England’s No. 3 has welcomed red-ball break while honing leadership skills in T20

Vithushan Ehantharajah14-Jun-2024It was Laurie Evans who broke the news to Ollie Pope that his unbeaten 100 in vain against Sussex last Friday was one short.Surrey’s Vitality Blast captain had arrived early in a chase of 214, lasting the course as they fell 36 runs short for their first defeat of the campaign. With an improbable 38 needed from the final two deliveries, Pope clocked the Kia Oval scoreboards, which showed he was on 99 not out.”It’s probably the one time you can be a bit selfish,” Pope says. “You know – ‘oh go on then, I’ll take the easy single’.” A snick through to the keeper on the bounce brought the run, followed by a sheepish raise of the bat.Related

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Alas, the scoreboard was wrong. Pope was actually on 98 when he faced the penultimate ball of the innings.”I got back into the changing room and Laurie Evans came up, shook my hand and went, ‘Nice 99 mate, well played!’ I was like, ‘What?!'” It would have been Pope’s first limited-overs century.”It was obviously annoying, but at the same time, we lost the game. If I did get a hundred, we still lose the game. That’s the thing that’s wrong with cricket – people think that one run should make a difference. It’s obviously nice to get those milestones. But when you lose, it doesn’t really matter.”Last Friday’s hiccup aside, Surrey have enjoyed a strong start to the Blast, winning three out of four and sitting third, with Somerset and Sussex above them in a strong South Group. Regular skipper Chris Jordan’s presence at the World Cup – one of three Surrey players in the England squad, along with Will Jacks and Reece Topley – presented Pope, England Test vice-captain, with the opportunity to enhance his leadership CV. He admits the last couple of weeks have been a crash course in captaincy, particularly game management.”It’s been good so far,” Pope says. “The thing for me is that I haven’t really played T20 cricket, so I was a bit behind – not the rules, but I guess just managing it. You forget how hectic and frenetic it can be out there. That first game [against Hampshire] we had to field with five inside the ring for the last over because we were slow between the overs. I felt like I couldn’t go any quicker! So there are a few things like that you need to sharpen up as quickly as you can.”The bowlers have bowled nicely overall, which makes my job easier. The last game [against Sussex] was probably the first time we’ve been put under some real pressure. They played nicely and it’s just trying to find a way to keep your calmness around the group. And also be at peace in T20 cricket that someone might get you. If someone hits the ball you want to bowl for four or six, then you have to be at peace with that.”Despite the new challenges, Pope is glad for the Blast after an uncharacteristically tough start to the County Championship season. Surrey sit top, but Pope is averaging 24.00 from nine innings, a paltry return considering he arrived into the summer boasting an average of 70.31 in first-class cricket for the county. Off the back of a tour of India, which began with a match-winning 196 in the first Test at Hyderabad before falling away to finish with a series total of 315, it was the last thing he wanted.

“I’ve had some good runs, good innings and then periods like the back end of India. If I can get an early score, can I back that up in the next game and the game after that? It’s about being ruthless”Ollie Pope on his Test form

“Coming back from India, I was like, ‘Right, have a couple weeks off and get stuck into the county stuff’. There was always this expectation for me to just go and score runs week in and week out. And then when I don’t, it’s like, ‘Why is this happening?'””I had a couple of low scores early, made a sixty [63 against Worcestershire] and a forty [44 against Warwickshire] and just struggled to get going. It has been kind of frustrating, but at the same time I think it’s quite a nice time for this T20 block to come. You can go and express yourself; you can hit balls, strong shots on the up, pick up length quickly and hit good pull shots. Sometimes, playing county cricket, it can feel like every ball is around the knee roll. It’s a great challenge but freeing up can help my red-ball game as well.”It speaks to how strong India finished the Test series, moving on from Hyderabad emphatically to triumph 4-1, that Pope’s memories of his century – one that drew rave reviews from many, including India head coach Rahul Dravid – are minimal, to a point.”It wasn’t until I got back and people were like ‘well done in India’ that I was like, ‘oh yeah – thanks!’ I’ve got high expectations of myself so I was disappointed with how the rest of the series went.”Hyderabad, he says, will always have a special place in his heart, the best feeling he has had in Test cricket, though he has not watched the innings back. But the fits and starts that followed – two 23s, a 39, three single-figure scores, including two ducks, then 11 and 19 in the final Test – still irk. Three dismissals in particular.”The last two [in Dharamsala] were annoying because I felt good on a good pitch. I ran past Kuldeep and top-edged a sweep off Ashwin. The other was my first innings [in Ranchi, the fourth Test], where I ran down the wicket when it was nipping around a bit. Somehow DRS said it was out, but, again, the shot I wasn’t too happy with after. Everything I’ve worked on over the last few years is trusting my defence, which I didn’t do.England’s tour of India ended on a low note for Pope•Gareth Copley/Getty”You get a few good balls – you always do – but there were dismissals where I’m thinking, ‘Why did I do that?’ They’re the learnings I can take. You become a better player by learning from those mistakes.”The summer is an opportune time to channel those frustrations. Pope will play the remainder of Surrey’s Blast matches in this block ahead of the return of the County Championship at the end of June. He will play away to Worcestershire, starting June 23, before missing the next round ahead of the first of three West Indies Tests, at Lord’s on July 10. Three more Tests against Sri Lanka follow, before tours of Pakistan and New Zealand before the year is out.Though England’s batting remains largely settled, they are likely to broach the prospect of a new wicketkeeper in a bid for more consistency after Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes shared duties over the last two years. Pope’s Surrey team-mate Jamie Smith has been touted as an option, likewise Lancashire’s Phil Salt, who has been in impressive T20 form.But what of Pope, who has fulfilled the role for England on three occasions? Would he be game? He laughs when the option is put to him. The last time he kept wicket was the second Test of the Pakistan tour at the end of 2022 – one of only eight times he has done so in a first-class match.”I’d do whatever is required from me,” he answers diplomatically. “Me as a keeper, I’ve always been a keeper, but batting at three over the last two years back in the Test team, that’s been my focus.”My volume of keeping hasn’t been up to what it should be. I’ve not been able to train much with it. I’d never say no to anything like that, but it’d mean I’d have to get my keeping gloves and dust them off. I’m not sure. I’ve not kept in a good while but if that’s the case, it’ll be crack on and work hard.”The No. 3 position he has assumed since Ben Stokes took the captaincy in 2022 is going well – averaging 41.75, set against a career Test average of 34.04 – even if he does want to adopt a more bloody-minded streak. That, at this juncture, remains his primary focus.”I’d like to keep making it my own and churn more consistently in that spot. I’ve had some good runs, good innings and then periods like the back end of India. If I can get an early score, can I back that up in the next game and the game after that? It’s about being ruthless.”

