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Kohli’s return to form and Maxwell’s fitness are a big boost, as RCB play six of their seven home games in April

Shashank Kishore24-Mar-2023

Where RCB finished last season

Royal Challengers Bangalore finished fourth in the league stage with eight wins and six losses, making the playoffs for a third successive season. There they vanquished debutants Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator, courtesy a century from Rajat Patidar, the fastest by an Indian in IPL history. However, a place in the final wasn’t to be as they were beaten by eventual runners-up Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2. Their quest for a maiden IPL title continues.

RCB squad for IPL 2023

Faf du Plessis (capt), Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Siraj, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudesai, Karn Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, David Willey, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Sonu Yadav, Michael BracewellRelated

• Hazlewood set to miss at least seven matches of IPL 2023

• Harshal Patel: 'I'm always thinking about how I can offer my team more value'

• IPL 2023 – why it's going to be a season unlike any other

• Rajat Patidar to miss first half of IPL 2023 with heel injury

• Michael Bracewell joins RCB as replacement for Will Jacks

Player availability – Will Josh Hazlewood make it?

Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood is recovering from Achilles tendonitis. He flew home midway through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February after missing the first two Tests. Hazlewood’s fitness is going to be monitored given Australia have the World Test Championship final and the Ashes coming up immediately after the IPL ends on May 28.England batter Will Jacks, who was identified as cover for Glenn Maxwell, was ruled out with injury. New Zealand allrounder Michael Bracewell has been named his replacement.Rajat Patidar, meanwhile, could potentially miss the first half of the season with a heel injury. The batter is undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and has been advised three weeks of rest, after which an MRI scan will determine his participation in the second half of the season.Josh Hazlewood was a crucial player in RCB’s run to the playoffs in 2022•BCCI

What’s new with RCB this year

They signed left-arm seamer Reece Topley as a back-up for Hazlewood, and Jammu & Kashmir’s Avinash Singh, a tearaway quick capable of bowling over 150kph. But most of the squad and coaching staff is the same.

The good – Glenn Maxwell’s recovery, Virat Kohli’s form

After Maxwell broke his leg in a freak accident in November, RCB were scurrying for allrounders at the auction. There was some uncertainty even as late as February, but Maxwell has since returned to competitive cricket and is set to start.Virat Kohli’s return to form also comes as a big relief for RCB. Between the last IPL and now, he ended his drought of hundreds that lasted over 1000 days with a T20I century against Afghanistan in September. More recently, during the Ahmedabad Test against Australia, he made his first Test hundred since 2019.

The not-so-good – Who after Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj?

Beyond Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj, their Indian pace stocks are thin on experience. If Hazlewood isn’t a sure starter, they will need Reece Topley or one of their uncapped picks to deliver.

Schedule insights

With six of their seven home games scheduled for April because of elections in Karnataka in May, RCB cannot bank on home advantage during the business end of the season, when teams look to maximise points to consolidate their standing.It’s an additional challenge RCB have to overcome to buck their trend of finishing the league poorly. In 2020, they lost four straight games heading into the playoffs. In 2021, they began the second half with two back-to-back losses before huffing and puffing into the playoffs. In 2022, they managed just three wins out of seven in the second half. How will 2023 play out?

The big question

Champions, like Virat Kohli, embrace pressure and rise in its presence. They know how to shut out noise, and when to be buoyed by it

Sambit Bal10-Oct-2023Leading up to the World Cup, Rahul Dravid, whose press conferences have humour – often self-deprecating – and wisdom in equal measure, was asked about the inconveniences of India’s punishing travel schedule during the tournament.Indeed, no other team will log more air miles during this tournament, go through more airport routines, and play at more venues. Their World Cup began with a 2500-kilometre leg from Guwahati to Thiruvananthapuram, a route so thin that no direct commercial flights exist on it. With their two warm-up games in those cities washed out, all that travel would turn out to be an exercise in futility.Through the course of their league games, each played at a different venue than the one before, they will have travelled about 13,000km, roughly 3000 more than second-placed England. Pakistan, in contrast, will clock only about 7000km, mostly on account of playing their warm-ups and their first two matches of the tournament proper in Hyderabad.Related

• Topley relieved England stuck to their attack first ask questions later ODI blueprint

• Malan slams 140 as England roar back with Bangladesh demolition

• The pressure's all mine (2009)

• 'In high-pressure moments the quality of decision-making matters more than skill' (2016)

• When the going is always tough (2017)

This, of course, is not the only nuisance during a home World Cup in India. As the class of 2011 could warn you, the chatter will be relentless: from airport lounges to in-room dining, the players will have no escape from their compatriots demanding the trophy be won. From 24-hour newsrooms to zillions of social-media handles, the stream of opinion and advice will be ceaseless. Unlike in 2011, when the team studiously shunned many forms of external aggravation – newspapers, websites and news channels – doing so will be a hopeless task in 2023, calling for monk-like abstinence from cell phones.And the demand for tickets – what an absolute menace. Each team member is allotted three per game, but hundreds of acquaintances beg for one or more. It prompted Virat Kohli, who must get more such requests than most, to put out a social-media post: don’t ask me for tickets, enjoy the World Cup from your homes, please. Another player made “No tickets please” his WhatsApp profile status. Others avoid calls from the usual suspects.

