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One is in the form of his life, the other is in a prolonged slump spanning formats. New Zealand will be hoping the Australia T20Is are a turning point for Conway, with one eye on this year’s World Cup

Andrew McGlashan20-Feb-20241:19

Marsh: ‘World Cup not the only focus’

The last time New Zealand faced Australia in a T20I, the opening pair of Finn Allen and Devon Conway were the stars of the show to launch their World Cup campaign at the SCG in 2022. Allen thundered his way to 42 off 16 balls inside the powerplay and the hosts never recovered with Conway then marshalling the rest of the innings with an unbeaten 92.Right now, however, fortunes for the pair have diverged. Allen’s stock is on the rise after a prolific T20I series against Pakistan where he made 275 runs at 55.00 and a strike rate of 195.03, including 137 off 62 balls with a record-equalling 16 sixes. Conway, meanwhile, is enduring the first prolonged slump of his career.Related

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His last eight T20I innings – albeit over a span of more than 12 months – have brought a top score of 20. Across all formats, the lean run perhaps highlights a greater concern: since his unbeaten 152 against England in the ODI World Cup he hasn’t passed fifty in 20 international innings. In his last 12, his highest score is 29.During the recent Test series against South Africa, local media asked if there were any problems with Conway’s eyes, with reports that he had struggled in Bangladesh when struck down with an illness, but head coach Gary Stead said there were no problems in that regard.Finn Allen and Devon Conway schooled Australia the previous time these two sides met in a T20I•ICC via Getty Images”He was sick … but his eyes are fine now,” Stead said after the Hamilton Test. “I wasn’t over there [in Bangladesh] so I don’t know for absolute sure. All our batsmen get their eyes checked reasonably regularly just to make sure, and he has no problems with his vision. He’s seen eye people, so I’m sure he’s had them tested.”Mitchell Santner – who will captain in the T20I series, in place of Kane Williamson who’s awaiting the birth of his third child – highlighted the significance of the contrasting roles Allen and Conway play with an eye on the T20 World Cup in June, so there may be some nervousness if Conway can’t arrest his slump. Just to add to Conway’s load, he will need to keep wicket in this series following Tim Seifert’s injury.”He’s good. That’s the nature of the game, it’s quite fickle at times, and he still looks like he’s striking it well, just needs that one innings to turn it around and he’ll be away again,” Santner said. “There are no technical flaws or anything in his game, it’s just [about] when you [can] get a couple away so hopefully that’s this series.Allen, who currently has the second-highest strike rate for anyone with more than 1000 T20I runs, and Conway have opened together 21 times in T20Is, second for New Zealand behind only the 25 innings of Martin Guptill and Colin Munro.Devon Conway has gone 20 international innings without a fifty•R. Satish Babu / AFP / Getty”Someone who can take the game away from you at the start is pretty important,” Santner said of Allen’s role. “We know that power game he’s got and in that last series he showed that if he does get going he can singlehandedly win a game for us. It’s trying to generate the strike rate in the powerplay, it’s the best time to bat, then cash in if you can after that.”Think the combo between Conway and Finn is a good one – Conway likes to have a little look then Finn, obviously, doesn’t. It’s that kind of combo we are banking on for the World Cup. Then Kane and guys like that come in after that.”If Conway wants to look for positive omens, his career-best 99 not out also came Australia in Christchurch in 2021. While he searches for a return to the sort of form that saw him averaging 57.38 in T20Is after that Sydney innings at the 2022 World Cup, Allen hopes to have a similar impact during this three-match series.The attack will be very similar with Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa all part of this tour. From that whole Australia XI, only three players will definitely not be on show in Wellington: Aaron Finch (retired), Marcus Stoinis (injured) and Matthew Wade (paternity leave for the first match).”We wanted to strike first against them, that’s what we talked about, that mantra of throwing the first punch,” Allen said of his SCG display. “Obviously it worked well that day for the team, so hopefully we can go into it [here] with a similar mindset. A little bit of individual success is always nice, [you] take that confidence going forward, but I have no doubt they are going to come out firing at us this series and it should be a good challenge.”Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s captain for this series and likely the T20 World Cup too, was part of the team in Sydney when Allen left his mark. “Finn is an outstanding talent and as we’ve seen his record over the past 12 months, especially at home in New Zealand, he can take the game away from you in that powerplay,” Marsh said. “So the onus is on us to try and take a few wickets in the powerplay and put them on the back foot.”

The Kolkata Knight Riders opener seems to have found his mojo at the top of the batting order again, and rival teams are paying

Nagraj Gollapudi25-Apr-2024At the halfway mark of Kolkata Knight Riders’ innings in their home match against Rajasthan Royals ten days ago, Kumar Sangakkara, the Royals director of cricket, said he felt sorry for bowlers this IPL, in which batters have plundered runs at a rate not seen in the tournament’s history until now.A packed Eden Gardens swayed with happy emotion as Sunil Narine, Knight Riders’ opener, whipped a short delivery outside off from Kuldeep Sen for four. Harsha Bhogle, who was on air, asked Sangakkara how Royals might stop Narine. “Hopefully he’ll get himself out,” Sangakkara said.By the time Narine did get out, he had made his first T20 century in over 500 matches to become the first KKR batter to score an IPL hundred at Eden Gardens. It came in 49 balls. Though his start was steady, he accelerated in the middle and death overs, scoring at an overall strike rate of over 194, with six hits over the rope and 13 fours.Related

