How Rajat Patidar earned his selection to India's Test squad

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The Madhya Pradesh batter has a reputation for scoring tough runs, and is fresh off a century against England Lions

Shashank Kishore24-Jan-2024Since 2000, only six Indians have made their Test debut after turning 30. Rajat Patidar could be the seventh, and only the second specialist batter after Suryakumar Yadav, if he earns his Test cap during the series against England beginning in Hyderabad on Thursday.Called up late as a replacement for Virat Kohli in the squad, Patidar has grown up batting at Nos. 3 and 4 for Madhya Pradesh for much of his first-class career. His numbers in red-ball cricket are impressive: 4000 runs in 93 innings at an average of 45.97, with 12 centuries and 22 half-centuries. Over nine years of domestic cricket, he has gained a reputation of being a batter for tough surfaces.Patidar’s composure has impressed Chandrakant Pandit, the Madhya Pradesh coach. Pandit’s old-school coaching methods have often divided opinion, even though he’s produced results, but for someone as hard-nosed as Pandit to say he simply let Patidar be speaks volumes about the player’s maturity.”Before every game, I have a whiteboard where I list out strengths and weaknesses of every batter and what I feel they need to work at the nets,” Pandit had once said. “While going through this at our meeting, one of the players innocently remarked, ‘Sir you’ve missed out Rajat’s name’. I told him, ‘ (let it be, he will manage. I’m not worried about him)’.”Related

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Patidar was sidelined for much of 2023 because of an Achilles injury that required surgery in London and wondered if he’d missed his big chance. Now, his career graph has surged to an unprecedented high, having made his ODI debut in South Africa in December.Last week, Patidar made 151 off 158 balls in India A’s innings of 227 in the first unofficial Test against England Lions in Ahmedabad. Before that, he smashed 111 in a two-day fixture against the same opponents. This wasn’t him trying his hand at Bazball.It is just who Patidar is. For him, batting is all about the “feel”.”I don’t judge myself on performance,” he had told ESPNcricinfo after helping Madhya Pradesh win their maiden Ranji Trophy title in June 2022. “I need to get that batting feel – the shots are good, the balance is there, the head is in the right position – till I don’t get that feel I don’t feel I’m in good form. Obviously it’s every batter’s job to score runs, but for me, if I feel good about my batting the runs come automatically.”Rajat Patidar made his ODI debut against South Africa in December•Gallo ImagesAnother strength of Patidar is his ability to deal with setbacks. Four days after finding no takers at the IPL 2022 auction, he began the 2021-22 Ranji season with twin fifties on a rank turner against Gujarat to help Madhya Pradesh win despite conceding a first-innings lead. The crunched nature of the group stages – thanks to the effects of Covid-19 – meant each team had just three matches and every one was crucial. Patidar scored 335 runs in four innings at an average of 83.75.Patidar was in the middle of planning his wedding in May when he got a call from Mike Hesson to join Royal Challengers Bangalore as an injury replacement. Within 24 hours of the call, he had postponed his wedding and was on the plane to IPL 2022, where he became the first uncapped Indian to hit a century in a playoff game.That knock at Eden Gardens against Lucknow Super Giants was followed by a half-century in Qualifier 2 against Rajasthan Royals. He finished that IPL season with 333 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 152.50. A week after that breakthrough IPL century, Patidar was playing for Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy knockouts, hitting 323 runs at 80.75, including a match-winning hundred in the final against Mumbai.He had scored nearly 1000 runs across formats over three months and passed 50 in every knockout game he played. It was around then that his reputation of being a big-match player gathered momentum.”He’s a class player, a superb touch player,” Amol Muzumdar, who was Mumbai’s coach in that final, had said. “His bat flow was really good. I enjoyed… I mean didn’t ‘enjoy’ enjoy it, but loved the way he approaches batting. It’s clean. He’s a good player and I’d like to congratulate him for getting a Ranji Trophy final hundred. Not many achieve that.”Patidar made his India A debut later that year, against New Zealand A at home, and hit two hundreds in three red-ball games. Those performances have been the springboard to where he is today.Rajat Patidar is the only uncapped Indian to score a hundred in an IPL playoff game•BCCIIt’s a landmark moment in the life of someone who had wanted to be a fast bowler, but a lack of opportunities – he didn’t play age-group cricket for Madhya Pradesh until 18 – meant he had to try and do something different. He switched to offspin, “basically to do anything to find a place in junior cricket.” But when an anterior cruciate ligament injury forced him to rethink his choice of discipline, he turned to batting after working with Amay Khurasiya, the former India batter and MP captain.Patidar marked his first-class debut with a hundred against Baroda. He followed that with another century on a rank-turner in Gwalior, where offspinner Jalaj Saxena took the second-best figures in Ranji Trophy history to win Madhya Pradesh the game inside three days.Patidar made 113 off just 131 balls in that game, a knock he rates as among his best. “It was turning square, so you could either survive or look to score quickly,” he had said. “I thought while I’m in it, I should take the game forward and score runs. It’s not like I didn’t trust my defence, but the situation demanded that I look to be positive. Everything clicked.”With Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and a wicketkeeper likely to form India’s middle order in the first Test against England in Hyderabad, Patidar might have to wait for his opportunity. But should the need arise, India can call on a seasoned 30-year old who’s played high-pressure innings in tough spin-friendly conditions.

