Meg Lanning’s team also have the desire to embrace the Team Australia aspect of a multi-sport event, which will be a new experience

Andrew McGlashan27-Jul-2022When you are a team like Australia, who have won everything on offer in the last few years, it is probably not a bad thing to have a brand new prize to aim for.In the last four years, Meg Lanning has led her side to two T20 World Cup titles, two Ashes crowns, and an ODI World Cup title alongside other series successes. Their last defeat in any bilateral series came in T20Is, against England in 2017, that were part of the multi-format Ashes.Related

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But as the side enters its new coaching era following the departure of Matthew Mott, the prospect of adding a Commonwealth Games gold medal is an alluring one, and something no one has ever had before. Winning more cricket matches is enough motivation for this team as it looks to continue forging its legacy, but there is also the desire to embrace the Team Australia aspect of a multi-sport event, which will be a new experience.”The first Commonwealth Games medal up for grabs in women’s cricket is certainly something we’re striving for,” Lanning said before team left for their warm-up tri-series in Ireland. “Being part of that bigger Australian team, which is something we really want to embrace. To represent Australia on a really big stage, a new platform for the game to be able to reach a new audience, is something that is really exciting for the sport.”It’s hugely special. I grew up watching a lot of the Commonwealth Games and I just love the team atmosphere.”It was a view echoed by vice-captain Rachael Haynes. “There is a sense that it’ll be a little bit different, it’s almost the unknown,” she said. “I think the team’s just really looking forward to it. To be around a whole group of different athletes and different sports and be a team within a much larger team as well.”Alana King is proving to be a wicket-taking machine•Phil Walter/ICC/Getty ImagesAs it was in New Zealand a few months ago, it would be a surprise if they did not achieve their ambition of gold – although, at some point, there has to be a hiccup in their all-conquering era. A place in the final is a bare minimum expectation even taking into account the jeopardy of semi-finals and the fact the T20 format narrows the margins.Meeting India in the opening match brings back memories of the previous T20 World Cup in Australia, when they stumbled in their first game and were left walking a tightrope for the rest of the competition. We all know how it ended, but it was rarely a serene progression until they cut loose in the final against India at the MCG. “We seem to meet them a lot in the first game of major tournaments,” Lanning agreed.Matches against Barbados – who will include potential match-winners Hayley Matthews and Deandra Dottin – and Pakistan follow, and though the top two from each group go through there is not much margin for error.While there has been major change in the coaching set-up – and Shelley Nitschke is only interim head coach, although she will be favourite for the long-term position – the playing squad is notable for its stability. It is the same 15 names who were on duty for the ODI World Cup.Long-term injuries to Georgia Wareham and Tayla Vlaeminck continue to be covered with great effectiveness, an allrounder of the quality of Sophie Molineux can’t get on the contracts’ list, and Ellyse Perry is no longer a first-choice in the T20I side.Such is the quality in the Australian ranks, that Ellyse Perry might be forced to reinvent her T20 game•Getty ImagesThose who have taken their chance to fill the gaps already look like mainstays. Darcie Brown is in the race to reach 80mph [it would be fun if she and England’s Issy Wong face off in this tournament] and legspinner Alana King is proving a wicket-taking machine. Tahlia McGrath’s magnificent start to T20I cricket – as part of a stunning re-emergence to the international game – is largely responsible for pushing Perry to the sidelines, which happened before her latest back injury.If Australia reach the final in Birmingham, there is every chance that for the second time in three major tournaments, Perry won’t feature. The hamstring injury at the 2020 T20 World Cup was awful luck, but it is starting to feel like a defining moment in her T20 career. That in itself says so much about Australian cricket and why they are the force they are.Of course, you would not put it past Perry to reinvent herself as a T20 cricketer; there is the motivation of the World Cup title defence in South Africa early next year for starters, and then, in four years’ time, the Commonwealth Games is held in regional Victoria. Will Perry, already 15 years into international cricket, still be part of it by then? Only time will tell, but for many in this Australia side it is well within range.”Hopefully I’m still around to be involved,” Lanning said, no doubt hoping they are defending gold medallists.

They attacked their way out of dire situations, defended resolutely at the death, and found heroes where heroes should not be found

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Danushka Gunathilaka stumbles a touch, and looks back at an off stump. It is still convulsing, as if it has 10,000 volts run through it. Haris Rauf tears away in his follow through, his team-mates racing after him. The stadium is a riot of fluttering Pakistan flags, and noise.It is the most spectacular moment in an incandescent passage of fast bowling. Earlier, Naseem’s Shah’s vicious inswinger had also made an eruption out of the woodwork, but this ball to Gunathilaka, oh man – that’s unplayable. Angled across, straightening in the air, seaming off the pitch. On his best day, Gunathilaka is not hitting that. No one is. It is a meteor. It has scorched through the atmosphere at 151kph.Pakistan do this. They’ve doing this. In limited-overs cricket, no modern side places so much of their pride on the altar of fast bowling, and when they’ve caught fire in finals, they’ve razed oppositions to the ground. Mohammad Amir and Hasan Ali were an inferno against India in the 2017 Champions Trophy. Against a much more decorated Sri Lanka top order than the one in this Asia Cup, Pakistan’s quicks had been in searing form in the 2009 T20 World Cup title match.Related

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Today, they’ve got Sri Lanka reeling at three down by the end of the powerplay, and in the first three overs of spin, Pakistan take two more wickets. Sri Lanka are 58 for 5, at a venue that favours chasing sides so severely, only three teams have batted first and won, in the 21 previous T20Is here.After 8.5 overs, Sri Lanka are down to their last three recognised batters, two of whom are bowling allrounders. ESPNcricinfo’s Win Probability tracker has their chances at 15.74%. That percentage does not account for emotion, but when you’re in the maws of a great Pakistan bowling performance, it is as if the world closes in.Sri Lanka had had a good run, turned heads, and sprung surprise. There’s no shame in succumbing to bowling of this quality. Because surely they will not win from here.

