“I don’t want to be a one-hit wonder, I want to be successful and consistent for the duration of my career.”

Mohammad Isam07-Feb-20211:51

‘Was not thinking of the target’ – Mayers

In successful fourth-inning chases this big, it is only natural that the batsmen who take their team to that height, are themselves quite special. They either have done it late in their career like Sachin Tendulkar, Sir Don Bradman and Younis Khan, or after they have become batting mainstays like Sunil Gavaskar, AB de Villiers and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.Kyle Mayers was playing his first Test match in a country he was touring for the first time, where his team has been struggling for close to a month. He only made it to the side after several of West Indies’ top players pulled out of the tour.Related

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• Mayers' knock brings father Shirley Clarke to tears

Going by how they lost the ODI series 0-3 and the way this Chattogram Test was panning out for four days, the only people who could have believed that West Indies could win, were inside the West Indies dressing room. And, that’s exactly what happened.Throughout his six hours and 55 minutes stay at the crease, not for once did Mayers look out of touch, lacking control or anything less than confident. His unbeaten 210, that included 20 fours and seven sixes, is going to be historic, mainly because of the circumstances he and his team, and for that matter his opponent Bangladesh, found themselves in.Mayers said that he first detected he was on to something special at the lunch break, when he and Nkrumah Bonner had been unbeaten through the first session. They added 87 runs in 31 overs, and while there was the odd ball that kept really low or jumped off a length, they looked generally comfortable.’Bonner and I just tried to enjoy the moment. It was our first game at the Test match level so we just tried to stay as cool as possible’ – Match-winning double-centurion Kyle Mayers•BCBIt was an impressive start from two debutants who had previously struggled against spin. But by the end of the first session, Bonner and Mayers were showing a bit more guile in tackling the slow turning deliveries.”From the moment we batted to lunch, I thought that winning the first session, not giving the opposition a wicket for the first session, I thought I could take it straight to the end,” Mayers said. “Then we got to tea, so then things began to look brighter. It was pretty simple, Bonner and I just tried to enjoy the moment. It was our first game at the Test match level so we just tried to stay as cool as possible. We tried not to watch the scoreboard.”We knew that if we batted time, our team would have been in good stead. So we just tried to bat time, stay tight and remind each other to stay positive. To capitalise on any opportunity to score, because the conditions were not easy. So scoring helped us put pressure back on the opposition. We were just reminding each other to score and try to stay at the wicket for as long as possible.”Mayers took the attack to the Bangladesh at every opportunity, driving freely through point and cover, and pulling all the short balls from the offspinners.

Kyle Mayers speaks to CWI Media after his historic test match debut!#MenInMaroon #BANvWI pic.twitter.com/zX0ZMvsFTO

— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) February 7, 2021

Also: what’s the highest score by a player in his first Test as captain?

Steven Lynch20-Apr-2021Was Babar Azam’s 122 against South Africa the highest in a successful chase in a T20I? asked Danish Amin from the United States
Babar Azam’s 122 in Pakistan’s nine-wicket win in Centurion last week was the 12th century in a successful chase in a T20I. But there has been one higher individual score: Evin Lewis hammered 125 not out from 62 balls as West Indies chased down 191 to beat India in Kingston in 2017.Glenn Maxwell of Australia has two entries on the list: 113 not out against India in Bengaluru in 2018-19, and 103 not out against England in Hobart in 2017-18. But England’s Alex Hales just misses out: he made 116 not out against Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup in Chattogram early in 2014, but was out for 99 against West Indies at Trent Bridge in 2012.Which batter has bagged the most ducks in the IPL? asked Vishal Patel from India
As I write, five men share the distinction of having been dismissed for nought on 13 occasions in the IPL. The only who isn’t a current player is Parthiv Patel, who last appeared in the IPL in 2019: the others, who might have the misfortune to take the outright lead any day now, are Harbhajan Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma.The most runs in the IPL without ever making a duck is currently held by Shubman Gill, with 1008; if and when he gets out for nought, the record will revert to Australia’s Andrew Symonds, who made 974.Gill was the fifth batter to reach 1000 IPL runs before collecting a duck, following David Miller (who made 1450), Suresh Raina (1408), Dwayne Bravo (1154) and Matthew Hayden (1076). Overall, KL Rahul has so far scored 2804 IPL runs with only one duck; Shaun Marsh made 2477, also with a single scoreless innings.What’s the highest score by a player in his first Test as captain? asked Glenn Howard from Australia
This record is held by the New Zealand opener Graham Dowling, who marked his first Test as captain with 239 against India in Christchurch in 1967-68. The only other debut double-century as captain came from Shivnarine Chanderpaul, with 203 not out for West Indies against South Africa in Georgetown in 2004-05. The record for most runs on debut as captain, however, was established by Virat Kohli, with 256 – 115 and 141 – against Australia in Adelaide in 2014-15; he beat Dowling’s old mark of 244. In all, 31 different captains made a century in their first Test in charge; Kohli and Greg Chappell, for Australia vs West Indies in Brisbane in 1975-76, are the only men to score two.Virat Kohli has the most runs for a Test captain on debut•Getty ImagesQuinton de Kock, who also captained and kept wicket in the match, scored a hundred after opening in an ODI against England last year. Has anyone ever pulled off this triple in a Test? asked Michael Maclean from South Africa
Quinton de Kock opened and scored 107 against England in Cape Town in February 2020. It was the second time a wicketkeeper-captain had opened the innings in a one-day international and reached three figures, after Adam Gilchrist for Australia against Sri Lanka in Perth in 2005-06. There’s only one such instance in Tests, by an earlier South African: Percy Sherwell made 115 against England at Lord’s in 1907. It was the first time Sherwell had opened in a Test: in his previous five matches he had gone in at No. 9 or lower (three times at No. 11).My father was telling me there is someone whose obituary appeared in Wisden years before he died, but not when he actually passed away. Is this true? Who was it? asked Brian Carrington from England
The man with this eventful history was The Reverend Archibald Fargus, an allrounder who played with some success for Gloucestershire and Cambridge University in 1900 and 1901. Early in the First World War, he was reported lost at sea when HMS Monmouth was sunk by the Germans off Chile, and an obituary duly appeared in Wisden 1915. But Fargus, who was supposed to be the ship’s chaplain, had missed the train connection taking him to the port and never made it on board; he was assigned to another ship. A correction appeared in Wisden 1916. Fargus, whose father was a novelist, had been ordained as a priest in 1906, and later worked in various churches in Malta, Spain, and latterly Bristol, where he died in October 1963. This was when Wisden completed a notable double by missing his death – he did not appear in the 1964 edition, but was included in a special supplementary section in 1994.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Coach credits self-awareness for South Africa’s run of seven successive T20I wins

