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India vs England at World Cups: From Amarnath's heroics to an Adelaide cakewalk

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We look back at six crunch encounters between India and England on the biggest stage

Andrew MillerUpdated on 25-Jun-2024From Sunil Gavaskar’s go-slow at Lord’s in the very first World Cup fixture in 1975, to Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes off Stuart Broad at Durban in 2007, and their famous tie in 2011, England and India have faced one another in several memorable matches on the biggest one-day stages. Only on a handful of occasions, however, has either team’s tournament fate rested on the result. Here, ESPNcricinfo revisits their six make-or-break encounters down the years. World Cup semi-final, 1983 – India won by six wickets

If, by common consent, India’s World Cup final victory against West Indies was the result that changed the course of cricket’s history, then their semi-final scuttling of the hosts England at Old Trafford was perhaps the first inkling that something significant was afoot. On a slow, low surface with plenty in common with the subcontinent, India’s unassuming array of canny medium-pacers made their hosts toil for runs – a mere 213 of them across 60 painstakingly strung-out overs. England remained confident that a potent attack led by Botham, Willis and Dilley could yet carry the day, but Mohinder Amarnath and Yashpal Sharma anchored the chase before Sandeep Patil romped to victory with a freewheeling half-century. Kapil Dev had already played the tournament’s most evocative innings to rescue India from ignominy against Zimbabwe in Tunbridge Wells, but that match had been missed due to strike action from the BBC’s camera crews. The semi-final and final, by contrast, were beamed in full fidelity to an Indian nation that watched as one – the first pan-national sporting event, following the popularisation of colour TV for the 1982 Asian Games. For England, it was the moment that the World Cup cut its apron strings. The mother country had hosted the first three tournaments since 1975, but India’s triumph emboldened their bid for the 1987 event, and the seeds of the modern game had been sown.Sandeep Patil fired India to victory in the 1983 semi-final against England•Adrian Murrell/Getty ImagesWorld Cup semi-final, 1987 – England won by 35 runs

England versus India at the Wankhede Stadium, with a place in the World Cup final in Calcutta at stake. The only way such a prospect could possibly have been any more tantalising for the hosts was if Pakistan could also have made it through their own semi-final, against Australia in Lahore. History chose the less romantic pay-off, however, and it was the Aussies who eventually bested England for the first of their six titles … with a little bit of help from Mike Gatting’s ill-timed reverse sweep along the way. But there had been no complaints about such cross-batted antics while Graham Gooch was sweeping all before him in Bombay three days earlier. England batters have not traditionally been renowned for their playing of spin, but Gooch had learnt his trade on uncovered county tracks in the 1970s, and trusted his technique to carry the day against India’s left-arm spinners Maninder Singh and Ravi Shastri. He was aided by some less-than-proactive captaincy from Kapil, who persisted with a more classical ring of fielders in the covers for the ball turning away from the right-hander, but Gooch kept hitting the many gaps on the leg side instead. He had one key let-off, when Kris Srikkanth at backward square spilled a top-edge off Shastri, but his 115 from 136 balls proved more than enough, as India struggled to 219 all out in reply, with only Mohammad Azharuddin’s 64 from 74 providing any lasting resistance.World Cup Group A, 1999 – India won by 63 runs
In England’s catalogue of World Cup horrors, the slow, agonising unravelling of their home campaign in 1999 offered a particularly comprehensive brand of humiliation. Every incremental detail of a chaotic month – on the field and off – came to a head in a grim and protracted denouement against India at Edgbaston, where, over the course of two rain-interrupted days, a mounting sense of unease gave way to an unconditional surrender. Going into the contest, England knew they were cutting things fine after a crushing loss to South Africa, but with three wins in the bank to India’s two, they were theoretically better placed to seal the third qualification spot … especially with the mighty South Africans expected to do a number on Zimbabwe, the other team still in the running. India, however, knew from their own three-run loss to Zimbabwe that a team powered by the Flower brothers, Heath Streak and Neil Johnson would be no pushovers, and when their seamers cashed in on a lunchtime downpour at Chelmsford to defend 234 with ease, the jeopardy at Edgbaston went off the scale. Chasing an eerily similar 233 for victory, the same band of drizzle reached Birmingham in the 19th over of England’s chase. Moments later, Nasser Hussain fell for 33, and nine balls after that, play was suspended for the day. England went to bed dripping with angst at 73 for 3, and when Graham Thorpe – their best remaining hope – fell victim to a leg-sided lbw from Javagal Srinath, their fatalism took hold. Another Srinath yorker to Alan Mullally sealed the match and India’s progression to the Super Sixes, as a pitch invasion from a largely Indo-centric second-day crowd confirmed that the carnival of cricket would carry on just fine, even though the hosts had quit the party early.India prevailed in the 2013 Champions Trophy final•Philip BrownChampions Trophy final, 2013 – India won by five runs
Another result that changed the course of history, although not immediately, and perhaps not as obviously as had been the case with India’s previous title-fight in England 30 years earlier. It’s easily forgotten now, given the ignominy to come at the 2015 World Cup, but right up until the moment that their tactics were shown to be obsolete, Alastair Cook’s one-day team seemed to be a match for any team in the right conditions. With a Test-match-themed attack, led by James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and with calm, accumulative batting from Cook, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, they offered up Mourinho-style anti-cricket, not least in their semi-final against South Africa, when they throttled the contest inside the first 20 overs before knocking off their chase at a rate of 4.5 an over. But then, after winning the toss in the final and choosing to go down the same route at an overcast Edgbaston, the heavens opened and the tone of the contest was transformed. When play finally got underway more than five hours later, it was as a 20-over match, and while England had their chances, India’s IPL savvy meant they were better prepped for the crunchy closing stages. Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara had the chase in hand with 20 needed from 16, but when Ishant Sharma bagged both in the space of two balls, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja shut down the final overs to deliver MS Dhoni his clean sweep of ICC one-day titles. For England, the wait for their first 50-over success went on, but had they got over the line for this mini-World Cup, it’s hard to imagine how they could ever have evolved in time for the main event in 2019.Chris Woakes helped to hold off MS Dhoni in 2019•Getty ImagesWorld Cup group stage, 2019 – England won by 31 runs
Sure enough, by the spring of 2019, Morgan’s men seemed to be the finished article going into their home World Cup. The team had shed the reticence that had held England back at every tournament since their near-miss in 1992, and in the preceding months, they had set about embracing the pressure of being favourites. Their name was on the trophy, if only they could keep playing with the positivity of the previous four years. But then, after an early setback against Pakistan ramped up the jitters a touch, back-to-back defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia had left England’s semi-final prospects hanging by a thread. With Virat Kohli’s India unbeaten at the top of the standings, and itching to deliver the knockout blow at a packed and rapt Edgbaston, Jonny Bairstow then let rip in a sponsor’s event, telling the assembled journalists that the media was “waiting for England to fail”. It required a crisis meeting to get their minds back on track. David Young, the team psychologist, encouraged the team to address their vulnerabilities and embrace the fact they were no longer feeling bulletproof. And in keeping with his fiery character, no one took the message more to heart than Bairstow, whose 111 from 109 balls underpinned a cathartic innings of 337 for 7 – not riches by England’s pre-World Cup standards, but a score on the board nonetheless. Still the jitters remained as India took the game on through Rohit Sharma’s century and a belligerent 66 from Kohli, but with 10 an over needed in the final 11, and seven wickets in hand, Rishabh Pant fell to a flying catch from Chris Woakes on the midwicket boundary, and a magnificent contest tilted inexorably in England’s favour. They still needed to beat New Zealand to ensure their place in the last four, but that part of the bargain was now back to being a formality – for their group-stage encounter, at least…Jos Buttler and Alex Hales soak in their unbroken 170-run stand•Getty ImagesT20 World Cup semi-final 2022 – England won by ten wickets

