There were several questions floating around about his methods against West Indies at Perth Stadium, but once again he got the job done in extraordinary manner

Alex Malcolm04-Dec-2022Spin to win in Perth? It’s almost blasphemous to say it out loud. The home of some of the fastest and bounciest pitches in the world, built on the mythical Harvey River clay from Waroona in southwest Western Australia that sets like concrete in the baking WA sun.But Perth Stadium’s drop-in pitches, built in the mould of the WACA, the place that still adorns Dennis Lillee’s name, have been manna from heaven for Nathan Lyon as Australia’s offspinner once again spun them to victory, by six wickets against West Indies, in the fourth innings of a Perth Test match.Related

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Lyon crept past R Ashwin to climb to eighth on the all-time Test wickets-takers list with 446. That he went past Ashwin is a fascinating talking point, and Ashwin could well reclaim higher ground on that list at some point.But what is truly mind-blowing is Lyon’s record at Perth Stadium. In three matches there he has collected 22 wickets at 18.45, striking every 42.4 deliveries. But in the fourth innings of those three matches he has spun Australia to victory each time having taken three, four and six wickets in each individual fourth innings at an average 17.69 overall, striking every 38.9 deliveries.Throughout this six-wicket haul against West Indies, there was a chorus of voices from the various broadcast boxes questioning Lyon’s methods. He was bowling too fast, too straight and from too wide on the crease for some of their liking. Former WA offspinner Bruce Yardley, who took 126 Test wickets for Australia including 19 at the WACA ground at 25.73, striking at 62.7, used to get tight to the stumps with a side-on action, flight the ball slower above the eyes and curve it away on the Fremantle doctor (Perth’s southwesterly breeze) to pitch wide of off to the right-handers and spin the ball back or slide it on with the arm. Those of Yardley’s generation and those who were coached by his generation cannot compute what Lyon is doing.Lyon’s six wickets came with deliveries at speeds of 90.7kph, 89, 90.2, 98, 86.2 and 87.7. Two hit off stump. The other four were on the stumps. Of those four, three asked questions of the batter’s defence as they were caught on the crease trying to determine how much it would spin and bounce. Some were beaten on the inside by balls that spun, others on the outside by balls that slid on, but none had the time to adjust and play him off the pitch. The other was Roston Chase, who tried to go aerial but got nowhere near the pitch of it, because of the speed and drop, and dragged a catch to deep midwicket.Chase recognised what Lyon was able to do having 23 balls from him during his 85-ball 55, and having bowled 37 overs of offspin on the same Perth pitch for figures of 1 for 171.”Once I saw what he did in their first innings bowling I just tried to emulate that and bowl a bit quicker, put a little more pace on the ball along with some revs on in the second innings,” Chase said.”As the wicket deteriorated, I thought he was trying to use the rough a little bit more to put doubt in the batter’s mind. But the wicket didn’t really offer much spin. So I think it was kind of easy. Although he still got six wickets, I didn’t think that it was that hard to really bat [against] him in terms of the ball spinning on bouncing as he usually has it throughout his career. But he’s still got six wickets. So, kudos to him.”That is Lyon’s skill now. He can create deception on a surface which is offering very little assistance to him. It is a skill his team-mates and particularly his captain Pat Cummins appreciates.”I think he’s got plenty of different tricks now,” Cummins said. “He’s obviously always had a really good offspinner but the way he moves around the crease. You saw him bowl over the wicket, around the wicket a lot.”Felt like he could beat them on the outside of the bat or he could bring bat pad into play. He just feels like he’s got a few different ways he can get a batter out and he’s happy chopping and changing between them, perhaps more than early on in his career.”One thing he’s always been good at but continues to get better and better is he can bowl 25-30 quality overs in a day and there aren’t many bowlers in the world that can do that.”Lyon will continue to have his doubters, those that point to his recent fourth innings against India in 2021 in Sydney and Brisbane, or 2022 against England in Sydney and against Pakistan in Karachi where he was unable to spin Australia across the line.Like spin to win in Perth, there will be those who believe that comparisons to Ashwin are blasphemous given Ashwin’s far superior Test average and strike rate. There is no debate that Ashwin’s record leaves Lyon’s in the dust in Asia. But in fourth innings in Australia, South Africa, England and New Zealand, Ashwin averages 34.70 and strikes at 95.9 compared to Lyon’s average of 29.87 and strike rate of 64.7.Both men are one-of-a-kind and incomparable to each other. But Lyon’s performance in Perth and his record at Perth Stadium should be appreciated for what it is: simply extraordinary.

