The Asia Cup final featured a display of high-intensity, wicket-seeking new-ball bowling from India, with spot-on execution to boot

Andrew Fidel Fernando17-Sep-20232:02

‘An embarrassment’ – Maharoof’s assessment of Sri Lanka’s batting

Fifth ball of his second over, Mohammed Siraj is flying down the field. He is racing from the pitch, in white hot pursuit of one of the handful of shots a Sri Lanka batter middled. Dhananjaya de Silva has only check-driven a fullish ball on the stumps, without much of a backlift, so there’s limited power in the shot. In normal circumstances, this would be stopped by the fielder at mid-on, and this would have yielded one run at most.These are not normal circumstances. There is no mid-on.Instead there are four slips, one leg gully, just the single fielder on the legside, and an India pace duo who look as if they are loading up and sending down 50,000 volts with every ball.It took Jasprit Bumrah just three wickedly moving deliveries to get rid of Kusal Perera•Associated PressThey have already short-circuited Sri Lanka’s top order. Second ball of the match, Jasprit Bumrah had a fullish ball outside off nip away from Kusal Perera, then follows it up with another ball that jags away, only fuller, so this time Perera edges to the wicketkeeper. It’s classic, wicket-seeking new-ball bowling, but the execution is perfect.It keeps being perfect. In the first three overs Bumrah appears the greater threat, that whippy action, and his fullish length, wild in the channel outside off. But it’s Siraj’s next over that defines the match – maybe the tournament. He bowls spectacular late outswingers, and with a subtle change in seam position, sends the occasional delivery on with the arm towards the stumps. He is relentless with his line, length, and intensity.The four-wicket over features:

• A batter pushing at a full ball, but not accounting for the swing, sending the ball in the air to point (Pathum Nissanka).
• A batter being nailed in front of middle stump two balls later, as he looks for outswing but gets the straighter one (Sadeera Samarawickrama).
• Another batter pushing at a full ball and sending the ball aerially to point (Charith Asalanka).
• A batter nicking an outswinger in the channel after following it with his hands (Dhananjaya de Silva).

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It is in the middle of this opposition-shattering sequence that Siraj runs around in his follow through, like a V8 drifting around a corner, and tears after de Silva’s checked-drive. Ishan Kishan, who had just taken a catch at point previous ball, is running after it too. But Siraj does not ease off even slightly. He races it all the way to the boundary.This was the 11th ball Siraj had bowled. He’d taken three wickets already and the rest had been dots. The score at 8 for 4, the damage to Sri Lanka’s innings was already probably irreparable. But Siraj sped after this one loose ball like he resented their even getting to double figures.In the slips, Virat Kohli is cackling, partly in derision, partly because of the absurdity of what is, and has been, happening. The India quicks are currently not laughing. They are too consumed by their intensity.Many overs later, with Siraj into his sixth straight over, Kusal Mendis aims a booming drive at yet another big outswinger, and clean misses. Siraj gets close to Mendis, and shoots him a glare. Next ball, he gets a similar ball to hold its line. This thwacks Mendis’ middle stump out of place.Kusal Mendis became Mohammed Siraj’s sixth victim, the second to be bowled•Associated PressSiraj has six wickets for seven runs now. Sri Lanka are 33 for 7, any hopes of some sort of resurgence dead. “I was destined to get this today,” Siraj said after they had decked the opposition for 50. “I didn’t get much swing in the earlier matches, but today I did. I wanted to make the batters play.”That Sri Lanka played at too many balls, were hesitant with their footwork, failed to bat with sufficient patience against bowling of this quality – all this is true. In general, they played like a side whose batteries had been drained from the effort of qualifying.India, who had had to play on four of the seven previous evenings, even winning against two separate oppositions across three nights, on wildly different surfaces, were the opposite. Siraj and Bumrah came supercharged.

Slowing game down and forcing mistake from England’s captain prevents repeat of 2019

Matt Roller02-Jul-2023As Ben Stokes hauled Mitchell Starc over square leg and into the Tavern Stand for back-to-back sixes, the spectre of Headingley loomed over Australia.Four years ago, they were overwhelmed by the moment as Stokes took them on, brawling his way to a magnificent 135 not out to snatch a one-wicket win to square the series at 1-1. For much of Sunday, he threatened a repeat – no more so than when he heaved Starc into the stands, then nudged a single which took him to 149.When Starc wasted the final ball of his 17th over, the 66th, by spraying it past Stuart Broad’s pads and down the leg side, England were 292 for 6 and needed only 80 more runs to win. Australia had been ahead of the game ever since the third morning, when England lost 6 for 46; suddenly, they were behind.Between overs, Pat Cummins pulled his senior players together for a committee meeting: Steven Smith, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja marched over to mid-on, standing in a small huddle. They quickly determined that, with another few overs of bumpers to Stokes, Australia risked handing the game to England.Related

