A lot of his runs in this IPL have come at the Wankhede. Can he be just as destructive when he travels away from home?

Abhimanyu Bose15-May-2023Suryakumar Yadav is about to face a serious test. Playing away from home.On Friday, he put Gujarat Titans to the sword with a sublime century – his first in the IPL – as Mumbai Indians consolidated their place in the top four of the IPL 2023 league table.It was an atypical Suryakumar innings for the first 34 deliveries he faced, before he brought out the full range of his audacity to light up the Wankhede.In the 19th over, he took on Mohammed Shami and played perhaps the most incredible shot of them all.This is how it was described on ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary: “I don’t have a name for this shot. Fullish, angling in towards off stump, and SKY steps away to the leg side to create room, to play what starts off as a lofted off drive, except he uses his wrists to slice underneath the ball and hit it over short third. Over short third! For six.”Related

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It was completely intentional. The commentators argued whether it was or not. Replays showed Suryakumar opening the face of the bat at the last moment. He can do wonders, when there is pace on the ball, but there is unlikely to be a lot of that in Mumbai’s next game in Lucknow.With its slow, low, turning pitches, the Ekana Stadium is the least friendly venue for run-scoring this season. Batters this season have averaged a mere 17.46 and have been striking at 112.22.Now Suryakumar is no ordinary player. More to the point, he is on a hot streak – 413 runs in his last seven innings at a strike rate of 202, including five fifty-plus scores.Even so, much of his success this season has come at home. In fact, after scoring just 1 in Mumbai’s first game at the Wankhede this season against Chennai Super Kings, Suryakumar’s lowest score there has been the 43 against Knight Riders.

And is Mitch Marsh the only man to score a century and take a wicket on the first day of a Test?

Steven Lynch11-Jul-2023How many people have scored a century and taken five wickets in an ODI, as Bas de Leede did in the World Cup Qualifier? asked Carsten Wulff from the Netherlands

That astonishing performance by Bas de Leede, which almost single-handedly propelled Netherlands into the World Cup later this year, was only the fourth instance of a man scoring a century and taking a five-for in the same one-day international. But it’s fair to say that none of the others faced the pressure de Leede had: in his own version of “Basball”, he followed 5 for 52 with 123 off 92 balls as the Dutch beat Scotland in Bulawayo to clinch their place in the main event.The first to do this particular double was Viv Richards, with 119 and 5 for 41 for West Indies against New Zealand in Dunedin in 1986-87. He was followed by Paul Collingwood, with 112 not out and 6 for 31 for England vs Bangladesh at Trent Bridge in 2005, and Rohan Mustafa for United Arab Emirates against Papua New Guinea in Abu Dhabi in 2017.In women’s ODIs, New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr followed 232 not out with 5 for 17 against Ireland at Clontarf (Dublin) in 2018. And in men’s T20Is, Francisco Couana combined 104 with 5 for 19 for Mozambique against Cameroon in Rwanda in 2021-22.Mitch Marsh scored a century and later took a wicket on the first day of the third Test. How many people have done this? asked Keith McKenzie from Australia

Mitchell Marsh, in his first Test for nearly four years, scored 118 on the first day of the third Ashes Test at Headingley, and then took the wicket of Zak Crawley.I was surprised to find that only two men had previously achieved this particular double, both of them New Zealanders. The first was Giff Vivian, against South Africa in Wellington in 1931-32; he made exactly 100, and then dismissed the visitors’ captain Jock Cameron. He was joined many years later by Scott Styris, against West Indies in Auckland in 2005-06 – he followed an unbeaten 103 with the wickets of Chris Gayle and nightwatchman Ian Bradshaw.Records for women’s Tests are rather more sketchy, but it looks as if two women have also done it: Myrtle Maclagan for England against Australia in Blackpool in 1937, and Betty Wilson for Australia vs England in Adelaide in 1948-49Danni Wyatt recently made her Test debut after over 200 white-ball internationals. Was this the most, by a man or woman? asked Chris Merchant from England

Danni Wyatt made her Test debut for England recently, against Australia at Trent Bridge, after 245 white-ball internationals – 102 ODIs and 143 T20Is. That is indeed the most before a Test debut, beating 189 by Sune Luus of South Africa.The men’s record is 184 (125 ODIs and 59 T20Is) by Kevin O’Brien before his Test debut in 2018. His Ireland team-mate William Porterfield is next with 175 matches, then comes Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi with 161.The record for most white-ball internationals without ever playing a Test is 295, by New Zealand’s Suzie Bates; next comes the West Indian Deandra Dottin with 270. At the moment she’s one ahead of the leading man, South Africa’s David Miller, who has so far played 155 ODIs and 114 T20Is.Suzie Bates has played 295 internationals but is yet to make her red-ball debut for Zealand•AFP/Getty ImagesImran Khan dismissed Sunil Gavaskar with the first ball of the first Test played at Jaipur. How many other international grounds have seen a wicket from their very first ball? asked Rafay Iqbal from England

