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A few teams may have thought if they got rid of David Warner and handled Mustafizur Rahman and Bhuvneshwar Kumar well, they could beat Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, even the most power-packed teams were unable to do that well enough

Alagappan Muthu30-May-2016

Where they finished

Champions, by winning a hat-trick of knockout matches.

How they got there

The Sunrisers Hyderabad story isn’t quite as much as it is . The Spartans lured the Persians into a nook between the mountains where the strength of numbers was useless. David Warner was one peak, their fast bowlers formed the other and rarely was an opposition allowed to breach. Sunrisers were able to ward off teams more powerful than themselves in this fashion, like Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final.To further the analogy, there was plenty of bravery from the players as well. Warner opted to bat first in two must-win matches when the flavour of the season was to chase and while knowing he had to provide most of the runs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar kept faith in his yorkers when he had begun the season bowling six full-tosses in a seven ball over that cost 28 runs looking for that elusive delivery. Shikhar Dhawan weathered a slow start to the season and became one of five players with 500 runs in the season. Ashish Nehra, failing body or not, was their bowling leader, hitting speeds of 140 kph and mentoring the other fast bowlers in the squad.Sunrisers began with two losses, but won seven out of the eight games that followed. They waylaid the defending champions Mumbai Indians twice, stunned Gujarat Lions thrice, capsized Royal Challengers twice and bested Kolkata Knight Riders’ big-game instinct in the Eliminator. Every one of those teams knew taking out Warner and tempering the impact Bhuvneshwar and Mustafizur Rahman have would have given them a grand chance to win. None of them were able to do so well enough.Twenty20, by its nature, allows individuals to dictate its course. And Sunrisers proved if those individuals took control of key stages during a match enough times, glory cannot be far behind.

Highlights

The empowerment of the bowlers. Mustafizur may not have always understood what was told to him, on account of his “problem” with English, but he knew he was Sunrisers’ trump card. He had three men in the ring on the off side, even in the slog overs, poised for the cutter that produced the outside edge. Moises Henriques, who is known more for his batting, was given his full quota of overs almost as much as the frontline bowlers. Team mentor VVS Laxman had had a chat with Bhuvneshwar to ensure he did not stray from his pursuit of the blockhole. Ben Cutting, who got to play back-to-back matches only in the knockout stages, was asked to stick to his strengths – back-of-a-length bowling to cramp the batsmen is natural for someone who is 1.92 m [over 6 feet] tall.The productivity of the captain. Warner expected himself to score quickly in the Powerplay. Then he had to temper himself so that he could bat as deep as he could. So well did he pace his innings that only four times was he stopped from making a fifty once he had crossed a score of 20. To be the kick-starter and the finisher, and to do it as often as he has knowing there wasn’t much firepower behind him, showed the growth in his batting and his penchant for leading from the front.

Disappointments

The middle order. Often it seemed taking out the openers meant taking out Sunrisers’ chances of a competitive total. Their Nos. 3 to 5 averaged 17.48, the worst among all teams this season, although it improved in the later stages of the tournament. Yuvraj Singh returned from injury to play a couple of vital cameos. Cutting’s assault on Sunday night when Sunrisers were slipping away was particularly pleasing, because he did not let his team panic and, instead, instigated panic in the opposition.

Key stats

• Warner scored 468 runs while chasing in this IPL, the most by a batsman in a single season
• The Sunrisers fast bowlers took 82 wickets in 2016, the joint second-most for a team in a single IPL season. The Rajasthan Royals quicks took 89 in 2013.
• Their six wickets taken by their spinners is the least for any team in an IPL season
• They were the first team to finish outside the top two in the league stage and yet take the trophy, since the Eliminator and Qualfiers were added to the IPL schedule.

Best win(s)

There were two, and both of them featured a quality that has defined Sunrisers. Resilience. They went into Qualifier 2 without Mustafizur and that may have contributed to Warner preferring to chase; to give his bowlers a chance at facing less pressure. After all, two days ago he had said he liked having runs on the board in knockout matches. Gujarat Lions set Sunrisers a target of 163. Sunrisers crumbled to 84 for 5 and an irate Warner needed to vent. It was a quiet kind of anger, barring the outburst with Tom Moody. It was the kind of anger that fuels a person’s resolve and makes him dangerous in a fight. By the time Warner was done, he had 93 unbeaten runs and his team was in the final.The final, where Sunrisers got into a middle-order muddle and got out of it. And where they took blows from Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli, and still came out on top.

Worst defeat

They gave Rising Pune Supergiants one of their five wins in the competition. And it had everything that can give nightmares to a Sunrisers fan. Warner was out for a duck and only three batsmen made double-figures. They were put in to bat, slipped to 32 for 5 and could only manage 118, their second-lowest total in all IPLs. Steven Smith then bullied Mustafizur and denied Sunrisers even the notion of a comeback.

