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With the playoff race heating up, these players have given their teams’ qualification chances a significant boost

Vishal Dikshit27-Oct-2020ESPNcricinfo LtdChris Gayle, Kings XI Punjab (Innings: five, runs: 177, strike rate: 138.28)
The Kings XI Punjab were reeling at the bottom of the table with only one win from seven games when Chris Gayle returned after a stomach bug made him miss two matches. Since then, the Kings XI have won five matches in a row and Gayle has featured in all of those.One of the issues ailing the Kings XI was their middle order either not building on strong starts or not being able to close out chases. By incorporating Gayle at No. 3 – something he had done only five times in 396 T20 innings earlier – they have added both experience to their line-up and fear in the oppositions’ minds.His 177 runs, studded with 15 sixes, have already handed them two eight-wicket wins, one five-wicket win, and two points from the double-Super Over game against the Mumbai Indians, in which he came out with the aim of hitting a six first ball in the second eliminator, and did it in trademark style to clinch victory. With Glenn Maxwell off form, Gayle’s intimidating presence at No. 3 has ensured that once their opening stand is broken, the Kings XI don’t slide and also sustain – if not increase – their scoring rate.Jason Holder celebrates a breakthrough•BCCIJason Holder, Sunrisers Hyderabad (Matches: two, wickets: five, economy: 7.50)Named replacement for the injured Mitchell Marsh early on in the IPL, Jason Holder got a chance only when Kane Williamson picked up an injury after seven games. More than being a handy lower-order batsman, his ability to bowl both in the powerplay and the death has given the Sunrisers the cushion of a solid fifth bowler, which they were trying to squeeze out of their batting allrounders, especially in Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s absence.Bowling in the powerplay against the Rajasthan Royals, Holder first struck by running out Robin Uthappa at the non-striker’s end with a direct hit. He then returned after the halfway mark and for the 19th over, first foxing Sanju Samson with a slow offcutter, and then putting the brakes with the wickets of Steven Smith and Riyan Parag in three balls and conceding just seven in the over and limit the Royals to a gettable 154.Two days later, against the Kings XI, Holder got hit by Gayle in the last over of the powerplay, only to return four overs later and dismiss his West Indies team-mate. With another frugal over in the death and the wicket of Chris Jordan, Holder finished with 2 for 27 to limit the Kings XI to only 126 for 7, but the Sunrisers batsmen were bowled out for much less.Chris Morris has been a valuable addition to RCB•BCCIChris Morris, Royal Challengers Bangalore (Matches: six, wickets: 10, economy rate: 5.74)How the Royal Challengers use their allrounders has always been a big talking point. Chris Morris – who cost them INR 10 crore ($1.4 million) in the last auction sat out the first few games with a strain, and then burst on to the scene to help them fix a long-standing weakness: death bowling.ALSO READ: ‘It’s nice to feel important’ – Chris Morris on bond with RCBMorris has mostly bowled in the phases when batsmen go the hardest – powerplay and the death – and has kept his economy rate well under six despite sending down 17.4 of his 23.4 overs then. He has also picked up ten wickets to finish with figures that read more like standalone spells of outstanding bowling: 3 for 19, 2 for 17, and his best figures of 4 for 26.Morris has been the most economical fast bowler this IPL by a distance, conceding only 136 runs from his 142 balls, while also striking every 14.1 deliveries, only behind Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Shami (minimum ten overs) among the quick bowlers.He breaches the 140kph mark, and has helped split the fast-bowling workload considerably, which was being carried by Navdeep Saini almost single-handedly.Fast, furious, irresistible – Lockie Ferguson rearranges the stumps•BCCILockie Ferguson, Kolkata Knight Riders (Matches: four, wickets: six, economy rate: 5.93)If fast bowling is the flavor of the IPL, how can you keep Lockie Ferguson away? The Knight Riders did keep him on the bench initially because they were spoilt with their overseas choices, but once Sunil Narine and Andre Russell picked up injures, Ferguson got in, and impressed in his first game in seven months.He delivered fiery yorkers at will and hurt the Sunrisers batsmen with his slower deliveries that also hit the hole to finish with 3 for 15. And once that game when into the Super Over, all he took were three deliveries to clinch victory for the Knight Riders.With his express pace – over 150kph – and target to hit the top of the stumps, Ferguson has managed to stem the flow of runs from one end even though he hasn’t been as regular among the wickets since his first game. His awkward lengths that are mostly short or short of good length make it hard for batsmen to go after him, which makes him the tournament’s second-most economical quick bowler, behind Morris.