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Few sports force elite athletes to tackle situations they are unsuited to like cricket does. As debutant and No. 10 Asitha Fernando walks out to bat against Bangladesh, his team-mates are visibly worried. Sri Lanka have just lost their last recognised batter to a run out, and still need 13 off the last seven balls – a tricky proposition even if he had remained not out.If you watch him take guard, Fernando does not look like he can bat – his movements too fidgety, his stance overeager, rather than poised. And his stats don’t read like he can bat. He has hit 24 runs from five domestic T20 innings; his List A and First-Class averages are both below five.But he faces up gamely, and does the thing that most players of his batting ability do. Tailenders such as Fernando are like the drunkest uncle on the dancefloor, forever busting out the same move, the result frequently unsightly. He clears his front leg almost before the bowler has bowled the ball, so urgently does he want to get it out of the way. A path now clear for his bat to come through, he whooshes the blade down.”Good shot!” bellows Scott Styris on commentary. Well… yeah… so it turned out. Fernando is from the “swing it and wing it” school of batting. In fact, it is giving too much credit to call it a school – it’s more like a dodgy online course that exists to steal your credit card info. He finds the boundary over extra cover that keeps Sri Lanka in the hunt.Asitha Fernando came from the “swing it and wing it” school of batting, and won Sri Lanka a thriller against Bangladesh•AFP/Getty ImagesNext over, he finds himself on strike again. And what does he do? Gets his front foot to the ball, and drills a glorious boundary down the ground, front elbow finishing high, sending batting coaches around the world into a swoon. No, that would be crazy. What Fernando actually does is throw that front leg out of the way with such single-minded commitment it is as if he would like to remove it from his body entirely and hurl it into the stands. He swings again, the ball happening to hit the middle of the bat, then happening to find a gap near deep midwicket.Next ball, another almighty heave, for two this time. Because the bowler has delivered a no-ball, Sri Lanka achieve their target.Sri Lanka were chasing 184, a big score for a side that had been bowled out for 105 three days previous. There were times in the chase when their win probability dropped into the low teens. And when a No. 10 who had only hit four boundaries in his entire T20 career arrived at the crease, that was it, the game is done, you thought.Surely they will not win from here.

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Against Afghanistan, Sri Lanka are in potentially tournament-defining trouble much earlier in the match. Rahmanullah Gurbaz is belting Sri Lanka’s bowlers over the ropes with almost uncanny ease. Are there explosives in his bat?Maheesh Theekshana, Sri Lanka’s most reliable powerplay bowler, is getting taken apart in his first over. He gets clobbered over cow corner fourth ball. Then in the next one, he thinks he’s had Gurbaz caught on the straight boundary, only Gunathilaka has stepped on the boundary skirting, so it is a six instead.Sri Lanka were on fire for much of the Asia Cup, and especially in the final•AFP/Getty ImagesThis does not temper Gurbaz, who pummels Fernando over the deep square leg boundary next over, hoicks Wanindu Hasaranga over deep midwicket soon after the powerplay ends, and later, flat-bats the ever-loving daylights out of a length Chamika Karunaratne delivery – the ball cannoning into the sightscreen.After 14 overs, Afghanistan are 132 for 1. Commentators are confident a total of 200 is on the cards, at a ground (Sharjah) on which the highest successful chase is 172. Afghanistan had won both their group games, and mauled Sri Lanka inside 10.1 overs in the tournament opener, so as far as they, or most others, were concerned, Afghanistan were the ascendant side, and Sri Lanka a shadow of what used to be, who had merely snuck into the Super Fours on the back of some unlikely tail-end thrashing.Afghanistan still have Najibullah Zadran, perhaps their most-destructive batter to come, with the hugely experienced Mohammad Nabi, and Rashid Khan there as well, plus Samiullah Shinwari and Karim Janat. They bat deep. Surely Sri Lanka cannot contain them from here.And yet, Fernando gets Gurbaz caught in the outfield, Theekshana bowls a couple of cheap death overs, Dilshan Madushanka gets the other set batter out, and in the last 36 balls of this innings, which Afghanistan were beautifully-placed to plunder, they make just 43, losing five wickets.So good had their first 14 overs been, though, they have still set Sri Lanka a target that has never been achieved on this ground before. No Sri Lanka batter produces an innings in the league of Gurbaz. But Pathum Nissanka hits a solid 35 off 28, and Kusal Mendis 36 off 19 – the pair putting on 62 together in 6.3 overs.Gunathilaka, out of form lately, hits two sixes off Nabi – one of the canniest spinners in the game – and gets himself to 33 off 20. Still, Sri Lanka end up needing 49 off the last 30 balls, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa smokes 31 off 14. In the end, they complete a record chase with some ease – five balls to spare.Over in Dubai, the Asian rivalry of legend is unfolding – India taking the first match, Pakistan the second. Sri Lanka have not faced either yet.

