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Days after SA and NZ faced each other in an epic Rugby World Cup final, the two countries meet again at the Cricket World Cup

Firdose Moonda31-Oct-20232:16

Van der Dussen: Taking ‘massive inspiration’ from the Springboks’ feat

The match that matters most has already been won. By South Africa. 12-11 on Saturday night in the City of Lights to make them world champions for a record fourth time. Yes, this is a cricket website. No, nothing about this part of the story is about cricket.In rugby’s fiercest rivalry, the Springboks and All Blacks met at the World Cup final in Paris during the weekend in a match that has been lauded as one of the greatest games the sport has ever seen. It was a nerve-shredder, as you can probably tell from the score-line, and ended with both teams down to 14 players and plenty of tears.Four days later, these two countries meet again, though the stakes are much lower this time. South Africa and New Zealand sit second and third on the points table respectively and a lot would have to go wrong for either of them to miss out on the semi-final, where they could play each other again. That’s not to say it’s impossible for things to unravel but it would also be fair to look at this as a dress rehearsal rather than a do-or-die. And for South Africa it could actually be the start, because the country’s attention will now shift to cricket and the expectation that was largely absent from their campaign is going to pile on in multiples.With two months left in 2023, South Africans are starting to think it may finally be their time because this has been a year of unprecedented success. “All the momentum within the sport was started by the women in the start of the year, with them getting into the [T20 World Cup final],” Temba Bavuma, South Africa men’s captain, said after their win against Pakistan in Chennai. “I think it’s been a bit of pressure for us as the Proteas to keep the momentum going. We’re doing well so far and we’ll take the inspiration and motivation from all those performances from our other national teams.”Related

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The “other” national teams also include the national women’s football team, who became the first senior side to advance out of the group stage at the football World Cup but is dominated by the Springboks, who have unified South Africa in a way nothing and no-one else has been able to. And for the cricketers that is something to strive to emulate.”We take massive inspiration from them, – massive learnings and lessons from them as a team; from how they go about things, what they stand for and the purpose they play for,” Rassie van der Dussen said ahead of the New Zealand match. “Siya (Kolisi – the Springbok captain) mentioned in a press conference that if you’re not from South Africa, you don’t really understand what it means or what sporting achievement means for us.”So what does it mean and why is it different to anywhere else? Surely winning is an opioid of the masses everywhere? Not so, explains van der Dussen. “What the Springboks and sport shows is when you get things right and you do things the right way, what you can achieve. Good things happen to good people. And that Springbok team – that’s what they are. They are all hard-working, good South Africans with a real humility about them, and a real hunger for success and it shows when you are willing to put differences aside what is possible for a country like ours.”South Africa have been on a roll in this World Cup•ICC via Getty ImagesAnd that’s the rub of it. Beyond having well-functioning systems that result in collective achievement, sport in South Africa is one of the most front-facing parts of society that speaks to the legacies of division and slowly and painfully, some cohesion. Sport was an essential part of the politics of Apartheid, which kept racial groups segregated and saw all-white teams take the field, and the resistance against it, when people of colour continued playing despite all the obstacles put in their way and with the knowledge they would never represent the country. Cricket was the first (and to date only) sport that has had a reckoning with race and it was recent. The Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) hearings took place just over two years ago and tore the game apart. It has started to come back and to borrow the Springboks slogan, it appears that the cricketers are stronger together.”The situations we’ve faced in the past three years – Covid-19, BLM, SJN and various political stories we have had back home as a team, forced us to pull together,” van der Dussen said. “It’s had the effect of us being really tight off the field as well. Between any two members of the squad there is a real connection. We are blessed in a sense that we are in a good space now because we’ve had to deal with a lot of controversy over the past three years.”But could all of that, along with the very fresh success of the Springboks, combine to make this also the cricketers’ year? Coach Rob Walter tried to play it down. “I don’t think it [the expectation] has become any more because the Boks have won,” he said. “It’s an inspiration as to how they won and hopefully that can catalyse us moving forward. Maybe the media attention will shift to us now. We’ve spoken about it as a team as to what we can take as opposed to how it impacts us for a pressure point of view. Rugby is rugby and they have been very successful over a long period of time. We are trying to take care of our own business here.”2:38

Are expectations high from SA after the country’s Rugby World Cup triumph?

That’s sensible and sobering because while the Springboks have won four World Cups, the Proteas have not even reached one final and despite all the warm and fuzzies South Africans are feeling now, it’s too early to be thinking about that. The immediate challenge is three more group games, starting with New Zealand, a team South Africa have been poor against at World Cups.South Africa have lost five of their last World Cup encounters against New Zealand, including at the 2011 quarterfinal and 2015 semi-final, and six of eight all told. They last beat New Zealand at the World Cup in 1999.The same statistic was true for Pakistan (though they did not play them in 2003, 2007 and 2011) and when they looked shaky on 250 for 8 chasing 271 in Chennai, people were clearing their throats to say the word choke and bringing up South Africa’s storied and scarred World Cup history.

