New local stars emerged, including Josh Brown, but Renegades and Thunder need to rebuild after poor campaigns

Tristan Lavalette26-Jan-2024After a rocky start, marred by a farcical abandonment in Geelong due to a dangerous pitch and the schedule being heavily impacted by bad weather, a shortened BBL season came alive in a throwback to its heyday.It built on the bounce back experienced last season following a difficult period for the BBL mired in successive Covid-19 affected seasons. The tournament appears in a good place, having eroded a negative perception that had set in, but as ever question marks remain.Shortened season fuels big crowdsThis was seen as a pivotal season for the tournament after a resurgence last year. There had long been complaints over the protracted length of the BBL and officials reacted by shortening the regular season from 56 to 40 games.Related

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• Mass ILT20 exodus leaves BBL finals lacking star quality

Teams played 10 games each – down from 14 – and cut the length so it finished before the school holidays with finals having for a number of years been played in February. The finals series was reduced by a game after a rejigging of the format where only the top four qualified instead of five. It meant that games had more stakes and there were less dead rubbers.The truncated season proved a hit with crowds rising by 27 percent with five regular season matches boasting more than 40,000 fans. It recreated the type of spectacle that saw the BBL take off in the mid-2010s and helped ensure a much better television product to help banish the eyesore of empty grandstands from previous seasons.While traditional strongholds in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane enjoyed record attendances, tournament officials would have been especially delighted with crowd numbers in Melbourne where the BBL has had difficulty penetrating. Renegades had an average crowd increase of 63 pe cent despite another underwhelming season.A capacity crowd of 43,000 at the SCG for the final was a fitting end to a successful season.Laurie Evans was brilliant for Perth Scorchers, but missed the finals•Getty ImagesMass exodus still underlines availability issuesIt wasn’t all smooth sailing with a number of players leaving ahead of the finals to rival leagues, mostly the lucrative ILT20 in the UAE.The BBL had sought to ward off competitors by doubling the salary caps of teams with top overseas players around $420,000 if they were available for the whole season.But it still fell short of the salary cap of teams for the ILT20, which has a footprint from the IPL and is played in a shorter timespan than the BBL. Players unsurprisingly have found the ILT20 too hard to resist.Laurie Evans emerged as a fan favourite for Perth Scorchers after his cavalier batting through the season, but he left the day after their final regular season match to fly to the UAE.He believed the BBL season needed to be further shortened to a month, so that a clash of tournaments could be avoided. Sam Billings, who also left for the ILT20 and subsequently missed the Heat’s triumph, floated the idea of multi-year deals as a way of retaining players.But as cricket’s calendar increasingly gets saturated, the clash of rival tournaments and international fixtures means the issue over player availability might prove impossible to fix.New local stars emergeJosh Brown has suddenly become sought-after around the world•Getty ImagesThe departure of overseas players gutted teams in the finals, who had to rely on bench strength and local talent to get them through. No one grabbed their opportunity more than Brisbane Heat opener Josh Brown, who stepped up with probably the most outrageous innings seen in the BBL when he clubbed 140 off 57 balls against Adelaide Strikers in the Challenger.He made headlines worldwide and backed up his heroics with a half-century – the only one of the match – in tough batting conditions in the final. Brown was subsequently offered a contract in the Bangladesh Premier League.The breakout batter of the regular season was Renegades dynamo Jake Fraser-McGurk, who is starting to put together his big-hitting talents to devastating effect. He produced clean hitting underlined by a strike-rate of 158.64. He also scored two half-centuries having never struck one in the BBL before.Fraser-McGurk, 21, has quickly become a drawcard and looms as a player of considerable interest for the national hierarchy having smashed the fastest ever List A century earlier in the summer and he also struck a maiden first-class hundred. He should make his international debut in the ODI series against West Indies.Seamer Xavier Bartlett has also been named against West Indies after starring with the new ball and at the death to finish as the season’s leading wicket-taker. His destruction of Hurricanes’ top-order had the Gabba heaving in the spell of the tournament.Nikhil Chaudhary, of the Hurricanes, was another to make a name for himself and has reportedly had interest from other BBL clubs.Heat end Scorchers/Sixers’ strangleholdWas this season the start of something for Brisbane Heat?•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesAs top-placed Heat started wobbling late in the season, one suspected Scorchers and Sixers were on a collision course to meet in another final. But Scorchers could never quite overcome the absence of inspirational skipper Ashton Turner as they crashed to a big home loss in the Knockout to Strikers.Sixers, however, peaked at the right time to thrash Heat in the Qualifier on the Gold Coast to book a home final at their SCG fortress. But they were left stunned by Heat in a one-sided final in what might prove to be a changing of the guard.Scorchers and Sixers had won eight of 12 titles, including the last four, but Heat have replicated their blueprint of building around a local core. Queensland Cricket have reaped rewards for their local T20 Max competition which has proven an effective breeding ground for Heat.Having earned redemption after their nightmare defeat against Scorchers last season, Heat became just the third team to win multiple titles and might well be in the midst of a golden run.Renegades and Thunder struggleRenegades and Thunder have often struggled in the BBL – despite each team having won a title – to underline the difficulties of having multiple teams in a city.They combined for just three wins to finish at the foot of the table leading to uncertainty over their futures. Ricky Ponting and Aaron Finch have speculated that Thunder shift to Canberra in order to move away from the often difficult and slow Sydney Showground surface. newspapers recently reported that the ACT are pushing for a new BBL team to be based in Canberra, but expansion seems unlikely in the near future.Finch has also suggested that Renegades, who he used to captain, could move to Geelong. “I think we’re already a bit thin at the moment with the talent pool to get another side in,” he told ESPN’s .Next season: Australia’s stars set to returnThe schedule should allow more appearances from Australia’s Test players next season•Getty Images and Cricket AustraliaIn a reassuring sign of the competition’s footing, the BBL enjoyed considerable success even with most of Australia’s star players absent after the Test summer started later than usual.Having lit up the BBL late last season, Steven Smith and David Warner had limited impact in their two matches each. Although Warner did grab plenty of headlines over his arrival by helicopter to the SCG for the Sydney Smash. He will be retired from international cricket by next summer meaning he should be much more available for the BBL.Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head did not play at all, but Australia’s stars are likely to be available for the backend of next season amid a clear slate in the international fixtures in January after the India-Australia Test series wraps up at the SCG.The presence of Australia’s top players in the backend of the season and finals would undoubtedly catapult the BBL to even greater heights.

