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From bubble breaches to game postponements to the tournament being indefinitely suspended, here’s what happened between February 19 and March 4

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2021February 19A day before the start of the sixth season, a player from Lahore Qalandars tests positive for Covid-19 and is displaying symptoms. He is put into isolation for ten days.February 19One night before the opening match, Peshawar Zalmi coach Daren Sammy and captain Wahab Riaz breach the bio-secure bubble in place for all teams in Karachi hotel by meeting with their franchise owner Javed Afridi, who was not part of the bubble. The pair are told to go into a three-day quarantine and must return two negative tests before they can return to the team.February 21After Zalmi file an appeal with the PSL’s event committee for a concession, Sammy and Wahab are allowed to reintegrate with the squad, despite not having served the three-day quarantine period. The pair have returned two negative tests within 48 hours. The results of the second test arrive in the morning, delaying Peshawar’s departure for the stadium. Riaz later leads his side to a loss against Qalandars, with Sammy in the dugout.Related

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March 1The game between Islamabad United and Quetta Gladiators is first delayed and then postponed to the following day after Fawad Ahmed returns a positive test. A statement from United says that Ahmed, who had begun showing symptoms, was put into isolation two days ago. That suggests it was on February 27, which means he would have gone into isolation soon after taking part in his first game of the season – against Zalmi. Rapid-fire tests are carried out on all other members of United and Gladiators, all returning negative tests.March 2All players and officials undergo PCR tests. The rescheduled game goes ahead and the PCB says it will not conduct testing every fourth day, instead of weekly as previously planned.Tom Banton took to Twitter to share news of his Covid-19 test•AFP via Getty ImagesMarch 2Two more players – including Tom Banton – and one support-staff member return positive tests. The PCB holds a meeting with franchises to reassure them and reiterates its message that players must stick to the protocols. The board says it is happy that their bubble protocols are secure, although it does acknowledge “life in a bubble is very difficult and managing it is also very tough. This is happening in other different sports in the world – NFL, NHL, Formula 1 or Australian Open – breaches do happen but that doesn’t mean the bubble is weak or there are loopholes.”March 3Franchise owners and the league’s management hold a meeting to chart a way forward for the league after the positive tests. One option discussed is to forego the Lahore leg and play out the entire season in Karachi. At least two franchises raise strong objections to that idea. The PCB also announces that it will offer vaccines to all players and officials.March 4Three more players test positive, and news comes in that Australian Dan Christian is leaving the tournament due to the Covid-19 cases. Soon after, the PCB says it is postponing the league with immediate effect. The board says the new cases were not from any of the teams who played in Wednesday’s double-header matches, which rules out players from Karachi Kings, Peshawar Zalmi, Multan Sultans or Quetta Gladiators.

His ambitions might seem lofty but he’s been putting in the hard yards to achieve them – for Delhi Capitals in the IPL to start with

Alex Malcolm20-Sep-2021Hotel quarantine allows a lot of time to think. And Marcus Stoinis has been doing some thinking in Dubai, as he prepares for the return of the IPL with Delhi Capitals, his first cricket assignment in four and a half months (he opted out of Australia’s limited-overs tours of West Indies and Bangladesh).The rare downtime has given the 32-year-old a chance to reset some personal goals.”My next phase, the way I see it, over the next three years I want to be not only the best finisher in Australia, I want to be the best finisher in the world,” Stoinis says.Related

