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Morgan scored a majestic 87* off 35 against Warriors, while Pollard made a seven-ball 26 against Bulls

Aadam Patel01-Dec-2022In terms of making statements, two wins in less than 24 hours is some way to go about business and that is exactly what New York Strikers have done at the Abu Dhabi T10.Since losing their first game on opening night, Kieron Pollard’s side have won five on the trot and after Eoin Morgan’s majestic 87* off 35 deliveries on Wednesday night against Northern Warriors, it was the turn of Pollard for some last over heroics against Delhi Bulls.With 22 runs needed off the last over in the first game of Thursday’s triple-header, Pollard stepped up to the plate and hit Dwayne Bravo for two sixes and then two fours to seal yet another victory. Morgan may have done it on the last ball. Pollard ensured there was none of that drama and did it with two to spare.In truth, a target of 113 should not have posed a serious challenge, especially the day after Strikers had chased down 144 and scored the highest total of the tournament thus far.After winning the toss, Tom Banton’s 46 off 23 allowed the Bulls reach three figures in a game where Rashid Khan made his eagerly-awaited debut for the Strikers franchise and without taking a wicket, showed his class with a tight couple of overs.Morgan’s heroics the night before meant that Strikers opted for the rather experienced if not unusual pairing of himself and Paul Stirling to open the batting. It was a strange sight for a man regarded in his prime as one of the great finishers but this is T10 and anything goes. The former England captain was in the runs again but failed to accelerate and when he was dismissed for 32, his side was still up against it, requiring 40 from 15.Step forward Azam Khan and Pollard. The floating powerplay in the penultimate over went for 16 and it came down to the heavyweight contest between Pollard and Bravo and a battle of two men who know each other so well.Bravo’s first delivery was a slower ball and Pollard landed the first punch and when Bravo’s second ball went the distance as well, the game was as good as done. By now, Bravo had lost his composure and his full toss was sent to the ropes, before Pollard finished the job with another boundary.It was a knockout blow that was celebrated with a clenched fist and a welcome knock for the skipper after a barren run in the competition, despite the form of his side. Since scoring 45* on opening night in a losing cause, Pollard had managed just one run in three innings but Thursday night in Abu Dhabi offered a reminder of his ruthless finishing ability and why he is still feared by bowlers around the world. That knack of hitting sixes at will sets him apart and if he carries on over the next few days, then there is every chance that the Strikers strike gold at the first time of asking.And while the Strikers seem to be hitting form at the right time, Team Abu Dhabi are also hitting the correct notes. It was the second successive night they restricted their opposition to a total of under 75 and again, they chased it down with relative ease.Once the in-form Iftikhar Ahmed was dismissed for two, Bangla Tigers struggled to get going and eventually ended on 74 for five. Chris Lynn’s unbeaten 34 navigated his side to the end before Brandon King hit the winning runs by sweeping Jake Lintott for six.Friday night’s last group game between the Strikers and Team Abu Dhabi is set to be a clash between two sides that are getting better and better as the tournament goes on and it would hardly be a surprise if the two teams were to meet again on finals weekend.

At one point, she wanted to be a fast bowler. Now she is troubling the best batters in the world with her legspin

