The offspinner picked up a five-for as England lost seven wickets for 28 runs and conceded a 292-run advantage to India

S Sudarshanan15-Dec-2023It was not a wicket ball but everybody gathered around short leg. It was the fifth over of England’s innings and Jemimah Rodrigues, under the lid, had intercepted a flick off Tammy Beaumont.India were in high spirits having posted 428 in their first women’s Test innings at home in nine years and then had seen the back of opener Sophia Dunkley early. The close-in fielders cheering the bowler after each delivery was clearly audible at the sparsely-filled DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. So much so, that watching from the stands, the celebration after that Rodrigues effort made you wonder if a wicket fell.England play Tests often than India do. It is their 100th outing in the format as opposed to India’s 39th. And so, despite India’s spirited efforts on the field, the tourists chugged along to 108 for 3 after 25 overs. One of the wickets was the result of a rush of blood, when Beaumont tried to take on Pooja Vastrakar’s arm and was run-out.Related

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India walked out to the field with a clear strategy – to have a seamer and a spinner operate in tandem – which is why Renuka Singh, on debut, shared the new ball with offspinner Sneh Rana, who extracted enough bounce from the surface. Soon after, it was the pairing of Vastrakar and Rajeshwari Gayadwad that was called in.With England scoring at close to four and a half runs an over – India had scored at over four per over through their innings – Deepti Sharma was brought on for the 26th. She had only managed to add seven runs to her overnight score of 60, when India folded inside 36 minutes in the first session.Deepti was on the board with her second ball – getting Danni Wyatt caught at short leg via the inside edge. For the next hour or so, it would be a routine – batters walking in and out of the dressing room with a dismissal against spin to their names.”When I was standing at slip, I was trying to see what the bowler could do and what we could add on to get wickets,” Deepti said after stumps. “I ended up doing that when I came on to bowl.”I was waiting for my chance to bowl and when I did, I enjoyed myself. The wicket was helping the spinners a fair bit today. So I think it was a positive sign for us to extract more from the surface and the turn we were getting.”Sciver-Brunt, crossing fifty for the fifth time in Tests, and Amy Jones used the sweep and other on-side shots which seemed like a solution briefly. But once Jones fell in strange circumstances – her pull deflected off Smriti Mandhana’s helmet at short leg to Shafali Verma at leg slip – the writing was on the wall. Two balls later, Sophie Ecclestone was done in by the low bounce and was bowled.The fatigue of being in the Navi Mumbai heat for over 100 overs was starting to creep in.Rana then struck a telling blow, getting a length ball well outside off to turn back in sharply and beat Sciver-Brunt’s attempted cut. The proverbial wall had fallen – 59 off 70 balls with ten fours and a control percentage of 75.”We handled pressure well, especially when Beaumont and Sciver-Brunt began to stabilise,” Deepti said. “We took it over by over and did well to maintain control. During the lunch break, we noticed patches on the wicket and my idea was to bowl into those patches which would give us some assistance.”Charlie Dean, Kate Cross and Lauren Filer didn’t last long – with the last wicket giving Deepti her first five-wicket haul in Tests. It took only 5.3 overs, the least for a five-for in women’s Tests. In ten overs since Deepti was brought on, England capitulated to 28 for 7 and conceded a massive 292-run advantage to India.On a surface starting to show its true colours – and with India not enforcing the follow-on – the spinners left England with a monumental task in the fourth innings.

“It’s a little difficult being an allrounder because it seems when the batting picks up, you lose a bit of the bowling, and vice versa”