The many ambitions of Saima Thakor

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

The UP Warriorz fast bowler has had a long journey from football, through hardship and tough choices, to a WPL debut, but she’s only ever looking forward

Firdose Moonda14-Mar-20243:44

Saima Thakor: ‘I have been preparing myself for these moments for a long time. It didn’t come overnight’

Saima Thakor’s first sporting ambition was to be the goalkeeper of her college football team in Mumbai.”But we already had a goalkeeper, so my coach said, ‘If you want to play in the XI, you have to be a forward,'” she remembered. “And I said, ‘Okay. I’ll do that.’ I always loved running and I was quick.”She turned out to be quite good in the aggressive role before she was lured into the cricket side, which was short of players. “They had to pick from other sports, so they came to football and went to handball and I was one of the players they picked.”Once she was firmly planted in the new sport, she discovered her second sporting ambition: to be a wicketkeeper.”But at that time I had a little financial crisis with my family and somebody told me you should become a bowler, because you just need one pair of shoes for that,” she said. “For a wicketkeeper you need all the kit, for a batter you need all the kit – it’s an expensive game – but for a bowler, you just need a pair of spikes. That’s it.”And so Thakor settled for third-choice, with some knowledge of bowling technique from her childhood, a competitive spirit she says is “inbuilt”, and a willingness to learn.”I used to play cricket with my cousins and my brothers. I had very good endurance and good stamina but it was the judgement of the ball I had to learn,” she said. “We played with a tennis ball but now it was a leather ball. Those are things I needed to change.”I used to play gully cricket. I used to be with [the boys] always. I would not be with my sister, I used to be with my brothers and with my cousins.”While playing cricket in the streets was an acceptable pastime when she was growing up, as Thakor grew older, that changed. She was confronted with realities like the need to earn an income in a family that could use an extra paycheck.

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“My father is a driver,” she said. “He has worked really hard for all of us. Whoever I am right now, I am because of my parents. They’ve done everything they could. My sister also works very hard, she has a job. She keeps working day and night for us.”When I told them I am going to play cricket seriously, my father suggested that I should take up a job. He said, ‘Just help me out. It will be very handy if you have a monthly salary.’ At that time, we didn’t have much match fees and the sport was just coming up.”Thakor was knocking on the door of the Mumbai team around then, and though she understood her responsibilities at home, she wanted to see if it would open.”I requested my father, ‘Please I want to play this sport, just give me a year,'” she said. “He said, ‘You can take your time but don’t expect anything from me: no financial support, nothing. I said, ‘Okay I will live with that.’ I just wanted some time. I borrowed some money from my college friend to manage it somehow. It’s a long story.”And it took an unexpected twist. Two months after Thakor made the decision to pursue a sporting career, when she was in and out of the Mumbai side, she suffered her first major injury: a stress fracture in her back, which sidelined her for several months.She returned to play an Under-23 tournament in late 2019, and just as she was finding her rhythm again, dislocated her left shoulder in the quarter-final.”It was an unfortunate injury. I was in very good form and picking up a lot of wickets. But I had to take three to four months off because of the dislocation,” she said. “So I played cricket for two months and I had almost ten months off with two injuries. I was very frustrated because I was doing so well. There were so many tournaments going on. There was the Emerging Asia Cup and the Challengers Cup and I couldn’t [play in them].”

“Somebody told me you should become a bowler, because you just need one pair of shoes for that. For a wicketkeeper you need all the kit, for a batter you need all the kit – it’s an expensive game – but for a bowler, you just need a pair of spikes”

Though a typical shoulder dislocation does not require surgery – and Thakor’s didn’t – it still left its scars. On social media, she described her rehabilitation process as “dying 1000 times inside”. She still speaks about the mental effects of the injury.”It was suggested that I should go for surgery but then the doctors said, let’s wait for six weeks and see how the shoulder heals, but there were still risks. I could dislocate my shoulder again. I was afraid to dive for almost a year after that,” she said.Eventually she learnt to trust the joint again by changing her perspective. “My physio said to me, ‘You should just go for it. If you start having that fear, you are definitely going to dislocate it again. So face your fear.'”I was physically strong but mentally I was not there. I had a very good physio and they focused more on that part. They said, if you are ready with your mind, your body will be ready sooner.”These days Thakor puts her body on the line without a second thought, assesses herself as “even fielding well”, and is at her bowling peak. She has made a name for herself as someone who can nip and swing the ball around.”The person I look up to is Jimmy Anderson,” she said. “I love his bowling, I love his action and I love his consistency and the way he has so much patience in reading the batter as well.”The results are starting to show. In last year’s Senior Women’s T20 Trophy, she took 11 wickets at 13.00 and an economy rate of 4.93. A month later, at the WPL auction, she was picked up for her base price of Rs 10 lakh (approximately US$12,000) by UP Warriorz in what she called a life-changing payday.”My parents are very happy. My sister is very happy and she is very proud of me. She said, ‘When no one believed in you, you did it yourself,'” Thakor said. “I really appreciate that because in middle-class families in India, you don’t speak up openly about all this,” she said. “When WPL and UP Warriorz picked me and this came into my life, it changed everything, for my family and for myself. It was really great.”Thakor knocked Harmanpreet Kaur’s off stump over for her maiden WPL wicket•BCCIIn return she’s done her bit to make a mark on the tournament. Her first WPL wicket was the dangerous Harmanpreet Kaur, a batter most bowlers find tough to get on top of. Then she went on to have a fiery exchange with Shafali Verma and dismiss her for good measure, and take the wicket of her Mumbai team-mate Jemimah Rodrigues in Warriorz’s win over Delhi Capitals, which kept them alive in the competition.None of these things happened by chance. “I have been preparing myself for these moments for a long time. It didn’t come overnight. I have been looking at [the batters’] batting, whenever they bat for India, they bat in WPL or when they bat in domestic teams. I have been really working on reading the batter and what they are going to do and keeping one step ahead of them. I am focusing on what I can do mentally and it got me a very positive result.”Mind over matter is something of a mantra for Thakor, who used it to help her through injury, and now hopes it will also lead to international recognition. At 27 she is approaching the peak of her powers and believes she has done enough to catch the eye of the Indian selectors, whose next task will be to pick a squad for the T20 World Cup.”When you start playing, you think that one day I will hear that national anthem standing with my team-mates. That is my dream,” she said. “I think I am closer than I think I am and I have already visualised it. I am a great believer in visualisation. I like visualising things that are good for me.”It’s not about overconfidence. It is about knowing what I can do. So yes, an international debut would be great.”And that is Saima Thakor’s fourth sporting ambition.

Switch Hit: Big-league Bash

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Alan Gardner is joined by Andrew Miller and Vish Ehantharajah to look back on England’s series-sealing win in Nottingham

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Jul-2024England wrapped up a series victory over West Indies by taking 10 wickets inside a session on the fourth day at Trent Bridge. Shoaib Bashir led the way with his first five-wicket haul at home, while there were solid contributions from all quarters. In this week’s podcast, Alan Gardner heard from Andrew Miller and Vithushan Ehantharajah about the strange contrast in Bashir’s record for England and at county level, an encouraging return to form for Ollie Pope and whether we are seeing the first signs of a more refined approach to Bazball.

