All posts by n8rngtd.top

It’s incredible just how quickly the mood around a football club can change, and Chelsea are a perfect example.

Less than a month ago, the Blues were coming off their third defeat in four games, and as a result, the club had to publicly back the manager.

Yet today, after three wins on the bounce against Benfica, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, there is a renewed sense of optimisim that Enzo Maresca’s side will be near the very top of the Premier League table come the end of the season.

What makes this turnaround even more impressive is that it’s come without the talismanic Cole Palmer. However, the manager does have another star in his team, whom he has compared to the former Manchester City gem.

How Chelsea have coped without Palmer

Palmer was forced off just 21 minutes into the defeat to Manchester United last month, has missed the previous three games and will be out for another six weeks.

However, while Chelsea lost to Brighton & Hove Albion, largely thanks to Trevoh Chalobah’s red card, they have come out on top against Arne Slot’s Reds and the Tricky Trees without the sensational Englishman in the side.

Now, that isn’t to say the Blues are better without him – they are not – but it does show that, unlike some other sides, the West Londoners are capable of putting in good performances without their talisman.

For example, against the defending champions, the Pensioners opted to stick with Alejandro Garnacho and Pedro Neto on the wings, with Enzo Fernández down the middle, and were still able to create chances.

Moreover, when the former Wolverhampton Wanderers’ star came off in the 75th minute, Maresca opted to throw on the young and hugely exciting Estevao, who was able to slot home the winner late on.

Interestingly, instead of keeping the 18-year-old in the starting lineup, the manager opted to start Neto at the City Ground, and what a decision that turned out to be.

In his 78 minutes of action, the Portuguese international was a constant threat. Although he lacked that final delivery in the first half, he provided an assist early into the second and then scored a free-kick to ensure his side collected all three points.

It was a comprehensive performance from Chelsea, and one that showed they can cope without Palmer when it really comes down to it.

With that said, Marsca did start another player whom he has compared to the Englishman.

Chelsea's star who is like Palmer

Given the quality of young players in Chelsea’s squad today, like Estevao, you could argue that several of them could become Palmer-type players.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

However, a player you might see as being all that comparable to the talismanic attack is Reece James.

However, it was after the Conference League final last season that Maresca claimed that “for us, he is like Cole Palmer.”

There were two reasons the Argentine made this comparison, and the first is that he sometimes needs his minutes managed due to injuries and fitness.

However, the second and far more important point of comparison is just how undeniably important the two players are to the West Londoners.

After all, the defender might not be as involved when it comes to goals and assists, and therefore doesn’t get the same recognition outside the club, but he is a core leader, he is the captain.

Moreover, while he’s not as prolific as his compatriot, he is still more than capable of chipping in with goals and assists.

For example, he has already provided two assists this season, and scored his first goal of the campaign against Forest on the weekend.

Finally, his underlying numbers more than back up the idea of him being one of the best full-backs in the world.

According to FBref, he ranks in the top 1% of full-backs in Europe’s top five leagues for through balls, the top 3% for passes into the final third, the top 5% for passes completed and aerials won, the top 9% for interceptions and more, all per 90.

Ultimately, it might not seem like an immediately obvious comparison to make, but when you think about how important he is to Chelsea, James really is like Palmer.

Chelsea open talks to sign "powerful" £35m forward with 15 goals in 2025

The Blues have entered discussions with the agents of a new forward, who is enjoying an impressive campaign.

By
Dominic Lund

Oct 19, 2025

The Brewers experienced a redemptive victory in Game 5 of the National League Division Series on Saturday to advance to the NLCS for the first time since 2018. In order to do that, they had to eliminate the Cubs, which was probably a nice little cherry on top of their third run to a league championship series since the early 1980s.

After the game, the team gathered together on the field to take a team picture. Someone got ahold of a white flag with a big blue L on it, meant to mirror Chicago's Win Flag which flies at Wrigley Field whenever the Cubs win.

According to the media present for the picture, pitcher Trevor Megill was the one brave enough to grab the flag and hold it up to immortalize the win with a little bit of trolling.

The two teams have both played in the NL Central since Brewers moved over from the American League in 1998. This troll job is just another chapter in an intense rivalry that's only getting spicier.

The Chicago Cubs blasted six home runs against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday en route to an 8-3 victory to close out the pre-All Star Game portion of Major League Baseball's program. Christopher Morel hit two of them and added some style and panache to the second one, which was very much not appreciated by Bally Sports Midwest Cardinals announcer Jim Edmonds.

“This kid’s celebration is a joke," he said as Morel made his way around the bases. "I don’t mind saying it at all… You’re a .229 hitter in the big leagues and you’re running around like you’re Barry Bonds."

Edmonds's point was that Morel, who is a .202 career hitter, was doing a little too much for someone with such a résumé and not that the home run trot resembled something Bonds would do. Because Bonds certainly never loped around while dabbing. And it makes sense why Edmonds was upset — the Cardinals were getting drubbed and the Cubs were treating a regulation game like a Home Run Derby.

