When he came to the crease, RCB were slowing down. By the time he left it, they were on course for 200-plus

Karthik Krishnaswamy26-Apr-20241:40

Moody: RCB bowlers did their homework and executed well

When someone is really, really good at something, they can make that thing look so simple that it becomes difficult to pinpoint exactly why they’re so good at it.Rajat Patidar’s ability to hit spin bowling is like this. He hit Mayank Markande for five sixes on Thursday night, four of them in a row, and he made each of them look so simple as to be inevitable. So precise and unfussy were his movements, and so sure and unhindered his bat-swing, that he made each ball look like a hit-me ball.This wasn’t quite the case, of course, and it most certainly wasn’t when Markande bowled the last ball of that 6, 6, 6, 6 sequence. It wasn’t a ball, but it was an extremely difficult one to hit, dangled so far from off stump that it would have been called wide if Patidar hadn’t hit it.Rishabh Pant could have hit a mirror image of this ball for six, but he would probably have fallen to the floor while doing so. Patidar launched it over extra-cover without showing the slightest strain of having to reach for the ball. His front foot moved a long way to enable the shot, but he didn’t lose his upper-body shape even momentarily.It was an extraordinary shot, and you need to play shots like that if you’re racking up numbers like these:Of all batters who’ve faced at least 50 balls of spin in IPL 2024, Patidar has the second-best strike rate (225.00) behind Abhishek Sharma (243.10). Patidar has hit 14 sixes against spin this season, which puts him in joint-second place alongside Heinrich Klaasen, with Abhishek (16) once again in the lead.It was fitting, then, that the defining performance of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s 35-run win over the record-shattering Sunrisers Hyderabad of Abhishek and Klaasen came from Patidar’s bat.Rajat Patidar slammed a fifty off 19 balls•Associated PressEven before Patidar’s arrival, there had been a sense that RCB weren’t just playing an IPL game but playing one against Sunrisers team. They had chosen to bat, with Faf du Plessis admitting that the decision had been made with their opponents’ strengths in mind. They had begun their innings with palpable urgency, with Virat Kohli and du Plessis flexing their pace-hitting credentials in a 61-run powerplay.But by the time Patidar came to the crease, RCB had slowed down significantly. Their top three has a distinct preference for pace over spin, and Sunrisers were beginning to exploit it. Shahbaz Ahmed had conceded just two runs in the fifth over, and Markande just four in the seventh while dismissing Will Jacks.R Ashwin recently suggested on his YouTube channel that there’s a growing belief within the game that “wicket-taking is becoming irrelevant in T20 cricket.” Whether you agree or disagree with that sentiment, you will probably agree that it’s sometimes beneficial for a batting team to lose a particular wicket at a particular moment in a game. The wicket of Jacks was like that.With Patidar’s entry, RCB had, for the first time in their innings, a batting pair with complementary strengths. Its impact on the scorecard was unambiguous. RCB’s other batters combined to score 15 off 24 balls against Shahbaz and Markande; Patidar hammered them for 40 off 12.This ability against spin makes Patidar a key player in RCB’s middle order – Mahipal Lomror is probably their only other spin-hitter with Glenn Maxwell sitting out – and there appears, at this stage, to be no style of spin that genuinely ties him down. Over his IPL career, he’s struck at 161.53 against offspin, 139.68 against left-arm orthodox, and a ridiculous 219.31 against legspin. Suyash Sharma and Markande have felt the force of Patidar’s disdain for legspin this season, and Ravi Bishnoi when he smacked an unbeaten 54-ball 112 in the Eliminator of IPL 2022.Patidar has only batted 19 times in the IPL, of course, so these numbers remain the outcomes of relatively small sample sizes. Small enough that he’s yet to face any left-arm wristspin in his IPL career. But three of RCB’s next four games are against Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals, so keep an eye out for Patidar vs Noor Ahmad and Patidar vs Kuldeep Yadav. You can be sure those two teams and those two bowlers are already drafting their plans.

