All posts by h716a5.icu

R Ashwin's fortunes mirror India's on frustrating day at the SCG

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

The first day showed that the batsmen might need to do the heavy lifting if India are to win the SCG Test

Sidharth Monga07-Jan-20211:16

Chopra: Pant’s first miss was a ‘regulation’ catch

Two Tests in a row, R Ashwin has been introduced into the attack ahead of a third seamer in a country that helps fast bowlers more. Before this series, it had happened outside Asia and the West Indies only twice before in the first innings. Back in 2011-12, it was more a case of a youngster being sent to the gallows in Adelaide, and in 2018 at Edgbaston, India wanted to utilise the early moisture against a left-hand opening pair.Here in Australia, the story is different. India are fielding an inexperienced bowling attack – both at MCG and SCG, India have had a debutant fast bowler – because of injuries. Ashwin has stepped up as a leader of the attack, and has bowled exceptionally well, and for long hours. How Ashwin has gone has also been indicative of how well India have gone.In Melbourne, Ashwin came on to bowl in 11th over of the innings, with Australia at 25 for 1. In Sydney, he was held back with till the 14th over – because the rain break allowed the opening fast bowlers a longer first spell – with the score 36 for 1.It really was that sort of day for R Ashwin, and for India•AFP via Getty ImagesAt MCG, Ashwin’s first spell broke the back of Australia’s batting, getting a wicket early, exposing Steven Smith to a newish ball with the scoreboard pressure on and getting him out. At SCG, Ashwin started off just as well as he did in Melbourne, but things took a different route for him and for India pretty soon.For seven overs, Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah, the two leaders of the attack, the likeliest men to take a wicket, put debutant Will Pucovski and Marnus Labuschagne under pressure. Mohammed Siraj, in only his second Test, then took over well from Bumrah. Only 13 runs came in the ten overs since Ashwin came on to bowl, Labuschagne faced 18 straight dots, and there was anticipation in the India camp.Related

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Ashwin’s success this series has relied on shutting down right-hand batsmen by making them play to a heavily populated leg-side field. Which is what he kept doing in his first five overs, mixing it with the drifting delivery that challenges the outside edge. In his fifth over, he tried it once but pitched it too full, allowing Pucovski a cover-drive. Later, in the over, he corrected himself, drifting the ball away while staying short of a driving length, drawing a forward defensive, taking the outside edge… only for Rishabh Pant to drop it.Now dropped catches are as much a part of Test cricket as chances created are, but when it happens at a specialist position – wicketkeeper and slips, for example – the technique comes under the scanner. Former wicketkeepers immediately talked about Pant’s hands pointing at the ball, his fingers almost parallel to the ground and grabbing at the ball as opposed to hands pointing down and letting the ball come to him. ESPNcricinfo’s logs revealed that Pant has dropped nine of the 20 catches that have come his way off spin bowling in Test cricket.The one that got away – Rishabh Pant drops Will Pucovski off R Ashwin•Getty ImagesWhether Pant should play over Wriddhiman Saha is a debate for another day, but the fact that Australia got away after this drop and another half-chance spilled not long after tells you how much needs to go your way when you have a thin attack. Saha probably would have been playing had India not played Ravindra Jadeja as the fifth bowler and the sixth batsman. They had to provide some batting cover. Jadeja probably would not have been playing had Mohammed Shami not been injured.In Melbourne, everything went India’s way. That is what has to happen if you pull off an away win despite being so outmatched. Here things started to going against India. Ashwin was already into his 91st over of the series, this was a day-one pitch, the flattest of the three, and the margin of error kept diminishing. In the next four overs, Ashwin bowled perhaps more bad balls than he had done all series.A big part of Ashwin’s success has been in not allowing the batsmen to hit him against the spin into the off side. For that to happen, he either has to go too wide or too short. He began erring on the short side. In just one spell, he conceded 24 off-side runs to right-hand batsmen. In the whole Adelaide Test, he gave 28, in Melbourne 51.This was not the ideal time for debutant Navdeep Saini to be introduced either, and Pucovski laid into him. Fifty runs came in eight overs leading into tea. Steven Smith now got to start out against a 35-over-old ball. He didn’t have to face the first spell of any of India’s strike bowlers. The pitch was easier too. He got into his work like great batsmen do. Marnus Labuschagne went past 50 after two 40s. Despite more than a session lost to rain, Australia were near their highest score of the series. They batted with a control rate of 92%, well higher than the series rate, which is a comment both on the pitch and the not-surprisingly reduced accuracy of bowling.While it looked ominous for India, the day only put in perspective the immenseness of the effort their bowlers put in in Melbourne. They might just need the same from their batsmen to get out of this one.

Stats: All the records Pat Cummins and KKR raked up in their stunning rearguard

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Also in the record books tonight: Chahar for a high, and Curran for a low

Sampath Bandarupalli21-Apr-2021171 – Runs scored by the Kolkata Knight Riders after the fall of the fifth wicket with the score on 31, the most by a team in an IPL match after losing five wickets. The Royal Challengers Bangalore held the previous record with 130 runs in 2016 against the Gujarat Lions, when they chased down 159 after being 29 for 5.The 171 runs by the Knight Riders is also the second-highest by any team in a T20 game after the fall of the fifth wicket. The highest is 184 by the Jamaica Tallawahs to chase down a target of 224 from being 41 for 5 against the Trinbago Knight Riders in CPL 2018 (courtesy 121* off 49 balls from one Andre Russell).ESPNcricinfo Ltd66* – Pat Cummins’ score while batting at No. 8 for the Knight Riders, the highest in IPL while batting at No. 8 or lower. Harbhajan Singh’s 64 against the Kings XI Punjab in 2015, also from No. 8, was the previous highest from such a batting position.0 – All-out totals higher than the 202 by the Knight Riders. The previous highest all-out total in the IPL was 188 by the Mumbai Indians way back in 2008, while chasing a 190-run target against the Kings XI Punjab.The Knight Riders are also just the second team in T20 history to register a 200-plus total after losing half their side inside 50 runs. The Jamaica Tallawahs, against the Trinbago Knight Riders in CPL 2018, recorded the first such instance.202 – The Knight Riders’ total is the highest by any team in T20 cricket with eight batters getting out in single digits. The previous highest with as many or more single-digit scores was 175 by Australia against Pakistan in the 2014 World T20. The Knight Riders’ total is also the first 200-plus total in T20s to include four ducks.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4 – Wickets for Deepak Chahar inside the first six overs in this match. He is the first player to take a four-wicket haul for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL during the mandatory powerplay. The Super Kings took five wickets inside the first six overs, the first such instance for them in the IPL.Related

