Tag Futebol

The exit of the Australian opener has shaken up the balance of the side. Should they shore up their batting or bowling in the race to the playoffs?

Ankur Dhawan in Mumbai01-May-20192:15

Ready to kickstart IPL campaign when the opportunity arises – Guptill

David Warner has linked up with Australia for their World Cup preparations. He has left Sunrisers Hyderabad on the doorstep of the IPL playoffs, but also faced with a difficult choice to make: strengthen the batting or the bowling?The difficulty is compounded by the exits of Jonny Bairstow – with whom Warner forged a stunning opening partnership – and allrounder Shakib Al Hasan, who has now joined Bangladesh for a tri-series. And with them has gone the flexibility that could have allowed Sunrisers to play around with their combination. What are the options now?Martin GuptillOn the face of it, Martin Guptill is as close a replacement for Warner that there is in the squad. He has four T20 hundreds, averages 33, and goes at a healthy strike rate of 128.53. His T20I numbers for New Zealand are even better, with a marginally higher average and a strike rate in excess of 130.However, Guptill is yet to master the IPL. He has only one fifty in ten games and while his strike rate hovers around the 130s, his average drops dramatically to 21. All this is for two teams, Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab, across two seasons. Perhaps, therein lies the reason for his underwhelming returns: he hasn’t had a consistent run. The question for Sunrisers is whether picking a lesser batsman and shoring up the bowling would bring them closer to the strength of the team of which Warner was a part, or is Guptill good enough?Billy Stanlake towers over the rest as he jumps during his delivery stride•BCCIBilly StanlakeFilling the void at the top of the order isn’t Sunrisers’ only concern. Their bowling has lacked the penetration of old this season. Last year, Sunrisers were the best bowling side with a total of 105 wickets, and more stunningly, restricted oppositions under 150 on eight occasions, four of those while defending totals of not over 151. In the three of the four matches that Billy Stanlake played and Sunrisers won, they bowled first and kept oppositions to totals of 125, 147 and 138. He took five wickets across those three matches, his ability to generate steep bounce at searing pace proving an ideal foil for Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s swing.ALSO READ: Billy Stanlake uses IPL downtime to level upHowever, roping Stanlake in unfurls a new set of problems such as finding an opening partner for Wriddhiman Saha who isn’t called Martin Guptill.Kane Williamson has had to sit out because of a shoulder injury•BCCIWhat about Williamson?What made bolstering the bowling easier in Warner’s absence last year was the presence of a consistent performer like Shikhar Dhawan at the top. So, even as Saha struggled to come to grips with his new role and then picked up an injury too, Sunrisers had the reliability of Dhawan at the other end. As things stand, Kane Williamson could play that role, particularly with Manish Pandey finding form at No. 3. Williamson opened the batting on three occasions last year, the 51-ball 84 against Chennai Super Kings his most telling contribution from that position.Also, with Pandey having locked the No. 3 spot, Williamson could slip further down the order if he doesn’t open, which, though, would be a waste of a player of his calibre.Shreevats Goswami pulls one away•BCCIWho are the other options?More left-field opening options include wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami, local batsman Ricky Bhui, and Rashid Khan. Goswami, the most viable among those, opened thrice last year, including the first qualifier and the final. It didn’t start too badly for him either, as he struck 35 off 26 balls in a 79-run opening stand with Dhawan against Kolkata Knight Riders. But he was dismissed cheaply in both the big matches against Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai.Bhui had one outing as opener last year in Hyderabad, where he bagged a five-ball duck. Rashid hasn’t batted higher than No. 5 in T20s but there’s no doubt he has ability to hit big and takes his batting seriously. Useful cameos down the order are never a surprise from him but in a recent ODI series against Ireland in Dehradun, he showed that he is capable of much more.

Rahul’s absence further complicates matters for India, who also didn’t pick Shreyas Iyer for the remaining three Tests

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Feb-2024India have been dealt a blow in the lead-up to the Rajkot Test against England, with KL Rahul ruled out of contention due to a sore knee. Devdutt Padikkal, Rahul’s Karnataka team-mate, has been called in as a replacement.Rahul had earlier missed the second Test in Visakhapatnam due to a quadricep injury, and was included in the squad for the last thee Tests only subject to fitness. *A BCCI release on Monday evening said he “has reached 90 per cent of match fitness” and that “he will continue his recovery process at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to be completely match-fit for the fourth and fifth Test.”Already light on batting experience with Virat Kohli missing due to personal reasons, Rahul’s absence further complicates matters for India, who also didn’t pick Shreyas Iyer for the remaining three Tests.Related

• India's selection puzzle for Rajkot: is there room for both Kuldeep and Axar?