Shivam Dube had to adapt on tough USA pitches but India will need his power at some stage

Sidharth Monga18-Jun-20244:17

Do India have every box ticked going into the Super Eight?

If you include the warm-up game, Shivam Dube spent 60 legal deliveries in the USA to hit his first six on the tour. This is a batter who has been hitting a six every eight balls or so in the IPL over the last year. In his T20 career overall, which includes times when he was not the six-hitter he is now, he has still hit a six every 16 balls. The six-hitting ability has brought him to the World Cup, and he has had to wait so long to put one in the stands. He jokes he has only ever waited for this long in first-class cricket.Dube is also somebody who loves to hit sixes at practice. He does train other parts of his game, but he absolutely loves range-hitting. Sometimes his training sessions with CSK are just about hitting sixes as soon as he feels ready. It was not possible in New York where India – and other teams – practised in a small facility that can house only the nets. In Florida it just kept raining.You’d expect Dube to be the happiest person to get out of New York, and the USA, and onto more reliable pitches and better training facilities. He isn’t. When asked how easy or difficult, and how important, it is to delete the memories of New York before going to better batting tracks, Dube said he wasn’t going to do any such thing. “I won’t delete this from my memory because this is my first World Cup. Why should I?”Related

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Relish such conditions is not what six-hitters do. They are in here because of their six-hitting. They know the six-hitting can’t happen on surfaces where the bounce, pace and direction of the ball after the pitching are all unpredictable. So survive them, yes, co-exist with them, but enjoy them?”What I have done in the past is never doubt myself,” Dube said. “What I see is these conditions don’t demand what I have done at CSK. These conditions demand a different game. So I was batting in a different way.”That Dube enjoyed the challenge, trying to find a way to win matches for India, tells you he wants to be more than just a six-hitter. Watching him in the nets, the wind-up always suggests he is going to hit a six. And then he acts according to the ball. It’s as though his batting is all about doing something else only when the option of hitting the six is eliminated. And so far he has found himself in conditions where you have to hit your best possible shot for it to clear the field. You can’t afford even a slight mishit. It is to Dube’s credit that he has done his job without hitting these sixes.Shivam Dube has had to bide his time at this World Cup•ICC/Getty ImagesDube’s arrival in the West Indies hasn’t necessarily been the opening of the floodgates either. The pitches in the nets at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados have had both seam and swing – then the further garnish of a passing shower, which spiced them up further. Dube didn’t opt for range-hitting either, instead spending more time bowling than batting.Some day or the other during this World Cup all this denial will make way for a pitch that calls for 200. It could well be on the main pitch at Kensington Oval, which has already hosted one score of 200. It could be in St Lucia, the highest-scoring ground this tournament. Or the final. It could be against the spinners of Afghanistan or against the varied quicks of Bangladesh.It is on these high-scoring grounds that India really need Dube. While what he did during the chase against USA must have reassured the team of his quality, India have batters who can anchor a middling chase. With the rest of his team-mates, Dube has had two training sessions at Kensington Oval to probably undo the muscle memory, if any, of the USA.Now that switch will have to flick quickly because there is hardly any time in T20s. The skill, though, is not just batting that way but identifying when to do so. Suryakumar Yadav says the captain and the management trust the batters in the middle to know which pace to aim for. Dube will have the feedback from two of the most experienced batters in international cricket to fall back on, but, especially when batting first, India will rely a lot on his instinct to inform what they are aiming for.Whatever the conditions might be in the Super Eight, it is unlikely Dube will have to wait 60 balls for his next six. India might yet need a few from him.

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.

They got a chance to try an extra seamer for the Scotland clash and were successful in their experiment

