All posts by h716a5.icu

Shohei Ohtani faced a scary moment in his start Wednesday when he took a line drive from Rockies third baseman Orlando Arcia square on the leg.

With two runners in scoring position in the fourth inning, Arcia hit a ball right back up the middle as Ohtani simultaneously attempted to get out of the way and make the play. He couldn't get his glove on the ball in time as the contact with his leg made an audible noise. He ran to grab the ball and try to make a play at first but couldn't make the throw in time and he came up hobbling after the play.

The Dodgers' medical staff ran out to check on their superstar as he limped back to the mound. After a brief conversation, Ohtani stayed in the game and finished out the inning. His day on the hill was over after the fourth, though. When done on the mound, he stayed in the game as L.A.'s designated hitter and walked in the fifth, but the Dodgers pinch hit Alex Call for Ohtani in his following at-bat.

There's currently no word on whether the late removal is due to a potential injury to his leg following the come-backer from Arcia. Hopefully the fact that he continued pitching and then took an at-bat is a positive sign.

Nevertheless, the scary moment caused Dodgers fans to collectively hold their breath:

In the four innings thrown, Ohtani let up five earned runs and nine hits while striking out three batters. His ERA for the season moved to 4.61.

In his capacity as a Fox Sports analyst, Alex Rodriguez had a front-row seat to the magical World Series that the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays pushed to, and beyond, its limits. In the end it was the defending champions who were able to secure back-to-back titles by outlasting their Canadian hosts last Saturday night in a game that brought more eyeballs to baseball than any in the previous eight years. So he had plenty of time to take in the energy and atmosphere that only added to the drama fans at home were able to enjoy. And to compare it to all previous versions of the Fall Classic.

Asked by if we just watched the greatest World Series every played, Rodriguez explained why he believes so.

"Yes," he said. "Well, in my lifetime, I've never. You know, that's obviously very subjective, but in my lifetime, I've never seen a better one. It had all the elements of just the juiciest, most delicious, World Series."

Rodriguez is not alone in his assessment, as many have wondered if the sport just enjoyed a high-water mark that will be difficult, if not impossible to match. The way he processed the seven-game greatness, however, is unique. Seated next to David Ortiz, Derek Jeter and Kevin Burkhardt, the former player was able to witness all the ingredients that went into making things buzz.

"It had three S’s, right?" Rodriguez said. "It had, it had superstars, it had strategy and it had incredible storylines. And what's great about baseball."

Rodriguez also spoke about the episodic nature of a baseball playoff series as opposed to the immediacy and one-and-doneness of other sports.

"Super Bowl has one like Tom Cruise movie. Over 100 million people will watch. What's different and what I think more compelling about a seven-game World Series, which are very rare—we only had two prior to this one in the last eight years—is that is like a mini docuseries and there's seven episodes.

"And just like , if you watch all six now, you're invested. You're hooked. You're hooked in the characters, the storyline, the strategy. And then you must watch game seven. So it was just awesome. I'm so proud of the game."

And who has the highest batting average at No. 4?

