Since England’s victory in 1968, numerous generations have come a cropper in the West Indies

Andrew Miller07-Mar-2022England have toured the Caribbean on ten occasions in the past 50 years and, despite the recognition that West Indies’ standards are not what they were at the height of their hegemony in the 1980s and early 1990s, have emerged with a solitary series win in that period. Here is ESPNcricinfo’s overview of an unexpectedly one-sided rivalry1973-74 – Series drawn 1-1Garry Sobers played in his final Test series, against England in 1973-74•Getty ImagesTwo years before his crass “grovel” comments condemned his own team-mates to a summer-long diet of chin music, Tony Greig was front and centre of another lively campaign against West Indies – first with a moment of controversy, but ultimately with a touch of class.After bowling England out for 131 in the first Test of the series in Port of Spain, West Indies were already well on course for victory when Greig, fielding at silly point for the final ball of the day, pinged down the stumps at the non-striker’s end just as Alvin
Kallicharran, hitherto unbeaten on 142, began to walk towards the pavilion. Kallicharran was rightly given out by the letter of the law, but just as correctly reinstated overnight, as the two teams reached a common-sense agreement to guard against the prospect of crowd trouble.West Indies duly held onto their 1-0 series lead through the course of three high-scoring draws, with Dennis Amiss’s 262 not out at Sabina Park giving way to Lawrence Rowe’s 302 in Bridgetown. But when the series returned to Trinidad, Greig took his turn at the top of the bill. Using his full 6ft 7in frame to send down a spell of sharp-turning offbreaks, he derailed West Indies in both innings, first for career-best figures of 8 for 86, and then a further 5 for 70, as England defended a slender target of 226 to square the series.1980-81 – West Indies won 2-0Ian Botham and Viv Richards enjoy a drink or two in the dressing room during the 1981 series•Adrian Murrell/Getty ImagesIan Botham would prove to be ill-suited to the role of England Test captain, but truth be told, the itinerary for his year in charge never gave him a chance. Nine of his 12 winless Tests came against West Indies in their pomp, but when compared to the beatings that his successors would endure in the coming decade, he actually did well to emerge with six draws to his record.Botham’s solitary tour as captain, in 1980-81, could hardly have encountered more arduous circumstances. The grainy footage of Michael Holding’s legendary over to Geoff Boycott at Bridgetown endures as testimony to the on-field magnificence of Clive Lloyd’s team, but off the field there was tragedy and controversy to surmount as well.After a thumping defeat in the first Test in Trinidad, where Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes’s opening partnership was almost as many as England would make in either innings, the tour descended into acrimony following the mid-tour call-up of Robin Jackman, the Surrey seamer whose strong South African ties were unacceptable to the Guyana government.The second Test at Georgetown was duly cancelled, and though the third, in Barbados, went ahead as planned, the squad was plunged into shock with the mid-match death of Ken Barrington, England legend and hugely popular assistant manager. A grief-stricken Graham Gooch responded with an outstanding hundred, but not even his very best could avert another crushing loss.1985-86 – West Indies won 5-0Patrick Patterson was a fearsome prospect on the 1986 tour•Getty ImagesSpeaking on the Oval balcony after defeating Australia in the summer of 1985, David Gower declared – with tongue lodged firmly in cheek – that West Indies would be “quaking in their boots” at the prospect of facing his Ashes-winners in the new year. It wasn’t a faux pas to match Greig’s from a decade earlier, but if there was any quaking to be done, it certainly wasn’t by Viv Richards’ men.A TV blackout meant that the full horror of that 1986 campaign was never publicly transmitted, but from Mike Gatting’s graphically splatted nose (courtesy of a Malcolm Marshall bouncer in the ODIs) to the medal-like bruises on Phil Edmonds’ torso after a savage beating in the first Test in Jamaica, the scars of the campaign were palpable.Gooch conceded that Sabina Park Test was the only time he had been scared on the field of play, as the unheralded and terrifying Patrick Patterson ransacked seven wickets on debut. Joel Garner, Marshall and an ageing but still magnificent Holding ensured there would be no let-up at any stage of any session. By the fifth Test in Antigua, all resistance was futile. Enter Richards, in front of his home crowd, to put a personal seal on a triumphant maiden series as captain with a world-record 56-ball century.1989-90 – West Indies won 2-1Curtly Ambrose turned the series on its head in Bridgetown, after England’s stunning first-Test win•Ben Radford/Getty ImagesThere has surely never been a more shocking upset than England’s victory in the first Test in Kingston. England had lost 14 of their previous 15 Tests against West Indies, and had just emerged from the most comprehensive home Ashes rout in history. A rebel tour of South Africa, allied to the binning of Botham and Gower, underlined the sense that expectations had reached rock-bottom.But in Gooch, England at least had a leader with a proven ability to go toe-to-toe with West Indies’ quicks and, at Sabina Park, his quiet authority was writ large across a truly stunning performance. Devon Malcolm put the “raw” into raw pace with a thrillingly full-throttle display, including the extraction of Richards twice in the match, while Angus Fraser toppled the tail with the earliest flourishing of his trademark line and length.Allan Lamb then made it his business to ensure West Indies’ collapse to 164 would not go unpunished. The fifth of his six Test centuries against the greatest pace attack in history was surely the best of his career, as he and Robin Smith secured a lead of precisely 200, and not even the loss of the fourth day to rain could prevent a famous win.However, the fates had a series of cruel twists in store, as West Indies clawed back their hegemony by any means possible. Following a wash-out in Guyana, England could have been dormie-two after the third Test in Trinidad, as Malcolm’s ten-for and a gutsy 84 from Gooch set up a tantalising target of 151. Ezra Moseley, however, would end the captain’s campaign with a vividly broken hand, and as West Indies slowed their over rate to a crawl, England were ultimately forced to dig for the draw rather than gamble in fading light.From that moment on, England’s challenge resembled a Tour de France breakaway being reeled in by the peloton. Exhaustion began to overwhelm them in Bridgetown, where Curtly Ambrose’s matchwinning 8 for 45 included five wickets in as many overs, after Jack Russell’s defiance had been ended by an unplayable shooter. And then, in Antigua, the denouement was swift and brutal. Nevertheless, as West Indies celebrated the extension of their decade-long unbeaten record, they knew they’d been in a tussle for the ages.1993-94 – West Indies won 3-1Brian Lara gets on his knees to kiss the pitch after breaking the world record in 1994•PA PhotosFor the first time in more than a decade, there was the faintest glimmer of optimism as England set off for their latest Caribbean venture. They’d been creamed in the Ashes once again, but at least under their youthful new skipper Mike Atherton, had won the sixth Test at The Oval, and while West Indies were never less than daunting, there had been a marked changing of the guard since their previous visit, with the retirement of three of their very greatest – Richards, Marshall and Jeff Dujon.Unfortunately, two massive stumbling blocks still endured in Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, not to mention the coming of age of the Prince of Trinidad himself, Brian Lara. After England’s typically bruising defeat in the first Test in Jamaica, Lara found his range in Guyana with a matchwinning 167, before Ambrose responded to the fleeting threat of an England fightback in Trinidad with the most evocative rout of his career. Chasing an apparently obtainable 194 for a 2-1 series toehold, Ambrose tore in on the penultimate evening with six prime wickets in 7.5 overs, including Atherton to his first ball and a shell-shocked Graham Thorpe to his last. England closed on 40 for 8, eventually succumbing for 46 the next morning.Astonishingly, England bounced back with a remarkable win in Barbados – West Indies’ first defeat at the ground since 1935 – courtesy of Alec Stewart’s twin hundreds and Fraser’s then-career-best 8 for 75. But inevitably the last word would belong to Lara, who cashed in on a docile deck in Antigua to demolish Garry Sobers’ 36-year-old Test batting record. Resuming on 320 not out with the Caribbean expectant, Lara nervelessly raised the bar by ten runs to 375.1997-98 – West Indies won 3-1Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh were an insurmountable obstacle for England in the 1990s•PA Photos/Getty ImagesAnother tour in which England believed they had a chance, another emphatic slamming of the door as West Indies overcame that creeping sense of atrophy within their set-up to win the series at a canter, and make Atherton in particular regret staying on as captain for one