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Throughout his innings, Stokes had favoured the same side of the ground, hitting down the slope and towards the slightly shorter leg-side boundary: all nine of his sixes were hit towards the Mound and Tavern Stands, rather than the Grand Stand. With the wind “howling” in the same direction, in Cummins’ words, Australia resolved to cut off that scoring option entirely.”It just felt like we needed to go away from that stand, really; to get him into the off side, and away from that side,” Cummins said. “He’s just too good a player, and it’s too short a boundary. That was the crux of it [the discussion] – and just trying to hang in there. [And] ideally, try to have Broad on strike as much as we could.”Cameron Green was brought on to bowl the following over and produced a rare maiden, cutting off the short side with four straight bouncers before landing two wide yorkers outside off stump. After Broad got off strike with an inside edge, Starc went wide to Stokes, again preventing him hitting towards the short leg-side boundary.With the field still spread, Australia kept England in a holding pattern for the five overs between their meeting and the drinks break. They added only seven runs in that time, without hitting a boundary. Cummins reinforced those plans as his team reconvened, then brought himself on and aimed wide outside Stokes’ off stump to further the point.England had added nine runs in six overs, and Stokes decided it was time to take on the longer boundary when Josh Hazlewood banged one in, back-of-a-length and at his body. He lined up the Grand Stand, but completely mishit his pull; the ball skewed up towards point via the top edge, and Alex Carey settled underneath it.Hazlewood stood Andrew Flintoff-style, arms stretched and soaking in the moment, but this was a collective wicket. It was a moment that showed they had learned from their defeat four years previously – even if, in the fervour of Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal, it had taken them plenty of time to devise a plan to cut down Stokes’ scoring.”The biggest help was that we had an extra few runs on the board.” Cummins said. “He was in pretty formidable form out there… I think we learned a few lessons from Headingley: slowing the game up a bit; trying to get him to hit into areas that we wanted him to, rather than 360 [degrees].Ben Stokes heartbroken, Josh Hazlewood jubilant•Getty ImagesCummins added: “With a wicket like that, the ball was old, soft, and you don’t have too many options really. So you just try to kind of hang in there, hang in there, not let there be too many big overs and yeah: fortunately, he hit one up.”The same plan accounted for Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad, both men caught in the deep while trying to swing short balls that cramped them for room towards the longer boundary. Across 8.2 boundary-less overs, England had lost three wickets for 10 runs, and the game was effectively Australia’s.This was a triumph for clear-thinking amid chaos. Australia have grown used to playing the bad guys over the last five years, not least when they come to England, but the frenzied Lord’s atmosphere after Alex Carey ran Bairstow out – culminating in MCC members abusing players in the Long Room – still seemed to throw them off course.Their fielding became ragged, epitomised by Smith’s drop off Stokes at deep backward square leg and a very wayward throw from substitute fielder Matt Renshaw, who overcooked an attempt to run him out.Australia initially fed Stokes’ strengths, letting him take on their boundary-riders on the leg side by extending the bumper barrage that emerged as a common tactic. “We felt a hundred-plus runs was a long way away with bouncers,” Cummins said. But when his sixes off Starc brought them to within 80 runs of their target, they were jolted into an alternative.Given the circumstances, this must register as one of the great Ashes victories away from home – certainly of the modern era. Australia lost their second toss of the series and had the worst of conditions by some distance, batting under cloud cover and bowling beneath clear skies.They also had to cope with the loss of Nathan Lyon to injury on the second afternoon, leaving them a bowler down for the rest of the match. “Those kinds of situations, 270-odd [required] on the last day, some big footmarks there, they’re made for Nath,” Cummins said. “He was missed.”It meant a substantial workload for Australia’s seamers – not least Cummins himself, who bowled 41.2 overs in the match, including 25 in the second innings. This was a true team effort: five batters scored between 75 and 150 runs in the match, and the three seamers took between four and six wickets.Two hours after their committee meeting, Australia’s senior players stood in more or less the same spot. This time, they had their families with them, with Warner, Smith and Khawaja basking in what will likely be their last Ashes appearance at this ground. A legacy-defining series win beckons.

As they come to terms with another World Cup heartbreak, India may wonder if their middle order could have taken a few more chances

Sidharth Monga19-Nov-20233:38

‘We kept losing wickets at critical intervals’

Rohit Sharma looked like he was trying to hold back tears. Mohammed Siraj couldn’t. Jasprit Bumrah, who doesn’t let results sway his emotions, consoled him. KL Rahul sank to his knees. Virat Kohli hid his face in his cap. Mohammed Shami walked back dejected.The spirit had left them.It hurts. The ones who will not play another World Cup will be hurting even more. The morning after will be even worse. It is good they have their families with them. There’s more to life than a World Cup. They will need that reinforced come Monday morning when there is no training to go to. The ones who don’t have families with them will need their team-mates to do the reinforcing for them.Related

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Head hunts down victory as India fall prey once again

That is the cruel nature of a league-knockout hybrid format. It will hurt India more than any team knocked out earlier in the tournament. That’s the price you pay: to fight for the biggest joy, you must risk the biggest heartbreak. It will hurt them more than it can hurt anyone on the outside.All those runs and wickets will feel empty, just like the seats emptied by people who had moved on to more mundane things like avoiding traffic jams well before the last ball had been bowled. All the joy and the noise they had bathed in for a month-and-a-half suddenly gave way to a hollow hum. Rohit scored more runs than any captain ever has in one tournament. Kohli scored more than any batter ever has. Shami was the highest wicket-taker despite not playing four matches. These facts mean nothing to them in the moment.However, in a cricket world with so much professionalism, with the top-three sides having equal access to knowledge, facilities, technology and talent, it is still rare that you can beat the conditions. In the league match against Australia, India were on the right side of the conditions. In the final, they lost to the conditions.The many faces of despair – India’s World Cup dream goes up in smoke•Getty ImagesAn example of how much the pitch changed is how often Marnus Labuschagne dabbed the ball gently behind square for singles; those easy singles hadn’t been available to India. The pitch had been so slow in the afternoon that there was risk involved in manipulating the bat face to pick up singles once the field spread out and the ball became old. Kohli was dismissed in exactly this manner, inside-edging Pat Cummins on to his stumps.If Rohit’s words at the toss – he said he would have batted first had he won it – actually reflected the team management’s thoughts (sometimes a captain’s words can be just a front), it would be fair to say India misread the conditions. That didn’t matter because Australia won the toss, and they decided to play a different game.India expected the pitch to keep getting slower and offer more turn, which happened in the Kolkata semi-final. They hoped they could capitalise on the brittleness of Australia’s chasing.Australia went by recent trends. During this World Cup, batting has consistently become easier under the lights in Ahmedabad. They banked on the pattern continuing, and expected a drier-than-usual pitch to be at its most difficult in the afternoon. They wanted to exploit India’s relative weakness on slow pitches.The second ball he faced from Josh Hazlewood, who had dismissed him in the teams’ league meeting, Rohit charged and crashed the ball through the covers for four. Rohit was playing the World Cup final like it should have been: just another game. All through the tournament, he had made it easy for India’s middle order by scoring quicker than anyone else in the first powerplay.5:24