What they need most next season

They seemed to have back-ups ready for most of their key players. When Mustafizur was unfit, Trent Boult came in. With Kane Williamson and Eoin Morgan misfiring in the middle-order, they had a decent replacement in Cutting. In the same way, they bought Yuvraj Singh and Deepak Hooda to strengthen the middle order but the former is on the wane and the latter hasn’t displayed the skills to bat long. An experienced player who can control the innings from No. 4 – preferably accustomed to Indian conditions – should be on their shopping list.

An analytical look at deliveries that highlighted vital aspects of a hard-fought day of Test cricket in Kanpur

Aakash Chopra22-Sep-20160.1 – Revealing the plan
Only two slips and a gully. One catcher at short midwicket. No one at point. Not the usual field for the first ball of a Test. Trent Boult not only shows his hand – the ball is going to be within the stumps – but also New Zealand’s assessment of the pitch. The first ball to KL Rahul slips down the leg side and barely carries to the wicketkeeper. Batsmen won’t be blamed if they commit to the front foot a little early. Once in a while, a bouncer won’t be a bad choice.Fourth over – How to play the short ball
Neil Wagner starts with the first attempted bouncer of the Test, to which M Vijay shoulders arms. He takes it on the arm guard and the message is plain. Ducking won’t be an option to deal with bouncers on this surface. Need to stay side-on, for that will make the target smaller, and stay upright, for that will allow the batsman to ride the bounce. Also, be prepared to take a few blows on the body while keeping eyes on the ball and dropping the wrists. Vijay’s response to the first ball encourages Wagner to send down five more consecutive short deliveries.5.4 – The leg-side snare
Second slip is out. Only first slip and a gully in the sixth over of the Test. There’s a fielder at deep square leg and short midwicket. Classic cat-and-mouse game. Expect a bouncer, but not just the bouncer because the fielder at short midwicket means the batsman must flick fuller ones carefully. Both left-arm seamers have gone around the stumps. It allows them not only to bowl a wicket-to-wicket line but keeps the area Ashwin would like to exploit undamaged.Mitchell Santner took a while to find his length on this pitch, but when he did he began to cause problems•BCCI10.6 – Length is mandatory
An attempted arm ball from Mitchell Santner grips the pitch, takes out a little piece of the surface, and spins to find Rahul’s outside edge. Bowling a little quicker in the air is the formula on this slow-low Kanpur pitch but it’s critical to find the right length to create doubt. Until this ball, Santner was guilty of bowling a bit too full. Ravindra Jadeja must already be licking his fingers. For the batsmen, picking the spinners’ length early is going to be key to run-making. While they can make up for an error in judgment of length against pace, it will get increasingly difficult to succeed if they misread length against spin.26.6 – Nimble feet against spin

Cheteshwar Pujara goes down the pitch and plays against Ish Sodhi’s legspin to the left of Boult at mid-on. This is the Pujara of old, someone who picks the length early and uses his feet to either go deep into the crease to cut or pull, or get to the pitch of the ball by stepping out. While Sodhi isn’t a big turner of the ball, he bowls reasonably quick in the air to discourage batsmen from coming down the pitch, and so this boundary by Pujara is a significant indicator of his form and mindset – considerably more positive than it has been in the recent past.51.1 and 51.3 – The importance of angles
Wagner bowls a short ball from around the stumps, Kohli helps it on its way to the fine-leg boundary. Next ball, Wagner goes over the stumps and bowls another short delivery. This time Kohli top-edges the pull to Sodhi at fine leg. Two similar balls produce two radically different results: it was down to the angles. When Wagner bowled around the stumps, the angle took the ball into Kohli’s body and it was a easier to guide the delivery to fine leg. But the moment Wagner went over the stumps, the angle took the ball away from Kohli and that led to a lack of control while playing the same shot.Trent Boult shortened his length late in the day, and bowled Wriddhiman Saha with one that nipped back late•BCCI56th to 76th over – Missing Santner
Santner has been New Zealand’s most successful bowler but he does not bowl for a period of 20 overs when India are in a precarious situation. The fall of Ajinkya Rahane gave New Zealand a window to get into India’s tail. Santner’s absence allows R Ashwin and Rohit Sharma to settle. They face him only after they have played over 50 balls each and the threat wasn’t the same. Williamson waits for the second new ball to bring Santner back, and it immediately results in Rohit’s wicket, but the delay might have cost New Zealand crucial time and runs.Boult gets it right
Chatting with Zaheer Khan during commentary made me realise the importance of a fast bowler finding the right length in the subcontinent. Boult was too full with the first new ball and that enabled Vijay and Rahul to negate him. But he pulled back his length with the second new ball and found movement off the pitch. It isn’t just batsmen who take time to adjust to different conditions. Bowlers do too.