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“So that’s what I’ve spent my time thinking about and preparing myself for. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to be able to do it for the Melbourne Stars as well. It might mean the role is going to change. But I’ve got a great opportunity to do it with Delhi under Punter [coach Ricky Ponting], and a great opportunity in this World Cup. Whether it’s in this World Cup or the next World Cup, that’s up to me.”Stoinis is no shrinking violet, and some may scoff at his ambition, particularly as he plays almost exclusively as an opener in the BBL for Melbourne Stars – with great success. But his numbers batting in positions five through seven for Australia in T20 internationals and Capitals in the IPL, suggest he’s already a lot closer to his goal than many might realise. In fact, until last month, neither Stoinis nor Australia’s selectors or coaching staff were aware of how highly he ranks among global T20 finishers over the past three years.In T20I cricket, only Kieron Pollard and Mohammad Nabi have scored more runs with a better strike rate and boundary percentage over a three-year period in the lower middle order, putting Stoinis on par with India’s Hardik Pandya (257 runs, 8.91 runs per over, 5.41 balls per boundary), and ahead of South Africa’s David Miller and West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran. In the IPL, Stoinis is squarely in the middle of the top ten on those two parameters.ESPNcricinfo LtdYet he is no guarantee to be inked in at No. 5 or 6 in Australia’s opening T20 World Cup match against South Africa on October 23. He has been named in the 15-man squad but was deemed to have taken a selection risk by opting out of Australia’s recent tours citing bubble fatigue after the postponement of the IPL and the subsequent difficulty that Australian players had in returning home.Stoinis remained in Perth to train and spend time with family and friends, but it did not take long for him to realise how much he missed playing. “That was a big decision at the time,” he says. “I wasn’t used to watching the team play and not being involved, knowing that’s what I want to do. And the first couple of weeks you’re also second-guessing yourself as to whether you should have gone on the tour.”It took me a good two months to just really chill out. But it became more and more clear that that was the right thing to do for me. I’m feeling good now, feeling ready to go. I didn’t take much time off training. Because that’s another thing you realise when you take a break – that you love the cricket. I love cricket, I love training.”While fun, fashion and frivolity can appear top priorities for Stoinis, the truth is, there is hardly anyone in Australian cricket who trains more meticulously or diligently. He spent his time off working with three different batting coaches, his long-time personal mentor Neil Holder; and Western Australia’s head coach, Adam Voges, and their batting coach, Beau Casson.Aside from the mechanics of his game, Stoinis is trying to go to the next level with his mental preparation and overall mindset. He works with two mental-performance coaches, Dave Diggle, who currently works with the Australia Rugby Union team, and David Reid, who is the mental performance coach for Essendon in the Australian Football League.Hotel quarantine has provided the perfect sanctuary in which to re-engage with his mental processes. “It’s been a good chance for me to sink my teeth into that mental side of my game,” Stoinis says.”Outside of your technique, the No. 1 thing is dedicating and controlling your mind towards visualisation and preparation, and staying away from [thinking about] the outcome as much as you can”•Ron Gaunt/BCCI”You’d actually probably laugh. I shouldn’t tell you this, because Zamps [Adam Zampa] will give me s**t. But I’ve got my pads, I’ve got everything out here [in the hotel room], because I do my visualisation with all the gear on.”I think when I look back, I perform my best when I’ve sunk my teeth into my preparation and my visualisation.”He is also learning to detach himself from results. “Outside of your technique, I think that’s the No. 1 thing, dedicating and controlling your mind towards that process and staying away from the outcome as much as you can,” he says.”But like everything, it’s a lifetime’s work, you never feel like you master it. It’s super humbling because you find out pretty quickly when you’ve gone away from it because you’re walking off and you’re out.”Even the other day I was thinking about it, and I was talking to myself about fear. We’ve all got a bit of fear in us. I feel like a fear of failure for me is hopefully starting to diminish – in that, to me, I’m only going to fail when I give up.”Fearlessness is one of the key traits of the best finishers in T20 cricket. Pollard hit his first two balls for sixes for Trinbago Knight Riders in a recent CPL game, on his way to a match-winning 51 from 22 balls.This is one area Stoinis knows he needs to improve in if he is to achieve his lofty goal. Fearlessness will help him produce faster starts. On the list of cricketers who have made over 1000 T20 runs for the three years starting April 2018, Stoinis ranks 29th in terms of his strike rate in the first ten balls of innings – 137.07. The elite finishers are above 160 on this metric.In T20I cricket, Stoinis has been among the top three batters in the world on strike rate and balls per boundary over the last three years•Getty ImagesFor Stoinis, it comes down to communication with his coaches and team-mates, to be able to have complete trust in himself in the middle. “You make your plan beforehand,” he says. “You understand which bowlers you’re going to target.”On another day, Kieron Pollard might get out going for a second six. But he understands, and I’m sure the coach or whoever understands that, so then you’re all on one page. And I think that helps to get rid of any sort of distraction and fear of failure. Because you’ve committed to the plan yourself. You committed to that with the team.” It is part of the reason Stoinis has gelled so well with Ponting, who has made sure his communication is clear and concise.”The more I got to know him, he’s a very deep thinker, so I was then not wanting to feed him too much [information],” Ponting told SEN recently. “I’d feed him little bits but then wait for him to think about it and process it and come back to me and ask questions about what he needs to do next, or how he needs to get better.”I’ve tried to make it pretty clear to him where I see him slotting in with the Delhi Capitals outfit and given him a certain role that he’s going to play for us.”He is a hard worker. There’s no doubt about that. He likes to bat and bowl as much as anyone we’ve had at Delhi, so as long as I give some clear direction and he understands what he’s doing and what his role is, then I just let him go about getting himself prepared.””Ricky is a bloody genius,” Stoinis says. “And a lot of his genius isn’t always about the cricket. It’s about how he communicates with people. He understands me quite well. So, he knows how to push my buttons. He knows when to challenge me. He knows when to pump me up.”When it comes to game time, we’ve got a good relationship in that I’m sitting in the dugout, I’m asking him what he’s thinking. I’m telling him what bowler I want to target, when to send me out, he’s telling me to sort of sit down and relax.”Usually we end up talking at the time-out about just the plan of attack for the last whatever it is – eight overs, nine overs, seven overs. And it’s pretty clear, we both understand what we want to do and how we want the game to pan out from there.””Ricky is a bloody genius. And a lot of his genius isn’t always about the cricket. It’s about how he communicates with people”•Saikat Das/BCCIStoinis is also keen to play his part with the ball in the UAE. He has suffered some niggles in recent years and tweaked his back just prior to arriving in Dubai. But he says he has done more bowling in the last three months than he has in three years.”Usually when the shoe is on the other foot and I’m bowling, I’m pretty aware that the batting team is going to look to target me,” he said. “My skill is in understanding the game as a batsman, what the batsmen are trying to do.”I think you’ve got to realise that you’re only just trying to cause half a mistake. You don’t need to always completely deceive the batsman.”For me, it’s just come with experience. It’s come with talking to a lot of different guys, a lot of different bowling coaches and players, most of them actually through the IPL. And most of that stuff is subtle changes in your grip, in how hard you are gripping the ball.”Stoinis’ immediate task is to help Capitals claim the title that eluded them in the UAE last year but then the focus will shift to playing an important part in Australia’s tilt to win a maiden T20 World Cup.”The key for us is going to this tournament having each other’s back, looking to play like we’ve got nothing to lose because at the end of the day, we don’t have anything to lose,” he says.”I think if we play with that freedom and that excitement, we’re going to do something special. I think that’s the way we’ve got to attack that. There’s enough talent. There’s so many good players in our team that there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”