Dravid: ‘We gave it everything we had’

It was even more important that Rohit did it here. Kohli got off to a great start too. Having seen Shubman Gill get out early, Kohli stuck to the team plan and ditched the risk-free game that had brought him 700-plus runs in the tournament. He took a risk off the ninth ball he faced, dragging Mitchell Starc over wide mid-on. It wasn’t a perfect shot, but Kohli knew he needed to take that chance during the powerplay.With the ball, India had their early plans spot-on. They got Shami to open the bowling because of his superior numbers against left-hand batters. They would have been pleasantly surprised by the help Bumrah and Shami got but that zip and that movement came at a cost. In the evening, as it most noticeably happened for New Zealand against England in the tournament-opener, the pitch had quickened up, and the ball gripped much less.Once Australia weathered the early storm, once the movement died down, only a genius delivery from Bumrah, a final reminder of the magic India have created through this tournament, got them a wicket, that of Steven Smith with a viciously dipping slower one. The rest of the story we have heard before in many a chase in India. Would India have won at the Wankhede 12 years ago had there been no dew?There will of course be a review within the team. Perhaps Rahul could have been braver through the middle overs. Kohli has the game to keep scoring at the strike rate of 80 to 90 without having to hit boundaries. Kohli got a delivery that lifted on that slow pitch and got big on him. On another day the inside edge could have run past the leg stump. Not in this final.Others have to take risks. It is no rocket science why Rahul didn’t take risks. India’s batting is shallow. I have asked the coaches on more than one occasion at press conferences how the batters have reacted to India not having any batting after No. 7. Particularly now their outlook to risk has changed. The coaches have maintained that they don’t even want to think about it because the top seven are good enough to do the job. It didn’t look like that at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.1:37

‘Rohit and Kohli stood up for India in every moment – Anil Kumble

They will look back at just the nine boundary attempts in 180 legal balls in the middle overs and wonder if that was sufficient. It meant India scored just four boundaries outside the first powerplay, the joint-lowest in any ODI since 2005. On a slower pitch, bowlers do have a larger margin for error, but only India can answer if they couldn’t have tried to push the bowlers off their lengths a little harder.It is not like no batting lower down the order was a selection error. What Shardul Thakur brings at No. 8 is often notional. There is no reason to believe Siraj doesn’t offset that notional depth with what he brings with the ball as compared to Thakur. The problem is, none of India’s first-choice bowlers bat as well as even, say, Starc and Pat Cummins.You might look back and say the India fast bowlers could have bowled more cutters, perhaps the spinners could have gone slower in the air to try to get the ball to turn because the pitch had something in it not too much earlier. They could have perhaps trusted Suryakumar Yadav more and not promoted Ravindra Jadeja to face a poor match-up against spin, as a result of which overs 30 to 36 featured no intent at all.However, these are marginal issues. Had Rahul taken more risks, they might have come off but we also know the flip side of it. The players will not say it, but the change in the conditions from afternoon to evening was the biggest deciding factor. It doesn’t make them chokers or mentally less strong or less courageous. They have played so much cricket that they know they just have to roll with it.And yet it will be the toughest thing for them to do. They have known this feeling before, but it never gets easier. And this time they came closer than ever since 2011. To fight for the biggest joy, you must risk the biggest heartbreak.

They had wanted to practice on such pitches back home in the lead-up to the World Cup, but their complaints went unheard

Andrew Fidel Fernando15-Oct-20232:42

Maharoof: ‘Hope Mendis the captain remains the same batter’

Between June 4 and September 12 this year (both days inclusive) Sri Lanka played 14 ODIs, and bowled the opposition out in each one. The previous world record for bowling oppositions out in consecutive matches was 10, by the Australia side of the late aughts.If you are unaware of the caveats that attach themselves to this extraordinary wicket-taking run, here they are:

• Eight of these matches came in the World Cup Qualifier, and hence against a significantly worse quality of opposition than in the World Cup proper.
• Of the remaining six matches, five came at home.
• The one that didn’t come at home was against Afghanistan in Lahore, when they needed to chase 292 in a little over 37 overs, and almost succeeded.

But for all those caveats, 14 matches is a monster stretch for any attack. Right through that sequence – at the end of which even India were dismissed – Sri Lanka’s bowling had a dynamism to it. There were left and right-arm quicks getting new-ball swing (Dilshan Madushanka, Lahiru Kumara, and Kasun Rajitha), a legbreak bowler with a killer googly in Wanindu Hasaranga (who didn’t play in the Asia Cup, but topped the wicket charts in the Qualifier), a round-arm speed merchant (Matheesha Pathirana), and Maheesh Theekshana’s finger-flicked mystery. If we were being generous, there was even a pale shadow here of the variety that comprised Sri Lanka’s greatest white ball attack, circa 2007 to 2014 (Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ajantha Mendis, a young Angelo Mathews – Muttiah Muralitharan is incomparable, of course).Related