Crohn’s disease made batter consider giving up on World Cup dream but now she has illness under control

Valkerie Baynes26-May-2021After a long battle with ill-health, World Cup winner Lauren Winfield-Hill has set her sights on opening the batting for England again when they defend their title next year.Winfield-Hill was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in October 2019 but it was only four months ago that she found herself in one place long enough to establish a course of life-long medication that she has found to be, quite literally, a game changer.”You have to have regular doctor’s checks, regular bloods, you have to be able to have a chance to see if it’s working,” Winfield-Hill tells ESPNcricinfo. “So basically I just had to go on steroids for a year to tide me over, until it came to a point where you can’t really stay on steroids any longer. [But now] we’ve got a really nice window of three months at home.”It was just finding the window to get set up on the meds and then within six weeks I’m like, ‘holy Hell, I feel so much better’. I didn’t realise how naff I was feeling.”

“We’ve got a really exciting 12 months coming up that I don’t want to be carrying drinks for”Lauren Winfield-Hill

She had become so used to fatigue, vomiting episodes and “feeling sub-par” that Winfield-Hill recalls thinking she would never feel any different. It became so bad that she considered giving up on her England aspirations.”I had a really rough time in one of the bubbles during the West Indies’ [tour],” she says. “I had a real bad flare-up and I was just like, ‘You know what? I don’t think I can keep playing international sport, I’m not well enough, my body just can’t tolerate the workload’.”I remember saying to the specialist, ‘I don’t know about playing sport like this, it’s getting really hard’. He said: ‘Trust me, once we get you on these meds, you will be fine, you’ll be great, you’ll feel good; don’t throw the towel in.'”Not only did she begin to feel better, but her pre-season numbers are proof that she is doing better also.”We did some testing and I punched out some really great scores,” she says. “I’ve always really prided myself on being a good trainer and a good professional and for a long time I was like, ‘why am I plateauing physically?’ I was pretty jaded.”For three years I went nowhere physically. Now all of a sudden I’m up at the front of the pack and it’s like, ‘thank God that’s what was going on, rather than trying really hard and working as hard as I’ve ever worked and getting nothing back’.”Lauren Winfield-Hill has been producing strong pre-season training scores•Getty ImagesWinfield-Hill was England’s leading run-scorer for the T20 leg of the 2019 Ashes series, some distance behind Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry, batting in the middle-order. She travelled to Malaysia for England’s white-ball series against Pakistan but didn’t get to bat in the one T20 she played.She made 1 and 4 not out in her two innings at the Women’s T20 World Cup at the start of last year, batting at No.8, and was part of England’s squad for their home T20 series against West Indies last summer without playing a match.”You spend a lot of time training for not a lot of output at times in terms of game-time,” she says. “And it’s difficult being a senior player and carrying drinks and not getting an opportunity.”There’s an awful lot of fight left in me. I don’t see myself as a real senior player because I have been out of the team a lot. I’m fairly experienced, but my game-time has not always been that consistent so, in cricket years, I still feel young. Physically I feel better than I’ve ever felt.”We’ve got a really exciting 12 months coming up that I don’t want to be carrying drinks for. I want to be playing in the World Cup. In the 2017 World Cup that we won, I was at the top of the order and I’d like to be there to defend it.”Related

• Lauren Winfield-Hill: Making relationship with wife Courtney public was 'a weight lifted off my shoulders'

• Emily Arlott earns maiden England call-up for India Test

• Early-season form poses tricky Test selection task – Heather Knight

• Who can stop Southern Vipers from defending the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy?

