Colleagues, contemporaries, friends and opponents all came together to celebrate a career most remarkable

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Jun-2022

Never come across someone who made cricket look so easy. 23 years of brilliance, skill and devotion. Sad that eventually it had to come to an end but what a contribution to the sport @M_Raj03 has made. Absolute legend. Simply the best. Hopefully means more time for reading! #GOAT https://t.co/IN7c8798xH

— Frances Mackay (@FrankieMac71) June 8, 2022

They now have the experience of putting up a total at this ground, to add to their know-how of chasing one from the Pakistan game

Alex Malcolm06-Nov-20225:02

Dravid: ‘It’s not easy to be consistent with the kind of strike rate Suryakumar has’

If, and it is a big if for no other reason than this World Cup has been unpredictable, India do make it to the final at the MCG on Sunday, then they might have a significant advantage.Melbourne’s inclement weather has allowed just two completed games at the MCG in this tournament, and India have played and won both. There has been only one other game where a ball was bowled when England lost to Ireland via rain, Duckworth, Lewis and Stern.Related

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More than that, India have been able to experience both sides of the conditions at the MCG, part by luck and part by design. Rohit Sharma won both tosses. They bowled first and chased against Pakistan. Against Zimbabwe, they opted to bat first and defend.”We just wanted to experience what it was to set a score in these kinds of conditions,” India coach Rahul Dravid said after the match. “Also, we felt that if we batted first, it would give us an opportunity to play 20 overs and just get into that ability of still trying to get a par or par-plus score batting first.”They did just that. On a fresh MCG pitch, with the experience of seeing both top orders collapse in the India-Pakistan epic, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli negotiated the nipping new ball and paced the first ten overs superbly to set up an assault in the last ten.Thanks to Suryakumar Yadav’s special, India plundered 107 runs off the last ten overs to post an above-par total of 186 for 5.They preyed too on Zimbabwe’s inexperience at the ground. Rahul’s excellent half-century might have been cut short on 30 had Wellington Masakadza known where to stand at deep midwicket.India’s bowlers got an invaluable outing, defending late into the evening as batting got easier•Associated PressThe MCG is so big square of the wicket that easy twos can be picked off to the sweepers in the deep, but fielders must hedge their bets to protect the boundary as well. The threat of two had Masakadza in too close, and he committed the cardinal sin of allowing a catchable ball go over his head and land inside the rope. It was a harsh lesson to learn for Zimbabwe, whose only previous experience of the ground in a practice game had not prepared them adequately.”We played a warm-up game here against Sri Lanka before the World Cup actually started and the MCG was a very different picture than what it was tonight,” Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine said.”Such an electric atmosphere… It’s quite difficult when you’re on the field because you can’t even shout to anybody [even if they are] close to you, because they’re just not going to hear you.”One of the things we learned was you’ve got to keep your eye on the keeper obviously, and me at all times, to understand where to go. I think it’s very easy to get caught up in all the noise.”And that’s another advantage India have. It has been their noise and their cauldron in this World Cup so far. Should they reach the final, they will be the only team to have experienced it twice, with Pakistan having experienced it once.Pant got his first game of the World Cup, while Ashwin found his groove picking up 3 for 22•Getty ImagesIndia’s bowlers also got another invaluable outing, this time defending late into the evening as batting got easier. Spin is usually a great weapon at the MCG on the drier January pitches in the BBL. But in October and November, it has been hard graft. Axar Patel had another expensive night, but R Ashwin found his groove picking up 3 for 22.”For the spinners, I think you needed to understand the pace and how you can’t bowl at one pace or one length,” Ashwin said after the match, “and you need to be able to change it up and keep bowling and keep staying in a fight. Because there are going to be good shots being played on this pitch because batters do know once they get off to such a start that they have to attack the spinner.”India also got the chance to experiment with their side having already locked up their semi-final spot pre-game thanks to South Africa’s collapse against Netherlands. They selected Rishabh Pant instead of Dinesh Karthik and he batted at No. 5.It’s obvious India are aware of the spin threats remaining in the tournament. From Adil Rashid to Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan, they all turn the ball away from the hitting arc of India’s right-hand batters. Axar was promoted against Pakistan at the MCG with no success. Pant missed out against Zimbabwe because of a brilliant catch from Ryan Burl at long-on. But it was a worthwhile exercise to see what it looked like.Dravid, though, was quick to point out it was not an indicator of anything to come. “Everyone is available for selection,” he said. “Just because somebody missed out in this game doesn’t mean that we can’t go back to him.”There are still a lot of ifs, buts and maybes before it is decided who will grace the MCG for next Sunday’s final. But India have banked some knowledge. And in a tournament of complete unknowns, it’s worth something.

