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The World Series between the Blue Jays and Dodgers will conclude in dramatic fashion with a winner-take-all Game 7 Friday night.

Los Angeles had their backs against the wall as they traveled to Toronto facing elimination, but pulled off an epic win in Game 6 after a dramatic ninth inning to force the decider. Rogers Centre will play host to the final game of Major League Baseball’s season, giving the Jays home-field advantage as the franchise tries to secure its first title since 1993.

MLB.com’s Sarah Langs dove into postseason history to find how teams in the Blue Jays and Dodgers’ positions have fared based on prior results. According to her research, teams playing any winner-take-all game in their home park are 69–67, including 31–29 in a best-of-seven series. That gives an ever so slight edge to Toronto, but L.A. certainly secured the momentum in the series by taking Game 6 on the road.

In best-of-seven series that follow the current 2-3-2 format, teams that have won Game 6 to force a Game 7 ended up winning the series 35 of 56 times (62.5%), also according to Langs. When the Game 6 winner has forced a Game 7 on the road, that road team has won the series 14 of 22 times (63.6%).

Langs’s always useful findings indicate the Blue Jays get a small bump for playing at their home park, but the Dodgers get a slightly bigger bump for taking Game 6, especially doing so on the road. If this year’s Fall Classic has taught us anything, it’s that Game 7 could go either way. Baseball fans are certainly in for a treat with the last game of the season as Shohei Ohtani and Max Scherzer toe the rubber for their respective sides.

Game 7 of the World Series unfolded in truly epic fashion on Saturday night and it resulted in an absolutely gut-wrenching loss by the Blue Jays to the Dodgers. Thanks to a Will Smith home run in the top of the 11th and a clutch double play in the bottom of the frame Los Angeles won its third Fall Classic in the last six years to officially establish a dynasty. Toronto, meanwhile, has a very long offseason of painful reflection ahead after coming close to its first championship in over 30 years.

It was as brutal a loss as you’ll ever see in sports and Sportsnet broadcaster Caleb Joseph was not happy about it. Appearing on the Canadian broadcast after the game, Joseph did not hesitate to declare he believed the better team did not win the series, even dropping a curse word on television as he memorialized the best Blue Jays season in decades.

“There were a lot of wet eyes and I don’t blame them for that,” Joseph said as he described the scene at Rogers Centre following the defeat. “It’s going to sound like sour grapes, and I don’t really give a s—, but I think the better team did not win this series. I think the Blue Jays are the better team. I feel like they played baseball a certain way, it was infectious, it grabbed the attention of the fans, and it’s disheartening to see that the better team did not win. That’s not to take anything away from the Dodgers, but the Blue Jays, they did so many things correct, so many things right.”

Joseph did spend the 2020 season with the organization and has followed their postseason run with Sportsnet. So the strong emotions are perhaps not a surprise.

But it ultimately doesn’t matter who was the “better team” in the way Joseph is talking about. The Dodgers won four out of seven games and thus they are the victor. The Blue Jays had their chances but couldn’t take advantage. Through that lens, the better team was from Los Angeles, and another World Series trophy belongs to the franchise as a result.

Joseph’s comments undoubtedly resonated with the Canadian audience who have loyally watched Sportsnet throughout this run. But no amount of lamenting who was the better team changes the outcome: the Blue Jays lost. The Dodgers won. And that’s how it'll be remembered forever.

The Mets were dealt a major blow to their offseason plans after slugging first baseman Pete Alonso agreed to spurn New York and sign a five-year contract with the Orioles in free agency.

The contract will pay Alonso $155 million, $31 million per season, and runs through the 2030 campaign. It’s the second time in as many days that the Mets lost out on one of their own free agents, following Edwin Díaz’s decision to join the Dodgers instead of returning to Queens.

There’s no way to sugarcoat it. If you’re a Mets fan, losing Alonso stings. Badly.

But that’s baseball, and now Steve Cohen & Co. will need to scour the market for a replacement, whether it be via a free agency signing of their own or potentially swinging a trade to find a new everyday first baseman. With that in mind, let’s explore some potential fits for the Mets at first base following Alonso’s departure.

Pete Alonso replacements for Mets this offseasonSign Cody Bellinger

The preparations and the processes that have brought together their best Under-19 players