last tilt at an endlessly elusive prize.The first Test at Sabina Park was enough to make England’s batters question their life choices. It lasted just 10.1 overs before being called off due to a dangerously corrugated pitch – England lost three wickets in that time, including Mark Butcher to his first ball of the tour, a unplayable lifter that fizzed off his splice to gully – whereupon the schedule was hastily rejigged to accommodate a replacement Test in Trinidad.These back-to-back fixtures in Port-of-Spain were a pair of classics. West Indies won the first by three wickets, with Carl Hooper marshalling his lower-order to overcome an 11-wicket match haul from Fraser; a week later, England squared the series by the same margin, Fraser and Stewart again the heroes, as with their Barbados win four years earlier.Thereafter, however, England’s fortunes went south. They came a cropper at an unusually arid Guyana and though Mark Ramprakash’s long-awaited maiden Test century gave them the upper hand in the drawn fifth Test in Barbados, rain on the final day ended their series
hopes, and drained what remained of their resolve.The denouement in Antigua was a horror show. The contest was as good as over when England were rumbled for 127 in their first innings, whereupon Clayton Lambert and Philo Wallace – a pair of pinch-hitters with a disdain for line-and-length bowling – clobbered West Indies towards a first-innings lead of 373.Even then, the contest could have been saved as Nasser Hussain and Thorpe dug in for the draw. But on 106, Hussain was calamitously run out to re-open the floodgates. England’s final seven wickets duly tumbled for 26 runs, with Thorpe’s unbeaten 84 a teasing reminder of the unusually fine margins by which the campaign had been decided.2003-04 – England won 3-0Steve Harmison claimed 7 for 12 at Kingston in 2004•Getty ImagesIt had taken the best part of four decades, but England finally toppled West Indies on home soil, and they did so – fittingly enough – with a four-pronged pace attack that has arguably never been bettered in their history.The seeds of England’s 2005 Ashes triumph were sown in the Caribbean that month, as Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard gelled with devastating effect for three misleadingly comprehensive wins – none more astonishing than the first Test in Kingston, where three days of punch and counterpunch gave way to one massive haymaker.As the fourth morning got underway, England’s lead was a slender 8. By lunch, they had won by ten wickets, after Harmison’s extraordinary haul of 7 for 12 routed West Indies for 47, their lowest total in Test history. His gangly splice-snagging methods struck again a week later in Trinidad, where his first-innings figures of 6 for 61 were joined in the second by Jones’ maiden Test five-for.One match later, Flintoff added his first five in the opening exchanges at Bridgetown, before Hoggard – not to be outdone – bagged a second-innings hat-trick to send Windies tumbling to 94 all out.The suddenness of these victory surges meant that the efforts of England’s batters went under-recognised. None of Hussain, Butcher or Thorpe would still be in the side come the 2005 Ashes, with England preferring fresh and fearless minds for that seismic tussle. Here, however, hard-bitten wisdom – in Hussain’s case, of four Caribbean tours – was exactly what the challenge demanded, as they withstood the eager threat of, especially, Fidel Edwards and Tino Best with a series of doughty displays, not least Thorpe’s exceptional Bridgetown hundred, where the next-best score was 17.Inevitably, however, that man Lara was lurking to swipe the batting plaudits in the final act of the series. A mere handful of months after losing his world record to Matthew Hayden, and ten years to the week after toppling Sobers’ mark at the ARG, Lara cashed in at the same venue, to surge to Test cricket’s first and only quadruple century. The majesty of his display merely served to underline how brilliantly England’s quicks had kept him quiet at the sharp end of the series.2008-09 – West Indies won 1-0England never recovered from a bruising defeat in the opening Test in 2009•Getty ImagesIf the circumstances of this latest campaign seem shambolic, then spare a thought for the class of 2009. The toxic fallout from Kevin Pietersen’s spat with Peter Moores had had no time to dissipate as the team jetted off for the Caribbean with a new captain, Andrew Strauss, and a reluctant stand-in coach, Andy Flower, who had yet to be convinced that he wanted his predecessor’s job full-time.But then came perhaps the most important defeat in England’s recent Test history. A pitiful collapse to 51 all out in Jamaica gave the new management an excuse to flex their muscles and demand better, or else. As if to reinforce his message, Strauss led from the front with three hefty first-innings centuries in the remaining three Tests (excluding the ten-ball farce in a sandpit in Antigua), to establish the authority with which he would lead England to Ashes victory that summer, and ultimately to the No. 1 Test ranking.However, England were unable to force victory in any of those games – West Indies clung on for dear life at the ARG and Port-of-Spain, while Ramnaresh Sarwan’s 291 was the dominant factor in the final Test at Bridgetown. The final throes of the campaign epitomised England’s missed opportunity, as a strokeless Denesh Ramdin and Edwards held firm at 114 for 8 in Trinidad, to win back the Wisden Trophy … albeit for barely two months.2014-15 – Series drawn 1-1Jermaine Blackwood was one of West Indies’ heroes in the 2015 series•Getty ImagesHot on the heels of an atrocious World Cup campaign, England’s Test squad set off for a tour of the Caribbean that could hardly have been less auspiciously timed. The build-up was overshadowed by the unguarded utterings of the ECB’s new chairman, Colin Graves, whose
declaration that West Indies were “mediocre” was precisely the team-talk that an already motivated opposition didn’t need.Ian Bell’s 22nd (and final) Test century gave England the upper hand in Antigua, only for Jason Holder’s maiden hundred to guide West Indies to a gleefully acclaimed draw – one that, in the process, stole back the thunder from James Anderson after he first equalled, then overtook, Botham’s long-held record as England’s leading wicket-taker.The second Test in Grenada went more according to England’s designated script, thanks largely to Joe Root, whose 184 was his fourth massive unbeaten hundred in the space of nine Tests – and in spite of the best efforts of Marlon Samuels, whose first-innings century was followed by an infamous navy-style salute as Ben Stokes left the crease – the ramping-up of a rivalry that would peak at the World T20 final the following year.But England’s inherent frailties could not be hidden for long, and the edifice came tumbling down in a dismal series-squaring defeat in Barbados. At least Alastair Cook found some timely form with his first Test century in almost two years, but of his team-mates only Moeen Ali (58) passed fifty in either innings. The most notable failure was the sadly out-of-sorts Jonathan Trott, whose scores of 0 and 9 confirmed there’d be no fairytale finish to his Test career, 18 months after his breakdown on the 2013-14 Ashes.2018-19 – West Indies won 2-1Jason Holder takes off after reaching his maiden Test double-hundred•Getty ImagesThis time, England arrived in the West Indies thinking they’d cracked it. With their white-ball revolution in full swing, the squad had embraced a radical new approach to Test cricket, packing their middle- and lower-order with a glut of counterattacking allrounders to mitigate
the long-term frailty of the top three. The approach paid rich dividends with a 4-1 home series win over India and an impressive 3-0 scoreline in Sri Lanka, but come the Caribbean, they got too clever by half.In Barbados, England dropped Stuart Broad in favour of Sam Curran, and were taught a two-part lesson in hubris – first when Kemar Roach showed the enduring value of backing your experienced quicks in the Caribbean by claiming 5 for 17 as England were routed for 77, and then when Holder rampaged through West Indies’ second innings with a stunning double-century – seizing on the threadbare nature of a line-up in which Curran’s medium-pace had been fatefully exposed. When Roston Chase twirled through the second innings with 8 for 60, their humiliation was complete.England’s fortunes would get worse before a marked improvement in St Lucia. In Antigua their batting flatlined once more with scores of 187 and 132, courtesy of Roach’s four wickets in each innings and heavy artillery back-up from Shannon Gabriel, Alzarri Joseph and Holder, all of whom put in performances worthy of their legendary forebears. And so it was that England’s penny finally dropped in Gros Islet, where Mark Wood was unleashed for one of the most ferocious fast-bowling displays in England’s history. It was enough for a consolation win, but it couldn’t deflect from the muddled thinking that had preceded it.