The Namibia seamer walked away from a game that seemed to actively exclude black players like him, but now he finds himself in the T20 World Cup squad

Cameron Ponsonby17-Oct-2022″Find what you love and let it kill you.”A quote that is widely attributed to American poet Charles Bukowski, this line has more recently found itself a home in 30-year-old Namibian seamer Tangeni Lungameni’s WhatsApp status.It is an exhortation that summarises Lungameni’s relationship with a sport that has taken him to breaking point multiple times – and now to a World Cup, finally.Starting in the sport at the age of six, Lungameni rose through the Namibia ranks until he was dropped on the eve of the Under-19 World Cup and quit. What followed was a decade-long journey that took him from being a community coach to playing 4th XI club cricket to being the head groundsman for Cricket Namibia, until finally, over ten years after deciding to walk away from the sport, he has the chance to pull on his country’s shirt at a World Cup.Namibia are a miraculous but uncomfortable cricketing nation. The game is a white man’s sport in a black country. In a nation where only 6% are white, just four members of their World Cup squad are players of colour.It is a hangover from a time when the country, then known as South West Africa, operated under South Africa’s apartheid rule. Independence was gained in 1990, but the effects of the divided past are still felt. Racial tensions exist and inequality between whites and blacks is widespread. As recently as 2017, the government proposed that white business owners, who dominate the economy, sell 25% of their stake to blacks in a plan that was later scrapped. In the same year, the selection of Lungameni and black team-mate Pikky Ya France for the Namibian squad, but not playing XI, was described as “smokescreen inclusion” and the omitting of a young black hockey player from the Namibian U-16 girls’ team made national news.Cricket in Namibia is white-focused and concentrated in Windhoek, the capital city, where four of the nation’s five top-level clubs are based. Furthermore, Namibia’s landscape means building additional infrastructure is as difficult as it could be anywhere in the world. The nation has the second-lowest population density on the planet, behind only Mongolia. By square mile, it is roughly the same size as Pakistan, except that there are 242 million people in Pakistan, whereas Namibia has 2.5 million.Related

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Lungameni is black and from Gobabis, about 210km east of Windhoek. He has broken in from outside the system, both literally and figuratively.He went to an overwhelmingly white primary school, where he was, by his own estimate, one of the first ten black students to attend. “We had a principal whose name was Wimpy Silver, and he was the coach for all age groups,” he explains.”It was a white, white, white school when I started there… and it was compulsory to do all sports at the school, so the teacher could see what you were good at. So that’s how the principal saw me and said, ‘Okay, cool. Let’s try cricket then’. And it never went backwards after that!”When he moved from primary school to secondary, there was no cricket at his new school, so Lungameni ended up attending his local state school and playing matches for a nearby private school.Nevertheless, while still based in Gobabis, he was chosen to represent Namibia at the U-15 and U-17 level, before a school from Windhoek offered him a scholarship and he moved to the capital full time for cricket and schooling. He was in the system, and he was playing. But then, on the eve of the announcement of the 2012 U-19 World Cup, after featuring in the qualifiers the previous year, he found out he had been dropped.”They told me I wasn’t good enough for the country at the U-19 World Cup level,” he says. “Mentally, I was in a very dark place and decided, well, to give up and go back home.”Lungameni wouldn’t play for over a year, until a “turning point” arrived in the form of a phone call from Francois Erasmus, former Cricket Namibia president and father of current captain Gerhard, with an invitation to fill in for his club’s 4th XI.”We need a seamer,” Erasmus told him on the phone. “And I know you’re not 40 but you’re not playing cricket and it may give you something to do on the weekend.”And so Lungameni’s return to international cricket began to take shape. Travelling up from Gobabis, he’d play on Saturday, then head home on Sunday. His love of the game returned as he played with team-mates old enough to be his dad.”I managed to do well in that team,” Lungameni says, in one of the least surprising admissions you’re ever likely to hear from an international cricketer.

“Sixty per cent of my friends think I’m crazy. [They ask] why would you put yourself through it? The other 40% encourage me and understand”