After bit part at Lord’s, off-spinner steals centre stage at Trent Bridge

Vithushan Ehantharajah21-Jul-2024Shoaib Bashir had taken six wickets in the County Championship at 76.83 this summer. On Sunday, when he beat Jason Holder on the outside edge to clip off stump – seam square, slower, looking for skid rather than turn – he had his sixth of this second West Indies Test match.A seventh, at 6:28pm, completed a series-clinching evening session and confirmed Bashir’s third five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. All of them have come in Tests, and no other English bowler has ever bagged as many before the age of 21.A player whose series started with a “Thanks For Coming” performance in the first Test – not bowling, no catches and a duck in his only innings – walked off with a stump in one hand and the match ball in the other. Not since Muthiah Muralidaran in 2006 has a spinner taken a five-wicket haul at Trent Bridge in a men’s Test.Related

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“This is Bash, if you haven’t met him already,” Brendon McCullum joked with Ben Stokes at Lord’s – the skipper understandably parking the off-spinner in seam-friendly conditions. On Sunday, evening, no one could look beyond him. “I think what he’s done today is show the world what he can do,” beamed Stokes.We are only seven months into Bashir’s story as an international cricketer, but of all the narratives this England Test team have thrown out like confetti over the last two years, his might be the sparkiest.This six-foot-four kid, selected for a tour of India, ultimately, off the back of a social media clip last summer, is now at home in the Test side despite his nomadic route into the professional game. A number one spinner for his country but not his county, Somerset, because Jack Leach, who he replaced for his country, is number one at his county. He averages 70.68 in the County Championship and 29.83 in the format most of those batters aspire to but will never see.Shoaib Bashir walks back with souvenirs after taking 5 for 41 in 11.2 overs•PA Photos/Getty ImagesAppreciating the contrasts and contradictions of Bashir’s career to date helps with the dissection of a left-field pick occupying centre stage. A feat of selection that only comes to pass with the confidence and craft of a 20-year-old not simply living his dream, but weaving it in front of us all.The selectors saw the promise that revealed itself to many more across three Tests in India. But these 11.1 overs on this Nottingham evening were a neat crash course in Bashir’s talents.Another generous offering from Kirk McKenzie got him on the board, under-edging a long hop that did not get up through to Jamie Smith. But after trapping first-innings centurion Kavem Hodge on the crease following some subtle tweaking of lengths, he came around the wicket to best Alick Athanaze with a picture-perfect off break to a left-hander, followed by the pearler to Holder. Shamar Joseph tied the bow on this five-for, bowled middle stump attempting the wildest of hacks.The 25 overs in the first innings – 17 of those on the bounce from the Radcliffe Road End – gave him a sighter of what West Indies had to offer. A couple of donations helped, as did watching his opposite number Kevin Sinclair toil with his own twirlers. But plans were formulated and, perhaps most impressive of all, even picked up on the hoof after the first drinks break of what was supposed to be a bumper 48-over final session.”That wicket offered hardly anything for a spinner throughout the whole Test match. And to be honest, I didn’t think it actually did today,” said Stokes, agreeing with West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite’s acknowledgement that it was still sound enough for batting that West Indies fancied their 385 target.”He was so aggressive and his intent was always to look to take wickets and was never just to hold an end up. The way in which he can change his pace, over spin, under spin, I think he showed his full bag of tricks today in particular.”Shoaib Bashir bowled Jason Holder with a beauty as England closed in•Getty ImagesThere has been a lot of work behind the scenes with England spin bowling coach Jeetan Patel, who spent a lot of the first innings down at fine leg coaching Bashir through his spell. Such is Bashir’s capacity to take on information, he was applying outside suggestions in real-time.During both congregations for Atkinson’s two wickets in three balls, Bashir and Joe Root broke off after the cursory high-fives to discuss a more attacking line. Root, from his view at first slip – where he took the catch off Athanaze – posited that while Bashir was clearly getting turn from wider, he’d do well to mix it up with a straighter line.By this point, the batters were expecting turn. And by hitting inside those spinning patches, varying his speeds as per, Bashir would also be able to challenge the outside edge, too. This was how he nabbed Holder. “I think that’s the great thing about inexperience and youth – they will take everything in from everybody around them,” said Stokes.Inexperience and youth also has the benefit of being free from scars. The English system might have not treated Bashir well to start – falling through the cracks at Surrey, the climb back up through the national county and club scene – but he never lost his fearlessness or sense that belonged.It’s worth noting, Holder’s dismissal was the last ball in an over in which the West Indies allrounder had pumped Bashir down the ground for six (for the second time) and then four in consecutive deliveries. The over before, Joshua Da Silva had done the same in a bid to get Bashir off his lengths. He remained unperturbed.He wore the onslaughts in India well, from the visa office to start, then opposition batters as the series was taken from England by force. Two months ago, when on loan at Worcestershire Bashir was blitzed by Dan Lawrence, his England squad mate, who plundered 38 from an over, handing Bashir the ignominy of equalling the most expensive over in English first-class cricket. Bashir’s temporary teammates were impressed and a little shocked at how easily that thrashing was brushed off.”The great thing about Bash is if you see him get hit over his head, he starts smiling and he’s alright,” explained Stokes. “He’s got no issue whatsoever about getting hit for a four or a six. I love the way in which that doesn’t affect him.”All he wants to do is affect the game in any way, shape or form. I’m obviously a very aggressive, forward-thinking captain. I like to see batters taking risks against spinners.”Upon selecting Bashir for this Test series, Stokes revealed he spent “a good 20, 25 minutes” talking through what had been a “strange” couple of months for his new No.1 spinner. This week, both Stokes and Patel hyped up their man, telling him he would have a chance to show off his skills.It’s as much an example of sharp, considerate leadership as it is of Bashir existing in this peculiar sweet spot of neither being settled nor willing to settle. A player grateful for what he has but wanting the world. A competition winner’s enthusiasm fuelling a remarkable evolution that is sweeping the competition away.

