RCB batter abandons his safety-first approach to instead go hell for leather, resulting in a “quite special knock”

Shashank Kishore19-May-20231:48

Moody: ‘The way Kohli batted, he reminded me of the 2016 season’

The discourse around Virat Kohli the T20 batter for much of IPL 2023, or perhaps a little longer, has been about his intent in the powerplay or the lack of it. Much of this has stemmed from poor returns of the Royal Challengers Bangalore batters apart from himself, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell.This safety-first approach has worked wonders as much as it has also backfired. But it is one that Kohli has backed himself to execute successfully more often than not.Against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday evening, Kohli decided he’d had enough; he wasn’t going to bat the way he’d been batting all along. There was a purpose that perhaps stemmed from RCB having one eye on net run rate and a mindset of outright domination from get-go. Of the kind that made you wonder whether Kohli had been angered by something or someone; and there have been a few occasions this IPL where he has been testy.Related

Classy Klaasen's mastery against spin puts him among IPL royalty

Kohli: 'We've got Test cricket after the IPL, so I've got to stay true to my technique'

Scenarios: Royal Challengers take a huge step towards playoffs

Stats: Kohli draws level with Gayle for most IPL hundreds

Clinical Kohli, du Plessis keep RCB's fate in their hands

The first ball of the innings laid down the marker. Bhuvneshwer Kumar’s late swing was met with one of the most purposeful forward strides and head right over the ball as he creamed one through the covers. Kohli was up and running.It was a tall chase, even if not one that needed him to go all out. Kohli, though, did just that. Off the second ball, he anticipated Bhuvneshwar shortening his length and stood tall to slap it over backward point. He was one up on Bhuvneshwar, whom he has played with for over a decade. He knew what was coming and reacted instinctively. No holds barred.It was Abhishek Sharma’s turn next. Kohli vs spin in the powerplay has rarely set pulses racing: his strike rate against left-arm orthodox was 116. Abhishek has several variations – a traditional off break, a back-of-the-hand delivery, and a seam-up that swerves in. Here, he fired one down leg, perhaps anticipating Kohli would give him the charge. But Kohli went outside leg to get underneath the length and shovelled it back over the top. Two balls later, he backed away again to slap a length ball back past the bowler.It wasn’t until his stand-and-deliver boundary through extra cover off Kartik Tyagi – one that made such sweet connection that you wondered if he’d hit one that clean this season – that Kohli got into top gear. Batters often tell you there’s one particular stroke that helps them flick a switch. This, seemingly, was that stroke that pumped Kohli up. The 17 runs he made off his first 10 balls were the second most he’s hit in this phase this season.But it wasn’t just about the big hits. The moment Mayank Dagar came on and slowed it down nicely to extract square turn, Kohli switched gears and treaded with caution. The powerplay – RCB were 64 for 0 after six – gave him leeway to do so, too. With Dagar exercising control, you wondered if Sunrisers had erred by not picking another frontline spinner in Mayank Markande. They had handed a debut to seamer Nitish Reddy, and he was under the pump straightaway.One moment, Kohli was batting calmly, andthe next he was allowing adrenaline to kick in and his wrists and forearm power to take over. Kohli simply short-arm jabbed a perfectly acceptable length delivery into the body for a 103-metre six and stood there following the trajectory of the ball, holding the pose for the camera. That was just one of several eye-catching shots he played. The no-look sweep to a full, in-drifter from Dagar was full swag. It left du Plessis astounded.Virat Kohli started RCB’s chase with two boundaries, and did not stop there•BCCIKohli said later that batting with du Plessis brought him as much pleasure as batting with AB de Villiers. Kohli and du Plessis are different in the shots they play or areas they can access. Du Plessis is bottom-handed, while Kohli is the epitome of elegance that he mixes with a more-than-capable power game.”I think it’s the tattoos,” Kohli said with a laugh when asked about his success with du Plessis. The two have racked up the most runs by an opening pair in a single IPL season. “We call each other the ink boys. We almost have 900 runs together this season. It’s been amazing to bat with him. Another guy, very similar to how I used to feel when AB and me batted together.”There was just an understanding of where the game is going and what needs to be done. We pump each other, we read the conditions, we give each other feedback for how we can play certain bowlers. Having an experienced guy who’s captained at the international level, he’s handled troops as well, it’s just been a beautiful transition for us coming together for RCB at the top and making an impact, which is so important.”For much of the innings, Kohli and du Plessis were neck-and-neck with their score. And then suddenly Kohli gave himself a power boost against Bhuvneshwar. If you thought he couldn’t have topped the first two shots to open the innings, you were wrong.Kohli on his ton – “It was a quite special knock considering where we’re placed in the points table and the magnitude of the game”•BCCIA regal drive on the up, a chip over cover and mid-off that nearly carried all the way, a one-handed hit over his head off a low full-toss and a ferocious cut – all in Bhuvneshwar’s third over – shaved nearly 10% off their target. From 55 off 36, it was down to 37 off 30. Bhuvneshwar’s final over, the 18th, was the one in which Kohli reached his hundred, off 62 balls.”Yeah, quite special knock considering where we’re placed in the points table and the magnitude of the game,” Kohli said. “I thought Hyderabad got a really good score. If you saw, the ball was gripping in between overs as well, so it’s quite special, knowing that we wanted a good start, solid start.”We didn’t expect to be 172 without loss, but that’s how well Faf and me have played this season. Faf’s been on a different level, but, you know, I’ve had a quiet couple of games in the last few games. I just felt like the way I was hitting the ball in the nets, it wasn’t quite transitioning into the game in the last two or three games, so I wanted to make an impact, and my intent from ball one was to go after the bowlers. It’s something that I’ve done through the season – there was a little bit of a dip, but I wanted to pick my game up at the right time, so considering all those factors I’m just happy that it all came together nicely.”

