Like every year, the team’s fortunes appear to be sinking and swimming with the form of Kohli and de Villiers

Saurabh Somani01-Nov-2020On October 21, the world looked rosy for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. They had seven wins from 10 matches in IPL 2020, were jointly at the top of the points table with Delhi Capitals, and a place in the playoffs seemed a formality.Like the teenager who suddenly finds pocket money running dry at month end though, the Royal Challengers are now scrambling. They are still second on the points table, but haven’t added to their points tally while suffering three consecutive defeats. Their net run-rate has swan-dived from a positive 0.182 to a negative 0.145 in the space of three games.And yet, having sunk to three defeats, if they can string together three wins now, they’ll be IPL champions. Win against the Delhi Capitals in their final league match, win the first qualifier against Mumbai, win the final.”It’s a terrible feeling to lose three in a row, you never want to do that,” AB de Villiers said after their latest defeat, to Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday. “But that is the nature of this tournament, anything can happen. If you lose three in a row, you can win three in a row as well.”There has been a pattern to the Royal Challengers wins and losses though, one which they’ll want to examine to achieve that three-game winning streak.In each of the seven games they have won, including the Super Over win against the Mumbai Indians, at least one of Virat Kohli or de Villiers have hit a half-century. The only exception is their most-recent win, when the Kolkata Knight Riders could muster only 84 for 8 batting first, not leaving an opportunity for a half-century from either man.While Devdutt Padikkal has also scored runs in the Royal Challengers’ wins, his contributions have been more support acts. In wins this season, Kohli averages 91.00 at a strike rate of 132.52. For de Villiers, those figures are 123.00 at 203.00. In losses, Kohli’s average drops to 26.33 and his strike rate to 107.48. The fall is steeper for de Villiers, with 19.50 and 115.84.In contrast, Padikkal’s figures in victories – 42.57 at 125.21 – don’t fall as drastically in defeats, 20.66 and 131.91. That lower strike rate in victories is an indicator of Padikkal’s role in holding one end up while Kohli and de Villiers have led the charge.In spite of having attempted to plug that gap at nearly every auction for the last four years, the fortunes of the Royal Challengers are sinking and swimming with the form of their two star batsmen. When they perform spectacularly, it leads to victories. When they fail, there seems to be no one to pick up that slack.BCCIThey seemed to have got that covered this year, having bought Aaron Finch, having invested in the promising young Josh Philippe, and with Moeen Ali already in the ranks. None of the three has had any great success in the limited, and not-so-limited chances they’ve had.Loss of form, especially in T20 cricket, is sometimes as ephemeral as a qualifying spot in your sights. Batsmen see failure more often than success in the format. But given their continued dependence on Kohli and de Villiers, the choices the Royal Challengers made against the Sunrisers were curious.Their previous loss, to Mumbai, had come about when the middle order failed to launch from an excellent start. The response against the Sunrisers was to cut the batting further and strengthen the bowling.Sharjah has already shown ample evidence of its pitches slowing down as IPL 2020 has gone on, with the 200-plus totals of its initial days not being achieved any longer. And yet, the Royal Challengers went in with four seamers. A fit-again Navdeep Saini was a natural part of their best XI, but they also brought in Isuru Udana, while leaving Ali on the bench.It meant the batting after de Villers, who came in at No.4, read: Washington Sundar, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Chris Morris and Udana. That’s arguably among the weakest middle orders a team has had this season. Morris is the only one with a T20 strike rate over 130, and none of them average over 25.For a team that needs a bit of middle order heft, it was a surprising choice. The middle overs have been a period of struggle for the Royal Challengers, and with all teams having played 13 matches, their batsmen’s strike rate in that period (overs 7 to 16) is the worst in the league at 113.29. They have been lifted at the death by de Villiers, but the sluggishness in the middle has contributed to more than one defeat.Kohli would later say that he thought the team “weren’t brave enough with the bat throughout the innings” – but bravery with the bat is a natural consequence of skillsets. A Moeen Ali might be capable of being braver than an Isuru Udana because he has greater range, a greater ability to negotiate top bowling, a quicker eye, surer footwork.De Villiers pointed to the dismissals of Philippe and himself, five balls apart, as the turning point, though he maintained that the team was well balanced.”The turning point was probably when Josh and I got out back to back, which cost us about 20 to 30 runs,” de Villiers said. “That put a lot of pressure on our middle order.”We had a very good balanced team. We felt that was the right balance to go with. We had two frontline spinners, four seamers, lots of options with the ball. We have a very good batting line-up which didn’t score enough runs today, that’s what it comes down to.”That pressure was felt more keenly with the particular batting line-up the Royal Challengers chose to go with.They could still win three in a row – who would bet against a hot streak from Kohli or de Villiers, or both? But a selection that gives an opportunity for greater middle order support will increase their chances of doing that.

Will Mumbai get the fast bowler they want? Will RCB finally find back-up for Kohli and de Villiers?

