He’s thrilled crowds in Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Lucknow this season. Will Dhoni do it against LSG in Chennai on Tuesday?

Deivarayan Muthu22-Apr-20241:05

‘Just incredible’ – Moody, Jaffer marvel at Dhoni’s success in IPL 2024

August 7, 2005. India vs West Indies in Colombo. MS Dhoni rocked up with a flowing mane and hit 28 off 13 balls, the highlight being a spectacular scooped four off Tino Best, to help finish India’s innings with a flourish.Almost twenty years later Dhoni, who will turn 43 in July, continues to do Dhoni things. He’s turned up with the vintage mane to pump vintage sixes. On April 19 in Lucknow, he cracked 28 not out off just nine balls for Chennai Super Kings, with three fours and two sixes, one of which was an inventive scoop off Mohsin Khan.Dhoni had anticipated a wide yorker from left-arm over, and though Mohsin had shortened his length, he adjusted to shovel-scoop the ball over the keeper’s head for six.”I wish I could say I was the one who taught him that [scoop] shot,” Michael Hussey, the CSK batting coach, said on the eve of their match against Lucknow Super Giants in Chennai. “But that would be lying (laughs); he’s just in a wonderful place in his career.”Bowlers are coming up with different plans against him. He’s been probably the greatest finisher of all time, so they [the bowlers] need to come up with different ideas. That’s one of the wonderful things about MS. He continues to evolve and even at this stage of this career, he will continue to make himself better and make it harder for bowlers to bowl to him.”This is the dazzling Dhoni of old. When he burst onto the scene, he played no-holds-barred shots and even spoke of his dislike for keeping some of his shots down.Somewhere along the way, after he took over as India’s captain, Dhoni traded that no-holds-barred approach for a low-risk one and refused to expose the next man to pressure. He adopted a similar batting approach at CSK too in the IPL. He was indeed the finisher, but his batting was based on reducing risk.Even while hitting sixes at the death, Dhoni would maintain a stable base and target the arc between long-on and deep midwicket. The helicopter shot was a low-risk option for Dhoni because that’s something he had been practising – and playing – since his tennis-ball cricket days in Ranchi.ESPNcricinfo LtdDuring all that time, Dhoni didn’t do scoops or shuffle around his crease. This season, though, he has been digging deep and going against the grain in his quest to access the boundary. When Khaleel Ahmed was trying to bowl wide yorkers from left-arm over, like Mohsin, with a packed off-side field in Visakhapatnam, Dhoni jumped across his stumps even before the bowler had bowled and whacked him over the extra-cover boundary.It was his first innings this season and the first since he underwent knee surgery immediately after winning IPL 2023. But after thrilling Visakhapatnam with an unbeaten 37 off 16 balls, Dhoni was spotted with a brace around his knee that suggested the issue was still hampering his mobility.Dhoni and the CSK management have worked around the problem by slotting him into a new role: rock up in the closing stages and maximise his six-hitting ability. Dhoni’s earliest entry point in five innings this season was 16.2 against DC in Visakhapatnam. And in his most recent game against LSG in Lucknow, CSK’s team management held him back at No.8 and even promoted their Impact Player Sameer Rizvi up the order.MS Dhoni slammed 28 off nine against LSG•BCCIDhoni has excelled in this super-specialised role of managing the last two-three overs of a T20 innings, clattering 15 boundaries in 34 balls, which means he is finding the rope or clearing it roughly every two deliveries.The limitations caused by the knee injury have also prompted him to look at different pockets of the ground. Dhoni’s leg-side strike rate is 366.67 this season, which isn’t much of a surprise. Close your eyes, and you will see Dhoni launching the ball over deep midwicket or wide long-on. Though the sample size is fairly small, Dhoni has been destructive on the off side as well, striking at 215. In terms of his overall strike rate, Dhoni’s 255.88 is the best among all players who have faced at least 30 balls this IPL.The numbers establish a compelling case for Dhoni to bat up the order, but his body may not allow it. He seems to have accepted that and is tailoring his training sessions to play short, sweet cameos.”It’s inspirational, isn’t it? His batting this year, even in the pre-season training, has been very crisp,” CSK coach Stephen Fleming said after CSK’s away game against LSG. “The team isn’t surprised with what he is doing because his skill level during the pre-season was very high. Other years he has obviously had problems with his knee and he is sort of recovering from that which is why there is only a certain amount of balls he can really function well.Related

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“I think everyone wants to see him for longer as do we, but that amount of time is about right. We need him for the tournament and that two-three over cameos – he is owning that space. It’s up to the rest of the batting unit to get us to a good position where he can push us over the top. He is doing that pretty much every time at the moment, which is great to watch.”Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and Lucknow have all been treated to Dhoni’s sixes this season. Though Dhoni – and Ravindra Jadeja – left Chepauk in splits with a prank earlier this month, the Chennai crowd is yet to see the six-hitting Dhoni in flesh this IPL.Dhoni hitting sixes is an event that transcends the context of the match these days. In Chennai, it’s an emotion. Visuals of real-life Dhoni smashing sixes off Mark Wood were played at a popular movie theatre in the lead-up to the re-release of the reel-life movie – – during the previous IPL in the city. Those sixes sparked frenzied celebrations, with fans whistling and grooving to the tune of their crunching the ball.CSK’s fans are hoping that Dhoni will give them reason to against LSG on Tuesday evening as well.Stats updated until PBKS vs GT game on April 21

