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Aakash Chopra analyses some of the major talking points from the match between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad

Aakash Chopra12-Apr-2017Why did Harbhajan open the bowling?
Since Sunrisers Hyderabad had two left-hand batsmen at the top, Rohit Sharma gave the new ball to Harbhajan Singh with a slip and a short cover in place. The two fielders in the deep were long-off and deep midwicket, which suggested a stump-to-stump line. The first two balls of the third over provided Warner some width, and he dispatched both to the boundary. The extra bounce on the red-soil pitch at Wankhede allowed him to go aerial through the offside off the back foot. The next four balls finished within the stumps and ended up as dots.Why did Mumbai persist with McClenaghan?
In the past Mumbai Indians have been quick to make changes to their playing XI but. But under their new coach Mahela Jayawardene, they seem to be more patient. Fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan has had a very ordinary start to this season but, despite having options in Mitchell Johnson and Tim Southee, Mumbai stuck with him. Not that his lack of form was lost on Mumbai, for he wasn’t brought in the first six overs, and his spell was done by the 15th over. The strategy of playing him and then giving him the easier middle overs shows how much Mumbai value him.Why were Sunrisers slow at the start?
While Mumbai rarely offered width and bowled tight lines, a plausible reason for Sunrisers’ slow approach could be the lack of depth in the batting line-up. In Henriques’ absence, their middle order read Deepak Hooda, Yuvraj Singh, Ben Cutting, Naman Ojha, and Vijay Shankar. Such a line-up inspires little confidence. But such reasoning should not take the attention away from Dhawan’s T20 numbers. He only has a strike rate of 115 in the Powerplay and 121 overall in the IPL. The presence of an explosive batsman in Warner makes for an ideal foil, but Warner himself was slow off the blocks today.Where should Rohit bat?
There’s an ongoing debate on where Rohit should bat for Mumbai. Most people believe that since he is successful as an opener in limited-overs cricket for India, he should be right there at the top, in place of Jos Buttler, for his franchise as well.Parthiv Patel is quite similar to Dhawan, for his Powerplay strike rate is 112, and he needs a partner who attacks from the outset – and Buttler fits that role. While that thought process can be understood, it’s imperative for Rohit to bat no lower than No. 3. In Mumbai’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Nitish Rana came at one drop and got runs too, but was pushed down to No. 4 against Sunrisers. It was Rohit who batted at No. 3 here, and now it’s fair to assume that Rohit will continue to bat at this position.Whom should you bowl early against Rohit?

Twice in three games, Rohit has been dismissed by a legspinner. In Pune, it was Imran Tahir’s front-of-the-hand flipper that got him. Then Rashid Khan deceived him with a googly. Quality legspin, it appears, can trouble Rohit at the start of his innings.What was the impact of the dew?
Firstly Sunrisers did not have enough runs to feel comfortable and then the dew just made their bowlers’ life even more difficult. In the first innings a few wickets fell to slower deliveries as the ball was dry and was gripping the surface, but the slower ones in the second innings just skidded through. While the outfield was swept with rugs during the strategic time-outs, the pitch was left dew-slicked. Slowly but surely the dew made the pitch greasy, which in turn rendered changes of pace useless. In addition, even attempting a yorker became difficult given the ball was hard to grip. Mustafizur becomes half the bowler if you take away the slower deliveries and yorkers, and this was evident in his bowling analysis: 2.4-0-34-0.

Promoted to No. 3 ahead of Rohit Sharma in a chase of 179, Nitish Rana’s late charge blindsided Kolkata Knight Riders just when they had the match nearly in the bag

Vishal Dikshit in Mumbai 10-Apr-20171:47

Agarkar: Mumbai have found a gem in Rana

Gautam Gambhir and Nitish Rana have been team-mates in the Delhi state team for a few years now. In March, during the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Gambhir, a senior player in the Delhi team, had a spat with coach KP Bhaskar over the exclusion of a few youngsters, including Rana, from the team. Gambhir felt Bhaskar was “creating an atmosphere of uncertainty” among youngsters, who were left feeling insecure, and insisted he was trying to make a secure environment for them.”I could not have let this man (Bhaskar) play with careers of young players like Unmukt Chand and Nitish Rana,” Gambhir had said last month. Gambhir may not have thought then about the bundles of confidence his actions would have drilled into Rana.On Sunday, in the IPL 2017 match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, the two were on opposite sides. Sitting in the dug-out because of the hot and humid conditions, Knight Riders’ captain Gambhir watched Rana take the match away from his side. Mumbai had promoted Rana to No. 3 in a surprise move, and he more than surprised the opponents.With the Mumbai openers adding 65 in a chase of 179, the stage had seemed set for Rohit Sharma at No. 3. Instead, Rana, who had batted at No. 4 in Mumbai’s first match, emerged unexpectedly. Mumbai soon lost Jos Buttler and Rohit in the space of nine balls and, at 74 for 3 with the required rate over 10, and the onus was mostly on Kieron Pollard. Rana did his bit too. Offered some flight by Kuldeep Yadav in the 12th over, he slog-swept a four and executed a beautiful lofted drive over cover for a six.A collective effort of accurate bowling from Kuldeep, Chris Woakes and Sunil Narine brought the equation to 60 off 24 before Pollard fell for 17. Rana and Hardik Pandya were the only recognised batsmen left in the Mumbai line-up. Two points to Gryffindor Knight Riders, almost certainly.Nitish Rana has batted at No.3 only twice in six IPL games but has made fifties in both matches•BCCIRana, however, showed exemplary composure and brought out his lower-order experience. He dispatched two international bowlers – Woakes and Trent Boult – to different parts of the ground, using drives, pulls and flat-batted shots and, with help from Hardik, brought the equation down to 30 from 12.That innings alone would have made Gambhir proud of Rana, although the Knight Riders’ captain would also have wanted his side to win. Instead, Rana was gifted two full tosses by Ankit Rajpoot: one was scooped all the way and the other lofted over mid-off for 10 runs in two balls. Rana brought up a half-century off 28 balls and with 20 to get, the Mumbai crowd was not going anywhere. He handed a catch straight to point the next ball but Hardik stayed on to clobber a six and two more fours to stun Knight Riders.Mumbai coach Mahela Jayawardene later said Rana was moved up the order to get the left-right combination, and was part of a strategy they intend to try out against different oppositions.”We’ve just been very flexible with our line-up since we have that left-hand right-hand combination, we can play around with different oppositions,” Jayawardene said. “The way Nitish batted today…he’s a very talented player and showed a lot of character. Hopefully, he grows stronger in the tournament and we can see more of that from him.”Gambhir would have liked it had Rana struck a quick-fire fifty a month ago for Delhi – he was dropped after scores of 5, 5, and 0 – and if he had played more games. Had Knight Riders held on to their catches and won the game, he may have been singing praises of Rana’s valiant fifty in a losing cause. Instead, Rana caught Gambhir and his team by surprise after they had done most of the hard work for a win, creating some uncertainty over whether Knight Riders can shut out oppositions in close matches.

