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The pair help post Heat’s record score before bowlers combine to silence Hurricanes

Sreshth Shah03-Jan-2020Having begun the new year by being skittled out for 109, Brisbane Heat roared back to beat Hobart Hurricanes by 31 runs at the Bellerive Oval to make an upward move on the BBL points table.Heat captain Chris Lynn top scored with 88 while Max Bryant smashed 65 to help Heat post 212, their highest BBL total of all time. After that, each of their bowlers got among the wickets to comfortably win. Six Hurricanes batsmen reached their twenties, but none of them went past it, and that was the major difference between the two sides in the end.Chris Lynn kept up his good run, hitting 88 not out in 55 balls•Getty Images

Bryant’s fireworksRiley Meredith removed Tom Banton in the second over to bring Bryant and Lynn together, and he set the tone by hitting three fours in his first five balls. James Faulkner bore the brunt of Lynn’s assault in the third over, and pulled a calf muscle in the process, bowling no further overs in the game.With Lynn finding his feet, Bryant began playing aggressively too, taking on legspinner Qais Ahmad for two fours. When left-arm spinner Clive Ross was introduced, the batsmen creamed 15 off the sixth over to end the Powerplay on 1 for 60.Lynn temporarily took a back seat to allow his young partner hog maximum strike. Bryant was particularly strong on the leg side, pulling and hooking short balls to the midwicket fence. In the 10th over, Bryant cut Meredith for four to reach his first BBL fifty of the season, and followed it up with another four to lift Heat to 1 for 100 after 10 overs.In the 11th over, Bryant fell to the left-arm wristspin of D’Arcy Short trying to clear cover. His attempted slap off a googly found the fielder on the 30-yard circle.Lynn consolidates, but doesn’t get the hundredWhen Bryant fell, Lynn was being starved of strike. In the seven overs before Bryant’s dismissal, Lynn had faced just the 12 deliveries, so when No. 4 Matt Renshaw walked in, it was Lynn who decided to change gears.He struck Qais for a six and four in the 12th, then earned his 18th BBL fifty two overs later. But he left the big shots for the 18th over, when he struck Nathan Ellis for two fours and a six to move into his eighties.But once again – like it was with Bryant – Lynn could not find the strike at the death. Not that it was a particularly bad thing. In the last two overs, No. 5 Ben Cutting clattered 18 off eight balls while before him, Renshaw played a nifty 17-ball 30 to help Heat finish on their highest BBL score.Max Bryant set the Heat innings up with a blazing 36-ball 65•Getty Images

Hurricanes begin with resolveIn the past, the Hurricanes’ two highest BBL chases have come against Heat, so 213 was not a total that the home side was deterred by. Openers Short and Caleb Jewell played their shots in the early exchange, the latter being more adventurous with his paddles and sweeps. After three overs, Hurricanes were 0 for 25, so Lynn introduced left-arm spinner Zahir Khan to stem the run flow. But that ploy didn’t work either as he was taken for 15 runs in his opening over.Jewell, however, perished in the fifth over, caught behind by Mark Steketee, but the incoming batsman Ben McDermott did not slow proceedings down. Although troubled at the start by Zahir’s spin, McDermott took on fast bowler Steketee for back-to-back sixes and then clobbered the spinner for a reverse-sweeped four as well. It seemed Hurricanes were preparing for the big assault.Bowlers apply the chokeFor Hurricanes to make a chase of the game, they needed to keep wickets in hand entering the final 10 overs. However, that didn’t happen as they lost both the set McDermott and Short in the 10th and 11th over respectively.David Miller and George Bailey restarted Hurricanes’ rebuild after that, but with substantial number of overs from the accurate Ben Laughlin and Zahir still to go, the chase did not have the grandstand finish it was set up for.The Hurricanes began to lose wickets at regular intervals, with each of their bowlers earning a scalp, and despite a late charge with the bat from Clive Rose – who struck an entertaining 13-ball 27 – it was all too much for the Hurricanes batsmen on the night.

