Once, there was a future. Now, there is nothing. But still, “cricket can be a life for me”, she hopes

Firdose Moonda27-Apr-20227:07

Roya Samim: I play cricket because I know it’s my future

Roya Samim has finally represented Afghanistan in a cricket match.Virtually, that is.Her avatar, so to say, turned out in an Afghanistan shirt, with her name, a number and the Afghanistan flag on it, for an e-sports contest organised by Global eSports that was an act of protest against the fact that there is no real national Afghanistan women’s team. They played against Australia in a virtual women’s World Cup final, and lost, just like all the teams that played Australia in the actual tournament.But it was not about the result at all.Related

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“Anyone who played that game showed that they stand with us,” 28-year-old Samim told ESPNcricinfo from her home in Canada. “It’s like a candle-light protest, but instead of lighting a candle, it’s playing cricket. And it reminded people that we are here. We exist. I cannot play on the national ground but I played virtually, and when I see that, I am just proud of myself that ‘Yes, I was in the Afghanistan team’.”Samim became interested, and involved, in cricket as an adult, playing with her siblings despite the raised eyebrows of those in their community, who said “cricket is not for you [girls/women]”. Mostly, they played indoors in their home in Afghanistan, but found like-minded enthusiasts, and in 2019, began campaigning for a professional women’s cricket set-up. At the time, Samim was working as a mathematics teacher, but “hoped that cricket could become my career”.By November 2020, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) was convinced enough to roll out contracts for 25 women, with the plan that they would slowly progress to playing competitive fixtures.Though the board indicated it would take time to get a women’s team on the park, given the cultural and traditional norms in Afghanistan, Samim saw attitudes shifting around her.Roya Samim brushes up on her forward defensive•Roya Samim”There were people that accepted us, appreciated us, and said we can do it,” she said. “There were those who allowed their girls to go to the school, to go to cricket, and to go to other sports. It was becoming acceptable.”Spurred on by the pockets of support they got, the group of Afghan women trained as hard as they could. “We had professional coaches – the trainers for the international men’s team, they trained us too,” Samim recalled. “The ACB provided us with camps and three or four days of training in a week. We had two teams and we played against each other. We made ourselves professional.”We spent seven or eight hours a day on cricket. First, we’d go to the ACB headquarters, then we’d go to the [Victory Cricket] academy, then we’d go to the fitness clubs. We wanted to be professional and we developed a lot.”In that time, there was some talk of organising matches against Oman or Bangladesh but that never came to fruition. In fact, nothing did. “Not even six months of our contract was complete when the Taliban came and everything was destroyed.”The Taliban’s political takeover in Afghanistan began in May 2021, and escalated in August. In the space of a week, they claimed territory from Kunduz to Kabul and it was during that period that Samim decided she had to reconsider her options.”At the time, the Taliban had more than two provinces and the big city of Herat. We were just afraid. I went to my cricket manager and said, ‘If you know that cricket can go ahead and there will be peace, I will not leave’, to which she replied, ‘No, I cannot guarantee that, and the situation is not good for girls, so you should leave’. That’s when we left Kabul,” Samim said. “Three days afterwards, the Taliban took [over] Afghanistan. We were in a hotel and my team-mates called me and they cried.”Everything – any dream, any wishes, any hope that me and my team-mates had – was gone. It was such a bad situation. When I remember now, I just want to cry.”While many of Samim’s team-mates remained in Afghanistan, she made it to Canada with “only two pieces of clothing”. Her brother and two sisters joined her, but she had another brother in a different country. She has had to adjust to many things, not least the “completely different weather”, and has just been through a winter with “lots of ice and lots of snow” as well as the loss of both her cricketing and professional career.

“Women’s education is really important for any country. If you want to change the future, you have to have women’s education”Samim on how difficult it has been for women in Afghanistan

“It’s really hard to explain how my life is. In Afghanistan, I had a good career and I had other things. I had friends, and my team,” she said. “When people saw me, they were proud of me. Here, I had to start from zero. But I started because I feel that I am so strong, I can handle anything. I have some friends, I started playing cricket, I started working. I’ve got many friends. Everything is going normal. Well, I want to pretend it’s normal.”Samim has stopped teaching and is now a settlement worker who aims to help other refugees. She laments the loss of learning opportunities for women in Afghanistan but hopes to keep the conversation alive by speaking about it.”When I heard that the Taliban were not going to allow girls to go to school and I wasn’t in Afghanistan to stand against it, I just cried,” she said. “I can’t do anything. It’s so hard, because education – especially women’s education – is really important for any country. If you want to change the future, you have to have women’s education. It is really hard to see that we have completely lost our country. It’s really hard but we can’t do anything. I just raise my voice like this.”Similarly, she is also keeping her cricket ambitions burning and has found a place for it: Fredericton Cricket Club in New Brunswick. She hopes it will open doors for her to play elsewhere – including franchise leagues – and appeals to anyone who has an opportunity to provide it.”Any small chances that are given to us as cricket players, we will be happy,” she said. “Even a trial, if people want to give it to us, we are ready. I play cricket because I know that it’s my future. Sometime in the future maybe I will get into a national team. I am really working for this. I am really training hard. I have lost everything, so cricket can be a life for me.”Samim aims to play for another five to seven years before turning her attention to coaching. With so much invested in cricket, she does not want to see Afghanistan shunned from the world stage. She supports the men’s team in continuing to play rather than face any sanctions, and believes it brings joy to Afghans, wherever they might be.”I would like the men to continue to play. I don’t want the situation to have an effect on them. They are the only team that can bring some happiness in my country. It’s only cricket, not other sports [do that]. It’s good that they continue.”And she hopes one day she will be able to join them in real life in a match for Afghanistan.”To go home now is impossible because the Taliban don’t accept me and I don’t accept them. But if anything changes – for example, maybe they will allow girls to play cricket – [and] if there are matches, I should be there. It’s my country.”

