Being bowled out for 32 against Tasmania, along with IPL absences, heralded a new-look top order

Daniel Brettig14-Apr-2021One of the most famous sporting victories of recent history was the curse-breaking campaign of the 2016 Chicago Cubs to win the Major League baseball club’s first World Series in more than a century. It was built largely upon a formula of marrying up a young and dynamic batting and fielding line-up to a seasoned and powerful pitching roster: young hitters, old pitchers.That formula is not a million miles from the one that New South Wales will take into this week’s Sheffield Shield final. The success or otherwise of the approach will likely give pause to other states at a time when Australian cricket is looking ever more fervently for a fresh batting generation to replenish the huge gaps likely to be left by the likes of David Warner and Steven Smith in coming years.It was only a matter of weeks ago that Mark Taylor, the former Australian captain and longtime New South Wales and Cricket Australia board director, raised alarms about what he perceived to be a lack of batting talent coming through in the nation’s most populous state. “It would mean our Test side just won’t be as good, there’s no doubt about that,” Taylor told the . “The way the numbers in Australia stack up, it’s the responsibility of the two big states to produce their share. If they don’t, chances are Australian cricket will struggle.”Based on the look of the batting order selected for a humiliating Shield defeat to Tasmania, in which the Blues were shot out for 32, Taylor might have had some valid queries: of the top seven, only the recently recalled Jason Sangha was under the age of 25, and none of Daniel Hughes (32), Nick Larkin (30), Daniel Solway (25) or captain Peter Nevill (35) were anywhere near Australian calculations. Of the group, only Kurtis Patterson could realistically have ambitions for the Test team, and faint ones at that based on recent returns.Related

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Taylor’s assertions were met with an unusual level of umbrage from within the state system, not so much for what he had observed at Shield level but for what has been steadily bubbling underneath. There is a wellspring of batting promise among young cricketers in New South Wales, the counter-argument went, they just haven’t been picked yet.Perhaps, then, the Tasmanian humiliation and Taylor’s response were necessary evils for the Blues. As much as Larkin and Solway had earned their chances through steady accumulation at grade level, they also struggled to become consistently high scorers for their state, something that Hughes had at least managed to achieve. At the same time, Nevill’s decision to withdraw from the remainder of the Shield to be present for the birth of his first child, and Moises Henriques’ IPL deal, created additional spots for youth.

The young Blues batters will take the field in the knowledge that the bowling attack alongside them, likely to feature Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Trent Copeland and Sean Abbott, is extremely well versed at pressuring opponents with the benefit of runs on the board

The New South Wales selectors had already shown some degree of interest in the future arc of the national team by elevating Pat Cummins to the domestic limited-overs captaincy ahead of Smith. It was a call effectively indicating their preference for who they would like to see named national captain whenever the time comes for Tim Paine to surrender his post – most likely after next summer’s Ashes series, as commentary roles and the release of a memoir await him.At the same time, the Tasmania defeat forced a pivot to a far more less experienced batting line-up for the final Shield game against Queensland with a place in the final still to secure. Out went Larkin, Solway and Nevill; in came Matthew Gilkes, Jack Edwards, Lachlan Hearne and Baxter Holt as wicketkeeper. Of this group, Edwards (to turn 21 on the final day of the final) has already been heavily invested in, while Hearne (20) and Holt (21) have been growing ever more impatient for chances to show their wares.In Wollongong, Gilkes, Edwards, Hearne and Holt all showed signs of promise, while Sangha responded to greater seniority in the line-up by composing arguably the best century of his young career. The Blues might still have faded to defeat at the hands of Mitchell Swepson if not for a rain-ruined final day of the game, but they at least go into the competition decider with a few more first-innings runs behind them against essentially the same bowling attack they must face again.The new breed: Jack Edwards, Lachlan Hearne, Jason Sangha•Getty ImagesIn between Shield games, of course, 20-year-old Edwards sculpted a century of his own on the domestic limited-overs final at Bankstown to guide the Blues to a 12th one-day title, and will now hope to emulate the feat in the long-form final. The young Blues batters will take the field in the knowledge that the bowling attack alongside them, likely to feature Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Trent Copeland and Sean Abbott, is extremely well versed at pressuring opponents with the benefit of runs on the board.Queensland have much the more travelled batting line-up of the two sides, featuring no less than four Test players in Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Matt Renshaw and the captain Usman Khawaja. But it is the performances of young bats in Shield finals that the selectors will be looking most keenly for – think of Justin Langer in 1992, Michael Bevan in 1994, Adam Gilchrist in 1996 or Andrew Symonds and Simon Katich in 1999, all preludes to substantial international careers.”We’ve got so much talent in our batting ranks, so pleasing to see Jack do what he did the other day, to see the way Matt Gilkes and Jason Sangha played the last Shield game against these guys,” Patterson said. “That’ll give them the world of confidence going into this game. It’s certainly on myself and Dan Hughes as the two older guys in the group to make sure we do our part and play our roles, but while those other guys are young, most of them have enough experience now and they’ve got a lot of confidence in their games.”So the balance of the New South Wales side for the Shield final might have been a case of circumstances as much as design, but it has at least provided the game’s decision-makers with some new talents to assess on the biggest stage short of a Test match. It has also followed, if loosely, the formula of those drought-breaking Chicago Cubs.

After a famous win in Chennai, we take a look at some of England’s best recent Test performances in Asia

Alan Gardner10-Feb-2021vs Pakistan, Karachi, 2000 – won by six wickets
England only won 12 Tests in Asia between 1933 (India’s first on home soil) and 2000 – and none at all in the preceding 15 years – but a memorable winter in Pakistan and Sri Lanka was to prove the turning point. Nasser Hussain’s side set off in good spirits and a clear game plan to take the Tests in Pakistan as deep as possible, securing high-scoring draws in Lahore (the last time before Chennai that England had batted into day three of a Test unaffected by rain) and Faisalabad. Then came the series-sealing victory in the dark in Karachi. First, England ground their way towards parity on the back of Mike Atherton’s ten-hour 125; then, when Pakistan slipped to 158 all out on the final afternoon, they stole off with the game thanks to Graham Thorpe’s cool head – plus a little help from Steve Bucknor. Cue “Who Let the Dogs Out” in the away dressing room.vs Sri Lanka, Colombo, 2001 – won by four wickets
Hussain’s England carried lessons of victory in Pakistan to Sri Lanka a few months later, though this was a very different series. Hammered in the first Test in Galle, they bounced back in Kandy, amid umpiring controversy and complaints about behaviour on both sides. For the decider at the SSC, England were again reliant on the understated genius of Thorpe as they prevailed in a low-scoring scrap. Hussain lost the toss, but England’s bowlers fought back on day one to limit Sri Lanka to 241 after they had been 205 for 3, and Thorpe marshalled the response with a masterful, unbeaten 113 (none of his team-mates scored more than 26). Sitting on a slim lead, England then blitzed the home side for 81, with Darren Gough and Ashley Giles coming to the fore. Chasing 74 on a Bunsen was never going to be straightforward, though, and it needed Thorpe to get them home again – his 32 not out “like getting a hundred in each innings”.Shaun Udal removed Sachin Tendulkar on the way to a match-winning 4 for 11 in Mumbai•Getty Imagesvs India, Mumbai, 2006 – won by 212 runs
One of the great one-off victories, as an England side shorn of Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook (who was taken ill two games after his debut in Nagpur) and Steve Harmison, and being led by a stand-up captain in Andrew Flintoff, bounced back to level the series in dramatic fashion on the final afternoon at the Wankhede. They benefited from some generosity, after Rahul Dravid’s decision to insert them allowed England to stack up 400, underpinned by a century from Andrew Strauss; James Anderson (yes, the same one) then took four wickets as India posted 279 in reply. However, after Flintoff’s second fifty of the match saw the hosts set 313 in just over three sessions, the game seemed to be heading for a draw, India 75 for 3 at lunch. Then Flintoff stuck “Ring of Fire” on the CD player, and England ran through Sachin Tendulkar and Co in 15.2 overs – 37-year-old Shaun Udal the hero with 4 for 11.Related

