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Their line-up has taken shape so well towards the end of the league stage that no total is safe in front of them

Vishal Dikshit10-May-20233:28

Moody: Wadhera ensuring the chase wasn’t entirely on Suryakumar was critical

One of the big questions for Mumbai Indians’ batting line-up in the last couple of years was how they would fill the massive hole in the middle order left vacant by Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard. Hardik moved on to another franchise in the mega auction before 2022 and Pollard retired from the IPL recently, giving Mumbai a headache that couldn’t be cured overnight.Somehow, in their second IPL season without Hardik and in their first without Pollard, Mumbai have assembled a batting line-up that just mowed down its third consecutive total of 200 or more while chasing, that too without any major contributions from Rohit Sharma.Rohit’s last five scores have been in single digits, and in those three 200-plus chases, he managed only 7, 0 and 3. Yet, Mumbai have raced to 62, 50 and 65 in the powerplay of those games, largely thanks to Ishan Kishan, who has blasted 42 off 21 and 75 off 41 in the last few days. Kishan is not just picking those boundaries; he is also finding that rhythm again as a clean six-hitter that had made him a mainstay at the top of Mumbai’s batting order.Related

• Mumbai mow down 200 to jump from eighth to third

• Stats – Mumbai Indians, masters of the 200-plus chase

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On Tuesday too, against RCB, Kishan took charge of the 200 chase with back-to-back sixes in the third over against Mohammed Siraj, one of the best powerplay bowlers this season. Nor did he spare Josh Hazlewood and Wanindu Hasaranga, striking at at least 250 against each of them.Mumbai have also been rewarded for their bold decisions. At two down in the powerplay, after Rohit and Kishan fell in the fifth over, they sent out Nehal Wadhera, who was playing only his sixth T20 innings, instead of Cameron Green, and in the absence of the injured Tilak Varma. Against Chennai Super Kings three days ago, Wadhera struck his maiden T20 half-century by taking on the international names of Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Maheesh Theekshana, while none of his team-mates could score 30.Against RCB, the task was stiffer because the openers had just walked back with the score at 52 for 2 in a big chase. Wadhera, 22, didn’t seem perturbed by that, and he decided he was not going to merely play second fiddle to his senior partner, Suryakumar Yadav, and be content with giving him the strike for the heavy lifting. And nobody would have blamed Wadhera had he done that. Nor was he scared of taking risks in the powerplay by pulling a short ball for six despite there being a deep midwicket at the boundary. In fact, he nearly matched Suryakumar stroke for stroke in the century partnership before the latter took off for his fifty.Suryakumar Yadav and Nehal Wadhera put on a partnership of 140 off 66 deliveries•BCCIWhen Suryakumar pulled Harshal Patel for four – with the help of a misfield from Virat Kohli in the deep – to start the seventh over, Wadhera drilled a cover drive two balls later for a four of his own. When Suryakumar dispatched Wanindu Hasaranga beyond midwicket for six in the 11th over, Wadhera slog-swept the same bowler two balls later for six to put a dent in the car on display beyond the boundary. If Suryakumar was striking at 156.25 at that time, Wadhera was blazing with as much fire at 157.14. Two overs later, when their partnership had swollen to 89 off just 48 balls, they had brought the equation down to a very gettable 59 off 42, and Tim David and Green were yet to bat.David had blasted three consecutive sixes in the final over of the chase to stun Rajasthan Royals barely ten days ago. He has been striking at nearly 166 this IPL and has struck the most sixes in T20s since 2022. All that only adds to the brutality of Mumbai’s lower middle order and its finishing qualities.For acquiring David and Green, two established global names in the T20 format, Mumbai still had to break the bank and spend over INR 25.75 crore (USD 3.1 million approx.) over the last two auctions. In unearthing the talent of Wadhera, handing him a T20 debut this IPL after he had played just five first-class matches, and buying him for his base price of INR 20 lakh, Mumbai have again shown the pricelessness of their scouts.Their batting might has taken shape so well towards the end of the league stage that they scripted the fastest chase of 200 or more in the IPL, and the second-fastest overall in T20s. Their last three successful chases – 200, 216, and 214 – rank among the best chases in the IPL ever, and they also hold the record for the most 200-plus chases in a single T20 season.Since no total is safe in front of them, it makes Mumbai arguably the most feared batting line-up in the IPL currently, and it’s possible they may even want that “arguably” taken out soon.

