All posts by n8rngtd.top

And how many women have been out for 99 in one?

Steven Lynch27-Jun-2023In the first Ashes Test there were 11 players who had taken at least one five-for in their career – six from England and five from Australia. Is this the most for any Test match? asked Jatin Patra via Facebook

Rather surprisingly, perhaps, there have been several instances of 11 players going into a Test having taken five wickets in an innings at least once: the exciting first Ashes Test at Edgbaston was the 21st such occasion. The record is actually 12 players, which has happened twice: by Australia and England in Adelaide in 1974-75, and England and West Indies at Old Trafford in 2020.Usman Khawaja batted on each day of the first Test. How rare is this? asked Tim McClelland from England

Usman Khawaja’s award-winning effort in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston was the 13th occasion that a man had batted on each day of a five-day Test. He was the third to do it this year: both West Indian openers, Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul, batted on all five days against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in February.The first to achieve the feat was the talented Indian ML Jaisimha, against Australia in Calcutta in 1959-60. It should be borne in mind that many Tests, especially before the Second World War, were scheduled for fewer than five days.How many women have been out for 99 in a Test, as Ellyse Perry was last week? asked Lesley Robertson from Australia

Ellyse Perry, who fell for 99 in the Ashes Test at Trent Bridge last week, was only the fourth woman to be dismissed one short of a century in a Test match. The previous instance was by her current team-mate, Jess Jonassen, against England in Canterbury in 2015. That was Jonassen’s debut; she hasn’t yet reached three figures in a Test.The first to fall for 99 in a women’s Test was England’s Betty Snowball, against Australia at The Oval in 1937, and it also happened to Australia’s captain Jill Kennare against India in Bombay in 1983-84.There have been five 99s (and a 99 not out) in women’s ODIs, but none yet in T20Is.Betty Snowball (left) was the first woman to be dismissed for 99 in a Test•Getty ImagesBangladesh beat Afghanistan by 546 runs recently – was this a Test record? asked Mehdi Hossain from Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s thrashing of Afghanistan in Mirpur last week was actually the third-heaviest defeat by runs in any Test. Biggest of all was England’s 675-run win against Australia in Brisbane in 1928-29 (Don Bradman’s Test debut, as it happens). Australia returned the favour by crushing England by 562 runs at The Oval in 1934 (Bradman scored 244, and Bill Ponsford 266 in his final Test).The heaviest Test defeat of any kind came at The Oval in 1938, when England beat Australia by an innings and 579 runs – Bradman was injured and unable to bat (England’s captain declared at 903 for 7, but it’s said he might have carried on had the Don been fit). Australia beat South Africa by an innings and 360 runs in Johannesburg in 2001-02. Here’s the list of the biggest innings victories .At the end of the second day of Bangladesh’s Test against Afghanistan, both batters had the same score (54, from 64 balls). How often has this happened? asked Badri Meden from India

There are many instances of the two not-out batters having the same score at the of a day’s play in a Test, including lots of 0s, but only 12 times had they both scored 50 or more. The highest identical overnight score is 85 not out, by the Indian pair of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir at the end of the third day against South Africa in Kanpur in 2004-05. Gary Kirsten and Jacques Kallis both had 80 not out at the end of the second day of South Africa’s Test against England in Cape Town in 1999-2000.Madhav Apte and Vijay Hazare of India were both undefeated with 63 at the end of the second day against West Indies in Bridgetown in 1952-53, and Brian Chari and Craig Ervine of Zimbabwe both had 60 at the second-day close against Sri Lanka in Harare in 2016-17. There was another case of this earlier this year, in February in the Bulawayo match mentioned in the second question above, when the West Indies openers Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul both had 55 at the end of the first day against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.None of the other 50-plus instances involve the same number of balls, as in Mirpur recently, where both Zakir Hasan and Najmul Hossain had faced 64. In the Bulawayo match earlier this year, for example, Chanderpaul had faced 170 balls and Brathwaite 138.By chance I received a similar question from another correspondent, who was adamant the answer was the 63 of Apte and Hazare. The table he produced in support, which he apparently found somewhere online, was missing three of the top four instances (and five of the 12 overall), and so wasn’t very reliable at all! Beware of Ask Steven imitators…Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The team is youthful and there is promise, but there are significant gaps in skill and strategy, and no serious body of work to look back at

