100 T20Is and counting for Virat Kohli, making him the second cricketer to complete the treble

ESPNcricinfo stats team, Mathew Varghese, illustration by Kshiraja K28-Aug-2022ESPNcricinfo LtdNote: Stats updated till the end of the India-Pakistan Asia Cup game on August 28.

England’s attacking approach secures a foothold, where former sides might have crumbled

Vithushan Ehantharajah09-Dec-2022It was almost like Pakistan knew what was coming when their official account framed debutant Abrar Ahmed as a “mystery spinner”.If Australian fast bowlers stop English batters from leaving the house, then unconventional twirlers from the subcontinent have tended to get them checking under their beds before they go to sleep. And with seven wickets on his first meeting with England, all before lunch on day one, we can add the 24-year-old to the list of Boogeymen.On the face of it, he joins the likes of Abdul Qadir, Saqlain Mushtaq, Saeed Ajmal, and Abdur Rehman, all of whom have inflicted psychological damage on these opponents. There are many others, of course, but those four names happened to finish with career-bests against England. It will be some going if Abrar betters what he managed at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Friday, though he does potentially have three more goes at this team before the year is out.This England side, however, are not like the others. While respect was given to Abrar’s skill, the approach spoke of a lack of it. Instead of opting to go into their shell against their latest wrist-spinning and/or front-of-the-hand-ring-finger-flicker incarnation of Michael Myers, they decided to confront him head on, with hatchets of their own.Did it work? Well, it’s probably too early to say. But Abrar was taken for 114 in his 22 overs (an economy rate of 5.18) as England still managed 281 from 51.4 overs. And to judge by Duckett’s punchy assessment of their day at the close, there’ll be no psychological hangover to concern them. They certainly didn’t die cowering.Their weapon of retaliation? The sweep. For so long it has been seen as the last resort of the western batter against the turning ball (Pakistan haven’t played the shot once in their reply so far), and on previous calamitous tours of Asia, it has seemed one step removed from the white flag. But it came to England’s aid here. The positive option for the most enthusiastic stroke-makers in the game.”Going harder” has been the McCullum-Stokes decree in the face of any kind of adversity. Up against an unfamiliar foe seeking to inflict some very familiar scars on the kind of pitch where they’ve been buried before, England were cavalier and calculated. Ollie Pope came out and smoked a reverse-sweep off Abrar through backward point for four, the very ball after Zak Crawley had been bowled through the gate with a googly. It was a shot usually premeditated when the bowler begins his run-up. Pope had decided his shot as soon as he got up from his seat in the dressing room, and started to make his way out in the middle.Abrar Ahmed celebrates with Babar Azam as he works his way through England’s batting•Matthew Lewis/Getty ImagesAs for its success rate, again, we might only really know when the game moves on and the pitch deteriorates further. But all in all, a form of sweep – conventional, reverse, switch hit, lap or paddle – was played 50 times, with 74 runs scored and six wickets lost. No doubt the worst of that last figure was Jack Leach switching hands and getting bowled on the move by Zahid Mahmood for a golden duck. Even the No.10, out of his comfort zone, was buying in wholeheartedly.Since 2018-19, England’s percentage of runs through sweeps off spinners is 25.6. Day one’s mark of 33.2 was a notable uptick. It wasn’t, however, as sweep-dominant as the Sri Lanka series at the start of 2021, when Joe Root almost single-handedly boosted the team to about 40 percent. Even those were mostly conventional. And it was in a winning cause, too.However, the four matches in India that followed that tour perhaps offer the best comparison for the surface here, which spun almost immediately. All in all, 205 sweeps were played on that tour, 275 runs scored for 17 dismissals. Only Root (107 from 63) and Ben Stokes (65 from 42) played the stroke with any real conviction. For the rest, it was akin to clasping at air during free-fall.Here, Stokes swept just once and Root not at all. And perhaps the deliveries from Abrar that dismissed them – a googly from outside leg that left Stokes open-faced in appreciation, and a sharp-spinning legbreak that pinned Root on the back foot – could have been swept. But the pair of batters who used the shot the most were also the most successful, England’s top-scorers Ben Duckett (63) and Pope (60).Both are interesting case studies when it comes to the sweep. Duckett has been a proponent of the conventional and reverse since he was old enough to wield a bat, and now has the kind of confidence that means he can strike 29 off 17 with it, as he did today. Pope, on the other hand, has tinkered to such an extent that, while facing Rashid Khan in a T20 Blast match, he happened upon a wrong-footed sweep – with the right-hander’s back foot (right) coming forward rather than the front (left). He nailed that once here.Naturally, in keeping with the theme of the day, both men eventually fell on their brooms to be dismissed, and against the man of the moment, of course. But, as is the way under Stokes and McCullum, there were no regrets.Related

