Delray Rawlins had already been capped by Bermuda at 15 but has now set his sights on a career with England – and he made an immediate impression

Nikhil Kalro in Mumbai31-Jan-2017England’s cricket system has long benefited from an influx of overseas talent, players with roots in South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, Zimbabwe and even West Indies. Few, however, have emerged from Britain’s Overseas Territories.Bermuda, 3400 miles from the UK, was colonised in 1610, but had not produced a cricketer to make a mark with England (although David Hemp, who had a long county career with Glamorgan, was born on the island). Delray Rawlins, a lanky, sinewy 19-year-old allrounder, may be about to change that. “I had a dream that I wanted to play for England,” Rawlins said.Two months ago, Rawlins was turning out for Bermuda in World Cricket League Division Four. On Monday, he struck a match-winning hundred on his Under-19 debut for England.His journey began, aged nine, with Warwick Workmen’s junior program in Bermuda. Not long after, Rawlins was part of the Under-11 squad, a level at which cricket was played with plastic balls. “It was immediately noticed at training that Delray was special and he never played one match in the Under-11 age group,” Bermuda assistant coach and performance analyst Lorenzo Tucker said of Rawlins’ early progress. “He was moved to the Under-14 group, which played structured cricket. He played against boys five years older than he was. He hasn’t looked back since.”Rawlins continued to play at a level higher than his age. At 15, he had been capped for Bermuda, as well as claiming figures of 5 for 51 on his Under-19 debut. Initially selected as a bowler, he developed into a genuine allrounder, capable of batting in the top six in limited-overs cricket.Such was his reputation as a youngster that he was offered a scholarship at St Bede’s School in Eastbourne, East Sussex. After two years with Sussex’s 2nd XI while completing his education, Rawlins was recently offered his first contract.”At the age of 14, I came over and managed to get through the academy ranks and get a contract,” Rawlins said. “It was quite daunting, I wanted to further myself and see how far I can go.”Rawlins’ residency in England – St Bede’s is a boarding school – meant that he was able to complete the four-year qualification period that made him eligible for selection (the relationship between Bermuda and the UK meant he was already a British passport holder). Bermuda’s status as an ICC Associate Member allowed him to continue to play for his home country before switching allegiance to England.For now, Rawlins retains his eligibility to continue representing Bermuda – although that will change if he plays for England’s U-19s at an ICC event, or wins his first full cap.Rawlins was 15 when he took 5 for 51 on debut for Bermuda U-19s in 2013•Peter Della PennaDespite the incredible success in his early years, Rawlins was left staring at a fork in the road – continue playing for Bermuda, plausibly the best in the land but with scarce opportunity, or try his luck in a country with an abundance of resources, as well as a highly competitive first-class structure. If he hadn’t decided to make himself available for England, he would have likely have been part of the ICC Americas squad for the West Indies’ Regional Super 50 competition, rather than with the Under-19s in Mumbai.What for some may have been a gamble, for Rawlins was an investment in himself. “I want to commit my future to England, I want to be an England cricketer, hopefully play in the senior team. It wasn’t a tough decision. My parents were supportive and that was massive for me,” Rawlins said.A discernible factor in Rawlins’ belligerent debut hundred was his power. He clubbed five sixes at the Wankhede Stadium, with one even clearing the second tier, and was the only player from either side to come close to displaying the brute force that modern-day limited-overs cricket necessitates. “With youth players, we’re not going to be at the [modern hitting] level yet,” England captain Matthew Fisher said during the pre-series press conference. “We’re not as strong, we’re not going to hit it as far. We can’t think we can do that straight away, that’s playing with your ego.” It wasn’t ego that Rawlins exhibited, just talent.The arrival of several Kolpak signings in county cricket has caused a great stir in recent weeks but there have always been various routes into the English game for those born overseas. In Rawlins’ case, Bermuda’s loss looks like being England’s gain.

Aakash Chopra analyses the various methods used by India’s bowlers to bowl Bangladesh out on a fifth-day pitch that was still quite good to bat on

Aakash Chopra13-Feb-2017Ashwin’s rangeThe first three R Ashwin dismissals showed he has ways to dismiss batsmen even when the pitch isn’t too responsive. All three dismissals came in different fashions.Tamim Iqbal: When the ball is new, Ashwin prefers to go around the stumps to the left-handers. From that angle, he keeps the ball really close to the stumps. Some go straight with the arm and the rest turn away. In addition to that he keeps the midwicket region empty, tempting the batsmen to play against the spin. His variation in pace accentuates the problem for the batsman, for stepping out becomes tougher.Mominul Haque: Once the ball got old, he went back to over the stumps and this time consumed Mominul with a classical offspinner’s dismissal. It was a nicely flighted delivery that pitched on a good-length spot within the stumps and spun sharply to find the outside edge. The trick to play such a ball is to stretch fully forward and smother the spin, if possible. Mominul had a very short stride. Ben Duckett played Ashwin in a similar manner during England’s tour of India, and paid the ultimate price.Mushfiqur Rahim: Mushfiqur stepped out and drove one nicely through the empty cover region. A couple of balls later, he tried the same thing but this time the ball was a little flatter in the air and fell a few inches shorter than expected. The ball also went straight with the arm and found the outside edge of the bat. I remember Ashwin doing the same to Joe Root a couple of times in the last series.Jadeja and the roughIf there’s a fair amount of rough created outside the left-handers’ off stump, it’s almost impossible to negotiate Ravindra Jadeja for a long period. The problem starts with Jadeja’s extra pace in the air and gets complemented with his unrelenting accuracy. In decades gone by, batsmen could kick these deliveries away, but in the era of the DRS, it’s not a viable option anymore. Deliberate padding is an option only if the ball has pitched outside leg. Jadeja’s speed doesn’t allow you to sweep, something Alastair Cook found out, and playing on the back foot is the only way to negotiate him. But that’s also full of danger, for some some balls land in the rough and the rest in the area between the scruffy patches. It’s almost impossible to gauge and negotiate successfully. Shakib’s dismissal was a fine example of this.Ishant’s legcutterThere seems to be a useful addition to Ishant’s bowling variations. Once the ball got old and started reversing, he did well to make the ball deviate off the pitch away from the right-handed batsman. While his natural length is a little short for exploiting reverse-swing against the tail-enders, his ability to bowl legcutters will make him more potent against the top-order batsmen.