And was India’s 52 overs in Kanpur the fewest a team has faced in a Test win?

Steven Lynch08-Oct-2024India batted for only 52 overs at Kanpur yet won the Test. Was this a record? asked Ahmed Narail from India
You’re right that India’s batters received only 52 overs during that impressive victory in the rain-affected second Test against Bangladesh in Kanpur last week. It’s actually the fourth-fewest balls faced by a side winning a Test – and India already have a higher entry on this list from earlier this year: they faced only 46.5 overs in clobbering South Africa in Cape Town in January.Top of the table is another rain-affected match, in Bridgetown in January 1935, when England faced only 46 overs – for totals of 81 for 7 declared and 75 for 6 – but beat West Indies by four wickets.India didn’t let Bangladesh bowl any maiden overs in Kanpur. How many times has a team bowled no maidens in a completed match? asked Sridhar from the United States
No Bangladesh bowler managed a maiden in the second Test against India in Kanpur last week. This is a good spot, as it turns out it has happened in only one other Test with a positive result: in Durban in January 1939 (the third match of the series, not the famous ten-day timeless fifth Test), England won by an innings after scoring 469 for 4 declared in 88.5 overs, none of which was a maiden. Eight-ball overs were used in that match, so it was harder to bowl a maiden. The recent Kanpur Test is thus the only one featuring six-ball overs in which the losing side failed to deliver at least one maiden.I know that Jim Laker and Tony Lock took all 20 Australian wickets at Old Trafford in 1956. But in how many other Tests did two bowlers dismiss all 20 opposition batsmen? asked Daniel Hayward from England
The Surrey spinners Jim Laker (who took 19 for 90) and Tony Lock (1 for 106) famously shared all 20 wickets in the Ashes Test at Old Trafford in 1956. It has happened in just five other Test matches, three of them also Ashes Tests. In Melbourne in January 1902, Monty Noble (13 for 77) and Hugh Trumble (7 for 87) took all 20 England wickets, while the boot was on the other foot at Edgbaston in May 1909, when Colin Blythe (11 for 102) and George Hirst (9 for 86) did the damage. And it happened again at Lord’s in 1972, when Bob Massie took 16 for 137 and Dennis Lillee 4 for 140 against England; rather surprisingly perhaps as there have been more than 1800 Tests since, this remains the most recent instance.The two non-Ashes occurrences were in Johannesburg in January 1910, when the South African spinners Ernie Vogler (12 for 181) and Aubrey Faulkner (8 for 160) accounted for all England’s batters, and in Karachi in October 1956, when Fazal Mahmood (13 for 114) and Khan Mohammad (7 for 112) set up Pakistan’s victory in their inaugural Test against Australia (this was only two Tests after the match at Old Trafford).Megan Schutt recently equalled the record held by Shabnim Ismail for the most wickets in Women’s T20 World Cups, with 43, and might yet add to her tally in the ongoing tournament•Getty ImagesWho has scored the most runs – and who has the most wickets – at women’s T20 World Cups? asked Natalie Grisham from England
The only woman with more than 1000 runs in T20 World Cups before this one got underway was New Zealand’s Suzie Bates, who had 1066. She played in all the first eight tournaments, and has already added to her tally in this one. Australia’s Meg Lanning, who has now retired, finished with 992 runs, but two players who are in the UAE this time started the tournament with more than 900: Alyssa Healy of Australia (941) and West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor (926).As for the bowlers, Shabnim Ismail of South Africa led the way with 43 wickets at T20 World Cups, before Australia’s Megan Schutt caught up with her during the ongoing one. England’s Anya Shrubsole has 41 and Australia’s Ellyse Perr has 40 wickets, but since Perry and Schutt are both playing in this tournament, they may yet add to their tally.South Africa’s top six all reached 35 in a recent ODI against Ireland. How often has this happened? asked Eddie McCann from South Africa
South Africa’s consistent display against Ireland in Abu Dhabi last week was the seventh instance of six batters all reaching 35 in an ODI innings. But only in two of the others did it involve the top six in the order: by Sri Lanka against Bangladesh during the Asia Cup in Dambulla in June 2010 – only six men batted, and the lowest individual contribution was 37 not out – and also by Pakistan against Sri Lanka in Colombo in July 2015 (again only six men batted; the lowest score among them was 35 not out).There are no fewer than 35 further instances of five batters reaching 35 in the same ODI innings.There’s a solitary case of five men reaching 35 in a men’s T20I innings, by Sri Lanka (215 for 3) against West Indies in Pallekele in November 2015. And there have been eight cases of five 35s in a women’s ODI innings (and none in T20Is).Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Bosch, promoted to No. 3, struggled with her strike-rate in challenging batting conditions while the spinners couldn’t exert control

Firdose Moonda07-Oct-20243:01

Takeaways: Kapp too low, Wyatt-Hodge in full glow

The Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 still needs a proper fire-starter but it got a slow-burner in the first almost-nail-biter, which asked more questions of the last edition’s losing finalists South Africa, than it did of the team they beat then, England.That says as much about the development of South Africa as it does about the expectation on them. They have lost 20 of the 25 T20Is they’ve played against England. But as a team that have progressed steadily since professionalisation in 2014, South Africa are now supposed to push the big three – England, Australia and India. Their falling short will be a cause for careful critique, especially as their search for a semi-final spot continues.The first question will come over the batting because despite setting the best first innings score in five games in Sharjah, South Africa still did not do enough. Their 124 looked around “10 to 20 runs short,” Laura Wolvaardt said at the post-match presser, especially after they started strongly with 31 runs from the first five overs. Tazmin Brits was dismissed on the first ball of the sixth over, trying to create a boundary opportunity by advancing against Linsey Smith. South Africa then stalled. Wolvaardt and Anneke Bosch played out seven boundary-less overs after the powerplay, which raises concerns about South Africa’s approach.Related

