All posts by h716a5.icu

Chaos was on the menu in Williamsport, Pa. Wednesday night.

In an elimination game that went to extra innings at the Little League World Series, the team representing the Southeast region from Irmo, S.C. gave up five runs in the top of the seventh inning to their opponent out of the Midwest region from Sioux Falls, S.D.

With just three outs for South Carolina to overcome a five-run deficit to keep their LLWS title hopes alive they somehow pulled it off.

The rally started right away in the bottom half of the seventh as South Carolina had their first batter draw a walk to fill the empty first base before they drove in a run on their next at-bat. Brayden Gerard doubled next to drive in the second run of the inning to trim South Dakota's lead to three runs.

Then South Dakota let up two walks in a row, first to load the bases and then to force in a run. South Carolina's next batter struck out, putting South Dakota two outs away from shutting the door, albeit in a bases-loaded jam.

Another bases-loaded walk drove in one more run that cut the lead down to one run, which put South Carolina one base away from completing a miraculous comeback in extras. Their catcher, Andrew Bogan, played hero when he stepped up to the plate, doubling to right to secure the walk-off win despite a valiant effort from South Dakota right fielder Grayson Rehfeldt who laid out to try and make the grab.

You can watch the wild sequence with all of South Carolina's scoring plays to win the game in extras below:

Great time for an offensive explosion from both sides who each scored one run apiece in the first six innings.

South Carolina keeps the dream alive and will play the team from Las Vegas representing the Mountain region Thursday in yet another elimination game. The winner of South Carolina and Las Vegas will move on to the United States final against Fairfield, Conn. out of the Metro region. We'll see if South Carolina has some magic left.

Whether they’re having casual conversations with team-mates on Instagram Live, making entertaining Tiktok videos or creating trick-shot challenges, these cricketers are ensuring fans aren’t starved of entertainment

Kaustubh Kumar and Annanya Johari 22-May-2020Lockdown may be keeping cricketers at home but it isn’t stopping them from entertaining their fans. Many have increased their social media activity and have allowed glimpses of their private lives and conversations. We’re particularly impressed with the content these five have put out.Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer has always had a strong social media game, but the lockdown has seen him elevate it. He’s got the whole family involved. His sister and mother make sure him having to do household chores doesn’t mean he skips fielding practice.

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Fielding practice is everywhere you look

A post shared by Shreyas Iyer (@shreyas41) on May 3, 2020 at 12:30am PDT

And his dog, Betty, has brushed up on her slip catching.

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Betty wanted to have a go too after watching @kane_s_w’s beautiful dog Sandy nail that catch. Took Betty a while but she got her first catch and immediately ran to celebrate

A post shared by Shreyas Iyer (@shreyas41) on Mar 30, 2020 at 7:07am PDT

Poor Betty doesn’t quite catch on when Iyer plays pranks on her, though.

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Betty here, Betty there. Shreyas here, Shreyas where?!?

A post shared by Shreyas Iyer (@shreyas41) on Mar 23, 2020 at 1:17am PDT

And there’s a secret member of the family too.

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Did you guys know I have a twin

A post shared by Shreyas Iyer (@shreyas41) on Apr 10, 2020 at 7:25am PDT

Matthew Cross
The lockdown may be stopping cricketers from playing cricket, but it was never going to stop them playing the sport they truly love most: golf. So what if the courses are shut? You can always improvise at home. And no one did it better than Scotland wicketkeeper Matthew Cross. His trick shot involving three cricket bats and a jar sparked a full-on competition with Shaun Pollock, complete with sledging and wild celebrations.

friend not food… pic.twitter.com/2YBLPyY1lJ

— Matthew Cross (@crossy16) April 9, 2020

Chipping practice….Inspired by a link to @crossy16 pic.twitter.com/8LAJ8EjECS

— Shaun Pollock (@7polly7) April 11, 2020

Over to you @7polly7 pic.twitter.com/ehl50RA1qJ

— Matthew Cross (@crossy16) April 16, 2020

Sorry bud but I couldn’t count how many….. pic.twitter.com/lUHXPRtBTs

— Shaun Pollock (@7polly7) April 18, 2020

Cross wasn’t about to stop with cricket bats. He used everything from kitchenware to shoe boxes to his college degree to create more trick shots.

Finally putting my degree to use… pic.twitter.com/YIaY2qMARu

— Matthew Cross (@crossy16) April 30, 2020

Celebrating cause I can make dinner now… pic.twitter.com/5rYyCbmfdP

— Matthew Cross (@crossy16) May 7, 2020

Rohit Sharma
Away from the stuffy post-match presentations, press conferences and television interviews, cricketers have dropped the cliches and allowed fans to listen in on casual, candid conversations with their team-mates and opponents. Several have interviewed other cricketers on Instagram Live, and, among them, Rohit Sharma has got the tone spot on, being forthright with his opinions, eliciting similarly forthright opinions from others and ensuring plenty of interesting anecdotes find their way into the conversations. Ever wanted to ask Harbhajan Singh what his Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni’s retirement plans are? Or were curious about how Rohit and Yuvraj Singh struck up such a close friendship? Or wanted to know what Rohit has in common with David Warner? You’ll find it all on Rohit’s Instagram live chats.

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A post shared by ESPNcricinfo (@espncricinfo) on Apr 24, 2020 at 7:09am PDT

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A post shared by ESPNcricinfo (@espncricinfo) on Apr 11, 2020 at 5:27am PDT

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A post shared by ESPNcricinfo (@espncricinfo) on May 9, 2020 at 7:15am PDT

David Warner
You know the world has really undergone a seismic change when David Warner is suddenly the cuddly dad making funny Tiktok videos featuring his wife and two girls. But Warner really has shown comic timing, whether he’s dancing to Tollywood songs, lip-syncing Michael Jackson’s Bille Jean or on percussion duty in the family band.

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It’s tiktok time #buttabomma get out of your comfort zone people lol @candywarner1

A post shared by David Warner (@davidwarner31) on Apr 29, 2020 at 11:58pm PDT

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Let’s see if you can better this @aaronfinch5 lol thoughts??