England’s bid to become the first men’s team to hold the 50- and 20-over World Cups simultaneously went into overdrive on an extraordinary night in Adelaide. A tactically masterful bowling display, led by Adil Rashid’s four overs for 20 and backed up by Chris Jordan’s unrepentant diet of yorkers, gave way to a gallivanting run-chase from Jos Buttler and the rehabilitated Alex Hales, who between them swept past India’s target of 169 with scarcely a chance offered, and with a massive 24 balls left unused. For India, the inquest would be long and loud. Was the BCCI to blame, for denying its players the local knowledge that England’s had clearly gleaned from their enthusiastic patronage of the Big Bash? Was their batting approach obsolete? The notion of building slowly and cutting loose in the final ten overs (as Hardik Pandya, to be fair, did with reasonable success) had been banished from England’s lexicon ever since their own crushing loss at the Adelaide Oval, against Bangladesh in the 2015 World Cup. Or were India’s bowlers to blame, as Rohit Sharma intimated afterwards? Did they strain too full in search of magic balls, even though – as England had already demonstrated – the tackiness of the surface meant rewards were on offer for a more patient set-up? One thing’s for sure, Rohit himself took personal responsibility for the loss as he set about embracing risk from the get-go to instigate India’s reboot. Whatever happens in the Guyana rematch, he’s unlikely to churn out another 28-ball 27.June 26, 2024 – This article was updated ahead of the T20 World Cup semi-final in Guyana

The anatomy of India's heartbreak

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History will remember that they fell short by five runs in the semi-final but it was much, much more than that

Firdose Moonda24-Feb-20232:45

Baynes: Australia’s death bowling the difference

India arrived in South Africa with what seemed like a date with destiny. On the eve of the long-awaited WPL, with more money and interest in the women’s game in their country than ever before, they were expected to break Australia’s hegemony on the title and announce themselves as a new global powerhouse.History will remember that they fell short by five runs, but it was much, much more than that. From the start of the tournament, they were under unexpected pressure but every time they were knocked down, they found a way to come back. Until today.Their captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s best effort in the tournament was not enough to take India to a second successive T20 World Cup final as she journeyed on a winding path to an ultimately heartbreaking defeat.
India land in South Africa to play a tri-series against the World Cup hosts and West Indies in preparation for the global tournament. Harmanpreet misses the first match with an injury, then struggles with a shoulder problem and picks up an illness too.Related

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Her team-mate Jemimah Rodrigues expressed her concern: “Harry , from the time she has come here, she has been falling sick. She has injuries. I have hardly seen her bat in the nets because something or the other was happening to her. Imagine the kind of thing she was going through, mentally.”Despite that, Harmanpreet played every match in the group stage of the World Cup. She didn’t score a lot of runs. She only crossed 20 once in four visits to the crease, but there was a sense she was saving her best for when it mattered most: the knockouts.
Harmanpreet develops a fever.”I had to visit the hospital [on Wednesday],” she would reveal later. “We had some paracetamol there because at that time, my body temperature was going up and down. But I think it happens sometimes when the weather changes; in South Africa, sometimes it is very hot and sometimes it is very cold.”Harmanpreet Kaur’s bat got stuck in the pitch, leading to her run-out•ICC/Getty Images
No one in the Indian team knows if their captain is well enough to lead them.”Honestly, until the team meeting, we didn’t even know whether she would play because she just kept it to herself,” Rodrigues said. “I had just stepped out of my room and I saw her carrying her own kit bag and I was like, ‘Yes, this is it.’An hour before play, Harmanpreet called her team into a huddle.”She said to us, ‘I am very proud of this team and I am very proud to lead this team’,” Rodrigues said.
Rodrigues and Harmanpreet put on a 69-run stand for the fourth wicket and scored at a rate of more than ten runs an over. India were ahead of Australia in the chase but then Rodrigues was caught behind attempting to ramp Darcie Brown, and Harmanpreet’s bat got stuck in the ground as she tried to slide it into the crease while trying to complete a second run. After their captain’s run-out, India’s chase started falling apart.”A little bit here or there and the ball would have been over the keeper’s head. The shot was still on and the intent was there,” Rodrigues said of her dismissal. “And Harman was very unfortunate. It was not in our control.”As Harmanpreet walked off, she flung her bat on to the turf.

Later, in the mixed zone, Rodrigues is asked what she wants to do as soon as she gets back to her hotel. “I just want to cry,” she says

“It was a disappointment because the way I was batting, maybe that was the only way I could have got out. Otherwise, the way I was hitting the ball, I knew how to take this chase till the end,” Harmanpreet said. “From the Australian team’s body language, it looked like they had given up. But the moment I got out, the momentum shifted from India to Australia, I personally felt it was a turning point.”But India needed only 40 runs off 32 balls after Harmanpreet’s dismissal and there was a sense they could have got there.”To come out there and the way Harry played, it speaks so much about her mental strength and determination,” Rodrigues said. “She’s very passionate about the sport, very passionate about this team and very passionate about winning.”India spent the rest of the innings on the edge of their seats as they watched Deepti Sharma take them as close as she could but the evening ended in tears. At the post-match presentation, Harmanpreet wore sunglasses to hide hers. Later, in the mixed zone, Rodrigues was asked what she wanted to do as soon as she got back to her hotel. “I just want to cry,” she said.She was asked more questions, some about the WPL, others about whether this defeat brought back bad memories that she had hoped to shelve away. Eventually, a wearing Rodrigues told reporters it was “too soon for me to process everything” and she was “not in the headspace right now”, but that “every loss hurts”. For her, and every member of the squad.”In the change room now, everyone’s disappointed. Nobody’s even talking to each other. But at the same time, this is like a learning experience.”Harmanpreet Kaur, Yastika Bhatia and Shafali Verma are dejected after the loss•ICC/Getty ImagesIn the moments after one of their most painful setbacks, the last thing India wanted was to talk about it publicly, but such is the life of a professional sportsperson. Their every moment must be analysed and dissected – India’s fielding is one of the areas that will come under the microscope most starkly – and everything explained even if the players can’t quite come up with the explanations themselves.”I don’t know what to say,” Rodrigues said. “It’s important after such losses to give people space. That is most important. We feel for each other. Today also it was like we will go and give our life out there – that’s the kind of bond we have. But it’s also good to respect each other. I’m sure everyone’s going to vent when they go back to their room but for now, they are just trying to be strong for each other.”By the time you read this, India might have come to terms with their defeat. Harmanpreet may have done what she said she would in the press conference: “accept whatever happened”. She may even have moved past the point of puzzlement she found herself in after the game. “I don’t understand how this is going on,” she said. “I think we played good cricket. That’s all I can say.”But there is a silver lining. “This team shows a lot of promise,” Rodrigues said. “If you go see it, our average age is around 22 to 24. Imagine two years down the line, and this will be the team that will be dominating the world.”India leave this World Cup wounded but with a young squad and a shiny, new franchise league at their doorstep, they have the ingredients to go all the way next time, and many times after that.

