Batter used a short boundary on one side to score half of his runs, with either reverse or switch shots

Sidharth Monga27-Sep-20212:07

Harshal Patel on hat-trick: It will take some time to sink in

On a night when both innings turned around on spin, it really came down to the efficiency of hitting against spinners. The eight overs faced by Royal Challengers Bangalore went for just 60 runs but with just one wicket. Mumbai lost five wickets for 34 runs to eight overs of spin in response. To the naked eye, and according to the participants, there didn’t seem to be much grip in the surface, but the spinners and Harshal Patel, who relies a lot on the slower balls, thrived.Related

• Erratic Royals seek valuable points as race for playoffs heats up

• Stats – Kohli becomes first Indian to 10,000 T20 runs

• Harshal hat-trick caps comprehensive RCB win

The two teams’ approach to playing spin then was interesting, and eventually, decisive. According to ESPNcricinfo’s logs, Royal Challengers attacked just seven balls of spin. Virat Kohli, who had got off to a quick start, hitting three sixes inside the first five overs, went at under a run a ball against spin, attacking just one ball from them. At the time, it looked like a spell of ceasefire that handed the advantage back to Mumbai.In response, Mumbai played the way they do, backing their attacking instincts. They went after 20 out of the 48 balls they faced from the spinners. On most occasions, that is the right approach to batting in T20 cricket because you have 10 wickets in hand over 20 overs. More so in this case as Mumbai had got off to a superb start. It felt like the right approach on the night, irrespective of the result.Maxwell scored at 8.76 runs an over against spin with just three attacking shots in 13 balls•BCCIHowever, Royal Challengers might tell you they read the conditions better: not aiming too high and getting a total that kept them in the game before they exploited the pitch with their slower bowlers.What goes against this line of thinking is that they got to that competitive total through a freak innings. Glenn Maxwell had the best night against spin, scoring at 8.76 an over while playing only three attacking shots in 13 balls. All three were switch hits, two of them hit clean for sixes. Team-mate Harshal Patel, who later took a hat-trick, has seen him a lot in the nets but has never seen Maxwell play any reverse shots.

Watch the IPL on ESPN+

Sign up for ESPN+ and catch all the action from the IPL live in the US. Match highlights of Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians is available here in English, and here in Hindi (US only).

“I have not seen him play those shots in training,” Harshal said in the post-match press conference. “He is one of the most gifted batters I have seen in current cricket. He can do that out of the blue right into the game. Him and AB [de Villiers] are two guys who can bring that sort of skill level into the game without even practising those shots. So no I have not seen him practise those shots, but he does execute them really well under pressure.”Maxwell kept playing the reverse shots against pace too, hitting Adam Milne over short third man for two fours and a six. In all Maxwell scored 28 of his 56 runs with either reverse or switch shots. The reason Maxwell went for so many of those shots was the short boundary on one side, and interestingly, the slowness of the surface, which allowed him time to better line up deliveries.”Yeah it is something I suppose I have worked on a lot over the years,” Maxwell told Star Sports. “And it has become a really good strength for me. I suppose with that short side, I was trying to target that as much as I can. The wicket being a touch on the slower side, I felt I could wait for it, hopefully get under it and cash in with the wind going that way as well.”So Maxwell might not have done it on the team’s time, but it takes a lot of practice to find the level of confidence with these shots that you use them in a match. On another night, one of these – still a high-risk attempt – might have resulted in a wicket, and we would be talking of Royal Challengers’ go-slow against spin. Not on this night, though, because Maxwell executed these highly difficult shots with precision to get them to a total big enough that their spinners could exert some pressure on Mumbai.

Dolphins batter still confident of making the step up to international level after a stunning start to the season

Firdose Moonda01-Nov-2021It was third time lucky for Khaya Zondo, who “missed” two previous opportunities to score a first-class double-hundred but celebrated 203* for the Dolphins against Western Province in the season-opening round of red-ball cricket.Zondo’s previous best of 175 came eight summers ago against Griqualand-West. Since then, he notched 157 in the 2016-17 season and four other centuries, all under 150. So this double-ton was a long time coming.”I missed out on a few opportunities in the past but this time the chance was there and I was able to take it,” Zondo told ESPNcrininfo. “It’s one of my goals for the season achieved.”His runs could not beat the rain, which ultimately resulted in a draw for the Dolphins, though they were in the perfect position to close the match out on the final afternoon. Western Province trailed by 34 runs with just three wickets in hand after three days so the Dolphins only had the mopping up to do on the fourth but persistent, unseasonal showers in Cape Town meant only 4.4 overs were possible.Instead, the story was Zondo, who has been in the headlines because of testimony given at the Social Justice and Nation-Building Hearings (SJN), where several witnesses have said that not picking him for South Africa’s fifth ODI against India on the 2015 tour was a mistake. Zondo himself spoke about the mental health impact the incident had on him and now plays with a slightly different technique and a much-matured mindset.”I was 25 then and I am 31 now, so I’ve gained six years experience and in that time, you go through so many situations,” he said. “One thing I have looked at technically is keeping my head in a very solid position. And mentally, I just want to make the most of every opportunity. In each game, I want to make sure I grow. Every ball I face is an opportunity to learn. I also want to be present for every moment because you don’t want to miss a moment. Someone told me, you only have to concentrate for half-a-second at a time and all those small moments make up the day.”Zondo’s innings was made up of 54,600 half-seconds, as he spent 455 minutes at the crease crafting his double-hundred. The bulk of it was scored on the second day, which he went into on 29 not out. A further 174 runs came in 68.4 overs, most of them against the second new-ball. “They had eight overs with the old ball on the second morning. Jason (Smith) and I thought that if we could get through that then by the time the new ball comes, and if we’d added about 40 or 50 runs, we’d have equipped ourselves to deal with it and wouldn’t be in such a vulnerable position,” Zondo said. “When the new ball came, we found we could play freely. We also didn’t have to overhit it to get to the boundary.”He struck 26 fours and two sixes in his innings and no-one, not even Wayne Parnell, was spared. Zondo hasn’t come up against Parnell for almost as many years – eight – as his last attempt to reach a double ton and recognised him as the main weapon in Western Province’s attack. “I haven’t faced Wayne Parnell for quite a long time. He was definitely their toughest bowler and bowled especially well on the first evening,” Zondo said. Parnell, who has returned from a Kolpak deal, finished with figures of 1 for 100.Zondo celebrated his double-hundred by taking a knee, a gesture that has been much-talked about in South African cricket, especially over the last week. “I thought it was nice to take a stance against discrimination and because I am a sportsperson, it’s mostly a stance against discrimination in sports,” he said. “I wanted to show support for my fellow athletes and people around the world. I feel like it’s something that we in South Africa can work on and I felt it was the right thing to do.”With Zondo’s non-selection at national level the subject of scrutiny at the same time he’s back among the runs again, does he still harbour ambitions of a South Africa call-up? Of course he does. “I’d like to think the door is open to me and that if I am performing, they would select me,” he said. “At the time, being left out hit me hard but I am still here, still playing and trying to improve.” In other results:Division One:
Duanne Olivier, Lutho Sipamla and Malusi Siboto took 17 wickets between them as the Lions opened their campaign with an innings and 72-run victory over North West. The Lions bowled North West out for 159, then took a 249-run lead, thanks largely to Ryan Rickleton’s 159 before dismissing North West for 177 to win inside three days. Marco Jansen starred in a thriller between the Titans and the Warriors at SuperSport Park, which the Warriors won by 1 wicket. In a see-saw match which started with the Titans shot out for 134, the Warriors took a 124-run first-innings lead before being set 236 to win. They were 180 for 7 at one point before half-centuries from Lesibe Ngoepe and Jansen, batting at No.7 and 8 respectively, put them on the brink of victory. The tail completed the job. Pite van Biljon’s 137 was met by Janneman Malan’s double and Ferisco Adams’ 127 in a high-scoring draw between the Knights and Boland. After the first day was washed out, Hardus Viljoen took 4 for 62 as the Knights were bowled out for 320. Boland took the lead and declared on 520 for 9 and had the Knights 143 for 2 when play was stopped. Division Two
Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland bowled Easterns out for under 225 in each of their innings to earn an innings and 109-run win. Luke Schlemmer’s 153 and Andile Mokgakane’s 98 allowed KZN-Inland to declare their first innings closed on 440 for 6. They bowled Easterns out for 107, asked them to follow-on and then dismissed them for 224 to ensure that even a full day lost to rain could not stop them closing out the game. Keith Dudgeon took 7 for 57 in the match. Border did their best to make a game out of it but did not have enough time to beat Limpopo, who needed 353 runs and had nine wickets in hand when stumps were drawn. Marco Marais’ 146 took Border to 392 in their first innings before Thomas Kaber took 6 for 75 as Limpopo were bowled out for 192. Border declared on 190 for 3 in their second innings, setting Limpopo 391 to win. Limpopo were 377 for 8, 14 runs adrift of the target, at stumps.

Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad – what went wrong, who stood out, and more

Vishal Dikshit and Sruthi Ravindranath09-Oct-2021

Mumbai Indians

Where they finished
The defending champions slipped four places to fifth this time. They left it to the very last day of the league stage to keep their qualification chances – however unlikely – alive, before they fizzled out.How the season went
It mostly went fine for Mumbai until the tournament moved to the UAE. They had won four of their seven games in India in the first leg, but in the UAE, it was almost as if they had left their batting smarts behind.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhat went wrong
Like captain Rohit Sharma said before the last league game, they “didn’t bat well in the UAE leg”, and it cost them a playoff spot.Mumbai are known for their star-studded line-up, and their campaign took a beating when a number of those stopped clicking. Quinton de Kock’s strike rate dipped under 105 in the last three games he played, Rohit produced two single-digit scores when they needed to win desperately, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav clicked a little too late, and Hardik Pandya didn’t come to the party at all. To add to that, Trent Boult, the powerplay king of IPL 2020, went wicketless in powerplays five games in a row.In the news
The one who was under scrutiny the most was Hardik, who was off the boil with the bat and didn’t bowl a single over in the tournament. He is in the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup as an allrounder but with no overs and hardly any runs under his belt, fans and several former players have started asking about his position. When at his best, there aren’t many in India like him. But he is far from at his best right now.

Punjab Kings

Where they finished
For the second year in a row, they finished sixth on the table with 12 points.How the season went
Starting the season with a new name, Punjab Kings opened their campaign with a win but went on to lose five of their next seven games. Coming to the UAE, their struggles to string wins together continued and they ended in a complicated four-way muddle in the middle of the points table. They did win their last three games but fell out of the race because of their poor net run rate. They continued to have issues in their batting line-up, which seemed to misfire once the opening pair of KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal was done. But on the positive side, their uncapped Indian bowlers Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi and Harpreet Brar stood out.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhat went wrong
Their over-reliance on Rahul and Agarwal. While the two continued to be the team’s backbone, Nicholas Pooran had to be dropped after being unable to reprise his 2020 IPL form. The uncapped Indians in the middle order – Deepak Hooda, Sarfaraz Khan and Shahrukh Khan – could also not deliver enough. Their middle-order (Nos. 4-7), in fact, had the second-worst batting average (16.68) this season.Rahul was among the top three scorers in the tournament for the fourth year in a row, scoring 626 runs in 13 matches, but his strike rate was again a big talking point. He started off the 2021 season with a 50-ball 91 but went back to scoring sedately, barring two innings, against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings, where he scored a 57-ball 91* and 42-ball 98* respectively. His strike rate was just about 114 in the rest of the ten matches. His conservative approach did not always have the desired impact on the team, something he also admitted to.In the news
Chris Gayle left the Punjab Kings’ UAE set-up citing bubble fatigue. Having just arrived from the CPL bubble, the veteran star said he was looking to mentally refresh himself ahead of the T20 World Cup.

Rajasthan Royals

Where they finished
Rajasthan Royals had yet another dull season, finishing seventh with five wins in 14 games, a minor rise from the last spot the previous season.How their season went
Royals won just three out of the seven matches in the first leg and continued to be inconsistent in the UAE as well, going on to win just two out of their seven games. In the second half, nothing really went their way. They were without some of their big guns, and were weighed down by familiar shortcomings, remaining a top-heavy side. The absence of a spearhead in their bowling attack also hurt them.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhat went wrong
Royals did not get everything right in the first half of the season but Jos Buttler, Chris Morris and captain Sanju Samson made sure to step up and keep them mid-table, despite their two biggest names – Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer – being unavailable.Buttler did not make it to the second half but they got an able replacement in Evin Lewis, who along with Yashasvi Jaiswal, got them off to rapid starts. Samson, who had his best-ever outing in his nine-year IPL career, making 484 runs in 14 games, was also a force at the top of the order.But that was it. The middle order remained their weak link, and Liam Livingstone and Glenn Phillips couldn’t help much. Neither could Morris. He was also poor with the ball. Morris not only went wicketless in the first three matches in the UAE but was also expensive, leaking 47 and 50 runs against Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore respectively, and was dropped as a result. There were a few good individual performances, from Kartik Tyagi, Chetan Sakariya and Mustafizur Rahman, in their otherwise wayward bowling attack, but the constant shuffling towards the business end of the tournament did not work well either. And, if anything, the end was terrible: 90 for 9 and 85 all out in their last two league games.In the news
Royals were without their three biggest overseas stars for varying stretches. Archer was ruled out due to an elbow injury right at the start, Stokes took a break from the game for mental-health reasons and Buttler opted out of the UAE leg because of the birth of his second child. That was too much to make up for.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Where they finished
Sunrisers Hyderabad had the biggest fall compared to the 2020 season, going from third place to the very bottom. They finished the 2021 edition with just three wins from 14 matches.How the season went
Sunrisers just did not turn up. Even when the first leg started in India, they took as many as four matches to register their first win. They lost another three before the IPL was postponed, and then started the UAE leg with another two defeats. Only one win from their first nine games meant their season was virtually over well before it actually was.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhat went wrong
The loss of form for David Warner and the unavailability of Jonny Bairstow in the UAE leg meant their bowlers had to do the heavy lifting again, but Sunrisers’ inability to cross 150 regularly hit them hard.They started the season by squandering chases in matches they could have won. It was because of the old issue: an inexperienced and feeble middle order. And when they batted first, they crossed 135 only twice in five attempts and defended only one of those totals successfully.In the bowling too, T Natarajan’s Covid-19-enforced absence dented their plans and the high economy rate of Sandeep Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in non-swinging conditions didn’t help either. Rashid Khan was their leading wicket-taker once again and Jason Holder also inspired them in the UAE leg with his strikes, but if there’s one team that needs a complete overhaul, it’s Sunrisers.In the news
Warner, one of the most consistent batters in the IPL in the last few years but woefully out of form at the moment, not only lost his captaincy but was also dropped from Sunrisers’ plans completely after scores of 2 and 0 in the UAE leg. He was left in the team hotel for a couple of games, before being seen waving the Sunrisers flag from the stands towards the end of the league stage. The Warner-Sunrisers marriage could well be over.

