Former England captain in no rush to call time on successful spell in autumn of career

Andrew Miller31-Mar-2021Sir Alastair Cook may have nothing left to prove on a cricket field after a record-breaking England career, but so long as the sun is shining and he’s still able to score enough runs to justify his place in Essex’s dominant County Championship line-up, he may yet be tempted keep playing first-class cricket after his current contract with the club expires at the end of the season.Cook turned 36 on Christmas Day, and is now entering his third season as an ex-England player, after bowing out on a high in 2018, with his 33rd and final Test century against India at The Oval. Since then, however, he has played integral roles in back-to-back title-winning seasons at Essex – the County Championship in 2019, and the Bob Willis Trophy last summer, in which he scored a magnificent 172 in the final at Lord’s – and he sees no immediate reason to walk away from such a successful period of his career.”I think our success has been a long time coming,” Cook said. “With the players we’ve had over the last ten years, I think we’ve underachieved, and it’s only been the last three or four years that we’ve won some trophies. But then things take a while to build, don’t they? You don’t just suddenly get a good side, it doesn’t just happen.”For those ten years where we didn’t win many trophies, we were in the second division, we were building that identity for this period of success. For us as players, we have to treasure it and try and keep it going as long as we can.”Having played an England record 161 Tests in the space of 12 years, including a world record 159 in a row, Cook is fairly sure he won’t be quite as driven to carry on playing as his Essex team-mate and former captain, Ryan ten Doeschate, who signed a one-year extension in October that will take him past his 41st birthday this year.Instead, he insists he will take an ad hoc approach to the remainder of his career, and savour the chance to re-connect with the club that nurtured him through the youth ranks and propelled him onto the international stage, but which – for obvious reasons – has not benefitted from his run-making for more than a handful of games a year since 2006.”There were a couple of reasons I carried on playing,” he said. “First, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, it’s a big hole to fill when all you’ve ever done is play cricket, to suddenly not to play a game would have been a big deal.”But I also wanted to win a trophy for Essex. I was part of [the Championship win in] 2017, I played the first six or seven games, but I spoke to Chris Silverwood [Essex’s then-coach] and said it was on my bucket list to win the County Championship, so to do it in in the first year back was brilliant.”I’ve got no idea [if this is my final year],” he added. “It’s the last in my contract, so until I hear anything else, who knows. But after my England days I was determined that, so long as I was enjoying driving into the ground, and doing the hard work to play, I’d continue.”It’s all unknown to me, and I quite like it. It’s a bit of a limbo in one sense, in that in three months’ time I might sit down and go, ‘you know what, it’s time for someone else to take my role’. But there’s good people at this club who make it easier for me. I enjoy playing with people like Nick Browne and Tom Westley, who I hadn’t played a huge amount with up to 2018.The chance to carry on playing with team-mates such as Nick Browne has been a key factor in Cook’s continued time at Essex•Getty Images”Obviously, last year was very different, but again, very enjoyable. Hopefully we can continue that and the motivation will be there, because you don’t want to disgrace yourself do you? You don’t want to look stupid, because there’s no better feeling than scoring runs.”On that note, Cook admitted that the runs haven’t quite been flowing so far in Essex’s pre-season – in fact his most notable on-field moment has been a viral clip on social media, as he walked for a plumb lbw against Harry Podmore in last week’s encounter with Kent.”You have to walk for that one,” he joked, “It hit me on my boot, and wasn’t going over. But while I’m in this situation, with the sun shining, and so long as I find the middle of my bat rather than the middle of my pad, I’m happy to continue.”I’ve enjoyed not having the real scrutiny and the pressure of playing international cricket. In county cricket, you are going back to basics in one sense. You just go back to batting, catching, having the odd drink here or there with the Essex team, and enjoying, I suppose, why you started playing sport before getting into a more professional way.”So, while I’ve still got that, and the support of my family, I can continue. But I just don’t know, I’m not going to sit here and give some massive statement. I’ll just do my preparation, get myself in the right technical space, and then hope to spend a bit of time in the middle, I haven’t done it yet, but hopefully I’ll go alright.”

Podders gets Cook @harrypod23 #SuperKent pic.twitter.com/RVjombdhna

— Kent Cricket (@KentCricket) March 30, 2021

Was the wicketkeeper-batter’s bold approach in the WTC final appropriate?