With the T20 Asia Cup less than two weeks away, it might seem like an odd time to schedule an ODI series, but both sides have plenty to play for

Danyal Rasool15-Aug-2022For the Pakistan cricket team right now, this is a decidedly weird time to find themselves in the Netherlands’ second largest city. It is less than two weeks to the start of the T20 Asia Cup, whereas Pakistan are here to play three ODIs against the Netherlands. The Asia Cup is to be held in the UAE, a place that’s hot and dry almost no matter what time of year you’re talking about, while Rotterdam this week is expected to be wet and windy. The surfaces Pakistan will encounter, Babar Azam mused last week, would be similar to the ones they deal with in the UK, worlds removed from what Sharjah and Dubai and Abu Dhabi will throw up.And yet here Pakistan are. To give everyone their due, they didn’t exactly schedule it this way; this is a series carried over from last year, one of the victims of the sledgehammer the Covid-19 pandemic took to the cricketing schedule. It’s perhaps also an encapsulation of where the ODI game sits right now, with any games in that format feeling out of context just about whenever they’re played.Related

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But then again, if there’s anything more tedious than the alleged impending demise of the one-day game, it’s the relentless talk about it, so we might as well get into the actual cricket. These ODIs might feel something of a chore to Pakistan but they’re likely very welcome to all stakeholders at the KNCB, not least the players who get a rare opportunity at taking on a world-class side. That’s even truer in the wake of Pakistan’s squad announcement, with the visitors announcing nigh-on a full strength side for the three games, with Shaheen Shah Afridi’s likely absence from at least the first two games the only elite omission.Pakistan, like most other nations, have only played a handful of intermittent short ODIs series since the 2019 ODI World Cup, making it tricky to gauge their form and the side’s overall health ahead of next year’s showpiece event in India. But even from the scraps that can be gleaned, there’s some evidence of a side building up steam leading up to that tournament.The first half of this cycle saw them lose a home ODI to Zimbabwe, sneak past a depleted South Africa and find themselves utterly outclassed by a third-string English side. Since then, a come-from-behind series win against Australia and a clean sweep of the West Indies has injected confidence into the side. While anything but an undefeated series against the Netherlands would be a failure, these games also give Pakistan the opportunity to plug some of the holes in their 50-over side.There is perhaps an opportunity for the middle order to find some runs and confidence, with Pakistan’s top three responsible for about two thirds of all ODI runs since the 2019 World Cup, for no other side is that figure above 55%. There’s a compelling positive reason for that, of course – Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam are the most consistent ODI batting pairing in the world, and with Pakistan having won 11 of the 17 ODIs they have played this cycle, that leaves little for the rest of the lineup.However, on the occasions the middle order has been left with work to do, more often than not, that work has been left undone. No one from outside the top three has scored a single ODI hundred in this cycle, and just four half-centuries have come from outside the top four. Haris Sohail and Wahab Riaz were responsible for two of those, not exactly batters Pakistan will rely on in the long term.The new-ball bowlers, too have a chance to shine in Afridi’s absence; for the most part, it has proved a struggle from the other end. As many as seven bowlers besides Shaheen have been used as new ball options, without anyone really looking like making that slot theirs. Babar did speak glowingly of fast-bowling depth, but quantity is far less likely to win World Cups than quality.Netherlands have generally tended to play attacking cricket•Michael Bradley/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Netherlands find themselves depleted for reasons beyond their control, with the Hundred and the One-Day Cup tying down more than half a dozen players the home side might have wanted to call upon. Fred Klaassen, Colin Ackermann, Roelof van der Merwe, and Timm van der Gugten are all currently participating in the Hundred, with Paul van Meekeren, Shane Snater and Brandon Glover involved in England’s domestic one-day competition.Pieter Seelaar’s retirement leaves a hole to be fulfilled, but Scott Edwards, the replacement skipper, was outstanding in the recent series against England, scoring 214 runs, and half-centuries in each game. (Incidentally, he also bats outside the top four, so in that series alone, he was responsible for nearly as many middle order half-centuries as Pakistan have managed in the past three years.)While that series might have been dispiriting for the Dutch – England swept them aside in all three games, record-breakingly so in the first – Netherlands have since had something to cheer about. They had a successful T20 World Cup qualifying campaign in Zimbabwe, going through to the tournament proper in Australia alongside the hosts. In the bigger picture, that was much more significant in lifting Dutch spirits than anything England did to deflate them in July. Netherlands have generally tended to play attacking cricket, but with that weight off their shoulders, that might be exacerbated against Pakistan.In a sense, both sides have more exciting challenges to look forward to. The cricketing world will move past this series without taking so much as a second glance, with both Netherlands and Pakistan putting it to the back of their minds soon after it’s over.But even the most curmudgeonly would find it difficult to moan about spending a week in Rotterdam in August. The weather is cool and mild, far removed from the heatwaves and droughts ravaging so much of Europe currently. It isn’t quite as crowded as its big brother Amsterdam, which gets most of the tourist crowds and the concomitant problems that go with that. A stroll around the Old Harbour is always relaxing, and those world-famous cube houses are iconic enough to merit a visit on their own. Oh, and there’s cricket on.Come to think of it, perhaps it isn’t such a strange time to be in Rotterdam.

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

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Feb-2021
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They were without six first-choice players
Ten West Indies cricketers opted not to travel to Bangladesh amid Covid-19 concerns, including their Test captain Jason Holder, and vice-captain Roston Chase. Shai Hope, Darren Bravo and Shamarh Brooks, all likely to have made the XI, also opted out of the tour, as did first-choice keeper Shane Dowrich, for personal reasons. Shimron Hetmyer, who could have made the Test team for the first time since 2019 as a replacement batsman, also missed out.They fielded three debutants
All the absentees meant West Indies had to field three debutants in the first Test in Bangladesh: Shayne Moseley, Nkrumah Bonner, and Kyle Mayers, who batted from No.3 to No.5. Their wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva was playing just his second Test. Kraigg Brathwaite took over from Holder as captain.West Indies had lost 0-2 on their previous tour to Bangladesh
Even with a full-strength side, West Indies would have been underdogs in Bangladesh, having lost both Tests there on their 2018 tour. They had a near full-strength squad for that series, but their batsmen struggled on the turning tracks, only once getting a total of more than 250.They had been swept in the ODI series of this tour
Those vulnerabilities against spin were apparent on this tour as well, as West Indies’ ODI batting line-up crumbled for scores of 122, 148 and 177 in the three-match series. They could not get to 300 in either innings of the tour match before the Tests, and when they were bowled out for 259 in the first innings of the first Test, it looked like it would be another long series for their batsmen.The heroes of the win were two debutants
Left 395 to chase on a fourth and fifth-day pitch, West Indies would have had most of their hopes pinned on their captain Brathwaite, and more experienced batsmen, John Campbell and Jermaine Blackwood. Instead, the two heroes were debutants – Mayers, who scored an incredible 210 not out, and Bonner, who got 86; the pair put together 216 for the fourth wicket. Mayers is 28 and Bonner 32 – both have been on the first-class scene for a while, and when finally given the opportunity, produced memorable knocks.

