The Black Lives Matter movement has set a fire raging in the game in the country

Firdose Moonda20-Aug-2020The centre has not held. South African cricket now operates only in black and white.On the one side is a privileged minority, built on colonial and then apartheid, rule, with access to the best facilities and most of the financial resources in the country. On the other is the historically oppressed majority, legally squeezed into the margins of society until 26 years ago, and still suffering the legacy of that centuries-old oppression.These two groups cross paths in places like the classroom, the boardroom or on the sports field, where they are expected to meet as equals. But the past means their playing field is anything but level and the perpetuation of their differences continues. Now we are confronting the depths of that division.In the last two months, the Black Lives Matter movement has collided with South African cricket and torn it apart. What started as a confident but hardly controversial answer at a press event from Lungi Ngidi has snowballed into a saga onto which complicated layers of the past are being compacted. Our airwaves have heard stories of discontent from Omar Henry, when he wanted to return home from the 1992 World Cup, from Makhaya Ntini, from Ashwell Prince, and from Thami Tsolekile, who was due to succeed Mark Boucher in 2012 but finished his career in 2016 with a 12-year ban for his role in contriving to fix matches.ALSO READ: Graeme Smith ‘shocked’ after threats on supporting Black Lives Matter movementThese are stories that have made people squirm and told them of the experience of being othered – the experience of the majority of South Africans in spaces previously reserved for a mostly white elite. And it is reflected in the numbers.Despite South Africa having a majority black population, of the 335 caps South Africa have handed out across all formats since 1991, more than two-thirds (225) have been to white players and just over 10% (38) to black African players. Coloured players make 16% (54) of the total and Indian-heritage players a little over 5% (18).These percentages ask questions about the speed at which South Africa returned to international cricket – before the country had even had its first democratic elections – and the lack of progress since. The former administrators of colour who once asked that South Africa only field a national team once some of the resources had been redistributed now appear to have had a point, but it’s too late for that. Those percentages also speak to the simple structural inequalities, such as that of apartheid geography, which placed the best schools and the best sporting facilities in white areas, leaving aspiring cricketers of colour with the challenge and the cost of transporting themselves to be educated and to train.ALSO READ: Cricket South Africa unveils plans to tackle racism in the sportSome of them, such as Kagiso Rabada, whose parents quickly became part of the middle class, had the means to go toe-to-toe with the haves. Others, like Ntini and Andile Phehlukwayo, were given scholarships to a top school, removing them from their immediate surroundings and setting them on a path to success. For most others – too many to name – the cycle of poverty continues and they remain have-nots.Graeme Smith says he was unaware of the isolation felt by former team-mate Makhaya Ntini in their playing days, but wants to be part of the solution now as CSA’s director of cricket•AFP via Getty ImagesWe have had several attempts to advance transformation with mixed results. At grassroots, Cricket South Africa (along with biscuit company Bakers and now KFC) have poured millions into mini-cricket projects. JP Duminy is listed among their success stories. At school level there are sporting bursaries aimed at providing young people of colour with as much opportunity to access quality coaching and facilities as possible. Ngidi is one such recipient. In the professional set-up, there are targets for franchise teams and the national side to strive for, in terms of playing players of colour and black Africans, which has benefited players like Hashim Amla and Rabada. Those four names alone speak to the importance of advancing the cause of the previously marginalised, but they are four who made it to the highest level. What about the others?Some like Monde Zondeki and Garnett Kruger have revealed what they believe are historical systemic issues, and others like Aaron Phangiso and Eddie Leie have discussed more recent events that they claim show that very little has changed.ALSO READ: Graeme Smith “aware and willing” to bring about change in wake of BLMZondeki told the radio station SAFM that he once interpreted a conversation with a coach to mean that there was only space for one of him or Ntini in the team, and that he would only be able to hold down a permanent place once Ntini had retired. As it turned out, Ntini played in five of the six Tests Zondeki played before injury ended his career. Kruger spoke on SABC news about not playing in Australia in 2008-09 where he said he “did not feel like it was a welcoming environment within the team”, and blamed Graeme Smith and Boucher for sidelining him. Tsolekile made a similar accusation about Smith and Boucher, who he said along with AB de Villiers, prevented him from playing in 2012. Herschelle Gibbs, in his 2010 autobiography, , was the first to call out a Smith-Boucher-Jacques Kallis-de Villiers clique that he claimed controlled South African cricket. Prince has tweeted several threads about the issue, most recently saying he perceived a “resentment” from Smith towards him.All that is important because of the positions Smith and Boucher hold today. Smith, as CSA’s director of cricket, is essentially the country’s most important cricket man and he has been in the thick of it. He has faced questions over his commitment to transformation from his first few weeks in the job. But he has spoken in support of the BLM movement and said he wants to “ensure that young black African players are given the opportunity that they deserve to reach the highest levels in all areas of the game”. He has defended himself against the allegations from Tsolekile and reiterated his desire to be part of the solution. He’s also said he was “unaware of” and “surprised” by the stories Ntini had told, even if might be difficult to believe any white South African can claim to be unaware of what was going on. Smith speaks as someone who is privileged; privileged enough not to have had to think about being the other in a professional team. More recently he said he understood those who felt frustrated by lack of opportunity, and argued the instances could be broken into two categories: “racial discrimination and the nature of competitive sport”.Mark Boucher was appointed head coach of the men’s team in December 2019, and Enoch Nkwe, who was team director, and had a stellar coaching record, was moved to the position of assistant coach•AFPBoucher has not made any public comments on the issue yet, which is strange, because he is in charge of the men’s national team with its varying backgrounds and lived experiences. He has come under fire from former players and administrators, including Prince and former national selector Hussein Manack, for getting a four-year contract in the top coaching job in the country, despite not having a Level 4 qualification. The implication is that it is his friendship with Smith that has got him the job. Boucher’s five trophies in three seasons with the Titans is compared with the three trophies in one season Enoch Nkwe swept in his maiden summer as a franchise coach, even though Boucher has been a franchise coach for longer. Still, the likes of Manack and Prince – himself a franchise coach – have asked why Nkwe is Boucher’s deputy?ALSO READ: Black Lives Matter – South Africa’s cricket elite shows united face in moving Centurion tributeNeither Smith nor Boucher can be held responsible for the issue raised by Phangiso, who was the only black African player in the 2015 World Cup squad and the only one who did not play a game. Or Leie, who played two T20s in 2015 and hasn’t been considered since. Both said they felt as though they were making up numbers without ever being given a proper run. Phangiso was part of a group of black players who wrote a letter to CSA in late 2015, after Khaya Zondo, a black batsman, was taken on a tour of India and did not play a game. That incident has come to light again, this time with the allegation that de Villiers blocked Zondo’s selection. de Villiers denied that he did but admitted he wanted David Miller in the team instead because the series was on the line and experience was needed. de Villiers called it a “cricketing” decision. The trouble is in the wording.When selection decisions are made about players of colour, it’s about transformation. When selection decision are made about white players, it’s about cricket. The insinuation that players of colour cannot be the subject of strategic selections is the same as the one that asks if transformation has to come at the expense of winning. It assumes that excellence and representation are mutually exclusive, which the national rugby team, the Springboks, as one example, have proved is not the case.It is the Springboks who so contributed to the image of South Africa as a rainbow nation bonded by sport when they won the World Cup in 1995. They gave South Africa relevance again when they won the trophy again in 2007, and then reignited national pride with a record-equalling third World Cup win in 2019. Their victory last year was their most unifying, because it came under a black African captain and a white Afrikaans coach, who transformed a group of individuals into a team. Cricket must have looked at rugby, long considered the more racially divided of the two sports, and wondered how to emulate it.The actions of the Sale Sharks players, poster boys for diversity in the Springboks’ World Cup win, brought up questions about the depth of the stand against racism in sport•Getty ImagesStill, post-BLM, even the Springboks’ glory has been tarnished. Last weekend a picture emerged of the South African contingent of the Manchester pro rugby union club Sale Sharks (and Samoan-born English player Manu Tuilagi, who cited religious reasons) standing while their team-mates took a knee ahead of a fixture. Among those who stood were World Cup winners Faf de Klerk and Lood de Jager, who lifted the trophy under the leadership of Siya Kolisi in Japan last year. Their (non) actions have underlined another aspect of the debate: do sportspeople have to take a knee to be antiracist, or is wearing a T-shirt enough? Can you be antiracist without joining the BLM movement? And if you are not actively antiracist, are you then the opposite?ALSO READ: Faf du Plessis on racism in South African cricket: ‘All lives don’t matter until black lives matter’These are questions that cricket and society are answering in binary terms. Every time a player of colour is quoted in the media talking about their experience of discrimination, the response is outrage and an attack on the establishment. The popular narrative is that Smith and Boucher must go, and even if there may be valid reasons for that, no alternatives are being offered. For now, there is only anger, as Prince referred to in a recent Twitter thread, even if it is not always being directed at the right people for the right reasons. Yet the hurt is understandable. Such deep wounds cannot be overhauled in a generation. But then, what can be done?CSA’s newly formed social justice and nation-building committee, which met with 40 former players in July, is an attempt to begin a process of consultation that starts with listening to grievances and may include financial reparations in the future. Even so, it has been criticised because its first meeting excluded Smith, who was initially invited but then asked to sit out by the CSA board, and who has since said he would like to take part. The current crop of players, from whom we have heard little about this issue, are headed to a culture camp this week to discuss team identity. Although not all of them are of the “born free” generation, who were born post-1994, they are, in theory, the most representative group of South African cricketers to date. And so they should be laying the foundations on which South African cricket will operate in future; foundations that should include a middle ground.What that may look like needs to be determined. There is talk of a sporting Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in which stories are told and grievances thrashed out, guilt and forgiveness offered and received. That may work, if it also allows nuances to come through in which white players acknowledge their privilege and players of colour are willing to interrogate reasons, such as circumstance, beyond merely blatant discrimination for their experiences, and everyone reaches a place where they can talk to each other, instead of shout.

