Chasing has been a successful trend recently in T20s but on Friday night the legspinner bucked that and helped Adelaide Strikers become the first BBL side to win after opting to bat first since 2015-16

Tim Wigmore in Adelaide22-Dec-2017At 9:24pm local time, Rashid Khan marks out his run at the Adelaide Oval. He is about to deliver his first ball in the Big Bash League: another landmark moment for Rashid in a year full of them.A day earlier, Mohammad Nabi pipped Rashid to become the first ever Afghanistan cricketer to play in the Big Bash League. That they have made it this far is a remarkable testament to their own talents and the power of sport to create opportunity.Yet for the Adelaide Strikers and other T20 sides, all of this backstory is just that. These sides deal in the hard currency of wins, not sentiment.In February, some guffawed when Rashid cost Sunrisers Hyderabad $600,000. They saw only an 18-year-old Afghan. But coach Tom Moody and Sunrisers recognised a legspinner of wonderful verve and versatility – one who could be a strike bowler or bowl frugal spells, and could beat an opponent in the air or off the wicket, with prodigious turn or with chicanery. He was signed specifically to bowl in the middle overs, but is almost equally adept bowling in all three phases of a T20 game. “He had the goods,” Moody recalls. “It was a just case of did he have the character?”The first year of the IPL gave Moody the answer: “he had that in spades.” Empowered by his captain David Warner, Rashid was beguiling. In a tournament famed for leaving superstars marooned on the bench, Rashid instantly became undroppable, and the fulcrum of Sunrisers’ attack. In the Caribbean and Bangladesh, he was as good.For the Adelaide Strikers, Rashid is not just a brilliant cricketer; he is a cricketer who gives them the flexibility to take advantage of the most fundamental tactical shift in T20 in recent years – the growing preference for batting second. In 2011-12, only three out of 31 teams who won the toss in the BBL decided to chase. Last year, 28 out of 35 teams who won the toss opted to bat second – and all seven of the sides who chose to bat first lost. In the first three games of this season, all teams who won the toss chose to bowl first too.So when Travis Head won the toss and chose to bat it seemed curious at best, bewildering at worst. It was altogether less so considering Rashid’s record bowling second in T20s. He averages 17.81, with an economy rate of 6.08, when bowling first – astounding numbers, yet bettered by those defending a score: an average of 13.49 with an economy rate of 5.56. While T20 teams have long loved to set matches up for their batting finishers, with Rashid they can set games up for him. This has an extra benefit, too: given that other teams prefer to chase, it means that the Strikers, should they continue their preference for batting first, can expect to do what they want every game. Rashid in T20 is a cricketer teams can recalibrate their entire strategies around.Phil Simmons, who has worked with Rashid for Afghanistan, says he is like Anil Kumble – only, Rashid turns the ball more. He is unusually quick for a legspinner, and so hard for batsmen to set themselves up for. He turns the ball, and sharply, both ways. He conceals his googly like a brilliant poker player hides a royal flush. In the Caribbean Premier League, Rashid got a hat-trick with his googly alone.Yet all of these qualities would be of little use without Rashid’s chutzpah under pressure. “T20 is a very short format, and you have to think really quickly and really smartly what to do,” he says. During an over he is “just trying my best to mix up with the batsman, to put something in his mind – ‘what he’s going to deliver next?'” To see Rashid at work is to see affirmation that, even in T20 cricket, it is still possible for bowlers to construct a spell to work over and tease out batsmen. They just have to do it much faster.With any sporting prodigy it is always tempting to describe their success as a triumph for instinct. Yet in modern T20, instinct alone – even when it is as brilliant as Rashid’s – is not enough. He is a student of his sport too, and a cunning one. “Before every match you are discussing with the video analyst, and with the coach, to which batsmen you will bowl tomorrow, and what is the strategy, and what is the plan for him,” he explained recently. “We were just discussing their weakness and strengths, working on that, and applying that in the nets.”Getty ImagesRashid has also benefited from novelty. Associate cricket is seldom televised and its players rarely scrutinised. Even the Desert T20 competition last year, a tournament for the top-eight Associate sides, had no live streaming, and it was impossible to watch footage of every ball. The upshot was that, when Rashid went to the IPL, most his opponents had only seen footage of him in the World Twenty20 in 2016.Americans call it the “sophomore slump”: professional athletes floundering in their second season. As soon as Rashid got to the IPL, the best analytical minds in cricket were charged with trying to demystify him. That has forced Rashid to continue improving, even if not all have noticed – when he was handed the ball for the Strikers, the BBL commentators proclaimed to having never seen him before.As is customary, Rashid was brought on in the seventh over. He was entrusted with a slip, with the Strikers in pursuit of wickets, but his first delivery was cut for four and 11 runs came in the over. Four singles and a wide followed in his second.Rare are the T20 bowling spells that are longer than two overs. Not only does it mean that a captain has fewer options for later in an innings, but, the theory is, batsmen can size a bowler up, making them easier to hit. The genius of Rashid in T20 is that he inverts conventional wisdom: as he gets deeper into a spell, it is not the batsmen who size him up but he who sizes them up. Head recognised as much when he allowed Rashid to carry on for a third over.The first ball was tossed up and a little quicker. Ryan Gibson’s rushed drive was edged behind and, for the first time in Australia, Rashid was running in joy, extending his arms like an airplane in his trademark celebration. Two balls later, Rashid unveiled his googly to left-hander Ben Rohrer; the stumps were dishevelled and Rashid was running again. These two brilliant deliveries ensured that Adelade became the first Big Bash side to win after choosing to bat first since 2015-16. That’s the value of Rashid.He began 2017 as an Associate cricketer – a marvellous bowler, yet one who remained the sport’s best-kept secret. He ends it having played – and excelled – in the IPL, the CPL and, now the BBL too. And next year, he will become a Test cricketer too.Rashid is already the most acclaimed cricketer that Afghanistan have produced, and an emblem of what it is possible for Afghanistan to achieve in the game through talent and insatiable desire. While he is from a well-to-do family near Kabul, Rashid grew up playing tape-ball cricket in the street, and did not play with a hard ball until he was 14 or 15.”Sports is the only thing that brings peace to the country,” he said recently. “It feels wonderful to see the youngsters coming and playing their cricket. Last time when I went to Afghanistan after the IPL, I visited an academy. When I see the boys, and how they’re all working, and how keen they were to play cricket for their country, it was just amazing, and I really love to watch.”In Afghanistan, India, the West Indies and now Australia, they love to watch him too. So far in 2017, Rashid has taken 76 wickets in T20s at an average of 14.98 and economy rate of 5.55.With his final ball of the night in Adelaide, Rashid tries his signature delivery once again in pursuit of wicket 77. His googly deceives the batsman, but the bat jabs down on the ball, more through luck than judgement. Rashid smiles. He will have to be content with two wickets tonight, and the promise of many more soon.