Sachin Tendulkar waited about 20 years to be a World Cup winner. Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have that opportunity at the first go, in front of their own people

But it took Dravid only a couple of minutes to set things in perspective. He was responding in Hindi, so I will paraphrase. What trouble, he said. What an exciting opportunity, instead, to go to so many different places, let fans have a chance to see their favourite players, from airports to stadiums. We are playing a World Cup at home, in front of our people. What can be bigger than that? What can be more exciting?He should know. Despite a long and sterling career, he never got that opportunity. Neither did some others from that golden generation, including Sourav Ganguly. VVS Laxman never got to play a World Cup at all, and he carried that hurt for years. Only Virat Kohli and R Ashwin from the current squad know what it is like to play a World Cup at home. Rohit Sharma, who has called this World Cup the biggest event of his career, knows how utterly rotten it is to miss out: he lost out in 2011 by a whisker.What a blessing it is, then, for those making their World Cup debuts at home. Sachin Tendulkar waited about 20 years to be a World Cup winner. Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have that opportunity at the first go, in front of their own people. Of course there will be pressure. But pressure follows expectation. And expectations are placed only on champions.Pressure, as Billie Jean King said, is privilege.King, winner of 39 tennis Grand Slam titles, won the highly publicised Battle of the Sexes match in 1973 after she accepted an obnoxious challenge from Bobby Riggs, a former Wimbledon winner and a serial baiter of women tennis players. Riggs was 55, and 26 years older than King, when the match was played, but he had earlier that year defeated Margaret Court, another Grand Slam winner, then ranked No. 1, in straight sets. The King vs Riggs match carried a winner-takes-all prize of US$100,000, a fortune in those days. But there was a lot more at stake: King was stepping up, too, for liberals and feminists, who had been appalled by Riggs’ comments, which included this gem: “Women belong in the bedroom and the kitchen, in that order.”And everywhere the players go, the fans want a piece of them•Getty ImagesAmong Indian players, no one will have known pressure more intimately than Tendulkar, and I had the opportunity to talk to him about the burden once. How was it going out to bat with a knowledge that a fifty wouldn’t be enough because a hundred was expected? His response was similar to King’s. “I have never seen it as a burden,” he said. “I would rather have people, and my team-mates, expect things of me than not expect anything. It’s an honour. I am fortunate to be in that place. It shows that people care.”Kohli hasn’t merely followed Tendulkar’s path in run-scoring, he has inherited the universality of his mass appeal too. To be at the MA Chidambaram Stadium for India’s World Cup opener was to be exposed to the full force of Kohlimania. His mere presence at the boundary was electrifying: wherever he went on the field, it led to instant and spontaneous cheering and chanting of his name, which stood out for its authenticity against the announcer’s continual, and grating, attempts to orchestrate crowd responses over the public address system.When it mattered, Kohli paid it back in equal measure, first by absorbing the blows Australia were delivering – they had reduced India to 2 for 3, a score from which no team had won chasing in an ODI – and then slowly and inexorably taking the match away.That’s what champions do. They embrace pressure and rise in its presence. They know how to shut out the noise, and when to be buoyed by it. They know how to ride the wave of emotion and how not to be swept away by it. They also accept failure as inevitable and they know how to leave it behind, like they do a game after the last ball is bowled. Kohli played and missed, chopped a ball past his stumps, and was dropped on 12. Unruffled, he extracted full toll.He has known what it is like to win a World Cup at home, having had the good fortune to experience it in his first World Cup. He now has the chance of an encore in what could be his final World Cup. And having missed out on one, what might Rohit not trade to get on board? The World Cup comes once in four years; for many, a home World Cup comes once in a career. It’s a chance to create memories for a lifetime.Pressure? Who has won a World Cup without embracing it?

He says he waits patiently for his chances and, at the Wankhede, he made the most of the one he got – despite only five minutes’ notice

