All posts by h716a5.icu

As the top four teams start to pull away in the IPL here’s a look back at how the Australian contingent fared over the last week

Andrew McGlashan19-Oct-20202:10

Steven Smith on why he didn’t give Jofra Archer the 19th over

Smith’s shuffleFive single-figure scores for Steven Smith had brought the spotlight on him, to the extent that there were a few questions being asked about his place in the Rajasthan Royals side. It would have been a huge call to leave out the captain – and one of the world’s best batsmen – and it was little surprise when Smith came good after moving to No. 4 as part of a batting shake up. He reached his half-century from 30 balls and two deliveries later produced the most astonishing shot of his innings when he played a reverse whip through point from a standing position. However, in the end his runs weren’t enough for the struggling Royals who fell victim to an AB de Villiers epic. Smith’s captaincy came under the microscope when he opted not to give Jofra Archer the 19th over with 35 needed, instead opting for Jaydev Unadkat who got taken for 25 to change the course of the match.

Simon Katich: "That's why de Villiers is the greatest of all time"

Do you agree with @RCBtweets' head coach? #IPL2020 https://t.co/9J84Wu4n9e pic.twitter.com/c5bMNZNuGF

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) October 18, 2020

Warner left speechlessDavid Warner had to take a new role for Sunrisers Hyderabad in their match against Kolkata Knight Riders after Kane Williamson picked up an injury which led to him opening the batting so he could focus more on boundary-hitting than running between the wickets. It has been rare to see Warner not opening in T20 over recent years. Since an experiment with the tactic for Australia at the 2016 T20 World Cup he had done it six times across the CPL and BPL; the last time in the IPL was back in 2014. He almost got the Sunrisers across the line with his unbeaten 47 off 33 balls, but having taken three consecutive fours off Andre Russell he could only scamper a leg bye off the last delivery to tie the scores and get a Super Over. Then, walking out to face the over, he was castled first ball by Lockie Ferguson as the Sunrisers were ‘bowled out’ for 2. “I don’t know what to say, I’ll probably have to bite my tongue a little bit,” Warner said.

David Warner gets honest about where he thinks his team is lackinghttps://t.co/CGoETAaZWa#SRHvKKR | #IPL2020 pic.twitter.com/bWmUw2hWN4

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) October 18, 2020

Cummins in the runs…and a wicketPat Cummins was at the forefront for KKR against the Mumbai Indians…with the bat. Coming in at 61 for 5 he struck 53 off 36 balls, his maiden T20 fifty, in an unbroken stand of 87 with Eoin Morgan to at least give KKR something to bowl at, although it proved far too few in the end. It comfortably out shone his previous best of 39 for the Sydney Thunder in the 2017-18 BBL. Since making consistent lower-order Test runs in the 2018-19 Australian season, when it was pondered if he could bat higher than No. 8, Cummins’ batting hasn’t quite been as useful as his talent suggests it should be but he has produced some handy knocks in this IPL. Meanwhile, with the ball his wicket of Vijay Shankar in the game against the Sunrisers was his first after a run of five wicketless outings.Pat Cummins brought up his fifty•BCCIHow much more for Carey?Australia’s limited-overs wicketkeeper, Alex Carey, has been filling the shoes of injured Rishabh Pant over the last week for Delhi Capitals. After a gap of nearly month since his brilliant ODI century against England he has found it tough going in the middle order with 32 runs from 29 deliveries. His dismissal against Chennai Super Kings may have come in the nick of time for the Capitals as the next man, Axar Patel, smashed 21 off five balls to help secure a thrilling chase. The Capitals were hopeful Pant would only be sidelined for a week, so Carey may soon find himself sidelined.Off the benchA couple more of the Australians finally got their chance for an outing over the last week. Nathan Coulter-Nile, who had been carrying a niggle earlier in the competition, replaced the rested James Pattinson for Mumbai Indians as one of the tournament pace-setters manages their quicks with an eye on the latter stages of the competition. It wasn’t the best of starts for him as he felt the force of Cummins and Morgan with his second two overs costing 37. In the same match, Chris Green came into the KKR side and performed his usual role of opening the bowling but could do little to defend a mediocre target. With Sunil Narine now taken off the bowling-action warning list it remains to be seen how much more Green plays. It leaves Billy Stanlake, Chris Lynn and Daniel Sams as the Australians yet to feature in a match.

MS Dhoni’s men lost five wickets in the powerplay and all but crashed out of the playoffs

Saurabh Somani23-Oct-20202:38

Will Sam Curran be a key part of the Chennai Super Kings revamp?