T Natarajan: 'If you do well as a bowler this IPL season, you will have the confidence you can succeed anywhere'

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

The Sunrisers Hyderabad fast bowler talks about how he has found success on flat pitches, his new variations, and what it’s like to be captained by Pat Cummins

Interview by Deivarayan Muthu04-May-2024From being a yorker specialist, T Natarajan has evolved into a more versatile bowler who now has the on-pace and slower bouncers in his repertoire. In an IPL season where bat has dominated ball like never before, Natarajan has been so impressive with his defensive skills that he even bowled a triple-wicket maiden. The left-arm seamer was “unlucky” to miss out of India’s squad for the T20 World Cup, according to former Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody, but he continues to front up to bowl the difficult overs for his franchise. Natarajan spoke to us about the challenges of being a bowler this IPL, Pat Cummins’ leadership, and bowling to MS Dhoni at Chepauk, among other things.When you, Heinrich Klaasen and Co visited a mall in Hyderabad, a lot of people were chanting your name and Klaasen’s. Are you enjoying the reception you’re getting in Hyderabad this season?
I was very excited. I don’t think we’ve had this much attention during all these years in Hyderabad. There was a lot of crowd and we got mobbed ( [poor] bowlers? (, too, has given me a lot of confidence to bowl the slower one. I’ve had a chance to work with Bhuvi for seven years. He has always advised me to not take too much pressure and keeps telling me I have all the skills as a bowler. Even after the end of a match, I sit down with him and try to rectify the mistakes I have made in the match. All of this has helped me execute my variations.You also did well for Tamil Nadu in the Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare tournaments. How did that help you prepare for the IPL?
Yes, the white-ball tournaments went well for me, but the focus has been more on fitness than my bowling in the lead-up to the IPL. I missed the Ranji Trophy because of some pain in my knee. I played the practice game before Tamil Nadu’s first Ranji match [in early January], but I couldn’t play and went back to rehab.”Pat Cummins gives me a lot of freedom, and in terms of communication with the entire bowling attack, he is very strong. He has told me: ‘Don’t worry, whatever happens, I’m there for you'”•Associated PressHow did you deal with being on the sidelines once again?
I’ve worked with Shyam Sundar [the current SRH physio] for ten years and he knows my body well. I also trained regularly at the TNCA and used their gym facilities to be in good shape. My recovery was: gymming one session, training at Chepauk one session, and bowling one session. Also, whenever I need something with my bowling or fitness, I seek inputs from Sreenath Aravind, the former Karnataka left-arm seamer who is now the bowling coach of Baroda. He’s my bowling coach. Even during the IPL, I’m in regular touch with him about my bowling.I have to be patient with the rehab, though. I’ve had three surgeries, so I started from scratch, and it has been going well so far in the IPL. Touch wood!You often discuss fields with Cummins during games. How has his captaincy empowered the team and especially the bowling attack?
He gives me a lot of freedom, and in terms of communication with the entire bowling attack, he is very strong. I feel he understands my mindset as a bowler, so it’s a big plus that he is my captain. To start with, I will go with my plans and strengths. If I get confused, I have a chat with him and get more clarity. He has told me: “Don’t worry, whatever happens, I’m there for you.” I’m a quiet person, sometimes I don’t even speak much with Indian players. But I’ve become very attached to Pat Cummins. Obviously, [I’m] delighted to play under a captain who has won world titles.What’s it like to bowl to someone like Klaasen in the nets?
I’ve bowled to him a few times in practice matches – both in 2024 and 2023. Nets is a closed space, but yes, any bowler, including myself, fears bowling to someone like Klaasen. He’s hitting the ball long and far. Too long and too far! It’s a learning process for me too. I can understand his strengths and use that information when I come up against him as an opponent.”After three years, there was chatter around my potential [India] selection. Not being selected for the T20 World Cup hasn’t disturbed me. I always believe that whatever is meant to happen will happen”•BCCIYou came up against CSK for the first time in the IPL at Chepauk this season. How did you keep calm while bowling to MS Dhoni when the crowd was screaming and dancing to the Rajinikanth song ?
Only now that you’re telling me do I realise that they played that song (). I had to focus on my job and my execution against him. There was also a lot of dew, but I’ve played a lot of cricket at Chepauk, so I had the belief that I can even execute with the wet ball. I haven’t bowled to him in the IPL at Chepauk, but on other grounds I’ve bowled a set of four-five decent balls to him. My mindset was that I shouldn’t make any errors.Sameer Rizvi didn’t play the game against SRH at Chepauk. But do you recall coming up against him while playing Uttar Pradesh in a thriller in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last October?
Yes, I remember it was a very close game. Tamil Nadu had scored only 140 [146] and I bowled a tight 19th over, taking the wicket of Dhruv Jurel. It was a good pitch and once the sun was out, the ball came onto the bat in Dehradun. It also had something for the bowlers. I hope we can play all games on that pitch (laughs). To start the domestic season like that was a confidence-booster. It gave me self-confidence for the rest of the season. Rizvi scored 75, but despite him being not out, it was a satisfying feeling for us to win the game.When you burst onto the scene in Tamil Nadu, you used to swing the ball in sharply. Did the swing disappear somewhere along the way?
I believe I can still get inswing. Even during the Vijay Hazare Trophy, I got wickets with the inswinger. These days, however, the new ball swings for just one or two overs in T20 cricket, and when I come to bowl in the last over of the powerplay in T20 cricket, there is no swing.Actually, there is no swing for any bowler in this IPL. The wickets have been like that. I think we’ve played about nine games, but the ball hasn’t swung much. Not just for SRH but for most of the teams. But yes, even during practice, I try to swing the new ball and it has been coming out nicely.”Bhuvi bhai [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] keeps telling me I have all the skills as a bowler. Even after the end of a match, I sit down with him and try to rectify the mistakes I would have made in the match”•BCCIHave you had an opportunity to pick the brains of the other left-arm seamers, like Marco Jansen or Fazalhaq Farooqi?
I’ve travelled with Jansen and Farooqi for two-three years. Farooqi can bowl a lot of slower balls and Jansen can get swing naturally. Jansen also bowls a lot of inswingers, so I try to pick that up from him. All four – Farooqi, Jansen, [Jaydev] Unadkat and Akash [Singh] – have different styles. So, during training I try to learn off them and I’ve also shared my experiences with them.Given your recent form and excellent defensive skills at the death, did you expect to be picked for the upcoming T20 World Cup?
Firstly, I was happy to even be part of the selection conversation. I have to thank God for that. After three years, they [selectors] are considering me and there was chatter around my potential selection. Whether I’m selected or not, it’s not in my control. To be even part of the discussion is an achievement for me. If you want to climb to the top of a building, you have to take one step at a time. My focus is to execute well and help SRH win games. Not being selected for the World Cup hasn’t disturbed me. I always believe that whatever is meant to happen will happen.You have a stretch of home games coming up. Are you relieved that you will have some cushion to work with on a bigger ground?
Oh yes, very, very happy that we have games coming up on a bigger ground in Hyderabad. Bigger ground – that’s the key. Home conditions are an advantage for any team. We will have to assess the wicket, but we can use the boundaries to our advantage if we can execute well. We hope that we can do well, as a bowling attack and as a team, in these conditions.

