Rodrigues hits maiden WBBL fifty, Ghosh tries her hand at finishing

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The exploits of the eight Indian players at the Women’s Big Bash League this week

Annesha Ghosh29-Oct-20211:39

Sophie Molineux: ‘To have Harmanpreet Kaur standing at mid-off is pretty handy’

Jemimah Rodrigues
A new week brought two new opening partners and a maiden WBBL fifty for Melbourne Renegades opener Rodrigues, who smashed a scintillating 75 not out, the third-highest score of the season, to sink Sydney Thunder. Having made 33, 14, and 13 in her three previous appearances, Rodrigues reached her half-century in 37 balls, adding 84 for the opening stand with Josephine Dooley. Shuffling across her crease, sweeping with ease, and often making room to free her arms, Rodrigues struck nine fours in her 56-ball knock, propelling Renegades to a winning total of 142 in a fixture that saw four Indians locked in a battle of one-upmanship.Related

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Harmanpreet Kaur
A batter historically susceptible to lbw owing to the iffy nature of her front-foot defense, Renegades’ in-form No. 4, Harmanpreet, was trapped in front in a copybook dismissal, having added just three in a 14-run stand with Rodrigues against Thunder. Failure with the bat, however, didn’t deter the allrounder from making an impact on the game, for she knocked the wind out of Thunder’s innings by bowling set batter Smriti Mandhana in a critical phase of their chase and also helped effect the run-out of the middle-order batter Anika Learoyd.That Renegades had won their previous game was also down to Harmanpreet’s all-round brilliance. Her 4-0-17-2 against Sydney Sixers included the wickets of Ashleigh Gardner and Alyssa Healy. She was involved in the dismissal of Shafali Verma as well. And when it was her turn to bat, she capitalised on a lifeline received when she was 20 and pummeled back-to-back sixes in the 17th over to seal Renegades’ 119 chase.Player of the Match Harmanpreet Kaur has a light moment with her India team-mates Radha Yadav (L) and Jemimah Rodrigues (R)•Sarah Reed/Getty ImagesSmriti Mandhana
Three single-digit scores preceded a maiden half-century in Thunder colours for Mandhana even as the defending champions remained winless after five matches this season. Early dismissals to pace meant the opener had to depart for 9 and 3 in chases against Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Stars, before a change of personal fortunes came about, in Thunder’s quest of 143 against Renegades. Though her 44-ball 64 featured an array of trademark lofted shots and a deceptively effortless assortment of pulls, it wasn’t quite enough as her team fell short by nine runs.Deepti SharmaThunder shunted Deepti between Nos. 5 and 8, and she responded with a run-a-ball 20 against Scorchers, 44 not-out off 48 against Stars (a personal best at WBBL), and an unbeaten 10-ball 23 against Renegades. In all three innings, Deepti was either the side’s top-scorer or second most successful batter, but in the absence of sustained support at the other end, her efforts often went in vain. With the ball, the offspin-bowling allrounder picked up two wickets in her three outings this week.Richa Ghosh top-scored for Hobart Hurricanes•Getty ImagesRicha GhoshSlotted below her designated position throughout the opening week, Hurricanes batter Ghosh made 4 and 24 not out at No. 5 and 22 at No. 6. The highest of those scores came in a chase of 145 against Stars. Four fours, including the match-sealing one, underpinned her 16-ball innings. With 119 runs in six innings at an average of 23.80, she holds the eighth position on the highest run-scorers list, three places below Rodrigues.Ghosh also had her first brush with the gloves in the WBBL this week, stepping in for the injured Rachel Priest one over into Heat’s chase, and picking up a smart, low catch to dismiss opener Georgia Redmayne.Poonam Yadav
The wristspinner remained wicketless in her two outings this week. In the rain-curtailed 11-overs-a-side contest against Adelaide Strikers, she leaked 19 off just two overs, 13 of which were plundered by Dane van Niekerk alone. Two days later, Poonam, operating in two spells outside the powerplay, kept the leash on the Hurricanes with 11 dots in 3.4 overs that cost only 16. But the final two deliveries of her spell sullied her figures a touch as Ruth Johnston carted her for a six and a four.Radha Yadav
In Sixers’ only completed game of the week, against Renegades, Radha could have forced the opposition into a tough spot even in a chase of 119 if Healy had not botched a stumping. Harmanpreet, the eventual match-winner, was enticed out of her crease by a flighted delivery in the 16th over but the wicketkeeper failed to collect it cleanly. One ball later, Radha took a return catch to dismiss Courtney Webb and finished with 1 for 12 off two overs. She also helped effect the run out of Rodrigues with a throw from the deep.Shafali Verma
Sixers opener Shafali stumbled to a second straight duck in the WBBL as her oscillation between two extremes continued this week. Her scores so far in the tournament: 0, 0, 57 and 8.

Under the radar but in-form South Africa exude quiet optimism

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

No one seems to be talking up South Africa’s chances, but Bavuma’s side head into the T20 World Cup in very good form

