Steve Rhodes: 'Don't overcoach to try and warrant your salary'

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Former Bangladesh coach on his sacking: “The brave decision wasn’t taken, they took the easy decision”

Mohammad Isam21-Feb-2022How was the experience of winning a BPL trophy?
I haven’t won many trophies during my coaching career, (so) it was absolutely wonderful to be part of a trophy-winning campaign with Comilla. It was hugely important to win a trophy in Bangladesh. We had success in Bangladesh. I had a tiny bit of success in Worcestershire. I was very proud of the way the Comilla boys fought. [Fortune] Barishal were a very strong side during the campaign. It was fitting that we played against each other (in the final).Two tough teams, however, didn’t play very well on the day. There were lots of mistakes. I can only put that down to pressure of the final, and the build-up of the whole four weeks of intense cricket. I think that whilst, as a coach, you see so many mistakes, but to the public, what an entertaining game of cricket it was!Your coaching debut in Bangladesh cricket was far from memorable, though.
I don’t think anybody has had an international coaching debut like that. We lost the toss on a green bouncy wicket against some very good West Indian fast bowlers. We were 45 all out on the first day. But from then on, we nearly won the next Test. Then we won the ODI series in the West Indies. We were 1-0 down in the T20Is, but won the two games in Florida to win the series. Suddenly, we left the tour on a real high, winning two series and losing one.

“If you sit and watch from the BCB’s president box, you wouldn’t understand the workings of what’s going on there (at the ground). You just say, ‘Well, he didn’t do very well, let’s get rid of him’.”Steve Rhodes

Apu (Nazmul Islam), the left-arm spinner, started to call me the “lucky coach”. By which he meant, maybe, things are going our way a little bit. We lost a lot of games in the journey towards the World Cup. But we also won some other series. We beat the West Indies here (in Bangladesh) where we didn’t play a seamer in any of the Tests. Some of our tactics were clever. They were not all my tactics. I am not the egotistical coach who puts my hand down for everything. I had a wonderful captain in Shakib Al Hasan, who had some great thoughts and ideas about beating the West Indies. I think there were great things happening in the dressing room.How would you describe the 2019 World Cup campaign?
If things went our way, we thought we had a squad that could possibly squeak a bit further than we got. So, we were all disappointed by how we finished. We started really well. I thought Bangladesh fought hard against a lot of good opposition. When some of those teams played their good game, we couldn’t win. No matter how hard we tried, we weren’t quite good enough. That came as a surprise to a lot of people in Bangladesh.Related

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Our only bad game was the last one against Pakistan, but we were already out of the tournament. Against the likes of England, India and Australia, we got plenty of runs. Even in the bad games, we competed hard. We could have won against New Zealand. We had some great wins against South Africa and West Indies. The best win was against Afghanistan. We had a tremendous campaign overall.I found it a little bit disappointing to be told that that poor performance in the World Cup is the reason why I was to be released from my contract. I felt it wasn’t true. To me, it looked flimsy. There must be some other reason. Where we were at the end of the World Cup in the points table looked poor. But the truth was, we played so much better than what our end position showed. I wasn’t there for arguing, because you can’t argue with your employers if they want to get rid of you. To this day, I don’t really know the actual reason.What was your coaching philosophy?
I was trying to do something new in Bangladesh, to drive forward in improvement. It revolved around the style of the coaching and the support staff. It was how we could make the players grow by getting them to be more responsible for their own game. Trying to get them to think more on the field, so that when a situation happens, there’s no coach around to ask “what do I do now”.It was quite a change from the normal culture of the way things are in the subcontinent. I accepted it was always going to be a difficult thing to drive through. You are up against a culture. But I have seen in the Indian team how it changed.The coach is there to assist, help and push along. We are not there to totally drive their careers. I call certain coaches as “satnav coaches”. To explain, you think about trying to go from Worcester to Newcastle in your car. I press in “Newcastle” in the satnav, and it tells me how to go, by giving me details about every turn I have to take, how long I have to go before the next junction. All you do is listen to the satnav and look at the map occasionally. When I reached Newcastle, it tells me that I have reached my destination. If someone asks me how I got there, I have not learned anything about that journey. I have been told, “do this, do that”. In coaching terms, a lot of people in the subcontinent thinks that’s how you coach. This is how you play the forward defensive, on this wicket you have to do this, on that wicket you do that, when you are bowling at him you do this. A player tries to do that.

Being in a high-profile position in Bangladesh cricket, my neck was on the line. So was Mashrafe [Mortaza] as captain. So were the senior players. If they decided the performance wasn’t good enough, then somebody had to go”Steve Rhodes

You’d say that’s coaching. No, that’s coaching to a degree. That’s satnav coaching. The player won’t improve. On the flipside of that, you go back to the time when we have to go to Newcastle. When I was a 25-year-old player, there was no satnav. The night before the journey, I’d open the map and take notes. There was no Google, so I’d ask winding the window down where Newcastle Cricket Club was. When I was on my way back to Worcester, I learned a lot more about the journey. I was responsible for my focus and concentration. Next time I went to Newcastle, I knew the route. I didn’t need the map.This is an example of how somebody improves without being told. Working things out for yourself. I was doing that style of coaching with the Bangladesh team. I encouraged the same with the other coaches. I even told them, “if you are unsure about saying anything, don’t say it; you don’t have to prove to me that you’re coaching and earning your money”. Sometimes, less is more.A culmination of this was when I had a visit from one of the board members during the World Cup. He was saying that they were unhappy with my coaching style. I needed to be more like a satnav-type coach. I explained fully to this board member how my style was going to improve people quicker. I gave him an example with his son, who is abroad. He admitted that his kid was growing up fast being on his own. But he went back with the news that the coach won’t change. I think that had something to do with it. I wasn’t coaching in the manner they were used to.Was there a feeling that you could lose your job?
As a Bangladesh coach, you are forever on a vibe of how long it will last. I think that’s life. Nobody has the right to be cushy in their job.We had a great tournament in Ireland as a build-up. We won the tri-series. I thought we were going the right way. At that stage, I didn’t expect that I would be gone after the World Cup. When we couldn’t qualify (for the semi-final), I thought there was a chance of change. I was, whilst surprised, not surprised as well. I really didn’t know what to expect, to be honest.Cricket is so big in Bangladesh that when a World Cup campaign is perceived as average, something has to go.
Being in a high-profile position in Bangladesh cricket, my neck was on the line. So was Mashrafe [Mortaza] as captain. So were the senior players. If they decided the performance wasn’t good enough, then somebody had to go. Scapegoat, or sacked. I don’t know what you want to call it, you are there to be knocked down in that sort of role.The senior players “can play a huge part in driving the next generations,” Steve Rhodes feels•AFP/Getty ImagesYou said yourself that something had to go. But did it go? Was it that bad? Could it be said that the way things had been building, winning around 50% of the matches, we were moving in the right direction? Apart from the Pakistan game, we weren’t doing badly in the tournament.Maybe a brave answer to those people calling for scapegoats would have been: we don’t really need one at the moment, we are okay. We would have loved to go forward but we didn’t. We played some good cricket. Shakib did brilliantly. Litton Das played a marvelous innings against the West Indies. [Mohammad] Saifuddin had shown his quality as well. But the brave decision wasn’t taken. They took the easy decision: we haven’t done well, so the coach is going.From a Bangladesh perspective, why does the World Cup always feel like the end of something?
Wrongly, people expect too much. Now people are saying to me, Bangladesh are in the same place they were 15 years ago. It is probably true. Maybe the expectation of being a top-four side is beyond them. They ought to be looking at it a little bit differently. What about, let’s get into the top six or seven first? The focus should be on general progression. Maybe the board and supporters should realise, are we going to improve first, than being in the top four?What did you think of the BCB’s approach, was it professional at all?
To a certain extent, yes. I got no qualms with the administrative staff. They were professional. They did a lot for me. I was very grateful. I think some things needed changing. The style of coaching was one thing. You need support from your board. They need to understand what you are doing. In this area, I wasn’t given the support as they didn’t understand it.The other angle might be, the players play under absolute pressure and not trusting people. It can affect their performance badly. To bring out the best in the player, take pressure off them as much as you can. Only a few players revel in pressure. You have to get through most when they are under pressure. The coaching staff and I got to know the players so well, we knew what made them tick.If you sit and watch from the BCB president’s box, you wouldn’t understand the workings of what’s going on there. You just say, “well, he didn’t do very well, let’s get rid of him”. Sadly, young players and medium-term players (those who have been around for a while but not quite done it) feel that pressure. There’s an immense sense of “what will they do next, will I be the one dropped?” How can you perform your best when you have that in your mind?

