There are sexier spin bowlers at this World Cup but few wilier than the Afghanistan stalwart

Osman Samiuddin03-Nov-20232:16

How impressive has Shahidi been as captain?

Pretend you’re an Afghanistan selector. You’re licking your lips at the fantabulous array of spinners you can call upon for a World Cup in the subcontinent.There’s the GOAT white-ball leggie who’s become so good now that teams consider it a win if they go at four an over against him and only cede the odd wicket; so good that eight years after his international debut, thousands of hours of video dissection later, we’re still only guessing which one’s the googly.There’s the right-arm all-sorts who has become possibly the world’s first specialist new-ball spinner, opening the bowling in 62 of the 72 ODIs he’s played, bowling in the powerplay in 69 of those. Who has taken more than three times as many wickets in the powerplay as the next most prolific spinner in that phase since his debut six years ago; whose 47 wickets are equal to the combined total number of wickets taken by that list’s top six.Related

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There’s an 18-year-old left-arm legspinner and that’s it. Those words the sell. And for the first time since the mid-2010s, they’ve also got a solid fast-bowling pair, one left-arm, one right-arm. All of which means they didn’t even need to pick another couple of young leggie sensations for this World Cup.All bases covered right? Yep. All good.Now pretend you’re the opposition to an Afghanistan side. Got to plan this with care. See out Rashid Khan, don’t give him so much as a sniff (say a little prayer just in case because you’ll likely need it). Mujeeb ur Rehman, be very wary because though you want to go hard in that powerplay, here’s the data dump: he’s not going to let you. He goes at four an over he takes wickets. Sure, later on you might target him but don’t be rash when you start.And Noor Ahmad is no Kuldeep Yadav or Brad Hogg but he doesn’t need to be. Remember, his kind are still rare enough so that, every now and again, they spark all kinds of malfunctioning in perfectly functioning batting orders. And Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq are both considerably better than you might think.Missing anything? Nope. All systems go.Except, hang on. Incoming.Mohammad Nabi sends his regards.Remember him? How could you forget? Part of the furniture so long he’s not the first name on the teamsheet, he is basically the letterhead. Precisely the guy oppositions might look past because, hello, right-arm zero frills. Nobody bothers doing video dissections of Mohammad Nabi because what are you trying to decipher? Whether he’s a handsome young-looking old man, or a handsome old-looking young man?

The stumping of Logan van Beek was obviously exceptional, a flighty, floaty gimme that dipped late and turned into an absolute gotcha, the kind of ball that cuts across all preferences and demographics: young, old, casual, hardcore, Bedi, Ashwin, red-ball purist, white-ball hedonist

And yet here he is at this most joyous of World Cups for Afghanistan, a better strike rate and economy than Rashid and Mujeeb and only a wicket fewer than both. Fact: other than R Ashwin, who’s only played one game, Nabi has the best economy rate for all fingerspinners at this World Cup.This latest, a Player-of-the-Match display in Afghanistan’s fourth win, was classic Nabi. Everyone was watching out for the others, the big turn, the carrom balls, the wrong ‘un, the leftie’s wrong ‘un, and in slipped Nabi behind them. Right-arm offspin? Sure, if you really want to call it that, but actual turn seems to be the least of it sometimes with Nabi.More like right-arm unsexy. Right-arm sorry-not-sorry. Right-arm scrooge. Right-arm gotcha. Right-arm hustle. Right-arm bustle. Right-arm squeeze. Right-arm tease. Right-arm raised-eyebrow. Right-arm lowbrow. Right-arm wise. Right-arm does-not-miss-a-damn-trick.Afghanistan had conceded six, nine, six, nine, six, eight and 11 in each of the seven overs before Nabi came on for the 12th. At least a boundary in each of them too, swiftly squandering the advantage Mujeeb’s first-over wicket had got them. Farooqi was not settling, Mujeeb was not settling, Netherlands were bossing it. Afghanistan got into a long on-field huddle. All eyes on Rashid, having just returned to the field, taking control of this impromptu timeout and… Nabi sent his regards.Mohammad Nabi celebrates Bas de Leede’s wicket•Associated PressTight on off, tighter on length, four dot balls in his first over, seven in his first two overs, 12 in his first three, three singles conceded, one boundary, not a single ball worth remembering, barely a single ball deserving to be hit. Nothing to see here folks, except the life being squeezed right out of the Netherlands start.By the time he got his first wicket, he’d already caused the fall of three others. Now you might think the using “caused” for run-outs here is generous and perhaps you’re right. But I prefer to think the three run-outs in his overs were his new magic trick, like a new variation. Right-arm run-outs. And if ever there was a case to be made for a run-out being the work of the bowler, then it was in Scott Edwards’ dismissal which, spiritually, was surely a stumping.In his next over, the innings’ 21st, he got Bas de Leede with what looked like an exceptionally unexceptional delivery, except that it did hang back a little longer, a little more outside off and made a point of not turning. Netherlands were 72 for 1 when Nabi came on. They were now 97 for 5.The real stumping later of Logan van Beek, by contrast, was obviously exceptional, a flighty, floaty gimme that dipped late and turned into an absolute gotcha, the kind of ball that cuts across all preferences and demographics: young, old, casual, hardcore, Bedi, Ashwin, red-ball purist, white-ball hedonist. Everybody loves The One Where The Batter Danced Out And Looked a Little Bit Silly. Un-obviously it was also exceptional, coming at the end of an over in which his speeds went up and down like an arrhythmic heartbeat, never letting either van Beek or Sybrand Engelbrecht settle.”Focusing on dot balls,” he explained later, as if it needed pointing out. “I always try to concentrate on my lines and lengths, and variations. I try to stick to my plans and use the angles. In some pitches, the variation is more, that is sometimes why I get more wickets.”Translation: look over there, at all those bright, flashy toys. That’s where the action is. Nothing to see here. Just me, quietly minding my own business and with it, Afghanistan’s too.