The match you’re talking about was the third Test of the 1986-87 series between India and Pakistan: Imran Khan had Sunil Gavaskar caught off the opening ball in Jaipur, which was staging its first – and to date only – Test match. Note that the Sawai Mansingh Stadium had previously held two ODIs, so this was not the first ball in international cricket there.Two other grounds have seen their Test careers begin with a wicket: Pakistan’s Mohsin Khan was trapped in front by Kapil Dev of India off the first ball of the only Test played at Burlton Park in Jalandhar, in 1983-84; it had also staged an ODI before this. And West Indies’ Chris Gayle was lbw to Suranga Lakmal of Sri Lanka off the first ball of the first Test – and first international – at the new stadium in Pallekele in 2010-11.Looking at all internationals, pride of place goes to the City Oval in Pietermaritzburg, which saw Chaminda Vaas take a hat-trick for Sri Lanka against Bangladesh with the first three deliveries there, during the 50-over World Cup early in 2003.Two other grounds have had a wicket go down to their first ball in men’s internationals: Scarborough (Barry Wood bowled by Andy Roberts for England vs West Indies in an ODI in 1976) and Windsor Park in Dominica (Tamim Iqbal caught behind off Kemar Roach for Bangladesh vs West Indies in an ODI in 2009). I remember a Sunday League game at Chelmsford many years ago, when the umpire had two walking sticks. Do you know who he was? asked Keith Mardell via Facebook

The gentleman you are thinking of was Roddy Wilson, a Yorkshireman who had one full season on the English first-class umpires’ panel, in 1978. He stood in some additional first-class games in other years, and more than 100 in the Minor Counties Championship. In his year on the first-class panel he umpired Essex’s County Championship and Sunday League games against Hampshire in Chelmsford.Roddy Wilson died in 2001 aged 69. He used a stick, sometimes two, to get around. I’m not sure why, but would hazard a guess at childhood polio. There was another Wilson umpiring at around the same time – the Lancastrian Tommy Wilson, who died earlier this year – who by coincidence had also suffered from polio as a child. Tommy remembered that Roddy, seven years his senior, eventually had to give up umpiring because he found his hands were being affected by constantly having to put weight on his arm crutches.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

They have traditionally built their game on bowling power, but batting is their stronger suit at this World Cup

Firdose Moonda06-Oct-2023Is it too soon to say that South Africa arrived at the 2023 ODI World Cup so quietly that Temba Bavuma appearing to fall asleep at the captains’ day press conference epitomises their under-the-radar entry? Maybe.But we’ll go with it because it was also the camera angle – Bavuma was actually looking down at his hands – that finally, and ironically, put South Africa in the spotlight at this tournament, albeit not for the reason they may have wanted. Whatevs. At least we’ve all noticed they’re here.That was barely the case in the build-up, which was dominated by endless details about England’s revolutionary approach (what do they call that again? Something with a ‘B’?) and whether India will farewell Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from the format with a win when it matters most. It seems a foregone conclusion that Australia – who South Africa beat 3-2 just a few weeks ago though with an experimental Australia XI – will find their big-tournament mojo and New Zealand, as they have done in the last two tournaments, are among those that could reach the final.Related

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Given that Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Netherlands are not on many lists to make the knockouts and Sri Lanka seem to be a diminished force, Pakistan, after a disappointing Asia Cup, and South Africa have been left in World Cup no-man’s land. But they shouldn’t be. As an indication that they are still respected World Cup opposition, seven of the 12 experts on ESPNcricinfo’s panel picked them as among those that could make the semi-finals, and if we look at the numbers, their chances seem better than that.While South Africa have traditionally built their game on bowling, this time it’s the batting line-up which stands out. Since the last World Cup in 2019, South Africa’s top three collectively average 43.41, with only Pakistan and India registering better returns. Interestingly, Quinton de Kock, who has the biggest reputation of the trio, has the smallest average – 44.75, which is nothing to sniff at. Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen average over 55. Bavuma, in particular, is enjoying the best year of his ODI career. In 2023, he has played ten matches and scored 637 runs at 79.62 with three match-defining centuries to his name. The first of those: 109 against England in Bloemfontein in January, put South Africa on course to automatic qualification for this World Cup, in a must-win series.All that sounds good, and sets the tone for a strong start, but it gets better. South Africa’s middle order, which has usually been their undoing in big tournaments, is the best in the world according to the numbers. Since the last World Cup, the No. 5 and 6 batters in the line-up average 51.50, with a higher strike rate than anyone else: 112.24. They have used a few different players in those positions but for the last few months and at this World Cup, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller have taken ownership of those spots.

“At the moment, maybe it’s the batters who are firing and taking on that responsibility and there is room for us to improve within the bowling front.”Bavuma ahead of South Africa’s opener against Sri Lanka