“Maybe the board can sometimes also get out of the way when something good is happening”Steve Rhodes

It comes down to whether the selection policy is right. I would question whether it is right. The president [Nazmul Hassan] does sign off the team. I think he is not a bad man. He listens to reason. Sometimes he’d say coach, or captain, “if that’s what you want, let’s do it”. But there are other times, because of his power and veto, that he can listen to other people around him that might persuade him differently. You then question the cricketing knowhow of those people. That system isn’t quite right.Do you think if you had the right kind of time, you could have made the players more self-reliant?
I really do. We were doing something that India have done. It was to give importance to every person in the team. The likes of [Virat] Kohli, [MS] Dhoni and the senior players came to the conclusion that everyone is equally important in their team.The proper analogy is whether the racing car driver is more important than the guy who puts one of the nuts on the tires. The answer is, there’s nobody more important. If the guy doesn’t put the nut on right, the wheel falls off, and the driver is no good. The person who takes that one catch is as important as the others. People might be surprised to know that it doesn’t often happen in the Bangladesh team. I think it is holding things back a little bit.What do you think worked against you?
I think they have had different styles of coaches in the past. [Chandika] Hathurusingha was a feisty character who got the best out of some people. I think it had more to do with the lack of understanding of how I wanted to coach. I think that’s where they didn’t really get it.It could have been easier. It would have been nice if they (BCB) understood the way I wanted to coach. It wasn’t the case, and you have to try to make the best of it. I wasn’t going to coach in the way they wanted me to coach.It was our way of getting the team and the players better. You must empower the players. They are out there batting and bowling for Bangladesh. They need to think clearly under pressure, and what’s best for them and the team. It is not about getting instructions from the captain or coach. You take decisions by being given responsibility.How was your relationship with the board president?
I did enjoy working with him. I had a better conversation with him one-to-one. There were two or three occasions when I had very, very good one-to-one conversations at his house. It was very difficult to get the president one-to-one. He had quite a few people who he works closely with. Then it becomes chaotic. You don’t concentrate on each other’s words. Too many people talk at the same time, and you don’t really achieve anything.We might not have agreed on some selection issues but I knew my place as well. As board president, they were employing me. I knew there were some fights you can’t win, but there were some fights worth fighting for.Courtney Walsh and Steve Rhodes worked together with the Bangladesh team•Getty ImagesHow do Bangladesh go forward, and get better given the present system?
I don’t know if they will get better. They will always compete really well. One thing about Bangladesh is, they have gifted, wonderful cricketers. I have seen some tremendous cricketers playing in the BPL. But they are not given the chance to think for themselves. I think they have to do what I was trying to do.The local coaches have to realise that there’s another way of coaching, one that might be beneficial. I am not pointing the finger at the Bangladeshi coaches. They are just used to the system of doing it.What do you make of Bangladeshi coaches?
Bangladesh have good coaches. I have experience with (Mohammad) Salahuddin, who has a good cricket brain. He keeps things relatively simple. There’s definitely a Bangladeshi guy who could be Bangladesh’s head coach. They would have to make compromises – the board and the coach – to make it a working relationship. Salahuddin could do the job really well. It could be the start of something.It is wrong of me talking of new coaches when you have got one in place. But I am not so sure that international coaches is the way forward all the time. I was one. The poor players get used to a coach, and he is gone. Then they get used to another coach, and he is gone. The players then go back to their own local coaches from years ago. He is here all the time, and someone they trust. They try to trust the international coaches, but they get moved on. It doesn’t give continuity, which doesn’t do good for Bangladesh cricket.Part of how Bangladesh are going to go forward, is how the careers of the five senior players are managed from this point.I think they are all different characters. You approach them in different ways – that’s the skill of man management. All of them were terrific. But the one area that used to wind me up, and it wasn’t their fault, is that the media called them the Magnificent Five. I was quoted somewhere saying that we are the Magnificent Eleven. I think that’s important: the team.How can they help going forward?
They can play a huge part in driving the next generations. Shakib, [Mahmudullah] Riyad, Mushi [Mushfiqur Rahim] and Tamim [Iqbal] have a lot of cricket left in them. They have a wealth of experience. They are all good cricketers. Shakib has one of the most magnificent brains I have come across in cricket. But does Shakib get the right respect for what he has achieved in cricket? Or is he just our employee and we will control him?He has so much to offer, so it will be such a waste if he finishes without giving more knowledge and experience. Mashrafe, too, has contributed a lot. He led from the front. He has been a passionate champion and warrior of Bangladesh cricket. He has lot of tactical nous. He can make people listen.Maybe the board can sometimes also get out of the way when something good is happening.Don’t overcoach by trying to warrant your salary. The board member is watching, so I better coach, coach, coach. You are ruining players doing that. The same [sits] with the board. Don’t over-instruct. If things are going okay, just relax. Don’t get too involved in it all. You don’t have to prove you are a board member. If things are going in the right direction, your worth as a board member might be to say less.

Hardik Pandya takes 'right risks' to bat responsibly without foot on brakes

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

As captain, he is showing the ability to hit out as well as safely play out certain bowlers in the same innings

Sidharth Monga14-Apr-20224:30

Manjrekar: ‘Hardik stayed in the moment this innings and it paid off’

Hardik Pandya scored 50 off 42 in Gujarat Titans’ last match, against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Yash Jha tweeted an insightful stat after the innings. Pandya was the latest in the line of maverick India batters who had started to play “responsibly” the moment he was given captaincy. In their first season as an IPL captain, each of these batters’ strike rates took a big dip from their last two seasons. Pandya’s was the biggest: from 151.67 to 122.6.Of course, it is not just the captaincy. The structure of the Titans squad is such that Pandya is the main middle-order batter. In just four matches this season, Pandya had faced more balls in the first 10 overs than he has in any of the eight IPL seasons he has taken part in. There was a role to be performed, and Pandya was showing he could play that role. But in the process, were we losing what made Pandya special, especially the power-hitting that struck fear in the hearts of the bowlers?Related

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Three days on, though, Pandya showed batting responsibly doesn’t necessarily mean batting slowly. Walking in at 15 for 2 in the third over, Pandya scored an unbeaten 87 off 52 while others scored 86 off 52 when he was at the wicket. ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats valued Pandya’s innings at 100.42 smart runs.While Pandya’s earlier role in Mumbai Indians of maximising the 10-15 balls he used to get carried its own challenges, these longer innings ask a wider set of questions. Pandya’s responses were deliberate. He went after Kuldeep Sen but played out the first few exchanges against Yuzvendra Chahal – brought on to bowl the fourth over just for Pandya – and R Ashwin.Pandya came in with a strike rate of 104 and 100 against Chahal and Ashwin, and it didn’t take long to see why. Pandya enjoys a much better strike rate against pace than spin – 160 compared to 129 – but Chahal and Ashwin bowled just the right lines and lengths to Pandya. Neither of them gave him room nor did they pitch it in the slot. Pandya kept respecting them until it came down to the last six overs.”I am not used to batting this long,” Pandya told Star Sports when collecting his Player-of-the-Match award. “It is two games in a row that I have batted 15 and 17 overs. But I like it. It gives me time. I can calculate and take the right risks. I think in the last game it didn’t come off how I wanted but today I made sure that I had a sense of approach where I was ready to take on bowlers.”