England’s 366 in Cuttack became the 100th 350-plus total in ODIs – here’s a lowdown on all the key stats around these high totals

S Rajesh20-Jan-2017England fell 15 short of a brave attempt to chase down 382 in Cuttack, but they did end up reaching a significant milestone: their 366 was the 100th score of 350 or more in ODI history.For a long time, touching 350 in ODI cricket was considered almost impossible – even when teams batted 60 overs per innings, the highest was Pakistan’s 338 versus Sri Lanka in the 1983 World Cup.The first 350-plus total in ODIs happened in the 1987 World Cup, when West Indies amassed 360 for 4 against Sri Lanka, and it was fitting that the batsman instrumental in making it happen was Viv Richards, who smashed 181 off 125 balls.The 350 barrier was broken, but such scores were still outliers. The next one came almost five years later, when England made 363 for 7 against Pakistan at Trent Bridge in 1992. In 1662 ODIs till the end of 2000, there had only been six 350-plus totals. In the four years between 2001 and 2004, the number doubled to 12, but progress was still rather slow. Till the end of 2004, only 0.27% of all ODI innings had witnessed 350-plus totals.The frequency of 350-plus totals, as a percentage of total ODI innings, has gone up by 200% compared to 2005-14 period•ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the next ten years, from 2005 to 2014, the rate increased to almost six such scores every year, which was roughly about 2% of the total ODI innings. At the end of 2014, the number of 350-plus totals stood at 69.Since the start of 2015, though, there has been an explosion of these high totals: in a little more than two years, 31 more have been made, including seven in the 2015 World Cup, and four in four innings in the ongoing India-England series. In percentage terms, 6.31% of ODI innings have passed 350 since the start of 2015, compared to 2.11% between 2005 and 2014 – that is an increase of 200% in the frequency of such totals. In fact, the frequency of 350-plus scores since the start of 2015 is about as much as the frequency of 300-plus totals in the 2001-04 period.More numbers on 350-plus totals in ODIs23 350-plus totals for India, the most by any team. South Africa have 22, followed by Australia’s 16.India and South Africa have together scored 45 out of 100 350-plus totals in ODIs•ESPNcricinfo Ltd26 350-plus totals in India, the highest in any country. South Africa have played host to 20 such scores, while no other country has had more than 10.10 Instances of 350-plus scores in run-chases – three each by England and India, two by South Africa, and one each by New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Seven of these have been in wins: three by India, two by South Africa, and one each for England and New Zealand.8 Instances of teams losing an ODI after scoring 350 or more in an innings. Australia have suffered the fate four times, England thrice and Sri Lanka once. England’s two defeats in the ongoing series is the first time a team has lost two successive games after making 350-plus totals. The only other instance of two defeats in a series for teams scoring 350-plus was when Australia lost in Jaipur and Nagpur in the series against India in 2013.5 Most 350-plus totals in a bilateral series – there were five such totals in the India-Australia series in 2013. There were four in the England-New Zealand series in 2015, and also in the ongoing India-England one. In all tournaments/ series, the highest is seven, in the 2015 World Cup.

Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith talks about India’s captain, and tries to put his finger on where it went wrong for the home side in the one-day series