“We’re not playing for what we wanted to be playing for, but a really vital match for us in the grand scheme of things,” the captain Jos Buttler said

Matt Roller08-Nov-20231:32

Harmison: ‘Willey and Woakes are two characters who never let you down’

Paul van Meekeren charged down the pitch, swung, and missed. Jos Buttler gathered Moeen Ali’s flat offbreak, moved his hands past the stumps as if to toy with van Meekeren, then dragged them back to knock the bails off. As England’s players gathered in the middle there were high-fives, pats on backs, and even a few smiles.So this was how it felt. 29 days after their first win at this World Cup, a breeze past Bangladesh in Dharamsala, England finally had their second. In those 29 days, they stayed in seven different hotels across seven different cities, travelled nearly 5,500km spanning six different flights, lost five consecutive games and were bowled out in all five.In most sports, World Cups have mercy on losing teams, sending them home after two or three defeats. Not cricket. England’s beleaguered players have been stuck halfway across the world for the last two weeks with their semi-final prospects long gone, waiting aimlessly for someone, anyone to strike the killer blow.Australia delivered it, but even that wasn’t enough. The mid-tournament revelation that a Champions Trophy spot was on the line left England with no choice but to treat a low-key fixture against the Netherlands, a side they took for a world-record total of 498 last year but one with more points than them in their first seven games, as a must-win.Related

Stokes special keeps England's Champions Trophy hopes alive

And so, to Pune – or more accurately, a vast, empty stadium an hour outside Pune, nestled somewhere near the Mumbai-Pune expressway on the edge of sprawling suburbia and overlooked by an incomplete housing project. The sparse crowd, reported at 9,217 by the ICC, rattled around in this 42,700-seater concrete bowl.England took 39 runs from the first four overs and overcame the loss of Jonny Bairstow for 15. Dawid Malan brought up a 36-ball half-century, and Joe Root finally made it out of the first Powerplay. But then came a familiar stumble: Root was nutmegged by Logan van Beek, losing his middle stump reverse-scooping, and panic set in.Malan was run out after being sent back by Ben Stokes, looking for a single that was never there, Harry Brook – finally recalled for Liam Livingstone – hit two sumptuous boundaries then hooked Bas de Leede to deep square leg, and Buttler chipped tamely to mid-off, by this stage utterly bereft of his usual self-assurance.1:24

Will England find it hard to replace Rashid in the future?

The stadium DJ was impervious to the banks of empty seats, blaring out Canadian rap between overs. Moeen Ali half-heartedly lofted Aryan Dutt straight down de Leede’s throat at long-off for 4 off 15 balls. In the stands, one older England fan held up a sign which self-effacingly declared: “We beat Bangladesh”.Chris Woakes nudged a single off Dutt, then resolutely blocked the final ball of his over. “Alright Pune, let’s raise the energy!” implored the DJ. “Hands up, hands up, dance, dance, dance, let’s go!” Nobody danced. England’s double world champions scrapped to keep their legacy intact.It was left to Stokes to bail them out. He was given a life on 41, when Dutt put down a tough chance at fine leg off van Beek, then started to grind through the gears. He reached a 58-ball half-century, his second in a row, when he launched de Leede over midwicket, then marmalised Dutt after surviving an inconclusive review for lbw.Stokes’ second fifty took only 20 balls as he brought up a century by reverse-slapping van Meekeren for four. It was his first in World Cups, a fact which served only to underline that some players’ influence will never be measured by milestones, in light of his 2019 heroics.But this was a strange sight: here was England’s man for the big moments, 25km outside Pune, in a battle for Champions Trophy qualification. Stokes will surely not play in that tournament, but his innings at least dragged them to the lofty heights of seventh in the World Cup group stage heading into the final round of fixtures.This, then, was the reason that Stokes had stayed in India, rather than heading home and moving his knee operation forwards by a week. “That’s not his style at all,” Buttler said. “He’s here to play in the World Cup and he wants to be here.” The pair did not even discuss the possibility of Stokes leaving early.As England wrapped up a 160-run win with another solid bowling performance – their third in a row, after bowling India and Australia out – Buttler’s overriding emotion was relief. “It’s not enjoyable losing,” he said. “It’s been a frustrating time… Any game I play, I’m competitive, I want to win – whether it’s a game of cards or a game of cricket.”Finally, the losing streak was broken. “It’s nice to end that sequence and we go to Kolkata,” Buttler said. “We’re not playing for what we wanted to be playing for, but a really vital match for us in the grand scheme of things. It’s great to be heading there with something on the line.”England now fly east to play Pakistan on Saturday, where they can at least expect a much grander spectacle at Eden Gardens against a team vying for a semi-final berth – and against India, no less. Then at last, after one final sequence of travel-train-play, they will be able to consign this dismal title defence to history.

It’s a welcome development, but is it enough? Also, doesn’t the format suggest it’s been squeezed into the calendar without much planning?

Srinidhi Ramanujam28-Mar-2024Thursday marks the return of women’s red-ball cricket in India’s domestic calendar after a gap of six years, with the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal Multi-Day Trophy commencing in Pune. It was added to the calendar only in March, after India won one-off Tests against Australia and England at home last December. And while women cricketers past and present are happy to get what they have, Saba Karim, the former BCCI women’s cricket head, feels it’s “just the beginning” and there will be more.”It’s a step in the right direction because India has started to play Tests; it makes sense to have a very robust red-ball competition at home,” Karim told ESPNcricinfo. “I think this is just the beginning because this year, due to paucity of time, it’s conducted at the inter-zonal level. But I am sure that going forward we may see some inter-state red-ball cricket also.”If we can draw an analogy from men’s cricket: India men’s domestic is the most robust and competitive among all cricket-playing nations. That’s the reason team India now is the superpower at international cricket. That’s the kind of lead which women’s cricket needs to take. I think that’s what BCCI is looking to do at this stage. If you have a strong domestic cricket, that includes the red ball as well, then we will see similar kind of results from women’s team also at the international level.”In terms of women’s Test cricket, there is the Ashes series, which is a regular fixture, but overall, there have been only 26 women’s Tests in the last ten years. And India – one of four teams, the others being Australia, England and South Africa, that do play women’s Tests – have played just six in the last ten years, four of them between 2021 and now. Last August, Harmanpreet Kaur had called for the resumption of long-form domestic cricket for women, and more recently, Meg Lanning said it like it is when she said, “It’s either more or you sort of don’t go there at all”.