For England's seamer-heavy squad, the World Cup is an endurance game

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In what might seem a paradoxical pick for India, they have six quick bowlers in their line-up – and the decision to pick them all was never really all that tough

Matt Roller07-Oct-2023When England’s selectors met at Trent Bridge in August to select their World Cup squad, a non-negotiable quickly emerged. For all India’s historic associations with spin bowling, there was a clear consensus that England should select six frontline seamers in their 15-man squad.Including those six, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson, David Willey and Reece Topley (Ben Stokes is in as a specialist batter) meant a squeeze on batting spots – even if England have more allrounders than most sides. Harry Brook was initially left out, but eventually forced his way in at Jason Roy’s expense; almost any other team in the tournament would have found room for both.Related

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But during the month-long saga over which player would miss out, there was never any serious consideration given to the idea it would be a fast bowler.”We’d have loved a couple more spots to get another batter and a spare spinner in,” Luke Wright, part of England’s selection panel, admitted. “It pushes another position out of the squad.”But with a lot of travel and a lot of games in a short space of time, we are aware that with some of the injury risks our bowlers have, we need that cover,” Wright said. “It gives us a chance to rotate the bowlers as needs be through a long tournament. The chance of having all those bowlers in the XI, playing all the games, all the way through is very slim.”Rob Ahmun, the England cricket board’s head of performance science and medicine (top right) at a training session: “[W]e try not to get lost – it’s not the data making the decisions”•Surjeet Yadav/AFP/Getty ImagesEngland landed in Guwahati last Thursday for their warm-up games, and over the next 35-odd days, they will have played nine group games in eight different cities, with a flight after each one. It is a brutal schedule; India, the hosts, are the only other team who do not play consecutive games in the same city at least once.”This will be a real significant task for the lads, especially given the schedule we’ve got,” said Rob Ahmun, the ECB’s head of performance science and medicine. “There’ll be multiple flights and everything that comes with travelling in India, the actual physical demands of the game, and environmental challenges as well.”England’s players will have to adapt quickly: after Thursday’s tournament opener in the heat of Ahmedabad, they fly north to Dharamsala, where the stadium is nearly 1500 metres above sea level and the temperature will be nearly 20 degrees cooler.Four years ago, England’s success at home owed at least in part to their players’ fitness. Nearly two years before the tournament, the ECB formed a working group comprising assistant coach Paul Farbrace, psychologist David Young, medical services lead Ben Langley, and strength and conditioning (S&C) coach Phil Scott. “We wanted to make sure everyone came in fresh, mentally and physically,” Langley said.England only used 13 players across that 2019 tournament but a similarly packed schedule like this in this year’s World Cup – albeit with no internal flights – took plenty out of the squad: Eoin Morgan suffered a back spasm against West Indies. Roy missed three games with a calf strain. Adil Rashid and Jofra Archer had pain-killing injections to manage shoulder and side injuries.Mark Wood trains in a GPS vest. The ECB’s studies show England players ran nearly twice as much in 2019 World Cup games as against regular ODIs•Getty ImagesWood – who strained his side with three balls left in his spell in the final – and Woakes both look back at photographs from that epic game and laugh at how skinny they were. “I’m thin anyway, but that World Cup took so much out of us,” Wood said. “Everyone was tired, carrying niggles; we’d put in such a huge effort.”It is no surprise that they looked slim. Last year, the University of Essex published research in collaboration with the ECB that revealed “a notable physical transformation” in England’s cricketers between 2014 and 2020, one “that has likely resulted in an increase in lean mass and aerobic capacity”.The ECB’s data, collected from GPS units worn by players, suggests that their total sprinting distance – defined as metres covered at a speed of at least 20kph – increases by 50-100% for most players between a bilateral ODI and a World Cup match. “And Woody had something like a 300% increase in his total volume of high-intensity sprint metres,” Ahmun adds.Just like cricket itself, sports science has been transformed by data. “When I started, we didn’t have access to anything like what we do now,” Ahmun said. “But we try not to get lost in it: it’s not the data making the decisions. You can quite easily fall into that trap and say, ‘He’s bowled too many overs’, but bearing the human element in mind is vitally important.”He ain’t heavy, he’s my masseur: Jos Buttler gives Mark Saxby a boost during the 2019 World Cup win celebrations•Getty ImagesAll of England’s long-term planning for 2019 was “designed to get the lads to peak for that final”, Ahmun said. “And they probably did: two of the fittest lads in the squad, Stokes and [Jos] Buttler were the two out there when it mattered, and in that Super Over.” Langley said it was a source of pride that “come the final, everyone was available for selection”.Under Andrew Strauss’ management, England made a point of taking a long-term approach – one that was inspired by Cricket Australia’s management of their “big three” quicks: Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. “If you don’t have a dedicated team focusing on bespoke planning, you just get drawn into the game-by-game, series-by-series approach,” Langley said.All six of the fast bowlers whom England have taken to India have spent time out of the game through serious injuries in the last three years – as has Archer, a travelling reserve who hopes to make his comeback from injury in the latter stages of the World Cup. Willey, who has the best long-term fitness record of the seamers, believes his inclusion owed, at least in part, to his durability.”Me staying fit, touch wood, is probably an asset to the group with guys who sometimes struggle with niggles,” Willey said last month, before engaging in some horseplay: “Call me a donkey if you want, but [on] a tough trip, you just might need a donkey. They keep going, donkeys, don’t they?”Resist this: Jofra Archer gets some strength training in with S&C coach Phil Scott•Getty ImagesThe ECB’s research suggests that 50-over cricket is the most physically demanding format. “You’ll cover anywhere from 12-15km in a day, with a significant proportion of that at high speed,” Ahmun explains. “Players always say if they haven’t played a 50-over game for a little while, it’s a rude awakening when they get back to it. And T20 is only making 50-over cricket faster.”England’s players have been preparing for India all year, but their focused build-up started in their series against New Zealand last month. They started taking probiotics two weeks before travelling in order to mitigate disease and were joined in that series by Charlie Binns, an ECB nutritionist.During the World Cup, ICC limits on personnel mean that England’s science and medicine team will be relatively lean, comprising Craig de Weymarn (physio), Andy Mitchell (S&C), Mark Saxby (massage therapist) and Rob Young (team doctor). As with players, IPL experience among backroom staff is considered helpful, and encouraged by the ECB. Young has spent several seasons working with Rajasthan Royals, while team manager Wayne Bentley fulfils the same role at Kolkata Knight Riders.Saxby – and Mahesh Aarya, a local massage therapist who has been enlisted for the tournament – will be particularly important on travel days. “We’ll have massage on hand whenever we arrive at a new hotel,” Ahmun says, “just to help players get over sitting around cramped up for four or five hours.” Langley, who joined Mumbai Indians earlier this year after 15 years with the ECB, believes flights are the “toughest bits” of a home-and-away IPL season.England will go from the heat of Ahmedabad to the cool mountain surrounds of Dharamsala in their first two games•ICC/Getty ImagesThe prohibitive cost of charter flights means teams often travel on commercial airlines: England’s squad travelled in economy class on a flight from Mumbai to Guwahati last week. Langley said: “At the IPL, we had some big tall fast bowlers like Cameron Green: quite often, they were sitting in economy seats that just had a little bit more legroom.”Ahmun said: “Reece Topley is 6ft 8in; if he sits in a normal seat on a plane, the lad’s knees are up by his ears. What the schedule tends to be is, they’ll play a game, go about their recovery practices, and then the following morning it’ll be up and then transfer. We always want the lads to be as active as possible on the day following the game to get their bloodflow going, so flying is probably the last thing the body needs.”When Rob Key joined the ECB as managing director of men’s cricket last year, he quickly introduced separate management teams for the red- and white-ball squads, which has extended to backroom staff. It means a slightly lighter workload – even if the World Cup is followed almost immediately by a month in the Caribbean.”They will be available 24/7 for the guys during the World Cup,” Langley says. “They will be flat out, working the whole time.” If England’s decision to lean towards seam pays off over the next seven weeks, it will owe plenty to the team behind the team.