Andrew Fidel Fernando05-Oct-20231:58

Spin-heavy Sri Lanka could sneak into knockouts

If there had been hype building for this Sri Lanka side through their Asia Cup campaign, much of it burned down, like a Vesak lantern that catches fire and ends in a smouldering mess, as a result of that calamitous final – a total of 50 all out tends to have this effect.But there been a hard-fought victory against Pakistan to reach that final, plus two wins over Bangladesh through the course of the campaign, as well as a victory over Afghanistan that was partly the result of the opposition’s miscalculations. There is enough of a body of work to suggest this is no pushover team, even if they had to qualify for this World Cup via a qualifier in Zimbabwe (in a tournament they went unbeaten in, by the way).Expectations at home, though, are muted. Dare fans dream of a semi-final spot? Right now, it seems more sensible to find reasons to keep a lid on the excitement.Related

• In warm and humid Delhi, it could be South Africa's batters vs Sri Lanka's spinners

• Coach Simons hoping Rabada and Coetzee get into the heads of opposition

• Podcast: Will the World Cup save ODIs?

• Where the 2023 World Cup could be won

• Sri Lanka out to prove heydays are not behind them

Chief among these reasons, perhaps, is that captain Dasun Shanaka has been on perhaps the longest stretch of batting misery as can be remembered for a Sri Lanka cricketer (and this is something of a crowded field). We won’t run through his recent run of scores here, largely because even stating these facts seems malicious. Suffice to say the guy averages 9.78 and has struck at 76 since March this year and, if anything, the scores are getting leaner.If he were not captain, he would have been dropped. In fact, despite his having led Sri Lanka to better ODI results than in the years prior to his captaincy, Sri Lanka’s selectors still seriously considered letting him go in the days following 50 all out. Part of why they have retained him is because no other player is seriously gunning for the job, of which there may be two interpretations: either no one wants to be saddled with the leadership of this team for a World Cup campaign, or there remains trust in Shanaka within the dressing room.Still, a non-performing captain is unlikely to venture the kind of risks that might see a side with such limited resources overperform in the tournament, which, let’s be honest, is what they would be doing if they were in that final four. He is a diminished force in selection conversations. And if, early in the tournament especially, someone needs to be told they are left out of the XI… how does Shanaka even broach that conversation?Beyond this big one, several other concerns.Kusal Perera will likely start the tournament as the opener that partners Pathum Nissanka, but there remain serious doubts as to whether his ailing body can withstand a 50-over tournament that puts teams on a travel-train-play treadmill for almost six weeks. Even when Shanaka contributes, Sri Lanka have been poor at providing the finishing fireworks that good ODI sides frequently produce with the bat. And though several of Sri Lanka’s batting performances in the Asia Cup were founded on Kusal Mendis’ innings, Mendis has not historically been a sustainer of good form.If Dasun Shanaka were not captain, he would have been dropped•AFP/Getty ImagesEven the bowling attack, which has bowled out 13 of its last 15 oppositions, has hit new snags. Wanindu Hasaranga is not in the squad, after aggravating a hamstring injury. Hasaranga had not completely cracked ODI cricket, so perhaps this is not as substantial a bowling loss as it may appear. But his batting brought crucial balance, particularly in the context of Shanaka’s form. Maheesh Theekshana remains under an injury cloud too.If Sri Lanka go with Matheesha Pathirana in their starting XI, as they are likely to do, they will have to find a second new-ball bowler to partner Dilshan Madushanka. For all the pace and death-overs skill that Pathirana brings, he remains unable to swing the new ball, for now. In the Asia Cup, it came down to Shanaka – whose average speeds are in the mid 120kph range – to bowl in the powerplay.Pathirana is, to some extent, a fitting mascot for the team. It is youthful (only five of 15 squad members are over 30, and three of those are 32 or younger), and, to some extent, full of promise. But there are also significant gaps in skill and strategy, and no serious body of work to which they can point.Where once Sri Lanka built conscientiously towards global events, they have tended to lurch scriptlessly towards them in the past seven years. If there is hope, it is hope in youth; that someone will find a new gear. That collectively, there are enough unknowns here, that they will surprise.