Watching his RCB team-mate taught the India leggie a thing or two about bowling in Australia

Sidharth Monga04-Dec-2020″I didn’t even realise when I played this match.”As far as unusual quotes go, this from Man-of-the-Match Yuzvendra Chahal to the Hindi experts on Sony-Ten is up there, but it also sums up the surreal day Chahal had.Chahal was chilling when he saw Ravindra Jadeja walk in “wonky” after a 23-ball 44 that had kept India alive in the contest. Chahal might have had reason to be grumpy: he had just had his best IPL with 21 wickets and an economy rate of 7.08, but he was left out of India’s first T20I after the event based on his ODI form.5:25

Gambhir: India picked Chahal as concussion sub to best of their advantage

India’s fans might have had reason to be grumpy too. They had gone from wholeheartedly embracing wristspin and dropping both Jadeja and R Ashwin to now being back to having no wristspinner at all based on someone’s performance in a completely different format. Chahal being Chahal, though, was chilling, and said he had nothing to stress over. “In a way there was no pressure because when you are not playing you can relax,” he said.ALSO WATCH – Chahal’s match-winning spell (India subcontinent only)Chahal might have had his reasons to be chilling at that point, but the BCCI medical team’s inaction was confounding. Every other team’s doctor goes running out, gives a player a concussion test, and checks his helmet the moment he is hit on the head, but India waited until the end of the innings to ask Jadeja how he was feeling. As it turned out, he was dizzy, which is a big red flag. Soon he was diagnosed to be concussed. A medical team of an elite professional team needs to take player safety more seriously, and overrule players even if they wave away help.Be that as it may, Chahal said that 10 to 12 minutes before resumption of play he was told Jadeja was concussed and that he might be called upon to play. He might have been chilling but his brain had been working. He had been trying to work out what was going wrong. Two ODIs had brought him combined figures of 19-0-160-1, which resulted in the axe. He watched a lot of his IPL team-mate Adam Zampa, and decided he needed to bowl quicker, and draw extra bounce from the surface.”I had been watching Zampa especially because the ODIs hadn’t gone well for me,” Chahal said. “I wasn’t able to bowl the way I usually do. I was trying to work on my bowling, and make sure I make a good comeback whenever I get the chance.”Yuzvendra Chahal made a big impact after coming on as a concussion substitute•Getty ImagesThe chance came at a notice of 10 minutes. “I just ran in quickly the moment I was told I might have to play. I warmed up quickly, came out, bowled two overs and did some fielding drills. The pitch was gripping so I decided I was not going to flight it for them, and bowl quick legbreaks like the Australian spinners had in the ODIs.”If they hit a quick legbreak, it is a good shot, but from my side I was not going to flight it.”Chahal also conceded that the extra fielder out – in ODIs, you are allowed five fielders outside the circle for only 10 overs out of 50 as against 16 out of 20 in T20s – gave him the extra confidence. All his victims – Aaron Finch, Steven Smith and Matthew Wade – were caught in the deep. It left Australia questioning if Chahal was a like-for-like replacement for Jadeja, who is more of a restrictive bowler.Sanju Samson, who took one of the catches, said such quick action from Chahal – turning in a match-winning performance at such a short notice – was indicative of the quality and the depth of the Indian team. They might just need to be more stringent with player safety protocols in the future.