Also, who will be Sunrisers’ next captain? And why were spinners in such low demand at the auction?

Vishal Dikshit24-Dec-2022Who will be Sunrisers Hyderabad’s captain?
Sunrisers themselves don’t know yet, head coach Brian Lara said on Friday, adding that calling Mayank Agarwal, who led Punjab Kings last year, their captain already was “unfair” because of “a couple of senior players in the squad already.”2:04

Brian Lara: ‘Haven’t taken a decision on SRH captain yet’

Their other options with captaincy experience are Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Aiden Markram, but both come with caveats. Bhuvneshwar is very injury-prone and played only four of Sunrisers’ 16 games in the 2021 season. Markram led South Africa to their Under-19 World Cup title in 2014 and captained South Africa A teams too but his leadership at international level was forgettable; he lost all five ODIs to India as stand-in captain in early 2018, although with a depleted side.Naming an overseas captain is also always tricky because of the foreign players’ cap in the XI, and many franchises have had to change captains in the middle of IPL seasons when they go through lean patches with the bat.Related

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Why did Pooran’s price go up from INR 10.75 to 16 crore despite his poor recent form?
Some may have thought that Pooran’s IPL stock would have fallen because of his poor recent run: since August this year, Pooran averages only 10.80 from 20 T20 innings with a strike rate of 114.28. Those included his disappointing scores of 13, 7 and 5 in the T20 World Cup after which he resigned as West Indies captain.But a few things would have worked in Pooran’s favour in the auction on Friday. One, his recent scores. He turned his form around by hammering 345 runs in the Abu Dhabi T10 at a staggering strike rate of 234.69 with the help of 25 sixes and 31 fours in just 10 innings. Second, he has impressive strike rates against both spin (152.20 in 31 innings) and pace (151.42 from 39 innings) in the IPL.Lastly, many teams were looking for a wicketkeeper and Pooran fits into that role. Whether INR 16 crore ($1.95 million) was worth spending on him or not is debatable, but such are the dynamics of a mini-auction.Why did Curran get more money than Stokes?
That the allrounders were going to fetch the fattest pay cheques was obvious but it so happened that the most experienced of the three – Sam Curran, Cameron Green and Ben Stokes – earned the lowest amount among them.Most expensive buys in IPL auctions•ESPNcricinfo LtdOne reason was that Stokes’ name was the last to come up among the three of them. Within a particular set – like allrounders – names were picked randomly, and teams had to bid for the name that came up. Curran came up second, after Shakib Al Hasan, and Kings broke their bank. Green was the next high-profile allrounder and this time Mumbai Indians splurged on him. By the time Stokes appeared, Kings and Mumbai were not going to bid, Sunrisers had already spent INR 21.50 crore ($2.6 million approx.) on Harry Brook and Mayank Agarwal, and some franchises were already running low on money so were out of the race. That reduced the spending power of most franchises but Chennai Super Kings still shelled out nearly $2 million for Stokes.The second reason is that Curran’s overall utility as a T20 players has overtaken Stokes’ in recent times. For example, in all T20s since the beginning of 2020, Curran’s batting strike rate against spin is 154.69 compared to Stokes’ 137.55. Curran also stepped up his death bowling in England’s victorious T20 World Cup campaign by leakin just 70 runs in his 64 balls whereas Stokes barely bowled in the death overs.Third is that Curran is just 24, Stokes is 31 and the younger one automatically becomes a longer-term investment in the IPL.Why did teams pick non-T20 specialists Rahane and Root?
They might be playing domestic T20s but Ajinkya Rahane’s last T20I was back in 2016 and Joe Root’s in 2019. Both batters, however, still found takers in the most competitive T20 league in the world.Even though Rahane scored at only 118 runs per 100 balls in the last Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Mumbai, what works in his favour is his familiarity with Indian pitches and his technique on slow and turning tracks. Now that Super Kings go back to the slow Chepauk pitches, Rahane’s game could come handy especially as an impact player when wickets fall in clusters, and in low-scoring chases.Root, contrastingly, is coming to the IPL to gain some experience of Indian pitches before the 50-over World Cup. Ever since he has given up Test captaincy, Root has been vocal about his desire to develop his T20 game and could play the role of an anchor for Rajasthan Royals after an otherwise explosive top order of Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson. An amount of INR 1 crore ($121,000 approx.) was not too much anyway.Another factor that worked for both Rahane and Root is that the tournament now has ten teams which results in more players being bought at the auction.Ajinkya Rahane, who was picked up by Super Kings, last played a T20I in 2016•PTI Why did Sunrisers not keep money aside for star allrounders despite having the biggest purse?
