Their season disintegrated in the latter stages, with their batsmen not putting up enough runs for their bowlers to work with

Karthik Krishnaswamy07-Nov-2020Five matches, five defeats. That’s how a promising Royal Challengers Bangalore season ultimately came to nothing. In each of those last five games, the Royal Challengers batted first, posting totals of 145, 164, 120, 152 and 131. And as hard as their bowlers tried to keep them in the game, they simply didn’t have enough runs to defend, with only two of these matches going into the final over.Something, clearly, went horribly wrong with the Royal Challengers’ batting. But what, and why? How did a team that won seven of its first ten games disintegrate so spectacularly?According to Mike Hesson, the Royal Challengers’ director of cricket, the downturn was caused by the batsmen’s inability to adapt to the slowing down of the pitches as the tournament progressed.”The reality is that the wickets slowed up and as a batting group we didn’t adapt quickly enough, and when you don’t score enough runs you put an awful lot of pressure on your bowling unit,” Hesson said in a media interaction on Saturday. “Last five games, we batted first, [and] on all of the surfaces we struggled to adapt, we struggled to be able to apply any pressure on our opposition, we kept losing wickets by trying to force our case, therefore you end up basically crawling over the line a little bit from a batting point of view, getting a sub-par score, and then scrapping hard.”And the fact that we’ve had to scrap for every game, the last four or five, it certainly exposed the fact that we struggled on the slower surfaces as the tournament progressed.”The first ten rounds, when there was enough pace in the surfaces, as a batting unit we were very good. In the death we were the second-best team, in the powerplay I think we were second or third, in the middle we were sort of around the middle, and as the tournament progressed we dropped off in those phases, but that in a nutshell was the story of the last five games.”On the surface, Hesson’s reading seems accurate. The Royal Challengers were indeed the second-fastest-scoring team in the death overs until the end of their tenth match of the season, and third-quickest in the powerplay, but second-from-bottom in the middle overs.Then they simply fell off a cliff, particularly in the death overs (their middle-overs scoring rate actually improved marginally in the latter part of the tournament).The Royal Challengers’ death-overs scoring rate nosedived over their last five games•ESPNcricinfo LtdBut did cracks suddenly erupt in the Royal Challengers’ batting unit after game 10, or did they exist right through the tournament, papered over initially by the acts of a genius? Look at the death-overs numbers in the above graphic, and think about this game, this game, this game and this one. Would the Royal Challengers have won any of them without AB de Villiers?Four wins out of seven, owing largely to the efforts of one man. And even de Villiers can’t keep such a run of form going forever. The Royal Challengers’ death-overs decline towards the end of their campaign can be attributed largely to de Villiers reverting to the mean. In their first ten games of the season, he batted six times in the death overs, and was only dismissed twice in 69 balls. In their last five games, he was dismissed three times in 16 balls across three innings.The Royal Challengers were heavily reliant on AB de VIlliers’ death-overs masterclasses•ESPNcricinfo LtdA team can’t be so reliant on one batsman. Or even two. Virat Kohli’s approach in T20s has been widely debated, but when he makes it as far as the death overs he usually makes it count. In the early, happy phase of the Royal Challengers’ season, he made it into the death overs four times in 10 innings, and scored 88 runs off 40 balls (strike rate 220.00) while being dismissed once.In his last five games, Kohli only got into the death overs once, scoring 17 off 11 balls in the phase against the Chennai Super Kings, after having scored 33 off his first 32 balls.That sort of start was typical of Kohli’s season, and the Royal Challengers were prepared to accept it given the death-overs payoff he can deliver. But did they organise the rest of their batting well enough to complement those slow starts?Simon Katich, their head coach, certainly believes so.”One thing that we tried to do with our batting order was structure it so that guys who batted in consistent pairings complemented each other,” Katich said. “You’re having guys who are strong against maybe pace, and other guys who’re strong against spin to complement each other in different phases of the innings, so it makes it harder for opposition captains to really stifle the innings.ALSO READ: Gambhir says RCB need to look beyond Kohli for captaincy“We see that in games where two similar players bat together and an opposition captain can win a three- or four-over spell of the game with a certain type of bowling, so we were really mindful of that, and hence the reason why there were games where we did bring left-handers into the fold to break up our right-handers at the top, which we obviously had, with three of the top four, in [Aaron] Finch, Kohli and de Villiers.”Pretty much in T20, batting has to be adaptable and flexible, because the nature of the game situation dictates how you have to play, whether you’re batting first or you’re chasing and when you enter the fray. So there are no actual set positions in T20 a lot of times, it comes up to how you have to go against a certain match-up and try and make it as hard as possible for the opposition captain.”That flexibility, however, wasn’t always apparent when it came to de Villiers’ batting position. He batted at No. 4 in all but two of his innings, no matter when the second wicket fell. And he ended up with a rigidly fixed position over his last six innings of the season, after the Royal Challengers made the widely debated decision to promote a pair of left-handers, Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube, above him, to match up against the two legspinners in Kings XI Punjab’s attack.”We certainly tried [promoting the left-handers] in Sharjah against Kings XI knowing full well they had their two legspinners bowling in that phase of the game,” Katich said. “Unfortunately, the execution of that plan probably meant that we copped a lot of flak over it, because it left AB de Villiers not batting as much as we would have liked, and also we didn’t get the runs we would have liked in that phase, where we did promote Sundar and Dube. I don’t think there was anything wrong with the actual thought around the plan.”

“The wickets slowed up and as a batting group we didn’t adapt quickly enough, and when you don’t score enough runs you put an awful lot of pressure on your bowling unit”Mike Hesson, RCB’s director of cricket

There wasn’t, but the flak they copped for the move dissuaded the Royal Challengers from trying it again, even in situations that seemed to cry out for it.In the game against the Super Kings in Dubai, Kohli and de Villiers scored a combined 68 off 62 balls against Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner and Imran Tahir, all of whom turn the ball away from the right-hander. Moeen Ali, a left-hand batsman with a T20 strike rate of 169.36 against legspin and left-arm orthodox before that game, and a far more proven performer than Sundar or Dube, didn’t come out to bat until the 18th over.Moeen didn’t play another game until the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad, when the Royal Challengers made two major changes to their batting line-up. It felt like a belated recognition of the issues that had plagued the team through the tournament, especially through the middle overs. Kohli, who had struggled to find the boundary through the middle overs all season, opened alongside Devdutt Padikkal to try and make use of the powerplay field restrictions. Moeen – who boasted the best middle-overs strike rate (176.51) of all Royal Challengers batsmen since the 2018 season – came back into the team.According to Katich, Moeen was set to bat at No. 3 to target the legspin/left-arm spin combination of Rashid Khan and Shahbaz Nadeem. But the Royal Challengers lost two wickets within the first four overs, and the plan was put on ice. Moeen eventually arrived in the 11th over and ran himself out, off the first ball he faced – a free-hit.ALSO READ: Kohli’s mentorship and never-say-die attitude vital for RCB, says coach Katich“There was a period, if we hadn’t lost a wicket early [in the Eliminator], Moeen would have probably batted three, if he’d come in at the back end of the powerplay or just after the powerplay, so the timing of the wickets probably changed how our batting line-up looked,” Katich said.”We were taking the aggressive option, really, in moving Virat to the top of the order to try and get him in the game, to influence the game positively. That didn’t happen, I mean, that’s the way it panned out. It’s not often you get someone [Kohli] caught down the leg side and someone else run out off a free-hit no-ball, so that’s the way the game goes sometimes, and it didn’t go our way.”It didn’t go their way, but it might well have done had the Royal Challengers taken those decisions earlier in the tournament, and acted more proactively to address their middle-overs issues.