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58 – Runs conceded by Sam Curran in his four overs, the joint-most conceded by a Super Kings player in an IPL game. Mohit Sharma also conceded 58 runs against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2015. Curran’s third over cost 30 runs, the joint-most expensive over by a Super Kings bowler in the IPL. Lungi Ngidi also conceded 30 runs in the last year’s game against the Rajasthan Royals, where he conceded four consecutive sixes to Jofra Archer.0 – Instances of two individual fifties from Nos. 7 or lower in an IPL innings before today. The duo of Russell and Cummins produced just the second such instance in all T20 cricket. The first such occasion came during Jammu & Kashmir’s innings against Haryana in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2012-13.

Would the modern player switch places with a counterpart from the past?

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Packed schedules, bio-bubbles, pandemic uncertainty, but a lot more cricket and substantially better rewards – do current players have it better or worse?

Ian Chappell23-May-2021The modern cricketer is substantially better rewarded than players of the previous century. However, like with all such things in life, there is a downside involved. This comes in the form of the numerous adjustments to be made because of the extra formats that are now played and the resultant crowding of the schedule.As if that wasn’t a big enough challenge, there are now the vagaries of the pandemic. There’s no better example than the chaos created by the postponement of the opulent IPL, resulting in a last-minute appeal to the ECB to rejig India’s tour dates in England to accommodate the completion of the tournament.Whoever said life wasn’t meant to be easy perfectly summed up the career of the modern international cricketer.The Covid-ravaged world has meant cricketers spend extended periods in bubbles, which challenges their skills and their mental health. It has also resulted in scheduling that has Test matches crammed together, which is physically and mentally demanding, especially for the fast bowlers.While the 20th-century cricketer had the occasional back-to-back Test over the Boxing Day-New Year period, now it’s more likely the schedule will include back-to-back-to-back Test matches than not, which is a real grind for all concerned.This was highlighted in the last Australia-India series, where the home side used the same fast-bowling trio in all four Tests. As the Australian pace bowlers wore down in the final stages of the series, their Indian counterparts may have caught a break as injuries meant they had to constantly change personnel.Related

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India is one of the few teams who have enough skilled quick bowlers in reserve to meet the challenges of the schedule and still remain competitive.Modern fast bowlers do a lot of varied training in order to prepare for the demands of constant cricket, but still the injuries continue to pile up. Fast bowlers in the past concentrated more on running and bowling a lot in the nets to gain their match fitness.Australian fast bowler Frank Misson, who toured England in 1961, was one who believed in running to build up stamina. The 1961 Australian team travelled to England by boat, but Misson was not to be denied his training regime. As he ran laps of the deck, some of the less physically minded players sitting in the bar saw Misson flash past the window. Perhaps embarrassed by Misson’s zealous workouts, they decided to complicate his exercise regime by placing deck chairs in his path. When Misson hurdled the first set of obstacles and did the same to yet another layer of chairs, the bar rats relented and left him to train in peace.The preparation a player goes through today in the build-up to a Test is extensive when compared to the past. Teams now arrive at a venue anywhere up to four days prior to the game, which is a far cry from what happened in 1921, when England were in disarray following their country’s involvement in a brutal war. The selections ranged from the haphazard to the bizarre, with ten England players who appeared in that series only being involved in a solitary Ashes Test.Lord Tennyson’s build-up to the Lord’s Test was extraordinary by any measure. Relaxing at his club in London at 1 o’clock on the morning of the game, smoking a cigar and imbibing, Tennyson received a phone call requesting him to report to Lord’s later that day to take part in the match. Not surprisingly he failed in the first innings – like the bulk of his team-mates, though he atoned in the second innings by remaining 74 not out.It would be interesting to discover if retired cricketers envied the rewards paid their modern counterparts or whether current players would swap today’s whirling merry-go-round for the casual approach of the past. I suspect most international cricketers are just happy to have played.

Raw pace and nerveless accuracy: How Umran Malik regained Sunrisers' middle-overs control

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

While Rashid Khan was taken apart, Malik put in a spell of 3-0-10-1 with an average speed of close to 150kph

Saurabh Somani07-Oct-20212:39

Holder on Malik: Extra pace always adds a boost to any bowling attack. It’s good to see his control as well too

