All posts by h716a5.icu

From a franchise final to leading her country, Sophie Devine chats to Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Mar-2024In the latest episode of ESPNcricinfo Powerplay, New Zealand captain Sophie Devine chats to Valkerie Baynes and Firdose Moonda about hosting England straight off the back of the WPL Final, physical and mental health and where franchise cricket fits in the scheme of women’s cricket.

All the stats highlights from West Indies’ dominating win over Afghanistan in the final group game

Sampath Bandarupalli18-Jun-2024218 for 5 – West Indies’ total against Afghanistan in Gros Islet is their highest at the men’s T20 World Cup. Their previous highest was 205 for 6 against South Africa in 2007 and 205 for 5 against Australia in 2012. It is also the highest by any team in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 and the joint-fourth across all editions.West Indies posted their highest team total at a men’s T20 World Cup•ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 – The 218 by West Indies is now the highest total against Afghanistan in T20Is since they became a Full Member nation in 2017 and the second-highest ever, behind the 225 for 7 by Ireland in 2013.92 for 1 – West Indies’ total in the powerplay against Afghanistan is the highest by any team in the first six overs at the men’s T20 World Cup, bettering the 91 for 1 by Netherlands in the 2014 edition against Ireland.36 – Runs scored by West Indies in the fourth over bowled by Azmatullah Omarzai are the joint-most in an over in men’s T20Is. As many as 36 runs were scored by Yuvraj Singh (off Stuart Broad in 2007), Kieron Pollard (off Akila Dananjaya in 2021) and Dipendra Singh Airee (in 2024 off Kamran Khan) when they hit six sixes in an over, while India also scored 36 in an over against Afghanistan earlier this year, which included a no-ball and five sixes.152 – Runs scored by West Indies across the powerplay (1-6) and death overs (17-20) against Afghanistan. It is the highest any team aggregated across the powerplay and death overs in a men’s T20I (where ball-by-ball data is available). The previous highest was 151 runs by Nepal against Mongolia at the Asian Games last year.104 – Margin of West Indies’ win by runs in Gros Islet is their second-biggest in men’s T20Is, behind the 134-run win against Uganda earlier in the tournament.It is also the second-biggest losing margin for Afghanistan in T20Is, behind the 116-run defeat against England in the 2012 T20 World Cup.Nicholas Pooran stands at No. 1 among West Indies’ six hitters in men’s T20I cricket•ESPNcricinfo Ltd296.3 – Nicholas Pooran’s strike rate across the powerplay and death overs during his knock of 98 off 53. He scored 80 runs in the 27 balls faced in those two phases, hitting six fours and eight sixes. Pooran scored only 18 runs off 26 balls in the middle overs without hitting a boundary.37 – Runs scored by Pooran off Rashid Khan, in 16 balls. No batter has taken more runs off him in a T20I. In fact, in all T20s, only once has Rashid leaked more runs to a batter in a game, when Chris Gayle hammered 42 off 16 in a 2018 IPL match. Manan Vohra scored 37 off 14 against him in IPL 2017.4 – Batters to be run out in the nineties in a men’s T20I, including Pooran against Afghanistan. Only one of the previous three instances came at the T20 World Cup – Chris Gayle, who also scored 98 before being run out in the 2010 edition, against India.2012 – Runs by Pooran in his T20I career, making him the first man to cross the 2000-mark for West Indies in this format. Pooran is now the leading six-hitter for West Indies in T20Is, with 128 sixes, surpassing Gayle’s 124.

SRH’s opening duo of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma had been dynamic, but they were stopped in their tracks with the title on the line

Karthik Krishnaswamy27-May-20241:21

What changed for Starc towards the end of the season?

They’re called Travishek because it’s the easiest way to combine their names, but it also makes sense because Travis Head takes first strike for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Abhishek Sharma starts at the non-striker’s end. Almost as a rule.Before the final of IPL 2024, there had only been three exceptions to this. Abhishek had taken first strike twice against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and once against Lucknow Super Giants. On all three occasions, an offspinner had bowled the first over.On Sunday, against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Abhishek took first strike for the fourth time this season. This time he wasn’t facing an offspinner.He was, instead, up against Mitchell Starc.You could understand why Head might have felt less than enthusiastic about the prospect of facing Starc with a new ball. Just watch this. And that’s a video from six years ago. There was also this, of course, from last Tuesday in Ahmedabad:

Mitch Starc, tomaye mene gelam!pic.twitter.com/Etq4is5Cgw

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 21, 2024

Over all the years they have come up against each other, Starc has rattled Head’s stumps with full, fast balls bending past the outside edge, and rattled them with balls threatening to shape away before nipping back past the inside edge.For most of IPL 2024, Starc had looked like a bowler not quite in full control of the complicated mechanics of his run-up and delivery. The ball wasn’t coming out of his hand in quite the way he would have liked it to and was landing in the slot, meeting the middle of bats rather than swerving and ducking past their edges. By Tuesday, however, he seemed to have found that elusive thing they call rhythm. Right in time for a meeting with his old sparring buddy, Head.It fell to Abhishek, then, to negotiate Starc and the brand-new white ball.Related

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Abhishek could have been out three times in Starc’s first four balls. There was a swing and miss off the first ball, and a poke and miss off the second, both regulation balls from a left-arm swing bowler that left the left-hand batter outside off stump. Then, Abhishek opened his bat face, steered the fourth ball to the left of deep third, and took a chance on a tight second run. A better throw may well have beaten his dive.Looking back at how Sunday night unfolded, might SRH have to have lost Abhishek to any of those three balls, in any of those routine ways, rather than the way they actually did? Like, I mean, here’s how it happened:

Ball of the season?pic.twitter.com/fnl7oWkhQb

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 26, 2024

Yes, KKR social-media admin person. That was, in all likelihood, the ball of the season. It was angled into the left-handed Abhishek, and it pitched around middle stump. It would likely have missed leg stump if it had continued along its initial trajectory, but it began to shape against the angle just before it pitched, with devastating consequences.It clocked 139kph, and that doesn’t sound hugely impressive when you pit it against the mid-to-late 150s balls that Gerald Coetzee and Mayank Yadav have bowled this season, but 139kph is blindingly fast when the ball swings like that. Particularly when it swings from that length. The length that freezes batters’ feet and squares them up. The length that shaves paint off the top of the stumps. The top, on this occasion, of off stump.You need all those inadequate words of description, because Starc, when asked about it in his post-match press conference, only had this to offer: “Not much to it. Run in, try and hit the stumps, try to swing it. That’s what I’ve tried to do for the last 14 years. Doesn’t always happen. I’ve been lucky enough that it’s happened twice in the last two games, with Trav as well.”I mean, that’s part of my experience that I’m supposed to be bringing to the group is to start us off and lead the way [with] powerplay wickets. We’ve seen how important they are through the tournament. We were fantastic in the powerplay again today, as we were in the first qualifier against them.”It’s always nice to bowl a ball like that, but there’s nothing special about the plan: just run in, try and bowl fast, swing it, and see if one can hit the top of the stumps. It’s nice when it comes off.”Abhishek Sharma is bowled by an unplayable delivery from Mitchell Starc•BCCIWith time, with distance, with a little less recency bias, we may be able to pick out other candidates for ball of the season. When that happens, our selection is likely to include another work of top-of-off artistry from a KKR bowler: Vaibhav Arora to Shai Hope at Eden Gardens.It was similar to Starc vs Abhishek, sliding past the outside edge to light up the bails, except it was from a right-arm bowler to a right-hand batter, and it was seam movement rather than swing.Both Starc vs Abhishek and Arora vs Hope showcased a key piece of KKR’s title-winning jigsaw. KKR took the joint-most powerplay wickets of any team in IPL 2024, and their 27 came in 14 innings as against Rajasthan Royals’ 15.Starc took 11 powerplay wickets, and Arora nine. KKR finished the season with two of its top four wicket-takers in that phase.IPL 2024 was – it still feels weird to use the simple past tense rather than the present perfect – the season of the stratospheric total, and the two finalists were the teams that reached for the stratosphere most often. But where KKR’s batting explosions could come from anywhere in a line-up of immense power and depth, SRH’s owed theirs, for most part, to a turbocharged opening pair and a six-hitting machine in the middle-order.After SRH won the toss and opted to bat on Sunday night, KKR’s clearest path to victory was to take these three out as cheaply as possible, and the top two as quickly as possible.Starc, with Abhishek in his sights rather than Head, had done half that job. The surviving half of Travishek now took strike to Arora, bowling right-arm over.Vaibhav Arora got Travis Head with sharp swing•AFP/Getty ImagesOver the last couple of years, as Head has dominated a World Test Championship final, a World Cup semi-final, a World Cup final and an IPL with his daredevilry, a theory has developed around how best to bowl to him, particularly early in his innings: angle the ball into him from right-arm around or left-arm over, and cramp him for room. Head likes to stay leg side of the ball against the fast bowlers and free his arms, and he’s bloody good at doing that – under no circumstances, then, should you give him any semblance of room.Before Sunday, Head had fallen four times to fast bowling in the powerplay this season. He had been out once to the right-arm over angle, when Chennai Super Kings’ Tushar Deshpande had slanted the ball across him and got him to hit towards the longer off-side boundary. He had been dismissed three times by the ball angling into him from left-arm over.Arora began from right-arm over, in theory Head’s preferred angle. It can be a difficult angle to bowl from if you’re bowling to someone like Head, because there’s only a tiny sliver of a line you can bowl without either offering room or straying onto his pads. It’s particularly tricky if, like Arora, you swing the ball away from the left-hander.1:09