We might not understand his methods, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give him chances to succeed or fail before writing him off

Aakash Chopra22-Dec-2020I distinctly remember the conversation I had with one of my fellow commentators about the chances of Prithvi Shaw doing well (or not) on the morning of the India-West Indies Test match held in Rajkot in 2018. Shaw had risen to prominence after a successful India Under-19 campaign, and while there was more talk about his team-mate Shubman Gill’s skills, it was Shaw who got a proper break in the IPL first, for the Delhi franchise. He impressed one and all in his debut IPL season, and now here he was, opening along with KL Rahul for India ahead of Mayank Agarwal, who had scored truckloads of first-class runs. Shaw’s sheer talent and flair had forced the selectors to fast-track him to the highest level of cricket.His batting style was unconventional, for his back leg would move towards square leg as a trigger movement, and his high backlift was coupled with no foot movement. Conventional cricketing wisdom told us that there was a lot that was not right with his technique, and that if he were to succeed, it would make for a compelling outlier story. Shaw did succeed, and how.His century on Test debut was filled with attractive strokeplay, and since there was a lot of Virender Sehwag in his batting style, parallels were immediately drawn between the two. Shaw followed it up with another impressive half century in his second Test. West Indies aren’t the strongest Test bowling unit, and Rajkot and Hyderabad aren’t the hardest pitches to bat on, but the way this young kid, not yet 20, dominated the proceedings left an impression. His partner, Rahul, far more experienced and much more acclaimed for his skills, struggled against the same bowling unit.Related

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It was understood that Shaw’s technique made him susceptible to incoming deliveries for the lbw dismissal, and his outside edge was always threatened because of the lack of foot movement and because of how he used only his hands if the ball left him off the pitch or in the air. Now these are glaring issues but quite remarkably Shaw was hardly beaten outside off in that Test series against West Indies and not more than a small handful of balls struck his legs during the course of it. That’s a staggering amount of control in a Test innings, which even the best seldom manage. Shaw on debut was India’s best batsman across those two Tests, from a team that had Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in it.India’s 2018-19 tour to Australia was right after that series and there was excitement about what Shaw might do on his maiden voyage outside India as a Test opener. Unfortunately he twisted his ankle in a warm-up game and was subsequently ruled out of the tour. He was later embroiled in a doping offence, which, if it had been handled by the book, ought to have ruled him out of the IPL season that followed too. In short, his cricket career saw many twists and turns after that twisted ankle on the boundary rope in Australia.Since he was out of the reckoning for India for a while, Shaw went back to playing domestic cricket and scored heavily again. And it wasn’t just the weight of runs but the manner in which he decimated attacks that left watchers in awe. That he was a cut above the rest was there for everyone to see.

The weaknesses in Shaw’s technical armour were exposed, but let’s not forget, those flaws were present all along, when he scored and when he failed.

An injury to Rohit Sharma opened the doors for Shaw’s next opportunity to play for India, on the tour to New Zealand early this year. Gill was also a part of that Test squad but the team preferred Shaw. His returns of 16, 14, 54 and 14 weren’t significant by any stretch of imagination but one must remember that both Tests were played on overly seamer-friendly pitches and both finished inside four days. It was a Test tour where Rahane and Kohli didn’t score a single fifty between them and the entire Indian batting unit managed a total of four 50-plus scores in four innings.Was that enough proof that Shaw’s technique was faulty and that he would not survive at the top? Definitely not. Was it enough to suggest that he could thrive at the highest level in challenging conditions? Perhaps not.Shaw is a player who is putting fans in an awkward position, for he does not fit our understanding of what a successful Test player ought to be. When people fail to understand a phenomenon and find themselves conflicted, they try to find examples that are closest to the prototype in front of them. Therefore the endless comparisons to Sehwag – but as it happens, just the Sehwag who scored big, not the one who failed often too.Shaw has already scored a fifty in New Zealand (in only two Tests there); Sehwag didn’t score a fifty in five Tests in New Zealand. Sehwag’s average in England and South Africa (two extremely challenging countries for an opener from the subcontinent to play in) is 27 and 25. respectively. Sehwag has stellar numbers in Australia but that’s only one of the four countries that are considered the hardest for a batsman from the subcontinent to succeed in.We conveniently highlight or overlook stats to suit our narratives. And let’s also acknowledge and not downplay the fact that Sehwag was part of India’s strongest batting order ever. Having briefly been a part of it myself, I can tell you that that takes away some of the pressure of failure. This is something a modern Indian opener will know only when he’s playing in the subcontinent, and not in South Africa, New Zealand, England or Australia.3:26

Moody – Prithvi Shaw hasn’t failed, the selectors have

The second thing about the comparisons with Sehwag are that pitches overall were flat in Sehwag’s era. The quality of batting coupled with better pitches globally invariably produced numbers to match. And lest you think that I’m undermining Sehwag’s greatness or effectiveness, I am simply trying to highlight that comparisons between him and Shaw are flawed. Sehwag failed too, and he looked woefully out of sorts on occasion, but the knives were not out against him every time he nicked the ball or got bowled. (Admittedly Sehwag’s front foot moved a lot more than Shaw’s, and he didn’t have a huge gap between bat and pad too.)The other problem with anyone who doesn’t match our profiling is that subconsciously we wait for them to fail, for that vindicates our original belief. Shaw is going through that phase right now. His lack of runs in the IPL this year, and more importantly, the mode of his dismissals (the ball sneaked through his defences quite often) got everyone talking again.Finally, Shaw was proving us right – after all, there were many glaring flaws in his batting style. We didn’t look at his middling IPL numbers as a matter of form but as the result of a glaring technical issue, for that suited our preconceptions more. Admittedly, the weaknesses in Shaw’s technical armour were exposed, but let’s not forget, those flaws were present all along, when he scored and when he failed. What if it’s indeed a form issue with Shaw, like with Joe Burns, who averaged 7 in the ongoing first-class season till he scored a fifty in the second innings of the first Test? Are we willing to even admit that could be a possibility?Have we seen Shaw make any attempts to address his technical issues? Yes, he is now moving back and across instead of backwards towards square leg. This should put him in a slightly better position to get closer to the ball too. But these are early days with his new technical adjustment. Given the quality of this Australian attack, even openers with the tightest techniques are likely to struggle. If there’s indeed a glaring flaw, it will be exposed and exploited.Since Gill fits our profile of a Test batsman better and has scored a little more than Shaw in the warm-up games, are we justified in jumping the gun on him? I’m neither averse to change nor am I convinced by Shaw’s technique but I am willing to give him a chance to prove me right or wrong. If people gave up on Sehwag in his early days, when his results were a mixed bag (with a fair amount of failure outside Asia), Indian cricket would never have seen the full impact of his brilliance.Though it might feel like I’m building a case for Shaw to be picked for the second Test and beyond, I am only saying that we need to give his case a patient hearing. Because you and I don’t understand his methods doesn’t mean that he can’t succeed or shouldn’t be given a shot at least. A century on Test debut and a first-class average of 51, with nine centuries in just 25 games, indicates a prodigy, not a fluke. And even if he were to end up being the latter, allow him to be proved as one in due course.

