Australia maintain grip on final despite missed chances and careless oversteps

Andrew McGlashan09-Jun-2023Shortly before leaving for this tour of England, Pat Cummins posted a short promotional clip on social media of him bowling in the nets in Sydney. Alongside how the boys were all “buzzing” for the tour, he also wrote: “P.s. Yes I know this is a no ball” as the side-on shot showed him overstepping.There were no consequences on that day, but that was not the case at The Oval a few weeks later. Cummins cost himself two lbw decisions that were given on the field – against Ajinkya Rahane on the second day and Shardul Thakur on the third – with replays also showing an appeal that was aborted against Ravindra Jadeja due to a no-ball call would also have been out if given or reviewed.There was plenty of threat in the 20 overs from Cummins but it was an unusually messy performance from him. Moments after the Thakur decision had been scrubbed off, followed by a wasted review when the ball hadn’t been nicked, he kicked the ball past the stumps at the end of the opening session, even though Mitchell Starc later claimed there had been no frustration, he just spotted the batter out of his crease.Either way, the errors were not just Cummins’. Early in the day as he was working Thakur over with some brutal short deliveries, Cameron Green spilled a regulation chance at gully. David Warner was later unable to hold an edge high to his left at first slip off Rahane, perhaps distracted by Alex Carey’s initial movement.For Green, though, redemption came in stunning fashion when he pulled off an unbelievable grab to end Rahane’s hopes of a comeback century, using all his reach and reflexes to pluck the chance high to his right. There might have been a few apologies in the subsequent celebratory huddle; Green for his previous lapse and Cummins for his misplaced boot.”We made a bit of a meal of it in the morning but I thought our bowlers were exceptional after lunch, after we addressed that we were quite poor,” Marnus Labuschagne told . “Not much needed to be said. Pat just addressed it, said we weren’t good enough and we’ve all played enough cricket to know that was fair.”Cummins told his side that hadn’t been good enough in a lacklustre morning session•ICC/Getty ImagesCummins has never had the reputation of someone with a significant no-ball problem, although like a number of bowlers, he has been called much more frequently since the advent of the automated front-foot technology which has taken the job away from the on-field umpires.The six no-balls he was called for here was the most he has served up in any international innings. Ricky Ponting largely put it down to having not played since the end of February when he left the tour of India early. It would be interesting to know how many uncalled no-balls Cummins (and the other Australian quicks) sent down during their training days in Liverpool and Beckenham.Still, Cummins being the champion cricketer that he is, still ended up having a significant impact on India’s innings, having pinned Rohit Sharma lbw the previous day then cleaning up Umesh Yadav after Green’s wonder catch. However, his economy rate of 4.15 made this his most expensive outing in Test cricket where he had sent down more than eight overs.”We all came into the game feeling pretty good,” Starc said. “Obviously the game-time rhythm is a little bit different so we all struggled slightly yesterday, think we felt a bit better today. The fact we’ve still taken 10 wickets and created more than 10 chances throughout the first innings is a good sign but we’ve got plenty of room to improve. We’ll be better for the run.”Related

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Without wanting to move on too quickly from what is a World Championship final, the other interesting aspect to what was a rather lacklustre period of cricket from Australia before lunch is how they responded to the counterattack of Rahane and Thakur. In case you had not clocked it yet, they are about to come up against Bazball. “I’m intrigued to see how it goes against our bowlers, I’ve said that all along,” Steven Smith said the previous evening.As India’s seventh-wicket stand rollicked along at more than five an over, it was likely a little preview of what the next seven weeks will have in store for Australia’s attack. They may very well be good enough to counter the aggression – this is a bowling group that ticks almost every box and will likely leave out either Josh Hazlewood or Scott Boland at Edgbaston – but there was still a sense that they had been knocked a little off course.Early in the tour, assistant coach Daniel Vettori had been asked about the challenge posed by England’s batters. He cited an example of an innings from Niroshan Dickwella last year in Galle which put the pressure back on Australia’s bowlers who had been in control.”For us as a bowling group … that is one of the key points, we can’t allow that to happen,” Vettori said. “The game gets away from you quickly, even though you think you are on top and I think that is why England are so good.”In Galle, Australia regained control and later won the match, and at The Oval it never felt their grip on the contest was completely loosened. An Australia win seems very likely. But that pre-lunch period was a reminder that keeping calm will be key in the weeks to come.

