In a difficult season, the franchise has backed the same players to deliver even if they hadn’t quite done that earlier

Shashank Kishore20-May-20232:21

Should Jitesh be India’s next T20I wicketkeeper?

The more things change, the more they remain the same. This common refrain perhaps best sums up Punjab Kings season after season; IPL 2023 was no different.Take the last six seasons for example. They’ve had four designated captains – R Ashwin, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and now Shikhar Dhawan – and four head coaches – Brad Hodge, Mike Hesson, Anil Kumble and now Trevor Bayliss.This merry-go-round at the top can be unsettling for the players, at least the young Indian uncapped lot. But in what has been an anomaly, there’s been a growing sign of the team backing the same players to deliver even if they hadn’t quite done that earlier. Now, as they reflect on another season gone by, there’s an opportunity for them to build on these investments as they begin to bear fruit.Related

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Prabhsimran Singh joined the franchise ahead of 2019 but had only played six games across four seasons. This year, he had the role clarity. To give them explosive starts and allow Dhawan to anchor the innings. It wasn’t a blockbuster season, but his 358 runs in 14 innings at a strike rate of 150.42 provided more than glimpses of his ability.His 65-ball 103 on a Kotla deck against Delhi Capitals where most batters struggled on the two-paced nature of the surface told you of a special player who is capable of taking pitches out of the equation when in his element. Prabhsimran’s backing is unlike what the Kings have done, but here’s is a chance for them to help elevate his game.”I think the talent was always there with him, the maturity has changed,” Kings’ bowling coach Sunil Joshi said. “He started thinking about the game. He started thinking and respecting the bowlers also. That has helped him a lot, staying calm in different situations.”Then there’s Shahrukh Khan who has been branded a finisher for years now and has been with Kings for three seasons. The raw numbers will tell you he doesn’t have a T20 fifty across 33 innings in the IPL.He has failed more than he’s succeeded, and perhaps that’s simply down to the nature of his role, but the one common factor has been the team’s faith in him. This year, he featured in all 14 games but only once batted over 20 balls in an innings.On Friday night, he delivered, albeit belatedly. His 23-ball 41 not out at No. 7 gave Kings a total they didn’t look like getting at one point. In doing so, he gave more than a glimpse into his methods.It wasn’t like he was blindly swinging at every delivery. He came into bat in the 14th over and saw out Yuzvendra Chahal’s threat, fully knowing he could inflict damage later on a small ground. And against a wonky attack that has struggled in the death overs, he unleashed those big hits in the end.Shahrukh doesn’t premeditate; instead, he reacts to the ball and trains for it the same way. “I think my practice is paying off. I am reacting properly at practice to each and every ball I play. That’s the reason it’s paying off here,” he said during the season. “If I go too cheeky, I don’t think it will work for me. So, I just have one thing on my mind. I look to play straight. If anything is here and there, I try and adjust.”Jitesh Sharma ended the season with 309 runs at a strike rate of 156.06•BCCISuch clarity isn’t rare, but the ability to stick to methods that work for him and to have the belief that it will pay dividends, is.Then there’s Jitesh Sharma, whose rise has perhaps been a direct byproduct of the faith and opportunities the franchise has given him. He broke through last year after being scouted by Kumble and has shown a quality few Indian batters have – a no-holds barred approach, the ability to get go right from the outset with a fair degree of success.His power game and calmness at the same time have come in for plaudits. Like it did on Friday night, when he walked in with Kings 50 for 4 in the seventh over. Now, this can cause a few doubts to a few. Jitesh was clear the scorecard wasn’t a reflection of the surface and tried to pick his spots almost immediately.Sure, it didn’t come off, but the intent to go for it was unmissable. He somewhat made up for his relatively slow beginning – 30 off 23 – by taking apart Navdeep Saini for a sequence of 4,6,4 with each of the hits peppering different parts of the ground. In going for a fourth, he was out. But you could see he backed himself to go big once set. He ended the season with 309 runs at a strike rate of 156.06.It’s as much credit to Dhawan as it is to the team management that they’ve been willing to back players in roles they thrive at, even if it hasn’t always paid off. Dhawan himself has had a tough first full season with the Kings, and their history is replete with constant chopping and changing.Now is an opportunity for them to nip that in the bud and punt on this core that has given them an inkling of what is to come in the future with some backing and plenty of opportunities.

Their fast-bowling or math tests, what would you rather face before you’ve even rubbed the sleep from your eyes?