Two years ago a car crash put in doubt whether he would walk again, but against the odds, he has made it back to the West Indies team

Peter Della Penna07-Apr-2017Three months into 2017, Nicholas Pooran is a cricketer in demand. Eleven days after being snapped up by Mumbai Indians in the IPL auction, he is suiting up for Islamabad United in the PSL playoffs against Karachi Kings. A week after that he is walking out to bat in a bright yellow outfit for City Kaitak in the Hong Kong T20 Blitz.Pooran spent a month at the end of 2016 playing for Khulna Titans in the Bangladesh Premier League. That came two months after he made his West Indies debut, against Pakistan in the UAE.On paper, these T20 appearances would seem to be natural progressions for someone who first rose to prominence on the international scene in February 2014. Before Carlos Brathwaite was designated as the man whose name would be remembered, it was Pooran who was on the tip of West Indian tongues, earmarked as one for the future when he took on an Australia Under-19 bowling attack in Dubai – one that had attempted to turn the rest of the West Indies Under-19 batting card into binary code on the way to making the score 70 for 8 – and struck a marvellous 143.However, T20 riches were the furthest thing from Pooran’s mind two years ago as he lay in a hospital bed in Couva, Trinidad, wondering if he’d even walk again, let alone play cricket.

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January 6, 2015. Trinidad & Tobago’s training session at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain has just let out. There is a buzz around newcomer Pooran, the 19-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman who has been serving as an understudy to Denesh Ramdin. With Ramdin touring South Africa as part of the West Indies squad, it means there may be more opportunities for Pooran to build on his superlative performance a year earlier at the Under-19 World Cup in the UAE.

Before Carlos Brathwaite was designated as the man whose name would be remembered, it was Pooran who was on the tip of West Indian tongues

But fate has decided that his season is about to end before it even begins, and possibly his career too.”I was coming back home from training, driving,” Pooran recalls. “I was close to home and a car was overtaking another car, so I pulled away. I hit a sand heap and then I came back onto the road and another vehicle hit me.”I was knocked out and then I couldn’t remember what happened. I just woke up at the accident and I was like, ‘How did this happen?’ I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that this happened. I was taken in an ambulance, couldn’t move my legs.”My left patellar tendon had ruptured and I had a fractured right ankle. I couldn’t straighten my leg,” Pooran says, pointing to the scars. “At first, I didn’t really know what happened. I wasn’t too sure. People kept telling me, ‘Move your toes, move your toes!’ I knew I couldn’t move my knee, so I knew something’s definitely wrong.”The first thing I asked the doctors was if I could play cricket again,” he says, letting out a long sigh, before staring straight ahead into no man’s land. “At first they weren’t too sure until they did the surgery. The doctors did what they had to do and did a perfect surgery, Dr Ali and his staff. They did a wonderful surgery. Everything, thank God, everything came back to normal.”Following his exploits at Under-19 level, Pooran had been slated for great things•ICCHe had two surgeries, in fact. The first was less than 24 hours after the accident, to repair the left patellar tendon. The second, on his right leg to repair the ankle fracture, had to wait another week, till after the swelling from the injury subsided. The surgeries, though, were a minor detail in the process to figure out the answer to the question Pooran had put to his doctors.”It was up to therapy now to determine if I would play cricket again.”

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The first day of therapy was only a few weeks after Trinidad & Tobago had won the Nagico Super50, defeating Guyana in the final. For the first four months, only the smallest gains were made, because Pooran was in a wheelchair the majority of the time. The surgery on both legs forced recovery to move at a snail’s pace.”I tried to sleep as long as possible,” Pooran says, admitting it was hard not to be depressed at times. “If I sleep late, the day will be short. Basically I’d get up and watch TV, read some books, play on my phone. There wasn’t much I could do. When I started therapy, I went every day, so then my day would be therapy, then back home.”Therapy is tough, therapy is boring. Every single day I’d just wake up and think, ‘Ugh, therapy again?’ Sometimes I’d think, ‘When will I start to walk again properly? When will I run properly?'”

“The first thing I asked the doctors was if I could play cricket again. At first they weren’t too sure”