Joe Root shines in starring role but will be the first to credit Dom Sibley’s support act

George Dobell05-Feb-2021It was, in the end, the perfect return. After years in hiding, Test cricket peeped out from behind its paywall and proved its charms, like Audrey Hepburn or a trip to Paris, are undimmed by time or fashion.It’s quite some knack Channel 4 have of picking their games. The last time a day’s Test cricket was broadcast free-to-air in the UK, they showed Kevin Pietersen’s maiden century clinching England a first Ashes series in a generation. On their first day back, a decade-and-a-half later, they showed Joe Root cementing his place among the greats of English cricket with a century that was as beautiful as it was important.First, the historic element: in the course of this innings, Root became the third England player (after Sir Colin Cowdrey and Alec Stewart) to register a century in their 100th Test and the second (after Sir Alastair Cook) to make three Test centuries in a row in Asia. He took his Test average back above 50 in the process.More pertinently, Root has given his side a foothold in this game. There’s a lot of cricket to be played in this match and England are not, by any means, out of danger. But by soaking up early pressure and taking his time to build an innings (he scored 12 from his first 54 balls), Root has shown his side how they compete in these conditions. It doesn’t mean they will win, but it shows how they can.It doesn’t seem unreasonable to think a new audience, taking a peek at the game for the first time, may have fallen in love with Root’s cover drives in the same way previous generations did with those of Ian Bell, Graham Thorpe, David Gower and Peter May. And if that shot didn’t grab them, perhaps they would have fallen for the sweeps – be they reverse, slogged or conventional – or a cut so late it had to apologise to all concerned and promise to buy a new alarm clock.And if they didn’t? Well, maybe cricket isn’t for them. For make no mistake, Root is batting at a level very few can match. Yes, we’ll see more dramatic days. And yes, we’ll see faster rates of scoring. But this was a day which showcased a great player at the peak of his form. And yes, if a new generation are searching for a role-model, they could do a lot worse than England’s Test captain. This was a very good day for English cricket.Related

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Every leading man needs a supporting cast, though. And Root’s straight man, if you like, was Dom Sibley.If you were in the marketing department of Channel 4, you could have been forgiven for letting out a little groan when you turned on the TV some way through the second session on the first day of this series. Whatever they were hoping for when they bought the rights for this series, it probably wasn’t Sibley nudging and nurdling his way to a run-an-over 85. Had he not lost so much weight in recent times, it really might have been a passable impression of a glacier. In a team full of dashers – the likes of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and even Root – he is the anchor. Hoping to watch them and ending up with Sibley is like booking a ticket to see the Beatles and getting a chat with their accountant instead.But from an England perspective, Sibley is what England have been crying out for. This is, remember, an England side which, within eight months in 2019, was bowled out for under 90 in Test cricket three times. A side which attempted to shoehorn Jason Roy into the role of Test opener. A side which, not so long ago, seemed to react to every challenge by trying to hit the ball harder and further. They were entertaining, no doubt. But they weren’t, as a Test side, especially successful.Times have changed. Since Chris Silverwood was appointed coach, England have embraced a more traditional approach to Test cricket which is based upon making significant first-innings runs. To that end, they have selected more traditional opening batsmen and, if they can covert this start into something above 400 on day two, it will be the seventh time they have done so in their 14 most recent first innings. To put that in perspective, before Silverwood took over, they had not managed a first-innings total of 400 in 22 Tests.It’s no coincidence that the improved record coincides with Sibley’s time in the side. Or that England have won four series in a row with him at the top of the order. And while there are times you worry his scorelessness might put him under pressure, such is his determination, his patience and his belief, he seems happy to soak up such periods of play in the knowledge that the bowlers will tire before he does. He richly deserved a century here but can be consoled in the knowledge of the fine foundation he has built for his team.Joe Root shared a 200-run stand with Dom Sibley•BCCIIt’s worth comparing, for a moment, Sibley’s contribution with that of Rory Burns. Burns, too, had built a decent platform. But in attempting to push on, he perished playing the reverse-sweep. It looked ugly.We have to be careful here, though. We can’t praise Root’s daring and criticise Burns’ simply on the basis of the success of the stroke. We can’t just judge by results. Burns had noticed there was nobody at point and he had tried to exploit that gap. It’s not such an unreasonable tactic.But they are differences. While Root has played the reverse-sweep regularly, Burns had (according to Jarrod Kimber’s statistics) played it only 31 times in his first-class career before this innings. Equally, when Keaton Jennings employed the stroke so successfully in Galle, it was on a pitch offering such extravagant turn that he reasoned it was a better defensive option than probing forward with a straight bat.Here the pitch was flat and the ball offering nothing. Here the strike was being rotated and runs were coming smoothly enough. Here three of the bowlers were coming back from injury and might yet prove vulnerable to a prolonged spell in the field. Here there were just the first signs of a bit of frustration within the India ranks. It was the first session of a Test on a surface on which 500 might be par, too.You would think, after his experiences against Pakistan, Burns would be ravenously hungry for runs. He scored only 20 runs in his four innings in that series with Shaheen Shah Afridi, in particularly, bowling him a series of unplayable deliveries. When you’re a Test opener, these things will happen. But when you find yourself in circumstances like this, you have to make it count.But he looked a bit impatient. And in trying to force the pace, altered the percentages to such a degree that he gave the bowler a much greater chance of success. R Ashwin, perhaps spotting the move, bowled his slowest delivery of the day to that point and Burns was through his shot too early. Good bowling, certainly, but there was more than a hint of self-inflicted injury about the dismissal. Dan Lawrence’s departure, almost immediately afterwards, only compounded the blow. Burns could do much worse than look at his opening partner and learn from his hunger.The key thing to remember here is the value of first-innings runs. On the most recent Test on this ground – in 2016 – England won the toss, scored 477 and still lost by an innings. The game before, in 2013, Australia made 380 in their first innings and still lost by eight wickets. Make no mistake: this game is not safe. England have to be ruthless.There is a case, a strong case, for attempting to bat into a third day. It would not only just about take defeat out of the equation in this game, it would put a lot more miles into the legs of this India side. With three more Tests to come within the next few weeks, that is an investment that could pay dividends.In Root, England have the right man in position to capitalise on the second day. But while he will, quite rightly, dominate the headlines, he will be the first to credit the contribution of Sibley.

The season may have been abruptly cut short, but there were a number of players who dazzled us with their performances

