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Vasoo Paranjape was a one-man operation of scouting, captaincy and coaching, whose influence spans cricket generations

Sidharth Monga01-Oct-2020That one word is enough to drive up the wall any cricket person not from Mumbai. It is a Hindi/Marathi term for the city’s cussed approach to cricket, especially with a bat in hand. For decades in independent India, Mumbai managed to dominate Indian cricket, both in terms of domestic competition and national representation. As a result, every little thing about Mumbai was glorified, with every second headline on the cricket pages hailing the virtues of cricket.As other states began to enjoy greater access to resources and knowledge, they started to compete in domestic cricket and their players began to represent India. Now everyone from former cricketers to coaches to journalists bemoans the death of this mythical creature, the cricketer.The authors of are due congratulations that they use the word “” only once in a book about someone whose playing career was built on club cricket in Mumbai and 29 first-class games for Mumbai and Baroda. And that use is to say that Rohit Sharma is not your typical Mumbai cricketer.Nor was Vasoo Paranjape, the subject of the book, a typical Mumbai cricket person. He was so far ahead of his time, he was run out backing up on his Harris Shield debut despite warnings from his captain and senior players. He took it on the chin – the price you risk paying when you try to steal an advantage. He was not cussed but aggressive, and by all accounts an attractive cricketer. His outlook was not hyperlocal but global, his views not archaic but modern.Which is why cricketers not only from Mumbai, and not only of a certain vintage or a certain style, have come together to write essays in tribute to a coach, colleague, captain, mentor, father figure and consultant. From Sunil Gavaskar in central Mumbai to Rohit Sharma in the northern suburbs, Rahul Dravid in Karnataka, Yuvraj Singh in Punjab and Ed Smith in Kent, Paranjape touched and enriched a large variety of cricketing lives.In an era of professionalism and the IPL, where scouts and consequent opportunities make sure talent is identified and exposed to high-level coaching, this is an important book. It recognises the time when this one-man operation of scouting, captaincy, coaching and playing helped shape many a career. All the contributors speak highly of Paranjape’s contribution to their careers, of his great cricketing acumen, of his eye for talent, of his sense of humour (part of which gets lost in translation). In response, Paranjape himself writes a brief piece on his memories of each of the players the first time he saw them.Penguin IndiaIt is a format that works for this book – letting great cricketers talk about Paranjape and then Paranjape talking about them – but it can also leave you frustrated at times because cricketers can find it difficult to explain things they understand easily. They can articulate his generosity, but it is difficult to figure out what exactly made Paranjape the cricket figure he was. Why, for instance, in the words of Darshak Mehta, a former Kanga league player and now chairman of the LBW Fund in New South Wales, for 25 years, if there was a rain delay in a Kanga league game, you just sat there playing cards or gossiping or “talking Vasoo”.It is not easy for every cricketer to tell you why. Until you get to the essays from Sharma and Singh. That’s when you realise Paranjape worked subtly. He made technical adjustments without players even realising it. Sharma knows Paranjape is always watching him. Whenever he meets Jatin Paranjape, Vasoo’s son and now a national selector, Sharma asks him, “Anything?” He is looking for any little piece of advice Vasoo might have asked Jatin to relay.There is no substitute for these faceless scouts who nurture cricketers from a beginners level, offering not only cricketing education but also life skills when required, or an invisible helping hand when life is tough. They do it not for recognition or money, but out of love for the game.Paranjape was always there wherever the cricket was, in his floppy hat, smoking a cigarette, watching from the background, rarely imposing himself but fine-tuning the talent he had spotted. The authors of the book – Jatin Paranjape and cricket writer Anand Vasu – have done a similar job. They haven’t imposed themselves on this book but have nurtured and directed it through the voices of the individuals Paranjape most enriched.

Anything less than a win would have been almost unfair to their excellence this season

Sidharth Monga10-Nov-20203:38

What makes the Mumbai Indians franchise so special?

