The former South Africa batter and captain looks back at her career, ahead to the World Cup in her country, and league life after

Firdose Moonda08-Feb-2023Mignon du Preez broke cricket’s glass ceiling in heels. Sort of.”When people hear the word ‘cricketer’, they think you need to be a little bit more butch. They don’t think you can be a cricketer and be girly. They think if you’ve got your nails done, surely you can’t catch a ball. I tried to show that you can still be a girly girl and be competitive,” she says. “There was a definitely a time when people would think cricket and that it’s only for boys.”Du Preez was one of the “Iconic Women” who took part in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Trophy Tour recently. Now retired and hoping to start a family, she played international cricket for over 15 years in a career that spanned South African women’s cricket’s transition from amateur to professional. And she did it all with long blonde hair.Related

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“We had to change people’s perception,” she says. “There was lack of visibility. Nobody knew about us. Our games were not televised and girls’ cricket was not a mainstream sport in schools. The hardest thing was to get girls to take up the sport.”Her own primary school did not have a girls’ team, so, like so many from the pioneering generation of women’s cricketers, she played with boys. “There was one parent that had a complaint because there was a girl [du Preez] in the team and their son was not playing and I remember the coaches said, ‘But she’s better than him,'” she says.There was no arguing with that. Du Preez was only 12 years old when she struck 258 in a 40-over match and “kind of realised that cricket could be a career choice”.Five years later she made her international debut. “It was during the holiday time and one of the players got injured and I got a call-up,” she says.Du Preez holds up the World Cup trophy during a promotional event for this year’s tournament in South Africa late last year•Liezl Zwarts/ICC T20 Women’s World Cup Trophy Tour by NissanIt was only seven years into her career that South Africa’s matches were first televised. In September 2014, SuperSport screened the three-match T20I series between South Africa and England. Earlier that year the team du Preez led reached the semi-final of the T20 World Cup. The broadcast interest in them was reward for a decent campaign but they were unable to repay the faith immediately. South Africa were completely outplayed in the first two matches in England and also lost the third, though they put up more of a fight in that game.At the time du Preez was halfway through her captaincy, a role she was thrust into almost by accident at 22, when the regular captain was injured. “I was a very young captain, so tactically I felt like I kind of was thrown into the deep end and I didn’t really know much,” she says. “On the first couple of tours, I almost needed to have script notes for who is going to bowl when and where.”But what I thought I was really good at was people-management skills. I had an open-door policy and definitely wanted to get the best out of the players. We weren’t professional and so we were just trying to change perceptions.”That same year du Preez played her first, and only, Test, where she scored the century she describes as one of her career highlights, although not for the reasons you may think.”It was really special but also quite a challenging experience. What I remember most was how I got out in the second innings,” she says. “Because I did so well in the first innings, I just kind of hoped I would pick up where I left off. Poonam Yadav was bowling to me and I had this plan that if she tossed it up, I was going to use my feet and hit her. But then also, she’s a legspinner, so a sweep was a good option if she tosses it down leg. She ended up tossing it up and down leg, I double-stepped and missed it completely and got stumped. It was not your typical Test-match shot. Today you can get away with it, with a lot of innovative cricket being played, but then it was not the typical dismissal you would see in a Test.”Most South Africans would not even have been aware that the match took place. The women’s team didn’t become a big part of the national cricket conversation until 2017, when du Preez stepped down from the leadership but played in her 100th ODI and South Africa made the semi-final of the 50-over World Cup. “That’s when people started taking notice and our players started becoming role models. That was where the big change happened,” she said.Du Preez during a partnership with Celeste Raack of Ireland in the Fairbreak tournament in 2022. “What made that tournament special was the camaraderie,” she says. “It was where sport just united everybody”•FairBreak GlobalNow in 2023, South Africa find themselves in focus in women’s sport. Last month they hosted the inaugural Under-19 women’s T20 World Cup, and this