Asalanka, Buttler, Babar and Warner round out top five performers

ESPNcricinfo stats team15-Nov-2021Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga is the MVP of the T20 World Cup 2021 according to ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats (all matches from start of Super 12s have been considered). In the Super 12s, Hasaranga took ten wickets and conceded runs at just 5.84 per over in the so-called Group of Death. Hasaranga also took a hat-trick against South Africa, but that was not enough to get his team over the line.ESPNcricinfo LtdNumbers, however, do not do full justice to Hasaranga’s impact.To gauge that, we need to look at Smart Stats, which looks at every batting and bowling performance through the prism of match context, and the pressure on the batter and bowler at each delivery when they batted or bowled.The games against England and South Africa stood out. All ten wickets that he took were of batters in the top seven.Hasaranga bowled three overs at the death too, taking four wickets at 6.66. In the middle overs, he bowled 14 overs and conceded just 6.14 runs per over. Hasaranga was the partnership breaker for his team, taking key wickets when they were required. He dismissed Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma and Dwyane Pretorius against South Africa, while he got Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow and Eoin Morgan against England.Hasaranga took wickets when others struggled, which also helped him top the impact charts. Hasaranga’s match impact of 71.6 was way ahead of his team-mate Charith Asalanka, who was next.Asalanka had a match impact score of 55, and scored 225 runs at an impressive strike rate of 153.06. No one had a better strike rate than Asalanka among the top 20 run-getters in the competition. Asalanka’s unbeaten 80 against Bangladesh was a knock under serious pressure, with his team struggling at 79 for 4 in the tenth over chasing 171.Openers Jos Buttler, Babar Azam and Player of the Tournament David Warner complete the top five.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Most impactful bowler

The list of bowlers with the highest Smart Wickets is different from the list of top wicket-takers, because Smart Wickets takes into account the quality of batter dismissed, their score at the time of dismissal, and the match context at that point. Considering all those factors, Trent Boult and Josh Hazlewood take the top-two positions with 15 and 14.6 Smart Wickets respectively.Adam Zampa, who is first on the actual wicket-takers’ list with 13 wickets, is fifth on the Smart Wickets tally with an aggregate of 11.8. Hasaranga and Ish Sodhi complete the top five, while five of the top-ten bowlers are wristspinners.There was not much to separate Boult and Hazlewood. While Hazlewood took the most wickets in the powerplay with seven, Boult was the second-highest wicket-taker at the death with six wickets. Both quicks were instrumental in containing runs or taking crucial wickets. Boult conceded five runs or less in four out of seven games in not-so-favourable conditions for quicks. Hazlewood, on the other hand, had a big impact by either picking crucial wickets early in the match or reducing the run flow, like he did in the final against New Zealand and in the first game against South Africa.Interestingly, both Boult and Hazlewood had very poor semi-finals, conceding more than ten runs per over without taking a wicket.The legspin trio of Hasaranga, Sodhi and Zampa all had excellent impact through the middle overs. Zampa took 13 wickets in this phase and went for less than six runs per over in the competition. Although some of his wickets did come about when the match result was a formality, or were of tail-enders, he made some crucially important strikes too. The former added to the tally for conventional wickets, but didn’t add much to Zampa’s Smart Wickets count. His five-wicket haul against Bangladesh was worth just 3.29 Smart Wickets, while his spells against South Africa and Pakistan counted for a lot more.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Top batting and bowling performances in a match

