All posts by n8rngtd.top

And is Lhuan-dre Pretorius South Africa’s youngest centurion?

Steven Lynch08-Jul-2025Was Jamie Smith’s score at Edgbaston the highest in a Test by anyone at No. 7? asked Richard Boyce from England

That rapid 184 not out by Jamie Smith in the second Test at Edgbaston last week was the highest by an England wicketkeeper (previously Alec Stewart’s 173 against New Zealand in Auckland in January 1997), and also the highest by any England No. 7, beating the 175 of KS Ranjitsinhji against Australia in Sydney in December 1897.Overall, there have been 14 higher Test scores by wicketkeepers than Smith’s 184, and just five higher from No. 7.Smith was only the ninth England batter to score a century before lunch in a Test, joining his team-mate Ben Duckett on that list. England’s total of 407 at Edgbaston was the highest to include six ducks, surpassing Bangladesh’s 365 against Sri Lanka in Mirpur in May 2022, and the lowest to include a partnership of 300 or more (Smith and Harry Brook added 303 for the sixth wicket). That was previously West Indies’ 431 against Australia in Kingston in March 1999, when Brian Lara (213) and Jimmy Adams (94) put on 322 for the fifth wicket.Just to round off the Edgbaston stats fest, Shubman Gill’s 269 was the highest by an Indian captain in a Test, beating Virat Kohli’s 254 not out against South Africa in Pune in October 2019, while only his team-mate Karun Nair had made a higher score for India against England – his 303 not out in Chennai in December 2016.I heard that Lhuan-dre Pretorius was the youngest to score a Test century for South Africa. Who’s the youngest worldwide? asked Carter McKenzie from South Africa

Lhuan-dre Pretorius was just 19 years 93 days old when he scored 153 on debut for South Africa against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo last week. He took the South African record from another precocious left-hander, Graeme Pollock, who was 19 years 334 days old when he made 122 against Australia in Sydney in January 1964.Pretorius moves into tenth place on the overall list of youngest Test century-makers, which is headed by Mohammad Ashraful of Bangladesh: he was 17 years and 63 days old when he made 114 on debut against Sri Lanka in Colombo in September 2001. (Some sources give him an even later birth date, which would make him 16 years 364 days old when he made his hundred.)Pretorius did claim another record, as the youngest man to reach 150 in a Test, a mark previously held by the great Pakistan batter Javed Miandad. He was 19 years 119 days when he made 163 on debut for Pakistan against New Zealand in Lahore in October 1976.Surrey scored 820 the other day after being put in to bat. Was this a record? asked David Cunningham from England

Surrey piled up 820 for 9 declared at The Oval last week after being put in to bat by Durham’s captain Alex Lees. This was actually the second-highest total after being inserted, behind Jharkhand’s 880 against Nagaland in Kolkata during the Ranji Trophy in March 2022. The highest in a Test match is Australia’s 735 for 6 declared after being put in by Zimbabwe in Perth in October 2003.This was Surrey’s highest total, beating their 811 against Somerset at The Oval in May 1899. In that innings the diminutive opener Bobby Abel carried his bat for 357, which remains Surrey’s highest individual score: Dom Sibley’s 305 last week was their eighth triple-century.There have been only three higher totals in the County Championship: Yorkshire’s 887 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in May 1896, Lancashire’s 863 against Surrey at The Oval in May 1990, and Somerset’s 850 for 7 declared against Middlesex in Taunton in April 2007. For the list of the highest totals in all first-class cricket, click here.Also during Surrey’s innings last week, an unwanted record was claimed by Durham’s offspinner George Drissell, who finished with figures of 1 for 247. This was the most expensive return in County Championship history, eclipsing the 3 for 235 of Leicestershire slow left-armer Claude Henderson, also against Surrey at The Oval, in June 2006. The only more expensive analysis in any first-class match in England was 1 for 298 by another left-arm spinner – Australia’s Chuck Fleetwood-Smith – in 87 overs during England’s 903 for 7 declared at The Oval in August 1930.The last time a side won a Test after losing just two wickets was when South Africa beat England by an innings at The Oval in 2012•Getty Images I noticed that when England beat South Africa in the 1924 Lord’s Test, they lost only two wickets. Is this a record? asked Muhammad Riaz via Facebook

In the match you mention at Lord’s in June 1924, England declared at 531 for 2 and went on to beat South Africa (273 and 240) by an innings. Opener Jack Hobbs made 211, his only Test double-century.That was the first occasion in which a side won a Test while losing only two wickets. It has happened four times since: by England (267 for 2 declared) against New Zealand (67 and 129) at Headingley in July 1958; England (459 for 2 declared) against India (165 and 216) at Edgbaston in July 1974; South Africa (470 for 2 declared) against Bangladesh (173 and 237) in Chittagong in April 2003; and South Africa (637 for 2 declared) against England (385 and 240) at The Oval in July 2012.Which batters scored the most runs in the first over in the IPL? And which bowler has taken the most wickets in the first over? asked Amit Kumar via Facebook

