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England know they have to be England, and fast

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

In the World Cup opener, England’s uncharacteristic batting innings was characterised by tentative shots more than full-blooded ones

Matt Roller06-Oct-2023As England’s players picked the bones out of the thrashing by New Zealand in their World Cup opener, Joe Root made a telling prediction. “I don’t think we’ll see guys getting caught mid-off or long-off check-driving anymore,” Root told the BBC. “They’ll be hitting it 20 rows back.”Root’s 77 was England’s top score and represented a welcome return to form for him after a quiet series against New Zealand last month. He was at the non-striker’s end for five of his team-mates’ dismissals and appeared to sense a pattern: with the exception of Harry Brook, England’s batters were not dismissed while trying to hit sixes.Take Jonny Bairstow. He fell looking to loft Mitchell Santner inside-out over extra cover, but with the ball angling straight in from around the wicket, rather than turning away, it hit the inner half of his bat and looped harmlessly towards wide long-off, where Daryl Mitchell took a good running catch to his left.Related

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  • New Zealand play with fire and come out unscathed

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  • Conway and Ravindra record NZ's highest WC partnership

  • Buttler says England 'well below par', Root warns against panic

At the death, with England looking to accelerate, Liam Livingstone had faced four consecutive dot balls from Trent Boult when he shaped to work a knuckleball away into the gap between midwicket and long-on. Instead, his leading edge hung in the air, giving Matt Henry time to run in off the boundary to settle underneath it.Brook’s downfall came about in a fashion that would infuriate many, caught in the deep trying to hit a fourth consecutive boundary off Rachin Ravindra during an over of drag-downs. So did Moeen Ali’s, playing across the line to Glenn Phillips. While Root himself was yorked while attempting to reverse-sweep the same bowler.But England’s uncharacteristic batting innings, scraping to 282 for 9 thanks to a 30-run last-wicket stand, was characterised by tentative shots more than full-blooded ones. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, New Zealand attacked 28% of the balls they faced; England only 17%.Even Jos Buttler fell tamely. He made a clear attempt to target New Zealand’s change bowlers, hitting James Neesham and Ravindra for straight sixes. But when Henry returned, he pushed at a ball that shaped back in – “wobble-seam, trying to use the crease,” Henry explained – and was caught behind. He immediately threw his head back in frustration.England clearly tried to target New Zealand’s allrounders. With Lockie Ferguson (back) and Tim Southee (thumb) unavailable, and Ish Sodhi left out, Tom Latham had to rely on 20 overs split between Neesham, Ravindra and Phillips, who returned combined figures of 3 for 149.

“We’re not robots: sometimes you don’t play as well as you’d like. We’ll be better for the next one”Jos Buttler

But perhaps England were too deferential against New Zealand’s three main bowlers in Boult, Henry and Santner. Their combined figures were 6 for 133 in 30; Devon Conway and Ravindra showed no such caution against England’s frontline bowlers, taking down Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood.Eoin Morgan, Buttler’s predecessor, was scathing in his assessment of England’s intent at the break, suggesting that they had let slip an opportunity to apply pressure after hitting Boult’s first over for 12. “You’d say that England didn’t throw many punches,” he said on Sky Sports. “They didn’t go hard enough.”After the game, he added, “They were so far off the mark. If you listened to Jos Buttler throughout the back-end of our summer, he continued to reiterate the message that you have to be more aggressive, to be brave… You have to be able to compete to say you were outplayed; for a lot of the game this evening, England didn’t compete.”1:45

Did England miss Ben Stokes?

Root expects England to be jolted into gear by their defeat. “It reinforces what we are about as a team,” he said. “We can remember how good we are, remember how intimidating we are as a batting group and double-down on it, really put sides under pressure and get those massive scores that blow teams away.”England do not need to panic. Six wins from their next eight games is almost certain to get them through to the semi-finals, and even five could be enough. “It’s one loss at the start of a very long tournament,” Buttler said. “We’re not robots: sometimes you don’t play as well as you’d like. We’ll be better for the next one.”They flew to Dharamsala on Friday ahead of their next fixture against Bangladesh on Tuesday where conditions will be very different. The weather will be cooler, the ball will travel at altitude, and a 10.30am start should ensure more uniformity across 100 overs than on Thursday, when the ball came on to the bat much better under lights.But Buttler will be frustrated that after seeming to rediscover their groove and tempo in this format last month, his batters did not exert sustained pressure on New Zealand’s bowlers. If anything, New Zealand batted more like England than England did themselves.

England's golden generation faces the end of an era

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Once the dust settles, they will be remembered not for the lows of this World Cup, but the highs of the preceding seven years

Matt Roller10-Nov-20234:26

Harmison: Even if some England careers finish, they’ve been absolutely outstanding

It is the end of an era. England will lose their status as reigning champions in both men’s white-ball formats next Sunday, and the golden generation of players who underpinned their unprecedented limited-overs success will splinter. Saturday’s fixture against Pakistan in Kolkata will be the final match of several storied ODI careers.David Willey has already announced his international retirement, and while there is no incentive for others to follow suit – they all have central contracts which run until September 2024 or beyond – there is widespread recognition that England need to rejuvenate. After all, 11 of their 15-man squad are aged 30 or older.Rob Key, their managing director, and Luke Wright, the national selector, have returned to India, and have been speaking to captain Jos Buttler and coach Matthew Mott about selection for next month’s tour of the West Indies. England play three ODIs and five T20Is there, and are expected to refresh both squads.Related

