And was the match aggregate of 517 by South Africa and West Indies a record for a T20I?

Steven Lynch28-Mar-2023Was the match aggregate by South Africa and West Indies the other day a record for a T20I? asked Mason McKillop from South Africa

The match aggregate of 517 runs between West Indies (258 for 5) and South Africa (259 for 4) in Centurion at the weekend was not just a record for a T20I – it beat the 489 of West Indies (245 for 6) and India (244 for 4) in Lauderhill (USA) in 2016 – but also a record for any senior T20 match.The previous mark had been set only a fortnight earlier, with an aggregate of 515 in the PSL game between Multan Sultans (262 for 3) and Quetta Gladiators (253 for 8) in Rawalpindi. The only other T20 match to produce more than 500 runs was a CSA T20 clash between Titans (271 for 3) and Knights (230 for 9) in Potchefstroom in South Africa in October 2022.Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed first ball three times in the ODIs against Australia. Has anyone done this before? asked Dinesh Manraj from Trinidad & Tobago (among others)

Suryakumar Yadav’s nightmare in the one-day series against Australia – first-ball ducks in Mumbai (lbw to Mitchell Starc), in Visakhapatnam (lbw Starc again) and in Chennai (bowled by Ashton Agar) – was the first time such a hat-trick had occurred in a bilateral one-day series.There had been four previous cases of a batter collecting three successive golden ducks, involving different opposition: by the Sri Lankans Pramodya Wickramasinghe (1998) and Lasith Malinga (2009), Kenya’s Shem Ngoche during the 2011 World Cup, and Hamza Tahir of Scotland in 2022. Malinga had another run of three innings in 2013 in which he was out first ball twice and also run out without facing.Was Ashley Chandrasinghe’s 46 in the Sheffield Shield final the lowest score by someone carrying their bat in a first-class match? asked Arsiwala Husein from India

The Victorian opener Ashley Chandrasinghe carried his bat for 46 in their first innings of 195 in last week’s Sheffield Shield final in Perth. This is a long way from the lowest score by someone carrying their bat: playing for the Gentlemen of Kent against the Gentlemen of England in Canterbury in 1852, John Fagge made only 4 of a total of 90. Thirty years later, Lancashire’s Dick Barlow (a serial bat-carrier; he did it ten times in all, four in 1882 alone) was undefeated with 5 in a total of 69 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.The previous lowest by an Australian was Alec Bannerman’s 7 (out of 60) for the tourists against Kent, also in Canterbury, in 1893. The lowest in Australia remains 21, by John Rees, in what turned out to be his only first-class match, for South Australia (who made 54) against Western Australia in Perth in 1905-06.Chandrasinghe batted throughout the first day’s play in last week’s final, finishing it with 46 of Victoria’s 90-over total of 194 for 8 (they added only one more run next morning); several people asked whether this was also a record low. This is a tough one to work out as we don’t always know whether a day’s play was uninterrupted, but the lowest score yet unearthed by someone who batted through an entire day’s play appears to be 37 not out, by Hashim Amla as Surrey held out for a draw after following on against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in July 2021. Surrey faced 96.2 overs on that fourth day, finishing with 122 for 8 from 104.5 overs; Amla, who was 0 not out overnight, faced 278 balls in all, and hit five fours.Fawad Alam is the only batter with five Test hundreds in five different countries•Associated PressI noticed that Fawad Alam has scored five Test centuries, all against different countries (and all in different countries). Is this a record? asked Michael Murdoch from Scotland

Fawad Alam’s five Test centuries have come against Sri Lanka (168 on debut in Colombo in 2009), New Zealand (102 in Mount Maunganui in 2020-21), South Africa (109 in Karachi in 2020-21), Zimbabwe (140 in Harare in 2020-21), and West Indies (124 not out in Kingston in August 2021).Neil McKenzie of South Africa and India’s Wasim Jaffer also scored five Test centuries against five different opponents. But another South African, Quinton de Kock, leads the way with six: during his 54-Test career, he made hundreds against England, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and West Indies. But three of de Kock’s centuries came in South Africa; Fawad is the only man to make five in five different countries.Can you solve an argument? Did Jos Buttler score the most runs in any IPL season last year? asked Narendra Kotak from India

Jos Buttler did lead the way in last year’s IPL with 863 runs for Rajasthan Royals – but it wasn’t quite the record aggregate, as Virat Kohli piled up 973 for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2016. Next comes David Warner, with 848 for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016. Both Buttler and Kohli hit four hundreds; no one else has scored more than two in an IPL season.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

Pair finds a way past Nepal’s banana peel with a 216-run fourth-wicket stand that came at 7.57

Deivarayan Muthu22-Jun-2023After Shai Hope knocked Nepal seamer Gulsan Jha through midwicket for a double, he eased the helmet off his head and raised his bat in typical understated fashion. It has become a familiar sight for West Indies in ODI cricket. This was Hope’s 15th hundred in ODI cricket overall and his ninth since the end of the 2019 ODI World Cup.Since that tournament, seven other West Indies batters have combined to produce nine centuries among them in ODI cricket. Among those, Evin Lewis has made himself unavailable for West Indies selection until after CPL 2023 and Shimron Hetmyer was left out for the ongoing ODI World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe.Three legal balls after Hope had brought up his hundred, Nicholas Pooran reached a century of his own and joined the list of West Indian batters not named Hope to hit an ODI ton in recent times. Pooran celebrated it by blowing a kiss towards the West Indian dressing room. Andy Flower, who was on commentary around the time, wasn’t surprised with Pooran taking down a bowling attack in ODI cricket, having worked with him at Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2023.Related

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But it was still an unfamiliar sight for the Caribbean fans in ODI cricket. This was only Pooran’s second ODI hundred and first since the 2019 World Cup in England. When Pooran got together with Hope, West Indies were 55 for 3 in the 16th over and the ball was still decking around. But the pair found a way around Nepal’s banana peel and swatted them aside with a 216-run fourth-wicket partnership that came at a run rate of 7.57.Pooran was dropped twice by wicketkeeper Aasif Sheikh – first on 3 and then on 54 – but he showed innings construction and reconstruction skills before teeing off in the slog overs. With legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane turning into the ball into him, Pooran regularly hit with the turn and attacked the shorter leg-side boundaries at the Harare Sports Club. Pooran then pressed onto intimidate Nepal’s attack with sheer power, something that has put him on the wish list of T20 – and T10 – franchises around the world.Shai Hope has walked the talk after sliding down to No.4 this year•ICC via Getty ImagesAs for Hope, he initially struggled to pick Lamichhane’s variations from the wrist, but he lined up the fingerspinners Dipendra Singh Airee and Lalit Rajbanshi to dovetail beautifully with Pooran. It is for this middle-order stability and impetus that Hope has given up his opening slot for Brandon King who isn’t as strong against spin. After West Indies wrapped up a 101-run win, Hope credited Pooran for making life easier for him.”I still believe that my rhythm was a bit off to be fair and in that situation I’m happy that I came up trumps for the team,” Hope said after collecting the Player-of-the-Match award. “The key [to the partnership with Pooran] was to absorb as much pressure as possible and find a way to transfer that pressure on the back end. Pooran actually made it easier for me. I don’t think I hit my targets the way I wanted to, but I’m just happy to bat as deep as possible. The team really needed me and I’m happy to come up trumps for the team. Oh! I’m happy, anytime he [Pooran] is scoring runs we do well.”Since sliding down the order to No.4 this year, Hope has made scores of 128 (115), 16 (27), 54(60) and 132 (129). Hope and Pooran gave Rovman Powell and Jason Holder the ideal platform to launch from the get-to as West Indies put up 339 for 7.”The aim is to get the best out of everyone in the team,” Hope had said on the eve of the game. The first is to understand our game a lot more and getting there is a process. It’s definitely not going to happen overnight, but the aim is to do whatever I can do for the team. But for our batters to understand their worth and have that self-belief in themselves to know: ‘okay, I can get the job done for West Indies’ and the more they can do that, I can see more consistent performances and hopefully it starts from tomorrow.”Captain Hope walked the talk along with his predecessor Pooran on Thursday and though it was only against an Associate team, the pair probably offered West Indies the new batting blueprint that they’ve been searching for in ODI cricket.