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The obvious one is why they chose to send in Bosch ahead of Marizanne Kapp, the player they have used at No. 3 for most of the build-up to the tournament. Wolvaardt suggested it was a management decision.”She’s traditionally batted three for us in the past but Annneke was striking it really well leading up to this and Marizanne obviously has quite a hectic workload as a seam-bowling all-rounder,” Wolvaardt said. “I think that’s something that our batting coach Baakier Abrahams here has been thinking about it for many hours in his room and I’m sure he has a reason behind the line-up as it is.” But Wolvaardt said she would, “definitely open to any changes.”If the coaching staff feel the same way, it is simply a change back to what seemed to be their pre-tournament plans, when Kapp herself embraced the prospect of batting higher up the order. If they don’t, that might be in keeping with some unusual tournament trends, which has seen other batters also coming in out of position, seemingly for workload reasons.Pakistan captain Fatima Sana, who had been promoted to No.5 in the pre-tournament series against South Africa, has returned to No.7. Asked on two occasions for the reasons behind that, she maintained it was a team decision but Sana’s ability for Pakistan (her 30 against Sri Lanka won them their opening game) is as clear as Kapp’s for South Africa and both should be batting higher up.Marizanne Kapp looked comfortable on a tough batting surface•ICC/Getty ImagesIn South Africa’s case that would also offer some cushioning to Bosch, who struggled with her strike-rate in challenging batting conditions. She had 14 scoring shots for her 18 runs and faced 12 dot balls which built pressure on the middle order when she was dismissed. Everyone from Bosch down had not batted in the opening game, and on surfaces like these, time in the middle is the best way to craft an approach. Chloe Tryon, Sune Luus and Nadine de Klerk will all want to be able to offer more in future fixtures.The other reason South Africa struggled to score was the efficacy of England’s spinners, who had the advantage of experience in Sharjah, on a slow pitch. Sophie Ecclestone was particularly difficult to get away and her stump-to-stump line produced 10 dot balls and had the best economy rate of the match: 3.75. Contrastingly, South Africa’s two left-arm spinners Nonkululeko Mlaba and Tryon conceded 47 runs in seven overs between them, the latter conceding 25 in three overs.”Our spinners just lacked a little bit of control in the middle,” Wolvaardt said. “I felt like their spinners didn’t leave the stumps at all and it was really difficult to get away. But in saying that, it is quite hard to bowl to batters where it seems like all of them have a lap and a reverse sweep and it’s hard to set fields for that.”That leaves South Africa with something of a conundrum because they went from a raft of resources against West Indies three days ago to looking as though they lacked a little something in Sharjah. Their options were to include an extra seamer in Tumi Sekhukhune, although an extra pacer did not seem like an immediately sensible option in Sharjah, or to take a punt on the 18-year old legspinner Seshnie Naidu, which may have felt like throwing her to the wolves. Either way, that would have come at the expense of a batter, likely Annerie Dercksen, whose 20 not out off 11 balls showed why South Africa could not afford to do that.Getting the team combination right in Sharjah is tricky, especially as South Africa had not even seen the venue before the game. Training sessions are held at the ICC Academy in Dubai so they came into this game blind on actual experience, even though they kept an eye on proceedings on the television. They may look back and think they did not get it quite right and can use this match to consider how to approach things if they find themselves back here.South Africa do not play any more group games in Sharjah and next face Scotland in a day game and Bangladesh in a night game in Dubai. They could, however, find themselves playing a semi-final in Sharjah and if they get there, will want to show they have learnt their lesson.

The top order and the spin department are areas of major concern as the selectors sit down to pick the Bangladesh squad for the Champions Trophy 2025

Mohammad Isam10-Jan-2025Top order a major issue to addressBangladesh’s top three has been a major source of worry in the last couple of years. So much so that the selectors recently held a meeting with Tamim about making a comeback, though that avenue is now closed. Bangladesh have the worst-performing top order over the last two years among teams that will feature at the Champions Trophy.Related

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Tanzid Hasan hasn’t established himself after being chosen ahead of Tamim for the 2023 World Cup. He couldn’t quite get a big score against West Indies last month, and his opening partner Soumya Sarkar has not fared much better of late. Also, Soumya is recovering from a finger injury, which forced him out of the ongoing BPL. The selectors are hoping that he recovers in time for the Champions Trophy.Litton Das’ woeful form in white-ball cricket – he averages 13.13 in 25 ODIs and T20Is in 2024 – has continued at the ongoing BPL (three single-digit scores and only one more than 31 in his first five games). The Gazi Ashraf Hossain-led selection panel previously dropped Litton from the ODI squad in March last year, will they do it again for the Champions Trophy?On the plus side, captain Najmul Hossain Shanto’s return from injury will be a relief.Does Shakib, the batter, fit into the middle order?Mushfiqur Rahim and Towhid Hridoy will be shoo-ins for the middle order and Mahmudullah is a middle-order mainstay. Mehidy Hasan Miraz has taken on big responsibilities in this area. And Jaker Ali has been Bangladesh’s batting revelation in the last 12 months, particularly in the West Indies where he batted well in all three formats.Shakib Al Hasan is waiting on results of his bowling-action testing in Chennai•Getty ImagesSo where can Shakib – as welcome as the addition of someone of his skill and experience would be – fit in? Will it be a little unfair on the rest of the middle order if he can’t bowl? Maybe results from his bowling reassessment in Chennai will come in in time and make things simpler.Other candidates include Afif Hossain, who returned to the ODI side against West Indies recently, and the big-hitting Shamim Hossain.The other question mark is concerning who keeps wicket. Litton’s batting form means Mushfiqur or Jaker might have to step up in that regard. Mushfiqur is returning from multiple injuries including a finger blow. Whether Bangladesh want to rely on Jaker for this job is another talking point.Problem of plenty in the pace attackTaskin Ahmed is the leader of the pace attack, while Nahid Rana is their sharpest weapon at the moment. Mustafizur Rahman remains the white-ball mainstay, especially for the death overs. Which leaves a question mark next to Shoriful Islam’s name – a tough call given his new-ball capabilities.Hasan Mahmud and Tanzim Hasan are strong third-seamer options, but the selectors will also consider the recovered Ebadot Hossain. The pace department will be a good headache for the selectors.With Taskin Ahmed and Co firing, pace is one area Bangladesh have no worries•Cricket West IndiesMehidy’s bowling form a concernGoing against the grain, Bangladesh’s spin attack is an area of concern. Mehidy’s bowling form hasn’t been great while Taijul Islam and Nasum Ahmed haven’t been able to grab the left-arm spinner’s role in ODIs at least. Taijul has done well in Tests recently, while Nasum has had a mixed bag since returning against Afghanistan in November.Mahedi Hasan did brilliantly in the T20Is against West Indies, winning the Player-of-the-Series award. But Mahedi is a T20I specialist, so a spot in this squad would be a huge surprise.