Stats – The World Cup of centuries

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We are just nine matches into the 2023 ODI World Cup but the batters seem to be enjoying their time in India

Sampath Bandarupalli12-Oct-2023

Climbing up the ladder in the first week

Though only one-fifth of the tournament has been completed by Thursday, the 12 hundreds have already surpassed the total tally scored in the 1975 (6), 1979 (2), 1983 (8), 1987 (11), 1992 (6) and 1999 (11) editions. If we only take into account the first ten matches in a World Cup, the 12 centuries in 2023 are by far the highest in any of the 13 editions. None of the previous 12 editions had more than five centuries in the first ten matches.

Scoring hundreds like never before

The frequency of centuries in the 2023 World Cup is a rarity in this format as it is only the 17th series or tournament with ten-plus hundreds in men’s ODIs. Only two of those 17 events – including the ongoing World Cup – have had their first ten hundreds coming as early as the eighth match.The lone bilateral ODI series with ten or more hundreds – the five-match series during India’s tour of Australia in 2016, witnessed 11 hundreds. The only other tournament to have ten or more hundreds inside the first ten matches was the Asia Cup in 2008, hosted by Pakistan, where the tenth hundred came in the ninth game.

Quinton de Kock, who scored 17 ODI hundreds before his maiden World Cup ton against Sri Lanka, added one more to his tally on Thursday against Australia.

Delhi and Hyderabad – the batters’ haven

The South Africa batters racked up three centuries in Saturday’s game against Sri Lanka, the first-ever instance of three individual tons in an innings at the World Cup. A feat that has occurred only three times before in all ODIs. The Sri Lanka and Pakistan batters then went one step ahead on Tuesday in Hyderabad smashing two centuries each – the first instance of any World Cup game with four individual hundreds. Also, only the third time that four players have managed to breach the three-figure mark in an ODI match.Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Rizwan, the stars of the record chase, became the first pair from Pakistan to rack up hundreds in a World Cup match. Earlier, Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra became the first New Zealand pair to score tons in a World Cup game, on the opening day against England. The duo also became the first pair to score hundreds in the same game while making their World Cup debuts.

Hundreds at a fast clip

The hundreds scored so far have come rapidly – 11 of the 12 came in less than 100 balls. Three found a place in the top seven of thefastest hundreds at a men’s ODI World Cup, which includes the fastest by Aiden Markram off 49 balls against Sri Lanka. Rohit Sharma’s 63-ball ton against Afghanistan and Kusal Mendis’ century off 65 balls against Pakistan are the sixth and seventh fastest. Those three centuries have also been the fastest for their respective countries at a World Cup.

Rohit bettered the Indian record by 18, previously held by Virender Sehwag – an 81-ball effort against Bermuda in 2007. Mendis broke Kumar Sangakkara’s record ton that came off 70 balls against England in 2015. Even the hundreds from Rachin and Conway in the tournament opener – off 82 and 83 balls were the fastest for New Zealand, beating Martin Guptill’s 88-ball hundred against Bangladesh in 2015.

How Heinrich Klaasen bosses spin with a destructive quasi-pull

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Since the start of 2022 no batter with a significant portfolio against spin has scored quicker than him, and this shot, which goes against what makes a pull a pull, plays a big role in that

Karthik Krishnaswamy26-Oct-20232:25

Klaasen on being labeled as the ‘best finisher’ and working on his six-hitting

When is a pull no longer a pull? If you’re the kind of person who spends an unhealthy amount of time dwelling on the precise meanings of cricketing terms, you might find yourself pondering this when you watch Heinrich Klaasen play the pull.Defined most simply, the pull is a horizontal-bat shot hit across the line of a short-pitched ball. Klaasen’s pull, particularly against spin bowling, routinely fails to check all three of those boxes.Consider the one he hit off Adil Rashid en route to his 67-ball 109 against England at the Wankhede Stadium. It could hardly be described as a horizontal-bat shot, since his bat was at something like a 45-degree angle to the ground. He didn’t hit across the line of the ball as much as through it, his bat swing tending towards that of a back-foot drive on the up.A rendition of the pull that has brought Heinrich Klaasen so much success against spin•ICC/Getty ImagesAnd the ball from Rashid was really not short at all. It was a more-or-less good-length ball, a wrong ‘un probably destined to miss leg stump at slightly below stump height. Klaasen shifted his weight on to the back foot and swung his hip open so his front leg was well outside leg stump, brusquely reclaiming the room that the bowler had tried so assiduously to deny him. From this position he swung his bat through an arc both smooth and ferocious, his arms at full extension, and launched the ball well beyond the wide long-on boundary.This was a shot that occupied the outer limits of what a pull is and does – not really a pull at all, but nonetheless the most devastating of pulls. The Klaasen pull may, in fact, be even more than that; it may well be the most devastating weapon against spin in all white-ball cricket.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();

It’s a tall claim, but consider this. Since the start of 2022, no batter (minimum 200 runs) has scored quicker against spin in ODIs than Klaasen, whose strike rate of 147.74 (8.86 runs per over) is more than a run an over superior to Jos Buttler’s in second place (129.24/7.75). And the pull is central to how quickly Klaasen scores against spin.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();