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

• Wood: 'A great trait of the group is resilience'

• New Zealand play with fire and come out unscathed

• Ravindra comes of age with an innings for the dreamers

• 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.

Invincibles’ sixth-wicket pair shared record unbeaten 127-run stand from only 64 balls

Sampath Bandarupalli27-Aug-2023127 Partnership runs between Tom Curran and Jimmy Neesham, the highest for any wicket in the Hundred Men’s competition. The previous highest was the unbeaten 124 between Dawid Malan and D’Arcy Short for Trent Rockets’ second wicket against Southern Brave in 2021.34 Oval Invincibles’ total at the fall of the fifth wicket. Only one team has won a men’s T20 final after losing their fifth wicket at a lower total – 32 by Uganda in the Africa Continental Cup final earlier this year against Kenya, where they finished on 125 and won by one run.1 Number of teams to have won a game in the Hundred Men’s competition, despite losing their first five wickets for less than 50 runs, before the Invincibles on Sunday. Trent Rockets defeated the Northern Superchargers in 2021 by two wickets in the pursuit of a 133-run target, from five down for 41 runs.29 Runs aggregated by Invincibles’ top five on Sunday. It is the lowest contribution by the top five batters of a team to win a men’s T20 final. The previous lowest was 42 runs by Westerns against the Northerns in the 2009 Zimbabwe domestic T20 final. It is also the lowest contribution by the top five batters of a winning team in the Hundred Men’s competition.3 Number of sixth-wicket partnerships in men’s T20s that have been higher than the unbroken 127 between Curran and Neesham. The highest is 161 by Andre Russell and Kennar Lewis for the Jamaica Tallawahs against Trinbago Knight Riders in 2018. The Curran-Neesham partnership was also the first century stand for the sixth wicket or lower in a men’s T20 final.67* Curran’s score against the Originals is now the highest individual score in a final of the Hundred. Paul Stirling’s 61 against Birmingham Phoenix in the 2021 edition was the only fifty scored in the final during the first two editions of the Hundred across the men’s and women’s competitions.7 Curran’s 67 not out is also the highest score while batting at No.7 or lower in a men’s T20 final, surpassing MS Dhoni’s 63 not out against Mumbai Indians in the 2013 IPL final.5 Curran and Neesham are only the fifth pair of No.6 and No.7 with fifty-plus scores in the same innings in men’s T20s. Oval Invincibles’ innings was only the tenth in men’s T20s where two players batting at No.6 and lower had fifty-plus scores in the same innings. Never, in the Hundred, before this game, had two players batting outside the top three scored fifties in the same innings.4 out of 5 T20 fifties by Curran have come while batting at No.7 or lower. Russell (9), Kieron Pollard (7), David Wiese (5) and James Foster (4) are the other players with four or more fifty-plus scores while batting at No.7 or lower in the men’s T20s.

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

• Tumbling down: how everything went wrong with England's World Cup campaign

• Mott 'more determined than ever' despite England's World Cup fail

• David Willey to retire from international cricket after World Cup

• World Cup progressed as expected – except for Eng's total disintegration

• Fernando: England's demise just plain sad

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.