The former Australia wicketkeeper was admired as a gloveman, and feared on golf courses

Ian Chappell23-Jul-2023Hedley Brian Taber – Herbert or plain Herbie to his mates – finally lost his battle with ill health on Friday.He had suffered breathing problems from serious asthma ever since I got to know him on our first tour, in 1966-67. Despite his health struggles, he seemed to have nine lives like a cat; this turned out to be his final one.A couple of years ago his wife, Fran, sent me a text saying, “Herbie’s going into hospital and he won’t be coming out.” Lo and behold, he was soon back at the retirement village and we were having our regular Saturday-morning snooker game, followed by a couple of glasses of red wine. At a younger age, when people asked how he was, I’d say, “If Tabsy gets past 45 he’ll make 90.”Sadly he fell just short, but he displayed staunch fighting qualities to reach 83. He was resilient; he never complained – just got on with life and did his job. The cat was not well at times but he was alive until Friday.In his prime he was a fine Australian wicketkeeper and probably the most popular cricketer I ever met. Wherever you went, people would ask, “How’s Tabsy?” You’d tell them nothing had changed, Brian was still battling. The reply was always the same: “Isn’t he a good bloke?”His first Test was in South Africa in 1966-67 and he claimed a very creditable eight dismissals – it would have been nine but one local umpire was extremely patriotic.In December 1968 as New South Wales captain Herbie equalled a then world record of 12 dismissals in a game against South Australia. We used to joke: “How did you get a stumping off [legspinner] Dick Guy? He never spun a ball.”Despite Tabsy’s prowess as a smooth keeper with good footwork, I worried about him after he was struck in the eye by a bail in a charity game. But then in 1982 we took an old-timers’ team to play in Fiji. Tabsy was our keeper and we had three wrist-spinners in the side. When David Sincock, the biggest spinner of them all, hit the edge of the matting with his first delivery, it flew past the right-hand batter’s left shoulder. Tabsy collected the ball easily and casually tossed it to me at slip. The next ball hit the same spot on the matting and shot straight along the ground, just missing off stump. Herbie again easily collected the ball and casually tossed it to me at slip.I stopped worrying about his damaged eyesight then.Taber at work behind the stumps in a tour match in the 1968 Ashes•Getty ImagesWe admired Taber as a keeper but were wary of him on the golf course. He was a regular miracle worker and would often produce unbelievable shots. During a game in India in 1969, he produced his piece de resistance. The first two holes were halved, so the match rested on a par three of 155 yards. Tabsy caught a bit of the sandy tee and then flubbed his iron. He exclaimed: “Might be time for the Texas Wedge.”He proceeded to give the ball a good tap with the putter and it gained much needed impetus from a strategically placed rock about six inches from the pin. Its last roll was into the hole. Quite unperturbed, he marched to the hole and collected his ball, noting as he replaced the pin: “We’ve got our par.”Tabsy retained his incredibly quick sense of humour to the end. He also helped other keepers, including Rod Marsh, the man who took his place in the Australia side.He was an extremely good manager and one of his great contributions to Australian cricket came when, in 1991, he managed an underage side to the Caribbean. At departure he was told by a naïve official: “If [Shane] Warne puts a foot out of place, send him home.” Tabsy quite rightly ignored the advice, made Warne the social secretary, and after his playing success on the tour, told me: “By the way the young bloke is a really good legspinner.”Tabsy was a good cricketer, he understood the game and knew how to handle people. Importantly he was a good bloke. We all miss the gentleman wicketkeeper.

England drew the series, Stuart Broad retired and the Bazball Ashes are done. Alan, Gnasher and Vish sat down to discuss it all

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2023England gave Stuart Broad the farewell he was hoping for at The Oval, after winning the Test to square the series at 2-2. Australia retained the Ashes but England took bragging rights after coming back from 2-0 down. To look back on an epic encounter, Alan Gardner was joined on this week’s episode of Switch Hit by Andrew McGlashan and Vithushan Ehantharajah. From Broad’s surprise retirement to Chris Woakes’ surprise Player of the Series contribution to the status of the Moral Ashes and whether Bazball can save Test cricket, there was plenty to discuss.