Series has been marked by Sri Lanka fightbacks, but only because of catastrophic top five

Vithushan Ehantharajah30-Aug-20240:59

Kamindu Mendis hasn’t given up hope of Test fightback

Milan Rathnayake dropped his hands, crouched, swayed and did not turn his back on the ball. And yet having done pretty much everything right, he still ended up wearing Olly Stone’s bouncer flush on the grille.Stone, closely followed by the rest of the England team, checked to see if he was okay before the Sri Lanka physio ran on for a more thorough assessment. Once the concussion protocols were administered – and passed – Rathnayake shaped up again. Stone bumped him again. This time he ducked, turned his head, closed his eyes and prayed as the ball cannoned into his gloves.The bowling allrounder lasted just two more balls, eventually walking back up to the away dressing-room in the Lord’s pavilion, to which Sri Lanka’s top six had already returned the best part of 10 overs beforehand. This is Rathnayake’s second Test, and so the experience probably still fresh, new and exciting. But he would have been within his rights to throw his arms in the air once he got back to his senior batters and ask, “lads – any chance?”Sri Lanka’s first innings was only 29 overs old with his dismissal, but they were already seven-down and trailing by 309 runs. Rathanayake had arrived at six-down, with just 87 on the board. Though he was unable to do as he had done in last week’s first Test, Kamindu Mendis, their second-innings hero in Manchester, mustered 74 to provide the faint silver lining on this particular mushroom cloud of a batting performance. That England did not enforce the follow-on with a lead of 231 was out of comfort for their bowlers rather than convenience.Nothing, though, was ever going to cover for yet another top-order failure. One that looks a whole lot worse when you win the toss and decide to bowl in pristine batting conditions, asking an attack who had never previously toured England before to take ten wickets when the sun is out and the cloud spotless. Oh – and having dropped the only bloke with any previous experience on these shores. The least you could do in that situation is give them a bit of time off and get somewhere near 400. That was the whole point of asking the hosts to go first, right?Dimuth Karunaratne was out chopping on, for 7•Getty ImagesThe small crumb of comfort for Dhananjaya de Silva , who made that call at 10:30am on Thursday morning, was that at least his dismissal for a four-ball duck was one of the more excusable. Even so, as the skipper was squared up by Matthew Potts on the downward slope, you did wonder if he had to commit as much as he did to an attempted push into the leg side. Some of his fellow experienced batters, however, warrant further scrutiny.Dimuth Karunaratne, an opener regarded as one of the steadiest accumulators in the game, has been collecting only regrets these last two weeks. The latest being diverting a delivery from outside off onto his own stumps when it was always going across him, with lunch due at the end of the over. Angelo Mathews, while brilliantly picked off by Potts, had been too accommodating to the Durham quick. Four of the seven dot-balls he faced, before the knockout blow that squared him up to clip the top of off, could have been worked away for singles, either through cover or off the legs. Something – anything – to elicit a change in length. As for Dinesh Chandimal, only a note on his pillow last night would have offered him more notice than Ollie Pope waving Dan Lawrence into a catching position just behind square leg.That trio were not the only ones deserving of criticism. Pathum Nissanka was also guilty of failing to clock a field shift, working the ball so confidently to leg slip that he even added a little flick of the wrist as a flourish. But Karunaratne, Mathews and Chandimal are all on their third tour of England. And while you can talk about gaining experience in county cricket, playing more warm-up matches and addressing financial inequality, sometimes it’s just about doing better because you really should know better.Even with only one match against a mish-mashed England Lions – which they lost, by the way – the squad has had a decent build-up to this series, with some in situ as early as August 6. Other decisions also warrant an explanation. It’s one thing to give Nishan Madushka the gloves – even if he is only the third-best keeper in the squad – but persisting with him as an opener, despite the fact Nissanka is better equipped to do so outright, was a tad confusing. When Madushka walked out at 12:18pm to start the reply to England’s 427, having kept for 102 overs, it looked like an elaborate joke.Milan Rathnayake ducks into a short delivery from Olly Stone•AFP/Getty ImagesEven as you are reading this, there is probably some pen-pusher at Sri Lanka Cricket’s head office, inside the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, who has been ordered to fire up his computer and open that file labelled “Guys, what the hell? – Bad Tour Review Template, DO NOT DELETE.doc”. A few of those columns have probably already been filled.Sri Lanka’s top five are currently boasting a combined average of 19.26, the third-lowest for a visiting side to England in 50 years. In that same period, across first innings alone, only Bangladesh’s top five in 2005 have averaged less than Sri Lanka’s 11.80 in 2024. Unsurprisingly, this is the worst first-innings performance from a Sri Lanka top five in any series of two Tests or more.We are only halfway through this series, even if it feels like this second Test – and series – has just one more meaningful day to go. And there is a world where Sri Lanka fight back in their second innings as they did last week.But just as was the case then, they probably won’t as far as the result is concerned because of how badly their most trusted batters have botched the first.