CSK form feeds into star turn with ball as miserly four-over spell sets up crushing victory

Matt Roller23-Oct-2021No Stokes, no Archer, no Curran, no problem for England. “The absence of the allrounders who aren’t here does hurt us,” Eoin Morgan admitted at the toss ahead of their opening Men’s T20 World Cup match against West Indies, “but hopefully we can make it work.”With three of their key all-round players missing, England had a tough choice to make heading into the game: should they play an extra bowler and compromise their batting depth, or pick an extra batter and risk running out of bowling options? They opted for the latter, meaning they would have to bowl eight overs of spin; crucially, they won the toss, avoiding the possibility of dew affecting them.Watch the T20 World Cup on ESPN+

Sign up for ESPN+ and catch the Men’s T20 World Cup live in the US. Match highlights of England vs West Indies is available here in English, and here in Hindi (US only).

Morgan had talked up Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali’s credentials as “genuine allrounders” in his pre-match press conference but had rarely used them as such. Livingstone had bowled 10 overs in his T20I career and Moeen only 13.5 in his previous 10 appearances. In England’s two warm-up games, they bowled seven overs between them which cost 67 runs.Still, it was no surprise to see Moeen thrown the new ball, with West Indies opening the batting with Evin Lewis, a destructive left-hander with a vulnerability against offspin, and Lendl Simmons, a right-hander but a cautious starter. The first over was a score draw. Moeen dug the ball into the pitch on a good length and was looking to hit the top of the stumps but when his last ball was overpitched, Lewis shimmied down and slammed it back over his head for six.But Morgan gambled after Chris Woakes had removed Lewis – a slower ball which he mistimed to Moeen, backpedalling at mid-off from the edge of the circle to take a superb catch over his head – by giving Moeen a second over, even with Simmons on strike.He struck with its second ball. Simmons was hitting towards the big side – one boundary was 10 metres longer than the other – and picked out Livingstone at deep midwicket. “Brainless batting,” Nasser Hussain said on commentary, bringing to mind Daren Sammy’s famous riposte to a Mark Nicholas column after their 2016 title. But Moeen was rewarded for bowling straight, playing on Simmons’ ego by daring him to try and clear the boundary-rider.ESPNcricinfo LtdWith Shimron Hetmyer, another left-hander, in his sights, Moeen was able to rattle through four more dots to complete his first-ever maiden in T20 internationals, and after Hetmyer hit the first two balls of his third over for four – a loft over midwicket and a chip inside-out over extra cover – he struck again: a fast, flat offbreak rushed him on the pull, which he plinked straight to Morgan at mid-on.By the time Moeen had completed his fourth over – four dots and two singles, to end with his cheapest-ever T20I figures when bowling a full allocation – West Indies were 33 for 4, giving England a 76% chance of winning according to ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster. Crucially, the fifth bowler’s allocation – a pressing concern only half an hour before – had been fulfilled at the earliest possible opportunity.It was telling that Adil Rashid, who returned remarkable figures of 4 for 2 in 2.2 overs, was overlooked for the match award – with ESPNcricinfo’s impact tool also rating Moeen as the MVP on account of the fact he struck twice in the Powerplay, when wickets are most valuable. “When you bowl the first over you’re obviously trying to keep it tight,” Rashid said. “That’s the aim and if wickets come, wickets come. They may just have a look but you’ve still got to bowl well and I thought Mo bowled exceptionally well there, especially bowling four overs in a row. He kept it tight and picked up wickets as well, so that really set the tone.”Related