T20 matches, especially in an elite league like the IPL, are games within games. Sunrisers Hyderabad are playing against Royal Challengers Bangalore, but there’s also Rashid Khan waiting to be unleashed on Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers. Royal Challengers’ two most destructive batters have less than impressive records against Rashid in the IPL: de Villiers has scored 38 runs off 40 balls and has been dismissed three times coming into this game. Maxwell hasn’t been dismissed in 26 balls, but he has scored only 19. The IPL numbers are the most relevant because that’s the only place Rashid has been on equal footing, instead of in vastly mismatched teams.If you’re Kane Williamson on the field, you look at those numbers and go, ‘This is where I deploy Rashid, when the first of those two come in.’If you’re in the Royal Challengers dugout, you think, ‘The pitch is still holding and gripping a bit, this is where I turn my batting order around and draw a few overs from Rashid before my trump cards walk in and blast the others’.Royal Challengers’ Plan A would have been Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal setting up a firm platform. When that failed, they sent in Daniel Christian with instructions to hit out. When that didn’t happen, KS Bharat walked out at No. 4. Plan B also failed. Royal Challengers had the right plans, but if you could always execute your plans in cricket, there would be no need for an opposition. Enter Maxwell after 6.5 overs, three wickets down and without Rashid having to bowl. Enter Rashid, one ball later. A starting asking rate of 7.10 has ballooned to 8.00.The first ball from Rashid that Maxwell faces is blasted over deep midwicket. There is a violence to the shot that makes a slog-sweep look like a Game-of-Thrones beheading. In Rashid’s next over, Maxwell repeats the shot, not as cleanly and not as square, but with enough to get another six. Two balls later, he shows he can do finesse as well as brute force, twirling wrists to get a boundary to deep square leg.The script has been upended by Maxwell. However badly IPL 2021 has gone for Sunrisers, they could always count on Rashid controlling the middle overs. And now Maxwell, in perhaps the IPL form of his life, is casually tearing that playbook with swishes of his bat. Without the safety net of Rashid’s middle-overs control, there is no way Sunrisers can hope to defend a total as meagre as 141.Umran Malik’s spell of 4-0-21-1 helped increase the required rate through the middle overs•BCCIThat Sunrisers stayed in the game without allowing it to run away is down to Umran Malik. It could be a chant one day.While Rashid was taken for 24 runs in two overs, Malik sandwiched him with a spell of 3-0-10-1. In what might have been unthinkable, Sunrisers have got a modicum of middle-overs control despite Rashid going for 12 an over, thanks to a 21-year-old playing only his second ever IPL game, and fourth game of white-ball cricket at the senior level (one List A, three T20s). Malik didn’t just bowl quick, he bowled quick on a surface where the other bowlers are finding success by taking pace off the ball, with cutters that gripped. He bowled quick enough to have Maxwell – in supreme hitting form – hopping and being late on the ball. He bowled so quick he registered 153kph on the speed gun, the fastest delivery in IPL 2021 so far.If he travelled at that speed from his hometown Jammu to Abu Dhabi, he’d get there in just a tick over 14 hours.***Cricketing journeys don’t travel at the speed of an Malik thunderbolt, and his has barely begun. It has already taken him almost a full season of being a net bowler with Sunrisers, and then Covid-19 hitting a team-mate, to get an opportunity.The first time Malik bowled to the likes of David Warner and Kane Williamson in the Sunrisers Hyderabad nets, he was scared. A fear borne out of nerves. “I was first scared to bowl to them, I was very nervous,” he told . “Then I prayed to god that let me bowl well to them. I thought if I have to beat them I have to hit the right length. I kept beating them and I learned from that, I kept bowling on that same length. That made a big difference.”

“The first time I came for trials I didn’t even know what spikes were. I was bowling in jogging shoes”Umran Malik

At his first Under-19 trial, he didn’t even know there existed shoes with spikes for fast bowlers. He was bowling in jogging shoes.”I used to bowl quickly from the start. I used to play tennis-ball cricket, and there too I was the quickest. I would bowl fast yorkers there in one-over matches,” he said. “In 2018, there was a trial for Under-19 cricketers. I bowled there and the selectors saw me. The first time I came for trials I didn’t even know what spikes were. I was bowling in jogging shoes. A friend was there with me, he gave me spikes to play. So then I came into the Under-19 team for one-dayers. And the next year I played Under-23. I was practicing regularly since 2018. Then I played in the Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali. And then I was a net bowler with the franchise.”Team-mate Jason Holder confirmed how much of a tough time Malik had given the batters in the nets. “He’s just been consistent in training, he’s been giving us quite a hard time in training,” Holder said at the post-match press conference. “He’s been very, very hard to get hold of… Extra pace always adds a boost to any bowling attack. It’s good to see his control as well too. A lot of guys who bowl quick over the years, may sometimes seem erratic but he’s been pretty consistent. He’s grouped really good deliveries together.”In his first three overs in particular, which Holder termed as a ‘grouping’ of good deliveries together was in evidence. There was movement off the pitch, to right-hander and left-hander, while the pace meant the batters had to be extra vigilant. Royal Challengers had prepared for Malik, but you can’t exactly replicate facing 150kph deliveries in the middle.”He tends to bowl hard lengths, so that was pretty clear in terms of what we were expecting today,” Royal Challengers coach Mike Hesson said. “But yeah, if you haven’t faced a bowler for the first time and they run in and bowl quick, obviously it does take a few balls to line it up. If he bowls nice and tight, which he did in terms of his lines, then it can be tough to score.”There are a lot of ingredients for success, with the one skill that can’t be coached: pace. In time, Malik will be studied more, analysed more, have more advice in his ears, have people springing up to grab his 15 seconds of fame. But whether he makes it through that or not is for later. For now, it’s about a 21-year-old pulling back a match in a trying period, and doing it while bowling 150kph. Pace is pace.