In the wake of Zimbabwe’s defeat to Sri Lanka, after being in control for the best part of five days, we look at other instances where underdogs have fumbled positions of strength

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jul-2017Inzamam denies Bangladesh first Test winBefore their series in Pakistan in 2003, Bangladesh had never taken a first-innings lead in a Test, leave alone winning one. In the final Test of the series, they put in their best performance yet, and by the end of it, Inzamam-ul-Haq and a number of Bangladesh players were in tears, as Pakistan won by one wicket. Defending 260 in the fourth innings, Bangladesh were well on course for victory, having reduced Pakistan to 205 for 8. When a comedy of errors involving Inzamam resulted in Umar Gul’s run-out, five runs were still needed and No. 11 Yasir Ali took strike. Five balls later, a teary-eyed Inzamam was embraced by all and sundry and showered with rose petals, while the Bangladeshis were lost in disbelief.De Silva, Ranatunga nail record chase to deny ZimbabweA record chase in Colombo, a series of questionable umpiring decisions, and Sri Lanka going through in the end. Nineteen years ago, a game with eerie similarities to this one was played at the Sinhalese Sports Club. Sri Lanka’s most experienced pair put on a record 189-run partnership to chase down 326. After legspinner Paul Strang delivered Zimbabwe an unlikely first-innings lead, Andy Flower’s unbeaten 105 left Sri Lanka a formidable target to chase in just five sessions. But some umpiring decisions went against Zimbabwe, leaving them bitter after the loss. Dave Houghton, Zimbabwe’s coach, made it clear he thought the umpires had robbed his team.Ricky Ponting’s nerveless 118 saw Australia through in a close chase•Getty ImagesPonting leaves Bangladesh with ‘a moral victory’Bangladesh had the upper hand for the better part of the Test, hammering 355 runs on the first day and gaining a 158-run first-innings lead. Shane Warne and Jason Gillespie bundled Bangladesh out for 148 in the second innings, but Australia still had to chase 307 on a deteriorating pitch. Mohammad Rafique ran through the middle order, but Ricky Ponting’s 367-minute century steered Australia home with three wickets to spare.Vettori breaks Bangladesh heartsLike the best Test matches, this one see-sawed for 14 out of 15 sessions, and New Zealand were left needing 36 runs with five wickets in hand going into the final session. Bangladesh took out Daniel Vettori, who had come in at No. 4 and compiled a patient 76. Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram saw out a tense final period, and Bangladesh lost yet another home Test from a position of strength, having set New Zealand 317 to win after earning the first-innings lead.

Could the green Eden Gardens surface make India choose between Ashwin and Jadeja even before they reach South Africa?

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Kolkata13-Nov-2017It’s usually an exaggeration when someone describes a green pitch as being indistinguishable from the outfield. But at Eden Gardens on Monday, when the groundstaff whisked away the white tarpaulin that had covered the Test-match pitch all afternoon, it was close to being the truth. Live green grass covered every inch of the strip, and you had to squint – at least if you were looking at it from the stands – to discern the subtle shift of shade where it bordered the rest of the square.Even though three days remain before the start of the first India-Sri Lanka Test, it’s hard to see it changing too much.While the extent of its greenness may have come as a bit of a surprise, the pitch was always expected to help the seamers. Ever since the square was re-laid in 2016, Eden Gardens has been a fast bowler’s ground. Last year, aided by seam movement and uneven bounce, the quicks took 26 of the 40 wickets that fell during the India-New Zealand Test here, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar picking up a five-for in murky conditions late on day two. Just under two months ago, Bhuvneshwar was at it again, swinging the new ball wickedly under lights to bowl India to an ODI win against Australia.And it isn’t just Bhuvneshwar who’s enjoyed himself at this ground. In six first-class matches here since the New Zealand Test, seamers have picked up 16 innings hauls of four or more wickets, while spinners have only managed four.It was perhaps with this in mind that Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain and current Cricket Association of Bengal president, expressed surprise at the news of India resting Hardik Pandya for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka.”I’m surprised,” he told reporters on Sunday. “I don’t know if he’s injured. He has played only three Tests… This is the age to play. I don’t know the exact reason. Hope he’s fit.”India won’t play with three spinners, definitely not at the Eden Gardens as the pitch here is different. They will play with two spinners and now since they don’t have Hardik Pandya they may have a different combination for the allrounder’s slot.”Against New Zealand last year, India played six specialist batsmen, and a second-innings 82 from that sixth specialist, Rohit Sharma, played a key role in India’s win. India have played five bowlers – or four and Pandya as the allrounder – in each of their last four Tests, but they have been pretty flexible otherwise over the last couple of years, winning Test matches home and away with 3-2, 2-3 and 2-2 combinations of seam and spin.They haven’t used three seamers at home since the rain-truncated Bengaluru Test of 2015, however, and Thursday could give them an opportunity to do so. Having Pandya could have allowed them to do this while still being able to bat deep and play two spinners. In his absence, they will either have to play three genuine quicks and two spinners, or – wait for it – three quicks and just the one spinner.Three quicks, one spinner. It seems outlandish for India to even consider such an idea when their two main spinners are ranked No. 2 and No. 4 in the world, but it’s a move they’ll probably have to contemplate anyway when they tour South Africa in a month-and-a-half’s time – with or without Pandya in their line-up.In his debut Test series in Sri Lanka, Pandya was hugely impressive with the bat, scoring 50, 108 and 20 in his three innings and going at over a run a ball, and useful with the ball, picking up four wickets at an average of 23.75 but only bowling 32 overs across three Tests.In India’s dream scenario with Pandya, he is a good enough batsman to bat at No. 6 while being a good enough bowler to be their third seamer. As of now, he may or may not be a No. 6; he definitely isn’t a genuine third seamer for conditions where third seamers are expected to bowl a lot of overs.And so, even with Pandya in their XI, India might need to pick three frontline quicks outside the subcontinent. And that, more often than not, will mean playing only one out of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.On Thursday, they might just have to make that choice at home, on a pitch that could be, by accident or design, a dress rehearsal for South Africa.

