They were dismissed for 274 but the purchase that Bangladesh’s spinners got and the return of Abrar offer them a glimmer of hope

Danyal Rasool31-Aug-2024A stone was knocked over, and Pakistan began with a trip. In unfamiliar territory, looking to avoid making unwelcome history, it was an inauspicious start. So when they brushed off that grazed knee, and Saim Ayub and Shan Masood began to lead them back down the cliff edge they were so dangerously perched on, a sense of relief replaced the wild panic that Abdullah Shafique’s dismissal had instilled.But just as that steady progress suggested sure footing had once more been established, there was a more worrying tumble. Masood, having batted so well to fight through the early stages of an innings, in a match where he fights not just for his captaincy, but potentially his career, was beaten by a Mehidy Hasan Miraz ball that skidded on. It was a score of substance rather than one of command, but it keeps the lights flickering.And a side he has tried to shape in his image has ended up in a collective position that could be characterised similarly. Masood’s dismissal triggered Bangladesh’s most dominant spell of the day, a lethally scintillating middle session where spin and pace alike gave Pakistan no breathing space, sending them careering down the precipice they had until then steadily descended.Ayub was undone in the flight as he jiggled down the pitch before Taskin Ahmed and Nahid Rana softened up an unconvincing Babar Azam as Shakib Al Hasan trapped him in front from the other end. Each of the remaining top eight scratched their way to double figures as Pakistan scrapped to regain their foothold, but having been knocked off balance once too often, they were letting events take their course by the end of the day.Related

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Having acknowledged last week the declaration had come too early, turning the innings over to Bangladesh roughly 200 runs shy of the position they were in last week would have been a challenging call to make for a captain perhaps already sensing the scapegoating scythe. But with a day of play already lost and the weather indicating further interruptions following the weekend, Masood – in more ways than one – doesn’t have time on his side. Pakistan know they need to do all the running in this game; Bangladesh, after all, have the high ground with a 1-0 lead, and stalemate suits them just fine. It may mean taking some wild swings, and leaving themselves exposed to the haymaker. But when you’re losing on points anyway, they could be risks worth taking.In that awkward position where any decision made could have even more deleterious consequences, Pakistan followed the Hippocratic principle: First, do no harm.Abrar Ahmed will have a big role to play with the ball if Pakistan are to save the series•AFP/Getty ImagesThey let the avalanche take them rather than cling to every nook and crevice they were swept past. And Bangladesh’s quality assured it wouldn’t be long before the innings ended, anyway, wrapping Pakistan up for 274 with a sliver of the day still to go.But as the fall breaks after day two, Pakistan find themselves in something of a mountain pass. Having spilled a chance off the first ball of Bangladesh’s innings, they’ve missed the opportunity to salve one of their wounds. But they don’t know if they’ve broken any bones, or how far they still are from safety. As Salman Ali Agha pointed out “you just can’t make any judgments about whether we’ve posted a good score until they also bat”.All Pakistan can do is huddle themselves up overnight in this temporary lodging that offers some refuge from the high winds lashing the cliffs on either side. There is hope to get them through the night; the weather forecast already looks brighter on Monday and buys Pakistan more time. Bangladesh’s spinners took six wickets today, never have more than that number fallen to spin on the opening day of play in a Test match in Pindi. And having brought Abrar Ahmed back after his contentious omission last week, it opens up a path to 20 wickets Pakistan deprived themselves of in the first Test.”Abrar and I have a major role,” Agha acknowledged. “The spinners’ ball isn’t coming onto the bat and is deviating quite a bit.”Pakistan are still way off base camp, and it won’t take much to find themselves staring into the abyss of a 2-0 series defeat. But having tried so hard to unsuccessfully manoeuvre themselves into a winning position last week, they may have stumbled into one which offers that glimmer of hope this time around.

The programme to introduce those incarcerated in state and federal prisons to the game won the ICC Development Initiative of the Year award for 2024

Firdose Moonda12-Sep-2024Ask a cricket newbie what they find most intriguing about the game and their answer is likely to be something about how two teams can play for five days with no winner, or the lbw law. But for a group of people at Mexico’s National Commission of Physical Culture and Sport (CONADE), it was an entirely different thing.”One thing they liked in particular was how the umpire’s decision is always respected and never questioned,” Craig White, secretary of the Mexico Cricket Association (MCA) says. “They liked that discipline element.”Consider that this is a country where football referees once went on strike in protest over player behaviour, and the admiration for the umpire having the final word may start to make sense. It could also explain why they decided to include cricket as part of an extracurricular prison programme, which has won the ICC’s Development Initiative of the Year Award in 2024.Related

