Opener finds new lease of life on domestic circuit, as wife takes centre stage for England

Andrew Miller04-Nov-2022Winfield-Hill was player of the match on Tuesday night. Nothing new there, you might think, in a redemptive year for the England international, one in which she has redefined her love of the game to cement her status as one of the very best in her chosen sport.The Winfield-Hill in question on this occasion, however, was not Lauren Winfield-Hill – Cricket World Cup winner in 2017 and twin-trophy winner in a stellar summer just gone – but her Australia-born wife Courtney, whose power-packed hat-trick lit up Headingley in England’s 72-4 victory over Brazil, in the opening match of the women’s Rugby League World Cup.It’s early days in a tournament that culminates in a double-header with the men at Old Trafford on November 19. But, if the home-soil success of England’s cricketers in 2017, as well as this summer’s women’s Euros winners is anything to go by, the coming month could yet be one in which Courtney Winfield-Hill’s own world-class credentials are sent mainstream, after five years of under-acknowledged trailblazing with Leeds Rhinos in the Women’s Super League.And if that does come to pass, then it will complete for the Winfield-Hills one of the most serendipitous sporting stories imaginable – a joint venture that began in adverse circumstances with the Covid outbreak in March 2020, and has traversed some dark days of soul-searching in the interim. But either way, a remarkable sporting power couple appear now to be proving that all the sacrifice is worthwhile.”I can’t grumble,” Lauren Winfield-Hill tells ESPNcricinfo, and with good reason after her own litany of recent successes. A starring role in her first season for Oval Invincibles helped the Hundred’s inaugural champions to defend their title in 2022, before she topped the averages in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, including a player-of-the-match performance in the final in September, to become the first women’s cricketer to lift three trophies in consecutive final appearances at Lord’s.Now, while her wife is blazing a trail back in her adopted home in Blighty, Lauren’s form has sent her in the other direction for another crack at the Big Bash – this time for Melbourne Stars, where she is currently their leading run-scorer with 150 from 132 balls all told. That tally includes 47 from 49 in her most recent outing against Adelaide Strikers, where her steadying presence allowed the young guns Alice Capsey and Tess Flintoff to cut loose in startling fashion at the other end.Lauren Winfield-Hill sweeps during her unbeaten 74 against Northern Superchargers•Getty Images”I feel like I’ve just built myself back up,” Lauren says. “I wasn’t in a good place mentally after Covid, even just as a human being… I could barely even live in the house with my wife, because I was just freaking out at random stuff. But every competition I’ve played this year has just been another layer, going up all the time, and now I’m out here in Australia with a new team, different pressures, different expectations. It’s been really nice to be able to have nothing to change any more, and just to keep going like I did at the start of the summer.”In a different era, this week could have been one of crushing disappointment. On Wednesday, the ECB announced their new tranche of women’s central contracts, and Lauren was a notable absentee, though not an unexpected one after a frustrating run of insubstantial scores in her final months in the ODI side.After 11 double-figure innings in 13 starts, but no half-centuries, she was axed in March, midway through England’s gruelling World Cup campaign in New Zealand, and has since seen the coming generation – Capsey and Sophia Dunkley to the fore – seize their opportunities.And yet, as her performances outside of the England set-up have demonstrated, there’s a whole different avenue opening up for the women’s game – serving up opportunities that could not be further removed from her own early years as a player.”The main thing I feel right now is comfort,” she says. “There was probably always a sense that if you didn’t play for England, you weren’t a cricketer. You’d go from hero to zero, almost overnight, if you lost a contract or were deselected.”It used to be the case that, if you weren’t