Only Everton Weekes and Herbert Sutcliffe have scored 1000 Test runs in fewer innings

Sampath Bandarupalli27-Sep-20242 – Players to complete 1000 Test runs quicker than Kamindu Mendis, who got there in 13 innings. Both Everton Weekes and Herbert Sutcliffe needed 12 Test innings to reach 1000 runs, while Don Bradman got there in 13 innings.The Sri Lankan record was previously held by Roy Dias, Michael Vandort and Dhananjaya de Silva, all in 23 innings.1 – Kamindu became the first player with a fifty-plus score in each of his first eight Test matches. The previous longest streak of fifty-plus scores in consecutive Tests from debut was seven by Saud Shakeel.2 – Sri Lankans with fifty-plus scores in eight or more consecutive Test matches. Kumar Sangakkara is the other, with fifty-plus scores in nine successive Tests in 2014.13 – Innings needed for Kamindu to score his fifth hundred in Test cricket. Only three batters needed fewer innings – Weekes (ten), Sutcliffe (12) and Neil Harvey (12). Bradman and George Headley also scored their fifth in 13 innings.The Sri Lanka record – in 38 innings – was previously held by Aravinda de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal. The most number of hundreds any Sri Lankan had in their first 13 Test innings before Kamindu was three by Vandort.ESPNcricinfo Ltd5 – Test hundreds for Kamindu, all while batting at No. 5 or lower, and all in 2024. Only two other batters have scored five or more centuries while batting at No. 5 or lower in a calendar year in Tests – six by Jonny Bairstow in 2022 and five by Michael Clarke in 2012.3 – Number of Sri Lanka batters with five or more Test hundreds in a calendar year before Kamindu. Tillakaratne Dilshan was the last one, with six in 2009. Aravinda had seven centuries in 1997, while Mahela Jayawardene also had five in 2009.91.27 – Kamindu’s batting average in Test cricket is the second-highest among players with 1000-plus runs, behind only Bradman’s 99.94.His average is also fourth-highest after 13 Test innings, behind Harvey (106.56), Bradman (99.67) and Sunil Gavaskar (91.80).6 – Number of century partnerships involving Kamindu in 2024 for the sixth (or lower) wicket. Only one batter was part of more century stands for the sixth (or lower) wicket in a calendar year in Tests – seven by Bairstow in 2016.

All the big numbers from South Africa’s collapse to 106 against Afghanistan in Sharjah

ESPNcricinfo stats team18-Sep-20244 Totals lower than South Africa’s 106 for which Afghanistan have bowled out a current Full Member side in ODIs. They have bowled out Zimbabwe under 100 three times in the format and Ireland for exactly 100 once. South Africa’s total in this match is the lowest against Afghanistan by one of the first eight Full Member teams in ODIs. The next lowest is West Indies’ 149 in Gros Islet in 2017.7 Wickets lost by South Africa inside their first 10 overs. This was the first time they had lost as many inside the first 10. Their previous worst (where information is available) came when they lost their seventh wicket inside 13 overs against India in Johannesburg last year.0 Lower scores at which South Africa have been seven down in an ODI. South Africa were 36 for 7 in this match. This was also the first time they had lost seven wickets before getting to 50 in ODIs. Their previous worst had come against Australia in 2002, when they lost their seventh wicket at the score of 50.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2 Lower totals than today’s 106 by South Africa while batting first in ODIs. Their lowest totals batting first are 83 against England at Trent Bridge in 2008 and 99 against India in Delhi in 2022.32 Runs scored by South Africa’s top six in this match – their lowest in an ODI when all of them have been dismissed. Their previous lowest was 45 against Australia in 1993-94 in Sydney.0 Fifty-plus scores in 43 innings in international cricket by Wiaan Mulder before his fighting 52 in this match. Coming in at 29 for 5, Mulder scored nearly 50% of South Africa’s total. In fact, South Africa’s 106 is the second-lowest all-out total in ODIs with at least one individual fifty. The lowest is their own 101 against Pakistan in 1999-00 when Herschelle Gibbs top-scored with 59.102 Wickets by Fazalhaq Farooqui in international cricket. He became just the third seamer from Afghanistan to take 100 wickets when he dismissed South Africa’s captain Aiden Markram in this match. Dawlat Zadran and Gulbadin Naib are the other two Afghanistan seamers with 100 or more international wickets.144 Balls that went unused in Afghanistan’s first ever win in international cricket against South Africa. This was Afghanistan’s fifth-biggest win in terms of balls remaining in ODIs and third biggest against a Full Member team. For South Africa, this ranks as their tenth-worst defeat in ODIs.1 Full-member teams Afghanistan haven’t yet beaten in international cricket. Post their win against South Africa, India are now the only team they haven’t defeated yet. They have come close twice, though. The first instance was a tied ODI during the 2018 Asia Cup. The second instance came earlier this year in a T20I in Bengaluru, where they lost in the second set of Super Overs.