The 4s turned into the 3s, which turned into the 2s, which turned into the 1s. The club is called Windhoek High School Old Boys Cricket Club, and Lungameni still plays for them now.As he progressed through the XIs, the next stage of Lungameni’s return to the top took shape. A cousin of his, who also played at the same club, was working as a groundsman at Cricket Namibia, and whenever he needed an extra pair of hands, would give Lungameni a call.Over the course of the following year, Lungameni would learn the job through a combination of strict instruction and osmosis. Until eventually, when his cousin moved on elsewhere, he found himself next in line for the job of Cricket Namibia’s head groundsman.When he got the role, it was one that scratched an itch but nothing more. “The only thing I actually wanted was to play, and that was the closest I could sort of get to being involved.”That would change though, thanks to a man named Dee Thakur, an inspirational figure within Namibian cricket before he died at the age of 54 last year. When Lungameni was the groundsman, Thakur was head coach of the national side, and after seeing Lungameni in action, he asked if he’d stay on after hours to bowl at the Namibia squad.Lungameni didn’t need a second invitation and soon he was spending his days working nine-to-five preparing the wickets, boundaries and outfields, then trading his working boots for bowling ones so he could run in at the Namibia squad.”That’s how I kept my fitness up and just kept up with the game and everyone in the squad,” Lungameni says.It was a role he would keep until 2016, when he was awarded his first national professional contract and selected for Namibia’s first-class fixture against Gauteng. Playing against a team that included New Zealand’s Devon Conway, Lungameni walked out at the Wanderers Cricket Ground in Windhoek no longer as the groundsman, but representing his nation.”At that stage, first-class cricket was like playing international cricket to me,” he says with a smile. “I mean, two years ago, I wasn’t playing anything. And now I’m here representing the country. So, for me, it was big.”Lungameni is one of five left-arm seamers in the World Cup squad and after a joke that what they have now is the last of it, Lungameni manages to count five other left-armers of various ages who could still come through in the future.It has, naturally, made selection very competitive. And in the six years that have followed his debut in 2016, his stats page reads like one of a player who has never been far from the XI but has also never fully locked down a spot of his own. He played in three of the five T20Is during Namibia’s historic win over Zimbabwe (their first series victory against a Full-Member side), but bowled only five expensive overs across the matches. He also played only one List A game for Namibia between 2018 and his ODI debut in 2022. But in the eight ODIs he has played in since, he has done well, taking ten wickets at 23.90. In total, in six years he has represented Namibia on 74 occasions, so the chances haven’t been few, but they have occasionally been far between.Lungameni was overlooked for the 2012 Under-19 World Cup and wasn’t picked for last year’s T20 World Cup due to injury. “The fact that two World Cups pass you, you think, maybe this cricket thing isn’t for me”•Kelly Defina/ICC/Getty ImagesA chance was lost last year when Lungameni missed out on the World Cup squad. A repeat of the pain from a decade earlier, but this time due to a finger injury sustained in the weeks leading up the competition. The squad had yet to be named, and due to the number of left-armers in it, and the desire for an extra spinner to be picked, since the tournament was played in the UAE, Lungameni understood his spot was at risk anyway, but now he knew he was done.”I guess that sort of made things easy for the selectors,” he says with a grimace.With Lungameni still at home, and having to fend off questions from club mates about why he wasn’t at the World Cup – “that was not easy at all” – Namibia would qualify for the Super 12s and experience arguably the greatest year of cricket they have ever had. “The fact that it’s two World Cups that pass you, you sort of think, well, maybe this cricket thing isn’t for me,” he says.He speaks of receiving strong support from parents, his girlfriend, and then team psychiatrist Iani de Kock, which helped him to get through the disappointment. He also mentions team-mate Stephan Baard as a good friend from within the squad.In particular, de Kock and he worked together every day, sometimes chatting cricket, sometimes not, in a process that Lungameni says helped him feel human again. “She told me, ‘I’ll book you in every day to come see me and we can just sit and look at each other, or talk about whatever you want to talk about,'” Lungameni says. “I kept it from my parents because where I come from, if you see someone like that, you’re weak… [but] it’s a decision I had to make, and I think it was the best decision.”It is the second rapid turnaround of Lungameni’s life. From not playing cricket at all in 2014 to making his national debut in 2016, and now to overcoming a repeat World Cup disappointment in 2021 and making the squad for the first time in 2022.”There is a lot of pride, because it’s my first World Cup. And that’s the only thing I’m focusing on, you know, I don’t want to think of anything else.”You’ve done your hard work and you’re here now. Just make sure you’re ready when you’re called upon… to be a part of the team that’s in the World Cup is amazing.”But while Namibia’s success on the pitch last year was celebrated, attention was also drawn to a squad that did not look like the country it represented. This was addressed by Erasmus, the captain, following the tournament, when he spoke of the importance of Namibia celebrating their players of colour in order to inspire further generations, citing the likes of Ya France, Ben Shikongo and Mauritius Ngupita as “the guys who are heroes for the people back home”.In 2016, the CEO then, Donovan Zealand, said that Namibian cricket had “definitely” been institutionally racist, with the “short-sightedness” of administrators and coaches to blame for focusing the sport on a small crop of elite players rather than on expansion. The result is a sport that, culturally, many black people see as not only not for them but actively against them.”Sixty per cent of my friends think I’m crazy,” Lungameni says, “[They ask] why? You literally know what to expect going into a game, or if someone says something silly, that’s a trigger. Why would you put yourself through it?”The other 40% encourage me and understand. And there’s a voice in my head that just says push through, do what you have to do, represent your country, and [my friends say] ‘We’re happy when you walk onto the field and we see you on TV.’ It brings a sense of pride to them also.”A wise man once told me, you’ve got to be in the system to change it.”Lungameni’s experience shows it takes persistence to break into the system and persistence to stay in. And finally, half his life after first representing his nation as an U-15, he has a World Cup to show for it.