playing international cricket, the standard that you dropped to was, well, I’m not really going to bother getting out of bed for that. But now you know that you can play some really good cricket in some really cool competitions, even if you’re not in favour with England, and that gives you a lot of fulfilment and a lot to still be excited about, beyond just international cricket.”The journey has changed, hasn’t it?” she adds. “I never intended to come out to the Big Bash, it only came about off the back of me doing well in the Hundred, and I was like, oh, this is a nice surprise. And now there’s me and Capsey, playing on the same team, though she’s at the start, and I’m closer to the end. But how cool is it that we’ve both had this opportunity at the same time, and doesn’t matter that she’s 18 and I’m 32? We’re both in the same place right now.”Courtney Winfield-Hill has switched both countries and sports to star for England in the Women’s Rugby League World Cup•Getty ImagesPerhaps the only note of disappointment for Lauren now is that she cannot be around for her wife’s big moment. England play Canada in the Rugby League World Cup on Saturday with Papua New Guinea to come the following week, before a probable semi-final against either Australia or New Zealand in Lauren’s home city of York on November 14. After that, who knows what’s in store?”[Being away during the tournament] did feel like a really big decision for me and for us,” Lauren says. “We’re both in the sporting field, and when this opportunity came about with the Big Bash, we both knew that such things won’t present themselves forever. A lot of her family are over to support her and that’ll be really cool, because they haven’t seen her play a lot. Obviously, my family and myself have been there a lot, so I think it’d be nice to share that with them.”In spite of this absence at the sharp end, however, Lauren’s role in Courtney’s journey could not be more integral. Seven years ago, when their paths first crossed, it was as team-mates at Brisbane Heat in Lauren’s first crack at the Big Bash. Back then, she was the 25-year-old overseas star, an England player awaiting her breakthrough moment, and as their relationship developed during the course of the 2015-16 season, it was clear that hers was the career that demanded the investment.So Courtney – a talented seam bowler in her own right – was the one to up sticks from her native Queensland and build a new life in Yorkshire. She called time on her own playing days and moved into the coaching set-up at Northern Diamonds, but it soon became clear that the other Headingley Stadium, backing onto the cricket ground, was her truest calling.In 2018, she pulled on her rugby boots for the first time in two decades, and by the time she’d been named the Super League’s Woman of Steel in 2019, it was clear she was quickly making up for lost time. Her England chance, however, is directly attributable to Covid – specifically the postponement of the World Cup in 2021, which allowed her to complete her five-year residency qualification in time for this year’s delayed event, and to make it worthwhile for the England selectors to fast-track her in their plans.”The stars have just aligned, haven’t they?” Lauren adds. “How is she in England, married to an English girl, playing for England in rugby league? You wouldn’t have written that narrative five or six years ago, but it’s amazing. I don’t think it was something that she ever thought was going to be possible, but opportunities present themselves in different spaces.”I’m quite biased, but I’ve always said Courtney’s far too good an athlete to not ever reach the top,” she adds. “I’d never say this to her face, obviously, her head will grow. But she’s fearless. She’s a great athlete, and the narrative of her story is just awesome. She’s 35, and she’s debuting in a World Cup, in a sport that she hadn’t played since she was 12. It’s pretty cool.”Not everything about the Covid experience was quite so cool though, and Lauren freely admits the constraints of the pandemic tested their relationship to the max – almost from the moment of their marriage in Queensland in March 2020. Within 24 hours of the start of their honeymoon on the idyllic Hamilton Island, the entire country went into lockdown, and the Winfield-Hills were faced with a marital acid test.

