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Also pieces of India’s middle-order puzzle start to come together in the ODI clean sweep against West Indies

Shashank Kishore11-Feb-20221:15

Chopra: Kuldeep is a wicket-taker, and wicket-takers can be expensive

Rohit Sharma’s India wrapped up a 3-0 ODI whitewash of West Indies. As such, the series proved to be one-sided, with the visitors failing to bat out 50 overs even once. India used the series to try out a few options and came back with a better idea of what their larger squad could look like as they build slowly towards the 2023 World Cup.The Kohli presence
With the bat, Virat Kohli had a forgettable series. He only managed scores of 8, 18 and 0. Two of those three dismissals were nicks behind: one off the outside edge, another being a strangle down leg. In the series opener, he came out swinging, hitting two boundaries in three balls before perishing to a miscued pull off the fourth. And so, century No. 71 will have to wait. He has now gone 68 innings without a hundred. Incidentally, his previous century – against Bangladesh in India’s pink-ball Test debut in November 2019 – came at the venue where India flies to for the T20Is.”Virat Kohli needs confidence? What are you saying, ,” Rohit laughed when asked if the former captain’s form was a matter of worry. “Not hitting hundreds is different but in South Africa, he just made two fifties in three matches. I don’t see anything wrong with his game. The team management is not at all worried.”On the field, Kohli the non-captain was a lively presence without the yelps into the mic or giving send-offs to the batter. There were no roars of “come on” belted out either. Perhaps, the one-sided nature of the series may have something to do with it, but the Kohli who took the field against West Indies seemed jovial. He was chuckling away in the infield, doing jigs to celebrate wickets, and being a smiling presence in general on the field. There was an occasion in the first ODI where he stepped in to help Rohit Sharma place fields as he brought on Yuzvendra Chahal. Then, he ran up to the legspinner to quietly slip in a word as Kieron Pollard walked in, and celebrated wildly the West Indies’ captain’s first-ball duck after he missed the googly.Alzarri Joseph is over the moon after dismissing Virat Kohli, whose wait for international century No. 71 continues•BCCIChahal and Kuldeep shine
Kuldeep Yadav cut a forlorn figure most times when the cameras panned to him in the Kolkata Knight Riders dugout last year. In 2020, he’d played all of five games for them. In 2021, he didn’t play a single game in the first half of the IPL and got injured during the second. With the team management preferring Varun Chakravarthy’s mystery, Kuldeep, once a certainty in India’s XI, seemed low on confidence and form.A shoulder surgery and three months of rehabilitation later, he made a comeback and bowled well in his only outing in the series. Kuldeep started with a flatter trajectory, but the confidence of plenty of runs to defend and an opposition batting unit that was in self-destruct mode allowed him to flight the ball. He got tonked the few times he gave it a tad too much flight, but spun out two wickets, including that of West Indies stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran, who was out driving. A few overs earlier, he had bamboozled Fabian Allen with his mastery, by teasing him with his loop and then deceiving him in the air to have him caught behind.”We wanted to rest Chahal to see what Kuldeep has to offer [in the third game] and I thought he bowled brilliantly,” Rohit said. “I can see glimpses of the old Kuldeep. He was flighting the ball, bowling those googlies and getting the batters to nick to the slips and that is what he has done in the past. It was good to see him bowl that way.”He’s playing an ODI after a long time. He got hit for a few runs but honestly that didn’t matter. I told him not to worry about that stuff, I told him ‘you need to get your rhythm back and we’re here to support you’.”Before Kuldeep came in, Chahal kept his end of the bargain by being a wicket-taker whenever the ball was thrown to him. He was named Man of the Match in the first ODI for his four-for. In the second, he bowled tidily to pick up one wicket. The faster-through-the-air Ravi Bishnoi will have to wait for an ODI debut.Deepak Hooda did his reputation no harm in the opportunities he got•Associated PressIyer, Suryakumar grab opportunities
Having brushed aside comparisons with Michael Bevan, he did exactly what Michael Bevan might have done for Australia in his pomp: revive a floundering innings with a sturdy knock. Suryakumar Yadav top scored with 64 in the second ODI. He looked good for a lot more but fell against the run of play.In the final ODI, Shreyas Iyer, who at this time last year was stretchered off clutching his shoulder against England, combined to have crucial partnerships with Rishabh Pant to stem the damage after a top-order collapse. He top scored with 80 to set the tone for India’s innings, thereby serving a reminder of his middle-order chops.In his two outings of the series, Deepak Hooda showed he was no pushover. His two knocks brought him scores of 26* and 29. In the first, he came in with India having lost four quick wickets in a low-pressure chase. In the second, he tried to hold the lower order together before perishing in the final overs. He also nipped out the wicket of Shamrah Brooks – West Indies’ top scorer in that second game.Another key piece in the middle-order puzzle, Washington Sundar bowled with tact and made useful contributions with the bat.Prasidh Krishna played India’s pace spearhead in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami•BCCIPrasidh Krishna’s giant strides
With Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah resting, Prasidh Krishna put on a stellar show right through the series. He nipped the ball both ways, beat the inside and outside edges with zip and bounce, and kept a lid on the runs early on to build enough pressure around batters before getting them. In the second ODI, he returned career-best figures.Deepak Chahar, brought in for the third ODI, also did his reputation no harm. Having fallen agonisingly short of taking India home with the bat in the final ODI against South Africa in Cape Town, he ensured a cameo towards the death in the final ODI against West Indies got India to a competitive total. With the ball, he married swing with accuracy to nip out two top-order wickets in the same game.”We were looking for someone like him to come out and bowl those overs in the middle and get us those breakthroughs,” Rohit said of Prasidh’s impact. “We saw that clearly, the way he bowled in the last two games, with a lot of pace, we could see he got something out of the pitch as well. He’s definitely a prospect for the future. There’s no doubt about that.”