Steven Lynch02-Jun-2020Sachin Tendulkar had 194 when India declared in Multan in 2004. Has anyone else been stranded in the 190s by a declaration in a Test? asked Sarv Kothandaraman from the United States
There have so far been eight undefeated innings of between 190 and 199 in Tests, including two unlucky cases of 199 not out – by Andy Flower, for Zimbabwe against South Africa in Harare in 2001-02, and Kumar Sangakkara, for Sri Lanka v Pakistan in Galle in 2012.Sachin Tendulkar had 194 when Rahul Dravid declared at 675 for 5 against Pakistan in Multan in 2003-04. Dravid did it to have an hour’s bowling at Pakistan on the second evening – and although no wickets went down that night, India did win by an innings in the end. The only higher score in this bracket was achieved by Frank Worrell, against England in Bridgetown in 1959-60. He had scored 197 – in more than 11 hours – when his captain, Gerry Alexander, declared midway through the final day. There was little prospect of a result: England batted again and pottered to 71 without loss in 42 overs. The watching English journalist Alan Ross wrote: “Alexander several times signalled to Worrell for more action but Worrell, off on some pipedream of his own, chose to ignore him. Nelson at the Nile could not have been more disdainful.” And EW Swanton noted: “When Scarlett, by repute something of a hitter, was lbw, Alexander brought Worrell in, three short of his double hundred. It was significant that Alexander’s timing did not produce a dissenting voice.”It was Worrell’s second undefeated score in the 190s in Tests – against England at Trent Bridge in 1957 he had carried his bat for 191.Australia’s Brian Taber made eight dismissals on his Test debut – is that the record for a wicketkeeper? asked Ronald Garside from Australia
The New South Wales wicketkeeper Brian Taber collected seven catches and a stumping in his first Test, against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1966-67, and his mark was equalled by Chris Read, who made seven catches and a stumping too, on his debut, for England against New Zealand at Edgbaston in 1999.Eight remains the record for a player’s overall debut, but South Africa’s Quinton de Kock made nine dismissals – eight catches and a stumping – in his first match as the designated wicketkeeper, against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2014, having made his Test debut as a batsman earlier in the year. Some years ago I came across the comment that Graham Yallop had the highest average of any Australian batsman when batting in the No. 4 position. What is the highest average at No. 4 for other countries? asked Mike Larkin from Australia
I was always an admirer of Graham Yallop, who I thought was an underrated batsman. But this, for once, is overrating him: Yallop averaged 36.76 when batting at No. 4 in Tests, which is solid rather than spectacular. He did better at No. 3, where he averaged 52.42.Leading the way for No. 4s in Tests is none other than Frank Worrell, who by coincidence is mentioned in the question above. He averaged 76.22 in ten innings in this position (I imposed a qualification of ten innings, to exclude any anomalies). Next comes Steve Smith, who so far averages 74.02 from 57 innings at No. 4.Sachin Tendulkar made the most Test runs at No. 4 – 13,492 at 54.40) – while Mahela Jayawardene (9509 at 52.24) and Jacques Kallis (9033 at 61.86) both made more than 9000.Frank Worrell has the highest average for a minimum of 10 innings at No. 4 – 76.22•Getty ImagesWho scored two hundreds in a Test without being dismissed? asked Shanthy Noronha from New Zealand
There have now been 86 instances of a batsman scoring two hundreds in the same Test, 37 of them in the current century. But there remains only one case where the man concerned was not dismissed in either innings: Sri Lanka’s Aravinda de Silva followed 138 not out against Pakistan in Colombo in April 1997 with 103 not out in the second innings.The West Indian Krishmar Santokie has figured in 12 T20Is without scoring a run. Who holds the corresponding record in Tests and ODIs? asked Ricky Dooley from Scotland
The Jamaican left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie shares top spot on this list with Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi, who has also played a dozen T20Is so far without troubling the scorers (both have batted once; Santokie did not receive a ball, but Afridi faced two without scoring). Three other current players have appeared in 11 T20Is without scoring a run: Ben Shikongo of Namibia, Hamza Tahir of Scotland, and Mohammed Shami of India. Shikongo was dismissed by the only ball he has faced, while the others have not made it to the crease.There’s a runaway leader in one-day internationals: the South African left-arm wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi has so far played no fewer than 22 ODIs without scoring a run (he’s faced two balls in three innings). Next is another current player, the Sri Lankan seamer Kasun Rajitha with nine matches – he’s actually faced ten deliveries without scoring a run. Next come the West Indian spinner Dave Mohammed and Indian seamer Jaydeep Unadkat, who both played seven matches without scoring.Three players have appeared in three Test matches without scoring a run. The old Worcestershire seamer Fred Root never even got to bat in his three Tests, while an even older fast bowler, Lancashire’s Arthur Mold, got in three times but failed to score. More recently, the South African fast bowler Mfuneko “Chewing” Ngam played three Tests in 2000-01 without getting off the mark.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

The BCB even fired couple of coaches as legspinners kept getting ignored from the set-up

