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And when was the last time a spinner took a ten-for in a Test in New Zealand?

Steven Lynch19-Jul-2022Reece Topley took nine wickets in the last two ODIs against India. Was this a record for England, or indeed any country? asked David Jackson from England

The tall left-armer Reece Topley followed 6 for 24 at Lord’s – England’s best figures in ODIs – with 3 for 35 at Old Trafford.Topley was only the third Englishman to collect nine wickets in two consecutive ODIs, following Steve Harmison, who took 4 for 39 against Bangladesh at The Oval and 5 for 33 vs Australia at Bristol in May 2005, and Chris Woakes (4 for 67 at Bristol and 5 for 54 at Headingley against Pakistan in June 2019).The overall record is 13, by Pakistan’s Waqar Younis, who followed 7 for 36 against England at Headingley in June 2001 with 6 for 59 against Australia at Trent Bridge two days later. Five men have managed 11 wickets across two successive matches: Gary Gilmour (Australia) in the 1975 World Cup semi and final; Azhar Mahmood (Pakistan); Rashid Khan (Afghanistan); Shaheen Shah Afridi (Pakistan); and Mustafizur Rahman in his first two matches for Bangladesh in 2015.I saw that Matthew Wade played again in this year’s IPL, nearly 11 years after his last appearances. Was this a record? asked Narail Singh from India

The Australian wicketkeeper-batter Matthew Wade played three matches for Delhi Daredevils in 2011, then did not feature again in the IPL until this year, when he played for Gujarat Titans, the eventual champions. This gap of nearly 11 years is indeed a record for the IPL, beating the previous mark by nearly three years. That was set by Colin Ingram of South Africa, who did not appear between 2011 and 2019.Another Australian, seamer Sean Abbott, had a gap of more than seven years between two appearances for Royal Challengers Bangalore in April 2015 and another for Sunrisers Hyderabad in May 2022, while the New Zealander Jimmy Neesham did not feature between May 2014 and September 2020. The leading Indian on this list is the Bengal wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami, with just under six years between May 2012 (for Rajasthan Royals) and May 2018 (Sunrisers).Reece Topley’s three distinguished wickets at Old Trafford amounted to around 28,000 ODI runs – was this a record? asked Michael Donovan from England

Reece Topley’s 3 for 35 at Old Trafford was made up of Shikhar Dhawan (6324 ODI runs before the match), Rohit Sharma (9359) and Virat Kohli (12,327) – a grand total of 28,010. ESPNcricinfo’s nimble number-cruncher Shiva Jayaraman tells me this is the 12th-highest aggregate for any trio of wickets in an ODI innings.Top of the list is an unexpected name: when the Scotland seamer Josh Davey winkled out three Sri Lankans in a World Cup match in Hobart in March 2015, his victims were Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, who had a grand total of 36,401 runs at the time. Next comes the Jamaican seamer Daren Powell, whose 4 for 27 for West Indies against India in Cuttack in 2006-07 included Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, who had 34,605 ODI runs between them then.Josh Davey’s three wickets – Dilshan, Sangakkara and Jayawardene – in the 2015 World Cup match against Sri Lanka had a total of 36,401 runs between them•Getty ImagesBoth Dan Vettori and Muthiah Muralidaran took ten-fors at the Basin Reserve in 2006-07. Was this the last time a spinner took ten in a Test in New Zealand? asked Callum Wakefield from New Zealand

The match you’re talking about was the second Test in Wellington in December 2006. Daniel Vettori took 10 for 183 in the match for New Zealand, but Muthiah Muralidaran’s 10 for 118 helped Sri Lanka win by 217 runs.These were indeed the last ten-fors by spinners in a Test in New Zealand; there had previously been only eight others, including another by Vettori (12 for 149 against Australia in Auckland in March 2000). By contrast, there have been 18 ten-fors by seamers in Tests in New Zealand.What’s the highest IPL total without an individual half-century? asked Sukhinder Varma from India

This record changed hands during the 2022 season, when Punjab Kings made 208 for 5 to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in Mumbai on March 27; their top scorers were Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, who both made 43. They exceeded Kolkata Knight Riders’ 206 for 5 (Andre Russell 48 not out) against RCB in Bengaluru in 2019.Delhi Capitals also beat the old mark in 2022, with 207 for 8 (Rishabh Pant 44) against Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai in May. The only other IPL total of 200 or more without an individual half-century is Mumbai Indians’ 202 for 7 (Abhishek Nayar 45 not out) against CSK in Chennai in 2008.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