Interview by Gaurav Kalra20-Feb-20189:32

Young players should look at Kohli how to construct an inns – Smith

After the one-day series, would you say it a bit of a setback for “Vision 2019” for South Africa?
Well, in the short term definitely. It has been a very disappointing one-day series for the South African team. A lot of questions to be answered tactically. There’s a lot of areas the South African team need to get right. Yes, there were injuries to key players, but all in all, I think the batting line-up needs to be looked at in terms of the structure, where they place who. And just generally, they were poor, in terms of playing spin, in terms of tactics and execution.South Africa came into the series as the top-ranked team in the world. They were on a 17-match winning streak at home. Was this repeated failure with the bat completely unexpected for you?
I think a couple of injuries to key players who have the experience of playing spin made a difference. India do have a bowling line-up now that can pick up wickets throughout the game, up front with the new ball, the two spinners in the middle who were devastating in the series, and very good death bowlers. They never allowed any of the South African batsmen to settle, and it almost looked like there was a lack of confidence, a lack of ideas. No one really got a partnership that was something to talk about.The younger players who came in as replacements – does that give you a glimpse of problems that may exist at first-class level, especially in the quality of batsmen coming through?
Yes, the talent is there, but we have been talking about the domestic game and the gap with international level widening. I think coaching is a key factor at domestic level – that needs to be of a really high quality. These players are being exposed now to the international game, the standards, the intensity, the crowds, the pressure. They need to go away and work on their game. And I think there’s no better man to watch than Virat Kohli. I just think in modern-day cricket, batters have forgotten how to construct innings. Getting a 40 off 20 balls is exciting but it doesn’t win you games. Someone like Kohli does that, at good rates. He knows how to construct an innings, and a lot of those youngsters need to look at that and realise how the game needs to be played.

“It’s great to see some spin come back into the game. South Africa really had no thought, no plan B or C. It was really just dot ball, dot ball, okay, let’s have a swing”

No one better than you to talk about Aiden Markram’s appointment as captain to replace Faf du Plessis. Do you think that was the right decision to make at the time that they did, considering he had only played two one-day games?
I don’t think it was the right decision. Everyone has been talking about his leadership. Probably coming from me that doesn’t make sense, because I got given the job at a very young age. I think it was an interim thing, not a full-time thing. I would rather have had him find his place, find his feet within the one-day set-up, try and get runs behind him. South Africa need players to step up and perform. I think in the short-term, with AB [de Villiers] coming in after three games, he could have stepped in and they could have looked at [JP] Duminy or [Hashim] Amla in the first couple and allowed someone like Markram just to settle.One, he was batting out of position at four at the start of the series, something he had to come to terms with, and then you’ve piled him under pressure, not only on his own game but also as a captain. He would have gained a lot experience-wise but let’s just hope his confidence hasn’t taken a dent.When you see him on the field and off the field, again, given your experience in this role, do you think he can get into this job going forward? Is he the right man?
There’s no doubt. His performances since the start of his career say that he can bat at this level. He’s obviously got the leadership credentials from Under-19. He’s spoken of highly as a personality, and he’s as a person mature for his age. But I just think allowing him to grow and develop and become a strong player within the line-up – we are talking about the next tier of cricketers. There’s a drop-off between maybe four-five senior players and the next tier. So, allow those guys to develop. What was disappointing for me was that I don’t think the other senior players stepped up around him – the Amlas, Duminys, Millers. Those guys just never got it going from a performance perspective, an intensity perspective. They needed to get behind and lead the way almost.Were you surprised how none of the senior players got into the runs in the series?
That’s why the series result is what it is. If South Africa had their senior group of players performing, it would have been easy for the younger group of players to fit in and play around them. So them performing badly exposed the youngsters to pressure situations at times in the game where they needed an experienced player to perform. I guess that was one of the disappointing aspects. People can have good or bad runs of form, but it’s just the way the guys go about it. I would like to see a bit more intensity in our play, with the senior players leading the way in terms of body language. India really attacked verbally – the intensity within the game, the way they played the game, and it was almost like South Africa just backed off and were found wanting.”I don’t think the other senior players stepped up around him – the Amlas, Duminys, Millers. They needed to get behind and lead the way almost”•Getty ImagesWere you surprised at how South Africa played the wristspinners? At how they picked up wickets throughout the series?
Yeah, you’ve got to wonder what the chat was about in the change room and how they went about it. Obviously two world-class spinners, [Yuzvendra] Chahal and Kuldeep [Yadav], excellent finds for India. It’s just great to see some spin come back into the game. The mystery spinners had left the game for a period of time – the Ajmals, Warnes, Muralitharans, there’s been a little bit of a gap. So it’s great to see two guys like that come into the game. It makes the game really interesting to watch.South Africa really had no thought, no plan B or C. It was really just dot ball, dot ball, okay, let’s have a swing. There’s was no real plan. As the partnerships build, it gets slightly easier, and South Africa never found a way to do that.The other aspect of the series was South Africa’s fielding, which has always been a strength. We saw dropped catches, lots of missed run-outs and misfields. What do you attribute that to, considering it is a young, fit team?
Confidence is a key thing and it can spiral into all parts of the game, and South Africa, you know, losing and losing badly, lost a lot of confidence, and that can spiral into your fielding, bowling, the way you think. You can get under pressure, you can end up trying too hard to do something and almost force something. It is almost like some quicksand – the harder you fight, the quicker you sink. I think they just got themselves into a horrible mess in this one-day series, and they will be looking to get out of it in the T20s because they don’t want to be taking this into the Australia Tests that are to come.There’s still a lot of one-day cricket for South Africa to play before the World Cup, so do you think the wake-up call has come at the right time?
If the leadership strategically gets their thinking right, get the tactics right, and involve the right kinds of players, I think this can be a good thing for South Africa. They’ve exposed a few more players to the international game, they have a few more players to look at and think, okay, how can I position that guy there, okay, he looks like he might have something, and those players have had some exposure.In the long run, there’s still enough time for the World Cup to think this potentially could be a good thing. But that is only if Faf and Ottis [Gibson] and the selection panel get their head in the right place and strategically pick. Once the likes of de Villiers, Faf himself and [Quinton] de Kock are back fit, how do they put a line-up together that’s going to win a World Cup? Virat Kohli is often spoken of as a mirror image of you. After this series, has he risen even more in your eyes as a cricketer?
I was a little worried in the Test series, in game one and two, I thought his emotions were getting the better of him, and maybe that was starting to impact the players around him. But I think he’s got himself under control. His own game has been incredible. He’s led from the front, he’s given India the mindset that they can play away from home, that they want to be here and in tough conditions. That is key and he’s led the way. As long as India stay on top, he’s going to be hugely successful. I think the challenge for him as India’s best player is if India get under pressure for a long period of time, how would that affect his batting? But at the moment he is looking sublime.Best player in the world?
Best player in the world.