The problem, however, is he averages just 16.55 with the bat in the last four years and has not scored a half-century in 29 innings

Alex Malcolm09-Sep-2023Marcus Stoinis opening the bowling for Australia is raising some eyebrows.Australia’s new-ball bowling stocks in white-ball cricket are the envy of the world. When Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood play in the same team, one of them doesn’t get a new ball as Mitchell Starc has a mortgage on the other.They’ve left Spencer Johnson out of the World Cup squad although he could make his ODI debut in South Africa. Jason Behrendorff took five wickets against the eventual champions England in the 2019 ODI World Cup and is still a new-ball force in franchise and domestic cricket yet, he has hardly played for Australia since.Related

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Nathan Ellis has also missed the World Cup squad. He isn’t known as a new ball bowler, but he has proven his versatility in any pressure situation.Sean Abbott is in the squad and was in the team in the first ODI against South Africa in Bloemfontein, but even he didn’t get the new ball with Starc and Cummins absent.Instead, it was Stoinis brandishing the new Kookaburra, as he has done in three of his last four ODIs and two of his last three T20Is with encouraging success.In the T20I series, Stoinis took three wickets with the new ball in the powerplay at an economy rate of 6.75. In his last three ODI bowling performances, dating back to Australia’s last series in March, he has bowled 48 balls in the powerplay with the new ball, conceding just 26 runs and dismissing Ishan Kishan and Quinton de Kock.He was helped in Bloemfontein by a difficult surface, with both de Kock and Temba Bavuma struggling for rhythm.Marcus Stoinis has had an impact opening the bowling•Gallo Images/Getty ImagesBut Stoinis has turned himself into a new-ball weapon in the powerplay of late. His ability to swing the ball sets him apart from Australia’s specialist right-arm quicks. He hits the bat harder than the speed gun suggests with his extra bounce often causing problems. His control of length has been a feature of his bowling recently, and he can use cutters and scrambled seam deliveries when the swing disappears.The how is impressive. The why is intriguing.Australia’s selectors have been trialling various combinations for the ODI World Cup over the past 12 months. One of which involves playing eight batters in an XI, including four allrounders, as they did in the first ODI against India in Mumbai in March. Another involves playing two spinners, which they did in the third game in Chennai in that series and the first ODI against South Africa.Aside from his ability to swing the new ball and bowl well with just two men out, Stoinis opening the bowling allows Australia’s captain, whoever it is, more flexibility with his bowling resources. The move will allow the specialist quicks to bowl more overs in the middle, and potentially strike through that period, or leave more overs up their sleeve for the death. It also means when two spinners play, one of them might not be risked in the powerplay.So far it has worked out superbly with the ball. Except there is one glaring problem.For all those benefits, Stoinis’ ODI batting is a major concern. If he wasn’t bowling so well, likely, he would not be in the team given what has happened with Marnus Labuschagne.Since March 2019, Stoinis has averaged 16.55 and has gone 29 ODI innings without a half-century. For those wondering if that is just a byproduct of being a finisher like he is in T20 cricket, it is not the case in ODIs. He has batted at No. 5 or higher in 21 of those innings and even batted at No.3 three times.Marcus Stoinis averages just 16.55 with the bat since March 2019•AFP/Getty ImagesThe only difference between Stoinis and Labuschagne, who was left out of the World Cup squad after averaging just 22.30 in his last 14 ODIs before his supersub heroics in Bloemfontein, is Stoinis has maintained his strike rate above 90 throughout four lean years while Labuschagne struck at under 70 during his recent lean run and just above 83 over his career.Stoinis opening the bowling to make Australia’s batting almost bulletproof has also not exactly worked in the way it has been drawn up. The intention is to give Australia the depth to chase down anything or set enormous totals. But at the Wankhede Stadium in March, with Stoinis batting at No. 8, Australia were bowled out for 188, batting first, and lost handsomely.Although on difficult surfaces, the extra batting has paid dividends. In Chennai, with Stoinis at No. 7 and contributing 25, they mustered a winning score of 269. In Bloemfontein, albeit with the help of a concussion substitute, they chased down 223 after slumping to 113 for 7 with Stoinis managing just 17. Likewise in Cairns last year against New Zealand, Australia were 44 for 5, with Stoinis out for 5, and still they chased down 233 thanks to Cameron Green and Alex Carey sharing a 158-run stand for the sixth wicket with the insurance of Glenn Maxwell at No. 8.The other complicating factor to consider is the fitness of Australia’s allrounders. Stoinis’ bowling becomes even more important given Mitch Marsh’s ankle is still being protected. Marsh is yet to bowl a ball in four matches in South Africa, despite being captain, after a heavy and unexpected workload in the Ashes. Green’s body is always a concern, and his white-ball bowling remains a work in progress. His concussion will now limit his buildup to the World Cup. Maxwell’s leg remains a major concern and will need to be managed carefully.Stoinis himself has been managed carefully due to his previous side injuries that plagued his 2019 ODI World Cup, among other soft tissue problems. In India, he bowled in the first and third ODI but played as a batter only in the second given the short two-day turnaround. The same plan was rolled out for him in the T20I series against South Africa. There were four days leading into the first ODI which allowed him time to back up.The new ball experiment is working well for now but runs remain Stoinis’ major priority.

