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It is difficult to separate the series of 1981, 2005 and 2023 for the cricket played or the impact they had

Mark Nicholas01-Aug-2023″Don’t bother looking for that, let alone chasing it. That’s gone straight into the confectionery stall and out again,” said Richie Benaud of a hit by Ian Botham at Headingley in 1981. From a position of nowhere after the first two Tests of that summer, “Beefy” stole the series; so much so that it was immediately christened Botham’s Ashes and has remained so ever since.Andrew Flintoff did much the same in 2005 but didn’t quite manage to get his moniker stuck to it. Freddie bowled like the wind that golden summer and struck the ball like the warrior he was from the first day we saw him as an outsize youth to that last Ashes day at The Oval in 2009, when he limped home, spent.We might have expected the next in the line of great England allrounders to stamp his name all over the 2023 edition, but a dicky knee and the hidden demands of captaincy stole the title from him. Of course, there were heroics that came mainly with the bat and his unwavering message of cricket without inhibition but in the end Ben Stokes gave way to Chris Woakes as gamebreaker writ large across three Tests that so nearly did something only Don Bradman’s Australians managed 87 years ago.Related

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The show-stopper, however, was neither Stokes nor Woakes but Stuart Broad, whose sense of theatre is very Beefy and Fred; not that even those two gargantuan figures of the English game could finish in a front of a full house at The Oval by hitting their final ball faced in Test cricket for six and take the wicket that squared the series the following evening* with the last ball they ever bowled in first-class cricket. You couldn’t make it up.This stunning triumph and the amazing scenes that followed were nothing more than England deserved. The cricket played by Stokes’ team brings pride to its supporters and inspiration to the generation now growing up with so much else to grab their attention. Various sessions, not least the last two hours yesterday, have been as electrifying as anything in the arena of sport, and some of them more so. It is risk and reward in a way most professional sportsmen look to avoid for fear of the wheels coming off. It is exemplified by names such as Botham, Best and Ballesteros; Flintoff and Federer; Stokes, Senna and Sobers. Only, this time Stokes has press-ganged a whole team to walk in the steps of its leader.

Over-analysing this period in English cricket history is not so much futile as it is unnecessary. Rather, we must applaud the light, the hope, the faith and the brilliance

Probably England deserved the 3-2 margin in their favour simply because of the extent of their ambition. It is one thing to entertain, quite another to avoid becoming only a Harlem Globetrotter. There is a practicality to winning cricket matches otherwise known as game management, and as the series progressed, so England began to log in. When the free spirit joined forces with clear thinking, it became an unstoppable force.As it was, rain in Manchester denied this result and in a strange sort of way it doesn’t now seem to matter too much. Sure, Australia retained the Ashes but everyone knows what happened and who made it so. Two fine teams went at it with an iron will and by the end could not be separated. One took the game to a soaring new height of expressionism, the other did it by the book of words long written into history. This contrast was in itself a fascination.The clamour in the immediate aftermath is to call it the greatest Ashes ever. How we love to rate things!Frankly, it is difficult to separate the series of ’81, ’05 and ’23 for the cricket played or the impact they had on the nation, or should we say nations? How do Australians see Ashes defeats that followed a winning start? In 1981, Botham left the field at Lord’s to silence from the MCC members: probably not the same ones who gave Usman Khawaja and Co a serve early last month, but members nonetheless. The match was drawn but England had been outsmarted in a low-scoring game and the grim reaper followed England’s captain and talisman up those steps to the dressing room, in which he decided upon resignation. Mike Brearley took over and the rest, well, it’s thrilling history.Sense of theatre much? Stuart Broad struck to take the final two wickets at The Oval and level the series•Getty ImagesBrearley’s contribution was immediate. Twenty-four years later, Michael Vaughan matched it with bells on, though Vaughan had long planned the mission while assembling a gifted team driven by an engine of fast bowling of the sort rarely seen in the storied life of England cricket. After a dramatic and hugely promising first session in the first Test at Lord’s, England were humbled – hammered actually – by a great Australian team. What followed was remarkable. Far from retreating into themselves, Vaughan and his troop fashioned a comeback for the ages amid four nail-biters and mighty resistance from cricket’s most charismatic talent. Across that draining seven weeks Shane Warne took 40 wickets at 19.9 each and made 249 runs at 27.6 from No. 8 in the order. But still England won.At The Oval yesterday my mind cast back to Kevin Pietersen’s explosive innings which secured the series and led to all manner of eccentricity in celebration. Pietersen was Bazball long before Ben or Baz, an outlier untouched by English reservation and in situ for a good time if not necessarily a long time. Actually, he was around longer than many thought, and never dull. To save The Oval Test, he hooked Brett Lee’s searing bouncers from his eyebrows and into the crowd. When finally out for 158, Australian players shook him by the hand. Well, one. Warne.Eighteen years on and Stokes’ team was being picked apart by the finest Australian batter of the day. Steven Smith had a fortunate match, having been given the benefit of the doubt after a review in as tight a run-out call as you can imagine during the first innings and then surviving Stokes’ “catch” at leg slip in the second. Eventually Woakes of Warwickshire found his edge and Zak Crawley at slip did the rest.There has been controversy throughout the series and the sense, from afar, that the players have been more on edge than they have revealed. For once, dignity has not been the first to leave. Probably, the IPL is to thank for players who understand each other better then at any time previously. A few names from the past have grumbled about how “nice” everyone is to one another on the field, but rather there be a kind face for our game than a sneer.