• Levick battles suspected long Covid ahead of season start

Winfield-Hill scored an unbeaten 140 opening for England Women A in a pre-season warm-up against England Women at the start of May. Now she is preparing for Northern Diamonds’ first match of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy against Central Sparks at Headingley on Saturday. Beyond that, she has the Hundred to look forward to in July, where she will represent Northern Superchargers.”I’m a lot more relaxed in knowing that there’s going to be lots of opportunities,” Winfield-Hill says. “Sometimes it can be quite difficult when you don’t have a lot of cricket lined up, to put a lot of pressure on: ‘I’ve got to do it in this next game, I have to perform, it’s not that many games to come’. That mindset can be really crippling.”I’ve just really tried to focus on what I need to do to be a really good solid opening batter that also has versatility to bat in other spots, but knowing what my goals are and being quite focused on that.”But she remains wary of putting too much pressure on herself.”It’s just a big trap, isn’t it, with anything where you set your sights too high and you put a lot of pressure on yourself and you miss the steps along the way,” she says.”So I’m just trying to keep everything really simple. I’m just trying to play as well as I can in the next game I play, or the next time I train.”We’ve got a few domestic games now in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. If I manage to continue some nice form in that, then I’ve every chance of being able to achieve those goals in an England shirt.”In that first England internal game… it wasn’t like I was setting out some big stall and this big goal to have a great day out. It was just, ‘play as well as you can, next ball, play as well as you can, try and win the game for the team and keep it really simple’. I’m just trying to strip it all back.”Winfield-Hill played three matches last year in the competition’s first season, when the Diamonds finished runners-up, beaten in the final by Southern Vipers. For the early part of this season, the Diamonds have England stars Katherine Brunt and Nat Sciver in their ranks too.”It’s going to be a dogfight the first few games because it’s not glorious sunshine, rock-hard wickets,” Winfield-Hill says. “It’s not a batter’s paradise just yet but I’m really excited.”It’s amazing to see how, with a proper winter under their belts, how much girls have improved, having never really had the opportunity to train much before.”Lauren Winfield-Hill hopes a good start with Northern Diamonds will lead to England selection•Getty ImagesFive Diamonds players – Hollie Armitage, Beth Langston, Linsey Smith, Phoebe Graham and Jenny Gunn – hold full-time professional contracts under the ECB’s new women’s domestic structure. A number of teams have reported positive knock-on effects whereby players not on full-time contracts are benefiting from working within a professional set-up.”No doubt about it, you’re looking to go one better than last year,” Winfield-Hill says. “We’ve got the talent in the group to be able to do it – you don’t get to the final by accident.”A lot of those competitions – you had the Super League, the Heyhoe Flint Trophy – it’s been dominated a lot by teams from the south and it’s just having the exposure of being in those big finals. The more you do that, the more you learn from those situations, one of these days you’ll get over the line in those big games.”

With a depleted squad, on a spinning pitch, they chased 395 with two debutants the heroes

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Feb-2021
Related

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• Phil Simmons: 'Have to make sure we don't go backwards again'

• West Indies heroes credit Clive Lloyd's 'inspirational' letter for Chattogram heist

