Ashraf and Rizwan discarded the dated and conservative batting strategy that prevailed before their partnership

Danyal Rasool28-Dec-2020If you’re in Pakistan and found yourself needing something to keep you going before the third day of the Test started at 3am local time, you might have tuned in to the late-night English Premier League game. Sit back, watch the Wolves take on Tottenham Hotspur for a couple of hours, switch over to the cricket.What you’d end up watching was a dire, stodgy performance, one dominated by the belief that the avoidance of errors was the central purpose of playing sport. The spectacle be damned, the result in the end is all that mattered. With that philosophy hard-wired into Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho’s mind, his side got an early goal, and sat so far back they might as well have been reclining. They didn’t have a shot on goal for the last 75 minutes of the game, and late on, the Wolves, who had been piling on the pressure, finally broke through and got a 1-1 draw. Social media was ablaze with the fury of Tottenham fans. Turns out if you’re going to play like that, you really better get a result out of it.Fawad Alam scratched together nine runs in 41 deliveries before his dismissal•Getty ImagesBut if you had somehow stayed awake and assumed you had watched your fair share of attritional sport, boy did Pakistan have a treat in store. They had begun the day having tiptoed to 30 off 20 overs, though, you might have excused them that because they could have been trying to see the day out on Sunday. But in bright sunshine under blue skies at the start of day three, Abid Ali and Mohammad Abbas began to see out days three, four and five.If there’s another way to interpret Pakistan’s strategy on Monday, it’ll need someone from Pakistan to spell it out in unredacted detail. Some may argue New Zealand began similarly cautiously, but the comparison is uneven enough to be disingenuous. For one, Kane Williamson’s side was sharp enough to immediately pounce the moment a Pakistan bowler missed their mark; Naseem Shah’s first three overs, delivered after a masterfully disciplined spell from Shaheen Afridi and Abbas, went for 21 runs as Williamson and Ross Taylor realised they had found an outlet to relieve the pressure. It put the onus on Pakistan’s relatively inexperienced bowling attack to maintain what were unsustainably high levels of accuracy, patience and discipline. When those standards invariably began to fall away in the third session, the scoring began to trend upwards.Watch cricket on ESPN+

New Zealand vs Pakistan is available in the US on ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune in to the series

Of course, Pakistan don’t have a batsman in their XI to match the quality of Williamson or Taylor, but if anything, that was even more of a reason the manner Pakistan approached their innings was doomed to fail. Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Kyle Jamieson operating in tandem is possibly the most lethal bowling attack in home conditions around. The first three of those have more wickets than Pakistan’s entire pace contingent currently in New Zealand. In short, batsmen tend not to survive against them for too long.From that singular point of view, Pakistan didn’t do quite as disastrously as the match situation seems to have condemned them to. New Zealand couldn’t burst through the batsmen in quick succession, wickets didn’t fall in clusters. Abid survived over 100 balls, and the shortest stay at the crease was Haris Sohail’s – 22 balls. Even Abbas stuck around for 55 balls. Every batsman got their eye in, all of them managed starts.These, however, are world-class bowlers, an adjective that can’t quite be used to describe most of the batsmen they were bowling to. With Pakistan content to survive with disregard for a scoreboard that simply wasn’t ticking over, New Zealand were equally content to hold their lines and wait for the concentration lapses.Jamieson conceded four runs across the first two sessions in the eleven overs he bowled. He still picked up two wickets; simply shutting up shop doesn’t guarantee you’ll keep this New Zealand attack out. His spell was emblematic of a New Zealand side on cruise control, while Pakistan might have been chugging along in first gear in a bad neighbourhood. Eventually, you end up getting mugged.And thus when the wickets did come, each batsman had spent time out in the middle without making much of an impression on the scoreboard. Pakistan brought up the hundred in the 66th over; this is the slowest a side has reached that milestone in New Zealand since ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data has records for. It is the seventh-slowest by any side anywhere; the half-dozen slower all came in second innings efforts, presumably as sides looked to grind out draws.Mohammad Rizwan picked Pakistan’s run rate along with Faheem Ashraf•AFP via Getty ImagesIt might not have been as damaging a day if the optics weren’t quite so uncomfortable. Pakistan’s head coach Misbah-ul-Haq is about as famous for positive cricket as comic book fans are for weightlifting. And in response to a side as unapologetically forward-thinking as New Zealand, his side – and this side has been his for a while now – retreated into the comfort zone of self-preservation. No batsman wanted to make a mistake, no one fancied being the scapegoat. Ironically, with no one among the players shouldering the blame, the spotlight inevitably shifts upstairs: to Misbah and batting coach Younis Khan themselves.This approach to cricket is barely acceptable, as Tottenham fans will tell you. If a side grinds out wins but away from home, Pakistan have not won a Test match since Misbah took over, and on the evidence of today’s performance with the bat, it doesn’t exactly appear as if there’s an abundance of ideas on how to turn that around. This will be the tenth successive away Test without a victory; the last time Pakistan suffered a drier run on the road came in the 1980s.When Fawad Alam, who had scratched together nine runs in 41 deliveries at the crease, lost his patience and hoicked at one down the leg side that he legitimately should have left alone, Faheem Ashraf strode out to the middle. Pakistan had managed just four boundaries all day until then, and Ashraf felt there was little point to staying out there if he wasn’t going to get a move on. Off his eighth ball, he rocked back and smacked Wagner in front of square for four. Soon after, he hit Jamieson, who had gone for nine in 17 overs, for eight runs in two balls.The New Zealand quick realised he’d have to change things up, and he fed Mohammad Rizwan one that was short and wide. By now, the Pakistan captain had joined in on the act, and slashed him away for four. Two balls later, Jamieson’s frustrations got the better of him, and he collected a drive back from Ashraf and hurled it back at the batsman. Cruise control suddenly wasn’t working anymore. Pakistan doubled their 60-over score in 20 overs, and Rizwan and Ashraf both brought up half-centuries.It might be tempting to let the sugar rush of that seventh-wicket partnership overwhelm Pakistan supporters into believing their plan for the day held some sort of merit. That, however, will be the sleep-deprivation talking. Pakistan might lose this match because of the way they approached it, but lose it slightly less comprehensively because Ashraf and Rizwan recognised that dated, conservative strategy for the trap that it was, and discarded it summarily with the contempt it deserved.

