All posts by h716a5.icu

Mitchell Starc goes level with Brett Lee as the Australian with the most five-fors in ODI cricket

Sampath Bandarupalli19-Mar-2023117 India’s total against Australia in Visakhapatnam is their fourth-lowest in ODIs at home. Their lowest is 78 all out against Sri Lanka in Kanpur 1986, followed by 100 all out against West Indies in Ahmedabad 1993 and 112 all out against Sri Lanka in Dharamsala 2017.ESPNcricinfo Ltd234 Balls remaining when Australia reached the target, making it the biggest margin of victory – in this category – for any team against India. New Zealand had recorded the previous best when they beat India with 212 balls remaining in Hamilton 2019. This is also the third-biggest ODI win for Australia in balls remaining.3 This is India’s third-lowest total against Australia in ODIs behind their 63 all out in Sydney 1981 and 100 all out at the same ground in 2000. India’s previous lowest ODI total at home against Australia was 148 all out in Vadodara 2007.26 Overs that India batted before being bowled out, making it their fifth-shortest all-out innings in all ODIs and second-shortest all-out innings at home, behind the 24.1-over collapse against Sri Lanka in 1986.9 Five-wicket hauls for Mitchell Starc in ODI cricket, the joint-most by any bowler for Australia, alongside Brett Lee. Starc’s nine five-fors are also the joint-third most for any bowler in this format. He is now only behind Waqar Younis (13) and Muthiah Muralidaran (10), and level with Shahid Afridi (9).Mitchell Starc rattled India again•ESPNcricinfo Ltd222 Balls bowled in Visakhapatnam, the second-fewest in a completed men’s ODI hosted by India (excluding shortened games). The shortest was between Kenya and New Zealand during the 2011 World Cup in Chennai, which lasted only 191 balls.10 Indian wickets shared by the Australian pacers in this match, only the second instance of India losing all their wickets to pace bowlers in a home ODI. Australia’s pacers took all ten wickets in the Guwahati ODI in 2009 while bowling out the hosts for 170.4 Wickets for Starc in the first ten overs of the Indian innings. It is only the second time a bowler has taken four or more wickets for Australia in the first ten overs of an ODI innings in the last 15 years. The other instance was also provided by Starc, who took four wickets against West Indies in the 2013 Perth ODI.4 Indian batters dismissed for a duck during their 117 all out, the joint-most for them in an ODI innings. There have been five previous instances of four ducks in the same ODI innings for India, with the last of them coming against Sri Lanka in 2017.

This is a team that dominates spin bowling and may well have the best top six on the planet

Sidharth Monga07-Oct-20231:16

Steyn: Markram played good cricket shots and they travelled a mile

July 6, 2019 in Manchester was a poignant night for South African cricket. It was their last match of a disappointing World Cup campaign. It was like a band parting because a lot of their backroom and administrative staff was moving on. Players were moving on. Everybody was saying their farewells, and there was uncertainty around the future of South African cricket.In the year and a half leading up to that World Cup, South Africa had lost a home Test to India, had been blown away in home ODIs by the same opposition, and the socioeconomics of their cricket made it difficult for them to retain talent. There was a justified sense of doom and gloom around the future of South African cricket that night.And yet, that night, South Africa teased their followers with a glimpse of what could have been. Faf du Plessis scored a century, Rassie van der Dussen announced himself to the wider world with an innings of 95, and they beat Australia. The consolation win ended up changing the expected semi-finals line-up, and thus possibly the result of the tournament, but that was the least of South Africa’s concerns that night. When asked about their future, the players didn’t know what to say.Related