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Narine, who until earlier this week was among the top ten run-makers in the tournament after that innings, still leads ESPNcricnfo’s Smart Stats MVP standings for the tournament, thanks to his batting heroics paired with incisive bowling that has brought him nine wickets.He has been a distinct point of difference for KKR, who are second on the points table and have shaped up as the team to beat behind RR through the first half of this year’s IPL.At the innings break after his hundred, Narine said that just the fact of him being in contention for the orange cap was a joke, given his dire returns with the bat over the last few IPL seasons. Starting with 2021, he made 62, 71 and 21 runs respectively, batting ten innings in each of the last three years, not all as opener.How has this turnaround as an impact opener come about?Narine says Gautam Gambhir, the former Knight Riders captain, who returned as the team’s mentor this season, has been instrumental. “With GG coming back, he gave me the confidence and the assurance that I’ll open the batting. And out of the 14 games, just try to [succeed] in three or four to give the team a good start.”ESPNcricinfo LtdIt was under Gambhir’s captaincy, in 2017, that Narine opened for the first time for KKR. The idea to field him as an opener, Simon Katich, the franchise’s assistant coach between 2015 and 2019, says was adopted from Melbourne Renegades, who tried Narine out as an opener for three matches in the 2016-17 BBL. He scored just 37 runs in those games but there was enough on show to establish that Renegades were not just throwing things at a wall hoping something stuck.Back in 2017 at KKR, Narine was paired with Australian batter Chris Lynn, one of the leading top-order T20 power-hitters of the time. “We knew teams wanted to bowl spin early to Lynny,” Katich says, “and we felt Sunny would put pressure on the opposition team in the first couple of overs, which allowed his partner to get settled and attack in the back end of the powerplay.”The impact of that strategy was witnessed in May 2017, when Narine and Lynn pulped Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s bowlers in a 105-run opening partnership in the powerplay, chasing a target of 158. It was, until April 20 this year, the highest powerplay partnership in IPL history.”The game was over. The boys killed it in the first six overs,” Katich chuckles.That rampage by Narine and Lynn showed what an aggressive mindset and a batter with no fear of consequences can do. It was something of a precursor to the batting carnage we have seen this IPL, where the record for the highest IPL total has been broken three times, two of those instances courtesy the outrageous batting of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma of Sunrisers Hyderabad.Narine and Phil Salt, the KKR openers, have not been too far behind that pair. In the match against Royals, that team’s spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin, deliberately pitched on a line outside off stump in an attempt to evade Narine’s hitting arc. He still managed to score heavily against the pair, who are arguably among the best slow bowlers in the tournament.Narine was not slogging, and evidence of that came in how he repeatedly squeezed boundaries through the pocket behind the bowler, who had positioned long-off and long-on extra straight. Narine picked up 67 runs from just 28 balls against Chahal and Ashwin in that game. Before that match, Chahal had conceded just five sixes in this year’s tournament in the middle overs, and Ashwin none. Narine hit five sixes off them in that game alone.The start of something big: Narine (right) walks out to open with Aaron Finch for Melbourne Renegades in early 2017•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesLike Narine, Katich too credits Gambhir with being behind the move to open with Salt and Narine. “It just highlights the way game keeps evolving,” he says. “This year in particular, we are seeing a really aggressive game and teams like KKR and SRH are probably leading the way with that in terms of [saying] ‘We are going to put opposition teams under the pump right from the word go. If it doesn’t go to plan, so be it. We might lose a few [wickets] doing that, but we are going to win more than we lose playing an aggressive style of cricket, and take pressure off that middle order.'”The 19 boundaries Narine hit against Royals is the joint most number of fours and sixes in an innings so far this IPL. Overall this year he has hit 20 sixes, which places him sixth on the list of leading six-hitters this season.How does he derive the power to go so big, despite not having much of a trigger movement?”He has relatively long levers,” says Katich, who was head coach at Trinbago Knight Riders, where too Narine has opened. “When you look at his grip, it’s pretty high on the handle. So when you see him hitting sixes – he’s a powerful ball striker.The short ball was something of an Achilles heel for Narine over the years, and Katich speaks of how there was a period where teams tried to tuck Narine up and bowl at his right shoulder, with some success. While his strike rate against the short ball has been consistently high, his dismissal rate against it was high in the past as well, leading to a low batting average against the short stuff: 11 in 2017, 18 in 2018, 15.66 in 2019.This IPL, on the other hand, in seven innings as an opener, against 59 deliveries pitched back of a length or shorter, Narine has scored 82 runs at an average of 41 and a strike rate of nearly 139, getting out twice.”The beauty of him batting in the powerplay is, it’s very difficult to pin someone down when you have only got two men protecting the boundary, because there are times where he top-edges sixes and then the bowlers [get] gun shy of attacking him again with a short ball,” Katich says. “And because he moves around [the crease], it makes him difficult to bowl to, because he’s just as capable of scoring off side as he’s leg side.Narine has credited KKR team director Gautam Gambhir with giving him confidence in his role as an opener•BCCINarine usually takes a leg-stump guard, holding the bat somewhat loose, his backlift high. Generally he opens up his right hip and right shoulder to be able to use the bottom hand to access both sides of the pitch: he can hit over square leg as easily as he does over deep point. To counter that, Katich says, teams have tried taking pace off the ball and tried pitching fuller around the wide line outside off stump to make it hard for him to power it over mid-off or cover.Narine, though, has improvised to counterattack against that strategy. In the game against Delhi Capitals in Vizag,where Narine made 85, during the powerplay, Ishant Sharma pushed the point fielder back and brought midwicket closer, having placed him deep earlier. Narine read it correctly and took a quick step wide to hit it over mid-off for a four.Also that over, with square leg and midwicket deeper, Ishant attempted a yorker that turned into a low full toss outside off. Narine stretched from his leg-stump guard to connect to it with one hand and got enough power into the stroke for the ball to race for four between point and short third. He got to 34 off 15 after having started his innings with five dot balls.”The thing with Sunil, what a lot of people probably don’t appreciate, is that he actually works as hard as most do on his game,” says Tom Moody, who in the past has watched Narine from the opposition dugout as head coach at Sunrisers Hyderabad, and more recently has worked with him as head coach of Oval Invincibles in the Hundred. “So there’s no coincidence that he has those moments where he can have an opposition on the back foot very quickly, because it’s not like it’s unrehearsed. He is prepared for it.””I have one role and the less I know, the better it is for me,” Narine said this year when asked why he skips batters’ meetings. He would rather lounge by the pool than discuss match-ups.ESPNcricinfo LtdAnd that inclination to keep his mind uncluttered has probably allowed Narine to not fret too much about whether he is in control or not while batting. Among openers this IPL who have faced at least 40 deliveries in the powerplay, his control percentage is the lowest, 51.55, but he counters that with his intent in the first six overs, when only two fielders are allowed in the outfield. Among batters who have faced at least 30 deliveries, only Head has a higher aggression (intent) percentage for openers in the powerplay.In his assault on Royals, Narine had 14 false shots in the first 24 deliveries. An extremely chancy beginning, but he made his own luck. In T20s intent matters more than control, and Narine understands that.Is he unique as a batter?”He’s a skilful bowler that can bat,” Moody says. “And he has realised that his most effective way to bat in this format, and the most damaging, is to play with that freedom. The game is increasingly being recognised for those impact-type innings – those ten-ball impact innings that either help you finish off the total or launch your powerplay into a level that you wouldn’t otherwise have done if you didn’t have that sort of approach.Katich says that moving Narine back up to the opening slot is a winning move by KKR. “He’s a game changer. He’s a proven player in the IPL. He has got a huge amount of experience, he’s a very clever cricketer. The more you can have those guys playing these roles in critical times of the game – which the powerplay is – you give guys that opportunity.”Stats inputs from S Rajesh