month they host the senior event. In July-August, they will stage the netball World Cup, and the national women’s football team will compete in the World Cup for the second successive time – an incredible feat against the backdrop of the men not qualifying for the same event in 20 years (they qualified automatically as hosts in 2010).Du Preez is no longer involved in a playing capacity for South Africa but remains a keen observer from the sidelines, and is still a sportsperson through and through. On the day of this interview she was also in the nets.”It’s almost like riding a bike but sometimes it’s not like that,” she says. “The last time I didn’t play for a while, I struggled to get the timing because I was just so eager to get bat on ball and I’d be too early on every shot. But today I think it was a lot more relaxed. I think that comes with age. Practice is there to make mistakes and it ended up being fewer mistakes than I thought.”Like so many female cricketers, du Preez has put her name in the hat for the WPL auction, where she hopes to get what could be a life-changing deal. Although she recognises that the growth of leagues could be a threat to the international game, having spent so much of her career in the amateur era, no one will begrudge her cashing in. “These leagues pay their players really well but ultimately you want your best players to be available for national selection, and to do that you also need to ensure that you pay them well enough so that they want to play for their country,” she says.Essentially that’s part of the story for her own reasons for retiring. After she opted to step away from ODI cricket in April last year, du Preez was unable to keep her central contract because CSA do not offer single-format-only deals. With bills to pay, du Preez decided to call it quits completely and seek opportunities in franchise leagues.She won’t be lured into a national comeback for the World Cup but will be involved in the tournament in a commentary role. She will be rooting for South Africa, though.”If I think with my heart, I’m going to say they are going to win,” she says. “But if I think with my head, realistically, Australia have dominated women’s cricket in the last couple of years and they are just so far ahead. They’ve got a lot of talent to pick from. In South Africa we don’t have such a big pool. But I am excited to see a few other teams. England – they’ve also invested quite a bit – and then India, they’ve been really good recently and it will be really good if they do well because if India does well, women’s cricket does well.”Du Preez top-scored with 76 not out in the semi-final of the 2017 50-over World Cup but it wasn’t enough to get South Africa across the line•Getty ImagesClosing the gap between those top-tier teams and the rest is a subject that interests du Preez. She was involved in the inaugural Fairbreak T20 tournament in the UAE last year and has since become a marketing consultant for the organisation. She sees competitions like that one as a way to level the playing field.”Fairbreak gives opportunities to players that come from Associate nations to earn a living from cricket. They get their first professional contract and they get to play alongside their heroes. We had all the big names, from Stafanie Taylor and Sophie Devine to Marizanne Kapp and Ayabonga Khaka,” she says.And though events like Fairbreak are competitive, it’s less about which team wins or loses and more about individuals gaining from it. “What made that tournament even more special was the camaraderie. When you go to a World Cup or the WBBL or the Hundred, it’s really feisty and the competition is fierce. This tournament was where sport just united everybody. It was so good just to see the interaction between the players and how the players from the Full-Member nations shared their knowledge with the Associate players and how everybody was rooting for them to do well. I remember everyone cheering for Wini [Malaysia captain Winifred Duraisingam]. It’s growing and it’s going to offer more opportunities.”One of the players at the tournament was then 18-year-old Henriette Ishimwe from Rwanda, who went on to take four wickets in four balls at the U-19 World Cup, leading Rwanda to a historic first win at a major tournament. Well before Ishimwe achieved that feat, she had fans from her time at Fairbreak. “My husband actually asked me to speak to Henriette because he wanted her shirt,” du Preez says.And in doing that du Preez and her husband, Tony, shattered another glass ceiling. It’s only recently that female sportspeople, especially in team sports, have become role models and du Preez believes that as perceptions continue to change, that will only increase. “I was part of the commentary team for the U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup and I was looking through the player bios and so many of the girls had women role models, and I was like, wow, we’ve done something right. Finally.”

