In 19 overs, Naseem bowled nine maidens, took two wickets and conceded only 36 runs on day one

Danyal Rasool21-Mar-2022It’s unclear what Naseem Shah was told before the game, but a candid conversation might have gone like this: “this pitch is quite slow, so we’re picking you. Yes, yes, we know you bowl fast, but that’s why you’re playing, see? We just need you to bowl even faster. You know those developing joints of yours that you constantly feel might break down at any point? Do you mind putting just a little bit extra stress on them?”See, this wicket is really very slow, and that’s the only way for you to be effective. Otherwise, you know, you might go for lots of runs and pick up no wickets? What were your figures in that last New Zealand Test again? 0 for 141, yeah? And 1 for 89 in Rawalpindi? The average is pushing what, 45, now? You don’t want that to get much worse, right? Don’t much worry if you get injured, young man, we’ll put you on the path to recovery yet again, as we’ve done before. And if you lose that extra yard of pace, let me reassure you, there’s no need to worry. We’ve got new fast bowlers coming up all the time, so we can always turn to them. Anyway, it’s really hot this week in Lahore, I need a shade and a cool drink.”Related

Deciding Test finely balanced after day one

Another Smith fifty, another Smith non-hundred

Khawaja 'felt absolutely horrible through the day'

In a series that has contributed its fair share to the #MonotonousMarch theme that Test cricket has seemed to adopt this year, the developments that saw Naseem’s inclusion for the third Test against Australia moved at warp speed. It was fewer than three weeks ago, remember, when his inclusion to replace a crocked Faheem Ashraf was considered so deleterious to Pakistan’s prospects the PCB chairman all but admitted to laying out a moribund surface the ICC rated “below average” in a soporific snooze of a Test match. Was that Faheem Ashraf being dropped? The man who’s contributed with either bat and ball every Test match he’s played? The man Pakistan didn’t hesitate to play last week in Karachi after he tested positive for Covid once but negative the next day?To replace him with Naseem in expectation of extra pace only spoke of how slow this wicket would likely be, and the extra effort Naseem would have to put in if he was to get anything back. Still a teenage boy, he has spent the last couple of years in and out of the treatment room, because bowling this fast with a body you’re yet to properly develop fully places unnatural demands on various joints and muscles. He has recently suffered ankle and groin injuries and after an impressive start to his Test career, had fast begun to fade.Naseem Shah roars after getting Steven Smith•AFP/Getty ImagesAnd so, on a pitch ill-suited to him, both as an express fast bowler and an injury-prone young man, Naseem began his thankless task in the seventh over. Shaheen Shah Afridi had delivered two early breakthroughs, and as if the pressure wasn’t already intense enough, he was supposed to follow that. He would start against Usman Khawaja, the best batter of the series, and on current form, among the best in the world. He would push him slightly back into the crease with a succession of deliveries slightly short of a good length. It’s a length he has worked on lately, honing this skill as a guardrail against the natural tendency of Pakistani pace bowlers to continually push fuller. Besides, the ball was keeping low, and that meant retreating to the back foot was never quite without risk.Steven Smith at the other end fidgeted and fussed, but Naseem refused to let him get under his skin. The first three overs allowed just two runs, but as the morning session wore on, Naseem was quietly adding another arrow to his quiver. While the new-ball swing for Shaheen Afridi had evaporated so early the sun might well have scorched it off, Naseem had found reverse in the low 140s. It was the only time Khawaja, so serene and unflappable all day, stuttered for confidence. A couple beat the outside edge, and when the opener tried to overcompensate, Naseem would bring one back in and nearly take an inside nick through to the keeper.Smith and Khawaja were grinding Pakistan down, 53 overs into what seemed like a repeat of the partnership that had killed Pakistan’s chances off on the first day in Karachi. And yet, Naseem persisted with his length, never straying as the afternoon wore on and the energy reserves dwindled. In 73 deliveries on length or slightly back that Naseem bowled to the pair, they managed only 12 runs. And it was him, when it felt as if Pakistan’s bowling unit had collectively run out of ideas, that produced the wicket to prise the game open, jagging one back into Smith so sharply even he couldn’t stop it crashing into his pads adjacent to the stumps. By this time, nine of Naseem’s 13 overs were maidens.”It’s quite hot and not easy to bowl in these conditions,” Naseem later said. “The bowlers do get frustrated in such conditions but you have to keep yourself calm because you have to bowl for long periods in these conditions on a good line and length. “The ball was keeping low and the wicket of Smith gave me lot of confidence. I tried to bowl more dot balls to him and doesn’t allow him to score freely which in the end earned me his wicket. If you bowl with pace you can get reverse swing on such wickets and that’s what exactly I tried to do.”Pakistan’s spinners began to find breakthroughs once the impregnable stand had been broken. But tellingly, when 80 overs were sent down and the new ball due, Babar, instead, turned around, and put the old ball back into the hands of his teenage prodigy, the man who’s been around for long enough for people to forget he’s still barely out of boyhood. It was instantly obvious why; his first ball this spell had seen Travis Head edge through a vacant second slip region, and the nip Naseem was able to command both ways was verging on unplayable. The final ball of that 81st over, a perfect fourth stump line drew Head’s edge, and Pakistan had their fifth.