The rapid starts characteristic of England since their white-ball revolution has not been a feature yet in this World Cup

Matt Roller18-Oct-2023At their best, England are unstoppable. But they have hardly got started across their first three games of this World Cup: in their defeats to New Zealand and Afghanistan, they started their batting innings in a different gear to their opponents, and never really recovered.On the tournament’s opening day in Ahmedabad, Jonny Bairstow hit the second ball he faced for six, flicking Trent Boult over square leg for six as he took 12 runs off the game’s opening over. But England managed only 51 for 1 after 10 overs, then leaked runs with the new ball as New Zealand raced to 81 for 1 at the equivalent stage.And on Sunday evening in Delhi, the contrast was almost as stark. Rahmanullah Gurbaz got Afghanistan off to a fast start, taking down Chris Woakes and Sam Curran as they reached 79 without losing a wicket off the first 10 overs. With the new ball swinging under lights, England made only 52 for 2 in the initial powerplay, losing Bairstow and Joe Root early.England started well in their other game, a comfortable victory over Bangladesh in Dharamshala, and effectively had the points wrapped by the end of their bowling powerplay. Reece Topley took three wickets in the first 10 overs to leave Bangladesh 57 for 4; Bairstow and Dawid Malan had batted through unscathed, adding 61.Matthew Mott, their head coach, has diagnosed their starts as a major issue. “We win these games in the first 15 overs with bat and ball, and we haven’t done that well,” he said. “We’ve always been on the back foot, trying to pull things back. What we need to do is dominate those 15 overs, whether we bat first or bowl first in the next game.”England’s biggest issue is that with the ball, they have been by far the most expensive team in the initial powerplay, leaking 7.23 runs per over. While Mott backed Woakes during his media briefing on Tuesday, they will surely consider bringing David Willey into the side against South Africa on Saturday.But with the bat, England have tried to strike a balance between positivity and permanence in the first 10 overs. As of Wednesday morning, they ranked fourth out of 10 teams at the World Cup for both scoring rate (5.46 per over) and batting average (54.66) in the initial powerplay.In Bairstow’s view, conditions in India lend themselves to surges at the death. “The teams that have been able to go [harder] for longer at 35 overs through to 50 have built, built, built,” he said, “to get them into a position where your Nos. 5-8 can go ‘boff’ with two men in. That’s how, generally, teams have gone over a period of time in India.”For many years, India’s top order did prioritise stability: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli used to bat deep into a 50-over innings before a late launch. But recently, their method has changed. Rohit has come out firing in the last two years; at this World Cup, India have scored at 6.66 runs per over in the first powerplay – and that despite slipping to 5 for 3 against Australia in Chennai.Across ODI cricket over the last three years, the new balls have swung more than they used to – but England still believe the best way to stop that is by hitting early boundaries, ideally into the LED advertising boards or the stands. “If you get a couple of scuffs on it early doors, that can change it,” Bairstow said.Bairstow himself was unfortunate to be given out lbw in England’s defeat to Afghanistan, with the DRS showing ‘umpire’s call’ for impact and predicting the ball would have barely clipped leg stump. He would not be drawn on it: “The decision the other day was the decision the other day.”But Saturday night’s game against South Africa – at a venue with pace, bounce and a small playing area – should be an opportunity for him to get off to a flier. If he does, Bairstow can set the tone for an England batting line-up that needs to rediscover its aggression.

Mumbai batter returns to form with 95 off 111 balls to help set Vidarbha a gargantuan target

Hemant Brar12-Mar-2024Shreyas Iyer has recently been in the news for the wrong reasons. He lost his place in India’s Test squad, missed some Ranji Trophy games citing back spasms when the BCCI medical staff had declared him fit, and was not given a central contract.But all through this, there was little doubt about his batting ability at the domestic level, even though he failed in Mumbai’s only innings in the semi-final and made just 7 in the first innings in the final. His whirlwind 95 off 111 balls in the second innings, with Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar in attendance at the Wankhede, proved as much.Iyer came out to bat when Ajinkya Rahane fell for 73 on the third morning, after adding only 15 to his overnight score. It soon became clear that he was a notch above the rest. Mumbai were in control by then, their lead standing at 283, which allowed Iyer to bat in the manner he likes to.He started against left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey, with two slips in place. Dubey got one to turn square and beat the outside edge, but Iyer was quick to put it behind him. A few moments later, Dubey erred on the shorter side a couple of times, and Iyer hit him for boundaries.Related

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• Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan lose BCCI central contracts