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Four years on, in their next ODI World Cup match, the resilient sporting nation has announced themselves as credible threat. Whatever the realities of South Africa and the cricket economy be, there has been reaffirming regeneration.And it hasn’t needed wholesale changes. All three centurions in this tournament opener, Aiden Markram, van der Dussen, Quinton de Kock, were part of that Manchester XI. Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi have only become better in the intervening four years. David Miller has resurged.This is a different South African team to the ones we are used to. They come here with great numbers against spin. Since the start of 2022, they average 42 against spin in the middle overs at a-run-a-ball, the best by a distance. In Markram and Heinrich Klaasen, they have two of the most-sought-after middle-overs batters. And yet even those building them up were a little circumspect because, after all, they did lose to spin in a T20 World Cup that they were among the favourites to win last year.ESPNcricinfo LtdStarting in Delhi against a side that relies on slower bowlers was going to be challenging, but a relaid surface didn’t quite test South Africa on the conditions front. With that rider out of the way, South Africa did serve a warning to other contenders. The highest World Cup total, the quickest World Cup century, three centuries in one innings should be enough for the world to sit up and take notice, but it was the assured, unhurried manner in which they went about doing it that will concern the others.In his last hurrah in ODI cricket, de Kock is more a sophisticated car than the runaway car we know of. He made a slow start but gradually kept going through the gears. He was 21 off 28 when Sri Lanka first went to spin, and immediately de Kock pulled out a reverse-sweep to counter Dhananjaya de Silva. This was his way of saying he was being watchful but he was not going to let the bowlers get on top of him.De Kock ended up scoring 87 off 56 balls in the middle overs with barely a risk taken except for the one six down the ground against the turn of de Silva. Van der Dussen didn’t even take that much risk. His was a proper dispiriting innings of a No. 3, whose method promises replicas.The high point was the delectable drive wide of mid-on after stepping out to left-arm spin, and the contest that ensued. No left-arm spinner likes it, and Dunith Wellalage is no different. A cat-and-mouse ensued where van der Dussen kept trusting the pitch to try to step out, but Wellalage didn’t leave his spot. He just varied the amount of air he gave the ball, and kept van der Dussen rooted. A couple of half edges later, the reverse-sweep came out.Wellalage eventually ended up with unflattering figures of 10-0-81-1, but he was the only one who challenged van der Dussen. Markram didn’t face even that much challenge. His is the most remarkable resurrection in this South African side. A prodigy, an opener, given captaincy too early, Markram looked a man weighed down by the world in 2019.Now Markram has reinvented himself as premium batter against the older ball in limited-overs cricket. Between the World Cups, he has averaged 64 and struck at 107 in the middle overs. At Kotla, he showed what he can do when he has a platform and can take his innings into the death overs.The most remarkable thing about the quickest World Cup century was that there was nothing frenetic about it. Just a couple of on-the-up straight drives to get going, after having faced 10 balls for just nine runs, and then just precision timing and placement.There will be times when their untested lower order will hamper them, but South Africa have served an early reminder that on form and variety, they might just have the best top six in this World Cup. We have come a long way from that gloomy night in Manchester four years ago.

They are two very different cricketers and it’s hard to see how they can both play against South Africa

Andrew McGlashan12-Nov-20231:17

Marsh: Started at negative fifty after my bowling

Marnus Labuschagne or Marcus Stoinis. Who survives? For the first time at this ODI World Cup, Australia look like having a full complement of 15 players to select from for their semi-final against South Africa which means the selectors will finally need to take a call on the structure of the top seven.Each time during the group stage that it appeared that decision would need to be made, there was a natural vacancy: Glenn Maxwell’s concussion, Mitchell Marsh’s trip home, Stoinis’ niggles, Steven Smith’s vertigo and latterly Maxwell being rested against Bangladesh after his spectacular double century.It means that the big judgement over who misses out has not yet been needed, but barring any further injury problems ahead of facing South Africa on Thursday that moment will arrive in Kolkata.Related

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It appears to be between Labuschagne and Stoinis – two very different cricketers.Even before his half-century against Bangladesh there was virtually no chance that Smith would be dropped, and there were a couple of shots in Pune – a back-foot drive through cover off Nasum Ahmed and an on-drive against Taskin Ahmed- that suggested his best touch was returning.He will remain at No. 4, even though he would prefer No. 3, which means the battle comes further down the middle order.Stoinis has chipped in during the World Cup but never dominated. His two wickets against Pakistan were his most important contribution and the 35 against England was handy but unfulfilled. However, the selectors like his all-round skillset; the potential for that quickfire knock in the middle order that could change a game and his bowling that can be used at various stages of an innings.Marnus Labuschagne does a Jonty Rhodes to send Mahmudullah back•Getty ImagesWith Maxwell in such devastating form there is an argument that he can provide the batting power, although you wouldn’t want to rely on a 40-ball hundred or his Afghanistan feats every day. Stoinis and Marsh went for 93 runs in their nine overs against Bangladesh and Maxwell’s return should provide 10 overs against South Africa, but the selectors may need to decide if they trust Marsh as the back-up seamer.Meanwhile, Labuschagne has scored 286 runs at 35.75 and a strike-rate of 77.08, boosted by his 62 off 47 balls against Netherlands. It’s that latter figure that stalks him in a selection debate such as this.His highest score of the tournament, the 71 against England, came when the ball nibbled around and his Test skills were called upon. He also batted No. 4 that day. Against Pakistan, he slipped down to No. 7 as Australia tried to make the most of the huge opening stand between Marsh and David Warner.But Labuschagne has shown his added value in the field. He was a critical figure in the closing moments of the epic clash against New Zealand in Dharamsala where he regained his composure having just failed to haul in Trent Boult’s six to make crucial interventions at deep cover in the last over.”You’ve seen how good of a fielder he is,” Travis Head said after the New Zealand outing. “He’s got full confidence in making plays and to knock one back and then to make the run out, two huge ones. He doesn’t make many mistakes.”Then against Bangladesh, albeit a game with little significance, he was brilliant with two superb pieces of work to run out Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mahmudullah, the latter a swooping direct hit at the stumps that drew comparisons with his hero Jonty Rhodes.”It’s getting pretty incredible at the moment how much he [Labuschagne] hits the stumps,” Sean Abbott told reporters after the Bangladesh game. “That sort of stuff is invaluable, and most one-day wickets are quite flat as well so it’s free wickets when the guys are hitting the stumps like that.”If Labuschagne was to retain his place in Australia’s XI through the knockout stages of the World Cup, it would cap a remarkable journey to his role in this tournament.He was omitted from the preliminary squad and the group for the lead-up tour in South Africa having endured a difficult period in ODI cricket which raised questions about him and Smith being in the same XI – a debate which still remains now.The selectors have talked up Marcus Stoinis’ all-round package•AFP/Getty ImagesBut he was recalled for the South Africa trip when Smith withdrew with a wrist injury, although was still outside the XI when the series started in Bloemfontein. Then Cameron Green was concussed by a bouncer from Kagiso Rabada, Labuschagne replaced him (as he did Smith at Lord’s in 2019 to kickstart his Test career) and produced a matchwinning innings. In the next match he made a fluent career-best century and he appeared to have found the extra gear he, and the selectors, wanted.He went on to play all the lead-up matches ahead of the World Cup and just when it appeared he was tailing off, he made 72 off 58 balls in Rajkot to ensure his starting place. When the decision was taken to carry an injured Head through the first part of the tournament, a spot was found for Labuschagne by him replacing Ashton Agar.From there, each time it looked as though he was vulnerable, an absence elsewhere has secured his spot. In regards his batting alone, the conversation hasn’t really changed, and though there are ways his fielding could have an impact from outside the starting XI, it now adds a fascinating dynamic to the discussion. Little more than two months ago, playing World Cup finals was a distant dream for Labuschagne, but he could prove one of the great survivors.

