How the West Indies allrounder turned up late at IPL 2020 but made an instant impact

Hemant Brar02-Nov-2020Jason Holder wouldn’t have been in the UAE had Mitchell Marsh not hurt his ankle. He might not have featured in the playing XI had Kane Williamson’s thigh injury not forced a rejig of plans.But here he is and, though he may not have taken IPL 2020 by storm, he has made enough important contributions in a short time to keep the Sunrisers Hyderabad alive in the tournament.Over the years, the Sunrisers have been a bowling team. But when Bhuvneshwar Kumar was ruled out because of a thigh injury and Siddarth Kaul failed to step up, their fast bowling resources seemed bereft of experience. Although Sandeep Sharma swung the new ball and T Natarajan nailed the yorkers at the death, the Sunrisers lacked the glue to keep their seam attack together.That aside, the Sunrisers problems were manifold. In the absence of an experienced Indian batsman, their middle order was looking shaky. That meant Williamson could not be dropped. With David Warner, Jonny Bairstow and Rashid Khan being shoo-ins for the other overseas spots, Holder had to wait on the sidelines.At the very first opportunity he got – as a replacement for the injured Williamson against the Rajasthan Royals – Holder made an impact. Playing his first IPL game since 2016, Holder picked up three wickets and effected a run-out as the Sunrisers restricted the Royals to a below-par 154 for 6, which Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar helped chase down with ease.Before the IPL, Holder had a successful outing in the Caribbean Premier League where he led the Barbados Tridents. Although the Tridents finished second from last, Holder was their best player with 192 runs at an average of 21.33 with a strike rate of 140.14 and ten wickets at an economy of 6.63. But having not been bought at the IPL auction, Holder had other plans: when he was called up as a replacement for Marsh, he was on a vacation.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I left a vacation to come here and play, I left the missus,” Holder to the IPL website after the Royals game. “It was hard enough making the decision to come over and play. I am glad I did, and to get the opportunity tonight and making use of it, it is a pleasing feeling.”In the next match, against the Kings XI Punjab, he again made telling contributions. Using the slower ball to good effect, Holder picked up the wickets of Chris Gayle and Chris Jordan and, suddenly, the Sunrisers seemed to have found the leader of their pace attack.Even though the Sunrisers lost that game chasing a paltry 127, the team management quickly understood Holder’s role was important: he provided balance and experience in both the bowling and batting departments.When Williamson returned, the Sunrisers made room for Holder by replacing Bairstow with Wriddhiman Saha. Leaving Bairstow out was a gamble, but Saha’s 87 off 45 balls ensured it paid off as the Sunrisers beat the Delhi Capitals emphatically.Before Holder came into the side, the Sunrisers were forced to save Sandeep Sharma’s two overs for the backend of the innings. But with Holder and Natarajan now sharing the responsibility at the death, Warner could use Sharma and his swing for three overs upfront. That resulted in the Sunrisers picking up the most wickets (41) by any team in the second half of the tournament, with Holder, Sharma and Rashid Khan leading the way with eight scalps each and Natarajan just behind at seven. They also have the best average (21.00) and best economy rate (7.23) in that period.Against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Holder proved his worth with the bat as well after registering figures of 2 for 27. The Sunrisers were playing with only four established batsmen and all of them were back in the hut at 87 for 4 in a chase of 121. The scenes of their botched up chase against the Kings XI would have flashed in front of their eyes but, valuing his experience, the Sunrisers promoted Holder ahead of Abdul Samad.

On November 5, Holder will turn 29. An advance birthday celebration would be helping the Sunrisers make the playoffs by beating defending champions and title favourites Mumbai Indians in the final league match on Tuesday

Holder used his long levers to smash three sixes and a four in an unbeaten 26 off ten balls and, with calmness, took the panic-stricken Sunrisers home.”It has been a while since I played in the IPL,” he said after the victory. “For me, I was just longing for another opportunity and I got an opportunity this time. So just trying to make the most of it.”In the 2020 IPL auction, Holder had listed his reserve price at INR 75 lakh but, despite being consistently ranked among the top two allrounders in Test cricket, a format in which he is the West Indies captain, Holder didn’t attract any bids.This is his second stint with the Sunrisers – he played for them in 2014 as well. But having come in without any expectations this time, he has become an unexpected key performer for them.The pitches in the UAE have offered bounce and pace to seamers, which has worked in Holder’s favour. He has also been tasked with playing cameos in the lower order, which he is more than capable of. With eight wickets in four games and a decisive knock with the bat, Holder has definitely made the most of his chances.On November 5, Holder will turn 29. An advance birthday celebration would be helping the Sunrisers make the playoffs by beating defending champions and title favourites Mumbai Indians in the final league match on Tuesday.

