for this age-old exchange.Alec Stewart (who turned 61 in April) messaged Anderson’s 12th and final international wicketkeeper, Jamie Smith (24 today), to remind him that he was the first back in 2002. Chris Woakes, now the senior leader of the pace attack, was taught the wobble seam delivery by Anderson in 2014, who had perfected it three years earlier.Gus Atkinson, who had plucked up the courage to ask Anderson for a selfie in the West Indies in 2007, now knows the importance of the team victory over personal glory. His attempt to apologise for not leaving Anderson the final wicket was greeted with a well-meaning “f*** off”.Even the walk off the field was an emotionally binding moment for all involved. “There was an overwhelming feeling out there, that this was the last time we’d get to walk off the field with Jimmy,” Ben Stokes said. “And also the last time the crowd would get to see Jimmy leave the field.”At 2pm, MCC invited that crowd onto the Lord’s outfield. Half congregated under the England balcony at the pavilion and were duly rewarded by the sight of Anderson draining a pint of Guinness. The rest had broken out into their own mini games of cricket.

Men and women, boys and girls. Generations of friends, family and strangers crowding the bat or merely observing, as bowler after bowler ran in – the majority right arm seam – to contend with the various angles of the Lord’s slope. Even Anderson, for so long a mainstay at the Pavilion End, finished off with his final six overs from the Nursery End.For many, the game comes from love; a generational exchange, passed down like wisdom and encouraged like decency. A pastime that serves many purposes. Grease for the wheels of conversation. A conduit for joy. A substance for relief. The fabric of relationships. The building blocks of memories.Anderson’s transcendence means he has, by proxy, been a facilitator for this. Not just for those here these last three days and who were due here for the final two, but others the world over. Especially his final XI, with a captain who was still a pre-teen having just moved over from New Zealand, and a spinner six months from being born when he first stepped out at Lord’s in England whites.Truth be told, the Test itself as a send-off was a little flat; enforced, subdued, no atmosphere to speak of for the first two days, and, ultimately, too brief. Anderson even dropped a simple return catch that would have ended it on his terms. Goodbyes are rarely perfect, and this was far from it.What was heartening though, was the occasion gave Anderson an insight into how he made people feel. As much through enduring as excelling.An emotional James Anderson walks off the field•PA Images via Getty Images”I’m certainly getting more of a feeling with that this week,” Anderson said when asked if he can appreciate what he has meant to others. “I think that’s probably what makes me most happy about having a long career.”And if people ask you how would you like to be remembered? I’d love to think that someone took up the art of bowling because they’ve watched me bowl, or whether it’s their parents that have forced them into it because they’ve seen me bowl.”I’ve been amazed at like how many kids that were here, even the walk into the ground. The kids here and the older folk as well. I think that’s really special. And that’s probably our job as cricketers as well.”You’re not just a cricketer trying to win games of cricket, you’re trying to be a role model as well. When I was growing up, I was looking up to players to try and imitate them or copy them, be like them. And I love the thought that kids are still doing that because of me.”Well Jimmy, that responsibility is no longer yours. You’ve more than done your share.Around four hours after that last walk off, Anderson was back out bowling at the Pavilion End, this time to his daughters and other kids associated with the England dressing room. He even made sure to have a bat, having missed out on Thursday. Given this was put upon him, it was hard not to square that this was a man at peace.His stewardship will now be made official – for the summer at least – as he advises those who will take the team (and thus, the game) forward. But if there was anything to wish upon Anderson from this day on, it is that he should rest knowing that between the dates of 22.05.03 to 10.07.24 he did more than produce unimpeachable numbers.Twenty-one years, 188 caps, 40,037 deliveries, 704 wickets and countless enriched.

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