Is Abdullah Shafique the real deal?

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Pakistan haven’t unearthed a world-class opener since Saeed Anwar, but their quest may yet have a happy ending

Danyal Rasool19-Mar-2022Like the first sentence of a Tolstoy novel, Pakistan’s opening Test batters have, for too long, only existed to lubricate the path to what follows. They offer you a glimpse of what you are about to get into, but pretty or eye-catching as they might be, they are moved past swiftly, letting you get stuck into the heft of the subject matter – be it the social state of 19th century Russia or the middle orders of 21st century Pakistan Test line-ups.So when Abdullah Shafique arrives, pretty as a Tolstoy opening sentence and as technically sound as the meat of his novels, it is all Pakistan can do not to unload their collective hopes and dreams on those 22-year old shoulders.Who is Shafique then? Another Pakistan opener? Why are we talking about Pakistan openers? Won’t he play some games, do all right, get exaggerated praise, and then mysteriously get exposed against either the moving Dukes in England or the bouncing Kookaburra in the southern hemisphere?Related

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Won’t he drop out for whoever has a good Quaid-e-Azam Trophy next season? Or, just as likely, whoever has just had a good white-ball series and happens to be trending on social media?Shafique might – please hear this out before rolling your eyes – be different. It isn’t just because – like Harry Potter to JK Rowling on a train to Manchester – he seemed to appear, out of nowhere, fully formed. He has still played just three first-class matches that aren’t Tests, and only one before he made his Test debut. And in that game, he scored a first-innings 133.When he made his T20 debut the following year, an unbeaten 58-ball 102 helped Central Punjab chase down 201 with more than an over to spare. He would become just the second cricketer ever to score hundreds on first-class and T20 debut.Shafique is from Pakistan after all, so there was the usual messing around; he was selected for the T20I leg of the New Zealand tour in December 2020 largely off the back of that hundred, even though all signs pointed to red-ball cricket being his true calling. A couple of ducks and a bit of dented confidence later, he dropped out of the side altogether, seeming set for a long stint in the domestic game.Shafique has played just three first-class matches that aren’t Tests, and only one before his Test debut•AFP/Getty ImagesMisbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s coach at the time, counted himself among Shafique’s admirers, praising his technical ability and maturity. And when he got the Test call-up to replace Imran Butt in Bangladesh this year, that precocious ability began to get the wider audience it merited. A pair of half-centuries on debut provided the foundation, but then again, considering the opposition, any excitement was invariably tempered.Over the past fortnight, though, the reputation has truly begun to burnish itself. The Australians’ bowling attack in the first Test in Rawalpindi boasted a combined 1089 Test wickets, a daunting challenge for someone of Shafique’s inexperience, however flat the surface might be. Building on an unbeaten second-innings hundred, he went on to produce a fourth-innings masterclass in the second Test in Karachi, showcasing his temperament along with his talent.It was the cauldron of hostility combined with the hopelessness of the situation that made Shafique’s resistance so unlikely. Here was an opener playing his seventh Test innings. He had just witnessed Azhar Ali – a man in his 172nd – misjudge a Cameron Green short delivery so poorly that he ducked into an lbw.At that stage, Pakistan were nearly 500 runs from their target, and if Shafique had quickly followed Azhar into the dressing room, there would have been little criticism or blame coming his way.Abdullah Shafique has enjoyed a fruitful start to his Test career•ESPNcricinfo LtdBut over 304 balls, Shafique, perhaps the biggest Pakistani batting talent since the man batting opposite him, defied Australia. While Babar Azam was brisker with the run rate, Shafique displayed the maturity that had so impressed Misbah, remaining aware that Pakistan could get little more than a draw out of this.He played Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins with soft hands behind the wicket whenever possible. Leaving wasn’t a regular option given how accurate Australia were, so his defensive game got a workout as well as a huge audience. Nathan Lyon was treated with respect, but not deference; when it appeared he had settled on a length, Shafique knocked him off it by using his feet and stonking him out of the ground.The 305th ball would produce a rare loose shot when, four shy of his hundred, he went chasing Cummins, driving on the up and edging to slip. It is the kind of shot that he is unlikely to play too often once he acquires more experience, but it couldn’t detract from his marathon effort; and it didn’t undo his hard work either.The 50.5 overs he kept Australia out for was nearly a third of the entire innings until then, and the draw Shafique was trying to salvage would be Pakistan’s by the day’s end.Shafique’s treated Nathan Lyon with respect, but not deference•AFP/Getty ImagesThere are, of course caveats, and there will be detractors. This is just his fourth Test, and he has been a beneficiary of soft opposition or featherbed surfaces. How he copes against pace, movement and high bounce – something that did for him in both those T20I ducks against New Zealand – remains to be seen.But of the eight Pakistan openers who have debuted since 2010 and played at least four Tests, no one has averaged as high as Shafique’s 73.16. Besides Abid Ali, who until that stage had an average of 71.40, no one managed an average above 50.The idea that Pakistan have found it much harder to produce world-class batters than their fast bowling counterparts falls rather flat when you consider how many batters went on to take their place among Pakistan’s all-time Test legends since Saeed Anwar walked away from the sport. Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah, Azhar, Babar and Asad Shafiq have all gone on to notable careers since then.All besides Babar have scored at least 4500 Test runs and ten Test hundreds, milestones the current Pakistan captain should canter to over the next few seasons. In that time, not a single Pakistan fast bowler has come close to taking 200 Test wickets, with Umar Gul – who has 163 – the only one managing to broach 150.But conspicuous by their absence in that list are opening batters. This isn’t a golden age for that kind of player anywhere in the world, but in Pakistan in particular, those lost post-Anwar years have now entered a third decade. It wouldn’t be uncharacteristic for Pakistan to move past Shafique at the first sign of a rough patch, or unforeseen circumstances, to extinguish the hopes he has built up.There is a chance, though, for a happy ending to that quest. It is not an opportunity Tolstoy ever took, but, while Shafique writes his own destiny, Pakistan still might.