Also: which Pakistan player was nicknamed the “Peshawar Rickshaw”?

Steven Lynch10-May-2022I spotted that the late Ken Barrington’s Test batting average was much higher than his overall first-class numbers. Is it the biggest gap for someone who played so many matches? asked Vineet Arora from England

Ken Barrington, the bulwark of England’s batting in the 1960s, averaged 58.67 in his 82 Test matches, against 45.63 in all first-class cricket, a difference of 13.04. That’s the record for anyone who played more than 20 Tests. The overall figures include Tests, of course; if you remove those for Barrington he averaged 43.01 in his other first-class games.If you reduce the qualification to those who had 15 or more Test innings, Barrington is still ninth. New Zealander Stewie Dempster comes top on that basis – he averaged 65.72 in Tests and 44.98 in first-class, a difference of 20.74. Next comes another 1930s batter, England’s Eddie Paynter, with a difference of 16.97 (59.23 vs 42.26). The top current player is West Indies’ Nkrumah Bonner, who averages 41.88 in Tests but 29.30 in first-class matches (a difference of 12.58).I thought it would be interesting to see who holds the equivalent record for bowlers, and again the answer depends on what qualification you impose. For those who bowled in at least 50 Test innings, it’s none other than Sachin Tendulkar, whose 46 Test wickets came at 54.17, which is 7.57 runs cheaper than his overall first-class average of 61.74 (71 wickets). Perhaps a better cut-off would be 100 Test wickets, which effectively restricts the selection to specialist bowlers: top then is the Australian seamer Ryan Harris, who averaged 23.52 in Tests (113 wickets) but 26.55 in first-class games (he took 303 wickets, and they neatly cost him 3.03 more). Next comes the England offspinner Graeme Swann, whose 255 Test wickets came at 29.96, some 2.16 runs cheaper than his first-class average of 32.12 (739 wickets).Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway put on 182 for CSK’s first wicket against Sunrisers the other day. Was this the highest opening stand in the IPL? asked Mohan Girish from India