“Batting at No. 4 gives me time to rightly calculate and take down certain bowlers and certain overs”Pandya on his new role

The intent, as Pandya said, was much better in this game, which could have to do with realising how difficult it can be for the death-overs specialists if those batting long don’t take the bowling on. Asked of the thought process behind taking on the No. 4 role, Pandya said: “It allows other players to play freely and not take too much pressure. I have been in the situation many times where I have taken on the bigger role which is to come in at the death and hit a 12-ball 30. I find it very difficult but because of that experience, batting at No. 4 gives me time to rightly calculate and take down certain bowlers and certain overs.”Thanks to this innings, Pandya’s numbers are looking much better for the season: an average of 76 at a strike rate of 137. He will still know that the strike rate needs to go further north even if it is at the expense of that lofty average. That balance is not easy to master especially in your first season in this role, but Pandya has made a start to getting back to the shape where he had made a case for himself just as a specialist batter in limited-overs internationals.In a press conference after a team selection, talking about Pandya’s mysterious fitness status, a journalist asked – rather told – the chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma that Pandya doesn’t play any domestic cricket and if he performs half-decently in the IPL, he will be right back in the World Cup side at the expense of other allrounders who are working hard. Chetan’s response was along these lines: do not speak on our behalf and conclude it is so easy for Pandya to get back in.However, if Pandya continues to bat the way he is, showing both the ability to hit out and play out certain bowlers in the same innings, forget Chetan, even the lovers of domestic cricket might have to concede. Plus his bowling fitness is a bonus. And, he confirmed the discomfort on the night was just cramps.

Ranji knockouts: Mumbai are doing Mumbai things again, Karnataka in rebuilding mode

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Bengal, meanwhile, have ticked a lot of boxes, and Madhya Pradesh have an excellent array of up-and-coming players

Shashank Kishore03-Jun-2022

Bengal

The only team to win all three games in their group, Bengal will start favourites against Jharkhand. They have been in Bengaluru for more than a week already, and have played two warm-up games against a Karnataka XI on surfaces tailored to challenge them, according to senior batter Manoj Tiwary. Clearly, they are looking to complete some unfinished business, having lost to Saurashtra in the 2019-20 final.Abhimanyu Easwaran, their captain, is richer from his experiences with the Indian team over the past couple of years and young allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed is a more consistent version of his former self. Their pace battery of Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep is among the most exciting in the country. And Wriddhiman Saha’s absence following differences with the Cricket Association of Bengal has opened the door for young Abishek Porel, who was part of India’s Under-19 World Cup-winning squad earlier this year.The key moment
That Bengal have reached here is down in no small measure to some Shahbaz magic against Baroda, who Bengal beat in their opening game despite being shot out for 88 on a damp surface in the first innings in Cuttack. After Bengal conceded a 93-run lead, Baroda set them 349 to win in the fourth innings. At 176 for 5, a spot in the quarter-finals looked distant, but Shahbaz (71*) and Abishek (53*) put up an unbroken 108-run stand to take them home. It was the sixth-highest chase in Ranji history and the highest ever for Bengal.Karun Nair signalled a return to form with his 175 against Jammu and Kashmir•PTI

Karnataka

Karnataka are on rebuild mode, both with their bowling and their batting. The retirements of R Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun in quick succession have left them thinner on experience and lighter by 842 first-class wickets. With Prasidh Krishna missing the quarter-final because of national duty, the seam attack will be spearheaded by Ronit More, who has 31 matches and 97 wickets to his name. The batting is bolstered by Mayank Agarwal’s return. He will be looking to get back among the runs after a lean IPL and also channel the hurt of being left out of India’s squad for the Edgbaston Test in England. He will have big names in the top order for help: Devdutt Padikkal, Karun Nair and Manish Pandey are all part of the mix.The key moment
Railways are the only team that scored a 400-plus total against their inexperienced attack. It was a game that could have had massive significance in terms of Karnataka’s qualification had the predicted rains owing to cyclones in Chennai hampered their final league fixture against Puducherry. As it turned out, Puducherry folded quickly and Karnataka wrapped up a bonus-point win to top the group and qualify comfortably. Nair’s return to form with a 175 against Jammu and Kashmir, his first Ranji century since the 2017-18 semi-final, was particularly noteworthy. It came at a time when there were murmurs about his place in the XI.Avesh Khan is one of many Madhya Pradesh cricketers to have moved up the national ranks quickly•Shailesh Bhatnagar

Madhya Pradesh

Coached by ex-Mumbai and India wicketkeeper Chandrakant Pandit, who masterminded two back-to-back Ranji titles for Vidarbha between 2017 and 2019, Madhya Pradesh are among the most improved teams in the domestic circuit. The proof of that is that several of their players are in the national frame. Venkatesh Iyer and Avesh Khan have graduated to the Indian team through consistent performances, while batter Rajat Patidar and Kumar Kartikeya Singh, the left-arm spinner, are coming off breakout IPL seasons. But that Madhya Pradesh have made it this far is only because of a better quotient than Kerala after they were tied on points at the end of the group phase. Both sides had two wins and a draw in three matches.The key moment
Madhya Pradesh and Kerala had 13 points going into their final fixture, against each other. A first-innings lead would have clinched the deal for either side. Madhya Pradesh found a new hero in Yash Dubey, the opener, who made a career-best 289. His 277-run partnership with Patidar, who made 142, set up a massive first-innings total for them. And when time as called on the final day of a rain-affected game, Kerala’s first innings was incomplete at 432 for 9, which gave both teams one point and Madhya Pradesh progressed based on a better quotient.Shams Mulani [being congratulated by his colleagues] is currently the runaway leader in the table for most wicket-takers this season•PTI

Mumbai

Mumbai just about managed to squeeze into the knockouts, Royal Challengers Bangalore style. Just winning their final fixture outright was no guarantee. They also needed Saurashtra to not win with a bonus point, against Goa, and the stars aligned. That said, there were shades of the never-give-up Mumbai of old in their approach. Like in the game against Goa, where they were shot out for 163 in the first innings but still managed to win by 119 runs thanks to left-arm spinner Shams Mulani’s 11-wicket match haul. In the last game, against Odisha, Mulani picked up seven wickets, including a five-for, and Mumbai sealed their quarter-final berth. With 29 scalps in three matches, Mulani also leads the overall wicket-takers’ chart at the moment.The key moment
Having conceded a 164-run lead against Goa, they were on the brink at 208 for 7 in the second innings, effectively 44 for 7. Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Sarfaraz Khan and Aditya Tare were all dismissed. Over the next 40 overs, Tanush Kotian, the No. 9, batted with the lower order to make a career-best 98 to frustrate Goa and set up a 232-run target that gave their bowlers a total to defend on the final day. Mumbai went on to win and turn their campaign around in style.