“You realise that fans have been really scarred by previous performances and you really can’t criticise them for feeling that way”Rassie van der Dussen

Almost all South African squads have said the ghosts of tournaments past do not haunt them and most are believable to a point – the point where they crash out. This side, still very much in, is perhaps the most believable because of how they see the reasons that people keep bringing up their previous failings.”You realise that fans have been really scarred by previous performances and you really can’t criticise them for feeling that way, and for criticism to come from a place of hurt,” van der Dussen said. “But personally, and it goes for most of the people in the squad and management team, we haven’t lived that. So it’s not really applicable to us. It’s things that have happened and they love replaying the scenes whenever we take the field and that’s fine but it’s not something that is affecting us. It’s part of history. But it’s certainly not part of us as a team.”And so they move forward, as a team looking to carve out their own identity in a year where being “South African” has taken on more meaning.As for New Zealand, despite getting to the last two finals and losing them, they don’t face the same scrutiny, have even less media coverage than South Africa at this event, and as a playing group, don’t even seem too affected by the All Blacks defeat. They’ll also take some cues from their more famous and successful sporting counterparts which makes the narrative around Wednesday’s match more about two countries’ sporting stories than just two cricket teams.”When you look at the All Blacks as a whole, they’ve played some great rugby throughout this World Cup. The Kiwi way is we look to scrap the whole way,” Tom Latham said. “Obviously faced with a little bit of adversity in terms of being down to 14 men, but it’s something we talk about in our team as well, we scrap right to the end regardless of the situation.”

Bowlers let the team down last year but the likes of Harshal Patel and Chris Woakes have strengthened the attack

Ekanth17-Mar-2024Where Punjab Kings finished last seasonEighth, with six wins. They were tied with KKR on points, but had a lower NRR.Kings squad for IPL 2024Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Rilee Rossouw, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Harpreet Bhatia, Ashutosh Sharma, Shashank Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Shivam Singh, Chris Woakes, Harshal Patel, Vishwanath Singh, Tanay Thyagarajan, Kagiso Rabada, Nathan Ellis, Arshdeep Singh, Vidwath Kaverappa, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Prince ChoudharyRelated

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Player availabilityKings have all their players available for the season. However, if they make the playoffs – and also the final, which is expected to be played on May 26 – they might be without Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran, who could be instead playing for England in a five-match T20I series against Pakistan at home, which begins on May 22.What’s new with Kings this year?Harshal Patel. He brings with him the ability to bowl in the middle overs and at the death. Capable of bowling 24 slower balls, he can vary his lengths depending on the pitch. Harshal strengthens the pace department that also has Kagiso Rabada, and the left-arm duo of Sam Curran and Arshdeep Singh.Rilee Rossouw and Chris Woakes are top-order and new-ball back-ups, respectively. Rossouw can be a dangerous batter across phases. Woakes, though, didn’t feature in the last three editions of the IPL, but has enough experience to make handy contributions with the ball and bat.Harshal Patel’s presence will be a huge boost for Kings in the bowling department•AFP/Getty ImagesThe good: Several all-round optionsKings have multiple bowling allrounders, like Curran, Rishi Dhawan and Sikandar Raza, who are strike bowlers and also lengthen the batting. It allows them to use an Impact Player as a bonus rather than as a necessity.They also have a well-rounded Indian bowling contingent. Arshdeep, Harshal and Rahul Chahar have experience, and offer variety in the attack. Harpreet Brar’s left-arm spin and Vidwath Kaverappa’s pace offer Kings a conditions-based selection call. So they can go into each game with six or seven bowling options.The bad: lack of Indian middle-order battersKings do not have a strong Indian core in the middle order. They let go of M Shahrukh Khan and brought in Shashank Singh, albeit with some confusion at the auction.Jitesh Sharma, who impressed as a finisher last year, will be key, but Kings might still be over-reliant on their experienced batters Dhawan, Bairstow and Livingstone to come good this season. Though Livingstone can clear boundaries at warp speed, he is coming off a poor SA20 campaign, where he scored just 109 runs in nine innings.Kings also have Raza in the squad, but might have a headache fitting him in the XI, with Curran, Livingstone and Bairstow being the first-choice overseas starters, along with Rabada. They will also hope Shikhar Dhawan stays fit and has a good season because their probable XII is thin on captaincy candidates.Schedule insightsKings will start their season on March 23 against Delhi Capitals with the comforts of home, albeit a new one – the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, which will host its first-ever IPL match. Two days later, they play Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru. That is followed by five-day gaps between both their games against Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans, both on the road.The big question

The 39-year old took up the charge to ensure Nambia went unscathed in the “emotionally draining” game against Oman

Abhimanyu Bose03-Jun-20242:46

O’Brien: Wiese ‘a remarkable athlete’ to have in any side

David Wiese may have only started playing for Namibia in 2021. But you could see how much it meant to him when he bowled Oman’s Naseem Khushi off the third ball of the Super Over, which pretty much sealed the match. All the emotions of a World Cup thriller came out when he let out a celebratory scream.Namibia would not have underestimated Oman, having only narrowly edged them in a five-match T20I series in April, but still, they would take a target of 110 “every single day of the week,” in Wiese’s words.After taking a three-for with the ball, Wiese walked out in the 18th over, with Namibia needing 14 off 15 deliveries in the chase. He faced three dots to start with, but in the next over, he hit Oman’s most prolific T20I bowler, Bilal Khan, for a six, and Namibia were left with five to win off the last over.Related