Sreshth Shah in Potchefstroom07-Feb-2020For the Bangladesh Under-19 side, making the World Cup final was always the plan. Akbar Ali, their captain, said so in as many words before the tournament began and as the competition progressed, each game has vindicated them. Here’s a look at the steps they took since the last Under-19 World Cup.The preparationsThe plan to create a World Cup winning squad began a week after their quarter-final loss at the 2018 Under-19 World Cup. At the forefront of that was former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud, then the technical director of cricket and now in charge of the country’s developmental system, who created a plan that went 24 months into the future. The first thing the team needed was more experience away from home. The second was a core group that stayed the same through the period.”The main secret is we’ve played so much cricket,” Mahmud told ESPNcricinfo. “The BCB has arranged so many tours – England and New Zealand for starters. We played 30-plus games, won 18 of them.ALSO READ: Mahmudul takes big step towards becoming Bangladesh’s ‘Wall'”We didn’t chop and change the squad for the last two years. From an Under-17 team in 2018, we selected a set of 20 players, from where we’ve picked the 15. Being together, they’ve matured and learnt their roles in depth.”The switch happened last World Cup after realising that we were losing matches due to our inexperience in key moments. We didn’t bowl and bat well in the final overs. So when we appointed [former Sri Lanka batsman] Naveed Nawaz as the coach, we made foreign tours a priority. We made the board understand if we don’t play overseas, the team will be stuck at a level. The board said, ‘no, we’ll support you.'”That strong Under-17 squad was the result of a paradigm shift in how the BCB has approached the sport in the past few years, going beyond the traditional cricketing centers in the country.The processFour years ago, the BCB made a plan to give the sport an equal footing in all 64 districts of the country. They organised tournaments across three levels – Under-14, Under-16 and Under-18 – to identify 45 players from each age group. Those 45 – a total of 135 players – were then split into three teams to take part in annual triangular tournaments. From the triangulars, the BCB handpicked a group of 15 that would receive a deeper focus.”Now you see, most of our boys in the senior team are from the rural areas, like Mustafizur Rahman. Even in this Under-19 squad, there are just two boys from Dhaka,” Mahmud says. “Because of the way we are organising cricket at the Under-14, Under-16 levels, nobody gets lost in the system. Everyone is being tracked.”Parents don’t need any convincing, they want their kids to play cricket – even in the rural areas. They think if their boy can play good cricket, he can earn good money just by domestic cricket, let alone international. Seeing Shakib [Al Hasan] and Tamim [Iqbal], parents know there’s a future. It’s helping us lose much lesser cricketers.”Over the years, Bangladesh have been known as a unit that crumbles when the occasion is big. In 2018 alone, the senior team lost three finals, two of them on the last ball to India: the Asia Cup in Dubai and the Nidahas Tri-Series in Colombo. Not to forget that narrow one-run loss against India in the 2016 T20 World Cup. It happened once in the Under-19 level too, when in the Asia Cup final five months ago, Bangladesh had bowled India out for only 106 in a 50-over game and then crumbled for 101 in 33 overs. Mahmud acknowledges the problem and explains what’s different at this World Cup.”Mental strength has come from two years’ practice,” he says. “If you see our batting, they are not batting hurriedly. When they get set, they know how to play when wickets are in hand, how to pace the innings. Even though they’ve won a lot of games, they have picked up lessons from their losses.”In the top five, everyone is among the runs. Someday Tanzid Hasan will score, on other days Towhid Hridoy will score. Mahmudul Hasan had a lean run, but because we continued to back him, he delivered with a hundred in the semi-final.”Even as a bowling unit, we have looked to not be one-dimensional. Fast bowling and legspin have been two key points in us coming forward. To play the top teams you need quality and varied bowlers, both with the new and the old ball. The boys have worked hard under Champaka Ramanayake, the Sri Lankan fast bowling coach at the academy. In four-five years, you’ll see a revolution in fast bowling.”Because we couldn’t arrange a tour of South Africa in 2018 and 2019, we came to this country a month before the tournament. The bounce of the wickets was a bit high, so we took our time to get used to it. We played four practice games even before the warm-ups.”The Bangladesh players and support staff celebrate with a victory jig•ICC via GettyThe personnelStrength and conditioning coach of the Under-19 team, Richard Stoinier, who has previously worked with the Afghanistan and Pakistan cricket boards, says: “The boys have had a lifestyle change. The one-percenters they’re doing, they’re willing to do it even when they’re not playing cricket. We’ve developed agility drills that athletes do in soccer and American football. They’ve become leaner and faster, getting closer to the global standards athletes in the west adhere to. They focus as much on recovery as they do on practice – it’s a total shift.”Mahmud, however, believes what happens on the field makes up for only 50% of the team’s success. Off the field, the players have been taken care of by Bangladeshi members of the community. Overall, it’s a happy, satisfied environment in South Africa.”I will give thanks to the management team – Shajul Chaudhary and Kawsar, our manager here,” Mahmud says. “The boys don’t want to eat steaks every day, so they have arranged food from outside. If you aren’t satisfied with what you’re eating then your mind won’t work. Some guys want rice and curries, so on most days we have arranged meals that will keep our boys happy.”You need to play good cricket on the field, but off-the-field ethics are important. They are like their sons. They look after them like their children. When you’re abroad, you miss your family, you know Akbar suffered a loss in his family, but they mentally boosted him up.”The road aheadAll those years of planning and preparation now boil down to one match – the final against defending champions India on Sunday. Reaching the final itself has been historic for Bangladesh. Mahmud says that players in the senior team have already gotten inspired by the juniors, irrespective of how the final turns out.”For years we knew we aren’t any lesser than the big national teams, but now we have proof in the form of results,” he says. “As BCB, we have also learnt that if we give what the players need, they can do wonders.”We can develop future teams from this template. The women’s team, other Under-19s, senior teams – each of them. Win or lose the final, we won’t let our successes be determined by one result on the cricket field.”Even if they don’t win, I won’t be unhappy. You should see how the country got boosted by their performances. We are a very small country, with little facilities, and the way they have played their cricket, we are very happy.”

It’s time to re-evaluate your loyalties and find out who you should be supporting

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Mar-2020Now that we all have to take an enforced break from supporting our favourite national teams, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate our loyalties. This test is designed to determine your personality type and tell you which national team you should really be supporting. Every country’s team plays a different brand of cricket and has a different history, and just because you are born in one country doesn’t mean you’re not actually meant to support another’s team. So don’t be surprised if the results of this quiz shatter some illusions.

