The IPL franchises will have to balance risk and reward when it comes to building their squads from scratch. Top-class, value-for-money uncapped players may be just the thing they are looking for…

Nagraj Gollapudi and Gaurav Sundaraman26-Jan-20180:50

Which uncapped players will have big paydays?

Jofra ArcherBase price: INR 20 lakh (US$ 31,250 approx)Former England captain Michael Vaughan wants the ECB to fast-track his passport so that he can play for England at the earliest. Dale Steyn thinks “this kid is going to be special”. That kid is Jofra Archer, who has caught the attention at the Big Bash League this year with Hobart Hurricanes. He has delivered inswinging yorkers to both right and left-hand batsmen at speeds in excess of 145 kph repeatedly in the end overs. Archer, from Barbados, has settled in England and plays for Sussex. He is also is an athletic fielder and has taken and effected some stunning catches and run-outs in the BBL. Although owners have tightened up on overseas buys at auctions, Archer will be a big temptation.NumbersArcher has 44 T20 wickets* at an economy rate of 7.81 and a strike rate of 17.40, along with an average of 22.77. In the end overs (between 17 and 20), Archer has 14 wickets at an economy rate of 9.07 and an average of 18.35. In the BBL, Archer has 15 wickets at an economy rate of 7.35, with a strike rate of 14.1. In the end overs, he has taken eight wickets at an economy rate of 8.27 with an average of 12.75.Mujeeb ZadranBase price: INR 50 lakh ($78,125 approx)T20 think-tanks are always lured by X-factor players. With his unique bowling action – he runs in like a slow medium-fast bowler only to spin the ball both ways – Mujeeb has managed to flummox batsmen consistently. He opens the bowling for Afghanistan. Even if he is classified as an offspinner, Mujeeb says he bowls the offbreak, legbreak, googly and carrom ball. He is only 16 years old; Mujeeb became the first international player born in the 21st century after he made his debut against Ireland in an ODI in December. He finished as the Player of the Match with returns of 4 for 24.A month prior to that he helped Afghanistan win their maiden Youth Under-19 Asia Cup with another match-winning performance in the final against Pakistan. IPL franchise scouts had travelled to Malaysia during the Asia Cup. And other T20 franchises came calling: Mujeeb was hired by Comilla Victorians in the Bangladesh Premier League. The IPL has already featured two Afghanistan spinners, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi – both for Sunrisers Hyderbad – and Mujeeb is likely to follow in their footstepsNumbersMujeeb is the third-highest wicket-taker in the U-19 category since the previous Youth World Cup in 2016.*Rahul TripathiBase price: INR 20 lakh ($31,250 approx)With his consistency in the top order, Tripathi lit up his maiden IPL, last season, when he opened for Rising Pune Supergiant. Although he has had a lean run of form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s domestic T20s, Tripathi scored two quickfire centuries and a 91 for Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy. All his three big knocks came when Maharashtra were in trouble against stronger opponents like Karnataka and Delhi.Self-confidence and bold strokeplay define Tripathi’s batting. Last IPL, he brought these qualities to the fore and finished with the fourth-best strike rate in the Powerplay overs. Tripathi might not have the same stature as some of the other illustrious openers, but he has the temperament to excel, and, hence, is likely to be an attractive buy.ICC/Getty ImagesNumbersLast IPL, in the Powerplay, Tripathi scored 290 runs from 184 balls at a strike rate of 157.6. His overall IPL figures read: 391 runs at a strike rate of 146.44 and an average of 27.92.Deepak HoodaBase price: INR 40 lakh ($62,500 approx)”The young Yusuf Pathan” – that is how Hooda is known in the IPL circles. Hooda is a powerful hitter, and can bat anywhere in the middle order, can bowl decent offspin, and is a terrific fielder. Hooda’s promise was recognised by Rajasthan Royals before Sunrisers bought him. Sunrisers have the right-to-match card option to retain Hooda, and will be tempted to use it based on how the rival franchises drive the bidding.NumbersHooda has scored 373 runs at an average of 14.34 and a strike rate of 139.17 from 30 innings. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali this season, playing for Baroda, Hooda had a strike rate of 150.66 in eight matches, where he scored 226 runs at an average of 32.28.K GowthamBase price: INR 20 lakh ($31,250 approx)Gowtham was picked up by Mumbai Indians last season for INR 2 crore ($312,500), but didn’t play a match. Gowtham is a useful allrounder, who can bat at any position and can hit the ball fiercely. The numbers support Gowtham’s stature in domestic cricket: he has a strike rate of 165.15 in 12 games for Karnataka in the last two seasons of the domestic T20 tournaments, while his economy rate is a frugal 6.97 per over.NumbersGowtham has played 27 T20s, and scored 310 runs at an average of 16.31 at an impressive strike rate of 159.79. He has also picked up 20 wickets with a bowling average of 28.95 and an economy rate of 7.06.*

India immigrants Ibrahim Khaleel, Sunny Sohal, Saurabh Netravalkar and Jaskaran Malhotra have bucked the odds to be drafted in CPL franchises for the first time this year