Unpopular opinion: the tightly packed points table and that photo-finish at the end of the league stage, which suggest this was the most closely contested IPL, it was all a lie. This was arguably the most one-sided IPL. No team came close to suggesting they could challenge the Mumbai Indians consistently. They were streets ahead of every other team on most meaningful metrics in the Twenty20 format. For example: they hit 137 sixes in the season, 34 more than the next team and more than twice the side with the fewest.It all started with scouting and player development years ago, but Mumbai remain way ahead of the others in terms of the players they retain, the work they do at the auction, and the transfers bartered in the off season. And yet, T20 is a fickle format. Last year, after losing to Mumbai three matches in a row, the Chennai Super Kings took them to the last ball in the final. That even these players talk of things like the jinx of the even years, tells you how even these elite practitioners bow down to vagaries of the format. Especially in a sport that is so obsessed with finals that it is willing to discount sustained excellence in the league stages, even at a tournament as long as the IPL.ALSO READ: Mumbai Indians the best T20 franchise in the world? Kieron Pollard thinks soAnd so, it was important that Mumbai dominated for one more night at IPL 2020. Anything less would have been almost unfair to their excellence. It wouldn’t be farfetched to say that Mumbai will beat any other side in this tournament seven times out of 10. However, when you have won three in a row against a particular opposition, especially given the fickleness of the format, you can be wary of having one off-night. But Mumbai were very much on at the final. And, as is often the case with them, it began well before the match. Rahul Chahar had been their preferred spinner for more than a year but they were happy to respect form and match-ups. Chahar’s last 10 overs had gone at more than 10 an over, and Jayant Yadav was better suited to bowl to the left-hand batsmen that pepper the Delhi Capitals’ line-up. And Jayant was ready even though this was only his second match of the tournament.As the match started, Trent Boult summed up everything that is right with Mumbai. Boult is not someone whose T20 numbers you look at and say, “Wow, we want him”. Mumbai, though, had a specific role in mind for him. The Capitals, who traded Boult to Mumbai, didn’t even know what they were giving up. Perhaps because they were never in the position to exploit what Mumbai were after. Boult can struggle when you ask him to be a complete T20 bowler, which is what the Capitals wanted from him. Mumbai, on the other hand, said: swing the ball in the powerplay, and the others will take over after that.Mumbai Indians are all smiles after Trent Boult’s early strike in the IPL 2020 final•BCCIBoult repaid the faith with excellent execution of that skill. And it is not just the swing. It is also the scrambled-seam ball that he and his New Zealand team-mate Tim Southee bowl, which almost nips the other way after pitching. With a mix of that, Boult picked up five Capitals wickets in the first overs of this tournament, including Marcus Stoinis first ball in the final. They were all different: swing, set-up and then nip away, then the short ball that nipped in and got big on Stoinis.Arguably Mumbai did make a mistake in the final when they didn’t go after Rishabh Pant as soon as he walked in. When it threatened to get away from them, though, they showed they had that extra layer: to be able to play effective defensive cricket. From 94 for 3 in 12 overs – with the set Pant and Shreyas Iyer’s partnership reading 72 at that stage – the Capitals could manage just 62 in the last eight overs. It was an experienced side showing it knew when to go for the wicket and when to defend, and doing it efficiently.However, it was perhaps the way the chase started that summed up Mumbai’s dominance. Quinton de Kock has been no less a force than Boult, who ended up with the joint-highest powerplay wickets in a single IPL. Most runs in the powerplay, highest strike rate for a regular opener in the powerplay, most sixes in the powerplay… de Kock has done it all and he has done it selflessly. He knew there was no Orange Cap waiting for him given the way he played, but Mumbai are a side that recognise that this – all-out attack – is how you open in T20s. The way he took down Kagiso Rabada, the highest wicket-taker of the tournament, one final time provided the icing on the cake that the season has been for Mumbai.Among the less than handful of batsmen who had a higher strike rate than de Kock in the powerplay this tournament was Suryakumar Yadav. And he underlined Mumbai’s approach. No sighters, no blocking just after a big wicket, he just walked out and smacked a four and a six to tell Stoinis that he might have got a wicket but he had no business bowling in the powerplay. Not to this Mumbai side, at least.There were many talented batsmen in this tournament, from Virat Kohli to Shubhman Gill to Shreyas Iyer, who didn’t, or weren’t able to, bat at the tempo that is needed in T20 cricket. Suryakumar and Ishan Kishan, though, showed one final time the joy of that free-flowing batting in the middle, a hallmark of Mumbai’s cricket.In part, they could do it because behind them were two of the most lethal hitters in cricket, and a dangerous floater. Pollard and the Pandya brothers and their special skills were not quite needed on the night of the final, though.And so Mumbai ended the tournament with just three defeats in regulation time, the joint-lowest in an IPL. They didn’t lose a single game outright when chasing. Yet, so good were they at defending that they forced their final opposition into making the lower-percentage call at the toss.The one-sided result might feel anti-climactic to some, but it was the fitting end that Mumbai’s brilliance deserved. Brilliance can sometimes get boring but in this format – especially when sustained across a tournament – it is something to be cherished.

A number of players’ futures are unclear and will likely attract interest from other counties

George Dobell22-May-2021Henry Brookes (Warwickshire) Generally considered the most talented bowling prospect produced by Warwickshire since Chris Woakes, Brookes can bowl fast, is decent with the bat and appears to enjoy performing under pressure. Warwickshire will, no doubt, want to keep him. But he is currently unable to win a place in the side and is likely to have admirers elsewhere. Ed Pollock, who currently has the second highest strike rate of any man to have played a minimum of 20 T20s, is also out of contract.Jack Brooks (Somerset) Brooks will be 37 in the first week of June and currently finds himself playing 2nd XI cricket. For a seam bowler, that feels like an uncomfortable place to be. But Brooks underwent operations on both Achilles tendons at the end of last season and, having had a late start to his professional career, feels there is plenty of petrol left in the tank.Michael Burgess (Warwickshire) With no other keeper on the senior staff, Warwickshire have put a lot of faith in Burgess. He is starting to repay it, too, with some good work behind the stumps and an eye-catching century against Worcestershire. But that was his only time he had reached 40 against county opposition in any format of the game since the end of 2019 leading the club to start to consider contingency options.Alastair Cook will likely decide his own future at Essex•Getty ImagesAlastair Cook (Essex) At this stage of his career, Cook is content to play to the end of the season and decide if he wants to continue. It would be a major surprise if he could be lured elsewhere. Much the same could be said about Ryan ten Doeschate, who will be 41 in June and likely to make his own mind up about his future. Both are out of contract, though, so in theory approaches can be made.Stevie Eskinazi (Middlesex) Eskinazi was Middlesex’s captain in 2020 and at the start of 2021. But he hasn’t made a first-class century against county opposition since 2017, and is playing second team cricket at present. He is understood to have been offered a new deal by Middlesex but is currently looking for a loan deal elsewhere. Nick Gubbins, Nathan Sowter, James Harris and Tim Murtagh are also out of contract at the club; all have been offered new deals.Steven Finn (Middlesex) Finances at Middlesex are likely to be strained in the coming months. As if the absence of full houses for the start of the T20 campaign is not serious enough, the club also needs to find the funds to make good pension contributions that were not paid previously due to an administrative error. As a result, there may not be the funds for as many new contracts. Middlesex are understood to have offered Finn and John Simpson new deals but both are likely to have options elsewhere.Richard Gleeson is expected to return in white-ball cricket for Lancashire•Getty ImagesRichard Gleeson (Lancashire) Just a year ago, Gleeson was on the fringes of the England limited-overs team. But, having subsequently suffered a stress fracture, he hasn’t played a first team game for Lancashire since August 2020 (and he has only played one for them since 2019). Now aged 33, he may require a good white-ball season to win another deal.Dan Lawrence (Essex) With the club currently missing a chief executive, issues such as contract renewals appear to have fallen a little behind schedule. As with Cook and ten Doeschate, it would be a surprise if Lawrence could be tempted elsewhere but he is out of contract. The allrounder Paul Walter is also out of contract at the club.Alex Milton (Worcestershire) Capable of playing as a keeper or specialist batter, Milton made an outstanding start to his career at Worcestershire with a century on Championship debut. But he struggled to sustain that level – he has been dismissed for a duck in four of his six most recent first-class innings – and finds his opportunities blocked by the presence of Ben Cox.Tom Moores (Nottinghamshire) An interesting one this: Moores recently won his Nottinghamshire cap and his dad, Peter, is the side’s head coach. So it would be a surprise if he left. He remains out of contract, though, and with his skills – not least his explosive white-ball batting – he is likely to have other offers. Luke Fletcher is also out of contract at Nottinghamshire.Liam Plunkett (Surrey) Now aged 36, Plunkett has struggled with injury in recent months. He could yet play a prominent role in Surrey’s limited-overs season but he is currently without a deal beyond October. Rikki Clarke, who will be 40 in September, is also out of contract at Surrey.Liam Plunkett has made only sporadic appearances for Surrey•Getty ImagesDarren Stevens (Kent) He may be 45, but Stevens is currently Kent’s highest run-scorer and wicket-taker in the 2021 Championship season. And, judging by his innings against Glamorgan, he’s still enjoying playing. Why wouldn’t he carry on?Ross Whiteley (Worcestershire) An explosive batter and bowler capable of providing medium-pace or spin, Whiteley was on the fringes of the England T20 team a couple of years ago. Although he hasn’t played first-class cricket for almost two years, his middle-order hitting may render him an attractive T20 signing. Riki Wessels, now aged 35, is also out of contract.Sam Wisniewski (Yorkshire) A left-arm wristspinner, Wisniewski is only on an academy contract at Yorkshire, but impressed sufficiently in a couple of T20s last summer that Jonty Rhodes signed him to represent Pune Devils in the T10 league. He’s previously been a semi-regular face at England net sessions where he has been used to familiarise batters with the challenges presented by fellow left-arm leggies such as Kuldeep Yadav.