James Anderson knows from 40,037 (legal) deliveries to be grateful for anything you can get in this game

Andrew Miller12-Jul-2024It all ended with a stooped-shouldered apology. Ben Duckett, feet planted inside the Grandstand boundary, settled beneath a top-edged pull off Jayden Seales with a diffidence that you might not ordinarily expect at the winning moment of a Test match. Gus Atkinson, standing at the end of his follow-through, bowed his head in supplication, even as he completed a debut match haul of 12 for 106, the fourth-best in Test history, and the best by an Englishman for 134 years.It was James Anderson who broke the awkwardness, rushing up to Atkinson to embrace the man who, for this Test at least (if not necessarily for the next 187 to come) has proven himself worthy of leading England’s changed guard.”Gus apologised for taking that last wicket,” Ben Stokes, England’s captain, told the media afterwards, before pausing on the punchline to check the TV cameras weren’t taking his comments live. “Jimmy told him to eff off!”As well he might. Anderson knows from a career spanning 40,037 (legal) deliveries that you should be grateful for anything you can get in this game, that the sensation of success – even if you’re able to feel it on an extraordinary 704 occasions – is still fleeting in the grand scheme of a sportsman’s career. And besides, he’d had his chance to write his own script three overs earlier, when he spilled one of the easiest return catches that can ever have been poked back to him.Anderson’s eyes had widened and his sinews stiffened as Gudakesh Motie stabbed at an inswinger, in his fourth over of the morning, that looped back towards his outstretched left hand. But he simply couldn’t close out the deal. Perhaps, as with the gentle shove towards the exit that he had required in that Manchester hotel-room back in April, Anderson was still not quite ready to go out on his own terms.Related