Vishal Dikshit17-Mar-2024Firstly, how does it feel to have taken so many wickets after your recent injuries and poor health?
It’s obviously good to up my team into the finals. It’s always nice contributing and taking wickets with the new ball. I feel like it’s so important in the T20 format, especially in these leagues, because the top order is so heavy with internationals, especially, and big hits. So I feel like something that’s needed in T20 cricket is wickets, early wickets.Earlier in the tournament you had said your advice to youngsters in the Delhi Capitals squad is ‘work as hard as you can when you are young because when you’re older it’s about being fresh on game days’. Now that you are 34 and there’s cricket happening around the year, how have you had to change your fitness and routines?
For me, it’s actually been downscaling, because I used to train so hard and especially worked so hard on my skills that when there was game day, I was just too tired to actually play. It took a lot of mental work because I’m someone that needs to bowl a certain amount of balls and need to spend a certain amount of time in the nets [batting], otherwise I don’t feel confident. It was more a mindset change knowing that I’ve put in the work even though it’s not as much as it used to be when I was younger because, like I said, now it’s more important for me to be fresh knowing I’ve done that work, not only now but for the last 15 years.You got a lot of swing in the last league game against Gujarat Giants and even Ellyse Perry picked up 6 for 15 with her seam movement. Has it surprised you that pace bowlers have found so much purchase from the pitches in Delhi?
Yes and no. I feel every single wicket we’ve played on has been so different. Even today, I still don’t know if it’s better when you win the toss you bowl first or bat first because the wickets have really been so different. The last game, there was probably a little bit more bounce and movement, yes, but I still felt like it was slow. And the other day, it was extremely flat and nothing in it for pace bowlers or even spinners. You don’t know what to expect.Marizanne Kapp was at her absolute best with the bat in the ODIs in Australia earlier this year•Getty ImagesYou have been particularly effective in the powerplays. How do you prepare for that phase when you know some of the best and hard-hitting batters are going to go after you?
I’ve found if I just stick to what I do best I usually end up with the wickets or being quite economical. There were some games where I went for a bit of runs when I changed what I do well. When I thought they would maybe try and lap or they were going to run at me or step across the line and I try something different, that’s usually when I go for runs. But if they do those things and I stick to what I do best, usually it works out. So I just try and keep it simple, hit my hard back of a length, bowl line and length, and try and bowl as many dot balls as possible.You said after your spell of 3 for 5 against UP Warriorz that you weren’t too happy about your bowling in the last couple of months and you went back and worked on it. Can you tell us what exactly you were unhappy with and what you did to rectify it?
I feel like it’s again a little difficult being an allrounder because it seems when the batting picks up, you lose a bit of the bowling, and vice versa. So I felt like I was probably just leaning back a little bit in the crease while I was bowling the last couple of months and I started slinging a bit more and bowling from lower down. I just went back and looked at some footage of me in the past and tried to be a bit more upright from the crease and the momentum going forward. For me, my biggest weapon is trying to land the ball on the seam and usually when I’m at my best, if I do that, the ball either nips in or out.What are some of the frequently asked questions by the younger Indian players in the Capitals camp?
They sometimes ask if they should have bowled this ball or should have had this field and, usually, I would just tell them what I think. Or I would tell them to first stick to bowling their line and length for as long as possible before they go to their death bowling or, on a wicket where it’s a bit slower and there’s a bigger boundary, bowling it into the wicket rather than going full and straight at the stumps. It’s more little things but in general the girls are quite good with their plans and what they want to do out in the middle.You have been batting higher up for both South Africa and Capitals in recent times. What aspects of batting did you have to keep in mind after this change?
When I started my career, I batted higher up for South Africa in any case. So that’s something that comes to me a little bit easier. In the last couple of years, I’ve just tried to work on finishing games or being there at the back end. So I don’t think it changes too much whether you’re batting a bit higher up or lower down.

“I feel in T20 cricket you sometimes get away with bad technique or bad bowling, whereas in ODI cricket you have to be good at your skills for so much longer”Marizanne Kapp