Still, that's a salty take becoming more rare as most people have accepted that baseball players are allowed to have fun out there. If the Cardinals want to retalitate because Morel showed too much excitement, that's their business and we'll all cross the bridge together if needed.

It also doesn't make too much sense to bring up batting average in this situation as Morel has established himself as a legitimate home run hitter his three Major League seasons. He blasted 26 dingers last season in 107 games and now has 18 in 2024 through 96 games.

Edmonds's broadcast partner, Chip Caray, pivoted and turned the conversation to a fan in left field catching not one but two home runs during the game, allowing Edmonds to point out that the patron was taking up a lot of space out there.

Quite a minute.

Rangers are now on red alert in the transfer race to sign Shea Charles from Southampton, who are set to make their decision on selling the Manchester City graduate, according to reports.

Danny Rohl has settled well at Ibrox, much to the 49ers’ relief, and for the first time this season there is reason to be optimistic at Rangers. Their recent victory over Dundee made it three league wins from three for the new manager, who has already earned more points than predecessor Russell Martin in the Scottish Premiership.

Any talks about a potential title comeback are still incredibly premature, but the Gers are at least up to fourth and now just five points behind Celtic in second. For the first time in forever, both Old Firm sides have the task of catching alternative leaders Hearts in the Scottish Premiership.

There will be no one more relieved than Kevin Thelwell after Rohl’s solid start. The transfer chief has come under fire for his decisions over the summer and the role he played in hiring Martin.

There’s no doubt that he’s got plenty of making-up to do and that may well start in the January transfer window. On that front, Rangers are already reportedly interested in signing Lennon Miller from Udinese and Mujaid Sadick.

Ferguson 2.0: Rangers' "best player" is now more important than Tavernier

Rangers’ “best player” who is reminiscent of Barry Ferguson has emerged under Danny Röhl and it is not captain James Tavernier.

By
Ben Gray

Nov 14, 2025

A move for Miller would particularly make sense. He’s struggled since leaving Motherwell in the summer and a return to Scotland would certainly help turn his recent fortunes around.

He’s not the only name on Rangers’ reported shortlist, however. The Scottish giants have also set their sights on reuniting Rohl with former Sheffield Wednesday star Charles.

Rangers on red alert in Shea Charles race

According to Sports Boom, Rangers are now on red alert in the race to sign Charles from Southampton, who could look to sell the Man City academy graduate as part of a winter clear-out.

The Northern Ireland international has started 12 of Southampton’s 15 Championship games so far this season, but has failed to prevent a slump which has featured just four wins.

If an exit is now on the cards for the 22-year-old, then Rangers should take full advantage of their Rohl connection. The German manager worked with Charles at Sheffield Wednesday last season as he proved his worth in England’s second tier. Full of praise for his midfielder at the time, the Rangers boss described him as “fantastic”.

If Rangers want to hand Rohl an instant show of confidence in the winter window, then they should go all out to reunite him with a player who he rates so highly and worked so well with just one season ago.

"Huge potential" Rangers star can become the new Sima & Cerny under Rohl

It was a series to remember for him, and not just with the ball: he had the best batting average on either side, and the fourth-highest runs tally

Danyal Rasool28-Jan-2025If you ask ChatGPT, or its newly ascendant competitor DeepSeek, what the perfect Test series looked like, the responses are lengthy, vague, and non-committal. Perhaps one day, when they learn how to limit them to four words or fewer, “Jomel Warrican in Pakistan” would suffice as the perfectly succinct response.Warrican’s dominance of this series has been uniquely legendary. He’s taken the most wickets, of course, more than every other West Indian bowler combined. The best bowling figures in an innings, and in a match, belong to him. No one with more than two wickets could boast a better bowling average this his single-digit 9, none managed an economy rate as miserly as his 2.38. For good measure, he also has the highest batting average on either side across the series, the highest strike rate for anyone over 25 runs, and the fourth-highest run tally.The smattering of Tests he has played in the subcontinent over the past decade have demonstrated his value on spin tracks. But nothing could quite prepare Warrican for what he found in Multan, where, ahead of the series, his captain Kraigg Brathwaite had said he had never seen cracks appear this early in his 96-match Test career anywhere else. It gave the spinners more opportunities, but also greater responsibility.Related

• CWI introduces 'data-driven scouting system' to identify and develop local talent

• Warrican bags five as West Indies win in Pakistan after 34 years

• Warrican dominates a series made for spinners in Multan

• Brathwaite: Had to be 'brave' on pitch where 'you're going to get out'

It was a responsibility that Warrican and his little band of spinners failed to live up to early on in the first Test. In the first 57 overs of the game, Pakistan had put up 187 runs, with spin managing just one wicket when Gudakesh Motie – who Pakistan believed was a greater threat than Warrican before the series – squeezed Shan Masood down the leg side.By the time the West Indies spinners made their presence felt, Pakistan already had enough runs, and then never fell behind in the game. Warrican kept trying to find extra rip doing the same thing over and over, but ended the innings with just three wickets, two of them of tailenders.The intelligence Warrican deployed over the remainder of the series, though, has been anything but artificial. “Speed’s very important,” he said at the post-match presentation after the second Test, where he was awarded both the Player of the Match and Series. “We worked out that the slower you bowled, the more effective you would be on these wickets. Once I got more information, I used it to my advantage.”From the second innings of the first Test onwards, Warrican was doing things slightly differently. The lines or lengths he was landing the balls at barely changed. But through the air, it was a different story. He fizzed some balls through, held others longer in his hand, and tossed some up. To the right-hander, there was always the danger of the ones that carried on with the arm, making the most instinctively safe shot – the front foot forward defensive – feel uncomfortably perilous. Mohammad Hurraira and Babar Azam were the first two to fall this way in Pakistan’s second innings, and Warrican never looked back.

