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A sense of togetherness off the field translated into stellar performances on it, and Gujarat was rewarded with a maiden Ranji Trophy title

Shashank Kishore in Indore14-Jan-20172:03

‘This won’t be our last title win’ – Manprit Juneja

After the 2015-16 Vijay Hazare Trophy in Bangalore, Axar Patel was asked if their title win was his best moment in his career outside of him getting the India cap. A 50-overs title was theirs for the first time. In the preceding season, they were winners of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the national T20 championship. “Not till we win the Ranji Trophy,” he said.On Wednesday, Axar, not part of the Gujarat squad for the final but a key member in their rise over the previous three seasons, was in Indore to celebrate the Ranji Trophy title with his team. He flew in three days ago straight from a check-up for a fractured thumb at a Mumbai hospital. It was there that he received a message on Whatsapp that Gujarat had taken the lead. After the day’s play, he phoned up Vijay Patel, the coach, and asked if he could join the team.Axar drove to the airport and arrived in Indore later that evening. This was going to be an occasion to remember if they won. He had dreamt of it for a year. No Gujarat side had even challenged for the title previously. This would have been all the more special, because it was against Mumbai. He had to be there and celebrate with his mates. When the moment came, he was standing in the side, when Parthiv Patel, the captain, had to pull him into the team photograph.Moments later, they got Jasprit Bumrah on the telephone, before there was song and dance. The trophy was passed around from one person to the other. This was unadulterated joy from a side that had finally graduated from being contenders to champions. You had to be around their dressing room to understand how much the trophy meant to them. This was a sign of team-spirit at its very best, a sentiment this side embodies.Priyank Panchal was the season’s highest run-scorer with 1310 runs at an average of 87.33•Sunny Shinde”Lot of us have played junior cricket together, so this in a way is the coming together of a core group who have graduated together,” Manprit Juneja told ESPNcricinfo. “It just feels like an extension of the junior days. There are no insecurities, because Parthiv would have it no other way. Everyone celebrates the other’s success.”Unlike many others, Juneja says, team bonding has come naturally. “Anyway, we all catch up together as a group on tours,” he said. “The team watches movies together, dine together. When you are away for three months, it’s these small things that define you. Away from family, this has to be our family. We have carefully ensured no one feels out of place.”After their game in Hubballi against Mumbai, the team drove to Goa for a short getaway to re-energise towards the end of the season. Players were given the freedom to do what they liked, but they travelled together as a group. Parthiv, who was unavailable for three games, was in constant touch with the team and the head coach, on how the team was progressing, but he also ensured he wasn’t too much in the ears of the new captain.It’s this independence as individuals and a collective vision that he wanted his mates to develop without being told what to do. Their collective hymn was ’11 matches.’ Unlike the previous seasons, the goal wasn’t to simply qualify for the knockouts. “I think mindset was the key. We were playing well for seven matches and stumbling in the eighth,” Priyank Panchal, the season’s highest run-getter, said. “We had to correct that. It was not a question of mental fatigue or pressure, but we were giving more importance to the eighth match. This year we thought we should aim to qualify before the seventh or eighth round so that we can play the last two matches more easily.”Parthiv, a veteran in his 16th season, said experience of leadership over time has gradually broadened his horizon. He has been at the helm for close to a decade now, but the results have started coming only recently. In 2012-13, they won the domestic T20 title, a feat they repeated in 2014-15. This year, the key was to impress upon the need for consistency and not just have a middling season to guarantee a place for the next, a theory endorsed by the coach.”The belief was there, but to move to the next level, we had to make choices as individuals. Are we happy with just making 600-700 runs and keeping our place for the next season? That sort of mentality, you can’t have for long. Over the last two-three seasons, that has changed,” Vijay said.’Every person who is not playing is told why, so that they know where they stand. We have been as transparent as possible’ – Parthiv Patel•ESPNcricinfo LtdParthiv added: “Before this season, we said we needed guys to make it big, push past the 1000 barrier. Set examples, something like what Panchal and Samit Gohel have done. We rely on our batting, and so we need runs to support the bowlers. If you see, we don’t have bowlers with 40-45 wickets, but even the 20-25 wickets that a few of the guys have been picked up have all been at vital times.”Parthiv, who has seen enough ups and downs to advice his team, has drawn from personal experience and has often been the side’s mentor and advisor. “The door is open,” he said. “Every person who is not playing is told why, so that they know where they stand. That way we have tried to be fair with our calls. We didn’t want a situation where players find out of their selection or non-selection from outside the camp. We have been as transparent as possible.”Transparency in selection is one thing. Picking the right personnel is the other. Parthiv admits there was a time where they didn’t have too many choices outside the 30 probables. Today, he says there are different people knocking on the door for one berth, the example being Chintan Gaja, who had picked up just one wicket in two first-class games prior to the final. Chances are he may have not been selected for the final had Jasprit Bumrah been available. Here he was on the biggest stage, and delivered telling spells to finish with eight wickets.”Basically, we have made a very good plan back in Gujarat,” Parthiv said. “Five years ago when we weren’t getting results, there was temptation to rejig our squad. We had to make a choice, but something prevented us from doing that. The likes of Panchal and Gohel were all there, scoring runs but it wasn’t like they were making big runs. The talent was there, no doubt. That decision is paying off now.”Young players need to feel they belong. Once you tick these boxes, you are rolling straightaway. The side of six-seven years ago wouldn’t have stood a chance. They would have wilted. This group is different. Now will be the real test, if we can sustain this. Once you start winning, you have a reputation. How you perform when expectations are completely different will define this team.”