Peter Della Penna06-Jun-2018When Ibrahim Khaleel, Sunny Sohal, Saurabh Netravalkar and Jaskaran Malhotra left India to come to the USA, the chances of any of them playing T20 franchise cricket again were minuscule. But all four have now bucked the odds to be drafted in Caribbean Premier League franchises for the first time, joining fellow USA team-mates and CPL veterans Steven Taylor and Elmore Hutchinson for the 2018 tournament.”It was a pleasant surprise for me,” Netravalkar told ESPNcricinfo during the ongoing USA Cricket Combines taking place at various regional sides this spring. “I had no idea that people were considering me but that’s a great personal boost for me saying that yes I do belong to this level and I can excel there.”When I went into the [West Indies’ domestic 50-over] tournament I was just looking to stick to my strengths. The captain and coach supported me and gave me a good fixed role. That gave me a boost of confidence and I implemented it well. Now we have a few months to work on them before we play again, things like bowling in the slog overs, crunch situations and breaking partnerships.”Netravalkar had been India’s junior cricketer of the year in 2010 after being the leading wicket-taker for the team in the Under-19 World Cup. But when the IPL was transforming the pay packets of cricketers in India and around the world, Netravalkar opted to focus on studies, eventually leaving to New York to pursue a graduate degree at Cornell University.However, his cricket career was relaunched in earnest through the west coast club cricket scene after moving to California to take up a job with Oracle in the Silicon Valley. Thanks in part to revised ICC eligibility guidelines that lowered the threshold from four years to three for players to debut for their adopted country, Netravalkar was fast-tracked into the USA squad for the Cricket West Indies Regional Super50 tournament this January and February.After impressing in the Regional Super50 with incredible consistency – in all but one of his eight matches he had an economy rate under 5 – to claim a joint team-best 13 wickets, Guyana Amazon Warriors scooped him with their mandatory ICC Americas pick. As exciting as the news was for him, it created a pickle with his primary job at Oracle.Netravalkar had initially made himself unavailable for the CPL draft after having exhausted most of his paid time to play in the Super50. The remaining vacation time he had intended to use for USA’s remaining commitments scheduled for the second half of 2018: the ICC Americas T20 World Cup Qualifier and WCL Division Three.USA Cricket issued a press release 24 hours after the draft saying Netravalkar was unavailable and a replacement would be announced in due course. But with the help of USA coach Pubudu Dassanayake and Project USA ICC administrator Wade Edwards, Netravalkar was able to come to an arrangement with his bosses at Oracle that will allow him to be available for the CPL and USA.Ibrahim Khaleel cuts a boundary behind point•Peter Della Penna”Coach and Wade supported a lot,” Netravalkar said.”They said it will be a great opportunity for you because it will be a great learning curve for me if I go there. It will help me be in the groove and get my game one level up again, which will be beneficial for US cricket. I explained to my work that it’s kind of a national duty. They understood that it’s a good personal opportunity and finally they agreed to support me so I’m really grateful for that.”The support for the other three Indian immigrants from USA Cricket has been just as well received on their road back to playing in front of full houses on TV. Sohal had a promising season for Deccan Chargers in 2011, scoring 249 runs, but Parthiv Patel’s arrival the following year effectively ended his IPL career before he opted to move to the Washington, D.C. where he earned a quick reputation in club cricket as a heavy scorer in private T20 tournaments. He had a poor start for USA, bagging ducks in his first two innings in Antigua before finishing with two half-centuries to earn selection from Barbados Tridents.Malhotra never made it past Himachal Pradesh’s age-group teams before migrating to the USA in the middle of this decade. He wound up marrying an Indian-American from New York before the couple moved to Texas so he could pursue more serious cricket playing and coaching opportunities there. The commitment paid off when he led USA in scoring at the Super50 with 277 runs and was picked by St Lucia Stars.Khaleel was earlier part of the Indian Cricket League and after the league folded, the BCCI’s amnesty policy opened the door for him to latch on to Mumbai Indians wider squad without ever taking the field. By the end of the 2015 Ranji season for Hyderabad, he was married to an Indian-American and migrated to Wisconsin.Once Khaleel got his USA citizenship in April 2017, he was immediately picked in the squad for WCL Division Three in Uganda. Despite the team’s failure to gain promotion on the pathway towards 2019 World Cup qualification, Khaleel was the team’s leading scorer and by the end of the summer he had been named USA captain after Steven Taylor left to focus on professional opportunities in Jamaica. He made an immediate mark with his leadership, helping USA break a 26-year drought against Canada to win back the Auty Cup.He was subsequently selected by St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and he followed that up by becoming one of three USA-based players to get picked up in the Global T20 Canada draft, going to Montreal Tigers. Three years after he thought his career was over, a whole new chapter is just beginning for Khaleel.”I feel like the hard work I did in India is paying off now,” Khaleel said. “It’s better late than never so I’m really happy to be getting these opportunities to play. I’m just really happy and looking forward to the tournament.”

Pakistan’s scoreline of 57 for 5 on the first day represented the seventh time in Tests that they’ve been at that score or worse and yet gone on to win