Firdose Moonda20-Oct-2021Big pictureThis is the first time South Africa will enter a major tournament completely under the radar. Unlike in the 1992 World Cup, they are not a new inclusion, who the world is waiting to see. Unlike at the 1999 World Cup or 2009 T20 World Cup, they don’t appear to have the potential to boss the event and unlike at the 2015 World Cup, theirs is not a squad filled with superstars. This is a group of industrious players, who are considered adequate without being outstanding, and who very few people expect to return home with a trophy. That means the usual World Cup pressure is off, but there are many others to consider.This is also the first time South Africa are being led in a major tournament by a black African. Temba Bavuma was appointed in March, has enjoyed relative success but is coming into the competition after suffering a broken thumb on South Africa’s last tour, to Sri Lanka in August. He is expected to be fully fit for their opening match and will want to lead from the front, especially as he follows a successful first black African rugby captain, Siya Kolisi, under whom South Africa won the 2019 World Cup.Bavuma’s race is important because South Africa have only just begun to reckon with the implications their segregated past has had on this sport and will continue to do so through the tournament. Cricket South Africa’s Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings resume on the same day the tournament starts – October 18 – and is expected to provide significant disruption. After a two-month recess, testimony will now be heard from those who were adversely implicated in the first round held between July and August. This includes current director of cricket, Graeme Smith, and the current national coach, Mark Boucher, who has already submitted a responding affidavit.Recent formAs good as it can be. South Africa enter this tournament on the back of three successive series wins, albeit that two were not against teams in the main draw. But, say what you like about them beating Ireland and Sri Lanka, you can’t scoff at their 3-2 victory over a full-strength West Indies, who are also the defending champions.BattingSouth Africa have often appeared a batter short in this format, choosing to fill the XI with bowling options and top-load the line-up with openers. This squad includes four – Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks – and there is only room for three in the XI, while being light on middle-order hitters and big-finishers. If the top three or four come off, South Africa have been able to post decent totals and chase targets but if their innings starts poorly, recovery has proved challenging. In particular, the time it takes Rassie van der Dussen to get going and David Miller’s form are the biggest concerns.Temba Bavuma is expected to be fully fit for their opening match•AFP/Getty ImagesBowlingThe era of the fast bowler has evolved into an embrace of the slower stuff for South Africa, and they have included three specialist spinners in this squad. Two of them, Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj, are almost certain starters but none of the trio is a genuine allrounder. Instead, South Africa will choose between seam-bowling allrounders Dwaine Pretorius and Wiaan Mulder, which could only leave room for two out of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje. The seamers have all learnt the value of pace off the ball, but they’ve been criticised for not bowling the yorker to good effect, especially at the end of an innings. And therein lies South Africa’s real issue: they have no designated death-bowler, with Andile Phehlukwayo confined to the reserves and Sisanda Magala not picked.Player to watchA worthy successor to Imran Tahir, Tabraiz Shamsi has both the crazy celebrations and the ability to control the game and has emerged as South Africa’s trump card in shorter formats. Since 2019, Shamsi has enjoyed a more sustained run in the national team and has become consistent in delivering his stock ball while also perfecting his variations, particularly the googly. He has moved from being an out-and-out attacking bowler to one who is comfortable with a containing role if need be. Shamsi is the leading T20I wicket-taker in 2021 and could extend his lead with a good T20 World Cup.Key questionUsually, South Africa go into major tournaments with only this question: Is this the one?This time, with much less expectation and no one really expecting them to win the tournament, the real question is: how bad could it get? South Africa had their worst result at a major tournament in the 2019 World Cup, which led to Ottis Gibson’s termination a brief flirtation with the idea of a team director (Enoch Nkwe was appointed in an interim capacity for the tour to India in 2019) before a coaching overhaul, in which Boucher was installed. It’s been a bumpy ride for Boucher with inconsistent results and the shadow of the SJN looming, and a first-round exit could spell trouble for him. On the flip side, if South Africa reach the knockouts and, don’t say it too loudly, the final, it could be a major turning point for cricket in this country.Likely XI1. Quinton de Kock, 2 Temba Bavuma (capt), 3 Aiden Markram, 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 David Miller, 6 Heinrich Klaasen, 7 Wiaan Mulder, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Anrich Nortje/Lungi Ngidi, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi

After ten-year wait, Nkrumah Bonner scripts a nine-hour epic

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Cool and collected century grinds England in outstanding display of Test-match calibre

Cameron Ponsonby10-Mar-2022Nkrumah Bonner looks the part. He combines an orthodox technique with a contented strut. His sleeves are long and his collar is popped. He takes guard by removing a bail and hammering it into the ground. Classical style combined with Caribbean flair. The Jamaican James Bond.It would be wrong to describe Bonner’s exemplary hundred today, his second in Test cricket, as an arrival on the scene. Bonner’s been about for a long time. An international debut came in 2011 in a T20I against England, in which he scored three runs and bowled two overs for 18. A second unsuccessful appearance came six months later against Australia. He scored a tortuous 27 off 34 balls and was promptly dropped.And from that point, nothing. No runs, no call-ups, nada. Between 2012 and 2019, Bonner didn’t score a first-class century and only averaged above 30 in a first-class season once. But then a switch flipped.Called back into the Jamaica side in early 2019, Bonner scored 97 against Barbados in an innings he describes as the turning point of his career. From that day forward the floodgates were opened. Runs, Nkrumah, runs. They’re everywhere.His career average until that point had been 24.05. But in the time since, and as he walked off today with 123 to his name, he has averaged 49.53. He has more than doubled as a player.”Sometimes,” Bonner said after a considered pause when asked about whether he had considered quitting at all over the last ten years.”There have been ups and downs for me, but I always keep the faith and keep believing and finally it’s paid off.”The trials and tribulations of those ten years in the wilderness are mirrored by the highs and lows of what has been an extraordinary ten-match Test career so far. He was the lesser-sung hero in West Indies’ historic victory against Bangladesh, where they successfully chased 395 thanks to debutant Kyle Mayers’ double-century. Bonner was also on debut and scored 86 off 245 balls. He was in the team for West Indies’ incredible one-wicket win against Pakistan in August, and on two of his three trips to the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium to play Test cricket he has left with a century.Related

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Every other time Nkrumah Bonner steps onto the pitch as a Test cricketer, something extraordinary happens.”It was very emotional, for sure,” Bonner said of his century at the close of play. “Coolbumps take up all of my body. Getting some runs against England is always a good feeling, especially against a team under some pressure.”Over the course of two days here in Antigua, Bonner didn’t so much put England to the sword but maintained pressure on a bruise and asked them if it hurt. Relentless in his obduracy. He bats with minimal movement, hanging on the back foot and bringing the bat down straight. On bad days it will be the source of criticism that he doesn’t get forward and is stuck on the crease. But on the good days it gives the illusion of a man with time on his side, unfazed and unprovoked by the ball’s appearance in front of him. Why would I move forward if you’re the one bowling to me? I know it’ll get here.”All of my runs are always gritty, I’m not a freescoring guy, I’m very disciplined. My power is about concentration.”It is a statement in keeping with any and all of Bonner’s interviews, the need for mental toughness. Just hang in there, win the next battle, you can do it. And given he’s done that for ten years, it’s little surprise that it was on show here for two days.Early in this innings he was forced to negotiate a spell of high-class reverse swing bowling and early this morning he took on the second new ball. He faced all manner of plans and challenges but, for all that England could throw at him, the Jamaican James Bond was neither shaken, nor stirred.