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Who truly was ready for that moment? Even allowing for the prospect of a full refund for such a swift end on this third day, you got the sense that a packed Lord’s crowd would have watched this final spell for all eternity. His captain was certainly ready to oblige them.”I didn’t tell Jimmy, but I said he was always going to bowl until we took that last wicket,” Stokes said. “However long it took, I wasn’t going to take him off. Even if he said he was tired, I was like, ‘you gotta keep going here’.”And keep going he did, even after the felicitations had been completed and the pints of “recovery shake” Guinness had been downed, as he returned to his favoured Pavilion End long after the close of play to bowl at his daughters and other team-mates’ kids in an outfield knockabout. If he was visibly at peace on this emotional day of farewells, it may be that he’s not yet processed quite what a void he is leaving in this sport.If the choreography of Anderson’s exit paled in comparison to that of Stuart Broad’s at The Oval last summer, then at least the highlights reel will recall his final wicket, No.704, as a true collector’s item; a disassembling of Joshua da Silva that will hold its own in perpetuity.The angle, the length, the subtlety of his outswing – extravagant on the one hand, as it curled from leg to off to kiss the edge of da Silva’s closed-faced bat, yet economised on the other, in keeping with so much else about Anderson’s channelled, streamlined and seemingly eternal pomp.Half a bat’s width, as Glenn McGrath made a point of proving in his own magnificent career, is all you’re ever really looking for as a fast bowler. Anything more, and you’re relying on batter error. Anything less, and the best in the business will be finding the middle of their bat.James Anderson leads his team-mates off•AFP/Getty ImagesIf that moment underlined the craft and the cunning that kept Anderson at England’s cutting edge for two decades, then the moments after his drop were arguably a touching throwback: with his sporting mortality now apparent, a slight hint of desperation crept into his game as he neglected, ever so briefly, the processes that had served him so well for so long, and strained instead for that magic ball that both defined and undermined his uncertain start to Test cricket.Fortunately, Atkinson was on hand to save him from himself and allow the curation of those memories to begin. And it was only at that moment that the true imprint of Anderson’s story – that meteoric arrival in the winter of 2002-03, the traumatic rookie years that followed, and the peerless blend of genius and tenacity that prevented him, first, from becoming another of sport’s precocious “what ifs?” before elevating him into a third act of simply astonishing endurance – was able to burst through the façade and take hold of the day’s narrative.No moment better epitomised this than Sky Sports’ breaking of the fourth wall, moments after the contest was over, as Anderson’s first Test captain, Nasser Hussain, joined him on his perch in the dressing-room for a unique fireside chat.Their five-minute exchange was notable, less for Anderson’s composure, than for the rapt attention that he received from every single member of a team that could not have avoided idolising him long before they began sharing his highs and lows.”Moments like that, you take a step back and you actually really appreciate listening,” Stokes recalled afterwards. “Jimmy did say he felt a bit under the pump, because everyone’s just staring at him, but they were pretty special images for the public and the world to be able to see. Everyone was just so interested to hear what Jimmy had to say, from players to support staff as well.”James Anderson can only laugh after dropping a caught-and-bowled chance•Alex Davidson/Getty ImagesStokes himself was 11 when Anderson played his first Test, on this same ground against Zimbabwe in 2003. Ollie Pope, his vice-captain, was 5. Jamie Smith was 2. Shoaib Bashir had not even been born. Even Chris Woakes, the team’s new senior statesman, was a mere 14. Even for a team that has seen some notable departures in recent years, something about this parting is bound to hit different.”When we got back into the dressing-room, I said to Joe [Root], we’ve been with Cookie [Alastair Cook], we’ve been with Broady, and now we’ve been with Jimmy, so that made us realise our age as well. But I feel very fortunate to have played as much cricket as I have done with three Goats of our game.”It’s a very emotional day, but also, what an occasion for the new lads coming in, to be a part of that,” Stokes added. “For Gus and Jamie, in their first taste of international cricket, to see that reception that you can get as England players. Even I’ve played a lot of cricket, but it sends goosebumps down you.”And now, for Stokes and his men, the challenge is to pay all this forward. To make good on the promise that the team management must have had to make to themselves in the first instance, but which the whole of the squad will now have to uphold: to ensure that the sacrifice of Anderson is not in vain, and that the values he has epitomised are not mislaid in the most seismic era shift that English cricket will have known in generations.”Walking off there at the end there, there was that overwhelming feeling of this being the last time that we would get to walk off the field with Jimmy,” Stokes said. “And the last time for the crowds who’ve come out to watch us, to see Jimmy walk off the field. The reception he got there, and for that half an hour afterwards, was very, very special to be part of.”

Vote for the best individual Border-Gavaskar Trophy performance by an Indian in Australia since 2000

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Oct-2024Update: This poll has ended. Jasprit Bumrah’s performance goes into the semi-finals. Check the other polls here.ESPNcricinfo LtdJasprit Bumrah’s slower ball to Shaun Marsh remains one of his iconic deliveries•Getty Images

Jasprit Bumrah – 6-33 and 3-53 in Melbourne, 2018

India won by 137 runs, lead series 2-1India had won in Adelaide, lost in Perth, and knew Melbourne would be a hard slog on a slow surface where only 24 wickets had fallen in a drawn Ashes Test the previous year. Time was precious, particularly with rain forecast on days four and five, so they declared seven down with less than 450, recognising they had batted nearly 170 overs.Turns out you don’t need much time if you have a game-breaker who can take the pitch out of the equation. India bowled Australia out twice in 156.2 overs, with nine of their 20 wickets coming from Jasprit Bumrah’s irresistible blend of brain and biomechanical brawn. They wrapped up victory shortly after lunch on day five, with even a washed-out first session powerless to stop them.Bumrah’s first three wickets, all on day three, all from round the wicket to left-hand batters, showcased how dangerous he could be even with minimal swing, seam or pace off the deck. A pinpoint bouncer managed to both rush Marcus Harris and cramp him for room. An unstoppable yorker, with a hint of reverse, burst through Travis Head.In between came the last ball before lunch, a devious, 113kph change-up that would go on to define not just this spell but all of Bumrah’s remarkable career. Shaun Marsh’s movements, tuned to Bumrah’s regular 140 kph rhythm, were entirely out of step with this ball out of a slow-motion nightmare. Fixated on a front leg that moved too far across and far too early, it dipped late to miss the cue end of the bat and pinged the pad on the full, plumb in front.By Karthik KrishnaswamyWatch the highlights of these performances on the Star Sports network at 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm IST, from October 30 onwards.Cheteshwar Pujara was the rock Australia could not budge in Adelaide•Getty Images and Cricket Australia

Cheteshwar Pujara – 123 and 71 in Adelaide, 2018

India won by 31 runs, lead series 1-0Mitchell Starc was swinging the ball again. At 145 kph. Some of the quickest bowling ever seen in Australia in 2018 had India 127 for 6 on the first day of a long tour. But it still wasn’t enough to dislodge Cheteshwar Pujara. It barely even made a dent. In an age where batting is nothing if it doesn’t look sexy, one man stood up to show the world that “when you defend confidently you know you are in command, you are on top of the bowler, and he doesn’t have a chance to get you out.”Pujara batted for more than six hours to contribute 123 to India’s first-innings total of 250 in Adelaide. He then wore Australia down for nearly another five hours in the second innings; his 71 putting India on course to set a target of over 300. They won by 31 runs, and went on to take the series 2-1, their first ever triumph on Australian soil.
By Alagappan Muthu

