They handled India’s spinners by productively employing the sweep shot to chase down a target of 348

Karthik Krishnaswamy05-Feb-20202:51

We were able to use one short boundary to our advantage – Taylor

New Zealand were 180 for 3. They needed a further 168 to win, off 111 balls, or just a tick above nine runs an over. Tom Latham was batting on 4 off 14 balls.New Zealand fans following ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary were turning edgy. One of them questioned Latham’s decision to bat himself ahead of James Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme.Kuldeep Yadav floated the next ball up outside off stump. Latham stretched forward and swept it hard, all along the ground, and bisected deep backward square leg and deep midwicket. The next ball, almost an action replay save for landing a little closer to off stump, disappeared into the same gap, in the same, unstoppable way.Two balls, two clinical sweeps, eight runs.The sweep played a central role in New Zealand’s successful chase of 348, the biggest target they’ve ever overhauled in ODIs. The shot allowed them to dominate India’s spinners, Kuldeep and Ravindra Jadeja, who went for a combined 148 in their 20 overs.In all, according to ESPNcricinfo’s data, Latham played 11 sweeps of various descriptions (conventional, paddle, slog, reverse), scoring 25 runs off them. Sweeps brought Henry Nicholls 13 off seven balls, and Ross Taylor 26 off 13.That’s 64 runs in total, off 31 balls.India’s batsmen, in contrast, only played two sweeps of any description. One was a slog-sweep for six by Kedar Jadhav in the 48th over, off Tim Southee, a fast bowler. Off the 84 balls (not including wides) India faced from spinners Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi, they only played one sweep.This isn’t to knock India’s batsmen for their shot choices. Most of them aren’t regular sweepers when you compare them to Nicholls, Taylor and Latham, who are among the world’s most prolific players of the shot. Moreover, conditions weren’t exactly the same for both sides. The pitch had flattened out considerably when New Zealand batted, while the odd ball gripped and stopped on the batsmen during India’s innings.India also had less of an opportunity to attack the spinners, with Latham pulling Sodhi out of the attack after KL Rahul hit the legspinner for successive sixes in his fourth over. Wary of the six-hitting ability of Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, Latham used his fifth and sixth bowlers, Neesham and de Grandhomme, for a combined 16 overs.Henry Nicholls uses the sweep to good effect•Getty ImagesIndia didn’t have a sixth bowling option, unless you consider Jadhav, who has bowled just four times in his last 11 ODIs. At his best, his stump-to-stump round-armers might have kept New Zealand from sweeping as much as they did, given his lack of bounce, but the fact that he’s stopped bowling regularly suggests he’s lost rhythm or confidence, or the confidence of the team management.And so, India had to keep bowling Jadeja and the under-fire Kuldeep, who went for 84 in his ten overs. New Zealand feasted on these overs, demonstrating just how dangerous a weapon the sweep can be on a flat pitch, and on a ground with one short square boundary. Taylor singled this out in his Player-of-the-Match interview.”Tom batted very well, but I think we were fortunate with the right-left-hand combination throughout the innings and we were able to target the short boundary,” Taylor told the host broadcaster. “[For] Tom to come in there wasn’t easy to start, but I thought the way he way he came in there and targeted that short boundary released a lot of pressure off me, and, you know, that innings was fantastic.”The sweep gave India their one chance to end Taylor’s innings early, when he top-edged Jadeja while on 10, but Kuldeep misjudged the swirling chance at short fine leg. That apart, New Zealand’s batsmen swept with unerring brilliance, putting away all kinds of lines, hitting with and against the turn, and in doing so severely narrowing the range of lengths the spinners could bowl.Take the 24th over, for example. First, Nicholls swept a good-length ball from Kuldeep hard and square to beat the fielder at deep backward square leg. Kuldeep went fuller to compensate, but drifted slightly down leg, and Nicholls paddled him away for a couple. The next ball, almost inevitably, was a touch short, and at Kuldeep’s pace, he doesn’t need to be all that short to get pulled fiercely between mid-on and midwicket.What is a spinner to do? Jadeja might have asked himself that question, when Latham reverse-swept him against the turn, from well outside leg stump, over a leaping backward point fielder, and Taylor followed up with two slog-sweeps, for four and six, in the same over.India, in the end, could only sit back and admire their opponents’ skill.”Credit has to be given where it’s due, and I think they batted outstandingly well,” Virat Kohli said at the post-match presentation. “We thought 348 was good enough, especially with the start we got as well, with the ball. We were patient enough to get a couple of wickets and then got a run-out in there as well.”But then, Ross obviously is the most experienced player [in the New Zealand team] now that Kane [Williamson] is not there, but I think Tom’s innings was something that took the momentum away from us, after Nicholls got out, and as I said, those two in the middle overs were simply unstoppable.”Credit to them, the way they batted and the areas they hit, it made life very difficult for our bowlers.”