It was another day of slim pickings in the field and, despite dismissing Virat Kohli cheaply for the first time in the series, could find themselves under pressure to save the game

George Dobell in Chennai18-Dec-20162:38

Trott: Groundhog day for England

It was, Ben Stokes reasoned, the sort of day when England gained nothing but “sunburn.”A flat pitch and a strong batting line-up brought home what has been clear for a few weeks: England do not have the tools to win series in these conditions. As Stokes put it: “Sometimes you’ve got to hold your hands up say they played really, really well.” As we’ve known for some time, India are too good for them.It’s not that England have played poorly. For fairly lengthy patches of most games – the possible exception being Mohali, where their inadequate first innings made the result almost inevitable from the first evening – they have fought well. But eventually, in most games, the difference in quality between the sides has told.It could happen again here. If England are unable to make inroads in the India batting early on the fourth day – and there is little sign that they will – they are likely to face somewhere around three sessions of batting to ensure they at least save this final match. If the pitch deteriorates – and there is little sign of that, either – that could prove tough.There were some encouraging moments on the third day. There was the wicket of Virat Kohli, dismissed for under 40 for the first time in the series, earned by Stuart Broad bowling round the wicket and producing a leg-cutter that Kohli played a little too early. The figures might not fully reflect it, but Broad has been England’s best seamer by some distance in this series.There was the wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara who, Stokes believed, was unsettled by some short-pitched bowling which eventually led to him prodding at a wide one he would normally have left. “I think maybe going a bit harder and shorter did make him play a ball he wouldn’t necessarily play at most of the time,” Stokes said.And there was Jos Buttler, charming a good-natured crowd by encouraging them to mimic him. And if that sounds like scant reason to take cheer, well, it was that sort of day. At least Buttler’s humour kept spirits and energy levels high.England’s plans have been thwarted, in part, by their inability to gain reverse swing in this series. While they were able to generate lavish reverse at times in Bangladesh with the Kookaburra ball, they have been unable to gain anything like the same movement with the SG ball used in India. For a team banking on the strength of its seamers, it has been a killer blow.”That’s probably been the most surprising thing, especially with how abrasive the surfaces have been,” Stokes said. “We’ve kept the ball in really good condition but they go really soft easily out here compared to the Kookaburra in Bangladesh where we managed to get quite a lot. It’s probably been a little bit of a shock we haven’t managed to find any.”It probably pays to reserve judgement on England’s spinners after days like this. It is, after all, a surface on which the world’s top-rated bowler, R Ashwin, claimed 1 for 151.He’s out: Virat Kohli chipped to cover but it did not bring a surge of wickets for England•AFPBut we have seen enough of Liam Dawson to conclude that his selection has been a qualified success. While he rarely threatened, he was the most economical of England’s trio and, as a consequence, was trusted to more overs on the third day than the others. Without him, India might be close to parity already and England might need to survive for an extra session to salvage a draw.
Adil Rashid was frustrating. Several times he beat the bat with sharply turning leg-breaks. On another occasion, he took the glove of Pujara before he scored and might have had him caught had he been given a short-leg. But when a bowler delivers as many release balls as Rashid, it is hard to justify the close fielders instead of protecting the boundaries. On such days, he looks desperately difficult to captain though it is intriguing that his best days on this tour have come when Saqlain Mushtaq has been in attendance as bowling coach. Either side of Saqlain’s stay, Rashid has been a disappointment.Moeen Ali bowled better. Gaining occasional turn, he appeared more willing to vary his pace and, until a poor final over, at least made the batsmen take a few risks – reverse sweeping or hitting over the top – to progress. But, having taken the only wicket in the morning session, he was taken off after one more over, given just a one-over spell in the afternoon session, and then brought back once the fourth-wicket partnership had taken root. It was puzzling captaincy.Alastair Cook didn’t enjoy the best of days. As well as dropping another catch – a decision will have to be made over whether he still belongs in the slips; he is dropping at least as many as he is taking – he looked jaded when chasing balls in the field where his relative lack of energy contrasted with Joe Root’s. Indeed, for periods on day two and three, Root has looked the more vocal and demonstrative of the two in the field. We may, perhaps, be witnessing a natural changing of the guard.There is no need for Cook to make an immediate decision over his future. With England not playing another Test until July, he has time to go home, reflect and ask himself if he still has the ambition to drive this team forward. If he is in any doubt over the answer, he should know it is time to quit. Root deserves the chance to settle in to the captaincy well ahead of the Ashes and neither in mid-series or mid-summer.Root has quite enough to worry about already. As if being the key batsman in all three formats is not burden enough – and remember, after an international summer that starts on May 5 and ends of September 29, England face one of the longest tours in recent memory, starting in October and finishing in April – he is also about to become a father. If England over-burden him, they risk both compromising his individual excellence and, perhaps, burn out.Such decisions can wait a few weeks; at least until the end of January. But increasingly Cook’s resigned demeanour is contrasting with his young team’s vigour. He may just need a break, but you do wonder if he still has the hunger required to deal with days like these.