…it was him, when it felt as if Pakistan’s bowling unit had collectively run out of ideas, that produced the wicket to prise the game open

Babar smiled, and two overs later, called for the new ball. Naseem would send down a couple of overs with it, but his wasn’t the glamour spell nor the easy work. He had taken on the Lahore heat, the Australian batters, and perhaps even his own young body; it might not thank him for it in the long-run.But in Pakistan, reputations are made and destroyed match to match, day to day. And with a body he hopes he can come to trust more, Naseem painstakingly built his once more today in Lahore.

The Women’s T20 Challenge opener pits the two teams to have combined to win all the editions so far, and promises big entertainment

Annesha Ghosh23-May-20223:26

Harmanpreet: Difficult to get balance right in a short tournament

Who are playing
Defending champions Trailblazers, led by Smriti Mandhana, take on Harmanpreet Kaur’s Supernovas, two-time champions in what is a three-season tournament. Play begins at 7:30pm local time at the MCA Stadium in Pune.Head to head
Since locking horns in the inaugural edition, held as a one-off exhibition game in Mumbai in 2018, the two sides have faced each other a further four times, including in two finals. While Supernovas rode Harmanpreet’s 37-ball 51 to win the title clash in 2019, Mandhana’s 49-ball 68 gave Trailblazers the trophy in Sharjah in 2020.How the squads stack up
Supernovas: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Taniya Bhatia (vice-capt), Alana King*, Ayushi Soni, Chandu V, Deandra Dottin*, Harleen Deol, Meghna Singh, Monica Patel, Muskan Malik, Pooja Vastrakar, Priya Punia, Rashi Kanojia, Sophie Ecclestone*, Sune Luus*, Mansi Joshi.Trailblazers: Smriti Mandhana (capt), Poonam Yadav (vice-capt), Arundhati Reddy, Hayley Matthews*, Jemimah Rodrigues, Priyanka Priyadarshini, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh, S Meghana, Saiqa Ishaque, Salma Khatun*, Sharmin Akhter*, Sophia Dunkley*, Sujata Mallik, Shradda Pokharkar.
2:15

