Frank Worrell came to the West Indies captaincy late and died young but left an indelible mark on the game

Paul Edwards30-Jun-2020Some cricketers change the games in which they play. In the early 1960s, Frank Worrell changed the game everybody played. It took him 15 matches to do it although some would say that simply walking out to toss up with Richie Benaud before the famous tied Test at Brisbane was enough. And that fine historian Hilary Beckles argues that his appointment as the first black West Indies skipper was the “grand historic moment”. George Headley led the team against England at Bridgetown in 1948 but Worrell had been made captain with tenure. Thousands of people across the Caribbean wondered what he would make of the job.Weaker men would have been weighed down by the expectation but the 36-year-old Worrell had both long experience in the game and a natural capacity for leadership. He fully understood that the significance of that Australian summer extended far beyond five games of Test cricket, albeit the 60-61 series, which Australia won 2-1, is still seen as one of the finest ever played. “Had Frank failed on that tour it would have set back West Indies cricket, and especially the black cricketer, by twenty years”, wrote his opposing skipper, Richie Benaud. As it turned out Worrell triumphed so spectacularly that when a note was placed in the on the eve of the team’s departure stating West Indies would be driving round the city the following day on their way to a civic reception, over half a million people turned up to bid them farewell. There was tickertape and there were tears. Every subsequent series between Australia and West Indies has been played for the Frank Worrell Trophy.Worrell’s team won eight of their next ten Tests under his leadership. It might be suggested that a team containing Conrad Hunte, Rohan Kanhai, Garry Sobers, Wes Hall and Lance Gibbs would have done quite well with anyone in charge but that would be to underestimate West Indies’ previous capacity to splinter into island cliques. Worrell would have none of that and, as so often with him, there were incidents which transcended the to-and-fro of each series. India were beaten 5-0 in the Caribbean but when Nari Contractor ducked into a short ball from Charlie Griffiths in the game against Barbados, Worrell was the first to give the blood that helped save the batsman’s life.ALSO READ: Odd Men In – George CoxBarely a year after that home series Worrell led West Indies in England in what would be his farewell to top-level international cricket. Test matches in that era were sometimes rather dull affairs, characterised by attritional batting and cautious captaincy. Yet as in Australia, West Indies sought to attack whenever they could and their 3-1 series victory was welcomed. “No more popular side has ever toured in the old country,” said the team’s scorer, George Duckworth, whose memory stretched back over 40 years to his playing days with Lancashire and England. And the series again produced one classic when the Lord’s Test was drawn with England needing six runs to win but having only one wicket in hand.Film survives of the final day of that game and participants recall how Worrell was almost the only man on the ground who retained his composure. Indeed, it was said his leadership was so undemonstrative that those watching his teams play could not tell who was captain. Perhaps so – few skippers have been less given to flamboyant gestures – yet it is also true that no member of a team captained by Worrell had any doubt who was in charge. He rarely sought to suppress the natural volatility of players like Kanhai and Hall but he always sought to harness it. For every rule there was a reason.Jack Fingleton’s book had described the game at the Gabba in the detail it deserved. Now Alan Ross’s accorded comparable honour to the drama in St John’s Wood. Ross also considered the next three Tests before ending with his own tribute to the tourists: “No one applauds in the Press Box, but if words can carry feelings as well as facts, then Worrell’s West Indians, back now in their Caribbean islands, must know of them. Images, after all, mean more than statistics and with these they were lavish. Enriching the common idiom of the game, they restored to it not only spontaneity, but style.”

Having disposed forever of the argument that a black man might not be worthy to lead the countries of the West Indies in unity, he seemed set for other honours, both in international cricket and in the wider political ferment of Caribbean politics

Worrell retired from Test cricket immediately after the England tour and played only ten more first-class matches. He was 39 and had long known that his powers were declining. It was nearly 20 years since he had shared in two first-class stands of over 500, the first with John Goddard, the second with Clyde Walcott. Those stands for Barbados against Trinidad were followed by a first Test cap in 1948. Some glorious seasons followed, summers at home and abroad in which West Indian cricket was dominated by Worrell, Weekes and Walcott, by the spin bowling of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine, by the first flowering of Sobers and Kanhai.There seems little dispute that Worrell was a cricketer of world class during many of those post-war seasons. Yet each of the game’s eras produces players worthy of such an accolade and the back pages of the newspapers make much of their exploits. Worrell, rather by contrast, did things in the last years of his career which attracted the interests of the news editors and political columnists. As ever, cricket became a lens through which social change could be assessed. Writing for in May 1967, CLR James moved with typical ease from Worrell’s cricketing achievements to a wider impact.”Worrell made the tremendous decision to restore to Tests the spirit of the game he had learnt in Barbados… Having rapidly created his instrument, Worrell initiated a regeneration. Benaud, the Australian captain, met him halfway and the result was the most exciting Test series in living memory.”He has shown the West Indian mastery of what Western civilisation had to teach. His wide experience, reputation, his audacity of perspective and the years which seemed to stretch before him fitted him to be one of those destined to help the West Indies to make their own West Indian way.”Yes, . James was writing an obituary for a dear friend who had died of leukaemia less than two months earlier at the brutally early age of 42. In the months after the England tour Worrell had been showered with honours, some from the West Indies, others from the English league clubs he had represented when not required for a tour. He was knighted in the 1964 New Year’s honours list and had become Warden of Irvine Hall at the University of the West Indies, as well as being appointed to the Jamaican Senate. Counterfactuals are pretty tedious exercises but historians still ponder the contribution Worrell might have made to public life in the Caribbean and beyond had he been granted a full lifespan. Having disposed forever of the argument that a black man might not be worthy to lead the countries of the West Indies in unity, he seemed set for other honours, both in international cricket and in the wider political ferment of Caribbean politics.West Indies team manager Gerry Gomez and captain Frank Worrell are cheered by a huge crowd in a parade through the streets of Melbourne•Getty ImagesWorrell was also the first sportsman to be honoured with a memorial service at Westminster Abbey and EW Swanton gave the address before a congregation of 1500 that included the great, the good and the humble. “He was essentially a bringer together by the sincerity and friendliness of his personality,” Swanton said. “In the television age men famous in the world of games have a formidable influence and strange figures are sometimes magnified into heroes. Frank Worrell was the absolute antithesis of the strident and bumptious… He was a federalist, nearest whose heart was the unity of the West Indian peoples in all their diversity… Under the subtle knack of his personality, differences of colour and island prejudices seemed to melt away.”Over fifty years later one does not have to search hard for tributes and memorials to Frank Worrell. Banknotes and stamps have featured his image; sports centres, streets and halls of residence have been named in his memory. A monument to Worrell, Weekes and Walcott, all three of whom were knighted, can be found surrounded by tropical flora in the park opposite the 3Ws Oval at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus in Barbados. Both Worrell and Walcott are buried in the grounds of the campus on a hill overlooking the square.And next week West Indian cricketers will begin another Test series against England. It cannot be called a tour since it appears Jason Holder’s players will be visiting just two cricket grounds and one airport. And it is probably overstraining the metaphor to describe them as Frank Worrell’s grandchildren; too much has changed in fifty years. But were they to be reminded of their former leader’s contribution, Holder’s cricketers might be honoured to be thought of in such terms. The great West Indian teams that followed Worrell certainly knew what they owed him but so did some people in the Caribbean who would never pick up a bat. And Beckles links that historic appointment in 1960 to both nation-building and anticolonialism:”The cricket hero… became a demigod, a role model, placed socially above community, and invested with popular expectations that suggest iconographic worship and idealisation. Frank Worrell was the epitome of it all: graceful, sincere, smart, mature, sound, visionary, morally correct and successful – all the things that a young nation state should be. Within this paradigm, Worrell was the symbol of nationalist pride, anticolonial achievement, and sociopsychological liberation. He represented West Indians at home and abroad as a statesman and ambassador.”Worrell, himself, might be a little amazed by all that. Humility often goes with greatness. Yet his was a black life that mattered, not simply for its own sake, as all do, but for the impact he made on thousands of other black lives in the Caribbean. Revolutions are rarely so gentle.