He was 5 off 13. He finished 53 off 31. This innings made you want to believe that the tide can turn. Even in T20s

Sidharth Monga28-Sep-20205:59

Making sense of Tewatia’s ‘freakish’ knock

Among all the content IPL teams produce thanks to their access, “Dressing Room Talks”, Ricky Ponting’s debriefing after any Delhi Capitals game, is absolutely must-see. Players circle around Ponting, who often refers to his big black notebook, and listen to him break down the game. When Capitals win, it is done amid raucous laughter and applause. It is a rare window into how a team works.Ponting also introduced to Capitals a concept of “Change Room Man of the Match” to appreciate the support acts that don’t get spoken about during a match. He hands them badges for their contribution.Ponting debuted this at the start of the 2019 season, which they began with a big win after losing the toss at Wankhede against the winningest IPL team of all. Rishabh Pant had scored a scarcely believable 78 off 27 that night, but Ponting commended Colin Ingram for his 47 off 32 from 29 for 2, Shikhar Dhawan for a forty, and Ishant Sharma, Trent Boult and Kagiso Rabada for their bowling. He said he didn’t care that Axar Patel went for 42 in his three overs because the conditions were unfavorable for spinners. He spoke of the fielding. He called Capitals a “f*cken good” team. He chalked plans for the next day, and then began to walk off.On his way, Rahul Tewatia stopped him. The conversation between the two wasn’t audible because of the noise, but Ponting turned around and patronisingly said, “Boys, Tewatia took four catches, and wants a pat on the back.” To the sound of mocking laughter. And walked off with an even more patronising smirk on his face.Oh the ignominy of being forgotten.A tender coconut in his hand, Axar immediately walked to Tewatia to mock him. “Who begs for recognition, bro?” Axar asked Tewatia in Hindi.”Bro, you have to fight for what you are owed,” Tewatia replied earnestly.

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This. Is. New. Delhi. Coach Ricky Ponting out there giving us all the #MotivationalFeels with his speech after the #MIvDC game The boys are ready for #DCvCSK at #QilaKotla! #ThisIsNewDelhi #DelhiCapitals

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**Tewatia had probably done all that was asked of him that night. He came out to bat with 16 balls remaining in the innings, made sure Pant got the strike for 12 of those, and also hit a six in the four he got. He was taken for 12 by Kieron Pollard in his first over before he took the wicket of the last batsman in his second. In between he took four catches; he had to dive for one, the other three were more regulation.You could see why Ponting didn’t choose him for the honours. More than that you could feel what Tewatia would have gone through that night. He was a proper journeyman. He had played only six first-class games, 18 List A games and 32 T20 ones. And he was about to turn 27. His T20 debut came in the IPL, for Rajasthan Royals in 2014, but he was soon traded to Kings XI Punjab. He next played in the IPL in 2017, only to be traded to Capitals (Daredevils back then) next year.Rahul Tewatia was the centre of attention after his spectacular innings•BCCITewatia would have known he was never going to be the star player. He wasn’t a good enough legspinner to play for his bowling alone, and he hardly got to bat. This was a night he had made contributions in every small window of opportunity he had been given. He was in the midst of possible heroes – Ponting, Sourav Ganguly, his team-mates, including Haryana legspinner Amit Mishra – and would have spent every second of that debriefing hoping to hear his name and the applause and the recognition to go with it.It never came. When he asked for it – not outside but within the team – the derision that did come wasn’t entirely unexpected in a cricket change room full of alpha male egos. Tewatia bowled 38 balls, and batted 22 that season. He was soon traded back to Royals. It was a sensible move. Tewatia wasn’t a finished product, and they didn’t have a slot where they could develop a player.**Tewatia is the kind of player who will not get a lot of opportunity. His legspin is not classic, his batting unproven. It shows in how his home state Haryana struggled to find him a regular spot in their sides. Twenty20 cricket brought cricketers such as Tewatia a chance to build a career. They could super-specialise to such an extent they could get a game for a certain match-up to contain just one batsman. The short duration of the format means you can even afford to waste one player in case you don’t get your desired set-piece. However, when you get that chance, you have to be precise and efficient with executing the skill you have been brought on to execute.Tewatia is also the kind of player who will be more at home at a team with budget constraints so that it is then in their best interest to develop such a player. Apart from being one of those teams, Royals also needed Tewatia’s super specialisation as the only Indian left-hand hitter anywhere near their first XI. Through this trade, Tewatia had come back to his spiritual home.**In his first match back for Royals, Tewatia managed to annoy the biggest fanbase in the IPL. Not only did he take three Chennai Super Kings wickets, he also brought out the “fingers in ears” celebration to mark one of those wickets. Later in the night he posted his photo with fingers in ears on his Instagram page. The comments section was inundated with abuse primarily from CSK fans. Some of them unimaginatively told him of alternate places to stick his fingers, some mockingly asked what noise he was blocking in empty stadiums, but the gist of the abuse was: “We have seen Philippe Coutinho celebrate this way for Barcelona, who are you? A walk-on player in a walk-on team.”The comments section was about to get busy in five days again.**Rahul Tewatia took two wickets in two balls•BCCITwenty20 cricket has freed batsmen up. They actually prepare to hit sixes. Earlier batsmen only used to practise in the nets, which could be claustrophobic. You didn’t quite know and watch for yourself how far you were hitting balls. A Lance Klusener, who would hit just sixes in a training session, was an exception. Now they have intra-squad contests to see who hits more sixes. Royals had one such in their camp to see who hit most sixes in an over. According to Sanju Samson, the six-hitting machine, Tewatia hit four or five sixes in that over.That day onwards, Andrew McDonald, the coach, and Zubin Barucha, the director of cricket, began to work on Tewatia’s batting. A potential move to open the innings had also been considered, according to Samson. The same Samson was reduced to turning down a single with Tewatia at the other end.**In his second match back for Royals, Tewatia’s 31-ball stay at the wicket brought forth the best and worst of T20 cricket the format. Its crunched nature leaves little room for personal struggle. Coaches tell batsmen if they are struggling, chances are others will too, so don’t give up the ghost, but what if your side has scored 100 in nine overs chasing 224 and you, promoted to do a job, are unable to get the ball off the square? It happened, most infamously, to Yuvraj Singh, one of the cleanest strikers cricket has ever seen, in the World T20 final of 2014. It happened to a young Ravindra Jadeja when he was promoted up the order in a 2009 World T20 game. It keeps happening to someone or the other.The essence of sport is to fight through tough situations. The crunched nature of this sport doesn’t allow for it. Those crunching numbers have been egging coaches on to pull back the batsman who is sucking the momentum out of an innings. You have only so many deliveries and 10 wickets to make use of them. Personal struggle is a nicety best left for the nets. The kindest of people wanted Tewatia to commit the less dramatic version of stepping on his wicket: just leave the crease and swing so that you can at least get stumped when you hit. At one point, even Samson asked him to do the same: run down the pitch and hit hard.4:02