Another batting collapse at the MCG was proof that England have chosen the path of least resistance

Andrew Miller26-Dec-2021First the good news. Of all of the 50 ducks that England’s batters have now compiled in 12 months of bottom-feeding batting, their milestone dismissal was quite possibly the least-worst of the lot.For each of his first eight deliveries at the MCG, Haseeb Hameed left the ball with poise and purpose. His feet were as grounded as he had chosen for them not to be during some ridicule-inducing one-legged drills in the nets prior to Christmas, and when Mitchell Starc completed his first over by whistling a brace of heatseekers over the top of his off stump, Hameed’s unruffled raises of the bat spoke of a desire to be durable, to prove that “lessons had been learnt”, as Joe Root had demanded at the end of England’s abject Adelaide display.Related

• Joe Root: 'We need to put some pride back in the badge'

• 'It is not good enough' – Root admits anger at performance

• Are England enjoying it? Or has cricket turned into an obligation?

• Australia on top after Pat Cummins sets Boxing Day tone

But the illusion was not designed to last. It took the returning Pat Cummins all of three balls to find Hameed’s edge with an outstanding seaming delivery that straightened on off stump to find the slenderest of nicks. And from that moment onwards, barely five minutes into England’s final chance to keep the Ashes alive, the sound of Christmas being cancelled filled the UK airwaves. It’s over, folks. Roll out the cold turkey.If you were to quibble (as well you might on another day of festive humbug), you might argue that Hameed’s stodgy footwork had been culpable in his early downfall. But then it’s an open secret that his earnest approach is not ideally suited to the sort of thunderous combat encountered on Australian pitches. At the very least, as he traipsed off for his second 0 in as many innings, Hameed departed with the sense that his temperament remained intact, even as his technique continues to get ripped limb from limb.Zak Crawley, England’s second wicket of the opening half-hour’s play, deserves a similar caveat – if only to acknowledge that his game, like Hameed’s, has been eviscerated in the all-too-recent past. Here, at least, his innings of 12 improved his Test average for 2021 by 0.06 runs – but his year’s grand total of 168 runs at 11.20 in 15 innings remains an equivalently awful return to the 170 first-class runs at 9.44 that Hameed racked up for Lancashire in 2018.Given such weighty recent baggage, it was always wishful to think that either man could be remotely ready to front up on an Ashes tour, of all the destinations. But to pitch both of them into a must-win contest at the grandest colosseum in the game is a damning indictment of England’s selection, England’s resources and, moreover, England’s desperation. Not since a palpably unready Mark Lathwell was burned alive in the spotlight of the 1993 Ashes has English cricket shown such self-immolating disregard for such promising young openers.ESPNcricinfo LtdAnd so at 13 for 2, after 7.2 overs of unequal struggle, England found themselves clean out of excuses. Cummins bowled with majesty as he restated his pre-eminence in an attack that fared perfectly well without him in Adelaide, but Mitchell Starc was off-colour in his opening gambit and Scott Boland on debut was enthusiastic without truly threatening. There was still reason to believe that the less callow men in England’s middle order could find the fight that had eluded their new-ball fall-guys, but what transpired was little short of a dereliction.Dawid Malan at least had the excuse of being extracted by Test cricket’s No.1 bowler, even if the timing of his snick to slip – right on the stroke of lunch – was crushing for a team that had fleetingly hoped to deny Australia the outright session honours, for arguably only the fourth time this series.The rest, however, had nothing to fall back on, not even the put-upon Joe Root, whose eighth half-century in as many Tests in Australia ended with the most flaccid stroke of his otherwise hard-bitten campaign – a weak-willed dab outside off stump to Starc, as he found himself once again unable to wean himself off that favourite deflection down through the cordon. It’s a shot that has kept his career tally ticking towards 10,000 runs but it comes with added jeopardy on Australia’s springier surfaces. No matter how many fourth-stump drills he performs in the nets beforehand, there must come a point – as he now braces for a likely 12th defeat in 13 Tests in Australia – that he accepts that the risks of the shot in these conditions, notwithstanding the likelihood of being becalmed without it, have long since outweighed the rewards.Talking of becalmed, that is where Ben Stokes’ game now is, in a campaign in which he is now ticking along at a funereal strike-rate of 29.50, and has yet to reach 100 runs in the course of five innings. Stokes has more excuse than most for taking his time to adjust – he’s still making up for lost time after six months in which he was unable to grip a bat without pain – but he’s now faced more than 50 overs’ worth of balls in the series, so really ought to be starting to make some worthier decisions.Jos Buttler trudges off after his dismissal•Getty ImagesThis innings showed a few abortive attempts at proactivity, as he charged the quicks seemingly at random, and got cramped by the change of length on more than a few occasions. But the floppy uppercut with which he handed Cameron Green his latest prime scalp was unworthy of the man, and the match situation. England have spent long enough in the field this winter to realise that donations are few and far between when Australia’s turn comes to bat. It beggars belief that such senior dressing-room figures are unable to set an example to match their angry rhetoric.It’s debatable, however, whether Jos Buttler still qualifies as a senior Test player after his latest brainfade. Not since David Gower stepped across his stumps at Adelaide in 1990-91 to launch Craig McDermott straight into the most transparent of leg traps has an Ashes dismissal on the stroke of an interval been accompanied by quite so much face-palming.The re-introduction of Nathan Lyon, with minutes to go until tea, was a transparent act of carrot-dangling from Cummins – who sensed Buttler might seek to assert himself against a bowler who had England’s number at Adelaide, but also realised a quick over of spin might burgle him one final over of seam before the clock ticked over. As it turned out, Lyon needed just two balls before Buttler rewarded him with a hapless hoick to the leg-side sweeper – another example of how scrambled his game-brain can get in Test cricket when presented with a choice between sticking and twisting. Buttler chose both and neither. England as a collective chose the path of least resistance, and sure enough, that resistance is all but over.

