Without the large shadow cast by their captain, the attention was diffused across a big cast of characters

Osman Samiuddin22-Jan-2021I can’t pinpoint the exact moment. At a guess, it was somewhere between Ajinkya Rahane’s century at the MCG and the almighty battering Hanuma Vihari and R Ashwin took at the SCG. As with the business of growing old, it probably wasn’t a moment, per se but, a gradual realisation. Incrementally, surreptitiously, and then it was done: this India team had become .No filter in Statsguru will give you a measure for likeability, but nor can the lack of one – or the combined might of all metrics – dispute that this has definitively happened, and that it stands this Indian side apart from many modern Indian sides. I haven’t been drawn to one like it since the days of peak Virender Sehwag – and I don’t think it’s me alone. Not if various WhatsApp groups, scrolls down social media timelines, and Zoom calls across borders, with Indians and otherwise, is any sample.The harder-nosed among us will argue this is trivial. Sport is not a popularity contest and athletes and sports teams don’t play to be liked. They play – no, they function – to be effective, to win. Everything else – about whether they play with panache or are dour, whether they make friends or enemies – is secondary, an inconsequence. It is a valid, if slightly buzzkill way, to interpret sport.Related

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But – and don’t tell them this – it is in this very grand inconsequence that life lives itself out. This is where sport actually happens, where we carefully tend to our loves and meticulously nurture our hates. It is also here, further away but not completely removed from that tribal heat, that we come to admire, fear and respect sides. Or, as is the case with this India side, we come to like them, in the way of that old idea of everybody’s second-favourite side, be it West Indies in cricket or Brazil in football.Even if it isn’t important that India is liked, it needs acknowledging as a notable development because it has not been that way for a while. Not since India realised that its behemoth nature was a strength not a sufferance. Somewhere along the way, as the BCCI started flexing those muscles off the field, not liking what the board was doing simply – if unfairly – melded into not liking its team on the field. Admired, respected, feared, but liked? How do you like the classroom bully?This is not the new normal, let’s not get carried away. It’s important to be precise and identify side as the one that has slowly been bound together by falling apart over the last three Tests, because the next India side will be fundamentally different in personnel and spirit – more of which later. India were, for much of this series, genuine underdogs, and everybody loves an underdog. That hasn’t been the case with India for a long time. Twenty years ago, arguably, they were, in the series that kicked off this rivalry. India went into that series no longer the home dominators of the 90s (nine wins and seven losses in their previous 25 home Tests), not far from the stink of match-fixing, and unsure about a still fresh captain who was meant to drag them out. Anil Kumble was missing too. So thinly resourced were they that they became, literally, a one-man attack. A different world.Now it’s almost impossible for them to be that ever again, given that they are in the employ of the world’s richest board and selected from the largest talent pool in the sport.
They still don’t travel as well as they should, but with a full-strength side that status brings an entitlement and expectation of success. And when they don’t win, they put up with a tremendous global outpouring of schadenfreude. It would need, literally, an unparalleled plague of injuries, an epidemic, to weaken them so much that they were considered underdogs. Which is precisely what happened on this tour, leaving them with a combination of a 2nd and 3rd XI, for whom even underdog status felt like an aspiration. (Of course, you could take the fact that they won the series with this side not as extraordinary but as what is to be expected from a country with as much resource and depth, as Justin Langer sort of did, but where’s the romance in that?)Undoubtedly it helped they were playing Australia, fellow member of the Big Three in which each side is on rotation to be the most disliked. When they play each other, it isn’t unknown for people to wonder if both sides can lose. Not this time, though, because Australia currently are a bit Ned Flanders. Homer Simpson’s neighbour, you might remember, was revealed to once have undergone anger-management therapy as a child. All that anger was pushed away inside, deep beneath the exterior of the jolliest guy you’ll ever meet. There it remained, waiting to burst out, until one day it did. Australia aren’t there… yet. There’s much to admire about Australian cricket but the handwringing over culture and elite honesty turns them into a natural target for the schadenfreude that otherwise might have been shared between the two teams.Nothing, though, helped form this impression as much as the fact that this series represented a rare and sustained opportunity to better acquaint ourselves with a team that otherwise finds itself perennially under the shadow cast by Virat Kohli. If we break down Kohli to be Sourav Ganguly’s attitude plus Sachin Tendulkar’s batting, then it’s easy to understand why he can swallow whole any scene he happens to be in, unlike any Indian leader before him.Not just the team either – shadow is so vast and infinite, it eclipses cricket itself. How unhealthily invested cricket is in him was clear from some of the panicked reportage around his absence from part of the tour. It became the new twist to some old scaremongering. No longer was it that every team needs an India tour to survive and thrive. It now needed Kohli to tour to survive. This is not Kohli’s fault. This one is on the media, and we at ESPNcricinfo have not been blameless.Attention magnet: people’s eyes and minds are drawn towards Virat Kohli inevitably•Daniel Kalisz/Getty ImagesThe more relevant tendency has become to kind of see the entire side in his image: a bristling presence, bathing each situation in its own tensile force until it breaks and gives way, most times in some burst of genius but also sometimes in moments of crude chauvinism and confrontation.Over the course of this series, it became clear that wasn’t the case, and instead, here was a collective presence of far less motion and agitation but no less action. Here emerged Rahane, narrow-shouldered and droopy-eyed, as if created specifically to contrast Kohli’s fierce eyes and chest-out stomp. There was something inherently human – rather than superhuman – in Rahane’s blending of fallible batting with sharp captaincy. This, too, was representative of a team that worked with its humanness, in spilling catches, in Rishabh Pant being Rishabh Pant, in breaking down but in not being broken. And Cheteshwar Pujara, who in taking as many blows on the final day as he did, stood up to the challenges Kohli had said his “new India” stands up to, except on the literal and figurative back foot, in almost the opposite way to the what the idea of the new India implies.Or Ashwin, who outside of this shadow, it should be easier to acknowledge, is the most impactful player in the Indian side – and if that is arguable, it is probably because you identify as a batting person. He was part of a leadership collective too with Rahane and Rohit Sharma, and was instrumental in tackling the racist chants directed at Mohammed Siraj.Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, Vihari, Pant, Washington Sundar – countless others, which is precisely the point. None of them are anonymous, but because they ordinarily would not get as much attention, they brought an unexpectedness to how this series played out. And with the focus diffused across all of them, it wasn’t about any of them as much as it was truly about the whole of them, pleasant relief from the usually intense gaze hung on one man as the prism through which an entire team, sport and country is seen.The facelessness was endearing and it left this team feeling like one from a less frantic age, before that of the Indian Cricket Superstar. Before Kohli, MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, when India series went ahead without pinning a billion hopes on one pair of shoulders, or talk of how the BCCI was leveraging an opportunity to get richer, or of some new, shiny India. All that was left was a side of cricketers banding together to do extraordinary things in an extraordinary sport. What’s not to like about that?