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan is a rivalry that is full to bursting with final day fun and this match is no exception

Andrew Fidel Fernando19-Jul-2022Are we ready for this? A nerve-wracking final day? Come out from behind the couch. You can face this. Let’s do it together.The factsPakistan need only 120 runs, and have seven wickets in hand. One of the not out batters is centurion Abdullah Shafique. Since coming on the scene, he’s quelled a bowling attack containing Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon. Now he’s got a fourth-innings hundred in Galle. As far as fourth-innings hundreds go, this is one of the toughest assignments. Only three batters have ever done it here before, and only one (Dimuth Karunaratne in 2019) in a victory.The pitchGenerally, on days four and five, the surface at Galle is not so much a cricket pitch as much as an altar on which batters are sacrificed to the spin gods. We’ve seen big turn from the first day of this Test, but when Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, and Babar Azam were batting on day four, the pitch didn’t seem to be providing the kind of rapid, unplayable turn that is often a feature here.That is until the last 10 overs of the day, in which Shafique and Babar – who were sailing – suddenly hit a wall, and the Great Galle Spinmonster stirred from its slumber. Prabath Jayasuriya and Maheesh Theekshana suddenly had the ball spitting – basically pouncing out of the rough like terrifying lionesses at helpless gazelle fawns. This big turn got Babar out. He tried to pad away a delivery that pitched way outside the line of the stumps and was bowled – not un-embarassingly – behind his legs.Even Shafique, who was on triple figures, played out the last few overs meekly.Related

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The bowlersWhat Pakistan’s top order have done so far is play Jayasuriya well. They’ve been patient against him, but have watched intently for that straighter ball, that got several batters in trouble in that first innings. Although he’s taken three five-wicket hauls, Jayasuriya is in only his second Test, and is unused to the task of bowling Sri Lanka to victory. Ramesh Mendis, ostensibly the most-senior spinner, is only in his ninth Test. Maheesh Theekshana is in his second as well.They’ll start on day five under substantial pressure, but they’ll have a shiny new ball in hand. The theory is that the new ball, with its hard seam, turns more on these pitches than the older one. Whether this is true or not, it forms the hope Sri Lanka cling desperately to.The historyThe last time Pakistan played a Test on the island they chased 377 at Pallekele, thanks largely to Younis Khan’s all-time mastery, with strong support from Shan Masood, and Misbah-ul-Haq. But that was a very different kind of surface, on which both teams fielded three specialist quicks. By the fourth innings, the juice had left it, and it had flattened out.At Galle, the most comparable match is the 2009 Test between these teams, which Pakistan began with 87 to get, and eight wickets in hand, until Rangana Herath gobbled up the batting line-up wholesale. Sri Lanka won that by 50 runs.There’s no Herath in Sri Lanka’s attack anymore, though. Though there’s also no Younis in Pakistan’s batting order.The fansLook. We get it. Pakistan fans perhaps feel they have the market cornered on drama. Against Sri Lanka, though, this is not necessarily true. There have been wild results – matches they had no business winning, losses they had no business even contemplating, match-winning innings from unwinnable situations, primary-school level fielding errors, and weapons-grade bowling stupidity. It’s all there. These narratives belong to both sets of fans. Whatever takes place tomorrow, there are enough bonkers cricketing memories here for it to be typical Pakistan. Or typical Sri Lanka.

The India No. 3 talks about his partnership with Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant in Brisbane, and looks ahead to the England series

Interview by Nagraj Gollapudi30-Jan-2021The 21-year-old Shubman Gill was playing a totally different brand of cricket from you at the Gabba, scoring freely and confidently. Can you tell us more about Gill’s batting style?
He is one of the best timers of the ball. He has a natural ability to react to the ball a little earlier. He gets that extra fraction of time to judge the length, the line, and then play his shots, whether it be the pull or a cover drive. He has quick hands and his downswing is so good that even when he defends the ball, with that timing, sometimes, it goes for two or three runs. Sometimes it feels like he is playing with hard hands, but he is so good at his timing.If I speak about his batting technically, it is a double-edged sword. If you remember, he was out a few times against Pat Cummins earlier in the series, caught at gully or slip, but at the same time Gill can play the same ball for two or three. He is managing it really well. He is very talented and I hope he continues to improve because we need good openers. We have been getting good starts in the last couple of Tests matches and that is a big advantage. The way Rohit [Sharma] and Shubman started in Sydney and Brisbane laid a good foundation.Related