Axar Patel first gave Kings XI something to bowl at with a whirlwind cameo on a tricky track, then made sure they closed down RCB’s chase with twin strikes at the death

Deivarayan Muthu in Bengaluru06-May-2017In his first season for Kings XI Punjab in the IPL, in 2014, Axar Patel claimed 17 wickets in as many matches and was named the Emerging Player of the league. After three-and-a-half seasons, he has become one of his team’s most dynamic players. Bowl with the new ball: check. Bowl in the middle overs: check. Bowl in the end overs: check. Pinch-hitter: check. Finisher: check.On Friday night at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Axar produced a near-perfect all-round display to bolster Kings XI’s playoff chances and possibly his chances of making India’s Champions Trophy squad. On a slow surface where established names like Hashim Amla, Martin Guptill, Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson ended up with a strike-rate of 100 or less, Axar smashed 38 off 17 balls at a strike-rate of 223.52 – his best in T20 cricket when he has faced at least 10 balls. Axar’s clean striking rescued Kings XI from 78 for 5 in the 14th over to 138 for 7, of which 19 came in the last over of the innings. He then shut the doors on the chase with three wickets, including two in the 18th over.If it wasn’t for Axar’s sparkling cameo, Royal Challengers Bangalore might have approached the chase differently. He did not swing wildly, like most of the RCB batsmen and some of his colleagues did, but instead picked his areas and executed well. The 19th over of Kings XI’s innings – a wicket maiden from left-arm fast bowler Aniket Choudhary – did not fluster him. In the 20th, he picked Shane Watson’s offcutter from his hand, maintained a stable base and nailed the ball onto the roof of the ground. He then darted around the crease, threw Watson off his length, and hit two more boundaries to give Kings XI something to bowl at.”We decided 150 was a good total at the strategic timeout,” Axar said after the game. “The way wickets were falling and there being no batsmen after me, we planned to get to 150… I think it was a slow wicket with low bounce. If one played with a straight bat, it was easier. A pull or a cut square of the wicket was not on.”If one batsman stays in the end, anything could happen. This was the plan. When I couldn’t get the strike, we thought maybe we can reach 130. It was good that we scored nearly 20 in the final over and that was the game-changer.”Shane Watson was bowled by Axar Patel the last time these two teams met; Axar has dismissed Watson five times in five innings now•BCCIAxar wasn’t done yet. He struck in his second over, the 11th of the chase, having Watson feather a short of a length ball behind to leave RCB at 71 for 5. This was the fifth time the left-arm spinner had dismissed Watson in five innings. In Kings XI’s previous match against RCB in Indore, Axar took the new ball and had Watson, who was opening then, dragging a quick fizzer onto his stumps for 1. So, now with Watson moving to the middle order, did Glenn Maxwell tactically hold Axar back?”No, no (laughs). It was based on the pitch behaviour,” Axar said. “I think it was better to have the pace bowlers bowling as much as possible in the first six overs. The new ball was swinging a bit. Obviously Sandy [Sandeep Sharma] is our main bowler. He gets it to swing in the first six overs. The plan was that if Gayle, Mandeep and Indian batsmen were batting at the top, it would be better for me to bowl after six overs. No particular plan against Watson as such.”With RCB’s chase in trouble, Pawan Negi smartly bunted the ball into the gaps and, along with Samuel Badree, helped bring the equation down to 28 off 18 balls. Enter Axar, again.On cue, he got a delivery to stop on Negi, who played early and skied a catch. Axar’s next ball was an arm ball, which slithered under Badree’s bat to knock back the off stump. Kings XI’s plan, he said, was to exploit the two-paced nature of the pitch.”We knew that the wicket was not easy, especially for a new batsman,” Axar said. “It the batsman plays a good shot, so be it. Like how AB [de Villiers] hit a straight drive. But length balls from the wicket were two-paced. Some kept low, some slow.”Axar also provided a glimpse into the mindset of Kings XI’s other big performer on the night, Sandeep Sharma, who became the first bowler in IPL cricket to dismiss Gayle, Kohli and de Villiers in the same innings.”His [Sandeep’s] strength is that he can swing the ball. He knows when he can get it to swing, it gets difficult for the batsmen,” Axar said. “Take any format, when the ball swings, batsmen find it difficult. His mindset is simple, if the ball swings then he can show his capabilities. He tells himself: ‘I don’t get scared of the names in the opposition. I just bowl to my strengths.'”

From reintegrating AB de Villiers to finding a second Test opener and bolstering the pace attack, there is a bit for the newly appointed South Africa head coach to do