England batter suspects he’s still suffering from long Covid after gruelling winter away

Matt Roller26-May-2021When Tom Banton finished England’s T20I series at home to Pakistan as their leading run-scorer last summer, he seemed to have the world at his feet.Banton was county cricket’s breakout star in 2019, impressing in Somerset’s Royal London Cup win and finishing second to his opening partner Babar Azam in the Vitality Blast run-scoring charts. As much as the runs, it was his style that caught the eye as he paddled, slogged and reverse-lapped himself into the England squad for the winter’s T20I tour to New Zealand. Soon after, he was travelling to the Big Bash, the Abu Dhabi T10 and the PSL as one of the franchise scene’s hottest young talents, and despite a quieter start to the 2020 summer, quick runs against Pakistan seemed to confirm that status.But the eight months since have been tough. Banton managed 12 runs in three T20Is against Australia at the end of England’s home season and flew straight to the UAE for the IPL – earning him a bizarre rebuke on Twitter from the actor John Cleese for missing Somerset’s Bob Willis Trophy final against Essex. He played only twice for Kolkata Knight Riders, making 8 and 10, and was almost immediately on the plane again, heading to South Africa as a reserve for the white-ball squads.Amid the Covid scare that cut the tour short, Banton pulled out of his planned return to the Brisbane Heat, citing bubble fatigue after so many nights staring at the walls of hotel rooms. Following a handful of cameos in the Abu Dhabi T10, he flew to Pakistan to fulfil his Quetta Gladiators contract; after two single-figure scores, he contracted Covid-19, meaning 10 days of isolation in his Karachi hotel and 10 more back home in the UK. The pandemic has put the franchise treadmill onto a setting so high that even the fastest runners struggle to keep up.”There’s been a lot of quarantine over the last year, and that kind of just tipped me over the edge to say I can’t really go away and do hotels for a while now,” Banton told ESPNcricinfo on Monday, speaking from Twickenham Stadium at a content day for the Hundred.”I pulled out of a few things this winter, but I have to get the balance right. There’s so many things going on every month, either with England or tournaments around the world, and I have to be very clear with what I’m doing and stick to it.”Related

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On top of the Big Bash, Banton also opted out of the IPL auction for this season, choosing instead to return to play in the County Championship for Somerset. The runs are yet to come – he has averaged 14.50 with a top score of 37, and has been left out in two of their last three games – but there are mitigating factors: he has been tasked with opening, having generally played as a middle-order batter in red-ball cricket in the past, and has still been suffering from his experiences over the winter.”I’ve still probably got long Covid,” he said. “My smell and taste aren’t too good still, which is a bit weird – and a bit worrying, actually. It might have had an impact on the runs – who knows? – but apart from that it’s been alright. I’ve felt probably [in] the best form I have done, but obviously the red ball sometimes has your name on it.”[Before the IPL] I’d been in a bubble for a long time. It felt like I’d been away for years. Obviously the IPL is run so differently and it’s so good to be a part of it – growing up as a kid, it’s something I’d always wanted to do, so to actually be there was surreal. I thought I wouldn’t go back into the auction and just get back and play cricket again. To be honest, I wouldn’t have been picked up – I’ve had a pretty quiet year.”I’m not worrying about [Championship form] too much. I enjoy the red-ball stuff but opening – is it suited to me, is it not? I don’t know. I enjoyed it, but it’s obviously tricky and you’ve got to be so patient. I’m looking forward to not worrying about wobbling red balls coming down, or having my stumps blown out. It’s nice to get ready for the Blast and the Hundred – and hopefully England selection – in the summer.”Banton was dropped by Somerset after 116 runs in eight Championship innings•Alex Davidson/Getty ImagesSomerset’s week off in the Championship and Banton’s omission from the side has given him the opportunity to get away from the game for a week, seeing friends in London (though he was busy fixing the back windscreen of his car on Monday, following a break-in). When he gets back to training, his focus will be on building into a two-and-a-half month stretch of white-ball cricket comprising the Blast for Somerset, the Hundred for Welsh Fire, and limited-overs series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan for England, if selected.”It’s a busy summer of white-ball cricket,” he said. “The Hundred felt like it was never going to start at one stage but now here it is, two months away. It’s quite exciting for everyone: the new format will probably take a few games to get used to and then hopefully it’ll be pretty normal from there. It’ll be nice to have coloured kit on and bring back some of the old days from a few years ago, and have some fun again.”It’s a long summer, and one of the last times I played for England I got a few runs against Pakistan. The squad is so strong at the moment that I’ve got to score runs and that’s all I can hope for, but I’m not expecting anything. I’m just going to keep enjoying my cricket – I’ve still enjoyed it over the last year, but sitting in hotels, doing quarantine [and] having no crowds does make a huge difference. I can’t wait for things to get back to normal.”Banton’s Welsh Fire side are bracing for news regarding their overseas signings: Qais Ahmad is expected to play the full tournament and Kieron Pollard is understood to be keen to fulfil his contract following international duty, but Jhye Richardson is among the Australians weighing up a two-week quarantine period on their return home and the possibility of a clash in dates with series in the Caribbean and Bangladesh. Either way, Banton is relishing the chance to target Cardiff’s short straight boundaries.”Fingers crossed they can all come over, but with international commitments, I’m not sure what it’ll be like,” he said. “It’s tricky for Jhye – they have a two-week quarantine when they get back to Australia. It’s not easy for these guys, especially when they’ve just come back from the IPL.”I’ve been [to Cardiff] a few times for a few nights out – my brother [Jacques, who plays for Worcestershire’s 2nd XI] goes to uni there and I have some other friends there, but I’ve played one game there and got 80-odd [64] which started off my whole journey, really. Fingers crossed the same thing happens again this summer: a few scoops, and some hacks and chips over mid-off and mid-on.”