Osman Samiuddin in Abu Dhabi19-Oct-2018Here is a quintessential Pakistan fact, one that comes from cricket but that anthropologists can easily have a field day with. Two of their three biggest Test wins in terms of runs have come after they began the match in an absolute shambles, from positions that, nine times out of ten, should result in thumping losses.Around noon on Tuesday this week, Pakistan were 57 for 5 and odds on to lose a second successive Test series at home. By around 2pm on Friday they were towering over Australia, victors by 373 runs, their biggest victory in terms of runs. Down one minute, as Nasser Hussain so memorably called it at The Oval one day in June, and up the next.Call it a bit of an orientation for Sarfraz Ahmed, the latest Pakistani to be given the reins of such a ride. It is a very Pakistani ride because 57 for 5 represented the seventh time in Tests that Pakistan have been at that score or worse and yet gone on to win a Test.It’s not something that happens that often. Just 25 times since Pakistan began playing Tests in 1952, which means they are responsible for over a quarter of the occasions it has happened since. Every kind of Pakistani team has done it, the newbies of the 1950s, the world-beaters of the 1980s, the 1990s superstars, and Misbah’s men.Sarfraz learnt something very basic from the turnaround, and he hopes his team has as well. Actually, it is something that he knows, that every sportsperson knows, just that it is something that is reinforced viscerally every now and again.”You never, ever give up,” Sarfraz said, back at the ground after a trip to the hospital for precautionary scans of the head earlier in the morning. “To bounce back from 57 for 5, there can’t be many teams that can come back from losing five in the first session and then to win in four days by such a big margin.”That is what I’ve learnt, to keep fighting. To make sure that whatever batsmen you have left in an innings, they need to keep batting. The target to them should be to not throw their wickets.”We were 205 for 6 when Fakhar [Zaman] got out, but we stretched that to 280. We got tail runs, like Bilal Asif’s 20, Yasir Shah’s 22 and Mohammad Abbas’ 15. These are all important runs. However many runs you can make, you make.”Sarfraz was at the very heart of that fight, his first innings 94 sparking off the kind of punchy wicketkeeping counter that Pakistan should be very familiar with; nobody is forgetting Kamran Akmal from 39 for 6 and Moin Khan from 26 for 6 any time soon.Second-innings runs, and runs despite two injuries, a fine and critical catch to dismiss Usman Khawaja, some sharp captaincy, and suddenly the pressures of the last month feel like a lifetime away. Now he has a series victory under his belt, and the tools, it seems, to begin thinking about re-establishing the home dominance of the last decade.”We really needed this victory. I think our team did really well over both Tests. Each batsman over the course of the series did what they were supposed to. And then the way our bowlers bowled, no praise is enough for Abbas. Mir Hamza played and took only one wicket, but he hasn’t bowled on these pitches and he still showed that he can become a good bowler. Bilal [Asif] bowled well all this series, so did Yasir.”That will still take time as there remains plenty of room for improvement. One of the hallmarks of the Misbah era in the UAE was the collective nature of their triumphs: a number of batsmen scoring hundreds, wickets being shared around. Only two Pakistani batsmen made hundreds – neither of them big ones – despite as many as eight fifties, and Abbas towered over the bowlers.”There are a lot of things we need to do better,” Sarfraz said. “If you want to play Test cricket our batting will have to be a lot more mature than it is. If you look at our batting, we gave away soft wickets after our batsmen were set. We’ve given away too many soft wickets in this series, batsmen scoring 60s and getting out.”We shared a dressing room with Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq. Younis always used to say that in Tests, you get one chance and you settle, you pull that for as long as you can. That is a weakness that we need to improve.”With our bowling, we need to improve our spinning a little bit. Abbas is there, but we need to get ready another fast bowler who, other than [on] these pitches, can do well away.”

With England, South Africa and West Indies in Group A, Sri Lanka will need other players to step up if they are to qualify for the tournament’s knockouts for the first time

Hemant Brar07-Nov-2018Squad listChamari Atapattu (capt), Yasoda Mendis, Shashikala Siriwardene, Eshani Lokusuriyage, Hasini Perera, Ama Kanchana, Rebeca Vandort, Dilani Manodara, Nilakshi De Silva, Sripali Weerakkody, Udeshika Prabodhani, Sugandika Kumari, Kavisha Dilhari, Oshadhi Ranasinghe, Inoshi Priyadharshani
Stand-by: Imalka Mendis, Anushka Sanjeewani, Nipuni Hansika, Harshitha Madavi, Inoka RanaweeraWorld T20 pedigreeFor the past year or so, women’s cricket has gathered urgency on multiple levels. Batsmen are scoring at an unprecedented rate, and as a result teams are posting bigger totals. While Sri Lanka are yet to make the full transformation, their first concern at the 2018 World T20 in the Caribbean would be achieving consistency.Only once have Sri Lanka won more than one match in a World T20 edition – they won two games in India in 2016, when they beat Ireland and South Africa. They are yet to appear in the knockouts of the tournament. Six wins from 20 matches across five editions is a record they would definitely like to improve. The key to that will be their captain Chamari Atapattu.Although considered among the most destructive batsmen in the women’s game, Atapattu has only one 50-plus score in 67 T20Is innings. In her last five innings in the format, she has crossed 20 four times but managed a highest score of only 31. For Sri Lanka to score big in the tournament, Atapattu needs to score big and score consistently.In the bowling department, Sri Lanka will rely on left-arm medium-pacer Udeshika Prabodhani to keep it tight with the new ball. Former captain and offspinning allrounder Shashikala Siriwardene will lead the spin attack. The duo will be supported by Sugandika Kumari’s left-arm spin.Sri Lanka’s T20I record in the West Indies is not very promising. In the 14 T20Is there, Sri Lanka have won two and lost 11, with one no-result. But they can take heart from their 50-overs record in the West Indies, which is the only country apart from Bangladesh where they have a positive win-loss record (eight wins, four losses) in ODI cricket.Recent T20I formSo far, Sri Lanka have played 13 T20Is this year, out of which they have won three and lost nine, with one match washed out. Their win percentage of 23.08 is the worst among the ten teams competing at the World T20 this year.Sri Lanka started the year with a 2-1 loss to Pakistan at home. In June, they went to the Asia Cup without their regular captain Atapattu, who was ruled out with dengue. Playing under Siriwardene, they won their first two games – against Bangladesh and Malaysia – before losing the next three, including a shock defeat to Thailand.They had a chance to put all that behind when they hosted India for five T20Is in September. But they stumbled again and lost the series 4-0.Captain and coachNo other team in the tournament relies as much on their captain as Sri Lanka do on Chamari Atapattu. Although a batting average of 17.60 at a strike rate of 92.73 might not invoke fear in opposition bowlers, Atapattu knows how to perform at the big stage. She scored 52 and took 1 for 12 in her four overs when Sri Lanka defeated South Africa in the 2016 World T20. Last year, at the 50-overs World Cup in England, she smashed an unbeaten 178 off 143 balls against Australia.Atapattu is also the only player from the island to have participated in the Kia Super League in England (in 2017 and 2018) and the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia (2017).Chamari Atapattu hit six sixes in her unbeaten 178•Getty Images/ICCIn June, after the Asia Cup, Hemantha Devapriya resigned from his position of head coach, giving his replacement Harsha de Silva only a few months to prepare for the big event.De Silva, however, is no stranger to the role, having held the position between 2010 and 2013. A Level 3 accredited coach, he also has five years of coaching experience in club cricket in Australia. But whether all that experience, and a familiarity with the role, turns Sri Lanka’s fortunes around remains to be seen.Best playersShashikala Siriwardene is the leading wicket-taker for Sri Lanka in T20Is, with 61 wickets in 65 games at an economy rate of 5.55. Earlier this year, she took 4 for 9 against Pakistan, the best figures for Sri Lanka in the format.With the bat, Siriwardene is the sort of batsman others can play around. Her tally of 898 runs at 17.60 with a strike rate of 86.67 is second only to Atapattu for Sri Lanka. Along with Yasoda Mendis and Atapattu, she will form the core of the batting.The five-match T20I series against India in September marked Eshani Lokusuriyage’s return to international cricket after a gap of more than a year. Lokusuriyage, the only Sri Lanka player to have a T20I strike rate in excess of 100, will be featuring in her sixth straight World T20.The 34-year-old first came to the limelight when her blazing half-centuries helped Sri Lanka slay England and India in the 2013 World Cup. Quick hands and the ability to clear the boundary – both against pace and spin – make Lokusuriyage a dangerous batsman at any stage of the innings.Where will they finish?Given their recent form, and the presence of England, South Africa and defending champions West Indies in Group A, it will be no less than a miracle if Sri Lanka manage to qualify for the semi-finals. The only team in the group against whom they have at least a 50% win record is Bangladesh, and it won’t come as a surprise if they finish in the bottom two.