Hopes of a record attendance at MCG have been dented by one-sided nature of series

Valkerie Baynes29-Jan-2025When Cricket Australia positioned the MCG Test at end of the series for the first time in the multi-format Women’s Ashes, making history was at the forefront.Now, however, the first pink-ball Test at the celebrated venue and the first Women’s Test there in 76 years also carries the prospect of the home side sealing an unprecedented 16-points-to-nil whitewash.It is an unexpected state of play after an eight-all draw in England 18 months ago and every Australia victory of this year’s edition added volume to the big question hanging over the Test: will it draw a big enough crowd to stop the 100,000-seat stadium looking desolate?With the trophy long since decided, how many will venture out for a late night at the end of the first week of a new school year to watch England play for pride, or Australia grind their opposition into the dust, remains to be seen.Home spectators eager to witness the latter over the weekend are probably the best bet for a bumper crowd. And the concept of bumper must be tempered in light of the record 86,000-plus which last saw Australia Women play at the venue, in the 2020 T20 World Cup final.Related

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Heather Knight, the England captain whose position has come under pressure (along with head coach Jon Lewis) amid a winless campaign thus far, supported the ambition shown by staging the match at the MCG given a shortage of mid-sized venues seating around 20,000 which are more common at home.”The chance to play a Test match at the MCG is just iconic,” Knight said on match eve. “We’d much rather do that and then have the ambition in the future to continue to grow the crowds and bring people in.”Everyone’s really disappointed with how we’ve performed so far. We feel like we haven’t played our best cricket at all as a side. We haven’t shown what we’re about and the next four days is a chance to do that, for us to show exactly who we are as cricketers and who we are as people.”The Test has been important in determining the path of the series several times since the Women’s Ashes became a multi-format affair in 2013.A record women’s crowd witnessed Australia’s victory in the T20 World Cup in 2020•Getty ImagesFor Australia, a 161-run triumph at Canterbury in 2015 put them 8-2 up and on the cusp of regaining the Ashes, which they did by winning one of the subsequent three T20Is. Their 89-run victory at Trent Bridge in 2023 ultimately allowed them to retain the Ashes despite going on to lose both white-ball series.For England, their 61-run victory in Perth in 2013-14 set them on course for the series, which was sealed in the first T20I in Hobart. That was the last time England won the series on Australian soil. Meanwhile, the tense draw of 2021-22 had no bearing on the series, with Australia having already retained the trophy, but it was huge for the game as England, chasing 257 to win, posted the highest fourth-innings score in women’s Test history and Australia took nine wickets in a session. With all four results possible in the final over, tailenders Kate Cross and Sophie Ecclestone held out.Knight scored 168 not out and 48 in that Test in Canberra and her desire to make another significant contribution in this match has been heightened by the criticism of her team.”The way we’ve performed and the results in this series, I think you come to expect that extra scrutiny and pressure,” Knight said. “There’s no doubt that there has been a lot of noise.”Individuals will probably deal with it differently. Some will probably try to ignore it and do everything they can to try and turn things around. Some will use it as motivation. The way the results have gone, there’s bound to be some criticism and that’s completely fair. It’s our jobs to try and turn things around and try and have some success this week.”I’m probably someone that is at my best when I’ve got a bit of a point to prove and I certainly do have it this week, so hopefully I can put in a really good performance for the side over the next four days.”Australia won the 2023 Ashes Test before England battled back in the series•Getty ImagesAfter Australia thrashed England by 72 runs in the final T20I in Adelaide last weekend, Beth Mooney – the standout performer with 303 runs across both white-ball legs of the series, including an unbeaten 94 in that match – acknowledged that the tension was gone from the series.”It certainly would have been nice if we played the Test match while the series was still on the line, maybe earlier in the series, but that wasn’t to be,” she said. “On an individual front and as a group it’s come at a great time for us to basically just show off our skills and really enjoy playing the four-day game.”So, will the MCG see two free-wheeling sides putting on a show at one of the sport’s most revered venues with nothing on the line in terms of results? Or will it be an Australian side which prides itself on being ruthless seeking to assert their dominance even further on an embattled side with plenty at stake?Throw in the inevitable chatter around the position of Tests in the women’s game – this one will be played with just three full training days available in the lead-up – and it makes for an intriguing end to the tour, whatever happens.