Do you come out of the gates swinging, or take your time to soak the pressure?

Saurabh Somani27-Oct-2020In the year 2048, when T20 cricket has been around long enough to no longer be regarded as a new format, every T20 team might have the equivalent of one Virat Kohli, two Andre Russells, two Kieron Pollards and two Hardik Pandyas in their top seven. A brutally efficient line-up to maximise a limited resource: the number of balls available in an innings.That’s for the future. On Monday, when Kolkata Knight Riders took on Kings XI Punjab, the game showed it still had space for a variety of batting modes.The Morgan-Gill adrenaline rush
They came together with the score reading 10 for 3 in two overs. Know why that was worse for the Knight Riders? Because the batsmen slated to come in next were Sunil Narine, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Pat Cummins. The Knight Riders’ batting stopped at No.5, and then fell off a cliff.The thing with T20 cricket is, that cliff is not too high and has a sandy beach as a landing pad. You’d rather not fall, but the risk of grave injury is considerably lesser. It doesn’t matter if you are three down in two overs; you still have seven wickets and 18 overs to play with. That’s not a method that is yet popular even in the IPL, the most competitive and intense league in the cricket world with a collection of the game’s best brains in various franchises. Players still feel the need to ‘rebuild’ if, for example, they’ve lost three wickets in a powerplay. Eoin Morgan and Shubman Gill didn’t, though. They didn’t care that there were no proper batsmen to come after them, or about the wickets lost earlier. If the bowler bowled a ball they thought they could hit, they went for it.For 7.5 overs and 81 runs, they put on an exhilarating show that was pure T20 batting: a premium on maximising runs per balls rather than preserving wickets. Morgan’s game seems more suited to that anyway, but Gill showed that he too had this gear. In fact, he outpaced Morgan during their partnership – Morgan’s 40 runs came off 25 balls; Gill scored 40 too, but off 22 balls.Chris Gayle goes big against spin•BCCI”The plan was to show some good intent. If we get the ball in our areas, we are going to hit it,” Gill would say later at the press conference.It didn’t result in a win, but that stand gave the Knight Riders a decent total to defend. ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster tool, which is built using past matches data and adjusted for the particular 22 players involved in that game, had the Knight Riders total pegged at 103 when they had lost their third wicket. If Morgan and Gill had gone about the innings in the traditional way, playing non-attacking cricket, that could have well been the region of their final score. But by playing the way they did, the changed the equation, they forced the bowlers off set game-plans, and they dictated the pace of the game as long as they were together.The Chris Gayle method
It’s not new, it’s not unknown, it’s not radical – but Chris Gayle’s T20 batting remains a problem that bowlers still haven’t come to grips with entirely. He has employed the same method since years. He began IPL 2020 doing the same thing too. It worked then, it works now. Gayle hits sixes. He doesn’t just hits sixes, he’s actively to hit them. Every ball.If Morgan-Gill was pure T20 batting, Gayle was pure T20 tactics. If you can clear the boundary regularly enough, it’s worth trading on the risk of a few quiet balls, even seeing off a dangerous bowler. Nobody hits more sixes than Gayle in T20 cricket. Equally important, Gayle knows whom he can hit and when. Hit two in an over, pat the other four back. It’s risky, but Gayle has minimised that risk by being better and smarter about big-hitting in T20 cricket than anyone else.He waited for the ball that he could hit, knowing it would inevitably come. The first ones came early on the day, both fourth and fifth balls bowled too full by Varun Chakravarthy. Both went over long-on and long-off. The second came nearer the end of the bat than the middle, but this was Gayle and he knew he had the power for a mis-hit to also go over given the short Sharjah boundaries.Later on, the rare sight of Gayle going for quick ones and twos caused excitement and chatter, but the chase was not settled by stealing those singles and doubles. It swung the way of Kings XI due to Gayle’s six-hitting.Mandeep Singh is emotional as he brings up a fifty•BCCIMandeep’s building blocks
The innings that Mandeep Singh played might be on the endangered list in a few years, but whenever the conditions don’t make run-scoring as easy, it will always have a place. Particularly on pitches where it’s difficult for new batsmen to come in and start biffing straightaway.Singh would later say that he told KL Rahul before his innings that, “Let me play my game. Even if I take a few balls, I have the belief that I can win the game for my team.” He had been pushed up the order because Mayank Agarwal was injured and his initial role was to take the bowling on in the powerplay. But in this game, Singh asked for a change in the script and got the backing of his captain.Would Rahul have agreed so readily to that approach if Kings XI were chasing 180 instead of 150? Probably not, but the fact that they were chasing a lower total is what made Singh’s innings not just possible, but ultimately one that had a positive impact for his team.Singh’s was not the Gayle method. He’s not a six-hitter like the West Indian, not even close. So taking his time at the start is a lot less viable for Singh than it is for Gayle, because Gayle can do it in bigger chases too. A smaller chase though, allows for a transition from watchful to busy to fast-paced. Singh’s first 11 balls brought him three runs. The next 27 balls brought him 32 runs. And his final 31 runs came off just 18 balls.That he was battling a personal tragedy with the demise of his father three days back gave the knock an emotional layer off the field. In the middle, what Mandeep showed was that an innings you could grow into could be valuable, given the right circumstances.Maybe we’ll still have room for it in 2048 too, after all.