Probably England deserved the 3-2 margin in their favour simply because of the extent of their ambition. It is one thing to entertain, quite another to avoid becoming only a Harlem Globetrotter

It is a sign of the times that the 1981 series was played across 75 days, the 2005 battle fought through 52 days and nights (ask Vaughan about his sleep, or lack of it) and this little corker of a five-match set has taken 46. No wonder Pat Cummins began to look knackered. Remember that he started in early June with the final of the World Test Championship, and has been on the edge of his nerves ever since. It seems mean to question his suitability for the job.The relevant question is whether such a schedule compromises the quality of the cricket and the longevity of its players. Of the three series, 2005 is the standout for me. England were able to beat an Australia side jammed with a collection of the country’s greatest ever cricketers. Each day was hard-fought, won and lost, as against some in this current series that were relinquished.Truth be told, by throwing all signs of caution to the wind, England made a surprising number of mistakes. Australia judged these to be the cause of an unsustainable method and chose to play more pragmatic cricket themselves. Game management is a skill, albeit an unglamorous one. Self-awareness is an attribute. At various times in the series England have missed the mark on both, and costly it has been. The second-innings freefall with the bat and dropped catches cost them Edgbaston; a first-innings slide into chaos and further missed chances cost them Lord’s. But does one come with the other? Is the corollary of inhibition the fallout from consistency?The same happened at The Oval. Four wickets were lost for 28 on the opening day and five for 35 in the second innings – most of them to batting that was, not so long ago, perceived as madness. We must buy in and watch on with a joyous heart. Over-analysing this period in English cricket history is not so much futile as it is unnecessary. Rather, we must applaud the light, the hope, the faith and the brilliance.For me, 2005 nicks it but only because 2023 has been a series of flawed genius within the parameters of cricket as entertainment. But when the free spirit kicked in and the clear thinking held its own – think Woakes and Mark Wood bowling and batting at Headingley, and specifically, the manner in which they ushered England over the finish line – well, the potential of cricket seemed to have become endless. For that, captain, we thank you.03:38 GMT, August 2, 2023: The article originally said Broad hit his last six and took his last wicket on the same day. This was corrected.

Despite coming first change, the seamer effectively ended the match with her three quick wickets

S Sudarshanan16-Dec-20233:14

Kaur: ‘Muzumdar’s experience helped; trusted his decisions’

The ‘Bay H’ stand at the DY Patil Stadium was the place to be on Saturday. The 100 school kids brought in as part of a CSR exercise by a multi-national company, and a few fans who had long booked their tickets and made it for the weekend – the last two days of the Test – were making the noise that we are so used to during a cricket match in India. Close your eyes and you wouldn’t know it was a sparsely-filled stadium for a women’s Test.Rhythmic chants of “let’s go, Deepti” were followed by banging of the plastic seats. And the chant for the star of the day? ” [Who is our superstar]? Poooojaaaa Vastraakaaaar!”India had declared overnight and set England a mammoth 479. Out of the 182 overs bowled across the first two days of the Test, India’s contribution was just 35.3. Their bowlers were well rested and, on a colder-than-usual Navi Mumbai morning, India felt they were better off bowling.Related

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While England seamers bowled in lines outside off, Indian seamers attacked the stumps. As per ESPNcricinfo logs, India attacked the stumps 48 times in the first ten overs in two innings with England managing to score only 15 off such deliveries. The corresponding numbers for England’s bowlers and India’s batters were 34 and 17.India’s plan to have catching fielders for an uppish flick also continued on Saturday morning. In the sixth over of the day with a backward short leg and a square leg in place, debutant Renuka Singh managed to swing one in sharply and rap Tammy Beaumont on the back leg. After going to the top of her run-up, she gestured towards one of those fielders before running in again. Perhaps reminding Beaumont of the presence of the two close-in fielders. She bowled the next one wide of the crease, landed it on a fullish length on off, got it to straighten and took the off stump. Beaumont, rooted to the crease with the wicketkeeper standing up, was beaten on the outside.Just like in the first innings, Harmanpreet Kaur opted for a pace-spin combo to start with, and brought Vastrakar as the first change in the tenth over. And Vastrakar effectively killed the match. After Sophia Dunkley cut a length ball straight to backward point, she struck a telling blow, dismissing Nat Sciver-Brunt, who had scored 59 in the first dig. She angled a length ball in, which Sciver-Brunt looked to defend off her front foot but left a huge gap between bat and pad to be bowled for a first-ball duck.Not long after, Vastrakar got one to hold its line and dismissed Heather Knight caught behind to have England 68 for 4. Vastrakar had dismissed Knight in the first innings as well, that time with a nip-backer to trap her lbw.Nat Sciver-Brunt, England’s batting mainstay, fell for a first-ball duck to Vastrakar•BCCIVastrakar bowled only one more over after that and finished with 3 for 23 before Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad picked up the last six wickets.”The more you play Test cricket, long-form cricket, the better your skills get,” Harmanpreet said after India’s 347-run win, the biggest win in women’s cricket. “That’s why we backed her [Vastrakar] for this Test, so that she bowls more and gains confidence. In Tests, you can try certain things and set the field accordingly. You start trusting your skills. We saw her confidence as she bowled and picked up wickets.”Every pacer wants to bowl with the new ball, because there is movement. But as per the team’s plan, we give Renuka the opportunity to bowl first. Pooja supports that and she is ready to bowl first-change. Even today, the first 40 minutes were important, and she was okay to come later on.”Vastrakar offers a skillset that is rare in Indian cricket – a fast bowler who can bat and hit big, much like Hardik Pandya in the men’s set-up. She can hit speeds north of 110kph – the delivery that dismissed Sciver-Brunt was bowled at 111kph – and cause even set batters discomfort.”They [the India seamers] managed to get a little bit of nibble, the seam movement, this morning when you hit a good area,” Knight said later. “That accounted for a few wickets in the top order. Pooja, in particular, was outstanding, especially the late seam [movement] she got off the wicket. She is really tricky when she bowled the wobble ball at a good length. Didn’t give us a lot of opportunities to score.”Apart from troubling the batters who grew up in seam-friendly conditions in England, Vastrakar also showed her athleticism on the field multiple times, no less in the run-out of Beaumont in the first innings – swooping towards square leg from short midwicket and nailing the direct hit. Not to forget the couple of not-outs with the bat.”The wicket didn’t bounce much, particularly as the game went on, and so getting forward was really important,” Knight said about countering seam. “Most of the seamers’ wickets were lbw or bowled, apart from a couple of nicks. [We tried] to bat out of our crease, trying to hit really straight down the ground, trying to combat that seam movement… For Renuka, for example, getting on to off stump and trying to get outside the line if it doesn’t nip back in.”For far too long, Harmanpreet – and other India captains before her – have resorted to spinners whenever the match situation gets out of hand. Here, too, Deepti stole the show with her nine wickets, but Vastrakar showed during her short spell that she, too, could turn the games around.