A post shared by David Warner (@davidwarner31) on May 4, 2020 at 2:21am PDT

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When you know you have officially lost it in isolation!! #canwegooutsidenowplease

A post shared by David Warner (@davidwarner31) on May 5, 2020 at 2:52am PDT

Kevin Pietersen
If you’re looking for variety, Pietersen’s feeds are the place. He’s got fitness videos, Tiktok videos complete with special effects, golf and live chats with players all in one place.

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TRIATHLON! #Ride #Walk #Run #Swim. Have a lekker weekend!

A post shared by Kevin Pietersen (@kp24) on May 9, 2020 at 12:38am PDT

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Cricket GLADIATOR! #tiktok cc – @thecrankhead

A post shared by Kevin Pietersen (@kp24) on May 16, 2020 at 4:26am PDT

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Cruising through the 5.5M views currently…! #TikTok

A post shared by Kevin Pietersen (@kp24) on May 8, 2020 at 12:54am PDT

A reverse-scoop off Jofra Archer for six after being hit on the helmet was one of the many jaw-dropping shots during his 47-ball 79*

Deivarayan Muthu07-Oct-202013:48

T20 Time Out | Mumbai vs Rajasthan, post match show

Suryakumar Yadav jumps across off stump even before Jofra Archer delivers a lifter. He is pinged on the badge of his helmet and goes down on his haunches, needing medical attention. After seemingly clearing a test from the team doctor, Yadav puts his helmet back on. Archer attempts a wide yorker the next ball, but under-pitches it. Having jumped outside leg, Yadav gets his hands low and pulls off an outrageous reverse-scoop over wicketkeeper Jos Buttler’s head for six.The likes of Buttler, AB de Villiers, Niroshan Dickwella and Yadav himself make that shot look easy, but you need a strong base, a still head, quick hands and an uncluttered mind to execute it. Though the pace of the Abu Dhabi pitch may have helped Yadav, it’s still a tough shot to execute against Archer, one of the best white-ball bowlers in the world, especially after copping a blow on the head.Yadav and Ankit Rajpoot are in a cat-and-mouse game in the next over, the final over of the Mumbai Indians’ innings. Rajpoot knows that Yadav will shuffle across off and scoop him over short fine leg if he misses the yorker. The seamer misses the yorker and pushes the full-toss wider than a set of stumps outside off. Yadav is on the move while he meets the ball, but adjusts well enough to lift the ball over short fine leg.ALSO READ: How did Mumbai’s top order manage to play with so much intent?The Rajasthan Royals had reserved two overs of Archer for the death against Kieron Pollard – and Hardik Pandya – but without Pollard batting, Yadav outscored Hardik in a 76-run stand off six overs to propel Mumbai Indians to 193. Yadav is no stranger to finishing an IPL innings – he was designated for that role when he was with the Kolkata Knight Riders – but in a Mumbai Indians line-up filled with six-hitters, Yadav is the anchor.The role of a T20 anchor has come into sharp focus recently, with some top-order players this IPL striking at below 120 and failing to accelerate. For instance, KL Rahul, the Kings XI Punjab captain, was on 46 off 44 balls at the end of the 14th over against the Chennai Super Kings on Monday, but was dismissed for 63 off 52. The Super Kings’ M Vijay and Kedar Jadhav, too, have also been a touch too conservative this IPL.ESPNcricinfo LtdAfter a rapid opening stand from his captain Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock, Yadav was similarly conservative in the early exchanges. He had only passed 20 twice in five innings this season before Tuesday, so he took his time to suss the conditions. However, after being on 12 off 11 balls, he unfurled his wide range of strokes, ensuring Mumbai’s run-rate hovered around 8.50 in the middle overs before upping the ante further at the death.Yadav used the extra pace of debutant Kartik Tyagi to his advantage and manipulated him either side of third man for fours. Tyagi’s short deliveries at the start of the ninth over weren’t particularly bad ones – he had bounced out de Kock and drawn a top-edged hook from Sharma earlier – but Yadav’s supple wrists and pinpoint placement made those look worse. Then, against legspinner Shreyas Gopal, he deployed a longer stride to counter the break and even though he didn’t take too many risks, he still got 17 off nine balls from him. His confident footwork against spin provided a throwback to his match-winning half-century against the Super Kings in the first qualifier on a turning track in Chepauk last year.ALSO READ: Report – Suryakumar and Bumrah dismantle RoyalsIn the slog overs, he brought out the more inventive sweeps, scoops, and ramps to throw Archer, Tom Curran, and Rajpoot off their lines and lengths. When others may have expected Pollard to close out the innings by peppering the ‘V’ in front of the stumps, Yadav peppered the ‘V’ behind it. Thirty-seven of his 79 runs came in the region between third man and fine leg. Only Rishabh Pant, during his unbeaten 128 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2018, has scored more runs – 42 – in that region in an IPL innings.At the innings break, Hardik said that he had “no words to describe” Yadav’s reverse-scooped six off Archer. As for Yadav, he told host broadcaster Star Sports that he was rusty heading into this game and was relishing the responsibility of batting at No.3. “In the last few games, personally, I was just finding ways to get out,” he said. “I just backed myself and tried to bat till the end. I’m loving the added responsibility given to me right now; there’s not much pressure on me. They [the team management] just told me to play my game and express myself and bat as long as I can.”Yadav appeared frazzled in the slog overs, but batted till the end, making an unbeaten 79 off 47 balls – his highest IPL score. Five out of Mumbai’s top-seven batsmen have rattled off 50-plus scores this season, with Yadav being the latest to the landmark. Buttler cracked 70 off 44 balls in the chase, but Yadav trumped him, and put Mumbai on top of the points table.

