Need 195 off 87 balls? Get yourself a beefy New Zealander who can do the job

Hemant Brar05-Apr-20213:35

Mike Hussey, James Faulkner and Aditya Tare on Anderson’s innings

We polled our staff for their picks of the top ten best batting, bowling and all-round performances in the IPL through its history. Here’s No. 9Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals, 2014″It was basically an impossible feat to do.”That’s Corey Anderson recounting what the Mumbai Indians were faced with against the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2014. With a playoff spot at stake, they needed to chase down 190 in 14.3 overs for their net run rate to get where it needed to be. It was an asking rate of more than 13 an over. No wonder it felt impossible.The abiding memory from this game will always remain that of Aditya Tare – his face covered with his shirt – going berserk after hitting the winning six, and the Royals’ mentor, Rahul Dravid, flinging his cap down in the dugout in disgust. But the man who did the impossible was Anderson.Before this match, he had scored only 150 runs in nine innings that season in the tournament. An average of 18.75 and a strike rate of 118.11 meant he had lost his place in the playing XI. But this was the last league game of the season and knowing they needed more batting firepower if they were to get to the required net run rate, they replaced fast bowler Marchant de Lange with Anderson.One thing with impossible-looking tasks is that they are also liberating in a way. When failure is almost certain, there is no pressure to succeed. Anderson benefited from being in that sort of situation. Vindicating Mumbai’s decision to bring him back, he smashed an unbeaten 95 off 44 balls to help them pull off arguably the biggest heist in IPL history.Neo is that you? Mr Anderson goes ballistic•BCCIEarlier, the Royals had ransacked 130 in the last ten overs of their innings, with Sanju Samson and Karun Nair scoring half-centuries, and Brad Hodge and James Faulkner applying the finishing touches. Watching them would have given Anderson some ideas about how to bat on that pitch.The Royals didn’t have an enviable bowling attack but the equation for Mumbai was bizarre. How bizarre? Lendl Simmons struck three fours in the first over of the chase, and they were still below the asking rate.Coming in at 19 for 1, Anderson struck the first ball he faced for four and the next for six. Soon after, Kevon Cooper dismissed Mike Hussey and Kieron Pollard in the fifth over but Anderson was unstoppable. With a six off Dhawal Kulkarni, he raced to 52 in just 25 balls; 42 of those runs came in boundaries.What followed was an even more extraordinary phase of hitting as Ambati Rayudu and Anderson added 81 in just 31 balls for the fifth wicket. Anderson’s contribution was 49 off 21 balls, Rayudu’s 30 off ten.In all, Anderson struck nine fours and six sixes. His method was simple: clear the front leg and swing through. Anything pitched fuller than short of a length fell right into his hitting arc. And when he swung, the Wankhede looked the size of a matchbox.The numbers

75.79 Percentage of Anderson’s runs that came in boundaries (72 out of 95)

11 Number of Anderson’s runs that came behind the wicket

13.29 The Mumbai Indians’ scoring rate; still the highest for a 20-over game in the IPL

Two fours off Faulkner and Pravin Tambe in the 11th and 14th overs exemplified Anderson’s power. Faulkner bowled a slower ball on leg stump; Anderson backed away and belted it past the bowler. Tambe bowled a faster one and was thumped over his head. Both bowlers tried to stop the ball but must have considered themselves lucky not to have come in the way of it.Apart from the clean hitting, Anderson picked his spots well. Against Pravin Tambe, he mainly targeted the midwicket region, while the seamers were largely pummelled down the ground.When you’re looking to hit each ball to the boundary, mishits are almost inevitable: Anderson wasn’t in control of 16 of the 44 balls he faced. But he scored 87 off the 28 balls in which he was in control – which means there were hardly any lucky runs.Despite Anderson’s onslaught, Mumbai had only brought themselves level in 14.3 overs. There was a sigh of relief in the Royals camp; some in the dugout began to celebrate too. But there was a twist left.It turned out Mumbai could still qualify if they hit a boundary off the next three balls, and Tare launched the very next one, a leg-stump full toss from Faulkner, over deep-backward square leg, resulting in frenzied scenes.Suddenly, Mumbai had a shot at the title.The Greatest IPL performances 2008-2020

A look at the India Women captain’s batting numbers in a storied career

Sampath Bandarupalli03-Jul-20211 Mithali Raj became the leading run-getter in women’s international cricket, going past Charlotte Edwards’ tally of 10,273 runs. Raj and Edwards are the only players to scale the 10,000-run mark in women’s international cricket.7304 Runs aggregated by Raj in ODI cricket. No other player has managed to breach the 6,000-run milestone in women’s ODIs. Raj is the only player with a batting average over 50 among the top ten run-getters in the format.ESPNcricinfo Ltd6015 Runs scored by Raj in 179 matches as captain in women’s international cricket. Only Edwards, with 6,728 runs in 220 games, has scored more than Raj when leading the team. She also went past Belinda Clark’s 83 wins as captain in Women’s ODIs.87 Scores of fifty-plus runs by Raj, including eight centuries, the most by any player in women’s international cricket. She has 54 scores of fifty-plus as captain (5 hundreds, 49 fifties), also the most for any player while being in charge.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2924 Raj’s runs against England, the most by any player against an opponent in women’s international cricket. She has scored these runs across 81 innings, with 25 fifties and a century.3613 Runs scored by Raj in international matches played in India. Only Edwards, with 4,490 runs in England, has scored more runs at home in women’s international cricket than Raj.214 Raj’s highest score, against England in 2002 during the Test match at Taunton. It is the only double century by an Indian woman, and the fourth-highest individual score in women’s international cricket.935 Runs scored by Raj in international cricket in 2018, the most she has scored in any calendar year. The majority of those came in T20Is, as she scored 575 runs in 19 innings with seven fifties. She also made 360 runs in 11 ODIs.700 Runs by Raj at the County Ground in Taunton, the most by her at any venue across the three formats in international cricket. Raj has scored 301 runs in two Tests, including her double century, and 311 runs in six ODIs with four fifties.16 years 205 days Raj’s age at the time of her debut, during an ODI against Ireland in 1999. She scored an unbeaten 114 in that game, earning her the title of the youngest centurion in international cricket, among men or women.