Mohammad Isam18-Oct-2020Soumya Sarkar ran back to short third-man from the slips as soon as legspinner Rishad Hossain bowled a short ball. The batsman Sabbir Rahman couldn’t put it away and though it was his first ball, a slip was already missing.Next delivery, Rishad produced a peach of a leg-break that spun just enough after pitching to take Rahman’s outside edge, slipped past wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim and went unharmed through the vacant slip region for a couple of runs. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto immediately brought back the slip for the next ball and a decent leg-break from Rishad followed, only for Rahman to defend it back to the bowler.This, in a practice one-day tournament where the young legspinner Rishad was bowling at a stage when his side captained by Shanto was in control of the match against senior Bangladesh allrounder Mahmudullah’s side. But this lack of patience by the captain isn’t just Hossain or any other inexperienced spinner’s fault. It is a sharp example of Bangladesh cricket’s inherent caginess about legspinners. Whether it was Shanto or any of the senior captains, they would do no such thing if a young left-arm spinner or an offspinner would bowl a short ball first up.Young Rishad ended up with respectable figures of 2 for 26 from his six overs in the game, and went back to the hotel BDT 25,000 (approx. $US 295) richer. Surprisingly though, he was adjudged the best bowler of the match despite the left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed getting Liton Das and Mahmudullah among his three wickets and Abu Jayed also finishing with as many wickets. Hossain being given the award was a little patronising, but perhaps that’s the least that can be done to promote legspin in Bangladesh. Time, however, is running out for Bangladesh’s legspinners – all three of them.Legspinners Rishad, Aminul Islam and Minhajul Abedin Afridi – all part of the High Performance programme – were each assigned to the three teams in the BCB President’s Cup, a one-day tournament designed to ease Bangladesh’s top cricketers back into competitiveness after the long pandemic break.But none of the three has bowled their full quota of ten overs yet. Afridi, who was plucked out of a net session in Chittagong two years ago by chief selector Minhajul Abedin, has only bowled one over in the tournament so far. Islam and Hossain too have bowled just 27.1 overs between them, taking seven wickets. That has left them with at most two or three remaining opportunities to remain viable options before the 2020-21 domestic season proper begins. While the BCB President’s Cup has the Bangladesh team management in control of selection, the subsequent domestic tournaments will not.The BCB President’s Cup will be followed by a T20 tournament next month, with the remainder of the 2019-20 Dhaka Premier League likely to be held just after that. There’s no certainty if even one from the trio would be chosen in the T20s, with Islam having played only one DPL match. Moreover, there’s no assurance if any team in the upcoming tournaments would select a legspinner in their playing XI even if any of them bowl well in the ongoing practice matches.The debutant Jubair Hossain struck in his second over•AFPThere is, of course, precedence to such a thing. Back in 2014, after Jubair Hossain impressed in his first international series, he was largely ignored in domestic cricket. Even after he got Virat Kohli bowled with a googly in the Fatullah Test the following season, he could break into neither club cricket nor first-class sides. Some say that Jubair lacked the hunger after that early success, but the overwhelming theory is that without enough competitive cricket, a delicate art like legspin cannot produce elite resultsJubair was marked as a Chandika Hathurusingha favourite because the then Bangladesh head coach had championed his cause to the point that he got into a public spat with Faruque Ahmed, the chief selector at the time, for not selecting Jubair in the 2015 World Cup squad.The Russell Domingo-led team management too wants a legspinner, as would any coach who wants to have attacking bowlers in their line-up. The BCB tried to support him last season by instructing the National Cricket League (NCL) and the BPL teams to pick legspinners. They even fired couple of coaches for not listening to the instruction but largely, legspinners kept getting ignored.One man who also has a lot of interest in bringing in legspinners into the picture is the incumbent chief selector Abedin. He even selected 21-year-old Afridi in a practice match against Zimbabwe two years ago after seeing him in the nets in Chittagong. Abedin also advised Islam to become a full-time legspinner when he was in the High Performance programme last year.Abedin believes that such practice matches are the only place where these bowlers will be given a fair go in match situations, and also feels that they should be given more chances in major domestic tournaments.ALSO READ: Bangladesh’s steep legspin learning curve”Rishad [Hossain] bowled well in this tournament while [Aminul Islam] Biplob will need a bit of time and [Minhajul Abedin] Afridi is injured,” Abedin told ESPNcricinfo. “We want to closely observe their ability. We haven’t been able to arrange these type of matches in the last two years.”They have to play under different managements once they go into competitive cricket, but those don’t usually select legspinners. I have always advised them to give legspinners the opportunities to play but our [DPL] club culture is different. But we will try to ensure that the legspinners get to play first-class matches this season.”Abedin said that they have plans for each one of them, but all depends on how the domestic clubs and first-class sides treat them in the remainder of the season. “Biplob is more of a shorter-version bowler, but I think we can work with Rishad in the longer version. Afridi has to be played in both formats. I think all three must play a lot of matches which will improve their skills. There’s no point in telling them to practice all year if they are not picked in matches,” he said.The other ramification of not having legspinners in domestic cricket is the batsmen not having any practice playing such bowling regularly. Apart from the Afghanistan legspinner Rashid Khan’s 33 wickets at 12.87 across all three formats against Bangladesh in the last five years, even Graeme Cremer, Adil Rashid, Yuzevendra Chahal and Ish Sodhi have done well against them. The lack of legspinners in the circuit is not the only reason for Bangladesh’s batsmen struggling against the best ones, but quality bowling at home is always of help.The main issue, however, remains Bangladesh’s struggle to take 20 wickets in a Test match and attacking batting line-ups in T20Is. It is widely believed that the inclusion of a skilled legspinner can make a big difference, as Bangladesh are over-reliant on left-arm spin in Tests and besides Mustafizur Rahman, remain unsure about their bowling attack in T20Is.But as Abedin pointed out, a wider cultural shift is required, and the way the Dhaka clubs are run, it may take years. Back in the 1990s, Mohammad Rafique changed the thinking about left-arm orthodox spin and a decade later, Mashrafe Mortaza did it with pace bowling. A legspinner making it that big would require a lot of hard work but the good news is that if they can become regulars in domestic cricket, they are likely to be picked more quickly in the national setup.