The former Mumbai captain on his recovery from a traumatic car accident how a spell that caught Dilip Vengsarkar’s eye made the difference

Sairaj Bahutule14-Dec-2016I lost hope of playing cricket after being involved in a tragic car accident in July 1990. I was badly inured, but also lost a friend of mine [Vivek Singh, son of singers Jagjit and Chitra Singh]. I had broken my femur, and had a major fracture on my right leg, and needed to have a steel rod inserted in my leg. I also slipped into coma. It was very, very tough.Somehow I persisted, and my parents’ influence helped me. My father Vasant, who played Ranji Trophy for Maharashtra, kept supporting me and believed I could get back to playing cricket. Recovering physically is one thing, then playing cricket is a different thing. One has to be stronger than normal to overcome such an accident, and that’s where my parents came in to the scene.That situation made me a determined player and a person. Every day I would wake up and just wanted to work extremely hard and achieve something. The steel rod was removed a year after my accident as as it used to hurt my glute area, and then I joined BCA-Mafatlal camp headed by coach Frank Tyson. That was a turning point; that camp was where I got my physical fitness levels high and got stronger.During running and training, my leg used to hurt, but I overcame it. I used to train for about seven hours in a day; we used to have practice in the morning and then later in the evening. In the evening, I used to make the extra effort of going to the gym to get stronger.The turning point was an Under-19 tournament in Mumbai, where I picked up 19 wickets in three matches, including a seven-wicket haul against Maharashtra Under-19s. Dilip Vengsarkar was impressed, and was very headstrong in making me play for the senior Mumbai team straightaway. By that time, I recall I was picked in the India Under-19 squad against New Zealand as well.Shishir Hattangadi was my first captain when I joined the Mumbai senior team. I was in Podar college, and Hattangadi was also from Podar college, so it was comforting to have his presence. His encouragement was very helpful.I was very nervous, and my Ranji Trophy debut didn’t sink in till much later. It was surreal to share the dressing room with the same stalwarts who players of my generation grew up watching. We batted first and made 500-plus runs against Gujarat in Surat. Jatin Paranjpe who was also from Podar college, and Vinod [Kambli] hit hundreds. Jatin was my senior at college, and we practiced a lot together. The Podar nets was the best in Matunga, and we were more than happy to make our debuts together for Mumbai.I knew Vinod from schools cricket. We had played a lot of matches opposite each other. I played for St Xavier’s School, and Vinod and Sachin made that famous 664 partnership against our team in the Harris Shield. Then I played together with Vinod on Under-17 and Under-19 tours; he was a tremendous player.I took four wickets in my first Ranji match, and remember Zubin Bharucha taking a very good catch at mid-off from my bowling. It came off a top edge. Once I got a couple of wickets, I settled down. Gujarat managed to hang on for a draw in the end.When I sit back right now, I will have to say the Ranji debut was a dream come true.To wear the Mumbai cap, the lion on the Mumbai sleeve is an amazing feeling. So many greats have played for Mumbai. Sometimes you wonder whether you really deserve it, but something in me struck Vengsarkar sir.God has been kind to me. After that accident, I had a good first-class career, and went onto play for India too. Now, I am able to help youngsters as a coach. I have no regrets at all. It has been an amazing journey.

For a few years, D’Arcy Short had lost his way. Western Australia coach Justin Langer had even told him to lose weight and take cricket seriously. His cricket looks pretty damn serious now