Our team-by-team guide on Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-2023AustraliaOverviewAustralia come into this T20 World Cup having lost just one match – and that was via a Super Over against India – since the start of January 2022 and 14 of those 18 matches were played away from home. Their depth has been unquestionable, which was evident in the way they played in Meg Lanning’s absence for a good part of last year and with her back at the helm, Australia will be a strong contender. They have been cricket’s perennial entertainers and achievers on the international stage, winning three of the last four T20 World Cups, and they will go all guns blazing to defend the title in South Africa.SquadMeg Lanning (capt), Alyssa Healy (wk), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia WarehamPlayer to watchIt’s hard to not put Tahlia McGrath in the spotlight. The allrounder has emerged as a vital cog for Australia. After Beth Mooney, she has the second-most runs for the team in T20Is since the start of 2022, amassing 463 runs in 18 matches at an astonishing strike rate of 142.02. She recently overtook her team-mates Lanning and Mooney and Smriti Mandhana to be the No.1 T20I batter after impressive knocks of 41* and 70 against India. McGrath’s big-match temperament was evident at the Commonwealth Games last year and, going by her current form, one can expect a similar performance at the World Cup.Predicted finish: ChampionsNew ZealandOverviewNew Zealand are on a positive run, even if against less robust competition than they are likely to face in this competition. After their bronze-medal finish at the Commonwealth Games last year, they downed West Indies 4-1, including a Super Over triumph, at home before blanking Bangladesh 3-0 in December. The only major concern they face is over the fitness of captain Sophie Devine, who is managing a stress fracture to her foot, an injury which kept her out of three unofficial practice games against England in Pretoria. Encouragingly, left-arm spinner Fran Jonas returned from a calf injury sustained while at the Under-19s World Cup to bowl in those warm-ups.SquadSophie Devine (capt), Suzie Bates, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Eden Carson, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Hayley Jensen, Fran Jonas, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Lea TahuhuPlayer to watchSuzie Bates heads into what could perhaps be her last T20 World Cup in red-hot form. Playing for Otago Sparks, she scored 293 runs in the Women’s Super Smash, the fourth-highest in the competition. Her strike rate of 128.50 was the best among the top five run-scorers in the tournament to the end of January. She also picked up four wickets with her offspin. With Devine returning from injury, Bates’ all-round form will be critical to New Zealand’s quest for a world title.Predicted finish: Semi-finalistsSouth AfricaOverviewDrama is never far where South Africa are concerned, especially at World Cups, and the build-up to this one has delivered. South Africa go into the tournament without their regular captain Dané van Niekerk, who was ineligible for selection after failing her two-kilometre time trial, prompting speculation about her, and her wife – star allrounder Marizanne Kapp’s – future. Without Lizelle Lee and Mignon du Preez, who both retired last year, and Trisha Chetty, who has a back problem, South Africa will rely heavily on Kapp, Sune Luus, Shabnim Ismail, Chloe Tryon and Laura Wolvaardt, who have formed the core of the squad in recent years albeit with mixed results. After reaching the 2020 semi-finals, then winning series against Pakistan and India, South Africa have beaten Ireland and recently won a tri-series involving India and West Indies.SquadSune Luus (capt), Chloe Tryon (vice-capt), Anneke Bosch, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk, Lara Goodall, Shabnim Ismail, Sinalo Jafta, Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka, Masabata Klaas, Laura Wolvaardt, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Delmi Tucker, Annerie Dercksen.Player to watchMarizanne Kapp has the potential to be a match-winner with both bat and ball and was South Africa’s most impactful player at the fifty-over World Cup last year. With the ability to find swing, she sets the tone with the new ball and even more so as a big-hitting finisher with the bat. She scored her second T20I fifty in the tri-series against West Indies and if used consistently in the top four could pose a major threat to opposition attacks.Predicted finish: Group stage. Their own goal is to reach the final but it’s difficult to see them getting into the semi-finals in a group with Australia and New Zealand.Sune Luus will be leading hosts South Africa in a T20 World Cup for the first time•ICC/Getty ImagesSri LankaOverviewAfter a forgettable Commonwealth Games campaign where they failed to win a match, Sri Lanka turned it around at the Women’s T20 Asia Cup. They only lost to India and Pakistan in the league stage before tumbling Pakistan in the semi-final to make the title clash, although they were thumped by India in the final. Moreover, they head into the T20 World Cup with no cricket behind them, having not played an international since that clash in Sylhet in October 2022.SquadChamari Athapaththu (capt), Oshadi Ranasinghe, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Nilakshi de Silva, Sathya Sandeepani, Kaveesha Dilhari, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Kaushani Nuthyangana, Malsha Shehani, Inoka Ranaweera, Sugandika Kumari, Achini Kulasuriya, Vishmi Gunaratne, Tharika Sewwandi, Ama KanchanaPlayer to watchSri Lanka have long been over-reliant on Chamari Athapaththu. Harshitha Samarawickrama, who has played a couple of T20 World Cups and a 50-over World Cup, is one of their key batters in the middle order with experience to count on. She was the second-highest run-scorer in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup with 202 runs, including 81 against Thailand. In a line-up minus Hasini Perera, Samarawickrama’s returns could well decide how Sri Lanka fare, especially in the game against Bangladesh.Predicted finish: Group stageBangladeshOverviewBangladesh do not have a good history at T20 World Cups, winning just two of their 17 matches so far, and those victories were against Ireland and Sri Lanka (both in 2014). As far as their current form is concerned, they have won ten of 17 T20Is since the start of 2022, but they have faltered against teams such as India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Pakistan. That said, Salma Khatun and co. did give Australia a bit of a scare at the ODI World Cup last year, and one cannot take them for granted on their quest to rewrite history.SquadNigar Sultana (capt & wk), Marufa Akter, Dilara Akter, Fahima Khatun, Salma Khatun, Jahanara Alam, Shamima Sultana, Rumana Ahmed, Lata Mondol, Shorna Akter, Nahida Akter, Murshida Khatun, Ritu Moni, Disha Biswas, Sobhana Mostary.Player to watchNigar Sultana has been a reliable figure in the Bangladesh batting line-up for a few years now. She was the highest run-scorer for the team last year in the shortest format, notching up 367 runs in 16 innings at an average of 28.23 and was also leading run-scorer for the side at the Asia Cup. That the wicketkeeper-batter has done reasonably well since taking over as captain last year augurs well for Bangladesh.Predicted finish: Tough to go past the group stage