MS Dhoni’s decision to play out Jasprit Bumrah watchfully may have cost Chennai Super Kings as their innings lost steam after a rapid start

Dustin Silgardo29-Apr-2018Why did CSK slow down? Chennai Super Kings scored 91 off their first 10 overs, but then made only 78 off their next 10, an odd deceleration for a T20 match, especially since they did not lose too many wickets. So what happened?ESPNcricinfo LtdAfter Ambati Rayudu was dismissed, Jasprit Bumrah, who had bowled just one over in the first ten, came on to bowl the 13th. MS Dhoni, who had just come in, left one alone and then played three defensive strokes, all for no runs, letting Bumrah complete a one-run over. Those four balls seemed to take the steam out of Super Kings’ innings. Dhoni took his time, getting just four runs off his first ten balls. CSK scored 15 runs from overs 11 to 14 and could not make up for it in the death.It looked like Dhoni had decided to play out Bumrah, whom Rohit had held back for the middle overs and the death. This cost Super Kings, and when they tried to take on Mitchell McClenaghan, they lost wickets and ultimately fell short of a winning total.ESPNcricinfo LtdOne reason for Dhoni’s early struggle may have been that the pitch was a bit two-paced. Dhoni said after the game that it was difficult to score off the Mumbai Indians quicks as they were banging the ball in with pace and it was not coming on to the bat. The statistics seem to back Dhoni up. Over both innings, the fast bowlers conceded only 51 off 49 short and short-of-good-length balls, and even the usually fluent Evin Lewis struggled to time the ball.Rohit moves up and wins itRohit Sharma, who had come in at Nos. 4 or 5 in Mumbai’s four previous games, promoted himself to No. 3 against CSK. Rohit has always been a slow starter – his first-ten-ball strike rate this season was 95.74 before this game – but he can be a match-winner when set. Coming in at three allowed him to bide his time – he scored only six off his first seven balls – and by the time the crunch overs came along, he had his eye in and was able to win the match with four fours in the 19th over. Given his performance, he may even consider going back to the opening spot.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhy Thakur and not Bravo in the 19th?Captains these days rarely save their best death bowler for the final over of a tense game. They usually give him the 19th, so he can create pressure by leaving a big target off the final six balls. But with Mumbai needing 22 off two overs, Dhoni gave the ball to Shardul Thakur rather than Dwayne Bravo, one of the most experienced death bowlers in T20 cricket. The idea may have been to leave Bravo with eight or 10 to defend off the 20th, but the problem was that Thakur came into the game as this season’s most expensive bowler in overs 19 and 20 (among those who have sent down a minimum of 18 balls in this phase), with an economy rate of 14.50 across four overs. His record only grew worse, as he went for 17, leaving Mumbai only five to get from the last over.Perhaps Dhoni was wary that the batsmen could have become used to Bravo, having faced him for three overs on the trot from one end, but given that he had only gone for 21 off those three, it made sense to bowl him before it was too late. As it happened, he didn’t even bowl the final over, which went to Imran Tahir instead.Why isn’t Jadeja bowling?Ravindra Jadeja is the seventh-highest wicket-taker among spinners in the IPL, and has an economy rate of 7.82 in all T20 cricket. But this season, he has only bowled 10 overs in seven games, completed his quota just once, and not bowled at all in two games, including the one against Mumbai.What’s going on? Well, he had a poor 2017 season with the ball, going at 9.18 an over and taking just five wickets in 12 innings. Over the past two years, Jadeja has vastly improved as a Test bowler, but it may have come at the cost of his white-ball bowling. He has lost his place in India’s limited-overs sides, and Dhoni may be concerned about his lack of recent cricket in the T20 format.Super Kings have Imran Tahir and Harbhajan Singh, who both had much stronger IPLs last season than Jadeja, as spin options, so Dhoni has not needed to get too many overs out of Jadeja. He may also be looking for the right match-ups. Against Mumbai, Evin Lewis, who strikes at 157.17 against left-arm spin, batted through the middle overs, so Dhoni may have been looking to protect Jadeja from him.Jadeja hasn’t done too much with the bat either this season, scoring only 47 in six innings while being unbeaten three times on 0, 3 and 11 – which tells you how little time he has had at the crease – but even if he continues to hardly bat or bowl, he will probably remain in Super Kings’ XI given they only have one other experienced Indian batsman on the bench, M Vijay, who is an opener.

A five-Test series between England and India – so much can happen, or not

Andy Zaltzman26-Jul-2018The five-Test series is a curious beast. Eagerly anticipated by devotees of the Test game, fondly remembered for creating some of the greatest narratives and dramas that sport can produce, and, more often than not in recent times, overwhelmingly disappointing. Many five-match rubbers of late have left the fans wanting considerably less, defying the First Law of Showbiz (a regulation that is, admittedly, conclusively superseded by the Second Law of Showbiz – Cash in While You Can).Longer series have often seen one team exert an early stranglehold on readily collapsible opponents, resulting in somewhat predictable, monochrome cricket, often played out on predictable, monochrome surfaces that exacerbate home advantage. Struggling teams have had little time to recover, learn and respond, with modern scheduling intent on leaving glaringly insufficient space between Tests, and making up for it by adding vast, aching, unnecessary voids between limited-overs matches.The much-maligned two-Test series has produced multiple minor classics in its schedule of contractual-obligation fulfilments, but the two most recent five-Test contests between England and India, and the vast majority of Ashes series in the past 30 years, have fizzled towards flumpy denouements. (I know the 2014 series was technically still alive when the final Test began, but India might as well have played it by email.)Cricket could do with a timeless masterpiece. It is under constant assault from its deadliest predator and foe – cricket. Some administrators seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that their sport is rubbish, and that the roaring success and coffer-jangling profitability of (a) intricately plotted long-form TV series, and (b) mind-blowingly complex computer games, is but a commercial blip in humanity’s bobsled-run towards meaninglessness, and that what people really want is facile, forgettable, unengaging gobbets of pre-digested bilge.(Rumours currently circulating in the England area suggest that a new competition is in the pipeline in which the playing area will be replaced by a four-sided giant TV screen showing episodes of , with the winning team to be decided by a randomly selected child picking from one of three different milkshakes: strawberry for the home team, chocolate for the away team, and vanilla for a tie or rain-affected no-result. Scientists claim this could be the most accessible format of any sport yet devised by human beings.)What I hope for from the forthcoming series is for at least six of the following ten things to happen:

• The series to be played on a variety of different pitches, providing a wide range of challenges and opportunities for batsmen and bowlers.
  
