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Being in a group full of Asian oppositions could prove a test if the pitches are slow and low

Deivarayan Muthu21-Oct-2021

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Just four months ago, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor sealed victory in the World Test Championship final, leaving the New Zealand public clamouring for image of the pair walking off to be immortalised as a statue at the Basin Reserve. New Zealand are now out to have another crack at a world title in the same year, but at this T20 World Cup in the UAE, they will have to do so without Taylor – their joint-most-capped player in T20Is – and there are also some (minor) concerns over Williamson’s fitness in the lead-up to the tournament.Related

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New Zealand dominated their most recent home summer, which saw the emergence of Glenn Phillips and Devon Conway, winning 10 of the 13 completed T20Is. From thriving on easy-paced hit-through-the line tracks on small grounds, Williamson’s men will have to adapt quickly to the slow, low pitches on bigger grounds in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.It helps New Zealand that ten of their 16 squad players were part of the recently concluded IPL, and they can also draw some confidence from the past. In the 2016 T20 World Cup group-stage game in Nagpur, they benched Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Mitchell McClenaghan to accommodate three spinners in Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi and Nathan McCullum – and stunned India on a rank turner.While Williamson has already indicated that conditions will decide New Zealand’s XI, facing India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh – if they qualify for the tournament proper – will be a tricky proposition.

Recent form

None of New Zealand’s World Cup squad players travelled to Bangladesh, where a Tom-Latham-led second-string side lost the T20I series 3-2. The subsequent tour to Pakistan was called off amid security concerns, minutes before the first ODI was scheduled to begin in Rawalpindi. However, a good chunk of New Zealand’s players have been active in franchise cricket, including the IPL, CPL, the Hundred and the Vitality Blast.

Batting

Phillips and Conway have evolved into versatile middle-order batters, and a fit Williamson could have a big role to play, but there could be a bit of trouble at the top if Martin Guptill and Tim Seifert can’t maximise the powerplay in these conditions. Guptill has played nine T20 games in the UAE, scoring 126 runs at an average of 14 and a strike rate of 104.13. Seifert has had stints with the Knight Riders’ franchises in the CPL and IPL but has played just 10 T20s in Asia.Jimmy Neesham and Daryl Mitchell, picked ahead of Colin de Grandhomme, will be tasked with the responsibility of finishing the innings.Lockie Ferguson could be a vital cog in the bowling line-up•Getty Images

Bowling

Having recovered from injury and Covid-19, Lockie Ferguson proved his form and fitness for Kolkata Knight Riders in their run to the final in IPL 2021. Ferguson can devour oppositions with his breakneck speed, which most subcontinent teams aren’t used to facing. Adam Milne, who was in stellar form in the Hundred, could have added more X-factor to New Zealand’s attack, but the team management has instead leaned towards the experience of Boult and Southee, keeping Milne as a reserve bowler.New Zealand don’t have a specialist offspinner although Phillips is open to doing the job against left-handers. Santner was the only New Zealander who didn’t get a game in this IPL, but head coach Gary Stead believes he will be able to shake off the rust during the warm-up games.Kyle Jamieson had impressed with his change-ups in Chennai during the first leg of the IPL, but his T20 form has tapered off since. In his last seven T20s, he has managed just a solitary wicket at an economy rate of 10.09.

Player to watch

Ferguson aside, Phillips has become a sought-after T20 package. In addition to being the top six-hitter in T20s this year, Phillips is one of the better players of spin in the New Zealand line-up, having honed his skills while working with Ramnaresh Sarwan at the CPL. A back condition has limited his ability to keep wicket in recent times, but he can aggressively patrol the outfield and bowl quickish offspin.

Key question(s)

Do New Zealand have enough depth in their squad? They’ve picked only one reserve player in Milne, and left out compelling T20 options in Colin Munro and Finn Allen. If the ball doesn’t swing or seam around, how effective will Boult or Southee be in the UAE?

