All posts by h716a5.icu

From having a name the principal couldn’t pronounce at school to hitting the shot to win the WTC – it’s been some journey for Ross Taylor

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Jan-20223:26

‘Turning myself into a Test player was the biggest achievement’

When you’re a half-Samoan kid from Masterton, life has some possibilities laid out for you, but other paths seem steep and narrow. This being a small town deep in rural New Zealand, there’s always the chance paddocks could be in your future. If you were into sports, the region is better known – like many of this description are – for rugby.So if you’ve got shoulders the size of a milking shed, your fast-twitch fibres are in good order, and you have height, there’s gotta be a No. 8 jersey somewhere with your name on it, right? The principal at your primary school might have mangled your actual first name, Luteru, to the point where your mother just brought your one Anglicised given name to the front of the queue, but rugby announcers, even in the provinces, are by now well-versed with the Polynesian names on team rosters.Related

'Couldn't be scripted better' – Taylor has a ball, and a wicket, as he signs off from Tests

New Zealand look to bounce back against joyous Bangladesh

Taylor second only to Kohli since 2015 World Cup

'The camaraderie of this team is the best I've been part of'

Ross Taylor announces international retirement

But there was always the matter of the bat hitting the ball like a fearsome peal of thunder, and in those moments, the prosaic stuff – who you are, where you’re from – tend not to matter. And when you’re hitting, no matter how withdrawn and affable you are, or how nervous you might feel, coaches, teammates, and opponents see a strut. Don’t feed that rasping cut of his. Beware of those booming drives. And for the love of all that is holy, stay the hell away from those pads.In the early days, before there is a real defence, the hitting is a crutch. On first viewing, Martin Crowe thinks: here’s a slogger. Crowe would change his mind to such an extent that he becomes a treasured mentor and confidante, but his initial appraisal is echoed elsewhere. You’ve made the New Zealand team, scored some early runs, and rapidly become a fixture in the middle order. Life becomes big fast. And cricket bigger and faster still. At the IPL, you’re a million-dollar buy in 2011. When the slog sweep is pinging off the middle, you’re worth every cent.In international cricket, things are more complex. This is not a good New Zealand side that you are a part of. In fact, it is said, perhaps not uncharitably, that it is one of the worst. When in this context, you become captain, and hole out to deep midwicket playing that shot that is one of the foundations of your game, there are questions about responsibility. Or worse. On the global scale, New Zealand is a broad-minded and generous place. But even in New Zealand, athletes from certain ethnic backgrounds find themselves the subject of more cynical strains of criticism than others. You’re never told you don’t have the talent.Ross Taylor has a moment with his kids ahead of his 100th Test•AFPWhen the captaincy is yanked away, suddenly, and acrimoniously, there is a gash that needs healing, but also a growing. The next year, 2013, is the richest of your Test career to date – 866 runs flowing at an average of 72.16. The hitter is giving way to the hustler. You’re running the fast twos, trading in the slog for the paddle, the big heaves for the legside dinks, and this, in turn, becomes the bedrock of your ODI game, which in later years, is to hit the stratosphere. No one is making backhanded compliments about your talent now.Still, life is not without its trials. You have a growth in your eye that comes on so gradually you don’t notice you’re not picking bowlers out of the hand under lights any more. The Test schedule for New Zealand goes cold just as your own form is running hot. And oh, just to drive the point home, you literally get hit in the balls – a missed reverse-sweep in the nets leaving your gonads in such a state they require surgery, the injury forcing you to miss matches.In your last years come the serious milestones. Passing Crowe’s run tally of 5444, then his century count of 17, is moving even for watchers-on, deeply affecting for you. Stephen Fleming’s New Zealand run tally of 7172 tumbles too. When you play the cut or lay into a drive, a little of that early strut survives, but the batting is a little more like the man now: unruffled, determined, reserved. And while you’ve been on your own path, your team has transformed around you. The best your nation has ever produced, probably. It falls to you to hit the runs that win the World Test Championship – a whip off the pads to deep square leg. Sometimes life catches up and meets you where you want it.If we’re being critical, there is the matter of only briefly having threatened to push the Test average past 50 (although, if you play the majority of your innings on pitches where even normally unremarkable seamers can spit venom at any time of the day, these can feel like fantasy numbers). Could that conversion rate have been higher? We’re nitpicking.If you’re that kid from Masterton, though, with the name the principal can’t pronounce, you might look back and think that for all the publicly-played out travails, dramatic turns, and blows both physical and emotional, there could hardly have been a more gratifying road for you.