****

What mismatch? Sri Lanka always seemed to have it under control during their chase against India in the Super 4s•Getty ImagesIn 25 previous T20Is against India, Sri Lanka have lost 17. In the three matches they had played earlier this year, India monstered Sri Lanka in the first match, winning by 62 runs. The same could be said of the two matches to follow. Forget being on the same level as India. They may as well have been playing different sports.In this tournament, India were without their best fast bowler in Jasprit Bumrah, but they had the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who off the top of the head has played – and you should check this – roughly a million T20s, as well as Arshdeep Singh, who had been excellent with the ball in the two big games against Pakistan.R Aswhin, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul. There are stars here to fit out a whole galaxy. Sri Lanka have Hasaranga, plus some other guys. Guys like Dilshan Madushanka, playing his third T20I ever, having not played hard-ball cricket until very late in his teens. Or like Pathum Nissanka, who has never played a franchise T20 tournament bigger than the serially-postponed Lanka Premier League. He’s maybe the brightest young batting talent in Sri Lanka and after 55 T20 innings has a strike rate… in the 110s? Wait, are you serious? Have you seen the bonkers Indian batters that haven’t even made this squad? Ishan Kishan? Sanju Samson? Rahul Tewatia?But wait, there’s Madushanka, inswinging a yorker into Kohli’s stumps, uprooting two of them at once, screaming into a multi-teammate bearhug. Much later, Nissanka is running down the track to punch Bhuvneshwar down the ground, lofting Pandya over the long-on boundary, crashing Yuzvendra Chahal through the covers, then slamming him over deep square leg.At the other end, Kusal Mendis is playing an even better innings, as Sri Lanka’s openers put on 97 together, providing an outstanding platform from which they can chase down 174. Such is India’s quality, that they still make a game out of this, allowing Sri Lanka only to scramble to the finish with one ball to spare, even after Dasun Shanaka and Rajapaksa have struck big blows.There were times in this chase when the win probability got below 25%, but of all Sri Lanka’s pressure matches in the Asia Cup, this is the one in which they seemed most in control. Which is a strange thing to say, given the resources India command, the depth at their disposal, and the obscenely one-sided nature of this rivalry.

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In the final, five down, abject defeat the likeliest outcome, Pakistan’s seamers white-hot, their spinners backing them up, Sri Lanka continue to attack. No one wins big finals making 120 or 135, as Sri Lanka had themselves found out in that 2009 T20 World Cup final. To have a chance, at a venue as loaded against you as Dubai, you’ve got to get yourself on the far side of 150.Former Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur had once described Hasaranga as a DGAF player. He’s out there, unrepentantly, to win. Despite not having been at his best with the bat this year, he produces a DGAF innings. He backs away and throws his bat repeatedly, hitting Shadab Khan behind square on the offside to get his first two fours, before crashing Mohammad Hasnain through extra cover, then belting him over deep third two balls later, for a six.He takes on Haris Rauf too, thumping him back over his head, flaying him through backward point. He tries to hit a third successive four and gets out, and this is where Rajapaksa takes over. Having initially batted in Hasaranga’s slipstream, dabbing boundaries past short third man to begin with, Rajapaksa brings out his power game.To look at him, Rajapaksa is not a power hitter. He does not have a lot of height, and as such, lacks the long levers. He does not seem to have the taut muscle of an Eoin Morgan, Brendon McCullum, or a Kusal Perera either, having infamously failed a number of skin-fold fitness tests. Let us be kind and say that of the Sri Lanka greats, he resembles Rangana Herath more than anyone.What he has are obscenely powerful wrists. After Hasaranga gets out, the wrists begin to break through the course of his batswing, generating outrageous bat-speed. This is never more apparent than when he swats a Nassem ball off middle stump high over deep backward square leg, the bat coming down like whiplash.Fans in Colombo erupt after Sri Lanka seal their Asia Cup triumph•AFP/Getty ImagesHe gets dropped twice, but again this is the wrists at work. He gets the timing wrong, but generated so much power, the ball went high into the night, to make those catches difficult. His last shot, a leg-cleared (Asitha Fernando style) whipped six over extra cover – one of the hardest strokes to pull off in the game, propelled Sri Lanka to 170.But 171 is eminently gettable in Dubai, and it is in the field where Sri Lanka’s sublime Asia Cup campaign reaches its crescendo. The first wicket is a small wonder. Not because of the ball Pramod Madushanka bowled – that is a legside length ball deserved the disdain that Babar Azam treated it with, flicking it pretty much off the middle of the bat into the legside, the ball traveling rapidly.It’s a wonder only because of Madushanka’s astounding overhead catch, plucking the ball as if conjuring it from thin air. Earlier, Madushanka had bowled five illegal deliveries to start out the match, but recovered through the rest of the over, and now had helped remove Pakistan’s captain.Perhaps more importantly, he had set the tone for Sri Lanka’s fielding, and soon after, was a beneficiary of the standard he’d set. Iftikhar Ahmed drove powerfully down the ground, third ball of the sixth over, which Madushanka was bowling. Theekshana zoomed across, stuck his right arm out, and saved a certain four.Through the rest of the evening, Sri Lanka’s fielding was electric, almost without exception. Ashen Bandara (the sub fielder), racing around the legside boundary to cut two runs off, even when the bowler deserved to go for four. Gunathilaka was throwing himself full-tilt at a ball scorching a path down the ground, saving two. Hasaranga ranging the square boundary in fast forward.Sri Lanka, through astonishing bravery and enterprise, refused to throw in the towel at this Asia Cup•AFP/Getty ImagesIt is not kosher to call their fielding “hungry” when back home, many Sri Lankans are skipping meals as an economic crisis tears through homes. Better to say they willed themselves to balls they should not have got to, every second of this fielding effort loaded with desperation. In their relentlessness, Sri Lanka turned the most prosaic of cricket’s three disciplines into a spectacle every bit as high octane as Pakistan’s fast bowling in the early overs. Pakistan were in the maws of a great Sri Lankan fielding performance, their horizons closing in.They rounded the boundary at high speed to get under catches, threw themselves around the infield to prevent singles, and flat out refused to let Pakistan batters score runs that perhaps the batters felt they deserved.But this has been Sri Lanka’s cricket throughout most of the Asia Cup. They have attacked their way out of dire situations, defended resolutely at the death, found heroes where heroes should not be found, plotted paths around better-drilled, highly-decorated teams.Sri Lanka have just not allowed themselves to be beaten – sometimes with astonishing bravery and enterprise, like cornered honeybadgers fighting off a pride of lions. Though at other times, they have been like petulant toddlers throwing a tantrum at the supermarket, plain refusing to submit to rationale.They’ve dug in heels, pushed back, defied odds and all manner of probability trackers, and discovered new levels to their game.Surely, they shouldn’t have won it. But they did.