Andrew McGlashan30-Aug-2017Find a Test openerNot unlike the team he is leaving, Ottis Gibson will join South Africa with them scratching their heads a little over whom their second opener should be – in South Africa’s case, the question is who will walk out with Dean Elgar at the top of the order in Test cricket. Other than a battling innings on the opening day at Trent Bridge, Heino Kuhn – handed a debut at the age of 33 – looked out of his depth against England, making 113 in four Tests. Stephen Cook had been tried before him (with Theunis de Bruyn used for one match in between) but after three centuries in his first seven Tests, he didn’t pass 30 in the next seven innings. However, he recently churned out the runs for South Africa A against India – scores of 120, 32, 98 and 70 not out – so he might return. The mood, though, appears to favour 22-year Aiden Markram who was originally included in the squad for the England tour as cover before being retained for the duration. His returns in the A series against India were less standout (22, 79, 74 and 19) but the selectors may consider it time to back youth. Whoever gets the gig, they’ll begin with two Tests against Bangladesh – a somewhat less daunting prospect on home soil than in Dhaka or Chittagong – before having to front up against India and then Australia’s battery of pace bowlers.Reintegrate AB de VilliersAB de Villiers has committed himself to all three formats from mid-October onwards. It means he won’t be an option for the two Tests against Bangladesh, but will be available for the Boxing Day Test should CSA be able to find an opponent, and then the marquee series against India and Australia. Does he come straight back into the Test team? That may seem an odd question for a player who averages 50.46, but there are other factors to consider. He hasn’t played a first-class game since January 2016 – his last Test was against England, in which he bagged a pair – and it remains to be seen how much red-ball cricket he will have before the T20 Global League starts in November, which is immediately followed by the bulk of the Test season. Away from Test cricket, South Africa also need a firing de Villiers as part of their one-day squad into the 2019 World Cup. He had a poor Champions Trophy, as South Africa crashed out in the group stage. Unshackled from captaincy, there will be hope that he has a final flourish in him.Succession planning for the quicksThis should be well within Gibson’s wheelhouse. On paper, South Africa retain a strong hand of pace bowlers but, below the surface, things may not be quite so rosy. Morne Morkel’s future appears uncertain amid talk of a Kolpak deal while, at the end of the series against England, Faf du Plessis bemoaned the fitness problems of Vernon Philander after he sat out in the final Test. South Africa face at least 10 Tests between October and early April which will challenge the depth of their resources, which no longer includes the likes of Kyle Abbott and Marchant de Lange. One bit of hopeful news is that Dale Steyn is slowly moving closer to a comeback, but even that has to come with caution. He is returning from a nasty injury and regardless of the positivity of the man himself, hitting previous heights at the age of 34 will be a tough ask. Gibson will need to have an eye on what is coming through. Duanne Olivier played two Tests against England, showing promising at Old Trafford, but a lot could rest on the shoulders of Kagiso Rabada.

First, youngest, oldest, highest, lowest and everything in between: take this quiz to find out how well you know the combined records in men’s and women’s ODIs

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jul-2017

The Ashes has always got people talking and the players are no exception – the rivalry once memorably been described as “a contest between bat, ball and mouth”.

Alan Gardner30-Nov-2017″Sorry, Doctor, she slipped.”
WG Grace was rarely short of a word or two on the pitch, but he was put on the back foot both physically and verbally by Ernie Jones back in 1896. When the Aussie quick unleashed a short ball during the Lord’s Test, it went straight into WG’s beard and out again (in the manner of Richie Benaud’s “confectionery stall”). Grace’s bristles doubtless bristled but Jones was ready with a snappy reply.”Okay, which one of you bastards called Larwood a bastard instead of this bastard?”
The “Bodyline” series of 1932-33 didn’t lack for quotable moments. Douglas Jardine was hell bent on neutering Bradman and regaining the Ashes – a plan which succeeded, but at great cost. When Jardine went to complain about abuse of his strike bowler Harold Larwood, he was met by Vic Richardson (grandfather of the Chappell brothers), whose question to his team-mates in the Australia dressing room seemed to settle the matter.”Leave our flies alone, Jardine. They’re the only friends you’ve got here.”
It’s not just your opponents on the field you have to watch out for in Australia. Jardine’s status on that same tour was summed up by a sledge from the stands, credited to “Yabba” (Stephen Gascoigne), Sydney’s famed heckler on the Hill. A statue of Yabba remains seated in the SCG today.Douglas Jardine and Bill Woodfull toss ahead of the fiery Adelaide Test•The Cricketer International”How’s the hand, which one was it?”
“It was my right.”
“That’s a shame, we were aiming for the left.”
Ian Chappell’s concern for Derek Underwood after he was hit by a bouncer in 1972 was revealed as another chance for a sly dig – but England had the last laugh, as the left-armer’s ten-wicket haul on a fungus-affected Headingley pitch ensured they retained the Ashes.”Take a good look at this arse of mine, you’ll see plenty of it this summer.”
David Steele – aka. “the bank clerk who went to war” – was 33, bespectacled and grey of hair when he made his Test debut at Lord’s in the 1975 Ashes. Having been chirped by Dennis Lillee on his way out, Steele supposedly turned to Rod Marsh behind the stumps and told him to get used to the sight. He was true to his word, averaging 60.83 against the Australians and winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, too.”No good hitting me there, mate, nothing to damage.”
The English line of self-deprecation was impishly embodied on the cricket pitch by Derek Randall. Felled by a Lillee bouncer during the 1977 Centenary Test, he rose to his feet and doffed his cap (no helmets back then) to the bowler, adding for good measure that a glancing blow to the head was unlikely to have done him harm anyway.”When in Rome, dear boy…”
England were battling to save the Sydney Test in 1990-91, when Mike Atherton declined to walk after an appeal for an edge behind. “You’re a f****** cheat!” barked Ian Healy. Atherton, in typically phlegmatic fashion, carried on regardless.”Mate, if you just turn the bat over, you’ll find instructions on the other side.”
Merv Hughes was such a pest he was given the nickname “Fruitfly”. His sledging repertoire knew few bounds but he could be creative as well as crude, as this acid putdown to Graeme Hick – England’s latest great batting hope – during the 1993 Ashes emphasised.Merv Hughes prepares to let one rip•Getty Images”Oi, Tufnell, lend us your brain. We’re building an idiot.”
Another crowd contribution, from the 1994-95 tour, but one Phil Tufnell has played in his favour during a post-playing career as a loveable TV personality and broadcaster. Four years earlier, even the umpires were getting in on the act: when Tufnell asked Peter McConnell how many balls were left to be bowled in the over, he received the reply: “Count ’em yourself, you Pommie c***.””Mate, what are you doing out here? There’s no way you’re good enough to play for England.”
“Maybe not, but at least I’m the best player in my own family.”
Jimmy Ormond’s Test career may not have been particularly memorable but his response to Mark Waugh’s trash talk during the 2001 series will go down in history as one of cricket’s great rejoinders.”Get ready for a broken f***** arm.”
The sledge that finally won many Australians over to Michael Clarke. Referred to (disparagingly) as a bit of a “metrosexual”, Clarke showed his ocker Aussie inside when instructing Anderson to face up to Mitchell Johnson, who by the end of the 2013-14 Brisbane Test was well into his England-demolishing stride. Anderson had supposedly been threatening to punch George Bailey, fielding at short leg, but it was Clarke’s salty intervention that set the tone for an England hammering.