That big stand between Gaikwad and Conway in Pune last week was actually the fourth-highest opening partnership in the IPL, although it’s only three short of the record, 185 by Jonny Bairstow and David Warner for Sunrisers against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Hyderabad in 2019.Oddly perhaps the IPL’s five highest partnerships have all come for the second wicket: highest of all is 229, by Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers for RCB against Gujarat Lions in Bengaluru in 2016. They beat their own record, an unbroken 215 against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai a year earlier.Kent’s Nathan Gilchrist has collected six successive ducks in first-class cricket, which I gather equals the record. How many people have done this before? asked George Richardson from England

Kent’s Zimbabwe-born seamer Nathan Gilchrist endured a horror stretch in April, bagging pairs against Hampshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. He was the 12th man to be dismissed for six successive ducks in first-class cricket: none of them made it seven. The list includes the recent county seamer Charlie Shreck (2015) and Sri Lankan Test paceman Nuwan Pradeep (2017-18 to 2018-19). Gilchrist was left out of Kent’s next game, against the Sri Lankan development team, so we will all have to wait until he is chosen again to see if he can avoid making history.There’s an associated record, which is the most successive innings without scoring, which can include not-outs. Gilchrist will probably be relieved to learn he’s a fair way short of that mark at the moment: the Sussex seamer Mark Robinson endured 12 scoreless innings in a row (seven of them not out) in 1990, when he finished the season with three runs in 16 innings, at an average of 0.50.Nathan Gilchrist in the 12th man to collect six successive ducks in first-class cricket•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesI know that Don Bradman batted for most of his career at No. 3. Presumably no one averaged more than him there in Tests? asked Gavin Ryder from Australia

You’re usually on safe ground if you mention Don Bradman and highest batting averages in the same breath – and this is no exception. Bradman played 52 Tests, and batted at No. 3 in 40 of them – and averaged 103.63 there, including 5078 runs and 20 of his eventual 29 Test centuries. He had 56 innings at No. 3: the only other person with a three-figure average from there, apart from a handful who batted only once or twice, is the New Zealander Scott Styris, with exactly 100 from five innings, two of them not-out. If you consider only those with ten or more innings at No. 3, Bradman is more than 26 runs clear of the next man, England’s Ken Barrington, who averaged 77.23 – he made 2626 runs in 40 innings.And if you’d like your mind boggled by Bradman’s stats, click here.I know that Shoaib Akhtar was nicknamed the “Rawalpindi Express”. But who was the “Peshawar Rickshaw”? asked Hafiz Ahmed from Pakistan

The man who was saddled with this rather unflattering nickname for a while was Umar Gul, a very useful seamer from Peshawar who ended up with over 400 international wickets. The name was a not very subtle reminder that he wasn’t as fast as Shoaib Akhtar, or Waqar Younis – but it hid the fact that he was a very canny operator, who twice took 5 for 6 in T20Is, against New Zealand and South Africa. Looking online I spotted that he was also known as “The Gul-dozer”, which I suspect he might have preferred!Umar Gul’s team-mates were in no doubt about his value. “One of Pakistan’s bowling greats,” said Shahid Afridi, who added: “Great exponent of reverse swing, and always played for Pakistan with pride.” Babar Azam, the current captain, called him “one of the most skilled bowlers who wore the green star on his chest”.And there’s an update on last week’s question about the most actual runs completed during a Test innings, from Charles Davis in Australia

“You’re right that several reports give Hanif Mohammad 24 fours in his 337 in Bridgetown in 1957-58. However, the old England scorer Geoffrey Saulez examined the scorebook for this Test while in Barbados during the 1970s, and came up with different numbers. He reported 26 fours, 16 threes, 40 twos and 105 singles, which adds up. That would bring Hanif’s non-boundaries down to 233 runs. It is conceivable that he hit one or more all-run fours, but such shots are rare in the West Indies (about 0.25% of fours in the modern Test game). I don’t recall reading about any all-run fours in that innings. Sadly, that Bridgetown scorebook is now lost.”However, Australia’s Bob Cowper did have two all-run fours in his 307 against England in Melbourne in 1965-66, bringing his boundary fours down to 18. That would give him 235 in non-boundary runs.”Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The ECB’s marquee competition needs to achieve cut-through with the public while maintaining a veneer of progress

Vithushan Ehantharajah03-Aug-2022″You know about ‘the Hundred variant’ right?”There was a theory doing the rounds at the end of last summer that each of the four men’s and women’s teams contesting the Hundred Finals Day fielded players suffering from Covid-19. It is a tough nugget to prove. Some only reported symptoms after that Saturday in August while others kept quiet. No one wanted to miss out on the Lord’s showpiece event, fearing they would not only be taking themselves out of action, but a number of team-mates as close contacts too. By that stage, the virus had been around the team environments more often than influencers. It had become part of the norm.Players were required to take regular lateral flow tests before training and match days – a regulation brought in by the ECB after fears the first edition of the eight-team competition (delayed by a year) would be cut off at the knees by coronavirus. A worry that was exacerbated by England having to pick an entirely new squad for their one-day series with Pakistan, reflective of the world outside the changing room walls in which more than half-a-million people were pinged by the NHS track and trace app in the first week of July 2021.Related