Sam Curran's small steps prove a giant leap as England seek to fill the Ben Stokes void

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Yet another performance that’s greater than the sum of its parts in crucial England win

Vithushan Ehantharajah22-Jul-2022Ben Stokes’ media engagements following his retirement from one-day internationals gave us plenty to digest. But contained within his wounded pride at not being able to contribute as effectively as he once could was this nugget at the end:”I didn’t like […] the feeling of stopping someone else being able to progress in this format for England, who I know is desperate to go out and is able to give the captain, the coach and the rest of the team 100 percent themselves.”At first glance, it reads simply as humility. Because where is this other Ben Stokes out there, capable of bowling heat, hitting bombs and taking worldies? It was no coincidence England were at their peak in 2019 when Stokes had full command of his rabbit-out-of-a-hat powers. There won’t be another like him and, it’s probably greedy to expect anyone close in the near future.But after Friday night’s 118-run win in the Manchester rain, the identity of this “someone” to give “100 percent themselves” became clear. Sam Curran’s 35 off 18 pushed England to 201, then his sole wicket proved to be the final nail in the coffin: David Miller, a finisher for hire on the T20 circuit, losing his off stump just as he was getting his eye in. At 27 for 5, the Proteas’ chase was dead and buried.There’s something oh-so-very-Sam Curran about those numbers. They speak of an impact that won’t move the dials when it comes to ODI scores of 50 or more, or five-wicket hauls, (both just one for Curran across 14 matches), but nevertheless, they profoundly changed the complexion of this match. It was an accurate summation of the 24-year-old’s career to date.Like Stokes, the numbers don’t quite tell the story of the work Curran gets through. And because of that, conversations around selection never reflect particularly well on him. After all, all any pro-Scurran types can offer as counter-points are the odd spells they witnessed here and there, in red- and white-ball cricket, and no huge scores or spells in which he tore the house down. The frames of reference are nothing but one’s own experience. It’s why championing the Surrey allrounder can at times feel like explaining an in-joke.So it was probably quite handy that this second ODI was condensed to 29 overs each, thus justifying the exaggeration of his output. England were 101 for six when Curran arrived to the crease, with just 70 deliveries to go. From the seventh ball he faced, Curran struck the first six of the innings, striding to the pitch of the ball and striking Keshav Maharaj back over his head. Tabraiz Shamsi got the same treatment, at which point Curran had even inspired Liam Livingstone to rediscover his funk as the pair shared four consecutive sixes – and then a four – before the end of their 21-ball stand that brought 43 runs.Analysing Curran’s performance on Sky Sports at the end of the match, his former captain Eoin Morgan was effusive on not just this performance but the batting potential that England could unlock, as Chennai Super Kings and Surrey have done, particularly up the order (and far higher than No.8).”I think he has so much to offer with the bat and he has a track record as well,” Morgan said. “At Surrey, he wants to get up the order as soon as possible. He’s batted at 3, 4, he’s batted three to eight at a domestic level and is proving he doesn’t waste balls. He’s not going to get in the way of being aggressive or posting a big score. So, legitimately, it becomes a logical option.”Big-hitting is a trick Curran seems to have mastered over the last two years, even if his bow in international cricket in 2018 – in Tests, no less – was punctuated by explosive counter-attacking moments against India. It has been refined at the Indian Premier League, but most instructive is how quickly he seems to have perfected it.Related

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England square series with resounding victory

The same can be said of his bowling, and the different role he has found for himself now, as part of a battery of lefties. The early movement with the new ball was once seen as one of Curran’s strengths, regardless of the colour of the ball. Now, he is very much third in the pecking order behind David Willey and Reece Topley for the fresh white Kookaburra, and so he has had to do a few different things.Not only did he vary his pace to ensure he just conceded five runs from his two overs, but his wicket ball was a smart assessment of the conditions and an execution of a plan to exploit them. Under the lights, the ball was that much harder to pick up, but an extra bit of tweak imparted by Curran allowed the seam to grip and turn between the left-handed Miller’s bat and pad. He was flummoxed, Curran was ecstatic and England were up and about.In the grand scheme of things, it was a vital win to give England a chance of finishing the ODI summer with a much-needed series win. There has been a lot of introspection over the team’s tactics and ethos over the past fortnight, parallel to the loss of high-profile names who gave so much to the team. Now things are a little bit rosier, thanks in no small part to Curran.He’s not the new Stokes. Indeed he’s not new at all, with 56 appearances into his fifth year as an England international. But he has plenty to offer as an allrounder. Even though he won’t necessarily grab as many headlines as the previous guy who had the gig, he is certainly capable of winning as many games.

DIY star Ryan Burl embodies new Zimbabwe's ethos

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The allrounder talks about his turn to legspin, learning from Rashid Khan and Ish Sodhi, and finding himself in a newly positive national side

Firdose Moonda16-Oct-2022″” is a phrase used in much of southern Africa. Literally translated it means, “A farmer makes a plan”, but that doesn’t quite do it justice. The expression is used to explain the can-do attitude and ingenuity of people in a place where resources are often lacking. It tells the story of how they have learn to live with long-running electricity cuts, drought, government corruption, inflation, unemployment, and other kinds of lack.The people of the continent are known for their DIY solutions to all kinds of problems, including ones like ripped bowling boots. Zimbabwe’s Ryan Burl used to fix his with a clamp and some superglue.”I always like tinkering with stuff,” he says on the eve of the Zimbabwe squad’s departure to the T20 World Cup in Australia. “It’s one of my traits. Sometimes I will be fixing a grip or something else on the bat, sometimes working on the shoes. So I took a picture to show people what kinds of things we do in the background.”Related

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Burl says he wasn’t asking for any favours and simply ended up with much more than he bargained for when his tweet caught fire. “Overnight there were so many messages coming in. My wife was like, “Have you seen what’s going on? This is crazy.”Then he got a message from Puma India, who agreed to sponsor him and some of his team-mates with new boots and additional kit. “You’ll have to wait and see at the World Cup how many of our guys will be wearing Puma,” he jokes. “And it’s also just shown a lot of other sponsors that have maybe been sleeping on us that there are countries and cricketers out there that do need a bit of help.” indeed.

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Burl grew up on a farm in Headlands, 130km south-east of Harare, and was schooled at the prestigious Peterhouse, widely regarded as among the country’s top schools. His main sport was squash and he admits to being better as a squash player than a cricketer, but he found the sport a little too much of a solo pursuit. “Being a team game [it] appealed a little bit more to me, and winning as a team felt a lot better for me,” Burl says. “Playing squash, you win and it’s nice, but there’s not too many people you can celebrate with. It meant a lot more winning, with not just the XI on the field but the technical staff and the players on the bench as well.”Burl decided to concentrate on his cricket instead, where he was a top-order batter and initially, a seam bowler who took the new ball. Throughout Zimbabwe’s age-group teams, he shared that job with Tom Curran, who is now with England, but grew weary of the grind. “When I was about 16, I was really tired of batting long and then coming and opening the bowling. It was tough,” he says. “One day I said to the coach, ‘I am not bowling seam anymore. I am tired. I am bowling spin.'”Not just any kind of spin – legspin. Which he taught himself in true style: by watching videos, mostly of Shane Warne. It would turn out to be a masterstroke because his bowling was a big part of why Burl was eventually considered for the national side. “When I came into the squad [in 2016], we had the likes of Brendan Taylor, Hamilton Masakadza and Craig Ervine and there wasn’t really a spot at the top of the order for me. I had to fill the role of a middle-order batter and I wasn’t overly happy about it,” he said. “But the one thing which made me feel more content with the role was that I wasn’t really a bowler at all at the time, I was only really a part-timer, and if I was going to really embrace it, I’d have to work really hard on my bowling as well.”