In a match that swung wildly one way, then the other, the optimists among you had reason enough to believe this Sri Lanka team is resurgent

Andrew Fidel Fernando02-Sep-20222:51

Maharoof: I would call Asitha Fernando a warrior

Are you watching the Sri Lanka men’s side play this year? I guess, unless you are invested in their fortunes, there is no obvious reason to. They are ranked seventh in Tests, eighth in ODIs, and eighth in T20Is. They are very decidedly not a world-beating team.But in terms of fun had, surprises delivered, heart-stopping moments provided, they are living on the edge, folks. If you’re a pessimist, they are a side on the verge of falling into cricketing irrelevance, having allowed their domestic cricket to regress for decades. In this reading, the wins are merely the final, powerful palpitations of a once-great side, raging against the dying light.Related

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If you’re an optimist, they are resurgent. They have a world-class legspinner in Wanindu Hasaranga, a solid fingerspinner in Maheesh Theekshana, and a captain who is finding his batting groove in T20Is, with others in the top order contributing sporadically. They are fighting back, getting back to their punching-above-weight ways.This win against Bangladesh, in a match that careened in one direction, swung wildly to the other, and then back and forth several more times, provided evidence for either argument.The pessimists can point to the spectacular luck Sri Lanka had. Kusal Mendis’ innings is a case study. He could easily have been out for two, when he edged Taskin Ahmed behind, but was dropped by a diving Mushfiqur Rahim. He could have been even more easily out on 29, when Mushfiqur actually did catch him. But the bowler, Mahedi Hasan, had overstepped, and he was called back. On 31, he lightly gloved a ball that was going down the legside, but Bangladesh failed to review the not-out decision. He went on to make 60 off 37 – essentially providing the base to Sri Lanka’s chase.Asitha Fernando (left) on T20I debut hit the winning runs for Sri Lanka•AFP/Getty ImagesThe finish was monumentally lucky too. Asitha Fernando had batted in only eight T20 innings before this match (his T20I debut), and had hit four fours off the 25 balls he’d faced. In this game, he walked in with Sri Lanka needing 13 off seven, and banged two fours off the three legal deliveries that came at him, essentially sealing the match.Even Bhanuka Rajapaksa was surprised. “Asitha Fernando hit runs that we didn’t expect him to hit, and won the game for us.”The optimists have a case too. Hasaranga, the best bowler in the team, got taken apart, but the batters came through, however fitfully. Dasun Shanaka, in the T20I year of his life, hit 45 off 33 to take the game deep. Chamika Karunaratne then pushed it even deeper, until the win was in striking distance for even the tailenders. They will point to the intangibles – to Fernando’s tenacity, to the excellent groundfielding that prevented a truly monstrous score, to the team’s increasing tendency to win tight games.They are in for a tough week ahead, though. Afghanistan have already thrashed them. Pakistan and India are much better teams on paper. Their players have had established domestic T20 leagues over the course of the last few years, while Sri Lanka have been scrambling to make their own tournament an annual fixture. If you were a pessimist, you might argue this is a Sri Lanka team running on cricketing fumes.But if you’re the other kind of person, they had a bad day against Afghanistan, found a way to chase down 184 against a decent Bangladesh attack, and will ride into the next stage on that confidence.

The New Zealand offspinner started out as a keeper-batter before turning to slow bowling. Now he’s front and centre in his team’s attack on the subcontinent

Deivarayan Muthu16-Jan-2023Michael Bracewell was nicknamed “Beast” by Sam Wells, his former team-mate at Otago, because of his intensity during gym workouts, and the name has stuck. His role, however, has kept changing over the years.Bracewell used to keep wicket and bat at the top for Otago back in the day, but after he stepped out of his comfort zone and moved to Wellington, he got an opportunity to roll his arm over more often. He isn’t a big turner of the ball and doesn’t have a bagful of variations, but his accurate offspin has seen him emerge as the third prong in New Zealand’s spin attack, behind Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi.On the recent ODI leg of the Pakistan tour, which New Zealand won 2-1, Bracewell gave up just 117 runs in 30 overs for four wickets, his economy rate of 3.90 the best among all bowlers in the series. Bracewell has also contributed with the ball on flat pitches at home, but it is his remarkable control in Pakistan that has encouraged New Zealand to play three spinners, plus part-timer Glenn Phillips, in the lead-up to the ODI World Cup in India later this year.Related