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In the first two matches of this World Cup, however, Sri Lanka have conceded 773. Pathirana and Rajitha have both gone at more than nine an over, Dunith Wellalage and Madushanka at more than seven, and even Theekshana – in his one match – almost at a run-a-ball. How to explain this?Sri Lanka’s bowling is depleted severely by injury, of course – Hasaranga, in particular, has not made this squad. But he had not played in the Asia Cup either, and Sri Lanka had reached the final, largely bowling themselves there. Left-arm spinning allrounder Wellalage made his first mark on the international game with the ball, and Pathirana had a decent tournament.But that the attack impressed only on slower, turning decks than are often found in India has not been missed within the Sri Lanka camp. Long before this tournament, there had been complaints that the pitches seen in Colombo in particular were not flat enough – a complaint voiced most prominently by Hasaranga himself at the Lanka Premier League, as captain of the franchise side that would eventually win the tournament, and as a player preparing himself tenaciously for the World Cup.Dilshan Madushanka has been the leading wicket-taker for Sri Lanka thus far this World Cup•ICC via Getty ImagesWhile Sri Lankan decks are not low-scoring exactly, they are rarely the kind on which teams tend to chase down totals of over 300. There is often something to envenom the bowlers. If it is not swing with the new ball, there is zip off the surface under lights, or rapid turn as the match wears on, and failing all that the ball stops a fraction of a second in the surface.Perhaps, the difference between bowling teams out 14 times in a row, and conceding 428 for 5, then 345 for 4, is down to the pitches Sri Lanka’s attack plays on. This is at least the current line of thinking. Kusal Mendis said this before his first match as captain, following the injury to Dasun Shanaka.”If we talk about the first two matches, when you come to India you know you’re going to get good batting wickets,” he said. “We should know how to adjust to that. I have a lot of trust that the bowlers are looking to give their best, and even better attacks have been hot for 300 or 350.”As a captain what I’m hoping is that in practice they know what their roles are, and that I can adjust to that as well. We can’t make big changes suddenly. But I have to try and work with the way they’ve been bowling and try to improve on that.”There is a sense that Sri Lanka’s attack hunts collectively on a pitch that offers the bowlers something, but on the kinds of decks that require damage control and containment, they have not developed the skills or experience.Lucknow is something of an unknown. It used to be one of India’s lowest-scoring venues, which would have suited Sri Lanka beautifully. But following this year’s IPL, when it was again low-scoring, the square has been relaid.In the one ODI that has been played on the new square, South Africa made 311 for 7, taking the legspin of Adam Zampa apart in particular, before South Africa’s seamers dismantled the Australia top order, though the likes of Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi also had success.The theory is, that the longer this World Cup goes on, the older some squares will get, and the better for spinners in particular. It is not quite as simple as suggesting Sri Lanka are better off on turning tracks, because some of their quicks enjoy the humidity that allows them to move the ball laterally, too. But in the first two matches, neither has been on offer. And the attack has been taken apart.

The first team to opt to bat in WPL 2024, Giants put on an exhilarating display having previously struggled for runs in the season

Ashish Pant07-Mar-20243:06

Takeaways: Mooney and Wolvaardt drive Giants’ first win of the season

“We are going a bit rogue. We are trying to be nice and brave, nice and positive, do something a little bit different and see if we can shake things up.”At the toss of the 13th game of WPL 2024, Gujarat Giants captain Beth Mooney did what no captain has done this season. She chose to bat, and asked her team to be brave and positive and see if they could shake things up.Easier said than done, especially when the Giants were the only team without points after four defeats. So, Mooney decided to walk the talk along with Laura Wolvaardt, their giant opening stand setting the stage for a 19-run win against Royal Challengers Bangalore.While Mooney’s decision to bat might have been a surprise, it wasn’t entirely a left-field choice. In the first 11 games in Bengaluru, there was assistance for the fast bowlers early on. And with dew making run-scoring earlier in the second half of the game, bowling first was a no-brainer. Delhi proved to be different. On Monday, the Delhi Capitals had smashed 192 for 4 after getting sent into bat by Mumbai Indians, who fell short in the chase.Related

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Mooney and Wolvaardt had an example to follow but they had to beat their powerplay demons first. Coming into this game, the Giants had made 43 for 3, 29 for 1, 41 for 1, and 41 for 3 in the first six overs this season. Their highest opening stand in the WPL was 41 and they were the only team without a century stand in the tournament. For the next 13 overs, Mooney and Wolvaardt set that record straight.Wolvaardt set the pace. When in full flow, there are few better timers of the cricket ball than the South African batter. She had a look of steely determination from the get-go as she pushed Sophie Devine through backward point for a couple of runs. Then came a whip between mid-on and midwicket that sped across the turf followed by a clip to the fine leg fence. Wolvaardt was in the zone.At the other end, Mooney, whose four innings in the tournament had yielded just 60 runs, began with a crisp cover-drive off Renuka Singh. When these two teams had met earlier in Bengaluru, Renuka had taken 2 for 14. In Delhi, she had already conceded 12 in her first. With the seamers going for plenty, Smriti Mandhana turned to spin in the third over, but the openers were in no mood to stop. By the time the first six overs were done, Giants had raced to 59 for 0 – their highest powerplay score of the season and second-highest ever in the WPL.The leather hunt continued for RCB even after the powerplay ended. Georgia Wareham was creamed through covers by Wolvaardt, Mooney smashed Ekta Bisht for back-to-back fours, Asha Sobhana was taken for 11 in her opening over, while Wolvaardt crunched Ellyse Perry for three successive fours and raced to her fifty off 32 balls. Giants raieed their hundred in 9.3 overs, and Mooney brought up her half-century off 32 balls as well.Laura Wolvaardt and Beth Mooney put on their highest opening stand in Delhi•BCCIThere were two stand-out features in the Mooney-Wolvaardt partnership: how they worked the left-right combination to their advantage – RCB bowled 11 wides during their stand – and how they relied on timing rather than power and played risk-free cricket. The duo hit 21 fours and no sixes while scoring 140 in 13 overs for the first wicket. It was a tactic, Wolvaardt said, she had planned going into the game.”The outfield was really quick and obviously having the one short side, I just tried to place it, hit gaps. I knew that if I timed it well it would hopefully go into the boundary,” she said. “I didn’t want to get too ahead of myself and get sucked into the short side of it too early.”By the time Wolvaardt was run out for a 45-ball 76, she and Mooney had already crafted the second-highest partnership in the WPL. While Giants did lose a bit of steam in the end, Mooney finished unbeaten on 85 off 51 balls, taking her team to the highest total of the tournament so far – 199 for 5. It was a monumental achievement for a side that had failed to pass 150 even once.”I am just happy to contribute,” Mooney said after the game. “I have obviously been pretty disappointed with my output so far with the bat. It’s been a tough tournament for Gujarat. My job as a leader is to try and lead from the front and contribute as much as possible.”She’s one of the nicest people on the planet. She is really easy to talk to,” Mooney said of Wolvaardt. “I have always been a big fan of how she goes about her cricket from afar obviously. I haven’t played a lot of cricket with her before. Hopefully, I have helped her as much she has helped me, but I thought she was outstanding tonight and certainly set the tone for us.”Mooney and Wolvaardt’s positive approach rubbed off on the other Giants players as well. They looked more switched on than they did in the Bengaluru leg. Giants still have a long way to go, and they will hope their win against RCB is the first step of a late comeback in the WPL.