Limited DRS, with a virtual pitch map and slow-motion cameras, will be used in the semi-finals and final

Varun Shetty26-Feb-2020The BCCI’s decision to introduce limited DRS in the semi-finals and final of the Ranji Trophy 2019-20 has been welcomed by the players, with Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat agreeing that the technology would help in restricting the “howlers” in the crunch games.It is the first time that DRS is going be in use in India’s domestic circuit, but there will be no HawkEye, Snickometer or UltraEdge. The tools that will be used are a virtual pitch map (for lbw decisions) and slow-motion cameras, with each team getting four reviews per innings.”It will be beneficial for sure because there won’t be the umpiring howlers that sometimes happen,” Unadkat told ESPNcricinfo.However, the Saurashtra seamer wasn’t entirely certain how the limited version of the DRS would work and was waiting to hear more about it from the match officials before the semi-final against Gujarat later this week in Rajkot. “But it is not the DRS used in the international cricket. So I am slightly doubtful that even this [limited DRS] can go wrong. I am just afraid what if this doesn’t prove to be worthy enough for the decisions to be accurate. Having said that, it is still a beneficial first step.”Unadkat also pointed out that umpiring standards in domestic cricket have been improving. “The umpiring quality has sure-shot improved,” he said. “The BCCI has been ranking the umpires and the best umpires are standing in the top groups. This year I felt the best umpires were standing in the Elite Group matches.”Unadkat pointed out that the on-field decision-making was not below par even last season. According to him, the controversial decisions during the quarter-final between Karnataka and Saurashtra had “hyped” the issue and put umpires in a bad light. “It wasn’t that it was really, really poor last year. Just because of the couple of incidents, and because it happened against a team like Karnataka and it got hyped it so much, that is why the umpiring got highlighted.Abhimanyu Easwaran celebrates a century•Abhimanyu Easwaran

“So the umpiring standards were not horrible last year. It was improving even then and has been the case even this season.”Bengal captain Abhimanyu Easwaran also backed the decision. “I think it’s a very good thing to have DRS in domestic cricket as well, especially in knockout games, and semi-finals and final, even though there’s not that much technology,” Easwaran said as his team got ready to face Karnataka in the other semi-final at Eden Gardens. “The umpires can make errors at times. A human can make an error, but to rectify it, you have the technology and that will probably change the game for a team and that can probably be a deciding thing at a crucial point of the game.”So I think it’s really good to have it, and hopefully, it can help players get crucial runs or crucial wickets and change the game for their teams.”Abhimanyu, like most of his team-mates and a lot of others in the domestic circuit, has never played in a match that has had DRS in operation. The Karnataka camp will have KL Rahul and Manish Pandey, at the very least, who will be familiar with the system through their time in international cricket. But Abhimanyu was confident that the lack of experience wouldn’t be too much of a barrier to overcome.”It’s a new thing, but I think guys have seen enough cricket on television, so we know a bit of how it works,” he said. “In the pre-match meeting with the umpires and the referee, there is going to be an explanation about how it works and what are the technologies available and things like that. So we’ll have a fair idea of it the day before the game.”And obviously, we’ll talk about it to our teams as well, so they have a fair idea of how it’s working. We’ve been also given papers to read how it works, and the guys have seen on TV, how to take a review, and things like that.”

Sarah Glenn and Sophie Ecclestone share five wickets as England take step towards knockouts