“We haven’t gotten much time to practice as such but, what we need is a mindset change. The main thing about playing the long format is being able to switch on and switch off. You might have to bat for a long time and then immediately come back to bowl. We have to be ready all the time”Devika Vaidya

Former India captain and coach Purnima Rau echoed Karim, saying younger players “wouldn’t have known the essence” of the game at all had they played only white-ball cricket.The inter-zonal tournament had begun in the 2014-15 season as a two-day competition, with the three subsequent seasons played in a three-day format before it was scrapped. This time, the BCCI has made it a six-team tournament, with North East Zone added to North Zone, East Zone, West Zone, South Zone and Central Zone. A total of five matches will be played. Thursday will see East Zone vs North East Zone and West Zone vs Central Zone in action in the two quarter-finals. North Zone and South Zone were placed in the semi-finals directly following a draw of lots. They will meet the winners of the first two games from April 3, with the title match starting April 9.”It [multi-day games for women at domestic level] started when we came into the [BCCI’s] fold in 2006, two-day games for all the states. When we played cricket, our semi-final was for two days, and the final was three days. The kind of experience in planning an innings, batting in the middle for a longer time, the art of bowling, the art of batting, the art of captaincy is always there in the multi-day game,” Rau, who represented India between 1993 and 2000 in five Tests and 33 ODIs, pointed out.”Somewhere down the line, the orthodox game, a game of basics, is going to work here. Girls think T20 and slam-bang cricket is going to help us in this format; it might help them, but after playing a lot of multi-day games, they will decipher on their own whether that kind of game will suit them. To start off with, just leave it to the orthodox way of playing – occupation of the crease, working on your singles and twos. These are the things that are going to help them.”The Test-match wins [in December] have spurred them [the BCCI] to do something. It’s good it’s happening for the younger generation.”

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Just over ten days after the completion of the second season of the Women’s Premier League on March 17, India stars such as Harmanpreet, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Yastika Bhatia will be in action in the red-ball tournament. As far as preparation goes, teams had to make do with just a few days of practice since this was somewhat squeezed into the calendar.Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, among other top players, will be in action in Pune•PTI It might be more about “mindset change”, though, especially for players who were involved in the WPL and are not out of touch.”We haven’t gotten much time to practice as such but, what we need is a mindset change,” Devika Vaidya, the India allrounder who is representing West Zone and had also played in the 2015-2016 tournament, told ESPNcricinfo. “The main thing about playing the long format is being able to switch on and switch off. You might have to bat for a long time and then immediately come back to bowl. We have to be ready all the time.”That patience, to build the partnerships or trap the batter, you need skills to do that. All this comes with time when you play more matches and get experience. And then it gets a bit easy to change the mindset. If the Tests happen regularly, then we need to practice bringing in the mindset change as well. Our skills are actually going to be tested. That’s the fun part of this format.”Vaidya didn’t find a team in this edition of the WPL after playing for UP Warriorz in 2023. In the time off, she changed her fitness routines, her training consisted of certain workouts to gain muscle mass and improve endurance, precisely what a player preparing for multi-day cricket would work on.”Luckily, I had already made changes in my training,” she said. “So I was on the same track, and then they announced [the new tournament]. So for me, it’s quite simple to continue what I was already doing. Before any T20 tournament, we tend to do a lot of power training. In cricket, we don’t have to run for a long time. But we do need that endurance to play 100 overs in one day.”When we play a tournament in March, it’s going to be hot. When you play for a long time, there are chances that you may lose body mass. We need to sustain in this heat. We train more in the gym, build our muscle mass enough and focus on endurance.”There are many players, prominent now, who haven’t had any red-ball experience at the senior level coming into this competition. The likes of S Anusha, Tamil Nadu captain and a part of the South Zone team, falls in this category. With no zonal-level camps organised before the tournament, Anusha turned to Niranjana Nagarajan, the fast bowler who played two Tests in 2014, and current spin-bowling allrounder D Hemalatha, who had also been a part of the zonal red-ball tournament when it was last played.Young Indian cricketers can only benefit by playing long-form cricket regularly•BCCI”I have played with the red ball at the Under-19 level, but ahead of this tournament, I did a lot of spot bowling and worked on being consistent with line and length without trying too many variations, which I would do in short formats,” Anusha told ESPNcricinfo. “I spoke to Hemalatha and Niranjana to understand the mindset needed for this format. Niranjana and I have bowled together for the state, and she knows about my bowling style well. She said: ‘You need to be patient, and show character.'”It’s easy to lose focus when you play cricket all day long, so she was giving me tips about how to stay focussed and be determined to pick up wickets.”

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It’s a start and there could be more, or so one hopes. The benefits are likely to be wide-reaching.The format of the tournament, though, could do with some thinking and tinkering. Just five games. Five teams, potentially, could end up playing just one match, and two teams, possibly, will get to play three. Is that fair? And are the players from the north-east ready for cricket at this level?”The competition should be a regular feature, not just with zones, but with also [played among] the state teams. Especially the north-east players, who are yet to find their feet,” Rau argued. “I think the north-east players need to play more number of longer duration matches. We have to unearth talent there. I feel state teams should start playing [multi-day cricket], and there should be another group for north-east and not mix them with the big players.”Maybe things will get better with time.

A batter renowned for his attacking prowess, taking on a bowler revered for his ability to hoop the ball around. Did we expect anything less than a blockbuster?