Mandhana on Shraddha: Really looking forward to how she progresses

Form guide of key players
Smriti Mandhana: The opening batter struck one half-century in her 236 runs in eight innings at the recent Senior Women’s T20 Trophy, where she led Maharashtra to a runners-up finish. Her highest score in the tournament, 84 against Railways in the final in Surat, came in a losing cause.Earlier this year, she missed the one-off T20I against New Zealand, the only game in the format India have played this year, because of her delayed arrival and quarantine in the country. Before that, in the 2021-22 WBBL that ended in November, Mandhana, playing her first season for Sydney Thunder, smashed a 64-ball 114, the joint-highest score in the competition’s history.Harmanpreet Kaur: The India T20I captain scored 121 runs, two half-centuries included, in three innings for Punjab in the domestic T20 tournament. Against New Zealand, she made a 13-ball 12. She had a prolific WBBL last season, and was named the Player of the Tournament after topping the batting and bowling charts for Melbourne Renegades. She made 406 runs at a strike rate of 130.96, including three fifty-plus scores and 18 sixes, during Renegades’ dominant run to the playoffs.She reinvented herself into a powerplay bowler there, dealing precious blows at the death, taking 15 wickets at 7.45 with her fingerspin.Sophie Ecclestone is in the building, and no batter is safe•BCCIWhat to look forward to
Sophie Ecclestone vs the rest of the world: The No. 1 bowler in the women’s game comes off a blockbuster FairBreak Invitational and ODI World Cup, finishing atop the wicket charts in both tournaments. Having played for Mandhana’s Trailblazers since her Women’s T20 Challenge debut in 2019, the England and Supernovas left-arm spinner could well have serious questions to ask of her former captain (as she likely will of anyone given her red-hot form). Also, if Ecclestone’s newly cultivated boundary-clearing prowess is anything to go by, on view in ample measure at the nets on Sunday, she could be a threat with the bat, too.Deandra Dottin vs the lesser mortals: Harmanpreet, just let the World Boss from Barbados bowl the 20th over already! Regardless, spectators at the MCA Stadium, be on your feet when Dottin is batting because you might have to do a lot of catching in the stands. In between, you can just marvel at how acrobatic she is on the field.Salma Khatun applying the choke: Don’t be surprised if the Bangladesh and Trailblazers offspinner picks up wickets in a heap for not too many. Her knack for taking wickets in a pile almost finished Australia off in the ODI World Cup in March-April. The only glimmer of hope for Supernovas is they are unlikely to slot in a left-hander in their top five.

On a hot and humid opening day, his knock puts Sri Lanka in a strong position

Mohammad Isam15-May-2022During the first Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Test in Chattogram, there were four players who had debuted in the 2000s. Among those, Angelo Mathews was the most capped one, and he had to squeeze out every bit of that experience to get Sri Lanka out of early trouble, consolidate in the middle, and then dominate by the end of the day.While Sri Lanka have many young players in their squad, a senior figure like Mathews finishing the day unbeaten on 114 is significant for the dressing room. Youngsters will soak up the lessons from his innings, which must have inspired those as well who are not-so-young but yet to hit their peak. Through his 213-ball stay, he added 92 in a third-wicket stand with Kusal Mendis and 75 in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand with Dinesh Chandimal, ensuring both Mendis and Chandimal could bat around him.In his early days, Mathews was a big six-hitter, a nifty seamer and an acrobatic fielder. But years in the international grind and several injuries meant that these days he is more of a quiet presence. His expression of experience and responsibility reflected in the way he batted on the opening day of the Test. He mostly played straight and didn’t fiddle with his wrists much. He tried to drive every full ball within his reach, covering whatever spin the Bangladesh spinners imparted on the ball, by showing the full bat face.Experienced players have their own way of showing their intention to opponents, and Mathews wasn’t any different. He struck Nayeem Hasan, who had just taken both Sri Lanka wickets in the first session, for a straight six to start the second session. He would hit four more boundaries down the ground, which forced Mominul Haque to send the mid-off and mid-on back. That itself deflates a spinner who would prefer the batter to miscue a drive to those fielders inside the circle.Mathews hit drives through covers, mid-on and midwicket quite regularly, while the rest of his fours came off filthy deliveries down the leg-side. There was not one boundary with the cut shot, which was hardly surprising since he was only reacting to what was being bowled to him: full and mostly straight.Mendis said that there was great value to Mathews’ innings, particularly in the situation they found themselves in at the fall of the second wicket. He also praised Mathews for his knock in this oppressive weather.”[Angelo Mathews] made a hundred, but [because of the heat and humidity] it can count as 150 or 170,” Mendis said. “There was so much heat. It is a little bit more than Sri Lanka. He played very well. He is the most senior guy in the Sri Lanka team. He played a dominating innings. I think it would be good if he goes on to make 150 or 200 tomorrow. The wicket was good, so we [told each other] that we can’t panic. A batter struggles for the first ten balls, but after that, he can play well.”There was praise from across the dressing room too. Mathews’ old team-mate Rangana Herath, who is now Bangladesh’s spin bowling coach, said the 34-year-old has a lot of drive to do well at the top level.”I know Angelo very well,” Herath said. “We have played a lot of games together. He always has the hunger to play for his country. Whether he is 34 or 36, he is always looking for a challenge. To be honest, as a Sri Lankan it was a fantastic hundred in the heat. I am sure he will continue to do a lot of things for Sri Lanka.”Herath said that the Bangladesh spinners did well for the first day of a Test in Chattogram, where the pitch was mostly unresponsive, on top of the heat.”Especially on the first day of a Test match, I am happy with how the bowlers did. Shakib and TJ [Taijul Islam] bowled well. Nayeem also took two wickets. He hasn’t played much cricket in the last 18 months but he has been practising a lot. In that case, I saw that he needed a bit of confidence, but when he got that wicket off the first ball, his confidence [was restored]”Bangladesh are hoping to shut Sri Lanka down within another 120 runs, but the visitors are targeting a 500-plus total on this pitch. If Mathews continues to play the way he did on Sunday, it will make things much easier for them. Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella, Ramesh Mendis and the tail have to give him company for as long as possible, but Mathews knows what he has to do. Experience matters. You can’t put a price tag on what Mathews brings to the table.