There was no Shakib Al Hasan, but Taijul Islam, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Nayeem Hasan managed to tie New Zealand down in knots

Mohammad Isam01-Dec-2023The scene is all too familiar. The Bangladesh spinner rips his fingers to snap out the ball. An umbrella of close-in fielders are waiting to pounce. The overseas batter picks the ball from the hand but can’t fully judge how much the ball will turn. Whether to play forward or back, he wonders. Crucially, the overseas batters doubt whether it will keep low or kick up. Except for that last part about the bounce, it was all standard stuff in Sylhet in the last four days.Bangladesh’s spinners have taken 15 wickets in this game so far. They have left their side on the verge of beating New Zealand at home for the first time with this big effort. Taijul Islam has stepped up as the attack leader in Shakib Al Hasan’s absence, although he told the reporter who asked him about it not to make him into a (old man). Mehidy Hasan Miraz is Taijul’s second fiddle, mainly playing as the team’s allrounder in this game. Nayeem Hasan only ever plays home Tests. He has never bowled abroad.Related

• Southee admits NZ bowlers 'did not apply pressure long enough'

• Taijul leaves Bangladesh three wickets away from victory on last day

• Calm and clinical Shanto brings back Bangladesh's smile

• Southee expects spin to play a big role in 'hard-fought' series

The band obviously is missing the lead man, but even without Shakib, Bangladesh’s spinners were lethal against New Zealand. Shakib’s absence usually leaves a big hole in both the batting order and the bowling attack. Now that it happens so often, especially in Tests, the rest of the team is getting used to it. Bangladesh have done well getting back to the basics, and doing what they do best, this point especially applying for the spinners. Taijul said that he only focuses on bowling in his one spot, and then trying his variations from that point.It was expected of the new captain Najmul Hossain Shanto to keep Taijul bowling continuously from one end. Generally an energetic personality, Shanto, however, kept things moving from both ends. He gave Taijul 20 overs but ensured the left-arm spinner kept bowling attacking lines. He allowed Shoriful to bowl six overs at the top, which Bangladeshi captains like Shakib and Mominul Haque have usually tended not to do in such situations. Shoriful picked up one wicket, keeping things tight as well.Shanto took off Mehidy after his first over, but later gave him two spells. Mehidy took a wicket early in his second spell, removing Henry Nicholls. Taijul bowled 15 on either side of the tea break, but with always a more concentrated off-stump line, as opposed to his defensive outside off-stump line when Shakib is around.Taijul did the job too for his captain, picking up three wickets in his first spell. After a short break, he took a wicket in his second spell. Shanto brought on Nayeem quite late on the day, but gave him an eight-over spell first, and then two more in the end. Shanto used Mominul for just two overs on the fourth day, maybe by popular choice after the part-time left-armer took three wickets in the first innings.Taijul said that Bangladesh have a job to do even without Shakib in the team. The players know their specific roles, but it also changes according to the shape of the game. He said that when they get on top of big teams, it suggests that Bangladesh are changing from within.”I can’t do what someone else is doing, and someone else can’t do what I do,” Taijul said about bowling without Shakib in the attack. “I stick to my plan. Whether we have Shakib or not, we have other spinners in the team. Plans change from game to game – someone takes the wickets, someone defends the runs. If I stopped the runs, Miraz or Nayeem would have taken the wickets. The main thing is, if the team is doing well.”It is a truly different feeling to beat big teams. We haven’t won the game yet but we are trying our hardest to win this game. Confidence goes up so that we can use this for the rest of the year. It suggests a change in the team. I don’t know how many matches we will win but I want to do something good for the Bangladesh team.”Bangladesh’s bowlers were all over New Zealand on the fourth day•AFP/Getty ImagesThere’s so much belief in Taijul that when he came into the attack to bowl at Kane Williamson, one of the Bangladesh fielders commented that Williamson was his wicket. Taijul said that it speaks of the confidence that the team has on him, but also that he is quite strong in his own belief of his line and length.”I guess they have faith in me that I can set (Williamson) up to take his wicket. I have been playing for nine years, you know.”I don’t really prepare in that particular way. I have only one preparation: my spot. I try to bowl in that spot, and try my variations from there,” he said.But what Taijul does, is quite difficult without the likes of Mehidy and Nayeem. Both are orthodox offspinners without any mystery deliveries but they keep batters honest on offstump. It is what they do well for long periods in a match. Of course, they have had their ups and downs, but Taijul and Mehidy have generally stepped up well when Shakib isn’t around.