MS Dhoni did have moments of influence over this game, but the headline belonged to someone else

Alagappan Muthu23-Mar-20241:01

Moody’s message to Gaikwad: ‘Make this your team’

Maheesh Theekshana was wondering where he was supposed to go. He was loitering somewhere at fine leg, halfway to the boundary, trying to catch the captain’s attention.Ruturaj Gaikwad was at mid-off, talking to the bowler Tushar Deshpande. It took a while for him to realise he was needed by somebody else but by the time he looked up, MS Dhoni has already taken care of it.Theekshana was sent to patrol the fence, although he did wait until the captain agreed with . This team has been the extension of one man’s will. A multi-million dollar manifestation of his personality. Until now there was never anybody else. And when there was, it didn’t really work.Related

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Stephen Fleming did say at the pre-match press conference that Dhoni had such a sense for cricket that it would be impossible to turn it off and foolish to let it go to waste. He had a chat with Ravindra Jadeja just before he came on to bowl on Friday. He had been active in setting fields, not necessarily deciding on positions, but the angles. Those 1m, 2m adjustments for which, last season, he said he liked the players to always keep an eye on him. It looks like that instruction might still be valid this year.Throwbacks had been the theme of the night starting with the opening ceremony, where the entertainment arrived on stage riding a zipline like it was 1996 and purveyed grade A nostalgia. A full house was treated to (1998), (1997) and (1998) and then a Chennai Super Kings win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru for the eighth straight match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Except in between all the same old things there was a little bit of a revolution.Ruturaj Gaikwad captained a CSK outfit with MS Dhoni in it•BCCICSK gave out four debuts for just this game. That’s only one less than the count for the entire last season. There were, of course, mitigating circumstances. Two of their first-choice players were injured so they had to be replaced. Daryl Mitchell has proven himself in international cricket and so merits a place. But Sameer Rizvi – born almost exactly a year before Dhoni played his first international – making it to a CSK XI on opening day is a significant change of track. Their current captain spent his entire first season with the side warming the bench.This team is changing. It has no choice.Gaikwad seemed to be enjoying his first few minutes rendering CSK in his own way. There were almost half a dozen little field changes in the first three overs and one of them made a lasting impact on the match. He made it together with Mustafizur Rahman. Third on the boundary came up. Cover went back to sweep. It was a response to a batter finding his runs a little too easily; a play made to complicate his process.This was a good surface with enough pace in it. So at the start, CSK assumed that if the ball were to fly, it would go behind square. Faf du Plessis, though, kept finding the boundary in front of it. He hit each of RCB’s eight fours in the first 4.2 overs. So a decision was needed. The bowler seemed to come up with it. The captain agreed. The wicket fell. It wasn’t necessarily a plan – or if was, it was aimed at making the batter access a different area of the field; it was a way to ask more questions of him. And that really is the gist of being captain. Just try to make the other guy mess up.2:54

What contributes to CSK’s winning culture?

That wicket was part of a period where only three of eight overs produced more than a run a ball. And at the end of it, Mustafizur had 4 for 7 and RCB were 78 for 5. Who had that on their bingo card? A fast bowler dominating a home game for CSK. And he still had 12 balls left. There was every chance he could become only the second seamer, since L Balaji in 2008, to pick up a five-for for the Super Kings. It wasn’t to be, but when his work was done, and he was heading off to field at short third, he came to a dead stop and turned around, like you would if someone from behind calls you. Dhoni was the one who was behind. He put his arm around Mustafizur and gave him a pat on the back. These two and their PDA.”I thought he bowled brilliantly,” RCB batter and Chennai boy Dinesh Karthik said, “In all three spells, he showed his skills. He’s bowling a lot quicker than he usually does. So that’s great for him personally. He hit the right lengths. His slower ball came out well. This was a very good pitch. It’s not the usually slow Chepauk turner that we are probably visualising in our mind. The ball skidded on a lot more and it was good for batting and he bowled really well. What makes It really tough is that he can bowl at 138-139kph and he’s got that slower ball which goes to 120-125kph, which makes it really hard to line him up”Towards the close, a packed house wearing yellow started hoping for a wicket to fall. When RCB appealed for a caught behind off Shivam Dube, they were joined by a chorus of thousands. They wanted the No. 6 wearing the No. 7 coming out to bat. They had already seen him do all the other things, including an acrobatic one-handed take where he seemed to just lift off from the ground. That brought the first roar after the first ball. Clearly, the more things change, the more they stay the same, but somewhere Dhoni himself would have been happy with the way this game ended. It contained bits of him – he took two catches and effected a run-out – but the headline belonged to someone else.

The new captain was at the heart of a hard-fought victory over rivals Mumbai Indians

Alagappan Muthu15-Apr-20242:54

Was Hardik Pandya’s decision to bowl the final over sound?