Fast, skillful and entirely homegrown, the left-arm quick is Ireland’s brightest ambassador on the global stage

Matt Roller03-Apr-2023As Ireland’s squad gathered on Friday night, their first-ever win in Bangladesh was not the only cause for celebration.Instead, they crowded into the team room of their Chattogram hotel with a few Hunter beers for the first meeting of what captain Andy Balbirnie called “the newly-formed Irish Gujarat Titans supporters club”, toasting the achievements of an absent squad member.Eoin Morgan was the first Irishman to play in the IPL some thirteen years ago, but Josh Little’s debut for Titans on the opening night of the 2023 season was different: he became the first Ireland player involved in the competition, taking 1 for 43 as the defending champions started with a win.While Little suffered some rough treatment from Ruturaj Gaikwad and MS Dhoni, his maiden wicket – ripping out Ambati Rayudu’s middle and off stumps – demonstrated his ability. Most pertinently, his comeback after his first ball was swung over square leg for six in front of 100,000 people suggested that he has the temperament to perform on the biggest stage in franchise cricket.Related

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It was a significant night for Irish cricket. For many years, their leading players have crossed the Irish Sea to further their ambitions in the game – either to play for England, like Morgan and several others, or to develop through the county system. Little, by contrast, is a product of the Irish pathway alone.”He’s come through the system, all the way up from under-age cricket – and hasn’t had to go to England to learn his trade which a lot of us had to do,” Balbirnie says. “He’s just come up through the ranks and naturally done well. I’d like to think it’s shown to a lot of youngsters back home that you’re never too far away. He’s a great ambassador for that next generation now.”The natural who lit up Pembroke
As a ten-year-old schoolboy at St Andrews Primary School, Little picked up a soft cricket ball and threw it hard and flat back at Andrew Leonard, now an established broadcaster but then a development cricket coach in Dublin. “I have a vivid memory of it,” Leonard recalls. “I asked him, ‘Who are you? Which club do you play for?'”He told him his name was Josh, and that he didn’t play cricket; Leonard insisted that he should follow his friend Sanil Gupta down to Pembroke Cricket Club in Sandymount, the affluent Dublin suburb he lived in. He called his boss, Brían O’Rourke, and told him, “you won’t believe this kid I found!”A week later, Little rocked up at Pembroke for the first time. “He ran up and bowled,” O’Rourke recalls, “and he just had everything. He didn’t need any coaching, just a bit of mentoring and the opportunity to play. He came straight into our Under-11 programme, and looked really good, really comfortable.”Before long, word started to spread about the young left-armer who was making an impression on everyone who watched him. Balbirnie, who rose through Pembroke’s ranks himself, remembers watching Little play for their Under-15s in an age-group final.”I actually felt that the game could have got dangerous with the way Josh was bowling,” Balbirnie recalls. “He was just so much quicker, so much better than the other team. I was a bit concerned about the welfare of the opposition.”Throughout his teenage years, Little was a keen player at Monkstown Hockey Club and even represented Ireland at age-group level. “We’ve lost that battle a few times over the years,” O’Rourke says, “but luckily we won it with Josh.”Little gets an extra yard of pace from his wrist snap at delivery•BCCIFord meets Ferrari
Two months after his 16th birthday, Little went to Bangladesh to play for Ireland in the Under-19 World Cup, where his 11 victims in the tournament included India’s captain Ishan Kishan. Later that summer, he was used as a net bowler when Sri Lanka toured for an ODI series.”I remember there was this young lad bowling left-arm, lively pace, swinging the ball nicely in the nets,” recalls Graham Ford, who was coaching Sri Lanka. “I overheard a few of our players asking him why he wasn’t in the squad.”It didn’t take long before he was: he made his T20I debut later that summer, against Hong Kong. Balbirnie believes that early exposure to international cricket was a major reason that Little ended up choosing cricket over hockey: “Being capped at 16 might well have swayed his decision.”But a year later, when Ford became Ireland’s head coach, he encountered a young bowler in his final year at school who did not resemble an international athlete. “I don’t think he fancied academics,” he recalls, “but he would use it as an excuse not to come to training.”As an 18-year-old, Little was more interested in his social life than thoughts of a professional career. “He went on holiday as soon as he finished school and he missed some training sessions because of that – which the hierarchy didn’t like,” Ford says.”He was out of