The home bowlers work hard to get the better of a slow pitch and a resolute opposition

Sidharth Monga27-Nov-20212:00

Vettori: Axar’s pace, consistency and accuracy were brilliant

Far too often, India win far too easily at home these days. Since the last time they lost a series at home, India have lost two of 38 Tests, and drawn five (three of them weather-affected). Of the 31 wins, only one has been by a margin of under 100 runs or six wickets. The two losses have been when they have lost a crucial toss.However, once in a while, along comes a pitch so slow and low, and along comes a No. 1 team in the world who doesn’t make unforced errors. Edges keep falling short, ones that beat them keep missing the stumps, turn keeps getting slower and slower, and we have a proper challenge.

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When the third day started, India knew they were in for a hard day’s work. They had bowled 57 overs on this pitch for no wicket even though they had produced 56 false responses from the batters. As a comparison, India were bowled out in 96 mistakes. It points to some good fortune for the New Zealand openers, but also to how slow and low the pitch had become. You could beat them with sideways turn, which kept increasing, but taking wickets was going to be hard work.In other words, this was not a pitch or an opposition that you could run through with two good bowlers. In three days, there has hardly been a single opportunity at bat-pad. Gully has been kneeling on the floor. Each of the bowlers had to do a job here, and they did.He might have got just three wickets, but R Ashwin was masterful in his 11-over spell in the morning. Axar Patel, who ran away with a five-for, his fifth in just four Tests, was asked what advice he would give his batters on day four given the conditions. He said there wasn’t much to worry with the pitch; only if the spinners are patient can they trouble batters.Ashwin hates the word patience. At least in the traditional parlance, which is to say keep trying your stock ball, experiment less, and the results will come. He was anything but patient. He poured out a career worth of tricks in a spell. He changed the angles of the seam, he changed the angles on the crease, he changed the points of release, he changed the pace. He bowled the carrom ball, he bowled the arm ball, he bowled a legspinner’s topspinner, and he bowled a lot of offbreaks.Related

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At one point, Ashwin caused a pause in play because the umpire was so flummoxed by the angle of his run-up, which was perfectly legal but is so rarely used it is hard to remember anyone doing it. He ran in from the umpire’s right, got extremely close to him, the closest you can without whacking him, released the ball from practically in front of the umpire, and kept running along the diagonal. While doing this, he made sure he was not close to the danger area.Even while he did all this, Ashwin had the ball on a string. It dipped and drifted beautifully, giving the batters hardly any easy boundary, if at all. On a pitch that other bowlers have drawn a false shot once every seven balls, Ashwin did so once every five balls. This was one of the great spells of spin bowling just for the sheer number of times he beat batters in the air on a pitch that had not yet begun to help the spinners.Tom Latham is an expert batter, tight in defence but severe on anything loose. He batted close to seven hours for just 95 runs not because he was overly defensive, but because he was not given anything to score off. Batting often gets easier the more time you spend on the wicket, but it kept getting difficult the more Latham faced Ashwin.Despite a determined show from New Zealand, India’s bowlers kept creating mistake after mistake, bowling good ball after good ball.•BCCIAnd it wasn’t just Ashwin. It can’t be on such pitches. Ishant Sharma put in a spell of 6-2-20-0 in the morning before other spinners took over. Umesh Yadav then produced his usual brute out of nowhere to take out another big batter Kane Williamson.When so much pressure has been built, it is imperative the change-up bowlers don’t release it. Forget releasing the pressure, India’s change-up bowlers on this day are experts of exploiting it. The harder newer ball drew quicker response from the pitch, and Axar and Ravindra Jadeja started targeting the stumps.Axar had the better day of the two. Interestingly, he said the wider he went on the crease and the lower he went on the release, the more assistance he got from the pitch. So he just kept mixing up high-release straighter deliveries with roundarm turning ones. The accuracy was unerring. He was lethal once it started misbehaving.The endeavour of Test batting, especially away from home, is to see off the main threats and then cash in on either tired or lesser bowlers. There was no lesser bowler. In the pleasant temperatures of Kanpur, which ironically means the cracks didn’t quite open up sooner, there was no question these bowlers were tiring.It took India 67 mistakes to get their first wicket, the most it has taken for an opening wicket to fall in India since ESPNcricinfo started keeping control stats. It took India 133 mistakes in all to bowl New Zealand out. But they kept at it, creating mistake after mistake, bowling good ball after good ball.It will take more of the same in the second innings – although it is getting progressively difficult to bat on – but if India can manage to pull off a win here, New Zealand’s innings of 142.5 overs will be the fifth-longest first innings by a visiting team in a lost Test in India. This win will not have come easy.