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The 2020 season was a drag, leading many to contemplate why they do what they do. That crisis of confidence spilled into the start of 2021, with restricted crowds in the T20 Blast up until the knockout stages. And so, as the Hundred wore on, testing lapsed, as it did pretty much everywhere else. Among the logic of the majority of fit, young 20-somethings was that they were able to cope with this iteration of the virus, and a more relatable fatigue when it came to imposed restrictions, which were more severe on the players given what was at stake (money, lots of it) if the Hundred or any part of the international schedule stumbled.The freedom the Hundred offered extended beyond parking inhibitions on the field to make every ball count. To many who ply their trade on the domestic circuit, it offered a sense of relief. A chance to emerge from the grey.One of the overlooked aspects of men’s county cricket is its social scene. As much as it can be a grind, one of the upsides for a player is travelling to various parts of the country and sampling the nightlife. After one-and-a-half summers of losing that perk, the timing of a glitzy tour of seven major cities encouraged making up for lost time. Coming off the back of the England football team’s run to the final of the European Championships, which opened the floodgates when it came to public disregard of what rules were still in place, there was little encouragement needed. As players indulged at night, at times ignoring team guidelines to stick to outside spaces, mixing with the general public and occasionally friends on other teams, “the Hundred strain” was born.Shane Warne was the most high-profile member of staff to contract the virus, ruled out of fulfilling in-person duties for the start of the London Spirit campaign after testing positive in the first week of August, almost immediately after Andy Flower had done the same. The biggest fright for the competition came when Adam Lyth and Harry Brook returned positives ahead of Northern Superchargers’ match with Manchester Originals. It eventually went ahead when the rest of the Superchargers squad reported a clean bill of health.You can probably gauge the more sociable by the final standings, particularly in the men’s competition. That’s not to say such behaviour was allowed to slide. During Welsh Fire’s tournament debrief – they finished seventh – head coach Gary Kirsten lamented a lack of professionalism among his group, particularly from those who should have regarded this as an opportunity to showcase their wares on a bigger platform.

“There was a sense from some female cricketers that their male counterparts regarded them as an inconvenience when it came to sharing training spaces or other resources”

His sentiment was shared by other coaches and senior players, who felt English players in particular were coasting when they should have realised a clearer path to stardom given the lack of stellar names, even if only for a month. Likewise a handful of overseas pros who benefitted from the absence of their more-decorated peers. That’s not the case this time around.The approach to Covid encapsulated why the first edition of the Hundred should be regarded in isolation. An anomaly of societal and cultural overcorrection to a pandemic still simmering beneath the surface. And it is also why so much of what was regarded as success will come under greater scrutiny this time around.The women’s competition held most of the aces, showcasing the depth of domestic talent and appetite for women’s cricket, even if the latter was abundantly clear following the 2017 50-over World Cup on these shores. Beyond performances ranging from a breakthrough for Alice Capsey, reaffirmation for Tash Farrant and confirmation of Jemimah Rodrigues’ talents were ceiling-busting asides, typified by the sight of London Spirit players sipping cans of cider on the Lord’s home balcony to celebrate the academic achievements of Alice Monaghan, who skipped her graduation from Loughborough University to play against Superchargers. Crowds for women’s matches averaged 7000-8000, with a peak television audience of 1.4million for the final between Oval Invincibles and Southern Brave across BBC and Sky.It will be fascinating to see how that success continues on this year, given how much of 2021 women’s edition was based on alignment with the men. Last year’s double-headers were another Covid-enforced circumstance rather than boardroom design, which will be harder to replicate this time given the women’s competition starts three rounds in because of the clash with the Commonwealth Games.There is also the notion of “respect” between the sexes, publicly insisted on but which at times felt overblown. Despite the odd men’s cricketer championing the output of their women’s team or the standard as a whole, there was a sense from some female players that their male counterparts regarded them as an inconvenience when it came to sharing training spaces or other resources.The Hundred pushed the women’s game to a new level in the UK•Getty ImagesOf course, it was always going to need more than a souped-up competition and accompanying marketing campaign to change the sexist views prevailing within cricket. Perhaps most instructive is how the Hundred is being used as the vehicle to drive this, even if the shifts are tectonically slow at this stage. The highest-paid women (£31,250) will now earn more than the lowest-paid men (£30,000) and the opening match of the women’s competition (Invincibles vs Superchargers on August 11) will be staged after the men’s fixture. “I’m excited to see how it goes,” Beth Barrett-Wild, head of the women’s Hundred, said on Monday. “It is going to be interesting to see how it plays out and I am very optimistic that it is going to look brilliant, and feel brilliant.”On the playing side, the expectation is for a better spectacle, in part because of a strong pool of international talent in both codes now that travel to the UK has eased. The playing conditions should feel a little more natural after players admitted being thrown by the adjustment to five-ball sets. Some even found the scoreboards confusing for the second innings (where balls remaining and runs required count down together) having been used to calculating required rates in six-ball overs.”Things like the five balls, the tactics behind it were totally different, especially at the death when you’re the fielding side,” Moeen Ali, captain of 2021 runners-up Birmingham Phoenix, said. “For people who didn’t know anything about cricket before, having spoken to those kinds of people – for us who knew a little bit about cricket, it was a little confusing, but for people who don’t know anything about cricket, they seemed to understand it really well and got the concept of it really well and quickly.”That, really, is the point of all this. A game that plenty admire given a makeover to make it more appealing to the rest, in a bid to future-proof English cricket. Beyond some unruly scenes in the crowd, which the ECB has vowed to clamp down on with more effective stewarding, the first season was far less garish than many had expected.So, what are our guarantees this time? A strong on-field product, over-the-top cheerleading from official broadcasters, prime real estate across the media the powers-that-be really care about, and a sense of belonging to something bigger for male and female cricketers who had become too accustomed to the shadows.As for the uncertainties, cut-through will be the biggest hurdle. The start of the 2022-23 Premier League on Friday is as big a distraction as they come, and a reminder of how lucky the 2021 season was to follow the Euros and not have to compete for eyes with the Olympic Games given the time difference meant Tokyo’s days were done by late afternoon, British Summer Time. The absence of centrally contracted England players such as Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, who ESPNcricinfo revealed has pulled out on the eve of the competition, won’t help. Nor will overseas stars flying out early for international duty.By and large, though, there is a liberty the Hundred will be looking to exploit. And with a soon-to-be confirmed window set aside for it in the upcoming Future Tours Programme, liberation is only going to grow.In a post-pandemic Britain, amid a sporting ecosystem shifting underfoot, 2022 will dictate where the Hundred intends to position itself in the future. And by proxy, where the ECB is looking to pitch up – that little bit closer to the peak of the global game. Now, ultimately, is the time for a tournament that will never be allowed to fall to take its first meaningful steps.