Valkerie Baynes14-Oct-2024England tested their pace and spin combinations to devastating effect ahead of a move to Dubai for their crucial last group game of this T20 World Cup, against West Indies on Tuesday.Heather Knight, England’s captain, noted ahead of Sunday’s 10-wicket thumping of Scotland that while an enviable attack consisting of four frontline spinners had served her team well, seam had been effective across both venues.Indeed, seam bowling has been more effective than spin across the tournament with wickets coming three runs cheaper for seam bowlers than spinners and at two balls fewer.Related

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So Linsey Smith, the standout performer with the ball in England’s opening win against Bangladesh, made way for Lauren Bell, who took 1 for 16 from her four overs as her side shared the wickets 3-3 between seam and spin.Sophie Ecclestone, Smith’s fellow left-arm spinner was the only multiple wicket-taker with 2 for 13 as offspinner Charlie Dean and seamers Nat Sciver-Brunt and Dani Gibson chimed in with one apiece.It was the perfect match to try out their theory. Scotland had struggled to challenge in their three previous games, despite a plucky performance against Bangladesh in the tournament opener.Scotland started brightly enough, negotiating a meagre powerplay intact and reaching their highest total of the tournament at 109 for 6 but couldn’t get going as England’s bowlers kept them contained.Smith’s low trajectory had proved particularly troublesome to opposition batters on a low and slow Sharjah pitch, while playing two left-arm spinners was a good match-up against South Africa, whom they beat on the same ground, where England have played their first three games. Similarly, New Zealand legspinner Amelia Kerr had walked away with six wickets from two games in Sharjah.But as the pitch showed signs of becoming more conducive to seam – and even swing as a miserly Megan Schutt showed with her twin three-wicket hauls from Australia’s first two games – the evidence supported England’s change.Bell had spent the English summer working with fast bowling coach Matt Mason to remodel her action while playing series against Pakistan and New Zealand and, after sitting out the first two games of this World Cup, it was her turn, to the delight of team-mate Maia Bouchier.Charlie Dean trots in to bowl•ICC/Getty Images”We’ve seen so many improvements from her,” Bouchier said. “She’s worked really hard on her outswing as well, changing her action completely really. She’s put a lot of time and effort and spoken with Lewy (head coach Jon Lewis) and Mase about what she can do to be better and she’s actually taken that on herself, which has been really cool to see.”Working on all these variations, which are really key in these conditions, it’s so important that she’s doing it and lots of the other girls are doing it as well, but she’s put in a really good performance today.”Bouchier herself came into some fine form after two lean outings with the bat of 23 and 8.She scored an unbeaten 62 and Danni Wyatt 51 not out in mowing down a modest 110-run target against Scotland in the 10 overs required to overtake South Africa at the top of Group B on net run rate with a game in hand. England still need to beat West Indies to guarantee a place in the semi-finals.”We knew it was going to be a game that we could take advantage of and putting in a really good performance ahead of the upcoming games, we needed to make sure it was a strong one, and thinking about that net rate as well,” Bouchier said. “We just wanted to get it done as quick as possible.””We really haven’t talked about what could happen,” she added. “We talked a lot about what’s in the present and focusing on each game and no matter what comes up, we will be focusing on what’s happening then.”We could think about who we’re going to play and what’s going to happen, but I think that’s going against our thought processes. Whoever we play, we’re just looking to play on the day.”For herself, Bouchier took her improved performance in her stride.”I’ve been working a lot in the nets on watching and reacting to the ball and my processes in the last year or so… making sure that I’ve been really still at the crease,” she said. “That was the pitch for it. These pitches have worked out quite well for my game. Today was just a really dominant performance from both of us, Danni and I, and also the bowlers, they showed off their class.”Wyatt is England’s leading run-scorer at the tournament so far and fourth overall behind Tazmin Brits and Laura Wolvaardt, with India captain Harmanpreet Kaur between the two South Africa openers. Wyatt has 135 runs at an average of 67.50 and strike rate of 123.85.