Moody: SRH’s batters have failed to adapt to conditions that are not batting friendly

In those circumstances, Arora bowled the perfect delivery. It started some way outside leg stump, and then began to swing, pitching roughly in line with leg stump and reaching Head when it was just about in line with off stump. Head’s feet tend not to move all that much even when he plays some of his best shots; it can even be an advantage when he can free his arms and swing cleanly with a vertical or horizontal bat. This ball, though, drew a defensive response, and it mattered that his back foot was stuck in its initial position. He followed the ball with his hands, showing only half his bat face.Head has enjoyed days when he has offered similar responses to similar balls early in his innings and survived. Cricket can be like that, with the slimmest margins between the play-and-miss and the edge to the keeper.On another day, Head may have survived this Arora ball, and forced him to go back and bowl another ball, and another ball, all the time contending with the small margins of bowling to a champion.On this day, it was Arora who ran towards his KKR team-mates, arms extended, as if to show just how much this wicket meant to the balance of this match. “Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much.”This IPL final was 12 balls old. KKR were already in front, by a significant margin. The tournament’s best new-ball pair had won a decisive victory over its scariest opening partnership.Move aside, Travishek. Make way for Starora.

The two batters combined well as India began to fight back against New Zealand

Ashish Pant18-Oct-20240:45

Manjrekar: Sarfaraz a 2024 version of Javed Miandad

Virat Kohli and Sarfaraz Khan don’t have a lot in common, but almost nine years ago at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the venue for the first Test between India and New Zealand, they combined to give one of the moments of IPL 2015.Sarfaraz, then 18, while playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore had thrashed an audacious 21-ball 45 not out which included a number of physics-defying shots. While walking back to the change room, he was greeted by an awe-struck Kohli, the captain then, who appreciated his innings with folded hands and a bow. The video quickly went viral.Kohli and Sarfaraz’s paths haven’t crossed a lot since their RCB days which ended after Sarfaraz was released in 2018. It was fitting that the first time that they were batting together in an international game was at the very ground where they had shared a lovely moment all those years back.When the two got together, India were in a spot of bother trailing New Zealand by 261 runs. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma had fallen in quick succession after a good start and that meant, Sarfaraz and Kohli had to do the rebuilding exercise. What they had in their favour was a pitch which had settled down. What they had to overcome was scoreboard pressure, and maybe a demon or two.Kohli and Sarfaraz were two of the five India batters to fall for a duck in the first innings where India were bundled out for 46. Kohli had not scored a fifty in a Test match in 2024. It didn’t seem like he’s been out of form but he wasn’t converting his starts as comfortably as when he was at his peak. He’s also had to miss a few games for personal reasons. Sarfaraz has been fighting for his place in the India side since making his debut against England earlier this year. There is a chance he wouldn’t even have been in the playing XI had Shubman Gill been fit. But the way the two of them played belied the pressure that was on them.1:08