Osman Samiuddin09-Jun-2023Good morning.Here is a postcard from hell.Hell is morning. Nothing good ever came from mornings. Bodies, slow, minds slower. Probably children somewhere, not being slow or mindful, the very accessories of hell.The day before this Test began Rohit Sharma arrived at a press conference at The Oval and, no lie, it took him a minute to begin to even compose a response to the first question. It was 9:15am. I’m pretty sure as the question began, Rohit was still in REM sleep. If we can ever know anything for certain about Rohit Sharma without knowing anything about him, it is that he is not a morning person. And no man should be attending to formal duties at this hour, let alone having to face questions from journalists.Related

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This Test has been starting earlier than usual for England. At 11am, we’re on the border between morning and afternoon, waiting to cross into noon. But at 10:30am, we’re rubbing the sleep from our eyes.But you know who else, apart from children, likes mornings? Fast bowlers.If children are the accessories to hell fast bowlers are the furniture. They love mornings. The rest of us are trying to string a two-word sentence together and failing, trying not to be like when the audio and video of your screen is all out of sync; meanwhile these heroes are catwalking in from 30 yards, bodies loose and lean, joints and limbs and muscles in biological harmony, hurling stuff at you at 90mph.First thing in the morning, Scott Boland. I mean. That’s like waking up straight into a math exam.Whatever else hell might be, ChatGPT will be there. And what is Scott Boland if not the ChatGPT response to the question of who is the perfect fast-medium bowler? Boland does fast-medium bowling exactly as it has been prescribed, except he does it so exactly that it can’t be real. It must be a likeness of real, that’s how good it is.Who bowls the ball he bowled second up this morning? KS Bharat is waking up, we’re all waking up really, and here’s Boland asking him to disprove the Riemann Hypothesis.”You what? Wait, what’s that sound? Is that my stumps?”It’s a ball you might not be able to keep out at 2pm, 5pm, 9pm or any pm. At 10:32am? No chance in hell.Next ball he raps Shardul Thakur on the gloves. This is a sign. Pain is incoming. Having brought balls back thus far, the last one holds its line and Thakur edges it, just beyond the slips. This is also a sign because fortune is also incoming. If fast-medium bowling as we’ve known it (Stuart Clark, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Abbas) is hell, then in the high 80s for speeds, Boland’s is Hell+.How can anyone who looks that good be so bad for you?•Getty ImagesThe greatest trick hell ever pulled is, of course, Pat Cummins, who’s up next. How can anyone who looks that good be so bad for you? How can anyone look that good this early in the morning? How can anyone be so considered and considerate, so full of empathy, and yet also be trying to crack your body open at least 120 times a day?First ball he’s in. Can’t drive it. Can’t not play at it. Can’t play it even when you can’t not play at it. It’s seaming away from Ajinkya Rahane. What coffee do they serve in hell? Cummins keeps pulling his length fractionally backwards or forwards of good length, allowing the variation in bounce in the surface to come in play for the rest of the over. Then, at the end, having fed Thakur all this heat, he throws him the illusion of a cold wet towel. A full ball. Outside off. Drive it. Seek relief. Thakur can’t see it from all the sweat in his eyes and misses.Boland got hit for his first six in Tests on Thursday. On Friday, he bowls his first ever bad delivery in Tests, four wides way down legside. India celebrate the runs. Humanity celebrates a glitch in the ChatGPT algorithm: there’s hope for all of us. Hold your horses though. Other than that ball, Boland’s over seams in, then holds, seams in, then holds again, then seams in. Thakur edges, but it scoots along the field past slips for four.Pat Cummins hit Shardul Thakur in the right forearm two balls in a row•AFP/Getty ImagesThe next over from Cummins has so many medical personnel on the field, it’s like a scene from Grey’s Anatomy which, of course, is the same thing as a scene from hell. Thakur is struck twice in two balls, on the exact same spot on his forearm, off two exact same deliveries. Not short but quick, bouncing but also seaming away. Hell is a life lived over. At the non-striker’s end, another truth bomb has struck Rahane. Hell is other people.Hell is also not over. Thakur pops a pill, puts on an extra arm guard (although at this precise moment, Tony Stark’s latest armour isn’t going to help him any) and gets hit on the glove, high up on the bat handle next ball. The last ball of the over is a conventional legbreak. At nearly 90mph.Rahane plays out an over from Boland which feels like, I dunno, maybe having a cigarette in hell. He takes six runs by opening the face of his bat but is beaten in between by one that jags away from very close to off. Smoking’s not good for your health. But it’s less bad for your health than hell.Thakur is dropped by Cameron Green at gully off Cummins. It is a dolly. He’s hit high on the pads the next ball and then in the midriff the ball after. It’s a no-ball too, so an extra ball to face. One nips in, almost rolls on to the stumps off Thakur’s bottom edge. At this point, the drop seems cruel and unfair on Thakur. ESPNcricinfo records his control percentage as 40%. It seems a lot on the high side.Boland is still going because AI never sleeps. Rahane defends solidly, then plays a nice off-drive and it might be that he’s getting the hang of this. Duly he drives, duly the ball shapes away and duly the edge falls just short of gully.It’s past 11 now, so creeping into non-morning territory. It might be that someone’s turned the AC on in hell, or at least turned the heat down. Rahane first gets lucky, jabbing at and edging a wideish length ball from Cummins for four. Rahane then gets classy, hooking the next ball, high and long for six and nearly, very nearly out of hell.There’s still time for Boland to have a whole over of fun with Thakur. Back of length, fuller, in, out, shake it all about. It leaves Thakur requiring more treatment, this time on his thumb. He may need to talk to someone about what his mind and soul have just been put through.But he’s gotten through it. It’s 11:22am. It’s not even been a full hour but my watch is telling me it’s been eternity. Morning has ended and as Mitchell Starc comes on, so too has hell.