And is India’s use of 20 players across four Tests a record?

Steven Lynch19-Jan-2021Pakistan’s Shan Masood bagged a pair in the second Test against New Zealand, facing 33 balls across both innings. Who holds the record for the most balls faced for a pair? asked Savo Ceprnich from South Africa

The unfortunate Shan Masood sits only joint-tenth on this list for his 33-ball scoreless double in Christchurch two weeks ago: nine others are known to have faced more deliveries while bagging a pair in a Test.Top of the pile is Jimmy Anderson, who faced 61 balls for his pair for England at Headingley in 2014. He faced six balls in the first innings – and 55 in the second, when he was eventually out to the fifth delivery of the final over, to give Sri Lanka victory by 100 runs.Anderson is a dozen balls clear of the next man, Mike Whitney, whose pair on his Test debut for Australia at Old Trafford in 1981 occupied 49 deliveries. Note that ball-by-ball data is not known for many early Tests, so there may be some other contenders.India used 20 players in the four Tests in Australia. Was this some sort of record? asked Mohan Khokan Singh from India

India’s 20 players in this Border-Gavaskar series was a record for an away team in any series – West Indies used 18 in South Africa in 1998-99, as did England in the 2013-14 Ashes. Both of those were five-Test series; the previous record for a four-Test rubber was 17, which had happened three times.It’s obviously easier to call up more players if you are playing at home: the overall record is 30 players, used by England in the home Ashes series of 1921. In the 1989 Ashes (six Tests), England used 29 players.By the end of the match in Sydney, Cameron Green had bowled 198 balls without taking a wicket in Tests. Is he close to the record? asked Harshit Goyal from the United States

Australia’s recent new cap Cameron Green might be relieved to discover he’s got a fair way to go before he threatens this Test record: the Indian allrounder Kripal Singh did not take a wicket until the 11th of his 14 Tests, against England in Delhi in 1961-62, by which time he had sent down 651 fruitless deliveries and conceded 235 runs. He did score a century on his Test debut, though – against New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1955-56 – which might have made up for any lack of success with the ball.The Australian record is held by none other than Ian Chappell, whose legbreaks did not claim a Test wicket until he had sent down 536 balls and conceded 211 runs.The most balls bowled in Tests without ever taking a wicket is 462, by the England left-armer Len Hopwood in two matches in the 1934 Ashes. The Bangladesh seamer Anwar Hossain “Monir” conceded 307 runs in his three Tests – from 348 balls – without taking a wicket either. (Thanks to the Australian statistician Charles Davis for some of this information.)AB de Villiers made 43 in 297 balls and Hashim Amla 25 in 225 in their blockathon against India in Delhi in 2015•Associated PressHanuma Vihari scored 23 from 161 balls in the second innings in Sydney. How does this rank among the slowest Test innings? asked Allan Alexander from the United States

Hanuma Vihari’s match-saving innings at the SCG unsurprisingly comes in quite high on any such list. The difficulty is deciding which measurements to use, also remembering that we do not have complete details for many early innings.What we can say is that Vihari’s 161-ball vigil equalled the longest score of 23 or fewer in Tests, set by the Pakistan seamer Saleem Altaf (22) for Pakistan against England at Headingley in 1971. If you widen the search to innings of 30 or fewer, then Hashim Amla’s remarkably abstemious defensive effort against India in Delhi in 2015-16 comes out on top – he made 25 from 224 balls. In the same innings, AB de Villiers made 43 from 297 balls as South Africa fought in vain for a draw – their second innings of 143 occupied 143.1 overs.Nathan Lyon played his 100th Test match at Brisbane. Which team has had the most players with 100 caps? asked Pushpdeep Bahade from India

Nathan Lyon was the 68th player to reach a century of Test caps; the first was England’s Colin Cowdrey in 1968. Lyon was the 13th Australian to reach 100, but England have one more, including Andrew Strauss and Graham Thorpe who both finished their careers with exactly 100. India have ten centurions, West Indies nine, South Africa eight, Pakistan and Sri Lanka five, and New Zealand four. The next addition to the list should be another Englishman, Joe Root: his 228 against Sri Lanka in Galle last weekend came in his 98th Test appearance.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

He may have gained wider attention as a clever, restrictive offspinner in T20s, but he has always been a batsman first

Karthik Krishnaswamy06-Mar-20212:59

Manjrekar: Can only marvel at Washington Sundar’s talent

Time. Gifted batsmen always seem to have more of it.On Friday, James Anderson bowled a perfectly good ball to Washington Sundar: angling in from around the wicket, pitching on a good length, heading towards off stump.Anderson had just dismissed Rishabh Pant, who’d given him an absolute hammering during this spell with the second new ball. The worst, Anderson must have felt, was now over, and he could look forward to ending his spell in an atmosphere of peace and quiet.As if.Related