MS Dhoni knows sixes. So, when his eyes widened, and he pushed his lips up and out, as he watched the ball sail over the boundary with an appreciative nod, it’s proof that something special has happened.Akash Madhwal was bowling. He had seen the batter charge at him. Making room outside leg stump. So he corrected his course. And dragged his line wide. Ruturaj Gaikwad was mid-move when he realised he was out of position.Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings is the biggest rivalry in the IPL. And that’s not just for the fans. The teams soak in it too. It showed in their tactics on Sunday night; in how much work had gone into outdoing each other. Of course, there are times when even the best laid-plans are busted by individual brilliance.Like Gaikwad – out of shape – managing to reach a ball he wasn’t meant to and striking it for six over point.Related

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Mumbai made similar moves and their opener was at the centre of it all too. Rohit Sharma vs left-arm pace is love story made in hell. CSK would have hoped to exploit that with Mustafizur Rahman, who has been in form this tournament. Except as soon as he came on, he was hit for four. Rohit kept doing this. Attacking the first ball of the over. It got to the point where he was toying with CSK.Once, he hurtled out of his crease, making room for himself to lift Mustafizur over cover. Next, he shuffled across his stumps, because he knew the bowler would pull his length back and bring his line tighter, and as reward for all of that quick thinking, he found himself in the perfect place to do a little redecoration of the Wankhede. His six crashed into the roof.This was cricket on the cutting edge of the cutting edge. And it was so much fun.Ravindra Jadeja had the biggest smile on his face as he finished his spell. He had been hit for a reverse-swept boundary but still gave away only six runs in the over. Mumbai had tried to smash him almost every ball. Rohit even tried to reverse sweep him, twice. And he doesn’t do reverse sweeps. He’d played only seven of those in his entire IPL career coming into this game. Once again, those were attempts to get a boundary off the first ball of the over.Ruturaj Gaikwad scored 69 off 40 balls even after dropping himself down the order•BCCIAccording to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, Mumbai brought out a big shot to 14 of Jadeja’s deliveries and he turned seven of them into dots or singles. CSK’s left-arm bowling machine had to do something he hates in order to succeed like that. He gave up the stumps. He bowled wide. Returns of 4-0-37-0 doesn’t do justice to his effort. The corresponding figures for Matheesha Pathirana (12 and 8) Tushar Deshpande (11 and 7) and Shardul Thakur (13 and 7) showcase just how good the whole team had to be to defend a total at the Wankhede.CSK’s win in the end owed as much to the fact that there wasn’t a lot of dew on the ground as there has been previously in Mumbai. Their slower balls into the pitch were sticking, so much so that they were able to drag a rampaging Rohit back. He had raced to 66 in 39. Then, he took 12 deliveries to score 12 runs. That kind of deceleration, especially in the back ten, is usually telling. He did go on to bring up a century. He did not celebrate it.”In the middle, when Rohit was going strong, we felt game is sliding a little,” Thakur told the host broadcaster. “And when I came on to bowl, I felt let’s be brave here and make him play to the bigger side [they weren’t playing on the centre wicket], challenge him to hit me on the bigger side, if he can clear the boundary, well give him full marks but if he can’t, then [that] might be turning point of the game.”2:45

‘Dhoni may be surprising even himself’

The night ended with Gaikwad raising his fist in the air, his head ever so slightly bowed. He was taking a moment for himself. This was the game that he finally became CSK’s captain. took the decision to give up his spot as opener – which is crucial to the way he bats because he is a touch player – to Ajinkya Rahane in order to give him the best chance of success because he was playing with a niggle. This little shift also enabled CSK to have their best pace-hitter out in the middle at all the times Jasprit Bumrah came on to bowl. That head-to-head only lasted four balls and yielded three runs but check out what Gaikwad did against the other two specialist quicks: 47 runs in 21 balls with four fours and four sixes, one of which, a picture perfect, straight bat, simple extension of defence against Gerald Coetzee, who is in the running for the fastest bowler of IPL 2024, had him literally licking his lips.Cricket on the cutting edge. So much fun.CSK might have been slow to start. They even allowed a powerplay over to sneak by without a single boundary, and were 48 for 1 at the end of six, but this is all by design. They conserve wickets and leverage their batting depth unlike any other side in the IPL. The numbers bear it out. Since 2021, CSK are the quickest-scoring team in the last ten overs (9.79 rpo), with the most fours (316) and the most sixes (254).On Sunday night, they made sure eight of the back ten went for double-digits, peaking with Dhoni smashing three sixes in three balls off the opposition captain. Then, they prevented it from happening to them by taking the pace off – CSK bowled 27 slower balls that cost them just eight runs an over as opposed to MI’s 13 slower balls that were smashed for nearly 12 an over. The difference might well have been in how Gaikwad’s men kept exhorting the Mumbai line-up to see if they can clear the longer side of the ground. They did that by digging it into the surface instead of floating it up on a length.1:35

Gavaskar on Hardik: ‘Ordinary bowling, ordinary captaincy’

“This was a repeated [used] pitch today,” Thakur added, “On the 11th, MI played on the same pitch and I think in Wankhede whenever the pitch is repeated, slower ones work better the next game and we felt apart from Pathirana I think we felt we should keep bowling slower ones into the pitch and at some point we’ll be able to get them out.”When Tim David was at the crease, Mustafizur wanted to target him from around the wicket. But realising that it was vital to keep away from the Australian’s hitting arc, the CSK captain overruled his strike bowler and made him come over the wicket. At the cost of a wide and a six, they dismissed MI’s final hope of victory.In their last game, after failing spectacularly in the effort to make sure Dhoni hit the winning runs, Gaikwad thought he might make up by letting take the lead as the players came together to shake hands. Dhoni would have none of it. He hung back. He knows new history is being written at CSK. And now after beating Mumbai in Mumbai, everybody does as well.