Stats: South Africa's dominance in Centurion, and India's middle-order muddle

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Challenge for batters, hosts’ troubles with both bat and ball, and other numbers ahead of Boxing Day Test

Sampath Bandarupalli24-Dec-2021South Africa’s fortress
Over the next few weeks, India will attempt to do what they have never done before – win a Test series in South Africa, the only country where they are yet to win one. South Africa’s recent home record is not convincing though: they have lost five of their last eight home Tests, played across three series in which they have lost two. However, India’s quest for their maiden Test series win in South Africa starts on Boxing Day in Centurion, which has been like a fortress for the hosts.The venue has hosted 26 Tests, of which South Africa have won 21. They have lost only two, one of which was against England in 2000, when both teams forfeited an innings each and contrived to produce a result. India have lost both Test matches played at SuperSport Park – in 2010 and 2018. Among all instances of teams playing ten or more Tests at a ground, South Africa’s win-loss ratio of 10.5 in Centurion is second only to Pakistan’s 11.5 at the National Stadium in Karachi.ESPNcricinfo LtdPakistan have won 23 out of the 43 Tests played in Karachi, and lost only two. However, in terms of win percentage, South Africa’s 80.77% in Centurion is by far the best for any team in Test cricket at a venue.Challenge for the batters
South Africa, by far, is the toughest country for batting in Test cricket. Since the start of 2018, the batting average in South Africa is the second-lowest at 25.39, next only to the West Indies with 23.53. There have been only 15 centuries in the 18 Tests that South Africa has hosted since 2018, at 0.83 hundreds per Test, the lowest ratio for any host country.

Bowlers enjoy success in South Africa quicker than in any other country: the bowling strike rate here since 2018 is 49.5 balls per wicket, the best among all host nations in this period. At the same time, the scoring rates also have been high – bowlers have an economy rate of 3.20 – which indicates how quickly the game moves on in the red-ball format there.

Pace dominance
The trend of bowler-friendly pitches in South Africa is evident by the recent records of the three venues that host India: Centurion, Johannesburg and Cape Town. The batting average in each of these venues, in the last five Tests hosted at each ground, is below 27. Only once a team did go past the 500-run mark, and the average first-innings total stays below 350. Also, more than 85% of the wickets have been taken by the pace bowlers in these matches.ESPNcricinfo LtdSpinners have averaged more than 45, and none of those grounds has witnessed a five-wicket haul by a spinner since March 2013. R Ashwin averages 46.14 in the three Tests he has played in South Africa, his worst in any nation. Since December 2013, spinners average 43.51 in the country, with the overseas ones faring slightly worse at 48.04.India’s middle-order muddle
India did find some consistency from their openers in overseas Tests this year, but the senior trio of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara has been short of runs. All three have been to South Africa a couple of times earlier and have had some success there. Kohli and Rahane average more than 50 in Tests in South Africa, while Pujara has played a couple of crucial knocks too. However, each of the three batters has struggled for big runs in the last two years, averaging below 30.

The only century for batters from No. 3 to No. 5 in Tests for India this year was scored by Shreyas Iyer in his debut match. Pujara has failed to score a hundred in his last 42 Test innings, including 40 innings while batting at No.3, the longest century-less streak for a No.3 batter in Test history. Kohli’s troubles have been more recent – he has not scored a Test ton since November 2019. But Rahane’s form has slumped quite a few times in the last five years, including the current dry patch, where he has three 50-plus scores in his previous 16 Tests.In 2016, Rahane averaged 51.37 after his 29th Test – the first and the only time his Test average touched 50. Since then, he has played 50 more Tests, averaging 32.73 runs per dismissal – he has only two fifties in 22 innings since the match-winning 112 in Melbourne last year. The only Indian with a lower average than Rahane while batting in the top six during a sequence of 50 Tests is Ravi Shastri – 32.38 between 1981 and 1989.Concerns with both bat and ball for South Africa
South Africa’s batting at home has struggled too, with only four centuries across their last 11 home Tests – two of those were by Faf du Plessis, who retired from the longest format earlier this year. du Plessis and Quinton de Kock are the only batters with 40-plus averages for South Africa at home in this period. On the other hand, their pace attack will have a fresh look, led by Kagiso Rabada. They have picked seven pacers in the squad, but not more than two have played together in a Test match.

The total Test wickets of those seven fast bowlers add up to only 299 in 68 Tests. Beuran Hendricks has had one Test cap while all of Marco Jansen, Sisanda Magala and Glenton Stuurman are yet to make their debuts. India last faced a pace attack with a combined experience of less than 300 Test wickets in South Africa back on the 1996-97 tour. South Africa could feel the absence of Anrich Nortje, who has been their lead bowler since his debut with 47 wickets across 12 Tests, but will be bolstered by the return of Duanne Olivier.Olivier last played a Test in January 2019 before signing a Kolpak deal. In ten Tests, he has taken 48 wickets at 19.25. His bowling strike rate of 30 is the best in Test history among players with 30-plus wickets. Olivier is also the leading wicket-taker in the ongoing domestic four-day competition, with 28 wickets in four games at an average of 11.14.

Krunal Pandya credits technical adjustments for improved bowling run

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

“No one knows that for the last seven to eight months I have been working hard on my bowling”

Sidharth Monga29-Apr-2022You’d expect Sunil Narine to top economy charts in an IPL season eyes closed, but here is a surprise. Among those who have bowled a minimum of 10 overs this IPL, only Narine has a better economy than Krunal Pandya’s 6.18 per over.During Mumbai Indians’ glory days of 2019 and 2020, Krunal played virtually as the fifth specialist bowler with Kieron Pollard used as back-up should things go wrong. In the last year or so, his bowling has dipped, which led him to work hard on his skills for “seven to eight months”. The reward came in the form of his first Player-of-the-Match award in the IPL since 2017, as his spell of 2 for 11 in four overs – including a maiden over – led Lucknow Super Giants’ defence of just 153.Related