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vs India, Mumbai, 2012 – won by ten wickets
England remain the last visiting team to win a Test series in India, and they did so in 2012-13 despite a drubbing in the opening encounter in Ahmedabad. Cook, however, had led the resistance in the first Test with 176, and he backed that up with another century in Mumbai, on a livelier surface that brought England’s spinners into the contest. But, undoubtedly, the difference between the teams on this occasion was some Kevin Pietersen magic, as he peppered the Wankhede boundaries on the way to a majestic 186 from 233 balls. Pietersen had been struggling against left-arm spin, in particular, but took on Pragyan Ojha, R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh to blistering effect as England gained an 86-run lead. Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar then rattled out all ten India wickets in the second innings – they shared 19 in the match – as England completed a comfortable win inside four days.Kevin Pietersen was at his scintillating best in 2012•BCCIvs India, Kolkata, 2012 – won by seven wickets
England had to chase the game at Eden Gardens, too, after MS Dhoni won the toss for the third time in a row. But India could only manage 316, as Anderson and Panesar continued to harry them, and then it was over to Cook once again, as the opener compiled his third hundred in succession – and fifth in five Tests at captain. Cook was eventually run-out for 190, as England sailed past India’s score three down, with their eventual total of 523 giving them an iron grip on the Test. Anderson picked up another three-for in the second innings and only an unbeaten 91 from Ashwin prevented England from winning by an innings. The tourists sealed the series by batting their way to a draw in Nagpur a few days later – a game largely memorable for the debut of a certain JE Root at No. 6.Joe Root made consecutive 150-plus scores in Galle•SLCvs Sri Lanka, Galle, 2021 – won by six wickets
Root’s England have won five Tests in a row in Sri Lanka, but arguably none was more satisfying than their most recent victory. Root lost the toss twice in Galle, but while Sri Lanka threw the game away early in the first Test by being bowled out for 135, they put in an improved showing the second time around, as Angelo Mathews’ century took them to 381 – England again reliant on Anderson to stay competitive in alien conditions, as he became the oldest seamer to claim a Test five-for in Asia on the way to immaculate figures of 6 for 40. With Root in fabulous touch, following up his first-Test 224 with an eight-hour 186 in sapping heat, England battled their way to 344 and a deficit of 37; the spin pair of Jack Leach and Dom Bess, wicketless in the first innings, then found their range to skittle Sri Lanka for 126, before Dom Sibley’s unbeaten half-century settled the nerves in a tricky chase.

Cricket’s second favourite team has fought hard and come a long way to become world No.1

Jarrod Kimber24-Jun-20213:08

‘This team has more world-class players than any NZ team previously’

There is pride in being everyone’s second favourite team. A sense of playing the game in a way that neutral fans enjoy. But there is also a bigger truth there. Everyone chooses their number two team for a specific reason. Still, when it’s generally accepted that one side has that mantle, there are usually a few key reasons. They are seen as nice, safe and non-threatening. Even if they beat your main team, they won’t rub it in much, and over time you think you’ll still win more than them. Their victories are nice, their losses have honour, and it’s easy to relegate them to the friend zone because they are beige.In New Zealand’s case, even more literally.In 1930, New Zealand played their first-ever Test against England. At the exact same time in the Caribbean, the West Indies played a Test. Both teams were playing against England.For the longest time, New Zealand was cricket’s second team.

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According to the broadcast, New Zealand had a 27% chance of winning coming into the sixth and final day of this final. A chance, but not much more. But Kyle Jamieson changed that in a spell. Not even for the first time in this game, this man with the golden bowling average destroys the best batting line-up in the world.Related

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Jamieson is a 26-year-old player, who started as a batter, before changing into a bowler. So he had a late start by New Zealand standards into the international team. Yet he has embarrassed teams in his first eight Tests. He looks too good to be true. A tall, smart swing bowler who can hit sixes as well. A choose-your-own-cricketer kind of player.For generations, New Zealand allrounders were a bit like that quote on Bob Cunis, neither one thing nor the other. Jamieson is not like that.It’s not that he’s the best cricketer that they have produced. This is the country of Richard Hadlee. But as exceptional as Hadlee was, his raw talent came from New Zealand. A lot of the honing of it came from county cricket. Jamieson is 100% New Zealand Cricket.The natural talent with him is obvious, but Jamieson is a product of the New Zealand system. It took coaching to turn this young batter into a fast-bowling phenom. That perfect wrist had to be trained into him by skilled coaches. And it took a professional system to keep him around when he could have disappeared into everyday working life when he didn’t crack the national team early on.For the first time, New Zealand had a system worthy of the players they had always produced. Jamieson is a combination of hard work on and off the field.