CA’s leaders must show humility about their own actions, and curiosity about the needs of their owners and partners

Daniel Brettig05-Jun-2020A week ago, Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison announced that the 28-year-old system of state and territory leaders meeting twice every year with the federal government was going to be scrapped. It has been replaced by more regular contact that emerged out of the Covid-19 pandemic: fortnightly or monthly “national cabinet” video conferences. This change was not just the fruit of all involved realising that regular, less formal communication was more functional and practical, it was also the result of lobbying behind the scenes and on camera, by two former state New South Wales and South Australia premiers Mike Baird (Liberal) and Jay Weatherill (Labor).Nowhere in Australian life is there a greater contrast to this than what has overtaken cricket over the past two months. Baird has had a front-row seat here too, as a board director with Cricket NSW, and it would not surprise if he has wondered aloud at how government has leaned on greater collective communication while in cricket the conversations have been far less rounded and less effective.Perhaps the most extraordinary single fact of a period in which Cricket Australia has stood down more than 200 staff on 20% pay, and every state but NSW has followed by cutting a total of more than 150 staff thus far, is that 49 days have passed since the chairmen of CA and the six states held their own “national cabinet” meeting. The Australian Cricket Council, a body notionally formed after a cultural review in 2018, has not met even once, having last convened in October 2019.A mess of confusion, disillusionment, anger and mistrust has swept into this vacuum, as opportunistic decisions have been made in some quarters, survival efforts attempted in others, and previously sound relationships have frayed or cracked up altogether. CA has, based on modelling put together in March, forged on with a plan for stand-downs followed by redundancies that have undeniably talked down the game, and completely contradicted last week’s announcement of the international schedule for next summer.In Victoria, some 60 staff, most from community cricket, have lost their jobs, while the Cricket Victoria board, composed primarily of delegates beholden to Melbourne’s club competition, ring-fenced cash and assets valued at some A$70 million. Most of the money contributing to CV’s A$1 million financial loss for 2018-19 – a primary justification for the “restructure” – had been spent on severance settlements for the ex-CEOs of the Melbourne Stars and the Melbourne Renegades as part of the previous restructure only a year before. If you didn’t laugh, you’d cry.

Roberts has lost the confidence of a wide range of figures in Australian cricket who gave him a second chance after the 2017 pay dispute with the ACA, partly by deflecting much of the blame for that and other issues to the former chairman David Peever. Eddings, a more natural communicator than Roberts, has a greater supply of goodwill but cannot escape blame for the chaotic way the cost-cutting has unfolded, and is also distracted by conflicts and conundrums at the ICC.

Events in South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland have been a little less dramatic but, in many cases, just as damaging to the game’s future growth. Queensland were forced, with just A$7 million in reserves, to cut some 32 staff though still disputing CA’s request for a 25% reduction in their annual grants, while SA was compelled to move first with some 23 job cuts due to the loss of immediate revenue drawn from their co-dependency on Adelaide Oval’s postponed AFL fixtures.CA is planning to make as many as 20% of its total staff redundant as soon as next week, and is still arguing individually with NSW, Queensland and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) over terms of their own cutbacks. After a failed first attempt to articulate its position in April, CA’s chief executive Kevin Roberts went out on an information campaign this week, but both the dissenting states and the ACA were unimpressed at being handed forecasts more or less unchanged from those cobbled together in March.In the simplest terms, a 50% revenue drop for the 2020-21 season may have been possible to contemplate three months ago, but now that India have committed to a tour worth some A$300 million in broadcast revenue and sport has resumed in Australia? No chance. If broadcasters had been making undeniably panicky noises in March about the need for reductions in rights fees, it was only in a moment where the loss of an Australia international summer was possible. Now the schedule has been announced, and there is a contract to honour for another four years.This is all to say that CA, the states and the ACA have used up more than eight weeks of precious time not available to the winter football codes in squabbles over a course of action the central governing body committed to before it had any way of knowing how Covid-19 and its financial shocks would unfold. Now that much more is known, a fresh round of conversations must be had, and fast.Relationship-building has been one of Earl Eddings’ key strengths•Getty ImagesUndoubtedly, cricket in Australia is due a reassessment of its cost-base, but that much was obvious even before. When CA returned a surplus of just A$18 million for a 2018-19 summer featuring four Tests, three T20Is and three ODIs against India, the same programme as 2020-21, it was clear that the commitment of cash to operating activities had gone too far – beyond even the windfall provided by effectively doubling CA’s Australian broadcast rights deal to A$1.18 billion in 2018. This is without mentioning big overseas deals with Sony (India) and BT (UK).But such a conversation requires unity, transparency and shared purpose – anything but the dog’s breakfast of individual negotiations and arguments that have bubbled across since March. Roberts and the CA chairman Earl Eddings must have realised this much after they watched aghast at CV’s indiscriminate job cuts, which mean CA must take more responsibility for developing community cricket in the state, while also seeking a way to bring the state association’s self-destructive elements to heel.Realisation, of course, is not the same thing as action. Plenty of scar tissue must be overcome. Roberts has lost the confidence of a wide range of figures in Australian cricket who gave him a second chance after the 2017 pay dispute with the ACA, partly by deflecting much of the blame for that and other issues to the former chairman David Peever. Eddings, a more natural communicator than Roberts, has a greater supply of goodwill but cannot escape blame for the chaotic way the cost-cutting has unfolded, and is also distracted by conflicts and conundrums at the ICC.Inaction by CA will only add weight to the arguments of those who would like to see the Board overturned, with the current system of nine independent directors replaced by a hybrid model of six direct representatives from state boards and three independents. That model would, at least, ensure that the states are privy to major strategic and budgetary decisions in a more natural way, even as it carries the risk of what has taken place in Victoria, where the delegates have run roughshod over the bigger picture.Such a shift would require constitutional amendments that consume time, energy and grey matter best used in a quieter moment. For now Eddings and Roberts need to be practical, seeking solutions through a method akin to that pushed by Baird and Weatherill in an opinion piece for : “leaders of different levels of government with different affiliations gathering as peers, looking for joint purpose and creating constructive ways of managing differences.”CA’s leaders must show humility about their own actions, and curiosity about the needs of their owners and partners. Fire up Microsoft Teams, Zoom or even House Party, get the state and ACA chairs together, and work out how to move forward in a sporting economy that, for the first time in decades, is less likely to grow than to shrink. Australian cricket’s health depends on it.