In a coaching space, being challenged by your wife is a whole different feeling. She’s supposed to think my cover drive is the best in the world!Lauren Winfield-Hill

“It was strange at first because Courtney and I are so different,” Lauren says. “We have very similar values that we care about, but we are so different. She’s that free spirit, high energy, no structure, just go with it and it’s all a bit carnage. She’s very left-field thinking and very creative, and I’m quite militant at times. So it’s great because she’s my blind spot, I can lean into that space a little bit and it usually serves me really well.”A further complication came when their work-life balances overlapped – Courtney as a coach in the nets at Northern Diamonds, and Lauren as an out-of-form batter struggling with the pandemic’s boxed-in circumstances.”At first it was all a bit, whoa, this is alternative to my thinking,” Lauren says. “In a coaching space, being challenged by your wife is a whole different feeling. She’s supposed to think my cover drive is the best in the world! ‘What do you mean, I’m gripping too tight with my bottom hand!'”It was probably a bit of ego on my part, because I didn’t want to take feedback from someone so close to me. But I guess it’s just about switching hats, isn’t it? Because we can both talk until the cows come home about cricket, high performance and the rest of it. But when you’re at home and you’re out of that space, she’s my wife, and we have a cut-off where we’ve spoken work, and now that’s it, done.”But if that was feasible in the domestic sphere, it proved nigh on impossible during England’s gruelling campaign in the 2021-22 winter, encompassing a dispiriting one-sided Ashes tour followed by the World Cup. Looking back, Lauren believes that some of her on-field struggles could well have been connected to her diagnosis, in October 2019, of Crohn’s disease – the same intestinal issue that Jack Leach has been required to manage during his England career.”I’m lucky with the support I’ve had from the ECB,” she says. “It’s only thanks to the England doctor that I was diagnosed in the first place. But the bubbles involved a lot of UberEATS and takeaways, which did make me quite sick. It’s a lot easier to manage now that I can cook and go out for good meals, and look after myself physically.”Also, when you’re not in bubbles, you sleep better. Fatigue is a big part of it and obviously, if you’re not resting and recovering from the training and playing loads, then you’re just constantly taking fuel out the tanks.Lauren Winfield-Hill started the 2022 season with 96 from 51 balls for Northern Diamonds•Getty Images”Everybody had different experiences, but I’m quite a deep thinker and I need distractions. The bubbles don’t give you that, they just give you mental combustion and lots of analysis, lots of overthinking. And lots of disconnect. I needed my people to ground me and reassure me that I’m not just a cricketer, we love you regardless. When the only thing that you’re getting any sort of feedback on is cricket, and that’s not going well, you don’t really know who you are and what you stand for.”It always sounds really corny, doesn’t it? But you’ve got to bounce your bum on the bottom to come back up. And right now, I’m playing the best cricket in my life.”Though she hit the ground running in the 2022 season with a remarkable 96 from 51 balls for Northern Diamonds in the Charlotte Edwards Cup, it was Lauren’s move from Northern Superchargers to Oval Invincibles for the Hundred that provided the stand-out evidence of her new resolve. Her first match for the Invincibles came against her old team-mates – Alyssa Healy included, whose pre-eminence as a wicketkeeper-opener had been a factor in Lauren moving south to give herself an extra role behind the stumps. By the time she’d cracked 74 not out from 42 balls in a nine-wicket win, she had amply justified the switch.”It was a massive decision at the time because I’m Northern through and through, and obviously I had been captain at the Superchargers,” she says. “But sometimes you make decisions for other people instead of decisions for yourself. I don’t think I’ve ever been more nervous for a game than I was for that first game, so it was nice to perform, and they were really happy for me, which meant a lot.Related

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“I’ve just changed the way I operate,” she adds. “I’ve become less OCD with my training routine and allowed myself to go with the flow. The bottom line is that I couldn’t adapt to anything that wasn’t how it was supposed to be. But that’s the game of cricket. God knows what’s going to happen, who knows how many you are going to be chasing, or what sort of surface you’re going to get on, or who they’re going to bowl.”So I’ve worked really hard on being more fluid in life, and fluid in the game. I’m not trying so hard to get that score that proves I’m worthy of being an England cricketer, and so I’m able to adapt and play the game in front of me. Sometimes that might just need me to be gritty, whereas previously I’d have tried to be expansive and sexy, and fail to get the job done.”Greater self-assurance comes with a greater desire to be seen as a role-model too, on the field and off. In terms of her relationship with Courtney, Lauren acknowledges that it wasn’t always easy to be upfront about her sexuality, and that the act of getting married – and taking on a double-barrelled surname – was a big factor in becoming truly comfortable about who she is.”I just think it’s important to use your platform, use your story for good, and just create awareness,” she says. “Our job is to play cricket but there’s a bit more to it than that. It’s important to show you are not afraid to be authentic, and to drive the change.”More generally, however, as a female sportsperson, Lauren can feel that change happening on her watch, and is eager to do her bit to keep the momentum going, at every level of the game.”I think people understand the challenges that female athletes have gone through, and have a respect for that, but you’ve also got to have one eye on the future of change,” she says. “For instance, it’s great to see Amy Jones up on a billboard for a big advertising campaign, but who’s looking out for the girl who’s gone to a cricket club and has nowhere to get changed, or no sanitary bin? She isn’t going to go back if you don’t keep an eye on the shop floor stuff too.”We’re not just the tag-ons anymore. In the past we might have been the curtain-raisers, but now it feels like we are up there on a pedestal as well.”One of the best things about the Hundred has been seeing all the kids after the game, and there’ll be a ten-year-old boy shouting your name and asking for your autograph. That has such an impact, because if a girl then goes into the playground and plays cricket, they don’t all go ‘urgh, it’s a girl!’ They’ll be thinking, ‘I went to watch the Hundred, and the girls are really good. Come on, let’s play!'”Lauren Winfield-Hill recently featured in the Royal London series ‘The Changing Room’, a three-part video series, in partnership with the ECB, where players and officials discuss a range of topics that impact the game of cricket including, racism, faith discrimination, and gender equality. The entire series is available to stream at www.royallondon.com/cricket