England’s No. 3 has welcomed red-ball break while honing leadership skills in T20

Vithushan Ehantharajah14-Jun-2024It was Laurie Evans who broke the news to Ollie Pope that his unbeaten 100 in vain against Sussex last Friday was one short.Surrey’s Vitality Blast captain had arrived early in a chase of 214, lasting the course as they fell 36 runs short for their first defeat of the campaign. With an improbable 38 needed from the final two deliveries, Pope clocked the Kia Oval scoreboards, which showed he was on 99 not out.”It’s probably the one time you can be a bit selfish,” Pope says. “You know – ‘oh go on then, I’ll take the easy single’.” A snick through to the keeper on the bounce brought the run, followed by a sheepish raise of the bat.Related

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Alas, the scoreboard was wrong. Pope was actually on 98 when he faced the penultimate ball of the innings.”I got back into the changing room and Laurie Evans came up, shook my hand and went, ‘Nice 99 mate, well played!’ I was like, ‘What?!'” It would have been Pope’s first limited-overs century.”It was obviously annoying, but at the same time, we lost the game. If I did get a hundred, we still lose the game. That’s the thing that’s wrong with cricket – people think that one run should make a difference. It’s obviously nice to get those milestones. But when you lose, it doesn’t really matter.”Last Friday’s hiccup aside, Surrey have enjoyed a strong start to the Blast, winning three out of four and sitting third, with Somerset and Sussex above them in a strong South Group. Regular skipper Chris Jordan’s presence at the World Cup – one of three Surrey players in the England squad, along with Will Jacks and Reece Topley – presented Pope, England Test vice-captain, with the opportunity to enhance his leadership CV. He admits the last couple of weeks have been a crash course in captaincy, particularly game management.”It’s been good so far,” Pope says. “The thing for me is that I haven’t really played T20 cricket, so I was a bit behind – not the rules, but I guess just managing it. You forget how hectic and frenetic it can be out there. That first game [against Hampshire] we had to field with five inside the ring for the last over because we were slow between the overs. I felt like I couldn’t go any quicker! So there are a few things like that you need to sharpen up as quickly as you can.”The bowlers have bowled nicely overall, which makes my job easier. The last game [against Sussex] was probably the first time we’ve been put under some real pressure. They played nicely and it’s just trying to find a way to keep your calmness around the group. And also be at peace in T20 cricket that someone might get you. If someone hits the ball you want to bowl for four or six, then you have to be at peace with that.”Despite the new challenges, Pope is glad for the Blast after an uncharacteristically tough start to the County Championship season. Surrey sit top, but Pope is averaging 24.00 from nine innings, a paltry return considering he arrived into the summer boasting an average of 70.31 in first-class cricket for the county. Off the back of a tour of India, which began with a match-winning 196 in the first Test at Hyderabad before falling away to finish with a series total of 315, it was the last thing he wanted.

“I’ve had some good runs, good innings and then periods like the back end of India. If I can get an early score, can I back that up in the next game and the game after that? It’s about being ruthless”Ollie Pope on his Test form

“Coming back from India, I was like, ‘Right, have a couple weeks off and get stuck into the county stuff’. There was always this expectation for me to just go and score runs week in and week out. And then when I don’t, it’s like, ‘Why is this happening?'””I had a couple of low scores early, made a sixty [63 against Worcestershire] and a forty [44 against Warwickshire] and just struggled to get going. It has been kind of frustrating, but at the same time I think it’s quite a nice time for this T20 block to come. You can go and express yourself; you can hit balls, strong shots on the up, pick up length quickly and hit good pull shots. Sometimes, playing county cricket, it can feel like every ball is around the knee roll. It’s a great challenge but freeing up can help my red-ball game as well.”It speaks to how strong India finished the Test series, moving on from Hyderabad emphatically to triumph 4-1, that Pope’s memories of his century – one that drew rave reviews from many, including India head coach Rahul Dravid – are minimal, to a point.”It wasn’t until I got back and people were like ‘well done in India’ that I was like, ‘oh yeah – thanks!’ I’ve got high expectations of myself so I was disappointed with how the rest of the series went.”Hyderabad, he says, will always have a special place in his heart, the best feeling he has had in Test cricket, though he has not watched the innings back. But the fits and starts that followed – two 23s, a 39, three single-figure scores, including two ducks, then 11 and 19 in the final Test – still irk. Three dismissals in particular.”The last two [in Dharamsala] were annoying because I felt good on a good pitch. I ran past Kuldeep and top-edged a sweep off Ashwin. The other was my first innings [in Ranchi, the fourth Test], where I ran down the wicket when it was nipping around a bit. Somehow DRS said it was out, but, again, the shot I wasn’t too happy with after. Everything I’ve worked on over the last few years is trusting my defence, which I didn’t do.England’s tour of India ended on a low note for Pope•Gareth Copley/Getty”You get a few good balls – you always do – but there were dismissals where I’m thinking, ‘Why did I do that?’ They’re the learnings I can take. You become a better player by learning from those mistakes.”The summer is an opportune time to channel those frustrations. Pope will play the remainder of Surrey’s Blast matches in this block ahead of the return of the County Championship at the end of June. He will play away to Worcestershire, starting June 23, before missing the next round ahead of the first of three West Indies Tests, at Lord’s on July 10. Three more Tests against Sri Lanka follow, before tours of Pakistan and New Zealand before the year is out.Though England’s batting remains largely settled, they are likely to broach the prospect of a new wicketkeeper in a bid for more consistency after Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes shared duties over the last two years. Pope’s Surrey team-mate Jamie Smith has been touted as an option, likewise Lancashire’s Phil Salt, who has been in impressive T20 form.But what of Pope, who has fulfilled the role for England on three occasions? Would he be game? He laughs when the option is put to him. The last time he kept wicket was the second Test of the Pakistan tour at the end of 2022 – one of only eight times he has done so in a first-class match.”I’d do whatever is required from me,” he answers diplomatically. “Me as a keeper, I’ve always been a keeper, but batting at three over the last two years back in the Test team, that’s been my focus.”My volume of keeping hasn’t been up to what it should be. I’ve not been able to train much with it. I’d never say no to anything like that, but it’d mean I’d have to get my keeping gloves and dust them off. I’m not sure. I’ve not kept in a good while but if that’s the case, it’ll be crack on and work hard.”The No. 3 position he has assumed since Ben Stokes took the captaincy in 2022 is going well – averaging 41.75, set against a career Test average of 34.04 – even if he does want to adopt a more bloody-minded streak. That, at this juncture, remains his primary focus.”I’d like to keep making it my own and churn more consistently in that spot. I’ve had some good runs, good innings and then periods like the back end of India. If I can get an early score, can I back that up in the next game and the game after that? It’s about being ruthless.”