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“Yeah, it has been an interesting process,” Bracewell says ahead of the ODI series opener against India. “I got to bowl a lot more in Wellington when Jeetan Patel retired, and I put in a lot of work with him while he was there, and suddenly I was getting more opportunities to bowl because though we had some really good spinners, they were all turning the ball away from the right-hander and turning it into the left-hander.”So getting the opportunity to bowl in Wellington was cool, and obviously now for New Zealand my role is mainly as a bowler and batting down at No.7. So it has been an interesting transition, but I’m really enjoying it and learning a lot along the way. It’s one of those things that being around guys like Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel and Ish Sodhi… I’m learning lots about spin bowling and trying to put it into practice as quickly as I can.”While Sodhi often gets the ball to rip and Santner relentlessly attacks the stumps with subtle variations, Bracewell brings something different to New Zealand’s spin attack: drift. He is used to working with the breeze for Wellington at the Basin Reserve and also had international success by using the breeze to his advantage. In the series decider in Karachi last Friday, Bracewell fooled Babar Azam with drift and dip, having him stumped for 4 off 13 balls.”The prevailing wind there is really nice to bowl into,” Bracewell says of bowling at Wellington’s home ground. “It’s probably a bit more challenging for me when there’s no breeze. Then I have to work harder to get the ball to drift. But it [drift] is something I’ve had to deal with pretty quickly in Wellington and it’s something I try and use to my advantage.”In Pakistan, Bracewell also fronted up to operate in the powerplay and handcuffed the batters by bowling into the pitch. Bowling in the powerplay is easier than doing the job in the middle overs, he thinks.Bracewell bowls in the first ODI in Pakistan. His economy rate of 3.90 was the best across both teams in the series•Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images”I like to think of batters trying to attack spinners in powerplay,” he says. “It makes things nice and simple. You sort of know that the batter is going to come and try to hit you, so you can bowl defensively there. Through the middle, it’s a little bit tougher, where you try to weigh up when they’re going to take a risk and try and read it as much as you can. In the powerplay certainly, international batters try and put pressure on spinners, so you sort of know how a batsman is going to try and attack you and try and you can defend from there.”Whereas through the middle you always have to weigh up that balance of attacking and defending. So I think it keeps things simple when you’re bowling in the powerplay and you have to try to bowl your best ball as much as you can and not give a batter too much width.”New Zealand have always had a large pool of fast bowlers. Despite the absence of Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Matt Henry and Adam Milne, they tested Pakistan in Pakistan. They are now building similar depth on the spin front too. Santner, Sodhi and Bracewell aside, left-arm wristspinner Michael Rippon and left-arm fingerspinner Rachin Ravindra have been part of the team’s white-ball mix in the recent past. Bracewell attributes the overseas success of New Zealand’s spinners to their accuracy on the easy-paced bash-through-the-line tracks at home.”In New Zealand, it’s pretty hard to bowl spin. I think you have to be really accurate on grounds that don’t offer a lot of assistance to a spin bowler, and also the size of the boundaries [is smaller],” Bracewell says. “You have to be super-accurate and really adaptable, and I think that puts you in good stead when you go around the world, because you can’t rely on the pitch to give you the assistance. You really have to try and beat batters in the air, and when you get to conditions that do turn a little bit, it’s probably a different style of bowling. You have to probably bowl a little bit quicker and into the surface to get something out of it.”Bracewell also showcased his ball-striking ability when he powered New Zealand’s successful chase of 301 from 120 for 5, with an unbeaten 127 off 82 balls against Ireland in Malahide last year. From standing tall in the crease, he has now lowered his stance to generate more power and access more areas in the field. He backs himself to be flexible and grow into his batting role with more opportunities.”Batting in the lower order, you sort of come out and face a variety of bowling – sometimes spin and sometimes pace,” he says. “You have to learn to be adaptable and come out of any situation and try and be effective. For me, I try to keep things as simple as possible and try and keep my head still and watch the ball. Then try and react. Hopefully, the situation will take care of itself. It’s certainly something that’s a challenge. I’m probably used to batting at the top of the order [for Wellington] and starting against pace, but [batting down the order] is something you have to learn pretty quickly and try and understand what’s required of your role at the time.Bracewell with Glenn Phillips during their partnership of 66 in the first ODI, in Karachi. Bracewell top-scored for New Zealand with 43 from No. 7 in that game•Associated Press”I think I’m slowly learning how to bat down the order a little more and I feel it’s something I can add a lot of value to the New Zealand side [with] once I get my head around it a little bit more and understand the role a bit better. But I’m really enjoying the role I’ve been given at the moment and I enjoy being out there in those pressure situations at the end of the game, trying to get us to a decent total or get us over the line while chasing.”Michael isn’t the only Bracewell who is pushing for a World Cup spot. His cousin Doug, the Central Districts quick, is also on tour in India, having replaced the injured Henry. With Tim Southee being rested for the series in India and Trent Boult in action in the ILT20 in the Emirates, Doug might get a look-in for New Zealand at some point. Bracewell is looking forward to the prospect of playing together with his cousin.”We didn’t spend a whole lot of time growing up together because I grew up in the bottom of the South Island and he grew up in the North Island, so we used to see each other a couple of times a year and we played both rugby and cricket,” he says. “But it’s more so in recent years that we’ve been playing domestic cricket together, and now we’ve spent more time together at international cricket. So it was certainly an honour to receive my first [ODI] cap from Doug and it’s always awesome to take the field with him.”This India tour is a dry run for the ODI World Cup in the country later this year. “With the World Cup being in the subcontinent, these tours [Pakistan and India] are hugely beneficial for us and for guys who haven’t played a lot in the subcontinent,” Bracewell says. “For the guys who have played more, it’s a chance to refine their games and going back to what really works in the subcontinent. It has been hugely beneficial to play against a really strong Pakistan side and it’s going to be no different against India.”They [India] are obviously a really strong side and are coming off a strong performance against Sri Lanka. But it’s just about keeping learning and try to improve as a side. We’re really looking forward to the challenge of playing against India in India and learning as a group, with that World Cup at the back of our mind. It’s something we want to keep striving to get better for.”Bracewell was relegated to the bench during last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia, but he could have a bigger role to play, with ball and bat, in the World Cup in India – and also before that.