RCB’s faith in his abilities brought him into the XI, and he made sure to make the most of it

Saurabh Somani15-Apr-20213:58

Bishop: Kohli deserves praise for bringing Shahbaz on

This time last year, Shahbaz Ahmed was sitting at home in Mewat, Haryana, and wondering when his next opportunity to play would come. India was in lockdown due to Covid-19 and there was uncertainty about whether the IPL would happen. For Ahmed, the timing couldn’t have been worse. The original IPL 2020 schedule had the tournament starting a fortnight after the Ranji Trophy 2019-20, which would have meant Ahmed came into the tournament riding the crest of a form wave.Batting at No.7 for Bengal, Ahmed had made 509 runs at 36.35, most of them scored in back-to-the-wall situations that turned certain defeat into victory. He had also taken 35 wickets at an average of 16.80 in a remarkable effort for his first full season of playing. The batting and bowling were ticking over nicely, and he was primed for a debut IPL season with the Royal Challengers Bangalore. But then the world turned upside down in ways no one would have imagined.Related

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Even then, sitting at home and looking at an uncertain future as most of India’s domestic cricketers had to, Ahmed was focussed on the bright side. “I think positive. Whatever will happen, will happen for the good,” he had told .”You do get in the mind that it is my first season, I was performing well, if it had taken place as scheduled it would have been great, I would have carried the momentum from the domestic season and if the IPL had also gone well, I might have got further opportunities through that,” he had said. “But in this situation also, I am thinking positive. Whatever cricket happens in the future, if I do well, I’ll still get chances.”Ahmed’s words turned out to be of the crystal-ball gazing kind, or perhaps he them come true with the force of his belief in self. And a year later against the Sunrisers Hyderabad – a team that had called him for trials before IPL 2020 which he couldn’t attend on account of having a Ranji game in two days – it all came together beautifully.Thrown the ball late into the game, Ahmed came on to bowl only in the 15th over. His first over was a tight one, the second was game-changing, with the wickets of Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey and Abdul Samad. The Sunrisers had begun that over smelling victory in a chase of 150. They ended it cooked to a crisp. Ahmed wouldn’t bowl another over but his returns of 3 for 7 in two made the primary difference between victory and defeat for the Royal Challengers. The player of the match may have gone to Glenn Maxwell, but ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats put Ahmed as the best performer of the game.Shahbaz Ahmed celebrates a wicket with Virat Kohli•BCCIHe had been given the ball late, with Virat Kohli juggling his bowlers around. The pitch was showing some grip, but a marauding David Warner was still at the crease. As soon as the left-handed Warner was out and with two right-handers in the middle, Kohli brought on Ahmed and Yuzvendra Chahal, both bowlers who would turn the ball away from the men at the crease. Both of them kept things tight in two overs, and as the asking rate crept up ever so quietly, Ahmed found himself in the crossfires of a moment that could swing the game either his way, or take it completely away from his side if a couple of hits connected.Three times the batsmen tried to get that hit away that would make the rest of the chase easier, and all three times Ahmed kept the ball just enough away from a natural hitting arc, making for ugly, mis-timed swipes that were all caught inside the circle.That Ahmed had made it to the XI spoke of the team’s faith in his abilities. The Royal Challengers already had plenty of bowling options so with Devdutt Padikkal returning, the thought of keeping Rajat Patidar in – whom Kohli had called “very exciting” and who is a more pedigreed batsman – might have been a real one. But Ahmed not only kept his place, he was promoted to No.3 too, faith being shown in his batting skills to be the bridge in the top order that would allow the Royal Challengers to have Maxwell and AB de Villiers at four and five.Fun fact: Ahmed had never batted at No.3 across his first-class, List A and T20 career before this game. In 58 games across formats, the highest he batted at was No.5, and just six times. His highest score in a T20 game at No.5 was 13. Another indication of the Royal Challengers’ faith in him was his batting promotion. While he didn’t get a big score, he did his job during his brief stay, with 14 off 10 balls, including a shovelled six off namesake Shahbaz Nadeem, and showing intent to score throughout his stay.Back when he still didn’t know when he would get to practice again or be near a cricket ground, he had said “whatever cricket happens in the future, if I do well, I’ll still get chances.” With this performance, Ahmed has just created his own chances.