• Padikkal hits the high notes after some quiet seasons

• Iyer left out for remaining three Tests vs Eng; Kohli unavailable

• Padikkal looks to bounce back by 'staying stable through highs and lows'

That aside, it isn’t confirmed yet whether Ravindra Jadeja has recovered from the hamstring injury he had suffered during the first Test in Hyderabad. Jadeja is in the squad to play the third Test, which will take place on his home ground, but his participation is pending fitness clearance.Meanwhile, this is a maiden Test call-up for Padikkal, who is expected to link up with the squad on Tuesday from Chennai, where he struck 151 and 36 against Tamil Nadu in the fifth round of the Ranji Trophy fixture that finished on Monday.Padikkal, the 23-year-old left-hand batter, has so far aggregated 556 runs in six innings at an average of 92.66 this Ranji season. He has scored three centuries, with a highest of 193 in the season opener against Punjab. Prior to his most-recent Ranji outing, Padikkal impressed with scores of 65, 21 and 105 for India A against the touring England Lions in Ahmedabad. The century in the second unofficial Test was part of a massive first-innings batting effort that helped set up an innings victory.He was also part of the shadow tour to South Africa with India A in December, where he had an opportunity to train alongside India’s Test regulars prior to an intra-squad fixture.So far in this Ranji season, Devdutt Padikkal has 556 runs at an average of 92.66•PTI

“South Africa was a great experience for me, in terms of having the chance to train with the seniors,” he had told ESPNcricinfo last month. “Being in and around them, playing that level of bowling prepares you well for the Ranji season. I looked at it as an opportunity to get volumes in, in terms of my batting. I’m grateful for that experience.”Having started off as an opener, Padikkal has slowly transitioned into a predominantly top-order role that requires him to bat at No. 3 – and at times even at No. 4 – for Karnataka. With Mayank Agarwal and R Samarth opening the innings for his state side, Padikkal has established himself lower down. This change of role is something he has learnt to embrace after a middling IPL 2023 for Rajasthan Royals. The tipping point, he said, was his trade to Lucknow Super Giants, where he’ll be playing under none other than Rahul.”I don’t look at it in terms of just being an opener anymore,” he had said. “I’m enjoying my opportunities, wherever they may be. Each position you bat in offers a different challenge. I’m trying to learn new things, [and] adapt to situations. It helps me grow as a cricketer, [and] helps me understand the game a lot more – not just in terms of my batting but [also] how the game works across different phases.”Overall, Padikkal has solid first-class credentials, having averaged 44.54 across 31 matches. He has played two T20Is for India, both of which came against Sri Lanka in July 2021.In Visakhapatnam, India handed a Test debut to Rajat Patidar. Sarfaraz Khan is the other uncapped batter in the mix along with Padikkal. Jadeja’s potential unavailability could well pave way for another Test debutant in Rajkot. It’s also likely India could still pick one of Sarfaraz and Padikkal even if Jadeja is available and they play their usual three spinners and two quicks.India have two full days of training leading into Rajkot, with the series locked at 1-1.India’s squad for the third Test: Rohit Sharma (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vice-capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal.GMT 1450 hrs This story was updated with information from a BCCI press release

It’s a precautionary measure, taken after Rauf felt “a little discomfort in his right flank” on Sunday

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Sep-20231:13

How will Pakistan cope without Haris Rauf?

Haris Rauf hasn’t taken the field against India on Monday’s reserve day in the Asia Cup Super Four game in Colombo after feeling “a little discomfort in his right flank” on Sunday’s scheduled match day. Only 24.1 overs were bowled on Sunday before rain pushed the game into the spare day.The extent of Rauf’s injury is not clear. The PCB statement that confirmed the injury said, “He was subsequently taken for a precautionary MRI, which revealed no tear. He is under the observation of the team’s medical panel.”Morne Morkel, Pakistan’s bowling coach, said on the official broadcast that Rauf had “pulled an oblique muscle” and with the ODI World Cup around the corner, “we’re going to put him on ice” for the moment. Morkel also said that Rauf had started feeling discomfort when he bowled his second over on Sunday.As a result, for the rest of the India innings in Colombo, Pakistan will have to make do with the three pace options in Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Faheem Ashraf, with Shadab Khan their lead spinner and a combination of Iftikhar Ahmed and Agha Salman’s part-time offspin.Rauf bowled five wicketless overs and conceded 27 runs on Sunday but brought some sense of control to an innings in which India’s openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill scored half-centuries and put on 121 in a flying start. Pakistan fought back to dismiss both and control the run rate but India were 147 on board for the loss of two wickets.Rauf’s absence will be a cause of concern for Pakistan, given how significant a part he has become of Pakistan’s bowling attack. He has been Pakistan’s in-form bowler, and crucial at first change after Afridi and Naseem. He is also the tournament’s joint-leading wicket-taker with nine wickets in four matches.

Wolverhampton Wanderers head into their next Premier League contest confident they can upset the AFC Bournemouth apple cart on the road, having been very unlucky to come away from their last clash at Anfield empty-handed.

Indeed, Vitor Pereira’s Old Gold ended up accumulating a mightily impressive 16 shots on goal against Arne Slot’s complacent Reds, with Matheus Cunha unfortunately the only goalscorer in the narrow 2-1 loss.

When Cunha isn’t sparkling for his still relegation-threatened outfit, there isn’t too much firepower in the rest of the striker spots, with both Jorgen Strand Larsen and Hwang Hee-Chan currently out injured.

Even when the latter of those two names is fit, he isn’t always firing on all cylinders, as the South Korean suffers from a lack of confidence in front of goal whilst the Brazilian seemingly always has that midas touch.

Hwang's woes in front of goal

It has been another stop-start season for the 29-year-old at Molineux so far, with 55 days of action missed by the injury-prone number 11 to date due to stays in the Wolves treatment room.