How New Zealand beat the odds to make their first T20 World Cup final

Deivarayan Muthu13-Nov-20212:24

Moody, Vettori on the spin factor in the grand finale

.Bold selection
Leading into the tournament, Ross Taylor was New Zealand’s joint most-capped player in the shortest format, along with his best buddy Martin Guptill. Taylor did start the T20I home summer for New Zealand, against West Indies, in 2020-21, but the side moved away from him and handed opportunities to Devon Conway and Glenn Phillips in the middle order. Although Taylor has raised his ODI game to an all-new level, he has fallen behind the curve in T20 cricket and is no longer the hockey-swiping, slog-sweeping maverick he once was.Phillips became that middle-order maverick instead and Conway the failsafe. Plus, both Phillips and Conway are multi-dimensional players. Phillips does everything – bat, bowl fastish offspin, field inside the ring as well as in the outfield, keep wicket part-time – and Conway has kept wicket on a more regular basis.Conway’s left-handedness and calmness – both in front of the stumps and behind it – was vital to New Zealand’s balance until he suffered a bizarre self-inflicted injury during the semi-final against England.The non-selection of Colin Munro was another hard call. He hadn’t played for New Zealand since February 2020 but was still doing his thing in the BBL, PSL and CPL among other franchise tournaments. Munro’s strike rate of 156.44 in T20I cricket is the fourth-highest overall among batters who have faced at least 150 balls in the format.But Gary Stead, the head coach, reasoned that Munro hadn’t appeared as regularly for New Zealand in the recent past and so he was omitted from the T20 World Cup squad.Then, there is Finn Allen, the new kid on the block, who has a T20 strike rate of 171.02 – the second-highest among batters who have faced a minimum of 250 balls. Allen shellacked 71 off 29 balls in a rain-truncated T20I against Bangladesh to push his case for a World Cup spot. But New Zealand chose to go ahead with the incumbent Tim Seifert as Guptill’s opening partner.Ish Sodhi and Devon Conway have been key figures in New Zealand’s revolution•AFP/Getty ImagesRole clarity
Seifert was, ultimately, unavailable for selection during the warm-ups first because he joined New Zealand’s bubble late from the IPL and then after sustaining an abdominal strain.So, Stead and Kane Williamson threw Daryl Mitchell, the finisher, into the top and were so impressed with his power and adaptability during the warm-ups that they decided to let him continue in that role for the rest of the tournament.Stead and Williamson gave Mitchell the license to go after bowlers in the powerplay even though he had never opened in T20 cricket before this tournament. Mitchell responded by hitting over the top and even charging at mystery spinners like Varun Chakravarthy and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Against England in the semi-final in Abu Dhabi, Mitchell had a skittish start, but found a way past that and finished the chase with an unbeaten 72 off 47 balls.New Zealand looked like they were a batter short at various stages, more so during that chase against England, with Mitchell Santner slotting in at No.7. Jimmy Neesham, however stepped up under pressure, pounding 27 off a mere 11 balls. “Try and hit every ball for six” was Neesham’s plan and he didn’t veer away from it one bit.Trent Boult and Tim Southee, neither of whom played a single match during the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, now reunited to give New Zealand some new-ball bite. And Adam Milne, Ferguson’s replacement, became their enforcer in the post-powerplay phase. Legspinner Ish Sodhi’s role was to keep searching for wickets, while Santner tried to lock one end down.Daryl Mitchell has made the most of his opportunities•ICC via GettyImpact of T20 leagues and domestic structure
Seifert is likely to replace Conway in the final in what will be only his second game of the tournament. Seifert, though, is prepped and ready, having worked with spin-heavy Knight Riders sides in the CPL and the IPL.As for Phillips, he honed his skills against spin while working with Ramnaresh Sarwan at Jamaica Tallawahs at the CPL. Phillips also made a big splash in the Hundred and the Vitality Blast. Nobody has hit more sixes than Phillips in T20 cricket (including the Hundred) in 2021.Santner isn’t an IPL regular for Chennai Super Kings – he was the only New Zealand player to not get a game this season – but the stint there and at Barbados Tridents at the CPL has made him a more-rounded white-ball bowler.When the injury-plagued Milne tried to revive his white-ball career last year, he signed with the Sydney Thunder, having been released from his domestic contract with the blessing of the organisation. That move, and support from Central Districts, has put him back in the international spotlight.Preparation and venues
It helped that ten of New Zealand’s squad were involved in the IPL that preceded the World Cup. But the national team’s preparations were largely disjointed, with New Zealand abruptly calling off the Pakistan tour. The likes of Guptill, Mark Chapman, and Mitchell worked with batting consultant Thilan Samaraweera in the UAE after flying out of Pakistan.As for Conway, who was the only playing member to fly in from New Zealand, he had stints with Luke Ronchi in Wellington as he was recovering from the finger injury he sustained during the Hundred. Ronchi brings with him the experience of playing – and excelling – for Islamabad United in the PSL in these conditions.Stead was keen to expand the coaching group for the World Cup. Shane Bond was roped in to assist Shane Jurgensen while Stephen Fleming, too, had a short stint with the side during the warm-ups after winning the IPL with CSK.Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s larger dimensions make it pretty difficult for batters to clear the boundaries. New Zealand aren’t West Indies or England, and it actually aided their style of batting: accumulation of ones and twos. At these venues, fielding can make a real difference, as New Zealand showed, particularly against Afghanistan in what was a virtual quarter-final.

Surrey captain adamant that indignity of Brisbane first-baller is behind him ahead of 2022 summer