“I just back my game plan. Once the ball is in my zone, I back myself to play it to the boundary. I also trust my defence, and try to rotate the strike.”Jomel Warrican on his batting

“The variation in pace is effective when you’re consistent,” he said. “You vary the pace, and hit the same length over and over. The consistency is the key thing to everything in life.”Those were the first two of seven wickets Warrican took that innings, and started a run where he bagged 16 of the 30 Pakistan wickets that fell in the series since. But it wasn’t just with the ball that he contributed significantly. Before this series, no side in Test history ever had Nos. 9-11 in their line-up contributing the three highest scores of an innings. In little over four days of cricket, West Indies managed it twice. Warrican was the top-scorer on one occasion, and the second-highest another time.It wasn’t exactly technically soundproof, but he ended up preying on any bowler who viewed him like a classic tailender. He smeared Sajid Khan and Noman Ali away when they pitched the ball up and full; no one hit more sixes than him all series. Warrican’s signature shot, though, was the reverse sweep with the back of the bat, one he used like a bludgeon rather than a surgical tool.Sajid ill-advisedly decided to taunt him on the penultimate day when he missed one of these heaves, getting up close and giving him the “you can’t see me” gesture. Warrican appeared unfazed.Jomel Warrican also had the highest batting average on either side across the series•Pakistan Cricket Board”I just back my game plan,” he said. “Once the ball is in my zone, I back myself to play it to the boundary. I also trust my defence, and try to rotate the strike. I had belief. I backed us to win the [second] game. The fightback we showed in the second innings, bowling out Pakistan for a cheap total. We knew once we batted well, we were in with a chance to win the game.”In a final twist of fate, it was Sajid who stood at the batter’s end when Warrican, and West Indies, needed one more wicket to seal victory. Sajid had tentatively tried to push the ball into the on side, but, just like Babar and Hurraira in the first Test, didn’t account for the arm ball. It pierced through the gap between bat and pad, and made a mess of his stumps.Warrican gave him the same gesture, before raising his right leg and thumping his hand to his thigh: Sajid’s own signature celebration. Right to the last moment of the series, it appeared, he had been gaining more information, picking up everything he saw in Multan, and ensuring he left with the last laugh.

MLB trades are beginning to pick up as the offseason continues, with the latest significant move coming between the Orioles and the Angels on Tuesday night. Los Angeles is sending outfielder Taylor Ward to Baltimore in return for right handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, the Orioles announced.

Ward has spent the entirety of his eight-year career in Los Angeles. The Orioles were searching for a strong hitting outfielder this offseason, and Ward might be their answer to that gap.

Rodriguez didn’t play at all during the 2025 season because of multiple injuries, including undergoing a season-ending elbow debridement surgery. He’s played just two seasons prior to this year, both with the Orioles.

Ward may be a short-term solution for Baltimore as he’s set to become a free agent after the 2026 season, his final year under arbitration. On the other hand, Rodriguez isn’t set to become a free agent until 2029. The Orioles also are keeping their eye out for starting pitchers, so it’s interesting they traded one of theirs away before locking down another. But, Rodriguez’s health for next season is still up in the air as he hasn’t pitched in a game since July 31, 2024.

During the 2025 season, Ward averaged .228/.317/.475 with 132 hits, and recorded career highs with 36 home runs, 103 RBIs and 86 runs scored—an impressive year for the veteran outfielder.

In 20 game starts in 2024 when Rodriguez last competed, the pitcher posted a 3.86 ERA and 130 strikeouts over 116.2 innings pitched.

And what is the highest individual repeat score in Tests at the same venue?

Steven Lynch30-Jun-2020I see from his player page that Don Bradman hit only six sixes in Tests. Who were the unfortunate bowlers? asked Paritosh Bhatt from India