Aka everything you wished people would stop saying about the Deepti Sharma-Charlie Dean run out

Andrew Fidel Fernando28-Sep-2022So you’ve heard that Deepti Sharma ran-out Charlie Dean at the non-striker’s end and the cricket world is eating itself alive. But not everyone quite understands the issue, or the outrage it has generated. Perhaps you are new to the game and have not quite clocked its traditions. Maybe you are just a casual viewer and are just checking in because of the drama. Or perhaps you an ardent follower of the sport for many years and are merely a good old-fashioned dumbass.Don’t worry. We’ve got all the above categories covered. This is the Briefing’s 100% helpful explainer.So what exactly is a Mankad dismissal?
When in 1947, an India Hall of Fame allrounder ran-out an Australia opening batter at the non-striker’s end, cricket writers scrambled to come up with new terminology to describe the dismissal. Though unhappy that this was not as simple a task as when Trevor Legbeforewicket rapped a batter on the pads for the first time, eventually they settled on Mankad based on acronyms – MANufacturing Krazy Arguments on Twitter (olde English was in use in the 1940s, so crazy was spelt with a K and Twitter with a D).At the time there didn’t seem to be that much controversy around it, but in later decades it became a huge deal for absolutely no good reason.Related

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• Do you even ronsbu, bro?

• Drama at MCG as Adam Zampa's run-out attempt against Tom Rogers is turned down

• MCC moves to de-stigmatise non-striker run-outs in latest Law updates

• 'It's part of the game' – Harmanpreet defends Deepti running out Dean

Is it okay to even call it a Mankad?
Vinoo Mankad’s (he changed his name to celebrate his most famous dismissal; editors, please fact-check this scrupulously) family has said they would prefer cricket media to not use the former player’s name to describe it, because of the negative connotations attached to the act in some parts of the world. In response, some have suggested the dismissal be named after Bill Brown, the batter who brought the dismissal upon himself by straying out of his crease too early.”Jos Buttler browns himself at the IPL, once again.”Who could possibly object?Are they legal?
They were always legal. They’ve never not been legal. And over the past 15 years, the ICC’s cricket committee has actually made the playing conditions relating to such dismissals less ambiguous, making them – this is the technical term – Super Duper Legal.On top of which, Dean had been chronically leaving her crease in this innings, as this Twitter thread shows.So doesn’t this make people who complain about such dismissals whiny little babies?
Whoa. Those are your words, not mine.What about the spirit of cricket then?
As the Briefing comes from one of cricket’s party islands, the only spirit of cricket we recognise is arrack. If you’re from one of the other party islands, rum works just as well.But isn’t it weird that the England cricket establishment, which seems to cling hardest to the idea of the spirit of cricket, and appears to package its own moral outrage about a perfectly legal cricketing act as some form of elite sporting ethics, expects people who came up through completely different cricketing cultures to subscribe to their very specific unwritten code that no one else has agreed to?
Wow, please stop trying to smuggle your political cricket opinions into this very serious and respectable column.Is it good that women’s cricket is getting this kind of attention?
A triumph. A testament to the hard work and dedication of so many, over several decades, that women’s cricket can now generate a controversy almost as dumb and toxic as the men’s game frequently does.Now that this hyper-educational piece has made us super woke about the subject, what can we do to normalise these dismissals?
If you’re playing gully cricket, make sure you have a set of stumps at the non-striker’s end to make running out the non-striker easier. In school cricket matches, have cover or midwicket fielders constantly keep an eye out for batters creeping out of their crease. In club games, run out non-strikers ruthlessly, and then warn them after the fact just to rub it in that you are completely allowed to follow this nonsensical sequence.And at home, where so many foundational values are learned, Mankad your kids the moment they get out of bed every morning.Next month on the Briefing:– Australia categorically reject all other versions of the spirit of cricket and instead proffer a gumboot brimming with the “bogan moonshine of cricket”.- “We’re not just a Guinness country.” Ireland annoyed at being treated like minnows on the whole spirit thing.