Nagraj Gollapudi and Gaurav Sundararaman17-Feb-2021Part 1 of the previewMumbai IndiansWith seven slots left and a small purse of INR 15.35 crore, defending champions Mumbai Indians must play their cards smartly at the auction table.There are three gaps Mumbai would want to plug more than any other. First, get at least one, if not two, overseas fast bowlers. Having released James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mumbai only have one overseas quick in Trent Boult. In addition, they could also look for a back-up allrounder for Kieron Pollard. Mumbai are also likely to be on the lookout for a back-up wristspinner to Rahul Chahar, who struggled in IPL 2020 and wasn’t in the playing XI for the final.ESPNcricinfo LtdFirst XI: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Quinton de Kock, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Ishan Kishan, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 Kieron Pollard, 8 Rahul Chahar, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 An overseas fast bowler.Key gaps: At least one overseas fast bowlerPotential picks: Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith, Jason Behrendoff, Kyle Jamieson, Nathan-Coulter Nile, Arjun TendulkarBack-up wristspinner/fingerspinner Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Khrievitso KenseBack-up allrounder for Kieron Pollard: Nathan Coulter-Nile, Shivam DubeRajasthan RoyalsKumar Sangakkara, the new team director of the Royals, has his task cut out. The Royals, who last made the playoffs in 2018, would be on the lookout for one fast bowler, one specialist batsman, and one allrounder. The weak link for the Royals has been a good support cast for Jofra Archer as well as a middle-order batsman who can play the finisher’s role. Both Steven Smith and Robin Uthappa struggled in those roles in IPL 2020. It will not be a surprise if the Royals buy back Smith cheap as experience always helps, but with a strong purse of over INR 34 crore, the franchise can’t be shy about raising the paddle to top price if they believe a name is worth it.ESPNcricinfo LtdCurrent first XI: 1 Sanju Samson, 2 Ben Stokes, 3 Jos Buttler, 4 David Miller, 5 Riyan Parag, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Mahipal Lomror, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 10 Jaydev Unadkat, 11 Kartik TyagiKey gaps: One fast bowler, one allrounder, one batsmanPotential picks: Steven Smith, Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Alex HalesBack-up allrounder: Shivam Dube, Glenn Maxwell, Chris Morris, Moeen AliBack-up overseas fast bowler: Naveen ul Haq, Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Kyle JamiesonRoyal Challengers BangaloreThe side led by Virat Kohli has an urgent need to fill up more than one vacant spot in the first XI. After releasing the likes of Chris Morris, Aaron Finch and Moeen Ali, the Royal Challengers’ focus will be on finding batsmen and allrounders for their top and middle order. That has been a long-standing problem for the franchise, for which they have tried to find remedies over several seasons, usually without much success.They will once again look for a solution to reduce the dependency on their two best batsmen: AB de Villiers and Kohli. With the second-highest purse in the 2021 auction (INR 35.9 crore), the Royal Challengers could target a few big names, including Glenn Maxwell and Shakib Al Hasan, in addition to finding an Indian batsman who can play the role of a finisher in the middle order. This should be a busy auction for the franchise.ESPNcricinfo LtdCurrent first XI: 1 Devdutt Padikkal, 2 Josh Philippe, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Shahbaz Ahmed, 6 Washington Sundar, 7 Daniel Sams, 8 Navdeep Saini, 9 Mohammed Siraj, 10 Kane Richardson, 11 Yuzuvender Chahal.Key gaps: Top order overseas batsman/batting allrounderPotential picks: Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Shakib Al Hasan, Fabian Allen, Dawid MalanDomestic batsman/allrounder: Shahrukh Khan, Kedhar Jadhav, K GowthamSunrisers HyderabadAlong with the Kolkata Knight Riders, the Sunrisers have the smallest purse (INR 10.75 crore) in this auction. But they do not have too many gaps to fill. An overseas player is among three main vacancies. They can either look to replace Billy Stanlake, who can also act as a back-up for Jason Holder. One potential pick is likely to be buying back Shakib Al Hasan, who was with the franchise until he was banned by the ICC two years ago.ESPNcricinfo LtdCurrent first XI: 1 David Warner, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Priyam Garg, 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 Jason Holder, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 T Natarajan, 11 Bhuvneshwar KumarKey gap: Back-up overseas fast bowler

Also: who were the two uncapped players who played in the World XI in 1971-72?