Ordinarily, Miller would be the player we would focus on, but Klaasen has established himself as the premier finisher in the global game, in both international and league cricket. In 2023, he has scored 527 runs in 11 ODIs, at 58.55 and a strike rate of 151.43 – the highest of any batter who has played more than ten ODIs this year. He has also smashed 47 fours and 25 sixes this year. Of batters at this World Cup, only Rohit and Shubman Gill have hit more.Expectations are that Klaasen will set South Africa’s campaign alight, but, as Bavuma rightly says, he is able to do that because of the platform laid by the top order. “Klaasen is walking on water at the moment with the way he’s been batting,” Bavuma said in Delhi on the eve of South Africa’s opener against Sri Lanka.”He’s obviously a big player for us and [he] comes in and he marshals that middle order. I guess his success, not to take credit away from it, is probably largely due to the platform that it gets from the guys who come in at the top of the order whether it be Quinton, myself or Rassie. It’s important that those guys do their jobs so guys like Klaasen, even a guy like David or Aiden [Markram] can go out and do what we expect and want them to do.”Heinrich Klaasen is in some form this year, hitting 527 runs in 11 ODIs, at 58.55 and a strike rate of 151.43•AFP/Getty ImagesSouth Africa initially only had one genuine allrounder in their squad – Marco Jansen – which raised questions about the balance of their team and whether they would find themselves short on resources. They have since included a second in Andile Phehlukwayo, who came in for an injured Sisanda Magala. Phehlukwayo could add some batting depth if needed. Importantly, he also brings variety to the attack, which finds itself playing a supporting role, but Bavuma cautioned that all the responsibility should not lie on them.”There are days where the batting won’t fire and we’re going to need the bowlers to come through, and vice versa,” Bavuma said. “At the moment, maybe it’s the batters who are firing and taking on that responsibility and there is room for us to improve within the bowling front.”These are not statements you will often hear a South African say because their cricketing DNA is based on steady batting and explosive quicks. But this is not a usual South Africa team. This is one that booked its spot at the tournament at the very last direct opportunity – literally. They only confirmed qualification in May, when Ireland could not beat Bangladesh to clinch the eighth spot, and were in the middle of a five-month international break at the time. Since then, they have only played one series in the build-up, not several, as they have previously done, and their arrival in India has been as low-key as it comes, apart from that Bavuma incident, which has become a meme.At least the man himself took it in good spirit, which is also different to how previous South African captains have reacted to being provoked at the start of a big tournament. Maybe things have changed. Now, South Africans will hope that the more they do, the less the outcome of big tournaments will be the same.

For the second time this year in an ICC final, Travis Head took on India’s vaunted bowling attack to decisive effect

Shashank Kishore19-Nov-20231:39

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Virat Kohli is chirping away. He implores the crowd to join him. He waves his hands at them and then asks them to up the noise. Right on cue, the crowd responds. Travis Head hasn’t quite middled anything yet, and Australia are three down. A contest is brewing.Head’s methods have been to detonate attacks in the powerplay, irrespective of the nature of the surfaces. Here, there’s all the more reason for him to go hard. Australia are mindful of not ceding control to India by the time their spinners come on.Six weeks ago, Head had been at home in Adelaide, nursing a broken hand, as he watched Australia’s top order collapse against sustained hostility by a skilled pace attack in Chennai. By the time the spinners came on, Australia were properly under the pump. Anything from there on was merely an effort in damage limitation. Here, in the World Cup final, Head wasn’t going to be dictated similarly.Related

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So what does he do? He decides to be brave and takes on India’s bowling frontman, Mohammed Shami. The man who could do no wrong. Match after match, he’s come on, made the ball talk, coaxed it to do his bidding. Shami has already dismissed David Warner and is beginning to bowl with fire.At the other end, Jasprit Bumrah has sent the crowd into a tizzy, having sucker-punched Steven Smith with a deceptive cutter. At his best, Bumrah is capable of getting into the heads of batters, having them second guess his methods. Here, Bumrah doesn’t hide his plans. He means business. He’s going on all-out attack.As a batter, the situation can throw you in two minds. It’s at this point that Head decides he needs to take the game head on. It’s risky, no doubt, but because Head trusts his methods and plays a game without half-measures, it seems like a risk worth taking.Maybe it’s the confidence of form, even though at that moment, he has just scrapped to ten off 23 balls. It’s just the tenth over, and another wicket can really open the floodgates. But Head seems unperturbed. He dabs a nip-backer from Shami between a wide slip and short third for four. He plays it really late; he’s allowed the ball to do its thing, in moving back in. The bowler has no inkling of the shot until Head brings his bat down very late. It gets him going. Shami now goes fuller and slower. Head bludgeons it down the ground. Suddenly, he’s up and running.It’s all that is needed to ignite him. It frees him up to go on the attack. And because India are attacking, too, their margins for error have diminished to the point that a half-good hit over the ring is almost guaranteed to give full value. Head, though, doesn’t do half measures. He’s going after them.Kuldeep Yadav bears the brunt when Head clobbers a slog sweep over deep midwicket to stun the crowd that was bubbling only a while earlier. Head knows a thing or two about silencing crowds. He did it against India at a packed Oval in June in the WTC final, racing away in the afternoon session against an attack that had briefly switched off. By the time India woke up and realised going short into the body was the way to go, he had ransacked a hundred on the opening day . He’s doing something similar now, after a slow, somewhat iffy start.

“Trav just epitomised everything I want out of a cricket team. He takes the game on, he plays with a smile, he just puts the pressure right back onto the opposition”Pat Cummins on Travis Head

