Without England quick’s skill and heart, India might already be out of sight

Vithushan Ehantharajah15-Feb-20242:12

Manjrekar: Sarfaraz against spin was a ‘sight to the sore eyes’

To be fair to Ravindra Jadeja, you could see why he thought a single was on.It was about 18 minutes to the close. England were weary after being slow-cooked in Rajkot’s dry, 34-degree Celsius heat. Debutant Sarfaraz Khan had come in and turned up the dials to char them to a crisp. And with Ben Stokes marking his 100th Test cap with rogue fields of catchers close enough to kiss, pushing one beyond them to move to a century was easy work. That’s certainly what Jadeja was thinking in his first three steps to the other end before coming to an abrupt halt.From the depths of the circle emerged Mark Wood, wearing the toil of his 17 overs like 17 jabs from Mike Tyson, whites looking like he was dragged up the Rajkot Highway, drenched in sweat. Yet he swooped, gathered and threw, with such calm and composure, taking out the one stump in view at the non-striker’s end. It probably happened in slow motion for Jadeja, and even slower for Sarfaraz – but it was milliseconds for everyone else. In an instant bit of brilliance, India’s next golden boy, was barbecued for 62, and a potentially match-altering fifth-wicket stand was capped at the knees on 77.Related

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Here was a perfectly packaged summation of England’s first day of this third Test in Rajkot. Just as it looked like India were pulling away, Wood, who had already given so much, gave some more. His 3 for 69, bowling the most he has in a single day of Test cricket in over two years, is the reason England were not dismayed after losing the toss. His direct hit is the reason they can look at India’s score of 326 for 5 at stumps and feel a sense of satisfaction.Two weeks ago, Wood lamented looking second-rate next to the genius of Jasprit Bumrah. But his impact here is close to what the No.1 ranked bowler gives to his team. Without the Durham quick’s skill and heart, India might already be out of sight.Stokes might not have called the coin correctly, but his selection of Wood over off-spinner Shoaib Bashir was vindicated within 11 balls from the Pavilion End. A hard length, with a bit of bounce and enough movement away from left-hander Yashasvi Jaiswal drew an edge through to Joe Root at first slip.Shubman Gill was next for a nine-ball duck; forced into playing a delivery that arrowed into him before decking away off the pitch. Just like that, Wood, who had gone wicketless for 25 overs as the lone seamer in Hyderabad, had pocketed the double centurion and second-innings centurion from Vishakapatnam.Mark Wood takes flight•Getty ImagesBoth dismissals could be regarded as bonuses. Before today, only David Warner at Trent Bridge in 2015 and Marnus Labuschagne at Sydney in 2022 were Wood’s previous wickets in the first six overs of an innings.That he opened the bowling with James Anderson was more out of circumstance than design. The reasons for his inclusion here were why he was selected ahead of Anderson in the first Test – his pace and ability to reverse swing the ball late had him as a point of difference. Essentially, he is at his most valuable when the ball is old and the pitch is unresponsive. Ergo – the most unrewarding time to bowl.Not that you can ever really tell from Wood’s body language. When you have had the injuries he has had to overcome, limiting him to just 33 Tests in nine years, a day in the field is not taken for granted.His first six-over burst was predominantly full deliveries, save for a few short, including one that reared up and clocked Rohit Sharma in the face. A mix of short stuff in the next stint of three followed, along with a patented wide jump into a delivery that whistled past Rohit’s edge on 77. The third and fourth spells were almost exclusively bumpers, all delivered with enthusiasm belying the graft required to get a softer ball up at a batter’s throat.Rohit Sharma got hit on the grille by Mark Wood•AFP via Getty ImagesEven early in that fourth spell, when one sat up for Jadeja to thump through mid on for four, Wood did not relent. Three deliveries into his next over, Rohit, 131 to his name, clothed a pull to Stokes, the middle fielder of three stationed at midwicket for the spooned top-edge.That it broke a stand of 204 between Sharma and Jadeja speaks to the lack of cutting edge or control when the seamers were out of circulation. That’s not unexpected given the lack of experience in the spin department, particularly on a first-day pitch. But for the first time on this tour, it felt like Tom Hartley, Rehan Ahmed and even Root were exposed.Had Root taken a low chance off Rohit when on 27, and England taken reviews when he was on 87 and Jadeja on 93 to overturn lbw appeals, the trio would have more to show than Rajat Patidar’s brain fade against Hartley. But India realised they could just focus on surviving Wood and Anderson and pilfer the rest. Root was particularly expensive, going at 5.23 an over, failing to use his off-breaks to keep the hosts in check or challenge Jadeja’s outside edge.As well as Sarfaraz batted, his innings was a microcosm of England’s conundrum. After facing five balls from Wood in his first six, he had 52 by the time he next faced a seamer. And though he played Anderson well, with a gorgeous late cut for four, he ducked and weaved when reacquainted with Wood (on 61) to play out a maiden.Unfortunately for Sarfaraz, Wood still found him lacking in the field. And as Kuldeep Yadav emerged as a night watchman, England were at least able to finish as they started – with a hold on proceedings.They will have to dig deep and go again on Friday, hoping for similar moisture in the air that greeted them on Thursday morning. Stokes’ decision to take the second new ball two overs before the close means it will be ripe for yet more early hijinks. And having proved more incisive in these conditions than one of England’s greatest in Anderson, there is even greater importance on Wood backing up one big day with another.