Sreshth Shah09-May-20211. Shikhar Dhawan (380 runs, ave 54.28, three fifties)Dhawan returned home with the Orange Cap for the most runs. He began the season with a match-winning 54-ball 85 against the Chennai Super Kings. Then against Punjab Kings, he wallopped 92 in 49 balls as he married precision with power in equal measure and followed it up with an unbeaten 69 to anchor a second win against the same side. In between, he notched up two more forties. Dhawan also hit the most fours (43) this season.2. Prithvi Shaw (308 runs, strike rate 166.48, three fifties)After a forgettable IPL 2020, all eyes were on Shaw this season after superb white-ball performances in domestic cricket. He mauled a 38-ball 72 against the Super Kings. Then against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he played a patient 39-ball 53 on a two-paced surface. And against Kolkata Knight Riders, his 41-ball 82 was set up by the first over against Shivam Mavi where he hit his Under-19 World Cup batch-mate for six fours in an over. Shaw pipped Faf du Plessis to the second opener’s spot after a 7-5 vote by the jury.ESPNcricinfo’s IPL 2021 team of the tournament•ESPNcricinfo Ltd3. Moeen Ali (206 runs, strike rate 157.25, 5 wickets)The Super Kings’ 2021 auction recruit took the No. 3 spot and helped his side change gears with his cameos. He also hit a fifty against the Mumbai Indians in a high-scoring contest. His aggressive shot selection helped the well-equipped Super Kings middle order to carry the momentum and helped them post scores of 220, 218, 191, 188 and 188. With the ball, he was used almost always against left-handers alone, and his best performance was a 3 for 7 against the Rajasthan Royals.4. Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper) (277 runs, strike rate 145.78, 1 hundred)Samson lit the tournament up early with a brilliant century, in a loss against the Punjab Kings. His 119 (12 fours and seven sixes) nearly took the Royals over the line as he failed to deposit a six off the final ball of the match in a chase of 222. Then came a string of low scores for the side’s captain, but his return to form with scores of 42*, 42, and 48 in his last three games was interrupted by the tournament’s postponement. He is also the wicketkeeper of our side.5. AB de Villiers (207 runs, strike rate 164.28, average 51.75, 2 fifties)Although de Villiers did not play any cricket since IPL 2020, there was no rustiness in his batting. His 27-ball 48 against Mumbai ensured the Royal Challengers Bangalore started the tournament with a win. Then came his unbeaten 34-ball 76 in an afternoon game against the Knight Riders where he hit Andre Russell to all parts in the death overs and followed it up with the 42-ball 75 against the Capitals. He helped the Royal Challengers win the game by a run, as he went after Kagiso Rabada and Marcus Stoinis in particular. It was de Villiers’ first time batting a whole season at No. 5, and he aced the challenge with flying colours.6. Kieron Pollard (captain) (168 runs, strike rate 171.42, average 56.00, 3 wickets)After hitting just 12 runs in his first two games, Pollard returned to form when he creamed three sixes in a 22-ball 35 against the Sunrisers and followed it up with a two-over spell at an economy of only five. Pollard saved his best for the blockbuster against the Super Kings. He dismissed du Plessis and Suresh Raina, going only for only 12 in two overs in a game where both teams scored over 200. With Mumbai’s backs against the wall in the chase, he masterminded a counterattack by smashing 87 at a strike-rate of 255.88 to chase down 219 off the game’s last ball. The jury also picked Pollard as the team’s captain, over the only other option Samson.Related

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7. Ravindra Jadeja (131 runs, strike rate 161.72. six wickets, economy 6.70)In his six outings, Jadeja was out only once, and played the role of the finisher so well that he came out to bat ahead of MS Dhoni and Sam Curran on most occasions. Although his unbeaten knocks of 26 and 22 against the Capitals and Mumbai came in the Super Kings’ only two losses, he produced one of the best all-round performances in IPL history against the Royal Challengers. He first destroyed the 20th over from Harshal Patel to extract 37 runs from it to finish on a 28-ball 64. He then followed it up with a three-for that included the wickets of Glenn Maxwell and de Villiers. And to top it off, he also effected a direct-hit run out in the same game.8. Rashid Khan (10 wickets, average 17.20, economy 6.14)One of the few bright spots in a disappointing season for the Sunrisers, Rashid was the second-highest wicket-taker among spinners and had the best economy of all those who delivered 12 or more overs. The quality of his wickets are even more remarkable: Shubman Gill and Russell against the Knight Riders. Gayle against Punjab, de Villiers against the Royal Challengers, Dhawan against Capitals and Ruturaj Gaikwad, du Plessis and Moeen against the Super Kings. He also bowled a Super Over against the Capitals, and nearly defended a target of 8.9. Rahul Chahar (11 wickets, average 18.36, strike rate 15.2)Chahar was the best spinner in the tournament. Whenever Mumbai needed a breakthrough, they turned to Chahar, and he almost always delivered. His four-for against the Knight Riders helped set up an unlikely win. His 3 for 19 against the Sunrisers bowled them out for 137. And his 2 for 33 put the brakes on the rampaging Royals opening stand, as he dismissed Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal in quick succession. With other Indian wristspinners struggling in the tournament, Chahar’s IPL performances have made him a frontrunner for a starting spot in India’s T20I team.10. Avesh Khan (14 wickets, average 16.50, strike rate 12.8)Avesh Khan 2.0, a leaner, fitter version of his past self was so successful for the Capitals that he was preferred ahead of Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. He bowled the difficult transitionary overs between the powerplays and also at the death. He took a wicket in all eight games with two three-fors. His ability to get seam movement with the hard ball and execute yorkers with the older ball made him the player with the most impact points per match average in the whole season, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats. Khan’s consistent performances also helped him get a call up as a standby for India’s red-ball tour of England next month.11. Jasprit Bumrah (6 wickets, economy 7.11)The wickets may have dried up for Bumrah, but the impact has not. And that’s because he is now usually reserved for the back end of the innings where the economy is more impact than wickets. Bumrah’s performance this season gave batsmen a big dilemma. Because if they tried to attack him, they would get out. And if they did not, they would allow the required run-rate to balloon. Either way, Bumrah was king when he had the ball with his wide yorkers and back-of-length balls that awkwardly angle into the batter, or the yorker around leg stump. The way Boult and Bumrah hunted in pairs was a sight to behold.

And how often has a player made twin hundreds in a Test but ended up on the losing side?

Steven Lynch27-Apr-2021In a recent IPL match Steven Smith was caught by Jhye Richardson off the bowling off Riley Meredith – all three Australians. How many such dismissals, involving three overseas players from the same country, have there been? asked P Sridhat from India
The wicket you’re talking about came during the match between the Delhi Capitals and the Punjab Kings in Mumbai last week. Steven Smith, playing for Delhi, was caught at third man by Jhye Richardson off Riley Meredith, Australians all.It sent Shiva Jayaraman, of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team, delving into the darker recesses of his database, and he discovered 18 previous cases of an IPL dismissal involving three overseas players from the same country. Eleven of them also comprised three Aussies, including the first, when David Hussey was caught by Cameron White off Ashley Noffke while playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru in the very first IPL match, back in 2008.Adam Gilchrist was the unlucky batter three times, while Ryan Harris was the bowler on three other occasions. Smith also featured as a fielder, when he caught Glenn Maxwell off Kane Richardson for the Rajasthan Royals against the Kings XI Punjab in Sharjah in 2014.Getty ImagesHow many people played the last one-day international of their career in a World Cup final? asked Richard Jellicoe from England
At the moment there are 16 men who fit the bill here, including Liam Plunkett – he has been overlooked by England since the 2019 final, but has been linked with playing for the United States, where his wife is from.Plunkett is one of nine men whose ODI careers were rounded off by a World Cup win, following Rohan Kanhai (1975), Imran Khan (1992), Paul Reiffel (1999), Glenn McGrath (2007), Sreesanth (2011), and the Australian trio of Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson in 2015. The other seven tasted defeat: Ross Edwards (1975), Faoud Bacchus (1983), Javagal Srinath (2003), Russel Arnold (2007), Muttiah Muralitharan and Thilan Samaraweera (2011), and Daniel Vettori (2015).In women’s cricket, where such matches were more infrequent in the early years, there are 33 players whose final ODI appearance came in a World Cup final.RCB overhauled a target of 178 without losing a wicket the other day – was this the highest total involved in a ten-wicket win in the IPL? asked Praveen Mistry from India
The Royal Challengers Bangalore hurtled to 181 for 0 in defeating the Rajasthan Royals (177 for 9) in Mumbai the other day. It was the 15th ten-wicket win in IPL history, but only two of those involved a higher target being overhauled: the Chennai Super Kings also made 181 for 0 in defeating the Kings XI Punjab (178 for 4) in Dubai in 2020, while the Kolkata Knight Riders ran up 185 for 0 to clobber the Gujarat Lions (183 for 4) in Rajkot in 2017.Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal took RCB to the third highest ten-wicket win in the IPL, against the Rajasthan Royals•BCCIOllie Robinson took six lbws in an innings – and nine in the match – in the County Championship the other day. Was either of those a record? asked Mark Plummer from England
The answer is that the Sussex seamer Ollie Robinson’s haul of lbws against Glamorgan in Cardiff earlier this month equalled both those first-class records. There had been three previous instances of a bowler claiming six lbws in a first-class innings, by Mark Ilott on his way to 9 for 19 for Essex against Northamptonshire in Luton in 1995, Chaminda Vaas for Western Province vs Southern Province in Colombo in 2004-05, and Tabish Khan for Karachi Whites against Khan Research Laboratories in Karachi in 2011-12.Ilott finished with nine lbws in that Luton match, as did Kabir Khan for Peshawar against Karachi Blues in Peshawar in 1991-92, and Tabraiz Shamsi for Titans vs Warriors in Port Elizabeth in 2015-16.In one of last week’s answers you mentioned a Test in which Virat Kohli scored twin centuries, but ended up on the losing side. How often has this happened in Tests? asked Gordhan Valasai from Pakistan
Virat Kohli scored 115 and 141 against Australia in Adelaide in 2014-15, in his first Test as India’s captain. That was the tenth time a batter had scored two centuries in a match and ended up on the losing side: the first was England’s Herbert Sutcliffe, with 176 and 127 against Australia in Melbourne in 1924-25.Since Kohli did it there has been one further occurrence: Brendan Taylor scored 110 and 106 not out for Zimbabwe in Mirpur in 2018-19, but Bangladesh won the match. Two other Indians have managed this bittersweet feat: Vijay Hazare, against Australia in Adelaide in 1947-48 (a match in which he also bowled Don Bradman, although not before he’d made 201), and Sunil Gavaskar, against Pakistan in Karachi in 1978-79.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Thirty-five years on, a look back at the last-ball six that marked a high point in Pakistan’s cricket history