Three nights agoin Kolkata, head had taken the attack to the South African pacers in a small chase, in a manner similar to this. That night, Australia’s start was fuelled by Warner. Here, Head has made the bold move. You didn’t realise how, but by the time India considered a better plan against him, he had raised a fifty. Marnus Labuschagne, meanwhile, quietly slips into the background, playing risk-free cricket, milking singles and simply ensuring he’s there.Head isn’t your definition of pleasing-on-the-eye. At the same time, he isn’t ugly. Somewhere in between the artist and the industrious lies a method unique to him. One of a hunter, preying on loose deliveries, pouncing at the slightest sniff. It’s what he does to Bumrah immediately when Rohit turns back to his trump card after realising that spin isn’t going to be as profitable as he expected it to, especially under lights.Head whips Bumrah through midwicket and follows that up with a wallop down the ground. They are fours in the score book but is a crushing blow to a bowler’s ego. Even for a bowler like Bumrah, these are the sort of blows that can hurt. And because the full balls have been dispatched, Bumrah goes short, in an attempt to tuck him up. Only Head is fully aware. He stays upright and nails the pull.You look at the scorecard and go “wow”! Here he was, struggling to middle the ball early on, perhaps a tad edgy. And then at the slightest hint of India erring, he has found his gears and is moments away from a hundred in a World Cup final. It can’t get sweeter, considering he nearly didn’t make it here. Until a night prior to Australia’s squad announcement, he didn’t know if he would be ruled out by that broken hand.2:56

‘Travis Head has matured over the last two years across all formats’ – Tom Moody

Pat Cummins admitted to having a sleepless night at the prospect of having to see Head miss the bus. But his relief knew no bounds when George Bailey, the chief selector, and Andrew McDonald, the head coach, decided to take a punt.”He had a broken finger, a broken hand for the half of the tournament, but to keep him in the squad was a huge risk,” Cummins said at the post-match press conference. “And the medical team were fantastic, obviously, to get him into a place where he could perform. So that was a big risk. I think we could have been made to look really silly if that didn’t pay off, but you have got to take those risks to win a tournament.”And Trav, the player we’ve seen in Test cricket, he just epitomised everything I want out of a cricket team. He takes the game on, he plays with a smile, he just puts the pressure right back onto the opposition and he’s just great fun to be around. So, I couldn’t be happier for Trav.”When the century arrives, off a scampered single that he’d given up on, you can’t quite be sure if his hand gestures towards the dressing room means he needs a change of gloves or if it’s a message to someone. What you do know is, as he holds his arms aloft and looks up at his team-mates wildly cheering for him from the dugout, there’s realisation of a job well done.The hunter had hunted down the nemesis, on the grandest stage. The occasion fitting enough to complete a chapter in a memorable year he’s having. As a batter, you dream of playing and winning one world title in your career. Head has won two, within a span of six months. And both times, he was at the front and centre of his team’s performance. It’s the stuff dreams are made of.

In conditions best-suited to the defending champions, Sri Lanka were so switched on it did not matter

Shashank Kishore26-Oct-20231:31

Maharoof: Mathews was ‘in the game’ from the first ball

The entire Sri Lankan team stood together, their collective gaze fixed on the giant screen. The next moment, as the magic word “out” flashed, euphoria broke out. Sadeera Samarawickrama broke out of the huddle and did his own imitation of the Imran Tahir sprint.Before his team-mates could catch him, Samarawickrama had run some 25 yards, towards the cover boundary, punching the air in jubilation. He was so overjoyed he suddenly changed directions. He was so ecstatic that he didn’t know where to run or how to celebrate. His mates eventually caught up with him, giving him sweaty bear hugs.It was a marginal call and it went in his favour for a brilliant catch and, just like that, we’d had another Peak Sri Lanka moment. One where they make scarcely believable stuff seem like child’s play. This episode involved putting the modern-day ODI behemoths in a tailspin in conditions England’s game was best suited to.Related