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“For me, generally a sweep is kind of a forward defence, especially when the ball is spinning into me,” Duckett said afterwards. “I’m gutted I missed two in the last two games, but I’m going to be playing plenty more out here.”Two years ago, maybe I’d have played differently to that. But with the backing from the captain and the coach, I’m pretty sure they’d be quite annoyed with me if I got out knocking it to short leg.”I just tried to sweep every ball [Abrar] bowled, really. Try and stick to my game and not really worry about what he was trying to do.”There were brains behind the belligerence. Duckett said he felt comfortable to go “every ball” because of how Abrar operated: primarily as a legspinner with a fine googly who would rarely pull his length short.”I actually think the control he had throughout his spell was very good,” Duckett said. “Generally, someone like that will give you bad balls. He tended to miss [his length] on the fuller side, which is what you want from someone who spins it both ways. That’s kind of why I swept: because it doesn’t matter which way it’s spinning when you’re sweeping.”It was insightful that Duckett likened the “high-risk” nature of sweeping spinners to driving against the new ball. Without the shot, England would have finished well short of the 281 that they eventually made, on a pitch that would have put the frighteners up previous iterations of this team.”I’d much rather get out playing a sweep shot than playing a forward defence,” he added. “It got me runs today and made me score quick. We were really focussed on being positive. If we didn’t score at that rate it could have easily been 150, 200 all out.”He’s got a point and it’s worth remembering Duckett has been burned by such negativity before. In his second Test appearance, back in 2016 on a raging bunsen in Mirpur, he had wristily flayed Bangladesh’s spinners to all parts.By tea on day three, England were 100 for no loss, Duckett 56 – the first of now three scores above fifty – to Alastair Cook’s 39, chasing a target of 273. They then lost 10 wickets in the next 22.3 overs after the break with one of the meekest displays against the turning ball. As it happens, only Stokes – 25 from 36 – tried to give anything back.Having taken two Pakistan wickets by stumps, and still leading by 174, you could just about argue the opening day in Multan was tilted slightly in England’s favour. Sure, they could have improved on their score of 281, but probably only through doing what they did with more gusto.

The former England captain is looking forward to seeing how Bazball goes in Pakistan