The pace comparison – Where Rabada and Co bettered India's fast bowlers

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

India started the series as slight favourites, but South Africa’s fast bowlers used the home conditions superbly after the Centurion setback

S Rajesh16-Jan-2022When the South Africa vs India series began, it was clear that the key battle would be between the pace attacks of the two teams (and, by extension, how well the opposition batters would handle them). India had the full array of their best fast bowlers at their disposal, but South Africa were missing one of their main men: Anrich Nortje, with 28 wickets in his last six Tests at 23.35, was ruled out due to injury.

Given the lack of experience of the South African pace attack – apart from Kagiso Rabada, none of the others had played more than 10 Test matches going into the series – and the awesome recent record of India’s pace line-up, it was generally thought that India had the advantage in that aspect despite being the touring team, and hence were favourites to win the series.Related

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It certainly didn’t pan out that way, despite the start in Centurion. Over the course of the three Tests, the South African fast bowlers collected 59 wickets at 20.13 compared with 46 by India’s pacers at 24.58. The gap wasn’t very large – and it certainly wasn’t as big as it was when South Africa toured India in 2019-20 – but in a series where spinners were insignificant (the tally of four spin wickets is the fourth-lowest ever in a series of three or more Tests), the difference in numbers for the fast bowlers was the difference between the two teams.

India’s pace attack was ahead in the first innings of the three Tests, averaging 17.46 to South Africa’s 22.37, but the second innings was a no-contest: India’s average bloated to 41, while South Africa conceded fewer than half those many runs per wicket. In fact, South Africa’s pace strike rate in the second innings was better than India’s average.The control stats
South Africa’s fast bowlers had the better average and strike rate, but in terms of drawing false shots from the opposition batters, there was little to choose between the two pace attacks – in fact, India’s pace attack drew a marginally higher percentage of false shots (19.6%) than South Africa’s (18.3%). However, South Africa’s fast bowlers were better in terms of converting those errors into wickets – they took one wicket for every 7.3 false shots played by India’s batters, while India’s pacers could only convert one out of every 9.6 errors into a wicket.

A Test-wise break-up of these numbers is interesting. In the first Test, India’s pace attack elicited a marginally higher percentage of errors from South Africa’s batters than the home team’s fast bowlers did from India’s batters, but more importantly, they converted a high number of those errors into wickets – the rate was a wicket every 6.6 errors, compared to 7.3 for South Africa’s bowlers.Through the rest of the series, the rate of errors per wicket for India’s bowlers increased to more than 11, while South Africa’s remained in the region of around seven to eight.Also, while in the first two Tests, the fast bowlers from the winning team elicited more false responses than those of the losing team, that did not hold true in the decider in Cape Town. India’s bowlers drew a far higher percentage of errors, but their conversion rate fell to 12.3 false shots per dismissal – their worst of the series – while South Africa’s improved to 6.7, their best of the series. In the fourth innings of the Test, India’s pacers forced 59 errors, but had only three wickets to show for it, a rate of nearly 20 false shots per dismissals.

And looking at the numbers of individual bowlers, the one who led the wickets tally also drew the highest percentage of false responses: batters had an error rate of 22.58% against Rabada, and their rate of errors per dismissal was 8.1. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami had very similar error rates, while Duanne Olivier was the only fast bowler with an error rate below 15. That also illustrates just how tough it was for batters in this series. The false shots per dismissal stat has a wide range, from 5.7 for Lungi Ngidi to 18 for Mohammed Siraj.Finding the right length
After the Johannesburg Test, Rahul Dravid spoke about the difference in the pace attacks of the two teams. He reckoned that the taller South African bowlers were able to take advantage of the bounce and the unevenness of the surface better than the Indian seamers. An analysis of the lengths bowled by the two pace attacks brings out these differences quite clearly.Back of a length or short was clearly South Africa’s go-to length, and those were the areas where their quick bowlers were far more effective than India’s: they averaged 14.57 to the opposition’s 38.54. They also bowled nearly half their deliveries at those lengths, compared to 41% for India. The good-length areas were equally effective for both teams, but the fuller lengths worked much better for India.

The stats for Rabada and Marco Jansen, the two top bowlers for South Africa, sum up how effective they were with these lengths. Jansen bowled 104 full-length balls and leaked 138 runs, taking two wickets (a rate of 7.96 runs per over); when he bowled back of a length or short, he had figures of 10 for 94 from 312 balls (1.8 runs per over). The corresponding numbers for Rabada were: 2 for 93 from 75 full-length balls, and 12 for 199 from 383 back-of-a-length or short balls.A record catch
The lengths that South Africa’s quick bowlers – and the bouncier pitches – bowled meant that they were always likelier to get batters out caught than through any other means, but in this series the percentage of such dismissals was astounding. Out of the 60 wickets that India lost, 55 were through catches, and 54 of these were to the fast bowlers (Keshav Maharaj’s only wicket was also a caught dismissal). Never before have so many batters from a team been dismissed caught in a series of three or fewer matches; the previous record was 48.

Of the 54 caught dismissals that South Africa’s fast bowlers effected, 30 were off deliveries that were short or back of a length, and 16 were a good length. Only eight caught dismissals were off full balls. And 42 of those 54 catches were taken in the cordon behind the stumps, from leg slip to backward point.

On the other hand, caught dismissals contributed to only 26 of the 43 wickets that India’s fast bowlers took; the remaining 17 were split between bowled (12) and lbw (5). And of those 26 catches, 21 went to the cordon behind the wicket, which is half the number of wickets that South Africa took in that manner.

