Sunrisers Hyderabad are the form team, but Delhi Capitals can create a ripple, if they play it right

Nagraj Gollapudi and Gaurav Sundararaman07-Nov-2020The Capitals’ ideal XI – Plan A
Drop the out-of-form Prithvi Shaw, open with Marcus Stoinis. Drop Daniel Sams, bulk up the middle order with Shimron Hetmyer. Opening with Stoinis and Shikhar Dhawan could allow the Capitals to get off to a quick start, something that has been missing for them after the first half of the league phase.Stoinis was the Capitals’ best batsman in their humbling defeat against the Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1. He is a proven opening option in T20 cricket, having done it successfully in the Big Bash League since 2018, where he has struck ten half-centuries and a century with an average of 52 and a strike rate of 133.By accommodating Hetmyer, ideally at No. 4 or No. 5, the Capitals can give a bit of freedom to Rishabh Pant, asking him to play game and perform the finisher’s role. Also, bring back Harshal Patel for Shaw, who can be a handful if the Abu Dhabi pitch continues to play slow and low as in the Eliminator.The Capitals’ ideal XI – Plan B
Open with Stoinis, replace Shaw with Harshal Patel, hand legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane his first match of the competition as replacement for Sams. It might be a left-field as suggestions go, but might not be, if you consider that Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa were the best bowlers, along with Rashid Khan, in the Eliminator between the Sunrisers and the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday evening on a slow pitch in Abu Dhabi.The Capitals have sorely missed Amit Mishra, who was forced to return home after breaking his finger in the early half of the tournament. While R Ashwin will remain the key spinner, Lamichhane can operate in the middle overs along with Patel, allowing the fast-bowling pair of Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada to bowl enough overs at the death. It will be a brave call, but the Capitals have to think out of the box.ESPNcricinfo LtdDon’t let Rashid Khan settle down
The Capitals batsmen go quiet when Khan is in front of them, like a bunch of students when the headmaster walks into class. In five matches in IPL 2019 and 2020, the Capitals have scored just 76 runs from 120 deliveries against him. In this period, Khan has taken ten wickets at an economy rate of 3.8. Six of those wickets came this year, in threes, including the 3 for 7, one of the best spells of the tournament so far.Khan will bowl in the middle overs, so it will be the responsibility of Dhawan, Iyer, and Ajinkya Rahane, most likely, to find ways to attack him. It is one of the toughest one-on-one battles in T20 cricket, but it might not hurt the Capitals to get up to a little mischief against Khan.Stir it up for David Warner
In case Wriddhiman Saha does not play, again, Warner will take the lead in making the bold opening statement in the powerplay, as the Sunrisers have in their four successive wins in the last two weeks.Warner will want to attack Rabada and Ashwin in the first six overs. Now, Rabada has got Warner out twice in the IPL, but has conceded 57 runs from 34 deliveries in the process. Ashwin has got Warner out thrice in the IPL, giving away 92 runs from 82 deliveries. Both of them will aim to cramp Warner for any room and prise him out.That said, if the surface remains slow, then the Sunrisers batsmen will play percentage cricket, thereby making it a more even contest.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Capitals’ openers must stay the course
Dhawan and Shaw were among the best opening pairs at the beginning of the tournament, scoring 226 runs, including three 50-plus partnerships, in the first five matches. Shaw has fallen off miserably after that, while in the Capitals’ last five matches, Dhawan has scored three ducks. In those, the Capitals have lost at least one wicket before getting to double-digits. Since October 20, which is when their slide started, the Capitals have lost eight wickets in the first two overs of a match, the poorest among all teams.Bring Axar Patel on to attack Manish Pandey
Pandey has shown a lot of positive intent in key moments for the Sunrisers this IPL. Luckily, in Patel, the Capitals have the right bowler to challenge Pandey. In the 61 deliveries he has faced from Patel in T20s over the years, Pandey has been conservative, picking only 38 runs at a strike rate of 64, while losing his wicket twice.Getty ImagesBack to the start – what about the toss?
Keep chasing? It is a bigger question for the Capitals. In the two matches in the league phase, which the Sunrisers won, Iyer had elected to chase and that backfired on both occasions. Warner has won three tosses in a row now, and elected to field first. It is not just going by the trend at the venue, which tilts in favour of batting second, but the Sunrisers have been the best bowling unit in their last six matches – since October 20. Warner would want to chase again if he calls the coin right on Sunday, keeping in mind a low-on-confidence opposition and his strong bowling unit.

Touring South African teams don’t generally fare well against spin, but not this one