Aadam Patel26-Nov-2022It took nine games for a side to successfully chase down a target in the sixth season of the Abu Dhabi T10 and it came as no surprise to see Eoin Morgan there at the end as New York Strikers beat the reigning champions Deccan Gladiators by eight wickets.Morgan may be past his prime and in the closing stages of his career but he rolled back the years to finish off the job at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. The former England captain came in after Josh Little dismissed Andre Fletcher in the first over and navigated his side to their second win in three matches, with an unbeaten 42 off 23 deliveries.It was a game that was in the balance until Morgan and Azam Khan took Odean Smith for 19 runs in the penultimate over, leaving the Strikers needing just six off the last over. And despite Little taking the game to the last delivery, Azam flicked the final ball away to get the single and seal victory for the Strikers.”I think conditions have been different to previous years,” Morgan said. “The couple of games that we’ve played before this have probably had a bit more bounce in the pitch and a bit more pace which is great for the game but it’s just a case of adapting. Today, the wicket was a little bit slower as it was a day game so I think it’s just taken a few days to adjust.For Morgan, after some time working for Sky Sports over the T20 World Cup, he admitted that it has been nice to get back out in the middle over the past week.”Yeah, I still love playing the game,” he said. “It’s obviously a completely different challenge to international cricket. The level of expectation just isn’t there anymore. I’m here to enjoy myself.”That is pretty much where Morgan is at after calling it a day from international cricket in June and it remains to be seen whether he will enter the IPL auction after going unsold last year, but the Abu Dhabi T10 is benefitting from his services in what is now his fifth season playing the competition.”I’m a huge fan of T10, I thoroughly enjoy coming,” Morgan said. “It’s just a fun tournament to play in and all the overseas players like coming here. Abu Dhabi is a fantastic place to play and tour. The one thing that playing in T10 does is that is exposes everything that is exposed in certain periods during a T20 game so when you look at powerplay and death bowling – the two biggest moments in T20 cricket. You have them in abundance in T10.”The Abu Dhabi Cricket & Sports Hub has seen an influx of England players over the past week with the Test squad and the touring Lions party in town. Around 60 of England’s male cricketers have been enjoying the facilities and after seeing the red-ball set-up thrive in recent times under the leadership of his close friend Brendon McCullum, Morgan admitted his enjoyment but also his sense of regret.”I still look at them and I’m very much jealous of the way that they’re playing and the attitude they take into the game. It’s a completely free-spirited attitude that epitomises what Brendon and Stokesy are about,” Morgan said. “Over the years, we’ve tried playing defensively and traditionally and tried to bat for long and that hasn’t worked so he’s taken the initiative to change things that suit the personnel that he’s bringing in and hopefully the success continues in the long-run. It certainly has short-term.”And with England embarking on their first tour to Pakistan in 17 years, the World-Cup winning captain shared his excitement at seeing how Bazball goes in Pakistan.”Yeah, definitely [it’s exciting],” Morgan said. “We experienced it when we first started our shift in 50-over cricket and it’s actually more interesting to see how the opposition react and how they change because it has the power to make the opposition really think In Test cricket, you usually have a plan A and you stick with that for as long as you can. But against this England team, you need a lot more than just a plan A.”

The New Zealand and Rajasthan Royals seamer talks about the club vs country debate, getting Kohli out first ball, and looks ahead to the World Cup

Matt Roller10-May-2023Trent Boult jumps out of the pool, grabs a towel and his Phoenix Suns basketball jersey, and wanders over to perch on a deckchair next to me. Behind him, his wife, Gert, and their three young sons are relaxing in the early-afternoon sunshine in Jaipur.It is the sort of scene that Boult pictured last year, when he requested a release from his national contract with New Zealand Cricket (NZC). There would not have been anything stopping him bringing his family to India as a contracted player, but after a decade as an all-format international cricketer, Boult decided it was time to take ownership of his own schedule.Related