He is about to become the second-fastest player in Test history to the double of 300 wickets and 3000 runs

Alagappan Muthu25-Sep-2024This is a bunch of words. Fair warning, they aren’t particularly concerned with making sense. They could try but at this point they aren’t quite bothered. They are just placeholders. Actually, they’re a gimmick. It’s ham-fisted, as they can be occasionally but that doesn’t preclude them from working, which let’s hope this does because it’s already starting to peter out. We’re conducting an experiment. It involves Ravindra Jadeja. We’re already close to halfway there.In 2021, he pulled off an extreme version of what he is so good at. Trapping batters on the crease. India were behind in the game, trying to rectify a problem that seemed to follow them whenever they go away from home. The lead bowlers building pressure – Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav combined had figures of 26-7-76-5 – without finding any real support: the others were 16-3-56-0. Jadeja had been on the periphery of things until now but as soon as the captain Virat Kohli realised he needed a little more control he turned to him. Also, we’ve arrived. It would’ve taken about 60 seconds to read this. And if Jadeja had been bowling while you were reading this, you’d have missed the entire over. He bowled the 50th of England’s first innings at The Oval in 64 seconds.Disbelief is the shadow that genius leaves behind. Let’s call that the first law of Warnodynamics. Every time he bowled legspin it was like he was tilting the world. There were numerous batters who needed a second look just to check, yep, those are my stumps and yep, they’ve been shattered by a ball that only seemed half interested in landing on the cut strip.Related

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Jadeja has invoked this same reaction from Steven Smith. Twice. In 2013, Smith let a ball that pitched outside off stump go and got bowled, and then, in 2017, he let a ball that pitched outside leg stump go and got bowled. But those matches were played on spinning pitches – Delhi’s day one already looked like day three and Ranchi’s by day five was no picnic. So the skill that was required to make one of the world’s best all-conditions run-scorers essentially give up his wicket gets overshadowed.There is merit to both sides of this debate, except we’re not going to go there. Instead, we’ll pick up on how even the most ardent Jadeja fan and the most dedicated Jadeja myth-buster will come together to agree that the way he hustles through his overs is not normal. Once, in Mumbai 2016, with barely seconds on the clock, he got through what seemed certain to be the last over of the day quickly enough that R Ashwin had a chance to bowl at the nightwatch Jake Ball and dismiss him before end of play. Nowadays nobody bats an eyelash at that.Numbness becomes a necessary salve against genius. Second law of Warnodynamics. Eventually, people just began to accept that he could do amazing things amazingly well and amazingly frequently that it would be exhausting to react to all of them. He was one of the first to see the potential in Jadeja. He called him a rockstar.In Kanpur, Jadeja will set another speed record. He will become the second-quickest player in the almost 150 years of Test history to the double of 300 wickets and 3000 runs. He’ll get there in 74 matches, just two more than Ian Botham. There is a temptation to brush even this off, because only 26 of those matches have come away from home and in them his bowling average is 32.78, which is almost a full 10 points above his career figure. But the thing is he isn’t picked for his wickets when India travel. He gets in on the basis that he can hold up one end so that the fast bowlers can be rotated from the other.The ‘rockstar’, as Shane Warne called Ravindra Jadeja, has given the impression he can land the ball on a laser pointer•BCCIAt the Oval, three years ago, when India were racing against time to go 2-1 up in a five-match series, Jadeja got through a workload of 30 overs in the final innings and allowed just 50 runs. Along the way, he kept hitting the rough so often and so hard, not because it was giving him a whole load of help but because it was scuffing the ball up enough for his team-mates to generate devastating reverse swing.That smooth, easy, three step, maybe four, at best five, repeatable action with which he has given the impression he can land the ball on a laser pointer is a super power and it is not too far off from, say, an action that is jittery and wind-milling and weaponises an elbow that can hyper-extend. Because in the end both of them create the same effect on the batter. It is hard to line the ball up and play it with confidence. And with how rapidly he goes through his overs, Jadeja traps them inside this feeling, which must feel doubly annoying for an opposition because he rarely reciprocates.”He has been a very inspirational story as far as I am concerned,” Ashwin said after the final day’s play in Chennai earlier this week. “He made his Test debut just after me. Probably six months apart maybe. And I saw how he used to bat. Then I was batting ahead of him at one stage. And he has actually walked in at No. 5 for us several times. Many of these occasions over the last three or four years, when he has walked in to bat, I felt so good in the dressing room. You feel so calm and composed when he is batting. He has brought that kind of assurance. And someone who is an allrounder, who is a bowler who can bat, to turn himself being such an impeccable batsman…”His second skill in some ways lends him more of a presence in the minds of the fans. Because when he get to a landmark, he does the sword dance. The first time it happened was when he stopped caring about the match situation and simply began whacking the ball. He doesn’t do that anymore. He’s grown beyond that.Only once in the last nine years has Ravindra Jadeja had a sub-35 batting average in Tests•BCCIIn only one of the last nine years has Jadeja averaged anything less than 35. The strength of his defence was on show during a century in Birmingham when he walked in with India on 98 for 5, and it has been a vital part of why India are able to outlast oppositions. Getting rid of the top-order actually brings one of their better batters to the crease.”[He has] played some great knocks for us overseas as well,” Ashwin said. “Such an inspirational story about how he has found his off stump, how disciplined he has managed to be, how he has contributed. Jadeja on the field is a fire, he is a rocket on the field. So, all in all, I envy him. I am jealous of him but totally admire him. I have learnt to admire him for the last four-five years, even more than I have in the past. Sometimes, when you are in the race along with your co-cricketers – you are in a race – you compete, you are ambitious, you want to get ahead of one another even inside a team. It’s like brothers going in arms. And then you slowly start admiring one another. That admiration has gone one step higher, knowing that I can never beat Jadeja. I am comfortable in my skin but totally inspired by what he has done.”It is interesting seeing the profile of people that have appreciated Jadeja for his work so far. As a 19-year-old, he had Shane Warne convinced. Through his 20s, he was harassing batters of incredible quality. Faf du Plessis, when asked about which bowler gave him sleepless nights, went “Test matches in India, Ra-vin-draaa Jade-jaaa.” Smith’s said the same and Ashwin’s probably already filing the necessary papers to start a fan club. Game don’t get any gamier and you know what game does. #Recognise.