His bowling, inspirational leadership, and fearlessness in taking a stand on issues he is passionate about make him one of the greats of the modern game

Ian Chappell03-Dec-2023Australia won an impressive sixth World Cup thanks to dynamic fielding, batting and bowling heroics, and enormous self-belief. However, the captaincy of Pat Cummins should not be overlooked when assessing Australia’s excellent achievement.Cummins was always going to be a good captain. Overlooking for a moment the difficulties of being a fast-bowling skipper, he was easily the most inspirational player in the Australian team, and one blessed with cricketing common sense.Any cricketer who isn’t inspired by Cummins is in the wrong game.In addition, Cummins is an outstanding fast bowler with a big heart, and has the much admired knack of taking a wicket when it’s really needed. To cap it off, he’s a bowler who regularly troubles the opposition’s best batters.These qualities make him amply qualified to be an inspiring captain. The rest is a matter of him leading the Australia side and seeing what he can make of the job. The only way to improve as a captain is to do the job, make the odd miscalculation and quickly learn from any setbacks.Cummins has not only proved himself a worthy Test captain, his leadership has now expanded and he is also successful in 50-overs cricket.Related

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I thought he’d be a good captain but he has exceeded my expectations.The other point to consider is the quality of some of the rarely selected bowling captains. The best examples of bowlers making good to great captains are Imran Khan of Pakistan, Richie Benaud of Australia, and Ray Illingworth of England.By performing well as a captain in different countries and formats and in a variety of conditions, Cummins is putting himself in that category. Only Imran of that trio – an excellent leader of great presence – played in an era of rapidly growing limited-overs cricket.Imran crowned an excellent captaincy career by guiding Pakistan’s “skilled rabble” cricket team to an outstanding World Cup win in 1992. Cummins has now equalled Imran’s and Kapil Dev’s laudable achievements of clinching a World Cup trophy as a fast-bowling captain.Don’t be fooled by the controversy surrounding coach Justin Langer and his eventual departure. Once appointed, Cummins earned the right to choose the coach he wanted. He now works with coach Andrew McDonald but be in no doubt who is running the cricket side of things – it is, as it should be, the captain.While I can guarantee from personal experience that a lot of codswallop is written and spoken about what happens on the cricket field, it is refreshing to watch Cummins and his team in action. Cummins’ side is often spoken about as an ultra-aggressive Australian unit minus the ugly side effects.

Someone once wisely wrote, “Good captaincy is like pornography; it’s hard to define but you know it when you see it”

I’d put Cummins in the same bracket as Mark Waugh and Anil Kumble – fierce competitors who convey their intentions purely by their actions. Shooting your mouth off doesn’t make you a tough player; quite often, it’s exactly the opposite.Cummins also deserves credit for speaking out on off-field issues. It’s not easy in the dog-eat-dog social-media climate for a current player to take a stand, but Cummins has had the guts to be front and centre on issues he is passionate about.In acknowledging an invitation from Cummins to a symposium on the effect of climate change on cricket, I’m not only declaring my involvement but also expressing an admiration for the captain’s stand. Cummins is absolutely serious about climate’s effect on the planet.There’s no doubt he has had his challenges as captain. His battle with Ben Stokes – an excellent captain – was one such instance. Cummins’ captaincy experience will be improved by the intense skirmish with Stokes.Someone once wisely wrote, “Good captaincy is like pornography; it’s hard to define but you know it when you see it.”Cummins was the right choice as Australian captain and he has done an extremely good job. Even in the ultra-demanding climate of Australian cricket, he has earned the right to remain captain for as long as he wants the role.

Return to the Wankhede brings memories of record World T20 chase against South Africa in 2016

Andrew Miller20-Oct-2023There’s been a strange and unfamiliar intruder in England’s dressing-room over the past few weeks. A haggard old demon of doubt, sitting on the shoulders of some of the most unfettered cricketers of their generation, and cramping their style with whispers of impending doom.Perhaps it’s not a fear of failure per se that’s been holding England back in their anodyne displays against New Zealand and Afghanistan, but a recognition of finality – an unconscious acceptance among this remarkable group of players that the end is nigh, no matter how well or badly they play.After November 19, come what may, many of these players will never play another ODI, let alone feature in another 50-over World Cup. Some, like Liam Plunkett after the 2019 triumph, may never play for England in any format again.Related

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As such, it would be understandable if a few real-world concerns have overwritten the team’s keenest exhortations to “play our way” and “attack” the World Cup, as per Jos Buttler’s oddly manic pre-tournament pronouncement.And as the squad gathers in Mumbai ahead of Saturday’s immense clash with those inveterate World Cup worriers South Africa, the shrinks have been out in force, seeking to defankle the knots in England’s psyche.There’s Ben Stokes, the team’s “spiritual leader” in the words of head coach Matthew Mott, calling for England to “go down doing what we’re known for”. And then there’s Brendon McCullum, whose role as an ambassador of the New Zealand meat-exporting industry just happens to have given him an excuse to stay in the team hotel in Mumbai this week.England “need to stay true to their method which has brought them so much success,” McCullum told the Times this week, and seeing as it was his influence, way back at the start of their journey in 2015, that instilled the method in the first place (long before he transferred it onto the Test team), no one’s better placed to preach that particular message.Without wishing to get reductive about the mindset that has given England their superpowers across formats in recent years, the broad thrust of “Bazball” (as no one in McCullum’s presence will dare to call it) has been about embracing the joys of playing sport for a living – of casting aside the doubts and cynicism that come with age and wisdom, and just remembering how much fun it used to be to play the game as carefree kids, without a jot of expectation about the endgame.

For it was at this venue seven-and-a-half years ago, and against the same opponents too, that England’s white-ball thrusters took their first steps towards immortality