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“Flicking through the camera roll on my phone, it’s a good feeling, to be honest,” Boult says, reflecting on nine months as a freelancer. “When I made that decision, it was [for] two reasons. One, to get to spend more time with my kids and be around the house; and then two, to get the chance to play in some leagues and play a bit of cricket around the world.”Since September 2022, Boult has played a dozen games for New Zealand across formats, five of them at the T20 World Cup in Australia. He has missed home series against India, England and Sri Lanka, and tours to India and Pakistan, instead playing in the Big Bash, for Melbourne Stars, and the ILT20, for MI Emirates, and, after a two-month break, in the IPL for Rajasthan Royals.”My boys had the chance to come to Dubai. They came to the Big Bash for Christmas – I’ve always wanted to bring them to India and I’ve had the chance to do that with Rajasthan [Royals] as well,” he says. “It’s been cool. It’s freed up a lot of time to spend with them.”But it has also put his international career on pause. NZC made clear to Boult that his decision would mean other players – contracted players – were prioritised in selection, and while he retains ambitions in all formats of the game, he has not played a Test match in nearly a year.In February the unavailability of Kyle Jamieson and Matt Henry left New Zealand scrambling for replacements ahead of the first Test against England in Mount Maunganui. Boult, who lives a short distance from Bay Oval, was the obvious replacement; instead Blair Tickner and Scott Kuggeleijn were drafted in for Test debuts.Boult turning down a central contract means that he has potentially shut the door on his Test career•Getty Images”It felt bizarre,” he reflects. “It really did. I was hoping that I would get a call-up… Test match cricket was on, a couple of kilometres down the road, and I wasn’t part of it. I’ve played nearly 80 Tests and had some pretty great times in the black cap, but they said that if I chose to move away from that contract, my time in it would be limited.”And I’m pretty sure they’ve never had anyone play Test cricket that isn’t contracted – so that probably makes it hard as well. But hey, I made that decision. I’m happy with where I’m at, and I’ve been lucky to experience some cool times over the last couple of months.”It invites an obvious question: has Boult played his last Test match? “Hopefully not, no,” he says. “There are some big Tests coming up next year: Australia and South Africa are due to travel to New Zealand. And Test cricket is still my favourite format.”It is what it is: I’ve made my decision. I’ve been lucky enough to have a 13-year career in the black cap, and hey, I’ve still got a big desire to play in the World Cup as well. We’ll see how that unfolds: there’s still a bit of movement in the landscape at the moment.”Boult has played in five World Cups across formats and has three runners-up medals to show for his efforts. “We’ve been agonisingly close to lifting some pretty prestigious silverware,” he says. “I remember after the 2019 final, I said to Kane [Williamson] that we’ve got to be there again, come 2023 in India.”It’s a shame with what’s going on with his knee but he’ll be working as hard as he can to try and get there. It’s snuck up on us, really: it’s only a few months away. It’s such a great tournament. One hundred percent I’ve got that desire to be out there.”We’re a great one-day side. We’ve got some players that have travelled to India and experienced the conditions a lot, and that’s what it comes down to in World Cups. You can’t buy experience, and you can’t replace players that have toured for however many years across these conditions.”Boult has 64 wickets across five World Cups in both white-ball formats•Getty ImagesIf it seems unjust that Boult wishes to pick and choose which series he does and doesn’t play, consider this: New Zealand’s men played 46 games of international cricket last year, their largest number in a calendar year. In 2023 they have already played 29 and will break that record comfortably.”I’m trying to cast myself back to eight or nine years ago, when tours seemed to be a month long,” he says. “You’d play a couple of Tests and three one-dayers, and that was about it. And I can’t remember the last tour I went on that was under almost eight weeks, really. They’re too long.”And if you play all formats, there were years there where I was at home for probably three or four weeks. I was away on the road both touring in New Zealand and internationally for ten months a year. Doing that while raising a family, getting married – all the things that normal people do – just makes it a bit more challenging.”The sport has changed over the last 12 months, with the launch of new leagues in the UAE, South Africa and the United States – all of them featuring several teams backed by IPL franchises – disrupting the status quo. Some players have started to discuss year-round contracts with franchises; international cricket’s supremacy is being threatened.”It’s an interesting time for both franchise and international cricket, I reckon,” Boult says. “The leagues – there’s a lot of movement happening in that space, but the golden question is what it’s going