On the bright side for West Indies, Jomel Warrican got into the record books with both bat and ball

Sampath Bandarupalli19-Jan-20251064 – Balls bowled across the four innings in Multan, the fewest in a men’s Test match hosted by Pakistan to produce a result. The previous shortest completed Test in Pakistan was also played between Pakistan and West Indies, in 1990 in Faisalabad, lasting 1080 balls.647 – Total runs aggregated by Pakistan and West Indies in Multan. This is the third-lowest aggregate for a men’s Test in Asia, where all 40 wickets fell. These 647 are also the fourth-fewest in a men’s Test since 1980, where all 40 wickets fell.ESPNcricinfo Ltd371 – Balls faced by West Indies across two innings in Multan – by far the fewest they have faced in a Test match (where they lost all 20 wickets). The previous fewest was 450 balls against England in the 2000 Leeds Test.These are the fewest balls Pakistan needed to take 20 wickets in a men’s Test. The previous fewest was 494 balls in the 2001 Multan Test against Bangladesh.These are also the fifth-fewest balls any team has batted in a men’s Test since 1910 (where all 20 wickets were lost) and the ninth-fewest overall.

Matthew Potts continues to be a seat-filler, a plugger of gaps in the side, but England know they can lean on him and he will not let them down

Vithushan Ehantharajah14-Dec-2024The Birkenstock slip-on clog has become must-have accessory for international cricketers across the world.After a long day’s graft, the boots are kicked off for luxury sandals that occupy that handy middle ground between aesthetic style and orthopaedic substance. The game has not gone – it’s still here, just standing a little comfier.Bowlers, especially, swear by them. A few pairs are knocking around both teams, with so many in the England dressing room it may as well be a showroom. After day one of this third and final Test in the Crowe-Thorpe trophy, Matthew Potts deserved his.Potts has owned some for a while, recommended by, among others, Ben Stokes. Both deserved the day-to-day relief of their closed-toe Bostons as the two who bowled the most of England’s 82 overs. Stokes is currently the clubhouse leader with 23. Potts’ 21 – the most he has sent down in a single day – was more concentrated.Related