Sunrisers had the fattest purse of INR 42.25 crore heading into the auction and it would have made perfect sense for them to splurge on one of the high-profile allrounders.But even before they came up, Sunrisers spent more than half their money – INR 21.50 crore ($2.6 million approx.) – on Brook and Agarwal. Brook’s T20 strike rate of 167.43 in Asia combined with current form, and a solid top-order India batter in Agarwal made sense to strengthen the squad, but it didn’t leave Sunrisers with much money early on to bag a big allrounder.Head coach Lara said later that with the new impact rule, they were looking at specialists to have flexibility in their squad. Sunrisers also revealed that they expected Agarwal to go for INR 10-15 crore so were happy to get him for INR 8.25 crore ($1 million approx.) and spent a little extra on Brook, who they also thought would go for around INR 10 crore. They tried to go after Stokes later but had to back out once the bids reached INR 15 crore ($1.8 million approx.) so that they could buy more players later on.How will Green fit in to Mumbai XI?
That Green comes in as Kieron Pollard’s replacement is clear but where will he bat? He can fit in anywhere in the batting order but is best used at the top, going on current form. Mumbai already have Suryakumar Yadav and Tim David as powerful finishers so Green would best fit either as the explosive opener with Rohit Sharma or even come at No. 3 if Mumbai want a left-right pair at the top with Rohit and Ishan Kishan.If required, Mumbai could use Green lower down too when they want Suryakumar to bat at No. 3.Who’s going to be Mumbai’s lead spinner?
Before the auction, Mumbai had only the inexperienced duo of Kumar Kartikeya and Hrithik Shookeen as the main spinners in their line-up. They didn’t go after Shreyas Gopal, they didn’t try to buy back Mayank Markande or M Ashwin, and got back Piyush Chawla instead, who didn’t play the 2022 IPL (unsold) and got just one game in the 2021 edition.It has resulted in lack of proper spin-bowling options for Mumbai, unless they take the gamble of playing an out-of-favour Chawla regularly, which also goes against what owner Akash Ambani said on Friday that they wanted to buy many young players to build a squad for the future.Cameron Green can bat anywhere in the line-up, but Mumbai will be best suited using him at the top of the order•Getty ImagesWho is CSK’s death bowler after Bravo’s departure?
That Stokes comes straight in for Dwyane Bravo in the XI is a no-brainer but who is going to bowl in the death for Super Kings now? Bravo was a sure shot option for two of the last four overs, especially useful on the slow pitches in Chepauk and could even turn games around single-handedly.Stokes has bowled just 29 balls in the death overs since the beginning of 2021 which means Super Kings will turn to Maheesh Theekshana, who has been doing the same job for Sri Lanka and for Jaffna Kings in their victorious Lanka Premier League campaign. This year, he has an impressive economy rate of 7.35 in the death overs, ahead of the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Sam Curran and others.Why were spinners in such low demand at this auction?
Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Mohhammad Nabi, Shreyas Gopal and Tabraiz Shamsi all went unsold, while some others like Adil Rashid, Adam Zampa, M Ashwin and Markande were all sold at their base price, which means they got only one bid each.Some of the top spinners in the world had already been retained by the franchises ahead of the mini-auction so teams mainly needed back-ups to fill some spots this time. Picking overseas spinners who can’t bat would not make much sense for that because that occupies one overseas slot and even if that player can be subbed in or out with the new impact rule, it must be done within the four-overseas limit rule.For the Indian names, there weren’t as many takers because most of the teams already had enough spin options in their ranks. Knight Riders added Shakib to support Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, and Kings also brought an allrounder in Sikandar Raza to add to Rahul Chahar and Harpreet Brar. Royals have Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin. Capitals have Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. Royal Challengers Bangalore have Wanindu Hasaranga , Shahbaz Ahmed and Karn Sharma in their ranks. Super Kings have Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, Theekshana and Mitchell Santner. Lucknow Super Giant have Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi and K Gowtham, and Gujarat Titans have Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia and Jayant Yadav.

