All posts by h716a5.icu

Masood makes big gains on County Championship run-getters’ chart

Danyal Rasool16-May-2022Division OneHaris RaufRauf endured a tough few days with the ball this round, but then again, which Yorkshire bowler didn’t? Keaton Jennings, who scored 238, and Steven Croft (104) piled on a 237-run third wicket stand for Lancashire until the Pakistani pacer broke through Croft’s defences, but that was the only fleeting moment of joy Rauf experienced as Lancashire put on 566 in the first innings. Yorkshire only just hung on for a draw, and like their premier fast bowler, will likely be happy to put this round behind them and move on to the next.Related

Pakistanis in the County Championship: Abbas runs through Gloucestershire, Azhar scraps his way into form

Division TwoAzhar AliPerhaps Azhar really has turned a corner in the Championship. After 92 in the second innings last time around, Azhar followed up with a pair of half-centuries against Derbyshire, his 88 and 60 making him the contest’s second-highest scorer, one run behind Jack Haynes. It included a 177-run first innings third wicket stand with Haynes as Worcestershire scored 368 against Derbyshire. With Derbyshire following up with a mammoth 565, Azhar would, alongside Jake Libby, assuage any concerns of an ensuing collapse, combining for a 164-run second wicket partnership this time.Shan MasoodThat Derbyshire needed to bat only once against Worcestershire, was courtesy the 113 that Masood made. After Derbyshire didn’t play the previous round, Masood made up for lost time with his third hundred in four matches, his century setting his side on their way to the mammoth 565. It takes the Pakistan opener back to the top of the run charts for this season, leapfrogging Sean Dickson and Cheteshwar Pujara, with 826 at an average of 118.

Superlative fielding efforts, stunning shots and special hat-tricks find a place in our shortlist

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2022

They are far from perfect, but have put together a solid body of work over the past few seasons

Himanshu Agrawal15-Feb-2023Bengal have a shot at Ranji Trophy glory nearly 34 years after they last won it, and have in their ranks two players – Manoj Tiwary and Anustup Majumdar – who might be getting a shot at the biggest prize in Indian domestic cricket for the last time.For a while now, the two have been the team’s go-to men, not just as senior players but also as friends and mentors to the younger players trying to make a name for themselves. Among them, Abhimanyu Easwaran is a star in the line-up, and is even at the doorstep of the national team. There is a core of regular first-XI players. While others, like Sudip Kumar Gharami, Karan Lal, Abishek Porel, Kazi Saifi and Koushik Ghosh are working their way up. All playing their part in a period of transition for the team.”I just want someone to grab that [second] opening slot and support Abhimanyu,” Tiwary, the Bengal captain, told ESPNcricinfo ahead of the final against Saurashtra starting Thursday. “But, despite that, I believe that the reserve players in Bengal are good enough to be a part of the XI.”Anustup Majumdar is ‘the backbone of the side’Bengal have tried as many as six opening pairs this season with Abhimanyu, after returning from India A duty, the only constant. Majumdar, as he did during their inspired run to the final in 2019-20, has been the glue that has held the batting together. He’s the team’s crisis man who has made “tough runs” time and again, like he did in the semi-final last week, in making 120 and 80 to oust defending champions Madhya Pradesh.”People don’t talk about Anustup, what a hero he is,” Arun Lal, former coach and member of the last Ranji-winning side, said. “He is the backbone of the side. I get worried when he gets out.”Arun Lal on Anustup Majumdar: “I get worried when he gets out”•Cricket Association of BengalArun’s worries stem from the fact that the younger batters have often failed to make the most of their opportunities. But there’s hope. Gharami, who debuted during the 2019-20 final, averages nearly 43 in first-class cricket across 28 innings with four hundreds. Three of those have come this season, including one in the semi-final.”Sudip will be a sensation,” Arun said. “He is young and hungry, and will be a big name in the next ten years.”Tiwary as also optimistic about Abishek Porel, the wicketkeeper, who has become a regular member of the side following the departure of Wriddhiman Saha and Shreevats Goswami to Tripura and Mizoram respectively. Last year, Abishek was part of India’s Under-19 World Cup-winning squad. While the transition to first-class cricket hasn’t been the smoothest for him, there has been plenty of promise with both bat and gloves.”Abishek is a very aggressive player,” Tiwary said. “And look at some of his catches this season; they show the hard work he has put in.”Fast bowlers are making the difference for BengalSince Ashok Dinda’s departure following a tiff with the coaching staff in 2019-20, Bengal have relied on a youngish pace attack to carry them forward. And each of them, Mukesh Kumar, Ishan Porel and Akash Deep, have delivered stunning returns, with plenty of support from spin-bowling allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed.Related