Alagappan Muthu02-Feb-20241:47

Manjrekar – Jaiswal showed signs of maturity

Yashasvi Jaiswal is winding up. Except, it looks like the ball doesn’t want to suffer what he has in mind. It’s fuller than he wants it to be. Had he gone through with the shot – a lash through cover – he might well have yorked himself, like he did in Hyderabad, digging out a return catch on 80 to start the second day’s proceedings.””It looked like Jaiswal had got a bit carried away in the first Test; as if he saw no sense in trying to hold back.””Some batters are able to magically be in a position to hit the ball wherever they like and it is only upon seeing replays that we realise what’s gone on. What we try to break down frame by frame is simply a celebration of their instinct. In some ways, Jaiswal would have found it harder not to hit the six that took him from 63 to 69.Related

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And perhaps it was to commemorate the effort as much as the landmark that he was ultra-animated as he brought up his first Test match century at home. First, there was the simple raise of the bat and helmet. Then the stare up into the heavens. Then two or three pumps of both his hands after he’d spread them out wide on either side (Joe Root did that after he dismissed KL Rahul in Hyderabad). On and on it went.This wasn’t a typical Jaiswal innings. It began with a loose shot but then quickly became something else. A precise, almost pain-staking occupation of the crease. 179 runs. 257 balls. 93 overs.James Anderson was so mean. He kept trying to take candy from the babies. India’s young batters rarely get the chance to frolic on such pitches – Visakhapatnam was featherbed-adjacent – and yet here they were, caught on the crease, pushing away from their bodies, being beaten on both edges and in Shubman Gill’s case, made to feel a tiny bit inconsequential. He averages 7.8 against Anderson now.Jaiswal was lucky to survive England’s fast bowling stalwart. The morning session was a tense little affair. A whodunnit except it was more who’s gonna do it? India were missing one all-time great, one who bails them out by batting anywhere in the middle order (and keeping wicket when need be), and one allrounder who’s, lately, been averaging more than the aforementioned all-time great. Just the perfect time, then, to also lose your captain for 14.””Of the 36 trips Jaiswal has made to the crease in first-class cricket, only five have been a longer, more satisfying stay. He was immensely selective with his shots. Anything on a good length and in line with the stumps was treated with an excess of caution. Anything that afforded him the freedom of his hands was treated with joyous disdain.James Anderson drew the outside edge off Shubman Gill’s bat•BCCIWhich brings us back to the six that took him from 63 to 69. It is only the fourth time that Jaiswal hits the ball in the air. But to do so, he leans ever so slightly back, searching for leverage. That cannot have been a conscious decision. There was no time to make one. It was just his training, his instinct, his genius kicking in and positioning him where he needed to be.Jaiswal is a shot-making savant. He showed as much in an IPL match in 2023 where he made 124 off 62 deliveries with 16 fours and eight sixes. The next highest score was 18 off 19. The bowling – and the jeopardy – here was much more pronounced. Late in the day, when India lost a very solid looking Rajat Patidar on debut in unfortunate circumstances, and England were trying to capitalise on that with Anderson coming back and generating reverse swing, the grizzled old vet was being kept out by a kid with 0.03 times his Test match experience.Jaiswal vs Anderson was the beating heart of the day’s play. A batter who is renowned for his attacking prowess understood that 8 off 47 in this head-to-head was a win. And a bowler who is revered/reviled for his ability to hoop the ball around corners in friendly conditions showing he has always been way more than that. There was even a moment in the 71st over that captured this battle that was forever on a simmer. Anderson got the ball to skirt past the outside edge and for once it looked like Jaiswal had followed the away movement. Immediately he stepped aside and practiced the leave.Visakhapatnam will soon start to become inhospitable for batting. There was already evidence of variable bounce on the first day. India’s head coach Rahul Dravid went up to the pitch at both intervals, having a close look at the footmarks that have emerged, with the curator in tow. Bat once, bat big seemed like their strategy for this Test and it is (just barely) working right now only because their most extravagant strokemaker has done what was asked. Harness his instincts.

Also: What is the highest individual score in the fourth innings of a Test in a win?

Steven Lynch23-Apr-2024We’ve seen all sorts of tall scoring in this IPL, including the highest total and the highest match aggregate – but what are the equivalent records for the lowest? asked Sumit Shah from India

You’re right that the current IPL has seen the competition’s highest total so far (Sunrisers’ 287 for 3 against Royal Challengers in Bengaluru last week), and the highest two-innings aggregate (549 runs in the same match, after RCB replied with 262 for 7).The lowest all-out total in an IPL game remains Royal Challengers’ 49 against Kolkata Knight Riders (who made 131) at Eden Gardens in 2017.The fewest runs in an IPL match with a positive result is 135, also in 2017, set in Mohali, where Kings XI Punjab skittled Delhi Capitals for 67 then knocked off the runs without loss. The smallest aggregate in an IPL match that lasted the full 40 overs is 208, in the game between Chennai Super Kings (116 for 9) and Kings XI Punjab (92 for 8) in Durban in 2009.There were only two balls bowled in a T20 match in Rawalpindi last week. Was this the shortest international game ever played? asked Hamza Ali Shah from Pakistan

The match in question was the first T20I between Pakistan and New Zealand in Rawalpindi last Thursday, which was rained off after just two balls. Before the heavens opened there was time for the New Zealand debutant Tim Robinson to collect two leg-byes off the first delivery and be bowled for a duck by the second.That game was actually the third official men’s international that amounted to two balls. The first was the World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka in Mackay in February 1992, when Kris Srikkanth scored the match’s solitary run before it was abandoned due to rain. This was the only senior men’s international staged at Harrup Park in this Queensland coastal city, although there have been several women’s matches there.The other blink-and-miss-it match was a T20I between England and New Zealand at The Oval in June 2013. Michael Lumb took two off Mitchell McClenaghan’s first delivery but was then caught at slip off the second. Then it rained… and rained, which meant the international captaincy career of England’s James Tredwell lasted just two balls.There have also been 17 men’s internationals (and two women’s) that had no play at all, but count in the records as appearances for the players concerned as the toss was made, which officially starts the match.What is the highest individual score by a batter to win a Test match? asked Vidula Wijesirinarayana from Sri Lanka