From being full of self doubt, the 28-year old has transitioned to being a gun batter for the Scorchers

Tristan Lavalette26-Jan-2022During the dregs of last year’s off-season, as he pondered deficiencies in his batting amid a stalled T20 career, Kurtis Patterson watched classic footage of Australia legend Matthew Hayden for inspiration.Both tall and left-handed, the similarities were obvious but Patterson was struck by Hayden’s set up before he repeatedly thrashed beleaguered bowlers.”He used to keep his hands quite low, pick up his bat as the bowler released and wouldn’t really have a trigger movement with his feet,” Patterson said to ESPNcricinfo about Hayden, who hit 30 tons in 103 Tests.He also closely observed Glenn Maxwell. “He has such a nice bat swing and bat flow, especially to the spinners,” Patterson said of the Melbourne Stars skipper. “They were a couple of guys that did things well that I wanted to bring into my game.”As he watched highlights of those master blasters, Patterson – who hadn’t cracked a half-century in 30 BBL matches before this season – could probably not have envisioned that he would soon replicate them. During his breakout BBL season, the 28-year-old has top-scored for all-conquering Perth Scorchers with 390 runs at 143.91 strike rate ahead of Friday’s final at Marvel Stadium.

“The overarching feeling was that I didn’t know whether I was good enough.”Patterson on his frame of mind 12 months ago

Such has been his destructiveness that Patterson has now been labelled as the BBL’s “most improved player” by former Australia quick Damien Fleming amongst others. “Those that have seen me bat over the years, know that when I get my eye in I hit the ball hard,” said Patterson, who has smashed 18 sixes in 12 innings this season.He had emphasised a focus on power hitting during the off-season in 2020 but then couldn’t squeeze into Scorchers’ powerful line-up and sat on the bench for all bar one match of BBL 10. It meant Patterson had played just four matches in two seasons for Scorchers after crossing over from Sydney Thunder.Kurtis Patterson has drawn inspiration from Glenn Maxwell•Getty Images”I felt ready for an opportunity,” said Patterson, who admitted to being a “frustrated T20 cricketer” 12 months ago.  “The overarching feeling was that I didn’t know whether I was good enough.”Ahead of a pivotal BBL season, the last on his three-year contract with Scorchers, Patterson needed to ignite his T20 career and he sought to improve his batting overall having been somewhat forgotten since playing two Tests for Australia in early 2019.Backed by the trusted expertise of his NSW coaches Chandika Hathurusingha and Anthony Clark – and left inspired by the destructive deeds of vintage Hayden and Maxwell – he decided to take the bold step of tinkering with his technique knowing his somewhat limited range had been exposed in the accelerated T20 format.”What I lacked was accessing and hitting boundaries in different areas of the ground,” Patterson said. “Previously I hadn’t been able to access the leg side as I would have liked. And I needed bowlers to give me width to hit through point and cover.”I wanted to try something new.”Starting pre-season training a month earlier than usual, Patterson went about changing his batting set up in a bid for his “hands to relax”.”My hands were getting stuck around my belly button and sternum,” he said. “If your hands are stuck in that position there’s not much room to move and not much power to generate with any sort of bat swing.”It was about getting into a position where I could get my hands behind my back hip to be able to flow through the ball. Keeping my hands a bit lower seemed to help.”Kurtis Patterson has been in prolific form this season for the Scorchers•Getty ImagesSo too did discarding trigger movements and reverting back to Hayden’s playbook. “I realised I was telling myself a lie so I stopped going back and across with my feet because I was uncomfortable,” he said.”I’ve always known I’m best when I keep really still at the bowler’s point of release. That has allowed me to stay balanced and pick up length better than in previous years.”Patterson’s newfound approach started slowly against underarm bowling but after a month he had a litmus test against NSW’s bowlers returning from their off-season.”You may feel awkward and late on the ball,” advised Hathurusingha, who Patterson described as a “tactical genius for batting”. “That’s completely normal. There is no need to panic and change things.”But there was no reason to fret with everything “instantly clicking” for a relieved Patterson. “I knew from that point I did the right thing and it was about sticking with it,” he said.Patterson entered this BBL season confident having scored a century as captain for NSW against Victoria in the Sheffield Shield, but he was no certainty to be part of Scorchers’ season opener against Brisbane Heat at Optus Stadium.Even though Scorchers no longer had the services of big-hitters Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy, Patterson’s hopes rested on whether Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis would play for Australia A against England Lions.”Cam Bancroft finished last season really well and (Scorchers coach Adam) Voges said he was going to start with him,” Patterson said. But with Marsh and Inglis unavailable, Patterson made the most of his opportunity at No. 3 with a brutal 55 off 30 balls against Heat that seemed to catch everyone by surprise except himself.”I treated it as a free swing. See ball, hit ball attitude,” Patterson said of an innings he rated his “best” in a season yielding four half-centuries. “It certainly helped prove me right (about the technical changes). It was a nice feeling.”Being a key cog in Scorchers’ title push has helped Patterson re-enter the limelight for a talented batter who still holds a Test average of 144 after an unbeaten ton against Sri Lanka in Canberra.”I have desire to get back there,” Patterson said about Test cricket. “In previous years I’ve gone down rabbit holes of trying to prove people wrong. But it adds pressure and I’m now focusing on what I can control. It’s why I love captaining NSW because it forces me to focus on getting the best out of the team instead of thinking of representative needs.”Set to be a coveted BBL free agent, Patterson won’t be chasing IPL glory with the upcoming birth of his son ensuring he has a hectic schedule ahead. But, right now, he’s hoping to cap off a momentous season with Scorchers, who have been on the road for seven weeks due to Western Australia’s unmovable hard border.”Would be a remarkable achievement to win the title,” he said. “No one has whinged, everyone has been focused. It’s been nice to play a part and showcase my skills.”

