It was an outing to forget for quick bowlers, Jos Buttler, and England as a whole

Sampath Bandarupalli16-Oct-202314 – Consecutive losses for Afghanistan at the ODI World Cup before defeating England on Sunday. Their only other win came against Scotland in their first appearance at the World Cup in 2015. Only Zimbabwe have a longer losing streak at the men’s ODI World Cup – of 18 consecutive matches between 1983 and 1992. Scotland, who are yet to win a game in the World Cup, have also suffered 14 successive defeats.8 – England batters dismissed by spin against Afghanistan. These are the most wickets they have lost to spinners in a men’s ODI World Cup game, surpassing seven against South Africa in Chennai and against Bangladesh in Chattogram during the 2011 edition.11 – England have now lost against 11 different teams at the men’s ODI World Cup, the joint-most by any team. Bangladesh and Netherlands have also ended on the losing side against 11 teams in the ODI World Cup. Nine of the 11 opponents to have defeated England are Full-Member nations, with Zimbabwe and Ireland being the exceptions (Zimbabwe were an associate nation until July 1992, while Ireland were till June 2017).13 – Wickets for spinners on Sunday in Delhi, the third-highest number in men’s ODI World Cup games. Kenya and Sri Lanka’s spinners shared 14 wickets in the 2003 World Cup game in Nairobi, as did the Zimbabwe and Canada spinners during their face-off in Nagpur in 2011.7.24 – Economy of pace bowlers in the 40.5 overs they bowled in Delhi on Sunday. Only four times have quick bowlers had a poorer economy rate in a men’s ODI World Cup game where they bowled at least 30 overs. Contrastingly, the spinners went at just 4 an over in the 49.3 overs they bowled.

Coach Hafeez and captain Masood believe the batters needed to have been more aggressive in the first innings

Danyal Rasool17-Dec-20234:28

‘Pakistan don’t have the belief to beat Australia here’

Pakistan coach and team director Mohammad Hafeez found himself in a critical mood at the press conference immediately following the first Test against Australia. Freshly smarting from a 360-run defeat sealed with a 30-over batting display that saw his side skittled out for 89 with a day and change to go, it was perhaps just as well, because there was plenty to be critical of.But the squarest aim he took was at Pakistan’s batting approach, particularly in the first innings, saying the batters failed to apply themselves and stick to their pre-match plans.”Well, we couldn’t execute our skills well,” Hafeez said. “We made plans for the team, but unfortunately we couldn’t execute them well. That’s not an excuse. The guys wanted to, but they never applied themselves, to be very honest. As a team there were a couple of tactical errors we made during this Test match. There were certain situations where we could have dominated, and as a team, the plans were there and we prepared ourselves for that. But the execution wasn’t great.”A cynic might wonder if Hafeez, only recently appointed to his roles, ahead of a tour to a country he has never played a Test match in, was looking to establish a buffer between the playing group and the management group. Pakistan do, after all, still have on their books Mickey Arthur, a man who coached the West Australian state side for nearly two years, in addition to overseeing a Test win in Perth and a series win in Australia as coach of South Africa. And while that might have made little difference – when Arthur was coach of Pakistan, they still lost an away series in Australia 3-0 – the PCB’s decision not to send him on this tour has thrown the rawness of the new-look coaching staff into sharper focus.Related

• For Aamer Jamal, dark alleys will always lead to high streets

• Pakistan fight the good fight as bluster gives way to pragmatism

• Lyon joins the elite in 500-wicket club: 'I'm still pinching myself'