With the country co-hosting the T20 World Cup, Pankaj Khimji believes the national team will be stronger contenders in their second appearance in the tournament

Interview by Shashank Kishore03-Oct-2021A decade ago Oman didn’t have a single grass cricket field. Today, there are two, next to each other, in Al Amerat, a short drive from the capital, Muscat. These two venues will put Oman on the cricket map when it hosts six matches in the first round of the 2021 T20 World Cup. With the national team participating and looking to qualify for the Super 12s, it’s widely seen as a landmark moment for cricket in the country, as Pankaj Khimji, chairman of Oman Cricket, says.Give us a sense of how big it is for Oman to be hosting a World Cup.
How often does an Associate nation get to host a World Cup?I’m told by Star Sports [the host broadcasters] that this might turn out to be the third-largest televised sporting event of all time, potentially reaching an audience of 3 to 3.5 billion people. Even if Oman gets a billion people watching the first six games, and showcases itself just to the Indian subcontinent, it’s massive. It has never happened before, so we’re over the moon. We have the full blessings and support of every authority in the country, right from the highest body to the local municipal council, saying let’s put Oman on the map.Related

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What is the mood among the cricket fraternity in Oman about the team’s participation?
Two things. One, Oman is going to be seen by a global audience. Few people remember we made history by beating Ireland at the T20 World Cup last time [in 2016 in India]. Now we’re probably one of the only Asian Associates to qualify for the second round of a T20 World Cup. It’s no fluke.Two, we’ve defined our purpose. We are here among the top 20 in the world in white-ball cricket. No one can tell us we made it to one World Cup and vanished. We’re hoping to qualify for the Super 12s. The team is focused on that. If we do that, we will automatically qualify for next year’s T20 World Cup in Australia too. So the motivation is high. Suddenly a whole new band of football-loving people are saying we’ve done an amazing thing by bringing a World Cup to Oman.How have you managed to prepare the team in these Covid times, where match time has been elusive?
We’re all amateur cricketers in Oman. We play weekend cricket. Our domestic season comprises weekend tournaments from September to April. All our boys have come back from hibernation five, six weeks ago. In this time, the trainers have got them back into shape, getting them to lose the kilos they’ve put on. That said, the team is in super shape.We played a very good T20 series against Mumbai, beating them 2-1. After the series, at a dinner, Amol Muzumdar [the Mumbai coach] told me, “You guys managed to ignite the kind of fire [within the Mumbai team] even I couldn’t.” The T20 series loss spurred Mumbai to beat us convincingly in the one-dayers, but then we couldn’t have got better practice than playing a quality side like Mumbai. When you train against a tougher opponent, you learn. Weaker opponents just help you to loosen up. A side with an average age of 22-23 against ours, whose average is 33-34. It was literally like a young team against a veteran’s team. The preparation has been excellent.The Mumbai team that toured Oman for three T20Is and three ODIs in September•Oman CricketTell us about your director of cricket, Duleep Mendis, and his influence over the team.
He’s been with us for ten years now. I don’t think he thought he’d hang around for this long. At Oman Cricket, we count our blessings to have him shaping our team. Since qualifying for the 2016 T20 World Cup, we’ve moved somewhere from being ranked 40th to about 14th or 15th in white-ball cricket. What more can we ask for? He has built it step by step.The World Cricket League (WCL) is a measure of our qualifying pathway to the 2023 ODI World Cup, and after a third of the matches, we’re on top of the standings. The only thing I tell my colleagues is, let’s not interfere with the cricket, let’s leave that to Duleep. We’re just administrators. So as long as you draw the line and let him get on with the cricket, it’ll be terrific. Cricket isn’t a judgmental sport like football, where you sack the manager if you lose five in a row. Losses are part and parcel of the progression. Fortunately, we’ve won more than we’ve lost [in the last five years].Is there a feeder system in place for talent?
We have a wonderful school system here, and currently four players have come through to the national team from the Under-13s to 16s, 19s, to the main side. The Indian and Pakistani school system is very strong here, and we’re trying to strengthen it further. We have a mix of home-grown players and expats. A lot more players who haven’t had the opportunity to flourish back in their country may now consider Oman as a place to pursue their interest.We rolled out our grassroots development programme in January 2020 [before Covid hit]. We adopted ten government schools, where our coaches teach boys and girls aged as young as eight-nine the basics of the game and then see if they can take it to the next level. We get them over to our main ground and allow them to train at the indoor centre, try to inculcate the fun factor. They don’t get to watch much cricket at times, so we try to ensure they play as much as possible. We have a strong residential block around our main venue in Al Amerat, and we’ve thrown it open to the residents to come over and have their evening walks, use our lawns to exercise. We’re doing what we can to see if in another ten to 15 years we can have 50% of Omanis constituting the national team.Oman’s players, most of whom have day jobs, have only recently returned to training ahead of their series against Mumbai and the World Cup•Oman CricketHow long before you think cricket goes fully professional in Oman?
We’d rather be realistic and keep it as a semi-professional structure. All our players have nine-to-five jobs. They still find it difficult to get leave for camps and big tournaments. Some players are on a semi-hybrid contract, where they’re employed by an organisation but paid for by Oman Cricket [when they’re absent from work]. We’d honestly much rather be rookies pulling the carpet out from under some of the higher-ranked teams rather than regularly beating the smaller teams. You can’t hope to go fully professional when you have a team largely comprising expats. That doesn’t sound right.A tournament of this magnitude calls for massive infrastructure upgrades. How have you gone about it?
Our ground [at Al Amerat] was like a glorified English countryside venue. We had a clubhouse on one side, which is one-third the size of the CCI [Cricket Club of India, in Mumbai] club house. The rest of it was full of neem and gulmohar trees, and benches of the kind you see in parks across London, where two or three people sit on each bench and enjoy a game of weekend cricket. But as World Cup hosts, we had to change that, so we first chalked out how many people we want to allow. With Covid protocols coming in, we said 3000 could be manageable. So from 200-300 we’d host on park benches, we’re now ready to host 3000.We’ve put up 30 air-conditioned corporate boxes and a media centre at a vantage location above the sightscreen. One commentary box isn’t enough because we now have commentary in multiple languages, so we had to develop a huge area for that. I can’t say we have the Lord’s media box, but we’ve got a nice little set-up. Then we were told 1000 lux [for floodlights] is a thing of the past. If you want to televise an event on 4K HD imagery, you need a minimum of 3500 lux. Then we were told you don’t use metal halide lamps anymore, we need LED lamps that you can switch on and off with a flick of a finger. So we got that done up.One by one, everything is now in place. It’s just six games, but it’s the World Cup. So these are exciting times.