Manjrekar, Chopra bat for ‘retired out’ concept

Tewatia didn’t want to. This is where the philosophical essence of sport comes into question. I once goaded Stephen Fleming to say retiring-out people should be normalised. He wouldn’t have any of it. I gave him the example of Yuvraj in the 2014 final. “That’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? Not let someone get away with it just because they can tap out. ‘Not my day today, I am out.'”Fleming has played a lot of international cricket and now coaches a successful T20 franchise. To him, the philosophy was clear: you do not give up the struggle. Tewatia never tapped out. He kept doing the right thing. He kept picking the wrong’uns, kept trying to go over long-off, but kept getting beaten. With every dot and single, the walls kept closing in, the asking rate kept rising, and Samson kept getting frustrated. Imagine the abuse that awaited on his Instagram page.You wonder how Tewatia felt when Samson nearly holed out, playing a frustrated shot because of all the momentum loss. Or when Samson refused to take a single lest Tewatia get back on strike. This is where you saw T20 at its practical best. That match-up – Tewatia against Maxwell – was proving to be the worst, and Samson had just hit two sixes off the same bowler. Ego or pity was taken out of this decision making. “How will Rahul feel if I push him further into the dumps by not taking the one?” No sir, not the time to think that.That also showed how over-rated singles and rotating strike in T20s can be. On the night Kings XI Punjab hit 11 sixes, Royals cleared the ropes 18 times to make up for all the lack of rotation of strike. It happens in 80% of the matches: score more in boundaries, and win the game.The commentators rightly questioned the wisdom of promoting Tewatia on a night when orthodox hitting produced more and easy runs. Cameras kept panning to the dugout and kept showing worried faces. Tewatia kept the noise out. He kept trying to hit that one six to get him going. In the timeout, at 5 off 13, having failed to get the better of the legspinner, Tewatia told his captain, Steven Smith, he was still in it, that he could hit three sixes each of Sheldon Cottrell and Mohammed Shami, international bowlers both. A bemused Smith said, “Mate, that is great self-belief.” Was there some derision in that?In the end, the sensational turnaround – six sixes in the last eight balls Tewatia faced – didn’t prove any of the rationalists wrong. He was perhaps not the right choice to send at No. 4, but you have also got to look at the shallow batting line-up. Stepping on your wicket is perhaps the better solution if an Andre Russell is waiting in the dugout. There is no way this kind of an effort is repeatable. In hindsight, if Kings XI had bowled M Ashwin – remember Tewatia’s struggle against non-turning legspin earlier – instead of Sheldon Cottrell, this might not even have happened in the first place.This innings was not about all that. It transcended tactics. It went into the larger essence of sport. How can you be an elite competitor and just give up? This innings made you want to believe in the romance of the struggle. That the tide can turn. Even in a duration as small as T20 cricket. That tapping out, in life as in sport, is not really the option after all.”You have to fight for what you are owed.”

With four matches to go, six teams are still in the fray for three spots

S Rajesh31-Oct-2020ESPNcricinfo LtdKings XI Punjab: Played 13, Points 12, NRR -0.133
The heavy defeats for the Capitals and the Royal Challengers mean the Kings XI Punjab now have a higher net run rate (NRR) than both those teams. That means a win by any margin in their last game, against the Chennai Super Kings, will keep the Kings XI above the team that loses Monday’s Capitals-Royal Challengers game. (The winner of that game will qualify with 16 points.)If the Sunrisers Hyderabad win their last match, they will go through for sure, which means the Kings XI will also have to ensure their NRR stays above that of the winner of the game between the Rajasthan Royals and the Kolkata Knight Riders. Here is how that situation pans out: If the Kings XI score 180 and win by a run, the Royals will have to win by 65 runs (if they score 180) or in fewer than 13 overs (if chasing 160) to go past the Kings XI’s NRR For the Knight Riders, the corresponding margins are 85 runs and 9.3 oversThose look to be fairly difficult asks, so the Kings XI Punjab should be quite safe if they seal a victory on Sunday.Rajasthan Royals: Played 13, Points 12, NRR -0.377
Given the Royals’ poor NRR, their best bet for qualification will be if the Sunrisers and the Kings XI lose their last matches. Then, the Royals will progress to the playoffs without NRR coming into play if they beat the Knight Riders on Sunday.If one of the Sunrisers or the Kings XI win, then the Royals will have to ensure their NRR is higher than that of the loser of the Capitals-Royal Challengers match. If the Royal Challengers lose that match by a run, the margin for the Royals will be around 60 runs; if the Capitals lose by a run, it will be around 55 runs.If both the Sunrisers and the Kings XI win, then the Royals will have to go past the Kings XI’s NRR to win. That margin, as mentioned in Kings XI’s scenario above, will be slightly higher.For all these calculations to come into play, they will have to beat the Knight Riders on Sunday.Kolkata Knight Riders: Played 13, Points 12, NRR -0.467
The Knight Riders are in a similar situation as the Royals, their opponents on Sunday, except that their NRR is a bit poorer. Hence, the best-case scenario for them is exactly what applies to Royals: to hope that the Sunrisers and the Kings XI lose their last games. Then, the Knight Riders will qualify as the fourth team if they beat the Royals.If the Kings XI or the Sunrisers win their last game, then the Knight Riders will have to win by a big enough margin which lifts their NRR above that of the loser of the Capitals-Royal Challengers match, or the Kings XI. In any case, the minimum margin for the Knight Riders in any of these situations will be around 75 runs. Hence, their best bet, quite clearly, is to win their last game and hope that the Kings XI and the Sunrisers lose theirs.Royal Challengers Bangalore: Played 13, Points 14, NRR -0.145
A win against the Capitals will lift the Royal Challengers to second place. If they lose, however, then they will be at the mercy of other results. If the Sunrisers and the Kings XI win their last matches, then 14 points will not be enough for the Royal Challengers.If one of those two teams lose, then the Royal Challengers will be through provided the margin of victory in the Royals-Knight Riders game is not huge. If both the Sunrisers and the Kings XI lose, then the Royal Challengers will be through without NRR coming into play. In that scenario, the four bottom-placed teams will all finish with 12 points.ESPNcricinfo LtdDelhi Capitals: Played 13, Points 14, NRR -0.159
Not only have the Delhi Capitals lost their last four matches, they have also lost three by huge margins, which has shaved off a whopping 0.933 from their NRR.The Capitals are now in a similar situation as the Royal Challengers, their opponents on Monday. If they win, they will finish second; if they lose, their survival will depend on other results. Since the Sunrisers and the Kings XI both already have better NRRs, the Capitals cannot catch up with them if they win their last matches, and if the Capitals lose and stay on 14.If either the Sunrisers or the Kings XI lose, then the Capitals will qualify provided the margin of victory in the Royals-Knight Riders match is not huge.Sunrisers Hyderabad: Played 13, Points 12, NRR 0.555
The Sunrisers have made a late surge and have an excellent NRR, but their last game is against table-toppers Mumbai Indians. However, apart from the NRR, what might work in their favour is the fact that they will play Mumbai in Sharjah, the same venue where they beat the Royal Challengers so emphatically.The equation for the Sunrisers is the simplest: beat Mumbai, and they will be through regardless of other results; lose the match, and they will be out.