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

Bangladesh’s fast bowlers picked up all ten wickets in a Test innings for the first time, and Mahmud took five of them

Mohammad Isam02-Sep-2024Monday was a landmark day in the history of Bangladeshi fast bowling. When the visitors wrapped up Pakistan’s second innings for 172, they did so with their fast bowlers taking all ten wickets. It was a first for Bangladesh in Test cricket.Nahid Rana created a stir with his pace and bounce, and Taskin Ahmed used all his experience to keep Pakistan’s batters on the front foot. Amid all that, though, was the constant, wicket-taking presence of Hasan Mahmud, who picked up a maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket, vindicating the selectors’ decision to bring him into the long format after a strong start in white-ball cricket.Related

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Mahmud became only the third Bangladesh quick in the last 11 years to take a five-for in Test cricket, and like Ebadot Hossain and Khaled Ahmed before him, he too had done so on foreign soil.”I have played a good amount of first-class cricket, so the red ball isn’t new to me,” he said. “It has a different feel in the hand. I like it in my hand. I always have a feeling that I can get a wicket with the red ball.”Mahmud delivered for his captain Najmul Hossain Shanto at important moments. After Bangladesh had made an epic recovery from 26 for 6 to reduce their first-innings deficit to 12 runs, they took the ball late on day three hoping for at least one wicket early in Pakistan’s second innings. Mahmud picked up two. He found Abdullah Shafique’s edge by inviting him to drive at a wide outswinger, and cleaned up nightwatcher Khurram Shahzad to leave Pakistan 9 for 2 at stumps.Mahmud gave Bangladesh two early breakthroughs late on day three•AFP/Getty ImagesOn the fourth morning, Taskin got Bangladesh their first breakthrough by removing Saim Ayub, before Rana ran through the middle order, leaving Pakistan 81 for 6. Then Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha added 55 for the seventh wicket, putting a puzzle in front of Bangladesh.It was time once more for Mahmud to make a mark. He removed Rizwan in much the same way he had sent back Shafique, coaxing a loose drive with a full one outside off, and perhaps this was even more impressive for the amount of late swing he generated with a 36-over-old ball. Next ball, he hit the perfect length in the corridor and found enough movement to get Mohammad Ali to nick to first slip.Agha’s unbeaten 47 led a mini rearguard, as Pakistan’s last two wickets added 36 runs before Mahmud ended their innings with his fifth wicket, that of the No. 11 Mir Hamza.”The bowler has to find ways to get wickets whenever he is handed the ball,” Mahmud said. “Taskin got us going, and then Rana bowled superbly. He was excellent. He shifted the momentum. I stuck to my process, to try to contribute.”A partnership often causes a bit of puzzle in the team. We tried to stop runs from both ends. Dry up the boundaries. It was our plan.”Mahmud’s performance capped a promising series with the ball. He bowled well in the first Test too, removing both openers in the first innings and dismissing Shan Masood in the second. And on the third day of this Test, he showed another facet of his game and his character.Mahmud revived Bangladesh with back-to-back wickets after a fightback from Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha•AFP/Getty ImagesWhen he walked in at No. 10, Bangladesh were 81 adrift of Pakistan’s first-innings total, and Litton Das had run out of recognised batting partners. He was batting with a hand injury and also battling cramps. Bangladesh couldn’t afford to give away a big lead, and Litton needed someone to stay with him. Mahmud did exactly that. He defended for two straight hours, scoring an unbeaten 13 off 51 balls. Mahmud was so focused on his job that it took him a while to realise just how long he had spent at the crease.”[Litton] was the set batter, so there was a lot of work to do,” Mahmud said. “All he told me was that I had to give him support. He said he will do the rest. That’s what I tried to do. I really enjoyed batting with . I know now that I have batted for two hours. I realised this later. I only saw that I batted 55 balls when I was walking off with the bat.”Mahmud reiterated the belief within the group, going back to the mood in the dressing room when Litton and Mehidy Hasan Miraz came together at 26 for 6.”When we faced that situation, we lost all those wickets, we had to come out with a new plan,” Mahmud said. “We trusted Litton and Mehidy out in the middle to do the job. We felt that they will get settled, get the runs. They got settled, so we believed that they can do the job.”Bangladesh’s belief will be tested one last time when they resume the fourth innings on Tuesday morning, needing another 143 with all ten wickets in hand, and potentially rain in the air. This has already been a special tour for Bangladesh. Mahmud has done his bit, and he will hope his batting won’t be required once again as they look to end their trip on a massive, unprecedented high.