Firdose Moonda22-Oct-2023Five minutes before Aiden Markram walked out at the Wankhede to toss in place of Temba Bavuma, Reeza Hendricks found out his name had been added to the team sheet. That’s not an exaggeration for dramatisation’s sake. That is exactly how it happened, according to the man himself.”It was literally five minutes before the toss; coach came up to me and said, ‘You’re in,’ and I said, ‘I’m in! Okay cool, let’s go,’ and that’s exactly how I found out,” Hendricks told the media afterwards. “I obviously had to scramble and get myself into a good mindset to play the game.”There are unanswered questions about why Hendricks was unaware that Bavuma was not well and why he wasn’t put on standby before the team arrived at the ground, or at some point during the warm-ups, which Markram said Bavuma tried to brave through. If Markram knew Bavuma was struggling, it would seem only reasonable that the player who would have to replace him – Hendricks – should have known that too. Especially given the importance of the match, which was South Africa’s fourth of the group stage and first since losing to Netherlands.Perhaps in the coming days we will know more about the sudden onset of Bavuma’s illness and its seriousness. What we know for now is that he had to leave the ground about an hour into the game and watched a match that took place at a venue he dreamt of playing in from the team hotel. He will get another opportunity to emulate his idol, Sachin Tendulkar, if he is well enough on Tuesday, when South Africa play Bangladesh at the same ground.We also know that Hendricks, who was drafted into the side at the last of last minutes, was able to compose himself quickly enough in the circumstances to score a confident 85 in his first fifty-over appearance in over a month and only his fourth ODI this year. “It was quite challenging,” Hendricks conceded. “I felt everything was quite rushed for about an hour and a half. I had to somehow try to calm myself down and obviously they bowled well upfront so that didn’t help either. Luckily I got settled and then things started to fall into place quite easily.”Hendricks watched as Quinton de Kock slammed the first ball through point for four and then nicked behind off Reece Topley the next ball. He watched Rassie van der Dussen come in, under some pressure after playing a reverse sweep straight to a Dutch fielder a few days ago, and approach England’s bowlers with caution. He watched 13 balls before he scored his first run, a stunning square drive to get his first runs of the tournament. There would be more, including the first six of the innings, off a Mark Wood cutter, and two down the ground off Joe Root, as well as a pantheon of pulls. Together with van der Dussen, he laid the launchpad for Heinrich Klaasen and the rest… well, you know what happened.That Hendricks can play is obvious to anyone. How long he will continue to play in the ODI team is the point of discussion.Historically, South Africa have applied a principle of preferential treatment for the incumbent, which means if a player missed a match, a series or even a few months with an injury or illness, they slot back into the starting XI when available. Keshav Maharaj is the most recent example and re-established himself as the first-choice spinner after returning from a ruptured Achilles. That means when Bavuma recovers, Hendricks will be back to the bench.That’s not an unfamiliar position to him after there was also no space for him in South Africa’s T20 side at last year’s T20 World Cup, despite him scoring four successive half-centuries in the format three months before the tournament. The reason? Bavuma returned from an elbow injury and, as the appointed captain, had to take his place in the team.Then, the situation was tense because Bavuma was in poor T20 form and has since stepped down from the leadership of the T20I side. Now, it is not quite the same. Bavuma averages 63.27 in ODIs this year and has scored three hundreds in crucial games. His World Cup returns so far are modest – 59 runs from three innings – but he led South Africa to two wins in their first two games. Although he lacks experience in India and has only played four ODIs in the country, he approaches the game as a scholar and his tactical acumen as captain has been widely praised. He is expected to be back in the side as soon as he returns to full health and, for now, there isn’t much arguing against that.Hendricks’ position is further complicated because South Africa have no other way to make room for him. The balance of the current side cannot accommodate seven specialist batters without leaving them a bowler short no matter which way you try to juggle it. They need Marco Jansen in the allrounder role at No.7 with three quicks and a spinner or two of each. While Markram is a bowling option, South Africa are unlikely to go in with four specialists and expect a full 10 overs from him in every match and Hendricks, who also bowls offspin, has only sent down seven overs in his ODI career.At least, this is not something Hendricks is completely unused to. He has never been a regular in the team and has become accustomed to his role as a back-up and approaches it philosophically. “It’s challenging but you have to make peace with the situation and see how things unfold. I have to try and control what I can and that means me being ready when the opportunity arises,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how it comes but I’m training every day, making sure I am on top of my game, controlling what I can and making sure I wait patiently for the opportunity to come. There’s no point beating around the bush and being hard on yourself. I try to stay in a good frame of mind and, when the opportunity comes, to make sure I am on top of my game.”On that front, he gets full marks. With a five-minute warning, he played an innings that set the tone for a statement win over England and put South Africa in a situation most teams would be only too happy to deal with: a problem of plenty. How they solve it could define this World Cup campaign.

On a sapping day when the bowlers needed as much support as they could muster, Smith, Green and Head provided it in thrilling fashion

Andrew McGlashan27-Jan-20241:53

McGlashan: There could yet be some nervy moments for Australia

As the players emerged after tea at 7pm, with the floodlights taking full effect, the ‘feel like’ temperature at the Gabba according to various weather apps remained 35 degrees. It is, of course, not unusual for cricketers to face oppressively hot conditions, but the third day in Brisbane was especially demanding. It would have cranked the old Channel Nine ‘Player Comfort Meter’ off the scale.For the Australians, in particular, it was going to be a day of digging deep as they looked to work their way through West Indies’ second innings. Matt Renshaw was a regular presence on the field as the quicks rotated back to the dressing room. Spells for the fast bowlers were kept short. Drinks were run at every opportunity, so much so that at one stage the umpires sent one of West Indies’ reserves back before they could make it to the batters.Plan A for Australia would have been to go through West Indies while the new ball was still hard, but the visitors didn’t allow that to happen. Instead, Australia had to eke out their rewards. Kraigg Brathwaite’s poor series with the bat concluded with a loose drive to cover, Kirk McKenzie missed a sweep against Nathan Lyon after compiling an excellent 41, and Alick Athanaze’s best innings of the tour was halted with an edge to slip.Related