England legspinner happy to bide his time for Leicestershire as he waits for next international call

Andrew Miller29-Mar-2024Rehan Ahmed says that his aim this summer is to be ready to play for England at all times and in all formats, but he admits his immediate focus at Leicestershire might have to be on his batting, given that his legspin is unlikely to be a major weapon at this early stage of the season.Rehan returned early from England’s tour of India following a family bereavement, having played in each of the first three Tests. Though he did not have the same impact as on debut at Karachi in December 2022, he still picked up 11 wickets at 44.00, including a six-wicket match haul at Visakhapatnam.But, at the age of 19, Rehan recognises that the experience he’s already gleaned in his short international career far surpasses the impact that he could have been expected to make.”I feel like I’ve got nothing to lose in this situation,” Rehan said at the Kia Oval, during Rado’s unveiling as the official timing partner of England cricket. “I know I’m not the bowler I want to be in five years. I’m just the bowler I am today. So, I just try and do as well as I can, and at the same time enjoy it as much as I can.”We came close in a lot of games. We had a lot of opportunities to close games out, but I guess they just did it better than us. I personally gained a lot from it, a lot of experience, a lot of things I can use for my cricket to get better. And I enjoyed it more than anything else. [India is] one team that I’ll always want to play. I loved it.”Under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, England have certainly put enjoyment front and centre of the Test experience, and though the tour ended in disappointment with a 4-1 series loss, Rehan played a small but important role in the undisputed high point of the series, the 28-run win in the first Test at Hyderabad.”I look back and I just can’t believe I was part of it,” Rehan said, after claiming two first-innings wickets and making 41 runs across his two innings. “I look back as a cricket fan, thinking that was crazy. But then me being part of that makes it even more mad.Rehan says he will prioritise his batting at Leicestershire during the English early season•Getty Images”The Karachi win was great. The game at Rawalpindi [against Pakistan in 2022] when I was doing 12th man, that was unbelievable, and Hyderabad was probably the best. That was huge. It’s just great. it’s something that you wake up every day and it literally makes you happy to have been part of it.”Quite apart from his own precocity, Rehan knows that he has benefitted hugely from playing under the leadership of Stokes, a captain whose willingness to attack the match situation plays into the strengths of his eager young legspinner.”Stokesy saying ‘you’re not bowling with a mid-on’, I would have thought that’s crazy, I don’t think any other captain would say that to me,” Rehan said. “And to be fair, I’m just like, ‘let’s do it’. I don’t want to bowl with a mid-on, Let’s do as much as we can, and force the game on.”I really enjoy that. I think that’s what I enjoyed the most. Sometimes it gets the better of me when I get smacked around, but I don’t have a single regret, thinking I could have done this or done that.”I train at my club and the kids come to me as if I’m, like, the biggest player,” he added. “No I’m not, I’m just a normal guy that tries to bowl. All you can do is keep believing in yourself.”Rehan knows, however, that his progress could be thwarted in the coming months by the vagaries of the English season.Related

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“It’s April, going to be nipping round corners,” he said. “I don’t expect to bowl loads of overs because if the seamers are getting wickets, they are getting wickets. The team comes first. But if I know I’m not going to bowl in the day because Wrighty [Chris Wright] will probably get eight-for, I’ll just try and bowl as much in the nets as I can.”It’s a situation that Jeetan Patel, England’s spin-bowling coach, anticipated during the India series, when he pledged to provide coaching support so that his young bowlers wouldn’t be left in the lurch while their playing time was limited.Rehan, however, has an extra string to his bow that he’s keen to exploit in the coming months. Having made his maiden first-class century in the final match of the 2022 season, he is focused on securing his place in the Leicestershire side through his batting, and taking his chances with the ball when they come.”I’ve not been told anything [about spin coaching],” he said. “I’ll be playing county cricket straightaway. Leicestershire comes first when I’m not playing for England. I didn’t know if I wanted to play because I wanted a break, but I’ve had two weeks off and I just want to play again.Rehan has benefitted from Stokes’ proactive captaincy•Associated Press”I’d need to see the team balance first,” he said, when asked if he expected to be given a top-six role for his county. “It’s not a case that I come in and bat where I want. I’ve not been here all winter, the lads have been working hard so they deserve it first. So if I make the team and I play, then hopefully I’ll get a bat.”Whatever arises this season, Rehan’s professional career is still enough of a novelty for him to savour all opportunities, no matter where they come. He withdrew from the IPL auction in December in order to manage his time and ensure he was fully prepared for whatever role England might offer him, be it a home Test debut against West Indies in July, or even the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean in June, which follows on from a home white-ball series against Pakistan.”I want to be ready for England at all times,” he said. “I’m not really fussed about what I’m trying to achieve this year. I’ve tried to do as much as I can within myself. So whether that’s me getting my overs in, or me getting as many runs as I can, there’s things I really want to work on. If that takes me [to the World Cup], that takes me there, and if it doesn’t, and the balance of the teams is not right and whatnot, there are loads of things to take into account.”Another factor in his IPL withdrawal was his desire for family time, which has been all the more important to him of late, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.”I love family,” he said. “I don’t want to miss my family time while I’m young. My little brother [England Under-19 offspinner Farhan] has obviously been travelling quite a bit, my older brother has been training a lot, so it feels like we’ve not really sat together a lot. But for the last two weeks we’ve shared food with each other every single day. So that’s felt special as well, and that’s something I love.”