The Report by Matt Roller28-Feb-2020England took a stride towards qualification from Group B of the Women’s T20 World Cup by thrashing Pakistan in Canberra.After surprisingly being inserted by Pakistan’s skipper Bismah Maroof, England overcame an early stutter thanks primarily to captain Heather Knight, who continued her fine form in this tournament and at Manuka Oval with a fluent, 47-ball 62, with Nat Sciver and Fran Wilson keeping things ticking over.Pakistan were slipshod in the field, dropping several chances, and struggled to get going in reply, with Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt providing early breakthroughs before young spinners Sarah Glenn and Sophie Ecclestone strangled the chase in the middle overs.Defeat leaves Pakistan needing to win their last two group games to stand a realistic chance of qualification, while England know that victory against West Indies in their final fixture should be enough for them to get through.England’s opening muddleDanni Wyatt and Amy Jones are under pressure at the top of the order, having made a combined 25 runs against South Africa and then both registering ducks against Thailand on Wednesday.Both players were successful in the series between these teams in Malaysia at the end of last year, with Jones finishing as top run-scorer with 179 in three games, but they failed to rekindle that form in Canberra. Jones fell in the game’s first over, trapped on the pad as Diana Baig found a hint of seam movement with the new ball, and a review confirmed that the ball would have clipped the bails.Wyatt, meanwhile, enjoyed an early reprieve, spooning a chance up to Baig at point, who lost the ball in the low sun, but there was no mistake when she offered a similar opportunity to Muneeba Ali in that position at the start of the sixth over. While England’s long batting line-up has bailed them out in their last two games, the openers’ struggles will be a cause for concern.Knight’s Canberra love affairKnight’s imperious hundred against Thailand on this ground made her the first English player – male or female – to score make a century in all three formats, and continued her incredible streak with the bat on this ground. Coming into this game, she had 304 runs in her last four T20I innings at Manuka Oval, and that run continued against Pakistan.Coming in at the end of the powerplay, Knight regularly found the boundary, using her feet well and adapting better than any batter on either side to a slow, used surface. She dumped Nida Dar – playing her 100th T20I – over long-on for England’s only six of the innings, and while she holed out at the end of the 19th looking to repeat the trick, the damage had been done.Pakistan were left to rue their poor performance in the outfield: Umaima Sohail had a straightforward chance underneath a high ball from Knight on 32, but it bursts through her hands for a one-bounce four after she misjudged the distance on it, striding in off the rope before backpedalling.Stunning SidraWhile Pakistan outfielding left plenty to be desire, their wicketkeeper Sidra Nawaz was superb behind the stumps.At the start of the 12th over, she pulled off perhaps the stumping of the tournament, as Aliya Riaz strayed down the leg side to Sciver. Standing up to the medium-pacer, and mis-sighted as Sciver looked to whip into the leg side, Nawaz took the ball brilliantly down the leg side, held the ball momentarily as Sciver weight-transfer forward took her back leg out of the crease, and whipped off the bails to complete the dismissal.There was more sharp work in the final over, as her quick hands accounted for Katherine Brunt dancing down the pitch, and despite dropping a tricky chance off Fran Wilson, Nawaz’s performance behind the stumps stood out, in particular her ability to prevent England from using their feet against medium pace by standing up to the seamers.Spinners starEngland derailed Pakistan’s run chase early on with Shrubsole and Brunt both striking in the powerplay, but it was their spinners who turned a strong position into a dominant one. Operating primarily through the middle overs, Ecclestone and Glenn turned the screw, offering very little width as they targeted the stumps.Glenn got the key wicket of Javeria Khan with her third ball, responding to an inside-out cover drive by holding her nerve with a similarly straight one, which the batter played all around.The pair then turned the screw in the middle, keeping things simple with tight stump-to-stump plans, and finished with a combined 5 for 27 across their eight overs. Not bad, for a pair of 20-year-olds.Shrubsole’s landmarkWhile the game was dead as a contest by the time Shrubsole returned for her final over in the 19th, but there was still plenty to play for in terms of personal milestones.A back-of-a-length slower ball off her penultimate ball left the seamer a wicket away from the 100-wicket milestone in T20Is, and when she induced a tame chip back down the pitch from Baig, Shrubsole clung onto the chance to become only the third woman to reach the landmark, following West Indies’ Anisa Mohammed and Australian Ellyse Perry.