In between, he launched seamer Aditya Thakare over long-off for the first of his three sixes. Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar realised Thakare, with a 60-over old ball and an average speed of 122kph, was not going to trouble Iyer, and so he turned to his quicker options: Yash Thakur and then Umesh Yadav.As expected, Thakur started his spell with a short ball. Iyer rode the bounce comfortably and dabbed it down for a single on the leg side.In his next over, Thakur used the same ploy with catchers at short leg and short midwicket. But the ball hardly got chest high and Iyer had no issues pulling through midwicket. On the last ball of the over, Thakur tried a bluff by slipping in a full delivery. Iyer was up to it and lofted over mid-off for another four.Thakur then changed his angle and went around the wicket to try to cramp him. The ball, though, reached only the hip height and Iyer dispatched it over long-leg for a six.Umesh was more accurate with his bouncers but Iyer handled him comfortably too, rolling his wrists to keep the ball down. In fact, the pull was Iyer’s most productive shot against fast bowlers, along with the off-drive, bringing him 14 runs in seven attempts.Luck was also on Iyer’s side. On 49, he got an outside edge against Dubey but neither the wicketkeeper nor the slip fielder attempted the catch, and the resulting boundary took him to his fifty off just 62 balls. With Aditya Sarwate not taking the field because of back spasms, Wadkar was forced to bowl non-regular bowlers at times. Karun Nair served two full tosses just before lunch and Iyer feasted on them.His appetite did not diminish even after the break. On the first ball of the second session, he stepped out to Dubey and smashed him over long-on. Iyer dominated his partnership with Musheer Khan to such an extent that when the hundred of their stand came up, Iyer’s contribution was 74.When Iyer had walked in, Musheer was already on 58. By the time Musheer reached 92, Iyer had raced to 82. It looked like he might get to the three-figure mark first but that did not happen. On 95, Iyer tried to hit Thakare for a six but was caught at long-off.His knock, though, took the game far out of Vidarbha’s reach.After the Test series against England, India head coach Rahul Dravid was asked about Iyer and Ishan Kishan, who had also lost his central contract.”Everyone who is playing domestic cricket is in the mix,” Dravid had replied. “It is just a question of them getting fit, playing cricket, and forcing the selectors to pick them again.”Iyer is playing domestic cricket. He looked fit too, though the physio had to come out to stretch his right leg when he was on 80. And he has now scored runs as well. So has he forced the selectors to pick him again? With India not scheduled to play Test cricket in the near future, he’ll have to wait and see.

Three years after an ambitious shot had cost her the chance to score her maiden Test hundred, Shafali showed she can bat all day in a ruthless display in Chennai

Sruthi Ravindranath28-Jun-2024″She’s an aggressive batter, we all know that. I think today she just put it down and said she’s going to bat.”This was Delmi Tucker, the South Africa offspinner, speaking at the end of a hard day’s toil dominated by a double-hundred from Shafali Verma.Everyone knows Shafali can take bowling attacks apart with brute force. She can go all out from ball one, irrespective of the format. She’s capable of showing patience too, as she did during the 2021 Bristol Test against England, but she’s not always found the perfect balance.Related

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During WPL 2024, she had spoken about looking to temper her hitting and bat long.In that Bristol Test, she ended up skying one on 96 while trying to get to her hundred with a big hit. In the second ODI against South Africa last week, she had looked settled until she went for a heave across the line and was out for 20.But that wasn’t going to happen on Friday in Chennai.