IPL 2020 began with these two teams. Mumbai Indians were everyone’s favourites, and then the Chennai Super Kings, like they do, upended the script. Since then, there’s been a reversion to the mean. Mumbai haven’t lost a single match in regular time: six wins in eight games, one defeat in a Super Over, one defeat in a double Super Over. The Super Kings are the opposite: two wins in their next nine games, qualification hopes hanging by a thread – a thread that needs other results to go their way too. It’s going to take 37 minutes to kill all those possibilities.7.30pm
Trent Boult to Ruturaj Gaikwad. Boult is on target. Gaikwad is one of three changes for the Super Kings as they look for the “spark” that MS Dhoni said was missing. It’s an important game for him, because he’s getting a chance at the top of the order, where he’s got all his runs for India A. He looked slightly unsure in the middle order, thrown into the deep end in an unfamiliar role in the most competitive, intense T20 tournament in the world.Boult brings the first ball in, but then starts bending it away. Beaten, beaten, defensive push into the offside. Take your time Ruturaj, this could be your chance.7.34pm
It was the set-up. Three balls away, next one curving in. Gaikwad is late. The ball has hit pad. Has it taken an inside edge? Is it going down leg? Boult is pleading for an lbw. The umpire doesn’t listen. Kieron Pollard does. Boult and Pollard are on the money and Gaikwad’s day is over. Ambati Rayudu comes in and has to deal with a ‘perfume ball’ – so called because you can smell it under your nose – first up.ALSO READ: Dhoni: Next three games ‘preparation for next year’7.37pmOh hello, what do we have here? Jasprit Bumrah has taken the new ball just once for Mumbai in this IPL, against the Rajasthan Royals. He got Steven Smith out in the first over then. Pollard, leading in place of an injured Rohit Sharma, has decided to go to Bumrah due to what happened in Boult’s first over.”Jasprit, we weren’t thinking about using with the new ball but after that over from Trent and getting that early wicket… you know Rayudu has batted well against us the last couple of times and over the last couple of years. So we just decided to go for him, and it worked for us,” Pollard will say after the match.”We were thinking of having Trent open the bowling and maybe go either Nathan (Coulter-Nile) or a spinner. But, seeing a couple of balls swing and getting that early wicket, having Rayudu come in. I just thought of using our most experienced bowler and one of our better bowlers against their main batsman.”Rayudu won the Super Kings the opening match of IPL 2020 with 71 off 48. He has a couple of 40s too, one in 2018 and one in 2019.7.39pm
It takes two minutes and two short balls from Bumrah to prove Pollard’s hunch spectacularly right. The first one is back of a length, the second is banged in harder. It starts to home in just below Rayudu’s left shoulder like a heat-seeking missile. It gets too big, too fast, and is too good for him. There’s nowhere near enough room to pull, but Rayudu’s committed to the shot. The ball is committed to tangling him up into a top-edge that floats into Quinton de Kock’s gloves.Pollard and Bumrah exchange smiles while he’s walking back to bowl the next thunderbolt. The plan has worked. Not just the plan to bowl Bumrah first up, but to target Rayudu with the short stuff.The new man is N Jagadeesan. Can he show the spark Dhoni wanted? Not tonight. You feel for him and Gaikwad. They’ve put in the hard yards in domestic cricket. They’ve got their opportunity on the big stage. But they’re up against a pair of bowlers who are too hot to handle for most batsmen. Jagadeesan’s swishing at his first ball, feet not moving – they’ve not had time to move yet, to get the rhythm going yet – and it’s an outside edge to first slip.Another day, another failure with the bat for MS Dhoni•BCCI7.47pm
The Super Kings are under the pump but they have the two men best suited for a rebuilding job in Faf du Plessis and Dhoni. Both like to take their time. Both are capable of big hits later. Both have the evenness of temperament to ride out the storm. But not tonight. Not tonight.It’s an uncharacteristic du Plessis stroke. It’s a characteristic Boult strike. He’s been doing it regularly for Mumbai upfront. Bowling coach and countryman Shane Bond will say Boult had promised “he was going to peak for this game”. Some peak. Swinging full and across du Plessis, whose normally sure footwork has gone AWOL. Maybe it’s the wickets. Maybe it’s the reality of the Super Kings’ season. Maybe it’s the bowling. Or all three. A waft and another catch behind.The Super Kings have lost more wickets than they have runs on the board: 3 for 4.The dugout looks more shocked than glum. Even in the midst of their worst season ever, they hadn’t quite expected their worst start ever to a game.”We’re pretty stunned really… It was tough watching,” coach Stephen Fleming will say after the match. He’ll repeat ‘it was tough’ three times in the same answer.7.59pm
It’s only an 18-run partnership but after what went before, the fifth-wicket stand between Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja is starting to feel like hope for the Super Kings. Bumrah’s second over has been negotiated. Krunal Pandya replaced Boult. There could yet be a rearguard.Turns out, Boult has not been taken off, he’s merely switching ends. Jadeja’s been in good ball-striking form this tournament. A counter-attack against Boult incoming? Not quite. Jadeja steps down the track, goes for the flat-batted pull. It only comes off the toe-end and into midwicket’s hands.The Super Kings are wrecked. They’re 21 for 5 inside the powerplay. All the power and the play has been enforced by Mumbai’s bowlers.8.07pm
The one glimmer of hope is the captain. Dhoni has just hit Rahul Chahar for a straight six, right out of his 2011 playbook. Maybe he can salvage something?No he can’t.The next ball’s tossed up wider outside off, and Dhoni’s going hard at this too. But it’s not in his hitting arc. It’s, in fact, in his edging arc. Caught behind. It’s 30 for 6 and the dream is officially done for the Super Kings.”It does hurt,” Dhoni will say after the game. “I think all the players are hurting.”