Ravi Shastri: 'Outstanding' Rishabh Pant 'worked his backside off'

India set up WTC final clash with New Zealand

Shastri: 'Kick in the backside' drove series triumph

Kohli: 'Rohit's 161 defining moment in India coming back in series'

The audacious, and gloriously disrespectful Rishabh Pant

It was a perfectly good ball, and Sundar hit it for four. He stood there, leaning slightly forward, and waited. If you have an extra split-second, why not enjoy it? He waited, let the ball come to him, and drove it to the right of mid-off, finishing with his front elbow pointing up.Time. So much time.Sundar had walked in with India 146 for 6 in reply to England’s 205. Since then he had batted in a bubble of serene self-assurance, never looking hurried against pace or spin, moving his feet economically but decisively at all times, getting right behind the line and right on top of the short ball, and moving assuredly onto the front foot whenever it was pitched up. His shots were full of pleasingly straight lines at most times, but every now and then there was a moment of opportunism that spoke of his white-ball nous: a chip over extra-cover off Dom Bess’ offspin when he was still only on 7, a both-feet-off-the-ground flay over gully when Ben Stokes bowled with the second new ball.All this from No. 8, but none of it was in any way unexpected. Every expectation had been met and exceeded at the Gabba in January, then promptly reassessed.This was no No. 8. This was a top-order batsman who happened to be batting at No. 8.On Saturday, Sundar was batting on 96. A month ago in Chennai, he had run out of partners when he was 15 short of a maiden Test hundred. Now there seemed to be little threat of a repeat. India had three wickets remaining, and the pair in the middle, Sundar and Axar Patel, had put on 106.Then, within the space of five balls, India were all out. Sundar watched the last four balls from the non-striker’s end. After the last wicket fell, the producers cut to his reaction. There was no perceptible change in his expression – he always seems to gaze placidly into the middle distance, keeping his thoughts to himself – but was there a brief softening around the eyelids? Did he turn away and walk back to the dressing room a little more urgently than he otherwise might have?Who can say?Washington Sundar showed in the series ender that he was no No. 8. He was a top-order batsman who happened to be batting at No. 8.•Getty ImagesLater in the afternoon, when India had wrapped up victory, Star Sports interviewed Sundar pitch-side.”No, no. Not at all disappointed,” he said, when asked the inevitable question. “When it’s the right time for me to get a hundred, it’ll come, I feel, and yes, definitely very, very happy to have contributed, especially in those couple of innings, and you know, any way I could contribute to the team, and if the team could succeed out of that, I’m the happiest person.”Time. When it’s the right time, it’ll come. And at 21, there’s so much time stretching out before Sundar.But then again, when will his time come next? A freakish injury crisis gave him his chance in Test cricket, at a time when he hadn’t played a first-class match in more than three years. He has grabbed that chance as well as anyone could have, but when everyone is fit again, where will Sundar fit in this India line-up?At this moment, Sundar’s Test record encapsulates exactly what he is: three fifties in six innings, two of them unbeaten, and six wickets in four Tests at an average of 49.83. He may have gained wider attention as a clever, restrictive offspinner in T20 cricket, but he has always been a batsman first, whether as a 12-year-old playing league cricket in Chennai or as a Test cricketer at 21.R Ashwin, who began life as a top-order batsman before offspin came to define him, has watched a lot of Sundar – both in league cricket and as his Tamil Nadu team-mate.”Washy bowled in some of the IPL franchises, and he shot to fame because of his bowling in the powerplay and all that, [but] it’s quite surprising that people don’t recognise that he grew up all his life as a batsman who can bowl,” Ashwin said during his post-match press conference on Saturday. “I’m not surprised at all at his batting ability. He works really hard on his batting, in fact to a point where we sometimes have discussions around how he should bowl more as well. He loves his batting, he’s innately a batsman, so I’m not surprised at all. He’s quite a special batsman.”At 21, there are so many directions in which Sundar’s career could evolve. Two of them are represented by two first-choice Test cricketers who will soon return from injury: Hanuma Vihari, a specialist middle-order batsman who bowls a bit of offspin, and Ravindra Jadeja, a genuine spin-bowling allrounder.In the long term, if Sundar can develop his offspin to the point where he bowls accurately at his current pace while giving the ball a bigger rip, he has the potential to turn into a proper allrounder. But at this stage, his game seems closer to Vihari’s than Jadeja’s.Even so, it’s unlikely he’ll supplant Vihari in India’s squad (though he could be part of it alongside him) when they begin their next assignment, a long stretch of Test matches in England. As good as he is, it’s unlikely just yet that India will play Sundar in a situation where they want a sixth specialist batsman away from home, when their first-choice option is available.But in the long term, the possibilities are endless. When asked what his advice to Sundar would be when he goes back and plays for Tamil Nadu again, Ashwin suggested he should bat up the order as often as possible.”I’m not in any position to tell Washy to go open, or bat at three,” Ashwin said. “But ideally, if there’s an upcoming talent like him, it makes logical sense when he goes back to his state team, for him to bat at No. 3 or No. 4. In fact, Washy is an opening bat. I think he should go back to first-class cricket and probably start opening or batting at three. As I already said earlier, Washy is a (tremendous) batsman, there’s no doubt about it.”There’s no doubt at all, but for the moment Sundar will have to wait just a little longer for another tilt at a Test hundred. He has plenty of time.