Once mocked as a bits-and-pieces player, India’s No. 7 continues to have the last laugh

Nagraj Gollapudi02-Jul-20222:28

Ashley Giles: ‘Ravindra Jadeja showed great maturity in near-flawless knock’

The first ball Ravindra Jadeja faced on Friday was curving into him from James Anderson. The ball swung fast in towards his legs, but Jadeja dug it out without missing a beat. Standing inside the crease, bat close to the body, Jadeja made contact with the ball right under his eyeline. There was no hurried or abrupt movement.Soon it became clear that Jadeja was not going to have a rush-of-blood moment in trying to counterattack his way out of the situation India were in. He was taking a big stride towards the pitch of the delivery while playing, as far as possible, with a full face. His bat remained tucked close to his body to avoid any nicks and, like all good batters, he played the ball late.Related

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Two days before this Test, Jadeja had spent the majority of his time in the nets practising that big stride towards the delivery and focusing on defending. But don’t think this was Jadeja adding a new string to his bow. It was more a case of him polishing the wares he put on display in the first four Tests of the Pataudi Trophy last summer. Measured in terms of balls played for lower-order batters so far in this series, Jadeja has faced nearly double that of the next person across either side: 459 deliveries, after the Edgbaston innings, with Rishabh Pant a distant second at 259.In their first innings of the first Test, at Trent Bridge, Jadeja came in at 145 for 5 and then helped India take 95-run lead, scoring 56 over two hours. India were in pole position chasing a short target before the fifth day was washed out.At Lord’s, where India recorded a memorable comeback, among the many psychological battles the visitors won, prominent again was Jadeja, who was the last man out, helping them to 364 in the first innings, having come at 282 for 5. He might have made just 40 runs, but they came off 120 balls and 160 minutes – highlighting both his grittiness as well as the ultimate aim of ensuring a healthy total. In the fourth Test, Jadeja conjured something out of nothing from a lifeless Oval pitch, which showcased his strength as an allrounder as well validating his selection over R Ashwin, who has sat out all the five Tests in this series.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhen he walked in on Friday afternoon, the ball might have grown a bit old – 28 overs – but the conditions remained overcast through the day. For the initial part of his partnership with Pant, Jadeja matched his partner’s scoring rate (Jadeja was 24 off 34 while Pant was 25 from 31 deliveries). Even as Pant started to score more freely, Jadeja did not get distracted. He slipped effortlessly into the role of playing second fiddle, in the process taking more strike and facing more questions from the England quicks. From Anderson to Matthew Potts to Stuart Broad to Ben Stokes – each of them attacked his off stump by pitching on a length and shaping the ball away. Barring a few occasions where he did fall for the bait, Jadeja kept his bat tucked in. When they bowled short, he did not pull awkwardly, instead ducking away.But when the opportunity presented itself – against a shorter ball or a fuller delivery – Jadeja had no qualms in taking them on and putting them away. Take the pushed straight drives on both sides of the wicket against Anderson and Broad on Friday afternoon: playing late and leaning into the shot, Jadeja used his powerful wrists to flick strokes without overhitting them. Once against a short delivery from Broad, Jadeja steered behind square for a certain boundary, but Ollie Pope, at backward point, threw himself to his right to intercept. Jadeja, instantly punched his bat.Against Anderson and Potts, Jadeja’s control dropped to 74% and 76% respectively, but overall his in-control numbers were at 82%. That might not appear high, but keeping in mind the conditions along with the quality of the bowling attack, you could say it was good.In the same over Pant brought up his century, Jadeja twirled his bat to celebrate his half-century, which had taken 20 more balls that the former’s ton (Jadeja reached 50 off 109 balls, compared to Pant getting to three figures in 89). As Pant said after play on Friday evening, both he and Jadeja wanted to solely focus on creating a partnership instead of adding pressure on themselves.Ravindra Jadeja got to his century off 183 balls after walking in with India at 98 for 5•AFP/Getty ImagesIf Stokes and England were not aware that Pant and Jadeja are among the best lower-order batters for the last three years, having conducted several rescue acts, they now know. Anderson pointed out that Jadeja had grown into a “proper batter”. “In the past he was coming at eight, batting with the tail so he had to chance his arm a little bit, whereas now at seven he can bat like a proper batter. He leaves really well and made it difficult for us.”In March Jadeja scored 175 against Sri Lanka to take a record from Kapil Dev for the highest score by an Indian No. 7 or lower. ESPNcricinfo analyst Shiva Jayaraman produced in-depth piece explaining how Jadeja had become a sting in the tail for the opposition since 2017. Updated numbers show 591 of Jadeja’s 1652 runs since 2017 – 35.8% – have come with India already six down. That is the highest for batters with a cut-off of at least 1000 runs in the last five years.Since 2019, with a cut-off of a minimum of 15 Test innings, Jadeja has taken on average 2.9 innings for a 50, which is the quickest for India, even better than the likes of Rohit Sharma (3.3) and Pant (3.5). In the same period, among all teams, Jadeja has the highest average of 51.45 (minimum cut-off of 10 innings) for No. 6 and lower batters.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhen Pant got out six overs before the finish on day one, Jadeja was on 68. India were still some way off a desired score of 400. Jadeja resumed with the same plan and method he had deployed the previous afternoon, rode his luck once, as England’s slips fumbled a catch, and next ball whipped a cut that brought up his third century, and first overseas.Then came the celebration which also carried a message. Jadeja stood mid-pitch, both arms aloft, one holding a helmet, the other his bat, looking across the ground, as if to ask: ladies and gents, did you expect anything less from me? On the back of a difficult season personally at the IPL, after he stepped down as captain at Chennai Super Kings at the halfway stage and then abruptly left the tournament, it may have felt that much more special.Heart, courage and character have defined Jadeja the cricketer. Once mocked as a bits-and-pieces player, Jadeja simply laughed back at his critics with enough spectacular acts – with bat, ball, as a gun fielder. At the end of the media briefing on Saturday he even joked saying people could now describe him as: “Fielder who bats and bowls.”An important element of Jadeja’s batting which is often overlooked is his pursuit of discipline, which has helped him become the Mr Dependable in the lower order.