Bottom of the pile in 2023 and 2024, the franchise are gunning for silverware in 2025

Firdose Moonda29-Jan-2025From the bottom of the points table in the last two seasons, MI Cape Town (MICT) are guaranteed a place in the SA20 top two and have doubled their opportunity to play in the final. Their 10-wicket win over Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SEC) included a bonus point which confirmed their participation in next week’s first Qualifier against Paarl Royals (PR) in Gqeberha.The result also leaves two-time defending champions SEC in a precarious position. They must win their final group stage against PR on Saturday and hope that either of Joburg Super Kings (JSK) or Pretoria Capitals (PC) lose one of their next two games to have any hopes of finishing in the top four. Even then, the highest they can finish is third with PR and MICT assured of the places in the top two.For MICT, the turnaround has been remarkable and almost every one of their players has put it down to what Rassie van der Dussen called a “different vibe,” in the squad that was created out of a need to do better. “When you do so badly you learn what not to do,” van der Dussen said after MICT lost to PR on January 15.”We really took those lessons of the first two years to heart in terms of our communication, our leadership. It’s always tough for an overseas captain coming in but we made a conscious decision – myself, Colin (Ingram), KG (Rabada), Dane Piedt and some of the senior players to say, we’re going to to assist this guy as much as we can and help him out on the field. Before we started the first match, it was a really clear plan of ours to get the communication better, to help Rash out and just be a lot better in actually all aspects than we were in the last few years.”But it wasn’t just that the only foreign captain in the SA20 needed the locals to show him the ropes, it’s that they needed everyone else to pull together. “We just needed to create that winning habit,” Ryan Rickelton said a few days later, after his 89 helped MICT beat JSK at Newlands. “The team’s tracking well, the guys are clicking really, really nicely. I don’t know what it looks like from the outside, but from the inside it feels different this year, and there’s a good thing brewing.”In Rickelton and van der Dussen, MICT have always had an opener among the top 10 run-scorers in the competition, and this season, they’re both there. Although Rickelton has not been available for every game, MICT still have the second most successful opening pair of the tournament (after PR) with 554 runs including four half-century stands and a strike-rate of 143.52. They also have the best average – 46.16 – and the most number of sixes: 27. A tournament where conditions have been described as “quite tough,” as SEC batter and Cape Town local David Bedingham put it, has put a bigger emphasis on teams getting off to a solid and strong start and MICT have had that.Rickelton (pictured) and van der Dussen have been dominant up top•SA20They’ve also been able to back that up with an attack that has not often let the opposition get away. Partly that is due to having all their bowlers fit. Apart from losing Ben Stokes before the tournament, MICT’s two senior seamers, Kagiso Rabada and Trent Boult, have been fully available. No other team in the competition can say the same with Paarl monitoring Lungi Ngidi’s comeback, JSK losing almost all their frontline bowlers and most recently David Wiese to a shoulder injury, Pretoria Capitals without Anrich Nortje and Daryn Dupavillon and SEC and Durban’s Super Giants without a headline seamer. Despite surfaces that have played slower than usual, that has already given MICT an edge.And then, there is the impact of their spinners. Rashid, known for his consistency and skill globally, has been the spearhead and is MICT’s highest wicket-taker this season. His seven wickets at 26.00 put him joint seventh on the overall list which may not sound like much but Corbin Bosch, George Linde and Kagiso Rabada and