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The T20I squad may look a little more familiar, with a World Cup defence looming in June 2024, but players accept that it is time for a fresh start. Moeen Ali has described backing a new generation as “common sense”, while Dawid Malan said on Friday, “Ultimately, when you get to a stage like this, you have to make decisions.”Malan is the second-oldest player in the England squad at 36, three months younger than Moeen, and is among those who believes Saturday could be his final international appearance. “I don’t know what my future holds,” he said. “Tomorrow could be the last game of cricket for England for me, and it could still be the start of another journey.”He laughed off the notion that he could be involved in the 2027 World Cup – “There’s no way I’m running around at 40 years old!” – and said that he would accept England’s decision if they opted to move on. “You’re quite realistic when you get to a certain stage… I’ve enjoyed every moment of it.”Malan has been a regular in England’s T20I side for the last four years and played at the last two T20 World Cups, but is not holding his breath about reaching next year’s in the West Indies and USA: “I’d love to play – I still feel I can – but it’s not my decision,” he said. “There could be a total overhaul for both [white-ball teams]. Who knows?”England’s players accept that it is time for a fresh start•Getty ImagesLong before this World Cup went up in smoke, England had earmarked the upcoming ODIs against West Indies as an opportunity to test their depth and select young players – and they will not play again in the format until September 2024 – when they host Australia. By then, the 50-over side could look very different.Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root have both expressed a desire to play on until the 2027 World Cup, but have managed 372 runs between them in this edition. Neither has scored a half-century in the last month, and their form has demonstrated the pitfalls of coming into the tournament with limited relevant practice.Chris Woakes said earlier this year that he would be “amazed” if he played another ODI after the World Cup, and looks certain to move on from the format. And while Mark Wood’s three-year contract suggests that he will continue to be considered, his focus will primarily be on Test and T20 cricket.For those players who never feature again, this will not be the ending they had pictured. England boarded their flight to India six weeks back with high hopes of defending their title, yet find themselves scrambling for a Champions Trophy 2025 spot. Their comfortable victory over Netherlands on Wednesday means that is nearly confirmed.Six England players out of the XI that lost the T20 World Cup final at Eden in 2016 are all but set to step out again on Saturday•Getty Images”We’re seventh on the log, which isn’t where we’d like to be at this stage of the tournament,” Malan said. “We’d have hoped to come here pushing for a semi-final spot and preparing for that, but we just haven’t been good enough… we’re so disappointed in the fact that we are here, playing against Pakistan at Eden Gardens, and we’re not in the race for it.”It is a tournament that England want to consign to history as soon as possible. They had reached the semi-finals of five consecutive men’s ICC events – three T20 World Cups, a 50-over World Cup and a Champions Trophy – and had won two of them, but have lost six out of their eight games during this World Cup in India.There will be extensive post-mortems over the coming days, weeks and months, identifying exactly what went wrong, and who, if anyone, is to blame. Perhaps the explanation is simple: that this has been one tournament too far for a squad that has passed its peak.But their return to Eden Gardens for a floodlit training session on Friday – the venue where they came so close to winning the 2016 T20 World Cup – was a reminder of just how much they achieved. Six players from that XI – Root, Buttler, Ben Stokes, Moeen, Willey and Adil Rashid – are all but set to step out on the field again on Saturday afternoon, further highlighting how long this squad has been around for, and the fact that age is catching up with most of them.But once the dust from this World Cup settles, this England team will be remembered not for the lows of the past six weeks, but the highs of the preceding seven years.

Leus du Plooy: 'I'm excited to build memories at Lord's that are dear to me'

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Middlesex’s high-profile signing on a chaotic franchise winter, and the desire for a new challenge