She has always been a matchwinner, but with the addition of her early intent, she has leveled up once more

S Sudarshanan12-Mar-20256:16

Mithali Raj: Harmanpreet finds a way to score against Giants

Harmanpreet Kaur is among the few batters in the women’s game who do not need a free hit to get going. When she got one in Mumbai Indians’ (MI) opening match of WPL 2025, she took full toll. She waltzed down the track and smacked Radha Yadav over the long-off boundary for a 74-metre hit. It was just the ninth ball Harmanpreet had faced; little did we know it was a sign of things to come.Ever since Harmanpreet’s international debut in 2009, her strokeplay has attracted attention. Her unfettered bat-swing is a thing of beauty and there is something alluring about watching her play without the stress of keeping up with the chase. Her confidence, and the fact that she comes through more often than not, makes it seem like the bowlers are under ten times more pressure.However, with captaincy comes responsibility, so much so that batters sometimes end up curbing their attacking instincts far too much. It seemed to be the case with Harmanpreet in recent times. In the aftermath of India’s early exit from the T20 World Cup in 2024, focus shifted to the shots she can play to why she wasn’t playing them. Her first-ten-ball strike rate in T20Is had fallen to 83.56 in 2024, her lowest in three years.Related

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Like India, MI rely hugely on Harmanpreet, and Nat Sciver-Brunt. The team’s results often mirror the duo’s performances, which does explain Harmanpreet’s safety-first approach with the bat and that method did deliver them a WPL trophy – MI won the inaugural season – but it wasn’t entirely foolproof.MI narrowly missed out on a spot in the final in 2024. That five-run defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the eliminator hurt her. She scored a 30-ball 33 and fell leaving MI needing 16 off 12. The remaining batters could not get those runs.Only a game before that, Harmanpreet had found herself in a similar situation, but that time she had escaped, thanks to some sloppy fielding from the opposition. MI needed 91 off 36 balls against Gujarat Giants (GG) to make the playoffs; Harmanpreet was on 20 off 21 before she was dropped. She blasted 95 not out off 48 balls to take MI over the line. Harmanpreet’s method of taking it deep was seemingly counter-productive, especially if she fell before landing the killer blow.Harmanpreet was dejected after MI’s loss in last season’s WPL eliminator•PTI Ahead of WPL 2025, Harmanpreet and Devika Palshikar, MI’s batting coach, had a chat about changing her approach. The conversation stemmed from the narrow defeat that ended their campaign last season, and the idea was for Harmanpreet to attack from an early point, but not recklessly. It is still a work in progress – and therefore liable to backfire – but there is no denying that it is making one of the world’s most dangerous batters dangerous again. Her first-ten-ball strike rate in WPL 2025 is 122.58, which is a massive jump from 93.98 in 2024 and 73.68 in 2023.That six off Radha was the earliest point Harmanpreet has hit one in the WPL. In the same game, she hit the first four balls of the 11th over, bowled by Annabel Sutherland, for 4, 4, 6, 4 but was out on the following delivery.Aggression like this always has a trade-off. In the first two seasons of the WPL, when Harmanpreet took fewer risks, she was dismissed inside 20 balls five times in 16 innings. She has already matched that now in 2025. But her team is still in the playoffs and she is their third-highest run-getter. The price she is paying seems to be worthwhile.”We’re finding her much better this season,” Palshikar said after Harmanpreet’s Player-of-the-Match effort against GG in Mumbai earlier this week. “If you remember last year’s Eliminator, which we lost by five runs, it was a close game. We had a long chat then and before starting this season that one of Nat and Harman should be there throughout the innings. She practises a lot against spin also and pace also. It is a very focused practice, where she knows she needs to be there till the end. She is finding ways to do that and that’s why you can see a major difference in her batting.”Looks like Harmanpreet is trying to do both but with an increased focus on getting off the blocks quickly. She has always been a matchwinner. But this season, she has been pushing herself even harder, testing the limits of her talent, and it has led to a situation where one of the world’s best hitters has realised she doesn’t really need to hold back like she did before.

The seamers, in particular, have had to deal with a heavy workload, bowling 1105.2 overs in four Tests

Shubh Agarwal30-Jul-20252:08

How do India’s five regulars cope with the quick turnaround?