You said recently your favourite format is still ODI cricket but there’s a T20 World Cup coming up. How is your body shaping up and how much are you looking forward to it?
I still enjoy T20 cricket as well. It’s just that I feel ODI cricket brings out the skills and I feel in T20 cricket you sometimes get away with bad technique or bad bowling, whereas in ODI cricket you have to be good at your skills for so much longer. I still enjoy T20 cricket and I’m looking forward to the World Cup. I feel like my bowling is coming back and the last couple of months the batting has been good as well. So I’m looking forward to the World Cup and hopefully I can contribute a lot more there for South Africa.Since the start of 2023, your T20 batting strike rate is about 120, which is well above your career strike rate [99.24]. Did you consciously change that to keep up with the pace of the game or did it just happen?
If you look at my stats and where I’ve probably batted, when I played most of those matches… me, personally, I don’t look too much into those stats because if you look at the amount of T20s I’ve played for South Africa in the last five years, it’s actually not been a lot. Most of my games have been prior to that and that’s probably when I wasn’t batting as well and batting a lot lower down and not feeling confident about my batting. If you look at the leagues and South Africa the last two years, I feel like my strike rate is even higher than 120. I feel it’s me as a player being a little bit older now, playing more in these leagues and understanding what is needed. I feel like I’ve always had the shots and the power, it’s just believing in my skill a little bit more.We’ve seen your wife Dane van Niekerk wearing the Capitals jersey in the stands. How much does it help to have a fellow cricketer as a partner who understands and knows what it’s like to have a good or bad day on the field?
It helps a lot. I’ve said it previously, especially when it comes to her being a [former South Africa] captain as well. What fields I would want or a lot of times I’ll ask her, ‘what field do you think I need for this batter or if they do this, what do I do then, where do I look to score?’ Yeah, that really helps a lot because obviously Dane has a massive knowledge about cricket and she understands the game so well. Again, in saying that, sometimes as well when I enter the room, I just don’t want to speak about cricket. So every now and then I have to tell her, ‘okay, enough today’.”Dane has a massive knowledge about cricket and she understands the game so well”•Ben Hoskins/ECB/Getty ImagesIt must be tough to see her sitting out when you play international cricket?
Yeah, it’s such a waste of such a talented cricketer, to be sitting on the sidelines. But she’s been working hard and hopefully we’ll see her come back. I feel like she’s too young and too talented to not play international cricket and to not play in these leagues. She has so much knowledge and so much to give back to the game.We’ve heard about the South Africa coaching staff changing. Can you tell us what about the current environment, what has helped you thrive?
For me personally, it’s just the amount of years I’ve spent in international cricket and the leagues I’ve played in. For me, it’s more about the confidence I have in my own skill, what I want to do and obviously I love representing my country and doing well and helping them win. So that has always been my main goal and my main focus.Does the exposure to a different style of coaching change the way you’ve played and how?
Yes, definitely. I think if you not only look at the South African coaching set-up but you get different coaches in all these leagues and everyone gives their input and you see how they do things… as a player, there’s a fine line [when it comes to] allowing people to just change things in your game, but I feel like there’s definitely value in working with different coaches and seeing how they do things. I always say that you have to use the leagues and coaches as you use what you think will work for you; and things that you feel is not going to work, or won’t make an impact, you just push to one side, because I feel like as an international cricketer and especially in the women’s game, there’s a lot of info coming in and you can’t always take everything on board. So you have to be very careful with who and what you listen to and what you try and implement in your own game.

Kuldeep brings a point of difference to India’s XI, particularly against reverse sweeps if the pitches are not rank turners

Alagappan Muthu07-Feb-20242:53

Manjrekar: Kuldeep is the spinner for pitches that are not rank turners

Kuldeep Yadav has come all the way from square leg to pester Rohit Sharma about taking a review.Rohit is busy trying to get the opinion of someone with a better view of the delivery but Kuldeep isn’t letting him. So he comes to a standstill, raises his left hand, points it in Kuldeep’s general direction and trolls from all around the globe swing into action. They have a new meme to unleash.Introverts when they’re asked to come out Friday night. Rohit gif. The rest of the class when that one suck-up reminds the teacher they forgot to give homework. Rohit gif. Messi fans when they hear Ronaldo is better. Rohit gif. Ronaldo fans when they hear Messi is better. Rohit gif.Related