nick, he put on weight. He missed an interprovincial game to go to Electric Picnic, the music festival. My common terminology for a bloke like that is, he was loose.”Before long, Ford decided to intervene. “I called him aside, and I told him, ‘you can make a lot of money playing this game. I’ve seen a lot of players in my time, and you’ve got what it takes – and it’s a far easier way of making money than having to study, or work, from 8 until 6 every day. With the talent you’ve got, you can live a wonderful life.'”Credit to him, because after that, it was like a switch had been flicked.” As Little recently himself told the : “That five-minute chat changed my entire perception of things… Ever since then I’ve been head down, just gym and cricket.”Josh Little bounced out Eoin Morgan on his ODI debut•Getty ImagesPerhaps the first sign of that turnaround came on Little’s ODI debut, which came in May 2019 against an England team preparing for an imminent World Cup. He took 4 for 45 in his eight overs, including the scalp of the returning Morgan for a third-ball duck, fending a sharp bouncer behind via the glove.”He wasn’t shy: he certainly didn’t care who Eoin Morgan was,” O’Rourke recalls. Ford adds: “He gets into the battle, switches on competitively, and he goes like hell. He’ll get into the scrap and is very happy to do that. You need to have that – particularly as a fast bowler.”Little’s competitive streak got him into trouble early in his international career. In 2020, he was reprimanded for a sweary send-off after dismissing Jonny Bairstow; a year later, he was adjudged to have made “inappropriate physical contact” with Quinton de Kock, barging into him with his shoulder.”He was a bit raw,” Balbirnie reflects. “The emotions can bring out the best in him, but he’s learned to control them a bit more. But I’ve never pulled him aside, and I’ve never really seen him cross the line. He still has that fire in his belly to do well, which is what makes him tick.”Over the last 18 months, Little’s stock has soared on the T20 circuit. He won his first franchise contracts during the 2021-22 season; after impressing in the Hundred and the T20 World Cup in 2022, he has been in high demand in 2022-23, picking up deals in the SA20, the PSL and the IPL.His point of difference as a bowler is his whippy wrist action, developed playing ‘stumpy’ – a variation on tape-ball cricket in which batters use a stump instead of a bat – in the Pembroke nets. “You bowl off 12 yards with a tennis ball, and have to snap your wrist to get some pace into it,” Leonard explains. “His extra pace comes from that.”Those who have worked closely with him describe a headstrong individual, who sees no point in preparing for the sake of it. “He will do the bare minimum,” O’Rourke says. “In his warm-up, he might bowl two or three balls to the keeper. If it’s coming out nicely, he’ll say, ‘that’s enough. I don’t need any more.'” At last year’s IPL, he left his stint as a net bowler with Chennai Super Kings – his opponents on debut – ahead of schedule, unhappy at his limited opportunities to impress the franchise’s coaches.Little’s stocks have risen after he impressed in the Hundred and the T20 World Cup in 2022•Getty ImagesIreland’s challenge is to keep hold of him. His IPL contract is worth INR 4.4 crore (€0.5 million approx.), around six times the value of his central contract; he is missing their first three Tests since 2019 in order to play for Titans, though will return home in mid-May for an ODI series against Bangladesh that Ireland must win 3-0 to qualify for this year’s World Cup.”It’s a situation that is going to have to be managed pretty well by the people above me,” Balbirnie says. “Money is always the elephant in the room when you’re talking about things like this, but it’s huge amounts – money that could take five, six, or even more years to earn while playing for Ireland. There is a fine balance there.”We want to have Josh available for our key games, but you can’t begrudge a player getting picked up like that.”Ford puts it simply: “If they played hardball and said ‘no, you can’t go’, then they’d lose him completely. They don’t want that; Ireland need to keep him in their system.”Back at Pembroke, Little’s rise makes him the club’s latest success story, representing them in the men’s national team alongside Balbirnie, Barry McCarthy and Lorcan Tucker. Kim Garth, who became a dual international last year after moving to Australia, is another graduate of their system. “Pembroke are very proud of all those five,” O’Rourke says.The club’s end-of-season dinner last year coincided with the final of the Hundred, where Little was playing for Manchester Originals. “The man was ringing the bell saying, ‘lads, the food’s on the table’,” O’Rourke recalls. “And everyone was saying, ‘no, no, Josh is into his second over here, we want to watch him!'”And so, he expects Pembroke’s bar to be busy during Titans’ games over the next few weeks: “It’s what sport is all about. You never forget your own.”