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Why prisons? With more than 230,000 people currently in jail, and some of the highest levels of crime in the world, they are a grim reality in Mexico. And the incarcerated, while denied the rights of the free, also need to return to society, and partly, their period in prison is about preparing them for that.Why cricket? The idea took shape in October 2021, when the MCA stepped in to host the ICC America Women’s T20 regional qualifier in place of the USA at a time when Covid-19 travel restrictions were still in place. Members of Mexico’s sports ministry were invited to watch the event at the Reforma Athletic Club in the municipality of Naucalpan, north west of Mexico City, and given a special cricket demonstration. Four months later, the MCA was invited to present a two-day workshop to the sports ministry . “We sort of taught them the basics of batting, bowling, fielding,” White says. “There was one guy in particular, Eduardo Acevedo [chief of department, CONADE], who took cricket and ran with it. He proposed it as part of the physical activity in prisons.”Initially the MCA, which is an entirely volunteer-run organisation, just provided equipment, in the form of plastic cricket sets and advice – but within a few months they were going into prisons to run sessions. Currently they have eight trainers involved in the project.A game in progress at the Reforma Athletic Club, one of Mexico’s oldest and most active cricket venues•Fernando Llano/Associated PressOne of the volunteers is Mexico women’s international Anna Septien, who is also the MCA’s treasurer and development officer. Septien had never been in a prison before. “I’ve learnt that prisons in Mexico have a lot of opportunities for integral development like yoga, knitting and sports,” she says. “The sports ministry certifies the prisoners and teaches them how to be physical trainers. When they get out, they will have this title and they will have the opportunity to work. When you’ve been in prison, you have all this stigma and it’s difficult for you to find opportunities, but this could provide an alternative opportunity for a job.”The volunteers work in four low-to-medium risk prisons in Mexico City, the country’s capital, and CONADE also has cricket programmes in two maximum-security federal prisons in the northern states of Durango and Coahuila. Both male and female prisoners play cricket, sometimes together. They have had to adapt the game to the time and space they have available, and have even created their own scoring system.”It depends on the prison, in terms of the kind of places that they play,” Septien says. “Some are on concrete, some on grass, which can be more soil than grass in many cases, and some on basketball courts.”The prisoners only get an hour of free time each per day and so they can’t always have 11 players on the team – it depends on how many are allowed to come out at the time decided. So they have made tweaks to adjust: everybody gets three chances to bat; if the ball hits the wall, it’s a four. “It’s not perfect cricket but they are trying. And for those of them whose rooms are underground, it is the only time they see daylight,” Septien says.For her, the experience of going into prisons has been both confronting and surprising. While she understands that some of the people she is dealing with are dangerous, she has learnt that they are not that different. “You expect to feel [a certain way] before you go there, and some of them do have a harsh or scary look about them, but I have to say I’ve never been in another place full of robust and big men and felt more respected,” she says. “And you know, we are all just one action away [from being in their shoes].”The humanity of the project has been highlighted in the early results of the programme. “We have heard from the government that some of the kids of the prisoners have heard that their parents are playing cricket and they have expressed an interest in becoming involved,” she says. “And we have been told that conflict in the prisons has been lowered and that is a good outcome. We are promoting cricket as a peaceful and inclusive sport.”Cricket is played in four state prisons in Mexico City and two maximum-security prisons in Durango and Coahuila•Mexico Cricket AssociationThe hope is that when these prisoners move back into communities, they will be able to spread the game by working in coaching or training roles. “Cricket is a new sport. They won’t have competition because no one else teaches cricket. So they could do that in their region. That’s the idea.”But cricket is, in fact, not that new to Mexico. The country was one of the first outside England to play the sport. It arrived in the 1820s, with those who travelled there from England to work in the silver mines, and was also reportedly played by the Emperor Maximilian; there is a photograph of him playing a Sunday game. When Mexico became a republic for the second time in the late 1860s, work and investment opportunities drew expats from Britain and Australasia, who provided patronage for the game.Cricket continued to be played in elite circles up until around the Mexican Revolution and the First World War shortly after, when many expats went home, which led to a drying up of interest in the sport.The game did not ever trickle down to the common man, who had little time and almost no access to cricket, and that has not changed much. As things stand, in a country of 127.5 million, Septien estimates that there are “less than a thousand cricket players”, and that the sport is played mainly in three cities. But there is room for expansion and some readily available facilities to support it.The Reforma Athletic Club has been a cricket venue since 1894, and one of the highest in the world. At 2300 metres above sea level, it sits more than 500 metres higher than Johannesburg and is a third as high as Mount Everest. It hosted the 2021 women’s T20 regional qualifier, although Mexico was not a participant. That could change in coming years, with Mexico putting an emphasis on growth in the women’s game in particular.Not only does the MCA have an ambitious plan to establish cricket in all 32 Mexican states by 2030, it also hopes to make cricket the No.1 girls’ sport in the country in the same time frame. So maybe if you ask a cricket newbie whether they’ve heard of the Mexican women’s team in a few years’ time, you will be surprised at the answer.