S Sudarshanan23-Mar-2023Young Parshavi Chopra was told a few things about legspin. That she will have to risk getting hit and only then the chances of picking up wickets will rise. That it is wickets that will earn her laurels and not the low economy rate.In UP Warriorz’s game against Gujarat Giants earlier this week, Ashleigh Gardner and D Hemalatha had added 93 to keep Giants on track for a tall score. Both had displayed their range of strokes against seam and spin, but Warriorz captain Alyssa Healy trusted Chopra to bowl at the death.Chopra was part of India’s squad that won the Under-19 T20 World Cup in January this year. There she had bowled Sri Lanka’s Vishmi Gunaratne with a googly. The batter had danced down towards the off side but the ball spun past her pads to hit the stumps. But a majority of her 11 wickets in the tournament came off legbreaks.Between that World Cup and the WPL, Chopra worked on the googly and grew confident to use it more frequently.Now, bowling the 17th over of the innings against Giants, Chopra went for wickets instead of trying to stop runs. She tossed the first ball up to Hemalatha outside off. It was the wrong’un and Hemalatha didn’t pick it, holing out to long-on. On the first ball of the 19th over, her last, she once again flighted the googly to entice Gardner out of her crease and got her stumped.It was just the second appearance for Chopra in the WPL and she already left a mark on those who hadn’t watched her at the World Cup.Vishal Bhatia, her coach at Yuvraj Singh Centre of Excellence (YSCE) in Greater Noida, just outside Delhi, credits Chopra’s increased use of the googly to the target bowling sessions they had ahead of the WPL.”Before the WPL, we were working on target bowling, bowling in [various] situations, and when to use the googly,” Bhatia tells ESPNcricinfo. “She didn’t bowl the googly much in the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup. But now she is confident in bowling the googly and reading the batter well.Parshavi Chopra was the second-highest wicket-taker at the U-19 T20 World Cup•ICC/Getty Images”You can be needed in the powerplay or the death overs. We worked on what ball to use when and how to read the batter by looking at her stance. I told her that you shouldn’t play the name, but play the batter – it so happens you bowl to someone looking at their reputation – and the situation.”Chopra pursued skating in her younger days, just like Yuvraj, but was drawn to cricket listening to her father, uncle and grandfather talk. She watched the 2017 Women’s ODI World Cup on TV and wanted to don the national colours after seeing India’s narrow, heart-breaking loss to England in the final. Her father, Gaurav, identified her interest and got her enrolled in the coaching centre where Bhatia and later JP Nautiyal coached her.”I never let her compromise with her cricket but I compromised on her studies,” Gaurav says. “She was very good in her studies. But to achieve a goal or target in life, you have to focus on just that one thing. If you try and do multiple things, you won’t get as much success.”At a YSCE summer camp in 2017-18, Bhatia came across Chopra who then wanted to be a fast bowler. But given her slight build, she was encouraged to bowl legspin. Her run-up and action had to be tweaked accordingly but once that was done, and she was able to generate spin, there was no looking back.In the 2019-20 season, she picked up 20 wickets in the Women’s Under-19 One Day Tournament playing for Uttar Pradesh. During the Covid-19 lockdown, her father left no stone unturned and prepared a pitch at home for single-wicket practice with assistance from Nautiyal and inputs over video calls from Bhatia.”Her body was very flexible because of the stretching, which is part of skating,” Nautiyal says. “Her wrist position comes naturally to her. We had to work on her lines and lengths. But she grasps things quickly and works really hard for hours together.”Chopra picked up eight wickets in the Under-19 T20 Trophy in October 2022, and was then selected for the T20 Challengers and the Quadrangular Under-19 series featuring West Indies and Sri Lanka. A good show at the Under-19 T20 World Cup in South Africa led her to be picked by Warriorz at her base price of INR 10 lakh.The only girl child in the family, Chopra was fascinated after watching videos of Australia legspinner Shane Warne’s bowling. She took an immediate liking to his action and was upset for a few days after he died last year. But through her steady rise and eye-catching outings in the WPL, she is keeping the flag of legspin flying high.

This is also a make-or-break tournament for Shanaka’s captaincy

Andrew Fidel Fernando30-Sep-20231:58

Spin-heavy Sri Lanka could overcome lower-order batting concern to sneak into knockouts