While Hasaranga and Boult took pole positions in terms of MVP and best bowler, the match-wise best batting and bowling performance went to Martin Guptill and Shadab Khan respectively. Guptill’s 93 from 56 balls in tough, humid conditions against Scotland was the top batting performance.This was the only game that was won by a team batting first in Dubai. Guptill single-handedly powered his team, hitting seven sixes and six fours. His partner in a century stand for the fourth wicket, Glenn Phillips, scored at a strike rate of just 89, making it that much tougher for Guptill.\The only century of the tournament was by Jos Buttler. His brilliant unbeaten 101 against Sri Lanka in tough batting conditions was the second best batting performance of the tournament. Buttler scored 62% of his team’s runs, and at one stage had made only 35 from 38 balls. In his next 29 balls, he smashed 66 runs in bowler-friendly conditions. Kane Williamson’s 85 in the final, Najibullah Zadran’s 73 against New Zealand and Asalanka’s 80 from 40 balls against Bangladesh complete the top-five best batting performances.ESPNcricinfo LtdAmong the impactful bowling performance, Shadab’s 4 for 26 in the semi-finals topped the chart.Defending 176, Shadab took the key wickets of Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith and David Warner. He conceded just 6.25 runs per over when all other bowlers went upwards of 8 per over. Shadab’s four wickets were worth almost seven Smart Wickets. What should have been a match-winning performance sadly ended in a losing cause. Hasaranga’s two spells against England and South Africa are in the top five along with Hazlewood and Boult’s efforts in the final.

And when players have a technical problem, fellow players are best placed to sort them out

Ian Chappell13-Feb-2022The Test touring parties of Australia and England both feature interim coaches, and this has raised more questions than provided answers.In particular, the demotion of Justin Langer caused Australian hysteria to reach the Monty Python comedy stage, where someone screeches, “He’s not the Australian coach he’s a very naughty boy.”Cricket fans tend to take more notice of who is or isn’t the coach rather than focusing on the important matter of the appointed captain. Pat Cummins and his charges take the wickets, make the runs and handle the chances. It is they, not the coach, who will win or lose the upcoming series in Pakistan.Related

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Anybody who thinks international players need coaching and mollycoddling 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is confused. International techniques don’t disintegrate. Players might encounter a problem along the way but what goes wrong is generally in the head. A decent natter with a preferred senior player in the team usually sets the cricketer on the right path.Why are fellow players the best international coaches? For starters they are playing against the same players. They are also out in the middle in the heat of battle and understand the trying consequences. They also see their fellow competitors regularly and will quickly notice any change in technique or mental approach.It’s much more important to have well-credentialled selectors choosing the right squad than it is to have the public ranting about coaches.Using the title “head coach” is a mistake. Anybody looking after a team should have the word “manager” in their title. If the captain, with the help of a few trusted aides, runs the cricket side of the game and the management concentrates on off-field matters, a team will be very competitive. An international coach should be something the Australian team travels in on a tour of England.Cummins is a smart cricketer. He is a good captain because he understands bowling, approaches the game with a common-sense attitude, and has tough competitors around him. He also competes fiercely on the field and has no time for any hijinks; his team generally plays in a similar vein.There’s no doubt Cummins will experience tougher days than those he encountered against England. He will also have to fight through the occasional frustration – that’s the life of a captain. Nevertheless he will establish his reputation as a good captain for the simple reason that he’s a solid leader. His captaincy will be recognised because of his own efforts.On the other side of the world England, under the temporary stewardship of interim managing director Andrew Strauss, have come off a monumental sacking spree. In addition to the three members of the hierarchy who bit the dust, Strauss’ contingent did away with eight players who toured Australia and appointed an interim coach, Paul Collingwood.There have been some good moves among those made by the Strauss group. The dropping of ageing stars Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad took courage and signalled a new direction for the team. The retention of an inconsistent Ollie Pope displayed faith in a talented but disoriented player. The elevation of a credentialled wicketkeeper, Ben Foakes, was welcome.However, the one move that could have made a real difference – a change of leadership – was avoided. There’s no doubt that England with good, strong leadership could be a side that improves a great deal on their recent showing in Australia. Joe Root deserves the title “prominent batter” but the team will not achieve its potential under his stewardship. He is not a good leader and never has been.Who could England nominate as captain? That is a major problem. Apart from Ben Stokes there’s not another name in the squad that stands out as a potential leader.
Nevertheless England badly need to unearth a strong captain and do it quickly. If they don’t have a captain providing direction to the Test team, they will continue to struggle against the major cricket nations.