England shelve the need for speed as attack puts shoulder to the wheel

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Raw pace wasn’t on the agenda at Lord’s, but gritty determination was to the fore

Vithushan Ehantharajah01-Sep-2024It was back in March, following a 4-1 defeat away to India that brought the 2025-26 Ashes into stark focus, that Rob Key put the word out to the pace bowlers of English cricket that speed was more valuable than wickets.Six months on, with a four-man attack made up exclusively of right-armers – and no real tearaway among them – England turned over Sri Lanka in the second Test to seal their second series of the summer. With day five now for resting, it is likely this same quartet will line up once more at the Kia Oval on Friday. A foursome whose speeds rarely breached the mid-80s mph will be charged with preserving a 100 percent summer record for the first time in 20 years.This being Lord’s at the back end of a comically rammed schedule, the pitch was no friend to speed. England needed 66.4 overs on Sunday to force a 190-run win, and it did not look like a whole lot of fun. They’d been given just 55.4 overs of rest after bowling Sri Lanka out for 196 in the first innings, and that was starting to show in the joints of a full-hearted attack.You could throw a towel over England’s average speeds for this second innings. Olly Stone, drafted in as Mark Wood’s replacement – a comparison he downplayed before the match by warning that Wood’s mid-90s consistency was beyond him – clocked the highest at 83.6mph. Chris Woakes, the leader of the attack, brought up the rear with 80.1mph. Key has had the shotgun out for county bowlers operating at those numbers.Of course, average speeds by their nature do not give the full picture. Stone’s qualities as a difference-maker were clear to see when he persuaded a 47-over-old ball to catch the glove of Dimuth Karunaratne, with the opener on 55 and looking at ease in his partnership with Angelo Mathews. A bit of extra mayo – 87mph – found what remaining life there was on a length to end a 122-ball stand that was beginning to irk the hosts.As for Woakes, his operating speed suits his work. His manipulation of the seam and use of the crease – reflected in the fact he was the most economical quick across both teams – is all the more necessary in a post-James Anderson world. Sure, a gondola is never going to win the America’s Cup, but the canals of Venice require a precision that a speed boat does not possess.We can apply all that and more to Gus Atkinson. His latest inscription into the honours board came across 16 overs in which he averaged 83.3mph. Not that it showed.”He has pace,” Dhananjaya de Silva acknowledged at the close of play. Sri Lanka’s captain was on the wrong end of Atkinson’s extra oomph as he failed to manage sharp bounce effectively – despite having a half-century to his name – and played onto his own stumps. “He is able to move the ball both ways. He has troubled us. We knew what to expect from him when we came from Colombo. We haven’t done well against him.”Related

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  • Ticket prices back in spotlight as England seal series in front of empty seats

Matthew Potts – just 0.2mph off Atkinson in a wicketless second innings – was a far more consistent version of himself compared to his outing in the first Test in Manchester. On Friday, his 2 for 19 from 11 overs – including a pearler that turned Mathews inside-out – spoke of a player steadily re-acclimatising to the rigours of Test cricket after a year out of the side. There is a sense he will be a truer version of himself at The Oval.Despite their unique traits – Woakes’ craft, Atkinson’s height, Stone’s catapult-like release and Potts’ relentlessness – there is an obvious similarity of angle and, to a degree, pace, that matches each of the England attacks that has been found wanting in three winless Ashes tours since 2010-11. But even against a poor visiting batting line-up, that homogeny felt like a strength.As a collective, they hammered the pitch just short of a good length, to the tune of 40.16 percent of their deliveries across 104.1 overs, thereby starving Sri Lanka’s batters of their favoured drives.When it came to England’s bumper routine, all the quicks pitched in. What was particularly instructive was how and when Ollie Pope cycled through each of the four when employing the tactic. Because while it was largely predicated on the red Dukes no longer playing ball, every man entrusted to administer the ploy did so with renewed enthusiasm. The job of injecting some extra thrill into proceedings was not limited to one man, and was relished by all.Chris Woakes claimed the first wicket of the fourth day•Getty Images”It’s amazing when you feel like the game’s just plodding along, then you go to that plan and give them a few,” Stone said when reflecting on his role in the barrage that accounted for Karunaratne. “How the game changes, and the atmosphere, and I feel like, yeah, to get that wicket there… was massive.”There is a level of fluidity here that did not exist in previous eras. Under Alastair Cook and Joe Root, there were times when bowlers other than Anderson and Stuart Broad were pigeonholed as bumper specialists (generally the fastest ones, like Wood, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes) or older-ball containers (Woakes’ previous gig, which Stokes also filled).Perhaps, then, it is no surprise that this current shift in attitude was set in motion by Stokes. When he took over at the start of the 2022 summer, he instigated a unilateral decision that all bowlers must be capable – and willing – to do every possible job. It was something he convinced Anderson and Broad to buy into, and it has become even more evident in their absence. Even Stokes’ own absence, as Ollie Pope carried that over on the field here at Lord’s.Naturally, the likes of Wood, Archer, Stone and, perhaps down the line, Josh Hull – bowlers who fly closest to the sun – will have their own set of parameters. It would be foolish not to acknowledge scarce commodities and offer them a degree of protection from the thankless rigours of Test pitches such as this one. But even Wood this summer, and Stone in this match, have assumed many different guises.If Key’s message before the summer was the need for speed, the message as we enter the final week of the Test season is that it needs to be underpinned by the ability and willingness to perform any task, and every role with the ball.