Assuming you mean the highest individual score in a fourth-innings chase, there have been two scores of over 200, both by West Indians. Against England at Lord’s in 1984, opener Gordon Greenidge cracked 214 not out as his side made light of a target of 342, strolling home by nine wickets with about an hour to spare after David Gower’s last-day declaration.And in Chattogram in February 2021, Kyle Mayers – who was making his debut – helped haul in an even bigger target (395) with 210 not out as Bangladesh were beaten by three wickets.The next two were actually in the same match: in the Ashes Test at Headingley in 1948, Australia made 404 for 3 in the final innings – a record chase at the time – with Arthur Morris scoring 182 and Don Bradman 173 not out.If you just mean the highest score in any Test win, it’s the 380 by Australia’s Matthew Hayden in an innings victory over Zimbabwe in Perth in 2003. Brian Lara’s 400 not out, the only higher individual score in a Test, came in a drawn game.Laura Wolvaardt’s 184 in Potchefstroom overtook Chamari Athapaththu’s 178 as the highest individual score in a loss in women’s ODIs•Gallo ImagesLaura Wolvaardt made 184 in a one-day international the other day – but ended up losing! Was this the highest score in a losing cause in a women’s ODI ? asked WHO

South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt scored 184 not out – her eighth and biggest international century – in the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Potchefstroom last week (she’d also scored 110 not out in the previous match). But it wasn’t enough for victory, mainly because Chamari Athapaththu collected 195 not out (the third highest in women’s ODIs) as Sri Lanka chased down their target of 302 with something to spare.Wolvaardt’s score was indeed the highest score in a losing cause in a women’s ODI, beating 178 not out by… Chamari Athapaththu, against Australia in Bristol during the 2017 World Cup.The record in a men’s ODI is 194 not out, by Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry against Bangladesh in Bulawayo in August 2009.Raman Subba Row, who died last week, made his highest Test score in his final innings. How many people have done this (given a score of over 100)? asked Vipul Shah from the UAE

Left-hander Raman Subba Row, who was England’s oldest Test player before his recent death aged 92, made his highest Test score of 137 in his final innings, against Australia at The Oval in 1961. He then retired, at the early age of 29, although he remained a considerable presence in the game as an administrator.The record for a player making his highest score in his final Test innings belongs to the West Indian Seymour Nurse, who hit 258 against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1968-69: he retired after the match and couldn’t be persuaded to make a comeback. There’s an unlikely name high on the list: after going in as nightwatcher in Chattogram in April 2006, Jason Gillespie lasted long enough to reach 201 not out – but this proved to be the last of his 71 Tests.The others with a higher score than Subba Row in their final Test innings are England’s Maurice Leyland (187 against Australia at The Oval in 1938), Afghanistan’s Asghar Afghan (164 vs Zimbabwe in Abu Dhabi in 2020-21), Vijay Merchant of India (154 vs England in Delhi in 1951-52), Zimbabwe’s Sean Williams (151 not out vs Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi in 2020-21), Mahmudullah of Bangladesh (150 not out vs Zimbabwe in Harare in 2021), Australia’s Reggie Duff (146 vs England at The Oval in 1905), and Colin Milburn of England (139 vs Pakistan in Karachi in 1969-69). The West Indian Kenneth “Bam Bam” Weekes also scored 137 in his last Test innings, against England at The Oval in 1939. Williams may yet play again.Others have made higher scores in their final Test, but not their last innings (England’s Andy Sandham holds this record, with 325 – Test cricket’s first triple-century – against West Indies in Kingston in 1929-30).Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

By design, as well as some strokes of luck, he might have found just the right spot in the starting XI that he can thrive in

Sidharth Monga08-Jun-20241:30

Pant: ‘Get goosebumps just wearing Indian jersey again’

The pitches at the nets in Hicksville, New York are just as spicy as the ones in the ground at Westbury, New York. Over the last few days, the South African batters have been practical and have faced little of Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, who have been asked to bowl in an empty net. On Friday, Rohit Sharma was hit by one that reared off a length and after a while went to the other end to take throwdowns. Virat Kohli has been showing his class against some tough bowling before trying to hit out in the second half of his nets sessions.Amid all this, one batter has been fighting it out relentlessly. Rishabh Pant has perhaps taken the most blows in the Cantiague Park nets, but he has continued to bat despite the pain. He was also the only one from the main XI that turned up for India’s optional nets a day before their first match of this T20 World Cup. Despite all the blows, he is just having fun. He started today’s session batting right-hand against the spinners before the rest of the team joined in. He went back to his left-hand stance for the nets, but that didn’t stop him from turning into a right-hand batter and play outrageous shots. Just like the one he played to end the last match: a reverse ramp to a fast bowler straight over the keeper’s head for a six.You watch Pant swinging the bat so hard, generating such bat speed that sometimes he ends up sweeping himself off his feet, and you can’t help but feel the gratitude he must be feeling that he is able to do all these outrageous things again after his horrific accident a year and a half ago. To do so for India in a World Cup is no less than a miracle. On top of that, in both of India’s matches – a warm-up game against Bangladesh and their first match in the tournament proper – Pant has been the best batter on view.Related

