The last time he played against India in a World Cup game, Jansen leaked runs. But things have changed since then

Sidharth Monga28-Jun-20242:45

Jansen a ‘real nightmare’ with bounce and movement

It was hyped as the final before the final. At a ground that many believe should have been hosting the final anyway. India had won seven out of seven, South Africa had won six out of seven. With Australia starting slowly, and with Pakistan not turning up at all, this was supposed to be the match of the league stages. Eden Gardens was all decked up and fully packed. This was the biggest occasion outside India vs Pakistan and the knockouts.Marco Jansen had been South Africa’s highest, and the tournament’s third-highest, wicket-taker. All his 16 wickets had come with the new ball: in the powerplay. He was supposed to set the tone once India decided to bat first. What followed was an extremely inaccurate first spell of 2-0-27-0 during which he bowled five wides, one of which went to the boundary too. The tone was set but not in the manner South Africa wanted it set.At his best, Jansen is a menacing quick who has pace, height (thus bounce) and movement both in the air and off the pitch. When he is good, he is irresistible, but it is believed that when he is bad he is awful. In April 2022, he went from 3 for 25 at Brabourne Stadium to 0 for 63 three days later at Wankhede Stadium a few hundred metres north of it. In the process, failing to defend 22 in the last over, raising question marks over his “mental strength”. Something that got reinforced during that “big match” against India in the ODI World Cup at Eden Gardens.Related

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Data does back the instinct, though. Not mental strength because that is for experts in psychology and psychiatry to speak about but about the wild fluctuations in Jansen’s returns. ESPNcricinfo’s Shiva Jayaraman worked out numbers that are instructive. A total of 132 bowlers have bowled 600 or more balls in T20s since the start of 2023. Among them Jansen is the only one to have gone at under seven an over in more than 30% of his bowling allotments and at over 10 an over in more than 30% of spells: 30.43% under seven an over and 32.6% at over 10 an over. “Big variance on either side,” Jayaraman says.There is more than mental strength to it, though. Mental strength is nothing but your technique, physical fitness and tactical sharpness put together. Just after Jansen led South Africa into their first men’s World Cup final in any format, I asked Jansen to revisit that Eden Gardens nightmare and what was going through his mind that day.”Ja I think a lot of things came into it,” Jansen said. “One of them probably being a long time away from home and then also physically being drained because 50-over cricket and playing it in India, I am sure everyone that played at World Cup was physically tested, especially at the back end of that tournament. India’s known for heat and for humidity at certain places. So I think it was a mixture of both.”I just think it was one of those days where it’s not your day. You have those days and at the end of that game I realised that, ‘okay, cool, today it probably wasn’t my day where nothing was going my way,’ if it makes sense.”3:20

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That is the kind of an insight active sportspeople rarely share. That possibly his conditioning wasn’t at its peak for this particular match.The T20 World Cup 2024 is not too dissimilar in terms of humidity and the off-field fatigue. Apart from the short turnaround between matches, South Africa have not been on a single flight that has left on time. They spent one whole night at an airport in Florida along with Sri Lanka and Ireland teams. Before the final they endured a seven-hour delay at the Trinidad airport.Then again, Jansen is an elite professional, and has learnt lessons from the past. “It’s almost similar here also with the humidity and the heat,” he said. “I just think personally for me, I’ve been really doing well in terms of my nutrition and what I eat and when I eat it and what I drink. I’ve made conscious effort to drink a lot of water, especially on off days and travel days. And then on game day I just try and switch my physical fatigue off, if it makes sense. I try and not think about it, which I think I’ve done pretty well.”Unbeaten so far, South Africa have ridden on the starts Jansen has given them. He has conceded at just over a run a ball even though the wickets column reads only six, three of them in the semi-final against Afghanistan. In the final, he will be up against what has proved to be the best batting order of this tournament, adjusting superbly to the varied conditions without compromising on their attacking intent. Jansen is going to be extremely important because teams have used left-arm pace to try to shut off the Indian batters, especially Rohit Sharma, who has found red-hot form and that little bit of luck you need in T20s just at the right time.These two teams are unbeaten in the tournament. This is the big final likely to be played in the most balanced of conditions of the tournament. Rohit will be looking to take Jansen down like he did Mitchell Starc, another tall left-arm quick. For two teams that have lived with the popular tag of not doing well in the “matches that matter”, the tone that Jansen sets will be crucial.The difference here, though, is Jansen is wiser than he was last year, is better conditioned, and South Africa are a more rounded team that has potential to recover from a bad day for one individual. Then again, India are utilising their resources better and not relying on any one batter to take it upon himself to get them a total. No wonder this is going to be the showpiece contest in the showpiece match of the year so far.