Firdose Moonda17-Mar-2021It’s rare that a South African team can walk away from a series in India and claim superiority. The men’s side have won one out eight Test rubbers, one out of five bilateral ODI series and one of out of two T20s match-ups. Before Sunday, the women’s team had won one out of two ODI series in India. Now, not only have they successfully secured a second trophy, by the biggest margin a South African team has earned in India (4-1), but they did it by overcoming a national nemesis: spin.In losing 13 wickets to India’s spinners across the five matches at an average of 53.15 and a strike rate of 70.7 (one wicket to every 11.5 overs of spin) South Africa subjected the home tweakers to their worst result in a series where they have bowled at least 100 overs and significantly worse than the last time they played South Africa. Then, in a three-match series in 2019, India’s spinners took 18 wickets at 19.05, struck every 5.2 overs and squeezed South Africa at only 3.53 runs an over.”Two years back when we toured here India demolished us with their spin,” stand-in captain Sune Luus said. “But we had a Pakistan series before this and we played in Durban which is kind of subcontinental in its conditions. India bowled a lot of spin to us but we found ways to attack. We knew they were just going to throw a lot of overs of spin at us and we were mentally ready for that.”In January, South Africa hosted Pakistan for three ODIs and three T20s, all at Kingsmead. Against the likes of Nida Dar and Nashra Sandhu, they won the ODIs 3-0 and the T20s 2-1 and performed well against the spinners. In the ODIs,11 out of 26 South African dismissals in the series came against spin and they scored at 4.01 runs to the over. In the T20s, they lost six out of 11 wickets to spin and scored at 6.01.That preparation has proved invaluable and it also gave South Africa much-needed match-practice and the opportunity to develop the habit of winning.South Africa won the first two ODIs against Pakistan against by slender margins (three runs and 13 runs), both times defending totals. In this series, after two one-sided matches, the results got closer to each other. South Africa had to beat both India and the weather in the third match, recorded their highest successful chase in the fourth and snuck home in a low-scoring thriller in the finale.Sune Luus’ unbeaten fifty included five fours and two sixes•Getty ImagesAfter developing a reputation for falling at the final hurdle in heartbreaking performances like the semi-final of the last fifty-over World Cup in Bristol or the semi-final of the T20 World Cup last March in Sydney, it seems as though South Africa have found ways to hold their nerve in tense situations. “The more games you play, the more you get yourself into pressure situations which you need to get through, We’ve been in enough pressure situations to identify where we are struggling and where we can get better,” Luus said. “If you look at teams like Australia and England, they’ve played a lot of games and been in a lot of semi-finals and finals and they can handle pressure. We need to keep on getting into semi-finals and work through that to get to finals. We are a world class team that have been working hard for a lot of years and we really want to be on top of the world and to compete with Australia and England and I think we are there. The more games you play, especially against teams like India, Australia, England, the more you can learn how to deal with pressure.”All that would be ideal if the women’s World Cup was being played as originally planned, now. Instead, it has been pushed back to March 2022 and South Africa will want to maintain this form for another 12 months. Luus believes they can do that by continuing to find similarities between the matches they play now and big-tournament situations. “If we are looking towards the World Cup next year in New Zealand, they have high scoring grounds and so that’s (like the fourth match) type of totals we are going to be chasing or setting. It was a good experience now to get the feel for it and see how you manage a chase, when you start going, when you hold back and when you just rotate strike,” Luus said. “All five games were different scenarios and that’s the experience we are going to need for the World Cup.”South Africa’s victory in India puts them second on the ODI rankings, their highest to date, with Lizelle Lee on top of the batting charts, Shabnim Ismail and Marizanne Kapp at No.3 and 4 on the bowling list and Kapp the third-highest allrounder, their stocks are rising. This series also showed off several lower-profile players – Lara Goodall, Anneke Bosch and Tumi Sekhukhune – which suggests there’s depth in the talent pool and plenty for South Africa to work with.”We are so excited to win the series in India. It’s a very special achievement for our team. It’s never easy to play here and take the series away from the Indian team like we did.” Luus said. “We can go into the T20 series smiling because our fifty-over game is coming together very nicely.”

Stats highlights from India’s comprehensive win in the second Test in Chennai

S Rajesh16-Feb-2021317 – The margin of victory, India’s largest, in terms of runs, in a Test against England. The previous highest was 279 runs, at Headingley in 1986. India have also beaten England six times by an innings.2 – Instances of R Ashwin scoring a century and taking eight wickets in a Test; he had earlier achieved the feat against West Indies in Mumbai in 2011, when he scored 103 and took 9 for 117 in a memorable drawn Test which ended with scores level: India finished on 242 for 9 chasing 243 for victory. No other India allrounder has managed this in a Test.9 – India bowlers who have taken a five-for on debut; Axar Patel became the latest to join this group with his 5 for 60 in England’s second innings. The only other left-arm spinner in this group is Dilip Doshi, who took 6 for 103 against Australia in Chennai in 1979.ESPNcricinfo Ltd21 – Test wins in India for Virat Kohli the captain. He equals MS Dhoni’s record for most wins by an Indian captain at home. Overall, India have won 34 Tests under Kohli, which is seven clear of the next-best, 27 under Dhoni.10 – Instances of Ashwin dismissing Ben Stokes in Tests. Stokes averages 17.8 against him. Stokes and David Warner are the two batsmen who have been dismissed most often by Ashwin in Tests. Both average less than 20 against him.ESPNcricinfo Ltd298 – England’s match aggregate, their third-lowest in a Test against India in which they lost 20 wickets. Their lowest is 230 (102 and 128) in that Headingley Test in 1986. It is their second-lowest in any Test in Asia.4 – Instances of a team winning the second Test of a series by 200-plus runs after losing the first by a similar margin. The three previous instances were by South Africa in England in 2017, by South Africa at home against Australia in 2014, and by West Indies in England in 1950. On both occasions when South Africa fought back to win the second Test, they ended up losing the series, 3-1 to England and 2-1 to Australia.ESPNcricinfo Ltd0 – Half-centuries for Joe Root in the match; it is the first time Root hasn’t passed 50 in a Test, in the eight matches he has played against India.8.16 – England batsmen’s average when playing the sweep shot in this Test – they scored only 49 runs off the shot and were dismissed six times. In the first Test, they averaged 38.75 when playing the shot, scoring 155 runs for four dismissals.15 – Test wins for India at Chepauk, which is their highest at any venue. They have 13 wins in Delhi and Kolkata each.238.9 – Moeen Ali’s strike rate in the second innings: he scored 43 off 18. It is the highest by an England batsman for any innings of 15 or more balls (in matches where balls-faced data is available). For all teams, this is the second-best, next to Abdur Razzak’s 17-ball 43 against Zimbabwe in 2011.