The ACC’s decision to have an all-female umpires’ panel at the Asia Cup has opened doors for the likes of Saleema Imtiaz

Mohammad Isam03-Oct-2022Like all debutants, Saleema Imtiaz had a bout of the nerves when she officiated in an international match for the first time, earlier this week in the India vs Sri Lanka game at the Women’s Asia Cup. But it lasted all of one ball. She has umpired at the domestic level for more than a decade, so once the ball was set rolling, she was in her comfort zone.For Saleema, and many others, the Asian Cricket Council’s decision to appoint an all-female group of umpires for the tournament, being held in Sylhet, has meant new opportunities.”I have been umpiring for 15 years, but I was shocked when I got called by the Asian Cricket Council,” Saleema told ESPNcricinfo. “I was a little nervous making my international debut. It is a first exposure for me. I was obviously very excited. But it was a great experience. When the first ball was bowled in the match, I became confident. I told myself, ‘I can do this’.”It is a great opportunity from the ACC to the female umpires and match referees. We are from different countries and cultures, but we are here like a family. We support each other. We teach each other. There should be more such opportunities. The male umpires have been doing it in previous Asia Cups. I think we are doing a good job. I also want to thank the PCB for selecting us.”

“Males don’t have as many problems as females, especially in Asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. If they trust their daughters, wives and mothers, they will bring honour to the family”Saleema Imtiaz

She isn’t the only one from Pakistan at the Asia Cup, there’s also Humaira Farah. And there a number of umpires and other match officials from other Asian countries, including from Qatar, Malaysia and the UAE.Saleema started umpiring in 2006 after taking part in a course conducted by the PCB. Prior to that, her career as a player had been a short one – she played just couple of years of domestic cricket. She also works as a sports coordinator at Karachi’s Nixor College. As for the dream of representing her country as a player, it has been realised through her daughter, Kainat, who has turned out 35 times for Pakistan since her debut in 2010 and is in Sylhet with the Asia Cup team too.Their paths have crossed on the field, but they have been quiet affairs.”I stood umpire in two one-day matches that Kainat was playing, she didn’t bother me at all,” Saleema said. “I also don’t think I bothered her. We have different job scenarios. She had to perform her role, and I had to perform my role. On the ground, she is not my daughter, and I am not her mother.”That’s when they are on the field together. Otherwise, Saleema is extremely proud of her daughter’s achievements.”I always tell Kainat that she is living my dream. She has to fulfil my dream of playing for Pakistan,” Saleema said. “It is a very proud thing for myself, my family and friends. She gets the whole support of her father. We have never come between her dreams.Kainat Imtiaz has played 15 ODIs and 10 T20Is for Pakistan as a medium pacer•PA Images”I had tears in my eyes when she wore the Pakistan blazer for the first time. It is a great honour for every mother that her child is representing the national team.”The way things have worked out in her family makes Saleema believe that it is possible for women from her country to pursue careers in sports.”I want to tell the families to keep supporting their daughters,” she said. “Let them do what they want to do. Males don’t have as many problems as females, especially in Asian countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. If they trust their daughters, wives and mothers, they will bring honour to the family.”I am happy that I have a husband who always supports me and Kainat. Her husband also supports her. If a father supports the daughter, she can go out and play with a big heart, that ‘I have the backing of my father’. She will give her all.”