Captains can decide XIs after the toss from the 13 named before it, but Joburg Super Kings and Pretoria Capitals are yet to make use of the provision

Firdose Moonda25-Jan-2023Four of the six SA20 teams have changed their XIs after the toss in line with the playing conditions that allows a captain to name 13 available players before the toss and whittle that down to 11 afterwards. That means teams were tinkered with in fewer than one-fifth of the 22 matches played so far, with the organisers conceding that the number is a little less than they anticipated, and team managements still trying to come up with ways to use this tactic to their advantage.Allowing teams to change their combinations after the toss is a unique feature of the SA20, and was put in place to create a more even playing field. “One of the major reasons we did it was to try and lessen the impact of the toss on the outcome of the game, and create an opportunity for deliberation depending on whether teams are batting or bowling,” Graeme Smith, SA20 league commissioner, told ESPNcricinfo.Three of the four teams who have made changes to their teams have done so for exactly those reasons. Durban’s Super Giants opted to include an extra spinner when they were asked to bowl first in their tournament opener against Joburg Super Kings, MI Cape Town did the same in their match against Super Kings at Newlands three days later, and Paarl Royals did it to swap out Ferisco Adams for Codi Yusuf against Sunrisers Eastern Cape.Related

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In the same match, Sunrisers also changed their XI, but because of an injury to Tom Abell, who was replaced by Jordan Cox.Super Kings and Pretoria Capitals are the two teams who have not made use of the provision yet, with both sides considering the move once the tournament resumes after the break due to three ODIs between South Africa and England, as more matches will be played on their home turfs. So far, these teams have played just two of their five home matches on the Highveld, with the bulk of the tournament having taken place in the Western and Eastern Cape at venues that host the Women’s T20 World Cup next month.In Cape Town, teams bowling first in day-night T20Is have won seven out of 11 games, which speaks to the ease of batting under lights and the need to strangle with the ball upfront. That is why when MI won the toss there against Super Kings and chose to bowl on a used strip, they also decided to include Afghan spinner Waqar Salamkheil in place of Duan Jansen, and it worked a treat. Salamkheil finished with 1 for 19 in four overs, and bowled Super Kings’ senior batter Faf du Plessis out.”It was the third game on that same wicket, so once we won the toss, we knew we wanted to bowl first and we knew we wanted to bowl in the day time,” Simon Katich, the MI coach explained. “We felt with the difference between batting first and chasing, and [with] the way conditions have been a little bit uneven here in Cape Town, there was a chance to use it [the rule]. It gives you that flexibility around what happens with the toss.”When the tournament resumes, there will be nine matches between Centurion and Johannesburg, so teams may make more changes after the toss•SA20His opposite number Stephen Fleming would have done the same thing if he could have, but their Sri Lankan offspinner Maheesh Theekshana had not yet arrived at the tournament. “If we had Theekshana, who arrives tomorrow, then we would have had the same idea,” Fleming said at the time.Since then, Theekshana has played in three of Super Kings’ four matches, but they have yet to use the ability to change their XI. “We think there is minimal advantage,” Albie Morkel, Super Kings assistant coach, said.But that could change once matches are played up country, where the difference in day and night times temperatures is likely to cause dew. Then, the risk of spinners not being able to grip the ball as well as they would like to may encourage the team bowling second to include a seamer instead. When the tournament resumes on February 2, there will be nine matches staged between Centurion and Johannesburg, including both the semi-finals and the final, so teams may make more changes after the toss in those fixtures.Overall, the jury is still out about this particular playing condition, with some most coaches feeling it offers a “tactical advantage”, as Fleming put it. But some, like Capitals assistant coach Dale Benkenstein, think that could come more into play in the longer versions of the game. Others, like Super Giants’ Lance Klusener, feel it “takes away some of the skill of team selection”.