Neil Wagner, short, relentless and ruthless

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The numbers that sum up the New Zealand quick’s ability to unsettle batters with his bouncers

Shiva Jayaraman27-Feb-2022Experts in the commentary box at the Hagley Oval wondered if Neil Wagner’s bouncers at Rassie van der Dussen were leaking valuable runs to South Africa. The visitors’ lead had crossed 150 and van der Dussen was negotiating Wagner’s short balls pretty well. The one real chance that Wagner created by bowling short at van der Dussen had been spilled by Colin de Grandhomme. Surely, the South Africa batter wouldn’t give another one? May be it was time to change tactics?But that’s not how Wagner operates. He is a few days shy of 36, but continues to bowl every ball of every spell in every Test match he gets to play with relentless intensity. That relentless intensity was what got van der Dussen in the end. Like he did in South Africa’s second innings, Wagner has repeatedly delivered for New Zealand when they desperately need him to. And it’s often been through aggressive short-pitched bowling. No bowler has taken more wickets bowling short balls than Wagner since his debut in July 2012.

The partnership between van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma had lasted 17 overs when Wagner made the breakthrough. Since the beginning of Wagner’s Test career, no fast bowler has broken as many partnerships to have batted 100 or more balls as he has. He’s broken 55 such stands in his career. That’s 22.5% of his 244 wickets at the time of Bavuma’s dismissal. Stuart Broad has 51 such wickets since Wagner’s debut, but that’s just 13.6% of the 376 wickets the England man has taken in this period. No fast bowler has built a career out of breaking partnerships quite like Wagner. Ben Stokes comes close at 21%, having broken 35 partnerships of 100-plus balls in his 167 wickets.

Admittedly, bowlers at second and third change are likely to be at the top of this list. But Wagner’s back-breaking method of providing these breakthroughs give these numbers meaning. And the use of the phrase ‘back-breaking method’ isn’t too much of an exaggeration – in 23 of these 55 partnerships that Wagner has broken, batters have got out to balls pitching short or short of length according to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data.Van der Dussen had already batted 84 balls in his innings before he was dismissed by Wagner. That’s enough balls for a batter to get their eye in, especially in conditions like the Hagley Oval’s. But Wagner still managed to prise a wicket out and that’s no surprise. 97 of his 244 wickets have been of batters who’ve faced 50 balls or more in their innings. Since Wagner’s debut, only Broad and James Anderson have got more such batters out. However, these two largely bowl in English conditions where pacers almost always get some help.Among pacers to take 100 or more wickets since Wagner’s debut, only Shannon Gabriel has a higher percentage of his career wickets dismissing ‘settled’ batters. Among the 14 bowlers to take 200 or more wickets since Wagner’s debut, no one has a higher percentage of such wickets. The top five in this list apart from Wagner are all spinners.

Wagner is the sixth-highest wicket-taking fast bowler in Tests since his debut, having played just 58 of the 84 Tests that New Zealand have played since. None of the bowlers who’ve taken more wickets than Wagner have missed as many matches for their teams. In a team with fast bowling riches, he’s not a shoo-in in all conditions. However, one wonders if he should be playing more often. Though if he does, with an increased workload at his age, it’s likely that he won’t be as relentless in every spell as he is now. Or he might just spring a surprise as he did with the wicket of van der Dussen.

'Just get into a suit and come' – two unusual days in the life of Charu Sharma

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

The broadcaster describes the sequence of events of stepping in to wield the hammer at the IPL auction after auctioneer Hugh Edmeades fell ill

Saurabh Somani15-Feb-2022Charu Sharma was wrapping up lunch – he hadn’t gotten to dessert yet – between 2pm and 3pm on February 12, Saturday when he got a call from Brijesh Patel, the IPL governing council chairman. The conversation went somewhat like this:

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Sharma had to make a hasty apology to his extended family – his wife’s sister and her family were visiting from Mumbai – at the lunch table, and an even hastier journey to the Gardenia, the hotel where the IPL 2022 mega auction had been dramatically paused two hours into the first day after Hugh Edmeades took ill, collapsing on the rostrum because of “postural hypotension”, which happens if the blood pressure drops when one goes from lying down to sitting up, or from sitting to standing.Familiar to cricket viewers as a television presenter and commentator, Sharma has also been an auctioneer. He was the right man, with the right skill sets, and importantly, at the right place. In Bengaluru, the right place is essential, as anyone who has watched seasons change while waiting at the Silk Board traffic signal can attest to. Sharma lives roughly a ten-minute distance from the hotel.On that Saturday, not being associated with the IPL in any professional capacity, Sharma wasn’t following the auction on television. He knew it was taking place, but that was about it. Ordinarily, he might not even have been home on a Saturday afternoon. He usually plays golf then.

****

The story of how the IPL 2022 auction didn’t get derailed when Edmeades collapsed, begins four months ago in October 2021, during the Everest Premier League played in Kathmandu, Nepal. A tournament that didn’t feature a single player who would go on to get picked up at the IPL 2022 auction ended up being the saviour.”I’ve been doing big-time television since donkey’s years, so I was wondering ‘What’s different here?'”•BCCI”I was there about four months ago in early October, and I was going with some friends late at night and I took a toss and hurt my shoulder really badly. It’s torn in a couple of places,” Sharma tells ESPNcricinfo. “I’m getting it looked at, it’s still not ready yet. But if it ready, I would have been on the golf course on a Saturday afternoon, playing a round of golf with my phone tucked away not to be looked at! But I wasn’t. I was home.”The injury is serious enough that Sharma has taken to playing tennis left-handed. It’s much more difficult to play golf left-handed.Sharma had no accreditation. He was an outsider to the bubble that the hotel had established, where everyone connected with the auction had routes and zones mapped out for where they could go.The accreditation issue was the least of his worries. “I rang up Brijesh when I was a minute away and he said he’s sending someone down to come fetch me up,” Sharma recounts. “I met two or three key people, one was of course Hemang Amin, the CEO of the BCCI and also the IPL COO. Brijesh of course was there.”But while working against a ticking clock, he had forgotten an important piece of equipment back home. It was when meeting the television producer, “an old friend”, that Sharma remembered he had left behind his earpiece – through which producers speak to anchors on live TV to direct the broadcast.”I had forgotten my earpiece at home, because I just ran. Of course they could give me an earpiece but one of the small tools of the trade is to have your own moulded earpiece,” Sharma says. “I’ve had mine ever since I started out in Prime Sports in 1994-95, so it’s like a 27-year-old relic. But it’s my moulded earpiece. It’s made to your ear, custom-built. So I quickly rang up my wife, and she said, ‘As usual you have forgotten something, haven’t you?’ I said I had, and I told her where the earpiece was and she sent it over. It got there in time, just before the telecast, took about ten minutes to come. I had about 20 minutes from the time I entered Gardenia to going into the auction room.”