Who do you pick from among the stellar middle-order players going around? Our in-house selection panel tackles that and other thorny questions

Sreshth Shah03-May-202027:19

Which players would make it to a current World Test XI?

In the first instalment of , a new series where we ask our writers to pick all-star teams based on certain criteria, we selected the best XI from among all the Asian World Cup-winning sides. In episode two, George Dobell, Osman Samiuddin and Andrew Fernando take up the unenviable task of selecting the best Test XI (along with a 12th man) from among the world’s current cricketers. Quite a few players were unanimous choices, but there was plenty of debate too. Watch how our selectors arrived at their picks in the video above.4:38

Don’t we have any top-drawer Test openers?

The opener dilemma
Let’s face it. Very few compelling choices exist among openers successful in all conditions. Does Tamim Iqbal’s form in England earn him a place? Has Tom Latham proved his worth in Asia? Does Mayank Agarwal’s Test average of 57.29 make him an obvious choice? Who did our selectors eventually pick?Come down to the middle order and it’s the opposite. Smith, Kohli, Williamson, Labuschagne, Pujara, Azam and Co. You can pick only three. Who’d be a selector?3:28

A toss-up between two offspinners

Who will keep? Who will spin?
Two front-line contenders in the race for the wicketkeeper’s spot. Guess who they are, and who our panel picked. (They didn’t spend too long debating this one.)Two offies, a leggie, and a left-arm orthodox tweaker were the contenders for the spinner’s spot. One was swiftly discarded based on current form, but the other three offer such varied benefits that they needed to be weighed against each other. Ravindra Jadeja is the ideal allrounder, Nathan Lyon has been excellent on surfaces in Australia – where spin bowling has never been simple – but R Ashwin’s success in Asia cannot be ignored either. Can the experts fit more than one into this XI?6:44

Spoilt for choice with fast bowlers

Does Pat Cummins score over Jasprit Bumrah?
Is it fair to judge Bumrah – who plays most of his Tests in seam-friendly conditions while being rested in Asia, where fast bowling is toughest – on the same yardstick as other seamers? How strong a case do Kagiso Rabada and Trent Boult make? What about one of the other Indian seamers? Questions, questions. Dream Teams,

A fearsome prospect even when he bats lower down the order and even when he lasts only a few balls

ESPNcricinfo stats team05-Sep-2020

AB de Villiers may not have won an IPL title yet, but very few will begrudge him the status of being one of the best in the leagueOne way to gauge how influential a player has been for his team’s fortunes is to look at how often he has won the Man-of-the-Match award. ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats has a metric for objectively identifying the player who has had the highest impact on the match: the Total Impact measure.ESPNcricinfo Ltdde Villiers has delivered the most impactful performance of the match roughly once every nine matches he has played in the IPL. This is the fifth-most frequent rate for any player who has played at least 60 games in the tournament. In fact, since the 2011 season, when he moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore and became part of a star-studded line-up, he’s only upped his game. He has been the top performer once every seven matches in spite of often coming lower down in the batting order.The graphic below lists the top five of de Villiers’ 17 most impactful performances in the IPL, according to Smart Stats. While he faced at least 40 balls in each of these five innings, he has often made a telling impact on the outcome of the match in half the number of balls.Take the RCB v Deccan Chargers game in Bangalore in 2012 that is among these 17 innings. Chasing 182, RCB needed 39 from the last three overs with de Villiers at the crease on 7 off nine balls. RCB were faced not only with an asking rate of 13 – challenging even in these power-hitting times – but also two overs from Dale Steyn, then a premier T20 bowler. But Steyn never got a chance to bowl his second over. de Villiers hit 23 runs from the 18th over, bowled by Steyn, and 15 from the first four balls of the 19th. The match was wrapped up with seven balls to spare.ESPNcricinfo LtdAccording to Smart Stats, de Villiers’ impact with the bat on this match, because of the quality of the runs he made (quantified by the Pressure Index, as explained in the sidebar), was greater than that of three other batsmen who scored at least as many runs as him. In fact, his Batting Impact value of 97 was 40% more than that of Cameron White, who had the next highest impact on the match. Although two other batsmen got 70-plus scores, there was no doubt about who had had the highest impact on the game, as corroborated in this instance by the official award of Man of the Match to de Villiers.And then there was his 11-ball mayhem against Mumbai Indians in 2015.Such innings weren’t always the highest-impact performances of the matches but they were significant nevertheless, because their impact was much higher than what the scorecard tells you.Set a stiff target of 210, RCB had meandered to 60 for 2 after the tenth over and looked set to lose by a huge margin. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, no team has successfully chased 150 in the last ten overs in T20s. The longest any team has sustained a scoring rate of 15-plus an over is eight overs by Kings XI Punjab against RCB in 2013. Even teams batting first have scored 150 or more in the last ten overs only four times in over 750 IPL games. So RCB’s task of getting 150 from the final ten against Mumbai was bordering on the impossible.de Villiers walked in to bat in the middle of the 11th over and, by the end of the 13th, RCB needed 91 more (the required rate reducing from 15.57 to 13). Chasing teams have scored 91 or more 19 times in the IPL from the last seven overs. In the end RCB fell short by 18 runs. According to Smart Stats, de Villiers’ innings influenced the match almost as much as Harbhajan Singh’s 3 for 27 and nearly three times more than Lendl Simmons’ top-scoring innings of 59 off 44 balls.