Osman Samiuddin18-Apr-2021The mid-pitch conference at Sharjah lasted at least twenty seconds. Javed Miandad, one hand on hip, one on bat, lush moustache dominating face, now remembers remarkably little of it. ‘It was one of those nothing ones, where you just hang around, catch a breath,’ he says. The conference the ball before had been, he believes, the crucial one. ‘That was when I had told him that we have to take a single, no matter what.”Him’ remembers it differently, as perhaps he would. Tauseef Ahmed–no off-spinner so resembled Lionel Ritchie–wasn’t even supposed to be there. The wicketkeeper Zulqernain had been sent above Tauseef, after Ramiz Raja told captain Imran Khan that he hit big sixes in club games in Lahore. He could, but he didn’t–despite Tauseef telling him to go for a single to get Miandad on strike just before he went out–and when he was bowled attempting one of those sixes, two balls were left, five runs needed.Tauseef’s memory is sharper, and in it, he inverts what Miandad wrote in his autobiography. Perhaps his children believe him. ‘I told Javed when I came out that we simply had to take a run no matter what, even if the ball went to the wicketkeeper. Javed asked me whether I was sure, and I said we don’t have a chance otherwise.’ So Tauseef bunted towards cover and ran. Mohammad Azharuddin, one of the world’s best fielders, ran in, picked up and missed the stumps from no more than four feet.Related

• Six and done – Javed saves the best for last

• Miandad seals it with a six

Then came the mid-pitch conference. ‘He came to me and asked me, “What do you think he’ll try to do?”’ continues Tauseef. ‘I said he’ll definitely go for a yorker. Javed said, “Yes, and that means it could also become a full toss if he doesn’t get it right.” In any case, Javed was standing out of his crease a little.’Chetan Sharma bowled perhaps the world’s best-known yorker gone wrong•Adrian Murrell/Getty ImagesNineteen years later, on a train ride from Visakhapatnam to Jamshedpur, a group of Indian and Pakistani journalists sat in a berth with Chetan Sharma, once cricketer of India and planner of that yorker, then reporter for Zee TV. The journey was twenty-seven hours in the middle of a hectic tour, so talk naturally could be of one thing alone. A few beers down, surreptitiously consumed as if he was doing so in a dorm at boarding school, Sharma was the entertainment. Story after story came out, achievements and disappointments, selectorial slights, a*****e teammates, of what is wrong with everything in Indian cricket, the media, the world. Journalists being journalists, especially Pakistani ones, and fond of dealing in misery, there was only one story everyone wanted to hear. It wasn’t about Sharma’s unexpected ODI century as a pinch-hitter against England. It wasn’t even about a World Cup hat-trick. After a cigarette break, it was decided that the question would finally be asked; having held out for five hours, the great, stinking big elephant in the room would have to be poked. Two hours in, an outsider walking by recognizing Sharma, had stepped in excitedly wanting to chat; the journalists felt could’ve been the moment but he merely asked about Sharma’s hat-trick and left.Finally, the man from Reuters asked: ‘Chetan bhai, tell us one thing… what were you…’ Sharma interrupted. He knew this question. He had probably answered it to himself a million times over. ‘Arrey yaar, I just wanted to bowl a yorker.’
He wanted to, but he didn’t. After the mid-pitch chat, Miandad stood at his wicket looking around the field. He needed four somewhere. He counted fielders around the ground–perhaps hoping it had swallowed a few–and took guard. Had Miandad successfully petitioned God for the ideal delivery, he could not have conjured up a better one; a thigh-high full toss, swinging in to his legs. He put it somewhere in the region of the stands at midwicket, arms raised almost in one motion from finishing the shot, and off he ran. Iftikhar Ahmed, the TV commentator, waited three seconds before concluding: ‘It’s a six … and Pakistan have won … unnnnbelievable win by Pakistan …’ He was calmer than many could hope to be and certainly more than the strangled screech heard just before his voice, a more manic subcontinent predecessor to Budweiser’s ingratiating ‘Waazzzup’; that it came from the short, round Mushtaq Mohammad, only nominally an impartial expert in the commentary box, is unsurprising.Like cartoons running away from a building on fire, Miandad and Tauseef hurtled to the pavilion from where a sizeable crowd was already pouring out. Smartly, Miandad–just behind Tauseef–curved away off-screen, while Tauseef went straight into the fans. He was greeted by fast bowling teammate Zakir Khan just before a , local police, seemed to knock him down with his baton, trying to control the crowd. ‘No, no, he didn’t hit me,’ Tauseef busted one enduring comic myth, ‘he just bumped into me and knocked me over.’Going downtown again: Miandad smacks one in a Benson and Hedges Cup game in Perth in 1987•Associated PressThat one shot was like a mince grinder in reverse. Into that burst went every strand of the transformation Pakistan had undergone over the preceding decade and half; the emergence of a superstar core, the spread of the game, the growing power of the player, the administrative vision of Abdul Hafeez Kardar and Nur Khan, the birth of departmental cricket, the rise of TV, more money. On the other side came out one solid lump of a golden age, the most golden age, in fact, Pakistan has ever had.Until came the logical conclusion in 1992 of the World Cup triumph, Pakistan were arguably the best side in the world alongside the West Indies. They lost just one Test series till 1993 (and only three in the decade between 1985 and 1995) and won a host of ODI tournaments, not least in Sharjah itself. Until 1999, by which time
they had fallen–but still only lost six series from thirty-six–they remained one of the top sides in the world.To Miandad, describing the innings is dependent on his mood and bearing. Sometimes it is a simple gift from God. ‘Let’s take it from the start,’ he begins, and he really does. ‘I believe in Quran and its verses. I read it right? So I used to always pray to God that in my own field, help me do this one big feat that will always be remembered. This was my prayer.
‘I saw there were bigger players before me, who weren’t remembered. So I always prayed that I do something big. I used to tell myself, even if I die in the field, I don’t care. It’s like a soldier dying on duty. It is (martyrdom). That innings was like a gift to me. I didn’t play cricket like that, ever. That match … it was like a film. When I dream, it was like a film whose story has been written and now the film is being made. You cannot imagine one of the best fielders, from a few yards away missing three stumps, that you went in such crisis, wickets are falling, you are saved from a run-out, one four is stopped in last over, last ball finish, where the match was and where it went. This is a gift. To describe it is impossible. This was a gift from God.’Sometimes he takes recourse in rationality. ‘When I started, we’d already lost a few wickets, so the plan was to bat till the end so that even if we lost, we did with some dignity. Gradually, I started taking chances. Mostly I took risks with the running, but I’d hit a boundary and then stop for a few overs, before trying it again. We got to the last 20 overs still needing 9 or 10 per over. That was when I started actively working it out in my head, what we needed every over, where to get it, who to work with. By the time the last ball was to be bowled, I had become a computer: I knew exactly what Chetan was going to do, so I stood well out of my crease. He tried a yorker but being that far out, it became a high-ish full toss and I just swung. As soon as I connected, I knew it was gone.’