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The first 20 came inside the first 67, split across fours spells in conditions that veered from “sapping” to “baking”. The Durham seamer, opening England’s innings for just the second time in typically humid Hamilton conditions, finished his work at 6:32pm when an uninhibited sun was still beating down on Seddon Park like it had come to collect a debt. With 3 for 75 at the time of writing, it is just the fifth time in 18 attempts he has taken more than two wickets in an innings.Potts has always worn graft well, even if the Birkenstocks have helped over the 12 months. Accompanying the heart and engine that can run for days is the build – and tenacity – of a prize fighter. Not to mention a marvel of a bowler’s backside. “It’s pretty obvious by looking at him,” Stokes said ahead of this match. “He looks after himself very well.”Looking after yourself does not automatically mean the cricket looks after you. Potts can vouch for that; a Test career that began with five consecutive caps in the 2022 summer has taken almost 28 more months to tick off as many. But the manner of the 26-year-old’s three wickets in New Zealand’s first innings suggests the game might be warming to him once more.Tom Latham, driver of a dominant start, was caught down the leg side with 63 to his name. Glenn Phillips’ lazy drive scuffed a catch to Zak Crawley at gully. And Kane Williamson was unable to evoke the hot feet of fellow countryman Chris Wood and kick away a delivery that was heading towards his stumps after he had defended it.It was the fourth time in five innings Potts has nabbed the prized Williamson, three of those coming across four in the quick’s maiden series two summers ago. The 14 wickets at 23.28 in Stokes’ first assignment as permanent Test captain was meant to be a springboard for Potts. Things have not panned out that way.Kane Williamson tries – and fails – to prevent the ball bouncing back on to his stumps•Getty ImagesDropped for the returning Ollie Robinson after the first Test against South Africa, Potts would play just one Test in 2023 – a four-day affair at Lord’s against Ireland ahead of the 2023 Ashes, which he watched from the sidelines. A go in the Sri Lanka series at the end of this summer was capped at two matches with England using the final match at the Kia Oval to roll the dice and select raw, tall left-armer Josh Hull. A solitary appearance in Pakistan for the second Test, on a newly scuffed used deck was a thankless task. Still, he managed to turn that into a positive with three dismissals in 31.2 overs.All of that exacerbates the sense Potts exists as something of a seat filler. Trusted to plug gaps, but not necessarily get a go outright. Set aside for others that selectors deem better. Brought in for those same options to rest up. Even parked for a relative novice. He’s sharp without being express. Reliable but unsexy. The shoes you would wear into the garden but not when you’re leaving through the front door.Potts’ opportunity comes on similar grounds. The series is already won, and Chris Woakes, after six wickets across two back-to-back Tests, has nothing to prove, as Stokes intimated. Naturally, Potts did not regard his selection as anything other than an honour, even with the time spent waiting and miles clocked around the world, desperate for an in.”I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating, no,” he said in his press conference, bowling boots still on having sent down the last over of the day. “I enjoy every single moment being part of this squad. There’s always jobs I can be doing, helping out. There’s opportunity to tinker with a few things and tinker with things.”That tinkering has involved a combination of run-up work, how he holds and releases the ball, and some extra deliveries – all honed under the watchful eye of bowling consultant James Anderson. And though he was fulfilling a role Anderson had mastered for the best part of two decades, Potts did not look out of place.

“I’d been a fraction wide to Kane early on, trying to swing a few. [Ollie Pope] felt we could go wide of the crease, angle it in a bit more towards the stumps. Bowl fourth stump, off stump, just keep smashing away on a hard length. I think [Kane Williamson’s] dismissal comes from that clarity”Matthew Potts

His opening spell from the City End – six overs, 0 for 17 – could have featured a wicket and ended an eventual opening stand of 105 for just 25 had Ben Duckett managed to cling on to Will Young’s low edge. The second spell (four overs, 0 for 16) featured a few more edges, and one that reared to catch the glove.Both spells averaged out at 131kph. England did not bowl well in the morning session, a touch too short and wide as New Zealand went into lunch on 93 for 0. Potts, however, was the least culpable of the four.Potts’ second spells only clocked in at 129kph, but housed the three wickets. Williamson’s, contained within the second – 2 for 10 from five – was an example of how Potts’ stamina gives his skills a better chance to come to the fore, even with a Kookaburra 58 overs old.Williamson was his typical self, tidy yet devastating, and completely at ease at a venue where he averages 94.26. With six centuries from the 11 times he has past fifty, England were fearful as he rounded on another half-century.However Potts, with the help of Stokes and vice-captain Ollie Pope – armed with a perfect view from behind the stumps – came up with a plan.”I’d been a fraction wide to Kane early on, trying to swing a few,” said Potts, before the brains trust got together. “Popey felt we could go wide of the crease, angle it in a bit more towards the stumps. Bowl fourth stump, off stump, just keep smashing away on a hard length. I think that dismissal comes from that clarity.”Considering how things have panned out, it is likely Matthew Potts’ career may be one of constant flux•Getty ImagesPotts did not have a great view of the dismissal, but was at least able to make out the falling of a bail. Williamson jarred his head back in disgust, while Potts raised his arms with unexpected glee. That “smashing away” had not been in vain. “To get a good player like that, a player like Kane who can play the long game and score quite quickly as well. To get a massive scalp like that for the team… I’m proud of that.”The knock-on effect was just as important. Daryl Mitchell had been playing possum – 0 off 17 – while Williamson was attracting most of the attention at the other end. His attempt at thrashing a few quick boundaries off Gus Atkinson resulted in a catch to Stokes at cover. The errors to come from Phillips and Tom Blundell – who Potts could have snared had Joe Root reacted quicker to an edge – made it a middle-order collapse of 4 for 46 in exactly ten overs.After that graft, it was a shame for Potts that the day would close with his final ball launched back over his head for six to bring up Mitchell Santner’s valiant 50 not out, taking New Zealand to 315 for 9 at stumps. A handy score after being put in to bat.It was a reminder of how unforgiving a day’s graft can be, even if you approach it with the right attitude and skill. Not that Potts saw any downside to today, his career to date or the fact he is filling in. “It was fantastic,” he beamed. “With the sun beating down it can be seen as hard work but I enjoy every moment that I put this England shirt on and I hope I do it justice.”Considering how things have panned out, it is likely Potts’ career may be one of constant flux. But on a day like today, he showed England can lean on him whenever they need to – a vital reminder ahead of 2025 and the challenges that come with five-Test series against India and Australia. He is a bowler capable of fulfilling a variety of roles and easing whatever situation arises, planned or otherwise.A classy, dependable load-bearer – England’s very own Birkenstocks.

