The fifth day in Abu Dhabi produced one of the rarest reversal of fortunes in Test history

Shiva Jayaraman02-Oct-2017Sri Lanka successfully defended the smallest target they have ever set in Tests. This was thanks to Rangana Herath’s 6 for 43, during the course of which he became the first left-arm spinner to take 400 Test wickets. Pakistan were bowled out for just 111 chasing 136 – the lowest target they have failed to chase. Only once has a team lost – Australia at Headingley in 1981 – while chasing a lower target after scoring 400 plus in the first innings.

Losses chasing lowest targets in Tests after 1st inns total of 400+

Venue, Season 1st inns total 2nd inns total TargetAUS v ENG Headingley, 1981 401 111 130AUS v IND MCG, 1980-81 419 83 143PAK v SL Abu Dhabi, 2017-18 422 111 136SL v AUS SSC, Colombo, 2005-06 547 164 181ENG v PAK Multan, 2005-06 418 175 198Sri Lanka, who made 419 in the first innings, also suffered a similar slump in the Test having been bowled out for 139. In other words, while the two teams managed a combined score of 852 runs for 20 wickets in the first innings, they lost 20 wickets in the process of scoring just 252 runs in the second innings. The 1951 Test between England and South Africa at Headingley is the only other instance where both teams have been bowled out for under 200 after posting 400-plus runs in their first innings.After four days of dull cricket, this match saw a frenetic fifth day when 15 wickets fell for just 183 runs. In Test matches scheduled over five days, this is just the tenth instance when 15 wickets have fallen on the fifth day. Among these 10 instances, 11.43, the average runs scored per wicket, in Abu Dhabi Test is the lowest.

Lowest runs per dismissal, 5th day, 5-day Tests (min 15 wickets)

Match Venue, Season Runs Wickets AveragePAK v SL Abu Dhabi, 2017-18 183 16 11.43WI v BDESH Kingstown, 2009 205 15 13.66SL v NZ Kandy, 1983-84 221 16 13.81ENG v PAK Edgbaston, 1987 276 17 16.23IND v WI Wankhede, 2011-12 295 17 17.35This turnaround in the pace of the match though was brought about by the spinners’ effectiveness. While Herath struck for Sri Lanka, Yasir Shah lit Pakistan’s prospects with figures of 5 for 51 in the second innings, in the process becoming only the fifth legspinner to take five-fors in four successive Test matches (Richie Benaud, BS Chandrasekhar, Mushtaq Ahmed and Anil Kumble are the others to achieve this_ In all, spinners from both teams took 16 wickets at a combined average of just 9.87 in the second innings. This average of spinners in the second innings of the match is the second-lowest in Test history when they have taken at least 15 wickets. The only match that ranks higher is the Mumbai Test involving Australia in 2004-05 when the spinners took 17 wickets at an average of 9.52.

Lowest averages for spinners in 2nd inns (min 15 wickets)

Match Venue, Season Wickets AveIND v AUS Mumbai, 2004-05 17 9.52PAK v SL Abu Dhabi, 2017-18 16 9.87PAK v Eng Abu Dhabi, 2011-12 18 10.33WI v AUS Port of Spain, 1977-78 16 11.25IND v SA Mohali, 2015-16 17 13.47This Abu Dhabi Test, however, was different from most other matches owing to the contrast in spinners’ numbers between the first and the second innings. In the first innings, spinners had taken 10 wickets at a modest average of 46.50. This difference of 36.65 in spinners’ averages between the two innings is the second highest for any Test where spinners from both teams have a combined wickets tally of at least 10 wickets. The only match that ranks higher is the Mumbai Test of 2011-12 involving West Indies. On that occasion though, a large part of the damage was done by the India spinners.

Highest difference in spinners’ Ave. between 1st & 2nd inns (min 10 wickets)

Match Venue, Season 1st inns (wkts @ ave) 2nd inns (wkts @ ave) Ave diffIND v WI Wankhede, 2011-12 10 wkts @ 54.7 14 wkts @ 17.6 37.05PAK v SL Abu Dhabi, 2017-18 10 wkts @ 46.5 16 wkts @ 9.9 36.62SL v IND SSC, Colombo, 2008 11 wkts @ 40.3 10 wkts @ 8.6 31.67PAK v ENG Karachi, 1972-73 11 wkts @ 41.7 10 wkts @ 11.2 30.52PAK v WI Dubai, 2016-17 10 wkts @ 46.3 12 wkts @ 16.2 30.13At the end, Sri Lanka ended up winning by 21 runs, the lowest run-margin they have won a Test match by. Their previous lowest too, incidentally, had come against Pakistan in Faisalabad (42-run win) in 1995. In terms of matches won by margin of runs, this has been one of the closest Tests in recent times. Only three other Tests in the last decade have ended with a lower win margin. New Zealand won the Hobart Test in 2011-12 by a margin of 7 runs and England had won 2013 Ashes Test at Trent Bridge by a margin of 14 runs. More recently, Bangladesh had beaten Australia by a margin of 20 runs in Mirpur.