Jarrod Kimber10-Jan-2018The ball is short and wide, but it’s not as short and wide as you think. D’Arcy Short has arched his back, making him lower and closer to leg. He has forced the ball to be short and wide, as he has slapped an uppercut. The ball flies over backward point for six.It’s Short’s first real six on the off side this year. He’s leading the Big Bash League in sixes. He is six runs away from Shaun Marsh’s all-time BBL record of 412 runs. Marsh made his in nine games, at a strike rate of 128.This season, Short has made 406 runs from 254 balls, at a strike rate of 160, from six games. On Wednesday, he broke the BBL record score with 122 not out.In the last over of Hurricanes’ innings, Short played and missed at the first ball, he top-edged over the keeper’s head for six. Then he hit the next ball 97 metres, and the next one 86. Six, six, six.There was a fight for Short. Hurricanes thought they’d signed him, Perth believed he’d committed to them, Cricket Australia decided that Hurricanes was his team. Last year, that looked annoying for Perth as Short started with 61 from 29. In another game at Bellerive Oval, he put a ball on the roof, but it felt like it was hit out of Tasmania. He made another 60 that night. But Short’s early impact slowed, and by the end of the year, he only made 198 runs at 25, despite striking at 163.A similar thing happened with Short’s career, he was once a promising junior, still playing in Northern Territory until he was 19. After going to Western Australia in his early 20s, he played in the futures league for Western Australia. He also played Imparja cricket, as Short is an indigenous Australian. But then he lost his way for a few years. WA coach Justin Langer told him to lose weight (he lost 15 kilograms) and take cricket seriously. His cricket looks pretty damn serious now.That’s because while he was decent and exciting last year, this season he’s scored 34, 15, 97, 96 and 42 coming into the game against the Heat. Short has gone from being a forgotten journeyman to the hottest unsigned prospect, then to the most destructive force in the Big Bash in a season and a half. He’ll be bigger than Elvis by this time next year if his career keeps going like this.Wednesday night was pure showbiz.Do you want to hear about the over he hit three straight boundaries from backward point to cover? It didn’t seem to matter that the field was packed there.Two top-edged sixes over the keeper’s head, both of them seemed as powerful as any controlled shot. Short’s hands go so quickly through the ball that for an edge to find a fielder seems lucky.The one time an edge from Short stayed inside the field, it went higher than any building in Brisbane. Joe Burns got under it, but it’s re-entry into earth’s atmosphere was too much, and he dropped it. By this point Short was already 60 off 36, he would go on to more than double it.When the Powerplay ended, Hobart were 56, at 9.3 an over, both the other two batsmen were scoring at slower than a run-a-ball, Short 36 from 17. When Wade and Short’s 50-run partnership came up, Wade had 12. On the microphone Heat captain, Brendon McCullum, joked about getting him off strike.Instead, Short faced more than half the balls. And you got a real show of what kind of batsman he was. A flat bat four over mid-on – that was unnecessarily vicious – meant McCullum changed the field, bringing up the third man. So next ball, Short backed away to a full straight ball to score another boundary through backward point. He was brutal and smart. And he’d been told by Gary Kirsten to bat long into the innings, and he batted right to the end.Then he came on to bowl. Fast, reasonably accurate left-arm wristspin, which has probably been under-used this season, but it’s quite the extra bow. 
Short dismissed the Heat’s top-scorer, Sam Heazlett, with a straight ball. He took 1 for 20, and never went for a boundary, which is huge in a high-scoring game. Short thinks he could be a potential allrounder. At the rate he improves, no one would bet against him. 

He batted the entire innings, bowled all four overs, he even had to wait for a lost Tasmanian scribe for his presser, and still went off to sign autographs. He seemed to be on the field for five hours, all of it was entertaining.When he was 13, Short played baseball. To be fair, he plays baseball now, we just call it cricket. Short’s activity rate (percentage of balls he scores from) is 65%, Despite all the runs he has scored, it’s not that high. But he hits a boundary every 4.3 deliveries., fourth best in the BBL.In 75% of his first innings’, he strikes quicker than the match run-rate. In the Powerplays, worldwide over the last two years, he’s the eighth quickest. If you bowl straight, he can pick you up, whip you, or muscle you. Outside off stump he will go straight, or create more room, and fielding at point to him is like being a victim.Getty ImagesThere was a moment where he played and missed three times from Mark Steketee slower balls. It was the only time he didn’t score from three consecutive deliveries. After the third miss, Short walked away and took a breath. Maybe, just maybe, it is slower balls that bother him. CricViz has data on balls from seamers that they consider to be slower balls, Short averages 44 and strikes at 214 against these balls.Whether the next ball was slower or not, Short aimed to hit it over the fence and down a flight of stairs. Hurricanes players not called Short struck the ball at a strike rate of 94, Short went at 177.Then there’s Short against legspin.For three seasons of the BBL, legspin was practically not bowled in the Powerplay. Then Samuel Badree turned up for the Heat, and over the two previous seasons, 29 overs of legspin were bowled in the Powerplay, and Badree bowled 25 of them.This season, 21 overs of legspin have been bowled in the Powerplay, despite the fact Badree isn’t playing. Players like Adam Zampa haven’t ever bowled early, now they do. In the 2014-15 season, no overs were bowled by them in Powerplays. This season, seven different legspinners have bowled.This all matters because Short doesn’t smash legspin. Against spin, he strikes at a respectable 131, but it’s 147 against offspin, and 128 against legspin. On Wednesday, he faced 21 balls of legspin; he scored 27 runs off it. That makes it 128, again.And while he is slower versus spin, he averages 66. Spin slows him down, but doesn’t get him out. Against quicks, he strikes at 36 while averaging 179.So that means every time he hits a legspinner, you notice it.Mitchell Swepson is containing Short pretty well, he’d taken his edge once, and certainly one of the few bowlers to slow him down. Then he tries to slide one in around leg stump, it’s a pretty decent delivery.Short moved inside the line late, deciding to sweep over short fine leg. He cleared short fine leg, and put the ball into the crowd. It wasn’t a top edge, and it wasn’t just behind square on the leg side. Short managed to sweep a legspinner flat and hard for six to fine leg. How he got that kind of speed and elevation so fine from a bowler this slow is a mystery better worked out by science.It would have been one of the most remarkable shots you had seen, unless you had been watching him this season, or even last season. This was just another six; Short hits a lot of them.