The right-arm seamer is line to become the first Southlander to debut for NZ since Jeff Wilson in 1993

Deivarayan Muthu16-Dec-2020Around this time nine years ago, a 17-year-old Jacob Duffy made his T20 debut under Brendon McCullum for Otago and took out Northern Districts’ top three, including Kane Williamson and Tim Southee. Come Friday in the absence of a number of New Zealand seniors including Williamson and Southee, Duffy, now 26, could potentially make his international debut against Pakistan at Eden Park.The right-arm seamer is line to become the first Southlander to debut for New Zealand in international cricket since Jeff Wilson in 1993.”It’s amazing how many people reach out when you sort of get the call-up,” Duffy said two days out of the series opener in Auckland. “No, it’s pretty exciting, especially for a small community like that. I’ve really enjoyed growing up there, playing all my cricket there, and a little bit of Hawke Cup cricket and stuff. People down there are really fizzed. I remember they were fizzed up when I first played for Otago, so this is another step-up and it’s really cool.”Duffy, the Otago white-ball captain, has been among the most consistent performers in domestic cricket, and has also impressed for New Zealand A in recent times. He joins the senior side on the back of a six-wicket haul against the touring West Indians in a four-day fixture in Mount Maunganui. Earlier, in the 2019-20 Plunket Shield, he was the leading wicket-taker, with 22 strikes in five matches at an average of 22.86. He was also the second-highest wicket-taker in last season’s 50-over Ford Trophy with 21 scalps.Jacob Duffy has been among the most consistent performers for NZ A and Otago•Getty ImagesA tall bowler, Duffy can hit heavy lengths and extract extra bounce, but it is his ability to pitch the ball up and swing it which makes him an exciting addition to New Zealand’s already well-stocked seam attack. As for his T20 credentials, Duffy fronts up to bowl the tough overs at the death, and nobody has taken more wickets than him during this phase in the past four years in New Zealand’s domestic T20 competition. He has grabbed 15 wickets in 18 innings in the slog overs at an economy rate of 9.36. Duffy reckoned that his experiences of dealing with batting-friendly tracks and smaller boundaries at the domestic level would tune him up for international cricket.”You just have to play like another game,” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough in the last couple of years to play a little [bit] of A cricket, so you get to experience the international flavour and see what other people around the world have. I guess the good thing about that is you realise you’re not far off in terms of skill levels and things like that. You can actually compete with guys at the international level. So, I think that’s a big part of learning out of the [A] series and just got to take that into this [international cricket] and back your skills.”It’s about doing what I’ve been doing to get here. I’ve got a particular brand of cricket I like to play and sort of things that have worked for me in the last few years – I will just be sticking to my guns.”The Duffy brand of cricket also involves scouting and looking for clues to outsmart the opposition. “I go home and watch a lot of footage,” he said. “I’ve got my own individual plans and cater the batsmen to what plan suits best.”Duffy attributed his recent success and international call-up to remodelling his action and straightening his follow-through. After being sent to a bowling boot camp by Otago coaches Rob Walter and Anton Roux in 2016-17, Duffy missed a major chunk of on-field action but worked on his control and ability to swing the ball during his time away from the side.”Coach Rob Walter and Anton Roux sort of sent me down to…They hadn’t seen a lot of me [then], but knew something was off,” Duffy said. “I went back to the drawing board and missed a lot of cricket that summer. Honestly, that turned my career around, and I’m honestly grateful to those guys for seeing something like that. That was a massive turning point in my career and I’ve been chipping away ever since.Jacob Duffy has been Otago Volts’ go-to death bowler in the Super Smash•Getty Images”I was falling away and wasn’t swinging the ball anymore and a little bit inaccurate, doing no good to anyone. [I] just got taller at the crease and a bit straighter [with my followthrough].”New Zealand bowling coach Shane Jurgensen, who has previously worked with Duffy during his A team stint, was pleased with the seamer’s progress and looked ahead to comparing scouting notes with him.”That’s [reworking the action is] hard for a bowler, particularly for a young bowler who has sort of been in New Zealand cricket’s High Performance systems for a long time. He had to rejig a few things and he’s done so well,” Jurgensen said. “He has performed well for Otago and he has been the captain. He has had a great opportunity to control his destiny and it’s a testament to the hard work he has done. He stepped up for the New Zealand A team last year against India, which was a great series I was involved in…. He is still a young man and has a lot of time in his cricketing career.”Duffy has a few tricks up his sleeve as a bowler in T20 – he has done very well. It’s about trying to marry his strengths with what we might plan to do at this venue but also against Pakistan.”A debut at Eden Park, where the straight boundaries are ultra-short, could mean a tough initiation into international cricket for Duffy, but he hopes that his “best will be good enough.”