Among batters who’ve played the shot at least 20 times against spin since the start of 2022, Klaasen has the third-best strike rate (271.87), behind David Warner and Scott Edwards. But of the top 10 pullers in terms of strike rate, Klaasen has scored the highest percentage of his runs (22.14%) with that shot. Against spin, the pull has brought Klaasen 87 of his 393 runs in this period, and exactly a third of his 24 sixes.Where other batters can claim to play the pull as effectively as Klaasen, few play it as often, and this is because he’s able to play the shot against a wider range of lengths than most. Ball-tracking data from ODIs since the start of 2018 suggests that the average length off which batters pull spinners is 6.51m from the stumps; the average length Klaasen pulls is 5.87m, which is more than half a metre fuller than the average pulling length.Related

Bowlers don’t need to bowl egregious drag-downs to get pulled by Klaasen. Even the smallest fraction short of a good length is enough. Their margin for error is wafer-thin, particularly since Klaasen is just as punishing when he’s launching full balls down the ground or slog-sweeping over midwicket. If you’re a spinner, you have the narrowest possible band of the pitch you can land on and expect any kind of respect from Klaasen.The result of this is already evident at this World Cup. Klaasen (138.18/8.29) has been the quickest-scoring batter against spin (minimum 50 runs) so far, and has scored more than a run per over quicker than Rohit Sharma (117.89/7.07) in second place. He, like the rest of South Africa’s awe-inspiring top seven, has been fortunate to play three of his five games in Delhi and Mumbai, which have offered up two of the truest surfaces of this tournament, but if he slows down at all on grippier pitches, other batters will probably slow down even more.Klaasen’s next stop is Chennai, and a Pakistan spin attack that’s struggled with its lengths all through the tournament. They’ll know they can’t afford to be anything other than pinpoint against Klaasen. Not unless they have a masochistic urge to witness that most devastating pull that really isn’t a pull at all.

Perry's masterclass leaves RCB feeling perfectly at home

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The Australia allrounder produced a stunning spell of seam and swing to dismantle Mumbai Indians

Vishal Dikshit12-Mar-20245:01

‘A chocolate ice cream and brownie’: How Perry celebrated her six-for

The crowd in Delhi finally turned up for the WPL. A sea of blue had spread far and wide on the stands occupied by 22,834 people, likely the most attended match in the city this tournament. The jerseys were predominantly of Mumbai Indians, the flags were all blue too, some hawkers were even selling the India Test whites outside the ground, having probably come downhill from Dharamsala after an early finish. The colour of the three stripes on its sleeves? You guessed it.You’d have to squint your eyes to spot even a hint of red at the ground. Even the few seats that were vacant in the first tier were painted blue. The music blaring in between overs was almost all Punjabi, as often is in Delhi, apart from some Hindi movie songs.Related

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  • The Perry show floors Mumbai, puts RCB in playoffs

There was absolutely nothing the Royal Challengers Bangalore players could have looked at and thought of “home” on this neutral ground. The RCB fans that had flocked the stands in Bengaluru in the first leg were over 2000kms away now.Ellyse Perry was seemingly unbothered by all this. What might have worked for her was that she had probably played more T20s at this ground – three at the 2016 T20 World Cup – than a lot of the Indian players featuring in the WPL. It showed in how she nearly struck three times in her first six balls after having gone wicketless this WPL.First Sajeevan Sajana’s catch wasn’t taken at extra cover because the fielder lost the ball in the lights. Then she jagged one so sharply towards leg that Nat Sciver-Brunt played all over it and yet survived the lbw. The very next ball Sajana was almost caught at the circle. It was as if Perry knew all about this fresh pitch while others were still finding their way.In her next over when Perry pegged Sajana’s off stump back with a cutter, she jogged along expressionless towards extra cover, as if saying, “yeah, what else do you bowl on this pitch?” The crowd loved it and rooted for her as if she was from Saket and not Sydney.

I’ve been working on it a little bit, especially with our coaches back home and kind of felt very suitable conditions for me tonight; the ball nipped around a little bit and it was really good funEllyse Perry

The real celebration came when she had Harmanpreet Kaur chop on off a wide delivery that didn’t even move off the pitch at a regulation 114.2kmh. Not expecting a wicket off it, Perry stuck her tongue out in between her lips that went from ear to ear. There was now a deafening roar from the same crowd that had cheered for Harmanpreet in a record chase a few days ago. The Australia allrounder whose jaw-dropping fielding in the deep had hurt India in the dying moments of the T20 World Cup semi-final a year ago was getting louder shrieks than the India captain, who bagged a duck.Two balls later in her spell, Perry belted out an appeal for lbw after an inducker that was on a length perfect enough to beat Amelia Kerr. But Perry’s finest gambit was the wicket of Amanjot Kaur. The price of the wicket not the most rewarding, but the manner of dismissal so spectacular that it could create the most poignant memory in Perry’s T20 career of 366 matches. Delivered from just wide of the crease, she made the ball seam in so sharply that Amanjot was beaten by both pace and movement off the pitch to hear the ball rattle the stumps behind her.Perry was making the ball talk on her own terms as if this was one of the seaming pitches in Australia (nevermind the lack of bounce). On a ground where even the slightest of width was pummeled by Harmanpreet and Richa Ghosh on successive nights over the weekend, Perry targeted the stumps with unflinching accuracy and perception of the right length.She got all her six wickets bowled or lbw, and 22 of her 24 deliveries landed on good length or short-of-good-length to fetch her all her six wickets for just 11 runs. Perry’s 6 for 15, the best figures in the WPL, was only her second five-wicket haul in T20s and the second-best bowling figures for an Australian in T20s.”I’ve really enjoyed bowling,” Perry said after being named the Player of the Match. “Sometimes I think I go years just getting walloped around the ground everywhere, and then every now and then it kind of goes my way. I’ve been working on it a little bit, especially with our coaches back home and kind of felt very suitable conditions for me tonight; the ball nipped around a little bit and it was really good fun.”Ball by ball, Ellyse Perry’s devastating spell against Mumbai Indians•ESPNcricinfo LtdCharlotte Edwards, head coach of Mumbai, has watched Perry’s excellence since the allrounder’s international debut nearly 17 years ago, and was also her second Test wicket. Having worked with her closely in the WBBL for Sydney Sixers – where Edwards is head coach and Perry the captain – the coach was “surprised” by the movement off the pitch in Delhi, but not by Perry’s performance.While recalling how she had called Perry “the greatest female player we’re ever going to see,” in 2019, Edwards said: “She’s a wonderful cricketer and I’ll still stand by what I said five years ago. She is the greatest player that I’ve seen play the game with bat and ball and in the field and as a person.”What I admire most about Ellyse is the fact that it doesn’t matter if she’s playing club cricket or WPL or international cricket, she plays it the same way and that’s really highly commendable and something I absolutely love.”Having restricted Mumbai to their second-lowest total, 113, Perry then chaperoned the “tricky chase” with an unbeaten 40 that also saw her fittingly smash the winning runs for four.The music had now switched to English, the crowd was chanting “Aar See Bee, Aar See Bee” and “Perry, Perry” in turns, and now even a few RCB jerseys had turned up in Delhi of all the places.

