And which bowler has the most fourth-innings wickets?

Steven Lynch19-Nov-2024Which bowler has taken the most wickets in the fourth innings of Tests? Is it Jimmy Anderson? asked David Wilkinson from England
Jimmy Anderson is in the top ten here with 91 fourth-innings wickets, one more than his old sparring partner Stuart Broad. But leading the way, with 138 fourth-innings victims, is Shane Warne.There is some danger of a change at the top, however: in second place at the moment with 119 is another prolific Australian spinner, Nathan Lyon. Three others took more than 100 fourth-innings wickets: Rangana Herath (115), Muthiah Muralidaran (106) and Glenn McGrath (103). R Ashwin currently has 99, so should join them soon.If you restrict the qualification to fourth-innings wickets in Test victories, Warne still leads the way with 106, ahead of Herath (98), Lyon (94), Ashwin (86) and McGrath (84).Goa’s innings in the Ranji Trophy the other day included two triple-centuries. Has this happened before in a first-class match? asked Ashwini K Patel from India
In something of mismatch in last week’s Ranji Trophy Plate group, Goa ran up 727 for 2 declared in Porvorim, either side of bowling Arunachal Pradesh out for 84 and 92. Kashyap Bakle (300 not out) and Snehal Kauthankar (314 not out) both scored their maiden triple-centuries, and shared an unbeaten third-wicket partnership of 606, which has been beaten in all first-class cricket only by the 624 of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene for Sri Lanka against South Africa in Colombo in July 2006.There has been only one other innings that contained two triple-centuries – also in the Ranji Trophy, although oddly enough it was against Goa, who did it this time. Back in January 1989, in Panaji, Tamil Nadu’s 912 for 6 declared included 313 from WV Raman and 302 not out from Arjan Kripal Singh.Has a T20I innings ever contained two centuries, before last week? asked Taral Khasiya via Twitter/X
The match last week was in Johannesburg, where Sanju Samson hit 109 not out and Tilak Varma 120 not out as India piled up 283 for 1 against South Africa. They shared an unbroken stand of 210, and hit 19 sixes between them.There have been two other T20I innings that contained two individual centuries. One of them happened earlier this year, in Mong Kok (Hong Kong) in February, when Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake scored 134 not out and Kendal Kadowaki-Fleming 109 not out for Japan against China. But the first such instance in a men’s T20I took place in 2022, when Sabawoon Davizi and Dylan Steyn scored hundreds for Czech Republic against Bulgaria in Malta.*It’s a rare achievement in all men’s T20 cricket: there have been only six other instances in senior matches, three of them in the IPL.There have been five cases in women’s T20Is, including two in three days by Argentina against Chile in October 2023.Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma’s twin hundreds in Johannesburg was only the second instance of two battters scoring hundreds in the same T20I innings•AFP/Getty ImagesI noticed that Lee Germon top-scored in both innings of his debut Test, and was also the captain. Has anyone else done this? asked Prasenjit Chatterjee from India
The New Zealand wicketkeeper Lee Germon achieved this unusual feat on his Test debut, with 48 and 41 against India in Bengaluru in October 1995. He’s actually the only one to top-score in both innings of his debut while also being captain, which is a pretty rare achievement in itself.Eighteen other players have top-scored in both innings of their Test debut, but were not captain. The most recent instance was by Alick Athanaze, for West Indies against India in Roseau (Dominica) in July 2023, and before that Shreyas Iyer did it for India vs New Zealand in Kanpur in November 2021 .The famed 1948 Australian team scored 774 against Gloucestershire, and there were five hundred partnerships in the innings. Was this a record? asked Tony Mountford from England
The 1948 Australian “Invincibles”, captained by Don Bradman, went through that long tour without being defeated. In the match against Gloucestershire in Bristol, even though Bradman himself didn’t play, the Aussies’ 774 for 7 declared included successive partnerships of 102, 66, 136, 162, 63, 140 and 105. Opener Arthur Morris made 290, and Sam Loxton 159 not out from No. 6.At the time, that was the fourth instance of five hundred partnerships in a first-class innings (the Australians had also done it in England in 1938, against Oxford University), and there have been two more cases since: by Sialkot (666 for 7) against Hyderabad in Sialkot in November 2007, and Sri Lanka A (749 for 5 declared) vs South Africa A in Potchefstroom in 2008.But there’s a runaway leader in this category. There has never been a first-class innings with six hundred partnerships, but there has been one with seven: when Holkar ran up 912 for 8 declared against Mysore in the Ranji Trophy semi-final in Indore in March 1946, they had successive stands of 184, 4, 111, 172, 110, 125, 106 and 100.And there’s an update to last week’s question about Mominul Haque being out twice in the same session of a Test, from Charles Davis in Australia
“On the subject of two dismissals in a short interval, if we widen the search to include any score, the fastest appears to be by Percy Sherwell for South Africa against Australia in Sydney in March 1911. Sherwell was the last man out in the first innings, and when the follow-on was enforced he kept the pads on and opened, only to be first out for 14 in the fourth over. There were 11 minutes’ playing time and 27 minutes’ elapsed time between the two dismissals.”Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The forecast for the Test is for it to get hotter, closer to 30 degrees, but it is not likely to break up the surface