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In a recent conversation with R Ashwin, Vikram Rathour, India’s batting coach, said the same – that both Rohit and Gill look for runs. Did it bother you that despite your experience, you were finding it hard to score runs while a youngster like Gill was scoring freely the other end?
Gill’s strength lies in the way he plays and that is why he is successful. If he tries to bat time or tries to defend for longer periods, it could pose a challenge for him. I can take the bowlers on too, but if I feel I need to hang back a little, I can do that as well. I can bat according to the situation. At that time, I felt it wasn’t wise to take the bowlers on because Gill was already doing that.It is important to understand what your partner is doing, as a batting unit, how the team is going forward. There could be occasions where both batsmen are playing their shots, but most of the time, if one is going well, the other has to bat normally and not do anything extraordinary. That is what I was trying to do. That is my strength.From one end you need to make sure there is a lot of assurance, a lot stability, which allows the other guy freedom to play their shots. What ended up happening in that first session was I ended up getting too many balls from the tougher end ().”[James] Anderson is very familiar with the conditions in England and can accordingly set up a batsman. However, when it comes to bowling in India, we have a little bit of an advantage”•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesJoe Root will reach the 100-Test milestone during the first Test in Chennai. What do you like about Root’s batting?
His work ethic. I have seen him bat for long periods of time as a team-mate during my stint with Yorkshire and as an opponent from the time he played against us on England’s 2012 tour of India. As a batsman, he is clear about his game plans, knows his scoring areas, is clear about his strengths, understands his game very well, and all that shows in the success he has had in Test cricket.Having faced the best of fast bowling in Australia, you now have to prepare to have another master quick – James Anderson. He has got you seven times and your average against him is 26.85. What’s the key difference between facing Anderson in England and in India?
The pace and bounce are different, firstly. Then the balls are different. There is some swing with the SG ball, but it doesn’t last and swing as much as the Dukes ball in England. Anderson is very familiar with the conditions and the bowling areas in England and can accordingly plan and set up a batsman. However, when it comes to bowling in India, we have a little bit of an advantage – not just me, but the entire Indian batting unit. We know our strengths and game plans well. When you are familiar with the conditions, it does help.Rishabh Pant was one of the key pillars, a catalyst for India in Sydney and Brisbane. You batted with him on the final days of both Tests. Can you talk about his growth?
He is fearless, not afraid to play his shots. Also, being a left-hander gives him an advantage. It frustrated the opposition bowling when there is a right-left combination. They seemed to struggle with the length. His knock in Brisbane was much, much better than what he did in Sydney. He played a brilliant innings in Sydney, too, when he scored 97 – I am not trying to take away any credit – but I felt this innings was under pressure and he handled it pretty well.I especially liked the way he handled Lyon just before and after tea [on the final day] in Brisbane. During the partnership, unlike his usual approach, where he looks to score runs, he defended in one phase – that was very impressive for me. You need to understand the situation. You need understand the game, whether you have to move away from your usual approach, it is very important.”The most impressive part about Rishabh [Pant] was the way he held himself back when it was needed in the last Test”•Jason McCawley/Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesDid you need to temper his approach?
Not in particular, but I always try and communicate to young batsmen that you just need to understand the situation. If he [Pant] is at the crease, the opposition is under pressure. He is so destructive. Even if he is looking to defend, he will end up getting at least one boundary in two or three overs. So I was just telling him to try and make sure you make the right decision. Even if you want to play your shots, make sure you are clear in your mind. I will say this again: the most impressive part, for me, about Rishabh this time was the way he held himself back when it was needed in the last Test.Do you think India-Australia Test series could have five Tests in the future, like the Ashes?
It can be, no doubt about that. But five-Test series in Covid times is not easy. I think it becomes too long, especially because players need to be part of a biosecure bubble. Mentally, it is very frustrating, especially when you are away from home.Sometimes you are with the family, sometimes you are not. It’s not easy. But if it can be scheduled with enough breaks, then I wouldn’t mind it at all.You didn’t score as many runs on this Australia tour as you did in 2018-19, but you got three half-centuries. The last one, in Brisbane, was the slowest of your Test career, but was it also the most important one?
Yes, it is one of the most important fifties I have scored. The other one I remember was also against Australia, in Bangalore in 2016-17 series where I scored 92. The other was Jo’burg [50], which came on one of the toughest pitches I have played on.”Five-Test series in Covid times is not easy. Mentally, it is very frustrating, especially when you are away from home”•Getty ImagesSo Test cricket is the ultimate format?
Without a doubt. It challenges you physically, mentally, emotionally, and in multiple ways. That can’t happen in any other format. If you ask any white-ball player, even in death overs, I don’t think anyone will say they feel more pressure than in Test cricket. This is the toughest format of the game.Every session is different. You can win or lose a game in an hour – like we lost in the first Test in Adelaide. We played really well for the first two days. We were ahead with a 50-run lead and yet we lost the Test because we did not bat well in that one hour.A day after the Brisbane victory, you told the Indian Express that your two-year-old daughter, Aditi, watching you getting hit repeatedly at the Gabba, said: “When he comes home, I will kiss where he is hurt, he will be fine.” Did she do that?
She actually did that – kissed me on my hand. Forget about the injuries, when I returned home, the best part was she was so, so excited. She hugged me for almost a minute or two and she wasn’t letting go of me. I was really, really happy to hold her and be back with my family.Read part one of this interview with Cheteshwar Pujara.

Pakistan rode a wave of sentiment to the MCG, echos of 1992 reverberating all around, but England’s cold, hard pragmatism proved an insurmountable breakwater

Danyal Rasool13-Nov-20222:34

Mumtaz: Shaheen’s injury tilted the contest dramatically in England’s favour

Mohammad Rizwan faces the first ball of the Men’s T20 World Cup final at the MCG, a sea of green roaring him on. His innings ends up being the sort that fuels his critics’ arguments rather than dousing them, a scratchy 15 off 14 before Sam Curran – whose phenomenal night matches his phenomenal tournament – cleans him up.Less than two years ago, Rizwan found himself on the brink in T20 cricket, batting to save his white-ball career in a nondescript T20I in New Zealand. If you had told him then he would be disappointed to spearhead a team that finished runners-up at a T20 World Cup in Australia, he might have given you a funny look.Mohammad Haris comes in to replace him. Less than two weeks ago, he wasn’t even part of this World Cup squad, with little name recognition outside of the more ardent followers of the Pakistan Super League. He is now suddenly the most exciting power-hitter of his side. But he is still young, and England are canny. Curran ties him in knots, before Adil Rashid, sensing his frustration, draws him into a slog to finish him off. Eight off 12 is not the innings Pakistan needed from him but, then again, he is part of the reason there is an innings that needs playing in this World Cup final in the first place. It’ll be a bitter memory for him, but till very recently he would have never imagined he would be here to experience it.