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Burl was due to make his debut in an ODI series against India in June 2016 but tore his ACL the day before the series was due to start. That delayed his first appearance until February 2017, when he played in a series against Afghanistan. He didn’t bowl then, but met someone who would inspire him from that day.”Rashid [Khan] is one of my very good friends and I am always picking his brain, along with Ish Sodhi – it’s almost like a legspin community that we’ve got,” Burl says. “There’s so few of us, we’ve got to look out for each other. Guys are really more than happy to help each other out with different grips, different lengths and different field settings. Rashid plays around with his grips a lot and he mentioned that was something I should bring into my game.”Burl credits head coach Dave Houghton (second from left) and batting coach Lance Klusener for Zimbabwe’s positive and free-spirited approach this year•Daniel Pockett/ICC/Getty ImagesAnd that is how Burl has developed what he believes is his best delivery. “I have a ball I release from the back of the hand with a googly grip but it comes out as a legspinner, so players often play for a googly but it comes out the other way. That’s the one I haven’t seen a lot of other guys do,” he said.Despite that, Burl doesn’t see himself as particularly cryptic. “I don’t look at myself as too much of a mystery bowler. Sometimes when I bowl a googly and someone doesn’t pick it, I think, ‘How did you not pick that?'” he said.Whatever he is doing is clearly working. In the last two years he has bowled a lot more, and had a lot more success. He has delivered 61 overs in 28 T20Is, compared with 36 overs in 19 T20Is between 2018 and 2020, and taken 21 wickets at 18.85. That’s almost double his previous haul of 11 wickets at 27.81 while in ODIs this year, he has taken ten wickets in 13 games at 21.00. Half that haul came against Australia, when Zimbabwe made history by winning in that country for the first time. Burl’s haul ripped through the middle order and cleaned up the tail – Australia lost 5 for 12 and were dismissed for 141.While it was a surreal experience for him, he also saw it as a culmination of a period of success that kicked off for Zimbabwe in June. “It all started off with the World Cup qualifiers for us and then we won the T20 series and the ODI series against Bangladesh, which was a long time coming,” he said. “So in Australia it was always about believing. We were confident.”

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Zimbabwe’s turnaround coincided with the re-appointment of Dave Houghton as national men’s head coach in June, in an eleventh-hour attempt to ensure they would qualify for the T20 World Cup. Zimbabwe have not been at an ICC event since 2016, after missing out on the 2018 T20 World Cup, the 50-over World Cup in 2019, and the 2021 T20 World Cup, which has affected the nation’s pride and their cricket bottom line. Apart from the FOMO of their players not being able to join the big dance, Zimbabwe also rely heavily on the participation fee from ICC events, and could have ill-afforded another absence.Their form before June’s qualifiers was wretched. Since their last major tournament appearance, they had participated in 17 T20 series and won just two: a triangular involving Nepal and Singapore in 2019, and a three-match rubber against Scotland in 2021. They were hamstrung primarily by an inability to score quickly enough and in 55 innings, only crossed 160 nine times. To make it to this World Cup, that had to change.Burl picked up a career best 5 for 10 against Australia in Townsville last month to seal a historic ODI win for Zimbabwe•William West/AFP/Getty Images”The coaching style that Dave and Lance [Klusener, batting coach] have brought in is based on freedom and positivity, and it’s something we haven’t really had,” Burl says. “We always felt a little bit caged up and were intent on sticking to our exact roles, but we all know things in cricket never go according to plan. Having freedom has allowed us to adapt to different situations and guys are in a different headspace. Guys have come out of their shells and played a lot of positive cricket, and if it does come off, you score 200, and if it doesn’t come off, you lose.”Since Houghton took over, Zimbabwe have played nine T20Is and topped 180 four times. Klusener, who has had two stints with Zimbabwe as batting coach and was also instrumental in developing the team’s ability to post bigger totals, resigned his post before the T20 World Cup but Burl is hoping the team will keep the same mindset. “We want to put our best foot forward with the T20s. It’s quite a ruthless format – you play that first round and you could be there a week and you get kicked out – so we want to progress and play the likes of England, Australia and South Africa. If you don’t play them, you can’t cause an upset,” he says. “We want to play and we want to win. We want to cause some upsets and put some smiles on the fans’ faces.”The last of those is something Zimbabwe have done exceptionally well as the Covid-19 pandemic has receded. Supporters have packed into Harare and Bulawayo and created a unique party atmosphere at Castle Corner, with songs sung in Shona, that the team have adopted as their own anthems.Cricket in many countries – most notably across the border in South Africa – is dealing with issues of racial discrimination – which Zimbabwe have been talking about since the late 1990s; it is a matter they have confronted, and perhaps even managed to put behind them, to some extent. “We are very united and very wholesome and together,'” Burl says. “We don’t have any problems in our changing room. I am very happy and proud to say that we are in a good space and everyone gets on well. We are all happy. These guys are my friends, black, white or brown, and we want to do well together.”Zimbabwe’s immediate goal is to get to the main draw of the T20 World Cup and then turn their attention to their 50-over game, where they lie 12th on the World Cup Super League points table and will host the qualifier for the 2023 World Cup in March. “We haven’t done as well as we would have liked to in the Super League, if we are really honest with ourselves,” Burl says. “So the 50-over qualifiers will be something to look forward to.”In-between that, Burl will busy himself with as much physical activity as he can as he makes the most of life as a professional sportsperson in a place where that’s not too different from just being an ordinary guy. “I enjoy playing a lot of sports: tennis, hockey, anything to be honest and I like doing some DIY or home improvements,” he says. “There’s always something to do. We’ve renovated a couple of bathrooms and just this morning, I was putting up our new washing line.”

Karthik Meiyappan soaks in World Cup glory and dreams of more

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

The UAE legspinner talks about his hat-trick against Sri Lanka, his time as a net bowler in the IPL, and about rubbing shoulders with big-name players in the Abu Dhabi T10 league

Deivarayan Muthu24-Nov-2022Karthik Meiyappan was in a trance when he claimed a hat-trick against Sri Lanka in the men’s T20 World Cup last month. He only began to realise what he had achieved when he got together with his father and then when he visited his extended family in Trichy, Tamil Nadu.”Definitely, it [the hat-trick] took some time to sink in,” the 22-year-old UAE legspinner says. “When I came back home to Dubai, it slowly started kicking in that I actually pulled off something spectacular.”The family support I’ve had over the years is incredible. To come back home and for them to let it sink in was the best part. I can be vulnerable in front of my family. Expressing my emotions then – it couldn’t have been better scripted.”Karthik’s father, PL Meiyappan, was also a legspinner, who played league cricket in Tamil Nadu before moving to the UAE for work.”My dad wanted to continue to play cricket and even got picked for his university side [in Madurai],” Karthik says, “but I think the family couldn’t support him at the time and that’s how his cricket [career] got cut short.”It’s probably something he lives through me and I’m sure he’s a proud father.”Karthik is a modern wristspinner who bowls into the pitch and gets his googly to turn and fizz more than his legbreak. It was those wrong’uns that took out Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka in the 15th over of Sri Lanka’s innings to make him only the fifth bowler to bag a hat-trick in a men’s T20 World Cup.3:25

‘Our batting slacked in the World Cup, but our bowlers were up to the mark’