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But Wiese had to watch from the other end as Namibia lost two wickets off the first three balls with no runs added to their tally. As the television camera shifted to Wiese, you could see his trepidation at not being able to get on strike.When Malan Kruger squeezed a single to get Wiese on strike, his frustrations grew as he nailed a straight drive but it ricocheted to the mid-off region off the stumps at the non-striker’s end. They managed to run two, and needed two more to get the two points.But Mehran Khan, who bowled a miserly spell on the night, beat Wiese’s attempted cut with a length ball. The keeper, Khushi, was standing up to the stumps and couldn’t collect, and Namibia got the single away to narrowly avoid defeat.The cameras panned to Wiese again, who had thought about trying to run a second, and the frustration on his face was clear again.”First of all, I was frustrated that I missed out on that last ball,” he said. “That was a big disappointment there but luckily we scampered a single to go into the Super Over.”In the Super Over, though, the allrounder would have no more frustrations.”From there, I was just in the zone,” Wiese said. “I wanted to rectify my mistakes, I wanted to be the guy to put in the big performance. Luckily the team entrusted me with that role.David Wiese takes a tumbling catch in his follow-through•ICC/Getty Images”I knew that batting in the Super Over if I got one or two early boundaries, then I could put them under pressure and then we could try and take it out of their reach.”But getting those boundaries was easier said than done, on a pitch where both teams struggled to play their shots.However, even in the few deliveries he got to face in the chase, Wiese was timing it better than most on the day, and it wasn’t a surprise that he was on strike for the Super Over.The first ball from Bilal was full outside off, but Wiese was able to jam his bat down and drill the ball through covers for four. Bilal then went for a yorker and missed, but Wiese didn’t, sending the low full toss flying over wide long-on. He managed three more runs off the next two balls before Gerhard Erasmus closed the over out with two boundaries.

“I aged a couple of years tonight. I don’t have a lot of years left so I need to take it easy. Just an emotionally draining game, I suppose.”David Wiese

But Wiese’s job was still not done. He was thrown the ball with Oman needing 22 to win. He only gave away one run off the first two balls, and then had Khushi inside-edging a very full delivery onto the stumps. Oman scored eight off the next three deliveries and eventually lost the game.”I aged a couple of years tonight,” Wiese said as he collected his Player-of-the-match award. “I don’t have a lot of years left, so I need to take it easy. Just an emotionally draining game, I suppose.”Wiese was at the heart of Namibia’s campaign in the T20 World Cup 2021, when they made it to the Super 12s, and since then he has featured in several franchise leagues across the world, including the Caribbean Premier League.”Definitely, playing in the franchise tournaments, playing against some of the best players in the world, and playing the best tournaments in the world, that has helped me learn and develop into how to play in certain situations,” Wiese said. “Playing so many franchise tournaments, I’ve been in those situations before. And that’s what you’re talking about, the experience.”And I’ve also played a couple of CPLs now, so I know the conditions. And yeah, it just helped that I’ve been around the block a little bit, I suppose.”At 39 years, this could be Wiese’s last World Cup. But he showed on Sunday night that he still has plenty of fight left in the tank.

Despite these qualities, Sri Lanka are yet to fully realise his ODI potential

Madushka Balasuriya24-Oct-2024Drift, dip and turn, these are the main attributes one would associate with spin bowling. Then at times there is pace, which is added to the mix when variations such as arm balls come into play. West Indies’ Gudakesh Motie, for example, has an excellent quicker one, bursting through flat and straight clocking in at around 100kph. But what do you get when you combine all these?Well, Alick Athanaze might have the answer. It was just his third ball in the second ODI against Sri Lanka – the first he faced from Maheesh Theekshana – but in terms of how he might have dealt with it, it wouldn’t have mattered even if it were the hundredth.Coming from around the wicket, Theekshana tossed it up, pitched it on middle, drew the batter in with the flight and then deceived him with some dip, before ripping it past the forward defence to peg back the off stump. A textbook offspinner’s dismissal – oh except, it was flung down at 96kph. Drift, dip, turn and pace, these are the main attributes, yes, but rarely – if ever – have they been woven together to such devastating effect.Related

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Okay, cards on the table. This Pallekele pitch was primed for spin. This is a genuine caveat in most cases when it comes to spinners wreaking havoc on opposition batters, but to compare this Theekshana effort to, say, Charith Asalanka running roughshod over India earlier in the year would be to do a great disservice.Yes, Theekshana had conditions to his liking, but there are few – if any – other spinners in world cricket that could have exploited them as devastatingly as he so expertly did.Athanaze’s dismissal might have been spectacular enough were it simply a one-off magic delivery, but across the West Indian innings Theekshana time and again got the ball – particularly his offbreak – to turn at speeds touching 100kph.Wanindu Hasaranga and Dunith Wellalage also got turn, but at much slower speeds, while Motie clocked similar velocity without the same level of venom. Theekshana, simply put, was out on his own, one of one.Keacy Carty, his second victim, even had the benefit of a virtual mulligan, though it made little difference. The first was a sharp, turning offbreak at 97kph, one that in this instance owed more to the rough outside the right-hander’s off stump, as it surprised Carty when he was shaping up to cut. Sri Lanka reviewed the lbw shout, but were shot down by virtue of the impact being outside the line. However, the very next delivery – another quick turning offbreak – left Carty looking back at his battered off stump perplexed, unsure how exactly that one had snuck past his back-foot punch.Theekshana’s final scalp was courtesy his trademark carrom ball, as Hayden Walsh Jr’s attempt at a reverse sweep was comfortably countered by one that was quick, flat and straight as Theekshana rattled the stumps for a third time in the game.Theekshana unsurprisingly took home the Player-of-the-Match award for his 3 for 25 from nine overs, but what was surprising was that he was not even supposed to play on Wednesday. His inclusion had been a late one, as rain intervened between the side leaving the hotel and the toss taking place, so his extra pace was deemed more valuable than Jeffrey Vandersay’s more traditional legspin.Perhaps, this oversight is down to the fact that Theekshana himself doesn’t offer the same sort of headline quality of Sri Lanka’s other spin options. His career up-to-date has been far from prolific – 60 wickets in 44 ODIs, and 54 in 55 T20Is – so it’s rare to see him run through a side, or portend to turn a losing game into a winning one. He has instead long been seen as a containment option first and a wicket-taker second.His economy rate speaks quite clearly to this. In ODIs it’s 4.61, in T20Is it’s 6.76, and in this game it was a quite excellent 2.77, with 40 of the 54 deliveries he bowled being dots – the most in the game. But what he also offers is unparalleled utility; in T20Is, it’s not uncommon to see him utilised in the powerplay, in the middle overs, or even at the death – a place where most spinners dare tread. He has even got an LPL Super Over under his belt.Despite these qualities, Sri Lanka have yet to fully realise his ODI potential, leave alone in Tests – with it not unusual to see Theekshana as the odd man out at times.”He is a world-class bowler in the T20 format,” Asalanka had said after Sri Lanka’s win in the second ODI.At 24, Theekshana has already shown a tremendous appetite for improvement – even his batting is coming along – and if this trajectory continues, perhaps that qualifier won’t be necessary in the future.