It was a day on which India’s luck kept them interested, teased them all along, and then disappeared

Sidharth Monga15-Jan-20212:16

Aakash Chopra: T Natarajan has lifted his game to another level

T Natarajan first picked up the cricket ball less than ten years ago. His unbelievable rise in the IPL lifted his family out of poverty. Towards the end of the latest IPL, his daughter was born, but he picked a net bowler’s duty in Australia over going back home to see her. Then an injury to Varun Chakravarthy meant a late call-up into the squad. ODI and T20I debuts followed. Though a limited-overs specialist, he still chose to hang around as a net bowler for the Test matches. Now he is one of only 301 men to have played Test cricket for India.Natarajan has two wickets on his first day of Test cricket. This is no less than a fairy tale, scenarios of dreams for young boys and girls who don’t know the actual route to representing India. It is a great story, but Test cricket doesn’t care for great stories. Stories are incidental.T Natarajan sent back Matthew Wade and Marnus Labuschagne in quick succession•AFP via Getty ImagesThrough an unprecedented combination of the pandemic and a spate of injuries, some of which might be related, India were reduced to playing Natarajan and Washington Sundar in a Test match. They perhaps even had information through their sophisticated tracking devices that an in-game injury couldn’t be ruled out. Which is why they picked four quicks to cover both for the conditioning and the inexperience, and went ultra-defensive with their spinner ahead of Kuldeep Yadav to cover a batting base. With Navdeep Saini getting injured during the day’s play, the selection stood vindicated.Related

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Stats – Australia with 1033 wickets in the XI, India 13