“Obviously, when I was bowling to the lefties [Rajapaksa and Asalanka], my plan was to take it away [from them] because I felt like they were more leg-side dominant and have a better range of shots on the leg side, especially Rajapaksa,” Karthik says.”When Asalanka walked in, Vriitya [Aravind, the UAE wicketkeeper] asked me whether I wanted to slip in a legspinner, but I was feeling like he was coming from a bad patch of form, so again I backed myself to bowl my best ball. I told Vriitya I’ll back my wrong’un again and luckily it pitched in the right spot.”Then when Shanaka walked in, even Vriitya had no doubt what I was going to bowl, so I just went about bowling the wrong’un once again and got him through bat-pad.”Karthik, who started out as a seamer, imitating Brett Lee’s action as a boy before realising his body couldn’t withstand the load of fast bowling, explains that googlies come easier to him than legspinners because of how his action is set up.”I’m more perpendicular and 12’o clock, as they say. For me, bowling the googly is easier than a legspinner because of the leverage I get on the ball. It’s easier to snap my wrist and fingers to bowl the wrong’un. Legspin is something that I back myself to bowl as well, but in T20s, I feel the wrong’un is the weapon with which I back myself to deliver eight or nine out of ten times.”Karthik dabbled with offspin and legspin before becoming a quick legbreak-googly bowler – a species that is much in demand in T20 cricket these days. But before taking up cricket professionally, he was quite seriously into chess, even playing some inter-state tournaments in Tamil Nadu.”Chess is something I inherited from my family,” he says. “My grandfather and my uncle play chess and sport has been in the family background. When I was living in Coimbatore for two years, I was just playing gully cricket then. Chess was something that caught on [for me] because I’m very eager at grasping things by just observing. My dad also played chess, and [when] my mum put me in coaching in Coimbatore, I found it was something I could do. My parents tried to put me through a professional programme, but they [the organisers] requested that I stop my education and focus only on chess, which we couldn’t at that point. Chess was something I love, but once I moved to Dubai [in 2007], it wasn’t a big thing here, so I moved to cricket.”Related

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We felt like we gained a lot from the IPL, says UAE captain Ahmed Raza

Karthik made his international debut for UAE in 2019, and since then though he was part of touring sides, didn’t get many chances in the XI – until this year. He believes his three-wicket haul against Singapore in the Asia Cup T20 Qualifier in Al Amerat earlier this year, and a stint with former offspinner and current Tamil Nadu coach M Venkataramana in Chennai, have transformed his career.”I think that was the real turnaround for me,” he says of that game against Singapore. “Ever since the game, I feel things have been going well.”I came down to Chennai for a month and worked with Venkataramana under Robin [Singh, the UAE coach] sir’s guidance. He kind of tweaked a few things in my bowling, which really came in handy for me. The hat-trick is the icing on the cake because there was a lot of work behind it.”Karthik has also had stints as a net bowler with Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, getting to work with Sri Lanka legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga and his hero MS Dhoni.”Shane Warne is someone I’ve looked up to, but lately I’ve been watching Wanindu closely. The way and the style we bowl is similar, so I try to pick up a lot of things from his bowling. And then suddenly I started celebrating the way he did. I took my celebration off Wanindu – and not Neymar – and even told him after the game against Sri Lanka in the World Cup that I copied his celebration.”Before the Ireland series [in October 2021], I had a stint with CSK. I spoke to MS Dhoni about how I could handle them sweeping the ball because Ireland are more of sweepers. So, he gave me advice and, like I said, you’re learning off the best.”Meiyappan with his family, including his mother, Selvi, and sister, Lobha Mitra•Karthik MeiyappanKarthik now has a chance to show his wares in the T10 league in Abu Dhabi, which begins this week. It is a tournament that he believes has helped bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket for UAE’s players. The league could also potentially be a shop window for the inaugural ILT20 in the UAE in 2023.”Practising with international players is different from competing against them. There is lots to learn and you get used to that exposure, which is important to bridge the gap between an Associate team and a Test nation. T10 is a short format, and at the end of the day, as a bowler you still have to be aggressive and look to dominate the game, which is something I like.”He’s looking forward to playing alongside Shanaka and Rajapaksa for Chennai Braves in the league – and remind them that they were his World Cup hat-trick victims. “Even before the World Cup started, when we had the welcoming lunch, I spoke to Shanaka and [Maheesh] Theekshana about playing together at Chennai Braves, but now I will go to Shanaka and have a few words about the hat-trick ball, for sure.” (laughs)With a T20 World Cup hat-trick against the Asia Cup champions, has Karthik made his case for a promotion from net bowler at Chennai Super Kings?”It hasn’t crossed my mind yet,” he says. “But if I get my process right and my results going, it will be a by-product. It will happen, if it’s meant to be. Obviously, I’ve put myself out there and my chances now might be better than what it was before, but I would not push my imagination. Whatever opportunity comes my way, I will definitely take it with two hands.”

Impressive New Zealand seek one last hurrah in familiar Karachi before turning focus towards India

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

There is all to play for in the third ODI as a difficult international home season for Pakistan comes to a close

Danyal Rasool12-Jan-2023The quick turnaround times in this series haven’t left much room for reflection or adaptation, but New Zealand appeared to have accustomed themselves to the Karachi surface frighteningly well. They were inserted in to bat in the first ODI and finished with a subpar total, before, on a surface that began to take turn in the cooler, drier evening, they found they had left Ish Sodhi out of the starting line-up.Barely 36 hours after Pakistan struck the winning runs, Kane Williamson was back out at the toss, and when the coin fell his way, opted to bat first again. (Babar Azam would claim he’d have done the same thing, though the extent to which he would have changed a winning formula is uncertain.) Recognising the afternoon offered the best batting conditions all day, Williamson and Devon Conway struck up a 181-run stand, putting New Zealand so far ahead in the game the collapse they suffered at the back-end was immaterial.Related

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With the pitch’s behaviour changing, and New Zealand having brought Sodhi back in, only 13 overs would be bowled by the seamers. They exploited the early seam and swing, but once Mitchell Santner was brought in for the ninth over, seam would bowl just five more overs all innings. On a surface that was now gripping, skidding, stopping and turning, no Pakistan batter besides Babar looked truly comfortable all innings, and Pakistan were skittled out for 182. When New Zealand were on 182, they had lost just the one wicket.This was New Zealand’s most impressive ODI win since the 2019 World Cup, not just since it came against a side that was gunning for the number one ranking, but also because of where it came in a World Cup year. New Zealand’s have a 17-6 win-loss record in this World Cup cycle, but many of those victories have come against much weaker sides on paper. Away wins have make that point even more starkly, their previous ODI successes out of New Zealand played out in Dublin, Edinburgh and Bridgetown. (Sydney and Cairns, on the other hand, saw them come up empty-handed.)Karachi is a noteworthy addition to the list in a year where the World Cup will be held across the border, especially since New Zealand will take a chartered flight out to Hyderabad on Saturday to kick off a white-ball tour of India. They might find spin doesn’t offer quite as much joy there – spinners in India have proved to be more expensive this World Cup cycle than any other country bar Australia – but their well-rounded ability means options with the ball should not be in short supply.These are fairly similar sides in a number of ways. Pakistan, like New Zealand have an impressive ODI record of late, caveated by lots of home matches and less than challenging opposition for the most part. They can call upon a range of express fast bowlers – though no one has proved faster than Lockie Ferguson over these two ODIs. In an impressive start to ODI cricket, Usama Mir has shown an ability both to contain and to strike, while Mohammad Nawaz is more than capable of cancelling Santner out.If conditions for the deciding ODI replicate those of their predecessors, the toss will invariably assume even greater importance•AFP/Getty ImagesNew Zealand are likely to run into just as many problems chasing on these surfaces, with a top-heavy batting line-up and a middle order that is both one-dimensional and unconvincing. Until July 2022, Pakistan and New Zealand ranked top of the list for runs scored by the top three since July 2019; less than half of both sides’ ODI runs have been scored by the bottom eight (34% and 47% respectively). It was notable on Wednesday that, as the asking rate steadily climbed and wickets fell, Pakistan had no one lower down the order capable of relieving the pressure with a mood-shifting cameo. Even Agha Salman, the only top seven batter to broach a strike rate of 70, managed his 22-ball 25 with sweeps and canny placement rather than the sort of power-hitting Pakistan needed at that stage.It makes leaving Khushdil Shah out of a squad that included a list of probables that seemed to burgeon daily during the first few days of Shahid Afridi’s selectorial career all the more puzzling. Since the start of last year, the only Pakistani middle-order batter with a better strike rate than his 102.46 is the injured Shadab Khan. Khushdil’s consistency while maintaining that high-risk approach is also notable; only once in those six innings has he been dismissed for fewer than 19, with his repertoire boasting two cameos that swung games around against Australia and West Indies.But if conditions for the deciding ODI replicate those of their predecessors, the toss will invariably assume even greater importance, a point Mohammad Nawaz alluded to after Wednesday’s defeat.”You’ll have seen the ball turns and bounces a lot more in the second innings,” he said. “You can’t use the toss as an excuse, but the behaviour of the pitch changed considerably. The toss plays a role.”Pakistan will hope they can glean as much out of that defeat as New Zealand did theirs as a difficult international home season finally draws to a close.New Zealand, meanwhile, might just be getting started . After one more tilt on a Karachi ground they seem to have become fairly familiar with, they will turn their attentions to India, a place their attentions may well remain all the way through to November.