There’s no doubt he will have had more than one difficult conversation by the time Boxing Day dawns

Karthik Krishnaswamy25-Dec-20214:59

Dravid: We’ll have to bat very well to give our bowlers a chance

This was Rahul Dravid on the eve of his first overseas Test match as India’s head coach. At no point during his press conference did he go into detail regarding who would play or not play at Centurion, but there’s no doubt he will have had more than one difficult conversation by the time Boxing Day dawns.Related

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It’s the nature of the job, especially when you coach a team with India’s player resources. And Dravid has come into the job at a time when these conversations could become more difficult than they have been for a while. Run your eye over India’s squad in South Africa: seven of the 18 players are 33 or older, and it would have been eight had Rohit Sharma made the trip. Five others are in their 30s. Some of the over-30s and over-33s are in the middle of prolonged slumps in form. This when Indian cricket is brimming with youthful talent in all departments.Even if a transition is not imminent, it’s not far away.But even before it comes to that, Dravid will have to sign off on tricky individual calls that will be judged – by the wider world, at least – largely through the prism of results. It’s blatantly unfair, because a reasonable decision doesn’t become a bad one because it didn’t yield the desired results, and because captains and coaches usually have to choose between two or more equally reasonable paths, each of which involves someone’s career.It’s blatantly unfair, but it is what it is.Dravid knows this well. Depending on which side of the fence you occupied, his captaincy tenure was characterised either by senior players swimming in needless insecurity, confused tactical meddling, and a shockingly early World Cup exit; or about young players getting the opportunities they deserved, brave strategic decisions, and two overseas Test series wins.When things went wrong, much of the blame went to Greg Chappell. Dravid’s self-effacing public persona often shielded him from the worst of the flak the coach copped, and it may well continue doing so as he assumes the Chappell role, but don’t be fooled – there’s no way anyone can be captain or coach of a high-profile team and not want and have a major say in decision-making. Chappell, remember, was a full year away from taking over as coach when Dravid made arguably the most contentious call of his leadership career, of declaring with Sachin Tendulkar on 194* – this when he was only standing in as captain.If Dravid the coach is anything like Dravid the captain, expect the Dravid-Kohli era to be as full of unexpected and unpopular calls as the Shastri-Kohli era was. Boxing Day 2021 could well bring one or more of them.

Drift from Test cricket mirrored England’s as a whole, but batter has found his focus again

Andrew Miller08-Mar-2022What might have been, six long years ago, had Jonny Bairstow not taken a long, envious look at England’s white-ball reset (as nobody was calling it back in the day), and decided, “you know what, I want a piece of that”.In January 2016, Bairstow made his maiden Test century at Cape Town, riding a wave of emotion in the anniversary week of his father’s death to add a remarkable 399-run stand with Ben Stokes on the flattest Newlands deck of the decade. For the rest of that calendar year, he was England’s premier Test batter, embracing his wicketkeeping duties like a security blanket as he racked up 1470 runs at 58.80 – a total that no Englishman other than Joe Root could surpass.Related