Cricket belongs to Chamari's Champions right now

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Just how big was Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup triumph on Sunday? The answer is in the reactions of Athapaththu, Dilhari and Samarawickrama after the game

Andrew Fidel Fernando29-Jul-20243:07

Chamari Athapaththu: “SL women’s cricket in safe hands”

If the human spirit’s triumph over adversity is the greatest thing about sport, there are few more compelling sports stories in the world right now than of Sri Lanka’s women cricketers.Watch the back end of the highlights of their Women’s Asia Cup 2024 win in Dambulla on Sunday, and try not to feel something. Jump in at 10:02, and watch Kavisha Dilhari run down the pitch at Radha Yadav, and launch the ball at least ten metres beyond the deep-midwicket boundary.Dilhari is not a player renowned for her power. She’d batted in 43 T20I innings before this, and hit exactly zero sixes. But what she’s lacked in muscle, she’s always had in audacity, because in the second international innings of her career, batting as low as No. 9, Dilhari got low and scooped seamer Mansi Joshi over the wicketkeeper, executing one of the most difficult shots in her sport before hitting the winning runs to seal a tense match. She was 17 at the time.Related

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Six years later, she’s up at No. 4 in the batting order striding in to the Asia Cup final after Sri Lanka have lost their best player, Chamari Athapaththu, the requirement still 73 off 48 balls. Dilhari’s sixteen-ball innings is electric. The stands and banks at the ground are not only full, they are raucous.There is a greater proportion of women in attendance than usual, some in long dresses, some in jeans, some in hijabs, some with their children, almost all of them screaming at every Sri Lanka run at this point.Dilhari fails to score off only three balls through her stay. She whips between the wickets, scythes a four through extra cover, then goes deep in her crease to crash another six down the ground off the fourth ball of the 19th over, and wins the match with that shot.

It is not nothing to watch women make history here. Not nothing to watch Dilhari celebrate as aggressively as she deserves or to watch Samarawickrama collapse after producing such a clutch innings. Not nothing to see Athapaththu let others take the limelight in a narrative whose trajectory she has influenced more than any other figure

She is amped. She drops her bat, bear-hugs her batting partner with the power of an industrial compactor, sprints off to the side, rips off her batting gloves and throws them in elation.Harshitha Samarawickrama, who has played the innings of her life to propel Sri Lanka to victory, collapses to the ground, and sobs, as team-mates rush the field and round on her.Off in the distance, Athapaththu, one of Sri Lanka’s greatest ever, and very arguably the country’s premier athlete at this moment, strides in to the field still trying to process what has happened. In the previous overs, when the match hung in the balance, she’d paced the boundary like an anxious parent on exam day.Kavisha Dilhari celebrates after scoring the winning runs•ACCLater, when it’s time to lift the trophy, Athapaththu hands it off to her team-mates and squats near the edge of the group in the victory photo. On the international stage, she has had to frequently fight for her place, often overlooked in lucrative franchise competitions, even as she’s been her national team’s talisman for years. Here, when she has every reason to be front and centre, she cedes ground to younger players.What is happening on the field here is special. Samarawickrama had dropped two catches earlier in the match and told herself “no matter how many runs India score, I will make sure I hunt them down”, and stayed true to her promise to herself. Athapaththu, at the tail end of a glittering career, is revelling in a trophy win, for once. She is one of the greatest-ever figures in the women’s game, but had played no matches between March 2020 and January 2022, partly because of Covid, but also because her board had not thought women’s cricket a priority.Others like Dilhari are ecstatic at having broken down a door for the island’s women. Earlier, while bowling, she had kicked at the ground contemptuously when the umpire had not given what should have been a decision in her favour. This is the kind of behaviour many old-school coaches on the island will insist is the height of impropriety in a “gentleman’s game”. But when you cheer for women’s rights, you occasionally find yourself supporting women’s wrongs as well.But all this pales in comparison to what is happening outside the field. Because over the boundary in Dambulla, there are girls in raptures. One fan, no more than ten years old by the looks, holds a sign that in Sinhala thanks “Chamari (aunty)” for being such an inspiration, and promises to be as good.

On social media, women are posting photos of other women watching the match, of their mothers glued to TV screens, their grandmothers watching livestreams.About 80 kilometres away, in Pallekele, where there is a Sri Lanka vs India men’s match about to happen, many filtering into the stadium are glued to the action in the women’s final too. They have an easier time getting into the ground than usual, because the security staff are no less enraptured by the action in Dambulla. There are men around the country watching men in the Dambulla stadium shouting themselves hoarse for women athletes.If this sounds like the way things should be everywhere, you are probably right. But then Sri Lanka is a country in which only five per cent of the parliament is comprised of women. Even in corporate spheres, it is a land that movements such as #MeToo left behind.It is not nothing to watch women make history here. Not nothing to watch Dilhari celebrate as aggressively as she deserves or to watch Samarawickrama collapse after producing such a clutch innings. Not nothing to see Athapaththu let others take the limelight in a narrative whose trajectory she has influenced more than any other figure.2:58

Sri Lanka show they aren’t solely reliant on Athapaththu

Online debates erupted almost immediately after the win. The men’s team’s abject performances lambasted in contrast to the women’s achievements. Why is a losing team being paid so much when a winning one is compensated so poorly? It’s a good question. In February 2023, Sri Lanka Cricket announced it was raising its match fees to US$750 for women, which is very roughly about 25% of what a men’s team member earns from a limited-overs game. The men also have far better central contracts. While the cricket payment system is complicated, the 25% figure is roughly a good indicator of how well the women are paid in comparison to the men.And yet, while the equal pay conversation is important (particularly as the women’s team draws in better crowds in Dambulla than the Lanka Premier League did), growing cricket among girls and younger women feels even more paramount. Because of this Asia Cup victory, school principals around the country may be convinced to have a girls’ cricket team, and parents are more likely to view cricket as a legitimate pathway for their children. These may be more important deliveries than any others.Only the Sri Lanka players will know the full extent of the challenges they overcame to become Asian champions – the parents they’d had to win over, the friends they’d had to get on board, the teachers they’d had to convince.But as they exploded in their euphoria on Sunday evening it felt like pursuing cricket had become much more realistic for many young women around the country. It felt like a sport everyone could embrace, without reservation. It also felt like a sport that belonged to more of Sri Lanka than it ever has before.