You’re right in thinking that only 36 of the 6996 runs Don Bradman made in Tests came from sixes – he preferred to keep the ball on the ground, and hit well over 600 fours. A statistical oddity is that all six sixes came from left-arm bowlers, three off England’s Hedley Verity.Bradman’s first six in a Test came during the 1932-33 Bodyline series, in Adelaide, when he on-drove Verity over the boundary: he was caught and bowled next ball for 66, as Australia slid to a heavy defeat in a bad-tempered game.Two-thirds of the Don’s Test sixes came in the next Ashes series, in England in 1934. During his 304 in the fourth Test at Headingley he hit two sixes late on the second day – another off Verity to reach 244, and one off the medium-pace cutters of Len Hopwood to advance to 268. He added three more runs that night before the close, giving him 102 runs in all in the final session: such was his dominance of the England bowlers that a wag in the crowd shouted “Put on Dolphin!” – Arthur Dolphin, the old Yorkshire wicketkeeper, was one of the umpires.Then in the final Test at The Oval, Bradman hit Verity for six again to reach 234 of his eventual 244 in the first innings – he was out before the end of a first day on which Australia amassed 475 for 2 – and hooked left-arm seamer Nobby Clark, who was bowling with something like a Bodyline leg-side field, into the crowd when he had nine of his second-innings 77.Bradman did not hit another six in Tests for nearly 14 years, before tucking in to another slow left-armer, India’s Vinoo Mankad, in Adelaide in 1947-48. Bradman’s sixth Test six took him to 144, and he was out around an hour later for 201, the last of his dozen Test double-centuries: more than 70 years later, no one has matched this number.Herbert Sutcliffe scored 161 against Australia at The Oval in 1926, and again in 1930 – is this the highest repeat score at the same venue? asked Daren Fawkes from Australia

There are actually two higher such doubles than Herbert Sutcliffe’s twin 161s for England in Ashes Tests at The Oval in 1926 and in 1930. Mahela Jayawardene scored 167 twice in Galle – for Sri Lanka against New Zealand in 1998 and against South Africa in 2000. But on top of the list is Greg Chappell, who made 182 not out for Australia against West Indies in Sydney in 1975-76, and added 182 in his final Test, against Pakistan at the SCG in 1983-84.The highest repeat score in Tests, not at the same venue, is 203 not out, which, remarkably, was achieved by two different batsmen. Shivnarine Chanderpaul did it for West Indies against South Africa in Georgetown in 2004-05, and against Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2012-13. This mirrored the feat of Pakistan’s Shoaib Mohammad, who made 203 not out against India in Lahore in 1989-90, and repeated that score against West Indies in Karachi the following season. Shoaib’s father, Hanif Mohammad, scored 203 not out against New Zealand in Lahore in 1964-65.Gundappa Viswanath is the only batsman to make a double-century on first-class debut and follow it up with a century on Test debut•Getty ImagesWho scored a double-century on first-class debut and a hundred in his first Test? asked Gordon Brine from South Africa

The only man to complete this notable double is the stylish Indian batsman Gundappa Viswanath, who made 230 on his first-class debut, for Mysore against Andhra in Vijayawada in 1967-68, then two years later, in the first of his 91 Tests, made 137 against Australia in Kanpur. He received a little bit of help: “I committed another of my costly fielding errors, this time acting as fairy godmother to GR Viswanath in his Test debut,” remembered Australia’s opener Keith Stackpole. “Following a duck in the first innings, he was on 98 when I stopped a shot from him at point. He took off, and I threw the ball too high, giving him his hundred.”Who has played the most Test matches without taking a catch? asked Jeremy Nicholson from Australia

There are four men who have played ten Tests without holding on to a catch. The first to do so was the unorthodox Australia left-arm spinner Chuck Fleetwood-Smith in the 1930s. He has since been joined by the Sri Lankan spinner Jayananda Warnaweera, the tall Indian seamer Abey Kuruvilla, and the Pakistan paceman Mohammad Imran Khan, who played his most recent Test in November 2019, so may yet get off this list (or rise to the top of it).Tendai Chatara, the Zimbabwe seamer, has so far played nine Tests without taking a catch. Pakistan fast bowler Ata-ur-Rehman made no fewer than 30 one-day international appearances without taking a catch. Another seamer, West Indies’ Oshane Thomas, has so far played 20 (and a record 32 internationals all told). The Afghanistan spinner Amir Hamza Hotak played 31 T20Is without taking a catch.Bangladesh won their recent Test against Zimbabwe by an innings. Was this their first innings victory in Tests? asked Craig Marshall from England

Bangladesh’s win, by an innings and 106 runs, over Zimbabwe in Mirpur in February was their 14th Test victory overall – but the second by an innings. Their previous win, over West Indies in Mirpur in November 2018, was by an innings and 184 runs. They still have a fair bit of ground to make up: Bangladesh have so far lost 89 Tests, 43 of them by an innings.Use our
feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

How often did India and Australia produce uncertain responses from the opposition batsmen, and how often did that uncertainty result in a wicket?

Sidharth Monga29-Jan-2021This was a freak series
Two events of the sort that ought to occur not more than once in six series of four Tests apiece took place in this Australia-India series: India were bowled out for 36 in Adelaide, and then batted out 131 overs for the loss of just five wickets in the fourth innings in Sydney to draw the Test. On the surface these are rare events but look deeper and they are even rarer.ESPNcricinfo’s control factor metric judges uncertainty in batsmen’s response to bowling. Over time, in aggregate, it is an elegant measure of the potency of a bowling attack and of the luck the teams enjoyed. In the Adelaide 36 all out, their bowlers were potent, but the luck Australia enjoyed to go with it was lethal. In a series where a wicket fell for about every nine balls in which a batsman was not in control, India lost a wicket once every 3.56 such balls in that Adelaide innings. We have control data for 1214 Test innings over the last ten years in which eight or more wickets have fallen. Only four times has uncertainty produced more frequent wickets.The conditions and the Australian bowling made it far worse for India by evoking false responses every four balls. There have been 135 completed innings that have been more difficult than this, but most have featured better luck for the batting side.Related

• Australia's perfect storm catches India in the wrong place at the wrong time

• How close was the England-India series?