The performances of Curran, Gaikwad and Jadeja, however, showed there’s hope for the future

Deivarayan Muthu04-Nov-2020Where did they finish?
Second from bottom with 12 points and a net run rate of minus 0.455, failing to make the playoffs for the first time in the 11 seasons they’ve been involved in.What went right?
Sam Curran starred with the ball, bat, and in the field, showing he could be one of the key building blocks of a new-look Super Kings team in the future. The 22-year-old finished as the Super Kings’ highest wicket-taker with 13 strikes in 13 innings at an economy rate of 8.19. With the bat, he came straight out of quarantine and won the Super Kings the tournament-opener against the Mumbai Indians before making another match-winning contribution as an opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad.Ruturaj Gaikwad’s three half-centuries towards the end not only helped the Super Kings exit the tournament on a high, but also gave the team management and fans hope that the future isn’t too bad after all.With Shane Watson managing just two fifties in 11 innings, Faf du Plessis carried the batting line-up with 449 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 140.75. Among openers who faced at least 100 balls in the powerplay, du Plessis’ strike rate of 138.21 was behind only Ben Stokes’ 142.74. In an ageing Super Kings side, he was a bit of an oddity in the field as well, patrolling the long-on and long-off boundaries with his magnetic hands.What went wrong?
A lot. Let’s start with MS Dhoni, whose personal worst season coincided with the team’s worst season. For the first time in 13 IPL seasons, Dhoni ended without a single half-century. Dhoni – and coach Stephen Fleming – were probably too rigid with their tactics, opting against replacements for Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh who had both pulled out of the tournament.They backed their senior players hoping they would click at some point, but that didn’t come to pass as Kedar Jadhav, M Vijay and Watson struggled with the bat and in the field. Injuries to Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayudu and du Plessis at various points in the season didn’t help them either. And by the time they identified their most balanced XI, recalling Gaikwad, Imran Tahir and Lungi Ngidi, they were all but out of contention for the playoffs.Away from Chepauk, their spinners lacked penetration. Ravindra Jadeja managed only six wickets – his joint second-fewest tally in an IPL season – at an average of 53.00 and economy rate of 8.75. Piyush Chawla and Karn Sharma, the two Indian legspinners, were only defensive at best and the Super Kings perhaps erred in not giving the more attacking and experienced Tahir a go sooner in the tournament. After being the top wicket-taker in IPL 2019, Tahir got only three games for the solitary wicket of Chris Gayle this season.Ravindra Jadeja had a superb season with the bat, but he and Piyush Chawla struggled for penetration with the ball•BCCIKey numbers
Dhoni made only 200 runs, his lowest tally in an IPL season, at a strike rate of 116.27, his second-lowest in an IPL season. Dhoni’s seven sixes were also his fewest in an IPL season. The Super Kings had the second-worst run rate of all teams in the powerplay (7.13) as well as the middle overs (7.37). They did step it up in the death, though, with a run rate of 11.06. Only Mumbai had a better run rate than the Super Kings in this phase.Star performers
In his first IPL season with the Super Kings, Curran was their do-it-all boy, winning Dhoni’s trust and exceeding Fleming’s expectations.After recovering from Covid-19 and a rough start to the league in the middle order, Gaikwad made a belated but strong impact at the top with his lofted drives and punches against both pace and spin. He became the first Super Kings batsman to score three successive fifties.Jadeja revelled in the finishing role, striking at 214.11 from overs 17 to 20. Among batsmen who faced a minimum of 70 balls this season, only Kieron Pollard, AB de Villiers, Hardik Pandya and Eoin Morgan had a better strike rate than Jadeja at the death.What needs immediate fixing?
Both Dhoni and Fleming have admitted that the Super Kings need to revamp their core group for the next decade. Releasing the likes of Jadhav, Chawla, Vijay and Raina, who has had fitness issues and hasn’t played any competitive cricket since IPL 2019, can enhance their purse ahead of the next auction, where they could hunt for younger batsmen and spinners. With Dhoni the batsman fading away, they also need a finisher who can share the load with Jadeja.