The England spinner will be remembered as one who gave his all on and off the pitch

Mark Nicholas16-Apr-2024Dear Derek,I remember first seeing you on television, in black and white. The field was wet and the pitch too but lots of spectators helped to dry it out, and incredibly, play got underway with just enough time left for England to push for a win.The year was 1968 and, outside of the Beatles and the Stones, you and all the other cricketers of the time were our heroes. It was a big match – England versus Australia at The Oval – and I sat glued to the screen with my pal Jack Newington, both of us ten years old and willing you on.When Dad came home from work, he couldn’t believe the score because when he left the office, it had seemed a certain draw. He arrived in time to see one of David Brown’s close catches and then the dramatic moment when you trapped John Inverarity lbw to claim victory with that wicked arm ball of yours. The other players looked happy but didn’t leap around the place like they do now. It was altogether more modest then and understated. Mind you, the result was only to draw the series, not to win it. Not that this made much difference to the reaction. I can’t imagine Colin Cowdrey, Tom Graveney and Co leaping around like they’d scored the winner in the FA Cup final, whatever the excitement.Related

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Afterwards we went into the back garden, and Dad, who was a decent right-arm wristspinner, imitated your bowling pretty well, left arm and all. I did a bit of Ian Chappell – collar up, chewing gum – but didn’t lay a bat on many. I had a go at copying you too, but the first attempt landed in the neighbour’s plot, so I soon switched back to right arm and knocked over Jack, who wasn’t much good and left in a huff. Dad said you were a fantastic young bowler who bowled faster than most spinners, and almost cut, rather than spun, the ball. He also showed me how to bowl the arm ball, which was basically seam up with the shinier side set for an inswinger, and released damn fast.Dad died early that autumn from a heart problem, but his impression of you lives with me to this day. Jack didn’t come back to play much, so I spent a lot of time bowling like you against the back wall of our house.Dad would be astonished to know that I went on to play against you quite a few times. I was always taught to play the ball, not the man. Easier said than done. This was especially so in your case because, before my time, you bowled out Hampshire cheaply on a dry and dusty pitch in the south-west. Barry Richards told me you took 7 for 20, or some such figures, and he has no idea how Hampshire got the 20. If Barry thought that, the rest of us were scuppered.Strong arm of the law: when conditions were right, there was nothing more lethal than Underwood’s whippy left-arm action•S&G/PA Images via Getty ImagesDerek, you will almost certainly have come across the dystopian novel : a cautionary tale of futurism by George Orwell, frightening in its prediction and accuracy. You were frightening too, if conditions best suited you. And it was in 1984 that you pinned Hampshire to the rope on a wet pitch at Canterbury before battering us into submission. You took seven wickets for 21- and yes, god only knows how we found the 21 – bowling us out for 56 and winning the game at a canter.I wrote about that game on these pages four years ago. It haunts me still as pieces fly from the pitch and we move from 13 for no wicket to 16 for 4 in 15 extraordinary balls, nine of them bowled by you during which time you spat out four Hampshire batsmen – Paul Terry, Chris Smith, Nicholas, Trevor Jesty – as if they were little more than irritants. A couple of months later you came to Bournemouth and claimed 12 in the match to win it for Kent again. They ask why you’re called “Deadly”. I’ve just looked up these games again. You were deadly alright.Anyway, I’m on this email group called “The Raisers”. It was set up by an old mucker and team-mate of yours, Pat Pocock. In short, former first-class cricketers share stories about mates and raise a glass of something to them on their birthdays. Your passing has spawned a long line of terrific tales, happy memories. The overriding emotion is of warmth and love for you – a great cricketer for sure, but a fabulous man too, whose roaring laughter lit up the hours after play and whose morning greeting suggested we were the luckiest people on earth.In so many ways you were a piece of the past: those ten-to-two feet, them baggy trousers, that long-sleeve flannel shirt rolled to the elbow, your short hair, its side parting (with, briefly, some trendy long sideburns to reflect the 1970s), a pack of cigarettes always close by and a pint of ale in hand come stumps. You were modest to a fault, kind to the point of generosity but never soft. You played hardball against the best, and yet never once compromised the polite sense of respect you had for the game and for your opponent. In the age of good manners you were a standard-bearer.The field was your playground but not your theatre. You attracted attention to yourself with honest deeds not extravagant words – indeed, all that we ever heard you utter was in response to Alan Knott behind the stumps.”Bowled Del,” Knotty would say as another ball fizzed past the outside edge and was taken at shoulder height by the master stumper.A young fan gets a taste of Underwood’s music while on a train to Poona (now Pune) for a Test in 1981•Adrian Murrell/Getty Images”Thanks matey,” came the gentle reply, on repeat, ball after ball.Your greatest skill was to give nothing away and to take advantage when the opportunity came. You loved to patiently tie up an end when the pitch was flat, and rip into it when the pitch went rogue. You were accurate, persistent and often deadly. You played for those around you as much as for yourself, and you never, ever gave in.Above all, perhaps, you were courageous, both physically and mentally. You acted as nightwatch without a helmet against Lillee and Thomson and the West Indies attack of the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s. The photograph of you in mid-air, throwing back your head to avoid the ball is, at the same time, one of the most thrilling and alarming cricket shots ever taken. Then, with the ball, when your team turned to you to win the match for them in the fourth innings, you invariably did exactly that. Respect, Deadly, respect. You were the best of England.I led a side you were in once, remember? MCC versus Australia, Lord’s 1985. Allan Border began a counterattack against you and I asked which fielder you would like to drop back and to where. “No idea matey, I tend to leave setting the field to the captain… Hmm, but maybe midwicket could give a yard or two.” Oh, okay.I look back at the match as if it didn’t happen: the three days that I skippered Deadly. How marvellous.So that’s it really, time to say goodbye. I’ve adapted a short poem called “Afterglow” by Helen Lowrie Marshall.Thanks Deadly, from us all.Mark Nicholas