We try to make the sense of the biggest buys at the 2021 IPL auction

Nagraj Gollapudi and Gaurav Sundararaman18-Feb-20210:40

‘We’ve rebalanced our side, Chris Morris fills an important role for us’ – Royals CEO McCrum

Chris Morris for INR 16.25 crore (USD 2.23 million approx.) to Rajasthan Royals
It is not a common skillset for a bowler to fire up speeds in the 140kph region consistently, have enough variations at the same time, and simultaneously play cameos in the lower order. And that is a big reason why South Africa allrounder Chris Morris has ended up being a millionaire more than once at IPL auctions.In 2018, Morris fetched INR 11 crore (USD 1.5 million approx.) from then Delhi Daredevils. Two years later, in 2020, Royal Challengers Bangalore bought him for INR 10 crore (USD 1.37 million approx.). In the six matches he played for the Royal Challengers last IPL before being sidelined by an injury, Morris’ economy was 6.26 in the powerplay and 7.03 in the death overs. And even though his numbers with the bat are a bit weak in the last two IPL seasons, Morris had a 30-plus average and 160-plus strike rate in four consecutive IPLs between 2015-18.The debate about why the Royal Challengers released Morris is for another day. But on Thursday afternoon, they wrestled with Mumbai Indians initially, then lost out to the Rajasthan Royals, who were gasping by the time they raised the paddle for one last time to silence Punjab Kings’ rival bid late in the play, to buy Morris at INR 16.25 crore, the highest price paid for a player in an auction in addition to being the second-highest salary behind Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers’ captain who gets paid INR 17 crore (USD 2.34 million approx.).All the teams that bid for Morris were on the lookout for at least one overseas fast bowler as well as an allrounder who could provide the firepower with ball and bat. Both the Royal Challengers and Kings did not have a quality allrounder in their ranks. Mumbai needed a replacement for James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile; both were released after the 2020 IPL. They also needed a back-up for Pollard, and therefore were not shy to go big for Morris as they could have hit two targets with one stone.ESPNcricinfo LtdKyle Jamieson for INR 15 crore (USD 2.06 million approx.) to Royal Challengers Bangalore
Coming into the auction Jamieson, towering at over 6’8″, was expected to be picked for a lot of money, but 15 crores for a bowler who has played just 38 T20 matches does raise eyebrows.Jameison’s height, pace and batting ability all worked in his favour, making him the second-most expensive player of this mini-auction. Although he has never played in India, the perceived value was high. He also benefited from the low supply-high demand dynamics.For the Royal Challengers, Jamieson was the final bet after they had lost Morris and Jhye Richardson to the Royals and Punjab Kings respectively. Jamieson is likely to perform the same role for the Royal Challengers Morris was assigned last IPL. The New Zealander is likely to bat at No. 7 while being the strike bowler. It remains to be seen whether he can match his towering price with high-impact performances.Glenn Maxwell for INR 14.25 crore (USD 1.96 million approx.) to Royal Challengers Bangalore
Maxwell and millions is no more a headline. As Mike Hesson, the Royal Challengers’ team director, said Maxwell has that “X-factor” teams are desperate to have. So it was no surprise when five teams contested fiercely for the Australian allrounder.The bidding race began with Kolkata Knight Riders and the Royals but both fell out of the race quite early. Then Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings entered into a paddle-raising contest. The Super Kings showed uncharacteristic aggression at the auction table, bidding up to INR 14 crore, which is just one crore lesser than their most expensive player, MS Dhoni who was retained in 2018 at INR 15 crore. The Royal Challengers, no strangers to splurging, did not blink though.ESPNcricinfo LtdBoth Royal Challengers and Super Kings were on the lookout for a power-hitting allrounder. The Super Kings wanted an able replacement for Shane Watson while the Royal Challengers wanted someone that could reduce the burden on AB de Villiers, who Maxwell recently said is his “idol”. Imagine the mayhem de Villiers and Maxwell can cause together at the crease.Jhye Richardson for INR 14 crore (USD 1.92 million approx.) to Punjab Kings
Currently in New Zealand for the T20I series, the slightly built Jhye had impressed franchises with not just his speed, but importantly with how he kept the scoring rate in check while bowling for Perth Scorchers in the 2021 Big Bash League – where he finished as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker. Jhye made an impact especially in the powerplay and the Power Surge segments, indicating he can bowl under pressure.Although the Kings have the Indian pair of Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh in the fast bowling department, they had released West Indies’ left-arm fast bowler Sheldon Cottrell after just one season, so had a gap to fill.The Kings had to stave off rival bids firstly from the Capitals, who were probably looking for a back-up for the South African pair of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, both of whom could miss the initial games because of their home series against Pakistan.But after the Capitals exited the race at the INR 9-crore mark, the Royal Challengers picked up the baton. Despite the presence of two other Australian fast bowlers in Kane Richardson and Daniel Sams, the Royal Challengers wanted another fast man, both as a back-up and as a compensation for losing out on Morris. However, the Kings benefited from having the biggest purse at this auction and bagged Jhye.K Gowtham for INR 9.25 crore (USD 1.27 million approx.) to Chennai Super Kings
Harbhajan Singh’s absence in the 2020 IPL was felt hard by the Super Kings who were desperate for a finger spinner to create pressure. The scarcity of quality offspinners with IPL experience in the Indian domestic circuit meant that Gowtham was on the radar for more than one team.Having released Harbhajan, who had been bought in 2018 auction for INR 2 crore (USD 275,000 approx.), the Super Kings’ two main options were Gowtham and Jalaj Saxena. Gowtham can be a handful on spin-friendly pitches apart from being destructive with the bat.The Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad were also looking for spinning all-rounders and therefore entered the fray for Gowtham, which played a role in driving his price upwards drastically. The fact that the Super Kings had a much bigger purse than other two teams played to their advantage.Riley Meredith for INR 8 crore (USD 1.1 million approx.) to Punjab Kings
Meredith became the most expensive uncapped overseas player signed at an auction when the Kings paid INR 8 crore for his services. Shane Warne had spoken about his potential and he will have the chance to show his ability ahead of this year’s T20 World Cup in India. As Anil Kumble, the Kings’ head coach, said, Meredith’s raw pace impressed the management and he would be handy to plug a hole they had from last season.Meredith strikes once every 18 balls in T20s and along with fellow Australian Jhye, the pair could play a similar role to what Rabada and Nortje do for the Capitals. The idea to play two overseas fast bowlers in the playing XI is a trick successfully carried out by five-time IPL champions Mumbai, and now other franchises are catching on to as well.In fact, the Capitals, coached by former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, were the other team that bid heavily for Meredith, resulting in a higher price. With the BBL being the only major competition that was held between last season’s IPL and the auction, teams had to fall back on more Australian bowlers and Meredith was a beneficiary.