Firdose Moonda15-Sep-2021Just as they’re on a roll, they’ll be taking a break. And it could not have come at a worse time.South Africa have completed a streak of three successive T20I series wins after beating West Indies, Ireland and now Sri Lanka on their winter tours. Say what you like about whether South Africa always looked at their best or the state of the opposition – and remember that West Indies were at full strength – but at a time when there have been few good things to say about the South African men’s team performance, this is among the best there is. They’ve equalled a record of seven successive T20I victories and are in as good a shape as they could have hoped to be, according to coach Mark Boucher.Related

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“This team realised that we are definitely not the finished product, so there’s a lot of things we speak about,” Boucher said. “We had a good chat about the lessons we’ve learnt and where we want to go as a team. We tied the record for the most T20 wins by a South African team. That was one of the records that we were playing for. We understand that going into a World Cup each game is as important as the others and this becomes a habit. This is just part of the growth of the team.”Their opportunity to break that record and add an eighth win will come on October 23, when they take on Australia in the T20 World Cup opener. Between now and then, half of the squad will return home to South Africa to compete in a domestic T20 knockout cup and prepare for the tournament while the other half will head to the IPL.”We’ve spoken to the guys going to the IPL. They need to stay quite disciplined and realise we want to peak at the right time as a unit,” Boucher said. “They’ll be picking up bits of information about playing in those conditions that will really get them ready for a big tournament and if they manage themselves well and get some good time in the nets and get used to facilities it will stand us in good stead. It will be a great experience as long as guys look after themselves and peak at the right time.”Chief among Boucher’s concerns will be injuries, particularly for players like David Miller, who returned from a hamstring injury for the Sri Lanka T20Is only to pick up a quad niggle after the first match. Miller is among those going to the IPL. So are all South Africa’s frontline quicks – Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi (who missed the Sri Lanka tour for personal reasons) and Anrich Nortje – along with their star batter Quinton de Kock and the in-form Aiden Markram. The latter two, especially, Boucher wants fit and firing in a batting line-up that has managed well despite being one short throughout the Sri Lanka series.Aiden Markram’s effective offbreaks will provide South Africa with more options for the T20 World Cup•AFP via Getty ImagesDe Kock was South Africa’s top-scorer and continues to benefit from being unburdened from the captaincy. “Quinny went through a bit of a tough time after (the) Pakistan (tour in February) but since coming in he has been fantastic in the team environment. You can’t keep a player like that down for too long,” Boucher said. “He has been in a very happy space. He is a big name going into the World Cup so him being in the form that he is, is good.”And Markram, who was signed as a replacement player for Dawid Malan at Punjab Kings, has emerged as not only flexible enough to bat anywhere in the top order but as an allrounder option in spinner-friendly conditions. He finished as the joint-second leading bowler in the series. “Aiden has grown a hell of a lot in his game and has different options now,” Boucher said.Returning captain Temba Bavuma, who is recovering from a broken thumb, will add another top-order player to the mix for the T20 World Cup. Boucher is pleased to have a problem of plenty, even when it comes to leadership. He had nothing but praise for stand-in skipper Keshav Maharaj, who debuted in the format in this series, took a wicket with his first ball, and led South Africa to a clean sweep.”With Keshav – this is not his first roadshow. He has been around, especially in conditions like this. He has got a great feel for the game,” Boucher said. “The communication, confidence and trust he has in the spinners, especially the confidence he showed in Aiden, Aiden fed off and produced the goods. The way he dealt with his spinners and the players was great. He has got great leadership which stands us in good stead.”

The England white-ball analyst on planning for the T20 World Cup, the value of probabilistic thinking, and whether teams can be run entirely from the dugout

Interview by Matt Roller10-Jun-2021Nathan Leamon, a Cambridge University maths graduate, became an England analyst in 2009 following a career in teaching. Aside from the Test tour to New Zealand in early 2018, he has worked exclusively with the white-ball teams since 2016, and has also spent time with the Multan Sultans in the 2019 PSL and the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2021 IPL.The first chapter of your new book focuses on England’s 2019 World Cup win, and the analysis that helped inform strategy and planning in the four years leading up to it under Andrew Strauss, Trevor Bayliss and Eoin Morgan. You argue that the group of batters who came through in that 2015-19 cycle – Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Alex Hales, Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow – benefited from playing 40-over domestic one-day cricket from 2010-13, rather than 50-over cricket, because it meant they were used to scoring at a high strike rate. How important do you think it was in their development?
We’ll never know for sure because there’s no control group that only played 50-over cricket. All of them would have been very good white-ball batsmen, but we [England] had a whole history of producing white-ball batsmen who tended to have very good averages but whose strike rates were at the lower end of what was around in international cricket. There’s no real reason to believe that they [Buttler, Stokes, Hales, et al] wouldn’t have followed a similar pattern and been very good white-ball players, but without quite developing that real top-end ability to score at those higher rates consistently.There was the intent, confidence and licence to fail coming from Morgan, Bayliss and Strauss; there was the rules shifting into a position where it favoured that type of approach; and then there was this group of batsmen coming through who had played most of their domestic careers striking at the sorts of rates we needed them to strike at. There was a multiplier effect from those three different things.Related