Dolphins batter still confident of making the step up to international level after a stunning start to the season

Firdose Moonda01-Nov-2021It was third time lucky for Khaya Zondo, who “missed” two previous opportunities to score a first-class double-hundred but celebrated 203* for the Dolphins against Western Province in the season-opening round of red-ball cricket.Zondo’s previous best of 175 came eight summers ago against Griqualand-West. Since then, he notched 157 in the 2016-17 season and four other centuries, all under 150. So this double-ton was a long time coming.”I missed out on a few opportunities in the past but this time the chance was there and I was able to take it,” Zondo told ESPNcrininfo. “It’s one of my goals for the season achieved.”His runs could not beat the rain, which ultimately resulted in a draw for the Dolphins, though they were in the perfect position to close the match out on the final afternoon. Western Province trailed by 34 runs with just three wickets in hand after three days so the Dolphins only had the mopping up to do on the fourth but persistent, unseasonal showers in Cape Town meant only 4.4 overs were possible.Instead, the story was Zondo, who has been in the headlines because of testimony given at the Social Justice and Nation-Building Hearings (SJN), where several witnesses have said that not picking him for South Africa’s fifth ODI against India on the 2015 tour was a mistake. Zondo himself spoke about the mental health impact the incident had on him and now plays with a slightly different technique and a much-matured mindset.”I was 25 then and I am 31 now, so I’ve gained six years experience and in that time, you go through so many situations,” he said. “One thing I have looked at technically is keeping my head in a very solid position. And mentally, I just want to make the most of every opportunity. In each game, I want to make sure I grow. Every ball I face is an opportunity to learn. I also want to be present for every moment because you don’t want to miss a moment. Someone told me, you only have to concentrate for half-a-second at a time and all those small moments make up the day.”Zondo’s innings was made up of 54,600 half-seconds, as he spent 455 minutes at the crease crafting his double-hundred. The bulk of it was scored on the second day, which he went into on 29 not out. A further 174 runs came in 68.4 overs, most of them against the second new-ball. “They had eight overs with the old ball on the second morning. Jason (Smith) and I thought that if we could get through that then by the time the new ball comes, and if we’d added about 40 or 50 runs, we’d have equipped ourselves to deal with it and wouldn’t be in such a vulnerable position,” Zondo said. “When the new ball came, we found we could play freely. We also didn’t have to overhit it to get to the boundary.”He struck 26 fours and two sixes in his innings and no-one, not even Wayne Parnell, was spared. Zondo hasn’t come up against Parnell for almost as many years – eight – as his last attempt to reach a double ton and recognised him as the main weapon in Western Province’s attack. “I haven’t faced Wayne Parnell for quite a long time. He was definitely their toughest bowler and bowled especially well on the first evening,” Zondo said. Parnell, who has returned from a Kolpak deal, finished with figures of 1 for 100.Zondo celebrated his double-hundred by taking a knee, a gesture that has been much-talked about in South African cricket, especially over the last week. “I thought it was nice to take a stance against discrimination and because I am a sportsperson, it’s mostly a stance against discrimination in sports,” he said. “I wanted to show support for my fellow athletes and people around the world. I feel like it’s something that we in South Africa can work on and I felt it was the right thing to do.”With Zondo’s non-selection at national level the subject of scrutiny at the same time he’s back among the runs again, does he still harbour ambitions of a South Africa call-up? Of course he does. “I’d like to think the door is open to me and that if I am performing, they would select me,” he said. “At the time, being left out hit me hard but I am still here, still playing and trying to improve.”