Closest Test win by run-margin, last ten years

Team v opposition Margin (runs) Venue, SeasonNZ v AUS 7 Hobart, 2011-12ENG v AUS 14 Trent Bridge, 2013BDESH v AUS 20 Mirpur, 2017SL v PAK 21 Abu Dhabi, 2017-18ENG v BDESH 22 Chittagong, 2016-17

The defending champions have so many match-winners – Shahid Afridi, Evin Lewis, Sunil Narine, Kumar Sangakkara, Shane Watson – that their biggest problem might be figuring out their strongest XI

Mohammad Isam30-Oct-2017Previous season: Champions, with 10 wins in 14 matches.Big pictureOnly five overseas players can fit into an XI so who among Dhaka Dynamites’ superstars will have to sit out? Shahid Afridi? Evin Lewis? Sunil Narine? Kumar Sangakkara? Or Shane Watson? Problems of plenty, though, are easy to handle and a simple policy of rotation should do the trick. Besides, high-quality back-ups will come in handy since the Pakistan and West Indies players are likely to leave at the end of November to play a series against each other.Dhaka Dynamites squad

Shakib Al Hasan, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehedi Maruf, Mohammad Shahid, Abu Hider, Jahurul Islam, Nadif Chowdhury, Saqlain Sajib, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Shadman Islam, Noor Alam Saddam, Kumar Sangakkara, Shane Watson, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Rovman Powell, Ronsford Beaton, Evin Lewis, Sunil Narine, Kevon Cooper, Cameron Delport, Joe Denly, Akeal Hosein

Their bowling attack will bank on local players like Mohammad Shahid and Abu Hider while Mohammad Amir and Ronsford Beaton bring pedigree as well. The three allrounders – Shakib Al Hasan, Afridi and Kevon Cooper – can expect support from Narine, who has shown increased batting prowess of late.With Lewis, Sangakkara, Watson and Rovman Powell, the top order looks solid. They will be shored up by Mosaddek Hossain, Nadif Chowdhury, Cameron Delport and Joe Denly.Key playerMuch will depend on Shakib, again, especially in tight situations. While his skill with both ball and bat is well known, Dhaka’s run to the title in 2016 also showcased his nous as captain.CoachKhaled Mahmud continues to juggle his many roles in Bangladesh cricket, coach is perhaps the one that brings him the greatest pleasure. He was in charge of the franchise in 2016, when it won its maiden title in 2016 and will have to make big decisions again with regards to the playing XIs. It will be tempting to keep playing his plethora of stars, but the local talent also need chances.One that got awayDhaka will certainly miss Dwayne Bravo who took 21 wickets in their 2016 campaign, particularly if they make it to the knockout stage again. Useful batsman, excellent fielder, and the life of any party, these benefits and more will now be enjoyed by Comilla Victorians.Flying under the radarKhaled Ahmed is a quick bowler from Sylhet, and was one of the uncapped players that Dhaka picked up in the draft last month. His first-class (average 35) and List A (only one match played) figures do not suggest it, but he is known to be quite promising.

Australia’s middle order was way superior to England’s, while their four-man bowling attack took care of England’s key batsmen to ensure a comprehensive series win

S Rajesh09-Jan-2018As beatdowns go, this 4-0 Ashes drubbing by Australia was a pretty comprehensive one. They averaged 51 with the bat to England’s 29, took 89 wickets to England’s 58, and scored nine hundreds to England’s three. Their fast bowlers took 66 wickets at 28, to England’s 47 at 43, while the spin comparison was the most lopsided of all: 21 wickets at 30.8 for Australia, and eight wickets at 112.5 for England. Game, set, match, and series to Australia. The ratio of batting to bowling averages for Australia was 1.76, which was fairly close to the ratios during their 5-0 drubbings in 2005-06 and 2013-14.

Australia with bat and ball in last 3 home Ashes wins

Series	Scoreline	Bat ave	Bowl ave	Ratio
2006-07	5-0	52.77	26.35	2.00
2013-14	5-0	41.41	21.58	1.92
2017-18	4-0	51.41	29.15	1.76

For England, the story of the series was that they were in the game for some periods – especially in the first three Tests – but not for long enough. The key stat that reflects this is the conversion rate of fifties to hundreds. England’s batsmen made 13 fifties in the series but only three hundreds, compared to 11 fifties and nine hundreds for Australia. That, in a nutshell, was the difference between the two teams.Top-order comparisonThe gap was largely in the top orders of the two teams; despite all the talk of England’s feeble tail, the difference between Nos. 8-11 of the two teams was negligible: Australia’s tail averaged 16.12 to England’s 15.64. However, Australia’s top seven batsmen were streets ahead of England’s, and the gap in averages – 63.38 to 33.85 – shows how large the difference was.ESPNcricinfo LtdThirty-six times in the series, England’s top seven batsmen were dismissed between 14 and 60, which is only four short of their all-time record in an Ashes series. (There were 40 such dismissals in 1981, but that was a six-Test series; in five Tests, the record is 37, in 1920-21 and 1974-75.) Australia’s top-order batsmen fell only 21 times in this score range. Compare this to the number of hundreds scored, and the difference between the two teams becomes clear. In terms of median scores of the top orders, Australia were only 32.5 to England’s 20, but thanks to the conversion rate, the difference in averages was much greater.

Starts and conversions for Nos. 1-7

Team	Out between 14-60	100s
Australia	21	9
England	36	3

Apart from Cameron Bancroft and Peter Handscomb, who was dropped after two Tests, each of Australia’s top seven averaged more than 45, while Pat Cummins averaged an impressive 41.50 too; for England, only two batsmen – Joe Root and Alastair Cook – finished with 45-plus averages.Only two runs separated the series aggregates of Root (378) and Cook (376), but the distribution of how they scored their runs couldn’t have been more different. Cook scored 65% of his runs in one innings, and remained not-out in that innings too; in the other eight attempts, he averaged 16.5. Root passed 50 in five out of nine innings, but his highest score was only 83. The median scores for the two batsmen illustrates this difference, more than the averages – Root’s median score was 51 – which means in four of his nine innings he scored more than 51 – while Cook’s was 14.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe partnership detailsEngland’s batting woes started at the top of the order, with Cook and Mark Stoneman aggregating 193 in nine opening partnerships, and passing 50 only once. None of their top four wickets averaged more than 45, while the fifth-wicket average of 56.88 was largely due to the 237-run stand between Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan in Perth.Despite Bancroft’s relatively poor series, Australia’s average opening stand was reasonably healthy – it helped that the pair added 173 unbroken runs in Brisbane – while they also had excellent averages for the third and fifth wickets. And thanks to the presence of Pat Cummins down the order, they also had three 50-plus stands for the eighth wicket.