“The fans will surely want the three remaining New Zealand wickets to fall quickly on the fifth morning. If it all goes to the spinners, it will be just reward for a band of bowlers who have done most of the running in this game”

Mehidy, in particular, had an interesting time in the World Cup recently, when his batting was more in the limelight. He batted in several spots, which is now being discussed as one of the reasons for Bangladesh’s failure in the tournament. It wasn’t Mehidy’s fault by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he kept getting the runs in any position he was sent out. It probably affected his bowling a bit, but it is quite hard to knock Mehidy off his bowling spot in the last few years.Nayeem, meanwhile, has had to rely heavily on domestic cricket for much of his international career. He has only played a handful of home Tests since his debut five years ago. It is hard to motivate oneself plugging away in the domestic grind, but he seems to enjoy it. He took 36 wickets for Chattogram Division in this season’s NCL.The spin trio had to bring their A-game in this game as this is a difficult time in Bangladesh cricket. There’s lack of belief among their fans, which is reflected in the near-empty stands in all four days of the Test in Sylhet. There’s likely to be a few more coming to the stadium on the fifth morning. They will surely want the three remaining New Zealand wickets to fall quickly. If it all goes to the spinners, it will be just reward for a band of bowlers who have done most of the running in this game.

A look at the MVPs and the most impactful performances of WPL 2024, based on ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats

S Rajesh18-Mar-2024Royal Challengers Bangalore swept most of the honours in WPL 2024 – apart from the trophy, they also took the Orange and Purple Cap awards – but the prize for Most Valuable Player (MVP) went to UP Warriorz’ Deepti Sharma. According to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, which gives a rating value to every batting and bowling performance based on match context, Deepti got a rating of 82.85 impact points (on a per-match basis), with Marizanne Kapp and Ellyse Perry taking the next two spots.Top impact values in WPL 2024 (Min 5 matches)•ESPNcricinfo LtdThough Warriorz didn’t even make the playoffs, Sharma had an outstanding tournament with both bat and ball. She was the leading run-scorer for her team, and the fifth-highest among all batters in the tournament, despite batting only twice in the top four. (She scored 147 runs in those two innings.) Her 295 runs came at an average of 98.33 – she was dismissed only three times in eight innings – and a strike rate of 136.57. With ball, she was the second-highest wicket-taker for Warriorz with 10, at an economy rate of 7.23.Related

• Anatomy of champions: How RCB went from 0-5 to WPL winners in a year

• Mandhana shuns the spotlight as 'Queens 2024' party at the Kotla

• 'Proud' Mandhana lauds RCB's fighting spirit: 'I just want to say, ee sala cup namdu'

• Perry and spinners steer RCB to WPL title

Apart from the sheer number of runs and wickets, what earned her more impact points was the match context and pressure under which she performed. Despite batting in the middle or lower-middle order, she scored 107 more runs than the next-highest run-getter for Warriorz. A good example of her lone-ranger act was in Warriorz’ last game of the tournament, against Gujarat Giants: requiring 153 to win, Warriorz fell eight short, but Deepti scored an unbeaten 88 out of the team total of 144; the others in the top six made a combined contribution of 13 runs.