****

Mathematically, the Super Kings retain a ghost of a chance to make the playoffs. Practically, a spotless record of qualifying 10 times in 10 seasons is over. It doesn’t take 37 minutes for a legacy to crumble. But these 37 minutes provided the hammer-blow soundtrack to one of the great records in the IPL ending.

Bess has taken 17 wickets at 22.41 in 2021 but underlying data highlights lack of control

Matt Roller12-Feb-2021Dom Bess pitched the ball on a good length outside off stump, finding sharp turn and bounce to draw an inside edge as Virat Kohli shaped to press towards cover-point. The ball looped up into the hands of Ollie Pope at short leg, and Bess had removed India’s captain with a perfect offspinner’s dismissal.But six days later, Bess will be carrying the drinks, paying the price for his lack of consistency. England have confirmed that Moeen Ali will replace him in the side for the second Test in Chennai in a two-man spin attack alongside Jack Leach, leaving Bess to reflect on his omission in a fluorescent bib.Bess has taken 17 wickets at 22.41 across England’s tours of Sri Lanka and India, but has struggled to land the ball reliably, and bowled poorly in the fourth innings of the first Test in Chennai. He had started the match well, with a tidy spell on the third afternoon in which he claimed the wickets of Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, but was thrown off his length when Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant used their feet against him.He did go on to dismiss both Pujara and Pant – caught freakishly at midwicket after a deflection via short leg and holing out to deep cover respectively – but was hit out of the attack by R Ashwin and Washington Sundar on the fourth morning, and looked particularly out of sorts on the fifth day, when his six overs cost 47 runs.Dom Bess sets off on a celebratory run after dismissing Virat Kohli•BCCI”It wasn’t an easy decision,” Root said after revealing Bess had been dropped. “Dom has contributed fantastically well in these three games and has a made a real impact. With him missing out, the messaging for him is to keep working at that consistency of his game, delivering that skill time and time again. We talk about building pressure over long periods of time and, as well as he has done and the contributions he has made, that is one area he can improve on.”He is very young. He is much at the start of things and this doesn’t mean he is going to be pushed back down the pecking order. It gives him an opportunity to step out of Test cricket – the harshest environment, especially in these conditions, especially against a team that plays spin so well – to take stock and work at his game.”Despite his impressive headline figures over the past four weeks, ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data helps to illustrate Bess’ inconsistency. He has bowled 33 full tosses in 119.1 overs (4.6% of his total deliveries) across the three Tests in Sri Lanka and India, and 67 balls that have pitched short of a length (9.4%). His full tosses have been particularly frustrating for England, costing them 56 runs including 10 fours, contributing to an overall economy rate of 3.19.Furthermore, CricViz’s expected wickets (xW) model – cricket’s equivalent of the expected goals (xG) metric in football – suggests that, in Sri Lanka, the balls Bess bowled were expected to give him a series return of seven wickets at 35.9. In fact, he took 12 at 21.25, indicating that Sri Lanka’s batsmen played him poorly and that he enjoyed more than a small slice of luck.Jeetan Patel, England’s consultant spin-bowling coach, said on Friday that he had emphasised the important of sticking to plans with consistent lines and lengths. He held up the example of Leach’s spell to Pant on the third day in which he stuck to his guns, tossing the ball up towards the footmarks despite being attacked, and suggested that Bess’ final-day struggles may have been the result of fatigue.Moeen Ali will play his first Test since August 2019 in Chennai•ECB”[We’re looking at] pitchmap and pace data – all those things that you can see on Hawk-Eye and that TV does a great job of broadcasting,” Patel said. “It’s those little things that mean a lot. That’s the one message that we’ve been trying to get across from our side as a coaching staff, especially to the spin unit: taking care of the small things – the lines and the lengths, and how often we can do it – to effect games.”[For Leach] it was more about the lengths and lines we asked him to bowl [than his figures]. It was about the areas he bowled. If you look at where he was in the second innings, he raised that bar again, and hit those areas better and better and better.”I think Dom just needs a bit of a rest, to be honest with you. He’s been in the bubbles a long time now, and just as we try to rest and rotate the seamers, it’s started to become evident, especially to me, that maybe Bessy was becoming a bit tired and it might be taking a toll on his outcomes in terms of where he was bowling the ball.”He’s bowled a lot of overs and put a lot of pressure on himself to make sure that he does a great job and he’s done it very, very well. There were certainly signs, I believe, that maybe a bit of tiredness was coming in.””It was a very difficult conversation,” Root said. “It always is when you leave a player out, but especially when it’s someone like Dom who has contributed well and gives absolutely everything every time he pulls an England shirt on.”It’s been made very clear what he needs to go away and work on and he’s taken that on board. I’m sure he’ll come back with questions and I’m sure he will be disappointed, but that’s what you expect from guys that really care and want to be out there all the time, performing for their country.”Bess’ omission has paved the way for Moeen to return, ending his 18-month absence from the Test side. Moeen had been the world’s leading wicket-taker in the year leading up to the 2019 Ashes, but he returned match figures of 3 for 172 in 42 overs in the first Test of that series, and was dropped for Leach immediately after.Related

