And how many players have lost a Test in which they scored a century in each innings?

Steven LynchWhat is the closest Test series ever played, in terms of average runs per wicket scored by the two teams? asked Arpit Agarwal from India
There have so far been 506 series comprising three or more Tests. The closest of all in this particular respect was the three-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series between India and Australia in 2000-01, which included India’s famous victory in Kolkata after following on, mainly thanks to the heroics of VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. India, who ended up winning the series 2-1, averaged 34.164 runs per wicket overall, while Australia averaged 34.160 – a difference of just four-thousandths of a run.When West Indies beat India 2-1 at home in 1975-76, they averaged 37.32 runs per wicket against 37.34, a negative difference of 0.02. And when England (34.04) and South Africa (34.10) drew 1-1 in England in 1994, the difference was 0.06 of a run.At the other end of the scale, in the five-match Ashes series of 2009, England won 2-1 despite averaging 34.15 runs per wicket to Australia’s 40.65, a record negative difference of 6.49. England also beat South Africa 2-1 in 1998 despite averaging 29.34 runs per wicket to their opponents’ 35.37 (a difference of 6.03). And back in 1891-92, Australia (21.69) beat England (27.68) 2-1, despite a negative difference of 5.99 runs per wicket.Has anyone ever been out for a pair in a Test by being lbw twice, offering no shot? asked Graham Clarke from Australia
I believe the only man to suffer this strokeless fate was the Australian Ken “Slasher” Mackay, against India in Kanpur in 1959-60. In the first innings he was lbw padding up to the offspinner Jasu Patel, who was on his way to figures of 9 for 69 (and 14 for 124 in the match): you can see that dismissal in this clip (Mackay is the second of the two left-handers dismissed). In the second innings Mackay escaped Patel, but offered no shot to Polly Umrigar, who was also bowling offbreaks, and was out for another duck as India neared their first-ever Test victory over Australia.Mackay doesn’t describe the dismissals in detail in his 1964 autobiography, Slasher Opens Up, although he does say that Patel and Umrigar “presented me with an appropriate Christmas gift, a pair of ducks” (the match ended on Christmas Eve).I was lucky enough to see Scotland beat Zimbabwe the other day. How often have Scotland beaten a Test-playing nation in ODIs or T20s? asked Kevin McKenzie from Scotland
Scotland’s seven-run victory over Zimbabwe in Edinburgh last week was only their third victory over a Test-playing nation in a T20I. They also beat Bangladesh in The Hague in July 2012, and Ireland in Al Amerat in February 2019. (And they beat Ireland twice in 2015, before they gained Test status.) In all, Scotland have won 30 of their 67 T20Is, including seven victories over Netherlands and five against Kenya.In one-day internationals, Scotland have recorded three victories over Test-playing nations, defeating Zimbabwe in Edinburgh in June 2017 and, the following year, famously beating England at The Grange as well. They also defeated Afghanistan in Bulawayo in March 2018 – this was after Afghanistan had been elevated to Test status, but before they’d actually played a Test.In all, Scotland have won 43 of their 117 ODIs, including four against Ireland and three more against Afghanistan before they had Test status. They have beaten Canada and Netherlands seven times each, and Kenya, Papua New Guinea and United Arab Emirates five times.Peter Siddle claimed three of the 19 lbws in the Durham vs Essex County Championship match in May this year•Getty ImagesI noticed there were 19 lbws in the Championship match between Durham and Essex this season. Was this anywhere near a record? asked Brian Turner from England
You’re right that there were 19 lbw dismissals in the County Championship match between Durham and Essex in Chester-le-Street in May 2021. That turns out to be a new Championship record, beating 18, which had happened five times previously – all since 2010 – including a month beforehand, in Cardiff, in the match between Glamorgan and Sussex. Nine of those fell to Ollie Robinson, which equalled the first-class record for a single bowler.There had been two previous instances of 19 lbws in a match, both in India, but the overall first-class record is two cases of 20 – both at the new Providence Stadium in Guyana. In 2011, there were 20 lbws in the Test between West Indies and Pakistan there; and in 2019-20 there were 20 more in the match between Guyana and Jamaica.How many people have lost a Test in which they scored a century in each innings? asked SM Nazmus Shakib from Bangladesh
Eleven men have suffered this bittersweet experience in a Test match. The first was the great England opener Herbert Sutcliffe, whose 176 and 127 were not enough to stave off defeat against Australia in Melbourne in 1924-25. The most recent instance was by Brendan Taylor, for Zimbabwe against Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2018-19.Brian Lara hit 221 and 130 against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2001-02 – but West Indies still lost. Lara’s 351 runs in that match is a record for a Test defeat, just ahead of Andy Flower’s 341 – he scored 142 and 199 not out – for Zimbabwe against South Africa in Harare two months beforehand, in September 2001. For that list – which features Lara four times in the top 30 – click here.One of the odder stats concerns Andrew Strauss. England never lost any of the 19 matches in which he scored a century – but they did lose the Test in which he made two, against India in Chennai in 2008-09. For the full list, click here.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Use of Adil Rashid and Matt Parkinson in the same side points at attacking option for UAE tournament