It took Pooran until July, six months after the accident, before he could walk without assistance. He started therapy with 90-minute sessions three times a week, but by this stage it had grown to two hours a day, six days a week. Large chunks of time were often spent attempting to do the most mundane tasks.”Cricket was what he had going for him and what he’s been working on his whole life, and he felt that was the end of everything,” says Dr Oba Gulston, the Barbados Tridents physiotherapist, formerly with Trinidad & Tobago, when recounting Pooran’s rehab transformation.”It took a while. We did a lot of work with him, gave him some time, just kept encouraging him and helping him to believe. We celebrated every landmark, every achievement, because often times when you’ve been very high-functional, you don’t look at starting to walk as a big deal, going up steps for the first time, the first time he was able to do a squat again with assistance – the fact that we had the range of motion in the knees to do it was a big thing because he didn’t have that initially.”By August 2015, Pooran began jogging again, and in September he had his first net session. His rehab had been ramped up to four hours a day. At the turn of the year his physical-therapy workload was near pedal to the metal: eight hours daily, spread across three sessions, split between wicketkeeping coach David Williams in the morning, Dr Gulston in the middle of the day, and rounded off by a training session at Queen’s Park Oval.Dr Gulston was there to push him physically, but often pushing him in spirit was Kieron Pollard. The allrounder was going through an injury ordeal of his own after damaging his right knee while playing for Cape Cobras in South Africa’s domestic Ram Slam T20. It caused him to miss West Indies’ ride to the 2016 World T20 title and the early part of IPL 2016.Pollard was a constant supportive presence during Pooran’s long months of rehab•WICBPollard had already gone through a prior ordeal with a knee injury that forced him to sit out six months from 2013 into 2014. With that experience under his belt, Pollard served as a rehab mentor to Pooran. When Gulston wasn’t working with both of them in person, the three kept in constant contact over WhatsApp.”Polly would share some of his experiences and he would challenge [Pooran],” Gulston said. “They would make bets about doing different things and running different times. If Nicholas did certain exercises, Pollard would ask, ‘What did you do today?’ and I would have to take videos of it and send it to the group so Pollard, who was at the IPL, would see Nicholas doing stuff. Sometimes there would be a hundred messages popping up on the group, and it would just be the two of them going back and forth.”As positive as the bond he forged with Pollard was, Pooran faced a different set of hurdles with the Trindad & Tobago Cricket Board. His doctors felt the best way for him to truly recover full range of motion, speed and match fitness was to play, though he was still not 100%. The TTCB wouldn’t select him until he received full medical clearance. A stalemate ensued.Pooran says he aired his thoughts to T&T assistant coach Kelvin Williams. He trusted Williams, who had coached him coming up through Under-19 cricket. A mutual decision was then made for Pooran to leave the Trinidad & Tobago set-up, and instead he sought opportunities in club cricket with Queen’s Park CC. He found a key ally in then West Indies coach Phil Simmons.

“Therapy is tough, therapy is boring. Every single day I’d just wake up and think, ‘Ugh, therapy again?'”

“He met me for the first time and he asked me why I couldn’t make this team,” Pooran says of a crucial encounter with Simmons. “I explained to him [what had happened with the TTCB]. So he was there and he told me in front of Kelvin Williams, ‘Hey Pooran, this is what I want from you. Everything that has happened, it’s gone. Leave it. I want you to focus on CPL, not focusing on batting or keeping. Focus on getting fit and ready for CPL.'”

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At the CPL draft that February, Pollard’s Barbados Tridents took Pooran in the fourth round for US$90,000 – the same price Andre Russell fetched from Jamaica Tallawahs. It put Pooran in the top ten most expensive local players in the CPL, lofty status for someone whose last formal match at island level was in December 2014, and who was still rehabbing his way back from catastrophic leg injuries.”I think Pollard was the one who made that decision,” Pooran said. “It was a big call, especially being the captain of Barbados Tridents. He showed faith in me. He’s a person who believed in me and that was a big risk for him to take, to convince the CPL owners to buy me. I had some pressure heading into CPL. It was always in the back of my head, ‘What if I don’t do good?'”By the time Pooran’s first match with Tridents came around, it had been more than 18 months since his last first-class match. Fate determined that it would come against Trinbago Knight Riders at Queen’s Park Oval. He was so eager to prove he was fit again that a bit of anxiety almost weighed him down. “Before I went into that field, I asked God and Jesus to give me strength and courage,” he said.Entering at 95 for 4 in the 15th over chasing a target of 171, Pooran was scratchy in his first few deliveries, and was involved in a run-out with David Wiese, but before long he had found his timing. He locked onto Kevon Cooper in the 18th, stroking him for six, four, six off the first half of the over to bring the equation down to 37 off 15 before he ran himself out to finish with 33 off 12 balls.Pooran: “I had some pressure heading into CPL. It was always in the back of my head, ‘What if I don’t do good?'”•CPL/SportsfileThough the Knight Riders management is not tied to the TTCB, the venue provided extra fuel for Pooran that night, and for the rest of the season. “I wanted to show the cricket board that ‘Hey, I hope you can see now because I can play,'” Pooran said. “I guess this could answer all the questions now.”

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Pooran finished with 217 runs in eight innings at 27.12 for Tridents in 2016, including 81 off 39 balls in a Man-of-the-Match effort against St Lucia Zouks. Only AB de Villiers and Shoaib Malik scored more runs for Tridents, while Pooran’s 18 sixes in the league stage put him fourth on that list, behind only Chris Gayle, Chris Lynn and Johnson Charles.Pollard said that knowing what Pooran had gone through made him an inspiration for his team-mates. “I think he has been a revelation,” Pollard said during the Tridents tour of Florida to end the 2016 CPL season. “Coming back from what he actually came back from, struggling and not being able to get into the Trinidad & Tobago team in 50-overs or four-day cricket. He played an entire season for Queen’s Park. I thought there he did well. So he was looking forward to this tournament and he has shown what he can do.”This is T20 cricket, so you don’t expect a guy like that who bats and takes risks to be consistent. When he comes off, he wins games for you, and that’s exactly what he did for us in a couple games. It could only go up from there for him. It’s good to see that another youngster is coming out of hardship.”