According to Smart Stats Sam Curran’s efforts with the ball came at a time when the opposition had a higher chance to win.

ESPNcricinfo stats team19-Apr-20212:58

Stephen Fleming: Moeen Ali has been ‘instrumental’ in us getting big scores

One allrounder takes 3 for 7 and hits 26 off 20, while other takes 2 for 24 and tonks a 6-ball 13. Who would be your Player of the Match? The former? Well, that indeed was the official choice for the award in the game between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. That performance had come from Moeen Ali, and the latter, were Sam Curran’s stats in the match.However, ESPNcricinfo’s Smarts Stats rates that Curran’s impact on the match was higher than Ali’s. Smarts Stats not only takes into account the quality of the batters dismissed, but also the situation in which a bowler bowls, among other things, to arrive at an impact value for the bowling performance. The match situation is quantified and fed into the calculations through ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster tool, according to which, Rajasthan Royals’ chances of winning the match were at their highest during the Powerplay. Curran sent down three overs during that period and took out Royals’ captain Sanju Samson, in addition to dismissing Manan Vohra. Curran’s two wickets were worth 3.04 Smart Wickets, including Samson’s wicket which was valued at 1.71.ESPNcricinfo LtdBut surely the wickets taken by Ali – of David Miller, Chris Morris and Riyan Parag – were bigger than those taken by Curran? That’s where the Smart Stats looks at the ‘context’. When Jos Buttler got out to Ravindra Jadeja in the 12th over, Royals were already facing an uphill task: they needed 102 runs off 54 deliveries. Historical data in major leagues and internationals between top teams pegs the win probability of the chasing team at 30%. Smart Stats further adjusts this win probability for the batting quality left and the bowling quality it is up against in the current match. It pegged Royals’ chances at only 19% at the start of the 12th over. By the time Ali took Miller’s wicket in the next over Royals’ chances of winning had dropped to single digits. Ali twin strike in his next over – that of Morris and Parag – came at a time when the match was lost, statistically at least, according to the Forecaster. That’s why Ali’s three wickets were worth only 1.85 Smart Wickets.Curran seemingly was less economical than Ali, but he bowled three over upfront, conceding only 12 runs from this first three overs. By the time he bowled his last over – an expensive one, off which he conceded 12 runs – Super Kings had already won the match. Overall, Curran’s impact with the ball earned him 66.7 impact points, while Ali’s earned 34.7 points. Ali managed to bridge some gap through his efforts with the bat – his 26 runs were worth 31.7 impact points, while Curran’s cameo was worth 21.5 – but Curran’s exploits with the ball meant that he was the Smart Stats player of the match.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Old friends extol virtue of experience to bat away questions about their futures

Nagraj Gollapudi15-Aug-20212:55

Laxman: Pujara and Rahane absorbed the pressure very well

It was 41 minutes into play on Sunday morning when Cheteshwar Pujara stood up from the while-paneled bench in front of the Pavilion at Lord’s. He put on his gloves, entered the ground, rotated both arms languidly. His body language did not suggest this was a man battling for his career.But the interrogation from his arch nemesis, James Anderson, would start straightaway. Anderson kept his line of attack on Pujara’s off stump, instantly drawing an outside edge that landed in front of Joe Root at first slip. The next ball thudded into Pujara’s thigh pads and fell in front Haseeb Hameed at short leg. Pujara would see out the over with a confident tap under his eyes. But Anderson had his tail up, chirping with Virat Kohli, which allowed him to put that extra few clicks into the delivery despite his bowling a long first spell in the morning.Pujara was not getting distracted, though. First ball of the next Anderson over, he pushed in front of square, and cried out a loud and clear “NO, NO” to Kohli, who sensed Dom Sibley was running in from backward point and hence there was single for taking. By then Pujara’s innings was 14 balls old, but he was yet to open his account.Pujara was in no hurry. He would not be pushed. As the afternoon stretched it became clear Pujara had told himself and probably the team management that if they wanted him to make a difference they had to let him be himself.Related