Their death-overs economy of 16 is the worst among the eight sides. Here’s a look at the options they have to address this issue

Deivarayan Muthu02-Oct-20202:59

How do Kings XI solve their death-bowling woes?

The Kings XI Punjab Punjab have played four matches so far in IPL 2020, with just one win to show for. In their Super-Over defeat to the Delhi Capitals in their opener, Chris Jordan leaked 30 runs in the last over of the first innings in regulation time. In their defeat to the Rajasthan Royals on Sunday, Sheldon Cottrell went for 30 in the 18th over as Rahul Tewatia pulled off a jailbreak for the ages.In their most recent defeat to the Mumbai Indians on Thursday, it appeared like the Kings XI didn’t even have a death-bowling plan. Seam-bowing allrounder James Neesham gave away 40 off the 16th and 18th over of the innings while offspinner K Gowtham, who was left to bowl the 20th over against Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya, conceded 25.These are still early days in the season, but their death-overs economy of 16, the worst among the eight sides, is a worry for the Kings XI. Here’s a rundown of the options available for the Kings XI to address this issue.Replace Neesham with Chris Jordan or Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Sure, Chris Jordan repeatedly missed his lengths against the Capitals, but he is the only bona fide death bowler in the Kings XI side. It’s for his death bowling the Kings XI bought him for INR 1 crore in the 2019 auction. The yorker is probably the most difficult delivery to execute: you overpitch, it comes out as a full-toss. You underpitch, it becomes a half-volley. Other factors like dew and shorter boundaries could thwart your best-laid plans as well. Jordan brings with him that ability to nail yorkers. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, since the 2016 T20 World Cup, he has hit the blockhole 77 times, giving away 56 runs and taking eight wickets. Only Dwayne Bravo and Jasprit Bumrah have bowled more yorkers than Jordan in this period in T20 cricket. And only Bumrah (nine) has captured more wickets with the yorker than him in this period.Jordan is also an excellent fielder – off his own bowling, in the infield, and even in the outfield. Plus, he can also hit big lower down the order. If the Kings XI are to recall Jordan, then they might have to leave out Neesham, who can be effective with his back-of-a-length legcutters in the middle overs but has travelled in the slog overs this IPL as well as in the recent CPL.Kings XI’s bowlers have struggled during the final overs•ESPNcricinfo LtdJordan also has the experience of having delivered at the death in the subcontinent although it was more than four years ago, in the T20 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in Delhi. He darted swerving yorkers and conceded just 12 runs in two overs at the death while also dismissing Ross Taylor. More recently in November 2019, he defended 17 in the Super Over with his variations to take England to victory against the same opponents. Seventeen runs would be easy to defend on most other grounds, but it’s not that easy at Eden Park.The Kings XI could also consider replacing Neesham with Mujeeb Ur Rahman. The Afghanistan spinner, who can turn the ball both ways, was the second-highest wicket-taker in CPL 2020 and is second on the ICC T20I rankings. He bowled in the powerplay for the Jamaica Tallawahs in the CPL but can bowl in the middle overs and also do the job at the death.In all, Mujeeb has bowled 36 overs at the death in T20 cricket, claiming 21 wickets at an economy of 8.11. However, that economy at the death in the IPL shoots up to 12.42 but the sample size is smaller (seven overs).Picking Mujeeb over or Neesham could leave Kings XI thin on the batting front. Or are they bold enough to punt on Mujeeb’s X-factor and back their openers, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, and Sarfaraz Khan to carry the batting? If they need more power in the middle order to accommodate Mujeeb, Deepak Hooda or Mandeep Singh could be given a go instead of Karun Nair, whose batting is more suited to anchoring an innings at the top than finishing it.Bring in Ishan Porel or Arshdeep Singh
The uncapped Ishan Porel and Arshdeep Singh are left-field choices for the Kings XI. If they want to pick Mujeeb over Neesham and add an extra seamer to the attack at the expense of Gowtham or M Ashwin, Porel or Singh could be brought in.Porel, who was part of the Under-19 World Cup-winning team in 2018, has now increased his pace to 140kph. The right-arm quick opened the attack for India A in the one-dayers in New Zealand but is unproven in T20 cricket. Will Kings XI make the tough choice of asking him to bowl at the death on IPL debut?Singh isn’t as quick as Porel but offers left-arm variety. Do Kings XI really need another left-arm seamer when they already have Cottrell in the XI? Moreover, Singh hasn’t played top-flight T20 cricket since IPL 2019.Take a punt on Hardus Viljoen
Another left-field overseas option is South African quick Hardus Viljoen who is a T20 – and T10 – globetrotter. On his day, Viljoen can execute his yorkers and also has a slower dipper that has been mastered by the likes of Bravo and Lasith Malinga. In the Abu Dhabi T10 league in 2018-19, Viljoen had topped the wickets charts with 18 strikes at an economy of 7.77.

Kings XI Punjab could do with quicker runs – and not more runs – from their captain

Karthik Krishnaswamy10-Oct-20207:41

Did KL Rahul’s sedate strike rate cost Kings XI?

It feels almost unfair to begin with that quote, but then again, how can one not? On a day when KL Rahul made 74 off 58 (strike rate 127.58) and his team lost by two runs while chasing 165 for a win?How can you not begin with that quote when Rahul wears the Orange Cap with 387 runs at a strike rate of 134.84, while his team sits at the bottom of the IPL table with just one win in seven games?How can you not draw a line connecting all the runs Rahul has scored, and his manner of scoring them, with his team’s results?There are other factors behind where Kings XI sit halfway through their league campaign. Their bowling, for one, particularly in the death overs. But think of it this way: Rahul has been on strike for 287 of the 824 balls faced by Kings XI’s batsmen this season. That’s just under 35% of all the balls they have faced. No other batsman has had as much influence on how their team’s innings have been shaped. No bowler, by the simple fact that they are restricted to delivering at most a fifth of their team’s overs, has had a comparable influence.KL Rahul’s smart runs in his last five innings•ESPNcricinfo LtdAn overall strike rate of 134.84 doesn’t sound terrible. But over the first 30 balls of all his innings, he’s made 195 off 174 balls, at a strike rate of 112.07. Keep in mind that if he has faced 30 balls, he’s used up a fourth of his team’s quota of deliveries.It isn’t that Rahul can’t play any other way. In IPL 2018, he had a first-six-overs (powerplay) strike rate of 157.57. Since then there’s been a perceptible shift in approach, with his strike rate in that phase dropping to 120.83 in 2019 and 116.00 this year.There are reasons behind why he is playing this way, of course.One, Rahul and the Kings XI management probably believe he has the game to make up for his slow starts if he spends a certain amount of time at the crease. So he has a certain allowance to put a price on his wicket – a bit of a luxury in T20s – and play risk-free cricket for a certain amount of time.When it comes off, it can be spectacular. For instance, he smashed 42 off the last nine balls of his innings against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, and finished with 132 not out off 69.But how often will he get that deep into his innings, and once there, how often will he explode as spectacularly? Rahul made 90 off 39 (strike rate 230.77) after crossing the 30-ball mark against the Royal Challengers, but in the three other games where he’s gotten to that point of his innings, he’s made 32 off 24 (against the Rajasthan Royals), 31 off 22 (against the Chennai Super Kings) and, on Saturday against the Knight Riders, 39 off 28.