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Come on. If not in Bengaluru, where else could England have potentially Bazballed their way into the World Cup, albeit belatedly? This was right up their alley. Flat deck, small ground, cooler air. All served up on a platter. What’s more, they even won the toss. Jos Buttler didn’t conceal his glee when he said “bat first”.The rub of the green was with them. How else could you explain Sri Lanka bailing out of a review they seemed dead sure about? It was the first ball of the match. Dilshan Madushanka had bowled the perfect inswinger, the late tail in so lethal that it sent Jonny Bairstow stumbling inside the crease as he tried to get bat to it. After a mid-pitch conference that made 15 seconds seem more like 15 minutes, Sri Lanka collectively decided against it.Maybe they did not want to let the excitement and adrenaline get to them this early. They went back to their places half-heartedly. And then they saw, after the next ball, replays on the giant screen that laid bare a potentially costly mistake. The collective groan of “ayyyyo” told you a story. They had been so near to a perfect start. Instead England were 3 for 0.At mid-off, Angelo Mathews shook his head in disbelief. Maybe he was thinking the sprint he’d just made, chasing after the ball all the way to the long-on boundary, would’ve been worth it had they reviewed (Bairstow got a good chunk on the ball, but it was pad first). He didn’t just sprint, he even put in a dive after a few moments of “should I, shouldn’t I?”Angelo Mathews and Kusal Mendis combined to run out Joe Root•Getty ImagesAt 36, he’d just sauntered into his fourth World Cup. Barely believable considering he was at home 10 days ago, having made peace with his exclusion. This was another moment of Peak Sri Lanka. Out in the cold one day, but right back in contention the next. You’re never really out.Ridiculous things continue to happen. Mathews last took an ODI wicket in March 2020. He hadn’t played too many ODIs over the past three years. He’d cheekily said he was ready to do anything, literally anything, the team needed. Surely that didn’t mean being summoned to bowl the seventh over?What do we know? He comes on and strikes immediately, dismissing Dawid Malan with a beauty. The ball cuts sharply off the deck, cramps the batter for room and flicks the edge. Mathews extends both palms, exuding the “I’m back” look. You can’t keep him away.You think surely that’s as eventful as it can get for Mathews. Nope, there’s more coming. He’s everywhere now. He’s beside the captain Kusal Mendis, imploring him to have a slip in place for the fast bowlers, offering words of advice to Kasun Rajitha, lurking at point like a hawk. And suddenly when Joe Root hits one his way, he swoops in quickly to fire a rocket throw to Mendis. The pressure had been creeping up on Root. He’s in a daze, the dive can’t save him, he’s gone. Mathews has woven magic again.Breakthrough provided, run-out effected, spell completed. Or so you think. Surely that’s three overs more than he expected to bowl anyway. But England are just beginning to build an inkling of a partnership. Moeen Ali has just cut loose, Ben Stokes has reined himself in all this while waiting seemingly to explode a bit later. The scorecard seems less dire than it did at 85 for 5. Enter Mathews again.He trundles in casually. Floats up a length ball. Moeen has decided he’s giving this a whack. But there’s no pace on it, instead he now looks to steer it square. The ball gets big on him just a touch. Boom. Kusal Perara has gobbled it up at point. Mathews has his man. At 122 for 6, England have been slam dunked. Mathews has struck once again as soon as he’s brought on.Sri Lanka were all pumped up in Bengaluru•Associated PressSri Lanka are switched on. So switched on that you wonder what’s changed in a week’s time. The chirp is back. There’s energy stemming from having the world champions on the rack. This wasn’t how it was supposed to pan out. Surely there was another “you cannot do that, Ben Stokes moment” waiting to unfold. He has been simmering underneath his helmet, waiting to burst open.Until he picks out deep midwicket on 43 with 20 overs left. Dushan Hemantha, the substitute, took the catch with his palms facing upwards. Stokes throws his bat up as he walks off. This is a dream unfolding for Sri Lanka. And there’s one more moment of Peak Sri Lanka magic to unfold: the run-out of Adil Rashid.There is a book called by the Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell. It is made up of anecdotes and psychological case studies on impulsive decision-making. What Mendis did to produce this wicket for Sri Lanka will fit very neatly in that book. He collected a delivery down leg and looked like he was about to just toss the ball back to the bowler and then he saw Rashid wandering out of the crease at the non-striker’s end. In a split-second, he took aim and hit the bull’s eye. Gone.It summed up England’s day of horrors. Sri Lanka were now in a position to Bazball England out of the World Cup – or something close enough to that. It all seemed straight out of a fairy tale. Except it wasn’t. It was Sri Lanka doing Peak Sri Lanka things.

It is becoming a habit, but their coach Lewis believes other factors – like training patterns and unfamiliar playing spaces – are also playing a role

Vishal Dikshit08-Mar-20245:42

Warriorz coach Lewis defends Healy’s batting form

When Saima Thakor of UP Warriorz nailed a direct hit against Gujarat Giants a week ago to find Phoebe Litchfield short in the death overs, it proved to be a vital wicket. It kept the Giants down to 142 and the Warriorz chased it down easily. But they haven’t won a game since, and have slipped to second from bottom on the points table.Since that inspiring Thakor effort, her team-mates have taken six catches but also put down four, of which two have been regulation chances. With such a catching conversion rate, Warriorz are going to find it very difficult to finish in the top three for the knockouts.The first of those two regulation chances was of Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Smriti Mandhana who got a life on 28 and finished on a match-winning 50-ball 80 to power her team to 198.On Thursday, of their three dropped chances they put down against Mumbai Indians, two were hard to grab. Grace Harris could not hold on to a blazing return catch from Nat Sciver-Brunt, who was then on 4 and finished on a breezy 45 off 31. The second was when Alyssa Healy couldn’t pouch an edge from Amelia Kerr off a flat delivery from offspinner Chamari Athapaththu.But the regulation chance Warriorz will rue is when Sophie Ecclestone gave Kerr another life, in the 19th over, after the ball was struck straight to her at extra cover. They also had misfields which offered extra runs, with Shweta Sehrawat and Harris letting the ball slip in the circle and at the boundary rope respectively to leak boundaries.According to ESPNcricinfo’s data, Warriorz have shelled 13 catches this WPL season of which five have been regulation, both more than any other team. They have also leaked overthrows and have misfielded in other matches, and their uncapped Indians Poonam Khemnar and Dinesh Vrinda have also given opposition batters second lives. Warriorz head coach Jon Lewis had a straightforward explanation for the uncapped or inexperienced Indian players shelling chances.”I think primarily it’s the local Indian domestic players that are dropping balls under the lights and I think it’s probably they’re not used to the ball coming as fast as it does,” Lewis had said after their loss to RCB earlier this week. “It’s very hard to perceive depth when the ball is coming out of the sky especially if they go high and the ball comes a little quicker than you expect it under the lights, and I think it’s just a little bit of inexperience in terms of playing in the conditions that we are.”What I would say is that international cricketers hit the ball a lot harder than domestic cricketers do. Therefore, the fielders are under a lot more pressure. And the crowd, don’t forget the crowd [in Bengaluru]. That’s something the players are not used to as well.”UP Warriorz are now second from bottom•PTI To rectify the issue of catching under lights, the players are unable to replicate that in training because there are matches every evening at the same ground. This year’s WPL had 11 games daily at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and is now seeing nine non-stop league matches at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. As a result, the teams have had to train at other smaller grounds and have not always had the chance to train with floodlights.”There aren’t many opportunities for us to practice during this tournament,” Lewis had said. “We had one practice session here before the tournament started, so it’s very hard for us to get facilities to practice under lights here in Bangalore with the regularity of our games. So it’s quite a tricky thing to practice and I think over time those players will get used to it.”For the chances going down by the international players, Lewis, who is also the head coach of England, offered a different reason.”That’s a catch I would have expected her to take,” he said of the straightforward chance put down by Ecclestone on Thursday. “Again, she said she didn’t quite see off the background in the lights somewhere. She didn’t pick the ball up. What you also find I think is when you play franchise cricket, a lot of the time the international players will field in different positions than they would normally field when playing for their country. So sometimes they get a little bit surprised by the pace of the ball that comes to them. So Sophie wouldn’t normally be at extra cover for us (England), she’d be in a different position.But she would expect to catch that ball and I would expect her to catch that ball as a coach for UP and for England as well. But yeah, it seems like a bit of a trend in the tournament. There’s a lot of balls going down but that’s, I suppose, a little bit of lack of experience for a lot of players and especially under the lights.”The team to drop the most catches after Warriorz this WPL is Mumbai, with a total count of 11 of which four have been regulation. Jhulan Goswami, their bowling coach and mentor, however, didn’t cite playing under lights as the reason when she was asked about it after their loss to Delhi Capitals, in which Saika Ishaque and Kerr had let catches slip.”Sometimes these things happen, I’m not going to give you any excuse because of light and all, but sometimes a different venue…girls are not used to it playing in different venues so quickly,” she had said. “Overnight you’re playing in a different venue, so this is a new thing. They’ll probably learn from these things in the coming season because last year we played in one (two) venue and this year within 24 hours we are playing in a different venue.”Goswami did concur with Lewis’ theory of teams not getting to practice for fielding on the same grounds where matches were being played.”So give them a little bit extra time and probably in the coming days they will improve because sometimes the ground dimension is also different and understanding the angles takes you time because you don’t even have the time to practice [at that ground],” she had said. “They just practice before the match for 45 minutes, that’s all. But if we were getting the chance to practice at this ground a day before the game, get used to the angles and dimensions then maybe the runs being leaked and catches going down would be reduced. These things happen in the cricket field and whichever team practices and does it best will be in the best position to win the tournament.”