He learned plenty about batting at Test level during Pakistan’s tour of the UK without quite making the big scores to show for it. Now, in Dubai, he made all that learning count

Osman Samiuddin in Dubai08-Oct-20181:18

‘I have struggled a lot to overcome my knee issues’ – Haris Sohail

Sometimes it’s the 30s and 40s that end up mattering, more than some easy fifties and even hundreds. Ordinarily and just off a scorecard, Haris Sohail’s scores this summer in Pakistan’s three Tests in Ireland and England – 31, 7, 39, 39*, 28 and 8 – read like an impeccable requiem to batting frustration. Getting starts, getting set and ultimately getting nowhere. It’s not true.What Haris was doing, especially for example during that 31 in Malahide and the first innings 39 at Lord’s, was learning how to bat at this level. The Lord’s innings in particular was about as rewarding a 39 a young batsman can score in his career. The ball was darting about, off the surface and in the air throughout, and he was facing, for those conditions, two of this planet’s finest bowlers.The enduring image from it is of him playing, missing, turning back, putting his head down, the ball perhaps out of his head, facing up again and doing it all over again. And again, and again. Occasionally he struck the sweetest shots; in one Jimmy Anderson over on the second morning, he first drove a boundary through the covers in the approved manner of sexy left-handedness, on one knee; and then he bunted one straight down the ground, both as clean as soap. He then got struck on the ribs in anger and ended the over beaten twice by monster Anderson balls.If he was so inclined there was more learning to glean from that one over than some entire innings he would have played. Through the innings he worked out ways to score runs, to pull bowlers into bowling to him; he worked out a way to sustain a partnership and was, ultimately, a significant little part of a big win. At Headingley, he would start poorly before settling and then throwing his wicket away.As it turns out, all of that went into what came out today, in the form of a maiden Test hundred. Now to be honest, this was a bit of a grind, especially if you contrast it with the elegant sprightliness of his very first Test innings last year.This one contained long periods nobody will remember, and not just because there was nobody in the stadium to do the remembering. These periods were occasionally punctuated by reminders of his heightened sense of timing – a skip down the track to the spinner, a shimmering drive through extra. There was one late-afternoon push down the ground which was so deceptively well-timed, it looked for most of its existence as if it would fetch, at most, a risky single.But overall it was the kind of innings that allows people’s minds to drift away from it, because it is unhurried even as it was mostly untroubled. The kind where people get bored and instead get worked up about the pitch being a road or some such instead, and only desultorily acknowledge the innings because of the wholeness a three-figure landmark provides it. If you argued that his 39 was the better innings, no jaws would drop.It was also, as some of his more notable work has always been, an intelligent innings. Assess the conditions, the opponents in front of you, and work around that. When the ball got old and lost its seam, he figured out that run-scoring might become difficult. The outfield was heavy too, so even though he was timing some strokes well, he was getting little reward. So he stopped, because what England taught him was not to panic when things weren’t going to plan. He just waited until the new ball when he knew the runs would come.”I got out in the 30s [in England], sometimes I got a good ball, a couple of times I panicked and threw my wicket away,” he said. “Here I was consciously trying to move out of that situation where you can panic.”That was the one thing in my mind throughout this innings, that I need not panic. The time to score runs will come and I just need to cash in then, so when I got out of those panic situations, the runs started flowing.”It was almost exactly a year ago that he was making his Test debut, down the highway in Abu Dhabi. He had nearly lost his career in getting to that point and his 76 felt cathartic. It also worked as a retort. You’ll remember the circumstances around it, when he was the guy who wasn’t the guy who should’ve been.When Haris turned up at the press conference that day he was a little nervous, plenty relieved, and somewhat defensive, as if still not believing that his traumas were completely behind him, or that there wouldn’t be brickbats in the imminent future because he wasn’t Fawad Alam.Naturally, Haris was a much lighter presence today (apropos nothing, it was Fawad’s birthday today), enough to joke about being a (decent, polite) guy who ignored some mild Aussie chirping, letting it go in one ear and out the other, or that one benefit of the stadium being so empty was that he could at least hear his name being chanted clearly by the very few who did turn up.”Obviously when you get your first 100 in Test cricket, the excitement of that is different,” he said. “When I got the hundred, just everything about it was different, the excitement of that moment. It matters a huge amount to do it for your country.”