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. Maybe getting into the accident was a blessing in disguise. I appreciate life more now”

More than the runs, Pooran said he was most proud of being able to keep wicket throughout the season. He was steadfast in his determination that the leg injuries would not limit his workload behind the stumps. Thin and wiry before his injuries, all the work in the gym during his rehab has made his legs into tree trunks and enhanced his batting strength. To further prove he is healthy not just to bat but to keep wicket, Pooran doesn’t wear a brace in the field on his surgically repaired left knee.”I want people to say, ‘Hey, Pooran had this major injury, major accident, we thought he would never keep again, never play again.’ I just want to be that person – people can say, look to him as a motivation, because obviously it was a really bad accident, and if I can come back from it, anyone can come back from anything.”On the back of his CPL performances, Pooran was picked for West Indies for the first time when they travelled to the UAE to play Pakistan last September. He finished the series with a modest 25 runs in three matches, as West Indies lost heavily in a 3-0 T20I series sweep. Not that the numbers mattered much to Pooran: simply being able to take the field for West Indies, at age 20, mind you, less than two years after waking up in a hospital bed fearing he’d never play again, was reward enough.”After all I went through, to get back where I am is a wonderful feeling,” he said, when describing the moment he received the news he had been selected. “I wanted to play for the West Indies by 21. So that was a big goal for me and a big achievement.”I really doubted it, especially getting back to full fitness. I really doubted it but I never give up on my dreams. Every day I keep working harder and harder. God makes everything possible, so all thanks and praise goes to him.”A great source of pride for Pooran was how he was able to go back to wicketkeeping after the leg injuries•WICB Media Photo/Philip SpoonerPooran’s 2016 season with Tridents under coach Robin Singh made an impression on the former India international, and the Singh-Pollard connection contributed to him being taken in the IPL auction by Mumbai Indians in February. Pooran also followed Singh to play for finalists City Kaitak in the Hong Kong T20 Blitz. During his time in Hong Kong, he was retained by Tridents in the 2017 CPL Draft.”I believe that everything happens for a reason,” Pooran says, his 18-month comeback journey from injury complete. “Maybe getting into the accident was a blessing in disguise. I appreciate life more now. I appreciate the life that I have and the talent that I have. I was blessed.”What I learned is that every single opportunity you get, you have to grab it. When I was down and out, all I was waiting for was an opportunity again. Every opportunity I get now, I want to take it with both hands now. I want to give my best, give 100% every time I enter that cricket field now, whether I have a bat or whenever I keep. There’s not one day I’ll go onto a cricket field and I’ll try to do less than I could. I finally got this opportunity after a year and a half and this time I’m not letting go.”

This year’s club, the allure of each year’s edition needs no explanation. Younger generations are perhaps more likely to ask “What is the point?” The answer in 2017, it seems, is Virat Kohli (as it is to most cricket-related questions these days). India’s captain is pictured on the cover of the latest , bat poised horizontally to reverse-sweep during the Test series destruction of England, and the sense of cricket past meeting cricket future is palpable.Kohli’s backdrop is, of course, a familiar yellow hue. Some things do not change. Lawrence Booth is now well into his stride as editor (this is his sixth edition) and there is a clear sense of how the is large, it contains multitudes.This year’s trove includes the usual gems: Five Cricketers of the Year, Notes by the Editor, the Index of Unusual Occurrences, and Errata, which faithfully records a mistake in Cambridge’s averages from the 1913 edition (it is never too late to get such things right). There is also a broad range of piquant commentary, encompassing global warming (and a surprise threat to English swing), the story of six-hitting (the key unit of currency in “cricket’s bling economy”, according to Gideon Haigh) and the dark side of IPL success, to accompany diligently compiled series reviews from across the globe (disclaimer: including one by this author).Kohli’s award for leading cricketer in the world was inevitable after a juggernaut year in which he became, as Booth writes, “the spiritual successor to Sachin Tendulkar”. Putting him on the cover was equally logical, after England produced the sort of uneven success that only a curate could approve of – though Eoin Morgan’s one-day side, chasing 50-over silverware this summer, is pushing to get pyjamas their proper recognition.The decision by Morgan to miss the Bangladesh tour last year on security grounds was questioned by some but receives an empathetic appraisal from Booth, who suggests that the forthcoming Champions Trophy will provide a chance “to remind critics that the English game is lucky to have Morgan”. Elsewhere in the Notes, the editor addresses Durham’s controversial demise (which is later explored in greater detail by Stephen Brenkley), ICC politicking, and the “indignities” suffered by Indian fans (as distinct from the touring Barmies) in their own stadiums.WisdenThe international flavour continues with Pakistan’s venerable, and now retiring, duo of Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan among the feted Five (an honour that can be won only once); and Australia’s Ellyse Perry is named the Leading Women’s Cricketer – although it is a little hard to find her, tucked away on page 1169. Nearer the front, Clare Connor remembers the “game-changer” Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, and there is another touching tribute to Tony Cozier, eulogised as a media “allrounder of Sobers proportions” by Vic Marks.We live in divided times, although English cricket is at least familiar with such strife – from the KP saga to England’s impending T20 revolution, which Ashley Giles recently referred to as the domestic game’s version of Brexit. The EU referendum makes an appearance in Alex Massie’s fine dissection of cricket’s politics, while it is also pleasing to see another fault line addressed in a piece on England’s slowing production line of working-class heroes (written by a genuine working-class hero, too, in editor Phil Walker).It is tempting to wonder where the reader sits on the wobbly political axis of 2017. Is buying a £50 book with an Indian batsman on the front, leafing idly through the pages and gazing with bourgeois satisfaction at the ever-growing collection on the shelf symbolic of being part of the metropolitan elite? Or does a predilection for a hardback tome devoted to annually chronicling the most conservative of sports in the manner of time-honoured ritual indicate membership of the group of Empire nostalgics who have (ironically) led the revolt against globalisation?But that brings us back to the point of , which is to gather the game’s followers together in celebration. The global village and the village green may have never been further apart but cricket’s bible is still being passed on faithfully down the years, drawing people in with its mystical yellow glow. Why, even as I was poring over my new copy on the train, a man gestured to his young son: “Daddy has a big collection of those to show you at home.” Sooner or later, it’s a fair bet he’ll be ready to join the club.Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2017
Edited by Lawrence Booth
Bloomsbury
1536 pages, £50