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South Africa probably wouldn’t have expected India to break numerous batting records on the day, after how their first few overs went. Even if there wasn’t a lot of help from the conditions, their fast bowlers found some early swing, and kept India to 15 for no loss in their first eight overs. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali began circumspectly, despite South Africa’s new-ball bowlers often bowling full and outside off, inviting them to drive.If the pitch used during the first men’s Test between India and England here in 2021 – the last Test played on red soil at Chepauk, as this one was – was anything to go by, batting on the first day wasn’t going to be difficult. The last six men’s Tests at this venue had produced 300-plus first-innings totals, with 450 being passed three times.Shafali’s usual aggression was in full display in Chennai, but only after she had seen out the new ball•BCCIYou wondered how difficult it must have been for Shafali to curb her instincts, and ignore the temptation to drive. She resieted the temptation for her first half an hour at the crease.Then, in the seventh over, Masabata Klaas had just got her to play and miss at one that had shaped away outside off stump, luring her to drive. But the next ball was pitched right up and Shafali got on the front foot, timing her drive perfectly through extra-cover. It was her first boundary of the day.South Africa made their first bowling change in the ninth over, bringing on Nadine de Klerk. She began with a pitched-up delivery angling across Mandhana, and this one was too tempting to leave. Out came the classic cover drive, which she plays with absolute finesse. A punch off the backfoot brought her another boundary in the same over.All those off-side boundaries seemed to rattle de Klerk and Tumi Sekhukhune, who began bowling a lot straighter and sending down full-tosses: five in the six overs they bowled in tandem until the 14th over, all while bowling with a packed off-side field.The runs began to flow, particularly for Mandhana, who began peppering the boundary off both front and back foot, punching, pulling and cutting.It took until the 15th over for Shafali to fully break free. Left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba repeatedly tossed the ball up at her, and Shafali looked like she was in the mood to keep resisting. Off the fifth ball, she finally went for it, hitting against the turn, launching the ball over mid-on for her first big hit of the day.”Today, the ball was coming on well and my scores in the last three ODIs pushed me to just think one thing, that I shouldn’t get out and I should play through the day,” Shafali said after the day’s play. “So the idea was to back my strengths, take some time, and find a way to stay at the wicket.”The partnership began to flourish, and Shafali joined in on the fun, if in a calculated way, waiting for loose balls, being a little more selective than even Mandhana was. When Mlaba landed one short in the 17th over, Shafali rocked back and pulled it to the midwicket boundary. Then she clipped a full one from de Klerk in the air, through square-leg.Shafali put on 292 for the first wicket with Smriti Mandhana•BCCIAs her innings progressed she unveiled the nonchalant lofts, the ferocious pulls and even the slog-sweeps. In the 37th over, Shafali overtook Mandhana, going to 89 with her 15th boundary of her innings. Mandhana, at that point, had hit 17 in her 88.A clean hit over long-on, off Tucker, took Shafali to 96, a score with a bit of history to it.”Who forgets getting out for 96?” she asked at her press conference. “When I was on 96 today, it took me back to Bristol 2021. All I thought was to somehow score those four runs and get past 100.”And she did, in the next over, in style, finding the fine-leg boundary off Mlaba with a flick, her most productive shot of the day. A sigh of relief and a big smile followed as she hugged Mandhana to celebrate the hard-earned century, Shafali’s first in Test cricket.From this point on, Shafali batted with even greater freedom, hitting Sekhukhune, Tucker and de Klerk for the third, fourth and fifth sixes of her innings. There was no slowing down even after Mandhana was out for 146, with the openers having put on 292 in 52 overs.In the two-hour session between lunch and tea, India scored 204 in just 32 overs. Shafali took just 36 balls to go from 150 to 200, smacking three fours and three sixes in that period. Two of the sixes came off consecutive balls from Tucker, both hammered over her favourite long-on region.Those shots took her from 187 to 199.”Around my double century, thank god, the offie [Tucker] came on,” Shafali said. “, [Even more fun] as I thought I could get my 200 in a few balls.”Classic Shafali.A single through the covers off the next ball brought out all her emotions. She had more than made up for missing out in Bristol, and she pumped her fist in the air before acknowledging the Chennai crowd who rose to their feet. They had been thoroughly entertained.

England hope lanky seamer can offer ‘point of difference’ to a previously samey pace attack