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There is a story I found when John R. Reid died. It was written on some long-forgotten cricket forum or blog, and it was about Reid’s preparation for a tour to England when he was captain of New Zealand.Reid worked at a service station, and to warm-up before the tour, he asked for volunteers to come down and bowl to him in the local nets. One of those was a young boy, around 12, who tried his hardest to help Reid. The pitch they had on offer was concrete. Reid was going up against the great England cricketers in an era they dominated, with kids bowling to him on a concrete wicket.There is amateur, there is graft, but New Zealand weren’t playing the same sport as England at that point.And this amateur part haunted their cricket for a long time. Like when in 2002 their domestic cricketers went on strike, except it’s not really a strike if you don’t have a job. You saw that when the T20 era almost split their team in half. And you could see that in the 1970s when Glenn Turner left.Turner was a fierce professional playing for a happily amateur nation, and it would never last. He turned himself into an incredible player in county cricket and then would come back to the amateur world of New Zealand. And in 1977, Turner resigned as captain. He was 30, clearly in his prime as a batter, and he dominated county cricket.In total, Turner would make 103 first-class hundreds, seven for New Zealand. In all, he played in 41 Tests over a 14-year career.We focus on New Zealand’s small population a lot, but we don’t factor in how many players they have lost along the journey.Stewie Dempster played in 10 Tests for them, and he averaged over 65.To find a player as good as Dempster for a new Test team is incredible luck. But soon he was recruited by Sir Julien Cahn, an eccentric millionaire. The latter hired fantastic cricketers for his own personal cricket team, that he played in. Dempster moved to England, and when not playing for Cahn, he would have a stunning career for Leicestershire, scoring over 10,000 first-class runs. Less than 1000 were for his nation.If Dempster wasn’t the best New Zealand cricketer at that point, it was Clarrie Grimmett. The New Zealand born and bred legspinner took 216 wickets for Australia, many of which occurred after New Zealand were promoted to Test status.And it continued. Jack Cowie was an extraordinary bowler who New Zealand unleashed on an England tour in 1937, where he took 114 first-class wickets at an average of 20. He toured England again in 1949, and in total, he played seven Tests there. In his entire career, he played nine matches, as the war ate his best years up. In those nine Tests, he averaged 21.53. His first-class record was 359 wickets at 22.28.On that 1949 tour with Cowie was Martin Donnelly. Like Cowie, he made his debut in 1937 and played his last Test in 1949. He averaged 53 on those two tours of England in the Tests. And that was his career average, as he never played another Test. In 131 first-class matches, he averaged 47.Bert Sutcliffe and Jack Cowie, two of New Zealand’s greats•Getty ImagesOf the first four great Test players they produced, not one played more than ten matches combined, they totalled 26 Tests.And not having those players around really shows in the win column. That first Test was 1930 and their first win was 1956 when they beat West Indies in Auckland. Of their first 80 Tests, they won three. They lost twenty by an innings.Only one innings defeat was to Australia, in 1946. They didn’t make 100 runs in the match; they did not consider it a Test at the time, and Australia did not play New Zealand again for 10,136 days.In 1955, New Zealand went into the third innings 46 runs behind England. England won the match by an innings and 20 runs.This is what John R. Reid once said: “I told a lot of lies. We’d gather as a team, and naturally, I’d try to be as positive as possible… I’d try to encourage our fellows, to explain that everyone is human, that they all got nervous, had failures. But in the back of your mind there was this knowledge that, all things being equal, we were in for a rough time.”One thing was true of early New Zealand cricket, they lost their best players, and they lost.And yet, through the losses, something always shone through.There was a miniseries made in 2011 in New Zealand that heavily featured cricket called ‘Tangiwai’. It’s about how a train disaster clashed with a Test versus South Africa.In the disaster, 151 people lost their lives, including Nerissa Love, whose fiancee Bob Blair was in Johannesburg during the middle of a Test match. On one side of the world, New Zealanders were in hospitals because of the crash, on the other side, they had as many batters in hospital as the middle because Neil Adcock kept hitting them.Bert Sutcliffe left the ground to get medical treatment himself and, after losing consciousness twice, he made his way back to the ground to fight on for New Zealand.The image of Sutcliffe going back out to bat at Ellis Park looks more like a war photo than a cricket one. His head is covered in a bandage. There is a huge lump on the back of his neck. According to Richard Boock’s “[captain Geoff] Rabone and a couple of first-aid men raced into the middle to readjust the Kiwi’s bandages, which had been weeping blood during the exchanges. They eventually decided to tape a white towel around his head.”Had Sutcliffe been struck again, it’s possible he might have died. But instead, he struck back at South Africa. Taking on Adcock, destroying Hugh Tayfield and he took them past the follow on with a six. When the ninth wicket fell, Sutcliffe was left alone, and he and the South Africans started walking off the ground. No one believed New Zealand’s No. 11 would walk out.Let’s be clear, neither man should’ve been out there. The pitch was dangerous; one clearly had a concussion, the other couldn’t have been focusing correctly. But they did bat on, putting together 33 runs.New Zealand would end up 84 runs behind on the first innings, and they would lose by 132 runs. And yet here we are, still talking about it.

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There will be a long queue of people lining up to say this win doesn’t count. New Zealand barely play away from home. The final is in conditions that suit them. Had Covid not hit, they may not have qualified. Australia lost points for a slow over rate. The World Test Championship helps teams who play short series. India is a better team. They can’t beat Australia. South African players keep turning up to strengthen them. And then this final, they had a consequence-less two-Test series in English conditions to prepare. England even helpfully had three of their front-liners out.This couldn’t have been much different from their 1949 tour, where their batting was so weak, they almost chose an inexperienced player from Fiji, IL Bula, to strengthen their team. And their entire plan on that tour was to draw all four Tests, so they could prove to England that they were worth five-day Tests. They achieved their goal, and here we are.So if this championship felt lucky, flukey, or things went their way, then no team has ever deserved that more. They fought against better teams, professionals, and dynasties for generations, all while they were trying to survive as a cricket nation. They took 26 years to win a Test, and 39 to win a series. They had all the bad luck already.And outside a win in Kenya for a tournament we now know as the Champions Trophy, New Zealand’s greatest success was losing and then tying and losing two successive World Cup finals. In the 1980s they were a fantastic team, there were just others who were better.There has always been someone else winning; there has always been someone bigger. That is just the world they live in.Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson share a moment after making New Zealand World Test Champions•Getty ImagesBut look at who they had in the middle at the end, New Zealand’s greatest batter, Kane Williamson. There are a lot of cricket cultures in the world, but Williamson couldn’t have come from any place; his lineage is evident in all the intelligent calm leaders before him. A product of the professional environment, he is homegrown, homemade, and unquestionably great.And some of what I’ve been talking about will sound like ancient history. For many of you, New Zealand is just another team. But they aren’t, and they have never been. And facing that final ball was living proof. Ross Taylor made his first-class debut in the 2002-03 Plunkett Shield season. That was the year New Zealand domestic players went on strike. Taylor began his career as an amateur.Like Stewie Dempster, Hedley Howarth, Jeremy Coney, John Wright, Nathan Astle, Bob Cunis, Blair Pocock, Richard Collinge, Bert Sutcliffe, Chris Harris, The Hadlees, The Redmonds, and the Crowes. All of them. And because of what they achieved in so many losses, honourable draws and then incredible wins, players like Tim Southee, BJ Watling and Tom Latham could be in a World Test Final. This wasn’t a win of a single team; this was a win for a cricket culture that took generations to build.Like Taylor, this team went from amateur to professional, 26 years for a Test win, 39 years for a series victory, and 91 years to be champions.New Zealand aren’t amateurs anymore; they’re professionals. They might still be cricket’s second favourite team, but now they’re something more, number one.

India registered their eighth Test win in 2021, their joint second-most in a calendar year

Sampath Bandarupalli30-Dec-20213 Test defeats for South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion, where they played 27 Test matches and won 21. Their previous two Test losses at this ground came against England in 2000 and against Australia in 2014.4 Number of Test wins for India in South Africa, including the latest victory in Centurion. Two of those wins came in Johannesburg, in 2006 and 2018, and the other in Durban in 2010.ESPNcricinfo Ltd3 Instances of South Africa being bowled out under 200 in both innings of a home Test since their readmission. The other two instances came in Johannesburg – against Australia in 2002 and India in 2018. Before this match, South Africa were never bundled out under 200 in a Test innings in Centurion.8 Test wins as captain for Virat Kohli against South Africa, the joint-most for any captain against them. Ricky Ponting also won eight (out of 12) Tests as captain against South Africa.ESPNcricinfo Ltd3 Consecutive wins for India in Boxing Day Tests, having defeated Australia in Melbourne in 2018 and 2020. India won only one of their 14 Boxing Day Tests before this streak – against South Africa in Durban in 2010.19.10 Bowling average of India in the Centurion Test. Only six times did the Indian bowlers take all 20 wickets in an away Test match at a lower average. The 783 balls they bowled in this match are also the fourth-fewest while taking all 20 wickets in an away Test.ESPNcricinfo Ltd8 Wins for India in Test cricket this year, the joint second-most they won in a calendar year. They also had eight wins in 2010. Their best is nine Test wins in 2016. Four wins this year came outside Asia, the joint-most for them in a calendar year, alongside the four wins in 2018.12 Instances of India bowling out the opponents under 200 runs in Test cricket this year. Only England – 13 times in 1978 – have bowled out opponents for less than 200 on more occasions in a calendar year.