West Indies’ No. 7 was at it again, trying to dig his team out of a hole – the way he often goes about it begs the question: does he deserve a promotion?

Shashank Kishore06-Feb-2022Not for the first time in his career, Jason Holder had to clean up a top-order mess. And not for the first time, he showed how the job ought to have been done. Again, not for the first time, he made you wonder if he was batting too low at No. 7.Ahead of the series, Kieron Pollard spoke of batting out 50 overs being a realistic goal, but West Indies were in danger of folding inside 30 overs in the series opener against India. Holder’s defiance, which quickly turned into a full-blown attack, especially with India’s spinners trying to exercise control, helped them bat out 43.5 overs eventually. This was by no means any consolation.For the record, West Indies haven’t batted out 50 overs for seven matches in a row now, stretching back to the Australia series at home in July 2021. It merely reaffirms Pollard’s statement that West Indies have a batting problem.Related

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Holder put on a batting show that many of his team-mates would do well to emulate. There was no premeditation, neither was there an attempt to throw the bowlers off their lengths. He was simply reacting to what was presented to him and played shots he thought were appropriate without worrying about how the pitch was playing or how one good ball could get him.The essence of his innings was built around trying to get fully forward and using his long levers to play Yuzvendra Chahal’s teasing legbreaks, and playing Washington Sundar by going right back into the crease because the offspinner was looking to largely bowl good length.It wasn’t that the class of his batting suddenly stood out; he has oozed plenty of it right from his debut seven years ago. You don’t average 30 across 53 Tests at No. 7 without possessing it. You don’t make a Test highest off 202 not out without learning to apply yourself at the crease. Yet, you couldn’t help but marvel at his ability to loft the ball cleanly with the spin, pick lengths early to punch through the covers, and nonchalantly play the pickup shot to anything that veered into the pads. More than anything, Holder seemed to revel even when he walked out to immense scoreboard pressure at 71 for 5 in the 20th over.For a better part of the last seven years, Holder has shouldered much of West Indies’ lower-order batting in ODIs. Since the 2015 World Cup, Holder has walked into bat inside the 25-over mark 19 times when he has batted at No. 7 or lower. He has made 564 runs at an average of 35.25, including six half-centuries, in these games. He has struck these runs at 88. Does this merit a promotion? You’d think yes.”When you’re looking at different things, you can say that,” Pollard told host broadcaster Star Sports at the presentation ceremony, when asked if there was merit in promoting Holder. “For instance, 12 months ago, guys wouldn’t have been saying that from a statistical point of view. But last couple of games, he has done well. He has played Test cricket, he has made a double-hundred, so he can bat at any position in the order.”But again, the combination of the team, when you look at it, yes he can bat at No. 6 or at No. 5, but when you watch the make-up of our team, we have international batsmen who have played Test cricket. He (Holder) has a role to play for us, and he came into a crucial scenario and made a crucial fifty. In the last couple of weeks, his cricket has improved and he’s doing well for himself. We’re happy for Jason as a team and long may it continue.”Jason Holder adapted to the challenge of batting in India despite limited time to acclimatise•ICC via GettyThis batting ability from a bowling allrounder is something teams around the world yearn for. Holder’s batting, along with his nagging bowling, has contributed largely to whatever success West Indies have had in Test cricket too, in recent years. It has allowed them to play five bowlers for one thing. But Holder’s improved batting hasn’t quite been enough to mask the inefficiency, and in some cases recklessness, of some of his colleagues.In Ahmedabad, Shai Hope was out driving with no feet in the same over that he dispatched Mohammed Siraj for two glorious boundaries. Pollard was out looking to hit out, disregarding Chahal’s dip and spin as he attempted a big mow first ball with his team four down and trying to rebuild inside the 20th over. Brandon King and Fabian Allen tamely lobbed return-catches to deliveries that stopped on them. Nicholas Pooran completely misjudged the length trying to sweep a full delivery, only to lose his balance and wicket. Of course, you could make some allowances for the fact West Indies came into the series barely having had one full training session, but the question remains: if Holder could, maybe some of the others could, too?Holder aside, there were a few other positives too for the visitors. Alzarri Joseph, fresh off a short stint in the Bangladesh Premier League, was zippy and nipped out the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in an over. Kohli’s, in particular, was a wicket well-earned because he surprised him for pace and got him to top-edge an attempted pull to fine leg. Rohit was beaten and nipped out lbw trying to play across the line.West Indies have little time between now and the second ODI to get their mindset right. If they need to look for inspiration, they needn’t look beyond Holder. In an era of the Pollards, Bravos, Narines and Gayles, that he has managed to carve a niche for himself speaks volumes of his drive and resolve. His team-mates will do well to try and match the benchmark he has set.