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The replays on the big screen show that restraint was the right option. Zak Crawley had not nicked that Jasprit Bumrah delivery through to the wicketkeeper and the camera once again finds Rohit, who offers a cheeky smile, claps exactly four times, and signs off with a double thumbs up. And once again social media is in business.Extroverts when they’re asked to come out on Friday night. Rohit gif. Two for one deals at your favourite cupcake shop on cheat day. Rohit gif. India fans to the Indian team for bringing Kuldeep into the XI. Rohit gif.As a gruelling five-Test series against England goes into a nine-day break between matches and the players from both teams have dispersed for rest and relaxation, there is a feeling that this whole thing is just getting started.India have held off all challengers at home, their spinners repeatedly showing up the opposition. Except that’s not been the case this time. Tom Hartley, Joe Root, Rehan Ahmed, Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir have taken more wickets (33) than R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep (23). While part of that is down to Bumrah claiming a large slice of the pie through his genius, it also says something about the two batting line-ups: England are quite settled, India are in transition.Rohit Sharma dismisses Kuldeep Yadav’s pleas to go for a DRS review•BCCIGiven that, it is possible the remaining three Tests will be played on pitches similar to the one in Visakhapatnam, the kind that starts out good for batting and then, with natural wear and tear, begins to offer more for the bowlers. In such conditions, it is crucial for a spinner to pose a threat in the air and that is what Kuldeep did with his left-arm wristspin in the second Test.He gave India their first wicket of the match, at a time when England had raced to 59 for 0 in 10.1 overs after India were dismissed for 396, leaving a lingering feeling they had underachieved in their first innings. The ball drew the left-handed Ben Duckett out into a rare forward defence and then dipped on him, leaving the batter away from the pitch of the delivery, giving the ball enough time to leap off the surface and hit the shoulder of the bat and pop to silly point.Later on the second day, he accounted for Ben Foakes with another beauty. The right-hand batter played for the legbreak spinning into him – and it was the legbreak – yet he was beaten on the outside edge. Because drift. Foakes was playing for a ball pitching on off stump but it drifted wider and therefore when it turned it didn’t turn into the middle of the bat as he expected. It shimmied right past the outside edge and crashed into the stumps.Then there was the deception of Ollie Pope. This was dip and drift, drawing England’s No. 3 out on the front foot, luring him a fair bit across his crease, creating a gap between bat and pad so he could surge through it. That reverse-swinging, stump-shattering, other-worldly yorker from Bumrah would never have come into existence if KS Bharat had been alive to the stumping opportunity Kuldeep had created against Pope. On the final count in England’s first innings, Kuldeep generated almost as many false responses (21) as Bumrah (24).

According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, England played only 12 reverse sweeps in the second Test as opposed to 50 in the first, and only two against Kuldeep, which were both dot balls

Most teams would be more than happy with this package. For India, however, Kuldeep has been stuck in a queue, behind two all-time greats R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and the third guy Axar Patel who has a habit of scoring crucial runs down the order. Therefore, Kuldeep’s played only nine Tests in seven years for 38 wickets at 22.73 apiece. He was even dropped after being Player of the Match for an eight-wicket haul in his previous Test in Chattogram in December 2022.With Jadeja injured, though, there is space in the XI for Kuldeep. Even if Jadeja should return in time for the next Test, there is a strong argument to keep Kuldeep on as the third spinner.According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, England played only 12 reverse sweeps in the second Test as opposed to 50 in the first, and only two against Kuldeep, which were both dot balls.This is what a wristspinner can do. Especially on a pitch like the one in Visakhapatnam, which had more bounce than the Hyderabad track on days one and two, so the top edge was in play if you opted to play a cross-bat shot. And on days three and four, the ball began to keep low, which made it doubly dangerous to hit across the line.Kuldeep has pressed this advantage further by altering his bowling action to become a wicket-to-wicket bowler – 71% of the deliveries he pitched in line with the stumps in the second Test were also going on to threaten them. He has also worked on his overspin, which helps the ball dip more sharply than the batter expects, and bounce higher than he is ready for. So, the reverse sweep, or even the drive, that they think is on is actually fraught with risk.Kuldeep Yadav’s drift meant Ben Foakes was beaten on the outside edge by a legbreak•BCCINow, none of this means that India have taken the ascendancy. Or that England will be backing off: England still scored at 4.61 an over against spin. Just that both teams are learning and evolving, and 1-1 is an apt scoreline.The third Test starting on February 15 is in Rajkot. That’s Jadeja’s home turf but hamstring injuries usually take longer than a couple of weeks to heal. Even if Jadeja does get back up to full fitness during this series, Kuldeep brings a point of difference to this XI, particularly against the threat India are facing and more so if the pitches are not rank turners.He even enjoyed vindication in the DRS stakes and, coincidentally, it led to the wicket that assured India their victory. Crawley, who was leading England’s charge towards the target of 399 on the fourth morning, went back to a ball from Kuldeep that pitched on the shorter side of the good-length area. It held its line and skidded through to hit low on pad. It looked to be heading past leg stump to the human eye. The on-field umpire clearly thought as much. But the ball-tracking tech stated otherwise, and the three reds triggered a jubilant celebratory run from Kuldeep and his team-mates mobbing him.When your crush agrees to go out on a date with you. Kuldeep gif. When mum and dad are out of town for the weekend. Kuldeep gif. When Test cricket is this much fun. Kuldeep gif.