Sidharth Monga17-Jun-202514:58

Sai Sudharsan or Abhimanyu? Shardul or Nitish? What combination do India go with?

It’s not often that Headingley gets the first Test of the series in England. Headingley usually hosts a Test much later in the summer, usually the third of the series. Add to it that there has hardly been any rain in Leeds since February. So Richard Robinson, Yorkshire’s head of grounds, has had to carry out a “different kind” of preparation for the Test.Don’t be alarmed by the green look – indistinguishable from the square really – the pitch wears three days out. It will get a nice trim and a roll. Right now, though, as through the whole preparation, retaining enough moisture is the goal for Robinson and his team, which includes Jasmine Nicholls, former England race-walker and the first woman to make an international pitch when she led the team for the England vs Pakistan women’s T20I.Robinson has a deep connect with Headingley. The first Test he came here for as a boy was during Botham’s Ashes. He went on to play as a contemporary of Michael Vaughan and umpire Richard Kettleborough. Now he gets to prepare the canvas for more epics. He is satisfied with the hardness of the surface, which should make for good true bounce. That is also what England have wanted under Brendon McCullum as the coach. “They just want to have a good surface so it’s true, really, so we can hit through the line of the ball,” Robinson said. “That’s really what they’re looking for.”Related

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The grass will come down to 8mm by the morning of the Test, which is fairly standard for a Test at Headingley. Robinson feels a final assessment of the pitch should only be made on that morning. He expects it to “do a little bit” on the first day and to flatten out quite quickly because of the heat expected.The pitch remained covered during the afternoon on Tuesday to not let it dry too much even as Ben Stokes and England trained on the practice pitches. Stokes ended the session by bowling at a single stump. It seemed a perfect day for cricket with the sun out and the temperature around 22 degrees celsius. It was quite breezy too, which can dry the surface out quickly.Richard Robinson, Yorkshire’s head of grounds, has had to carry out a “different kind” of preparation for the Test•ESPNcricinfo LtdThe forecast for the Test is for it to get hotter, closer to 30 degrees, but it is not likely to break up the surface. So if the pitch is going to flatten out quickly and not break up deep into the Test, it might pay to bowl first and exploit the conditions on day one. This has certainly been the trend in England when McCullum has been the coach: teams have chosen to field in 16 out of 22 Tests, winning nine of those and losing six. When teams have chosen to bat first on the six occasions, they have lost each of those Tests.England have won both the Headingley Tests in this period, chasing down 296 against New Zealand and 251 against Australia. That Ashes Test was also Robinson’s debut as Headingley’s head groundsperson. The eight innings in these Tests ranged from a highest of 360 to a lowest of 224. Neither diabolical nor high-scoring. Robinson hopes for more of the same, but there might be a few more runs in it this weekend.India, on the other hand, have not played a lot at Headingley in recent years. Before their innings defeat in 2021, they had last played at the ground in 2002, famously winning by an innings and 46 runs.