Tactics Board: Rashid vs Royals batters, the powerplay approach, and the toss impact

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Where the IPL 2022 final between Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals could be won or lost

Gaurav Sundararaman28-May-2022And then there were two. On Sunday, Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals will face off in Ahmedabad in the final of IPL 2022. While Titans have made it to the final in their maiden season, this is the first time since 2008 that Royals are contesting for the title. Titans hold the edge, having beaten Royals on both occasions they have met this season.Titans have benefitted from the presence of allrounders in their squad, while Royals have gone with a six-batter-five-bowler strategy throughout the tournament. Still, bowling remains the stronger suit for both sides. So who will come out on top? Here’s a look at some of the factors that could play a key role in the final.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Rashid effect
Rashid Khan’s presence ensures the opposition teams strategise differently. Sometimes scoring at just a run a ball against him without losing a wicket is seen as an above-par performance for the batting team. So far, Rashid has been involved in five finals across his T20 career. He has taken just two wickets in them but also conceded only 5.27 runs per over.This season Royals have taken the Rashid threat extremely seriously. He was wicketless in the two games he played against them but gave away only 39 runs from eight overs. He conceded just one four and one six, that too to R Ashwin and James Neesham. It’s highly likely that Royals adopt a similar approach in the final because every Royals batter has struggled against Rashid in T20s. Jos Buttler is yet to score a boundary against him, while Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer have lost their wickets when they tried to attack him.If Rashid’s overs are almost out of the equation, Royals would have to take more risks against the likes of Hardik Pandya, Yash Dayal and Alzarri Joseph. The way these three bowl could be a huge factor in deciding the outcome of the match.Related

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Will toss play a big role?
Since January 2021, Ahmedabad has hosted 18 T20s. Out of those, only twice has a team opted to bat after winning the toss. Overall, the chasing teams have won on 12 occasions. In the remaining six games, the team batting first scored in excess of 170. With slightly bigger boundaries and a possibility of dew setting in, whoever is batting first on Sunday will look to score at least 170, which should be the par score. Samson has been incredibly unlucky with the toss this season, losing 13 tosses from 16 games. However, he won an important toss in the Qualifier 2 against Royal Challengers Bangalore at this very venue. The last two IPL finals, though, have seen the team winning the toss going on to lose the match.Vital powerplay
The powerplay in both innings is going to be one of the key phases of the final. With the conditions favouring bowlers early on, it is important that the batting team keeps wickets intact as both teams have excellent bowlers to exploit the conditions. Titans are the best team in the bowling powerplay, followed by Royals. Titans have taken 26 wickets at an average of 26.69 in the powerplay, while Royals have taken 24 wickets at 27.38. The new-ball spells from Trent Boult and Mohammed Shami will be crucial for both teams and It would be interesting to how the batters approach them.ESPNcricinfo LtdDominating the spinners
Royals and Titans have been the most dominant sides against spin in the tournament. While Royals have struck at 136.72, Titans have gone at 125.34. However, with three quality spinners on display across both teams, it will be interesting to see how the batters go against them. In the two matches that Titans and Royals have played against each other, Royals preferred playing out Rashid but Titans have dominated Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. Titans’ batters scored 144 runs off 102 balls of spin against Royals while losing just three wickets. Eighty of those runs came in boundaries. In Royal’s last two games, Chahal was wicketless and conceded 77 from his eight overs. Do Chahal and Ashwin have new tricks for Titans’ batters?ESPNcricinfo LtdHow can Royals negate the Miller threat?
David Miller is having his best IPL season ever. He has scored 449 runs at an average of 64.14 and a strike rate of 141.19. Historically, Miller has been a pace hitter. Scoring against spin has not been his forte. However, since 2020, Miller averages 56.9 and strikes at 136.9 against spin. He also scores a boundary once every seven deliveries against spin. With a minimum of 450 balls, only Devon Conway has a better average and strike rate than Miller against spin.So what are the plans Royals could use against him? From a pace-bowling perspective, since January 2020, when bowlers have pitched it short or short of good length, Miller has scored only at 127.7 and has been dismissed eight times. Against fuller deliveries, Miller has struck at 187. So the margin of error is very less when pacers try a yorker against him. Therefore, going short and short of good length could be the plan to control the flow of runs against Miller. Interestingly even against spinners, there is a similar trend. This IPL when spinners have bowled full, Miller has smashed 89 runs off 28 balls with ten sixes. That’s a strike rate of 317.85. When they have pulled back their length, Miller goes only at 93.40, scoring 85 runs from 91 balls.Miller has waited for the bad balls to despatch while respecting the good ones. But his record against Ashwin and Chahal is below par. He has been dismissed by Ashwin three times in 73 balls while conceding only 85 runs. Chahal too has dismissed him three times, in just 30 balls, but Miller has taken him for 52 runs. So if Royals bowlers can refrain from bowling in the arc, then there is a high chance that the ball does not go out of the park.

Educated punt on Brendon McCullum offers England's Test team an overdue sense of identity

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Alliance with Stokes is a gamble – but playing it safe would be a much greater sin

Andrew Miller12-May-2022To paraphrase Monty Python, apart from 6453 runs in 101 matches, a highest score of 302 and a world-record 54-ball century in his final appearance, what has Brendon McCullum ever done for Test cricket?Well, if those numbers alone don’t impress you, how about his defining role, in the winter of 2014-15, in creating the team identity that, six years later, would result in little New Zealand becoming the inaugural World Test Champions, even while reaching three out of the last four World Cup finals across six years and two white-ball formats?Or what about the fact that, to all intents and purposes, he has already revitalised English cricket once before? Had it not been for the lessons he imparted in 2015 on his great friend and then-rival Eoin Morgan, first on the field in an extraordinary World Cup humiliation at Wellington, and thereafter in passing on the Kiwi philosophy that Morgan’s white-ball team would adopt as their own, there’s no way they’d have reached the 50-over World Cup final four years later, let alone swiped the trophy from their former mentors too.McCullum’s appointment as England’s new Test coach may look, on the face of it, to be a transcription error: the white-ball role would seem to be a far more natural fit. But in actual fact, it could prove to be a masterstroke, a chance to address head-on the listlessness that has defined England’s Test endeavours in precisely the same timeframe as New Zealand’s standards have soared. And at the very least – and in the words of Martin and Jeff’s not-quite namesake, Sheryl Crow – it could end up being My Favourite Mistake. Anyone else up for dying wondering? Thought not.Sure, the appointment will be greeted with horror by those who fear for the sanctity of the five-day game, and who are aghast at the notion of granting extra licence to an already slap-happy generation of batters – men such as Zak Crawley, whose inability to temper his attacking mindset has left that epic 267 against Pakistan looking like an outlier in his career record, rather than an expression of his generational talent.Related