The possible return of David Warner should provide the batsmen with an ideal exemplar of proactive Test-match batting

Daniel Brettig06-Jan-2021As a Test-match debutant with an exhaustively documented history of struggle against short-pitched bowling, Will Pucovski’s problem this week will be a more acute version of the difficulty facing Australia’s entire top six, after their collective failure to fire in either Adelaide or Melbourne against India’s precision. The batsmen concerned will more or less know what is coming, having dealt with it previously and shown enough evidence of susceptibility. The Indian bowlers will have plenty of reason to take the same tack once more.In the instances of Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith and Matthew Wade, the successful corralling of scoring zones, whether they be boundaries or singles, has reaped rich rewards for an Indian team that knew before the tour that the traditional fifth-stump lines of attack had been proven faulty against Australia’s Nos. 3 and 4 in particular.The scenario, rightly pointed out by Ricky Ponting, has become one where the Australians are simply trying to survive after having their usual strike rotation zones blocked off. Against good enough bowling on a sporting enough pitch, this has primarily served to make them, in Ponting’s carefully chosen words, “sitting ducks”. The captain, Tim Paine, was of similar mind on match eve as he pondered how to escape India’s stranglehold.Related

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“We’ve just spoken about mindset. We think we’ve actually got some decent plans, it’s just a matter of going out and having the courage to execute them,” Paine said. “So if you’re a guy who wants to take them on and hit over the top, or if you’re a guy or wants to sweep or reverse-sweep the spinners when they’re bowling – then we’ve just been encouraging guys to do that. To have the courage to take the game on and play the way you want to play.”At times, we’ve just let them dictate to us a little bit, let them build pressure. Then, with pressure, you get wickets at times. It’s about being really clear in your plans and now having the courage to execute it and do it in your way.”Being clear was missing when Pucovski plonked forward to Kartik Tyagi during the Indians’ tour game at Drummoyne Oval a month ago, and seemed to be both ducking and trying to play the bouncer that dented his helmet and caused the latest in a series of concussions. It was clearly also somewhat elusive until Pucovski received a second expert neurological opinion about the potential for his concussions to have long-term effects: the verdict, if not completely cut and dried, was favourable enough to have him in line to play.Will Pucovski stayed down after ducking into a short ball from Kartik Tyagi in the tour game•Getty ImagesWhat Pucovski will be seeking to remind himself, as undoubtedly the coaches and team-mates around him will too, is that on days when he has a clear mind and a focused approach – making early decisions on whether to evade or hit the short ball – he plays it as well as most. His state coach, Chris Rogers, was at Drummoyne and contrasted that incident with what he had seen before and during Pucovski’s two double-centuries in the Sheffield Shield to begin the season.”When I first turned up as coach of Victoria, him and Sammy Harper, they do a lot of work with tennis balls, getting in really close with a tennis racquet and firing them in at each other. Will’s done a heap of work where he wants to stand up and roll the ball down to fine leg. You’ll see that shot from him quite a bit,” Rogers told RSN Radio. “Then it came to the matches and we played SA early on and Wes Agar came on first change and went straight to bouncers at Will, and he pretty much ducked them for the whole first session.”Then after lunch he played one of these rolling pull shots and from there he never looked back. They targeted him with the short ball for prettymuch the whole game and then WA did it from about the ninth over onwards as well. He would have faced a heap of short balls and he looked comfortable doing it and the way he stood up and played it, he made it look easy. So when that happened on day three at Drummoyne, it was an awkward situation where there was nothing to gain and he probably just got caught in two minds, so hopefully he’ll learn from that.”

“It’s not like he doesn’t practice this, he does a heap of work. So they will bowl short at him, and hopefully he’ll be prepared”Chris Rogers on Will Pucovski

Paine, himself no stranger to being targeted by short stuff in the wake of the serious finger injuries and subsequent mental hurdles that threatened to prematurely end his cricket career, noted that in Test cricket, Pucovski needed to be capable of dealing with spells like the one hurled down by Mitchell Starc at the Indian tail at the MCG, where 24 of 30 deliveries were short. As much as the Australians have Pucovski’s welfare at heart, they also know that Test matches are played more uncompromisingly than any other form of the game.”Playing Test cricket is difficult and playing the short ball at that pace is uncomfortable,” Paine said. “I think if you’re someone who is perceived to have a weakness in that area, or even if you’re not, it’s part of the game. It’s how teams test your mettle, test what you’re made of, until you show otherwise. I think the short ball is a great option and it’s going to continue to happen. It’s a tactic that we’ve used so we expect to get plenty back as well.”I think it’s a tactic we use pretty consistently, particularly to the lower order. I think lower order batsmen are getting better and better as well so the fast bowlers’ pact of not bowling bouncers to each other is well and truly dead by the looks of it. They love peppering each other these days. I think it’s a tactic that’s already in the minds of batsmen when they come to Australia to play against our attack. We don’t have to show it in the first game. They know it’s coming; we know it’s coming and we know it’s going to come back so we’re also planning and thinking about it.”David Warner’s presence should help the other batsmen•Getty ImagesLike tailenders waiting for the short ball without total confidence as to how they might play it, Pucovski will need to put any thoughts about concussions and his unfortunate history to the back of his mind once he walks out to bat if given the opportunity as seems likely. A clear mind and an instinctive response to the ball coming down tend to work in symbiosis, with any hesitation at such high speeds likely to result in a wicket, an injury or both.”The worry is I think with him, when he does get hit, the effects linger for a bit longer than perhaps other people,” Rogers said. “It’s never nice, you just worry about him, but he’s the one who gets to make the decisions. He’s gone and sought expert advice, and good on him for doing that.”You just hope if it does happen again he’ll be fine, but that’s his choice and it’s up to him and if he does get this opportunity hopefully he can play well and get out of the way of them. The other thing about it is he’s done a lot of work on this as well. It’s not like he doesn’t practice this, he does a heap of work. So they will bowl short at him, and hopefully he’ll be prepared.”As for Smith, Labuschagne and the rest, the return of David Warner from a groin injury should provide them with an ideal exemplar of proactive Test-match batting, where no bowler is given the chance to settle entirely, even if the left-handed opener is judicious about which balls to attack. Success at the crease often depends upon how a player’s natural game can best be married to the challenges being presented by a particular opponent and the set of conditions in which they meet one another, and Warner has mastered this balance more often than most in Australia.”We want to be batting for long periods of time but how you do that is very much on the player,” Paine said. “Davey is known as a dashing opening batter, but if he goes out tomorrow and they bowl to him well then he’ll respect that and get through it.”He likes to be aggressive, no doubt about that, but he’ll play the ball as it comes and he’s got great hand-eye and great skill so he can often score a bit quicker than others, but I don’t think he goes out there with the intent of just taking it down. He goes out and plays what comes at him, and if they bowl well then he’ll respect that.”