Matt Roller18-Jul-2021The second ball of Imad Wasim’s third over gave it away.Imad has admitted in the past that he hardly tries to spin the ball in this format but by the second half of England’s innings it had become clear that with the Headingley pitch baking in 30-degree heat, the pitch was offering something. Imad tossed the ball up, slower than usual, outside Liam Livingstone’s off stump and it gripped in the surface as he punched to cover. If England’s decision to pick two frontline legspinners for the first time in T20 internationals hadn’t already made it clear that this was a day for spin, Imad – – turning one sharply on a length confirmed it.Pakistan’s two spinners, Imad and Shadab Khan, ended up returning 3 for 70 between them in a combined eight overs, and England’s response was immediate at the start of the chase. Adil Rashid was thrown the new ball, reprising the role he filled so successfully in India four months ago, but it was in the middle overs that England’s spin-heavy strategy became apparent.Related

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Every ball between the end of the Powerplay and the start of the 17th over was bowled by a spinner – either Rashid, Matt Parkinson or Moeen Ali – and in those 60 balls, England won the game, conceding 81 runs and taking five wickets to rip through Pakistan’s middle order. Never before had they bowled so many overs of spin in a single T20I – even though Livingstone, whose bowling has helped springboard him into contention for a starting spot in the World Cup, went unused.The strategy stood in contrast to that used by England in India earlier this year, when Eoin Morgan’s assessment of the Ahmedabad pitches was that fingerspin would be completely ineffective against a strong home batting line-up. Instead, this game served as ideal preparation in the event that the pitches served up in the UAE for October’s World Cup – which will have been used for the remainder of the IPL immediately before – turn out to be dustbowls.The biggest beneficiary of their strategy was Parkinson, who only a month ago was seen as England’s fifth-choice spinner behind Rashid, Moeen, Livingstone, and Liam Dawson (who is not involved in this series following his self-isolation). Parkinson’s method stands in stark contrast to Rashid’s, tossing the ball up above batters’ eyeline and almost exclusively bowling legbreaks with the occasional slider thrown in for good measure, but after his confidence was dented by a tough 10-game stretch in the T20 Blast this year, his stock has risen sharply in the past two weeks since his last-minute ODI call-up.He had started brightly at Trent Bridge on Friday night, conceding only 11 runs from his first two overs without conceding a boundary, but was targeted by Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in his final two, who hit him for three sixes towards the short boundary at midwicket even as he hung the ball wide outside off. Four overs for 47 was not far below par on a night where 433 runs were scored in 39.2 overs, but it was a chastening end nonetheless.In Leeds, he recognised that conditions were in his favour and stuck to his strengths. ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data recorded 24 legbreaks and no variations in his four-over spell, and his speeds ranged from 44-50mph (71kph-80kph). He conceded a single boundary, when Imad Wasim launched him over his head for six, and roared in celebration with both fists clenched when Azam Khan walked past the final ball of his spell to leave him with 1 for 25.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe contrast between Parkinson and Rashid was particularly apparent when they were bowling in tandem, and hinted that it might not be impossible for them to play in the same side more often – even if it means sacrificing some of the batting depth which has been so key to their approach. Rashid’s wealth of variations means he is more comfortable bowling to left-handers or when defending a short boundary, and on a turning pitch, Parkinson is a much more attacking option than Dawson, albeit without his batting or his ability to bowl in the Powerplay.Equally significant for England was Moeen’s success, with bat as well as ball. His 16-ball 36 was a vibrant, modern T20 innings, taking down his match-up by carting a four and a six in the three balls he faced from Shadab, and cracking Haris Rauf away through the ring to make the most of the final Powerplay over. With the ball, he conceded 32 from his three overs, but his sharply-spun offbreak to Fakhar Zaman which beat his outside edge and slid into the top of off stump was the perfect fingerspinner’s dismissal. Pakistan’s approach – in particular, their decision to send Mohammad Hafeez in ahead of Zaman and Azam Khan – might be called into question, but England’s execution was near-perfect.”The two legspinners in particular bowled fantastically well: Parky and Rash complemented each other brilliantly,” Moeen said. “They’re very different, but both very skilful. If conditions come the World Cup do spin, we’re going to have to bowl well.”I’ve not bowled for England for a while but today was great conditions for a spinner. It’s not always going to be a high-scoring game – when it’s spinning and it’s quite a small ground, you’re skill going to see high scores. Sometimes it’s not like that when it’s a complete dustbowl but it was a great toss to lose.”The result is that England seem better-placed than many would think if they end up playing on a slow, used pitch in the T20 World Cup, not least after Friday’s draw saw them avoid any Asian sides in the group stage (barring qualifiers from the first phase). Their batters have both the attacking intent and the skill to take down spin, and their spinners have the quality to exploit conditions to their advantage; as a dry run for a dry pitch, this could hardly have gone better.