Unbroken partnership with Nat Sciver underlines current gulf between 2017 World Cup finalists

Valkerie Baynes27-Jun-2021″You have a choice.” It’s a mantra that has served Tammy Beaumont well this year and the benefits were there for all to see again as she guided England to an emphatic eight-wicket victory in the first of three ODIs against India in Bristol.Beaumont scored 87 runs off as many balls, having shared an unbroken partnership worth 119 for the third wicket with Nat Sciver, whose run-a-ball 74 was as brutal as Beaumont’s was clinical.It was the fourth consecutive ODI innings in which Beaumont had passed fifty after scores of 71, 72 not out and 88 not out on England’s winter tour of New Zealand and followed her 66 in England’s only innings of the drawn Test between these two sides at the same ground just over a week ago.Related

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• England thrash India by eight wickets with all-round display

Beaumont has also scored two centuries in her past 10 ODI innings, against Pakistan in December 2019 and during the Ashes series the previous English summer, but she said her work with Phoebe Sanders, the team’s sports psychologist, earlier this year proved a turning point.”The day before the first game in New Zealand she said to me, ‘you know you have a choice how you go about it’,” Beaumont said on Sunday. “Ever since then her voice has been in my head as I’m walking out, ‘you know you have a choice how you approach it, you can kind of go with the flow and see what happens or you can go out and try to dominate and try to be relentless’.”And it’s not about dominating like how other people might do it, my dominating is making sure that I put away every bad ball I get and make them really work hard to get me out and it seems to be working so hopefully it’ll continue.”There was a period during her latest innings when it seemed like Beaumont only dealt in fours.She survived almost being run out on nought when she set off for a run after being struck on the pad and Ekta Bisht’s throw to the non-striker’s end from cover point was wayward, then an India review when she was given not out lbw on the same ball – the DRS showing Shikha Pandey’s in-ducker was sliding down the leg side.After Lauren Winfield-Hill’s campaign to cement a place as opener ahead of next year’s World Cup was off to a fleeting but entertaining start when Jhulan Goswami had her edging behind, Beaumont seemed to continually find the boundary.She struck back-to-back fours off Pandey, through point and driven in front of square, and then off Pooja Vastrakar with a wonderful straight hit back over bowler’s head followed by a precision cut through point as she and Heather Knight took 13 off the over.Beaumont then hit twin sweeps to the boundary off Bisht so that at the end of the first Powerplay, England were 61 for 1 compared to India’s 27 for 2. By the time Beaumont had racked up 39 runs off 30 deliveries, she had eight fours to her name.Even with spin stemming the flow of runs somewhat, and Bisht ending a 59-run partnership with Knight with a beautiful delivery that took the top of off stump, Beaumont’s strokeplay was all class. She brought up a 48-ball fifty with a four swept off Deepti Sharma and struck Vastrakar to the point boundary with perfect poise and timing.”The main thing is I’ve stopped believing in form,” Beaumont said. “Once you get to a certain age you’ve worked on your technique, you know what works and it’s just a case of sticking to it and doing the tinkering with it if something’s going wrong.”But if it’s going right then for me it’s all about your mindset… that’s what I’ve really been working on, being ruthless and relentless as much as possible and it seems to be working at the moment.”Nat Sciver pulls one away•PA Photos/Getty ImagesSciver settled in with a couple of fours off Bisht before being dropped on 12, off Harmanpreet Kaur, and beaten four times in succession by Pandey.Appointed permanent vice-captain ahead of this multi-format series after standing in for the injured Anja Shrubsole on the tour of New Zealand, Sciver scored a valuable 42 in the Test and the runs came in abundance on Sunday as she punished bad balls and good in powerful fashion.With the rain that had been threatening to arrive all day starting to fall in a sparse drizzle, Sciver struck the tenth four of her innings off Kaur followed two balls later with a thumping six down the ground as it looked like she might overtake Beaumont.”Once Nat starts to unleash there’s no stopping her and at one point I thought I wasn’t going to get to face another ball,” Beaumont said. “But she was very kind to me in the end. For me, today was all about getting the job done and being not out at the end. If I tried to keep up with Nat there’s no chance, she’s just an unbelievable talent.”After pulling Goswami for four, the petite Beaumont, who stands about a foot shorter than Sciver, weighed in with a six of her own, launching Kaur over long-on to level the scores. Kaur’s next ball was a wide to seal the result in something of an anti-climax, given the batting display by England to that point.The margin of defeat was also something of a let-down for India, who had lost a thrilling World Cup final by just nine runs the last time these two sides met in an ODI on English soil, in 2017. And as preparations for the next World Cup begin in earnest, this match gave both teams plenty to ponder.

Also: which other team has won a Test with their two leading run scorers at the crease like New Zealand did?