• Soumya Sarkar replaces injured Shakib Al Hasan for second West Indies Test

• Mayers' knock brings father Shirley Clarke to tears

They were without six first-choice players
Ten West Indies cricketers opted not to travel to Bangladesh amid Covid-19 concerns, including their Test captain Jason Holder, and vice-captain Roston Chase. Shai Hope, Darren Bravo and Shamarh Brooks, all likely to have made the XI, also opted out of the tour, as did first-choice keeper Shane Dowrich, for personal reasons. Shimron Hetmyer, who could have made the Test team for the first time since 2019 as a replacement batsman, also missed out.They fielded three debutants
All the absentees meant West Indies had to field three debutants in the first Test in Bangladesh: Shayne Moseley, Nkrumah Bonner, and Kyle Mayers, who batted from No.3 to No.5. Their wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva was playing just his second Test. Kraigg Brathwaite took over from Holder as captain.West Indies had lost 0-2 on their previous tour to Bangladesh
Even with a full-strength side, West Indies would have been underdogs in Bangladesh, having lost both Tests there on their 2018 tour. They had a near full-strength squad for that series, but their batsmen struggled on the turning tracks, only once getting a total of more than 250.They had been swept in the ODI series of this tour
Those vulnerabilities against spin were apparent on this tour as well, as West Indies’ ODI batting line-up crumbled for scores of 122, 148 and 177 in the three-match series. They could not get to 300 in either innings of the tour match before the Tests, and when they were bowled out for 259 in the first innings of the first Test, it looked like it would be another long series for their batsmen.The heroes of the win were two debutants
Left 395 to chase on a fourth and fifth-day pitch, West Indies would have had most of their hopes pinned on their captain Brathwaite, and more experienced batsmen, John Campbell and Jermaine Blackwood. Instead, the two heroes were debutants – Mayers, who scored an incredible 210 not out, and Bonner, who got 86; the pair put together 216 for the fourth wicket. Mayers is 28 and Bonner 32 – both have been on the first-class scene for a while, and when finally given the opportunity, produced memorable knocks.

In the ECB’s new competition you are free to support who you want – even if it’s just your favourite player

Cameron Ponsonby27-Aug-2021During the early stages of the Hundred I got chatting to a Southern Brave fan named Shilly.Shilly was from Leicester but had no interest in her more local side, Birmingham Phoenix. So why Brave?”Jofra! I’m in love with Jofra.”And if Jofra Archer moved?”I would move with him.”This phenomenon of supporting an individual (and in this case an individual that didn’t even play in the tournament) as opposed to a team has been arriving steadily across sports over the last decade. But not in the UK. It’s been a very American thing, or Asian, or somewhere else. But not us.Here in England we thump our chest and pronounce that we will support our local team till the day we die. Cut me open and I bleed the blue-and-white hoops of Queens Park Rangers. Always have, always will. “We hate Chels…” you get the point. You Rsssssss!Related

• Hundred provides stage as county stalwarts seize chance

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But a new competition brings new opportunities.You can still support your local team if you want to, but you don’t have to. Those historical ties aren’t as strong and households aren’t going to be divided when a child walks cap in hand to their parents to announce they are now in fact a Trent Rockets fan and not a Birmingham Phoenix one.”Get out,” says dad, crying. “Get out. After everything Benny Howell has done for you and you come in here and say you’d rather support a team with Tom Moores in.”All this means that people can choose. And the way that people make that choice is different now to how it used to be. And it seems that the pull of a specific individual is far stronger than it ever has been.But why has this trend begun? And what does it mean from a business point of view for the Hundred in the future?You need only look at La Liga having lost Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to see the pitfalls of individual branding. La Liga was Ronaldo vs Messi. And now they’re both gone. Individuals leave, teams don’t.So is it something the ECB should be wary of, if the pull of an individual becomes greater than the competition itself?Simon Chadwick is a Professor of Eurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School in Lyon. He is recognised as a leading voice on commercial issues regarding elite sport and regularly contributes to CNN, Al Jazeera, and the .”It’s a really good question and it’s actually quite a profound question because I don’t think it’s necessarily associated with sport,” Chadwick says.Chadwick points to the late 19th century and early 20th century as being the general time that sports in the UK were being codified and subsequently professionalised. Teams and leagues were being created and fans began to associate themselves with particular sides.

“The place that you were born was normally where you died and in between times you went to school, you got a job and you engaged with the local sports team. Locality was a crucial part of your identity”Simon Chadwick