“The auctioneer is just a (story-teller), just channelling all this together. The auctioneer… I don’t know how people will take this, but there’s a very minimal level of skill involved. You just have to be careful about how much of your personality you infuse in that system”Charu Sharma

Sharma’s entry was an inevitable bubble breach, but as breaches go, it was probably the safest one the organisers could have asked for. Not only was he triple vaccinated – he had taken his booster shot “some time back” – but he had also got a negative RT-PCR test that very week.”Well… they had to take a risk,” Sharma smiles. “But I’d just come back from Pune, where I was doing the ATP Tour’s Tata Open, the only major tennis event that happens in India on the ATP tour [from January 30 to February 6]. And I had to get an RT-PCR to come back to Karnataka. So I was pretty recently tested.”But they (the IPL organisers) also did an RT-PCR test. A lady came in a hazmat suit and said, ‘RT-PCR’. I said, ‘Okay, fair enough’. So they did take precautions. The results would be coming later, but I wasn’t hobnobbing with too many people, who were sitting on the tables. And I didn’t have symptoms, plus I was recently tested… and I am triple vaccinated.”Once Sharma had his earpiece and had been provided with an auctioneer’s booklet, which had details of who was up next, the groups, who would be picking the players’ names and more “basic pieces of information”, he was all set. The IPL organisers were willing to give him more time if he wanted. He didn’t.”I don’t mean to overemphasise this, but the focus really is on the players. Which team are they going to, at what price. The drama of the auction is ,” Sharma says. “The auctioneer is just a (narrator), just channelling all this together. The auctioneer… I don’t know how people will take this, but there’s a very minimal level of skill involved. It’s a system-led thing. You just have to be careful about how much of your personality you infuse in that system. You can’t be too strict, too wild, too funny… too anything. That middle line is important.”Because of his work in cricket and other sports, Sharma was familiar with several people in the auction room at the bidding tables, but greetings were brief, though cordial, and he entered the room focussing more on the job at hand. When the bidding for the first day ended, Sharma still didn’t know whether he would be needed on Sunday, February 13, or whether Edmeades would be well enough to resume.”It wasn’t my call at all. I wasn’t asking any leading questions of what about tomorrow,” Sharma says. “But they were kind enough to say that, ‘frankly, we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow; we believe he’s much better now’. Hemang did tell me that at this point of time he couldn’t tell me for sure, but he would call me by 9am the next morning. And both Brijesh and Hemang did call. They asked me to reach by 11, we could have a session to plan for the second day, which was more complicated because there were more categories. Day 1 was all the big names.”So I went there and they told me, ‘this is the situation, we feel that you begin and take it forward as much as you can – if he [Edmeades] feels up to it and we are happy with the situation, we’ll bring him right at the end, and you can hand it over and let him finish’.”Hugh Edmeades did return, right at the end, to finish the proceedings off•BCCIEdmeades eventually did make it back at the end of Day 2 for the last lot. Both men received a standing ovation from everyone in the hall – Edmeades for coming back fully recovered from a fall that looked scary, and Sharma for having taken up the baton of IPL auctioneer so seamlessly. The only minor sour note was facing some irritation from a franchise representative or two, who suggested Sharma could have closed some bids quicker instead of giving the room the chance to continue bidding.”Frankly, there’s no timer,” Sharma says. “You have to use your judgment. And your judgment is based on the interest you’re seeing. I did prod, more gently than otherwise, because you have to move along. But the essential part is, can you be just and fair to all? And I hope I was that. Nobody was given more than anybody else in terms of time.”They [the franchises] all want the hammer down. But I can’t be biased. One of the criteria for an auctioneer is extreme neutrality. But I’m human, so if there is excess irritation coming from one table, I do feel, ‘I don’t deserve this, and you guys should know better’. Let’s not bully people who are taking the whole project forward. So there’s a certain reciprocal irritation, but I can’t let it show. That would be unprofessional.”You kind of try and laugh it off internally. If someone is being immature, or in some way unprofessional, or not going with the flow appropriately, I can’t respond. I really shouldn’t, and I never have. So why do that now?”Was any residual irritation left by the end of it? “I don’t know about them, but not me. Some of them were very, very nice. They came up and expressed their happiness and gratitude. The one or two people who didn’t come up, didn’t come up.”What Sharma took from the two-day experience, though, was some wonderment and a feeling of appreciation.”I’ve been doing big-time television since donkey’s years, so I was wondering ‘what’s different here?’ Most of the comments were very congratulatory and positive, which was very nice of people. Must have done something right! But for me, it was just about what I do. I am just glad I was at hand and thankful. I’d like to thank everybody who I haven’t been able to, through your medium. I was a little overwhelmed. Never got this kind of outpouring. Maybe the times have changed. I’m grateful for that outpouring.”When asked what happened after Day 1 ended, Sharma laughed and said, “Extreme fatigue!”But he did get a sense that the manner in which he had stepped in and conducted the auctions had been received very positively.”I hadn’t touched my phone, I had left it with one of the staff. I go back home and there is a fair deluge of messages. I said, ‘Oh my god, what happened here!’ And the family said, ‘Okay, now we know what you ran off for, and we forgive you’.”So the television at home did get tuned in to the IPL auction finally?Sharma smiles. “Yes, it did.”