And what’s the lowest score a batter has a Player-of-the-Match award for?

Steven Lynch14-Jun-2022I spotted that Mustafizur Rahman took 28 wickets in his first ten ODIs. Was this a record? And what’s the most by anyone in any spell of ten ODIs? asked Khaled Hossain from Bangladesh

Mustafizur Rahman’s tally of 28 wickets in his first ten one-day internationals for Bangladesh – starting with 5 for 50 and 6 for 43 against India in June 2015 – has been bettered only by another left-arm seamer, New Zealand’s Mitchell McClenaghan, who managed 29; the West Indian Ottis Gibson also took 28.The purplest ten-match patch at any stage in ODIs belongs to Pakistan’s Waqar Younis, who claimed 35 wickets in ten games between April and November 1990, a run that included five five-fors, three of them in succession, and even one wicketless match. Ajantha Mendis once took 34 wickets in ten ODIs for Sri Lanka, while Rashid Khan of Afghanistan and Oman’s Bilal Khan (earlier this year) have both managed 32.All nine Bengal players who batted reached 50 in their recent match against Jharkhand – is this a record? asked Peter Dayson-Smith from England, among others

This was reasonably fresh in the memory, as a few weeks ago I answered a similar question after seven Surrey players reached 50 in an innings against Kent. And so it’s easy to confirm that Bengal’s nine half-centuries against Jharkhand in Bengaluru last week is a record for any first-class innings, beating eight by the Australian tourists in their match against Oxford and Cambridge University Past and Present in Portsmouth in 1893. There have been 26 instances of seven scores of 50 or more in an innings, including Surrey’s total of 671 in that match in Beckenham in May, which remains the highest in first-class cricket without an individual century.In the same round of Ranji Trophy quarter-finals, in Alur, Mumbai thrashed Uttarakhand by 725 runs, another first-class record: the previous-heaviest defeat by a runs margin was 685, by New South Wales against Queensland in Sydney in 1929-30, in the match in which Don Bradman made 452 not out, the highest score in first-class cricket at the time. There have been heavier innings defeats, the grand-daddy of them all being Pakistan Railways’ victory over Dera Ismail Khan in Lahore in 1964-65, by the little matter of an innings and 851.What’s the lowest all-out Test total that included a 200-run partnership? asked Vipul Shah from India

There have so far been four completed innings in Tests which were less than 300 but nonetheless featured a partnership of 200 or more. Lowest of all is Australia’s 284 against West Indies in Brisbane in 1968-69, which included a stand of 217 between Bill Lawry and Ian Chappell (no one else made more than 17).When Pakistan made 288 against West Indies in Georgetown in 1999-2000, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Abdul Razzaq put on 206, quite a recovery from 39 for 5. India’s 293 against England at Headingley in 1952 included a partnership of 222 by Vijay Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar, while South Africa made 296 vs India in Kolkata in 2009-10, with a stand of 209 between Alviro Petersen (who was making his debut) and Hashim Amla. New Zealand’s 283 against West Indies in Kingston in 1984-85 included a stand of 210 between Geoff Howarth and Jeff Crowe – but only nine wickets fell in that one as Jeremy Coney had broken his arm and was unable to bat.If we look at innings which were not all-out, Pakistan’s 230 for 3 to beat New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1984-85 included a partnership of 212 between Mudassar Nazar and Javed Miandad.Asif Ali faced only seven balls and made 25 runs in his Player-of-the-Match performance against Afghanistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup•ICC via GettyI noticed that Aiden Markram has played 31 Tests, and has not yet taken part in a draw – is this a record? asked Keith McKenzie from South Africa

You’re right that the South African batter Aiden Markram has so far taken part in 19 Test victories and 12 defeats – and no draws yet. This is indeed a record: Jason Gillespie took part in 26 Tests before playing in a draw, while his Australian team-mates Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden had 22 and 21 respectively; the 19th-century England allrounder Johnny Briggs played 20 Tests before his first draw.Markram currently has the most Tests in a complete career without a draw, although he might yet lose that distinction. George Lohmann, another 19th-century Englishman, played 18 Tests without ever featuring in a draw; next comes Alok Kapali, who played 17 Tests for Bangladesh and lost them all. Keaton Jennings has so far appeared in 17 Tests for England, all of which ended in definite results, while Shimron Hetmyer has played 16 for West Indies.In the second match in Sri Lanka, Matthew Wade was Man of the Match for his 26 not out from 26 balls; he didn’t bowl, or make any catches or run-outs. Has anyone won the award after scoring fewer than this as their only formal contribution to a T20 international? asked Rohan Kennedy from Australia