Compare the situations Maxwell has walked into with the relative blank slates Rahul has at the start of his innings, and you might begin to see that different types of players get judged by different standards in T20 cricket. Recognising that, ask yourself this: what exactly does being the leading run-getter in a T20 league mean if your team has lost six out of seven games?

That’s not a whole lot of payoff. And if Virat Kohli hadn’t dropped him twice just before he went on that late blitz against the Royal Challengers, Rahul would have finished with 83 off 55 (41 off 25 after the 30-ball mark) or 89 off 59 (47 off 29).Rahul certainly can make up for slow starts, but he hasn’t been doing it consistently this season. It can’t be easy for anyone to bat with a certain rhythm for a significant length of time and suddenly change their approach and pull it off time and again.The second reason behind Rahul’s approach could be that he’s often batted alongside someone scoring rapidly enough to make him – or the team management – believe that his best role is to give that batsman the strike and keep the partnership going. Mayank Agarwal has been the quicker-scoring partner in two century opening stands this season, and in both games, Kings XI seemed to be in an impregnable position when he and Rahul were at the crease.Kings XI, however, have lost both those matches. It’s not an unexpected outcome. Data drawn from all seasons of the IPL shows that long partnerships with one partner scoring slowly are often counterproductive. Perhaps Rahul and the Kings XI know this, but feel it’s the only option left to them. That could be another reason behind Rahul’s approach. He may be batting in this manner because the Kings XI either don’t bat that deep – they have played an extra bowler in their last two games and ended up with a long tail – or don’t trust their middle and lower order to build on smaller but more explosive starts from their top order.KL Rahul was dismissed at a most inopportune time for his team•BCCIThat the Kings XI sent in Prabhsimran Singh – who had 258 runs in 15 T20 innings, at a strike rate of 139.45, before Saturday – and not Glenn Maxwell when they needed 21 from 16 against the Knight Riders would suggest they haven’t invested a whole lot of trust in at least one of their regular middle-order batsmen.The fact that Maxwell had only made 48 off 56 balls over six innings before Saturday might suggest that the Kings XI had a reason to not trust him, but that begs two questions: One, why play him at all? And two, could his lack of form and rhythm have something to do with how the Kings XI have used him, or at least be part of the same vicious cycle?Maxwell came into this IPL season having just played two counterattacking, match-winning knocks – 77 off 59 and 108 off 90 – in three ODIs against England. T20 is an entirely different format, but that sort of ball-striking form surely can’t just disappear so quickly.But it can get misplaced if you’re playing in entirely different conditions, and you walk in time and again with not a lot of time to get used to those conditions.In three out of his seven IPL innings this season, Maxwell has finished not out having faced fewer than ten balls. On three of the other four occasions – against the Delhi Capitals, the Mumbai Indians and the Sunrisers Hyderabad – he’s failed to make a significant contribution after walking in with the Kings XI struggling in chases. He’s not been at or even close to his best, but he’s usually not come in with time to play himself in.It’s the job description of the middle-order hitter in T20s, of course: a lot to do in not a lot of time. But compare the situations Maxwell has walked into with the relative blank slates Rahul has at the start of his innings, and you might begin to see that different types of players get judged by different standards in T20 cricket. Recognising that, ask yourself this: what exactly does being the leading run-getter in a T20 league mean if your team has lost six out of seven games?

Key players, squads, schedule and salaries – all your questions answered in one place