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England have severely underused Moeen in T20 cricket over the last 12 months. He went ten consecutive games without being picked across their tours of South Africa and India last winter and home fixtures against Sri Lanka in the summer, and when he has played, he has had a bit-part role with both bat and ball, often bowling a solitary over and hidden as low as No. 7 with the bat.But he has been embraced by Chennai Super Kings, who made him a senior player in their title-winning season after shelling out INR 7 crore (USD 930,000 approx) for him at the IPL auction, and his success appeared to remind England of his talents. “That role in the team is really good for me: I feel like I’m really involved with the bat and ball and in the field,” he said afterwards.”It obviously helped with so many left-handers in their team but I’ve been bowling all right: I’ve been bowling well in the nets so I’ve got quite confident, and I think because I’ve been playing cricket, I wasn’t as nervous as probably some of the other guys. I was actually glad to get the first ball.”Morgan said: “He summed up conditions beautifully, hit his lengths really well and took chances when his match-ups were right. The reason he hasn’t featured as much as we would have liked is down to conditions… [but] to come in and take his opportunity like he has – he’s full of confidence after his success at the IPL and he’s going to be a huge contributor throughout this campaign hopefully for us.”

After missing out on a T20 World Cup berth, he is again underlining his importance in an era of quick legspin

Shashank Kishore07-Feb-2022In the team meeting prior to Sunday’s first ODI, India’s captain Rohit Sharma revealed to Yuzvendra Chahal that he had noticed something from afar that may have been missed. The googly seemed to have gone missing from Chahal’s repertoire in South Africa, and the importance of bringing it back, because he usually executes with great success, was underlined again.When Kieron Pollard walked out to the middle three balls into Chahal’s first over, Virat Kohli quickly ran in to say something to the bowler. There was a slip, leg slip, short midwicket, mid-on and mid-off stationed. Was Kohli reminding Chahal of a plan? Perhaps. But what followed next wasn’t utterly unpredictable.Chahal landed a perfect wrong ‘un on fourth stump. Pollard attempted a biff into the leg side but was far from the pitch of the delivery. The ball dipped on him and beat his swing to crash into the stumps. It was ODI wicket No. 101 for Chahal. Only a ball earlier, he had Nicholas Pooran misjudging the length to be given lbw to a full delivery. He had bowled a straighter line – the legbreak coming out of the front of his hand – with more sidespin.Related