Tom Banton and Joe Clarke embodied a disastrous Hundred campaign

Matt Roller29-Aug-2022It was the £250,000 gamble that defined a season. Welsh Fire finished second-bottom in the inaugural men’s Hundred and with limited availability for leading overseas players, they calculated that rebuilding around two of England’s best young white-ball batters would be the way to go – not just for 2022, but for the seasons beyond.As a result, they used their top two picks in the draft to sign Joe Clarke and Tom Banton for £125,000 each. Neither player seemed an outlandish top-bracket signing at the time: Clarke had been in belligerent form for Nottinghamshire in the Blast for several years and was Melbourne Stars’ player of the season at the BBL, while Banton had just returned to England’s T20I side and shown glimpses of his old form after a lean couple of years.Five months on, Fire’s outlay on Clarke and Banton looks like a monumental waste of money: they managed 185 runs off 190 balls between them, spread across 14 painstaking innings. They were picked to be match-winners for a team that ended up finishing the season with eight defeats from eight.Related

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In Fire’s final defeat, against Trent Rockets on Monday night, their dismissals summed up their lack of form: Banton was pinned on the pad for 9 off 7 balls by a shin-high full toss from Sam Cook after slashing two boundaries through point, while Clarke walked past Samit Patel’s slow left-arm after hitting a huge six over midwicket but precious little else in his 15 off 14.”We are playing professional sport and it hasn’t been good enough,” Gary Kirsten, Fire’s head coach, said after their defeat to Northern Superchargers in their final home game. “You have to be competitive and look to win, but we’ve struggled. We just haven’t got enough runs on the board because too many batsmen are out of form.”Kirsten’s analysis was sound, but if the Hundred has any sporting integrity as a tournament then he should not be the man in charge of leading their rebuild next year. His side won their first two games last season thanks to Jonny Bairstow half-centuries, and have one win in fourteen since then; it is time for a new coach with fresh ideas.Jonny Bairstow’s late withdrawal was a significant blow•Getty ImagesThey will need to replace their captain, too. Josh Cobb was retained from their 2021 squad on a £30,000 salary, the lowest price point in the tournament, then handed a poisoned chalice when he was asked to be the figurehead of a team featuring young players earning four times more than him. His tactics in the field have been sound, but 45 runs at 6.42 summed up his struggles.Clearly, they were short on luck at times: Bairstow was only ever due to play three games for them but his eleventh-hour withdrawal was clearly a blow; Naseem Shah’s first involvement in Pakistan’s limited-overs teams rendered him unavailable at short notice; David Miller started the year in career-best form and averaged 12.16.But the collective failure of so many talented players hints at a problem that goes beyond on-field personnel and the overall pattern was grim: they failed to reach 150 and while they ran Phoenix close and gave London Spirit a brief scare, six of their defeats were thrashings. The first ball of their final defeat against Rockets, a bottom-edge which squirmed under George Scrimshaw at short third and away for four, seemed to confirm that it is time to rip everything up and start again.Debriefing Fire’s season on Sky Sports, Simon Doull and Dominic Cork suggested that they had suffered a lack of identity after assembling a squad without a single Glamorgan player in it. “That’s my biggest issue with it,” Doull said. “You cannot tell me that Glamorgan don’t have any players that are good enough to play in the Hundred.”But it is hard to make the case that drafting Dan Douthwaite and Prem Sisodiya would have turned their season around. No team has won fewer Blast games than Glamorgan over the last five years and only two of their squad – Timm van der Gugten and the retiring Michael Hogan – are involved in the Hundred at all. Their problems run much deeper than that.Gary Kirsten and Josh Cobb oversaw a winless season•Harry Trump/Getty ImagesInstead, the starting point to the rebuild might be to recruit an overseas batter with full availability for 2023 as captain: Shan Masood, who has led Derbyshire and Multan Sultans with success, would be a strong candidate to deal with the slow pitches at Sophia Gardens, while New Zealand’s clear schedule in the FTP could, in theory, open up Kane Williamson’s involvement.Whatever they decide to do, the only way is up. The ECB’s decision to allocate one of the eight teams to Cardiff rather than Bristol or Taunton was intended to revitalise cricket in Wales but it is hard to see supporters heading back to Sophia Gardens next season if they are expecting more of the same.The beauty about short-form cricket is meant to be that anyone can beat anyone, particularly in tournaments where a strict salary cap and draft mechanism are in place to ensure competitive balance. The men’s Hundred’s biggest issue in 2022 has been a dearth of tight finishes: the tournament cannot afford Welsh Fire to be whipping boys.

Alan, Miller and Osman sift through the runs and records after England’s extraordinary victory in the first Test against Pakistan

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Dec-2022The first Test between Pakistan and England in Rawalpindi began amid uncertainty about whether the tourists could field a side, and ended with a Ben Stokes-orchestrated victory in the fading light on day five. In between, England rewrote the record books for rapid scoring, piling up totals of 657 and 264 for 7 across 136.5 overs of mayhem. On this week’s Switch Hit podcast, Alan Gardner was joined by Andrew Miller and Osman Samiuddin to discuss the game itself, Stokes’ inspirational captaincy and what England’s “Bazball” revolution means for Test cricket as a whole.

A half-century of England-Australia contests only whets the appetite for more

Mark Nicholas12-Jun-2023It was a fine time to be alive – the Beatles and The Stones; George Best, Garry Sobers and Rod Laver. Nothing much else mattered frankly, except the Engand cricket team. Who could forget, however young they may have been,
The Oval in 1968 when members of the crowd helped the ground staff mop the sodden outfield and open the door through which Derek Underwood marched to claim 4 for 6 in 27 balls and secure a drawn series with just six minutes of the five days remaining, it was Ray Illingworth’s team that toured Australia in 1970-71 who most fired our love of the Ashes. For those among us keen enough to smuggle transistor radios under their pillows at night and listen to the crackling sound of airwaves that told us stories of a vast and cinematic land where the sky was sapphire blue, the sun baking hot and the flies on the side of the locals, imaginations ran riot.We revelled in the commentators’ description of the Chappell brothers – Ian with his collar up, chewing gum as if that alone were a fight, and Greg, all upright elegance and gorgeous timing. We marvelled at the distant thought of a young Dennis Lillee – long hair flowing in the wind and bouncers flying – along with Rod Marsh, who, we were told, flew with gloves on to try and catch them. There was John Gleeson, the mystery spinner, whose bent-finger grip of the ball was learned from Jack Iverson; Bill Lawry, immortally named “the corpse with pads on” and Graeme “Garth” McKenzie, who had made a name with Leicestershire in county cricket and seemed too nice to bowl fast. A formidable bunch.But in Geoffrey Boycott we believed. Sure, he blocked the life out of many a day’s play, but there was something admirable about the bloody-mindedness in this bespectacled and apparently tortured Yorkshireman, who seemingly knew little of the world around him and everything about batting. The distance between him and the enigmatic and often moody writer of poetry, John Snow – who doubled up as England’s rather brilliant fast bowler – was vast but they were players in the same team, and even as winter closed in on West London, were the main subjects of imitation in the street outside the Nicholas home.Related