Sruthi Ravindranath03-Nov-20208:20

Women’s T20 Challenge: A stage for young Indian talent to shine

When and where will the Women’s T20 challenge take place?This tournament, like previous editions, will take place during the IPL playoffs. The three teams – Supernovas, Velocity and Trailblazers – are set to play three matches between November 4 and 9 in Sharjah, with the final scheduled on November 9 at the same venue. Three matches start at 7.30 IST (6pm local time). The only day game will be the second one, which will begin at 3.30pm IST (2pm local time), on November 5. Like the eight IPL franchises, the women’s contingent also underwent a mandatory six-day quarantine at the team hotel in addition to being tested at regular intervals. They were allowed to train only after that.Why is this year’s edition important?Though short, this tournament is significant for women’s cricket. The T20 World Cup earlier this year was a huge success and was expected to have a knock-on effect for the women’s game around the globe. Last year’s T20 Challenge was in Jaipur and had a good crowd turnout. However, the coronavirus pandemic meant everything came to a standstill. The India Women’s team hasn’t played any competitive cricket since the T20 World Cup final against Australia on March 8, and it increasingly began to look like the players wouldn’t have any top-flight cricket for the remainder of the year. This tournament, then, could be one of the few competitive games they play.For the longest time, it was also unclear if the tournament was on until the BCCI confirmed the squads in October. This could have probably been a bigger event – the BCCI said in February it would involve four teams – had it not been for the pandemic. Mithali Raj, one of the three captains, welcomed the tournament, despite its clash with Australia’s WBBL, calling it a “relief”.The T20 Challenge is a platform for talented players to make a mark and spend time with non-India internationals. Teenager Shafali Verma was among the brightest players in last year’s tournament; it got her a maiden T20I call-up for the series against South Africa later that year and she has continued to impress since.Smriti Mandhana goes for the big one•BCCIA title sponsorFor the first time ever, the tournament will have an exclusive sponsor, with Jio bagging the rights. Getting a title sponsor could hint at the BCCI possibly exploring the branding potential of the tournament. If successful, it could mean bigger things to come.How does the clash with the WBBL affect the T20 Challenge?The WBBL, which began on October 25, features several of the game’s top players from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; all of them will miss the WT20 Challenger. Players from Australia – the largest overseas contingent in the one-off exhibition match in 2018 – and South Africa had missed the 2019 edition too. However, Bangladesh, West Indies, Sri Lanka and England players will feature this season. Seven of the 12 overseas players will feature in the tournament for the first time.What are the three teams like, how do they stack up against each other? Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Mithali Raj will once again lead the three teams – Trailblazers, Supernovas and Velocity.Two-time champions Supernovas have a strong Indian batting line-up led by Kaur, with Jemimah Rodrigues, who was Player of the Series in 2019, offspinner Anuja Patil and wicketkeeper-batter Taniya Bhatia. Their spinners Poonam Yadav and Radha Yadav are among the top 10 in the T20 bowling charts. Their overseas contingent has Sri Lankan captain Chamari Atapattu and former captain Shashikala Siriwardene, experienced West Indies seam bowler Shekera Selman and the South Africa quick Ayabonga Khaka.Supernovas squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Jemimah Rodrigues (vice-capt), Chamari Atapattu, Priya Punia, Anuja Patil, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Shashikala Siriwardene, Poonam Yadav, Shakera Selman, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Ayushi Soni, Ayabonga Khaka, Muskan Malik
Coach: Mamatha MabenLast year’s runners-up Velocity are a mix of youth and experience. Captain Raj aside, they have the likes of middle-order batter Veda Krishnamurthy, wicketkeeper-batter Sushma Verma and pace-bowling allrounder Shikha Pandey, all India caps. They will team up with South Africa’s Sune Luus, New Zealand’s Leigh Kasperek, England’s Danni Wyatt and Bangladesh’s Jahanara Alam. The uncapped Meghna Joshi has been named a replacement for India pacer Mansi Joshi, who had tested positive for Covid-19. They also have Verma and 21-year-old uncapped offspinner Sushree Dibyadarshini.Velocity squad: Mithali Raj (capt), Veda Krishnamurthy (vice-capt), Shafali Verma, Sushma Verma (wk), Ekta Bisht, Shikha Pandey, Devika Vaidya, Sushree Dibyadarshini, Manali Dakshini, Leigh Kasperek, Danielle Wyatt, Sune Luus, Jahanara Alam, M Anagha, Meghna Singh
Coach: Suman SharmaMandhana’s Trailblazers have England’s Sophie Ecclestone, the No. 1-ranked T20I bowler, West Indies allrounder Deandra Dottin, Bangladesh captain Salma Khatun, and India fast bowler Jhulan Goswami in their ranks. They also have Thailand batter Nattakan Chantam, who made an impression with her strokeplay during her team’s maiden T20 World Cup appearance in Australia earlier this year. The Indian contingent includes allrounder Deepti Sharma, opener Punam Raut and youngsters Harleen Deol and Richa Ghosh.Trailblazers squad: Smriti Mandhana (capt), Deepti Sharma (vice-capt), Punam Raut, Richa Ghosh, D Hemalatha, Nuzhat Parween (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Jhulan Goswami, Simran Bahadur, Salma Khatun, Sophie Ecclestone, Nattakan Chantam, Deandra Dottin, Kashvee Gautam
Coach: Nandita AdhiyaShafali Verma clubs one to the off side•BCCIWhat is the schedule of matches?Supernovas vs Velocity, November 4
Velocity vs Trailblazers, November 5
Trailblazers vs Supernovas, November 7
Final, November 9The second game is the only one which takes place on an IPL match day, with the first Qualifier set to take place on November 5 between the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals. That is why this will be the only day game in the Women’s T20 Challenge.Who are the uncapped India players to look out for?Kashvee Gautam (Trailblazers): The 17-year-old Chandigarh pacer made headlines after she picked up all ten wickets – including a hat-trick – in an innings in the Women’s U-19 One-Day Trophy earlier this year. Having done well in U-19 and U-23 tournaments before, this is her first appearance in the T20 Challenge.Ayushi Soni (Supernovas): The 20-year-old Delhi allrounder captained a successful India B side at the U-23 Challenger Trophy last year.Sushree Dibyadarshini (Velocity): The offspinner made a mark on her T20 Challenge debut last year when she snuffed out West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor in her second over and finished with figures of 3-1-14-1. The 23-year-old features regularly for India A.Can we expect big scores?The Sharjah pitch was a batting paradise for teams in the first half of IPL 2020, which saw totals in excess of 200. However, there was a marked slowing down of the surface as the tournament went on.How much are the players being paid?ESPNcricinfo understands that the match fee of a section of overseas players is estimated to be around USD 2500 per player per game, and a daily allowance of around INR 5000 INR (USD 67 approx.). All Indians, uncapped or otherwise, were understood to have been paid a base amount of at least INR 1 lakh last year as match fee, but the numbers for this year are not known.

Until Sunday, he had gathered consistently. Then came that one barnstorming performance

Saurabh Somani02-Nov-2020After their last-ball defeat against the Chennai Super Kings on October 29, the Kolkata Knight Riders had done a dance routine down the IPL 2020 points table going 5, 6, 7, 8 after every subsequent game because while they had lost, the teams clustered around them were winning. Before their last league match, against the Rajasthan Royals, it didn’t seem anomalous that the Knight Riders were at the bottom of the table, even though five teams were on 12 points.In a way, the Knight Riders’ position mirrored that of captain Eoin Morgan, who had become the batting mainstay of his side almost seamlessly. His team had gathered as many points as the others, but without quite as much of a flourish. Morgan had gathered runs as consistently as anyone else, but without that one barnstorming performance.It took one match, for both perceptions to course correct. The Knight Riders needed a spectacular win, and it was delivered on the back of a spectacular innings against the Rajasthan Royals.Morgan almost downplayed his 68 off 35 that drove the Knight Riders to a total of 191, saying dew had set in early which meant the ball was coming on to the bat better from the first innings itself. The facts are, that in a must-win game for both teams in which both came out swinging hard, only Morgan could score at the pace at which he did, for the length of time he did. Nobody else on either side made more than 40. Nobody who faced at least 20 balls approached his strike-rate. Pat Cummins’ bowling played its part in an eventual 60-run win for the Knight Riders, but arguably, Morgan’s contribution was even more important.His innings ticked some minor boxes in getting him a first half-century in IPL 2020, but that was incidental. Measuring the number of half-centuries for a batsman without context is anyway archaic in T20 cricket.But even by conventional measures, Morgan has had a quietly standout season for the Knight Riders. He’s crossed 400 runs, and in 14 innings, failed to go beyond single-digits just twice. Half of his innings have been scored at strike rates above 140. He’s been the team’s best batsman by some distance. And he’s done all this in a season where he was part of a captaincy change midway through the tournament.Before 2020, Morgan’s record in the IPL was decidedly tepid: an average of 21.35 at a strike rate of 121.13 across 52 matches. This year, the average has been 41.80 and the strike rate has jumped to 138.41. The value his batting has brought for the Knight Riders is understood better when seen through ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, which give weightage to performances based on oppositions, match situations and the period of play in which runs are scored. Morgan’s Smart Runs tally is 445 – the highest in the league. Only KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner and Mayank Agarwal have more Smart Runs than Morgan.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt’s illustrative of just how valuable Morgan’s runs have been that the four men ahead of him are all openers, the position that has the maximum opportunity to pile on big scores in T20 cricket. Morgan has come in to bat on an average in the tenth over this IPL. If he has come in earlier, it’s because there has been a top-order failure. To still outscore a whole bunch of pedigreed batsmen who bat from Nos.1 to 4 in various teams, speaks to the dual aspect of Morgan’s batting this season: he’s got runs consistently, and he’s got them at rates that have been above-par for the match.Sometimes, like on Sunday against the Royals, stunningly above par.Morgan himself focussed more on the collective effort than his own knock. “Given the conditions, how good they were…. everybody in the middle order felt that you had a few balls to take your time and then you could hopefully take advantage later on in the innings,” he said at the press conference after the game. “Managed to do that, Andre Russell managed to do that, and a number of our other batsmen managed to contribute in posting a score of 190.”The words were understated, much like his tournament has been. It could be the way the tournament ends for Morgan and the Knight Riders, with their progression now dependent on the results of the two league stage matches that remain. Morgan himself didn’t appear too fussed, saying he was satisfied the Knight Riders had done all they could to stay in contention with that dominant show against the Royals.”I’ll have an eye on it in the background, but there’s nothing that we can control in that, so what will be, will be,” he said.Regardless of whether the Knight Riders make the playoffs or not, it’s been a breakthrough season of sorts for Morgan, the batsman. He has had sustained success in a competition he hadn’t cracked previously. He’s handled a transition of leadership mid-season, a tricky enough thing to manage on its own. And he’s done it when two of the greatest T20 players of all time in Russell and Sunil Narine have been unavailable for selection at various points.If the playoffs happen, he’ll get another chance to add a striking innings to the IPL 2020 memory bank. If not, he’ll have to wait and see if this batting upswing can be carried over when the IPL is played in India. Either way, what will be, will be.