With the IPL auctions and T20 World Cup coming up, there’s much at stake

Shashank Kishore09-Jan-2021Suryakumar Yadav
Why he has not played for India in T20Is is a common refrain from pundits. Yadav has opened the innings, batted at No. 3 and even played the role of a finisher in T20 cricket. One moment, he is finding ways to keep the runs ticking; he is playing inventive strokes at another – remember his reverse ramp for six off Jofra Archer in Abu Dhabi? Yadav’s 410 runs in 13 innings in IPL 2020 at a strike rate of 150 was his third straight 400-plus season for the Mumbai Indians. It’s this mix of the inventive with his industrious batting that India’s new selection panel may be excited by, especially if Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey – both nursing injuries at the moment – are ruled out of the T20Is against England in March. Yadav, 30, will hope a good Mushtaq Ali Trophy keeps his dream of playing for the country alive despite age not being on his side.Related

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Suresh Raina
Raina’s controversial departure from the UAE on the eve of IPL 2020 has remained a mystery, although he cited personal reasons for returning home. In his absence, the Chennai Super Kings never managed to fill the role Raina has performed with the bat in the middle order. But will the franchise retain him? Raina’s previous competitive game of any kind was over 18 months ago during the IPL final in 2019. But he now has a second chance as he represents Uttar Pradesh in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy. With IPL sides having until January 21 to submit their list of retentions, a good league phase – which finishes on January 19 – could give the Super Kings and Raina some encouragement.Can Rahul Tewatia force his way as a left-field all-round pick in India’s wider pool of probables for the T20 World Cup?•BCCIK Gowtham
An off-spinning allrounder, Gowtham defended 13 to help Karnataka clinch a last-ball thriller against Tamil Nadu in last year’s Mushtaq Ali final. His USP: Gowtham can bowl in the middle overs as well as with the new ball, and as batsman, a strike rate of 162 validates his billing as a lower-order power-hitter. Ask Jasprit Bumrah, who Gowtham clinically took apart to make 33 not out off 11 balls to win an improbable match in IPL 2018. But unfortunately for Gowtham, such performances have been far and few. In the previous IPL, he played just two matches for the Kings XI Punjab while also being expensive, leaking runs at above ten an over. With Karnataka missing Mayank Agarwal due to India duty, and with KL Rahul and Pandey injured, Gowtham’s experience will be key to a young side looking to defend their crown.Rahul Tewatia
Seldom has an uncapped Indian cricketer – one who hasn’t even been part of either India A or the Under-19 side before – received the kind of attention and adulation as Rahul Tewatia has. His IPL heroics for the Rajashtan Royals in Sharjah last IPL catapulted him into instant stardom, with his popularity – both on social media and among cricket experts – soaring to unprecedented heights. Tewatia is a powerful ball-striker, as those five sixes off Sheldon Cottrell showed. He is also an electric fielder and can fill in with a good few overs of legspin. Tewatia was the Royals’ second-highest wicket-taker in IPL 2020, while his economy rate of 7.25 was second to only Archer. Another good Mushtaq Ali Trophy – after respectable success in the 2019-20 edition – and consistency in the IPL could mean the possibilities are endless. Can Tewatia force his way as a left-field all-round pick in India’s wider pool of probables for the T20 World Cup?Dinesh Karthik
Since 2018, he hasn’t quite risen to the heights of that spectacular Nidhas Trophy final night, but Dinesh Karthik remains among the best finishers in India’s domestic circuit. Form wasn’t on his side during IPL 2020, which may have contributed to him handing over the Kolkata Knight Riders captaincy to Eoin Morgan midway through the season. Karthik’s struggles in the UAE could have been down to not having a fixed role in the batting order. However, bio-bubble restrictions and the need to pick jumbo squads in a pandemic world means he will continue to attract the selectors, especially with India still looking for designated finishers beyond Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja. Last season, 301 runs in 12 innings couldn’t quite deliver the title for Tamil Nadu. But Karthik will have the luxury of a fixed spot as captain for them. Can that translate into runs and glory for Tamil Nadu while also boosting his India prospects?Ishan Kishan was the fifth-highest run-getter in a victorious campaign for the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2020•BCCIIshan Kishan
He hit the most sixes (29) in IPL 2020, three more than Sanju Samson, his nearest competitor. However, unlike Samson, whose form tailed off after an impressive start, Ishan Kishan married game smarts to an already explosive game to finish with 516 runs – the fifth-highest in the tournament – in a victorious IPL 2020 season for Mumbai. Moreover, those runs were struck at 145.76. And though Kishan doesn’t keep wickets in the IPL, he does that job for his state team Jharkhand, whom he will also be leading at this year’s edition. With Samson not having capitalised on opportunities and Rishabh Pant also currently out of the frame of India’s limited-overs set-up, the national selectors may want to widen their wicketkeeping net as they build towards the T20 World Cup. Kishan is at best a batsman-keeper, but has improved considerably, having spent time with Kiran More and MS Dhoni. As much as his explosive batting, his glove work will be keenly watched too.Kedar Jadhav
When Jadhav had made his India debut in 2014, he was renowned for scoring quickly but his strike rates have dropped alarmingly since. During IPL 2020, he was ridiculed on social media, and even called ‘scooter’ by former India captain and national selector Krishnamachari Srikanth for being unable to turn strike. Five outings for the Super Kings yielded a mere 62 runs, and thus Jadhav was dropped midway. His stocks have plummeted since India’s 2019 World Cup exit. At 35, Jadhav isn’t an ODI regular anymore but now has a chance at the Mushtaq Ali Trophy to prove he still has a last lap or two both for India and at the IPL. Like many others, Jadhav will need performances of note to put himself up in the frame to be picked up at the mini-auction should the Super Kings release him to free up INR 7.8 crores from their auction purse.S Sreesanth
Bolt upright seam, late swing, bristling pace, snarls, stares – qualities we know of Sreesanth from 2013. Now pushing 37, he is coming back into the fold after seven years, following the Supreme Court downsizing the severity of his life ban. Sreesanth has been slowly been reintegrated into the Kerala set-up since June last year, when he first started training with members of the state Under-23 team in Kochi. He was assured of being given a fair run by bowling coach Tinu Yohannan should he comply with the fitness parameters. With Sandeep Warrier moving to Tamil Nadu, Sreesanth’s return could lend experience and immense skill to a young Kerala pace attack. Can he play the role of a senior statesman?