The IPL might still be a batter’s game, but elsewhere it’s bowlers who are winning teams T20 league titles

Matt Roller29-Apr-2024It was the break-up that stunned the Big Bash. For 11 seasons, Chris Lynn embodied Brisbane Heat: born and bred in the city, Lynn was the team’s final link back to the squad that won them their only title in 2012-13. Along with Brendon McCullum, he was one half of the Bash Brothers, the six-hitting partnership that formed the basis of Heat’s marketing and on-field strategy.But two years ago a Queensland Cricket committee chaired by the former Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy decided that with Lynn’s five-year, million-dollar contract at an end, so was his time with Heat. Healy denied that “behavioural or cultural” issues were a factor and said plainly: “This is a sign that Brisbane Heat are going more to winning than entertaining.”It was not that Lynn’s record for Heat – 3005 runs, then the most in BBL history for a single club, at an average of 34.54 and a strike rate of 148.83 – was not exceptional. But in a league with a salary cap, Heat were pouring a significant proportion of their resources into Lynn’s wages; every year they found themselves relying on his runs to dig them out of holes.”People came to the consensus that Brisbane, as a city, loves a winner,” says Charles Evans, Heat’s performance strategist. “The market dynamics are batter-heavy in the T20 industry. Look at the drafts and auctions around the world and it’s blokes that whack it and bowl a little bit going for unbelievable numbers, and only the occasional bowler.”No one really blinks at the batter that’s making a huge splash in your contract list. They just think, ‘Well, they have to: they’re the opener, they’re the No. 3.’ Whereas people aren’t probably thinking the same way with a bowler, who can only bowl a fifth of your overs…Related

• Defensive Deshpande levels up to fill CSK's Bravo role

• Varun and Salt star in comprehensive KKR win

• LSG get Mayank boost while Mumbai look to keep their playoff hopes alive

• Who is the most impactful bowler in T20s? (2020)

• How important is bowling in T20? Less than you might think (2018)

“It’s not that our bowling was neglected, but it certainly wasn’t viewed in the light of being so important to win championships.”Heat’s decision to reshape their squad to prioritise their bowling attack brought immediate success. After shifting away from big-name batters and investing heavily in a varied bowling line-up, they reached two consecutive finals. In the second of those, this January, after topping the league phase, they won their second BBL title – and their first without Lynn.Heat fit the global trend: in 2023 and 2023-24, in seven of the top ten global T20 leagues*, the team with the best bowling strike rate went on to win the title; every winning team ranked in at least the top three for bowling strike rate. T20 is often said to have skewed the game in batters’ favour – yet teams that take wickets most regularly tend to emerge as champions.*classified as: IPL (India), Blast, Hundred (both England), CPL (West Indies), LPL (Sri Lanka), BBL (Australia), ILT20 (UAE), SA20 (South Africa), BPL (Bangladesh), PSL (Pakistan)

****

In the mid-2010s a trend emerged from T20’s first data boom: captains started to give the new ball to spinners, daring opening batters to take an early risk and attempting to “burn” an over at the start of an innings. Samuel Badree, the West Indies legspinner, had done it for years but increasingly teams used part-time spinners with the new ball.

The fast bowler burst into international cricket earlier this year and will shortly be part of Australia’s T20I squad in the UK

Andrew McGlashan16-Aug-2024A lot happened very quickly for Xavier Bartlett at the start of the year.Having not played the first half of the Australian domestic season due to a back injury, in late January the fast bowler helped seal the BBL title for Brisbane Heat, his two wickets to close out the final leaving him top of the tournament tally.A little over a week later he made his Australia debut in an ODI against West Indies. In the space of five days took consecutive four-wicket hauls in Melbourne and Canberra, earning Player of the Match on both occasions and Player of the Series. A week later he made his T20I debut and was in the wickets again. By the end of March, he had been handed a Cricket Australia contract.Related

• Cummins: Having allrounders in the top six 'huge'