His towering frame and ability to generate steep bounce could give NZ’s attack a point of difference in Pakistan and India

Deivarayan Muthu08-Jan-2023Henry Shipley often imagined himself as Shane Bond during Christmas Day clashes with his cousins when he was a kid. Having earned his maiden New Zealand call-up, Shipley, now 26, is on the verge of becoming a Black Cap himself.While Shipley can generate sharp pace, he is more of a bowler in the mould of Kyle Jamieson than Bond. His towering frame (1.96 metres) and ability to produce steep bounce often draws comparisons with Jamieson. It’s something that even selector Gavin Larsen has acknowledged.”Bounce is the key for him, given his height, but equally the reason he gets given the new ball at times for Canterbury is he has the ability to move the ball in the air,” Larsen had said after selecting Shipley in the New Zealand squads for the tours of Pakistan and India. “Anyone that can bowl à la Kyle Jamieson with that sort of a height, swinging in and getting bounce, the potential is there that he will be a handful.”In the absence of Jamieson, who is still recovering from a back injury, Shipley is expected to provide New Zealand’s attack with a potent point of difference on what could be flat tracks in Pakistan and India. Bowling to the likes of Babar Azam and Virat Kohli could unnerve a rookie, but Shipley plans to shut out the outside noise and just do his job.Related