Unglamorous left-armer completes another frugal spell as Scotland fight hard against NZ

Matt Roller03-Nov-20214:45

Borren: Scotland took the foot off the throat when NZ were three down

Left-arm fingerspin is a grubby, unglamorous skill at the best of times but in T20 cricket, particularly so. The majority of its purveyors in this World Cup hardly try to spin the ball, instead bowling defensive lines and lengths in a desperate attempt to escape from their spells unscathed. Few of them have wrong ‘uns, instead they rely on arm balls, angles and changes of pace for their variety. Their art is constructing an over, finding a way to string six balls together without becoming predictable.The poster boy for defensive darts at this tournament has been Mark Watt, Scotland’s broad-shouldered, combative linchpin. He has bowled his full allocation of four overs in every game, taking exactly one wicket in each, and has been hit for seven boundaries in total. With games against India and Pakistan to come, he is yet to concede more than 23 runs in a spell.Counterintuitively for a defensive bowler, Watt’s strength lies in his variety. His delivery points are hugely varied, sometimes bowling from a two-pace run-up with a release-point in line with the umpire, and regularly going so wide on the crease from round the wicket that his front foot lands off the cut strip. He regularly bowls at up to 65mph/104kph, and his height helps him generate both good bounce from a good length and dip on his yorkers.Watch cricket live on ESPN+

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Watt’s variety is a natural response to bowling on Scotland’s small ground in Edinburgh when they play at home. “Bowling spin at the Grange is quite tough,” he said earlier in this tournament. “It’s a small round, fast outfield, and a good wicket. If you can bowl spin there, you can bowl pretty much anywhere. You need to think about different variations to keep the batter guessing when it’s only fingerspin.”The wickets you get in international cricket these days, they don’t do a lot for fingerspinners,” he told Wisden’s podcast after Scotland’s win against Bangladesh. “It’s about trying to keep the batter guessing, trying to keep them watching you all the time, and finding any sort of advantage you can get. White-ball cricket for a fingerspinner is tough.”It might be a bit cheeky bowling from 25, 26 yards – but if it gets me a dot ball in T20 cricket, I’m going to try and keep doing it. Everyone in the nets tries to hit it to the moon so I was a bit scared bowling it in games but it seems to work: the batter is looking down at his toes, then looks up and the ball is halfway through its flight.”Perhaps the biggest compliment paid to Watt was New Zealand’s approach against him in Dubai. He took a wicket with his first ball, having Devon Conway caught behind off the glove while reverse-sweeping, and despite the fact that both Martin Guptill and Glenn Phillips were set for the second half of his spell, New Zealand’s batters made only two boundary attempts off him; neither was successful.Mark Watt celebrates Devon Conway’s wicket with his team-mates•Getty ImagesHis death bowling has been particularly impressive, jamming in yorkers and cramping batters for room: he was entrusted with the 18th over against New Zealand, conceding only five runs – including a leg bye – after nutmegging Phillips with a yorker with his first ball. Watt’s figures of 1 for 13 were his best in the tournament to date, and the cheapest four-over spell by a Scotland player in all men’s T20 World Cups.”He just doesn’t give a lot,” Guptill said. “He wasn’t trying to turn the ball necessarily, or anything like that. He’s just bowling good lines and lengths, getting inside our arcs so that we couldn’t really take him down. He bowled very well and it was just a matter of trying to get through it and not let him bog us down too much.””Mark was fantastic,” Kyle Coetzer, Scotland’s captain, said. “He’s been bowling extremely well for quite a while now on this whole tour that we’ve been on. He’s been the guy who you can throw the ball to at any end: short boundary or long boundary, into the breeze or against the breeze, he’s there and he’s willing to do it.Related

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“He’s shown that the skill he has and the ability to be able to restrict runs. It’s not just about being able to deliver a ball that has some revs on it or might turn, or being able to bowl a good yorker; it’s about understanding and reading the game and he has excellent game sense, and showing why he’s on this stage. Mark’s very aware on who does what, whether players sweep or reverse-sweep, and where they look to hit the ball.”Watt has had two brief experiences playing county cricket, signing a short-term deal with Lancashire in 2018 and playing for Derbyshire for some of the following summer, and since he qualifies as a local player, his performances in this tournament should attract further interest ahead of the 2022 season.”I think Mark deserves that, as far as I’m concerned,” Coetzer said. “He’s certainly got the ability to go and play in those competitions – not only the county stuff, but maybe other franchise tournaments around the world. He’s certainly put his hand up to be one of the best left-arm spinners in this competition.”