All the key numbers from Afghanistan’s victory in their must-win Super Eight game against Bangladesh in St Vincent

Sampath Bandarupalli25-Jun-20241 Afghanistan’s win in Kingstown was their first against Bangladesh in a World Cup game. The two teams had met four times previously – once in a T20 World Cup (2014) and three times in the ODI World Cup (2015, 2019 and 2023) – and Bangladesh had won all those matches.2 Instances of teams outside of the first eight Full Members to have reached the semi-final of an ICC event before Afghanistan in this T20 World Cup. Kenya made it to the semi-finals in the 2003 ODI World Cup, and so did Bangladesh in the 2017 Champions Trophy.9 Four-plus wicket hauls for Rashid Khan in T20Is, the most by any bowler in the format, surpassing Shakib Al Hasan’s eight. He took his third four-wicket haul in all T20 World Cups during the Super Eight match against Bangladesh – the joint highest in the competition along with Ajantha Mendis, Saeed Ajmal and Anrich Nortje.3 Openers to carry the bat in a men’s T20I, including Litton Das against Afghanistan. Chris Gayle was the first to do it – in the 2009 T20 World Cup semis against Sri Lanka. Richmond Baaleri of Ghana carried his bat through the innings against Botswana in 2023.Related

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442 Partnership runs between Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran at this T20 World Cup – the most by a pair in a single edition of the tournament, surpassing 411 runs by Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in 2021.Gurbaz and Ibrahim are also the first to share four fifty-plus stands in a T20 World Cup.152 Wickets for Rashid in T20Is. He is only the second bowler to bag 150-plus wickets in T20Is, after Tim Southee (164).5-0 Record of teams batting first in Kingstown at this T20 World Cup. It is the first time that teams batting first have an unbeaten record at a venue in a men’s T20 World Cup.

Jones played the unexpected hero on the night with great flair, throwing the spotlight on himself and – the hope remains – on cricket in the USA

Cameron Ponsonby02-Jun-2024It worked. The rain stayed away. The tickets were sold. And USA won. American cricket needed this.It was only four days ago that USA Cricket announced an “exclusive ticketing opportunity” where members could buy up to six tickets for 25% off. The game wasn’t a sell-out, clearly, and they were keenly trying to offload tickets to everyone and anyone.And when ticketing was not the issue, it was the weather. Storms and flash-flood warnings have been ever-present this week in Dallas. Six hours before kick-off, another storm rolled through. Fears of cricket’s big opening night in America being remembered as the evening an empty stadium got rained on were manifesting.Then Aaron Jones came along.The hero of the evening, his remarkable career-best innings catapulted the USA to victory from a position where it looked unlikely at best and impossible at worst. From 42 for 2 in the seventh over, Jones and Andries Gous put on 131 runs in 58 balls to ice the chase in the most relentless and brutal of fashions.Related

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Jones’ 94 not out off 40 deliveries was entirely out of keeping with his career. Arriving at the crease, he had a T20 career strike rate of 104, with 13 sixes in 24 innings. His highest score was 50, his only half-century in the format. But less than an hour later, he left having struck 10 sixes in a match-winning, legacy-defining, innings of history.Now is the time for hyperbole. The context of this World Cup is whether cricket can work in America. And as Jones smashed sixes on a raucous crowd of 6000 people at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, and celebrated each one with increasingly dramatic fist pumps, the answer was a resounding yes.”Sometimes when you play an innings like this,” Jones said after the match. “You go home, you sleep, and then you wake up and go ‘woah, I don’t even know how I batted like that’. It’s happened to me two or three times in the past and I think tomorrow is going to be like that as well.”When Jones launched Nikhil Dutta into the stands for the match-winning six, he sunk to his knees in celebration and lifted his arms above his head. It was a spectacle almost as remarkable as the innings itself.”To be honest with you, from young I’ve always been put in positions where I needed to be the man. To save the team and to help the team win. I think it brings out the best in me.USA fans cheer their team with flags•ICC/Getty Images”I also wanted especially [to win] because America is not really a ‘cricketing country’, I wanted to win for our fans…and really show the world that the USA has great cricketers here.”Jones went undrafted in the recent draft for Major League Cricket. His place in the T20I side has also been questioned. But he has been a mainstay for the USA over the past five years and made his maiden List-A century against Namibia in 2019, an innings that helped USA earn ODI status. He is a fitting hero for the occasion.Although the official attendance is yet to be released, the figure announced is expected to be above 6000. Truth be told, given the stadium holds 7200 and there was a notable number of empty seats, that feels a little punchy. Over the course of the match, the stadium transformed from half-empty to half-full. The game started six minutes late after the opening ceremony overran. The national anthems started while the mascots were still lining up in front of the players.It wasn’t a sell-out, and that irks, but as one colleague described it, the place felt “half-full, but heaving.” Those in attendance were treated to a wonderful, high-scoring match where the home team came back from the brink. The TV director wasn’t having to focus on shots of the same group in the crowd making up the “atmosphere” for the rest, but panning across a range of people from different backgrounds, ages and genders who were enjoying a high-octane sporting event.

“I also wanted especially [to win] because America is not really a ‘cricketing country’, I wanted to win for our fans… and really show the world that the USA has great cricketers here.”Aaron Jones

Canada played their part as well. These two teams played a five-match series less than two months ago, which the USA won 4-nil. But a fine batting performance threatened to ruin the American dream.As it happened, Canada’s total of 195, which was 26 more than the USA’s highest-ever previous chase, made it all the more exciting.The 131-run partnership between Jones and Gous came at 14.29 runs per over, the highest run-rate of any century partnership in T20 World Cup history. They took one Dutta over for 19 and another Jeremy Gordon over for 33. An over which included the dismissal of Gous only for it to be revealed that Gordon had overstepped.That Gous reprieve was immediately punished as he struck two of his following three deliveries to the boundary. Shots that were given the full Jones-fist-pump treatment from the non-striker’s end.”It’s just a bit of emotion where we have a plan and we execute it,” Jones said “If he [Gous] hit a six or a four, it’s just emotions coming out.”In total, between Gous and Jones, there were 24 occasions for Jones’ emotions to come out. His celebrations throughout America’s innings varied from the calmness of a golfer sinking birdies on the back nine, to the striker who’d scored a 90th-minute winner. Far from a man refusing to celebrate as the job wasn’t finished, Jones was a man basking in the knowledge that his time was now. The hope will be that not only was this Jones’ moment in history, but also cricket in America’s.