Now a senior in Karnataka’s squad, he’s keen to pass on his learnings to the next generation and help his team end their wait for silverware

Shashank Kishore07-Feb-2023R Samarth is an oasis of calm. It wasn’t this way until recently. Before, cricket was on his mind all the time but ahead of the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy, he learnt to let things go and focus on being “in the moment”. As opposed to worrying about why he was left out that one time or why certain things didn’t come to him when he thought they ought to have.Three months on from the start of the season, Samarth is happy he made that mental shift. If Karnataka find themselves two wins away from their first Ranji title since 2014-15, and their eighth overall, it’s because Samarth, like several others, has played a key role.On Wednesday, Karnataka begin their Ranji Trophy semi-final against Saurashtra at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Without KL Rahul, who is away on national duty, and Karun Nair, who has been dropped, Samarth has had to shoulder much of the batting responsibility, and has notched up 659 runs in 12 innings, the second-most for the team behind Mayank Agarwal’s 686. His tally includes three centuries and two half-centuries.”Earlier, I used to think about cricket all the time,” Samarth tells ESPNcricinfo. “Then I started to realise that I’d drain out midway through. That is when I thought I had to learn to switch on and switch off, else you will burn out. It’s also something that comes with a lot of experience and understanding about your game.”Now, I de-stress by watching a lot of movies or even playing games online or on my PlayStation. It helps bring in a bit of a balance, whether you’ve had a good day or a bad day. Understanding this has helped bring about a change in the way I think about my game, successes and failures.”Samarth, who turned 30 last month, is at a stage in his career where he isn’t worried about competition. Five years ago, he was among the top three openers in the country outside the Test squad. He was an India A regular too, but a poor 2018-19 Ranji season, when he managed just 168 runs in 13 innings, set him back.He hasn’t played for India A since, and has seen several players leapfrog him. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Prithvi Shaw have been dominating the scene from Mumbai, Abhimanyu Easwaran’s made a mark through his performances for Bengal. Then there’s his own colleague, Devdutt Padikkal, who made an early impression in his debut season.Samarth accepts there’s a lot more he could have achieved, but doesn’t want to be weighed down by the baggage of the past.”Most definitely, that was important lesson in my life,” he says of the drop in form. “That taught me you can’t take anything for granted. It was just that in those six-seven games that I didn’t get runs, and those games were crucial as it made a huge impact on my graph. If I’d carried on and done well in that one season that I didn’t do well, it would’ve made a lot of difference.”How does he look at his current run of form in light of everything that has happened since?”Personally, I’m very happy with the way the season has gone,” he says. “At the start of the season, I realised that if I have to make a statement, I have to score big hundreds and a good number of hundreds, and get a lot of runs over the span of the league phase. That was in my head. That hunger to do better, I probably had a lot more of it this season.”That hunger, Samarth says, has also come about because of healthy competition within his team. He’s seen Rahul and Agarwal pile on the runs to make the cut for India, learnt from Nair and Manish Pandey, and now, as a senior, is trying to nurture the next set of players like Vishal Onat, Padikkal and Nikin Jose.”We keep pushing each other,” he says. “When you see one of us get runs, it pushes you and motivates you to get better. We push each other, all of them are quality players. We’ve all grown up together [Agarwal, Pandey, Nair], get along really well. We help each other out, that’s one massive plus in the Karnataka dressing room.”Samarth made his debut in 2013-14, when Karnataka went on to win the first of their two back-to-back Ranji crowns. Now, nearly a decade later, he’s the backbone of this team that is yearning to add to their silverware. For Samarth, life has come full circle.”As a vice-captain, it’s really important for me to be able to contribute to the team in terms of strategy and tactics,” he says. The onus is on us as senior batters to lead the way. That said, I’m not under any pressure as such.”My role hasn’t changed but in terms of experience, I feel I am in a better position to help the younger players coming through, and that comes with confidence in your own game and abilities, which is where I am at this point.”When I entered the dressing room for the first time, I immediately saw guys like Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar, Robin Uthappa, Stuart Binny, Manish Pandey, Ganesh Satish – some of them legends. Playing with them was unreal. I was taken aback by that level of professionalism. All these guys had the mindset to play for the country, and here I was thinking I’d achieved something massive by just making my debut.”I realised then that the extra hours you put in, that relentless pursuit, that drive – all those things make a massive difference. So I talk to my colleagues now about that feeling and how you deal with it. End of the day, we all grow together as players and it’s important to be able to give back to the team as an experienced player.”Samarth is already a Ranji Trophy winner. But piloting his team to the title in 2022-23, as a senior, would give him bigger satisfaction.”That would be the icing on the cake. It would be the ultimate crowning glory.”