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“I think it will just be cool to say [post-tour that] I’ve been over there, and not be too worried about what happens I guess,” Shipley said. “We want to come away with some wins and hopefully win both series, but it’s [about] just getting over there, getting your feet on the ground and doing your job that’s at hand.”Shipley’s national call-up is reward for his remarkable consistency with the ball on the easy-paced hit-through-the-line one-day pitches and small grounds in New Zealand in domestic cricket. In November, he took career-best List A figures of 6 for 40, including a hat-trick in the Ford Trophy opener for Canterbury against Wellington. It was the first hat-trick for Canterbury and only fourth overall in 52 years of the tournament.Shipley continued his rich form in the Ford Trophy and is currently the second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament, with 12 strikes in five games at an economy rate of 4.20. Earlier in last season’s 20-over Super Smash, he had emerged as the top wicket-taker, with 18 scalps in 11 games at an economy rate of 7.25 in Canterbury’s run to the final, where they lost to Northern Districts.Shipley’s Canterbury coach Peter Fulton has had a hand in his progress. “Fulty is a pretty straight up character,” Shipley said. “He tells you what you need to do to get better and he can be pretty black and white. When you don’t have that clarity, it can be quite hard to understand what it is that’s going to get you to the next level. He simplified it from the very beginning and kind of took my thoughts away from it and let me do my work at the domestic level.”Working with international players like Tom Latham and Daryl Mitchell at Canterbury has also helped Shipley. He has now reunited with them in Pakistan.”I don’t know [on what has clicked for him recently]. I think there can be some individual success but on the back of a team performance as well,” Shipley said. “I’ve been quite lucky with Canterbury, and we’ve had a lot of success in all three formats and the guys around you pave the way for the individual side of things.”Shipley hails from a strong cricketing background. His uncle Mark Priest was a stalwart for Canterbury and even played 21 international games for New Zealand while his father James is a “cricket tragic”.”My old man is a bit of a cricket tragic, and my uncle played a bit of cricket for New Zealand and Canterbury,” Shipley said. “So that [cricket] was always around me growing up and I’ve always been involved with Canterbury Country, Greendale and Darefield [clubs]. I guess it was something not I didn’t have a choice, but it was put in front of me from an early age and I kind of just took it from there.”However, the path to the top hasn’t been smooth. Shipley has been on New Zealand’s radar for a while, but multiple injuries have derailed his career. The injuries bothered him so much that at one point he stopped enjoying his cricket. Shipley has now learnt to embrace setbacks and just wants to cherish every moment on the field.Henry Shipley has been at the forefront of Canterbury’s recent success•Getty Images”I guess I’m never really looking to play safe,” Shipley said. “I think injuries are just a part of it and I guess they’re frustrating whenever they pop up and I’m sure they’re going to pop up in the future. It’s one of those things where you try and get on the park and stay there and enjoy it as long as you can.”For a while there, I was probably so conscious of that side of the game that I never really just enjoyed playing and perhaps something in the last 24 months has changed and the attitude has been to just enjoy being out there each game.”Shipley can also give it a good whack with the bat, as his T20 strike rate of 137 indicates. Larsen backs Shipley to become a genuine allrounder.”He’s a player who has been on our radar for a few years now – probably five-six years,” Larsen said. “He has performed really well over the past couple of years. I consider him to be a genuine allrounder. He’s tall and he’s a power-hitter. So, he offers a really good all-round skillset. Genuine allrounders are like gold dust in cricket and we would like to think he will develop his skills on this tour and push hard for us.”Trent Boult, Jimmy Neesham and Martin Guptill have all turned down their New Zealand contracts to become T20 freelancers, but the domestic system is still robust enough to feed promising talents like Shipley to the national side. A strong early impression in Pakistan and India could potentially propel Shipley into New Zealand’s World Cup plans.

New Zealand became just the second team to win a Test by one run, and the fourth to win after following on

Sampath Bandarupalli28-Feb-20231 Margin of New Zealand’s win by runs in Wellington, the joint-narrowest win recorded in Test cricket. West Indies also won by one run against Australia in the 1993 Adelaide Test while defending a target of 186.ESPNcricinfo Ltd4 Instances of a team winning after following on in a Test match, including New Zealand’s win against England in Wellington. All the previous instances came against Australia – twice by England (Sydney 1894 and Leeds 1981) and India in Kolkata in 2001.ESPNcricinfo Ltd0 Number of times England lost a Test match out of the 177 instances where they took a 200-plus runs first-innings lead before their defeat at the Basin Reserve. The previous highest first-innings lead resulting in a loss for England was 177 runs against Australia in 1961 at Old Trafford.226 First-innings lead conceded by New Zealand in this Test match, the highest they overcame to win a Test match. The previous biggest first-innings deficit overcame by New Zealand to win a Test match was 144 runs against Pakistan in 1994 in Christchurch.

