Mehidy is the impact allrounder Bangladesh didn't know they had

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Getting the chance to bat up the order has unlocked new dimensions to his game

Mohammad Isam07-Oct-20231:54

‘Great captaincy’ – Steyn impressed with Shakib’s bowling changes

Mehidy Hasan Miraz imparts adequate air on the ball to lure a desperate Hashmatullah Shahidi out of his crease. The slightly slower delivery dips on the Afghanistan captain, and the seam grips on the Dharamsala pitch. Shahidi, on 18 off 37, commits himself to the charge. He attempts a hit down the ground but it turns into a fatal hoick. Towhid Hridoy takes the catch at mid-on. Like he often does in home Tests, Mehidy set up the left-hander smartly with a series of dot balls.It was just the breakthrough Bangladesh needed at that stage. And as Afghanistan fell from 112 for 2 to 158 all out, Mehidy helped himself to two more wickets. At this point, normally, a frontline spinner would take off his boots, pull up a chair, and wait for the batters to finish the simple chase. Mehidy went to bat at No. 3, instead.Bangladesh know that Shakib Al Hasan is their leading cricketer. He has been the top-ranked allrounder in one format or other for a stretch of time that goes as far back as 2009. He was among the wickets on Saturday too. His class endures but it looks like he’s finally got some competition.Mehidy doesn’t think he is the next Shakib. That is actually the source of all his confidence. He doesn’t bring himself down by comparing himself to one of the game’s greats. He just does his thing. Since his international debut against England in 2016, whenever Mehidy has been asked to step up, he has stepped up. That confidence has now spread into his batting. The only thing is, nobody is sure where he will bat next.Mehidy, who was Player of the Under-19 World Cup in 2016, struck his first fifty in a senior World Cup match today and took his first Player-of-the-Match award in this tournament. He has produced some great performances since December last year, not least those two great wins over India. Mehidy continued that run of form with the bat and never lost what he had with the ball. It seems as if the more responsibility he has on his shoulders, the better he plays.Mehidy Hasan Miraz struck his first World Cup fifty against Afghanistan•ICC via Getty ImagesAfghanistan, twice now, have borne the brunt of Mehidy’s great form. He struck a century, his first in ODIs, as an opener in the Asia Cup. At the World Cup, he hurt them a little with the ball and a little with the bat.”I have worked really hard on my batting,” Mehidy said, after scoring 57 off 73 balls in Bangladesh’s six-wicket victory. “I have thought long and hard about it, how I can improve my batting. I prepared myself really well. The team also gave me a lot of opportunities up the order. It is a big deal for me. But we didn’t think about the result, we wanted to get the process right. Result comes at the end of the day, so we didn’t put focus on that. We didn’t want to forget about the main job. We got our result because our bowlers came back into the game superbly.”Mehidy said that any time the team management gives him a batting position higher than his usual No. 8 spot, it is on him to take advantage of it. “Every cricketer has to adjust to different situations and he/she knows that they have to adjust to achieve something big. I have batted at No. 8 for a long time, but there was never a lot of opportunities in that position. At times there isn’t enough balls left in the innings.”I want to give my 100% in every position,” he said. “I prepared myself mentally for these adjustments. Every position presents a different situation. I don’t think too much about it when the opportunity comes in front of me. If you think simply, it is better to bat anywhere above No. 8. The team gets help if I play well. I face some problems but I don’t focus too much about it. I have to perform well for the team, that’s the most important thing. This win has made everyone, including the team and the country, very happy.”Through all the added focus he has put into his batting, Mehidy has never allowed his bowling standards to drop. On Saturday when he started poorly, his captain came over and revved him up a bit.”I gave nine runs in the first over,” Mehidy said. “I didn’t bowl well. I was nervous. I was cautious in my mind. During the drinks break, Shakib reminded me that there won’t be success if I bowl with a negative mindset. I should be very positive. If they hit you, its ok. But they should charge at you, they have to hit your good balls. I prepared myself mentally again, and I thought how I should bowl in good areas. These small things make a lot of difference.”Mehidy was surprised that the Dharamsala pitch aided the Bangladesh spinners and once they saw that was the case, they settled into old rhythms. “When the pacers weren’t doing well at the top,” he said, “it put the spinners under pressure. Shakib got two wickets, which boosted the team. We started bowling well from both ends. The pacers came back well. We didn’t expect such a wicket in Dharamsala, but we found there was turn in our first two or three overs. The ball stopped a bit. We share the pitch information quickly with the captain and the bowlers, how to bowl in this wicket. We had great communication throughout the game.”

Big-action Broad, and the sharp spells of utter anarchy

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

There was always something a little titillating about Broad’s best spells, a slightly guilty pleasure

Osman Samiuddin01-Aug-2023Most of us thought it would be Jimmy first, right? That made sense. Older, more miles in the legs, more grump in the soul. But the unexpectedness of Stuart Broad’s exit is a neat motif to his entire career in one sense, always not being what you thought he would be, or was becoming. And he may have emerged as teenaged prodigy but who could’ve expected Broad to build the career he has done while playing it entirely alongside the greatest fast bowler England has produced?Only a couple of days ago Ben Stokes went further and called James Anderson the greatest fast bowler to play the game. That’s a big call but when he is your weapon, it’s not a crazy call. At the least, Anderson is in those conversations. Nobody will call Broad the greatest fast bowler, though it is worth noting that in 2016, he – and not Anderson – was the first England Test fast bowler to be ranked No. 1 in the world since Steve Harmison in 2004.Anderson replaced him that year, which seemed not a correction but a bend towards a natural order. Anderson has since been back to that spot several times, most recently earlier this year; Broad has not.Related