“Not a team to set your watch by but almost always worth watching for glorious or abysmal cricket”

Jarrod Kimber15-Dec-20211:00

Bell hoping England can ‘bounce back quickly’ in second Test

England are the most innovative team in the world. That’s not a joke.Depending on your age, you’re now processing this in vastly different ways. Some of you will be nodding, others laughing hysterically. If you are under 35, you most likely grew up with the 2005 Ashes, England’s 2010-14 reign as the No. 1 Test side, or the bit where England dominated white-ball cricket. This England are dynamic, fearless and always innovating.If you’re over 35, you grew up in an era when English cricket was a punchline. There is an entire industry around English cricket’s good ol’ bad days in the ’80s and ’90s. Quiz questions about how many captains they had, jokes about waistlines, and David’ Bumble’ Lloyd’s “we flippin’ murdered ’em”. That England was stale, broken and sad.You could see the dynamic of the two kinds of English fans playing out during the Gabba Test. Those from the older generation saw doom and gloom in every critical moment as a sign of the Apocalypse. And a newer generation that couldn’t help but notice that Australia had a good run with a flawed side and England batted out nearly an entire day for only two wickets.Related

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Most of us aren’t English fans; this is less about emotion and how the cricket world sees England. They were once Mother Cricket, and then the doddering old aunt who’s been collecting ceramic owls for a long time. Now they’re that fun older sister, showing you all the stuff adults won’t.England cricket has become brilliant and bonkers.But by the start of the 2000s, this was a broken cricket culture.The first professional structure in cricket – however half-hearted it was – was already looking decades behind Australia. The Asian boom had occurred with Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka all producing champions and winning World Cups. The West Indies had been more dominant than England in a tougher era, and would then work out T20 quicker than anyone else. South Africa played a more disciplined and conservative cricket, and with better results.The most important cricket nation was suddenly just another team. England looked ancient in a way that Australia did not. The county game still produced some interesting trends: home to Franklyn Stephenson’s slower ball, and off the field it gave us the T20. But in the ’90s, cricket was becoming a colourful global game, and England were still wearing whites.And there was no real reason for this. England were still a rich cricket nation. The professionalism may have only been for six months every year for county cricketers, but at least they paid their first-class players, which is something New Zealand were not doing at that point. But there were also divisions within cricket, like the county dressing rooms in which players from the same side sat in different walled-off spaces within the room based on their seniority within the side. This was happening until the mid-90s and it showed that English cricket was stuck in another era.English cricket tried to give us something new on the field from time to time, but even when they had success with it, cricket wasn’t always paying attention. They were perhaps the first team to really pick batters who could keep, over keeper-batters in the ’80s. In fact, it started with Jim Parks in the 1960s. But by the ’80s players like Ian ‘Gunner’ Gould were being manufactured into wicketkeepers because of their batting. Other teams had tried it as a one-off to see if it worked, but England had it as a selection mantra in ODIs before finally committing with Alec Stewart.Alec Stewart practices his keeping•PA PhotosIn the 1992 World Cup England are now remembered as a team who got Wasim Akram-ed in the final. But this was an early prototype for all-round white-ball cricket. They had Derek Pringle – list A average of nearly 26 – batting at No. 9 and Ian Botham as a slogging opener; multiple bowling options and a long batting line-up. South Africa would be renowned for this, but only years later. That same decade, England appointed Adam Hollioake as their ODI captain; the following decade they were opening with Mal Loye who was sweeping super-fast bowlers for six.These were still rare one-offs, and none of them worked enough to change the direction of the game. England’s control on cricket was fading from an administrative perspective, but their effect on how the game was played had fallen off completely.And then, little by little from Duncan Fletcher through to Eoin Morgan the most straight-laced, beige team in cricket became – to use a Warneism – funky. If you follow trends in cricket, then England is currently the style icon, for most probably the first time since the ’60s.No matter what the format, they are doing something interesting and trying to change the game. They’ve had success in every format, but also failed a lot; interesting rather than successful, but almost always fun.In T20s they unlocked their young batting talent by letting them go out and hit a bunch of boundaries. It differed from the West Indies’ dot-or-six method. It was freer, and often lasted longer. Their T20 batting line-ups were as deep as cricket has seen, so it allowed their top to swing away consistently.These methods took them within a Carlos Brathwaite mishit of winning the World Cup in 2016, and this year they looked like the best team in the competition even with a weakened first XI. By the time they got to the semi-finals they were missing five players, and still it took some luck for Jimmy Neesham and incredible hitting from the Kiwis to get over the line.Considering how good England has looked in both the 2016 and 2021 tournaments, missing one or two editions in the middle has probably cost them a fair chance of winning the title.There are other T20 trends they are associated with. Morgan and his chief analyst Nathan Leamon have a dugout code they exchange when England are fielding, to ensure that Morgan is making data-led decisions – successfully transplanted to Multan Sultans in the PSL.In T20s outside the international level, Worcestershire have played without a wicketkeeper in order to have an extra fielder. County cricket has also provided two extraordinary bowlers: Benny Howell would ordinarily be considered a medium-pacer and Pat Brown fast-medium. But when you look at what both of them do, they are like spinners at varying speeds. They’re beyond just change-up bowlers with cutters. Even Harry Gurney was, in a way, one of a kind – a slow left-am change-up death bowler is not exactly what teams even knew they wanted until it existed.In ODI cricket England completely smashed the boring middle overs, turning themselves from an idiosyncratic team into enforcers. They took lessons from their T20 side, and were also willing to lose early wickets. They unleashed their openers in a way that would make 1996 Sri Lanka blush.They became the quickest-scoring team in ODI history, the first to score run-a-ball for a four-year period. But it wasn’t their openers who made the biggest impact. It was in the middle with Joe Root, Morgan and Jos Buttler where they turned the boring middle overs into 180 runs a match without losing wickets. It was like the difference between hand milking a cow and using a machine. And you could, if you wanted, trace this approach back to the ECB’s decision in 2010 to switch to a 40-over domestic tournament when everyone was playing 50-over tournaments; automatically the format made the middle overs a more attacking phase.They also had a bowler like Liam Plunkett, whose key skill was taking a collection of the ugliest wickets you’ve ever seen. England helped turn him from a standard fast bowler into a cross-seam spoiler. And that worked because Plunkett and many other bowlers could bat or hit big. So opposition batters would push the game, and try and score off Plunkett, which usually ended up with mishits to a legside sweeper.Yet, when they lost the 2017 Champions Trophy semi-final, people doubted them. No team had ever been that good at ODIs and yet less respected coming into a World Cup, as England were in 2019. And in that World Cup, they gave us the greatest final, and they won in the weirdest way possible, after Trent Boult stepped on the ropes while taking a catch, after an umpiring error and after a tied Super Over.Even if they had lost, they had still changed one-day cricket.And then there are Tests. If they’ve been dominant in the other two formats, they’ve been mixed in Tests. Over the last five years they have 27 wins and 24 losses. They are the worst of the best teams. They can be incredible, but they can be truly awful.The 2019 Ashes might be the best example. They lost the first game. They were on their way to losing the second until Ben Stokes played the second-best innings that year. Then they lost and won one more Test to end the series 2-2, but with Australia keeping the Ashes. They are not a team you can set your watch by, but they’re almost always worth watching for glorious or abysmal cricket.England has a decision to make on which bowlers to choose in Adelaide•AFP/Getty ImagesTheir results have been like that for a while; they strolled into India this year and won the first Test, and then barely made a run to finish the series. They lost a Test in Bangladesh, and allowed West Indies to chase over 300 at Headingley.But even in being unsuccessful in Tests, they’ve been trying stuff. First they copied their own limited-overs formula, relying on their allrounders and deploying incredible batting depth. My favourite might be the Bridgetown Test where Adil Rashid batted at No. 10 and Sam Curran was at No. 9.Rashid has ten first-class hundreds. And Curran has batted at seven in Tests – and won Tests. They’ve had Stokes, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, and even Craig Overton. This doesn’t even include their wicketkeeping allrounders in Ben Foakes, Jonny Bairstow, Buttler, and Ollie Pope. This is an abnormally flexible team. There were signs of this in the Flintoff/Swann/Broad (before Varun Aaron hit him in the head) era, but this is a whole new level.Having a team of this many allrounders means they either look fantastic or like boiled sick.It hasn’t worked, mostly because they haven’t had strong batters up the order to make sure that Stokes, Moeen, Buttler, Woakes and Curran could come in when there were fun runs to be scored. Most of these players have been forced higher than you would want; Woakes has even been discussed as a potential top-order stopgap.They’ve been quite interesting with their top order as well. Jason Roy and Alex Hales have opened for England, even though neither were successful openers at first-class level. And that is because they were both good white-ball players. Buttler’s return to England was also on the back of white-ball form, England backing him even though there’s rarely been a long-term consistent Test player who is a gun white-ball player but hasn’t made runs in first-class cricket.And when England stopped trying their best T20 hitters as openers, they went completely the other way and found the most turgid. England players hate when you talk about the 100-ball innings, or as it became known, the Dentury. But the story goes that when England’s team management realised they didn’t have good enough top-order players, they just asked them to try and bat 100 balls each innings. Joe Denly has said this didn’t happen, but it is possible that England just enforced the 100-ball thinking simply by not dropping anyone.Players were clearly rewarded for batting time rather than making runs for a long period. Dom Sibley averaged 29 with the bat, but he was out in the middle for 12 balls longer than the average for an opener during his career. At this point, England were also talking about weighted averages – anything not to mention that their top-order just couldn’t score runs. Blunting the new ball isn’t reinventing anything; but doing it with three players from whom you’re not expecting masses of runs is something else.Also noticeable about England’s top-orders is their techniques. For a long time England players – Graham Gooch aside – batted in a very staid English way. Now the MCC manual has been burnt and snorted, and you get Rory Burns’ over-the-shoulder gaze and Sibley’s one-sided play. It’s not just the defensive batters. Buttler’s just as much an outlier in the other direction. England batters were encouraged for generations to follow their natural techniques and while the jury is still out on how that has gone, there are some fascinating methods out there in county cricket.With the ball James Anderson has perhaps been the main reason the wobble ball has become the most important delivery in the world. While it might be Mohammad Asif’s creation, Anderson’s wrist has elevated it to a global trend. And England are also all-in on platooning fast bowlers, which is not quite cricket’s horses-for-courses selection policy. Essentially England’s plan – which injuries have thwarted – is to have three or four genuinely fast bowlers drop in for a Test at a time, bowl as fast as possible, then rest up for their next chance. It is similar to how baseball pitchers are used.James Anderson warms up•AFP/Getty ImagesAnd how do England make these decisions on selection? Without a selector as such but with a head coach and captain backed up by James Taylor as head scout. In fact, England employs plenty of scouts to go out and look at players based on their speciality – so wicketkeepers are scouting wicketkeepers, spinners are on spinners and so on. They’ve taken crack old selection committees into the future.It’s worth noting again that innovation doesn’t always lead to good results – and it hasn’t. No one is saying that this English team is the best in the world. It’s just the most interesting.On their own, some of these just sound quirky, but England has leaned in on the weird and extreme like never before. This is England, the team that really hasn’t been part of the conversation in pioneering cricket since perhaps the 1970s. Almost all the major teams have been more important to how the game has been played on the field since. India’s spin quartet. Pakistan’s reverse swing/sweep, doosra and attacking middle-overs bowling. West Indies’ four fast men and six-hitting in T20s. Australia’s professionalism, early ODI cricket and scoring at four an over in Tests. Plus, Sri Lanka’s use of the Powerplay and unorthodox bowling actions.These were all sizeable shifts in how cricket was played.England were just stuck, through a combination of poor cricket and negativity at the national team level. But modern English cricket is suddenly the most fast-moving. If there is a freaky new tactic or a way of bowling the ball, there’s a good chance right now it will come from England. There is science in the dietary plans, and creativity in their analysis. That the team doing this is England makes it all the more bizarre, like finding out your grandma likes Grime.England are on their way to fun second-team status. That’s so weird, from the team that everyone hated because of the whole empire thing through to the side that kids like because they’re doing cool things.England are an innovative team. That’s a fact.