Partnerships for each of the top 8 wkts in the series

For wkt	Aus-runs	Ave	100/50	Eng-runs	Ave	100/50
1	436	62.28	2/1	193	21.44	0/1
2	233	33.28	0/2	337	37.44	1/2
3	528	75.42	3/1	349	38.77	1/0
4	324	46.28	2/1	380	42.22	1/1
5	741	123.5	2/2	512	56.88	1/1
6	215	35.83	0/2	188	20.88	0/0
7	61	10.16	0/0	199	22.11	0/1
8	333	66.6	0/3	183	20.33	0/1

Australia’s relentless bowling attackAustralia’s bowlers took 87 wickets, and they were shared almost equally among their four frontline bowlers, with all of them picking up 20-plus wickets at sub-30 averages. For England, as many as nine bowlers picked up at least one wicket, but four of them – Tom Curran, Moeen Ali, Jake Ball and Mason Crane – conceded at least 100 runs per wicket. James Anderson was by far their best bowler in terms of picking up wickets and controlling the runs, but none of the others had a series to remember.In fact, this is only the third instance of four bowlers from one team taking 20-plus wickets in a series; it happened previously in the 2005-06 Ashes, when Stuart Clark, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee starred in a 5-0 win, and by West Indies in the 1995 Wisden Trophy series in England. West Indies’ effort, though, came in a six-Test series, which means this was only the second such instance in a five-match series.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe head-to-head battlesWith Australia winning the series so comprehensively, they obviously dominated the player-v-player stats too. As a bowling unit, it seemed they had one bowler who had the number of at least one England top-order batsman. The Moeen Ali v Lyon battle was the one that was the most talked about, but there were other lopsided head-to-heads as well: Bairstow v Starc, Root v Cummins, Stoneman v Starc, and Vince v Hazlewood were the other cases of a batsman falling to a bowler at least four times at an average of 20 or less. Cook fell three times each to Hazlewood and Lyon, averaging in the mid-20s against each. Malan was the one England batsman averaging more than 25 against each of the four Australian bowlers.

England batsmen v Australian bowlers

Batsman	Bowler	Runs	BF	Dis	Ave
MM Ali	NM Lyon	90	218	7	12.85
JM Bairstow	MA Starc	60	119	4	15.00
JE Root	PJ Cummins	71	171	4	17.75
MD Stoneman	MA Starc	80	137	4	20.00
JM Vince	JR Hazlewood	41	115	4	10.25
AN Cook	JR Hazlewood	78	164	3	26.00
AN Cook	NM Lyon	73	196	3	24.33
DJ Malan	NM Lyon	116	297	3	38.66

Lyon’s successes against Moeen, Cook and Malan was illustrative of his dominance against left-hand batsmen: he averaged 18.44 against them, and 93.66 against the right-handers. When bowling to Root, Vince and Bairstow, he returned combined figures of 2 for 224. However, while he didn’t dismiss right-handers, he still kept it tight against them, going at only 2.46 runs per over.

Lyon v right- and left-hand batsmen

Batsman type	Runs	Balls	Wkts	Ave
Left-handers	332	878	18	18.44
Right-handers	281	684	3	93.66

For England, the one standout bowler was Anderson. His domination of Usman Khawaja was similar to the stranglehold that Australia’s bowlers had on England: in 31 overs to Khawaja, Anderson conceded only 34, while dismissing him three times. Anderson also had Handscomb’s number before he was dropped, while Stuart Broad had a fair amount of success against Shaun Marsh and Bancroft.

England bowlers who did well against an Australian top-order batsman

Batsman	Bowler	Runs	BF	Dis	Ave
UT Khawaja	JM Anderson	34	186	3	11.33
SE Marsh	SCJ Broad	67	158	3	22.33
CT Bancroft	SCJ Broad	41	111	2	20.50
CT Bancroft	CR Woakes	47	108	2	23.50
PSP Handscomb	JM Anderson	15	42	2	7.50

Overall, there were seven instances of a batsman scoring 100-plus runs against a bowler in the series. Six of those were by Australian batsmen, and four by Steven Smith. That is another stat that, in a nutshell, captures Australia’s total domination of England in the series.

Batsmen scoring 100+ runs off a bowler in the series

Batsman	Bowler	Runs	BF	Dis	Ave
SPD Smith	CR Woakes	148	257	1	148.00
SPD Smith	JM Anderson	122	345	1	122.00
SE Marsh	MM Ali	121	249	1	121.00
DJ Malan	NM Lyon	116	297	3	38.66
SPD Smith	MM Ali	113	187	1	113.00
SPD Smith	SCJ Broad	110	272	0	–
DA Warner	JM Anderson	101	225	2	50.50

India have been so obsessed with their off stumps that they are missing out on scoring opportunities with the cut shot