Kohli and Co have the opportunity to add to the list of memorable moments that contests between the two teams have produced

Mark Nicholas02-Aug-2021Once, in an almost proper game in 1996, I bowled a ball to Sachin Tendulkar. It was at Arundel: the prettiest place, lush green within and the Sussex downs rolling out beyond. India needed six to win against the Duke of Norfolk’s XI, and as captain I called upon myself for the denouement. Fair enough, I thought, bowling to Tendulkar when it doesn’t happen every day. My team, my toy.Before delivering an offbreak, I suggested that he might delight the crowd by hitting it flat into or over the sightscreen. He smiled. In I stepped and out he stepped, to thrash the thing gun-barrel straight and violently hard at the very centre of the screen. The noise when it clattered 15 feet up the white board some 70 metres away was every bit as stunning as that which came from the great man’s bat.The first sighting of Sachin live was early in 1992, at the WACA in Perth. He made a hundred against the bullies – Merv Hughes, Craig McDermott et al. I had never seen the like, neither had the folk in the bleachers, who were at first gobsmacked and then starry-eyed. He looked 15 (he was not even 19) and diminutive; apologetic almost. His back-foot play was remarkable, given the fast and bouncy pitch was hardly a cinch for a boy from the maidans of Mumbai. The legend had preceded him but the power and thrill of that innings was barely believable.Related