All the statistical highlights from Pakistan’s highest successful chase against hosts South Africa

Sampath Bandarupalli02-Apr-2021274 Target chased by Pakistan in the first ODI in Centurion, their highest successful chase against South Africa in South Africa in this format. Pakistan’s previous highest chase against the home team in South Africa was 267 in Port Elizabeth during their 2018-19 tour. The 274 chase is also Pakistan’s second-highest in the country and their third-biggest against the hosts.Related

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6 Instances of Pakistan winning an ODI on the last ball while chasing. Only South Africa – in seven instances overall – have won more ODI chases on the final ball than Pakistan. The latest win was the first of its kind for Pakistan since April 2005 in Ahmedabad, where they defeated India while chasing 316.
The Centurion ODI was only the third instance of South Africa losing an ODI on the final ball. Their other such defeats came in 2000 and 2001 respectively, against Zimbabwe and West Indies.76 Innings required by Babar Azam to score his 13th century in ODIs, the fastest to this feat in men’s cricket. Australia women’s captain Meg Lanning, too, took 76 innings to reach her 13th ODI hundred. Hashim Amla was the previous quickest to 13 tons in men’s ODIs, needing 83 innings.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2 Centuries as captain in ODI cricket for Babar. The 26-year-old scored 125 against Zimbabwe in his previous innings, making him the first Pakistan captain with successive ODI tons. Babar’s 103 is also the highest individual score by a Pakistan captain in a successful ODI chase.177 Partnership runs for the second wicket between Imam-ul-Haq and Babar, the second-highest for Pakistan against South Africa in ODI cricket. The highest is 257 between Saleem Elahi and Abdul Razzaq in 2002, also for the second wicket.1 Player with more centuries while chasing in ODIs for Pakistan than Babar. The hundred against South Africa on Friday was his fourth across 40 ODI chases. Saeed Anwar leads the list with ten centuries from 105 chases in ODIs.0 Players older than Rassie van der Dussen (32 years and 54 days) at the time of their maiden ODI century for South Africa. Mike Rindel was the previous oldest player to a maiden ODI ton for South Africa as he was 31 years and 337 days old when he scored 106 in 1995, also against Pakistan. Former allrounder Shaun Pollock was 33 years and 325 days of age during his maiden ODI ton in 2007, but he was representing Africa XI in that game.