With only 150 to chase, he could have taken a safer route. Instead, he smashed 98 not out off 47 balls to take down KKR

Sreshth Shah12-May-20234:50

Dasgupta: ‘Jaiswal’s innings was absolutely flawless’

On Thursday, if Yashasvi Jaiswal had started his innings with caution, you would have understood why. With only 150 to chase, there was merit in the opening batter to have a watchful start, protect his wicket against the new ball, and get his bearings before cashing in. With Jos Buttler at the other end, there was little reason to go too hard at the top, and in an era of data-driven cricket, even more so against an offspinner who can take the ball away.Therefore, it seemed to be a smart ploy from Nitish Rana to bowl the first over for Kolkata Knight Riders. Rana is a handy part-time spinner with a somewhat golden arm, and the idea to sneak in a quiet first over wasn’t a bad one. Worst case for Rana, if the over didn’t go as planned, at least it was a brave attempt to buy an early wicket since that was the only way in for KKR in their defence of 149. Instead, it turned out to be an expensive decision. Jaiswal hit Rana for 26 runs, the most by a batter in the opening over of an IPL innings.But you can’t blame Rana for bowling that over; you can only praise Jaiswal. The batter came down the track first ball and hit it for a six, and followed it up with another next ball. In all the years of IPL cricket, only once had that been done before – Virat Kohli in 2019 against Varun Aaron in a five-over match – and even after the 12 runs off the first two balls, Jaiswal was only whetting his appetite. Three of the next four balls in the over went for boundaries, the fourth ball very nearly did too.Related

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Those six balls showed such pristine form that even Buttler did not hesitate to sacrifice his wicket next over. On zero, Buttler had turned down Jaiswal for a single but the youngster hadn’t spotted it and had run through. Once Buttler noticed that, he made the split-second decision to cross Jaiswal so that Jaiswal would not be out.”When I saw Nitish bowl, I thought that if I can get runs off him with my shots then I should go for it,” Jaiswal said after the match. “You never know how someone will bowl their first ball, but after spotting the field placements, I calculated what my shot options were.”Between Jos and me, I am learning a lot. Today, he sacrificed his wicket because of my error, and I really respect that. We all know that it happens in the game, nobody does it purposely. But that was the moment where I decided to take responsibility, thinking ‘it is okay’ but I need to take responsibility from here on.”

“I also know that I will not bat like this every day. I have to accept that on some days my shots will pay off and on other days they won’t. So it is important to continue learning irrespective of how my innings pans out”Yashasvi Jaiswal

Jaiswal did not let Buttler’s sacrifice go to waste. He pulled Harshit Rana for a six, enjoyed some luck to earn four overthrows, and then tore into Shardul Thakur with a hat-trick of fours.He first hit Shardul by moving leg side and driving an inswinger, then by pulling through midwicket and finally following it up with another drive through the covers. On 49 off 12 balls, Jaiswal had very nearly broken the all-time record for the fastest T20 fifty. On the next delivery, he shaved one ball off the IPL record.”I was very excited,” Jaiswal said. “When I reached the 13-ball fifty, for a brief moment I thought there was a chance it was the fastest IPL fifty, but I wasn’t sure till I found out after the game. I enjoyed that moment, I celebrated also, I did this [flexes his right arm] and this [flexes his left arm]. I told myself, ‘Let’s celebrate.'”The quality of the shots he played and the fluency with which they travelled to the boundary was the highlight of Jaiswal’s fifty, but even more impressive was his clear thinking. Jaiswal did not approach his innings based on what the target was. Neither did he change his style in the aftermath of the Buttler dismissal, nor was it a case of ‘see ball, hit ball’. Instead, Jaiswal’s mantra was to scan the field, identify scoring options and then remain wholly committed to it. It is that sort of mindset that has made Jaiswal the frontrunner for the orange cap and the emerging player award, and holistically takes him closer to becoming a complete batter.Coming into the KKR game, Jaiswal’s ball-per-boundary ratio of 3.1 in the powerplay this season was the best. He is also extremely quick off the blocks, possessing the second-best strike rate (175) and an even better ball-per-boundary ratio (2.9) in his first ten balls of an innings. Even though he scores faster against pace bowlers, he is yet to be dismissed by spin in IPL 2023. These quick bursts have set him up for success this season, with the KKR innings now giving him his fifth 50-plus score in 12 innings and very nearly a second IPL 2023 century, having already hit 124 against Mumbai Indians.Yashasvi Jaiswal takes a bow after hitting the winning runs•BCCI”Every wicket has a different behaviour and you play according to that wicket and the ball being bowled,” Jaiswal said on his consistency this season. “I try to understand what they [the bowlers] can do, where they can bowl, and what the field is. And I try to understand the wicket also. Because sometimes that can go in your favour if you understand the wicket. My preparation has been focused around my discipline lately. Because after fielding for 20 overs with high intensity, you have to go bat. That’s why I am working on my fitness and the mental aspect of the game.”I also know that I will not bat like this every day. I have to accept that on some days my shots will pay off and on other days they won’t. So it is important to continue learning irrespective of how my innings pans out. Around me, there are many experienced players and I keep talking to them about how to keep your mindset as a batter. The legends like MS [Dhoni] sir, Virat Kohli sir and Jos and Sanju [Samson] … whenever I meet them, I try to learn what more I can add to my game and how I can control my mind.”In his last 20 balls, Jaiswal caught on to the fact that Samson was timing it better and therefore took a back seat. Samson pumped five sixes and two fours in his unbeaten 29-ball 48, but that also meant there were not enough runs left for Jaiswal to reach his century. Needing six to get the century but only three to finish the game, the winning runs from Jaiswal could only be a four, leaving him stranded on 98 off 47 deliveries. For all intents and purposes, it was a century, with Jaiswal also treating it like that, removing his helmet and bowing to the camera after the game was buried.”I thought that I will go for a six to get the hundred if I could, but it is okay,” Jaiswal said. “The other thing I had in mind was that I have to play long and finish the games, so even at the end, that was the only thought in my mind, to leave the field by finishing the game. I will remember this innings a lot. It was short-lived but also very intense.”