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But even as he was doing so, the sands were shifting beneath the feet of England’s multi-format players. Amid England’s run to the World T20 final in 2016, and their World Cup dress rehearsal in the Champions Trophy the following summer, the sense of something special taking shape was unmistakable.And Bairstow, for most of that initial period, was England’s white-ball super-sub, a man kept at arm’s length from the first XI, and almost goaded at times by Eoin Morgan to redouble his determination to break into the team – a treat-’em-mean tactic that delivered so many irresistible white-ball displays – including four centuries in six innings in early 2018 – that, come the final approach to the World Cup, he simply could not be kept on the fringes any longer. The trade-off was his place in England’s Test plans.Fast forward to Sydney in January 2022, and Bairstow was back in that same 2016 zone with England’s solitary century of an otherwise dismal Ashes tour. It was a campaign for which he hadn’t even been selected in the opening two games of the series, but once again, he channelled the spirit of his father to grimace his way through the pain of a broken thumb, and lay down the foundations of England’s only non-defeat of the tour.Now, with that same clench-fisted inevitability, he’s made it two centuries in consecutive England matches (three if you include a slightly spurious warm-up in Coolidge) and after years of drift and frustration – including the removal of those beloved gloves, and enough ducks and scapegoatings to set up a petting zoo – it seems he has relocated the defiant mindset that defined his now-distant year of Test mastery.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I’m very passionate about playing for England and very passionate about playing Test cricket,” Bairstow said. “I’m absolutely delighted, it’s been a good start to the year and hopefully that continues. Obviously I didn’t start in the Ashes but I got my opportunity and looked to take it. It’s been a good build-up and to start this way in this series is fantastic.”It wasn’t looking quite so fantastic midway through the opening session of the series, however. Arriving as he did to a grim scoreline of 48 for 4, Bairstow’s knock could not have come at a more priceless time for an England team in which he is once again being treated as a senior player. In the remaining 8.2 overs to the lunchbreak, he and Ben Stokes eked out nine runs before a calculated raising of the tempo against Jayden Seales and Alzarri Joseph upon the resumption.”It’s something that is part and parcel of the game,” Bairstow said. “You know you may come in in some tricky spots and it’s about staying out there as long as you can and grinding. That’s what we do, we’ll come tomorrow and grind again. I’ve played a fair amount of Test matches now so I’m delighted to start the year this way. Hopefully we can kick on again. Let’s have a good year and see where we are at the end of it.”If England’s much-vaunted “red-ball reset” is to have any merit beyond being a convenient soundbite to buy the ECB time while it works out exactly what it wants from Test cricket, then a resetting of attitude from the players within the existing set-up is as good a place to start as any.That’s not to say, however, that Bairstow has had an especially bad attitude to Test cricket in recent years. He’s simply had a priority – entirely endorsed by the governing body that pays most of his wages – which was to become the best white-ball batter he could possibly turn himself into.Had Bairstow spent the years from 2017-2021 twiddling his thumbs between Test engagements, then driving with flat feet and losing his poles every other innings through a lack of application, then the censure that has come his way would have been justifiable. But he did not. His technique suffered, in simplistic terms, from his commitment to launching inside-out drives in the Powerplay to become, arguably, England’s most important ODI batter of all time.For Jos Buttler is routinely spoken of as England’s white-ball GOAT – and Buttler has also been given far more leeway in Test cricket, when his attempts to bridge these increasingly polarised formats have fallen on hard times. But when England’s World Cup challenge was in danger of flatlining in the group stages, it was Bairstow’s last bout of back-to-back England hundreds, against India and New Zealand in two de facto knock-outs, that turbo-charged a campaign that simply would not have been won without him.Bairstow upped the tempo as his innings wore on•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesGratitude might have been a more fitting response to his efforts – or a degree of understanding at the very least. But that’s not quite how his career has panned out to date. Partly this comes down to his occasionally spiky demeanour. He memorably got himself into his World Cup zone by complaining that the media all wanted England to fail, and seeing as he’s seemingly never better than when he’s fighting to prove a point, perhaps there’s merit in lobbing endless brickbats in his direction.But Bairstow’s struggles to be all things to all formats does reveal how futile this alleged reset will be unless there is a commitment from above to reframe the way that England’s teams are selected, coached, managed, and flung from format to format without a pause for realignment. His return to the Test team in the summer of 2021 epitomised the chaos – a late-night drive to Loughborough after a Hundred match for Welsh Fire, then – one Covid test later – his first red-ball net for months, two days out from the Trent Bridge Test. He made 29 and 30 on that occasion – performing precisely as well as anyone could realistically have expected, no more and no less.Much has been made of the eviction of James Anderson and Stuart Broad for this series, with most of the focus falling on the bowlers who will now lead the line, most notably Chris Woakes, whose new-ball spell on Wednesday will be one of the most scrutinised of his World Cup-winning career.But Bairstow is another whose seniority is no longer hiding in plain sight. Eighty Test caps in ten years – albeit 49 of them as a wicketkeeper, seven as a specialist No. 3, and the rest as something neither quite here nor there – no longer looks quite such small beer when the bloke with 169 caps in 19 is removed from the equation.”I’ve batted everywhere, haven’t I?” Bairstow added. “Hopefully it’s a case of getting a run of games in one position. I think there was a period of batting 14 or 15 different positions in 18 or 20 knocks at one stage. It’s nice to establish yourself in one role.”The chance to do just that is precisely what Bairstow has been denied for the prime years of his career. You sense that the tenacious part of him would not have it any other way. For at the age of 32, there’s another gauntlet laid in front of him. For him, as for England, this might be his cue to resume the standards that he mislaid in the course of that wild white-ball ride.