South Africa’s batsmen outperform bowlers, Australians below par, and Rashid flies high

Sruthi Ravindranath13-Nov-2020England take the honoursEngland’s players made a huge impact for their respective sides in IPL 2020, scoring high on several Smart Stats parameters. Among countries who had five or more players in the tournament, England’s players had the highest average impact per player per match – an impact rating of 37.1. Their batting impact rating of 38 was also the highest for any country, while their bowling impact rating of 17.86 was the second highest, among countries with at least five representatives.ESPNcricinfo LtdJofra Archer, who was IPL 2020’s Most Valuable Player, had a Smart Economy of 4.24, the second best overall and the best among pace bowlers. He took 20 wickets in the tournament, which were worth 26.8 Smart Wickets. Archer carried the Rajasthan Royals bowling almost single-handedly, but his England and Royals team-mates Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes made some important contributions with the bat. Buttler had a Smart Strike Rate of 150.88, whereas his conventional strike rate was 144.49. The only England player with a better Smart Strike than Buttler was Eoin Morgan, who had a Smart Strike Rate of 152.45, the tenth best among all batsmen in IPL 2020, given a minimum of 100 balls faced.Sam Curran was the standout performer in the out-of-sorts Chennai Super Kings team this season. He excelled with both bat and ball, a fact brought out clearly through Smart Stats. His 13 wickets were worth 16.6 Smart Wickets, while his Smart Strike Rate of 139.2 was the second best for the Super Kings, given a minimum of 20 balls faced. Among the England players who didn’t hit top gear but had a couple of good outings nonetheless were Jonny Bairstow and Chris Jordan, while the likes of Moeen Ali, Tom Banton and Tom Curran warmed the benches for a majority of the tournament.Ain’t no party like a West Indies batting partyNobody does T20 batting better than the West Indies players, and even the numbers say so. The West Indies players in IPL 2020 had an average Smart Strike Rate of 166.44 this season, miles ahead of other nationalities. Given at least five representatives, the second best Smart Strike Rate from a country was South Africa’s 150. Kieron Pollard’s eye-popping conventional strike rate of 191.42 translated to a Smart Strike Rate of 224.06, the best in the season – without qualification. Archer is next with 203.7, but he faced only 63 balls this season. Nicholas Pooran is the only other batsman with a Smart Strike Rate of over 200, clocking in at 200.73, whereas his conventional strike rate was 169.71. Most of the West Indies brigade scored high on Smart Strike Rates. Shimron Hetmyer and Sunil Narine both finished at over 140, while Andre Russell, who didn’t have as much impact as expected, still had a Smart Strike Rate of 155, with his cameos coming in crucial phases, even if they didn’t last too long.ESPNcricinfo LtdChris Gayle made a belated, but spectacular, entry into the second half of the tournament. His inclusion sparked a turnaround for Kings XI Punjab, who won five straight games once he was included in the XI, before losing the last two. Gayle’s only real failure came in the last league match against the Super Kings, when he laboured to 12 off 19. That caused his Smart Stats numbers to dip a little, and his eventual Smart Runs (287) and Smart Strike Rate (132.22) were slightly below his conventional numbers (288 runs at 137.14).Boult keeps the New Zealand flag flying highNew Zealand’s bowlers had the most impact (minimum five players from one team) on their respective sides this season, with a bowling impact rating of 24. Trent Boult ruled the powerplay this season with 16 wickets in the phase, and was significant in Mumbai Indians’ triumph. Expectedly, he was one of the major contributors to the high rating. His 25 wickets this season were worth close to 31 Smart Wickets, since he consistently dismissed top-order batsmen early. New Zealand’s five bowers took a total of 35 wickets in the tournament, which were worth 42.51 Smart Wickets. Lockie Ferguson instantly impressed after being brought into the Kolkata Knight Riders’ starting XI in their ninth game, and he also contributed to the impact New Zealand’s bowlers had, with his Smart Economy of 7.16.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe New Zealand batsmen didn’t fare as well though, with their average batting impact rating of 20 being the lowest among countries who had at least five representatives. Kane Williamson was consistently good, though, as both his Smart Runs (331.7) and Smart Strike Rate (140) show, both higher than his conventional runs and strike rate (317 and 133.76).Udana, the lone representative from Sri LankaSri Lanka had just one representative in the tournament in Isuru Udana, who was signed at his base price by the Royal Challengers. He featured regularly for them this season, and made useful contributions with the ball. The eight wickets he took were worth 9.16 Smart Wickets, but his Smart Economy of 10.67 was much higher than his conventional figure of 9.72.Rashid Khan, the unstoppable forceWithout considering any cut-offs in terms of number of players from a country, Afghanistan led the charts thanks to the superlative performances of Rashid Khan. Although Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman also featured in IPL 2020, they played just three matches combined and went wicketless in them. Afghanistan’s high rating is all down to Rashid, with a bowling impact average of 42.85, and a player impact average of 45.00. Rashid picked up 20 wickets, worth 22.54 Smart Wickets. His conventional economy rate of 5.38 was stunning enough, but his Smart Economy figure of 3.81 was astonishing. Not surprisingly, he had the best Smart Economy in the tournament.ESPNcricinfo LtdSouth Africa bowlers make merry…but impact?Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje finished with a combined 52 wickets, Quinton de Kock piled on more than 500 runs, Faf du Plessis was the Super Kings’ highest run-scorer, Chris Morris gave the Royal Challengers’ bowling a much-needed lift and AB de Villiers was, well, AB de Villiers. However, the Smart numbers say that not all these performances were equally weighty. South Africa’s bowlers took 74 wickets in the season, but that translated to only 70.91 Smart Wickets, which meant they were the only country whose Smart Wickets tally was fewer than the conventional one.Rabada was the highest wicket-taker of the season, but according to the Smart Stats algorithm – which quantifies the pressure, the opposition batsman/bowler and the situation the player finds himself in at every ball of the innings – his tally of Smart Wickets (26.54) is lower than the actual wickets he took (30). That is because Rabada got a lot of wickets towards the back end of the innings, where they usually count for a lot less than at the start. Similarly, Morris’ Smart Wickets and Nortje’s Smart Economy also see a dip against their conventional numbers.The batting held up, thanks to de Villiers and de Kock’s spectacular returns. South Africa had the third-best average batting impact, behind England and West Indies, clocking in at 31.8. They also had the second-best Smart Strike Rate at 150. The value of de Villiers’ knocks is evident when his already elite conventional strike rate of 158.74 translated to a stunning Smart Strike Rate of 174.82. He scored 454 runs in the tournament, which swelled to 500 Smart Runs. de Kock also had better Smart numbers than conventional ones. He had 523.51 Smart Runs (503 runs) and a Smart Strike Rate of 146.23 (strike rate 140.5).A dull season for the AustraliansAustralia had the largest overseas contingent this season with 17 players, but their impact was spread thin. The Australians’ batting impact was a middling 25.79 and their bowling impact of 9.43 was the lowest among all teams. The batting impact suffered due to several big names not having great returns in this season. David Warner started tepidly and then found his groove, but the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Finch and Josh Philippe had a tournament to forget, while Steven Smith and Shane Watson had only the odd good performance.Australia’s bowlers also proved expensive, with 12 bowlers tallying a combined Smart Economy of 8.75, the most expensive for teams with at least five representatives. Pat Cummins went wicketless in eight of 14 matches for the Knight Riders, while the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa did well but didn’t get too many opportunities due to team combinations. Chris Lynn and Billy Stanlake didn’t get a single game, although the Mumbai Indians’ fast-bowling duo of Nathan Coulter-Nile and James Pattinson had decent outings.The player that stood out was Marcus Stoinis. The allrounder made 352 runs in 17 matches at a Smart Strike Rate of 159.71 (conventional strike rate 148.52), the highest among all Australians. He also picked up 13 wickets in as many matches but was on the expensive side, with an economy rate of 9.54, which translated into 10.42 in Smart Economy terms.