Both teams did not qualify for the 2023 World Cup, so will play no part in the upcoming Champions Trophy, but they do have a carrot to run towards

Ekanth13-Feb-2025Zimbabwe and Ireland are set to play three ODIs starting on February 14. The series is not wrapped in a larger context but is working towards the 2027 ODI World Cup – a converging goal for both teams. ESPNcricinfo looks ahead to what the teams can do to align themselves towards their goals in Harare.Long-term viewsZimbabwe’s summer of 2024-25 is galloping towards its finish, and while they were able to snatch an ODI win each against Afghanistan and Pakistan, they are yet to win a series. In fact, they are yet to win a series across formats. They have three ODIs and three T20Is to change that before heading to England for a Test in three months.Ireland came out of the cold to seal a hat-trick of Test wins, and they now have the opportunity to whet their appetite in white-ball cricket before their home summer, which also starts in three months.Both teams did not qualify for the 2023 ODI World Cup, so they were not in contention to make the upcoming Champions Trophy. But they do have a carrot to run towards.Zimbabwe will co-host the 2027 ODI World Cup along with South Africa. Ireland, who were unable to qualify for the last two editions despite ODIs being the format that helped them break into the international stage, have a chance to make a comeback.On the flipside, the absence of high stakes can free the teams to test out tactics and players if they wish to do so.Related

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Stats – Zimbabwe remain winless at home since 2013

Humphreys spins Ireland to a hat-trick of Test wins

HistoryThe first ever ODI between these two teams, which took place in the 2007 World Cup, ended in a tie, and since then, Ireland have won ten of the 21 ODIs that have been played. The extent of their dominance is magnified in their last ten completed games, out of which they have won eight. They have won five of the 11 games in Harare, but are coming in with a streak of three wins at the venue.Key PlayersZimbabwe will be boosted by the return of Craig Ervine, who missed the Test due to a family emergency, and Sikandar Raza, who was with Dubai Capitals – the winners of the third edition of the ILT20. Their top-seven batters, who have averaged 16.69 since the start of 2024, will need to step up for the team to go through an upward trajectory.In that period, Ireland have played five ODIs, compared to Zimbabwe’s nine. So, time in the middle will be significant in and of itself. They have a settled top-six, with captain Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie at the top, and a seasoned bowling line-up, led by Craig Young and Mark Adair.ConditionsOnly three ODIs have been played in Harare in the past 12 months. But in the 19 games it has hosted in the last two – including the ODI World Cup Qualifiers in 2023 – the pacers have picked up 144 wickets at an average of 30.38 and economy of 5.37, while the spinners have taken 94 wickets at an average of 36.08 and an economy of 5.10. However, those numbers could be a result of the fact that all 19 games have been played during the day, where the new ball assisted bowlers in the powerplay before conditions eased out in the middle overs.So, top-order runs and early wickets in the first innings are likely to carry a premium, as will good defensive spin bowling in the middle overs.

His 29-ball fifty against Mumbai Indians was his quickest in seven years

Dustin Silgardo07-Apr-2025In 30 balls vs Kolkata Knight Riders, 2nd innings, Kolkata, 2025
In the IPL 2025 season opener, RCB were chasing 175 at Eden Gardens. Kohli watched his new opening partner, Phil Salt, race to 44 off 19 before joining in on the fun, hitting Spencer Johnson for consecutive sixes back over his head. He spent a lot of the innings watching from the other end but was aggressive whenever on strike. He hammered two slog-sweeps off Varun Chakravarthy and brought up his fifty in the 13th over, with a lofted shot over the covers off Harshit Rana. He remained unbeaten as RCB finished the chase within 17 overs.Related