Bumrah could have been the difference, but he wasn’t in the end. Instead, it was in the lengths and the Pujara model that the series was won and lost

Sidharth Monga11-Jan-2025High seam and low bounce proved to be the ideal combination for India in Perth. They could stick to bowling their 6-8-metre good length and still hit the stumps with it. Australia went with their traditional 5-7-metre good-length band, getting driven and then going too short in reaction. Even though Australia bowled India out for 150 on the first morning, they bowled 35 balls fuller than the 5-metre mark, conceding 20% of that total.Either India learned from what they watched or they just stuck to their natural good lengths, which turned out to be the best for these conditions. Australia were at the stumps less frequently than once in two overs; India attacked the wicket once every over. Eight of the 18 wickets India’s fast bowlers took were either bowled or lbw.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();

India’s batting fragility has been exposed at a crucial time, just before their tour of Australia

Ian Chappell03-Nov-2024It’s never good to experience batting failures but India’s capitulation against New Zealand’s pace and spin bowling came at the worst possible time.With a demanding tour against a very strong Australian bowling attack looming, India needed to exude strength not fragility.Of India’s two deflating losses, the second in Pune on a pitch favouring spin was the worst. They were bowled out for a paltry 46 on a seaming pitch in Bengaluru but they’ve recovered from a previous rout. In Australia in 2020 they collapsed for an abysmal 36 but fought back tenaciously to claim a series victory.Related

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However the loss in Pune was on India’s favoured surface – one that assists spin – and they failed dismally. Amazingly, India had been undefeated on home surfaces for 18 series – an incredible span of 12 years.Not only did India lose at Pune, they were palpably outbowled and outbatted by a resourceful New Zealand. Undoubtedly the worst feature of India’s loss was their extremely poor batting on a surface that spun.This should have been a time for India to shine rather than capitulate.To then read about the response to those two monumental failures was nonsensical. Apparently India practised in Mumbai with lines drawn on the pitches and a serious focus placed on the sweep shot.Some of England’s batting of late on surfaces that spin has been laughable. The Indian reaction to their two deflating defeats is in a similar category.Top-class batters don’t need lines on a pitch. They already know how to bat, along with which balls to play and those to leave alone. The question should have been, why was there such a disturbing lack of decisive footwork from India’s premier batters in Pune?England’s infatuation with the different varieties of the sweep shot is ludicrous. Have a look where it got them: consecutive drubbings against Pakistan’s spin duo, who captured an amazing 39 wickets out of 40 to fall.Those figures are a painful reminder of England’s Jim Laker capturing an incredible 19 out of 20 Australian wickets on a crumbling Old Trafford pitch in 1956. Debacles are humiliating.

The reverse sweep in Tests can be a dangerous shot because it’s premeditated. Precise footwork on the other hand is tailored to the actual length of the delivery

Regarding the supposedly all-important sweep shot, who is the insensitive coach who preached that the reverse sweep is safer to play in Test cricket rather than employing decisive footwork? The danger of the reverse sweep in Tests was adequately revealed with the senseless dismissal of Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Mumbai Test.The reverse sweep in Tests can be a dangerous shot because it’s premeditated. Precise footwork on the other hand is tailored to the actual length of the delivery. The odd player is very good at all types of sweep shots but the majority should rely heavily on decisive footwork to negate good spin bowling.And while we’re on the reverse sweep – the shot where the batter changes the order of his hands or feet should be deemed illegal. A batter who employs these methods is doing so mainly to disrupt the field placings, which are set for an opposite-handed player.The reverse sweep, when it’s adopted by a person who changes batting style in mid-delivery, might be spectacular and also skilful, but it’s not fair. Fairness should be a consideration in framing the laws and playing conditions.New Zealand’s superiority in Pune was embodied by left-arm slow bowler Mitchell Santner. He’s a solid white-ball bowler but not one who should capture 13 wickets in a Test.Star batter Virat Kohli’s first-innings dismissal was the perfect example of India’s lack of decisive footwork. Kohli was clean bowled by a delivery from Santner that if the batter had taken even a small pace out of his crease he could have hit on the full. However, instead of Kohli’s lack of decisive footwork being the culprit, his shot selection was questioned.Calamitous displays against New Zealand exposed weaknesses in India’s batting. There’s no good time for batting fragility but on the eve of a tough tour of Australia it’s asking for trouble.

The success of GT’s top three this season has left others precious little time to impress, so this was a vital opportunity ahead of the playoffs

Karthik Krishnaswamy23-May-20251:07

Moody: Getting a fifty leading into the playoffs perfect for Shahrukh

They suffered their joint-second-worst defeat by runs in their history as an IPL team, but Thursday night was still an encouraging one for Gujarat Titans (GT).There’s no such thing as a good defeat, of course, and this 33-run loss to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) put a dent in GT’s hopes of a top-two finish in the IPL 2025 league phase. On the way to that result, however, they ticked off at least one significant box ahead of the playoffs.Coming into Thursday’s match, GT had been the most top-heavy line-up of the tournament, with their top three scoring nearly 77% of all their runs. Their openers were the top two run-getters in the tournament, and their No. 3 wasn’t far behind, sitting at No. 7 on the run charts.Related