Pakistan have played just eight ODIs all year, and must fast come up with a winning formula ahead of the long hard grind of the season

Danyal Rasool21-Aug-2023The clock would not even have struck nine in the morning when PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf was in his car in Colombo. It is rush hour in Colombo on a Monday morning, no one’s idea of a pleasant start to any day. But this VIP guest could not leave it any longer, because the appointment he had to keep lay four hours away in a small southern Sri Lankan town. Ashraf was meeting the Pakistan team for brunch in Hambantota, a day out from the start of the first of three ODIs between Pakistan and Afghanistan. With no flights between the capital and the town, this was the only way to get there. Ironically, if Afghanistan – the official hosts of the series – had been actually hosting it – Kabul was just a half-hour plane hop away.The window in any four-year cycle when bilateral ODI cricket truly feels like it matters has shrunk exponentially and is diminishing even faster, but we’re finally looking through it now. With the ODI World Cup on the horizon, Afghanistan and Pakistan – victims of geopolitics and security concerns – find themselves in Sri Lanka for the best part of their preparations for the tournament. Before the Asia Cup, they have got together for their first-ever bilateral series, Hambantota and Colombo the neutral venues.Related

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It is not clear if the Afghanistan players also had the pleasure of the ACB chairman to benefit from, but they got to Hambantota early enough. Hashmatullah Shahidi’s side has experience at the venue; just two months earlier, they played a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in Hambantota, losing 2-1. They played a more recent 50-over series in Bangladesh, winning it by the same margin. It’s a near-identical squad to those two tours that they have assembled in Hambantota to face Pakistan. It’s a settled side, and one that’s had ODI experience in these conditions. It’s more than Pakistan can say.Afghanistan might never have beaten Pakistan in this format, but they have little to fear. The four times these sides have played ODIs – at varying degrees of development during Afghanistan’s journey over the last decade – Afghanistan have shown steady improvement, and been desperately unlucky not to win their last two encounters. Throw in Naseem Shah’s T20 Asia Cup heroics, and Afghanistan’s problem against Pakistan boils down less to quality and more to composure and experience in the moments that count most. As the 2-1 T20I series defeat of Pakistan in March demonstrated, they are making progress on that front, too.

“Pakistan in ODIs are surprisingly uncomplicated – a world-class top three, a gun pace bowling attack, and the still ascending star of Shadab Khan. The middle order is unconvincing, the underbelly is weak, and bench strength, particularly in the batting department, is limited”

Pakistan have played only a few more ODIs than their counterparts this World Cup cycle – it is their lowest tally since 1979-83 – and any patterns of form are difficult to make out. Their only ODI involvement all year has come in the form of eight matches against New Zealand at home, for all of which the visitors were hindered by unavailability to some extent or other. That has been the story of Pakistan’s opponents for much of the last four years; series wins against South Africa and Australia have come when those teams have been significantly diminished. Nine further games have been played against Zimbabwe, the Netherlands and the West Indies. But the win-loss ratio -19 victories and eight defeats – is solid, and in May, they rose to the top of the ODI rankings; they will get there again if they beat Afghanistan 3-0.At its core, Pakistan in ODIs are surprisingly uncomplicated – a world-class top three, a gun pace bowling attack, and the still ascending star of Shadab Khan. That’s about it. The middle order is unconvincing, the underbelly is weak, and bench strength, particularly in the batting department, is limited. It’s a Polo-shaped side, a winning formula all around with a large gap through the middle. That makes it conspicuously incomplete, but also plenty of fun.Pakistan have, belatedly in this cycle, tried to plug those gaps. Agha Salman has shown flashes of ability in the middle order, while Mohammad Nawaz has gradually assumed greater importance in the ODI side. Tayyab Tahir and Abdullah Shafique offer bench strength, while Pakistan wait for Mohammad Rizwan to translate his T20 runs into ODI accumulation. While what they have might be enough to overwhelm Afghanistan, this series is as much about what follows as it is about itself, and Pakistan will try and ensure they don’t spread themselves too thin for the sterner tests that will follow.By the time Ashraf returned to Colombo, the evening rush hour was waiting to greet him. It was quite a day for the chairman, but for the players he left behind in Hambantota, the long hard grind of the season was only just about to begin.

Mixed messaging in selection, and catastrophic call at the toss, pushes champions past point of no return