Officials ‘heartened’ by UK Government guidance allowing for return to competition from June 1

ESPNcricinfo staff31-May-2020The ECB has welcomed the UK Government’s go-ahead for the return of professional sport behind closed doors as it presses ahead with plans to host international cricket this summer, and stage a domestic season.In a further easing of lockdown restrictions imposed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden announced government health and safety guidance on Saturday for elite athletes and professional sportspeople to return to competition in the absence of spectators from June 1. He added that it was up to individual sports to confirm they could meet the safety protocols and therefore when to resume.The ECB, who are hoping to host a condensed international schedule at so-called ‘bio-secure’ venues, starting with a three-Test series against West Indies in July, issued a statement on Sunday saying they were “heartened” by the news. The ECB will study the guidelines to determine how they will help the sport emerge from lockdown, but it clearly saw hope for the resumption of domestic and recreational cricket.ALSO READ: ECB backs Covid-19 substitutes as plans for return ramp up“We are extremely heartened by Saturday’s announcement from the Secretary of State, which will support the return of professional, domestic cricket behind closed doors, and provides a meaningful next step for recreational players to begin playing at their clubs again,” the ECB statement said.”Over the coming week, we will seek to understand the specific guidance from Government’s medical teams so that we can provide support for cricket clubs who will be eager to see their communities safely playing in small groups. We extend our thanks to all those in Government who have worked hard to support the return of sport and we look forward to seeing players from across the game start returning to the field.”The ECB has been working on plans to hold televised international matches at two grounds – understood to be Emirates Old Trafford and the Ageas Bowl – with another base to allow a third team to train – likely to be Edgbaston. Each of the venues will be configured to encourage social distancing, along with the use of different zones to separate groups such as players and match officials from those not staying on site.England last week named a 55-man training group to prepare for the series against West Indies as well as planned visits from Pakistan, Australia and Ireland.Cricket West Indies has agreed to the scheduled tour of England in principle and is awaiting approvals from the various national governments in the Caribbean for player and staff movement on charterd planes. The Test series, part of the World Test Championship, was originally supposed to start on June 4 but was postponed when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.The ECB last week announced that no professional domestic cricket would be played in England or Wales until at least August 1, while recreational cricket would remain suspended until further notice, with the exception of using outdoor cricket nets and pitches for exercise under the government’s social distancing guidelines. It is investigating options for playing a domestic season possibly starting in August, including a County Championship split into regions and a T20 Blast competition.

England allrounder set to step in as Test captain with Root expecting birth of second child

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jun-2020Ben Stokes has described himself as ready to be the “the Scottie Pippen to Joe Root’s Michael Jordan” if he is required to deputise as England’s Test captain against West Indies.Root’s wife is expecting their second child in July, and he could miss part of the three-match series in order to attend the birth and due to the bio-security protocols put in place to deal with Covid-19. Despite concerns being expressed about the extra workload on Stokes, England’s key allrounder, he said that it was part of his job as vice-captain to step up if required.Referencing basketball great Jordan, whose Chicago Bulls team of the late 1990s was the subject of recent ESPN documentary , and team-mate Pippen, Stokes said he would be aiming to lead England after the example set by Root.”There is a chance our skipper Joe Root may miss a Test this summer because he and his wife are expecting their second child,” Stokes wrote in his column. “I’m the Scottie Pippen to Joe’s Michael Jordan. It is his team. But what would be the point of asking me to do the job if not for this kind of situation?”I understand where Joe is taking the team and how he wants to lead it. So although I’ll make my own calls on the field and do the job as I see it as the game evolves, everything else will very much be the same as when Joe is there.”ALSO READ: Stokes would make a ‘fantastic’ captain – RootThe first Test of the English summer is now scheduled to begin on July 8, with West Indies arriving earlier this week in order to begin their preparations in Manchester. There has been major uncertainty about what cricket the ECB would be able to stage, due to the coronavirus outbreak, and Stokes admitted that maintaining motivation during lockdown had been mentally challenging.”I’ve loved the time at home with the family, of course I have, and that will be the thing I remember fondly about this period,” he said. “But I’m glad there is a Test series to get ready for and I’m so pleased the West Indies have made it over here. Even though I’ve been training hard physically and kept in good shape, lockdown hasn’t been plain sailing. Throughout this full 13 weeks I’ve gone through lots of emotions – some good, some not so good.”My motivation has gone up and down and there have been times when it has been really hard to even think about playing. I’ve had periods where I’ve gone for days without doing a thing because I’ve thought, ‘What’s the point?’ As an athlete you are so used to getting yourself ready for the next thing.”Testing yourself, competing against team-mates and opponents, improving yourself and striving to get better, but when there is nothing lined up ahead of you as was the case, then you need to find motivation somewhere else and that isn’t always easy.”England’s players have been back in training for a few weeks – initially on their own and now in small groups – and will convene at the Ageas Bowl, venue for the first Test, towards the end of June. After so much time without cricket, Stokes said he had initially felt rusty facing Durham team-mate Mark Wood in the nets, but was working towards peaking in days before returning to Test action for the first time since January.”I know that cricket is nearly there and I cannot wait to get back out there and have the first – possibly socially distanced – huddle on the field when it is just the 11 of you going into the game together.”Getting properly Test match-ready is going to take a bit of time and that is what our camp at the Ageas Bowl will be for. But I don’t want to be good to go when I rock up there. I want to have a few things still to work on to get up to full speed. I have learnt from experience that the time to peak is a day or two before a Test match, not three weeks out.”