• No cure in sight for Pakistan's chronic troubles in Australia

• Nathan Lyon joins 500 Test-wicket club as Australia crush Pakistan in Perth

Last week, when Pakistan were training at the WACA, Hafeez had gone after the surface laid out for Pakistan in Canberra for the first-class game they played against the Prime Minister’s XI, calling it the “slowest pitch a visiting team could have faced in Australia”. He also promised a brand of cricket that would see Pakistan take the attack to Australia, particularly Nathan Lyon. As it turned out, though, no Australian bowler took more wickets than Lyon’s five, which came in 32 overs at an economy rate of 2.50.Hafeez defended Pakistan’s plans and preparations, and once more rued their inability to execute them.”The Canberra pitch was totally different. But this pitch, obviously, as you expect in Perth, there was bounce and a little lateral movement. And that was obviously what we’ve seen during the last four days. But the amount of deterioration we witnessed, I wasn’t expecting that much because on the fourth day the deterioration in the pitch was really high. But still, we believe it was a good toss to the win for Australia. They managed to put runs on the board and then obviously batting in the fourth innings and on the fourth and fifth day is going to be a real challenge and we couldn’t do that, to be honest.Shan Masood and Shaheen Afridi ponder Pakistan’s tough position•Getty Images”You can say that [the plans we made weren’t followed], but not really that much. I believe that the message is very clear. And as I said to you earlier, we prepared accordingly. In the last 20 days of my role, the message was very, very clear to everyone.”It appears to be something Pakistan’s leadership group agrees upon. Captain Shan Masood at the post-match press conference also pointed to the side’s sluggish scoring rate, while mentioning they’d batted nearly as many overs as Australia in the first innings – 101.5 compared to the hosts 113.2.”When you come to these shores you look for progress,” Masood said, setting the bar somewhat lower than the bullish Hafeez had. “If you had told me that Australia would have batted 110 overs and we would play 100 overs, I would have taken that as a batting unit.”While Pakistan’s scoring rate isn’t particularly notable in its own right – no side will ever find taking the game to the Australian attack easy on their own shores – the variance between what Pakistan promised before the game and what they delivered is. With Hafeez and Masood both committing to an exciting brand of cricket, Pakistan instead found themselves bogged down right from the get-go, barely managing above two an over for the opening partnership.Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq did hold out for 36 overs in the first innings without giving away a wicket, though Masood felt more urgency might have put a different spin on the game. “We could have batted a bit quicker, even though we were facing one of the best bowling attacks in the world. We probably missed out on 60-70 runs, which could have made the lead a bit less sizeable.”Masood, for his part, did stick to that method, coming down the wicket to wallop Lyon for a boundary off his second ball. The scoring rate did tick up – thanks largely to him – during a brief partnership with Imam, though expansive drives led to his downfall in each innings. And a score of 32 across two innings of the Test – the lowest for any specialist Pakistan batter in Perth – suggests taking on this Australian attack may require more than wanton belligerence.Hafeez had struck a particularly optimistic tone ahead of the Test and continued in the same vein, the defeat seemingly doing little to subdue it. “I said to you earlier that the vibe I got from the preparation and the amount of talent these guys have, there’s no doubt the guys can beat Australia in Australia. But obviously execution-wise we couldn’t do that. The plan was there, we prepared things accordingly and I still believe as a team that Pakistan can beat Australia here in Australia. Obviously as a team we need to execute our skills whenever it requires.”There are a lot of positives in this game. The two debutants [Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad], the way they bowled, the way they showed the passion to represent Pakistan, that is very special and heartening to me. I really enjoyed personally the way they did and they were presenting themselves for every challenge and they are the most positive side we had during this test match. Unfortunately, our premier fast bowlers couldn’t do well in this game, but this can happen to anyone. But I’m sure these guys will come harder in the next game.”It might take some time. But gradually we will get up there where I feel like we know, ‘this is the way to play international cricket at the moment.'”It is time Pakistan may not have, at least not in this series. In a little over a week’s time, Pakistan play a Boxing Day Test at the MCG, their losing streak in Australia now stretching to 15 Tests. It will require little short of a miracle or a freak weather event not to see that stretch to 17 in about three weeks’ time.

How the India Under-19 allrounder became the player he is, with a little push from his cricket-loving grandma

Shashank Kishore05-Feb-2024One of Arshin Kulkarni’s greatest privileges so far in his cricketing journey has been the opportunity to face Jasprit Bumrah at the nets. Kulkarni was an India Under-19 aspirant back then while Bumrah was in his final stages of rehab from a back injury. When the two squared off, simply being able to sight the ball and line himself up to defend gave him confidence.Kulkarni didn’t know back then that an Under-19 World Cup berth would be another chapter in this unlikely journey that began in Solapur, Maharashtra when he was all of six. His grandmother enrolled him at the nearest club to their residence – Salim Khan Cricket Academy – to ensure the ‘little’ child wouldn’t be bored after school hours.When the ‘little’ boy grew up to become much taller, as he hit adolescence, Kulkarni was told by his coaches to switch to seam-ups because he had the height. In 2019, he gave up legspin despite having had decent success – he even picked up a hat-trick in a club game – to bowl seam-ups. It’s one of the big decisions that Kulkarni is thankful for today.Related

• Sachin Dhas is playing his father's dream – live in Benoni

The other thing he’s thankful for is the support of his grandparents, especially his grandmother. An avid cricket buff herself, she had immersed herself in Kulkarni’s cricket since his parents, both pediatricians who run a hospital in Solapur, had busy and often draining schedules.Kulkarni grew up admiring South Africa allrounder Jacques Kallis and had this burning desire to be able to bat and bowl like him. Last month, Kulkarni was tongue-tied when he met Kallis for the first time during a camp at SuperSport Park in Centurion prior to the ongoing Under-19 World Cup.His spontaneous response was to seek Kallis’ blessings by touching his feet. Kulkarni had also carried with him a letter penned by his grandmother, where she addresses Kallis and the impact he has had on her grandson.”On my birthday, I was around eight-years old. My granny asked me ‘What would you like for your birthday?’ I said Jacques Kallis. And she got a six-feet poster of yours and it’s still in my room,” Kulkarni told Kallis after they met. It’s a video SA20 outfit Pretoria Capitals posted on social media, one that went viral around the time for Kulkarni’s gesture.