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A year and half earlier, in the Old Trafford Test of 1990, he made a hundred against hard-nosed English pros – Angus Fraser and the like. He was 17 then – ridiculous really. At Lord’s in the opening Test of that series he took a fantastic outfield catch – sprinting, stretching, reaching, grabbing and then rising to his full height, ball in a single hand, with the grin of a child who had successfully stolen an apple from a tree. Not that Sachin was the story of Lord’s, far from it.The story was Graham Gooch, who made 456 runs in the match and led England to victory. I mention this because I was run out for 0 against Sussex – at Arundel by coincidence – and watched many of those runs on television while sulking in a large room at the back of the pavilion.Graham Gooch’s 333 and 123 in the 1990 Lord’s Test made him player of the match, but Mohammad Azharuddin and Kapil Dev took some of the limelight away with their heroics•Getty ImagesYet it is not Gooch who fills the memory. He has to share it with Mohammad Azharuddin and Kapil Dev, two of the most gifted men to play the game. Azharuddin creamed a hundred all around the ground that Denis Compton had adorned with a similar flair in the years after the Second World War; Kapil ensured that India avoided the follow-on by smashing Eddie Hemmings for four consecutive sixes to pass the 200 deficit mark. Each was hit straight and high and disappeared into the building works at the Nursery End. As MCC had demolished a stand, so Kapil demolished a bowler.After the Australians, India was quite the visit. My first memories were of The Oval in 1971, when the door was shut on England’s run of 26 unbeaten Test matches. Abid Ali cut to the boundary at 2.42pm on the fifth afternoon and India’s first victory in 22 attempts on English soil was complete, as was the winning of the three-match series. The names ring loud and clear – Sunny and Vishy; Mankad, Wadekar and Sardesai; Rooky, Ekky, the master close catcher, and the three spinners Bedi, Venkat and the amazing Chandrasekhar. Solkar’s catch at short leg to get rid of Alan Knott off Venkat is frozen in memory, tumbling away to his left and holding on one-handed, eyes fixed firmly on the ball, with Engineer jumping in joy behind him. There was a wizardry about these spin bowlers that was hardly less magical after Venkat had stepped into Erapalli Prasanna’s mighty boots.Chandrasekhar’s long and whippy polio-affected bowling arm enabled him to hurry the ball through at near medium pace and create incredible revs, especially with his mesmerising googly. In that match he claimed 6 for 38 between lunch and tea on the fourth day, the consequence of which was to send this young lad into the back garden to see how it was done. With each attempt the ball flew over the neighbour’s fence, and before long a feeble imitation of Prasanna and Bedi ensued instead.Eknath Solkar, close catcher par excellence•Getty ImagesThree years later India were back, this time with Prasanna in the side. He made no difference. On pitches that were reluctant to let spin bowling into the game, the English seam attack proved all-conquering, so much so that Bob Willis, who was 12th man for the second Test, at Lord’s, came on with drinks when India were 30 for 7 to discover that the general chat was about letting the India batsmen score a few in the hope of entertaining the crowd. “In short,” said Bob, “some of us felt a bit sorry for them, because Geoff Arnold and Chris Old got it going sideways in increasingly helpful conditions. Only the English, patronising in manner, could feel such a thing! Thankfully, the bowlers were having none of it and finished off the tail for just 12 more runs.” The victory was by an innings and 285, England’s largest ever margin against India. But this was no more excruciating than being 0 for 4 at Headingley in 1952 against Fred Trueman, on his debut and on leave from the RAF. A pity indeed because Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar had shared a partnership of 222 in the first innings, an Indian record for the fourth wicket that held until 1997-98. That match was Len Hutton’s first as England captain, and better still, the first time the selectors broke with amateur tradition and appointed a professional. Hutton was not to let them down.Wind forward to 1979 and Sunil Gavaskar at the Oval once more. When Mike Brearley declared England’s second innings, asking India to make 438 to win the match, no one could have imagined the possibility of it. Except Gavaskar. The result shows India nine short, eight wickets down and moral victory secured. But it shows nothing of Gavaskar’s flawless innings, of his concentration and sheer willpower. It was a performance that had this same young lad, now a rookie with Hampshire, glued to the television screen and urging him on. Upon his dismissal for 221 came a groan of despair in the living room at home for it was written in the tea leaves that India would fall short.Sunny, like his brother-in-law Viswanath, was brought up “listening to Polly Umrigar scoring centuries on All-India radio.” For a long while, they were two of only three men to make a double-hundred for India against England. The other, ten years older than both, was a dashing fellow and cricketer in the Compton/Keith Miller mould – Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi. “Tiger” as they called him was coached by Frank Woolley, played for Sussex at 16, lost an eye in a car crash at 20, and a year later became the youngest Test captain in history. In a country of eagle eyes this one-eyed man was king for 13 years. Vishy, incidentally, made 222 against England in Madras, a single run pipping the other chap in the family to the bragging rights.One duck, two duck, three duck, fore: the scoreboard records India’s ignominy at Headingley in 1952•PA PhotosDaft, improbable turning points cobbled together a glorious day at Lord’s in the midsummer of 1983 as the rank outsiders humbled the clear favourites. West Indies had both the previous World Cups under their belt and India were, well, just a little light on might.Sunny went with thousands still queuing to get in; Srikkanth was briefly fun, brandishing his sword as would a musketeer; Yashpal Sharma fell on the stroke of lunch and Kapil fell to, wait for it, Larry Gomes! Oh dear, just 183 on the tally.Gordon Greenidge shouldered arms to a straight one but that was okay, whispered the thousands, because it brings to the stage… Viv Richards! Large applause. Richards dismissed the medium-pacers as if he were in a festival match at a ground surrounded by white tents and popping champagne, but hubris is a telling thing and a top edge had Kapil running back to the grandstand and clinging on over his shoulder: a fine catch and a galloping celebration from those around him. Even those of no faith began to think of miracles and duly one came, as spirits were transported to the wild parties back home. Mohinder Amarnath was Man of the Match for his cunning, though Madan Lal got Viv and two more. In summary, few Indian days had been more worthy of a National Bank Holiday. I would like to say I was there but alas…Back to Lord’s again, 1996, and my first adventure in television commentary with the Indian team. This was memorable for the 568 balls faced by Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid on their first appearance at the scene of the legend of 1983. It wasn’t England’s most incisive attack but it was a Test match and it showcased the fledgling gifts of two of the game’s most substantial and popular performers. Ganguly made 131 with 20 boundaries – most of them either side of point. His bat flourished from the off, unlike Dravid’s, which flowered the longer he was at the crease and the sunshine warmed his back. It is easy to remember both men being up for the fight but in such very different ways. To this day, they remain hugely important figures in Indian cricket – Ganguly as president of the board; Dravid as director of operations at the National Cricket Academy and, until very recently, coach of the India A and Under 19 teams. Lucky lads.Ganguly and Dravid made a dream debut at Lord’s in 1996•Getty ImagesThere’s lots more. Anil Kumble bringing hope and occasional glory to Northamptonshire, where Bedi had toiled willingly many years before. Ravi Shastri in Welsh colours and squealing “No!” as Greenidge charged one of his flightier left-arm spinners for Glamorgan and thundered it over the stand at the Mumbles and probably onto the beach. Kevan James – solid county pro – becoming the first and only first-class cricketer to take four in four balls with his left-arm swingers, against the 1996 Indians at the old Northlands Road Hampshire ground and then making 103 with the bat. His five-wicket bag included Tendulkar and Dravid, by the way. Oh, Kevan’s days!Gavaskar blocking a hundred on the same small field and then slogging another 66 to finish a masterclass and make a strong point to the media, who had been on his back. Dhoni for the first time. Then Dhoni again and again. Dhoni persevering with Jasprit Bumrah in one of his early ODIs and getting reward for the faith. How magnificently good that looks now! And Virender Sehwag, of course, the most exciting of cricketers to talk about on air.Now to Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and company, who are no less of an attraction than those who have gone before. This is a very good Indian side, perhaps the best, and the variety of cricketers in their number offers a fine chance to do something special in English conditions.There can be no doubt about Kohli’s place in the pantheon and it is high. He is yet to conquer England, however, and has an express wish to do so. His ongoing head to head with James Anderson is a treat in itself. England would like a little spice in the pitches for the seamers, as there was spice for the spinners in India earlier this year. We shall see. India’s seam attack is no sinecure for English batting, particularly in its present state.Talk of these two countries makes one think of the originator in the relationship, one of only three men to cross the divide. Ranjitsinhji helped stir the wind that spread the seeds of cricket over a wider territory. Having learnt the game at Rajkumar College, he went to Cambridge University and eventually, with prejudice aside, won a blue. His keen eye, suppleness of body and natural touch inspired prose and imitation. The fact that he was an Eastern prince added to the romance. With the agreement of the Australian captain, Harry Trott, he was chosen for England in the Manchester Test of 1896 and played a great innings – 154 not out – which often had led me to wonder if Trott regretted his kindness. After all, they say that no good turn goes unpunished. In 1904, Ranji returned home to concentrate on affairs of state and made only irregular appearances on the cricket field.Another Indian prince, Duleepsinhji, too made his name in cricket in England, and the first Nawab of Pataudi played for both countries, thus fostering a long and still unbroken bond between two nations whose gift to the game has transcended whatever else might have come between them. We can but hope that the coming series reflects the spirit and performances of those who lit up the past.