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Before the IPL started, when Pant started his comeback, India didn’t even have Pant in their plans. You can’t blame them. Once he showed his form, though, and once Jitesh Sharma lost form, Pant was back in. By accident or design, Pant has solved one structural problem, and also found himself his best batting slot.India came into this World Cup having to sacrifice the left-hand opener Yashasvi Jaiswal in order to accommodate Shivam Dube’s disruptive hitting in the middle. That did leave India susceptible to a slow start against left-arm spin. Having batted in the top three only 11 times out of 66 for India, Pant was not the natural option to open. Even for Delhi Capitals in his comeback year, Pant hardly batted in the top three.India, though, came up with the most practical solution. They picked the left-hand keeper from the two available, and pushed Suryakumar Yadav down to throw in a left-hand batter in the top three. The plan seems to be this: Rohit plays aggressively even against less-than-ideal match-ups, and Pant takes over should Rohit perish trying to do that.Rishabh Pant has been relentless at practice sessions•ICC via Getty ImagesBatting coach Vikram Rathour was asked if Pant was thrown in there because he is a left-hand batter. “He has been batting really well,” Rathour said. “The two games he has played, he has looked really, really good. So yes, at the moment he is our No. 3, and it helps that he is the left-hander.”By accident, it opens up an avenue for Pant, who started out as an opener and prefers to take a little bit of time before he starts attacking. Batting at No. 3 gives him that semi-luxury. Also, the conditions so far haven’t called for ultra-aggressive batting, and it seems it will be the case for the rest of the tournament.If you watch Pant’s interview about his comeback on Star Sports, you can sense the frustration and the desperation he went through in the period that he was out. With such accidents, you always start out being thankful you are still alive but that anger soon kicks in when you need assistance even to get up. Then once you start being self-dependent, you feel frustrated you can’t do what you used to do. And you have to repeat the same boring steps to recovery every day.Pant has managed to conquer all that, and has beaten every clock to come back on the international cricket field so quickly. He deserves these small strokes of luck that have produced just the spot in the starting XI that he can thrive in.

Fast bowler’s brilliant spell shows his powers have not been diminished by two back injuries

Vithushan Ehantharajah18-Aug-2024It was during the 2023 summer that Saqib Mahmood decided to keep a low profile. No interviews. No franchise cricket at the turn of the year, however tempting. No Instagram reels charting progress and courting well-wishes. Mahmood needed to go dark. A second back stress fracture, a year after his first and in the same spot, had knocked him. But there was a clarity this time around. He knew what he had to do. Stick to the recovery work, no matter how soul-sapping it would be. Bide his time regardless of how much time had been taken from him. Ease himself back into competitive cricket despite the fact a nightmarish two years had begun almost immediately after his first taste of Test cricket in March 2022.And so here he was at Lord’s, floodlights bouncing off his Oval Invincibles green get-up in front of 28,860 punters who had given up their Sunday evening to be here, countless others consuming from afar, turning in a player-of-the-match performance. A reintroduction on a grand stage. A comeback for a player who has been here for years.A devastating 3 for 17 ripped the heart out of an excellent Southern Brave side as Oval Invincibles went back-to-back. It was really more of a 3 for 1 across seven deliveries contained within 10 – the second time this season Mahmood has been asked for an extended set. If that speaks of a robustness off the back of those injury-plagued years, the quality within it showed why patience has not been exclusive to Mahmood.”He’s probably not going to admit it,” Sam Billings said, “but not many people bowl like that.” The Invincibles captain was referring to his upright, slingy action, which serves up late movement at high pace. Movement which, here, was exacerbated by a scuff to the ball administered by a Laurie Evans six off Adam Zampa which landed in the stands at midwicket.Leus du Plooy was the first to be disadvantaged by that. The scale of Mahmood’s reverse-swing was evident in the loss of shape in what the left-hander had hoped would be a booming drive through the off side, only to find his hands turned inside-out and his leg stump snapped back.In walked Kieron Pollard, the state of the game in those famous bucket hands with Brave needing 49 from 28. He started with an inside-edge, before being beaten on the outside, then skewered by a length delivery that shot through at hip height and somehow missed his gloves.At that point, a timeout was called. But any sense the heat had been taken out of the occasion was put to bed by an inswinger that – after a hopeful review – confirmed a four-ball duck. Mahmood has waited long enough for nights like these. What’s another five minutes? Just like that, the competition’s most feared finisher was finished.Related

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Billings post-match assessment was spot on: “You’ve got one of the best players to have ever played the game, and you’ve had him on toast there.” Evans was removed two balls later for good measure, with one that was relatively tame – pushed uppishly to cover, accompanied by an audible groan on the stump mic – but which bore the hallmarks of a batter wary of the spell he had found himself in, and the situation the bowler had concocted.That Mahmood was even here, never mind influencing matters in such a profound way, is layered. Spencer Johnson’s injury and the ECB’s decision to rest Gus Atkinson meant he knew on Friday that he’d have a part to play, which also happened to be the third anniversary of his previous appearance in the competition before this season.Invincibles picked him up in 2021 after his icon deal with Manchester Originals – his “home” club – was downgraded when Covid postponed 2020’s first season of the Hundred. At £60,000, he was not cheap and perhaps a more unforgiving organisation may have cut him loose. Contracted to Lancashire and overseen by the ECB with an array of fast bowling and development deals, Mahmood did not need Invincibles as a third parent.But in south London, they will tell you “consistency builds trust”, even for a team that is only really a team for a month a year. And they saw Mahmood’s presence on their balance sheet as no hindrance, which was as much to do with the person as the player. “The ability to reverse-swing, the skill level plus the man… it was a pretty easy decision to back him,” Billings said, a statement which Mahmood immediately thanked him for.”The boys have got two [titles], but at least I’ve got my own,” Mahmood added, emotional enough to regard the toil of the last two years as “a bit of a blur” despite the fact those periods must have felt like hell.”Watching the boys last year lift it, you want to be a part of it. When you work hard, trying to get back on the park, it’s for days like this.”Having watched that last year, and missing out on other things like England tours, World Cups and things like that. Those are the sorts of occasions you want to be a part of. And, yeah, I’m glad I was part of that today.”Unsurprisingly, Mahmood was reticent to speak of what happens next. Cricketers are superstitious types, and you can forgive a fast bowler believing in jinxes off the back of two back injuries. But as the match-hero medallion and winner’s medal clanged around his neck, underneath a broad smile and eyes doing their utmost to hold back tears, he allowed himself to wonder out loud about a return to where he once was.He expects to be playing Championship cricket later this week when Lancashire play Surrey at his adopted home ground, along with eyes on T20 Blast success, but he could not resist speaking of a return to the top. “[I’ve got] One eye on that England series against Australia, as well.”There’s every chance that will come to pass. Not just because those white ball commitments the clash with the end of England’s Test series against Sri Lanka but because, on the evidence of Sunday evening, his quality has not dimmed.At 27 years old, he is young enough to have all corners of the game open to him, yet he has enough experience to know none of them can be taken for granted. Now, having embraced the dark, Mahmood looks ready to shine brighter than ever before.