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“If I missed my length, there was an 80% chance of Pollard hitting me for six with that one,” Chahal told Rohit in a post-game chat on . “As you pointed out, I also realised [that] the more I mix it up, [and] the more I googlies I bowl, the better my legspin is.”The ball that followed Pollard’s dismissal was another wrong ‘un. A short leg was specifically placed for the lob. When new man Jason Holder stabbed at it without any conviction, the ball took the thick inside edge only to fall short of the fielder. Chahal was now in his element. Using the crease well, varying his trajectory and angles. The wrong ‘un was coming out of the hand superbly.Across 29 overs in South Africa, Chahal had bowled just 22 wrong ‘uns for one wicket. The South Africans had taken him for 6.27 to the over with the googlies, much higher than his overall economy of 4.42, variations included, since July 2018. It wasn’t as if the higher economy was made up for with more wickets; he managed just two in three games. But on Sunday, inside one just over, he had bowled two rippers and created two chances – one resulted in a wicket, the other missing narrowly.Legspinners the world over speak of their craft as being a confidence game. Sure, it may be true of every other facet of the game too, but legspin bowlers in particular need that much more going their way because their margin of error is at the bare minimum on surfaces largely tailored for batters. This margin for error reduces further when dew kicks in. This confidence only comes from having executed repeatedly, and with a great degree of success.After only four wickets at an economy of 8.26 in the first half of IPL 2021, Chahal bounced back to take 14 at 6.13 in the second leg•BCCI/IPLWhen Chahal was left out of the T20 World Cup squad, it appeared from the outside that the selectors had lost faith in his modus operandi of bowling loopy legbreaks mixed with his wrong ‘uns. Suddenly, “more pace on the ball” became the buzzword. In giving a rare peek into selection, Chetan Sharma, the chief selector, said they “needed a spinner who can find grip off the surface and deliver with slightly more speed”, while explaining the Rahul Chahar-vs-Chahal debate.When the World Cup started, Chahar found himself on the bench. It wasn’t long after that India were knocked out of semi-final contention and Chahar eventually got a look-in. Four wicketless overs for 30, and off he went. He went with the India A squad on the shadow tour to South Africa and finished his only four-day outing with figures of 1 for 125 across 28.3 overs. And Chahal, who appeared to have fallen off the radar, was back again for the home T20Is against New Zealand.Between his axe and recall, the selectors had a first-hand view of Chahal during the second leg of last year’s IPL. When the IPL came to a grinding halt in May due to Covid-19, Chahal had four wickets in seven games at an economy of 8.26. But when the league restarted in September, he was bowling at another level, finishing the season by picking another 14 wickets in eight games at an economy of 6.13 while in the UAE. It is perhaps these numbers and his performances at large that dictated his selection, even though his numbers in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s that followed were far from impressive: one wicket in five games at an economy of 8.47.The one thing Rohit has stressed on repeatedly has been the need to give role clarity to players and give them a long rope to ensure they don’t feel the axe hangs over them. This is perhaps why they went with Chahal’s experience in Ahmedabad, considering they also had two spinners – Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav – coming back from injuries.There would have been the temptation to play the rather quicker legspinner in Ravi Bishnoi, but in giving Chahal the first go, it seemed a clear sign of Chahal continuing to be a key member of the squad. And his Player-of-the-Match 4 for 49 was merely another reiteration that in an era of quick wristspin, bowlers like him who bowl slower through the air can equally make a massive impact.Rohit’s words to Chahal at the end of the same interview were particularly revealing. “You’re a very important player for us. I want you to play with the same mindset. There will be ups and downs but it’s important to have the right mindset.”As an experienced bowler who is rediscovering some of the lost mojo, this is all you want to hear from your captain.

The India batter smashed 89 off 56 while Sri Lanka’s youngsters had more sedate returns

Andrew Fidel Fernando25-Feb-20222:14

Ishan Kishan: Our approach is to attack the bowlers rather than wait for a bad ball

Seven balls into his innings, Ishan Kishan gets a full toss outside his off stump. In a blink, it has scorched its way to the cover boundary. The next ball from Chamika Karunaratne is a shorter, slower delivery. The shoulders swing into action. The elbows are a blur. This ball blazes and takes an even quicker route to the rope. Straight of cover this time.In the late 1990s, when Sanath Jayasuriya reigned over India versus Sri Lanka fixtures, word on the streets in India was that Jayasuriya had springs hidden in his bat. How else did he get the ball to boing off over the infield when the likes of Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad bowled at him?Related