All the statistical highlights from the five-match Women’s ODI series

Sampath Bandarupalli18-Mar-20216 Consecutive ODI series won by India Women before the 1-4 loss against South Africa Women. The streak of six consecutive series wins was the longest for India Women in the format, where they won 13 of the 18 matches played. The series defeat against South Africa was just the sixth instance of India Women losing a bilateral ODI series at home.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2 ODI series in women’s cricket with five or more matches before this one between India and South Africa where the chasing team won all the games. The series between New Zealand and England in 2000 witnessed all five ODIs won by the chasing team; another series between the same teams in 2010 ended in the same manner.ESPNcricinfo Ltd53.15 Bowling average of Indian spinners in the series against South Africa, their worst in a Women’s ODI series/tournament where they bowled 100 or more overs. The bowling strike rate of 70.7 by the Indian spinners in the five-match ODI series is also their worst in a series/tournament of this format.1 Mithali Raj became the first player to complete 7000 runs in women’s ODIs. No other player has breached the 6000-run milestone even. During this series, Raj also became just the second player after Charlotte Edwards (10273) to complete 10000 runs in women’s international cricket.ESPNcricinfo Ltd3 Centuries by Lizelle Lee in ODI cricket, the most by any player for South Africa Women in this format. Lee’s unbeaten 132 in the third match of the series was the third-highest ODI score for her team, and the fourth-highest individual score in a Women’s ODI chase.10 successive fifty-plus scores for Smriti Mandhana in an ODI chase since the start of 2018. She is the first player to accomplish this feat. In all, she scored 743 runs at an average of 123.83 in those ten ODI chases.ESPNcricinfo Ltd150 Wickets taken by Shabnim Ismail in her ODI career, the first South African and the seventh player with 150-plus wickets in women’s ODIs. Ismail completed the milestone in the fourth ODI, which was her 105th match of the format. Only Cathryn Fitzpatrick (91) reached 150 women’s ODI wickets quicker than Ismail.4 Fifty-plus scores by South Africa’s top four batters in the fourth ODI. It was only the second instance in Women’s ODI cricket where players batting in the top four positions scored 50-plus runs in the same innings. The South African team also created the first instance of four players scoring 50-plus runs in a women’s ODI chase.ESPNcricinfo Ltd62.6 Bowling strike rate of spin bowlers during this five-match ODI series, the worst in any women’s ODI series/tournament wherever they bowled at least 150 overs. The Indian spinners picked up 13 wickets at a strike rate of 70.7, while the visitors claimed six wickets, with each one coming every 45 balls.0 Players older than Raj and Jhulan Goswami (38) to represent India in a women’s ODI game. They take over from Diana Edulji who was 37 years and 184 days old when she played her last game in 1993.68 Runs conceded by Radha Yadav, the second-most by any player on Women’s ODI debut. Cara Murray of Ireland gave away 119 runs on her ODI debut against New Zealand in 2018.

Here’s how the six teams look after the two mini replacement drafts ahead of the second leg

Umar Farooq08-Jun-2021The Pakistan Super League (PSL) had two mini replacement drafts for the six franchises to complete their teams ahead of the second leg of the 2021 edition of the tournament, which had been suspended after 14 matches in March following a spate of Covid-19 cases among players and support staff in Karachi. It will resume on June 9 in Abu Dhabi, with Lahore Qalandars set to take on Islamabad United.If it hadn’t been paused, PSL 2021 would have ended with the final in Lahore on March 22. Between then and now, several overseas players – who were part of the first leg – have withdrawn from the tournament due to various reasons.Where the teams stand on the points tableAmid the logistical challenges, all six franchises were allowed to pick two additional players in their original squads, with at least one overseas player, increasing squad sizes from 18 to 20. The earlier playing conditions had stated that each team had to feature at least three or a maximum of four overseas players in their XIs, but given the growing obstacles around the Covid-19 pandemic, the number has been reduced to minimum of two overseas players and maximum of four in the XI for each team. Here’s a look at all the changes in the squads ahead of the second leg.

Karachi Kings

Form guide: WLWLW (most recent first)OUT: Colin Ingram, Mohammad Nabi, Dan Christian, Joe Clarke, Liton DasIN: Thisara Perera, Najibullah Zadran, Martin Guptill, Mohammad HarisPlaying XI (before postponement): Sharjeel Khan, Babar Azam, Joe Clarke, Colin Ingram, Dan Christian, Imad Wasim (capt), Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Ilyas, Mohammad Amir, Waqas Maqsood, Arshad IqbalESPNcricinfo LtdRelated

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Peshawar Zalmi

Form guide: LWWWL (most recent first)OUT: Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Ravi BoparaIN: Fabian Allen, Fidel Edwards, Rovman Powell, Waqar Salamkheil, Hazratullah ZazaiPlaying XI (before postponement): Kamran Akmal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shoaib Malik (capt), Haider Ali, Ravi Bopara/David Miller, Sherfane Rutherford, Amad Butt, Umaid Asif, Saqib Mahmood, Mohammad Imran, Mohammad IrfanESPNcricinfo Ltd

Islamabad United

Form guide: WLWW (most recent first)OUT: Alex Hales, Lewis Gregory, Phil Salt, Janneman MalanIN: Mohammad Akhlaq, Usman Khawaja, Umar Amin, Brandon KingPlaying XI (before postponement): Phil Salt, Alex Hales, Shadab Khan (capt), Hussain Talat, Asif Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Lewis Gregory, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Zafar GoharESPNcricinfo Ltd