Andrew Miller05-Apr-2024It’s fair to say that the circumstances of Leus du Plooy’s arrival at Middlesex aren’t quite as he had envisaged when he made the decision, in July last year, to call time on his prolific five-year stint with Derbyshire.On the face of it, the upgrade was obvious. At the age of 29, du Plooy was swapping the provincial charms of Derby for the Big Smoke of London, where he could fine-tune his career ambition amid the allure of Lord’s and the prospect (so he thought) of regular trophy-hunting at a newly promoted first-division outfit.Instead, he’s found his new club to be in the grip of an identity crisis. As if Middlesex’s immediate return to the second tier wasn’t galling enough, this was coupled with the ECB’s decision, in September, to place them under special measures for financial mismanagement – a double-whammy that tore back the veil on their gilded St John’s Wood cage, and arguably left them looking more vulnerable even than the oft-maligned club du Plooy had left behind.”I’d signed quite early in that transfer window, and I think we were mid-table at that point, so I was expecting us with the quality batting line-up that we had to stay up,” du Plooy said on the eve of the new county season. “So that hurt me. It took me a time to get over too. But it’s gone. I can see it from training; the boys haven’t lingered on that or are still upset by it. It’s how we get the best of ourselves this season.”Nevertheless, the reality of Middlesex’s situation perhaps reinforces the sense that du Plooy could be one of the signings of the season – a man with a proven ability to shore up a malfunctioning batting line-up, as shown by a stellar haul of 1236 runs at 82.40 in that final, winless, Derbyshire season.In the space of a fortnight last June, right around the time he was weighing up his options, du Plooy twice improved on his previous highest score for Derbyshire – 170 against Yorkshire, from the depths of 17 for 4, then 238 not out against Worcestershire, this time from a similarly bleak 38 for 3. Given his new club opened that same season with four consecutive ducks in a scoreline of 4 for 4 against Essex at Lord’s, here’s proof that he won’t be fazed if the standards around him aren’t everything he’d hoped they might be.As the extent of Middlesex’s plight became clear last summer, there was even a proposal from Alan Coleman and Richard Johnson, his new team management, to bring du Plooy in early on loan. However, his sense of loyalty, particularly to Derbyshire’s head coach Mickey Arthur, held sway.Du Plooy was the mainstay of Derbyshire’s batting for five years•Getty Images”It would have been great in a sense, that I’d have been able to meet the lads before now,” he said. “Whether I’d have helped them to stay up, I don’t know. But I completely understand Mickey’s point of view there; he made me captain for a reason and until the very last over on that field I was committed to Derbyshire.”It’s always a club that I’ll look back at and love them dearly. They gave me a great opportunity to play county cricket in 2019, and I had an awesome time there, but I just felt that I did all I could in that space of time from a personal level. I was always going to move, but you want to leave without burning any bridges. I certainly feel proud of my time there.”Still, at least some of those Middlesex drawcards remain as alluring as du Plooy remembered them from his very first visit as a 13-year-old in 2008.”I just see it as a privilege,” he said. “I’m sitting here at Lord’s, chatting about playing cricket for a living. The first time I sat here was right over there [Mound Stand], watching South Africa play England. That was my first-ever experience of a cricket ground in England.”The city of London was a major attraction away from cricket,” he added. “Me and my missus don’t have any kids, so it’s a great time in our lives to explore the city. I’m a city boy from Pretoria in South Africa, so we enjoy the things that a big city offers. I think it’s quite important away from cricket to fulfil whatever you want with your off-time.”It’s not the first time, however, that du Plooy has rocked up to Lord’s in less-than-ideal circumstances. As he recalled, on his second trip as a schoolboy cricketer in 2011, he ripped his toe open while wearing flip-flops on the escalator at St John’s Wood Tube, and ended up in hospital instead of getting the full guided tour. “I was just running down the street with a massive bloody foot; I almost passed out from the blood.”He did, however, make amends on his next visit in 2019, when he capped a memorable maiden season with Derbyshire with a century in a rain-affected draw, after his then-coach Dave Houghton had given him the behind-the-scenes experience that he’d missed out on eight years earlier.Du Plooy’s busy winter on the franchise circuit included a second stint in the SA20•SA20″That always just meant more for me. So this place – putting aside that it’s the Home of Cricket – with my own history with it has been quite special. I’m excited to build more memories here that are dear to me.”I think there is a lot of potential here,” he added. “Looking back at your career, you’ll remember the times that you won trophies. Some guys in the dressing-room have had a taste of that, and I certainly want to. Whether it’s realistic for this season, that isn’t for me to judge, but I’ll give it my very best to try and build something special here.”The depth of commitment entailed in du Plooy’s Middlesex contract is a far cry from the “madness” he encountered on the T20 franchise circuit this winter – particularly in a chaotic fortnight in February when, in flitting from the SA20 to the PSL, via a four-match stop-over at the ILT20 in the UAE, he inadvertently came to epitomise the sport’s current free-for-all.”The franchise world has gone a bit bonkers,” he conceded, as he recalled the scramble for signatures as one tournament bled into the next. After another prolific season for Joburg Super Kings in the SA20, du Plooy found himself playing for Dubai Capitals just two days after JSK’s play-off elimination, and was still sporting a JSK bandana when, a week later, he produced a matchwinning 63 not out for Capitals in the ILT20’s own play-offs. Even that affiliation, he admitted, hadn’t been a given when he stepped off the plane from South Africa.

“I was thinking I was going to play for Sharjah Warriors. But when I got there, they were like, ‘No, they’re out now; you have to go and play for Dubai Capitals’. I think of myself as a very loyal person, and it’s quite tough. I guess you shouldn’t be emotionally attached to those teams, but you almost have to detach yourself completely.”It is still pretty cool to be part of, and you learn so quickly in those tournaments. But I feel like if you sign a player, then they should be available for the whole tournament unless it’s an injury. I’m sure they’ll figure it out; there are people who get paid to make sure that cricket is the lovely sport that we grew up watching, sustainable throughout. I’m sure people will take care of it.”Du Plooy clearly hasn’t lost his love of the game despite its fluctuating circumstances, and this was perhaps best epitomised during perhaps the most unlikely of his winter engagements – an appearance for Hungary, his parental homeland, at the European Cricket League. There, his entanglement with a series of club cricketers led to an extraordinary series of scores, including the small matter of 163 not out from 40 balls against Turkey.”I went there purely to play with my brother, and I left just having been made so whole,” he said. “A lot of the guys in my team emigrated from Pakistan and India to get a better life. I can’t call myself English yet, but I’ve very much got used to the culture where we find things to complain about quite often, especially after a long cricket season when sometimes you just want it over and done with.”Playing with those guys, we stayed in a three-star hotel and we were on the beach every day. They were just loving it. We were getting a plate of food and they were just buzzing. It was actually the perfect thing to go to for me; it put everything back into perspective. Yes, I have the opportunity to live my dream, but there are guys out there who just do it for fun. There was no money there, it was a week in Spain for me to enjoy it. We got into the final and lost to Ireland, but that was all just add-ons. The whole experience was great.”

#Thalaforareason … but Thala for another season?

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The fans came in hordes to watch MS Dhoni do his thing, and despite all his limitations he left them hoping he returns next year

Alagappan Muthu19-May-20242:47

Have we seen last of Dhoni?

Everybody has a vice and in India, for bits of March, all of April and some of May, a lot of us get hooked on a 42-year-old classic.Chennai was the first to fall for his charms. We made him ours. We gave him a pet name. Something clever and understated. Nah, just kidding. We like shiny and OTT.It’s strange and beautiful and cartoonish and profound. This bond with this outsider who, right from the very first day, seemed so happy to be with us. All he asked in return was carte blanche so he could win us trophies, and access to a bike so he could zip around the city. Just him and the spirit inside him. The one that makes him untameable. This was back in 2008. His risk of being recognised was less. That’s changed.Related