How much fun it was, to use a random example, when Joe Root sidled up to Buttler in the middle of the Wankhede on March 18, 2016 and – with 82 runs still needed from 48 balls – declared to his team-mate: “We’re cruising this – we’re absolutely cruising this.”For it was at this venue seven-and-a-half years ago, at a similarly make-or-break juncture of their first major tournament of the post-2015 era, and against the same opponents too, that England’s white-ball thrusters took their first steps towards immortality.”Embrace the naivety” was Eoin Morgan’s rallying cry in his team’s unlikely run to the final of the 2016 World T20, a seemingly throwaway slogan at the team’s arrival press conference in Mumbai, but one that took on a life of its own as his greenhorn charges defied expectations time and again (at least until their fateful ending in Kolkata, when the limits of winging it finally caught up with them).Going into that tournament, Morgan had been the only member of England’s squad with prior IPL experience. Under the directorship of Andrew Strauss, the ECB were on the brink of a new, more laissez-faire attitude to overseas franchise leagues, and in February that year, Buttler had become a notable signee for Mumbai Indians.But until that moment that Carlos Brathwaite launched Stokes’ final over of the tournament into the history books, England had cast aside any doubts about their readiness for the challenge, and simply set about enjoying the ride of their young lives. And never more so than in their group-stage clash with South Africa, where they hunted down a massive target of 230 – still to this day the highest chase in T20 World Cup history.Then as now, England’s backs had been against the wall after a shellacking in their previous group game – albeit there is a world of difference between being bested by arguably the greatest exponent of T20 batting, Chris Gayle, in an 11-sixes onslaught, and being hounded out of Delhi by Afghanistan.England must lift themselves for South Africa after a shock defeat to Afghanistan•Associated PressNevertheless, as many as ten survivors from the South Africa contest might find themselves locking horns once again this weekend – a remarkable seven from England’s ranks alone, with Root, Buttler and Stokes returning alongside Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, David Willey and even a young Reece Topley, whose second and final appearance of that campaign comprised two overs for 33 runs, and would be his last in England colours for four injury-plagued years.For Root, however, the South Africa match was his single finest hour as a T20 batter. He would play six matches in that campaign, and had the final gone England’s way, he would have been a shoo-in for Player of the Match and Tournament. And yet, for reasons of raw power on the one hand, but moreover the time constraints of his Test captaincy and ODI pre-eminence on the other, he’s only ever featured in 12 subsequent T20Is, and none since 2019.But on that night of nights, Root’s 83 from 44 balls was a declaration of his genius – a performance of incredible stillness, not unlike Aiden Markram’s recent 49-ball century against Sri Lanka in fact, in which the virtues of placement and poise transcended the blood and fury of headlong attack. In fact, until the moment of his dismissal, with 11 runs still needed from 10 balls, Root faced a mere two dot-balls out of 43 – and the first of those he would swear blind was a wide.In the course of his innings, Root even unfurled a prototype Root-scoop – a startlingly effective inverted ramp over third man for six, to bring up a 29-ball fifty. “How do players think of shots like those? Let alone execute them. What a world…” wrote Will Luke on ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary. Root for his part later admitted in White Hot, the recent book about the team’s rise and rise, “my heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest … thankfully it was exactly where I wanted it”.The first sighting of Joe Root’s reverse-ramp came at the Wankhede in 2016•AFP/Getty ImagesThis contest was not the first stirring of England’s bold new approach – that had come the previous summer against New Zealand and Australia, a thrilling pair of seat-of-the-pants rides that would finish 5-5 across the ten ODIs but later be recalled by Morgan as his favourite games in their run to the 2019 title. And to all intents and purposes, the World T20 had arrived too soon to draw any long-term conclusions about England’s new-found aptitude. Even so, an early elimination from yet another global tournament would have done the rebooted project no favours whatsoever. Whether they embraced the implications or not, the Wankhede chase was a de facto stress test of their no-consequences attitude.In the final analysis, they passed it with flying colours, with Jason Roy’s thrilling powerplay onslaught providing the bugle blast. He cracked 43 from 16 balls, including five fours, three sixes and – in league with Alex Hales – 44 runs from the first two overs of the chase.Kagiso Rabada bore the brunt of the first of those – he disappeared for 21 runs, including one of the most rifled straight drives that has ever been executed on the world stage – and he’ll be one of three South Africans back for the rematch on Saturday. Neither Quinton de Kock (52 from 24 balls) nor David Miller (28 not out from 12) has any personal reason to regret their efforts on the night, and the presence of each of them will be a reminder of quite how much situational knowhow will be distilled into the coming contest.”It was a fantastic game, one of my favourite games,” Buttler said in Mumbai on the eve of the rematch. “It had a lot of value in terms of where we were going as a team. It’s a long time ago, and that style is a different format, but we want to find different ways to put the opposition under pressure. It doesn’t always mean fours and sixes, it means can we push back when the opposition is on top, or take the initiative in different ways? That’s what we want to live by as a team, and when we commit to that, that gives us the best chance of positive results.”The challenge for both teams, therefore, will be to play without fear – like the kids that they used to be – yet manage the clutch moments with the wisdom that comes from such vast tournament experience. In terms of accessing such an elusive mindset, therefore, “embracing the naivety” is clearly no longer an option for England’s weary worldbeaters, although the manner of their eventual defeat in that year’s final might yet offer them some solace in their current plight.With two global titles in 2012 and 2016, and a further run to the final in between whiles, West Indies’ T20 team of the mid-2010s is perhaps the only recent international dynasty to rival the side that England have compiled over the past eight years. And the cool-headed mugging that they instigated in the heat of the moment in Kolkata serves as timeless evidence that – contrary to the impression that England’s frazzled veterans are currently giving off – experience when the going gets tough actually counts for everything.

The offspinner-allrounder talks about his time in the BPL, playing under MS Dhoni, and what he makes of England’s young Test spinners

Interview by Mohammad Isam08-Mar-2024This is your third season with Comilla Victorians. How has playing in the BPL been?
I played the BPL years ago but that experience wasn’t great. Over time, it got better. Comilla approached me a few years ago through Tamim [Iqbal]. He obviously left. [Umpire] Richard Illingworth asked me. He knows [team owner] AHM Mustafa Kamal.Comilla looks after me really well. They are professionally run, and one of the best franchises I have played in. I enjoy coming here. I like to play for the right reasons, that’s why I come to play for Comilla. They want to win. BPL has become a stronger competition this year. I just want to win trophies in my career.You got the second hat-trick of your career in this season’s BPL.
My son always asks me to get a hat-trick. I always tell him that it is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. When he found out that I got a hat-trick here, he was really happy. I never got even one hat-trick in backyard cricket, so I’m really happy to get two in professional cricket!Last year when Ben Stokes sent you a message to return to Test cricket, you came back into something called Bazball.
Test cricket is the best. I love playing Test cricket. It is the best format of the game. When I first retired, I was a bit down. I finished not playing so well. [Brendon] McCullum and Stokes gave me this opportunity, which I couldn’t turn down. It was the Ashes at home. I finished Test cricket with such great memories, such a high. I just absolutely loved it. I batted three, bowled spin.I feel like they are changing the face of cricket. I know they are 2-1 down in India [this interview was conducted on February 24] but they have played unbelievably. They have taken to India on difficult wickets. I love that about Bazball. There’s always a chance. The belief is there. India are also playing really well. They are also taking the game on. Look at the way [Yashasvi] Jaiswal is playing. He is doing unbelievably well.It is the way the game needs to go for people to watch. Like ODI cricket changed, Test cricket also has to change. There’s still time for proper Test match batting, but it needs to get forward. This is what Bazball is doing.Related