In other results:

Division One:

• Duanne Olivier, Lutho Sipamla and Malusi Siboto took 17 wickets between them as the Lions opened their campaign with an innings and 72-run victory over North West. The Lions bowled North West out for 159, then took a 249-run lead, thanks largely to Ryan Rickleton’s 159 before dismissing North West for 177 to win inside three days.
• Marco Jansen starred in a thriller between the Titans and the Warriors at SuperSport Park, which the Warriors won by 1 wicket. In a see-saw match which started with the Titans shot out for 134, the Warriors took a 124-run first-innings lead before being set 236 to win. They were 180 for 7 at one point before half-centuries from Lesibe Ngoepe and Jansen, batting at No.7 and 8 respectively, put them on the brink of victory. The tail completed the job.
• Pite van Biljon’s 137 was met by Janneman Malan’s double and Ferisco Adams’ 127 in a high-scoring draw between the Knights and Boland. After the first day was washed out, Hardus Viljoen took 4 for 62 as the Knights were bowled out for 320. Boland took the lead and declared on 520 for 9 and had the Knights 143 for 2 when play was stopped.

Division Two

• Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland bowled Easterns out for under 225 in each of their innings to earn an innings and 109-run win. Luke Schlemmer’s 153 and Andile Mokgakane’s 98 allowed KZN-Inland to declare their first innings closed on 440 for 6. They bowled Easterns out for 107, asked them to follow-on and then dismissed them for 224 to ensure that even a full day lost to rain could not stop them closing out the game. Keith Dudgeon took 7 for 57 in the match.
• Border did their best to make a game out of it but did not have enough time to beat Limpopo, who needed 353 runs and had nine wickets in hand when stumps were drawn. Marco Marais’ 146 took Border to 392 in their first innings before Thomas Kaber took 6 for 75 as Limpopo were bowled out for 192. Border declared on 190 for 3 in their second innings, setting Limpopo 391 to win. Limpopo were 377 for 8, 14 runs adrift of the target, at stumps.
  

And what’s the highest score by a No. 11 in ODIs and T20Is?

Steven Lynch16-Nov-2021What’s the most runs scored by a country in the last four overs to win a T20I? Did New Zealand come close to the record against England? asked Derek Sanderson from England

New Zealand needed 57 with four overs to go in their semi-final against England in Dubai last week – and got them, with no fewer than six balls to spare. That wasn’t just close to the top, it was the most runs ever successfully chased down in the last four overs of a T20I, according to ESPNcricinfo’s database (which is missing some matches involving lesser teams).There had been two previous T20Is in which a team scored 56 inside the last four overs to win. Australia did it against Pakistan in the semi-final of the 2010 World T20 in St Lucia – mainly thanks to Michael Hussey, who thrashed 60 not out off 24 balls from No. 7 – and they were followed by Zimbabwe against Scotland in Edinburgh in September 2021. (Note that Australia actually scored 61 runs, and Scotland 58 – but the target from the last four overs was only 56, whereas New Zealand needed 57.)In all, the database throws up 148 T20Is in which the side batting second needed to score between 50 and 60 from the last four overs. On only 14 occasions has such a target been reached; the other semi-final of this T20 World Cup, between Australia and Pakistan in Dubai the day after New Zealand’s heist, was the last of those instances.KL Rahul took seven catches against England at Trent Bridge in 2018. Was this a record for a Test match? asked Sharif Ahmed from India

KL Rahul’s haul against England at Trent Bridge in 2018 made him the sixth outfielder to take seven catches in a single Test, following Greg Chappell (Australia) in 1974-75, Yajurvindra Singh (on debut for India in 1976-77), Hashan Tillakaratne (Sri Lanka) in 1992-93, Stephen Fleming (New Zealand) in 1997-98, and Matthew Hayden (Australia) in 2003-04.But the overall record is held by Rahul’s India team-mate Ajinkya Rahane, who held on to eight catches in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2015.Akshay Karnewar of Vidarbha did not concede a single run in his four overs in a recent domestic T20 match in India. Has anyone else ever done this? asked Baskar Raghavan from India
The Vidarbha spinner Akshay Karnewar became the first man ever to bowl four overs in a senior T20 match without conceding a run against Manipur in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match in Mangalagiri on November 8, finishing with 4-4-0-2. But he was joined just yesterday by Canada’s slow left-armer Saeed Bin Zafar, who sent down four maidens in a World Cup qualifier against Panama in Coolidge in Antigua.The record was previously held by the lofty Pakistan left-arm seamer Mohammad Irfan, with 4-3-1-2 for Barbados Tridents against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the Caribbean Premier League in Bridgetown in August 2018.Before Zafar’s runless spell yesterday, the record for T20Is was three runs (and two wickets) by Mohammed Aslam, for Kuwait against Saudi Arabia in Al Amerat in February 2020; Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath took 5 for 3 in 3.3 overs against New Zealand in the World T20 in Chittagong (now Chattogram) in March 2014. For the list of the most economical spells in T20 matches, click here.Two women have bowled four overs for no runs in T20Is: Blessing Etim also took four wickets for Nigeria against Cameroon in Gaborone in September 2021, while Perice Kamunya had figures of 4-4-0-0 for Tanzania against Mali in Kigali in June 2019.Mohammad Amir’s 28-ball 58 from No. 11 made only a small dent in Pakistan’s chase of 445 against England in 2016•Getty ImagesWhat’s the highest score by a No. 11 in ODIs and T20Is? asked Christopher Thompson from England

The only half-century by a No. 11 in one-day internationals is Mohammad Amir’s 58 for Pakistan at Trent Bridge in 2016. It only narrowed the margin of defeat to 169 runs, as England had earlier amassed 444 for 3, the record ODI total at the time. Next comes Shoaib Akhtar’s 43, also for Pakistan vs England, in Cape Town during the 2003 World Cup.The highest by a No. 11 in T20Is is 31 not out, by Khalid Ahmadi of Belgium against Malta in Marsa in July 2021. His innings helped Belgium recover from 74 for 9 to 128, which looked enough when Malta were bowled out for 125 – but they then received five penalty runs following a disciplinary breach by Belgium’s captain, which meant they won the match. There have been three other scores of 20 by No. 11s in T20Is.I was amazed by the scorecard in the match mentioned in one of last week’s questions, in which the Maldives women’s team was bowled out for 8, with only one run off the bat and nine ducks. Is that the lowest total in internationals? asked Kelvin Marshall from Australia