In his first full Ranji Trophy season, the 22-year-old from Vidarbha has strut his stuff with ball and bat. Now he’s ready to take on Tamil Nadu in the quarter-finals, with friends in the opposition camp

Shashank Kishore07-Feb-2025When Vidarbha’s Harsh Dubey takes the field in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Tamil Nadu on Saturday, he’ll be up against a number of friends in the opposition camp. Dubey, this season’s highest wicket-taker so far with 55 scalps at an incredible average of 14.50, has been playing league cricket in Chennai for the past four years and can’t wait to “banter” with his mates.”Pradosh Ranjan Paul is a very close friend, I’ve played a lot of cricket with Sai Sudharsan. They’re wonderful blokes, but whenever we play for our respective teams, there’s a healthy banter and rivalry, which makes it that much more fun,” Dubey tells ESPNcricinfo.This is Dubey’s first full Ranji season. As a left-arm-spin allrounder, an opportunity opened up only because two-time Ranji winner Aditya Sarwate shifted to Kerala as a professional. It would be an understatement to say Dubey has grabbed his opportunities. Dubey’s tally ahead of the knockouts includes six five-wicket hauls – three of them in his last four bowling innings.Related

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He has also contributed 308 runs, including three half-centuries. “As a spinner alone, I’ve looked up to Ravindra Jadeja and Rangana Herath, I love watching them bowl, but as an allrounder, it’s hard to look past Jaddu ,” he says.Dubey, 22, attributes his improvements as a cricketer to his batting lessons in Nagpur and his bowling lessons in Chennai. Dubey first began playing for the Mylapore Recreational Club (MRC), captained by R Ashwin. Incidentally, that stint was facilitated by Ashwin when he was supposed to have been enjoying a day off from the IPL.”I was playing the semi-final of the CK Nayudu Trophy [Under-23 tournament] against Madhya Pradesh in Vadodara because I’d been dropped from the Ranji squad,” Dubey remembers. “I’d just taken seven wickets and scored 60 not out with the bat. I’d just returned to my room when my friend Rajneesh Gurbani [the former Vidarbha fast bowler, who now plays for Maharashtra] called.”The IPL was going on and he was a net bowler for Rajasthan Royals. He was playing chess when Ash happened to ask Gurbani if he knew of a left-arm spinner form our state. And Gurbani told him about me and one other player. Ashwin then googled my name and found a couple of YouTube videos of me bowling and asked Gurbani if I’m interested to play in the Chennai league.