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How do you think Ben Stokes has captained spin bowling on the current tour of India?
He did really well. The way he backs his spinners – even when I played in the UK, he had [innovative] field settings against Australia [like] a guy dead-straight behind the [bowler’s] arm. He is always willing to do things like that. I had Joe Root and Alastair Cook as my captains [previously] but Stokesy was just different. Everyone knows that. The way he’s taking the game and team forward, it’s really amazing. In such a short period of time, he took England from not playing great cricket to amazing and entertaining cricket. Everyone is talking about Bazball. [The team themselves] actually don’t believe much in [the term]. They just want to play this brand of cricket. I think he is a special captain and a special player.What do you make of England’s spin trio – Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir – in India?
They have done really well. It’s not easy. India is a very difficult place. I know the wickets have spun nicely, still they have carried their own. I thought Hartley did really well in the first game. No matter what wicket, on debut, under pressure, the way he has battled is really, really good.This is a very inexperienced bowling attack. It is not even experienced in domestic cricket. You have to give them a lot of credit. They have kept England in the games. They bowled well. Hartley bowled really well in the first game. Bashir bowled really well today [day two in Ranchi]. Rehan hasn’t taken wickets but he has learned a lot. I think he has changed the way he bowled in red-ball cricket. They have done an excellent job. People don’t realise how hard it is against such good players of spin.How hard is it to convert from a child prodigy like Rehan was to doing well in Test cricket in India?
It is very difficult. He is a talented young player in England that everyone is talking about. There is big hype around him. They are used to this in India. They have seen become unbelievable players. They have seen people fail completely and go off the rails. Rehan will get the backing from Stokesy. He has, already. We know it will take time. They are prepared to give them as much time [as they deserve]. As long as he is doing well, Rehan will naturally take over from Adil Rashid in the white-ball formats. There’s no doubt that Rehan will come good. There is a bit of pressure. He has a good head on his shoulders. He will be fine.Moeen Ali expects 19-year-old Rehan Ahmed to go on to become an England spearhead in the white-ball sides, taking over from Adil Rashid•Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesYou are available for the T20 World Cup that’s coming up in June. What are your plans going into the next few months?
Obviously home from here for a bit and then the IPL. After IPL, we have Pakistan [playing T20Is in England] and the World Cup [in the West Indies and USA]. I really want to defend this World Cup. We have a particularly brilliant team in T20s, provided everyone is fit.It is changing a bit now. Before you could prepare for a series or a World Cup properly. Now everyone is all over the place and you get together with the international side. I think we will do well. I think we have a very good chance.How do you regard this cricket calendar, with all the T20 leagues?
It is a great time for me. I am 36. There’s leagues everywhere. I think it is brilliant. When you have too long a break at this age, you have more chances of getting injured. I like to keep playing. As long as you are mentally fresh, two weeks of time off is enough.It is also tough. You retire from international cricket to spend more time at home, [but] you actually end up being away a lot of the time [when playing in leagues]. It is just as tough. The pressure of Test cricket is not there. Playing for a franchise has a different pressure. It is really good, but I can see that it can be a problem at the same time.You mentioned that you want to defend the T20 World Cup. Will you take lessons from the ODI World Cup last year, where England lost six out of nine games?
Definitely, it will be silly not to. I think we have learned a lot. I think we were expecting to do decently and see where it goes. The balance of the team was difficult. We changed a few things. I think we have a great chance in this T20 World Cup. It is too early to say if we are favourites, but we will be fine.Are you happy to have a floating role with bat and ball?
Whatever is good for the team. It is not just with England – in most places, a lot of the time I float. I don’t mind. When the left-handers are in, captains like to bowl me. Batting-wise, as long as I feel like I can adapt, I like to do whatever the team needs. I try to do the best I can.

” I want to look back in my career and think about what trophies I have won. It is not about my averages. It is about winning trophies and being part of a team that leaves a bit of a legacy”

Is it hard for younger players now to play a lot of red-ball cricket?
People might see a lot of players playing white-ball cricket all over the place, but it is not the same. You have to play a lot of red-ball cricket to know your batting and bowling. Your technique has to be different. It is easier to go from red ball to white than sometimes the other way around. Batsmanship has to be there. Knowing and understanding why you are not scoring runs.A lot of the players who go big in T20 cricket, when they are out of form, they are out of form for a long time because they don’t understand their own batting technique. Whereas a guy who has played a lot of red-ball cricket, their bad form in T20s is not massive because they know the techniques. They have played a lot of first-class or Test matches. I think that’s the only thing that’s going out of the game.As a young player coming through now, I would still want to play a lot of red-ball cricket to understand your own game. You just play, play, play. T20 leagues and the money will always be there.You said that Bazball is the way forward. Isn’t that sort of cricket what kids would like to play too?
Bazball is not just slogging. These guys are sweeping and reverse-sweeping more than they ever used to do. For example in India now they have sent bowlers back under pressure in tough situations. They have also soaked it up when they need to. It is about winning games at the end of the day. They won in Pakistan on three unbelievably flat wickets. They did it by scoring 400-500 runs in a day. They understood that they could move the game forward by scoring 500 in a day. It leaves enough time to bowl teams out. That would be what Bazball is, really. It is great for Test cricket.Is it trickling down to county cricket?
I think somebody who is going to bat 300 balls for a hundred nowadays is probably not going to play as much as someone who can score a hundred in 150 balls. I think that has changed in county cricket. Before Bazball, we won one game in 17 Tests. Since Bazball, we have won many games and we’ve got a great winning percentage away from home. I am a massive fan.”I think we have a great chance in this T20 World Cup. It is too early to say if we are favourites, but we will be fine”•Ashley Allen/Getty ImagesSouth-Asian-origin players like Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir are now in England’s XIs. Do you think diversity and inclusion are better in English cricket now?
Ever since I have played, it has always been good. I don’t know what it felt like before me. If you are good enough, you are going to play wherever you are from. Shoaib Bashir has hardly played any cricket. But they identified him as someone who can bowl well in India. Hartley is the same. They liked his style of bowling. They felt he can do it in India. Stokesy and these guys will go on gut feel.The ECB have been doing a great job in terms of diversity and inclusion over a period of time. Nobody ever gets it right straight away. It takes a bit of time. It is happening. I still believe that if you are good enough, you will play.You mentioned that you love the T20 leagues. Do you see yourself playing into your 40s?
I will play as long as I am playing well, as long as I feel like I can contribute to the team. I watch players like Imran Tahir. He is a massive inspiration at 44. Shoaib Malik has been playing for a long time. Not playing Tests and ODIs will prolong my career in terms of playing domestic cricket all over the world. I know there will be a time physically when I can’t play. I want to play till then.What’s it like to play under MS Dhoni in the IPL? You have been heavily involved in Chennai Super Kings’ title wins recently.
Everyone knows that Dhoni is a special player and a special captain. He is a very good guy. I have played three seasons but I don’t know what he is going to come up with. His strategic persona is really good. It is exciting as a player – what role he has for you. When you are playing for CSK with Dhoni as the captain, whether the team is weak or strong on paper, you always have a chance of winning.

“Before Bazball, we won one game in 17 Tests. Since Bazball, we have won many games and we’ve got a great winning percentage away from home. I am a massive fan”

From a personal point of view, I want to win as many trophies as I can. I want to look back in my career and think about what trophies I have won. It is not about my averages. It is about winning trophies and being part of a team that leaves a bit of a legacy. With Comilla, for example, we won the last two BPL trophies.Given cricket’s changing landscape, what would be your advice to any young cricketer starting off now in Asia, Africa or the UK?
I would tell a young kid to play as much red-ball cricket as you can. It will help your game. The reason why there haven’t been good legspinners in Tests after Shane Warne is because they haven’t played enough red-ball cricket. You have to play red-ball cricket to be a proper cricketer.It looks good from the outside, chasing all the money and playing the leagues, but for your own cricket, red-ball is the way forward. As a young cricketer, I would play overseas first-class cricket instead of T20s. Those leagues will be there [even later].The other thing I would like to say is: don’t chase after things that won’t be good for your game. Do what is right for your own game first, even if it is means staying home for a winter. Do the basics right. Get a good shape on the ball if you are a spinner. Spin the ball, become accurate. You can be an average spinner in T20s and get away with it. You have to bowl well to get wickets in red-ball cricket. I have very rarely seen people taking a lot of wickets bowling badly in red-ball cricket. Understand your game first before you want to do other stuff. That’d be my advice.