Once, there was a future. Now, there is nothing. But still, “cricket can be a life for me”, she hopes

Firdose Moonda27-Apr-20227:07

Roya Samim: I play cricket because I know it’s my future

Roya Samim has finally represented Afghanistan in a cricket match.Virtually, that is.Her avatar, so to say, turned out in an Afghanistan shirt, with her name, a number and the Afghanistan flag on it, for an e-sports contest organised by Global eSports that was an act of protest against the fact that there is no real national Afghanistan women’s team. They played against Australia in a virtual women’s World Cup final, and lost, just like all the teams that played Australia in the actual tournament.But it was not about the result at all.Related

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“Anyone who played that game showed that they stand with us,” 28-year-old Samim told ESPNcricinfo from her home in Canada. “It’s like a candle-light protest, but instead of lighting a candle, it’s playing cricket. And it reminded people that we are here. We exist. I cannot play on the national ground but I played virtually, and when I see that, I am just proud of myself that ‘Yes, I was in the Afghanistan team’.”Samim became interested, and involved, in cricket as an adult, playing with her siblings despite the raised eyebrows of those in their community, who said “cricket is not for you [girls/women]”. Mostly, they played indoors in their home in Afghanistan, but found like-minded enthusiasts, and in 2019, began campaigning for a professional women’s cricket set-up. At the time, Samim was working as a mathematics teacher, but “hoped that cricket could become my career”.By November 2020, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) was convinced enough to roll out contracts for 25 women, with the plan that they would slowly progress to playing competitive fixtures.Though the board indicated it would take time to get a women’s team on the park, given the cultural and traditional norms in Afghanistan, Samim saw attitudes shifting around her.Roya Samim brushes up on her forward defensive•Roya Samim”There were people that accepted us, appreciated us, and said we can do it,” she said. “There were those who allowed their girls to go to the school, to go to cricket, and to go to other sports. It was becoming acceptable.”Spurred on by the pockets of support they got, the group of Afghan women trained as hard as they could. “We had professional coaches – the trainers for the international men’s team, they trained us too,” Samim recalled. “The ACB provided us with camps and three or four days of training in a week. We had two teams and we played against each other. We made ourselves professional.”We spent seven or eight hours a day on cricket. First, we’d go to the ACB headquarters, then we’d go to the [Victory Cricket] academy, then we’d go to the fitness clubs. We wanted to be professional and we developed a lot.”In that time, there was some talk of organising matches against Oman or Bangladesh but that never came to fruition. In fact, nothing did. “Not even six months of our contract was complete when the Taliban came and everything was destroyed.”The Taliban’s political takeover in Afghanistan began in May 2021, and escalated in August. In the space of a week, they claimed territory from Kunduz to Kabul and it was during that period that Samim decided she had to reconsider her options.”At the time, the Taliban had more than two provinces and the big city of Herat. We were just afraid. I went to my cricket manager and said, ‘If you know that cricket can go ahead and there will be peace, I will not leave’, to which she replied, ‘No, I cannot guarantee that, and the situation is not good for girls, so you should leave’. That’s when we left Kabul,” Samim said. “Three days afterwards, the Taliban took [over] Afghanistan. We were in a hotel and my team-mates called me and they cried.”Everything – any dream, any wishes, any hope that me and my team-mates had – was gone. It was such a bad situation. When I remember now, I just want to cry.”While many of Samim’s team-mates remained in Afghanistan, she made it to Canada with “only two pieces of clothing”. Her brother and two sisters joined her, but she had another brother in a different country. She has had to adjust to many things, not least the “completely different weather”, and has just been through a winter with “lots of ice and lots of snow” as well as the loss of both her cricketing and professional career.