Lahore Qalandars

Form guide: WLWW (most recent first)OUT: David Wiese, Joe Denly, Tom Abell, Samit Patel, Shakib Al HasanIN: Rashid Khan, James Faulkner, Callum Ferguson, Seekkuge Prasanna, Tim David, Sultan AhmedPlaying XI (before postponement): Fakhar Zaman, Sohail Akhtar (capt), Joe Denly, Mohammad Hafeez, Ben Dunk, Samit Patel, David Wiese, Zeeshan Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Ahmed Daniyal, Haris RaufESPNcricinfo Ltd

Multan Sultans

Form guide: LLWLL (most recent first)OUT: Chris Lynn, James Vince, Adam Lyth, Carlos Brathwaite, Obed McCoy, Shahid Afridi, MahmudullahIN: Blessing Muzarabani, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Asif Afridi, Hammad Azam, Shimron Hetmyer, Johnson Charles, Waseem MuhammadPlaying XI (before postponement): Chris Lynn, Mohammad Rizwan (capt), James Vince, Sohaib Maqsood, Rilee Rossouw, Khushdil Shah, Shahid Afridi, Carlos Brathwaite, Sohail Khan, Usman Qadir, Shahnawaz DhaniESPNcricinfo Ltd

Quetta Gladiators

Form guide: WLLLL (most recent first)OUT: Tom Banton, Dale Steyn, Anwar Ali, Chris Gayle, Ben CuttingIN: Andre Russell, Jack Wildermuth, Jake Weatherald, Khurram Shehzad, Zahir KhanPlaying XI (before postponement): Usman Khan, Saim Ayub, Faf du Plessis, Azam Khan, Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt), Ben Cutting, Mohammad Nawaz, Qais Ahmad, Zahid Mahmood, Dale Steyn, Mohammad HasnainGetty Images

Stats highlights from Bangladesh’s fantastic recovery on the second day of the Harare Test

ESPNcricinfo stats team08-Jul-20211 Partnership for the ninth wicket which has yielded more runs than the 191 that Mahmudullah and Taskin Ahmed added in Harare. The all-time record belongs to Mark Boucher and Pat Symcox, who added 195 against Pakistan in Johannesburg in 1998. The Bangladesh pair missed the record by just four runs. Interestingly, Mahmudullah features twice in the top four: he added 184 with Abul Hasan for the ninth wicket against West Indies in Khulna in 2012.ESPNcricinfo Ltd7 Instances of a batter scoring more than 150 from No. 8 or lower in Tests. Mahmudullah is the eighth member of a club that also includes Wasim Akram, Imtiaz Ahmed, Kamran Akmal, Clem Hill, Jason Holder, Ian Smith and Stuart Broad. The previous best score for Bangladesh’s Nos. 8-11 was also by Mahmudullah, when he scored 115 against New Zealand in Hamilton in 2010.336 Runs added by the last four wickets for Bangladesh, which helped them improve from 132 for 6 to 468 all out. Only seven times have the last four wickets added more runs in a Test innings – the highest is 450 by Pakistan against New Zealand in Lahore in 1955, when they recovered from 111 for 6 to 561. Bangladesh’s previous highest for the last four wickets was 212.320 Runs scored by Bangladesh’s last five batters (Nos. 7-11). There are only five instances of more runs being added by the last five batters in an innings. The highest is 363, by Australia against England way back in 1925.ESPNcricinfo Ltd44.68 Mahmudullah’s Test average when batting at No. 8 or lower, which is the highest among all batters who have batted at least 20 times in these positions. The only other batter with a 40-plus average is West Indies’ John Goddard (42.91 in 20 innings). When batting in the top seven positions, Mahmudullah averages 30.36 from 72 innings.16 Batters who have scored two or more hundreds from Nos. 8-11. Daniel Vettori leads with five centuries, while R Ashwin, Jason Holder and Kamran Akmal have three each. Mahmudullah is one of 12 batsmen with two centuries at these positions.