Aakash Chopra analyses the various bowling punts the two captains took during the game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Lions

Aakash Chopra21-Apr-2017No Tye?
Gujarat Lions had taken only 15 wickets in their first five games. Just to put things in perspective, Bhuvneshwar Kumar took just as many in his first four games. Andrew Tye had taken seven of those 15 wickets. Tye took five wickets including a hat-trick in the only match that the Lions won and still, they benched him to play James Faulkner. It was apparent that their bowling was thin but they tried to address that by dropping their best bowler. While it was prudent to play Faulkner, it should’ve happened at the cost of an overseas batsman and not Tye. Ishan Kishan coming to form should have given them the confidence to drop one of the overseas bowlers.No bouncers or yorkers to Sunil Narine?
Sunil Narine hit seven boundaries in the first two overs and there were no bouncers or yorkers bowled at him. He was just planting his front foot right down the pitch, which allowed his arms a free passage. The two times Narine had gotten out in the Powerplay before today were against Bhuvneshwar’s yorker and Varun Aaron’s attempted bouncer. It was a little surprising to see that the Lions hadn’t done their homework against Narine.Faulkner bowling 12th and 14th
Suresh Raina brought Faulkner back to bowl the 12th over in order to break the partnership between Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa, and it worked out just fine, with Gambhir falling in the 12th over. Now, the option for Raina was to either bowl him another over to take one more wicket or keep his two for the death. Raina opted to bowl him another over – and you can’t grudge him for doing that – but didn’t have a slip, or five fielders in the circle. It’s not necessary that the batsman would nick or try to go aerial if there’s an extra fielder inside the circle, but the idea is to send the message across to the batsmen that you are trying to get them out. Instead, he had the four fielders at the edge of the 30-yard circle. It defeated the purpose.The hunt for wickets meant James Faulkner was bowled out by the 17th over•BCCIFaulkner bowling the 17th over
Once you play an overseas bowler, you’re almost obliged to make him bowl the tough overs. While bowling first, the deeper you go into the innings, the tougher it gets. Since Raina had only one over from Faulkner available in the final four, it was a given that he’d bowl either the 19th or the 20th over but he got him to bowl the 17th over instead.Overseas openers, start with spinners
KKR started their defence with Shakib Al Hasan and Narine, and that probably had to do with the nationality of Lions’ openers – it’s not common for players from outside the subcontinent to face spinners with the new ball. Even though they conceded 40 runs in the first three overs and both Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch got the better of them, it was a tactic worth exploring because Knight Riders went with their front-line spin options.Raina at the crease, Narine gets another over
Narine bowled the second over and Finch went after him. But as soon as Raina walked in, Gambhir brought Narine back. Bringing in bowlers who are most likely to take wickets, especially to the big ticket batsmen in the early part of their innings, has been the stand out feature of Gambhir’s captaincy. Narine did find Raina’s outside edge but Uthappa grassed it. Sometimes you wonder about how many more wickets Narine would’ve taken if Knight Riders had a proper wicket keeper in place of Uthappa.Short-pitched bowling doesn’t work against Raina in T20s
Gambhir, like most captains, bowled a lot of pace against Raina. And like most pace bowlers, Knight Riders’ quick bowlers bowled fairly short to him. But Raina is aware of these tactics and has started shuffling back and across regularly. Therefore, he’s been able to ride the bounce nicely and play it through the fine-leg region. It’s interesting that no bowler tried to bowl a yorker aiming at his heels, for when he moves across, both his feet are in the air and that makes him vulnerable to a leg-stump yorker. Something that has worked in the past.

Despite winning only one of six matches on the tour of India, South Africa do have positives to draw from it as they build towards the 2019 World Cup