Our XI also features, along the way, a Chin, a Butt, a Back and a Knee

Harigovind S29-Jun-2023Michael ChinA right-hand opening batter from Berbice who played a solitary first-class match for Guyana in 1983, scoring 57 and 0 not out. If you’re mulling whether a single first-class match should secure entry to this club, Chin would point to the fact that it was not his fault that the league stages of the Jones Cup (later renamed the Guystac Trophy) were not granted first-class status.Salman ButtHis elegant left-hand batting and supple wrists drew comparisons with the legendary Saeed Anwar, but he’ll be remembered most of all for his role, as Pakistan captain, in the Lord’s spot-fixing scandal of 2009.Travis HeadA match-defining 163 in the first innings of the recent World Test Championship final may or may not etch his name in history, nor might his 96-ball 92 against South Africa in the second-shortest Test since World War II, on a bowler-friendly Gabba pitch, but what will eternalise Head’s memory is his prized possession: arguably the coolest moustache in 21st century cricket.Look, Travis, that’s you in the Headline•ICC/Getty ImagesDoug InsoleA fine batter with over 50 first-class centuries, Insole had a modest Test career of nine matches spread over seven years. He was the vice-captain when England visited South Africa in 1956, and topped the England Test batting averages. He would later go on to be the Test and County Cricket Board (precursor to the ECB) chairman and the MCC president.Graeme BeardAn allrounder who batted in the middle order and could bowl both medium-pace and offspin, Beard played three Tests for Australia, all on the 1979-80 tour of Pakistan, scoring 39 and 49 in the drawn third Test in Lahore. That was to be his last appearance in Test cricket; he was a non-playing member of the touring party for the 1981 Ashes, and retired a year later to focus on his job with the Australian Workers’ Union. Beard, disappointingly, appears to be clean-shaven in most of his photographs.Miriam KneeMiriam Knee was the heart and soul of Australia Women’s attack between 1961 and 1973. A right-arm bowler from Victoria who could bowl both seam and spin, Knee took 35 Test wickets in eight matches at an average of 16.28 – the eighth lowest in women’s Test history (minimum 1000 balls).William BackA first-class record spanning two matches with 12 runs at an average of 3.00 may cause you to turn your back on him, but William Back featured in Western Australia’s inaugural first-class match back in 1893. He was at the forefront of leading Western Australia to the first-class scene, opening the batting for them. Later, ironically, Back went on to work as a forwarding agent.David BrainTall and fast – the perfect combination to go with his daredevilish brain, which he used to spearhead Zimbabwe’s attack in Pakistan in 1993-94, and to produce numerous cameos with the bat. Eventually, the conflict between cricket and profession – the family hardware business in which he was heavily involved – ended his professional career.Give me a Hand, will ya?•Getty ImagesHenry Foot, Charles Foot, or Anthony FootCricket has a long history of Foots (Feet?). There was, of course, David Foot, the cricket writer who wrote, among other things, the acclaimed biography , and the . There were also the cricketers Henry, Charles and Anthony, born in 1805, 1855 and 1957 respectively, who played one first-class game each. Owing to that sample size, we leave to you, reader, the choice of which of the three to pick in our XI.Josh TongueTongue is many things at once – Smith’s marked nemesis, Lord’s specialist, and capable – in Ben Stokes’ words – of being two different kinds of third seamer. But his battle with David Warner on the first day of the second Ashes Test may have settled his identity as the man who gave Australia a tongue-lashing that no other England bowler seemed capable of.Fionn HandHailing from Dublin, Hand’s best moment on the cricket field probably came against eventual champions England, when he bowled Ben Stokes with what was widely described as the ball of the 2022 T20 World Cup. But there was perhaps even more debate among cricket fans when he debuted opposite Tongue in Ireland’s one-off Test against England in June: who else, they wondered, would join this duo in the All Time Anatomical XI?

India are in transition but the leader of their attack in the West Indies stepped up big time

Alagappan Muthu24-Jul-20231:01

Dasgupta: Siraj led the pace attack under pressure

“In the morning, we chatted about it, that the wicket was tough to bowl on. It’s slow and nothing is happening, like seam movement or spin. At the end, there was some turn but overall it was very easy for batting.”Their batting was also very defensive. So there were no chances for us because they didn’t play any attacking shots. To sum up our effort, it was great from our bowlers and each one of them did what was expected of them.”A little over 12 hours after India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey said all of that, he was watching his boys cut through the West Indies line-up.The missing link between India needing 67 overs to pick up four first-innings wickets on Saturday but only 7.4 to pick up five on Sunday was the new ball. It swung.This was a significant window of opportunity, which came with the catch that it was likely to be a small one. These are the moments that a good team seizes.India have been at this crossroads many times in overseas Test matches. Two of the more high-profile ones turned on the back of not so much the mistakes themselves but the timing of them. Their collapse on the sixth day of the first World Test Championship final and their letting Travis Head off the hook by never inviting him to hook when he was new to the crease in the most recent World Test Championship final.That hurt will never go away. Like 8-0 in 2011-12 never went away. In fact, a straight line can be traced from there to India having much improved fast bowling stocks. Perhaps in a similar way, the limitations that cost them those two ICC titles will now help them build once again.2:38