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Across the last three Ranji seasons, the 258 wickets the Bengal quicks have picked up is the best for any team. This Ranji season, the 348 for 4 Himachal Pradesh scored against them in a drawn game is the most they have conceded in an innings. Uttarakhand’s 272, in another draw, is the second highest.These performances have resulted in a national call-up for Mukesh, while Akash Deep and Ishan Porel have been knocking on the doors of India A. Shahbaz, meanwhile, made his India debut in the shorter formats late last year.”Currently they are the best bowling side in the country by far,” Arun Lal said. “There’s no respite [against them]. Akash has been a revelation: he won’t bowl every ball at 140kph, but his line and length stands out.”This season, Akash Deep has picked up 37 wickets at 20, including three five-wicket innings hauls and a ten-wicket match haul. That consists of a 4 for 62 in the quarter-final, and 5 for 42 in the semi-final. Mukesh has pocketed 18 wickets in only four games, while Ishan Porel, too, has had his moments, beginning with a five-for against Uttar Pradesh.Akash Deep has picked up 37 wickets this season, including three five-wicket innings hauls and a ten-wicket match haul•Cricket Association of BengalShahbaz’s contribution hasn’t been limited to just the ball. While his 20 wickets have cost only 27.80 apiece, he has scored 339 runs at 48, including 81 in the quarter-final. Since the 2019-20 season, Shahbaz is one of only two players to have scored at least 1000 runs and taken 50 wickets in the Ranji Trophy.”We’ve got a champion in Shahbaz,” Arun Lal said. “He provides solid depth from No. 6 or 7. The era has changed. Now you need an allrounder to get you a hundred. That is where the difference really arrives.”In a further positive for Bengal, the oldest of the quartet of bowlers are Mukesh and Shahbaz, both 29. Safe to say then that Bengal’s bowling is in great hands at least in the medium term.’Everybody will have to chase Bengal cricket’Two months back, Tiwary had hinted that this season could be his last. With Abhimanyu away on national duty, he accepted captaincy again and has nurtured a young group of players, placing a lot of emphasis on team spirit and camaraderie, which hasn’t been Bengal’s strongest suit in the past. Having spent considerable time with them in a high-performance environment, Tiwary liked what he’s seen and was optimistic of the future.”The youngsters have established themselves,” he said. “The pace bowlers have been so good that with all due respect to Dinda, I haven’t really missed him as captain. Obviously Wriddhi was experienced and consistent, but Abishek has shown promise Today’s youngsters represent India A quite often, and also get to play in the IPL. hat has helped them develop outstanding work ethic. Those things give you dividends.”Come Thursday, all of them will take the field with one common dream: to recreate there magic of 1989-90. Even if that doesn’t happen, Arun Lal suggested that it was only a matter of time. “In the next five years, this mature group of younger players will help Bengal win the Ranji at least twice,” he predicted. “Everybody will have to chase Bengal cricket.”

South Africa’s new T20I captain begins his long-awaited tenure with a three-match series against West Indies

Firdose Moonda24-Mar-2023It has been more than nine years since Aiden Markram captained South Africa’s Under-19 side to victory at the World Cup, and more than five since he led the senior side in five of the six ODIs they played in a marathon series against India. Those were tasters of what seemed to be Markram’s birthright as skipper of South Africa’s men’s national team, and they gave him opposite experiences of what the role would ultimately entail.His U-19 experience was successful and fun. “Everyone just wanted to play and you just had to make sure the team was getting on and guys understood their roles and that was pretty much as simple as it was,” Markram said at a press conference on the eve of the first T20I against West Indies.The ODI experience was chastening, for both the team and for him. South Africa lost the series 5-1. Markram’s top-score was 32. He was dropped from the side shortly after and was bitterly disappointed with how things had gone because he expected much more from himself. “I was quite fresh back at that young age, I was quite hard on myself,” he said. “I always wanted to do well and we know that in sport, it doesn’t always work out that way.”Related

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In between that, Markram was led by Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma and Dean Elgar at national level; by Sam Northeast at Hampshire and by Kane Williamson and KL Rahul at the IPL. Of those, du Plessis made the biggest impression. “How Faf managed to marshal his troops was something I really looked up to and something I strive to become. I’ve learnt a lot from him – probably without him knowing – just observing from the side,” Markram said. “The years of being in this environment has helped. We’ve had some great leaders around, so to sponge information off them and see how they operate has also shaped the way I am starting to think as well.”Now, after cutting the last of his teeth at Sunrisers Eastern Cape, the team he led to the inaugural SA20 title, Markram is finally, really ready to fulfil what many thought was his destiny. He has been named South Africa’s new, permanent T20I captain and begins his tenure with a three-match series against West Indies this weekend.As far as challenges go, although playing the former world champions always asks questions of a team, there is not much in the way of consequence for Markram’s inaugural outing. It’s not a T20 World Cup year, so the squad does not need to stack up a string of good results for anything other than pride and putting in place a few foundation stones for his tenure. Still there is excitement in the air. “West Indies are a great team to be able to test our skills against, see where we are with regards to our T20 side,” Markram said.