Whilst Pereira has confirmed he could be back to full fitness soon, his drab goalscoring form when he has been available means he is unlikely to break back into the starting lineup anyway.

Across 17 Premier League appearances to date, Hwang has only managed to bag a lacklustre two strikes, which will be a disappointing return for the ex-RB Leipzig man, when you consider his standout output during the 2023/24 campaign saw him fire home an impressive 13 goals.

But, the 5 foot 10 ace – away from this sterling individual season in isolation – has regularly struggled to be a consistent source of strikes for the Old Gold, with only ten more goals coming his way across his other two forgettable campaigns.

To help boost his overly reliant side, Pereira could be tempted to gift this raw starlet some unexpected first-team minutes, hopeful that he might be the best long-term replacement for Hwang.

The Wolves teen who could now replace Hwang

The Premier League side have unearthed some real gems through their academy structure in recent years, with Morgan Gibbs-White’s name sticking out as one notable Molineux alumni.

Whilst Gibbs-White would have to depart the West Midlands to kickstart his senior career, 18-year-old ace Dani Ángel will hope he can explode into life in the senior set-up at Wolves soon without having to seek out pastures new.

After all, Angel won’t be fearful of a bout in the main men’s team having already experienced a “meteoric rise” to be at Wolves today – as football analyst Tom Williams labelled it – with the Spanish hotshot on the books of London-based non-league outfit Clapton FC in 2023.

He hasn’t looked back since, with the teenager finding himself in a rich vain of goalscoring form for both the U18s and U21s in the Midlands, alongside also winning himself an U18 international call-up.

Angel has picked up a healthy 15 strikes from 36 appearances to date, meaning his time to shine in the first-team picture could soon be on the horizon if Pereira is prepared to be brave in the striker department.

Whilst it’s unlikely that he would make an instant impact if he was gifted this chance, the 18-year-old is definitely one to keep an eye on from a Wolves persuasion, especially if Pereira’s patience with the stricken Hwang becomes thinner.

Wolves' £16m flop is now outperforming Larsen & Ait-Nouri after leaving

This major Wolverhampton Wanderers flop has now found his shooting boots.

1

By
Kelan Sarson

Feb 18, 2025

Celtic supporters are still licking their wounds after a rare, shock defeat but fear not, for Brendan Rodgers’ side still virtually have two hands wrapped around the Premiership title.

On Saturday lunchtime, the Hoops were beaten 2-1 by Hibernian at Easter Road, a goal down inside two minutes, unable to fight back.

The match was not without its controversy, given that Daizen Maeda had a late equaliser disallowed by VAR, who adjudged that the ball had gone out of play, even though all the replays are, at best, inconclusive.

This Celtic side is certainly strong, but how good would they be had they not let a player go, who’s now being touted as one of the best in the Premier League south of the border?

He’s remarkably now better than the club’s record-signing too..

Arne Engles' debut Celtic season in numbers

Back on deadline day in August, Celtic signed midfielder Arne Engels from Augsburg for a reported £11m, breaking their club-record transfer fee in the process, with the Belgian recruited to be Matt O’Riley’s replacement.

The price tag meant ‘an extra layer of expectation rests on the midfielder’s shoulders’, as outlined by Joe Donnelly of the Glasgow Times, leading to Engels making a mixed start to life in hoops.

However, more recently, former Scotland forward James McFadden labelled him “a class act”, with Graeme McGarry of the Herald exclaiming that Engels had a ‘coming of age’ performance in the Champions League against Bayern Munich.

Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout adds he “could easily play for a strong club in the top five leagues”, with Engels taking his tally to nine goals and ten assists for the season, thanks to a brace against Dundee earlier this month.

So, the Belgian has certainly started to impress, but is a former Celtic midfielder, now plying his trade in the Premier League, out-shining him?

Former Celtic midfielder starring in the Premier League

A certain Ryan Christie joined Celtic for a reported fee of £500,000 in September 2015, and this certainly proved money well spent, considering he scored 42 goals and provided 44 assists in 151 appearances for the club, winning seven major honours.

He then departed for £2.5m to join Bournemouth, then of the EFL Championship, in the summer of 2021, now earning rave reviews for his performances in the Premier League, currently valued at £10m via Transfermarkt.

Ed Elliot of the Independent labels him one of the ‘stars’ of this high-flying Bournemouth team, while Sky Sports Dave Jones believes he is now one of the most ‘unheralded’ players in the Premier League.

Gregor Robertson of the Times believes him to be the Premier League’s ‘best ball-winner’ and that’s certainly proven by the numbers.

Attempted passes

934

83rd

Pass completion %

80%

150th

Assists

3

48th

Tackles

48

39th

Tackles won

30

35th

Interceptions

25

34th

Blocks

40

10th

Ball recoveries

155

=1st

The final row of this table is the most-telling, given that Christie’s 155 ball recoveries are the joint-most in the Premier League, alongside Moisés Caicedo, who cost Chelsea a record-breaking £115m, while the Ecuadorian has played 374 more minutes than the Scot.

Alex Keble of the Premier League believes Christie is Bournemouth’s ‘most important player’, with Andoni Iraola having transformed him into a more defensive midfielder.