Steven Lynch25-May-2021The Dutch batter Max O’Dowd just scored his third half-century in three ODIs. How many people have started like this? asked Mike Kramer from Belgium

The New Zealand-born Netherlands batter Max O’Dowd started his one-day international career with 86 not out and 59 against Zimbabwe in June 2019, and added 82 against Scotland in Rotterdam last week (his sequence ended when he was out for 8 in the next game).Remarkably, the only other man to make half-centuries in his first three ODIs also played for the Netherlands – Tom Cooper began with 80 not out and 87 against Scotland, then 67 against Kenya in 2010. The Indian opener Navjot Singh Sidhu hit half-centuries in his first three ODI innings, but that sequence included a match in which he did not bat.In the women’s game, Hayley Matthews of West Indies made 55, 89 and 60 in her first three ODIs, against Australia in November 2014. I believe there has been one first-class hat-trick in which all three victims were stumped. When was this? asked Naval Patel from India

The match concerned was a long time ago – in the early days of the official County Championship, in August 1893. During a game in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire’s amateur wicketkeeper William “Sam” Brain ended Somerset’s second innings by stumping three batters off successive deliveries from Charles Townsend, a big-turning legspinner who was only 16 years old at the time. Wisden called it “a sensational incident”, while the Times noted that “the innings was finished in a summary manner by young Mr Townsend”. Six years later, he played two Tests in the 1899 Ashes series.In all, Brain made five stumpings in the match, four of them off Townsend’s bowling and the other off WG Grace. This was Brain’s final season of county cricket, though he remained active at club level. He joined the family brewing business (which still survives), eventually becoming its chairman.Is Khokhan Sen the only player who was born in what is now Bangladesh who played Test cricket for another country? asked SM Nazmus Shakib from Bangladesh

The Bengal wicketkeeper Probir “Khokhan” Sen, who played 14 Tests for India, was born in 1926 in Comilla, which was then part of India but is now in Bangladesh. The only other male Test player I can see who was born in present-day Bangladesh appeared in the very first Test of all, for Australia against England in Melbourne in March 1877; Bransby Cooper was born in Dacca, as Dhaka was known at the time. Cooper had played county cricket in England for Kent and Middlesex before moving in 1871 to Australia, where he worked in the Customs department.The Pakistan fast bowler Niaz Ahmed, who won two Test caps in the late 1960s, played for East Pakistan before it became Bangladesh – but he was actually born in Benares (now Varanasi), in Uttar Pradesh in India.Tony Greig (middle row, third from left) and Hylton Ackerman (middle row, extreme right) had not made their Test debuts when they played as part of the World XI in 1971-72•Fairfax DigitalApparently there were two uncapped players in the Rest of the World team that toured Australia in 1971-72. Who were they? asked Chris Beckett from Australia

The World XI you’re talking about undertook a full tour of Australia in 1971-72, replacing a trip by South Africa which was cancelled owing to the political situation there at the time. Garry Sobers reprised his role as World XI captain from 18 months previously in England, but this team was not as strong as that awesome 1970 line-up. After some criticism of his side’s approach – they were bowled out for 59 in the second unofficial Test in Perth – Sobers unfurled one of the greatest innings of all in the next match, in Melbourne, spanking a memorable 254. “The innings was probably the best seen in Australia,” said the watching Don Bradman, who played a few useful innings himself. “The people who saw Sobers have enjoyed one of the historic events of cricket. They were privileged to have such an experience.”The 1971-72 touring party included two players who had not appeared in official Tests at the time. One was Tony Greig, who had played against the Rest of the World XI in 1970 in matches later ruled as unofficial Tests. Greig made his full debut for England a few months after this series in the 1972 Ashes, and went on to win 58 caps. But the other man remained uncapped, thanks to South Africa’s sporting isolation: opener Hylton Ackerman had a long career with several provincial teams at home, and spent some time with Northamptonshire. His son HD Ackerman did win four Test caps.Further to last week’s question about centuries in successive Tests, who has the similar record for centuries in the most consecutive innings? And what about five-wicket hauls? asked Adam Wilson from England

The great West Indian Everton Weekes, who died last year, is the only man to score centuries in five successive Test innings, against England in 1947-48 and India in 1948-49 – the sequence was ended by a questionable run-out decision when he had scored 90 in the fourth Test in Madras (now Chennai). By coincidence, the wicketkeeper who whipped the bails off was Khokhan Sen, who is mentioned above. Weekes recalled: “I went forward and started running but came back into my crease and watched the whole thing happen. The umpire might have thought he had seen enough of me for the series…”Jack Fingleton (Australia), Alan Melville (South Africa) and Rahul Dravid (India) all scored centuries in four successive innings.As far as the bowlers are concerned, the old Australian Charles “Terror” Turner is alone is recording six successive five-fors, all against England during 1888. Three bowlers have managed five in a row: the Surrey and England seamers Tom Richardson and Alec Bedser, and rather more recently, the West Indian offspinner Shane Shillingford.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Potential to cement a role in T20I series after fleeting return to team last summer