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The commentators painted pictures so vivid, it felt as if we were actually watching it all, and in magnificent Technicolor too. When we drifted into sleep, the dreams of a future in this exciting world became the dreams of our lives.Illingworth’s lads won the extended seven-match series 2-0, with Boycott and Snow the key protagonists. Ted Dexter, working on the tour as a journalist, thought Boycott’s unbeaten hundred at the Sydney Cricket Ground the greatest innings he had seen by an Englishman and Snow’s 7 for 40 to clean up the match pretty much the best fast bowling. Later, he added Andrew Flintoff with the ball at Lord’s in 2009, and Ben Stokes with the bat at Headingley in the summer of 2019. We shall come to that thing of beauty in a while.The Ashes summers of 1972 and ’75 in England were stymied by controversy of the worst kind, and both dramas took place at Headingley. First up, the fusarium. Sounds ridiculous but Derek Underwood took ten wickets in the match on a pitch infected by a fungus that killed the grass. He wasn’t called “Deadly” for nothing, and on an iffy pitch of any sort, he could pick off pretty much anyone who walked to the wicket. “It was uncanny that it affected only a strip 22 yards by eight feet and the rest of the ground was perfectly healthy,” said Greg Chappell. EW Swanton left it at “The pitch was an embarrassment.”Thommo + Lillee on the rampage = a happy captain: Ian Chappell relaxes with a cold few in the dressing room in Sydney in 1975, Australia 3-0 up in the series•Alan Gilbert Purcell/Fairfax Media/Getty ImagesThree years later, things at Headingley got worse. To pull off a record chase of 445 and win the third Test, Australia required a further 225 on the final day with seven wickets in hand, but when the groundsman removed the covers soon after dawn, he found the pitch vandalised. Chunks of turf had been gouged from the surface and filled with oil. The first clues as to why came when the early spectators were greeted by the sight of perimeter walls painted with the slogan “George Davis is innocent.” Davis was a London cabbie sentenced to 20 years for armed robbery. Protestors had been campaigning for his release for a year and eventually got it. Two years later he was convicted of another robbery and sent down for 15 years. His brother was behind the movement and was to say “We can get the Ashes back anytime. But not my brother.” As it happened, it was raining by tea and the match wouldn’t have run the distance anyway. Once, it was oil for the angry and now orange powder and paint is used by Extinction Rebellion to protest against oil barons. How the great world spins.Meantime, down under in the winter of 1974-75, Jeffrey Robert Thomson had struck terror into the minds of the English batters and the hearts of those who watched from behind their sofas 10,000 miles away. In harness with Lillee, he was unstoppable, unleashing some of the most devastating pace and bounce ever seen, while snarling with a splendid sense of theatre. Richie Benaud said that Frank Tyson was the fastest bowler through the air he ever saw, and added that Thommo must be the fastest off the pitch. Did we feel for the England batters or did our ears prick up with excitement at the mention of these two extraordinary bowlers? The latter, I’d say, because their message of both aggression and rebellion perfectly suited the age in which popular culture and music had overtaken traditional boundaries and innate conservatism.By 1977 and the arrival of Ian Botham, World Series Cricket was on the table and cricket’s place in the order of things was to change forever. As Tony Greig said goodbye to his adopted land, Botham lurched through the gates to claim the throne as mighty allrounder and then England’s captain. Not that it lasted long. In 1981 after the second Test at Lord’s, he resigned the captaincy and returned to the ranks under Mike Brearley. The rest, as they say, is history. Botham played two great innings – one of them miraculous – and bowled with a previously unseen ferocity in that series. England came from behind and won. It was a glorious summer, made so by the wedding of Charles and Diana and this other, rather less decorated (at that time), hero of the people.And so the story ran and ran. Television and radio advanced, news expanded, data went deeper, social media allowed a global conversation, and politics continued to invade sport through its popular appeal – in short, anyone and everyone could have their say.Warne bowls Andrew Strauss at Edgbaston in 2005 with a close relative of the delivery that got him his 700th Test wicket, in Melbourne a year and a half later, off the same batter•Clive Mason/Getty ImagesThe Ashes featured household names on tap – Border and two Waughs; Gower and Gatting; more Botham, Merv Hughes, Mark Taylor, Mike Atherton, Darren Gough, and the incomparable Shane Warne, who lit up the stage he has now left so suddenly and too soon. Of all cricketers, Warne most held our attention. He was everywhere, front page and back; a glittering star in a game often reluctant to fully appreciate them. From 1989 to 2002-03 the Australians were exceptional and England not so. Warne rescued the narrative of the little urn almost single-handedly by giving something new, engaging and irresistible to the audience.”The art of leg-spin,” he says in his autobiography, “is the creation of something that isn’t really there.” He goes on: “It’s a magic trick, surrounded by mystery, aura and fear.” That’s it – fear. From the slow release of a cricket ball, Warne created fear. Or put a different way, Snow, Lillee and Thomson intimidated batters by hitting them on the head; Warne intimidated batters by eyeing