The allrounder says “a mix of clarity and the right opportunities at the right time” has put his career on fast track

Ashish Pant07-Sep-2025Life has been on the fast lane for 23-year-old Vidarbha allrounder Harsh Dubey. A record-breaking 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season, an IPL call-up as a replacement player, an India A debut, a Duleep Trophy debut. All in the space of 11 months.What has stood out in the last year is Dubey stepping up in crunch matches. His twin fifties in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Tamil Nadu twice helped Vidarbha recover from sticky situations. He was instrumental in Vidarbha’s semi-final win against Mumbai, picking a five-wicket haul in the second innings, and in the final, his three wickets denied Kerala a first-innings lead.On a day when Dubey was named in India A’s squad for a red-ball series against Australia A, he was at it again, this time for Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy semi-final. When he walked out on the third morning, Central had lost three wickets in a short span. They were still 116 runs away from a first-innings lead and the momentum was with West Zone.Related

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But Dubey was determined not to let the bowlers dominate. He worked Shams Mulani through midwicket early in his innings and then drove him through covers to move to a run-a-ball 26 before lunch. Precise in his footwork, front and back, Dubey’s handling of the spinners stood out. He barely hit a shot in the air but found the gaps with ease.When Tushar Deshpande went short, Dubey pulled him off the front foot through midwicket. When Tanush Kotian went marginally leg side, he swept him fine. By the time Dubey reached his half-century, off 62 balls, Central Zone were just 11 runs shy of taking the lead.”When I was batting, I only had the first-innings lead in my mind and how I could cross that [West Zone’s total],” Dubey said. “I have always had a positive mindset. I was trying to find gaps, collect boundaries so that other things become easy for me. I thought if I played with a defensive mindset, there were chances I would hit one ball in the air. My plan was not to let the bowler settle and try not to let him target just one spot.”Dubey’s 75 off 93 balls wasn’t his only noteworthy performance. He also picked up three wickets, playing an important part in restricting West Zone to 438. On a surface which wasn’t aiding spin, Dubey relied on his pace variations and changes in lengths to keep the batters from dominating.”I believe more in classical left-arm spin,” he said. “I try to vary the pace and deceive the batsman with spin and pace. When the wicket is playing well, then obviously you can’t bowl at the same pace, it becomes easy for a batsman to score runs. I just try to vary my pace, and bowl with a plan in mind. So that keeps running in the back of the mind.”Dubey averages 20.99 with the ball and 24.03 with the bat in first-class cricket. While he started his career as a batter and later developed his left-arm spin, he doesn’t want to label himself as a batting or bowling allrounder. “,” he says. [Whatever I am doing first after the toss, I’ll choose that].Harsh Dubey picked up three wickets as well•PTI It’s this dual role that earned Dubey a place in the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad late into the IPL 2025 season as a replacement player for R Smaran. He had moderate returns – five wickets in three matches at an economy of 9.80 – but caught the eye of Daniel Vettori and Anil Kumble, who were impressed by his consistency.”I was at home at that time and was not expecting a call-up at all,” Dubey said. “The IPL was almost done and SRH had four matches left. I got a lucky break. Yes, there was some crowd pressure. But the one positive thing about me is that I don’t look at the batsman. I think about how to put the ball in the right area and how to execute my plan.”Dubey made his Ranji Trophy debut in December 2022, but 2024-25 was his first full season for Vidarbha. He isn’t doing anything different now from when he first started, he says, but feels the clarity around his role has helped him in the last year.”I think I have got better opportunities,” he said, “And I now have a lot more clarity about my role, my ability, and what I can do on the ground. So I think it’s a mix of clarity and the right opportunities at the right time.”We play a lot more red-ball cricket [in Vidarbha]. I think because of that, our basics are very good. My base has been very good since childhood, and I am getting the results now.”