Nagraj Gollapudi24-Jun-20211:02

Virat Kohli – ‘We don’t want Rishabh Pant to lose his positivity or optimism’

Just before he entered the Indian dressing room on Wednesday afternoon, Rishabh Pant punched the thick wooden door hard with his bare-knuckled right fist.Pant had just got out attempting to slog Trent Boult, getting a top-edge that flew high to backward point. Henry Nicholls, running backwards, took the catch of the final to silence the Indian fans in the crowd at the Rose Bowl. The magnificent catch, one of the turning points of the final, didn’t get as much attention as the shot that Pant played. The question still being asked is: was Pant’s bold approach appropriate?Related

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• The rise, fall and rise of Rishabh Pant, in his and others' words

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• Virat Kohli – 'Can't be too worried about getting out, have to take more risks'

Pant himself was angry. As he charged Boult and the ball flew towards Nicholls, he would have known he had made a mistake. However, ever since he had arrived at the crease early in the first session after Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara fell in quick succession, Pant had been walking the high wire. Yet, it was only those outside who had their hearts in their mouths. For the stockily built Pant, who India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun describes as a “pocket dynamo”, his various advances towards the bowler were calculated acts of blunting the opposition attack.Pant’s plan and instinct was to play every ball. At times it backfired. Off the ninth ball he faced, Kyle Jamieson pitched a delivery on length with a scrambled seam. Jamieson had induced edges and lbws with similar deliveries and lengths, which was on the fullish side. Pant attempted a push to the off side away from his body. The outside edge flew straight to second slip where Tim Southee made a mess of an easy catch. Pant was on 5. India were 82 for 4.The Indian fans celebrated the drop. Southee banged the turf. Jamieson walked away, doing well to hide any emotions towards his senior team-mate, who had now dropped not one but two catches in the match. Dale Steyn, one of ESPNcricinfo’s experts for this Test, tweeted wondering whether Southee had dropped the WTC mace.Pant seemed unmoved. As Jamieson tested Ajinkya Rahane with short stuff, at the other end Pant was doing mock drills: ducking, swaying, hooking, pulling, ramping.Then it was Southee’s turn with the ball again. A delivery before the first hour into the morning, Southee swung one into Pant, who lunged forward toward the off stump. If you freeze the replay at that point, you can see Pant’s front toe, the right one, pointing towards cover – as if he was going to drive it square on the off side; instead with a loose left leg and meaty wrists, he flicked the ball to the right of mid-on for a boundary. Even Rahane was caught by surprise as he had to quickly move out of the way.When Neil Wagner replaced Southee, Pant charged him the third ball of the over, to slap a firm four. Next ball, he quickly moved into position to perfectly defend it under his eyeline, and exchanged a cool stare with the left-arm quick. Both men would engage in fencing duel.Rishabh Pant played his shots, as only he does•Getty ImagesPant jumped out of his crease again for a streaky outside edge against an away swinging delivery that flew to the right of gully for four. Wagner had a curious smirk. Next delivery, slightly fuller, again an away swinger, Pant charged and this time missed. Rahane walked up to Pant. From afar, Pant seemed to indicate to his vice-captain that if he stayed in the crease, there was a greater danger of the ball taking the outside edge.Next over Rahane was gone. India just ahead by just 77 runs, with 25 minutes to lunch. What would Pant do now? He jumped once again and went for an almighty heave against Wagner and missed completely. Wagner scratched his chin with an expression that said: ‘What the hell?’ Was it rash? Crazy? Pant might tell you: it was not an act of defiance. It was his instrument of defence.Immediately into the second session, Wagner went round the stumps to unleash his main weapon – the short ball. Six men were in position on the leg side: short leg, backward short leg, midwicket, deep square leg and two fine legs. Every time Wagner banged in short Pant pulled him – both on the front foot and the back foot. And he was pulling these balls into the ground.One particular stroke showed how well Pant had understood the pitch and the bowler’s plan: he reverse swatted Wagner for a single to third man with such disdain as if he was shooing a fly.Rishabh Pant swats one away•PA Photos/Getty ImagesPitted against the meditative batting of Kane Williamson and Kohli in the first innings, it is easy to be critical of Pant’s bating on Wednesday. Anarchic it might have seemed from outside, but Pant actually used his natural game to play to the situation. He was doing exactly what Kohli professed after the defeat: taking risks but in a calculated fashion. And he had to take risks. Both he and Ravindra Jadeja had battled hard to survive the first hour after lunch. Then Jadeja succumbed to sustained pressure. India’s tail rarely wags. Pant did not have too many options, because otherwise there was every danger that India would end up with a far lesser lead. Recent evidence suggests the same. In the WTC, India have been bowled out 19 times. Only on four of those 19 occasions has the team batted more than 10 overs and added more than 50 runs after losing the seventh wicket.Kohli himself was cautious about making too much of Pant’s final shot on Wednesday. The Indian captain backed Pant, saying he was an “expressive” batter and India didn’t want him to “lose his positivity or his optimism in changing the situation for the team”, because that is his USP. “It’s up to him to understand whether it was an error of judgement and rectify it moving forward because he has a long career with the Indian team, and certainly someone who could be a match maker for India on consistently many occasions in the future,” Kohli said at the post-match media briefing.This is not the first time Pant has played one stroke too many. It will not be the last time. The frustration from outside is because he himself raised the bar with his heroics in Australia, followed by the home series against England where he dug his heels in initially and then seized the momentum. He nearly did the same in Southampton, albeit in a different manner. Without his innings India potentially might have lost the battle well before lunch.