to look like in a couple of years. International cricket, I think, is going to suffer in some aspects.”The worry for the younger cricketer is simply the choice of chasing money and playing less cricket for more money, basically. First of all, you have to be a good enough player to be able to be selected to play in multiple franchise tournaments; and you have to be a pretty good cricketer to have a ten-year international career.”There’s a place for both of them to exist. You need to have an international presence and ability to be able to come and play in an IPL and be able to deliver. And you’re only a couple of bad performances away from being pushed out of a franchise as well, so you’ve got to be careful.””You’ve only got to get one ball to swing, then you’re in the batter’s head”•AFP/Getty ImagesNot that Boult is likely to be “pushed out” by Rajasthan Royals anytime soon. In the long term, it would be no great surprise if he agreed a deal to play for their teams in the Caribbean and South Africa too. “I can’t really make those decisions until they are put in front of me, I suppose,” he says.Since Royals signed him ahead of the 2022 season, Boult has led their seam contingent, opening the bowling and being given a clear role: to attack with the new ball, and strike early. He has taken 11 wickets in the first over of an innings in the last two IPLs; the next most by a single bowler is five.”As soon as I start thinking about it, I don’t get any wickets,” he says with a grin.”What I’ve really enjoyed coming to Rajasthan is being given that role: ‘You’re here to get us wickets in the powerplay. Go do it.’ It’s a real freedom to express what I feel I can do.”I like to swing the ball, I like to pitch it up and get a bit funky with a couple inswingers, a couple outswingers, whatever it is. I’ll tell you what I’m just thinking in general really, and that’s just: be as accurate as possible. I’ve always thought that, as a bowler, I’ve got full control of dictating the play. Nothing can happen until I deliver that ball. And if I deliver a beauty, then it’s going to be even harder for him.”Without giving away too many secrets, I basically try bowling an inswinger every ball. If it swings in, it swings in; if it doesn’t, it goes the other way, and everyone thinks I’m trying something else. That’s the beauty of being a left-armer. I’ve had many chats with Wasim Akram, Chaminda Vaas – all the guys I’ve idolised. You’ve only got to get one ball to swing, then you’re in the batter’s head.”One of his first-over wickets this season stands out from the rest. “My kids had just got here,” Boult says. “I was on 99 [IPL] wickets, it was about 700 degrees, and I was bowling to probably the best opening pair in the whole tournament.” The Chinnaswamy Stadium roared as Royal Challengers Bangalore’s openers walked out to bat – then fell silent.”To put one straight into Virat’s knee first ball was pretty cool. I don’t really normally give it too much celebration, but I quickly gave it a big turnaround to the family up in the hospitality area. I remember waking up at about 4am that morning, because my kids were jet-lagged.Boult has struck twice in the first over in the IPL three times since 2020 – Abhishek Sharma (in picture) and Rahul Tripathi were his latest victims•BCCI”I said, ‘Come on boys, you need to go to sleep. Daddy’s got a big game today. I’m playing against one of the best batters in the world.’ My oldest son said, ‘Are you going to get him out?’ I said, ‘Probably not’ – and I actually managed to! I couldn’t believe it.”I don’t really remember too many of my wickets in terms of who, when and where, but I remember my debut IPL wicket was Mahendra Singh Dhoni and he absolutely melted one to cover in the 17th [20th] over at Chepauk Stadium. The crowd went silent as well, but that wicket there [Kohli’s] was probably equal to a silence of a ground that I’ve ever heard as well.”The adulation that both men – Dhoni and Kohli – receive in India is staggering, but overseas players are also conspicuous compared to back home. Boult can walk down the road in Mount Maunganui without much attention, but in India, he is the centre of attention when he steps outside of the team hotel.”When the IPL was in a bubble, the best part about it was that you were locked into one area,” he says. “It was a lot easier – the logistics were a lot easier – but to have it back around the country playing at different grounds in front of big crowds, it’s what the IPL’s all about.”But the home-and-away format does have its challenges, particularly when travelling with a young family. Coincidentally, two days before our conversation, we were on a flight from Mumbai to Jaipur together; Boult was asked for selfies and autographs throughout the journey, even when unfolding a pushchair on the tarmac.”And [carrying] a nappy bag, and everything else!” he interjects. “It can get a bit much. The travel days are pretty tricky with three little boys running around with you, but it just shows the craziness of cricket over in this country; the culture, that everyone follows it, everyone loves it.”They just want a piece of all cricketers. But no, it’s good fun. I’ve been so lucky: it’s probably my ninth year, I reckon, at the IPL…”I’ve been bloody lucky to get the opportunities that I have.”