3 – Of the 26 five-match Test series played in the 21st century, only three times has play gone into day five in each of the five Test matches. The most recent such series was the 2017-18 Ashes in Australia, which Australia won 4-0. The other two instances were in the 2000s – South Africa’s tour of the West Indies in 2000-01 and England’s tour of South Africa in 2004-05. Notably, the first day of the fifth Test of the 2004-05 series was washed out.Five days of cricket in the upcoming Oval Test will make it only the fourth such series since the turn of the century.1566.3 – Number of overs bowled in this series, the third-highest in the first four Tests of a series since 2002, only 27 and 13 overs short of Australia’s tour of India in 2008-09 and India’s tour of Australia in 2014-15, respectively. In England, it is the highest.No series since 2002 has seen 2000 overs being bowled irrespective of the number of matches played. If the fifth Test between England and India reaches the final session on day five with a healthy over rate, then this could be the first series with over 2000 overs bowled. The record for most overs bowled in a series since 2002 is 1989.4 overs in England’s five-match Test series in India in the 2016-17 season.ESPNcricinfo Ltd391.3 – The ongoing England-India series averages 391.3 overs per Test, which is the fourth-highest for a series of four matches or more since 2002. Again, it is the highest overs per Test recorded in a series in England.4 – All the four Tests of the ongoing series have lasted more than 350 overs, the joint-second-most since 2002. A further 350 overs of cricket in the fifth Test at the Oval will level this series with Ashes 2017-18 for most matches lasting 350-overs in a series.In a similar vein, this series has had 12 innings lasting more than 80 overs, again the joint-second-most and only one behind England’s tour of India in 2016-17.12 – The number of times a team has scored 350 or more in this series across the 15 innings played. In only four matches, the series has topped the list for most 350-plus team totals, leaving behind some five-match series – the Ashes in 1928-29 and 1948 (ten 350-plus team totals each), India’s tour of the West Indies in 1970-71, South Africa’s tour of England in 2003 (nine each).ESPNcricinfo Ltd17 – The number of century partnerships in this series, the joint-most in a series since 2000, alongside the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2003-04. But the long spells between wickets have been more painful for the bowlers.There have been 15 partnerships in the series that have lasted more than 180 balls, that is 30 overs of play, approximately translating to the span of a session. It is the joint-fourth-most number of partnerships spanning over 180 balls (where the data is available since 2000).Hence, dismissing a set batter has been a laborious task. Eighteen of the 40 50-plus scores have been converted into hundreds. The 50 to 100 conversion rate in the series is 45%, second only to the 50% conversion rate in Australia’s tour of the West Indies in 1955 (among series with 35 or more 50-plus scores).1105.2 – Number of overs sent down by pacers in the series, bowling over a little more than 70% of the overs. It is the second-most bowled by fast bowlers in the first four Tests of the series since 2005. Only the Ashes series in 2017-18 had a greater bowling workload for pacers in the first four Tests (1133.2 overs).

“Once you’re back in, you start looking at what’s on the horizon and it’d be amazing to play in a home T20 World Cup”

Valkerie Baynes26-Jun-2025Two teams, many changes, all to play for. That’s the scenario for India Women’s tour of England, where the hosts of the next two World Cups will face each other, not just for the immediate spoils but with an inevitable big-tournament focus.England have been buoyed by twin 3-0 sweeps of their white-ball series against West Indies after their 16-0 Ashes drubbing but expect a sterner test from an India side featuring a mix of stars, comebacks and inexperience.England have also shaken things up under the new leadership of head coach Charlotte Edwards, captain Nat Sciver-Brunt and national selector Lydia Greenway.Related

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Sophie Ecclestone returns for her first international appearances since January, joining fellow left-arm spinner Linsey Smith, who shone on ODI debut against West Indies, as did seamer Em Arlott.Tammy Beaumont, who has been on the fringes of the T20I side since the 2022 Ashes, is in the squad after a hugely successful ODI campaign, reprising her opening partnership with Amy Jones.Against West Indies, the pair amassed 464 runs between them, including 424 in tandem, in two ODIs. With T20I opener Danni Wyatt-Hodge scoring just 17 runs in three innings, Beaumont offers a batting option, especially with former captain Heather Knight sidelined after tearing her hamstring tendon from the bone during that series.Knight says she is on track to be fit for the 50-over World Cup in India later this year, while Beaumont – who has played just five T20Is in three years and was part of the squad but didn’t play against West Indies – hasn’t given up on making it to a home T20 World Cup in the English summer of 2026.Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont were prolific in the ODIs against West Indies•PA Photos/Getty Images”The previous couple of years, I hadn’t overly thought about that Lord’s final and that World Cup here next year,” Beaumont told ESPNcricinfo. “It was something that would be nice to happen, but I can’t get too caught up in it. Getting that call-up for the West Indies T20 series was a little bit of a surprise, but a really nice surprise.”This India series, I’m just trying to really enjoy my T20 cricket and try to contribute in any way I can. Once you’re back in, you start looking at what’s on the horizon and it’d be amazing to play in a home T20 World Cup. For me, it’s just about enjoying every opportunity I get these days.”It’s been proven that if you perform at county level, you’ll get a go and then you’ve just got to perform where you get the chance. That’s something that tends to work pretty well in my brain, play what you see in front of you and, so far, so good.”Rewarding players for performing at domestic level has been a tenet of Edwards’ time in charge since replacing Jon Lewis in April and the India series represents the next step in her task of rebuilding a team which, like India were humbled at the T20 World Cup 2024.

“She’s almost superhuman at times, just to be able to be a mother and a new England captain and perform at the level that she always has done”Tammy Beaumont is in awe of Nat Sciver-Brunt’s all-round game