South Africa, the Test team, are at a fork in the road – here’s what they need to address to revive their results and reputation

Firdose Moonda09-Jan-2023At least it is over. South Africa’s first series defeat in Australia since 2005-06 ended with a glimmer of hope after they resisted being swept 3-0 in Sydney. But even as they saved face, they were forced to confront the uncomfortable truth that they have fallen behind the top Test teams.”It’s important for us to be honest with ourselves in terms of where we are,” interim coach Malibongwe Maketa said. “As a country, we want to be competing against the top three [teams], but we don’t have the Test caps that they have at the moment. We’ve done well against them in the past, and unfortunately now they are slightly better than us. We brought the best team that we had, and we didn’t compete.”Some of South Africa’s problems are structural – thanks to a first-class system with not enough fixtures and players who cannot successfully step up to international cricket – and others are just plain bad luck. After beating India at home this time last year, they have had one first-choice batter sit out of every tour since due to illness or injury, which has meant that their best line-up has not been able to play together.Related

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You could argue that even if Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma were all fit and firing at the same time, none of them even has a Test average above 35; you would be right in wondering if it would have made that much of a difference at all. The reality is that the deep-seated issues – lack of confidence, tough pitches, a weak domestic competition, and a scant Test schedule in the next cycle – cannot be solved by any one, or even three people, alone.It needs, as Maketa put it, a full-scale “reassessment”, and “the right processes in place”. It needs change. This is South African red-ball cricket’s fork-in-the-road moment, and there are some key areas they need to put in the spotlight to resurrect their Test fortunes.The coach: two to succeed Mark Boucher
The change will start at the top with CSA due to appoint new coaches by mid-January following Mark Boucher’s resignation last year. The role will be split in two, with the Test coach also playing an overseeing role in the domestic first-class set-up, and a white-ball coach to head the ODI and T20I teams.Mark Boucher resigned as South Africa coach last year•Getty ImagesMaketa was shortlisted alongside Adi Birrell, Shukri Conrad, Rob Walter, Lance Klusener and Richard Pybus. Interviews were conducted three weeks ago, and ESPNcricinfo understands a decision will be made in the next ten days, with Conrad and Klusener understood to be the front-runners for the roles of Test and white-ball coach, respectively. At least two of the candidates listed have other offers or jobs elsewhere, and would need CSA to make them an offer in the next few days if they are to accept.There were no international names on the shortlist, which already says something about how attractive the job of coaching South Africa is (not very), and the kind of money on offer (not much compared with other countries).Once head coaches are appointed, CSA can turn its attention to a technically-strong support staff. Currently, South Africa have Justin Sammons, Charl Langeveldt, and Justin Ontong as batting, bowling and fielding coaches, respectively, but other former players such as Vernon Philander and Hashim Amla may also come into contention. CSA will also need to find a High Performance head, as Vincent Barnes will be retiring later this year.The captaincy: time to give Dean Elgar, the batter, some space?
Dean Elgar has been in charge for Tests for less than two years, after taking over in complicated times when the Quinton de Kock experiment failed. Though he is South Africa’s most experienced Test player, was the obvious choice at the time and did a good rallying job upfront, the leadership appears to be taking its toll on his primary job: batting. Since being appointed full-time captain in March 2021, Elgar has not scored a single hundred, and averages 28.40, a serious drop from his average of nearly 41 when not playing as captain.Apart from his form, there are other concerns with Elgar’s leadership: from his knack of talking a much better game than he plays, to the way he manages his bowlers and field placings. Ian Chappell specifically dissected where Elgar went wrong in Australia, and it provides much food for thought about how Elgar has handled situations in other series.Temba Bavuma has been a poor choice as T20I captain, while leadership appears to be taking a toll on Dean Elgar’s batting•AFP/Getty ImagesOn the England tour in mid-2022, a stand-out blunder – though it was not Elgar’s alone – happened on the morning of the second Test in Manchester, when South Africa changed their winning combination from Lord’s to select a second spinner which turned out to be a complete misjudgement. Their team composition then forced them to bat first on a seamer’s surface, and the rest is history.South Africa’s entire leadership structure needs a relook, with Bavuma a poor choice as T20I captain – and even as a player in the format – and better suited to longer-format leadership. It is plausible that Bavuma could be moved to lead the Test side – although it’s also worth remembering that he has not scored a second Test century since his first one came in January 2016 – while someone like David Miller could take over both the short-format teams. That would free Elgar up to do what he does best: score runs.The top six: proactivity needed in the era of Bazball