“Women’s education is really important for any country. If you want to change the future, you have to have women’s education”Samim on how difficult it has been for women in Afghanistan

“It’s really hard to explain how my life is. In Afghanistan, I had a good career and I had other things. I had friends, and my team,” she said. “When people saw me, they were proud of me. Here, I had to start from zero. But I started because I feel that I am so strong, I can handle anything. I have some friends, I started playing cricket, I started working. I’ve got many friends. Everything is going normal. Well, I want to pretend it’s normal.”Samim has stopped teaching and is now a settlement worker who aims to help other refugees. She laments the loss of learning opportunities for women in Afghanistan but hopes to keep the conversation alive by speaking about it.”When I heard that the Taliban were not going to allow girls to go to school and I wasn’t in Afghanistan to stand against it, I just cried,” she said. “I can’t do anything. It’s so hard, because education – especially women’s education – is really important for any country. If you want to change the future, you have to have women’s education. It is really hard to see that we have completely lost our country. It’s really hard but we can’t do anything. I just raise my voice like this.”Similarly, she is also keeping her cricket ambitions burning and has found a place for it: Fredericton Cricket Club in New Brunswick. She hopes it will open doors for her to play elsewhere – including franchise leagues – and appeals to anyone who has an opportunity to provide it.”Any small chances that are given to us as cricket players, we will be happy,” she said. “Even a trial, if people want to give it to us, we are ready. I play cricket because I know that it’s my future. Sometime in the future maybe I will get into a national team. I am really working for this. I am really training hard. I have lost everything, so cricket can be a life for me.”Samim aims to play for another five to seven years before turning her attention to coaching. With so much invested in cricket, she does not want to see Afghanistan shunned from the world stage. She supports the men’s team in continuing to play rather than face any sanctions, and believes it brings joy to Afghans, wherever they might be.”I would like the men to continue to play. I don’t want the situation to have an effect on them. They are the only team that can bring some happiness in my country. It’s only cricket, not other sports [do that]. It’s good that they continue.”And she hopes one day she will be able to join them in real life in a match for Afghanistan.”To go home now is impossible because the Taliban don’t accept me and I don’t accept them. But if anything changes – for example, maybe they will allow girls to play cricket – [and] if there are matches, I should be there. It’s my country.”

We assess how the back-up went against Bangladesh and their prospects for touring England

Firdose Moonda12-Apr-2022South Africa are not throwing the doors open to welcome back the IPL absentees who “vacated their spots”, as coach Mark Boucher put it, after finding a strong second-tier of players in their series sweep over Bangladesh.South Africa dominated the two Tests despite being without their entire frontline pace pack, and with four of their top six batters having 13 Test caps between. That will give the selectors a “great headache”, according to captain Dean Elgar, who encouraged the replacement players to make it difficult for the established ones to get back in.”My message for new guys was to put those guys under pressure, to go out there and make a play for yourself and make a play for the team. They mustn’t undersell their value as young new cricketers,” Elgar said.Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen collectively decided to play at the IPL rather than in the Test series against Bangladesh, after CSA left the decision in the player’s hands. That opened the door for Ryan Rickelton and Lizaad Williams to debut, Sarel Erwee to establish himself as an opener, Duanne Olivier to lead the attack and Simon Harmer to make a Test comeback – and all of them impressed Elgar.Related

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“By giving guys experience, you create a lot more depth going forward,” he said. “We are in a very fortunate and strong position by giving guys exposure at this level. Guys have put their hands up brilliantly.”While it would be difficult to imagine South Africa looking past the pace bowlers, Markram, who has averaged 16.38 since Elgar took over the captaincy, and van der Dussen (30.81 in the same time) are on shaky ground. Markram was dropped down the order in favour of Erwee at the top in New Zealand and was set to be benched for the Bangladesh series, while van der Dussen has failed to make the No. 4 spot his own. Asked what the plan for the pair on their return would be, Elgar indicated they would have to fight to get their Test places back.”I don’t think the statement of them coming back is a fair one,” Elgar said. “The guys that have played right now have made a massive statement. We’ve got a decent batting pool going forward. I can’t speak on if those guys are going to get selected again. That’s out of my hands.”Here we assess South Africa’s options for the next Test assignment, against England in August-September.Erwee vs MarkramThough Erwee was picked to open the batting in New Zealand, with Markram at the IPL he had an opportunity to make his partnership with Elgar more permanent. So far, so good. The pair average 49.62 in eight innings together, with two century and two fifty-plus stands. Elgar and Markram averaged 31.48, the worst by any opening pair who have been together for at least 1000 runs. Erwee is a patient player, who leaves the ball well, and allowed Elgar to take on a more attacking role. Elgar’s second- and third-fastest fifties came in this series, off 60 and 66 balls respectively.Where Erwee let himself down was that once he got in, he gave his wicket away and was unable to kick on past the 40s. In the first Test, he played on, trying to cut Mehidy Hasan Miraz but under-edging, and in the second, he chipped a catch straight to mid-on. Erwee showed he has staying power in New Zealand, where he scored a century, but admitted he needs “bigger scores on the board to help myself”.Dean Elgar and Sarel Erwee have formed a productive opening partnership•AFP/Getty ImagesErwee should get the nod to go to England as Elgar’s opening partner but his biggest threat perhaps doesn’t come from Markram: Pieter Malan, who played three Tests in the 2019-20 season, topped the first-class run-charts this summer.Rickelton vs van der DussenWith great expectations after a season in which he averaged over 80 in domestic cricket, Rickelton got starts in all four innings against Bangladesh and showed himself to be an aggressive middle-order batter, who is unafraid to reverse-sweep early – it was that shot that brought him his first runs in Test cricket. In search of quick runs, he was out top-edging a pull in Durban and handing a catch to short mid-on in Gqeberha but impressed his captain, who singled him out for making a good first impression in international cricket.”It was nice to see young guys like Ryan Rickelton coming in and taking to it pretty well,” Elgar said. “The intensity wasn’t like maybe playing against England but he still got a little taste and he understands the arena now and what we are expecting going forward as a player.”Given that van der Dussen is known for starting slowly, and that Bavuma performed well in the No. 4 role in this series, Rickelton could be afforded a long run in the middle-order with van der Dussen likely to be dropped for the England series.In the bowling department, South Africa now have even more options with the addition of an offspinner and a bigger pace battery. Here’s how the attack stacked up:Harmer’s comebackBefore Brexit, Harmer would not have thought a Test comeback for South Africa was possible. He would not have even wanted it and might have even preferred to qualify for England, but all that’s changed. Since returning to South Africa’s domestic set-up, Harmer has dominated the field and was the leading wicket-taker in this season’s first-class competition and performed well under pressure. He bowled the Titans to victory in the season finale, taking a nine-for.Harmer was impressive on Test return and stole the headlines in the first innings in Durban, where his brand of attacking offspin got him four wickets. But he was also happy to play the supporting role to Keshav Maharaj, who finished as the leading wicket-taker with 16 in the series. Harmer wasn’t far behind with 13 and has given South Africa a whole new combination to consider.Simon Harmer claimed 13 wickets in two Tests•AFP/Getty ImagesNot since 1970 had they played two specialist spinners at home and if these matches were on the Highveld, they would not have done so in this series. But on slow coastal pitches that took turn, South Africa discovered a new combination to their attack and Harmer believes they can use it in England too.Speaking to the broadcasters afterwards, he said he hoped he had given the selectors cause to think of him as a spin-bowling allrounder and that he believed he and Maharaj could operate successfully in tandem at Lord’s, Old Trafford and The Oval. “All of those venues turn,” he said.Given Harmer’s success with Essex, South Africa cannot ignore him for the England tour and Boucher confirmed that, if selected, even players with overseas deals with counties will be available for national duty. “As far as I am concerned everyone is available. I’ve had personal conversations with most of the guys and they’ve all come into the set-up saying they want to play for South Africa,” Boucher said. “I’d like to think that each guy, if picked for South Africa, will choose to play for them ahead of any county or franchise.” (Ahem, IPL Six.)Williams enjoys his momentOn spinners’ surfaces, Williams had a tough debut series that finished with three wickets at 35.00. He was impressive with the new ball in Durban and then delivered the spell that cracked the Bangladesh middle-order open but went wicketless in Gqeberha, where he also struggled with his lengths and consistency. Williams conceded at over four runs an over in the first innings at St George’s Park.He was preferred over Lutho Sipamla (who then got injured) and Daryn Dupavillon for this series but probably doesn’t need us to tell him Sipamla, in particular, is likely to get the nod ahead of him in future. Williams was the last South African to leave the field in Gqeberha as he knelt down to pray once the series had been won. He is a cricketer who overflows with gratitude for what the game has given him after life handed him some early challenges but Williams is unlikely to make the England squad. A good home summer could see him come back into contention at a later stage.Olivier treads waterA regular since the India series, Olivier has strong domestic form in the first half of the season (he was the leading wicket-taker in the four-day competition at one stage) and Nortje’s long-standing injury to thank for his Test comeback, which promised more than it delivered. Olivier returned rebranded from enforcer to controller and changed his lengths from short to full. It worked, to a degree, for Yorkshire and at the start of this summer but after contracting Covid-19 before the international Test season, Olivier has not looked his best. He was down on pace and struggled to have the same impact he has had at domestic level. In five Tests, Olivier took 11 wickets at 33.63.If Nortje regains full fitness, Olivier may need to have an outstanding county season to be considered for the squad to play England, and even if he is included, it’s likely he has fallen behind Jansen in the pecking order to play.Overall, South Africa’s new players have allayed a fear Boucher had when he took over the job in December 2019, that of the talent pool being shallow. The performances in this series against Bangladesh prove there is some depth and it is continually growing. It also means South Africa can take a varied squad to England, with many bases covered, which is exactly how Elgar wants it to be.”You want more options than none,” he said. “We’ve got a few extremely challenging away series coming up. Our Test side is in a very healthy position. We are very grateful for the cricket we’ve played this summer.”