Steven Lynch29-Jun-2021When New Zealand completed victory in the World Test Championship final, their two all-time leading run scorers were at the crease. Has this ever happened before for a Test-winning side? asked Raymond Rulach from England
It was very fitting that Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor should be batting together at the climax of the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand in Southampton last week: as you say, they top New Zealand’s Test-runs list at the moment (after the match, Taylor had 7564 and Williamson 7230; during the game Williamson passed Stephen Fleming’s tally of 7172).The deft database skills of ESPNcricinfo’s Shiva Jayaraman uncovered four previous instances of a country’s top two run scorers being at the crease for a Test victory. Two of them were by Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga for Sri Lanka – against Zimbabwe in Colombo in 1997-98, and against Australia in Kandy in September 1999. The others were by Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid for India against Australia in Bengaluru in 2010-11, and Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith for South Africa against Australia in Cape Town in 2011-12 (the match in which Australia were bowled out for 47, after being 21 for 9 at one point).There have been 28 further Tests in which a country’s top two run scorers at the time finished on the winning side, but were not together at the crease at the end.When was the last six-day Test before the World Championship final? asked Michael Jones from England
The exciting World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand in Southampton last week was the first Test scheduled to last six days since another ICC showpiece, the Super Series match in Sydney in 2005-06 – but that one finished in four days, with Australia romping home by 210 runs against a star-studded World XI.The last Test that ran to six days was between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Moratuwa in December 1993, which was extended to include the rest day after the first was rained off – but the last two days fell foul of the weather too. The last Test to have play on a sixth day was Australia vs Pakistan in Sydney in 1989-90, but that was still drawn since no play had been possible on the first, second and fifth days.The last Test before the 2005-06 Super Series which was scheduled in advance to run for six days had been the sixth match between India and West Indies in 1978-79, in Kanpur. Bad light and rain meant there was no play on the fifth day of that game; the last Test to feature play on each of six scheduled days was New Zealand vs England in Auckland in 1977-78 (it didn’t help much: the match was still drawn).Has there ever been a case of three scores of 90-99 in a Test innings? asked Dawood from India
There has never been a case of three nineties in the same Test innings; there have been 58 instances of two, most agonisingly by Pakistan against England in Karachi in 1972-73, when both Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammad were out for 99. Sadiq Mohammad was out for 89 in that innings, and later Dennis Amiss made 99 for England.That Karachi match was one of 15 Tests to feature three scores in the nineties, but there have been two cases of four: by England and New Zealand in Christchurch in 1991-92 (Robin Smith 96, Allan Lamb 93, Dipak Patel 99 and John Wright 99 – Patel was run out and Wright stumped), and by England and West Indies at The Oval in 1995 (Graeme Hick 96, Jack Russell 91, Richie Richardson 93 and Mike Atherton 95).How Geoff Griffin’s hat-trick at Lord’s was reported by English newspapers•Daily MirrorIs it right that only one South African bowler had taken a Test hat-trick before Keshav Maharaj did it? asked Steve Rafferty from South Africa
That is correct: before slow left-armer Keshav Maharaj dismissed West Indians Kieran Powell, Jason Holder and Joshua Da Silva in St Lucia last week, South Africa’s only hat-trick in 444 previous Test matches was way back in 1960, when Geoff Griffin removed Mike Smith (for 99), Peter Walker and Fred Trueman at Lord’s. It remains the only hat-trick in 140 Tests at cricket’s most famous ground. Fast bowler Griffin was a controversial figure, as he had been no-balled for throwing several times: after he was called again in an exhibition match following that Test, he never appeared again. For the list of Test hat-tricks, click here.Charl Langeveldt, JP Duminy, Kagiso Rabada and Imran Tahir have taken hat-tricks for South Africa in one-day internationals, while for their women’s side, Dane van Niekerk and Masabata Klaas have taken ODI hat-tricks, and Marizanne Kapp one in a T20I.After eight Tests, Kyle Jamieson has 46 wickets at 14.17, and five five-fors. How many men have improved those figures? asked Don Henderson from New Zealand
The giant New Zealander Kyle Jamieson has indeed made a remarkable start to his career. Thirteen bowlers have taken more wickets in their first eight Tests – England’s Tom Richardson leads the way with 66 – but only one of them had a better average: Charles “Terror” Turner had taken 56 wickets at 11.93. Both Richardson and Turner played in the 19th century, when scores generally were lower; the nearest modern bowler to Jamieson after eight Tests is Australia’s Rodney Hogg, who had taken 51 wickets at 15.37, while Vernon Philander had 53 at 15.66.Just behind Jamieson comes another 19th-century England bowler, George Lohmann, with 45 wickets at 10.51. Lohmann finished his career with 112 at 10.75, the best average of any bowler who took more than 14 Test wickets, apart from the Indian slow left-armer Axar Patel, who currently has 27 at 10.59.Turning to hauls of five or more wickets in an innings, Jamieson’s five in his first eight Tests puts him level in fourth place with eight other bowlers, including R Ashwin and Ian Botham. Richardson leads the way again with ten such hauls, while Turner had eight and Philander six.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The Australian players reflect on their title win and what it means to them

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-20213:12

Moody: Credit to Langer and Finch to galvanise this Australian team

Matthew Wade: Huge [on what does this win mean]. At first, T20 World Cup coming in, felt like a lot of people maybe wrote us off and didn’t expect us to get to this moment. But internally we spoke about how we’re going to be the first team to achieve this for Australia. [It’s] something really, really special.