Jack Leach grateful for change of luck on day of hard toil

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Spinner enjoys bizarre moment of success as part of 30-over workload at Headingley

Vithushan Ehantharajah23-Jun-2022For a player who has had more than his fair share of tough breaks, even in this New Zealand series alone, few could begrudge Jack Leach “prising out” Henry Nicholls in the manner he did on day one of the third and final Test.Having used his feet superbly to get to the pitch of the ball, Nicholls thumped a half-volley down the ground, seemingly for four. However in the process of taking evasive action at the non-striker’s end, Daryl Mitchell deflected the strike off the face of the bat and into the hands of Alex Lees at mid-off.”Never seen anything like it,” Leach said, sporting a broad smile in the post-match press conference. “It was very lucky for me, very unlucky for Nicholls.Related

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“I don’t like those wickets really. I like it because it says two wickets on the board. But you have to take it. It’s not going to be something that I’m going to re-watch many times.”That Leach ended up playing a big part for England on the opening day tells you all you need to know about the Headingley surface they were dealing with after Kane Williamson won the toss and chose to bat. There was no other call to make on a hard surface which looked the palest of the three served up this series and you could argue the hosts did well to ensure day two begins with New Zealand 225 for 5.Leach, however, relished the opportunity to send down 30 of the 90 overs, for figures of 2 for 75. He struck with his first delivery, trapping opening batter Will Young lbw from around the wicket.”It’s nice to get into the game early as a spinner. Getting a wicket early eases everything for you, too.”The weather and wicket – it was good toil out there. I tried to be as aggressive as I could. I knew they were going to come at me.”Leach was also one of two cap presentations on Thursday morning, as he received his 25th Test cap by James Anderson shortly before Jamie Overton received a first from twin brother, Craig. Leach was typically humble about the occasion, even if his current statistics of 84 wickets and average of 33.57 are enough to reflect he has certainly not wasted those appearances.”I’m just happy to be out there playing. To reach 25 caps was a bit of a surprise. I thought I was on 24. It’s a nice little milestone. Makes you proud of what you achieved. I didn’t think I’d get one, so it’s special. Nice to get it from a legend and someone who helped me from my game [Anderson].”The parallels between his career overall and the series were also worthy of note, especially after a concussion on the first day at Lord’s, which ruled him out of the rest of that first Test. It continued a trend of unfortunate injuries picked up at inopportune times. Indeed the wicket of Nicholls might suggest his luck is changing, at the ground where he played a historic support act to Ben Stokes against Australia in 2019.”[It’s been] very much up and down,” he said of the last few weeks. “Like most of my career. Lord’s was a freak – just trying to run to the boundary like our coach used to do. Didn’t quite go to plan and then it was about being ready for Trent Bridge. That was an amazing game to be part of. I didn’t feel I bowled as well as I could. Probably due to the lead-up to that game. Today I felt in pretty good rhythm. It’s great to be back here.”

Vote for your favourite moment of IPL 2022

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Hot pace, a cool pose, sixes to finish and a replacement shining on the big stage feature in our best moments from the season

Shashank Kishore31-May-2022Stunning finishes from Rahul Tewatia, MS Dhoni and David Miller, Umran Malik’s fiery spell, Daniel Sam’s redemption and Yuzvendra Chahal’s hat-trick celebration feature in our list. Which one did you enjoy the most?

Jhulan Goswami's career is ending, but her intensity is still at max

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Heading into her last international series, the great Indian bowler is still giving it her all

Annesha Ghosh17-Sep-2022It’s bedlam at the East Bengal and ATK Mohun Bagan tents overlooking Eden Gardens. A Kolkata derby in football’s Durand Cup is just two days away and fans, desperate to get their hands on the few tickets still available offline, are jostling for footholds.The queue, skirting the periphery of the maidan grounds overlooking India’s oldest cricket stadium, runs over a kilometre. It starts to drizzle. Tempers fray. The din swells by the second. Passers-by stop in their tracks, necks craning, to watch the chaos, seemingly content to suspend all the pressing business of a late-August weekday morning.My mind drifts to the quiet of Eden Gardens and its vicinity on days when no games are scheduled. Having grown up in the city, I am also acutely aware of how normal it is for people here to go bonkers ahead of, and during, any East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan fixture.Related

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Before long, an SUV rolls into sight from the Esplanade side of Goshto Pal Sarani, named after the former Indian football captain from the city. My reverie is snapped as the sole occupant in the imposing black beast of a vehicle comes into view.The context for Jhulan Goswami’s entrance to the stadium is fitting. She is here for one of her last training sessions at her home ground, a few weeks out from her impending retirement. Football holds an important place in the 39-year-old Goswami’s journey. It was the image of a tearful Maradona after Argentina’s loss in the 1990 World Cup final that first kindled the love of sport in Goswami, who was eight then.It is an improbable genesis to a tale of an even more unlikely rise: of a girl from small-town Bengal who went to the top of the game in women’s international cricket, and who now has a high-profile biopic in the works.That last explains why the guard at Gate 14, noticing the camera around my neck and Goswami’s nod at me from behind the wheel, politely asks if I’m there in connection to the movie about “didi”. I say I’m there to watch her train. Elaboration is not needed, I soon gather. “Lord’s will be her swansong, I know,” the middle-aged guard says, visibly proud he knows where Goswami’s career will end. Her brief stay in the city is sandwiched between visits to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, from where she flies to England for her final bow in international cricket.

Odomos “is a must”, bellows Goswami, half in jest, about the mosquito-repellent cream she swears by, a sentiment echoed by most Bengalis

I follow Goswami into the reception area on the ground floor. No sooner does she arrive than members of the Bengal senior women’s squad magically spill out from the two change rooms nearby, almost as if on cue.Most of these players are about half her age, and none as towering in stature, figurative or literal. Their good mornings come thick and fast, their reverence apparent. You sense that long before she became their team-mate and “Jhulu di”, Goswami was the Pied Piper who drew them, and a number of other young girls in Bengal and beyond, into the sport.