Could the two WTC finalists be any more excited?

Alan Gardner15-Jun-2021Here we go again, then. The hoopla, the hype, the patriotic fervour. The hopes of millions carried on the shoulders of millionaires, heroes dressed in white, cheered off in pursuit of glory and a coveted piece of silverware. The entourage, the WAGs, the swirl of social content. The nagging fear that it will all come unstuck, followed by bitter recriminations, dressing-room splits, trial by media.That’s right, we are, of course, talking about India’s bid to bring it home in the World Test Championship final, as the oldest format’s newest format rolls in to sweep Euro 2020 off the UK back pages – much to the relief of England’s cricketers, who have now got twice as much cover for their failings after they began the meticulously planned long run in to the 2021-22 Ashes with a crushing defeat at home to New Zealand.Already the atmosphere is building around the event, with kids flocking to buy Test flannels and recreate their favourite moments from the WTC league stage on TikTok. That added context was all the game needed, and you can sense the anticipation among those involved too – as Virat Kohli explained a few months ago.Related

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“If you want me to be brutally honest, it might work for teams who are not that motivated to play Test cricket. Teams like us, who are motivated to play Test cricket and want to win Test matches and keep Indian cricket team at the top of the world in Test cricket, we have no issues whatsoever, whether it’s a World Test Championship or not. I think for teams like us, it’s only a distraction when you start thinking of the World Test Championship.”Okay, so it’s not for everyone – even the captain of one of the sides involved (though this was said before India qualified, so it can perhaps be categorised as “mind games”). But at least the ICC managed to come up with a way of pitting the two best teams against each, despite the obvious issues caused by the pandemic, right? Let’s ask, Ravi Shastri.”Please don’t shift the goal posts. You have got more points than any other team in the world, 360 at that time, and suddenly there’s a percentage system where you go from number one to number three in a week. We’ve have had to dig deep. We’ve had to go down every hole that’s needed to find water and we found it. We put ourselves in the final of the World Test Championship, the biggest trophy in the world, with 520 points.”Well, look, Shaz, they had to do . Now can we at least just sit down and enjo…”Ideally, in the long run, if they want to persist with the Test Championship, a best-of-three final will be ideal. As a culmination of two and a half years of cricket around the globe. Going forward, best of three will be ideal, but we have got to finish it as quickly as possible because the FTP will start all over again.”So there you have it: the WTC was a complicated distraction that both bored and infuriated its participants, but would nevertheless benefit from having more games (hahaha, have you seen the calendar?). Baddiel and Skinner are right now heading into the studio with the Bharat Army to lay all that down in a seminally catchy pop tune which will echo on the terraces at IPL matches for years to come.

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Speaking of the WTC, New Zealand look to be in good form after completing their warm-ups against some local enthusiasts and competition winners. As we’ve touched on before, those mild-looking Kiwis are actually monsters and they handed out another cheerily ruthless mauling at Edgbaston. After the carnage on day three, England coach Chris Silverwood attempted the traditional hunt for some positives. “You look at how New Zealand have played this game, they have given us a lesson on what it takes to be number one in the world,” he said – which sounded a bit like a pygmy shrew looking to pick up tips from a saltwater crocodile on how to become an apex predator. But perhaps the greatest indication that Kane Williamson’s men are untouchable was that they made six changes for the second Test but still managed to avoid any criticism for disrespecting a weaker opponent.

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Cricket is not often short on controversies – already this month we’ve had the stink around Ollie Robinson’s Twitter droppings, plus Shakib Al Hasan taking up karate during a DPL match – but what we have lacked until recently is player YouTube channels to help explain it all. Well out in front is R Ashwin, though the Light Roller’s Tamil is a little rusty, so we don’t often tune in, and now following in his wake comes Usman Khawaja – maker of one of the great 37s on Test debut and a man not afraid to give Justin Langer some backatcha in the Australia dressing room (at least until he was dropped). As you might imagine, given his Pakistani origins and experiences as the first Muslim to play for Australia, Khawaja speaks eloquently in his six-minute video about Robinson and prejudice in the game. On Shakib “losing his c**p”, well, he spends most of the time giggling to himself, which is an understandable response. Either way, Uzzy the Oracle should be worth a follow.

What an extraordinary, abject spectacle this series is turning out to be

Andrew Miller18-Dec-2021At 5.10pm local time, Joe Root and Dawid Malan strode back out to the middle of the Adelaide Oval with a three-hour century stand in the bank, a Test match (theoretically) in the balance and an Ashes campaign to be rescued, right there and then.Within a further three hours, the Ashes had turned to dust, and James Anderson’s and Stuart Broad’s emotional reunion under the floodlights had instead become a rabbit-hunt in the headlights.Despite the delicious prospect of a quick kill and the enforcing of the follow-on almost on the stroke of sunset, Australia’s seamers instead put their search for wickets on hold to indulge in a spell of bunny-bashing. When you’ve claimed four prime wickets for 19 runs in some of the most pristine batting conditions of the series, a team is entitled to trade 16 tail-end runs (England’s joint-third-highest stand of the innings) for the chance to leave a lasting impression on their opponent’s battered carcass.A diet of bouncers, right into the ribs and on one occasion, Broad’s jaw, was then followed by the inevitable sight of David Warner and Marcus Harris sprinting off the pitch after England’s tenth-wicket tenderising had finally come to an end. Where’s the need to go again when you are so far ahead of the game?And as night follows day, not long after 9.30pm, Australia’s openers had posted their highest first-wicket Ashes partnership in four years and 15 innings, at which point England abandoned the zip-around-in-the-gloom policy that had dictated their selection for this match, and turned instead to their Test-match everyman, Root – for whom it is not enough simply to carry the entire team’s batting all year. All of a sudden he is considered the only spinner worth his salt in the entire country.Related