In beating favourites India comprehensively even as their coach’s disciplinary hearing looms, the hosts have shown focus and plenty of cricketing promise

Firdose Moonda21-Jan-20223:07

Cullinan: Very pleased to see de Kock play so freely

“Critical but stable” was how Janneman Malan jokingly described his status after fielding for four hours and batting for two-and-a-half in the Paarl heatwave that saw temperatures touch 40 degrees C. But the field is not the only place it’s heated in South African cricket right now.The team came into this match on the back of the news that their head coach, Mark Boucher, faces dismissal over charges of gross misconduct but rallied to complete their first ODI series win since February 2020 and their highest successful chase at home since 2017. Asked if the allegations hanging over Boucher served as extra motivation for the team, Malan did not give too much away.”I don’t want to sound ignorant or uninterested but it’s a big series we have in front of us. We can’t have many distractions in terms of personal mindsets,” he said. “I just try and focus on the game, focus on getting the team in winning positions and playing for everyone in the team and the country.”Temba Bavuma in his post-match television interview said a little more. “As a team we have a lot of self belief and confidence in our ability. We believe in each other. The biggest thing is that we go out there and fight for one another,” he said. “We are not a team that prides itself on having superstars or relying on individual performances. We really try and put in a real team effort. Coming into these series, no one had much faith in us and that gave us a lot of motivation. The performances we’ve put in over the last month or so have been really good and hopefully that can grow the confidence of people in us, especially here locally.”Related

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In the months that follow and as Boucher’s disciplinary hearing is held, perhaps it will be brought up that he was at the helm for these successive series wins over India, who came to these shores as favourites. Players from Dean Elgar to Lungi Ngidi have spoken about the good work Boucher has done, which of course will not absolve him for what he has been accused of but may give Boucher some currency to continue in the role.Judging him solely on the way South Africa have played this series, it may be argued that Boucher has engineered a turnaround of a team whose downward spiral appeared bottomless. Specifically, South Africa’s development in terms of their use of spin and their approach against it is noticeable. Tabraiz Shamsi, Keshav Maharaj and the part-time bowling of Aiden Markram outbowled R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal in these two ODIs while South Africa have lost only two wickets (out of seven) to spin in this series so far. “We’ve come a long way as a team,” Malan said. “We’ve been trying to improve and get better plans against spin. And we handled it better than them facing our spinners.”Virat Kohli fell to spin in the second ODI as South Africa’s spin bowlers’ stocks rose•AFP/Getty ImagesSouth Africa scored 92 runs off 99 balls against spin in the first match and 115 off 121 today and have clearly changed their intent against slower bowling. Quinton de Kock was especially aggressive when facing Ashwin and brought up his highest score since South Africa toured Ireland last July.de Kock was embroiled in controversy following his initial refusal to take the knee at the 2021 T20 World Cup and then suddenly retired from Test cricket after the Boxing Day match. He subsequently had a break during the two Tests that followed, and now appears refreshed. This innings was not chanceless – Rishabh Pant missed a stumping that would have seen de Kock dismissed for 32 – but it helped the South Africa opener find his “rhythm” again, he said to the broadcasters afterwards. And it came on the back of energetic performances in the field. Unlike Pant, Kock himself has pulled off two stumpings in this series, both down the leg side while standing up to Andile Phehlukwayo. “Guess lightning strikes twice,” de Kock said.The same can be said for the way South Africa has played against India so far. After losing the first Test at SuperSport Park, they achieved their best Test chase at the Wanderers to square the series and then repeated the feat with a strong second-innings effort at Newlands to win it. They’ve all but bossed the ODIs so far, and in doing so, those who struggled in the Tests have come good.Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma, who are under pressure to score red-ball hundreds, brought up white-ball ones and Markram, who may well be dropped from Tests, found some form in this match and has reinvented himself as something of an allrounder. Crucially, Bavuma’s maturity as captain has kept South Africa together through incidents that may otherwise have destabilised them.”I enjoy it (captaining),” Bavuma said. “I’ve enjoyed it since I did it at domestic cricket. I see it as something to forget about myself and I can try to see if I can serve and inspire other guys within the team. I’m fortunate that there’s a lot of cricket brains within the team. That’s a good thing. Sometimes it can be a bad thing because the guys can confuse you out there in the field, but to call on those guys is great.”But none of the selflessness South Africa so openly speak about has turned down the temperature, on or off the field. Instead, South Africa – and you may go as far as to call it Boucher’s South Africa – are simply learning to operate in the heat.