****

Such stories are sprinkled throughout this Pakistan side, an extension of the utter implausibility of the very idea that Pakistan would play this final. But having got here on a tidal wave of sentiment they rode all the way through the Sydney semi-final, the belief that surges through them is intoxicating, and has infected a whole nation. The overwhelmingly Pakistani crowd at the MCG is caught up in it, too, just like they were at the SCG.Related

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They face, in England, an all-time great white-ball side. They have Jos Buttler and Alex Hales – two of the most explosive batters to open the innings – while Pakistan have Babar Azam and Rizwan, openers so classical they might actually have looked at home in 1992. They beat eventual semi-finalists New Zealand and Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka to get through the group stages, while Pakistan relied on a Dutch upset of South Africa. They are likely to be found talking about match-ups and analytics, while Pakistan speak of and 1992.England duly set about methodically stripping away the emotion of the occasion. Chris Woakes is England’s most economical bowler in the powerplay, and he bowls three while the field is up. Shan Masood, who is in after Haris falls, scores at less than a run-a-ball against Chris Jordan. And it’s Jordan who has been called up to bowl the very next over.In the pressure cooker that is the MCG, Pakistan, meanwhile, slip back into the comfort blanket of familiarity. Shadab Khan’s fifty against South Africa from No. 7 was one of Pakistan’s most dynamic innings this tournament, but his usefulness to the side almost counts against him when Haris falls. Deployed shrewdly on occasion as a lower-value wicket who can bring quick runs, today, Pakistan need his runs so badly after their slow start that he becomes much more than that and Pakistan can’t bring themselves to bravely frontload. Even though Rashid’s got five balls to go in the over, and it’s the phase of the game England like to squeeze in a few overs from Liam Livingstone.Why did Pakistan not gamble with Shadab Khan up the order when they needed his runs oh so dearly?•Associated PressWhen England overplay their hand, looking to sneak in an over from Livingstone just after the drinks break, Masood pounces, plundering 16 off him. Babar falls off the first ball of the following Rashid over, but Pakistan are superbly placed – 84 for 3 in 11.1, well set for a big finish that should make them favourites given the freak of nature that is their bowling attack. It feels like Shadab was put on earth for this moment, but… Iftikhar Ahmed is walking out to bat.There is reward to be had for courage, and in the minutes that follow, Pakistan are forced to come to terms with the penalty to be paid for timidity. Rashid toys with Iftikhar, flighting the ball and taking pace off it. It’s hard to imagine he would have been allowed that luxury against Shadab. Six (dot) balls later, Iftikhar has fallen for a duck.Shadab walks out now, but England will only need to bowl one more over of spin. They have Curran and Jordan to bowl the final four overs, and as England hit their heights at the death, Pakistan’s death batting – thin as it looks – is stripped to the bone. Curran’s tortuous variations see him snare Masood and Mohammad Nawaz – another man Pakistan decided against promoting despite recent success. Jordan, from the other end, dismisses Shadab and Mohammad Wasim – who Pakistan call a T20 allrounder for perhaps no other reason than it makes them feel better. Just 18 come off the final four as Pakistan hobble to 137 – the joint second-lowest first-innings total in a Men’s T20 World Cup final.Pakistan’s batters and bowlers seem to find themselves in that stereotypical South Asian parent-child relationship, where all achievements are immediately invalidated by the parent promptly setting their child an even stiffer task. Pakistan’s batters seem to be cruelly adept at this staircase to impossibility exercise. You can reduce India to 31 for 4 just outside the powerplay? Well, first you have to get all the runs at the death too. You can restrict Zimbabwe to 130? Afraid it’s not quite low enough. You’ll keep Bangladesh to 127? Not bad, but see how hard we need to work to chase these down? You want to win a World Cup final? Defend 137 against the greatest T20I batting line-up there has ever been.Pakistan’s bowlers did what Pakistan’s bowlers usually do, but tonight it was not enough•ICC via Getty ImagesAnd with the sheer ludicrousness of the challenge that faces them, Pakistan’s bowlers set about trying. Shaheen Shah Afridi gets Hales first over. Haris Rauf is too good for Phil Salt, and even too quick for Buttler. Naseem Shah bowls the spell of his life, one to invalidate any specious scorecard evaluation of his figures. Afridi dives to dismiss Harry Brook, and a knee that was so recently mended seems to have come undone once more.But Stokes and England are much too cold, much too calculated, not to realise what’s really going on. Stokes may be 24 off 34 at one point, but he knows Pakistan’s bowlers are roaring in defence of a paper tiger of a target, doing so with a bowling line-up that’s lost its leader to injury. The performance has caught the mood of the crowd, not because the match situation favours them, but because belief is the drug Pakistan cricket thrives on, and the fast bowlers have just given them another hit.The elixir of 1992 might give Pakistan life, but Pakistan don’t have Imran Khan on this pitch, while England do have Ben Stokes. He will hit the shot that takes this England side to white-ball immortality, once and for all putting paid to Pakistan’s hopes. It seemed unbelievable that Pakistan would be here, and yet, their fans can’t quite believe they haven’t lifted the trophy. It just about sums up Pakistan cricket.A week ago, Pakistan would have imagined they would be on a flight home very soon. Then, the stars aligned. They gave their fans that surreal afternoon at the Adelaide Oval, before taking them on a starry journey in Sydney. They had hoped for magic in Melbourne but pitted against England’s method, they ended up short. It might sting for a while, but the last week just about encapsulates why Pakistan fill out stadiums from Melbourne to Manchester, London to Lahore.And while the mystique of 1992 may live on, on a clinical night in Melbourne in 2022, England found the most prosaic way to kill it off.