BBC broadcaster on his involvement in English cricket and the fight for its future

Matt Roller07-Feb-2024How do you solve a problem like the Hundred? It is the question that has dominated meetings between the ECB – and in particular, chief executive Richard Gould and chairman Richard Thompson – and the first-class counties this winter, which have centred on the ownership model, the number of teams and the prospect of private investment.If those discussions have been productive, then there remains an oversight: they have hardly – if at all – featured the people actually involved in running the competition. “I haven’t had a single conversation with the ECB’s hierarchy since this lot took over,” says Mark Chapman, best known as a respected broadcaster across English sport but also the chair of Manchester Originals’ board since the team’s inception nearly five years ago.”The eighteen first-class counties put Richard Gould and Richard Thompson in their jobs, so they’re going to talk to them: I get that. But I would have thought, at some point… I mean, you’re sat here now, talking to me now about how it’s gone and what the future is, so why would they not talk to those that are involved in the Hundred?”Chapman, who has worked extensively for the BBC and, more recently, Sky Sports, cut his teeth as a young broadcaster covering Durham in 1997. Working for BBC Radio Newcastle, he travelled home and away with a team captained by David Boon, and recalls fondly the celebrations as they broke a long winless streak at Darlington Cricket Club.But his principal association is with Lancashire and in 2019, when studying for a Masters degree in sporting directorship at Manchester Metropolitan University, he was put in touch with the county’s chief executive, Daniel Gidney. “He said they were helping the ECB put a board together for Manchester Originals and asked if I’d be interested,” Chapman recalls.The Originals were – and remain – the only Hundred team with a single county affiliated to them, a situation which led them to appoint an independent board to mitigate fears that conflicts of interest could arise; Gidney is unusual among chief executives in that he has no official involvement in the Hundred team affiliated to his county.Old Trafford under the floodlights during the 2023 Hundred•Getty ImagesChapman chairs a board which comprises James Sheridan (Knights plc, and a non-executive board member at Lancashire), Fiona Morgan (SailGP) and Amy Townsend (Freddie’s Flowers), while Sanjeev Katwa, Tottenham Hotspur’s head of technology, is an advisor. “The diversity of thought around that table is massive,” he says.In 2021, the Hundred’s inaugural season, “we didn’t really know what we were doing,” Chapman admits. “We were still operating in the Covid landscape and it was a case of thinking, ‘Right, let’s just try and get this thing on the road. We only really got a grasp on the whole thing once that first year was done.”Since then, he believes that the Originals have developed “much more of a Manchester feel” and gives much of the credit to their mid-20s marketing manager, Josh Dooler. “The work he has done within Manchester’s communities on behalf of the Originals over the last two years has been absolutely phenomenal,” Chapman says. “I think this is relevant when people slam the competition and say this, that and the other.”Last year, we sold 60,000 tickets [for four home matchdays] which is 10,000 more than the year before. 30% of our ticket-buyers are female, 22% went to Under-16s, and 48% of people who bought tickets for our games in 2023 had never been to a cricket match before. And we reached 5,000 people via community engagements in non-traditional cricket areas.”They are impressive numbers, but do they vindicate the Hundred’s start-up costs and its effect on the rest of the English summer? “The honest answer is I don’t think we’ll know for 10, even 15 years,” Chapman says. “If Lancashire’s average crowd for the Blast drops by 500, but we sell 60,000 Hundred tickets and 300 more girls take up in South Manchester as a result, does that balance it out?”I genuinely have no idea – and it’s very difficult to measure. But I didn’t come up with the Hundred. Obviously, I didn’t have to work in it either, but I genuinely love cricket and I genuinely want cricket to be a successful sport, enjoyed by as many people as people, because it’s given me and my family such enjoyment over the years.”I can see why people are in different camps with the Hundred. I’m 50 years old: I’m a traditionalist when it comes to cricket, but I work in a lot of different sports. I cover the NFL; I go and watch netball with one of my daughters. I adore Lancashire and the County Championship, but I can also see why some things have moved on or developed.”Related

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Chapman believes that the Originals have found a balance between an inclusive atmosphere – “last year, 30% of our ground was alcohol-free zones” – and Emirates Old Trafford’s raucous party stand. “In British sport in general, you have to try to find a balance between family-friendly fun and pissed blokes dressed as bananas on a stag do,” he says.He also believes that the Originals have been front-runners among Hundred teams in pioneering a ‘two teams, one club’ approach: “We’ve been big on integrating the men’s and women’s side of it.” He cites as an example their decision to convert the away dressing-room at Old Trafford into the women’s home one, leaving away teams to change in the indoor school.But Chapman fears that the progress that has been made towards cricket becoming an equal-gender sport is being overlooked during discussions about the Hundred’s future – hence his frustration at the fact that he has not been consulted by the ECB’s leadership. “All of these discussions that I’m reading about only seem to be looking at men’s cricket,” he says.One early proposal – which was never likely to succeed – involved the Hundred becoming a 39-team pyramid including the national (formerly minor) counties. “I mean, my God!” Chapman says. “You arguably can’t have a 39-team pyramid in the men’s game, but you definitely can’t have it in the women’s game at the moment because the depth just isn’t there.”There have to be safeguards to guarantee the continued progression of the women’s game. Everybody involved in the Hundred has worked really hard to get to a certain point, but we’re miles off where we need to be, and that’s because of the historical treatment of women’s team sport in this country. It’s going to take a long time, but there is work being done – which shouldn’t be undone.”He believes that handing equity stakes to host counties could work – “Daniel Gidney has been absolutely phenomenal, not in supporting us, but accommodating what we want to do with the Originals” – and is open to the principle of private investment, which might better enable the women’s Hundred to attract “the top Aussies” with higher salaries, though he has some broader concerns.”I’ll give you an example: in 2022, we lost a bowler in our men’s team to injury and looked at a couple of bowlers – John Turner at Hampshire, and Danny Lamb at Lancashire – as replacements. We had a final group game and then the eliminator, and we were looking to bring someone in, but they’d have missed the semi-finals of the One-Day Cup.”We had a long think about it and said, ‘do you know what? Go and play your 50-over semi-finals’. That was why we had a squad of 15 in the first place, and Tom Lammonby came into the side and did well. Sometimes when the Hundred gets hammered I think, ‘we are trying to be fair’. And the worry is that if private investment comes in, that could easily blow county cricket apart.”Chapman comfortably fills an hour discussing the Hundred and its future, and it is immediately clear to see that he is desperate for it to be a success. But the irony is that when it comes to dealing with the ECB, a ubiquitous broadcaster is struggling to get his voice heard.