“It will be a really tough tour and series for us, but a really good test and a really good time for that,” Beaumont said. “They keep finding more and more talent. There’s a lot of names that I haven’t played against before in this squad and that normally throws out some unexpected challenges.”With the WPL, they’re just getting so much talent coming through that’s ready to go. It’s going to be a tough challenge, but really exciting. There’s always a bit of drama with the England-India series, so I’m sure there’ll be some drama coming forward.”This is India’s first visit to England since 2022, a tour which ended in high drama when Charlie Dean was run-out backing up by Deepti Sharma in the third ODI at Lord’s and which seems a long time ago in the context of two T20 World Cups in which both sides have fallen short.The T20I leg which kicks off this tour with five matches from Saturday represents a chance for both sides to stamp their authority before moving their attention to the three ODIs with eyes on the 2025 ODI World Cup.The coach-captain combo of Charlotte Edwards and Nat Sciver-Brunt could face a stern test against India•Getty ImagesWhile Jones and Beaumont made the bulk of England’s runs in the ODIs, Sciver-Brunt still managed to score fifties in the first and third games, the latter while Beaumont was rested and Jones dropped down the order to give others a chance to bat. Sciver-Brunt also struck an unbeaten 55 in the second T20I in Hove, her first series as captain and a new mum after wife Katherine gave birth to their son, Theo, in March with the family travelling together through the West Indies series.”She’s always been great with kids and being with her own son is absolutely no different,” Beaumont said of her skipper. “A lot of us are getting a bit broody watching how good she is with Theo.”Katherine is doing brilliantly as well, making sure Nat can do everything she needs to do and look after the baby and then enjoy that time together and the way that Nat’s handled it, is so typical Nat.”She’s almost superhuman at times, just to be able to be a mother and a new England captain and perform at the level that she always has done. It’s just a testament to her character that she can just always take anything and everything in her stride.”

“Young Lhu reminds me a little bit of my young self,” de Kock says of his opening partner

Firdose Moonda07-Nov-2025When Quinton de Kock, in his role as international comeback sensation, glances towards the other end of the pitch these days, it’s almost like looking in a mirror.”Young Lhu [Lhuan-dre Pretorius] reminds me a little bit of my young self,” de Kock said after South Africa’s second ODI against Pakistan in Faisalabad in which he scored his 22nd century. “He’s batting really nicely at the moment. He looks nice and free, and he’s just playing everything on merit. He’s doing really well for a 19-year-old. It looks like he didn’t have the pressure I felt at 19.”Consider the bare bones biographical details, and it’s easy to see the similarities. Both de Kock and Pretorius are left-handers and strong strikers of the ball, and both were South Africa’s leading run-scorers at Under-19 World Cups, 13 years apart. De Kock scored a hundred and two fifties in the 2012 edition in Australia; Pretorius hit three fifties in 2024 in South Africa. Both of those performances led to international debuts laced with big expectations shortly after the age-group World Cup. Did we mention that they’re both also wicketkeepers?Related

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The major difference is that while de Kock came on to the scene as an “enigma”, as described by coach Shukri Conrad, Pretorius came in having modelled himself on de Kock. The pair first met when de Kock’s career had just started, and Pretorius was about seven years old. Since then, all Pretorius has wanted to do is play alongside de Kock, even when he felt it might never happen.”I never thought I would play with him,” Pretorius had said after the first ODI against Pakistan on Tuesday. “When he retired [from ODIs after the 2023 World Cup], I was really upset because it was always a dream to play with Quinny. Then, when he came back, I didn’t think I was going to play with him. It’s truly a dream come true. I didn’t know him off the field when I started liking him as a role model. Now I got to know him, and he is really calm and composed, and that’s really what I like, and that’s how I want to play my cricket.”And it shows that Pretorius is trying to emulate his hero. On all three occasions that Pretorius and de Kock have batted together, Pretorius has taken the early lead. In the T20I in Namibia, which Pretorius says “didn’t count because Quinny got out quite early”, Pretorius outscored de Kock, who was dismissed for 1. In the first ODI against Pakistan, Pretorius scored 35 off 36 balls in the first eight overs, while de Kock was only on 8 from 12 deliveries. In the second, Pretorius was on 18 off 18 in the first four overs, and de Kock just 4 from six. While Pretorius said he “felt a bit bad” for taking so much of the strike early on, de Kock preferred it that way.”The kid is highly, highly talented” – de Kock on Lhuan-dre Pretorius•Associated Press”Lhu made it very easy because he was playing really well, and so the easy thing was just to try and get him back on strike,” de Kock said, clearly impressed by what Pretorius can do. “I’ve only seen glimpses of him through our SA20 league. And now coming out here and playing with the youngster – the kid is highly, highly talented.”What that means for South Africa’s plans for tournaments like next year’s T20 World Cup, which will be played in the subcontinent, or the 2027 ODI World Cup at home, is yet to be seen. For now, they are awash with options. In the opening berth, Ryan Rickelton, another left-hand batter, is not on this tour as part of a rotation policy that will keep him fresh for Tests against India next week. So is Aiden Markram, the second half of the regular opening pair.The question facing South Africa is whether they continue with Rickelton and Markram, or opt for more explosiveness and perhaps more risk in de Kock and Pretorius. South Africa also have several candidates putting their hands up for the No. 3 spot, including Tony de Zorzi, who has enjoyed good returns in Pakistan, and shared in a match-winning stand of 153 with de Kock in the second ODI.De Kock has previously indicated that the drawcard of a major tournament remains attractive to him, though he understands he is not “guaranteed” a spot, and will have to earn one through runs. But to ignore de Kock’s body of work when the stakes are high would seem a miss. De Kock was South Africa’s leading run-scorer at the 2023 ODI World Cup, and third overall with four hundreds, and their top batter at the T20 World Cup in 2024. And he is hungry to go again.”I want to be back, and I missed playing with the guys” – Quinton de Kock•Getty Images”I’ve come back, and I’ve found an energy that I think I lost playing so much international cricket all the time – I played for close to 12 years,” de Kock said. “I was just lucky enough that I retired early enough so I can still make a comeback. I’m very happy to be back. I want to be back, and I missed playing with the guys. But my break, I think, did me really well.”Those are words Pretorius should hear too, especially as he walks a similar path to de Kock. His international career could be long if he is managed correctly and given enough time away from the game to avoid burnout. And it will likely be a little more challenging because Pretorius’ emergence has come at the same time as the league circuit is at its peak. But like de Kock, Pretorius might find the pull of international cricket too hard to resist.”At the beginning of the year, when I was in India for the IPL, guys were asking me if I wanted to come back. At that moment, I just thought a straight no,” de Kock said. “Then I don’t know exactly, but it just started happening. That thought process started coming back. That hunger was coming back again.”De Kock is only available for white-ball cricket for South Africa, while Pretorius plays across all formats, and already has a Test hundred to his name. South Africa have yet to announce their white-ball squads to India, but both are expected to be included.