He took a wicket off a no-ball once again and burned two reviews, before finding his groove to help India salvage something from the first day in Indore

Karthik Krishnaswamy01-Mar-2023Two balls, one after the other, behaving in entirely different ways: a defining feature of day one of the third Border-Gavaskar Test match in Indore, where a series of pitches with variable pace, turn and bounce reached a new level of variable.Ravindra Jadeja had been the recipient of two such balls earlier in the day, from Nathan Lyon. He’d successfully reviewed an lbw decision off the first ball, which had skidded into his back pad before he could bring his bat down, but he’d fallen to the next ball, which stopped on him and turned, causing him to drag an attempted square cut far straighter than intended. Aiming to slap the ball through point, he ended up caught by short extra-cover moving to his left.Now, two sessions later, in the 39th over of Australia’s innings, Jadeja bowled two such balls to Usman Khawaja. The first kept low, and the second spat up towards the batter’s gloves. Khawaja kept out the first, jabbing down hurriedly, and survived the next one, fending it between short leg and leg gully.Related

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At that point, Jadeja had figures of 16.3-4-45-2. Excellent, you’d think, until you viewed them in the context of the match situation. India had been bowled out for 109 in a mere 33.2 overs. Australia were 115 for 2 in 38.3 overs.It could have been different, but it wasn’t, and Jadeja had been in the thick of all the coulda woulda shoulda. He’d got Marnus Labuschagne to play on in just his second over, and Australia could have been 14 for 2, but he’d overstepped. It was the third time in the series that he’d had a wicket struck off for that reason.Not too long after that, Jadeja had played a part in burning two reviews against Khawaja. Ball-tracking suggested that both balls would have gone on to miss leg stump comfortably, and the first one also happened to pitch and strike Khawaja’s front pad outside leg stump.In the over after the second review, R Ashwin didn’t get to review a not-out decision when he struck Labuschagne’s front pad. The ball was a near-replay of Labuschagne’s dismissal in the first innings of the Delhi Test, and Ashwin had got his man only after taking recourse to the DRS. In Indore, however, India were perhaps too wary of asking for a review soon after they’d used up two in quick succession.Australia could have been – couldabeen, even – 38 for 2, but they weren’t.And so it went, as Khawaja and Labuschagne built the day’s biggest partnership, by far. They put on 96 runs, and occupied the crease for 198 balls. The entire India innings had lasted 200 balls.It wasn’t that India didn’t threaten to break this stand at various points. But it was the kind of day when nothing seemed to go their way. When Jadeja finally broke the second-wicket stand, the shooter he bowled Labuschagne with was the 49th ball of Australia’s innings to draw a false shot, according to ESPNcricinfo’s control data.Australia lost two wickets over those 49 not-in-control balls. India lost all 10 over the course of 51 not-in-control balls.Luck, it would seem, was on Australia’s side but they also had other things going for them. Pitches with sharp turn reduce a spinner’s margin for error, and both Ashwin and Jadeja took a while finding their groove. They beat the bat regularly from a traditional good length, and in the effort to bowl fuller and find the edge, they offered up more scoring opportunities than they otherwise might have. India couldn’t afford to attack too much given their low total, and their in-out fields were both a necessity and a source of frustration as Khawaja and Labuschagne picked up a steady stream of singles to deep fielders.It was that kind of day, the kind that’s usually reserved for visiting teams in India. But like they did in Pune six years ago, turning conditions can occasionally backfire on India. They know it, but they feel they play their best cricket on such pitches. Vikram Rathour, India’s batting coach, said as much in his end-of-day press conference.Steven Smith was dismissed late in the day as Ravindra Jadeja helped India claw back some lost ground•Getty Images”Of course you can collapse as a batting unit at times, but the thing is that we do prefer to play on turning tracks because I think that is our strength, that is where we are really good as a team,” he said. “How much that wicket turned, to be fair, the earlier two wickets, I don’t think they were bad wickets by any standard, they were wickets which turned, which we prefer.”Pitch preparation isn’t an exact science, and the same intentions applied to three different strips of turf can produce three very different pitches. Rathour said India were taken by surprise by just how much the ball turned on this Indore pitch, but he sympathised with the groundstaff for having had to prepare it at short notice.”Today it was drier than we expected and we saw that it did more,” Rathour said. “First day of a Test match, it did a lot more than we expected. But to be fair on the curators also, I think they hardly got time to prepare this wicket. They had a Ranji Trophy season here, and then it was pretty late that it was decided that the game was shifted from Dharamshala to this venue, so I don’t think they got enough time to really prepare the wicket.”On this pitch, batting seemed to become slightly easier as the day wore on. It may have been down to early moisture drying out over time, or to Australia batting for longer against an older ball, or to a pair of set batters spending a significant length of time at the crease. Whatever it was, it reflected in the control numbers.Australia’s batters achieved a control percentage of nearly 79 over their innings. India’s figure was just above 74%.But the uncertainty India’s bowlers created through Australia’s innings began reaping rewards after tea. The occasional frustrations of Jadeja had defined India’s bowling performance until then; now it became all about the one quality, above all, that’s made him a great cricketer – his persistence.Sometimes it can feel like a mildly negative quality; it took him until his 18th over to try bowling from over the wicket to the left-hander, by which time Khawaja was on 60. The change of angle caused immediate uncertainty out of the footmarks outside off stump, and brought out Khawaja’s sweep – he missed one, and top-edged his next attempt to the fielder at deep square leg.But it’s also a sign of Jadeja’s trust in his methods that it took him so long to try the new angle. The methods, the trust, and the skill underlying it all brought him, soon after, the wickets of Labuschagne and Steven Smith, and Australia’s false-shots-to-dismissal ratio reverted to the mean. By stumps, they’d lost four wickets while playing 69 false shots, and while they were still ahead of the game at 156 for 4, they were not nearly as far ahead as they may have hoped when they’d bowled India out so quickly.Jadeja had been the meme at the centre of it all: If you don’t love me at my *insert overstepping visual*, you don’t deserve me at my *insert wicket celebration*.