Three inexperienced seamers tried their best to hold the line but England’s predicament felt like a failure of management

Vithushan Ehantharajah02-Aug-2025Who else but Ben Stokes?No seriously, who else? Any ideas? Anyone? Hello, is this thing on?That’s what it felt like on Saturday. England scrabbling around, looking for something, anything to save them. It was not just day three that was getting away from them, but this fifth Test and a series win.Their regular saviour, their usual captain, their standout bowler, was on the balcony, taking as well-earned a rest as you can have when your right shoulder is hanging by a thread. Meanwhile, Ollie Pope was out there on his home ground stuck in a bad dream.Related

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There he was, sifting through bowling combinations without Chris Woakes, and fields with a cordon seemingly without the ability to catch. At times, it was like watching a man trying to eat soup with his hands, occasionally heading back up to the home dressing room to wash them and ask if anyone had found a spoon, or even a fork, only to be met with big sunnies, white trainers and blank stares.The best you could say of England’s bowlers is that they kept at it in a meaningful way. Not just toiling, but doing so with a degree of hate in their hearts. No one likes being dog-walked in Test cricket as they were for 70 overs. There was plenty of bark and bite to show as much. Reward, too. Or at least souvenirs from the grind. Cool stories for the scars.Josh Tongue bagged his second five-wicket haul in Tests – expensively (5 for 125 from 30 overs) but got them nonetheless. He finishes the series as England’s leading wicket-taker with 19 despite only playing three matches.Gus Atkinson’s 3 for 127 saw him reach into what, for now, are relatively shallow reserves after two months out with a hamstring injury. He came up with 27 overs more work and a few pearlers to add to the first innings five-for. He restated just how good he is by dismissing India skipper Shubman Gill with the first ball after lunch.Jamie Overton doubled his Test tally with two dismissals – as many County Championship wickets as he has for Surrey this season – while bowling at an average speed of 85mph on day two and three. The sprinkling of 89.5mph bolts offered vindication if it were needed (it was) that his inclusion had some merit.

“In seaming conditions, England committed the cardinal sin of being cut more than they were driven. Such a pitch looked prime for Sam Cook, even Matthew Potts. Both of whom have the hardwired game for these surfaces. And yet neither was even considered worthy of the squad”

It was tough not to feel sorry for them. The dichotomy between batting and bowling was felt keenly on a day like this: the former set 374, the latter dragged for 396. It felt like that most when Washington Sundar conducted the in the stands with his sixes in the final partnership. And across the six drops – two from Harry Brook, two from Zak Crawley, one from Ben Duckett and one from sub-fielder Liam Dawson – which cost 152 all in.”Going through from yesterday knowing we were going to bowl a few overs out there, it was obviously going to be a tough ask for us bowlers, but I thought we stuck at it really well,” Tongue said at stumps.Truthfully, though, the task of marshalling a series decider was always going to be tough on the three replacements. Particularly given the series had acquired so much feeling and narrative over the last two Tests, at Lord’s and Old Trafford, which featured none of them. You think jumping out of moving car is hard, try jumping a moving one.Atkinson and Overton were coming in cold. Tongue returning a month after being parked for Jofra Archer after two Tests. Each would have dealt with their own pressures, and here they were exacerbated as they were thrown in together.Even with Woakes available, there would have been struggle. The 36-year-old had bowled just 68 of his 161 overs across the first four Tests in the second innings. Slack would have had to been picked up.But his experience might have jolted them out of bad habits. The lack of game-time showed with their collective inconsistency, which was leapt upon by Yashasvi Jaiswal to the tune of 118.In seaming conditions, they committed the cardinal sin of being cut more than they were driven: Jaiswal sliced and diced 72 of his first 100 runs behind square on the off side. Such a pitch looked prime for Sam Cook. Even Matthew Potts. Both of whom have the hardwired game for these surfaces. And yet neither were even considered worthy of the squad.England’s careful planning fell apart ahead of the fifth Test•PA Photos/Getty ImagesBut more broadly, the gamest pitch of the series, certainly the one with the pace and bounce England have craved throughout the summer, has been used by the second string. And that, ultimately, feels like a failure of management.The plan at the very start of this five-match series was for enough changes of personnel to keep the prime quicks refreshed throughout. And even with injury to Mark Wood, Olly Stone and, initially, Atkinson, there was enough to shuffle through.Certainly, for instance, enough to not get to a stage where Brydon Carse, a superior hit-the-deck bowler to Tongue, was running on fumes in Manchester after four appearances on the bounce. Though Archer’s return was well-managed, it was hard not to wonder how much joy he would have got on this surface.Perhaps England could have kept a couple in the chamber? It is only this week that Manchester hosted its first positive result across six first-class matches this summer. Of the venues to protect your quicks, particularly having already established a 2-1 lead, maybe that was it? Understandably, the prospect of clutching an outright series win with a game to spare was too enticing.The pitches should get some of the ire. England have bowled on 19 of the 23 days of play so far, sending down at least 50 overs on 12 of them. But the batters haven’t helped. On day two, for instance, having made light work of India’s last four first innings wickets in the morning, the bowlers were back at it just 51.2 overs later.Rotating bowlers is never an exact science, though science does come into it. The ECB tracks overs bowled and bodies to manage their quicks, keeping tabs on things like “red zones” – when workloads reach a point that the likelihood of injury increases.The current era take on that information and are particularly meticulous when it comes to the real five-star pace merchants, like Archer and Wood. By and large, they have moved away from leaning heavily on those metrics in favour of a more personable approach.It gives players more agency over their fitness, which they prefer. What they can play through, what they know they should not.Though you wonder, in a series as big as this, ahead of an Ashes, if a player would wilfully pull themselves out of the firing line? Especially in a team moulded in the image of a captain who needed head coach Brendon McCullum and medical advice to sit out this one. Stepping aside would also risk losing that spot altogether. Ollie Pope almost found out when he handed the No. 3 position to Jacob Bethell for last year’s tour of New Zealand.There are different strands of the multiverse where Woakes does not damage his left shoulder. Or Brook holds onto Jaiswal for 20. Or even Dawson on 40. Or Crawley and Deep on 21 to nip a nightwatcher innings of 66 before it really ate away at the team’s souls.But the one strand of note, the one that got away well before this match begun, was a more considered plan with this attack. It is something they must get right come the Ashes this winter. Lessons should be learned from the last two months.Then again, they will also hope for some blind luck. Just look at India: they possess the one generational quick in the series, and have not won any of the three matches he has played. And they could not be happier with how things have panned out.