Players of his kind aren’t easy to come by and if Reddy can continue to impress, he may soon make himself more prominent in the BCCI’s radar

Sidharth Monga10-Apr-20242:29

‘Nitish Kumar Reddy’s innings showed he didn’t fear failure’

Nitish Kumar Reddy’s first memory of the IPL is a misfield. The year was 2023, the bowler was Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and he was fielding at deep point. In domestic cricket, he had become used to judging the ferocity of the shot from the sound the bat made. In the IPL, it was just so loud that he had no cue to go by. He charged in thinking the batter had sliced the ball, and ended up completely missing it.Nitish finished that IPL with two games without getting a chance to bat, without getting a chance to be the reason for that noise in the stands himself, but it is instructive what he remembers. Playing his second match this year, probably his first touch on the ball was arguably the toughest kind of catch in the sport: running back and taking the ball over your shoulder. Never mind that slight error in the last over, when he ended up parrying an overhead chance over the fence, he was trusted enough to be placed in the fielding hot spots: point in the powerplay, the boundary in the final over.These are not the most important things a cricketer does on the field. Those are done when batting or bowling. Nitish’s state side Andhra trusts him with both but only in first-class and List A formats. Only five out of his nine T20 matches have come for Andhra, the last of those in 2021. While the Sunrisers Hyderabad invested in him on promise alone, he blossomed playing first-class cricket for Andhra, picking up a five-for each in the last two seasons, including one against the eventual champions, Mumbai.Related

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It’s Nitish’s batting that got him into the SRH XI when Mayank Agarwal turned up unwell for the last match. It was in favour of his batting that Nitish, an opening bowler and opening batter in his Under-16 days, restricted his bowling in his growing-up years.The first hit that Nitish got in the IPL wasn’t a challenging one. He came in to bat at No. 6 with just 25 required off 26 balls, but he finished the game in style, switch-hitting Ravindra Jadeja for four and lofting a Deepak Chahar slower one into the sight screen.Wednesday in Mullanpur was different. SRH, the most explosive batting unit this IPL, were caught in seaming and swinging conditions and were reduced to 64 for 4 in the 10th over. Instead of doubling down, Nitish now began to counterattack. He later said that he had to target his bowlers on a difficult pitch. His target was the lone spinner, Harpreet Brar. Out of his 64 off 37, 38 came off 16 balls of spin he faced. Among others, he pulled international bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Sam Curran for sixes.Nitish Kumar Reddy’s 37-ball 64 took Sunrisers Hyderabad to an above par total•BCCIMore than the outcome, it was the thought process and the planning that stood out. Nitish’s captain acknowledged Nitish’s intent, saying they would rather they were bowled out than score a watchful 150-160. Nitish’s intent fell in line with that philosophy. Then came his ability to pick his bowlers. Early rushes suggest SRH might have found themselves another spin hitter, but teams will not feed him spin from now on.Before bigger tests come, though, Nitish provided a sight for sore eyes if you follow India’s fortunes in limited-overs cricket. A hitter who bowled in the late 130s. At least for two overs, he did. Then he used the slower bouncer to get Jitesh Sharma’s wicket.It is extreme early days, but Indian cricket has something called a target group, which includes players outside the centrally contracted ones. Basically those who play A cricket regularly and a few others. If Nitish can continue to have a good IPL, just for the fact that he is a seam-bowling allrounder who is bowling more than 20 overs per first-class match on an average, he could find himself in that target group.