Trent Boult are right behind him with six wickets each and Linde’s impact has been significant.According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, in the middle overs (6-15) of this season’s competition, MICT have taken15 wickets, which is the same as last season, but with a significantly improved average (17.53 this season, compared with 25.00 last year) and economy rate. This season, they have conceded 6.26 in that period; last season it was 8.15. In general, Rashid and Linde have been responsible for a lot of that with Bosch also a contributor in what is a good illustration of the way Rashid has planned his tactics and how to maximise use of his resources. “He’s been fantastic. He’s got a lot of ideas and he’s been very calm and he’s trusted me to do the things that I want to do, let alone all the other players. He’s been really motivating,” Bosch said.Even the opposition can see that, especially one that had been as soundly beaten as SEC. “It just looks like MICT have a lot of confidence and you can see that with their batting, their bowling and their fielding,” Bedingham said.Bosch’s 4 for 19 sealed MI Cape Town’s post-season place•SA20One of the highlights of MICT’s dominant win over SEC was their catching. Dewald Brevis initially over-ran and then took a one-handed stunner to dismiss Tom Abell at deep backward square and Corbin Bosch managed an instinctive return catch in his followthrough to dismiss Marco Jansen. He could barely believe it when he saw either.”When I saw the ball go out to Dewald and he was charging in, I was thinking, ‘please don’t go over your head, please don’t go over your head.’ And then he took an absolute screamer. If there was someone to do it, it’s probably him,” Bosch said. “And my caught and bowled, I don’t think I saw it for very long. I played a bit of hockey at school and I was a keeper, so I’m going to say a testament to that. It’s one of those that they either stick or they don’t.”In some ways, that’s true for many things in these T20 franchise leagues, where teams are put together on paper long before they have the opportunity to meet each other and barely ever have the time to train together. They either work or they don’t. Despite having some of the biggest names in the competition in three seasons – think Jofra Archer and Kieron Pollard in addition to the ones already mentioned – it has not really worked for MICT until now.That may just be the franchise’s way. They also missed the first two years of IPL playoffs, but topped the table in season 3. They have gone on to win the title five times, equal with CSK, and more than anyone else. If there’s something for their Cape Town affiliate to aspire to, it may be that.

On Monday, Test cricket threw Indian fans into a situation they had no idea how to live through. Who knows when, or if, we will ever experience something like this again

Karthik Krishnaswamy06-Aug-20255:30

Gill on Oval Test win: ‘Such moments make you feel that the journey is worth it’

Sometimes, Test cricket throws even its most seasoned watchers into situations they have no idea how to live through. On Monday afternoon IST, when a desperately backtracking, desperately diving Akash Deep tips Gus Atkinson’s slog off Mohammed Siraj over the boundary cushions at wide long-on, he also tips all of India’s millions of fans into unknown territory.None of us, not even the oldest among us, has lived through anything like this.England, with their last pair at the crease, need 11 to win. Two hits will do it.India have never won a Test match by a margin smaller than 13 runs. They have won once by one wicket, but they have never lost by that margin. They have been involved in a tied Test and a draw with one wicket remaining and scores level, but they batted last both times. Three last-wicket pairs have saved Tests against them, but on none of those occasions had an India defeat been possible.Related

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The agony, the ecstasy: 56 minutes of Test cricket at its most glorious