You can question why this one-day series is being played, but it allows us to measure up the two sides before next year

Jarrod Kimber13-Jun-20180:56

Don’t win too many ODIs without top five firing – Paine

This series would seem to be either because of Australia and England’s financial dependence on each other or as payback for Australia letting England warm-up before the last World Cup. Maybe a combination of the two.But it does allow us to see two of the most fancied sides in English conditions a year out from the World Cup.England are the No. 1 ranked team and since the last World Cup they’ve been the most exciting attacking and dominant ODI side. England have won 67% of their completed matches in that time, Australia have won 52%. But both have some concerns going into next year’s tournament.***Australia need to be more aggressive, but they also have a short batting line-up. So they have created a system where they need to score quicker while getting out less. At The Oval it fell apart the way you would expect.In the middle overs from the 11th until the 40th over the last two years, England, India and South Africa have changed the way teams need to bat.ESPNcricinfo LtdThis is where the games are won, England are scoring at a massive rate in those overs, Australia have the fourth best run rate in that time, and they are .6 runs down per over. Over 30 overs that’s 18 runs. This is not a new problem; it was happening with David Warner and Steven Smith in the team. India through their slower Powerplay starts and England through their vast batting order.ESPNcricinfo LtdOver the last two years, England have out-batted Australia in every position except the No.7 spot. England’s eight, nine and ten average 35, 23 and 21, no one batting after seven for Australia averages over 20.England have fielded teams where all 11 players have made first-class hundreds, Australia had Ashton Agar batting at seven at The Oval, he averages 21 in one-day domestic cricket. There is not much Australia can do, unlike England, they don’t have a nearly endless supply of allrounders, and that’s when someone like Agar ends up at No. 7.They have to hope their top six, or seven, goes supersonic during the World Cup. Or their bowling completely dominates.***The ball’s wide and swinging, Travis Head sees a four opportunity with the field up and throws his hands at it. All he can do is edge the ball, and Jonny Bairstow at first slip takes the catch. It seems like the kind of wicket that David Willey should take a lot. According to CricViz, in the last two years, no one has swung the ball more in the first two overs of ODIs.But he doesn’t take a lot of ODI wickets. In the first Powerplay over the last two years Willey averages 42. His economy rate is 5.42, which is on the expensive side for those who bowl there a lot.ESPNcricinfo LtdEngland have tried a few other seamers over the last two years. Chris Woakes has been about as good as anyone in the world, but his partners have not. Mark Wood’s opened with Willey today; his average is 60. Jake Ball is one of the best T20 Powerplay strike bowlers, but is oddly terrible in ODI cricket, in average and economy.ESPNcricinfo LtdMoeen Ali averages 13 in the first ten but hasn’t bowled there much.So it’s even more critical for Willey to be successful there. Willey bowls out his ten overs 22% of the time, and that is because he bowls well over half of his overs in the Powerplay.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt’d be less of a problem if Willey was not a specialist Powerplay bowler. But since Willey’s career began, he’s bowled the third highest percentage of overs in the top ten. Meaning that if he’s not working there, he’s not working as a bowler. England have been able to cover Willey because of all their allrounders, but you wonder how much longer they’ll be willing to play a specialist in the position his records are not that good.***There are few questions about Tim Paine and his moral compass. There are heaps of questions about him as an ODI batsman. Where does he bat? He averages 31 in ODI cricket, he made a hundred early in his career, and he’s made eight centuries in List A cricket. In the old days, he’d be batting three or four, to build an innings, but ODI cricket has changed. And Paine bats the way ODIs were played a generation ago.ESPNcricinfo LtdHe’s slower than the average strike-rate in one-day domestic cricket. Until 2014-15 he’d never scored quicker than an 85 strike-rate for an entire Australian summer. At times earlier this year he was coming in at the death when Australia had to kick on, a job he’s as qualified for as being a royal ice sculptor.And this also causes another problem, Paine being in the side means that Alex Carey is not. No one knows how good Carey can be, but in the Big Bash this season he averaged 49 and struck at 140. It shows the promise this former Australian Rules footballer has. But due to his late-starting career, and the limited amount of one-day domestic cricket now played, Carey is 26, and has only played 16 List A games. He’s never made a hundred, averages 30 and strikes at 75. The talent is there, but the experience is not. Australia need him in the side, to train him in limited-overs cricket, and to see if he’s going to work it out.Instead, they have Paine who at The Oval after scoring only 12 from his first 18 balls, tried a reverse sweep, which looked as unlikely to be successful as a cricket shot can. According to CricViz Paine’s played 14 reverse-sweeps in ODI cricket, he’s been dismissed from three of them.Of all Paine’s positive qualities, scoring quick and improvising aren’t among them.***Despite being the best team in ODI cricket over the last few years, England lost their first major knockout game. Pakistan absolutely slaughtered them, they didn’t handle the slow pitch when batting, and when bowling seemed to have no real idea how to take wickets.The problem for England is that in general, the current thinking in the cricket analytics community – though no one has proved it conclusively – is that tournaments are more often won by the best, or one of the better, bowling teams.And being the next World Cup is in England, and four of the five toughest World Cups for batting have been in England, bowling really matters.ESPNcricinfo LtdThings have changed in England, with it now being good for batting over the last two years, the best in ODIs.ESPNcricinfo LtdBut even then it was the team with the best bowling attack, Pakistan, who won the Champions Trophy in England last year.The problem for England is that they aren’t that good a bowling attack. Since the last World Cup England has been one of the poorer bowling teams. Looking at the major teams, England has the second worst economy, and the fourth worst average. So they don’t take many wickets, and they go for runs.Getty ImagesIn the Champions Trophy, they took their wickets at 37, while going at 5.90 an over. Pakistan averaged 30 and went for just under five an over.England know their batting, while so dominant, can’t make runs every game. It’s in those knockout games where batsmen often get tight, where you need your bowlers stand up. Woakes and Adil Rashid aside, England’s bowling is shaky, even with the extra options. The rest of the attack seems to be chosen as much to lengthen the batting as deliver the bowling.It seems like England have the ideal team to win a big percentage of their ODIs, but do they have the team to win tournaments?