Capitals plundered 53 runs off their last two overs, but Titans nearly pulled off a miracle of their own thanks to Rashid Khan

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Apr-20242:17

Aaron: Pant’s World Cup spot is pretty sealed now

Sai Kishore into the attack to bowl the 19th. A right-hander’s presence helps Gill introduce Sai. From around to Stubbs.18.1Sai Kishore to Stubbs, 1 run
Full and wide of off, and he leans into pushing this to deep pointStays around to Pant18.2Sai Kishore to Pant, 1 run
Pant falls over, but manages to swipe this low full toss on middle and leg to fine leg18.3Sai Kishore to Stubbs, FOUR runs
Drilled between long-off and deep point! Seemed like Sai went for a variation, and bowled full and wide of off. Neither fielder moved, as Stubbs thrashed that back18.4Sai Kishore to Stubbs, SIX runs
Just clears deep square leg! Sai angled this in, and bowled another full toss. This one dipped on middle, but Stubbs had his front leg out of the way in swiping at that18.5Sai Kishore to Stubbs, FOUR runs
Finds the gap again between long-off and deep point! He swats at this short-of-a-length ball around sixth stump, and rams that wide of long-off18.6Sai Kishore to Stubbs, SIX runs
Smashed over long-on! GT were hiding Sai all this while, waiting for a right-hander to arrive, but Stubbs shows what he can do to spin. Again clears his front leg, and clubs this length ball angling into the stumps for a huge hit.Related

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19.1Mohit to Pant, 2 runs
Well fielded by Sai, who moves and dives to his left from deep point! He keeps it to two, as Pant looked to loft this slower ball, which was on a full length, and wide-ish of off. No pace to work with for Pant, though19.2
1w
Mohit to Pant, 1 wide
Bowls full, and really wide of off. Pant looked to get across pretty late, and it is called wide19.2Mohit to Pant, SIX runs
Goes through Shahrukh’s hands! Some luck for Pant and DC. Shahrukh had his hands above his head and jumped a little at long-on, but the ball still breached them. Pant got another low full toss on the stumps, and he swung liberally for another six, even as it came off the lower half of the bat19.3Mohit to Pant, FOUR runs
He loses his balance, but it is four! He is Pant, after all. Reaches out for this yorker-length ball which is angling across to finish wide of off. He opens the face of the bat, though, and manages to crash it to deep backward point even as he falls on his knee19.4Mohit to Pant, SIX runs
Almost a no-look six! He swivels to pull, and the ball is over fine leg even before he has swivelled entirely. Mohit followed a yorker with a bouncer arriving on middle, and Pant hooked powerfully19.5Mohit to Pant, SIX runs
Another full toss… and another huge six! This goes a long way up into the sky before landing beyond the long-on boundary. Mohit went back to going for the yorker, but Pant is standing outside of his crease. Pant swings incredibly well for another six19.6Mohit to Pant, SIX runs
Finishes off in style! Creamed over deep square leg! The last over gives DC 31 runs. Mohit went on the shorter side of a length around off, and Pant swivelled again to slam that just past the boundaryRishabh Pant hammered four sixes in the last over•AFP/Getty Images18.1Rasikh Salam to Rashid Khan, 1 wide
Fullish length, and pretty wide of off. Left alone, and wide called18.1Rasikh Salam to Rashid Khan, FOUR runs
Swung away between the keeper and short fine! It was a low, dipping full toss which finished on his pads, and Rashid almost took his eyes off in swinging at that18.2Rasikh Salam to Rashid Khan, 1 run
Wow, what a save by Stubbs! He has saved five crucial runs at an important stage. At long-off, he leaped across to his right, and caught the ball. While realising that he was falling back, he threw the ball back. The third umpire checks replays, and sees that his right leg is well clear of the rope. Salam had bowled from back of the hand, and on a length outside off, as Rashid lofted down the groundFrom around to Sai18.3Rasikh Salam to Sai Kishore, no run
Fullish ball angled in outside off, and a slower ball. Sai went swinging, but missed18.4Rasikh Salam to Sai Kishore, SIX runs
Bashed over deep midwicket! Sai got a back-of-the-hand slower ball on a length just outside off, and Sai saw it early to swipe across the line. The ball went soaring, and landed beyond the boundary18.5Rasikh Salam to Sai Kishore, SIX runs
Six again, superb! This is clubbed hard and flat, and down the ground. Sai spots another slower ball arriving from the back of the hand. The length is fuller, but the line outside off again, as Sai pumps it back for six more18.6Rasikh Salam to Sai Kishore, OUT
Bowled him! Salam hits back with an inswinging yorker, which Sai isn’t able to keep out. But Sai has done a terrific job, and invariably ensured that Rashid has the strike for GT in the final over. The length of the ball was too full for Sai to try and clip across the line, and he missed. Salam is thrilledTristan Stubbs saved a six with an incredible effort•BCCIGT need 19, and it is down to Rashid19.1Mukesh Kumar to Rashid Khan, FOUR runs
Helicoptered wide of long-on! He is deep in the crease, and whips it in Dhoni style, with the ball being in the slot on middle and off. Clearing his front leg helped too19.2Mukesh Kumar to Rashid Khan, FOUR runs
Slashed to deep point! A one-bounce four this time, as Mukesh goes on a length, and wide of off. Rashid waits for it, and rams the slower ball away from his body in the gap11 off 419.3Mukesh Kumar to Rashid Khan, no run
Ohh, he has missed out on a full toss! And amid some mockery, it is a dot ball, and GT don’t lose a wicket! The ball is a slightly high-ish full toss outside off, and Rashid reviews with some hope. But it is not an above-waist full toss, as he swings and is beaten. There is a mix-up for a run or two after Pant misses too, but in the end, Rashid retains strike after sending Mohit back19.4Mukesh Kumar to Rashid Khan, no run
Another dot ball! Now Rashid will feel the pressure. It is a low, dipping full toss just outside off. He swipes across the line, but on the bounce to deep midwicket. They don’t run19.5Mukesh Kumar to Rashid Khan, SIX runs
Clobbered over long-off! Rashid takes it to the last ball of the match. Another full toss from Mukesh, and this is dipping on a fourth-stump line. Rashid squats, and sends it flying over the ropes5 off 1…19.6Mukesh Kumar to Rashid Khan, no run
And GT don’t even run the single! Rashid swiped this on the bounce to long-on, where Stubbs jumped and got hold of the ball. It was yet another full toss from Mukesh, but the fact that it was quite low somehow worked in DC’s favour

The CSK allrounder has aced many challenges in his career and he’s up against another one at this IPL

Alagappan Muthu27-Apr-20244:16

Should Moeen bat above Jadeja for CSK?

Ravindra Jadeja is having a weird season.A new recruit has bowled more than he has – which considering he plays for Chennai Super Kings – is saying something. He hasn’t been needed to complete his full quota of overs in three out of eight games – two of those at Chepauk.On the flip side, after being with CSK since 2012, last week was the first time he managed to face more than 35 balls in an innings. This is a bit of an inversion of the player he used to be. Back in the old days, people used to say Jadeja was a fielder first, bowler next and batter last.Related