In the pandemic-hit world, Test cricket outside the big three ends up losing the most because it is the most disposable

Sidharth Monga24-Nov-2021Pandemic-like crises can hasten the process of evolution. Those who are anywhere below the “fittest” have to adapt, and often compromise, to survive. Test cricket outside of the big three is going through that process.Related

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Even as England have two sides playing each other in Australia three weeks before the Ashes in order to prepare, even as India send one of their first-choice Test players to India A’s shadow tour to South Africa, the World Test Championship winners, New Zealand, start the defence of their No. 1 Test ranking against a side that has not lost a home series in ten years after finishing a T20 World Cup in the UAE on November 14, starting a T20I bilateral series in India on November 17, playing three matches in five days, and getting in two practice sessions after reaching the venue for the first Test on November 22.This is not to say New Zealand would definitely have won had they played warm-up matches or had time to acclimatise better, but they would have given themselves a much better chance. Especially when India are resting Virat Kohli (for the first of two Tests), Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. That India can rest so many players and still start as favourites speaks to their depth but also to the reality of today’s cricket in bio-bubbles and, to a lesser extent, New Zealand’s not being part of the big three.To remain in bubbles and play to such tight schedules, which means day after day of just hotel-ground-hotel travel, is not sustainable anymore. Naturally, Test cricket outside the big three ends up losing the most because it is the most disposable. The IPL teams get their camps, the T20 World Cup has warm-up matches, Australia, India and England get extended preparation when they play Tests, but the world champions of Test cricket try to defend their No. 1 ranking on a whistle-stop tour.1:34

Daniel Vettori picks his New Zealand XI

That they are still the fortunate ones – international cricketers able to ply their trade when so many have lost livelihoods – is not lost on them, though. “I suppose, in an ideal world, you can choose your preparation,” Kane Williamson said of the peculiar lead-up to the Test series. “No doubt the scheduling has been pretty tough. But, having said that, there is a lot outside your control that comes into some of those decisions.”At the same time, we are looking to prepare as well as we can. And we are excited about the challenge that lies ahead, which is a very strong Indian side, and playing in a country that is one of the biggest challenges in the sport.”Williamson himself sat out the T20I series in order to be fit and ready for the Tests, but Trent Boult and Rohit picked the T20Is instead. KL Rahul would probably have been fit and ready had he not played the T20Is and picked up a thigh strain, in all likelihood a stress-related injury. In another world, the players wouldn’t even have had to make that choice because there would not even have been that T20I series. Instead, New Zealand would have played against a Board President’s XI in a warm-up game, in which two or three fringe Indian players would have staked their claim too. Perhaps Ajinkya Rahane would have played such a game to look to regain his form.That India start as favourites despite not having many regulars speaks to their depth but also to New Zealand’s not being part of the big three•Associated PressThat other world has been phased out during the pandemic. At least Williamson is not naïve enough to not know the commercial importance of the T20I matches that preceded this series.”Very challenging schedule after a World Cup,” Williamson said when asked of the relevance of a bilateral T20I series. “Credit to both teams going out and putting their best foot forward and competing in a big way. It was interesting and unique but at the same time it was special to have crowds watching those games. Players all really enjoyed those matches as well.”In these times, it has been challenging to [not] have the schedules that we would have liked, and it has panned out with things outside our control. We are all fortunate to be here playing international cricket. Being in India and playing cricket here is one of the more special things we can do in this format.”So Test cricket shall adapt to this time of crisis in order to survive, but do watch out against the normalising of these schedules. For those who don’t want the bloated – according to them – Test schedules, have tasted blood and might want this repeated even when the pandemic is behind us. If you show them you can work from home, they start wondering if it is worth spending on office desks when things open up.