them up and explaining the inevitability of him taking them down. He talked baloney much of the time, invented new descriptions of the same spinning ball and made it abundantly clear that he owned the ground on which they played. He has bowled the most Ashes balls and taken the most Ashes wickets. Don Bradman is his batting counterpart and both are well ahead of the rest.Warne was the outstanding player of the famed 2005 Ashes, when England regained the urn after 17 years. Had he not trod on his stumps one Edgbaston Sunday morning, he might well have cooked up a win from nowhere and galvanised his team to go on and take the series. As it is, England triumphed amid wild scenes of celebration that extended to an open-top bus parade through London, which ended, with the players much worse for wear, in front of tens of thousands of people at Trafalgar Square. It wasn’t that Admiral Nelson played any part but it was almost surreal that he was there, watching over such nationalism.The Australian team hated the excess in all that and turned their attention to revenge, which was exacted without mercy at home not much more than year later. England were crushed by the last hurrah of a truly great cricket team that had been led by Allan Border, then Taylor, Steve Waugh, and the best No. 3 batter to wear the green and gold since Bradman, Ricky Ponting. Warne and his compadre in the field of combat, Glenn McGrath, bowed out at the Sydney Cricket Ground, but not before Warne had claimed his 700th wicket with another dazzling ball to Andrew Strauss.Flintoff amps it up against Brett Lee at Lord’s in 2005; he took 24 wickets in that series. Four years on, he produced another epic performance at the same ground•Getty ImagesStrauss led his own team to victory at home in 2009, with Flintoff every bit as much the talisman he had been in 2005, when he had done a bit of a Botham on the country. At Lord’s, Freddie bowled so relentlessly fast and straight that Ian Chappell was moved to say he had not seen better; and remember, Chappelli hung out at first slip to Lillee and stood firm at the top of the order against Andy Roberts and Michael Holding.Strauss’ even more memorable victory came in Australia 18 months later, with extraordinary if very different batting from an eclectic group that included Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen setting up Jimmy Anderson and Graeme Swann to knock over Ponting’s suddenly vulnerable team. Since then, it has been comfortable wins at home for Australia and success at home for England.Until 2019, when it went to the wire.For Botham and Flintoff, read Stokes and the legend of Leeds. England were behind in the series, Headingley was do or die. Humbled for 67 in the first innings, Joe Root’s unlikely lads needed 359 to win in the fourth. The last day fell this way and that, a roller coaster in the true sense of sporting uncertainty. Stokes, having bowled two astonishing and long spells with a dicky knee and at great pace, dug in to douse the Australians’ flame before launching into an all-out assault that, in thrilling fashion, put out their fire. History will record the nearly factors – sixes inching over fielders’ heads; the Marcus Harris drop at third man (a difficult chance reminiscent of Simon Jones at Edgbston in 2005); the wasted, and last, Australian review, when moments later Leach was trapped in front of all three; the Leach run out that wasn’t; the Stokes lbw escape – but it will rejoice in the most magnificent innings, the best many of us reckoned we had ever seen.These are the matches and players I have known. I am no less excited now than I was then: well, perhaps a little, but only because the boyish enthusiasm has long gone. Of the players I didn’t see live, the contest between those great mates Keith Miller and Denis Compton would have been one to behold. So too between Benaud and Bradman; Hutton, Hammond and Hobbs; Trumper, Macartney and Grace. Perhaps Harold Larwood, most of all, during Bodyline, against the fine Australian batting of the day, or Bill O’Reilly: the legspinner who was the best bowler Bradman ever saw.Ben Stokes at Headingley in 2019, during the Test that now bears his name in folklore•Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesO’Reilly raged against the machine, attacking officialdom with a rarely seen confidence and wit. His Catholicism saw him in scrapes, not least with Bradman, a Protestant, but his energy and concern for the Ashes never wavered. He called out for an even contest between bat and ball and a complete commitment from those lucky enough to represent their respective countries. He spared no one if criticism was due.One weekend in the early 1920s, O’Reilly received a call to go to Bowral – which he probably did by train and then bike, kit bag slung over his shoulder. He was later to call it a “dreadful mistake”. Early in the game and standing at square leg, he saw a diminutive figure approaching:”What struck me most about him was the difficulty he seemed to be having taking normal steps as he approached the wicket. His pads seemed to reach up to his navel. His bat was small and had reached the sere and yellow stage, where the yellow was turning to dark tobacco.”It was the boy Bradman, who made 234 not out.Later, Bradman made 5028 runs in 63 Ashes innings at an average of all but 90. Within these figures are 19 hundreds, 12 fifties and a highest score of 334.Who is next, one wonders. Maybe not another Bradman or Warne but for sure, players will emerge with the capacity for wonderful performances and to answer the call of the crowd. The greats of the game say that the Ashes defines you and it’s true – ask any of the 22 named at the toss on Friday morning. They will say the same. Bring it on.