The team’s top run-getter in T20Is talks about making her debut as a 13-year-old, and juggling a radiography course with cricket

Firdose Moonda14-Jul-2022If Irish cricket had a royal family, Gaby Lewis’ would be it. Her father and grandfather played first-class cricket for Ireland between the 1960s and 1990s, her older sister, Robyn, played alongside her at the 2016 T20 World Cup, and last month, at 21, Lewis became Ireland’s youngest captain. Born and raised in the game, it’s almost all she knows.”My first memory is being down at my club in YMCA in Sandymount,” Lewis says. “I don’t have any memories of my grandfather playing, but I definitely have memories of my dad. I even played a few games with him and batted with him. And my mom coached us for a bit. I was always down at the club, me and my sister. We were just born into it.”Ireland are currently hosting Australia and Pakistan for a tri-series, and last month they had South Africa over for three ODIs and three T20Is. Ireland won one match in that series – a ten-run victory in the opening T20I in Dublin, in which Lewis top-scored with 52 off 38 balls. In the process, she went past Clare Shillington to become Ireland’s leading run-getter in women’s T20Is. She’s also their only century-maker in the format.Even though she’s so young, Lewis has already played international cricket for nearly eight years now, making her Ireland debut as a 13-year-old, in a T20I against South Africa in 2014.Related