• Cummins: Shamar was right up for it and we weren't good enough

• Shamar Joseph takes seven to bowl WI to magical win

• Smith in control after Hazlewood and Lyon set up 216-run chase for Australia

• Shamar Joseph cleared of toe fracture after Starc blow

Lyon later explained the Athanaze scalp owed much to some tactical input from Steven Smith, who suggested a wider line to the left hander. The wicket made Lyon-Smith the second most prolific bowler-fielder combination of all time. Overall, Lyon’s role in sending down 22 overs was crucial in that he was both incisive and economical, going at less than two an over, to allow the quicks to stay as fresh as possible.It was a day where the bowlers needed as much support as they could muster in the field. In the penultimate over of the first session, Smith had spilled a tough chance offered by Athanaze, diving across in front of first slip when the ball would probably have reached Usman Khawaja. It denied Cameron Green his second wicket of the session after a terrific over from around the wicket. Every time a camera focused on the faces of Australia’s quicks you could see the toll the conditions were taking. It was not a day to give a batter a second chance.Kavem Hodge was brilliantly run out by Travis Head•AFP/Getty ImagesBetween dinner and tea, Australia’s fielding was at the forefront of their success in keeping West Indies’ lead under control. Another stand had started to form between Kavem Hodge and Justin Greaves when Hodge flicked Lyon off his pads towards Travis Head at short leg. Hodge overbalanced out of his crease, Head gathered the ball and, in one motion, flicked it back towards the stumps. Replays showed Hodge’s bat was over the crease but in the air, as he hurriedly attempted to place it down rather than slide it in. It was a moment of inspiration.The bad news for Head is that it makes it even unlikelier he will be able to lose the bat-pad role, having recently taken it from Marnus Labuschagne amid a reshuffle of Australia’s close catchers following the retirement of David Warner”Spewing about that, you just don’t want to start well, do you?” Head joked after taking his screamer to remove Brathwaite in Adelaide. “Jeez, I don’t want to pigeonhole myself in there. But happy to do it if Marnus isn’t happy to do it.”Lyon confirmed Head was going nowhere. “Travis is going to be there for the rest of my career,” he said with a laugh. “Marnus has somehow weaved his way out of bat-pad and Travis has taken it on. I know he wants that spot and wants to do a really good job. As a spin bowler, bowling to someone who wants to be at bat-pad it’s pretty handy. [It was] a big turning point.”Cameron Green took out Joshua Da Silva with a juggling catch•AFP/Getty ImagesThree overs later it was Green’s turn. Joshua Da Silva, who had been a thorn in Australia’s side in the first innings, drove at Mitchell Starc. The chance flew above Green’s head, he leapt and got a hand to the ball, but the initial chance didn’t stick. However, he was able to keep his composure and hold the rebound as it fell behind him. For a split second, you could see an expletive of anguish coming from Starc before, perhaps, one of relief.”It’s going over most fieldsmen’s head, that’s for sure,” Ricky Ponting said on Channel 7. “And the big man puts both hands up. Knocks it up to himself and then gets it in one hand on the way down… another good catch from one of the best gully fieldsmen Australia has seen.”Lyon later added: “He’s taken some catches [that] I believe no one else would get a hand on.”In the final session, Smith showed the earlier drop had been an aberration as he leapt above his head to hold Alzarri Joseph’s flashing outside edge. “Both feet off the ground, great extension,” Ponting said. “Right in the middle of those very, very safe catching hands. I was just talking about it not being easy to see here at the Gabba. Very good catch, timed his jump perfectly.”West Indies’ innings came to an unfortunate end when Starc’s yorker became a literal toe-crusher as it crashed into Shamar Joseph’s boot. It was given lbw but Starc had overstepped, although by the time that was confirmed, Shamar was already on the ground in pain.But as a depleted West Indies’ attack made inroads into the top order once again, a target of 216 seemed just a little further away. Australia had passed their test of endurance on the field but, if the Brisbane weather allows, they could still face a test of nerve.

The RCB batter found form late this IPL season, but just in time for England ahead of the T20 World Cup next month

Matt Roller18-May-2024Will Jacks remembers looking at the scoreboard at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium and thinking, “Wow, this could be cool.” Royal Challengers Bengaluru needed seven to win against Gujarat Titans; six balls after reaching his half-century, Jacks had surged to 88 not out. His first IPL hundred beckoned.At the non-striker’s end, Virat Kohli was grinning. When Jacks slog-swept Rashid Khan for six to level the scores and move to 94, Kohli covered his mouth and laughed in disbelief. When Jacks swung Rashid over midwicket for six more, reaching a 41-ball century, Kohli ran down and jumped into his arms in celebration.”As soon as I hit that last one, I knew it was going miles,” Jacks says from Bengaluru. “It snuck up on me. I only got to my fifty the over before. I was just trying to get there as quickly as possible and win the game. Once I got my fifty, Virat was like, ‘I don’t want to face any balls – keep going.'”When Mohit Sharma came on [in the 15th over], that was my match-up. I was going to take him down there, because I’d faced him for three or four balls before and I’d got a good eye of him. I knew that was my time, and after that there was no reason to stop. I didn’t realise I could have got a hundred until we needed seven to win.Related