Also: what’s the record for most consecutive wins from the start of a captaincy career?

Steven Lynch17-Sep-2024Shimron Hetmyer hit 91 without a four in one innings in this year’s Caribbean Premier League. Is that the highest in T20s without a four? asked Chris Dowden from Grenada
You’re right that Shimron Hetmyer’s 91 for Guyana Amazon Warriors in their CPL match against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Basseterre a couple of weeks ago contained no fours. We should perhaps mention that he did manage no fewer than 11 sixes, though!It is the highest score in any T20 match without a four, beating Shashrika Pussegolla’s 78 for Sebastianites against Police in Colombo in June 2022.The highest individual score in any T20 match with no fours or sixes appears to be 38 not out, by Navdeep Poonia for Scotland against Bermuda in Belfast during the World T20 Qualifier in August 2008.What’s the highest opening partnership in an international in which neither player scored a hundred? asked Nandra de Silva from Sri Lanka
A performance in a T20I leads the way here. Playing for Gibraltar against Bulgaria in Valletta (Malta) in 2022, Avinash Pai (86 not out) and Louis Bruce (99 not out) batted through the innings for an unbroken opening partnership of 213.In ODIs, Chris Gayle (99) and Wavell Hinds (82) put on 192 for West Indies’ first wicket against Bangladesh in Southampton during the 2004 Champions Trophy in England. Shikhar Dhawan (81 not out) and Shubman Gill (82 not out) also shared an opening stand of 192 – without being parted – for India against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2022.The men’s Test record is also 192, by Sunil Gavaskar (97) and Chetan Chauhan (93) for India against Pakistan in Lahore in 1978. However, Caroline Atkins (90) and Arran Brindle (85) put on exactly 200 for England’s first wicket in a women’s Test against India in Lucknow in 2002.I was going through scorecards of the good old days of Pakistan cricket, and spotted that in a Test against India in 2005-06, seven batters made 50-plus in the second innings. Was this a record? asked M Usman Sharif from Pakistan
You’re right that Pakistan’s second innings against India in Karachi in 2006 contained seven scores of 50 or more. Actually, it was the top seven in the order: Salman Butt 53, Imran Farhat 57, Younis Khan 77, Mohammad Yousuf 97, Faisal Iqbal 139, Shahid Afridi 60 and Abdul Razzaq 90. The total was enough for Pakistan to win by 341 runs – quite a comeback considering they had been 0 for 3 in the first over of the match, after a hat-trick from Irfan Pathan.That was actually the second Test innings to contain seven individual scores of 50 or more, after England against Australia at Old Trafford in 1934. It happened again at Lord’s in 2006, when seven Sri Lankans reached 50 after they followed on against England. Here’s the full list of seven or more batters making 50 or more.Percy Chapman holds the record for winning the most consecutive Tests at the start of a captaincy career•SR Gaiger/Getty ImagesHad England won at The Oval, Ollie Pope would have started with three wins in his first three matches as captain. Which captain won the most Tests from the start of their career? asked Mark Annear via Facebook
England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope won his first two Tests in charge, before coming a cropper in the third, at The Oval last week. Over the years, 23 captains won their first three matches in charge: six of them are from England, the most recent being Brian Close in the mid-1960s. The most recent from any country is Pope’s opposite number, Dhananjaya de Silva, earlier this year.The best start is by England’s Percy Chapman, who won his first nine Tests as captain in the late 1920s. Earlier that decade, Warwick Armstrong won his first eight Tests in charge of Australia. There’s a big gap then to seven others who won their first four Tests as captain.Regarding last week’s question about the tallest men to play for England, what about Boyd Rankin? asked Michael O’Hara from Ireland
Thanks for pointing that out: it’s not the first time I’d forgotten that fast bowler Boyd Rankin, who played county cricket for Derbyshire and Warwickshire, played a Test for England (against Australia in Sydney in 2014), as well as two for his native Ireland.Rankin is also in the region of 6ft 8in (203cm), and thus shares the distinction of being England’s tallest Test cricketer with Steven Finn. Current squad member Reece Topley is also 6ft 8in, but although he has played more than 50 white-ball internationals, he hasn’t appeared in a Test match.The tallest Test player from any country remains Mohammad Irfan of Pakistan – another left-arm quick – who extends the tape to 7ft 1in (216cm). Irfan is believed to be the tallest first-class cricketer too.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Having batted in the lower middle-order during a handful of T20 matches, a pre-season chat got him primed for a new role