World Cup pedigree: Champions in 1996, semi-finalists in 2003, finalists in 2007 and 2011 – Sri Lanka went through a fantastic stretch in World Cups for these 15 years, but are their best days past them? In 2015, they crashed out in the first knockout (quarter-final), and in 2019, they missed out on the semi-final. They are again expected to be a middling side in 2023.Recent form: Yes, there was that catastrophic collapse in the Asia Cup final, but they had, nevertheless, played some decent cricket to get there, beating Bangladesh twice, and overcoming Pakistan in a thriller.Largely, their recent successes are built on their attack. Matheesha Pathirana’s middle and death-overs bowling has been a vital new addition to the side. In Dilshan Madushanka, they have a left-armer who can swing the new ball at pace.The only side to have defeated them in their last 15 ODI outings are India, but this is less impressive than it sounds. Sri Lanka had to play the Qualifier to get into this World Cup, and many of their recent oppositions are weaker sides who did not make this World Cup.Squad: Dasun Shanaka (capt), Kusal Mendis (vice-capt), Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera (wk), Dimuth Karunaratne, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Sadeera Samarawickrama (wk), Dushan Hemantha, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, Dilshan Madushanka, Matheesha Pathirana, Lahiru KumaraCan Dasun Shanaka emerge from a wretched run of form?•AFP/Getty ImagesKey player: Captain Dasun Shanaka has had about as miserable a run of form with the bat as any player coming into the World Cup. Since the start of the Qualifier, he averages 6.60 with a strike rate of 57.39. This is in his role as a lower-middle order finisher. With Wanindu Hasaranga ruled out of the tournament with injury, Sri Lanka desperately need Shanaka to begin playing big innings, even as he contributes with the ball, in order to give their XI some semblance of balance. Shanaka has never been much of an ODI batter, but he has played some excellent innings in India. This is a make-or-break tournament for his captaincy.Rising star: Since 2021, no batter has made as many runs at No. 5 as Charith Asalanka – an especially impressive stat when you consider the now 26-year-old only made his debut halfway through that year. Capable of finding boundaries early in his innings (especially through the leg side), adept at picking gaps, and blessed with a calm disposition, Asalanka having a good World Cup will go a long way to Sri Lanka putting up decent scores. On the drier tracks, his offbreaks could also be handy.World Cup farewells: It seems unlikely that Kusal Perera (33), and Dimuth Karunaratne (35), will still be around for the 2027 tournament – the former largely because his injuries have piled up terribly. Otherwise, the remainder of the squad are in their early thirties or younger. They would still have to be performing in four years, of course.

We look at some of the questions England will try to answer across ODI and T20I series against West Indies

Alan Gardner01-Dec-2023Will Jacks demonstrated his attacking instincts against Ireland in September•PA Photos/Getty Images

Is Jacks the real deal?

Who is the only man to have played all three formats for England in the last 12 months but not receive a central contract? Not yet a regular, at the same time you don’t have to think too far outside the box to come up with the name of Will Jacks. While David Willey’s snub took the headlines, it is the case of Jacks that could become much more pertinent in selection meetings. One of the most aggressive batters among England’s next generation – his commitment to attack was epitomised by his dismissal, caught on the boundary for 94 off 88 balls, with a maiden hundred in sight against Ireland in September – he will have a chance to stake his claim at the top of the order in both white-ball formats. His offspin is also good enough to have brought him a six-for on Test debut (just don’t mention the fact his lack of a central contract might yet mean he opts to fulfil an SA20 deal ahead of the chance to tour India early next year). The ECB’s decision “was disappointing but it does give me freedom,” he told the earlier this week, before adding: “The World Cup is a massive one so playing T20 cricket is really important to me at the moment. The way the game and the world is at the moment definitely suits me.”

Who holds the keys to No. 3?

While Jacks and Phil Salt will be looking to cement their status as a firestarting opening combo in the Hales-Roy mould, the identity of the ODI side’s No. 3 could be even more pivotal. Joe Root indicated during the World Cup that he hoped to still be in the team for the next edition in four years’ time, but a tournament haul of 312 runs at 30.66 raised the heretical notion that – as in the T20 format – England might be better off without their most classically adroit batter. Zak Crawley seems likely to get first bite at first drop in the new era, and there is every chance that one of the Test team’s purest Bazballers could thrive in conditions that are less likely to expose technical issues. Equally intriguing, though perhaps on the backburner, is the prospect of Ollie Pope being ported across from his berth in the Test side. As discussed on the latest Switch Hit podcast, Pope was seemingly preferred in the squad to Sam Hain on the basis of his range and versatility across formats. He has yet to play a limited-overs game for England but, with a run-a-ball Test double-hundred to his name, ought not to have any trouble setting the required tempo.