Likely XI

1 Martin Guptill, 2 Tim Seifert (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Devon Conway, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Kyle Jamieson/Daryl Mitchell, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Trent Boult/Tim Southee

First century since 267 against Pakistan serves timely reminder of young batter’s potential

Andrew Miller11-Mar-2022The stats don’t lie. At least, not when you accept them as indicators of an underlying truth, rather than an irrefutable end in themselves. When England’s second innings got underway in Antigua, just three balls and 18 minutes into the third day’s play, and with a deficit of 64 to surmount, a graphic flashed up on the TV screens that warned of the potential jeopardy in store.It showed a list of England’s top-order collapses in 2021 – a hammer-horror of batting dysfunction, featuring each of the eight occasions in that year’s 15 Tests in which they had lost their first five wickets for 67 runs or fewer.And when it came to England visits to the Caribbean, that batting malaise had even deeper roots. On their previous trip in 2019, Joe Root’s men were rolled aside for 77 en route to a thumping defeat in the opening Test. Ten years prior to that, England had been routed for 51 by Jerome Taylor and Suliemann Benn on the fourth afternoon of the series opener, eventually losing by an innings in 33.2 overs from an unnervingly similar position – a first-innings deficit of 74.And so when Alex Lees departed for his second single-figure score of his debut Test, it’s fair to suggest that English optimism was in short supply. Zak Crawley had already survived a triggering of his own after all – and for all that his first-over lbw verdict was one of the worst of a substandard match for the umpires, his haul of 11 single-figure scores in 16 innings in 2021 was hardly a reason to believe that his reprieve would be a long-term one.But by the close of an unfamiliarly serene day’s batting from England, Crawley had racked up his second Test hundred, passed 1000 runs in the process, hauled his average back above 30 for good measure, and shown enough class and durability in his 200-ball stay to awaken thoughts that his career-best 267 could yet be at his mercy if he shows sufficient hunger on what looks now to be the deadest day five of a Test match since… well, since last week.For those stats don’t lie. No player who, at the age of 22, can convert his maiden Test hundred into the sort of whopper that Crawley compiled against Pakistan at the Ageas Bowl in 2020 can possibly be written off barely 18 months later. And given the ebbs and flows of both form and luck that all established players must endure in the course of their international careers, there’s no way either that he’ll look back in a decade’s time, on this century or his Southampton epic, and think, “well, that was a complete road, it doesn’t really count”.For this performance deserves to be viewed within the context of England’s rebuild, as well as the realities of a lifeless deck. In the whole of the team’s desperate 2021, there had been a solitary century from a player not called Joe Root – and that man, Rory Burns, no longer merits a place in the squad after his defenestration in the Ashes.By the time Crawley had nudged Jayden Seales through midwicket for his milestone-sealing runs, England had posted a centurion in both the first and second innings of a Test for the first time since their tour of Sri Lanka in 2018. The fact that Root was not the man to three figures on either occasion would hardly be a cause for celebration if it meant that he was also desperately out of form. But given that he finished his own solid day’s work on 84 not out, the chances are that he could yet follow suit on Saturday morning. From a first-day nadir of 48 for 4, the batting aspect of England’s reset couldn’t really have progressed more exponentially.”Oh, that’s right up there, it was really special feeling when I got it,” Crawley told BT Sport at the close. “I had a tough year last year and probably at times didn’t think I’d get this opportunity again, so I’m absolutely delighted and pleased we’re in a good position to win tomorrow.”Zak Crawley is congratulated by Joe Root on reaching his half-century•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesThat latter assessment might be stretching the bounds of optimism – especially given the mixed status reports about Mark Wood’s dodgy elbow. But with a lead of 153 already banked and nine wickets left to push it further, there will undoubtedly be the chance to have a dart with a new ball at some stage on the final afternoon, and maybe even come up with a more threatening response than Chris Woakes and Craig Overton managed in their off-colour opening gambit.But for now, England can content themselves with something resembling a feelgood factor in the most troubling facet of their current Test game. All things being equal, they will pass 300 in their second innings of the match, having failed to make that mark in ten attempts in the Ashes. Stiffer tests will lie ahead, maybe even as soon as in Barbados next week, but having found his place in the team untenable last summer, after averaging 10.81 in his first eight Tests of the year, the self-belief that Crawley will have gleaned from this chance is immeasurable.”When I got taken out the team they said I had a big future which I was very thankful for,” Crawley said. “It gave me a lot of confidence. I was thankful they picked me for the Ashes, it’s a dream come true. I always believed in myself that I would come again. Maybe not so soon, but I knew I was young and I had a chance to come again.”Given the air of reticence that has dominated England’s top three for the past decade, the optics of Crawley’s batting have long made an irresistible case for his defence. Where his contemporaries have all died in a ditch – especially Dom Sibley last summer, whose only remaining shot against India had been an uncomfortable shovel off the legs, and Haseeb Hameed in Australia, a tour for which his selection was borderline negligence – Crawley’s poor returns have at least been a consequence of his broadened horizons. And on the fleeting occasions when his game has come together in the midst of his dry spell – most tellingly with his first-morning fifty in Ahmedabad last year, and again with a brilliant 77 at Sydney in January – he has looked as fluent as any player in the game.”Make good decisions,” was the advice that Crawley had drummed into him during his 193-run stand with Joe Root, the perfect role-model for a young, expansive right-hander – not least on the ball before his century, when he swung too eagerly into an air-shot against Seales, and immediately had his captain in his ear, reminding him that good things come to those who wait.”He does that extremely well and I tried to emulate him,” Crawley added. “He was very good to bat with, he batted brilliantly and took the pressure off. He’s always a calm head telling me to take it one ball at a time, make good decisions, and thankfully I made a few more than I usually do.”Related