Used-pitch practice made for a drab spectacle as cricket returned to free-to-air TV for the first time this summer

Matt Roller in Cardiff24-Jun-2021If Liam Livingstone and Sam Billings make the cut for England’s T20 World Cup squad, they will look back on tonight’s second T20I in Cardiff fondly: they came together at 36 for 4 in a chase of 112 on a used, two-paced pitch and their stand of 54 in 48 balls was enough to overcome the significant wobble and lead England to a narrow win. Neither played an innings that demanded long-term retention, but between them they steered their team home from a nervous situation.But in truth, they may be the only two of the 3,000 or so in attendance recalling this evening with much affection: England’s first of two live games on free-to-air TV in the UK this summer could hardly have veered further from the script. Even with three of their most recognisable players missing through injury – Jos Buttler strained his calf last night, with Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes both ruled out long before the series – they still had enough white-ball gunslingers to put on a show with the bat for a wider audience, with Mark Wood and Adil Rashid offering high pace and high skill in their attack. For Sri Lanka, the only way was up after a heavy defeat in the opening game.Instead, this was a dreary occasion, with Sam Curran providing a winning moment that it scarcely deserved by skipping down the pitch to thump Akila Dhananjaya over long-on for six. It was enough to seal a five-wicket win via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method – a phrase unlikely to Inspire Generations – which had looked in some peril after a rare top-order stumble. Their bowling performance was impressive and polished, but good plans and hard lengths are a tough sell to the sought-after casual fan.Playing on this pitch for the second night in a row meant that England learned slightly more than they might have on a fresh, flat one, and with the World Cup likely to be moved to the UAE – directly after the IPL – being able to adapt to these surfaces is important. Their batting line-up is unmatched on true pitches but showed some vulnerability on the slow Ahmedabad ones earlier this year.But there was a nagging sense that those experiences had come at the cost of the bigger picture. The break between the end of the group stages and the start of the knockouts in the ongoing European Championships opened up a priceless opportunity for English cricket, making this the night’s only live, free-to-air sport in a country that has suddenly become used to a daily fix over the last two weeks. This was a clear chance to put on a show.Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran completed the chase•Getty ImagesAnd while there were occasion bite-size moments to adorn social-media timelines – Curran’s close-range, right-footed finish to kick the stumps down and run Danushka Gunathilaka out the prime example – anyone stumbling upon the BBC’s live coverage while idly channel-surfing would have been justified in decided to switch to Channel Four’s or yet another Princess Diana documentary on ITV. There were only marginally more boundaries (16) than wickets (12), and none at all in the first powerplay as Sri Lanka struggled to adapt to the slowness of the pitch; if the Hundred is to succeed, the four match-days here cannot involve such a turgid surface.When the rain rolled in 12 overs into the run-chase, the scene was set for the dampest squib imaginable. Mercifully, it was only a passing shower, and Livingstone suggested that its principal effect was not to interrupt his rhythm but to help the ball come onto the bat under floodlights. The revised target, 34 off 36 balls, was never going to be an issue.Billings and Livingstone may be competing for a single spot in England’s World Cup squad as the spare batter, though Dawid Malan’s lean run of form since his 99 not out in South Africa at the start of December and Moeen Ali’s continued absence suggests there could yet be room for both. They have both been on the fringes of the side for a number of years but are contrasting players: Billings prides himself on a low dot-ball percentage and an ability to hit the gaps against spin, while Livingstone is a cowboy who has made towering sixes over wide long-on his trademark.Related

England must go with Moeen Ali's flow in rare chance to capture casual fans

There was no scope for them to play with any fluency or rhythm, and Billings found himself in a similar position to his last innings on this ground: a hard-fought 30 off 30 against Glamorgan in the Blast last week which was the second-highest score in another dreary game. He struggled to pick Wanindu Hasaranga’s googly – he was not the first, and certainly won’t be the last – and eventually under-edged onto his own stumps for 24 off 29, but with the required rate below four an over by that stage, he had done his job.But it was Livingstone who has pushed his credentials more than any other fringe player this week. Four years after his first taste of international cricket, a pair of T20Is against South Africa in which he looked out of form and frenetic, he has finally forced his way back in an unfamiliar finishing role. He adapted well: only six of the 26 balls he faced were dots, and an outrageous ramped six off Dushmantha Chameera effectively ended the contest after the rain delay – though the spectacle had long since vanished.