KKR exploited Dhoni’s weakness against mystery spin to tip the game their way but the allrounder eventually won it for CSK

Varun Shetty26-Sep-20213:08

Did the missing Andre Russell over hurt KKR’s defence?

For the third time in two seasons, Kolkata Knight Riders capitalised on a tactical error from Chennai Super Kings to get all over them while defending a total. At the same venue, Abu Dhabi, last year, Knight Riders had kept overs in hand from their mystery spinners to bowl at MS Dhoni in Super Kings’ chase of 168. Together, Varun Charkaravarthy and Sunil Narine managed to tie him down to 11 off 12. Super Kings then sent in Kedar Jadhav, leaving Ravindra Jadeja only eight balls after he came in during the 18th over. Jadeja hit an unbeaten 21, but Super Kings lost by ten runs.In the return fixture in Dubai, it came down to a similar situation as the Super Kings looked to chase down 173. Dhoni lasted four balls on this occasion, falling to Varun again. This time, however, Ruturaj Gaikwad kept Super Kings ticking in the middle overs until Jadeja walked in during the 18th over. With 30 needed off two overs, he took complete control, belting 31 off 11 balls against a jittery Lockie Ferguson and Kamlesh Nagarkoti. That effectively ended KKR’s playoffs push, and a glimpse of Jadeja as the specialist finisher became one of the few highlights of Super Kings’ below-par 2020 campaign.On Sunday, there was no doubt that Jadeja has fully grown into and embraced the role in what has been an exponential rise as a batter over the last two years. Once again, Knight Riders used Dhoni’s vulnerability against Varun to haul the game their way; Varun bowled Dhoni and Suresh Raina was run-out in the 18th over, which cost the Knight Riders just five runs.Once again, it looked like Super Kings had left too little time for Jadeja. But once again, he turned the tables on Knight Riders, taking 20 off Prasidh Krishna’s last four balls to leave them needing four off the last over.Watch the IPL on ESPN+

Sign up for ESPN+ and catch all the action from the IPL live in the US. Match highlights of Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders are available here in English, and here in Hindi (US only).

“I think this was [almost] exact – one year back in Dubai, second game against KKR, Jaddu won us the game in the last over,” Super Kings bowling coach L Balaji said after the match. “I recollected a little bit, and went back to the memory. When Ravi was playing, [we knew] definitely he would do some kind of magic. He has improved his batting under pressure and he is showing that on the field and making sure he’s helping us to cross the line. It’s wonderful to see Ravi coming a little bit higher and higher in this batting order. His batting ability has changed overall in the last one or two years.”Sam Curran had batted ahead of Jadeja in both games against Knight Riders last season. This stands to reason, as Super Kings use him as a floater; he has often batted ahead of Dhoni, too, over the last two seasons. This seems to work well for Super Kings, with Jadeja following Dhoni a clear move to give him clarity: he is not expected to build an innings, or hold the middle order together in this team, with six-hitting being the clear brief. The ‘magic’ is expected in two or three overs of batting, as it might well be when he joins India for the T20 World Cup next month. Against this specific opposition, however, you can’t help but feel that Super Kings have only just managed to get away.2:07

L Balaji lauds Ravindra Jadeja’s accuracy

At the post-match presentation, Dhoni alluded to that, saying ‘it is enjoyable when you don’t do so well and still win,’ given how many times the opposite can happen in cricket. But as they sealed their seventh last-ball win in the IPL – more than anyone else – the Super Kings dugout was quietly confident.”We knew until and unless the last ball is bowled, the match is not over,” Balaji said. “So we were aware as a support staff that we have to get it closer and closer. So yes, there were a couple of moments, a couple of hiccups here and there. But we were able to come up. That is what CSK [and] our mantra is all about. To take that pressure and come out positively and take it as much as you can with your experience that you’ve gained on the field – nothing can be compared to that [experience]. Every match gives you some kind of experience and it’s a wonderful match to be a part of.”The win took Super Kings to the top of the table with 16 points, with four games to go. It has been a complete turnaround to last year’s performance, when they finished seventh with 12 points.A large part of that has come down to the all-round riches they possess, which was evident in the last over with Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar scoring the runs needed after having good outings with the ball earlier. Curran, Dwayne Bravo, and Moeen Ali round off an enviable roster of such allrounders; from this group, Jadeja has emerged as a clear MVP, with major impact expected in both innings of a game. On Sunday, he made more impact than anyone according to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats, which gave him an impact score of 81.56, clear of Thakur who was rated 76.15. Jadeja’s 1 for 21 in four overs, with the wicket of Rahul Tripathi, played its part.”We all know how much Jaddu’s bowling will make an impact when it’s right-handers, or one right-hander and one left-hander comes into play. Especially in day games. Jaddu is pretty consistent with his lines,” Balaji said. “He doesn’t give any free-flowing shots to the batters. That is what we have understood over a period of time – Jaddu is one guy, if he finishes, then it’ll make a huge difference. This is what happened in the previous game against RCB. He came good, in a smaller ground, on a flatter track. He came good, so that helped the fast bowler to finish well. That’s exactly what happened [again].”As India scratch their heads about Hardik Pandya’s bowling fitness, and grapple with a problem of plenty with the batters at their disposal for the T20 World Cup, Jadeja might slowly be emerging as the answer to many questions.