****

The clock has just ticked past noon. Goswami, having changed into her training clothes, is smearing her limbs with a substance that has nothing to do with athletic performance. Odomos “is a must”, she bellows, half in jest, about the mosquito-repellent cream she swears by, a sentiment echoed by most Bengalis.More solemn pre-training precautionary measures follow. The team physio goes across to where Goswami waits to have her right elbow taped. This is to cushion her bowling arm against over-exertion and preserve it for India’s tour of England, where the final match of the three-ODI leg on September 24 is set to be her last in India colours.The rest of the 29-member Bengal squad, meanwhile, have begun limbering up inside. Goswami walks in and, away from her team-mates, starts loosening up. Head, arms, feet, back, all of the 5’11” machinery is worked with the precision that has marked her training all these years.Behind her is a large poster marking her 200th ODI wicket, from the 2018 tour of South Africa. It is the only one in the premises of a woman among an otherwise all-male pantheon of Indian cricket legends.Goswami adjusts the posture of one of the U-16 players at the training session•Annesha GhoshAt one end of the indoor facility, the younger lot begin speed-running drills under the watch of Bengal coaches Probal Dutta, Rituparna Roy, and Shiv Sagar Singh. Jogging at the far end in the meantime, Goswami, who has been a mentor to the state’s women’s teams across all age groups since July, keeps an eye on her team-mates.Her warm-up over, she relays notes to the coaching staff. When she links up with the rest of the squad for sprints, the switch from mentor to team-mate is instant, her commitment to presenting her competitive best evident. She hares in during the short-distance dashes, round after round, the envy of her colleagues with legs twice as quick and strong.”That’s Jhulan for you and that’s her discipline,” Roy, a former Bengal team-mate, would later reflect, echoing what India captain Harmanpreet Kaur said ahead of the UK tour. “That is why she’s still out there, playing at the highest level, while we hung up our boots a decade ago.”And it’s not just what you saw at that one training. Between tours or NCA visits, if she happens to be in Kolkata, you’ll either find her at the gym or doing laps at the Jadavpur ground. When no training sessions are scheduled, Jhulan makes her own schedule.”

****

On come the retractable nets and the sprawling empty space of the Eden Gardens indoor training arena transforms into a series of cages. Batters and bowlers are split into groups for the rest of the three-hour session. The latter line up at the farthest net at one end for a spot-bowling routine. Three plastic stumps are positioned at one end, a single stump and four markers between the good length and the blockhole regions at the other.Goswami windmills her arms and queues up behind about eight other bowlers, two of whom – left-arm spinner Gouhar Sultana and right-arm fast bowler Sukanya Parida – are India internationals. Each time Goswami comes on to bowl, it turns into something of a spectacle, with all eyes, even those of some batters in the adjacent nets, turning to her.

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The majority bowl with short run-ups; Goswami’s, though, is consistently longer. Short gallops extend into full strides. Tongue lodged in cheek in trademark fashion, her focus is fierce. She thunders into her jump, loads up pretty much how she would in a match, and explodes into her delivery stride, back fully bent, head leading low, nice and steady, arms swinging back in her follow-through.Most balls cannon into the stump; others thud into the wicketkeeper’s gloves or pads. The onlookers holler their appreciation. Given how high her accuracy is, you assume she won’t put her body through this kind of back-breaking exercise for long. She needs to save those knees for later, after all.But with Goswami there are no cheat codes or saving for later. She treats every training or gym session like the thousands before it, or the many that will follow leading up to Lord’s: as building blocks to optimal on-field performance. So there she is, bowling more rounds than you think is sane. More than even some of the spinners combined. More than the memory card in your camera will let you capture.A cup of tea and a five-minute breather are all she rewards herself with, following the frenetic bowling stint, after which she’s back in the nets. First, to try her hand at the side-arm throwdown equipment and then to monitor the rest of the playing group. She singles out a group of four and summons them to a corner. An animated chat ensues, the youngsters soaking in Goswami’s words in with rapt attention.”Jhulan di explained with great care why we must not look to go after every ball, and [the need to] practise strike rotation,” says Dhara Gujjar, the 21-year-old left-hand batting allrounder who was one of the players Goswami spoke to separately. “The bowlers, she said, are out there to outsmart us, so we need to be wise choosing the balls to attack, and play intelligent cricket.”

You sense that long before she became their team-mate and “Jhulu di”, Goswami was the Pied Piper who drew them, and a number of other young girls in Bengal and beyond, into the sport

Many like Gujjar, who has played the Challenger Trophy at the national level and is counted among the most promising up-and-coming young players from Bengal, stand to benefit long-term from Goswami’s keenness to pass her wisdom on to those coming up the ranks. The mentor-cum-player role she holds across all age brackets in women’s cricket in Bengal for the current season is a step in what will possibly be a transition into a coaching role after retirement for her.The biggest benefactors of such a career change for Goswami will likely be those at either end of the Indian cricket spectrum: the Under-16s and the national team. The BCCI has announced the introduction of a first-ever U-16 women’s one-day tournament for the upcoming season that kicks off next month. With a women’s IPL and an Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup scheduled to start next year, there will be greater focus than ever on developing the domestic pathway. A robust feeder line will boost the quantity and quality of players who emerge into contention for national selection.Excitement rings in Goswami’s voice when I ask about what she has lined up for the rest of her day. “I’ll stay back,” she says. “The Under-16 girls have a session right after ours. Uff, what potential! Who says there’s no talent in women’s cricket here, there’s no talent in India? These kids can be world-beaters.”Over the next hour and a half, she watches, interacts with, and helps fix the postures of a number of U-16 players, brought together from the city and its suburbs. By the time she leaves the arena, polishes off a boiled egg, sandwich and banana, and changes out of her training gear, it’s close to 5pm.The din outside has subsided, the vista clear of crowd and clouds alike. Some distance from Eden Gardens, the Mohun Bagan and Kalighat teams are locked in a football practice game. As Goswami drives away in her SUV, the guard at Gate 14 shoots a smile at me. “So, what did you watch at training for so long?” I tell him I saw a bit of the past, present and future of Indian women’s cricket.