Conrad’s life and career have reflected South Africa’s divided history as well as its culture of sporting excellence

Firdose Moonda08-Jan-2025″This is going to look different.”That was one of the first things Shukri Conrad knew when he took over as South Africa’s Test coach in February 2023.His way was not going to be what some would call the traditional South African way: a style of playing cricket that emerged from the posh, historically white, boys’ schools. Conrad did not intend to follow that mould.”I’ve always felt that we never quite embraced our diversity or saw it as a strength. For far too long, we had this image of what a Protea looked like, and if you didn’t fit that, people would start questioning whether you were really obsessed with the badge,” he said after South Africa qualified for the World Test Championship final to be held at Lord’s in June.”And why? Because some guys come across as too laidback or they have dreadlocks or sideburns and maybe they don’t fit the poster-boy image associated with what an international cricketer looks like. We know there are values and ethics and norms that we always will hold very dear and that doesn’t change, but the boy that comes out of Afrikaans Hoerskool in Pretoria and the boy from Groenvlei on the Cape Flats, or the Indian boy out of Lenasia, the obsession looks different for all of them. I mean, you come down the coast and the guys are so laidback they’re almost horizontal, but they are desperate to play for South Africa, to win for South Africa. It just looks different from everybody else’s.”Conrad knows this because in his life, things have always looked a little different.Related

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He grew up in the 1970s in a cricketing home in the Cape Flats, a low-lying area east of the Cape Town CBD, demarcated for coloured South Africans during the apartheid era, but his father, Sedick, decided to play for a white club. Even in the deepest, darkest days of segregation, this was possible because there were sporadic, albeit token, attempts at integration. Those players of colour who chose to play on the white side made both a sporting and political decision: by playing cricket in a system that was better resourced, they were able to advance their own games but at the cost of being ostracised from their own communities. Sedick was banned by the non-racial Western Province Cricket Board, the body formed as an alternative to the white cricket establishment, and in which people of all races played their cricket.When Conrad was eight, his father was selected in a white South African Invitation XI that included Barry Richards, Eddie Barlow and Graeme Pollock against the Derrick Robins 1975 touring side at Newlands. It was Conrad’s first time at the ground, but he does not remember it as a happy occasion. “That didn’t go down well, because of the state of the country and where my dad chose to play his cricket.”A few years later, Conrad ended up working on the manual scorecard at the ground because one of his neighbours operated it. Keeping the scoreboard ticking was a complex hierarchy that involved making one’s way up from counting the overs to field-spotting and being paid five rand (about two American cents) plus a slice of fruitcake a day. When Conrad talks about it, it is clear those memories are fond.”Down the bottom [of the scoreboard] was the overs, and that’s where you start off. If you did that well enough, you got promoted to doing the bowling analysis, so your maths needed to be okay. You’d be able to count to six and then, obviously, the number of runs scored in that over.”Then you got to do the batters and the runs, but the big job was operating the lights [on the scoreboard]. Whoever was bowling, his light had to be on. The batter that was facing, his light had to be on, but the really tricky one was, whoever fielded the ball, you had to flip that light as well. I spent a lot of my time during school studying who the players were, not doing my schoolwork. I landed that probably at age 12.”1:59