Navdeep Saini taken for scans after suffering groin strain

This is what you do with severely limited units, and yet India are not what you might call “blown away” by an Australia side at home, a team that decided to bat first after winning the toss. In years from now, teams will have reasonably and justifiably bad days in the field even at full strength, but this Indian team seems have to have ruined it for them. You will be giving logical reasons for a 3 for 300 day, but at the same time thinking of the time when an attack with a joint experience of four Tests had Australia at 17 for 2, and were a simple catch away from making it 94 for 4. That on a tour in which they were, by this Test, missing seven first-choice players, one certain replacement, one possible replacement, and were still somehow alive coming into the decider.With this attack, which was soon reduced to a total experience of three caps, to come out with the scoreboard showing 274 for 5 after losing the toss is a reasonable return. With some luck with the new ball on the second morning, India could still be in the match, but this was a day on which India’s luck kept them interested, teased them all along, and then disappeared.Washington Sundar bowls with the leg trap lying in wait•Getty ImagesIndia tried to get the better of their limitations with their field sets. The leg trap was in, and it worked for Sundar, who had a wicket – that of a set Steven Smith – even before he had conceded a run. Shardul Thakur had one with a leg-stump half-volley the first time he bowled in a Test since his first ended with injury after ten balls. Matthew Wade and Marnus Labuschagne got out in ways that suggest no planning or build-up.The lack of control began to show in the Labuschagne-Wade partnership with regular leg-side half-volleys for Wade without a leg trap in place. Thakur kept trying to bowl full outside off, which is noble, but he did so without protection, suggesting non-adherence to a plan. Siraj, India’s first-choice replacement for the three quicks they brought to Australia, continued to show the control that has brought him this far. Saini showed improvement from his first outing before his groin strain took him off. Sundar stuck to his middle-and-leg line, but it was soon apparent it is no good if you can’t do the batsmen in the air.The scoreline was better than expected for such an inexperienced attack, but India could have probably done without the teasing thought of what if Ajinkya Rahane had not dropped Labuschagne with Australia still under 100. That’s how Test cricket is, though. You have to be good enough to be at it for hours.Even when Wade and Labuschagne gave India another look-in, it needed accurate and skilful spells to go through Australia’s lower order. That was too much to ask of a bowling unit in which three are not used to long days in the field because of their limited-overs specialisation. It will likely be down to batsmen hanging in for dear life, but it won’t be their fault either if they can’t: the Australia attack has much better experience, conditioning and skill.

His besting of Roy and Bairstow showed India shouldn’t just let match-ups dictate how they use their offspinner

Deivarayan Muthu15-Mar-2021In a time when T20 is all about match-ups, there’s sometimes a danger that teams can use bowlers in a formulaic way. Offspinner to left-hand batsman, left-arm orthodox to right-hander.In the first match of India’s T20I series against England, Virat Kohli held Washington Sundar back until the 12th over of England’s chase, and he struck immediately to pin Jason Roy lbw, but the game was already up by then. Axar Patel had taken the new ball against the right-handed pair of Roy and Jos Buttler, while Sundar was reserved for England’s left-hander-heavy middle order.Having slipped to a heavy defeat in that game, India put all their eggs in one basket and picked just five bowlers, including the allrounder Hardik Pandya, for the second.Sundar got to bowl in the powerplay role he so relishes, but it was in the middle overs that he made a stronger impression, and he did so by taking out two of the most dangerous right-hand batsmen going around in T20, Roy and Jonny Bairstow. Those two strikes set the scene for a slower-ball masterclass at the death from Shardul Thakur and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, as India went on to level the series with a seven-wicket win.Related