Siraj: Taking a five-for on a flat wicket isn’t easy

There were some good signs in Port-of-Spain, particularly from Mohammed Siraj. Did you know that he has been among the toughest quick bowlers to face in the last year? He has induced a false shot 211 times in 13 innings. And that’s while playing on the raging turners of Mirpur and Nagpur. The featherbed at Ahmedabad. And of course, this one here at the Queen’s Park Oval. The other quicks above him – there are 11 – the likes of Stuart Broad and Mitchell Starc and Matt Henry and Kagiso Radaba tend to play at venues much more suitable to their craft.Only a few minutes after Siraj walked back to the pavilion having bowled 3.4 overs for 13 runs and four wickets on the fourth morning, West Indies leaked 100 runs in 12.2 overs. This guy is that good and he has worked really hard for it. He didn’t rest on having a top-notch outswinger to the right-hand batters. He went out and found a way to bring the ball back into them. He knew that in order to be great, he had to test both edges of the bat. He had to create that uncertainty. In some of symmetry’s best work, two of his wickets came from balls leaving the right-hand batters and the other two from balls snarling back into them. Jason Holder’s downfall had the added subtlety of a bowler going wide of the crease to trick the batter into playing the angle, and therefore playing inside the line to be nicked off.Siraj is dangerously close to being a complete fast bowler. And he has only been playing Test cricket for two-and-a-half years.Mukesh Kumar looks a quick study as well. The control he offered on day three was crucial. The wickets he took were also significant. He had Alick Athanaze lbw with conventional swing. He used reverse seam – the ball moving off the pitch in the direction of the shine – to subdue Kirk McKenzie. And he hounded Kraigg Brathwaite on the front foot because he knew that’s the one place on a cricket field he doesn’t feel comfortable. On a quicker pitch, he might have had him lbw too.India have dominated this tour but that was expected when they were up against a team ranked eighth and a batting line-up that has routinely underperformed. Even so, the fact that they made what needed to happen happen – a collapse so that they can get in to bat early and set the pace in order to leave themselves enough time to bowl West Indies out again – will please the team management. They know they are in the middle of a transition but it is entirely possible that they’re relishing the hell out of it. Mhambrey’s smile as he greeted Siraj, who returned to the dressing room with the ball held aloft, was a dead giveaway.

ESPNcricinfo runs through the new-look West Indies squad, with some insights from Ian Bishop

Andrew McGlashan09-Jan-2024

Zachary McCaskie (27, top-order batter)

First-class record: Matches 11 | Runs 641 | Average 30.52 | Hundreds 0Despite being 27, McCaskie only made his first-class debut less than a year ago and has yet to score a century (although has one in List A cricket). Made 92 and 55 not out in his fourth match against Trinidad and Tobago, batting for over six hours in the game. “I was probably thinking about my scores a little much in the games prior,” he told Cricket West Indies’ YouTube channel at the time. “So I tried to have a free mind and it ended up paying off. It was a great feeling to be able to win a game for Barbados and be there at the end. I wanted to put up my hand and say I’m leaving it for no one else”He followed that with 93 in the Headley-Weekes Tri series, where he opened alongside Tagenarine Chanderpaul, and was selected for the A tours of Bangladesh and South Africa. On the latter he made two half-centuries in the second four-day game in East London.

Tevin Imlach (27, wicketkeeper)

First class record: Matches 17 | Runs 612 | Average 24.48 | Hundreds 1Imlach was part of the West Indies Under-19 side that won the 2016 World Cup and will likely be the reserve keeper for this tour. In the final of that tournament he pulled off a unusual stumping to remove Rishabh Pant who had taken guard outside of his crease to Alzarri Joseph, left the ball alone and Imlach underarmed at the stumps. “Very clever,” Bishop recalled.His limited first-class record is in part because Guyana had a number of senior keepers in front of him after the Under-19 World Cup. His maiden first-class century came last year against Jamaica when he made 136 not out. Was the vice-captain on the recent A tour of South Africa. “He confesses not to have any extraordinary stories in terms of his development but he’s a nice touch batsman,” Bishop said.