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His red-ball central contract was not renewed after that series, and he made himself unavailable for selection for the 2019-20 winter, but has since restated his ambitions to play Test cricket. Moeen has not played a first-class game since September 2019, and has not made a competitive appearance in any format since last year’s IPL, but Root insisted that his performances in training merited selection.”I’m very confident he’s in a good place,” Root said. “He’s bowling very nicely and he’s got huge amounts of experience in Tests and he’s played in these conditions before. That will hold him in good stead going in to the game. He’s a fine competitor and he’ll get himself into the heat of the battle. We know he can produce special things in an England shirt [and] in a Test shirt.”[We’re] very excited for him to get this opportunity. He’s worked really hard and obviously had a rough tour having to deal with Covid and quarantine. Since then he’s applied himself really well, worked very well with the other spinners and been a very good senior pro in that respect.”Moeen’s batting may also have been seen as a positive: on a pitch that is expected to turn from the first session and with the loss of Jos Buttler weakening England’s lower-middle order, the inclusion of a man with two Test hundreds in India adds up. Bess is a popular figure within the England camp and Root and Patel were keen to stress that he remains in their plans, but if Moeen performs well then forcing his way back in could be a daunting prospect.

Time and again, the board is demanding standards of others which they are nowhere near maintaining themselves.

George Dobell21-Sep-2021Cast your mind back a few years. It’s June 2017. The Champions Trophy has just started in England. Pakistan and India are about to play a match at Edgbaston.It could have been sold out ten times over.Then, tragedy struck. A van was deliberately driven into pedestrians on London Bridge (about two miles from the venue for the tournament’s final, at The Kia Oval) and the occupants then fled the vehicle stabbing members of the public randomly. Eleven people died, and 48 more were injured.But the next day, the game in Birmingham – about 110 miles northwest of London – went ahead. Indeed, every game in the tournament went ahead. Despite an obvious increase in security measures – including road blocks hundreds of yards from grounds and armed police at matches – none of the teams went home and every match was completed. At the time, many of us celebrated the defiant spirit that refused to be bowed by threats.But if it’s important that life goes on in Leicester and London, it’s surely important it goes on in Lahore and Larkana, too. And what Monday’s announcement from the ECB confirming the cancellation of their tour to Pakistan sustained, was a culture of double-standards which appears to view some nations are far less important than others.Related

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England's withdrawal is a slap to Pakistan's face

Let’s be clear: the Foreign Office has not changed their travel advice about visiting Pakistan in light of New Zealand’s decision to abandon their own tour. ESPNcricinfo also understands that the advice from the ECB’s own security experts (ESI Risk) was unchanged. That is to say, they believed that, with the current protocols in place – the same protocols that allowed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to visit Pakistan not so long ago – it was safe to travel. It is also understood the British High Commission was satisfied with the plans. This is categorically not a case where security advice has compelled the ECB to cancel.To be fair to the ECB, their statement doesn’t even pretend this is the case. Instead, they cite the anxiety such a trip could provoke in players who have already spent many months living in a controlled environment.Maybe at first glance that seems reasonable. Certainly, players are jaded by the time in bubbles. And yes, it might be expected individuals would be allowed the opportunity to skip the tour if any aspect of it made them uncomfortable.But let’s remember: this was more city-break than tour. It was scheduled to last, in total, four days. It involved one day of quarantine and two T20Is on consecutive days. It was two days shorter than the quarantine period required for players returning to the UAE to complete the IPL.Pakistan, it is understood, had also offered to move the matches to Lahore and play them behind closed doors. England could surely have found 14 players who were prepared to tour; plenty more have visited Pakistan to play in the PSL, after all.

“Despite having asked numerous nations to put up with various hardships to ensure they could honour their own broadcast agreements, England appear unwilling or unable to reciprocate when other nations are the ones in need.”