We’re lucky to have full ball-by-ball details of all the IPL matches since the first one in 2008, so the stats team – who had fondly imagined they’d finished with the IPL for a few months – bravely attacked this particular pair of figures. The top batters probably aren’t that surprising: Virat Kohli has scored 506 runs in the first over of an IPL innings (he faced 398 balls in them), and David Warner 475 (from 524 deliveries). Next come Shikhar Dhawan (456 from 463), Rohit Sharma (384 from 374) and Ajinkya Rahane (355 from 438).You could have a good guess at the leading bowlers too: Trent Boult has struck 32 times in the first over of an IPL innings, having sent down 618 balls in them. Next comes Bhuvneshwar Kumar with 27 (816 balls), a fair way clear of Deepak Chahar (15 from 494), Praveen Kumar (15 from 534) and Sandeep Sharma (13 from 468).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

Newcastle United fell to their third Premier League defeat of the season this afternoon, with Danny Welbeck’s double securing a 2-1 win for Brighton & Hove Albion.

Eddie Howe’s side must have thought they secured a point after Nick Woltemade netted his fourth goal in just five league outings after his summer arrival from Stuttgart.

However, it wasn’t meant to be, as the aforementioned star’s effort was in vain after Welbeck’s goal secured Fabian Hurzeler’s side all three points at the AMEX.

The Magpies now sit in the bottom half of the table at present, with just two wins to their name – needing a huge reaction in the coming games to get their campaign back on track.

Such a result will likely leave the manager bitterly disappointed, but more so, the failure to impress of numerous players who were handed chances to impress from the off.

Newcastle’s disappointing performers against Brighton

Despite being under fire for his lack of impact of late, Howe decided to stick with Brazilian international Joelinton as part of his three-man midfield.

However, his showing against the Seagulls was a hugely disappointing one, with the 29-year-old subsequently being withdrawn from the contest at the break.

He failed to create any chances for his teammates despite completing 21 passes, whilst also losing 100% of the aerial battles that he entered on the South Coast.

Joelinton wasn’t alone in failing to deliver against Hurzeler’s men, with full-back Dan Burn unable to help the Magpies secure all three points against his former employers.

The 33-year-old only managed to win four of the 14 duels he entered during his 90-minute performance, subsequently being dribbled past twice by former Newcastle star Yankuba Minteh.

Despite the showings from the aforementioned duo, one other first-team member produced an afternoon to forget, with Howe desperately needing to take action.

The Newcastle star who needs to be dropped after Brighton

After the sale of Alexander Isak during the summer window, it was vital Newcastle invested well into the squad to avoid a drop off in the Premier League standings.

As previously mentioned, Woltemade has hit the ground running for the Magpies, already looking like the club’s most threatening option within the final third.

The opposite end of the pitch also received hefty investment, with Malick Thiaw joining in a £40m deal from AC Milan – subsequently cementing his place in the starting eleven in recent weeks.

However, fellow summer addition Anthony Elanga has struggled to produce the type of displays that saw the hierarchy fork out a fee in the region of £55m for his services.

The Swede has failed to score or assist in any of his ten outings across all competitions, with his showing against the Seagulls highlighting his lack of impact to date.

He was named in the starting eleven for the clash against Hurzeler’s men this afternoon, but once again failed to match the faith shown in him by his manager, Howe.

Like Joelinton, Elanga was hooked at half-time due to his lack of impact, with his underlying figures showcasing how dismal he was during the Magpies’ latest defeat.

He failed to complete any of the dribbles or crosses that he attempted, with only one of his attempted passes being made into the final third of the pitch.

Elanga also came out on top in just 50% of all the duels he contested, even being unable to create any chances for his teammates during his 45-minute outing.

To further highlight his lack of impact, he only achieved a total of 20 touches, a tally lower than that of goalkeeper Nick Pope, who achieved a total of 40.

As a result of his performance, Elanga was handed a measly 4/10 match rating by Newcastle World journalist Jordan Cronin – further showcasing his lack of impact.

Given his display, Howe desperately needs to get the winger firing, which should see the 23-year-old being dropped to the substitutes’ bench in the coming matches.

His mammoth price tag has certainly increased the pressure on his shoulders, but time needs to be handed his way to allow the attacker to adapt to the demands in the North East.

Newcastle are brewing the homegrown Elanga in 18-year-old "huge talent"

Newcastle’s attack has struggled this season, but rising star could be the future spark they need

By
Will Miller

Oct 17, 2025

For seven innings of Thursday's game, the New York Yankees couldn't touch Seattle Mariners pitching. Mariners starter Bryan Woo tossed seven no-hit innings, then exited the game in the bottom of the eighth inning with a 5-1 lead after surrendering a sacrifice fly, entrusting the four-run margin to the Mariners' reliable bullpen. Only, this time, Mariners reliever Matt Brash, who has an ERA under 1.00, yielded a two-run home run to Giancarlo Stanton.