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Now Mahi can’t step out anywhere because MS Dhoni is everywhere. So he settles his cravings in other ways. Like having his security guards ride pillion as he takes them from his front door to his front gate. Inside, he is still the same gearhead, the one who reportedly drank litres of milk, and adores his dogs so much he cuts his birthday cakes with them. Outside, he is the captain who won India their first World Cup in 24 years and the greatest finisher cricket has ever known.Man and myth.This IPL has seen the two sides of Dhoni in wonderful harmony. In Mumbai, for example, he was in danger of keeling over as he reached out to Ruturaj Gaikwad because he wanted a pat on the back from his captain for hitting back-to-back-to-back sixes. Later, in front of his home crowd, the people who once filled up a third of the stands for a pre-season practice game, he had Ravindra Jadeja act as if he was going out to bat, sending everybody – including those in the dressing room – into a panic. But it was all a prank. Dude likes to pull our legs and our heartstrings.Will MS Dhoni be back the next season?•Associated PressDhoni promised one more season and in the course of it, he has pushed both body and mind to create these moments. He has been seen wearing a strap around his waist, possible mitigation against a side strain. He is taking great pains to present us with these memories. He can rest knowing they will last forever.It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when Dhoni looked eminently mortal. A time when his performances dipped so sharply that the same words that were used to praise him were being used to bring him down. #Thalaforareason. Clips would emerge of him dancing awkwardly as an explanation of his waning power. Dude’s spending too much time doing this nonsense. He’s taken them both back now: the song that was playing as he displayed two left feet and the hashtag. He sings it himself in a lovely ad for an electric bike.Dhoni has faced worse than trolls before. He once spoke of how the Indian team came back home at the end of the 2007 ODI World Cup and instead of being able to go home, they had to spend part of the night in a police station because the airport was filled with so much media personnel that it had become a security risk; that en route, they were even chased by the TV cameras. Good thing his job didn’t demand he face them day after day after day.As India captain Dhoni had an obligation to face the press. At CSK, since it wasn’t international cricket, he could get away with a few things. So for once, someone else was taking a burden off him instead of the other way around. All of this plays a part, because he’s spent 15 years in the same place, with no desire to move. He has to have had opportunities. He’s too big a name, too big a brand, for there never to have been an approach. Dhoni chose Chennai. Several times in all likelihood.The fans appreciated that.

Over and over.

There is no one bigger than him in the game @msdhoni pic.twitter.com/WbyqW6ruL0

— scan the bans (@chirucharanfan) April 22, 2024

Creating a whole new subdivision of the Tamil meme culture.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chennai Super Kings (@chennaiipl)

That everyone wanted in on.

Thala, forever#LSGvsCSK pic.twitter.com/8JoKiBuGMH

— Netflix India (@NetflixIndia) April 19, 2024

It helped that he’s been in form. Dhoni’s numbers in this IPL put him in a very select group of nine men – it was four prior to the 2024 batting boom – who have been able to score at least 100 runs in a season at a strike rate of twice that. But even that can’t quite explain what he means to the fans. Something else did.Chennai Super Kings needed 50-something, possibly thousand, runs to beat Gujarat Titans. Everyone was screaming. Waving the flag. Thumping their chest. Dancing on seats. Only these guys were dressed in yellow – painted in some cases – and somewhere in the back of their mind they understood they were losing but it didn’t seem to matter. Usually, it’s the game that galvanises fans like this. The intricacy. The history. The chaos. The heartbreak. But this time it was a man. One man. The man.Dhoni was out of his crease, and having waited until the bowler had released, he earned himself the chance to do anything he wanted. So up went the backswing. Down came the bat. Still stayed the head. And snap went the wrist. The ball had safely boarded the helicopter and was off for an unforgettable ride.On Saturday in Bengaluru, CSK were behind enemy lines, their supporters stunned into silence and forced to contemplate an end that felt like it had come a bit too early. It was the final over. His eternal playground. And it started with a 110-metre six. Dhoni had given the ball an ultimatum. Disintegrate or disappear.He fell immediately after. So, potentially the last scoring shot of a career defined by big hits was a big hit. As he walked away, he offered one of those rare bursts of emotion. He punched his bat. Later, when it was confirmed that CSK were knocked out of the playoffs, the camera panned to him slumped against one of the chairs in the dugout and light was reflecting from the sides of his eyes. Almost as if there had been tears there. Millions of us watched him in that intimate moment and wondered if he had it in him to give us another season.It started raining in Chennai at exactly this time. We had hoped for more than this. Not for us. For him. We’ve been raised to believe in third-act miracles. We thought 2023 was it. He thought 2023 was it. “This is the best time to announce my retirement.” A city of 6.5 million waited with bated breath at 2 in the morning hoping there would be a “but”. And there was.My mother stayed up with me and my brother that night. That was her first season of watching the IPL. Now she texts me stories about Dhoni. Pictures of him when he was a kid. Rumours of the struggles he’s going through. I’d spent all my life thinking my grandfather’s love for the game had skipped a generation. By the way, this is what it’s like in pretty much every household in Chennai this time of year. You walk in and you’ll see (a mother, father, little son and thala).

Michael van Lingen is taking cricket out of Windhoek and into the sand dunes

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The Namibia opener is hoping the team’s success will inspire people to pick up the game outside the capital city

Firdose Moonda28-May-2024In the 35km stretch between Namibia’s coastal cities of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, there are endless sand dunes (including the world’s seventh largest, creatively named Dune 7) and about 100,000 people. Only one of them, Michael van Lingen, is an international cricketer, and these days he is instantly recognisable in the area.”I stay at Long Beach and I see a lot of youngsters that have never played cricket and never even heard of cricket – and they’re now interested in the game. When I’m there, I train in my Namibian kit and that’s how I try and inspire the guys,” says van Lingen, a top-order batter.”Cricket Namibia have got guys going into rural areas. They get the children involved and they get the parents involved. Because cricket is not an older sport like rugby in Namibia, people don’t know cricket. Lots of the parents are a bit sceptical and ask: ‘What is this sport? What’s this bat and ball?’ And then they realise it’s a great sport. It’s grown so much in the last two or three years.”Where the 26-year-old van Lingen lives is important because although Namibia itself is huge – at more than 800,000 square kilometres – its population of just over 2.5 million people is tiny. Almost anything of significance that happens in the country takes place in the capital, Windhoek (400km east of Walvis Bay), including most elite sport, and it’s rare to find someone who still lives in what could be called the wilderness involved in something as high-profile as cricket has become.Just his presence could help grow the game that he had to learn through television, and later in South Africa.Related