Two 25-year-olds come to watch an MLC game to just knock off a bucket list item, only to return home as cricket fans

Peter Della Penna17-Jul-2023The national anthem had just finished playing at the Grand Prairie Stadium, and night three of Major League Cricket in Texas was moments away from the first ball. As the players took the field, a pair of 25-year-olds with a Jacob deGrom Texas Rangers jersey and a Ronald Acuna Jr. Atlanta Braves jersey walked with cups of beer in their hands toward their seats on the north side of the stadium.”Never been [to a cricket match and we’re] sports guys so I was like we might as well go watch it one time, go watch some ball and stick,” Parker Janse, who played shortstop and second base for the Stephen F Austin University college baseball team in Nacogdoches – known as the Lumberjacks – said. “I live in Dallas, it’s on the way home. We’ll stop by for the cricket for a little bit.”Janse, along with his dad Kevin – a Dallas police officer – and friend Jeremy Rodriguez, a former team-mate at Stephen F. Austin who is now on the coaching staff for the baseball team as the director of analytics and player development, were along for the ride. Earlier in the day, Janse paid US $325 for seats in the fourth row behind home plate as a birthday gift for his dad to watch the Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Guardians 2-0. The game ended at 5.35pm, plenty of time to drive seven miles towards Dallas and stop off to buy a $30 ticket at the Grand Prairie Stadium to see San Francisco Unicorns take on Seattle Orcas.Related

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“Before this morning, nothing,” Janse said, when asked what he knew about cricket, other than that he also had an ex-girlfriend whose surname was Cricket. “We watched a few YouTube videos to get us ready for it. Kind of like a bucket list thing. We love all sports. We’re all in with the Orcas. Save the Orcas! They were handing these flags out [at the entrance gates] so it just solidified that we were going for them. We didn’t know who was playing until we walked in.””That’s not true,” Rodriguez cut in. “I texted you and said it was the Unicorns and the Orcas.””I thought that was a joke.””I was being dead serious.””I did not realise that it was actually the Unicorns vs the Orcas.””You wanna know something crazy?” Rodriguez, who is originally from Houston but now lives in Nacogdoches, 180 miles southeast of Grand Prairie, asked. “When we played baseball, we played here at the Airhogs Stadium before it became a cricket place. We used to play here a lot, actually. There used to be a swimming pool over there.” Rodriguez pointed to an area behind what used to be the outfield fence where part of the original entertainment zone, including a pool, had been removed to accommodate the renovation of the facility for cricket.A few minutes into play, Quinton de Kock tried to flick over the leg side and was bowled, drawing the first reaction out of Janse.”Ohhhh! A wicket! He’s out!” Janse shouted.”That’s our guy though,” Rodriguez shouted back. “We’re on the Orcas. So that’s not very exciting… We also know how to read the scoreboard now. Nine runs for one out for Seattle right now. The bowlers get six pitches and then they have to rotate.”A few minutes later, Orcas were back on track as Nauman Anwar hit a four back down the ground off Carmi le Roux straight towards Janse and Rodriguez.MLC staffer Christopher White shows a cricket ball for new fans and former college baseball players Jeremy Rodriguez and Parker Janse to get a feel of•Peter Della Penna”Ohhh, that’s gonna bounce over the fence. That’s gonna be four!” Janse shouted as he grabbed his Orcas flag and started waving it vigorously. “That’s four! How do you make an Orca sound? Arrrrr Arrrr Arrrr!!!” As Tajinder Singh Dhillon went to retrieve the ball near the boundary rope, Janse broke out the baseball fan-style trash talk. “Hey Dhillon! Probably wish you were on the Orcas, huh pal!”After a brisk start though, Anwar got out to a short ball he struggled to fend away, popping it up tamely to wicketkeeper Matthew Wade. Rodriguez didn’t hold back with his disappointment while looking at the replay on the stadium’s giant video board.”Oh, look at that checked swing, Jesus Christ,” Rodriguez blurted out before screaming towards Anwar walking off, “Hey! If you’re gonna swing the bat, swing it! Let’s go!””He got jammed!” Janse argued.”I don’t care if he got jammed. Get your bat through the zone and let it rip!”In the eighth over, cricket’s two newest fans were busy heckling Unicorns fielder Chaitanya Bishnoi. He was wearing jersey number 10 and was being shuffled around moving from deep fine leg to being asked to come back to field inside the 30-yard circle at short fine leg. “Ohhh… he is lost! Get this guy a map! Get this guy a map!” Janse shouted.But then Janse and Rodriguez saw something they had never come across on a baseball field. Shehan Jayasuriya walked across his stumps to play a ramped flick wide of the wicketkeeper for four. Initially, Janse and Rodriguez were slightly confused as Janse proclaimed, “I thought it was a foul ball to the backstop, but it’s four runs.” Then the replay of the shot was shown from the stump cam angle, eliciting a greater reaction.”Oh, my god. That was electric! That was electric!” Janse shouted before praising Jayasuriya’s shot selection further. “That’s situational hitting. He knew that number 10 was lost. He heard me tell him to get a map, so he knew that it was open out here.”At the end of the eighth over, Marcus Stoinis, wearing jersey number 17 for Unicorns, arrived nearby to field on the long-off boundary. Janse and Rodriguez didn’t hesitate to engage him.