She has been carrying the team almost on her own but feels that with a lot of youngsters coming through, she can play freely now

Firdose Moonda09-Feb-2023Chamari Athapaththu doesn’t mind carrying the hopes of Sri Lankan women’s cricket almost on her own.As their best-known, most experienced and most successful T20I player, she understands the buck starts and stops with her, and has made it her mission to inspire future generations to build her country’s sporting future.”I know I have big responsibility and pressure but I love that pressure,” Athapaththu told ESPNcricinfo ahead of Sri Lanka’s final warm-up match, against West Indies in Cape Town. “I know how to handle that pressure. A lot of girls want to play cricket because of me and Shashikala [Siriwardene, the current Sri Lanka Under-19 Women’s coach and the country’s most-capped ODI player]. Some girls see us as role models. The culture [in our country] has changed. Girls are really interested in playing cricket and just need their parents and families to help them. My generation was totally different; the new generation has changed.”Related

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• An indicator of the lay of the land and a boost for South Africa, the country

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Athapaththu began playing cricket at the age of five and learnt to hit the ball hard because her uncle taught her how. It wasn’t until she was a little older that she started playing with other girls. “When I started my cricket, there was no proper structure,” she said. “Now we have good structures with grass-roots level cricket. In Sri Lanka, the situation is really good and in our culture, there are no barriers for girls.”While that may be true culturally, Sri Lanka have faced many other hurdles, especially in the last two years. Their women’s team played no matches between March 2020 and January 2022 as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the FICA report into women’s employment found that they, along with Bangladesh, suffered disproportionately from lockdowns. The same report was critical of Sri Lanka’s development and said the country’s women had “no professional structure” to play under. That Athapaththu’s assessment is so different to the FICA’s speaks both to how far Sri Lanka have come and how far they have to go.For Athapaththu, the turning point could be coming soon, despite the desperate financial situation her country is in. “In the last two years, we struggled a lot, but in the last six months, we’ve played a lot of cricket,” she said, referencing the Commonwealth Games, the series against India and Pakistan, and the Asia Cup. “Our preparation has been really good and we have a lot of good young players coming through – Harshitha Samarawickrama and Under-19 captain Vishmi Gunaratne – and they take some of the pressure off me. I can bat freely [now].”

“I want to hit the longest six at the World Cup with the lofted off-drive”

Athapaththu has already been the most expressive Sri Lanka batter in this format. She is their highest T20I run-getter and 13th on the all-time list. She is their only T20I centurion, and has two of the three other scores of 80 or more Sri Lankan batters have made. Overall, her six scores of 50 or more are the most by any of the country’s batters, and at this World Cup, she hopes to claim another milestone: “I just want to hit the longest six.”With which shot? “The lofted off-drive. It’s harder than a pull but I love it.”The chances of being able to pull off strokes like that on well-worn, mid-summer surfaces that have not lived up to South Africa’s reputation of being the home of pace and bounce are slim. But it may not be the worst news for Athapaththu. While it may mean she is not able to bat as fluently as she wants to, she knows conditions could work in favour of her bowlers.”The Sri Lankan wickets are slow but I feel these wickets are a little bit slower than Sri Lankan wickets because of the weather and because they have played a lot of cricket in the last couple of months,” she said. “And the weather is almost like Sri Lanka as well.”Memories of the home will give Sri Lanka some extra motivation too. The last time they played a T20I at home, they beat India by seven wickets, with Athapaththu doing exactly what she so often does. She carried the batting with an unbeaten 80 off 48 balls to give Sri Lanka a win over a side that had long pulled away from them in results, depth and money. Sri Lanka know they have catching up to do and Athapaththu hopes they will start at this World Cup. “We just want to win some games and make people smile. Sri Lankans love cricket so we want to win for them.”

He may have hit three fifties in four games, but the Delhi Capitals captain seems a shadow of himself

Alagappan Muthu11-Apr-20232:50

Tait: Warner seemed ‘pretty frustrated’