His strike rate of 194.02 against spin is the best among all batters who’ve faced at least 50 balls this season

Shashank Kishore19-May-20232:11

Moody: Margin of error for a spinner against Klaasen is very small

AB de Villiers called Heinrich Klaasen “one of the best players of spin” he has seen. Sachin Tendulkar marvelled at his “simple and uncomplicated footwork.” Kevin Pietersen praised his clarity in picking lengths. Chris Gayle was gobsmacked at the tempo he maintained. This was modern-day batting royalty awestruck by what they had seen.Fans wondered whether Klaasen was going to do to Royal Challengers Bangalore what ex-RCB players normally do. In the dugout, Brian Lara applauded with the pride a father would have at seeing his child achieve something special. Mayank Agarwal punched the air in delight as an advancing Klaasen muscled Harshal Patel over the sight screen to bring up his hundred. Minutes later, Harshal himself applauded Klaasen after dismissing him with a dipping yorker.Klaasen’s 51-ball 104, his second T20 century, on a Hyderabad surface where the rest of his team-mates made 76 off 69, told you of his command over the bowling and how he turned the innings around single-handedly. Klaasen admitted Sunrisers Hyderabad were a few runs short, and he was right. It would’ve been enough on most nights, but for a peerless Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis.Related

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ESPNcricinfo’s Total Impact valued Klaasen’s 104 runs at 152. It’s calculated based on the context of the performance. In this case, it factored in the situation in which Klaasen began his innings – in the fifth over after the openers fell cheaply. It quantifies pressure by factoring in overs left, quality of batters at the crease and those to follow, quality of the bowling, and overs each bowler has left. The conditions weren’t easy either, and Klassen said there was slowness in the pitch.The hallmark of Klaasen’s hundred was the manner in which he attacked spin, especially when they pitched short. On the broadcast, they showed how Klaasen’s interception point while playing off the back foot against spin was behind any other batter this season. It told you of the time he had and his superb use of the crease.Klaasen’s strike rate of 194.02 against spin is the best among all batters who have faced at least 50 balls this season. Shivam Dube comes a distant second best at 172.64. Incredibly, he’s only one of three overseas players in IPL history to average 50-plus and strike at 175 or more while scoring 400 plus in a season. It puts him in an elite club with Chris Gayle and Andre Russell. That is IPL royalty.Klaasen’s performance has come across different surfaces that have slowed down as the tournament has progressed. And his method is intimidating without trying to intimidate. He doesn’t make exaggerated movements around the crease to throw the bowlers off. He isn’t trying to premeditate or play the paddles and switch-hits. Much of his strength comes from a strong core, a strong bottom hand and a stable set-up that allows him to pick different areas to similar deliveries. Like he did when he hit Shahbaz Ahmed for six over deep midwicket and flat-batted him to long-off to similar short-of-length balls on a fourth-stump line.Much of Klaasen’s strength comes from a strong core, a strong bottom hand and a stable set-up•Associated PressBut it wasn’t just his back-foot play that got him runs, as the legspinner Karn Sharma found out. Karn’s natural strength is to bowl quicker through the air with a flatter trajectory. When he dropped short, he faced the power of Klaasen’s pull. Because he’s so strong square of the wicket to balls bowled into the pitch, bowlers try to bowl full. Karn did that too, and Klaasen stepped out and lofted him for a straight six. He was simply