England handed out four debuts on the day. While that seems exciting, an absolute commitment to youth could turn out to be detrimental to these players

Cameron Ponsonby01-Nov-2024New England, it’s just like the old England.Almost exactly a year ago, a fresh-faced England ODI side arrived in Antigua tasked with the mission of driving forward a new era of English white-ball cricket. That new era lost their first match to the West Indies by four wickets. Cut to 12 months later and this one lost by eight wickets.It would be an unfair assessment, though, to say England are going backwards. This is an incredibly exciting group of young players, all of whom individually are talented enough to either be considered England players now or England players of the future. But in Thursday’s showing, they were less than the sum of their parts.Fewer than half of them are first choice. Of the XI that took to the field against Australia for the fifth and final ODI in Bristol in September, just five from that squad are in the squad for this tour. England gave out four debuts, as all of Jordan Cox, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton and John Turner made their bows.In truth, this is closer to an England Lions white-ball tour and it is hard to hold a group that includes the likes of Cox, in just his fifth List A match, walking out at No.3 for England on debut, to one which has Joe Root, who’s played over 450 international innings, batting there.Nevertheless, in a change from the hyper-positive messaging you associate with England when on the receiving end of a chastening day of Test cricket, stand-in head coach Marcus Trescothick and stand-in captain Liam Livingstone were visibly rankled by this defeat.Before speaking to the media, they held a debrief together on the sidelines talking through the events that had contributed to their crushing eight-wicket defeat.

“[We have to] try to get into the rhythms of 50-over cricket as quickly as we can. We had four debuts and they’ll have all learnt a hell of a lot from what they experienced and hopefully they’ll come on from that.”Liam Livingstone

Individuals, including themselves, are on show here and eager to prove a point. So while the matches may soon disappear into the ether of white-ball games you forgot ever took place, that’s not the case for those involved, who are, in effect, taking part in an audition for the future.”We’ve got to get up to speed as quickly as possible,” Livingstone said. “We pride ourselves on putting in performances for England, it’s always special when you wear the Three Lions on your chest and we’re pretty disappointed with how we played.”It’s easy to point to the absence of List A cricket in the calendar as the reason for England’s inability to find the correct tempo for a wicket where 250 would’ve been competitive. But between Will Jacks, Phil Salt, Livingstone and Sam Curran, you have four players with ODI experience. Whereas, perversely, the absolute inexperience of Jacob Bethell and Mousley means they’re not completely new to the format. Bethell played in the One-Day Cup last year and has more List A matches than first-class games to his name. Mousley, on the other hand, has only made ten one-day appearances, but has a century and two fifties in that time.But while there isn’t a complete lack of experience in List A cricket, there was in the actual roles each player was being asked to perform. Of the top six, only Salt and Jacks had batted in those positions for England more than once in their careers. Everyone, collectively, was taking their stabilisers off for the first time.”[We have to] try to get into the rhythms of 50-over cricket as quickly as we can,” Livingstone said. “We had four debuts and they’ll have all learnt a hell of a lot from what they experienced and hopefully they’ll come on from that.”A pertinent question is whether England’s absolute commitment to youth could in fact be detrimental to the players they’re trying to blood in the first place.Liam Livingstone top-scored for England in the first ODI•Getty ImagesThe benefits of a blend of youth and experience is a trope so old it borders on cliche, but cliches exist for a reason. Rather than attempt to give all of Cox, Bethell and Mousley their chance in one go, could it not be better for two, or even just one of those players to be gaining their opportunity, with the addition of an experienced professional in the line-up for them to bat around. Your James Vinces, your Dawid Malans. Or even Jonny Bairstow. He is still an England contracted player for at least another year. The prodigal talents could stand on the shoulders of journeymen.Of course, a recall for the elder statesmen of off-Broadway white-ball tours can be argued to be a step backwards. And there’s no guarantee they’d be interested either. You can only call someone last minute as a second choice so often.But you’re also not meant to chuck your children into the deep end without armbands. England have now lost 12 of their last 18 ODIs. Cox spoke ahead of the tour that one of the main benefits of being in an international environment is rubbing shoulders with the best. And does picking such a young squad allow for that?”I don’t think we read conditions quite as well as we could have,” Livingstone said. “When me and Sam were in, we were on for 240-250. But unfortunately I got out at the wrong time, it fell away from that. We pride ourselves on one of our top six getting a score and unfortunately we didn’t get that.”The top six he’s referring to has four List A hundreds between them in 271 matches.There’s no disputing the talent in the group. This is an exciting team and regardless of whether they turn the series around and win, or crash and burn to a three-nil defeat, they will be fun to watch along the way.But part of the reason they’re exciting is because they’re new and we haven’t seen them before. And arguably, while they might be less fun if they slotted in some reruns of in the middle order, they may also be better off for it.

Australia’s captain suffers “acute right foot injury” after seeing Tayla Vlaeminck go down with dislocated shoulder

Valkerie Baynes11-Oct-20243:56

Takeaways: Australia win big, but at what cost?

Alyssa Healy looked shaken and an air of concern descended on her Australia side as Tayla Vlaeminck lay in a crumpled heap on the boundary’s edge, clutching her shoulder. Surely this wasn’t happening.Right-arm quick Vlaeminck had just come into the side to add “impact” to the bowling attack for their first outing in Dubai, Australia having begun their T20 World Cup campaign with two wins on a spin-friendly Sharjah pitch that swing bowler Megan Schutt had managed to master. Now, just four balls into the game, Vlaeminck was out with a right-shoulder dislocation to add to a long list of serious injuries.They clearly felt for her. Two ACL injuries, a twice-dislocated left shoulder and stress fractures to her foot had severely curtailed Vlaeminck’s career and still she’d kept fighting back. But as she received treatment, Australia entered a huddle, Ellyse Perry gave them a pep talk and they picked themselves up – then picked Pakistan apart.Bowled out for 82, the lowest total at this tournament, Pakistan – without captain Fatima Sana, who had flown home to Karachi following the death of her father on Thursday – could mount no resistance agaisnt a side whose depth is the envy of the world and would be tested further…