Shukri Conrad on Kwena Maphaka

By then Conrad had also started playing cricket for a coloured club. When Hasan Howa, the founding member of the South African Cricket Board – the umbrella body of non-racial cricket – found out that Conrad was playing what was called “board cricket”, he put a stop to it.”I’ll never forget,” Conrad said, “he was this big, burly character with a deep voice, and he basically said to people, ‘Well, his dad is playing on the other side, he’s not allowed to play here.’ And rightly so.”Conrad was then recruited by an administrator who formed a team of coloured school boys that played against the white schools in the area – thereby becoming a part of the white cricket circuit. Their opposition included SACS, the alma mater of Peter Kirsten, Bishops and Rondebosch, where Gary Kirsten studied. “Their lunches were great,” Conrad said. “We’re talking real privilege.”Conrad played in that system until he finished school, by which time South Africa was a political pressure cooker, with riots taking place regularly. He was encouraged to get a respectable job, in his case as a teacher. “That’s what your parents said to you: ‘You’ve got to work for the government because it gives you security. You get a housing subsidy.'” But the sporting bug in him fought those urgings. “Cricket was what I wanted to do. I wanted to play professionally.”Conrad could have gone to the other side of the country, because he was offered a scholarship at Natal University, but he had a desire to play for Western Province, so his only choice was to “go back to the non-racial side”, which meant approaching Howa again.Sedick, banned by Howa in the past, went with his son to see if they could come to an agreement. To Conrad’s surprise, they did. “After all the animosity, they embraced each other like long-lost father and son,” he said. “I was standing there and thought they hated each other, but that was the greatness of Mr Howa. He was very principled. He wasn’t going to back down on his beliefs. He coined the phrase ‘No normal sport in an abnormal society.'”A young Shukri (front left) with his family•Courtesy Conrad familyIt was a mantra the Conrads had come around to. “We probably didn’t see the wood for the trees. Everything was about cricket at the time. Looking back, would I do things differently? Would my dad do things differently? I think the answer is an unequivocal yes. Knowing what we know, maybe we were ignorant or maybe we just chose not to see some of the goings-on back in the day.”Conrad’s career as a top-order batter never really took off. “I always wanted to play in quite an aggressive way, sometimes too aggressive. I wait all week to play cricket. I don’t want that to be boring too, you know.”After unity in 1992, he played a little bit in the Western Province B side but “probably realised this ship had sailed”. While in his job as an English teacher, he also started coaching, and travelled between South Africa, England and the Netherlands for gigs until the headmaster of his school gave him an ultimatum.”He said to me, ‘You’ve got to decide now, you can’t be upping and coming back and parachuting in whenever you feel like’, so I gave up teaching after ten years. Then I got a call from Ziggy Wadvalla.”Wadvalla, the CEO of Gauteng Cricket, was looking for a coach for the provincial B side. Conrad got the job and spent three years there, turning the team around and winning the provincial one-day cup in 2003-04.He was also heavily involved in development at the Soweto Cricket Club. “A lot of the young players in Soweto were starting to come through the system. Enoch [Nkwe, South Africa’s current director of national teams and high performance] came maybe a year or two into my time. Soweto Cricket was a vibrant place. Things were happening there.”In this World Test Championship cycle, South Africa have won eight out of 13 Tests so far•AFP/Getty ImagesWith a growing reputation as a coach who could make things happen, Conrad was lured back to his home team, Western Province, and coached them for five seasons, winning trophies in all three formats: the 2006-07 one-day cup, the 2008-09 T20 competition, and the 2009-10 first-class title. From there he moved on to Cricket South Africa’s high-performance centre and national academy, where many of the current national players passed through. But although Conrad enjoyed working in player development, and was doing a bit of commentary on the side, he also “missed competition”.In 2022, he took over the national Under-19 side ahead of their World Cup. South Africa did not do especially well in the tournament but Dewald Brevis finished as the tournament’s leading run-scorer, and 15-year old Kwena Maphaka was hand-picked by Conrad as a future star. Later that year, when the national men’s job was advertised, Conrad, who had applied for it unsuccessfully before, decided not only to give it a “last shot” but also to double his chances.”Enoch had decided they would split the roles into red and white ball, and I thought to myself, I am going to throw the hat in both rings,” Conrad said. “I would really have liked the white ball. It’s an exciting format. But in chatting to Enoch, I realise there was probably a lot more graft to be done in this [Test] space. The team needed to be reshaped, remoulded and shifted in a different direction. We’ve always had good players. We’ve always had talented players and we will always have.”Initially Conrad actually got both red- and white-ball gigs, albeit temporarily, because he was asked to also oversee South Africa’s ODI series against England, which was crucial to their 2023 World Cup qualification hopes. Not only did they win 2-1 but captain Temba Bavuma, who had endured a torrid 2022 T20 World Cup campaign, played himself back into form and scored the hundred that sealed the series. That knock came after a well-documented conversation with Conrad in Bloemfontein, and it helped the coach with his decision to make Bavuma his Test captain.Sedick Conrad, Shukri’s father, played for South Africa’s Invitational XI against a touring international team in 1975•Courtesy Conrad family”I was pretty clear in terms of who was going to be the captain,” Conrad said. “It was always going to be Temba, and [the conversation in Bloemfontein] played a part. That just solidified everything but we needed to go in a new direction with new ideas.”Conrad brought plenty of those. As sole selector, his first series, at home against West Indies in February 2023, included sweeping changes, such as dropping Kyle Verreynne, Lungi Ngidi, Sarel Erwee and Rassie van der Dussen.”I looked at the type of cricket I always wanted to play and at the time [Heinrich] Klaasen had been with me at the national academy and he was playing really well in white-ball cricket. That was the type of cricket we wanted to play as well. It was tough on guys like Kyle, Khaya [Zondo], Sarel and Rassie,” he said. “But I was always going to select the character. I think we’ve all got ability. There’s some technical things here and there, but for me, the character was important and the test of the character was how a lot of those guys were going to come back if any of them were going to come back.”Verreynne has made a comeback and has credited Conrad for his transparency and backing. Ngidi could well do the same, although he is recovering from a groin injury. The rest may not, but Conrad has continued to make bold choices, picking 35-year-old Dane Paterson, who bowls in the 120s has the ability to get the ball to nip around, and Corbin Bosch, an allrounder who thought his opportunity had passed him by. He has also given chances to Maphaka, still raw and learning, and extended runs to David Bedingham and Tony de Zorzi.Conrad has a broad and deep knowledge of South Africa’s divided history and the politics entwined in its sport, and understands his responsibility to all South Africans – to put together a team that is both representative and that wins.Kagiso Rabada is South Africa’s leading wicket-taker of the WTC cycle, averaging 18.75 for his 41 wickets in nine Tests•Phill Magakoe/AFP/Getty ImagesSo far, he has largely got that right.”When you’re involved in South African sport, it is not an achievement to get a fully representative side there. That’s part of what you’re supposed to do. You understand the past. You understand what this country’s gone through. You understand the issues. When, in our country, the minority are walking for pleasure but the majority are still walking to get to work, you know you’ve still got a long way to go and we embrace that. We’re always looking to get our national side fully representative. And when you sign up for South Africa, you also want to make every single person in the country proud, and they must have a line of sight where they can say, ‘Well, I can dream about getting there.’ And hopefully we’re doing that.”From one victory in their first four Tests of this WTC cycle to a place in the final, Conrad has taken the team to heights that did not seem possible when he took over. It’s not the South African way to dream of more, because of how much disappointment has stalked them in knockouts and, more recently, in finals. But Conrad has a new South African way.”Just dream a bit,” he said. “Allow yourself to dream. There’s no harm, right? Some of the best things happen in dreams. And once you’ve got that little picture, let’s start working on a little map as to how we’re going to get there. We know it’s going to be tough, but we’re starting to do tough. We’ve got to do tough better, but we’re starting to do tough now.”