Three years after winning the Under-19 World Cup, left-arm spinner Vicky Ostwal looks ready for the red-ball grind

Deivarayan Muthu01-Sep-2025He was India’s highest wicket-taker during their run to the 2022 Under-19 World Cup title in the Caribbean. He was also impressive with both ball and bat in the 2025 Maharashtra Premier League (MPL). He has been with Delhi Capitals (DC) as a reserve player in the IPL for three seasons and is now preparing to make the step-up across formats. His Maharashtra captain Ankit Bawne introduced him as a “future star” to reporters in Chennai during the Buchi Babu tournament last month. Get acquainted with 23-year-old left-arm spinner Vicky Ostwal.Just weeks after winning the Under-19 World Cup in February 2022, Ostwal was fast-tracked into Maharashtra’s Ranji Trophy side. But he needed more time to mature and adapt to red-ball cricket in particular. After making occasional appearances for Maharashtra since, Ostwal is now staking his claim for a more regular spot this season.Having emerged as the highest wicket-taker in the Under-23 CK Nayudu tournament, Ostwal came away as Maharashtra’s highest wicket-taker in the pre-season Buchi Babu tournament as well, with 13 strikes in two games at an average of 17.23 and economy rate of 2.64. He credits the Under-23 tournament for bridging the gap between Under-19 cricket and the Ranji Trophy.Related