“You have to try to take performances and outcomes out of things and focus on the things that give you the best chance to succeed on the day, whether it works or not”Aiden Markram

South Africa have already had their high this year. Their franchise T20 tournament was played to mostly sold-out crowds, and even better than that, their women’s team made it to the T20 World Cup final. “We are almost seeing it as them setting the standard, and it’s something for us to chase,” Markram said. “They’ve inspired us to try and get there as well.”But there’s no expectation on the men’s team to reach those heights anytime soon. South Africa aren’t yet sure of a place in the 2023 ODI World Cup. Their set up, led by white-ball coach Rob Walter, are focused on 2027. By then, Markram will be 32 and there is a strong chance he will be captaining his team in a home World Cup.Before getting there, he will first need to accumulate a wealth of knowledge and maybe take some of his own advice as well. “You have to learn to take things in your stride,” Markram said. “You have to try to take performances and outcomes out of things and focus on the things that give you the best chance to succeed on the day, whether it works or not. Those things have helped me so far.”

Siddle also attributes the development of T20 cricket to lower-order batters moving away from the “basics of hanging in there”

Alex Malcolm13-Jun-2023When Peter Siddle walked out to bat at Edgbaston in 2019, he had some prescient words ringing in his ears from none other than Steve Waugh.Australia were perilously placed at 122 for 8 on the opening day of the Ashes series on the brink of a disastrous loss from which there may have been no return. Siddle joined Steven Smith, who was unbeaten on 42, begging for someone to stay with him.Waugh, who had been brought in as a consultant for the tour by then coach Justin Langer, had had a quiet word to the bowlers the previous day.Related

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“He spoke to all the bowlers, not so much about what we can do with our bowling, but how valuable we can be with contributions with the bat throughout the series,” Siddle told ESPNcricinfo. “And that was literally the day before that first Test.”He spoke about hanging out there, especially if there’s a batter there, just hanging with him and ticking the runs over, rotating the strike.”Waugh’s chat had also come hot on the heels of a similar speech from then-Australia assistant coach Brad Haddin, who had pulled all the bowlers aside at the now infamous cut-throat pre-tour intra-squad match at Southampton and told them that there would be a huge focus on their batting at training on the tour because lower-order contributions would be vital.”Hads [Haddin] has always been a big one on that, obviously with him being a keeper batting at seven through his career, a lot of his batting tended to be with the lower order,” Siddle said.”It’s always been a big emphasis for him to have those batters around him. So there’s always a strong focus and he was one of the coaches that would be willing to stay around and keep working with you to get that extra hit in knowing how important it was to him when he played, but how important it was just in general for the team to push that total up a little bit more.”The speeches and the added batting work paid dividends immediately. Siddle, not for the first time in his 11-year Test career, contributed a vital 85-ball 44 in an 88-run stand with Smith. Nathan Lyon then batted for another hour at No. 11, helping Smith race past his century and add 74 for the final wicket to help Australia post 284 after winning the toss.They would still concede a first-innings lead, but it was only 90, before Smith and Matthew Wade made second-innings hundreds and James Pattinson smashed an unbeaten 47 at No. 8 to help set up a victory that would put them on course to retain the Ashes.Mitchell Starc would also make an unbeaten 54 at No. 9 in Australia’s only other win of the series at Old Trafford, sharing a 51-run stand with Smith who made 211, and adding 59 more with Lyon to help Australia post a match-winning total of 497 for 8 declared.Fast forward nearly four years and Starc’s 41 in the World Test Championship final at the Oval on Sunday was just the second 40-plus score by an Australian bowler in a Test match since his half-century at Old Trafford. Australia’s Nos. 8-11 have contributed just four 40-plus scores in four years, with two of them belonging to Alex Carey when he twice slid to No.8 after the use of a nightwatcher. The only other 40-plus score by a bowler came from Todd Murphy in Ahmedabad this year.Only Ireland and Afghanistan’s tails have made fewer 40-plus contributions in that time, having played just four and three Test matches, respectively.In the 2021-22 Ashes, Starc did make four important scores of 35, 39 not out, 24 not out and 34 not out in the first four Tests. But aside from that, it has been slim pickings. And the lack of contribution from Australia’s tail compared to their opponents has been a decisive factor in the only five losses Australia have suffered in that time, four of which came at the hands of India who possess the strongest batting tail in the world.Australia’s bowlers did face the challenge of barely being required to bat in the last home summer against West Indies and South Africa to being asked to score runs in the most extreme of conditions in India, which also exposed their specialist batters.Pat Cummins averages 11.71 with the bat in Tests since January 2019•Associated PressBut the gradual decline of the batting contributions of Australia’s main four bowlers is cause for concern and has been noted within the Australian camp. Just like in 2019, there was an emphasis put on Australia’s bowlers getting plenty of batting work in at the pre-departure camp in Brisbane with Starc’s return at the Oval an early dividend.But the question remains why the extra batting work isn’t a constant. It is one of the challenges in the modern era, where the management of bowlers’ training loads has become a top priority to the point where they do have full rest days from optional sessions, whereas some of Australia’s premier batters in Smith and Marnus Labuschagne will almost always bat on those optional days.The opposite is true for Australia’s batters with their bowling. Smith and Labuschagne both began their Test careers as better-than-part-time legspinners capable of making breakthroughs and holding an end to ease the burden on the frontline bowlers. But both have focussed so heavily on their batting that their legspin has fallen by the wayside, to the point where both have been bowling part-time offspin in first-class cricket recently. The only difference is that batters do not have to bowl in Test matches, but bowlers always have to bat.”It is tough,” Siddle said. “At the end of the day, we are bowlers, we’ve got to be ready and prepared as well as we can to do our first job which is to bowl and take wickets in that Test match, so it always does take precedence getting that work done.”Most bowlers really love batting. That’s probably the most fun part of the game that we have in Test matches. Everything else is hard work.”But it does take up a lot of time and I think if you’re batting at the end of a training session, you’re tired, you’ve been there for a few hours, the motivation can be low.”But it’s definitely something that I’ve noticed a lot more that tail-enders, lower-order batters do a hell of a lot more batting and there’s a lot more time and effort put into it than when I first started playing.”One thing Australian coaches have found difficult is allocating time and resources to improving the bowlers’ batting. Batters are facing more balls than ever in the nets leaving the coaches who throw balls exhausted by the time the bowlers are ready to bat.It was noticeable at times during Australia’s recent tour of India how often bowlers were left to bat unsupervised against net bowlers when they arguably need more specialised coaching, more volume, and a greater focus on batting fundamentals if they are going to survive and contribute to key partnerships in games. That is where Siddle thinks some lateral thinking and personal responsibility need to kick in.”Definitely, that’s probably the biggest issue,” Siddle said. “The batters do take up a lot of time and coaches get tired.”I think it’s just finding the right moments to get that extra work in. Sometimes, it’s not at the end of sessions because the fatigue on everyone is so great because the session has been long.”I think it’s about getting the opportunities and sometimes the best ones were during Test matches. Once the batting innings starts, if the facilities are available, getting out to the nets with the batting coach during the game…I think sometimes they were some of the best sessions that I had. You can get out and focus a bit better, knowing that you’re going to bat at some stage either that day or the next. That last little top-up session was very valuable.”One other major challenge facing bowlers globally, and Australia’s bowlers in particular, is the development of T20 batting. Bowlers who are multiformat players, as all three of Australia’s main quicks are, can add millions to their T20 franchise value if they can power-hit.