“But that took place at a time when, not just in Britain, but I think globally, we had a relatively static population,” he said.”So the place that you were born was normally the place that you died and in between times you went to school, you got a job and you engaged with the local sports team. And locality, that’s the crucial thing, locality was a crucial part of your identity – it was programmed into your DNA.”What’s happened since then is that the world has become both bigger and smaller. Smaller, in that advances in transport and technology means we can travel long distances to work and talk to people across the globe as if we were sat next to them. And bigger, in that those changes mean the world extends beyond the four walls of your hometown. You can move. And people, including Chadwick, do.”Demographically, we’ve got a more transient population,” he says. “So then, when people like me are moving around the world and having children, our children are not wedded to a particular geographic location. So their notion of nationality and ethnicity and locality I think are more fluid.”Meanwhile, at the same time as traditional notions of locality and geography and identity are starting to dissolve, new notions, such as celebrity and influence within the modern digital environment, are on the rise.”So I think when you add all of those things together, it means that now, younger age groups and, kind of Generation Z and Generation Alpha are identifying with individuals rather than teams of their geographic location,” Chadwick said. “And this is not just cricket, we see the same thing in football [Messi to PSG] and we see the same thing in basketball [LeBron James to LA Lakers].”Chadwick is keen to express that while the reasons for this happening are in fact quite profound – “What we are experiencing and what we’re commenting on is a reflection of the ideological context within which we live” – the answers to what it means, are entirely practical.In short, individuals can transcend boundaries. So if you can sell Jofra Archer in one market, you can sell him in two markets. And if you can sell him in two markets, you can sell him in three and so on.And this is where the commercial potential of an individual holds an advantage over that of a team anchored to a location.”Short-to-medium term [that’s] great,” Chadwick says. “Our fans are in Wales, our fans are in London, our fans are wherever else they might be. But medium-to-long term, that’s a relatively finite market. And that market will mature, and you’re not necessarily going to get people switching from one team to another or one player to another.”So it’s at that point you then start thinking medium-to-long term and thinking, okay, how do we engage audiences in India or audiences in Australia and it’s at that point I think where the notion of locality becomes a more problematic one.”Brave 4 life? Or just here for Jofra?•Harry Trump/Getty ImagesWhilst not a direct analogy, an example of this can be found in IPL teams purchasing majority stakes in Caribbean Premier League sides. Most recently, the owners of Rajasthan Royals bought a controlling stake in Barbados Tridents in a move that will see Barbados rebranded as Barbados Royals. Rather than needing to be from Rajasthan to support the Royals, you simply support the Royals. And if you support the Royals, you can now support the Barbados Royals too.The emphasis on locality has been diminished and in turn the opportunity to support the team year round, and also to build the brand, has increased.Overall, Chadwick emphasises the fact that all the research over the past 30 years has shown that individuals are important. It’s just that now we are elevating them higher than we ever have before.From a commercial standpoint, it is both lucrative and also dangerous if done incorrectly. For it to be the former and not the latter is to “embrace the notion of succession”. Have your stars and lift them up in front of the rest of the world, but also have an eye on who is coming through next. And if played correctly, you can then have the best of both worlds, the strength of loyalty through locality, and also the reach of the individual to grow the game across markets.”The cricket authorities can’t just leave consumers, leave fans, for their minds to work and for them to get used to it,” Chadwick said.”They have to continue to reassure older viewers that ‘hey, you know this is still cricket, this is still the cricket that you love’. But at the same time they’ve got to assure new consumers that they’re not going back to the old times and this is modern and vibrant and lively and exciting and it’s going to stay that way.”And that requires really, really good leadership and good management and it requires strategy. So I think there is something about that which is walking a fine line between history and heritage and contemporary relevance.”Balancing history and heritage with contemporary relevance. Welcome to the Hundred. You Rsssssss!The Hundred Rising is providing eight aspiring, young journalists the opportunity to tell the story of the Hundred men’s and women’s competitions through their own eyes

The most-read articles on ESPNcricinfo and the Cricket Monthly in 2021

31-Dec-2021Cricket Monthly

News

1. IPL retention rules: old teams can keep four players ahead of 2022 auction, three early picks for new teams2. R Ashwin: ‘I didn’t know the ball hit Rishabh, but I’d run even if I did’3. Virat Kohli: India were not ‘brave enough with bat or ball’ against New Zealand4. ‘I am not a racist’ – Quinton de Kock apologises, will take the knee5. Boult: ‘Hopefully I can mirror what Shaheen did to India the other night’6. Kohli backs Shami after social media abuse: ‘Attacking someone over religion is the most pathetic thing’7. IPL 2021 postponed as Covid-19 count increases8. Crowd trouble mars Pakistan-Afghanistan clash as ‘thousands’ of ticketless fans attempt to force entry9. IPL 2021 auction: The list of sold and unsold players10. FAQ: All you wanted to know about the T20 World Cup 2021Shaheen Shah Afridi produced some of the best spells of the year – and inspired some of the best writing•Getty Images