The Victoria captain was disappointed to miss out on the Test squad to face Pakistan, but acknowledged that his lack of runs for Australia A played a part in his non-selection

Daniel Brettig25-Sep-2018In seeking a long-term solution to his technical travails of the past 12 months, Victoria’s captain Peter Handscomb admits he may have hurt his short-term chances of earning a berth on Australia’s tour of the UAE to face Pakistan.Having spent much of the winter working on his balance and alignment with the former Test opener and now coach Chris Rogers at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, Handscomb found himself caught in transition while struggling for runs on the Australia A tour of India, and the resultant string of low scores contributed to his omission. The Queenslander Marnus Labuschagne, himself a late inclusion on the tour as injury cover for Matthew Renshaw, went to the UAE instead.Rather than being part of Australia’s current training camp at the ICC Global Academy in Dubai, Handscomb is leading Victoria, and a fluent 89 against New South Wales on Sunday was the first strong sign of progress after his off-season work. Reflecting on the sequence of events, Handscomb said that while he may have suffered in terms of his immediate prospects, he was building a stronger foundation for assignments to follow.”All that work I was doing was in indoor nets and up in Brisbane which were far different conditions to what we had in India. Not that it’s an excuse but I didn’t adjust quickly enough to what I know how to play in India,” Handscomb said ahead of Victoria’s meeting with Western Australia at the Junction Oval on Wednesday. “I was still thinking too much about the ball swinging away and not so much the ball coming back into me and got lbw and bowled a couple of times which is disappointing.”I’ve had this technique for four or five years now and it’s worked really well for me. Naturally, that’s where my movement patterns want to go. If you try and change something it’s going to take time. It was nice to spend time in the middle feeling good and incorporating my own technique and everything I’ve been working on in the pre-season.”It can be easy to go back to your old technique, something you’re comfortable with. I believed in the work we were doing, I felt really good up there and was having some really good hits. I knew something would come, now it’s about doing it again and making sure I’m putting up back to back scores.”Peter Handscomb works the ball away•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesStill fresh in Handscomb’s mind were the runs he made against Pakistan at home in 2016-17, notably a sparkling century in his second Test, against the pink ball at the Gabba. “It was a disappointment,” he said of being dropped. “I’ve done well before on subcontinent tours and I thought I could definitely do a job in the middle order for Australia against a side I have scored runs against before. The selectors and JL [Justin Langer] wanted runs in that Aussie A tour and I didn’t put them on the board. I can understand the selection, now it’s my job to score runs for Victoria and win games for Victoria.”I didn’t think I needed a lot of changes after last year. I batted under lights in Adelaide and got through both those times, albeit looked ugly. I managed to do my job, unfortunately I got out the next day. I was struggling a bit with the swinging and seaming ball, as most batters do, and wanted to find someone in Chris Rogers, who made a lot of runs in England and with a different technique as well. He was able to help me out, we’ve done some really good work and hopefully now that the season’s kicking on all that work can start to pay off.”Playing the ball later comes from the alignment. He noticed I was squaring up a bit, that probably came from a couple of tours on the subcontinent and in Australia as well where I mainly faced ball swinging into me so I spent a lot of time working on that. Then once the ball started to shift away I wasn’t in a very good position to combat that. It got me straightening up, making sure my front elbow and shoulder lead the shot and everything else will follow.”As captain of his state, Handscomb also finds himself managing numerous other players at various stages of development, including Glenn Maxwell. He explained the reasoning for having Maxwell at No. 5 in the order, where he can pivot between the sort of steadying innings he was required to play when early wickets fell against Queensland, or detonate as he did briefly against NSW.”He scored 80 in the first game and I think if you bat in the top five or top six you can still score hundreds, especially how the game is going, with guys going a bit harder up the top,” Handscomb said. “It means that the middle order is moved from three and four to four and five, so if there is a collapse like we had in that first game then Maxy comes in and controls the innings.”Or if we have a game like the NSW game where he comes in the last 10 overs, we know he can be striking at 200 or 250. That’s the beauty of him, he’s so versatile. He can play that really good innings where he builds his innings or he can come in and hit from ball one.”As for the strapping teenager Will Sutherland, son of Cricket Australia’s soon-to-depart chief executive James Sutherland, Handscomb had entrusted him with the new ball at the start of the innings and been duly rewarded with intelligent seam bowling and bounce that hits the bat hard. “Will’s been amazing,” Handscomb said. “We saw glimpses of it last year when he came in. Unfortunately we couldn’t keep playing him because of Year 12, but that’s probably fair enough he had to go do his studies.”This year he’s been amazing, taking the new ball which is a new role for him, grabbed it with both hands, taking wickets up front which is what we want, and then he’s got some good power hitting at the back end, which we haven’t quite seen yet but we know he can do it. So hopefully he can for us.”I know how hard he works, and I know how good a bowler he is. For him to come out, he’s got the mental side of the game really well, he thinks about it, he’s a very smart bowler, he understands what the batter’s trying to do. He’s just been going out there and executing his skill and it’s been awesome to watch.”

Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins bowled with the right balance between skill and emotion for most of day two. For one key sequence, however, they did not

Daniel Brettig in Perth15-Dec-2018On the eve of Perth Stadium’s first Test match, Australia’s captain Tim Paine asserted that his “big three” pacemen Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins would not need much instruction about how to make the most of its looming pace and bounce. “We’ve got a really settled and experienced bowling attack, so I don’t think we’ll have to say too much,” he said. “They know what works at Test cricket, they’ve done it before and played on all types of surfaces and adapted really quickly.”For the vast majority of day two, on a far more pleasant day to bowl than the first, Paine was entirely correct. Starc and Hazlewood nailed their lines and lengths with the new ball, gaining enough of both swing and surprise to clean bowl M Vijay and KL Rahul. And when Virat Kohli got off to a fast, insistent start of 19 from 12 balls, they combined artfully with Cummins to pull India back and pressure the unflappable Cheteshwar Pujara into a slight miscalculation and a feather edge down the leg side.Mitchell Starc exults after picking up a wicket•Getty ImagesBut in perhaps the day’s most pivotal passage following the arrival of Ajinkya Rahane, India’s last experienced batsman to accompany Kohli, the Australians appeared briefly to lapse into bowling that was driven less by experience, settled minds and clear plans than it was by adrenaline, excitement and the thrill inherent in bowling fast on a flier in the west – the sort of mental trap into which so many visiting teams have fallen over the years.As a batsman, Rahane has weaknesses against Australia – Nathan Lyon has enjoyed conspicuous success against him on pitches with bounce, and he is as susceptible to edging tight, bouncing deliveries around the off stump as any other mortal wielding a bat in Test cricket. But he does not, empirically at least, show obvious weakness against the short ball. As with any plan, a short-pitched attack would have had a chance of succeeding had it been diligently and consistently applied, with bouncers directed over the line of the stumps and a field appropriately set.Rahane, however, was subjected to something like a dog’s breakfast: a mixture of short and full, straight and wide that allowed him to get off to a slippery start. He received nine short balls in his first 22, by which time he was on 23 and away. The last scoring shot in the sequence, an uppercut for six, underlined that the Australian line of attack, in this critical passage before Kohli’s final likely ally was set, was too wide.Fast bowling is a difficult task, potholed by injury risks and governed by enormous effort and detail to physically and mentally prepare the quicks for their task on Australian surfaces. But at the same time it is an emotive and sometimes angry occupation, requiring its practitioners to operate on the edge of their wits, particularly in a Test match over five days of toil. Over most of Australia’s day, Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins bowled with the right balance between skill and emotion; in this key sequence they did not.1:57

‘We could have been more disciplined’ – Khawaja

As Usman Khawaja put it, speaking for the hosts: “I think there’s still enough in it, I think we bowled well in patches and then didn’t quite bowl well in other patches, we probably could be a little bit more disciplined. But credit to them, they also batted well, put a bit of pressure on our bowlers. All the bowlers bowled well in patches, but you’ve got to keep doing it over and over again, you’re going to beat the bat, sometimes they’re going to nick it and sometimes they’re not.”I think we’re still ahead of the game in a lot of respects, but Rahane came out and took on the short ball, got off to a little bit of a flier, then we pegged them back in, the bowlers started bowling really well. I think we’ve just got to do it consistently throughout the whole period. The bowlers knew that, some days it’s like batting, some days it comes easily and other days it doesn’t. Hopefully tomorrow we can be that little bit better but all in all I thought it was a pretty good day.”The perspective Khawaja offered was intriguing on one level at least – entering this summer with high expectations and fitness levels, recovery from a knee injury notwithstanding, he has been harried into errors by consistent tight bowling from India’s collective, who have not once offered him the latitude Rahane was able to exploit.”With any Test batsman you’ve got to keep putting it in the right place at the right time, as much as you can over and over again, hopefully be disciplined enough to find those edges,” Khawaja said. “But as you sometimes saw you get a crack, and sometimes a crack goes too far.0:45