Temba Bavuma finds form, and South Africa try out pacer workload management

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

But, spin under the scanner? These and other takeaways for South Africa from their 2-1 ODI series win against England

Firdose Moonda02-Feb-2023South Africa took two steps closer to automatic qualification for the 2023 World Cup with a 2-1 win over England in their penultimate series of the ODI Super League. They will play two matches against Netherlands on March 31 and April 2, and must win them both and hope that New Zealand earn at least one victory over Sri Lanka in their home ODI series that will be played around the same time. For the neutral fan, this means what would otherwise have been random matches, played at around the same time as the IPL begins, become the some of the most context-laden of the current Super League cycle.By the time those games come around, South Africa will have a new white-ball coach in Rob Walter, a new support staff and some fresh ideas. Even without Walter’s presence in this England series, where Test coach Shukri Conrad took over in a care-taker role, South Africa already seemed to be showing glimpses of a much-needed evolution in their game and have plenty of positives to take into the new era. They may need to be wary of slow over-rate offences though. It cost them a point in Kimberley.

South Africa can still bat

Phew! After the last six months no one was sure they could. In the second half of 2022, South Africa racked up seven consecutive sub-200 Test scores across matches in England and Australia and failed to chase 159 against Netherlands at the T20 World Cup. There are still significant issues around the batting in the longest and shortest format but as far as the middle-child goes, South Africa seem to have finally stepped up.Related

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They scored over 300 or in the vicinity repeatedly (the latter was enough to win the opening game) and achieved their best run-rate in an ODI series in four-and-a-half years – since August 2018 when they beat Sri Lanka. It’s also only the fourth time in that period that South Africa have achieved a series run-rate of more than six runs an over, a standard that England have made the norm since after the 2015 World Cup.ESPNcricinfo LtdSouth Africa had four batters in the series’ top six and none of them was Quinton de Kock, which suggests the responsibility is being shared around and the previous over-reliance on a few standout stars is decreasing. Best of all for the home side, the leading run-scorer was…

Temba Bavuma

If redemption were a cricketer, it would look like the South Africa captain in the last six days. Temba Bavuma has gone from being under the microscope for his poor scoring rate in T20Is to facing questions around his overall suitability to play white-ball cricket, not least captain the national side. He answered some of these questions with a high-quality innings in the series-winning second match, where he scored his third ODI century in emphatic style. His other contributions of 36 and 35 also came at more than a run-a-ball for an overall strike rate of 114.64, and he enjoyed his best ODI series to date.Add to that his clever captaincy, especially in defending 299 in the first match and what this series has shown us is that ODI cricket is Bavuma’s format and he should be the player to take South Africa to the 2023 World Cup. It also shows us the importance of not conflating performance, or under-performance, in one format with another – so this doesn’t mean South Africa don’t have to think about their T20 strategy, but in fifty-over cricket, Bavuma’s got it.

Heinrich Klaasen could be an asset for the World Cup

David Miller is established as South Africa’s finisher but Heinrich Klaasen’s contributions should not be overlooked, especially given where the World Cup is being held (India). Klaasen has shown himself to be strong against spin and especially in hitting boundaries off spinners. His display in the third ODI, when he kept South Africa in the game until the 40th over chasing 347, included big hits off Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.Heinrich Klaasen kept going at England even in the face of a massive target•AFPKlaasen appears to have mastered the ability to stay deep in the crease and built the confidence to make room to play his shots. He has had an impressive ODI run in general – since the start of 2022, Klaasen averages 45.71 in this format.

Fast bowler rotation will be key

With the volume of cricket showing no sign of slowing down, both South Africa and England had to manage their quicks’ workload through the series. South Africa changed a successful combination, which included Kagiso Rabada and Sisanda Magala, from the first ODI to the second. They won the second with Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen coming in. Anrich Nortje was rested for the third game, while Wayne Parnell played in all three matches.It is understood that South Africa’s new coaching regime plans to have a rotation policy in place for the quicks, which will see those who play in all formats, such as Rabada, Nortje and Ngidi, rested more often. That only means that they need an equally impressive second set of players as stand-ins. Magala proved what he can do in the first match, Parnell has developed into a reliable allrounder and Jansen has already been labelled a superstar by team-mates like Miller, but there’s opportunity for players on the domestic circuit to put themselves in contention too. Six white-ball matches against West Indies in the second half of March (including ODIs that are not part of the Super League) will be the first chance for South Africa to test their bench bowling strength, so expect to see some new names there.

Spin concerns

On fairly flat tracks it may seem harsh to criticise the bowlers who were most likely to be targeted but South Africa’s spinners were disappointingly ineffective in this series. Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi took one wicket apiece and delivered South Africa’s worst spin economy in an ODI series – 7.85. Their performances may be the result of a combination of England’s batting strength and placid conditions (though it did turn in Kimberley) but there are also genuine worries about the pair.Shamsi seems down on confidence, and Maharaj appears to be bowling flatter as he spends more time in the white-ball game. With that in mind, it could cause South Africa’s selectors to cast the net wider. The point about different formats notwithstanding, the SA20, where Bjorn Fortuin is the joint-second-highest wicket-taker at the time of writing, could be an ideal catchment area.

Stuart Broad, Virat Kohli and the subtle art of annoying the hell out of your opponents

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Plus, the BCCI – who have no opposition

Alan Gardner15-May-2023Some bowlers, when they get into the latter stage of their careers, pare down their repertoire and focus simply on executing their best skill again and again. Others keep looking to develop new tricks, real or imagined, and push themselves to engage with the opposition in innovative – perhaps even puerile – ways.Which brings us, as you’ve no doubt already guessed, to Stuart Broad’s reinvention as a teenage internet troll, a 36-year-old headband-wearing provocateur, shitposting his way through the summer. The England team’s Outside-Edgelord, if you will.Broad was always a prime candidate for this sort of thing, given the way he lapped up all the “smug Pommie cheat” banter that came his way during the 2013-14 Ashes. His very presence as a blond, pouting, celebrappealing member of the English establishment is enough to wind up some people, and that’s before you begin to factor in the 500-plus Test wickets.Now, at the start of another Ashes summer, he has decided to put down the controller and get fired up for the time-honoured phoney war that precedes any England-Australia skirmish. The first salvo came a few weeks ago during an outing for Nottinghamshire, when he revealed that he had been working on – wait for it, wait for it – an outswinger. “It’s designed, to be honest, for Marnus and Smith,” he said with a committed poker face.Related

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That’s Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith, the ICC’s No. 1 and No. 3-ranked Test batters. Who you suspect might have faced a bit of RFM away swing in their time. Perhaps for his next move, Broad will reveal that he has been working with Darren Stevens and plans to bowl 65mph with the keeper stood up to the stumps this summer. (Although given Labuschagne’s experiences on the “Stevo’s gonna get ya” circuit, that might not actually be such a bad idea.)Anyway, Broad then added in a newspaper interview that he considered the previous Ashes in Australia, which took place under pandemic restrictions in 2021-22, “a void series” – a calculated dangling of bait that was swallowed by more than a few down under. “The definition of Ashes cricket is elite sport with lots of passion and players at the top of their game,” Broad said, by which measure England didn’t actually contest the urn at all in the 1990s.By now, with the comment threads fizzing and empty bottles of Prime all over his bedroom floor, Broad was ready for a full-on flame war against anyone and everyone. Despite his semi-mythical status as the Bazball Nighthawk, he came out to bat against Lancashire – facing up to his old England mucker James Anderson – and flicked the Vs at the new orthodoxy, blocking his way to 3 off 50 balls to nick a draw for Notts. One famous mischief-maker who would surely look on approvingly is the late Shane Warne, a man for whom teenage rebellion was a way of life. This will be the first Ashes without any involvement from the Australian in over 30 years but the Light Roller likes to think that, while Broad stirs the pot in the physical realm, Warnie is up there in the windowless basement in the sky, teaching Loki and Beelzebub exactly how to grip the Zooter.