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Justin Greaves (29, seam-bowling allrounder)

First class record: Matches 37 | Runs 1268 | Average 26.97 | Hundreds 1 | Wickets 76 | Average 22.76 | Five-wickets 4An allrounder who had a good domestic one-day tournament last year but has just one first-class century dating back to 2017. Has played international cricket with three ODIs against Ireland in 2022 where he was a batter-only due to back problems. In last year’s four-day Championship he took 16 wickets at 16.06 for Windward Islands having previously played for Barbados.”He’s a little bit of a surprise [selection] actually,” Bishop said. “He’s a nice little utility player. He can open the batting as he does in one-day cricket, bat in the middle, and is a nice touch player. When he played for West Indies Under-19s it was as an allrounder, [and he] sometimes opened the bowling for Barbados with his fast-medium or medium-fast bowling but his batting has taken over in the last two or three seasons.”

Kavem Hodge (30, batting allrounder, left-arm spinner)

First-class record: Matches 55 | Runs 2762 | Average 29.07 | Hundreds 4 | Wickets 55 | Average 37.80 | Five-wickets 1Like Greaves, was part of the 2012 Under-19 cohort. The left-arm spinner and middle-order batter played three ODIs against UAE last year. Has four first-class centuries, the most recent of which was his career-best 137 last March where he batted five-and-a-half hours and formed a stand of 246 with Alick Athanzne. Batted at No. 4 on the recent A tour of South Africa. Bowling-wise, his career-best 6 for 68 dates back to 2019 against Trinidad and Tobago.”He bowls, I’d say, left-arm darts,” Bishop said. “It’s not filled with great variation but he can bat like four or five in the order and he’s been a workmanlike sort of cricketer around the regional circuit since his Under-19 days. He’s not a spectacular looking player, but a very practical player.”Kevin Sinclair commemorates a wicket with gravity-defying acrobatics•AFP/Getty Images

Kevin Sinclair (24, offspinner, allrounder)

First-class record: Matches 21 | Runs 976 | Average 31.48 | Hundreds 0 | Wickets 66 | Average 24.33 | Five-wickets 4Internationally, the most experienced of the seven players uncapped at Test level with 13 white-ball games under his belt. He is perhaps most famous for his somersault celebrations. Has impressive domestic bowling returns across all three formats and could be an all-round option in the middle order depending on the balance of the side. Across two A series in Bangladesh and South Africa he took 25 wickets at 25.80 and averaged 46.12 with the bat. Has previously picked the brain of Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan about how to improve his red-ball bowling.”An offspinner who is very tidy and I’m surprised he hasn’t made more headway in competition with someone like a Roston Chase,” Bishop said. “Kevin loves his batting. While we see Kevin as a bowling allrounder he sees himself as a batting allrounder and had a very useful tour of South Africa with the bat. An up-and-coming allrounder…and a very good fielder as well. He’s an evolving bowler and won’t back down from a challenge.”

Akeem Jordan (29, pace bowler)

First-class record: Matches 15 | Wickets 59 | Average 22.08 | Five-wickets 2Jofra Archer slept on Jordan’s floor as he tried to make his way in county cricket. Jordan himself only made his first-class debut in 2022 but has a handy record across 15 matches. He was part of the Test squad that toured South Africa early last year and played a couple of ODIs against UAE. Took 5 for 45 against Bangladesh A in Sylhet then helped them to victory with 22 not out.”He is very skillful, can bowl the new ball, and looks to put the ball in the right areas. He is also a sharp fielder and good catcher close to the wicket,” Desmond Haynes, West Indies’ lead selector, said when he was included for South Africa.”Medium-fast who swings the ball. He can bring it in a little bit and can seam it,” Bishop said. “Those are his major strengths. One of those all-round talents whose bowling with the new ball will be [about] swing and perhaps be more of a probing [role] rather than someone who will scare you [with pace].”Shamar Joseph’s raw talent has got people excited•Getty Images

Shamar Joseph (24, pace bowler)

First-class record: Matches 5 | Wickets 21 | Average 21.80 | Five-wickets 2The 24-year-old has just five first-class matches under his belt but is viewed as a very exciting prospect. Not long ago he was working as a security guard to help look after his young family. Made his first-class debut early last year and claimed 12 wickets in two matches on the A tour of South Africa. Was also part of the Guyana Amazon Warriors squad which won the CPL.”I’ve been putting in a lot of work lately, training hard, so I’m extremely happy,” he told after his call-up. “I learned a lot [in South Africa]. We had one of the great fast bowlers, Shaun Tait, with us so he taught us a lot. I don’t want to get carried away by the fast wickets [in Australia], just stick to the basics.”Bishop said: “Through sheer hard work he moved to Georgetown. When you see him there’s not an ounce of fat on him. A very diligent, hardworking, fast-medium bowler and quicker than the others we’ve mentioned. Very skiddy. I first ran into him live last year when West Indies were playing in Guyana and I caught a sight of him in the nets and he has hustle, bustle and really comes at you. There’s a lot of high hopes for him because of his attitude and because of his physical capabilities.”