Features

1. Avesh Khan wants to be a bowler who can produce what his captain wants
By Nagraj Gollapudi2. The only T20 World Cup preview you need to read
By Andrew Fidel Fernando3. Which team has won the most matches in men’s T20 World Cups?
By Gaurav Sundararaman and Sreshth Shah4. ‘I was wasted, but in a good way’ – Why Moeen Ali felt it was time to retire from Test cricket
By George Dobell5. Are you a T20 opener facing Shaheen Afridi? Be afraid, be very afraid
By Osman Samiuddin6. Lessons from the IPL – how will the UAE pitches play out at the T20 World Cup?
By Gaurav Sundararaman7. ECB’s hypocrisy and double-standards could fast lose them friends
By George Dobell8. Chris Jordan: ‘I try to judge myself on execution, whether I go for a boundary or take a wicket’
By Matt Roller9. Who is Venkatesh Iyer, KKR’s latest debutant?
By Shashank Kishore10. Calling it like Kohli: When India needed their captain to stand up, he stood tall
By Sidharth MongaR Ashwin took no prisoners in his interview with the Cricket Monthly•AFP via Getty Images

The Cricket Monthly

1. R Ashwin: ‘I’ve always been good at assessing batsmen, but now I think I’ve taken it to another level’
By Sidharth Monga2. India’s 2011 World Cup win: ‘I wanted to hug him and hit him at the same time till he confirmed we’d won the World Cup’
By Hemant Brar3. How did India build their world-beating bench strength? They have a system
By Sidharth Monga4. Ten ways T20 has changed since the last World Cup
By Sidharth Monga, Shiva Jayaraman and Girish TS5. Pat Cummins: ‘Once we knew Virat was going to miss the last three Tests, Pujara was the big wicket for me’
By Daniel Brettig6. Hardik Pandya: ‘When I am on the ground, I believe nothing’s impossible. I don’t feel fear’

By Nagraj Gollapudi7. India. Australia. Chennai. 2001
By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan8. Remember the game: the last six balls of the 2016 T20 World Cup relived
By Siddhartha Vaidyanathan9. This is us: New Zealand’s climb to the top
By Andrew Fidel Fernando10. Rashid Khan: ‘You can get form back, but once you lose respect, it’s hard to get that back’
By Nagraj GollapudiMore in our look back at 2021

The first half has seen a batting bounty unlike any in six previous seasons but it is all likely to change with the tournament now moving to Lahore

Osman Samiuddin and Shiva Jayaraman10-Feb-2022The PSL has prided itself on being a bowler’s league – in as much as any T20 league can delude itself into thinking it is a bowler’s league. But it has often looked sniffily at other leagues where fours and sixes have been the currency. Playing out its early years in the UAE, meant it had little choice: slower pitches and bigger boundaries do not a boundary-hitting bonanza make.So the left-arm fast bowler that is the league’s logo has always felt spiritually apt; sure, in the mind at a PSL game, at the crease is poised Babar Azam. But really the league is about the guy running in at him, whether that is Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Naseem Shah or even an old-stager like Wahab Riaz (11 of the PSL’s top 15 wicket-takers are pacers).Until, that is, this season (or more accurately, this half-season).The Karachi leg of PSL 7 has seen a batting bounty unlike any in its six previous seasons: more boundaries, more sixes, higher-scoring, faster-scoring. Only halfway through the season and already there are more 200+ scores (7) than the entire last two seasons combined (6). This half-season contributes nearly a third of all the 200+ scores ever in the league; there have been two more 200+ totals this season than the first three seasons combined.Unsurprisingly, this season has been zipping along with the highest batting strike rate in PSL history – a good five runs per 100 balls more than the second-best season.