The PCB’s anger and frustration stems from the fear of the precedent this cancellation now sets for the future

Osman Samiuddin17-Sep-2021The PCB has been left in a state of “shock and disbelief” by New Zealand’s abrupt abandonment of their tour to Pakistan. New Zealand Cricket called off the tour – their first to Pakistan in 18 years – minutes before the first ODI was scheduled to start in Rawalpindi, acting on a security alert from their government. That decision has led to mounting frustration and anger within the Pakistan board, as well as fears of how it may impact their calendar this season and beyond.The derailment of this white-ball tour began on Friday with a 3am (Pakistan time) call from the NZC to the PCB about the security alert, which, 12 hours later, led to the cancellation of the cricket without a ball being bowled. ESPNcricinfo has been told that western security agencies became aware of a specific threat they deemed credible at some point in the last 36 hours which was shared with a number of governments, including New Zealand’s.Related

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• Security alert: New Zealand call off Pakistan tour minutes before first ODI

Eventually that information forced a decision to call off the tour, despite a phone call between the Prime Ministers of the countries, Imran Khan and Jacinda Ardern, in which the former (in Tajikistan on an official visit) tried to salvage the situation. Soon after the first ODI’s abandonment, a Rawalpindi police advisory citing a threat to the tour issued earlier this week emerged. It is not clear if this is the advisory NZC acted upon; the PCB say New Zealand had been made aware of two events in the city (a local bodies election and a religious procession referred to in the police advisory) and the schedule had been worked around them. Discussions between the PCB and NZC did not consider a venue switch to a neutral country, primarily because it was so late in the day. In any case, the UAE, Pakistan’s home in exile for nearly a decade, is ruled out because it is hosting the IPL.The PCB, and Pakistani authorities, are nevertheless frustrated that, despite repeated attempts, no information has been shared with them regarding the threat, as well as the fact that multiple reassurances as to the visitors’ safety, and the state-level security provided to them, fell on deaf ears. They also claim that NZC security advisors on the ground, the ones on whose advice NZC said they leaned on to make this decision – remained confident in the security arrangements Pakistan had put in place for the tour. One Pakistan official also asked why, if a threat had become apparent within the last 36 hours, the New Zealand side still turned up to training the day before the game.Securitypersons stand guard outside the stadium•Anadolu Agency via Getty Image”We’re still in shock and disbelief at what has happened,” one board official said. “It’s mind-boggling that we’ve been told nothing by NZC, that no information was shared with us about any threat. Until earlier today we felt that the mood among New Zealand’s players was good and they were willing to play. We were confident in any case that we had the security protocols in place to ensure this tour would go ahead without incident.”There is plenty of anger too, as was evident first in the statement which pointedly termed New Zealand’s decision to leave as “unilateral”, and then in the new board chairman Ramiz Raja’s tweet, in which he raised the prospect of the PCB taking this to the ICC.Having hosted more and more series in Pakistan over the last couple of years, the PCB’s anger and frustration stems from the fear of the precedent this cancellation now sets for the future.The board will no doubt reach out to reassure the ECB, whose men’s and women’s teams are due to tour in October; NZC and the ECB employ the same security consultants – ESI Risk – on whose behalf Reg Dickason inspected security arrangements ahead of the New Zealand tour. The ECB has already said it will make a decision within the next 24-48 hours on the fate of the tour – which would’ve been their first since 2005-06.Next year in February-March, Australia are due to tour for the first time in over 20 years, but the status of that, even at this early distance, looks shaky. New Zealand women are scheduled to visit this season and the men’s side are also supposed to visit again in 2022-23, for a series of Tests and ODIs.

Tourists have a foot in the door – and after the way this trip has gone, that’s something

Andrew McGlashan05-Jan-2022There has been a fair amount of ridicule thrown England’s way for all their talk of planning for an Ashes which was then decided in 12 days. There will be a lot more said and written as the wreckage of the tour is picked through but there has been a glimmer in the last two matches of what Plan A could have looked like if it had come together.The key plank of England’s bid to win in Australia was to have a battery of fast bowlers – the 150kph variety – that they could rotate through during the five games. In the end Jofra Archer and Olly Stone did not even get on the plane due to their injuries. It has been left to Mark Wood to carry the load and he has done it manfully. His efforts on the opening day at the SCG were made more commendable because he had suffered a stomach bug the night before the game.In each of the three Tests he has played he has shown what could have been – with either more runs to play with or fellow quicks to share the burden. At the Gabba he found the edge of Steven Smith as England briefly brought themselves back into the game; at the MCG he had Marnus Labuschagne edging to slip and at the SCG he claimed the world No. 1 batter for a second time with a beauty that was nicked to the keeper.Related

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“Obviously [they are] two massive wickets,” Wood said. “You want to try and test yourself against the best players. I’ve been slightly frustrated myself that I’ve felt in great rhythm but haven’t got the amount of wickets that I’d like. But if you get big wickets like those it certainly makes you very happy. Marnus is a top player, a key player in their side, and if we can get Smith in the morning that’s another huge feather in our cap.”They are but very small interludes in the bigger thrashing Australia have dished out, yet they are telling. Wood has got the better of two of the best batters in the world. Pace has made the difference. Whereas Smith and Labuschagne have that fraction longer to adjust against England’s other pace bowlers, Wood has hurried them into their strokes. Alongside Stuart Broad adding another round-the-wicket dismissal of David Warner it was just the odd glimpse at an alternative Ashes.”We are trying to make them play as much as possible,” Wood said. “I know we’ve had this bowl fuller thing but actually I’m not sure it’s bowling along the wicket and throwing it up there, it’s hitting the wicket hard and making them play as much as you can. Thankfully made Marnus play that ball, it wasn’t an easy leave ball, and he edged it. The ball before he hit me for four and I just tried to zone in a little bit more and thankfully got it spot on.”Joe Root completed the catch to remove Marcus Harris•Getty ImagesIt was also a nice moment for Joe Root who had immediately recalled Wood to the attack in place of Jack Leach – with the main intention of targeting the newly arrived Smith – and it took him just two balls to make an impression. It was not the most inventive piece of captaincy, but on a tough tour it will have been a satisfying moment for Root.”When Smith came in think it was just a gut instinct from Rooty to get me on,” Wood said. “He wanted me to try have that wicket-taking intent and get one of their two best players out.”Labuschagne’s wicket came amid England’s best period of the truncated day when Australia looked set to make the most significant use of the play available. But a timely change of ball after the original one had gone out of shape on the damp outfield suddenly changed the complexion as James Anderson got the replacement to move sideways.Marcus Harris had done so much right during his innings – it was the most confident he had looked all series – and unfurled some terrific drives, notably off the back foot through point off Ben Stokes, but was then lured into fiddling at one outside off. It was a chance missed to build on his hard work of Melbourne in far more friendly batting conditions, even if the stop-start nature of the proceedings had made it tricky.”When the ball needs changing it’s obviously out of shape and can be a bit soft because the water gets into the ball,” Wood said. “We didn’t feel the other ball was moving laterally. Then I was fielding at square leg to Jimmy and saw him nip a few to Steve Smith so thought maybe the ball had a bit more of a pronounced seam. When you get that newer ball, things just change slightly.”Overall, this Test has yet to really take shape. Australia will be frustrated that three top order batters couldn’t convert their starts but Warner said he could already see some cracks in what started as a well-grassed surface and batting on days four and five may be tricky. Then there’s the weather which threatens to take out more time. However, from England’s point of view they have a foot in the door. And after the way this tour has gone, that’s something.