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Kishan’s bat functions more like rocket launcher than trampoline. That he is no conventional “timer of the ball” is clear, because he throws every milligram of his body weight into some of his shots. But this is not the same thing as saying he does not have timing. On evenings like these, the force that goes up from his toes, through his hips, chest, shoulders, arms, wrists, seems to be matched by the energy that his bat, of its own accord, is producing. It’s big-effort batting mixed with glorious-timing results. The best of both worlds. It took seven years at the international level for Jayasuriya to mesh his explosive power with batting’s more refined virtues. Kishan is in his ninth T20I.But we know where the refinement came for Kishan, right? He’s hit 1452 runs in the IPL, and commanded a pay packet of more than US$2 million in the most-recent auction. He’s played 56 innings in that competition, and 108 T20 innings overall, and in that time, batted in a host of match situations and positions. On Thursday evening, he had to face two 140kph-plus bowlers up front, and a legspinner and a left-arm spinner, none of whom seriously troubled him. He batted, as on his debut against England last year, and in several internationals since, as if pounding bowlers of every description was a birthright.When Sri Lanka came out to make their response to Kishan’s 89 off 56 and India’s 199 for 2, they had some promising young batters too. Pathum Nissanka, a first-class star who had sort of made the switch to being a decent T20 batter, having top-scored in the recent series in Australia, was opening the innings. Charith Asalanka, who was excellent in last year’s T20 World Cup, was batting lower down.Through the course of this tour, you might notice their better shots. Like Asalanka’s ramp off Jasprit Bumrah at the end of the fourth over. Or his flat, hard, reverse sweep through point off Ravindra Jadeja in the 14th.But you might also notice this. Young India players are largely doing things they’ve done before, going into their memory banks, calling up moments from their past in which they’ve triumphed in similar situations, against oppositions of perhaps somewhat worse but not-dissimilar quality. Sri Lanka’s young players are always reaching. The next level. That big step. This vast chasm they have to somehow bridge.Occasionally, they manage it. But often, they don’t. You see their talent warring with their inexperience when Kamil Mishara, who has all of 15 T20s (of any description) on his ledger, punches the second ball he’s ever faced from Bumrah to the cover fence on the up, before failing to connect with the next three deliveries, as Bumrah mixes it up. You see it in Janith Liyanage’s pained 11 off 17, or even in Nissanka’s fatal first ball, where he failed to account for the low bounce in the Lucknow pitch. Even Asalanka, the Sri Lanka batter who has best transitioned to T20Is in the last few years, was dropped twice on his way to his half-century.We will not tread over SLC’s many sins here, because they have been lavishly documented in these pages. But even if their officials were competent, Sri Lanka will never have the likes of this Indian cricketing machine, of which Kishan is a proud product. There are some harsh judgements on the Sri Lankan system, but also some bald economics. For much of Kishan’s IPL career, he was coached by one of Sri Lanka’s greatest cricketing minds.Sri Lanka have two more T20s, and two Tests, in a country where they have done exceedingly poorly in both those formats. If they are to make something of this tour, they will have to reach for the kinds of performances they have never produced before.India, like Kishan, ferocious at home in any case, need only to do what they’ve been doing.

When he came to the crease, NZ needed 181 off 130 balls; Bracewell ended with 127* off 82, with the lower order for company

Deivarayan Muthu11-Jul-2022Michael Bracewell is known as “The Beast” to his New Zealand and Wellington Firebirds team-mates. On the recent Test tour to England, he had been beasted with the ball, and questions were raised over his selection ahead of left-arm fingerspinner Ajaz Patel.On Sunday, in the ODI series opener against Ireland in Malahide, similar questions were raised over his selection, although Mitchell Santner wasn’t available to play after having a bout of Covid-19. Bracewell struggled for control with the ball against the right-hand pair of Harry Tector and Curtis Campher, but turned up with the bat under immense pressure to show what is truly capable of in New Zealand’s white-ball side.When Bracewell came to the crease, the game seemed all but over for New Zealand, who at that stage needed another 181 off 130 balls in a chase of 301, with only the lower order for company for Bracewell. Some of the Irish fans were already celebrating in the stands, but Bracewell hushed them and powered New Zealand to an incredible victory with a calculated assault in only his fourth ODI, thus ending unbeaten on 127 off just 82 balls.Related

Ajaz Patel peers through sliding door to see Michael Bracewell

Report: Bracewell's 127* the centrepiece of incredible NZ drama

Campher gleaned seam movement off the deck and swing in the air. Bracewell was particularly cautious against him and offspinner Simi Singh, who was matched up with the left-hander Bracewell. It was Ish Sodhi who took greater risks in a 61-run seventh-wicket partnership with Bracewell.Bracewell then seamlessly shifted through the gears and took the chase deep. It ultimately came down to one man vs the other. Bracewell vs Craig Young. New Zealand needed 20 off the last over, with just one wicket in hand. Young’s plan was to bowl wide yorkers away from the swinging arc of Bracewell and deny him the access to the shorter leg-side boundary.Bracewell proactively veered across off stump and scooped the first two balls for fours, with both square leg and fine leg in. His smarts and power dismantled Ireland’s best-laid plans as he then jumped across off and walloped the next two balls for four and six, both over midwicket. He added another four and six to the sequence to cap a sensational turnaround.Bracewell is used to dealing with pressure. He has been around the domestic scene for over a decade, and captains Firebirds. His Malahide miracle is somewhat comparable to the rescue act in New Plymouth in the Super Smash in January earlier this year. Firebirds were 24 for 4 against Central Stags in pursuit of an imposing 229, but despite wickets tumbling around him, Bracewell turned on the beast mode in cracking an unbeaten 141 off 65 balls. Coincidentally, he had also finished that match with a No.11 for company, with one ball to spare.Michael Bracewell on his first hundred: “Pretty proud moment walking off the field and seeing all the boys’ faces”•Sportsfile/Getty Images”Those experiences… you always learn from and learn what you’ve done well, and probably what you can do better next time,” Bracewell told NZC after scripting New Zealand’s come-from-behind win against Ireland. “I think that’s the benefit of playing plenty of domestic cricket and putting yourself in those pressure situations; you sort of learn how to get through them, and [are] fortunate enough to come on the right side in a couple of times now.”Bracewell said that the win didn’t sink in until he walked off to a rousing reception from his team-mates and family, who were among the sell-out crowd in Malahide.”That was pretty special. That was when it sunk in that I just got a hundred for my country and it was a pretty proud moment walking off the field and seeing all the boys’ faces,” he said. “Yeah, something that I will cherish for a very long time.”[I] had mum and dad come over a couple of days ago and my wife Lauren and little baby Lennox. Yeah, it has been special; Lennox and Lauren have been here for a while now. Nice for them to see a win on the tour. And for mum and dad, I’m pretty proud to put on the performance for them in the crowd.”Bracewell’s big-hitting and left-handedness in the middle order could be an attractive option to have, especially in a T20 World Cup year. And if Bracewell can tighten up his offspin, New Zealand could have a variety of spinners to choose from in white-ball cricket: Sodhi (legspin), Santner (left-arm fingerspin), and Michael Rippon (left-arm wristspin) being the other options.It is this depth on various fronts that has transformed New Zealand into a force to reckon with in white-ball cricket – with or without their seniors. Bracewell’s emergence is the latest embodiment of it.