She’s had an impact in both the World Cup matches she has played so far and, for a brief while over the last week, was the No. 1 T20I bowler in the world

Firdose Moonda08-Oct-2024Sadia Iqbal gave Pakistan reason to believe.After they struggled to a score of 105 for 8 in the highest-profile game they will play at this T20 World Cup, against India, she removed Smriti Mandhana in the fifth over of the chase and created an opening for her team. Importantly, she also built on a plan to starve Mandhana of runs by keeping it full and on the stumps, which created a string of nine dot balls to India’s experienced opener, before offering her some width and inviting her to drive. Mandhana only managed to send the ball to Tuba Hassan at point and Pakistan had the advantage.”I know my spells are very crucial for the team,” Iqbal told ESPNcricinfo in Dubai. “That’s why I am very focused on my bowling and getting my role right.”Related

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Over the last two years, Iqbal’s job has been to take the new ball and it’s one she has embraced. The 29-year-old left-arm spinner has opened the bowling in all the T20Is she has played and reaped some outstanding results. With 28 wickets in 17 matches in 2024, Iqbal is the leading wicket-taker among bowlers at the World Cup this year and also has the most wickets by a Pakistan player in any calendar year. For a short period of time between the match against India on Sunday and England’s win over South Africa on Monday night, she topped the ICC bowling rankings and became only the second Pakistan player to achieve such a status.The other, Sana Mir, who was the No. 1 ODI bowler in 2018-19, is currently at the tournament as a commentator and has been spending time with Iqbal and offering advice. “I’ve learnt so much from her,” Iqbal said. “Before the match, I talked to her about the conditions and what to expect and she told me everything.”Pakistan have played at both tournament venues already and adjusted fairly well to the differences with the ball.In Sharjah, they restricted Sri Lanka to 85 for 9 in pursuit of a target of 117 – Iqbal took 3 for 17. On a surface, which was devoid of pace, she did not follow the lead of the Bangladesh bowlers, from earlier that day, sending down deliveries as slowly as 50kph, but stuck to what she knew. “I don’t usually bowl slow, I stick to my pace,” she said. “But I follow the idea of situational bowling and try to see what the batters are doing and react to that.”

“The big change is mindset, because every player is playing attacking cricket. It’s the approach, it’s our mindset, working with different coaches, and learning through more experiences”Sadia Iqbal

What Iqbal did in Sharjah was to ask the Sri Lanka middle and lower order to go after her, knowing she would be difficult to get away. She had Anushka Sanjeewani caught at deep midwicket trying to flick a full ball to the boundary; Nilakshika Silva caught at short fine-leg playing the sweep; and trapped Sugandika Kumari lbw attempting the same type of shot.In Dubai, where run-scoring is slightly easier, she started off with a clear plan to keep it tight, before offering some width and changing her lengths later on, as India’s urgency for runs grew.That willingness to encourage the batters to take her on and back herself to succeed comes from an overall team approach that has changed since the last T20 World Cup, Iqbal explained. “The big change is mindset, because every player is playing attacking cricket. It’s the approach, it’s our mindset, working with different coaches, and learning through more experiences.”Pakistan’s more proactive approach suits Iqbal’s style as someone who has always relished a contest. A multi-sport player, who was involved in handball and hockey, Iqbal came to cricket “late”, as a 22-year-old. At the time, she had just graduated with a Bachelor of Science Honours in sports science. She made her debut for Pakistan two years later and has properly established herself in the side only over the last couple of years. On the evidence of her success in that time, Iqbal is on an upward trajectory and may well continue to give Pakistan more reasons to believe in the future.