Adelaide Oval dimensions may prompt a re-think after four consecutive unchanged XIs

Andrew Miller09-Nov-2022Phil Salt impressed during England’s tour to Pakistan•AFP/Getty ImagesPhil Salt

Not exactly a like-for-like replacement, given their differing batting styles, but Salt’s inclusion would seem to play to England’s perceived strength, by loading their line-up with another run-making option, and trusting the collective to keep coming from first ball to last. And yet, that hasn’t quite happened in the tournament so far. Aside from his agenda-setting 73 against New Zealand, Jos Buttler at the top of the order has been reticent by his usual standards, striking at 132 across his four innings, his lowest rate in a series of more than two matches since 2018.And with Harry Brook off-colour compared to his breakthrough series in Pakistan, the rest of England’s line-up has struggled to click – not least the combination of Malan and Ben Stokes at No. 3 and 4, both of whom tend to prefer a few sighters before they find their full strokemaking range. Salt, however, doesn’t operate quite like that. He is cut more from the Jason Roy cloth, with a welcome willingness to give it a wallop from ball one.That can make his returns somewhat hit or miss, but interspersed with four scores of ten or less in Pakistan was his rollicking 88 not out from 41 balls to turn the series in Lahore. His unfettered presence at No. 4 or below could help to clarify Stokes’ role at No. 3, and allow him to build into his innings as he did in his crucial marshalling of a nervy chase against Sri Lanka. Buttler was full of praise for Salt on Wednesday, saying: “He has a fantastic mindset, especially for the T20 format. He embodies quite a lot of what we speak about as a team and how we ask guys to play.”Chris Jordan has only been used as a sub fielder in this tournament•Getty ImagesChris Jordan

In the gunslinging world of death bowling, Jordan was all too easy to blame for England’s exit at this stage in the 2021 tournament. His third and final over was dispatched for 23 runs by Jimmy Neesham to give New Zealand crucial impetus just as their chase was getting steep. This time around, his role has been restricted to that of a super-sub, with three ice-cool catches at long-on in the past two games, but there’s a strong case for his inclusion to offer an eighth bowling option in Adelaide, given that Malan – albeit for different reasons – had been carded to come in at No. 8 or below in each of England’s last two games, suggesting that an extra batter is arguably an even more under-utilised resource.Jordan lost his incremental England contract last month, which rather implies that this tournament could be his last hurrah. But his immense experience could still have a part to play, just as it seemed to have done in the World T20 final in 2016, when his final 12 deliveries went for a mere 15 runs. But for Carlos Brathwaite, that display could have been his defining moment.Related

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A finger injury has held Jordan back recently – he went for 13 an over in his comeback T20I against Australia last month – but last summer he showcased a willingness to adapt his repertoire to suit his surroundings, not least in the series against India, when he utilised a hit-the-pitch method to suit the wide acreage of the Ageas Bowl, before bringing his favoured yorker out of mothballs in the more cramped confines of Trent Bridge. That tactic had mixed success, particularly with Suryakumar Yadav in his sights, but with similarly short square boundaries at Adelaide, and on a used deck that may offer up reverse swing, having a man who still trusts that method may not be a bad option for England.Tymal Mills impressed in last year’s World Cup•Getty ImagesTymal Mills

Mills offers the opposite approach, in almost every sense. His left-arm line echoes that of the absent Reece Topley, whose ankle injury ruled him out before a ball of the tournament was bowled, while the yorker barely features in his repertoire – instead he prefers a diet of into-the-pitch offerings, mixing up the pace to confound his opponents’ ambitions, and always keeping the threat of a genuine 90mph/145kph bouncer up his sleeve.When it works, he is startlingly effective – Mills remains among the most economical death bowlers in T20 history – and last year, despite not having played a T20I since 2018, he was a shoo-in for Eoin Morgan’s T20 World Cup squad in the UAE, almost from the moment it was confirmed that the luckless Jofra Archer had sustained a stress fracture of the back. Seven wickets in his first three matches suggested Mills was on course to make up for lost time, but then his thigh popped after nine balls against Sri Lanka, and that was the end of his tournament.A lack of recent game-time might dissuade England from taking a gamble on a Mills recall: after struggling with a toe injury in the summer, he has played just two competitive matches since June, and none since the end of his Hundred campaign in August. But concerns over Mark Wood’s fitness – he has hardly bowled in training since England arrived in Adelaide – could see him come in as the quickest bowler in the attack.David Willey could match up well with India’s top order•Getty ImagesDavid Willey
Another man with unfinished business on the game’s biggest stages. Willey would have been a Player-of-the-Match contender had the 2016 final gone England’s way – in addition to his outstanding figures of 3 for 20, he also thumped two of his team’s five sixes to give a timely late flourish to an otherwise nervy innings. In fact, his ratio of one six from every 13 balls he’s faced in T20Is is higher than anyone in England’s ranks bar Moeen Ali, which makes him a handy option to have lurking for the death.But it’s his penetrative left-arm swing that would earn him his call-up, and maybe even complete his England rebirth after the cruel circumstances of the 2019 World Cup, when he was axed on the eve of the competition to accommodate Archer. No England bowler has claimed more wickets in the powerplay in T20Is – that period accounts for 31 of his 51 wickets, and at an economy-rate of 7.32 that stands up to scrutiny.And while that record might previously have hinted at a lack of versatility, England’s depth of bowling options means that his less formidable death-overs record (13 wickets at an economy of 10.09) need not be a reason to discount him. India’s top order have been vulnerable against left-arm seam early on, and the dimensions in Adelaide should allow him to pitch the ball up if selected.Liam Dawson would be a left-field replacement•ECB/Getty ImagesLiam Dawson