Kartik: ‘Lyon’s attacking line always keeps him in play’

“If we can get a couple of wickets early, obviously break this partnership right now, then it’s not an easy wicket to start up on. As a team batting first you’re hoping the wicket deteriorates a fair bit. We’ve still got to start off well tomorrow. If we do that, then we’ll have our chance at the tail. I think we still have to be quite disciplined.”Kohli, Rahane and Pujara were all able to illustrate the possibility of batting time on this pitch, which has perhaps eased in its process of cracking up due to cooler temperatures following the initial heat of day one. But equally there have been plenty of moments to show that pacemen reining in their emotions and sticking to their plans can cause plenty of mayhem for batsmen. No one knew this better than Ishant Sharma, given how India twice struggled in the day’s first hour, before tightening up and being duly rewarded.”When we were bowling if you hit the length there’s something in the wicket, you can’t say there’s nothing in the wicket,” Ishant said. “Even yesterday as a bowling group we spoke about, even though we gave away a few runs, if you are consistent on these kind of pitches you have a good chance of doing well.”At that time you just need to be patient, have patience, otherwise if you think there’s going to be a lot of bounce in the wicket, I’ll bounce them out, patience is important on these kinds of wickets. We think bowling in the right areas, good lengths, find out what a good length is, speak among each other, and then if you speak to each other then it’s very easy for us to find out those lengths and bowl them.”Communication, patience and calmness. All the qualities that Paine expected of his fast bowlers on the sort of surface they have come to know well in this part of the country. There’s nothing surer than that this match will contain more moments when Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins need to keep calm and to their plans. Another sequence or two like the one offered to Rahane might cost them the series itself.

Suryakumar Yadav’s anchoring knock, Jason Behrendorff’s new-ball burst and Hardik’s all-round show broke Super Kings’ unbeaten three-match streak

Annesha Ghosh in Mumbai04-Apr-2019Five in a flurryFor all the criticism he might have copped for slowing down in the middle overs, the first five fours in Suryakumar Yadav’s 43-ball 59 were key to changing the complexion of Mumbai Indians’ Powerplay. Pegged back by Quinton de Kock’s early departure, the first three overs yielded only nine runs for the hosts. But they scored 31 off the next three, the turnaround beginning in the fourth over with Suryakumar carting Shardul Thakur for back-to-back fours.In the following over, he hammered Deepak Chahar, who had not conceded more than one four in an over in the combined 13 overs he had bowled up to that point, for three consecutive fours. A blend of timing and technique, the medley of boundaries off Deepak included an exquisite punch on the up, a straight drive past mid-on, and a crisp flick behind midwicket – all off back-of-a-length deliveries.While Suryakumar slowed down in the middle overs, his 62-run fourth-wicket stand with Krunal Pandya lifted Mumbai from 50 for 3 to set them up for a final burst.Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard added 45 runs in the last two overs•BCCIHardik rises as Suryakumar fallsWith Mumbai on 125 for 5 in 18 overs after Suryakumar’s dismissal, Hardik, who had faced only two deliveries till that point, had little choice but to go big. And big did he go, scoring 24 off the next six balls he faced that included three sixes and a four.Hardik’s fireworks lent credence to Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming’s assessment that “if you can keep him out of the game, you often go close to winning.”The start of the 19th over of Mumbai’s innings dented that possibility for Super Kings to a large degree. With Kieron Pollard keeping him company, the pair’s end-overs offensive – including Pollard’s seven-ball 17 – capped off the innings that began with the second joint-lowest run tally in IPL history – of three runs – in the first two overs of the innings but ended with the joint-most – 45 runs – off the last two.Jason Behrendorff is pumped after taking a wicket•BCCIBehrendorff’s landfallAfter Mumbai’s win on Wednesday, Jason Behrendorff said, “My main strength is swinging the ball upfront and taking wickets.” If these were the standout features on Jason Behrendorff’s resume that earned him a contract in the January 2018 IPL auction, he delivered exactly that on his IPL debut, on a surface that had a little bit of bounce and seam.Completing his quota inside the first nine overs of the innings, he demonstrated why “hitting the top of the stumps was quite effective.”Behrendorff’s 2 for 22 saw him square up both right- and left-handers and put them in two minds with his steep bounce and away-going deliveries. With a Smart Economy of 3.00 to boast for the 12 Smart Runs he conceded, the left-arm quick, according to , elicited 32% false shots from the Super Kings batsmen, allowing them to attack only 24% deliveries.The rub of the green Behrendorff had in the form of that one-handed screamer by Pollard to dismiss Suresh Raina in the fifth over was in part down to his own execution of a “plan [we set] for that, knowing that he [Raina] likes to back away and he’ll look to go over the off side.” For a debutant who had dismissed Ambati Rayudu for a first-ball duck with a moving ball that rose delectably after hitting the deck, the Pollard stunner was a befitting bonus.Rapid, on fire, Hardik signs off with the ballIt hadn’t been three complete nights since Dhoni struck that match-winning 75 not out. Although the asking rate heading into the 15th over of Super Kings’ chase on Wednesday was 14, with Dhoni on 12 off 20 balls, the threat of yet another special at Wankhede was still alive.So when Hardik ambled in to deliver his third over, having conceded only six off his wicketless first two, there wasn’t anything particularly menacing about him. But that, and the course of the game, changed decidedly in the space of the next four balls. Eliciting a mistimed pull off Dhoni and having Ravindra Jadeja caught behind, Hardik lent an air of finality to Super Kings’ chase.As a result, Super Kings’ chances of winning fell drastically on ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster tool, with the win probability dropping under 4%, despite Kedar Jadhav and Dwayne Bravo – the chief orchestrators of Super Kings’ miraculous one-run win in the 2018 season opener at the same venue – still at the crease.To sign off proceedings in what imminently appeared to be shaping up as Mumbai’s 100th IPL win, and their first at home this season, Hardik returned to dismiss Deepak to finish with figures of 3 for 20 to seal Mumbai’s 37-run win.