Once a net bowler with CSK, Varun has worked on – and added to – his variations to become KKR’s spin frontman at IPL 2023

Deivarayan Muthu15-May-20233:26

Nayar: Varun has better clarity on how to target each batter

In 2018, Varun Chakravarthy had his first taste of the IPL as a net bowler at Chennai Super Kings in Chepauk. Varun was only playing fourth-division cricket in Chennai then, but there was something about him. He turned the ball both ways at high pace and troubled almost all the CSK batters, including MS Dhoni, at the nets.Five years on, in his first IPL game against CSK at Chepauk, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Varun out-spun CSK’s spinners and kept KKR in contention for the playoffs. When Varun bowled at the CSK nets, his stock ball was the googly and he would mix it up with sliders and carrom balls. He now has his legbreak to turn sharply and has become a more versatile spinner.According to ESPNcricinfo’s logs, the legbreak has been responsible for nine of his 19 wickets this season. After a rough IPL 2022, where he managed just six wickets in 11 games and was benched, Varun spent a lot of time nailing the legbreak with Abhishek Nayar, the KKR assistant coach, at the franchise’s academy as well as with AC Prathiban, the former Tamil Nadu offspinner, who had also worked with Varun at Madurai Panthers in the Tamil Nadu Premier League.Related

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In the past, Varun used to bowl legbreaks with a cross-seam or a scrambled-seam. In IPL 2023, he has got his legbreaks to turn more by bowling with an upright seam and giving more revs on the ball. The legbreak, which he bowls from the back of the hand like Rashid Khan, has made his other variations even more potent.With the Chepauk pitch gripping from the get-go, Nitish Rana handed the new-ish ball to Varun. The spinner’s first ball was a googly, which Ruturaj Gaikwad seemingly picked and swept for four. Two balls later, Varun tossed a legbreak up, which broke away from Gaikwad, drawing a thick outside edge to short third.Varun returned to the attack after the powerplay and challenged Devon Conway with bounce. He pinged Conway’s pad with a topspinner that went straight on, but extra bounce meant the ball was going over the stumps. Ajinkya Rahane then charged at Varun, looking for a straight six, but Varun dragged a legbreak away from his reach and had him sending a catch to long-off.The two strikes set CSK up for a boundary-less sequence of almost seven overs.”Yes, I’ve been working on my legspin this season, so hopefully it’s going well,” Varun said after the game. “Last season, I used to bowl cross-seam legspin, but it was not gripping that much, so I thought of mixing up the seam one and cross-seam one. So it’s definitely creating more doubt for the batsman.”He conceded 15 off his last over, the 18th of CSK’s innings, but it was still a decent over. He even dipped into his offbreaks, but Shivam Dube, CSK’s designated spin hitter, dared to mow him against the turn over midwicket for six.

“It still hurts us, that. He tortured [CSK’s batters] in the nets for a number of years, but with the auction and the way it is, we couldn’t retain him”Stephen Fleming

Varun’s growth from a net bowler at CSK to one of the mainstays of KKR’s attack has left Stephen Fleming impressed as well.”It still hurts us, that [missing out on Varun]. He tortured [CSK’s batters] in the nets for a number of years, but with the auction and the way it is, we couldn’t retain him,” the CSK head coach said. “And the thing is with the Tamil Nadu players all around the different teams, they knew about him as well and we were unable to keep him a secret. But we were very excited by him as a talent when he bowled against us in the nets and he went for a big price that first year.”He went off a little bit and now he has come back. He had some injuries and now he looks fit. He bowled very well today and he’s a weapon. When you have [Sunil] Narine and him operating, they’re a very potent combo in the right conditions. Probably at Kolkata, they don’t get the most favourable conditions to bowl on, so coming to conditions like this, they excel.”With Narine having his leanest full IPL season yet, in terms of both wickets and economy rate, Varun has fronted up to do the job that Narine used to do – bowl the difficult overs. Varun’s economy rate of 8.82 between overs 16 and 20 is the second best among spinners, behind Yuzvendra Chahal, and fourth best overall this IPL among bowlers who have bowled at least 50 balls during this phase. In the powerplay, only six spinners have bowled at least 50 balls this season and among them, Varun is the highest wicket-taker, with five.Nayar put Varun’s success down to his hard work at the KKR academy during the off-season and in the lead-up to the IPL season.Varun has bowled the tough overs this season and bowled them well•BCCI”After last season, we discussed quite a bit on what we thought went wrong and also I think when you play season after season, teams tend to target you differently,” Nayar said at the press conference. “One of things we tried to do throughout the off-season and throughout the season was to understand the challenges we were going to face. There is a stark difference in terms of how he’s using his deliveries – using the one that goes away [legbreak] a lot more than he was doing last year.”So, a lot of work went in not just technically and tactically but also understanding his mindset in terms of understanding how individuals are going to target him. I think last year when he didn’t have a great season, the ways in which every team was targeting him and certain areas where they constantly hit him. I think once we analysed and understood that, we obviously spoke about getting revs on the ball and getting more bounce and speed off the pitch… but also understanding which areas teams are going to target him.”We played at Eden Gardens, a smaller ground, where it is tougher for a bowler, and last time we were in Mumbai. Yes, he has been challenged, but a lot of hard work he has put in at the [KKR] academy over the whole season and not just prior to the IPL season. That has helped him in his preparation and in terms of clarity how he’s going to target each batsman or how he’s going to be targeted by each batsman.”When CSK had started their pre-game warm-ups, the Chepauk DJ was belting out plenty of songs of popular Tamil actor Vijay to rouse the crowd. It must’ve been a strange feeling for Varun, who is a huge fan of Vijay and who was the only Chennai boy in the two XIs on Sunday.After Varun’s mid-innings interview, the DJ played out Vijay’s from the movie . It probably wasn’t intended for Varun, but it was indeed another top spell from him.