Friends and colleagues, opponents and admirers send in their tributes to AB de Villiers after his retirement from all forms of the game

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Nov-2021.

Well done @ABdeVilliers17 on a special career. I've been extremely lucky to be on the same cricket field as you. The game will not be the same without you. The greatest player I have played with.https://t.co/N3BJ3Jxw6Q

— Faf Du Plessis (@faf1307) November 19, 2021

“If Mehidy Hasan gets better with the bat, him and Shakib Al Hasan can give a huge boost to the ODI side”

Mohammad Isam26-Apr-2022Some way through our conversation, Tamim Iqbal says something he seems he has been trying to find a way to say for a while: that he feels bad that Bangladesh’s ODI series win in South Africa was largely unacknowledged in their country. No need for a ticker-tape parade in Dhaka, but a bit more attention for the new match-winners who contributed to the first series win in a country where they hadn’t won anything bar a game against West Indies in the 2007 T20 World Cup.The condensed nature of cricket tours these days meant that the Tests came soon after the ODIs, and Bangladesh lost both of them, competing hard for long periods but then being bowled out for 53 in Durban and 80 in Gqeberha in the last innings in the two Tests, respectively. The landmark wins from the previous two weeks were lost in the rubble somewhere.”I think winning an ODI series in South Africa’s backyard was big for us. It is one of our best achievements till now, but in my heart, I also feel sad,” Tamim told ESPNcricinfo. “We, as a nation, celebrate small things. Because of how the Test series went, this ODI series achievement faded away.Related

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“I don’t feel bad for myself, Shakib [Al Hasan] or Mushfiq [Mushfiqur Rahim]. I feel bad for the likes of [Mehidy Hasan] Miraz, Yasir [Ali], Taskin [Ahmed] and Shoriful [Islam]. They made huge contributions in the ODI series. It should have been celebrated a lot more.”We have known all through that they have huge potential, so if they improve upon what they have started to do now, there’ll be nothing like it. Taskin, Shoriful and Litton [Das] are contributing regularly. Yasir is very new, but he played a fantastic knock in the first ODI. If they keep doing it, we will become a very, very good ODI team.”But the conversation in Bangladesh turned quickly to how the Test batters had no answers to Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer, South Africa’s spinners who did the most damage in the Tests. But a cricket team is only as good as what it achieves.”If you consider our history in South Africa before this tour, we used to get hammered in all formats in that country,” Tamim said. “This time, we won the ODI series, we competed in the first Test, but we were not up to the mark in the second. We could have played much better.”I didn’t play the first Test but when I was watching from the dressing room, I couldn’t say who would win the Test in the first four days. Both the teams competed hard. We had a really bad last day, which handed the result to South Africa.”

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Bangladesh were bowled out for 53 and 80 in the Tests in South Africa•AFP/Getty ImagesAll said, Bangladesh’s twin fourth-innings collapses is a cause for worry.”I am someone who doesn’t give excuses. If it was my fault, I will readily admit that it was my fault,” Tamim said.”Saying that, you have to understand that Bangladesh batted in the most difficult times in both Tests in South Africa. We were basically playing a day-night Test in the second innings of both games. We had to survive for 25-30 overs. We couldn’t score runs. The wicket was also difficult.”Still, we couldn’t find other ways to score runs or survive. I am sure in the coming days, we will have this kind of situation again. We have to react better as a team. We have to play better in this situation, find out ways to score runs or survive.”However, the picture is rosier in the ODI side. Tamim leads a tight unit that has arrived at a good balance between batters, bowlers and allrounders. It has taken time, but the evolution has happened, Tamim said, adding that ODI-like success is needed in Tests – like the win against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui.”Not just at the international level, our most competitive domestic competition is the Dhaka Premier League. It is a one-day tournament,” Tamim explained. “It has been taking place for not just 10-15 years, but 35 years, or even more. We were raised in this competitive one-day environment.”Secondly, we have tasted a lot of success in ODIs. It is helping improve the team. There’s a lot of competition for places. We don’t have similar kind of success in Tests or T20Is. What happened in Mount Maunganui, if this thing starts to repeat, then players will understand that we have to get better in Tests. I think we have to take a bigger step in Tests than in the other formats.”