Arne Engels is much more of a creative, attacking midfielder, akin to how Christie was at Celtic, but the now 30-year-old is, possibly, even better than any Celts supporter may have thought he would ever become.

Celtic have secured their biggest bargain since Maeda in "amazing" star

Celtic have secured a fair few bargain signings in recent seasons, but one “amazing” star continues to shine.

ByBen Gray Feb 20, 2025

Florida, Morrisville, Dallas and New York among shortlisted venues inspected by ICC, with USA set to co-host tournament with West Indies

Nagraj Gollapudi28-Jul-2023

The 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to be played from June 4 to 30 next year in the Caribbean and the USA, across 10 venues, ESPNcricinfo has learned.It is understood that this week an ICC team inspected some shortlisted venues in the USA, which will be hosting an international global cricket event for the first time. These include Lauderhill in Florida, which has hosted international matches already (and is set to host West Indies vs India in the coming fortnight), Morrisville, Dallas and New York, for tournament matches and warm-ups.Morrisville and Dallas are currently hosting the inaugural edition of Major League Cricket in the USA. The grounds in Dallas (Grand Prairie Stadium), Morrisville (Church Street Park) and New York (Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx) are yet to get international venue status, which is mandatory as per ICC rules. A final decision on the venues will be taken by the ICC together with Cricket West Indies (CWI) and USA Cricket (USAC) in the next few months.This week Ireland, Scotland and Papua New Guinea qualified for the 20-team T20 World Cup via the regional qualifiers pathway put in place by the ICC. While PNG topped the East Asia-Pacific Qualifer, Ireland and Scotland finished in the top two positions in the Europe Region Qualifier. Qualifiers from the Americas (for one spot), Africa (two spots) and Asia (two spots) regions will be determined in the coming months.Construction workers put the finishing touches on Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas, ahead of this year’s MLC•Peter Della Penna

Twelve teams had already qualified for the tournament before the regional qualifiers, including hosts West Indies and USA, and the top eight teams at the 2022 T20 World Cup – Australia, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan and Bangladesh qualified by virtue of their spots in the T20I rankings, completing the 20-team roster.The format for the 2024 World Cup will be different to the last two editions (2020-21 in the UAE and 2022 in Australia), where the first round was followed by Super 12s. Next year, the 20 teams will be divided into four groups of five each for the first round, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the Super 8s. The Super 8 teams will be split into two groups of four each, with the top two in each group reaching the semi-finals.The 2024 T20 World Cup is the first of the eight men’s global events in the ICC’s next commercial cycle from 2024-31, which was finalised in 2021. The decision to appoint the USA as a co-host was part of a strategic move by the ICC with twin goals in mind: one, the North American market was identified as a strong market for growth of the game. And two, the ICC’s ambition to have cricket feature in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games (LA28).The USA being pencilled in to co-host a major cricket event, the ICC felt, would only help in the push for cricket’s inclusion in LA28. The ICC made a presentation to the LA28 team, with a final decision to be taken by the International Olympics Committee later this year.

England have fired the first shots, or attempted to, in time-honoured fashion ahead of the men’s Ashes, now Issy Wong has joined in the salvo, saying it’s not a bad time to take on Australia Women with their multi-format series beginning next month.Wong made her debut in all three formats during South Africa’s tour of England last summer and is hoping to be part of the England side kicking off their Ashes campaign in a five-day Test at Trent Bridge from June 22.”I think it’s a pretty good time to play them, you know, just quietly,” Wong said. “They are undoubtably, in my opinion, one of the greatest sports teams in history, of any sport, of any gender. Their record over the last 10 years is absolutely outrageous.Related

• England set to attract record crowds for women's Ashes in summer

• Sciver-Brunt fifty, Wong hat-trick put Mumbai in WPL final

• Litchfield, Garth included in Australia's Ashes squad

• Broad: Australia's 2021-22 win doesn't count as real Ashes

“But it feels like that kind of golden era they’ve had is… you’ve had Rach Haynes retiring, [Meg] Lanning stepping away, obviously coming back in ridiculous form, but there’s a lot of new faces in that group that are unbelievably talented but haven’t necessarily played the biggest part for them over the last couple of years. I think it’s a really good time to actually go at them and say, ‘right, you are the best team in history, but you’ve a couple of new faces in here and let’s see if you’re as good as you were five years ago.’ I think it’s great time to play.”I’ve never played them though,” she added, bursting into laughter. “I’ve watched them on the telly a lot, they look great.”Wong wasn’t part of England’s T20 World Cup squad which fell to hosts South Africa in the semi-finals before Australia won the title for the third time in a row, captained by the returning Lanning after five months away from the game last year. But Wong did return to action in the inaugural WPL, winning the trophy with Mumbai Indians and finishing as the third-highest wicket-taker with 15 at 14.00, which included a hat-trick in the eliminator against UP Warriorz.Part of her reasoning about the Australians relates to her experience in India, having played against a number of her potential Ashes foes there, believing that also playing with and against them at the WBBL and in the Hundred – where she will again represent Birmingham Phoenix when the 2023 edition commences in August – demystifies them somewhat.”I’ve never played them but I don’t view them as ‘the Australians,'” Wong said. “They’re going to have Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy opening the batting, Meg Lanning’s going to bat at three, then in that middle order you’re going to have [Tahlia] McGrath, [Phoenix team-mate Ellyse] Perry, [Grace] Harris. You’ve played against these guys so much that you get to know them and, not necessarily even know their games, but they’re humans at the end of the day and humans do good things and humans do bad things.”That landscape changing, the more franchise stuff, is actually going to even out the playing field on an international level because people are playing against each other a lot more.”People say, ‘Oh, don’t you think it’s going to make international cricket less good if David Warner’s best mates with Jonny Bairstow because they open the batting for Sunrisers Hyderabad?’ I think that’s rubbish because actually it’s going to make the competition a lot better. You’ve got these guys playing against people that they know and those are the best battles because each person’s having to adapt their game and do things a little bit differently. When they’ve played against each other a lot, they’re working each other out and that’s how the game is evolving.”Wong celebrates after dismissing Alyssa Healy in the WPL eliminator•Getty Images