CD Gopinath talks about facing Ray Lindwall and Sonny Ramadhin, and being part of India’s first Test win

Alagappan Muthu16-Oct-20243:25

CD Gopinath: “There was no strategy on how we were going to beat England”

As CD Gopinath starts talking about cricket, it becomes clear that India’s oldest living Test cricketer has a mischievous soul.”See, when a legspinner bowls, and the ball is spinning, you cut him, the ball will go like this,” he says, extending his right arm and performing a clockwise turn. “I love watching it. I’ve seen fielders thinking the ball will come straight to them, but it bounces and goes somewhere else and they couldn’t stop it. I loved playing that shot and I loved seeing that happen.”Just as he enjoyed watching flummoxed fielders during his career, which included eight Tests for India, Gopinath, now 94, enjoys making light of that time in history.”Some people from the UK came and interviewed me on the Test match that India won for the first time in 1952. I think they were going to write a book or make a video, and I said to them: How can you write a book on one Test match? One season or five Test matches, okay. Why only this Test match? What is there to write so much about? They said, ‘No, we regard that win as a turning point of the cricket history of India.’ In one way it is true. And I am very lucky. I had that for India and I had that for Madras. I asked them: Who else are you interviewing? They said, ‘Nobody else, because there’s nobody else alive. You are the only one from that team that is there.’ I said, ‘So I can say anything I want!”Unfortunately, the lore that surrounds that victory, by an innings and eight runs over England in Madras, is disappointingly strait-laced. And Gopinath did not go through with his scandalous idea of saying whatever he wanted. He did, however, escort that crew to Chepauk to show them exactly where he took the catch to dismiss Brian Statham, England’s eighth wicket in the second innings, which brought India to the brink of history.Related

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India were well worth the 1-1 scoreline. They parked memories of Wally Hammond bashing them around and Alec Bedser tying them up in knots in previous years to begin the five-match series with back-to-back 400-plus first-innings totals. Then, in Kanpur, they came undone on a spin-friendly pitch and were left with only one chance to level the series. The batting had class – having already contributed five hundreds to England’s two – and that number would rise further in Madras, where Polly Umrigar scored a crucial 130 not out from No. 7, which turned 216 for 5 to an eventually match-winning 457 for 9 declared. Gopinath was at the other end when Umrigar got his hundred. Shortly after Statham hit Vinoo Mankad up in the air, after 20 years of trying, India had pulled off something they never thought possible.”[The crew] asked me how I felt,” Gopinath said, “and I said, look, my job was, as a fielder, I had to take the catch. It’s not an achievement. If you can’t take a catch, why would you be in the team? Yes, we were very pleased that we won, because we didn’t expect to win. That too against England, we never thought we’d ever win. We were very happy, but beyond that, there was no… [at] that time nobody demonstrated. They didn’t make fists and things like that.”Today when a fellow takes a catch, the whole team runs there – carries him, kisses him, hugs him – not only in cricket, in every game. In football, when someone scores a goal, they almost smother him. Those days you were not meant to express yourself openly out to the world. The catch I held was a straightforward, simple catch, nothing to it. If you held a brilliant catch somewhere in the slips, someone may say: ‘Well held.’ That’s it. You didn’t go running around the whole ground or carrying people. It was considered vulgar to show your feelings to the outside world. So our celebration at the end of that game was: we went to the dressing room, we said to each other, ‘Well done’, we packed up and went home. That was the end of the matter.Gopinath on the tour of England in 1952•Edward G Malindine/Getty Images”Maybe it didn’t quite dawn on us, because we were the weak team. When we went into that Test match, we didn’t expect to win. We were not even trying to. If we draw, we were very happy. was like winning a match. So long as we didn’t lose. That was the first time that we realised, oh, it’s also possible to win. You realise, oh, it’s also possible to score hundreds or 200s.”Gopinath’s lack of excitement – apart from being typical of his era – might also stem from the fact that he never had any intention of becoming a cricketer. That was destiny’s doing, placing him in the same college house as the captain at Madras Christian College, creating a situation where they needed, first, a wicketkeeper – “They saw me playing tennis, so they called me and said your job is to not let the ball pass you” – and then an opener (“You mean face the new ball? No way I can do that”). Except he did, and began scoring a lot of runs.”I got a duck in both innings of my Ranji Trophy debut, so [team-mate] Balu Alagannan came to me and said, ‘Hey, watch out. Bad things come in threes.’ Next match, I was so scared. It was all I could think about. I don’t even know how I got to the crease but somehow I got there and I got off the mark.”Gopinath was an uncut gem. “When I was young, I didn’t know anything. I suppose what happened was, my reflexes were good, my footwork was good, my eye was good. I could hit the ball.”So the cricket association sent him to train with Bert Wensley, the former Sussex allrounder who played 400 first-class games, and Madras cricket legend AG Ram Singh.Their mentorship helped him move up the levels of the game. It was batting that interested Gopinath the most, to the extent that he named his home in Coonoor “The Cover Drive”.Gopinath (front row, third from right) at a felicitation for Tamil Nadu’s Ranji Trophy winners from the 1954-55 and 1987-88 seasons•TNPL”There was a West Indian bowler called [Sonny] Ramadhin,” Gopinath said. “Those days, his early days, he was called the wonder bowler, and the previous season, West Indies toured England and they beat England because Ramadhin took so many wickets and the English batsmen could not spot what he was doing. He was a peculiar bowler. I don’t know how he did it. He would bowl the same way, one would go offbreak, one would go legbreak and you could never spot which way it was going.”I played against him in an unofficial Test for the Combined Universities against the Commonwealth Second Team in 1950. Again, because of destiny or luck or whatever, I happened to be at the non-striker’s end and I was watching him. I wanted to see if I could figure him out. Then some intuition told me that he normally bowled an offbreak, which was fairly quick, and when he tossed it a little bit, it was a legbreak. It was a blind kind of assessment. Just happened I was right and I hammered him all over. Every time he bowled a legbreak, he’d toss it up a little bit and I’d be ready for the square cut and I’d get four runs. I was top scorer that game. I made 93.”Gopinath had an instinct for batting and he was not shy about following it.”I was very thrilled when I faced Ray Lindwall for the first time. He was damn fast. By the time he played against me [in 1960], he must have been slower. But he was still really fast. One fast one on the leg side and I hooked him and I missed the six by five or ten feet. Immediately my captain said, ‘What are you doing? Don’t take chances!’ I said: what can you do with a short ball on the leg side!”Cricket allowed Gopinath to meet to new people.”I became friends with Lindwall that game, sitting and chatting. We became such good friends that we exchanged caps. I still have it somewhere.”Gopinath at home in Chennai•Alagappan Muthu/ESPNcricinfo LtdIt brought him recognition.Gopinath scored a hundred in the 1954-55 Ranji Trophy final when Madras won the tournament for the first time.It helped him win over his family, who once regarded him as an example of who not to be.”When my mother passed away and we were looking through her things, we found so many newspaper cuttings of me. She never told me, but all of it was there: I saved this match, I scored this century. And when my daughter saw that, she made a book of it.”The simple pleasure of picking up a bat and swinging it around changed Gopinath’s life and he never let the joy fade.”My coach Mr Wensley once advised me not to play the cut because I was getting out to it. ‘You play your drives and everything, you’re okay, but stop the square cut,’ he said. ‘That’s very difficult and you’re getting out.’ I tried to stop it and after a couple of matches, I went back to him and I told him, ‘I love that shot. I can’t do it.’ So he said, ‘Okay, if you’re that keen, don’t go opening. Move two-down, three-down.’ So I did and I never stopped the square cut.”Seeing me square-cut in that Combined Universities game, against Ramadhin, a foreign scribe, the Commonwealth team manager actually, wrote that I was the best exponent of the square cut in India. It was so funny!”I have never had any ambitions. I never wanted to get anywhere. Whatever happened to me happened because of my [destiny]. If I wanted to play for India and so on, I’d have been disappointed. But I never even thought about it. I never dreamt that I would play for India. It just came by. Same thing has happened to me in my life, in my work, and some of the things which at that time was, ‘Oh terrible, a terrible thing has happened’, now I realise I’m so glad that happened.”At some point, people grow up. They realise the perils of living for the moment, of chasing fleeting highs, like the feeling after playing a great shot, and weigh it against the downsides: its potential to get you out. It’s human nature. You want to do the best you can, so you strip the fun out of things.But take it from a 94-year-old who used to play tennis until four years ago, who was friends with Raman Subba Row, Frank Worrell and Denis Compton, who has seen the snowy peaks of Alaska and the breathtaking splendour of the Nile, who was chairman of the Madras Chamber of Commerce and who still serves on the board of several trusts: sometimes doing something just because it feels good is good.