No batter has averaged as much going into his 100th Test, while his unbelievable six-year peak and his stats against the best bowlers make him one of the greatest

S Rajesh (with inputs from Shiva Jayaraman)05-Jul-2023When Steven Smith was dismissed for 34 in Australia’s second innings at Lord’s, it meant that he would miss out on being the first batter to go into his 100th Test with a 60-plus average – he fell short of that mark by 67 runs.That was an opportunity missed for Smith, but the mere fact that he got closer to this feat than any batter in Test history speaks of the staggering numbers he has racked up. Smith will enter his 100th Test with an average of 59.56; before him, the highest any batter had achieved going into the landmark game was 58.16, by Rahul Dravid. Dravid eventually finished with a career average of 52.31, which was still wonderful, but in his last 64 Tests, his average dropped by almost six runs.Can Smith maintain these exceptional standards all the way till the end of his career?ESPNcricinfo LtdThe dizzying highs
All top-class batters have periods in their career when they strike extraordinary form. With Smith, what stands out is how high that peak has been, how long he has maintained it, and the different conditions he has conquered during this period.Through a six-year period from 2014 to 2019, he averaged 72 from 56 matches, scoring 24 centuries, which works out to a hundred every 2.3 matches. Not bad for a player who started off as a legspinner, batted at Nos. 8 and 9 on debut, and bowled more overs (21) than he scored runs (13) in that Test. Since 2020, the numbers have dropped a bit, but he still averages very nearly 50 in those 27 Tests.

Individual brilliance and a few incredible selection gambles have helped Australia reach the World Cup final after a disastrous start

Alex Malcolm18-Nov-2023Australia have won eight matches in a row to reach yet another World Cup final. It has been a remarkable turnaround after a disastrous lead-in to the tournament and a poor start to the campaign itself. They had lost five of their last six ODIs heading into the event and were comprehensively beaten in their opening two matches of the tournament itself. They have managed to turn it around in stunning fashion, thanks to some amazing individual performances and a couple of incredible selection gambles. Here is how it has all come together.

Problematic preparation and early losses

Australia’s start to the tournament could not have been worse. Having lost three games to South Africa and two more to India to lose back-to-back series in the lead-in to the tournament, nothing was going right.Travis Head was at home nursing a broken hand. Australia’s second spinner Ashton Agar had been ruled out of the tournament and they opted to replace him with a specialist batter in Marnus Labuschagne, who had not been named in the initial 18-man squad. Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc and Steven Smith were all underdone due to injury-riddled preparations. Marcus Stoinis had a hamstring issue. Adam Zampa was sore and ill. Cameron Green and Alex Carey were out of form and Pat Cummins had captained just two ODIs in his career heading into the World Cup.Related

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They limped to 199 in the opening game against India. There was a moment where they could have had India 20 for 4, but Mitchell Marsh dropped Virat Kohli and India cruised to victory. Against South Africa they were annihilated, conceding 311 for 7 and making just 177 in reply. Australia’s tournament looked all but over when Sri Lanka cantered to 125 without loss after 21 overs in their third game in Lucknow.