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Nearly three-quarters of an hour after entering the ground, off the 35th delivery he faced, Pujara pushed Sam Curran towards midwicket and ran a single. Lord’s let out a chuckle and a happy chant of “Pujara, Pujara”. He had finally opened his account.Eight minutes before lunch, Ajinkya Rahane walked in to join Pujara, his close friend from age-group cricket. Both players had started their careers at the same time. They played for the same team in Mumbai’s corporate cricket league. Their game is built on old school cricketing values and traditions. They have a thorough understanding of the other’s game and respect each other’s methods.The match was on the line now and India’s fate was in the hands of two men who have been struggling with difficult questions in 2021: about form, mindset and technique. Could the two old pals combat England when their own place in the team was being questioned?On Friday, Anderson had got Rahane off the first ball he delivered in the morning. That he had worked on his technique between innings became evident even before the first ball he faced on Sunday when Rahane took the leg-stump guard and stood with an open stance. In the previous two innings Rahane was more on middle and off, but clearly he had figured that was forcing him to be more squared up. Off the third ball he faced, Ollie Robinson hit his front pad with a delivery that nipped back. HawkEye showed the ball missing leg stump… just.An hour into the second session, India had scored just 19 runs. The pitch had become innocuous and soft and the ball was growing old. But the runs were not flowing as they did on Saturday afternoon when Joe Root was in command. Root has been in the form of his life, his confidence was high on the back of a century in the first Test and his biggest strength has been to not leave balls with the aim to transfer the pressure on the bowler.In contrast, Pujara and Rahane have been searching for runs all year. But they couldn’t counterattack like the England captain because that would expose India’s lower order. So their plan was to get entrenched into the second session even if that meant the runs dried up. Of the two, Pujara was especially happy to just defend virtually every ball. While the debate outside was about the absence of intent to score Pujara’s intent was to not let the bowler have any advantage.Mid-afternoon Lord’s would erupt into a sudden applause. Pujara had faced 100 deliveries for the first time this series. The last time he had done that was back in February, against England in first innings of the first Test in Chennai. His first four came after 118 deliveries when he flicked Mark Wood.Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara cross for a run•AFP/Getty ImagesDespite the scoreboard barely moving, England were getting desperate. Half an hour before tea, Wood went round the wicket and sprayed several bouncers at Pujara. Having faced the sustained spells of short-pitched bowling from Pat Cummins and co. in Australia, Pujara had developed a boxer’s instincts to read the line of attack. Still Root surrounded the batter with several close-in fielders: short leg, silly point, leg slip, fly slip along with deep square leg and long leg. Pujara remained unruffled.For the first time this series, India would bat out an entire session. But what was their plan now? While Rahane and Pujara looked settled they were not still able to score freely. The new ball was about 20 overs away. Should they attack or was it more prudent to just stay put? The Test was still bubbling with various possibilities.With under an hour’s play left as the light began to fade, the intense vigil of Pujara and Rahane came to an end. India’s lead was about 140. So how should both men look back at their days’ work? Could they have done anything different especially to score at a slightly faster clip?These are not easy questions to answer from the outside. When Pujara and Rahane walked back to the dressing room, both men received strong applause both from the crowd and from head coach Ravi Shastri and captain Kohli. Despite the immense pressure they were under, Rahane and Pujara had walked in with a clear plan and picked India up from a difficult spot at lunch and carried them to a potentially match-winning position. A lead of anywhere near 200 could be quite challenging for England.Both Rahane and Pujara extolled the virtue of experience. As for the questions about their futures, you’d think that has been pushed aside for the time being.

An all-time Test XV picked by readers

Anantha Narayanan08-Jan-2022Compiling lists is a common hobby. If I have some time and see the back of an envelope, I make lists of different kinds – the ten greatest Tamil films, Roger Federer’s greatest matches, a collection of match-saving Test innings, ten best songs sung by the magnificent Yesudas, and so on. You may throw the list away or keep it. That does not matter. It is the pleasure of listing your choices that matters.Cricket aficionados make lists often, and almost always they are all-time XIs. Once in a while, there come such compilations by cricket luminaries.A few months ago, I invited all the cricket enthusiasts who read my articles to submit their own all-time best XVs. Everyone was free to offer their lists. and all had the same rights, including myself. The only rider was that it was not just a matter of listing 15 names; they needed to make up a proper, balanced, Test team.It was an exhilarating exercise and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even when the programming became quite tricky, since I had to find ways of solving non-standard inputs from many readers. For example, there were seven to eight different ways in which Muthiah Muralidaran’s name was spelt.I received a total of 159 entries – 70 to the Talking_Cricket Group and my email, and 89 through the comments link to my pieces. Out of these, seven needed to be rejected for reasons given later in this article. I received the first entry, from Reuben Finklestein, within a couple of hours after I sent my email on September 5 last year. The last entry was received on the morning of December 16, from S Anand, making it a total of 152 entries: we got past Ian Botham but fell one short of Brian Lara and Kusal Perera.)The top 20 players readers voted for are:1. Muthiah Muralidaran – 135 votes
2. Shane Warne – 131
3. Don Bradman – 126
4. Garry Sobers – 124
5. Malcolm Marshall – 106
6. Sachin Tendulkar – 104
7. Wasim Akram – 97
8. Adam Gilchrist – 93
9. Brian Lara – 90
10. Sunil Gavaskar – 89
11. Viv Richards – 86
12. Glenn McGrath – 80
13. Imran Khan – 76
14. Jack Hobbs – 72
15. Jacques Kallis – 59
16. Dale Steyn – 51
17. Kumar Sangakkara – 51
18. Steven Smith – 45
19. Richard Hadlee – 43
20. Dennis Lillee – 40It is probably not a surprise that Murali leads the chart, featuring in 135 XVs. He finds acceptance across the globe. It is also not a surprise that Shane Warne comes in second, with four fewer votes. It might be a slight surprise that Don Bradman was not selected by 26 readers. This is possible because quite a few readers decided to stick only to players they have seen or followed. The popularity of Garry Sobers is revealed by the fact that he is only two votes behind Bradman. These four players received more than 120 votes each.Fifth place for Malcolm Marshall is quite unexpected. Who would have imagined that he would poll ahead of Sachin Tendulkar?There are the six players with over 100 votes. No one can be surprised at the next 14 selections. Barring Jack Hobbs, the other players – Wasim Akram, Adam Gilchrist, Brian Lara, Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Glenn McGrath, Imran Khan, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn – have played in the past 50 years. Perhaps the only slight surprise is that I expected Imran to get a few more votes. Rounding out the top 20 are Kumar Sangakkara, Steven Smith, Richard Hadlee and Dennis Lillee.Related