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But if one thing is abundantly clear from the horrors of the winter just gone, it is that playing safe with this appointment would have been a far greater sin than taking an educated punt on a man who has never coached a red-ball team in his life.Over and above the need for a tactical genius or a ball-busting taskmaster, England’s Test team is crying out for an identity. In a captain-coach axis of Ben Stokes and McCullum – two men who could easily have been All Blacks had their New Zealand heritage panned out differently, who in differing ways have been obliged to rehabilitate their public image, and whose similarities even extend to their maxed-out tattooed torsos – it’s about to get slapped around the chops with personality.Not that McCullum will necessarily prove as gung-ho in his stewardship as his reputation might suggest. “People might not believe this, but most of my preparation for batting is geared around defence,” he told The Cricket Monthly in 2015. “If I can rely on my defence – defend straight and leave well – then the rest of my game flows from there.”That philosophy will be music to his new captain’s ears – there are few straighter blades in world cricket than Stokes’ at the outset of a Test innings. And McCullum will know too that good things come to those who wait, in more ways than one. On his first day as Test captain, at Newlands in January 2013, New Zealand were routed for 45 inside 20 overs – and that after the ugly sacking of his predecessor Ross Taylor, a situation that put a strain on their friendship and rendered the New Zealand team as unpopular as at any time in its history.That was New Zealand’s point of no return – the same point that England encountered at Melbourne five months ago, when they surrendered the Ashes with their 68 all out. Two years later, and after many honest conversations – including the soul-searching that followed the death of Phil Hughes in November 2014 – McCullum’s men were the darlings of their nation as they sashayed through the home leg of their World Cup with a beaming grin and an assassin’s creed. Even a thumping loss to the Aussies in the final couldn’t detract from the huge gains made.Stokes gets a handshake from McCullum after his 2015 hundred at Lord’s•AFP/Getty ImagesIt remains to be seen whether England’s Test fortunes can follow a similarly redemptive arc. But either way, McCullum’s appointment is an extraordinarily exciting prospect for a format that can still, just about, lay claim to being cricket’s “pinnacle”, but needs the continued endorsement of the game’s biggest names if it is not to collapse under the weight of its own self-importance.Stokes, who pulled out of the IPL even before his appointment as Test captain, has been beating that drum with increasing urgency since the Ashes. He has repeatedly stated that Test cricket is his “No. 1 priority” and judging by his ballistic display for Durham at New Road last Friday, he’s in quite the mood to back his words with deeds.McCullum’s resignation as Kolkata Knight Riders’ head coach is quite the symbolic step too – an expression of faith in an ancient format from the man, lest we forget, whose opening-night century for KKR in Bangalore 14 years ago was the innings that sent the IPL stratospheric in the first place.Not that this appointment should be painted as a Test versus T20 tussle. Quite the contrary, in fact: the worst mistake that cricket’s traditionalists (for want of a better word) can make is to forget quite how malleable the longest format can be, and quite how much and how often it has already evolved in its 145-year history.Ricky Ponting, Delhi Capitals’ coach and another man who featured on Rob Key’s long-list, was integral to the great Australia Test team of the early 2000s – a side whose brilliance owed so much to the fusion of skills that it absorbed from its hegemony in one-day cricket. Rattling along at four an over, with Matthew Hayden’s pinch-hitting approach at the top of the order offset by Adam Gilchrist’s death-hitting brilliance, and with Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath a contrasting pair of spearheads in each format, it set in motion a truly great era of Test cricket.The same can still hold true now. No-one who witnessed Stokes’ shot selection at Headingley in 2019, or Rishabh Pant’s berserk onslaughts in Ahmedabad or Cape Town could possibly claim that T20 has been detrimental to Test cricket’s overall standards. The trouble lies in its growing influence at the expense of all other formats. As Kevin Pietersen tweeted last week, even while missing the wider point that he was making about elite-level competition: “Every sportsman is a brand! All of you would work for less if you got paid way more for it! ALL OF YOU!”

And therefore, Test cricket has a choice. Does it do much as England has done in recent campaigns, and corral itself off from the zeitgeist – picking from a range of barnacles, workhorses and as-yet untainted rookies, none of whom have yet put themselves forward for an IPL auction and most of whom are never likely to anyway? Or does it seek to be bold – and address T20’s dominance head-on by presenting itself as the means by which the very best can test the outer limits of their capabilities? Earn your living on the T20 circuit by all means, but step this way if you seek true greatness.That’s the option that McCullum’s arrival would seem to place back on the table. Even though England are officially splitting their Test and white-ball coaching roles – and rightly so given the insane workload that his predecessor Chris Silverwood was obliged to take on – this is actually an appointment that can unify the two teams’ philosophies.Apart from anything else, it makes a virtue of the fact that Morgan, the white-ball captain, is basically untouchable as English cricket’s grandmaster. McCullum was master of ceremonies at Morgan’s wedding, shares the same interests in horses and gambling, and last season they were the captain-coach alliance that propelled KKR to the IPL final. Irrespective of the differences between red- and white-ball cricket, you’d back them to craft a message that can be carried seamlessly from one format to the other, without the sort of compromises that Trevor Bayliss in particular was obliged to make in his approach to Test cricket.It’s fitting, too, that the first big Test (with a capital T) of McCullum’s methods will come at Lord’s against New Zealand next month. Everything that has been good about English cricket in the past decade seems to have had to pass this particular stress test – mostly notably the World Cup final in 2019, of course, but more pertinently in this case, the 2015 New Zealand Test in which England fleetingly showed a glimpse of what might have been had their white-ball prerogatives not got in the way.That was the match that had it all. England collapsed to 30 for 4 and won; New Zealand racked up 403 for 3 and lost, and central to the renaissance was the then-young alliance of Stokes and Joe Root. Only months earlier, Stokes had been omitted from England’s World Cup squad. Now he proved the folly of that decision with the fastest century ever seen at Lord’s, as well as – in New Zealand’s final-day chase – the first-ball dismissal of none other than McCullum, who had held himself back after the loss of three early wickets in the hope of instigating a “second launch” in their pursuit of a lofty 345. England can embrace the implications of being white-ball trendsetters under McCullum•BCCI”There’s an element of pride that we continue to play a style of cricket that gives us our greatest chance,” McCullum said after that match. “There will be times when teams can stand up to you and withstand the pressure and come out on top. You just have to doff the cap, say ‘well played’ and make sure next time you get the chance you go hard again and ask the same question.”It’s hard to imagine that an England team led by Stokes, with Root still in the form of his life, with Jonny Bairstow back to a red-ball focus, and maybe even with Jos Buttler reimbued with a sense of purpose after his miserable Ashes tour will need much persuasion to buy into that sort of a vision from McCullum.Buttler, in particular, is a fascinating case study. He was so clearly out of sorts in Australia – visibly overwhelmed at times by the limitless scope of Test cricket’s possibilities. And yet somehow he was able to park those negative vibes come the start of the IPL, and tap straight back into the domineering mindset with which he had romped through the group stages of the preceding T20 World Cup.A McCullum-Stokes Test team would surely wish to have Buttler as a central plank, but on his terms this time, with licence to play his natural game with a depth of batting options around him. That was the case in England’s short-lived experiment with “total cricket” in 2018, in fact, when the side was loaded with allrounders down to No. 10, so that the team’s big hitters had licence to trust their instincts, and the bowling had enough depth and variety to make every spell seem like an event.There’s no reason why, say, Alex Lees or Dom Sibley could not form a key part of such a rebooted England Test team – much as Alastair Cook’s unhurried excellence was crucial to that 2015 Lord’s Test – but it would have been on the terms dictated by the overall team philosophy, and not simply because they are likely to sell their wickets for a higher price than most.After all, the game has evolved dramatically since Test cricket was last the overriding priority for England. At the recent Under-19 World Cup, the generation that grew up watching Morgan’s white-ball revolution marched into the final with an array of drives, sweeps and ramps that might have been grafted directly from the men they had been idolising from the age of 13.It won’t be long before the likes of Jacob Bethell, Tom Prest and George Bell are pushing for Test recognition, and there won’t be much point in forcing the white-ball genie back into the bottle when they get there. And frankly, why would you want to? As McCullum knows only too well, having reframed New Zealand as a team it needed to be, and not simply a less convincing version of Australia, if you’re not true to yourself, you’re lying to everyone.England, in spite of the constant angst, have been white-ball trend-setters for the best part of a decade now. This appointment could be the first step towards fully embracing the implications.