If Elgar and Bavuma are to be retained for now, the only other batter that should be part of future plans is Kyle Verreynne. He is the only member of the top six that is under the age of 30, and has shown glimpses of the talent that sees him boast a first-class average of over 50. Verreynne is a modern batter who is aggressive against the short ball as also against spin, and is fearless in playing his strokes, qualities which the rest of South Africa’s top six lack.They are made up of slow starters, steady blockers and those with a defensive mindset which may have worked in Test cricket a decade ago, but is simply not the way the game is being played at the moment. If South Africa are to keep up with the pace of Test cricket and join the Bazball-style revolution, they need batters who can score runs at a higher tempo, take risks and advance the game.CSA said Ryan Rickelton “has an ankle injury that forced him to be overlooked by national selectors, but allows him to be picked by his domestic team”•Lee Warren/Gallo ImagesOf course, the likes of Tristan Stubbs and Dewald Brewis need to rack up some numbers in first-class cricket before they can be fast-tracked into the national set up; but already, Tony de Zorzi, Jordan Hermann, Matthew Breetzke and Ryan Rickelton should be looked at.And speaking of Rickelton, our next point…Communication: CSA falling behind in this game
Perhaps even weaker than South Africa’s batting is CSA’s lack of clear communication, and Rickelton is a case in point. After debuting – without shooting the lights out – at home against Bangladesh, Rickelton picked up an ankle injury after the England tour that requires surgery but can be managed for now. He opted to delay going under the knife, in the hope he could play this summer: in Australia, at the SA20 and against West Indies. He was wrong.When CSA found out about the injury, it opted not to take him to Australia for fear that if it worsened, it would not be able to fly a replacement out in time. So far, so good. Except that in a baffling press statement, CSA said that Rickelton “has an ankle injury that forced him to be overlooked by the national selectors, but allows him to still be picked by his domestic team”.At best, that is clumsily worded. At worst, it is a way of deflecting from revealing the full story – something the board did with Lizelle Lee’s retirement, and which it routinely does with selections that are made with transformation targets in mind – and creates a culture of distrust among players and fans. And it blew up badly for CSA when Rickelton then went on to score four hundreds – two each in first-class and List A cricket – across five matches. He may not be the saviour the Test team needs, but having him at home just looked bad.The players are understood to be frustrated by a lack of clarity in the communication, and have – through their association – asked for improvement. That includes a relook at the first-class structure, because they all recognise it is not fit for purpose.Interim coach Malibongwe Maketa is among those who has advocated for less-hostile domestic pitches•ESPNcricinfo Ltd/Sidharth MongaThe pitches: less spice for more reward
It is a well-worn trope that South African surfaces are some of the toughest – if not the toughest – to bat on in the world, and have bred a generation of batters who cannot play free-flowing and high-octane cricket. And so there have been calls for that to change. Maketa is among those who has advocated for less-hostile domestic pitches to produce better international batters.”With the younger batters, do we expose them to better wickets to get enough runs to perform at this level, or do we say that we are a team that’s going to win at home and we make it difficult for people coming?” Maketa said.”We come here, and on good wickets, our control is going to be challenged. If we are comfortable to win at home, we can leave it the way it is, but we want to be successful all around the world. To win the World Test Championship, you have to come here [in Australia] and win; you have to go to India and win. We don’t want to be a team that only wins at home.”CSA has recognised this, and is making a concerted effort to make domestic pitches less spicy to encourage more run-scoring. The number of hundreds produced in the first-half of the four-day competition this season – 16 – shows it is paying off. But it is only the start. It will likely take several seasons for this change to bear fruit.

He’s still only 19, but the highs and lows he’s packed into a 13-Test career have accelerated his growth into a hugely impressive cricketer

Danyal Rasool30-Nov-2022He is only 13 Tests old, but there have been several moments when it’s felt like Naseem Shah has arrived.As early as in his third Test, in Karachi, when he became the second-youngest bowler to take five wickets in an innings, leading Pakistan to a 263-run win over Sri Lanka. Maybe you remember that hat-trick in the Rawalpindi twilight that broke open Bangladesh in February 2020. The 4 for 58 against Australia in Lahore perhaps sticks in the mind – he had recently returned after more than a year out with a niggling back injury. Or the second Test in Galle earlier this year, when he was thrust into the role of leading an attack that had lost Shaheen Shah Afridi to injury, and ended up the pick of the Pakistan bowlers.Related