The Jammu and Kashmir bowler hadn’t played with a cricket ball until he was 17. Now he’s in the IPL, and bowling in the nets for India at the T20 World Cup

Mohsin Kamal02-Nov-2021″India soon,” Umran Malik wrote in his Instagram bio in 2018. He was 18, part of the Jammu & Kashmir Under-19 squad, and had started playing leather-ball cricket just a year before. He was still to get a game in the Cooch Behar Trophy, but his bowling in a practice session left India’s U-19 selectors stunned.”They had come to visit Vaishno Devi Mandir,” Malik says. “They saw me bowling in nets on a cement wicket and asked, ‘Who are you? You are bowling so fast! Why are you not playing matches?'”The selectors approached a J&K U-19 coach and advised him to give Malik a game. It was the first time Malik realised that he could make it big.Last month Malik, now 21, became only the fourth cricketer from J&K to play in the IPL. As soon as he ran in to bowl in his opening game, for Sunrisers Hyderabad, the speedometer came into focus. He touched 150kph several times in his spell. In his second match, he bowled the fastest delivery by an Indian in the tournament’s history – 152.95kph.Related

Jammu and Kashmir has a wealth of fast bowlers: 'We will see many more Umrans'

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

Umran Malik to stay back in UAE as net bowler for India's T20 World Cup campaign

Hailing from a family of modest means in Jammu’s Gujjar Nagar, Malik began playing at a young age. His father, Abdul Rashid, a fruit-seller in Shaheedi Chowk, his mother and two older sisters, were all supportive of his passion.”After playing in school during the day, he would leave the bag at home and go to play cricket in the evening as well,” says Rashid. “I used to tell him, ‘Play cricket but pay some attention to studies as well.’ I never refused to buy equipment or other things for him.”Malik’s long, steady run-up and smooth, explosive jump had commentators and fans liken his action to that of Waqar Younis. “I used to bowl fast from the very beginning,” he says. “I had a natural action. I didn’t copy it from anyone.”At 17 he ventured beyond gully cricket, into competitive tennis-ball tournaments around Jammu. The matches usually took place in the evenings and drew big crowds. Batters relished these games – ten overs an innings, short boundaries – but Malik’s pace often stole the spotlight.”Every team wanted him in their side,” says Raman Thaploo, a J&K cricketer who has watched Malik’s cricket journey closely.Malik would practise in the nets with the J&K senior Ranji Trophy team•Sahil Magotra/JKCA video analystHis growing popularity in tennis-ball cricket made him give leather-ball cricket a try. In his very first local match with a cricket ball, in 2017, he hit some huge sixes and bowled a fiery spell.As his reputation spread, he acquired the nickname “Ghajini”. Like Aamir Khan’s character in the hit Bollywood film of that name, he had close-cropped hair and a strong physique. Thaploo remembers: “People used to say, ‘ bowling [Ghajini hits huge sixes and bowls very fast].”Soon Malik’s friends suggested he go to a coach to improve his skills. He made his way to MA Stadium, where Randhir Singh Manhas, a local coach, trained young cricketers. “I remember it was the morning session, and as usual, I didn’t have many bowlers,” Manhas recalls of Malik’s first time there. “When he came to me, I said, ‘Okay, you can bowl.'”He had just bowled a couple of balls when Ram Dayal, a senior J&K cricketer, walked in. He stopped at the nets and watched for a while. “He [Dayal] asked, ‘Who’s this guy? He has raw talent and bowls around 135 to 140kph,'” Manhas says.Manhas asked his new pupil to come to the stadium daily. While much about Malik was in place, Manhas worked on a couple of things. “He was a natural talent. Usually players with Cosco [tennis-ball] background are quick through the air.”However, his jump and landing weren’t that perfect, so I worked with him on it. Later, when Irfan Pathan came here [as J&K mentor], he too helped him a bit.”Another player who practised at that ground was Abdul Samad, younger than Malik but a more seasoned cricketer, who would go on to play for J&K and Sunrisers Hyderabad before Malik. The two began training together every day. “I knew Samad earlier but we became best friends in 2018,” says Malik. “We’re now more like brothers.”Malik’s career was still not quite on track. When he went for the J&K U-19 trials, he was in for a surprise. “I was told that I haven’t played at district level, so I can’t appear in the trials.”Still, he decided to show up again the next day. “I went to nets and as they didn’t know whether I had played district or not, I started bowling. I just bowled one ball and the selector came to me and said, ‘You will be in the team, don’t worry. Just keep yourself ready.'”The many trophies Malik picked up in local and domestic matches are displayed proudly in his home•Courtesy of Umran Malik”He played his first match here at Jammu,” Thaploo remembers. “When he bowled the very first ball, it went above the keeper’s head after bouncing. Umpires were stunned. They asked him if he had played any nationals before.”The following year, Malik was rejected at the U-23 trials. In February 2020, Samad, now a part of J&K Ranji Trophy team, met the J&K U-23 team coach to plead Malik’s case. It was Samad, too, after being picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2020 IPL, who suggested Malik’s name to the franchise as a net bowler. “I told Samad to send my videos to them,” says Malik.Soon Malik was in the Sunrisers camp, surprising elite batters with his pace. On one occasion Kedar Jadhav asked him whether he was in the team or a net bowler. On another, Thaploo recalls proudly: “He was bowling very fast to Jonny Bairstow in the nets, and he told him to bowl a bit slow. However, as Malik doesn’t understand English much, he continued bowling fast. Then someone from the SRH camp came to him and said, ‘He is asking you to bowl a bit slow, you’re bowling too fast!'”Malik’s impressive show as net bowler in the 2020 IPL prompted the franchise to continue with him in 2021. In September this year, during the second leg of the competition, he received a call from the state cricket association, asking him to report back to Jammu for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy trials. Instead he found himself included in the Sunrisers team as a short-term replacement for T Natarajan, who had tested positive for Covid-19 in Dubai.”Alhamdulillah, I was included in the team, else I had to travel back the next day,” says Malik. “It was an amazing feeling.”Once Sunrisers had lost the race to the playoffs, they provided Malik an opportunity in the playing XI, against Kolkata Knight Riders. He had just bowled three balls when the cricketing world started asking: who is this guy?Malik clocked 150kph in his very first over, and a couple more times in the game. He was, until then, unaware of the speeds he bowled at.Malik impressed Virat Kohli enough in the IPL to merit a call-up as net bowler with the Indian team at the T20 World Cup•BCCI”I thought I could bowl around 140-145kph max. I hadn’t checked my pace before playing in IPL,” he says. “Making my debut in the IPL and performing well in the first match was the most special moment of my life.”In the next game, against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Malik went a step further by bowling the second-fastest delivery of IPL 2021 – the 152.95kph-ball. At the post-match presentation, Virat Kohli spoke in support of the youngster: “Whenever you see talent like this, you are going to have your eyes on them and make sure you maximise their potential.””I really felt proud on seeing such a big player talking about me,” says Malik. “Nobody knew me a day before and now the world was talking about me.”Back home, Abdul Rashid’s phone didn’t stop ringing after his son’s IPL debut. From journalists turning up at his house and shop to relatives paying congratulatory visits, it was a busy week for him and his family.”Not only my family but whole Jammu-Kashmir and India is happy after seeing his bowling,” says Rashid emotionally. “His hard work has paid off.”On the basis of his IPL outing, Malik was included in the Indian contingent as a net bowler for the T20 World Cup. While pace is his major weapon, he can also generate swing into right-hand batters, and likes the bouncer. He is working to improve his skills, and is focusing on his yorker.”My first dream would be to see our team lifting the World Cup,” he says. “I will try to bowl well in the nets and impress selectors, so that they pick me for any of the future series, Inshallah.”That “India soon” bio could become reality sooner than expected.