Then, something even stranger occurred. Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz, an All-Star for the second time this year, surrendered two earned runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to blow the save. And in stark contrast to how they fared against Woo, the Yankees were all over Muñoz.

There was a good reason for that.

After the game, Mariners All-Star catcher Cal Raleigh admitted that Muñoz was tipping his pitches.

"He was tipping it every time at second base," Raleigh said, via . “Obviously, they weren’t making it very discreet, I guess is the word. It’s part of the game. It’s our job. We should have known about that going into the series. That made it really hard there at the end."

Mariners manager Dan Wilson disagreed, telling reporters he didn't "think" Muñoz was tipping his pitches. That could simply be Wilson putting on a public front in an attempt to dismiss what the Yankees had done, as broadcast replays clearly show that New York seemed to pick something up from the Mariners reliever. In particular, every time Muñoz threw a slider, Yankees outfielder Trent Grisham, who was standing on second base, would wave an arm in the air to alert New York's batter.

Muñoz had tossed 8 1/3 scoreless innings entering Thursday's appearance. The Yankees went on to win on a walk-off sacrifice fly by reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge in the bottom of the 10th inning, completing a rare comeback that hadn't been seen in MLB in nearly 50 years.

As for the tipping pitches? Raleigh acknowledged it's something the Mariners are going to need to "figure out."

"Yeah, you try to do as much as you can without trying to distract him from what’s happening at the plate," Raleigh continued. "That’s something that we will have to figure out in the next couple of days for sure."

Seattle will next take on the Detroit Tigers in a three-game series before the All-Star break.

With the postseason looming, the Padres have lost a key piece for the short term.

San Diego outfielder Ramón Laureano has been diagnosed with a fractured finger and will miss the first round of the playoffs, manager Mike Shildt said Wednesday evening via Dennis Lin of . Laureano, 31, has hit well since being acquired from the Orioles on July 31—slashing .271/.325.492 with nine home runs and 30 RBIs.

In total, Laureano has slashed .282/.343/.514 with 24 home runs and 76 RBIs. His 3.6 bWAR are a career high, surpassing a 3.5-win campaign with the Athletics in 2019.

The Padres are squarely in the middle of the National League's crowded postseason picture; they currently trail the Dodgers by two games in the West Division race and the Cubs by two games in the wild-card race.

San Diego, sans Laureano, is scheduled to play three games against the Diamondbacks this weekend to conclude its 2025 regular season.

An “amazing” Everton player is now thought to be “seriously considering” leaving the club when the January transfer window arrives.

Beto under-fire among Everton fans

In the Blues’ 3-0 defeat at home to Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday, Beto again failed to score, meaning he has only found the net once in the competition this season.

Sky Sports reporter Alan Myers has revealed that one Everton fan slammed the Portuguese after the game, comparing him to “that riderless horse in the Grand National that keeps going even though he’s never going to win the race,” and adding that “hard work cannot be criticised but as a striker, you will be judged on goals and he just isn’t scoring enough of them”.

Beto hasn’t managed to consistently shine for the Blues since arriving at the club, but he isn’t alone, with too many new signings flattering to deceive in recent years.

While Jack Grealish has made a positive start to life at Everton, other fellow arrivals haven’t managed to hit the ground running, and one such figure is already reportedly eyeing a fresh challenge in his career.

Everton player "seriously considering" exit

According to Africa Foot [via Sport Witness], Everton left-back Adam Aznou is “seriously considering” leaving the club in January, having not yet played a single minute of football for the Blues this season.

The £25,000-a-week Spaniard only moved to the Hill Dickinson Stadium from Bayern Munich in the summer window, but it looks as though a loan move away could be on the cards. A switch to La Liga is most likely, with Getafe leading the race, and Everton are open to the idea of loaning him out.

Aznou must be frustrated with how things are panning out at Everton, but there is no need to panic about his early struggles, considering he is a young player in a new country, especially given how tough the Premier League is.

Alongside Beto: Moyes must drop 4/10 Everton star who lost possession 19x

Everton were humbled on their own patch as Tottenham Hotspur ran out convincing 3-0 winners.

By
Kelan Sarson

Oct 27, 2025

The former Bayern teenager is clearly a talent, being described as an “amazing player by scout Jacek Kulig, and a loan move elsewhere in the second half of the season could be more beneficial instead of him not even being involved in matchday squads.

Tottenham Hotspur are poised to be without a big name for their crucial North London derby clash against Arsenal on November 23, with the player’s return from injury up in the air.

Spurs take on Mikel Arteta’s Premier League title frontrunners in a mouth-watering clash at the Emirates Stadium following the conclusion of this latest international break, and the stakes are high for both sides.