"Can I touch your feet?" :face_holding_back_tears:

India U19 cricketer Arshin Kulkarni idolised Jacques Kallis all his life. On Monday, he got to meet his hero! :face_holding_back_tears:#RoarSaamMore #SA20 pic.twitter.com/eLkC0aQ3MF

— Pretoria Capitals (@PretoriaCapsSA) January 17, 2024

After a quiet 2023 season, the allrounder began IPL 2024 with a bang, thumping an unbeaten 64 off 25 and picking up two wickets

Ashish Pant24-Mar-20242:54

Moody: Six-hitting machine Russell showed why he’s paid the big bucks

Imagine being Sunrisers Hyderabad. You have Kolkata Knight Riders six down for not many in the 14th over. You are on a high having just dismissed the only batter in the top five to reach double digits. And then you see Andre Russell walk out at No. 8.Imagine being Sunrisers Hyderabad. You have blazed away to 67 in seven overs in a 200-plus chase. And in comes Russell to send your opener, who is going at a strike rate close to 170, packing with the second ball of his spell.Imagine being as good as Russell at cricket.On a night where one team recorded 208, the other 204, and saw two of the finest hitters of a cricket ball come face to face, it was Russell who came out on the winning side. But not by much. With 60 required off the last three overs, Heinrich Klaasen almost did the improbable, bringing down the equation to 7 off 5 but failing to close out the game for SRH. And KKR snuck home in a last-ball thriller, much to the delight of a packed Eden Gardens crowd.Related

Live blog – KKR vs SRH, Harshit steals game away from Sunrisers

Russell trumps Klaasen as KKR hold on for win

Shreyas on final over: Told Harshit this was his time to 'become a hero'

KKR reached 208 for 7 from the depths of 119 for 6, thanks to Russell’s unbeaten 25-ball 64. That it came right at the start of the season would have thrilled him to no end.Russell didn’t have a great IPL last year, failing to record a single fifty-plus score in 14 innings and there were murmurs that he was perhaps past his prime. But he was coming into KKR’s opening game of IPL 2024 in great touch. In 14 T20 innings this year, the Jamaican had walloped 410 runs, striking at 222.82. With form behind him, he looked switched on from the get-go.Andre Russell smashed seven sixes in his 25-ball innings•AFP/Getty ImagesThe first ball Russell faced was from legspinner Mayank Markande, who had dismissed him twice in IPL 2023. So he prodded forward with a straight bat face to defend diligently. He took two singles off the next four balls he faced, and that was all he needed to get his eye in.Match-ups dictated that Pat Cummins give Markande another over at Russell. It was a logical move. Russell had fallen to legspinners five times in IPL 2023 at a strike rate of 113.51. But that had changed in T20s in 2024, where he had thumped legspinners at a strike rate of 259.25, falling to them just once.So, when Markande was brought back in the 16th over of the innings, Russell was having none of it. He cleared his front leg first ball and boom went the slog sweep – 91m over deep midwicket. Two balls later, Markande shortened his length ever so slightly. That didn’t bother Russell, who swung at it jauntily and sent the ball sailing 102m over deep midwicket. The next ball: similar length, similar result with the distance reading 96m.Vintage Dre Russ was back.Now properly in his groove, Russell set his sights on Bhuvneshwar Kumar, against whom he has had a lot of success. Having gone for just seven off his first two overs, Bhuvneshwar leaked 44 off his last two, with 34 coming off Russell’s bat in just nine balls. Through the carnage, Russell also raised his first IPL fifty against SRH, getting there in 20 balls. KKR scored 85 runs in the last five overs to post a more-than-competitive total.”This is exactly why he [Russell] is paid the big bucks around the world and in the IPL. He is a six-hitting machine,” Tom Moody, the former SRH head coach, said on ESPNcricinfo Timeout. “The thing with Andre Russell is that his mishits go for six. Most players’ mishits get caught on the boundary or five metres in, but that’s the X-factor he brings to the table, is that he clubs the ball and it doesn’t really matter where it lands on the bat, it disappears for six. If he really middles it, it goes 120m into the second tier.”2:49

Russell or Klaasen – who did it better?