toying with the bowling.”The ball was stopping a bit against spin, and there wasn’t much steep bounce from the seamers,” Klaasen said after his innings. “I try and keep it simple; the focus has been to have my head and hands dead still. Sometimes when you go searching for the ball, the up and down movement of the hands cause some inconsistency. The trick is to have hands and head as dead and still as possible.”It’s easier said than done, and to watch him execute his plans was to witness the mastery of a batter who’s coming into his own slowly but surely in the IPL. In their previous game against Lucknow Super Giants, Sunrisers may have rued letting Nicholas Pooran go as he tore into them in the death overs. A similar fate is unlikely to happen with Klaasen, for he’s been their brightest light in a pretty dark season.

The mid-season trades didn’t work, pace bowling was a problem, and their most successful spinner had a tournament to forget

Sreshth Shah21-May-20235:04

Moody: KKR’s issue was juggling of top order and uncertainty around XI

Where they finished

Position on table: Seventh, with 12 points
Wins: Six
Losses: Eight
By the time they produced complete team performances in the last fortnight of the league stage, Kolkata Knight Riders were all but eliminated. Their expensive mid-season trades did not provide a positive payoff, they identified their best openers very late and their most successful spinner in IPL history had an ordinary season. Pace bowling continued to be a problem and if it wasn’t for a couple of brilliant individual performances from their domestic talent, KKR could’ve finished even lower.Related

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The good – Domestic talent impress

Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh (alongside Andre Russell) provided a robust and attacking middle order that was dangerous both against pace and spin. Rinku and Rana were the most consistent among the four, and both batters are among the top five run-getters between Nos. 4 and 7 this season.Fast bowlers Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana showed promise even if their inexperience proved to be expensive in some games. Both showed signs that they can be regular new-ball bowlers in the future with their impeccable seam positions and stepped up when a lackluster Umesh Yadav was injured.Varun Chakravarthy, too, returned to his mysterious ways, taking 20 wickets this season. He was one level above the other KKR bowlers that also includes Sunil Narine. In fact, young Suyash Sharma on his debut IPL season impressed more than Narine with his 10 scalps in 11 games.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The bad – Unsettled at the top and trades underutilised

There were a lot of things that went wrong for KKR. Shreyas Iyer’s injury at the start of the season did not help, but neither did their choice of trying nine different opening pairs in 14 games. N Jagadeesan, Mandeep Singh, Venkatesh, Litton Das and Rahmanullah Gurbaz were all tried without each of them getting long runs, and till Jason Roy’s late arrival and subsequent boost, their first-wicket partnership always felt like a walking wicket.Shardul Thakur and Lockie Ferguson – two expensive trades between seasons – were not used enough in comparison to how much of their budget was spent on the pair. Ferguson had three ordinary outings, taking only three wickets with an economy north of 12.50 while Shardul averaged less than two overs per innings.Overseas player availability was also a problem. Their two Bangladesh overseas players had limited availability in the first place, and that problem was compounded when Shakib Al Hasan didn’t even travel to India. Roy, their best overseas player alongside Russell, was not even in their original squad and was drafted into the squad as a mid-season replacement.