The Barsapara Stadium was not in good shape two days out from the India-West Indies fixture, but an official said all would be well on match day

Varun Shetty in Guwahati21-Oct-2018In the lead up to the first ODI between India and West Indies on Sunday, Guwahati looks like any other Indian city that hosts cricket regularly. The road to Barsapara Stadium, which is hosting its first ODI, is full of banners with old photos of the two captains. Every 50 metres or so, the state’s chief minister also makes a banner-appearance, welcoming the two teams. And every 200 metres or so, an enthusiastic jeweller has his own welcome banners for the Indian team. It’s filled with mugshots of players, except the squad he has had printed is that of the Test squad that played West Indies.Outside the stadium’s main gate, counterfeit Virat Kohli India jerseys are selling for 200 rupees, but it is difficult to get anywhere near the gate or the vendors. In true Indian cricket fashion, the area outside the stadium is an armed-force congregation. Fans can get manic, especially if they learn Kohli or MS Dhoni are bound to make appearances, and while Guwahati’s security personnel are in place to stop such intrusions, their massive numbers in this case might also be a consequence of the blasts that separatist organisation ULFA engineered in the city last week. More armed guards arrive seemingly every hour, and so do hordes of spectators.Some of them breach security like they’ve been doing this cricket thing for years.The truth is that Guwahati, in the state of Assam, last hosted an ODI in November 2010, when the Nehru Stadium was being used. It held an India-Australia T20I last year, the city’s first high-profile match in seven years, and now will finally host a West Indies team for the first time since 1994.This is mostly down to the fact that it took seven years for the Barsapara Stadium to be completely constructed. For most of this duration, barring the last two years, the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) had been receiving grants from the BCCI. But when the incumbent ACA committee took over in June 2016, they inherited a serious shortage of funds, and within a month of taking office were completely cut out of the BCCI’s payroll.Unlike neighbouring state Tripura, one of the first associations to adopt the Lodha Committee recommendations, the ACA did not show any such inclination. The Committee of Administrators, appointed by the Supreme Court to ensure the BCCI and its state units implemented the Lodha recommendations, had made it clear that funds would be released only to states that adopted the recommendations.”When the present committee took over in June 2016, the stadium was 90 percent ready,” said ACA vice-president Devajit Saikia. “We took charge on June 12, 2016 and the Lodha Committee judgment came on July 18, 2016. That was hardly one month that we had completed. Since July 2016 the fund flow has stopped. We are not getting any funds for construction or any developmental work from the BCCI for two years.”Kemar Roach is escorted by a security officer•Associated PressLike many associations in the recent past, the ACA was forced to look outside, and luckily for them the state government was willing to help out.”We have a sport-loving chief minister in Assam, so we approached the state government and it was kind enough to release [funds],” Saikia said. The Hon’ble CM [Sarbananda Sonowal] and Hon’ble Finance Minister [Himanta Biswa Sharma], who was also the previous president of the Assam Cricket Association, gave us a grant in aid, not a loan, of Rs. 16 crores. This helped finish the stadium with respect to organising an international match.”The stadium is a majestic structure that can hold 37,500 people. The galleries rise steeply, which is unusual for a stadium this big, and from a distance both the pitch and the outfield look world class. But even in here visuals can be deceptive.A completed stadium didn’t make for a complete experience during last year’s T20I and a year later, with hardly any major events in between, the stadium needed resurrecting.”This stadium has come out very nicely but it was never tested. We opened the venue with that T20I match and it was a challenge because it was a huge structure and we did not know the roads, the galleries, indoors, outdoors – there are 23 gates. It was very difficult for the first time from a logistical point of view and from a security point of view but we gained a lot of experience last year.”One minor incident took place when the team was travelling, when a crazy person threw a stone [at the team bus]. But otherwise, everything went off nicely and the crowds were well behaved and well organized,” Saikia said. “This time it is a longer game but we are experienced. We know the loopholes and we have already streamlined the shortfalls and hopefully everything will fall into place on Sunday.”The stands, corridors, and the press box were far from being match-ready two days before the game. The architectural beauty isn’t evident when one walks through dusty, debris-filled corridors and there were flea infestations on some floors as well.Money is at the root of this problem too.”We are cleaning constantly,” Saikia said. “On Sunday, you will see a spick and span stadium. With funds of INR 16 crore we managed to complete the stadium, but on the other hand, to run the daily activities we had taken a loan from Apex Bank and Yes Bank.”Till now not a single corporate house is coming forward [to sponsor the ACA]. Or maybe there’s something lacking on our part as well, wherein we’re not approaching them properly. Having one match a year, it’ll be very difficult to maintain a stadium of this magnitude.”However, the future has started looking better for the ACA. On September 20, shortly after the Supreme Court’s approval of the BCCI’s new constitution in August, the state association adopted a new constitution that was in line with the Lodha recommendations.”We adopted it on September 20,” Saikia said. “On 24th we sent it to BCCI. They are looking at it for variance. They have asked for a variance certificate and a justification for minor cosmetic changes there. We have given the compliance report as well. We are awaiting the final approval from the BCCI so that we can carry forward and have a new body [after election] here.”That approval could rekindle a healthy cashflow for the ACA, which has long drawn the ire of local media for alleged mishandling of funds. A new body that is ostensibly under the scanner of the Supreme Court itself should ease some of those concerns. As should the potential of hosting IPL games for Rajasthan Royals, who had BCCI’s approval but were restricted by the Rajasthan High Court from hosting “home” games outside Jaipur.There are other ambitions too, says Saikia, should the legal situation ease, and one of them is producing a cricketer for the national team. Over the last five years, both Assam’s junior and senior domestic teams have come close to winning major titles, and recently they have produced notable India Under-19 cricketers.There is no problem of interest for cricket in Assam – the T20I between India and Australia was sold out in about five hours, and on the eve of the ODI Saikia claimed over 90% of tickets had been sold – and, as such, the lack of their very own superstar cricketer is unfortunate. But the path back to international cricket has been slow, and that could be the case in this endeavour too. For now, the fans will have to make do with Kohli jerseys.