The proliferation of multi-skilled players reflects a growing trend in the shortest format

Matt Roller12-Sep-2024A half-strength England team going down to Australia on a bitterly cold night at Hampshire’s Utilita Bowl: this was not a T20 international which will live long in the memory. Travis Head, the game’s top-scorer, was dismissed inside the powerplay. No batter faced as many as 30 balls, while Liam Livingstone and Sean Abbott were the only bowlers to take three wickets.Yet it was a night that taught us something about T20 cricket and its evolution, as the format enters its third decade at the professional level. The two teams selected were remarkable: 21 of the 22 players selected could either bowl or keep wicket, with England’s Jamie Overton – an allrounder picked as a specialist batter due to a back injury – the only exception.There were 13 bowlers used – seven by England, six by Australia – and all 22 players batted, with both sides bowled out for the first time in a men’s T20 international in England. It was not a game which required much of an attention span: on average, there was a boundary every over (one per 5.7 balls) and a wicket every second over (one per 11.7 balls).Related

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Is this T20’s future? The trend across the format’s history has been that runs have been scored and wickets have been taken at a faster rate with every passing year. With most teams preaching a homogenous message about their approach – giving batters freedom to attack, and prioritising wickets over economy with the ball – there is no obvious sign of that changing soon.The proliferation of multi-skilled players on display reflected the pattern. If wickets fall more regularly, there is greater expectation that lower-order players should be able to bat; and if top-order batters are facing a smaller proportion of balls, they need to find another way to contribute, whether that it is with the ball, gloves or in the outfield.”It’s been a real trend of all T20 teams over the last little period of time,” Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s captain, said. “The more options you can have from a bowling perspective, as a captain and as a team, is really beneficial, bouncing in and out of different bowling options. The more we can develop our young allrounders, that better that will be for us.”Marcus Trescothick, England’s interim coach, believes that national teams simply “go through phases” when they have an abundance of allrounders. “It’s really beneficial when you get groups that have seven or eight people who could bowl, and you’ve got a side who can bat all the way down to No. 10 or 11, that’s when you’re blessed – but that’s not always the case.”But it looks like a permanent shift in England’s case, with the vast majority of players in their pathway now multi-skilled. Take Wednesday night’s other debutants: Jacob Bethell describes himself as a batting allrounder, while Jordan Cox is England’s nearest equivalent to Glenn Phillips: an occasional wicketkeeper and an electric outfielder, he has even started to dabble with part-time spin. Will Smeed, another highly-talented T20 hitter who retired from first-class cricket at 21, has ambitions to improve his own offbreaks to give himself another string to his bow.England’s swathe of allrounders in this series owes in part to circumstance. Harry Brook, who has not bowled a ball in his 54 limited-overs internationals, is recuperating after their Test series against Sri Lanka; so too is Ben Duckett, who has only kept wicket once in the last three years. On Wednesday, they looked at least one batter light, with Jofra Archer at No. 8.But the fact that so many players have a secondary skill is a clear reflection of market forces during this franchise boom. Among the overseas players in this year’s IPL, Rajasthan Royals’ Shimron Hetmyer was the best-paid specialist batter; including batters who bowl and wicketkeepers, there were nine overseas allrounders who earned more.The trend is particularly heightened in England and Australia, where players compete for contracts in foreign leagues during their lengthy off-seasons. Having a secondary skill which an agent can push to franchises can be the difference between a well-paid deal to play T20 overseas, and a winter training in the indoor school.The main counterpoint to this trend comes from the format’s world champions. India have often struggled to balance their T20 side: not many of their bowlers contribute with the bat, and vice versa. The introduction of the Impact Player rule in the IPL – which allows teams to pick an extra specialist for each innings – is widely thought to have exacerbated that.And yet, India’s victory over South Africa in June might come to be seen as the end of that era. Only three of their players that day neither bowl regularly nor keep wicket: two of them, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, immediately retired from T20Is; the third, Suryakumar Yadav, took his first T20I wickets in July, taking a game against Sri Lanka into an improbable Super Over.If Wednesday night’s match in Southampton highlighted the abundance of secondary skills among modern players, it was also a reminder that T20 is at its best when specialists thrive.The decisive moment in England’s chase came when Josh Hazlewood – who has scored 29 runs in 52 T20Is – bowled Liam Livingstone an 85mph/137kph ball which he disguised as a slower ball, briefly showing Livingstone the back of his hand on release. It was a moment of ingenuity which underlined that for all the importance of allrounders, quality always wins out.