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For sheer exhilaration, though, it isn’t a performance, but a particular delivery that defines what makes Naseem the box-office cricketer he has grown into so quickly. It came against Ollie Pope at Old Trafford, one star in the making pitted against another. The ball had become old and soft, and Pope had built a 65-run stand with Jos Buttler as England chipped away at Pakistan’s first-innings total. It was a length ball, not short, but it was sent down with enough venom to lift like a bouncer. Pope fended at it and edged to gully, where Shadab Khan held on to a low catch.It was Pope’s nonplussed expression that added to the sense that this was a moment of sorts.Naseem hasn’t been with the Pakistan side for long, but he has managed to fit in enough highs and lows to almost mirror a whole career. Many moments felt like he had arrived, many made one worry that he had faded away.The debut in Brisbane in November 2019, when he was not yet 17 and very raw, and was coming off a personal tragedy, now feels like it came awfully soon. There’s always the possibility of a young bowler struggling to recover from a difficult first game like that: Muhammad Musa, who made his debut when still a teenager in the following Test in Adelaide, hasn’t played another Test. The back injury that hampered him kept him out for more than a year, and Pakistan’s history of fast bowlers with recurring injuries – and their unfortunate fates – raised fears that it might be career-threatening.

“I think it is a big achievement for him that he is still playing and is very fit and that shows how much hard work he has been doing. He is a legend, and I have learnt from him”Naseem Shah on James Anderson

Now, England’s arrival in Pakistan thrusts upon Naseem a responsibility he has only fleetingly carried for Pakistan before, that of leading the red-ball attack. With Afridi out for the series, Naseem has to, in all likelihood, take over new-ball responsibilities. For much of his career, Pakistan have deployed him as first change, looking to use the pace and the unpredictable bounce and seam movement he gets once the initial shine comes off the ball.A brief stint at Gloucestershire earlier in the year only ended up amounting to one-first class match, but Naseem has been steadily expanding his horizons in red-ball cricket. In a press conference on Tuesday, he pointed out that the benefits of his time in England extended beyond his game.”I had a good season. I enjoyed it a lot, and learnt a lot,” he said. “They were different conditions and different pitches. In life, you learn a lot when you live alone. I think bowling is not easy anywhere, but in England, you need to know the conditions and pitch. So yeah, it was a different type of experience.”England have arrived to play Test cricket in Pakistan after 17 years; Naseem was just two when they were last here. There have been plenty of peaks and troughs in the England-Pakistan relationship over this time – unsurprising, given there’s a generation’s gap between these two series. But straddling that gap is James Anderson, the only member of this England side to have toured Pakistan before.Naseem was keen to pay homage to Anderson’s longevity, which, given the 19-year-old’s ambitions, he would be keen to draw from.”I think it is a big achievement for him that he is still playing and is very fit and that shows how much hard work he has been doing,” Naseem said. “He does that required hard work, he is a legend, and I have learnt from him. The big thing about him is that he is still fit and playing at 40. He is a legend and knows everything about bowling, having played everywhere in the world.”Naseem Shah found himself among Pakistan’s spearheads during runs to the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup finals•AFP/Getty ImagesNaseem now feels very different from the painfully shy 16-year-old who found cricket’s invasive and at times hostile media a challenge at the start of his international career. There have been signs of Naseem growing into his own person, and the cheeky confidence of someone who retains his boyish charm even as he develops into the impressive young man he’s become.Speaking of England’s newfound aggression in the Test format, he didn’t seem fazed. “They take risk and play aggressively, that is their mindset and if they are succeeding in that so be it, we have to bowl accordingly and counter that.”He has dismissed Joe Root once before, but when asked about his plans for the batter, Naseem shot back with a smile: “Why should I tell you?”Naseem’s skills with the English language have come a long way since he made his debut, too, but when probed in a language he is still coming to grips with, he was blunt. “Brother, I have just 30% English,” he laughed. “My English is finished now, okay?”For the past three months, the focus had moved from Naseem the red-ball bowler to Naseem the limited-overs cricketer. It was quite a remarkable turnaround, given he hadn’t yet made his international white-ball debut until August, only to find himself among Pakistan’s spearheads during runs to the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup finals. He now returns to the format he lit up first, vastly more mature as a cricketer and, just as noticeably, as a person.Unbelievably, he is still a teenager. But now it does feel like Naseem Shah has arrived.