Their fathers are brothers and their mothers are sisters, but on Friday there’ll be no familial warmth as they play their parts in the IPL’s fiercest rivalry

Deivarayan Muthu in Chennai25-Apr-2019From playing backyard cricket together in Agra, to sharing the dressing room at Rising Pune Supergiant(s) and winning games together for Rajasthan, double first cousins Deepak Chahar and Rahul Chahar are set to face off in the IPL on Friday.The first time the Chahars came up against each other in the league, Rahul was an unheralded legspinner and Deepak was just a Powerplay bowler. Since then, they have both established themselves as versatile performers for Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings respectively.Their fathers are brothers and their mothers are sisters. Deepak’s father Lokendra Singh used to work in the Indian Air Force. It was during his father’s Jaipur posting that Deepak started playing professional cricket. But Lokendra then quit his job and turned his focus on Deepak’s career.Rahul, 19 and younger to Deepak by seven years, also trained under Lokendra and aspired to become a seamer like his cousin. But Lokendra and Deepak identified Rahul’s ability to spin the ball sharply in the nets and encouraged him to become a legspinner.Deepak made heads turn when he bagged 8 for 10 on Ranji Trophy debut to bundle Hyderabad out for 21 – the lowest total in Indian domestic cricket – at just 18 years of age. In his first Ranji season, he carried Rajasthan to their first title with 30 wickets at 19.63. He was subsequently signed by Rajasthan Royals in 2011, but a spate of injuries and illnesses saw him fade away.ALSO READ: Deepak Chahar’s journey from false dawns to late sunshineRahul created a buzz in the domestic circuit when he claimed three five-wicket hauls in four Vijay Merchant Trophy Under-16 three-day games in 2013-14. Three seasons later, Rahul broke into Rajasthan’s senior roster as well as the India Under-19 side.Rahul Chahar walks back to his mark•BCCIIn 2017, Deepak and Rahul were reunited at Rising Pune. Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni initially looked at Deepak as their first-choice fast bowler, but an injury sidelined him. Rahul then replaced Deepak and made his IPL debut against Kings XI Punjab in Indore. He came away with 1 for 32 in his four overs and in the next game against Gujarat Lions he nearly did a McCullum against McCullum. He almost plucked out a blinding catch at the third-man boundary and then dismissed him with a legbreak in the next over.Rahul got only one more game that season, but spent valuable time with Imran Tahir in the nets. Rahul will come up against his mentor, too, on Friday. Tahir has been Super Kings’ top spinner in IPL 2019.Rahul, though, was left dejected after missing the cut for the 2018 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand; Jharkhand left-arm spinner Anukul Roy was ultimately picked ahead of him and India went onto win the tournament.Rahul picked himself up in the 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and his dismissals of Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir did the rounds on social media. It caught the attention of Mumbai, who scooped Rahul up for INR 1.9 crore.Meanwhile, Deepak, who was the top wicket-taker in the same tournament, was picked up by Super Kings for INR 80 lakh.While Deepak became Dhoni’s go-to bowler in the Powerplay and even showcased the knuckle ball last season, Rahul did not get a game. He did not start this season either, and went wicketless against Super Kings at the Wankhede, but soon found his feet and became Mumbai’s premier spinner.Deepak Chahar has been one of Chennai Super Kings’ standout performers•BCCIRahul has a dot-ball percentage of 48.07 in IPL 2019. Only Super Kings’ Harbhajan Singh has done better (49.17) among spinners who have bowled at least 30 dot balls this season.While Mayank Markande, who was Mumbai’s No.1 spinner last year, relies on wrong’uns, Rahul has been effective with his legbreak and has excellent control over it, and this enables him to bowl in the Powerplay as well as the middle overs. In the Powerplay, Rahul has grabbed only two wickets this season, but has only given away 37 runs off 30 balls. He has posed a greater wicket-taking threat from overs seven to 15, taking seven wickets in this phase while conceding 135 runs off 126 balls.Deepak’s skills in the Powerplay don’t need an introduction anymore. After Super Kings’ designated death bowler Dwayne Bravo was sidelined with a hamstring injury, however, Chahar has stepped up in the end overs too. It helped that he had prepared for it by tuning up his variations in the lead-up to the tournament.All told, Deepak has bowled six overs at the slog, conceding 46 and taking four wickets. Bravo is back from injury now, but Deepak has earned Dhoni’s trust to bowl at the crunch. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday, Deepak nailed the hard lengths and his slower balls to help limit Sunrisers to 175 for 3 in 20 overs, after they had been 151 for 2 in 17.After the match, Shane Watson acknowledged Deepak’s contribution and gushed that “Chahar’s bowling has just gone through the sky”.The other Chahar’s confidence is also sky-high now, and Super Kings’ batting coach Michael Hussey said he’s kept a close watch on Rahul. Who’ll come up trumps on Friday at the Chepauk: Deepak or Rahul?