It’s the final of the first IPL. Enter the Blaster

Sidharth Monga13-May-20216:31

Irfan and Yusuf Pathan on the innings that won the Rajasthan Royals the first IPL title

We polled our staff for their picks of the top ten best batting, bowling and all-round performances in the IPL through its history. Here’s No. 1Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings, final, 2008Harsha Bhogle tells a story of Yusuf Pathan and Shane Warne at the Rajasthan Royals. Pathan had been given a specific role by Warne in the inaugural IPL: to “take ’em on” and “dominate the start of the innings”. When you truly try to fulfil that sort of brief, there are chances you will fail. Thirteen years on, it is a concept many batters still struggle to come to terms with.On a night when Pathan had had one of these unavoidable failures, he sat in his hotel room moping, blaming himself for a defeat. He heard a knock on the door. It was his captain, Warne. “Mate, one man doesn’t lose a game,” Warne said. “The team loses it. Don’t worry, sleep well.”Does one man win a game, though? It would appear so on the evidence of the final later that year.Back in 2008 cricket was still only entering – with trepidation but without intention to look back – the era of T20 and data analysis. Most of the analysis at that time, though, was technical in nature: footage (from matches and nets), split-screens, etc. There was no exhaustive data bank on match-ups, or much else, to fall back on.What we know looking back is this. Among those who faced a minimum of 80 balls in the middle overs that IPL, Pathan scored the fastest, at 10.58 runs an over. He started his T20 career, and the tournament, as an opener. Not that his rate of 9.45 runs per over in the powerplay was to be scoffed at, but he also averaged 80 in the middle overs as compared to 28.75 against the new ball. By the middle of the tournament he started playing in the middle order and he ended up facing 136 balls in that phase as against 73 in the powerplay.Yusuf Pathan: one-man band•AFPAmong those who faced at least 50 balls of spin, Pathan scored the fastest, at 12.82 an over. Again, it is not like he held himself back against pace. He might have averaged half the 62 he did against spin but he still struck the fast bowlers at 10 an over in the first ten balls. He did not need time to settle in nor did he slow down once in.As a bowler, he went at 7.36 against left-hand batters and 9.96 against right-hand ones. He bowled 110 balls to left-handers, and only 59 to right-handers.Warne is known to have come up with nicknames straight out of professional wrestling during his time at the Royals. Pathan was “the Blaster”, whose stated role other than dominating the bowling was to bowl stump to stump – not cutting edge by modern standards, but Warne’s cricketing brain didn’t need too much data to make good use of Pathan.Twenty-three of the 110 balls that Pathan bowled to left-hand batters were in the final; only one was bowled to a right-hand batter. Warne and Pathan outwitted the Chennai Super Kings, who did nothing to disrupt the Royals. CSK had four left-hand batters at the top, followed by three right-handers.Pathan continued with his plan of bowling stump to stump. The lack of pace handcuffed S Vidyut, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel. The quicker, flatter deliveries got the wickets. Only two boundaries came off his four overs, leaving the Super Kings at 97 for 3 by the time he was done.

The numbers

200 Pathan’s strike rate against Muttiah Muralitharan; he scored 24 off 12 balls

10 Number of dots bowled by Pathan in the final. Only Makhaya Ntini managed more

0 Number of players other than Pathan who have taken two or more wickets and scored 50 or more runs in an IPL final.

However, it was perhaps with the bat that Pathan made the more telling contribution of the final. By the time he walked in in the seventh over, the Royals were 42 for 3, chasing 164, and had one of the most economical bowlers of the tournament, Muttiah Muralitharan, to contend with still.It turned out to be Pathan’s most subdued effort with the bat in the tournament, pointing to the difficult nature of the surface. He hit no boundary in the first nine balls he faced, and only tried once. After he picked on L Balaji, hitting him for two fours in the tenth over, he was dropped off Murali. At 21 off 23 balls, he had brought the Royals to needing 75 off 45.Then came the storm you had sensed for a while. Pathan had just charged at Murali and only managed to squirt the ball to the off side. Now, though, his footwork was precise and he lofted successive sixes.It was Murali’s second-most expensive over out of the 58 he bowled in the tournament. He came back to claim the eventual Player of the Tournament, Shane Watson, but before he was done, Pathan hit him for another six, and he took down Balaji once again, to leave a manageable task for Warne and Sohail Tanvir.ESPNcricinfo’s Super Stats metric rated Pathan’s impact at 146.8, more than twice the next-best contribution by a Royals player. In the first final of what would go on to become the most competitive and prestigious T20 tournament in the world, Pathan produced a performance whose impact would be bettered in only two of the 12 finals since to date. There was no sulking that night.The Greatest IPL performances 2008-2020

His variety of slower balls and ability to give a good whack with the bat make him a valuable T20 World Cup candidate

Deivarayan Muthu19-Mar-2021In the lead-up to IPL 2018, Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming was impressed with Shardul Thakur in match-simulation slog overs at Chepauk, although the seamer was bit of a hit-and-miss. Fleming believed that Thakur could become a death-bowling option for the franchise along with the first-choice Dwayne Bravo – if he could work on his lines and lengths. Three years later, Thakur showcased his T20 evolution in a must-win match for India against a power-packed England line-up with an assortment of slower deliveries that might have done Bravo proud.The conditions at Motera on Thursday night were as tough as they could get for any bowler. When Thakur aimed for a yorker at the death with a dew-slicked ball, he lost grip of it so much that it flew behind him. Thakur hadn’t started well either, dropping Dawid Malan on 3 at short third man and then leaking 21 runs from his first two overs. The catch was a tough one, and two boundaries came off edges, but the figures didn’t tell these tales.Related