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The evening, though, didn’t begin well for Sundar. He prides himself on hitting an awkward, in-between length, and threatening the stumps with the new ball, but on Sunday he marginally missed his length and watched Roy plant his front foot and clout him over long-on for a first-ball six. Sundar immediately began hitting the pitch harder and dragged his length back to give up just a single off the next five balls of the over.In his next over, Sundar applied greater pressure and made Dawid Malan manufacture shots. Malan took a little trip down the pitch, but Sundar dug one right into it, hitting that in-between length and drawing an inside edge to the leg side. Malan then searched for one of his go-to shots – the slog-sweep – but then Sundar doesn’t offer you the length or time for that shot. He speared a non-turning offbreak into Malan’s pads from round the stumps at 103kph, with that sharp angle pushing the ball past leg stump.All of his six balls in Sundar’s second over were over 100kph, cramping the batsmen for length or room. Dinesh Karthik, Sundar’s captain at Tamil Nadu, speaking to reckoned that the spinner “looked like the fastest Indian bowler on display” on an evening where Thakur, Hardik Pandya, and Kumar all regularly took pace off the ball.When Sundar returned for his second spell, he didn’t have a left-hander to work with. Instead, he was up against Roy and Bairstow, who has been shifted down to the middle order to thrash any variety of spin. England were well-placed at 91 for 2 in 11 overs before Sundar slowed it up to 95.8kph and dared Roy to clear the longer square boundary on the leg side. The opener couldn’t get underneath it and holed out to deep square leg.Bhuvneshwar Kumar took a sharp catch in the deep to remove Jason Roy•Getty ImagesThen, in his next over, Sundar slowed it up further to 85.6kph, shifted his line wider, and found extra bounce from a length to have Bairstow skying a slog-sweep to Suryakumar Yadav at deep square leg. Eoin Morgan’s England are pretty big on match-ups, so they probably felt that their right-handers could go after Sundar, but the spinner had trumped them.Sundar is a fairly traditional offspinner without a variation that goes the other way, but his T20 smarts allow him to hold his own even without a ball that turns away from the right-hander.”Definitely, the mindset [while bowling to a right-hander] differs for me,” Sundar had told ESPNcricinfo in 2019. “And it varies from batsman to batsman as well. One might be strong on the off side and the other maybe strong on the leg side. Especially at this international level, there’s no margin for error and it’s important to do your homework. You need to be really precise with the lengths and lines you want to bowl.”Contrary to expectations, he actually boasts a better overall T20 record against right-handers than left-handers. He has 28 wickets at an average of 24.39 against right-handers as against 21 at 34.61 against left-handers. His economy rates – 6.92 against right-handers and 6.86 against lefties – are near-identical.On Sunday, Sundar’s middle-overs besting of two big-hitting right-handers from the No. 1-ranked T20I team made a big impression on his captain.”Special mention to Washi,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation. “He bowled to only one left-hander in the middle, and to all right-handers, used the big boundary really well, changed pace.”The series had begun with Kohli saying there was no room in India’s T20 plans for R Ashwin as long as Sundar was bowling well. He didn’t have much of a role to play in the series opener, but handed extra responsibility in the second game as one of only five bowlers, he rose to the occasion, in both the powerplay and the middle overs.

Their contrasting methods, both utterly devastating, gave India a glimpse of an exhilarating ODI future

