Sports
Jaiswal and Chahal smash records and KKR
Rajasthan Royals reignited their IPL campaign in spectacular fashion, brushing aside the despondency of winning just one of their previous six games with a brutal takedown of Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens. Two of their big names stood up in big ways: Yuzvendra Chahal became the leading wicket-taker in IPL history while bagging his second successive four-wicket haul, and Yashasvi Jaiswal made a two-paced pitch look like a belter while scoring the IPL’s fastest-ever fifty.
Having restricted KKR to 149 for 8 after choosing to bowl, Royals chased down their target in just 13.1 overs, lifting their net run rate from an already healthy 0.388 to 0.633, the second best in the league behind table-toppers Gujarat Titans. It should hold Royals in good stead if they get into a NRR battle for playoffs qualification. They are now third on the table with 12 points from 12 games, above Mumbai Indians who have the same points total with a game in hand.
Trent Boult was back for Royals after missing their heartbreaking loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad, and he immediately made an impact with wickets in his first two overs. He usually takes early wickets by defeating top-order batters with new-ball swing – on this occasion he took them with some help from the fielders. Shimron Hetmyer sent Jason Roy back with a sprinting, jumping grab at deep square leg, while Sandeep Sharma ended Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s stay at the crease with a diving catch to his right at mid-off.
On a pitch where the odd ball was stopping on the batter, Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana made a ponderous start to their third-wicket partnership. The first 30 balls after Gurbaz’s dismissal brought KKR just 30 runs, with just the one boundary, and Venkatesh endured a particularly difficult struggle while moving to 11 off 20 balls.
But he started finding the boundary regularly from that point. He hit R Ashwin – who had conceded just eight runs in his first two overs – for a pair of sixes in an 18-run ninth over, and then hit Chahal for two sixes and a four in the 13th over. He was eventually dismissed at the start of the 17th over, for 57 off 42 balls.
Venkatesh’s dismissal was a classic death-overs wicket from Chahal – a loopy delivery hung wide outside off stump after angling across the left-hander, inviting the big hit that was miscued to a fielder inside the circle.
Chahal had already gotten among the wickets before that, having Nitish caught at deep backward square leg in the 11th over to go past Dwayne Bravo and become the IPL’s top wicket-taker.There would be two more on the night: Shardul Thakur lbw while missing a sweep in a double-wicket 16th over, and Rinku Singh caught at long-off in a three-run 19th.
If you bowl the first over for your team, Jaiswal is the last batter you want to bowl to. Coming into this game, Jaiswal had hit more fours (13) and more sixes (two) in the first over than any other batter in IPL 2023. It was interesting, then, that Nitish brought himself on to bowl the first over of Royals’ chase.
Nitish is better than part-time, but he hasn’t bowled regularly this season. He may have thought his offspin would match up nicely against Jaiswal’s left-handedness, or he may have gambled on buying a wicket if either opener went after him too hard.
In the event, Jaiswal tore into Nitish, going 6, 6, 4, 4, 2, 4 in the second-most expensive first over in IPL history, falling one run short of the record of 27, set by Royal Challengers Bangalore – Chris Gayle, mostly – against Mumbai’s Abu Nechim in Qualifier 2 in 2011.
A mix-up in the second over cost Jos Buttler his wicket, but that did nothing to slow Jaiswal down. He picked up a lucky four later in the over thanks to overthrows, and then hooked Harshit Rana for six. Then he went 4, 4, 4 off Shardul Thakur in the third over, driving and pulling and finding gaps as if there were no fielders on the 30-yard circle. Having thus moved to 49 off 12, Jaiswal tucked a single off his hip to bring up the IPL’s fastest fifty, going one ball better than KL Rahul and Pat Cummins.
Jaiswal’s masterful timing and placement suggested this pitch may have eased up, but Samson showed it still wasn’t straightforward to bat on, moving to 21 off 21 balls at the other end while having a skied return catch dropped by Sunil Narine.
Then he joined the party with three clean, straight sixes off Anukul Roy in the 11th over, and the end was nigh. All that remained to see was whether Jaiswal could get to his hundred, and it was still possible when the 14th over began with Jaiswal on 94 and Royals three runs from victory. A six would do it, but Jaiswal was going to get the winning runs as quickly as he could, however they came. He shuffled across to a wide full-toss from Thakur, and swiped it behind square for four, to finish on 98 off 47.
Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 151 for 1 (Jaiswal 98*, Samson 48*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 149 for 8 (Venkatesh 57, Chahal 4-25, Boult 2-15) by nine wickets
(Cricinfo)
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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