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By 9.45pm, however, Root had shamefully failed to emulate his previous pink-ball bowling figures of 5 for 8, and England had been reduced to bowling for run-outs, to set the seal on a day of rock-bottom ignominy.Is it possible that we are in the midst of witnessing England’s worst-ever Ashes challenge? With two days to come, two more sessions of Aussie run-harvesting, and two more trials by twilight up the sleeve for Mitchell Starc and Co., it’s eminently plausible. What an extraordinary, abject spectacle this series is turning out to be.Of course there’s mitigation, there always is. The build-up to this particular series has been indescribably tough – the lab-rat lifestyle of cricket in Covid times could hardly be less conducive to a cheery team environment. Four years ago, the squad was at least able to pop down to a local dive and indulge in a spot of beer-fuelled headbutting to loosen a few intra-squad tensions.But the cricket itself… even allowing for the rain that wrecked the series build-up, and six years of white-ball priorities that wrecked the County Championship schedule, and the glut of fast-bowling injuries that wrecked England’s best-laid plans, and a post-pandemic financial imperative that has sucked the joy from the act of playing sport for a living … there’s still no excuse for the spineless surrender that England served up in an afternoon session, a passage of play that could not have been more critical to the team’s ambitions in the series they claim to hold most dear.And it all began, dare one say it, with England’s golden child himself. Criticising Root for a lack of application in this year of all years is rather like accusing the Pope of fallibility (no, not Ollie Pope … we’ll come to him later too). And yet, as Root himself telegraphed as he threw back his head and bent his bat over his brain in self-admonishment after nibbling an edge from the lanky seam of Cameron Green, he knew all too well that he’d given it away once again. He had reached his seventh fifty in his last seven Tests in Australia, and his eighth in 11 all told, but it needed to be converted to that elusive hundred – instead that missing statistic looks set to condemn him to the tenth defeat of his career Down Under, and his sixth out of seven as captain.Joe Root looks on before walking out to the middle•Getty Images”It’s pretty frustrating and disappointing to get back within touching distance of them,” Malan, England’s top scorer with 80, said afterwards. “We can talk about the guys that failed, but ultimately one of Rooty or myself should have gone on and got a big hundred there. We’ve been found short as a batting unit, compared to the Australian unit, and that’s something we need to do better from this next innings onwards.”Most worryingly for England’s hopes of staging a fightback, however – at Melbourne, Sydney or Hobart, let alone in the next two days – the ball that derailed their innings wasn’t even the one that prised Root from the crease. Rather, it was the one that Green served up four balls earlier, a bona fide snorter that hit the seam and climbed past the edge, as a bowler of Green’s height is wont to achieve on occasions. His next ball, at the start of a new over, also climbed dramatically, and suddenly Root was playing a different game, rushing his hands to meet the anticipated point of impact rather than playing each on its own merits, under the eyes, down through the cordon, as he had done with such sangfroid all morning long.What happened next was a credit to Green’s ability to make things happen, of course, and further proof that Australia have found themselves a truly tantalising talent, but tall bowlers extracting bounce is hardly a mystery weapon in Australian conditions – that tactic, over and above outright speed, was the making (and the subsequent breaking) of England’s victorious tour in 2010-11, as well as their last most forgettable visit three years later.But Root needed to know that the moment would pass, that hanging tough through a torrid passage of play was a fair trade-off for the serenity that beckoned on the other side of Green’s spell – he’s spent long enough watching David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne live on their wits to know that. Instead Root jabbed with hard hands at a ball he had no reason to engage with, and as he dragged his year’s tally of 1606 runs back to the pavilion, his replacement at the crease was pure wide-eyed panic.Suddenly, there were demons everywhere. Malan had been intermittently skittish during his 138-run stand with Root, including a brace of inside-edged drives off the seamers and more than a few wild cuts against Nathan Lyon’s spin. But at least his captain’s controlled presence at the other end had emboldened him to go for his strokes, and make his own decisions about the risk-reward they entailed.Now, suddenly, everything was on his shoulders. With Ben Stokes devoutly runless for his first 24 deliveries, priming himself for his Headingley-lite finale, Malan too was crammed back into his shell. His second ball of this new partnership was a low edge to slip, and as Lyon began to hound his technique from round the wicket, his only two scoring shots for three overs were another snick past the slips and a madcap single to cover … which brought him back into the firing line of the returning Mitchell Starc…”Out here, you have to have the intent to score, to put the pressure back on the bowlers,” Malan reflected afterwards. “It’s also identifying certain periods of the game where the Aussies are going to attack you and trying to counter that. Looking back, I probably should have left that ball and hopefully could have still been batting but that’s a learning curve for myself.”But Malan didn’t leave that ball – a not-so-juicy half-tracker that was too tight for the cut shot that he had played so effectively one ball earlier. And nor did Pope (the fallible version) learn from a reprieve at short leg off Lyon, as he cantered down the track two balls later in a desperate bid to smother the spin before it engulfed him, and picked out the same fielder.It was his second extraction by Lyon in as many innings, and having been similarly tormented by R Ashwin last winter, Pope’s average against offspin has now plummeted to 15.57, compared to a serviceable 36.20 against the quicks. It’s a blindspot that England’s most exciting Test prospect seems no closer to resolving, as his career progression remains in stasis, almost two years on from his breakthrough hundred in Port ElizabethNathan Lyon claims the wicket of Ollie Pope•Getty ImagesChris Woakes at least showed proactivity until he too was spooked by the one that didn’t quite behave – another big turner from Lyon inducing a flat-footed poke two balls later – which is more than can be said for the haunted Jos Buttler, whose first-day drops meant that he began his innings in serious arrears – and at no stage did he ever look like clearing his debt.Another hard-handed jab sent Buttler on his way for a 15-ball duck, which is the fourth time he has batted so long for no runs – more than any other Test cricketer since 1991. Far from being liberated by his proven white-ball derring-do, Buttler seems paralysed by the expanse of Test cricket’s possibilities, like a stoned astrology student contemplating the limitless reach of the stars in the night sky.At least, on that note, it was another pretty sunset for England to contemplate as they sat on the balcony and watched their old stagers get duffed up. The optics of England’s actual cricket, however, are looking pretty hideous.