The second-most overs faced, the second-best lead and other dizzying records

Sampath Bandarupalli04-Jan-2022176.2 – The number of overs Bangladesh batted in their first innings at the Bay Oval. These are the second-most they’ve batted in a Test innings, behind the 196 overs they batted out against Sri Lanka in Galle, 2013. This is also only the second instance of Bangladesh batting 150-plus overs in a Test innings outside Asia – 152.0 overs against New Zealand in Wellington in 2017.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2009 – The last time a visiting team batted for more than the 176.2 overs in a Test innings in New Zealand. Pakistan battled out 193.2 overs during their second dig to draw the series at the McLean Park.ESPNcricinfo Ltd130 – Bangladesh’s first-innings lead in this match, the highest New Zealand had conceded in a home Test since the start of 2017. England’s lead of 101 at the Seddon Park in 2019 was the only instance of a visiting team claiming a 100-run first-inning lead across the 22 home Tests against New Zealand in this period.1 – Only once before have Bangladesh bagged a higher first-innings lead than the 130 they did here, in an away Test. That was the 192-run first-innings lead they pocketed against Zimbabwe in Harare last year. It is also the second-highest first-innings lead for Bangladesh when batting second in a Test, behind the 295-run lead against Zimbabwe in 2020.8 – Each of Bangladesh’s top eight batters faced 50-plus deliveries in their first innings against New Zealand. It is the first instance for Bangladesh in Test cricket where their top eight batters survived 50 or more balls in the same innings.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4 – The number of times Bangladesh have posted scores of 400 or more in an innings in New Zealand. All of them have come since the start of 2010. No visiting team has had more such totals in New Zealand in this period. Australia also had four 400-plus total in New Zealand since 2010, including three totals over 500.890 – The number of balls bowled by New Zealand’s pacers in the first innings. These are the most by a team’s pacers while taking all ten wickets in a Test innings since 2000. The 890 balls they bowled were also the most by a team’s quicks in a Test innings since 2007.

Fast bowler strikes twice in the powerplay and then removes Pooran at the death to tip a thriller Super Giants’ way

Sidharth Monga04-Apr-20220:50

Avesh Khan – ‘My plan was to focus on my yorkers’