• Bruised and abused, Indians make their own luck at the SCG

• Stats – Pujara's marathons, India's debutant deluge, and Lyon, Starc in elite company

• Tim Paine: Australia lost key moments throughout series

The pitch in the Wanderers Test of 2017-18 was treacherous, producing a false response every 3.2 and 3.3 balls in India’s first and second innings. However, in those innings, they lost a wicket every 14.3 and 14.5 such balls, thus posting a combined winning total.During the Sydney escape, on the other hand, there was just enough in the pitch, and the Australia bowlers created enough chances, but India enjoyed more luck. Not in terms of catches (because those owe to the opposition’s mistakes, and often tend to even out) but because indecisive responses did not result in enough dismissals. Australia produced indecisive responses off 135 balls for just five wickets; on the final day, 93 false responses brought just three wickets. In 193 innings played on the final day of a Test in the last ten years, only four have needed more false responses to create a wicket.Unlucky India, lucky India
India were desperately unlucky with injuries both between matches and during them. They were also part of an unlucky once-in-a-generation collapse, but overall, once the ball was in play, India were the luckier side in the series – just like they were the less lucky one in England in 2018.In Adelaide, India lost a wicket every 6.3 false responses to Australia’s 7.8, but in the remaining Tests the indecision created by India proved to be consistently more dangerous. Overall Australia created uncertainty every 6.27 balls and India every seven balls, which is a huge credit to an inexperienced attack.ESPNcricinfo LtdDuring the 4-1 loss to England in 2018, India created indecision once every 4.3 balls – more often than England, who did so once every 4.8 balls, but lost wickets to indecision more often than the hosts: every 10.7 balls of not being in control to every 14 balls for England. That should put numbers to the feeling that pundits and the Indian team had, that the games were much closer than the eventual series scoreline indicated.Australia’s (lack of) depth
On the 2018 tour of England and the one to New Zealand in 2020, India showed they had the resources to get into competitive positions, but were thwarted by the depth of the home sides – which is usually accentuated in such circumstances because the secondary skills of allrounders blossom in familiar conditions. First Sam Curran and then Kyle Jamieson thwarted India with the bat, much like R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja tend to do at home for India at times when the opposition feels they are just one push away from ascendance.On those tours of England and New Zealand, the home team’s bowling allrounders added immensely to their batting depth, but during this series, Australia’s batting allrounder, Cameron Green, couldn’t do much with the bat – except for score quick runs when setting up a declaration – let alone add depth to their bowling.Curran scored 272 runs at 38.85 and took 11 wickets at 23.54 in that England series, Jamieson averaged 46.50 with the bat and 16.33 with the ball, and Green averaged 33.71 with the bat thanks to two no-pressure declaration knocks, while taking zero wickets. That it comes down to contributions from the allrounder shows how well India have competed on recent away tours.Pat Cummins is no slouch against left-hand batsmen, but in this series Jadeja and Pant didn’t lose their wickets to him once over about 30 overs•Getty ImagesIs left right against Cummins?
India had two left-hand batsmen – both in the lower middle order but not restricted to those positions – and Cummins didn’t manage to get either of them out in the nine innings they batted between them. Close to 30 overs of bowling for 91 runs and zero wickets to Cummins is a win for the strategy, but it doesn’t mean Cummins is an easy bowler to face for left-hand batsmen. Coming into the series he averaged 19.6 against right-hand batsmen and 25.1 against left.Even in terms of creating indecision, Cummins was the second best among the Australia bowlers in the series, but while the 30 false responses induced by him brought him three wickets, none of those was of a left-hand batsman. It was a sound tactic for India to introduce left-hand batsmen into the line-up, and then manage a right-left combination, but it took some luck for Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja.Historically right-arm quicks have had to work harder for the wickets of left-hand batsmen, though not to this extent: a right-hand batsman’s wicket falls every ten balls of indecision versus 12 balls for a left-hand batsman.What do the control numbers say about England in India?
It’s not always that the luckier side wins; rather, luck becomes more crucial when two evenly matched sides face off. The last time England toured India, for example, they were luckier, losing a wicket every 12.5 balls of indecision as against India’s 11.9. However, India’s bowlers were superior: they created a false response every 5.6 balls as against England’s 7.6. That’s 25 more false responses, or two wickets, in a day’s bowling. When India toured Australia, this difference was down to nine balls in favour of the hosts. India created 13 more opportunities in a day’s bowling than England in 2018. These are close enough margins for luck to play a part. Can England come as close to the hosts as India have been doing on their recent difficult tours?