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Which is just fine. Not all fast bowlers are – or must be – great. It’s enough for them to create a great spell or two which aren’t spells of great bowling so much as total life events, occasions you will remember forever but will never quite be able to make complete sense of (see: childbirth, weddings, funerals and the day Elon Musk took over Twitter); days when the world was a little tipsy and so life moved fast very slowly.A great spell or two, but with Broad we were spoilt. Entire mornings, afternoons and days lost entirely, unexpectedly and indisputably, to Broad, ones that he had conjured from scratch and, lucky us, let us in.There was always something a little titillating about his best spells, a slightly guilty pleasure. You knew you should be sitting stroking your chin at the cant of Anderson’s wrist and his reverse-reverse wobble, but all you wanted to do was to be an absolute lout watching Broad wreck stuff. Anderson satisfied the intellect, an arthouse spectacle scaled up for mass consumption like a Chris Nolan film. Broad, for all his evolution over the years, for all the roles he took on, for all his smarts, remained at heart, an out and out big-action banger, all breath-taking, set-piece stunts stitched together to make the movie.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhich is why, as tempting as it is to treat with due deference the sheer gargantuan nature of the headline numbers of his career – only four bowlers, one fast bowler, with more wickets, only one bowler with more Tests played – Broad’s best self will always live in his brief, sharp jags of anarchy into an otherwise perfectly civil day’s play.Like the two Test hat-tricks, the second of which he didn’t even realise he’d taken and the first of which (against India) came with bonus and massive DRS schadenfreude; his breakthrough at The Oval, four wickets in 21 balls; eight in 9.3 overs at his home ground; six in 7.3 overs in Durham; seven in 11 at Lord’s; the smallness of these numbers, the compression, speaks to the truer magnitude of his work. In them is a distinct mood: Broad, full lengths, nibbling away at an edge, nipping into a pad, smashing stumps, careening away in celebration, total upheaval in his trail.Is it sacrilege to say there was a little bit of Warne in Broad’s theatre around a delivery, enough that watching him was as compelling as the bowling itself, that a spell could be measured and experienced purely through his expressions? The arms flung in the air at repeated play-and-misses, the frowns and eyebrow shrugs and wry smiles, the wide-eyed disbelief and cupped-hand-over-mouth shock and, of course, the teapots. Broad’s last day will always be memorable for clapping Zak Crawley when he spilled a catch off his bowling, a sure sign that this was the end, of Broad, and, perhaps, of times.The most endearing was when, after beating a batter, or even being hit for a boundary, he would stop in his follow-through, fold one arm across the chest and hold his chin with the other, absorbing what had happened professorially. It was an unusual pose for the occupation, though in hindsight it works alongside a visualisation of one of his great early quotes, in a interview from 2010: “Tea just helps me fight”. Tea? For fighting?Which was your favourite Stuart Broad reaction?•ECB via Getty ImagesThere was always some game within the game, especially when there wasn’t, the bail-switching last week an absolute Broad classic. Is it the imagination or did umpires have to be the most switched-on bodies on the field when Broad was on one, turning him down, answering a hundred queries, humouring him, regularly being proved wrong by him, admonishing him. Parents will recognise and sympathise.After all of it, the walk back to the mark, with the intent, form and purpose of a self-important civil servant. Some days his knees pumped more on that walk back than in the run-up.He was not the first celebrappealer but there’s never been a better one and it captured something central in him. The sense of entitlement in dispensing with the need for the umpire’s adjudication that his critics loved to hate, but also the rakish hustle that his fans loved. Some of that manifested itself in a mid-career trait of wasting reviews while batting, prompting an irritated Mike Selvey to coin the L’Oreal referral (because he’s worth it).If there’s an absence of an appreciation so far of the nuts and bolts of his bowling, it is only because, 17 years from his international debut, what is not known about it? Once you have taken as many wickets as he has, it kind of stands as monument to the career by itself. Of course, he’s a giant, because you don’t get that many wickets otherwise.2:10

Broad: I wanted to finish playing at the very top

Some might argue he got that many because he played so many Tests, like it’s some sort of a caveat. Well one, taking 604 wickets is in no way an inevitable consequence of playing 167 Tests. No wicket comes easy in Tests. Two, he played as many as 167 Tests because he was good enough. And three, staying fit enough to play that many is a feat on its own. None of this was inevitable.The other thing is that once we’re slicing up that many wickets and Tests, of course there will be skews, to home conditions, to specific opponents, to bits of stats padding. That is inevitable. It applies to every player with a long career. All of that is what makes a career, it doesn’t take from it.And Broad’s has been as rich as it is long, sustained by a thirst for self-improvement. He was never still, forever learning, adapting, tinkering, experimenting, right up to the start of this, his final series. One of the by-products of that, and what sets him apart from Anderson perhaps, is the suspicion that, had he really wanted, he could still cut it amidst the helter skelter of white-ball cricket.The end came as a career had gone, with proof of his durability. When Alex Carey nicked behind, it was the fourth ball of Broad’s seventh over in that spell. At the end of day five. Of a five-Test series. In which he played every single game. In which he bowled nearly 26 more overs than any other bowler. During which he turned 37.That was overshadowed by the set-piece moment to sign-off, the last two wickets to seal an Ashes win, a wicket off his last ball and hugs with Jimmy at mid-off. It’s a shame there weren’t more wickets left because with two in 13 balls, one dropped catch and numerous plays and misses to balls he was shaping in and swinging away as much as ever, we all had that sense, one last time, that Stuart Broad is about to get on one and we best be there.