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When Thakur was recalled into the attack, England were in front, needing 46 from 24 balls, in their chase of 186, with six wickets in hand. Ben Stokes had just taken down both Indian spinners Rahul Chahar and Washington Sundar, peeling off 41 from a combined 19 balls off them.ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster pegged England’s chances of winning at 50.62% at the start of the 17th over, but in a space of two balls it nosedived sharply to 15.94%. Thakur rolled out a pair of offcutters and had both Stokes and Eoin Morgan holing out of successive balls. He banged those cutters into the pitch and hid it away from the swinging arcs of both the left-handers. Both batsmen took the wiser option of attempting to hit Thakur straighter as opposed to squarer, but they ended up slicing the ball to the outfielders. With Thakur’s double-strike, India were onto something…Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, too, kept taking pace off the ball, bowling legcutters to right-handers and offcutters to left-handers, leaving Thakur with 22 to defend off the last over against Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan. Thakur floated a legcutter away from Jordan’s reach first ball and kept him to an under-edged single. However, against Archer, Thakur veered away from his slower variations wide of off, and served up an on-pace length ball on the stumps that was pumped down the ground for four. The next ball was short and wide with Archer mowing it over midwicket for six. The equation was narrowed to 12 from three balls, and the pressure was back on Thakur. The seamer tossed the ball into his trouser pocket and wiped it furiously.The pressure mounted further on Thakur after he sent down two wides – one for height and the other for width. After a seemingly intense discussion with Rohit Sharma, the stand-in captain, and Pandya, Thakur revisited Plan A: dig slower balls into the pitch and take it away from the batsman. He splintered the toe of Archer’s bat with the fourth legal ball of the over and then had Jordan holing out next delivery with what looked like a knuckle ball to close out the game for India.Shardul Thakur’s double-strike at the death derailed England’s chase•BCCI”The last over [is] never easy and with dew coming in so much…there was not much dew in the last three games, but this game yes there was dew,” Thakur outlined the challenge for him, speaking to . “Definitely a tough over and they [England] were swinging hard. So, they were going for a few runs and it was important to bowl those dot balls – one or two dot balls – and the game was sealed.”Yes definitely because like I mentioned earlier there was dew coming in, so had we bowled the slower ones in the stumps or little bit up then it would have been easy to hit. The idea was to hit into the stumps and keep [the ball] away from their power zone.”Thakur also said that he relished the pressure of bowling the tough overs in the death and powerplay, having also done it recently for CSK in IPL and Mumbai in domestic cricket.”I’m enjoying it a lot,” he said. “Even when I’m playing in the IPL or domestic cricket, I bowl a lot of overs in the death or fourth, fifth or sixth over in the powerplay. So, I bowl a lot of overs where batsmen come hard at bowlers. Kind of getting used to it now.”The Thakur of the old, however, wasn’t used to white-ball cricket. He had fairly limited exposure with the white ball, having played a bulk of his age-group cricket in Mumbai with the red ball. Then, in senior cricket, he first broke into India’s Test squad in 2016 with his strong Ranji Trophy performances. He has since learnt on the job, adding more tricks to his repertoire and knowing when to use them.When Thakur made his T20I debut in 2018, he only seemed to have the knuckle ball as his change-up option. He can now bowl a split-finger variation, cutters into the middle of the pitch, and a cross-seamer that he gets to swerve by imparting backspin. In the ongoing T20I series against England on the grippy Ahmedabad tracks, he has taken all his five wickets with the offcutter, according to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, giving up 65 runs off 43 balls. And he bowled 21 of those offcutters on Thursday alone.India’s attack, much like their batting line-up, is packed with options in the approach to T20 World Cup, but not too many have the adaptability and variety of Thakur. Plus, he can give it a good whack with the bat in the lower order.

Justin Langer was the right coach for Australia after the ball-tampering scandal. But is he still the right man for the job?

Andrew McGlashan20-Aug-2021If the walls of the Adelaide hotel where the Australians are currently in quarantine could talk, they would have some stories to tell about the last week.Things have been tense in the men’s team for some time (remember Marnus Labuschagne’s toasted sandwich?) largely because they haven’t been winning, and it has been heightened by the bio-bubble and quarantine life that is currently part of international cricket.Related

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Having returned home from a tour that finished with them bowled out for 62, an argument with an in-house journalist, which did not initially stem from Justin Langer, became public and things took off from there. Details from the inner circle (Langer didn’t want players on the microphone in a T20I) were used to emphasise the coach’s intense character. The CEO intervened with a statement of support (good job this isn’t football). Emergency phone calls and Zoom meetings took place between the top executives and the captains. Former team-mates of Langer came out in his support; Matthew Hayden went at it with the same force with which he used to take down opening bowlers. Aaron Finch stopped short of a full endorsement, but Tim Paine spoke in a way that suggested some heads had been banged together. It was exhausting.For a moment in midweek, there was a feeling it may have reached the point of no return, but by Friday, things had stepped back from the brink. The quarantine period of those in Adelaide ends on Tuesday and people can return home and take a deep breath – although for some it will be straight back into lockdowns.

None of the comments in recent days attempting to dampen tensions have talked about Langer’s contract beyond its expiry next May. It could have got to the situation where success complicates the matter unless relationships really can be repaired.

Amid all this, Australia’s T20 World Cup squad was named. The same issues remain, but it’s as strong as it could be with an infusion of excitement around Josh Inglis’ call-up. Whether team spirit can be repaired in time remains to be seen but having the best players available again is at least a start.The crux of the argument is around whether Langer’s strengths have also become his weakness (a bit like a batter who has a great cover drive but keeps nicking behind). He cares deeply. Almost every piece has referenced the respect he is held in for what he achieved as a player. He was the type of coach Australia needed in 2018 after the ball-tampering scandal, but is he the right coach now?Writing in , Mike Atherton gave one of the more balanced assessments and drew comparisons with the end of the Andy Flower era for England. “It may be that these types of coaches – Eddie Jones in rugby would be similar – have a certain shelf life, because of the intensity of the atmosphere they generate and the high standards they demand,” he wrote. “The opposite would be a coach who tries to create a clubbable environment by doing very little, in which players are happy and feel free to express themselves. It may be that a certain type of coach fits a team at a certain stage of their development, or that the best coaches are able to wax and wane according to their team’s needs.”If all this is being forced by player power, they aren’t exactly coming at it with a handful of aces•Getty ImagesHe also cautioned that Australia “should be careful what they wish for” when it comes to change.It may be over-simplifying things, but if Paine had held his catches on the final day at the SCG or Australia had bowled India out at the Gabba, it’s unlikely this situation would have taken place. Or even just bowling the overs quicker in Melbourne. They would not have lost the series, would probably have won and have reached the World Test Championship final. It’s a philosophical debate – one of cricket’s chicken or egg moments – whether winning breeds a happy dressing room or vice versa, but if this is being forced by player power, they aren’t exactly coming at it with a handful of aces.These sorts of issues in a team never happen at a good time, but this is really the last thing Cricket Australia needs to be dealing with right now. They are facing significant challenges to get the season played as scheduled because of Covid-19, certainly this side of Christmas, beginning next month with the visit of the India women’s side. Tensions have grown over how the men’s Ashes series will work. You can imagine what Nick Hockley’s inbox looks like right now.The concern will be whether the last 48 hours have just been an effort in papering over cracks to avoid massive upheaval on the eve of a new season. There is a lot of high-pressure cricket in the coming months, although on England’s current form they may not provide much of a challenge in the Ashes. However, even that may not be a good thing. None of the comments in recent days attempting to dampen tensions have talked about Langer’s contract beyond its expiry next May. It could have got to the situation where success complicates the matter unless relationships really can be repaired.