Firebrand and team man: What to expect from Gambhir as India's new coach?

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

ESPNcricinfo looks at the road ahead for Gautam Gambhir as he takes charge as head coach of India

Shashank Kishore10-Jul-2024More than six years since playing his last competitive game, Gautam Gambhir takes over as India’s head coach at the age of 42, the second-youngest Indian after Kapil Dev in the late 1990s to be given the job. Fiercely competitive on the field, and feisty and outspoken off it, Gambhir takes charge of an Indian side that qualified for the finals of the last World Test Championship and ODI World Cup in 2023, and just won the T20 World Cup in 2024.

What are the big assignments coming up for Gambhir?

His first series in charge is a white-ball tour of Sri Lanka at the end of the month, followed by two Test series at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand, which are part of the ongoing World Test Championship. India are currently on top of the WTC points table and well placed to make the final.The first big one for Gambhir, is India’s five-Test tour of Australia at the end of the year. India won their previous two Test series in Australia, in 2018-19 and 2020-21, and this contest could be crucial to the final shaping of the WTC points table.

So what does Gambhir have on his coaching resume?

Well, he hasn’t coached a domestic or international team previously in List A or first-class cricket, but that’s not unusual for the Indian team. For example, both Ravi Shastri and Anil Kumble did not have prior coaching experience when they took charge in 2014 and 2016 respectively.Gambhir got the job on the back of successful stints as mentor of two IPL franchises. Under his guidance, Lucknow Super Giants qualified for the playoffs in their first two IPL seasons, and then he oversaw Kolkata Knight Riders’ run to the title in 2024. So in that regard, Gambhir’s pathway to the India job is extremely different to his predecessor Rahul Dravid, who spent years as head of the National Cricket Academy and coaching India’s age-group and A teams.

Will Gambhir have to make any tough calls in the near future?

In terms of personnel, with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja retiring from T20Is, the transition is already underway in that format. The ODI and Test set-ups are stable for the near future and the question of transition or succession may only arise after the Champions Trophy and the World Test Championship in 2025.Gambhir, in his role as a media professional, has been critical of senior players resting between high-profile assignments but with his tenure likely to run until the 2027 ODI World Cup, he might have to work with a workload management plan to have India’s best players at their fittest for the most important assignments.

Data or instinct, where will Rohit and Gambhir meet ?

After winning the T20 World Cup, Rohit thanked Dravid in a poignant note for leaving all of his “accolades and achievements at the door” and making the players feel “comfortable enough to say just about anything” to him.Rohit and Dravid were often aligned in their strategies and used data and analytics in their planning, like when they selected four spinners in their T20 World Cup squad because of conditions in the West Indies.Gambhir is driven more by instinct and less by data, something he has stated a number of times, which means he may need to get onboard with a major aspect of Rohit’s captaincy, both with India and formerly with Mumbai Indians.Rohit (37) and Gambhir (42) are also contemporaries, having made their international debuts four years apart. They were regular India team-mates between 2009 and 2013 and opponents in the IPL up until 2018.Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir appeared to bury the hatchet in IPL 2024•BCCI

Gambhir and Kohli being in the same dressing room?

In 2009, Gambhir handed over his Player-of-the-Match award to a young Kohli who had scored his maiden ODI century. A year later, the two shared a crucial third-wicket partnership to prevent a collapse in the 2011 ODI World Cup final. Then in 2016, Gambhir made a comeback to the Test side under Kohli’s captaincy.But it’s their on-field confrontations in the IPL – as captains in 2013, and as mentor and player in 2023 – that has defined public perception of the equation between the two. In IPL 2024, however, the two were seen to be more friendly with each other in public. When asked about his relationship with Kohli, Gambhir said the “perception was far from reality.” And when Kohli was asked about it during the season, he said: “I hugged Naveen [ul-Haq, with whom he had an altercation in IPL 2023], and then the other day, Gauti came and hugged me … We’re not kids anymore.”

Gambhir comes across as a firebrand in public, will he be as aggressive as a coach?

It’s true that Gambhir has been involved in a fair share of heated moments – on social media and in person – over a number of issues ranging from cricket to politics. However, he is believed to be someone who goes to great lengths to stick up for those in his team. For example, his altercation with Kohli in IPL 2023 is believed to be a result of him not taking kindly to a verbal spat between Kohli and the LSG fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq. And in 2017, he had a run-in with the Delhi state coach over the handling of youngsters in the team.
Gambhir has been outspoken against giving an individual excessive limelight in a team game, a philosophy he followed during his mentoring stints at LSG and KKR.

So what impact did Gambhir have as mentor during KKR’s run to the IPL 2024 title?

In IPL 2021, 22 and 23, Sunil Narine had scored only 154 runs and had stopped opening for KKR. Once Gambhir returned to the set up as mentor in 2024, he convinced Narine to go back up the order and to play without pressure. Narine went on to score 488 runs at a strike rate of 180.74 to go with his 17 wickets, his best bowling performance in an IPL season since 2018.Off the field, Gambhir is believed to have been a mediating influence between the head coach Chandrakant Pandit, whose old-school methods brought huge success in domestic cricket, and a number of overseas players who found Pandit’s approach unusual.

Trial by spin: Tough challenge turns tougher for New Zealand in India

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

They are entering the Test series with a batting unit that has had one of its worst years against spin

Ashish Pant14-Oct-2024This was meant to be New Zealand’s great Test-match adventure in the subcontinent. They were to start with a non-World Test Championship (WTC) game against Afghanistan in Greater Noida to get acclimatised to the conditions, travel to Sri Lanka for a two-Test series and work on their spin game, and then return to India and try and achieve something no team has in 12 years – win a Test series in the country. It was a rare stretch of six Tests in the region with their WTC final chances still very much alive.But halfway into it, the plan has unravelled, quickly.To start with, no play was possible in Greater Noida across five days. The spinners and Kamindu Mendis blew them away in Sri Lanka for a 2-0 knockout. Tim Southee has stepped down from captaincy, and their best and most experienced batter, Kane Williamson, has a groin injury and will miss at least the first Test in India.Related

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Now in Bengaluru for the first of the three Tests starting on Wednesday, New Zealand are with a new captain, without their best batter (temporarily), and with a batting unit that has had one of its poorest years against spin.In 12 innings in 2024, New Zealand have lost 67 of 104 wickets to spin – their most in five years – and they still have six Tests to go this year. Their average of 22.58 against spin in 2024 is the worst for any team in the WTC.They were found out in Sri Lanka, where they lost 37 of their 40 wickets to spinners. While still competitive in the first Test, with Latham, Williamson, Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell all scoring half-centuries across the two innings, they were left shell-shocked in the second Test. On a surface where Sri Lanka amassed 602 for 5, New Zealand were bowled out for 88 inside 40 overs. They came up with a much better show in the second dig to score 360, but the Test was pretty much done by then.