Tristan Lavalette09-Jan-2025In a rare moment to reflect amid a BBL whirlwind, Mitch Owen does wonder if his spectacular move up the batting order for Hobart Hurricanes would have eventuated if he had failed in a practice match just days before the season.The 23-year-old Owen’s breakout has helped ignite titleless Hurricanes, long derided as an underachiever, and they sit near the top of the ladder with finals approaching.Their explosive batting order has clicked with Owen’s move to the opener’s position, having in previous seasons batted at No. 7 or 8 as a seam bowling allrounder, proving a masterstroke.Related

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He’s smashed a century – James Vince being the only other player with a ton this season – and his overall strike-rate of 175 is the highest among batters who have faced more than 80 deliveries.He’s flourishing in the powerplay, but things could have panned out differently if Owen hadn’t clubbed 80 runs off 40 balls as an opener in an intra-club match a few days before the season. “That probably helped me a bit,” Owen told ESPNcricinfo. “Who knows what what would happened if I got rolled for a duck.”Before this season, Owen had only played 13 BBL matches over four seasons for Hurricanes and batted below big-hitters Matthew Wade, Ben McDermott and Tim David in a powerful but inconsistent batting order.Owen had shown glimpses of his firepower at the death, intriguing Hurricanes’ hierarchy who wanted to find a better way to utilise him. A strapping lad, at 6 foot 5 and 100kg, Owen’s an intimidating sight at the crease with his long levers and brute strength able to muscle the ball with ease over the boundary.

I needed to strip it back a little bit. I told myself that’s not the way I need to go about opening the batting. Just play good cricket shots and try to hit the ball cleanly.Mitch Owen after his first innings of the season

Owen was given a heads up in the pre-season of plans being devised. “Be ready, you might be used at the top of the order,” Hurricanes assistant coach James Hopes told him.The bold move didn’t phase him. “It’s funny because when I’ve batted at seven or eight in the Sheffield Shield, I feel like I’ve got to either continue the momentum or swing momentum back, so it’s pretty similar in a sense,” Owen said. “There was the prospect of facing a new ball that swings a little bit, but I often face the second new ball in the Shield.”There wasn’t much difference in my training. It was just making sure I’ve got the bases covered and ready to go.”While Owen still batted down the order for Tasmania in the Shield, notably blasting 69 off 60 at the WACA where he hit Western Australia offspinner Corey Rocchiccioli for several massive sixes into the ground’s construction site, he opened in the One-Day Cup but to modest success.Owen remained unsure of his BBL role as the season approached until his fireworks in the practice game seemingly swayed the coaching staff. “You’ve worked towards this for a while and the opportunity is there,” Hurricanes coach Jeff Vaughan told Owen. “Go out there and be confident, take your chance.”Things didn’t go to plan in a horror opener for Hurricanes against Melbourne Renegades, bowled out for just 74 on a tricky surface in Geelong. Owen was one of only three batters to reach double figures, clubbing a couple of early boundaries, but he was edgy in his new role and lasted just seven deliveries.Mitch Owen has launched some huge sixes in the competition•Getty Images”I felt like my tempo was so high in that game, I just wanted to hit everything for six,” he said. “I needed to strip it back a little bit. I told myself that’s not the way I need to go about opening the batting. Just play good cricket shots and try to hit the ball cleanly.”After such a disastrous defeat, Hurricanes were under immediate pressure and faced a tough test next up against BBL powerhouse Perth Scorchers in Hobart.Hurricanes did well restricting Scorchers to 155 for 6 on a flat surface, but the match appeared in the balance with a jittery Hurricanes batting-order fronting up against star quicks Jhye Richardson, Lance Morris and Jason Behrendorff.In an incredible onslaught, lighting a fuse under Hurricanes’ season, Owen flayed the bowling to all parts of the ground to finish unbeaten on 101 from 64 balls, including five monstrous sixes.”It was very special, had my family and friends in the crowd,” he said. “As someone that spent their whole childhood sitting on the hill [at Bellerive Oval] supporting the Hurricanes, it was a dream come true.”Owen suddenly went from relative obscurity to drawcard. While he naturally hasn’t reached those dizzying heights since, Owen’s growing confidence is evident and so too his ability to hit a ball very high into the sky.Against Adelaide Strikers, Owen cracked three consecutive sixes off seamer Jamie Overton with the middle strike clearing 111m and hitting the roof over long-on.”I got one away the ball before that and I felt my beans going a little bit,” he said. “I just swung a little bit harder and luckily enough got it out of the screws. For me, the most important thing is just keeping my head nice and still and making sure I’m getting myself in a position to use my levers.”Mitchell Owen has also shown glimpses in the Sheffield Shield•Getty ImagesWatching Owen bully bowlers, perhaps he can lay claim to being able to hit further than David, Australia’s designated finisher in the T20 format.”Nup, I think he still has the mantle in our team having seen him hit so many shots onto the roof,” chuckles Owen. “He’s good at sharing his knowledge and I’ve spoken to him quite a bit about batting and his role, which is so unique.”But it’s funny how simple it is and what it all comes down to – get yourself into position and try to hit the ball cleanly.”Owen has also sought advice from famed hitters Carlos Brathwaite and Colin Munro, his New York Strikers team-mates in last year’s T10 tournament in the Cayman Islands. It was his first experience on the overseas franchise circuit with the promise of more to come, possibly this off-season.While still very early in his career, Owen also looms as a player of interest for Australia’s hierarchy. His bowling has not yet been unleashed in this season’s BBL, but Owen can hit speeds in the mid-130s kph and his towering height conjures awkward bounce.As reinforced by his Tasmania team-mate Beau Webster, a seam bowling allrounder is highly coveted in the national set-up.”I love both batting and bowling, so I feel like I will be an allrounder in my career,” he said. “It’s about being a little bit more consistent with the ball and just having that trust from the captain and the coaches that I can play a role, which I personally think I can.”His future looks rosy, the possibilities endless for a three-format allrounder, but Owen is remaining focused as he hopes to help end Hurricanes’ curse in the BBL.”It’s an unspoken thing [the title], but it would be an absolute honour to win the first title for the Hurricanes,” he said. “Hopefully the city can get behind us and I’m just absolutely loving my time out there.”