The teenager also has big dreams, and he wants to realise them “like no one has ever done before”

Alagappan Muthu07-Apr-2024Angkrish Raghuvanshi has big dreams.”To obviously don the India jersey,” he told the IPL website, “but also to wear it like no one has ever done before. Everyone will look at me and say I’m different.”For the record, he has already done that at the Under-19 level in 2022, when India won the World Cup, and he was their highest run-getter. Rahul Dravid, who has spent a portion of his coaching career shepherding the young talent in this country, often makes the point that success in age-group cricket cannot be the end goal; that it might even be detrimental to spend too much time there. You’ve already aced the challenges here. Look for a new one. Otherwise you’ll never grow.Related

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Batters must come to the party for CSK against powerplay bosses KKR

Raghuvanshi is still only 18 years old. So he could have played this year’s Under-19 World Cup too. But he has left that life behind. Over the past six months, he has broken into the toughest team in Indian domestic cricket – Mumbai – and has made a splash in the IPL as well.Batting at No. 3 for Kolkata Knight Riders against Delhi Capitals, he made 54 off just 27 balls. He played that game as an Impact Player, so he spent the rest of the night in the dugout while flashing big toothy grins, which was good because by the time Shah Rukh Khan came over to ruffle his hair and pull him into a bear hug, he had had plenty of practice looking magnificently cute.”It was really special,” Raghuvanshi said. “Earlier, I wasn’t sure if he even knew my name, but now he does. I’ve been watching him on TV from childhood. So to be with him like this feels good.”ESPNcricinfo LtdRaghuvanshi was born in Delhi in 2005 to a family where he would have stuck out like a sore thumb if he hadn’t picked up a sport. His mother Malika used to play basketball. His father Avneet used to play tennis. His uncle Sahil Kukreja used to play cricket, and that’s whom he went to stay with when he was 11 years old.A million things have to go right for anyone to live any dream, let alone one as fanciful as becoming a professional sportsperson. One of those things, for Raghuvanshi, is the desire to be better than he was the day before. That is how he ended up on the radar of people like Dinesh Lad, who has coached Rohit Sharma, and Abhishek Nayar, who has been with him since his Mumbai Under-16 days.”It’s his work ethic; his ability to work hard is his strongest suit,” Nayar said on Sunday. “A lot of people talk about skill as something that’s really important. But what matters for me is the willingness to work hard because that is a sort of talent too, and not everyone possesses it. So yes, skill is something you can develop if you have the talent of working hard and try to achieve the goal.

Looking forward to this wholesome reunion! pic.twitter.com/PHmZvPR500

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) December 19, 2023

Also: has anyone taken the first nine wickets in a Test innings, but missed out on the tenth?