New Zealand’s struggles against spin is not just limited to the subcontinent.They started the 2023-25 cycle with a trip to Bangladesh, where 31 of the 36 New Zealand wickets fell to spinners, even as New Zealand fought back in Dhaka to level the series 1-1.Then they went back home to play a second-string South Africa side and mowed them down in the two Tests. While Will O’Rourke was the leading wicket-taker in the series with nine wickets, second and third on that list were South Africa’s left-arm spinner Neil Brand and offspinner Dane Piedt, both taking eight wickets apiece. Brand was making his debut in the series while Piedt was playing a Test after more than four years.New Zealand then played another two Tests at home, against Australia. They went down 2-0 with Nathan Lyon turning out to be Australia’s highest wicket-taker with 13 wickets in the series, which included a ten-wicket haul in the first game in Wellington.Of New Zealand’s current top order, Williamson has scored the most runs against spin in the ongoing WTC cycle for them: 410 at an average of 37.27. But 11 of his 14 dismissals have come against spin too. The same is the case with almost every other major batter. Ravindra has fallen to spin seven out of 12 times; Phillips nine out of 12; Mitchell eight out of 12; and Devon Conway eight out of ten. In the Sri Lanka series, several batters got stuck on the crease making them easy targets for Prabath Jayasuriya & Co.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();

Barring Williamson (four) and Ravindra (one), no other New Zealand batter has scored a century in this WTC cycle. As things stand, Joe Root (six) has more centuries than the entire New Zealand batting unit in this period. And as New Zealand get ready in Bengaluru, they won’t even have the Williamson cushion.It’s not entirely doom and gloom for them, though. Latham has five fifties in ten Test innings in India, Ravindra had a fabulous ODI World Cup here last year, and the likes of Mitchell, Phillips and Conway all have decent exposure to the conditions through their stints at the IPL.India is arguably the toughest country to visit in Test cricket, and with R Ashwin breathing fire and Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav to back him up, New Zealand don’t need to be told that they have a mountain to climb.But Bengaluru is one place in India where New Zealand are likely to feel at home. There has been decent rain in the lead-up to the opening Test, and there is plenty of cloud cover expected throughout. That’s not to say there will be no turn on offer for the spinners, but New Zealand will have something to cling to, especially with the WTC final spot on the line.

Joe Root reaches the batting heights for which his career was destined

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

England’s modern great moves clear of Cook with ultimate Test summit still in his sights

Matt Roller09-Oct-20242:04

Roller: Test greats in sight for Root after becoming England’s top scorer

Prior to this Test, Joe Root had described the prospect of becoming England’s all-time leading run-scorer as “irrelevant”, and his understated response to the landmark on Wednesday morning proved that he meant it. He gently waved his bat to acknowledge the standing ovation on the dressing-room balcony after driving Aamer Jamal down the ground to reach 71, but then was straight back into his work.Root’s point had been that the record would simply be the by-product of his wider ambitions: “I’d like to get more than that in this game,” he explained. He was true to his word, even if he looked sapped by the South Punjab sun by the time he reverse-swept Abrar Ahmed for the single that brought him his 35th Test century.In time, Root will reflect with immense pride on his elevation into the pantheon of the greatest batters England – or anyone else, for that matter – has produced. But more immediately, his focus was on putting England in a position to win this first Test: upon reaching three figures, he kissed the badge on his helmet before raising his bat.He then looked to the skies, acknowledging the influence that the late Graham Thorpe had on his career. Thorpe, who died in August at the age of 55, had been the driving force behind Root’s first Test call-up in 2012, and worked closely with him for the first decade of his career, helping a batter brought up on seaming pitches in Yorkshire become England’s best-ever player of spin.Root went on and on, fighting cramp to reach the close on 176. He played the supporting role in partnerships worth 109, 136 and an unbeaten 243 with Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Harry Brook respectively, but was the constant through England’s mammoth innings. After 250 overs spread across three days’ play, Root has only spent eight balls off the field.”[I feel] tired, more than anything. It’s been a long day,” Root said. “I’m obviously proud, but still feel as though there’s plenty more left to do and many more runs to get. I’m sure I’ll look back on it at some point when I’m finished and be very proud of it.”This was his first hundred in Pakistan, after a quiet tour two years ago. It leaves only one obvious gap in his stellar Test CV: Root is yet either to score a century or win a Test in Australia. He will be desperate to address both of those shortcomings as England look to win back the Ashes in just over a year’s time.Root has faced more threatening spinners in much trickier conditions than Abrar on this Multan motorway. But he played him with total ease throughout: he did not score a boundary off him until he swung a full toss through midwicket to reach 166. Instead, he spent the day milking him mercilessly with flicks off his pads and steers through cover.This was an innings which will not quite translate to a highlights package, a slow-burning epic rather than something bitesize. Root only hit a dozen boundaries in 277 balls but ran Pakistan’s fielders ragged on a slow outfield, with seven threes, 16 twos and an incredible 75 singles. He survived two unsuccessful reviews for lbw, but looked in control throughout.For Jason Gillespie, Pakistan’s coach, it was nothing new after spending five years at Yorkshire when Root was early in his international career. “I remember Joe asking coaches, ‘Tell me what I need to hear, not what you think I want to hear.’ It was a coaching lesson for myself,” Gillespie recalled. “He always strives to get better: that was my experience with him.”Joe Root kissed his helmet before raising his bat after reaching his 35th Test century•Getty ImagesLongevity demands resilience – not only mental, but physical too. Remarkably, Root has never missed a Test through injury: he has played in 147 of England’s 149 since his debut, with the two exceptions due to being dropped (Sydney 2014) and the birth of his second child (Southampton 2020).He was clearly struggling physically in the heat of the day, dragging himself up the dressing-room steps at tea. But after spending the interval rehydrating – and wearing an ‘ice sleeve’ around his neck – Root ran back out to the middle in trademark style. He was drained by the close, his foot movement limited through sheer exhaustion, but maintained his focus.”To bat through the whole day in that heat shows, mentally, how fit he is – and also physically,” Duckett said. “I was only out there for a session or a bit under in it and it was tough working that heat. I’m sure he’ll sleep well. Between sessions, we’ve got a great support staff and fluids and getting food on board is so important on a day like this – but to be honest, I think he probably enjoyed more just sitting in an air-conned room.”It was only ever a question of when Root would overtake Alastair Cook, not if. After breaking Cook’s centuries record at a sold-out Lord’s last month, this sparse crowd in arid Multan was a much more low-key backdrop – but reaching the upper echelons of the format demands the ability to adapt both temperament and technique to such diverse surroundings.Since relinquishing the captaincy two-and-a-half years ago, Root has ascended to a higher plane as a batter. It is not as though leadership had a deleterious effect on his batting – he averaged 46.44 as captain – but since then, he has scored 10 hundreds in 30 Tests, averaging 61.11.Related

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If he scores seven more runs on Thursday, Root will become the first Englishman to achieve another notable landmark: 20,000 international runs across formats. While the majority of those have come in Tests, this milestone would be a reminder of his compelling ODI record – and his vital role in England’s only 50-over World Cup win.And yet, like James Anderson and Stuart Broad before him, Root has benefitted from a streamlined schedule. He has only played 28 ODIs in the last five years and – much to his frustration – not a single T20I, but his singular focus on Test cricket has given him enough periods of rest to stay fresh and hungry.He is not done yet. Root turns 34 in December and has no plans to retire: if his body continues to hold up, he could happily play through to the 2027 Ashes and beyond. At his current rate, Root could surpass Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting’s aggregates in the next year, while Cook believes he is an even-money bet to eventually surpass Sachin Tendulkar.”Your best one is always your next one,” Root said, asked where his latest hundred ranked among the previous 34. “You’ve got to keep staying hungry to find ways of keep contributing and getting better.” It is that hunger that has defined his career, ever since he first picked up a bat.Tendulkar’s aggregate of 15,921 is still 3,343 runs away, but England play so often that Root will have regular opportunities to close the gap, not least if Pakistan continue to roll out pitches like this one. As for whether he is already England’s greatest? A successful tour to Australia next winter would put that beyond any doubt.