“Gurbani immediately called me. I still remember, I was on the way back to the hotel and was exhausted. He’s like ‘, will you play in the Chennai league?’ I told him, I’m too tired now, I am not thinking about playing immediately. And then it suddenly struck me what I’d just said. I quickly rang up Sarwate [Dubey’s Vidarbha team-mate at the time] who was playing in Chennai and asked him about it, and he was like if you’re getting a chance there, hands down go for it. Then I called Gurbani and informed him. That’s how it all started.”Dubey began as an opening batter – he would even go on to score a half-century on first-class debut – but it was his bowling heroics at the age-group level that caught people’s attention. Now 15 games into his first-class career, Dubey’s batting promise is clear once again – he has hit five half-centuries in 25 innings, with a high score of 76.”I learn mostly from watching my videos and with a close friend who helps me,” he says. “Like after the Rajasthan game, I changed a bit in my stance and grip on my base when batting. That helped me our previous game against Hyderabad [he made 65 and 55, in addition to a match haul of eight].””This season I felt the way I batted in the Vijay Hazare final [he made 63 off 30 as Vidarbha tried to chase 349], it felt nice,” he continues. “I had anticipated Prasidh [Krishna] bowling a yorker, so shuffled across to scoop, but when he went for a wide yorker, I was quickly able to innovate and ramp him towards third man. These I can execute only because of the work I’ve put in with the bat and with the side-arm specialists. The focus is on keeping the head still while playing those shots.”Harsh Dubey – effective with both ball and bat•PTI If he continues this way, Dubey’s performances will put him in the queue for the India spin-bowling allrounder’s spot. Jadeja, his hero, is 36 and Ashwin has already retired. Among the fingerspinners, there’s Washington Sundar and Axar Patel high up in the pecking order. At the India A level, there’s Manav Suthar who has also done incredibly well. This is where Dubey’s batting ability could give him an edge in the longer run, but he’s not thinking too far ahead.”My goal currently is to help win the Ranji Trophy,” he says. “Because that thing motivates me rather than my personal goals.”Dubey comes across as relaxed and not completely overwhelmed by the prospect of competition. He says it has never occurred to him that cricket is a “profession” and that he doesn’t have a back-up plan. But there’s gratitude for the sacrifices made by his parents.His father was in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a job that included periodic transfers. As a kid, Dubey lived in Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata and Guwahati, before the family settled in Nagpur. When he was due for another transfer just prior to the pandemic, he turned it down – which meant giving up his job – to support Dubey’s cricketing journey.”I’d been picked in the Under-23s when my dad decided to leave his job,” he says. “But I didn’t look at it as pressure, even though it was a big decision for him. Nowadays, people don’t quit government jobs so easily, he had a few years of service left. But today, he feels very happy for [making] the call. He doesn’t express it as much but I know he’s happy that I’m doing well.”

“I had anticipated Prasidh [Krishna] bowling a yorker, so shuffled across to scoop, but when he went for a wide yorker, I was quickly able to innovate and ramp him towards third man. These I can execute only because of the work I’ve put in with the bat and with the side-arm specialists. The focus is on keeping the head still while playing those shots.”

Dubey’s yet to have a taste of the IPL even though he’s been part of trials at Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad. 
”If they didn’t pick me, I have to perform more,” he says. “If I keep getting disappointed at 22, I can’t focus. There’s lots more to do.”One of the things he’s particularly proud of is the work he has put into his fitness, which, “for a foodie, it’s a big thing”. Dubey says chats with Ashwin have taught him invaluable lessons.”I was chatting with Ashwin once and he said he was lactose intolerant. He got to know about it after he’d turned 30. He said if he knew about it a lot earlier, he may have picked up 100 more wickets than he did. I thought if this guy thinks like this, as a [then] 19-year-old, I should be focused even more. From then on I’ve worked with a dietician, started looking after myself.”I guess my metabolism is very slow. I tend to gain weight quickly, that’s why I train a lot.”Dubey’s waiting to have another long chat with Ashwin now that he has retired. The two last met when Ashwin was in Nagpur for the 2023 Nagpur Test against Australia. “I’d requested if he’d be able to meet my parents who were big fans, and he obliged, so I went over to the hotel to meet,” Dubey says with a smile.”Initially he’d said there was a meeting he needed to be at but that got cancelled and we spoke for nearly three hours that day. It was a proud moment for my parents that they were able to meet a player of his stature because of me.”Hopefully in the future, my dad’s dream of being a [national] cricketer is something I’ll realise, and then his sacrifice would’ve been worth even more.”

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.