“Most bowlers really love batting. That’s probably the most fun part of the game that we have in Test matches. Everything else is hard work. “Peter Siddle

In January 2019 Pat Cummins was averaging 21.12 in Test cricket having just made his second half-century against India. He was also facing an average of 45 balls per Test innings, which was part of the reason he was elevated in front of Starc in the order 12 months earlier, with Starc facing an average of just 26 balls per Test innings for 21.44 runs per dismissal, even though Starc had seven more half-centuries including a Test 99.At the same time, Cummins wasn’t a regular in Australia’s T20 side and was averaging 14.09 in T20 cricket with the bat, striking at just 124.A greater emphasis on honing his power-hitting skills since that point has seen Cummins average 21.05 in his last 59 T20 innings, striking at 152.67 with three half-centuries, helping his IPL auction price go through the roof.Over the same period, Cummins has not passed 40 once in 40 Test innings and has averaged just 11.71. He has now moved back behind Starc in the order.”The format changes have brought this dilemma for batters in general but more so probably tail-enders and I think the new generation of player tends to be more of a power-hitter in the way they play anyway,” Siddle said.”Obviously, Pat and Mitch are players that have developed their game around both different formats.”The new generation, they’re learning how to be power-hitters first. As the years go by and there’s more T20 cricket played, the lower-order players want to be able to whack the ball and clear the ropes and they’re going away a little bit from the basics of hanging in there, having a good solid defence, keeping everything tight and valuing your wicket.”

Following in the wake of an enthralling Ashes, can the much-maligned competition seize its moment?