David Miller in the 500 club: key numbers from a few, long T20 careers

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

He is the first South African to play 500 T20s – how do his numbers match up to the others who’ve got to the landmark, and who’s likely to get there next?

Sampath Bandarupalli26-Sep-2024David Miller featured in his 500th T20 match on Wednesday night in Guyana, playing for Barbados Royals against hosts Guyana Amazon Warriors. Miller marked the occasion with an unbeaten 34-ball 71. Who else is in the exclusive 500 club and how does Miller’s numbers match up? Here’s a run through.The first South African in the club
Miller is one among six players with 500-plus T20 appearances and the first from South Africa to get to the landmark. This elite club is dominated by West Indians – Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell – while Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik is the other member.Related

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Miller is also the first specialist batter to feature in 500 T20 matches, with all the others playing (for big chunks of their careers at least, if not all through) as allrounders.16 years for Miller’s 500
Miller needed 16 years and 172 days to complete 500 T20 appearances, having debuted in 2008. He took the second-longest time to 500 T20s after Malik, who needed 17 years and 283 days. Malik is also the oldest to the landmark – he was 41 years and two days old in 2023 when he played his 500th T20.

Miller, on Wednesday, was 35 years and 107 days old and is the second youngest to reach 500 T20s, after Pollard (32y 297d). Narine is the quickest to play 500 T20s in terms of time from debut, having got there in 13 years and 70 days.Pollard’s 10k in 500
Pollard, the first player to 500 T20s, marked the milestone by reaching 10,000 career runs. Two others scored 10000-plus runs in their first 500 T20s – Malik (12,287) and Miller (10,678). Bravo and Narine lead the bowling list with 540 and 537 wickets respectively. Russell wasn’t too far from both marks in his 500th – 8490 runs and 453 wickets.

The globe-trotters from the West Indies
The proportion of T20Is in any player’s T20 career is usually on the lower side, and this is very apparent among the West Indies players. In all 125 of Miller’s 500 T20s have international status, while Malik had played 124 T20Is at the time of his 500th T20.The highest number of T20Is among the four West Indians in their first 500 T20s was 86 by Bravo. Russell and Pollard featured in 78 and 72 respectively, while Narine was part of only 51 – all the rest of their T20s being in franchise leagues around the world.

Who is likely to join the club next?
The next player to 500 T20 appearance should be an Englishman – Ravi Bopara or Alex Hales. Bopara made his debut in this format back in 2003 and is still an active player, but Hales can pip him because of his franchise contracts. Chris Gayle, the leading run-getter in T20s, has played 463 matches but none since 2022 (nor has he officially retired from T20 cricket).Rohit Sharma, India’s most capped T20 player with 448 matches, is no longer a T20I cricketer and could be limited to playing this format in the IPL. Rashid Khan, also on 448, is another frontrunner to join the list in the not-too-distant future.New Zealand’s Suzie Bates is ahead of Rohit and Rashid with 449 matches. She could be the first woman to feature in 500 T20s. Another New Zealander, Sophie Devine, is the only other woman to play 400-plus T20s to date.

New Zealand grateful for Devine intervention as plans come together in crucial contest

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Ten T20I defeats in a row couldn’t sway resilient team from sticking to their guns in emphatic win

Shashank Kishore04-Oct-2024Sophie Devine had to scream her lungs out to get Maddy Green’s attention at long-off. She was unhappy with Green’s positioning and implored her to move a few yards to her right. The move was partly instinctive as much it was down to an understanding of Smriti Mandhana’s strengths, having played with her in the Women’s Premier League.Four balls into Eden Carson’s second over, the ploy was rewarded when Mandhana tempted fate and holed out to long-off. And just like that, Mandhana’s plans of playing a shot she scores a lot of runs off, especially early on against spin, were nipped in the bud.Devine revealed the plan for Mandhana was one among many that New Zealand put together for this World Cup opener, and while the results had been slow to come to fruition over the course of the previous year, what had remained was their steadfast belief in their methods.”Look, to be honest, we’ve been planning for this game for about, I don’t know, probably close to a year,” Devine said. “We’ve been really focused on this one game for a long time now, and the level of detail that we’ve gone into, in terms of match-ups, field settings, obviously it helps having played a little bit in the WPL.”It’s all well and good to have plans. If the bowlers can’t execute it, it doesn’t mean anything. But I thought the bowlers were outstanding. We were really clear around what plans we wanted to use and how we wanted to use them, and for them to execute and to pick up wickets regularly is something that I was really proud of. It’s a pretty cool feeling to have plans executed, and to be rewarded for it.”One of those plans that Devine touched upon, it seemed, was bowling a heavy ball. On a Dubai surface where the dew didn’t come on as anticipated, the ball was gripping more than a hint. And Lea Tahuhu showed the value of hitting hard lengths. The wickets of Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh and Deepti Sharma were reward for that unwavering discipline.Tahuhu’s natural swing, courtesy of her slingy action, tends to take the ball away. While she isn’t the tallest bowler in the game, she has worked previously with Jacob Oram, the former New Zealand allrounder turned bowling coach, on a slower bouncer to complement her hard lengths.Friday’s plan was confirmation of the extent to which the players have bought into the team’s methods, without being swayed by the uncertainty that a series of insipid results, including 10 successive T20I losses, can bring.”I think a word that got used today when we were presenting our jerseys was ‘resilient’ and, when I think of resilient people, I think of Leah,” Devine said. “She’s obviously been in and out of the side, she’s battled through injuries, she’s obviously got a young family now, and [she showed] her ability to just keep bouncing back and then to perform in pressure situations like she did today.Related