Remember this, too: Pakistan answered England’s calls for help in 2020. They travelled from a county where Covid had hardly hit, to a nation under siege from the virus. Having been promised they could serve their 10-day quarantine period in The Hyatt (a nice four-star hotel) in Birmingham, they subsequently found themselves in a Travelodge in Derby. They spent about seven weeks in the country in all – a country which, at that time, has no access to vaccines – and, by doing so, ensured English cricket was able to keep the lights on. Put simply, England – and all the England players who were not obliged to take pay-cuts – owe them.But, over the last 18 months or so, England have now abandoned or cancelled tours to Sri Lanka, South Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Conversations about the Ashes are ongoing. Despite having asked numerous nations to put up with various hardships to ensure they could honour their own broadcast agreements, they appear unwilling or unable to reciprocate when other nations are the ones in need. England are, it seems, all take and very little give.The IPL may well be relevant. With the Pakistan tour now abandoned, England’s players are highly likely to be free to remain at the tournament for the knockout stages. Some will find mention of that tournament cynical and irrelevant. But it is remarkable how often changes to the schedule of international cricket occur which just happen to benefit the IPL. This, after the abandonment of the Manchester Test, is the second time in little more than a week.But it is, perhaps, the hypocrisy that grates most. Terror threats are not, sadly, especially unusual in the UK. Just before the 2005 Ashes – one of the most celebrated series in modern times – London experienced one of the most serious attacks in living memory. More than 50 people were murdered in a series of incidents around the capital on July 7. Australia played an ODI in the city three days later. Even on Monday, ESPNcricinfo learned that threats had been made against the New Zealand women’s team who are due to play an ODI in Leicester on Tuesday. Instead of taking the first flight home, the threat was dismissed as “not credible.”Imagine the reaction had England travelled pretty much anywhere during the pandemic and found themselves confronted by a spectator running on to the pitch. And then remember that the same spectator made it on to the pitch in three successive games in the series between England and India.Pitch invader Jarvo collides with Jonny Bairstow. Jarvo made his way on to the pitch on three successive matches in England.•AFP/Getty ImagesOn at least one occasion, he made physical contact with a player. As it happens, he was nothing more than an attention-seeking buffoon. But what if he had been carrying a knife? Or a hammer? There is nothing that could have stopped him using it. England’s security protocols failed. And they failed consistently.It’s worth reflecting for a moment on how England would have reacted had any of these incident occurred to them while they were on tour. Although there are examples of England sides taking a phlegmatic view – the India tours of 1985 and 2008-09 both spring to mind, while the Bangladesh tour of 2016 might be relevant, too – the evidence of recent times suggests England would have been on the first flight home.Again and again, the ECB are demanding standards of others which they are nowhere near maintaining themselves. It feels, on this occasion, as if England were looking for reasons to pull out.There may well be repercussions. Quite apart from the money the PCB have lost here in broadcast revenue, there is also damage to relationships. It is, for example, understood that the PCB will, in the coming weeks, discuss the implications for England’s 2022 tour of the country. Put bluntly, there are those involved who feel they can no longer rely on the ECB’s commitment. The PCB will therefore discuss cancelling the tour and arranging a replacement who can be relied upon.Despite stringent Covid-19 protocols, Pakistan duly went to and completed their tour of England in 2020•AFP/Getty ImagesTo add insult to injury, it is understood that Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, didn’t phone Wasim Khan, his counterpart at the PCB, himself. Instead, that uncomfortable task fell to David Mahoney, the ECB’s Chief Operating Officer. Harrison, it was explained, was on a flight having missed the first two days of his holiday in an effort to resolve the issue.The ECB may well find itself short of friends the next time it calls for help. This was to have been a symbolically important tour. England have not visited Pakistan since 2005, after all, so this was an opportunity to thank the country for their assistance in 2020 and celebrate the return of normality to a cricket-loving nation which has been starved of the sport. It should have improved relationships.Instead it has further demonstrated the divide between the cricket world’s haves and have-nots. Instead, it has provided a reminder that the richer cricket boards – and the richer cricket players – do not fully understand (or accept) their wider responsibilities to the game. And, most of all, it has shown the hypocrisy and double-standards which pervade in cricket’s most affluent nations.The ECB has talked a good game on inclusion and diversity in recent months. But here, presented with an opportunity to repay a friend and encourage cricket in a part of the world where it has been missed, they have dropped the ball. And eventually, inclusion is about more than words. It’s about putting them into action.This is a disappointing day for Pakistan, for sure. But a lot of England supporters may be disappointed in the ECB, too.