The 16 teams will be split into two separate eight-team tournaments in Al Amerat

Peter Della Penna17-Feb-2022Shorter tournament lengthAt one time, the ICC was contemplating scrapping the global qualifier altogether partly for cost-cutting reasons. After getting some pushback from some leading Associates, the global qualifier has remained. But whereas in the past it ran for anywhere from two and a half to three weeks, the new edition of the event will run for one week. Despite having expanded this stage of the qualifier from 14 to 16 teams, splitting it into two sites with just eight teams at each site and rejigging the format to reduce the event length to seven days means saving at least USD 250,000 just on hotel room nights alone, not to mention a host of other daily operational expenses.From a competitive standpoint, the shorter format has a two-fold effect. Some teams in the past struggled to field their best 14-man squad because certain teams ran into situations where their players could not take three weeks off of work for an entire year, let alone in one chunk for an ICC tournament. This was especially true for some of the busier Associates who may not have enough games to justify full-time contracts, but still too many during a calendar year to breach the threshold of exhausting annual leave from the day jobs of their amateur playing squad.The other issue was that teams featuring players who are not full-time professionals (and even some of the teams who were full professional) often racked up plenty of injuries when their bodies were pushed to the max by a format that tried to squeeze as many games as possible into a relatively tight window. One edition of the qualifier, in 2012, saw teams play seven group matches in eight days. Eventual champions Ireland played 11 matches in 12 days, including a double-header on the day of the tournament final.All of that is a thing of the past. Teams will play a maximum of five matches in seven days, with two off days scheduled. Whereas the tournament lasted anywhere from 51 to 72 matches in the past, each eight-team split qualifier will contain 20 total matches. It means the players won’t have to wipe out their annual leave from work, and they also won’t be leaving the event with their bodies wiped out from exhaustion.Fewer games means less margin for errorNamibia was a team that benefitted from the lengthy group stage in the 2019 global qualifier. After getting thrashed by Netherlands and Papua New Guinea to open up a group stage that included six matches, they then went on a roll winning four straight and taking that into the knockouts where they defeated Oman to clinch a spot in the T20 World Cup.Oman similarly benefitted from the knockout stage format that was in place in 2019 which offered a second chance to teams who finished second or third in their group by having a repechage elimination playoff against a fourth-place group finisher, which in 2019 was Hong Kong. That second-chance match became a winner take all contest to claim the last remaining berth for the T20 World Cup. Meanwhile, the winners of each seven-team group – Ireland and Papua New Guinea – clinched automatic berths in the T20 World Cup.Netherland won the 2019-20 global qualifiers•Peter Della PennaAll of those incentives for finishing high in the round-robin stage are now completely gone. Each of the two eight-team global qualifiers – one will also take place in Zimbabwe in July – are now divided into two groups of four. Each team will play three group games, compared to six group matches from 2019, and the top two teams in each group advance to the semi-finals.There is no longer an automatic berth in the T20 World Cup for finishing first in your group. Instead, the two group leaders will play the second-place team in the opposite group in a straight shootout, which means no repechage second-chance playoff match. The winner of each semi-final clinches a spot in the T20 World Cup. It means there could be a scenario where a team goes 3-0 in group play but loses their semi-final and misses out on the T20 World Cup. All teams will still play a final playoff match which will be for seeding and ranking purposes only as the two semi-final winners will face off in the tournament final and the two losing semi-finalists will play a consolation third-place playoff.How they got here? In the case of Ireland and Oman, they have arrived at the global qualifier by virtue of having been at the opening round of the 2021 men’s T20 World Cup but fall back into the qualifier after failing to progress to the Super 12s.Nepal, who missed out on the global qualifier in 2019 after failing to make it out of Asia Regional qualifying, have been granted a spot this time around based on the ICC’s T20I rankings, as have UAE, who were part of the global qualifier in 2019.Canada advanced as the runner-up in the Americas regional qualifier (behind USA) which took place last November in Antigua. Bahrain advanced as the winner of the Asia regional qualifier held last October in Qatar. Germany advanced as the runner-up at the Europe regional qualifier (behind Jersey) which was also held in October. Ironically all three of those regional qualifiers were held at the same time that the 2021 men’s T20 World Cup was being played in the UAE.Philippines’ presence in Oman, hailing from the East Asia-Pacific region, came about in slightly unusual circumstances. The EAP regional events have traditionally been dominated throughout the last two decades by Papua New Guinea, but PNG’s maiden appearance at the T20 World Cup last year meant that they would not have to return to take part in the first steps of regional qualifying for the 2022 T20 World Cup. That opened the door for a second team from the EAP region to advance to one of the two eight-team global qualifiers (PNG will be competing at the eight-team Zimbabwe qualifier in July).An eight-team EAP Regional Qualifier was scheduled to take place last October but wound up being canceled due to Covid-19 logistical problems. As a result, Philippines advanced as the highest-ranked team from the region, a ranking which was primarily based on their performance from the 2019 EAP qualifier in which they finished second behind PNG thanks to a 10-run win over Vanuatu in a rain-reduced five-over shootout, as well as securing a point from a match against PNG which was washed out that crucially put them one point above Vanuatu instead of level on points. Philippines enter the tournament as the lowest-ranked side (46th) to have ever reached this stage of the T20 World Cup qualifying process.

Bangladesh batter urges younger players to raise the bar after he became the first from the country to hit 5000 Test runs

Mohammad Isam18-May-2022When the moment finally arrived for Mushfiqur Rahim, he actually withdrew from the shot. It had been an absorbing first hour of play in steaming Chattogram, where the heat was over 40 degrees. The wait was for Mushfiqur to score 15 runs to become Bangladesh’s first cricketer to reach 5000 Test runs. There was the odd quip about how Tamim Iqbal could overtake him. Tamim had retired hurt on 133 after cramping up on the second afternoon, and he was padded up to bat next.But after facing 47 balls, an Asitha Fernando delivery shaved Mushfiqur’s gloves to go past the wicketkeeper. While he was completing the two runs, the big screen on the western side announced what had just happened. Mushfiqur’s celebration was mostly muted, raising his bat just once.A milestone of 5000 runs stopped mattering a long time ago, but Bangladesh’s Test cricket is only 20 years old. So in this Test nation’s context, this goes down in history as one of Bangladesh’s seminal achievements. Mushfiqur, the 81-Test veteran, is very much aware of the significance of the moment. At the end of the day, he passed on the figurative baton to young Mahmudul Hasan Joy, a promising opener playing in his fifth game.Related

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“We were cutting the celebratory cake in the dressing room just now and I fed a piece to Joy,” Mushfiqur said. “I told him, you are the youngest batsman now. I hope you will score 10000 runs, and feed the next guy in line. Hopefully the younger players can double up on what we will leave behind. It is a great feeling to become the first Bangladeshi to reach 5000 Test runs. I am sure I won’t be the last one. There’ll be a lot of capable players among us who can reach 8000 or 10000 runs.”At a more immediate level, Mushfiqur beat Tamim to the 5000-run mark despite being behind him on the second day. But Tamim cramping up on 133 sent him to the dressing room on the second afternoon. Reaching 4981, Tamim was poised to be the first to the milestone. Instead, he clapped from the dressing room on the third morning, padded up. Mushfiqur was magnanimous in his praise for Tamim, reminding everyone of how they kept beating each other in getting Bangladesh’s highest Test score.