'Stuart Broad is the ultimate Ashes warrior'

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

What Alastair Cook, Ricky Ponting, and others said about Stuart Broad’s retirement

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jul-20232:10

Broad: I wanted to finish playing at the very top

“Very few of us are privileged enough to choose how we bow out. He deserves that. As I watched him announce his retirement on Sky Sports, I felt quite emotional. I will genuinely miss watching him play. Only Jimmy [James Anderson] is left now from the team who got to No. 1 in the Test rankings and are the only England side to have won the Ashes in Australia since 1986-87. I remember him telling me how much he was looking forward to us all having a glass of red together when we were all retired. Broady, I’ll have the bottle ready but first there’s a job to be finished in south London.”
“I have nothing but respect for him. I had a good chat to him the other day once he took his 600th Test wicket and he said he was enjoying it as much, if not more than he ever has. It’s a big decision, but you come to a time when you know. He loves the big moments, the pressure situations. That’s a true sign of a champion, I think. He’s been incredible for England for a long, long time.”
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“I don’t think we’ll see seam bowlers take 600 wickets ever again. I don’t think the game will allow it. So cheers, Broady. It’s been a pleasure to play briefly with you and see the development of a high-class performer and person over the past 16 years. You’re a role model for the next generation. That, for me, is always the greatest accolade – that you inspire a new breed of cricketers.”
“He has been a terrific bowler. His partnership with Jimmy Anderson is something that will always be remembered. Anderson and Broad, I guess the whole decade that they played for England, really put in some fantastic performances. To take 600 wickets and play the number of Tests that he has takes a special kind of cricketer. My best wishes to him and congratulations on an absolutely fantastic career. I hope he gets to finish it off in the best possible way that he wants to.”
Stuart Broad announced that he will retire after the conclusion of The Oval Test•PA Images via Getty Images”I’ve been lucky enough to coach him since he was 18, on the academy at Loughborough. You could tell straightaway he was different: he wrote down on a piece of paper the things he wanted to achieve, how he was going to be and what he was going to do, which was really rare for that age. He is probably the best tactician that I’ve been lucky enough to coach… a brilliant sportsman.”
“We only knew yesterday [Saturday] morning for certain. Of course, you have conversations. But Stuart is a master of making the right decision, and he’s done it again. It’s the perfect time, isn’t it? Being Australia, that is perfect – because he’s an Ashes man.”
“I’m a big believer in judging players on longevity, and how long they can maintain such high standards at the absolute highest level. 167 games for a fast bowler: imagine how many ice baths he’s had on the back of those? Stuart Broad is the ultimate Ashes warrior. All of his best cricket has been played in Ashes series… people’s names and reputations are forged on what they’re able to achieve in Ashes series.”
“It’s been a hell of a ride and a real pleasure to stand at slip for so long to him. The most special thing is for him to have the opportunity to finish on his terms, at a ground where he’s had so many amazing moments and spells that have lit up English cricket. What more motivation do you need than to give the best send-off to one of England’s greatest players of all time?”

Podcast: Is SKY lucky to get picked? A look at India's World Cup squad

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Kaustubh Kumar, Vishal Dikshit and Raunak Kapoor make sense of India’s squad and the first round of the Asia Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2023Chief selector Ajit Agarkar announced India’s 15-man squad for the World Cup starting next month, which saw no real surprises but threw up a lot of questions. Did Suryakumar Yadav do enough to cement his spot? Did Tilak Varma deserve a place instead? Will India miss an offspinner like R Ashwin or a legspinner like Yuzvendra Chahal? Is an in-form Ishan Kishan the first-choice wicketkeeper now, ahead of KL Rahul?At the same time India also made it to the Super Fours of the Asia Cup and have at least three more games left in the tournament. How do they make the most of these games? Kaustubh Kumar, Vishal Dikshit and Raunak Kapoor got together after India’s squad announcement to make sense of it all. Listen in…

From Kenya to Meghalaya – Tanmay Mishra's 20-year journey of perseverance

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

From playing for Kenya to moving to India in search of the bigger prize, it’s been a long journey for the batter. But his eagerness to contribute remains intact

Ashish Pant29-Nov-2023Tanmay Mishra was a starry-eyed youngster, part of a strong generation of Kenyan cricketers that had the promise of a new era. They had just made the 2003 World Cup semi-final, and talk of Full Membership was gathering steam. Then Kenyan cricket was driven into an abyss by power-hungry administrators.Two decades later, the veteran of three World Cups – two ODIs (2007 and 2011) and one T20 (2007) – is trying to rediscover his glory days in India’s far-east, in Meghalaya, after several attempts of breaking into India’s domestic system.His first opportunity came with Tripura in 2019. In just his second game, Mishra smashed his maiden List A century – a 101-ball 102 against a strong Madhya Pradesh attack that had Ishwar Pandey, Kuldeep Sen, Kumar Kartikeya and Venkatesh Iyer. He followed it up with three back-to-back fifties and finished the 2019 Vijay Hazare Trophy as Tripura’s second-highest run-getter. He also made his T20 and first-class debut during the season. It promised a bright, new beginning, but as fate would have it, Covid-19 struck, and Mishra’s career hit a snag.Once the domestic season restarted, budget constraints at Tripura meant he didn’t receive a callback, and it took him close to four more years before Meghalaya came calling. He hopes to cash in again, even though he hasn’t started as well as he would have liked.”One of the things is the learnings over the years, I want to sort of help the guys when I can,” Mishra tells ESPNcricinfo. “I just want to try and contribute to winning for the team. I know the sort of opportunity I have and I am grateful for this opportunity.”At times, though, Mishra can’t help but wonder what could have been.