Matt Roller01-Aug-2023Twenty hours and 34 minutes after Alex Carey edged Stuart Broad to Jonny Bairstow, and 110 miles north, Smriti Mandhana pushed Alexa Stonehouse down the ground to kick the third season of the Hundred into gear.There was not a spare seat at the Kia Oval on Monday evening, but Trent Bridge was only half-full when the official attendance of 8,821 was counted, midway through the run chase of the women’s game. A one-sided away win made for a subdued start to the season.The ground filled up after working hours, with many fans kitted out in Trent Rockets yellow; the eventual 12,402 crowd roared in celebration as Daniel Sams had Tymal Mills lbw on review, pinning him on the boot with seven required off the last two balls. This was the tight finish that the tournament needed.Related

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Like it or loathe it, the Hundred is back. The competition’s past, present and future have been discussed incessantly since long before its inception and the debate will rage on over the next four-and-a-half weeks. The last-minute withdrawal of Rashid Khan, the competition’s highest-profile overseas player, has heightened its existential crisis.Rashid pulled out on Monday afternoon, citing an unspecified injury. “It’s obviously disappointing not to have him but we’ve not had him too much anyway,” Lewis Gregory, Rockets’ captain, sighed at the toss. “I think he was only around for two games last year.”His replacement, Imad Wasim, and Southern Brave’s Tim David both arrived on the morning of the game, having played against one another in the final of Major League Cricket (MLC) in Dallas on Sunday night. “Nice to be here in Blighty,” David said on the player mic, after Alex Hales drilled one past him at cover. “It’s a little bit overcast, isn’t it?”All six overseas players involved in the opening men’s game flew in from North America: Finn Allen, Devon Conway and Sams were at MLC with Imad and David, while Colin Munro squeezed in a jaunt at the Global T20 Canada after the end of the Blast. Hales was among his opponents in Canada; Mills returned from the Zim Afro T10 on Saturday morning.The late arrivals and short preparation period have underlined the sense that for most players, the Hundred is just another stop on the gravy train – a stop that is no longer as competitive financially as it used to be, with MLC offering them more money for less work.For the domestic players that underpin the tournament, that is not the case. Sam Hain, who top-scored for Rockets on Tuesday night, has spent a decade churning out county runs without convincing England’s selectors that he is worth a punt in any format. Spending a season on the bench with first Manchester Originals, then Welsh Fire, did little to twist their arm.”I’ve not had a lot of exposure in 100-ball cricket,” Hain said. “I’m still trying to get the feel and rhythm of it. I get nervous before every game, but I think nerves are good. It means you care. This is the best cricketers in the country, all going toe-to-toe.”Sam Hain caught the eye with a half-century•ECB via Getty ImagesThe Hundred offers him the stage that the Blast – where only a fraction of the 133 matches are televised – does not, and his innovative innings of 63 off 39 balls not only rescued the defending champions from 54 for 5, but will have piqued the interest of ECB scouts and England’s white-ball management.And in the women’s competition, there are newly-professional cricketers pinching themselves. Mary Taylor, an 18-year-old seamer, took 3 for 18 on Brave debut, having only previously played regional cricket. “The crowds are hugely different,” she said. “I love the noise and the crowd: it gets me buzzing. I’m so happy.”Yet there is still a lingering sense that, as the competition enters its third season, nobody quite knows who the Hundred is for. And yet, with no England fixtures – men’s or women’s – scheduled during the competition’s August window, there is also an opportunity for the Hundred to harness what Ben Stokes called “the craze around cricket”.The reality, as Rashid has proved, is that the status quo is not quite good enough. Salaries will have to increase next season, and recruitment refined to encourage teams to sign marquee names. However much the ECB deny it publicly, some form of private investment is inevitable.In 2005, the final day of the Ashes summer took place on September 12; the only cricket left in the English summer was the fag-end of a County Championship season and a couple of rounds of Sunday League games. By the time the 2006 summer started, the game had retreated behind a paywall.This year, dual Ashes series have pricked public consciousness, with record viewing and listening figures on Sky and Test Match Special; the ECB says Hundred ticket sales have surged over the last six weeks. For all the criticism over the men’s Ashes schedule, it was perfectly sandwiched between two football seasons and has dominated newspaper back pages since mid-June.Whatever its merits or drawbacks, a competition featuring regular free-to-air games starting the very next day presents the sport with a rare opportunity to seize its moment.English cricket has been here before, and let similar moments slip. Can the sport afford the Hundred to fail?

The itinerant batter has made a splash in three leagues and thrown his hat in the ring for more – a journey he hopes will lead to an England cap