If England are intent on maxing out their bowling options, then how about heading into ultimate match-up territory? Liam Dawson’s international career has been one of the great modern curiosities. A World Cup winner in 2019, despite playing the last of his three ODIs in October 2018; an allrounder whose Test career spanned just three matches, but still outlasted the man who greeted him on debut with an unbeaten triple century. And now, a potential World Cup semi-finalist after a grand total of one international wicket in the past four years.Dawson is in Australia but is not in the squad, and England are very unlikely to call him up as a replacement unless Malan’s injury has worsened to the extent that he would be unavailable for a potential final on Sunday. But there would be some logic to bringing him in as an emergency option: if he is to get the call-up, it may simply be as a man-marker for the formidable Suryakumar – a batter whose 225 runs from 116 balls have featured some of the most startling shots ever witnessed at a World Cup, not least his tumbledown whip for six against Zimbabwe last week.He is a man seemingly without weakness, and yet, against left-arm spin in the past four years, his returns are merely good rather than world-beating – an average of 32 and a strike rate of 126, compared to 155+ against all other bowling types. Even if Dawson bowls just one over for eight while Suryakumar is swinging for the hills, that could prove crucial to England’s hopes.

The captain is all about spreading “positive vibes” as he strongly believes his team will go all the way this time

Shashank Kishore30-Jan-2023Manoj Tiwary has played through a broken finger, damaged cartilages in his right knee and a troublesome back all because he’s forever dreaming of winning the Ranji Trophy.It’s his only reason to continue playing domestic cricket at 37. It’s the only reason he readily accepted the Bengal captaincy for a third time, when it was known Abhimanyu Easwaran wasn’t going to be available for the initial part of the group stages because of national commitments.”Three years ago, I didn’t want to leave captaincy, because I believed I’d given so much time to it and we were at a stage where all the youngsters who were given opportunities were starting to come up,” Tiwary told ESPNcricinfo ahead of the quarter-final against Jharkhand at Eden Gardens starting Tuesday.Related

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“I thought it would’ve been nice to continue. But because the selectors told me we they want a younger captain for Ranji, I thought it was best I step away from white-ball formats too, because I didn’t want a new captain coming in and not having complete command or control of the team. And that can happen in domestic cricket with split-captaincy.”So, I stepped aside to give Abhimanyu a free rein. But when he wasn’t available initially this season and I was asked, I wasn’t expecting it, but I agreed to do the job because Ranji Trophy means a lot to me and it’s one thing I’ve been after. The very reason I’m playing is because of lifting that coveted trophy.”Bengal came close two years ago but were pipped by Saurashtra in the final. Last year, they lost to eventual champions Madhya Pradesh in the semi-final. This time around, Tiwary believes they have the squad and personnel to go all the way. Especially now that Shahbaz Ahmed is back from India duties and is certain to make the XI.

“I don’t want negative energy, I’ve suffered from lack of communication in my career. I didn’t want players to experience the same. In a team if someone isn’t happy, it affects the entire group. Positive vibes is important for a team to do well.”Manoj Tiwary