The rule will first be applied at the Duleep Trophy in the event of major injuries to players mid-match

Shashank Kishore16-Aug-20252:14

Should injury substitutions be allowed in Test cricket?

The BCCI has introduced a “serious injury replacement substitute” rule for in domestic cricket to prevent injured players from risking themselves further in the match. This applies to games that take place over multiple days and will come into effect from the Duleep Trophy, which opens the 2025-26 season on August 28. It will be active in the Ranji trophy as well, India’s premier first-class cricket competition.This replacement can be any non-playing member of the squad, should be like-for-like, and will need an approval from the match referee after teams are able to medically produce a report that underlines the seriousness of the injury of the concerned player. The injury has to have happened during the game and needs to be external (like taking a blow resulting in a deep cut or fracture) rather than internal (like a hamstring strain).This addition was debated within the BCCI circles in the aftermath of Rishabh Pant batting with a broken foot against England in Manchester, and has been swiftly incorporated into the playing regulations.The regulation states, “under all circumstances, the serious injury replacement player shall be from nominated substitutes at the time of toss.”Only in the case where the wicketkeeper is seriously injured and needs a replacement then the match referee may allow a wicketkeeper from a player outside the nominated substitutes if there is no wicketkeeper in the nominated substitutes.”Both the player being replaced and the replaced player shall be considered to have played in the match for records and statistical purposes.At present, international cricket only allows substitutions in the event of a player suffering concussion or contracting the Covid-19 virus.During India’s tour of England earlier this year, Pant (foot) and Chris Woakes (shoulder) suffered dislocations, which left their respective teams in a 10 vs 11 battle. Both players braved further injury to come out and help their team’s cause, which added to the debate about whether there needs to be place in the rules for substitutions in case of serious injury.India coach Gautam Gambhir was for it. England captain Ben Stokes was less so, arguing that the system could be gamed.The ICC, in reviewing its own playing conditions earlier this year, was open to the idea of its member nations trialling injury substitutes in domestic cricket.BCCI adopts ICC’s ball change rule

The BCCI has also adopted ICC’s new rule change in ODIs that phased out two balls in the format after 34 overs. The rule will be in effect from the Vijay Hazare Trophy, BCCI’s 50-over competition for senior men.”Each fielding team shall have two new balls for its innings to be used in alternate overs, i.e. one from each end for overs 1 to 34,” the new guideline states.”At the end of over 34, the fielding team will choose one of the two balls from the innings to be used for all the remaining overs of the innings. The other ball will be added to the stock of replacement balls for the innings.”

The Portugal U16 women’s national team experienced the surprise of a lifetime as they came face-to-face with Cristiano Ronaldo and the senior men’s squad during a special visit to training. The young players were left speechless as they stood only steps away from their idols, witnessing the global icons up close in a heart-warming moment that instantly went viral.

• Portugal U16 Women's team meet Ronaldo and Co.

  The Portugal U16 girls’ team were invited to watch the senior men’s national team train during the current international camp. The session quickly turned unforgettable when Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha and the rest of the senior squad made their way over to greet the young players. The girls, visibly stunned as the stars approached, reacted with wide-eyed smiles, nervous laughter and complete disbelief as they met the players they had grown up admiring.

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  Ronaldo closing in on his final year with Portugal

  For the U16 girls, meeting Ronaldo was particularly emotional, given the forward’s status as the country’s greatest sporting icon and the inspiration behind countless youth careers across Portugal. The entire event was captured on camera, showing the young team freezing in awe before gradually breaking into excitement as each senior player greeted them.

  The timing of the encounter also adds significance, as Ronaldo is nearing the final chapter of his legendary international journey. The 40-year-old has publicly stated he expects the 2026 World Cup to be his sixth and final tournament, marking an extraordinary milestone no other male footballer has reached. Despite his age, he remains a key figure in Portugal’s squad and continues to score at an elite level, proving he still has much to offer in the national colours.

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  Ronaldo meeting to serve as motivation for the future

  Beyond his on-field achievements, Ronaldo has spoken openly in recent interviews about preparing for life after football. He admitted that retirement is “soon,” saying he expects to step away from the sport within one or two years and focus more on his family, hobbies, and business ventures. His perspective reflects how long he has lived in football’s spotlight and how meeting young players today represents passing the torch to the next generation.

  For the U16 girls’ team, the experience is likely to serve as long-lasting motivation as they continue their national-team development. They now return to their training camp with newfound inspiration and a firsthand glimpse of the professionalism, charisma and humility that define Portugal’s biggest stars.

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• Portugal prepare for WC26 qualifier with Ireland

  For Ronaldo and the senior squad, focus now shifts back to sealing qualification for the 2026 World Cup. Portugal need a win on Friday against Ireland to qualify, and the veteran icon is determined to make his final tournament one to remember. As retirement moves closer, Ronaldo’s influence off the pitch becomes just as meaningful, and interactions like this show the lasting legacy he hopes to leave behind.