Bowler follows twin Craig’s five-for with his own in what could prove farewell before Surrey move

ECB Reporters Network04-Aug-2020Somerset 296 (Davies 81, Brooks 72) and 290 for 8 dec (Abell 119, Green 54) beat Glamorgan 131 (C Overton 5-38) and 166 (Cooke 82, J Overton 4-48) by 289 runsSurrey-bound Jamie Overton marked what could prove his farewell appearance for Somerset with 5 for 48 to complete a 289-run Bob Willis Trophy victory over Glamorgan at the Cooper Associates County Ground Bristol.Brother Craig finished with 2 for 31 and match figures of 7 for 69 as the visitors’ five remaining wickets fell for 40 runs in 70 minutes on the final morning after they had resumed on 126 for 5, 329 runs behind.Chris Cooke’s battling innings took him from 67 not out overnight to 82 before Jamie Overton had the Glamorgan captain caught at first slip by James Hildreth, having faced 138 balls and hit 10 fours.It was too little too late to save his side from a comprehensive defeat in a game they had bossed for the first two sessions. Somerset took 21 points to Glamorgan’s three.Overcast conditions and a pitch that was still responsive to quality pace bowling conspired against the visitors as the Overton twins set about finishing their opponents off.The first wicket fell after 15 minutes when Graham Wagg chased a short, wide ball from Jamie Overton and edged a catch to wicketkeeper Steve Davies. What little hope Glamorgan had left disappeared when the same bowler, operating from the River End, produced a fine delivery to end Cooke’s stubborn resistance.At 153 for 7, Ruaidhri Smith walked out with a runner for the second time in the game, determined to contribute despite the hamstring injury he suffered while bowling in Somerset’s first innings. But he could manage only three before getting a leading edge to Josh Davey, who had replaced Craig Overton, and lobbing a simple catch to Roelof van der Merwe at mid-wicket.Jamie Overton, whose decision to reject a new Somerset contract and sign for Surrey was announced before the game, produced some jaffas in a hugely impressive spell of 7.2 overs, which yielded 3 for 16. He claimed his fifth wicket of the innings with a perfect swinging yorker, which defeated Kieran Bull’s attempt to clamp down on the ball and sent his off stump flying.Overton’s celebrations suggested he had been determined to sign off his Somerset career in style before moving to the Kia Oval, and it was job done in that respect. He even had a hand, literally, is finishing the match, diving to his left to hold a slip chance offered by Michael Hogan off Jack Brooks.