Five key questions that Australia will need to answer during the three-match series

Andrew McGlashan25-Nov-20202:01

We like having an extra bowling option in ODIs – Langer

Does Green get a debut?There will be at least one change from the team that clinched the ODI series against England in September with the Glenn Maxwell-Alex Carey inspired run chase. Mitchell Marsh is sidelined by the ankle injury he sustained during the IPL, which means an allrounder is needed in the middle order. It might be that Steven Smith’s comeback – he missed the England series because of concussion – sees Marcus Stoinis slip down the order on the back of his impressive IPL 2020 campaign and share 10 overs with Maxwell (another option would be the recalled Moises Henriques). However, the name on everyone’s lips is the uncapped Western Australia allrounder Cameron Green although he has been picked on the strength of his first-class rather than one-day form: he has only played nine List A games for a batting average of 27.83 and seven wickets at 34.42. Justin Langer has made it clear that Green will only be selected if he can perform a full role with the ball as he continues his comeback to bowling following stress fractures of his back.Beyond the big threeMitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins make up a fine pace-bowling trio in any format. But depending on whether any of them are rested during the ODIs, it could be a chance to a have look at what’s just below them. Kane Richardson would normally be the first understudy, but he has opted out of the series to stay with his family in Adelaide, so it is Sean Abbott, Daniel Sams and Andrew Tye who are the pace-bowling reserves. The latter two are known more for – and selected on – their T20 skills, so Abbott could be in pole position. His one ODI cap to date came back in 2014 against Pakistan, but overall he has an impressive List A bowling record of 97 wickets at 24.87 and, while in a different format, was one of the standout players in the recent Sheffield Shield hub.Marnus Labuschagne bowls in the nets•Getty ImagesTop-order formA couple of key members of Australia’s top order come into the series with question marks over their form following the IPL. Captain Aaron Finch couldn’t get going for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and was dropped for a few matches towards the end of the tournament after a campaign where he made starts but did not convert. Smith was ever present as captain of the Rajasthan Royals, who finished bottom, and while he started with a brace of half-centuries and later added a third, it wasn’t his most convincing of tournaments. However, speaking on Tuesday, Smith said he had “found his hands again” and was ready to go. While the white-ball matches are important in their own right, it will be interesting to see if the India bowlers can score any points against Smith ahead of the Test series.Will Labuschagne bowl more?Marnus Labuschagne is settling nicely into Australia’s ODI top order at No. 4 – averaging 43.77 after nine innings – but with the second string of his legspin he has only sent down four overs. His bowling continues to be in the developmental stage and is perhaps more suited to the red-ball game where the occasional drag-down or full-toss does not really matter but, particularly with the next ODI World Cup being in India, his value will continue to increase if he can become a viable option for Finch. Australia tend to play with four frontline bowlers and then a collection of batting allrounders to fill the rest of the overs.The Maxwell factorTalking of the balance of the side, so much of that revolves around Maxwell. In the deciding match against England, he produced one of the best innings of his career – 108 off 90 balls – which followed 77 in the opening match of the series, which steered another recovery. They were his first ODIs since the disappointing 2019 World Cup and, even though he will be 35, he is a key part of the team’s strategy for 2023. Having been all over the order, it would appear the No. 7 position is now his home, albeit with the ability to move up if the situation dictates.

In just his second T20I, batsman epitomises dynamic approach Virat Kohli promised on eve of series

Deivarayan Muthu18-Mar-20213:10

Suryakumar Yadav – ‘I just went out and expressed myself’

In September 2019, in a series decider against South Africa, Virat Kohli became the first captain to decide against chasing in T20 internationals at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. His reasoning was this: he wanted to challenge India out of their comfort zone in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup, but they ended up losing that match.That World Cup, which was originally supposed to be held in Australia in 2020, was pushed back by a year and shifted to India in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. India’s bat-first concerns, however, lingered and became more alarming after they dawdled to powerplay scores of 22 for 3 in the T20I series opener against England and then 24 for 3 in the third game.After losing the toss again in the fourth, and facing a must-win, Kohli reckoned that he would’ve opted to bat anyway and test out the line-up even if the toss had gone India’s way. Jofra Archer had Rohit Sharma plopping a return catch and KL Rahul, the other half of India’s first-choice opening combination, according to Kohli, managed to break his binary sequence of 1,0,0, but gulped down 17 balls for his 14.Related