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Would you advocate the Royal London Cup reverting to a 40-over format? Or was the timing just a happy coincidence?
It’s an eight-year pay-off we’re talking about. You need guys to play under those rules for three or four years to develop the skills, then spend three or four years learning international cricket before they’re at the point you’d want them to be going into a major tournament. You wouldn’t be talking about the next World Cup, you’d be talking about the one four years after. I think there are very few governing bodies willing to make that sort of long-term punt when you don’t know what the game is going to look like in eight years’ time.There’s a T20 World Cup later this year. Have you planned for that in the same way you did for the 50-over one?
It’s different. If you look at the squads and teams that the selectors have picked, clearly, going into the 2019 World Cup, they prioritised ODI cricket, and you often had ODI squads playing T20 matches. In the time since then, you’ve seen the reverse: T20 squads being at or near full-strength, and some of the ODI series have been played with something more like T20 squads.It’s different because it’s a different format. By far the biggest difference is the lack of certainty because of Covid. The fixture list changes month by month, games appear and disappear. We had a whole T20 World Cup get punted back two years. Planning has not been anywhere near as straightforward, but we’re trying to through the same process.You looked at the predictors of success for previous 50-over World Cup-winning teams at the start of the 2015-19 cycle – batting strength, a winning record in bilateral series in the build-up, and an experienced squad – to work out how to win one with England. Has T20 changed so much since 2016, when the last T20 World Cup was played, that you can’t do the same thing for that format?
Yeah, we’ve had to model it differently. T20 bilateral series going into T20 World Cups are nowhere near as predictive of what will happen as their equivalents in ODI cricket are.”[Eoin] Morgan is a very analytical thinker. He’s got the ability to take the emotion out of the game when it’s time to plan for it or analyse it afterwards”•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesWhat about the 2023 50-over World Cup: do you expect the predictors of success to be the same? The cycles have clearly started from different points too. Is it harder to retain a World Cup than to win one?
I don’t know that it’s harder to retain it than to win it – we found it pretty hard to win the first one! We’ll look at how some of the sides that have won it have then retained it.It is a completely different situation. In 2015, we were building from scratch, from ground level, whereas this time round we have a very successful template, and whilst you’re always looking to improve, you don’t want to lose a massive strength because you’re trying to improve a different area. It’s more about tweaking and fine-tuning, and getting the right guys on the pitch in the best form on the day.In the book, you discuss poker with Caspar Berry, the polymath who played professionally for three years. He talks about some areas where poker differs to sport: you are accountable to yourself, not your team, and you’re able to live in the long term without pressure. Morgan, who wrote the foreword, is a poker player himself. Do you think he demonstrates some of those attributes?
Yes, 100%. By far the easiest people to work with, from my point of view, are people who think probabilistically. Anyone who likes to play poker, gamble on the horses, or play any game of chance that forces you to think probabilistically has a pretty good starting point for the type of thinking I want to get into when it comes to working with captains and coaches.”T20 bilateral series going into T20 World Cups are nowhere near as predictive of what will happen as their equivalents in ODI cricket are”•Surjeet Yadav/Getty ImagesMorgan is a very analytical thinker. He’s got the ability to take the emotion out of the game when it’s time to plan for it or analyse it afterwards. He’s very clinical in that regard. He’s very sharp, very bright, and he’s been around cricket for a long time. If you’re an analyst, he’s your dream captain.Your use of coded signals from the balcony or dugout to him caused some controversy during England’s tour to South Africa last year. As I understood it, they were a suggestion as to who should bowl the next over and what the field should be. Is that right?
I can’t really talk about what it is or isn’t, but essentially, it’s our version of a scoreboard. We don’t expect the captain to keep score in his head and know how many runs are required. There is complex information that we think is useful and adds value. So does Morgs, and so we make it available to him via the signals. The joy and the advantage of it is that it puts all of the control with the captain, because if he doesn’t want to look, he doesn’t look. It’s there as a reference, just like the scoreboard. If he wants to check it, he can; if he doesn’t want to, he doesn’t have to. If you run a message on, you’re imposing that communication into his thought processes.Was that tour the first time you’d used them for England? Do you expect other teams to follow suit?
We’ve done it in every England game since the start of the South Africa tour – although the cameras only found us in game three, when, ironically, we were going round the houses. I’d done it with Multan Sultans in the PSL with Andy Flower and Shan Masood, and then we used it in every game in the IPL with Baz [Brendon] McCullum and Morgs again. As for other teams, I’d have thought so. Every team runs messages on. Every team sends the fast-bowling coach down to fine leg to talk to his bowlers. Every team shouts from the dugout to the boundary fielders.I think coaches are wanting more and more ability to help captains and decision-makers in the middle. T20 cricket is an incredibly taxing task for a fielding captain: there are so many things going on that can influence the outcome, and so many calculations. There are just as many in Test cricket but they evolve much slower, whereas in T20 cricket, they change by the ball and you have to keep recalculating. Anything you can do to make the captain’s life easier just makes it a better game of cricket. You’re improving the quality of the decision-making.On KKR’s approach to the 2021 IPL auction: “There was going to be a lot of money chasing a small number of players and if we put players back in, we would end up buying them back for more or failing to buy them back”•Sandeep Shetty/BCCIWould that be your response to anyone who suggested the signals were against the spirit of the game?
Exactly. I’d also say that no one knows what we’re doing except us, and that you’ve got Andy Flower, Shan Masood, Spoons [Chris Silverwood], Morgan, Baz McCullum, who all know exactly what we’re doing and are all very happy with it. That’s a group pretty high on integrity and knowledge of professional cricket. If they judge it as fine, I’d back that judgement.You mentioned KKR, who you worked with as a strategic consultant. How did you find that experience? Was the IPL similar to what you’d expected?
It was pretty similar. I went in knowing that they were a quality group of blokes and coaches, so my expectations were high, but they were met entirely. I found the whole thing really interesting, and different to international cricket, because this was a new environment with new faces and people you hadn’t worked closely with before. I learned a lot. We do a lot of things well at England, and KKR did a lot of things well as well. There are definitely things we can learn from them.You write about auction dynamics within the IPL. How much were you involved in the auction this year?
I was involved in the auction planning right the way through. We didn’t have an awful lot to do because it was a mini auction [KKR signed eight players, including Harbhajan Singh, Karun Nair, Ben Cutting and Shakib Al Hasan]. We were pretty happy with the squad we had and it wasn’t obvious how we could improve on it if we put players back into the auction in the hope of buying them back cheaper or buying different players with that money. Our judgement was that there was going to be a lot of money chasing a small number of players in that auction and that if we put players back in, we would only end up either buying them back for more money, or failing to buy them back. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend and we were actually overjoyed with how we managed to spend it, picking up some very experienced guys who were very useful to us in those conditions.The auction model of player recruitment has its critics, but you offer a defence that was new to me – that it makes it much harder for teams to circumvent a salary cap through “off the books” payments, therefore ensuring a competitive balance. Do you think it is the right model for the IPL – if there is such a thing?
All the different methods have their advantages and disadvantages. The auction model definitely has a higher level of transparency than most other methods.”In terms of the communication we have at our disposal, it’s not practical to run a game entirely from the dugout”•Samuel Rajkumar/BCCI[You might wonder] whether there is a different type of auction, that means you get a fairer and less random valuation of players; Mervyn King, who is the ex-governor of the Bank of England, read an early draft of that chapter [in the book] and had some ideas as to how you can restructure the auction in that way. At the moment a player’s valuation depends very heavily on where they appear in the auction and what the exact holes are in other franchises’ squads and whether they are a good fit. You saw some very high-quality batsmen go unsold or taken at base price, and you saw some fast bowlers, in particular, going for huge sums of money. That was a fluke of the dynamic of this particular auction. There might be ways of restructuring it to avoid that sort of randomness. But in terms of transparency, in terms of the drama of the event as a way of generating excitement in the tournament, I think it was a brilliant idea – and totally unprecedented in sport, as far as I’m aware.You also write about your planning for the PSL draft with Multan in late 2019, where you assembled a squad that was top of the group stage before the tournament was postponed. You write that their owners – Ali Khan Tareen and Alamgir Tareen – were “fully committed to taking the use of analysis as far as it was possible to do so” and that you actually scaled back from the level of involvement they had envisaged.
That was definitely the case. It was [going by] the Hippocratic principle: “first, do no harm.” The most effective way to use data and analytics to add value is to make sure that you don’t take value away by overreaching. For people who might have an enthusiasm for data but not an exact knowledge of what’s possible and what isn’t, there are often misconceptions about that. It’s your dream job to have owners like that who are backing you 100%, and pushing you to have more influence and more involvement.You write that their “initial vision was that the team would essentially be run from the dugout”. Clearly, the captain has certain information out in the middle that you don’t have in the dugout, but was there not a temptation to buy into that vision, just to see what happened?
Not really. There were two objections to that all-in approach. One was philosophical. Andy and I both believe that teams work better when the captain has sole charge on the field. The other, more important, one in that instance was practical. A T20 captain has such a complex job: he has to change the bowlers, talk to the bowler about the bowling plan and set a field for that. He has to get feedback from the keeper about what the pitch is doing; from the bowler about what is coming out well on the day. All of those get factored in, and none of them are available to us in the dugout. It’s just not practical to get that much information on and off the pitch in a steady real-time stream.ConstableBut what if there were no time restrictions on a T20 innings?
If you had headsets on all the players and that was legal, you might find teams doing it. But again, I’d have philosophical objections. It might then be practical, at least. In terms of the communication we have at our disposal [now], it’s not practical to run a game entirely from the dugout.You’ve worked with two T20 franchises now, with backing from the ECB. How do you envisage the next few years playing out for you?
For three to four years, the whole focus was the World Cup. That was what got me out of bed in the morning. After that, the chance to keep working with England but also spend time in franchise cricket has added enough variety and interest. T20 cricket is the format that is evolving the most at the moment. Next year is going to be most different to this year, in terms of tactics, techniques and strategies. If you’re going to work in a format at the moment as an analyst, there are strong arguments that T20 is the biggest challenge because it’s evolving so quickly. [The current balance] is perfect for me; I think it’s a win-win.[I have] another novel and another non-fiction book planned, too. I have to decide which to prioritise next.by Nathan Leamon and Ben Jones is published by Constable, £20