A look at where the semi-final between England and New Zealand could be won or lost

Gaurav Sundararaman09-Nov-20213:00

Can England stave off Southee-Boult challenge? Our experts discuss

The 2016 World T20 semi-final. The 2019 ODI World Cup final. And now, the 2021 T20 World Cup semi-final. That’s three knockout matches in the last three World Cups. New Zealand have failed to win on the two previous occasions against England: can they get across the line this time around against the favourites? This is where the game could be won or lost.Where should Moeen bat?
England’s middle order has been largely untested in this competition. Only three batters have faced more than 60 balls and one of them, Jason Roy, is now injured. New Zealand have a well-rounded attack with all bowlers capable of bowling across all phases. Moeen Ali is the man in form and has been playing in these conditions for a while now.Recently, Moeen Ali has been the world’s most destructive batter vs spin•ESPNcricinfo LtdWith Roy not around, would it make sense for England to use Moeen at the fall of the first wicket to capitalise upon the powerplay or would England want to use Moeen the spin smasher to target Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner in the middle? Moeen at three – where he batted against South Africa – could upset New Zealand’s rhythm by ensuring they bowl pace to him and that could delay the overs bowled by spin.Dawid Malan is a slow starter and does not match up well against spin. In a knockout game, will England bank on Malan or the experience of Moeen who delivered just a month ago in an all-important IPL final wearing a Chennai Super Kings shirt?Can New Zealand capitalise on England’s death bowling
South Africa scored 49 runs in the last four overs the only time England were properly tested at the death. With Tymal Mills injured, England have lost their specialist in that phase. It remains to be seen whether Roy will be replaced by an extra bowler or not, but the options that England have at their disposal are not very exciting.England’s pacers have not been tidy in the death overs•ESPNcricinfo LtdAll their pace options have gone for plenty in the death across the last four years in T20 cricket. Barring Chris Jordan, who goes at 9.65 an over, their other options have conceded more than ten runs per over. New Zealand will look to follow the template South Africa set: keeping wickets in hand and maximising the death rather than going hard first up, particularly with a relatively shallow batting lineup that sees Santner carded at No. 7.Can New Zealand’s swing bowlers win the powerplay?
England’s batters have some outstanding numbers in the powerplay this tournament. Their scoring rate of 8.33 is the best in the tournament and they have the tournament’s second-highest run-getter in Jos Buttler.England the better team in the powerplay overs?•ESPNcricinfo LtdHowever, this will be England’s first night match in Abu Dhabi. Of the three venues in the UAE for this tournament, Abu Dhabi has been most favourable for seamers in the powerplay. Seamers average just 17.38 (at 5.92 runs per over) here compared to averages of 25.17 and 31.33 in Dubai and Sharjah respectively.If the combination of Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Adam Milne can extract seam, swing and bounce, then the England batters could face their toughest test in this tournament. Could 20 minutes of madness cost England the tournament? Only time will tell.Can New Zealand find a way to attack England’s fifth bowler?
If England replace Roy with a batter then how are they going to use their ‘fifth’ bowler? England’s fifth bowler has been fantastic so far in the tournament: together Moeen and Liam Livingstone have picked up 11 wickets and have conceded less than six runs per over. With three right-handed batters in the top three for New Zealand, it would mean England may opt for the spin of Adil Rashid or the quicks early on.Can New Zealand take the attack against Moeen and Livingstone, whenever they bowl? This will be vital if New Zealand are looking to put up a challenging score to defend or ease the pressure while chasing. Devon Conway, James Neesham and Santner are the left-handers in the middle order who may end up facing the fifth bowler the most, while Kane Williamson will need to show greater attacking intent than he has so far in order to take those spin overs down.

Other things to watch

Sodhi vs England
Sodhi has a very poor record against England, conceding 298 runs (with 20 sixes) at an economy of 11.03 runs per over. But these numbers mean very little: the majority of those games were played on grounds in New Zealand with much smaller dimensions than Abu Dhabi. On Wednesday, he gets a chance to bowl to England on the biggest ground of the tournament. That could work in his favour.Morgan’s form
Eoin Morgan enjoyed his career-best form in 2019 and 2020 but this year, he averages 17.59 and strikes at 118. Whichever metric you look at, he is struggling. England’s middle order is hardly tested in the tournament and Morgan will want to ensure he can play an impactful innings in a pressure game. His performances in knockout matches across his career are underwhelming – though the sample size is small.

And is South Africa the first team to win a three-Test series without making a total of 250?