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“It’s always been like that,” she says. “You’re used to playing against people older than you. Back then, cricket was quite small, and everyone who played cricket knew everyone else. It didn’t seem strange because other younger players like Lucy O’Reilly [who also made her debut at 13], who I was quite close to, had gone through it as well. I just absolutely loved it.”Lewis started off in the middle order but two years later was promoted to open the batting with Shillington, her club team-mate. And before she made her ODI debut, in 2016, Lewis had already featured in a T20 World Cup, getting a taste of playing against teams with fully professional set-ups and greater match experience than Ireland had. “I remember that I wasn’t scared because I’d batted with Claire before and she made it quite easy,” she says.”World Cups are the best tournaments to play in,” Lewis said. “You’re playing against high-quality opposition. Being from Ireland, we play against teams with a mixture of abilities. We have Qualifiers where we play against the likes of the European teams and then you can go to World Cups and play against the likes of Australia – there’s a huge gap.”By the time Lewis played her second World Cup, the 2018 T20 event in West Indies, she realised that cricket was growing and a professional expansion was on the horizon for her.”We were playing against teams where you know their players have had a career, and that’s what I knew I wanted. I thought it was only a matter of time before it would filter through the countries.”Lewis became Ireland’s youngest captain, at 21, when she led them in place of regular captain Laura Delany last month against South Africa•George Tewkesbury/Getty ImagesIt took another four years before professionalisation came to Ireland. In March this year, seven women’s cricketers were given full-time contracts and nine more, including Lewis, who is a student, got part-time deals.”I am studying radiography full-time,” she says. “I think it’s very important to study as a cricketer. There’s only so many hours you can train, especially when you are on tour. It’s important to plan for that time after cricket, and if I can work one day a week while I am playing cricket, I think it’s very important. I got into the course through my school exams and it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. It’s hugely important, especially on tour, to have something to take my mind off cricket.”Being a student-sportsperson comes with its own challenges, as Lewis discovered when the Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe last November was called off after the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in southern Africa. While packing to return home, Lewis put her study notes in her suitcase, which was mislaid in transit.It took the team almost five days to get home, via Oman, and their belongings were only returned to them two weeks later. “Oh, the stress, the stress! I didn’t think that putting my notes in my suitcase would end up like that,” Lewis says. “It’s a lesson learnt. Always carry your notes in your hand luggage. But it turned out okay – I passed the exam.”Although Lewis started off in the game as an allrounder, in the last four years, she has put away her legspin to focus more on her batting, and has also worked on the mental side of her game.”Over the last few years, I struggled with my bowling and that started to creep into my batting, so I just decided to park it [bowling] for the time being. I went through quite a hard patch a year and a half ago and worked with a psychologist about sticking to my routines and processes and trusting the game.”Lewis: “I love playing for Ireland, and I love the girls that I play with. Once we execute our skills and stick to our plans, I have no doubt we can win games. It won’t happen quickly and that’s fine”•Sam Barnes/Getty ImagesIn September 2019, Lewis scored only 21 runs in four matches in a T20 World Cup Qualifier, which was the worst of her bad patch. Since then, she has averaged nearly 40 in T20Is, with three 50-plus scores, including the century, and 51.14 in ODIs with four fifties.”I don’t have specific bowlers that I fear or that I enjoy,” she says. “With us as a nation, you play a variety of standards, so it’s important to focus on what we do and not so much the opposition we play. I just focus on the ball that’s coming down and how to react as opposed to who’s bowling it.”She’s been rewarded for her form with contracts in two franchise leagues – the Hundred and the Fairbreak Invitational, which has broadened her cricketing experience and allowed her to rub shoulders with different players. Lewis was her country’s only representative in the Women’s Hundred last year and one of three Irish players at the Fairbreak event this May.”The Hundred was brilliant,” she said. “It’s a great format of the game for people who don’t really know that much about cricket, especially people who don’t really have such high concentration levels. It simplifies the game. And the crowds they got – they are very lucky with the timing of it being just after Covid – so people went after work and it’s got that kind of vibe.”The Fairbreak competition was really nice to have everyone come together from different parts of the world and play together. It was a great opportunity for players to bowl to world-class players and know what it takes to take their cricket to the next level.”Despite cricket’s increasing franchising, she doesn’t see either tournament as having the same pride of place as the international game, especially for someone who has Irish cricket in her blood.”I love playing for Ireland and I love the girls that I play with. I can see a place for both,” she said. “There’s a lot of belief in our group. Once we execute our skills and stick to our plans, I have no doubt we can win games. We know it takes time. It won’t happen quickly, it’s a slow process and that’s fine.”

As the England quick celebrates a milestone birthday, S Rajesh looks at how incredibly well he’s aged as a bowler

S Rajesh30-Jul-2022It is likely that sometime in the next couple of months, James Anderson will become the first bowler to take 400 Test wickets after turning 30. Already, he is only the second player to play 100-plus Tests after 30 – Alec Stewart was the first, with 107 – but Anderson’s feat is remarkable at several levels.ESPNcricinfo LtdFor starters, he is a fast bowler, and fast bowlers aren’t supposed to go on as if age is just an irrelevant number. Currently, Anderson has 389 wickets from 101 Tests after turning 30; since turning 35, he has taken 177 from 47 matches. Among fast bowlers, only Courtney Walsh, with 180 from 39, has more wickets beyond 35. Only six other fast bowlers have managed even 200 wickets after the age of 30, but Anderson is moving towards 400, and seemingly, quite effortlessly.