“It’s quite a personal stadium in terms of like you can interact with the crowd. The crowd feels close, and you can hear what they’re saying and stuff like that, so it’s good to have a chat.”Marcus Stoinis

“Seventeen, I need your bicep curl routine,” Janse shouted. “That’s a hammer curl guy. You do a lot of hammers, a lotta hammer curls.”Stoinis couldn’t help but crack a smile before making the hammer curl motion while looking at Janse and Rodriguez, prompting the latter to scream, “Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!””I can tell you’re rippin the hammer curls,” Janse shouted out again before turning to Rodriguez with further analysis. “He’s 100% jacked. He’s humongous. He would eat me.”A short while after this exchange, two MLC employees came by to say hello to these passionate and boisterous first-time fans. They were Christopher White, brother of Unicorns squad member David White, and Zubin Surkari. When Janse and Rodriguez were informed that Surkari’s most famous cricket moment was being hit in the box by a 95 mph full toss from Shaun Tait when Canada played Australia in the 2011 World Cup in India, Janse went straight to his phone to look it up on YouTube.Rodriguez: “Oh my god. You look in agony! You’re in so much pain.”Janse: “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…. Oh my god. I’m so sorry! Ohhhhhhhhh….”Rodriguez: “Are you friends with that guy?”Surkari: “He bought me a beer afterward.”Rodriguez: “How many sixes did you hit off him?”Surkari: “I was out next ball.”

****

A few overs later, new batter Shimron Hetmyer skied a chance over short third where Haris Rauf, wearing jersey number 97 for Unicorns, backpedalled but couldn’t hold on to a chance. As the ball was in the air, Janse could see it was going to be a tough one.”You’re not catching that…. Told you! Ohhhhhhh…. Butterfingers!” Janse shouted. “Lay off the chicken wings there 97!””Ninety-seven in speed, zero in ball skills!” Rodriguez layered on top. “It was a can of corn. All he had to do is lay out.”In the next over, Stoinis was back fielding on the long-off boundary where he ran to his right to make an athletic stop, drawing more praise.”That’s great fielding there, 17,” Janse shouted. “Yes, sir! Way to push through the ball. Yes, sir! Hammer curls! Hammmeerrrrr currrrrrlsssssss!!!”Yo 17! How many sixes you got in you today?! Five, four?””Hopefully a few!” Stoinis shouted back in between a few laughs.”I think that means four in Australian,” Rodriguez said. “He’s gotta be my favorite player. He’s 17. Hammer curls. He’s sick. He’s ripped out of his mind. You know what? I think he just requested a trade to the Orcas. He’ll be on the Orcas by the end of the week. Is there a trade deadline coming up? Don’t worry, he’s gonna be there.”Marcus Stoinis: ‘It’s great that the American crew are getting engaged with cricket’•SportzpicsA quick Google search on the phone revealed that Stoinis was nicknamed “Oil”, allegedly because his Australian team-mates caught him greasing up tanning oil in the mirror. It only endeared him to Janse and Rodriguez even more as they watched him run from long-on to long-off, pulling double-duty fielding on the straight boundary alternating between overs.”I love this guy. I love him so much,” Janse said. “He’s the center fielder, basically. That’s Mike Trout. Their best fielder and hits with some ammo. So, he’s our favourite player. We’re 100% gonna watch his highlights when we get home.”Janse and Rodriguez watched Stoinis bowl the 17th over, cheering on by shouting “Oil! Oilllllll!!” as they got up and walked next to the sightscreen before leaving to go home for the night. After looking to just knock off a bucket list item, they want to come to the stadium and watch more cricket in the future. Stoinis and Unicorns may have lost on the night, but he won two new Texan cricket fans.”It was a few good interactions,” Stoinis told ESPNcricinfo after the game when asked about his particular exchanges with Janse and Rodriguez. “A bit of the usual sort of gym questions, bicep questions and that sort of stuff. So it was good fun, good energy and good supporters. This was much less hostile. This was good banter. Usually, it’s a passionate supporter from the other team in the other country. It’s quite a personal stadium in terms of like you can interact with the crowd. The crowd feels close, and you can hear what they’re saying and stuff like that, so it’s good to have a chat with a few of the fans.”I just think it’s great that the American crew are getting engaged with it, and they obviously understand pretty quickly how the sport is going. Even just talking to a few of the security guys, they were loving it. I asked one of them if their mates would be interested in watching cricket and if they’d come down to these games and they said ‘absolutely’. So it was nice. It feels like it’s being received well. It’s exciting for cricket to be played in the US, so hopefully, more and more people come and check it out.”

The CPL winner, who’s hoping to make his West Indies debut next month, wants to build on his experiences in the IPL, the T20 World Cup, and the T10

Deivarayan Muthu29-Nov-2021″Little Vassy, you think you could bat here?”This was Chris Gayle to Dominic Drakes after St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were reduced to 75 for 4, chasing 160 in the CPL final in September this year. Drakes, promoted ahead of Fabian Allen, took on the likes of Wahab Riaz and Kesrick Williams, scoring an unbeaten 24-ball 48 to steer Patriots to their first CPL title. At the post-match presentation, Drakes said that his dad, Vasbert, the former West Indies allrounder, had been more nervous than himself while watching the action from Barbados.Drakes has enjoyed a whirlwind rise in the past few months and is set to become a West Indies international after being called up to the T20I squad touring Pakistan in December.A day after his CPL title-winning exploits, Drakes flew to the UAE to join Mumbai Indians as a net bowler for the second leg of IPL 2021. While he was there, Chennai Super Kings roped him in as a late replacement for the injured Sam Curran, and Drakes went on to win another T20 title in the space of a month (although he didn’t feature in any games). And then he joined West Indies’ T20 World Cup squad as a net bowler.

Vasbert Drakes shirt number 48

Dominic Drakes 48* to win the final of the @CPL 2021

What’s story – injured in Super50 and what a redemption.
Congrats young man pic.twitter.com/wKQU02jxP7

— Carlos Brathwaite (@CRBrathwaite26) September 15, 2021