Eight records that were broken at IPL 2021 auction in Chennai

Dustin Silgardo and Sampath Bandarupalli 19-Feb-20213:31

Did Maxwell deserve the price he got at the auction?

Morris becomes most expensive player in auction history
Chris Morris broke Yuvraj Singh’s record for the highest bid at an IPL auction, earning a winning bid of INR 16.25 crore from the Rajasthan Royals, INR 25 lakh more than the bid Yuvraj got from Delhi Capitals (then Daredevils) in 2015. The bid makes Morris IPL’s second-highest earner after Virat Kohli, who Royal Challengers Bangalore retained for INR 17 crore in 2018.ESPNcricinfo LtdGlenn Maxwell becomes second-highest earner at auctions
With his INR 14.25 crore fee this time, Maxwell has attracted bids totalling INR 45.30 crore in the five auctions he has been a part of – he got bids of INR 5.32 crore in 2013, INR 6 crore in 2014, INR 9 crore in 2018 and INR 10.75 crore in 2020. That puts him behind only Yuvraj in the list of players who have been spent most on at auctions. Yuvraj attracted bids totalling INR 48.10 crore over six auctions, Dinesh Karthik has earned INR 38.85 crore over six auctions, while Morris now has got bids totalling INR 37.96 crore over five auctions. This does not mean these players are the highest earners in IPLs, though, as players who have been retained at high prices would have earned more.ESPNcricinfo LtdK Gowtham gets highest bid for uncapped player
Chennai Super Kings bought uncapped K Gowtham for INR 9.25 crore, going past the INR 8.8 crore Mumbai Indians shelled out for the then uncapped Krunal Pandya in 2018. In 2016, uncapped allrounder Pawan Negi caused a surprise bidding war that Delhi Capitals won for Rs 8.5 crore, while Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) splurged INR 8.4 crore on legspinner Varun Chakravarthy in 2019.ESPNcricinfo LtdRiley Meredith becomes most expensive uncapped overseas player
A 24-year-old fast bowler from Australia, uncapped Meredith was bought for INR 8 crore by Punjab Kings, making him more expensive than Jofra Archer, whom Rajasthan Royals bid INR 7.2 crore for in 2018. At the time, Archer hadn’t yet played for England. Gowtham earns 46.25 times his base price
Gowtham had set his base price at the minimum, INR 20 lakh, which meant that when he went for INR 9.25 crore, it was the largest jump from base price for any player in an auction. Previously, legspinner M Ashwin held the record – he had earned INR 4.50 crore from an INR 10 lakh base price in 2016.Getty ImagesFour 14 crore+ players at one auction
There had never been more than one INR 14+ crore winning bid at previous auctions. This auction saw four, with Morris, Kyle Jamieson, Jhye Richardson and Maxwell all going past that mark. The limited supply of gun players juxtaposed with some big budgets caused a surge in spending. The only other INR 14+ crore bids in auctions previously had been for Pat Cummins in 2020, Ben Stokes in 2017, and Yuvraj twice, in 2015 and 2014.RCB become franchise with most 14 crore+ players
No team had more than one INR 14+ crore winning bid in their auction history coming into this one. By making two INR 14+ crore winning bids, for Maxwell and then Jamieson, RCB took their number up to three – they had bought Yuvraj for INR 14 crore in 2014. The other teams with INR 14+ crore bids in auctions are Rajasthan Royals (Morris, 2021), Delhi Capitals (Yuvraj, 2015) Kolkata Knight Riders (Cummins, 2020), Rising Pune Supergiant (Stokes, 2017), and Punjab Kings (Richardson, 2021).Kyle Jamieson shatters the New Zealand record
The winning bid of INR 15 crore for Jamieson was three times the INR 5 crore Kolkata Knight Riders bid for Trent Boult in 2017, making Jamieson easily the most expensive New Zealand player in IPL history.

Also: who was the oldest wicketkeeper to make their ODI debut for England?