Lancashire legspinner eager to play after winter spent netting in England’s touring bubble

David Hopps06-Apr-2021When the next history of international cricket is written, it is fair to say that Team Buttler vs Team Root on January 8-9 in Hambantota, won’t manage a mention.But don’t knock it. Matt Parkinson’s five overs without a wicket in an England practice match, under a broiling Sri Lankan sun, represents his only competitive bowl since October. After that little outing, the only England team he was confident of forcing his way into for the next three months or so was the card school.After an inactive winter in biosecure bubbles in Sri Lanka and India, he is itching to start the Championship season, his enthusiasm not even tempered by Old Trafford fielding drills in temperatures of 7C and with driving sleet strafing across his Lancashire woolly hat.A wintry April hardly makes legspin a precious commodity for the start of the Championship season, but more inactivity in the bubble would be tantamount to an act of cruelty and Lancashire’s Championship captain, Dane Vilas, has observed Parkinson’s spell of netting in warm-weather climates and suggested that it must make him the best prepared county cricketer in the land.Will he face more weeks of enforced idleness? “If you dwell on it too much it might get you down,” Parkinson said. “I don’t want to be sat in a bubble for a couple of months and not playing. I’m looking to play in all formats. It would be quite an odd feeling to do that coming off the back of not too much cricket.”Related

• Lancashire, Yorkshire go head-to-head in pursuit of glory

• Perennial runners-up Somerset aiming to finally go one better

• Essex the team to beat once again

Parkinson is not the first cricketer to be surplus to requirements on an England tour, but the mental pressures are much the harder when there is no means of escape, not even the ubiquitous round of golf to alleviate three months of net practice and hotel confinement.Ashley Giles, the managing director England men’s cricket, was keenly aware of the pressures on mental health because of Covid restrictions and multi-format cricketers were given a break during the tour for their own wellbeing.Parkinson, though, a sort of multi-format non-cricketer, was a rare example of someone who remained throughout – the head coach, Chris Silverwood, being another. Parkinson’s general bonhomie, hard work and team ethic led Silverwood to call him “an absolute delight”.Giles emphasised on BBC radio last week that Parkinson was far from forgotten. “It was a great experience for him to be out there bowling day in day out. Being in hotels, being in quarantine, is hard but we keep constant mental health checks on these guys and if at any point we felt that we needed to get him out we certainly would have done. Don’t be afraid to get your hand up and we’ll get you out.”Parkinson makes light of the challenge he faced. “I just sort of cracked on with it,” he said. “The card school kept me going most nights. There was no offer on the table from the Big Bash or the Pakistan Super League so it was either the nets with England or the Lancashire indoor school.”I was disappointed that I didn’t play any games but I like to think that the work I’ve done will seep into my game and that after bowling to the likes of Joe Root and Ben Stokes in the nets all winter I’ve got better.”Those net sessions allowed him to reflect – although not too much – upon the debate about his bowling speed. He is one of the slowest spin bowlers around and, although the likes of Rob Key have advised him not to change, others believe his effectiveness at the highest level will be limited as a result.Prior to the tour had worked with two spin-bowling coaches, Carl Crowe and Richard Dawson, to try to bowl a little quicker without undermining his trajectory. “I’ve tried not to get too far away from what I do, to stick to the skills that have got me so far,” he said. “Maybe we’ll see another 3 or 4kph but I won’t know until I play a game.”Matt Parkinson, along with Mark Wood and Jake Ball, heads to the Ahmedabad nets•Getty ImagesAt least he had a close-up view in India of one of the most spin-intense Test series of modern times as R Ashwin and Axar Patel took 59 wickets between them in the four-Test series (of which Patel missed the first Test). But even then, the direct comparison for Parkinson would be to Kuldeep Yadav, as another wrist spinner, and he did not fare as well.With Eoin Morgan, England’s T20 captain, in somewhat experimental mood ahead of the T20 World Cup in India later this year, Parkinson hoped for a game in his strongest format, but even that was denied him. All England’s emphasis, when it comes to legspin, rests with Adil Rashid. He likes to think he “remains in the mix”, a back-up to Rashid, but as much as he concedes that it would be wonderful for them to play in the same side, he does not really believe it.It would have been intriguing to see him get a game, especially as the sort of modern journalism that relies upon intense checking of Twitter timelines had revealed that there was a time when the teenaged Parkinson was not exactly enamoured of India’s captain, Virat Kohli. Those papers who carried his intemperate comments of youth had to use a lot of asterisks.If he achieved anything this winter then it was to become a case study in the dangers of social media. He can expect to be on an ECB PowerPoint presentation for years to come.”I don’t do much social media as it happens,” he said. “I was just a young cricket fan and got it wrong. It was a good lesson about social media.”How does he think he would have fared if he had come up against Kohli, eager for retribution?”I think I would have struggled,” he grinned.It takes more than a winter’s confinement to knock the spirit out of Matt Parkinson.