He may only have himself to blame for the indiscretions that seem to have cost him his career, but we can still feel a tinge of sadness for him

Andrew McGlashan26-Nov-2021Not long ago one of the pre-Ashes narratives was whether Tim Paine might get the chance to finish his Test career in an Ashes victory on his home ground in Hobart.With doubts over whether Perth could host the final Test of this season’s series due to border restrictions, the Tasmania government made a strong push for the match. It was always likely to be a long shot, but it did carry the emotional attachment of the captain’s story.Now, on the day that Pat Cummins was announced as the new Test captain, there is a very real chance that Paine has played his last game for Australia, having taken an indefinite break from cricket to manage his mental health.Related

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He made a big mistake with the explicit image he sent in 2017. Cricket Australia still has questions to answer about the initial investigations. There is a strong argument to make that Paine should not have kept the captaincy in 2018, although that point being made by the current CA board was not helpful.Paine is not victim in all this. Subsequently revealed messages from the exchange in question showed he knew he was putting himself in a situation that could unravel. After his resignation he admitted to knowing the exchange could have become public at any time over the last three years.But, regardless of where you sit with regards to this whole mess, the phrasing of the tweet from Paine’s manager James Henderson earlier today was worrying. “We are extremely concerned for his and [wife] Bonnie’s well-being,” it read.Less than 24 hours previously he had been named in Tasmania’s one-day squad to face Western Australia as he was completing his return to action from neck surgery with a four-day 2nd XI outing. He had failed twice with the bat but kept nicely. The plan was to get another day of cricket, at a higher level, before heading up to Queensland to join the Test squad.Overnight things changed and at the time the rest of the players were informed of the decision over the captaincy, they were told that Paine would not be joining them. For now it is an open-ended situation, and there was genuine warmth when Cummins spoke of hoping to welcome Paine back, but nothing about this works in Paine’s favour. Even if he feels ready to return over the next few weeks, there is no long-form cricket now that the BBL is about to start, and it would be tricky to select a new wicketkeeper and then leave them out.There was always a risk it would play out this way after the events of last Friday. Team-mates, naturally, spoke glowingly of Paine’s imminent return over the previous 24 hours – Nathan Lyon going into some detail about what made him, in his view, the best wicketkeeper in the world – but it would have been a huge challenge for Paine to walk out at the Gabba.Paine’s senior team-mates Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins have spoken in support of him•Jono Searle/Getty ImagesIf this is it for his Australia career it will have come to an end at the Gabba with last January’s defeat against India, the team’s first loss at the ground in 32 years. It meant a second series loss to India under Paine’s captaincy following one by the same 2-1 margin in 2018-19. On that occasion there was more leeway as the team rebuilt after the ball-tampering scandal, but last season’s loss was a body blow. Outside of those two India series, Paine had won every home Test – against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand – but he needed this Ashes to bolster the record.His overall record as captain reads: played 23, won 11, lost eight, drawn four. His finest hour came at Old Trafford in 2019 when Australia retained the Ashes in England for the first time in 18 years. The lead-up to that match, following Ben Stokes’ extraordinary display at Headingley, during which Australia lost their composure, was impressive in bringing the team back together. That the series ended 2-2 was another blow to a more definite legacy but to secure the urn 18 months after the debacle in South Africa was a significant achievement.Much has been said about Paine the batter and quite a lot of it is misplaced. The lack of a Test century is a hole – his best of 92, against India in Mohali, coming in his first brief incarnation as a Test cricketer in 2010 remains his top score – but over the last two seasons at home he has averaged 37.00. Early in his captaincy he saved a Test in Dubai with an unbeaten 61 alongside Usman Khawaja. He was no Adam Gilchrist, but then no one else has been. His Test average as keeper of 31.97 is comparable to Jos Buttler (29.36), Brad Haddin (32.98), Matthew Wade (28.58) and Niroshan Dickwella (33.80) to pick out a few contemporaries.To some, none of this, the numbers and statistics, not being able to end a career on his terms, or at least on the Test field, will matter. There will, understandably, be a lack of sympathy from many. But it’s also possible to acknowledge his foolishness and still feel a tinge of sadness. If Paine has played his last game of cricket, it is to be hoped that in time there is still a place for him in the sport.

His second successive golden duck added to the growing chorus calling for him to take a break

Shashank Kishore23-Apr-20225:07

Vettori: This is the time when Kohli could turn to his friends, mentor

It’s the second over of the innings. Kane Williamson has to strain his vocal cords to get Aiden Markram’s attention. He wants to move Abhishek Sharma from backward point to first slip. He wants to strengthen the slip cordon in a T20 powerplay with Markram now at second slip. He’s had to literally yell from across the pitch because the decibel levels have soared.Virat Kohli takes strike to Marco Jansen, who until four years ago could barely mumble a word to Kohli while assisting India’s then all-format captain as a net bowler in Pretoria. The Jansen of 2022 isn’t as conservative with his actions, though.Jansen is expressive with his body language and most certainly expressive with his words. If he wants to give Jasprit Bumrah a send-off, he very well will, after roughing him up with a succession of short balls. Even if it means copping a few when it’s his turn to bat. It comes from an unmistakable confidence in his abilities.The inswing to the right-hander is his natural ball. But it’s the one that holds its line that had brought him much success during a breakthrough home summer against India. It’s this very ball that has him all pumped up this evening. He sends Faf du Plessis’ off stump cartwheeling.Now, he’s up against Kohli. The Mumbai crowd can be unforgiving at the best of times. Kohli will know all too well the feeling of being booed here. But now, they’re willing him on. To score runs. Just about anything that can classify as “form”.Kohli, bat-twirler and ferocious gum-chewer, faces up. His body language exudes naked aggression. Even before the openers had walked out to bat, there he was, all padded up, helmet strapped in, gloves set, like they usually are every single game. Nothing different there.What has been different this IPL, though, is Kohli has been searching for runs. He has blown more cold than hot. Where’s the timing? Is he struggling with bubble fatigue? Is he a victim of his own greatness? Where are the hundreds? Where’s the genius chase master? Even MS Dhoni has wound the clock back. Surely, Kohli isn’t far away.2:17

Is Kohli a victim of bubble fatigue?