There is excessive seam movement and bounce, batters are getting hit by the ball, and conditions have been anything but standard

Sidharth Monga06-Jun-20242:03

Flower on New York pitch – ‘Bordering on dangerous’

On paper, not much is riding on the India vs Pakistan match early morning this Sunday New York time, which is prime time on a Sunday night in India and Pakistan. The losing team should win its other matches comfortably and go on to the next round. The opponents in the next round are allocated on pre-tournament seeding so it is not that important to top this group either.And yet the success of the first half of an ambitious tournament rides on this match. At their best, India vs Pakistan matches subsidise the more predictable parts of a cricket tournament. They generate revenue that partly ensures expansion of the game. It is a fixture that gives ICC the confidence to play 20 teams in the World Cup of a sport that is notoriously snobbish. The contest gives them the confidence to risk moving it into the US, a country whose time zones are not friendly to existing fans elsewhere and where fandom is restricted to expats.After three matches (including a warm-up game) in the makeshift Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, if the ICC is not nervous about Sunday, it is treating India vs Pakistan like a cheat code that can paper over every other crack. If these matches were being played in an established stadium, it would be close to getting serious sanctions from the ICC.Related

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Excessive seam movement and bounce, which is also excessively variable, have left a massive cloud hanging over the weekend. The ICC rightly prefers standard conditions in limited-overs World Cups. It goes further than the simplistic preference for big hits. Standard conditions allow for execution of most skills that make for an even contest.It is also largely the concept behind T20, the biggest expansion tool for the sport. You want the batters to use their skills to score runs but you don’t want to see them fumbling and ducking and weaving and not be able to score more than 96 batting first in both matches so far.These conditions have been anything but standard. After a couple of wides against Ireland on Wednesday, Arshdeep Singh tried to bowl cross-seam but the ball still kept moving too much. Andy Flower is not exaggerating when he says the pitches are bordering on dangerous. Harry Tector, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant were all hit by the ball because it bounced in a way you don’t expect it to.The drop-in pitches have behaved this way because they are both underprepared and haven’t even had the time to bed in. Usually, when a cricket stadium relays its main square, it plays about 10 to 12 matches of junior cricket then senior domestic cricket before playing international cricket on it. Here, pitch No. 1 was used for the first time when Sri Lanka batted on it, were bowled out for 77 and made South Africa sweat in the chase. The pitch that hosted Ireland’s 96 all out against India was being used only for the second time.There are possible contributing circumstances to the pitches being underprepared. When they were brought in from Australia, New York was cold and rainy and snowy. They had to be taken to Florida to provide them the best chance of getting ready, and were then shipped to New York.1:49

Rapid Fire: Are these ideal conditions for a World Cup game?