****

Alyssa Healy grimaced and pulled up sharply as she came back for a second run and an air of concern descended on her Australian side. Surely this wasn’t happening.She and Perry were cruising through Australia’s pursuit of 83 after Beth Mooney fell for a run-a-ball 15 and now the captain was hobbling from the field.Healy had to hop up a set of stairs leading to the changeroom and Cricket Australia later confirmed that she had suffered “an acute right foot injury”. She was set to undergo scans on Saturday after which her availability for the rest of the tournament was expected to become clearer.What is clear is Australia’s ability to overcome such setbacks.Schutt, Australia’s standout performer with the ball so far, took 1 for 7 from three miserly overs to overtake Pakistan’s Nida Dar as the leading wicket-taker in women’s T20Is with 144.Then Ashleigh Gardner claimed 4 for 21 – including three in the penultimate over – with her offspin to record her best T20I figures since taking 5 for 12 at the previous edition of the tournament last year in Paarl.

“There were people that were obviously emotional. I think that just shows the care that we have for our team-mates. Tay has worked so hard to get back here and she’s earned it. To see her go down like that, we had to regroup really quickly”Ashleigh Gardner on Tayla Vlaeminck’s injury

Vlaeminck’s injury had hit the team particularly hard given that this was her first World Cup match since 2018 and just the second of her career.”It’s obviously horrible seeing one of your mates go down and knowing Tay’s road to get back to here,” Gardner said. “She’s someone that probably works harder than anyone else I know so to see someone like that go down with another injury, we all really felt for her.”There were people that were obviously emotional and things like that and I think that just shows the care that we have for our team-mates and especially Tay. She’s worked so hard to get back here and she’s earned it, so to see her go down like that, we had to regroup really quickly.”Pez [Perry] just brought us all in and she reverted back to the Mackay incident, where that kind of erupted pretty quickly and just to make sure that everyone was okay and to get on with it. That’s the nature of sport, unlucky things happen and then you’ve just got to get on with it and then wait until after the game to make sure that Tay was okay. She’s in good spirits which is nice to see.”The “Mackay incident” refers to when Gardner herself was withdrawn from Australia’s starting XI right before the toss in last month’s first T20I against New Zealand in Mackay when she collided with team-mate Georgia Wareham during the warm-up and suffered a knock to the jaw.Megan Schutt became the leading wicket-taker in T20Is•ICC/Getty ImagesOn Friday, Gardner conceded seven runs in the second over of the match but in the 19th, she had Tuba Hassan stumped by Healy, then took two wickets in as many deliveries when Syeda Aroob Shah spooned a catch straight to Mooney at midwicket and she pinned Nashra Sandhu lbw with one that spun back in and ripped past the outside edge.It was also Gardner who came in to bat when Healy retired hurt, scoring an unbeaten 7 off five balls while Perry remained not out 22. In mowing down their 83-run target in just 11 overs, Australia’s net run rate now sits at a healthy 2.786. But Gardner expects to face a sterner test in their final group game against India on Sunday.”I wasn’t overly happy with how I bowled that over in the powerplay,” she said. “But then to come back and change that, the bowlers that bowled before me laid a fantastic platform for me to take wickets at the back end and mop up the tail, as some would say, but it was nice to be able to get some wickets.”Certainly going to the next game I know I’m going to be challenged. I’m going to have to bowl two overs probably in the powerplay against someone like Smriti Mandana so the challenge is always there and I relish those environments. Hopefully I’m on the upper end against her.”

The fast bowler talks about the responsibilities of supporting his family, and being a senior seamer in the squad in the West Indies

Firdose Moonda07-Aug-2024Lungi Ngidi had just turned 22, and earned his first central contract with South Africa and his first IPL contract, when his father, Jerome, died. Life had changed forever when he returned home to his mother and three older brothers.At the time Ngidi was only a year into his international career, a true South African success story: born shortly after democracy came to the country; to parents who worked as caretaker and housekeeper at his primary school; the recipient of a scholarship to the prestigious Hilton College; and a professional sportsperson.In eight games for South Africa, he spread stardust as a speedy fast bowler and brought unprecedented joy to his parents, who were for the first time in their lives able to take a flight and stay in a hotel to watch him play.Ngidi promised to take care of them financially now that he was earning more than they ever had. And when his father, suffered complications from a back operation and passed away, Ngidi found himself taking on the role of the head of the family sooner than he might have expected.Related

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“My dad passing helped me mature a lot quicker. I realised that cricket’s not the be-all and end-all for me. Life goes on off the field,” Ngidi says from Trinidad, where South Africa will play West Indies in the first of two Tests this month.Although Ngidi is the youngest of four sons, he was the one with the best-paying job. He had already bought his parents a house with his first provincial contracts, and went on to take greater responsibility after Jerome’s death. In South Africa there is a term that relates to this: “black tax”. The phrase stands for the money that people of colour, often the first graduates and white-collar workers in their families, use to support their parents, who were denied the opportunity to work high-paying jobs because of apartheid.It’s not something that weighs on Ngidi. “I’m in the position that allows me to support my family. It’s what has been put on my plate, so I’m happy to do it,” he says. “My family is my main priority, so making sure that they’re okay is always top of my list. And cricket helps me do that.”But while sport is a means to a bigger end for him, with time he has realised he can also allow himself to enjoy it. “If I’m going to let cricket drag me down every day – and this is something I do every day – then I’m going to be a very miserable person. There’s a lot more to my life than just cricket. That helped me take things into perspective and understand that at the end of the day, it is a sport.”It has taken six years, multiple injuries, missing tournaments, and being dropped from the national team for Ngidi to get to this point.

Look who arrived to watch the final test match, 1st time in a hotel, 1st time in joburg

Parents showing support #NgidiFamily pic.twitter.com/CodjQ0rZkt

— Lungisani Ngidi (@NgidiLungi) January 23, 2018