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In 29 balls vs Mumbai Indians, 1st innings, Mumbai, 2025
Kohli started off strongly, hitting three of the first nine balls he faced for boundaries. He then made a statement when he hit a returning Jasprit Bumrah’s second ball for a six over midwicket. In the next over, he hit Will Jacks for two boundaries to get to 35 off 18. His next 15 runs took 11 balls, but it was still his fastest fifty in the IPL since 2018. He got to the half-century with a big hit over long-on off wristspinner Vignesh Puthur.Virat Kohli celebrates his 113 against Kings XI Punjab in 2016•BCCIIn 28 balls vs Kings XI Punjab, 1st innings, Bengaluru, 2016
In one of his most famous IPL knocks, Kohli, batting with nine stitches on his left hand, slapped his first ball from Sandeep Sharma for a four through the covers. There were powerful shots off the spinners, a cheeky reverse-paddle and more thumping hits through the covers off the seamers as Kohli raced to his fifty in the ninth over. From there, he accelerated further to set up a total of 211 in the 15-overs-a-side contest. RCB eventually won by 82 runs.In 28 balls vs Chennai Super Kings, 1st innings, Bengaluru, 2013
RCB’s must-win game against CSK at the end of the 2013 league phase was reduced to eight overs a side because of rain. Kohli took down R Ashwin and Chris Morris early to give his team the start they needed before smacking Dwayne Bravo for 16 in the final over. RCB’s 106 was enough to win the game, but Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) ended up taking the final playoff spot with a win in their last game.Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers scored fifties in the 2018 match against Delhi Daredevils•BCCIIn 26 balls vs Delhi Daredevils, 2nd innings, Delhi, 2018
In an important game for playoffs qualification, RCB were 18 for 2 in their chase of 182 when Kohli laid into South African seamer Junior Dala in the fourth over. A pull, a wristy flick for six, and a drive through the covers got Kohli on his way, and along with AB de Villiers, he made the chase look comfortable from then on.In 26 balls vs Rajasthan Royals, 2nd innings, Bengaluru, 2018
A couple of smacks through and over the covers set Kohli on the way to his fastest IPL fifty in a chase. He hit Ben Stokes for a couple of boundaries and went hard against the spinners before pulling Shreyas Gopal to deep midwicket in the 11th over. RCB ended up falling 19 runs short.

The formidable former South Africa bowler talks about swing and seam, the particular arts that set the medium-pacer apart

Interview by Yash Jha30-Jul-20252:41

‘Seam movement is a bigger threat than swing’

Vernon Philander is not the most archetypal presence in South Africa’s pantheon of quick bowlers, but though far from Allan Donald and Dale Steyn in methods and attributes, he was up there with those more storied practitioners as far as results went: he was the second fastest to 50 Test wickets, and finished with a little under four per match from his 64 Tests, at a phenomenal average of 22. A master of cut and movement – both early and late – he speaks here about what sets a skillful medium-pacer apart from a pace merchant.What does it make you feel when you see a generation that is obsessed with the speed gun and fast bowlers only talking 140-plus or 150-plus?
I feel as a medium-pacer, your biggest asset is obviously control, number one, but you have to keep adding some elements to your game. So for me, I obviously have fantastic control in trying to get the ball to shape away from the right-hander, but you also need to bring in the element of doubt, you know, where you’re going to nip one back and challenge batters, the way they think, the way they set up. It’s finding out what is going to make you effective as a bowler and you have to implement that into your skill set.Being a medium-pacer, it takes a great deal of training. It’s playing around. Because you’re a touch slower, it means that you have to sharpen your skill set in different ways, and for me, it is challenging the batters in terms of the way they’re thinking.These days we see that batters come out of their crease [against medium pace], so, you know, dragging the keeper up from time to time in order to shift those batters back. Develop a sharp bouncer. Those are little skill sets that you add, and then you’re going to have to go and execute it.Related