Even if there had been great weather in New York and the pitches had been ready, it is unlikely the ICC had budgeted for the bedding-in period. It has been given permission to play only nine matches on it, including the warm-up game. So how did the ICC expect to bed the pitches in even if they had been prepared properly?The stadium was handed over to the ICC practically a day before the India vs Bangladesh warm-up match. India had sent half their side early to the US to prepare properly for the tournament, but forget training at the ground, when captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid tried to take a look at the ground and the pitch, they were turned away because the ground had not yet been handed over. Getting the stadium ready in three months for your biggest match of the year is not the flex the ICC thinks it is.Not much can be done now. India showed their bowling prowess on this pitch, and Pakistan only bring quicker bowlers with higher release points, making it an even bigger challenge for batters. They have tried pitches No. 1 and 4 already. The six pitches at the practice facility at Cantiague Park some 20 minutes from the ground were grown at the same time, and have been just as spicy. So spicy that South Africa’s batters refused to bat there against Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada. Local net bowlers have frequently hit batters because of seam movement and variable bounce.What are the odds then that the remaining two pitches, Nos, 2 and 3, will be any different? For what it’s worth, it is likely they will play Netherlands vs South Africa on one of the two middle pitches followed by India vs Pakistan the next day. So it will not be a completely fresh pitch although we saw in India vs Ireland that a used pitch does not mean a settled pitch.The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium has seen totals of 77 and 96 so far batting first•ICC via Getty ImagesPerhaps two menacing bowling attacks can even out the toss advantage. Perhaps we might see a low-scoring close match. But even if it does produce a low-scoring thriller, it is unlikely the ICC’s commercial partners will be happy with it.It is not just the on-field action that has been less than ideal. It was strange to see empty stands for an India match even if against Ireland. The two stands on the sides were full, but the hospitality stands with a straight view of the action were sparsely populated. There is a good chance the ICC might have priced people out of coming for some of these matches. With some packages going as high as $10,000 for the India-Pakistan match, who knows if Sunday morning will be full.There used to be a joke that if you name two bulls India and Pakistan, people will still watch a fight between them. There’s probably some truth to it, who knows. A shared bloodied history, some yearning among those who were displaced, continuous threat of war throughout their existence, India and Pakistan find a release when they play cricket, a licence to express feelings and emotions they otherwise just can’t: be it anger, pettiness, love, sporting etiquette.The ICC needs to be commended for involving 20 teams in this World Cup. The idea of taking it to a new venue, the capitalist capital of the world, is also a noble one. The execution of the idea, though, makes you wonder if it took the India-Pakistan emotions for granted.

There is no obvious reason but a collective dip in form has left the five-time champions on the brink of elimination

Andrew Fidel Fernando01-May-20241:25

Moody, Jaffer on Rohit’s struggles to shine in IPL 2024

Ten matches in now, almost no hope of making the playoffs, there is a sadness to watching one of the great IPL franchises take their sorry show around India.It is not as if Mumbai Indians have imploded entirely. Jasprit Bumrah leads the bowling charts in IPL 2024, his 14 wickets top equal, and his economy rate of 6.40 beyond exceptional. Gerald Coetzee is not far behind on 13 wickets.And we know roughly what is going wrong, or at least where the major flaws lie. They have lost 19 wickets in the powerplay this season, which is the second-worst in the league (after Delhi Capitals, who have lost 21). Their top five have scored quickly enough but have fallen too cheaply – their collective average of 29.10 is better only than that of Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings who, like them, are haunting the bottom half of the points table.Related