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Sampath Bandarupalli24-Jun-20241:14

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205 for 5 – India’s total against Australia in Gros Islet is the joint-highest by any team against Australia at the men’s T20 World Cup. West Indies made 205 for 4 against Australia in the semi-final of the 2012 edition.It is the third 200-plus total for India at the men’s T20 World Cup, joint-second-most alongside West Indies and only behind South Africa’s five.92 – Rohit Sharma’s score against Australia is the second-highest for India at the men’s T20 World Cup, behind Suresh Raina’s 101 against South Africa in 2010, also in Gros Islet.Related

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It is also the second-highest individual score by a captain at the men’s T20 World Cup, behind Chris Gayle’s 98 against India in 2010 in Bridgetown.15 – Sixes by the India batters in Gros Islet, the most by them in an innings in a men’s T20 World Cup game. The previous highest was 13 against Bangladesh in North Sound on Saturday.Only two teams have hit more sixes in a men’s T20 World Cup game – 19 by Netherlands against Ireland in 2014, and 16 by Australia against India in 2010.8 – Sixes hit by Rohit during his 92-run knock, the most by an India batter in an innings at the men’s T20 World Cup. He broke the record held by Yuvraj Singh, who hit seven sixes against England in 2007, including six in one over off Stuart Broad.These are also the most sixes by any batter against Australia in a men’s T20 World Cup innings.19 – Balls Rohit needed for his half-century, the fastest by any batter against Australia in men’s T20Is. The previous quickest was off 20 balls by Yuvraj in the 2007 T20 World Cup and by Kieron Pollard in a T20I in 2012 in St Lucia.It is the fastest fifty of Rohit’s T20 career, bettering the 22-ball fifty he scored in a T20I against West Indies in 2016 in Lauderhill. It is also the fastest fifty by any batter in the 2024 T20 World Cup.ESPNcricinfo Ltd52 – India’s total when Rohit reached his half-century, the lowest to feature an individual fifty in a men’s T20I innings (where ball-by-ball data is available). The previous lowest was 53, for Vanuatu’s Patrick Matautaava against Malaysia in 2019.51 – Runs scored by Rohit in the powerplay. He is only the fourth batter to score a fifty inside the powerplay at the men’s T20 World Cup, after Stephan Myburgh in 2014, KL Rahul in 2021, and Litton Das in 2022.29 – Runs conceded by Mitchell Starc in the third over, including 28 scored by Rohit. It is Starc’s most expensive over in his international career and the costliest in all T20s.The 29 runs conceded by Starc are also the second-most by an Australia bowler in men’s T20Is, behind Glenn Maxwell’s 30 against India in Guwahati last year.The scorer was kept busy•ICC/Getty Images203 – Sixes hit by Rohit in T20Is. He is the first batter to complete 200 sixes in T20Is, with Martin Guptill (173) being the only other with 150-plus sixes.34 – Wins for India at the men’s T20 World Cup, which includes the Bowl Out win over Pakistan in 2007. They are now the most successful team in the competition in terms of number of wins, surpassing Sri Lanka’s 33, which includes a Super Over win.24 – Sixes hit by India and Australia in the game are the joint-second-most in a men’s T20 World Cup game. Netherlands and Ireland hit 30 sixes in Sylhet in 2014, while Australia and India also hit 24 when they faced off in Bridgetown in 2010.4165 – T20I Runs for Rohit. He is now the leading run-getter in men’s T20Is, surpassing Babar Azam’s 4145.

The 29-year-old has had an up-and-down India career but that has worked in her favour