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The opposition, Punjab Kings, were a good match-up for Krunal: among the 10 teams this year, Kings have the worst run-rate and worst average against left-arm spin. However, Krunal has been impressive through the season, bowling in eight matches out of nine so far, and going for less than eight an over in six of them. In four of them, he has gone at a run a ball or better.”Throughout the tournament I have been bowling well,” Krunal told host broadcaster Star Sports. “No one knows that for the last seven to eight months I have been working hard on my bowling. Trying to get tall.”I just want to mention Rahul Sanghvi, who has been a big, big help for me. I had a chat with him seven-eight months back, and I told him I want to develop my skill. I felt I was always good with my mindset. I just felt if I could develop my skills, it would really help. The results everyone can see, but the effort has been there from the last eight months, trying to get better as a bowler, especially skill wise.”The one skill Krunal said he was missing was the ability to turn the ball. Bad habits had crept in unknown to him.”Because I am playing a lot of short-form games, you don’t realise what’s happening,” Krunal said. “So I didn’t realise I was getting too low and my stride was too long, and in the end I just had to fire the ball in. So I was just playing with the batsman’s mind. So I just realised if I get tall and if I impart more spin… I have always varied my pace but in that if I am able to impart spin or get the ball to grip [then] that would create a lot of doubt in the batters’ mind. Again had a word with Rahul Sanghvi. He was kind enough to help me.”Let Daniel Vettori, one of the greatest left-arm spinners to play the game, break it down for you. “He is one of the few spinners who can bowl at that pace and still impart topspin on it,” Vettori said on ESPNcricinfo’s post-match analysis show T20 Time Out. “Most spinners who bowl that quickly have to undercut the ball. And therefore all that is happening is that the ball is skidding on unless it is a really bad surface. What he is doing is he is challenging batsmen with that pace but also getting dip.”It’s not like batsmen can get down to him, it’s not like batsmen can go back to him. It is incredibly difficult to read the length. That’s why he is so successful against left-hand batters and right-hand batters because he has actually got something on the ball. It is a real skill, and it’s impressive to watch.”To his credit, Krunal also has the self-awareness to realise when the skill needed to get something on the ball has deserted him, and the willingness to work hard on it setting that right.

Katherine Brunt: 'I've considered retirement constantly' over 'most challenging year of my career'

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Chance to win Commonwealth Games medal has kept veteran England bowler going

Valkerie Baynes29-Jul-2022Had it not been for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Katherine Brunt could be retired from international cricket by now.The event, which began with a hopeful, theatrical and eccentric opening ceremony on Thursday night, features women’s cricket for the first time in history at Edgbaston from Friday morning. Brunt is thrilled that at the age of 37 she is able to be part of the sort of multi-sports event that so inspired her growing up.Related

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Alice Capsey in England's Commonwealth Games squad

Brunt: 'If I break after the Commonwealth Games, so be it'

But it wasn’t always on the cards and, had late July and early August 2022 not been highlighted on the women’s cricket calendar for the past few years, she might not have been playing anymore.”To be honest, it’s been on my mind properly for the last four years and there’s been events that have come and gone that I thought I’d never be a part of,” Brunt told ESPNcricinfo. “This is just literally another one of those things – a Commonwealth Games – the chance to earn an actual medal, it’s impossible to imagine right now but it’s right there and I’m just so happy I’ve managed to keep myself here and fit and strong and with the ability to still play well. I’m really proud of the fact that I’m here and I get the chance to experience this and tell my kids about it one day.”And she is playing well. Having retired from Tests ahead of England’s draw with South Africa in Taunton at the end of June, Brunt roared back in their opening ODI in Northampton with a hostile opening spell that read 5-1-5-2 and reduced South Africa to 34 for 2 inside the first nine overs. She then took a career-best 4 for 15 in the first T20I as England swept both white-ball series to head to Birmingham match-hardened and on a roll. But for Brunt, it wasn’t nearly as easy as it looked.”I’ve had the most challenging year of my whole career this year,” she had said between the ODI and T20I legs of South Africa’s multi-format tour. “I’ve had some seriously big lows this year, I’ve considered retirement constantly. I’ve been battling with doubt and self-belief for weeks on end.”I went through the Ashes and the World Cup series with a lot of mental strife, physical strife at times, and I’ve never questioned my action as much as I have in the last few months. The last 12 weeks of training have been seriously difficult, and me wondering whether I’ve still got it has been at the forefront of my mind every single day.”So the last two weeks have been brilliant. Something just clicked and I felt that I’m back to myself and that game [in Northampton] really did help me with remembering who I am and what I can do and I still belong in this team and there’s still a job for me to do yet.”At the ODI World Cup in New Zealand earlier this year, Brunt could be seen practising various technical drills during the warm-ups and she took just one wicket in England’s first five games before making a breakthrough with 3 for 17 against Pakistan.”I was praying it was something specific and there was something I could do but sometimes it’s just a feel, and that’s actually the most annoying part of the game is because I don’t have a magic wand and neither do other people,” Brunt said.”The problem lies in the fact that I’ve always been able to just make it happen and I’ve always been really consistent. I’ve got a repeatable action and there’s not much care that needs to be taken with it and so when it did go wrong, I had no answer and no clue as to what to do.

“I’m really proud of the fact that I’m here and I get the chance to experience this and tell my kids about it one day.”Katherine Brunt