• Stoinis and Agar lose CA deals while Bartlett earns full contract

• Cummins likely to make Sheffield Shield return before India Tests

• Jhye Richardson back to old ways after beating hamstring woe

• Bartlett's stunning start in ODIs adds to Australia's pace options

“It was a very surreal few months,” Bartlett told ESPNcricinfo. “To get the CA contract and even just playing the one-day series and then the T20s, it happened very fast and something I wasn’t expecting. Very thankful and it definitely instils you with a lot of confidence that a lot of people see a future in you. Hopefully, I can go out there and repay the faith.”His winter has not played out to be quite as busy as initially planned with a County Championship stint with Kent pulled as CA manages Bartlett carefully. “With my injury history, we had to make a decision there and I was comfortable with that,” he said.But he was still able to play eight T20 Blast matches for the county where he collected nine wickets, and he now hopes to use some of the lessons learnt when he returns to the UK as part of Australia’s T20I squad for the matches against Scotland and England next month.”Probably my length was the main thing I found in England compared to Australia where the wickets are bouncier,” he said. “A bit of a difference with the boundary dimensions and working out the slower wickets, maybe having fielders a bit squarer than you would in Australia.”Pace and swing: Xavier Bartlett struck in his first over on debut against West Indies•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesSignificant parts of Bartlett’s BBL success and the early hauls in international cricket have come from sharp new-ball movement – he dismantled Hobart Hurricanes’ middle order in a memorable display at the Gabba while his first Australia wicket of Justin Greaves at the MCG was a wonderful delivery that started to shape in then moved away late – and he doesn’t look to change much between formats early in an innings.”At the start, I try and swing it in all formats…just have to adjust a little quicker in white-ball cricket if someone is trying to line me up,” he said. “If you slightly miss [the batters] definitely put your bad ball away, and sometimes your good ball goes for four or six which is just T20.”

XAVIER BARTLETT IS ON A HAT-TRICK!#BBL13 pic.twitter.com/tK3otdO9YR

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 7, 2024

It’s no easy feat to break into Australia’s fast-bowling ranks. Behind the big three of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood there’s a list that includes Lance Morris, Michael Neser and Scott Boland, while Jhye Richardson retains a contract and will return to the mix if he can stay injury-fee. Then there is also Nathan Ellis, Spencer Johnson (who has been ruled out of the UK tour) and Sean Abbott in white-ball cricket. Now it includes Bartlett as well.”Could sit here and talk for hours about how many great fast bowlers we have so it’s just [about] trying and break through and if you do get an opportunity, it’s about trying to take it with both hands,” he said. “Now hopefully rubbing shoulders with those sorts of blokes, learning off them, will hold me in good stead in years to come.”You watch our big three – Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins – they’ve been amazing for such a long time and it’s a testament to their skill but also probably how many sacrifices they have made to keep themselves at such a high level for such a long period of time.”

“It [CA contract] definitely instils you with a lot of confidence that a lot of people see a future in you. Hopefully, I can go out there and repay the faith.”Xavier Bartlett

At Queensland and Brisbane Heat he has leant heavily on bowling coach Andy Bichel. “Through injury, I have spent a lot of time with him, watching a lot of games when I haven’t been playing then also all the technical changes that I’ve made with him,” he said. “He’s someone I really trust. He’s one of the great men. Love working with him.”Bartlett hopes for a longer run of Sheffield Shield cricket this season (and a chance to play the County Championship in the future) although there will likely continue to be a close eye kept on his workloads. He played three matches in the second half of last season where he claimed 11 wickets and got through a sizeable workload. Against Western Australia at the WACA, he sent down 41 overs in the match, taking 5 for 64 in the first innings. He also showed his batting potential, something he is keen to develop further, with twin half-centuries against New South Wales in the final game of the season.”Red-ball cricket is the pinnacle of our sport,” he said. “Test cricket is what every kid dreams of growing up. That’s definitely a goal of mine. We’ll have to wait and see but would like to play as much red-ball cricket as I can.”

No team has ever successfully chased more than Sri Lanka’s 166 in a women’s T20I final

Sampath Bandarupalli28-Jul-20243 – Sri Lanka are only the third team to win the women’s T20 Asia Cup, after India and Bangladesh. India were victorious in 2012, 2016 and 2022, while Bangladesh won in 2018. India also won all four editions of the women’s ODI Asia Cup – 2004, 2005-06, 2006 and 2008.166 – Target that Sri Lanka chased on Sunday, the highest any team has successfully chased in a women’s T20I final. The previous highest was 149 by West Indies against Australia in the 2016 women’s T20 World Cup final.Related

• Cricket belongs to Chamari's Champions right now

• Athapaththu and Sri Lanka manifest destiny to become champions

• Athapaththu, Samarawickrama stun India as Sri Lanka win their first Women's Asia Cup title