England captain praises ECB response after latest allegations of racism at Yorkshire

Andrew Miller03-Sep-2020Eoin Morgan has backed the ECB’s efforts to foster a more inclusive culture in English cricket, but admits that stories such as Azeem Rafiq’s claims of institutional racism at Yorkshire demonstrate how much further the sport has to go to truly embrace equal opportunities.Speaking on the eve of the first T20I against Australia, Morgan – who was born in Dublin and played for Ireland for three years before qualifying for England in 2009 – said that the diversity of England’s World Cup-winning squad had not only showed the value of embracing different cultures but, in his opinion, it offered a fairer reflection of the current status of English cricket.”When I hear these stories I’m surprised to start with,” Morgan said. “But also, in light of these stories coming out, the ECB have been active in trying to rectify and become more diverse and create equal opportunity for everybody.”I think given the squad of players we have and the guys of different cultures, backgrounds, different races, I think the diverse nature of it really does epitomise where English cricket is at.”In addition to Morgan, England’s current squad includes three players of Pakistani origin in Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and the stand-by Saqib Mahmood; two who were born in Barbados in Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan, and three of southern African background in Dawid Malan and the Curran brothers.And speaking immediately after the World Cup victory last July, Morgan had responded to an enquiry about the “luck of the Irish” in the closing stages of that remarkable contest by saying, semi-seriously, that Rashid had told him that “Allah is with us”.”It actually epitomises our team,” Morgan said at the time. “With quite diverse cultures and backgrounds, and guys growing up in different countries. To find humour in the situation that we were in at the time was pretty cool.”That diversity, he added, had been reflected in the ethnic mix of the fans that England encountered on their World Cup travels, as they played their fixtures in each of the tournament’s major venues and found support from a range of different backgrounds.Players and match officials take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign•Getty Images

“I think travelling around during last year’s World Cup and going to 10 different grounds up and down the country and watching the supporters flood in of all different races, all following England was great,” he said.”It made us all feel extremely proud. One of the noted things we talked about when we watched back the World Cup final and the camera pans to the crowd – people in England shirts are not all white. They are of different races and for us, as a team, I think that’s quite a thing we can be proud of.”Nevertheless, Rafiq’s comments – which drew a promise of an official inquiry from Yorkshire – include claims that senior players, including one of his club captains, had been “openly racist”. They follow a similarly explosive testimony from Michael Carberry, the former England opener, whose claims that “black people are not important to the ECB” forced the board to embrace some “uncomfortable truths”, according to the chief executive, Tom Harrison.In a subsequent statement, the ECB said that they were “deeply troubled” by Rafiq’s experiences, and reiterated the board’s commitment to “making the changes needed to make cricket a game for everyone”. Harrison is understood to be taking a personal involvement in his case.”Azeem’s story is similar to some of the experiences we have heard about during the Black Lives Matter movement and demonstrates how much work is needed across the game, sport and society as a whole to eradicate racism,” said the ECB.Morgan also recognised that more needed to be done to ensure that such situations get dealt with more proactively when they first arise, but reflected on the England team’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement as proof that they were making a effort to keep the issue visible. Players on both sides during the Tests against West Indies and the ODIs against Ireland took a knee in support of the movement, although this was not done during the Pakistan series and will not be repeated against Australia.ALSO READ: Yorkshire promise independent review into Azeem Rafiq allegations“I think our display throughout the Ireland series [showed] our ambition to try and create more sustainable awareness around our fight against racism and the creation of equal opportunities and equality in sport,” Morgan said. “It’s important to drive that forward because it shouldn’t exist in society. When people talk about it they should feel comfortable coming out to talk about it – we want everybody to know that.”An area where we can get better is telling people our story more, getting comfortable talking about growing up in a different country or growing up in a different environment within this country, and our journey to where we are today,” he added.”There’s not one player that’s had an easy ride throughout this. It’s very difficult to get into an England cricket changing-room or an England cricket shirt. But even more so by coming from a diverse background, it creates different challenges.”

Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi’s late attack not enough for KKR

Karthik Krishnaswamy03-Oct-20204:35

Did Karthik get KKR’s batting order badly wrong?