“In terms of squad strength, we have quality from top to bottom,” Tiwary said. “Players are aware of their roles; they’ve gained an understanding of their game and there’s a sense of freedom that you can see. We weren’t known to be intimidating earlier with our performances, but now the guys have brought in that attitude to the field which is refreshing to see.”There are a couple of concerns though. Middle-order batter Anustup Majumdar suffered a finger injury while fielding in their final league game against Odisha and fast bowler Akash Deep is recovering from a concussion he sustained in the same match. Bengal will hope both of them pull up well in time for the quarter-final. Mukesh Kumar, who wasn’t named in the Bengal squad for the quarter-final, is expected to join them in time for the match after being released from the India T20I squad that’s currently playing New Zealand.Among the things Tiwary has focused on personally is to help create a spirit of togetherness, which he believes wasn’t always there even if there wasn’t any friction within the group.”I used to see a lot of other teams and wonder what it is that they have that we don’t, and I figured we didn’t have the same camaraderie,” Tiwary said. “So, when I took over as captain, this is something I worked on building and improving. Without that you can’t turn around games like we did against Uttar Pradesh [they were 55 for 6 in their first innings] and against Baroda [who they bundled out for 98 after conceding a potentially decisive lead before winning].”Shahbaz Ahmed (middle) will be available to play the quarter-final for Bengal•Cricket Association of BengalWherever they’ve gone this season, Tiwary has ensured a huge cut out of the Ranji Trophy is pasted on all the walls of their dressing room. He’s ensured the Bengal flag flies behind the team at practice and at matches.”Like what Pakistan introduced, I loved the idea of carrying our flag onto the practice facility, and place it firmly behind us,” Tiwary said. “Then we’ve ensured we’re seeing the Ranji Trophy and big cut-outs and posters in our dressing room every day, so that the players see it the first thing they enter the dressing room. It’s there, staring at them.”When we’ve been down in a session and suddenly you see it staring at you, that motivation is there to give a little extra. It’s small things like these that could make a difference. We say verbally representing Bengal is a big thing, but visibly if you have something, a goal in front of your eyes, that pushes you to give a lot more. These things have been helpful.”Another aspect Tiwary has been mindful of along with new coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla is communication. Players who are not part of the XI are told well in advance what the thinking is. Others are backed, age being the least of their criteria. It explains why Majumdar at 38 continues to be a pillar of their batting along with Tiwary. It’s why Pritam Chakraborty, the offspinner, made a comeback after eight years in the wilderness.”Communication with players is clear, they understand what needs to be done,” Tiwary said. “This season, if we have left out someone, we’ve told them of the plan. I don’t want negative energy, I’ve suffered from lack of communication in my career. I didn’t want players to experience the same. If you tell them early, then there’s clarity. They may be sad, but I expect them to come fresh to the ground. In a team, if someone isn’t happy, it affects the entire group. Positive vibes is important for a team to do well.”It has helped that there has been an excellent working relationship between Tiwary and the coach Shukla. “The partnership has been really good,” Tiwary said. “He completely trusts my decision-making and has left the on-field cricketing matters to me. We’ve been able to back on-field decision with results so that helps. I have a like-minded wavelength. When I’m here in the team, I love to take responsibility and work with the youngsters. And he’s been welcoming of that.”We both think alike in that sense. What bowlers or batters should do – the rapport has been good. So, we have that understanding. During Arun Lal’s time [as Bengal coach], I was around but I felt my experience wasn’t tapped into, I can’t remember times when my opinion was sought or inputs towards players, so I took a step back and started working on my game. Everyone has their methods, and I understood that. But LRS [Shukla] has utilised my experience. That’s been really nice this time around.”

Hosts make up for failings against Sri Lanka to give home support a night to remember

Firdose Moonda13-Feb-2023South Africa knew South Africans deserved better than the performance they put on in the World Cup opener at Newlands.They said so privately, at a team meeting they held immediately after their three-run loss when they discussed “everything and decided we’ll leave it there,” as Chloe Tryon revealed and they said it publicly, with an emotionally-charged tweet from Marizanne Kapp that read almost like an apology.”We spoke about it just after the game. We sat up in the changing-room and we spoke about everything and we said we’ll leave it here,” Tryon added. “We have a quick turnaround and we know we’ve got to go and make sure that we’re doing the right things. Everyone came with the mindset that today we’re just working really hard.”Everyone including the Paarl faithful. Even though they numbered little more than half the 8,000-plus that turned up in Cape Town for the first match, they made more of an impression with a passionate display of patriotism that started on the grass banks and ended in the president suite with a group of women singing a victory cry to the tune of Bonnie Tyler’s “It’s a heartache”. That may sound confusing, but you need to hear the lyrics. So hum the tune in your head and sing (with translation):They could belt that out at the end, but for large parts of the match, South Africans were fairly worried.Their top four continue to struggle, both with the fluency of their run-scoring and their ability to form partnerships. Captain Suné Luus is the only one to have passed 20 – and she’s done so in both matches – and they appear to be over-reliant on a middle-order that may still come to regret not having Dané van Niekerk or Mignon du Preez in it.