Smart stats – Mohsin and Patidar make it an IPL to remember for uncapped players

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Why Buttler finished second behind Mohsin for maximum impact per match

S Rajesh01-Jun-2022Jos Buttler lit up IPL 2022 with four hundreds and a stunning aggregate of 863 runs – the second-highest ever in an IPL season – but in terms of impact per match, as measured by ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, he was pipped to the top spot by an uncapped player with only 26 T20 matches under his belt coming into this tournament.Mohsin Khan had an undistinguished start to IPL 2022. He went for 18 in two wicketless overs in Lucknow Super Giants’ opener against Gujarat Titans, and then didn’t play another game for nearly a month, but when he returned after missing six games, he made an immediate difference to their bowling attack.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn his last eight matches (starting April 24), Mohsin conceded 12.78 runs per wicket and 5.77 per over. Among the 33 bowlers who bowled at least 20 overs in this period, none had a better average or economy rate. Overall in the season, no bowler had a better economy rate in the powerplay than his 5.25, while only four did better than his 8.62 at the death (minimum qualification: eight overs for each).But forget about the conventional stats for a moment. Smart Stats takes into account match context for each ball bowled, and it’s here that Mohsin’s contribution shines even more.Take, for example, his 4 for 16 against Delhi Capitals. In a match where 195 played 189 (match run rate 9.6), Mohsin went at four an over, and took the wickets of David Warner, Rishabh Pant and Rovman Powell. His bowling impact points for the game was 141.01, the third-best by any bowler in a game this season (behind the five-fors by Umran Malik and Yuzvendra Chahal). He had another entry in the top five too: his 3 for 20 in an extremely high-scoring and tight win against Kolkata Knight Riders (match run rate 10.45) won him 127.37 points.

In fact, in only two of the nine games did his impact points drop below 35. That incredible consistency, coupled with those highs, gave him an average rating of 58.4 impact points per match, the highest for any player in the tournament.Buttler was outstanding through the first seven games of the tournament, and he regained his form again in the playoffs. In those 10 games, his average impact score was a whopping 84.1. He had five innings in which his batting impact score exceeded 100; all the other batters put together only had 25 such instances in the entire tournament.

However, what let Buttler down was his sudden dip in form in the second half of the league stage. In seven innings, he scored only 138 runs; in three of those innings he had negative impact scores, and his average impact score in those seven matches was only 16.4. That meant his overall average for the tournament was 56.2, still very impressive but just a shade below that of Mohsin.As if topping the charts wasn’t enough for the family of uncapped players, they went ahead and captured the third spot too, thanks to Rajat Patidar, who had a sensational season after being drafted in as a replacement player. Patidar played his first game of the season only a month into the tournament, but like Mohsin, he became an indispensable member of the team. Before he came in, Royal Challengers Bangalore had struggled with the No. 3 slot – Virat Kohli managed just 119 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 122.7.

Then, along came Patidar and lifted those numbers several notches, scoring 312 runs in six innings at that position, at a strike rate of 153.7. Along the way, he struck a scarcely believable unbeaten 112 off 54 balls in the eliminator against Lucknow Super Giants, when his other team-mates managed only 85 off 67. That was the first century by an uncapped player in an IPL playoff game, and fetched 175.4 impact points, the most by any batter in an innings this season. Only once was he dismissed under 20, and in four innings his impact score topped 50.Andre Russell, Liam Livingstone and Umesh Yadav round off the top six, with less than two points separating them. Russell had an excellent season with both bat and ball: he was the leading wicket-taker for Kolkata Knight Riders, and also topped their charts for both batting and bowling averages. He was the only player in the tournament to score over 200 runs and take over 10 wickets, and had five match performances with impact scores of over 100. To go with those highs, he also had the lowest of lows – his none for 45 in three overs and 5 off 11 balls against Lucknow Super Giants gave him an impact score of -36.6, the worst by any player in a match this season. That he still features among the top performers overall indicates how well he did in the other games.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe uncapped starsThe 2022 season was the first time an uncapped player topped the impact ratings in an IPL season. Mohsin’s rating of 58.4 is also the highest rating for an uncapped player in a season. In fact, there are only four instances of an uncapped player topping a rating of 50 in an IPL season (with a minimum of eight matches played), of which two were in 2022.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe first such instance happened way back in the inaugural IPL season in 2008, when Shaun Marsh had a blockbuster season, topping the charts with 616 runs at a strike rate of 139.7. His impact rating of 57.9 that season is only marginally lower than Mohsin’s 58.4 in 2022.Marsh’s run that season was built around rock-solid consistency. He made five fifties and a hundred in 11 innings, and that is reflected in his impact scores: seven scores over 40, though only one exceeded 100. The international debut was inevitable, and it happened soon after, in June 2008.Shreyas Gopal’s 2019 season was similarly impressive, when he took 20 wickets – the third-highest in that edition – including those of Kohli and AB de Villiers twice in two matches. In eight out of 14 matches that season, his impact score topped 40.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Stats: Jhulan Goswami, the most prolific bowler of women's cricket

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

The seamer retires as the only bowler with 350-plus wickets in women’s internationals