Who, what, where and everything else you need to know about CPL 2024

Deivarayan Muthu28-Aug-2024So, the biggest party in cricket is back?Indeed, the six-team CPL 2024 will start on August 29 and will run until October 6, with seven venues set to host 34 games. The top-four teams in the league phase will qualify for the playoffs, which will be held at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. Just like the IPL, the top-two teams will get two tilts at the final.Okay, how many countries are hosting the tournament?CPL 2024 will be played in six countries: Trinidad, Guyana, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts, and Antigua.Related

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Tell me, what’s new this season?For starters, Shamar Joseph is now a global phenomenon. After having started CPL 2023 as a mere net bowler for Guyana Amazon Warriors, Joseph moved up the ranks and bowled West Indies to their first Test victory in Australia in nearly 27 years, and has broken into the IPL and West Indies’ T20 World Cup squad since. He is poised to play a more prominent role for Amazon Warriors, the defending champions.Plus, there’s a new team: Antigua & Barbuda Falcons. They will replace Jamaica Tallawahs, the 2013, 2016 and 2022 CPL champions. Kris Persaud, a Guyanese businessman based in Florida, owned the Tallawahs franchise but had sold it back to the CPL. The CPL intends to relaunch a Jamaica-based franchise in the years to come.Falcons’ home base will be the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, which last hosted a CPL game in 2014 when Antigua Hawksbills were active in the league.Falcons have absorbed the core of Tallawahs, with Brandon King, who is currently recovering from injury, Mohammad Amir, Fabian Allen and Imad Wasim all part of the new franchise.You mentioned that Amazon Warriors are defending champions…Yep. After falling short in five finals previously, Amazon Warriors clinched their first title under Imran Tahir’s leadership last season. Tahir, 45, is still going strong in franchise T20 leagues, and will return to captain Amazon Warriors in their quest to defend the crown. Left-arm fingerspinner Gudakesh Motie and offspinners Kevin Sinclair and Junior Sinclair will complement Tahir’s wristspin on the slow, low pitches at Providence.They will be bolstered further by the return of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who was the leading run-getter in the T20 World Cup 2024, and the addition of left-arm seam-bowling allrounder Raymon Reifer.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhich are the other strong teams?You can’t look past the star-studded Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) side, who have Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, Nicholas Pooran and Sunil Narine in their ranks. Russell, who had been rested from West Indies’ most recent home T20I series against South Africa, is set to return to action in the CPL.If TKR’s big guns fire in unison, they have a strong chance to mark their tenth year in the league with a fourth title. TKR last won the silverware when they enjoyed an unbeaten run to the title in 2020.St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, who finished bottom last season with just a solitary win in ten games, look much stronger this season, at least on paper, especially after having signed the South Africa trio of Tristan Stubbs, Anrich Nortje and Tabraiz Shamsi. They have also recruited big-hitting allrounder Odean Smith, who was transferred from Amazon Warriors. Opener Evin Lewis will look to prove a point after having last played for West Indies in the 2022 T20 World Cup. He is set to open the batting with allrounder Kyle Mayers, who was Patriots’ first pick at the draft.ESPNcricinfo LtdHow many overseas players can be part of the XIs at the CPL?As such, four. But it’s mandatory for the teams to field an emerging player in five games, and in those games, they can field an additional overseas player. But once the quota is done, they can’t pick a fifth overseas player even if they field that emerging player.Tahir is the oldest player in this CPL, but who is the youngest?At 17, Jewel Andrew, who was snapped up by Falcons, could well become the youngest player ever to feature in the CPL (if he makes his debut before the playoffs). Pooran was previously the youngest player to make a CPL appearance at 17 years and 300 days.Andrew, who was West Indies’ highest run-getter in the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, with 207 runs in four innings at an average of 69 and strike rate of 109.52, has been tipped to become the next big thing in Caribbean cricket. So, well, remember the name!ESPNcricinfo LtdUSA’s Aaron Jones is part of this CPL, right?Yes, you have been paying attention. The USA batter, who made a splash at the T20 World Cup earlier this year, was picked by Daren Sammy’s St Lucia Kings at the draft, but he will play as a local player through his Barbados passport. Jones has previously played in West Indies’ regional set-up for Barbados and Combined Campuses and Colleges and was an unused member of the Patriots squad in CPL 2019.Any unknown players to keep an eye on?Quite a few, including fast bowlers Isai Thorne (Barbados Royals) and Nathan Edward (TKR) who have both represented West Indies at the Under-19 World Cup.Also, heard of Mikkel Govia?The Kings allrounder is the son of Russell Latapy, the former Trinidadian footballer. Govia, 22, hasn’t played an official T20 yet, but has made regular appearances in T10 cricket in the Caribbean. With West Indies searching for their next offspin-bowling allrounder after Roston Chase, there might be some interest around Govia and Falcons’ Kofi James.Does the CPL clash with any other T20 tournament?Of course. What’s a T20 league without a schedule clash these days? It overlaps with the knockouts of the Vitality T20 Blast in England. Chris Green, for example, will turn out for Falcons in the CPL and will not be available to Lancashire. The CPL, however, has avoided a clash with the Hundred after holding talks with the ECB earlier this year.How can fans outside the Caribbean catch the action?Every match of CPL 2024 will have ball-by-ball commentary right here on ESPNcricinfo. Fans in India can watch the CPL on the Star Sports network or Fancode. USA and UK viewers can watch it on Willow TV and TNT Sports respectively. Sky Sport will be broadcasting in New Zealand and Super Sport in South Africa.