• A genuine, series-long contest, ideally building towards a final-Test decider.
• A team recovering from a collapse. At least once.
• No fast bowlers slumping to the turf in an exhausted heap in the fourth or fifth Tests, screaming at the heavens: “Why?”
• No one using the phrase: “Just go out and play his natural game.”
• Bowlers given more respect when it comes to handing out Man-of-the-Match awards.
• When a commentator inevitably says, “Well, that’s all we have time for today, they’ve only managed 85 overs in the six and a half hours’ play, so the remaining five overs will be lost to the game”, another commentator leaping to his feet, ripping his tie off, and shouting: “Why? Why on earth should those overs be lost? And why does no one in cricket understand that the paying punter does not, in general, want to watch advanced-level dawdling?”
• At least one day of the series finishing on time, with all the scheduled overs bowled.
• Home advantage being a marginal gain rather than an insurmountable skewing of cricketing probability. We are close to cricket requiring neutral groundsmen. The surface has more influence on the game than potentially home-favouring umpires. More and more countries have shown they cannot be trusted with the temptation.
• People who are not already cricket fans noticing the cricket.

In terms of the result, I think Jimmy Anderson’s performance holds the biggest of the many keys to the series. In England’s last six home series (from the 2015 Ashes to the two-Test encounter with Pakistan in May), Anderson has taken 88 wickets in 18 Tests at an average of 16.5, with seven five-fors, while maintaining an economy rate of 2.5 per over. If he maintains a similar return, England should win; if India can blunt him to something approaching normality, and ensure the Anderson key does not fit the Indian top-order lock, they could well prevail. Depending, of course, on the unlocking effectiveness of their own principal keys.The hinted-at-but-still-incomplete resurgence of Stuart Broad could also be extremely key-ish. Since his eight-wicket splattering of Australia in the fourth Test in 2015, he has taken 52 wickets in 17 home Tests, averaging a decent 29.6, but with no five-fors and, in the most recent 14 matches, no four-wicket innings.Cheteshwar Pujara might prove to be another significant key, or at least the knobbly bit on the end of the key. He has been a bulwark at home, but has averaged a fraction under 26 in his nine Tests outside Asia since the 2014 England tour, when he began batting as if in a cocoon of immovable certainty, and ended shrouded in befuddlement. If he, and India’s openers, succeed, Virat Kohli has a far greater chance of golden-key-waggling success. India’s captain is more vulnerable against the new, swinging ball – something he has in common with almost every single batsman who has ever played the game. The platform-builders are generally as influential in Test cricket as the platform-bestriders.Other potential key-holders include: whichever of India’s spinners are entrusted with the bamboozlement England’s batting; England’s change bowlers; India’s seamers; England’s top and middle order. In other words, anyone involved. Especially Ajinkya Rahane (who averages 52.6 in 18 Tests outside Asia, the second-best of any Asian Test player who has played ten or more matches outside his home continent, behind the soft-handed, granite-stomached Rahul Dravid [54.5 in 68 Tests]). And Jonny Bairstow – still without a hundred after keeping wicket in a match for England (he has only passed three figures in the opening innings of Tests), but with all the appearance of someone who is on the verge of doing some incredible things in all formats.Such are the excitements and uncertainties in the anticipation of a five-Test series. I hope there are still doubts and unresolved issues as the Oval Test begins in September.Two niche stats to keep an eye on during the second Test, at Lord’s
1. Ishant Sharma, in his two Lord’s Tests, has taken a combined tally of 0 for 189 off 56 overs in the first innings, and 11 for 133 off 45 in the second. Only Ravi Shastri has bowled more balls, or conceded more runs, in the first innings of Lord’s Test matches, without taking a wicket (0 for 202 off 66, in three Tests).One more second-innings victim this year will put Ishant top of the Most Wickets Taken in Second Innings at Lord’s by Visiting Bowlers (he is currently tied with Shane Warne, whose 11 second-innings wickets were taken over four Tests); of the 28 bowlers who have taken ten or more second-innings wickets at Lord’s, Ishant has the second best strike rate (behind Dominic Cork) and fifth best average.2. India could field the exact same top five that played at Lord’s four years ago (M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Pujara, Kohli, Rahane), a match that was (a) an absolute classic; (b) somewhat bafflingly, the last Test Liam Plunkett played (he took four wickets, all of them top-six players, and scored a match-shifting unbeaten 55); (c) a bizarrely false dawn, as India proceeded to be abjectly thrashable in the final three Tests. If India pick those same five players, they will become the first visiting team to pick the same top five in consecutive Lord’s Tests.

England may have lost the third Test to India, but they won the hearts of stats fans everywhere