South Africa, you deserved better! #t20worldcup pic.twitter.com/FDgAePpE9E

— Marizanne Kapp (@kappie777) February 11, 2023

He will always be associated with this team, a team that has created its brand and its identity around him

Matt Roller27-Apr-2023Walking along Cubbon Road in Bengaluru at six o’clock on Wednesday evening, I had a stray thought. Is this what Naples was like in the time of Diego Maradona?Everyone in front of me has the same thing written on the back of their shirt: 18 VIRAT. Every ten metres I walk, someone else is trying to sell me a cheap replica of a Royal Challengers Bangalore jersey, each and every one emblazoned with the same print.If it was not already clear who the 40,000 fans at the Chinnaswamy Stadium had come to see, it was confirmed by his emergence for the warm-ups. As he walked on to the outfield, Virat Kohli’s face popped up on the big screen, and the crowd came to life.Related

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I had witnessed the same love for Kohli during the previous Sunday afternoon’s game, a hard-fought victory over Rajasthan Royals. After his dismissal, pinned lbw first ball by Trent Boult, the ground fell silent. The TV broadcast cut to an older woman in the stands, who put her hand on her head then turned to her neighbour in utter disbelief.But all was forgotten by the time he was patrolling the long-on boundary, temporarily back as RCB’s captain, with Faf du Plessis managing an injury. Kohli blew a kiss to the crowd, towards the executive box where his wife Anushka Sharma was sitting; the big-screen, slow-motion replay drew a louder cheer than the catch itself.Having witnessed Sunday’s game behind the insulated glass of the press box, I moved to the stands on Wednesday night to hear the crowd at full throttle. The Chinnaswamy is an old, enclosed, concrete stadium with remarkable acoustics; it seems to amplify the noise created by its crowd, which is invariably a sell-out for IPL games.As Wanindu Hasaranga bowled the fifth over of Kolkata Knight Riders’ innings, Kohli positioned himself at mid-off. After each delivery, as he walked back towards the edge of the ring, the lower tier of C Stand cheered as one, hoping beyond hope that he would acknowledge them. He only touched the ball once, but was still the centre of attention.’18 VIRAT’: Who wouldn’t want it?•Associated PressThe PA announcer knows who is in charge of this city, and plays up to it. In the previous over, he had declared to the fans that it was time for an apotheosis: “When I say ‘King’, you say ‘Kohli’!” he instructed, and so they did. It is a remarkable status for anyone to even begin to live up to.But Kohli is RCB, and RCB is Kohli. He is the only player to have featured for the same franchise in all 16 IPL seasons, playing in all but four of their 235 IPL matches. He was here as a 19-year-old boy on the competition’s opening night, playing for the same team against the same opposition, and he is still here now as a 34-year-old man. He will always be associated with this team, a team that has created its brand and its identity around him.When Kohli gave up the RCB captaincy 18 months ago, he appeared to unilaterally and indefinitely extend his contract with the franchise: “I will only play for RCB until my retirement,” he had said in a statement. Nobody batted an eyelid. As if they would ever dare to let him leave?He is front and centre of every sponsorship photoshoot, his face plastered on every billboard in the surrounding area. Kohli is not only a cricketer, but also a brand: you can buy suitcases, tyres, wellness supplements, orthodontic aligners and air-conditioning units which come with his seal of approval, and are reminded to do so every time you switch on your television.So when Kohli came out to bat alongside du Plessis, a 201-run target in their sights, there was a sense that this was why everyone was here. KKR’s innings had felt like a necessary inconvenience, a support act to warm the crowd up before the main event.As he has throughout this season, Kohli started positively. He slashed the first ball he faced to deep third for four, and after hitting Suyash Sharma for back-to-back fours at the start of the fifth over, he had raced to 30 off 15 balls with five boundaries, strutting around the crease with a characteristic swagger.Silence enveloped the ground after Virat Kohli was given out against KKR•Associated PressIn doing so, Kohli set a new record for the most runs by a T20 batter at a single venue. The landmark went largely unnoticed, but was fitting: along with MS Dhoni playing for Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk, and Rohit Sharma representing Mumbai Indians at Wankhede, Kohli playing for RCB at Chinnaswamy is one of this league’s iconic combinations.But after the soft dismissals of du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell, the two other superstars in this RCB batting line-up, Kohli was almost on his own. There were few qualms about his now-characteristic slowdown against spin; given the circumstances, it seemed their only chance of hauling down this target was for Kohli to bat deep into the innings.When Shahbaz Ahmed, Mahipal Lomror and Suyash Prabhudessai’s names were read out, they hardly drew a response. The contrast in reception for RCB’s big three and the rest of their middle order emphasised the over reliance on a select few that this franchise has always faced, one reflected in their supporters’ adoration of their established stars but apparent ambivalence towards their young players.Lomror provided an effective foil. He dominated a 55-run stand with Kohli for the fourth wicket, hitting 34 off 18 balls before he was caught on the rope, falling just short in an attempt to strike back-to-back sixes off Varun Chakravarthy.Kohli’s method – trying to build a partnership to attack at the death after losing three early wickets – left the game in his hands. And when, on 54, he swung Andre Russell out towards midwicket after a lull, there was a brief moment when he seemed to have got enough power into his pull shot to clear the ropes.He hadn’t. Venkatesh Iyer dived forward and clung on to a difficult catch, and the game was as good as done. Silence enveloped the ground as the TV umpire confirmed that Iyer’s catch was clean. Kohli trudged off, taking a realistic chance of a third consecutive victory with him.Forty-five minutes later, Kohli was in front of the cameras again, sending his team a rocket after a sloppy performance in the field. As he spoke, Cubbon Road was full of people again. They traipsed towards the metro station or hailed auto rickshaws, having witnessed a defeat that must have been all too familiar for supporters of a franchise who have always fallen just short.But those same supporters had witnessed a hero in the flesh, cutting and pulling, living and breathing. And in three weeks’ time, when RCB return home after five consecutive away games, there is no doubt that the road will be filled with shirts emblazoned with ’18 VIRAT’ on their backs once more.