There were lessons, bonhomie and great moments aplenty in two fine games on Sunday night

Mark Nicholas28-Mar-2023The cricket match we had been waiting for came the day before yesterday at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Sure, I was lucky enough to be present at a thriller of a game in South Africa (a little more of that in a while) but the one in Mumbai was the final of the first Women’s Premier League, and the question was, could it live up to the billing. Hurrying back to a Johannesburg hotel room from a breathless Supersport Park – the crowd still dizzy from the home team’s spectacular run chase against West Indies – I settled in front of the televison for the nub of the matter between Delhi Capitals, led by the Australia captain, Meg Lanning, and Mumbai Indians, led by India’s Harmanpreet Kaur.Nat Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet were at the wicket, nervously chipping away at the Delhi total of 131 and meeting mid-pitch for short conversations and little fist-punches, the touchy-feely performance recognition of cricket’s modernism.Lanning was a study of concentration: cool in the deployment of her bowlers and accurate in the positioning of her fielders, each of whose attention and athleticism would likely decide the outcome. These three, alongside Marizanne Kapp, South Africa’s totemic allrounder and Lanning’s go-to game-breaker, are among the game’s greatest players. They fly the flag for nations steeped in the cricket history of men and now telling stories of women who delight and surprise in equal measure.Related

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It was a hard game to call, especially after Alice Capsey whipped off the bails to run-out Harmanpreet, but the suspicion lingered that Sciver-Brunt was not for turning, and therefore Lanning’s war was at the other end. What she cannot have reckoned on was Amelia Kerr’s brazen counterattack. When it got really tight, Kerr simply thumped a few to various boundaries, and suddenly Sciver-Brunt was paddling the winning runs.What happened next was riveting. Mumbai Indians swarmed the field and hugged the hell out of each other – of course they did, this was a big deal. But wait, did I see right? The coach, Charlotte Edwards, stayed boundary-side, wiping the fall of tears from her cheeks. Meanwhile, Lanning – as good and tough a cricketer as Edwards – immersed herself among the Mumbai horde to shake every hand, have a squeeze or two herself, and warmly smile her way through the pain of defeat. She’s a winner, and this sort of thing doesn’t come easy. But the humanity of her actions was rather moving. Lanning saw the big picture for what it was, a canvas on which women’s cricket can be painted alongside any of the existing masterpieces.Australia are the benchmark for women’s cricket. Lanning is the best batter, a great pro and superb captain. Not long back she took time away from the game to recharge and rethink. Since returning she has won the T20 World Cup with her hugely professional and widely gifted team. South Africa gave the Aussies a run in the final – a fabulous occasion at Newlands incidentally – but one team was better than the other. The speed at which women’s cricket is now moving is astonishing. On the field, the power of shot, speed of bowler and agility of fielder has improved beyond measure, even during the past year or so. Off the field, the players are commanding a heady price at auction; Sciver-Brunt cost the Mumbai franchise about US$ 390,000, and she rewarded the faith.

The quality of the bats is a good thing for women, who are now challenging boundaries and frequently hitting amazing shots, giving their natural game of skill and touch another exciting dimension