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Over in the IPL, meanwhile, another of the game’s great competitors was going back to basics. “If you can give it, you got to take it,” growled Virat Kohli after a typically feisty display in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s win over Lucknow Super Giants earlier this month. “Otherwise don’t give it.” Valuable lessons there in the immutable laws of playground pointing-and-shoving, following some beef between Kohli and his former India team-mate, now Lucknow mentor, Gautam Gambhir. Or was it with Kyle Mayers, whom Gambhir had gone to rescue? Maybe Naveen-ul-Haq, who had words with Kohli during the Lucknow innings? Whatever, whoever, Kohli is always up for a bit of give and take. Anyone who says otherwise can meet him round the back of the bike sheds in ten.

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While administrators in England and Australia can still afford themselves some hearty backslapping when they eye up space for another Ashes series on the FTP, the rest of the calendar for bilateral cricket isn’t in quite such fine fettle. But don’t worry, the BCCI has come up with a solution. Essentially, because most of the great piles of sweaty media rights cashola heading for the ICC coffers comes from the Indian market, they reckon most of it should come straight back to them, too. Who cares if cricket is still being played in Papua New Guinea/ Afghanistan/England, so long as India gets its (increasingly large) slice of pie? Call it equality, “Big One” style.

Tilak Varma turns heads by combining Hyderabadi artistry with T20 innovation

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma feels Varma has “got a long way to go”, while Tom Moody called him an “absolute jet”

Karthik Krishnaswamy19-Apr-20232:35

Moody: Tilak Varma has big career ahead of him – for India too

Tilak Varma was playing for Mumbai Indians against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday, but he was also a bright young talent from Hyderabad batting in his hometown. It was inevitable, therefore, that something of the city’s cricketing traditions would find expression at some point.That point arrived in the 16th over of Mumbai’s innings, when Mayank Markande dangled up a wrong’un pitching half a foot outside the left-hander’s leg stump.Varma glided smoothly to the leg side of the ball, exposing all his stumps, his back foot going so far as to brush the return crease. His front foot remained close to the line of the ball, though, aligning him perfectly to hit with the turn. The rest was down to that most Hyderabadi ingredient: wrists. As the ball arced over extra-cover and into the vacant spaces beyond, Varma could have been a mirror image of Mohammad Azharuddin or VVS Laxman.Related

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This bit of artistry would have been perfectly at home in a Test match, but it was just as much a product of its time and place as the other, more obviously T20-ish bits of innovation that peppered Varma’s batting on the day. He had reverse-heaved Markande over short third almost as soon as he had walked in; not long after that, he had collapsed his back knee to shorten the effective length of a blockhole-seeking delivery from Marco Jansen, and shovelled it just beyond the reach of a leaping long-on fielder.When Varma came to the crease, Mumbai were going at just under eight an over in the 12th of their innings, and had just lost Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in the same over. By the time Varma departed in the 17th for 37 off 17 balls, Mumbai were humming along at just above nine an over, well on course to post a challenging total on a pitch where the slower ball was gripping and not always coming on to the bat.Cameron Green took the baton from Varma and dominated the finishing stages, ransacking 25 off the last ten balls of his innings to finish unbeaten on 64 off 40. Varma’s innings, however, had allowed Green to get to 39 off 30 without raising too many eyebrows. It wasn’t that he had lacked intent in the early stages of his innings, but simply that he had taken time coming to terms with the two-paced nature of the pitch.Varma had no such issues. While the rest of Mumbai’s batters scored 59 off 45 balls through the middle overs (seventh to 16th), Varma scored 31 off 15.Now, anyone can outshine his colleagues in a one-off occasion, but Varma has been Mumbai’s middle-overs mainstay throughout his time with them. Since the start of the 2022 season, his first in the IPL, Varma has scored more middle-overs runs than any other batter in the tournament.If 479 runs at a strike rate of 137.64 sounds impressive but not earth-shatteringly so, consider this: through IPL 2022 and the early part of IPL 2023, Mumbai have had the worst middle-overs strike rate of any team (122.71). KL Rahul has a similar middle-overs strike rate (137.35) to Varma’s, but he has been part of a Lucknow Super Giants side that has rattled along at 137.61 through that phase.Varma, in short, has carried a struggling Mumbai line-up through what is often the trickiest phase of a T20 innings. He only turned 20 last November.As you might expect, his exploits have turned some of the sagest heads in world cricket. Tom Moody, who coached Sunrisers for nine seasons and won the IPL with them in 2016, is one of them.”He’s an absolute jet, isn’t he? I love watching him bat,” Moody said on the ESPNcricinfo show T20 Time:Out. “He seems to have a head on his shoulders well above his age, he’s got a sense of maturity about how he navigates his innings, he never seems to be flustered, he’s got the shots.”If he needs to pull the trigger and play a couple of big shots, he’s got that, and does it very comfortably. It’s a bit of an understatement, but he’s got a big career ahead of him, hasn’t he? Not only for Mumbai Indians but for India.”

“For someone of his age, coming out and playing the way he is, he’s got a long way to go, and we will see him play for some different teams”Rohit Sharma on Tilak Varma

That’s some endorsement, and Moody wasn’t done just yet.”I think he’s got a solid technique,” he said. “To me, it looks like he’s got a very good game against pace bowling. So, defensively, he looks very, very much at ease. He’s got a good game both back and front foot against genuine pace, which is what you need to climb the international ladder.”He’s clearly a very, very good player of spin, which is going to be a reasonably important tool for him, playing the majority of his cricket in this country […] To me, he’s got the complete game.”Look, I don’t know him at all, I’ve never had a chance to sit down and have a chat with him, but I just sense that he’s a player that seems to have a very good head on his shoulders and understands his own limitations in his own game, and he’s been put into many pressure situations, given Mumbai’s adversity over recent times where he’s been involved, but he seems to have breezed through that with flying colours.Tilak Varma played some stunning shots during his cameo against SRH•AFP/Getty Images”That’s not the easiest thing to do for a young player, because quite often young players go missing when the leaders of the pack aren’t showing the way, but he’s the one that’s been the leader of the pack during adversity.”Moody wasn’t alone in predicting a bright future for Varma.”We watched Tilak last season, and he showed what he can do with the bat, and he’s not looked away from it this year as well,” Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation. “What I like about his game is his approach. He’s not playing the bowler, he’s playing the ball, which is quite important.”For someone of his age, coming out and playing the way he is, he’s got a long way to go, and we will see him play for some different teams.”You can be fairly certain Rohit wasn’t talking about Varma playing for another IPL team, or for Hyderabad in domestic cricket.

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