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It’s August 2007. India A are in Kenya for a series. Rohit Sharma, fresh off an India debut, is on tour. As Mishra takes strike, Rohit dishes out a few verbal volleys.”He was just swearing at me, saying a lot of nasty things when he was standing at third slip,” Mishra recalls with a laugh. “And later that evening, after all the things he said, he came up to me and asked me about the places you could visit.”I just said to him, ‘you’ve been giving me such a tough time in the day and now you want me to host you’. So, like a proper Mumbaikar, he went , match (it’s a match, you’ve got to do it). We are here to win, you are here to win.

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“We ended up going out and had a really good time. This is a bunch of us. There was Pragyan Ojha, Parthiv Patel, and the then India A physio Vaibhav Daga who is with Lucknow [Super Giants] now. He was there for only one match. At that time, we sort of struck a bond.”That friendship remains strong, but their careers have taken different routes. Rohit has become one of the finest all-format batters ever. Tanmay’s journey, on the other hand, has been one of toil.

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The Mumbai-born Mishra was eight when his family moved to Nairobi. Cricket wasn’t Kenya’s No. 1 sport, but because Mishra’s family stayed in a large estate housing Indian families, cricket wasn’t far away.Tennis-ball cricket soon became something serious and while school cricket wasn’t as strong in Kenya, club cricket was huge. A lot of these clubs were formed by Indians who had migrated and were doing well in the circuit, and it was a quick way to get noticed.”The club cricket structure in Kenya was very strong,” Mishra says. “Like you would get about 10,000 people watching it. There were different kinds of Indian communities. You had the Kutchi community, the Swaminarayan community, the Sikh community, so you would get professionals coming from India.”If you had like a derby sort of thing like, say, Swaminarayan people versus Kutchi people, you’d get about 20,000 people watching the game. So that’s where the game picked up, like, the interest sort of grew. And club cricket was something that helped me polish my game.”Mishra scored oodles of runs in club cricket to quickly rise up the ranks. He made his first-class debut a month before his 17th birthday and his ODI debut less than 18 months later in Bulawayo. He was run out in his debut game against Zimbabwe for 5 but gave a good account of himself in the second outing scoring 46.Tanmay Mishra in Kenyan colours•Getty ImagesIt did not take Mishra long to establish himself in that Kenyan middle order. He went to the West Indies for the 2007 ODI World Cup, followed by the T20 World Cup in South Africa. But at the back of his mind, he always knew that playing cricket wasn’t a sustainable profession in Kenya. So, later in 2007, he moved to Mumbai to pursue a degree in business administration. He did not know a lot of people in Mumbai but club cricket on Sundays kept him engaged.”Just like a monkey never forgets how to somersault, it (cricket) sort of never went,” he says. “For three-and-a-half years, I regularly played club cricket, just to make sure the hand-eye coordination and stuff like that stayed intact.”Then 2011 happened, and with Kenya qualifying for the ODI World Cup, Mishra returned to Kenya to try his luck. But his welcome back wasn’t as warm, because of his near-three-year break. He admits it did not make many people in the Kenyan cricket fraternity happy. A way back wasn’t going to be easy.However, he had the support of then-captain Jimmy Kamande, who believed that “if there is someone who can represent Kenya better, then that someone should play.” Mishra still had to return to league cricket and score a bucket-load of runs to prove his worth. The result was a place in the Kenya squad for the 2011 World Cup.It was a decision that would shape the next decade of his career. Kenya had a disastrous campaign, but Mishra finished as the team’s second-highest run-getter. The one innings that caught people’s notice was his 72 against an Australia attack which had Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait.”After that night, things were very different,” he says. “I got a bit of runs, and especially against Australia, it changed everything. And even my father, or those who knew my father from the cricket fraternity, they said ‘he’s got to come and start playing here. You don’t know what can happen. Let him play here.'”I had a few friends of mine who said, at least play your club cricket in Mumbai. You never know, you still go represent Kenya, but you never know. And then in two years’ time, I remember Kenyan cricket wasn’t playing the cricket it was supposed to be. And I made that change.”A pivotal moment in Mishra’s career came in 2012 during Kenya’s tour to Visakhapatnam where they were playing an ACA XI side in preparation for the T20 World Cup qualifiers. Lots of runs there earned him an IPL call-up from Deccan Chargers, and was signed up as a local player courtesy his Indian passport.Mishra played just one game that season and did not get to bat, but it was motivation enough for him to make the switch full-time and look for options in India. So after representing Kenya in 42 ODIs (1128 runs at 34.18) and 15 T20Is (227 runs at 15.13), he packed his bags and headed to the place of his birth Mumbai at the age of 27.Tanmay Mishra is ready for his Meghalaya stint•Tanmay Mishra”To get an opportunity in a team like Mumbai is very difficult. Regardless of how much you do, there is always someone better than you. I knew it was not going to be easy, I am going to be competing against almost 100 people for one spot, coming from a place where you don’t have competition,” Mishra admits. “I was scoring runs, but those runs would have never gotten counted. It’s against who you score.”So even after scoring runs, if you took those stats somewhere and especially in a place like India, people would be like, what is this? We have domestic cricket, and the cricket is very strong over here. It wasn’t them being rude. It was just asking the right question maybe in a different way.”Mishra’s last outing for Kenya was in 2013 and for the next six years, he did all that he could to break into the Mumbai side. He scored runs in the Times Shield tournament, DY Patil T20 Cup, Kanga league, and was named in the Mumbai probables, but the senior call-up never arrived. He was also picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 10 lakh in 2014 but did not get a game.Was there frustration? “Lots,” he says. “Sometimes you just have to accept, and you have to persevere. You’re not a bad player, when you’ve played as much as cricket I played. It’s just that sometimes you have to accept that there could be a different state for you.”Mishra had an opportunity to play for another state after his RCB stint in 2014, which he passed, a decision he regrets to date. “You can call it my naivety or ignorance where I thought I might get an opportunity for Mumbai considering I’m already in IPL. I should have taken that opportunity for that state team that had arrived during the IPL itself.”He had to eventually move out of Mumbai to look for opportunities. It was in 2017 when he went to Tripura to play club cricket. He scored the runs but the call-up still took two years to arrive. In 2019, he was named in the Tripura side as a guest player. That opportunity lasted all of a season.Now, in 2023, after all these travails, Mishra the journeyman hopes Meghalaya can give him another wind. A consistent run of games where he can put his experience into play and deliver performances of note. He may have aged, but the eagerness to contribute and win remains the same as it was in 2003.