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“As a captain it’s a real privilege to be able to throw her the ball and know that she’s going to fight tooth and nail to do whatever she can for this team. And people like that are so important in a team environment, because that mongrel spirit is infectious and I thought she’s been great today. Long may it continue.”The brightest example of New Zealand’s spirit is Georgia Plimmer who was backed to open despite a horror run of form all through the summer. She made 26 runs in four innings during a winless England tour and had just one not-so-fluent half-century in the final T20I of an otherwise forgettable Australia tour.A T20I strike-rate that had been just a nudge above 84 revealed more than an inkling of struggle in the Powerplay. It may have been prudent for Devine to move up herself, but the New Zealand captain laid out what she termed a succession plan, for when she and Suzie Bates eventually decide to move on.One of those plans was to back Plimmer to find her feet in the pressure of international cricket. And on Friday, she launched a powerplay salvo that rattled India. In the context of her career and the match, Plimmer’s 23-ball 34 up top was worth so much more, even though there were other batters, such as Devine herself, whose unbeaten 36-ball 57 looks the more significant on the scorecard.”The cricket gods decided to be with us today and sometimes that’s all it is, isn’t it?,” Devine asked. “Sometimes you get a lucky bounce, sometimes you get, you know … a catch goes in the gap. I don’t think it’s through lack of effort, it’s not through lack of trying, it’s not through lack of preparation, I think it’s just sometimes the way cricket is.”So, I’m just really proud of this group to keep sticking at it, to keep believing in themselves. Trust me, we’ve been copping stuff from all over the place about the batting order, and I hope today shows exactly why we’ve been sticking with it for the last 12-18 months, because we believe in this batting order.”We believe in the openers, we believe in Melie [Amelia Kerr], and we believe in myself and the rest of the group. So hopefully that’s brought us a little bit of breathing space, but we know that it’s on us now to make sure that we back it up.”In a way, New Zealand played like a team that wasn’t burdened by the same expectations as India. Neither are they bound by history. Devine admits theirs is a transition that has loomed for longer than expected, which they’re trying to address in the best possible way.All told, New Zealand played like a team that would’ve embraced delight and dejection in equal measure, provided they didn’t deviate from plans that had been in the making for a while. And when the spotlight was on them on a grand stage against a more fancied opponent, they conjured magic to sting their opponents like few defeats in recent memory.

Kohli at the Optus Stadium: a full sensory experience

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

How India’s premier batter is trying to work himself back into form

Alagappan Muthu20-Nov-20244:44

Kohli in Australia: Can he turn his form around in his favourite country?

“Dink”The ball was supposed to meet the middle of the bat. It didn’t. A wholesome wooden sound instead turned into a hollowed out squeak.”Aaarrggghhh”Virat Kohli’s scream cut through the air in Perth, which carries a noticeable suburban charm, a quiet that can often be taken for granted. There are, however, places desperate to take the city into the future, like Optus Stadium whose blueprints could come in handy as a starting point for a UFO with its vast, oval, metallic magnificence. Its walkways on the outside remain open to the public. Cyclists and runners make good use of them. The cricket nets are just off of these walkways. People could simply drop by and watch the world’s most popular cricketer doing his thing. A handful of young adults did and were rewarded with his autograph.”THUD!”The cover drive was out and it seemed to be in perfect working order. Kohli was being very selective with it. He wasn’t going to his go-to shot unless he could reach somewhere at least close to the pitch of the ball. A large portion of his 9040 Test runs have come because he is this thorough.Related

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(An entirely muffled) “Thud.”Kohli went after something that was almost comically wide of off stump and fell right over onto his back at the batting crease. He shouldn’t have reached out so far and it felt like he was in disbelief that he had and that’s how he expressed it. It’s so much fun watching him, no matter what he does – he’s even helped out by his hair up a bit, It’s more brown than black.The other senses aren’t left wanting either. “Whiiirrrr”. He flicks his wrists and the bat spins out of his hand, hovering in mid-air, until he catches hold of it again. There are entire edits of him doing just this on Reddit. He’s made a nervous tick look cool. “Tap tap tap”. He gets into his stance and to face the bowler. “Clap clap clap”. India will hope that’s the noise that follows immediately afterward. It did at the nets on Wednesday, when he played that performative forward defensive, giant stride down the pitch, head down, bat close to pad, with complete confidence he had absorbed all the venom in the ball fed by a throwdown specialist from less than 22 yards.These moments, though, were sprinkled in between others where he couldn’t will his intentions into reality. It’s become a whole thing. Early Kohli had no filter. He was box office. Fab-four Kohli had, at best, one weakness. He was unreal. Present-day Kohli is veering dangerously close to being human. He’s having bad days at work. Over the past five years, he averages 33.45 with three centuries in 61 innings. In the five years before that, he averaged 62.78 with 20 centuries in 89 innings.2:42

Clarke: Rohit and Kohli have earned some slack

Some of his recent dismissals have been bizarre. Caught behind off Glenn Phillips. Bowled by a full toss from Mitchell Santner. Run-out in the dying stages of the day’s play. Others have followed a pattern. A continued vulnerability against left-arm spin and an over-reliance on his front-foot shots. All of it has prevented him from spending any meaningful time at the crease. Four of his last five innings have lasted less than 10 balls and only one of his last 14 have gone past 100.There may be a connection to that and the kind of training Kohli has been doing in Perth. He was out caught in the slips during one of the match simulations at the WACA and immediately went off to the nets for a half-hour session. He batted for much longer periods, on both days, at Optus Stadium. He gave himself time. He also had plenty of opportunities to play off the back foot and he took them; didn’t attempt anything fancy, just kept going through drills where he tried not to follow the movement when the ball passed his outside edge and soften the grip on his bat when he couldn’t quite get into the positions he wanted.There was no jeopardy here at practice but Kohli created it for himself just like Morne Morkel, the India bowling coach, said he would. He was working hard at working within limitations, though there was this one instance when he couldn’t help but soothe himself with an attacking shot. It was a back-foot swivel pull against Mukesh Kumar, immediately after he went past the bat, where he leaned his body weight to the off side just a little bit to manufacture the room that the bowler wasn’t so keen to give him. The sound that came off his bat was “thwack,” but it was so loud and rude it felt like it shouldn’t be repeated in front of polite company.The Indian fans have been yearning for him. Even in the middle of the home season, when he was responding to requests for pictures at the airport, he was met with “Virat , BGT .” There are wistful posts all over the internet; people looking back at his best innings in the way they look back on misspent youth, pundits explaining how he will get out of the rut and coaching staff hitting back at questions suggesting decline. There is noise on top of noise on top of noise. There always has been. Kohli is a full sensory experience.