Matt Roller02-Mar-2021It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a batter to break into England Women’s top six. Not since Lauren Winfield-Hill, who turned 30 last year, has a debutant managed to pass 100 career runs in either ODI or T20I cricket for England, with the same core of players forming the backbone of the batting lineup for the best part of a decade.In that context, the arrival of a new batter who adds power and skill to the lower-middle order is significant, and in Sophia Dunkley, England think they might have found such a player. Dunkley was given a 10-match run in the side during the 2018-19 winter, including all five games in the T20 World Cup, but found herself on the fringes again for the next 18 months.She struggled for form in the 2019 Kia Super League, but made the most of the limited opportunities that came her way in the abbreviated season last summer. In successive innings in England’s 50-over intra-squad warm-up games, she blitzed 42 not out off 16 balls, then steered her side home with 53 not out off 64, demonstrating her versatility; in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, she made 97 for South East Stars at Beckenham with England coach Lisa Keightley watching.The result was a recall for the final two T20Is of the summer against West Indies. Dunkley’s returns – a first-ball duck and 3 not out off 4 balls – were a reminder of the volatility of the finisher’s role, but her presence in the side was still a significant moment in her career.”It was nice to go into the summer with an open mind,” Dunkley said. “I’d been out of the side for about a year and a half, so I felt as though I had nothing to lose and I could go in with no fear and just see what happened. I played quite well, which I was really happy with, and it gave me a chance to get back into the side which was really special.”I’d been working really hard for that for the last year and a half so it was definitely a good summer for me. I got out for a duck in the first game and the last one was a five-over game, but to get back in the side and all the little things that you forget about – being on the teamsheet, being back out on the field, and feeling like you’re really part of it – was really special. I tried not to take the feeling for granted.”Sophia Dunkley pulls during the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy•Getty ImagesHaving been overlooked throughout the 50-over leg of the tour to New Zealand, Dunkley hopes that she will be given another opportunity to prove herself during the T20I series, which starts on Wednesday in Wellington. England are hardly short on batting depth, with Katherine Brunt, Sarah Glenn and Sophie Ecclestone all powerful lower-order hitters, but Dunkley’s ability to go hard from early on in her innings could see her backed ahead of Winfield-Hill and Fran Wilson at No. 6.”It’s about trying to keep perspective,” Dunkley said. “A lot of the batters in the team are quite a lot older and more experienced than me. It’s about trying to be the best I can be, and if I do get an opportunity, then I’ll be giving it a good go. Hopefully at some point in the future I’ll cement a spot in the team but I’ll have to wait and see what happens and keep enjoying it along the way.”I’ve been working hard over the winter so hopefully I’ve got a good chance of keeping that spot. I think it’s part and parcel of cricket and being a young player. Just watching a few of the girls in the nets gives you a good idea of where you want to be – seeing people like Nat [Sciver] and Heather [Knight] bat is a good visualisation of what you want to be in the future.”Dunkley’s ability with the ball should also count in her favour, though she admits her legspin is still a work in progress. She will have plenty of opportunities to work on it next summer – she signed a regional contract with South East Stars at the end of last year, and was top of Charlotte Edwards’ recruitment list at Southern Brave in the Hundred – but hopes that offering a sixth or seventh bowling option will stand her in good stead down the line.”I need a lot more game-time with the ball, in the domestic system and in the Hundred, but I’ve been working really hard in training and it’s been good bowling against high-class batters on tour,” she said. “Hopefully the new set-up bridges the gap and produces a really strong pool of girls to choose from, which will raise everybody’s standards and bring in a lot more competition for places.”Related

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If Dunkley is handed a chance this week, she will be watched particularly closely by Ebony Rainford-Brent, a long-term mentor in her role as director of women’s cricket at Surrey. Dunkley was the first woman of colour since Rainford-Brent in 2008 to make a T20I debut for England, and became an ambassador for Rainford-Brent’s African-Caribbean Engagement (ACE) Programme last year.”Ebony has done an amazing job to promote a lot of positivity and bring people together,” Dunkley said. “I’ve been really lucky with the experiences I’ve had, and haven’t experienced any abuse or anything like that, but to hear other people’s stories last year made me want to help in any way I could.”I think [the English game] is probably not in the place that it wants to be now, but I’m sure that in the next few years it will get better and better, and hopefully we’ll see a massive shift. If I can be a role model and spread as much positivity as I can around the subject, then I’d love that to help. I think just playing for England and representing the community will have a big impact – hopefully a really positive one.”

The former South Africa fast bowler has some tips for Bumrah, Shami and Co

Dale Steyn29-Jul-20212:28

Steyn: “You just have to become aware of where batters like to score their runs”

Dale Steyn, one of the best swing bowlers of the modern era, has considerable experience bowling in England, and was part of two South African teams that won Test series there, in 2008 and 2012. He talks to Sanjay Manjrekar about dealing with the weather, learning to control the swing of the Dukes ball, and how India should to bowl to Joe Root and Ben Stokes in their upcoming series.Get your sweat on
I just went out there and tried to get as warmed up as possible. We’d play a little bit of football, I’d do a lot of running around and get a good sweat on. In South Africa, I usually go out and do my warm-ups and then I want to be back in the dressing room 20-30 minutes before the start of play – I might want to have a shower, relax and get ready for a long day’s play. In England, it was kind of the other way around. I’d try and get into the dressing room with about 15 minutes to go to play, so that when I went out there to bowl, I was still a little bit sweaty and good to go and my body hadn’t cooled off just yet.That might sound like we’re playing in Iceland. It isn’t, but you have to get your body going and I would just bowl, do a lot of running around. I wasn’t a big fan of sitting there and stretching for long periods of time, like I was doing yoga or something. I wanted to move around, get the body flowing, so when it was time to go, I was ready and sort of clicked into first gear.Related