The former England bowler talks about what spinners need to do in T20s, the problem with focusing too much on match-ups, and commentating on the league

Matt Roller08-May-2025It is Sunday night in Delhi, and Graeme Swann is about to commentate on his second IPL match in the space of 24 hours. “There are periods where it’s bonkers,” Swann says. “Finish at midnight, pack your bags, leave at 6am, fly to the next city – so long as there’s no delays – and do another game. But as far as commentary gigs go, this is still the one to do.”Swann has been covering the IPL for the best part of a decade. “I still love cricket,” he explains. “A lot of ex-players do it as a grind, but I love it: it’s the best game in the world. I genuinely do get excited when I see people ramping sixes, or Moeen [Ali] bowling someone through the gate. I’m still a fan, so I always try to get that across… I’m not a serious character, for the most part.”Danny Morrison, the ubiquitous voice of T20, has described Swann as the rare co-commentator who can match his energy behind the microphone. “That’s a massive compliment,” Swann says. “Danny makes me smile. He says things that make no sense whatsoever sometimes, but he’s been doing it 30-odd years and the enthusiasm he’s still got for it is infectious.”And yet, as a player, by his own admission, Swann didn’t much care about playing in the IPL: he entered three auctions – 2010, 2011 and 2012 – but never attracted a bid. “I would’ve loved it,” he reflects. “I’d have been bloody good at it as well… But I was a Test cricketer first and foremost, so I was never that bothered. I look back now and think it’s a real shame.Related

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“The ECB didn’t want us to [play in it]. They allowed people to come for half of it, and you gave 30% to your county, 10% to your agent… You ended up taking home about 400 quid from a $250,000 contract. I remember putting my name down in the top bracket possible, knowing that if someone was going to give me that, they’re bonkers, and I’d come blatantly for the money.”There were one or two English players that came over here and did well – people like Kev [Kevin Pietersen], who this was made for – but the rest of us, at the time, were so invested in the Test team. And, to be fair, we were getting good money for that with our central contracts. Back then, it wasn’t really financially worth it to miss the start of your season.”Swann’s T20 career was limited to the early days of the format, but there is enough evidence to suggest he could have been a success in the IPL. He was part of the England side that won the 2010 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, took 51 wickets in T20 internationals while maintaining an economy rate of 6.36, and even used to open the batting as a pinch-hitter for Nottinghamshire.”You’re right: I was a trailblazer,” Swann says with a grin. “I was ahead of my time. One of my greatest regrets – and I always have a go at Andy Flower for this, because he missed out massively – is that he didn’t let me open the batting at least once in one-day cricket. But when I played, we were still in the dark ages compared to other teams.”Swann with Alex Davies, captain of England Lions, on the team’s tour of Australia earlier this year•Mark Evans/ECB/Getty ImagesBut Swann’s art, right-arm offspin, is struggling in this year’s IPL. R Ashwin was dropped by Chennai Super Kings after an ineffective season, while Sunil Narine and Maheesh Theekshana are bowling mystery spin. Allrounders like Will Jacks, Moeen Ali and Aiden Markram have been used predominantly as match-up options against left-handers.”The reason there’s not that many offspinners playing is that there’s just not that many around at the minute in world cricket,” Swann says. “It’s not because offspinners haven’t got a job to do. Part of the problem for a lot of offspinners is this match-up thing that all teams buy into now – the idea that you can’t turn it into the batsman.”Actually, because people now only face the ball turning away from them, people have got used to it. I swear, if a good offspinner came in now… If they’d played Mo [Moeen Ali] all season at KKR, I reckon he’d kill it, because people have lost the ability to manoeuvre the ball as well. After a few years, it’ll revert, it’ll come back. But everyone is obsessed with wristspin.”Riyan Parag’s five consecutive sixes off Moeen on Sunday did not help, but Swann’s theory does have some credence: left-hand batters are scoring at a slower strike rate (145.89, down from 154.20) against left-arm orthodox spinners in this IPL than the last one, and are getting out to them once every 17.2 balls, down from once every 28.5 balls.Swann (back row, first from left) was part of England’s T20 World Cup-winning side in 2010•Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty ImagesOne franchise’s spin-bowling coach believes that the tide is already turning, and that the best captains are relying less on paint-by-numbers fingerspin match-ups – bowling offspin to left-handers and left-arm orthodox to right-handers – than they used to. Even so, there is a real dearth of frontline right-arm offspinners in the league.Swann believes this is, in part, because the modern offspinner is unwilling to attack. “People aren’t prepared to rip the ball. The way you deceive people is not through darting it in. You have to be brave and be willing to get hit for a six, but you’ve got to dip the ball. And the only way you get dip is by putting a lot of revolutions on the ball.”If you’re spinning it hard and getting it to dip, you’ll get wickets. You might get hit for the odd boundary, but you will get wickets – especially against new batsmen. And let’s face it, everyone gets hit for six now in T20. Expectations have changed. When I played, if you got 2 for 30, it was an abject failure, because you wanted to keep teams down at 140-150. Now, it’s great.”Swann’s influence has extended beyond the commentary box in the last three years. He is now regularly involved with England Lions in a coaching capacity, looking after young spinners and passing on his knowledge. “I’d sit there and see things spinners were doing wrong, or hear people talking about what they were doing, and think, ‘That’s wrong! I don’t agree with that.'”I’d always try to seek out the English spinners, talk to them about it and try to give them some advice. Robert Key and Mo Bobat at the ECB approached me. Keysy said, ‘We think you’re wasted: you’ve been our best spinner for a generation, and you’re up in the commentary box.’ That’s why I got back into it – and I have loved it.”