Having established himself in the Delhi Capitals top order, the keeper-batter from Chandannagar is poised to play a major role for Bengal in the 2024-25 season

Himanshu Agrawal13-Aug-2024Arguments over the merits and demerits of the Impact Player rule have raged ever since its introduction during IPL 2023, but Abishek Porel is unlikely to be drawn into them. He owes his IPL breakthrough to this rule.At the start of IPL 2024, it seemed unlikely he would get much game time. With Rishabh Pant back as wicketkeeper and captain, Porel was fighting with Kumar Kushagra, for whom Delhi Capitals broke the bank with an INR 7.2 crore winning bid, to be the team’s second wicketkeeper. DC also had Tristan Stubbs.But when they were in dire need of momentum in their tournament-opener at 138 for 7 against Punjab Kings, Porel got his chance. He came off the subs bench and blitzed an unbeaten 32 off 10 balls to take DC to 174. That cameo made such an impression that Porel ended up playing all 14 games, and DC’s then head coach Ricky Ponting went on to call him a “very special talent”.Related

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“Ponting said, ‘Just believe in yourself.’ When a legend like him motivates you, then obviously you are moved,” Porel tells ESPNcricinfo. “Pant also told me, ‘ [You can do it]’. Personally, I also felt like I just had to perform this time.”It wasn’t Porel’s first brush with the IPL. He had been part of DC’s squad in 2023 too, having been picked out of a trial in which the franchise looked at six other keepers. Porel remembers being intimidated just being around the coaching staff when he arrived for his first training session.”I was definitely nervous seeing Ponting,” Porel says. “But he was a down-to-earth person, and helped me understand [things] well. Moreover, once I was in Delhi, Ponting, Sourav [Ganguly, director of cricket] sir and Shane Watson [assistant coach] were guiding us nicely, and treating me like one of their own. If there is anyone who knows me today, it is because of DC and Sourav sir.”Porel finished IPL 2024 with 327 runs including two match-winning half-centuries and a number of useful cameos. He struck his runs at 159.51, which put him behind only Jake Fraser-McGurk and Stubbs, and ahead of Pant, among the DC batters who scored at least 200 runs.”I was just prepared for the opportunity,” Porel says when asked if the prospect of fighting for a spot with three other wicketkeepers was intimidating. “The fight was always with myself, because it is me who is my competitor. I knew that if I performed well, I would be able to keep my place.”He particularly enjoyed batting with Australia’s rising star Fraser-McGurk, with the two adding 176 runs in three first-wicket partnerships. Their run rate of 14.46 was the best of any opening pair with at least 175 runs that season.”He seemed to have that magic bat from (a Bollywood movie from 2007),” Porel says with a laugh. “He was swinging it in all directions, and I kept turning my neck to watch the ball fly on both sides of the ground!”Abishek Porel is likely to play as a specialist batter for Bengal this season, with Wriddhiman Saha back in the fold•PTI As a left-hand batter from Bengal, there’s little doubt who Porel idolises. “I obviously want to be like Sourav sir,” he says. “If I end up achieving even a percentage of what he did, then that would be massive. I really like his debut Test hundred; I have watched highlights of it multiple times.”The Porel of 2024 is confident and clear about what he can offer. This sets him up nicely for the upcoming season, where it’s likely he’ll play as a specialist batter for Bengal with Wriddhiman Saha back in the fold after two years away at Tripura.Porel broke through in 2022 only because of Saha’s departure. And like Saha, whose journey from Siliguri to Kolkata is well documented, Porel has walked a long road too, from Chandannagar, a quiet city in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, to Kolkata and beyond.That Porel is firmly established as one of Bengal’s rising stars is a source of extra delight for his extended family, with first cousin Ishan a key fast bowler in the team’s attack alongside India Test players Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep.”It was when (big brother, here referring to Ishan) was representing Bengal Under-14 and Under-16 that I also started getting interested in the game,” Porel says. “He took me to the National Sporting Club in Chandannagar, where I met my childhood coach for the first time.”Barely 11 then, Porel did not have it easy at first. Sometimes he’d have to wait until sunset, when other, older batters would finish, to get an opportunity. He would unfailingly grab his chance.He was “a step ahead of his peers”, according to Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee, who was Porel’s coach when he played for the Bengal Under-23s. But long before that, Bhattacharjee had been impressed by his ability as a puny teenager, when he captained Porel at the Bhowanipore Club.”Abishek could play some terrific shots,” Bhattacharjee says. “People at that age are usually defensive, but he was always gutsy. He was dominating even the senior bowlers, never giving the impression that he had come over from Under-16s.”In 2021-22, as Bengal’s captain in the Cooch Behar Trophy, Porel smashed 716 runs at an average of 89.50 and a strike rate of 82.11 in six games, including three hundreds.It led to his name doing the rounds among the junior selectors, and when five players from the Under-19 World Cup squad contracted Covid-19 in the Caribbean, Porel was called up as a reserve.Porel believes he can break into the India squad if he breaches the 1000-run mark in consecutive first-class seasons•PTI “I was really upset when I hadn’t got the call-up for the original squad,” he says. A chance in the playing XI eluded him, but he took away quite a lot from the experience. “I understood what it means to tour, and got a feeling of what it means to represent the country.”Upon his return, circumstances helped Porel break through in the Ranji Trophy. Saha had left, and Shreevats Goswami wasn’t in the scheme of things anymore. Porel’s first-class debut was a baptism by fire. Bengal were shot out for 88 on a Cuttack greentop by Baroda, but Porel made 21 off 19 balls.Then, in the second innings, Bengal were 242 for 6 chasing 349 when Porel joined Shahbaz Ahmed. They added an unbroken 108, of which Abishek scored an unbeaten 53 off 70, as Bengal sealed victory in what remains his “favourite match”.”We won, and to score runs in that situation – and that too on debut – was special,” Porel says. Bengal made the semi-finals, and Porel scored 303 runs at an average of 33.66 that season, including three fifties, to repay the faith shown by Bhattacharjee, who was then part of Bengal’s senior selection committee.”[Arun] Lal ji was the coach then, and even he told me that he had rarely seen such stroke-making and fearlessness at that age,” Bhattacharjee says.That match was also memorable for other reasons. On the first morning, Porel teamed up with his cousin as “c Porel b Porel” made its first appearance on a first-class scoresheet.Porel made enough of an impact in that first season to earn a Duleep Trophy call-up – he scored an unbeaten 50 against North Zone in his only game – but he hasn’t yet translated his promise into consistent big scores at the first-class level. He currently averages 33.50, and has scored just the one hundred in 23 games.It’s early days still, of course, with Porel only turning 22 in October, but it’s possible he may not enjoy the standing he has today without that opening as an impact sub in IPL 2024. “Life has certainly taken a jump,” he says. “People in Chandannagar have started recognising me.”How is Porel preparing for the new season and the prospect of teaming up with Saha again? “Now that Wriddhi is back, I can chat with him [about my game],” Porel says. “He is like my own , and a guide to me. Even during the IPL, he tells me I can speak to him if I face any problem.”I aim to play all three formats for India – and play regularly. If I get 1000 runs in first-class cricket for two seasons in a row, and hit 500-600 runs in the IPL, I believe a door will certainly open for me.”