There have been two lower totals than that Maldives innings, which was against Nepal in Pokhara in the South Asian Games in December 2019. Two days previously, in the same competition in Pokhara, Maldives had managed only 6 – three of their batters got off the mark, though – against Bangladesh, after that team ran up 255 for 2. That equalled Mali’s total of 6, against Rwanda in Kigali in June 2019.The lowest in men’s T20Is is Turkey’s 21 in Ilfov County in Romania in August 2019. That came against the Czech Republic, who had earlier equalled the record T20I total of 278.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The allrounder came through scrutiny on his batting during the Ashes in a series where his bowling came to the fore

Alex Malcolm02-Mar-20220:34

Cummins: Green gives us options and confidence

Cameron Green has been a Test cricketer for 15 months and yet Australia’s historic trip to Pakistan is the first time he has needed his passport.The last time Australia’s Test team toured overseas in 2019, Green was in India with a Cricket Australia National Performance Squad for a white-ball training camp in Chennai and not even close to Test calculations.He has never played a first-class match overseas. But after a breakout home Ashes series, where his all-round skills gave Australia’s batting vital runs in Sydney and Hobart and their bowling unit unprecedented depth, the 22-year-old suddenly looms as a pivotal cog in Australia’s plans to conquer subcontient conditions.”I’m just going with a pretty open mind,” Green told ESPNcricinfo. “I’ve been on a couple of NPS tours to India. I had a little insight then, which I’m really thankful for. But obviously [Australia haven’t] been to Pakistan in 24 years.”Despite the extraordinary expectation due to his raw skills, the reality is that Green is learning international cricket on the run.Related

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They say it takes a village to raise a child but in terms of raising a Test cricketer, sometimes a village of voices can be overwhelming.Green has already found that out in his short career. He is of a generation that is attached to their phones, but he has already developed a policy that will hold him in great stead in an international career that appears to have no limits.”During a Test match, I know my friends and family aren’t too happy, but I don’t speak to many people,” Green said. “I think when you do well, people say you’re going a lot better than you actually are. And then when you’re not going as well, people think you’re a lot worse than you actually are.”So I just try and keep yourself a little bit more neutral during the game by getting off your phone. Apologies to my friends and family. But that’s what I try and do.”Cameron Green found form after some mid-series technical tweaks in the Ashes•CA/Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesBut there are some key voices he trusts. Beau Casson and Matt Mason, Western Australia’s batting and bowling coaches, were two he turned to in his precious time in Perth before departing for Pakistan.Despite there being 31 days between the Hobart Ashes Test and Australia’s arrival in Islamabad, Green was only allowed 12 of those to move freely at home due to WA’s border restrictions and Covid quarantine rules. He used the time wisely to look at how he could improve as he embarks on the next phase of his Test career.”It was really good to catch up with Beau firstly, to discuss a few things technically, batting-wise,” he said. “And then it’s nice always to catch up with Mase and go through a few little things I need to consider fixing or to keep having a look at when I’m in Pakistan.”Green’s batting drew a lot of attention during the Ashes series, particularly after he was bowled twice in just eight balls faced across his first two innings in Brisbane and Adelaide. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting broke down his alignment in detail on Channel Seven during the Adelaide Test, explaining that Green was too open with his shoulders, hips, and feet in his set-up and that it was exaggerated further after his back foot trigger movement.

In Shield cricket, they probably give you a bit more to drive, and then Test cricket they don’t miss much full. So that’s probably the biggest challenge I’ve found so far. Trying to be able to find a different way to score other than basically just sitting on the front footCameron Green

Casson, Justin Langer, and Andrew McDonald had already been aware of the issue out of the India series 12 months earlier. But even Casson was impressed by Green’s ability to fix it on the run and deliver back-to-back scores of 74 in Sydney and Hobart.”Ricky was absolutely spot on with his assessment,” Casson told ESPNcricinfo. “The whole picture of batting, it’s not just the physical component. The excitement of playing in an Ashes series, wanting to do well, can actually sometimes influence what your body’s doing.”But he was very deliberate in what he did. And he actually did it in warm-ups for a Test match which is pretty unique. You don’t have the ability to be able to go, I just want two weeks away to get this right. He was able to put it into place. I think that showed he had it stored away and probably just went a little bit away from what we used to do.”They’re the geniuses, aren’t they? The ability to be able to take in information but work out how it actually applies to me.”Beyond the technical, though, Green is aware that the biggest step up to Test level is finding ways to score against different bowlers in different conditions.”In Shield cricket, they probably give you a bit more to drive, and then Test cricket they don’t miss much full,” Green said. “So that’s probably the biggest challenge I’ve found so far. Trying to be able to find a different way to score other than basically just sitting on the front foot.”I think the change is actually not telling myself to get forward. In Shield cricket, I’ve got a pretty front-foot dominant game.”I kind of really try and get forward and look for the drive. And then everything else I kind of shut down. I try not to get on the hook. I think it’s a pretty low percentage shot in general, but I think in Test cricket, you need to play it. That’s kind of what I’ve found recently.”Cameron Green gives Australia options to balance their side•CA/Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesCasson also noted that Green could use his height to his advantage off the back foot, as he did at times in the Sydney and Hobart innings. Players who develop their games at the WACA tend not to stand up and punch with a vertical bat through the off side, with the extra bounce bringing nicks into play. But it is a shot he will need on the slower pitches overseas. Casson has encouraged him to use his height and reach off both feet on slower wickets, as Kevin Pietersen did with great effect during his career in Asia.”I don’t think it’s rocket science, but I think looking to strike the cricket ball a little bit more because those stumps are in play,” Casson said. “But just not committing one way or the other in terms of looking to lock yourself off.”Green admits it’s a work in progress, not dissimilar to what his bowling was a year ago when he was still working through action changes to avoid the repetitive stress injuries he was having in his lower back.But he has emerged on the other side of that after a sensational Ashes series where he took 13 wickets at 15.76 and looked a different beast to the bowler who went wicketless in his debut series against India. Mason, who has worked extremely closely with McDonald on Green’s development as a bowler, believes it was all part of the plan.”We had such a big focus for those two seasons around the technical that I think his frustration boiled over at times,” Mason told ESPNcricinfo. “The first bit was to make him safe so he can play cricket and the next bit was to learn the game of cricket. I thought as the Ashes series progressed his confidence grew and his ability to ball better lengths and more wicket-taking balls was evident.”Now the conversation has turned to whether Green could play as a third seamer instead of a fourth, to allow Australia to pick two spinners in Pakistan and the other upcoming subcontinent assignments over the next 12 months.”Potentially,” Green said. “Again, it’ll be a really big learning curve. In saying that, if I’m the third quick and there’s two spinners in front of me as well, I’m still going to be the fifth bowler.”Mason feels that people still needed to temper their expectations on Green’s bowling.”I think the sky is the limit, but it’s a process we’ve got to be patient with,” he said. “Cam is a once in a generation cricketer, I think. We’ve got to curb our expectations. He can bowl well in excess of 145kph, and eventually, I think that’s what we’ll see from him more regularly.”But he’s also not as robust or as resilient as he needs to be just yet for that sort of role. I think what Australia have done brilliantly through Andrew McDonald, Justin Langer and now Pat Cummins as captain is they’ve kept that patience level in terms of watching his overs. And it’s that management of him that’s allowed him to back up in Test matches.”As he gets older and more mature and more robust, those restrictions will start to come off and then after that, you know he’s free to go and he could be absolutely anything.”It’s easy to forget Green is still a 22-year-old on his first Test tour overseas. He even used the plane trip to Islamabad to do some economics study for his online degree. His next assignment could be his toughest yet.