Former players and coaches weigh in on the changes ahead of India’s new domestic season

Daya Sagar26-Aug-2024Is this the best format for the Duleep Trophy?Wasim Jaffer, former India opener: Having many international players participating in the Duleep Trophy is a positive step. You want these players to be part of domestic cricket when international cricket is not happening. Moreover, the national selectors picking these teams is a better move. The cream of promising talent get a chance to strengthen their case under the selectors’ watch.Related

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Faiz Fazal, former Vidarbha captain: Previously, there used to be dominance of a particular team from a zone. Take my example: I’ve been among the top scorers from my zone in the Ranji Trophy, but across the last eight-nine seasons, I was only picked in three zonal Duleep Trophy games. Central Zone was dominated by UP (Uttar Pradesh). The managers, coaches, and captain were all from that state. With the national selectors’ involvement, it’s a fairer process, greatly reducing the dominance and bias of a single state. I believe the selectors would have told the coaches and captains about the new players they want to see and those who should be given opportunities. Additionally, this will be good practice for Indian Test cricketers to start the new Test season with red-ball practice.Piyush Chawla, India legspinner: The current format with a number of top India players participating will make the tournament more competitive and attractive. Several new domestic players will be able to learn a lot from experienced Indian players.Will the splitting of the Ranji Trophy foster better competition?Jaffer: I had tweeted a long time ago that the season should start with red-ball cricket. When I played, the Ranji Trophy matches were held first, followed by the Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s (SMAT). Before the season, there used to be KSCA and Buchi Babu tournaments, which helped in our pre-season preparation. Additionally, the Irani Trophy and Duleep Trophy matches used to be held at the beginning of the season. This gave players ample practice with the red ball before starting the Ranji Trophy. I think this is a better step and will also protect players against the harsh weather conditions in North India because if a match is cancelled or gets disrupted due to bad weather, it affects the team’s qualification.Punjab beat Baroda to clinch their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title last season•Mandeep Singh.Jaffer: There is only a six-day gap between the fifth round of the Ranji Trophy and the start of SMAT. During this time, players have to travel, rest, and then prepare for T20 cricket, which is completely different from first-class cricket. Since performance in SMAT also affects players’ IPL auction values and opportunities, I think this gap should have been eight to ten days to allow players to transition smoothly from one format to another. However, this will also test the professional attitude of players and coaches in adapting to this change in a short time.Returning to red-ball cricket for the final two matches and knockout stages after playing SMAT and VHT will be a new challenge. It may also happen that some teams or players do not maintain their form from the first phase. But that’s cricket, and you have to adapt professionally to every situation. Adaptability is the biggest challenge and demand in modern cricket.Chawla: No team should be deprived by weather, so this is an excellent step. Also, at the senior level, players need to be professional enough to handle such challenges of quick turnaround. This is an exciting and challenging move.Fazal: When I was playing the Ranji Trophy last year, I also felt that a three-day gap was very difficult not only for fast bowlers but also for batters. Suppose I am a batter scoring a hundred or double hundred on the final day to save or win the match, and then travel the next day, your entire recovery is hampered. It’s good that players like Shardul Thakur and Umesh Yadav raised this issue and Rahul Dravid too supported it.Having the Ranji Trophy in two phases is also a good decision. However, some teams might complain at the end of the season that their momentum was broken, and after winning the last two matches of the first phase, the break affected their consistency, and they could not win the next two rounds. This is likely to happen. But it is better to take a break and play other formats less affected by the weather than to have matches cancelled or abandoned due to bad weather. It happens in county cricket too, where different rounds of the one-day cup and County Championship matches run together. Therefore, this experiment should be welcomed and let’s see how it works in the Indian context.

“Having many international players participating in the Duleep Trophy is a positive step. You want these players to be part of domestic cricket when international cricket is not happening.”Wasim Jaffer

Is the doing away of the toss in the Under-23 competition a positive move?Chawla: Additionally, teams will receive batting and bowling points, unlike earlier where only the team taking a lead, winning outright or drawing a game would be awarded points. If these experiments prove successful, there is a possibility of it being implemented in senior cricket. The no-toss rule isn’t a novelty, though. It was introduced county cricket was in effect from 2016 to 2019, but was discontinued from the 2020 season.Shukla: This is an attempt to remove the advantage given to the home team, and such efforts should be appreciated. Only after one season of the experiment can players, coaches, and others involved in Under-23 cricket comment on how appropriate this rule is and what benefits or drawbacks it has. Previously, when the impact player rule was introduced, I had said it should be tried out rather than discarded outright.Now, the impact rule’s effects, benefits, and drawbacks are clear. Similarly, the super sub rule was tried, and it was found not suitable for cricket. This rule should also be viewed as an experiment before pointing out its shortcomings. But I also feel that the less interference with cricket, the better it remains. Cricket should be left as it is.Jaffer: This rule was in place for a few years in county cricket, and I played there at that time. But what happened was that home teams started preparing flat wickets, and there were fewer pitches favouring seam and spin, leading to more drawn matches. This rule eliminates the uncertainty of the toss. If we want to reduce the impact of the pitch, BCCI already sends neutral curators. So, this rule was not necessary here.