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When I looked at the top 15, I realised there were nine batters/allrounders (Bradman, Sobers, Tendulkar, Lara, Gavaskar, Richards, Imran Khan, Hobbs and Kallis), one wicketkeeper, three fast bowlers (Marshall, Akram and McGrath) and two spinners (Murali and Warne). It was clear that I needed to replace one from the batter/allrounder group with a pure fast bowler. It was quite handy that the last-placed batter was Kallis and the next player was Steyn, so it was an easy decision to replace Kallis with Steyn: a change that will likely receive the approval of almost all those who sent in entries. It can also be seen that I have made a single forced selection, swapping the 15th- and 16th-placed players, both coming from the same country. Imran has been treated as an allrounder and not as a pure pace bowler. So the final selection is the first 14 players plus Steyn.Only two of the players in the final XV will be certain to play – Bradman and Gilchrist. The reasons are briefly explained below.- Either Hobbs or Gavaskar could be selected and Gilchrist asked to open alongside. Quite unlikely, but within the realms of possibility.- Either Sobers or Imran could be selected depending on the bowling cover needed.- Either or both of Murali and Warne could be selected. The only certainty is that at least one will play.- Akram comes close to being a certainty because of his left-arm bowling skills. Still, I would say any two or three out of the four fast bowlers could be selected.This also made me select Bradman as captain.Is there any selection that is a big surprise? Not really. There is not a single player in the XV who could be deemed to be an unexpected pick. Readers have not gone overboard with players they have only heard or read about, nor have they been myopic and selected only players they might have seen in person or on television. On the whole, most selections have been pragmatic. There is excellent balance between the old, not-so-new and new, between right- and left-handers, and between the flamboyant and solid performers.The selection of batters has been along expected lines. Maybe Sangakkara could have found a place, but in place of whom? Gilchrist was the runaway winner in the wicketkeeper stakes. Among the fast bowlers, there is variety, and possibly Hadlee or Lillee could have made a claim to being in the final XV if they had received slightly better support. Among the famous allrounders, Imran, Botham and Hadlee found support, while Kapil Dev did not have many takers. What can one say about Murali and Warne – 117 readers selected both. Eighteen selected only Murali, and 14 only Warne. And there were three intrepid readers who felt they did not need either, despite the 1508 wickets that these two brought to the table. Two went with Indian spinners and the third with Wilfred Rhodes.All in all, this XV could not have been bettered.It is also relevant that no player who started his career in recent years has found a place. Smith is the highest-placed current player, in 18th position, with 45 votes.Barring the two new Test-playing countries, all other ten nations are represented.Anantha NarayananThe table above presents a summary of the career figures of the selected 15 players. I have also selected the XI for an imaginary Test at the MCG. I have to play three pace bowlers and one spinner. Warne gets the nod. Maybe Murali will get into the XI in England, and both might play in Asia. For variety in quick bowling, I have made sure that there is a combination of left-arm pace and two different types of fast bowlers. The rest select themselves.I have worked out a simplified Team Strength Index, ignoring the recent-form aspect and using Weighted Batting Average instead of the regular batting average. The TSI is a whopping 96.4. Not a surprise, considering that the top-six batters have averages of 50-plus. For comparison, the highest-rated team in Test cricket is around 85.Anantha NarayananThe 152 entries covered 2280 player selections. A total of 131 players were represented and the average votes per player works out to 17.4. As we have already seen, the highest number of votes for any one player was 135. There were 42 players with a single vote each and 18 with two votes each. Consequent to this wide distribution, the standard deviation is at a very high value of 31.6, leading to a high coefficient of variation of 1.82, a clear indication of the quantum of dispersal of the values. It might not have been such a widespread distribution if I had put in some restrictions. However, this is a totally democratic process and I needed to allow all readers their latitude. It has resulted in some gross outliers but these have been weeded out.No reader’s XV matched the final XV, but six entries had 14 correct selections each. Eleven readers (including yours truly) got 13 selections correct. At the other end, three readers got only four picks correct.First, some details about the six readers who got 14 players correct and their votes. The names below are in order of their Selection Index – sum of the player numbers. The selected XV has an SI value of 120 (15×16/2 – sum of first 15 numbers).Anantha Narayanan- Alan Sutherland from Melbourne went for an old master in Lillee instead of Steyn. There is very little to choose between the two. Both are aggressive fast bowlers and very tough to face in any location.- Rafath Khan from Slough, UK, went back over 100 years and selected Sydney Barnes for Steyn. Who can fault that pick? Barnes took 189 wickets at 16 and it is a surprise that he did not make it to the final XV.- Chaitanya Rao, also from Melbourne, went across the Tasman Sea and selected Hadlee for McGrath. Another tough selection. They are somewhat similar bowlers, with McGrath slightly faster.