Sidharth Monga17-Aug-2018Five Tests into India’s overseas cycle, their batsmen have thrown up quite a few remarkable statistics. One that you hope hasn’t escaped the attention of the team management is that in three Tests in South Africa at the start of this year, India played only 22 cuts against the quick bowlers, for 46 runs. The number has been whittled down to a third in England: five cuts in two Tests for 16 runs. Now, this doesn’t include the ramp or the steer off the front foot. Just the old-fashioned cut, either along the ground, or over the infield, or even a top edge over the cordon. A high percentage of these cut shots has been played by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and R Ashwin.By comparison, South Africa played the cut shot to the India quicks 38 times for 77 runs, and England played 15 cuts for 36 runs. These statistics tell you two important things. We are getting too excited over the fact that India’s bowlers had taken 80 wickets in their first four overseas Tests. Playing in bowler-friendly conditions, they are bound to take all the wickets on offer, but they have provided more loose balls – cuttable ones being one kind – than their opponents. There has been enough assistance in the pitches for bowlers to keep pitching the ball up, except in Centurion where lengths were pulled back to avoid being driven.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe second and more important cause for this is that India have been so obsessed with their off stumps and cutting the movement that they are making cuttable balls seem fuller and narrower. Former India player and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has been making this point since 2015. “You are allowed to get on to the back foot, you know?” he keeps saying. “Batting is about both front foot and back foot, and knowing when to play off which one.” As with many things, you can paper over this when winning at home or in home-like conditions. It is when you need all hands on the deck you wonder if this drawback is costing valuable runs.It is almost as if India’s specialist batsmen have trained themselves to forget back-foot play. Most of them stand outside the crease with a wide stance, which is the foundation of a forward press. Then they press forward as their trigger movement, and they get a big stride to get close to the ball. It has its advantages. You can leave alone balls outside your eye line. There is less time for the ball to deviate. The movement of feet is economical: two small ones instead of one big lunge. You are in a good position to drive should you choose to do so. Still the advantages have to be evaluated against the cost of it. A bigger casualty still might be the punch through the covers.ESPNcricinfo LtdAccording to ESPNcricinfo’s logs, India have played only 128 of the 283 balls bowled short or short of a length to them this series off the back foot. England have gone back to 266 of 358 such balls. In the process, India have missed out on scoring opportunities, something that is represented by England making 4.13 runs per six such deliveries to India’s 2.77. You restrict it to just short balls, and you will find India have gone back only on 11 of the 40 possible occasions. England have done so to 48 balls out of 69. What is not represented in these numbers is the overcompensation when you punish these errors ruthlessly.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt is not as if India haven’t been presented with balls short and wide. Look at the pitch maps from all four innings India have played. There is plenty that can be cut away. Now compare it with the pitch maps for their oppositions. A lot of that red real estate is blue, and some of it is yellow. Blues are non-boundary runs, yellows are boundaries, and reds are dots. Is it possible that because India are moving forward to almost everything they are not in a position to take advantage of short balls?ESPNcricinfo LtdJust contrast it with how well India play spinners. They meet spin on the half-volley to not let it turn, but are equally quick to cash in on anything short. The spinner is afraid to pitch it even slightly short. The fast bowlers are not under such pressure. They know they can at times err on the short side without getting cut away. There’s also a risk they are converting short-of-a-length balls into length ones and edging them off the front foot instead of watching them off the back foot and either playing or leaving them after they have seamed.Now not every batsman needs to play every shot, but when almost everybody plays in a similar way, it could be a matter for concern. Among the specialist batsmen, Ajinkya Rahane comes across as the only natural cutter. Virat Kohli has managed to find a way around it, either through a square-drive or just a slap off the front foot, like he did to a Ben Stokes long hop to bring up his hundred at Edgbaston. Others have been leaving these balls alone or sometimes even defending them off the front foot.It is never a great idea to muddle with set techniques in the middle of a series, no matter how bad it is going, but this is something to weigh against the advantages of their current techniques once the series is over. Especially before going to Australia where the bounce is true and batsmen can afford to hang back even to length balls. You don’t want to lose out on scoring off the back foot there unless the payoff is really big.

Look away, India fans. Hello, Pakistan fans. Welcome on board for some sweet nostalgia. See how well you remember Saeed Anwar’s 194 all those years ago

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jul-2018

With 14 overs to go and 90 runs to get, Virat Kohli, for once, couldn’t finish off a chase. And that was because he only had the bowlers to bat with – something he isn’t used to

Varun Shetty in Pune28-Oct-2018Each time Virat Kohli has broken a record this series, he seems to have redefined the benchmarks of the format itself, to the extent the gag that Kohli can do anything has become potent. Case in point: when he became the tenth player to make three consecutive ODI hundreds, he also became the first of those to do so in a win, a loss, and a tie. Not a legitimate record by any means, but in this new paradigm of immortality, you’d imagine Sir Jadeja’s sword itself has been laid in surrender at Kohli’s feet, and Rajinikanth is battling Chuck Norris for second place.On Saturday, he almost did everything, but the situation he was in with 14 overs to go – India needed 90 with only the bowlers to come – is not something he is used to. He’s been around to bat with a No. 7 on some occasions, but there’s usually a specialist allrounder in there.Bhuvneshwar Kumar accompanied Kohli in an unbeaten 67-run partnership for the seventh wicket earlier this year, but he is at best a specialist No. 8: a bowler who has strong batting basics and the composure to stick around. He does not possess the skills or power of Hardik Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja, the men Kohli would usually have for company for the seventh wicket.A look at Kohli’s career partnership summary shows most conspicuously that he enjoys batting with openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, and being part of the trio that has shown unprecedented superiority lately. As you move down the list, you notice how many of his partnerships are with top-order batsmen, and how staggeringly few are with lower-order players.Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, just hanging out•AFPKohli has batted eight times each with Pandya and Jadeja. Players in a similar vein that Kohli has batted with are Yusuf Pathan (five innings), Irfan Pathan (one innings, when they opened together), Stuart Binny (one innings), and Axar Patel (one innings, when the pair added 57 unbeaten runs in a three-wicket win). Apart from those, he has batted thrice each with Bhuvneshwar, R Ashwin, and Harbhajan Singh.In Visakhapatnam, during the second ODI, Kohli batted with a tailender for the first time in his career. That was Mohammad Shami, who faced one out of the seven balls they batted together. As of now, Kuldeep Yadav is the famous second partner.That is an interesting ratio for a 214-match career. It further emphasises the point about India’s current heavyweight top three taking turns to score big, often in each other’s company. But more significantly, it shows that even though Kohli is adept as a finisher, the presence in the middle order of players like Suresh Raina and an in-form MS Dhoni has had a big impact on his batting and on India’s success.At one point in the third ODI, a reader on ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary pointed out that it has probably been more than a decade since India had two batsmen with more than 10,000 ODI runs batting together. They should have seen India through together or, at the least, got into a position where Dhoni steered India’s chase with the bowlers. A partnership summary of his career shows that Dhoni would have been the specialist in such a situation. Historically, there could not have been a better pair of finishers than Kohli and Dhoni with just over run a ball to get. But Dhoni’s recent form has been questionable, and his old abilities have only appeared sporadically.It was going to be hard in that case for Kohli. He prefers playing the anchor’s role around the big-hitters and isn’t accustomed to scoring the bulk of the runs in an ODI partnership.The best batsmen in those situations often talk about taking the match as deep as possible. Kohli took a risk with a cross-batted shot against Marlon Samuels in the 42nd over, when the required rate was just over seven per over. Considering that Kuldeep was the next best batsman, and considering the form he is in, Kohli might have had more time than he thought. And in that final phase of India’s loss was probably embedded the one thing that Kohli cannot do. But that would be like dismissing a 21-year old Kohli, saying he couldn’t make centuries because he hadn’t got one in 13 games.