Sampath Bandarupalli24-Sep-2022355 Wickets for Jhulan Goswami across formats, the most by any player in women’s internationals. In 2018, she became the first player to reach the milestone of 300 wickets in the women’s internationals. Since then Katherine Brunt (329), Ellyse Perry (313), Shabnim Ismail (309) and Anisa Mohammed (305) have also breached that mark.20y 261d Length of Goswami’s ODI career, from the debut in 2002 to the final match at Lord’s. It is the second longest ODI career in women’s cricket, behind Mithali Raj’s 22 years and 274 days. Raj and Goswami are the only women to feature in 200-plus ODIs, having played 232 and 204 matches respectively.ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 Goswami is the only woman cricketer with 200-plus ODI wickets. She has 255 wickets in this format, 64 more than the second-best Ismail (191).2 Bowlers with a five-for in all three formats in women’s internationals, including Goswami. The Indian pacer completed this feat in 2012, following her maiden five-for in T20Is, while Jenny Gunn of England replicated it in 2014 with a maiden Test five-for.43 Wickets for Jhulan Goswami in the women’s ODI World Cups, the most by any bowler in the competition. All 43 wickets have been of different batters.

39y 303d Goswami’s age going into her final appearance on Saturday. She is the oldest player to represent India in any format in women’s internationals. Goswami is also the oldest Indian to feature at the women’s ODI World Cup and the oldest Indian woman to play a Test match.47.28 Percentage of ODI innings (87 out of 184) where Goswami registered an economy rate of 3 or less. Only on six instances she conceded more than six runs per over.

5 for 11 Goswami’s bowling figures against Australia in the 2012 Visakhapatnam T20I. These are the best bowling figures for India in women’s T20Is. She is also one of the three Indians to claim a six-wicket haul in women’s ODIs.3 Asian seamers, other than Goswami, with 100-plus wickets in women’s internationals – Shikha Pandey (119), Asmavia Iqbal (114) and Amita Sharma (108). The combined total of these three fast bowlers is 341 wickets, 14 less than Goswami’s tally.

Women take top billing as Winfield-Hill, Capsey revel on Hundred opening night

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

Oval stands remain full for second half of a potentially ground-breaking double-header

Valkerie Baynes11-Aug-2022Two players at opposite ends of their careers revelled in the limelight when Oval Invincibles picked up where they left off as defending women’s Hundred champions, with a resounding nine-wicket victory over Northern Superchargers.On her 18th birthday, Alice Capsey, couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate as the home side overhauled their target of 144 with 16 balls to spare, the competition’s highest successful run-chase, beating Southern Brave’s pursuit of 141 against Birmingham Phoenix last year.That was thanks largely to Lauren Winfield-Hill, the 31-year-old opener, who scored an unbeaten 74 off 42 balls. Not that Winfield-Hill is going anywhere, but her England career stalled when she was dropped midway through the ODI World Cup earlier this year.Capsey, meanwhile, a rising star of last year’s Hundred, has enjoyed a breakthrough summer at international level and her short but free-flowing knock on Thursday night sealed victory.Related

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Both sides were brimming with big-name players and Alyssa Healy, the formidable Australia opener, looked set to break a lean spell dating back to her 170 in April’s World Cup final when she struck Mady Villiers for a huge six down the ground on the second ball of the match.She was dropped by Shabnim Ismail at mid-on two balls later, and fours off that delivery and the next also looked ominous. But then she chipped Sophia Smale, the 17-year-old Welsh left-arm spinner who was a late injury replacement in Invincibles’ squad, to Suzie Bates at mid-off and departed for 15, that was that.Jemimah Rodrigues kept up the form she showed towards the back end of India’s silver-medal campaign at the Commonwealth Games with 51 off 32 balls, while Laura Wolvaardt, who scored three consecutive fifties in South Africa’s recent ODI series with England, added 49.Capsey sent a scare through the Invincibles’ camp when she rolled her ankle while fielding early in Superchargers’ innings. She was still feeling the effects when she came in at No. 3 in the chase, after Bates fell for 46, although she didn’t show it, other than through a reluctance to run singles as she peppered the boundary on her way to 25 off just eight balls. She was pretty nimble skipping down the pitch to launch Jenny Gunn for a straight six and followed that with four fours on the trot off Linsey Smith to close out the win.That was after the vastly experienced Winfield-Hill, who has played 100 games for her country, had earned Player-of-the-Match honours with a wonderful knock against her former side. She shared an opening stand of 104 with New Zealand veteran Bates, who came in as the home side’s third overseas player when South Africa allrounder Marizanne Kapp fell ill before the match.Dane van Niekerk, the Invincibles captain playing her first competitive match since November after breaking her ankle, bowled 15 of her maximum 20 balls, conceding 19. Capsey, meanwhile, claimed 1 for 6 off one five-ball set shortly before her fielding mishap, and she returned to the field after icing her ankle to take a catch running in from the cover boundary to remove Rodrigues.So there was drama, there were plenty of runs, and there were twin home victories to thrill the crowd and they responded in kind by showing their support.The question of whether the tournament’s decision to invert last year’s double-header model and put the men’s match on as the curtain-raiser to the women’s “worked” depends on what it intended to do.In terms of providing equality, it did, albeit for one match only, as the remaining double-headers this season will revert to the 2021 format of the women playing before the men. More telling will be if the women playing in the headline slot becomes a regular event next year.Winfield-Hill was hopeful that it would. And, on Thursday night’s showing at The Oval, there is a strong argument to say that it should.Dane van Niekerk tosses the coin•Getty ImagesA packed house of 21,330 roared the Invincibles men to victory over Superchargers with just three balls to spare in a thrilling finish in the 3pm fixture. And, while clear pockets appeared in the stands where some had left, the majority stayed on, with the crowd for the women’s game estimated to be 15-16,000 – twice as many as watched the standalone opening game in 2021.”Today we were wondering whether a lot of people would stay or what the atmosphere in the crowd would be like but it was so loud, honestly,” Winfield-Hill said. “We were trying to communicate in the field and get the fielders’ attention and it was so hard to hear each other.”A massive thanks to everyone that stayed and watched the game because that’s what we want, isn’t it? We want to play in front of packed crowds and great atmospheres. You grow up wanting to put on a show and be an entertainer, so it’s fantastic.””We all know this the primetime spot, so the more that we can be exposed to that and the more people are seeing us play on TV and knowing that girls can play cricket, hopefully you captivate a new audience,” she added.”I think as the Hundred evolves in the next few years, we’ll see that change with the times of fixtures. It’s a long day waiting to play and trying to keep yourself occupied and your mind busy, but to play in front of a crowd like that was awesome.”The atmosphere was exactly what a number of women – including Capsey – who played last year have credited with priming them for high-pressure situations at international level.”It’s set young players up like myself to have confidence in taking that step up into international cricket,” Capsey said. “The Hundred was a massive thing for me and playing in front of these kinds of crowds, it’s massive.”Massive enough to make it commonplace? We’ll have to wait to find out.