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“It’s always a process for a spinner to make a spot in the team,” Ostwal told ESPNcricinfo on the sidelines of the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai. “I’m still fighting for it. I’ve played five Ranji games on and off, but the CK Nayudu has been my core after that Under-19 World Cup. Whatever I play – CK Nayudu or Ranji – the aim is to make Maharashtra win. Playing for Maharashtra is a [matter of] prestige. The aim is always to win trophies for Maharashtra.”Hailing from Lonavala, a hill station on the Mumbai-Pune highway, Ostwal used to travel to Mumbai to hone his skills at the Vengsarkar Academy in Churchgate. But after he realised that he was ineligible to play tournaments in Mumbai (only players born in the city can play MCA tournaments), he tried to build a career in Maharashtra. He again commuted in crowded trains for hours on a daily basis from Lonavala to Pune, where he joined the Varroc Vengsarkar Academy.”That journey is something special,” Ostwal recalled. “Because it showed me how passionate I was about cricket and how badly I wanted to play cricket. My dad used to support me during all these travels. When I look back at it, I feel very nice and special about it. The hard work is all paying off now.”Ostwal is a tall fingerspinner like R Sai Kishore and when on song, he keeps the stumps in play like his idol Ravindra Jadeja. He has the ability to bowl long spells, something that was on display during his Ranji debut against Vidarbha in Sultanpur in 2022, when he wheeled away for 44 overs.Vicky Ostwal has spent three seasons with Delhi Capitals in the IPL•BCCI”As a spinner, bowling long spells is your job,” Ostwal said. “You have to hold one end tight, make things happen and make them [batters] play a rash shot. Every first-class spinner that has been successful in India holds one end up tightly and brings crucial wickets at crucial times. That’s what I want to do for Maharashtra as well.”Ostwal didn’t get a game at DC across three seasons in the IPL, but he used the training sessions to pick the brains of Axar Patel and Ricky Ponting.”The game sense improved after the IPL,” Ostwal said. “You can be a little bit ahead of the game and sometimes read the situations quite early and then get into the act earlier. That helps you be proactive.”And bowling to Rishabh Pant was the most difficult thing as a left-arm spinner. Axar gave me tips on Test bowling and T20 bowling, which I’m able to implement. Ricky Ponting sir also helped me during my three years with Delhi Capitals. So, all in all, it was a good time there.”In the recent MPL, Ostwal strengthened his T20 credentials with his accurate bowling and pinch-hitting at the top of the order for Raigad Royals in their run to the final. He picked up nine wickets in 11 games at an economy rate of 7.09 – the best among bowlers who had bowled more than 30 overs during the season.

“I have worked a lot on my batting over the past few years because being a spinner doesn’t always do the job for your team.”Vicky Ostwal

Midway through the tournament, Ostwal was promoted as an opener and he responded with 74 off 54 balls in the Eliminator against Kolhapur Tuskers. Ostwal has ambitions of becoming a proper allrounder in the future.”I have worked a lot on my batting over the past few years because being a spinner doesn’t always do the job for your team,” he said. “If you can contribute 30-40 runs down the order, it’s always a great help for the team.”About the T20 game [Eliminator], I think when my team wasn’t doing well up the order, I told my coach that I can go up the order and maybe smack a few and give the momentum to the team. I want to be an allrounder. Even in the CK Nayudu Trophy, I contributed with the bat, scoring hundreds at No. 6 or No. 7.”Having enjoyed success in Under-19 and Under-23 cricket, the higher levels are waiting for Ostwal now.

How batters like Saim Ayub and Pathum Nissanka score in the upcoming series is also worth keeping your eyes on