Also, who can forget Manish Pandey’s assault against Kings XI Punjab in the 2014 final?

Sampath Bandarupalli26-May-2022Cometh the knockouts, every team looks for an unlikely hero in realising their title dream. There have been instances where the local talents step up and even outplay the proven performers on their day. Nearly every IPL season has seen at least one uncapped player produce a match-winning performance in the playoffs. We look at five of the most notable such contributions in the IPL playoffs.Manvinder Bisla takes a break on his way to 89 against CSK in 2012•Associated PressManvinder Bisla – 89 (48) vs Chennai Super Kings, 2012
Kolkata Knight Riders faced a selection dilemma ahead of the 2012 final against the Chennai Super Kings. With L Balaji injured after the qualifier, Knight Riders decided to bring in Brett Lee while Manvinder Bisla replaced Brendon McCullum. Bisla played six matches in the first half of the league stage but featured only once after that.He opened the batting with Gautam Gambhir in pursuit of a 191-run target for their maiden title. Gambhir was the second-highest run-getter of the tournament but was dismissed in the first over, making it a difficult chase for Knight Riders. Bisla stepped into the aggressor role, scoring 40 off 21 in the powerplay. He continued to take risks post the powerplay and brought up a fifty off 27 balls.Bisla and Jacques Kallis added 136 runs for the second wicket in just 13.4 overs, of which Bisla alone scored 88. He got out to a slower delivery off Albie Morkel in the 15th over after scoring a 48-ball 89 with eight fours and five sixes. Knight Riders still needed 52 off 32 balls, which they reached with two balls to spare, denying a hat-trick of titles for Super Kings.Manish Pandey shows off his dance moves after clinching the title for KKR in 2014•PTI Manish Pandey – 94 (50) vs Kings XI Punjab, 2014
Knight Riders needed 200 runs to win the 2014 final against Kings XI Punjab in Bengaluru and claim their second title in three years. But they were jolted by an early blow with Robin Uthappa getting out in the first over. He had scored 40-plus runs in each of his previous ten innings, helping Knight Riders to reach the final despite an ordinary first half.The onus was on the local boy Manish Pandey to drive the chase. He had a middling season before the final, scoring only one fifty in 15 innings. Pandey started his innings with a boundary on the first ball and went on to bring up his fifty off 31 balls. His 71-run partnership off 7.2 overs with Yusuf Pathan cut the required rate below 11.Pandey targeted Karanveer Singh and Parvinder Awana, against whom he collectively scored 70 off just 29 balls. He eventually fell to Karanveer in the 17th over after scoring a 50-ball 94. Pandey’s dismissal left the Knight Riders needing 21 runs from three overs, with four wickets in hand. They got to the target when Piyush Chawal hit the winning runs with three balls to spare.Bipul Sharma played a key role with both bat and ball during the 2016 playoffs for Sunrisers•BCCIBipul Sharma – Sunrisers Hyderabad, 2016
In a pace-dominant line-up of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Bipul Sharma not only filled the void of a spinner, but also provided valuable contributions with the bat down the order. He made his mark in all the three playoff games in that season as Sunrisers marched towards the title. In the Eliminator against Knight Riders, he hit two sixes off Morne Morkel in the 20th over, pushing Sunrisers to a match-winning total of 162.Bipul’s all-round performance in the qualifier against Gujarat Lions was critical in Sunrisers’ win, where he picked the wicket of Brendon McCullum in the 12th over. He later walked to bat at No.8 when Sunrisers needed 46 from 25 balls. David Warner was struggling to find support while he alone scored 74 in the team’s total of 117. Bipul’s arrival eased the pressure as he struck three sixes in the 11 balls faced, scoring an unbeaten 27 and taking them over the line with four balls to spare.In a high-scoring final in Bengaluru, the home side Royal Challengers stood a great chance to win the title, needing 68 off seven overs with eight wickets in hand. Bipul deceived AB de Villiers on the fifth ball of the 14th over, which turned out to be a decisive wicket for Royal Challengers, who fell nine runs short of the target.Krunal Pandya provided the late lift for Mumbai Indians in the 2017 final•BCCIKrunal Pandya – 47 (38) and 0/31 vs Rising Pune Super Giant, 2017
Mumbai Indians topped the points table in the 2017 season but lost both their league phase games against the Rising Pune Super Giants, against whom they also lost in the first qualifier. Super Giants looked all set to make it 4-0 against Mumbai, having reduced them to 79 for 7 by the 15th over.But Krunal Pandya added 50 for the eighth wicket with Mitchell Johnson off 35 balls. The last three overs alone yielded 37 runs as Mumbai finished with 129 for 8. Krunal was dismissed on the last ball of the innings, scoring a 38-ball 47, with three fours and two sixes.Krunal, who later opened the bowling, gave only 17 runs in his first three overs while being denied a caught-behind dismissal of Steve Smith. His fourth over cost 14 runs, but Mumbai won the title by one run, despite a fighting fifty from Smith.Rajat Patidar – 112* (54) vs Lucknow Super Giants, 2022
Rajat Patidar was not part of any team in IPL 2022 until a week into the tournament. But he returned to his franchise for the 2021 season, Royal Challengers Bangalore, as a replacement for Luvnith Sisodia. Two months down the lane, he is the reason behind his team’s existence in the title race. Against a quality bowling attack of Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator, Patidar struck an unbeaten hundred, scoring 112 off just 54 balls with 19 boundaries.Without his effort, Royal Challengers would have been nowhere near to the 207, after the trio of Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, and Glenn Maxwell contributed only 34 off 35 balls. Patidar got to his fifty in 28 balls and took only 21 balls for the second fifty.Patidar was particularly critical of the spinners, smashing Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi for 58 off 22 balls, with six fours and four sixes. He and Dinesh Karthik added 84 runs in the final five overs. Super Giants fell 15 runs short of the target, scoring only 50 runs in the same five-over period.Honorable mentions
Washington Sundar – 3 for 16 (4) vs Mumbai Indians, 2017Rahul Chahar – 1 for 14 (4) and 2 for 14 (4) vs Chennai Super Kings, 2019Pragyan Ojha – 3 for 28 (4) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 2009Suryakumar Yadav – 71* (54) vs Chennai Super Kings, 2019Saurabh Tiwary – 52* (31) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 2010