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All that top-order success had limited GT’s middle-order batters to bit-part roles. Their No. 4 had batted only twice inside the first ten overs in 12 matches, and their No. 5 not even once.Coming into this game against LSG, GT had the worst average of any middle order (Nos. 4 to 7) this season. On the flip side, they had the best strike rate for those positions. You could say they were doing rather well given the constraints they were operating under, but those constraints had left too small a sample size to draw meaningful conclusions from.With the playoffs looming, GT’s middle order was in serious need of time at the crease. As well as Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler were doing, GT may almost have been hoping for all three of them to get dismissed early in one of their last two league games – particularly with Buttler to play no part in the playoffs.M Shahrukh Khan had a rare opportunity for more substantial time in the middle•AFP/Getty ImagesAs it happened, that unspoken but probably not uncontemplated hope took material form on Thursday. Chasing 236, GT were three down in 9.3 overs, which meant that their No. 5 made his earliest entry of the season by far, beating the previous record by 22 balls.Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Buttler had done their bit before that, scoring quickly enough but getting out of the way early enough to leave their successors an equation that was steep but not outside the realms of possibility. When M Shahrukh Khan joined Sherfane Rutherford at the crease, GT needed 140 in 63 balls.Shahrukh has enjoyed a curious career in the IPL. The promise of his domestic T20 record, and the flashes of six-hitting power he has shown over time, have earned him INR 34.65 crore over five seasons of auctions and retentions. That’s a lot of money for an uncapped player, but coming into Thursday, he had only crossed 30 five times in 46 innings.That’s partly down to the thankless role he plays; seldom does he get any time at the crease before he has to swing at everything.Jos Buttler won’t be part of the playoffs•Associated PressShahrukh had that time on Thursday, even if a required rate nearing 14 meant there wasn’t much of it. But even this limited window allowed him to give the world a glimpse of the player he had been in his teenage years, when he hadn’t yet grown into this 6’4″ powerhouse, and when his technique rather than his power was the talk of Chennai’s cricketing circles – he’s referred to as “almost Laxmanesque” in this feature from 2014. You could kind of see it now. A back-foot defensive shot against Akash Singh. A flicked single off Will O’Rourke. A front-foot drive through the covers, with one knee on the ground, off Avesh Khan.GT needed more than that, of course, and Shahrukh obliged. When Akash Deep missed his length on a wide yorker, Shahrukh sliced him with astonishing power over the backward-point boundary. When the same bowler went for a yorker at the stumps and missed his length only marginally, Shahrukh created elevation with minimal room with a bottom-handed shovel that whistled back over the bowler’s head. In between, he stepped out to Shahbaz Ahmed and mowed him between long-on and deep midwicket, clearing the boundary despite connecting only with the inside half of his bat. This is the raw six-hitting power that makes him so sought-after.Rutherford brought the big hits too – an effortless flick off Avesh, a reverse-sweep off Shahbaz – and suddenly, GT were in with a chance. At the 16-over mark, when they needed 54 off 24, ESPNcricinfo gave them a 42% win probability. When Buttler had been dismissed in the 10th over, it had fallen to below 4%.2:18

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“After the first three wickets, our middle order batted really well and brought the game on course,” Sai Sudharsan said at his post-match press conference. “From there, having four overs, 54 runs on the board, I think any other day we would have got those runs for the team.”It didn’t happen on this day, but GT still became the first team to breach 200 seven times in an IPL season. And this time, the middle order played a key role in taking them there.”I feel [the] middle order has done pretty well [through the season],” Sai Sudharsan said. “Even in the first six, seven, eight games, Sherfane stepped up and got so many runs in the middle order and changed games for us. Even in Mumbai he changed the course of the game for us.”Even Shahrukh got an opportunity today to showcase his talent. So I feel the middle order is on course as well. I don’t think there is some gap or something in the middle order. I feel, touch wood, things went well for all the three batters at the top so they didn’t get more opportunity to play in the first half of the tournament.”Thursday brought defeat for GT, and a worrying one if it puts them out of the top two. But it also brought them significant positives going into the business end of IPL 2025.

Pooja Vastrakar’s fitness and Nat Sciver-Brunt’s form could also be key, if Mumbai are to repeat their success from the inaugural season

S Sudarshanan11-Feb-20253:22

What is MI’s biggest strength?

Where Mumbai Indians (MI) finished in WPL 2024They finished second in the league stage for a second season in a row, but went down to title-winners Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the closely-fought Eliminator. They were inaugural champions in 2023.What’s new for MI in WPL 2025?Allrounder Nadine de Klerk and Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup winner G Kamalini, who was India’s wicketkeeper and opening batter in the tournament, are among their newest additions. The other two new players in the squad are Rajasthan seam-bowling allrounder Akshita Maheshwari, and Madhya Pradesh’s offspin-bowling allrounder Sanskriti Gupta.De Klerk’s addition comes at a time when India’s own seam-bowling allrounder Pooja Vastrakar is injured. Vastrakar had last played for India at the Women’s T20 World Cup in October 2024, and then three matches in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy after being rested from the home ODIs against New Zealand.Related