83 tells a classic underdog story and tries to make myths out of memory

Nishi Narayanan28-Dec-2021It has been nearly 40 years since India’s first World Cup title. That must feel like ancient history to fans who came of age this century, who have been spoilt by three world titles and the rise of a team that not only wins but dominates abroad. For those viewers, watching the movie is probably like looking into a bizarre parallel universe, where no one gives their side a chance in hell.I was born not long after India won the World Cup, so in a way it’s a chapter of history for me too, like studying about the Mauryas or the Mughals. Every time a World Cup comes along, I go back to India’s first title, looking up scorecards and players’ accounts of the event, often as part of my work at ESPNcricinfo. If you ask me what I thought about it, I’d probably say something like: India’s victory changed the course of the game itself. Maybe not entirely incorrect but certainly a reductive opinion.Still, while watching the film, which chronicles all eight of India’s matches at the World Cup, it struck me: this journey was so incredible, it could easily have been dreamed up by a scriptwriter, one with a fondness for high drama. Even if you ignore all the times India’s underdog status is waved in your face like a giant flag and underscored by inspirational music, it’s hard not to wonder: how did they do it?Related

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A journey of self-discovery – for India and one sportswriter (2014)

The 1983 World Cup final on TV – watching, hoping, praying

1983 World Cup – the year everything changed

Tunbridge Wells: hallowed ground (2008)