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Ishan Kishan, who had belted a 28-ball half-century on his T20I debut on Wednesday, had suffered a groin strain, so the team management threw Suryakumar Yadav into No.3. He had made his international debut alongside his Mumbai Indians team-mate Kishan in that match, but didn’t get to bat. In the field, Suryakumar had looked as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs. He hustled from the boundary and dropped Johnny Bairstow in the outfield before just about hanging onto a skier in the same over.On Thursday, after missing the third game, Suryakumar returned but had no such jitters. He dispatched the very first ball he faced from Archer for an agenda-setting six, never really let up, and showed India the way to bat first. Archer banged in a chest-high lifter at 144kph, but Suryakumar swiftly jumped back and nailed a one-legged pull with gum-chewing swagger and jaw-dropping timing.Suryakumar had pulled off a similar outrageous hit – a reverse-scoop – off Archer over Jos Buttler’s head for six in IPL 2020. At the post-match virtual media interaction, Suryakumar revealed that he was well-prepared for Archer’s hit-the-deck bustle.”My plan was very clear when I went into bat,” Suryakumar said. I’ve seen him [Archer] in the last two, three seasons in the IPL also. I’ve watched all of his games in international cricket as well. So whenever a new batsman comes in, what plans he has… Obviously I had my plans as well when I went in to bat. It was a great opportunity for me to bat at No. 3 for India. I knew that he’d come a little short at me so I really wanted to execute that and I was really happy with the way things went.”Suryakumar Yadav goes inside out•BCCIMark Wood then cranked his pace up to 148.5kph, but Suryakumar rose on top of the bounce and laced him through the covers for four. Then, when Chris Jordan explored a fuller length and aimed for off stump with a blameless delivery, Suryakumar manipulated the field by opening the bat-face and gliding it away between backward point and short third man for four. Despite Rahul’s go-slow, Suryakumar’s sustained intent and aggression saw India gallop to 45 for 1 in the powerplay.With Suryakumar taking England’s fast men for runs, Eoin Morgan turned to Adil Rashid to burgle a few quiet overs, but Suryakumar picked him apart, too, in clinical fashion. All up, he hit 23 off eight balls from Rashid; only Mohammad Hafeez, Glenn Maxwell (twice) and Martin Guptill have scored more runs off Rashid in a T20I, but then again all these batsmen had the benefit of facing more balls than Suryakumar did.Rashid usually starts by threatening the stumps and then unleashes the wrong’un – he did Kohli like a kipper with the variation – but once Suryakumar put those attempted googlies away, Rashid didn’t quite have a Plan B. After splicing a sweep for four, Suryakumar dashed out of the crease, collapsed his back leg, and launched him inside-out for six next ball.In Rashid’s next over, Suryakumar stretched so far across and outside the line of off, taking the lbw out of equation and drilling a sweep through square leg for four. That big reach from Suryakumar forced the legspinner to go much shorter and outside off. It came out as a half-tracker that was scythed through cover-point for four. It brought about a dominant 28-ball half-century for Suryakumar and although he was dismissed in controversial fashion, his blazing effort put India on course for a slightly above-par 185 for 8, which they could defend despite the onset of heavy dew.Speaking to at the post-match presentation, Kohli delivered a glowing appraisal of Suryakumar’s maiden international outing with the bat.”Very very happy. Again, I would like to mention Surya’s innings,” Kohli said. “I think playing at this level with top quality bowlers who bowl at pace, it’s not easy to just walk in and it’s your first game and you start off like that [monster six off Archer’s bowling], it was outstanding.”We all were quite stunned with that start and he completely stamped his authority from ball one and then the bowlers were under pressure throughout the way he played. The leggie as well – he maneuvered the bowlers beautifully. He put us in a great position and allowed the likes of Rishabh [Pant] and Shreyas [Iyer] and then Hardik [Pandya] to do the job they do and get us to that total eventually.”So big credit to these youngsters. They’re coming in and grabbing the opportunities and that’s something that I am a big fan of. The first few opportunities you make a mark and you set your standards high and then you help Indian cricket along the way. I think it’s great signs for the Indian team.”The competition for spots in India’s line-up continues to heat up in the lead-up to a home World Cup, but Suryakumar has made a compelling case for himself with his dynamic T20 approach, something that his captain had promised on the eve of the series opener.

What is it about India that always gets James Anderson on edge?

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Aug-2021James Anderson has more Test wickets against India than any other team. He has won two Man-of-the-Series awards against India at home and even has a Player-of-the-Match award in India, for the Nagpur Test in 2012. In fact, during that tour, MS Dhoni said Anderson was the difference between the two sides after England won the series 2-1. But behind all the wickets, Anderson also has a history of getting into verbal duels with India’s players, and the tension resurfaced at Lord’s in 2021.James Anderson was accused of shoving Ravindra Jadeja during India’s 2014 tour of England•Getty ImagesThe Jadeja tunnel incident, Trent Bridge, 2014
On the second day of the Trent Bridge Test in 2014, Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja had an altercation in the corridor on the way to the dressing rooms as they left the field for lunch. The Indian team management alleged Anderson had verbally abused and then pushed Jadeja. They made a complaint to the ICC, and Anderson was charged under Level 3 of the Code of Conduct, which meant that had he been found guilty, he would have been suspended for at least two Tests. England made a counter claim that it was Jadeja who had turned aggressively towards Anderson in the corridor and Anderson had only pushed him in self-defence.The incident caused a rift between the two teams, with India insisting Anderson needed to be punished for the offence while Alastair Cook, then England captain, said it was nothing more than a tactic from the visitors to unsettle his best bowler and try to get him suspended.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the absence of video evidence of the incident, it was one team’s word against the other’s, and the ICC found Jadeja guilty of a Level 1 offence and fined him 50% of his match fees, something Dhoni was not at all pleased with.There was further shock and dismay for India after Anderson was found not guilty, with Dhoni maintaining that he had witnessed Anderson abusing and pushing Jadeja and had no regrets about reporting it to the ICC. Eventually, Jadeja’s guilty verdict was repealed after India appealed it, but the incident was being talked about as late as September, when Anderson told Sky Sports that it was one of the most stressful periods of his career.ESPNcricinfo LtdDon’t talk about our captain, Mumbai, 2016
Anderson had dismissed Virat Kohli four times in eight innings when India toured England in 2014. By 2016, when England toured India, Kohli was captain. He had a mammoth series, scoring a century and a fifty in Visakhapatnam and another fifty in Mohali before a double-ton in Mumbai. With England on the brink of going 0-3 down, Anderson, who had not been able to dismiss Kohli in the series, was asked whether he thought Kohli had improved since 2014. He was reserved in his praise, saying that while Kohli was a good player, home pitches hid his flaws.ESPNcricinfo LtdR Ashwin thought Anderson was not being a gracious loser and decided to tell him so on the fifth day of the Mumbai Test, walking right up to Anderson when he came to the crease. Kohli had to step in to hold his offspinner back and while he found the exchange amusing, his opposite number, Cook, said it was a bit of a “sour end” to the match.1:28

Cook and Kohli on the Ashwin-Anderson chatter

Did you just bounce me? Lord’s, 2021
On the third evening of the 2021 Lord’s Test, with England nine down after having snatched a small lead, Jasprit Bumrah attacked Anderson’s body with the short ball, pinging him on the helmet once and on the gloves and arms a couple more times. Anderson seemed to take exception to the tactic and had words with Bumrah at the close of play. The tense atmosphere continued into the next day, when Anderson had words with Kohli while bowling to him, and on the last day, when England returned the favour, bowling short balls to Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. Bumrah was antagonised by something in the morning session, and it led to a lot of verbals during England’s innings, with Kohli the main protagonist.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhile the details of what was said to Bumrah and Shami are unknown, the stump microphone did pick up some unpleasant language from Kohli towards England’s batters on the fifth evening. After the game, Kohli made a point of mentioning that the verbals directed at Bumrah and Shami in the morning session gave his side extra motivation when they came out to bowl.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

He seems to have gone back to trusting his hands and eye, and allowing his innate attacking game to flourish