Stats analysis of Alastair Cook’s 243 against West Indies at Edgbaston

Bharath Seervi18-Aug-20174 – The number of double-centuries for Alastair Cook – the joint-second most among England players. Only Wally Hammond (seven) has more double-centuries for England; Len Hutton also hit four double-tons.258.75 – The average of Cook scores when he goes past 200. His average runs per innings in 200-plus scores is third-highest among 24 players with four or more double-hundreds. Only Virender Sehwag (262.83) and Brian Lara (259.89) have higher runs per innings.3 – The number of openers to have more double-centuries than Cook’s four. Marvan Atapattu and Sehwag lead the list with six double-hundreds followed by Graeme Smith with five. Gordon Greenidge and Hutton also scored four doubles at opener.1990 – The last time an England opener scored a double-century in the first innings of a Test, before Cook in this match. Graham Gooch scored 333 against India at Lord’s then. Overall, this is only the sixth such double-century for England openers. The last time any opener scored a double-century in the first innings of a Test in England was Smith’s 277 at Edgbaston in 2003.89.39 – Cook’s strike rate against Alzarri Joseph, having scored 59 runs off 66 balls. This is his highest strike rate against any bowler facing 50 or more balls in an innings. His previous highest such strike rate was 84.74 against Mitchell Johnson in his innings of 189 at the SCG in 2010-11 Ashes.1974 – The last time an England player made a higher score against West Indies than Cook’s 243 – the 262 not out by Dennis Amiss in Kingston. Cook’s is the fifth-highest individual score for England against West Indies.1 – Only once Cook has had a higher strike rate in his ten 150-plus scores: 61.63 in his 173 in Chittagong in 2010. Overall, this century at strike rate of 59.70 is Cook’s sixth-highest among his 31 centuries.

They overcame terrible running between the wickets and a snoozy start with the ball to nearly defend 206 against South Africa

Jarrod Kimber at Leicester26-Jun-2017Pakistan lost their World Cup opener with one over and three wickets to spare. As far as contests go, for most of the time, it was like an angry male silverback gorilla fighting a coy mouse. But to look at this as a loss or just a disappointing moment would be wrong. Pakistan showed what captain Sana Mir called “the fighting spirit”.Against what is probably the quickest attack in women’s cricket, with Shabnim Ismail steaming in, trying to prove she’s the fastest in the world, it could have been horrible. Ismail and the rest of her quartet could have ripped through Pakistan with pace. Instead her first ball was quick but short and wide and it was smashed away to the backward-point boundary.Forget being blown away, after eight overs they had seen off Ismail and Marizanne Kapp; they were 43 for 1. Had it not been for the sublime swing bowling of Moseline Daniels, they might taken flight. Instead they weren’t blown away, they just stood still. How still, pretty damn still, stiller than teams usually get in ODIs. Pakistan women scored only five runs off the bat in a five-over period. They twice played out two consecutive maidens, including the 40th and 41st overs. But despite the six maidens and periods of statue-like batting, they kept fighting.South Africa bowled wide to a Pakistan side filled with bottom-hand dominant batsmen. According to , they scored 27% of their runs between the keeper and point. Part of that was them adjusting to the extra pace, or just trying to reach it. The bigger problem was how many times they hit the ball straight to point, like it was some elaborate fielding drill.It was only Nahida Khan who looked completely top class. She hit balls through the packed off-side field with such ease they seemed on rails. When she needed a boundary, she would clear her front leg and try a controlled swing. One she smashed so well it cleared long-on for six. This combination of perfect timing and calculated chances made for a quality innings. The only problem was the end.Nahida cleared her front leg and tried to smash the ball over the leg side. Instead, she skied a ball over mid-on’s head. Even with the smaller boundaries, accounting for Daniels’ incredible athleticism and the lucky bounce she received, you’d have to be almost actively not wanting to run to only get a single. But that is what Nahida ventured after she was slow to react, and then was sent back by Kainat Imtiaz. It was terrible running and was made worse next ball when Imtiaz slapped a ball straight to Ismail at deep cover. They were trying to make up for the lack of two off the last ball and decided to turn an easy single into a non-existent two. Nahadia turned blind, and she ended up one metre and 21 runs short of a hundred.It wasn’t even the saddest mistake of the day. Nain Abidi’s wicket deserves to be put into the hall of shame for worst shots played when well set in the middle overs of an ODI. She raced down at a legbreak from Suné Luus even before the ball was bowled, allowing Luus to drop it shorter and give it a rip. Abidi never got within metres of the the ball, in length, line, or pitch and then while still on the run tried to play an off-balance slog-sweep. Even if she wasn’t given out stumped, she might have given out stupid. And it was these sorts of errors from set Pakistan batsmen that left them 30 short of a defendable total on 206.Sana Mir nearly marshalled Pakistan to victory in a defence of 206•International Cricket CouncilSouth Africa did the opposite: they made 113 before losing their first wicket. Pakistan’s bowlers beat the bat once or twice, there was one pretty ordinary drop, but for most of the time they were watching the game and not actually participating in it. Lizelle Lee blasted a six 30 metres beyond the boundary, and on her own outscored Pakistan’s six tally. That should have been it, but then Pakistan found “the fighting spirit”.It was as if a completely new team came out to take over. The coy mouse became a screaming tiger, and the silverback gorilla became a chimpanzee on a unicycle. Pakistan fielders were swarming as one, like this green alien invasion, no matter where the ball went, it seemed like every player was making her way over. When the ball was dropped on the off side they had about 35 fielders in the ring. Their spinners became harder to hit, as if the ball had become a shuttlecock. And South Africa completely panicked. They had two batsmen at the same end once. And they ran off a fumble when the ball only went two metres from the fielder and the stumps.Sidra Nawaz missed a stumping when Pakistan were appealing for a caught behind. And yes, they were unlucky when Luus was hit plumb in front and not given. But this was now their game, forget the fading batting performance and the snoozy start to their bowling, South Africa had lost seven wickets and were pouring gasoline on themselves every time they set off for a run.With 12 balls remaining, South Africa needed 16 runs. Considering how the game, and most importantly, the last bit of the chase, had gone, it seemed a monumental task. But Mir used Imtiaz who at that stage had gone for more runs per over than anyone else in the game, and her last three overs cost 33 runs. The problem was that Mir had run out of her other front-line bowlers. She had bowled the 48th over over, so couldn’t bowl until the last over. She could have thrown the ball back to Bismah Maroof, who had 1 for 7 from two overs. But Mir was afraid of full tosses from the spinner, so she backed her seamer.Javera Wadood dived as far as she could fling herself, and ended up face down in the dirt as the ball went to the boundary. Ayesha Zafar ran as fast as she could but only got fingers on a ball that wasn’t slowed down enough not to make the rope. And then Imtiaz’s sixth ball was thumped down the ground by Ismail who passed 20 runs for the fifth time in her 71 ODIs. South Africa scored all 16 runs in the 49th, the most productive over in a low-scoring game, and finally defeated Pakistan.But Pakistan didn’t look, or act like a losing team at the end. And they shouldn’t have.On Sunday, Nahida scored more than any Pakistan women ever has in a World Cup innings.They took on a seam-bowling attack in England and almost beat it. They scored their highest ever total in a World Cup, and Mir said, “I’m a happy captain”. Pakistan lost the game, but not their fighting spirit.