India, whose only win in World Cups till then had come against a cobbled together East Africa side in 1975, were grouped with Australia, world champions West Indies, and Zimbabwe, in the tournament, scheduled to play each team twice before the semis. They opened with an unexpected win against West Indies and beat Zimbabwe, but were thrashed by Australia and (quite literally) bloodied by West Indies. Under pressure to win their fifth match, against Zimbabwe once again (a “do and die” as Kapil Dev, played by Ranveer Singh, says in the movie), they slipped to 17 for 5 before… if Ron Howard heard this pitch, he’d be dreaming of another Oscar already.When film-makers adapt books, like the series, or , or the Harry Potter ones, they take and transform what till then has only resided in the fan’s imagination. Recreating a real-life event, especially one as popular as a sporting tournament, must be trickier. The retelling is always going to be a visually paler version of the original, and there is no payoff to build towards because the outcome is already known – often by a larger number of people than have read a book, in the case of novel-to-screen adaptations.Tense times in the pavilion•Getty ImagesWhile a movie like , which has some similar odds-stacked-against-them themes, could get away with amateurish-looking cricket because its Indian protagonists are meant to be novices and their English opponents aren’t pros either, the suspension of disbelief is harder in . It’s a bit jarring to watch a bowler complete his action, the ball land on the pitch, and then whoosh past the batter as three separate shots. The longer-range shots are more watchable than the close ones, but at no point can you slip into believing you’re watching a cricket match as opposed to a film.The film-makers probably understood that showcasing an elite level of the game would be beyond them. It feels like they instead chose to use cricket as a tool to tell a classic underdog story, focusing more on the little character moments than the big action.If you have watched YouTube videos of various 1983 squad reunions over the years, you’ll be familiar with many of those little moments we see in the film: Kapil’s team meetings in his idiosyncratic English (“Cheeka, you hit; Sunny, you bat; Yashpal, you are a lion; Kiri, you have to keep”). Kris Srikkanth talking about how many of them had seen the World Cup as just a stopover on the way to a holiday in New York. Sandeep Patil’s role as the team’s entertainment director – “the night captain”. (In a nice touch, Patil’s son, Chirag, plays his father in the film, and Mali Marshall is cast as his dad, Malcolm.)Players disagree with the authenticity of each other’s recollections in these videos, but over time, many stories have solidified into narratives – like Srikkanth saying all the players thought Kapil was mad to suggest India could win the World Cup, and how that showed you the depth of his self-belief. And now, with the film, those memories will probably ascend to the level of myth, where many fans will struggle to believe it could have happened any other way.Among the most legendary of the milestones before the win is Kapil’s 175 not out at Tunbridge Wells, made all the more captivating here because it largely resides in the imagination of fans – the BBC didn’t telecast the game*. The scorecard itself tells a pretty incredible story. India went from 9 for 4, when Kapil walked in, to 17 for 5 and 78 for 7, before getting all the way to 266 for 8. The script chooses to gloss over the fact that Zimbabwe, playing their first World Cup, would have been considered underdogs in this contest, focusing instead on the emotions of those experiencing Kapil’s innings.Yash and Kiri have a moment: Jatin Sarna (left) plays Yashpal Sharma, and Sahil Khattar wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani•Getty ImagesMight the re-enactment replace parts of what you have conjured up of the 175 in your mind’s eye? Did Potter fans feel the same way when they saw Daniel Radcliffe in the role for the first time? And would that be aggravating?I thought it was going to be, but although I was wary of being emotionally manipulated by the histrionics, I got a fleeting sensation of what Kapil’s innings would have meant to those who watched it that day at the ground, and that appealed to me. If even a second-grade imitation could move me all these years later, how special must the original have been.It’s the peeks inside the dressing room, the camaraderie between the players, that delighted both the cricket fan and the movie fan in me. The charming detail of team manager PR Man Singh, blocked by the tall Ravi Shastri, leaning to his left to be visible in the squad’s photo, and the camera cutting to the actual photo. Yashpal Sharma and Kirti Azad panicking when Lala Amarnath calls on the phone looking for his son, Jimmy. Kapil getting annoyed with his wife (played by Deepika Padukone) for demanding extra tickets to the final for their acquaintances but gently acquiescing to Sunil Gavaskar’s request for the same.I began to imagine listening to such anecdotes from today’s cricketers – jokes between Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant; Mohammed Siraj clowning around in the dressing room and Jasprit Bumrah secretly feeling jealous of all the attention he’s getting; Cheteshwar Pujara pretending he’s dreaming about cricket when he was really dreaming about lunch. Which obviously made me wonder: which modern Indian series would translate well into a movie? Desert Storm in Sharjah? The 2000-01 Australia series? The 2007 T20 World Cup? It might be recency bias, but none of those seem to offer emotional highs and lows quite like the 2020-21 tour to Australia does- a hostile setting, countless misfortunes, protagonists who are bruised but not beaten, and a climactic will-they-won’t-they ending. That’s going to be my elevator pitch, if anyone’s interested. Working title: .How closely must a sports movie be linked to the real event to appeal to you? What sort of cinematic license are you willing to give the film-makers? Like life, sport can often be random and disorderly while it happens and later arranged by us into slick little stories that make sense. is like that, a neat little tale of no-hopers triumphing against the odds – fiction and reality bleeding into each other even in the minds of those who lived through it. That doesn’t take away from what Kapil and Co achieved, but it makes it harder to tell the story any other way.*December 28, 2021, 7.32 GMT: A previous version of the article stated that no television footage of the match exists because of a strike at the BBC. This has been changed

The left-arm spinner mainly bowled the one that spun and the one that didn’t, the latter with a little underspin. In Galle, that’s often enough