Pick between two Tests where teams overcame great odds to snatch victories

ESPNcricinfo staff20-May-2025Update: This poll has ended. The AUS-SA 2008 Perth Test moves into the quarter-finals.South Africa bend Australia to their will – Perth, 2008Australia were in transition ahead of the home summer in 2008-09, but still beat New Zealand 2-0. They found heroes when they needed one, and were doing the usual Australia things, but then the script changed in the first Test against South Africa in Perth. It took its time coming, though.It took a lower-order rescue act to lift them to 375 in the first innings (from 166 for 5) and a macho fast-bowling show from Mitchell Johnson, who bagged a career-best 8 for 61, kept South Africa to 281 after that. Almost a 100-run lead there, which Brad Haddin’s 94 and 30s from Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds and Jason Krejza extended to 413, setting South Africa what looked like far too many runs to win.Enter Graeme Smith, who lost opening partner Neil McKenzie early, but then took the total to 172 in collaboration with Hashim Amla before both fell in quick succession – Smith for 108 and Amla for 53. But there was more in the tank. Jacques Kallis (57) and AB de Villiers took them to 303 before Kallis fell with the target still over 100 away, and de Villiers, who remained not out on 106, finished the job with JP Duminy – apart from McKenzie, all the batters who walked out, walked back with at least 50 against their name.That was Australia’s second successive loss at the WACA after India beat them there in 2007-08. And who knew at the time that it would lay the foundation for the first of three back-to-back Test series wins by South Africa in the country?Australia stun England – Birmingham 2023″Boring, boring, Aussies” was the chant from the Hollies Stand at Edgbaston on the fourth afternoon when Usman Khawaja was digging in and slowly building for Australia in their pursuit of 281. By the fifth evening, the crowd had fallen into stunned silence as Australia aced the old-school long game to beat England’s new-age fast play.When Khawaja fell for 65, with Ben Stokes ending his near-five-and-a-half-hour vigil, Australia had slipped to 209 for 7. Then, when Alex Carey’s wicket left Australia at 227 for 8, it certainly felt like England’s Bazballers were on their way to another famous win. Australia captain Pat Cummins, though, flipped the mood and result with an unbeaten 44 off 73 balls, with No. 10 Nathan Lyon hanging on in an unbroken 55-run partnership for the ninth wicket.After having come under fire with his defensive fields on the opening day, Cummins played the decisive hand on the final day, absorbing good balls from Stokes and Ollie Robinson and lining up Joe Root’s part-time offspin for a brace of sixes. After sealing the deal, Cummins let out a big roar, threw his bat and punched his fist in a rare show of emotion that summed up how much this win meant to him and Australia.

However you want to slice it, he is a three-format monster and Sri Lanka’s first serious entry into the space-age batting genre

Andrew Fidel Fernando19-Jun-2025Roughly 70 overs into a scorching third day against Bangladesh in Galle, Pathum Nissanka smokes Bangladesh’s fastest bowler through the covers, flicks him past the keeper next ball, and soon speeds from the 150s into the 160s.He had faced a little over 200 deliveries by this stage, but even this far into a long day, Bangladesh’s bowlers are finding there is still so little room for error with this guy. While they labour in their run ups, feet picked off the ground as if out of wet sand, Nissanka is taut, poised and clinical. If your length is off, he has laid into a crisp drive, a rasping cut, and a dismissive pull, almost before you’ve looked.Bangladesh’s seamers are tall and imposing. Nissanka is compact and lean. But in this moment, on a flat Galle surface, Nissanka strikes you as the bully. In some passages, he is so intent on working every possible scoring opportunity that on his own he feels like a SWAT team storming every room of a building in search of suspects (runs).Related