Australia are set to face Pakistan this week without the services of almost half of their first-choice team. ESPNcricinfo looks back at other Test campaigns that were affected by a spate of significant, and unscheduled, absentees

Andrew Miller06-Oct-2018Australia go into the first Test against Pakistan in the UAE this week without the services, through suspension as well as injury, of almost half of their first-choice team. ESPNcricinfo looks back at six other Test campaigns that were affected by a spate of significant, and unscheduled, absenteesGetty ImagesThe background

The 1977 Ashes had some unquestionably memorable moments – Ian Botham’s debut and Geoff Boycott’s 100th hundred, to name but two – but the series was played out in something of a bewildered haze following the revelation that a host of star names, including almost the entire Australia squad, had agreed terms to play in Kerry Packer’s inaugural season of World Series Cricket. It meant that, come the arrival of India for the start of the Australian Test season in December, the Australian selectors were obliged to dredge up an almost unrecognisable team. Out of retirement, at the age of 41, came the former captain Bob Simpson, to lead a cast of rookies featuring six new caps for the first Test at Brisbane.Missing players

Dennis Lillee, Greg Chappell, Rick McCosker, Ian Redpath, Doug Walters, Ian Davis, David Hookes, Gary Gilmour, Len Pascoe, Mick Malone, Wayne Prior, Max Walker, Ray Bright, Rod Marsh, Richie RobinsonWhat happened next?
In an unexpected boost to the beleaguered ACB, the India series turned out to be a five-match thriller – Australia were pegged back to 2-2 before sealing the decider by 47 runs at Adelaide. But in the longer term there could be only one winner of the stand-off, especially after a 5-1 Ashes trouncing in 1978-79. Packer got what he’d been battling for all along – broadcasting rights to Australia’s home internationals – and the star names returned for the 1979-80 season.***Getty ImagesThe background

For the first two Tests of a Packer-dominated tour, it was the Simpson-led Australia who appeared to have all the problems, as they were routed by a full-strength opposition that appeared to have deftly sidestepped the politics. But then, for the third Test in Guyana, the WICB attempted to play hardball with three young players who had belatedly joined their senior colleagues in signing for WSC. Clive Lloyd resigned in protest and took his senior men with him, leaving a skeleton West Indies side to play on in their absence. Some of the stand-ins, such as the savage and speedy Sylvester Clarke, were unquestionably worthy of picking up the Mean Machine’s mantle. Others less so – notably the opening batsman Alvin Greenidge, who proved to be a poor non-relation of his more illustrious namesake Gordon.Missing players

Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Richard Austin, Deryck Murray, Colin CroftWhat happened next?

West Indies’ core players were welcomed back after WSC, and brought some important lessons with them – most notably the benefits of fitness, as drilled into them by the physio Dennis Waight, who had been hired by Packer to work with the squad and ended up staying with them for 23 years. They would go unbeaten for 15 of those, up until Australia’s tour of the Caribbean in 1994-95. Many of the players who had stepped in during the stand-off, however, had less fruitful futures. Several signed for the ill-fated rebel tour of South Africa in 1983, and were treated as pariahs on their return.***Getty ImagesThe background

Contracts disputes had become a regular feature of West Indies cricket in the mid-to-late 2000s, but few stand-offs were as dramatic as the one which led to a third-choice Test team taking on – and losing to – Bangladesh for the first time in their history. Thirteen of West Indies’ first-choice names withdrew themselves from selection on the eve of the series and, with several others indicating that they would be unwilling to step up in their place, the WICB was obliged to scour the Combined Colleges and Campuses team to cobble together a faintly serviceable XI. Floyd Reifer, whose previous Test appearance had come ten years earlier, was recalled to captain a side that would feature seven debutants, the most in any West Indies team since their maiden Test in 1928.Missing players

Chris Gayle, Adrian Barath, Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Runako Morton, Brendan Nash, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Andrew Richardson, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome TaylorWhat happened next?

In front of barely a handful of spectators, West Indies were humbled by a Bangladesh team that had lost 52 of its first 59 Tests, and won just the once (against Zimbabwe four years earlier). They did fare slightly better a week later in Grenada but couldn’t prevent a 2-0 series loss. There were a handful of finds amid the debris, however – in particular Darren Sammy and Kemar Roach, who would go on to become stalwarts of the side in future years.***Getty ImagesThe background

England hardly needed to tear their own team apart in the summer of 1989 – Allan Border’s Australians were already doing that job very nicely indeed. But by the fourth Test at Old Trafford, any remaining vestiges of national pride and unity had been scrubbed from the summer. In the course of another crushing defeat, this time by nine wickets, England’s dressing-room was used to plot the announcement of that winter’s rebel tour of South Africa – a trip that was to be led by the recently deposed England captain, Mike Gatting, and would include nine players who had already featured in a dismal Test campaign. And that in itself was telling. The fact that England’s selectors churned through 29 players in the space of six Tests was as much a vindication of the rebels’ frustrations as it was a reaction to the absences they created.Missing players
Mike Gatting, Chris Broad, Graham Dilley, John Emburey, Neil Foster, Paul Jarvis, Bill Athey, Kim Barnett, Chris Cowdrey, Richard Ellison, Bruce French, Matthew Maynard, Tim Robinson, Greg Thomas, Alan Wells, David GraveneyWhat happened next?
England’s fortunes nosedived even further as they were crushed by an innings in the fifth Test at Trent Bridge – Australia’s openers Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor batted throughout the first day’s play in a stand of 301. But then, with Graham Gooch installed as captain, England embarked on a scarcely credible renaissance. Their victory over the mighty West Indies in Jamaica was a result that ranks among the most jawdropping of all time.***Getty ImagesThe background