Andrew Fidel Fernando30-Nov-2021Bowling his eighth delivery of the second day, Veerasammy Permaul comes around the wicket to the right-handed Pathum Nissanka. Oshada Fernando had been out just before, but Nissanka is set, on 73, and Sri Lanka have plenty of batting to come. It could be a slow morning. It could be a slow Tuesday.Permaul’s first over of the day, bowled exclusively to Angelo Mathews, had largely been populated by darters – balls that kept Mathews pinned to the crease, but were unlikely to bring a dismissal. Maybe Permaul was nervous. This was his first Test in more than six years, and on day one, Nissanka had hit him for six early in his five-over spell. This is Galle, on whose bone-dry dust spinners are expected to be magic. But in his first foray to the bowling crease, Permaul had barely created a chance.Related

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But this ball, delivered with a little underspin, misses the seam as it pitches, and shimmies into Nissanka’s front pad – the batter having expected the ball to turn. And wow! It’s plumb. Nissanka doesn’t bother with a review. Permaul hasn’t played Tests since going for runs against Australia in August 2015, so this is his first Test wicket in six years. But he doesn’t celebrate like a dam has burst.Something does give way, though. Sri Lanka had been 106 for 0, then 139 for 1. Nissanka played a chancy, but brave, innings for his 73. Now, there are two new men at the crease, on a track that is famously unkind to new batters. Perhaps it’s the confidence of that first wicket, but two balls later, Permaul slows one up outside off stump, gets it to bite, and draws a mistake – Dhananjaya de Silva following the ball with his hands, to give an edge to the wicketkeeper.Next over, suddenly, Permaul is floating everything up. He dares debutant Charith Asalanka to try something fancy, like the reverse sweep for four he had played to get his first Test runs. Asalanka refuses to be tempted, but on a Galle track such as this, you don’t always have to make a mistake against the spinners to be dismissed. Last ball of that over, Asalanka pushes out at one, and the surface does its thing. There’s a puff of dust as the ball pitches, and there is drastic turn. The inside edge hits the pad and pops up to short leg. In Permaul’s last match, in Kingston, way back, he’d conceded 207 runs and taken only two wickets. Here, he’s got three in the space of 11 balls.

Although this was Sri Lankan soil he was bowling on, not Guyanese, and the Indian Ocean glittered from the distance, not the Atlantic, if you’re a spinner, and you’re willing to be brave, playing at Galle can be a little like coming home

Now there’s some hollering. Some vigour in that celebration. He’s not a fringe player battling to justify selection and keep his place in the team. He’s a lead spinner turning a match, yanking his side into the series. At the other end, Jomel Warrican is ripping it up too – more body into his action than has been seen through much of the series.Late on day one, when Nissanka and Dimuth Karunaratne were putting on their 100-run stand, Sri Lanka seemed headed for another 300-plus total. Yet, midway through the first session on day two, West Indies’ spinners are making it seem like there are landmines just under the surface. Warrican gets a couple in quick succession – Dinesh Chandimal trapped in front with one that dips under the batter’s sweep, before a hard-spun full delivery takes Ramesh Mendis’ leading edge and floats out to cover.Where once Permaul ambled to the crease, he is stomping to his mark now. The batters are fearful of the surface, but Permaul is suddenly bowling so well, he doesn’t need the track’s help – he’s beating his opponents in the air. Suranga Lakmal is early through a hoick to the leg side, and the edge floats directly to point, the fielder not having to move, as if he and the ball were keeping an appointment. Lasith Embuldeniya tries to play Permaul to the off side, but is defeated completely in the flight. He’s bowled. Permaul has the first five-wicket haul of his career, and is jubilant. When Warrican wraps up the innings with a superbly flighting, dipping, turning ball that tickles the top of Mathews’ stumps, the broadcast cameras sprint on the field and veer off towards deep midwicket; that’s where Permaul is.There was nothing extraordinary in Permaul’s bowling on Tuesday. He used largely two variations – the one that spun, and the one that didn’t, the latter delivered with a little underspin. But when Galle’s surface gave him something, he shot up by two feet, and as much as such a thing is possible for a slow left armer, grew a barrel chest.Over the past six years, in which he only had sporadic opportunities in the white-ball teams, Permaul must have had his share of frustrations. But although this was Sri Lankan soil he was bowling on, not Guyanese, and the Indian Ocean glittered from the distance, not the Atlantic, if you’re a spinner, and you’re willing to be brave, playing at Galle can be a little like coming home.

And how many men have scored 2000 runs and taken 200 wickets in one-day internationals?

Steven Lynch25-Jan-2022England scored only one century in the recent Ashes series. Have they ever gone through a five-Test series without one at all? asked Jeremy Walker from England

That fighting 113 by Jonny Bairstow in Sydney earlier this month made this the third five-match Ashes series in which England had managed just one three-figure score, following 1909 (Jack Sharp 105 at The Oval) and 2013-14 (Ben Stokes 120 in Perth). There was also only one century by the visitors in four matches in 1881-82.But there is one full Ashes series in which no England batter reached three figures at all: at home in 1972, their highest individual score was Brian Luckhurst’s 96 at Trent Bridge. Despite this, England retained the Ashes after a 2-2 draw.No one made a century for Australia in the 1956 series in England, mainly thanks to Jim Laker; their highest that summer was Richie Benaud’s 97 at Lord’s. Australia managed just one three-figure score in 1901-02, 1905, 1911-12, 1921 (a series they won 3-0) and 1968.I noticed that Dwayne Smith scored 105 out of 130 on his Test debut for West Indies. Has any centurion made a bigger percentage of the runs scored while he was in? asked Michael Bradford from Barbados

You’re right that the Barbadian Dwayne Smith made an unbeaten 105 out of 130 added while he was at the crease for West Indies against South Africa in Cape Town in 2003-04. It was Smith’s debut too – and the only century of his eventual ten Tests. By the look of it, the only higher percentage was achieved by Smith’s captain from that match, Brian Lara, whose 100 against Australia in Antigua in 1998-99 came while 116 runs were added in total.There was a near-miss last July, when Brendan Taylor hit 92 of out of 95 for Zimbabwe against Bangladesh in Harare, in what he says will be his final Test innings.The above refers to complete individual innings. But when Sanath Jayasuriya hit 253 for Sri Lanka against Pakistan in Faisalabad in 2004-05, he shared a ninth-wicket stand of 101 with Dilhara Fernando, who managed just a single (there were also 12 extras, so Jayasuriya’s share of the partnership was 88).How many men have scored 2000 runs and taken 200 wickets in one-day internationals? asked Mohit Khanna from India