Top performer: Rinku Singh

IPL 2023 has been a season of finishers across all teams but no story has quite been like Rinku’s. Backed by KKR since IPL 2018 through poor form and season-ending injuries, Rinku was the man who consistently saved KKR the blushes while also making his own case for an India cap.Rinku racked up 474 runs in one season – the most in IPL history by a batter coming in at No. 5 or below – while maintaining an average of 59.25 and a strike-rate of almost 150. Each of his four 50-plus scores came while chasing and while he was out there, other teams felt the pressure. Rinku hitting five sixes in the 20th over to seal a win over Gujarat Titans is one of the IPL’s most memorable moments, but he also closed out an important game against Punjab Kings with a last-ball four. He very nearly left LSG on the mat too in his last game with an unbeaten 67.

The highlights

Shardul’s 29-ball 68 in a come-from-behind win against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Rinku special in Ahmedabad where KKR chased down 31 in the final over. The season double over RCB. And the win against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk after 11 long years.

Poll

After an IPL to forget in 2022, he has a new franchise, a fit-again elbow and – having given up captaincy – a freed-up mind to help him find his best form again

Shashank Kishore29-Mar-2023As you enter the lounge area of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) inside the Motera complex in Ahmedabad, you see plenty of cricket photographs adorning the walls on all four sides. Kane Williamson is seen in the background of one of them, in which India’s prime minister and then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is seen shaking hands with Jeetan Patel.That picture is from 13 years ago, from the same Ahmedabad Test where Williamson became New Zealand’s youngest debutant centurion. That day, as he removed his helmet to acknowledge the applause of his team-mates, all Williamson managed was a shy smile along with his raised bat. In fact, Daniel Vettori, his captain, was the more animated of the two as he ran over to put his arm around the youngster’s shoulder, embraced him in a big hug and handed out a few pats on his back.That baby-faced, fresh-out-of-teens kid who didn’t even have stubble back then now returns to Ahmedabad for the first time since that hundred. Still, he’s as calm as a sage, but now he comes with a with a full-fledged beard that he often tends to as he speaks at a media interaction organised by Gujarat Titans, the reigning IPL champions. One second, he’s reminiscing about his debut in the city, the next he’s speaking of being part of two thrilling Tests within a month and hopping onto the next flight to India.Related

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He’s also asked about his prospects of being in Titans’ starting XI, and the hurt of not being retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad. Williamson is focused and unhurried. When there’s chatter in the foreground, he stops and waits patiently before he continues. And, as he speaks, as always, there’s an air of calm around him.”My cricketing brain certainly hasn’t been switched off,” he warms up with a laugh, when asked about how life has been since he decided to give up Test captaincy in December. “When you’re out on the field, you’re trying to do as much as you can for the team. Whether that’s assisting where you can when you’re called upon for your ideas or otherwise.”It’s quite a natural thing to be engaged in the game but having said that it [the decision to step down as Test captain] has taken a little bit off my plate, which was a large part of the reason for making that decision. Often, it’s the parts around it [captaincy], where you get a little bit more time back. I’ve always thought it was never a ‘forever job’, it requires a lot of energy, and I really enjoyed my time in that specific role. I do enjoy being involved in leadership, which is basically helping where I can.”Kane Williamson has handed the New Zealand captaincy reins over to Tim Southee•Getty Images”Less commitments off the field” has come as a relief. “It’s been a really enjoyable thing in terms of playing under Tim Southee, who is captaining the Test team and doing a great job,” Williamson says. “Having said that, there’s transition involved [of going from captain to just a player] without a doubt, there’s perhaps less commitments off the field.”It’s still a change, something that I’m experiencing at the moment and working through. I’m fortunate to have a number of leaders in the New Zealand environment. And then to come here and have Hardik [Pandya] captaining the side, it’s something I’m excited about as well.”Williamson isn’t just reinvigorated in mind, but he’s also no longer worried about his “niggling elbow”, which for so long had forced him to manage his workloads and sometimes even curbed certain shots or long throws at training.That elbow certainly appeared to have an effect on his batting. At IPL 2022, Williamson scored just 216 runs in 13 innings. His strike rate of 93.50 was the slowest among batters who faced at least 100 balls in the season. This time around, Williamson believes he’s in as good a physical state as he’s been before.