Joe Root fronts up, but ECB is to blame for end to seven-year home record

George Dobell13-Jun-2021There was to be no miracle. Even before the clock on the Thwaite scoreboard at Edgbaston had ticked round to 11 o’clock, England’s second innings had been ended. And a target of 38 in a minimum of 177 overs was never likely to test New Zealand.Before noon, they had completed their first Test series win in England since 1999 (and their third in all) and England had succumbed to their first home Test series defeat since 2014. New Zealand were, indisputably, the better side. India and Australia will be, figuratively at least, licking their lips.It is inevitable at such a moment that we will look for quick fixes. And it’s true that the form of senior players such as Joe Root (whose top-score was 42) and James Anderson (who took three wickets in the series; none of them with a new ball) did nothing to help. Equally, a well-balanced side would no doubt have included a spinner. But that’s not what cost England in this match.No, England’s problems are more substantial than that. And they basically come down to this: if you take one brick out of a dam it will probably hold. If you take two, three or even four it might well hold. But when you start removing foundations, you risk the viability of the entire structure. Eventually, the dam breaks.That’s what’s happened in England cricket. Instead of nurturing and protecting our County Championship, we have squeezed it into the margins of the season and robbed it of many of its best players. We have played it in conditions which bear little relation to Test cricket in the rest of the world and in circumstances where spinners and fast bowlers become close to irrelevant.Meanwhile, we have pushed a generation of experienced county performers into premature retirement by introducing incentives for young players; we have encouraged the government to end the Kolpak influence and we have made it ever more difficult to make overseas signings. Our best Test players have been encouraged to pursue opportunities in T20 cricket ahead of sharing their wisdom in county cricket or working at their games against the red, moving ballAt the same time, we’ve given the prime weeks of summer to limited-overs tournaments and prioritised white-ball success. Young batters have been encouraged to learn short-format skills and excel at performing in conditions where the pitches are perfect and the white-ball hardly leaves the straight. They can afford to be mediocre in the first-class game. Attack has been prioritised over defence.Joe Root has fronted up for England’s failures on and off the field, but the ECB has been silent•PA Photos/Getty ImagesTechnical coaching has been replaced by something very close to cheerleading – correcting a player’s technique is believed to undermine their confidence, though less than failing at international level, you would have thought – and a scouting system has been introduced which has led to such gems as Jason Roy opening and James Bracey keeping in Test cricket. Really, whoever thought those were good ideas needs to be in a different line of work.English cricket might have been able to withstand one or two of these errors. But in combination, they have decimated the competition which develops Test players. For it’s not one or two top-order batters who have failed. It’s a generation of them. And when that happens, you have to look at the system. Finally, the dam has broken.England has, in the past, masked some of these issues with an ability to utilise home advantage. For just as only very fine teams win Test series away in India or Australia, it has tended to be only very fine teams who win away in England.But the current management have decided to try to do things differently. In an attempt, essentially, to prepare for the Ashes, they have challenged their players to perform in conditions where they can expect far less assistance from the Dukes ball and seaming surfaces. They have basically unpicked something that works in the hope of building back better.That is not by any means an unreasonable tactic. It may even be viewed as brave and ambitious. But there is not another country in the world who would spurn home advantage in the same way. England are becoming terrifically generous hosts.Related

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It was telling that it was Root who appeared before the media after this defeat. Just as it was telling that it has been Root (or other members of the playing and coaching staff) who has been obliged to answer questions about the Ollie Robinson affair, a rest-and-rotation policy over which he has little control, or a million other issues.Root was in an impossible position here, really. But he defended his team, he took responsibility for underperforming personally and he refused to hide behind excuses. Some will never take to Root’s style – his soft voice, his refusal to roar and his inclination towards consensus- but there are different ways to lead. Root really wasn’t dealt a fistful of aces with this team.And that’s relevant. For while Eoin Morgan is about to have his strongest squad – injuries permitting – for a second successive T20I series, Root has probably not had his strongest squad available to him since the first Test of the series against Pakistan at the start of August. That’s 11 Tests ago. England’s priorities are very clear.In contrast to Root, Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, hasn’t given an open press conference this year. For any National Governing Body, that seems odd. For one which is currently introducing a new format of the game; contesting allegations of institutional racism, and wrestling with the issue of historic social media posts which demonstrate the sexist and racist attitudes which pervaded in the past, it feels inappropriate. Now is the time for some accountability in English cricket.So let us not quibble over whether Jack Leach should have played at Edgbaston or whether England’s slip cordon is standing at the correct angle. The problems go far deeper than that.

Gujarat Giants head coach opens up about WPL auction strategies, transitioning into coaching, working with Mithali Raj, and more

Ashish Pant25-Feb-20235:16

Haynes: ‘Mithali has certainly given me a lot of guidance’

February 3, 2023 – Rachael Haynes joins Adani Sportsline-owned Gujarat Giants as head coach.February 13, 2023 – The inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) auction is held in Mumbai.Ten days! That is all the time Haynes, the former Australia captain, had to put together an 18-member squad for Gujarat Giants ahead of the inaugural WPL. At a time when IPL teams have elaborate mock auctions, scouting and round-the-year player trials, Haynes, alongside Giants mentor and advisor Mithali Raj and bowling coach Nooshin Al Khadeer, had the challenge to set up a WPL team from scratch in just over a week. All this, in her first assignment as the head coach of a professional team.It might sound a lot of pressure, but what is pressure for a player who has won six world titles and a Commonwealth Games gold medal as part of the Australian team? That might be a reason why Raj, who played against Haynes a number of times, reached out to her for a coaching role with the Giants.”Given the time that everything came together, how little time there was, we sort of just had to get rolling straight away,” Haynes told ESPNcricinfo. “We had to have open and forthright conversations with each other to make sure that we were on the same page and could move forward and make decisions when they needed to be made.Related

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“I leant on Mithali and Noosh [Nooshin] a lot for the local players. They know the game in India very well so we spoke a lot about the local talent and who they thought could really fill valuable roles for us in our side. That’s really how we went about putting our squad together; thinking about the roles that we needed to be filled in our team and then who the players were that we could target to do that.”Giants bought a good blend of Indian and overseas players. There is an obvious Australian influence in the overseas contingent, with four of the six spots going to Ashleigh Gardner, Beth Mooney, Georgia Wareham and Annabel Sutherland. Deandra Dottin and Sophia Dunkley are the other two overseas players in the side. Among the Indian names, Giants have Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, S Meghana and Sushma Verma among others.

“There are lots of different elements that hopefully can come together through the WPL and hopefully, Indian cricket can be richer for it.”Rachael Haynes