Steven Lynch13-Jul-2021Who has the most sixes off one bowler in a Test innings? asked Michael Murray from England

The answer here is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the same as the man who hit the most sixes in any Test innings. Wasim Akram clobbered 12 sixes in his 257 not out for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in Sheikhupura in 1996-97, and no fewer than nine of them came off the bowling of the unfortunate Zimbabwe legspinner Paul Strang. It rather ruined Strang’s figures: he had 4 for 64 when Wasim strolled in at No. 8, but finished with 5 for 212 (he had, however, made his only Test century earlier in the game). “Two things will stick in my mind,” wrote Wasim: “Just how tired I was after batting for more than eight hours, and Waqar Younis being bowled first ball after sitting with his pads on all that time!”Seven batters are known to have hit six sixes off one bowler in a Test innings (we don’t have ball-by-ball data for all matches, but there are not thought to be any additions): Bert Sutcliffe off Hugh Tayfield (New Zealand vs South Africa in Johannesburg in 1953-54), Navjot Singh Sidhu off Muttiah Muralitharan (India vs Sri Lanka in Lucknow in 1993-94), Andy Blignaut off Nicky Boje (Zimbabwe vs South Africa in Cape Town in 2004-05), Shahid Afridi off Harbhajan Singh (Pakistan vs India in Lahore in 2005-06), MS Dhoni off Dave Mohammed (India vs West Indies in Antigua in 2006), Chris Gayle off Suraj Randiv (Sri Lanka vs West Indies in Galle in 2010-11), and Ben Stokes off Dane Piedt (England vs South Africa in Cape Town in 2015-16).The Sri Lankan slow left-armer Rangana Herath conceded ten sixes in all, finishing with 3 for 240, as India piled up 726 for 9 in Mumbai in 2009; Dhoni hit five, Virender Sehwag four and Rahul Dravid one. (Thanks again to Charles Davis for his help with this one.)Was Mahmudullah’s 150 not out against Zimbabwe the highest score by a player in his 50th Test? And given that he has announced his retirement from Tests, was it the highest by an Asian player in his last match? asked Sunit Kumar from South Africa

That excellent innings by Mahmudullah for Bangladesh against Zimbabwe in Harare last week, much of it compiled with only the tail for company, turns out to be well down the list of scores by players celebrating their 50th Test cap: Chris Gayle marked his with a triple-century – 317 for West Indies against South Africa in Antigua in April 2005 – while Azhar Ali made 302 not out for Pakistan against West Indies in Dubai in 2016-17. There have been four other double-centuries (by Ken Barrington, Sunil Gavaskar, Javed Miandad and Bill Lawry), and in all there have been 17 higher scores than Mahmudullah’s 150 by players in their 50th Test match.Assuming he carries out his threat to retire, Mahmudullah will sit in tenth place on the list of the highest scores in a farewell Test (this excludes four current players who made higher scores in their most recent match). England’s Andy Sandham is on top with 325 in his final game, in 1929-30; among Asian players, Aravinda de Silva made 206 in his last Test, for Sri Lanka against Bangladesh in Colombo in 2002, and Vijay Merchant signed off with 154 for India against England in Delhi in 1951-52.Was John Simpson the oldest wicketkeeper to make his ODI debut for England? asked David Collins from England

Middlesex’s John Simpson was a few days short of his 33rd birthday when he played his first one-day international for England, against Pakistan in Cardiff last week. He was a few months older than Leicestershire’s Roger Tolchard in 1978-79. But England have had one older debutant keeper in ODIs, and he’s another Leicestershire man – Paul Nixon, who’s now their coach. He was 36 years 113 days old when he played his first such match, in Melbourne in 2006-07.In all, 22 players have played their first ODI for England when older than Simpson. Oldest of all was slow left-armer Norman Gifford, who was nearly 45 when he captained against Australia in Sharjah in 1984-85.Paul Nixon (right) was 36 years old when he debuted as keeper for England against Australia in 2007•Getty ImagesWhy isn’t Shahid Afridi’s name on the list of people who scored a century in their first ODI? asked Azhar Siddiqui from Pakistan

The answer here is very simple – he isn’t on the list because he didn’t make a century on his one-day international debut! Shahid Afridi played his first match for Pakistan against Kenya in Nairobi in October 1996, and did not bat, even though Pakistan lost six wickets overhauling a modest target. Two days later, in his second ODI, against Sri Lanka on a different ground in Nairobi, Afridi was pushed up to No. 3. He showed that Pakistan had missed a trick before, by blasting 102 from just 40 balls. He reached three figures in 37, the fastest in an ODI at the time (and still, nearly 25 years later, the third-fastest).Afridi therefore misses out on the list of those who scored a century on ODI debut, since his hundred came in his first innings but not his first match. It has to be said that this is rather hard luck on Afridi, and I think he should at least be mentioned on that records page; I’ve suggested that ESPNcricinfo add a footnote, if that is possible on what is an automatically generated table.I read that you have loads of cricket books – which one is your favourite? asked Michael Lewis from Australia

I’m aware that I’m very lucky to be able to work from home in a study surrounded by hundreds of cricket books (plus a few on tennis for good measure). That means it’s very hard to choose an absolute favourite, and the top ten would probably change every day. That said, a new contender did emerge last year, when Jonathan Rice – in his Notes by the Editors, a look at what the editors have written in Wisden over the years – kindly described me as “the man who quite possibly knows more about cricket than anybody who ever lived”. I’m sure he’s a long way wide of the mark, but it has to be said the quote could come in handy the next time I want a pay rise!Even given that description, I don’t think my No. 1 book has changed since I was last asked this question. My desert island cricket book would still be On Top Down Under, the study of Australian Test captains by the superb Melbourne cricket writer Ray Robinson. It was first published in 1975, and contains beautifully written fact-filled chapters on all the skippers. The book was sympathetically updated by Gideon Haigh around 20 years later (Robinson himself died in 1982).I wrote a little more about the book, and my reasons for liking it, in this article a few years ago. And while we’re tripping down memory lane, you might also like this one, about book collecting.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

All the statistical highlights from one of India’s worst efforts with the bat in T20Is

Sampath Bandarupalli29-Jul-202181 for 8 India’s total in the third T20I was their third-lowest in the format and their lowest against Sri Lanka. India’s previous lowest T20I total against Sri Lanka was 101 all-out in Pune in 2016.81 for 8 It was also the second-lowest total made by a Full Member side while batting through all 20 overs in a T20I. The lowest is West Indies’ 79 for 7 while chasing 106 against Zimbabwe in 2010.4 for 9 Wanidu Hasaranga’s bowling figures were the best against India in men’s T20Is. The previous best was 4 for 11 by Mitchell Santner for New Zealand in Nagpur during the 2016 World T20.2 Hasaranga is also only the second player to take a four-wicket haul on their birthday in men’s T20Is. Imran Tahir celebrated his 35th birthday with figures of 4 for 21 against Netherlands in 2014.1 The 2-1 series win was Sri Lanka’s maiden T20I series victory over India. It is also Sri Lanka’s first series win in any format against India since their 2-1 victory in a home Test series in 2008.0 Sixes struck by India in the third T20I, the first time they failed to clear the ropes in a T20I after playing out the full 20 overs. They only hit four boundaries in all, their fewest in a 20-over innings in T20Is. Their previous lowest was eight boundaries (seven fours and a six) during the second T20I on Wednesday.3.30 Economy rate of Sri Lanka’s spinners, the second-best for a Full Member team’s spinners in a men’s T20I (minimum: 10 overs). Bangladesh recorded the best effort against Afghanistan in 2014, when their spinners bowled 12.1 overs for the cost of only 37 runs, at an economy rate of 3.08.4.72 The two teams’ combined run rate in the third T20I, the second-lowest in a completed men’s T20I game involving two Full Member teams. The lowest is 4.61 during the T20I between West Indies and Zimbabwe in 2010 at Port of Spain.