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Talk to those who’ve been there, done that
When I was starting off my first-class career, it was a lot more accessible to get yourself over to England, play a bit of club cricket. I know a lot of foreign players that used to go and play club cricket or got themselves into a county – maybe even play for the 2nds, because they play so much cricket: they are playing five, six days a week. When you’re doing that on repeat all the time, you get used to the conditions a lot quicker, you get used to the weather and become acclimatised to everything. Nowadays, unfortunately, it’s not that easy, but it just boils down to training, really.You’ve got to speak to someone who’s been there before, who’s done well there, or a coach that’s been there. Measure the distance where you think the ball is going to be on a good length, get a cone, put it down, and if the only nets you have are indoor nets, practise as though you’re playing at Lord’s or Durham or Edgbaston. You just create your own environment wherever you are through the help of other people who have been there. That seems to be the way we do it now. I know when I’m preparing for an IPL or something like that, I’m not in India but I have to go to the nets and imagine that this is where I am and this is who I’m playing against, this is the length that I have to bowl. It’s different to bowling in South Africa and Australia. I put my cone down and just try and nail it ball after ball.If you don’t control the swing, it’ll run away with you
The Dukes ball does tend to swing more and for longer than the Kookaburra. The Kookaburra swings but really late. You speak to somebody who’s probably one of the world’s best swing bowlers, Jimmy Anderson – I don’t think he particularly enjoys bowling with the Kookaburra. He enjoys the Dukes and he’s figured out a way to control that ball. But for foreigners, going to a place like England, you get there and suddenly you’re swinging it 10 to 15cm more than the ball you’re used to bowling with. Now, all of a sudden, to try and get the ball in the right place is a bit of a mission. So just the ball alone can be quite difficult to learn how to control.In South Africa we used to try and get a bunch of Dukes down here a month before we were going to England or to India with the SG. We’d start bowling with them to acclimatise our fingers – those seams are very pronounced – and just get used to the amount of swing and the volume of swing the balls actually have in them.”Jacques Kallis used to say, ‘What’s the game plan for any batter? Top of off or the odd bouncer'”•Gareth Copley/Getty ImagesThe balls these days, especially the white Kookaburra ball, doesn’t swing nearly as much as I found it did a couple of years ago. Then you’ll see guys get into a Test match and get this Dukes ball and it’s swinging. It looks pretty, but the control is a whole other ball game.Get that wobble going
In hindsight, I wish I’d taken some of the advice that Kyle Abbott [former South Africa fast bowler] gave me later in my career. I went to England and bowled okay. I wish my stats would have been slightly better, but I found that if I’d done what I did when I was with Hampshire in 2018 and just held the ball more almost cross-seam and didn’t worry too much about the swing, the ball was still going to swing. It kind of wobbled a little bit and still swung – and it moved a lot later. It looks so pretty when you bowl these big swingers and the guy plays forward and you’re going up, “Ooh he’s played and missed” – I’m kinda hoping that every ball he plays and misses or nicks it, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise for me when he plays and misses!So I wish that I’d done that earlier when I was in England. I think I would have found the edge a lot more. The ball wouldn’t have swung as much, but I think I would have been a lot more effective in the way that I’d taken wickets. We see guys now and they still swing it beautifully but it almost goes too much. Anderson’s a master of it. He swings it, swings it, swings it, and then you just see this wobble seam and it confuses the batter. Then the next one he bowls a big swinger and they chase it and nick it off or something like that. Playing in those conditions, he’s obviously a lot more skilled than the rest of us, but I wish I’d done that earlier in my career.Know where to land it to hit top of off
Jacques Kallis used to say, “What’s the game plan for any batter? Top of off or the odd bouncer.” In every meeting. It just became like this running joke. And it is the truth – top of off or the odd bouncer is going to do many a batter over. The difficult part is trying to find what length top of off is. Different grounds have different bounce. Some are low, some bounce more, and that’s something you have to work out, and obviously why you want to go to a stadium a couple of days or weeks earlier to prep and play a couple of warm-up games to find that length.”I’m not going to say Root is a nick-off candidate, but a lot of the ways I have seen him get out are caught behind or caught at slips, especially in England”•Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesI was always trying to look for that length where I was hitting the stumps. I found that if I was hitting the stumps, especially for a batter’s first 20 balls, that’s where I’m going to cause him the biggest amount of trouble. After that I might want to drag my length back a little so that I can get him more on the back foot and then throw the odd one fuller and hope his weight was on the back foot. But ideally the length you’re always looking at is where it’s going to be clipping the top of the stumps.It was more on feel for me. I wanted to feel the ball out of my hand and I could almost close my eyes and feel, yep, that’s it, I’ve got that length, just make a note in my brain that that’s where I need to let it go. Not everybody can do that and it’s not a very easy thing to coach. However, you get a coach like Ottis Gibson, who was brilliant. You could go to the Wanderers, you could go to Chennai, you could go anywhere and he’d pull out his little book and give you the exact measurements in metres from the stumps as to what length you have to bowl for the ball to hit the top of the stumps. Then he’d go put these little markers out there and say, “Boys, this is your length.” You’d be playing in Australia and you would go from Perth to Hobart and it could change by 30 or 40cm, almost half a metre in length, though you’re playing in the same country. Ottis was fantastic at making a note as to every ground where you went to what was the length bowlers bowled to hit the stumps – especially in the last game you played there.Length, length, length
Different batters do different things. You look at Virat Kohli and others – they are coming out of their crease now and they’re trying to negate that swing. So it feels like you have to drag your length back, but the moment you do that, the ball is not hitting the stumps anymore.So you have to find ways of getting the batter back in his crease. You might go two overs or three overs where you go a little bit shorter and you’re forcing him to say, “Okay, cool, he’s not going to go full, I’m going to have to go back in my crease.” And the guys at point or square leg will send a message to mid-off or mid-on to tell the bowler that the batter is batting a little bit out of his crease or he’s batting deeper in the crease.2:45