Rayudu failed, but has had a solid series in New Zealand while Pant’s keeping woes spilled over to his batting

Deivarayan Muthu14-Mar-2019Since the Champions Trophy in June 2017, India have tried out 11 players at No. 4, but none have staked claim to that position, or so it appears, with India having completed their complement of matches leading up to the World Cup.The situation so dire that Virat Kohli briefly returned to No. 4 in Mohali, but didn’t get going. Picked ahead of Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant had an opportunity to leave his imprint in the series decider in Delhi, but failed.It may appear that Kedar Jadhav is a certainty, along with MS Dhoni and Kohli. This leaves Ambati Rayudu, dropped after three poor outings, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, Pant and Karthik scrambling for middle-order berths. ESPNcricinfo examines how they all fared in India’s last ODI series before the World Cup.Getty ImagesAmbati Rayudu
Kohli has often stated Rayudu has the game to bat at No. 4, but a key ingredient seems to have gone missing suddenly: strike rotation. In the first three ODIs, he laboured to 13, 18 and 2. He ate up 40 dots out of 59 deliveries faced and was subsequently left out.The competition is so stifling that he may yet find himself in a spot despite being the top scorer in New Zealand in January. He managed 190 runs in five innings, including a match-winning 90 on a Wellington track that aided pacers, after the top order had floundered.Vijay Shankar
He played each of the five matches against Australia, caught the eye with his strike rotation, lofted hits, sparkling cameos, rocket throws from the deep and the ability to save runs on the field. With the bat, he isn’t quite the power hitter, but has shown how he can use the touch game to great effect. That he can bowl a few overs and sometimes win games – like he did in Nagpur – might give him the edge.His 46 off 41 balls on a fairly two-paced Nagpur deck stood out. He unfurled a variety of shots – none more delightful than the pair of straight-bat punches over midwicket off Marcus Stoinis.According to , Vijay played a mere 4.1% false shots in that innings, and the last time an Indian who wasn’t Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan or Kohli scored as many runs with that much control was Hardik Pandya in the Champions Trophy final.In the series decider, he had an opportunity to put little doubts to rest, but he fell after miscuing a pull to long-on. This after he’d just hit a rousing six onto the sight screen off Adam Zampa. Overall, he is quite a package nonetheless.Getty ImagesRishabh Pant
When Pant smokes massive sixes, he makes a mockery of the stable base that coaches are fond of. He provided glimpses of those during his 24-ball 36 in Mohali, but his wicketkeeping came under sharp scrutiny. He missed two stumpings, and the recipient of one of them – Ashton Turner – not only won Australia the game but also gave Justin Langer and co. a few selection headaches.Pant fared much better behind the stumps in the series decider in front of his home crowd, but couldn’t click with the bat again as he was snuffed out by Nathan Lyon’s dip and turn. His returns: 52 runs in two innings. However, the Indian team management rates him highly and he was recently rewarded with a Category A central contract – the second-most lucrative retainer.Is that alone a sign that he’s still in their plans? What of Karthik and his finishing abilities? Kohli insists that IPL will not impact World Cup selection, but given Pant hasn’t got enough game-time in this series, will the toss-up continue in the IPL too?Getty ImagesKL Rahul
He lit up the T20Is with knocks of 50 and 47, but had one innings to prove himself in the ODIs. That innings came at No. 3, a position he wasn’t auditioning for. It also came on the back of a mammoth 193-run opening stand that left him fewer overs to negotiate. Rahul likes the new ball ball coming onto the bat and isn’t as fluent against the old one, at least initially. He could well be India’s back-up opener in the World Cup, but there are still question marks over how he can fit into the middle order.

Allrounder James Neesham and wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert celebrated their call-ups to the New Zealand ODI squad in fine fashion