Andrew Miller02-Apr-2022You get the impression from talking to Rory Burns that he’s not a big fan of communication. He speaks rather as he bats, with a palpable nervous energy as he weighs up the threat of each incoming question, before an under-stated response that can, with the right timing, be thoroughly emphatic all the same.Since the retirement of Alastair Cook in 2018, no England opener has played more times, scored more runs, nor averaged higher than Burns’ mark of 30.32 over a sustained run in the role. And yet, twice in as many winters, Burns has fronted up for Surrey’s pre-season media day cast in the role of the outsider.In 2021, he had lost his place on a tough tour of India, ground down by the Covid bubble lifestyle after missing the Sri Lanka tour for the birth of his daughter Cora; and now here he is in 2022 as well, back to square one once more after becoming the unwitting poster-boy of another calamitous Ashes campaign.”Did I visualise getting a first baller? No I didn’t,” Burns says, when asked – not for the last time, you suspect – to rewind to that gruesome first morning in Brisbane, as he toppled across his crease to Mitchell Starc’s full-length swinger, and was bowled round his legs by the very first ball of the series.It is already a moment immortalised in Ashes legend – alongside Nasser Hussain’s infamous bowl-first call in 2002-03 and Steve Harmison’s wide four years later. And while Andrew Strauss’s own first-over duck in 2010-11 stands as lasting proof that one early setback need not define a tour, it’s hard to argue that England’s 2021-22 challenge ever recovered its poise from that moment.Only a tenth-wicket stand in Sydney stood between Australia and their third 5-0 whitewash in five home campaigns, and Burns himself certainly didn’t recover. After a top score of 34 in the second innings at Adelaide, he was dropped for the Sydney and Melbourne Tests, before a belated return to the front line after Haseeb Hameed’s own failings had become too pronounced to ignore. Two more insubstantial scores ensued in Hobart – 0 and 26 – and that was it for Burns’ winter, as he was axed for the subsequent tour of the Caribbean with Durham’s Alex Lees handed the role of nuggetty senior pro.Burns was bowled round his legs by the first ball of the 2021-22 Ashes•Getty Images”It’s obviously not my decision,” Burns says. “It’s out of my hands so I had to deal with what I’d been dealt. What can I do now? What Jimmy [Anderson] said resonated with me the other day. I’m still looking to improve, still looking to get better. I think that I can. I’ll go again and try to score runs.”In such sliding-doors circumstances, it’s easy to imagine how Burns could have spent his every waking moment since Brisbane chastising himself for his error, and wishing he could have his time over again. But though he admits the immediate aftermath was tricky – particularly given how his quirky technique lent itself to high-level dissection in the Australian media – he’s adamant that the indignities are behind him and he’s ready to go again.”I’ve kind of put it to bed, to be honest,” he says. “It takes a little bit of time, a little bit of reflection. Taking stock of your thoughts and feelings as it goes along. With Covid and bubbles in recent times it’s been quite intense, and the Ashes was probably the most intense process we’ve been through. It’s quite a big hype train that everyone maybe gets a little too involved in at times. It can be difficult.”But I’ve got a little one at home, I’ve got my wife. They give me perspective,” he adds. “They were with me throughout the Ashes. It was nice to get away at times. I always like getting away from cricket. I had some good time off when I came home, lots of family time. I reassessed my game and tried to work on various things from a technical aspect, just little tweaks I could make to then go again.”However, if Burns’ first-baller was the start (and finish) of the Ashes proper, then a full appraisal of England’s awful tour needs also to take in the hugely restrictive circumstances of their series build-up. As if the strictures of lockdown life weren’t complicated enough, the ceaseless rain in Queensland ensured that the whole team went into that first Test with perhaps the least satisfactory preparation in Ashes history, just one day of middle practice possible in their scheduled warm-up fixture.”The odds weren’t in our favour, were they? It was always going to be an uphill battle with that prep that we did get. The run-in was suboptimal. Getting used to conditions was suboptimal. That led to its starting the series on the back foot.”It led also, Burns admits, to a fatal lack of alignment at the crease for when the big Brisbane moment came. “To be honest, in the limited practices we did have I was feeling pretty good,” he says. “Certainly technically, looking back on it, it probably crept in slightly. Preferably if that had been flagged marginally earlier that could have helped. It wasn’t.Burns was a Championship-winning captain with Surrey in 2018•Getty Images”Like I say, I’ve put it to bed, put some tweaks in. You trust in the people you trust and go again. It was tough, it proved to be tough. But I’ve rationalised it by talking to people I trust, and then getting back on the wagon.”Getting back into the England team, however, might yet prove to be a tougher challenge. Despite the encouragement of Gareth Batty, Surrey’s new head coach, who insists Burns is still the “best opener in the country”, the fall-out of the Ashes loss seems to have focussed as heavily on the dressing-room atmosphere as on the proficiency of those within it.And in that respect, the implication – encouraged by Joe Root’s and Paul Collingwood’s repeated emphasis on the renewed positive energy during the Caribbean tour – is that the mood within the squad has been improved by the removal of certain senior individuals who perhaps did not give back enough when the going got tough in Australia.”I don’t think so. That would be unfair,” Burns insists. “The talk is more on the fresh faces in the squad and they had a chance to put their own stamp on it. It would be unfair to say that.”Nevertheless, were it not for his axing, Burns might otherwise be a strong contender to take over as captain from the beleaguered Root. At the age of 31, he’s the right age for higher honours, and as Surrey’s captain in their Championship-winning season in 2018, he’s one of the very few England players of recent vintage with genuine experience of leadership outside of the international game.”I think I have to get back in the side first,” Burns says. “I’m not sure you pick your captain from outside the best XI in the country. Quite frankly Rooty is the man in position and he’s obviously doing very well with the bat and it hasn’t compromised his ability to bat. So I’ll let you draw on that what you want to draw on. I think you pick your captain from your best XI.”Related

• Gough, Gibson look to the future after Yorkshire's winter of discontent

• Stewart calls on England selectors to keep faith as he defends county 'breeding ground'

• The opening act: Rory Burns is off, way off

• Hameed: 'I always find a way back from rock bottom'

• Root rested for opening rounds of County Championship

Burns’ immediate focus is on the start of Surrey’s season. First up is a trip to Edgbaston on April 7, before back-to-back home games against Hampshire and Somerset – meaning three consecutive fixtures on some of the truer surfaces on the county circuit, and potentially the chance to build up a body of work that gets his name firmly back into the frame before New Zealand’s arrival for the Test summer in June.”I don’t want to give too much away because there are county attacks looming around the corner,” he says. “But I just think, for me, those first 20 balls, [I will] tighten up fractionally. And then, as I’ve proved, once I get into an innings I generally go quite alright. So for me, [I have to] look at my starts, get in and build.”It won’t be the same [as Australia] here in April in the County Championship when things tend to be greener and slower. It’s all about adapting. That’s batting in a nutshell. Wherever you go, whichever attack you face, you have to adapt to what’s in front of you. It will be no different come next week.”Rarely has the county season begun under quite such a level of scrutiny, however, with England’s winless winter highlighting the growing gulf between the standards on England’s domestic circuit and the levels required at the very top. And it wasn’t only Burns who struggled with the step-up in Australia – his Surrey team-mate, Ollie Pope, was similarly exposed, even though his current average at the Kia Oval, 99.94, implies he could not be doing more to meet the standards to which he has been exposed.”I’m not really drawing mine and Ollie’s name into that,” Burns said. “The potential failings of county cricket are quite obvious. [In Test cricket] you face attacks of Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood, Lyon. You don’t get too many attacks that come at you like that, day in and day out, where half a mistake is exaggerated to a definite mistake. And potentially the system doesn’t fit that with the volume of cricket we now play across four formats. You’re basically struggling to get what you need in six months to produce your best teams for England.”Despite Burns’ gruff insistence that he’s ready to go again, Batty is conscious that his captain is potentially more wounded by his experiences this winter that he is willing to let on.”I don’t worry about him putting the best case across, but I worry about who might select the [England] team,” Batty says. “But that is not our concern. He’s our leader. He is our captain. He has done a wonderful job over a period of time. Now we need to give him a bit back.”He needs us to take care of him for a moment, because it is difficult. It doesn’t matter who you are, when you get left out by England and come back. So we need to make his life easier, show that we’ve got him – because we definitely do – and hopefully create an environment for him and for the rest of the boys where he can thrive, and shoot for the stars.”And for the time being, all Burns can do to rebuild that bruised reputation is to get stuck in with Surrey, and feed off the optimism that tends to accompany the early weeks of a new season.”Look around the dressing room and I feel like I’ve got about 10 years older,” he says. “I probably have because I’ve been around here so long. There are a lot of young guys, a lot of learning there. That is for us as senior players to take on, share the knowledge around the room and pass it on.”