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Tamim on offspinner Mehidy: “I think he is one of our best ODI players. He is very under-rated as a cricketer”•AFP/Getty ImagesBangladesh used their usual ODI blueprint to find success in the first and third ODIs in South Africa. They made two big starts when Tamim and Litton added 95 and 127 respectively. These were Bangladesh’s highest opening stands in South Africa in all formats.”If we start a series well, whether batting or bowling, it automatically sets the tone for us,” Tamim said. “This has always been the case with Bangladesh. The 95-run stand gave us a lot of confidence. Before going to Centurion and Johannesburg, you hear things about the bounce. The pitch does this, the pitch does that. When you apply yourself and put the team in a decent position, the dressing room starts to believe that if these two are doing it, so can we.”But he admitted that it was the bowlers who won Bangladesh both matches, while the improved fielding during the ODI series helped the cause.”I thought our bowlers won us the ODI series,” Tamim said. “We put up a good score in the first game. Shakib played a very good innings. Yasir played well. Litton and I did something. But our bowling was the main game-changer. In the third game, it was again the bowlers who kept them tied up at 150-odd [154].”I have always said that our fielding needs a lot of improvement. We may have dropped one or two catches, but I thought we actually fielded really well in South Africa. Good fielding lifts everyone.”

“It takes a very big heart to do what Shakib did. I thanked him after the game.”Tamim acknowledges Shakib Al Hasan playing the third ODI in South Africa despite a family crisis back home

What also lifted the team and the captain was the way Mehidy responded to critical situations. When he was smacked around in the first ODI, he came back with a four-wicket haul that won Bangladesh the match. His improved batting and fielding have also been noticeable.”I think Miraz is one of our best ODI players. He is very under-rated as a cricketer,” Tamim said. “I think he is the third- or fourth-ranked [eighth] bowler in the world. Nobody speaks about it. Not only his performance, but [also] the energy he brings to the field [with] the never-say-die attitude that he has.”He is a different character. He will say things that people won’t necessarily take seriously, but that’s the kind of character you want in the team. He has improved as a batter, but if he gets better, him and Shakib give a huge boost to the team.”Needless to say, Shakib’s presence, and his performances, helped. He took down the South African attack in the first ODI, and just the fact that he was around for the third ODI, despite a crisis in his family back home, was a big inspiration to the team.”The way Shakib batted [in the first ODI] gave positive vibes,” Tamim said. “He took on the South African bowlers seven overs earlier than anyone imagined. I said at the time that it takes a very big heart to do what he did [by playing the third ODI]. I thanked him after the game. But just because he has done it, not everyone has to do it. If someone’s loved ones are sick, it is absolutely fine for him to go take care of them. I will support them fully.”There was a poignant moment at the end of the third ODI. Shakib and Tamim were at the crease to finish the job. They had utterly dominated South Africa, who have for two decades annihilated them at home. But, now, Bangladesh were about to win the ODI series. When the moment arrived, Shakib scored the winning runs, with Tamim having played a captain’s knock at the other end.”As we were winding down, we were talking about what needed to be done,” Tamim recalled. “I remember what I told him when the winning runs were hit. I told that this is one of our biggest achievements as a team. I said that and I hugged him.”

Jharkhand captain Sauabh Tiwary says aim was to give batters time in the middle, but Nagaland coach Kanwaljit Singh isn’t impressed

Himanshu Agrawal17-Mar-2022″Were they scared of us?” Kanwaljit Singh, the Nagaland coach, minced no words while expressing his dismay at Jharkhand batting on on the final day of their Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-final match at Eden Gardens, despite heading into the day 723 runs ahead.In the absence of an outright result, which Nagaland were unlikely to pull off, Jharkhand would have made the quarter-finals anyway, having claimed a first-innings lead, of a massive 591 runs. And when the fifth day began, they had to choose from either of the two: bowling for three sessions to try and take ten Nagaland wickets, or batting on and further grinding the opposition bowlers in the Kolkata heat and humidity.They opted for the latter.