No Bairstow as Dhawan joins forces with Bayliss to try and lead the franchise into the playoffs for the first time since 2014

Ashish Pant27-Mar-2023 • Updated on 29-Mar-20233:06

Moody: I think Matthew Short is the perfect foil for Shikhar Dhawan

Where Punjab Kings finished last seasonSixth place, with seven wins and seven losses.Punjab Kings squad for IPL 2023Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Sikandar Raza, Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Baltej Singh, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh, Mohit RatheePlayer availability – No Jonny Bairstow for IPL 2023Punjab Kings were dealt a big blow leading into the tournament with Jonny Bairstow ruled out as he continues to recover from a leg injury that he suffered in September last year while playing golf. Australia allrounder Matthew Short, who had an excellent BBL 2022-23 season where he was named Player of the Tournament, was named his replacement.Related

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Kings will also be without Kagiso Rabada for at least their first match, against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 1 in Mohali. He will join the squad only on April 3, after completing South Africa’s ODI series against the Netherlands.Liam Livingstone too will miss their first game, as he completes the final steps of his rehab following a knee injury that he picked on England’s Pakistan tour in December.*What’s new with Punjab Kings this yearFor starters, they have a new captain in Shikhar Dhawan, who has replaced Mayank Agarwal. Dhawan was bought at the 2022 auction and was Kings’ top-scorer last season with 460 runs in 14 innings.Kings went into the 2023 auction with the second-largest purse of INR 32.2 crore and spent more than half of that on Sam Curran, making him the most expensive buy at an IPL auction. They also acquired Sikandar Raza for INR 50 lakh as back-up for Livingstone.Punjab’s backroom staff has also undergone a complete overhaul. They brought in Trevor Bayliss as head coach in place of Anil Kumble, reappointed Wasim Jaffer as batting coach, brought in Sunil Joshi as the spin-bowling coach, and Charl Langeveldt as bowling coach. Brad Haddin was named assistant coach.The good – Sam Curran and Co offer depth in paceEven with Bairstow unavailable, Kings have a strong overseas contingent. His replacement Short was the second-highest run-getter in BBL 2022-23 and also picked up 11 wickets at an economy of 7.13. Livingstone and Bhanuka Rajapaksa were impressive last season while Raza comes in high on confidence having been part of the victorious Lahore Qalandars in PSL 2023, which capped an outstanding few months for him.Kings have the likes of Rabada, Arshdeep Singh and Curran forming the core of the pace attack. They also have allrounder Rishi Dhawan to back up the frontline seamers. The surfaces in Mohali and Dharamsala, Kings’ home grounds, have been conducive to pace in the past and the quicks could be a handful there.Kings boast of a power-packed batting unit. Livingstone has a career T20 strike rate of 146.11, Prabhsimran 137.94, Rajapaksa 135.52 and Jitesh Sharma 147.93. Dhawan has consistently been a quick accumulator of runs.The not-so-good – How do Kings fill the Bairstow gap?While they have back-up wicketkeepers in the squad, Bairstow’s unavailability means there is uncertainty around Dhawan’s opening partner. Short is an opener and was successful in that role in the BBL, but he has never played in the IPL, which is a different kettle of fish. Kings might also look to open with Prabhsimran or Rajapaksa, who can go big from the get-go.Livingstone’s lack of game time is also a concern. He has been recovering from his knee injury and last played competitive cricket in December 2022. He could be rusty when he comes in for Kings’ second game.The absence of a prominent second spinner to back up Rahul Chahar might hurt Kings, especially in spin-friendly conditions. They have Harpreet Brar, but he has often blown hot and cold in previous editions.Schedule insightsKings will be travelling throughout IPL 2023. They do not have two consecutive home games until their last two league matches on May 17 and 19, both of which will be in Dharamsala. Fatigue could be a factor.The big question