“My cricketing brain certainly hasn’t been switched off. When you’re out on the field, you’re trying to do as much as you can for the team. Whether that’s assisting where you can when you’re called upon for your ideas or otherwise.”Just because he’s not captain anymore doesn’t mean Kane Williamson switches off in the field

“Yeah, it was something that was improving slowly all the time, it was requiring management,” he explains. “It’s a lot better now and it’s not something that is restricting me in terms of training loads, playing and all those things. Although no injury is ideal and often injuries require time to heal, working through this was no different. It’s nice to be back playing, training and not be burdened by it.”Think Williamson and the IPL, and it’s hard to not imagine him in the orange uniform of Sunrisers Hyderabad, whom he had played for since 2015 and captained since 2018 before being let go after the 2022 season. But a change of teams and perspective, and being unshackled by leadership duties, could just free him up to play a key role, possibly at the top of the order with Shubman Gill.If Williamson pulls it off, helping Titans extend their debut-season success, chances are he’ll find himself in another big photo frame in the GCA lounge, with himself more front and centre, when he potentially returns to the Motera later this year for the ODI World Cup.

“I mainly practice yorkers”, says Indian quick who’s had to shoulder the responsibility of the end overs in Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer’s absence

Abhimanyu Bose21-May-20231:25

Have Mumbai found a specialist death bowler in Madhwal?

It’s the 19th over of the Sunrisers Hyderabad innings. Fifth ball. They are 186 for 3. The two previous overs have gone for six runs each, and Sunrisers, from looking good for 225-230, are now probably targeting 210 or thereabouts. On strike is Heinrich Klaasen, their best batter this season.Akash Madhwal runs in and bowls a seam-up delivery that moves in ever so slightly after pitching and cleans up Klaasen, who was looking to heave it across the line.Harry Brook is next in and he is welcomed with a searing yorker. He tries to get his bat down but is too late; the ball goes through his legs and crashes into the stumps.Madhwal, striking with his last two balls, finishes with 4 for 37.Related

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• Green century and Madhwal four-for help Mumbai Indians finish fourth

• Stats – Mumbai's season of 200-plus totals, Green's rapid century

Wickets, yes, but a bit more too. Something a little difficult to classify. The delivery before he knocked Klaasen over, Madhwal had bowled a wide yorker that was squeezed out for a single but called a no-ball. For the free-hit delivery, Madhwal nearly nailed the yorker again but not quite; his 135kph low full-toss, on the fifth-stump line, was still good enough for Markram to only dispatch to the off side for a single.It’s this ability, to bowl yorkers with quite some efficiency, that has made Madhwal Mumbai Indians’ go-to bowler at the death this season, a season when they haven’t had Jasprit Bumrah around at all and Jofra Archer available only for a while – and far from at his best – meaning the bowling has been their weaker suit by a distance.”I was just thinking about the execution. What I was doing in the nets, I just tried to execute that,” Madhwal said during the mid-innings break. “My communication with [Rohit Sharma] was also great, he was giving me a lot of confidence.””I mainly practice yorkers. Even in domestic cricket, I practice a lot for yorkers for the death overs.”But that penultimate over, in which he conceded just six runs, was not all Madhwal did to hurt SRH’s chances on the day.Akash Madhwal nailed his yorkers at the death•BCCIEarlier in the script, he saw off openers Vivrant Sharma and Mayank Agarwal with a couple of short balls. While Vivrant miscued a pull to deep midwicket, Agarwal’s attempted pull was edged to Ishan Kishan behind the stumps.Agarwal and Vivrant had put on a 140-run opening stand in 13.5 overs to set Sunrisers up for a really big total, but Madhwal’s wickets meant he and Chris Jordan could put the squeeze on them in the death overs and restrict them to exactly 200.”We were 173 for 3 in 17 [Sunrisers were 174 for 2]. You will think that in the next 18 balls, on that track, you will get 40-50 runs,” Sunrisers head coach Brian Lara said in the press conference after the match. “I think 220, not sure [even] that would have been enough, but it would have looked a lot better for us.”He [Madhwal] bowled well. Knocked over Klaasen and not many people were able to do it without being damaged first. But he was able to knock over our in-form player.”I think we were thinking in excess of 215 at that stage, but they pulled it back.”Cameron Green, whose first T20 century later on meant Mumbai Indians made short work of the target, said Madhwal had “completely changed the line-up” for Mumbai.”As soon as he has come into the team, he has changed our whole line-up basically,” Green said after the game. “I think with the role he is able to play, especially at the back-end, can help guys like myself and Jase [Jason Behrendorff], take overs off us [at the end] and we can bowl a little more through the powerplay. We can kind of mix and match different people to bowl at different times with how good he has been in the back end.””His addition has been incredible. He’s got a really good head on him. He is so calm out there. Looks like he’s made for it. He’s been awesome.”Madhwal has now played six games in the IPL and his four-wicket haul in Sunday’s must-win game for his team helped him double his wickets tally in the competition.Next year, Mumbai will hope that both Bumrah and Archer will be fit, and what their return would mean for Madhwal remains to be seen. But as an Indian quick bowler who can help shut innings out, he can provide Mumbai with a lot of flexibility in picking their team.