Over rates are a massive problem in the game, even after all these years. And so are issues with the DRS

Ian Chappell17-Jul-2022Australia endured a monumental setback when Sri Lanka won the second Test in Galle this week, but it was the players’ indifference to on-field protocol that causes most concern.The match confirmed Australia still have a problem against good fingerspin bowling. However, they also suffered from the being at the receiving end of the DRS, which bedevils Test teams.While England have recently done much to improve the image of Test batting, the worrisome DRS, and over rates that continue to be glacial, need urgent attention.Related

England v Pakistan stoppages: Cricket still in the dark ages over issue of bad light

Australia left to regret their reviews…again

Simon Taufel: 'People think that the way to solve the odd grey area in cricket is to replace it with technology'

Fabulous series, but can we deal with the DRS and on-field chatter? (2017)

It's time the DRS got an overhaul (2020)

A few years ago the DRS was extended to include the full path of the delivery. The ICC indicated around that time that the change was intended to rid the game of the howler and to ensure the correct decision. The DRS rarely achieves those aims.During the Galle Test, Dinesh Chandimal was batting on 30, with Australia having used up all their reviews. The Australians thought Chandimal got an edge to an attempted ramp shot but the not-out decision prevailed and he produced a game-changing 206 not out.Australia definitely misused their reviews on some fifty-fifty decisions. However, it was proved once more that the DRS doesn’t always result in the correct decision, because the fielding side has a finite number of reviews.If the ICC wants to employ the DRS, it should achieve the results for which it was meant. The DRS is technologically flawed and also inadequate because there are lbw and caught decisions that can be complicated.Many countries can’t afford the top technology, so they effectively play under a different set of DRS protocols than those who can pay for the best system. The best DRS technology should be provided to all teams by a cricket body that operates the system, rather than it being left to television.

The often senseless spreading of the field hasn’t helped teams either dismiss batters or improve over rates

The system was introduced to supposedly help umpires rather than protect DRS itself. Currently it achieves the latter aim.Over rates have been declining for decades and yet they are virtually ignored as the focus is on the money-making capabilities of T20. The reason 90 overs in a day were originally recommended is because it’s very much possible for a team to bowl that many in that time.Under Clive Lloyd, West Indies promoted the notion that over rates don’t matter when matches are being won in less than the allotted time. That argument is flawed. The batting team should receive a reasonable number of deliveries in a six-hour day, while front-line bowlers tire at an acceptable rate. These days, overs are rarely completed even with extra time allowed – and those extensions are a blight on the game.Umpires don’t enforce on-field protocol in this regard, probably because they lack the backing of the administrators. This is unfair on patrons, who are short-changed.The administrators could make some compromises and demand that players bowl 90 overs in six hours with no deductions accepted. A captain should be suspended without question if this aim isn’t achieved.There are many areas for compromise. The administrators could abolish advertising on sightboards, the replaying of possible boundaries, reduce the constant ferrying of drinks and gloves, and eradicate needless mid-pitch chats during overs. They could also return to a back foot no-ball rule (without a drag problem), thereby virtually eradicating a boring facet of the game as well as improving over rates.There is no doubt the better bats of the modern day create field-placement headaches for captains. Still, the often senseless spreading of the field hasn’t helped teams either dismiss batters or improve over rates.The balance between bat and ball needs to be constantly monitored but these days it instead appears to be religiously overlooked.The skills of the game are evolving but the laws often don’t keep pace with the need to improve the spectacle. Some senior players have expressed a desire to improve Test cricket’s image but to do so they require a working partnership with the administrators. If that much-needed partnership to improve the game is not forthcoming, it’s time for the senior players to set the ball rolling.

Manjrekar has asked for LED lights to do the job bails do, Shastri doesn’t want change after a “one-off case”

Nagraj Gollapudi and Raunak Kapoor13-May-20224:29

Is it time to do away with the bails?

Yuzvendra Chahal agrees with Sanjay Manjrekar that if a ball hits the stumps and the bails light up but don’t get dislodged, it should still be declared out.One such moment came during Rajasthan Royals’ loss against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday when off the last ball of Chahal’s first over, he beat David Warner with a legbreak that went on to hit the stumps. Unfortunately for Chahal, and Royals, Warner survived as the bails didn’t fall. Warner was on 22 at the time and the Capitals were 94 adrift of the target with 11 overs to go. Warner eventually walked back undefeated on 52 having seen Capitals home comfortably.Related

• Simon Taufel: 'People think that the way to solve the odd grey area in cricket is to replace it with technology'

• When Jasprit Bumrah met Andre Russell

• Pat Cummins leaves IPL 2022 early with hip injury

• Manjrekar: Bails are 'redundant', add a 'lot of complications'

“Since it was first time this happened with me, even I was shocked because the ball hit the wickets and the bails did not fall,” Chahal told ESPNcricnfo on Thursday. “If such a thing happens at a crucial time especially with a batsman like Warner, who does not offer too many chances… so if he had got out at that juncture then probably the match result could have been different.”Chahal said he had planned Warner’s wicket, leaving a point and just one fielder to man the covers. With the ball turning, Chahal said he went “fuller”. “The way he plays with a short backlift [trying to hit more square of the pitch], I wanted to create the gap [between the bat and the ball] because if the ball is turning, I have to go for the wicket.”The plan worked like a charm, and both Chahal and Sanju Samson started to celebrate, only to have their celebrations cut short.The LED-stump technology is used by match officials to adjudicate three forms of dismissals: bowled, stumpings, and run-outs. The existing playing condition dictate that the bails have to fall off the top of the stumps for the batter to be declared out. And the LED lights flash only when both spigots on one or both bails are dislodged from the groove, though they can settle back in.On Wednesday, just as the legbreak hit the stumps, the left bail came off the groove. Momentarily igniting the lights. But it rested back in the groove, reprieving Warner.Warner said cheekily after the match that he was “due some luck”. “You do the hard yards at training and you create your own luck and I think tonight I had some,” he told Mitchell Marsh during an interaction. “Spinners complain when the ball doesn’t spin and they complain when the ball does spin. It was one of those things where the stumps were jammed in the ground.”Chahal said while he respected the rule, he was in favour of it being changed. “We can do that because at a crucial time, and it is a big event or match or final, then something like this happens because if the ball hits the wicket then it should be out,” he said. “If it is given not out just because the bails have not fallen off then it could cost you a match. It definitely will affect the [bowling] team.”