Wong’s comments come within a week of Stuart Broad’s contention that Australia’s 4-0 victory over England Men in their ill-fated Ashes tour of 2021-22 didn’t count as “a real Ashes”, with the Covid-19 restrictions it was played under making it a “void series” in his view, and six weeks after Ollie Robinson said the side which has reinvented itself under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes since could “give Australia a good hiding” this time around. But they are no less bold against an Australia Women’s side which lost just one match – to India in a Super Over – in 2022, also holds the ODI World Cup and has not lost an Ashes series since 2013-14.Asked whether now was a good time for her to play against the Australians in the Ashes personally, Wong responded: “My opinion, yeah. I also think it’s a great time for me to play up front for Liverpool. Does Jurgen Klopp share that opinion? No. There’s some things that you’ve got power over there’s some things that you don’t. I’m always going to be up for it, that’s my personality, but I’ve got to control those things that are in my control. I’m in control of if I’m up for it. I’m up for it. But you never know I guess.”Wong earned her first England cap in the drawn Test against South Africa in Taunton last June. She ended the match with three wickets, including two in two overs on a rain-affected penultimate day. She also featured in the white-ball section of South Africa’s tour before playing all of England’s matches at the Commonwealth Games, where the hosts finished a disappointing fourth.She sat out the most recent WBBL with a minor back complaint and amid ECB concerns over workload management before a quadriceps injury forced her to miss England’s tour of the Caribbean and therefore a chance to press for T20 World Cup selection in front of new coach Jon Lewis. In terms of the WPL providing a platform to prove a point after her omission, Wong agreed that it did, although not in the way one might expect.”They picked their squad and unfortunately for me this time I wasn’t in those plans,” Wong said. “I probably had a half-hour of sulking, or not sulking but feeling sorry for myself, licking my wounds, then I had to get up and go to training. So there’s not a whole lot I can do about it now and that period before the WPL I had probably three weeks at home where I could put in some good yards, come on a bit in training hopefully and then fly out to India.”I was keen to show the progress I’d made, not necessarily that I should have been out there because if I’d picked the squad, I’d have been out there and probably my 14 best mates would have been because that’s just how I’d pick the squad, isn’t it? But it was very much show the progress that I’d made over the last four months and hopefully the potential of progress that I’ve got for the future.”