They have a tall and young left-arm seamer, and a batter reaching his prime to fill key roles for the future

Firdose Moonda29-Dec-20211:08

Rabada: ‘We just have to show belief’

It’s going to take an effort that we haven’t seen since Colombo 2014 or luck that last occurred in Hamilton in 2017 for South Africa to pull off a great escape or win in Centurion. Against this Indian attack on this SuperSport Park pitch, that seems unlikely. So it’s to the analysis we turn.We already know that this performance has shown South Africa the importance of starting well with the ball and has underlined the problems of inexperience in their top six but it has also shown them that in this XI, there are two relative unknowns with the potential to carve out successful careers. Marco Jansen and Keegan Petersen are part of the future and should be treated as such. In them, South Africa have a young bowler, and a batter reaching his prime to fill key roles in their rebuild.While finding promising quicks has seldom been an issue for South Africa, finding variation sometimes has been. Beuran Hendricks is the last left-arm seamer to play for South Africa after Wayne Parnell and Lonwabo Tsotsobe in the last decade. None of them stuck for too long but Jansen, who is quicker, could be different. At 21-years-old and having already been courted by the IPL, South Africa have to manage him carefully and his call-up to the Test squad over the last year was seen as a means of clever planning without any strong indication that he would play imminently. Until Boxing Day.Jansen found himself in the spotlight after he was chosen ahead of Duanne Olivier, only for it to emerge that Olivier was unavailable for selection because of a hamstring niggle and the lingering effects from Covid-19. Confirmation on the reasons for Olivier’s omission, which came as a surprise given he is the leading wicket-taker in the first-class competition this season, only came from CSA’s selection convenor on day two, after South Africa conceded 272 runs and took just three wickets on the opening day. Jansen bowled 17 overs and finished with 0 for 61 on the day, including an opening over which cost 12.In the absence of any clear information on Olivier’s absence until then, comparisons were being made between Jansen’s performance and what Olivier could have offered. Those were unfair, because Jansen was not preferred over Olivier but was necessitated to play. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the team management was concerned about the impact of early and harsh critique on Jansen but once the selection debacle was cleared up, they needn’t really have been. As Kagiso Rabada said, Jansen went on to “justify his selection” in the last two days.It was in India’s second innings that Jansen came into his own. He took a wicket with his first ball, which angled across Mayank Agarwal to take an edge, consistently bowled around 140kmph, exploited the uneven bounce with good use of the short ball. He dismissed the man he had impressed at the Wanderers nets almost four years ago as a teenager, Virat Kohli, had Ajinkya Rahane caught, who was unable to control the hook from chest height, and finished the Indian second innings with the perfect ball to a tail-ender.It was a moment to savour for Marco Jansen, as he removed Virat Kohli first ball after the lunch break•Gallo Images/Getty Images”He is a phenomenal talent as everyone has now seen,” Rabada said. “He is an awkward customer to face. He is tall and he’s got pace and he can swing the ball as well so there’s swing, bounce and pace coming at you. And he seems like he wants to learn. He is a hard worker. He is really keen on doing well for this team and for himself.”That’s the kind of player South Africa want to nurture and they must not make the same mistake they did with another young quick, Lutho Sipamla. At this same ground, Sipamla debuted a year ago and his first 10 overs in Test cricket cost 66 runs as questions about his readiness abounded. He went on to take 10 for 101 in the rest of the series against Sri Lanka, but has not played since.Despite being South Africa A’s leading bowler against India A and with good domestic returns this season, Sipamla is not even in the 21-player squad to face India and there has been no explanation why. Earlier this summer he told ESPNcricinfo that he understood there is a pecking order and he needs to bide his time but he considers himself part of the system, a system in which Jansen has now leapfrogged him. But Jansen could face similar uncertainty.Olivier is expected to be fit for the Wanderers Test, where he has taken 24 out of his 28 wickets this season, and has to come back into contention. Unless South Africa go all pace, that may mean Jansen has to make way and it will seem harsh. But South Africa have five more Tests scheduled this summer and a winter tour to England and they should stick with Jansen for some of that.Whether Petersen will get a similar run remains to be seen, but there is a strong case to be made that he should. After first being selected in the squad in the 2019-20 summer, Petersen waited 18 months for his debut in the West Indies in June and has just played his first Test at home. Early impressions of him are that he looks like a million dollars. He is elegant on the flick and the drive, authoritative on the cut and though we didn’t get to see it in this Test, he has got the footwork to play spin according to his domestic coach Imraan KhanDespite his lack of significant runs, only good things have been said about Petersen so far. South Africa’s former analyst Prasanna Agoram said Petersen should be “permanent No.3” irrespective of his returns in the next 10 Tests while Ian Bishop called Petersen’s technique “pleasing” and predicted “a couple of Test hundreds” from him “in the appropriate conditions.”

Keegan Petersen plays in lovely straight lines has a pleasing technique. Looks like he has a couple of test hundreds in him in the appropriate conditions.

— Ian Raphael Bishop (@irbishi) December 29, 2021