Ashes-winning captain, autocratic “supremo”, Farsley CC groundsman – “Illy” was one of the game’s true greats

David Hopps25-Dec-2021Raymond Illingworth had a fair claim to be considered the most competent English cricketer since the war. He was not, as Yorkshire’s pointed out, a great batsman, nor a great bowler, nor a great fieldsman. But he was a professional’s professional, “sufficiently expert, in his employment of experience, knowledge, tactical insight and psychology as a captain to be remembered without qualification as a great cricketer”.In fact, there was little Illingworth (known throughout his career as “Illy”) did not know about cricket and virtually nothing he could not do in the game. As a small boy he would help prepare his local club ground for a match and when his race was run, and he had a distinguished record as a former England manager and captain, he still enjoyed rolling the grass and marking the pitch at his local Bradford League club, Farsley. He had opinions on groundsmanship as he had opinions on everything else that was cricket related. He was truly a cricket man for all seasons and for all moments, critical or contemplative.The son of a cabinet-maker and joiner, he inherited strong hands, long fingers, powerful arms and an attention to detail. He left school in Farsley at 14 with a batting average of 100 and a bowling average of two. He furthered his cricketing education on the damp pitches and in the stinging winds of the Bradford League which encouraged in him a pragmatism that never wavered. When he was only 15, he scored 148 not out in a Priestley Cup Final spread over several evenings.Related

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Illingworth was playing for Yorkshire’s 2nd XI before he gained wider prominence during national service when playing for the RAF and Combined Services. He was 19 when he scored 56 on his debut for Yorkshire in 1951 but was unable to compete for a regular place until after his release in 1953 when a series of mishaps to Yorkshire’s bowlers left a vacancy.Illy had bowled right-arm medium until he discovered, in a league match, a talent for offspin and it was as an offbreak bowler, with a well-disguised “arm” ball that he would be mostly remembered. His smooth, contemplative approach and curl of his bowling arm before delivery imposed an impression of order and he resented every run he conceded. His versatility was such that for a quarter century he was numbered among the world’s most reliable allrounders, as reflected in his career figures: 24,134 runs at an average of 28.06, 2,072 wickets at 20.28.He hit 22 first-class centuries and took 446 catches, usually at gully from where he kept an eagle eye on the play, as analytical as any player in Yorkshire’s history. As a young player, he had to withstand a bullying Yorkshire dressing room where senior players held sway. He was no more than an average fielder when he entered the Yorkshire team and suffered some sarcastic outbursts from the acerbic Johnny Wardle until, after a confrontation, he became Wardle’s favourite fielder in the deep.Many of Illingworth’s runs were made at a critical juncture in the innings when either defiance or dash was needed and his ability to provide either made him a major figure in Yorkshire’s seven trophies, including five Championships, in the 1960s. Cricket was a job and the job was to win, from the outset. Throughout he was captain Brian Close’s right-hand man and the story goes that when one of the ebullient skipper’s cunning wheezes went awry the team naturally turned to Illingworth to restore order. They were a potent blend, Close possessed of a gambler’s instinct, Illingworth shrewd and intense. They were solid friends, each convinced they knew more than the other.Judged a batting offspinner by the England selectors, he had to compete for a Test place with several expert practitioners, including his fellow Yorkshiremen Bob Appleyard and Jim Laker, who played for Surrey, and did not play for the first of his 61 Tests till 1958. He toured Australia in 1962-63 where public comments about the captaincy and the tour management made him a suspicious character to cricket’s establishment.

“Playing under Illy was a marvellous experience, going to school under a stern and humorous headmaster whose own foibles made him that much more of a human being”David Gower

His future at Headingley seemed considerably more stable when he followed Close as Yorkshire’s captain, but he was not a man given to gamble in cricket or in life and, in 1968, at 37, he sought some insurance from Yorkshire through a written contract. By a piece of mismanagement spectacular by even Yorkshire’s history he was sacked, became Leicestershire’s captain and transformed them into one of England’s leading teams, taking them to the Championship for the first time in their history.David Gower, a young aspirant when Illingworth arrived at Leicestershire and who was to one day follow him as captain of England, later remembered: “Playing under Illy was a marvellous experience, going to school under a stern and humorous headmaster whose own foibles made him that much more of a human being.”Above all this headmaster had standards. And only if you observed those standards were you admitted to the inner circle of his confidence. You had to look after yourself in what he considered to be a proper manner on and off the field. If you did all that he loved you; if you didn’t, he would be down on you. His attitude to any and every game of cricket was 100 percent effort.”Even the establishment was impressed and, strikingly late in his career, the England captaincy followed, a run of 31 successive Tests, plus five against the Rest of the World, which culminated in the regaining of the Ashes in Australia in 1970-71. It ended with his team triumphantly chairing him from the field in an obvious show of respect, but it was a controversial series and Illingworth’s demeanour and attitude brought criticism from the more traditional pundits. He argued on the field about short-pitched bowling with the Australian umpire Lou Rowan in the Sydney Test, and when bottles and cans were thrown on to the outfield in protest, Illingworth led his players off the field in protest. England played in his manner: tough, pugnacious, shrewd.The Yorkshire committee, beset by argument and furore over the future of Geoffrey Boycott, invited him back as manager in 1979 but such was the acrimony that by the end of the summer, he admitted he wished he had never returned from Leicester. Whatever the regrets he persevered in trying to restore the county’s fortunes and in 1982, 15 days after his 50th birthday, he found himself appointed Yorkshire’s captain, a post that should have been his more than a decade before. Yorkshire finished that summer bottom of the Championship for the first time, but Illingworth bowling many a crafty over, took them to the Sunday League title, their first trophy for 14 years.Devon Malcolm bowls as Ray Illingworth looks on•Getty ImagesThat triumph failed to save him from a sacking at the next annual general meeting when the Committee was overturned by Boycott supporters so Illingworth once more departed to the media where his printed and on-screen comments were trenchant and wise. Even then his career was far from over for such was his prestige that he was invited to become England team manager in 1986; he looked at the terms, felt that the authority granted was insufficient and demurred.Ten years later with England desperate for a saviour and with previous disagreements forgotten, Illingworth became chairman of selectors. While his brusque Yorkshire independence was enough for him to be the anti-establishment candidate, it was hardly a revolution – he became the oldest chairman of selectors for 40 years and had little patience with progressive ideas. Where he wanted assistants, he preferred old trusties.When he added the position of team manager, he became one of the most autocratic figures in English cricket history, Jack Bannister wrote in , a joint undertaking with Illingworth: “No one man has had so much power in English cricket at selection and managerial level.”The players, alas, were not of the kind he knew and he found it hard to adapt to changing social attitudes. Some of his selections might also have benefited from a stronger challenge from others. His most controversial run-in came with the fast but wild Devon Malcolm, who was dismayed by his hostility, but who later expressed regret at speculation that their fall-out had been racially motivated. Michael Atherton, a young captain with equally firm views, was not impressed. “My view was that the captain was there to make the important cricketing decisions and the manager was there to reduce the hassle,” he wrote in his autobiography. “Raymond obviously thought it was the other way round!”Illingworth became a CBE, and after his retirement he was a regular visitor to Headingley’s press box where he enjoyed a good moan, his uncompromising opinions laced with humour, and shared his knowledge on every nuance of play. Yorkshire made some reparation for previous injustices by electing him club president in 2010-11, a position he took up diligently until he had a heart attack in his second year. He loved cricket to the end. Afflicted late in life by esophageal cancer, in one of his last interviews he suggested that he would like nothing better than to finish his life by watching a game of local cricket before walking home on a sunny day.