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His first 50 took 88 balls, as he let Lahiru Udara make the early charge while he settled in, but his next 50 took 48 balls, the next one 74, and he was roughly on track to make another 75-ish ball 50 when he was dismissed late in the day. His 187 off 256 balls (a strike rate of 73), is largely why Sri Lanka traveled at close to four runs an over, giving them a greater chance of moving into a winning position. But this 187, his third Test hundred in as many continents, is not Nissanka’s highest international score. That would be his 210 not out in ODIs.Any way you slice it, Nissanka is Sri Lanka’s first serious entry into the space-age batting genre. You know the type by now, right? The Harry Brooks, Glenn Phillips, Yashasvi Jaiswals of the world – the kind possessed of an ultramodern batting brain that takes the lessons from the shorter formats and sprinkles them effortlessly into the longest. Already, batters such as Virat Kohli, Steven Smith, and even Babar Azam, feel like prototypes of these. With the newest generation, the batting IQ is more elastic, the skills are more transferable, and the transitions are observably smoother. Getting stuck? Hitting a wall? Retreating into your shell? Ew. What is that?Sri Lanka have had three-format monsters before, but for the likes of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, they had had to go through the effort of embracing aggression and innovation. For Nissanka, rapid and emphatic evolution is a natural component of his cricketing journey. Nissanka’s first Test hundred had been a hugely stodgy 252-ball 103 in the Caribbean, after he had broken into the red-ball team on the back of a first-class average in the mid 60s.Following that, he had a lean spell in Tests, and became a white-ball specialist while he overcame a bad back injury. Having picked up new skills, he returned to Tests, and hit a 127 not out at better than a run-a-ball at The Oval last year, in what was Sri Lanka’s funnest Test win of 2024.

“Until this match, I’d never hit a Test hundred in Sri Lanka. I’d wanted to break my own mental barrier. Thankfully, today I was able to do that.”Pathum Nissanka after his 187

He may be 27, but it is clear that already, we are looking at Nissanka 2.0. Cricket may still be lugging an almost 150-year old multi-day format, but as more nations are drawn into the sport’s gravity, and the populations in cricketing centres continue to explode, even the oldest format is probably changing as quickly as it ever has.If we are to be critical of the batter that has top-scored in this match so far, it is that he didn’t score enough runs down the ground. Yes, Nissanka has strong wrists and prefers the funkier anglings of the bat, even against the juiciest half volleys. But modern batting is also about accessing all 360 degrees of the ground. So sorry, we will be filing the wagon wheel of Nissanka’s biggest Test innings under “Areas for improvement”. When you are a three-format batter in the third decade of the three-format age, these are the breaks.Nissanka, helpfully, also thinks of his batting as having format-specific holes that need to be filled. “Until this match, I’d never hit a Test hundred in Sri Lanka,” Nissanka said after his 187. “I’d wanted to break my own mental barrier. Thankfully, today I was able to do that.”Another of Nissanka’s answers reveals a generational change. Asked how he and Dinesh Chandimal had planned to bat in what turned out to be the biggest partnership of the innings so far – a 157-run stand – Nissanka said they had planned to “just bat normally”. Chandimal was once one of the most aggressive Sri Lanka batters of his youth. But to him, batting normally meant hitting 54 off 119 balls. Nissanka also faced 119 balls in that partnership. But he crashed 103 runs.Pathum Nissanka brought up his fifty in 88 balls•Ishara S Kodikara/AFP via Getty ImagesScoring faster is actually a team directive, Nissanka revealed. “When we came into this series, we had a target that in this [World Test Championship] cycle, we’d raise our run rate. We tried that, and we have been successful so far. Hopefully, we can take that forward into other matches.” This, actually, is pretty standard stuff for a Test team in the mid 2020s.It took an exceptional second-new-ball delivery from Hasan Mahmud to dismiss Nissanka. It snaked in viciously, flicked the edge of his front pad, and crashed into the stumps. Nissanka missed out on a Test double century by 13 runs, and did express regret about it. But he didn’t seem that cut up. Don Bradman has 12 double-hundreds on his own, and Kumar Sangakkara has 11. Only ten batters ever have made ODI double tons. Nissanka is already part of the more elite club.If Nissanka’s goal is three-format domination, this innings, his biggest in Tests, is a good staging post. Sri Lanka’s hope is that for him, as for some hypermodern others, success in one format carries seamlessly into match-winning batting in another, and another. Sri Lanka don’t have any Tests to play in the next ten months after this series ends. But with huge T20 assignments coming up, they still desperately need Nissanka in roaring form.

He’s bowled three overs in the powerplay in each of their first two games – a marked difference in how Bumrah’s overs are usually deployed

Shashank Kishore16-Sep-20259:02

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Two games into their Asia Cup campaign, India have used Jasprit Bumrah differently from the norm.Instead of bowling the majority – or at least half – of his overs at the death, Bumrah has been given three of his four overs inside the powerplay in both matches. Against UAE, it may have been to get him acclimatised to match conditions, having been on a break since the fifth Test against England ended in the first week of August. But India repeated the tactic against Pakistan too.In 244 T20s prior to the Asia Cup, Bumrah had bowled three overs in the powerplay only 11 times, and not once in T20Is since 2019. For context, even in IPL 2025, he averaged just one over in this phase. India have gone spin-heavy in this Asia Cup, and by opting for batting until No. 8, they are playing just one specialist fast bowler with Hardik Pandya taking the new ball. The plan to front load Bumrah’s overs is for him cause the damage that Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy can capitalise on.Related