With several teams stacked together on eight points, it’s anyone’s guess as to who will make the playoffs

Shashank Kishore27-Apr-2023David Warner, Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly have a lot to ponder over•BCCI

Delhi Capitals

Played 7, Won 2, Lost 5, Points 4, Position: tenthChallenges:Top-order stabilityThe missing piece:Rishabh Pant, who is recovering from multiple injuries following a car crashHow they’ve fared:David Warner the white-ball destroyer is still finding his gears and Prithvi Shaw as an Impact Sub seems woefully out of form, returning a highest of 13 in six innings, with familiar questions raised around his handling of swing and pace. Sarfaraz Khan was given just one game to prove himself in a role – wicketkeeping – he was groomed to perform in Pant’s absence but lost his place completely after two matches. He’s back again after four games to shore up a misfiring batting line-up. Elsewhere, Mitchell Marsh’s early unavailability due to his wedding led to a roulette with Rilee Rossouw and Rovman Powell coming and going. The chop-change is a reflection of the uncertainty in the camp as they fight near the bottom.Mayank Agarwal and Co can’t afford to take their eye off the ball for the remainder of the season•AFP/Getty Images

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Played 7, Won 2, Lost 5, Points 4, Position: ninthChallenges:Top order in a fluxHow they’ve fared:Mayank Agarwal has struggled and when he was shunted down the order against CSK, it seemed like an eerie rerun of his previous year with Punjab Kings. Abhishek Sharma has faced a similar fate, of being moved up and down while England’s Harry Brook, signed to play a middle-order role, has come good as an opener only once in the five knocks he has played at the top. Meanwhile, lower down, Washington Sundar* has elicited debates if he should be batting a lot higher, especially in the CSK game where their right-handedness in the middle order played into Ravindra Jadeja’s hands on a typical Chepauk deck.KKR have started the second leg of league matches on the right note•AFP/Getty Images

Kolkata Knight Riders

Played 8, Won 3, Lost 5, Points: 6, position: seventhChallenges:Top order instabilityThe missing piece:Shreyas Iyer, their designated captain, who is undergoing rehab following a back surgery in UKHow they’ve fared:The 17 wickets they’ve lost are the most by any team in the powerplay this season. They had tried five different opening combinations in their first seven games. Against RCB on Wednesday night, they tried a sixth and had their highest opening stand of the season – 83 between Jason Roy and N Jagadeesan. Part of the reason for this chop and change has been due to injuries. Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s niggle meant bringing in Jagadeesan and Roy’s absence during the initial stages meant they tried a number of others up top – Mandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Gurbaz, Litton Das and Sunil Narine among them. Their win on Sunday night brought the promise of a more settled pairing at the top.Mumbai have plugged the Bumrah-Archer gap by using Arjun Tendulkar, Riley Meredith, Cameron Green and Jason Behrendorff•Associated Press

Mumbai Indians

Played 7, Won 3, Lost 4, Points: 6, position: eighthChallenges:Death bowlingThe missing piece(s):Jasprit Bumrah, who is out of the season, and Jofra Archer, who has featured in just two games so far to manage his elbow condition.How they’ve fared:They’re feeling the absence of the Bumrah-Archer pairing that they hoped would give opponents sleepless nights. It’s a gap they’ve plugged by using Arjun Tendulkar, Riley Meredith, Cameron Green and Jason Behrendorff. Since the win against Sunrisers, where Tendulkar defended 20 in the final over, they’ve conceded 200-plus in two losses. Kings ransacked 109 off their last six overs, while Titans managed 94. Mumbai are fast running out of options.Kings have struggled to make strong starts in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan•Associated Press

Punjab Kings

Played 7, Won 4, Lost 3, Points 8, position: sixthChallenges:Soft under-belly to their top order in Shikhar Dhawan’s absence due to a shoulder niggleHow they’ve fared:It looks among the weakest top-three on paper without Dhawan, who brings his experience of being able to anchor or explode based on situations. Matt Short has been inconsistent, Atharva Taide inexperienced and Harpreet Bhatia unable to force the pace despite getting starts. This has meant there’s been an over-reliance on Prabhsimran Singh and the returning Liam Livingstone to fuel their starts. They can’t wait for Dhawan to be back.Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis have been crucial to RCB’s prospects•Associated Press

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Played 8, Won 4, Lost 4, Points 8, position: fifthChallenges: Overcoming the Rajat Patidar voidHow they’ve fared: It has been Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell, or nothing. The overreliance on the big-three has become their biggest talking point yet again. When Rajat Patidar came in as replacement and set the stage alight by hitting the IPL’s first century by an uncapped player in the playoffs, he brought with him the promise of being able to switch between being an accumulator and an enforcer. But in his absence due to a heel injury, Mahipal Lomror and Shahbaz Ahmed haven’t been able to grab those opportunities. Shahbaz has managed scores of 2 and 2 at No. 3, while Lomror had scores of 26, 0, 7* and 8. On Sunday, just when it appeared as if he’d repay the faith, he was out for 34 in a steep chase.KL Rahul slowed down, went deep, but couldn’t finish the job for LSG against Titans•AFP/Getty Images

Lucknow Super Giants

Played 7, Won 4, Lost 3, Points 8, position: fourthChallenges: Capitalising in the PowerplayHow they’ve fared: Poorly. All said, conditions at home in Lucknow have been challenging. They’ve played on black soil decks that have aided turn and low bounce, where 150 and perhaps not 200 have been the order of the day. Yet, KL Rahul’s powerplay approach continues to be a subject of raging debates. It was partly justified in a two-paced Jaipur deck last week, when he went slow and built a platform with Kyle Mayers to set up 154, which they defended superbly. But the same approach cost them a win and a place in the top-two at the halfway mark when he dropped anchor until the final over to make a 61-ball 68 only for LSG to lose by seven runs in a chase of 136, especially after needing 31 off 36 with nine wickets in hand at one stage. All said, Rahul’s powerplay strike rate of 113.91 is the third lowest this season among batters who’ve faced at least 100 deliveries.Dhruv Jurel has done his credentials no harm in recent matches for Royals•BCCI

Rajasthan Royals

Played 7, Won 4, Lost 3, Points 8, position: thirdChallenges: Absence of an Indian finisherHow they’ve fared: They invested heavily in Riyan Parag to play a finisher’s role, but after meagre returns – 54 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 112 – it appears they may have begun looking elsewhere for the moment. Fortunately, they’ve found Dhruv Jurel. The 20-year-old was in their camp for the entire 2022 season as an apprentice, and when it appeared as if Royals may have erred in sending him ahead of the seasoned Jason Holder, Jurel let his bat do the talking on debut. Not even the prospect of needing 74 off 30 proved daunting enough as he smashed an unbeaten 15-ball 32 in an innings full of eye-catching strokes. The Royals lost narrowly, but Jurel did his credentials no harm. Since then, he’s featured in five more games. In their most-recent outing against RCB, he was preferred over Parag and threatened another jailbreak in making an unbeaten 15-ball 34 in a chase of 189.Sai Sudharsan has scored 176 runs in five innings at a strike-rate of 123.94•BCCI

Gujarat Titans

Played 7, Won 5, Lost 2, Points 10, position: second Challenges:Finding an anchor in Kane Williamson’s absenceHow they’ve fared:When Williamson damaged his ACL and limped off the field in their IPL opener, Titans may have yearned for someone to take over his role. They’ve found B Sai Sudharsan who has proven his capabilities in stepping up by leaving his imprint in a team full of explosive hitters. He’s gotten off to starts in each of the five games, with the back-to-back half-centuries against Capitals and KKR being the standouts. His 176 runs in five innings have come at a strike-rate of 123.94.Eden Gardens turned a fair bit yellow for MS Dhoni’s visit•BCCI