Karthik Krishnaswamy03-Jan-20224:05

Ashwin: ‘Maybe our total is a bit short’

It’s not often that anyone outscores Rishabh Pant in a partnership, but R Ashwin on a good day is a plausible candidate for doing so. And after four years when his gifts of eye and timing lay frustratingly dormant, the good days are growing in frequency.Having averaged 16.72 and scored just one fifty in 39 innings from the start of 2017 to the end of 2020, Ashwin has been back among the runs. He’s averaged 26.73 since the start of 2021, and his manner of run-scoring in this period has been as encouraging as the scores he has made.Related

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His 46 on Monday was of a piece with other counterattacking knocks he’s played of late: the 27-ball 22 in the World Test Championship final, and a pair of 30s against New Zealand in Kanpur in November. He moved into strong positions from which to drive down the ground and through the off side, prompting mental flashbacks to his early years in Test cricket when the languid elegance of his strokeplay routinely drew comparisons with VVS Laxman.That fluency had been missing for most of the 2017-20 period, a time when he tinkered constantly with his technique in an effort to get back among the runs.Over the last year or so, Ashwin seems to have gone back to trusting his hands and eye and allowing his innate attacking game to flourish – particularly against fast bowling. Since – but not counting – his stonewalling efforts to save the Sydney Test last January, he’s scored at a strike rate of 69.17 against pace, with 30 fours in 292 balls, a rate better than one every ten balls.Ashwin says he hasn’t made any conscious effort to go after fast bowling; his scoring rate, he reckons, has simply been an outcome of getting into better positions at the crease.”Look, in between, somewhere, for a couple of years, trying to get very technically right or whatever it is to try and build on scores, I think I lost a bit of my flow with respect to getting into good positions at the crease,” Ashwin said, at the end of the first day’s play at the Wanderers.”Even before that I have always batted at a good clip, so there’s not been a conscious effort to go out there and keep playing those shots. If it’s there, it’s there. For me, I get into positions where I can play some of those shots which maybe some of the other specialist batters might not be able to play, but this freedom is what gave me success in the past.”R Ashwin – “I get into positions where I can play shots which maybe some of the other specialist batters might not be able to play”•AFP via Getty ImagesThat line about playing shots that specialist batters might not be able to play is, of course, no idle boast. Even his briefest innings have sometimes been lit up by an incandescent stroke; think of the back-foot drive that he hit off Josh Hazlewood on a pitch of hugely uncertain bounce in Bengaluru, back in 2017, before being bowled by a grubber while attempting a repeat.There were at least three shots in Monday’s innings that might stick in your memory: an effortless push straight of mid-on off Lungi Ngidi, an inside-out drive through the covers off Keshav Maharaj, and an on-drive over midwicket off Kagiso Rabada.”It’s still about choosing [shots] correctly and also getting the flow of my hands right, which I think I’ve been able to get back ever since Australia, or a little bit before Australia,” Ashwin said. “[Batting coach] Vikram Rathour has been very helpful in terms of having those communications and also trying to get those things sorted in the nets.”Ashwin acknowledged that his innings got off to a flier because he got a few balls in his area first up, but he also felt South Africa’s bowlers may have helped him get into rhythm by attacking him with the short ball when he came to the crease.”The moment I went in I got a straight ball which I hit down the ground, then I got one which I hit on the up off Lungi Ngidi on the off side,” Ashwin said. “So the balls presented themselves, and I responded. There was no attempt to try and go there and play at that strike rate; sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t, that’s the beauty of playing the game.”And also, I thought, getting a hang of the pitch. Initially they started with the short ball again, so I feel like whenever I get started off with the short ball, it gets me going a bit, so yeah, I had gameplans. Glad it worked out, and it’s also about building on and trying to be more productive for the team.”

Also, why did Chahar, Hasaranga and Hetmyer attract such big money?

Dustin Silgardo14-Feb-20225:30

Best and worst buys? Biggest surprise? Missed opportunity?

Why did Wanindu Hasaranga go for so much? Hasaranga fills two crucial roles teams look for. He can function as a wristspinner with variations, and also be used as an allrounder who can strike at 130-plus from No. 6 or No. 7. Hasaranga has established himself as one of the best googly bowlers in the world – his T20I strike rate is 12.9 and his economy rate is 6.32. And spinners with variations have traditionally done well in the IPL.Related