Vithushan Ehantharajah04-Sep-20240:35

Ollie Pope excited to see ‘massive’ Josh Hull debut for England

News of Josh Hull’s Test debut will have felt like a fever dream to the 20-year-old, and not just because he was wearing multi-coloured briefs at the time.The left-arm quick was batting in the outdoor nets at the Kia Oval, decked out in rogue batting kecks over his shorts, which, at an imposing 6ft 7in, gave you an idea of what Superman might look like at Mardi Gras. Taking throws from assistant coach Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff – subbing in for Marcus Trescothick who is about to assume interim duty of England’s white-ball teams – his session was briefly interrupted by a passing Brendon McCullum who had a quick word before moving on. A few seconds later, soon-to-be Test cap No.716 got back to batting.All of this has happened in a flash. Ollie Pope had not spoken to Hull between the team being announced and Tuesday’s captain’s press conference, though he did face him in the nets. “He bowled really nicely so I was like, ‘yeah, he’s good to go!’.Just 18 months ago, Hull was still turning out for Stamford School, having recently joined the Leicestershire academy from Northamptonshire. Two weeks ago, his inclusion as an injury replacement for Mark Wood felt like little more than work experience. Now, he could be on course to finish the summer with international caps in all three formats.Evidently, the career statistics are moot: just 16 wickets at an average of 62.75 across a ten-match first-class career that began last summer. This season, he has taken two wickets in three Division Two appearances at an average of 182.50.And yet, this is not the most bizarre selection of the last nine months, let alone the Bazball era. Shoaib Bashir for the tour of India wins that hands down; he was even more raw, picked similarly on height, and for altogether more unforgiving climes and circumstances. The fact that Bashir is now England’s primary spinner ought to prevent cynics from dismissing Hull’s selection as outright brainworms, although some will doubtless need convincing.”Him even getting picked is going to give him a massive amount of confidence first,” Pope said, when asked about the fact that five previous debutants under McCullum and Ben Stokes have all taken five-wicket hauls. The most recent of those, Gus Atkinson, has 33 dismissals this summer and his presence in the XI for the third Test, alongside Olly Stone, offers enough extra zip to allow Hull to exhibit his “point of difference” immediately. As evidenced by the fact that an exclusively right-arm pace attack bested Sri Lanka last week on a slow Lord’s deck, England have not had to think outside the box to triumph this series.Josh Hull will make his Test debut against Sri Lanka on Friday•Getty ImagesNevertheless, Hull is not simply playing because this is a dead rubber, even if England have a first perfect Test summer in 20 years in the offing. McCullum and bowling consultant James Anderson have been suitably impressed in the nets by decent pace in the mid-eighties and productive shape into the right-handers.It is not all that dissimilar to the events of Josh Tongue’s debut in 2023. Chris Woakes had initially been set to return to the XI for the one-off Test against Ireland at Lord’s, before Tongue bowled so well on the Nursery Ground that McCullum felt compelled to let him loose.By contrast, England opted against giving Dillon Pennington a go in the third Test against West Indies earlier this year, despite the fact the series was won. While they were unsure about his readiness despite some impressive early-season form, they did not feel he would add anything different to an attack that also included Stokes. That Matthew Potts is the one to make way this week, having bowled valiantly in the second Test albeit in an all-right attack where he was neither the quickest nor most skilful, speaks to the enchantment with Hull.”When you have a left-arm option, a point of difference, obviously being a batter myself, I know the impact it can have,” Pope said. “I think as well, naturally, left-handers can create some pretty good footmarks for offspinners, and we found a pretty good one of them, so that’s pretty handy as well.”We’ve decided to go with four seamers and one spinner again and that’s a great way for him [Hull] to introduce his skills into this side and provide a point of difference.”Related

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• Josh Hull, 6ft 7in left-arm seamer, handed England Test debut

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• England shelve the need for speed as attack puts shoulder to the wheel

It is important at this juncture to point out that this is not totally a bolt from the blue. Those at Leicestershire noted Hull’s talents early on and many of them believed he had the capacity to go on and play for England, though perhaps not this soon. Former England fast bowler Dean Headley, who was Hull’s director of cricket at Stamford School, described him as “farmer-stock strong” on the latest Sky Cricket podcast. It was in a barn on his father’s farm near Oundle that a net was installed to allow Hull to hone his skills during lockdown.If you can announce yourself in a competition played out in the shadow of another, far bigger one, then Hull did just that in 2023. His 17 wickets in 2023’s Metro Bank Cup helped Leicestershire to their first List A trophy in 38 years, holding his nerve in the final to defend eight off the last over.At the time, his name did not feature on a long-list of potential fast bowlers, but England’s interest in him was piqued. At the start of this summer, men’s managing director Rob Key namechecked Hull as one to watch and it was no surprise when he featured in tour games ahead of the West Indies and Sri Lanka series, for a County Select XI and England Lions, respectively. The latter saw him take five wickets across two innings, and leave an impression on Sri Lanka opener Dimuth Karunaratne, who noted his improvement in the second innings after a tricky start in the first.Most of Hull’s cricket to date has been played with a white ball, and this season has been no different. He picked 18 T20 Blast wickets but he failed to make an impression in the men’s Hundred, having been drafted for £40,000 by Manchester Originals. And to extrapolate all of this is to understand the fear that, maybe, this is all a bit much too soon.At the same time, this England management have not put a foot wrong on the selection front. And while it is true that Hull is not a Test cricketer on merit, recent history suggests he could soon earn enough to remain one.

Scotland legspinner Abtaha Maqsood opens up ahead of her team’s maiden appearance at the Women’s T20 World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Sep-2024On this week’s ESPNcricinfo podcast Powerplay, Scotland legspinner Abtaha Maqsood talks to Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda from Dubai ahead of her team’s maiden appearance at the Women’s T20 World Cup.