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Not unlike Jonny Bairstow in his first-innings hundred, a feature of Crawley’s innings was the shelving of his favoured drive. Early in his innings, a graphic on the TV broadcast contrasted Nkrumah Bonner’s magnificent discipline in the channel outside off with Crawley’s tendency to go looking for the ball, a reflex approach that had done him in all too often in his previous innings, including via an inside-edge to Joshua da Silva in his first-innings 8.”I like to put some pressure on the bowlers but I’ve certainly tried to rein my game in a bit more since coming back into the team,” Crawley said. “I’ve tried to put away a few more shots that I was playing last year and getting me into trouble.”I’m just trying to make the game a bit more simple,” he added. “Against the new ball, the drive is not an easy shot to play. I’m much more comfortable playing through the leg side. That’s not ruling out the off-side game – there’s still plenty of runs to be had there. It’s just knowing when to play it.”Such are the lessons that a spell of dead-deck accumulation can gift to a team in need. It may not count for much in a broader context right now, but when the spin settings get cranked up on the next tour of India, or when Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood find a juicier surface in next year’s Ashes, Crawley will be able to tap into this moment, and remember he’s been here before. And he’s young enough and good enough to head back there again.

Who cashes in on fielders’ gifts the most, who doesn’t – this is what the numbers say

Shiva Jayaraman17-Jan-2022Marnus Labuschagne lived an incredibly charmed life in the first innings of the Adelaide Test recently. He was dropped at least thrice (four if you count a very tough chance missed by Ben Stokes in the 51st over of Australia’s innings) on his way to 103.This wasn’t the first time Labuschagne was reprieved thrice in an innings. In his short Test career, Labuschagne has been at the receiving end of such good fortune on one other occasion. In the Ashes Test at Headingley in 2019, Labuschagne was reprieved three times on his way to 80 in Australia’s second innings. In two other innings, he has been let off twice.Which made us wonder if he was indeed the luckiest batter going around in Test cricket.A batter could get lucky in many ways in cricket. However, in this piece – which is more of a chronicle than any sort of analysis – we look at only dropped catches and missed stumpings in Test cricket since Labuschagne’s debut.