Manjrekar: Kohli attacked really well against spin

After four balls of staunch defence, Sarfaraz went to his favourite sweep shot taking Ajaz Patel for back-to-back fours. It was an important passage of play. Ajaz was the one who had dismissed the Indian openers, but all of a sudden he was not allowed to settle into any sort of rhythm. Kohli, who was on 9 off 22 at the time having played a few tentative strokes, laced Will O’Rourke for a delightful cover drive. And when Sarfaraz guided the quick bowler past the slips the Chinnaswamy Stadium which had been silenced for a bit, found its voice again.It wasn’t a roar just yet. More of a hum. Sometimes that’s what the scoreboard does. India had reached 121 for 2, were going at close to 4.70 runs an over, but were still behind by 235 runs. Then came two shots from Sarfaraz, which wound the clock back right to 2015. Both shots came in an O’Rourke over. Both shots highly unconventional for a Test match.O’Rourke tried testing Sarfaraz with a bouncer, but the line was outside off and with the pitch not as quick, the batter used all the pace on offer to ramp him for six. Two balls later, O’Rourke went short again. This was a quicker bouncer aimed right at Sarfaraz’s body. But he arched back, and while almost ducking, plopped the face of the bat in the same path as the ball and got it over the keeper’s head even as he was falling onto his backside.This was the moment. Kohli was in splits. Bengaluru was delirious.Sarfaraz Khan and Virat Kohli scored quickly in the third session•Getty ImagesBy this time, Kohli also wanted to join in on the fun. As Ajaz came on to bowl his 11th over, he jumped down the track and smashed the left-arm spinner for a straight six. But it was the reaction after the shot which showed that he was zoned in. Kohli took a step to his right, adjusted the straps of his gloves and just nodded while looking at Sarfaraz. The next ball, out came a sweep through square leg which brought up the fifty partnership off just 45 balls before Kohli ended the over with another four through long leg.In all this, the crowd made sure to make their presence felt. They were quiet for most of the day with New Zealand and Rachin Ravindra piling on the runs, so much so that when the India innings began even the forward defence was met with a loud roar. When Kohli and Sarfaraz finally got things going India’s way, pandemonium set in.The ‘RCB, RCB’ chants came up but were soon replaced by ‘India, India’. The Bharat Army was singing its songs, the Mexican wave lasted for a good half an hour, the noise from the was deafening and in all this, Sarfaraz and Kohli carried on.The camaraderie between the two was also very much visible. The first ball of the 45th over by O’Rourke was a wayward short ball well down leg. Sarfaraz instinctively flapped at the ball to no avail, and then sheepishly glanced at Kohli, knowing he had erred with 15 minutes left for stumps. Kohli unimpressed, looked to his right and almost immediately broke into a wide grin without saying much.The duo added 136 runs for the third wicket and reduced the deficit to 125. It would have been a near-perfect day for the two if not for Kohli falling off the final ball. But they will know that with their backs to the wall, they have helped India dream the unthinkable. Only once in the history of Test cricket has a team won after falling for less than 46 in the first innings. That happened in 1887. If Sarfaraz can last for any length of time and help the hosts take a sizeable lead, Bengaluru could witness some unprecedented scenes in the next couple of days.

Counterattacking 77 suggests middle order is his natural berth – even if he doesn’t want to give up first-drop

Vithushan Ehantharajah29-Nov-2024Despite playing 19 Tests together, day two at Hagley Oval was just the eighth time Ollie Pope and Harry Brook have batted together.You’d think a pair who have been locked at No. 3 and No. 5 for the last two years would be finishing each other’s sentences by now, even if the bloke sandwiched between them has been hogging one end. A four-ball duck going into lunch meant partnership-blocker Joe Root was no longer a problem.It was only at the fall of the next wicket – Ben Duckett – that Brook and Pope found themselves together at 71 for 4, New Zealand still ahead by 277 on first innings runs. Over the next 31 overs, they made up for lost time, with an engaging 151-stand that probably made them think “we should do this more often”.Related