Steven Lynch21-May-2024Has anyone taken the first nine wickets in a Test innings, but missed out on the tenth? asked Jamie McAllister from England
There are currently 17 instances of a bowler taking nine wickets in a Test innings (plus three cases of ten). The only one that fits the bill here is Muthiah Muralidaran’s 9 for 51 against Zimbabwe in Kandy in January 2002. Murali took the first nine but, after the last pair had added 35, Chaminda Vaas nipped in and took the tenth.It was a very close thing. On Cricinfo, Charlie Austin wrote at the time:

“… events on the field were dominated by Muralitharan’s failure to capture the last wicket in the morning. The off-spinner, hampered by torn ligaments in his ring finger dislocated the night before, would have surpassed fellow off-spinner Jim Laker’s ten for 53 against Australians in 1956 if Russel Arnold had not fumbled a simple bat-pad catch off the first ball of the day. Then, fifth ball, Muralitharan spun an off-break sharply back into the pads of Travis Friend only to see umpire Venkatraghavan rule in the batsman’s favour.Next over, Vaas ran through the motions, bowling gentle medium pace at number 11 Henry Olonga. But the dreadlocked tailender couldn’t resist a swipe the left-armers last ball and was caught behind by Kumar Sangakkara. There was a stifled appeal and a moment of silence – when the Sri Lankan players wondered whether they could just ignore the final wickets fall – before umpire Asoka de Silva was forced to raise his finger.”

In Murali’s other nine-for, against England at The Oval in 1998, the other wicket (not the tenth) was a run-out.A notable near-miss happened in Brisbane in 1985-86: Richard Hadlee took the first eight Australian wickets to fall, then caught the ninth. He did collect the last wicket, to finish with 9 for 52.What’s the longest winning streak in the IPL? asked Rajender Shetty from India
The longest winning streak in IPL history is held by the Kolkata Knight Riders. They won nine games in a row including the 2014 final, against Kings XI Punjab in Bengaluru, then won one further match in 2015 – making ten IPL games in all – before tasting defeat.Actually KKR the team won 14 games in a row in all competitions, as they followed their 2014 IPL victory with five more wins in the short-lived Champions League T20 tournament, held in India later that year. The New Zealand domestic team Otago also had a run of 14 successive victories, while Karnataka won 15 in a row in Indian domestic cricket in 2018 and 2019. But the overall T20 record most successive wins is a remarkable run by the Pakistan side Sialkot Stallions, who won 25 in a row between February 2006 and October 2010.Mark Taylor (front row, first from left) played under only one captain – Allan Border (holding the Ashes trophy) – before taking charge of Australia himself•Adam Butler/PA Photos/Getty ImagesI noticed that the Australian fast bowler Grahame Corling played just five Test matches, all in England in 1964. How many people have won five caps, all in the same series, and never played again? asked Curtis Nicholas from Australia
Grahame Corling was a compact seamer from northern New South Wales who won selection for the 1964 Ashes tour after only one season in Australia’s Sheffield Shield. Aged 23, he played in all five Tests in England, taking 12 wickets at 37.25: he had Geoff Boycott (also in his first series) caught at slip by Bob Simpson three times. But Corling was seemingly never again in the running for a Test place, and faded out of first-class cricket after the 1968-69 season.I was rather surprised to discover that Corling was one of 30 players whose Test career amounted to one five-match series, starting with the Yorkshire wicketkeeper Joe Hunter in 1884-85. Among the more famous one-series wonders are Australia’s “mystery spinner” Jack Iverson (he had a big part in winning the 1950-51 Ashes) and, more recently, England’s Chris Adams (in South Africa in 1999-2000).There are not many recent instances, partly because there are not many five-Test series these days. Apart from Adams, the only ones this century are George Bailey (for Australia in the 2013-14 Ashes) and England’s Tom Hartley, who played throughout the recent series in India, but will presumably get another chance soon.There have also been a few six-Test series, but no one has won their only caps by playing throughout one of those. You could make a case for this applying to the Australians Barlow Carkeek and Claude Jennings, who both won six caps in England in 1912, during the one and only Triangular Tournament – they won three each against England and South Africa.I watched Gloucestershire reach 700 at Leicester the other day, and was surprised by an announcement that said they had never made that many before. Are there any other counties who have never had a total of 700? asked Ken Griffin from England
Gloucestershire’s 706 for 6 declared against Leicestershire at Grace Road last weekend was indeed their highest first-class total – previously it was 695 for 9 declared, against Middlesex at Archdeacon Meadow in Gloucester in 2004, when the New Zealander Craig Spearman hit 341. Before that you have to go back to 1928, when Gloucestershire’s 653 for 8 declared against Glamorgan in Bristol included 218 from the great Wally Hammond.Sixteen of the 18 first-class counties have now amassed a total of 700 or more. One of the exceptions is Durham, who attained first-class status only in 1992: their highest is 648 for 5 declared, against Nottinghamshire in Chester-le-Street in 2009. The other county is more of a surprise: Middlesex contested their inaugural first-class fixture in 1864, but their highest total is a relatively modest 676 for 5 declared, against Sussex in Hove in 2021. Earlier this summer, Middlesex amassed 655 against Glamorgan, their second-largest total and highest at Lord’s.Graeme Smith won 117 Test caps, but played under only two captains (excluding himself). Was this a record for anyone who appeared in 100+ Tests ? asked Deepak Krishnan from India
You’re right that Graeme Smith played under only two other captains, right at the start of his career: Mark Boucher in his first three Tests, and Shaun Pollock in the next five.Smith is one of seven 100-Test players who played under only two other captains, the others being Michael Clarke, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Steve Waugh. But Mark Taylor played 104 Test caps, and was captained in the first 54 by Allan Border before taking over himself for the next 50 matches.At the other end of the scale, Frank Woolley of England played only 64 Tests in a long career that lasted from 1909 to 1934, but was captained by no fewer than 14 other players in those matches. West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul played under 12 different captains, excluding himself, during a 164-Test career, while Mushtaq Ahmed (52 Tests) and Jack Hobbs (61) also had a dozen different captains.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The clarity and security he’s been given at CSK has played a crucial role in his development