- Del Ribero from London and Amit Patil from Pune had identical selections. These are the only matching pair of selectors in this top group. Both went for Curtly Ambrose instead of Steyn. Anyone who was in Perth in 1993 or Bridgetown in 1990 would have had no hesitation in making this selection.- Kartick Narayan from Chennai went for Smith instead of Lara. How I wish I could play both of them. Maybe Kartick also feels that way.Now for those with 13 correct selections.- Amit Patel selected Smith and Kallis in place of Lara and Steyn.- Saagar Sinha selected Smith and Barnes for Imran and McGrath.- Abdul Khalid opted for one Indo-Anglian pair of Len Hutton and Virender Sehwag instead of another, Gavaskar and Hobbs.- Jayant Jape selected Kallis and Matthew Hayden for Imran and Steyn.- Siva Sooryah selected Kallis and Hammond for Imran and Richards.- Varun Mishra selected Sehwag and Hadlee for Hobbs and McGrath.- Bejoy Balagopal selected Lillee and Fred Spofforth for Akram and McGrath.- Padam Jain selected Kallis and Hadlee for Lara and Steyn.- Ashok Bhatia selected Lillee and Alastair Cook for Hobbs and Steyn.- Jaideep Reddy selected Smith and Ambrose for Imran and Steyn.Finally, coming to my own selections. I recorded them well before the end and was not unduly influenced by the subsequent summary work. I opted for the more rounded bowling skills of Hadlee over the faster Steyn. I felt that Hadlee was the better bowler overall. I also opted for the modern great, Sangakkara, instead of the allrounder Imran. I felt that would also provide additional wicketkeeping cover.Seven players – Murali, Warne, Bradman, Sobers, Marshall, Tendulkar and Gilchrist have been selected by all 17 readers mentioned above. For three of these readers, their 15th player was outside the featured list of players. Siva Sooryah selected Wally Hammond, Bejoy Balagopal opted for Freddie Spofforth, and Ashok Bhatia for Alastair Cook.Anantha NarayananIt is clear by looking at the players just outside the top 15 that there is an abundance of batters and pace bowlers. Until Shakib Al Hasan appears, there is a glittering parade of batters and fast men. Spinners are conspicuous by their absence. Shakib is in 39th position, with eight votes, and Bill O’Reilly appears a few places later, with five votes. One entry in this group surprises me – Sehwag, who managed to secure 21 votes. That shows how highly his attacking opening skills are rated. Not to forget that Matthew Hayden has even more votes.When we come to the right-most columns in the graphic above, we see the players with one or two votes each. I am surprised by the fact that players most of us would never associate with an all-time World XV – Ravindra Jadeja, Michael Hussey, Bobby Peel, Martin Donnelly, Mike Brearley, Brendon McCullum, Bobby Simpson, Sourav Ganguly, et al – have received a vote. At the same time, one might have expected Everton Weekes, Kevin Pietersen, Harold Larwood, Peter May, et al to receive more than a single nod.Many of these single selections are logical and it is a pity that they could not get more votes. However, some, like Jadeja, are quite strange. Still, that particular reader’s team is quite good (he has seven selections who were in the final XV) and I have accepted the selection. Another such example is that of Hussey. The person who selected him named six players who made it to the final XV, and I have accepted his selection. To round off such selections, the reader who selected Peel also had six in the final 15. Overall, that is fine.However, some selections were completely off. One reader selected Rohit Sharma. I have nothing against Rohit – after all, he has scored over 3000 Test runs. However, that reader also selected Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Glenn Maxwell, Shahid Afridi, Rashid Khan and Umar Gul. That entry was rejected. As was another entry that contained Mohammad Rizwan, Adam Zampa, Jos Buttler, Asif Ali and Shaheen Afridi. One had Bhanuka Rajapaksa, David Wiese, Andre Russell, Dewald Pretorious, Anrich Nortje et al. Another reader selected Aiden Markram, Liam Livingstone, Charith Asalanka, Moeen Ali, Marcus Stoinis and Wanindu Hasaranga in his team. It is possible that this was due to ignorance; they might have thought they were selecting a T20 team. It could also have been a deliberate attempt at tomfoolery. Another reader had nine Pakistan players in his XI. They were all wonderful players but I could not take that entry. In all, seven entries were rejected.A second XV, strictly in the order of selection and changed only when absolutely necessary, is below. Look at the quality of this team. It will certainly give a tough fight to the top team. Not one from among these 15 players would be out of place in the top XV.Len Hutton
Mathew Hayden
Virender Sehwag
Steven Smith
Ricky Ponting (c)
Jacques Kallis
Kumar Sangakkara (wk)
Shakib Al Hasan
Ian Botham
Richard Hadlee
Sydney Barnes
Curtly Ambrose
Dennis Lillee
Bill O’Reilly
Anil Kumble
My heartfelt thanks to all those who sent in their entries over the past three months. To see the final XI play at MCG, maybe against the second XI above, would indeed be any cricket enthusiast’s fantasy.Since this process involved many manual steps and I have done it all singlehandedly, it is possible I might have missed an entry or two. My sincere apologies to the readers if any entry is missing.The complete player-reader matrix has been encased inside an excel sheet that has been made available for readers to peruse. You can download the file here.Talking Cricket Group
Any reader who wishes to join the general-purpose cricket ideas-exchange group of this name that I started last year can email a request for inclusion, giving their name, place of residence and what they do.