The 21-year-old has only been playing professional cricket for 16 months but was drafted by Perth Scorchers on the urging of his Manchester Originals coach Simon Katich

Matt Roller13-Dec-2024Matty Hurst arrived in Perth as an unknown, young keeper-batter ahead of Sunday’s Big Bash League curtain-raiser at Optus Stadium, but has already made a significant impression on at least one Australian.Hurst, who turned 21 on Tuesday, was the only Manchester Originals player to enhance his reputation during their 2024 Hundred season. His boundary-hitting against genuine pace and high-quality spin matched with a temperament that belies his age, prompted Simon Katich, Originals’ coach, to recommend Hurst to Perth Scorchers ahead of September’s BBL draft.Scorchers’ management, led by coach Adam Voges, paid attention: after turning down an SA20 deal to guarantee his availability for the full season, Hurst was signed as a ‘silver’ pick on a contract worth A$200,000 (£100,000 approx.). He could play a vital role as wicketkeeping cover, with Josh Inglis set to miss at least some of the season with Australia’s Test squad.Related

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A talented all-round sportsman, Hurst grew up in the north-west of England between two rugby league strongholds. He supports Wigan Warriors – rather than local rivals St Helens – but was never physically big enough to have taken the sport seriously. Instead, he played age-group football for Manchester United as a central midfielder, with opponents including Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton.But cricket was his real passion ever since he watched his dad Bill play club cricket in the Southport and District League for Winstanley Park, and he has been involved with Lancashire since the age of 10. “It first hit when I was around 14 that I could actually have a chance,” Hurst told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s always been a dream to play for Lancs, ever since getting into the academy.”At 14, he gave up football and went all-in on cricket, progressing through the Bunbury Festival, England Under-19s and Lancashire’s age-group teams to make his professional debut aged 19 in the Metro Bank Cup last summer. Since then, he has flourished: “You don’t take part just to be average,” Hurst said. “You want to be the best you can be.”He was the beneficiary last year when Phil Salt signed a replacement deal at the IPL shortly before the start of the County Championship season. That enabled Hurst to take the gloves and bat in the middle order, with his output of 677 runs at 32.23 – including a maiden hundred against Nottinghamshire – a rare positive in a Lancashire campaign which ended in relegation.But it was the Blast that helped his career take off, through an opportunity that emerged with Salt, Liam Livingstone and Jos Buttler at the T20 World Cup. In his first professional T20 innings, Hurst walked out in the fourth over with Lancashire 10 for 3, hit his first ball for four, and then shimmied down the pitch to launch his third for six.

“There’s not too many players I’ve looked forward to watching, but Hursty is definitely one of them. Hopefully he hits the ground running over there… I’ve got everything crossed for him.”Phil Salt on Matty Hurst

It was that sense of fearlessness that impressed Lancashire’s staff throughout the season – and prompted Katich to sign him on a wildcard deal in the Hundred. Again, he benefited from a high-profile absentee: Buttler’s calf injury left the Originals light on batting, and Hurst hit half-centuries in his first two innings as Salt’s opening partner.The highlight was an outrageous reverse-scoop for six off Spencer Johnson in his 50 against Oval Invincibles. “I’ve started developing the reverse over the last couple of years,” Hurst said. “I’ve got the game to be cute and clever when I need to be, but I’d back myself to clear any rope now… Old Trafford’s not a small ground. But you’re never perfect. You always want to improve.”He last played in Australia in early 2023 with England’s Under-19s, including two four-day matches with Jacob Bethell as his captain. They could come up against each other on December 23, with Bethell due to arrive for his stint with Melbourne Renegades next week after his remarkable maiden Test tour to New Zealand.Hurst cites Buttler and Salt as the two players he most enjoyed watching as a teenager, and Salt has acted as a mentor. “We always end up having good chats about batting and keeping,” Salt explained. “We spoke quite a bit about the short ball during the Hundred, and he made a couple of technical changes very, very quickly. He’s a bit of a sponge.”Katich believes Salt was influential in advising Hurst to make himself fully available for the BBL – and thereby leaving an England Lions tour early – ahead of other leagues, having himself kicked on while playing for Adelaide Strikers. “There’s not too many players I’ve looked forward to watching, but Hursty is definitely one of them,” Salt said. “Hopefully he hits the ground running over there… I’ve got everything crossed for him.”Hurst is joined in Perth by his Lancashire team-mate Keaton Jennings and the pair could even be competing for a spot when Scorchers are at full strength. “If you’d told me that I’d be doing this in February, I’d have probably laughed in your face,” Hurst said. “You’ve just got to take it in your stride: focus on yourself, be the best you can be and you’ll be perfectly fine.”The demand for his services after only one full season as a professional marks Hurst out as an archetypical young English player of the modern era, weighing up the potential benefits and drawbacks of an abundance of different opportunities in the off-season. But he has just signed a new three-year, all-format deal with Lancashire, and his ambition is clear: “My aim is to play for England, in all three formats. That’s the pinnacle.”