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There’s a reason they have not, and it’s because Pope has not been able to stick around for long enough. In fact, eight out of the 32 times Brook has walked to the middle, Pope has been walking the other way.With Pope shifted down to six as the designated wicketkeeper, a union had better odds. Nevertheless, success was not guaranteed.This was only the fourth time they have combined for more than 50 runs, and only the second for a hundred. The first of those was a remarkable 176 against Pakistan in Rawalpindi, the pair going at 7.08 an over as England blitzed 506 for 4 on the opening day.Pope was the far more convincing of the two here, more dominant (77 runs to 64) and much less streaky. Glenn Phillips pulled off a stunner of a one-handed catch at backward point, plucking a full-blooded cut out of the air while horizontal to see Pope off. The same Phillips who was responsible for the first of four drops off Brook, who had 18 at the time. Brook finished the day unbeaten with 132 and a pang of guilt.”Brooky, as I was walking off, came and apologised to me,” Pope revealed at stumps. “I was wondering why he made a beeline for me.”A three through the covers off his 62nd ball brought up the century stand with Brook, and also took Pope past 55 – the total number of runs he had managed in the previous series, against Pakistan.Upon returning home from averaging 11 across five innings, he put in the work and consulted England legend Alec Stewart, a long-time confidant at Surrey. It was an open discussion rather than an array of sessions in the nets – “I didn’t get him on the dog stick, he’s too high up for that, I think.” Pope wanted familiar eyes to establish what was going wrong.”It was more about ‘what does it look like when I’m at my best’ because that was a frustrating thing, I wasn’t getting to 20 or 30, to allow myself to go on to that big score.

“I want to be number three, I want to keep trying to make it mine. I’ve had too many low scores there but I’ve also managed to put together some good knocks this year batting at three. It’s a job I want to do going forward”

“We talked about having that calmness at the crease. When I’m playing well there’s that clarity in how I want to play, not trying to rush my way to 20 or 30.”There were cuts over the slips – most of them deliberate – including one from a front-foot square driving position that forced him to readjust after the ball bounced more than expected. He pounced on any width, a sound gameplay given how diligent New Zealand’s seamers had been with their straight lines. On a Friday littered with rogue pull shots, his were immaculate.Did he seem calmer? A bit. Though perhaps even that is all about perception. What might seem skittish and chaotic at No. 3 is brave and proactive at No. 6, especially given the situation that greeted him at the crease. Pope, however, declared he would have done little different had he walked out in the fourth over – when Zak Crawley was dismissed – instead of the 22nd.”If I was batting at three, I’d have tried to play exactly the same way as today. The biggest difference at three is you set the tone a lot more, if you play well you can put your team in a really strong position.”The fun thing at six, you might come in a 350 for 4 and it might be your job to push the game forward. [Or] you can get your team out a tricky situation. Both roles are good fun, just slightly different.”Different roles, different requirements. But it does seem Pope’s natural disposition is for either progressing a good situation or – as he did here – counterattacking out of a bad one. A thoroughbred greyhound has not won Best In Show at Crufts in 67 years, but let it loose into a final bend and watch it rinse a retriever.While that is a tad reductive, it is worth noting Pope was reared as a six. It was from that position he flourished for Surrey at the start of his career, with 885 runs, four centuries and an average of 68.07.Pope cuts the ball away behind square•Phil Walter/Getty ImagesA Test debut against India at Lord’s arrived in the 2018 summer – at No. 4. His maiden innings ended up being the first time he had batted in the opening 20 overs of a first-class match. He will empathise with Jacob Bethell walking out at No. 3 in Christchurch for the first time in his professional career.As tedious as it may be to repeat, an England side with Root batting at three makes the most sense. It would allow Pope to move to No. 5 when Jamie Smith returns to take the gloves back at seven.The one barrier to such a move? Well, Pope.”I want to be number three, I want to keep trying to make it mine. I’ve had too many low scores there but I’ve also managed to put together some good knocks this year batting at three.”It’s a job I want to do going forward and I think my skillset is still developing. It’s definitely a job I want to keep doing.”Given he began out of position and rarely settled thereafter, you can understand why he wants to continue at three. And on paper, he’s doing well enough; despite the Pakistan aberration, the average at first drop is 40.28 from 47 innings, since he pitched for the gig when Ben Stokes became Test captain. Half of the six centuries he has there have come this year, while this half-century took him past 3000 career runs.Ironically, Pope building on this opening knock may scupper his hopes of fully locking down that No. 3 as his own. Though Ollie Robinson arrives into the country on Saturday afternoon to replace the injured Jordan Cox, England may decide to leave Pope as their wicketkeeper to give them a longer look at Bethell.Stokes and Brendon McCullum have shown they are not afraid to get funky with their selections. And shifting Pope to a place where his natural energy flows unencumbered falls right in that bracket.