Chennai Super Kings

Played 7, Won 5, Lost 2, Points 10Challenges:Inexperienced seam-attack after injuries to Deepak Chahar, Ben Stokes and Mukesh ChoudharyHow they’ve fared:Their bowling frailties could’ve been exposed but MS Dhoni has backed rookies Tushar Deshpande, Akash Singh and Matheesha Pathirana to do the heavy lifting upfront and at the tail end. At the halfway mark, they’ve repaid the faith. Deshpande has stepped up and has seemingly overcome a no-ball problem, while Akash has impressed with his zip and swing with the new ball. Deshpande has picked up 12 wickets in seven games and is only the second CSK player, after Ravindra Jadeja, in the top 10 charts for the most impactful bowler of the season.

Every word from Broad’s close-of-play press conference at The Oval

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Jul-2023Stuart, congratulations on the career, which is nearly done. Can you just tell us how you have felt since you started telling people – Stokesy [Ben Stokes], the team, the world?
I feel great, to be honest. I’ve probably been thinking for a couple of weeks and even up until last night, I was still just sat in my room, umming and ahhing, speaking to Mollie [King, his wife].At half-eight, I just texted Stokesy saying: ‘Can I come and see you?’. I walked in, shook his hand and said: ‘That’s me, thanks for everything you’ve done for me’. I feel really great, and I feel even better that we’ve had a brilliant day today. I was a bit nervous this morning thinking that if we lose early wickets, I could feel a bit devastated.But to see the guys play the way they did, entertain the way they did – and I thought the atmosphere here today was awesome – it felt so good. And we’ve put ourselves in a position that I wished we could be in to try and chase ten wickets for an Ashes win. Well, an Ashes Test match win.You’ve seen in your 16 years so many people come in and out of the set-up. Some leave on their own terms, some don’t. Was that part of the vibe for you: do you feel a sense of satisfaction that this is you walking away with a great series behind you?
Yeah, 100 percent. I knew deep down that I wanted to finish playing cricket at the very top. Part of me wanted to know that I could still do it when I eventually stopped. I’ve had a love affair with the Ashes my whole life and the thought of being able to bowl my last ball and face my last ball against Australia is something that fills me with joy. That’s come to fruition.Ultimately, I set myself a goal in April that I’d try and be fit and available for the captain for five Ashes Test matches. And to play all of them is just a really special feeling, and to be a part of them. It’s been the most enjoyable series, the most entertaining series, the most edge-of-the-seat series that I can remember. Ultimately, I’m in love with the game, I still love playing the game, I love being part of the changing room and I wanted to have those memories leaving the game. That will definitely make me stay in love with the game of cricket for the rest of my life.You’re coming over nice and calm and chilled here. Do you think tomorrow is going to be different?
Oh, it’s all a blur in my own mind. Don’t worry. I just said to Danny [Reuben, England men’s media manager] after doing an interview outside that I can’t remember one word I said. It’s certainly emotional.I told Stokesy and Baz [Brendon McCullum] last night and felt calm and uplifted by telling someone outside of my bubble. And then I tried to tell Rooty [Joe Root] this morning and just couldn’t say a word. I just shook his hand, again, said: ‘That’s me’, and that’s all that would come out. I just couldn’t get any words out. We just had a hug.Then I told the boys in the changing room straightaway when we got to the ground. In the little football game we play, I’m the chairperson, the decision-maker, so I had to pass the chair over to Ben Duckett.That’s how I started it. Then, I just said: ‘Look boys, this’ll be my last game’.Stuart Broad will join Sky Sports’ commentary team•Getty ImagesYou’re going to Sky [Sports], into the commentary box now…
I’m going to the golf course! Well, I say that – I’m going to baby-sitting duties for Annabella. I’ve got I think 12 days [of commentary] coming up through the Hundred and few of the ODIs which have been in for six months or so, which is really exciting to have in the diary.And then in the winter, there’s obviously nothing at the moment – because I wasn’t sure of what my winter plans were. So, a bit of time with the family and see where the wind blows.Stuart, are you glad you got a bat today? And can you talk about walking off with Jimmy [Anderson], both not out, and if you’ve thought of what tomorrow or Monday could hold for you and your great mate?
Yeah, I mean I walked out to bat and Woody [Mark Wood] was out there with a big beaming smile and just said: ‘This is a great honour!’. That partnership lasted about four balls!It was brilliant being out there with Jim: his reverse-sweep, his slog-sweep. I don’t think he enjoyed [Mitchell] Starc’s bouncer so much, that hit him on the arm. I don’t know what we’ll do tomorrow, if we’ll bat on or get bowling straightaway, but if we do, then, what a pleasure to walk out there with Jimmy, with bat in hand – and then probably straightaway with ball in hand.On finishing here [at The Oval] specifically. Obviously, it’s a place where a lot of great careers have ended, but it’s also kind of where your career got a kick-start in 2009, in an Ashes Test. Is there a sense of full circle at all?
You’re dead right. That was when I felt like I belonged on the international stage; the first time I’d really bowled a spell that changed a game and got important wickets. And The Oval is generally the last Test of the summer throughout my career, so it holds incredible memories. I think it’s one of the greatest grounds in the world. The crowd today made that even more strong in my mind how great this place is.Related