“Records are meant to be broken. I was so happy when Tamim broke my highest individual score. He told me then that within next two or three years, I will end up breaking his record again”Mushfiqur on how he and Tamim push each other to their best

“He congratulated me. He knew he was close. He knows these things. He joked that he couldn’t get there, I did. I feel happier when a brother, team-mate or a friend achieves something.”Records are meant to be broken. I was so happy when Tamim broke my highest individual score. He told me then that within next two or three years, I will end up breaking his record again. It is a healthy competition, and this is how we as team-mates help each other.”Tamim and Mushfiqur have exchanged the position as Bangladesh’s leading Test scorer various times over the years. Tamim had overtaken Habibul Bashar in 2015, before Mushfiqur surpassed Tamim in February 2020. However, Tamim regained his place in April last year. Mushfiqur returned to the top in November, before Tamim’s 133 got him ahead in this game.These two go back a long way, to age-group camp days in BKSP, the revered sporting institute where Mushfiqur was a student, and Tamim an outsider. They have played 330 international matches together, played under each other and generally been through a lot together in the last 15 years.They are a bit like the Sri Lankan pair of Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva, who played 322 matches together from their earliest days as a Test team. de Silva beat Ranatunga to the 5000-run mark by two years but both are considered the pioneers of Sri Lankan cricket. Mushfiqur and Tamim have the same recognition, as pioneers.Mushfiqur Rahim performs the sajda after completing his century•AFP/Getty ImagesBut unlike the Sri Lankan legends, Tamim and Mushfiqur’s work is not over. Even 15 years into playing together, Bangladesh needed them in the first Test after twin batting disasters in South Africa. Tamim was part of a 162-run opening stand – Bangladesh’s first in five years – but when he had to leave the middle due to cramps, Mushfiqur had to stick around. His 165-run fourth wicket stand with Litton Das took Bangladesh out of trouble. It turned out to be the first time that Bangladesh had two 150-plus partnerships in a Test innings.”It was a bit hot. Our team goal was to get as close as possible to their score. We couldn’t take a big enough lead but that’s due to their fast bowlers who bowled well on this wicket. I am happy that we batted well, after fielding for two days,” Mushfiqur said.Sri Lanka is Mushfiqur’s most viable opponent, as he is one of two Bangladeshi batters to score more than 1000 Test runs against them. But Mushfiqur said that Sri Lanka’s attitude of preying on a batter’s patience makes them a unique attack.”Generally, it is not that easy to score runs against Sri Lanka. Over the years they have had two quality bowlers in their attack. Even now. They don’t set over-attacking fields like England or Australia. They want you to make a mistake while attacking.”Sri Lanka try to play with your patience. They dry up the runs, forcing you to make a mistake. I think there’s always the extra challenge of tiring them out, by playing a long innings and putting together partnerships.”This was Mushfiqur’s first Test hundred in more than two years, and the first against Sri Lanka since 2013. He has scored just four half-centuries in his last ten Tests, averaging 32.43, and there have even been questions about his place in the T20I side since November.Mushfiqur, who was issued a show-cause notice by the BCB for criticising the selectors last year, was more restrained when asked about his future following this landmark.”(What is being said about me) is not desirable for a player. Only in Bangladesh, you will get compared to Bradman when you score a century, but then when you don’t score runs, you feel like digging a hole for yourself.”I am one of the senior players so we are not going to be around for long. But this is becoming a culture, so the younger players need the support. If I have to spend so much time tackling these things off the field, our on-field duties get affected.”Mushfiqur was asked if considers himself lucky to be the first to two important milestones. He is Bangladesh’s first to 5000 runs ahead of Tamim, who was close to the mark. He was also Bangladesh’s first to a double-hundred when Mohammad Ashraful, in the same innings in Galle in 2013, was out for 190 when Mushfiqur was on 157.Mushfiqur quoted the Quran to say that Allah looks after him, before walking off from the stage. “I don’t think it is luck. Look at my forehead. When I go to practice, most of you are sleeping in the morning. Allah looks over me. That’s all.”

RCB’s team director feels that the ‘pleasing aspect’ of their season was the fact that ‘so many different players stood out’

Shashank Kishore28-May-20221:54

RCB’s Mike Hesson – ‘We had the potential to get 175-180’