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Match highlights of the Men’s T20 World Cup final is available in English, and in Hindi (USA only).

[On his innings in the semi-final] When we sit down, I will reflect probably closely on that. I think more than my innings, the partnership, we spoke about me and [Marcus] Stoinis in the rooms when we’re chasing, just saying that we probably didn’t realise that we scored as many runs as we did the other night. And then coming into this game, we felt really confident that if the boys could get off to a good start, then we could contribute at the end, but thankfully Mitch [Marsh] and Davey [Warner] and Maxie [Glenn Maxwell] at the end there did the job for us. As Stoinis said, just so proud of this group. Yeah, we’re stoked.Marcus Stoinis: The key…this group of boys, we absolutely, we actually love each other. It is beautiful. I can’t wait to keep playing with this team. I’m so proud of them. You won’t find bigger supporters of Mitch Marsh than right here and probably his family. We’re so happy for him.Adam Zampa: I just tried to use my strengths to the best of my ability. I knew the wickets were going to be pretty low. I bowled at a good time; we won the toss and bowled first. So it was probably a little bit drier when I was bowling, so I tried to use that to the best of my ability, tried to get tickets when we needed them and tried to defend when we need to do that as well.2:47

Moody: Can’t underestimate Australia as they don’t often play T20Is at full-strength

[On backroom staff] A lot of credit goes to those guys. We’ve been in bubbles for almost two years now. And that takes a toll on everyone, including the staff. Our preparation from their side of things has been great. And it’s their win as well.Glenn Maxwell: He [Zampa] has been a superstar in this format as well as one-day cricket for a long period of time. I’ve had the pleasure of having him at the [Melbourne] Stars and watching him go about his work for a long time. So to watch him bring it straight into international cricket, like there’s absolutely no edges whatsoever. He’s just fitted in so well and last three years as a legspinner, I don’t think there are many better in the world.I was able to give myself a few days off before the tournament to really freshen up and I felt like I was hitting the ball really well. Luckily, that wasn’t really required a whole heap. But it was nice to be out there at the end and get the winning runs.Steven Smith: [This win means] a lot. We’ve worked hard for a long time. This is a trophy that has eluded us for a very long time. So it’s an honour to be out here with the boys and to be able to take that trophy home, it’s exceptional.His [Warner’s] last two weeks have been amazing. A lot of people were writing him off at the start, saying he was out of form but it took one good innings and he was away. Today, I thought he came out with exceptional intent again. Him and Mitchell Marsh, that partnership really set us up for the game. I am really proud of those two boys. I think they’ve had great tournament, both of them.Josh Hazlewood: There’s always pressure, the batters are coming at you from ball one basically. But we started really well, we kept the powerplay to I think around 40. Some pretty good effort there and I obviously got away at the end. But we saw the wicket was pretty good and the exceptional chase from our guys.[On Williamson’s knock] He’s a superb player and he has been for a long time now. Another classical Kane innings really, scored all around the ground and hurts you when you bowl poorly.Justin Langer: I suppose everyone who wins a World Cup says it’s hard to process, it’s hard to put it into words. But this is such a special group of people. I know every coach, every captain says the same thing. But we’ve got some amazing cricketers here, we haven’t had a chance to play together because of different reasons for last 12 months. So when we all got back together, it was almost like a reunion. And they’re such close, there’re so many close relationships there. It’s a very, very special moment for everyone.Mitchell Marsh and Pat Cummins celebrate with the trophy•ICC via Getty ImagesWe knew that when we came back together how much talent we had. That’s for one. I mean, there’s enormous talent in this team. When we’re in the West Indies and Bangladesh leading into this series, there were a few missing pieces. And Mitch Marsh took one of those pieces. And he’s been brilliant. And we also embraced fun. In this situation, where everyone talks about bubble, these guys had so much fun on and off the ground. In this form of the game, actually in the game of cricket, it’s important to have fun and enjoy it, and the guys have done that. I think it was a really important part of our success here.Zamps puts a smile on my face every time because he’s a little bit different. He’s a little hippie, but he’s so competitive, and he’s been so good in this form of the game. We see legspinners have an impact around the world and he’s doing that for Australia now.And Josh Hazlewood, well, he didn’t play the last one-day World Cup because he had some issues with his back. He has come in here, he’s been sublime, so it’s just been a great team effort.Pat Cummins: Pretty pumped. I think once we get back home and get back in there, will it only sink in. A lot of support from back home, like getting up at 1am to watch this game, so a great feeling.It was a good thing playing a little bit of the IPL over here. Even someone like Joshy Hazlewood coming straight from the IPL, here he is seeing to adapt really quickly and I mean, you don’t have to get too funky. It’s just part of what we do again more with the red ball stuff with a few slower balls thrown in there. This is really great, it’s such a complete squad of 15 guys here, so really happy.Mitchell Starc: It’s not been the ideal lead-up, but I think just the closeness of the group, we had a great time here. We’ve had some great times off the field, getting around one another. And I think that showed in the way we played our cricket. We’ve had everyone contribute, guys off the field, on the field, different guys in different games. And we saw that again tonight. So I think that the closeness of the group is what really got us through this tournament, and then hopefully that leads into the summer as well.He [Zampa] has been fantastic. He’s been our best bowler, I think, by far for the last couple of years with the white ball. And he made it really easy for us quickies to work around him. I think we’re pretty confident in what we do and run off the back of each other when Zamps is doing what he does. I think it just makes the bowling group, their role a lot clearer and we can do our job quite easy I guess.