The trick now will be to take stock. The development of the professional women’s game has come from a blank sheet of paper and is all the better for it. But the lines on the paper are filling up fast. Burnout is a very real threat to the globetrotters of the day. Sciver-Brunt was another who took time away from the game in the second part of last year to reboot. The highest compliment one can pay her is to recount that while she was at the crease on Sunday, there was an inevitability about the outcome. Richie Benaud used to say that the key to a run chase was to be there at the end. Sciver-Brunt must have been listening. The party began, and how!The scene took me back to the first men’s IPL final, when Chennai Super Kings were outwitted by Rajasthan Royals. It was Shane Warne triumphant against MS Dhoni and Muthiah Muralidaran; Warne inspiring his misfits and igniting Ravindra Jadeja; Warne investing both emotionally and physically in franchise and tournament. Warne being Warne. Royals swarmed then as Mumbai did on Sunday night, and Dhoni warmly congratulated. It was good between the teams, as if they were all on the same mission – the justification of something new that the players saw as opportunity.WPL night was ever so slightly different. Yes, it was something new but it was part of a mission that has defined who we are and what we believe to be right. The communal celebrations were the branches of an olive tree that will, metaphorically, live forever. Women’s cricket is no longer an idea or even a movement. It is an integral part of cricket life. The Indian franchise-league presence is the final piece of the jigsaw. Lanning instinctively knew it and saw that on this glittering night, in front of a full house, the winner was less relevant than the writing on the wall. She lost with dignity, which has not always been said about sportspeople in this angry age, but which seems to be back in fashion – among cricketers anyway.The IPL takes its share of the credit, since players who previously only knew one another from opposite sides of the fence now spend long periods of the year living in each other’s pockets. As must Brendon McCullum, who convinced his New Zealand players to dumb down the histrionics and see cricket for what it is – not trivial but not life and death either. Such was his impact that the generously spirited reaction to cruel defeat in the 2019 World Cup final by his successor Kane Williamson and the whole team will live long in the memory.Johnson Charles and Kyle Mayers put on 135 in 58 balls in the epic Centurion T20I•AFP/Getty ImagesThe women have an unfettered sense of joy in their game – an innocence almost – that suggests both unity and an old-fashioned morality. A well-used piece of footage during the later stages of the WPL had Jemimah Rodrigues in the Delhi Capitals dugout leading some of her team mates though an impromptu and wonderfully fluent dance, after which they all fell about with laughter. It was a reminder that we can take ourselves and the game too seriously. Ben Stokes has worked this one out too but applies his conclusions in a rather different way. Part of England’s recent success comes from upping the fun factor and lowering expectation.There was something of the same at Supersport Park early on Sunday evening as West Indians mingled among South Africans after 517 runs had been scored in 38 overs and five balls. In the television preview to the match, I interviewed Johnson Charles, who said he wasn’t bothered by arriving the day before the first match and that, anyway, he wasn’t the sort of player who studied the pitch and weighed up his options; rather, see ball and hit ball was the message. After which we walked to the middle together and, prophetically, he said we should expect a 245 game on a pitch this good. I can’t say I took him seriously. Duh me. He made 118 of them himself, in 46 balls.The balance between bat and ball is a true essential in the ongoing review of cricket’s health. So yes, these matches are heavily loaded in favour of batters, but on other occasions in other places, the ball has its say. Where possible, boundaries should be pushed back for men, whose physical strength has exponentially increased with the quality and amount of wood in the bats. The problem is how easily the mishit flies over not just the infield but the boundary riders too. This is obviously unfair to bowlers and takes much of the fear out of attacking batting, thus making the task of a big hit under pressure easier on the mind. The quality of the bats is a good thing for women, who are now challenging boundaries and frequently hitting amazing shots, giving their natural game of skill and touch another exciting dimension.The summary of all this is that whenever the critics – and I have been one – bang on about overkill in the short-form space compromising Test cricket, it is easy to forget cricket is in a generally happy place. Aspects of today’s game are not for everyone but then nor are aspects of today’s life. In a worn cliché it is said that cricket reflects life. This may be so, it may not. But as long as the grounds are full of enthusiastic spectators, the rudiments of technique remain – they form the aesthetic – and the contest goes to the wire, there is nothing to do but celebrate. Lanning had her day in the South African sun on February 26th, when her team won the T20 World Cup against South Africa at Newlands. On Sunday it was the turn of Harmanpreet in Mumbai and Lanning was first to applaud her. How the great world spins…

Kohli-du Plessis partnership, Klaasen’s attack against spin, and other key numbers from the SRH-RCB game

Sampath Bandarupalli18-May-20232:11

Moody: Margin of error for a spinner against Klaasen is very small

1 During the SRH-RCB game in Hyderabad, Heinrich Klaasen and Virat Kohli became the first opposing pair to score centuries in an IPL match. There have been two previous instances of two centurions in the same IPL innings – Kohli and AB de Villiers against Gujarat Lions in 2016 in Bengaluru, and David Warner and Jonny Bairstow against Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2019 in Hyderabad.6 Number of hundreds for Kohli in the IPL. He now has the joint-most centuries in the league’s history, along with Chris Gayle. It was Kohli’s seventh century in all T20s, the most by an Indian in the format, surpassing six by KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma.872 Partnership runs between Kohli and Faf du Plessis this IPL, the most by an opening pair in an edition of the IPL. Overall, their tally is behind only Kohli and de Villiers’ 939 in IPL 2016.187 Target chased down by RCB, their third-highest successful chase in the IPL. They won chasing 204 against Kings XI Punjab in 2010 and 192 against Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016, both in Bengaluru.