Stats highlights of a career which has been exceptional, and is still improving

Shiva Jayaraman25-Feb-2021If you fed a selection of R Ashwin’s bowling statistics to a clustering algorithm, chances are that he would be grouped with fast bowlers rather than spinners. Over the years, Ashwin’s numbers in Test cricket have taken a shape that fast bowlers would envy. A career strike rate of 53 puts him between Brett Lee and Morne Morkel among bowlers to take at least 300 wickets in Tests. Out of the 35 bowlers to have taken 300 or more wickets, 24 have an inferior strike rate than Ashwin and 16 of them are fast bowlers. No spinner has a better strike rate than he has. Muttiah Muralitharan comes the closest with a strike rate of 55.0. The race to 400 wickets
Ashwin has taken 21,242 balls to take 400 wickets, which makes him the fourth-quickest bowler ever to the landmark. Only Dale Steyn, Richard Hadlee and Glenn McGrath have got to 400 wickets in fewer deliveries. Rangana Herath is the quickest spinner after Ashwin, having taken 23,835 deliveries.The figure for Richard Hadlee is a range, since exact numbers are not available•ESPNcricinfo LtdIn terms of matches taken to take 400 wickets, only Muralitharan was faster than Ashwin because of having averaged higher number of balls per match than Ashwin. Ashwin has reached the milestone in his 77th match, which is three matches fewer than the next quickest bowler among the 15 bowlers who completed 400 wickets before him.ESPNcricinfo LtdAshwin is also the second-quickest in terms of time taken from making his debut, having reached the milestone in 9 years and 110 days since making his debut (days to the start of the match in which the milestone was reached). McGrath took just 8 years and 341 days, and is the quickest among all bowlers.The new-ball specialist
Ashwin’s effectiveness with the new ball makes him a unique spinner whose utility transcends the limit imposed by the skills of a spinner. He has some nifty tricks up his sleeve, not the least impressive of which is the drift he is able to get with the new ball with the seam upright that – but for the lack of pace – mimics the inswinger bowled by a fast bowler to right-hand batsman. Coupled with intelligent use of the crease, Ashwin is adept at beating both the edges of the bat.With variations like these in his armoury, Ashwin has taken 59 wickets in the first 15 overs of the innings in Tests at a strike rate of 47.4. Among ten bowlers to take at least 50 wickets in the first 15 overs since his debut, Ashwin is the only one with a strike rate under 50. Steyn just misses the cut-off in the period since Ashwin’s debut. But even Steyn – admittedly on the decline in the latter half of this period – took 53.2 balls on an average to take a wicket.ESPNcricinfo LtdAshwin hasn’t been effective with the new ball only in the second innings when the pitches would’ve deteriorated so much that spinners were into play early. He has taken 25 wickets at a staggering average of 16.04 and a strike rate of 41.1 in the first innings as well. No other bowler – pacers included – has taken 20 or more wickets at a better strike rate than Ashwin. Kemar Roach is the next best bowler having taken 35 wickets at a strike rate of 45.9 in the first fifteen overs.Ashwin is the highest wicket-taker for India in the first 15 overs of the innings since his debut. Ishant Sharma, who has taken 50 wickets with the new ball is the next prolific bowler for India in this period. Among spinners, Herath is next with 45 wickets. India’s de-facto spearhead
Since Ashwin made his debut, India’s bowlers have taken 1312 wickets in Test cricket in matches he played. Ashwin has contributed 30.5% of those wickets, which is the fourth highest among 35 bowlers who’ve taken at least 300 wickets in their career. For India, only Anil Kumble has contributed more wickets, but only by a fraction more. Kumble took 30.7% of wickets by India’s bowlers in Tests in which he played.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn fact, before 2018, when India’s fast bowling riches materialized at the Test level, Ashwin had contributed nearly a third of India’s wickets (32.9). That was the third highest ever among bowlers with 300 or more wickets till that time, next only to Muralitharan (40.4) and Hadlee (35.7). Scourge of left handers
Ashwin’s excellent record against left-hand batsmen is well known. No one in the history of Test cricket has dismissed most left-hand batsmen. However, if you think that Ashwin has dismissed as many left-handers just because there are more of them in Test cricket now than ever, then consider the following.There have been 601 innings – till the time Ashwin took his 400th wicket – by left-handers in the matches when Ashwin has played. The 204 dismissals he has inflicted makes that a percentage of 33.94. Among bowlers with at least 200 wickets in Tests, only Alec Bedser has ended a higher percentage of left-handed batsmen’s innings. In the last fifty years, only Muralitharan comes close to Ashwin, having ended 191 of 624 innings by left-handers.ESPNcricinfo Ltd Towering overs others at home
With 278 wickets at an average of 22.19, and a five-wicket haul in every other match in Tests in India he is a champion bowler at home. But helpful conditions don’t guarantee wickets by default. The best bowlers make use of the conditions to the fullest, which Ashwin has done well over his career. In matches Ashwin has played at home, the other bowlers have averaged 34.1. The difference of 11.9 between Ashwin’s average and the match average of other bowlers is the third highest for any bowler to have taken at least 200 wickets playing at home. Only Muralitharan and McGrath have out-bowled other bowlers by a bigger extent.ESPNcricinfo LtdMoreover, Ashwin has built this gap between him and others largely in the presence of Ravindra Jadeja, who himself has excellent numbers in India (Jadeja averages 21.06 in Tests in India). Improving performance in SENA countries
Ashwin’s indifferent numbers in the SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) do take some sheen off a record that otherwise would place him among the pantheon of all-time great bowlers. He has taken 63 wickets at an average of 40.11 in Tests in these four countries, which pales in comparison to his record elsewhere. He concedes nearly 15 runs more on an average to prise out a wicket in these countries when compared with his overall career. Among India spinners to take at least 20 wickets in these countries, only S Venkataraghavan and Venkatapathy Raju have a higher average than Ashwin.However, these countries are tough for all spinners, not just Ashwin: none of the active spinners average sub-30 bowling in Tests in the SENA countries. Among them is Yasir Shah, who has struggled in these conditions: his 46 wickets have come at 55.08 apiece.Any spinner worth the name from India can’t escape comparisons to the likes of Bishan Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Erapalli Prasanna. Bedi took 90 wickets in England, Australia and New Zealand at an average of 30.98. Prasanna’s 78 wickets came at 29.94 apiece and Chandrasekhar, whose average is closest among the three to Ashwin’s but still a good nine runs better, took 71 wickets at 31.33. Chandrasekhar took six five-wicket hauls in 19 matches in the SENA countries, while Ashwin is yet to take one from 20 Tests.However, to be fair to Ashwin, he hasn’t bowled as much on tours to these countries. He has been on nine tours but has played just 20 Tests – an average of 2.2 matches worth of bowling per tour. In comparison, Prasanna averaged 3.3 matches per tour, Bedi 3.1, and Chandrasekhar 2.7 matches per tour. This discounts the bowling time they would’ve got in the tour matches, which players don’t get in these times of packed cricket calendars.Ashwin has shown that this effectiveness in conditions increases with his experience of bowling in them. It was on evidence in the first Test of India’s England tour in 2018, when he took seven wickets at an average 17.28. He had gained invaluable experience bowling for Worcestershire in the county the previous year.ESPNcricinfo LtdAshwin’s ability to adapt is clearer when we look at his performances in Australia over the years. He has been on four tours to Australia and on evidence from the last tour, has worked out how to deceive batsmen without help from the pitch. He’s played three Tests on three of the four tours. On the first tour in 2011-12, he took nine wickets at an average of 62.77; he improved to 12 wickets at 48.66 on his next tour in 2014-15. On his last tour, Ashwin out-bowled Nathan Lyon – bettering the Australian bowler at the skill of getting overspin and use of the crease on Australian pitches, taking 12 wickets at an average of 28.83. This was against a full-strength Australian batting line-up, in condition that weren’t particularly helpful to spinners.Not too long ago Ashwin wasn’t the first choice spinner when India played outside the subcontinent. Ashwin’s recent track record in Tests has shown he’s coming up with ways to take the pitch out of the equation, and could well prove to be the bowler India would turn to in all conditions.