The pandemic is partly to blame, but what they really need to raise their level is many more fixtures

Tim Wigmore18-Nov-2021T20 is cricket’s globalisation tool, as the ICC endlessly reminds us. The 2021 World Cup has not given reason to reassess that view, but for advocates of cricket’s expansionism, the Associates’ performances in the tournament have been a little disconcerting.Ultimately the best day for the emerging world was the tournament’s very first, when Scotland recovered from 53 for 6 to defeat Bangladesh by six runs in Muscat. The only other Associate scalp against a Full Member came when Namibia defeated Ireland to progress to the Super 12s. The closest that Scotland or Namibia got to a victory in their eight games against Full Members in that stage of the tournament was Scotland’s 16-run defeat to New Zealand.These performances amount to a regression from the Associates’ displays in the 2014 and 2016 T20 World Cups. In the first round of the 2014 tournament, Hong Kong defeated Bangladesh and Ireland beat Zimbabwe. Then, in the second round, Netherlands thrashed England by 45 runs and lost by only six runs to South Africa. Two years later, Afghanistan easily beat Zimbabwe to reach the Super 10s. There, they beat eventual winners West Indies, and had England at 57 for 6, before losing by 15 runs.Related

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Namibia have big plans, and Lahore Qalandars are helping them along the way

Coetzer calls for 'bold and brave' moves to push Scotland forward

'If we create a brand people love, cricket will be a Namibian sport'

T20 World Cup exit prompts 'serious questions' of Ireland's operations

Associate nations have been more greatly impacted by Covid-19 than anyone else in elite cricket. Most Associates essentially played no international matches for 18 months until September this year. Scotland, often considered the leading Associate, put their players on furlough to save money; Chris Greaves, the Player of the Match against Bangladesh in the 2021 World Cup, spent the start of the year delivering parcels for Amazon. Nearly two months of playing in the UAE was particularly challenging for many of these players, who had never experienced intensive bubble life like this before.While these short-term encumbrances explain emerging nations’ challenges this year, there are other forces at work. The greatest is simply the evolution of T20. Since the last World Cup, there have been six editions of the IPL, but Associate players rarely feature in the league, and have scant experience in other major franchise tournaments.Even allowing for the profound difficulties caused by the pandemic, Associates are better T20 sides than five years ago. The problem is, so are the teams ranked above them. From 2010-15, the nine leading Full Members – those part of the World Test Championship – played 2.6 ODIs for every T20I. Since 2016, they have played only 1.2 ODIs for every T20I.In T20 World Cups, Associate teams used to have a curious advantage. They had greater knowledge about their opponents, because while video footage and data from games between Test teams was readily accessible, information about the Associate world was comparatively hard to find. In this World Cup, the sight of two fielders routinely placed to protect the boundary from George Munsey’s reverse sweeps attests to how Test teams have become shrewder in their planning against Associates.But the biggest issue for Associate teams is simply their paucity of fixtures compared to Test sides.Hong Kong beat Bangladesh by two wickets in their 2014 T20 World Cup match in Chattogram•Associated PressThe same was long true in ODIs before the Cricket World Cup League 2 guaranteed leading Associates 36 ODIs between the 2019 and 2023 World Cups. The upshot is that the gulf in playing experience between emerging nations and Full Members is now greater in T20 than 50-over cricket.Leading T20 players play around 50 matches a year, spread across international cricket and leagues. Between the World Cup qualifiers in 2019 and the 2021 World Cup, Namibia’s captain, Gerhard Erasmus, only played 11 T20s, and Kyle Coetzer, Scotland’s captain, five.Ostensibly T20 is the format best suited to emerging sides, but the assumption that this is automatically true is a lazy one. Ireland have defeated both England and South Africa in the ODI Super League, but the World Cup has highlighted that their T20I side is altogether less advanced.Scotland’s run in ODI cricket in 2017-18, when they defeated England, Afghanistan and came within six runs of defeating West Indies and nearly qualifying for the 2019 World Cup, exceeds any streak they have put together against top ten nations in T20I cricket.And so the T20 World Cup results should prompt serious thought about how to close the gap between emerging nations and leading Full Members in the format. More bilateral matches between Test teams and Associates would obviously help; how to fit them into the calendar is another matter.Creative thinking could help accelerate Associates’ T20 development. In women’s cricket, the ICC has previously funded contracts for Associate players in the Women’s Big Bash. A partnership that allowed, say, 20 leading Associate players to train with teams in the IPL and Big Bash would help them tap into the networks, knowledge-sharing and cutting-edge thinking happening in the format. Including Associates in domestic T20 competitions, like the T20 Blast and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and giving them more cricket against A teams from leading nations would be a boon. All of this will require goodwill from Full Members – and extra funding during the 2024-31 ICC cycle.From 2024, the men’s T20 World Cup will expand to 20 teams, with the unwieldy first round abolished. For the first time in history, cricket will get a World Cup that, in its scope, will feel like a global affair to rival those in football or basketball.It is an unprecedented opportunity to turbocharge cricket’s growth. But the events of the last month in the UAE should serve as a reminder. More teams in the World Cup may be necessary to globalise the sport, yet what happens between World Cups is just as important.