Details of the former Zimbabwe captain’s dealings with the corruptor “Mr S”

Nagraj Gollapudi29-Jan-2022In late October 2019 Brendan Taylor reached India. Taylor landed in Mumbai on the invitation of one Mr S (the ICC has not revealed his identity), who wanted to “discuss” with the former Zimbabwe captain the potential to organise a T20 event in Zimbabwe. Taylor had decided to travel to India despite his agent warning him “not to waste his time with [Mr S] as he had a bad feeling about him.”Though the approach sounds similar to how Heath Streak, another former Zimbabwe captain, was lured in, Mr S is not Deepak Aggarwal, the man involved in the Streak case. Taylor was on Friday handed a three-and-a-half year ban from the game, for four breaches of the ICC’s anti-corruption code, including a five-month delay in reporting an approach.Related

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• Brendan Taylor banned for three and a half years for failing to report approach without delay

Taylor’s agent, based in the UK, had spoken to Mr S in September 2019 about the prospects of his client featuring in the Afghanistan Premier League that year. That tournament never took place and Taylor was informed by his agent nothing had materialised from the talks with Mr S.Nevertheless, Taylor decided to travel to India after getting assurances from Mr S. “In late October 2019 Mr Taylor travelled to India for three nights, four days, at [Mr S’s] expense, and met with [Mr S], his family and his associates,” the ACU said in a redacted recounting of the case released on Friday by the ICC. “[Mr S] said that he wanted to talk to Mr Taylor about setting up a T20 tournament in Zimbabwe and to discuss potential sponsorships, and would pay Mr Taylor US$15,000 for his time and services during the trip.”In a Twitter post last Monday (January 24) in which he first publicly confessed to the approach, Taylor had said he was a “little wary” about Mr S’s offer. But the main reason he travelled to India, he said, was because Zimbabwe Cricket had not paid its players for six months and their future as a Full Member seemed uncertain. Zimbabwe had become the first Full Member to be suspended by the ICC in July, though in mid-October – presumably before Taylor’s late October trip – they had that status reinstated.The ACU findings echo Taylor’s tweet in that he immediately told the corruptors he wasn’t going to do anything illegal. “Mr Taylor told [Mr S] that “if there’s any skullduggery, or dodginess, one, I’m not flying”, to which [Mr S] responded “no, we don’t work like that. We are legitimate people”,” the report says.USD 35,000 offer for spot-fixingIn his four interviews with the ACU – conducted in 2020 on April 1 and 2, August 17, and December 8 – Taylor would provide further details of his various interactions with Mr S. Soon after landing in India Taylor received a Samsung S10 phone from Mr S because his own phone was “busted”. He also got “some new clothes” and was also “provided” with “various things for his entertainment” during his stay in India.It was just before he was to return to Zimbabwe that Taylor was confronted by Mr S and associates with an offer to make USD 35,000 for “engaging in spot fixing in upcoming matches.” According to ACU the offer could have been for Zimbabwe’s tours of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in February-March 2020.Brendan Taylor failed a drugs test after his final game for Zimbabwe, against Ireland in Belfast in September 2021•Sportsfile via Getty Images”He [Mr S] also told Mr Taylor that he needed another player involved to make the fix happen, and he wanted him to help find this other player,” the ACU report says. “[Mr S] then handed over $15,000 in cash to Mr Taylor (as part payment) and told him that he would receive the rest of the money once the fix occurred. Zimbabwe were due to play Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in February and March 2020.”According to the ACU, the first time Taylor contacted them was on March 31, 2020, nearly five months after his India trip. He did not “mention” the “discussion around corruption” with Mr S, though he did admit to receiving USD 15,000 in cash.”In his initial interviews, Mr Taylor stated that the $15,000 payment was effectively a payment for his services in travelling to India, basically an appearance fee. In subsequent interviews, however, Mr Taylor changed his story and accepted that while he had initially travelled to India believing that he would be paid an appearance fee of US$15,000, at the end of his trip when the payment was actually made to him, it followed a discussion around corruption and a request for him to be involved in corrupting matches in exchange for payment, with the payment being made as a deposit for his involvement in corruption.”Taylor, the ACU concluded, did not fix matches but had taken on Mr S’s offer by accepting the money. “Mr Taylor has stated that it was never his intention to carry out any fixing for [Mr S] and he did not do so, however while he initially said no to [Mr S’s] approach he ended up agreeing to the offer and accepting the US$ 15,000.”Mr Taylor said that he did so because he felt he had no choice because after he initially said no, [Mr S] told Mr Taylor that he ([Mr S]) had a compromising video of Mr Taylor which he would release to the media and Mr Taylor’s wife unless Mr Taylor did some work with him.”That video was of him “doing cocaine” after the “celebratory dinner” he had with Mr S on his last night in India. Taylor said he “foolishly took the bait”, was “cornered” and “willingly walked into a situation” that has changed his life forever.”Throughout the course of his interviews,” the ACU findings note, “Mr Taylor stated that he only accepted the money (i) because it was his appearance fee for travelling to India, and (ii) he felt threatened and scared and he did not know what [Mr S] or his associates would do if he refused the money, so he therefore took the money so he could get out of the room, although he never intended to go through with anything.”Asked to ‘block’ Mr S, Taylor deletes all correspondenceTaylor was contacted by Mr S once again in mid-March 2020 when he was on Zimbabwe’s tour of Bangladesh. Mr S wanted Taylor to “work” for him during that series, which the latter refused – this was the call that prompted him to report the approach.”Mr Taylor stated that he refused to do any work (which he understood to be a reference to fixing) for [Mr S] to which [Mr S] responded by again threatening to release the video to the TV and radio, as well as his wife. [Mr S] then asked Mr Taylor to return the money and they could call it quits. This was followed up by a message from [Mr S] to Mr Taylor again threatening to release the video because he had refused to do any work for him.”Following the call he received from [Mr S] in mid-March, Mr Taylor realized that he had to report this matter to the ACU (albeit late). This he did on 31 March 2020. Mr Taylor did not, however, provide full details at that time, including making no mention of any discussion around corruption.”Taylor deleted his entire correspondence with Mr S, leaving the ACU ‘deprived of the ability to review such messages, which may have been (and probably were) relevant to its investigation’•AFP via Getty ImagesTaylor was told to “block” Mr S and not have any contact, but the ACU said Taylor deleted his entire correspondence with Mr S. “Mr Taylor claimed that he did this in fear of his family finding the messages. As such, the ACU was deprived of the ability to review such messages, which may have been (and probably were) relevant to its investigation.”As for the USD 15,000, the ACU has been told by Taylor that it is being “looked after safely” by a friend. Taylor’s ban will expire at midnight on July 25, 2025. But the ACU has put a rider on any return post that.”Mr Taylor acknowledges and agrees that it is not appropriate for him to retain the US$ 15,000 he received from [Mr S]. In particular, he acknowledges and agrees that neither he, nor his family nor his friends can benefit from this money (whether directly or indirectly) in any way. It is therefore agreed that Mr Taylor’s return to participation in cricket following the expiry of his period of Ineligibility is conditional upon him demonstrating, to the ICC’s satisfaction, that neither he, nor his family nor any of his friends have benefited (whether directly or indirectly) from this money.”Taylor took cocaine three days before Ireland ODIOn January 25, Taylor got himself admitted to a drugs rehabilitation centre after admitted he had a “problem”. He would also confess to the that he failed a dope test in September 2021, the last time he played for Zimbabwe. That was on September 8 last year when Taylor, after the ODI against Ireland in Belfast, submitted a urine sample as part of the in-competition doping test that players regularly undergo.On October 13, a WADA-accredited laboratory in Cologne certified that Taylor’s urine sample contained the cocaine metabolite Benzoylecognine, a prohibited substance as per the ICC’s anti-doping code.On November 30 Taylor was informed by the ICC that if he could prove he had “ingested” the prohibited substance out of competition and it was unrelated to sport performance, he could get a ban of three months, which could further be limited to one month “if he were to satisfactorily complete a Substance of Abuse treatment program approved by the ICC. The other option was for Taylor to get his B sample tested. Taylor accepted the original findings, admitting he had “ingested cocaine on 5 September 2021, three days before he provided his sample, for recreational purposes.”The ICC gave Taylor a month-long ban for the doping violation, which it said would run “concurrently” with the sentence he will serve for breaching the ACU code.