There are currently 13 men who have achieved this particular double; the first to get there was Kapil Dev, who finished with 3783 runs and 253 wickets. Arguably the finest set of figures belong to Sanath Jayasuriya, who allied 323 wickets to 13,430 runs; Wasim Akram scored 3717 runs to go with his 502 wickets.In all, 65 men have completed 1000 runs and 100 wickets in ODIs. Ten women have also completed this double in ODIs.Cecilia Robinson is the only woman to have carried her bat for England in a Test in Australia•Getty ImagesHow many people have carried their bat for England in a Test in Australia? asked George Keating from England

As I suspect you thought, this is a rare feat: only four men have carried their bat for England in a Test down under. The first to do it was the diminutive Surrey batter Bobby Abel, with 132 out of 307 in Sydney in 1891-92. He was followed by Len Hutton in Adelaide in 1950-51, Geoff Boycott in Perth in 1979-80 (when he was marooned on 99 not out), and Alastair Cook in Melbourne in 2017-18.It’s actually an even rarer feat for Australia, having happened only three times in home Ashes Tests. Bill Woodfull did it twice, in Brisbane in 1928-29 and in Adelaide four years later, during the Bodyline tour. A later captain, Bill Lawry, also did it, in Sydney in 1970-71.There’s also one instance by a woman: in Perth in 1957-58, England’s Cecilia Robinson finished with 96 out of 188. Robinson, who died last year aged 97, was captaining in this match in place of Mary Duggan.In terms of Tests played, has there ever been a more experienced unbroken batting partnership than the one between Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson at Sydney? asked Malcolm Brine from England

That brief tenth-wicket stand to save the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney earlier this month had a combined total of 320 Tests between them – 151 for Stuart Broad and 169 for Jimmy Anderson. That’s the highest combined total for an unbroken partnership in a Test, beating 315 by Sachin Tendulkar (in his 171st Test) and Rahul Dravid (144th), who were together at the end as India beat Australia in Bengaluru in 2010-11.Considering all partnerships, whether finished or not, Anderson and Broad are 21st on the list. Tendulkar features in all 20 above them, 19 of the cases involving Dravid. Their biggest combined total was 352 caps, against Australia in Adelaide in 2011-12; this was Tendulkar’s 188th Test and Dravid’s 164th and last. In the same match, Tendulkar also batted with VVS Laxman, who was winning his 134th and final cap, making a total of 322 between them.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

From Charlie Dean to Fatima Sana, here’s a look at a group of potential stars for the future

S Sudarshanan05-Apr-2022Sophia Dunkley (England)
Having made her ODI debut last June, Sophia Dunkley had an important spot in England’s lower-middle order, taking over from Fran Wilson, who quit last year. Dunkley made regular contributions throughout the World Cup, not just with the bat but also on the field, often in the deep. She scored back-to-back half-centuries – in England’s last league match against Bangladesh and in the semi-final against South Africa – to help the side post what turned out to be match-winning totals. She finished with 291 runs, second behind Nat Sciver’s 436 for England.Yastika Bhatia unfurls a slog sweep against Bangladesh•Getty ImagesYastika Bhatia (India)
After a rough start to her international career, Yastika Bhatia came into the World Cup having batted in the middle order in each of her seven ODIs. But in India’s second game of the tournament, she was brought in to open in place of an out-of-form Shafali Verma. She played a couple of contrasting knocks before being pushed down to her regular No. 3 position, where she returned successive fifties against Australia and Bangladesh. Though she failed to convert her starts into something substantial at times, her impressive strokeplay showed she could be one for the long haul.Alana King was the second-highest wicket-taker for Australia in the tournament•Getty ImagesAlana King (Australia)
While Alana King is 26, she made her international debut just over a month before the World Cup. Her 16 wickets in the WBBL 2021 saw her leapfrog Amanda-Jade Wellington in the pecking order after Georgia Wareham was out injured. She picked up three wickets in each of her outings against England – both in the league-stage game as well as in the final – to stamp her class. In the league game, she bluffed a set Tammy Beaumont to have her stumped before cleaning up Dunkley towards the end with the game in the balance. In the final, she dismissed Heather Knight and Dunkley at crucial junctures to dent England’s chances, and finished joint-fourth on the wickets’ chart with 12 strikes.Fatima Sana picked up 3 for 43 against South Africa•ICC via GettyFatima Sana (Pakistan)
Named ICC Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year in 2021, Fatima Sana finished with seven wickets in as many games. She exhibited her full range of skills in the match against South Africa, where she picked up three wickets. She had Lizelle Lee with the new ball and then, at the death, dismissed a set Sune Luus and deceived Trisha Chetty with a slower ball. Though she showed last year that she can be handy with the bat, Sana didn’t trouble the scorers much in the World Cup.Offspinner Charlie Dean picked up 11 wickets in just six games•Getty ImagesCharlie Dean (England)
In the inaugural edition of the Hundred, Charlie Dean made a name for herself by getting big wickets, finishing with six overall, the second-most for London Spirit. Left out of the XI for England’s first two games, Dean showed her worth by picking up four wickets against India and then a couple more against New Zealand. What stood out was her smart use of the arm-ball along with her offbreaks. She picked up nine of her 11 wickets in the competition in just three matches. Dean also showed her ability with the bat in the final, scoring 21 off 24 balls in a 65-run ninth-wicket partnership with Sciver.