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“Pooja’s currently injured at the moment, so will be making a call on that very, very soon,” MI head coach Charlotte Edwards said in the pre-season presser. “Clearly she’s been a big player for us for the last couple of seasons, but obviously we’re monitoring her fitness and, hopefully, we should be able to announce something really soon.”MI also have a change in the coaching staff, with former Australia opener Nicole Bolton replacing England’s Lydia Greenway as the fielding coach.MI’s likely XI1 Yastika Bhatia (wk), 2 Hayley Matthews, 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Amelia Kerr, 6 S Sajana, 7 Nadine de Klerk, 8 Amanjot Kaur, 9 Akshita Maheshwari, 10 SB Keerthana, 11 Saika IshaqueOther players: Chloe Tryon, Shabnim Ismail, Pooja Vastrakar, Sanskriti Gupta, G Kamalini, Jintimani Kalita and Amandeep KaurKey players: Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Saika IshaqueHarmanpreet Kaur is MI’s leading run-getter in the WPL, followed closely by Nat Sciver-Brunt. A lot of MI’s fortunes hinge on how the pair performs. Harmanpreet averages 17.40 at a strike rate of 102.35 in MI’s losses, while the corresponding figures for Sciver-Brunt in those games are 10.33 and 106.89. Sciver-Brunt heads into WPL 2025 on the back of a difficult Women’s Ashes, where she picked up just two wickets and hit two half-centuries across the multi-format series.Nat Sciver-Brunt heads into WPL 2025 on the back of a difficult Women’s Ashes•PTI There will also be additional spotlight on Harmanpreet in a home ODI World Cup year, which will be her first as India’s captain. Of late, her slowish starts in T20s have been in focus, even if she possesses the ability to make it up later. A case in point being MI’s must-win league-stage game against Gujarat Giants in WPL 2024. In that match, Harmanpreet was on 20 off 21 balls at one stage, before surviving a dropped chance and turning the game around to finish on 95* from 48. MI, and India, would want their captain to be in good striking form.Saika Ishaque has been the find of the WPL, and is its second-highest wicket-taker so far. Performances for MI helped her make her India debut, although she finds herself out of the reckoning after only four matches across white-ball formats. Ishaque has the ability to bowl across phases, and heads into WPL 2025 on the back of successful performances in domestic cricket, where she picked up 39 wickets and captained Bengal to a runners-up finish in both the Senior Women’s One-Day and the T20 Trophy.Young one to watch: Akshita MaheshwariMaheshwari, 24, could be expected to feature in MI’s starting XI, given the question marks over Vastrakar’s availability. She is a seam-bowling allrounder who plays for Rajasthan in the domestic circuit, and is the first from her state to be part of the WPL. In the Under-23 Women’s One Day Trophy last season, Maheshwari had finished with 23 wickets, the second-most in the competition, and picked up two hat-tricks: against Mizoram and Odisha, both in Mumbai. She also returned 4 for 23 against Meghalaya in the One Day competition earlier this domestic season. Maheswari was even part of the Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy, although she did not get a game.MI’s league fixtures in WPL 2025MI start their campaign against Delhi Capitals (DC) on February 15 in Vadodara, and are one of the three teams that play league matches in all four cities hosting WPL 2025. Their two league games in Mumbai are back-to-back, making MI one of only two teams – the other being DC – playing on successive days in this edition. MI also play the last game of the league stage, which could help if things are tight – they will know the exact qualification scenarios.

Runners-up PBKS’ Indian core dominates ESPNcricinfo’s uncapped team of the season

Sreshth Shah05-Jun-2025 ‘Where talent meets opportunity’. The IPL 2025 season lived up to the tournament’s motto as India’s uncapped players grabbed the spotlight with their performances. Whether debutants making an impact or experienced players elevating their game, this season flexed India’s talent depth. Here’s ESPNcricinfo’s uncapped team of the tournament.1. Vaibhav Suryavanshi (Rajasthan Royals)A replacement for his captain Sanju Samson, the 14-year-old Suryavanshi started his IPL journey with a first-ball six, setting the tone for the fearless, aggressive batting that followed. The power Suryavanshi generated alongside some sweet timing was a standout. He finished the season with 18 fours, 24 sixes, and 252 runs, but his most impressive stat was his strike rate of 206.55, the highest of all batters who have faced at least 50 deliveries. His 101 in 35 balls against Gujarat Titans (GT) was the second-fastest in IPL history.2. Priyansh Arya (Punjab Kings)Minimal footwork, maximum impact, that was Arya in his debut IPL. Backed by head coach Ricky Ponting, Arya’s lofted shots and flicks off the body made him a lethal powerplay hitter. His 475 runs, the highest by an uncapped batter in a debut season (surpassing Devdutt Padikkal’s 473 in 2020), came at a strike rate of 179.24. His 43-ball 102 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) was the third-fastest century by an Indian.Related