Cummins believed the SRH bowlers “overall did a pretty good job” but stood little chance against an on-song Russell at the death.”The toughest job in cricket is bowling to someone like that at the end,” he said after the game. “You do your planning, and you try and execute your best, but he’s a pretty tough guy to bowl to, it is pretty hard to contain.”Russell wasn’t done with the game after his batting masterclass. He came back to remove opener Abhishek Sharma with a sharp bouncer before getting the better of Abdul Samad in the 17th over to finish with 2 for 25 and cap off a special night.”I just try to react to whatever comes my way,” Russell, named Player of the Match, said of his methods. “I know based on over the last year, two years, bowlers have been exceptionally bowling well to me and they plan very carefully when they are bowling to me. So I’ve been digging runs out in the back end and I’m still figuring out how to score because they are going to have their plans and I realise everyone is coming to me with a plan, so I have to be ready.”For all his heroics, Russell’s near-perfect night looked like getting ruined by Klaasen before Harshit Rana bailed KKR out with a nerveless last over, defending 12. Russell probably had the biggest smile of the KKR lot as he ran towards the bowler arms aloft, with a mixture of elation and relief on his face.KKR will be ecstatic not only with the two points but that the win was set up by one of their most vital cogs. An in-form Russell is critical to KKR trying to bring back the glory days of 2012 and 2014. And if Saturday was any indication, other teams better watch out.

After England squeezed through to the T20 World Cup Super Eight at the expense of Scotland, Alan Gardner caught up with Matt Roller in the Caribbean

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jun-2024England made it through to the T20 World Cup Super Eight stage, despite their initial struggles in Group B, squeezing out Scotland on net run rate after wins over Oman and Namibia. In this week’s Switch Hit, Alan Gardner hears from Matt Roller, who was in attendance for Scotland’s dramatic defeat by Australia in St Lucia. They discussed England’s progress, and matters arising ahead of the Super Eight, as well as early exits for Pakistan and New Zealand, and the ICC’s American experiment as a whole.

A bowler of Sinhalese origin playing for a Tamil Nadu franchise to raucous applause at the Chepauk: things are changing, for the better

Andrew Fidel Fernando22-Apr-2024At the cricketing heart of it, Matheesha Pathirana is Chennai Super Kings’ sweet revenge.No bowler had wrecked CSK batting orders on the scale Lasith Malinga managed. With 37 wickets against CSK in 23 games, he is by a distance their biggest destroyer.But, oh, what’s that? There’s a young slinger that CSK have had eyes on first? Someone who has an even lower arm action than Malinga and more explosive pace? Okay, less control, less swing, not nearly as much general mastery… but still, CSK’s own ? It sounds almost too good to be true, right?Snap him up. Get him in as a net bowler. Have your legendary captain slap eyes on him. Promote him to the main team. Follow him as he becomes one of the best death bowlers in the league. Then on 14 April 2024, watch him rip Mumbai Indians to shreds, taking 4 for 28, while Malinga, in Mumbai Indians colours, watches on.Related

Marcus Stoinis does the unthinkable and breaches fortress Chepauk

Stuttering CSK look to make most of home stretch at fortress Chepauk

Pathirana's four-for overshadows Rohit's ton as Mumbai go down

Pathirana the point of difference against Malinga's Mumbai

In a more perfect world, Pathirana’s cricketing rise, and the CSK vs Mumbai Indians vengeance arc, would be the only stories. But this is a world in which a 27-year-long civil war was fought in Sri Lanka, where for most of Sri Lanka’s and India’s post-Independence decades, the governments of Tamil Nadu and the Sinhalese-led government of Sri Lanka have been vehemently opposed. A world in which, only 11 years ago, the IPL’s governing council ruled no Sri Lankan players could play in Chennai for any IPL team over security concerns, such was the ferocity of political opposition.Against that history, Pathirana’s rise at CSK, and to a lesser extent that of Maheesh Theekshana, has been almost startlingly smooth. Pathirana showed promise at the end of the 2022 season, when Theekshana was more useful to the franchise. But then, with the onset of the Impact Player rule in 2023, Pathirana has become a go-to death bowler on account of his ultra-specialised skill set, MS Dhoni prodding him forward like a bird its fledgling chick. Pathirana has not merely been accepted, he has been embraced by CSK’s yellow army, and wildly cheered for at Chepauk.It is not certain exactly what political shifts have enabled this, but deductions may be made. Sri Lanka’s colossal protests of 2022, which culminated in the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, are significant in the timeline. The Rajapaksas were understood regionally to be champions of Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism, and had also overseen the vicious conclusion to the war, which substantially deepened an already profound divide with Tamil Nadu. But that family having been so chastened by a movement produced largely by the southern (mostly Sinhalese) population likely cast Sri Lankan southerners in a mellower light in Tamil Nadu.Around this time, Sinhalese animosity towards Tamil Nadu began to abate too. Through the worst of those crisis months of 2022, when the island was cripplingly short of fuel, power, medicines and food, the government of Tamil Nadu came through with humanitarian aid worth around 3.4 billion Sri Lankan rupees.