Only twice before had two or more bowlers picked up four or more wickets for a side in a Women’s World Cup game

Bharath Seervi02-Jul-20174/0 Dane van Niekerk’s figures – the first instance of a bowler taking four or more wickets without conceding any run across all internationals (men’s and women’s cricket included). Three for none has been achieved twice in women’s ODIs and once in women’s T20Is and only once in men’s internationals. Van Niekerk’s figures are also the best by a captain at a Women’s World Cup.190 Number of deliveries bowled in the game – which makes it the fourth-shortest completed women’s ODI. Pakistan and Australia played out the shortest game – 119 balls were bowled – at the 1997 World Cup in Hyderabad.48 West Indies Women’s total – their second-lowest in women’s ODIs and second-lowest for any team against South Africa. West Indies’ lowest total is 41, against England in 2008.6.2 Overs needed by South Africa Women to complete the chase. That makes it the third-quickest successful chase in women’s ODIs. They won with 262 balls remaining which is the third-largest win in terms of balls remaining in completed women’s ODIs.1997 The last time a total lower than West Indies’ 48 was witnessed in Women’s World Cup cricket. Pakistan slumped to 27 all out, the lowest total in the tournament’s history, against Australia Women. Overall, 48 by West Indies is the sixth-lowest in Women’s World Cup.3 Instances of two bowlers picking up four or more wickets for a side in a Women’s World Cup game. Marizanne Kapp picked up 4 for 14 and van Kiekert took 4 for 0 for South Africa in this game. Incidentally, these two figures are also the best two performances for South Africa Women in World Cup.

For the good of the game, the ECB’s broadcast rights deal couldn’t afford to fail; in the circumstances, it seems nothing short of a triumph