England’s assistant coach, who has been part of six World Cups and led them to their first global title, believes they have the team to go all the way again

Interview by Matt Roller22-Oct-2021″It’s a feeling that I’d never be able to describe – way beyond anything I’d ever felt before. If you could bottle that moment, I’d open that bottle every single day. You don’t get any better feeling than that.”Paul Collingwood is sitting in his hotel room at England’s training camp in Oman reminiscing about the undisputed highlight of his T20 international career. After inside-edging Shane Watson for four to level the scores in the 2010 World T20 final, Collingwood shimmied down the pitch and clipped him wide of mid-on to win England their first men’s ICC event.Those three weeks in the Caribbean were not the culmination of a long-term plan or the start of an era of dominance, but now look like a precursor to England’s white-ball revolution following their early exit at the 50-over World Cup in 2015. “I remember a discussion with our head coach, Andy Flower,” Collingwood recalls. “We said whatever we’d been doing in the past, it hadn’t worked. If we continued with the same kind of team and method and strategy, there was a good chance that we weren’t going to succeed.”Related

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Ahead of the 2010 World T20, England were thrashed by their second-string Lions side in a warm-up match in the UAE and decided to throw Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter, the openers who took their attack apart, in at the deep end, while embracing their analyst Nathan Leamon’s findings: that left-arm seamers were undervalued – hence the selection of Ryan Sidebottom ahead of James Anderson – and that slower-ball bouncers were surprisingly effective at the death. After scraping through the group stage on net run-rate, they won their next five games in a row to lift the trophy, never conceding more than 150 in an innings.”We had to take a gamble – be brave, be bold,” Collingwood says. “The preparation was all about confidence, not too much technical work or thinking too deeply about the game. It was all about having fun and putting on a bit of a show. It was a different approach to what we were used to, but we changed our mentality and embraced that real ‘express yourself’ approach. Thankfully, it worked.

“With a leader like Morgan, when they’re going through a bad run of form, people look at just stats of scoring runs – how do you measure what that person is giving in leadership? The only way you can is through results, but it’s far greater than that.”

“We’d turn up, put 100% effort into training, and then go straight to the golf courses. If you didn’t enjoy the golf you were around the pool at the hotel. We tried to make it as relaxed an atmosphere as possible. I think that camaraderie that we gathered and the momentum that we had through the tournament [meant] it was just a really fun experience.”Now England’s assistant coach, Collingwood is preparing for his sixth of seven men’s T20 World Cups – he captained England in the first three and was part of the backroom staff in 2014 and 2016. They will be captained in this edition by the man who was at the non-striker’s end as Collingwood hit the winning runs 11 years ago, and he can see parallels between Eoin Morgan’s position heading into this tournament and his own in 2010.Morgan has had the worst year of his T20 career in 2021, averaging 16.63 with a strike rate of 118.52, and the sample size of 35 innings is not exactly small. Collingwood himself struggled badly during the World T20 in 2010 – he made 61 runs in seven innings with a top score of 16 – and while he says that it would be “great if [England] have both the leader and the runs”, he stresses that they were not facing “desperation if we haven’t”.”You can understand sometimes that you do lose form [as captain] because of the amount of mental energy that you give up in big series,” Collingwood says. “I remember back in 2010, all I wanted to do was go out there and try to impose myself on the game and make sure that I wasn’t eating up balls just because I was in a bad run of form. You don’t want to be selfish in any way – you want to lead the team and help them play the brand of cricket you’re desperate to.”With Morgs, I’ve always found it takes one shot or ball out of the middle of the bat. He’s never that far away and we’ve all seen how destructive he can be. I’m sure he’d want to score more runs but… you’ve got to understand what he gives the team in his leadership. That is far greater than a run of form with the bat. He takes pressure away from players: there’s a lot of hours that he puts into analysis behind the scenes so when you get into a game, the players can relax and the captain can be the composer out there and run the show.Been there, won that: Collingwood struck the winning runs that gave England their first World T20 win, with Morgan at the other end for company•Rebecca Naden/PA Photos/Getty Images”With a leader like that, when they’re going through a bad run of form, people look at just stats of scoring runs – how do you measure what that person is giving in leadership? The only way you can is through results, but it’s far greater than that. To even question what he gives or question his form with the bat, we’d never go down that route. We totally understand as an England team what he’s given in the past and what he’ll continue to give in the future. He’ll be desperate to score more runs but as long as his leadership and direction and skills of leading on the park are still 100% – like they are – we’ll be very happy.”In particular, Collingwood considers Morgan’s recent experience with Kolkata Knights Riders – whom he captained into the IPL final after a poor first half of the season – to be a trump card for England, not least after his exposure to the UAE’s pitches. Morgan’s flexible use of his batting resources, pragmatism in fielding only two frontline seamers in certain games and willingness to slide down the order in recognition of his own form all serve as evidence of his strengths as captain – though their winning streak came about in no small part due to a world-class spin attack, something that England lack.”It’s an unbelievable achievement from the position they were in,” Collingwood says. “It shows what kind of a leader he is that he was able to galvanise a team that seemed to be down and out. It’s going to be crucial that we have as much understanding as possible regarding the venues and what’s working, and Morgs has been in the heat of the battle.”Along with a handful of other players and support staff members, Collingwood is expecting to be away from home for most of this winter and admits that another winter confined to hotels is a tough prospect. “We’ve obviously done a lot more of it than other teams and I don’t understand why we still need bubbles, if I’m entirely honest,” he says. “When everyone is double-vaccinated, the sooner we manage Covid like any other illness the better for everyone mentally.”The restrictions are put on us in these World Cups because we’ve got to protect the tournament, but everyone who has done bubbles for a long period of time would argue you’ve only got so much time that you could actually cope with them and a lot of cricketers out there are on the brink. From the outside it looks nice, staying in nice hotels, but it’s frustrating: you are literally stuck with the same people for months on end.”