Matt Roller16-Dec-2023It was the week that laid bare how franchise leagues have changed cricket for good. Monday: open the batting for Sharjah Warriors. Tuesday: fly to Dhaka. Wednesday: debut for Rangpur Riders. Thursday: off. Friday: second game for Rangpur. Saturday: fly to Karachi to link up with Peshawar Zalmi.”It was nice to be wanted,” laughs Tom Kohler-Cadmore, reflecting on the whistle-stop tour of South Asia that saw him represent three different teams in four matches across nine days last February. “Ideally you’d be part of a team the whole way through a tournament: in Bangladesh, I met everyone and then went, ‘Oh, bye, I’m off again.'”I just love playing cricket,” he says over a Zoom call from Abu Dhabi, the first stop on another winter overseas, which will also take him back to the UAE, Pakistan, and maybe beyond. “If there’s an opportunity to go somewhere and prove what I can do, I want to take it. The experiences you gain from playing in different conditions has helped me round my game.”It means living out of a suitcase and in hotels for much of the year. “Most tournaments are about a month. When you start to get that little bit of fatigue, you look up and you might be two games from the knockouts. Then you move to a new franchise, and there might be guys you already know and you get an energy lift… it goes by pretty quickly.”A generation ago, an uncapped 29-year-old English cricketer would have spent the off season hoping for a spot on an England A tour, or failing that, playing grade cricket in Australia. A generation before that, county contracts tended to span the six summer months: winters meant finding some form of alternative employment.”Before, you’d go and try to score a load of runs in grade cricket, or rock up in March for pre-season and hope it goes well,” Kohler-Cadmore says. “When I started, you’d be lucky to have two good overseas players sign for your county that you could learn from. It’s making me a better cricketer – and it’s an opportunity most people would die for.”He has spent the last three weeks sharing a dressing room with Andre Russell and Trent Boult, and opening the batting alongside Nicholas Pooran in the Abu Dhabi T10. “You seem to pick up little snippets in every competition you play in. You’re constantly evolving, understanding different viewpoints and adding things to your own game.”Kohler-Cadmore’s franchise, Deccan Gladiators, missed out on a third consecutive title with defeat in Sunday’s final, but he was the leading run-scorer, with over 100 runs more than his nearest competitor. Only Pooran has been more prolific in the tournament’s nascent history.Kohler-Cadmore (right) moved to Somerset from Yorkshire in 2023, where he won the T20 Blast title in his first season•Getty ImagesSeven years into its existence, T10 remains a fringe format. Most games are played to a backdrop of empty seats at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in the Abu Dhabi desert, the relationships between teams and the geographical locators in their names are tenuous, and it is difficult to pin down the market that the tournament is serving.But cricketers look forward to playing in it – and not exclusively for the pay packet. “It almost feels like you’re playing cricket as a child again: you’re just going out there and you’re just trying to hit the ball as hard and as far as you can,” Kohler-Cadmore says. “Last year I definitely took it into my T20 game. It is just that clear mind which gives you so much confidence.”I’d had a couple of T10 seasons where I’d done well and thought, ‘Hang on a minute, I’m averaging 30 and striking at over 200. Why don’t I just do that?’ It’s benefited me in other formats. When I walk out to bat, I try to simplify everything, go to my strengths and react to the ball. It clears your mind a little bit.”Batting with Pooran has informed that simplicity. “The rest of the West Indies power-hitters are all six-plus feet and hit the ball miles. Nicky’s not as stacked but his swing is the purest I’ve seen. If you bowl near his hip, it’s six over square leg; if you bowl outside off, he whacks you over extra cover; if you’re a bit short, he carves you over point.”The itinerant nature of Kohler-Cadmore’s winters – he hopes that the next few weeks might bring a replacement deal in the Big Bash, and has put himself forward for Tuesday’s IPL auction – stands in stark contrast to his new life in Somerset. He moved southwest last winter after leaving Yorkshire, and won the T20 Blast in his first full season with the club.”Taunton is quiet at the best of times, but it’s lovely down there and the boys make it a really special place. You spend so much time together that they become your best mates, not just work colleagues. Ever since I was at Worcestershire, Finals Day was such a big thing… winning the Blast was definitely the highlight of my career so far.”England have noticed Kohler-Cadmore’s form – both at home and overseas – and he was a late call-up to the second-string ODI squad that faced Ireland in September, though he remains uncapped. “It’s my dream to play for England,” he says. “I’ll do anything I can to keep trying to push my case.”At 29, he would be relatively old by the standards of most international debutants. “You want to be ready to perform. Instead of being a young, talented player but not really sure of everything, I’m in a good place that if I did get a call, I’d be ready to go and actually make an impact straight away; I would fully expect myself to be a match-winner.”

Williamson’s diabolical run-out and Southee’s drop on the last ball of the day summed up New Zealand’s mental block against Australia in Test cricket

Alex Malcolm01-Mar-2024Kane Williamson is normally unflappable. His team-mates describe him as a “miniature Buddha”. Always calm. Always present. Never fazed.The sight of Williamson looking stunned, shaking his head, not knowing where to look after a calamitous run-out where he collided with his batting partner Will Young, was the perfect metaphor for the Black Caps’ woes against Australia.It has reached the point where Australia’s Rugby team, the Wallabies, who have an equally woeful record against New Zealand’s All Blacks, should consider walking out for their next Bledisloe Cup match at Eden Park in whites and Baggy Green caps, such is mental stranglehold Australia’s cricketers have over New Zealand.After letting Australia wriggle off the hook at 89 for 4, 211 for 7 and 269 for 9 to concede 383 after winning the toss and electing to bowl on a surface that offered plenty, New Zealand lost three wickets in six balls to slump to 12 for 3 on their way to being bowled out for 179.Related