Andrew Miller01-Jul-2017Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive, was – to put it mildly – the cat who got the cream as he walked into the Lord’s media centre on Friday afternoon to answer questions about a groundbreaking TV rights deal.”Are you interviewing us?” one senior member of the press corps asked, as Harrison prefaced his round-table chat by inviting the assembled journalists to give their own verdict on the day’s news.That in itself was a revealingly self-confident gesture, born of the knowledge that the most important rights tender in the history of English cricket could scarcely have panned out better for the board, or by extension (and rarely can this be said with a straight face in the grubby world of sports business) the sport that the ECB represents.To be clear, that is not quite the same as saying this was English cricket’s perfect day. Too many short-sighted decisions have been made over too long a time frame for the sport’s mounting problems to be eradicated in a single hit. The details of this latest announcement cannot hope to satisfy every supporter – fans of Test cricket may be concerned at its secondary status, for instance, while there will be those who fear that the ECB has swapped one existential crisis for another by forcing through a raft of constitutional changes to make its new products as cosmetically alluring as possible.But let us also be clear. This was the deal that could not afford to fail, and on the terms under which it was conducted, it has been little short of a triumph.Harrison can take a lot of the credit for that. As a former executive at IMG, his surprise appointment in October 2014 as David Collier’s successor had been made almost entirely with this rights tender in mind, as the ECB – and, crucially, Sky Sports as well – began to face up to the realities of more than a decade of mutual over-reliance.In the 13 years that had elapsed since English cricket took the plunge and threw in its lot with the cash-rich but context-poor world of subscription TV, the received wisdom had been that reach and revenue were mutually exclusive. Since 2006, Sky’s cash had helped to transform the ECB itself into a titanic entity in the British sporting landscape, while its sympathetic stewarding of an at-times awkward sport has been genre-defining. But in a pure numbers game, Sky’s audience had consistently paled compared to those days of yore when the national summer sport had been pumped out, reluctantly at times but consistently all the same, by the national broadcaster.The consensus going into this rights cycle, therefore – shrewdly accepted by both host and lead broadcaster – was that at least a partial return to that mainstream was needed to help convert the uninitiated and propagate a business model that had been in desperate need of new blood. “Sky have invested very heavily in our future but it’s not purely about the money,” said Harrison. “It’s about a belief that we can create a transformational environment for cricket going forward. We’ve entered into a different paradigm where that partnership is concerned.”ECB chief executive Tom Harrison: “Sky have invested very heavily in our future but it’s not purely about the money.”•Getty ImagesAnd so now, with Sky’s clear blessing, the BBC is back on board, set to bestow its largesse on the sport once again after a hiatus of 21 years. In the interim, innumerable executives have argued, from one rights cycle to the next, that the sporting landscape has shifted so rapidly that the traditional free-to-air debate cannot possibly still be relevant. And, on the one hand, that is undeniably true – the importance of digital clip rights, for instance, a fundamental aspect of the BBC’s side of the bargain for 2020-2024, could hardly have been factored in back in 1998. But on the other hand, there are still some aspects of the old order that retain a near-mythical status – take Harrison’s assertion, for instance, that the primetime highlights will be pumped out on BBC2, rather than BBC4, presumably to catch those casual seekers of Gardeners World or Newsnight, rather than cater to an audience that, in straying from the normal channels, might already have known what it was looking for.It is this opportunity for random access, rather than the actual “free” aspect of the free-to-air debate, that is arguably the most significant factor of the BBC’s return to the fray. Writing in Wisden in 2005, the editor Matthew Engel predicted that the longer-term effects of cricket’s absence from the mainstream would take “a generation to unfold”, and sure enough, we have reached that tipping point now. There are teenagers and young adults missing from the game today who, with only the merest of initial glimpses, could have been ranging from casual fans to candidates for national honours by now. Instead, the sport is such a mystery to them that many will not have watched a single one of Alastair Cook’s England-record tally of 11,057 runs. Even allowing for gross apathy, how many kids of the 1980s and 1990s could have said the same of Graham Gooch or David Gower?That’s not to say that the BBC wasn’t complicit in the decisions that caused the game to be cut off from its fan base. In 2004, when Sky swooped in to become the ECB’s exclusive broadcast partner, they did so amid a climate of disillusionment from cricket’s terrestrial options. The BBC didn’t even table a bid for the rights that it had lost to Channel 4 five years earlier, and when that pattern was repeated for the 2008 tender, it led Giles Clarke, the then-chairman, to rail against the broadcaster for nevertheless finding enough cash to bid a estimated £250 million for motor racing.”How many people play Formula One?” he had said, acidly. “The BBC could have used that money to buy two Twenty20 internationals a year.”Well, they’ve done just that now, and pitched in for ten as-yet unidentified domestic T20s as well, all the while being kept well clear of the tasty bout of arm-wrestling going on above them. It is a credit to the careful positioning of the ECB’s tender that Sky and BT Sports were given the room to flex their muscles and propel the central broadcasting deal to vertigo-inducing heights, without allowing the bottom line to take top billing.On the contrary, the chance for those broadcasters to become something more than just customers appears to have been an alluring proposition, particularly for Sky, whose grip on the Premier League football market has been loosened in recent seasons by the ground-shaking sums of cash that BT has been willing to fling onto the pitch, but whose determination to cling onto cricket has been redoubled as a consequence. At £1.1 billion, the overall package is more than double the £445 million that Sky coughed up at the last auction in 2012 – and adds up to what Harrison described as a ” gamechanger for cricket in this country”.”We set out 18 months ago to get a balance of reach, revenue and exposure,” Harrison said. “Now we have strategic partnerships where previously we had purely transactional relationships, and that’s a hugely exciting moment for us.”Sky have ambitious plans in place for the new domestic T20 league•Getty ImagesHow those partnerships will manifest themselves will be fascinating to behold. For Sky’s part, perhaps the most fundamental aspect will be their role in moulding the new domestic T20 league – to suit both their broadcasting purposes and their stated commitment to the ECB’s participation agenda.The details of the tournament have been left deliberately vague up until now, precisely because the final sign-off was always intended to be a gift to the successful bidder. But Sky’s commitment to English cricket has never been in doubt, and they now have the chance to take command of one of the central planks of the new rights cycle, where previously they would have been restricted both by the prerequisites of the international calendar, and by the ECB’s Articles of Association. It can only be assumed in the circumstances, given what they know of the sport in which they have invested so heavily down the years, that they will be as sympathetic to the game’s heritage as they reasonably can be.”We have ambitious plans for the T20,” said Harrison. “It’s got to do a big job for us to bring new audiences to the game, because we are thinking about new audiences in pretty much everything we are doing. We want this to be a joint effort with the biggest media buyer in the country, putting its shoulder to the wheel to get more kids playing.”As for the BBC, their input is likely to be more nuanced. There may be a limit to how much impact their annual allocation of live games can realistically have, but that is arguably true when it comes to the Beeb’s occasional broadcasting of FA Cup matches and England football internationals as well. What cannot be in any doubt, in both cases, is their ability to turn the stars of those teams into household names through the breadth and depth of their coverage, as indeed they have done with Team GB’s medallists at a succession of summer and winter Olympics.And on that front, cricket has watched jealously from the sidelines for too long. One of the most telltale signs of the sport’s invisibility in recent years has come every December at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year awards, a popularity contest as much as a measure of outright excellence, but one that still manages to capture the imagination of casual sports fans like few other events. England’s cricketers haven’t produced a winner since Andrew Flintoff for the 2005 Ashes, while they’ve warranted just a handful of token nominations since cricket left terrestrial TV the following summer.With due respect to Danny Willett, Kadeena Cox and Adam Peaty, three of last year’s nominees, the likes of Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali should be shoo-ins for such recognition year in, year out. From 2020 onwards, they will at least be back in the picture. And, leaving aside for the time being all other arguments about the look and feel of the deal, that fundamental return to relevance can only be for the greater good of the game.