How India’s historic win at The Oval reaffirmed the joy of Test cricket for this fan

Amit Bordia07-Sep-2021Choice of game
We now live at a stone’s throw from The Oval, so I wasn’t going to miss this game. With the series delicately in balance, an Indian team that must have been equally buzzing and hurting after Lord’s and Leeds, I was looking forward to a great time at the ground, and the prospects of enjoying the lunch break with aloo parathas at home.My commute regularly takes me to the road outside The Oval and for the last full year, I have seen it become a construction site, with a new stand being built. There was almost no cricket there in all of 2020. Often, I was left wondering how the feel of the ground would change. It was nice to be in the same stand, having seen them built slab by slab. They have been a great addition to the facilities and provide a modern touch to the gasholders in the backdrop.The build-up
Here we were – 4th Test, day five – with all the four results possible. I left for the stadium early and even then the streets from Vauxhall station were packed. The stands were full well before Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja started the proceedings. Schools and offices in the UK are now fully open – and one could sense that there were more than a few bunked classes, a few sick leaves and work-from-home requests that would have enabled those in the stands to be there.Related

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It was absolutely buzzing. By the end of day four, England had provided hope by their staunch resistance. While I knew that such a score has never been chased at The Oval, one of my earliest cricket memories was reading about India at the venue in 1979, and how Gavaskar’s 221 took India to 420 odd, just a few runs short of the target. Then there always was Headingley 2019 in the back of the mind! And of course, India did not have R Ashwin.The crowd
Whoever said Test cricket is on a decline needed to be at The Oval. Most of the fans were in their seats before the start of play. Not just the usual faithful but also young kids and families were all around. The stands were packed to the rafters all five days.The Indians get into a huddle as Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed walk out•Getty Images for Surrey CCCBetween shouts of support, it was normal to hear someone explaining to their kids how the ball could reverse. The more passionate Indian fans were still arguing about the inclusion of Ajinkya Rahane (a banner saying “oh Rahane- no more (excuses)” was a crowd favourite) and the exclusion of Ashwin – who was seen practice bowling in almost every break.I had been to a few games at the Hundred this summer and the buzz in the crowd in the last five days matched the best of those – and that speaks volumes of the love of Test cricket in these parts.The resistance from the England openers carried on through the first hour of the day. But just when the Indian supporters were starting to feel a bit down, the first couple of wickets fell. All hell broke loose.The Indian supporters were in full swing. Dhols (Indian drums), turbans, flags, and people dressed in all shades of blue – the dark-blue retro jerseys from the 1992 World Cup, the light blue ones from 1996 to 2007, and then the slightly darker versions that the World Cup champions wore in 2011 – were all there.An ode to The Oval
To a cricket fan, The Oval does not have the history and reverence that Lord’s enjoys, but it does almost always assure an incredible atmosphere and a buzz – slightly rebellious and much less formal than the “Home of Cricket”.It is also one ground where the dressing room is very accessible to the viewing public – and a seat at the Bedser Stand is one of my favorite spots in the world to watch cricket. For it not only provides a great behind-the-bowlers-arm view of the game, it allows a rare glimpse of the body language of those walking up and down on their way to battle, and those in the dressing rooms.My Bedser Stand favourites have included a near ring-side view as Inzamam-ul-Haq called his team from the field in 2006, as Kevin Pietersen waited to bat, sitting in a very contemplative mood, against South Africa in 2012, and as Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid made their way to the middle after following-on in 2011.Fans arrive at The Oval•Getty Images for Surrey CCCThe wow performance
By far, the best cricketing performance of the day belonged to the smiling assassin, Bumrah. He has such an energy about him – the way he bowls, and then turns almost hurrying to his mark and smiling all the way back – it is hard not to love him. In many ways, he is very similar to how Neil Wagner, another much-loved character, goes about his business.The six-over spell that Bumrah bowled was my defining cricketing memory of the day. Old ball, dead pitch, strong home support, good batting line-up, tired body – none of these seemed to have mattered to him.Fifty years on…
The last time India won at The Oval was when Bangladesh had just become a nation, Sunil Gavaskar had made his debut a few months back, India still played three-four spinners overseas, and my parents weren’t even married – and I am not young by any standards! By all measures, this was a historic win. But more importantly, it reaffirmed the joy of Test cricket – for how it unfolds over many sessions and days, and how a day (or two) at the cricket beats almost everything else. The Oval might not be the Home of Cricket, but for the last five days, for me and for many others – it was the “Heart of Cricket”!
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Based on their showing against Pakistan, it’ll take a brave man to predict a better fate for the top four in New Zealand

Mohammad Isam08-Dec-2021Shaheen Afridi toyed with Shadman Islam. He got him to jump around the crease and then sent him out with a full delivery that rammed into his pads.Hasan Ali got one to scissor between debutant Mahmudul Hasan Joy’s defence. Then, he had Bangladesh’s captain Mominul Haque, with a full and fast delivery he couldn’t get bat to.Having roughed Bangladesh up with full deliveries, Afridi then adopted the short-ball trick to great effect as Najmul Hossain Shanto lobbed a simple catch to one of the two gullies stationed for just that.Related

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On the fifth morning of the second Test, Bangladesh’s top four were dismissed in no time after they had been asked to follow-on. And it’s Pakistan’s takedown of their brittle line-up in each of the four innings this series that was crucial to the 2-0 sweep.The 7.62 Bangladesh’s top-four batters averaged is the worst when they have batted in at least 16 innings in a Test series. Yet, all considered, they were about 20 minutes away from securing a draw, mainly due to Shakib Al Hasan and the lower-order resistance – and all the time lost to the weather earlier. But when the top four cave in as easily as they have, it doesn’t help.What contributed most to the top four’s meltdown was Mominul having his worst Test series to date. He made only 14 runs, the least he has scored in any series in which he batted at least four innings. His previous lowest across four innings was the 94 he made against England in 2016.