Chaos reigns on and off the field as tournament’s newest head coach faces steep learning curve

Matt Roller26-Jul-2024Andrew Flintoff was poker-faced in the dugout at Headingley as his Northern Superchargers side fell to a heavy defeat in their opening match of the Hundred. The 47-run margin flattered them: they lost 7 for 30 in 29 balls in their chase, and Trent Rockets were so dominant that they did not even see the need to drag Flintoff back onto the outfield by taking a strategic timeout.It took a 57-run eighth-wicket partnership between Ben Dwarshuis and Matthew Potts to give the scorecard a facade of respectability and avoid the ignominy of the heaviest defeat in the Hundred’s brief history. By the time Dwarshuis slapped the final ball to mid-off, much of the 12,857-strong crowd had filtered out of the stands and back towards Leeds city centre.This was an unexpectedly low-key first match as head coach for Flintoff, covered in person by only one national newspaper and bumped off Sky Sports’ Main Event channel, midway through the first innings, by Wigan Warriors against Warrington Wolves. He continued to keep a low profile and is yet to speak publicly since his appointment nine months ago – although he did sign every autograph requested by the hundreds of children who hung around for him.Related

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“He just wants to bring a bit of fun and joy,” Matt Short, Superchargers’ stand-in captain, said. “There was a bit of chaos in the last couple of days, but he said, ‘we’re here now: just go out there, enjoy yourself, back yourself and play with that positivity – and be fearless.’ It’s definitely a thing we want to stick to in this tournament: being fearless and taking the game on.”The “chaos” came in the form of an availability crisis which meant the Superchargers were always up against it. Jason Roy (shoulder) and Reece Topley (finger) were injured, Mitchell Santner was at Major League Cricket, Harry Brook and Ben Stokes were with England at Edgbaston. So too, less expectedly, was Dillon Pennington, who was retained in the Test squad as cover (in case of a concussion) after West Indies won the toss in the third Test and bowled first.Pennington’s absence meant a last-minute scramble for a short-term replacement, with Michael Jones being called up on the morning of the game while training with Durham. As Jones headed down the A1(M) to Leeds, Potts found himself stuck in traffic on the M1 on his way up from Birmingham.Nicholas Pooran’s arrival was even more chaotic. Barely 24 hours after his side, MI New York, were knocked out of Major League Cricket, he arrived at the Superchargers’ hotel after spending the night on a transatlantic flight. Pooran told Short, their stand-in captain, over breakfast that his luggage and kitbag were still in transit, prompting yet more chaos.He found some bats thanks to Manchester Originals’ Phil Salt, who uses the same sponsor and has the same specifications, which were then chauffeured across the Pennines in an Uber. His subsequent innings – 10 off 15 balls, caught at mid-off trying to hit Chris Green over his head for six – cannot have been what Flintoff had in mind in March, when he made Pooran his first draft pick on a £125,000 contract.The teams are into their fourth seasons but for some, the connection to the region they represent feels increasingly tenuous, in spite of the ECB’s stated aim to ramp up the “tribalism” of the tournament. The Superchargers fielded a single Yorkshire player, Adil Rashid, while Adam Lyth — who has scored more T20 runs at Headingley than anyone else — was booed as he walked past the Western Terrace in his Rockets gear.Tom Banton, a Superchargers player until this season, gave Rockets a flying start•PA Photos/Getty ImagesThe Hundred has been sold as ‘best vs best’ but the first four men’s games this year have been a mess, all deeply one-sided. The overlap with MLC – and a Test match – have meant a series of last-minute replacements, often on one-match deals: good luck explaining to a young Rockets fan enthused by Green’s performance on debut that he will not be there next week.It is hardly Flintoff’s fault that so many players were otherwise engaged, not least after their wooden-spoon 2023 season which necessitated a rebuild. Even still, it must have been galling to watch Tom Banton, one of the players the Superchargers released, top-scoring for the Rockets and looking back to his flamboyant best during his 38-ball 66.This was a tough night for Short as captain too, as he struggled for bowling options after Jordan Clark’s first five balls went for 21. He resorted to bringing himself on, but by that stage the Rockets had two right-handers set in Banton and Sam Hain: his set of fast, flat offbreaks cost 19. With the bat, their collapse to spin was galling: 41 for 0 off 24 balls turned into 71 for 7 off 63.Short suggested that Flintoff is unlikely to overreact to a poor start. “It’s certainly not crisis meetings at this stage,” he said. “He wants to bring a fun environment… if guys are having fun and feel like they’re enjoying themselves, that’s when we play our best cricket. It’s his first gig as a head coach, and he’s keen to help the boys where he can and have a bit of fun.”But it only took a glance at Flintoff’s opposite number to reinforce the fact that this is a huge step-up for a man with minimal coaching experience. As Flintoff strode out at the strategic timeout in the first innings, Andy Flower – perhaps the most sought-after coach on the franchise circuit – headed out to the middle to speak to the Rockets’ batters.Flower was Flintoff’s coach during his final England appearance back in 2009, and is among a stellar list of names involved in the men’s Hundred: Stephen Fleming, Tom Moody and Mike Hussey among them. Everyone has to start somewhere, but this defeat was a reminder of the scale of the task facing Flintoff over the next four weeks.