“For now, it’s about identifying the how. In certain conditions – how are we going to play?” – White-ball coach JP Duminy on South Africa’s plans to stay positive despite the slide against India

Firdose Moonda18-Dec-2023Scoring runs in challenging conditions is the next hurdle for South Africa’s batters as they continue to develop their style of play under a fairly new coaching staff.That was the assessment white-ball coach JP Duminy offered after the Wanderers ODI, where South Africa were dismissed for 116 – their lowest total at home.It came in the third game after they were shot out by India for 83 at the World Cup, which was Duminy and head coach Rob Walter’s first major tournament after they were appointed in February. At that point, the bulk of South Africa’s World Cup Super League campaign had been run and they were on the verge of missing out on automatic qualification to the 2023 World Cup but scrapped their way in when they beat Netherlands at home. From that point, they appeared to be a team transformed.Related

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At the World Cup, they topped 350 four times in seven matches and broke the record for the highest World Cup score in their tournament opener against Sri Lanka, before being humbled by India and losing in the semi-final. So how do South Africa veer from dominating attacks to being dominated from match to match? If you believe Duminy, it’s because they’re still figuring things out under a management that has only overseen them in two series (West Indies and Australia) and the World Cup so far.”When you are trying to build a brand and a style of play, you are potentially going to have those contrasting experiences,” he said at the post-match press conference. “That’s where the learning happens. Part of how you find consistency is actually experiencing either or and then understanding why things are happening. That’s the journey for us. When it’s good, we are really good. When conditions are good, we can score 400 but how do we still find our way to 280 on a tough wicket? That’s the question for us.”It’s not only about the pitch but also about the quality of the bowling. At the World Cup, South Africa (and they were not the only ones) could not get Mohammed Siraj or Jasprit Bumrah away in the early stages of their reply to India’s 326 and were 35 for 3 in the Powerplay. In the semi-final, sensational opening spells from Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood left them on 32 for 4 after 13 overs. Then, David Miller, with assistance from Heinrich Klaasen, showed the temperament to haul them over 200. But a match later, Mukesh Kumar (though he did not take any wickets), Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan kept them to 116 and there was no-one to absorb or transfer pressure.

“Tony has all the attributes to be consistent. What I really enjoyed was still finding a way of scoring above 100 strike rate under those difficult circumstances and the conviction in his movement, the conviction in his options and his clarity and commitment to his shots.”JP Duminy on Tony de Zorzi

Duminy identified the relentlessness in the disciplines of Indian attack juxtaposed with reticence from his own line-up to take the game forward as the root cause of the issue. “The thing that stands out for me is consistency. If you assess conditions and understand where the biggest threat is, you have to land the ball there consistently. Think of Arshdeep [Singh] and his ability to swing the ball up front as well as nibble it. He was asking those questions consistently, so you were always under pressure and when you don’t have those answers, today happens,” he said. “It’s about coming up against the conditions and the opposition and finding the right formula.”In essence, it sounds as though South Africa’s problem is that they’re being moulded into an outfit that plays aggressive cricket, as is the way of the modern game, but if they are put on the back foot, they don’t always know how to recover.One player who showed glimpses of that was new opener Tony de Zorzi. After Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen were dismissed for ducks, de Zorzi took the fight to India when he hit Mukesh over point for six and through extra cover in the same over, then drove him through the off side for two boundaries in the next over and even short-arm pulled Arshdeep for six. He misjudged his next pull and top-edged to end his innings on 28 but ended up scoring at greater than a run a ball and rebuilding some momentum.”Tony has all the attributes to be consistent,” Duminy said. “What I really enjoyed was still finding a way of scoring above 100 strike rate under those difficult circumstances and the conviction in his movement, the conviction in his options and his clarity and commitment to his shots. He is aggressive in nature, particularly in how he wants to play the game so it’s exciting to see.”De Zorzi will play the rest of the series alongside Reeza Hendricks and is likely to come into South Africa’s long-term plans, especially after Quinton de Kock’s ODI retirement. Luckily for him, and Duminy, they have time to fine-tune the way they want the batters to go about things. “If you think where do we go from here – the Champions Trophy and the 2027 World Cup – it may be far away but understanding that brand is important,” Duminy said. “For now, it’s about identifying the how. In certain conditions – how are we going to play?”The short answer is: hopefully not the way they did at the Wanderers.

“There’s the real sense of calm out there when you know you’ve got someone that good,” says Australia captain Pat Cummins

Alex Malcolm03-Mar-20242:12

Cummins: Green as sharp as I have seen him

You couldn’t see the glint in Nathan Lyon’s eye behind his trademark tinted sunglasses, but you could tell it was there.It was there during his press conference after day three when he spoke with overwhelming confidence that Australia would create the seven chances necessary to win the Test match.It was there on the morning of day one when he ran his hand over the verdant Basin Reserve pitch and felt a dryness and hardness underneath that suggested sharp spin and bounce was on offer.Related