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“Obviously a big celebration, a hug from Virat, and then I realised what I’d done. It was amazing. I just thought, ‘I’m 100 not out in an IPL game – and two weeks ago, I wasn’t even playing.’ There’s been a lot of attention since but I’ve loved the experience.”He has saved a photo in the “favourites” tab of his phone, of Kohli’s reaction to the six that took him to 94, which he intends to get printed.”Nothing’s changed realistically: I’ve just scored some runs. I’ve always known I’ve been good enough, but to really dominate like that just lets everyone else know what I can do. But to do it with Virat, and have him hyping me up like that? It’s special.”Second to last laugh: Virat Kohli has a disbelieving chuckle at the other end when Jacks is one six away from his maiden IPL hundred•BCCIIt was a far cry from the start of his innings: batting at No. 3, Jacks managed 17 runs off his first 17 balls. “I was gripping the bat a bit too hard,” he reflects. “I was a little bit over-eager to hit the ball hard, which is a trap I’ve fallen into. On the back of seeing all these high scores and crazy sixes, I felt like I needed to do extra when I know – or I should know – that my game is good enough.”They do have three high-quality spinners [Rashid, Noor Ahmed and Sai Kishore] and I didn’t face a ball of seam until my 17th ball. I just needed to settle in, and Virat really helped me with that. He took ownership of the partnership and the risks while I was getting going, and made sure that we didn’t fall behind – and that I didn’t have to do something really unnecessary.”Jacks spent “ten-plus years” watching the IPL back home on TV but this was his first experience of playing in it, after he was ruled out of last season through injury. He was taken aback by the scale of support for RCB: “Everyone told me their fans were the best but now I’ve seen how crazy it is… I kind of expected it, but it obviously still takes you by surprise.”The same is true of the adulation for Kohli, and adjusting to calling him a team-mate. “When he first walked in and I first met him, that was surreal,” Jacks said. “Seeing his aura, how people look at him, the following… even if you see a footballer in public at home, it’s not like that. It’s eye-opening. Everywhere we go – all the airports, every street – the support is incredible.”At 25, Jacks believes his first IPL season came at the right time in his career. “It would have been good to come earlier, but I wouldn’t have been ready. I went to the Big Bash when I was 20 and it was great, but my game wasn’t ready. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I did crap. I’m happy where I am now: I can come in and try to dominate, instead of just going, ‘Well, I’ll try to get some runs.'”RCB struggled at the start of the season but Jacks flourished in India, winning five of the eight games he played in and averaging 32.85 at a strike rate 175.57.”I can’t speak highly enough of it [the team]. Everyone is willing to share their experiences,” he says. He worked closely in training with Glenn Maxwell, particularly on his method against spin, and played “a lot of golf” with him. “He’s been outstanding with me. He’s given me loads of his time.”Team-mates Cameron Green and Jacks will be on opposing sides at the T20 World Cup next month•BCCIHe also grew close to Cameron Green, and they were sat next to one another on the team bus when they received their call-ups to their respective squads for the T20 World Cup. “He got called by George Bailey, then I got called by Motty [Matthew Mott] about ten minutes later,” Jacks says, laughing. They might face one another on June 8 in Barbados.This will be Jacks’ first World Cup and he admits he was “disappointed” to miss the previous two. “I thought I was close but obviously it’s tough to get in, which is understandable. My biggest goal for the year was to play in the World Cup – and hopefully win it, obviously – and this has given me confidence that I belong there. I know I’m ready for it.”With Jos Buttler and Phil Salt due to open, Jacks will start the tournament as England’s No. 3. It is a relatively new role – he has batted there 22 times in his 165-match T20 career – and he has been learning on the job. “I only really started doing it on the Caribbean tour [in December] but it’s something I’m getting used to and I’ve learned a lot in our last few games.”For an opener, coming in after the powerplay and starting against spin is different, People have said to me since I was 12 years old that I can always catch up: Stewie [Alec Stewart, Surrey’s director of cricket] always says to me, ‘If you face 50 balls, we’ll win the game.’ It might only be 30 balls at No. 3, but I’m selfless and I want to put the team in a good spot and that’s by being aggressive.”They are traits that he shares with his idol, Kevin Pietersen. “I don’t remember ever trying to bat like anyone, but maybe he was in my head from watching him in the 2005 Ashes,” Jacks says. “I was six then: that’s the first cricket I really remember. Maybe that was ingrained in me from early on?” Jacks has met Pietersen but only sporadically. “He’s someone who I’d like to speak to a bit more.”Jacks was 11 when England won the only previous men’s T20 World Cup staged in the Caribbean, when Pietersen was named player of the tournament. The next few weeks will provide Jacks a chance to write his own name into England’s T20 history.