Iftikhar Ahmed, a man primed to beat New Zealand at their own game

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Like the Blackcaps, he gets the most out of his abilities. He is Pakistan’s most aggressive batter and their most economical spinner at the World Cup

Danyal Rasool03-Nov-2023Iftikhar Ahmed sat at the head of a table in a conference room at the Ritz Carlton Bangalore. There was a press interaction with Pakistan’s journalists, though the gathering was smaller than might have been expected, even in India, where visa complications have meant just a smattering of the Pakistan press contingent has made the trip. A pair of journalists ended up at the wrong hotel and missed the whole thing. As such, four reporters sat huddled around Iftikhar with recorders and microphones. This, after all, wasn’t about glamour, it was all about functionality.He spoke about the value of striking up partnerships through the middle overs, talked up the good spirits in the camp and the momentum they felt was being built up. He declined an opportunity to complain about his batting position, or the fields set when he bowled. The answers were almost rhythmically gentle and dull, having the same effect as the mechanical offspin he has deployed so often this World Cup. Unlikely to cause a stir or to penetrate, but the idea it would backfire and put him or his side on the defensive was equally improbable.Perhaps fittingly, the only one he hit out of the park came at the death, when as much off the field as on it, he felt he had less to lose. “When we lose, people talk about us eating biryani, but when we win, not so much,” was what he signed off with.Related

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Pakistan haven’t really had the kind of World Cup to start talking about unsung heroes, but unsung Iftikhar most certainly is. Fakhar Zaman was lauded for his strength of character in returning after being dropped following a sharp dip in form, Shaheen Afridi praised for rediscovering his own mojo. Iftikhar has been used more like a spare tire, plugging the gaps in a pinch but never actually venerated like those other shinier toys.It’s still little surprise that Iftikhar’s value remains underappreciated. He has 139 runs in seven innings, with no score in excess of 40. He has taken two wickets – those of Colin Ackermann and Litton Das – in 33 overs this tournament. Even bit-part cricketers might shy away from being lumped in with him.It doesn’t help that Pakistan have used him as a stopgap so often Iftikhar has almost become their personification of papering over cracks. Legspinners unable to stem the tide in the middle overs? Stick Iftikhar in for a few. Thinking about taking pace off with the new ball? What’s Ifti for, after all? Need to finish off a game quickly to help with the run rate? Need some power at the death with a longish tail? Let’s see how Uncle Ifti goes, shall we? Need the odd death over? He can do that, too.Iftikhar Ahmed is ready to do any job for Pakistan•ICC via Getty ImagesBut scrape past those initial superficial statistics and his value becomes clearer. No Pakistan batter has a higher strike rate than Iftikhar at this tournament, and none come close to his six-hitting prowess and frequency. He has hit one every 14.75 balls he faces, a feat bettered only by Glenn Maxwell, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen.At the same time, while Pakistan have the third worst economy rate for the middle overs (11-40) at this World Cup, and their two frontline legspinners Usama Mir and Shadab Khan carry economy rates of 7.08 and 6.42 respectively, Iftikhar’s performance during this vulnerable phase has invariably tempered the opposition’s belligerence. In as many overs as Shadab has bowled, his economy rate has read 4.69, nearly a whole run superior to the next most economical Pakistan bowler Mohammad Nawaz’s 5.58 (minimum 90 balls). Simply put, he is Pakistan’s most aggressive batter, most economical spinner and he can bat and bowl at various stages of an innings.His flexibility might prove even more valuable in Saturday’s game against New Zealand, one where Pakistan have many variables to take into account, including the inclement weather and their need to keep an eye on their net run rate. And while it’s New Zealand who have historically earned a reputation for knowing how precisely to get the most out of limited resources, Pakistan have, in Iftikhar, a man primed to beat them at their own game.And he might just do it while the spotlight shines on Shaheen, Babar, or even the amount of biryani Pakistan may or may not have consumed.