Deivarayan Muthu29-Dec-2018Look who’re back
After being sidelined for nine months with knee injury, Santner marked his return to competitive cricket with a match-winning all-round effort for Northern Knights. In the tournament opener against Wellington Firebirds, Santner first made an eye-catching cameo with the bat (22 not out off 13 balls) and then came away with figures of 0 for 28 in three overs. He showed no apparent signs of discomfort and even ventured hard-run twos in addition to claiming two catches in the outfield.In his second match against Central Districts, Santner missed a straight ball from left-arm spinner Felix Murray and was bowled for a duck. Santner, though, impressed with the ball, finding turn and dip on a slow Bay Oval track to end with figures of 2 for 25 in his four overs. However, it was not enough for the Knights to defend 156.Guptill has had an eventful couple of weeks. After being picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the accelerated round of the IPL 2019 auction, he has been passed fit for the ODI series against Sri Lanka. He had missed the limited-overs series against Pakistan in the UAE due to a calf injury.In his first competitive match after a stint with Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League, Guptill lit up the Pukekura Park with a blazing 71 not out off 51 balls in Auckland’s chase of 108. Guptill was paricularly severe on seamer Blair Tickner, taking him for 22 off 11 balls. He secured the chase in style, with a hat-trick of fours off Seth Rance.”I was a wee bit rusty to start with but nice to see the boys to the end,” Guptill said of his knock. “It wasn’t the kind of wicket when you could stand and hit through the [line of the] ball. It was a tough wicket to strike.”Seifert, Neesham shine in the spotlight
AFPSeifert was central to Northern Knights claiming the 2017-18 Super Smash title, having cracked 323 runs in 10 innings at a strike rate of 146.81. More recently, he had provided the finishing kick for New Zealand A against India A and was recalled into New Zealand’s ODI squad. He celebrated his comeback with scores of 46 and 55 against Wellington Firebirds and Central Districts respectively. The fifty in particular was filled with inventive scoops and sweeps.Neesham followed his title-winning exploits (503 runs at an average of 63.87 and a strike rate of 111, and 13 wickets with an economy rate of 5.81) in the List A Ford Trophy with career-best T20 figures of 4 for 24 for Wellington Firebirds against Otago.Match of the week
Wellington Firebirds shot themselves on their foot to lose by one run at the Basin Reserve to Otago. How did it even come to this after Wellington were cruising at 107 for 0 in the 11th over, chasing 168? Opener Michael Bracewell’s wicket triggered a dramatic collapse as Wellington lost 9 for 59.Needing 11 to win off the last over bowled by seamer Nathan Smith with three wickets in hand, Wellington managed six off the first three balls. Smith then conceded a wide and a leg-bye, but hit back to remove both batsmen Luke Woodcock and Jeetan Patel off successive balls to leave the hosts heartbroken.Batsman of the week
Northern Knights’ captain Dean Brownlie launched the season with a 46-ball 99 against Wellington Firebirds in a 45-run victory. He blitzed 10 fours and six sixes, hoisting his side to 215 for 6 – their highest total in T20s. He looked set to become the third Northern Knights batsman, after Kane Williamson and Seifert, to hit a T20 hundred but ended up chopping on against Neesham in anti-climatic fashion.Bowler of the week
Having opted out of a domestic contract earlier this year, Anton Devcich has become a T20 globetrotter: he had played in the PSL, Global T20 Canada, CPL, APL and even the T10 League. He is also set to turn out for the Sydney Thunder in second half of the BBL, which clashes with the Super Smash.He’s currently living every street cricketer’s dream: open the batting as well as the bowling. While he hasn’t yet fired with the bat so far in the Super Smash, he has been effective in the Powerplay. On a Seddon Park pitch where 10 bowlers from the two teams conceded seven or more runs an over, Devcich came away with 4 for 27 in his four overs.

Since 2015, Andre Russell has managed 101 runs off 79 balls against legspinners in the IPL. Imran Tahir and Chennai Super Kings will be hoping to exploit that

Deivarayan Muthu in Chennai08-Apr-20196:31

Will Dhoni solve the Russell riddle?

Wrestlemania 35 is over, but there is no stopping Russellmania in IPL 2019. For a minimum of 100 runs scored this season, Andre Russell has the highest strike-rate (269), most sixes (22) and the best balls per boundary rate (2.3).All told, Russell has shellacked 207 runs off a mere 77 balls in four innings this season. In fact, his career T20 strike-rate of 169.44 is the second best in the world.He is a monster among men in T20 cricket. How else would you explain such incredible numbers in a fickle format? How else would you explain a 40-ball hundred and a hat-trick on captaincy debut?Chennai Super Kings have lost one of their last 16 matches at Chepauk, but now they run into Russell. Does he have any weakness at all?Since 2015, Russell has struck at over 180 against all types of bowling except legspinners in the IPL. Against legspinners, Russell has managed 101 runs off 79 balls while being dismissed four times in this period.Super Kings have a gun legspinner in Imran Tahir to exploit this possible weakness on a tired Chepauk track. Moreover, Tahir has an outstanding head-to-head record against Russell in T20s, having dismissed him three times in 19 balls while conceding only 13 runs.Perhaps, it makes sense for Super Kings to hold back Tahir and reserve him for Russell. With or without dew, Tahir has been very difficult to put away at Chepauk. On a dew-slicked pitch against Rajasthan Royals, he returned 2 for 23, including the prize scalp of Jos Buttler to save the day for Super Kings. Then, against Kings XI Punjab, he tossed the ball up further, daring the batsmen to clear the long leg-side boundary. They simply couldn’t.Andre Russell celebrates with his team•BCCIRussell can clear any boundary, but Tahir, too, has been there and done that in various T20 leagues around the world.Russell prefers pace on the ball, but he isn’t as fluent as out-and-out quicks like Kagiso Rabada. The South African nailed Russell with a yorker in the Super Over at Feroz Shah Kotla, and kept executing the yorker to perfection against Delhi Capitals and stunned Kolkata Knight Riders.Kings XI’s Mohammed Shami, too, nailed Russell with a yorker, but was denied a wicket as the side had only three men inside the circle.Had Lungi Ngidi, Rabada’s protege at South Africa, been fit, Super Kings could have attempted to similarly rattle Russell with yorkers.They have now drafted in Scott Kuggeleijn, who pounds the deck back home in New Zealand and is adept at generating extra bounce. On his IPL debut against Kings XI, he had to work against his strengths and get the cutters to grip on a slow surface.However, against Russell there’s a case for Kuggeleijn to stick to his strengths: operate from around the wicket, and aim to rush him for pace and bounce if the pitch is quicker than the ones dished out for the first three games in Chennai.Since 2015 in the IPL, Russell has scored only nine against 17 yorkers or bouncers from around the wicket while being dismissed twice.Kuggeleijn, though, is just one IPL game old and might crack under pressure against one of the fiercest strikers in the world. Tahir appears to be Super Kings’ best bet against Russell, and this contest could shape the top-of-the-table clash at Chepauk.