Steven Lynch01-Feb-2022Was Heather Knight’s 168 the other day the highest score by an England women’s captain in a Test? asked Jacqueline Durrant from England
That superb unbeaten 168 by Heather Knight in the Ashes in Canberra last weekend was actually the fourth-highest by any England player in a women’s Test. Only one of the higher scores was by the captain: Rachael Heyhoe Flint made 179 against Australia at The Oval in 1976, which is also the highest by any captain in a women’s Test.The other higher scores for England were 189 by Betty Snowball against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1934-35, and Claire Taylor’s 177 against South Africa in Shenley in 2003. Jan Brittin made 167 against Australia in Harrogate in 1998. For the list of the highest scores in women’s Tests (not just by captains), click here.In a recent South African domestic match, the top seven batters for the Northern Heat all reached 50 (two went on to hundreds). Has this ever happened before? asked Stuart from South Africa
That match in East London last week saw Northern Cape’s top seven all make at least 50 in their 525 for 5 declared against Border, who were bowled out for 86 and 168 to lose by an innings. This was the 25th instance in all first-class cricket of an innings containing seven scores of 50 or more, but only the seventh time it involved the top seven in the order. One of those was in a Test match, by Pakistan (599 for 7 declared) against India in Karachi in 2005-06. Pakistan won that Test despite having been 0 for 3 at the end of the very first over of the match, after a hat-trick from Irfan Pathan.Northern Cape’s innings in East London was only the second time all seven men who batted reached 50 in a first-class innings. The other occasion was also in South Africa, in Potchefstroom in 2008-09, when Sri Lanka A ran up 749 for 5 declared in an A team Test. There have been two very near-misses: in the Karachi Test mentioned above, all Pakistan’s top seven reached 50, and No. 8 Kamran Akmal faced just one ball before Younis Khan declared when Abdul Razzaq was out. And when MCC amassed 641 for 6 against Berbice in Guyana in 1959-60, David Allen made 0 not out at No. 8 before the match ended. There was another close thing in Oxford in 1938, when the top seven Australians all passed 50, but the No. 8, wicketkeeper Charlie Walker, was left 31 not out when Don Bradman declared.There has been just one case of eight half-centuries in the same first-class innings, by the Australians in their total of 843 against Oxford University Past and Present in Portsmouth in 1893.Is South Africa the first team to win a three-Test series without making a total of 250? asked Babalola Adefarati from South Africa
The answer is that South Africa’s recent 2-1 win over India was unique, in that it was the only series containing three or more Tests in which the winning side failed to reach at least one total in excess of 250: South Africa’s highest was 243 for 3, to win the second Test in Johannesburg.When Zimbabwe went to Pakistan in 1998-99, they were supposed to play three Tests, but the third was abandoned without a ball bowled because of fog in Faisalabad. Zimbabwe won that series 1-0 after coming out on top in the first Test in Peshawar, where they made 238 in the first innings.Andy Lloyd opened the innings and retired hurt after being felled by a Malcolm Marshall bouncer in his only Test•Getty ImagesAndy Lloyd was injured in his only Test innings, and is the only opener to have never been dismissed in his Test career; Stuart Law was not out in his only Test innings, batting at No. 6. How many others who batted in the top six have never been dismissed? asked Mal Hilton from Australia
You’ve identified two of the only four to have had their only Test innings in the top six and never been dismissed: England’s Andy Lloyd retired hurt with 10 against West Indies at Edgbaston in 1984, after being hit on the side of the helmet by Malcolm Marshall, while Stuart Law had 54 not out when Australia declared against Sri Lanka in Perth in 1995-96. Neither of them played another Test.Gloucestershire slow left-armer Charlie Parker took over 3000 first-class wickets, but played only one Test, against Australia at Old Trafford in 1921: right at the end of a drawn game, he appeared at No. 3 in England’s second innings, and finished with 3 not out.The Australian wicketkeeper Phil Emery came in at No. 4 as nightwatchman in his only Test innings, against Pakistan in Lahore in 1994-95. He retired hurt with an injured thumb after scoring 2; he resumed later, and finished with 8 not out.Courtney Browne, the West Indian wicketkeeper, had 30 innings in his 20 Tests. Only twice did he go in higher than No. 7 – but he was not out both times. No one else has managed more than one innings in the top six and never been dismissed during them.In all, 69 men have batted during their Test career but never been out, most of them, unsurprisingly, tailenders. The recent Pakistan seamer Aizaz Cheema leads the way with five innings, all not out, in seven Tests; Afaq Hussain (Pakistan), John Childs (England) and Tinu Yohannan (India) all had four. What’s the highest run-aggregate in an ODI in which both sides were bowled out? Does the third South Africa-India match come close? asked Rhys Roscoe from Australia
There are two higher aggregates in one-day internationals in which all 20 wickets fell. Well clear at the top is 642 runs by Afghanistan (338) and Ireland (304) in Greater Noida, India, in 2016-17. Next comes a group game from the last World Cup: in Taunton in 2019, Australia (307) and Pakistan (266) shared 573 runs.The 570 runs in the match you mention, between South Africa (287) and India (283) in Cape Town last month, equalled the total in the match between India (315) and Australia (255) in Bengaluru in 2000-01. There have been 15 further matches which featured 20 wickets and an aggregate of 500 or more runs.And there’s an update to last week’s question about the highest proportion of runs scored while at the crease, given a minimum of 100, from Sreeram in India
“Graham Gooch comes between Dwayne Smith and Brian Lara on this list. He scored 127 of an opening partnership of 155 with Chris Tavaré – that’s 81.93% – against India in Madras (now Chennai) in 1981-82.”And Charles Davis points out that, at the other end of the scale (the lowest percentage of runs added during an individual century), Rahul Dravid occupies the last two positions: 111 out of 360 (30.83%) against South Africa in Chennai in 2007-08, and 128 of 410 (31.21%) against Pakistan in Lahore in 2005-06, being involved in huge partnerships both times with Virender Sehwag, who scored 319 and 254.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