Buttler flicks the switch to find form at the right time

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

After a wretched run in the IPL going back to last season, he scored a scintillating century to keep up Royals’ perfect start

Shashank Kishore07-Apr-20242:21

Moody: Buttler’s breakout ton firms up Royals’ position as favourites

One run to win. It was a chance for Jos Buttler to let loose and wallop a shot he likes to bring up a landmark he didn’t play for but had a chance to get to.As Buttler cleared his front leg and swung for the hills, he watched with bated breath as the ball curved away towards the longer boundary. As he just cleared the deep midwicket fence, he looked heavenwards, threw his arms wide and let out all his pent-up emotion. Buttler was back.He had overcome a wretched IPL run that stretched back to the middle of last year; this included five ducks in 14 innings. In that time, he watched Yashasvi Jaiswal become a powerplay king, while having to shelve his own flair, not for the lack of ability, but because he understood he needed to re-align himself after an unexplained form slump.Related

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It’s a period batters are coaxed into believing the big innings is around the corner simply because they’re hitting it beautifully in the nets. But the harder Buttler tried, the more he looked out of sorts. It was far different to IPL 2022, where he was Royals’ MVP. His sumptuous returns: a chart-topping 863 runs at an average of 57.53 and a strike rate of 149.05, with four hundreds.Buttler came into Saturday’s fixture on the back of scores of 11, 11 and 13. He was seemingly in a self-inflicted bubble that didn’t allow him to play shots he would otherwise to hittable deliveries. It seemed that way early in his innings against RCB too. Partly down to his own diffidence, and partly down to some excellent deliveries early on, like the very first delivery he faced off Reece Topley.Butler offered no feet movement, and the lateral movement amplified his struggle in picking length as the ball beat the inside edge and whizzed over the stumps. You can only wonder what could’ve been. Maybe the discourse would’ve taken a different turn and pointed to his struggles, which have been very real in recent times, going back to the 2023 ODI World Cup where he cut a disconsolate figure as batter and captain, having averaged 15.33 all tournament.Buttler needed some luck, and he’d got that first ball in Jaipur. Yet, it meant very little early on. An attempted scoop off Mohammed Siraj flew off a top edge for a fortuitous boundary. Then in trying to imperiously drive Siraj, he sliced one over point. Buttler was 10 off 10, and the first four overs had just gone for 25 in RCB’s defence of 183.Jos Buttler had some luck early on but soon found his groove•BCCIThen in the sixth over, as spin came on, Buttler broke free. The long hops came and Buttler suddenly rediscovered the feeling of being able to dominate bowlers. A slap through cover, a pull over deep midwicket and a straight one into his swinging arc all suddenly freed up the cobwebs. The over went for 20 and the stranglehold RCB had vanished.Buttler had flicked the switch, going from audacious to the sublime in a second. When he slapped Cameron Green through the covers, a more-than-acceptable slower ball on a length into the pitch, to try and cramp him up, you simply knew Buttler was somewhere near his dominating best. His making of room and generation of power in his punch was a thing of beauty.”I think however long you’ve played the game, you still have the anxiety and stress,” Buttler said afterwards. “The mind is a powerful thing. Sometimes it’s not easy, you just got to tell yourself everything will be okay. You’ve played for a long time, try and sort of dig into the things you’ve done well, keep working hard. There’s no secret to it. And you need a little bit of luck along the way, but just sort of having faith, at some point you’ll be okay.”Buttler revealed the signs were there from earlier. In Mumbai four days ago, he lasted all of 16 deliveries, but had that feel when he dug out a yorker-length delivery from Kwena Maphaka to the cover boundary. There was more confidence when he nearly clipped Jasprit Bumrah to the midwicket boundary.”I did feel really good in the last game even though I got 13,” Buttler said. “I had a really good tournament [SA20] in South Africa at the start of the year, but coming to the IPL, I think, sort of relaying on from the finish of IPL last year where I struggled a bit, I needed one innings to put that to bed and I now look forward.”As Buttler did his thing with Sanju Samson, making the very shots Virat Kohli described as tough look ridiculous easily, while gliding the ball behind square, driving cutters imperiously on the up through covers and punching his way to a century, there was one man in the Royals dug out not least one bit surprised at the turn of events.”Everyone requires a chat, but the chat doesn’t necessarily have to be about cricket or technique,” Director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara said. “Form is a state of mind. Jos is one of the best white-ball openers in world cricket and has been for so many years, he’s very smart, knows how to figure things out. Sometimes you’ve to just let the noise die down and let him be as well. We have a nice balance of that with Jos.”Over the past few seasons, Royals have shown the propensity to drop off after a roaring first half. Which is perhaps why the timing of Buttler’s return couldn’t be better.

Pujara, Sarfaraz and more – Kohli's potential replacements for England Tests

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Four consistent domestic performers could be in consideration – who will India pick?