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But why did Hasaranga get a higher price than experienced spinners such as Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin? This is where his second skill comes in. Hasaranga can bat in the middle order and score fast – his T20 strike rate is 136.63. That kind of player was in short supply in the auction. Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja had all been retained, but that still left four teams – Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings – desperate to find explosive allrounders. No surprise that three of those teams were battling for Hasaranga. Another point to remember is that his name came up before many of the big-hitting allrounders who were sold on day two. Also, he was the only one of those allrounders who bowls wristspin.There have been questions as to why the Royal Challengers pursued Hasaranga despite having him in their squad last season and only giving him two games. But remember, last season the Royal Challengers had Chahal filling the wristspinner’s spot. This season, by having a wicket-taking wristspinner who can bat in the top seven, they have more options in terms of team combination – they could play four seamers after Hasaranga, with Glenn Maxwell as the second spinner, or make the batting deep with Shahbaz Ahmed as another spin-bowling allrounder at No.8.Why did David Warner and Quinton de Kock go for less than INR 7 crore (USD 926,000 approx)? Three reasons: Overseas batters have been among the cheaper buys because the supply is more. Every team had at least one opener pre-auction. A lot of teams were waiting for Ishan Kishan’s name to come up.Warner and de Kock would probably both have been better off not being in the marquee set. Clearly, many teams had their eyes on Kishan as a keeper-batter. Once Kishan was sold, the very next keeper, Nicholas Pooran, went for INR 10.75 crore (USD 1.4 million) to the Sunrisers. de Kock could have fetched a similar price had he come up after Kishan.Another factor was that of the 31 players picked pre-auction, 11 were potential openers. Every team had at least one player who could open, so those slots were not as much of a priority early in the auction.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn recent auctions, overseas top-order batters have been among the less expensive buys. Think of it this way, if you consider six of the top-eight-ranked international teams (minus India and Pakistan) as your supply pool, each team has around four top-order batters, so the total supply is about 24 international-quality batters. But each team has a maximum of two allrounders, finishers or express pacers, so there your supply is half. It could make sense to spend on those other categories and try to pick up an inexpensive top-order player.For example, Chennai Super Kings, who were in for Warner but pulled out early, ended up getting Devon Conway for just INR 1 crore (USD 132,000), and he is still an international-level player. The auction also had a lot of Indian top-order options, so teams wanted to save their overseas slots for other areas.Of course, Warner is a special top-order player and a three-time winner of the orange cap, so if he hits top form, he could end up being the steal of the auction.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhy did Shimron Hetmyer spark such a bidding war? Again, this is a function of supply and demand. Teams wanted to fill the No. 5 slot in their team with a finisher – someone who can come in and strike quickly from the off, a totally different skill from building an innings from the top. Every team wants to find their own Pollard, Russell or Pandya, but there aren’t too many of those kinds of players around. While the ideal pick is an allrounder who can also be a finisher, teams were willing to pay big bucks even for batters or batting allrounders who can play this specific role.Hetmyer has a strike rate of 150.00 from No. 5 or lower. In 23 IPL innings from No. 5 or lower, he has struck at 160.26. Shahrukh Khan, another finisher, also went for big money, as did Tim David and Liam Livingstone, though he is seen as an allrounder.Hetmyer also benefited from being in the first pool of capped batters, as a lot of the options for this role were only going to come much later on in the auction, so some teams wanted a finisher early so they didn’t have to scramble for one with a diminished purse. Delhi Capitals, the other team bidding for Hetmyer, never ended up finding a proven No. 5 and will have to use Mandeep Singh or Rovman Powell in the role, or push Rishabh Pant down the order. Why didn’t Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin get bigger bids?Ashwin and Chahal are both among the 10 highest wicket-takers in the IPL, and it isn’t like their form has dipped. No spinner took more wickets than Chahal’s 18 last season, while Ashwin’s economy-rate of 7.41 was excellent. So why did Chahal get just INR 6.50 crore (USD 860,000) and Ashwin INR 5 crore (USD 661,000)?It seems that teams came into the auction with the idea that any spinners they picked needed to be allrounders who could bat at No.7 or higher. The reason for this was that there were a lot of spin-bowling allrounders to pick from but few seam-bowling allrounders who could bat in the top seven. So a lot of teams had set up to have multiple spin-bowling options in their top seven and a maximum of one spinner occupying the bowlers’ positions.If you include pre-auction buys, 15 spin-bowling allrounders went for INR 2 crore or more, with nine earning upwards of INR 8 crore. In contrast, just seven specialist spinners earned INR 2 crore (USD 264,000) or more, and that’s including Rashid Khan, who could, at a push, bat in the top seven.ESPNcricinfo LtdHow did Deepak Chahar become the second-most-expensive buy in the auction?Seamers are always in demand in auctions – you need five or six quality seamers in your squad to allow for injuries, loss of form and confidence. But one specific kind of seamer in great demand at this auction was someone that could bat at No. 8 and provide depth, which is becoming more and more valued in T20 cricket. Having someone who can finish games from No. 8 not only adds insurance but can change the way your top and middle order bat, allowing them to be more aggressive. There are not a lot of frontline seamers going around who can also strike at 130 with the bat, and so those players went at a premium.The reason Chahar went for even more than the rest of the seamers who can hit a ball long, is that he is one of the best powerplay bowlers in the IPL and tends to win a handful of games every season just with his early wickets.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhy did Mumbai Indians go hard for an injured Jofra Archer?Archer is unlikely to feature at all in the 2022 season, so why would teams want him in this auction? Why not simply wait for the next auction? By taking a gamble this season, Mumbai have actually ended up paying a lot less for Archer than they otherwise might have. A fully fit Archer in an auction could have earned massive bids. But by picking him up late in this auction, when other teams had used up most of their purses, Mumbai have actually got Archer at a bargain – remember, if he doesn’t play this season, Mumbai don’t need to pay him – and now have a formidable pace attack for 2023. They may also have been thinking of the 26-year-old Archer as someone they can retain at the end of this three-year cycle. The trade-off, of course, is that their first XI for this season is not as strong.The big question, which only Archer can answer, is why he decided to enter this auction. If he had entered the mini-auction next year, he probably would have fetched a lot more money. We will have to wait for him to answer that.Why did Kolkata Knight Riders pick Ajinkya Rahane?In four of his past five seasons, Rahane has struck at less than 120, and he was given just two games by the Capitals in 2021. But the Knight Riders wanted a steady opener to complement the aggressive Venkatesh Iyer. Their outgoing opener, Shubman Gill, also struck at less than 120 in his past two seasons but was consistent. Also, the experience and leadership of Rahane can be an asset in the dressing-room and training ground.

The former England batter, now Derbyshire’s new batting consultant, on why he chose to coach in Division Two, and why he’d like to work in the subcontinent in the future

Matt Roller13-Apr-2022Ian Bell turned 40 on Monday. Landmark birthdays are confronting, but in this case not only for the person celebrating: is the junior member of England’s 2005 Ashes squad really heading towards middle age?”If I’m old, it makes everyone feel old, doesn’t it?” Bell jokes the day before celebrating at home with family and friends. He used the occasion as an excuse to open his player-of-the-series champagne from the 2013 Ashes. “It’s all downhill from now, isn’t it?” he laughs.Bell is in the early stages of his new career as a coach and is speaking at the end of his first week as Derbyshire’s new batting consultant, a role he will fill for the first two months of the county season before playing in the Road Safety World Series, a tournament in India for retired players. He is to work for four days per week with the county – the first two of each Championship game and the two training days before. We talk on the second morning of their draw against Middlesex at Lord’s.Mickey Arthur, who became Derbyshire’s head of cricket over the winter, was in contact with Bell last summer. “I always had him at the back of my mind,” Arthur says. “He’d approached me about potentially doing some work last year when we were over here with Sri Lanka and I know he wants to develop himself as a coach.”It’s a match made in heaven. It’s superb to have a guy of his ilk in our dressing room. The response from our young batsmen – and our more senior batsmen – has been excellent. He’s fitted in really well… he’s been fantastic, as I knew he would be.”The move represents a return to the fundamentals of batting for Bell, who spent the majority of his fledgling coaching career in the white-ball game. His CV includes stints with England Under-19s, Hobart Hurricanes, Birmingham Phoenix and Chennai Braves (in the Abu Dhabi T10), all substantially different coaching experiences to that of the early months of the Championship season in the spring.Related