Red-ball fever catches on in South Africa

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The men are on the cusp of the WTC final, while the women are about to play their first Test at home in 22 years

Firdose Moonda14-Dec-2024Red-ball fever should be raging across South Africa with the men’s national team one win away from the World Test Championship (WTC) final and the women on the eve of their first Test at home in 22 years, and first of six in the next FTP cycle.But is it really raging? If you turn on your television, you may not think so. You may ask whether South Africans really care about watching Test cricket (which is, of course, different to knowing about it or celebrating it). The numbers say no. South Africa’s series win over Sri Lanka was watched by a total of around 14,000 people over nine days at Kingsmead and Gqeberha. On any single day of the matches, there were never more than 2000 people at the ground.So how many will turn up in Bloemfontein, a place cricket has largely forgotten, with no SA20 franchise, and a domestic team that was recently relegated but since promoted to the top division, to watch a women’s Test? The next four days will reveal the answer, but don’t be overly expectant. A heatwave is sweeping across the country and temperatures tipped over 40° Celsius in the Free State in the last week. With large swatches of the ground unprotected from the sun, fans may prefer the cool of their homes.Their absence may tempt you to explain the South African men’s lean Test schedule (they will only play 12 games in this cycle) in terms of a response to this perceived apathy, but it is more a case of economics. Broadcast rights, for one, favour fewer Tests, more white-ball games, and a franchise T20 tournament. Given all that, the South Africa men are still in the running for the WTC final, and the women will over the next four years play the same number of Test matches as they did in the 20 years between 2002 and 2022. So something is changing, and it may be that red-ball matches are rare enough to be really valued.Related

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  • Mashimbyi wants more long-format cricket for all-format development

There is a general consensus that playing more red-ball cricket, especially in the women’s game, will benefit players across the board, and new coach Mandla Mashimbyi is specifically focused on the longer format as a key growth area. So the red-ball fever is there; you just have to dig a little deeper for it.”Mandla did a bit of a presentation for us yesterday on red-ball cricket, and a lot of the stuff he was saying made me definitely want to play more of the format,” Laura Wolvaardt said at the pre-match press conference. “I absolutely love Test cricket. It’s the purest form of the game, and to be able to play it is always such an awesome opportunity.”Her counterpart, Heather Knight, who has played four times as many Tests as Wolvaardt, used exactly the same words – “absolutely love” – to describe how she felt about Test cricket. “The mental challenge of it, the repetition of skill, the adapting to so many different situations that you might face, I think it’s a really good learner for younger players,” Knight said.But both of them acknowledged that it is tough to play a format at international level that they have no foundations in at domestic level. South Africa, England, and every other country apart from India and, as of this month Bangladesh, do not play any red-ball, or time-based version of cricket at any level other than occasional Tests. Wolvaardt described it as a “bit weird” that her only red-ball matches have been Tests, while Knight called herself a “novice at Test cricket”.In that context, it seemed unfair to ask bigger-picture questions over things like form or player development. Yes, South Africa have played two Test matches and lost them heavily this year, but they were in vastly different conditions – Perth and Chennai – and perhaps all they demonstrate is how difficult it is to adapt to playing in different places at Test level. Yes, England have a multi-format Ashes to think about and Knight admitted they have “one eye” on that while also trying to have success against South Africa. Without the consistency of playing Tests regularly, it’s more sensible to assess and analyse them in isolation.Following their comprehensive victory against Sri Lanka, South Africa’s men are just one win away from the WTC final•AFP/Getty ImagesIn this case, what stands out is how differently the teams have approached preparation, and what that may suggest about the kind of contest we can look forward to. Knight said England have “tried to incorporate the odd red-ball session to practice the skills”.South Africa, meanwhile, didn’t “really want to be training in the middle of a T20 series for the Test match, so we sort of just left it for right before the Test,” Wolvaardt said. What they agreed on was that the two-day turnaround after the last ODI to the start of this Test was too little time to work on any technical skills. Instead, they’re working with what they already have, but in opposite ways to England.Wolvaardt is trying to rein in any attacking instincts to allow herself to bat for longer. “Batting is more of a reaction type of thing. My cover-drive is my favourite shot, and now it’s the one shot that I’m not allowed to play early on, with all those slips behind me.”Knight thinks it’s better to play the way you normally would. “A key message is not changing your game too much because it’s a red ball. That certainly was a mistake I made early in my career, when I went into Test match cricket and I was like, ‘Right, I’ve got to block it, I’ve got to leave the ball’, and I don’t want us to have that mentality because I don’t think it’s a good mentality to have.”Heather Knight: “A key message is not changing your game too much because it’s a red ball”•ECB via Getty ImagesCould this indicate we will see a more aggressive England against a conservative South Africa? If that is how it transpires, it will be keeping with what we have to come to know about the teams’ DNA over time. It was no surprise that a reference to Ben Stokes (but not Bazball) was made when discussing how England will look to put the opposition under pressure, which drew a response that began with “We’re our own team,” and went on to touch on soaking up pressure and then counter-punching. Likewise, Wolvaardt was asked about the men’s performances in the WTC and called the second Test against Sri Lanka “very cool” to watch.These narratives will continue to be woven into women’s Tests until the matches become more than one-offs, though Knight cautioned against longer series until there is are domestic foundations in red-ball cricket. “Preparing bowlers [for Test cricket], in particular physically, without breaking them is really tough because naturally the amount of cricket that we play is all white ball,” she said. “It’s really tough to play too many more and get the preparation right in terms of those bowlers. Selfishly, I do really love playing Test cricket but I think it’s about how you incorporate it alongside franchise cricket, alongside all the cricket that we play.”And so the cycle of too much in a world that can’t get enough continues, but South Africa are an interesting case study. You could argue the men have had too little Test cricket and merely played the best hand they could have with the cards they were dealt, and that is proving inspirational for their women’s team too. “It’s obviously really nice to see them doing well and to see them almost in the final of their Test championship,” Wolvaardt said. “I hope that it just sparks interest around the country to watch more Test cricket. Hopefully if there’s a bit more of a buzz around Test cricket in the country people will be keen to watch us as well.”Maybe red-ball fever is not quite raging, but it is rumbling along until it gets the opportunity to really roar.

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