“No one knows that for the last seven to eight months I have been working hard on my bowling”

Sidharth Monga29-Apr-2022You’d expect Sunil Narine to top economy charts in an IPL season eyes closed, but here is a surprise. Among those who have bowled a minimum of 10 overs this IPL, only Narine has a better economy than Krunal Pandya’s 6.18 per over.During Mumbai Indians’ glory days of 2019 and 2020, Krunal played virtually as the fifth specialist bowler with Kieron Pollard used as back-up should things go wrong. In the last year or so, his bowling has dipped, which led him to work hard on his skills for “seven to eight months”. The reward came in the form of his first Player-of-the-Match award in the IPL since 2017, as his spell of 2 for 11 in four overs – including a maiden over – led Lucknow Super Giants’ defence of just 153.Related

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The opposition, Punjab Kings, were a good match-up for Krunal: among the 10 teams this year, Kings have the worst run-rate and worst average against left-arm spin. However, Krunal has been impressive through the season, bowling in eight matches out of nine so far, and going for less than eight an over in six of them. In four of them, he has gone at a run a ball or better.”Throughout the tournament I have been bowling well,” Krunal told host broadcaster Star Sports. “No one knows that for the last seven to eight months I have been working hard on my bowling. Trying to get tall.”I just want to mention Rahul Sanghvi, who has been a big, big help for me. I had a chat with him seven-eight months back, and I told him I want to develop my skill. I felt I was always good with my mindset. I just felt if I could develop my skills, it would really help. The results everyone can see, but the effort has been there from the last eight months, trying to get better as a bowler, especially skill wise.”The one skill Krunal said he was missing was the ability to turn the ball. Bad habits had crept in unknown to him.”Because I am playing a lot of short-form games, you don’t realise what’s happening,” Krunal said. “So I didn’t realise I was getting too low and my stride was too long, and in the end I just had to fire the ball in. So I was just playing with the batsman’s mind. So I just realised if I get tall and if I impart more spin… I have always varied my pace but in that if I am able to impart spin or get the ball to grip [then] that would create a lot of doubt in the batters’ mind. Again had a word with Rahul Sanghvi. He was kind enough to help me.”Let Daniel Vettori, one of the greatest left-arm spinners to play the game, break it down for you. “He is one of the few spinners who can bowl at that pace and still impart topspin on it,” Vettori said on ESPNcricinfo’s post-match analysis show T20 Time Out. “Most spinners who bowl that quickly have to undercut the ball. And therefore all that is happening is that the ball is skidding on unless it is a really bad surface. What he is doing is he is challenging batsmen with that pace but also getting dip.”It’s not like batsmen can get down to him, it’s not like batsmen can go back to him. It is incredibly difficult to read the length. That’s why he is so successful against left-hand batters and right-hand batters because he has actually got something on the ball. It is a real skill, and it’s impressive to watch.”To his credit, Krunal also has the self-awareness to realise when the skill needed to get something on the ball has deserted him, and the willingness to work hard on it setting that right.

Extraction of Williamson for third time in series epitomises soft skills of hard competitor

Vithushan Ehantharajah25-Jun-2022Zaheer Khan, Hasan Ali – and now, Matthew Potts. It’s not a trio you would naturally throw together, even if they’d make a pretty tidy bowling attack. Beyond that, there is probably not too much in common given the age differences along with the era and environments they grew up in. The Beastie Boys, they are not.But on Saturday at Headingley, a thread that existed between Zaheer and Hasan was sewn unto Potts. For they are now the only three bowlers to have dismissed Kane Williamson three times in a Test series. Zaheer was in his 15th year in the format, while Hasan did so a year after making his debut in 2017. It’s taken Potts a matter of weeks.It’s no measure to rank them, by any means. Especially given that, when Zaheer made his India debut in 2000, Williamson was a 10-year-old, gently guiding balls behind the car and into the garage door. But it is a neat summation of how quickly Potts has felt at home at this level, to have stamped the New Zealand captain’s card in all but one of the four innings he’s had. Had Covid not intervened at Trent Bridge to rule out two more meetings, Potts might have earned enough points to be entitled to a free Kane Williamson.The set-up and punchline for this final battle was Potts in a nutshell. Four deliveries came from an almost identical release point at the crease, before he went wide while serving up a ball that behaved just like the others. Williamson, by now conditioned to a ball coming into him, approached this one exactly the same, offering a straight bat, but failed to register that it was a little wider, thus probably one to cut. He knew he was done as soon as contact was made, and arched back to look to the sky in despair as Jonny Bairstow took the catch with the gloves and Potts wheeled away.Having just lost Devon Conway, and with Williamson set on 48 after nearly three hours at the crease, it was an incision that tipped the afternoon England’s way, maybe even the match. New Zealand still lead by 137, with five wickets still to get.ESPNcricinfo LtdAs it stands, Potts is England’s leading wicket-taker for the series with 13 at an impressive average of 21.53. And although he started with a bang at Lord’s with four for 13, followed by three for 55 in the second innings, his work so far at Headingley might be his best showing yet.He was unfortunate to leave the first innings with just one wicket for 34 from his 26 overs, especially considering he’d twice got the better of New Zealand’s eventual centurion Daryl Mitchell. An lbw on eight was not reviewed after being adjudged not out, then an edge on 80 was taken out of Joe Root’s hands at first slip when wicketkeeper Ben Foakes leapt across to snatch at it.But you knew, deep down, Potts’ rewards were not going to be too far away. As he mentioned on Sky Sports at stumps on Saturday, he is consistent with his method: “I don’t think there’s any great secret. Just a bit of wobble, maybe the occasional swinger. Just try and hit it on a good length and hopefully something will happen.” As it did against Williamson, and earlier when he got England’s hunt for ten second-innings wickets up and running with a delivery that left Will Young and coaxed a prod to Ollie Pope at third slip.As for the moments when it doesn’t quite happen? “It’s not a drama,” he shrugged, like a bloke who knows full well that none of this caper is life and death. Yet even in those moments when the pitch flattens out, he’s still running in, still hammering that length and doing it accurately enough for England to operate without a fine leg, giving them an extra fielder to use in a more threatening position.A quick arm, an awkward action and what those in on the term call “fast nip” – Potts’ ability to lose little pace after the ball pitches – are misjudgement-inducing themselves, even before his skills come into the equation. Those skills got a tune-up over the winter, and ultimately led to his international calling, including the acquisition of a wobble-ball. Add it all together, even an average pace of 81 miles per hour (both in this Test and the series as a whole), CricViz calculates he elicits false shots 17 percent of the time – essentially more than once an over.That he is now doing all this as James Anderson’s replacement is not for nothing, either. The burden of deputising for 651 dismissals doesn’t register, because his remit hasn’t changed. When so many have tried to mimic the great man, Potts was his own man, doing things in his own way.Related

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There’s something to be said for Potts’ personality, too, because it’s not quite as obvious on the field as it is with others. While Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad and Jonny Bairstow took turns between balls to conduct the Western Terrace like they were warming up the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, Potts managed to do so when the ball was live.You could probably apportion some of the credit for Henry Nicholls’ wicket (caught and bowled by Jack Leach) to Potts, considering he was responsible for the decibel levels that made Headingley feel that little bit smaller and that little bit more enclosed for New Zealand’s batters. And it said all you needed to know about his attitude to the game, and the grind, that he was hurrying back to his mark even as darkness closed in, to try and prise one or two more deliveries out before the day was done.Alas, his scampering before the rains came in to end day three proved in vain, and he will return on Sunday morning with one ball remaining in his 10th over.There is a selflessness to his graft: Potts is the type of person who’d run through a brick wall for his team-mates and then clean up the debris. It is why, even before he had bowled a ball in an England shirt, Stokes – his Durham team-mate – championed him as not just an “athlete” but “everything I expect this team to be going forward”.Typically, he wasn’t having it when he was asked of the thrill of having a player like Williamson, a generational great, in his back pocket. “I wouldn’t say he’s sitting in my pocket,” he replied, as much of a correction as it was a statement of the sort of humility necessary to make it in this arena.”To be honest, that could be anyone. Anyone in that line-up, I’m trying to get them out. And if I’m not, I shouldn’t be in the team really.”Well, he is. And he should be, for a good while yet.