For a second season in a row, the same contest at the same ground produced the same, pulsating finish

ESPNcricinfo staff03-May-2025It’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Chennai Super Kings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Yash Dayal has the ball. MS Dhoni is on strike. Ravindra Jadeja is at the other end. A 200-plus chase at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium has come down to the final over. Sounds familiar? For a second season in a row, the same contest at the same ground produced the same, pulsating finish. And yet again, when all the nerves and dust settled, it was the left-arm quick Dayal who held his own.Here’s how Shashwat Kumar called it on ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary:Related

Dayal trumps CSK in last over again to take RCB to the top

19.1 Yash Dayal to Dhoni, 1 run
low full toss on middle and leg. Dhoni cannot get under this and scuffs it down the ground to long on. Throws his head back in disappointment soon after19.2 Yash Dayal to Jadeja, 1 run
full toss on middle and leg and Jadeja cannot put it away. Drags it towards deep mid wicket and this over has begun with two singles off two balls19.3 Yash Dayal to Dhoni, OUT
massive lbw shout, and the finger goes up! No MS Dhoni magic at the Chinnaswamy tonight! Low full toss slanting into leg stump. Dhoni has a massive swipe at it but does not get any bat on it. Gets rapped on the pads and the finger goes up. Dhoni has reviewed this but it could be more in hope than anything else. The impact is in line and Ball Tracking has the ball crashing into leg stump. A monumental moment in this game, and Dayal has outwitted Dhoni two years in a row at the Chinnaswamy!19.4 Yash Dayal to Dube, (no ball) SIX runs
that is a high full toss and Dube smashes it out of sight! Borderline waist-high full toss outside off and Dube cannot believe what has been dished out. After scratching his eyes, he thumps it over deep mid wicket. No ball not given, and Dube has reviewed this. This could be touch-and-go! Dube’s waist is measured at 1.11m, and Ball Tracking shows the ball to be passing him at 1.14m. That will be a No ball – oh dearie me!19.4 Yash Dayal to Dube, 1 run
full toss just outside off. Dube swings at it with all his might and scuffs it down the ground to long off. Just a single, and the onus shifts back onto Jadeja19.5 Yash Dayal to Jadeja, 1 run
zipped in very full on off. Jadeja looks to go downtown but can only find the inside edge and then the front pad. Rolls away harmlessly into the off side19.6 Yash Dayal to Dube, 1 run
Dayal wins it for RCB again! Up against the five-time champions, Dayal shows that he is a champion to be reckoned with too. Under extreme pressure, and under extreme duress, RCB pull a win out of the fire, and they are going absolutely bonkers. It was proper carnage at the Chinnaswamy and after 40 overs of high-octane cricket, RCB stand atop the team that has caused them so much pain in the past! Full toss just outside off. Dube clears his front leg and swings for the hills. Cannot get under it and cannot find the gap either. Drilled straight to long on and that will be just a single. Spare a thought for CSK. They came so close, but in the end, fell short. A truly remarkable game of cricket, and one that those at the ground will reminisce and rejoice in years to come!

Alan Gardner speaks to Andrew Miller and Firdose Moonda about the Trent Bridge Test, while Matt Roller joins to preview the West Indies series

ESPNcricinfo staff27-May-2025England’s first Test meeting with Zimbabwe in 22 years ended in a comfortable three-day victory for the home side. In this week’s pod, Alan Gardner was joined by Andrew Miller and Firdose Moonda to reflect on an eventful match that may or may not tell us much about England’s big year in Tests to come. Matt Roller also jumped on to help preview the upcoming white-ball series against West Indies, which will be Harry Brook’s first since being appointed permanent captain.

The Netherlands spinner talks about returning from a year-long injury layoff and what he learnt at the Super Kings Academy

Deivarayan Muthu20-Oct-2025Tim Pringle had to spend an entire year on the sidelines after undergoing major ankle surgery following his appearances for Netherlands in the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and the Caribbean. The left-arm spinner was struck off Northern Districts’ books for the 2024-25 season.After recovering, he eased his way back with a spin camp at the Chennai Super Kings Academy in Chennai in June this year, during New Zealand’s winter. He then proved his fitness and form by playing two T20Is for Netherlands in Bangladesh in September.”Yeah [the ankle injury was one of the hardest times in my career], but I had heaps of support around me throughout the whole time,” Pringle said while he was in Chennai.Towards the end of October, Pringle is set to return for Northern Districts in the domestic season-opening Ford Trophy. He is also back on Northern Districts’ contracts list. “[It’s] great to get back into the [ND] environment. It’s been a long grind, but the support around me has been nice.”Related