Australia’s Matthew Wade won the match award in the second T20 international against Sri Lanka in Colombo last week for his run-a-ball 26, which came after he entered at a tricky time – 80 for 5 in the ninth over, chasing only 125. You’re right that he didn’t otherwise feature on the scorecard, although that wouldn’t show, for example, any particularly good pieces of fielding; Wade did keep wicket through a Sri Lankan innings that included no extras.However, Wade’s 26 balls is a long way from the smallest involvement by a player who ended up with the match award in a T20 international. Playing for Pakistan against Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup in Dubai in October 2021, Asif Ali was given the award after having an active involvement in only seven deliveries, from which he hammered 25 not out. Brad Hodge (21 not out) faced eight balls for Australia against South Africa in Durban in 2013-14, as did Dinesh Karthik (29 not out) for India vs Bangladesh in the Nidahas Trophy final in Colombo in 2017-18 (he did also complete a run-out while keeping wicket). Against England at The Oval in 2009, Ramnaresh Sarwan won the award for his nine-ball 19 not out as West Indies chased a rain-reduced target.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

If both Pant and Kohli are to make the XI, India will have to leave out either Hooda or Suryakumar

Shashank Kishore09-Jul-20221:48

Does Kohli walk in to India’s full-strength T20I XI?

A team that dominated from start to finish, as India did in the first T20I against England, shouldn’t have too many headaches, right? Not really.India will discover a problem of plenty they know they will have to tackle sooner than later with the T20 World Cup looming. How do they handle Virat Kohli’s form issues? Where do they slot in Rishabh Pant? What about the allrounders’ conundrum? Let’s look at each case.Related

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How do India fit in Kohli? Before we answer that, let’s look at what the incumbents have done.Deepak Hooda is just six T20Is old but has already shown he can adapt to the team’s new ‘high risk, high returns’ policy. In four innings, he has made 205 runs at a strike rate of 172.26. He’s had a breakthrough IPL for Lucknow Supergiants, scoring 451 runs in 14 innings – mostly at No. 3 or 4 – at a strike rate of 136.66. He can also bowl some handy offspin if needed.In the T20I series opener against England, Hooda made an impressive 17-ball 33 at No. 3, building on Rohit Sharma’s pulsating start. He walked in at 29 for 1 in the third over and walked out with the score 89 for 3 in the ninth. Job done.Let’s look at Suryakumar Yadav – the 360-degree batter, who has time and again demonstrated his capabilities of playing different roles – enforcer, finisher, accumulator, you name it. Suryakumar made his debut under Kohli in March 2021 against England. Across 15 T20I innings that have brought him 405 runs, he strikes at 170.Like Hooda, Suryakumar made a big impression in the first T20I in Southampton•Associated PressSuryakumar’s unique ability to go big from ball one makes him stand out among the rest. He loves pace on the ball. Against spin, his strike rate of 140.22 in 43 T20s (including IPL and India) is the fourth-best strike rate since 2020. His average of 39.43 is higher than the three Indians above him on the list – Prithvi Shaw, Sanju Samson and Nitish Rana.Like Hooda, Suryakumar made a big impression in the first T20I in Southampton. He made 39 off 19 balls, without giving you the impression that he was slogging. That is because he wasn’t. His late movements without giving the bowlers an inkling of the region he’s eyeing, subtle wrists to either ramp or scoop, and ability to play the pull or hook make him a destructive batter.This brings us to Kohli. Should he walk back in – which he should – he could open in a stopgap arrangement, given KL Rahul, the first-choice opener, is still injured. This could then displace Ishan Kishan, but it will go against Rahul Dravid’s policy of giving players role clarity and backing them in those roles through an extended run of matches. Having identified Kishan as back-up, slotting Kohli there for the moment is only likely to throw up more headaches. The most likely slot then is three.His record in all T20s since the start of the year reads 18 innings, 410 runs, strike rate of 117.81, and an average of 24.11. Sixteen of these came for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2022, where he opened the batting for much of it. His powerplay strike rate in the IPL was 116.78.His struggle to force the pace on slower surfaces was evident. It’s an aspect that has been troublesome for Kohli for a while. Since 2020 (IPL and T20Is), Kohli’s strike rate of 105.23 (51 innings) is the lowest among those who have played more than 20 innings. His overall batting impact per game since IPL 2020, as per ESPNcricinfo smart stats, is 20.29, the second-lowest among all batters with 750 runs. Only Kane Williamson fares worse.So, whichever way India choose to slot Kohli in, it’s clear he will have to rediscover the kind of touch he brought to the table in 2016, form of the kind he showed against Australia in a virtual T20 World Cup quarterfinal where he made a 51-ball 82 not out in a winning chase or the IPL that followed, where he made a chart-topping 973 runs, including four hundreds in the season.Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik during a practice session•PTI What about Pant and Shreyas Iyer? One of the theories fast gaining ground is India could try and punt on Pant the opener. He has only so far done it in one ODI at home, against West Indies, earlier in the year. If he does open with Rohit, the axe could yet again, unfortunately, fall on Kishan for now, but it could give India the option to play both Suryakumar and Hooda alongside Kohli in the middle order. The person to sit out then could be Dinesh Karthik, who has been brought back after three years because he plays a specific role of a finisher. If Karthik continues, once again it means one of Hooda or Suryakumar make way. So, either way, to fit in both Pant and Kohli in the same XI, India will have to choose between leaving out one of their in-form batters.There is also Shreyas Iyer in the mix. Iyer batted at No.3 in the third T20I against West Indies and also against Sri Lanka and South Africa at home this year. Since the start of 2022, he has scored a total of 323 runs at a strike rate of 154.54 in nine T20Is. And despite formidable numbers, he isn’t guaranteed a spot. Does Jadeja slot back in straightaway? Logically, yes. It’s a straight swap with Axar Patel. While Ravindra Jadeja’s batting credentials have been on an upswing, his bowling in T20 cricket has tailed off over the past two years. Since IPL 2020, he has struck 575 runs at 147. In the same period, his death-overs strike rate of 199.60 is the fourth-best. With the ball, he has picked just 24 wickets in 40 games at an economy of 7.70. However, Hardik Pandya’s encouraging returns with the ball could give Jadeja a bit of leeway, as the sixth bowling option, giving India flexibility they dearly missed at last year’s World Cup.