Zampa, Cummins, Warner and Marsh spark them to life

It took four players to spark the turnaround, but the transformation was swift and startling. Cummins bowled a spell that breathed life into his side, removing Sri Lanka’s two openers. Zampa then got to work. Having been hampered by shoulder and neck issues, all while battling illness, he shook them off and showed why Australia’s selectors had faith that he could carry the spin load just as he did in the 2021 T20 World Cup. Zampa went on a tear taking four wickets in three consecutive games. He then became the first player in ODI World Cup history to take three wickets or more in five consecutive games.Adam Zampa has picked up 22 wickets heading into the World Cup final•AFP/Getty ImagesEven while Australia’s quicks had trouble making inroads in the first powerplay, Zampa consistently pulled games back for them. He has 22 wickets in this tournament which is a significant achievement. Only Muthiah Muralidaran has taken more as a spinner in an ODI World Cup. David Warner also played his part in the turnaround in both the field and with the bat. He first took two exceptional catches in the outfield off Cummins and Zampa against Sri Lanka to snap Australia out of their uncharacteristic fielding malaise. He and Marsh then sprung to life with the bat.Marsh made an important half-century against Sri Lanka to set up the chase. They then made a statement against Pakistan with twin centuries in a stunning 259-run opening stand. Warner continued his rampant run with another rollicking hundred against the Netherlands and 81 against New Zealand. The 37-year-old proved why he’s one of Australia’s greatest ODI players ever and one of the best World Cup performers in history.Travis Head had to miss the first half of the tournament due to a broken hand•Associated Press

Head gamble pays dividends

Picking Head in the 15-man squad when he was unavailable for Australia’s first five games due to a broken hand could have been a disastrous gamble if Australia had not recovered from their first two losses. But even having done so, the form of the Warner-Marsh combination at the top of the order and the fact that Australia had scored 350-plus in consecutive games did spark some different questions when Head finally returned.Smith made his displeasure about shifting to No. 4 known while Marsh would have also preferred to remain at the top. But Head proved why the selectors had shown faith in him in his first game back, smacking a stunning 59-ball century against New Zealand in a vicious assault with Warner. Australia’s long-term plan to pulverize their opponents in the powerplay with the use of three power-hitters in Head, Warner and Marsh was back in place. However, it did take a little while to gel properly.Marsh had trouble readjusting to life at No. 3 against New Zealand and then missed the match against England due to the death of his grandfather. Head missed out several times as the top order misfired against Afghanistan. But it finally clicked against Bangladesh. Head fell cheaply again but Marsh picked up the slack with a thumping 177 not out. Then in the semi-final, in a low-scoring game on a tricky pitch, Head proved again why his role is so vital, picking up two crucial wickets with the ball and then putting Australia ahead of the game with a blistering half-century that allowed some room for a middle-order wobble.

The Big Show’s biggest show

The fastest century in World Cup history was not enough for Maxwell. He somehow trumped his 40-ball century against the Netherlands with the greatest ODI innings of all-time against Afghanistan. Words can’t do justice to his 201 not out off 128 balls. Australia were on 49 for 4 in the ninth over when Maxwell arrived at the crease in chase of 292. His epic innings sealed Australia’s semi-final spot and proved that they can always find a way to win, given the quality of match-winners they possess.Maxwell is the most extraordinary of them and has been a vital cog for Australia with both bat and ball. He has bowled superbly throughout as the second spinner and their bankable fifth bowler. Australia looked unbalanced and vulnerable at times without him in their wins over England and Bangladesh. He will be critical to their success in the final and is a player India do fear.

Starc stands up

Starc was under some pressure heading into the semi-final. He had been a World Cup wonder in the last two editions of the tournament but had hardly fired a shot in this campaign and Australia had been one of the worst-performing powerplay bowling teams as a result. But cometh the hour, cometh the knockout king. Starc sizzled and South Africa were stunned.Starc and Josh Hazlewood loom as India’s biggest threat. They reduced India to 2 for 3 in the opening game of the tournament and Starc blew away India’s impregnable top order in Visakhapatnam earlier this year. He’s taken out the opposition captain and tone-setter in the first over of the World Cup final before. He will be aiming to do it again.

And has anyone else done the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in a year as Kapil Dev has?