We can calculate how effective a batter or bowler is against a specific type of opponent in each phase of a game

Himanish Ganjoo17-Apr-2021In the 54 matches in which he has bowled for England in a T20, Adil Rashid has opened the bowling four times. All four were in the recently concluded five-match series against India. While opening with a spinner in the powerplay is no longer novel in the shortest format, this move was prompted by specific knowledge: googly-wielding legspinners spell trouble for members of India’s top order.In the first T20I, Virat Kohli holed out to a rash shot against Rashid. In the third, Rashid’s googlies kept Rohit Sharma circumspect in the very first over. In the fourth game, he had Kohli stumped, and in the fifth, he troubled Sharma with the wrong’un once again.Rashid’s promotion to open the bowling to counter Kohli and Sharma was the most recent instance of match-ups being used in T20 cricket. In Tests, each strategic play unravels over a long time. In contrast, because time is so limited as a resource in T20, each ball is a substantial determiner of the result. Teams look to optimise every moment to squeeze out the tiniest advantage, making T20 the format where gameplay is most closely “managed”.Related

• Do teams benefit when their batters play long innings in T20s?

• How much risk do Kohli, Pant and KL Rahul take when they attack in the IPL?

• Nathan Leamon: 'Morgan is clinical, sharp, bright. He's an analyst's dream captain'

• England cricketers at the IPL: Curran vs Curran, Moeen Ali's return, and the Stokes setback