At the T20 World Cup, Afghanistan have not just been heart and raw talent; at times, their highly skilled cricketers have put on tactical masterclasses too

Sidharth Monga25-Jun-20242:26

Tamim: This is massive for Afghanistan cricket

There is a confounding piece that has been doing the rounds of social media. It came from Naveen-ul-Haq, who put it up on Instagram following the win against Australia, and other Afghanistan players wasted no time sharing it on their handles. Half the image showed one man in empty stands with the word “support”; the other had a stadium full of fans with the word “congratulations”.Afghanistan are one of the most loved cricket teams in the world. Their cricketers are highly sought-after by franchises. Seven of the XI that beat Bangladesh to make the semi-final of T20 World Cup 2024 played in this year’s IPL, and another was in a squad without getting a game. Why, then, this anger – or is it a mild lament? – that evidently resonated among the whole group?Then again, what do we really know about the support they might need?Related

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Can we imagine preparing for our first Test at a makeshift “home” in another land and learning how one of our team-mates back home is helping carry half-dead and dead people to ambulances because terrorists had attacked the “peace” cricket tournament held during Ramadan?Or the strife and chaos and refugee crisis that has followed the sudden departure of American troops? And can we imagine the resentment they must feel when one of the USA’s political allies refuses to play Afghanistan in bilateral cricket?When recently asked if his son is playing cricket too, a former Asian cricketer told me it’s not possible for children from his part of the world to reach the highest level. They just haven’t seen enough strife. That’s the perverse part of sport in the colonised world. Some of the best sportspeople tend to become who they are only because desperation pushes them that extra mile, be it cricket in Asia or football in Africa and South America.For, on the field, we are all the same. That is also the lure of the sport. This is the only place where the ravaged Afghans can be the equals of those representing the countries that have done the ravaging, even if for just three-and-a-half hours. At the same time, there is no allowance made for being cricketers in exile having half an eye back home on their loved ones. Runs and wickets are the only currency. If the runs and the wickets don’t come, people move on pretty quickly. You are just a piece of content. Where’s the next rags-to-riches story?Afghanistan fans gather in Jalalabad to watch the must-win Super Eight match against Bangladesh•AFP via Getty ImagesAfghanistan have refused to be just a piece of content that people dust off every once in a while. They have continued to produce highly skilled cricketers.Do you know how some Indian cricketers and support staff judge how good the balls are for a particular tournament? If Fazalhaq Farooqi is not moving them in the air, you can forget about moving them.Not just highly skilled cricketers, but highly skilled professionals. It flows from the top. Rashid Khan is as competitive a man as any in this sport. He practically lives his life in hotel rooms, relying on friends he has made everywhere, but makes sure he stays physically and mentally fit, and as professional as possible. The best T20 batter in the world, Suryakumar Yadav, says Rashid is the best bowler in the world. Perhaps outside Jasprit Bumrah, whom he never faces in a match.It’s not just all heart. Rahmanullah Gurbaz is the batting version of Trent Boult in T20s. He loves to charge at bowlers in the first over of the innings and hit them for boundaries. Against Australia in Kingstown, though, he knew the pitch was going to help spin and quickly assessed it to reconfirm the notion that he didn’t really need to hit too many boundaries. He scored the slowest of his 28 fifties that night. Against Bangladesh, he wore blows on the body but didn’t panic, hitting just one boundary in 55 balls.4:14

Rashid: It was hard to stay calm at some points

In fact, the whole match Afghanistan played against Australia was a tactical masterclass, be it the assessment of conditions when batting, or giving the first over to Naveen, not just for the first time this World Cup but in a year-and-a-half.If Gurbaz has excelled by taking the emotion out of it, Gulbadin Naib knows he does his best when he lets his emotion run wild. Ridiculed during the 2019 World Cup, when he was the captain, he still fronted up: opening the batting, bowling the death overs. His two biggest players, Rashid and Mohammad Nabi, had openly protested his ascent then.Open protests are not even an issue with the Afghans. Rashid threw his bat in disgust at Karim Janat the other night when the latter refused to come back for a second run, but at the end of it all, Janat was the first to rush to Rashid while the rest celebrated more flamboyantly.3:39

Trott: ‘It’s uncharted territory, that makes us dangerous’