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On the bowling front, they have been woeful in the middle overs (between overs 7 and 16), where Bumrah typically bowls the least. They have conceded 60 sixes in that phase, and travelled at an economy of 10.21 (Chennai Super Kings have an economy rate of 7.67 in that phase). They have been especially weak on the spin front. Their top slow bowler, Piyush Chawla, has four wickets in seven outings, and has conceded runs at 9.85 an over. Mohammad Nabi has been marginally cheaper, but less penetrative, taking only two wickets in six bowling innings.There is no obvious reason why besides Bumrah and perhaps Coetzee, their entire side is performing so far below potential, though plenty have pointed fingers at Hardik Pandya’s leadership. As in the match against Lucknow Super Giants, however, MI’s major shortcomings have been with the bat. In this game, they lost Rohit Sharma in the second over (Rohit, by the way, has batted as selflessly as he had in the 2023 ODI World Cup, just without anywhere near as much success), Suryakumar Yadav in the third, then Tilak Varma and Hardik in successive balls in the sixth.MI’s batting has not clicked in IPL 2024•BCCIIn what is shaping to be the highest-scoring IPL ever, a scoreline of 28 for 4 in the powerplay was always going to be difficult to recover from. But even more difficult for a team gasping for breath in the competition, with hitters who have only sporadically shown up this season.The ultra-modern response to a scoreline of 28 for 4 is to attack your way out of it, reasoning that a middling score isn’t going to vex the opposition anyway. MI chose the old-fashioned rebuild, collecting just 52 runs off the eight overs immediately following the powerplay. From 80 for 5 after 14 overs, they needed a furious finish to launch them to a competitive score. They didn’t get it. They lacked penetration through the middle overs again, though LSG were never particularly stressed; such was the gettable-ness of their target.It’s the kind of season for MI that even just over halfway through the league stage, their captain comes off the field after another loss and says things like: “I have always believed that sometimes you will be down, and sometimes you will be up, but you always have to fight.” Not fighting for a place in the top four, or any kind of tangible goal. Just fighting for the sake of the fight. Professional sportspeople are often hard-wired to be competitive, but even then, there may be many in that MI dressing room wondering what the point of the rest of this season is.They have got hard decisions to make now. Do they overhaul their misfiring top order, or back players of the quality of Suryakumar, Ishan Kishan, and Rohit to turn their seasons around? Do they reach deeper into their reserves in their attempts to unearth new middle-overs talents? They have already begun to go to the likes of Nuwan Thushara in the early overs, though Thushara only showed glimpses of his best form in this match, having swung the ball early in Lucknow. Do they stick with him, or look elsewhere in the squad?In general, is it time now to pursue regeneration more intensively? When formerly good teams begin to lose, the easy accusation to make is that a staleness has entered their game. But strangely, their batting problems at least don’t seem insurmountable – it feels more like a collective dip in form, rather than a running out of ideas. There is also the burning question of the captaincy. It should not be forgotten that Hardik has led an IPL side to victory as recently as 2022.With so much data on offer now, it is simple enough to diagnose a losing team’s flaws. What MI have to figure out is to what extent they need new personnel to fix them.

Batters have set new highs for sixes and 220-plus totals this year

S Rajesh and Shiva Jayaraman20-Apr-2024Thirty-four games into IPL 2024, the dominant narrative has been the aggression and six-hitting. Scoring rates have generally been going up every season, but in 2024 the leap compared to previous years has been significant. The run rate this year has shot up to 9.42, the first instance of nine-plus in a season. The three highest totals – and four of the top five – have happened this year, and 500 sixes have come about in record time. Here is a look at all the key numbers that offer further proof of just how high-octane this season has been. To make it a fair comparison, all relevant numbers are after 34 matches from previous seasons as well.

A deluge of runs

This season’s run rate of 9.42 is 7% better than the next best, after 34 games. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but to put it in perspective, the second-best run rate on that list (8.81 in 2023) is only 3.1% better than the sixth-best (8.54 in 2020). The difference of 0.61 between 2024 and 2023 is also the biggest increase between successive seasons (after 34 games) since the difference of 0.79 between the 2010 (8.41) and the 2009 (7.62) seasons. The conditions in 2009 were different, though, since the tournament was hosted in South Africa.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

A rush of sixes and fours

Fours and sixes have both occurred more frequently in 2024, but the difference from the previous-best season is more in the case of sixes. The rate of 13.48 balls per six is 11.6% better than 2018’s rate of 15.24, while in the case of balls per boundary (four or six), the improvement is 7.1%.