Steven Lynch02-Jan-2024In the Boxing Day Test, Pakistan conceded 52 extras in dismissing Australia for 318. Where does this rank in terms of the highest percentage of extras in an innings? asked Graeme Phipps from Australia
Australia’s 318 in the exciting Test in Melbourne last week included 52 extras (20 byes, 15 leg-byes and wides, and two no-balls), which accounts for 16.3% of the total. This actually comes in sixth on the list of highest percentages of extras in a Test innings, looking at completed innings only.On top is England’s 315 against West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1986, which included 59 extras – 18.7% of the total. Another England innings in the Caribbean – 339 in Kingston in 2004 – included 60 extras (17.6%).Ten of the Australian team that took on Pakistan recently had scored more than 1000 runs in their Test careers. Was this a record? asked Gavin Stevenson from Australia
You’re right that ten of the Australian team which took on Pakistan in the first two Tests – in Perth and at the MCG – had amassed more than 1000 runs. The exception was Josh Hazlewood, who started the series with 465.The first team to contain ten men with 1000 Test runs to their name was, unsurprisingly perhaps, the ICC World XI which took on Australia in a one-off match in Sydney in 2005. The odd man out then was England’s Steve Harmison. No national team had matched this until earlier this year, when the England sides in the fourth and fifth Ashes Tests, at Old Trafford and at The Oval, contained ten men with 1000 or more, the outlier on both occasions being Mark Wood, who finished the series with 724 runs.Kapil Dev did an unusual double of 1000 international runs and 100 wickets over his matches in 1983. Has anyone else ever done this in a calendar year? asked Abhishek Sharma from India
You’re right that in Tests and one-day internationals in 1983 (no T20s back then), Kapil Dev scored 1106 runs and collected exactly 100 wickets. And it turns out that Kapil is unique – no one else has managed this excellent double.There have been a few not-so-near misses: six players have completed the lesser double of 750 runs and 75 wickets in internationals in the same year. Shaun Pollock made 882 runs and took 89 wickets in 1998, Abdul Razzaq had 1029 and 82 in 2000, Andrew Flintoff 1205 and 90 in 2005, Daniel Vettori 832 and 76 in 2008, Mitchell Johnson 836 and 113 in 2009, and Shakib Al Hasan 1329 and 77 in 2010.Kapil Dev is the only player to have scored 1000 runs and taken 100 wickets across formats in one calendar year•Adrian Murrell/Getty ImagesHas a batter ever scored two double-hundreds in the same match? asked Peter Masud from the United States
This has not yet happened in a Test match, although there are two instances of someone scoring a triple-century and a single hundred in the same game – Graham Gooch hit 333 and 123 for England against India at Lord’s in 1990, and Kumar Sangakkara followed suit with 319 and 105 for Sri Lanka against Bangladesh in Chattogram in 2014. There have been six other instances of a double-century and a hundred in the same Test.For many years, the only man to score two separate double-centuries in the same first-class game was Arthur Fagg of Kent and England, who later became a Test umpire; he hit 244 and 202 not out in a Championship match against Essex in Colchester in July 1938. Fagg’s feat was finally equalled in Sri Lanka in February 2019, when Nondescripts’ captain Angelo Perera made 201 and 231 against the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.Is it true that India have played 12 Boxing Day Tests without ever winning one? asked Richard Daniels from South Africa
Indian fans will be relieved to learn that this is not true. India have now played 18 Tests that started on December 26, and although their record in them is not great – the defeat in Centurion the other day was their 11th loss – they have won four: against South Africa in Durban in 2010 and in Centurion in 2021, and against Australia in Melbourne in 2018 and again in 2020. They have also drawn three.India have also had six other Tests which started earlier but included play on Boxing Day, losing three and drawing three.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

And how often has a opener carried his bat in the fourth innings, only to see his side lose?

Steven Lynch30-Jan-2024England won the first Test against India despite a first-innings deficit of 190. How many Tests have been won from a worse position? asked Robert James from England

England came out on top in Hyderabad despite trailing on first innings by 190. They have won only three Tests from a worse position, and one of those was the controversial game The Oval in 2006, when Pakistan forfeited the match despite a first-innings lead of 331.The other big England comebacks were the two Tests they won against Australia after following on – with deficits of 261 at Sydney in 1894, and 227 at Headingley in 1981. This ignores another controversial game, the contrived “leather jacket” win over South Africa in Centurion in 2000, where the official scorecard shows that England were 248 behind on first innings, after declaring at 0 for 0.In all, there have been nine higher leads than 190 overturned to win a Test, including the Oval 331, which is technically the highest, and the Centurion 248: next comes 291, the advantage overcome by Australia (256 and 471) in beating Sri Lanka (547 for 8 and 164) in Colombo in August 1992.India are next, after beating Australia in Kolkata in 2001 despite following on 274 behind. The biggest first-innings lead overturned to beat India at home before this week was just 65, by Australia in Madras in 1964.The first ball Tom Hartley bowled in a Test was hit for six – and then he finished up with a seven-for on debut. How many people have done these things? asked David Carter from England

It certainly looked ominous for Lancashire’s Tom Hartley when his first delivery in that absorbing Test match in Hyderabad was hit for six by India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal. There was another six a few balls later, and Hartley’s first spell of nine overs cost 63.Hartley was the fourth bowler whose first ball in Test cricket is known to have been hit for six. The first was India’s WV Raman, whose first ball against West Indies in Madras (now Chennai) in 1988 was hit for six by Winston Davis.The other two came in the space of a few days in November 2012: first Bangladesh’s Sohag Gazi was hit over the ropes by West Indies’ Chris Gayle in Mirpur (uniquely, this was also the first ball of the Test), then Faf du Plessis of South Africa saw his first delivery to Australia’s David Warner soar out of the ground in Adelaide. Note that there are a few Tests, mostly early ones, for which we do not have full ball-by-ball details, so this list may not be complete.Hartley recovered to take 7 for 62, the second-best by any England spinner on Test debut behind the 7 for 56 of James Langridge, another slow left-armer, against West Indies at Old Trafford in 1933. Hartley’s match figures of 9 for 193 are the best on debut by any England slow bowler since Bob Berry – yet another left-arm spinner, and also from Lancashire – took 9 for 116 against West Indies at Old Trafford in 1950.Pat Cummins declared behind in Brisbane – and lost! How rare is this? asked Mik Kochinsky from Australia