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Williamson’s run-out was diabolical. Having walked out after the loss of Tom Latham, the serene mini-Buddha was in a hurry to get off the mark second ball. He pushed a drive towards straight mid-off and made a late decision to take off without calculating the proximity of a prowling Marnus Labuschagne. Young was late to react to Williamson’s call and, as they both watched Labuschagne swoop, slide and release the throw, they collided mid-pitch. Young dropped his bat, Williamson ricocheted into Mitchell Starc, who was an idle bystander, and Labuschagne hit middle from close range as he so often does.Williamson was frazzled. He turned his head to Young as if to find someone or something to blame. But the reality was, even with a clear and direct path to the crease line, the run would have been incredibly tight.As bad as the run-out was, the entire sequence encapsulated the Black Caps’ mental state against Australia.Latham has been an excellent Test opener over a decade-long career averaging over 40 before this Test with 13 centuries. But in 17 Test innings against Australia, his average drops to 25.29 with a highest score of just 63. Starc has been his chief tormentor. And it didn’t take much for Starc to remove him for a fifth time in Test cricket. A good-length delivery on a fourth stump line exposed an indecisive mind. Latham wasn’t sure whether to leave or play and dragged a late defensive shot onto his stumps.Five balls later, with Williamson having already come and gone, Rachin Ravindra fell meekly. Ravindra has no mental baggage against Australia. He slaughtered them in a stunning ODI century in Dharamsala last year. He made a Test 240 less than a month ago. But he sliced a square drive in the air straight to Nathan Lyon at point off Josh Hazlewood before he had scored.Glenn Phillips was the best on show on the day for New Zealand•Getty ImagesTwelve for 3 became 29 for 5 when two more Black Caps with no mental baggage against Australia succumbed. Daryl Mitchell was tested endlessly on the front foot by Starc, Hazlewood and Pat Cummins as Australia’s trio of quicks bowled much fuller than their New Zealand counterparts had. Mitchell tried to walk down the track at them to mix up their lengths, as he does in white-ball cricket and as Cameron Green had done with great success in his epic 174 not out. But he was beaten time and again. Finally, Cummins pitched short and Mitchell nailed a pull shot for four. Cummins sent square leg back. The next ball was a double bluff. Good length again, nipping away, Mitchell prodded and edged and was on his way.First ball next over, Mitchell Marsh burgled another with Young tickling a leg glance into Alex Carey’s gloves.”Here we go again” was the murmur among the Wellington crowd. There’s a reason New Zealand haven’t won a home Test against Australia in 31 years and none anywhere in nearly 13. The calm, controlled and consistent cricket they play against other nations seems to disappear in the Tasman winds whenever their neighbours arrive from across the ditch.It was telling that the major fight came from two men who have performed well against Australia.Success does breed success. Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips produced two of the standout batting performances in New Zealand’s 3-0 series defeat in Australia in 2019-20.They showed no fear in an excellent century stand to help New Zealand avoid conceding a larger first-innings deficit. Phillips took on Australia’s full lengths, thumping the quicks repeatedly down the ground. He was particularly savage on Starc and later climbed into Lyon on his way to a blistering 42-ball half-century.The day ended with the latest bungle on New Zealand’s part•Getty ImagesBlundell was organised and compact at the other end, but likewise cashed in on anything loose with positive footwork and great timing. But he was undone by Lyon’s turn and bounce, skipping down to the wrong length and gifting a bat-pad catch to Travis Head.Normal service resumed. Scott Kuggeleijn holed out to deep forward square with a filthy slog off Lyon second ball. The stare from Phillips at his partner as he trudged off was far more venomous than Williamson’s to Young had been earlier.Phillips fell by the sword for 71, holing out to fine leg trying to hook Hazlewood. Matt Henry is the only Black Cap to belie a poor prior record against Australia in this game. He continued to carry New Zealand after his five wickets, contributing a vital 41 off 34 with four sixes. But his side still conceded a 205-run deficit as Lyon wrapped up the tail to finish with four.New Zealand are not out of the game. Tim Southee produced two late strikes to remove Steven Smith and Labuschagne but they were not the dismissals of a bowler in top form. A filthy drag-on and a strangle down leg merely dragged his career bowling average against Australia back to 41.97 and his strike rate back to 74.9 after going wicketless in 27 overs in the first innings.The final moment of the day was an exclamation point on the Black Caps’ day and their woes against Australia. The entire team threw hands on heads as Southee sprawled to the turf at third slip having spilled a sitter off Henry to give Australia’s nightwatcher Lyon a life.Here we go again.