Visitors’ top four’s numbers so far in 2022 read 13 ducks with only six fifty-plus scores, and a collective average of 21.65

Mohammad Isam17-Jun-2022Shakib Al Hasan hasn’t looked this helpless for a long time. Shortly after Kyle Mayers delivered a double-wicket maiden to gut the Bangladesh middle order, there was nothing left for the new captain to do. He hadn’t faced a single ball while his team had crashed to 45 for 6 one hour into the match.If their 2018 visit to Antigua and their 2022 batting form is anything to go by, then the fate of the innings, the Test and the series was all but decided in the first hour.Within minutes of assessing the depth of Bangladesh’s collapse, Shakib proceeded to slog, hack and chance his arm for the remaining hour-and-a-half. It was definitely ugly. It was not first-day Test-match batting by any stretch of the imagination. But what could he do, really? Shakib’s 51 off 67 balls at least got Bangladesh to three-figures.Unless the bowlers put together a miraculous comeback on the second day, West Indies are already on top of this contest. Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales gave them a strong start, before Mayers and Alzarri Joseph rammed home the advantage with tight lines and subtle movement. Bangladesh were bowled out for 103.Mind you, Seales, Joseph, Mayers and Nkrumah Bonner, who took two catches at slip, had only just arrived in Antigua from Multan where they played an ODI series against Pakistan. Modern cricketers are used to jetlag, but they’re still human beings. And human beings can’t just rock up to a Test match after flying halfway across the world and not feel some aftereffects.Bangladesh had an opportunity to exploit that. Instead, they succumbed to their demons. Fresh off a home Test defeat in which their batters scored six ducks in the first innings, they proceeded to get exactly as many on the first day in Antigua too.Young opener Mahmudul Hasan Joy continued to blow hot and cold as he got out for without scoring for the fifth time in seven Tests. He has also made 78 in New Zealand and 137 in South Africa, but poking at everything outside off stump is fast becoming a (bad) habit. At No. 3, Najmul Hossain Shanto’s ‘talented’ tag is wearing thin. He is considered Bangladesh’s future, but just one half-century in his last 17 Test innings is testing this idea heavily.ESPNcricinfo LtdMominul Haque, in his first innings after resigning from Test captaincy, was again behind the eight ball. He is going through a bad patch, which every player does. But being rushed against fast bowling doesn’t look good for someone who, just a year ago, had seemed so at ease in Test cricket.The Bangladesh top four’s numbers in the first six months of 2022 don’t make good reading: 13 ducks with only six fifty-plus scores, and a collective average of 21.65. Much of it is due to the poor form of Mominul and Shanto.Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudul, Shanto and Mominul were all gone by the 14th over in Antigua. Without Mushfiqur Rahim and his understudy Yasir Ali, this was self-defeating to say the least. When Mayers removed the in-form Litton Das and Nurul Hasan in the same over, it wasn’t just two meaty blows to the visitors’ batting line-up. It was the end of the match as a contest.Litton didn’t show a semblance of patience, which was a surprise given his impressive form this year. Nurul, whose domestic form demanded a return to both the red- and white-ball teams, was lbw while leaving the ball.All this left Shakib having to swing at everything. He managed to get set despite trying to slog half the balls in an over, and trying to farm the strike in the other three. When he was set, he started to pick gaps by going over the fielders. Shakib didn’t even have the time or space to bat properly.Bangladesh’s tail-enders were never in with a chance. And it is a proper tail after Mehidy Hasan Miraz gets out, especially when they don’t pick Taijul Islam. Russell Domingo, Jamie Siddons and Khaled Mahmud have their work cut out managing not just the top order, but also in giving the tail some confidence.The BCB have ensured ample training camps for the South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies series, but no amount of training or motivation seem to be working for the Bangladesh batters. West Indies applied the same, simple formula that South Africa and Sri Lanka did in the preceding few months. They waited for the Bangladesh batters’ mistakes, and those came thick and fast.Perhaps it really was best that none of this was shown on TV back home.