Leading into Australia’s key England clash, he said his Sri Lanka struggles were an anomaly – but his numbers at home say otherwise

Alex Malcolm27-Oct-20222:40

Aaron Finch: ‘Still feel like I’m playing pretty well’

If Thursday’s press conference was a net session, then Aaron Finch was seeing them well and striking them even better.Just 24 hours out from Australia’s must-win game against England at the MCG, Finch copped a probing delivery from a journalist.”What have you made of some of the talk around your position?” The reporter asked directly. The reporter added that former Australian captain Allan Border had suggested Steven Smith should play in place of Finch.”Lucky I pick the team then, isn’t it?” Finch retorted with a smile.”One of,” Finch quickly clarified. “There’s a few of us that sit down and discuss the team. But everyone’s got their opinion, that’s fine. I’ve got no issues with what their personal opinions [are]. I don’t read or listen to any of it personally.”He had presented the full face of the bat to the question. It was struck firmly enough to return the delivery back from where it came quickly.But press conferences aren’t net sessions. Nor are net sessions even close to match situations. But when Finch stepped into the indoor centre at Junction Oval no more than two hours after his press conference, the crisp timing he showed behind the podium eluded him.Nets are never a great indicator of anything for either professional or amateur cricketers, especially indoors. Form in the nets should always be taken with a large grain of salt.But in Finch’s case, it’s hard to ignore. He was facing Australia coach Andrew McDonald and bowling coach Daniel Vettori, a right-left combination in tandem, armed with side arms and near-new white Kookaburras.

“I felt I was playing quite well. And once Maxy [Glenn Maxwell] started to get away, I probably went into my shell a little bit and looked to just get off strike rather than hitting good strong shots out to a deep man.”Aaron Finch on his Sri Lanka innings

When compared to Mitch Marsh, who was batting in the next net, facing assistants Michael Di Venuto and Andre Borovec in the same fashion, the difference in the quality of the timing, movement patterns and balance was stark.Finch admitted on Tuesday that his innings against Sri Lanka in Perth had been poor. On Thursday, he called it an outlier.”I think it’s an anomaly in my career,” Finch said. “It’s just one of those days. I hit a really nice pull straight to the fielder, and then an off drive in the same over straight to the fielder.”I felt I was playing quite well. And once Maxy [Glenn Maxwell] started to get away, I probably went into my shell a little bit and looked to just get off strike rather than hitting good strong shots out to a deep man. I was trying to get off strike [by hitting] in the ring, which is never easy when you’re facing a world-class spinner like [Maheesh] Theekshana.”And that’s probably what I will change next time. I think I was probably one or two boundaries away from being back to a run-a-ball and it probably looks a little bit different there.”There is an argument that Finch’s innings, as slow as it was, did play an important role in helping lay a foundation for Australia’s middle order. He was 20 off 24 when Maxwell entered and he had kept his gun middle-order matchwinner away from the new ball in the powerplay and his less preferred match-up of Lahiru Kumara. It allowed Maxwell to face the spin of Dhananjaya de Silva and Wanindu Hasaranga in his first two overs. He smashed 22 off his first six balls to reduce the equation to 73 off 60 and relieve any pressure Australia were feeling.”We identified early in the game or in our powerplay when the ball was zipping around a bit that we didn’t want to try over-attack and expose the middle order too early, because then you risk going two or three down in the powerplay,” Finch said. “Then it’s a struggle to get the game back into a position where you can get home a little bit more comfortably.”So it’s just that middle part. I think straight after the 10-over timeout, there was only a wide off an over, so a lot of dot balls there. But I still feel like I’m playing pretty well.”Therein lies the problem for the Australian captain. It’s a sound strategy to be buying yourself time in the powerplay in this World Cup when the seamers are dominating as the new ball has seamed, swung and bounced prodigiously, particularly in Perth and Melbourne. But Finch’s inability to accelerate beyond that places a huge burden on those around him, particularly in home conditions.Aaron Finch’s knock against Sri Lanka was the slowest innings of 40 or more balls ever at Men’s T20 World Cups•AFP/Getty ImagesFinch, and Australia’s selectors, have been quick to point to Finch’s T20I numbers this year to suggest he remains in decent form in the format despite retiring from ODI cricket after a string of low scores. Since March, he has made three half-centuries in 14 T20I innings, averaging 30.91 and striking at 124.49.There was also a strong belief that he would be fine in home conditions having experienced more troubles away. But the opposite is true. He has actually had a lot more success away than at home recently. Since the start of 2020, he has scored six half-centuries in 23 innings, averaging 37.75 and striking at 138.42 overseas. At home he has been struggling. In 14 matches he strikes at just 98.45 and averages 19.61 with one half-century against West Indies this month on the Gold Coast.His innings against Sri Lanka, the slowest of any consisting of 40 or more balls in Men’s T20 World Cup history, was not an anomaly in that context.He has been working tirelessly to find a method to neutralise the lbw threat that has plagued him throughout his career, and he has succeeded having only fallen twice to it in T20Is since the start of 2020 and never in Australia. But in doing so he seems to have completely neutralised his scoring ability off both feet.Finch was asked by another journalist if he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders.”I don’t feel any more pressure than I ever have,” Finch said. “The only pressure is the expectation you put on yourself. “Another well-timed response to another probing verbal delivery. But in the end, he needs his bat to do the talking.