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He was right on both fronts, and he and Cameron Green were the chief architects of Australia’s 172-run win.Lyon put on a masterclass of offspin bowling on the fourth and final day, becoming just the 10th spinner to take 10 wickets in a match in New Zealand and only the third to do so in the long history of the Basin Reserve, behind two spin bowling luminaries in Muthiah Muralidaran and Australia’s current bowling coach Daniel Vettori.He also achieved the rare air of becoming just the third Test bowler to take five-wicket hauls in nine different countries behind Muralidaran and Shane Warne.You could not wipe the smile off Pat Cummins’ face after Lyon had spun his side to victory yet again.”Captain’s dream really,” Cummins said. “There’s the real sense of calm out there when you know you’ve got someone that good on a wicket that’s giving him a little bit of help.”You can get creative with some of the field placements knowing he’s going to land it exactly where you want it to. I thought he was brilliant over the last couple of days bouncing through a few different plans but just always felt like he was in control and always felt like we had Plan B, C, D that we could go to as well but never really felt like we had to. Yeah, an absolute dream.”Rachin Ravindra walks back disappointed after falling in Nathan Lyon’s trap•Getty ImagesThey tried plan B very briefly on the fourth morning with Lyon switching to the R.A. Vance stand end first up despite his first six wickets, and Glenn Phillips’ five, falling from the Southern end. The idea was to give Mitchell Starc a chance from the Southern end to see if he could swing the 41-over old ball with the help of a south-westerly breeze. But Starc was unable to find much movement, and Lyon was not extracting as much spin and bounce from the R.A Vance end and after two overs Cummins went back to plan A.It took Lyon three balls to break the game open from his preferred end. He found some extra bounce and Rachin Ravindra miscued a cut straight to point. Three balls later he had Tom Blundell caught at short leg for the second time in the match and the game was all but over.Lyon had forecast his plans in his press conference the night before. There was no secret sauce. He would bowl around the wicket with overspin and try and challenge the sticker of the bat with short leg and leg slip in place.ESPNcricinfo LtdNew Zealand knew the plan. They just could not throw him off it. Two balls into Lyon’s next over Phillips glanced one inches short of leg slip. Two balls later Phillips played back again to a quicker ball that spun sharply and was pinned plumb lbw.It had taken Lyon all of 22 balls on the fourth morning to take three wickets and get into New Zealand’s tail. He would pick up a sixth of the innings when Tim Southee holed out to long-on after deciding his defence was not good enough to withstand the pressure.It was a meek end from New Zealand. But it was a credit to the irrepressible and ageless Lyon. He has made no secret of the fact that he wants to keep playing until the end of the 2027 Ashes and his captain said he will continue in the job as long as Lyon is still going.”I’d love for him to keep going until 2027,” Cummins said. “I think the only barrier I think really is his body.”If he looks after his body and makes sure he’s right for whatever it is, 10 Test matches a year, I’d absolutely love if he was playing until 2027.”I don’t think there’s much that’s going to get in his way. I’ve already told him the day he retires I’m definitely giving up the captaincy because it makes my life a hell of a lot easier.”

Lloyd Pope and Cameron Boyce shared seven wickets to stun defending champions Perth Scorchers

Tristan Lavalette21-Jan-20241:22

Gillespie: Strikers motivated by ‘one man team’ jibe

With their season on the line, Adelaide Strikers’ hierarchy faced a selection headache ahead of playing defending champions Perth Scorchers at the pace-friendly Optus Stadium.Strikers had surged into the knockout final since turning around their season after a heavy loss in Perth earlier in the month, where they conceded 211 for 4, left their finals hopes hanging by a threadStrikers languished in last spot on the BBL ladder after their struggling attack leaked more than 200 runs for the third time in five games.Related

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“We got to a point in the season where every game was a final for us,” Strikers coach Jason Gillespie said. “So we had to do something different. We had to be brave enough to make a change in our philosophy and strategy.”Strikers turned to legspinner Lloyd Pope, most known for his starring role at the Under-19 World Cup in 2018, who had only played one match in domestic cricket across three formats over the past two seasons.It proved an inspired gamble with Pope starring with the big wickets of Aaron Hardie and Josh Inglis as a revamped Strikers attack limited Scorchers to 153 for 7 in their eventual nine-wicket thumping at the Adelaide Oval.Pope continued to combine superbly with frontline legpinner Cameron Boyce, who all season has seamlessly replaced injured Afghanistan star Rashid Khan.”They’re two very different types of legspinners,” Gillespie said. “Boyce is a lot slower through the air. He’s got great control of his length and Popey’s a little bit quicker through the air, but he’s got a real turning and bouncing wrong’un.”But the traditionally hard and fast surface at Optus Stadium is particularly tough for spinners, who are usually on a hiding to nothing. Teams don’t often select two frontline spinners there. In the ground’s previous match, Sydney Sixers dropped in-form left-armer Steve O’Keefe for seamer Jackson Bird.Quicks Wes Agar and Brendan Doggett were desperate to be recalled, but Strikers stuck with Pope and also included offspinning allrounder Ben Manenti.”We’ve come here [Perth] over the years trying to fight fire with fire,” Gillespie said. “Let’s take a complete change of tactics and see how we go. We genuinely believed the team we picked from a bowling perspective was a really good match up against the Scorchers”We knew they had a lot of left-handers, so the offspin and the leggies bowling two different paces… we thought that would create a challenge for Scorchers. They like pace on, they are a strong hitting team. Let’s take the air out of the ball and make them make the pace.”Defending a modest 155 for 7, Strikers seemed headed for an exit when debutant Sam Fanning attacked the new ball as Scorchers rattled off 33 runs in the powerplay.