“If we had bowled them out, what would we have achieved? Would we have achieved anything extra?”Saurabh Tiwary defends Jharkhand’s decision to bat on

Jharkhand had relatively tough pitches to bat on in all three of their league matches in Guwahati, particularly at the Nehru Stadium, where they played their first and third games. Against Chhattisgarh, the highest total across the first three innings was 174, with Chhattisgarh’s Shashank Singh’s 43 the most by a batter. Even the match against Tamil Nadu had team totals declining until the third innings, before Jharkhand chased down 215.In between, the game against Delhi at the Barsapara Stadium offered more: at least one Jharkhand batter got a century both times they batted, with Delhi too nearly chasing down 335 on the final day.And so Saurabh Tiwary, Jharkhand’s captain, said he preferred giving his batters time in the middle. “If we had bowled them out, what would we have achieved? Would we have achieved anything extra,” he told ESPNcricinfo.

A nailbiter in the Ranji Trophy preliminary quarter-final at Kolkata, where Jharkand led Nagaland by 591 on first innings, declined to enforce the follow-on, then finished their second innings on 417 for 6 – an overall lead of 1,008.

— Lawrence Booth (@the_topspin) March 16, 2022

Where the IPL 2022 final between Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals could be won or lost

Gaurav Sundararaman28-May-2022And then there were two. On Sunday, Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals will face off in Ahmedabad in the final of IPL 2022. While Titans have made it to the final in their maiden season, this is the first time since 2008 that Royals are contesting for the title. Titans hold the edge, having beaten Royals on both occasions they have met this season.Titans have benefitted from the presence of allrounders in their squad, while Royals have gone with a six-batter-five-bowler strategy throughout the tournament. Still, bowling remains the stronger suit for both sides. So who will come out on top? Here’s a look at some of the factors that could play a key role in the final.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Rashid effect

Rashid Khan’s presence ensures the opposition teams strategise differently. Sometimes scoring at just a run a ball against him without losing a wicket is seen as an above-par performance for the batting team. So far, Rashid has been involved in five finals across his T20 career. He has taken just two wickets in them but also conceded only 5.27 runs per over.This season Royals have taken the Rashid threat extremely seriously. He was wicketless in the two games he played against them but gave away only 39 runs from eight overs. He conceded just one four and one six, that too to R Ashwin and James Neesham. It’s highly likely that Royals adopt a similar approach in the final because every Royals batter has struggled against Rashid in T20s. Jos Buttler is yet to score a boundary against him, while Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer have lost their wickets when they tried to attack him.If Rashid’s overs are almost out of the equation, Royals would have to take more risks against the likes of Hardik Pandya, Yash Dayal and Alzarri Joseph. The way these three bowl could be a huge factor in deciding the outcome of the match.Related