Another season full of hope. Another season of disappointment. Or was it? Royal Challengers Bangalore have now made it to the playoffs for three seasons in a row. In IPL 2022, they crossed the Eliminator hurdle after two back-to-back misses. On Friday, they ran into an inspired Rajasthan Royals, perhaps a little nervous and lost their way with the bat. A target of 158 was too easy for Royals, who blasted 67 in the powerplay, and eventually romped home with 11 balls to spare.Mike Hesson, their director of cricket, felt they may have made a better fist of it with 175-180 to defend, but credited Obed McCoy and Prasidh Krishna for their impressive efforts with the ball. McCoy had to cope with the news of his mother’s illness back home in the Caribbean, while Prasidh had to channel the hurt of being unable to defend 16 off the final over in Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans as he saw David Miller go 6,6,6 to seal the deal.Both bowlers rose to the occasion to pick up six wickets between them, denying Royal Challengers any momentum at the back end where they lost 5 for 35 in the last five overs. Where McCoy mixed his lengths and pace with subtle variations and a superb back-of-the-hand slower one, Prasidh hit hard lengths, got deliveries to rear up awkwardly, and towards the end, delivered sharp bouncers and a superb yorker.”It’s a fair reflection,” Hesson said, when asked if the batting could’ve been better. “[At] 123 for 3 with five overs to go, we were very much in a position to get potentially 175-180 with [Glenn] Maxwell set along with [Rajat] Patidar. We lost those two wickets and then in the last three overs, Obed McCoy and Krishna bowled nicely, and we struggled to get any momentum. We only got 30 odd off the last five, probably leaving us 20 short.”Hesson was, however, quick to point out how one bad evening with their death overs batting wasn’t an overall reflection of where they stood as a team.”You’re always after more power hitters,” he said. “I think between Maxwell, who was well set after 15 overs, Patidar has got power, Lomror has power, Shahbaz Ahmed has shown he’s got power. We’ve had a number of guys stand up along with Dinesh Karthik who has been outstanding.”In the last five overs of the innings, our death run-scoring through the season has been exceptional. It’s probably more at the top end where we didn’t get that momentum, but other than today, we’ve pretty much nailed the last five overs of most innings.”Honest about the team’s frailties, Hesson was hopeful of the underwhelming performers turning a corner and learning from their mistakes, while also reiterating it wasn’t a case of them being dependent on just two or three players, as has been the perception around the group for a long time now.Rajat Patidar is all smiles after hammering a hundred in the IPL 2022 Eliminator•PTI “If you rely solely on two or three players, you’re not going to make it to the playoffs,” he said. “The beauty of our side has been we didn’t necessarily rely on all of our retained players. We built a squad around our retained players, but we didn’t necessarily have to rely on them for every game. That was probably the most pleasing aspect, the fact that so many different players stood out.”Mohammed Siraj is a fine bowler; he didn’t have the best tournament, but we know that he will come back strong. He just didn’t get those new ball wickets, didn’t get the ball swinging, and lost a little bit of confidence, but as I said, he will bounce back.”Glenn Maxwell had a good all-round season with both bat and ball – very high strike rate, average close to 30, strike rate of 170 and went for seven an over with the ball. Sure, you always want more, but he’s had a pretty good tournament.”At the top of the order, Virat (Kohli) and Faf (du Plessis). Obviously, we started with Virat at three and moved him to the top and he certainly got better and better as the season went on. Look, he was in really good touch in the last four or five innings. There are always things you want to tweak, when you get knocked out of a tournament, there are always areas we need to improve, but all in all, pleased with the way the team gelled this season.”Hesson picked out the development of a strong Indian core as their biggest takeaway from the season. Rajat Patidar, for example, wasn’t even in the original squad, and only came in midway following an injury to Luvnith Sisodia. Two nights ago, he became the first uncapped player to hit an IPL playoff hundred and backed that up with a half-century against Royals on Friday.Shahbaz Ahmed, the allrounder, featured in every game, playing key roles lower down the order. Harshal Patel, who had a record-breaking 2021 season, overcame personal turmoil with the passing away of his sister. He returned to the bio-bubble despite having had a newborn son the same week and delivered consistently as a death bowler despite a split webbing towards the playoffs.Dinesh Karthik may have been commentating on the season if he hadn’t been motivated enough to make an India comeback. He emerged as one of the best death-overs batters this season, striking at 220 across the 110 deliveries he faced in this period. This earned him yet another comeback to India’s T20I squad at 36. Among the overseas players, Josh Hazlewood and Wanindu Hasaranga, the current purple cap holder, were standouts.”Probably the non-established players, in terms of the fact that they’ve now established themselves as an Indian core,” Hesson said of the positives. “Think about Patidar, Shahbaz, Lomror. From a bowling point of view, Harshal Patel was exceptional. DK came in and performed an incredibly tough role. We really struggled to get consistency and he was probably one of the most consistent players at the back end of the innings.”They were real strong points. Josh Hazlewood was impressive, Wanindu Hasaranga, at the time of us getting knocked out, has the purple cap, as he got a lot of middle over wickets. We needed a little more in the powerplay from the wickets point of view, and with the bat, we left ourselves with a little bit, but otherwise, we were pretty good.”

Veteran seamer leaning on psychology and data in bid for self-improvement as Lord’s recall awaits