Now Naib is still giving his best for Rashid. Even at pretending to cramp. Nabi is still there. He can take the new ball against two right-hand openers and bowl through the powerplay. Against India, he did so without conceding a boundary to a right-hand batter.That little bit of luck has smiled on them too. They found themselves in the low-scoring conditions of Kingstown for two crucial matches. The closer the conditions get to standard T20 ones, the more the chance of their batting coming out too light. The conditions are not in their control. They just responded to what was given to them.The joy and celebrations this run has produced back home in Afghanistan is incredible. The photos of tens of thousands of people out on the streets of a war-torn country are life-affirming. The sobering part is that only men are seen celebrating. The cricketers must also carry the burden of being part of that one sport that the ones who are ravaging them now can use to validate their rule. It is an impossible tightrope they must walk: do whatever they can for the women but without being seen to be making a public statement about it.And amid all this, find a way to stay professional and skilful and slightly lucky as they continue one of the great runs in tournament cricket.

The Sri Lanka spinners took 27 wickets between them to hand India a rare series drubbing

Sampath Bandarupalli07-Aug-2024Sri Lanka won the third ODI against India by 110 runs to register a 2-0 series win to end a long and unwanted streak, with Avishka Fernando scoring 96 and Dunith Wellalage taking a five-wicket haul in their defence of 249. Here are all the key stats from the match and the series.13 Consecutive series without a defeat for India against Sri Lanka in men’s ODIs before their latest 2-0 defeat in Colombo. Sri Lanka’s last series win against India in this format came back in 1997 at home, which they won by a 3-0 margin.India’s streak of 13 ODI series without a defeat against Sri Lanka is the joint-second longest unbeaten run for any team against an opponent in this format. Pakistan did not lose in 14 ODI series against Zimbabwe, while India have won each of their last 13 series against West Indies.Related

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27 Wickets for Sri Lanka spinners against India in this series are the most by any team’s spinners in a bilateral men’s ODI series of four or fewer matches. The previous highest was 26 by Bangladesh against New Zealand and Zimbabwe; both were in a four-match series at home in 2010.The previous highest wickets taken by a team’s spinners in a three-match series was 21 by Pakistan against Bangladesh in 2011 and Hong Kong against Papua New Guinea in 2016.1 Dunith Wellalage is now the first spinner to bag multiple five-wicket hauls against India in men’s ODIs. Five pacers have managed this feat – Brett Lee (4), Aaqib Javed (3), Mustafizur Rahman (3), Merv Dillon (2) and Mitchell Starc (2).10 Instances of India not winning a match in a men’s ODI series of three or more completed matches, including their latest 2-0 series defeat against Sri Lanka. The last of the nine previous series was in 2022, where South Africa whitewashed India at home in a three-match series.Getty Images43 Wickets picked up by the spinners across the three matches in Colombo – 27 by Sri Lanka and 16 by India. These are the most wickets picked up by spinners in a bilateral men’s ODI series of four or fewer matches.The previous highest was 40 in the four-match series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in 2010, while the previous highest in a three-match series was 36 by Bangladesh and Pakistan in 2011.1 The series against Sri Lanka was the first instance of India getting bowled out in all three matches of a three-match men’s ODI series. It is also the first instance since 2015 for India where they were all out in three straight men’s ODIs.8 Consecutive ODI series for Sri Lanka at home without a defeat since losing to India in 2021 by 1-2 margin. It is their longest streak without a series defeat at home in men’s ODIs. Sri Lanka have not lost any of the nine men’s ODIs they have played at home in 2024.2 Instances of a batter scoring multiple fifty-plus scores for India in a bilateral men’s ODI series while no other player managed even one.Rohit Sharma had fifties in the first two ODIs in this series against Sri Lanka, while the next highest score was 44 by Axar Patel. MS Dhoni had a century and a fifty in the 3-match home series against Pakistan in 2012-13, where the next best by an Indian was 43.

After all the joy they experienced in Perth, day one in Adelaide served as a wake-up call for the visitors

Alagappan Muthu06-Dec-20240:45

Pujara: India should have got 250 on this pitch

“Get ready for a broken …” This Australia team don’t say things like that. But Nitish Kumar Reddy managed to get a rise out of their captain when he bailed out of facing the first ball of the 35th over on day one of the Adelaide Test.Pat Cummins has spent this news cycle dealing with questions about the unity of his men and the way they play. He’s been met with whispers of his own decline and insinuations that he takes defeat too easily. None of them seemed to wind him up as much as seeing a perfectly good ball go to such waste. He immediately went bouncer, at 143 kph, and Reddy, despite being ready this time, was barely able to duck for cover. The Adelaide Oval loved that.Related