Ben Stokes steals the crucial scenes in another box-office display of bravado

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Commanding in every sense of the word, captain has never been more at ease with himself

Vithushan Ehantharajah27-Aug-2022It has been quite the week for Ben Stokes. The premiere of his documentary was on Monday, before preparations for the second Test with South Africa began on Tuesday. He reiterated he was a captain who would never ask his team to do something he wouldn’t on Wednesday. After marshalling the field expertly on Thursday, he scored his first hundred as Test captain on Friday, then produced a remarkable 2 for 30 in a 14-over spell – his third longest at this level – and inspired an innings and 85-run win on Saturday. Now, with a series squared 1-1 inside three days, ensuring the decider at the Kia Oval is almost two weeks away, he and England can chill on Sunday.Was this the best of England’s five wins, with Stokes and Brendon McCullum calling the shots this summer? It’s hard to say, given the emotions when you chase sizeable scores, which this lot evoked four times in the space of six weeks. However, off the back of the innings humiliation at Lord’s last week, perhaps this win, so emphatic it ranks as “retaliation” rather than response, puts it ahead of the rest.It was a performance of character – specifically that of the man at the centre of it all. Which isn’t easy to discuss with the man himself, given that Stokes is one of the most irritating cricketers to champion because of how reluctant he is to hear it. Despite deserving his player-of-the-match award, for 103 and match figures of 4 for 47, he attempted to palm it off to Ben Foakes for his unbeaten 113.There was a brief slip to Stokes’ mask when discussing the turning point of the day (if not the match itself, which was never less than in England’s control). Armed with a ball that was 65 overs old and not doing very much, he fashioned two dismissals out of almost nothing. And off the back of a commanding presence on the big screen, he admitted to an insatiable desire to inject drama into proceedings on the big field. To always want to be the leading man.”When you are bowling with the older ball when nothing is really happening, you have to create your own energies and own theatre around that,” Stokes said. “It’s something I’ve done over my career with the older ball, just to try and run in and hit the wicket as hard as I can and try and make something out of nothing. Then let the new-ball bowlers take the rewards at the end.”The quality of Stokes’ spell reaffirmed the sense that his primary role as a bouncer-merchant is a bit reductive, like hiring Adele and asking her to whistle. By now, we know full well he is the only quick in the current team who can summon the pace and necessary bounce to make bouncers worthwhile. But he is objectively a better bowler when he’s pitching into the other half, on good and full lengths where his late movement, whether conventional or reverse, can do its thing. So much so that you wonder if somewhere out in the multiverse there is a “Ben Stokes, opening bowler” with more than just the four five-wicket hauls belonging to this version.That was reinforced on either side of a tea break that acted as a neat divide between the two iterations of the same seamer. First, a spell of six overs right to the end of the second session, in which his primary aim was to test the nerves of Keegan Petersen and Rassie van der Dussen, who were exuding a calm no Proteas had experienced since Dean Elgar’s fateful decision on Thursday to bat first. Of the 36 deliveries sent down at an average pace of 81.87mph, 23 were short or short of a good length.Ben Stokes ripped out Keegan Petersen in a brilliant double-whammy after tea•ECB via Getty ImagesBarring the unconventional field settings and the theatrics of a crowd crescendoing with every charge to the crease, it was a docile conclusion to the session. And as England re-emerged after tea, it seemed this match was heading into a fourth day. Stokes, however, had recalibrated. In went two slips, as part of a broadly run-of-the-mill field for a fuller approach and, nine balls into the evening, both set batters were gone.After jarring the fractured index finger of van der Dussen’s top hand with a delivery that hit high on the bat, a fuller delivery arching away from the right-hander finally enticed him into a flirt after almost three hours of celibacy. The ecstasy of ending a belligerent 42.5-over stand – South Africa’s longest of the match, in which the 87 runs were almost irrelevant – was clear on the faces of everyone in the field. Not least the man responsible, who was tearing away towards Old Trafford’s party stand, with an open invitation to jump in and join them. Stokes’s team-mates got to him before he could get a round in.The delivery to Petersen was the kind that parents of batters talk of to get them to eat their greens. Somehow, on a surface that hadn’t shown any demons in the 29 wicketless overs of the previous session, Stokes got one to spit off a length and almost rip Petersen’s gloves clean off.As it happens, it was Stokes bowling to Petersen before tea that led to this change of tack. “By fluke really,” Stokes explained afterwards. “I bowled two bouncers in the over, but because Keegan’s quite small, I had to pitch it up and it actually started to swing in the air and that is when we changed our plans, because I’ve always thought when the ball starts reverse-swinging that’s when I feel I’m at my best.” He was right, of course.Related

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In his next 48 balls, before he handed the Brian Statham End back to Ollie Robinson and the new ball, Stokes bowled 23 full or length deliveries, with just three short. His average speed was 82.8mph, with the quickest clocking in at 85.6mph. His efforts battered a door which was hanging off its hinges by the time the shiny new Dukes ball came about. James Anderson and Robinson made light work of the tail, with 5 for 7 in 31 balls between them, making it an overall collapse of 7 for 38 from tea.Might this also have been Stokes’ best showing as a captain? Even as things went quiet in that middle session, with the game going nowhere, he remained at ease. He didn’t chase the ball with his field settings; he backed his bowlers, not least the wicketless but uber-economical Jack Leach, with all the necessary catchers in close and the odd distraction in the batter’s eyelines. Chucking Joe Root a ball just nine overs old to start the day was a little odd, mind, and he should have reviewed an edge behind off his bowling from van der Dussen eight balls before tea. But otherwise, it was an exhibition of canniness and nous from a man whose actions are often attributed to emotion and anger.Is it maturity? Probably. Does it link in with the evolution of this England team? Almost certainly. One Test remains of what has been a heartening summer for English Test cricket. And perhaps the most encouraging aspect of all this, in a week where he laid out his pain and anxieties to the rest of the world, Stokes has never looked more comfortable in this job and his own skin.

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