One thing that lasts longer than Australian heartbreak is Pakistani belief. And day four captured that perfectly

Danyal Rasool30-Dec-20235:10

‘A classic at the MCG’

“Pakistan! ZINDABAD!!!”

The chant goes up, loud and proud, in the Shane Warne Stand, where a group of Pakistan fans have congregated. It’s a relatively small crowd – fewer than 20,000 come through the turnstiles all day – but here in this little corner, the flags you see do not bear the Blue Ensign, but the green and white of the star and crescent.Asif leads the chants, his three-year-old son clinging to his leg. His father, Asif says, was at the SCG in 1995 when Pakistan last beat Australia in a Test match in this country, and while he won’t have the chance to be in Sydney next week, this might just be his – and Pakistan’s – moment.It’s early evening, shortly after the tea break, and it’s not the most optimistic time to have this chat. Josh Hazlewood has just bowled what appears to be a match-turning spell, sending down 24 successive dots before rattling Babar’s off stump. Saud Shakeel fell to Mitchell Starc shortly after, and it’s suddenly all down to Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha, with 155 runs standing between them and the summit.But Asif hopes. Hope is the last thing you lose. “Pakistan!,” he yells again. “ZINDABAD!!!,” they cry back.

****

It’s impossible to describe what a historic Test match smells like, but anyone who has woken up on that decisive morning will know. It’s that final morning in Karachi in March 2022, that day in Brisbane in 2021 or 2016. As the train pulls up at Jolimont Station, the walk across the bridge and through Yarra Park is sensory overload. The MCG, visible in all its glory, may just be about to see another strand of history woven through it. There are few more intoxicating feelings than a simmering Test match that has come to a boil.Pakistan already have regrets because Australia are 241 ahead, perhaps too far in front already. That, certainly, was Mitchell Marsh’s view, whose 96 put them in that imperious position, after he was put down by Abdullah Shafique in a slip cordon he didn’t belong in 76 runs earlier. But Pakistan believe they have found a way to survive, in the cricketing wasteland that Australia is to visiting sides, Pakistan have stayed in the bunker just long enough; willing to wound, and yet, until now, afraid to strike.Pakistan do strike in the morning, but perhaps not quite soon enough. The final few partnerships added 22, 28, 12, and 13. Shaheen Afridi is the first to strike, drawing an edge from Mitchell Starc. This time, the man who should have been there all along dives low to take an excellent catch. Babar has given Pakistan the breakthrough. How, you feel, they’ll need him today.Meanwhile, Shahid Afridi has rocked up to the MCG, declaring he believes the target is chaseable. He can’t know what that target is, because Australia are still batting, but it would be unlike Shahid to consider that. He is flanked by Pakistan squash legend Jahangir Khan, who knows a thing or two about winning streaks.

****

Shan Masood and Babar are out there together. Six weeks ago, they were both in Lahore on a very different kind of day. Babar had just been told he was being done away with as white-ball captain and could see where he wasn’t wanted, resigning from the Test captaincy, too. Masood was there to be anointed his successor, and while the pair have never exactly been best of friends, what they’re doing right now is too important to let anything as trivial as that get in their way.Imam-ul-Haq looked like a dead man walking from the moment he stepped out, but it was Shafique who fell first, perhaps fittingly, by edging to the slips. It was a sharp catch at third slip, but, unlike Pakistan, Australia have their cordon worked out to a tee, and Usman Khawaja did not err. Pat Cummins worked Imam over before trapping him in front shortly after.Related

The Cummins show that deserves a pat and defines his legacy

Pakistan played better than Australia, says Mohammad Hafeez

The great Hobart heist: when Gilchrist robbed Pakistan

But, while any mention of Masood and Babar in the same sentence only highlighted the dysfunctional nature of Pakistan cricket until a little while ago, the captain and his predecessor are ticking together like clockwork. Shan takes the lead, as he needs to, building on his first innings-half-century with a knock that carries the promise of something even more substantial. He lifts the scoring rate, moving onto the front foot early and anticipating the short ball, too. The bounce doesn’t appear to trouble him, and he manages to steer Hazlewood and Starc into gaps. Babar, meanwhile, hangs back, more cautious but equally assured, aware that if Pakistan are to make a fist of it, they are unlikely to do it without him.The partnership crosses 50, the total passes 100, and the belief rises once more.