Royals also get a new lease of life for finishing in the top two after the Hyderabad washout

S Rajesh16-May-2024Sunrisers Hyderabad

The one point earned in the washout against Gujarat Titans takes SRH into the playoffs. However, a top-two finish is no longer in their own hands, as Rajasthan Royals can go past them to 18 points even if SRH win their final league game and finish on 17. SRH can still take second position if they win their last match and RR lose theirs. However, if SRH’s last match is also washed out and they finish on 16, then RR’s 16 points will place them higher on the points table as they have won eight games, compared to seven for SRH.Rajasthan Royals

RR will certainly take the second place if they beat Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. If they lose, they can cling on to No. 2 if SRH get no more than one point from their final game, and if CSK get no more than one point versus RCB. If SRH’s game is washed out again, they will have fewer wins than RR, which is the first tie-breaker ahead of the net run rate if teams are on equal points.However, RR could drop to fourth place if they lose to KKR, SRH beat PBKS, and CSK beat RCB.Royal Challengers Bengaluru

The task for RCB is now clear: Assuming a score of 200, they need to beat CSK by 18 runs or chase the target with about 11 balls to spare. A washout will wash away their playoff hopes, while a reduced game will also make their task tougher as they will still need to win by the same margin to go past CSK on net run rate.Chennai Super Kings

CSK need one point to qualify, which means a washout will take them through. However, if they win, they have a shot at moving up to second position if RR lose, and if SRH get no more than one point from their final game.

The visitors were left with plenty to ponder after their batting struggled in spin-friendly conditions

Andrew Fidel Fernando08-Aug-20245:39

India’s batting (except Rohit’s) against spin a sign of concern

Mohammed Siraj is fired up. Halfway through his seventh over, the 39th of the innings, he strides down the pitch and sprays a few angry words at Kusal Mendis, who responds in kind.In his next over, Siraj bowls a ball to Janith Liyanage that the batter drives back at him. Siraj picks the ball up in his follow through, and flings it at the stumps, and misses. The batter would have been back safely in any case.In the background of that shy at the stump is Virat Kohli, applauding the bowler’s aggression. Through the course of these middle overs, Kohli has gone through some big emotions of his own. He’s celebrated wickets with more verve than the bowlers and yelled at exiting batters, appealed so vociferously it felt like his lungs might come flying out of his body. He’s backed up every move of the bowlers like they were boxers at the Olympics and he was their coach in the corner.Related

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At one point he fields the ball at short mid on and throws at the stumps but hits the pad of Charith Asalanka. The batter had not only never seriously attempted a run, he’s so far home he’s fallen asleep in front of a Netflix documentary.But none of this is massively out of the ordinary. We have seen Siraj this fired up before. For Kohli, this is like a six out of 10 on the macho-flailing scale.But this is what is truly surprising. Kohli has played many matches against Sri Lanka in which he has found no need to reach into the angrier portions of his heart. Siraj has usually had a very high smile-to-grimace ratio when facing this opposition.And now all this aggression has been accessed for Sri Lanka? Wow. Should they be blushing? Is this for real?

A 27-year wait is over for Sri Lanka #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/Jg8vZaY2zO

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) August 7, 2024

Before this series, Sri Lanka had played 19 ODIs against India since the start of 2015, and lost 16 of those games. The most recent memories were of being bowled out for 55 at the Wankhede in the World Cup and being blasted out for 50 in the Asia Cup final last year, when Siraj took 6 for 21 at this very venue and was inflicting so much trauma it seemed more appropriate for India’s players to cuddle Sri Lanka’s batters rather than cuss at them.But through the course of this ODI series, this Sri Lanka team, ranked seventh in ODIs, who finished ninth in last year’s World Cup and as such have not qualified for the Champions Trophy, who struggle to get their seam bowlers on the field, and who haven’t made a global-tournament semi-final in 10 years, has asked some serious questions of an India side whose ambitions are world domination.A quick rundown of those questions:

• Are India a little shaky on big-turning tracks, given the results in their last four ODIs in Asia? This series was three matches long. This was their fourth match back.
• Are they over-reliant on Jasprit Bumrah at the death? He was rested for this series, but Sri Lanka’s lower-middle order and lower order produced strong showings and reached totals that proved to be beyond India’s batters.
• Should they keep persisting with floating batters in the middle overs, prioritising left-right combinations over more strongly-defined roles for each batter?
• Are they better off with predictable KL Rahul or mad genius Rishabh Pant?

This is not an exhaustive list of questions. But for Sri Lanka the list is so much shorter, because for a team not playing next year’s Champions Trophy so little beyond the present matters, in ODIs.Their only worry is whether they can be competitive in anything other than extremely spin-friendly conditions. Almost everyone in Sri Lankan cricket – players, administrators, coaches, support staff, fans – has this question in mind right now. But they will happily take Siraj being this angry at their batters. They will take Kohli being this expressive.Sri Lanka gave India a rare dusting up•Associated PressAnd they should take captain Asalanka being realistic. When asked whether he took pride in achieving a bilateral series victory over India that had eluded even greats of the Sri Lankan team such as Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Lasith Malinga, Tillakaratne Dilshan and others, he said:”I don’t think we’re at the level of those players. I think we have the potential, but at ICC tournaments those players took us very far. That’s how we were able to have global recognition. I don’t think we can be equals to those players at the moment. But as a captain I’m happy we were able to defeat a team as good as this. This is a process. We have some talented players. If we manage them and look after them, we can go far.”Sri Lanka have more modest ODI goals now than they have had in roughly 25 years. India are aiming higher than ever. Right now, it’s enough to just have shaken India up a little.