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Will toss play a big role?
Since January 2021, Ahmedabad has hosted 18 T20s. Out of those, only twice has a team opted to bat after winning the toss. Overall, the chasing teams have won on 12 occasions. In the remaining six games, the team batting first scored in excess of 170. With slightly bigger boundaries and a possibility of dew setting in, whoever is batting first on Sunday will look to score at least 170, which should be the par score. Samson has been incredibly unlucky with the toss this season, losing 13 tosses from 16 games. However, he won an important toss in the Qualifier 2 against Royal Challengers Bangalore at this very venue. The last two IPL finals, though, have seen the team winning the toss going on to lose the match.Vital powerplay
The powerplay in both innings is going to be one of the key phases of the final. With the conditions favouring bowlers early on, it is important that the batting team keeps wickets intact as both teams have excellent bowlers to exploit the conditions. Titans are the best team in the bowling powerplay, followed by Royals. Titans have taken 26 wickets at an average of 26.69 in the powerplay, while Royals have taken 24 wickets at 27.38. The new-ball spells from Trent Boult and Mohammed Shami will be crucial for both teams and It would be interesting to how the batters approach them.ESPNcricinfo LtdDominating the spinners
Royals and Titans have been the most dominant sides against spin in the tournament. While Royals have struck at 136.72, Titans have gone at 125.34. However, with three quality spinners on display across both teams, it will be interesting to see how the batters go against them. In the two matches that Titans and Royals have played against each other, Royals preferred playing out Rashid but Titans have dominated Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. Titans’ batters scored 144 runs off 102 balls of spin against Royals while losing just three wickets. Eighty of those runs came in boundaries. In Royal’s last two games, Chahal was wicketless and conceded 77 from his eight overs. Do Chahal and Ashwin have new tricks for Titans’ batters?ESPNcricinfo LtdHow can Royals negate the Miller threat?
David Miller is having his best IPL season ever. He has scored 449 runs at an average of 64.14 and a strike rate of 141.19. Historically, Miller has been a pace hitter. Scoring against spin has not been his forte. However, since 2020, Miller averages 56.9 and strikes at 136.9 against spin. He also scores a boundary once every seven deliveries against spin. With a minimum of 450 balls, only Devon Conway has a better average and strike rate than Miller against spin.So what are the plans Royals could use against him? From a pace-bowling perspective, since January 2020, when bowlers have pitched it short or short of good length, Miller has scored only at 127.7 and has been dismissed eight times. Against fuller deliveries, Miller has struck at 187. So the margin of error is very less when pacers try a yorker against him. Therefore, going short and short of good length could be the plan to control the flow of runs against Miller. Interestingly even against spinners, there is a similar trend. This IPL when spinners have bowled full, Miller has smashed 89 runs off 28 balls with ten sixes. That’s a strike rate of 317.85. When they have pulled back their length, Miller goes only at 93.40, scoring 85 runs from 91 balls.Miller has waited for the bad balls to despatch while respecting the good ones. But his record against Ashwin and Chahal is below par. He has been dismissed by Ashwin three times in 73 balls while conceding only 85 runs. Chahal too has dismissed him three times, in just 30 balls, but Miller has taken him for 52 runs. So if Royals bowlers can refrain from bowling in the arc, then there is a high chance that the ball does not go out of the park.

Former player admits to mental-health struggles as he “bares soul” in racism crisis

Sam Dalling28-Jul-2022″It is a bit weird to be honest” admits Qasim Sheikh. He is speaking from The Grange, Edinburgh, during the first game of Scotland’s short bilateral series with New Zealand.”Walking in there were a lot of eyes on us and it is not what I am here for,” he continues. “Us” in this context is Sheikh and Majid Haq, Scotland’s all-time leading wicket-taker. He is speaking at the end of the most difficult of weeks.He is trying to “move things forward” and is willing to speak to anyone. In some cases, he gets the sense there is an “elephant in the room”.”People are on eggshells. But I am not going to bite anybody – I am here to possibly have some discussions,” Sheikh says.”Look, these people are probably still trying to digest what happened on Monday. Some people probably just didn’t know the extent of the issues that were there. This is such a diverse community in Scotland. There are so many South Asian backgrounds – just go around the cricket clubs.”Why is there not a bigger influx of people from the South Asian community today? Are we connecting with those communities? Are we encouraging them to come forward?”It is only 48 hours since Changing the Boundaries’ damning report was published, citing 448 examples of institutional racism within Scottish cricket. Sheikh and Haq have been driving forces in the review, having come forward in November to speak of their experiences.On Sunday, ahead of the report’s publication, Cricket Scotland’s entire Board pre-emptively resigned. The organisation failed 29 of the 31 tests used to measure the scale of the issues, barely passing the remaining two.More than 1000 participants from across Scottish cricket were spoken to and 68 individual concerns have been referred for further investigation. Those include 31 allegations of racism against 15 different people, two clubs and one regional association.Cricket Scotland is to be placed under special measures by Sportscotland until at least October 2023, while an urgent review of Cricket Scotland’s governance is high on the agenda.On Monday, post-publication, Sheikh and Haq bravely faced the media: “We hoped to get a bit more closure [from the report], but we didn’t,” Sheikh says. “I think there was a blunder from the leaders of Sportscotland and Cricket Scotland. I want to try and take things forward now. I am tired; I bore my soul on Monday, and it isn’t easy.”Qasim Sheikh bats for Scotland against MCC in a pink-ball trial match at Lord’s in 2008•Getty ImagesThe process has taken its toll on both men, with Sheikh’s comparison telling: “I lost my younger brother when I was 13 years old,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “Attending his funeral was the toughest day of my life, and that’s followed closely by going out in front of the national press. I’ve never been in a press conference before. I wasn’t speaking about something particularly positive; it wasn’t a celebration. It was a dark watershed moment for the sport. And not just in cricket.”My mental health on Monday was wobbly. Monday evening was a very weird feeling. I felt I did myself justice, and Maj did himself justice. But at the same time, I felt vulnerable. I felt like I was up and down with my emotions.”But from darkness, Sheikh hopes will come light: “I think this is a pivotal moment in Scottish sport. Having played football at a young age, this is not just a cricket issue, it’s a football issue, and other sports as well. There’s an opportunity for Scottish sport to change across the board.”The report also suggested that a minimum of 25% of Cricket Scotland’s new Board members should be Black, South-East Asian, or other mixed or multiple ethnic groups. Sheikh though will not, for the time being at least, be among them: “Absolutely not,” he said when asked. “I don’t think that would be the right decision to make. What I’m more than willing to do – and I think I’ve proven that already by doing live webinars and encouraging people to come forward – is I’m more than happy to be an ally.”I’m more than happy to advise where I think the sport is going wrong and where the things that can get better and be part of that change. Who knows, maybe one day, years down the line … you can never say never what happens in life, but no, I’m certainly not here looking for any roles, or any financial incentives.”This is simply being done for future generations and so that little boys and girls out there don’t go through that. The amount of messages I’ve had from parents alone about the pain that their children have experienced … I’m getting messages saying you’ve given our children hope. That’s enough for me. I can sleep at night knowing that that’s the case.”Indeed, it is the external support that has kept Sheikh going. He cites the Scotland women’s team as being particular allies: “I was lying in bed last night visualising what this could look like in a year’s time, and it warmed my heart. I woke up to some nice messages, in particular from the Scotland women’s team. I have come to realise that women could become really strong allies in this fight.