As a dispiriting tour plumbs new depths, lessons need to be learned if England are to move on

Valkerie Baynes25-Jan-2025Amid England’s 2019 Ashes capitulation, Clare Connor, the ECB’s then managing director of women’s cricket, announced a wide-ranging review looking at preparation, selection and player development.The funds poured into the women’s game, and crowed about by the organisation after that 12-4 drubbing at the hands of Australia, have done wonders for the sport, and yet here we are.England are 12-0 down and staring down the very real prospect of losing 16-0 after next week’s Test and failing to register a point for the first time since the Ashes became a multi-format series in 2013.It took a while for things to change after 2019 but they did, for a time. The post-pandemic return series in Australia was beset by quarantine restrictions and bad weather which did little for the touring side’s morale as they again lost 12-4.But in 2023, under new coach Jon Lewis, England fought back from 6-0 down to draw 8-8 at home and Australia retained the Ashes by the barest of means. And that may just be England’s problem now.For all the controversy over England’s perceived fitness levels, much of their downfall appears to be to do with mental matters. There is little evidence that they have eradicated the fielding errors that contributed to their T20 World Cup exit in October, where they fell apart against West Indies in the group stage.Poor shot selection has been a running theme throughout this Ashes for a batting line-up which slumped to England’s second-lowest T20I total when they were bowled out for 90 and Australia romped to a 72-run victory in the third T20I on Saturday.After the result at Adelaide Oval, Lewis also said his bowlers had been “sloppy” in terms of line and length up to that point, when England’s spinners in particular restricted Australia to what he believed was a par score of 162 for 5.But Lewis didn’t believe that England’s ability to push Australia 18 months ago had made them over-confident heading into this series.”I think it may have raised expectation outside of the group,” he said. “I definitely don’t think it gave us too much confidence. It gave us some confidence. We were incredibly aware of how strong Australia are in this part of the world and everywhere else in the world.”They’re a really good cricket team. We knew that when we came in, we knew this was going to be a really hard-fought competition but also a really hard competition for us to come out on top in.”What I would say is I think our performance in England last time probably stimulated the Australians into making some decisions about how they wanted to play and they’ve come out and they’ve showed some changes in how they’ve approached their cricket and they’ve been really impressive. They’ve played better cricket than us and we are in this position for a reason.”Fielding errors persisted in Adelaide, alongside familiar batting errors•Getty ImagesEngland’s mantra under Lewis has been to “inspire and entertain”, so is it not reasonable that the public would expect a lot of their team, who in the aftermath of that 2019 failure have become a better resourced, highly professionalised outfit? Unlike Australia, who have responded to their 2023 wake-up call by coming up with all the answers before England have even thought of the questions, it seems their visitors aren’t learning their lessons.”There isn’t a lot of time between games to go away and think and work and make a change,” Lewis said. “We have pretty honest conversations behind closed doors. The players are really honest with how they’re going.”One of the things that stood out for me across this tour is actually we’ve practised really, really well but we haven’t played very well. So the bit that we’re missing is the bit when we cross the line as to how we go and perform.”We’ve got some really good players and we haven’t been able to transfer that onto the field, which is a great shame. There’s a great opportunity for us to show what a good cricket team we are and we haven’t been able to do that.”Lewis had expressed concern ahead of the tour about the tight schedule, but it is the same for both sides. Not being able to execute in pressure situations has only been an issue for one and all of the above speaks to mental over physical shortcomings.And while you’ll struggle to find a fitter side than Australia, you won’t find one tougher above the shoulders. Yes, they stumbled in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup, and at the last Ashes, and yet here we are. Australia have learned, improved and then pulverised their opposition.”I feel like there’s been moments in those games where if we pushed home our advantage at certain points in the match we could have come away some points in probably the first three or four games,” Lewis said. “In fact the first five games I think we’ve been at times in positions to take some points.”But I feel like in the critical moments in the games the Australians have used their experience and their understanding of the conditions to play in a way that’s been able to get them across the line and you have to take your hat off to them. They understand how to win and we disrupted them a little bit over in England last time out and we came here with confidence that we could do the same here but they haven’t let us do it.”Related

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Australia have done so with captain Alyssa Healy and star allrounder Ash Gardner both out injured for all three T20s, which has only emphasised their depth. Beth Mooney has kept wicket with distinction in Healy’s absence and dominated the batting, her unbeaten 94 on a slow Adelaide Oval wicket the pinnacle.But England aren’t without depth. In Adelaide, they brought Alice Capsey in for Maia Bouchier, moving Sophia Dunkley to the top of the order with Capsey at No.3 as well as adding effectively to the spin-bowling ranks. They had quick Lauren Filer at the ready when Lauren Bell succumbed to a migraine and dropped legspinner Sarah Glenn for left-armer Linsey Smith to maintain their preferred line-up of three frontline spin-bowlers.But again Australia did better with only captain Heather Knight and Danni Wyatt-Hodge reaching double figures as each of the home side’s six bowlers took wickets, led by legspinner Georgia Wareham’s career-best 3 for 11.Lewis’s contention that the 2023 Ashes spurred Australia on to greater heights isn’t in dispute. Mooney said in her post-match press conference that after that tour and their T20 World Cup disappointment, “we probably just had been letting ourselves down a little bit in different areas of the game” and “we wanted to really put a marker out there and keep moving the women’s game forward”.The question now is, can this Ashes spur his side on in the same way?