Andy Zaltzman24-Aug-2018India jolted the series back to life with a performance that showed the cricketing value of Learning Lessons From Your Mistakes. It was a superb victory that highlighted the tactical folly of England’s batsmen practising in the nets with an elephant as a set of stumps. As a result, when returning to conventionally sized stumps, they have been routinely playing at balls that might have clonked the ECB Nellie on the trunk, but were surely wide enough to leave.Momentum in cricket often seems to be won and lost in the space of a coin toss, so whether India’s all-round brilliance in Nottingham presages a full, series-snatching resurgence remains to be seen, especially as England’s full and heroic commitment to the art of inconsistency in home conditions has often enabled them to spring back from an apparently cataclysmic defeat.(I followed the Test from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where I have been performing a stand-up comedy show every day at 3pm. Audience members have occasionally been providing me with score updates from the cricket, and I am pretty sure that during last Sunday’s show, England lost four wickets during the time it took me to deliver the set-up to a joke, and another during the punchline.)Here is The Statistical Take-Away Set Menu from the third Test.STARTERS
Struggle of English Openers, served in a confused broth
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Succulent Kohli ImprovementsIt has not been a good time to be an England opener. Keaton Jennings has scored no fifties in his past eight Tests; Alastair Cook has one in his. It is fair to say that the Cook-Jennings partnership has yet to fully blossom into a union of HobbsicoSutcliffian splendour.Jennings is the first England opener to go eight Tests without a half-century since Mark Butcher, who failed to reach 50 in 12 consecutive Tests as opener (although this sequence was interrupted by a considerably more successful run batting at No. 3).The only other England openers with an eight-Test fifty-free sequence are John Edrich (nine matches, 1971-1975), Alec Stewart (nine matches, 1994-1995) and Mike Atherton (eight matches 1997-1998). Jennings is in esteemed company, although the others had all enjoyed notable and prolonged success before these fallow stretches.Cook has reached 50 only five times in his last 40 innings (since the third Test in India late in 2016). Of the 21 men to have opened the batting in 40 or more Test innings for England, only Mike Brearley has made fewer 50-plus scores in a 40-innings sequence (four fifties, 1976-1981). Atherton also had a period in which he reached the half-century mark only five times in 40 innings (1997-1999). As the Trent Bridge Test showed, opening batsmen can have a significant impact on a Test match without making a half-century, but the irregularity of Cook’s successes has become an increasing concern.(This is also the first time since 1981 that there have been four consecutive Tests in England in which none of the openers on either side has made 50.)Virat Kohli, meanwhile, has achieved the goal of having a better tour than he did in 2014. India’s skipper could have improved on his 2014 performance simply by appearing at the top of the aeroplane steps at Heathrow, singing a karaoke version of the 1980s pop hit “Walk The Dinosaur”, and flying back to India.In 2018, through a combination of otherwordly skill, granite resolve, and some frying-pan-fingered England catching, Kohli has not merely put the ghosts of 2014 to bed he has held a statistical pillow over their faces until the twitching has stopped.He has now scored 1006 runs in his last seven Tests against England, including four centuries and four more 50-plus innings, becoming the sixth player to make 1000 runs in seven matches against England. Mohammad Yousuf (2005-2010) was the most recent, preceded by Brian Lara (1994-1995), Viv Richards (1976-1980), Arthur Morris (1947-48), and Don Bradman, who did so in three separate non-overlapping sequences during his two-decade torturing of English bowling.Before these seven matches, Kohli had played ten Tests against England, in which he had reached 50 once in 19 innings (a century on the comatose Nagpur pitch in 2012-13).MAIN COURSE
Duo of Unnoticed Historical Moments
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Smashed Records of Squandered Starts
Ben Stokes was understandably careful in his second innings, not only due to the match situation but also because of the weight of statistical history bearing down on him. As he strode to the crease, he would have been burdened with the onerous pressure of knowing that he needed just ten runs to ensure that this became the first Test in which the top fives of both teams have reached double figures in all four innings.With due care and attention, amid scenes of wild celebration in cricket-statistics communes around the world, Stokes successfully nudged his way to history. (India, in the process of this epoch-defining statistical quirk, became only the third away team in England whose top five have made double figures in both innings.)Stokes, moving on from the legal squibblings and squabblings over his fistical contretonks last September in Bristol, then saw another nugget of history beckoning him. Painstakingly eschewing all risk, he accumulated his way to a half-century – the 3000th score of 50 or more in England’s Test history.Perhaps this looming milestone has been constricting England’s top order. As Oscar Wilde once wrote during his early days as a cricket hack for the Snoutshire Gazette in the 1870s, “To lose four consecutive top-order batsmen who have reached double figures before they make it to 20 may be regarded as a misfortune. To do so twice in one Test match looks like carelessness.”2014 Kohli to 2018 Kohli: “Thank me you fool, I make you look like a freaking god”•Getty ImagesIn the first innings, England’s Nos. 3 to 6 made 16, 10, 15 and 10. In the second, their Nos. 1 to 4 made 17, 13, 13 and 16.This constitutes a world record, an untouched peak on Mt Failing-to-Consolidate-an-Adequate-Start, new frontiers in the art of 20-avoidance. Never before, in the history of Test cricket, has a team lost eight top-six batsmen for scores in the 10-19 bracket. Only five times had any team had seven top-six players for double-figure scores under 20.England’s top order have proved persistently good at playing themselves in as a prelude to getting themselves out. In three consecutive innings, at Lord’s and in both innings in Nottingham, England’s top four all made it into double figures, but were out before reaching 30.In England’s first 1000 Test matches, they had had only ten such innings (out of a total of 454 innings in which the top four had all made double figures). The most recent of these was in 1996-97, against Zimbabwe in Harare. In England Test matches No.1001 and no.1002, they have added three more, in three innings.DESSERT
Deconstructed Captain’s Innings
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Sweetly snaffled slip catches
Joe Root has been criticised of late for his failure to convert fifties into hundreds. He has successfully addressed this issue in his last four innings by, instead, failing to convert his 10s into 20s.He thus became the fourth Test No. 3 to be out between 10 and 19 (inclusive) in four successive innings at first drop, after South Africa’s Dave Nourse (in the triangular tournament of 1912), and Pakistan’s Zaheer Abbas (in 1975 and 1976, a sequence interrupted by a score of 2 batting at No. 1; and part of a longer sequence of seven scores between 10 and 19 in nine innings at No. 3), and Ijaz Ahmed (1998-99).Before his current four-innings-in-a-row glitch, Root was a master at converting 10s into 20s – he had failed to reach 20 in just four of his previous 51 double-figure innings, dating back to August 2015. His lack of centuries has been widely commented upon. At least he has taken a step in the right direction by once again familiarising himself with the art of being out for a score beginning with 1.England’s slip-catching this series has been as impressive as a roadkill rabbit on a motorway. Rumours abound that Theresa May could use the current uncertainty over Brexit to sneak through a new law introducing a conscription system for the England slip cordon, whereby members of the public will be randomly selected to field in the slips for one Test at a time (based on the system used to select England batsmen in the late 1980s).India had their troubles earlier in the series, but at Trent Bridge, KL Rahul brought some silken-handed edge-snaffling skills to the party. Not only did he, with Shikhar Dhawan, became one half of only the third pair of Indian openers to add 50 in both innings of a Test in England (after Sunil Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth at Edgbaston in 1986; and Vijay Merchant and Mushtaq Ali at The Oval in 1936), he also showed England how preferable it is for your slips to catch their chances, rather than to fludge them to the ground like unwanted sausages in a vegan kitchen.Rahul’s seven catches put him second on the all-time list for most catches by a non-wicketkeeper, and, importantly, six of his seven victims were top-six batsmen (Root and Stokes in both innings, plus Jonny Bairstow and Alastair Cook). Rahul thus became, by my calculations, only the second non-wicketkeeper ever to pouch six top-six batsmen in the same Test match, after an Indian predecessor, Yajurvindra Singh, who caught six top-sixers on his Test debut, against England in Bangalore in January 1977.COFFEE
PETIT FOURS
NOT-SO-PETIT SIXES

The two batsmen showed the kind of fight that only Kohli and his fast bowlers had shown throughout the series