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

Stuart Broad 'pretty unlucky' during Jasprit Bumrah assault – James Anderson

Bumrah cameo and three-for make it India's day amid rain breaks

Smothered by England's unwavering support, Zak Crawley is running out of ways to fail

Bumrah tees off as Broad bowls most expensive over in Tests

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.

It’s a tactic that the pacers have loved using in IPL 2022. Find out which bowlers have been the most successful, and which batters have struggled

ESPNcricinfo stats team, Illustration by Kshiraja K18-May-2022ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Unlikely death-bowling hero ensures UAE finish campaign with first win in T20 World Cups

Sidharth Monga20-Oct-20225:07

Erasmus: ‘Difficult to put the loss into words’

On the surface, Muhammad Waseem is the kind of cricketer you wish you were.By 10.10pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time, Waseem had bowled just 22 balls in official Twenty20 cricket. He had got three wickets in those 22 balls, which makes for an impressive strike rate of 7.33. Two of these three wickets were Namibians – one of them David Wiese – but still. His main role in the side is to open with the bat.Somewhere between 10.10pm and 10.15pm, Waseem came on to bowl in a match that had appeared to be UAE’s in the bag but was now in the balance. The momentum was with Namibia with Wiese refusing to have this as his last game in this tournament. And who knew if he would ever play one again?Related

Waseem stars in UAE's narrow win, squeezes Netherlands into Super 12s

Wiese: 'As long as Namibia have me, I'll keep coming back for them'

Agony turns ecstasy as World Cup pendulum swings Netherlands' way

Waseem marked an extremely short run-up, making the keeper – standing as far back as he did for other quicks – look like either optimistic or unaware. Waseem tiptoed for a bit, and then off four paces he let the ball rip. First ball nearly a yorker. Second ball beat Ruben Trumplemann and carried comfortably to the keeper. He was like the old pro in the neighbourhood who could just turn up and do anything. As an opening bat, he had scored a half-century earlier in the day.This was the 17th over. Seventy-three off 36 had become 46 off 24. The last over had gone for 18. Even Trumplemann had begun to hit now. And here Waseem was, hardly a bowler, nailing his lengths off four paces at a decent lick.

****

UAE are a lovely mix. Their cricket is no longer just the first-generation guns for hire. Many of their cricketers are homegrown. Their background is diverse. Their captain is a Malayali, their youngest player of Goan origin, their hat-trick hero is Tamil, their fast bowlers have roots in Pakistan. The team language is Hindi/Urdu, but Waseem can speak a bit of Malayalam, the captain’s mother tongue. Unlike their former countries, they have no problem playing with each other. They are not insecure. They are loud, expressive and are not shy of having a go at each other on the field. They are also a team that was aiming for just their second win in all World Cups, after their triumph over Netherlands in 1996. So even though this was a dead rubber for them in terms of tournament play, but there was a big point to prove. To others and to themselves. The world just below Full Member sides is cut-throat.