Pat Cummins’s declaration in Brisbane – 22 runs behind, in a match ultimately lost by eight – was the seventh time a captain has declared his first innings when behind the opposition’s total and lost the Test. Leaving aside the “leather jacket” win in the South Africa-England Test in Centurion in 2000, there have been only two occasions when declaring behind paid off with a win: by England against West Indies on a rain-affected pitch in Bridgetown in 1935, and by Australia against West Indies in Bridgetown in 2012. There have also been 22 draws.Steven Smith is the eighth opener to carry his bat in the fourth innings a losing cause•Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesSteve Smith carried his bat through the fourth innings of the Brisbane Test, but ended up losing. How rare is this? asked Davey Harrison from Australia

During his valiant innings in Brisbane, Australia’s Steve Smith provided only the ninth instance of an opener ending up on the losing side despite carrying his bat through the final innings of a Test.It’s something of an Australian specialty. Bill Woodfull did it twice – against England in Brisbane in 1928, and again in Adelaide during the Bodyline series in 1933. Bill Lawry did it in an Ashes Test in Sydney in 1971, and David Warner carried his bat in vain against New Zealand in Hobart in 2011 (Australia lost that one by seven runs).The non-Aussies are Glenn Turner, for New Zealand against England at Lord’s in 1969; Geoff Boycott, for England vs Australia in Perth in 1979 (he finished with 99 not out); Mark Dekker, for Zimbabwe vs Pakistan in Rawalpindi in 1993; and Dean Elgar, for South Africa vs India in Johannesburg in 2018. For the list of those who carried their bat in a men’s Test, click here. That shows all of them: to find the fourth-innings instances, look down the third column of figures.Has anyone had a higher first-class batting average after eight matches than the Belgian-born Zimbabwean Antum Naqvi? asked Nick Gordon from England

An undefeated triple-century in his eighth match, for MidWest Rhinos against Matabeleland Tuskers in Harare earlier this month, meant that Antum Naqvi – who was indeed born in Brussels – had a first-class average of 102.14 after eight matches (715 runs, nine innings, two not-outs).I had to mobilise the twinkling fingers (and bulging first-class database) of Andrew Samson for this one, and he kindly informed me that no fewer than seven players have had higher averages after eight matches. The most famous of them is Bill Ponsford, who went on to average close to 50 in 29 Tests for Australia: after eight first-class games he had piled up 1,360 runs at 113.33, including innings of 429, 248 and 162; in his ninth match he made 110 and 110 not out. There’s also a recent Test player in Bahir Shah of Afghanistan (103.27). Top of the pile is the Indian Shantanu Sugwekar, whose eight-match average of 164.40 included 299 not out for Maharashtra against Madhya Pradesh in Pune in 1989. Six of his 11 innings were not-outs.Naqvi came down to earth somewhat in his ninth match, scoring 41 and 1, which meant his average dropped to 84.11.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Allrounder hit his fifth century to etch his names in record books

Sampath Bandarupalli11-Feb-20245 – Hundreds by Glenn Maxwell in T20Is. He now shares the record for most centuries in the format with Rohit Sharma, who scored his fifth hundred last month.241 for 4 – Australia’s total in the second T20I against West Indies is now the highest by any team on Australian soil. Australia’s 233 for 2 was the previous highest – against Sri Lanka in 2019 – also at the Adelaide Oval.4 – Maxwell’s T20I hundreds out of five while batting at No.4. He now has the most hundreds at No.4 or lower in T20Is, going past Suryakumar Yadav’s three.Related

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Maxwell also holds the same record in all T20s, having scored five hundreds while batting at No.4. He surpassed David Miller, who has four T20 centuries at No. 4 or lower.120* – Maxwell’s score at the Adelaide Oval is now the highest individual score by a No. 4 in T20Is. It is also the second-highest T20I score at No. 4 or lower, only behind Shaheryar Butt of Belgium, whose 125* against Czech Republic in 2020 came at No. 6.Glenn Maxwell made another record•ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 – Maxwell’s 120* is also the highest individual score against West Indies in T20Is. The previous highest was 119 jointly held by Faf du Plessis (in Johannesburg in 2015) and Phil Salt (in Tarouba in December last year).1 – Players with a higher score in men’s T20Is in Australia than Maxwell’s 120* on Sunday. Shane Watson scored an unbeaten 124 against India at the SCG in 2016. It was Maxwell’s second T20I century at home and his fourth in all T20s in Australia, which are the most by any batter.68 – Runs scored by Australia in the death overs (17-20) are the joint-most by them in a men’s T20I during this phase. They had also scored 68 in the last four overs against Sri Lanka in Pallakele in 2016.448 – Runs aggregated at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday are the most for any T20I hosted by Australia. The previous highest was 415 runs in the first match of the ongoing series in Hobart.