Nagraj Gollapudi at The Oval11-Sep-2018On his way to his first century of the tour, KL Rahul was cruising. KL Rahul must also be cursing.It had been a tour full of agony for him until Tuesday morning. In Southampton, Stuart Broad had beaten Rahul with two inswingers: one uprooted his stump, the second, a grubber, trapped him plumb. At Trent Bridge, his best showing before Tuesday, Rahul fell to the set up by Chris Woakes to be trapped by an inswinger, and was bowled in the second innings by Ben Stokes.At Lord’s, Rahul nicked at a delivery from James Anderson that was leaving him. In the second innings, Anderson brought the ball in and trapped Rahul.At Edgbaston, in the first innings of the series, Rahul had played-on against Sam Curran, trying to play at an angled, fuller ball, wide outside off stump. In the second, Stokes defeated him with a jaffa as the ball swerved in to begin with, luring Rahul to play and then opened him up while moving away after pitching, taking the outside edge.Rahul had been bowled five times, the most for an Indian batsman this series. Include the two lbws, that would make it two more than any other player across both teams to get out to those two modes of dismissals. Rahul’s average before this Test was 14.12.So, by the time Rahul arrived for the final Test, he had been rattled. He had tried everything: playing time, playing as late as possible, defending as many balls possible, but nothing worked. He was even lucky to be picked for the final Test, but his ace slip catching and belief of the team management allowed Rahul one more chance. He had to take it, otherwise the probability of him being dropped for even a home series were rising.Already on Saturday, Rahul had showed that he was going to hit himself out of a troubled summer. It was no doubt a risk-laden ploy, but if that was the only way he could wipe out the mental cobwebs, then why not. This confident mindset was allowing Rahul to think runs and not how to make runs as was the case in the preceding four Tests.On Monday evening, Rahul walked in with similar attitude. He was going to defend himself by attacking and it worked. Tuesday morning, he set the day rolling with a flicked boundary off Anderson. It brought him his first half-century of the series, also the first by an Indian opener. He would finish the first hour on an anxious note, having just survived a review after Moeen Ali had hit him on the shin as the batsman attempted to flick by going across. The impact was outside the line. Rahul was on 62.Off the first ball in Moeen’s following over, Rahul lined up nicely for an inside-out drive for a four. He would skip into the 80s and then into the 90s sweeping, reverse-sweeping. Then he would blast Stokes over the cover boundary to remind the bowler and the fans of why he owns the record for the fastest IPL fifty earlier this year, off 14 deliveries.A top-edged hook would get him another four and three short of his fifth Test century. Stokes would fire two more short-pitched deliveries. Rahul would not bother reacting. But as soon as Stokes bowled a short one on off stump, Rahul flat-batted the ball down the ground for his first century of the series.He would celebrate quietly, barely raising his head and the bat. Rahul realised what mental toughness, discipline, rigour meant in this innings. He might be cursing himself why he did not exercise all this in the past month.

****

Rishabh Pant scored 89 runs off 96 balls in the second session. Sixty of those 96 balls were dots. He had 13 fours and two sixes – the first of which took him into the 90s, the second brought up his maiden Test hundred, making him the first Indian wicketkeeper to score a Test century in England.Pant was under pressure. A 29-ball duck in Southampton, after unleashing a six as his first scoring shot in Tests, showed he was shackled. But on Tuesday Pant played with freedom. It did not matter that India had just five more wickets to lose 4-1. Ravindra Jadeja was the only batsman to follow him.But the pitch was as flat as it could get. Just like Rahul, Pant got bolder every ball. Stokes kept firing short stuff. Pant kept cutting and pulling him for fours. He did not care if Moeen or Adil Rashid pitched the ball on the rough or bowled the wrong’un. He lofted Rashid for a six just before and after tea.In the last over before the second new ball was available, Pant went for a wild hoick against Rashid, but he was beaten by the wrong’un. But Pant was not embarrassed. The ball also beat both wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow and Stokes at first slip, and fetched India four byes. Pant was smiling.Incredibly in the wicketless second session, the third time Indian batsmen achieved that feat in the series, Rahul faced 84 balls to score just 34 runs. But Rahul was playing the holding role in the second session. He looked in command now while defending too. Of course, the ball was not darting, swinging, even shooting along the pitch. Rahul was knocking the ball as if he was taking throwdowns in the nets. Both those batsmen built pressure in different ways at the two ends.This was exactly the style of cricket professed by Kohli and the coach Ravi Shastri, who both wanted their batsmen to play fearless cricket. Root did not take the new ball for 10 more overs. He did not want to blink, too. He wanted to test Pant’s ego. Despite the target being reachable in T20 terms, it was still India that needed to go for victory.The pressure built as the minutes ticked. The Indians fans screamed, “come on, Rishabh.” The English fans clapped and urged their team on, chanting “come on, England.” Throughout the day sighs like “ooh, ho, ho”, “aaaahh”, “ooh, ooh” ebbed and flowed from across the ground as Rahul and Pant battled with Root’s men. Emotions flowed on the field, too.Rashid had bowled a ball into the rough behind Rahul’s legs. Bairstow did not even move and Root, who went to retrieve the ball was anguished and waved his arms to express it. But Rashid finally started to get his length right for the first time in the match. That was also because he was being given to build a spell instead of the handful of overs previously.The ripper that eventually burst through Rahul’s defence was extraordinary. Delivering from the very edge of the popping crease, Rashid flighted the legbreak, on the edge of the foothole. Rahul turned to play it, opened himself up and the ball ripped past him to clip the top of off stump. He was bowled for the sixth time in the series, more than any batsman on both sides. Rashid deserved the wicket. Anderson had kept the batsmen quiet at the other end and now it was his turn to challenge the Indians and he did that.Pant was talking to himself now to keep his head. But the pressure was too much and he slogged Rashid into the hands of Moeen at long-off. The Oval erupted. At 20 years old, Pant had created a contest in a matter of a session.In the end, there was no grandstand finish. In the end, India did finish with the fate they had feared they would confront at the start of the day: 4-1.However, Rahul and Pant lit up the contest with bravado that only Kohli, and Pujara on a couple of occasions, and his fast bowlers had shown this series. Rahul and Pant showed what desire, motivation, guts, the ability of playing to the situation, absorbing, sustaining and creating pressure can do – enliven the theatre of Test cricket. They made Anderson wait almost until the last ball of the day to enter history books. They made things that looked improbable happen.

The two cousins, who play for Punjab in the domestic circuit, landed contracts worth INR 4.8 crores and INR 80 lakhs each with Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians respectively