Is Carse the new Plunkett?

There were a multitude of missteps across England’s doomed World Cup defence, but one of their mistakes could perhaps be charted right back to July 14, 2019. That was the last time Liam Plunkett played international cricket, and his reputation as a middle-overs wrecking ball has grown with each passing year that England failed to find a suitable replacement. In India, their bowlers in the second powerplay (overs 11-40) averaged 43.59, putting them seventh out of the ten competing nations, one below Netherlands – and that despite a successful tournament for Adil Rashid, the legspinning foil to Plunkett’s hit-the-deck enforcer. Enter (belatedly): Brydon Carse. The Durham quick has had an injury-disrupted career and, at 28, has only played 21 List A matches; in 76 T20s, he has 40 wickets at 41.95. But during a handful of England outings spread across two-and-a-half years there have been glimpses of high pace and a Plunkett-esque modus operandi, while his career-bests in both white-ball formats have come in international fixtures. With David Willey retiring, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood unlikely to do another four-year cycle, and Jofra Archer still in injury-enforced limbo, this tour represents a chance for Carse, Gus Atkinson, Matt Potts and the uncapped John Turner to prove that England’s seam stocks still run deep.Rehan Ahmed has come a long way in a short space of time•AFP/Getty Images

Rehan ready to fill Rashid’s boots?

The spin department, meanwhile, already has its coming man. It was in the Caribbean two winters ago that Rehan Ahmed first came to wider attention (beyond his role as a teenage nets bowler at Lord’s) when helping England to runners-up spot in the Under-19 World Cup. Since then he has made his mark in the history books by becoming the youngest man to win senior England caps in all three formats, which included taking a five-for on Test debut, and generally handled every challenge thrown his way while still being a teenager. In the Caribbean, Rehan will provide the main slow-bowling threat for the ODIs – remarkably, with 10 List A appearances, he has twice as much experience in the format as the other spinner on tour, Tom Hartley – before resuming his role as sorcerer’s apprentice when Rashid returns for the T20I leg. Having taken over, and impressed, as Southern Brave’s wristspin option during the Hundred, his continued progress in the shortest format will likely inform his chances of being involved in next year’s T20 World Cup.Will these three World Cup winners make it to the 2024 event?•Associated Press

Is old still gold in T20?

It is the looming defence (and England surely won’t shy away from that word again) of another world title that means the T20I series against West Indies will carry greater weight. England have stuck with the majority of their 2022 T20 World Cup-winning squad – Dawid Malan the only member who has been explicitly dropped – but there could still be significant jostling for position, with Jacks, Rehan, Atkinson and Ben Duckett foremost among those looking to make a mark in the absence of established names like Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Wood and Chris Jordan. Even those involved in the Caribbean, such as Rashid, Woakes and Moeen Ali, could be left looking over their shoulders. Moeen, who will turn 37 midway through the tournament next June, has hinted that the World Cup would be a logical end point for his international career but England will want to be clear they are picking him on merit rather than reputation. Getting the old gang back together failed disastrously at the ODI World Cup, although there are two clear differences here – a smaller gap between tournaments and the fact England’s players play a lot more T20 year round. With two-time champions West Indies also trying to rouse themselves after back-to-back blowouts at T20 World Cups, it should be all to play for in Barbados, Grenada and Trinidad.

We’ve narrowed it down to 10… which one gets your vote?