As good as Chandimal, de Silva and Mendis looked on day four, it was all ultimately futile

Andrew Fidel Fernando30-Nov-2024The temptation is to throw a big sheet over the whole thing.People tend not to watch sports for the purpose of wallowing in misery. Cricket is supposed to exist in the realm of fun.On the other side of the ledger, you trounce a team, and tend not to want them to drink too deeply from the self-loathing cup. Their failing to believe in themselves cheapens your own achievements, and in elite, professional sports, you want to celebrate every win. The team you beat were just lying down to be beaten? That’s no fun.Related

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Test cricket, especially, perhaps among all sports, can be exceptionally forgiving. Its narrative arc is long, and allows for all manner of mad comeback scenarios. You got shot out for 185 batting first? Chin up, one of your opening seamers has one of their greatest days, and you skittle the opposition for 160. Not so bad now, no? Oh, you’ve given up a 130-run first-innings lead? That’s okay, one of your openers rocks a fast century, and you’re back on level terms. So you’re chasing more than 300 in the last innings? Turns out that’s easier to do in modern Tests than ever before.With Kingsmead, the temptation is to say, okay, Sri Lanka were behind the game and fought back in the fourth innings. And that if you rolled up to the ground on the fourth morning, threw a big sheet over the scoreboard, and watched Dhananjaya de Silva drive, or Dinesh Chandimal cut and pull, and Kusal Mendis sweep, perhaps this was sufficient evidence of competitive cricket. South Africa were being made to work.The truth is, actually, quite simple. Test cricket, for all its largesse, cannot forgive this. It cannot forgive a 42 all out.Every action that followed that Sri Lanka first innings was doused in what it meant for a team to get bowled out for 42.South Africa had been jolted by being dismissed for 191, but they were soaring after those 13.5 overs, having established a 149-run lead. The sun shone on a soft Kingsmead pitch on day two, and so when they went out to bat again, better batting conditions were in the making. Hang tight, hunker down, play safe. You lose an opener for 17, but you’re already almost 200 runs ahead. It’s fine.Dhananjaya de Silva played his shots freely on his way to 59•AFP/Getty ImagesWiaan Mulder, the seam-bowling allrounder who had fractured his hand, volunteered to bat at No. 3, so he could make the ball a little older for the batters to follow while he could still hold a bat. If Sri Lanka had surged to 200 all out, for example, South Africa would have been less likely to take these decisions. Batting for 50 overs, instead of just 13.5, may have meant that Mulder would have had to volunteer on the next day, when his hand was likely in worse shape.And in that scenario, promoting an injured No. 7 to No. 3 would have felt like a more serious risk, with the advantage in the match on the line. Mulder ended up facing only 31 balls., and making 15, so perhaps his effect on the game was minimal. And yet this was a higher score and a greater number of balls faced than any combination of the two that Sri Lanka’s batters had managed in their first innings.The next day, Temba Bavuma and Tristan Stubbs batted on a pitch much muted, under beating sunshine. If 42 all out had been 200 all out, Sri Lanka could have attacked for longer, their bowlers better refreshed from a break longer than 13.5 overs. Attacking fielders could have stayed in place, and bowling speeds may have dropped less than they did. Bavuma and Stubbs may still have prospered. But they were almost certain to have faced greater challenges. The opposition being three down for 200 is an entirely different proposition than their being three down for 50. The tendency, in this data-driven age, is to admit only quantitative data, and ignore the qualitative stuff.In public, Sri Lanka’s bowlers said that a collapse such as 42 all out was just “one of the things that can happen in cricket.” But they are humans. Inwardly, they were likely seething.It carried even into the fourth innings, where South Africa had so many runs on the board that they merely needed to keep catching positions in play, and continue to bowl attacking lines. There were few considerations towards keeping the runs down. Chandimal cut and pull. De Silva drove, and Kusal swept. They hit boundaries in favoured areas, but there was no serious consideration to closing those gaps. Sri Lanka needed to play dozens more of those shots, over dozens more overs, to even rustle up a scare for South Africa.There was no sense that South Africa were ever in danger, that a moment of misfortune, or half a dozen, could turn this match.A Test match arc is long, and it can be forgiving. But it could not forgive 42 all out.

With five spinners in their squad, and three likely to start in their XI, slower surfaces could make them extremely hard to beat

Nagraj Gollapudi17-Feb-2025India will play all their Champions Trophy 2025 games in Dubai. The pitches there were used in the ILT20, which ended on February 9, only 11 days before India’s tournament opener. Does that mean that the surfaces will be predominantly slow? And will they wear out as the tournament progresses?Matthew Sandery, the head curator at the Dubai International Stadium, is non-committal about the latter question. But he is confident his team has had enough time since the completion of the ILT20 to prepare the “best surfaces” at the venue where India will play their group matches and – in case they qualify – the knockouts too.”The wickets that we will use for the Champions Trophy will have a minimum of two weeks of recovery from their last game of ILT20,” Sandery tells ESPNcricinfo. “We will aim to provide the best surfaces possible for Dubai and its conditions. I am confident that the pitches will be suitable for ODI requirements as expected around the world.”Related

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India are unlikely to mind if the pitches are on the slower side. They go in as favourites despite the absence of their premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who misses out due to back issues.Their squad includes five spinners, three of whom are fingerspinning allrouners – Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar – who provide batting depth, and two are X-factor wristspinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy. This enviable collection of bowlers can create pressure on most surfaces, but they’re likely to be even harder to negotiate on slow pitches. Going by their recent line-ups, it’s likely that India will begin the tournament with a three-seamer-three-spinner combination.During the ILT20, a total of 15 matches, including the final, were played in Dubai, of which 14 were day-night games. Conditions at the ground offered a fair balance, giving batters and both kinds of bowlers something to work with. Fast bowlers averaged 25.06 at the venue while going at an economy rate of 8.08, while spinners managed corresponding figures of 29.16 and 7.46.1:12

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Dubai, though, has not hosted ODIs involving the Full Member teams since June 2019. This makes it hard to read into recent 50-overs numbers from the venue. For what it’s worth, if you consider ODIs from 2018, Australia and Pakistan have scored the only two 300-plus totals in 35 matches at the venue, and both came in the same match. Since 2018, the average first-innings total in Dubai in ODIs has been 213, while the average winning total has been 252. Teams batting first have won 14 and lost 19 times, with one tie and one no result also in the mix.Sandery does not foresee dew being a major factor, especially with the difference between day- and night-time temperatures in Dubai expected to be low. “Dew is a funny thing; we have played a very competitive ILT20 Season 3 in the UAE over the last month, and I think it didn’t come into play much at all.”The Champions Trophy is the first marquee men’s event being played in Dubai since the 2021 T20 World Cup, where India failed to make the semi-finals. They have been training since Sunday at the ICC Academy and will kick off their campaign on February 20, against Bangladesh.