They have a strong Indian top order, but the absence of a proven finisher in Indian conditions continues to be a concern

Sruthi Ravindranath in Chennai02-May-20194:20

Loss to CSK a reality check for us – Iyer

A new name and a new management have contributed to the Delhi franchise’s success this season, but it would be quite unfair to credit their resurgence to these factors alone. Delhi Capitals have made the playoffs for the first time in seven years on the back of their Indian batting line-up and Kagiso Rabada. Capitals’ top order comprising Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, and Shreyas Iyer drips with power and flair.That rosy bit apart, their 80-run loss against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk, where they were routed for 99, has reopened a few major weaknesses. If the Capitals are to have a second crack at the final, they need to address these issues quickly.The non-existent foreign batting reserves
Capitals’ top four have been their biggest strengths this year. They’ve amassed a combined total of 1529 runs, a contribution of nearly 75% to the team’s total runs in the 13 matches this season. But, this has also exposed the rest of the batting line-up. There is an over-reliance on these four to do the bulk of the scoring, while the foreign batsmen who float in the middle order have been poor. Colin Ingram, the one who has featured regularly in the line-up, has made just 172 runs at an average of 19.11, while Sherfane Rutherford and Colin Munro, who’ve played four and two games respectively have contributed 43 runs each. It also goes back to an issue they had failed to address during the auction earlier this year. They have been forced to persist with these three names as they do not have any other foreign batsman left in their reserves.What’s more alarming is that it has been pointed out as an obvious issue by the opposition. Super Kings’ coach Stephen Fleming had said on the eve of the game that they would look to exploit Capitals’ lack of foreign batting resources. And yet, this issue wasn’t addressed on Wednesday, with Ingram and Rutherford falling for 1 and 2 respectively.Captain Iyer, however, is still hopeful of a turnaround. “To be honest, I’m happy it’s happening at the right time, Iyer said. “The foreign players, they are game-changers, but when spin comes on they lack a bit of ability. But we’ve been playing on spinning tracks at home. When you see them in nets they’re amazing players. It’s just that they’re not able to convert. I still believe in them. I know they’ll be coming back strong. It’s just that we lost wickets in succession. But I never doubt my players. I know they’re capable of winning us matches. it’s just a bad phase we’re going through right now.”No Rabada? Big problem
Capitals were without their best bowler against Super Kings, and it showed. Rabada has been the standout quick in IPL 2019, taking at least two wickets in nine of the 12 games he has played. In the 23 overs he has bowled at the death so far this season, he has picked up 19 wickets at an economy rate of 8.7 while giving away just 201 runs. Capitals have won 73% of the matches when he has taken two or more wickets in a match this year. Considering all this, he seems to have mastered the art of death bowling; his ability to nail inch-perfect yorkers has been central to Capitals’ rise this season. He is also the highest wicket-taker this season with 25 wickets in 12 games. On Wednesday, he was out with a back niggle, so Trent Boult, who had been on the bench for most of the season, slotted in.While Capitals’ bowlers managed to keep Super Kings’ batsmen quiet in the Powerplay by restricting them to 27 for 1, they leaked 63 runs in the last four overs, which proved a big difference in the end. Boult and Chris Morris gave away 35 runs and 28 runs respectively off their last two overs at the death. They offered width to Dhoni, even tried shorter lengths, and slower balls, but nothing worked against Super Kings’ captain. Iyer kept bowling his fast bowlers in the slog, even though both Amit Mishra and Axar Patel had an over left. A total of 10 boundaries were slammed in those four overs. Did they miss Rabada’s yorker barrage or his cutters on the slow pitch here at Chepauk?Rishabh Pant goes for the one-handed scoop•BCCIIs Pant’s shot selection a concern?Capitals’ good start in the Powerplay was followed by a collapse, which included the wicket of Rishabh Pant for 5 off 3 balls. While there are no doubts about his power-hitting ability, his shot selection this season has been quite questionable. For instance, in a chase of 164 against Kings XI Punjab at home, he got down on his knee to pull a length delivery and top-edged it to deep midwicket, to be dismissed for 6. Then, in a taller chase against Super Kings, he had welcomed legspinner Imran Tahir with a four to the extra-cover boundary off a flighted delivery. The very next ball though, he went flat and hard at another tossed-up legbreak, which found Dwayne Bravo at long-off. This is his fourth single-digit score in the last five games. His dismissal in Chennai, in turn, triggered a terminal slide, and applied more pressure on Iyer, who had batted fluently in the Powerplay.When asked about Pant’s attack-first approach on a pitch where he could have been more patient Iyer said: “We’ve seen him [Pant] converting starts into match-winning knocks and definitely it was a ball to hit. It was just that it couldn’t convert into the gap. So, it wasn’t a bad stroke but he could have played a bit smarter and assess conditions and how the spinners are going to work because we needed a bit of partnership at that period.”Pant is that sort of a player to whom you can’t say [much] at that point because we know he can change the momentum of the game. If he would have connected, it would have gone into the stands. You need to give him a freebie and not restrict his flow. I personally feel you can’t blame him.”