The 19-year-old batter’s early coaches talk about the dedication and maturity he brings to his game

Shashank Kishore06-May-2022At 19, Tilak Varma is truly part of the IPL generation.He was five years old when the tournament began, and his love for it grew when his home team, Deccan Chargers, won the title a year later in 2009. For the son of an electrician father and homemaker mother, Varma’s Rs 1.7 crore (US$226,000 approx) contract with Mumbai Indians is the stuff of dreams.Varma wants to build a comfortable house for him family, but his first coach, Salam Bayash only reaffirms one thing to him these days: “Keep learning, don’t stop improving and don’t take anything for granted.”Varma’s journey mirrors the struggle of a typical lower-middle class household in India, but with a dream payoff. His father, Nagaraju, couldn’t afford to send him to a private academy for cricket coaching, and if Bayash – who Nagaraju describes as his son’s godfather – hadn’t insisted on taking care of his fees and equipment needs, Varma may have been lost to the game, like many others in similar circumstances.Related

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Sitting pillion behind Bayash on a scooter, Varma would travel about 80km to and from his home in Chandrayan Gutta, in the Old City in Hyderabad, to the suburb of Lingampally six days a week for coaching.Bayash had been running his cricket academy for a few years when he first came across Varma. What impressed him about the boy, he says, was “the punch in his batting”.”When kids play with the tennis ball, they generally tend to slog, heave, play cross-batted shots. This boy was playing authentic shots. Clean shots.”I asked him if he was being coached. He said, ‘No sir, we have financial constraints.’ His maturity to understand his family’s difficulties was striking for me. That convinced me to speak to his parents. Today, they are so happy with the decision to send him [for coaching].”Varma’s flair and temperament have come in for special praise from former batting greats like Sunil Gavaskar and Matthew Hayden. Against Rajasthan Royals, he reverse swept an in-form R Ashwin for six and then got out trying to sweep him off the next ball.Mumbai Indians scouts happened to watch him multiple times at the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy last November, and were impressed with how Varma played alongside his captain Tanmay Agarwal, scoring a 32-ball 37 in Hyderabad’s successful chase of 171 against Delhi.Salam Bayash with a 14-year-old Varma•Salam BayashIn the quarter-final, against Gujarat, Varma smashed five fours and two sixes in a 50-ball 75 to set up a 30-run win. Mumbai decided then to keep an eye on Varma’s performances, and were one of four franchises to call him for trials ahead of the auction.”Before the auction, scouts always like to know something about a player from coaches,” says Milap Mewada, Hyderabad’s head coach.”They [Mumbai’s scouts] asked me about Tilak. I told them he was a very good kid with a mature head on his shoulders, someone who can be adept at hitting big sixes, convincing sixes.”At the same time, he can knuckle down and play a solid game also if the situation demands. He can put the ball into the second tier effortlessly. The moment he hits the ball, you know if it’ll clear the ropes or not. There are no half-measures.”During the domestic white-ball season, Mewada and Varma worked on having different scoring options for the same kind of delivery, so he could build the ability to access different parts of the ground.”You must have seen him try and ramp bouncers instead of pulling or hooking,” Mewada says. “Or trying to use the angle and pace to pick gaps behind the wicket to wide yorkers as against trying to swing across the line. Those are things we did during the white-ball season.”Another thing I spoke to him about, based on where his game is at currently, was that it would be best for him to bat at four instead of at the top. He bought into the idea. He didn’t know then that he’d be picked by Mumbai or that he’ll be batting at five for them. But in a way, it has all worked out well.”Varma worked with his Hyderabad coach on playing ramp shot to bouncers during the last domestic season•BCCIBayash remembers Varma’s dedication towards improving his skills. A friend of the coach at the Hyderabad Cricket Association had arranged for Varma to be on ball-boy duties in 2014.”Next day, he came and told me, ‘I want to bat like Suresh Raina. upper shot khelna hai [I want to play the upper shot like Raina].'”He kept practising that inside-out shot over cover,” Bayash remembers. “His father told me how the next day he was up at 4am and shadow-practising that Raina shot. If he sets his eye on something, he’ll ensure he ticks that off and then goes to the next thing.”He’s still a teen but Varma is already a key member of Hyderabad’s set-up across formats. An early initiation into the IPL with the five-time champions only brings with it the promise of bigger things.Bayash and Mewada, who have been in touch with Varma during the IPL, are united in the advice they offer: keep enjoying the game without feeling the pressure of having to live up to expectations now you have got some recognition.It’s what his Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma seems to have told Varma too.”Rohit bhai keeps telling me: ‘Don’t take pressure in any situation,'” Varma said in an interview with the Mumbai Indians website. “‘Keep enjoying and playing the way you do. You’re a youngster, this is the time to enjoy. If you lose that, it [these days] won’t come back.'”He [Rohit] always backs me in everything, whether it’s fielding, bowling, or batting, now and in the future too,” Varma says.Bayash with Varma after the latter was picked in the India squad for the 2020 Under-19 World Cup•Salam Bayash”Mumbai are in a downward phase right now, we’re playing well but falling short due to a few errors. Even in this situation, he keeps telling me not to lose that enjoyment factor, and it feels nice when he tells me that. It’s always on my mind and it’s working well for me.”Those around Varma describe him as a “happy kid” who enjoys spending time with friends when not on the field.”When he’s at the ground, he is always thinking of ways to contribute,” Bayash says.Mewada says Varma’s lively persona has infused positivity and cheer into the Hyderabad team environment. “He’s very soft-spoken off the field and very serious when he’s batting. And sometimes while fielding also, he’ll be so intense about batting that you have to tell him to take it easy,” Mewada says. “But as a person, he’s polite, grounded, coachable. Has a great attitude to learn.”He’ll keep joking, mingles well with seniors and juniors – they’re all fond of him. The seniors will mimic him, and he’ll take [the teasing] sportingly. He’s basically a friend of all.”Two players in the team are like that always: Tilak and Mohammed Siraj. Jolly fellows, very grounded. If he [Varma] stays like this, he’s going to do wonderful things.”