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ESPNcricinfo LtdData since Labuschagne’s Test debut, in October 2018, suggests that he has indeed been dropped most often in Test cricket in this period. There are 16 instances of him being dropped (or not stumped). He has been caught or stumped 25 times. So, of the 41 times he has offered chances to the fielding team, only 61% have been taken. He has been lucky the other 39% times. Among batters who have offered at least 20 such chances since his debut, only Mushfiqur Rahim has a higher reprieve rate. Mushfiqur has offered 22 chances of which only 12 have been taken, for a reprieve of 45.45%. Abid Ali, R Ashwin and Usman Khawaja make up the top five.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt’s popularly held in cricket that batters who are not in form don’t get lucky too often. It can’t be truer in Virat Kohli’s case. Kohli finds himself among the bottom five of the unluckiest batters. Kohli has offered 33 chances during this period and has been reprieved only three times. David Warner is at the bottom of this list with just two reprieves out of the 23 catches he has offered. KL Rahul is also in the bottom five. Kraigg Brathwaite and Dinesh Chandimal complete the list.ESPNcricinfo LtdGetting lucky is one thing and making use of whatever luck comes your way quite another. Warner may have got only two chances, but he has made use of them like few others have. He offered a very tough chance to short leg that was spilt when he was on 48 in the first innings of the 2019 Gabba Test against Pakistan. He went on to score 154. Whatever luck that has come Warner’s way seems to have come at the Gabba, for that’s where he got his other chance too. Rory Burns dropped him in the slips in the recent Ashes Test off the bowling of Ollie Robinson. Warner was on 49 then, and went on to score 94.Among 48 batters who have had at least five chances missed off them in this period, Tom Latham has cashed in the most. On an average, Latham has added 68.8 runs after the reprieves. This is calculated by averaging out the runs added by the batter after the reprieve until the end of the innings or the next reprieve. Since a batter could be reprieved quite close to the end of a team’s innings, thus limiting the extent to which they can make use of the opportunity, this average is just instructive of how the batters have done on such occasions. Dhananjaya de Silva, Babar Azam, Khawaja and Mayank Agarwal are the others in the top five.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe bottom of this list has a few bowlers, but at 46th place (out of 48) is Haseeb Hameed, whose additions are 3, 17, 8, 4 and 0 (each in different innings). Marcus Harris is the next batter, ranked 41st, with an average addition of 10.8 runs. Steven Smith has also not made his five reprieves count – scoring only 62 runs for an average addition of 12.4 runs. For Smith, four of these five chances were after the 2019 Ashes. Not surprising, since Smith has not even been half the batter he was in the five-year period until that Ashes series. Imam-ul-Haq, with an average addition of 15.8 runs in six innings, completes the bottom five among proper batters.ESPNcricinfo LtdWe can only speculate about how these batters would have done if they had not been reprieved at all (and, of course, assuming hypothetically that they got no other chances in the innings before these reprieves). Who would have lost out the most? Or conversely, who would have gained the most?Turns out, the biggest gainer in terms of absolute runs added is Labuschagne, who has got 567 of his 2220 Test runs (25.54%) after the chances in nine different innings.So, in an alternate universe, Labuschagne is averaging 42.4 instead of 56.9, and has three fewer centuries and four fewer fifties.At No. 5 in this list is Khawaja, who made 419 of his 916 Test runs in this period after being reprieved in eight of his innings. That’s 45.74% of the runs he has now ended up scoring since October 2018.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn contrast to these batters, is Ajinkya Rahane. Rahane has been reprieved in more innings (as against most times) than anyone else during this period. He got at least a second chance in 15 of his 53 innings but could score only 274 additional runs. Less than half of what Labuschagne managed from less than two-thirds of Rahane’s count of innings. As the cliché goes, you make your own luck.