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“We’re very happy using him as an attacking option,” captain Suryakumar Yadav had said after the seven-wicket win over Pakistan on Sunday. “If he picks two wickets, even if he bowls a tight spell of his overs, later on we can have a good cushion for all the spinners to come over and make our job a little easier.”With Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana on the bench, the question is who India will turn to at the death if stretched at the Asia Cup and Bumrah doesn’t have many overs left? If Arshdeep gets into the XI at some stage, he’s the obvious choice for the death overs, having made the role his own in Bumrah’s absence from the T20I side following the 2024 T20 World Cup.The other question is whether any of their opponents can stretch India at the Asia Cup? Their next game is against Oman in Abu Dhabi on Friday – a game of no consequence considering India have already qualified for the Super Four round.None of Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel or Varun Chakravarthy are regular bowlers in the death overs. In T20Is since 2023, Kuldeep has bowled only 8% of his overs in this phase. For Varun it’s 4% and Axar 6%. While dew hasn’t been a factor so far, it could be later in the tournament, making it trickier for the spinners later in the evening.Jasprit Bumrah has bowled three overs in the powerplay in both matches at the Asia Cup•AFP/Getty ImagesOn Sunday, Shaheen Shah Afridi was able to score a career-best 33 off 16 balls at the death, lifting Pakistan to 127 when they had looked like being restricted for less. Kuldeep conceded seven runs in the 17th over, Varin 9 in the 18th, Bumrah 12 in the 19th and Hardik 16 in the final over.”I think Bumrah should bowl two overs with the new ball. That gives you flexibility later,” former India fast bowler Varun Aaron told ESPNcricinfo. “Obviously, the spinners are bowling really well, but if one of them has an off day and you desperately need a wicket, Bumrah is the guy who can break through in the middle. Or be your death overs king.”When you hold him back for two overs at the end, you’re almost guaranteed he won’t go for more than 10 an over. Imagine a scenario where opponents need 50 off five overs. With only one Bumrah over to play [in the death], opponents can afford to play him out and still chase down 43 or 44. With two overs of Bumrah up their sleeve, the equation shifts dramatically.””Having said that, the team management must have thought it through, maybe believing he could get the top batters early by bowling three up front. But personally, I feel two at the start is ideal. Then you have the flexibility of either two at the death or splitting it one in the middle and one at the end. When it gets to the business end, they’ll probably switch to a 2-2 split.”

A lucky break during Covid-19 took Simarjeet Singh to international cricket, but finding his way back to that level has proved difficult

Daya Sagar29-Sep-2025Simarjeet Singh’s eyes still light up when he is reminded of the time he got to wear the India blue and spend time in the national team’s dressing room. He didn’t get a chance to make his international debut on that Sri Lanka tour during Covid-19, in June 2021, after moving up from being a net bowler to the main squad, but it suggested a rise through the ranks for a bowler who has struggled with injuries and lack of consistency throughout his career.”I was not making too many mistakes, but I was trying to do things too quickly,” Simarjeet, familiar to cricket-watchers for his time in Chennai Super Kings’ yellow, tells ESPNcricinfo. “I was also changing my plans constantly. I always used to think that my process must be perfect, but nothing in this world is perfect. [Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat] Cummins also told me the same thing, to focus on giving my best and not think about perfection. So now I focus more on how I can improve.”Except for a few stray games in the IPL where he did decently – 11 wickets in 14 games with a best of 3 for 26 and an overall economy rate of 10.00 – 27-year-old Simarjeet’s story has been one of struggle, even to make the Delhi team in the domestic circuit. In the last seven seasons, he has played only 15 first-class, 23 List A, and 39 T20 matches, in which he has taken 46, 23, and 44 wickets respectively.Related

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At the IPL, though, with the teams looking for Indian bowlers to fill their sides with, Simarjeet has been around, for three seasons now – 2022, 2024 and 2025 – first with Mumbai Indians, then with CSK, and most recently with SRH, where the interactions with Cummins happened.”It feels surreal just to think that you have played with a world-class bowler like Cummins. As a fast bowler, if your captain is also a fast bowler, then he not only backs you but also teaches you many things by giving you new ideas,” Simarjeet says. “Apart from that, Cummins is a big name and playing with him makes me feel very lucky.”Though I did not get too many chances there, and when I got them, I could not perform that well, I always thought about what new things I could do at training. I also used to ask [head coach Daniel] Vettori and [bowling coach James] Franklin how to improve myself. They talked about different bowling plans and stressed on how I could implement those plans better on the field. Even after the IPL, I am continuously working on them.”And [Mohammed] Shami did not just talk, he taught by showing us. He used to tell me ‘today we will focus on yorkers’, or sometimes slower bouncers, or some other variations. Then when I bowled, he himself used to stand there and tell me what I was doing right and what could be improved. Cummins also did the same. With both, there were continuous talks about action, speed, and other aspects of bowling.”Simarjeet Singh gets some assistance from MS Dhoni during his time with Chennai Super Kings•BCCIIt’s a career that has also been blighted by injury. He missed the entire 2022-23 domestic season and continued to struggle till IPL 2024.”I have had so many injuries that I don’t even remember how many,” he says. “I just remember that each time it was a different injury. I never really got injured while bowling. But sometimes it happened while batting during practice or while standing somewhere and a shot from another batter hit me. Sometimes it also happened that I slipped on the field and got a serious injury.”It was disappointing, and I was also losing opportunities, I was losing consistency. But what can you do? Sometimes, I just laughed thinking about my injuries. But after that, I became very disciplined and started following a regular routine, which had details like how much gym I had to do, when to run, how to bowl, everything. When you follow that, you get results.”It was at the Delhi Premier League recently that Simarjeet put all those lessons to good use, picking up 20 wickets (the joint-highest) in 11 matches and an economy rate of 10.00 with a best of 5 for 23 as his team Central Delhi Kings finished runners-up. Now he has one more shot to impress, if he gets the chance, in the first one-dayer for India A against Australia A, in the hope that he finds that elusive consistency to claw his way back up the ladder.