Kevin Pietersen wants him to “chill”. Ravi Shastri wants him to “take a break”. Dilip Vengsarkar, the man who picked him for India, straight out of the Under-19s, is sure it’s the tiredness that is getting to him. The harder he’s trying, the tougher it’s getting.Game after game, the chorus has been getting louder. Where is Kohli of the 2016 vintage? The season where he could have walked on water. The season when he made four centuries and a mind-boggling 973 runs. That aggression has gone missing. The accumulation has been painful. The struggle to force the pace against spin all evident.Royal Challengers Bangalore’s team management, however, believes he’s as free in the mind as he has ever been without the captaincy. Head coach Sanjay Bangar is confident the drought will end soon. Kohli believes, everyone believes.Williamson thinks otherwise, as he places Markram at second slip. Kohli sees one pushed full. He instinctively throws his hands at it. Brabourne doesn’t quite have the spongy bounce of Centurion, so it’s likely the ball will fly off the bat should it meet his forward stride. Except, Jansen has angled it away towards fifth stump. He has dangled a carrot.It can play on the ego of great players like Kohli. The front foot is out in no time, hands away from the body. The bolt-upright seam hits the deck and moves away a wee bit. In a split second, after he has played it, Kohli knows it hasn’t gone where he wants it to. The ball flies low to Markram. Gone. Zero. A second straight first-ball duck.Four nights ago, he had a wry smile after he flayed one straight to backward point. Here, he looks down at the pitch, looks at his bat, looks at the non-striker Anuj Rawat. As if to ask if what has happened is legitimate. He then yanks his gloves off and walks off shaking his head.The Royal Challengers dugout is stunned. Kohli is stunned. Then comes the realisation. It’s another knock that has ended in disappointment. And the chorus grows again.What is ailing Kohli the batter?

Both have been high-quality teams in limited-overs cricket in recent years, but have few title wins to show for it – and that, by popular opinion, is an issue