****

Then, the dagger. Anytime Australia’s bowlers have come up short, Cummins has limbered up to the mark. He comes around the wicket to Masood, and it takes him just three balls to find the perfect delivery. It’s on off stump, wobbling away, and Masood defends with hard hands. On the second day, a similar nick dropped an inch short of Khawaja, but Steve Smith takes a sharp catch. Hazlewood’s spell has seen Babar off, and though Babar’s not in the best form, that doesn’t tell the story of how metronomically accurate Australia have been to him. He protected the inside edge twice in Perth, only to nick off. Here, he covers the outside edge, and Hazlewood, like Cummins before him, manages to sneak past his defences on the inside.Captain gets captain: Pat Cummins celebrates the scalp of Shan Masood•Getty Images and Cricket AustraliaBut while Australia sniff a four-day victory, Rizwan and Agha seem to be up to something. Rizwan is doing that jittery thing where he never looks settled while playing the most confident, low-percentage shots on both sides. That swivel-pull off the ribs to Cummins is a sign of the kind of mood he’s in, while Agha won’t be left behind. The ball after he’s pelted on the helmet and a lengthy concussion protocol follows, he whips his liquid wrists to dispatch him to third man. An edge off Hazlewood flies away for four more, while a wristy offside flick from Rizwan clears the slips and dashes down.It is that stage of a Test match where all roads lead to an epic finish. The Australian fans still outnumber the Pakistanis, but it is the support for the visiting side that truly appreciates the magnitude of what they might be witnessing. Pakistan’s target is now below a hundred, and they have half the side still to come in. This is a generational opportunity – like Hobart 1999, Sydney 2010, and Brisbane 2016. But this is happening now, and in the moment, it feels different.The MCG scorecard flashes up the ‘top five chases at this ground.’ The only one above 300 came 95 years ago, and just one of the top five features a game that took place after Pakistan became a country – a South African chase of 297 in 1953. But while history says don’t hope on this side of the grave, Pakistan prefer the concluding line of that famous Seamus Heaney stanza. They believe hope and history are about to rhyme.Rizwan glances up at the scoreboard before he takes guard for the next ball. Cummins has once more brought himself on to squash this last rebellion from Pakistan and to that end, he bowls the cricketing equivalent of a body serve, one that’s lined up on middle and continues to rise while still being low enough to make ducking impossible.Mohammad Rizwan makes his point to Joel Wilson•Getty Images and Cricket AustraliaRizwan gets out of the way, arching his body back and keeping his bat out of the way. But that’s not what Australia see, and when Michael Gough doesn’t agree with them, up it goes to the TV screen. Rizwan points repeatedly at a mark on his forearm to indicate where the impact was made, but the technology shows a spike, as well as a mark on his wristband. 24 years ago, the lack of similar technology denied Pakistan a certain win against Australia. It was a clicky bat handle then, a kissed wristband now, and it’s all the same to Pakistan.As Rizwan walks off, still gesticulating furiously, Pakistan’s fighting spirit goes up in smoke too. The next 39 balls are a blur from the same repetition, the one of crushed dreams and the sickening knowledge that it ends the same. It will always end the same way.By the time the final wicket has fallen, the bright sunshine of the early evening gives way to the evening clouds. But few of those supporters in that Warne stand are there to see it. There seems little point when they’ve seen it all before. The Southern Cross is everywhere once more, the star and crescent folded away.Asif’s father never saw another Pakistan win in Australia, and for him and his young son, the wait continues. They, along with the millions back in Pakistan, may insist they will never be back, that there is no point. Perhaps even that they do not care.But of course they do. It is what prompted team director Mohammad Hafeez to lambast the technology, and induced someone as mild-mannered as Rizwan to protest so furiously. And when Sydney rolls around next week, the fire will continue to burn for a side that knows it stared at history but blinked first.It is why those early alarms will go off all over Pakistan again next week, and hundreds of people with stories like Asif’s will descend upon the SCG. The wait will continue, for one more Test, perhaps for one more series, maybe for one more generation. But the one thing that lasts longer than Australian heartbreak is Pakistani belief. And days like this at the MCG – the smell of hope and the lure of nostalgia – are exactly why.

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.

Leus du Plooy batting in a Joburg Super Kings bandana for Dubai Capitals in a game he probably needs to lose to make it to Karachi Kings on time pic.twitter.com/s6Uz9tDg83

— Xavier Voigt-Hill (@voigthill) February 15, 2024