Chandika Hathurusingha, once among Rangana Herath’s fiercest supporters within the Sri Lankan system, will go up against his old pupil who is now his native country’s Test captain

Andrew Fidel Fernando05-Mar-2017Rangana Herath, not far from starting his 40th year, finds himself in charge of his nation’s Test team, a rising opposition on their shores, a major personal milestone in tantalising sight. Chandika Hathurusingha, almost a decade older, finds himself coaching against the country of his birth, the team centenary on the horizon, an overseas win unlikely but far from impossible.Both men have known what it is like to be marginalised by their nation’s cricket establishment. They have each been besieged by self-serving administration; they have experienced the frustrations of being sidelined unfairly. In recent years, they have also known the satisfaction of quietly sticking it to their skeptics. That is a journey they had partially walked together.The relationship had begun normally enough in the late 1990s, when Herath began to dip his toes into the world of professional cricket, and Hathurusingha was making his first forays into coaching. Herath came to a trial at Moors Sports Club, where Hathurusingha had just become captain-coach. Hathurusingha was impressed enough by Herath’s bowling to sign him on, but crucially, began to see in Herath the virtues that define the bowler he has now become.”I always knew Rangana had the potential, because he has the patience and he’s very clever – the way he understands situations,” Hathurusingha says. “That’s not something you can coach.”Herath remembers the earfuls he got from his captain-coach in those early years, but also the qualities that have gone on to define Hathurusingha’s coaching career. “From the coaching side, he identifies players very well, and treats each individual according to their personality,” Herath says. “At times he has been harsh on me. But his ability to understand players is his biggest strength.”Soon enough, a productive working relationship had developed. Hathurusingha increasingly began to see Herath as a player in whom he could trust. Herath began to feel he was working with someone with whom he saw eye to eye.”He told anyone that would listen that I could really play”•AFP”It was always clear for me what Hathu expected of me, and I found I could respond well to what he told me,” Herath says. “I got results doing what he told me. Our thinking process was the same, and when that happens, it can be a very successful partnership.”Through the mid-2000s, while Sri Lanka’s selectors saw in Herath a humdrum left-arm spinner, it was Hathurusingha who called for Herath to be picked for Tests. “The fact that I knew I always had his trust was a big source of strength for me,” Herath says. “He told anyone that would listen that I could really play.”Hathurusingha remembers the three specific occasions he brought Herath into the limelight.”When he was playing with me at Moors, he played Test cricket. When I became Sri Lanka A team coach and he was dropped from the national team, I made sure he was in my team. Again, in 2009, when there was an injury in the Test squad, we had to call him and get him back from England. I was involved in all three decisions, so in that sense, I’m proud that I backed him.”And how that support has been vindicated. Hathurusingha has been repeatedly spurned by Sri Lanka Cricket since his sacking in 2010, but in a six-year exile he has seen his star student become one of Sri Lanka’s greatest Test match-winners. With 357 Test scalps, Herath stands six short now of eclipsing Daniel Vettori’s tally to become the most successful left-arm spinner in history.”It’s a huge thing when you back someone without seeing what’s going to happen, and to be honest he has gone on to achieve bigger things than I have expected,” Hathurusingha says. “He’s so clever in the way he reads what batsmen are doing. We still talk frequently. For example, we had a chat one series when he had just played against England. He said: ‘I only turned three balls in the series, and they kept getting out to me – I got 18 wickets’. A lot of those were lbws. He pitched the ball in the same place against Jonathan Trott in two different games – one ball turned and the other didn’t, and he got him out both times. I’m very pleased with what he’s achieved.”Herath is not short of admiration for Hathurusingha either. “Bangladesh have a big advantage because a coach of Hathu’s calbre is with them,” he says. Hathurusingha, though, feels there is no clear edge to be had.”Rangana knows as much about me as I do about him. We have shared his thinking and he knows my thinking as well. Even when I was away from Sri Lanka over the last six years, very frequently we speak.”In the approach to what promises to be a tight contest, there has been no hint of a niggle between the sides. No envenomed darts have been shot at press conferences. No one has made high-flying boasts. Why should there be bad blood, when between home captain and opposition coach, there is so much shared history, and such abiding warmth?

Six candidates were considered for the position. What have they done in the coaching space so far?