For the third time in as many matches in Sharjah this season, both teams hit the 200 mark. The Delhi Capitals posted the highest total of the tournament so far, courtesy their hugely impressive trio of young Indian batsmen: Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. The total didn’t seem entirely safe at the innings break, considering the hitting might of the Kolkata Knight Riders. And even when it did look safe, with the Knight Riders needing 135 from 61 balls with their most dangerous hitter, Andre Russell, back in the dressing room, it wasn’t.Oh no, by no means was it safe. It came down to 78 from 24 balls – with only four wickets in hand – but as has been the case so often this season, especially on this ground, there’s always a downpour of sixes to come. From somewhere.Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi walloped 47 runs from overs 17 and 18, and suddenly the chase was blown wide open. But luck and the skill of Anrich Nortje swung the game back the Capitals’ way. Only five runs came off the 19th over, which also brought the wicket of Morgan, leaving the Knight Riders far too much to do in the 20th, even though they knew it would be bowled by one of the Capitals’ weaker bowlers. Needing 26 off six balls from Marcus Stoinis, they simply didn’t have enough batting left in the tank.Strategies for six-hittingBoth teams made selections that reflected the unique challenge of playing in Sharjah. The Knight Riders left out the flighty wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav and played Tripathi to give themselves depth and more leeway to go hard with the bat. The Capitals brought back R Ashwin, who had recovered after dislocating his shoulder in their season-opener, and left out the left-arm spinner Axar Patel – with three left-handers in the Knight Riders top six – and also subbed out Ishant Sharma, a powerplay specialist with the ball, for Harshal Patel, a slower-ball merchant who can hit the long ball.Quick off the blocksSent in, the Capitals raced to 57 in their Powerplay, losing only Shikhar Dhawan for 26 off 16. It was already evident that the bowlers in this game were simply around for damage limitation, with almost no margin for error: Shaw hung back to pull and cut marginally short balls through and over the infield, and Dhawan plonked forward and slog-swept Sunil Narine for back-to-back sixes. The wicket came in the sixth over, Dhawan miscuing a sweep off the mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy.Shreyas Iyer hammers one down the ground•BCCI

Iyer, Pant join in the funThe contours of this game were evident when Andre Russell bowled the seventh and ninth overs of the Capitals innings as if he were bowling the 18th and 20th: pitching right up in the blockhole or hitting the deck with shorter lengths, offering nothing in between. Only seven runs came off those two overs, a minor miracle.In between and thereafter, the Capitals batsmen found the boundaries with unerring frequency. Rather than slow down post-powerplay, Shaw and Iyer accelerated, putting on 73 at 10.68 per over – Shaw and Dhawan had added 56 at 9.60 – and some of their hitting – notably a chipped six from Shaw over extra-cover off Shivam Mavi, and a flicked six over midwicket from Iyer off Kamlesh Nagarkoti – was effortless to the point of being dispiriting to any bowler who might have been watching.The exit of Shaw in the 13th over brought Pant to the crease, and he took eight balls to get his eye in before hitting Shivam Mavi for three fours in the 16th over, the pick of them a slap over extra-cover off a short ball slanting away from his hitting arc. That opened the floodgates: from that over on, the Capitals made 77 in 30 balls.This period showcased the best of Pant’s incredible hand-eye coordination, and also Iyer’s ability to move around the crease and play with the bowler’s lines and angles – such as when Pat Cummins sent down two marginally off-target yorkers in the 17th over and saw them tickled past short fine leg and flayed between mid-off and extra-cover – and to hit sixes at will off spinners. Chakravarthy went for 20 in the 19th over, and conceded 30 off 9 balls to Iyer overall.Russell, carted all over by Pant in the 18th, finished the innings with a tight 20th, giving up just seven runs despite new man Shimron Hetmyer hitting his third ball for a six. It left the Knight Riders 229 to get, but the Capitals wouldn’t have been able to say if they had enough.The promotionSunil Narine has failed to get going so far this season, and today brought another early dismissal – he swung and missed at Nortje in the second over, having exposed all three stumps. With Tripathi in the side, and much of his earlier success in the IPL having arrived at the top of the order, there was a feeling that he might open with either Narine or Shubman Gill demoted, but that didn’t happen. Either way, with the target what it was, it was in the Knight Riders’ best interests to have Narine open and hopefully come off.The Knight Riders were there or thereabouts through the rest of the powerplay, finding the boundary often – Nitish Rana slog-swept Ashwin for a pair of sixes in the third over, and Gill used the open spaces in the outfield to pick up a four and a six off Nortje in the fourth without quite finding his timing – but not quite often enough to prevent the required rate from climbing steeply. At the six-over mark, they were 59 for 1 – two runs better off than the Capitals at the same stage, but with a lot more catching up left to do.When Amit Mishra, looping his legbreaks tantalisingly but always somehow landing it just short of the batsmen’s hitting arc, conceded just two runs in his first seven balls and dismissed Gill, the Knight Riders needed 157 from 71 balls. For the second time in two matches, they sent Andre Russell in far earlier than usual.Eoin Morgan hit three sixes in a row off Kagiso Rabada•BCCI