They went into the auction with one clear strategy: to not get overly attached to any player. Barring Gardner and Mooney – two of the three most expensive overseas buys in the auction – there was not a lot of incessant bidding from the Giants table.”We didn’t get too attached to one particular player, I think that can sometimes end in a little bit of heartbreak if you want one player and you are sort of holding off for them in the auction and then potentially you miss out on them,” Haynes said while explaining their auction strategy. “We honestly went in with the philosophy of making sure we were clear on the roles we wanted filled in the side. Who we thought could open the batting, bat through the middle order, who those allrounders could be to fill different roles in the side as well.”It was obvious that we wanted Ash Gardner given how aggressive we were in bidding for her and getting her over the line.”First-hand knowledge is another important aspect that Haynes brings to the table. As someone who retired less than six months ago, the 36-year-old shared the Australian dressing room with Sutherland, Mooney, Wareham and Gardner. She has also watched a lot of the players who had registered at the auction from close quarters.Haynes played with Mooney and Wareham for Australia•Cricket Australia via Getty ImagesGiants bought Wareham for INR 75 lakh (US$ 91,000 approx) and at the time of the auction, she had not played a T20I in over a year having undergone a knee construction surgery after rupturing her ACL in the WBBL in October 2021.”I had the benefit of having seen her first hand in Australia and just seeing how well she completed her rehab and how well she has presented since,” Haynes said on Wareham’s selection. “The tough thing being out of that international spotlight in terms of an international player, you are relying on a little bit more first-hand local knowledge in that respect. To draw people back to the player she was when she was playing before that injury, she was very much a core part of that Australian line-up, she was a fantastic player in big moments too if I think of the occasions she stood up under pressure and took key wickets for Australia.”Haynes’ transition from a player to coach is a natural one. She finished her Level 3 coaching accreditation – the highest in Australia – last year, alongside former team-mates Elyse Villani and Meg Lanning. By the time Haynes hung up her boots in September 2022, drawing the curtains on a 13-year-long international career, she was ready to enter the next phase of her professional life.She credits Matthew Mott, the former Australia women’s head coach and current white-ball coach of the England men’s side, for being the driving force behind her taking up coaching.”Matthew Mott certainly was really instrumental in making sure that particularly us senior players completed our coaching accreditation while we were still in the game,” Haynes said. “He was instrumental in really encouraging us to do that but also providing us opportunities in the Australian programme to create sessions, to run and lead different scenarios around the teams.”It [coaching role] is going to be a challenge, certainly a change of gear from playing and being a player in an environment to being a coach and trying to create a really positive space for our players to perform and also learn. I am looking forward to that challenge and, yeah, we can bring it together at the right time in the WPL.”Mithali Raj, Nooshin Al Khadeer and Rachael Haynes at the Gujarat Giants auction table•BCCIThe WPL is expected to be the next big thing for women’s cricket. The tournament has already been in the spotlight for being the most lucrative in the women’s game. In January, Viacom18 won the media rights for the WPL for a whopping INR 951 crore (US$ 116.7 million approx.) for a period of five years and a few days later the BCCI sold the five franchises for INR 4669.99 crore (US$ 572.78 million approx).Then at the auction, a number of players had massive paydays. Gardner was the most expensive overseas buy alongside Nat Sciver-Brunt (Mumbai Indians) fetching INR 3.2 crore (US$ 390,000 approx.). Mooney was bought by Giants for INR 2 crore (US$ 244,000 approx.).While the influx of money is a huge part of it, Haynes also expects the tournament to bridge the gap between domestic and international cricket for Indian players, like it has for the Australian players at the WBBL and the England players through the Hundred.”First and foremost, it [WPL] is going to draw so many different people to the game, hopefully, who will get to experience and come to know some of the female players which we’ve all known for some time,” Haynes said. “It will also create really good opportunities for the domestic players in India. We’ve seen how positive that is in terms of creating depth in international sides around the world. If I think of the Australian system in the WBBL and what’s that done for Australian cricket, the same happens in the Hundred as well, albeit in a different format.”There are lots of different elements that hopefully can come together through the WPL and hopefully, Indian cricket can be richer for it.”So, did she at any stage think of coming out of retirement to try her hand at playing in the WPL?”I got to that point where I knew I was ready to step away and experience a new challenge. I just knew that I probably got the most out of myself and I was happy with where I’d got to and had the sense of fulfilment,” Haynes said. “I certainly wasn’t sitting there in envy wishing that I was playing or anything like that. I am very happily retired.”

A fixture that was once dominated by Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo is now being reinvigorated with younger, fresher blood

Matt Roller07-Apr-2023Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are Indian cricket’s versions of Real Madrid and Barcelona, the biggest and best teams in the IPL’s history. Even after propping up the table in 2022, they are the rivals whose meetings still attract more interest than any other fixture in the tournament.But Saturday night’s marks a changing of the guard, one that could be detected in their most recent meeting at the Wankhede. That night, with both teams languishing at the wrong end of the table, Dwayne Bravo played his 116th and final match for Chennai, bowling two wicketless overs; Kieron Pollard, a Mumbai stalwart since 2010, was dropped from their side, never to return.For all the brilliance of MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, those two men, who grew up 10 miles apart from one another in North-West Trinidad, have defined this rivalry. At least one of Bravo and Pollard has featured in each and every one of Mumbai and Chennai’s 36 previous encounters, 34 of them in the IPL and two in the Champions League T20. In those games, nobody has taken more wickets than Bravo, and nobody has hit as many sixes as Pollard.Related

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This weekend, they will sit in their respective teams’ dugouts as bowling and batting coach. Both men still play around the world, and lined up together for one of Mumbai’s team in the UAE’s ILT20 earlier this year, but announced their retirements from the IPL in late 2022 and have taken up roles on the support staff.”I look forward to my batters coming up against DJ and his bowlers,” Pollard said on Friday evening. “Hopefully we can see how that goes, and who can be singing at the end of it – or who will be singing, and who will be crying.” History is on his side: Mumbai have won 21 times and lost 15 against their rivals.If Chennai have not yet identified a long-term successor to Bravo, Mumbai’s replacement for Pollard is clear. The end of last season’s basement battle offered a glimpse of the fixture’s future: Mumbai’s low-key victory was sealed by a 6ft 5in power-hitter, who faced seven balls and swung two of them over midwicket for towering sixes; this time, it was not Pollard but Tim David who clinched the points.The pair worked closely last year. As Pollard’s own form fell away, David became Mumbai’s designated finisher, after unexpectedly finding himself out of the side during the middle of the season.Confronted with the realisation that he was no longer in the franchise’s strongest XI, Pollard took it upon himself to act as David’s mentor.Kieron Pollard has slipped into a new role, as batting coach, at Mumbai Indians•Mumbai Indians”Polly did the role for 12 years for Mumbai Indians, and did an unbelievable job – but Tim has got a very similar skillset,” Aaron Finch, who as Australia captain played a role in the selection of David ahead of Steve Smith at the start of last year’s T20 World Cup, told ESPNcricinfo. “They can chip in with the ball and are always in the hotspots in the field, and with the power that they’ve got, you feel as though the game’s never out of reach when you’ve got guys like that in your side.”Mumbai shelled out INR 8.25 crore (A$ 1.5 million approx.) to sign David in 2022 and while they only picked him eight times last season, his strike rate of 216.27 was enough to earn him a retention for 2023. David made a false start at the Chinnaswamy on Sunday night with a 7-ball 4, but on Saturday he returns to a ground where he faced 36 balls across last season, and hit ten of them for six.”Over a 14-game IPL season, you’re backing those guys to win you two or three games,” Finch added. “I don’t think Tim will ever be a guy that you’re banking on to consistently get 500 runs in a tournament – but you don’t buy him for that. You buy him to have a huge impact, a huge strike rate.”The similarities between the pair extend beyond the field of play. David attended Scotch College, a prestigious private school in Perth’s western suburbs. But unlike Cameron Green, three years his junior at the same school, he was not a childhood prodigy who had been marked out as a future international.Instead, he forced his way on to the franchise circuit by taking up every opportunity that came his way during the pandemic and becoming a freelancer – just as Pollard had, more than a decade ago. David is an outlier in the Australian system, playing for the national team without a central contract, or even a state one.2:22