“You just want to shake the people that are saying they need to get rid of it… it just winds me up”

Matt Roller24-Aug-2023Back in March, Kate Cross was on a pre-season tour to Mumbai with the Thunder watching the inaugural women’s Hundred draft. Since the end of the previous season, she had been plotting Manchester Originals’ strategy with their coach Stephen Parry, working out how best to recruit a team that would take them to the play-offs.Teams were only allowed to retain four players before the draft, but Originals thought they had gamed the system. They kept hold of Sophie Ecclestone, Deandra Dottin, Emma Lamb and Ellie Threlkeld; after signing Laura Wolvaardt with their top draft pick, they would then use their Right-to-Match (RTM) card if anyone tried to sign Cross in the second round.”We were sure that nobody would even think about signing me,” Cross recalls. “I was Manchester captain, and we thought people would assume they would RTM me – which was the plan. I wasn’t anticipating going in that top bracket so I was just sat there chatting to Alex Hartley in our room – and then my name popped up in purple.”Northern Superchargers, Originals’ Leeds-based rivals, had signed her as a top-bracket, £31,250 pick. With Wolvaardt and Ecclestone already drafted at that salary, Originals were powerless to prevent it. Cross, a proud Mancunian, didn’t know how to react; her Thunder team-mates welcomed her onto the bus the following morning by chanting: “Yorkshire! Yorkshire!”Related