Shashank Kishore18-Dec-2018The Bollywood hit plays on a loudspeaker in the background as the phone is tossed from one person to another. “Sorry, sir. This was unexpected, everyone has suddenly started a party here,” Prabhsimran Singh, the 18-year-old Punjab wicketkeeper, says as he strains his ears to get to the other end of the telephone call. His world hasn’t quite been the same since he returned from a training session after a long Tuesday afternoon siesta.A contract worth INR 4.8 crores from Kings XI Punjab was least on his mind as he was driving home along with older cousin Anmolpreet Singh, after the three-hour nets near their family home in Patiala. Not having played first-class or T20 cricket, he didn’t even know if his name had made it to the final shortlist of 351. Four hours into the auction, he was reaching out for the phone charger amid a large gathering of friends and family who were feeding them (sweets).It wasn’t just Prabhsimran’s IPL contract they were celebrating. Just an hour earlier, Anmolpreet had been picked up for INR 80 lakhs by Mumbai Indians. The joint family then decided to throw open their house to the neighbourhood.ALSO READ: Curran and Unadkat are IPL millionaires, Hetmyer to RCBIn June, Prabhsimran channeled his frustration of not being picked for India Under-19 by hitting 298 off just 301 balls in an Under-23 inter-district game against Amritsar. He shared a double-century stand in that game with Anmolpreet. In the following month, he was called for an NCA camp and eventually was named captain of the India Under-19 side that toured Bangladesh for the Asia Cup.Prabhsimran had little idea that he was being watched closely by IPL talent scouts on television when he smashed a 33-ball half-century against Sri Lanka in Mirpur. He peppered the big square boundaries on the leg side with ease. It was only when he was called for trials that he know it was that knock which impressed teams.”I was called by Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals but I had to turn them down because I was playing the Under-19 Vinoo Mankad Trophy for Punjab. “My realistic aim was to make the India Under-19 team, so I didn’t really think about the IPL. I don’t know how to react now, I’m not able to believe teams really bid so much for me. After a certain stage, I was like (man), I don’t even know how many zeroes are there!’ I was in fact more happy that Anmol had been picked, I’d started playing because of him.”In September, Prabhsimran was asked to bat at the Kings XI Punjab trials in Mohali and given two scenarios. The first entailed a chase of 100 in 10 overs, and another needing 75 off eight overs. He responded by making half-centuries off 19 and 29 balls respectively in the two instances. Mike Hesson, the head coach, gave him words of encouragement, which Prabhsimran thought was words spoken to any youngster to boost their confidence. “At that time, I thought I’ve done my best, if I’m picked, good, if I’m not picked I’ll work harder.”ALSO READ: IPL 2019 auction: The list of sold and unsold playersGrowing up in a joint family, the brothers who both turned out to be batsmen, needed someone to bowl at them. As it turned out, their fathers took turns to give them practice. When the noise would turn into a distraction for the family, the boys would quietly go out and play with the colony friends. Today, the same friends demanded both throw them a party because it was a reunion of sorts.It was only last week Prabhsimran returned from Sri Lanka after a stint with the India Emerging team that finished runners-up to the hosts. Anmolpreet, meanwhile, flew home to India last week after a stint with the India A team that played three 50-over matches in New Zealand.”His influence rubbed off on me,” Prabhsimran says. “I took to the game hearing the sound of him batting against the wall and playing. So in a way, both our journeys have come along side-by-side. When we’re at home, it’s mostly cricket talk. We also train together when we aren’t with our respective teams.”An attacking opening batsman, Anmolpreet shot into prominence during the Under-19 World Cup in 2016, where he was the Player of the Match in India’s semi-final win over Sri Lanka. He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Punjab last year and has already made three hundreds in 11 first-class matches. He finished his debut season with 753 runs at an average of 125.50″When my name came up, we stopped the car on the side of the road, and kept watching,” Anmolpreet said. “When there was an opening bid, I was relieved. It didn’t matter how much money I’d go for after that, because at this age, you want opportunities to play. At the start of the year, if someone told me I’d play for India A under Rahul Dravid and then be a part of a team having legends like Mahela Jayawardene and Sachin Tendulkar, I wouldn’t have believed it. It feels amazing.”

From being taken down by Mohammad Shahzad to winning the rematch and helping topple England, Mark Watt is on the rise

Peter Della Penna07-May-2019Of the many heroes in Scotland’s famous victory over England at the Grange, Calum MacLeod stole most of the headlines for his unbeaten 140 while Safyaan Sharif’s agape jaw while running away towards point after trapping Mark Wood for the match-ending wicket was the iconic image captured by many photographers on the day.But there was another hidden hero on the afternoon, someone who has flown under the radar somewhat while emerging as a key cog in Scotland’s bowling attack: left-arm spinner Mark Watt. On a day when boundaries were dragged in at least five metres to make room for Sky TV’s temporary camera scaffolding, and boundary-striking was rampant, Watt took 3 for 55 in a pivotal spell that helped turn the tide in the field.”I think a performance like that on that ground and on those boundaries, as nice as it was for me to walk away with the runs, it’s probably a lot harder to go for under six an over on that wicket,” MacLeod said of his team-mate’s effort. “So I think he gained a lot of confidence from that. He has taken things from that game and realised what other top spinners do and worked on his variations. He’s not got big change-ups but he tries subtle variations and I think he’s improved a lot on that in 50-over cricket where he can bowl a bit longer.ALSO READ: Preview – Hassan winds back clock to face Scotland“He is somebody who wants a challenge, will put his hand up and bowl tough overs. As a spinner, he’s got to be brave enough to do that. If you watch some of his best performances, he’ll tie people down but he’s not afraid to change his pace to get wickets. The wicket he got Moeen Ali out against England last year, that was quite a brave ball to toss it up to Moeen who was hitting it really well. It was almost six or out and Mark was good enough and smart enough to do it.”The role he played on that day at the Grange is not something Watt could have dreamed of after picking up the game as a 13-year-old.****”Jason Roy is one of the best white-ball players there is and I got him, Moeen Ali and Sam Billings out,” Watt tells ESPNcricinfo ahead of the start of Scotland’s international home season. “I think if you said that to me a few years ago when I was playing at Leith in a public park with people walking through the match on the footpath, I would have bitten your hand off to bowl at the No. 1 team, never mind getting three key players out.”Watt isn’t kidding. Forced to give up football as an aspiring left back in Edinburgh after suffering from Osgood-Schlatter’s disease, a developmental condition in adolescents affecting the knees, Watt followed his dad to cricket on Saturday mornings at Leith Franklin CC.”It has a public footpath walking through the middle at cover,” Watt says with a grin. “So you’d have to stop the game while people walk through the park. All my cousins still slag me off saying, ‘Who plays cricket in Scotland?’ Especially with all my schoolmates as well, but I don’t really mind it. They’re working in an office and I’m out in sunny countries.”It wasn’t long before Watt walked off the Leith footpath to greener pastures, first with Heriot’s CC in Scotland’s premier division. In his first season there as a 16-year-old, he helped them win the 2012 Scottish Cup Final over Watsonians with 1 for 30 in a 10-over spell, though it didn’t immediately dawn on him the significance of his precocious talent.