“But I just slowed everything down and then started from the beginning again – as if I was a youngster. It was quite interesting and it took a lot of will… There were some technical issues in there but once they got fixed, it was just a matter of bowling overs and hoping that that feel came back. That was the most important bit for me, the feel, because that’s the bit that gives me the confidence and the belief to be able to beat the best batters in the world.”One thing that didn’t wane was Brunt’s on-field passion. Love it or not – probably depending on whether you’re on her team, the opposition or a neutral onlooker – it’s a huge part of what makes her the bowler she is.”I never have to find that,” Brunt said. “That’s just in me as soon as I cross the boundary rope. It’s something that just comes out naturally. And sometimes I don’t like what I see but honestly, it’s just because I’m so emotional and I wear my heart on my sleeve.”That fire needs to be controlled, sometimes it’s uncontrollable, but it’s not something I have to conjure up.”Far from those snarling, bellowing, in-your-face wicket-taking celebrations, a glimpse of Brunt as she marched into Alexander Stadium for the opening ceremony showed the face of a young kid again, eyes wide and mouth open in awe as she looked up into the stands of what will also be the athletics venue and took it all in. Beside her, Sophia Dunkley, the just-turned-24-year-old who represents England’s next generation beamed and jumped for joy. Their thrill at being part of a multi-sport showcase event was palpable, and a big part of what has kept Brunt going.”Growing up watching Olympic athletes and things like that on TV, thinking that that was a million miles away and now we’re part of it is just unbelievable, isn’t it?” Brunt had said earlier.A short time before England entered the stadium, Bismah Maroof, the Pakistan captain, walked in as her nation’s joint flag-bearer alongside wrestler Muhammad Inam, and Chamari Athapaththu, Sri Lanka’s captain, shared the honours for her country with weightlifter Indika Dissanayake.The BBC interviewed Suzie Bates, who had already enjoyed being part of such a spectacle representing New Zealand in basketball during the 2008 Olympics. The opportunities that cricket began to offer, she said, helped her decide to switch sports and here it was, her second sport, so to speak, at the pinnacle. Then, continuing the women’s cricket thread being woven through the sport’s maiden appearance at the Games, umpire Sue Redfern read the Commonwealth Oath on behalf of all the officials taking part.Katherine Brunt walks in the opening ceremony with Team England•Getty ImagesSo what would it mean to Brunt to win a gold medal on home soil? It could go straight to the top of her career highlights.”All of our country’s athletes in every aspect of sport all coming together and being probably part of the biggest stage of them all, it would be the icing on the cake of what I consider a really fruitful career I’ve had the privilege to experience and I’ve kept going as long as I have to get to this stage,” she said.”So I think it would mean everything to myself especially but obviously as a team it’s something we’re really, really, really striving for. It would be brilliant.”So if that box is ticked in the final at Edgbaston on August 7, does Brunt retire on that note?”Honestly, I could tell you, end of the Commonwealth Games and then just ride off into the sunset, right? I would be lying that that was a sure thing,” she said. “That’s the goal I set myself two years ago and I will be extremely proud of myself to get to the end of that unscathed.”But if that if that’s a success, and I feel great, then why not go to the February T20 World Cup? Especially with it being just a T20 focus, it would take a lot of stress off my body and be also a great end so I can’t say Commonwealth because it might just not be, but it is very soon.”

County-prepped Will Young now looks to deliver in New Zealand colours

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Northants stint leaves NZ batter well equipped to face Ben Stokes’ England challenge

Matt Roller10-May-2022The majority of New Zealand’s Test squad will arrive in the UK this weekend ahead of their three-match series against England in June but two players are already in situ and have been preparing for the challenges of foreign conditions with early-season stints in county cricket.Will Young and Colin de Grandhomme had dinner together in London last week during Surrey’s innings win against Northamptonshire and will play again for their respective sides from Thursday before joining up with their international team-mates ahead of warm-up games at Hove and Chelmsford at the start of next week. The five Test squad members at the IPL – Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Daryl Mitchell, Tim Southee and Devon Conway – are due to arrive once their franchises are knocked out.While de Grandhomme has played several blocks of county cricket before, Young is returning for only his second stint and has had significantly more freedom to enjoy the experience than he did while undergoing regular Covid-19 tests during his four games for Durham last year. He is averaging 39.4 across his five innings for Northants to date despite two single-figure scores last week and expects to be fully acclimatised by the time his international team-mates arrive.Related

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“Durham was a cool experience and the perfect lead-up to our Test series last year,” Young told ESPNcricinfo at The Oval. “I wanted to emulate the same thing if I could so I put my name forward and thankfully Northants offered me a deal. This time I’ve signed for slightly longer – quite a bit of the Championship and also some of the Royal London Cup so I’m stoked to have a proper go at county cricket.”Covid is no longer a thing over here so I can experience the summer and everything there is on offer over here. Last year I was limited as to what I could do with Covid restrictions and tests every second day but this time it’s pretty much a free-for-all. My partner is over too and we’ve been trying to get into London when we can and to various other parts of the UK. It feels like life as usual.”Over here, every team utilises the fact they can have two overseas professionals playing. Back home, you don’t really get that, so playing for your domestic teams, it’s just the guys from that region so you know a lot of those players, especially now I’ve played 10 years of domestic cricket. It’s a fast learning curve here: you’re thrown in there and not only are the conditions different over here and you play with a different ball, you’re learning constantly against the guys you’re up against. That’s why I’m here: to play as much cricket as I can and learn about how the game is played over here.”Young has two half-centuries (96 and 63) in his first three County Championship matches•Getty ImagesYoung’s time at Durham also gave him the opportunity to get to know Ben Stokes, having played against him in domestic cricket in New Zealand in 2017-18 when Stokes was returning to cricket after his late-night indiscretions in Bristol ruled him out of the Ashes. “We played against Canterbury home and away in the Super Smash,” he recalled. “I was a little bit younger then and thought it was pretty cool to be playing against Ben Stokes.”I met him properly up in Durham last season. He was injured but he came in after one of the wins we had a had a couple of drinks in the dressing room and helped us celebrate. I’m stoked for him. I’m sure it’s a proud time for him and we’re the first assignment. I’m sure he’ll be looking to make a mark so it’ll be a good challenge.”Young played a walk-on role in New Zealand’s tour last year, playing the third Test of his career when Williamson was rested at Edgbaston and making 82 and 8 to help set up an eight-wicket win which clinched only their third-ever series victory in England. He was left out of the side for the World Test Championship final against India but has played each of their last six Tests and is averaging a respectable 31.35 across his career.But with Williamson due to play his first Test since November and following scores of 8, 3 and 0 against South Africa in February, Young does not feel certain of his place. “I’m just thankful to be part of the squad at this stage,” he said. “To get an opportunity in the starting XI would be great but we’ll just have to wait and see.”New Zealand tend to play a lot of two-match series and it can be difficult to get into a rhythm at times. If you don’t find it, you’re struggling. It’s an experienced side that’s coming over and a lot of them have experienced these conditions before. I’m sure there will be some questions and information sharing when they arrive and that’s what the two warm-up games are for as well: there’s plenty of time for the guys to get ready for those Tests.”There are two key absentees from the side that won the WTC final in Ross Taylor and BJ Watling, both of whom have retired in the last year, but one of New Zealand’s main strengths in the recent past has been to build squad depth through future planning, pushing their A-team programme and giving opportunities to players on the fringes of the set-up.”It’s a huge loss, Ross and BJ,” Young said. “They’ve both given so much on the field to New Zealand and they’re both huge parts of the success over the last while and were well-liked, popular guys in the group. There’s definitely a hole with them gone but in the same breath, there’s been enough opportunities for guys to be around the group and familiarise themselves with the team so it’s not a huge shock to the system when it comes to actually playing Tests.”Certainly for me, I was around the group for a few series beforehand and it’s the same for others. For example, Tom Blundell, who is stepping into BJ’s shoes, he was around the group as an opening batsman and now he’s got the gloves and has slid down the order. It’s great because there’s not such a huge hole when guys like that have left.”It’s been a big push from NZC over the past three or four years to have two tours – one home, one away – every year with the New Zealand A side and I’ve been lucky to be part of that, as have some of the other guys who are getting opportunities now. This England series is an incredible opportunity which we’re all looking forward to. The guys will all get stuck in once they’re over here.”