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Five months down the line, Cross’ accidental move across the Pennines could hardly have worked out better. While Originals missed out on the play-offs for the third successive season, Superchargers won six of their eight group games and will play in Saturday’s eliminator at The Oval.She has twice turned out against Originals, with the Hundred structured so that designated ‘rivals’ play each other twice. “It wasn’t horrendously weird, but you see all your team-mates as opposition for the first time: I was suddenly bowling at Emma Lamb and thinking, how am I going to get her out?”Superchargers’ opponents on Saturday are Welsh Fire, meaning Cross will come up against Hartley, her best friend and podcast co-host who is retiring from professional cricket at the end of the competition: “If we win, I’ll have been there for my best friend’s final game; if they beat us, I’ll get to see her play at Lord’s in a final.”Having covered the tournament extensively as a broadcaster as well as playing in it, Cross has seen more of the Hundred first-hand than almost anyone. She believes it has been “absolutely incredible” for both the profile and the standard of women’s cricket, and is baffled by continued speculation about the tournament’s future.”I don’t understand it,” Cross says. “I don’t know where that speculation is coming from: it doesn’t seem to be the ECB and Sky certainly don’t know anything about it, and they’ve obviously paid the broadcast bill for it. From my point of view, it’s just carried on gaining the momentum that has been building over the last year.”The crowds have grown and the standard of cricket has been better: the boundaries have been pushed out further but the average score has still managed to go up. From my point of view, it doesn’t really matter what the format is, as long as you’ve got that element of the men and the women playing at the same grounds, on the same pitches.”It has done so, so much for the women’s game. That’s what winds me up the most about people who don’t buy into it. If you actually speak to people that are in the ground, so many people say what a great day out they’ve had but I don’t think that gets reported on. The people who don’t go to the games and don’t like it seem to have a louder opinion than actually the people that are there.”Cross signs autographs for young Superchargers fans at Headingley•ECB/Getty ImagesThe most familiar argument against the Hundred is that it has relegated men’s county cricket to secondary status during August. “That’s standard, isn’t it?” Cross says. “The first thought in everyone’s brain is, ‘what does it do to men’s cricket?’ When actually, what it’s done for women’s cricket has been incredible. It’s getting players prepared to play on the big stage.”I don’t understand why anyone would think about getting rid of that. You just want to shake the people that are saying they need to get rid of it… it just winds me up. Some people obviously have their frustrations with it, but from my point of view, it’s been great.”The tournament has also given Cross the opportunity to prove herself in short-form cricket. Four years after her most recent T20I cap for England, she is part of their squad to play Sri Lanka immediately after the Hundred and says she “started to pick up a bit of rhythm” at the end of the group stages.”I’ve not played a T20 for England since 2019 but I feel like I’ve been really close. I’ve not bowled as well as I could this summer – even through the Ashes, I didn’t feel I was at my best – but in the last couple of games for the Chargers, I’ve felt a lot more threatening; back to where I was a year ago.”That should bode well for Superchargers on Saturday, as they look to set up a final against Southern Brave at Lord’s 24 hours later. “We’ve been pretty clinical,” Cross says, “and a Lord’s final would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?”

No batter in the world thrives more against flagging bowlers

Matt Roller28-Jun-2023You might have heard the whispers about Travis Head. He doesn’t like it up at him. India’s fast bowlers worked that out at The Oval, when Head was making a match-defining 163 against them in the World Test Championship final. A few weeks later, on the other side of the River Thames, England’s bowlers tried to prove the same.Just after six o’clock, Ben Stokes set a short-ball field, with catchers back on the leg side, and threw the ball to Josh Tongue. Tongue was the point-of-difference bowler in his otherwise samey attack of right-arm, medium-fast bowlers, and the man tasked with testing out Head’s apparent vulnerability against the quick and nasty stuff.Tongue banged his first ball into the pitch, halfway down and wide outside off stump. Head didn’t flinch. He stood tall, lifting his feet off the ground a touch as he flat-batted through straight mid-on, tantalisingly out of Stuart Broad’s reach as he wearily gave chase.Four balls later, Head anticipated another short ball. He shuffled outside his leg stump to give himself room to free his arms, and took on the men in the deep on the hook. This time, he cracked Tongue away for four over Stokes’ head at deep backward square leg. Head had walked out at No. 5 with Steven Smith unbeaten on 43. Now, both batters were on 71.Related

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Stokes applauded, as if to suggest that it was a matter of time before England’s ploy worked. It never did: instead, he fell to Joe Root’s offspin shortly after. In total, England’s seamers bowled Head a dozen short balls; he scored 21 runs off them, including four boundaries. It was hard graft, for no obvious reward.England only went short to Head in the second half of his innings, after their more orthodox plans hadn’t worked. He thrived on any width, playing his trademark half-punch, half-cut where he combines fast hands and whippy wrists to slap through the off side; when they went straight, he flicked nonchalantly off his pads.They have been dreading the prospect of bowling to him again ever since he finished the reverse series as the leading run-scorer on either side – despite missing the Sydney Test through Covid. At the start of this summer, Stokes described him as “so hard to bowl to” and “really hard to set fields to”.Head is Australia’s werewolf. He is a different beast once evening descends. Since his return to Australia’s Test team ahead of the 2021-22 Ashes, he has scored just under half (46.7%) of his runs in the final session. There is no batter in the world who thrives more against flagging bowlers.That might sound like damning him with faint praise but consider this: there is no batter in the world that has scored more runs in a certain session than Head in the third since his recall 19 months ago. He has averaged 89.37 in the third session, and struck at 93.70.!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();