A one-line telegram to his wife, Ada, told the story all of Fleet Street had come to write

Paul Edwards02-Jul-2020August 18, 1925
ScorecardFor more than two decades the best, and best-loved, cricketer in England was also the humblest. Records fell to him and he made more centuries than any other player, yet he maintained an unaffected serenity which wise men envied even more than his batting ability. This is revealing because he had all the shots and played them with time to spare. He managed this even on rain-affected pitches and in matches where, as a quietly proud professional, he knew he had to earn his pay.On flat wickets at The Oval or against weaker opposition he might give his innings away to a deserving bowler in order to allow his Surrey colleagues a chance to bat. He had received hardly any coaching; the skills at the heart of his batting were entirely natural. His first-class debut in 1905 pitted him against W G Grace and in his final Test in 1930 he watched Don Bradman make 232. He would end his career with 197 first-class hundreds but not even the great innings he played in Ashes Tests were more feted than his 126th century. That was made at Taunton in August 1925 when the County Ground was packed with spectators and the press box was as crammed as an ageing film-star’s make-up box. “Fame and tranquillity can never be bedfellows,” wrote Michel de Montaigne. But then Montaigne never met Jack Hobbs.ALSO READ: The captain who helped West Indies make their own West Indian wayThere was no touring team in 1925. That in itself was not particularly unusual: only three countries played Test Matches and, as Dominic Sandbrook points out, county cricket was still the national sport, shading even football until after the Second World War. Five bowlers were to take over 200 wickets that season and the country was not short of high-class batsmen, yet Hobbs’s exploits dominated the sporting pages. Beginning the summer with 113 first-class hundreds against his name, he made a dozen more in his first 27 innings. That mattered because it left him one short of the record set by Grace and once thought unchallengeable. (As things turned out, ten of the 25 batsmen to score a hundred hundreds overtook Grace.)”England is waiting for news in an expectant hush,” said a leader writer on the . “We shall hold our breath as hopefully as any man in Surrey and crow as lustily when the great figures break at last on the telegraph board.” At which point Hobbs’s form dipped a little and the weather sulked. He was dismissed by Maurice Tate for 1 at Hove, by Charlie Parker for 38 at Gloucester and by a promising 21-year-old called Harold Larwood for 1 at The Oval.For nearly a month the press pack remained in close attendance and spectators queued up, wondering if this was going to be the day. When Hobbs failed to make a century he was probably more disappointed for his supporters than himself. He may have felt responsible for their sadness. “The mental strain was beginning to tell,” he admitted later, “It seemed the whole circus was following me round. The newspapers were working everybody into a fever state.”In the ten innings after his century against Kent at Blackheath, Hobbs made 252 runs. “Centuries never bothered me, nor records really, nor averages,” he said after he retired. “Of course I was earning my living but it was batting I enjoyed.” And there was nothing sham about this gentle simplicity. The only false thing about Hobbs was the two dozen or so strokes he played each season that led to dismissals. For the rest of each summer he was the most technically accomplished cricketer in the land. Archie McLaren described him as the most perfect model of what a batsman should be and wrote a book based on pre-war photographs to prove his point.ALSO READ: Bertie Buse’s benefit match: ‘It’s one of those rough days, gentlemen’Somerset’s cricketers, by contrast, were rarely cited as models of excellence in 1925. They won only three matches and finished 15th in the table. Their bowling was frequently dependent on J C “Farmer” White, one of the nine amateurs in the team that played Surrey, who themselves fielded five unpaid players. Although White was mainly content to tend his cows in the English winters, he was a cricketer of international class and took 25 wickets as England retained the Ashes in 1928-29. None of which detracted from the general opinion that a visit to Taunton gave Hobbs an ideal opportunity to make a lot of history.The game began on a Saturday and Somerset batted first. They managed 167 in 66.3 overs and in an age when all counties bowled around twenty overs an hour Hobbs had over two hours to make progress towards removing the burden from his shoulders. “We had brushed ourselves aside for the occasion,” wrote RC Robertson-Glasgow (Crusoe), who opened the home side’s bowling. But it seems that Hobbs could have been out three times that evening. He was caught at cover-point off a no-ball, might have been pouched at mid-on had Jack MacBryan moved a little more quickly and then saw a confident lbw appeal from Robertson-Glasgow turned down. He also managed to run out Donald Knight for 34. Yet when all these tiny dramas had been completed he was unbeaten on 91. Nine runs to get and all Fleet Street in a ferment.On Sunday Hobbs kept to his usual habit and twice went to church, but between these simple devotions he was filmed at Surrey’s hotel close by the station. On the platform favoured by trains from London another carriage disgorged yet more journalists, all hip-flasks and headlines. The