Deepak Hooda for Axar Patel, and no yorkers – why did India do that?

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

India’s defeat to South Africa raised some questions over their tactics. We attempt to answer them

Sidharth Monga31-Oct-20221:40

Open Mic: Was it right for India to pick Hooda over Axar?

Why did India change a winning combination?
In all their press conferences, India had suggested they were not looking to change their XI. Not because they are superstitious about a “winning combination”, but because the XI that won the first two matches covered the most bases that could be covered with this squad.Related

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Then why replace Axar Patel with Deepak Hooda against South Africa? In doing so, India lost the only left-hand batter in the top seven and a much better bowler than Hooda. However, India may have thought that if they needed a sixth bowler, a part-time offspinner might work better against South Africa’s left-hand heavy line-up. Against Pakistan at the MCG, a ground with similar short straight boundaries as Perth, Axar bowled just one over after being hit for 21 runs. Knowing that Hardik Pandya would almost certainly bowl four overs in Perth, India went with the part-time offspinner.However, the bigger reason seemed to be to strengthen the batting in difficult conditions. It can be argued in hindsight that Hooda’s batting did not make a difference, and that Axar could have bowled one of R Ashwin’s overs, which India didn’t trust Hooda with. The counter to that is that India eventually needed the deeper batting, with Hooda coming in as early as the eighth over.India’s next match is against Bangladesh, who have four left-hand batters in their top six. While it might be tempting to go back to the winning combination and more bowling depth, there is also reason to stick with Hooda if he is required for an over or two, and not more.Rohit Sharma was one of four top-order batters to fall to the pull or hook shot•Associated PressWhy bat first in Perth?
It’s a fair question, keeping in mind how India had paced their chase to beat Pakistan, and how South Africa eventually paced their chase successfully against India. However, Australian grounds don’t favour chasing sides as much as other venues do. At the Perth Stadium, the team batting first had won 15 and lost 11 matches before Sunday. The decision did not pay off, but you can see why India chose to bat first.Why keep playing the hook?
Four of India’s top six got out playing the pull or hook, but their shot selection can’t be faulted on an extremely fast and bouncy pitch against South Africa’s four-pronged pace attack. If they didn’t take the short ball on, they wouldn’t have been able to score much at all. South African batter Aiden Markram was even asked at the post-match press conference about India’s happy hookers. He said he saw nothing wrong in how they had batted.”Look, I think on a wicket like this, you’re going to end up playing more as a result of bad shots than on other wickets just because of the nature of the bounce,” Markram said. “It’s a tough shot to play when there’s extra bounce. But ultimately, if a team keeps bashing that length in T20 cricket, you as a batter also need to make a play. That’s probably the reasons that both teams took the short balls on tonight because if you don’t, you’re unfortunately not going to score at a rate that’s quick enough.”Why didn’t India bowl yorkers?
When Pakistan played at the same venue earlier in the day, Mohammad Wasim had bowled superb yorkers to get on a hat-trick and shatter any hopes of a late revival from Netherlands. India, however, kept bowling length or shorter, even though Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami have a strong yorker. That was probably because of the short straight boundaries, which meant the margin of error was small on the yorker, whereas if they hit the hard lengths, the bounce became their friend. Yorkers don’t usually get wickets either, which is what India were after. If David Miller had batted through the innings, South Africa were likely to win, which is what happened in the end.R Ashwin went for 13 runs in the 18th over•Associated PressWhy not hold Ashwin back for the last over?
The moment South Africa attacked Ashwin’s third over – the 14th of the chase – his final over was always going to be the one that they would target. Most captains delay the over that is likely to be targetted until the very end; the logic being if that bowler proves expensive, then the bowlers who are better suited to the death may not even finish their quotas.One reason Rohit Sharma gave for bowling Ashwin in the 18th over is that it gets messy when a spinner bowls the final over. There may be another reason he did not take the traditional route. In the India-Pakistan game, for example, Pakistan knew India would target left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz’s final over and so they bowled the others first. The big difference was that Pakistan had scored a bigger total and hoped Nawaz would have more runs to defend in the final over after the others bowled out. India had needed 48 off the last three overs against Pakistan, while South Africa needed only 25 off 18 balls against India. If India had bowled their fast bowlers earlier, South Africa could have played them out and chased down 11 or 12 in the last over.