Rajasthan Royals batter creates history during his 95 off 45 balls at Eden Gardens

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-20251:44

Katey Martin breaks down how Parag took down KKR bowlers

Riyan Parag became the first batter in the IPL to hit six sixes off successive deliveries, a feat he achieved during Rajasthan Royals’ chase against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens. He went past Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Rinku Singh, who all had hit five successive sixes. Coincidentally, all these instances came during the second innings of the match. Here’s a look at each of them.Riyan ParagRR vs KKR, Eden Gardens, IPL 2025Chasing 207, RR were 102 for 5 in 12 overs. Shimron Hetmyer took a single off the first ball of the 13th, bowled by Moeen Ali, to bring Parag on strike. Parag deposited the next four deliveries over either the long-on or square-leg boundary. Trying to get away from Parag’s hitting arc, Moeen ended up bowling a wide next up. There was no respite, though, as Parag launched the next delivery over long-off. In the next over, Hetmyer once again took a single first ball, and Parag reverse-swept Varun Chakravarthy over backward point to make it six sixes in a row. RR, though, lost the match by one run.Chris GayleRCB vs PW, Chinnaswamy Stadium, IPL 2012Gayle was on a sedate 41 off 36 balls with Royal Challengers Bengaluru chasing 183 against Pune Warriors. With their required rate ballooning to 13.37 after 12 overs, something had to give. Saurabh Tiwary took a single off the first ball off legspinner Rahul Sharma and watched Gayle smash the next five balls for five sixes. After three sixes, Rahul went around the wicket but it made no difference. Gayle fell for 81 off 48 but RCB sealed the win off the final delivery of the match.Kieron PollardMI vs SRH, Wankhede, IPL 2013MI needed 62 from four overs when Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Cameron White gave the ball to Thisara Perera. Rohit Sharma hit the first ball for a six and took a single off the second. Pollard then went 4, 6, 6, 6, making it a 29-run over. Amit Mishra bowled the next over. After a single off the first ball, Pollard was back on strike, and hit the next two balls for two more sixes. A dot later, Mishra bowled a waist-high no-ball; Pollard dispatched that too for a six, making it 40 off eight balls. MI finished the chase with three balls to spare.Rinku SinghKKR vs GT, Ahmedabad, IPL 2023Kolkata Knight Riders needed 29 off the final over against Gujarat Titans. No team had chased down that many in the 20th over of a T20 – the previous best was 23. But Rinku Singh changed that. Umesh Yadav took a single off Yash Dayal’s first ball. With 28 needed from five balls, Dayal lost his radar. He bowled three full tosses and two short deliveries that Rinku clattered for 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 as KKR chased down 205 in one of the most astonishing finishes in cricket.

Zimbabwe-born batter has sights set on higher honours after sparkling in sunshine at The Oval

Matt Roller11-Aug-2025The Hundred’s relentless social-media push for viral moments can make it hard to know where to look across a weekend featuring eight matches, 2,084 runs and 95 wickets. But Tawanda Muyeye’s roar of celebration after Jordan Cox hit the winning runs at a brimming Oval on Saturday afternoon was the culmination of a performance which demanded attention.Muyeye punched the air and shouted in celebration in the south London sunshine, after playing an innings that had been two years in the making. First signed by Oval Invincibles in 2023, he has been backed as a first-choice player this season and his unbeaten 59 off 28 balls to set up a nine-wicket thrashing of Manchester Originals showed precisely why.When Muyeye walked along Cottesloe Beach earlier this year to meet Invincibles coach Tom Moody for coffee, he feared that he was about to be released. He was playing grade cricket in Perth, and knew the retention deadline was imminent. “I was like, ‘Goodness, this could be one of two things: either I’m getting flicked, or he’s going to continue with me,'” Muyeye said.Related

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But Moody was clear in his belief that after struggling to find an opening partner for Will Jacks – Jason Roy and Dawid Malan were both inconsistent – it was time to back Muyeye. “We felt that T was ready to play a frontline position,” Moody said. “He’s come along leaps and bounds over the last 12 months, and has been part of our dressing room for some time now.”Muyeye has had a breakout T20 season for Kent – only D’Arcy Short has scored more than his 516 runs in the Blast – and he believes he is a far better player than the one Moody first signed as a wildcard on Matt Walker and Sam Billings’ recommendation: “Every time I’ve come into this group, I’ve improved so much [from] being around a gun group of cricketers.”His innings on Saturday was dominant, part of an opening stand worth 114 in just 49 balls. Jacks appeared determined to break the back of the game inside the powerplay – he slashed his second ball over deep third for six – and Muyeye soon emerged from his slipstream, hitting his first ball for four and then belting another off James Anderson.

“If I keep working hard, we don’t know what can happen in the future. [International cricket] has always been my dream… But I’m just trying to focus on getting better and being the best player possible.”Tawanda Muyeye

“Jacksy just took the attack to them and I was like, ‘Okay, well, I might as well join the party,'” Muyeye said. “It was good. He took the initiative… I don’t play like that without him, so it was a bit of yin and yang. I think our games complement each other pretty well, and we showed it today.”The most impressive feature of Muyeye’s innings was his takedown of Noor Ahmad: he had never previously faced a left-arm wristspinner in a short-form match, but hit five of Noor’s first six balls for four. It was substance to match his undeniable style. “I just saw a few opportunities, and played my strongest shots against him,” Muyeye said.”We talked about one of their threats being Noor, who is one of the most effective wristspinners in the game,” Moody added. “We talked about concentrating on vertical-bat shots through the off side, and he played a couple of great ones: one just past cover, then one lifted over cover-point. Absorbing information is one thing; being able to execute under pressure is another.”For all of Muyeye’s success in the Blast this year, the Hundred is a step up. His innings on Saturday came in front of a soldout crowd at The Oval, in a televised game, and in a tournament with a concentrated talent pool. “For me personally, this is the closest thing to international cricket there is,” he said.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}})}();