“If you have bails, then the bails should fall off. If tomorrow you say get rid of the bails, then go by the lights. It’s a case of basically getting rid of the bails. But why change it? It’s there for a 100 years and the fun element is there, and the luck factor comes in”Ravi Shastri

Talking on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time Out on Wednesday, Manjrekar had stated that bails be made “redundant”, considering LED stumps are widely used these days. “It would have been a wicket, deserving for Chahal who bowled superbly,” he said. “It was a terrible shot from Warner, and it didn’t get a wicket. Unless it’s adding an aesthetic value, they should just get rid of the bails because they’re completely redundant with LED technology.”Ravi Shastri, though, had a more traditional viewpoint, saying that bails, which had been introduced in cricket to allow match officials to determine if the ball had hit the stumps or not, should stay. “It’s a Catch-22 situation,” he told ESPNcricinfo on Thursday. “Suppose I play a forward defence and the ball rolls on to the stumps at a very slow pace and touches the stumps, and the bails don’t fall off – is he out or not out? The debate will start there as well.Yuzvendra Chahal executed his plan against David Warner perfectly, only for the batter to get lucky•BCCI”If you are looking from the bowler’s point of view, you might say the lights have flashed, you should be given out. But if that’s the rule that has existed over a 100 years, there’s an element of suspense, whether it will fall or not fall, that makes the luck factor come into play. I think it’s very rare the bails won’t fall, you’ll have a one-off case like this.”If you have bails, then the bails should fall off. If tomorrow you say get rid of the bails, then go by the lights. It’s a case of basically getting rid of the bails. But why change it? It’s there for a 100 years and the fun element is there, and the luck factor comes in.”Shastri cited an example from his playing days when he was at the “receiving end” in a dismissal where the bails had fallen off without anyone noticing it. “I remember a game in Mumbai where I was batting against West Indies at the Wankhede and [Michael] Holding was bowling. I was batting on 70 or something and there’s one that nipped back and went to [Jeffrey] Dujon. And after a minute, there was an appeal because one bail had fallen down. No one heard anything, but the bail had fallen down and I was given out. It was the right decision because when they really showed it in slow motion, it was the pace of Holding. It might not have touched the stumps but the speed at which the ball was going it dislodged the bail. And that’s cricket. I was at the receiving end of it.”He, however, admitted that he would reluctantly agree for the existing rule to be tweaked. “If you see most of the rules, if they are in favour of the batsmen, then this one as a bowler to get something back, it’s not a bad thought,” Shastri said. “I don’t want to change things for the sake of changing.”

The Zimbabwe allrounder believes his side’s fearless, team-first brand has them well-placed to upset more calculations at the T20 World Cup

Danyal Rasool01-Nov-2022The first thing you notice is the despair, and how oddly familiar it looks. Sikandar Raza has just played a loose shot to a Josh Davey short ball, nicking off to the wicketkeeper. Just half an hour later, he will be named Player of the Match; he’s registered bowling figures of 4-0-20-1, and his 23-ball 40 has put Zimbabwe on the brink of Super 12 qualification.But his look, and that persistent anguished visage, doesn’t just represent disappointment, it reveals trauma. He got out at a comparable stage of a game in a vital World Cup qualifier, against the UAE in Harare, mistiming a shot he knew he should have put away. On that occasion, Zimbabwe ended up falling short by three runs and missing out on the 2019 World Cup.Related

How a Ponting clip 'did a wonder' for Raza

The high, a 4300km journey, and the crash – 60 hours of extremes for Zimbabwe cricket

Cricket might not love Zimbabwe, but it would be poorer without them

It is a memory that left psychological scars seared deep in the minds of all Zimbabwean players involved that day, and in Hobart, Raza’s reaction showed how quickly they can again be brought to the surface.”The demons came back straightaway as soon as I got out,” Raza tells ESPNcricinfo. “I had Craig on the other end. In that game, I had Sean on the other end. The first thing that went through my head was ‘not now, not again’. The second thing I was annoyed about was it wasn’t a ball I should have gotten out to. I should have executed slightly better.”We’re sat in his hotel lobby in Hobart. It’s barely 36 hours since Raza was a picture of despair, but it’s a bright and warm afternoon, and those emotions seem to have melted away into the deep past now that a balm has finally been applied to an open wound from four years ago. The chief selector, several of his teammates, and, of course, Dave Houghton walk past on a few occasions, their faces breaking out into contented grins as they walk past him.Houghton drops by at one point and asks about a neck scan he’s just returned from after an impact injury in the game against Scotland. They have a convivial chat, share a joke and a laugh, and Raza sits back down. It doesn’t come off as a tense, formal interaction between an austere 65-year-old former policeman from Bulawayo and a man born to a businessman in Sialkot three decades later. They’re chatting less like a coach and a pupil, and more as friends.

“If your team’s needs come before your personal needs, you will find your needs being looked after anyway. The problem will start when a culture becomes slightly selfish and people are looking after their own needs, rather than thinking about what the country needs”

The change in Zimbabwe’s outlook and form since Houghton’s arrival is quite something to behold. In a game where statistical edges through exhaustive, Moneyball-style analytical research has become something of a trade secret, neither Houghton nor any of his players pretend anything as complicated explains Zimbabwe’s uptick in fortune.”That obvious change [of coach] is the answer [to explain our success]. The fact that we’ve got Dave Houghton now makes such a huge difference,” Raza says. “We had some top-quality cricketers that are not here and you cannot take that away from them. But I feel that in this World Cup we are a lot more united than we ever have in the previous World Cups. That is our strength.””All I’ve done up until now is basically said to them that I want them to play fearless cricket,” Houghton had told ESPNcricinfo earlier this year. “There will be no recriminations if they make mistakes. Making mistakes is a good way of learning. But I want them to go out and play with their skills because we’ll never know how good we are until we actually put our skills on the table. I think that has been the turning point.”In the few months since, people have begun to find out how good they are, with wins against Bangladesh, Australia and, of course, Pakistan marking a dramatic turnaround since Houghton’s arrival.With the team’s success, the players have begun to pull together. “When it comes to the national team, it is never about me,” Raza says. “We have bought into a team plan and my job is to win the game for the country.Sikandar Raza has made key contributions with the bat all year•ICC/Getty Images”I learned something through T20 franchise cricket and I’m a big believer in it. If your team’s needs come before your personal needs, you will find your needs being looked after anyway. The problem will start when a culture becomes slightly selfish and people are looking after their own needs, rather than thinking about what the country needs, which is what needs to be done whether you have bat or ball in hand. If you are constantly thinking about what my team needs of me and you’re constantly trying to achieve that, you’ll be fine.”While keeping things simple has paid dividends for Raza, and Zimbabwe, he doesn’t pretend that diversity of viewpoints surrounding the nous of an all-out attack doesn’t exist altogether. In Zimbabwe’s first-round game against West Indies, Zimbabwe got their chase off to a flying start, but with the rate dropping down below seven, they continued with a high-risk approach that belied the modest nature of the target. When Raza fell, playing arguably the flashiest shot of the lot, there were no specialist batters to follow, and Zimbabwe fell to 64 for 5, and subsequently to a big defeat.”We have a pretty simple plan. We don’t complicate cricket. Coach Davie has asked us to play a certain way. And I went to him and I said, ‘Coach, I just want to understand your plan better. We all can’t play one way. If the team is 30 for 3, I cannot be playing a role that I should be playing when we’re 120 for 2. I feel like the years that I’ve served cricket for, I’m good enough to play any role my team wants or demands of me. So I can assure you it’s not like I want to move away from your plan. But I can guarantee you whatever my team needs will always come first.'”So sometimes you go ultra-aggressive. But it’s not just about hitting every ball or seeing the ball and hitting it. You kind of have an idea where the bowler is looking to get you out. It’s not just about close your eyes and we’ll see what happens.”