Adelaide Strikers’ winning streak

vs Brisbane Heat: match abandoned
vs Sydney Thunder: won by six wickets
vs Sydney Sixers: lost by one run
vs Melbourne Renegades: lost by four wickets
vs Melbourne Stars: lost by seven wickets
vs Perth Scorchers: lost by 42 runs
vs Perth Scorchers: won by nine wickets
vs Hobart Hurricanes: won by five wickets
vs Hobart Hurricanes: won by 8 wickets
vs Sydney Thunder: won by nine wickets
vs Perth Scorchers: won by 50 runs

But Fanning’s fairytale was soon cut short by seamer Henry Thornton before Pope came into the attack in the sixth over. He dismissed Marcus Harris, a late season signing, on his fourth delivery and then combined with Boyce to bamboozle Scorchers in the type of mesmerising spin bowling rarely seen in Perth.It inevitably came down to their battles with Scorchers’ best batters Hardie and Inglis, who usually treat spinners with complete disdain at Optus Stadium. Hardie’s eyes light up when the ball is tossed up, but he missed a flighted delivery from Pope that dipped and crashed into his stumps.The pressure fell on Inglis, who has a knack for giving himself room against spin and carving over the covers. He again tried his favoured stroke against Boyce only for the ball to skid off the surface and knock over leg stump.Boyce celebrated manically as Scorchers were eventually routed for 105. Eight of their 10 wickets fell to spin with Pope and Boyce combining for seven of them.

We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ll go to the Gold Coast full of beans and full of energy… but, again, [stay] nice and calmStrikers head coach Jason Gillespie

“The feedback from our batters was that it was like a tennis ball bounce on a spongy surface. We thought that would actually work for us with our spinners,” Gillespie said. “We just felt we were in the game and then were a wicket away from cracking it open.”Strikers’ eventual hefty 50-win victory seemed totally implausible when they were reeling at 48 for 4 after being sent in. They had been earlier left shaken when skipper Matthew Short was bowled by a gem of an inswinging yorker from veteran Andrew Tye for 13.It was only Short’s second failure in what has been a record-breaking season for a player closing in on a spot in Australia’s T20 World Cup squad.Strikers’ fightback was led by No. 3 Jake Weatherald, who has been another important late season inclusion. There had been grave fears over their batting-order missing Chris Lynn, Adam Hose and Jamie Overton who had all departed to the UAE’s ILT20.But Weatherald continued his rich vein of form to hit the only half-century of the match and ignite Strikers. “Jake’s had a quiet couple of years. We just had to back his experience,” Gillespie said of Weatherald, who is averaging 183 with a strike-rate of 192.63 in his last three matches.”He’s just coming out with a free mind and I’ve just encouraged him to hit the ball like he’s having a net because he’s one of the best batters in the net you’ll ever see.”Lloyd Pope (left) and Cameron Boyce (right) have helped inspire a change of fortunes for Adelaide Strikers•Getty ImagesHaving ended Scorchers’ stranglehold of the BBL, Strikers pulled off one of their best ever wins in a triumph that was particularly sweet. Gillespie had his team had woken up on game day to the back page of the , the unsurprisingly parochial local newspaper, that sported the headline ‘Scorchers v One Man’.”Incredibly pleased, especially when we read the back page of the paper today and saw that we are a one-man team,” Gillespie said. “That gave the boys a hell of a lot of motivation.”It provided assistant coach Ryan Harris the perfect ammunition for his now customary pre-game rev-up to the players and the rest was history.But Strikers will have to back up quickly as they make the long trip to the Gold Coast to meet Brisbane Heat in the Challenger on Monday. The winner will face Sixers in the final at the SCG on Wednesday.Heat and Strikers have effectively not played this season after their early season match in Adelaide was abandoned without a ball being bowled.A two-paced Gold Coast surface is likely to suit Boyce and Pope as Strikers suddenly find themself inching towards a first BBL title in six years.”A couple of buzzwords for us this year have been: calm and clear… execute. We’ve kept things really simple as much as we can,” Gillespie said. “We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ll go to the Gold Coast full of beans and full of energy… but, again, [stay] nice and calm.”Just go out there and have some fun and see where it takes us.”

Reactions from social media after Punjab Kings chased down 262 against KKR with eight balls to spare

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Apr-2024.

It’s run a ball for the last 2 overs of a T 20 game in a chase of 260 +.

Let that sink in. #IPL2024 #KKRvsPBKS

— Ashwin (@ashwinravi99) April 26, 2024