Australia were left feeling “hollow’ by how the 2023 series ended but it’s still more than 10 years since England toppled them outright

Valkerie Baynes10-Jan-20252:25

Charlie Dean: We don’t have as many Ashes scars in this team

Both protagonists enter this chapter of the Women’s Ashes with points to prove. It’s a scenario that might seem unlikely given that Australia have held the Ashes for a decade, but that’s not the full story.For starters, this year’s hosts are never done – it’s what’s made them dominant for so long. The fact that they were very nearly brought undone in the drawn 2023 series, should fuel Australia’s desire to win this one outright, while giving England confidence.Add disappointing T20 World Cup campaigns for each side less than three months ago, where Australia were knocked out in the semi-finals and England failed to progress beyond the group stage, and this weekend’s opening ODI in Sydney looms as a thriller – weather permitting.Related

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England won both white-ball legs at home in 2023 to level the series eight points all after Australia had won the Test. With the four-day, pink-ball Test at the MCG coming at the end of this edition, England can put themselves in prime position beforehand, if they can match their earlier form in the three ODIs and three T20Is.Hoping to play a role is England’s ever-reliable seamer Kate Cross, just as she did on her Ashes debut in 2014, the last time her team won them on Australian turf.Cross is still managing her recovery from a back injury suffered during last month’s tour of South Africa but, on or off the field, she offers considerable wisdom, having taken three wickets in each innings as England won the Perth Test – then worth six points – to open that series.And, while last year’s Ashes provided plenty of learnings, she believes more recent events could be a factor.”Even the aftermath of the World Cup that’s just happened probably is playing a bit of a role in both teams – maybe both teams might feel like they’ve got a point to prove,” Cross told ESPNcricinfo.”What we gained from that 2023 Ashes was, when we play our best cricket, we can beat the best in the world, and that’s the confidence that you take from a series like that. It was more around the way that we played our cricket that pleased us all the most and what we were the most proud of. We came away from that series with a draw but two white-ball series to our name.”When you beat Australia in two white-ball series, of course it’s going to give you confidence but having said that, that was on home soil and it was 18 months ago, a lot’s changed since then. As much as you can draw confidence from it you also need to realise that this is a fresh start and it starts at nil-nil on Sunday.”ESPNcricinfo LtdCross is one of a handful of players remaining from the 2013-14 series alongside Danni Wyatt-Hodge, current captain Heather Knight, Amy Jones and Nat Sciver-Brunt from England and Australia’s Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and Megan Schutt.Her over-riding memory of that time was the Test and she has tried to emulate that early performance in midst of a brutal nationwide heatwave ever since.”That was my debut so I didn’t have a clue how to play the red-ball format,” Cross said. “It’s just experience [that’s changed]. I’ve not tried to change my blueprint too drastically from that series in particular.”The December before that I’d made my white ball-debut. Obviously you want to evolve as a player, but you also have to remember what gets you to your international debuts and that was something that I’ve tried to remember and keep hold of throughout my career.”When I’m keeping it simple and I’m trying to be as consistent as I can as a bowler, then that’s when I’m at my best. I might not have the pace that some of the youngsters have got coming through, but I would always pride myself on being a reliable bowler for any captain. That’s where I found success in that Test match back in 2014.”Australia’s celebrations at the end of the 2023 were muted•Getty ImagesBack then, after winning the Test and the first ODI, England had one hand on the trophy but a mini fightback from Australia in the next two games meant that it wasn’t until the first T20I in Hobart that England retained the Ashes.Wyatt-Hodge doesn’t remember a lot about that series, but she does recall the defining moment – and the celebrations that followed. As Cross said, much has changed since then.Wyatt-Hodge was known as much then for her offspin as her batting potential, the latter having completely overgrown any designs she might have had on being a bowler, such has been her success as a powerful T20 opener and ODI finisher over years since.Long retired is Charlotte Edwards, who delivered the Ashes with her unbeaten 92 off just 59 balls as England won the first T20I to take an unassailable lead of 10 points to four with two games to spare.

“It was probably the weirdest feeling I’ve ever had because I’ve never really lost a game and then had to celebrate winning”Phoebe Litchfield on the 8-8 draw in 2023

“I don’t really have that many memories apart from Lotti getting all those runs down at Hobart,” Wyatt-Hodge said. “I remember running onto the pitch, celebrating with her, and then we had a great night out in Hobart after.”They’re my biggest memories of the Ashes in 2014. It’s been 10 years since we’ve got it so it’d be amazing if we did it again. It starts at nil-nil and it’s just really exciting. Especially for me, I don’t even know how many Ashes I’ve played in, but I’ve still got those nerves and excitement and that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”Australia, meanwhile, will be looking to avoid the emptiness of their 2023 celebrations, as described by young opener Phoebe Litchfield.”Both teams were probably left a bit hollow after that series, knowing we’d retained it but haven’t truly deserved it, so this time around we are definitely keen to win it outright,” Litchfield said this week. “It was probably the weirdest feeling I’ve ever had because I’ve never really lost a game and then had to celebrate winning. It was quite foreign.”And it was probably just because the team has succeeded so much, and the start we had last time, we were six points up, and only needed one more to retain it, let alone win the thing. By the end of it, it was a bit hollow.”1:51