PSL – a Pakistan success story and a welcome distraction for its people

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

The last season’s finalists, Lahore Qalandars and Multan Sultans, will kick off festivities this year

Danyal Rasool12-Feb-2023It begins, then, as it ended. A year on from the day Lahore Qalandars and their Captain Fantastic Shaheen Shah Afridi trounced Multan Sultans, the two sides kick off the festivities again. While that game was played out at the Gaddafi Stadium, which very much felt like a Lahore cauldron, the rematch takes place in Multan’s den, where after a playful, light-hearted opening ceremony, the cricket itself will be anything but.The Pakistan Super League, once a bashful interloper finding its feet on the T20 circuit, now takes pride of place on the T20 circuit this time of year. It is as much a social event in Pakistan as a cricketing one, a rare success story in a country that has otherwise seen troubled years in recent history. As the PSL gears up for the eighth edition, its exuberance and luxuriance will stand in stark contrast to a country that appears to be on economic life support, battling hyperinflation and political instability with no end to either in sight.But cricket, to press that most tired of cliches into service, brings Pakistan together, and nowhere does it feel truer than in the PSL. For the next month, people will turn to it for entertainment, of course, but also for much-needed distraction. Most Pakistan TV channels are now 24×7 political content streams, but till March 19, they are more likely to report on the activities of Lahore Qalandars than those of the Lahore High Court. If they start talking about a Nawaz Sharif-Imran Khan rivalry, it will be in the context of Quetta Gladiators vs Karachi Kings and Mayfair vs Bani Gala.Related

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Kings lack batting firepower; Zalmi missing premium fast bowlers

And cricket, despite the many imperfections that still pervade the system, is perhaps the last true meritocracy in Pakistan, another point the PSL has underscored. There are few other institutions where a player like Zaman Khan, a boy who grew up in an internally displaced camp in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, can rise to the top on the basis of ability and talent alone, alongside team-mates whose circumstances were substantially less oppressive. The advent of a women’s PSL due to take place later this year only further underscores the force for progression the PSL continues to be.The recruitment, too, has become more sophisticated. In the early years, drafts tended to focus on big-name foreign superstars. The opening draft picks in the first three years were Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Chris Lynn, respectively – all were unsuccessful. Now, analytics and research have largely triumphed over gut and intuition, with player availability and match-ups often taking precedence over star power.ESPNcricinfo LtdDespite the significant turnover in squads every year, most sides have managed to retain an identity running through their history. Islamabad United are the trailblazers, even if their Moneyball-style recruitment has now largely been replicated by other teams. Their shock-and-awe batting approach often makes them the most entertaining ticket in town, and with Paul Stirling, Alex Hales, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Colin Munro, Shadab Khan, Moeen Ali and Azam Khan in the squad, it will be no different this time around.Qalandars were the lovable buffoons until last year, when they went out and won the whole thing, rewarded for a player development programme that produced Haris Rauf and Zaman Khan. Kings have often been the pantomime villain, but for them, that only makes their wins sweeter. A new, unlikely rivalry with Peshawar Zalmi makes for a mouth-watering Valentine’s Day clash, with no love lost between the departing Babar Azam and Kings’ captain Imad Wasim, who took a less than subtle dig at him in the build-up.Gladiators have a rejuvenated Sarfaraz Ahmed, the only man who has captained the same side every season since the league’s inception. In Naseem Shah and Mohammad Hasnain, they have the princelings of Pakistan’s pace bowling among their ranks. They will want to turn around a few barren years – they went from being the most consistent side in the first four years to the worst side in the previous three.ESPNcricinfo LtdSultans were the best side bar none last year, producing the most dominant group-stage season in PSL history. That made their loss to the Qalandars in the final an especially bitter pill to swallow, but no side boasts a better record in the previous three years.The overseas players are what distinguish any league from a domestic T20 Cup, and while Pakistan continue to attract some of the best, partial unavailability because of players’ other commitments will disrupt team plans. Rashid Khan, Gurbaz, Harry Brook, Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Kusal Mendis and David Miller are among over a dozen players to miss chunks of the competition, an inevitability in any league that does not have an exclusive cricketing window. But the quality of the domestic cricketers year after year remains the PSL’s enduring asset. Where once it was limited to the bowling department, domestic batters – even those without international pedigree – provide much of the intrigue. Hassan Nawaz, Haseebullah Khan, Abdul Bangalzai, Saim Ayub, Usman Khan and Kamran Ghulam are likely to be pivotal to their teams’ plans. Suddenly, power-hitting is almost just as sexy in Pakistan cricket as pace bowling.And nothing is quite as sexy in Pakistan cricket as the PSL right now. It is Pakistan’s treasure as a cricketing nation, and their respite as a people. They need the latter more than ever this time around, and in a country where institutions can often disappoint, the PSL is establishing itself as one that bucks that trend.

Ranji Trophy: How Bengal, Saurashtra, Uttarakhand and Andhra reached the quarter-finals

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

With the knockout stage starting on January 31, we take a look at the qualifiers from Group A and Group B

Shashank Kishore29-Jan-2023

Bengal

Twice this season, against Uttar Pradesh and Baroda, Bengal were on the back foot. But both times, they showed immense self belief to turn things around and win. These two games aside, Bengal flexed their muscles for much of the group stages before being given an eye-opener by Odisha in their final group fixture on an Eden green top, where they missed the services of Anustup Majumdar (thumb injury) and Akash Deep (concussion) and Shahbaz Ahmed (national duty). Bengal want to win for Manoj Tiwary, who is determined to bow out with a Ranji Trophy title. They came close two seasons ago, but were pipped by Saurashtra in the final. Can they emulate Sambaran Banerjee’s class of 1989-90? First-up is Jharkhand, their east-zone rivals.Top performer

Bengal have rewarded performers, irrespective of age. Anustup Majumdar, 38, has been a shining example. He has lived up to his billing as a crisis man and is their second-highest run-getter with 565 runs in 10 innings at 62.77. Purely on impact, his 83 not out in the second-innings of a tough 257 chase in their opening game stands out. Overall, he’s so far hit two hundreds and two fifties. Bengal will be hoping he recovers from a thumb injury ahead of the quarters.Related