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Nov-2025So we have arrived at another bilateral ODI series. Believe it or not, these were all the rage back in the first half of the 2010s – used so frequently as schedule-filler, to bulk up tours. T20Is and T20 leagues serve that purpose now, and the ODI World Cup is not till 2027. Still, this is a chance for Pakistan and Sri Lanka to do some building towards the next big event. Here are five things to watch for the three-match series starting on Tuesday.Can Pakistan build on victory over South Africa?What is clear is that both Sri Lanka and Pakistan are middling ODI sides. The rankings are some reflection – Sri Lanka are currently fourth on the ODI charts, and Pakistan are fifth, and neither side has had a glut of ODIs this year. The difference, though, is that Sri Lanka appear to be an ODI outfit on the rise, having won seven of their 10 matches this year. Pakistan have lost 10 of their 14, and had also crashed out of their “home” Champions Trophy.There is a little recent uptick for Pakistan, however. They sneaked a victory in the first ODI against South Africa earlier this month, then strode to a thumping win over them in the third ODI to seal a 2-1 series win. That was against a depleted South Africa, and Sri Lanka have sent a full-strength squad.Still, for a team that was looking for inspiration, perhaps their first series under Shaheen Shah Afridi has provided a new beginning.Saim Ayub a threat at the top of the orderSaim Ayub averages 50.85 in ODIs•AFP via Getty ImagesSo fragile have their runs of form been in the last couple of years, you praise Pakistan batters at your peril. But so far, young left-hand batter Saim Ayub has been putting together the makings of a good ODI career. He has only played 15 innings in the format so far, so we are at the very early stages. But he averages 50.85, and crucially has a strike rate of exactly 100, having hit 712 runs so far.Against South Africa, he made scores of 39, 53, and 77 off 70 in the third ODI. This is the kind of consistency that could prove helpful in concert with Fakhar Zaman’s more erratic returns from the other end. This will be Ayub’s first series against Sri Lanka.How effective will Sri Lanka’s bowlers be on Pakistani tracks?While Sri Lanka have won three series this year, against Australia, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe, only the Zimbabwe win came away from home. Generally, over the course of the last two years, as they have rebuilt under captain Charith Asalanka and coach Sanath Jayasuriya, much of their limited-overs success has come at Sri Lankan venues still famed for the turn their tracks offer. The surfaces in Pakistan will likely be more batting-friendly, which will test Sri Lanka’s spinners in particular. This is the less-favoured of Wanindu Hasaranga’s formats, and Maheesh Theekshana has been far from his best in 2025. Sri Lanka will need them to assert themselves.Can Pathum Nissanka continue unlocking new levels?By his own increasingly-high standards, 2025 has been just a middling year for Pathum Nissanka in ODIs. In ten innings, he has hit one century and two fifties, and has an average of 32.40, and a strike rate of 84.81. He has been expanding his game in other formats, however. He has hit two Test hundreds in just three innings this year, and his most-recent T20I knock was an outstanding 107 off 58 balls against India. If the surfaces in Rawalpindi are on the flatter side, Nissanka may be a serious force.Abrar-Hasaranga funWanindu Hasaranga celebrates a wicket with the Abrar Ahmed celebration during the recent Asia Cup•MB Media/Getty ImagesAsia’s rivalries are packed with machismo and cheap political posturing these days, but one that continues to buck the trend is the Sri Lanka-Pakistan relationship. In their match in the Asia Cup, Abrar Ahmed mimicked Hasaranga’s wicket celebration (which Hasaranga had himself pinched from football player Neymar Jr.), and Hasaranga mimicked Abrar’s wicket celebration in return. Although this had the potential to turn tense, the players met after the match, and were seen animatedly bro-ing out together (this is the scientific term).That clip of them shaking hands and half-embracing then became a little piece of viral “brotherhood” content, in an otherwise acrimonious and shameful Asia Cup. The general vibe of Pakistan vs Sri Lanka fixtures over the last 15 years has been that although there can be on-field altercations, the tension seems to almost invariably give way to off-field cuteness.

And if that doesn’t work either, you’re better off building a death ray and hoping it will somehow fly with ICC regulations

Alan Gardner28-Oct-20251:51

Mithali: Australia ‘less invincible’ than they used to be

There are some problems that have left humanity stumped for the longest of time. To the list that includes cold fusion, Fermat’s Last Theorem and why toast always lands buttered-side down, we can add another: how to beat Australia Women in an ODI?There is a working hypothesis that it can be done, but the results are almost impossible to reproduce in laboratory conditions. Over the last five-and-a-bit years, Australia have played 58 times in the format, and won 52 of them. Go back further, to the start of the 2017 World Cup, and the figure is P87 W78, which includes their world-record winning streak of 26 ODIs in a row.Such is their level of dominance that it even puts the Australia Men’s team of the 2000s in the shade. To take a random sample, between the start of the 2003 World Cup (which they won) and the end of the 2007 World Cup (which they won), Ricky Ponting’s side played 136 ODIs, winning 102 and losing 28.Related

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Very impressive, but a win/loss ratio of 9.750 it isn’t.For this Australia Women’s team, defeat is a once-a-year event – and they’ve already had their one scheduled blip for 2025.The losses are cosmic outliers, little more than confirmation of the randomness of the universe. They either come via Spandex-tight margins – three runs, two wickets, two wickets – or require inspirational performances from the opposition’s talisman: Harmanpreet Kaur in Derby; Nat Sciver-Brunt in Taunton; Marizanne Kapp in North Sydney; Smriti Mandhana in New Chandigarh.In World Cups, the permutations become even more head-scratchingly confounding. Since their defeat in the semi-final of the 2017 edition, Australia have won 15 ODI World Cup games on the bounce. They waltzed through the tournament unbeaten in 2022, and are on track to do so again after six wins from seven in the group stage.The one side to escape during that run was Sri Lanka, who abandoned science and invoked the unquenchable thirst of the Colombo rain gods. That or they capitalised on some truly abysmal scheduling during the monsoon, but it amounts to the same thing.Is there any stopping the Australian juggernaut at this World Cup?•ICC/Getty Images