My first ball went for four and I thought, ‘Oh no, it’s happening again.’ But thankfully I got through itWatt on his rematch with Mohammad Shahzad

“I didn’t actually know who I was bowling to,” Watt said. “Dewald Nel, who had played for Scotland and [former captain] Craig Wright, who then gave me my first cap. I was bowling well and my team-mates were coming up to me saying, ‘You’re gonna be playing Under-19 cricket for Scotland.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ They were like, ‘That’s Under-19s coach Craig Wright you’re bowling at.’ I was like, ‘Oh right, that’s cool.’ But I never really thought much of it and just got on with it.”Not only was Watt oblivious to his own talent, but also the opportunities it could afford him. Before the end of the 2013 summer, Wright indeed approached Watt’s father to ask about his availability, aware that there could be a possible clash with some holiday plans Watt had made with his schoolmates.”My dad told me in the car on the way home, ‘You’ve been asked to play in an Under-19 World Cup Qualifier in the Netherlands to qualify to go to Dubai. Do you want to play or do you want to go on this holiday?’ I was like, ‘I wanna go on the holiday with all my mates!’ It was in Malaga. He was like, ‘Maybe put your thinking hat on and see what happens. I think you should go to the World Cup Qualifiers.'”I remember telling my mates, letting them down gently. ‘Lads, I can’t make it.’ But thankfully I think I made the right decision because that’s what kind of kicked me on. After winning that qualifying tournament and doing pretty well, that’s when I thought I can make something out of this.”As a 17-year-old Watt excelled at the regional qualifier to clinch a spot for Scotland U-19s in the UAE the following year, taking eight wickets in five matches at an average of 12.13, which included almost absurd figures of 10-8-2-2 against Guernsey U-19s and 4 for 20 in a key victory over Ireland U-19s. He claimed five more scalps at the Under-19 World Cup in the UAE facing stiff competition in the group stage against Pakistan and India.”Sarfaraz Khan just took me to all parts and I hadn’t seen anything like it,” Watt said. “Kuldeep Yadav got a hat-trick against us as well and I was like, ‘This is next level stuff.’ But I think for them to shine against us and to see how they’ve kicked on in their career, if Scotland were given more opportunities and games to play, I wonder would we be closer to them?”Still, that was nothing like the challenge he eventually faced when he received a baptism of fire as an 18-year-old at the T20 World Cup Qualifier in the summer of 2015 against a rampaging Mohammad Shahzad.****”I got dropped straight after that game for a while,” Watt says of the match in which a belligerent Shahzad belted him for four sixes in his first over, eventually ending with figures of 0 for 41 in two overs. “I thought that’s my opportunity done and I would have to wait quite a while to get another opportunity. I didn’t think I would be starting in the World Cup in India, never mind opening the bowling first game against the same team.”Having debuted earlier in the summer against Ireland, Watt had a promising start to the T20 World Cup Qualifier, taking 3 for 28 in the opening match against UAE. Two matches later came the carnage at the hands of Shahzad and he was dropped for the rest of the event. But then-head coach Grant Bradburn helped rebuild his confidence with a peer-pressure drill in a winter training session.

Even though I was getting the ball before him, he was coming up to me in the nets and helping me with what I could do betterWatt on former team-mate Con de Lange

“Grant had a lot of faith in me,” Watt said. “We had a drill training indoors and he said, ‘Everyone line up. You need to nominate one bowler who is gonna hit middle stump out of the ground and every time he misses, you have to run a five. And the bowler is not allowed to run if he misses. If he gets it, everyone is allowed to go home.'”He asked, ‘Who wants to bowl it?’ No one put their hand up. He kept staring at me and I kept avoiding eye contact but he kept staring at me so I said, ‘Okay, I’ll bowl it.’ All the boys were like, ‘Really?’ I went up and smashed it first time and he was like, ‘Right. Everyone go home. Well done Watty.’ I was like, ‘Jeez, he really believes in me.’ It was a weird moment on a weeknight indoor training in January before the T20 World Cup.”Regardless of how much faith Bradburn and captain Preston Mommsen had in him, Watt says he was “absolutely terrified” when he walked to the top of his mark to bowl the first ball, to Shahzad again, in Nagpur.”Being that it was on Sky, telling all my mates to go and watch it and then realising at the top of my mark what’s happened before, ‘Is this gonna happen again?’ And my first ball went for four. So I was like, ‘Oh no, it’s happening again.’ But thankfully I got through it. My figures weren’t too bad. They weren’t amazing, 1 for 30. But just that mental block of having Shahzad pump me out of the attack and being dropped to come back, I took a lot from that.”That one wicket also happened to be Shahzad, caught at long-on, which further helped Watt exorcise some of his mental demons. The redemption propelled his confidence to new heights and he claimed figures of 2 for 21 against Zimbabwe and 1 for 21 vs Hong Kong in the remaining matches during the group stage. Watt also gives a huge amount of credit to the late Con de Lange, Scotland’s senior spinner in the squad as someone who gave him invaluable support and guidance.Mark Watt celebrates the dismissal of Mohammad Shahzad with team-mates•AFP”After every game, we’d have a small group reviewing each other’s performances, me, Con and [Michael] Leasky,” Watt said. “He talked about the way he bowled and what he could do better. Just listening to him and the way he saw the game was an absolutely massive help for me.”When we came to India, I was playing ahead of him but he came up to me and was like, ‘You’re definitely the man for this and can do this.’ Even though I was getting the ball before him, he was coming up to me in the nets and helping me with what I could do better, a lot of it with field placings. He was very on the ball and switched on and helped me a lot with that. Con was a massive help to me.”Despite regularly being one of the youngest players in the Scotland squad since his debut, Watt’s outward confidence is something that has stood out and helped him mature quickly in the team environment. It’s one of the things that MacLeod, who Watt refers to as his ‘dad’ in the team, says has helped endear Watt to his team-mates and made him such a feisty competitor on the field.”The first time I played against him or even met him, he got me out sweeping and then the next morning at training he walked past me with a smile on his face and said to me, ‘Are you gonna work on your sweeping today?'” MacLeod said. “He puts you under pressure to keep working. I thought he’s got quite a lot of character, especially for a spinner who doesn’t spin the ball huge amounts.”Watt’s growing stature is getting him noticed outside of Scotland too. After the England win, he was signed for the rest of the summer for Lancashire in their white-ball teams. Though he wasn’t retained for 2019, Watt landed on his feet on the eve of the season with Derbyshire, collecting six wickets in their Royal London Cup campaign. And he no longer needs his dad to help nudge him into passing up fun times with his mates to keep an eye on a burgeoning professional career playing a key role in Scotland’s push for Full Member status.”After the England game, I had a trip planned down to watch England against India at Edgbaston with a few of the boys from Heriot’s, just have a few beers, watch that and relax for a few days because I had zero cricket,” Watt said. “As I was going to the bar, I got a call from a number I didn’t recognise. I said ‘Hello’ and he said, ‘It’s Glen Chapple from Lancashire. Would you be interested in coming to training tomorrow at 9am at Old Trafford?’ It was the first day of the Test match and I was like, ‘Ughhh’. I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be there.'”I came back to the boys and said, ‘Sorry guys, I’m gonna have to go back and get some cricket stuff. I’m going to Old Trafford tomorrow. Enjoy the beers.’ A couple weeks later I was playing at Edgbaston against Warwickshire. I was like, ‘I was sat up there watching a Test match a few weeks ago and now I’m on the pitch bowling at Ian Bell.’ It’s quite surreal.”