Stats – Starc gets to Adelaide fifty, Bumrah to 2024 fifty

Starc uses his favourite combination to give Australia just the day they needed

India were finally in the Australia they would have expected before coming here. Loud. Demanding. Hostile. Frustrating. Stingy about rewarding good work and gleeful in punishing mistakes. Towards the end of the day’s play, when Mohammed Siraj expressed his annoyance at having to expend more energy than he needed to for the same reason – a batter pulling away from his stance at the last moment, because of a fan running into his line of sight with a beer snake no less – he was told off by 50,186 people and then laughed at when he conceded a four off the next ball.A lot of the talk leading into this game was about India’s batters having to adjust to the pink ball, given how little they play this flavour of Test cricket. But it seems the bowlers had just as much to get used to. In a strange way, just like in Perth where they got a chance to bowl when the conditions were still helpful, a blessing in disguise if there is such a thing when you’re all out for 150, Jasprit Bumrah and Siraj got to use the pink ball just as twilight was about to hit.Nathan McSweeney and his top-order colleagues employed the leave to telling effect•Associated PressA lot of Australia’s success in these games has been built on batting first, batting big, and sticking the opposition in during the final session (usually of day two) when the floodlilghts take effect and wield a strange power over the game. In 2022, they had West Indies 102 for 4 at stumps on day two after declaring their own innings close to the final session’s play. Their fourth wicket had fallen at 428. In 2021, they took the fairly straightforward call to give up the runs their last two batters might have been able to add to their 479 in order to unleash Mitchell Starc at the England top order, and he delivered with a wicket in his second over, with Michael Neser backing him up before stumps. Australia had had 176 on the board before going two down. England had 12.India would have been hoping for something similar; to leverage the twilight session to make their way back into the Adelaide Test. But it felt like they were getting too much movement and struggled to calibrate their lines and lengths to make it count. An under-fire Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney were able to leave 18 of the first 30 deliveries they faced, and that trend continued. Australia didn’t play at half the balls they faced in the first 20 overs. They had a better understanding of the bounce available off the pitch, which made India look like they were missing their marks.”The lengths could have been slightly fuller to encourage more play,” India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said. “I thought Australia left very well as well. It seemed to be a trademark of the way they play, those two [McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne, who have put on an unbroken 62 for the second wicket]. They left on length very well. We kind of feel the swing and the seam was a little bit inconsistent which makes it difficult for both parties.”India batted to a plan too. They discerned that the good-length ball contained the potential to cause the most problems, and looked to be proactive against anything either side of that. It was in the course of this that KL Rahul and Virat Kohli fell to balls they realised they could leave but not until it was too late. This may have been a mix of what happens in Australia and what happens with the pink ball.”From Tests gone past, and probably no different today, there’s times in a pink game where the ball can get soft and it’s hard to score, hard to take wickets, a dead patch in the game,” Starc said, “Then for whatever reason the ball starts to do a little bit more again.”India have their task cut out after 77.1 gruelling overs in Adelaide•Associated PressIndia left for their hotel at the end of day one with a sense of what could have been. Another feeling well-known among away teams that come here. Shubman Gill missed a straight ball that he could have driven for four. Yashasvi Jaiswal wandered too far across his crease to be able to connect with a ball on leg stump. Rahul and Kohli were indecisive.”Obviously to lose a wicket of the first ball, sort of sends jitters through the change room,” ten Doeschate said, “But we recovered really well and [from] 69 for 1 we probably feel like we missed a chance there. I also feel that’s the nature of the pink ball. Things can happen quickly. Things happen in clumps, we lost wickets in clumps which we wanted to avoid. There’s lessons to be learned in that first innings and we’ll go away and look how to play in the second innings.”Even their most eye-catching spell of play – when Harshit Rana seemed to get inside McSweeney’s head by asking him to use the bat and when Bumrah found his usual control to beat Labuschagne’s bat – didn’t really amount to anything. They felt something might happen. It didn’t.”I don’t think 86 for 1 is a true reflection of how we bowled,” ten Doeschate said. “I thought there were a lot of played-and-misses. Obviously the edge [that we dropped in the seventh over]. I know the score looks like there’s a big gap between the two teams but we still feel we’re in the game and with a few tweaks tomorrow, if we bowl slightly better, we feel like we can get back in the game tomorrow.”India have loved being in Australia. They’ve had things to do at every turn, literally. The e-scooters available for rent on the streets were a huge hit with the team in Perth. There, at the end of every single day, they found themselves in a pinch-me-I’m-dreaming situation. After 77.1 overs in Adelaide, they’ve received a bit of a wake-up call.