Misfiring top order, out-of-form overseas players among concerns for the ninth-placed side

Srinidhi Ramanujam21-May-20232:35

Could Capitals have made better use of Axar the batter?

Where they finished

Position on table: Ninth, with 10 points
Wins: Five
Losses: NineUnder new captain David Warner, Capitals started the campaign on a forgettable note with five straight losses. But they fought back to win the next four of their five games. However, it was not enough to keep them in the hunt for the playoffs. Eventually, their seventh loss in 12 games meant they became the first team to be knocked out of the competition.

The good: Veterans Warner, Ishant shine

Reuniting with the franchise where it all began for him in the IPL, Warner took on more responsibility, especially when there was a lack of runs at the top, to blast six fifties in 14 matches. Though a number of those knocks came in losing cases, he finished the season with 516 runs at a strike rate of 131.63 to remain the leading run-getter for the side.Related

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Another prolific international star whose experience helped Capitals come out of the losing streak was Ishant Sharma. He found a place in the XI in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders in Delhi, which was also the first match Capitals won this season, and took home the Player-of-the-Match award for finishing with 2-19. Ishant has not been a regular for the teams that he had played since IPL 2014, and an injury to Khaleel Ahmed opened doors for him. He made an instant impact and provided balance to the bowling attack. Ishant ended the season with ten wickets in eight innings at an economy of 8.24, the best for a Capitals pacer this season.Apart from the veterans, Axar Patel showed his all-round prowess to provide crucial breakthroughs and chip in with the bat as a finisher.Axar Patel was Delhi Capitals’ best player this season•BCCI

The bad – Pant’s replacement, lack of runs at the top

A misfiring top order was a major concern for Capitals, who had to rely heavily on Warner. Prithvi Shaw, Manish Pandey, and Mitchell Marsh had a disappointing season. Priyam Garg, who replaced Kamlesh Nagarkoti, played just two matches. Rilee Rossouw and Rovman Powell didn’t grab their opportunities, only adding to their batting woes.They also struggled to find an impactful wicketkeeper in the absence of Rishabh Pant, who was ruled out of the tournament. Sarfaraz Khan and Abhishek Porel also did not make valuable contributions with the bat. By the time Phil Salt settled in and started firing, it was too late for them to bounce back after a string of defeats.Warner, after their loss against Punjab Kings, also said that their batting unit has struggled at their home venue this season because of “slow” and “inconsistent” pitches.

Top performer: Axar Patel

Having come into the IPL with a few good knocks under his belt for India in limited-overs, Axar transcended the reputation of a bowling allrounder to score runs regularly lower down the order. Despite his good batting form, Capitals did not use him up the order – the highest position he batted in was at No. 5 in three matches this season. He was the second-highest run-getter in the team behind Warner, with 283 runs at a strike rate of 139.40 in 13 innings. He also had a decent season with the ball, accounting for 11 wickets in 13 innings at an economy of 7.19, the best for a Capitals bowler.