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“The skill and everything I’ve learned was through TV because the facilities [in Namibia] weren’t great. We had only one field and a cement pitch and the coaches were minimal.”I would look at guys like Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting and all the top players,” he says. “I used to like Michael Bevan even though he was a bit before my time. He was one of my favourite cricketers because he’s left-handed and was a finisher and I also used to be a finisher when I was young, so I would try to replicate what I saw him do.”When he was in his second year of high school, van Lingen and his family moved to South Africa’s Western Cape, where he attended one of the country’s best-known sporting schools: Paarl Boys, whose alumni include England international Dawid Malan.”I went to the school for squash, actually,” van Lingen says. “But then cricket started to take over.”At the outset van Lingen was a middle-order batter who only bowled in the nets. “I actually started off bowling left-arm wristspin and it came out well, but obviously that’s quite a hard skill if you haven’t been doing it for years. I sort of put that in my back pocket and I guess I could bring it out again, but I can’t promise it will be any good.”Instead, he made his name as a seamer and was picked in Namibia’s squad for the 2016 Under-19 World Cup. “We lacked bowlers at that time, so I thought I would make sure it was something I did.”A view of the Atlantic Ocean from Long Beach•Michael van LingenAt the tournament, van Lingen took 4 for 24 against South Africa, dismissing future internationals Kyle Verreynne and Tony de Zorzi, and finished as Namibia’s second-highest wicket-taker. Less than two months later he made his first-class debut, but went wicketless. After that, he did not play any cricket for the next five years.”My studies took over and then it was Covid, but I also had injuries,” he says. “The reason I stopped bowling in the first place was because I had a stress fracture in my lower back. I was out for a year, and then when I started playing again, two weeks in, I tore my hamstring. I just decided to step away from cricket.”He finished his studies at the University of Pretoria and moved back to Namibia to help with the family business. “I just started playing for fun and before I could wipe my eyes out, I made my [international] debut.”In that first T20I, against PNG in Dubai in October 2021 , he didn’t bat and bowled only one over – of orthodox left-arm spin.”My mechanics were awful and I was very injury-prone, so I sort of stepped away from bowling because there would always be some niggle that held me back. I decided to start focusing on my batting instead.”Van Lingen on Namibia’s chances in the 2024 T20 World Cup: “We think that if we play good cricket on the day, we can take any of the four teams [in Namibia’s group] out”•Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty ImagesIn his fourth match, against Scotland at the 2021 T20 World Cup, van Lingen opened the batting and scored 18 off 24 balls.”We only had one or two guys that wanted to open the batting, and because I played squash, I’ve got a good eye and good reflexes, so I said, I’ll give it a go, I don’t think I’ll be too bad at it.”He wasn’t. In his first ODI, a month after his T20I debut, van Lingen scored 51 off 48 balls from No. 3 as Namibia beat Oman by 40 runs in Windhoek.Since then, he has scored four ODI hundreds and two T20I half-centuries, but he hasn’t quite nailed the kind of power game the 20-over format demands. Van Lingen thinks he knows why. “I’m a bit more technical, I focus on timing the ball and I wouldn’t say I’m a big six-hitter, especially in the beginning.”I don’t really like to compare myself to guys like Travis Head and all those players. I just try to focus on my own game and make sure that I nail my skill as a solid opening batter. One of my goals for this World Cup is to lay a strong foundation in the powerplay for the team.”In the Namibian set-up, van Lingen feels that a slightly more circumspect approach works. “We’ve got a very strong finishing team. JJ [Smit], David Wiese and Gerhard [Erasmus, the captain] can come in later if we’ve set that strong foundation in the powerplay and just finish it. They can take games away from teams.”Namibia beat Sri Lanka by 55 runs in the 2022 T20 World Cup•Daniel Pockett/ICC/Getty ImagesIn the 2024 T20 World Cup, Namibia are slotted in Group B, along with Oman – whom they beat 3-2 in a T20I series in April – Scotland, England and Australia, and it’s the big guys that they are gunning for.”We want to be playing against England and Australia and the likes of South Africa and New Zealand. We’re very excited and very, very positive,” van Lingen says. “We think that if we play good cricket on the day, we can take any of the four teams out. We’re very optimistic in making it through the group.”That’s fighting talk from a side who have never played England or Australia in T20Is, and have only ever beaten three Full Members in the format – Zimbabwe, Ireland and Sri Lanka. No member of the current side has played in the Caribbean before either, save for Wiese, who has featured in the CPL.Their win over Ireland came during a dream run at the 2021 T20 World Cup, where they progressed from the first round to the Super 12s. Van Lingen was part of that squad and remembers it as life-changing.”There’s not much of a better feeling. I I never thought I would be able to feel so much joy and see so much passion and love for the sport and for the country.”For me, the biggest thing about qualifying for the Super 12s was the inspiration that the youngsters had. That was huge. After that World Cup, I think cricket increased tenfold in Namibia. People suddenly started asking questions and wanted to get involved. Before that, people didn’t even know Namibia played cricket, especially people at the coast.”Now they do and it’s a big deal because Cricket Namibia is trying to grow the game outside of the capital ahead of the 2027 ODI World Cup, which the country will co-host with South Africa and Zimbabwe.Namibia still have to qualify for that tournament, but van Lingen is confident they have the inspiration and plan to get there. “There’s still a lot of time, so there’s still a lot of upskilling that we can do. And we want to get there. We’ve seen the stadium [in Windhoek] getting built and the other preparations and it’s such an exciting time for the whole country to be hosting the event.”By then, if all goes well, there may also be more national cricketers living at Long Beach.