It is no surprise that the Chepauk fans who first bellowed for Pathirana are people roughly his age – Gen Z and young millennials, who tend to pack out the C, D and E stands. If you can make it there, Chepauk veterans say, you’re the rubber-stamped next big thing

Where previous decades had been characterised by a vortex of escalating tensions, here was a mutual softening, and in Sri Lanka at least, long-overdue introspection. It was in that year that Theekshana, then Pathirana, made their debuts for CSK, though there were no home games for the side in 2022.Additionally, there is the passage of time. Theekshana was ten when the war ended. Pathirana was seven. While injustices persist in Sri Lanka, and the kind of accountability Tamil Nadu has called for remains barely even a promise, there is also the simmering sense that these many years on, people need to move on.It is no surprise that the Chepauk fans who first bellowed for Pathirana are people roughly his age – Gen Z and young millennials, who tend to pack out the C, D and E stands. If you can make it there, Chepauk veterans say, you’re the rubber-stamped next big thing. Enmity, it turns out, does not have to be passed down through the generations.It’s worth clocking too that part of Pathirana’s rise among the CSK faithful is down to Dhoni’s vocal support of the bowler. When Dhoni struck that 91 not out and sealed one of Sri Lanka’s most painful cricketing memories with a six at the Wankhede, who could have guessed what he’d be capable of in the future? Since then, he has graduated from to in the Tamil imagination. And now he is – however unwittingily – playing a role in a Tamil-Sinhalese connect.Hurtbringer: for years, as Mumbai Indians’ bowling spearhead, Lasith Malinga was a thorn in Chennai Super Kings’ side•BCCIThere is also beautiful history here. Pathirana is far from the first Sri Lankan to feel the love at Chepauk, and in fact, Muthiah Muralidaran, in CSK’s early years, wasn’t either. In the pre-civil war decades, the Tamil Nadu state side was Ceylon’s (as Sri Lanka was then known) biggest regular opponent. In 1947, M Sathasivam – a Ceylonese Tamil, if you’re keeping track – hit a 215 against them that glittered by all accounts with delectable late cuts, fine glances, and spectacular drives. Right into the 21st century, old-timers who watched that innings would swear it was the greatest ever witnessed at Chepauk.There is no more legendary Sri Lankan cricketer of the pre-Test era than Sathasivam, and Chepauk was likely the scene of his crowning triumph. Whether or not Pathirana and Theekshana are aware, this too is a story to which they belong. Where their boots now tread, Sathasivam’s went first.These are victories worth celebrating, because despite what nationalists of any stripe would have you believe, hatred is not intractable. Neither, then, is cohesion. If there are many in the world intent on fanning flames, it is vital that when green shoots emerge from the earth, they are seen as worth protecting too.Right now, one of the brightest fast-bowling prospects Sri Lanka has produced, quite possibly the island’s fastest ever bowler, a man of Sinhalese origin, is being invested in and developed by a franchise side in Tamil Nadu. Across Sri Lanka, families turn their televisions on in the evenings and hear entire stands in a Chennai stadium scream “PA-THI-RA-NA”.You’d be foolish to think a few stump-splaying yorkers and stadium chants can heal grievances collected over decades. But you’d be naïve to think they mean nothing.

Despite bowlers dominating, this is only the third men’s T20 World Cup with three or more 200-plus totals, with two of them coming in Gros Islet in St Lucia

Sampath Bandarupalli18-Jun-2024

The bowlers’ World Cup

Yeah, so far it is the lowest-scoring T20 World Cup ever, with a run rate of 6.71 across 37 completed matches in the Group Stage. The previous lowest was 7.43 in 2021, 0.72 runs per over higher than this one.A wicket has fallen every 17.80 runs, also the lowest at a T20 World Cup. That’s 3.62 runs fewer than the previous mark of 21.42 in 2010 and 2022.Boundaries – fours as well as sixes – came every 8.1 balls, the slowest at a T20 World Cup.