“Ideally the length you’re always looking at is where it’s going to be clipping the top of the stumps”

For me, I always felt like it didn’t matter whether the batter was coming at me or going deeper in the crease. I still needed to hit the stumps. I needed to find the length that was going to hit the stumps because regardless of where he was batting, if the ball wasn’t hitting the stumps, my bowled or my lbw was out the window. Then I’m only looking for one mode of dismissal and that’s not what I was about. I was always looking for caught behind, lbw and bowled. So then I’d have to figure out a way of getting the batter into a position where I could find that length again.I think just being absolutely relentless on length will be the biggest thing. In England, it really always boils down to length. The pitches aren’t particularly fast, so when you drop it a bit short, it does tend to be a bit spongy and a little bit slower. Glenn McGrath was absolutely relentless in bowling that length. He made you play every ball. You just felt that every ball he bowled, he was in business and you were in trouble, and that’s why he was so successful.India’s pace line-up: plenty in the quiver
I like what they have got right now. All those bowlers bring something different to the party. My advice is to stay fit. Five Test matches – that requires a lot of bowling. It’s a lot of wickets to take, and if you’re going to rely on your seamers to do a lot of bowling, you have to stay fit.I like Shardul Thakur. He does swing the ball beautifully, and when he learns how to get the ball that stays straight on batters, that’s when he might find a lot more edges. He’s another guy like Tim Southee that can swing it beautifully, but he needs to learn how to bowl that kind of scrambled ball that just holds the line and he can find the edges.Bhuvneshwar Kumar is fantastic. He can bowl in any ground in the world and he could be successful because he bowls such a wonderful length. He can swing it and he’s got the skill in his wrist to be able to seam the ball too. India have all the arsenal they need.”I think we’re putting a lot of emphasis on the seamers when someone like R Ashwin might be the biggest key for India [in England]”•Adam Davy/PA Photos/Getty ImagesMohammed Siraj is somebody who could come in. I think he brings a good attitude to the game. That’s another thing we tend to forget when you’re playing in England conditions. It’s not just about where you put the ball but also the attitude you bring, getting in people’s faces, making them play shots they don’t particularly want to play – I think Siraj is somebody who can do that. I saw parts of that little bit of fight when he played in Australia and I immediately knew he’s going to have a good Test career. Don’t forget about the attitude of a fast bowler too. Maybe that’s something India would have really relished in the World Test Championship final, but it would have come with the sacrifice of some more runs.Umesh Yadav – quick through the air, swings it beautifully. And then you can decide whether it’s Umesh or Mohammed Shami you pick. For me, they do a similar kind of thing – similar heights, both swing the ball. It just boils down to who’s bowling better in the nets, who’s higher in confidence, in the better mental space.How to deal with Stokes and Root
Against the best players in the world, you almost have the same plans – Kohli, Kane Williamson, Joe Root, AB de Villiers, you’re looking to get them out with those three modes of dismissal, lbw, caught behind and bowled. You throw in the odd bouncer every now and then.You just become aware of where they like to score their runs. Root might score more runs through third man, so you might go, “Okay, we don’t need the cover [fielder]. We’re going to put him in gully”. I’m not going to say Root is a nick-off candidate, but a lot of the ways I have seen him get out are caught behind or caught at slips, especially in England, where there is a bit of cloud cover. In the three Test matches I have watched so far in England this year, the ball has been swinging. Probably the one area I’d focus on primarily is to get him out caught in the slips or caught behind.Ben Stokes – depends on what mood he’s in! Such a good player. I know that when we played against him, we liked to come around the wicket at him. He’s comfortable against right-arm seamers coming over the wicket, so coming round the wicket and trying to straighten the ball was an option we liked. But it depends on what kind of mood you get Ben Stokes in. If he’s in a free-scoring kind of mood, he could score really quickly, but he’ll give you chances. If he’s in a defensive kind of mood, he can knuckle down. Not in the way Cheteshwar Pujara does, but Stokes puts a lot of value on his wicket.It might come down to the spinners
Maybe it’s out-of-the-box thinking here from me, but I think we’re putting a lot of emphasis on the seamers when someone like R Ashwin might be the biggest key for India. As these five Test matches go on, I think spin will be the difference. Ashwin is the kind of bowler that bowls tons and tons of overs. Teams like England and Australia, who are so good at playing seamers and seamer-friendly conditions, don’t tend to play spin particularly well. So Ashwin might be the biggest trump card that India have going forward. And the same thing for England – can they find somebody who can spin out Rishabh Pant? So it might be the fight of who the better spinners are in the series.