Thomas Frank is attempting to guide the Lilywhites to a top four finish and build upon Ange Postecoglou’s final season in charge with another piece of major silverware, but concerns have surrounded their general creativity in open play and plethora of key absentees.

While Arsenal have also struggled to keep their star attackers fit this campaign, with Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke, Martin Odegaard and Viktor Gyokeres all racing to be fit for Tottenham, Frank’s extensive injury list is much longer.

Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison are among the forwards who’ve been absent with serious injuries, and the latter is not expected to return until midway through 2026.

Summer signing Randal Kolo Muani was the latest to be sidelined after fracturing his jaw in their 2-2 draw with Man United last weekend. While the Frenchman, who only just returned to full fitness after a dead leg, won’t require surgery, it remains to be seen how long he’ll be out for or if he’ll be able to wear a mask and play against Arsenal.

Star winger Mohammed Kudus was ‘touch and go’ to face Man United and ultimately left out by Frank, with the 25-year-old also not selected for Ghana’s upcoming friendlies against Japan and South Korea.

There is every chance that Kudus, who’s stood out as their most in-form attacker this term, will recover from his knock in time to play against Arsenal, but the same cannot be said for striker Dominic Solanke.

Tottenham poised to be without Dominic Solanke for North London derby

The Englishman has yet to start a competitive game since Frank’s arrival at the club, playing just 49 minutes in total across all competitions, and his once minor ankle issue is taking a while to fully recover from.

Solanke was forced to undergo small surgery on his ankle problem and the initial prognosis was that he’d be back fairly soon. However, the 28-year-old still hasn’t played a single minute since Tottenham’s 2-0 win away to Man City right at the start of the season.

Recently, when asked if Solanke would be back on the field before the end of 2025, Frank’s response wasn’t that convincing at all.

Standard Sport have now reported that Solanke returning from injury to face Arsenal is looking “unlikely”, and they could even welcome back defender Radu Dragusin before him.

The Romanian is set to feature in a behind-closed-doors friendly during the international break, which will be his first piece of action since rupturing his ACL back in January. Some reports suggest that Tottenham could even sell Solanke when the window reopens, with Frank viewing the forward as “expendable” amid repeated links to former Brentford star Ivan Toney.

Right now, Frank has just Mathys Tel, who can’t participate in the Champions League after being left out of their 22-man squad, and Richarlison to select from as their readily available striker options.

If injury were to befall Richarlison, like it did for large periods of last season, Frank would be in serious trouble.

Solanke finished 24/25 as the club’s second top scorer behind Brennan Johnson, and they’ve missed both his poacher’s instinct and general link-up play.

In 2016, he appeared clueless against spin at the venue. Almost nine years on, he disrupted spin with a wide range of shots

Andrew Fidel Fernando29-Jan-2025For Australia teams of a certain era, tours to South Asia were hardship postings. We’ve all heard the stories. The facilities were sub-par and the pitches questionable. The sun was hot. The humidity was icky. The butter chicken didn’t taste anything like in the local curry house in Sydney.The 1986 Dean Jones 210 story from the tied Test in Chennai (then Madras), for instance, features dehydration, mid-pitch vomiting, involuntary urination, smells emanating from a canal, and later in that Test, dodgy umpiring. Saline drips, blood, sweat, beers – these were the fluids of a subcontinent tour. (Sometimes you didn’t get beers)Usman Khawaja has been on tough tours. One in Sri Lanka was almost traumatically bad. In 2016, Australia were spun out six times, and Khawaja had the most memorably disastrous outing, in Galle. On the same Thursday, he fell for 11 to an offspinner’s arm ball in the morning, before leaving almost that exact same delivery to be bowled for a duck, in the final hour of play.It’s 2025, now, though, and things have changed. Modern-day Khawaja is different. He runs at spinners. He reverse-slaps them. He hits over the top. He turns even hard-spun well-flighted deliveries into scoring opportunities, coming down the track and whipping through midwicket. There’s no hardship in this posting. Khawaja’s on 21 off 29, then you blink and he has sailed to fifty. Once shellshocked and inert at this venue, the current version of Khawaja is proactive, calculated, and dynamic.Related