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“T20 cricket isn’t going anywhere, is it?” he says. “You want to be at the cutting edge of the way the game is developing… you want to be in there. I played a lot of T20 cricket at the back end of my career, but my foundation was around Test-match cricket and four-day cricket, and having a good technique. I need to make sure that I’m really balanced in my coaching experiences.”When Bell returns to Australia this winter, he hopes to fit in a stint with Tasmania’s Sheffield Shield side as well as his BBL commitments with Hobart.”My theory at the moment is to be stretching myself in different environments with different people, different cultures, and building up that foundation,” he adds, “so that when the right role comes up full-time, I can dive into it knowing that I’ve worked with some great people and have a good contact list of coaches that I can bounce ideas off.”It is to Bell’s credit that he starts the season at Derbyshire, rather than his home county, Warwickshire. He aspires to become head coach at Edgbaston in the long term but decided to put himself “outside my comfort zone” at a new club rather than staying with the county he knows so well. “It’s important that it’s not just a ‘job for the boys’ type role. I want to earn that right to be head coach [at Warwickshire]. When I go and coach somewhere like that, I want it to be because I’m ready and because I’m known as a good coach, not as an ex-player.”He timed his retirement well, too. Bell had initially been due to play for Warwickshire in 2021 but declined the opportunity to play a final season; instead, his decision to leave the game a year ahead of schedule ensured players like Matthew Lamb, Chris Benjamin and Dan Mousley had opportunities in their middle order. All of those players contributed to the Championship title last summer.”I’ve got really big ambitions,” Bell says. “But having worked in some of these franchise competitions, I thought, ‘Why not go to a county that’s in Division Two and have a look?’ A lot of people talk about these teams but I thought, ‘I’m going to have a look for myself.’ It would be easy for me to work at Warwickshire at the top end of it, but why not have a look at the other end? It’s important to do a bit of both.

“It’s a match made in heaven. It’s superb to have a guy of his ilk in our dressing room. The response from our young batsmen – and our more senior batsmen – has been excellent. He’s fitted in really well”Derbyshire head coach Mickey Arthur on Bell

“I’d love to work in international cricket – and that doesn’t necessarily mean England. I spoke to Mickey and Farby [Paul Farbrace, Warwickshire’s director of cricket] about this and I’d love to work with some of the subcontinent sides. Having worked in the T10 and played a bit of franchise cricket in the PSL, the enthusiasm and the love for the game is so good and the opportunity to go and work in those environments would be massive for me.”I love coaching players, helping them find their way and improve. There’s a lot of talk in English cricket at the moment about coaches maybe being a bit tougher on certain things, but having the trust of a player first is really important. That allows you to have those honest conversations.”From a county point of view, those six months in the winter are the time to really do your technical work; if you’re going to make big changes, that’s your time. In the season, it’s more about game plans. This week it was: how are we going to go and score runs against Tim Murtagh? Sometimes you assume that everyone will know the right thing to do, and that’s a mistake. Some of these lads need a bit of help or a bit of guidance.”Bell is sceptical about off-stump guards, the latest trend in the county games for batters trying to avoid edging wobble-seam balls in the channel behind.”We have to be open that there isn’t one way. It’s not about me telling people to bat like me, or to bat in a certain way; you have to work with the strength of the player. If you bat on off stump, you have to know where it is and think, ‘Anything outside my eyeline, I leave.’ That’s an individual trying to find the right solution for themselves, but I always get a little bit concerned.”For me, the problem with that comes when you’re playing world-class bowlers who are then smart enough to adapt, so you move across and they move across as well and you end up playing at balls you don’t need to. The problem with that is, you leave yourself vulnerable: if you miss a straight ball, you’re out. The other thing is that from a scoring point of view, if you get too far across, you’re missing out on cut balls. You’re missing out on scoring options because you’re getting too close to the ball. Especially on bouncy pitches, if you’re defending at fourth stump rather than leaving, you’re asking for a bit of trouble.”But if he disagrees with some players’ methods, he is heartened by the attitude and standard he has seen at the start of the season. “There’s a lot of talk about county cricket – you hear a lot of guys that I played with talk about it – and it’s generally at the end of an Ashes campaign where we get absolutely smashed. For the first few months after that, it’s very emotional, it’s very raw, and it needs to settle a little bit.”It’s very easy to make assumptions about county cricket but from what I’ve witnessed, there are some young players working extremely hard and trying to do the right things”•Alex Davidson/Getty Images”What I’ve witnessed in the last few days is young players working extremely hard on their game trying to find their way, working extremely hard and trying to do the right things. That’s what I’ve seen on both teams. For me, it’s about getting in and getting a little bit dirty with county cricket; getting stuck in, trying to help.”And those young players learn from good senior players. I remember batting with Dan Mousley in my last game. Farby was adamant that he would learn way, way more, batting with me for two hours in the middle than spending hours in the nets with any coach. That’s what you need in county cricket.”Having [Suranga] Lakmal with Derby at the moment with a young guy like [Sam] Conners – how good is that? I remember Broady [Stuart] Broad saying it about Ottis Gibson when he was at Leicestershire making his way. Everyone to a man came off at lunch yesterday and said, ‘Lakmal let Conners choose which end to bowl from.’ They’re the senior players you want. They’re the players that are helping young players become better.”Derbyshire have another of those in their ranks in Shan Masood, the Pakistan opener who has signed for the full season. He made twin fifties on his debut at Lord’s last week, and has already enjoyed having Bell on the club’s staff.”He was one of the top batsmen in international cricket – and one of the most aesthetically pleasing batsmen to watch,” Masood said. “I had a hit with him in Derby the day before we travelled, and he gave me some good insights. It’s always good when a coach tells you a few new things, and I think I applied a few of them here.””I love coaching players, helping them find their way and improve,” Bell adds. “I’m not shy of doing the work. I don’t have to rush into certain jobs for the sake of it but I’ll know when the time is right. I’m very ambitious but for now, I want to keep learning.”