Kohli conceded India couldn’t get themselves to “more comprehensive or dominating positions” with the bat

Karthik Krishnaswamy14-Jan-20226:04

How did India let their advantage slip against South Africa?

When the final day of a three-Test series begins with the teams locked 1-1, and with one team needing eight wickets for victory and the other 111 runs, on a pitch where both outcomes are equally plausible, you can safely say that the gap between the two teams is a narrow one, no matter what the final outcome is.This was true even after South Africa wrapped up their second successive seven-wicket win to complete a come-from-behind series victory. As in the second Test in Johannesburg, their margin of victory in Cape Town was probably slightly misleading. Both teams were playing five-bowler combinations, and in the first three innings, the last six wickets had fallen for the addition of 56, 51 and 46 runs, respectively.Had India found an opening early on this fourth day, the result, and the series scoreline, could have been very different.Related

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Kohli bemoans India's batting collapse: 'There's no running away from it'

India didn’t find that opening, however, and when a team loses back-to-back Test matches in a similar manner, you might wonder if there’s more to those results than coincidence. Here, then, are three factors that possibly contributed to India’s defeat.India gamble on all-out attack
India bowled 13.2 overs before the day’s first drinks break, and conceded 47 runs. That’s just over 3.5 runs an over, a healthy scoring rate in Test cricket, especially for a side in South Africa’s position at the start of play.If you watched how that hour unfolded, however, it was clear this wasn’t the result of loose bowling. On the contrary, it felt like a wicket could fall at any moment, with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami pitching the ball up and swinging it around corners. Of the 80 balls India bowled before the drinks break, 20 drew false shots. That’s one in four balls.There was swing available, and India looked to pitch the ball up and maximise its effect. It worked, if only in the sense of discomfiting South Africa’s batters. There is an element of subjectivity in ESPNcricinfo’s length data, but it’s still instructive. Seven of the 18 balls that India pitched on the full length in this period drew not-in-control responses. But luck was on South Africa’s side, with both Keegan Petersen and Rassie van der Dussen getting beaten on the drive without their edges being found, and slicing and edging the ball through gaps in the cordon.And when bowlers look to bowl full, they also run the risk of overpitching, and Petersen and van der Dussen also found the boundary with smooth drives through the covers in this period.So even as the full length drew the most uncertainty from South Africa’s batters (a control percentage of 61 compared to 79 for good-length balls), it was also the most expensive length, with 18 balls producing 21 runs.7:09

Kohli: ‘We did not apply enough pressure on South Africa’