1 – The chase of 166 by Sri Lanka is their highest in women’s T20Is, bettering their chase of 156 against South Africa earlier this year. It is also the third-highest successful target chase by any team against India.1 – Sri Lanka also recorded the highest successful target chase in the women’s T20 Asia Cup, bettering the 142-run chase by Bangladesh in 2018 against India in Kuala Lumpur.ESPNcricinfo Ltd304 – Runs scored by Chamari Athapaththu in this Asia Cup – the second-most by any woman in a T20I series or tournament. The highest is 310 runs by Hayley Matthews during a three-match series against Australia last season.47 – Runs conceded by Radha Yadav in this match – the most by a bowler in a women’s T20 Asia Cup game. The previous highest was 45 by Aisya Eleesa against Sri Lanka earlier in this edition. The 47 runs by Radha are also the third-most conceded by an India bowler in a women’s T20I.26 – Fifty-plus scores for Smriti Mandhana in T20I cricket, the second-most by a woman, behind Suzie Bates (29). She surpassed Beth Mooney with her fifty on Sunday.5 – Number of fifty-plus scores for Mandhana in T20I knockout matches, the joint-most by any woman alongside Beth Mooney. Mandhana has three half-centuries in the T20I finals, one behind Mooney’s four.332 – Runs scored by Sri Lanka and India on Sunday in Dambulla. It is the highest aggregate for a women’s T20 Asia Cup game, bettering the 324 runs scored by India and UAE last Sunday.

New Zealand vs England as experienced from the back of a taxi in Chennai

Aditya Iyer09-Nov-2024When I start watching the game on my mobile phone in Liyaqath’s taxi shortly after dusk, New Zealand’s reply is underway. Opener Devon Conway is batting at one end. At the other stands the relatively unknown Rachin Ravindra. In his previous seven ODIs, all played in 2023, the curly-mopped left-hander hasn’t batted higher than No. 6. But something about Ravindra’s top score of 61 in a 100-run loss to England at Lord’s in the lead-up to this World Cup made the New Zealand team management promote him to No. 3 in Ahmedabad. It seems to have paid off instantly.With a few quick clicks on chronological time-stamps, Liyaqath and I watch all that we’ve missed in the innings. Just as we go live, Ravindra welcomes us back with a terrific hook off the speedy Mark Wood, where he gets inside the line of the bouncer and almost casually swats it away over square leg for six. There’s a slow-motion clatter of the ball against an electronic hoarding in Motera and a louder crash just in front of us in Guindy, for Liyaqath, in his eagerness to catch the replay, has nudged the car in front of him as we move halfway up the choked flyover. He slams hard on the brake pedal, but the damage has been done.Through the columns of water being displaced on the windscreen, we can see that the right taillight of the Maruti S-Presso ahead of us has been hit. Liyaqath steps out to inspect both cars. Two men emerge from the S-Presso to do the same. One of them is in regular office clothes, a shirt tucked into his trousers, but the other wears a crisp black and a diaphanous black shirt, a very specific kind of combination that only devotees of Sabarimalai Ayappan tend to wear, and immediately I fear that this situation could well take a communal turn; Liyaqath, with his beard under a moustache-free upper lip, is very evidently Muslim.But they just blink at each other in the falling rain, pointing at what I suppose are dents and nicks on both vehicles. I can’t hear what they are saying, but their gestures are pretty self-explanatory: nods and sighs and pursed lips and hands on hips. The man in black walks back to his car and re-emerges with his phone. He shelters the device with a palm and punches in whatever Liyaqath is dictating to him. Missed calls are made, photos of number plates clicked, heads shaken and nodded. That’s it, fracas over. Liyaqath is drenched by the time he heaves himself into the driver’s seat and sighs heavily over the sounds of pelting rain. The S-Presso is now part of the indistinguishable swarm ahead.