“We had to take a gamble – be brave, be bold. The preparation was all about confidence, not too much technical work or thinking too deeply about the game”On the mindset that won England the 2010 World T20 title

But he stresses that he will be driven through by the prospect of “a World Cup then an Ashes… for all of us, this is one of the most exciting times of our career, whether as a coach or a player. What could be achieved over the next five or six months is huge. Everyone is raring to go and building up really well.”Collingwood sees the key to his own role as assistant coach as “giving a player the chance to improve”. He took particular pleasure from Liam Livingstone’s breakthrough summer having suggested a technical tweak (with some help from Marcus Trescothick) that sparked his six-hitting form. “That’s why you do the job: it’s great to see a player respond well and go onto the success he’s had this year,” he says. “It’s nice for players to appreciate the work you do but they’re the ones that have to be open to little tweaks and changes.”And he is clear about two things: that the standard of T20 cricket has never been higher, and England have never been better placed at this stage in their preparations. “You’re going to see a very serious World Cup,” he says. “It would be silly to say that cricket hasn’t moved on: every other sport in the world has. People are getting faster, stronger and fitter. The athleticism and the power that’s in the game now is pure and it’s forever evolving.”I don’t think many teams will be looking forward to playing against England, with the power that we have in the batting unit in particular. I don’t think you could be better prepared than this team is. Of course we’re missing a couple of players that have been a key part of our white-ball team – the extreme pace of Jofra [Archer] and the allround ability of Ben Stokes – but we’ve built up a big squad where players can come in at any time and fill gaps if we do have injuries.”I see us as one of the teams to beat. I don’t think we should be scared of having the favourites tag on us – I think we’ve earned it over the years. This team is still moving forward even now – as good as the guys are, we want them to get better and better. It’s a difficult side to pick and I’m glad I don’t have that job – there’s so much skill and experience around the group. Last time [in 2016] we were very close. Hopefully this time, we can just go that extra step.”

Munim’s 161.81 strike-rate has easily made him the most talked-about Bangladeshi batter in the tournament

Mohammad Isam17-Feb-2022Eight months ago, Munim Shahriar faced a make-or-break situation in his fledgling cricket career. Abahani Limited had dropped him after he made 69 runs in four matches in the Dhaka Premier League T20s.One day during training, Abahani coach Khaled Mahmud took the young batter aside. He couldn’t give the young opener enough chances that season, so he understood that Munim perhaps needed a bit of attention from him. Mahmud had a talk with Munim, convincing him that he should continue to bat the way that came to him naturally.”After I was dropped for two matches, (Mahmud) Sujon sir told me, ‘Why are you so worried? Just play freely.’ Those words really had an impact on me,” Munim tells ESPNcricinfo. “In the next game, I made 92 off 50 balls against Prime Bank, and followed it up with a 40-ball 74. I finished the league with 355 runs at 143 strike rate.”Mahmud had first met Munim during the 2019-20 Dhaka Premier League, when Abahani were looking for an opener in the 50-over competition. Mosaddek Hossain, a senior figure in Mymensingh, which is also Munim’s hometown, and Najmul Hossain Shanto, Munim’s Under-19 team-mate, had recommended him to Mahmud.