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And it is so tempting to think his bowling informs his batting. Jadeja with the ball is forever urgent. He never gives the batter any time to settle and he beats them because of it. Is that why whenever he goes in to bat, he always gives himself a few deliveries to get the lay of the land first? Nearly 90% of his innings for CSK have been at No. 5 or lower and yet he tends to start slow. This season, for example, his strike rate in the first 10 balls is 120.75. Even his greatest performance for the franchise, in last year’s epic final, started with a couple of entirely non-violent drives down the ground for singles.”One of his strengths,” CSK batting coach Michael Hussey said of Jadeja on Saturday, “is being able to work the balls into the gaps, use his pace running between the wickets and picking the right times and the right bowlers to attack.”Jadeja isn’t, by any definition, a power-hitter. He is a pace-hitter. That is really why he gets pushed down the order. There’s a significantly higher chance of facing fast bowling when you walk in towards the end of the innings. In 2021, he maximised this strength to such an extent that he was not that far behind AB de Villiers’ strike rate (229 vs 195) in the death overs.It is a bit ironic that at the exact time he has won a place in CSK folklore – even gaining a title that the fans only bestow upon their favourites – Jadeja is facing a crisis on not one but two fronts. First, the pitches in Chennai aren’t offering their usual help to the spinners. He has come away wicketless in three of the four innings he’s bowled at Chepauk. And second, his touch is a little off. Last season, Jadeja faced only 21 dots in the first 10 balls of his innings. This season, even though its only halfway through, that count is already up at 16.Jadeja may have a new puzzle to solve this season•AFP/Getty Images”He’s playing, sometimes now, a slightly different role,” Hussey said, “because in the last few years he’s come in very late, batting with MS [Dhoni] towards the back end. And this year we’ve asked him a few times to come in at the No. 4 position. It’s a very different role and sometimes according to the situation, you need to just be free and go quite quickly. But other times you’ve lost a couple of wickets in the powerplay, you need to take a little bit of time to build the next partnership.”I think he’s doing a pretty good job actually, of reading the situation and playing accordingly. I know we’re seeing some games where teams are just teeing off, but if the conditions, or the match situation doesn’t dictate that, then you’ve got to play a different way. I think he’s doing a really good job and he’s adapting to the different situations of the game.”Jadeja isn’t exactly bombing in either discipline – he has a three-for, with an overall economy rate of 7.85, and a 35-ball fifty against one of the top four teams. And his spirits are pretty high. In the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, he helped wind the crowd up by putting on his gear and pretending to walk out to bat only to turn right around and take his seat so that MS Dhoni could take centre stage. It’s just that it almost feels like he’s having to learn the whole game again. What can he do when Chepauk doesn’t grip and turn? How will he deal with promotions up the order, which will expose him to situations where he won’t have pace on the ball to exploit?Jadeja has gone through his entire career with questions like those flung at him and more often than not he comes up with an answer that doesn’t just shut people up, it wins them over. “Need new haters,” he tweeted once. “The old ones are starting to like me.”

Our correspondent hands out his awards for the tournament – to Gulbadin Naib, the ICC’s fixtures planners, and others

Alan Gardner03-Jul-2024After a glorious month of scrappy batting and occasional upsets on the sticky wickets of cricket’s wild western frontiers, the T20 World Cup finished in the most beautiful way possible – with a win for the sponsors, TV broadcasters and marketing guys (and 1.4bn Indians, of course). Truly, the romance of it all was something to behold.Anyway, now the applause has died down and the winners have stopped posing for pictures with Jay Shah, it’s time to come together for the serious business of handing out the Light Roller’s awards.Best laid plans
Pakistan went into the World Cup having prepared meticulously. They had played more T20Is in 2024 than any of the other teams involved. They had coaxed Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim out of retirement – adding to their formidable knowledge bank of conditions from their time at the CPL. Sure, they had a new coach taking charge a few days from the start of the tournament, but this is Pakistan, right? Things should be a little crazy.Then they dropped their bundle against USA and not even could save them. Never mind all that CPL knowhow, they never even made it to the Caribbean.Pluckiest underdogs
Puff out your chest, put on your angriest face and scream into the sky: “USA! USA! USA!” In another magical moment for the sponsors, TV broadcasters and marketing guys, the inspired collection of cricketing waifs and strays bona fide stars-and-stripes heroes who represent the world’s biggest economy snuck through to the Super Eight thanks to memorable wins over Canada and Pakistan, with a little helping hand from the Florida weather. The ICC’s American dream – i.e. cash, and big piles of it – remains alive and well.Related

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Rohit and five other Indians headline ESPNcricinfo's team of the T20 World Cup

Luckiest overdogs
Talking of feel-good stories… India broke their 13-year drought at World Cups, after which Rohit Sharma planted a weirdly undersized flagpole on the Kensington Oval outfield. All it took, after several near-misses, was the right combination of coach, captain and mindset. Okay, and a schedule where all their games started at the same time didn’t hurt. Yep, and playing their first three fixtures at the same venue (having had a warm-up match there, too). And sure, knowing where their semi-final would be several months in advance. That might have been a teensy bit useful.But still, Goliath smashed each and every David put in his path, no question about it. What’s that? No, we don’t have any more angles on the SKY catch, sorry.Best element
No sport loves its conditions more than cricket – be that the effect of rain, cloud cover or sun (which it’s possible to have too much of). But you didn’t need to tune in for long to observe which meteorological phenomenon was the star of the show in the Caribbean. What direction were the crosswinds coming from? How strong was the gale? Could either team use it to their advantage? England seemingly hired Kieron Pollard explicitly to tell them which way the wind was blowing – not that it helped them as they dropped their title for the second World Cup running.Growing-the-game-(sort-of) award
Jomboy was on commentary. Drake was posting about his bets (on India, obviously). Chuck from Boynton Beach was getting involved. The West Indies as a whole felt reinvigorated by the efforts of Rovman Powell’s charismatic team, though they only went as far in the tournament as Team USA. Which doesn’t make up for the fact that attendances were seemingly affected by the ICC’s own price-gouging (particularly in New York), and the early start times to cater for TV audiences in the subcontinent. As they don’t quite say on Mandalore: “This is the cricket way.”Gulbadin Naib: the hamstring pop heard around the world•ICC/Getty ImagesStar allrounder
Hardik Pandya was good, Andre Russell had his moments. But really, who could top the efforts of USA No. 11 Saurabh Netravalkar, the Super Over superstar of the win over Pakistan? Sure, he batted twice in the tournament and made zero runs. But this guy not only does a tidy job with his left-arm swing opening the bowling, he’s a qualified computer engineer who can play the ukulele and also belt out a tune. Could do with working on his catching, though.Best theatrical performance
Afghanistan’s final Super Eight encounter with Bangladesh contained more tension and drama than an episode of . Rashid Khan chewing out team-mate Karim Janat for declining a second run was pure Hollywood star-vehicle material, while the regular rain interruptions kept the plot twisting and turning until the end. But the Oscar, of course, has to go to Gulbadin Naib, whose sudden attack of cramp just before the rain started to fall harked back to Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the golden age of silent movies. Was he following team orders? Was there a shooter on the grassy knoll? Perhaps we’ll never know.Life-comes-at-you-fast award
One week you’re openly musing about the possibility of helping to engineer your oldest rival’s exit from the tournament by rigging the net run rate in your group – and shame on you, desperate scoundrels of the media, for faithfully transcribing the words as they came out of Josh Hazlewood’s mouth – the next you’re pinning your hopes on Bangladesh doing you an NRR favour in the final game of the Super Eight. Advance Australia fair? Not this time.Undisputed champions in their field
Did you see it coming? Perhaps you imagined that a run of eight wins in a row, several of them by close margins, had put an end to the curse. Perhaps facing the might of India in the final would free them up, giving a free pass to have a crack and damn the consequences. Perhaps you thought they were safe, thanks to the Heinrich Manoeuvre… But never mind the c-word, character is destiny and South Africa know things that we don’t. Like how to stuff a requirement of 30 from 30 balls with six wickets in hand.