They definitely haven’t been as supportive as they could have been. Maj is Scotland’s leading wicket-taker. He’s played with pretty much anyone who has played for Scotland. Even these guys playing today; Maj is a senior to all of them.Qasim Sheikh on the reaction from Scotland’s current players to the racism scandal

“I am not singling them out, but I think they understand what racism is like having perhaps faced sexism or misogyny in their lives. They may not understand racism, but they get it a little bit better, whereas I do feel the men are a bit more fearful to have those discussions. Anybody that has reached out to me and given compassion, I have really appreciated that.”Sheikh also expressed gratitude for the support of former Scotland captain George Salmond through an interview with the on Wednesday. “That brought tears to my eyes,” Sheikh said. “To wake up and read his article meant a lot. He coached me when I was an under-17 and saw the talents we had.”I hope people will read that and realise that people like myself, Maj, Omer Hussain and Moneeb Iqbal weren’t just average players. We were talented players who should have gone on and had much more fruitful careers for Scotland. I’ll never forget George for that. He contacted me right at the start and he’s a very strong ally.”What has been conspicuous through absence though is vocal backing from the current players. Both Sheikh and Haq had their international careers curtailed having suggested that race was a motivating factor in selection. Sheikh has not played for Scotland since 2010, when he was aged just 25. Haq though was involved as recently as the 2015 50-over World Cup before being frozen out.Related

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Scotland head coach Shane Burger reached out to Sheikh on Wednesday morning, but that has been an exception rather than a rule: “They definitely haven’t been as supportive as they could have been,” Sheikh said. “Maj is Scotland’s leading wicket-taker. He’s played with pretty much anyone who has played for Scotland. Even these guys playing today; Maj is a senior to all of them.”I’m really disappointed with the way he’s been completely ghosted. Every so often he calls out performances and questions some people’s averages and how they’ve been performing. They’re international cricketers … they need to learn a little bit of criticism when it comes to playing. He doesn’t come out and abuse anybody or you know, swear and shout at anybody. The way that the cricket public in Scotland comes at him on that in Scotland and defends the players is quite … well, when somebody goes through something like Maj has, he doesn’t have the same support.”Safyaan Sharif spoke yesterday and said he probably wouldn’t want to put his children through it the way it is. He’s a current national team player. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, I don’t know what else people need to hear to know it’s not been good enough. It needs to be a lot better moving forward.”