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3. Prabhsimran Singh (Punjab Kings)A retained player, Prabhsimran delivered on his promise with his best IPL season – 549 runs at a strike rate of 160.52. His crisp drives and ability to capitalise on loose deliveries made his partnership with Arya one of the stories of the season. His 48-ball 91 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and a 49-ball 83 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) masked PBKS’ middle-order woes. His aggressive approach to pace helped him become the highest run-scorer (1305) in IPL history for an uncapped Indian.4. Nehal Wadhera (Punjab Kings)Another uncapped gem for PBKS, Wadhera came from Mumbai Indians (MI) to his new team with a point to prove and turned himself into an adaptable player. With a tendency to hit straight or pummel short balls through midwicket, Wadhera hit a 37-ball 70 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) but his best performance came in Qualifier 2, where in a high-pressure scenario, he matched Shreyas Iyer shot-for-shot to help take down his old team with a 28-ball 49 in a high-octane chase.5. Shashank Singh (Punjab Kings)The 33-year-old, also retained by PBKS, was their finisher. With seven not outs in 14 innings, Shashank brought the fireworks with a 16-ball 44 against GT, 15-ball 33 against LSG, and 30-ball 59 against RR, all unbeaten performances. He was the highest scorer in the final with 61*, and it was another 350-run season for Shashank.Naman Dhir repaid MI’s faith in him with impressive performances as a finisher•AFP/Getty Images6. Naman Dhir (Mumbai Indians)MI used a right-to-match card on Dhir at the auction, and he showed why with his ability to race off the blocks. His 17-ball 38 against Delhi Capitals (DC) was the difference in a close game, and his 18-ball 37 in Qualifier 2 gave MI a promising score. The 11-ball 25 against LSG was another standout, while his eight-ball 24 against DC turned a below-par team total into a winning one. His highest score of the season came out of position, as he made 46 from No. 3 against LSG, while his season’s ball-per-boundary ratio was an astonishing 3.73.7. Vipraj Nigam (Delhi Capitals)A legbreak bowler with a big rip, Nigam was one of the season’s finds with with 11 wickets at an average of 32.36 for DC. Throw in his 142 runs at a strike rate of 179.74, and he was matching Axar Patel in utility. He silenced the Chinnaswamy by dismissing Virat Kohli in a spell of 2 for 18 in four overs on a ground notoriously difficult for spinners. Earlier, he had stifled CSK with 2 for 27 at Chepauk. With the bat, his ability to manufacture boundaries was on show when his 17-ball 39 helped beat LSG by one wicket, while his 19-ball 38 saved DC the blushes against KKR.Digvesh Rathi’s notebook celebration became a regular sight in IPL 2025•Associated Press8. Digvesh Rathi (Lucknow Super Giants)Pure cinema. That’s what Rathi turned out to be with his accurate wristspin, his “notebook” celebrations, and his desire to seek out a fight. Such was his form that by the end of the season, teams were looking to see out the man playing his debut IPL season. He finished with an economy of 7.59, the second-highest tally of wickets (14) for an uncapped bowler and the most for an uncapped spinner. He was also the lone bright spot among LSG’s bowlers.9. Suyash Sharma (Royal Challengers Bengaluru)A zippy googly that flattened Andre Russell’s stumps in the season opener set the tone for Suyash. He wasn’t always among the wickets, but his stump-to-stump bowling, alongside the variation in the dip of his deliveries, made him a tricky prospect. In eight of his games, he maintained an economy of under 8.50, while he saved his best for PBKS. His 2 for 26 against them early in the season contributed to a comfortable win, while his 3 for 17 in Qualifier 1 left RCB chasing only 102.10. Ashwani Kumar (Mumbai Indians)The left-arm seamer from Punjab made a late entry into MI’s XII. He struck with his first ball on IPL debut against KKR, dismissing Ajinkya Rahane, and finished the evening as the first Indian to take a four-wicket haul on IPL debut. His sharp yorkers and back-of-the-hand slower balls in the back-end of the innings made him a regular in the second half of the season, while his bowling average of 21.09 was the best among all uncapped bowlers. Such was Mumbai’s belief in Ashwani that Hardik Pandya trusted him to bowl the 19th over of Qualifier 2.11. Yash Dayal (Royal Challengers Bengaluru)RCB has immense faith in Dayal, one of only three retentions made by the eventual champions. That’s because of his knack for coming up trumps when the pressure is high. MS Dhoni witnessed that once again, when Dayal successfully held his nerve against CSK in the 20th over of the chase in their two-run win. With Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as his senior seamers, Dayal quietly did his job of producing wide and straight yorkers, often bowling in dewy conditions. In the final, he bowled ten dots in three overs to strangle PBKS.12. Vaibhav Arora (Kolkata Knight Riders)With 17 wickets it was another successful season for the tall, swinging bowler. He finished with the most wickets among uncapped bowlers despite playing only 12 games. His stellar head-to-head against left-hand batters was on show as he dismissed Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Travis Head and Ishan Kishan in a spell of 3 for 24. He also held his cool against Rajasthan Royals to eke out a one-run victory at home by playing his part in a final-ball run-out. But his bowling in the death overs was exposed this season, finishing IPL 2025 with an economy of 10.11, among the worst in the season.