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Uttarakhand

Amid allegations of financial mismanagement by the association, players complaining of lack of facilities and pending payments, and “influential” members interfering in selection, the cricket has continued to thrive in Uttarakhand. In the quarterfinals last season, when they were beaten in a little over two days by Mumbai, who recorded the biggest win in terms of runs in first-class cricket, it threatened to blow their lid off. But a young group has rallied together under a new captain in Jiwanjot Singh to surprise some big teams. Wins over Nagaland and Odisha set them up, before they cracked open the group by rolling over Himachal Pradesh, runners-up of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s, for 49 and winning their third straight game. First-innings honours against UP and Baroda sealed their knockouts berth.Top performer

Mayank Mishra has become one of Uttarakhand’s lynchpins over time. The left-arm spinner leads their wickets tally with 32 scalps in seven matches. In doing so, he’s proved to be equally successful against Elite teams, too. His match haul of ten wickets against Bengal is a case in point. Capable of wheeling away and bowling long spells by holding one end together, Mishra has given the fast bowlers much relief in terms of being able to maintain pressure.Dharmendrasinh Jadeja has picked 29 wickets from seven matches this season•PTI

Saurashtra

A slow start in the first two games was followed by a historic first-ever win against Mumbai. Then Saurashtra got on a roll to beat Delhi and Hyderabad to steer clear of the logjam. However, going into the knockouts, they’ve been given a reality check following losses to Andhra and Tamil Nadu. As if that wasn’t enough, they will be without their inspirational captain Jaydev Unadkat, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja, who led them in the final league fixture, because of national commitments. That said, Saurashtra have shown they aren’t just about their superstars. This has helped them get to two finals in the last three seasons, including a historic first title in 2020. Against Punjab, they will have their task cut out nonetheless.Top performer(s)
If Ravindra doesn’t get you, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja will. The left-arm spinning allrounder has been key to Saurashtra’s success. In the lower middle order, he’s played plucky knocks, like a second-innings 90 on a turner against Mumbai in a match-winning effort. In the same match, he also returned six wickets with the ball in a 51-run win. Overall, he’s their highest wicket-taker with 29 wickets in seven matches. There should also be a special mention for rookie Yuvrajsinh Dodiya, who in his debut season has rocked up and picked up 26 wickets in just five games with his loopy offspin, having been able to capitalise on the rough created from one end by Jadeja.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Andhra

In what was billed as a group of death, Andhra were laggards until more than halfway through the season, before they suddenly roared to form in the new year. The turnaround began with a massive win over traditional rivals Hyderabad at home. Yet, when they conceded the lead in the next game against Delhi, they were faced with two must-wins to remain in contention. One of those was away against Saurashtra. Herculean enough but they found heroes in Ashwin Hebbar and Karan Shinde to steer them to a mighty fine win. Then against Assam, Andhra established their dominance early to win with a bonus point. Despite winning four, they needed Mumbai and Maharashtra to take away no more than one point from their final game. As luck would have it, both sides tied for scores with the game ending in a draw. Quirk of fate saw Andhra through.Top performer

No Andhra batter has more than one century, and in all fairness, the surfaces they’ve played on have been challenging. Lalith Mohan, the left-arm spinner, has profited the most and has delivered wholesome returns, like the match haul of 11 for 129 in the must-win game against Saurashtra. He followed that up with a second straight five-for in their final game – also a must-win – against Assam. Mohan has 25 wickets in five matches, second-most for the team behind fast bowler KV Sasikanth’s 26 wickets.

Almost-forgotten Mohit is back, and he's the same bowler he used to be

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Mohit Sharma had kept at it, behind the scenes, and made sure he was ready for his moment when it came, ready to make it his

Karthik Krishnaswamy14-Apr-20230:52

Tewatia: ‘Mohit has been working really hard in the last two years’

There’s been a retro flavour to IPL 2023. MS Dhoni is smacking it at a 200-plus strike rate. Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla and Karn Sharma are taking wickets and reminding the world that no team is complete without a chubby legspinner.Thursday night in Mohali was yet another retro night. Gujarat Titans were fresh off a shock defeat in which one of their young quicks, Yash Dayal, had been hit for five successive sixes in a dramatic final over. They took Dayal out of the firing line for this game against Punjab Kings, and replaced him with a 34-year-old, whose last season as an IPL regular was in 2018. He’d played one game in 2019, one in 2020, and nothing since.Mohit Sharma. Purple Cap winner in 2014. World Cup semi-finalist in 2015. He had disappeared from our TV screens for years and years, and he was back now.Related

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He was back, and from a spectator’s distance he seemed to be the same bowler he has always been. He was doing the same things he’s always done, and he was doing them well.Mohali served up an interesting pitch for this game – Titans captain Hardik Pandya suggested afterwards that it was a hard pitch where the new ball came on to the bat beautifully, but so hard that it quickly roughened up and softened up the ball. This meant that by the time Mohit came on, in the 11th over of Punjab’s innings, the ball was in just the sort of shape to behave a little unpredictably off the pitch.Mohit is a natural at maximising that sort of unpredictability. He hits an awkward, bail-trimming length – too short to drive on the up, not short enough to pull. And he’s always been adept at hitting that length while shuffling through his variations – on pace, either with the seam upright or scrambled, or off pace, delivered either as an offcutter or out of the back of the hand.

Everything about his comeback screamed pragmatism. At this time last year, Mohit was travelling around the IPL with Titans as a net bowler. Mohit had gone unsold at the auction, and he’d jumped at the chance to train and work on his bowling when Titans coach Ashish Nehra had offered him the net-bowler role

On a pitch that’s a little bit two-paced, or when he’s armed with an old ball that’s gone a little soft, Mohit can be extremely hard to hit.Punjab discovered this on Thursday, and it was a gradual realisation rather than a sudden jolt of knowledge, a realisation that dawned over a succession of dot balls and half-timed singles to deep fielders. By the time he was finished, with figures of 4-0-18-2 next to his name, their innings had stalled and stultified.Mohit dismissed Jitesh Sharma in his first over, the ball straightening ever so slightly from that in-between length to brush the outside edge of an attempted back-foot punch. Sam Curran joined Bhanuka Rajapaksa at the crease, and Punjab had a left-left pair at the crease all the way until Mohit’s final over.Mohit took his second wicket in that final over, the 19th of the innings, hitting the pitch hard with an offcutter-bouncer and daring Curran to hit against the angle, against the deviation, and towards the longer leg-side boundary. Curran took on the shot, and picked out deep midwicket. This was the perfect Mohit wicket, full of skill and smart playing of percentages.