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Pringle got the ball to grip and turn on a variety of pitches in Chennai, including black and red soils, before claiming figures of 6-0-34-2 across two T20Is in Bangladesh. Bob Carter, the former New Zealand High Performance coach, who oversaw the bowler in Chennai, was impressed with Pringle’s progress in the lead up to the new domestic season.”We have a number of players – maybe not many – but a few who are what we call ‘POIs’. So Tim is a Player of Interest to us,” Carter said. “I think BJ [Watling, the Northern Districts coach] and Ian Sandbrook, who is the High Performance manager, have done a wonderful job getting him back to where he is with his rehab.”These are small steps at this stage to get back onto the field. While we’re here, we’re able to manipulate his time on the field and what he bowls. We felt that the ball was coming out well – he’s an incredibly talented left-arm spinner who can also bat. In all honesty, he was back to his normal self. He’s a good worker on his game without going too over the top.”Pringle, now 23, was born in the Hague, and moved at the age of two to Tauranga, a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region in New Zealand. His mother, Janine, is Dutch, and his father is former New Zealand bowler Chris Pringle.The younger Pringle has already featured in two T20 World Cups for Netherlands, and New Zealand are also excited by his potential. In the 2023-24 Ford Trophy, he was among the most economical bowlers for Northern Districts. He even fronted up to bowl in T20 powerplays on small grounds in New Zealand.Pringle’s best figures in T20s came in the 2024 T20 World Cup, 3 for 20 against Nepal•AFP/Getty ImagesNetherlands also trust him to bowl in the powerplay. His T20I economy rate of 6.47 is the second-best, behind Roelof van der Merwe, among Netherlands bowlers who have bowled at least 60 overs in the format. Carter sees him as a bowler who can operate in various phases.”Tim has got many good traits,” Carter said. “One of the traits that he has is that it [pressure] doesn’t bother him. So he’s prepared to bowl at that time [under pressure]. And not everyone’s in that same frame of mind to do that.”Having been inspired by his father Chris, who bagged a match haul of 11 wickets in his third Test, against Pakistan in Faisalabad, with his brisk medium pace, Pringle started as a seamer before he switched to spin.”My old man was a seamer and it was only natural that I bowled seam from a young age,” Pringle said. “But it got to a point where I wasn’t sort of quick and I was bowling a lot of slower balls which were turning quite a bit, so I kind of thought, around the age of 15, I could try spin, with some help from the senior boys, and it has been working for me.” It worked like a charm for Netherlands when he took 3 for 20 against Nepal in Dallas in the 2024 T20 World Cup.Pringle emerged on Netherlands’ international radar more than three years ago, when he dismissed Pieter Seelar – who was their captain at the time – while playing for a New Zealand XI in a truncated one-day fixture at McLean Park in March 2022. Word then spread about his Dutch passport and three months later, he made his international debut for Netherlands in an ODI against England in Amstelveen.Pringle was Northern Districts’ top wicket-taker in the 2023-24 Super Smash, with ten wickets at an economy of 8.34 from ten matches•Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images”[Playing for Netherlands] wasn’t on my mind [at the time],” Pringle recalled. “Pieter Seelar, who was our skipper at the time, retired. He had a bad back, which forced him into retirement, and I got the opportunity for Netherlands.In his very first opportunity, he was up against England’s big hitters and came away with the wicket of Liam Livingstone for 4. “Kind of thrown into the deep end and just had fun,” Pringle said. “It was huge! I didn’t have enough time to comprehend what was going on. That was a good thing in a way.”Heaps of pride playing for Holland – my mum’s side. Heaps of pride every time.”Pringle sits on the fence when asked to pick between Netherlands and New Zealand at this point, but he says his ultimate dream is to play Test cricket.”I’ve played five four-day games and that’s the most fun I’ve had on a cricket field. So it’s not really a choice between Holland or New Zealand, it’s more like this [four- and five-day cricket] is what I want to play.”Pringle will add to his tally when the 100th season of the Plunket Shield begins in November, but his immediate challenge is the 50-over Ford Trophy, which kicks off on October 25, when his team, Northern Districts, will face Auckland in the opener. He hopes to take the lessons from his Chennai stint into the upcoming domestic season.”Back home in New Zealand and Holland, we only get one type of wicket, and I guess only in club cricket, you get pitches that spin, where I’m from. So to come over here and experience the conditions and work on your skills, see what the conditions are and how you adapt, it has been a great experience.”