Australia thumped 13 sixes to two against South Africa despite slumping to 75 for 6 after batting first for the first time in their new power-based era

Alex Malcolm11-Aug-2025

Tim David launched eight sixes in his 83•AFP

. It hasn’t been an edict that has been formally declared either internally or publicly by Australia’s T20I team, but the actions of their batters are speaking loudly at the moment. No matter the scenario, no matter the number in the wickets column, Australia’s batters are trying to hit their way to victory with spectacular results so far.On Sunday in Darwin, Australia’s foot-to-the-floor method was put to its sternest test to date, having not batted first in any of the games in the Caribbean.Mitchell Marsh, with a moon shot that might as well have been a bat signal, launched the first ball of the match for six over mid-off to set the agenda for the night.When they lost two wickets in three balls across the second and third overs, Marsh kept going. When Marsh fell to leave Australia 30 for 3 after 3.1 overs, Cameron Green and Tim David showed no sign of slowing. David skipped down the track to his second ball from Kagiso Rabada and lofted him straight for six. Green smashed four fours and three sixes in a 13-ball 35. When he skied one, Australia were 70 for 4 after 5.5 overs.Related

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Mitch Owen tried to launch his fourth ball out of Darwin. Glenn Maxwell tried to do the same with his fifth. Australia were 75 for 6 in the eighth over and in danger of being bowled out for under 100.David got a little more selective as the lone specialist batter left standing when he was joined by Ben Dwarshuis. But with Dwarshuis good enough to feed him the strike with minimal risk, David was able pick his match-ups and club eight sixes in total to score 83 from 52 and help Australia post a match-winning total of 178.”It’s obviously not the team plan to be four down within six overs, but that happens at times,” David said post-game. “We’ve got what we believe is a great calibre of batters in our batting order, and we back each guy to make the right decisions.”We’ve been playing together as a group now for a while, so there’s not a great deal of instruction from the coaches. They trust the players. We trust ourselves to go out there and we understand the game situation and we make decisions on the fly, because that’s the nature of T20 cricket.”I think if you’d watched our guys bat over the last period, wherever they bat around the world and when they play for the Australian team, it’s close to all guns blazing. So, yeah, you can probably expect to see that a little bit from our team. That’s how we think we play best.”Start as you mean to go on: Mitchell Marsh hit the first ball of the match for six•Getty ImagesThe sight of David turning down singles with plenty of balls left in the innings, and a capable batter at the other end just as he had done in the Caribbean, might have looked odd at the time. But there is a clear method to it. David believes that even two sixes, three dots and a single off the last ball in an over where he faces all six deliveries is a better use of his talent and a better mathematical outcome than five singles and one six in the over.Australia struck 13 sixes in total to South Africa’s two on Sunday. And while South Africa faced 13 fewer dot balls during their chase – 46 to Australia’s 59 – the net outcome was a 17-run win to the home side. In the Caribbean, they hit 64 sixes to West Indies’ 53 across the series to win 5-0. They hit more sixes in three of the five games, were level in one and one short in another, but also never faced the full allotment of overs compared to West Indies given they chased in every game.This is not a new method of playing T20 cricket. Australia aren’t proclaiming to have reinvented the wheel. But it is a different method for a team that has been traditionally quite conservative in the shortest form and it’s led them to nine-straight T20I wins, a record for Australia in the format.They took lessons from the most recent T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, where the batting fell well short of the mark. The retirement of David Warner, who had become a T20 anchor in his latter years, and the non-selection of Steven Smith have led to a clear shift in method. There was once a desire to have a left-hander, like the retired Matthew Wade, permanently positioned in the middle-order for fear of being exposed by a legspinner or a left-arm orthodox, and that conservative thinking has also been shelved.Cameron Green has shown his power in the middle order•Randy Brooks/AFP via Getty ImagesPacking the middle order with long levers and brute power to the point where Maxwell was listed at No. 7 on Sunday has been eye-opening. Green’s intent at No. 4 has been jaw-dropping. David has made his two highest T20I scores for Australia in his last three matches since moving to No. 5, including a 37-ball century and facing the most balls he ever has in a T20 game against South Africa. Owen has applied his successful powerplay hitting from the BBL into a new role at No. 6 without changing a thing.It is no coincidence too that the style is similar to what Sunrisers Hyderabad have done in the two recent IPLs, given Australia’s bowling coach Daniel Vettori is Sunrisers head coach, Pat Cummins is their captain and Head is their opening batter. Vettori is not with Australia in this series as he is coaching Birmingham Phoenix in the Hundred, another team that has pushed to be a higher boundary percentage batting unit than their opponents at various stages in recent years.If the coming T20 World Cup were to be played on Australia’s bouncy pitches and huge boundaries, it might be a method that could leave them vulnerable more often as it did last night. But Australia are looking at the conditions in India and believing this is a method that will bring them the success they crave. The 2021 T20 World Cup title currently sits as a one-off. Australia did not advance beyond the group stage or the Super Eights in the two editions since.The major question, as it was with Sunrisers and Phoenix in 2024, is can it stand up in knock-out finals? The other question that Australia are keen to find an answer to is whether it translates to lower-scoring spinning surfaces in Sri Lanka, given they could be drawn to play there more often in the World Cup compared to some of the pristine batting surfaces in India.They’ll find out at some point. In the meantime, it’s all guns blazing.