At a book launch to mark Sunil Gavaskar’s 75th year, the former India captain regaled the audience with anecdotes from his playing days

Vishal Dikshit02-Oct-2024Sunil Gavaskar had a hall full of people in splits recently at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. Gavaskar turned 75 in July this year, and to celebrate this milestone, senior journalists Debasish Datta and Shyam Bhatia – the latter owns a cricket museum in the UAE – launched a book called , an anthology of tributes and anecdotes on Gavaskar. When he was called on stage though, Gavaskar reeled off even more previously unheard stories from his early days in the Indian team. Gavaskar humorously took issue to the fact that Datta had invited him on stage saying, “Gavaskar needs no introduction,” and he was in no mood to let that go.”I was a little disappointed that Debasish, who I’ve known for such a long time, said that I don’t need an introduction,” Gavaskar said. “When you’re retired from the game almost 40 years, you do need an introduction, because almost certainly only nice things are going to be said about you. So it’s always good to have an introduction, rather than saying, ‘Sunil Gavaskar needs no introduction.’ Of course, I need an introduction.”After so many years I want to listen to some good things said about me. It also takes me back to another incident which concerned my uncle, Madhav Mantri. As those of you who follow the game know, he played four Test matches for India. And he was called for a school sports-day presentation. And the principal of the school asked him, ‘How do I introduce you?’ At that stage I was the captain of the Indian team. So he says, ‘Look, none of these boys know me, I retired many years ago. So you just ask all these boys, ‘Who is your favourite cricketer?’ And then say I’m his uncle. Simple.Related

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“The principal said, ‘Very good idea.’ So in the assembly, he turned and he asked the students, ‘Boys, before I introduce the chief guest here today who has come to distribute the prizes, I want to ask all of you, who is your favourite cricketer?’ And in one voice they said, ‘Kapil Dev!'”So you can imagine what happened. Now you know I need an introduction.”Gavaskar rolled the years back to 1971 next, when he made his Test debut in the West Indies in a historic series win for India.”When I first came into the Indian team, I was fortunate enough that none other than Garfield Sobers dropped two really simple catches [in my debut series] that gave me an opportunity to bat, get another life and then score some runs. And we won. We beat the West Indies for the first time. Big celebrations were on here [back home] at the Brabourne Stadium where the BCCI had called everybody, there were thousands of people there. It was the first time we had beaten West Indies.The famous stoush: John Snow and Sunil Gavaskar collide at Lord’s, 1971•Getty Images”The master of ceremonies was introducing the players, so he started by saying, ‘This is Ajit Wadekar, the captain. The first captain of India to win a series against West Indies.’ He said all the nice things, like about [Srinivas] Venkataraghavan, he got five wickets in a crucial game, bowled Sobers around his legs with his turning ball. Eknath Solkar, gutsy cricketer. Dilip Sardesai, renaissance man of Indian cricket. He just went on and on. I was the baby of the team then, so I expected that I would be introduced last. When it came to me, instead of introducing me by my name, the master of ceremonies said, ‘Let me now introduce you to the person Garry Sobers dropped three-four times.”Two months later, India beat England at home for the first time in a Test series, and Gavaskar had a hand in that too.”Over there, those who follow the game know that John Snow gave me a little shove [during the first Test, at Lord’s] while I was looking to take a single and I was sent sprawling. And I had to get to the crease on my hands and knees to regain the crease. It became a big incident. He was dropped from the next Test for indiscipline. Again, the introductions were the same, [Ajit] Wadekar, Venkataraghavan, Bishan Bedi, and [Bhagwath] Chandrasekhar, took six wickets for 38. He was the one who turned the game around. Again, I was the baby of the team. He [the host] said, ‘And let me introduce you to the man John Snow shoved to the ground.’ , now you know [why I need an introduction].”When Khalid AH Ansari, the founder of Mumbai tabloid Mid-Day took the stage, he summed up the mood of the evening: “The next book on him should be named ‘Funny G’, not ‘Sunny G’.”

Standardised pitches and attack-minded batters have had an impact on the slow bowlers’ approach

Himanish Ganjoo and Sidharth Monga30-Aug-2024When Kuldeep Yadav burst onto the international scene in 2017, apart from the fact that he was one of very few international bowlers of left-arm wristspin, his slowness made him even more difficult to hit.Within two years, though, he was struggling to hold his place down in his IPL side, and his ODI numbers had started to suffer. The period from 2019 to 2021, during which he lost his place in his IPL side, was horrible for him.Kuldeep changed a lot in his technique to make a stellar comeback to limited-overs cricket, but the headline difference was increased pace while still putting similar action on the ball. Partly because of this, he isn’t turning the ball as much as before but is giving batters less time to adjust to any grip or movement off the pitch. The increase in speed has more than compensated for the slight reduction in turn, and he has become one of the best spinners in the world again.