Alan Gardner31-May-20221:28

Broad: McCullum’s England will be a fun team to play for

There have been so many Stuart Broad reinventions that you’d be forgiven for failing to keep up. Never mind Broad 2.0, we must be on to the seventh or eighth iteration by now.In the early days he was “Golden Bowls”, before a brief, less-successful period as the “Enforcer”. There was the youthful Broad of red-hot streaks – seven times taking five wickets in a single spell – and the older, wiser version who cut down his run up, reduced his leave percentage and became the stuff of David Warner’s nightmares.Having had a brush with his mortality as a Test cricketer over the winter, unceremoniously jettisoned alongside long-time new-ball James Anderson for England’s tour to the Caribbean, it should be no surprise that Broad has resolved to throw himself wholeheartedly into the challenge once again after being recalled at the start of a new era for the side, under the coach-captaincy combo of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.Broad’s enthusiasm for the game is well known, and he was in garrulous mood two days out from the start of the Lord’s Test – not just because his football team, Nottingham Forest, had won a return to the Premier League after a 23-year absence. He said he was planning to approach the match as if it was his first (rather than his 153rd), and would pour his “heart and soul” into performing, without concern about trying to manage a pathway towards future commitments.He also spoke about the philosophy that McCullum will expect his players to adopt, based around taking positive options and looking to move the game forward at every juncture. For the bowlers, that boils down to a simple message: “Don’t focus too much on economy rates, I want wickets.” It is a gauntlet Broad is keen to pick up, despite occasionally being accused in the past of conservatism and the success that he and Anderson have had – in yet another incarnation – with the tactic of “bowling dry”.Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes share a joke•PA Images/Getty”The forefront of the mindset is wickets,” Broad said. “It is, let’s look at the opposition players and what’s our best chance of taking wickets. If we turn up and the pitch is slow and slips aren’t in the game, catching covers and midwickets. In the past it was two an over, pressure will see the batsman make a mistake.”The mindset [now] is how we get the batter to make a mistake quicker: how do we apply pressure quicker? If we can bowl a team out in 85 overs going at 3.3 an over, compared to 120 at 2.5 … that’s a better option as it speeds the game up for our batters. I suppose it’s the balance of protecting economy or risk it by going fuller. Yes, you might get driven but you’ve got more chance of taking wickets. If I go at 8 an over on Thursday, just be calm.”I’d like to think that I have quite an attacking mindset and he [McCullum] has got a very relaxed, free feel to him and the way he talks with his players. I’m sure that there’s certain things that he has a very clear direction on, but it is very much seems that, as long as you’re taking the positive option here, I’ll back you. I’m really looking forward to working with him and I think Stokes will be a fantastic leader.”Related

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In his bid to seize the moment once more, Broad has focused on two areas: psychology and data. He revealed that he has worked extensively with Chris Marshall, Nottinghamshire’s team psychologist, with a view to prioritising the next challenge rather than worrying about managing his body for commitments further down the line – an approach which chimes with the strident comments he made about England’s rotation policy during the winter’s Ashes.”I think rather than view the summer as ‘I hope I’m fit for the second Test against South Africa’ – well life doesn’t work like that,” he said. “It very much is, be very grateful for what I’ve got this week, and give my heart and soul for this week. Then if I’m a bit stiff and sore next week we’ll approach that then, and if I don’t play next week or they want to give a new bowler some experience, great. And if I’ve not set a target to play that game then everything is rosy – so give everything, train hard, if I get in the team everything is going to be left on that field.”I said to Jimmy today, whether we get 0 for 100 or 5 for 30, actually, the performance doesn’t matter right now. It’s just all about us giving everything to the England shirt and the environment and we’re good for the results to look after themselves in the long run anyway.”He was also enthusiastic about the potential for data analysis to help give him and Anderson – England’s two lions in winter – an extra cutting edge. Having benefited from the suggestion a few seasons ago, from Peter Moores and Kunal Manek at Notts, that he should be looking to make batters play more, Broad has been drilling down into his extensive Test record at different grounds in order to pick out favourable match-ups.Stuart Broad and James Anderson are back in England’s squad•Gareth Copley/Getty Images”I think every sportsperson has to prove their worth all the time, [and that’s] as much to do with my mindset and drive to keep improving,” he said. “When I was 20 coming into international cricket, my mindset was that I had to keep improving all the time: white-ball cricket, new slower ball; red-ball, what can I do differently to the past?”Two years ago I came up with the idea that the lower I could get my leave percentage, the better my spells would be. I will continue to do that, but this summer I will be even more specific. Because I’ve played so much cricket in the UK when I arrive at Lord’s, I go through the data of ends, spells, left- [and] right-handers, age of ball: when is my strike rate the lowest? Get those match-ups with batters at different times. [So I can be] saying to the captain that my record from the Pavilion End to left-handers between 10 and 20 overs is very good. Maybe I have a crack then.”The headline number around Broad’s record at Lord’s is that he needs five more wickets to become only the second bowler (after Anderson) to take 100 Test wickets on the ground. That he will likely get that chance, almost four months after being dropped from an England Test squad for the first time in his 15-year career, is testament to the drive that still exists within – ready to go “flying” into battle, this time for McCullum.”There’s no doubt when the team was in the West Indies I missed it,” he said. “I wished I was there. It just makes you realise that, yes, these careers don’t gone on forever. You’ve got to get as much out of it as you possibly can and enjoy it. The moment I stop enjoying and lose that competitive spirit then I won’t be the fast bowler I am, no doubt about that. I thrive off that competitive spirit and that’s why I feel I can change the momentum of games pretty quickly.”So yes, I loved it yesterday [in the nets], I loved charging in. It was great to see the coaches again who I’d not seen for a long time and it was just a really good, vibrant feel around the changing-room as it should be before the first Test of the summer. We should all be flying and have amazing energy.”Brendon said one basic thing for his mindset is – you chase every ball to the boundary as hard as you can until it’s at the boundary edge. That is just a mindset of positivity all the time that you are going to give everything to this game and then we’ll reflect on whatever happens.”