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Because this was a Khawaja innings, the first boundary was a soothing cover drive. But we got past the niceties quickly. There was a trek down the pitch to bang offspinner Nishan Peiris down the ground in the sixth over, a six off the same bowler a few overs later, then the reverse-sweeps when Sri Lanka bolstered their protection down the ground and left the square boundaries open. There were laps, conventional-sweeps, and when his manoeuvring forced bowlers to pitch short, the thundering pull through midwicket. Once he’d been mauled by spinners here, now he was manipulating them.Khawaja’s path here is instructive. Following those 2016 Tests (he was dropped for the third match), Khawaja watched George Bailey reverse-sweep Sri Lanka’s spinners to good effect in the ODI series that followed, and was desperate to add the shot to his game, as revealed to journalist Andrew Ramsay. If there is a single shot that substantially improves your batting against spin, the reverse-sweep has got to be high on the list. Suddenly, you can hit balls pitching tight in line with the stumps through point, or behind square on the offside. It’s a shot that makes captains change fields, and bowlers switch up their lengths, even subconsciously.There is also shifting wisdom. Where once, batting advice around surviving in South Asia centred around defence (“come all the way forward, or go right back against spin” etc), the focus is now on attacking and adding run-scoring options. Force the bowlers to defend instead. At times, Sri Lanka’s spinners bowled leg-stump lines to Australia’s batters, mainly to slow the run rate. Khawaja still found ways to collect frequent runs into the outfield, while Steven Smith at the other end also batted in high gear.Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith hit centuries to establish Australia’s command•AFP/Getty ImagesTheir progress was far from easy, of course. The morning was as still and humid as any day is likely to get at this venue. There was still significant turn from the surface, even if it was the slow, less dangerous kind. Travis Head set the standard for fun pretty high crashing 57 off 40 in the first 80 minutes of play. Khawaja was more measured with his aggression, but kept the vibes flowing as he reaped runs from shots he couldn’t play nine years ago.”Me and Heady both went after them a little bit,” Khawaja said of the opening passage of play, in which Australia scored rapidly. “I took the offspinner over his head a couple of times, and Heady was doing what Heady does, and we both put pressure on the bowlers in our own way and got the field spread out.”Later, alongside Smith, with whom Khawaja shared an unbroken 195-run stand in which both batters completed hundreds, Khawaja settled into rapid accumulation mode. Of his 147 runs on day one, only 46 came from boundaries, and he was still striking at 70 by stumps.”When you’re watching from the sidelines, people don’t pick up all the nuances,” Khawaja said of that phase of his innings. “You don’t know what I’m trying to do, how I’m trying to do it, or what I’m thinking. There’s a lot going on.”On the banks, and in the stands at Galle, as Australia had almost the perfect first day of a series, Australia’s fans outnumbered the locals, and Khawaja scripted a Galle redemption story, it almost felt as if a glorious Australian Test cricketing summer had been transported to Sri Lanka. At no stage did it feel like hardship.

Shohei Ohtani is used to recording stats that baseball has never seen before.

One of the wildest stats the two-way superstar has, though, is about the batter he's faced when throwing his hardest heat. Ohtani threw the fastest pitch of his MLB career, a 101.7-mph four-seam fastball, to Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino in June. He threw an even harder pitch in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, which hit 102-mph, for the fastest pitch in his career.

Incredibly, Pasquantino was on the receiving end of Ohtani's 102-mph heater too, and he's starting to think Ohtani may have a problem with him. He had a hilarious response to the stat back in June, and he recently got to question the superstar as he served as an MLB players ambassador at World Series media day.

"World Baseball Classic, we faced each other. And with Kansas City this year, why do you throw so hard to me?" Pasquantino simply asked. "Why? Why do you hate me?"

Ohtani responded that Pasquantino is a really good hitter, so he has to. He's right, as the Royals slugger led his team with 32 home runs and 113 RBIs this year. That wasn't a good enough answer for Pasquantino though, as he responded, "You throw too hard, Shohei."

Check out the hilarious moment below:

Ohtani and the Dodgers are headed to the World Series after an all-time performance from the superstar where he hit three homers and threw six scoreless innings while striking out 10 batters in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series to close out the Brewers. He hit 55 homers in the regular season, behind only Cal Raleigh (60) and Kyle Schwarber (56).

On the mound, Ohtani had a 2.87 ERA in 14 starts and 47 innings pitched with 62 strikeouts in his return to pitching this year. He's won both of his postseason starts thus far, punching out 19 in 12 innings. He has five playoff homers this year, too, the most outside of Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with six.

Ohtani is doing things never seen before. Hopefully he has it in his heart to take it a bit easier on Pasquantino next season.

They didn’t have a batsman or bowler in the top five, but they have the trophy, which is what matters