Matt Roller21-Oct-2023Jos Buttler sat on his own in the row of seats outside England’s dressing room, above the sightscreen at the southern end of the Wankhede Stadium. He wore the thousand-yard stare of a man who knew that, while his side are mathematically still alive in this World Cup, there is surely no way back from here.As Buttler contemplated what had gone before, Mark Wood and Gus Atkinson had a swing, thrashing 70 runs off 5.3 overs. But even that partnership was not enough to save England from the ignominy of their biggest-ever defeat in men’s ODIs – that too on a night that they had earmarked as the game that would turn their World Cup around.This was their third defeat out of four at this tournament, and all three have stung. They were swept aside by New Zealand in Ahmedabad and dealt with by Afghanistan in Delhi, but this was an utter meltdown in Mumbai. South Africa did not just beat England’s world champions: they made them look like a broken team.It had the sense of the night when England’s title defence fell apart. They placed their hopes in the core of players who have underpinned their white-ball revolution and their rise from also-rans to double world champions; collectively, they have simply not performed.England’s hopes effectively ended with Dawid Malan’s leg-side dismissal in the sixth over•ICC/Getty ImagesThere was a short passage towards the end of South Africa’s innings in which England exerted a brief sense of control. After 41 overs, South Africa were 264 for 5 and had not scored a boundary for 29 balls; Marco Jansen, their No. 7, had 11 off 19. “We could have looked like restricting them to 340 or 350,” Buttler reflected.Instead, they managed 399. Heinrich Klaasen’s hitting was as crisp as it was clean as he swung his way to a 61-ball hundred, while Jansen pummelled 64 off his final 23 balls. “It spiralled out of control,” said Matthew Mott, England’s coach. “We were under siege for a while: Jos was looking around to see who was fit to bowl.”England were simply exhausted, and not for a lack of basic fitness. “It certainly looked a bit like a warzone there at times,” Mott said. The problem stemmed from Buttler’s choice to bowl first when he won the toss, a decision he explained by saying: “[This is] generally a good ground for chasing, so that’s the reason behind it.”But like so many decisions England have made in this World Cup, the explanation relied more on the past than the present and the future. England wandered out to field at 2pm, when Mumbai’s heat and humidity were at their most oppressive. It was a simple recipe for disaster: 11 Englishmen, left in the pan for four hours until fried to a crisp.The evidence underlying Buttler’s assertion was scant. Chasing teams had a 75% win record in men’s ODIs at the Wankhede over the past decade, but the sample size was all of four matches. There is a strong chasing bias in the IPL, but the physical requirements of 90 minutes in the field in the evening are hardly comparable to a full afternoon in the blazing sun.Heinrich Klaasen described the conditions as “brutal” after his outstanding century•Associated PressAnd if England were once a chasing team, they are no longer that side. This was their seventh loss in their last eight completed ODI run-chases; the only target they have hauled in was 210 on a turning pitch in Mirpur. England used to make light of scoreboard pressure; now, it inhibits them.The conditions were brutal, not least for an XI which featured only three players under the age of 32. There was a revolving door of players coming on and off the field due to niggles, cramps or illness, to change their sweat-drenched shirts or simply for a moment’s respite. England’s medical staff became the busiest men in Mumbai.Reece Topley was struck on his index finger in his fourth over, a suspected fracture which looks likely to rule him out of the tournament. Adil Rashid battled an upset stomach, which left him doubled over on the boundary. If it could have gone wrong for England, it did.Related

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David Willey, one of the fittest men in their squad, described himself as England’s “donkey” last month due to his workhorse qualities; by the start of his ninth over, he was cramping so badly that he had to pull out of his run-up, before sending down a waist-high no-ball that Klaasen sliced for six.And barely 90 minutes after walking off the field, Willey was back out in the middle. Four days after Mott had insisted England would not make “wholesale changes”, they made three: Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone and Chris Woakes were replaced by Willey, Gus Atkinson and Ben Stokes.It left them relying on their top six to score the bulk of their runs, instead they managed 55 between them. Chasing 400, England “needed everything to go perfectly”, in Buttler’s words. Nothing did: it was game over after the first ball of the sixth over, when Marco Jansen had Dawid Malan strangled down the leg side to leave them 24 for 3.England have not officially been eliminated from this World Cup, but the manner of this defeat was so painful that it is hard to see how they can turn things around. They talked a good game in Mumbai this week but, as they prepare to play Sri Lanka in Bengaluru on Thursday, the same messaging will have little effect.Teams are likely to need six wins out of nine in the group stage to reach the semi-finals: England will need five in a row to reach that point, and do not look like they know where even one is coming from. “We’ll keep the belief,” Buttler insisted, but few outside of their dressing-room will join them – and those doubts must be seeping inside it.

Nine special moments from an enthralling Test match between India and England

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Feb-2024India and England played out four days of riveting Test cricket as the hosts levelled the series in Visakhapatnam. We’ve picked out the best moments and this is your chance to pick your favourites. Over to you to rank them.