“Forty-five would be a target which I would want to achieve,” he says after putting Mumbai in the driver’s seat

Himanshu Agrawal08-Jun-2022You could argue that Shams Mulani would have the fielders to thank for two of his five wickets against Uttarakhand on the third day’s play in Alur. But in fact, only one would ideally fall into that category.Bowling from around the wicket to left-hand opener Kamal Singh, he bowled full and just outside off, inviting the slog sweep from the batter. Kamal found Tushar Deshpande at deep midwicket, who took a sharp, low catch despite losing balance while falling forward. That was Mulani’s first wicket of the day.His third came when Prithvi Shaw dived full stretch to his right at first slip, and snaffled Dikshanshu Negi one handed in a remarkable effort. Again, it would be Shaw who would rather be lauded.But Mulani still deserves credit. Starting the day around the wicket to both right- and left-hand batters, he soon switched to an over-the-wicket angle when he saw nothing was working from around. Of course he had Kamal caught from around, but that was actually down to Deshpande’s catch.There was some rough outside the right-hand batter’s leg stump, which Mulani’s angle from over the wicket could exploit. Rough would mean extra bounce despite this being a black-soil pitch where, as Mulani points out, the ball doesn’t get up as much as it does on red-soil ones.That is exactly where he landed the ball for Negi, who went for a flick to a tossed-up ball on leg stump, but ended up getting a leading edge to Shaw at slip. So an accurate Mulani pitching it in the right area was as much responsible for the wicket as was Shaw.And that is also how he dismissed Shivam Khurana, who became his fifth wicket of the day. Coming from over the stumps with a slip and a leg slip stationed, he landed one in the rough outside the right-hand batter’s leg stump again. Khurana went for a half-hearted sweep, as the extra bounce did him in, with the ball taking the higher side of the bat to leg slip.Mulani had conceded 23 off his first 32 balls, including two sixes and a four, but eventually finished with 5 for 39 off 12 overs. And apart from the rough, there were some cracks on the pitch too, which he had spotted, knowing well enough that they would provide some turn for him.Mulani needed to execute, and he did that almost perfectly.File photo: Shams Mulani (third from right) has five five-wicket hauls in four Ranji Trophy games so far•PTI In all of his wickets other than Kamal’s, there was loop, dip and turn; or at least two of them. When he had Swapnil Singh caught by Shaw at first slip, he gave the ball good flight on a full length outside off, as the ball took the outside edge while almost dying on to the batter; that, he said, was his favourite for the day.And when Mulani cleaned up Agrim Tiwari, he fired one pretty full and once again bang on the rough on leg stump, as the tailender swung but missed, with the ball turning away to instead hit off stump.That was the craft Mulani displayed on a two-day old pitch which suddenly seemed dead and unresponsive the moment Mumbai came out to bat in the second innings, as well as when they batted in the first. In Mumbai’s second innings, Uttarakhand’s left-arm spinners Mayank Mishra and Swapnil bowled a combined 34 overs, tallying 1 for 131 at nearly four runs an over.And before Wednesday, Mulani brought with him a bagful of wickets from this Ranji season already. Before the tournament was split by the IPL, he had already pocketed four five-wicket hauls; twice in three matches, he had grabbed a ten-for. With 29 wickets, he easily sat atop the wicket-taking charts.That lead was pushed further with five more against Uttarakhand, but he rates his performance of 6 for 107 and 5 for 60 against Goa as the one he most enjoyed among them all. Mumbai won on the final day, as Mulani also hit 50 in the second innings.”We had to bundle them out in 60-odd overs. That was the best [among all five-fors this season],” he recalls.With a first-innings lead already obtained and with Mumbai a mammoth 794 ahead after day three in Alur, they are almost certain of a semi-final spot. And despite 34 wickets in the Ranji Trophy thus far this season, Mulani is not done yet.”Forty-five would be a target which I would want to achieve,” he says.Not to forget, 34 is the number for just Ranji. Mulani also won the Col CK Nayudu Under-25 tournament with Mumbai, where he picked 32 wickets – including five five-wicket hauls, and three ten-wicket match hauls – and he remembers the count too, like it were all yesterday.In April 2021, Mulani was called up by Delhi Capitals as a short-term Covid-19 replacement for Axar Patel. He didn’t get a chance then, and hasn’t played in the IPL since.But if this form and such application continues, Mulani might soon be in demand beyond Mumbai’s domestic circles.