No picks in Hundred draft continue global trend. But poor results and board intransigence are also to blame

Osman Samiuddin14-Mar-2025Forty-five Pakistani players registered for the Hundred draft for the 2025 season. On Wednesday, exactly none of them were picked for any of the eight teams. That means that this season, the fifth, will be the first to not have any Pakistani players. Given the last two seasons had seen six and four Pakistani players respectively in the league, it is a notable disappearance.This season, you may have heard, is also going to be the first after the equity sale of Hundred franchises, four of whom are now either part-owned or majority-owned by owners of IPL franchises. Ah, you might think. This is starting to make some sense now. The IPL has long excluded Pakistani players from appearing. Its satellite franchises in leagues in South Africa, the UAE and the USA have also (mostly) excluded Pakistani players.Relations between the PCB and BCCI (more representative of their governments than ever before) have rarely been worse, or more given to pettiness, as the shenanigans at the recent Champions Trophy prove. It naturally follows that another league with incoming IPL ownership will begin to freeze out Pakistani players. This was exactly the scenario, after all, that the PCB spelt out two-and-a-half years ago. To believe in this sequence of logic is not at all to be a conspiracy theorist.But – and especially in the context of this Hundred draft – it doesn’t help to pretend there aren’t other factors, equally compelling if not more so, at play here. For one, the schedule (it’s almost always the schedule). Pakistan have two bilateral white-ball commitments in August that clash directly with the Hundred’s dates – the first two weeks of August, when they are in the Caribbean for three ODIs and three T20Is, and then a home series with Afghanistan that starts in the third week of that month (and a T20 Asia Cup that starts in September). Given Pakistan are undergoing yet another transition, and there is a T20 World Cup next year, their top players will almost certainly be involved in those series and, so, unavailable for the Hundred.Another terrible ICC tournament has left Pakistan’s reputation in the dust•AFP/Getty ImagesAlso, about those top players: it’s not as if Pakistan’s white-ball players are exactly hot property at this moment. Three abysmal ICC tournaments in a row have taken all the sheen off a generation of players once expected to abound in, and enrich, these leagues (of course, it could be argued they wouldn’t have performed so poorly had they been playing more regularly in those best leagues in the first place). Instead, Pakistan are outdated and stagnant, jarringly out of sync with the game as it is played today.More than all of this, though, is the wider truth, that the PCB itself is to blame. Successive administrations have flailed between being restrictive and gormless in dealing with player NOCs. The modern landscape demands a flexibility and deftness from boards in player management and the PCB has been as flexible as an iron rod. In fact, in an alternate reading, Pakistan’s white-ball regression over the years can be traced directly to how poorly the board has handled NOCs.A relevant case was revoking Naseem Shah’s NOC for the Hundred last year at the last minute, despite there being no clash with any international commitment (and likewise denying three others permission to play in Canada’s GT20).It was done in the name of workload management ahead of a busy season of international cricket, including nine Tests. How did that management turn out? Naseem played in three of those Tests, despite not suffering injury, and none of them consecutively. He wasn’t even in Pakistan’s last Test squad of the season (Shaheen Afridi, one of those whose NOC was revoked for the GT20, only played two of the nine Tests and wasn’t in Pakistan’s last two Test squads).Related

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Naseem’s is far from the only case. There was Usama Mir. And Azam Khan. And Haris Rauf . And a whole bunch of others.The PCB will point to the 20 players that did receive NOCs last November, but the stickier conclusion from the last few years is that they have made Pakistani players unattractive options in the marketplace. Why would a franchise take on a Pakistan cricketer when the PCB might abruptly revoke an NOC, or when a training camp call-up cuts a contracted stint unexpectedly short, or when a deal falls through because an unscheduled bilateral series has been shoved into the calendar, or when a player will summarily be called back from a league for a fitness test?None of this is to deny a looming, creeping reality. With the existing political climate as it is between India and Pakistan, and the continuing spread of IPL franchises around the world, it isn’t difficult to see a future in which Pakistani cricketers are marginalised and restricted to a second tier of T20 and T10 leagues (and in that light, who knows what impact going up against the IPL will have on the PSL).Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, insists it won’t be the case in the Hundred at least, and it bears repeating that a packed calendar is the likeliest reason for the kiboshing of a high-profile Pakistani presence this year. Nevertheless, it was also Gould who introduced a new NOC policy last November which ends up hitting the PSL hardest in terms of English player availability, while protecting the IPL. Those words might feel cheap to Pakistani ears.In any case, it’s not as if there has ever been a formal bar on Pakistani players from the IPL. Nobody says that bit out loud. It’s just been that way forever now. And evidence from the other leagues with IPL ownership is, at the least, suggestive that it is contagious. No Pakistanis in the SA20 in three seasons. Only two Pakistanis in a franchise owned by an IPL owner in the ILT20 in three seasons. Only two Pakistanis in a franchise owned by an IPL owner in MLC in two seasons. Four Pakistanis in franchises owned by an IPL owner in the CPL over many more seasons. Nobody says anything about a bar… and yet.There are still four Hundred teams not owned by IPL franchises, so there is every chance Pakistani players might be picked up in next season’s draft (by which stage the new ownership structures will have kicked in properly). But it would feel like a bucking of a wider trend. And before anything else can happen, it would require the PCB to start helping itself and its players.