They do the basics just as well as they do the spectacular, and there’s no telling who comes to the fore on any particular day

Danyal Rasool19-Feb-20254:20

Watch: NZ’s secret to playing spin: It’s about scoring not just surviving

Pictures are notorious for leaving out as much as they keep in, but this was a snapshot complete in every sense of the thousand words it could speak.Mohammad Rizwan’s elegant late cut flew over, above and past backward point. Almost. It wasn’t safe from the non-dominant hand of Glenn Phillips, who launched himself into the air and to his left at full stretch. It is sometimes uncharitably said that all you can do is hope they stick, but if that’s the case, the adhesive quality of Phillips’ hands must be worthy of patenting.It was perfect timing, too. This was the last ball of the first powerplay, one in which Pakistan were kept to 22 runs, their lowest powerplay score in almost six years. Fakhar Zaman, prevented from opening the batting because he had been off the field after picking up a niggle on the day’s second ball, was in next. This meant he would not face a single delivery with the fielding restrictions in play, when he can get the sort of start to propel Pakistan towards a chase of this magnitude.Related

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It distilled the difference between the two sides, Pakistan’s fielding ineptitude squared against New Zealand’s ruthless standard-setting, New Zealand’s greed to exploit every advantage, Pakistan’s tendency to squander them.And yet, it still may not have been the best bit of fielding New Zealand have displayed in Pakistan in the last few weeks. Eleven days ago, at the start of the triangular series in Pakistan, Michael Bracewell dived to his left to snare a reflex catch, left arm popping up in the air like a jack out of the box, as another bullet of a shot fizzed out in another New Zealand fielder’s hand.Tom Latham said on the eve of the game what pleased the side was the number of different matchwinners across the triangular series and how just about every player had contributed, and it made you reflexively think of Latham as well as Will Young, perhaps the only two batters in this side that didn’t quite apply to. Young took the challenge on, and perhaps brought about the earliest harbinger of the kind of day Pakistan would have when he drove Shaheen Afridi’s second ball through the covers. Afridi would end up wicketless for 68 while Fakhar pulled up injured in pursuit.It’s not difficult to imagine a world where Young didn’t play this game. Rachin Ravindra has been wrapped in cotton wool since a sickening blow to the head, but he trained yesterday, and New Zealand seriously considered playing him. Some 15 months ago, when New Zealand played a warm-up game against Pakistan ahead of the 2023 World Cup, Young was rested to give Ravindra a trial at the top of the order. It was perhaps just an abundance of caution which prevented the same happening in a game that mattered much more.Will Young came into the game on a lean patch, but did exactly what was needed of him when it mattered•ICC/Getty ImagesYoung was New Zealand’s least effective batter in the three matches prior, managing 38 runs across the triangular tournament. But in the game all of those were building towards, he possessed the clarity of thought of a man in a much richer vein of form.”Perhaps,” Young said when asked if there was extra pressure because of his recent form. “You try not to think about what’s happened. The next game’s the most important one. Your form tends to go up and down, but I was pretty keen to stick to what I know I can do well. [I knew I had to] win that straight battle, wait for them to miss the lines or the lengths and go from there. Nice to get some runs after a lean tri-series.”New Zealand, it would appear, simply do not tend to think in a way that places pressure on an individual, instead looking to communicate what needs doing at any moment. Young had begun enterprisingly with 44 off 43, but parked the aggression for a while, scoring just 32 of the next 43 as he negotiated the middle overs with Latham.Rizwan tried to go for the kill by bringing Afridi and Naseem Shah back, but New Zealand’s pair recognised that time was on their side. They played just six attacking shots across 30 deliveries in that spell, and still helped themselves to 26.2:31

Mumtaz: ‘Very disappointing to watch Babar’s lack of intent’

Desperate for wickets, Pakistan offered scoring opportunities, and Young was catching up with the rate once more. He brought his hundred up with a sweep off Abrar Ahmed – Pakistan’s most economical bowler – for his first international hundred overseas, and Latham, freed up by another Phillips onslaught, brought his up in a Haris Rauf over that brought New Zealand 18.”Tommy and I knew we were in a little bit of trouble three down,” Young said. “We didn’t want to look too far ahead thinking about par scores. We wanted to get to 30 and then 35 overs, but when I got out, I thought 280 was a good total.”It can, perhaps, be boring to talk about New Zealand in this way, but they have never thirsted after more sensationalist coverage. When their captain, Mitchell Santner, was asked last week what made him so prolific of late, he merely said the conditions had helped him. Today, Phillips was adamant that Bracewell’s catch in the tri-series was “a lot better than mine”.This is perhaps the point of this New Zealand side, though. They do the basics just as well as the spectacular, and there’s no telling who comes to the fore on any particular day.Kane Williamson shone in the first two games of that triangular series. When Ravindra was ruled out, Devon Conway chipped in. Will O’Rourke and Santner were lethal with the ball one day, Phillips destructive on a couple of other occasions. Players slotted in for injury absences with the stifling ruthlessness of a machine, in service of the team result they have produced so consistently of late.Mitchell Santner’s New Zealand have put the defending champions uncomfortably close to a group-stage exit•ICC/Getty ImagesThis was perhaps best illustrated in an otherwise unremarkable passage of play through the first half of Pakistan’s doomed chase. In Pakistan, where Rizwan specifically lamented the dependence on individual performances to obtain ODI wins, there was invariably criticism of Babar Azam’s innings, a timid 90-ball effort that produced 64 inconsequential runs. That may just be indicative of his current form, but New Zealand installed Bracewell and Phillips against him as soon as the first powerplay ended.While it would appear to fly in the face of current wisdom, where the ball turning away from a right-hand batter is almost an automatic choice, since 2022, Babar’s strike rate against the ball turning into him is just over 67, nearly 18 points lower than his overall strike rate. Santner, New Zealand’s best spinner, was content with being the fifth bowler introduced, as the team he led exploited this obscure advantage they had picked up on.At the last ICC event in 2023, New Zealand opened the tournament with a crushing win that began the process of knocking out the defending champions unceremoniously. A breakout star in Ravindra was the clear standout at the time. In Karachi, they have, once more, put the defending champions uncomfortably close to a group-stage exit. This time around, they provided an exhibition of the kind of team environment that nurtures those breakout stars, without being too fussed about who gets the individual credit.