“If you have to upgrade your cricket or better it in any way, you need competitive practice. I felt, what am I going to do sitting at home? I was here and doing competitive practice instead, I kept myself involved in cricket, and I think it was a good time for me”Mohit Sharma, on spending IPL 2022 as a net bowler with Gujarat Titans

The right-handed Shahrukh Khan walked out to the crease, and this was immediately followed by what may have been the day’s first sighting of Mohit’s most famous party trick, the back-of-the-hand slower ball.This is the ball that made Mohit’s name, a dipping topspinner that emerges with the seam miraculously upright. It’s a more spectacular variation than his offcutter, and comes out of his hand with a far bigger drop in speed, but on this day, he shelved it for most of his spell because he was bowling mostly to left-hand batters and wanted to use the variation that deviates away from them. Another illustration of the smart, pragmatic cricketer Mohit is.Everything about his comeback screamed pragmatism. At this time last year, Mohit was travelling around the IPL with Titans as a net bowler. Mohit had gone unsold at the auction, and he’d jumped at the chance to train and work on his bowling when Titans coach Ashish Nehra had offered him the net-bowler role.Mohit Sharma, in his comeback game in the IPL, returned 2 for 18•BCCI”I had had a back surgery, and a lot of people weren’t sure if I had played enough domestic cricket [to be signed at the auction],” Mohit said when he was interviewed by between innings. “I got a call from Ashu , saying I should be with the team, and if someone gets injured I’d get a chance.”Obviously, if you have to upgrade your cricket or better it in any way, you need competitive practice. I felt, what am I going to do sitting at home? I was here and doing competitive practice instead, I kept myself involved in cricket, and I think it was a good time for me.”You may think that a cricketer of Mohit’s experience and stature might balk at being a net bowler, but he didn’t see it that way.”It’s not a bad thing to be a net bowler,” he said. “You get very good exposure, you get to play alongside good players, and if you don’t do competitive practice, your cricket won’t evolve.”Mohit Sharma. He had all but disappeared from our TV screens for years and years, but he’d never really gone away. He’d kept at it, behind the scenes, and made sure he was ready for his moment when it came, ready to make it his.

T20 Blast: Five of the best Lord's encounters

by h716a5.icu Uncategorized

To celebrate 20 years of the Blast, we look back at five of the greatest matches to have been held at the home of cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jun-2023Middlesex vs Surrey, 2004 – Surrey won by 37 runs
Although Twenty20 cricket made its debut in 2003, Middlesex’s home matches in that initial season were held at the outgrounds of Richmond and Uxbridge. However the huge enthusiasm for the format meant it was only a matter of time before HQ got involved. Sure enough, Lord’s came to the party on July 15, 2004, as Middlesex hosted their London rivals Surrey in their final group-stage fixture. The match itself was a fairly comfortable win for the visitors – with Adam Hollioake cracking an unbeaten 65 from 41 balls. But the story of the day was the crowd: a packed house of 26,500 made it the best-attended county fixture (other than a one-day final) since 1953, and confirmed that T20s weren’t just here to stay, they were here to thrive.David Warner tucks into the Essex bowling•Getty ImagesMiddlesex vs Essex, 2010 – Middlesex won by five runs
This was one of the more riotous contests that Lord’s has ever hosted. A total of 395 runs in 240 balls, and just five runs between the teams in the final analysis, as Ryan ten Doeschate’s stunning 102 from 54 balls took Essex agonisingly close to the winning line. Middlesex’s daunting total of 200 for 6 was a team effort – everyone who faced a ball reached double figures, including an eye-catching pair of Aussie openers: Adam Gilchrist, at the tail-end of his glittering career, and David Warner, who was only just starting out. They looked likely to be trumped by Tendo, however, whose five fours and seven sixes had taken the requirement down to 23 off nine when he holed out to cover off Pedro Collins, leaving the tail just too much to do.Middlesex vs Sussex, 2017 – Middlesex won by two runs
Tom Helm was Middlesex’s hero in a finish for the ages, as Sussex somehow tripped up in pursuit of a target of 148, despite going into the final over needing a meagre five to win. While Chris Nash had been at the helm, steering his side with 69 from 52 balls, victory had seemed a formality. But Nathan Sowter pinned him lbw with 13 still needed from 16 balls, at which point the game turned on its head. Helm hit his mark with consecutive dot-balls to Jofra Archer, who then thrashed wildly to backward point, and though David Wiese took two from the fifth ball to give Sussex a fighting chance, his final swipe was an air-shot as Helm closed the game out. Earlier, Middlesex had been indebted to Stephen Eskinazi (57 not out from 44 balls), in only his third game in the format, and Paul Stirling (40 from 31). No one else made more than 10.Middlesex vs Essex, 2018 – Essex won by six wickets
Dan Lawrence is waiting in the wings for another England chance, primarily in the Test format, but this stunning innings – at the age of 21 – was emphatic evidence of his short-form prowess too. An uncompromising 86 from 46 balls, with seven fours and four sixes, made mincemeat of Middlesex’s apparently daunting 210 for 3. Varun Chopra set up the chase with 51 from 34 balls, before Ravi Bopara (31 from 15) and Ashar Zaidi (20 from 8) completed it in style, with four balls left unused. It was tough luck for Middlesex’s main man, Eoin Morgan, however. It’s not often that you smack eight sixes in a 38-ball 77 not out and finish on the losing side. Paul Stirling at the top of the order – 78 from 52 – wasn’t exactly sluggish either.Kent scamper a bye off the final ball in 2020•Alex Davidson/Getty ImagesMiddlesex vs Kent, 2020 – Match tied
Middlesex must have thought they had this one sewn up at the halfway mark of the contest. Their formidable total of 209 for 4 came courtesy of an Eskinazi onslaught: had Jordan Cox’s direct hit not run him out for 84 from 52 balls in the penultimate over of the innings, he might well have racked up his first T20 hundred. And yet, in the tense final moments, his side were indebted to that man Helm once again, who produced another ice-cool death over to salvage a tie with five runs to defend. In truth, it was a remarkable missed opportunity for Kent, whose captain Daniel Bell-Drummond had shredded the chase with a blazing 72 from 32, including an opening stand of 89 in seven overs with Zak Crawley. Helm had felt the heat at that early stage, conceding 40 runs in his first three overs. But his work was only just getting started.Interested in attending the highly anticipated 2023 Vitality Blast? Head to viagogo, the world’s leading ticket marketplace, to enjoy any of the remaining three top-class T20 matches at Lord’s Cricket Ground, the Home of Cricket. viagogo is an Authorised Ticket Distributor for these events and you’ll be able to access hospitality packages and tickets to these matches at face value on their platform. Also, all T20 Blast tickets are covered by the viagogo Ticket guarantee. Don’t miss out!

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