A look back at the overs that provided the biggest fluctuations as per ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster in teams’ fortunes

Yash Jha25-Apr-2022
Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai: 20th over

Rahul Tewatia’s miracle finish expectedly finds a place right at the top. The final over of their 190 chase began with Titans needing 19. A set Hardik Pandya at the crease along with David Miller meant they still had a fair chance of getting there.Related

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But it only got worse before it got better: after a wide to start from Odean Smith, Pandya was run-out off the first legal ball of the over. With the equation down to 13 required off three balls, an avoidable overthrow from Smith brought Tewatia on strike. Down to 12 to get off the final two deliveries, the Forecaster gave Titans an 8.07% chance of winning, before Tewatia – not for the first time – did the job against Kings.MS Dhoni plundered 16 runs off the last four deliveries to finish the chase against Mumbai Indians•BCCIMumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings: DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai: 20th over

Super Kings required 17 to win from the final over with four wickets in hand. Dwaine Pretorius had taken two key boundaries off Jasprit Bumrah’s 19th over. MS Dhoni was batting on 12 off nine balls, but importantly, he boasted of a strike rate above 230 against Jaydev Unadkat, who was to bowl the final over. All this combined to give CSK a 22.27% chance of victory.With Unadkat trapping Pretorius lbw first ball, and the incoming Dwayne Bravo taking a single, the Forecaster fell below 7% for the defending champions. Enter Dhoni with 16 to get off four balls. First a six and four took Super Kings’ chances up to 20.47%; it then slipped to 15.69 with four needed off the final ball, but the ultimate finisher finished things off.ESPNcricinfo LtdPunjab Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai: 18th over
Kings’ win probability at the start of the over: 22.17%

Maheesh Theekshana and Bravo’s exceptional performances had made Super Kings favourites going into the last three overs. With Titans still 48 away and not much batting to follow, the scales were clearly tilted in favour of Super Kings.That is when Rashid Khan, the stand-in captain for the day, took apart Chris Jordan with 6, 6, 4 and 6 off the first four balls of the 18th over. The over fetched 25 and flipped the game around. Titans now had a just-over 56% chance of going over the line, but there were yet more ebbs and flows – Bravo bowled a brilliant 19th, and Jordan began the final over with two dots to take the equation to 13 off four, with the Forecaster having Titans at 17.05% at this stage. But nerveless Miller sealed the chase with one ball remaining.Evin Lewis and Ayush Badoni smacked 25 off Shivam Dube, as Lucknow Super Giants ended as winners•BCCIDelhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai: 18th over

Capitals mounted an impressive recovery in their season-opener: they were 113 for 6 after 14 overs in reply to Mumbai’s 177, and needed 56 to win from the last five overs with Lalit Yadav and Axar Patel in the middle. That is when the seventh-wicket pair took 28 runs from the next two overs, as Capitals’ chances climbed from 13.40% to 54.58% with three overs left.But Mumbai’s half-chance was quashed in the 18th over, where both Lalit and Axar feasted on Daniel Sams. They combined to pick 24 off him, as Lalit hit 6 and 4, while Axar cracked two sixes, thus leaving Capitals with just four to get off 12 balls. Eventually, the job was done when Axar clipped Bumrah with ten balls left.Lucknow Super Giants vs Chennai Super Kings: Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai: 19th over

Chasing 211, Super Giants were still 34 adrift of the target with just two overs to go. But by then, Super Kings had bowled out Bravo and Pretorius, and had a tricky decision to make: risk one of the spinners bowling with a wet ball due to the dew present, or try and find some other alternative. Still, given the steep asking rate, the Forecaster had Super Kings as 92.14% favourites.The alternative they found was Shivam Dube, who hadn’t bowled on the day yet.His first ball saw Ayush Badoni get down on one knee and pummel one over square leg for six. Two consecutive wides gave further hope to Super Giants, and Evin Lewis belted 4, 4, 6 off the last three balls to make it a 25-run over. With only nine runs left to get it in the final over, Badoni hit a six after two further wides, as he and Lewis took them over the line with three balls to spare.

He’s no Shoaib Akhtar but one had to watch him close to notice how good he was, and his very few magic balls

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Mar-2022Did you watch Suranga Lakmal bowl? No, really. Did you watch him closely? It’s ok. It’s human. Be honest. If anyone wouldn’t really mind, it’s Lakmal.Our man captained five Tests for Sri Lanka. In the third of these, he did not bowl at all in the first innings. In the second innings, he sent down just two overs.Related

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• Lakmal signs for Derbyshire after announcing international retirement