The ace Sri Lankan spinner was a consultant for New Zealand on their subcontinent tours this season

Interview by Andrew Fidel Fernando15-Nov-2024Rangana Herath, the most successful left-arm bowler ever, was spin consultant in New Zealand’s set up when two left-arm spinners, Ajaz Patel and Mitchell Santner, played big roles in the 3-0 whitewash of India this month. Herath spoke about his experience on working with the bowlers on this history-making tour.Before New Zealand went to India, they had two losses in Sri Lanka. Let’s talk about what that was like.
I was very impressed by their team environment. When you lose, you tend to talk a lot about mistakes. But in this team, what we talked most about was what we learned, how we adjusted to conditions, and how to take the good things we did to India. That’s what we did after the series defeat in Sri Lanka. Although we lost, there weren’t many players who were that upset. I think there’s a lot to learn from that.Everyone – the coaches and the players – were on the same page. Rather than looking too big-picture, everyone was engaged with the match situation at hand and looking to find the best solution to the problem in front of them.Related

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• India and England cannot sweep themselves out of trouble in Tests

In that second match in Sri Lanka, Glenn Phillips was the only spinner who took wickets – three. How did that tour affect the spinners?
When you go to Galle, some teams might think: “The pitch turns there, so the spinners have to do everything.” But this team didn’t have that mindset. They trusted their skill and put the emphasis on how accurate they needed to be. Sometimes spinners put unwanted pressure on themselves when they see a turning pitch. It was all about accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. Whether it spins or not, that’s really important. But we did talk about things like angles of attack, and release positions, and how you’d vary them. But mostly we talked about accuracy.What kind of advice did you have as they went to India?
So already there was an emphasis on accuracy. But one thing we knew was that India batters are quite aggressive in their approach. So the thinking for the spinners was around how to be smart when that happens. On the tactical front, what we talked about was how to set those in-out fields that close off the attacking options for batters.Did you look at each batter and plan fields?
Whether it’s a batting-friendly field or a bowling-friendly one, the first 20 to 24 balls is going to be tough for a batter. It’s hard to discern the pace of the pitch, and sometimes you don’t know what is happening. So the main thing we planned was around those 20 balls and employing the right fields during that period. For each batter we made some minor changes to our overall strategy. That was what a lot of the talk going into India was about.”That’s what happens when you put the ball in the right spot”: Ajaz Patel got Shubman Gill bowled with one that went on straight on day three in Mumbai•AFP/Getty ImagesIn the Bengaluru Test you didn’t need the spinners at all. In the second innings, because of the nature of the pitch, were the spinners asked to operate as holding bowlers?
No. Because we had batted and scored 400-odd and by then the pitch was helping spinners a bit. Again, the talk was about putting close-in fielders and shutting off those boundary options.Ajaz Patel got two wickets and those were very important. He got [Yashasvi] Jaiswal, and that was key because he is a batter who attacks a lot. He comes forward and what we saw was, his strength was hitting over mid-off and mid-on. We talked to Ajaz about how to change up his line and his pace, and he did that perfectly. [Patel had Jaiswal stumped for 35.] Then he also got Rohit bowled off the edge. And then Glenn Phillips got Virat Kohli’s wicket. So although the spinners didn’t run through the team, they got them a really important start.When you went to Pune and saw that pitch, what did you talk about?
We saw very quickly that it was going to turn and that we needed to play three spinners. Everyone was on the same page about that again.Mitchell Santner hadn’t been very successful in Sri Lanka, What did you think of his bowling at that point?
I think he had mostly played white-ball cricket for the past few months, and because of that, he was bowling white-ball lengths. When the pitch turns, you need to bowl fuller. Although Santner wasn’t bowling short, on these kinds of pitches he becomes more effective when he pitches it up a bit more.But then the biggest difference between Galle and Pune was that he varied his pace in Pune. That meant he had more leeway with his lengths and he could pitch it up or bowl it slightly shorter, and both could be effective. He understood the pitch really well.The Bengaluru Test was played on a seamers’ track but New Zealand’s spinners had their say in the second innings. Glenn Phillips got Virat Kohli to nick one behind•Idrees Mohammed/AFP/Getty ImagesFrom the time he started, I thought, “He’s going to bowl well here.” It’s hard to predict someone getting five or more wickets. But he was impressive from the outset in that game [with 13 wickets].Did a lot of the spinners’ plans work out against India’s batters, or was it more about building pressure?