****

When they came to the ground, the Malayalee captain, CP Rizwan, saw the pitch and decided in consultation with the Trinidadian/Indian coach, Robin Singh, that they would play an extra spinner, and told Waseem he might be called upon to bowl an over or two.Now domestic T20 cricket in the UAE doesn’t qualify as official T20 cricket. So it is easy to miss that Waseem bowls a bit in T20s. Not just bowl, he bowls at the death. He makes sure he does because he is the captain of his club side. Recently in D10 cricket, he defended eight runs in the final over. Sometimes he bowls 14, 16, 18, 20. And he is playing, as he says, every second-third day.Muhammad Waseem gets a hug from his captain•AFP/Getty ImagesIn the UAE team, though, the bowling is, in his words, “very good”, so he isn’t required to bowl. Now that he was bowling, he had to do so to the ultimate pro, Wiese, who knew UAE would need two overs from somewhere and was quite excited at the idea of playing spin. He can pounce on any error in length. Waseem missed his on the fifth, and got clubbed. This was, to borrow from the ICC’s punch line, big time.With the sixth ball, Wiese perhaps fell to the temptation of the short square boundaries and turned the bat face. Waseem settled under the massive top edge, but the ball caught him on the fingers. Waseem was good enough to recover and fire a quick throw that would have caught Wiese short had the keeper gone back to the wicket.”I was very upset because I hardly drop catches,” Waseem said. “It is very rare that I drop one. When I did drop him – I was under it, had judged it, but it caught the fingers instead of the palm – I thought it was a big mistake, but the way Zahoor bowled that 19th over, I got my confidence back.”It was Zahoor Khan, born in Faisalabad, about 200km north of Mian Chunnu where Waseem started his cricket, who kept the game alive with his yorkers and one bewitching slower ball. He has been fantastic throughout at the death in this World Cup. His 19th over – three runs and a wicket – against Netherlands created something out of nothing. In the 20th against Sri Lanka, he conceded three runs and took two wickets.Zahoor gave Waseem a second wind. He was confident again. “The good thing is, being a death-overs bowler, I get yorkers right,” Waseem said. “And the plan was to bowl yorkers so that even if I miss the length, they have to hit down the ground, which is a big hit. I wanted to avoid being hit square. The idea was to get hit straight down the ground if I did, and that’s what happened with Wiese’s wicket.”Wiese, who had been waiting to target the two overs from spinners, was spot on when he said he was expecting some error from the part-time bowler. “We weren’t really expecting him to come on but when he came on – at the end of the day he is a part-timer – so you would expect him to miss one or two but he bowled well tonight,” Wiese said. “He executed his skill and at the end of the day, we just didn’t have enough in us. Fair play to them, well bowled.”

****

The night ended in tears for Wiese. At the press conference, he sat stone-faced, staring at nothing in particular. He vowed to come back for Namibia in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Rizwan was a relieved man, having got that elusive first win. “I’m feeling really happy,” Rizwan said. “First win for UAE in a [T20] World Cup. Indeed, it’s a proud moment. Really, we can now fly back better.” Just another bittersweet final day of the first round of a T20 World Cup.

The Australia captain has shown over the years that he has the tools to extract help from the flattest of tracks

Karthik Krishnaswamy04-Feb-20231:31

Cummins won’t forget ‘how good Australia fast bowlers are’

Among all the remarkable things about Pat Cummins, the most remarkable could be his durability. In an era when other world-class, genuinely quick bowlers – think Jofra Archer or Jasprit Bumrah – routinely miss matches and series for injury or workload-management reasons, Cummins is almost always part of Australia’s Test XIs. He has featured in 46 of Australia’s last 50 Tests, and only Nathan Lyon (50) has been more of an ever-present.It wasn’t always so, of course. Cummins, the Player of the Match on Test debut in November 2011, waited five-and-a-half injury-ravaged years before getting to play Test cricket again.In March 2017, he made his comeback in Ranchi, and proceeded to show the world just how special a talent he was. Figures of 39-10-106-4 aren’t immediately eye-catching, perhaps, but that performance was exceptional for two reasons.Related