S Sudarshanan08-Apr-2024

The Multan Sultans batter on his stop-start PSL career, making the move from Pakistan to UAE, and more

Danyal Rasool17-Mar-2024You’ve been very stop-start at the PSL but every time you bat you look like you’re in rhythm. How have you managed to keep that momentum despite playing only half of the games?I’ve played the PSL for three years but haven’t had the chance to get an extended run. So whenever I play, I keep in mind that this may well be my last match. That’s the mentality I bring to my game, that if I don’t perform here, I might not get the next game. That probably means I have intensity every time I bat.Not many people knew much about you when you made your PSL debut in Karachi in 2021. You scored 81 and impressed people. How did the PSL opportunity materialise?I belong to a village in Sheikhupura called Farooqabad. My region was Sialkot, and when I watched the players there I thought I wouldn’t get an opportunity there. My brother advised me to move to Karachi where I’d get a lot more opportunities. I moved to Karachi in 2012, where I worked extremely hard to make my name. I played for Pakistan cricket club where Saifi [Sarfaraz Ahmed] was my captain. I performed but couldn’t get an opportunity to play for my district.Related

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When I got a chance to keep and open, I topped the charts, and then enjoyed success in Ramzan Cricket, where I had the chance to make my name. I scored a number of hundreds there, and played a tournament at the Moin Khan academy, where I won the Player of the Tournament award, and Nadeem Omar drafted me into the PSL.Did you have aspirations of representing Pakistan at that time?I always had aspirations to play for Pakistan. But I also thought if someone else had nailed a place as opener at the top of the order for 4-5 years, I’d be wasting my time. That was also the case with the Karachi side, so I moved to the UAE. I performed well there, and was the Player of the Tournament in the T10. When you’re a UAE player, you can play the Canada league or other such leagues, you get opportunities as an Associate cricketer more easily.But after making the switch to the UAE, I thought I wouldn’t be picked in the PSL because I’m now an overseas cricketer. I never thought I’d enjoy the success I have now.Tell us about that first PSL innings in 2021…That first innings in the PSL was significant for me to become popular and get name recognition. After that, I didn’t get a shot in the PSL in 2022, but I didn’t get disheartened. I tried to continue my cricket in Dubai. In Dubai, most of the tournaments that happen are on TV. I try to perform on TV so people watch me. I have the flashy shots as well as a proper playing style. And if you perform on TV where you’re visible you get an opportunity somewhere or other.You’re now affiliated with the UAE. How did that move come about?I played for a season in the UAE in 2021. At the time I wasn’t made any promises by the UAE about becoming a national cricketer for them. But when I scored the fastest hundred in the PSL last year, they said we’ll give you a contract if you play for the UAE as a local player. I agreed. That allows me to play the ILT20 and the T10 as a local player which opens doors. I was in the central contract list for the UAE. That means you need an NOC from your board to play overseas cricket. And the UAE grants that easily, so I play wherever I get an offer.Usman Khan has raised two centuries this season for Multan Sultans•PCB/PSLWas it something you decided to go for because of limited international opportunities in Pakistan?In Pakistan, lobbying and contacts make a huge difference to how many opportunities you get and how early you get them. The cricket I’ve played, I’ve played on merit, I don’t have any such connections. In Pakistan, if someone powerful speaks up for you, you’re much more likely to come to prominence. I don’t think you get an opportunity early on in Pakistan despite performances unless you have someone influential to speak for you or a group who stands up for you. Otherwise you won’t get chances.You haven’t played any internationals for Pakistan yet. Is that window completely shut?I have no idea, because where I’m from, there’s no support behind me, nor anyone to call for my selection. I did have a dream to play the PSL though, regardless of whether I play as a local or overseas player. So I’d like to give huge thanks to Ali Tareen [Multan Sultans owner] for picking me as an overseas player. But it’s all up to the selectors. I still have 14 months left before I qualify for the UAE, but I told Waqar [Younis] if I had guarantees that I’d get chances to play in Pakistan for my region or the national side, then it’s only natural for me to be tempted.But as you know, if you don’t have certainty, then it’s hard to commit. I’ve seen the media talk about me now, but I’d always been clear if I don’t get the chance to play for Pakistan, then I’d like to play for the UAE and showcase my talent. But at the same time, we do have responsibilities to our families and financial burdens we have to bear in mind. No one is safe in these economic times, so having financial security is hugely important to me.You didn’t play any recognised cricket from PSL 2021 to 2023. What were you up to for those 18 months or so?I worked my regular job alongside any cricket I played. I worked as a security guard and a storekeeper in the UAE in 2022 because the UAE had granted me a work visa. So I worked and played some domestic cricket alongside that.Those games don’t have official T20 status but there are tournaments between multinational companies that take place there. The goal for me was to spend as much time as possible in the UAE to allow me to complete the three-year residency period. Then in 2022, I played the T10 which set me up for a deal at the BPL, and then the ILT20 and the PSL.