Shashank Kishore22-Jan-2024Rajat PatidarThe Ranji Trophy winner with Madhya Pradesh bats predominantly at No. 4. He’s coming off an impressive backs-to-the-wall 151 in the first unofficial Test for India A against England Lions in Ahmedabad late last week. Prior to that, he hit 111 in a two-day warm-up fixture against the same opponents.The 30-year-old has formidable numbers: 4000 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 45.97, with 12 hundreds. He first hit the high notes during MP’s victorious run in 2021-22, when he was the second-highest run-getter with 658 runs in nine innings at an average of 82.25. This included a match-winning hundred in the final against Mumbai.Patidar nearly spent nine months on the fringes with a heel injury that required surgery. In December, he made his ODI debut on the tour of South Africa, where he also played the red-ball games for India A.Cheteshwar PujaraPujara continues to grind his way through the domestic season. On Sunday, he became only the fourth Indian to notch up 20,000 first-class runs, during the third round of the Ranji Trophy.He opened the season with an unbeaten 243 against Jharkhand, his eighth double-ton in the competition, and has followed that up with scores of 49, 43, 43 and 66. Pujara’s experience of 103 Tests, the last of which was the WTC final against Australia last June, and current form could work to his advantage.Sarfaraz Khan could be a good fit in India’s middle order•PTI Sarfaraz KhanThe punchy Sarfaraz predominantly bats at No. 5 for Mumbai and has been a consistent performance over the last four seasons. However, his patchy form for India A has somewhat put him behind in the queue. All said, no batter in the world who has aggregated 2000 or more first-class runs since 2020 averages more than Sarfaraz’s 82.46While questions have been raised about his ability to handle short-pitched bowling time and again, Sarfaraz is an excellent player of spin and could be a key point of difference in the middle order on tracks that are expected to turn.His overall first-class average of 68.20 across 65 innings, with 13 hundreds and 11 fifties, still looks formidable. He hit 96 against England Lions in the two-day warm-up fixture two weeks ago. Last week, he managed a half-century in the second innings of the first unofficial Test to help India A secure a dry in a massive 490 chase.B Sai SudharsanNo player in recent times has seen his stocks rise as quickly as Sai Sudharsan has. The Tamil Nadu top-order batter is a stylish left-hander, who looks easy on the eye. His technique has come in for plaudits from several pundits and the team management. He started his ODI career with two back-to-back half-centuries in South Africa last month. He’s been part of the red-ball mix for India A over the past six months, on the back of a decent 2022-23 Ranji season where he struck 572 runs in 12 innings at 47.66. He made 97 in his most recent first-class outing for India A against England Lions last week.

Renuka Singh finds her mojo ahead of T20 World Cup

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

With a tough 2023 behind her, Renuka’s spell in the series opener would give confidence to the India management too

Srinidhi Ramanujam28-Apr-2024Renuka Singh had been waiting for months to just feel normal: to be in the rhythm, start well with the new ball, and translate that to tangible terms in the wickets column using her swing and seam. On Sunday, everything fell in place for India’s pace spearhead as she starred with a three-wicket haul to help the visitors go 1-0 up against Bangladesh in the five-match series in Sylhet.For someone who spent most of 2023 in rehabilitation and recovery, it appears Renuka has peaked just at the right time for India, with the T20 World Cup around the corner in Bangladesh. After the visitors posted 145 for 7 on a surface that had some moisture due to an overnight shower, it was Renuka’s spell that pegged Bangladesh back early in the chase after India posted what looked like a below-par total at the halfway stage.”It feels very good because I am taking a three-wicket haul after quite a while,” Renuka said after India won by 44 runs. “I was in a good rhythm and started well. When we had to bowl in the second innings, the weather had become quite good. That helped because it wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on. So my plan was to bowl stump to stump and the ball would do enough.”Related

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Bowling just stump-to-stump denied Bangladesh runs. Her first wicket, off her third delivery, was a good length ball that jagged back in to trap the Bangladesh opener Dilara Akter lbw. Renuka gave away just three runs in her second over, bowling mostly good-length deliveries around off and fourth stump. Bowling her third over in a row, she cleaned up one-drop Sobhana Mostary with her seam movement. The ball shaped in off the surface and Mostary, who missed the ball completely, allowed the ball to go in between the pad and the bat and hit top of off.In no time, Bangladesh were 23 for 2 in 4.1 overs with their captain Nigar Sultana in within the powerplay and Renuka finished her first spell with 3-0-16-2 in an excellent display of seam and swing-bowling. With Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar striking from the other end, Bangladesh were reduced to 33 for 4 and they could never recover from early blows.Renuka Singh returned seven wickets in three T20Is against England last year•BCCIRenuka returned after 15 overs, when Bangladesh were 78 for 5, to remove Rabeya Khan with a slower delivery to finish with 3 for 18 in four overs.”I understood the pitch is going to help [fast bowling], so I kept everything simple, bowling wicket to wicket,” she said. “During the powerplay, the ball swings a bit so it is easier to get the wickets. And during the death, I used the variations well.”It has not been an easy ride for Renuka since the start of 2023. She played a total of ten T20Is and picked up 15 wickets last year. At the T20 World Cup in South Africa, she was India’s leading wicket-taker with seven wickets from five innings at an economy rate of 6.58. However, coming back home to WPL, she grappled at Royal Challengers Bangalore, scalping just one wicket in six innings before being sidelined with a stress injury. She then had to spend more than six months at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru to recover.There she worked with bowling coach Troy Cooley, focussing not just on fitness but also on adding more variations such as the one that swings away, the reverse swinger and the slower ball to her arsenal. She made her India return in the home series against England in December and took seven wickets in three games, conceding just 6.3 an over. In the next assignment – Australia at home in January 2024 – she bowled 12 overs in three games for a solitary wicket at an economy of 6.75.In WPL 2024, she struggled with consistency to eventually finish the competition with just two wickets from ten games in RCB’s title-winning run. It was against this backdrop that her Sylhet spell arrived.Since Jhulan Goswami first started inching towards her retirement, India have tried Meghna Singh, Titas Sadhu, Anjali Sarvani and Amanjot Kaur in the pace attack, although Pooja Vastrakar and Renuka have been the first-choice options. With Shikha Pandey being overlooked since the 2023 T20 World Cup, Renuka, who has now played 39 T20Is since her debut in February 2022, will be expected to play a key role in the upcoming T20 World Cup when the team returns to Bangladesh in September-October.Renuka and India will have four more matches in Sylhet and the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka to stay in rhythm before they kick off their campaign at the World Cup.”We definitely want to win it [The T20 World Cup],” she said. “This is a good preparation for us because the World Cup will be here. When we come, we will have an idea about the conditions, and how to bowl and bat on these wickets. So, we will be better prepared for the World Cup and we’ll try to win it.”