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I think also because you’re bowling in that sort of 130-135 range, batters sometimes feel they have to be playing at deliveries, and that’s where you can also pick up wickets, because they feel they have to keep prodding at it. You can drag batters wider. So it’s a fantastic pace to bowl at, and if you have the skill set to go with it, it makes it so much more rewarding.In Test matches we still see pitches where the ball will seam, or you’ll have conditions where it will swing, but in white-ball cricket, do you think it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for the medium-pacer to survive?
I think, yeah, we have to call a spade a spade. I think the wickets are a lot flatter in the T20 format as well as the ODI format. So again, I will say as a bowler in that sort of speed range, you have to keep adding to your game. You have the opportunity of playing around on a crease, creating different angles, not having the same release point, because that’s where batters are getting so smart these days – they’re lining you up because you’re releasing the ball from one point.The stock ball is so important. You need to be able to trust your stock ball. You need to be able to trust your action. I do feel a lot more has to be put in in the way that these guys are training, number one, in order to trust [their] action.To be operating in that sort of 130-135 range, I do feel you can bring all the elements of seam bowling into play.Philander took eight wickets in his debut Test, in Cape Town in 2011, including 5 for 15 in the innings where Australia were shot out for 47•Gallo Images/Getty ImagesIn Tests too, how important are surfaces for that speed range? Because when you consider this obsession with speed, it is somewhere linked with the assumption that if it’s a flat surface, the quicker bowlers will be able to get something out of it.
I think the one big key is consistency. And I think if you’re operating in that sort of speed, you need to be consistent. You need to string good overs together.The big [advantage when it comes to] knocking top-order batters over is, after a while they will start playing [at the ball], because they feel it’s a touch on the slower side, whereas guys operating in the 140-plus arena, batters will play them on instinct. So they’ll often just leave a good-length ball [at high pace]. But operating at 130, 135, often batters feel that they have to start prodding at balls.But again, it boils down to the consistency of landing the ball in a good area and asking the same question time and time again. Look, I think also we have to admit that bowling in that sort of speed range it’s going to take a little bit of harder work in terms of knocking batters over. But I do feel once there is a bit of assistance in the surface and you can be consistent, you can be a massive threat and compete right up there with the guys bowling 140-plus.The likelihood of finding flatter surfaces in the time you were playing Test cricket was far greater. In the last few years we’ve seen much more spicy pitches in Test cricket. Can you remember any instances where you found yourself on the flattest deck possible and what you thought to yourself about how you would go about operating there?
Yeah, I certainly feel that I retired a bit too early, looking at the surfaces these days! I think it’s also, you know, being able to identify your particular role within a spell. I had a wonderful opportunity of operating with Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, and it’s understanding what your role within that bowling set-up is. I think when the wickets are getting a touch slower and obviously less responsive, my job then becomes to keep it really tight, to go at two an over, and really do those investment periods for a long period of time.So again, it boils down to understanding what your role is and how you need to adapt your game to make yourself effective in various conditions around the world.The fast and the wily: to Dale Steyn’s fierce pace and movement, Philander added his ball-whisperer’s nous•Hindustan TimesYou stood out for the seam movement you used to create through your Test-playing days. At the pace you operated at, did you feel seam was more important than swing?
Yeah, I think initially when I started out, I used to have this beautiful awayswinger, but I felt that it became less and less effective because batters were so good. They could see the ball moving out of the hand and they can start leaving the ball once it swings early. So I had to go and reinvent or re-adapt my game.And that’s where the seam movement really started – to try and get batters to nick one back. That’s where the element of doubt was planted. And then they start playing it, those ones leaving them right at the end.So yeah, I [switched] more to seam bowling rather than swing bowling. And I also do feel that it was a lot more effective than to watch a new ball swing by. You basically waste a new ball, you know, by not making batters play upfront.When the ball moves off the seam, it leaves batters with a lot less reaction time as [compared] to when the ball is swinging, because they can actually see the ball swinging out of the hand. So I do feel the seam movement is a much bigger threat than the ball swinging through the air.What about workload? While there might be one line of thinking that it’s lesser toll on the body than for an outright quick, you will probably be asked to bowl longer spells than the outright quick. So how did you weigh that up?
You still have to run in, you still have to bowl the ball just like [the faster bowlers] did. It doesn’t mean you’re working less hard than them. But yeah bowling and operating in and around those speeds, you know that you’re going to be bowling more overs than the blokes operating at 140-plus. So yeah, you do prepare yourself to be bowling longer spells.”If you can get your wrist firmly behind the ball, you get the ball to move later through the air as well”•Getty ImagesWhen I started out, our workloads used to be pretty high. We used to bowl overs and overs and overs. So it was a lot less gym back then but yeah, more overs, obviously, in the nets. So we could keep up with the workload required from us. And yeah, in a Test match, if you’re going to be bowling my pace, I’ve got 20-plus overs behind my name at the end of the day. It’s a challenge that you enjoy.Again, I think I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of bowling with the new ball and making life hell for the batters up front, because I do feel there’s a window of opportunity when a batter walks to the crease and [you’re] operating at that sort of speed. If you can get it right, batters always feel that they have to play at it. And there lies the opportunity of picking up wickets.Was there a particular brand of ball that you preferred bowling with? And how much of a difference did it make?
Yeah, I really enjoyed the Kookaburra ball, because it remained quite hard for a long period of time. I think also in South African conditions, Australian conditions, New Zealand conditions, I used to get the ball to jag quite sharply off the seam, as opposed to the Dukes ball. I think I really enjoyed the Dukes ball, but for about probably 20 overs to 25 overs it stays hard and then it loses that and it becomes really soft. So batters can then capitalise. But if you have to ask me a preference of ball, it has to be the red Kookaburra.The thinking is that swing bowling operates at its best at a particular speed, commonly thought to be around that 130kph mark. How accurate was that, in your opinion?
Yeah, I do feel that operating in that 130-135 kilometre range, you extract all the elements of seam and swing bowling that is on offer. And again, I think I can vouch for it, having bowled that sort of speed myself.I mean, if you’re going to be bowling faster, you know, there’s a lot more velocity that goes behind the ball. But it’s also the position that you release the ball from. I think for me, it’s always about that wrist position behind the ball. If you can get your wrist firmly behind the ball, you get the ball to move later through the air as well. So, yeah, I mean, there’s quite a few elements that [are involved] in getting the ball to swing.