The highlights

Coming in at No. 7, Axar smashed the fastest fifty by a Capitals batter, off 22 deliveries to lift the team to 172 against Mumbai Indians in Delhi. It was also his maiden half-century in the tournament, where he hit four fours and five sixes.

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.

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.

New Zealand left-arm spinner set to play his 100th ODI, with Australia sweating over his kind of bowling in Dharamsala

Sidharth Monga27-Oct-20231:01

What makes Mitchell Santner so effective?

Every little while during Australia’s training session in Dharamsala, one of their coaches would go to the tent in the back where the net bowlers sat, and signal for a left-arm spinner. Almost every batter either wanted to face left-arm spin, or was asked to face left-arm spin.It should come as no surprise. In their two defeats in this World Cup, against India and South Africa, Australia were tripped up by left-arm spin. Ravindra Jadeja got Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne to derail their innings in Chennai, and Keshav Maharaj returned figures of 10-0-30-2 in Lucknow. And now Australia are coming up against one of the best bowlers in the tournament – Mitchell Santner, who has taken 12 wickets and has gone at just 4.25 runs an over. Only Adam Zampa has taken more wickets, but he hasn’t exerted the kind of control Santner has.Santner doesn’t have the late release of Jasprit Bumrah, the wristspin of Kuldeep Yadav or the height of Marco Jansen. He is a fingerspinner who has done a defensive job for far too long; who is now a kid in a candy shop because there are pitches with a little bit of purchase at this World Cup. Santner has drawn a false response every five balls in this tournament: pretty similar to Kuldeep, and behind Bumrah, Maharaj and Josh Hazlewood, who have been doing it once every four balls.Related

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Santner has survived this long in limited-overs cricket primarily because of his pace variations. He has a wider range of pace variations than perhaps any other spinner: he can go from under 70kph to around 105kph without really settling on a “stock speed”. Watch him from square on and you can appreciate the beauty of his release points: early to bowl slower and flight it, but holding it back when trying to bowl into the pitch and quicker.Tom Latham, Santner’s captain for the moment, spoke highly of his left-arm spinner. “We’ve seen the work that he’s put in day in day out,” Latham said. “And the performances that he’s had not only in the one-day game, but also in the T20 game. He’s had many experiences over here and the IPL for a few years now, so he understands what he brings; and conditions back home obviously don’t suit spin as much.”Seeing him come here and apply his skill, and do what he’s pretty much done for us for a long period of time… It’s nice for him to get a few rewards for the hard work that he’s put in. So he’s obviously been a valued member of the side for a long time and I guess he’s able to bowl in every situation – whether that be at the top, in the first ten, through the middle and at the back end.””I had to learn my trade a little bit on the job in international cricket” – Mitchell Santner ahead of his 100th ODI•ICC/Getty ImagesIn this World Cup, Santner’s guile has been assisted by the conditions, and what better place than this then to bring up his 100th ODI. He looked back at how much he had to develop after entering international cricket just after the 2015 World Cup.”You are kind of just happy to play one game for your country,” Santner said. “Looking back now, it’s pretty special, and I guess at the time [in] 2015, I had played one-and-a-half seasons of domestic cricket. So when I did get the call-up, it was a bit surprising. But I probably wouldn’t have had it any other way. I had to learn my trade a little bit on the job in international cricket.”A lot of the bowling coaches along the way have helped me. Obviously Jugo [Shane Jurgensen, New Zealand’s bowling coach] has played a big part later on. In the early days, it was a bit more of bowling with Daniel Vettori, which was quite cool. And then, Jeetan Patel at times as well.”What we’ve done really well as a spin unit is talk between each other a lot. I guess me and Ish [Sodhi] have done it for a little while now, and you know, at times I am his bowling coach and at times he’s my bowling coach. I still obviously keep in contact with Jeet and Dan, which is quite cool.”Vettori is an assistant coach in the opposition camp now. An opposition that is sweating on just his kind of bowling even though the conditions in Dharamsala might be more conducive for seam bowlers. That is tribute enough.

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.