How 'chronic overthinker' Tahlia McGrath learned to keep calm and be world-class

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

She’s been one of the world’s best allrounders since her return from long-term injury, and she’s now embracing a leadership role in the Australia side

S Sudarshanan07-Dec-20223:46

McGrath: Stripping everything back to basics has been the secret to my success

Tahlia McGrath is your quintessential fast-bowling allrounder. The one you would want to be as an aspiring cricketer. The one you would love for your favourite team to have. She is tall, and can hit the deck hard as well as get the ball to swerve. And she can bat in the top or middle order. Allrounder in the truest sense of the word.But Australia Women have had even better. Ellyse Perry needs very little introduction; T20 World Cups, 50-over World Cups, Women’s Ashes – she’s stamped her mark everywhere and has won it all. She’s done it with the bat, the ball, and even with the skills that made her a football international. All in a career longer than you would dream of.Related

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Most teams would be content at having one such player and Australia have flaunted two. Having gotten an ODI cap in 2016 and a Test debut a year later, McGrath was in the mix before stress fractures of the back kept her out of the national side. The way back was arduous. And finally, after Australia won the Women’s T20 World Cup at home in 2020, she was handed her first full-time national contract. She was already seen to be a future leader and McGrath is now in India for a five-match T20I series as vice-captain of Australia, ready to “have a crack at it with Midge [captain Alyssa Healy]”.”In my early stages of cricket it was not something… I was sort of a shy kid that never had leadership on my radar,” McGrath tells ESPNcricinfo in Mumbai. “My coaches saw the quality I didn’t see in myself. [I] had a little early taste of it, worked with Belinda Clark and did some leadership mentoring stuff. We engaged on a lot of Zoom calls where we chatted all things leadership. We talked through scenarios and [I] got some homework tasks. What took my leadership to another level was working with her.”The way she puts things is so simple. She’d often set me tasks, things to do, and I’d be so daunted, so nervous about doing them and then when I actually got around to doing them… ‘ah it’s not too bad!’ and it sort of became second nature. That was definitely the turning point for me.”I have absolutely loved every bit of leadership opportunity I get. It’s made me get out of my comfort zone and do a lot of things I’ve not necessarily thought I would have done.”Since her T20I debut, McGrath has the best average and second-best strike rate of all batters who’ve scored at least 100 runs•Getty ImagesOne of the biggest signs of McGrath taking centre stage was at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year. She scored 128 runs – second-most for Australia behind Beth Mooney – at an average of 42.66 and a strike rate of 148.83, and picked up eight wickets – joint second-most in the competition – at an average of 12.12 and an economy rate a shade under seven. All this while keeping Perry out of the XI throughout the tournament.That McGrath had an early taste of international cricket – at 21 – meant she was hungry for more of it. And since that second chance came, last year at home against India, there has been no looking back.”[Time outside the national side] made me pretty hungry to get back and work pretty hard on the sidelines on my game, understanding what my strengths are,” McGrath, now 27, says. “When I got my second opportunity it was about enjoying it and making the most of it. I made everything as simple as possible and just really wanted to enjoy it. That’s pretty much been the secret to my success.”I love every chance to put my Aussie shirt on and never take that for granted.”Since McGrath’s T20I debut in October 2021, no batter has a better average than her 93.75, and only Chloe Tryon has a strike rate better than McGrath’s 153.68 among batters with at least 100 runs. In eight T20I innings so far, she has scored 375 runs and has been not out four times. A key aspect to her run-making has been her ability to pick line and length early irrespective of the stage of the match.”A trap that I fell into earlier in my career was I tried to over-complicate things,” she says. “There was a lot going through my mind about what shot I was to play, what was going on… there was so much going on in my mind.”I just basically tried to – it sounds very simple but it was really hard for me to do – think about nothing when the bowler is running in and when the bowler is bowling. [It was about] being calm and relaxed and go from there. When I am in that state, and I am keeping things simple, I pick up the line and length a lot easier. I was a chronic overthinker and overcomplicater. It sounds really simple but stripping everything back has worked best for me.”McGrath kept Ellyse Perry out of Australia’s XI through the Commonwealth Games, and beat her team in the WBBL final•Getty Images for Cricket AustraliaMcGrath’s run this year has included, apart from the gold-medal finish at the Commonwealth Games, the Women’s World Cup win and victory in the Women’s Ashes. She also led Adelaide Strikers to their maiden WBBL title last month after they had finished runners-up twice in the last three seasons. However, in a bid to manage her workload, she only bowled 14 overs in the tournament. She admits to working harder to get to a stage where she can bowl more regularly.”I love the bowling aspect of it. Any time I am not bowling – there’s been a few times with injuries, niggles – I miss it so much,” she says. “I started as a bowling allrounder and I flipped that now into a batting allrounder. But I’d love to get to a stage where it’s 50-50 and I can basically contribute as much with the bat as I can with the ball.”With Australia’s defence of the Women’s T20 World Cup nearing, McGrath is clear about wanting to be in South Africa and experiencing it all.”I have never been part of a T20 World Cup, I have never travelled to South Africa,” she says. “World Cups are the events you want to be a part of. This one’s been on our radar for a while. Everyone’s really excited about it. A very heavy T20 focus until then and this is a first step for that.”India are a world-class opposition and they are coming hard for us. This will give us a very good test to see where we are at and will give us confidence leading into a crucial World Cup.”From the cool climes of Adelaide to hot and humid Mumbai, McGrath will have to adapt quickly. And while she does that, you can be assured that she’ll inspire a few more to follow her path.

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