David Warner is fun to watch. And we don’t even need to put him on a cricket field for that. At the height of Covid-19, his social media was getting more views than cat videos as he and his family made the best of being stuck home.On Tuesday against Mumbai Indians, he walked onto the pitch in full hype mode. Short purposeful steps that allowed him to practically lap Prithvi Shaw to the crease. Whirling the hand in his right hand. Then his left. Then holding it horizontally with both hands and hoisting it over his head as he stretched his back out. All part of the routine that gets him ready to do what he does well.Set up a T20 innings.About an hour or so into the game, he unleashed a big pull shot and screamed. He arrived at the non-strikers’ end and punched that piece of wood in his hands. In the dugout, his team-mates were on their feet applauding. The big screen was showing that he had completed a third fifty in four innings this IPL.But nothing lifts his mood because he took 43 balls to get there.Warner was T20 before T20 went mainstream. A batter who saw the game in black and white. There’s a little round thing coming down at him. His job was to whack it as hard as possible. Usually, that resulted in him hitting a silly number of boundaries. The count is 820 right now in the IPL. Only one person in the history of the tournament has managed more – Shikhar Dhawan with 873, but he’s only there because he’s played 46 more innings.ESPNcricinfo LtdWarner at his peak is minimalist. He isn’t 360. And yet even now he is a threat every time he walks out to the middle. That’s largely because he is able to hit fours and sixes even while targeting orthodox areas in the field. The only luxury he affords himself are those switch hits.In 2016, when he led Sunrisers Hyderabad to the IPL title, he scored 63.4% of his 884 runs with shots he could just stand and admire. Right now, although he is the second-highest scorer of the season, only 51.7% of his 220 runs have come in boundaries.In 2021, after becoming the first player to score 500 runs in six straight IPL seasons, he had the same problem. Only 49.2% of his 195 runs came from hits to the fence.Other batters do singles and twos. Warner does fours and sixes. The irony is that he is actually trying. Look at his lofted shot percentage through recent IPLs. They’re all similar. He’s actually trying to hit more out of the park than he did in 2016. The problem is they aren’t happening. His strike rate when trying to go over the top in 2023 is 245.9 – the lowest it’s been in seven years.In Delhi, he was faced with a pitch that was slow and did not enable stroke play once the ball got older and the field restrictions were removed. These aren’t the best conditions for a batter like Warner, especially in this kind of form, and it became painfully apparent in the 18th over when he missed back-to-back slower balls and one of them knocked the wind out of him.The exact opposite was happening at the other end. Axar Patel was smoking everything. Dude was responsible for nine out of the 10 boundaries that Delhi Capitals hit while he was at the crease and the secret to his success was very simple.”When I saw the surface, the ball was stopping and coming,” Axar told the broadcasters in the mid-innings interview. “So I had to figure out what shots of mine will come off on a slow pitch. I was trying to hold my shape and going for balls in my hitting area. On this surface, it was important to hold my shape and I was trying just that. I was not trying to hit too hard.”Warner just wasn’t able to do that. He was kept quiet early on by a set of bowlers working to a plan – do not give width; do not let him free the arms. Later, when he knew he couldn’t bide his time anymore, he was too anxious to make contact; he was too anxious to find the release shot that sets him on his way. It even clouded his thinking. There was a ball in the 13th over where he shaped to flick, then changed his mind to sweep, and finally did nothing with it.Axar was India’s second highest scorer in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He sometimes bats at No. 5 for them in limited-overs cricket. Capitals might even think of pushing him up there based on his 54 off 25. It is probably no coincidence that this man whose career is on the rise played the innings of the game on a tough pitch whereas the other guy under pressure to be the team’s best batter, to be their captain and make up for the loss of Rishabh Pant and to prove that he’s still good enough to play in the next Ashes is messing up.Above all, there’s a sense that Warner seems to be wanting it a bit too much. And it keeps backfiring. In the eighth over, he faced a free hit right-handed hoping to make the favourable match up work against the offspin of Hrithik Shokeen. All he got was a miscued single. It feels like he’s overthinking, which is blocking him from doing the one thing that makes him a great batter. See ball. Hit ball. The moment he gets back to that, he’ll be fine and we’ll be spoiled.

Alan is joined by Miller and Matt to reflect on England’s 3-0 T20I defeat in Bangladesh at the end of a long winter

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Mar-2023England’s men ended their long winter of touring commitments by slipping to a 3-0 defeat in the T20Is against Bangladesh, handing their hosts a memorable series win. But just how forgettable was it for England? In this week’s pod, Alan Gardner is joined by Andrew Miller and Matt Roller to discuss fixture bloat, the decline of bilateral cricket and planning for the 50-over World Cup – as well as what’s to come this summer, including the first shots fired in the Ashes phoney war.