Avesh Khan played the last season of the IPL in an attack that had Anrich Nortje breaking speed record, Kagiso Rabada threatening the purple cap, and the spinners R Ashwin and Axar Patel displaying their guile. Yet it was Avesh who bowled the most balls for Delhi Capitals at the death. In fact only Harshal Patel bowled more in that phase in the last IPL. That’s more than not just his team-mates but stellar death bowlers such as Jasprit Bumrah, Dwayne Bravo, Bhuvneshwar Kumar among others.That intense bidding war, which ended up at INR 10 crore, was well-earned, with Avesh having delivered those 23 overs for under nine an over. It’s just a sweet coincidence that the team that Lucknow Super Giants eventually pipped was Sunrisers Hyderabad, who suffered at the hands of Avesh on Monday.Before this match, though, there was his debut for Super Giants when he failed to defend 10 in the last over, which he said left him sad. Then, though, comes the realisation that as a bowler bowling at the death in the IPL – often with a ball that resembles a bar of soap – you can’t win them all. “I knew there are 14 matches in the IPL, and there would be opportunities again, so I have to be ready for them,” Avesh said.ESPNcricinfo LtdAs luck would have it, the opportunity arrived in Super Giants’ third match. Avesh had already put Super Giants ahead in the game with the wickets of openers Kane Williamson and Abhishek Sharma. Williamson fell trying to ramp a slower ball, a delivery Avesh knew was going to work because he had seen some grip when his side was batting.During the strategic timeout in the second half of the match, Super Giants’ mentor Gautam Gambhir told Avesh he had to win the match for the team. “Just bowl your best ball,” Gambhir told him, according to Avesh. “Just pick your best ball, back yourself and execute it. Gautam , Andy Bichel, Andy Flower, KL [Rahul] – they always tell me you are our main bowler. You will win us matches.”When Avesh began the 18th over, a win looked distant. Sunrisers needed 33 with Nicholas Pooran looking dangerous and six wickets in hand at the ground that has seen the most sixes this IPL.Avesh tried to repeat what he had learned earlier and bowled into the pitch only for the ball to sit up nicely for Pooran to hit a six. That took Sunrisers’ win probability well beyond 60%. And if you have been at the receiving end not long ago, you can start doubting yourself.”I still had five balls to bowl,” Avesh said. “I thought I have to focus on executing them. I thought I will bowl just the yorkers now. It worked.”These weren’t the perfect yorkers. The one that got Pooran was a thigh-high full toss. The one that accounted for Abdul Samad was just short of being a yorker. But that’s how cricket goes sometimes: there will be days when he will nail the yorkers but they will run away for four off the inside edge. That he had been trusted to do just this by his last franchise, that four franchises fought over him at the auction, that he got this over despite the defeat two matches ago tells you this is no fluke.On the ESPNcricinfo smart stats metric to measure a player’s impact on the result, Avesh ended up with a score of 121.57, which was 40 more than the next-best. He is consistently being chosen to do the most difficult job more often than established superstars. His teams certainly seem to know his worth.

Bowl anywhere near short at Australia’s pocket dynamo and you’ll disappear leg side

Annesha Ghosh16-Feb-2022It is one of the go-to shots she uses to bully attacks, however vaunted or varied, into submission. In many a rampaging innings, like the 51-ball 111 in WBBL 2020-21, it often sets the tone. At crucial junctures in play, as seen in her maiden international hundred, in 2018, it is a tool with which to crush the opposition’s spirit. Still, the pull shot remains something of an unsung hero in Healy’s ever-evolving repertoire.It doesn’t enjoy as much celebrity as her inside-out lofted drive over cover, the most viscerally appealing shot in her arsenal. But the frequency of its appearance, and the ease with which Healy uses it to clear the boundary from square leg to deep-midwicket, makes the pull one of her most high-reward shots.Deceptively nonchalant-seeming, the stroke is technically straightforward for Healy. A solid base. Feet firmly planted. An early, accurate assessment of length. Copybook arm extension. The power to muscle the hell out of the delivery. And seamless transfer of weight. The ball needn’t always be a world off a good length; anything marginally short, into the body, is enough for her to take a step back and swat it over the square-leg cordon.It’s not all one pull for Healy. One variant is executed after shuffling outside off; another is played while charging down the track; and the third, with minimal foot movement, is all hands and twist of torso to generate power in the swivel, resulting in a forceful short-arm pull.”From a young age Alyssa has been very quick to pick up length and rock back on the back foot,” Lisa Sthalekar, the former Australia captain and broadcaster and Healy’s one-time team-mate, says. “She never really misses out on capitalising when the bowlers miss their length. That is why she is one of the most destructive batters in the women’s game.”Healy isn’t among the tallest around, and her small frame often puts bowlers at a disadvantage on pitches with bounce. Deliveries ever so slightly short, which might ping taller players high on the pads or just above them, run the risk of ending up waist-high for Healy, enabling her to unleash the pull.”She’s a compact, very technical batter, and a very good puller,” says South Africa batter Lizelle Lee, whose WBBL stints as an opponent have given her a ring-side view of a gallery of Healy’s menacing pulls. “She’s the kind of batter I love watching: fearless, doesn’t waste time, always goes big, so when it comes off, she comes off big.”Perhaps the ever-burgeoning range of her strokes make it difficult to identify any one of them as a trademark Healy shot. And the mastery her contemporaries, such as India opener Smriti Mandhana, Australia team-mates Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry, and New Zealand allrounder Sophie Devine, have demonstrated in playing the pull doesn’t quite make Healy peerless at it. This was reinforced by a poll of some members of ESPNcricinfo’s editorial staff for this series, in which Healy beat Mandhana by a whisker.Still, in Healy’s advent as a force of nature in limited-overs cricket since her maiden WBBL hundred in January 2018, the pull has been pivotal to establishing her authority in diverse conditions. Perhaps its relegation to a relatively low profile in her repertoire may not have been too bad a thing for the pull after all.Who Does it Best?: The cutter | The pull | The googly | The cover drive | The yorker | The cut | The bouncer | The sweep

Wolvaardt hit her fifth fifty of the tournament, making her runs tally the best in the last six editions of the Women’s World Cup

Sampath Bandarupalli27-Mar-20221 – Number of previous instances of a team reaching their target off the final ball at Women’s ODI World Cups. Sri Lanka chased 239 against England in 2013 on the last ball of the 50th over with only one wicket in hand.1 – Number of targets chased successfully at Women’s ODI World Cups, which were higher than South Africa’s chase of 275 today. The highest was by Australia, who chased down 278 against India earlier in this tournament at Eden Park.ESPNcricinfo Ltd6 – Successful chases of 270-plus targets in Women’s ODIs since September 2021. Five of these six chases have come against India. Until September 2021, there had been only three such chases in Women’s ODIs, all three involving Australia and New Zealand.