Even India’s spinners were outbowled by their South African counterparts

Hemant Brar21-Jan-20221:36

Pant: India didn’t get enugh wickets in middle overs

Jasprit Bumrah is a world-class bowler – both in Test cricket and in the limited-overs versions. But in the last couple of years, he has lacked the potency with the new ball in ODIs. Since the 2019 World Cup, he has picked up just one powerplay wicket in 43 overs across 11 innings.Bhuvneshwar Kumar hasn’t fared much better: in the same period, he has three powerplay wickets from 41 overs.That has resulted in India being by far the worst bowling side in the first ten overs. Since the last World Cup, their bowlers have picked up only ten powerplay wickets in 23 ODIs. They have also given away 5.74 runs an over – the most by any team – and their bowling average of 132.10 is more than double that of the next worst (Zimbabwe’s 63.45). In comparison, India’s opponents in those games picked up 24 wickets in 22 innings at an average of 53.00 and an economy rate of 5.78.Stand-in captain KL Rahul was asked before the South Africa series if that concern was addressed in team meetings. “We have talked about this and we have some ideas, some plans, and we want to try those in the coming series,” he said. “That will give us an indication about whether we’re doing things right, and if our strategies or tactics are right.”Clearly, whatever India tried didn’t work as their new-ball woes haunted them again during the second ODI in Paarl. Chasing 288, South Africa cruised to 66 for no loss in the first ten overs. On a surface that was supposed to make batting difficult in the second innings, they registered their highest successful chase since 2017.Apart from the sub-par returns with the new ball, what has hurt India in this series is the lack of a third wicket-taking fast bowler in the playing XI.In the absence of Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, they are forced to play both Venkatesh Iyer and Shardul Thakur, leaving no place for someone like Mohammed Siraj. But they are caught between a rock and a hard place. They need someone from the top six to chip in with a few overs if a regular bowler goes for too many or, worse, breaks down. And the importance of Thakur’s batting was highlighted today, as without him, India would have struggled to cross 275.2:41

Manjrekar: Time for India to go back to Kuldeep Yadav

But what was baffling was the Indian spinners being outbowled by their South African counterparts on a pitch that resembled one from back home. The last time India visited South Africa, in 2017-18, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal had wreaked havoc. They topped the bowling charts, picking up 33 wickets at a combined average of 15.09 to help India win the six-match ODI series 5-1.This time, with Kuldeep out of form and favour, and Chahal not at his best, India struggled to take wickets in the middle overs too. R Ashwin, playing his first ODI series since June 2017, wasn’t very effective either.In the first ODI, Chahal and Ashwin had combined figures of 1 for 106 from 20 overs, while Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi and Aiden Markram had 4 for 124 from 26 overs. On Friday, the Chahal-Ashwin combo went for 1 for 115 from their 20 overs, while Maharaj, Shamsi and Markram picked up 4 for 143 from 26.In the first match, Ashwin started by flighting the ball but soon switched to a flatter trajectory, which neither stopped runs nor fetched wickets. Chahal bowled a few good deliveries but also erred in line from time to time. The South African batters, especially Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma, cashed in on it, using sweep as their main weapon.Today, Ashwin was introduced into the attack as soon as the fourth over after Quinton de Kock took Bhuvneshwar apart. He started in the same manner, tossing the ball up and even bowling a maiden to Janneman Malan. In his third over, he produced a stumping chance but Rishabh Pant fluffed it. To rub it in, de Kock, the man reprieved, hit the next ball for a six and went on to score 78 off 66 balls, setting the platform for a series-clinching victory.Chahal bowled a little better, picking up 1 for 47, but it wasn’t good enough.”I think they [the South African spinners] were a little more consistent in their lines and lengths,” Pant said after the match. “Yes, our spin unit could have done a little better but you have to see we are playing one-dayers after a long time, we are just getting used to the momentum of the 50-over cricket. So there are lots of factors we can talk about. Hopefully, we can correct all these mistakes in the coming matches.”

All the interesting numbers about the close finishes, scoring rates, and more from the Women’s World Cup 2022

Sampath Bandarupalli05-Apr-20225:47

#PoliteEnquiries: Has there ever been a better ODI team than Meg Lanning’s Australia?

The tournament of close games
One of the biggest talking points of the tournament was how a number of matches went down to the wire. Teams batting first won five times by a margin of fewer than ten runs, while the chasing teams got over the line in the final over four times. Nine of the 30 completed matches in this edition were either won in the last over by the chasing side or by a margin of fewer than ten runs. Before the 2022 Women’s World Cup, there have been only 12 such results, and no more than three in any edition.Related

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The only previous instance of a team either reaching the target on the last ball of the chase or winning with only one wicket in hand at a World Cup was by Sri Lanka in 2013 against England, when they reached the 239-run target on the last ball of the 50th over, having lost nine wickets. In the 2022 edition, there were two similar results – England beating New Zealand by one wicket at Eden Park, and South Africa completing a chase on the last ball against India in the final league game.Australia’s dominance
Australia started the tournament as clear favourites on the back of an impeccable record in the format since the previous World Cup. Between the 2017 and 2022 editions, Australia won 31 of the 33 ODIs they played, including a record of 26 consecutive wins. Their performance was no less than the expectations from them, as they ended up winning all nine matches on their way to the seventh ODI World Cup title.