Deivarayan Muthu30-Aug-2018Second ready for the second wicketkeeper’s spot?
There’s a lot to like about Knights’ wicketkeeper-batsman Rudi Second: he not only displayed the tightest defensive technique among the South African batsmen in the four-dayers but also latched onto the loose balls. Having racked up the runs in the domestic competitions at home, Second pressed his case further for a national call-up by making a pair of 94s that nearly hauled the South Africans to a remarkable come-from-behind draw at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.While he came in at 93 for 4 in the first innings and launched a counterattack, he kept dead-batting India A’s bowlers along with Shaun von Berg in the second dig. They held off the Indian bowlers for more than 50 overs on a fourth-day pitch before Yuzvendra Chahal and the seamers broke through their resistance and secured a tense win for the hosts, with seven balls to spare.Second was also impressive behind the stumps, taking five catches and effecting a stumping in the four-dayers. He also showed excellent footwork in the subsequent quadrangular series. Case in point: when Khaya Zondo pitched a full ball on middle and got it to turn down the leg side, Australia A’s Marnus Labuschagne flubbed a sweep and lobbed it off the thigh, with Second niftily moving to his left, diving full length and collecting the ball.Quinton de Kock is the first-choice keeper in the national side, but Second has done enough to narrow the gap between himself and Heinrich Klaasen, who is currently the reserve wicketkeeper-batsman.Batting: a mixed bag
In contrast to Second, the rest of the batsmen reached out for balls outside off like a stalker chases its prey, particularly in the first four-dayer. No less than 14 South African wickets in that match were caught by the keeper or in the cordon. While the South Africans fared better in the second four-dayer in Alur, the one-day line-up suffered collapses against Australia A as well as in the third-place contest against India A.A part of this is because South Africa don’t have a meticulous A-team structure like India or Australia do, but there were still some positives on the batting front. Twenty-three-year-old Cobras batsman Zubayr Hamza, who was on his first tour to India, made an unbeaten 104 in the warm-up fixture and followed it with a brace fifties in the four-dayers.Zubayr Hamza cuts the ball•BCCIZondo, the captain, struck a fine hundred around a batting meltdown against Australia A and showed he could be a middle-order option for the senior team that will be without Faf du Plessis for the upcoming limited-overs series against Zimbabwe.The second-string spinners need more fine-tuning
Legspinner von Berg, offspinner Dane Piedt and left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy had previously been part of spin camps in India, but they struggled with their lines and lengths. It is fair to say that the Chinnaswamy pitch was more South African than Indian, but the spinners couldn’t plug the flow of runs either. Each of the three spinners went at four or more runs an over in the first innings in the first four-dayer.The spinners’ struggles seeped into the one-day series, too, and it was compounded further by a back injury to left-arm wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi, who played only two out of four matches in the quadrangular series.Frylinck, Paterson lend more variety
You might wonder what a 33-year-old – who doesn’t look like an athlete – has to do with an A team. Go and watch his knuckle ball that dipped sharply on Shreyas Iyer and rattled his stumps. Go and watch his yorkers at the death. Having made his T20I debut against Bangladesh last year following a stint with Trinbago Knight Riders in CPL 2017, Robbie Frylinck is seen as that two-in-one player, who could bowl the tough overs and smash the ball in the lower order.Dane Paterson is four years younger than Frylink and brings similar skills. The 29-year-old has finished T20 matches at home and banks on an assortment of variations in the end overs. It is for these skills that Bloem City Blazers forked out USD 135,000 (approximately R1.8 million) for him in the Global T20 League that was eventually scrapped. With national selector Hussein Manack and performance analyst Prasanna Agoram in attendance in Bengaluru, the seamer bagged his maiden five-wicket haul in List A cricket and showed he could be effective in one-dayers as well.Behardien, the finisher: yay or nay?
Farhaan Behardien was the fourth-highest scorer in South Africa’s one-day competition, with 437 runs in 11 innings. He thrived in the 20-over tournament as well, hitting 234 runs in seven innings, including six not outs, at a strike rate of 165.95. His role in India was to tackle tricky situations as a finisher. But when his captain Zondo needed his company to repair a faltering chase against Australia A, Behardien fell in bizarre fashion: going for a non-existent leg bye after surviving an lbw appeal. In the last two games against India A, he flickered briefly and finished with 18 not out and 38 not out. Behardien’s tally of 103 runs in four innings is anything but great, but his experience could be handy as South Africa build towards Vision 2019.

England played out 443 dots against a relentless India attack on day one at The Oval

S Rajesh07-Sep-2018443 – Dot balls played by England over the entire day. They managed only 18 fours off the bat. In all, they had 97 scoring shots in 90 overs.1.77 – England’s run rate in the second session: they scored 55 runs in 31 overs. Out of 186 deliveries in the session, they played out 160 dots, and took 14 singles and six twos.ESPNcricinfo Ltd74.9 – Control percentage for England’s batsmen against India’s fast bowlers over the entire day. It was least in the afternoon session, when Mohammed Shami bowled an inspired spell of 9-4-14-0, beating the bat on numerous occasions. Among the three India seamers, England struggled against Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, who ironically went wicketless in the day. Against Shami, England’s control percentage was only 72; against Bumrah it was 71.4, and against Ishant Sharma, their control percentage was 81.1.61.1 – England’s control percentage against Shami, during his outstanding spell in the afternoon session. Out of 54 balls, England’s batsmen were not in control of 21, of which Moeen Ali was at the receiving end 16 times.2.20 – England’s run rate. Among all the instances when they have played 80 or more overs in a home Test since the start of 2001, only twice have they gone at a slower scoring rate.43 – Instances of Moeen edging or getting beaten through his innings; of those, 18 each came against Shami and Bumrah.2 – England batsmen who have passed fifty three times in their first and last Test put together. Alastair Cook, who scored 60 and 104 not out on Test debut against India in Nagpur in 2006, made 71 in the first innings of his final Test today. The only other England batsman to achieve this was George Gunn, who scored 119 and 74 on Test debut in 1907, and 85 and 47 in his final Test in 1930.25 – Byes conceded by Rishabh Pant in the England innings so far, which is fifth in the all-time list of byes conceded in a Test innings by India.

Aakash Chopra analyses play from the run-fest in Mumbai, where Kings XI prevailed over the hosts