“I don’t think you get an opportunity early on in Pakistan despite performances unless you have someone influential to speak for you or a group who stands up for you. Otherwise you won’t get chances”Usman on why he moved to UAE

What did it feel like going from Quetta to Multan, the least consistent to the most consistent franchise?In Quetta, if you performed well, you would get opportunities, but when you failed once or twice, you might get told you’re not good enough at this level. When you tell a player that, it mentally kills them. The coaches you play under make a huge difference, and playing for Andy Flower and Mohammad Rizwan was fantastic for me. At Multan, they never demotivated a player even if they were dropping me. They’d take you aside and explain why there wasn’t a spot in the starting line-up for you.When I didn’t play four games for Multan this year, Abdul Rehman [the coach] told me my time would come, and to be mentally ready for that. That gives a player something to look forward to instead of falling away. Here at MS, the culture is such everyone is in it together. If someone wins the Player of the Match or Player of the Tournament, the money will be distributed among the whole team. It’s not just Rizwan or Iftikhar who are champions if they win, we all are. They tell us it’s the hard work of all of us, and this matters greatly.You’ve played under both Sarfaraz and Rizwan’s captaincy. How do you compare them?In some ways they’re similar, in terms of their tactics and how they want to win games. Saifi is a little more emotional and at times tenses up. Rizwan never blames a player or scolds them if they’ve gone for runs. No one gets told they’ve cost the team a game. Strategically they’re not dissimilar, but they way to they react emotionally and psychologically to on-field events can be quite different.It has been 18 innings and more than a year since you got out in single figures in T20 cricket. What has brought you such consistency?Like I said, when I played with Quetta. the situation was such that if you performed, you were respected and regarded as valuable. But if you didn’t perform, you remained stressed mentally all the time, because you worried about whether you’d get a chance to play the next match. For a player, this is a huge deal. If a player doesn’t have fear of being dropped, that is crucial to a player’s mindset. Since I’ve come to MS, Rizwan told me, “you’re not a or a substandard player so you don’t need to play with fear. We know what kind of player you are.” And that has freed me up.Usman Khan scoring the fastest PSL ton, in 2023You sometimes start an innings slowly but catch up. Is early caution a conscious approach?I’ve played against Babar and observed how he builds an innings, when he decides to accelerate. And when I batted with Rizwan, I was observing him and trying to learn from him. His mindset was such that even if he scores 50 in 40 balls or so, the next 50 runs or so come much quicker. The 96 I scored this year was the same. Batting after scoring 50 is very easy for me. That’s in my nature, and this has held true wherever I’ve played cricket and at whatever level.If you look at the games I scored a hundred, look at the early phases of my innings. I’m batting on 24 off 22, or 16 off 14, not starting especially quickly. But once I feel some bowler is there for the taking, I can sense that opportunity well. Because I feel I have a very wide range of shots, and so I don’t need to rely on one particular shot for my runs.Multan are about to play another final. How do you cope with nerves ahead of big games?In the final, I just want to play the innings that gives my team the trophy. The final is very easy for me in a way. The cricket I’ve played until now, my mentality is this might be my last match. And every innings is an audition to get the next gig. And thus it feels like it’s my first and last match at the same time.Is this the biggest game of your career? Yes, obviously. All the people who now recognise me and support me, I want to leave them with a great innings. I’ve been thinking for the last two days how I can win my team the final. It’s a big competition. To win, you have to struggle.

Some jaw-dropping batting displays, or the ones where bowlers grabbed bragging rights… vote for your favourite performance of IPL 2024

S Sudarshanan30-Apr-2024If the list does not appear below, tap here to reload the page.