It ended with honours even, but on most counts – especially the run-scoring charts – England left Australia well behind

Sampath Bandarupalli01-Aug-20232:24

Stokes ‘proud’ of England team and ‘inspiring’ Stuart Broad

England go bang-bang, Australia do the grind

1.39 – The difference in the scoring rates of the two sides. England went at 4.74, while Australia’s run rate was 3.35. This was the highest difference between two teams in a series of four or more Tests, topping the 1.32 in favour of Australia against South Africa during their home series in 1931-32.ESPNcricinfo Ltd10.06 – Percentage of balls left alone by England batters in this series. Australia batters did the same to 19.25% of the deliveries they faced, almost twice that of England.36 – Maiden overs faced by England in the series out of the 645 completed overs. Australia batted out 171 maidens out of 894 completed overs, which meant the England bowlers earned a maiden once every five overs, while it was one in every 19 for Australia.1 – England batted 90-plus overs in this series only once of the seven times they were bowled out. In contrast, Australia lasted 90-plus overs on seven occasions, including in six out of the eight innings where they were bowled out.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4.41 – Difference in the batting averages of England (34.35) and Australia (29.94) during this series. This was the first time England ended an Ashes series with a higher batting average than Australia since the 2013 edition, also in England.

England redefine Test-match batting

Not only did England top Australia in terms of scoring rates, they also showed that their method was not just about big hitting, but scoring at a steady – and fast – clip right through their innings.4.74 – England’s run rate in this Ashes was comfortably the highest for any team in a Test series of four-plus matches. Australia held the record at 4.26, from the 2001 Ashes in England.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2 – Instances of a team not winning the Ashes series despite winning the first two matches, including Australia in 2023. England failed to win the 1936-37 tour of Australia after going 2-0 up as Australia bounced back with three straight wins to win the series.6 – Batters with 300-plus runs for England in this series, including four who ended the series striking at 70-plus and averaging 40-plus – Zak Crawley, Joe Root, Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow.
Never before have four players scored 300-plus runs in a Test series with a 40-plus average and a 70-plus strike rate, let alone four players from the same team (where data of balls faced is available). The nearest example was of three players doing the same in the 2001 Ashes, all for Australia – Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist.5.27 – Percentage of completed maiden overs faced by England in this series, the lowest for a team in a Test series of four-plus matches. The previous lowest was for Australia against West Indies in 2003, where only 8.13% of the overs they faced were maidens (65 out of 800).