Australian Ashes whitewashes have become de rigueur in recent years but, until the meltdowns in 2006-07 and 2013-14, there had been just one clean sweep in the history of the rivalry. That came at the hands of Warwick Armstrong’s men in 1920-21, and irresistible though they proved to be, the margin was exacerbated by England’s sheer lack of readiness after four gruelling years of war. “The tour … resulted, as everyone knows, in disaster,” wrote Wisden with a stiff-upper-lipped lack of sympathy – the deaths of some 700,000 British soldiers in the preceding years had been rather more disastrous. However, it did note that MCC had baulked at sending a touring side a year earlier in 1919-20, rightly concluding that “English cricket had not had time to regain its pre-war standard”.Missing players
CB Fry, SF Barnes, and countless unfulfilled talentsWhat happened next
England’s fortunes didn’t improve in a hurry, as they were crushed by 10 wickets, eight wickets and 219 runs in their first three Tests of the home summer, against the same opponents. But, with Jack Hobbs rekindling his pre-war form, new heroes such as Herbert Sutcliffe and Wally Hammond emerged to join him as the decade progressed.***Getty ImagesThe background

Even by Pakistan’s habitually chaotic standards, 2010 was a year of staggering upheaval. Against Australia at Sydney in January, they lost ignominiously despite a first-innings lead of 206, whereupon their two senior batsmen Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan were banned indefinitely from selection … then unbanned hours later. But that was nothing compared to the mayhem on the England tour seven months later. The spot-fixing scandal erupted midway through the Lord’s Test, leading to bans and jail sentences for Mohammads Amir and Asif, and the new captain Salman Butt.Missing players

Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, Salman ButtWhat happened next?

Pakistan’s unrivalled powers of bouncebackability kicked in almost immediately, as Misbah-ul-Haq slotted into the vacant captain’s role and established the parameters of a squad that would rise, within six years, to the top of the ICC Test rankings. A drawn series against South Africa in the UAE was followed by an away win in New Zealand and a creditable draw in the Caribbean, and when they were reunited with England in the spring of 2012, they crushed them 3-0. Which just goes to show, that some teams cope with chaos rather better than others.

No shot has been more sumptious, or caused more social media drooling, this English summer than Delray Rawlins’ hold-the-pose straight drive

Matt Roller14-Sep-2018It is difficult to slip under the radar when your name is Delray Millard Wendell Rawlins, and Sussex’s big-hitting Bermudan has made no attempts to do that in his fledgling career.His record in this year’s Vitality T20 Blast might not look spectacular in its own right – 164 runs at 27.33 and a strike rate of 147.74 – but it would be foolish to view at Rawlins’ career to date through the lens of numbers alone.After all, this is a man who made his international debut as a diminutive 15-year-old; a man who was picked to represent the South after just one List A game; and man whose innings in Sussex’s quarter-final win against Durham caught the eye of so many fans that he had to turn off his Twitter notifications. It has not taken long for him to garner the reputation of being a big-game player.”There’s a bit of bant going around in the changing room that I like the TV cameras,” he admits, “and I suppose it’s a nice trait to have.”But I’m just trying to put in performances for the lads, whether it’s on telly or not, and trying to show that I’m capable of playing at this level. Thankfully, it’s come off.”It may just be ‘bant’ as far as he is concerned, but Rawlins has quickly developed the knack of playing attention-grabbing innings at the perfect time. His debut in the shortest form came in front of 20,000 fans at Lord’s, and his 35-ball 49 featured a reverse-swept six off Ashton Agar that stunned the majority into silent disbelief.A televised 35 against Glamorgan followed two weeks later in the first of three must-win games for Sussex in their quarter-final bid, and if a hold-the-pose straight drive down the ground in that innings at Chester-le-Street was the main cause of his phone’s explosion that evening, his calmness in a match-winning partnership with Laurie Evans was that of a seasoned campaigner.That is not to say that Rawlins has let the attention get to his head. “You’d be lying if you said you didn’t look at social media a little bit,” he says, “but I try to approach every game the same – it’s just another game of cricket really.”I just try and back myself and my ability. Luckily, it’s come off for me so far, and hopefully I can just carry on like I have done.”Something else that sets Rawlins apart is the regularity with which he hits early boundaries. His strike rate after five balls of an innings is 196.29, making him the world’s fastest starter this year after Birmingham’s pinch-hitting opener Ed Pollock. Of course, it is a high-risk strategy to target quick runs from the word go, as evidenced by a pair of first-ball ducks against Gloucestershire and Middlesex in Sussex’s critical last week in the group stages, but Rawlins says he sees that as his role in a team that lacks the batting depth of some teams in the competition.Delray Rawlins is striking hot•Getty Images”When I bat, if I see a bowler I like, I try and take it on, and this year most of the time that’s come off for me. I just want to take as much pressure as I can off the other end. Most of the time that’s been Laurie Evans, who’s been outstanding for us this year, so if that’s hitting early boundaries and running hard then that’s my role.”While Sussex might lack batting depth – Rawlins started the competition out of the side, and might not be playing but for a horror tournament for the New Zealand overseas player Tom Bruce – they have heaps of star quality with the ball to make up for it, and the laid-back feeling around the club is one of confidence rather than complacency.For a man who turns 21 the day before Sussex’s first Finals Day since 2012, that can only be a good thing. “I got thrown in and was told to express myself,” Rawlins says. “The coaching staff said just play how you play, express yourself, we know what you can do, show everyone what you can do.”The lads in the dressing room were the same, Will Beer in particular. Me and Beero have been spending a lot of time together carrying the bottles this season, so it was nice for all the lads to back me once I got in.”That freedom can only be a good thing for a player who is still learning his game, and improving with each innings. And while the pressure of Finals Day can do funny things to people, there is no reason to think that Rawlins will not play with his usual swagger.”I play my best cricket when I’m quite relaxed, controlled, that’s the way I try to approach it,” he says. “The bigger the game the more your emotions can go and if I can continue to be relaxed then I can keep being successful.”After his exposure to the big stage, the next step will be to see how Rawlins fares with the weight of expectation on his shoulders, beginning with the second match of Finals Day, Sussex’s semi-final tie against Somerset. On current evidence, it would take a brave man to bet against him.