Arun Venugopal01-Jun-2017Ravi Shastri
In August 2014, after India had capitulated to a 3-1 defeat in a Test series in England, Shastri, who had no prior senior coaching experience, was brought in as team director to work with head coach Duncan Fletcher. India went on to lose a Test and ODI series in Australia, but reached the semi-final of the 2015 World Cup. After that, Fletcher’s contract was not renewed and Shastri continued as director, overseeing Test series wins in Sri Lanka, at home against South Africa and a win in the Asia Cup. He is understood to have developed a rapport with captain Virat Kohli during that period, which is one of the chief reasons he is considered the favourite to be named coach this time.Phil Simmons
Simmons has coached three international teams – Zimbabwe, Ireland and West Indies. His 18-month stint with West Indies ended in September 2016 after he had disagreements with members of the West Indies Cricket Board and with director of cricket Richard Pybus, who is also a candidate for the India coaching job. His sacking came just four months after West Indies won the World T20. That was a rare high during Simmons’ tenure with West Indies – the only other series win, in any format, under him was in a Twenty20 series against India, and the team slipped down the ODI rankings, leading them to miss the 2017 Champions Trophy.His eight-year stint (2007-2015) with Ireland was more successful. With him as coach, Ireland won 11 trophies, qualified for every major ICC event and beat Pakistan, England and West Indies in World Cup matches. It was in sharp contrast with his tenure as Zimbabwe coach, from 2004 to 2005, which was fraught with disagreements with board members and ended with him facing deportation from the country.Since being removed as West Indies coach, Simmons has coached St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the 2017 Caribbean Premier League and acted as a consultant to the Afghanistan national team.Virender Sehwag
When he was appointed mentor of Kings XI Punjab in the IPL last year – his first coaching stint at any level – Sehwag brought to the job the free-spirited approach that had characterised his batting. Despite Kings XI finishing last in 2016, the management persevered with Sehwag and elevated him to head of cricket operations and strategy for the 2017 season.Kings XI did markedly better this season and remained in contention for the playoffs deep into the season, before finishing fifth. Sehwag, 38, did not mince words after Kings XI’s dire performance in their last game, lashing out at his overseas players
for not pulling their weight.Tom Moody has helped Sunrisers Hyderabad win an IPL title•BCCITom Moody
Moody will hope to be third-time lucky in the race for the India coaching job, after losing to Greg Chappell in 2005 and Anil Kumble last year.Soon after his playing career wound down in 2000-01, Moody, a two-time world cup winner, was named director of cricket at Worcestershire before taking over as Sri Lanka coach in May 2005.After guiding Sri Lanka to the final of the 2007 World Cup, Moody returned home to coach Western Australia. Ahead of IPL 2013, Moody was named coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad and he oversaw the team’s title triumph in 2016. In 2014, Moody took up the role of director of cricket in the Caribbean Premier League. He is also the current director of cricket for the BBL team Melbourne Renegades, a post he has held since 2014.Richard Pybus
After injuries restricted his playing career to a solitary List A game, Richard Pybus turned to coaching at a young age and achieved remarkable success. Apart from winning trophies with Titans and Cape Cobras in South Africa, Pybus, born and raised in England, coached Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup, when they made the final. His second stint with Pakistan in the 2000s wasn’t as successful though.In May 2012, Pybus took over as Bangladesh coach before resigning five months later because of a disagreement over the terms of his contract. A year later Pybus was appointed director of West Indies cricket for a three-year period.Lalchand Rajput
A former Mumbai batsman with a first-class average of nearly 50, Lalchand Rajput’s post-retirement career has been just as, if not more, fruitful. Rajput was manager of the India team that won the inaugural World T20 in 2007, and he has had successful coaching stints with the India under-19 and A teams.Apart from coaching the Mumbai side in the Ranji Trophy, Rajput, 55, was with Mumbai Indians in the first season of the IPL in 2008. He was also one of the candidates interviewed for the India coaching job last year. While he didn’t make the cut then, Rajput was appointed coach of Afghanistan soon after. He is currently with the Afghanistan team in the West Indies for a limited-overs tour.

Aakash Chopra analyses tactics from the first qualifier between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant at the Wankhede