The ODI series loss in India won’t help the qualification process for 2023 World Cup and, more immediately, the mindset ahead of the T20 World Cup

Firdose Moonda11-Oct-20221:37

Will South Africa be able to head to the T20 World Cup with the right mindset?

South Africa head to the men’s T20 World Cup in Australia with what seems like 99 problems, and the pitch ain’t one of them.They could have been playing in Melbourne or Mumbai, or even on the moon, and might still have batted with “one foot in India and one foot in Australia”, as Makhaya Ntini put it on ESPNcricinfo’s post-match programme, explaining the discombobulation that defined their efforts in the deciding ODI on Tuesday.”You can’t expect the players to be up for every single game,” Mark Boucher, South Africa’s outgoing head coach, said after the game. “That’s when you’ve got to rely on your technical stuff and your mental stuff to pull you through, and we’ve been a little bit weak in both those departments. Today, especially.”Later in his press engagement, Boucher said “mental fatigue kicking in” – a worrying phrase at the start of a summer that includes a T20 World Cup, a Test tour of Australia, and the inaugural SA20. It also asks questions about what could be making South Africa’s cricketers so tired, given that they don’t play as much as many international sides.Related

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Boucher offered a throwaway line about T20 leagues, and even though five of the current squad – David Miller, Quinton de Kock, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dwaine Pretorius and Heinrich Klaasen – played in the CPL and three others – Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma and Bjorn Fortuin – were part of a Namibia Global T20, overworked players cannot be the real reason behind their blowout.To be fair, there’s some illness in the camp, with Bavuma, Shamsi and most recently Keshav Maharaj all forced to sit out of matches. Bavuma and Shamsi missed the last two; Maharaj led in Bavuma’s absence and then had to miss the final one. All three are essential to South Africa’s T20 World Cup plans, even if two of them are under extreme, perhaps exhausting, scrutiny.Bavuma’s strike rate in T20 cricket has long been a talking point, more so after he missed out on an SA20 contract. And he has only scored 11 runs in four innings on this India tour. With Reeza Hendricks in red-hot form, there’s talk of whether the captain will drop himself, or be dropped, and that may be one of the things creating anxiety in the camp.Boucher played it straight, as he has to, and acknowledged there is concern around Bavuma’s form, but not his leadership.”Temba will want to try and get some sort of form before a World Cup. We do still have two warm-up games and the conditions will suit his style of batting,” Boucher said. “We’ll try to get him back up and running again and get him into the nets and hopefully give him a knock or two before the World Cup starts and see where he is at. He is the captain and we treat him like that.”Mark Boucher acknowledged there is concern around Temba Bavuma’s form, but not his leadership.•Getty ImagesShamsi doesn’t seem to have the same level of support.Although he was the No. 1-ranked T20I bowler not too long ago [and is still at No. 5], Boucher described Maharaj as South Africa’s “No. 1 spinner”, albeit “especially in the one-day format”.The reality is that in Australian conditions and on form, Maharaj is probably also ahead of Shamsi in T20Is, if only because Shamsi’s recent performances have been erratic, while Maharaj has maintained consistency. Considering how long Shamsi waited for his chance during Imran Tahir’s reign as the sole spinner and how quickly he has fallen behind Maharaj, it’s understandable that Shamsi may not be in great spirits. He is known to be one of those that forms the life and soul of the change room, and if he is down, it can’t help the team.Then there’s the elephant in the room: Boucher’s imminent departure, to the IPL, which has necessitated his resignation from the South Africa job.CSA has admitted it was taken by surprise by Boucher’s decision and has no succession plan in place. The board is likely to appoint an interim coach for the Australia Tests – the last time that happened was when Enoch Nkwe took the team to India, where they lost, and CSA went into freefall afterwards – and then split the red- and white-ball roles for the future. Several insiders confirmed that in the little scouting CSA has done to replace Boucher so far, it has found no-one interested in taking the job.Meanwhile, Boucher is leaving with a year left on his contract, which was due to expire after the 2023 ODI World Cup, a tournament South Africa are scrambling to get to, more so after their series defeat to India.South Africa are in 11th place on the points table [the top seven teams and hosts India are guaranteed places at the tournament] and have matches left to play. In theory, they should feel confident of their chances. They only need to win three of their remaining five games [three against England, two versus Netherlands] to finish above West Indies in eighth place. But that’s not all. Even if they manage that minimum requirement, Sri Lanka and Ireland can catch them, but they both have tough assignments. Sri Lanka have six matches; three each against Afghanistan, who have won ten of their 12 so far, and New Zealand, who have 11 wins from 15. To challenge for eighth place, Sri Lanka have to win three, and if they do, South Africa will need one more win than Sri Lanka. Ireland host Bangladesh next May and need to win all three matches to finish in the top eight. In that case, South Africa will also need four wins.1:31