Sidharth Monga04-Jun-20242:04

Fleming: ‘Dube the sort of player who can change a game’

Having been released by two teams previously, Shivam Dube entered the 2022 IPL auction with a base price of INR 50 lakh. When the teams competing for him were about done, Chennai Super Kings entered the bidding and got his services for INR 4 crore. MS Dhoni had asked for Dube. And whoever Dhoni wants, CSK try their best to get.It was during pre-season training that Dhoni’s plan started to become clear. He wanted Dube to be the disruptor in the middle overs. A batter whose highest season strike-rate in the IPL had been 122.85. Somebody who had batted 100 balls in a Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament only once. Dhoni saw his middle-overs spin hitter in Dube. And as a CSK insider says of such decisions from Dhoni, “He has hit a few balls in his time.”Related

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Once Dube’s role was defined, Dhoni, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming, and batting coach Michael Hussey began to work with him. Hussey hadn’t known the plan initially but once he started working with Dube he found a few strengths in his game.”He’s got a unique strength,” Hussey told ESPNcricinfo. “Not many players in the world have the amount of power that he does have. And he’s a big guy as well so he is hard to get away from. So you can’t bowl away from him. He’s got a fair few assets. And we wanted to encourage him to use his strengths, his unique power.”The CSK leadership worked on two things: to give Dube confidence and backing, and rid his mind of any unnecessary thoughts. “Dhoni and Stephen Fleming have to take a lot of credit,” Hussey said. “They would’ve seen his natural talent and natural ability, but then trying to give him the confidence and the freedom to be able to play in that manner.”I know Dhoni has been very supportive of him, as has Stephen Fleming, so it makes a big difference if you’ve got that. If you’ve got that clarity in your mind, you feel like you can just go out there and take the spinners down. And if it doesn’t come off, then that’s okay because that’s what the captain – well the former captain – and the coach want him to do.”Shivam Dube struck 28 sixes in IPL 2024 and finished with a strike rate of 162.29•BCCIWhen it came down to it, Hussey realised a blank mind was a great mind for Dube. “He’s better off when there’s less thinking,” Hussey said. “When he’s just seeing the ball and reacting to the ball, that’s when he is at his best. If he starts thinking too much, or there’s too many doubts in his mind, then that’s when he can sort of start to struggle a little bit. So most of my conversations were about, ‘How can you just gain clarity? How can you clear your mind of all those doubts or negative thoughts?’ Just be free to see it and smack it outta the park.”How do you remove thoughts? “It just comes from trusting him in the game. And then if it doesn’t come off, there’s no repercussions,” Hussey said. “Stephen Fleming would probably get more angry with him if he didn’t try and smack the spinners outta the park.”CSK gave Dube all the range-hitting he wanted. “He just tries to hit sixes [at training],” Fleming told ESPNcricinfo last year. “His hitting is based around just hitting bowlers and nothing else, because that’s the role we want him to play. We don’t really want him looking for ones and twos, that’ll be a byproduct of a mis-hit or of getting through a fast-bowling spell that he has to, otherwise it’s just, ‘Hit as soon as you feel ready. Just start hitting.'”Dube didn’t want to be a one-dimensional hitter though. His training sessions with Hussey this year were different. “He does practise hitting the spinners obviously because that’s his job,” Hussey said. “But he also does a lot of work on his basic game as well. So he works a little bit on his defence. Then a lot of teams have been bowling short stuff at him in the last year or so. So he’s done a lot of work on the short ball.”Then earlier this season teams started bowling wide yorkers and wide slow balls to him. So we did a lot of work on countering that as well. So he’s always having a look at what the opposition are trying to do to him and to improve his game that way.”1:00

Dube: ‘Dhoni’s role has been immense in my career’

The result has been three IPL seasons with strikes rates of 156.21, 158.33 and 162.29. Only Nicholas Pooran has hit more sixes than Dube in the IPL since 2022. And only 35 of Dube’s 79 sixes have come against spin. He is not the best hooker and puller but he has found a way to not get stuck against the short ball. When Dube stays at the crease, he sometimes forces opponents to bowl their death bowlers sooner instead of a spinner, giving CSK a tactical advantage. That’s why India are keen on him and will try their best to fit him in the XI. That will likely mean Virat Kohli opening with Rohit Sharma, even if it leaves them a bit vulnerable against left-arm spin.The challenge for Dube is to keep his mind free when playing for India. It is also a challenge for the India leadership to give him the same security and understanding. There is also a significant difference in the rules that they will have to adjust to: with an Impact Player in the IPL, it is easier to put a lesser price on your wicket. There is no Impact Player in international cricket.The conditions in New York are not going to be standard either. Dube struggled when the ball was stopping on him in the warm-up match against Bangladesh and so he might need to readjust his target. It does appear, though, that India are willing to make every allowance for Dube, because the value he offers in terms of strike rate and tactical advantage is high.