Stats – Pooran breaks Gayle's T20 six-hitting record

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

No one has hit more sixes in T20s in a calendar year than Pooran – here’s a closer look at his numbers

ESPNcricinfo stats team02-Sep-2024139 – Sixes for Nicholas Pooran in T20s in 2024, the most by any batter in the format in a calendar year. He went past Chris Gayle’s 2015 record of 135, when he struck the sixth of his nine sixes on the way to a 43-ball 97 against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in CPL 2024.8.23 – Balls per six for Pooran in 2024 – he has hit 139 sixes off 1145 balls. Gayle had a rate of 7.50 balls per six, facing 1012 deliveries for his 135 sixes, in 2015. Pooran’s sixes came from 57 innings in 2024, compared to Gayle’s 36 innings in 2015.Related

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92 – Sixes against pace out of the 139 sixes in 2024 for Pooran. He averaged 8.65 balls per six against the seamers, while the spinners disappeared for a six every 7.43 deliveries (47 off 349 balls). Gayle’s sixes count in 2015 was more evenly spread: he hit 68 off pacers (9.5 balls per six) and 66 off spinners (5.42 balls per six). Ninety-two sixes is also easily the most by any batter against pace in a calendar year (in matches where ball-by-ball data is available) – the second-highest is only 73, by Gayle in 2011.79 – Sixes for Pooran in the middle overs (seventh to 16th overs) in 2024, at a rate of 9.09 balls per six. He struck 32 sixes at the death (6.22 balls per six) and 28 in the powerplays (8.14). Pooran now also holds the record for the most sixes in the middle overs in a calendar year (in matches where ball-by-ball data is available) – the next-best is 71 by Gayle in 2012.ESPNcricinfo Ltd36 – Sixes for Pooran in IPL 2024, the most for him in a single tournament in the year. He struck 31 sixes in ILT20 and 19 in The Hundred, while 34 came in T20Is, including 17 at the T20 World Cup.4 – Most sixes for Pooran off a bowler in 2024. Four bowlers suffered that fate: Dominic Drakes (off 16 balls), Nandre Burger (18), Rashid Khan (23) and Sikandar Raza (25).551 – The total number of sixes for Pooran in T20s, the fourth-highest in the format. The top three positions also belong to West Indies batters – Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell.

Greatest Tests: The Chepauk epic from 2001 or the Chepauk epic from 2008?

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Two epic finishes in Chennai, one against Australia and one against England. Which one do you remember more fondly?

ESPNcricinfo staff18-May-2025Update: This poll has ended. The IND-AUS 2001 Chennai Test moves into the quarter-finals.

Harbhajan too good for Australia – Chennai, 2001

It was fitting that a series that had kept everyone on the edge of their seats ended in a thrilling last-day finish.After Matthew Hayden’s 203 had taken Australia to 391, India responded by racking up 501. Like he had in the first innings, Harbhajan Singh ripped through the Australia middle order in the second innings, as they ended the fourth day on 241 for 7, a lead of 131.On the fifth morning, Harbhajan wasted little time in picking up the last three Australia wickets, bundling them for 264. He returned second-innings figures of 8 for 84 and match figures of 15 for 127, finishing with 32 wickets for the series.But he wasn’t done.Chasing 155, India lost Shiv Sunder Das early, but Sadagoppan Ramesh and VVS Laxman added 58 to give India the advantage. But a middle-order collapse followed, and it was game on. But keeper Sameer Dighe, on Test debut, held his cool as he took India closer. India lost Zaheer Khan just four runs shy of a win, but Harbhajan sliced a Glenn McGrath delivery past point to give India a famous Test and series win.India’s chase to remember vs England – Chennai, 2008It was not a match India were supposed to win. For three days and two sessions at Chepauk, England were on top. India were staring at a target close to 400, when nothing above 300 had ever been chased before in the country (and the highest target chased at the venue was 155).But then the England bowlers came across a belligerent Virender Sehwag, who laid the platform for India to push for the win on the fifth day. Gautam Gambhir put in the grind at the top. And then Yuvraj Singh, with his Test credentials under the scanner, joined Sachin Tendulkar at the crease to take India over the line on a pitch with awkward bounce.Tendulkar applied the icing on the cake, hitting the winning runs while also bringing up a fine fourth-innings century. Only six higher totals have been chased in Test history than the 387 by India in Chennai, only two of which have come in Asia, and none in India. It was a win, as ESPNcricinfo’s Editor-in-Chief Sambit Bal noted at the time, forged by unwavering belief to go for the jugular and not just settle for a draw.

Yash Dhull: 'My first intent is to always score runs and score them quickly'

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Delhi and North Zone batter shows his range during his century against East Zone in the Duleep Trophy

Ashish Pant31-Aug-2025 [I am from Delhi and there, we play aggressive cricket.]This one line pretty much sums up Yash Dhull, the cricketer. The 22-year-old is continuously on the move when batting. He walks down to the fast bowlers, gives the spinners the charge and is always on the lookout for the quick singles when not hitting boundaries.It was the theme of Dhull’s innings both times during North Zone’s Duleep Trophy match against East Zone at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence Ground in Bengaluru. The aggression cost him his wicket relatively early in the first innings on 39, but against a weary East Zone attack, he ensured he didn’t miss out once again.Dhull stroked his way to 133 off just 157 balls on the third day of the Duleep Trophy opener, adding a 240-run stand with captain Ankit Kumar as North Zone sealed their semi-final spot. He not only tackled the spinners with a mix of caution and controlled aggression, but he was equally adept against pace.Related