Saurabh Somani19-Jul-20215:10

Muralidaran: India’s ‘fearless’ batters went after ‘not very good’ SL attack

“They were bowling some good balls which I converted into boundaries.” That was Prithvi Shaw at the post-match presentation, after India had romped to a seven-wicket win with 80 balls to spare against Sri Lanka.Shaw had jump-started a chase of 263 as if India had to get them in 20 overs and not 50. Ishan Kishan, on debut, made more runs and wasn’t tardy either, with a 42-ball 59. Shikhar Dhawan top-scored, anchoring the chase smoothly with 86 not out off 95. And yet, it didn’t feel out of place that the Player-of-the-Match award went to Shaw for his 43 off 24 balls. The remarkable aspect of India’s chase was, it would have felt just as right if it had gone to Kishan.A right-hand opener from Mumbai with a Test century on debut, Dhawan, and a left-hand batter earmarked for bigger things since his days as Under-19 captain. That was India’s top three. Not Rohit Sharma, Dhawan and Virat Kohli – this was Shaw, Dhawan and Kishan.Shaw and Kishan might never fill the big boots their batting positions have been occupied by for so long and with such success. But that isn’t the expectation placed on them either, anyway. They came with license to thrill, and delivered on that promise spectacularly.India’s chase was done in 36.4 overs, and both Shaw and Kishan were out less than halfway through it, but the memories of this game will be formed by their batting. Shaw was all pristine timing, seemingly finding the boundary without even trying to. Kishan, on the other hand, was very visibly trying to find the boundary, and succeeding.When Shaw gets his bat flowing smoothly, the runs come almost effortlessly. One of his checked drives to a Dushmantha Chameera slower ball raced to the long-off boundary. He didn’t have pace on the ball to work with, he had virtually no follow-through, and yet he found the boundary. Pure timing. In his first 22 balls, Shaw hit nine fours. And it would be ten in 23 balls if you attribute the bouncer that rattled his helmet and went for leg-byes to him too.It was glorious, I-don’t-care-what-the-target-is-I’m-having-a-net batting. Within five overs, Shaw had driven India to 57 without loss. An outstanding score in a T20 start. The kind of ODI start you want when your team is chasing 350-plus. A ridiculous shutting out of the opposition when the target is 263.No follow-through, no problem for Prithvi Shaw•AFP/Getty ImagesWith Sri Lanka already pounded by Shaw, Kishan came out and enjoyed the most glorious first two balls anyone could have wished for. Skip, dance, swing, six. Lunge, transfer weight, lash, four. He might be the only player in ODI history to have seen his career strike rate dip by a 100 points, from 600.00 to 500.00, in one ball, despite hitting it to the boundary.Where Shaw’s economy of movement caught the eye, Kishan’s extravagance was the kind you couldn’t tear your gaze away from. He seemed to be operating in a crease that was twice the normal size, twinkling down the track as frequently as he stayed put, swishing his bat in arcs well away from his body. If Sri Lanka had only a glimmer of still making a contest of this game post-Shaw, Kishan stomped on those hopes forcefully.Shaw might have got runs without going looking for them. Kishan went looking, and was just as successful.It was exhilarating batting because this has not been India’s start-of-innings template for the most part in ODIs. Not that they have been slow – they couldn’t have been and had so much success in the format – but the prototype of an Indian innings is one that gathers steam. This one began with an explosion.The lull that followed Kishan’s wicket was brief, the pace picking up again when Suryakumar Yadav – also on ODI debut – walked in at the fall of the third wicket.”I was telling them to take it easy actually,” a beaming Dhawan would say after his captaincy career got off the blocks with an emphatic win. “The way these young boys play in the IPL, they get lots of exposure and they just finished the game in the first 15 overs only. I thought about my hundred but there were not many runs left. When Surya came out to bat, I thought I need to improve my skills!”All said with a guffaw and disarming candor. Taking it easy is not the natural style of Shaw or Kishan. Or Suryakumar for that matter. In a year that will have the T20 World Cup, this frenetic approach in ODIs might not be a bad idea.

The CPL winner, who’s hoping to make his West Indies debut next month, wants to build on his experiences in the IPL, the T20 World Cup, and the T10

Deivarayan Muthu29-Nov-2021″Little Vassy, you think you could bat here?”This was Chris Gayle to Dominic Drakes after St Kitts and Nevis Patriots were reduced to 75 for 4, chasing 160 in the CPL final in September this year. Drakes, promoted ahead of Fabian Allen, took on the likes of Wahab Riaz and Kesrick Williams, scoring an unbeaten 24-ball 48 to steer Patriots to their first CPL title. At the post-match presentation, Drakes said that his dad, Vasbert, the former West Indies allrounder, had been more nervous than himself while watching the action from Barbados.Drakes has enjoyed a whirlwind rise in the past few months and is set to become a West Indies international after being called up to the T20I squad touring Pakistan in December.A day after his CPL title-winning exploits, Drakes flew to the UAE to join Mumbai Indians as a net bowler for the second leg of IPL 2021. While he was there, Chennai Super Kings roped him in as a late replacement for the injured Sam Curran, and Drakes went on to win another T20 title in the space of a month (although he didn’t feature in any games). And then he joined West Indies’ T20 World Cup squad as a net bowler.

Vasbert Drakes shirt number 48

Dominic Drakes 48* to win the final of the @CPL 2021

What’s story – injured in Super50 and what a redemption.
Congrats young man pic.twitter.com/wKQU02jxP7

— Carlos Brathwaite (@CRBrathwaite26) September 15, 2021