“After I was dropped for two matches, (Khaled Mahmud) Sujon sir told me, ‘Why are you so worried? Just play freely'”Munim Shahriar

That conversation was the turning point in Munim’s career. His performance for Abahani impressed Mahmud, who then picked him for Fortune Barishal for this season’s BPL. Munim was picked up belatedly, after no one turned his way in the players’ draft. But ahead of the final, he has the highest strike rate for any Bangladeshi batter in a single campaign (minimum 100 runs).Munim has a very modern style of batting: mostly standing still and hitting through the line of the ball. He has played some breath-taking shots in the BPL, particularly over mid-off. During the first qualifier against Comilla Victorians, there was a moment of silence when he smashed Mustafizur Rahman for a six over midwicket. It was a normal pull shot, but Munim made a last-second adjustment by straightening his wrist slightly. It not just looked stylish, but showed that he could take on the country’s best T20 bowler too. And win.Munim’s strike rate of 161.81 has easily made him the most talked-about Bangladeshi batter in the tournament. He has made 178 runs in five innings, and if you have followed Bangladesh’s plights in T20Is the last seven months, it’s easy to see why everyone is excited. He might now be a shoo-in for a call-up for the two T20Is against Afghanistan in early March.The 23-year-old Munim, however, isn’t looking that far ahead just yet. He has the BPL final in mind, and he wants to focus on the job at hand.”After I missed out the first few matches because of Covid, I needed a bit of time to prepare for the BPL,” he says. “The team was trying a few opening combinations. (Jake) Lintott and (Dwayne) Bravo opened with (Chris) Gayle at one point. The night before my first game, Sujon sir told me that I would get to play four matches. It gave me the freedom.”Munim Shahriar has the eagerness and batting style that Bangladesh have long needed in white-ball cricket•AFP/Getty ImagesMunim is very aware that getting runs like he does – going after the bowling from the word go – on Bangladeshi pitches is a high-risk game. “I have only played two tournaments so there’s a long way to go. I know that I have batted this way, and it is far more important to be able to play in this manner in the long-term.”Those who know me are aware that I have an aggressive mindset as a batsman. I follow the process and stick to the plan too. I try to take advantage of the circle, and I like batting against the new ball. I have batted like this since my school days. I even batted like this in three-day matches as well. My coach (the late Hayatul Islam Hannan) always trained me to bat this way.”There are enough cautionary tales in Bangladesh cricket for Munim to keep in mind. One-hit wonders are many, though a few Bangladeshi batters have used the BPL as their launching pads.Shamsur Rahman struck six fifties during the 2013 BPL, which got him into the senior side the following year. Mahedi Hasan did well in the 2019-20 edition, giving him a road into the T20I side. Mehedi Maruf’s splendid 2016-17 season didn’t amount to much, while Sabbir Rahman also took a bit of time to convert his hot-and-cold BPL performances into a national call-up.But Munim has the eagerness and batting style that Bangladesh have long needed in white-ball cricket. There’s reward in backing a talent like him – think David Warner. Whether he stays the course or not is another matter, but he could well change Bangladesh’s batting approach in T20I cricket if he gets a run.

2021 wooden-spoon winners are optimistic that young squad can make big strides forward

Alan Gardner01-Apr-2022Few things quicken the anticipation ahead of the start of the county season like a trip to Good Old Sussex by the Sea. The sight of Hove’s deckchairs might not cure all the ills which currently beset the English game, but it feels like a decent place to start. The question that might have been asked, however, as a flurry of sleet and snow across the immaculate green acreage caught the attention of those assembled in the pavilion for Sussex’s press day, was: which sea? Perhaps the Baltic.Soon the sun was shining again, and there are hopes for brighter times at Sussex. After finishing bottom of the Championship in 2021, during a season in which they gave as many as nine first-class debuts to young, homegrown players – and at one stage fielded a team with an average age of 19 – the expectation from both management and supporters is for a more competitive summer.Concerns about the club’s direction of travel have simmered under the surface, notably given voice by the former Sussex and England wicketkeeper Matt Prior, with the influx of youth offset by a high number of departures – Phil Salt, Chris Jordan and Ben Brown left over the winter, following the likes of Laurie Evans, Danny Briggs and Luke Wells out through the gates on Eaton Road. But Ian Salisbury, head coach of the Championship and 50-over sides, believes a rebuilding process was needed in order to deliver “sustained success” of the sort Sussex were used to in the 2000s.There have been moves to strengthen a callow squad that might otherwise be considered outside contenders in Division Two. In particular, the arrivals of Steven Finn, the former England seamer signed from Middlesex, and overseas batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohammad Rizwan ought to bring a hardened edge to the dressing room; Ollie Robinson, who has a point to prove after fitness issues stalled his progress at Test level over the winter, is also expected to be available for a number of the early rounds – though not next week’s opener against Notts.Related