Stopping the irresistible force

Back in the dark ages, learned folk spent much of their time trying to discover a substance that could turn base metal into gold. You would too, right? If it were in any way real. For the alchemists of antiquity, read the analysts of today anxiously flicking through their data points whenever Australia occupy the opposition dressing room.Signs of weakness are few and far between. When they slipped to 76 for 7 in their group game against Pakistan, one of the great World Cup upsets was in the offing. Instead, Beth Mooney – who looks, and plays, like she could be one of Bradman’s Invincibles – made a granite-hewn hundred as part of a century stand for the ninth wicket. Australia ended up winning by 107 runs.

“Time and again, teams have scrapped and sweated over the magic formula that will help them get one over on the canary-yellow juggernaut. Almost without exception, every time they hold their discovery up to the light it turns out to be fool’s gold”

India might have felt pretty pleased with themselves after posting 330 (at the time their highest-ever World Cup total) in Visakhapatnam; Alyssa Healy responded with a searing 142 off 107 balls to set up a three-wicket win. England must have thought they were in with a sniff when reducing Australia to 68 for 4 chasing 245; Annabel Sutherland and Ash Gardner disabused them of this notion with an unbroken 180-run stand.The England game finished with Gardner blocking balls in order to try and get Sutherland to her hundred, which is a pretty brutal summation of where it had got to as a contest.Time and again, teams have scrapped and sweated over the magic formula that will help them get one over on the canary-yellow juggernaut. Almost without exception, every time they hold their discovery up to the light, it turns out to be fool’s gold.Ellyse Perry and Kim Garth walk off after Australia sealed the highest chase in women’s ODI history•Getty Images

Can a new champion emerge?

We at ESPNcricinfo decided to take up the challenge, too. After crunching the numbers, consulting the experts and triangulating every possible weakness, we came up with this devastating statistic: since the start of 2024, between overs ten and 20, Australia have lost the third-most wickets among all teams (33). At this World Cup, the tally reads nine, behind only South Africa and Pakistan.Read it again and weep, sisters.Okay, you’re saying you need more? Well, Ellyse Perry is averaging 24.50 for the tournament. Not so flashy, eh. Similarly, new-ball stalwart Kim Garth has only taken four wickets in five matches – three of which came during Pakistan’s capitulation. And in the field, they produced a distinctly un-Aussie performance when shelling six chances against Bangladesh (although, yes, they still went on to win by ten wickets).In case it wasn’t already clear, for the three other teams still in with a theoretical chance of winning this World Cup, the omens are not good. But for those of you who made it this far, here’s our three-point plan to stopping Australia from winning this World Cup:Be India. Handy news for Australia’s semi-final opponents. India’s record of four ODI wins over Australia in the last ten years is as good as anyone’s – and, crucially, that includes being the last side to actually beat them at a World Cup. They are the host nation, they are captained by the hero of Derby, and they ran Australia the closest in the group stage.Make sure someone scores a hundred. Preferably a big one, like Harmanpreet’s Derby piece de resistance. Since the start of the 2017 World Cup, 13 individual centuries have been scored against Australia; three times in a winning cause. That’s nearly a 25% chance, people! Although Sciver-Brunt (four hundreds, including 148 not out in the 2022 World Cup final, only one of which came in a victory) can tell you first-hand, it’s no guarantee.Beware the legspinner. Alana King is very good, as figures of 7 for 18 – the first seven-wicket haul at Women’s World Cups – in her last outing attest. Top tip: go back and look at the footage of how South Africa played her. Then do the opposite.If none of the above works, then you’re best off building a death ray and hoping that will somehow fly with the ICC playing regulations. Good luck!