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We’ve got some brilliant memories of winning series here. Obviously, we’re not going to win this series, but we can still finish with a brilliant result here. And I think, ultimately, if we can get this series to 2-2, we can hold our heads up very high of how we’ve gone about it. Because I think we’ve all really enjoyed being a part of this series. Although we didn’t get it quite right in the first couple of games, I think we’ve been spectacular since Leeds. So The Oval, it’s certainly up there in the top five grounds and it would be a pleasure to bowl my final ball here.Given you don’t declare overnight, and tomorrow could be your last day of Test, how perfect is it that you could get to bat, bowl and field?
I’d prefer just to bowl and field to be honest! But yeah, it felt weird walking out to bat, to be honest. I started putting my pads on and Zak Crawley went: ‘You won’t miss putting your pads on, will you?’ and I went: ‘Nope, not at all’.But actually, I loved being out there, it was a pleasure to be out there with two great mates and walk off past Mo [Moeen Ali] who gave me a big fist-tap of the gloves and just said: ‘Have a great time, mate. Love every moment’.Ultimately, to be honest, one of the reasons that swung my decision was: I look around this changing room and both players and management, I’ve played so much cricket with the people in this changing room and it still feels very much like changing room. I’ve got great friends and great memories within that, and I actually wanted to leave the game playing with a group of players that I’ve got so much respect for – and two guys at the top, Baz and Stokesy, who have made the last 14 months of my career an absolute joy.I’ve learned so much about leadership, management, how to go about managing people off those two, and I just feel in a fantastic place, as a player, as a person and just feel very happy and content at the moment.Stuart Broad, pictured after being hit for a six by Yuvraj Singh•Getty ImagesThe first time you came to prominence in world cricket – and sorry to bring this up – was Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes. Looking back 16 years later, can you relate to the person, the bowler, the hair – everything from back then, and talk about your evolution since then.
Yeah, it was obviously a pretty tough day. What would I have been: 21, 22? [22] I learnt loads. I pretty much based a whole mental routine through that experience knowing that I was left very short as an international performer in that moment. I’d rushed my preparation. I didn’t have any sort of pre-ball routine. I didn’t have any focus, particularly, and I started building my ‘warrior mode’ that I call it after that experience.Ultimately, of course, I wish that didn’t happen. I think what really helped me was it was a dead rubber, so it didn’t feel like I’d knocked us out of the World Cup or something. But I think it steeled me up to make me the competitor I am to this day and has driven me forward a huge amount.You obviously go through massive peaks and troughs and when you look at someone like Stokesy’s career, he’s done that sort of thing as well. Most players have. But ultimately I think it’s that bouncebackability and that ability to be able to put poor days behind you because certainly one thing over the past whatever – 15, 16 years – you have a lot more bad days than good days in cricket so you have to be able to deal with them to make sure your good days can flourish.I just wonder what Jimmy’s reaction was when you told him, and whether you think it might affect his own plans?
Jimmy will carry on, definitely. He is feeling really good and fresh, and there’s a bit of a break after this series, then an India tour, where he has got a fantastic record. Ultimately, I think it never felt quite right for the two of us to go together. We needed some sort of crossover – not that it really came into my decision-making.I was delighted to hear that Jimmy was going to keep going and carry on, because it’s nice that there will be one half of that partnership still within the changing room, until it sort of gets passed over when Jimmy decides his time is up.Broad acknowledges the applause for his 600th Test wicket•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesHow much has fatherhood had an impact on this decision?
Great question. It’s a difficult one to answer, really, because there’s quite a long break after this series so I was getting a lot of time off anyway. But even within this Ashes series – we played Ireland in the first week in June – I think I’ve been home for seven or eight nights, maybe. And because Mollie works Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, she’s not been able to travel.I feel like I haven’t seen Annabella and Mollie as much as I would like to – at such a young age, particularly. I love everything about being a dad and I’m certainly going to throw all my time and effort into being a great dad. Did it come into my decision? Potentially. There’s certainly something that fills my heart with joy that I’ll be able to spend a bit more time at home.The 151 wickets you’ve taken against Australia is the most of any bowler in history. Do you think they’ll be relieved that you’re not going around again, and why do you think you’ve had success against Australia particularly?
I think there’s something in my family history with Ashes cricket. I grew up from such a young age just being besotted by it. Ultimately, my influential years as a kid playing cricket, we weren’t winning many Ashes Tests and that grew my hunger and desire to want to be part of a team that could win against Australia. I certainly think as a player I’ve had a good record in England against Australia. They’re such a beast of a team at home to get near – apart from [20]10-11.Ultimately I think the competitiveness of what Australia bring to cricket brings out the best in me. I love that eye-to-eye battle. I love the energy the crowd brings, the battle and rivalry, and I know my emotions have to be sky-high for me to be a good bowler and my competitive spirit has to be sky-high.I can promise you every single time I’ve run in with a ball in my hand against Australia, they’ve been there. It does make me feel proud to have 150 Test wickets against the Aussies, and to be in that category with Warney and Glenn [McGrath] above. I have loved every minute against Australia, for sure – apart from Mitchell Johnson bowling at Brisbane, that was horrific.James Anderson and Stuart Broad walk off at the close•Getty ImagesYou’ve spoken about that competitiveness and how it brings out the best in you. How much are you going to miss that competition?
I think, having spoken to a few team-mates that have moved on from the game, that is certainly something that is quite hard to replace. I’ll probably start off by playing a bit of five-a-side football on a Monday night to see how that goes. You’re not allowed to do that as an England cricketer. From Sunday or from Monday, I might be able to.You have to find different ways to fuel your competitive instinct, because you can’t just do nothing and expect your competitive instinct to go away. I might try and convince Mollie it has to be golf competitions or something but I’m not sure she’d fall for that.Strictly [Come Dancing]?
Not Strictly, no. The thought of dancing in front of 11 million people gives me the shudders.How do you want hope that everyone remembers you, when they look back at your career?
When I was a kid growing up, I had sporting idols like Martin Johnson and Stuart Pearce. When I watched them, I loved their passion and drive. I never looked at them and thought, ‘I could give more for that shirt’.Ultimately how I have played my sport is, I would never want anyone in the crowd or watching at home or listening on the radio to think, ‘He’s not putting in’, or, ‘He’s not giving absolutely everything or putting his heart and soul into it.’I know I am not the most skilful player that’s played. I know I need every inch of my competitive spirit and my drive and my effort to get anything out of my ability. And I would say every day I’ve pulled on a Nottinghamshire shirt or an England shirt, I’ve given my heart and soul.I can’t think that there would be too many cricket fans out there that would think I’ve slacked off for a moment.