The slowdownIn the Knight Riders’ previous game, the move to promote Russell worked in an indirect sort of way, forcing the Rajasthan Royals to bring back Jofra Archer early to try and get him out, and leaving less of Archer for their other superstar hitter Morgan to face.Here again, Russell’s entry brought the opposition’s best fast bowler back into the attack for the 10th over, and a gladiatorial contest ensued between him and Kagiso Rabada. Dot, slower ball flat-batted for four, dot, straight six. Russell could have seen out the rest of the over, but he swung hard at a short ball and top-edged a catch to third man. Rabada had won the contest, and seemingly the match too.The next three overs only brought two boundaries and a pair of back-to-back wickets courtesy Harshal Patel’s variations. Then Nortje removed Pat Cummins in the 14th over, leaving the Knight Riders 107 to get off 39 balls. This was over, surely.The finishMorgan can be uncertain against the short ball, but that almost works in his favour sometimes, because he always gets a quick, short one first up. He was in perfect position to pull his first ball, from Nortje, for six, and he was away.But the Knight Riders were nowhere near close to their target, and Harshal’s slower ball – a genuine weapon with its dipping trajectory and significant deviation off the deck – allowed them only six runs from the 15th over. But there was a bit of luck to come – a not-quite-middled slog from Morgan off Rabada in the 16th over burst through the leaping fielder’s hands at deep midwicket and over the boundary for six. And the damage done by Rana to Ashwin’s figures and Mishra’s ring finger – he hurt it in a failed attempt to take a caught and bowled in the seventh over – left the Capitals using their sixth bowler, Stoinis, in the 17th over.Tripathi lined up Stoinis’ medium pace and clattered him for three sixes and a four in five balls, clearing his front leg, spotting variations of pace quickly and ensuring he didn’t lose his shape, and striking cleanly through the line of the ball. Suddenly, the Knight Riders were back in it, almost. And then Rabada, amazingly, went for 6, 6, 6 off the first three balls of the 18th – Morgan muscling a slower ball and a full-toss over the leg-side boundary to follow a fortuitous top-edged hook. Tripathi then drove the last ball of the over past the bowler and away from mid-off’s reach, and the Knight Riders needed 31 off the last 12 balls.It was still a challenging task in absolute terms, and Morgan and Tripathi weren’t able to get Nortje away, partly because he didn’t miss his lengths by that much of a margin even when he did miss them, and partly because their luck ran out. Rather than clearing the deep fielder as he had done on earlier occasions without really being in control, Morgan pulled Nortje straight to the man off the third ball. The rest of the over brought only five runs.Tripathi sliced Stoinis over point at the start of the final over to bring the equation down to 22 off 5, but the next ball proved unhittable, a dipping yorker that sneaked under his flailing bat. And that was that.

ESPNcricinfo’s updates from the 44th game of IPL 2020

Saurabh Somani25-Oct-2020