Sreshth Shah in Potchefstroom10-Feb-2020At the end of the Under-19 World Cup 2020 final, India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal (400 runs) and Ravi Bishnoi (17 wickets) finished as the most successful batsman and bowler of the competition respectively, but the title of world champions went to Bangladesh. That’s because, on the big day, it was teamwork that made Bangladesh’s dream work.Like in the whole tournament, Jaiswal and Bishnoi were the best individual performers on the day, the opening batsman scoring 88 and the legspinner picking up a four-wicket haul to give India a sniff. But there were at least five performances from the Bangladesh players, none of which as sparkling as Jaiswal’s or Bishnoi’s, but added up to more on the day.When Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali walked out to bat in their chase of 178, Bangladesh were 65 for 4 – all four wickets going to Bishnoi – and in the midst of an epic Indian comeback. Entering the match, Akbar had scored only 26 runs in three games and Bishnoi was turning the ball sharply both ways. Akbar had to not only get himself in, but navigate the game while protecting the lesser batsmen at the other end. He did so for 6.5 overs, guiding bowling allrounders Shamim Hossain and Avishek Das, but when both of them were sent back in quick succession, Bangladesh were tottering again at 102 for 6.ALSO READ: Akbar Ali, and a slice of Bangladesh historyBut Akbar had one trump card in his ranks. Parvez Hossain Emon, the opener who had retired hurt on 25 due to cramps in the 13th over, had looked in control against the new ball. And he was going to come out if needed. When they met in the middle following Das’ dismissal, they could see the clouds overhead turning greyer by the moment. They needed 76 more, and Akbar and Parvez had to score most of them. So they went for the counter-attack with Bishnoi out of the attack. Helped by wides and byes from the Indians, they eked out 41 runs in the next nine overs. As Bangladesh went ahead of the game again, they went from aggressive to defensive. And so, when Jaiswal, the part-timer, was introduced, Parvez looked to break the shackles, only to be caught at cover to depart for 47. But Bangladesh were 143 for 7 by then.”Emon showed his character,” Akbar said after the game. “He wasn’t even at his 30%. When Emon came to the dressing room during cramping, that was the crunch moment with two new batsmen and India dominating. After the sixth wicket when Emon returned, the way he batted… I am really proud of him.

Shoriful’s 40th over changed the climate. Was a fantastic bowling effort to restrict India below 180. At the toss, we would’ve accepted anything under 220Akbar Ali

“We wanted to keep things simple in the chase. Wanted to maintain the process. [Openers] Tanzid Hasan and Emon gave us a very good start, but Ravi bowled exceptionally well, so need to give credit to him.”When I entered the chase, I knew we needed one big partnership from us. And we came to the party. When I was batting, the plan was to not lose many wickets since rain was around, so had to keep one eye on the DLS.”But it wasn’t over. In walked Rakibul Hasan at No. 9, his previous highest score in top-flight cricket being 1 not out. With the team ahead of the DLS par score – albeit marginally – and plenty of overs to go, the objective changed for Akbar and Rakibul – stay put. The 35 runs needed, a win would come if they played their cards right. So, through the next 11 overs, Akbar blocked and blocked and blocked. He ran only if he could take twos, and if things went according to plan, Rakibul would not face more than one delivery per over.Over by over, Akbar and Rakibul inched closer to the target. As the partnership grew, so did Rakibul’s confidence, and Akbar began to rely on his partner a bit more. From facing one ball an over, Rakibul was facing three – he even played out a whole over from the dangerous Bishnoi. Every run took Bangladesh closer to the target, and they were all met with applause that increased in intensity.A joyous Bangladesh team after winning the Under-19 World Cup•ICC via GettyWith 15 runs to win and the team 18 ahead of the DLS par, the rain came down – in the 41st over. But that worked in Bangladesh’s advantage because of how slow India’s over-rate was. When the teams returned, eight runs were shaved off Bangladesh’s target. They came on cue, from Rakibul, and sent the Bangladesh crowd – and players – into ecstasy. For his composed batting in the midst of pressure he had never faced before, Akbar collected the Player-of-the-Match award along with the big trophy.”In the first half of the tournament, I wasn’t getting much runs. In the final, opportunity came to me. I had to be the chase-man, the finisher, so happy to do that for my team,” he said.Akbar also praised Bangladesh’s bowling attack, particularly left-arm seamer Shoriful Islam, who finished with 2 for 31 and ran Bishnoi out, doing the job in his follow through as the Indians were looking to steal a single in the 44th over. Two overs before that, Shoriful had delivered a double-blow, dismissing Jaiswal and Siddhesh Veer in consecutive deliveries. It triggered a collapse of epic proportions with the defending champions losing seven wickets for 21 runs to fold for 177.”After winning the toss, we wanted to take early wickets,” Akbar said. “We got the opener (Divyaansh Saxena), but Tilak Varma and Jaiswal had a very good partnership.”In the middle of the innings, we thought we had to chase 240, but Shoriful’s 40th over changed the climate. Was a fantastic bowling effort to restrict India below 180. At the toss, we would’ve accepted anything under 220.”It was this teamwork and togetherness than helped Bangladesh clinch the crown. Bangladesh’s highest-run scorer of the tournament – Mahmudul Hasan Joy – finished at No. 15 on the list of highest run-scorers. But, importantly, Nos. 18 and 19 were also from Bangladesh – Tanzid and Shahadat Hossain, respectively. Their highest wicket-taker, Rakibul, finished joint sixth on the list of highest wicket-takers with 12 strikers, but Shoriful had nine, Tanzim Hasan Sakib had seven and Shamim Hossain five.The Bangladesh players didn’t necessarily produce performances that would dominate the World Cup highlights reel, but you don’t need be there to be champions. That’s what worked for them and, perhaps, proved the difference between victory and defeat for India.