The superstar from the T20 league circuit is all but certain to play the three T20Is against India next week

Andrew McGlashan17-Sep-2022There has been a lot of talk about what Tim David be able to do in an Australia shirt. Next week we will get the first chance to see what he do.It was always likely these three games in India would provide David the chance to make a debut for his second international team – he has played 14 T20Is for Singapore – but the injuries to Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis have made it all but certain.Related

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By the time the World Cup comes around in a month’s time, David could have eight matches for Australia under his belt with series against West Indies and England to follow.But David’s is a strange entry into Australian colours because he’s been up in lights on the big stage for some time already, yet apart from his two-month stint in the BBL, he is outside of the Australian cricket system. The way the sport’s landscape is rapidly changing, he is unlikely to be the last to take this path. Some of his new team-mates are still to be introduced.”I look forward to meeting him,” said Mitchell Starc, who will now have to wait until next month having sat out the India trip. “He’s obviously plied his trade around the world in different leagues. He’s got his opportunity now in the World Cup squad.”Think we’ll see more and more players [emerge] in that fashion. Certainly the next generation I’m sure we’ll see it more and more with more opportunities in different leagues, that’s just the way cricket seems to be heading at the minute.”I’m much the same as [the public], I’ve seen him on TV. Obviously that power and what he brings to the table to any team he plays for and now he has a chance to do that on the international stage.”David’s body of work produced during his globe-trotting cannot be doubted. Of teams he has played more than two games for since December 2020 (when his T20 league career started to take off with Hobart Hurricanes) his lowest strike-rate is 143.92 with St Lucia Kings in the CPL. His strike-rate of 216.27 for Mumbai Indians in the last IPL made a mockery of him being left out during that competition.That latter figure also suggests he should not have too many concerns adapting to the conditions over the next week in India. The quality of the bowling may be a different challenge given that there is rarely a weaker link that is sometimes the case in franchise cricket, but he has a good grounding.”One of the rare things he has which there isn’t a whole lot of in Australia is just raw power,” Glenn Maxwell said. “He’s able to muscle the ball, much in the same way Stoinis and Mitch Marsh do it. He’s probably developed his game a little bit over the last two years where he’s got a bit more off-side [shots] so he’s not a one-dimensional hitter, he’s able to clear the boundary in different areas. He does it against spin and quicks which is something that’s really impressive and something that impressed me during the IPL as well watching him go about his business.”However, in terms of David’s position in the team, it’s what comes after India that is most interesting. Assuming that Marsh and Stoinis are both fit come the World Cup there remains a decision to be made as to how he fits into the final XI.4:48

Hodge: Australia shouldn’t look back from this point when it comes to Tim David

Despite being able to shed his tag of “Mr Fix It”, Steven Smith would appear the most vulnerable (setting aside, for a moment, the ramifications of Aaron Finch’s poor form extending through the next few weeks).”I feel like when I’m playing good T20 cricket, I’m in that team for sure,” Smith said during the recent one-day series against Zimbabwe. “The role that I’ve been given the last couple of years is the ‘Mr Fix It’ role and that tag’s been taken away from me now. I can just take the game on and if I want to smack someone for six first ball, then I’m able to do that freely.”Whether that is really his game, though, is the question. While not a completely fair comparison given their roles, in 200 T20 innings Smith has hit 130 sixes and in 119 innings David has already struck 165.There remains a feeling that Australia like having Smith in their line-up. So if they keep him and swap David for a more like-for-like player, the only option would be Stoinis, who helped win the World Cup semi-final against Pakistan last year and has since struck at 162.50 in T20Is. He can also provide some overs if needed.A lean return in these three matches against India should not dampen David’s chances of playing the World Cup, either. But if he replicates the type of innings he has already shown around the globe, then he will be even harder to leave out than it already looks.

Karthik Krishnaswamy and Alex Malcolm are back to discuss all that happened in the second Border-Gavaskar Test

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-2023A dramatic second-innings Australian collapse in Delhi – they lost their last eight wickets for 28 runs – meant India have the Border-Gavaskar Trophy all wrapped up with two Tests to play (as holders, they retain the trophy even if the series is drawn). This, despite the hosts having looked vulnerable at various points during the match. Where did the match turn (no pun intended)? Karthik Krishnaswamy and Alex Malcolm look back.