Sruthi Ravindranath15-Jun-2024D Hemalatha’s life was going exactly as she had planned. It was the 2015-16 season and she had started playing cricket only three years prior. But she rose through the ranks and was already on the verge of being called up to the Indian team. But a motorcycle accident left her with a broken wrist. She had injured her top hand. She was advised to take a year or two off from playing cricket. Excessive hand movement may aggravate the injury, she was warned.”‘ (that was the biggest setback of my life),” Hemalatha, who was only 20 at the time of the event, said to ESPNcricinfo. “I couldn’t digest the fact that I was going to lose two years to this. I was at my peak age. I was in form. In cricket, not playing for 2-3 months is seen as a setback, and one or two years was drastic, especially at the start of my career.”Even with her wrist bandaged, she was itching to hold her bat. She would check the grip every time she walked past it. In just one and a half months after the accident, she took out the bat, swinging it around with her bottom hand. And within seven months, she was back to playing full-time. She owes all of it to her ‘love’ for cricket.”Every time I looked at my bat, I’d want to pick it up. I was mentally stressed just thinking about it. It’s probably [the thing] that pushed me to recover within seven months. But that was the time I worked on my mental strength. It’s only during those hard times you’ll think more. The way you speak to yourself, the reason you’re working to achieve. The hard times taught me how to grow mentally. That’s my life lesson.”Hemalatha was forced to start from scratch again after her accident, but very soon found herself in the India A mix. Following a couple of impressive performances for India A against the Australia and England A sides, she earned a maiden call-up to the senior side in March 2018. She eventually made her India debut in July that year against Sri Lanka following which she also found a place in the T20 World Cup squad in 2018.Even after making the India squad, her career continued on an up-and-down course. After the Women’s Asia Cup in October 2022, she spent the next 16 months out of the team.Hemalatha: My strike rate should be more than 100, I focus on that•ECB via Getty ImagesIt was the “mental strength” Hemalatha had cultivated during these difficult times that played a big role in her comeback into the Indian team this time around. After sitting out of the senior side for 16 months following an average run, she was called up for the T20I series against Bangladesh in April-May this year. Her superb outing in that series has also earned her a spot in the white-ball sides for the South Africa series. And it’s an opportunity she is not taking for granted.”When I realised I’m getting a chance again [with the Indian team], I told myself I wanted to make use of the opportunities,” she said. “It doesn’t matter at which level you play, you need that mental strength. Playing for India is a big goal, but only if I perform in these smaller games I can get there, and for that too you need mental strength. Even when I made my India comeback, I didn’t take it easy. It was not my end goal. I never thought ‘there’s nothing bigger than this’. Even after getting there, I was focused on giving my best for the team, was thinking of all the ways to win a game.”Hemalatha says they were small games but in actual fact, those games, and her performances in them were anything but small. She scored 199 runs in six innings at 49.75 for Railways in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy last year. She scored two fifties and played a part in Railways’ title win in the Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy this year and then went on to win the Women’s Inter-Zonal ODI Trophy with Central Zone. She shone brightly in Gujarat Giants’ otherwise dull season in the WPL, her 74 off 40 against Mumbai Indians being one of the highlights.With Jemimah Rodrigues and Yastika Bhatia out due to injuries and Hemalatha showing the kind of consistency that could no longer be ignored, India gave her the No. 3 role in Bangladesh and she didn’t disappoint.During her comeback match, the second T20I in Sylhet, she showed off just how well she strikes the ball, coming down the track to middle offspinner Sultana Khatun over cow corner for her first big hit of the day, ending with 41 off 24 balls. Over the course of four games, she showcased a fine range of shots, from picture-perfect cover drives to lofts down the ground to sweetly-timed sweeps to finish with a series-highest strike rate of 141.55D Hemalatha was a bright spot in an otherwise dull 2024 WPL campaign for the Gujarat Giants•BCCI”My strike rate should be more than 100, I focus on that,” Hemalatha said. “I work on my basics and that helps with my hard-hitting. Batting is all about timing, so I work on that. If you have good timing, the ball will go long. I have been working on my range-hitting as well. Even during the WPL I worked on it. I don’t focus only on that in my training though, if there’s a requirement for me to hit it, I will. But if there’s a situation where I need to stay at the crease, I will stay. I can play both. I never plan my innings before.”Hemalatha got to know women played cricket professionally only before she got into college in 2012. She was excited about the prospect of making a career out of it. Her parents, initially hesitant about her new career path, eventually encouraged her to take it up. Her father had one piece of advice for her: ‘Whatever you do, put your heart into it’. She learnt her basics from her coach, Sriram, in her neighbourhood. Once she got selected for the Tamil Nadu state team, she started training under Peter Fernandez, a well-known cricket coach in Chennai.She then moved from Tamil Nadu to the Railways domestic team, where she played with Mithali Raj, one of her idols. They played together in the Indian team as well and were reunited at the WPL where Mithali is Giants’ mentor.”Mithali is a legend,” Hemalatha said. “You can ask her anything – about the game, mindset, how to go about the match… just anything. She has all the answers. It has helped me tremendously on and off the field. She knows what my strengths are. She talks to me about plans against specific bowlers, how to hit on a specific pitch, she gives so many inputs. We discuss even during practice. Even after I come back from batting we have a proper chat.”Hemalatha expects a lot from herself. In the middle of that breakthrough series in Bangladesh, she was certain she was playing an innings that she didn’t like only to arrive in the dressing room and be celebrated for her strokeplay.”Harmanpreet [Kaur, the India captain] is a fighter, she’s very aggressive on the field” Hemalatha said. “Off the field she’s very friendly and amazing. After the second T20I, she came up to me and told me that I have beautiful shots. Only then was I convinced that I actually played well. When I came out after batting, everyone was full of praise. When I was playing, I wasn’t too satisfied. But when the team told me I played well, I got convinced.”From here, Hemalatha will be keen to take all the motivation and confidence she has gained over a career that has had plenty of highs and lows to make her spot in the India side permanent.

Meanwhile, Smriti Mandhana became the second-highest run-getter in women’s T20Is

Sampath Bandarupalli26-Jul-20245 India have made it to the final of the women’s T20 Asia Cup in all five editions so far. They went on to win three of the previous four tourbaments in 2012, 2016 and 2022, but finished runners-up in 2018.3 Number of 10-wicket wins in the women’s T20 Asia Cup, including India’s 81-run chase against Bangladesh. All three such results have come over the past week. Pakistan defeated UAE chasing 104 on Tuesday, while Sri Lanka beat Thailand in pursuit of 94 on Wednesday.1 Previous instance of a team winning a women’s T20I knockout game by a 10-wicket margin. Greece defeated Romania while chasing a 78-run target in the Women’s Balkan Cup final in 2022.3 Number of 10-wicket wins for India in T20Is with Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma opening the batting. Their previous efforts came against West Indies in 2019 while chasing 104 and against South Africa earlier this month in an 85-run chase.Only one opening pair has secured their team more 10-wicket wins in women’s T20Is – four times by Natthakan Chantham and Nannapat Koncharoenkai for Thailand.5 Instances where Renuka Singh bagged three or more wickets inside the powerplay of a T20I. The previous instances were against Australia in 2022, Barbados in 2022, Sri Lanka in the 2022 Asia Cup final, and England in the 2023 T20 World Cup. No other player has more than three such instances in T20Is, where ball-by-ball data is available.1 Radha Yadav is now the first bowler to bowl a maiden in the 20th over of an innings on two separate occasions. She did not concede a run in the 20th over against West Indies in 2019. Nine other women and eight men have bowled a maiden in the 20th over in T20Is, but nobody did it more than once (where ball-by-ball data is available).3433 Runs by Mandhana in T20Is are the second-most by a woman, behind Suzie Bates’ 4348. She passed Meg Lanning (3405) and Harmanpreet Kaur (3415) with her unbeaten fifty on Friday.4 Number of fifty-plus scores for Mandhana in T20I knockout matches. Only one woman has had more fifty-plus scores than Mandhana in T20I knockouts – Beth Mooney (5).