There is excessive seam movement and bounce, batters are getting hit by the ball, and conditions have been anything but standard

Sidharth Monga06-Jun-20242:03

Flower on New York pitch – ‘Bordering on dangerous’

On paper, not much is riding on the India vs Pakistan match early morning this Sunday New York time, which is prime time on a Sunday night in India and Pakistan. The losing team should win its other matches comfortably and go on to the next round. The opponents in the next round are allocated on pre-tournament seeding so it is not that important to top this group either.And yet the success of the first half of an ambitious tournament rides on this match. At their best, India vs Pakistan matches subsidise the more predictable parts of a cricket tournament. They generate revenue that partly ensures expansion of the game. It is a fixture that gives ICC the confidence to play 20 teams in the World Cup of a sport that is notoriously snobbish. The contest gives them the confidence to risk moving it into the US, a country whose time zones are not friendly to existing fans elsewhere and where fandom is restricted to expats.After three matches (including a warm-up game) in the makeshift Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, if the ICC is not nervous about Sunday, it is treating India vs Pakistan like a cheat code that can paper over every other crack. If these matches were being played in an established stadium, it would be close to getting serious sanctions from the ICC.Related

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Excessive seam movement and bounce, which is also excessively variable, have left a massive cloud hanging over the weekend. The ICC rightly prefers standard conditions in limited-overs World Cups. It goes further than the simplistic preference for big hits. Standard conditions allow for execution of most skills that make for an even contest.It is also largely the concept behind T20, the biggest expansion tool for the sport. You want the batters to use their skills to score runs but you don’t want to see them fumbling and ducking and weaving and not be able to score more than 96 batting first in both matches so far.These conditions have been anything but standard. After a couple of wides against Ireland on Wednesday, Arshdeep Singh tried to bowl cross-seam but the ball still kept moving too much. Andy Flower is not exaggerating when he says the pitches are bordering on dangerous. Harry Tector, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant were all hit by the ball because it bounced in a way you don’t expect it to.The drop-in pitches have behaved this way because they are both underprepared and haven’t even had the time to bed in. Usually, when a cricket stadium relays its main square, it plays about 10 to 12 matches of junior cricket then senior domestic cricket before playing international cricket on it. Here, pitch No. 1 was used for the first time when Sri Lanka batted on it, were bowled out for 77 and made South Africa sweat in the chase. The pitch that hosted Ireland’s 96 all out against India was being used only for the second time.There are possible contributing circumstances to the pitches being underprepared. When they were brought in from Australia, New York was cold and rainy and snowy. They had to be taken to Florida to provide them the best chance of getting ready, and were then shipped to New York.1:49

Rapid Fire: Are these ideal conditions for a World Cup game?

Even if there had been great weather in New York and the pitches had been ready, it is unlikely the ICC had budgeted for the bedding-in period. It has been given permission to play only nine matches on it, including the warm-up game. So how did the ICC expect to bed the pitches in even if they had been prepared properly?The stadium was handed over to the ICC practically a day before the India vs Bangladesh warm-up match. India had sent half their side early to the US to prepare properly for the tournament, but forget training at the ground, when captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid tried to take a look at the ground and the pitch, they were turned away because the ground had not yet been handed over. Getting the stadium ready in three months for your biggest match of the year is not the flex the ICC thinks it is.Not much can be done now. India showed their bowling prowess on this pitch, and Pakistan only bring quicker bowlers with higher release points, making it an even bigger challenge for batters. They have tried pitches No. 1 and 4 already. The six pitches at the practice facility at Cantiague Park some 20 minutes from the ground were grown at the same time, and have been just as spicy. So spicy that South Africa’s batters refused to bat there against Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada. Local net bowlers have frequently hit batters because of seam movement and variable bounce.What are the odds then that the remaining two pitches, Nos, 2 and 3, will be any different? For what it’s worth, it is likely they will play Netherlands vs South Africa on one of the two middle pitches followed by India vs Pakistan the next day. So it will not be a completely fresh pitch although we saw in India vs Ireland that a used pitch does not mean a settled pitch.The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium has seen totals of 77 and 96 so far batting first•ICC via Getty ImagesPerhaps two menacing bowling attacks can even out the toss advantage. Perhaps we might see a low-scoring close match. But even if it does produce a low-scoring thriller, it is unlikely the ICC’s commercial partners will be happy with it.It is not just the on-field action that has been less than ideal. It was strange to see empty stands for an India match even if against Ireland. The two stands on the sides were full, but the hospitality stands with a straight view of the action were sparsely populated. There is a good chance the ICC might have priced people out of coming for some of these matches. With some packages going as high as $10,000 for the India-Pakistan match, who knows if Sunday morning will be full.There used to be a joke that if you name two bulls India and Pakistan, people will still watch a fight between them. There’s probably some truth to it, who knows. A shared bloodied history, some yearning among those who were displaced, continuous threat of war throughout their existence, India and Pakistan find a release when they play cricket, a licence to express feelings and emotions they otherwise just can’t: be it anger, pettiness, love, sporting etiquette.The ICC needs to be commended for involving 20 teams in this World Cup. The idea of taking it to a new venue, the capitalist capital of the world, is also a noble one. The execution of the idea, though, makes you wonder if it took the India-Pakistan emotions for granted.