I think we built a lot of pressure with spin. When batters have that attacking mindset, the fields that were set by Ajaz and Santner were really good. The bowlers take ownership of those fields and the captain and others are aware of what the plan is.What did you see as the strengths of each of New Zealand’s main spinners – Santner, Patel and Phillips?
They bowl three different lengths between them. Ajaz isn’t very tall – he and I are about the same height. He tries to toss the ball up over the batter’s eyeline and bowl a little fuller – between 4 and 4.5 metres from the stumps.Santner because of his height has the option to bowl a greater variety of lengths, on that pitch in Pune especially.Glenn has his own rhythm. He gets to the crease quickly, and because he bowls a lot of white-ball lengths, he knows how to set a field to that as well. We stressed that they should stick to their strengths. Glenn had a lot of protection. It wasn’t quite a one-day field, but he had more protection than the others.Going into the last innings of that Pune match, India needed 359. How did you approach that?
We thought that it was a big target for them to chase, so we had a lot of confidence, especially because our spinners had bowled well in the first innings. My experience is that even 200 is a big total in a fourth innings, so we were confident.Mitchell Santner was “bowling white-ball lengths” going into the India series, but he soon fixed that and ended up with 13 wickets in the Pune Test•Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty ImagesAgain, Santner and Ajaz varied their pace well. I think that was the difference between New Zealand’s bowlers and India’s.Ajaz didn’t get a lot of wickets in this match, though it was a helpful pitch. What do you think was the reason for that?
On any surface, not everyone is going to get wickets. Ajaz is the main spinner in this team, but sometimes when someone [else] is getting wickets, you have to change your approach also. Sometimes when one bowler is getting wickets, the other person builds pressure. I think Ajaz is someone who looks at what role he has to play in any situation. He’s got a lot of knowledge about cricket, and I think he adapted his game to what he needed to do at the time. At the time the attacking option was Mitchell Santner, and there was understanding there.Going into the third Test, New Zealand had already won the series. There must have been some serious confidence in the team going to the Wankhede?
A lot of players who play Test cricket want to win a Test in India. As someone who played for Sri Lanka I had that dream too, but I wasn’t able to get there. The New Zealand players were also like that. After we won the second match, they never got overconfident. It was more about it being a fresh start, and that this was a new surface, and that we had to adapt again. That was the mindset and that was fantastic. There was no guarantee about winning that third one as well.Ajaz got a lot of wickets in the third Test. Talk us through his first spell.
Ajaz is super interesting, because in the previous Test he’d played at the Wankhede, he’d taken all ten wickets in the first innings, and four wickets in the second. The difference between the previous pitches and this one is that on the Wankhede, you have the red soil, and when it turns there, it turns very sharply. Ajaz has a lot of revolutions on the ball, and so almost all his balls were very effective. Because he tosses it up, he especially gets that very sharp turn.In the last innings India had to get 147. You’ve defended a lot of low scores yourself. What did you say to the bowlers?
I had been talking to them in general about the fourth innings being incredibly tough for batters. Even when we had had to chase 107 in the fourth innings in the first match, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had made it difficult. So we talked about 147 being a big score to chase. The emphasis was again on accuracy and relying on the help from the surface, which was turning.”Ajaz has a lot of revolutions on the ball, and so almost all his balls were very effective. Because he tosses it up, he especially gets that very sharp turn,” Herath says of New Zealand’s lead spinner in the series•Surjeet Yadav/Associated PressAfter Matt Henry got Rohit out, Ajaz was getting big turn, but he bowled Shubman Gill with one that didn’t turn – that’s what happens when you put the ball in the right spot. We had the trust that the pitch would do the rest if we did the right things.Ajaz is in many ways a similar player to you. What did you speak to him about?
A lot of our talk was about how to be effective whether or not the pitch offers turn – how to adjust your angles of attack, how to change your release positions, how to bowl well, even in New Zealand. All the spinners in this group had an open mind, and that came out of them already having a lot of trust in their skills.What was the feeling like in the dressing room when those wickets were falling?
I was in the dressing room and downstairs during that period, and when Rishabh Pant was batting well, I also did have a doubt about whether they could win.But winning 3-0 was a huge joy. It was like when I was playing and we beat Australia 3-0 [in Sri Lanka in 2016]. It’s something that happens very rarely.Did you learn anything from being part of this series?
Players were very accountable in this environment. When things went wrong, players accepted responsibility and they looked for solutions. That was really impressive. As a coach, being part of an environment like that was really valuable. It was a boon to my coaching career as well.