Under Keith Fletcher’s canny captaincy, Essex defied their reputation as a small club

Paul Edwards21-May-2020June 22, 1979

ScorecardJuly 13, 1979

ScorecardRather like the county they represent so proudly, Essex’s cricketers go about their business with little grandeur and no fuss. If they are piqued that their club is regarded as small – and who would not be? – they rarely show it, preferring instead to win matches and see what comes of it. Perhaps only then, someone like Keith Fletcher will say how curious it is that a side of such lowly status has managed to collect seven more Championships in the 40 seasons since their first in 1979.Fletcher, of course, led Essex to their first three titles before handing over to Graham Gooch, who picked up three more. The last two have been won under the leadership of Ryan ten Doeschate, most recently at a damp Taunton last September when Alastair Cook’s clenched fist salute to the away dressing room signalled the job was done. Fletcher, Gooch and Cook all captained England; they played a total of 338 games for their country and scored a total of 60 Test hundreds. But their hearts belonged to Essex, too, and one always felt they returned to the compact ground in New Writtle Street with gratitude and relief.ALSO READ: Match from the Day – Hampshire 1961Every one of those titles was celebrated with boisterous abandon, all the more so, perhaps because there had been plenty of grim years before the pennant could be hoisted atop the Chelmsford pavilion. Admitted to the Championship in 1895, Essex had only twice finished in the top three before August 21, 1979 when the news reached Wantage Road on the dot of six o’clock that Worcestershire had drawn at Derby, thus confirming Fletcher’s team as the champions. Half an hour earlier Brian Hardie’s unbeaten century had taken his side to victory against Northamptonshire. It was their 11th win of the summer and there were to be two more before the season’s end. Essex had first led the table on June 1 and finished the campaign 77 points ahead of Worcestershire.”The basic philosophy of the club has not changed and the committee are determined that it will not do so,” Doug Insole, the chairman, said at the end of that season, in which Essex had also won the Benson and Hedges Cup. “Cricket is for enjoyment and for entertainment. It must be profitable; it must be business-like; but most of all, it must be cricket.”That relatively simple philosophy still holds true in Chelmsford. You would struggle to find any Championship-winning team whose members do not mention team spirit, but the collective ethos seems particular powerful at Essex. It has allowed England players to be developed and then welcomed back; it has allowed high-quality overseas cricketers to be recruited and retained; but each member of those two groups must understand that Essex does not warm to any self-anointed Billy Bigbollocks pulling his imagined rank.The 1979 Essex County Championship squad•Getty ImagesNeither John Lever nor Ken McEwan was guilty of such arrogance in 1979 and both men enjoyed fine seasons. When Derbyshire were overwhelmed by an innings at Chelmsford in late June, McEwan reached his century in 85 minutes and contributed 103 of the 131 runs in his third-wicket partnership with Mike Denness. The South African’s 185 helped Essex post a first-innings lead 177, leaving Lever to add four more wickets to the five he had picked up when Derbyshire had batted on the first day. Such feats were not particularly exceptional for either cricketer that season. Over the previous fortnight Lever had taken 13 wickets in successive games against Leicestershire and Warwickshire. He dismissed 53 batsmen in June and finished the season with 106 first-class wickets, 99 of them in the Championship. It was no wonder that Derek Pringle paid particular tribute to “JK” when he looked back on his time at Essex during the ’80s in his 2018 book :”Players considered to be a ‘captain’s dream’ are mostly mythical beasts existing in the minds of fantasists, yet JK managed to embody it for Essex…Need a wicket, whistle up JK. Need to keep it tight for 40 minutes, bring on JK. Need some yorkers at the death, give the ball to JK. He was a bowling everyman with the endurance to match.”Those early weeks were also memorable for McEwan, who made 787 runs in the first nine Championship matches before losing his form a little later in the season. By then, though, the South African, who had no prospect of playing Test cricket, was well-ensconced at Chelmsford. He would score over 1000 runs in each of his 12 seasons at the club and would contribute to two more Championship wins. Before him there had been Keith Boyce; after McEwan’s return to South Africa there would be Allan Border, Mark Waugh and, eventually, Simon Harmer. All of them bought into the Essex approach but rarely did they earn tributes quite as affectionate as that written by David Lemmon about one of McEwan’s innings in 1983:”Once, while making a century against Kent in Tunbridge Wells, Ken McEwan straight drove, square cut and pulled Derek Underwood to the boundary in the space of one over. Each shot was executed with regal charm, and never a hint of arrogance. He batted, as did the ancients, upright, correct and magisterial. He was incapable of profaning the art of batting, incapable of an ineloquent gesture.”