There was one act from the team that stood out for Matthew Mott and summed up the spirit in the Australia side

Daniel Brettig29-Nov-2018Selflessness is the sort of buzzword that often flies around 21st century sporting teams, alongside others such as culture, execution and process. To the words must be found examples of the traits in action, and in the midst of Australia’s triumphant World T20 campaign, the vice-captain Rachael Haynes provided an example that stuck in numerous minds in the team in the hours and days after they lifted the tournament trophy.Opening the batting in T20, or at least coming in while the ball is still new, is a coveted position, and the Australian squad chosen for the Caribbean contained no fewer than eight such players. When, midway through the tournament, the coach Matthew Mott and the captain Meg Lanning were pondering a batting order reshuffle, they went to Haynes and offered her the chance, as a player in form, to move up from No. 6. To her enduring credit, Haynes knocked the chance back, stating that her role as a middle order fixer was critical.A couple of games later, when Australia appeared to be struggling to cobble 120 against West Indies in their critical semi-final in Antigua, Lanning’s dismissal brought Haynes to the crease for an unbeaten innings 29 that, while not enormous in terms of runs, took the team from a barely defendable total to a match-winning one. It’s a tale that speaks volumes for Haynes, Lanning and the culture of the team that was feted in a public reception at Federation Square in Melbourne on Thursday.”Internally we kept thinking ‘she’s in such great form, should we move her up the order and make sure she’s facing more balls’, but she herself said ‘that’s my role, I’m really comfortable’, so it was huge,” Mott told ESPNcricinfo. “The icing on the cake was Rach coming in and doing that at the end and got a lot of momentum back at the back end of the innings, which is huge in T20, if you can go into that break with a bit of a kick along. But she just played it so well.”Traditionally we’re not great in cricket statistically at recognising key performances. That’s something we really worked hard on – we have our own internal measures about a player’s impact in each game, and someone like Rach’s innings rates really highly in our group. Alyssa Healy did a great job at the top of the order but equally it was those contributions at the end that probably get you from 120 to 140 and put it out of a team’s reach.Professionalism granted Haynes a second chance

In any other era of the women’s game, Rachael Haynes may well have been retired by now. Her three years out of the Australian side coincided with a move towards full professionalism, commenced by New South Wales via corporate sponsorship, then grown to include the whole domestic landscape with last year’s historic first joint MoU with the men. At another, earlier time, Haynes may have fallen out of the system by the time the selectors felt it was time to recall her.
“It’s come so far in such a short period of time,” Haynes said. “I was in a really fortunate position in NSW in that I basically went to them because I was struggling, I was working full-time, trying to be the best cricketer I could be and I wasn’t really doing either very well. That was also the time when LendLease came to the party with their sponsorship of the NSW team, so I was able to cut back at work and put some more time into cricket as well.”
The coach Matthew Mott concurred: “She’s taken her second chance and run with it and I think it’s a great story for cricketers out there who maybe think their days are numbered, you hang in there, keep professional and keep believing, an opportunity could open up.
“She looks like she’s having more fun than anyone at the moment, and trying to eke out as much as she possibly can over the next couple of years. To be honest she’ll be incredibly hard to replace when she goes – she’s really brought that player accountability to the forefront of our team and a lot of the time as coaches we don’t have to do too much disciplining because we know she’s across it, and if there’s behaviours that need to be nipped in the bud she’s onto it.”