following morning the County Ground was quite as packed as it had been 48 hours earlier. “Somerset committee-men beamed affably alike on friends, enemies and total strangers,” observed Crusoe. Hobbs began with three singles, then a four off a Robertson-Glasgow no-ball and a single in the same over. Then he pushed a single off Jim Bridges, thereby disposing of the great matter that had bedevilled him for a month.”Tremendous cheering, of course, greeted the accomplishment of the feat,” reported Wisden, who gave a whole page to its match report. “Indeed, so pronounced was the enthusiasm that the progress of the game was halted some minutes while at the end of the over all the players in the field shook hands with Hobbs, and the Surrey captain brought out a drink for the hero of the occasion, who raised the glass high and bowed to the crowd before partaking of the refreshment.”The liquid in the glass Percy Fender brought out was ginger-ale and toasting the crowd may have been the most ostentatious act of Hobbs’s life. Leo McKinstry, his latest and best biographer, records that he also took from his pocket a telegram he had written earlier and asked the Taunton groundsman to send it to his wife, Ada, who was on holiday in Margate with their four children. It read: “Got it at last, Jack.”Jack Hobbs toasting the crowd at Taunton•Getty ImagesThe rest of that game at Taunton was much more than an appendix to a great moment. The papers had their story and some sated journalists returned to the smoke. Surrey, meanwhile, having established a lead of 192, bowled out Somerset for 374, this despite a century by MacBryan. Needing 183 to win, the visitors got home by ten wickets and Hobbs, having equalled Grace’s record on Monday, surpassed it a day later. “His cares dropped from him, as the poet has it, like the needles shaken from out the gusty pine,” said Crusoe rather sportingly, given that his six overs had cost 42 runs. “The same balls which, in the first innings, he had pushed severely to cover-point he now cracked to the boundary with serene abandon.”Hobbs made 16 centuries in 1925 and finished the season with 3024 runs. He played on until 1934, by which time he was 51. He made nearly as many hundreds after his 40th birthday as before reaching that vestibule of middle age. He was knighted in 1953, the first professional to receive the honour, yet he continued to call his former amateur colleagues Mr. Jardine, Mr. Fender etc. even when he was Sir Jack. He has been fortunate in his biographers and fortunate too, that one of his friends was John Arlott, who loved him very much. “He just was the person whom I suppose I admired more than anybody else and I really believe that if he had never played cricket I would have admired him as much,” Arlott told Mike Brearley in their memorable Channel 4 conversations. “He was determined to be content.”After retirement Hobbs ran his sports shop in Fleet Street and sometimes worked for the newspapers, his copy ghosted by a professional journalist. The story goes that he might be critical of one or two batsmen’s dismissals in the morning session but by the time came to file copy natural kindness had reasserted itself. “Say he’s looking for his best form,” he might suggest.Arlott’s last poem took him six months to write. It was entitled: “To John Berry Hobbs on his Seventieth Birthday”. The fourth stanza reads as follows:Arlott also produced a short biography of Hobbs. It details his major achievements but always places them in a context that really has little to do with cricket: “This was the man who, without believing it to be a matter of major importance, made more runs than anyone else.”In 2000 a panel of experts voted Hobbs one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Century. In his tribute Matthew Engel noted his subject had done more than anyone else to lift “the status and dignity of the English professional cricketer. He shied away from the limelight without ever resenting it. Even in old age he could be sought by all-comers at his sports shop in Fleet St.”No doubt some customers asked Hobbs about that famous day in Taunton. He probably apologised for all the fuss he had caused. Match from the Day

Heat, who beat Sixers in last season’s final, moved up to fifth with their point

AAP03-Jan-2025Rain was the only winner as the BBL game in Coffs Harbour between top-of-the-table Sydney Sixers and defending champions Brisbane Heat was washed out without any play.The game was abandoned just over an hour after it was scheduled to start.The point apiece for the no result put Sixers three points ahead of second-placed Perth Scorchers, who were scheduled to play Sydney Thunder later on Friday.Heat, who beat Sixers in last season’s final but lost to them in Brisbane last week, moved up to fifth with their point.Rain had fallen over the north coast venue for several hours.At one stage, it appeared to have almost ceased, but it intensified and forced the abandonment of the game to the disappointment of the several thousand fans who arrived at the ground.Michael Neser had been scheduled to make his comeback from an hamstring injury suffered almost two months ago while playing for Australia A. Heat had also named wicketkeeper Tom Alsop in their squad, with the England Lions representative poised to make his season debut.Heat, who had lost three games straight before Friday’s washout, will next play Thunder in Brisbane on Monday. Sixers, who suffered their first loss in their last start after winning their first four, face Melbourne Stars at the MCG next Thursday.