“When we left Zimbabwe, our dream wasn’t just to qualify, it was just stage one. Stage two of this plan was that we’re going to roll some big teams. We’re not going in there to just merely exist”

By all accounts, Raza is one of the leaders in that Zimbabwe dressing room and, at 36, is looking in the form of his life at the tournament that might end up defining his legacy. In five matches at this World Cup, he’s the fourth-highest wicket-taker with nine scalps, his economy rate of 6.60 superior to all three men above him on the list. In addition, he also has 145 runs at a strike rate of 145.00, the fifth-highest tally of the tournament. He is, currently, far and away the most prolific T20 allrounder at his World Cup, and all at a time when many cricketers turn their thoughts to post-retirement plans.He doesn’t want to talk about those, though, one of the few subjects the otherwise garrulous Raza is reluctant to broach. “My goals and my dreams will remain with me,” he says, suddenly a picture of solemnity. “You will just find out one day. I don’t like to share what I’m going to do, what my goals are, what I want to achieve when I’m going to leave cricket. But that is something I’ve written. And I look at it and I read those notes that I’ve made. There are targets and goals that I’ve set for the immediate and long-term future. But that is for me and me only.”The T20 needle has shifted overwhelmingly towards match-up analysis, where certain bowlers target particular batters based on their record and ability against that particular skill, and vice versa. Bowling and batting plans have become so bespoke that Scotland bowler Mark Watt carried a strategy cheat sheet with him during his Player-of-the-Match performance against West Indies.Raza, however, questions how long this ultra-individualised tactic will survive in T20 cricket. “I do buy into that, but in two to three years’ time, a lot more of these match-ups will disappear and it will be skill versus skill. If you’re good enough to bowl to a rightie as well as a leftie, then both of them become your match-ups. For me, cricket is skill versus skill. I bring my skill to the table against the leftie or the rightie, and if you’re good enough, you’re good enough. If somebody takes you apart, then you go back to the nets. You say, ‘This is how he batted. This is where my skill lacked. I’m going to work on this skill so the next time he doesn’t do that.’ This game will always be about skill versus skill. Whoever brings his skill to the table better than the opposition will win.”It’s perhaps fair to wonder if his view is shaped by his team’s requirement for him to be almost everything against everybody, bat and bowl wherever and whenever the team needs. Because the obvious counterpoint is it’s unrealistic to expect that in three years, every T20 player ends up well-rounded enough to eliminate the need for individual match-up analysis, even if Raza himself has aspired to get himself to that stage.3:20

Mumtaz: Raza has come up in leaps and bounds after his illness

“A lot of improvement must come in the nets, with a clear plan of how somebody is getting me out. I don’t think I had a great record against left-arm spinners a few years ago. I even went into a few meetings and I said I want to have an analysis done on me. How would the opposition look to get me out? Instead of just improving against a left-hander, I just said that if I have skills, then I’ll be good enough against all bowling. I just have to improve my skills. So my whole mindset shifted.”The jury’s out on whether it works for less gifted cricketers, but for him, and Zimbabwe, Raza’s form has been like manna from heaven. His bowling performance to help secure victory against Pakistan put Zimbabwe in realistic semi-final contention, and even though he was speaking a few days before that win, it’s evident his ambitions didn’t just end with the Super 12s qualification.”My job isn’t to have my name shining. If my country’s name shines, my name will shine automatically. So for me, I buy into a team plan, and what needs to be done for my team to win the game. And if it happens to be me on that day, then so be it.”When we left Zimbabwe, our dream wasn’t just to qualify, it was just stage one. Stage two of this plan was that we’re going to roll some big teams. We’re not going in there to merely exist. I actually think people are happy watching Zimbabwe now, the brand of cricket we play. Not just with a bat or ball in hand. Fielding, energy, passion. Whatever they see, they’re liking it, I feel. So we’re going to bring our brand of cricket tomorrow and see what happens. Mentally, we are in a lot better place at the moment than some of the big teams are.”A week on, it’s impossible not to notice how prescient those words in that Hobart hotel lobby have turned out to be. Like the man, Raza’s thoughts appear to be aging impressively well.

They’ve battled injuries and unexpectedly slow pitches, but they’ve scrapped their way into the Super 12s

Sidharth Monga20-Oct-2022As far as banana peels go, Sri Lanka found themselves on a big one, which in turn was placed on an oily surface. Playing the first round of the 2022 T20 World Cup, after coming in as Asia Cup champions, they struggled to adjust to a slow, two-paced Geelong pitch and ended up paying for it with a defeat to Namibia. Add to it a soft outfield that can leave you vulnerable to injuries.Five of the Sri Lanka players have been injured so far. Dilshan Madushanka tore his quad during training on the eve of the first match. Dushmantha Chameera did his calf during the second game. Pramod Madushan and Danushka Gunathilaka injured their hamstrings. Pathum Nissanka has now gone for a scan of his groin.Related

• Agony turns ecstasy as World Cup pendulum swings Netherlands' way

• Mendis' 79, spinners steer Sri Lanka into Super 12s

Maheesh Theekshana feels the risk of injuries is high on this ground. “Even when we’re batting, we can see how the ball is not going to the boundaries; the ball stops early,” he said. “There’s a lot of tension on the body. That’s why there are more injuries.”Then, on the day after their defeat against Namibia, Sri Lanka saw a forecast for rain on Thursday, the final day of the first round, which left them even more anxious. And these are not conditions where you can blast away an opposition. You have to swallow your pride a little.Sri Lanka fell back on conservative, unsexy cricket to get back on their feet. Their first win, against UAE, was centred on Nissanka’s 74 at a strike rate of 123.33. In their next game, Kusal Mendis went at a run a ball for his first 17 balls against Netherlands. Just what you are taught not to do in T20 cricket. But they knew they couldn’t make the conditions bend to their will.”When we saw the pitch, I didn’t think it would be that slow in the morning,” Mendis said. “It’s very slow, and the spinners turned the ball. You can’t get to your normal game. Even if you jump out of the crease, it’s a bit slow. So we had to bat normally for 10 or 12 overs. Because we did that, we were able to score heavily in the last five.”[It’s] a little bit different here. In Australia, you come expecting bounce and pace. Here you have to play your normal game in the first six overs. Then we can hit out in the last ten overs. In the first game, we struggled. The wicket was slow. We didn’t know how to play on this pitch. The second and third game, I knew how to play here.”Often in T20s, not taking risks is the risk. Mendis was willing to take that risk. The pitch was perhaps slightly better than in the first two matches. Once he realised the slower ones were not gripping as much, Mendis played with the ground dimensions: short square boundaries and a long hit down the ground.Mendis managed to hit 23 balls between fine leg and midwicket, which brought him 62 of his 79 runs, including all five sixes. This points to a few loose balls especially as some of the slower ones didn’t grip. But it also points to ruthless execution and upscaling of his ambition as he went along.Sri Lanka didn’t quite avoid the banana peel but have managed to get back up. It has taken a heavy toll, but there’s no time to lick their wounds. They will have to regroup quickly, adjust to real Australian tracks, and keep finding answers and replacements as they go along.