His methods have brought titles to Mumbai and Vidarbha, and they could now potentially take MP all the way

Shashank Kishore17-Jun-2022″Quick, boys.”A voice, not loud enough to boom around the dressing room but loud enough to be heard, gets everyone’s attention in the Madhya Pradesh camp.It’s their coach Chandrakant Pandit’s first and final reminder that they need to be out of the ground soon. A recovery session, team meeting, and one-on-one chats are lined-up at the hotel. They can’t be fatigued by Bengaluru’s evening traffic after a long day.They want to make sure their hour-long commute back to the hotel will last no more than an hour. Within 20 minutes of stumps being called, they’re all ready to go. The players troop out, one by one, bags neatly packed and loaded onto the bus.What does this have to do with cricket and the Ranji Trophy? Well, this peek into the MP camp highlights the importance they have placed in time management, planning and preparation – the ingredients of a most memorable campaign, constructed methodically under Pandit, a man whose methods have brought success to the numerous teams he has coached over the years. Methods that are uncontested.”I may even slap a player, but there’s a reason behind it and he will understand that too,” he once said, only half in jest.He’s won Ranji titles with Mumbai and Vidarbha, and he’s now coaching MP, who are perfectly placed to reach their first final this century. We aren’t even counting the many players he has shaped at the National Cricket Academy or at several junior camps.File photo – Captain Aditya Shrivastava contributed a crucial second-innings 82 to drive home MP’s advantage over Bengal•PTI For three weeks now, MP’s hotel has been their home. Even with bubble restrictions lifted, they’ve continued taking precautions, and kept to themselves. Instead of a round of golf next door, the players have spent the extra hour at the gym. Rather than trips downtown to visit a mall, watch a movie, or grab a bite, they’ve indulged in and chitchat by the poolside, or competitive games of FIFA, or late-night coffee sessions.These players have had each other’s backs through thick and thin. Team bonding has been the foundation of their Ranji Trophy campaign. It perhaps is with most successful teams, but this feels different. Or maybe it just feels so organic that the vibes resonate across the group without anyone going out of their way to speak about it.You can see why this is big. MP don’t often make Ranji finals. They were last there in 1998-99, when they lost to Karnataka. Pandit, incidentally, was their captain then.Now there’s another opportunity, potentially, should they see off Bengal’s challenge on the last day of their semi-final in Alur. MP need six wickets to win, and even a draw will be enough since they’ve secured the first-innings lead. Bengal need a further 254 runs in a chase of 350.Kumar Kartikeya picked up three of the four Bengal wickets that fell on Friday. He’s itching to get his hands on the Ranji Trophy. When he left home nearly a decade ago, he didn’t know he’d make it to the IPL. The Ranji Trophy was all he’d heard of, and dreamt of playing in. If he were to win it now, it would make the trip back home doubly special.Rajat Patidar has seen different shades of the happiness spectrum over the last six months. In February, he wasn’t picked at the IPL auction. In April, he was sitting down to plan his wedding, but had to put it on the backburner. One call from Sanjay Bangar, the Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach, and he was in Mumbai within six hours.In May, he became the only Indian uncapped player to hit a century in the IPL playoffs. If he adds a Ranji Trophy win to that achievement, he might have a significantly expanded guest list when his much-delayed wedding goes ahead.Chandrakant Pandit coached Vidarbha to back-to-back Ranji Trophy titles in 2017-18 and 2018-19•PTI Akshat Raghuwanshi, the prankster in the group at 18, whom everyone is fond of, may have not even been here had MP had the services of the India allrounder Venkatesh Iyer. Raghuwanshi was making a mark in age-group cricket when a freak innings – a half-century off twenty-something balls in an impossible chase – made heads turn.Umpiring in an Under-19 match, Pandit declined to give a plumb lbw early in Raghuwanshi’s innings just so he could see more of this talent he’d heard so much about. What he saw certainly impressed him, because he gave Raghuwanshi his Ranji chance straightaway, and he’s responded with three half-centuries and a century in his first five innings at this level.Then there’s Aditya Shrivastava, the captain, who was all of five when MP last made it to the final. When he started out in 2015, he was so star-struck around the group that he’d barely mumble a word to the senior players.Here he is now, as captain, giving pep talks to the entire group – every day, every session, every time they step out onto the field. With the bat, his stubborn 82 in the second innings, his only half-century of the season so far, was as important as the 79 Patidar made in the same innings, the wickets Kartikeya took, or the century Himanshu Mantri made in the first innings.These are just some of several stories that make up this team, many of which are still waiting to be told. You are unlikely to hear them unless and until MP win. Because that is one of Pandit’s simple rules. Talk only after you have something to show for it.And no one is complaining. Everyone is happy to stick to this instruction. There’s the Ranji Trophy on the line, and they’re just giving it their all by shutting out external noise, quite literally.On Saturday, along with Pandit, there will be many others willing them on. Among them, will be all the former players who’ve shaped MP cricket into what it it today: the Bundelas, the Khurasiyas, the Saxenas and the Ojhas among others. They will all be wishing their team well.