Fletcher might never have been able to remember anyone’s name, including most in his own team, but he knew how they playedDerek Pringle on Keith Fletcher

McEwan’s own feelings towards Essex during those dozen summers were expressed in humbler but no less revealing words: “At pre-season practice we had to put up the nets ourselves and, if somebody was moving some chairs, we had to go and help them. It was a lovely atmosphere. Every day I had a good laugh. I felt very at home.”But both Lever and McEwan knew that Essex’s success never revolved entirely around their performances. That was proved at Southend three weeks after the win against Derbyshire. Nottinghamshire were the visitors and for most of the three days they outplayed their hosts, gaining a 60-run first-innings lead and then dismissing Essex for 229 in their second dig. Lever had been selected in the Test squad and McEwan made only 27 runs in the match; Essex only set their visitors as many as 170 to win because the invaluable Stuart Turner made an unbeaten 68 and put on 42 with for the last wicket with David Acfield.None of which seemed to matter very greatly when Nottinghamshire were 87 for 1 but then the spinners Ray East and Acfield took the last nine wickets for 36 runs on a deteriorating pitch. It was another triumph for Essex and for the tactical ability of a skipper whose ability and services to the game have been insufficiently recognised – except, that is, in Chelmsford.”Fletch was tactically astute,” Gooch said. “He knew the game inside out. And he had an incessant drive to win, which is important in county cricket because you’re on a treadmill. Some county sides were happy for it to rain. But we weren’t. ‘You can’t win points in the dressing room,’ Fletch said. He never let things drift.”Nor were Fletcher’s abilities lost on the young Pringle, who rated his county captain a shrewder skipper than Mike Brearley:
“Fletcher might never have been able to remember anyone’s name, including most in his own team. But he knew how they played, especially Essex’s opponents, and set traps accordingly.”Every season Fletcher would look at the fixture list and surmise that Essex would probably need 12 or 13 victories to clinch the County Championship title. He’d then begin to identify, bad weather notwithstanding, where and against whom they might eventuate.Ken McEwan bats during the 1979 B&H Cup final•PA Images Archive/Getty Images”He would also predict, broadly, how we might clinch those matches: ‘JK will win us four with the ball; Goochie four with the bat; the other bowlers and batsmen a couple each,’ he used to say. It was a reductive approach, and ridiculously facile for such a complex game, but it was uncanny how often his gnomic prophecies proved correct.”This determination to play attractive, winning cricket became known as The Essex Way. It brought the county their eight titles and a host of one-day trophies. Yet the Way seems little more than an aim, one that might be shared by most first-class counties. Its achievement was altogether more complex. It was founded, as is the case with any successful sports team, on the ability of the players. Its development, however, was dependent on the willingness of those players to consider their own achievement only in the context of the common pursuit; and equally, it rested on the tactical ability of a captain who was ready to take all manner of risks in pursuit of a possible victory. To lose one or two players, as Essex often did in the era of Gooch, Lever, Pringle and Neil Foster simply made demands on others to mend any breach.”There was no coach, no gym, no indoor nets, no standalone outdoor nets, no psychologists,” Pringle writes, “just a scorer, a physio and a captain who dared his team to win, no matter the circumstance.”To reduce The Essex Way simply to its ultimate goal is to make nearly as daft an error as to think Essex itself is no more than boy racers, cheap entertainment and . As Gillian Darley shows in her book the county is the “most overlooked and undersold.” in England; and when Robert Macfarlane made his superb film “The Wild Places of Essex” he visited not night clubs and nail bars but Tilbury Power Station, where he saw peregrine falcons and Billericay, where there were badgers, bluebells and barn owls. Most evocatively and mysteriously of all, there is the passage in John Le Carré’s novel in which Peter Guillam is driving the former spymaster George Smiley to see an agent who has had to be hidden deep in England. Essex, it seems, is the natural choice.ALSO READ: Essex’s ebullient eighties (2016)“On the signposts were names like Little Horkesley, Wormingford and Bures Green, then the signposts stopped and Guillam had a feeling of being nowhere at all…”As they got out the cold hit them and Guillam smelt a cricket field and woodsmoke and Christmas all at once; he thought he had never been anywhere so quiet or so cold or so remote.”And just as there is far more to Essex than Basildon, so there was far more to The Essex Way than a preparedness to take risks. Fletcher possessed perhaps the most instinctive and acute understanding of what could be achieved in a three-day county match during the modern era; his reward was a trio of titles which his players marked with appropriate revels. And they still enjoy their victories at Chelmsford, as journalists found when they were leaving the ground one evening in June 2017. A couple of hours earlier Harmer’s 14th wicket had sealed victory in the day-night game against Middlesex with eight balls to spare. But the songs of triumph were still ringing out from the home dressing room at near midnight. Just as they were, somewhere in Essex, last September. Match from the Day