Aakash Chopra11-May-2017Kings XI’s batting gamble
In the first half of IPL 2017, Kings XI afforded so much importance to their batting that they opted fill all their overseas slots with batsmen. In their last two games, though, they decided to play with only five batting options, including wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha. Allrounder Axar Patel slotted in at No. 6, and then it was only the bowlers. With Glenn Maxwell doing better with ball of late, they could’ve easily fielded an extra batsman in Gurkeerat Singh, but they took a more risky route in two must-win games.Mumbai bait Kings XI
Kings XI were 126 for 1 in 10 overs. Rohit Sharma went to Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah in successive overs in search of a wicket. The four fielders inside the circle were stationed close enough to stop the easy singles; it was a proper attempt to build pressure and break Kings XI’s momentum. But Kings XI did not try even one risky shot till the last ball of Bumrah’s over. Just when it seemed that they’d avoided the trap, Maxwell fell to Bumrah’s last delivery, looking to slice the ball square on the off side. If he had not fallen, Rohit would have been hard-pressed with his bowling options. Maxwell’s departure allowed him to bowl Harbhajan Singh and Karn Sharma at that stage.Malinga loses his sting
Malinga has lost a little pace and accuracy. He is no longer the go-to bowler for the death overs; both Bumrah and McClenaghan are preferred over him for the tougher overs. So, what has gone wrong apart from getting a little slower? Malinga’s previous successes were based on his unorthodox action creating deception, and a radically different flight path for the ball backed by pinpoint accuracy with regards to yorkers and slower ones. Even when he wasn’t really accurate, the extra pace made it difficult for the batsmen to get under the ball.If you look at his stats from IPL 2015 – he missed the 2016 edition with injury – and this year, the difference is telling. The numbers suggest that whenever the yorker has found its target, he has been equally economical (5.20 runs per over) in both seasons. While the frequency of the full balls (attempted yorkers) has remained the same (33%) in both seasons, the lack of pace has taken the batsmen’s strike-rate off these deliveries through the roof this season – 175.80 this year to 138.05 in 2015. The same holds true for attempted bouncers; the lack of pace has allowed the batsmen to strike at 380 off these deliveries (181.82 in 2015).The West Indians’ old-school big hitting
T20 might be cricket’s newest format, but it seems West Indies batsmen have cracked its batting code by revisiting the age-old formula for big hitting. In years gone by, all big hitters would hold the bat handle right at the top, have a high back-lift, and an uninhibited swing of the bat. Lendl Simmons does this, so does Pollard. Hands at the top of the handle increases reach, and the long levers provide more power.Three times the fielding innovation
Innovative field placements are one of the striking features of T20 cricket. One such field includes three fielders inside the circle on the off side, behind square for spinners. This field is put out when a batsman is on the offensive but doesn’t have the game to play the switch-hit or reverse-sweep, which is the case with most Indian batsmen. Pollard is also from the same school of batting, and so Rahul Tewatia and Axar had such a field for both Hardik Pandya and Pollard.

Opposite number Suzie Bates also shone with a half-century but didn’t have enough support

Andrew McGlashan19-Mar-2024

In a game of two captains’ innings, it was Heather Knight who came out victorious as England took the opening T20I of the five-match series in Dunedin by 27 runs.Knight, who opted out of the WPL to lead England from the start of this tour, put together a superbly-paced 63 off 39 balls to steer the visitors to 160 for 4 with handy contributions from Sophia Dunkley and Maia Bouchier.Related

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Suzie Bates, standing in for Sophie Devine as she returns from the WPL where she won the title with Royal Challengers Bangalore, did her best to carry the chase with 65 off 51 balls but a batting line-up without Devine and Amelia Kerr couldn’t provide enough support at a high enough tempo.New Zealand should be boosted by the return of the two stars for the next match in Nelson while England’s WPL players – Alice Capsey, Sophie Ecclestone, Nat Sciver-Brunt, and Danni Wyatt – won’t enter the series until after the third game.Dunkley provides early impetusTammy Beaumont returned at the top of the order for her first T20I in more than two years and the 100th of her career. She was given an early life on 1 when Hannah Rowe couldn’t hold onto a chance above her head at mid-on and then there were some positive signs for Beaumont before she found mid-off against the left-arm spin of Fran Jonas.Either side of the powerplay ending, Dunkley hit her stride having initially reached 11 off 14 balls. She twice found the boundary in the sixth and seventh overs against Rowe and Rosemary Mair as 27 runs came to give England’s innings a shot in the arm. Dunkley was starting to motor when she picked up her sixth boundary, but Lea Tahuhu struck back the next ball with a short delivery that was top-edged behind.Knight goes through the gearsAt the midway point, England were 72 for 2 with Knight and Bouchier working to give themselves a platform. It took Knight a little time to get going and she was 8 off 10 balls before collecting her first boundary with a thumping straight drive off Jess Kerr. Then she was up and running.Suzie Bates carried New Zealand’s chase•Getty Images

The England captain needed just another 23 deliveries to bring up her half-century from 33 balls which included taking Tahuhu over wide long-on for six in the 18th over that cost 18 runs. At that point, 170 was well within sight for England but New Zealand clawed the innings back well in the last two overs, leaking just 11 runs.The third-wicket stand of 91 off 64 balls ended when Knight walked past a full delivery from Jess. Bouchier, who had been dropped on 26 and 37, the first a sitter by Maddy Green at mid-on, ended with a career-best in T20Is but, unlike Knight, couldn’t elevate her scoring rate in the same way.Too much left to BatesLauren Bell struck in the first over of the chase to have Izzy Gaze caught at cover second ball (she could have been run out off her first) but stand-in captain Bates ensured New Zealand remained level-pegging to what England have achieved in the powerplay – 44 for 1 compared to 41 for 1.Bates took on the opening over of debutant quick Lauren Filer with three boundaries – a strong clip, a big top edge to third and a bludgeon over the on side – to lay down the gauntlet. But England’s spinners, including Knight, proved harder work and there wasn’t the required scoring rate from the other batters.George Plimmer showed glimpses before skying Sarah Glenn to short fine leg then Green was becalmed early in her innings as the asking rate grew. Green’s stay was ended in somewhat unfortunate circumstances when Bates crunched a straight drive into Charlie Dean which ricocheted onto the non-striker’s stumps with Green well short.Bates just about kept New Zealand alive before picking out deep square leg for 65 off 51 balls at which point 52 were needed off the last three overs. The trio of Plimmer, Green and Brooke Halliday managed 56 off 61 balls between them.