Pakistan keep their appointment in Samarra after yet another South African heartbreak

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

They came close – very close – but Pakistan’s destiny in South Africa has not changed just yet

Danyal Rasool29-Dec-2024Centurion is a great place to watch Test cricket, but even if you’re not particularly interested, there’s enough to keep you entertained. The queues for cheesy chips snaked out on most days, and more than 2 million rands of alcohol were sold. Couples lounged around the embankments shading themselves under giant umbrellas. Over by the scoreboard, a few people were jogging on the spot, raising money for a charitable cause. Unsupervised children of varying ages – invariably wearing the wildly popular fluorescent pink ODI shirt – set up their own games of cricket, scurrying back into the ground whenever a cheer went up to investigate if news was good or bad.But once lunch was over on day 4, that area which encircles SuperSport Park was no more a hive of activity. Nearly everyone had returned from the concession stands, those dozing under the umbrellas sat up. Even the children had packed away their little plastic bats and balls, aware this was a tense finish, but unsure why a multi-decade history of trauma was writ large on their parents’ faces.***Mohammad Abbas is bowling; he was bowling before lunch, and he was bowling yesterday. At this point, it seems like he’s been bowling for longer than he was out of the Test side. He might have been bowling since 2007, the last time Pakistan won a Test match in South Africa, because Pakistan have effectively been playing the same Test match here since.Related

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There are reasons South Africa cannot win this Test, primarily because it matters in a wider context. They are a handful of runs away from making a World Test Championship final, and a crack at yet another piece of silverware. They are – or were – in a winning position, and having begun to squander it, the path of heartbreaking failure looks like it has locked beneath their feet.But expecting Pakistan to win Tests in South Africa is a bit like being believing a steady diet of cheese will cure gout. That it failed to do so doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the cheese. It’s just not what cheese does.Mohammad Abbas had single-handedly threatened to put South Africa’s qualification to the WTC final on hold•Gallo ImagesThis makes it a contest of a movable force against a stoppable object, because any world where Pakistan win this sort of Test in South Africa turns the narrative upside down. The plot armour that has scripted a Pakistan defeat this Test appears nigh-on impenetrable. When South Africa have bowled poorly, Pakistan just offered their wickets up. When South African wickets were falling in a bunch, Pakistan spread out their fields, threw in an hour of indifferent bowling, and ensured there was enough “cushion”, as Shan Masood called it, for a South African win to still be believably scripted. Masood pointed out this had been an issue with Pakistan in every innings. He just meant this match, but he might as well have extended that characterisation to about half the Tests Pakistan had ever played in this country.But boy, is Abbas trying to change all that. After a first innings where his exclusion from the Pakistan side appeared vindicated, he’s working on reversing more than just one narrative. Every other over, he takes off his floppy hat, almost on autopilot, and walks over to the bowler’s end. It appears human function doesn’t resume after the over begins either, so metronomic is Abbas’s end-product. Eighty-six of the 117 balls he sent down across the innings hit a hard length outside off stump, giving South Africa no breathing room from his end and picking up half his wickets. For a player who has got more than half of his Test dismissals hitting the stumps, a further 17 threatened off stump, and produced the other three.For much of the morning, though, he probes in vain, as South Africa fend off the inevitable stutter Pakistan, as well as a taut South African crowd – more than 5000 of whom have turned up on a glorious summer day – are convinced will come. Pakistan review one that whooshes past Bavuma’s bat without success, and South Africa successfully have an lbw overturned when Bavuma is convinced he got an inside edge. Abbas’ Hampshire coach Graeme Welch has encouraged him to add the bouncer to his game, and when he sends one down from time to time, it’s a mean one, rearing up high and drawing as much bounce as the faster bowlers have extracted.South Africa are cheered on by their fans as they seal their spot in the WTC final•AFP/Getty ImagesMysteriously, though, Bavuma’s ability to tell when he’s got inside edges is selective, and when, for some reason, he strides out of his crease and tries to whack Abbas over midwicket, he misses. Mohammad Rizwan appeals, but the spot where he stands may as well be a coiled spring for how often he goes up. The umpire thinks he’s got an edge, and even though it’s only clipped the flap of his right pocket, the South African captain walks off.The joy in Abbas’ expressions when he picks up a wicket is always mixed with an air of surprise, as if wondering why the batter did whatever they did, because Abbas is always doing the same thing. Length, top of off, target the pads, look for the outside edge. Having deprived him for much of the morning, it does feel like the batters are doing something different, bats jutting out away from their bodies, outside edges as if by magnetic force flying towards the ball. David Bedingham, and Corbin Bosch, who weary Pakistan supporters were convinced would hit the winning runs to round off the torment, fall off successive balls, and South Africa’s curse looks set to prove stronger than Pakistan’s history.For Pakistan, the specific details of what happen next barely matter. For the record, Naseem Shah bowls a loose over, and Rabada rides his luck. Like a long-forgotten plot point, Aamer Jamal, who had been sending a few down during the lunch break, emerges, beginning with a no-ball and ending with two boundaries. The field is spread far out as Marco Jansen – who has until now averaged 6.33 with bat this year – and Rabada pick up singles at will, casually interspersing them between the boundaries.Abbas produces a Rabada outside edge that Rizwan was standing too far back to take, but Pakistan recognise it is merely the script’s attempt at a final jump scare as it inexorably takes its course through to its denouement. It was Rabada and Jansen here, just like it was Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla in the past, or Jacques Kallis and Ashwell Prince further back. The cast may have changed, but destiny has not. Pakistan still must keep their appointment in Samarra.

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