Aakash Chopra16-May-2017Rising Pune’s selection dilemma
Losing Ben Stokes is akin to losing two players, because he had been bowling four overs – in the Powerplay and the 19th – and also scoring crucial runs. Rising Pune could have replaced him with either a batsman – Usman Khawaja – to make up the runs, or a bowler – Lockie Ferguson – to provide bowling cover. Because they had a settled top order, Rising Pune picked the New Zealand fast bowler Ferguson to strengthen the attack. He returned figures of 3-0-21-1.A deft juggle of bowlers
Mumbai Indians opened the attack with Mitchell McClenaghan, who aimed almost every ball at the stumps. He had third man in the circle and both fine leg and square leg back for Rahul Tripathi and bowled the Pune opener with another full delivery. Lasith Malinga bowled the second over and removed Steven Smith. McClenaghan bowled the third over, Jasprit Bumrah the fourth, Karn Sharma the fifth, and Malinga again for the sixth over. Lots of teams use four bowlers in the Powerplay but the way Rohit Sharma did it today was better than most.New role for Malinga
Throughout the IPL, Malinga has been a little off colour and though Mumbai opted to play him in the big playoff game, they used him differently. He bowled the second, sixth and 11th overs. In the past, it was blasphemous to even entertain the thought of not having two or more Malinga overs available in the slog. These days, Mumbai don’t leave more than one Malinga over for the final five. The rise of Bumrah as an effective slog-over bowler has allowed Mumbai to use Malinga differently.Today, Bumrah bowled only one over in the first 13. Also, Bumrah bowling the 14th over strengthened another T20 theory – rarely does a bowler bowl three overs on the trot. Rohit gave Bumrah the 14th over to make sure he could bowl the 18th and 20th. In the end, Malinga didn’t even finish his quota.Lasith Malinga dismissed Steven Smith in his first over•BCCI Dhoni’s finishing
It’s evident that nowadays Dhoni needs a little time to get going, and that aspect was on display against Mumbai. For the first 15 balls, his strike rate was well under 100 despite a six. From there, he went on to hit four more sixes and ended with the acceptable strike rate of 154. While his dot ball percentage (46%) was higher than usual, he made up for it with some classic Dhoni-style hitting. Every time the bowlers bowled a length ball, he deposited them into the stands. Only the yorkers went unscathed.Umpiring errors
In the Rising Pune innings, there was a leg-side wide that wasn’t called. In Mumbai’s chase, Rohit was done in by umpiring error – there was an edge before the ball hit his pads but the umpire gave it out. Just like the wide, this umpiring error was evident before Rohit had left the field.While I’m not advocating for DRS in T20 and the IPL, is it not possible to rectify the blatant errors when there’s no apparent wastage of time? Why can’t the third umpire step in? There have been too many umpiring errors this IPL that might have changed the course of games.A batting meltdown
There was a common theme to the recent collapses of Gujarat Lions, Kolkata Knight Riders, and Mumbai tonight. A decent start, a quick wicket or two, and not even a single batsman thinking about steadying the innings. In every team meeting before a T20 game, there’s a mention of how 120 balls is a lot of time and therefore, it’s imperative to read the situation properly and react appropriately. The message is getting lost of late.

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jun-2017

Cricket’s first organised foray into the 10-over format aims to attract more youngsters to the game with a snappier style, while also looking to appeal to the Asian expatriate workforce in the UAE