Shadman, Mahmudul, the uncapped Mohammed Naim and Fazle Mahmud are the opening options in New Zealand. Can they cope with the green in New Zealand? Against Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner? It will be tough, that’s for sure.

While the top four have been poor, it’s also important to factor in their inexperience. Shadman and Shanto are playing their tenth and 11th Tests respectively, while Saif Hassan, who missed the Dhaka Test because of a fever, is just working his way up having made his debut last year. Mahmudul, meanwhile, is an absolute rookie.They are all considered to be in the list of the country’s next-in-line batters, who have all made at least one century in the season’s first-class tournament. But how much is that really worth?In Chattogram, Russell Domingo had said that the domestic structure doesn’t prepare young players to make the transition to the highest level. It was a bold statement from a coach, who himself has often found himself at odds with the board bigwigs. “There’s some exciting young players coming through but they are a long way off from where they need to be as international batsmen and bowlers,” Domingo had said. “The more cricket they play at the domestic level or ‘A’ team tours, the better will be for the national side.It’s clear that Bangladesh aren’t the same side without Tamim Iqbal, but he is still some way from match fitness•AFP/Getty Images”Right now, the step up from domestic to international cricket is a massive step. It is something BCB needs to look at to make sure they impact the game and not take a long time to find their feet.”What would be most worrying for Domingo – and other stakeholders of the game in Bangladesh – going into the New Zealand series is the number of balls that the top four have faced in this series. It is the lowest for Bangladesh when they have batted at least 16 innings in a Test series, roughly one-third of the 854 balls that they face on average in a home series.It’s clear they aren’t the same side without Tamim Iqbal, who scored four Test half-centuries in a row this year. His attacking salvo derailed Sri Lanka a couple of times in the Test series in April. Since his debut in 2008, Tamim is the fourth-highest scorer among Test openers. It’s an understatement when we say Saif, Shadman and the new lot of batters coming in have big boots to fill.Tamim is still a while away from returning to competitive cricket – he has multiple fractures in his thumb – which means Shadman, Mahmudul, the uncapped Mohammed Naim and Fazle Mahmud are the opening options in New Zealand. Can they cope with the green in New Zealand? Against Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner? It will be tough, that’s for sure.

The captain overcame a slow start to take down Mitchell Starc but the prize eluded him

Deivarayan Muthu14-Nov-20212:38

Vettori: Measured and intelligent innings from Williamson

Kane Williamson and Jimmy Neesham sat expressionless in the dugout when Daryl Mitchell struck the winning runs for New Zealand in the semi-final in Abu Dhabi. About 96 hours later, across the highway in Dubai, Williamson and the entire New Zealand side stood still, as Glenn Maxwell hit the winning runs for Australia in the final.New Zealand are used to being bullied by Australia in tournament knockouts. After all, the last time New Zealand beat Australia in a knockout was way back in 1981. On Sunday, Williamson threatened to flip the narrative with his masterclass, but Australia came out on top once again.Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins handcuffed Williamson with their heavy lengths and into-the-pitch cutters. Australia packed the off side with five fielders and with the ball also sticking in the pitch, Williamson struggled to force it away. He was on five off ten balls after the powerplay; New Zealand on 37 for 1 from seven overs. They went 32 balls without a boundary.Related

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Williamson was fighting tough conditions. He was fighting a tough attack. He was fighting his own niggly elbow – he has been feeling discomfort while gripping the bat and extending his elbow this tournament. He was fighting all the odds stacked against New Zealand. Yet, he found a way. Like he usually does.He forayed down the track and Brendon McCullumed Mitchell Marsh over extra-cover for four. Next ball, he muscled another four, to the midwicket boundary. Hazlewood, however, could have cut that short he had he not dropped him at fine leg and let the ball bobble over the rope for four.With that stroke of luck, Williamson was truly on to something and that was ruthlessly decimating Mitchell Starc.Kane Williamson uses his wrists to work the ball behind point•Getty ImagesWilliamson knew Starc’s plan was to bowl on-pace yorkers. He set himself deep in the crease and when Starc kept missing his lengths, Williamson made it count. When Starc flung down a 147kph beamer, Williamson defied his pesky elbow again and monstered it over midwicket, Kieron Pollard-style, for six. From being on seven off 13 balls, Williamson rattled off a 32-ball half-century.Starc vs Williamson: round two. Starc went full and wide from over the wicket, Williamson knew third man was up and unleashed a devil-may-care slash, sending an outside edge flying between the keeper and short third man. Fast, full and wide again, Williamson went for a roundhouse leg-side swipe as the ball plinked over short third man again for four.Williamson was rewarded for attacking intent and game-awareness, something that was missing from New Zealand in the early exchanges. They had let the first two overs of Maxwell drift by, taking only 14 runs off him.Cricket on ESPN+

Match highlights of the Men’s T20 World Cup final is available in English, and in Hindi (USA only).

Starc then shifted his lines straighter and cut down his pace, but Williamson had anticipated it. He jumped across off and shovelled it over midwicket by manufacturing his own pace. Like Starc, Jasprit Bumrah often directs his full balls or yorkers at the stumps and pushes his slower balls wider of off. Williamson had trumped Bumrah in fairly similar fashion at Seddon Park in January 2020.All up, Williamson hit Starc for 39 off 12 balls and finished with 85 off 48 balls. According to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, which adds context to every performance, his contribution was actually worth 103 runs. Williamson gave New Zealand hope, only for it to be crushed by Marsh and David Warner.Kane Williamson and his team-mates troop off after losing the final•Getty ImagesThe pair maximised the powerplay and smashed 92 together off 59 balls for the second wicket in Australia’s pursuit of 173. Warner short-arm pulled Tim Southee for six. He straight-pulled Ish Sodhi for four. Marsh slammed Adam Milne 6, 4, 4 before he, too, laid into Sodhi. Australia finished it off with eight wickets and seven balls to spare.”Yeah, look, I thought the efforts that went in were outstanding,” Williamson said at the post-match press conference. “The guys worked hard to get to what we thought was a competitive total. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to create many opportunities and get those breakthroughs.”It was a little bit frustrating. We sort of thought on that surface that we had a few opportunities to do that and build some pressure. I think we’ve seen the conditions throughout be fairly consistent, and the ball did skid on a little bit. But the Aussies were outstanding in their chase and very, very clinical. They have had a fantastic campaign, and they are a brilliant side and they thoroughly deserved it.”The T20 World Cup – and the night – ended in Dubai with Australia celebrating wildly under firework-filled skies and Williamson quietly led New Zealand off the field, perhaps with a teasing thought, about what might have been.