It’s the natural risk of bowling an all-out-attacking length, even when the ball swings – as this deep dive into Test-match lengths by the former England analyst Nathan Leamon illustrates beautifully – but on another day, the false shots India drew may have led to the early opening they craved.The question does arise, though, whether India may have been better served hammering away on a good length and waiting to create chances while keeping a tighter lid on the scoring. Perhaps India’s best phase of the day came during a 45-minute window either side of the drinks break, when they pulled their length back slightly.Bumrah created a clear-cut chance with extra lift from a good length, only for Cheteshwar Pujara to shell a straightforward chance at first slip. Shami and Shardul Thakur then caused constant problems while conceding just three runs in the space of seven overs, during which Petersen inside-edged a good-length ball onto his stumps.But South Africa were already well on course by then, needing just 55 at that stage with seven wickets in hand, and Temba Bavuma put away a couple of rare loose balls in the first over of a new spell from Bumrah to jam the door shut on India.Bounce is a double-edged sword
There was another reason why India looked to bowl full in the morning. Given how much the ball was bouncing on this surface, it was the only way to bring lbw into play.South Africa took all their 20 wickets through catches – a first in Test cricket. Bumrah took two of his first-innings wickets via bowleds, but none of India’s other wickets had involved the stumps. All their lbw appeals had either been turned down on the field or upheld only to be overturned on review – much to their chagrin on one occasion late on day three.So futile did their quest for lbw become that at one point on this fourth day, Umesh Yadav got one to nip back at the crease-bound van der Dussen and strike his pad within the line of the stumps, only to turn around and begin walking back to his mark without bothering to appeal. It was clearly, clearly going to bounce over the stumps.Why then did India keep trying to attack the stumps and bowl fuller lengths, when South Africa’s quicks had derived so much success from hitting the pitch hard and extracting steep bounce?There were two reasons for this. Bowlers groove their lengths and their modes of attack over years and years, and it’s not straightforward to shift to an entirely different mode of operation in the middle of a tour. And South Africa’s fast bowlers, as in Johannesburg, came into this Test match with a clear advantage in height, as well as the advantage of these being their home conditions.South Africa’s fast bowlers came into this Test match with a clear advantage in height•AFP via Getty Images”We have different strengths,” Virat Kohli said at his post-match press conference. “So to compare their bowlers to ours will not be correct, because the kind of help that we get on all pitches across the world, I don’t think any other bowling attack is able to do that at the current moment, and precisely why we have been so successful everywhere in the world.”Our strengths are different, we probably bowl at different areas and there are many different ways to pick up wickets, so I think it’s important to focus on your strength as a team. Appreciate what the opposition did well, they exploited the conditions with their pace and bounce, which obviously they’ve grown up in these conditions, they know these pitches so well and which areas to bowl at, and consistently hit those areas, so you have to give them credit for that, but at the same time, you have to understand your strengths and keep sticking to it, and understand that that has gotten those results in the past, so that should hold you in good stead even moving forward.”On pitches with plenty of bounce in Australia, India have won two successive Test series while attacking the stumps far more consistently than their opposition.And while South Africa clearly made their home advantage count in this series, with their fast bowlers finishing with a collective average of 20.13 as compared to India’s 24.58, it wasn’t a mismatch, as it had been when India were the home side in 2019-20. Then, India’s quicks had averaged 17.50 and South Africa’s 70.20.Did India have enough to defend?
While there was a small but eventually significant gap between the two attacks, could India have done more with the bat to mitigate it? South Africa’s bowling was unplayable at times, particularly on the third morning when brutal lifters from Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada made short work of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. But on this pitch, the ball had misbehaved less as it became older – an observation that Bumrah made during his press conference at the end of day two – and there was one critical phase during India’s second innings when their batters may have played a part in their own downfall.Kohli had battled his way to 29 off 142 balls while following a similar template to his first-innings 79, avoiding drives unless the ball was pitched right up. While runs were coming at a drip from his end, Rishabh Pant was scoring freely, and they had put on 94 for the fifth wicket.At that point, Kohli drove away from his body and nicked Lungi Ngidi to second slip. R Ashwin and Shardul Thakur, India’s allrounders at Nos. 7 and 8, also fell in similar fashion during the same spell, driving away from their body at Ngidi’s outswingers. Ashwin sliced one to gully soon after he had edged a similar shot and been dropped in the slips.R Ashwin fell to Lungi Ngidi in the second innings at Newlands•AFP via Getty ImagesThese were probably the lapses of concentration that Kohli pointed to as match-changing events during the post-match presentation.”One of the challenges we have faced over the years touring abroad has been to make sure that we capitalise on the momentum when it’s on our side,” he said. “When we do that, we’ve won Test matches quite a bit away from home as well. But when we haven’t – we’ve actually had lapses in concentration which have been quite bad, and those have actually cost us a Test match completely.”Half an hour, 45 minutes of… you could say lack of application at times. Quality bowling from the opposition as well this series. But that’s what we basically boil it down to. We’ve had a few collapses now which have cost us important moments, and eventually Test matches.”Coming into this series, India were without Ravindra Jadeja, whom they now view as a full-fledged batting allrounder in overseas conditions, even batting him ahead of Pant at times. Ashwin has batted at No. 6 for India before, but his batting has fallen away quite a bit in the years since.Ashwin’s batting has gained some of its old sparkle over the last year or so, though, and one of the contributing factors has been the freedom of his attacking game against the fast bowlers. His counterattack in the first innings of the Kanpur Test against New Zealand was full of off-side drives against Tim Southee’s outswinger – at a time when he was running through India’s middle and lower order – and Ashwin may have been attempting the same sort of thing against Ngidi at Newlands.But he can occupy the crease, too – as he showed so memorably at the SCG last year – and with Pant scoring fluently at the other end, he may reflect that this may have been a more prudent approach.As it happened, those three Ngidi wickets transformed the game, and India, who had looked on course to set a target of at least 250, ended up setting one of 212.”When we say batting line-up we obviously add the lower middle order also to it,” Kohli said in his press conference. “It’s not just focusing on four guys or five guys, it’s till No. 7, potentially 8 as well, to make sure that we get the runs required to be put on the board, so that’s a collective responsibility I’m speaking of, and everyone knows it.”Everyone knows that they haven’t quite stepped up and put in the performances that would have driven us into more comprehensive or dominating positions, and that’s basically what I understood as to why we ended up losing the two Test matches, because collectively again, we just lost too many wickets in one session, that we have done a few times in the past as well.”While Ashwin and Thakur both contributed useful scores during this series, India will know they are both essentially No. 8s at this stage of their careers, and the two of them together don’t quite make up for the absence of Jadeja.