Paul Radley13-Dec-2017In the summer of 2003, Hampshire Hawks and Sussex Sharks played a local derby in what was the first fixture in the new Twenty20 Cup.No-one knew quite what to expect from a competition designed to win back supporters to the county game in the UK. It was a hit and giggle in the middle, with some organised fun beyond the boundary, all for entertainment’s sake.Game strategy barely amounted to much more than calling on the overseas player as soon as possible, and seeing if he could win the game. It meant Wasim Akram batted at No 3 for Hampshire. He hit 10 from eight balls, including one six, as Hampshire made 153, then dismissed Matt Prior and Murray Goodwin in successive balls, to go a long way to achieving his brief.A little over 14 years later, Wasim will be on the scene again as a new concept is tried, in the form of the T10 League at Sharjah Cricket Stadium. It seems apt. He starred so often for Pakistan when Sharjah enjoyed its one-day international heyday. He was there at the very start of T20. Now he is back again for cricket’s first organised foray into 10-over cricket.”Imagine if I would have been in this era?” said Wasim, who is the coach and team mentor of Maratha Arabians in the T10 League. “Three hours of cricket in T20, or 90 minutes in T10, then you could go back home and chill.”The creators of the new league aim to pare down cricket even further than T20 already has, fitting it into a 90-minute time-frame similar to other major sports like football.”In India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, people have time and they can watch all day,” Wasim said. “Here, they don’t. That is why an hour and a half, especially for youngsters, is good.”What I would like to see is kids playing in the nets outside, with tennis balls, so they can come and watch, and play cricket as well. Cricket is big in this part of the world.”Raton Gomes/BCBThat is what the tournament’s organisers are banking on: the appeal of the game to the UAE’s large expatriate workforce, whose leisure time is at a premium.Shaji Ul Mulk, the creator of the T10 League, says he first had the idea when watching Brazil playing in the 2016 World Cup.”Looking at the intensity of the players involved, and also the intensity of the supporters watching the games, that is where the idea stemmed from,” Ul Mulk said.”I thought that if cricket could come to that same time period, it could open cricket to new markets in the world, and make it faster.”
Originally from India, Ul Mulk moved to Dubai aged 20, and earned a name for himself in A Division cricket as a prolific wicket-taking offspinner. He might have played in cricket’s World Cup in 1996, had his business career not limited the time he could devote to what was, and still largely remains, an amateur pursuit in the UAE.After he finished playing, he continued his involvement in the sport as a generous benefactor of UAE cricket, and has regularly brought Pakistan Test players to play domestic cricket in the country. The T10 League, though, is his biggest undertaking in the sport to date.The league has six teams, with matches from Thursday to Sunday. Although each will be 90 minutes long, the days are no shorter than cricket’s longest form. There are four matches on each of Friday and Saturday, which equates to seven-and-a-half hour days.The organisers have tried to appeal to the South Asia population by having two franchises nominally representing parts of India (Kerala Kings and Maratha Arabians), Pakistan (Pakhtoons and Punjabi Legends), Bangladesh (Bengal Tigers) and Team Sri Lanka Cricket.Few could have foreseen quite the direction T20 would take from that first evening at the Rose Bowl in 2003. T10’s brains trust has a vision for the future, however; has a plan marked out for its development.It is a bold one. They have a 10-year agreement to stage matches at grounds in the UAE. They want to have similar events abroad, starting in Pakistan and perhaps even the United States. They expect internationals between established nations to be played in the format in the near future. They even believe T10 could aid any potential bid cricket might want to make for Olympic inclusion, a view already voiced by the England limited-overs captain, Eoin Morgan, among others.Salman Iqbal, the T10 League president, who also owns the Karachi Kings PSL franchise, believes 10-over cricket will have a broad appeal because it is similar to the type of cricket played by many.”Ninety per cent of great Pakistan cricketers – Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Javed Miandad – all these guys have played street cricket,” Iqbal said.”In street cricket, you play 10 overs. This is how cricketers are born in Pakistan and India. What we have done is move the board 180 degrees. They are going to play the same sort of cricket, in front of thousands of people, and with the whole world watching – for 10 overs. They are going back to the street.”Secondly, the younger generation don’t have the time. Why is football so popular? Why is basketball so popular? It is because it’s 90 minutes. Thanks to all the digital content flying around the world, our attention spans are getting smaller and smaller and smaller.”Ninety minutes could work perfectly. If the boards like it, they could take it to the Asian Games, then the Olympics. That would change the whole cricket world.”Chris WhiteoakIqbal admitted the players needed persuading to sign up to the new league. Many, he said, were put off by the last private cricket venture to be staged in the UAE, the ill-fated Masters Champions League.There are certain similarities. Many of the players initially announced as being involved in T10 – Shahid Afridi, Virender Sehwag, Misbah-ul-Haq – were recently retired, which had been the premise of the MCL when it launched amid much fanfare in 2015. Sehwag is even due to play for a team called the Arabians – Maratha this time – having won the MCL with Gemini.Neither has T10 been without teething issues. Initially, it was due to be staged from December 21 to Christmas Eve. It was shifted a week earlier to accommodate leading players from Pakistan. Then the T10 Cricket League, as it was initially called, lost the term “Cricket” because of a copyright clash.Perhaps most pointedly of all, there were a number of player withdrawals. Kumar Sangakkara’s face still adorns a number of promotional billboards, even though he pulled out of playing, citing personal reasons. Dwayne Bravo was announced as his replacement for Maratha.The Maratha franchise reported few other problems, but Bengal Tigers were not so lucky. Six of their original 15-man squad have been unable to fulfill the commitment to play, including Sunil Narine and Mustafizur Rahman, the franchise’s first two draft picks.Both Iqbal and Ul Mulk, though, have provided guarantees the T10 League will not go the same way as MCL.”With Mulk Holdings and [Iqbal’s] ARY Group, we have two strong business houses, we have given a total guarantee that it will be different this time,” Ul Mulk said. “We have taken the guarantee that all the players and everybody else will be paid by us.”One feature of the new league is the exposure it will provide UAE players. Even though both IPL and PSL have been played in the Emirates in the past, local players only ever had a watching brief. They have long craved admission to the major T20 leagues around the world. Whenever they have made the draft list for the Pakistan Super League, though, they have been left on the shelf.In the past, Saqib Ali, a former UAE batsman, won a Bangladesh Premier League deal, but did not make it there, on account of visa issues. More recently, Chirag Suri, a young, Dubai-raised batsman, landed an Indian Premier League contract for the 2017 season, but did not play a match for Gujarat Lions.Two places in each of the T10 League franchises – other than Team Sri Lanka Cricket – were reserved for UAE players, with a guarantee that at least one will be in the starting XI. The opportunity to rub shoulders with the gilded stars of elsewhere has been gratefully received by the locally-based players – as has the financial kick.The UAE players will be getting $10,000 for four day’s work. That works out at a far better daily rate – around 10 times better – than Suri managed for his IPL jaunt.Not only do they appreciate the windfall, the UAE players are happy with the playing opportunity they are getting. Mohammed Naveed, a former tape-ball player who is ranked No 12 for T20 international bowlers, wants to use the competition as a shop window which will help him access other T20 leagues. Rohan Mustafa, the UAE captain, can’t wait to play alongside “my all-time favourite batsman” Eoin Morgan, who is his captain at Kerala Kings.”The whole league is designed to be a UAE property,” Ul Mulk said. “That was the whole point of having the competition here, apart from the fact we wanted to create something special, the first time a T10 league had been played.”It feels like giving back to UAE cricket, and that is why we made sure the players would be involved. We are sure it will only help improve cricket here.”National

Reactions after Kevin O’Brien’s landmark Test hundred on Ireland’s debut

ESPNcricinfo staff14-May-2018

Congrats to you @KevinOBrien113 on a special knock #TestmatchHundredonDebut #1stTestHundredforIreland

— Phil Simmons (@Coachsim13) May 14, 2018

Well done buddy @KevinOBrien113 amazing achievement again delivering for the country when we needed you. Great day for the lads brilliant knock @SRThompson91 . Huge last day ahead get down to malahide tomorrow people

— Niall John O Brien (@niallnobiobrien) May 14, 2018

Take a bow @KevinOBrien113 . Pleasure to witness it and makes for an exciting day 5! Top class

— Paul Stirling (@stirlo90) May 14, 2018

No 100 this year will be greater received or applauded more than @KevinOBrien113 .. What an achievement … this is what happens when we allow the game to grow …!!