Never before, in short, have India’s players been on the field, together, in this situation: one wicket away from victory, and a hit or two away from defeat. Never have we, their fans, watched them deal with this and attempted to deal with it ourselves.What previous experience would we even compare with this? Brisbane 2021 felt like a fairytale all the way through that final day, but through its last ten minutes or so, we were almost certain we were winning. We had begun to pinch ourselves long before the winning hit trickled over the rope. It was magic, but not of this kind.The closest we have come to this could-go-either-way feeling was, perhaps, Mohali 2010. India were chasing then, and were a wicket away from defeat. Our hopes rested on a man with a crocked back, magic wrists, and a team-mate doing his running. It was glorious, but did it feel like this? Was this much at stake? As the first of two Tests rather than the fifth of five, did it feel this… gladiatorial?We have tasted agony and ecstasy many times before, then, but neither of the kind that is imminent. Which one will it be, and what will it feel like? And until it happens, what are we to do with ourselves?We have experienced, in the last half-century, the thrill of nine previous Tests ending with margins of ten runs or fewer, and ten with one-wicket margins. On 18 of those 19 occasions, that thrill was undiluted, or unenriched, by partisanship. Cricket won no matter who won, and we won too. India weren’t in the picture. We may have celebrated with Geraint Jones or fumed at Billy Bowden when Edgbaston 2005 reached its climax, but that is preference, a pseudo-partisanship sullied by rationality, and not the raw, pulsing ache of the real thing.3:04

Bangar hails ‘Herculean effort’ from Siraj

This, now, is the real thing. It matters like hell who wins. It matters so much that we even feel, to some degree, how much it must matter to those out in the middle.How much it must matter to them.To Akash Deep, whose futile attempt to catch Atkinson is the latest in a series of fielding mishaps that add a tinge of both tragedy and farce to his fate of being the non-bowling member of India’s three-man strike force on this final day, spent after sending down 20 overs, fuelled by painkilling injections.To Prasidh Krishna, taker of eight wickets in the match, four in each innings, in danger of being judged not by that fact but by his last ball: a pretty good ball in most contexts, but here, too close to the batter, with too spread-out a field, allowing Atkinson to clip away the single that keeps him on strike.To Atkinson, on strike again, aware that he will have to do it off his bat and his alone, with even the act of running reducing his partner to debilitating pain.To Chris Woakes, the non-striker, for whom a dislocated shoulder is merely a problem to be solved. This right-handed man who bowls, throws and bats right-handed has decided, having explored every option in the nets, to face up left-handed should he need to – a gloriously absurd misnomer with his left hand and arm out of commission and hidden away in his jumper.To Siraj, who put the word ‘Believe’ on his phone wallpaper this morning, upon whose intensity and venom the exertions of bowling 30 overs in an innings about to enter its 86th have had no effect.This isn’t just one contest of ball and bat in lives defined by ball and bat. This is, while they live it, life itself.It does odd things to the watcher. Involuntary drummings and entwinings of fingers unused to separation from mobile devices. Restless bladders. Constricted throats. A pressure in the cheeks. A prickling in the tear ducts.1:15

Monga: India’s series was all about Mohammed Siraj

For the India fan, all this comes with context. A series of Homeric drama that is about to be lost or drawn, a scoreline that is about to become 1-3 or 2-2, to follow a shattering, unprecedented 0-3 at home against New Zealand and a what-might-have-been 1-3 in Australia. A coach, a captain, former coaches, former captains, retirements. A great fast bowler who is playing this series but not this match, a fine fast bowler who is turning into a folk hero, accustomed to heartbreak but never losing belief, always certain of his power to bend the script to his will.He hurries through the crease now, for the 181st time in this innings, the 279th time in this Test match, and the 1122nd time in this series, wides and no-balls included.Cross-seam, 143kph, into the base of off stump. A bowler, a batter, a set of stumps. A swipe, a shattering. Cricket stripped to its element. Breathtaking, literally. Exhalations all around the ground, all over the world, all in sync. Realisation before thought.The Oval 2025. We have never experienced anything like it before, and who knows when, or if, we ever will again.