All the key numbers from Pakistan’s record-breaking chase against England in Karachi

Sampath Bandarupalli23-Sep-2022200 – The target chased down by Pakistan in the second T20I, in Karachi. This is the highest successful chase in T20 history without losing a wicket. The previous highest was 184 by Kolkata Knight Riders against Gujarat Lions in 2017, while the previous best in T20Is was 169 by New Zealand against Pakistan in 2016.ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 – Pakistan also became the first team to successfully chase a target of 200 or more against England in men’s T20Is. India’s 199-run chase in Bristol in 2018 was the previous highest against England in this format.203 – Partnership between Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. This is the biggest stand in a T20 chase. The duo improved on their record – a 197-run stand which they set against South Africa in Centurion last year.ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 – This is the first time England have gone down by ten wickets in a men’s T20I. It was also only the second instance of Pakistan winning a T20I by ten wickets. They beat India by the same margin during last year’s T20 World Cup.1 – Babar and Rizwan became the first pair to share a 200-run stand for Pakistan in T20Is. They have had five 150-plus stands in T20Is while no other pair has even one for Pakistan. Their five stands of 150-plus runs are also the most by any pair in all T20 cricket.3 – Successful chases of 200-plus targets by Pakistan in men’s T20Is. All three chases featured an opening stand of 150-plus between Babar and Rizwan. They added 158 in pursuit of 208 against West Indies in Lahore last year and had a 197-run stand during a chase of 204 against South Africa in 2021.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2 – Hundreds for Babar in T20Is, the first Pakistan batter with multiple centuries in this format. It was also his seventh century in all T20s, the most by any batter from Asia, going past Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli – all with six tons.1929 – Partnership runs between Babar and Rizwan in T20Is. They now hold the record for most runs as a pair in men’s T20Is, surpassing Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit’s tally of 1743 runs. The seven century stands between the Pakistan duo are also a record in this format.3 – Players to score a century in all three international formats at a single venue, including Babar in Karachi. He joined the list of Faf du Plessis at the Wanderers in Johannesburg and David Warner at the Adelaide Oval in scoring a century in all three formats at a venue.

Fast bowler back to Test cricket with a bang after proving he’s not out of road yet