Rangpur Riders mixed solid supporting acts with the firepower of their big-hitters to power through the latter half of the tournament

Mohammad Isam13-Dec-2017Tournament reviewRangpur Riders were deserving winners of this year’s BPL, and not only because of their hired guns. They peaked at the right time, razing their playoff opponents in one big performance after another. They took down a youthful Khulna Titans side in the eliminator, before riding out the controversial two-day second qualifier against Comilla Victorians. In the final, they never pressed the panic button as Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum burned down Dhaka Dynamites, the pre-tournament favourites.As usual, Mashrafe Mortaza led the team superbly while contributing with his all-round abilities. He was the team’s best bowler, regularly giving them early breakthroughs and standing up when the opposition got big on them.Rangpur also got success through local players like Mohammad Mithun, Nazmul Islam and Sohag Gazi who performed better than expected. Ravi Bopara and Rubel Hossain also provided important runs and wickets. It was also a maiden BPL title for Tom Moody, in his first season coaching in the tournament.What workedGayle and McCullum finally came good in the playoffs, as did Johnson Charles. Mithun and Bopara were their consistent performers in the league stage while among the bowlers, Mashrafe and Nazmul were the most effective.What didn’t workRangpur missed Thisara Perera after he had to leave for international duty. Kusal Perera, Adam Lyth and Ziaur Rahman also didn’t fit their plans while Sam Hain remained untested.Tips for 2018The maiden BPL title should motivate Rangpur to contract some more top T20 cricketers in the next season.

History or no history, with or without #MisYou, Pakistan’s final-day collapses have been a constant since August last year

Osman Samiuddin in Abu Dhabi02-Oct-2017The impulsive response would be to frame this collapse as merely the afterthought to the departures of the greatest hashtagged middle order duo that ever played for Pakistan. What else would Pakistan do in the first Test they played without Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan other than crash, limp and whimper their way to 114 chasing 136?You don’t replace these guys overnight; you can’t just buy that kind of experience; you can’t score the runs they’ve scored without going through the careers they’ve gone through.Greybeards will sit back and chill (and maybe Netflixing might not have been a bad option today). One hundred and fourteen chasing 136 sits comfortably in the dark, cold halls of Pakistan’s chasing history, a brief sample of which is here. This is just how they roll. It is the penance to be paid for those other days (you know which ones).The accurate response, however, would be to acknowledge that it is a condition that has become acute over the last year. History or no history, with or without MisYou, this is what Pakistan’s batting has been doing since the Edgbaston Test last August.

The 10 wickets lost on the final day today was the fifth time it had happened to them. On one occasion they lost nine in a day. They have done it around the world, to all kinds of bowlers and bowling, in all kinds of conditions, in all kinds of circumstances.At Edgbaston, they were done in by reverse swing, when a draw was their only option. In Hamilton, their own indecisiveness in planning a chase and a combination of pace and spin did them in. At the MCG, when a draw again was their only option, their middle order gave way to Nathan Lyon, on a concrete strip of a surface with nothing for no bowler.At Bridgetown, they could at least point to a deteriorating surface, but 81, when chasing 188? To a pace attack of – no disrespect intended – Shannon Gabriel, Alzarri Joseph and Jason Holder? In Sydney, with the series long gone and only a draw to play for, they lost nine wickets on the last day to spin and pace. And now, Abu Dhabi, where they had not ever lost a Test, on a surface that had deteriorated in no extraordinary way, against a side ranked lower than them and coming off one of their worst runs of form ever.All of which is to say that it has happened enough times and in enough different ways for specific situations and conditions to not be relevant. Pakistan batting, final day – a disaster foretold. They are no nearer to locating a root cause let alone presenting a solution and it is an epidemic. These days can scramble the mind so much that in trying to answer why it was happening, Mickey Arthur first said:And then, pressed about whether it was a trend:So which will it be? That a young line-up explains it or that it isn’t and shouldn’t? To be fair, Arthur is not the first Pakistan coach who has had trouble making sense of these collapses. If history is a guide, he won’t be the last. And to be even fairer, there is no simple answer.Pressure. Poor game sense. Bad decisions. Concentration lapses. Poor judgment. Failures of technique at key moments. Poor starts – Pakistan’s middle order usually finds itself, but it can be no coincidence that five different opening partnerships played in the six examples mentioned. In these last-day situations, a poor start – whether in loss of wickets, or lack of intent – is fatal. This isn’t it. There must be much more.Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed, the core of this batting order now, have played through all of these final days. Given how long each of them has been around, why do they not appear any closer to working out what goes wrong for them on days such as this? Why were Misbah and Younis, with all their experience, unable to turn these days around and pass it on to these men? Babar Azam and Sami Aslam, the future, have now played in five and four of these final days respectively. How deep, Pakistan should worry, are those cuts going to go?