Sidharth Monga09-Nov-2022When India face England in a knockout match at a world event, it is inevitable that their record in knockout matches is brought up. Since the two last played a knockout match against each other, in the 2013 Champions Trophy final, India have not won a title despite making it to the knockouts in five of the six limited-overs world events before this year’s T20 World Cup, and England have won just one despite being acknowledged as the thought leaders in limited-overs cricket.This fact has become an asterisk against these teams’ undeniable quality in this period. However there is no empirical study that suggests that good players and teams suddenly become bad in the so-called big matches, or that otherwise ordinary teams or players can raise their game and be “clutch”. The term itself is defined variously by various people depending on when they were at their most anxious watching the contest.The fact is, teams are much more evenly matched these days. In the six world events since 2013, we have had five different champions. In one of them, we couldn’t settle on a clear winner even after the Super Over. Pretty evenly matched teams come up against each other in knockout matches, they both play good cricket, and small events assume great significance.Still, it is the nature of cricket that everything must be decided by a final, making knockouts matter much more than they should. Even the players buy into that. Moeen Ali feels England need to win more trophies to be remembered as well as the team deserves to be remembered. Captain Jos Buttler seems to agree.”Certainly don’t want to be a team that just says we played a great style of cricket,” Buttler says. “You want to have tangible things that you have achieved throughout that as well. Getting to semi-finals and finals, the big prize is obviously standing there with the trophy at the end of the game, and that’s what we all want to achieve.”But we know that the way we play is going to give us the best chance of doing that. We very much stick to that and have full faith and belief that if we play to the best of our abilities with the way we want to play our cricket, that’s how we’re going to get to the point of lifting more trophies.”Winning trophies is good, but how can it take away from how England have completely revolutionised the way they played and have become trendsetters in the both the limited-overs formats. Buttler remembers clearly the day they made a clean break from their orthodox style of play because it happened at the Adelaide Oval in 2015 when they lost to Bangladesh and were knocked out in the group stage.”Yeah, we were actually just talking about that in the dressing room… anytime you go back to certain grounds there’s some moments or memories that were not always good ones, unfortunately. But yeah, absolutely, I think it’s been clear to see the change in mindset in English cricket towards the white-ball game since that game went that way, and especially the way we’ve played. The way we’ve played has given us better results, so that gives us a lot of trust in that process that it works.”I think even going back to the Pakistan tour, some younger guys coming into the group, there seems an engrained way of playing now in English cricket. It’s been a fantastic journey to be involved in.”Can that way of playing be undermined if they lose in a “big match”? What really is a big match? How does it feel different to those playing that match? Buttler says this semi-final is a big match but more so externally.”Externally of course it is a different game. There’s probably more people in the [press] room here for a semi-final than there would be for a different game, so of course a few things feel a bit different in that sense. The game remains the same [though]. We must find a way to accept the noise around the match, but again, come back to exactly your job on the day and playing what’s required from you.”It’s still a game of cricket. There’s a lot of things you can’t control in the game. There will probably still be a misfield, someone will bowl a wide, someone might drop a catch. All these things happen in the game, [whether] it’s a semi-final or not. But we must maintain trying to play with the same level of freedom in T20 cricket. Whether it’s one or two guys, whether it’s a full-team performance coming down to it on the day, we must have huge belief that we can get the job done.”When it comes to India, the record of their top three in knockout matches is considered a qualifier against their quality as batters. What really happens – as it does in other matches – is that they make about the same proportion of mistakes but in these matches the mistakes have tended to bring about their dismissal. Eight matches in nine years is too rare an occurrence to develop any patterns. Rohit Sharma, India’s captain, does acknowledge the extra importance of knockout matches but doesn’t see any reason why good players should become bad in knockout matches.”I think knockout games are important,” Rohit says. “We do understand that. It’s a simple logic to it, knockout games, because you get to play only once and there’s only one opportunity to do well in that knockout game. But for us, I think, not just for me but for the players, what they’ve done in their entire career doesn’t define them by just one knockout game. The entire year you work so hard to get where you want to and to do well in whichever format you play. So that one particular game is not going to decide that.”It’s important we do understand the importance of knockout, but at the same time, it’s also important to realise and understand what sort of effort you put in the entire year to come to that stage. For us, as players, as a team, we can pride ourselves to be here at this point in time because we saw two of the quality teams which were knocked out [in the Super 12s], and anything can happen in this format.”It’s important to understand that if do well in knockout matches, it gives you that immense confidence. But we do not forget what has happened in the past, what the players have done in the past. There’s a lot of effort that goes into putting ourselves and playing for the country and getting those efforts, getting those runs, getting those wickets, so I really don’t believe that one bad game in the knockout can truly define what kind of player you are.”Be that as it may, come Thursday, one of these excellent teams will be called chokers and the other clutch. A status that will be up for debate again on Sunday.

They were ahead of the curve over a decade ago, but haven’t quite followed that blueprint since

Hassan Cheema02-Nov-2022As Pakistan have stumbled their way through the back end of the Asia Cup to two heartbreaking losses in the World Cup, every aspect of the team has been debated over. Yet this World Cup has been defined by a question that is ever more familiar in non-sports discourse in Pakistan: why don’t we have what others do? What does a Pakistani T20 side that’s up with the zeitgeist even look like?If we were to create the ideal, data-driven T20 side, it would have: two to three top-order hitters, two to three middle-overs specialists who are good spin-hitters and bat deep, followed by allrounders who create the depth that allows those above them to play with freedom. For pace, you’d want a powerplay specialist fast bowler, a death-overs specialist, and another fast bowler who can do both. Among these three, you’d want express pace and a left-armer. For spin, you’d want bowlers who turn the ball either way and can bowl across phases, plus additional bowling options to create positive match-ups. Six or more bowling options and batting that lasts till eight.In other words, the ideal T20 team today would look almost identical to Pakistan’s 2007 (runners-up) and 2009 (winners) T20 World Cup sides.The late 2000s are a dark period in Pakistan’s cricket history. They went four years without winning any Test series. They lost ten of their 15 bilateral ODI series, with four of their five wins coming against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and West Indies. They dealt with the death of a beloved coach during a World Cup, lost hosting rights, and had their players banned for, variously, using performance-enhancing and recreational drugs, spot-fixing, scuffing up the pitch, and conspiring against their captain. The 2007 World Cup was a forgettable experience, and while they made it to the knockouts in the 2009 Champions Trophy, the semi-final loss led to fixing accusations. Yet in the middle of all this, Pakistan stumbled upon the perfect way to play T20 cricket.The top order: hitters over anchors, please
There are a handful of players from those Pakistan teams who would have had different careers if they had been ten years younger, but no one more so than Imran Nazir, who was the lynchpin of the 2007 T20 World Cup side. He finished with a career strike rate just shy of 150, a figure that would have made him a franchise globetrotter today. A lot of those runs were made in the lower-quality Indian Cricket League and on the Pakistan domestic circuit, but even at the highest level, Nazir’s method was successful. Until 2010, for example, only Yuvraj Singh and Andrew Symonds scored more T20I runs at a higher strike rate than Nazir.