Vithushan Ehantharajah12-Dec-2022On Sunday evening, Mark Wood sat in his room at the Ramada By Wyndnam Hotel in Multan worried.Pakistan had 157 left of a target of 355 going into day four of the second Test, five wickets in hand and a composed Saud Shakeel unbeaten on 54. The pitch was playing truer with every compression of the heavy roller, losing turn and bounce as the match wore on.The result was a coin-flip, though Wood feared Pakistan could have an edge. Not because of a distrust in his team-mates or his own skills. But, after 11 overs in the second innings up to that point, a reverse-swinging stunner to get Abdullah Shafique his one reward for them, he had never felt worse after a day’s play. As ever the spirit was willing, and given the nature of his work, the body understandably was sore. But the tank was precariously close to empty.Earlier that day, as the rest of the team left the field after 64 overs, boosted by Jack Leach’s late dismissal of Imam-ul-Haq, Wood paused his trudge a few feet from the boundary’s edge. There he met the physiotherapist who had brought a few bands and a medicine ball down with him. Wood ignored the apparatus and slumped to the floor. He was stretching out his hip, but who would have begrudged him a kip on the outfield at that point?Less than 24 hours later, he was sat on that same spot again, just to the right of the England dressing-room as you face it. He looked decidedly worse for wear. Like a man who had been bundled into a washing machine and tossed down a hill: dishevelled, battered and a little bit confused. And yet altogether better for it.”I’m absolutely shattered,” he answered, the words tumbling out of his mouth like shopping through a torn carrier bag. The question: With three vital wickets in the final throes of an anxious run-chase, how did it feel to be responsible for a historic series win in Pakistan? A fair response, all told.Mark Wood burst through Zahid Mahmood•Matthew Lewis/Getty ImagesHe had been on the field for all four days, sending down 32.5 overs of immense effort, backing up 2 for 40 in the first innings with 4 for 65 in the second. This was his first first-class match of any kind since injury once again struck – his elbow this time – during the first Test of the Caribbean tour way back in March.Following a couple of elbow surgeries, Wood’s competitive return came in the T20I series in Pakistan only a couple of months ago, then straight into a T20 World Cup before joining up with the Test squad for this series after a couple of weeks at home. That period back at Ashington was spent recovering from a hip injury sustained ahead of the knockout round of that tournament, meaning he arrived back in Pakistan without having bowled a red ball in anger. Even that moment took a while longer yet to come: he had to quarantine in his room at the Serena Hotel soon after arrival in Islamabad due to an illness brought from home. It was an issue unrelated to the virus that upended England’s preparations for the first Test.He missed the victory in Rawalpindi, but Liam Livingstone’s injury, coupled with Ollie Pope’s capability behind the stumps, provided a clean route back into the XI. From that point on, the next thing to figure out was how to use him effectively. Luckily, in Ben Stokes, Wood had a captain who knew him well.Recognising his Durham team-mate and long-time rouser-in-chief had been exclusively on a four-over diet for the past nine months, Stokes utilised his quick in exactly those amounts. Of his 13 spells in the match, five were of four overs (the most he bowled in a row). Each asked something different of him: straight pace at the start, reverse-swing on days two and three, and a two-over burst of short balls before lunch that removed Mohammed Nawaz (45) and then Saud Shakeel (94) in the space of six balls.That last bit was, ultimately, the game. Both left-handers looked at ease, dovetailing expertly for Pakistan’s sixth wicket as Nawaz played his shots and Shakeel stayed level. Wood steamed in from around the wicket and got both caught down the leg side.”What type of bowling does the batter not want to face at these times?” Stokes said, as he reflected on his decision to give Wood the opportunity to close out the session. “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to be facing bowlers at 145, 150kph with 20 minutes left, even if I had faced as many balls as those two.”The message to Wood was clear: “Stokesy said to me, ‘make a difference, change the game’.” He obliged, turning a target of 65 to win with five wickets to spare into 64 with just three. Pakistan, deflated by the losses – not to mention the contentious nature of Pope’s catch off Shakeel – emerged from lunch with vengeance on their minds. That soon went the way of Zahid Mahmood’s off stump – flattened emphatically – as Wood picked up where he left off, this time on a fuller length to utilise what late movement was on offer.Related