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) May 14, 2018

Been a privilege agonizing through every run today @KevinOBrien113 Great job from @KaneTyrone and @SRThompson91 to bat with you. Brilliant achievement for the whole team to come back on day 4

— Isobel Joyce (@izzyjoyce) May 14, 2018

HISTORY MAKER! @KevinOBrien113 has our first ever Test century!

Take a bow! #IREvPAK #BackingGreen pic.twitter.com/fmB4AK6Lp0

— Cricket Ireland (@Irelandcricket) May 14, 2018

Today's hero, @KevinOBrien113, leaves the field to a standing ovation from all at @MalahideCC #IREvPAK #BackingGreen pic.twitter.com/HPHYXZ56QP

— Cricket Ireland (@Irelandcricket) May 14, 2018

Test Match hundred big bro @KevinOBrien113 Shot Yaar Kevviiiiiii!! #IREvPak pic.twitter.com/6iVE73wNmO

— Ish Sodhi (@ish_sodhi) May 14, 2018

Congrats to @KevinOBrien113 for being the first Irishman to score a Test !!! Great to see a hundred in their first ever test #IREvPAK

— Sarah Taylor (@Sarah_Taylor30) May 14, 2018

@KevinOBrien113 u beauti Well Done for Making century on ur 1st Test Match pic.twitter.com/54jBKocAhL

— Gulbadin Naib (@GbNaib) May 14, 2018

@KevinOBrien113 well played brother Congrats for on your Debut test

— Samiullah Shinwari (@SamiShinwari45) May 14, 2018

Yes @KevinOBrien113!!!!! What a ton!! Yesterday we had the great @MickJagger at Malahide but today we’ve had some ‘Honky Tonk’ from the Donk!!! #baton @Irelandcricket pic.twitter.com/Fi8hyTUBeq

— Kyle McCallan (@KMcOffie) May 14, 2018

HISTORY!! Kevin O'Brien brings up the first ever 100 for Ireland in Test Cricket cheered on by his parents Ginger and Camilla O'Brien pic.twitter.com/mkyLs7DtpC

— Irish Cricketers (@IrishCricketers) May 14, 2018

The reactions to AB de Villiers’ stunner at the Chinnaswamy

ESPNcricinfo staff17-May-2018In case you missed the catch from AB de Villiers.

How to take a one-handed stunner, by @ABdeVilliers17 https://t.co/GgZs8Yg33t #RCBvSRH #IPL

Photo: BCCI pic.twitter.com/FmK7qWOTy4

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 17, 2018

It brought out superhero comparisons.

Saw #SpiderMan Live today! @abdevilliers17#RCBvsSRH #IPL2018 pic.twitter.com/mUuGVKuTn4

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) May 17, 2018

@ABdeVilliers17 should be in the Avengers!He is a super human! #RCBvSRH #IPL2018

— Sibonelo Makhanya (@Sibzmakhanya) May 17, 2018

If any one asks why we call ABD a superman just show them this catch of hales… #ABD #SRHvsRCB #IPL11

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) May 17, 2018

It also left Jonty Rhodes in awe.

#insane #ABD #whatacatch @ABdeVilliers17

— Jonty Rhodes (@JontyRhodes8) May 17, 2018

And many others.

Can’t keep ABD out of the game… wow!

— Mitchell McClenaghan (@Mitch_Savage) May 17, 2018

Ultra slow motion / Real time / Replay. It doesn't matter. You have to watch it in every possible angle to believe he actually took it. INSANE from @ABdeVilliers17. Mr. 360 not just with the bat but on the field as well #RCBvSRH pic.twitter.com/u23Sbu65uw

— Hemang Badani (@hemangkbadani) May 17, 2018

You could dream about taking the craziest catch, but it won't beat the reality that @ABdeVilliers17 just showed us #RCBvSRH

— Gaurav Kapur (@gauravkapur) May 17, 2018

That catch strengthens the theory that AB de Villiers is from some other planet.

— LOLendra Singh (@LOLendraSingh) May 17, 2018

Surely the best catch of IPL 2018?

Whatttaaaa catch, That to me was THE CATCH of this #IPL2018 and that too… by a mile….#ABD #RCBvSRH #Mr360

— subramani badrinath (@s_badrinath) May 17, 2018

AB > Boult > Rashid? All on the same ground btw

— Sidvee (@sidvee) May 17, 2018