Moody: ‘There are too many holes amongst the Mumbai team’

There is mutual admiration between them. “Polly has been a pioneer with his career, David told this website last year. “I definitely look up to him and I love the brand of attacking cricket that he plays.”Pollard passed on not only specific batting advice, but also tips as to how David could stay “fresh throughout a two or three-month tournament – and also when you’re playing all year round”.”Tim is a very, very intelligent young man, who knows what he wants to do,” Pollard said. “He has taken a different path as an Australian. He’s gone around the world, trying to get experience in different conditions. Now he’s entrusted with a job here at Mumbai Indians, and he’s doing it.”As I know, batting at that number, sometimes it’s not the greatest position to be in,” Pollard added with a smile. “If things don’t happen, they blame you; if things go well, you go dormant and no-one praises you. He has great power. He can hit the ball, he’s a strong guy, and it’s just a matter of trying to do that consistently whenever the team needs him.”The nature of the position means that there is no guarantee David will succeed on Saturday, as the Wankhede welcomes back a capacity crowd for an IPL game for the first time since 2019. But if he does, he could become the new poster boy of a fixture that is evolving in front of our eyes.

They may not force their way in this season against England but opportunity could come next year

Andrew McGlashan19-Nov-2021

Henry Hunt

The South Australia opener has made a big impression over the last two seasons to vault himself into national consideration at the age of 24. He scored his maiden century in his fourth first-class match in 2019 and this season he has made two hundreds, including a superb 134 against Tasmania in bowler-dominated conditions out of a total of 220. It matches the two he made last summer when he was the standout performer in another poor season for South Australia and the four centuries have come in his last 13 first-class innings.”I think Henry’s form over the last couple of weeks has been fantastic, but in many respects it’s backed up what we’ve been seeing from him,” national selector George Bailey said. “He’s well organised, his game’s in really good order, he’s got a lot of fight in the way he goes about it, he’s determined and he’s a gun fielder.Related

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Bryce Street

The left hander has made a name for himself at the top of Queensland’s order with his stickability at the crease but this season he has also worked on expanding his stroke range as witness during his century against Tasmania which included the first sixes of his first-class career. Three of his four hundreds have come from more than 300 deliveries while the other took 281. He also stood up to New South Wales’ Test-strength attack in last season’s Sheffield Shield final with 46 off 203 deliveries which allowed Marnus Labuschagne to take charge. In recent weeks his form has tailed a little – a top score of 23 in his last five innings – but Street’s qualities remain sought-after in this era.”For a young guy, Streety is bloody difficult to dismiss and that’s a great trait as an opening batsman,” Bailey said. “And the flow-on benefits of how hard it is to get him out is that his teammates are often the beneficiaries of his hard work, so we love the determination, we love the grit he brings.”Which of Nic Maddinson, Bryce Street, Matt Renshaw and Henry Hunt could break into the Test side?•Getty Images

Matt Renshaw

Renshaw made a terrific start to his Test career including a big century against Pakistan at the SCG in 2017, but has not played since being hastily called into the Johannesburg Test in early 2018 following the fallout from the ball-tampering scandal. He was in line to play against Pakistan in the UAE but suffered a concussion. A difficult couple of seasons followed and he was dropped from the Queensland side then took a break from the game. He has returned and reinvented himself into a middle-order batter with considerable success averaging 55.92 since the start of last season. The selectors have an eye on his skill against spin with the subcontinent tours scheduled for next year.”I think he’s worked his way really nicely into the start of this season, he looks really at home in that number five role and he’s an excellent player of spin,” Bailey said.However, speaking this week, former captain Steve Waugh said he thought Renshaw should return as an opening batter. “I don’t know why he is batting in the lower order because he did a great job for Australia opening He’s got a good technique but for some reason he is not the flavour of the day. But I thought he made an amazing Test debut under lights in Adelaide in difficult conditions. He scored slowly but survived. He hasn’t got the credits he deserves while playing. I wouldn’t rule him out.”

Nic Maddinson

Maddinson’s career has been rejuvenated by his move to Victoria where he has averaged 63.41 to put himself firmly in the frame for a Test recall having struggled during his first opportunity in 2016 (he made his debut in the same match as Renshaw). He was the closest of the Australia A group of batters to earning a place in the main squad. Chris Rogers, the Victoria coach, has spoken of the maturity Maddinson has brought to his game on and off the field, something further emphasised by his recent promotion to captain of Melbourne Renegades in the BBL. His innings of 87 against New South Wales earlier this season came in for significant acclaim in a match where few other batters could score as freely and he followed that with a century at the MCG. He has been troubled by the short ball during his career but has worked on that aspect of his game.”It’s one of those things, you get to the second half of your career and you start to probably look at things differently,” Rogers said this week. “You think more about your game, how you’re structuring your innings, all those kind of things. You probably balance your personal life out a bit as well. He just seems really calm, that’s the thing that stands out for me. From the innings I’ve seen this year he’s been completely calm from ball one, and he’s looked like a senior player, an old pro, and that doesn’t come easily.”