Battles to watch: Lyon vs Pujara and Kohli, and Ashwin vs Warner and Smith

Australia aware of reverse-swing threat amid spin talk

Green makes 'significant' progress in injury recovery

India vs Australia this century: one classic after the other

The first reason was what Cummins brought up when asked about Ranchi on Saturday, in Australia’s first press conference since landing in India for the four-Test Border-Gavaskar series, which begins in Nagpur on February 9.Cummins had only played one first-class game in the 18 months leading up to that game in Ranchi, and given his injury history, no one could have been certain how much of a workload he could get through. As it turned out, he bowled 39 overs as India piled up 603 for 9 declared. To date, he hasn’t bowled more overs in a Test innings.”I think what I learned about myself was, it was my first Test match in six years, it kind of reaffirmed that that’s where I wanted to be,” Cummins said, “and in Test cricket, you can’t be worried about your body or different things, you’ve just got to go all-in. I really enjoyed that.”I think also the lesson there is that Test cricket can be really, really hard. You’ve got to accept that it’s going to be a grind sometimes, and you have got to be up for it and embrace that challenge. I think, coming here to India, a lot of the talk is around big spinning wickets, mainly fast [-moving] Test matches, but it’s not always the case.”You need to get into the grind at times, and that role as a fast bowler might be bowling plenty of overs for not a heap of reward but doing a job for the team. I really enjoyed that aspect of that last tour.”

“We have got plenty of bowling options here – fingerspin, wristspin, left-arm [spin], and Starcy [Mitchell Starc] when he comes back”Pat Cummins is relying on the variety of his attack to pick 20 wickets

The second thing that made that Ranchi display so remarkable was that on a track that was slow, low and utterly lifeless when any of Australia’s other bowlers tried their luck on it, Cummins threatened to run through India. By means of searing pace, conventional swing with the second new ball, reverse with the old one, and offcutter-bouncers that reared at the gloves, he had, at one stage, taken four wickets to leave India six down and trailing Australia’s first-innings total by 123.Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha turned the match around thereafter, putting India in control with a 199-run seventh-wicket stand, but Cummins had shown Australia how he had both the stamina and the sting to be a threat on subcontinental pitches.Australia recognise that pace could play as crucial a role as spin in their push for a first Test-series win in India since 2004 – their two best bowlers in that series were Jason Gillespie (20 wickets at 16.15) and Glenn McGrath (14 at 25.42) – and the attacks that led them to victories in Bengaluru and Nagpur featured three quicks and one spinner.While a lot of the pre-series talk this time has revolved around who among Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson and Todd Murphy will partner Lyon in Australia’s spin attack, Cummins suggested that three quicks and one spinner could be an option too.”I wouldn’t say [two spinners is] a given,” he said. “Obviously it’s very conditions-dependent, particularly in the first Test. Once we get to Nagpur, we will see. But yeah, I think sometimes talking about a couple of spinners, you forget how good a lot of our fast bowlers have been in all conditions.Pat Cummins picked up eight wickets in the Lahore Test last year to help Australia win the series•AFP/Getty Images”You know, even some of the SCG wickets, [there hasn’t] been a lot in it for the quick bowlers, but the quick bowlers have found a way. So yeah, we’ve got plenty of bowling options here – fingerspin, wristspin, left-arm [spin], and Starcy [Mitchell Starc] when he comes back down the line. So yeah, we’ve obviously picked the bowlers that we think can take 20 wickets. How we are going to split that up, we are not 100% sure yet.”Australia’s most recent Test match, against South Africa in January, came on one of the SCG pitches Cummins referenced flat and slow. Rain dashed Australia’s hopes of forcing a win, but Cummins put them in a position to push for that result, summoning every weapon at his disposal, including bouncers from around the wicket with a leg-theory field, to dismiss three of South Africa’s top six and force them to follow on.Cummins had bowled with similar hostility in Lahore last year, picking up five wickets in the first innings and three in the second as Australia wrapped up a series victory their bowlers had worked tirelessly for on some of the flattest Test pitches of recent times.Cummins wasn’t just tireless, though. In a series where the next-best Australia bowler averaged 34.12, he took 12 wickets at 22.50. On pitches designed to blunt his wicket-taking threat, he was both tireless and incisive.Over the next six weeks or so, there will likely be as much – or more – chatter about the pitches in Nagpur, Delhi, Dharamsala and Ahmedabad as there is about the superstars who will bowl and bat on them. No matter how the pitches behave, though, Cummins – as he showed six years ago in Ranchi – will be a threat, quite likely the foremost threat in India’s minds.

A final-ball thriller in Christchurch was celebrated by cricketers around the world

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Mar-2023

Unbelievable!!!! Test Cricket!!

Imagine having been in that NZ changeroom for this and the England finale. Incredible scenes. #NZvSL

— Trent Copeland (@copes9) March 13, 2023