“Meg was very frustrated when she came in, at the break she was quite cranky and I said to her ‘I don’t think you realise the impact of that innings, it has set us up’, and while it wasn’t a fluent innings, it was a really smart innings, she read the game well and we fashioned out a score.”Paradoxically, given how well the Australia women’s team has fared over the past year relative to the men’s group, It was a brief secondment to the T20 team in New Zealand, where he witnessed career opener Aaron Finch drop down to the middle order to make room for D’Arcy Short, that had Mott discussing it as part of his subsequent plans with Lanning.”Everyone wants to open in T20, it’s the best place to bat, but I was lucky I went away with the men’s team to New Zealand and saw first-hand Aaron Finch bat at No. 4,” Mott said. “I thought that just sent such a great message – it’s not in your best interests but it is in the team’s, so we tried to bring that in and the players really embraced it, Meg and Rach in particular drove that really hard.”We have eight openers in our squad who open for their WBBL franchises, but to me the selfless nature not just of Rachael but of Meg, Ellyse Perry and people like that to bat out of their most preferred positions was a key turning point for us as a team.”For Haynes, the acceptance of a task different from her past roles echoed how she had re-emerged as a mature cricketer and leader after a career of early promise for Australia had been obscured somewhat by three years out of the national side. Called back in 2017 with leadership in mind – Lanning was beginning to struggle with a shoulder problem that would require surgery – the second chance arrived at a time when Haynes was ready not only to play, but to set an example.”It has been really cool. Standing up on that stage when we won the final, I never expected I’d get the opportunity to do that again, so it was a pretty special moment,” she said, having been part of another trophy-winning team in India in 2013. “It makes you realise how hard it is to actually get there and win something like that.”The circumstances when I got re-selected I was pretty fortunate I think, two injuries to pretty senior players in Alex Blackwell and Ellyse Perry, but sport’s like that. Sometimes you just need a bit of a moment and a bit of luck and it can turn really quickly, even when things are seemingly going well, then all of a sudden things can change but I think I was fortunate in that respect. Literally when I got selected back in the team I got a phonecall on the Thursday and was playing cricket for Australia on the Saturday. I got a 50 in that match and then as they say the rest is history.”As captain and deputy, Lanning and Haynes are contrasting characters – Mott talks about the former being “off the cuff” and the latter far more “considered” – but between them and other senior players such as they have created an atmosphere of accountability and honesty that will carry the team strongly into the future.Rachael Haynes smashes one into the leg side en route to her unbeaten 89•Getty Images”They complement each other very well, and Meg feels really well supported by Rach throwing ideas at her here and there,” Mott said. “One of the things we always talk about is surrounding yourself with people who disagree but aren’t disagreeable. She does that really well. A lot of the things that could potentially get in our way, they shut it down pretty quickly. Just little things about dress codes and stuff like that, not over the top.”But if a player is maybe getting ahead of themselves, it might just be a quiet chat over coffee and discussing what their role is in the team and making sure they’re aware of that. They’re really good around selection as well when we’ve had to make some tough calls, supporting players and making sure they understand what their route back into the team is.”The flow-on effect was then seen at the pointy end of the tournament, not least when Georgia Wareham, one of the team’s youngest, conjured a run out early in the final to unbalance England and settle what had been, up to that moment, very visible nervousness among Lanning’s team. “I think you know you’re doing reasonably well when young players come in and do well straight away,” Mott said. “I got a note from someone saying isn’t it amazing when all those jitters were out there in the final, the one person who settled things down was Georgia took her time and got a direct hit run out. From the moment she did that, everyone just relaxed.”Looking back over the past 18 months, Haynes reflected that the road to the T20 World Cup had been chosen in the aftermath of an unsuccessful 50-over campaign in England last year, when effort started to be made to turn those aforementioned buzzwords into consistent and accountable behaviour. “It’s something we’ve worked really hard on and I think particularly after we lost that semi-final in England, our team came together after that and sat down and got really clear on what we stood for as a team,” she said.”I know people sometimes put the boots in a little bit to team culture and words and those sorts of things, but it’s become really meaningful for us, what we stand for, and the type of team we want to be, and also how we connect with the general public and yeah so on the field you see our skill, how we’ve developed athletically, all those sorts of things, but there’s a lot more layers to it than that. The word that gets thrown around about our team is fearless … it means something to us and we’ve brought that to life.”We’re just honest with each other. We talk about how we’re feeling, we are prepared to have conversations that at times could be uncomfortable and I think that’s a sign of a pretty good environment that if someone can stand in front of the team and say ‘I’m a bit nervous about this’ and ‘what if we don’t win’, I think our team’s come such a long way in that respect. It’s just an environment where people can be themselves and also get the best out of themselves.”In a year of Australian cricket’s introspection, Haynes’ is a tale for many to think about, at all levels of the game.

Chris Gayle doesn’t have a good record against the short ball in the IPL in recent years, but Kings XI didn’t give Delhi a chance to exploit that

Karthik Iyer and Gaurav Sundararaman01-Apr-2019There were a number of interesting calls in the selection of the XIs.Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer announced at the toss that Amit Mishra, the legspinner, had been left out in favour of medium pacer Avesh Khan.Why? Well, it might have been a ploy to counter the threat of Chris Gayle. Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris, Harshal Patel and Avesh, and possibly a short-ball strategy against the big man, because he hasn’t been at his best in the IPL – since 2015 – when the ball is pitched short.ESPNcricinfo LtdIt didn’t quite work to plan for Delhi, though, as Gayle sat the game out. Can’t put it beyond R Ashwin to be a step ahead of his opponents, and he didn’t say anything at the toss, but Ian Bishop did confirm on commentary that Gayle had a niggle.Sam Curran came out at the start and was explosive in scoring a 10-ball 20. In his first outing as an opener, Curran did, arguably, better than what he might have lower down the order.R Ashwin dismissed Prithvi Shaw first ball•BCCIShaw spun out
The first ball of Delhi’s chase… a loud, sustained appeal for caught-behind. Wicketkeeper KL Rahul and bowler Ashwin looked confident, Prithvi Shaw uncertain. The umpire’s finger finally went up and Shaw knew his fate even before his mid-pitch chat with opening partner Shikhar Dhawan.Opening with a spinner – it was Ashwin, but it could as easily have been Mujeeb Ur Rahman or Murugan Ashwin – against Shaw is a great option, because of Delhi’s top four, he has the poorest record against spin in T20s. Before this game, his 21st in the format, his average against spinners was just 22.8, with five dismissals – make that six now. A worrying Achilles heel for one of India’s most exciting talents?Why keep Mujeeb away from the Powerplay?If you have Mujeeb Ur Rahman in your XI, why wouldn’t you bowl him in the Powerplay?Out-of-the-box planning from R Ashwin and the team management, perhaps, but after putting up only a middling total – 166 for 9 – good sense would have suggested throwing the Afghanistan spinner in as early as possible.ESPNcricinfo LtdHe didn’t come on till after the sixth over, by which time Delhi had reached 49 for 1, and bowled the seventh, ninth, 11th and 15th overs. Mujeeb didn’t get a wicket, and conceded 36 runs. It might not have mattered in the end, but that was due more to the ineptitude of the Delhi batsmen and the quality of Mohammed Shami and Sam Curran.As such, Mujeeb is at his most effective in T20s when he bowls within the first six overs, as the graphic above shows: his economy rate is the best among all the three phases of a T20 game, and he has a better average in the period too. Despite the way the match panned out, Punjab might have missed a trick there – a pretty obvious one at that.