• Search for consistency continues as flawed CSK and Rajasthan Royals face off

Using the bowler who takes the ball away from a batter, or sending a left-hander in ahead of schedule to counter a certain bowler can be the ten-run difference that massively tilts a match in your team’s favour.In Tests, “how” you execute is important, while in T20 the “what” and “when” gain equal importance because each play has a major bearing on the course of the game.With match-ups attaining ubiquity in the T20 landscape, it is important to look at statistics contextualised by various batter-bowler combinations. It is well known that the ball turning in to the batter is advantageous for him. Do the numbers bear that out?
If you look at the baseline run rate and dismissal numbers from the last three years of the IPL, they do.The following table shows you the run rate (runs per ball) and dismissal rate (probability of being dismissed) for left- and right-hand batters against different styles of bowling. (Left-arm wristspin is excluded because of very small sample sizes.)Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoFor left-hand batters, their overall dismissal rate facing offbreak bowlers is 4.3 compared to just 3.6 versus slow left-arm. The run rate is also lower against offspinners, by 0.26 runs per ball. Similarly, for right-handers, the runs-per-ball figure is almost 0.1 runs higher when facing offspinners as compared to against legbreak bowlers and slow left-armers, both of whom take the ball away from right-handers.Legspinners concede fewer runs to right-handers and are also likelier to get left-handers out. This can be illuminated by further splitting their performance by innings phase. Phase one is the powerplay (overs 1-6), phase two the middle overs, and phase three the death overs (17-20).Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoThe table above shows that right-handers play legspinners more conservatively in the middle overs, possibly “playing out” the dangerous match-up while conserving wickets for the end overs. Left-handers try to utilise the advantageous match-up by going harder in the middle overs – scoring quicker but also getting out more often.It’s a similar story when you look at slow left-arm numbers by phase. In the powerplay, right-handers score much slower compared to left-handers and get out more frequently. In the middle overs, they moderate their approach, scoring slowly while preserving wickets. In comparison, left-handers score faster but get out slightly more often.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoThe data shows that match-ups work in a broad sense, but what happens when you look at players individually? Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are both classified as right-arm fast bowlers, but they execute their skills very differently. A right-arm seamer is expected to perform at a certain level versus right- and left-hand batters, but how much does an individual deviate from that baseline?This can be quantified by dividing their rates of conceding runs and taking wickets by the average runs per ball and wicket probability for each match-up. For example, right-hand seamers overall concede 1.27 runs per ball to right-hand batters in the powerplay while picking up wickets 3.61% of the time. In comparison, Bumrah concedes only 1.1 runs per ball and 4.1% of his deliveries get wickets. We can condense these facts into two simple ratios that tell us how well a bowler (or a batter) performs compared to a particular match-up in a given phase of the innings.Match-up Run Index (MRI) = (runs per ball by a player for given match-up) / (overall runs per ball for given match-up)Match-up Dismissal Index (MDI) = (dismissal rate for a player for given match-up) / (overall dismissal rate for given match-up)An MRI value of 1 means a bowler is as expensive as the average bowler of his kind for a given match-up. A value lower than 1 means he is economical. On the contrary, a higher MDI value than 1 means he is more likely to pick up wickets given that match-up. Continuing from our example, for Bumrah in the powerplay, the MRI is 0.86 (1.1/1.27) and the MDI is 1.14 (4.1/3.61). Here is a breakdown of Bumrah’s performance on these metrics:Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoFrom a strategy perspective, this shows that Bumrah is exceptionally miserly versus left-handers in the powerplay but not a great wicket-taking option. He is exceptional against both batting styles in the middle overs, and especially effective against left-handers in both run-saving and wicket-taking skills.Because spinners work with lateral deviation off the pitch, match-up indices are much more relevant for assessing their roles. Here is the same match-up-based performance table for Yuzvendra Chahal, which shows that he is a defensive option compared to other legspinners in the powerplay, but a wicket-taking one in the middle overs, with MDI values of more than 1 against both left- and right-handers, which means he is better at taking wickets than the average legspinner against both batting styles. In terms of economy he is almost as expensive as the average leggie to both kinds of batters (MRI values close to 1), but he is a lot more expensive against right-handers in the death overs.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoSplitting open a batter’s performance in terms of MRI and MDI is also useful – it shows their relative strengths against particular bowling styles. For instance, here is Kohli’s record in the powerplay and middle overs the last three years:Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoEngland’s decision to bowl Rashid to Kohli is vindicated, albeit with a small sample size. Kohli scores at the par rate for a right-hander facing a legspinner in the powerplay, as evidenced by his MRI of 1, but with an MDI of 1.15, he is likelier to get out than the average right-hander.But a closer comparison within Kohli’s own record split by match-ups reveals that his real kryptonite might be offbreak bowling. In both the powerplay and the middle overs, he scores slower and gets out slightly more frequently than the average right-hand bat versus offspinners. He falters in a match-up that should be advantageous to him.Last year AB de Villiers, Kohli’s partner in the Royal Challengers Bangalore middle order, was shunted down the line-up to avoid facing legspinners, but he has an MRI of 1.09 and an MDI of 0.79 facing that style of bowling in the middle overs in the past three seasons, which signals that he is less likely to lose his wicket to them compared to the average right-hander.Sharma, Kohli’s partner in the Indian top order, has scored nine runs for two dismissals against legspin in the powerplay, but plays it much better when he’s settled in the middle overs, with an MRI of 1.06 and an MDI of 0.55.Different varieties of spin to differently handed batters are match-ups often used by bowling sides. To find out who is the best at run-scoring and wicket preservation for a match-up, we can calculate the MRI and MDI values for each batter in every phase and take a weighted average of these values to find a combined MRI and MDI for a batter.For instance, the following graphic shows the average MRI and MDI values for all batters who have faced 60 or more balls from legspinners in the last three IPL seasons. The average MRI and MDI account for the match-up and the expected scoring rates in each phase of the innings. Both batting hands can be combined on one plot because the MRI and MDI already account for match-up strength.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoAn MRI of over 1 and an MDI of under 1 are better for a batter; a value of 1 means the player is average.The best batters are in the lower-right quadrant. Nicholas Pooran with his middle-overs aggression and Chris Gayle with his disdainful six-hitting are the best against legspin. A bunch of right-hand openers, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw and Robin Uthappa, form a high-risk high-reward group in the top-right quadrant with high MRI and MDI values. Surprisingly, Krunal Pandya occupies the dreaded top-left quadrant, which implies slow scoring and a high risk of losing your wicket.How do batters do against offspin? David Warner outshines his left-hander peers in terms of strike rate and preserving his wicket, while fellow southpaws Gayle and Ishan Kishan are weaker than the average left-hander against offspin when it comes to striking the ball. Hardik Pandya is in a league of his own, with a high MRI and low MDI. MS Dhoni manages to not get out too often, but fails to score against offspin, his numbers heavily influenced by his match-up against Sunil Narine, who himself perches on the far right of this plot, fulfilling his role as an attacker of spin who does not need to value his wicket too highly.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoPlotting the MRI and MDI values summed across phases for a bowler can tell us the kind of role he should play in a bowling attack. As an example of how this can be used, the following plot shows the aggregate MRI and MDI values for spinners who have bowled more than ten overs to left-hand batters in the last three seasons of the IPL. A higher MDI and a lower MRI is better for a bowler.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoPlayers in the bottom-left quadrant are holding bowlers who concede fewer runs than one would expect given the match-ups they face, but who are less likely to get wickets. Such a bowler could be brought on as a defensive play to stem the flow of runs and force the batter to “play out” his overs, as teams have tended to do against Rashid Khan.The tactic of using Washington Sundar as a run-stopper in the powerplay is another great example visible on the plot. Moeen Ali has a small sample size of 108 balls over three seasons, but his high MDI indicates he fares well in comparison to the average offspinner against left-handers.Here is the same plot for spinners bowling to right-handers:Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoSurprisingly, R Ashwin is better bowling to right-handers than to left-handers in T20, opposite to his Test bowling strengths. Narine too fares better against right-hand batters. The four best legspinners – Rashid Khan, Chahal, Rahul Chahar and Amit Mishra – are expectedly in the top-left quadrant. Krunal Pandya was slightly high on the wicket-taking MDI against left-handers, but becomes a run-saving bowler facing right-handers.This method of summing MRI and MDI values over different phases is an attempt to integrate context into raw cricket numbers. The aim is to split the ball-by-ball records of each batter or bowler by the phase of the innings and the match-up, and then scale their run rate and dismissal rate by the par rates for that “context”.This adjusts rudimentary statistics by accounting for what the average player does against the same type of bowler. We can then take averages of these scaled numbers to find combined statistics, and then calculate MRI and MDI values for each combination of phase and match-up. We can then add these numbers up across phases and batting styles to get overall MRI and MDI values for each player. This pair of numbers tells us their run-scoring/saving and wicket-preserving/taking ability while accounting for the handedness of the batters and the style of bowler.The concluding plots show aggregate MDI and MRI values for both batters and bowlers in the last three seasons.Himanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfoHimanish Ganjoo/ESPNcricinfo