• Notts left snow-blind amid uncertainty over Championship future

• Bopara named Sussex T20 captain, Haines to lead in Championship

• Alsop signs for Sussex on season-long loan

• Sussex sign Pujara for English summer

• Brown joins Sussex exodus after requesting early contract release

Further international experience has been added to the mix with the arrival of Grant Flower as batting coach, while former club captain Mike Yardy has returned to Hove as academy director. It feel likes there is now greater heft behind the club’s crop of young players, which includes a pair of precociously talented 17-year-olds in Danial Ibrahim and Archie Lenham. What Salisbury refers to as “the project” at Hove might just be coming together.”Do we aim to get promoted? Of course we do,” Salisbury said. “But more importantly, we want to be better than what we were last year. That’s not just as a team, it’s as individuals, as coaches. We just want to keep improving. We know where we want to be in four or five years’ time, which is bringing sustained success back to Sussex, in all competitions. I know the side we have, and the squad we have, once we get to that situation, we can be there for a long time, just because of the age of this side.”That’s why we took the decisions we have done in the past, because we haven’t been in the first division since 2015, we haven’t won a trophy for 13 years. So something had to change, because that’s not acceptable for a club of this standing. So how do you do it? You rebuild, you make decisions – some made around Covid. But we made a decision to go down the route we have, because we want to bring sustained success back to Sussex. But we know when we get there, we’ll hold it there for a long period of time.”One of the players who is expected to play a key role in any Sussex resurgence is 23-year-old opener Tom Haines. No-one in the country scored more than Haines’ 1176 Championship runs at 47.04 in 2021, and he will be aiming to lead from the front after being named interim captain of the red-ball side (“interim” because Sussex still retain the option to bring back Travis Head, the Australia batter who was expected to take charge, next summer). Encouragingly for Sussex, Haines’ average actually rose – to 51.12 – in the four games in which he stood in for Brown last year.It is only a couple of seasons since Haines was looking to establish himself in the first team and he admits it is “weird” to now be considered a senior player. Given the struggles of England’s batters over the winter, it is not too far-fetched to think that further promotions could soon be in order. A strong start to the summer could bring him into discussions for the New Zealand series in June, though Haines will not be looking that far ahead.Tom Haines made a pre-season hundred against Surrey•Getty Images”Right at the front of my mind at the moment is scoring as many runs as I can for Sussex,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I’m really focused on leading this side, and hopefully leading by example with runs and in the field. I’m not one to get too far ahead of myself, I think when you do that in cricket, it comes back to bite you. So I would never focus on the speculation [around] England selection, I just want to get my head down again, like I did last year, and hopefully back it up.”It’s nice to be mentioned by people but I’m always one to try and stay as level as I can, because as an opener batter failure it always going to happen. I try to stay nice and level headed and focus on the here and now, game by game in the County Championship for Sussex.”Haines describes “trusting my defence, and leaving well” as the two fundamentals of his game. Like Kraigg Brathwaite, whose obduracy at the top of the order helped West Indies to secure a series victory over England last week, he has never played a game of professional T20 – and while Haines says he doesn’t want to pigeonhole himself, he has a clear goal in mind.”My dream since I was young is to play Test cricket for England. I don’t like to compare myself to any other players I don’t like to put myself in their shoes and say I’d have done better because that’s just not what I’m about. I try and focus as much as much as I can on myself, improving my own game. We’ve got great coaches here, Grant who’s come in and been brilliant since day one, and we’ve got all the facilities here to really improve as a player.”Salisbury says that the Sussex’s goal remains producing players for England, and Haines pushing for Test selection would be welcome – even if it leaves another hole in the side to be filled. The depth of the squad will be tested anyway, with spinner Jack Carson unlikely to play before May, having had surgery on a knee injury, and long-term absentee Jofra Archer unlikely to be in contention for first-team action until the Blast comes around.No-one is getting carried away at Hove, but with a strong T20 side looking to improve on their Blast Finals Day appearance last year and a zephyr of optimism whispering around the Championship rebuild, there is hope that the members might be able to rest a little more comfily in their deckchairs.”We won one [Championship] game last year, that’s factual,” Salisbury said. “So there’s got to be some realism. To get promoted we might have to win eight games – 800% improvement? Anything’s possible. More than anything, I want us to be better and show that we are actually progressing.”