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“That little burst there is why you want Mark Wood in your team and why you want high pace,” Stokes said, beaming at finally being able to call on him as full-time skipper, after his absence from the first eight games of his reign. “It’s so, so valuable to have out in these conditions, especially when you’ve got the skill of Robbo [Ollie Robinson] and Jimmy [James Anderson] at the other end.”Stokes is right. High pace clutters the mind – neither Shakeel nor Nawaz should have bitten at those deliveries going across their bodies. High pace also makes up for mistakes: the collapse of 5 for 38 instigated by Wood ensured England’s own slump of 5 for 19 on the morning of day three went unpunished.His accuracy was also worthy of praise, and what underlines that most is that Monday’s average pace was the slowest of the four days. It had descended from day one, when he averaged 93.4mph, to 87.7mph on day four. Not that you could tell, given the discomfort of those facing him, particularly when fending off deliveries angling for the armpit and, occasionally, head.”All game I got my bouncer a bit too off-side,” Wood said, recalling his similar barrages earlier in the match. “But in that spell, I got it right.”He was understandably emotional at the end of play. However much he believes in his body, bowling faster than any Englishman has before is a constant dalliance with trauma. Thus, each appearance comes with a sense of gratitude, never more so when it is a Test. Having missed 10 of England’s 14 so far this year, including the entirety of the home summer, this is as much a return to savour as it is a statement from Wood. He’s still here.”My body might let me down,” Wood said to Sky, sweat on his brow, cheeks somehow both ruddy with toil and pale with exhaustion. “But I want to keep coming back, I want to keep trying to play for England. There’ll be one day when my body gives up and I can’t do it anymore. But at the minute, I’ll try my best to just charge in when the team really wants me.”With 27 caps now to his name, and his Test average getting closer to being on the “right” side of 30, Wood’s six victims in the match mean he is now just 12 away from 100. There is more road to come. When he does eventually reach the end of it, even a stop-start career such as his has more to savour than most.The 50-over and T20 World Cup wins. The winning Ashes dismissal in the summer of 2015. That 5 for 41 in St Lucia at the start of 2019, when he first felt like he belonged at this level and when seasoned observers reckoned they’d rarely seen a faster spell from an England bowler. The damned tour of Australia last winter when he was one of the few to stand tall. Now this.Wood’s body will ache so much more on Tuesday than it did on Sunday or Monday. At least, though, he will be soothed by the knowledge that, in bowling England to their first series win in Pakistan for 22 years, he has secured himself, and his team-mates, a permanent place in cricketing folklore.

Royal Challengers Bangalore chased down the target of 189 with 27 balls to spare.

Sampath Bandarupalli19-Mar-2023189 Target chased by Royal Challengers Bangalore against the Gujarat Giants, the highest successful chase in the major women’s T20 leagues. Yorkshire Diamonds’ chase of 185 against Southern Vipers in 2019 was the previous highest chase. Brabourne also stood host to the highest successful target chase in women’s T20Is – England chased down 199 against India in 2018.12.19 Run rate of Royal Challengers during their 189-run chase, the highest for an innings of 150-plus runs in women’s T20 leagues. The next highest is 12.1 by Sydney Sixers in the 2017-18 WBBL against Melbourne Stars, when they posted 242 for 4 in their 20 overs.99 Sophie Devine’s score during the 189-run chase, the highest individual score of the WPL. Alyssa Healy’s 96* was the previous highest, which came during the 10-wicket win of UP Warriorz against the RCB.275 Devine’s strike rate during his 36-ball 99 against the Giants, the second highest for a 50-plus runs innings in women’s T20 leagues. Tess Flintoff’s unbeaten 51 off 16 balls against Adelaide Strikers came at a strike rate of 318.75 during the 2022 WBBL.336.36 Devine’s batting strike rate against spinners during her 99-run knock. She scored 74 runs off 22 balls against the spin, with six fours and seven maximums. No batter before Devine had a strike rate of 300-plus against a bowling type (spin or pace) in a women’s T20 league game (minimum of 50 runs scored vs a bowling type).