It was impossible to miss the Ashes omens as England’s Test-qualified top order were blown apart

Cameron Ponsonby26-Oct-2025He’s done it again. Another innings in New Zealand. Another Harry Brook masterclass.Less than a year ago, Brook played arguably his best innings in an England shirt. Arriving at the crease at 26 for 3, which soon became 43 for 4, Brook made 123 from 115 (in a Test match) at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. He hit one ball out of the stadium and into the road. It had gone over extra cover.So where does he rank his magician’s innings in Mount Maunganui compared to his hundred at Wellington?”Which one?” comes the reply.Because he also made 186 on the same ground the year before. Maybe he genuinely couldn’t remember. Which somehow makes it worse.Related

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Brook’s 135 from 101 balls at the Bay Oval was nothing short of phenomenal. He hit 11 sixes and scored 60.53% of his team’s runs, the highest proportion that any one batter has ever contributed to an England ODI innings.But on a day of extremes, it highlighted one man’s genius in the face of his own team’s weakness. Following the T20 series, Brook spoke of how on true surfaces, there are few teams better in the world than England. But the challenge they have is when faced with a difficult pitch, can they fight and scrap their way to a total?Mount Maunganui was a tricky deck. And England were 10 for 4.You can pick the caveat you want: New Zealand were also 24 for 3, so it was a new-ball wicket. Or, in isolation, each of England’s first four wickets to fall were to exceptional pieces of bowling. Zak Foulkes, in only his second ODI, was entrusted with the new ball due to a strong crosswind and his ability to extract significant swing away from the left-hander. He was close to unplayable, first spinning Ben Duckett round to take the outside edge, then boomeranging one into Joe Root, before bowling a late-tailing yorker to Jacob Bethell.”I wasn’t expecting to open,” Foulkes said. “I didn’t think it was going to keep swinging past the tenth over. That doesn’t usually happen.”Of the four early wickets (Jamie Smith got a good one from Matt Henry first up too), only Root was playing an attacking shot. And counter to what Brook said before, that was the issue.”The question I would ask is, can we probably go a little bit harder?” Brook said here. “I think so. I think we can try and knock them off their lengths a little bit more and capitalise on their slightly off balls.”Instinctively, who’s to question the man who did it so successfully and so spectacularly? But pragmatically, there’s a touch of the genius speaking on behalf of the commoners. Thierry Henry would tell you to open your body and kick it in the goal. But it doesn’t make it any easier for the rest of us. Brook played a style of innings that only he – and Jos Buttler – could dream of.Harry Brook leaves the field at the end of England’s innings•Getty ImagesEngland’s top five consisted of four locks for the Ashes and one potential bolter in Bethell. The already stated line of attack from Australia is that they will produce lively pitches to test the defence of England and nullify their attacking instincts. On this showing, it is a sound strategy.”It’s definitely not a cause for concern,” Brook said when asked whether another failure on a pitch that offered assistance for the bowlers was a worry. “There’s a reason they’re playing cricket for England, they’re the best four batters in the country. It’s just one of them days where a couple of them got nice balls.”You’ve got three Test batters in the top-three. Rooty, Duckett and Smith didn’t come off but on another day they all get 30 and we’re off to a hell of a start.”If any further confirmation was needed that whatever’s about to happen in Australia, it will happen quickly, this was it.Away from the batters, Brydon Carse furthered his reputation in an England shirt with an excellent spell of bowling that claimed the wickets of Will Young, Kane Williamson and Tom Latham. Both Young and Latham were beaten for pace and dismissed bowled and lbw respectively, while Williamson got a lifting delivery that he edged through to Buttler for a golden duck – the first of his ODI career.Carse’s spell, along with Luke Wood claiming the wicket of Rachin Ravindra, gave England hope in a cause that even with Brook’s effort seemed lost.”I was thinking ‘bloody hell, if we get two more wickets here now, Santner comes out and it’s a completely different game’,” Brook said.”Carse was awesome. It was one of them pitches where as a tall bowler you probably get the most out of it. He was hitting the pitch hard and getting a bit of bounce. To get Kane Williamson out first ball put them under serious pressure and the first few overs were a really good start. It’s good signs moving forward.”Already a shoo-in in both the white-ball formats, it is increasingly hard to imagine England walking out in Perth without Carse in their XI.In all, it was another ODI defeat for England, who have now won just eight of their last 24 fixtures. Such is way with the ICC rankings, failure to automatically qualify for the 2027 World Cup remains a distant and unlikely disaster, but even with a full-strength XI, the ODI format clicking for a wildly talented group remains elusive.England’s batters got a taste of what may be to come in the Ashes. And England supporters blearily checking the scorecard first thing in the morning, might just have to.