Georgia Voll talks Women’s Ashes

Ashleigh Gardner, who starred in the 2023 Test with eight second-innings wickets and 12 for the match, believes Australia have made great strides in their one-day game, citing series victories over India 3-0 and New Zealand 2-0 this season.”I know with the ball, looking back in England, we probably didn’t execute well enough but we’ve done a lot talking,” Gardner said. “We’ve got some players who are playing different roles at the moment with ball in hand and with the bat as well, it’s making sure we are taking the game on and not worrying about the consequences.”Looking back more recently at the ODIs we’ve just played, I certainly think we did that, different people stood up at different times, and it’s super exciting to see where this team can be.”Both squads look similar to 2023 with a number of players on either side taking further steps in their development.Litchfield is firmly established in Australia’s top order and 23-year-old allrounder Annabel Sutherland is in prime form after back-to-back ODI centuries against India and New Zealand in December.Georgia Voll, who shone on her international debut in the series against India in the absence of injured captain Healy, further pressed her Ashes cause with a fifty opening alongside Healy for the Governor General’s XI in the washed-out warm-up on Thursday.Kate Cross is one of the survivors from England’s last Ashes victory•Getty ImagesHealy was unable to test her hopes of returning to wicketkeeping duties after a knee problem when play was abandoned in the 29th over of the 50-over-a-side contest, although she came through a practise session afterwards unscathed.After the previous Women’s Ashes in England drew bumper crowds, played alongside the men’s version amid high stakes when the home side dropped the first T20I, the hope is that the Australian public will be similarly captivated this time.Cricket Australia said this week that while venues, capacities and scheduling were different, the series was “tracking significantly above” the 2017-18 Women’s Ashes, with 2021-22 affected by Covid restrictions. “We expect this women’s international series will be the highest attended in Australian cricket history,” CA said.Cross said: “The beauty of the 2023 Ashes was that the narrative was created. We were six-nil down and then fought our way back to six-all and that created a lot of interest. Naturally having the men’s Ashes side by side to ours made cricket the talk of the town a little bit during that summer.”I’m hoping what doesn’t happen this time is that because the games are quite close together and it’s all played over such a short period that we lose that narrative. You want to give the public the time to realise what’s going on and get behind – obviously they’ll be getting behind the Aussie girls over in Australia – but you still want the crowds to be in.”With 10 days of cricket scheduled over 22 days from January 12 to February – three ODIs, three T20Is and the Test – this tale may not be epic in length but if history serves as it so often does in the Ashes, it could be epic all the same.

The teams have built a rivalry that’s given the IPL some of its strangest finishes and most replayed highlights

Varun Shetty02-May-2025Openers and Ashwin drub RCB
IPL 2011, final, ChepaukThe only final between these two teams was one-sided. CSK’s openers Michael Hussey (63 off 45) and M Vijay (95 off 52) took them to 205. Chris Gayle was the one threat to the total, but MS Dhoni bowled R Ashwin to him first up, and the ploy worked. RCB’s innings never took off and they lost by 58 runs. CSK lifted the trophy for the second straight year.CSK celebrate their title win in 2011•Associated PressMorkel takes Kohli down
IPL 2012, ChepaukCSK needed 43 off two overs when, lacking options, RCB captain Daniel Vettori chucked the ball to Virat Kohli for the 19th. Albie Morkel smashed him for 4, 6, 4, 6, 2, 6 to leave 15 to win off the 20th. Vinay Kumar dismissed Morkel, but after a couple of Dwayne Bravo blows, it came down to three to win off the last ball. Ravindra Jadeja edged Vinay Kumar for a boundary to complete the heist.RP Singh blows it
IPL 2013, ChepaukKohli had begun to celebrate when Ravindra Jadeja edged the final ball, bowled by RP Singh, straight to deep third only to see that the umpire had called a front-foot no ball. CSK needed two off the final ball and managed to run one while the ball was in the air, giving them the win. Singh had 16 to defend in the final over and came back strong after Jadeja took 10 off the first two. But he overstepped on the final ball to leave Kohli fuming.Ravindra Jadeja completes the winning run while umpire Anil Chaudhary signals a no-ball•BCCIRCB survive Dhoni epic
IPL 2019, ChinnaswamyChasing 162, CSK sunk to 28 for 4 in 5.5 overs. Dhoni steadied the ship even as more wickets fell around him. He began his acceleration in the 16th over and, in typical Dhoni style, took it to the last over. CSK needed 26 off Umesh Yadav. Dhoni went 4, 6, 6, 2, 6 to leave two to get off one. But he missed the last ball, and Parthiv Patel hit the stumps direct from behind to give RCB the win. Dhoni finished with 84* off 42 balls.RCB’s biggest moment
IPL 2024, ChinnaswamyCSK weren’t winning the game, but with Dhoni at the crease, playoff qualification prospects were alive with 17 needed in the final over. Dhoni had already smashed a massive six off the first ball, but Dayal’s back-of-the-hand slower one had him caught next ball. The magic seemed to leave with him. With 10 needed off 2 balls to qualify, the stage was still set for a CSK heist. But Dayal held his nerve against Jadeja. The win completed RCB’s remarkable six-match winning streak and sealed their place in the playoffs.