Stats – Mandhana, Harmanpreet, Wolvaardt, Kapp combine to break ODI records

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Only once before has more runs been scored in a women’s ODI, while this is the first instance of four women scoring centuries in an ODI

Sampath Bandarupalli19-Jun-2024325 for 3 – India made their first 300-plus total in women’s ODIs at home. Their previous best was 298 for 2 against West Indies in 2004.2 – Number of times India have scored more than their 325 for 3 in ODIs. Their highest is 358 for 2 against Ireland in 2017, and the 333 for 5 against England in 2022 is the second-highest.It is also the fifth-highest ODI total against South Africa, with the top four scores all recorded by England.Related

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4 – Number of batters to score a hundred in the Bengaluru ODI – Mandhana, Harmanpreet, Kapp and Wolvaardt, in that order. This is the first instance of four batters scoring centuries in a women’s ODI – it’s happened thrice in men’s ODIs.There has been only one instance of three centurions in a women’s ODI previously – a game between England and South Africa in 2018 in Hove – Tammy Beaumont, Sarah Taylor and Lizelle Lee got to the milestones then.15 – Number of sixes hit on Wednesday – eight by India and seven by South Africa. These are the most sixes hit in a women’s ODI, surpassing the 14 between Australia and New Zealand in 2012 at North Sydney Oval.646 – Runs scored in the game, the second-highest in a women’s ODI. The highest aggregate is 678 runs between England and South Africa in Bristol during the 2017 World Cup.321 for 6 – South Africa’s total is the highest by any team in a chase in women’s ODIs. The previous highest was South Africa’s 305 for 9 in an unsuccessful chase against England in 2017 and 305 for 4 by Sri Lanka while chasing South Africa’s 302 earlier this year.Marizanne Kapp and Laura Wolvaardt put on an 184-run stand•Getty ImagesThe total of 321 is also the third-highest for South Africa in women’s ODIs and the third-highest by any team against India.87 – Number of balls Harmanpreet needed to bring up her century. It is the fastest recorded hundred by an Indian in women’s ODIs, bettering her own 90-ball effort against Australia in the 2017 World Cup semi-final.1 – Mandhana became the first India batter to score hundreds in successive innings in women’s ODIs. She joined nine other women in achieving this feat with only Amy Satterthwaite scoring more than two in succession – she made four in a row in 2016-2017. Beaumont is the only batter with successive centuries on separate occasions.7 – Number hundreds for Mandhana in ODI cricket, the joint-highest for India alongside Mithali Raj. Harmanpreet is next on the list with six, all while batting at No. 4 or lower.ESPNcricinfo Ltd8 – Sixes hit by India in this game, their highest in a women’s ODI. Their previous highest was seven.These are also the most sixes any team has hit against South Africa in a women’s ODI, surpassing the six by New Zealand in the 2013 World Cup.136 – Mandhana’s score, the highest for India in a women’s ODI at home. Her 117-run knock on Sunday in the first ODI was the previous highest.2 – Partnerships of 150-plus runs between Mandhana and Harmanpreet in ODIs. They are only the third pair with multiple 150-plus partnerships for the third wicket or lower in women’s ODIs.118 – Runs scored by India in their last ten overs in Bengaluru with 14 fours and five sixes. India started on a slow note, scoring only 47 runs in their first 15 overs, with just five fours. They faced 72 dot balls in that period.A total of 15 sixes were hit in the game•BCCI2 – Mandhana and Harmanpreet are only the second pair to score hundreds twice in the same women’s ODI innings. The two hit hundreds against West Indies in the 2022 World Cup.Beaumont and Taylor are the other such pair. They both scored hundreds against South Africa at the 2017 World Cup and in 2018 at Hove.85 – Balls Kapp needed for her hundred, the quickest for South Africa in women’s ODIs, bettering Lee’s 86-ball effort against Australia in 2016.2 – Kapp has hit three ODI hundreds, and two have come while batting at No. 5 or lower. Kapp is the first batter to score multiple hundreds from No. 5 or lower in women’s ODIs.Her 114 against India is also the first century scored by a batter from No. 5 or lower in a women’s ODI chase.

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