He’s always been able to beat batters with flight and turn. Now he’s doing them in for pace too

Shashank Kishore27-Mar-2022Six overs. Mumbai Indians 53 for 0. Rishabh Pant throws the ball to Kuldeep Yadav, who is making an IPL comeback. He last played the tournament 17 months ago, in UAE. That season had been a living nightmare. He’d bowled all of 12 overs across five games for Kolkata Knight Riders. He wasn’t the force he once was.Until IPL 2019, he had averaged 19.43 with an economy rate of 7.32. Now, he couldn’t even get a game. His stocks had fallen alarmingly. When you thought it couldn’t get worse, IPL 2021 came along. In the first half, he didn’t fit into the scheme of things. In the second, he aggravated a knee injury that required surgery. He was set back another five months.Sunday’s return somewhat completed his re-initiation into top-flight cricket. Last month, he was part of India’s white-ball squads for the home series against West Indies. He did well in the limited opportunities he got but was far from the threat he had become in partnership with Yuzvendra Chahal over a two-year period between 2017 and 2019.Now, he is back with a new team on a ground with short straight boundaries. Kuldeep knew bowling full would be asking for trouble. On a surface where the ball skidded on and batters hit through the line without fear, the left-arm wristspinner needed to quickly settle in and find his lengths. Ishan Kishan had already turbocharged his way to 22, Rohit Sharma was just switching gears. This was no soft introduction.Kishan is itching to tee off, but Kuldeep quickly pulls his length back and forces him to the longer leg-side boundary with two men back. By bowling a lot quicker and still managing to give it revs, Kuldeep got the ball to break away as well, something that seemed to have fizzled out of his repertoire when he went through a prolonged rough patch.”We’ve been excited by what we saw in the lead-up to the tournament,” the Capitals assistant coach Shane Watson told during a flash interview. “He’s been hungry to prove a point. We know he’s highly skilled in all conditions. He doesn’t have to turn the ball, he has his variations, changes in lengths, bowls the wrong’uns. He has been bowling a little quicker.”By keeping Rohit quiet, Kuldeep forces the Mumbai captain to re-think. Rohit’s release shot turns out to be an attempted reverse sweep, something he doesn’t play very often. But because Kuldeep’s in-between length has been hard to hit, Rohit tries to use the away drift to his advantage. He can’t hit it clean. Rohit lets out a cry of anguish. He knows the Capitals are trying to make him hit towards the longer boundary, and he does exactly that to pick out deep midwicket.Delhi Capitals pulled off a rousing chase against Mumbai Indians•BCCIKuldeep’s confidence is on the rise, clear in his toying of Anmolpreet Singh. Having beaten him in flight one ball, he induces a leading edge off the next. It just eludes his fingertips. Then he brings out his magic ball – the wrong’un – the kind of ball wristspinners can at times over bowl. Anmolpreet is beaten. The ball spins from leg to off. Kuldeep’s wry smile tells you he enjoyed that. And in his next over, he deceives Anmolpreet in flight and has him caught at long-off.”Since joining the Delhi Capitals camp, I’ve been working on hitting good length area,” Kuldeep said after his spell. “I’ve chatted a lot with Ricky [Ponting] about this. I also had a lot of discussions with Rohit [during the West Indies series] about varying lengths in T20 cricket. I’ve been working hard, and the results are showing.””When you’re in good rhythm, the pace [through the air] comes. When I wanted to push it further, it was going up. I was able to control it. Maybe that’s why batters didn’t get much time [to line him up]. The wicket was very good, there was not much help for the bowlers. You needed to vary your length. It was important to not give batters time. If you did, then they would have had enough time to step out and score. Varying your length and pace was key.”If the first two wickets were a result of planning, the third was down to oodles of luck. And someone who bowled as well as Kuldeep did deserve some. Off the penultimate ball of his spell, he had Pollard nail a pull, except it was intercepted superbly by Tim Seifert at square leg. Pollard picked the bones out of what was no more than a long hop. On another night, it would’ve landed on the streets outside. Instead, Kuldeep, who finished his spell, with a slip and leg slip encouraging him to spin it past Tim David, finishes with 3 for 18. Seventeen of his twenty-four balls were around a length or a tad shorter, only twice did he err on the fuller side.On a night where batter after batter showed they were never out of the game, where the scoring rate hovered around nine an over, and where not even the prospect of needing 75 off 42 deterred the Capitals, Kuldeep’s figures stood out. Enough for him to be adjudged Player of the Match. It capped off a happy return to the IPL, too.

Images of the Indian players and six-month-old Fatima became the source of great happiness on social media

Annesha Ghosh07-Mar-20220:24

Maroof – ‘My mother and daughter were here, so it was very special’

India vs Pakistan is always special, but this Sunday at the 2022 Women’s ODI World Cup was more so, thanks to a six-month-old member of Pakistan’s touring party.On the field, it was a dominant 107-run win for India, with Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana and Rajeshwari Gayakwad calling the shots. Off it, it was all about Fatima. Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof’s daughter became the centre of attention after the game when the Indian players – Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Harmanpreet Kaur among them – just couldn’t have enough of the toddler.In no time, visuals of the interaction were all over the internet.

So much fun with the players trying to get our little Fatima to look into the camera.

Happy that I got to share and immortalise these moments#CWC22 #BackOurGirls pic.twitter.com/ofkBOdGMn2

— Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi (@ahsannagi) March 6, 2022