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He scored 86 off 104 against spinners and 47 off 53 against the fast bowlers, with shots all around the field. Apart from defending solidly and using his feet to throw the bowlers off their lengths, he was innovative too: two upper-cuts against fast bowler Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, two paddle sweeps against left-arm spinner Manishi and a thrash through the covers off pacer Mukhtar Hussain.”My simple plan was that I would play my game. The wicket was seaming a little but I had planned that I will play attacking cricket,” Dhull said after his innings. “My first intent is to always score runs and score them quickly. I was also carrying plenty of confidence behind me. And I came here and played accordingly.”Dhull reached his fifty off 49 balls and his century off 112. There were a few nervous moments when he was stuck in the 90s for a while, and he played and missed several times, particularly against Mohammed Shami. But Dhull ensured that he didn’t lose focus.”Sometimes you collect runs quickly and then there are times when you can’t score and you have to bide your time”, he said. “That’s what happened. But I was calm, staying in the present and not taking any pressure. I was waiting for that right ball to score.”Yash Dhull plays the ball away on the off side•PTI Dhull is coming into the Duleep Trophy in top form. He was Delhi’s second-highest run-scorer in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy with 444 runs in ten innings at 49.33 and then had a stellar Delhi Premier League where he recorded 435 runs in nine innings at an average of 87 and strike rate of 167.31.Things are on the up now, but the circumstances were quite different just a year and a bit back in June, when Dhull had to undergo surgery to repair a 17mm hole in his heart. A cricketer is always on the move, jumping from one tournament to another, from one city to another, training, following a strict routine. For close to two months, though, Dhull’s life came to a standstill.”That time taught me a lot about myself, about my game, about my lifestyle, how to grow, how to improve,” Dhull said. “At the same time, I have to handle such things. There will be ups and downs. I have to go through them and move on. Right now, I just want to stay in the present. I don’t want to think about the past or future.”So much has happened. Now, I just enjoy my game. I spend time on it and that gives me all the happiness.”Dhull says he “didn’t have any option” but to get the surgery done. What he ensured during that time was not to think too much about the future. During the downtime, he also picked up a hobby. “I used to play snooker a lot and spent a lot of time there,” Dhull said. “That game also taught me a lot. My mind often used to wander around, I wasn’t concentrating much. That game taught me to stay more focused.”With a life-altering experience behind him, Dhull is now trying to take it one day at a time. He next has his sights set on South Zone, and having started on a positive note, he will hope his stocks continue to rise through the season.

Starc @ 100: A beast at home, a pink-ball master and a menace for left-handers

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

All the stats from the Australian quick’s phenomenal career

Shubh Agarwal11-Jul-2025A monumental landmark awaits Mitchell Starc in Jamaica. Taking the field in the third Test against West Indies at Sabina Park, Starc will complete 100 matches in the format, becoming only the second Australian quick after Glenn McGrath to amass a century of Test caps. Only 15 other Australian players have earned 100 Test caps.Starc will be the 15th pacer overall, including Jacques Kallis and Ben Stokes, among players who have notched up a minimum of 100 Test wickets as a fast bowler and played 100 Tests or more.Starc gets to the 100-Test mark in the 14th year of his career, having made his debut in the first Test against New Zealand in December 2011. Since then, he has featured in 99 of the 141 Tests that Australia have played, picking 395 wickets at an average of 27.39 while having a strike rate of 48 balls per wicket.Related

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Five more wickets will take Starc to 400 scalps in 100 Tests, making him the eighth pacer to achieve the double. Whether he manages those remaining wickets in Jamaica or not, Starc is almost certain to become the second-quickest bowler overall to 400 Test wickets in terms of balls bowled. Only Dale Steyn is ahead of him, getting there in 16,334 balls. Starc, having bowled 18,971 deliveries, is likely to reach the mark at least 1000 balls ahead of the next best – Richard Hadlee (20322-20436 deliveries). He will also be ahead of McGrath, making him the quickest Australian to 400 Test wickets when balls bowled are considered.In fact, Starc has the best bowling strike rate for a pacer heading into his 100th Test. While McGrath and Wasim Akram had more wickets at this point in their career, Starc is the only with a bowling strike rate under 50 after the first 99 Tests.ESPNcricinfo LtdEver since ball-by-ball stats are available (since 2002), Starc has taken the second most number of wickets in the first over of the innings (20), the most famous being Rory Burns’ dismissal on the first ball of the 2021-22 Ashes. Only James Anderson (29) has more.Starc’s habit of striking early has fetched him 107 wickets of openers. He is among the only six fast bowlers to dismiss more than 100 openers.Starc has been a big contributor in wins, picking 246 of his 395 scalps in victories, the second highest by a pacer for Australia. Including spinners, Shane Warne (510) and Nathan Lyon pip Starc.Starc’s 246 wickets are also the most for a pacer in Test wins since his debut in December 2011, followed by two other quicks known for their longevity, Stuart Broad (242) and Anderson (233).ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Adelaide Oval has been Starc’s favorite venue where he also picked his career best of 6 for 48 against India in 2024. He has snaffled 55 wickets in only ten Tests there, averaging 17.14. He is the only Australian bowler to take over 50 wickets at a venue at an average less than 20.Overall, with his 235 wickets at home, Starc is also only behind McGrath (289) in terms of most wickets for a fast bowler in Australia. Only three fast bowlers have taken over 200 Test wickets in Australia, with Dennis Lillee being the third (231). Warne (319) and Lyon (268) are again ahead of Starc if spinners are included.ESPNcricinfo LtdStarc has also been the highest wicket-taker in the brief history of day-night Tests. He has 74 wickets in the 13 Tests he has played, which is 31 more than the next best, Nathan Lyon. Among the six bowlers with more than 20 wickets in day-night Tests, Starc’s strike rate of 34.8 is the best.Starc is also the only bowler with four five-wicket hauls in day-night Test matches, giving him a good opportunity of picking the remaining five wickets to complete the double of 400 wickets in his 100th Test.