Why? Because he is who he is, and felt largely surplus to requirement. In this 2018 series, South Africa had surrendered en masse to Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera in the first Test. They were nosediving spectacularly again on a bone-dry SSC pitch, until, inside 35 overs, they were all out for 124, three spinners having bowled right through the innings. Lakmal’s two overs in the second dig were mainly to give the spinners a break.That’s Lakmal concentrate. Rational. Ego-free. Almost invisible. Bring a great ball of his to mind? Yeah, neither can I. Great bowling performances, though, there’s the thing. You don’t have to bowl magic balls to bowl a good spell. And that is where Lakmal lived. Draw a venn diagram. The space common to “bowls line and length”, “swings it a bit”, “seams a little”. Colour that segment in. That’s Lakmal territory.Perhaps, you’ll look at that Test average of 36.38, and think he was just a plodder. If you were being unkind, you’d say he one. Long of hair, longer of face, a gangly tumbling of over-long limbs – he’s no Shoaib Akhtar. He’s not even on that spectrum. He never tried to be. A gentle away-seamer, a smirk when the batter misses it. A turning of the heel, returning to his crease, a doing of all of the above again. You had to watch him to notice how good he was. Otherwise, he was almost invisible.Almost invisible to the Sri Lanka public, because his bowling only really got to really fly overseas, where Sri Lanka generally lost. A 5 for 63 in Port Elizabeth, 5 for 54 in Christchurch, 3 for 25 in Bridgetown, 4 for 39 in Port Elizabeth again, 5 for 47 in North Sound. Since 2016, he’s averaged 28.74 away from home.In that 2019 series that Sri Lanka won in South Africa, which perhaps should go down as their greatest Test triumph ever, there he was, averaging 25.5, keeping a lid on the opposition scoring while the younger bowlers hunted (successfully) for wickets around him. Not a man for the glory spells. The hard ones. In Galle, when nothing was happening, and there was a mild hope the ball would reverse. At the SSC, when the batters have started sweeping well, and the runs are flowing too quickly, and you need a guy to bring the rate down again, even if there’s no real chance of a wicket.When all you want is for balance to be restored, which for Sri Lanka, is a lot of the time in overseas Tests, it is where he shines. Those are the Lakmal overs.He probably would have got more overs if other fast bowlers had stayed with him. Sri Lanka would have prepared some slightly seamer-friendly tracks, if they had a seam attack, instead of a lone, reliable seamer. What could have he been if Nuwan Pradeep didn’t injure his hamstrings that often, or Shaminda Eranga didn’t have a kink in his elbow, or Dhammika Prasad’s shoulder hadn’t fallen apart, or even if Lahiru Kumara had delivered on his early promise?Instead, what Lakmal got at home were intensively spin-friendly pitches, on which he, and most others who bowled at more than 110kph, were sometimes redundant. In some ways, it is typical that Lakmal is right at the centre of an intentional erasure of seam bowling in Sri Lanka’s home Tests.He may get a fair showing from the pink ball, though. Across the two day-night Tests Sri Lanka have played, the first in Barbados, the second in Dubai, Lakmal averages 19.13, playing a significant role in winning both matches.At 35, he’s choosing to look after his financial future, moving to Derbyshire, instead of staying with the Sri Lanka national side, who pay him less than $60,000 a year, not including match fees. Here, for the first time, he appears to be acting in (understandable) self-interest.But in this last Test that he will play – against India – however, remote Sri Lanka’s possibility of pulling off an upset, we should do something most of us don’t really do with Lakmal. Watch him. Watch him close. There are very few magic balls. Only good spells. We can meet him there. He deserves that much.

Pakistan snap 16-match winless streak across all formats against Australia

Sampath Bandarupalli31-Mar-2022349 – Target chased by Pakistan in Lahore, their highest successful chase in ODI cricket. The previous highest was 327 against Bangladesh in 2014. Pakistan had scored more runs in an ODI chase only once – 361 for 7 against England in 2019 while chasing 374.Getty Images10 – Pakistan’s 349-run chase was the tenth-highest successful chase in ODI cricket – incidentally, five of these have come against Australia. It was the first instance of Pakistan chasing down a 300-plus target against Australia. Pakistan also recorded their highest ODI total against Australia.10 – Consecutive ODI defeats for Pakistan against Australia before their six-wicket win in Lahore. Pakistan’s last win against Australia came in January 2017 in Melbourne. Pakistan’s latest win also put an end to their 16-match winless streak since the start of 2019 across all formats against Australia.15 – Number of centuries for Babar Azam in ODI cricket, the joint-second most for Pakistan in this format. Saeed Anwar leads the list with 20 tons while Mohammad Yousuf also had 15 ODI hundreds. Babar has scored five centuries in ODI chases, the second most for Pakistan behind Anwar’s ten.ESPNcricinfo Ltd83 – Innings Babar has played for his 15 ODI centuries. He is the fastest player to get to 15 hundreds in ODI cricket. Hashim Amla was the previous fastest to 15 ODI tons in terms of innings, scoring his 15th century in his 86th innings.4 – ODI hundreds as captain for Babar, from only 11 innings. These are the most ODI hundreds for a Pakistan captain, surpassing Azhar Ali’s tally of three. Three of the four tons by Babar as captain have come while chasing a target.2 – Number of instances of two century stands for Pakistan for the first two wickets in an ODI, including today’s game. Pakistan last had 100-plus stands for their first two wickets in the 2019 Nottingham ODI against England.2 – Previous instances of two Pakistan batters scoring a hundred in the same successful ODI chase. Before Babar and Imam today, Naved Latif and Inzamam-ul-Haq scored hundreds during a successful 273-run chase against Sri Lanka in 2001. Abid Ali and Mohammad Rizwan also scored tons against Australia in 2019, but in a losing cause.697 – Runs between Pakistan and Australia in Lahore on Thursday. This is the second-highest aggregate in an ODI hosted by Pakistan. The highest is 709 runs between Pakistan and Zimbabwe in 2015 in Lahore.7.50 – Economy rate of spin bowlers in Lahore on Thursday across the 42 overs they bowled. This is the second-worst bowling economy for spinners in an ODI match (min: 250 balls bowled). The worst is 7.65 during the 2005 ODI between India and Pakistan in Visakhapatnam.