Three Indian batters under the age of 23 thrived in a high-pressure game against high-quality bowling

Alagappan Muthu03-May-20242:30

Rapid Fire Review: Rating Nitish Kumar Reddy’s innings

As the ball disappeared into the night sky, the bowler looked at his captain, extending both of his arms out – palms up, fingers half curled – and finally with a little twist of his wrists, he conveyed what didn’t need saying out loud. “Come on, how is that fair?” If Nitish Kumar Reddy does nothing else for the rest of his life, he will still have this. The moment where he was too much for R Ashwin in Hyderabad.Very few batters have had this kind of effect on a man who prides himself on being ahead of the curve; that even though he is a fingerspinner, he remains relevant in T20 cricket. All night long Ashwin was having success targeting the outside edge. He even tinkered with his run-up to ensure a steep angle into the batter and trick them into playing either inside the line or against the turn. Ashwin produced three wicket-taking opportunities in his second over alone. But back then, he was bowling to two left-handers.Reddy doesn’t suffer from that predicament, which is why he felt confident enough to go again. This time Ashwin had wised up. He didn’t give the ball any air. It was fired into the pitch.Related

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There is a Sunrisers Hyderabad six-hitter who specialises in thumping these kinds of deliveries out of the park and it was fitting that he was standing at the other end. Heinrich Klaasen plays the pull shot with almost a straight bat because he has seen through the deception.Spinners go flat and into the wicket because it can be a trigger for horizontal bat shots. Some of them are clever enough to exploit this by making sure even though the trajectory might be right for such audacious strokeplay the length is all wrong. This creates the chance to cramp the batter for room or even sneak underneath their swing. That is why Klaasen brings his bat down at a 45-degree angle and it looks like he has been sharing his secrets.Reddy got into the same position, shifting his weight back, clearing his front leg, opening up his hips and crucially, ditching the orthodox pull shot. As a result, instead of falling straight into the trap of a flatter ball that pitched slightly further up, he helped himself to six runs over midwicket. From being 5 off 10, he was suddenly 62 off 32.This is how good Reddy is. And he’s just 20. His aggression – he faced 18 balls of spin and tried to send 12 of them to the boundary – played a big part in Ashwin being hit for four sixes in his spell, only once has he given up more in his entire IPL career, and Yuzvendra Chahal recording his second-most expensive figures in all T20s.

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Yashasvi Jaiswal subjected Marco Jansen to the worst feeling a bowler can have out there on the field.It was the fourth over of the chase. And it was a long one. Eight balls. By that time, all you want to do is find a way to get out of it without causing even more damage. Jansen thought he could do that by going yorker. And considering his comes down from about 15 feet high, it was a pretty decent option.In an IPL where run rates have hit never-seen-before highs, and where the ball keeps wanting to travel to outer space, and where Ashwin, tongue in cheek, tweeted out “save the bowlers someone, plsss”, this felt colder. This one shot that Jaiswal played. It broke the illusion. There might be no such thing as a good delivery in T20 cricket.There is no guarantee that blockhole balls will keep Yashasvi Jaiswal down•BCCIJansen targeted the blockhole. He found it. He might even have felt a smidge of relief as he looked up from his followthrough. But Jaiswal was there. Watching the flight of the ball all the way down to where it pitched right beside him, around fifth stump, and just plonked an open bat face in its path. That was it. He bisected the gap between two fielders in the inner ring and condemned the very best ball that the bowler could come up to the damn boundary. At least when you miss your mark, you get to have a little bit of solace.This is how good Jaiswal is. He is 22. And he brushed off the fact that he and his team had lost Jos Butter and Sanju Samson for nothing like it was nothing.

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Riyan Parag gambled as he came down the pitch, making room for himself. Bhuvneshwar Kumar had seen it and made two key adjustments to his original plan. First, he took pace off. And second, he shifted his line wide outside off stump.Parag was denied the option of just hitting through the line. He was being challenged. Let’s see if you can keep your shape. And even if you can, do you have enough skill and strength to find the fence like you were so obviously trying to do.Earlier in the season, against Kolkata Knight Riders, in another 200-plus chase where Rajasthan Royals were two down early, Parag made a complete mockery of the match situation. His arrival at the crease triggered a period of play where ten balls of pace produced four fours and three sixes.Riyan Parag’s control was a characteristic that stood out•AFP/Getty ImagesThen he got out. Sometimes batting seems so easy you get carried away.On Thursday, the one thing that stood out above all else about Parag was how much he wanted to be in control. Like with this Bhuvneshwar slower ball, that was designed to one-up him, he was in the kind of headspace where he knew exactly how long he had to wait for it and that at the point of impact, if he rolled his wrists just right on top of it, he would be able to get the gap between point and cover, and have enough power to reach the fence.This is how good Parag has become. He is 22. Coming into this season, he averaged 15.48 against fast bowling, having hit 20 sixes in 42 IPL innings. In IPL 2024, across a mere nine innings, he has hit 17 sixes and averages 44.66.

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This was the first IPL game – in over 1000 – where three under-23 players produced half-centuries. Two of them were lined up against the third here but perhaps there will come a time – is 2026 too early? – that they will all step forward together wearing bright radiant blue.