A walk down memory lane to Mushfiqur's Lord's origins

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The now grizzled Bangladesh veteran was so fresh faced in 2005, he could have passed for 12

Andrew Miller19-Nov-2025Some Test cricketers just look startlingly, stop-in-your-tracks young when they first take the field, especially when their baby-faced features are set against the grandeur of an ancient, storied venue such as Lord’s. Sachin Tendulkar was one such player, all fluff and so little obvious substance until he streaked around the outfield to claim an astonishing catch in Graham Gooch’s 333 Test in 1990. A mere 15 years later, and back at the same venue in May 2005, Mushfiqur Rahim was another.Though the records now state that he had turned 18 earlier that month, Mushfiqur was assumed at the time to be 16, while he could have been passed off for 12 without anyone missing a beat. He was tiny, and by rights he should have been overawed. He was playing in the most auspicious Test of Bangladesh’s then-short and deeply painful history, and was up against an England team that has rarely presented a more daunting challenge.As if it wasn’t bad enough to be nursing a record of 31 defeats in 36 prior Tests – and 20 of those by an innings – Bangladesh had arrived in early-season England to face an England side with far bigger fish to fry. The seminal 2005 Ashes was on the horizon, and this contest was less a warm-up, more a canapé. In Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard, the hosts had at their disposal arguably the greatest four-prong seam attack they’d ever compiled, and twin totals of 108 and 159 across 78.1 overs spoke of a team in an indecent hurry to get on with their main event.One man – one boy, rather – did his utmost to hold Bangladesh up. With time on the ball that shamed the hustled jabs and thrashes of his senior team-mates, and a thirst for the fight that belied every stereotype that his demeanour might have attracted, Mushfiqur endured for 85 minutes, making 19 from 56 balls in the first innings – one of only three double-figure scores. It wasn’t riches, but that was rather the point. It was resistance, a flicker of friction that hinted that he could yet be here to stay, unlike so many of the unready contenders that had already been chewed up and spat out in their team’s invidious circumstances.Mushfiqur Rahim received commemorative jerseys ahead of his 100th Test on Wednesday•BCBMushfiqur – the Mighty Atom, as he would soon become known – had earned his opportunity through his sheer (and rare) weight of runs in Bangladesh’s warm-up games. In his first outing of the tour, against a Sussex 2nd XI at Hove, his second-innings 63 had been the solitary crumb of comfort in a grotesque team display, one which led Dav Whatmore, their gruff and paternalistic head coach, to offer an apology to his hosts after an innings-and-226-run defeat.Then, at Northamptonshire’s Wantage Road – the scene, a mere six years earlier, of the World Cup triumph over Pakistan that had catapulted Bangladesh’s premature claims for Test status – Mushfiqur followed up with a cultured 115 not out from 167 balls, albeit against a similarly unrepresentative attack that had him admitting, at the close of play, that his first interview on the BBC World Service was the more daunting of his day’s duties.And now, 20 years and 100 Test caps later, Mushfiqur shares even more in common with Tendulkar, not simply because of his longevity, but because of what he has represented in between whiles, in his country’s long march to recognition within the sport. If Tendulkar’s tale encapsulates India’s economic flourishing and the sense of a nation growing into its supernova status, then Mushfiqur’s is, in its own way, an even more significant microcosm.It’s a tale of tenacity and optimism, and the vindication of youth in the face of overwhelming experience. Even amid the pallid horrors of Bangladesh’s early Test scorecards, it’s easy to forget the narratives that accompanied them. The calls for their status to be rescinded, and the borderline contempt with which their matches were covered. In the Asian Test Championship in September 2001, two Sri Lanka batters, Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene, had effectively retired bored after reaching 201 and 150 respectively, and at a time long before T20 cricket had captured the zeitgeist, the notion that Bangladesh’s status cheapened Test cricket was overpowering.Mushfiqur Rahim has been a pillar of the Bangladesh team for 20 out of 25 years of its existence•Associated PressWith no first-class structure – let alone anything resembling an academy or even a serviceable indoor school – and only a handful of senior pros such as Habibul Bashar and Javed Omar to provide the short-term ballast, the only realistic option available to Bangladesh was to take a punt on its youth, and hope that a handful of likely lads would be able to last the course.With the likes of Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal also enduring the sink-or-swim approach, Bangladesh ended up being extraordinarily well served in that regard – and when all four combined to eliminate India from the 2007 World Cup, the sense of a future taking shape before our eyes was palpable. None, however, could come close to matching Mushfiqur’s endurance.He is a grizzled veteran now, with the sort of sage’s beard that would have been comical to even imagine when his fresh face first lined up for a team photo. But astonishingly, he’s been a pillar of this team for 20 out of 25 years of its existence – a timeframe that might have earned him close to double the number of caps had he played for a more fashionable country, or even been permitted to play in series of longer than two Tests.It’s a mark of his longevity that Mushfiqur featured in 56 series all told, with more still to come seeing as he’s going nowhere yet at the age of 38. Tendulkar, by contrast, played 73 across his 200-cap, 24-year career; James Anderson, who played 188 in 21, played 67. At the other end of the endurance scale, there’s England’s former captain, Andrew Strauss. He too played in 100 Tests, but his all came to pass in a mere eight years, and across 29 series.It just goes to show how big the gulf in opportunity remains in a sport that has never been well disposed towards the little guy. But when you think back to that origin story at Lord’s, it’s hard to imagine how Bangladesh could have stood as tall as it has since managed to do, without his five-foot-nothing presence standing front and centre.

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