Ntini: South Africa batted like they had one foot in Australia

On paper, it sounds doable but on the field, it may not be.Apart from the obvious challenge that England, in particular, will pose, that series is sandwiched between the group stage and knockouts of the SA20. That could work in South Africa’s favour, if players are in form, or against them, if the reverse is true. It will also put the spotlight on Bavuma, who won’t be playing in the SA20, and doubtless that will throw up many of the same questions it has this time.And there’s the Netherlands matches, which many will view as easy for South Africa to get points, but they are scheduled at the end of March, when the first-choice players will be at the IPL. So South Africa can’t consider the matches already won.”It’s not ideal,” Boucher said, even though that won’t be his problem. “The reason why we are in this situation is because we haven’t always had continuity within our one-day team and there’s been various reasons – players leaving to come to IPL, and Covid-19. There has been a bit of inconsistency. But, the guys will know what’s required. They’ve got to win those games and if we don’t we just have to accept the fact that we will have to go and qualify for the World Cup.”Ultimately, that’s what it may come down to and it’s not the end of the world. A qualification tournament in Zimbabwe in June, where South Africa are very likely to be among the two best sides, shouldn’t be anything more than a minor inconvenience. But it isn’t. It’s embarrassing. And South African cricket has already been through too many of those over the last three years to stomach another one.

In T20, how quickly a player scores depends on how quickly they accelerate, not on their strike rate at the end

Kartikeya Date06-Dec-2022When cricket teams lose, the tendency among supporters is to look for scapegoats. These tend not to have anything to do with the team’s competitiveness, but rather focus on “respectability”. Thus, when India lose a Test match or Test series, attention is inevitably drawn to the batters, though it is the bowlers who couldn’t bowl the opposition out twice. In T20, the blame tends to be directed at the batters who score the fewest runs, though it is the speed of run-scoring that determines competitiveness.In T20 matches the field is spread, and so singles are on offer pretty much on every ball a batter faces. So producing a high average is not very difficult (compared to doing so in Test cricket or even ODI cricket) if a player is prepared to score slow enough.Virat Kohli’s scoring rate after 4008 runs in T20Is stands at 137.96. Let’s say it is 138 runs per 100 balls faced. Compared to other players, that appears to be a healthy scoring rate. That is until you consider how long it takes him to achieve that rate. This is given in the table below. Kohli’s average T20I innings lasts 27.1 balls, from which he produces 37.5 runs. The same figures for the next 14 most prolific T20I batters for India are in the table below Kohli’s figures.Related

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Immediately below Kohli in the table are India’s current opening pair. Let’s say that they both score at the same rate as him. Except, that they survive 20 and 24 balls per innings respectively compared to Kohli’s 27. This means that they get to that scoring rate quicker. The last column below gives the difference between Kohli’s scoring rate and that of other players after the average number of balls of the other player’s innings. Kohli scores 5.7% slower than Rohit Sharma, 5.2% slower than KL Rahul, 27% slower than Suryakumar Yadav, and so on.