I catch the strains of Tamil commentary. I follow the sound and identify three flower-sellers as the ones listening to it, squatting in a line on the sand as they arrange strings of jasmine in coir baskets

Liyaqath is grumpy, muttering and castigating himself for his carelessness. “Please, I want to stop at a tea after this flyover, I just need to compose myself. Only if you don’t mind, please, okay?” he says. In a short while, we are parked beside a
shop from whose awning hang many hands of bananas so ripe that they have lost all nutritional value. It is a stationery store, tobacco shop, confectionery stall, tea halt and shopkeeper’s living room all rolled into one. A woman sits on a red plastic stool, watching the World Cup game on a small TV on the green wall.We duck under the suspended bananas and Liyaqath lifts two fingers at the shopkeeper, who in turn whistles at a working the kettle by the backroom stove, who nods and exaggerates the motion of his pour into two paper cups, mainly to incite fresh froth in the milk chai. We slurp into the rising steam, watching the rain. “It was completely my fault,” says Liyaqath, looking bitterly into his hot beverage. I tell him that I’m just glad the hullabaloo didn’t acquire a communal shade. Liyaqath gives me a quizzical look. Then he throws his head back and laughs, deep, jolly rumbles emanating from his stomach. We now have the shopkeeper’s attention.”This is not your Delhi or Bombay, sir. This is Tamil Nadu, and our politicians might constantly stir other stupid things but they don’t do this Hindu-Muslim-Christian division here,” Liyaqath says. The shopkeeper nods along. “All of us coexist happily, what do you say ?” makes a perfect circle with his head a few times in agreement. Liyaqath likes the validation, the response, the power of telling off an outsider in front of his own, teaching a complete stranger the ways of this land, his land. “Unlike in the north, where widespread illiteracy allows the leaders to take advantage and polarise the people, the south is largely literate. Tougher to turn us against each other. Religion in the south of India, be it here or Kerala, or even Andhra Pradesh, is there to give us believers strength. It doesn’t make us weaker. We can be from any religion but here we are Tamil first, correct ?”The rain has stopped just as suddenly as it had started, and the winding roads leading up to the bay are bathed in the phosphorescent yellow hue of the dim streetlights. About a hundred metres short of Elliot’s Beach, the Uber stops next to a permanent -painted entryway to an apartment block in Besant Nagar, so named after British
educationist Annie Besant, who established the Theosophical Society a stone’s throw from where I stand. I learn that my friend, whose apartment I will be staying in until the end of India’s match in Chennai, is a good two hours away from getting home. I drag my strolley over the wet pavement towards the beach for a lonely wait. But then Liyaqath, parked at the intersection of the residential avenue and the beach road, calls out to me once again.He has pushed his seat back as far as possible and is smoking a herb. Potent, aromatic coils waft from the window as he enquires where I’m headed. On finding out that I’m at a loose end, he says: “Come come, sit inside. Want to try? It is very good, from Idukki.”Penguin Random House”Sure. But can we go to the beach? I happen to have a bottle of whisky that I got for my friend. Would you like to try some of that?”Each of us having accepted the invitation to indulge in the other man’s poison, we sit on the low peripheral wall around the Kaj Schmidt Memorial, a monument consisting of a single archway to remember a Dutch man who died while saving a British girl from drowning in undivided India. That was when this city was very much still Madras. The tide is low and calm, and it laps gently against the receding shore. Watching it, we smoke and drink, drink and smoke.In the silence, we hear two young lovers close by, their faces hidden under a thick jacket, giggle and playfully admonish each other for getting too frisky. I also catch the strains of
Tamil commentary from the Ahmedabad match. I follow the sound and identify three flower-sellers as the ones listening to it, squatting in a line on the sand as they arrange strings of jasmine in coir baskets.Just as the might of the intoxication kicks in, Liyaqath nudges me in the ribs with his elbow and holds out his phone, showing me a picture of a girl no older than five, maybe six. “My daughter. Mahira.”I nod my spinning head.”I named her after Thala.”It doesn’t strike me immediately, so he smiles and pokes me again.”What, sir? Didn’t get the connection? Dhoni, sir! Mahi, sir! That is how I chose the name.”We are now lying on the sand, hands behind heads, looking up at the inky sky in our dizzy silence. Two boys in college uniforms trudge past us with their noses stuck into a mobile
screen. I yell out to them for the score. “Over, over, all over,” one of them shouts back. “Ravindra hundred. Conway 150. Both not out.”Somewhere in the far west of this vast, vast country, the World Cup has well and truly begun. A nation will live and breathe nothing else over the next six weeks, one deep lungful at a time.