The key details in Mohammed Siraj’s journey from tennis-ball cricket to Boxing Day debut

Hemant Brar25-Dec-2020″Stay strong for your dad’s dream.” Those were the words of captain Virat Kohli as Mohammed Siraj chose to continue his stay in Australia after his father died in Hyderabad.Siraj was offered the option to fly back home by the BCCI, but given the quarantine rules in place, he would have had to spend 14 days in isolation if he had travelled home and then flown back to rejoin the team in Australia. At that time, India were looking at a pace attack that had Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini – with Ishant Sharma also a possibility to join the team – apart from Siraj.With Sharma not joining the squad and Shami ruled out with an injury, Siraj is now set to debut in the Boxing Day Test. Here’s a look at his journey so far.Related

Unhappy encore for Australia's top-order batsmen

Gill and Siraj to debut in Boxing Day Test against Australia

Overseas debuts: Saini, Siraj better placed than their predecessors

The humble beginning
The son of an autorickshaw driver in Hyderabad, Siraj got hooked to the game while in class seven, after he was part of the team that won an inter-school tournament. From then on, he would frequently skip classes to play tennis-ball cricket. His pace and an ability to take wickets in clumps meant he acquired a cult status in the Banjara Hills locality.It wasn’t until 2015 that Siraj took to playing with the cricket ball, upon a friend’s insistence. He took took a slew of five-fors in his first few club matches and soon found himself in Hyderabad’s Under-23 side, and then in the senior team.The rise
In 2016-17, his first full season for Hyderabad, Siraj picked up 41 wickets at an average of 18.92 as Hyderabad made the Ranji Trophy knockouts for the first time since 2011-12. His nine-wicket haul in the quarter-finals then nearly caused an upset against Mumbai. Subsequently, he was picked in the Irani Trophy to play for the Rest of India.Going under the IPL hammer
In 2017, Siraj was picked by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 2.6 crore from a base price of INR 20 lakh. While he picked up ten wickets in six games with a best of 4 for 32, his leaked runs at 9.21 per over. He moved to the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the next season, but didn’t have the same success: 11 wickets in 11 games at an economy of 8.95. Those numbers only worsened in the 2019 season as he managed only seven wickets in nine outings at an economy 9.55.The red-ball success
Despite the hammering in the IPL, Siraj kept plugging away in domestic cricket. In the 2018 Vijay Hazare Trophy, he picked up three five-fors in seven matches to finish as the leading wicket-taker.Still, his best performances came in red-ball cricket where he reaped rewards with his seam movement and a surprise bouncer. In 2018, he picked up 55 wickets from ten first-class games, at an average of 19.80 and a strike rate of 37.9. That included two five-wicket hauls in a match against South Africa A and an 8 for 59 to dismantle an Australia A team that had Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, and Marnus Labuschagne.Recent form
In the 2020 IPL, Siraj became the first bowler to deliver two maidens in an IPL match on his way to 3 for 8 against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi. But there was nothing of that sort during the two practice games in Australia, even though he did pick up five wickets.

As the tournament comes to a conclusion we look back at the impact of three new rules: Power Surge, Bash Boost and X-Factor

Alex Malcolm04-Feb-2021The Power SurgeIt was designed to maintain interest throughout the 20 overs by moving the last two overs of the normal six-over Powerplay to the second half of each innings, available for the batting side to take from the start of the 11th over, to create some intrigue in what can often be a period of slower-going between the 11th and the 16th overs. The results would suggest it has worked very well.Last season the scoring rate for the tournament in the last two overs of the Powerplay was 8.01 with teams losing 58 wickets in total. This season the Surge has yielded 10.23 runs per over and 96 wickets have fallen in total.Across the season the teams that have batted better in the Surge have done better overall on the table than the sides who have bowled better in that period. The Thunder, Scorchers, Stars, and Sixers were the best batting sides in the Surge, with the Sixers, Scorchers, and Thunder finishing top three on the table. The Scorchers, Stars, Strikers, and Renegades were the best bowling teams in the Surge with three of those teams finishing in the bottom four.ESPNcricinfo LtdThe most interesting element of the Surge is which players have benefitted from it. Whilst the big-hitting Ben Cutting is an unsurprising name as the leading Surge scorer, Jordan Silk, and Jimmy Peirson, better known as middle-order accumulators, have had outstanding seasons thanks to their performances in the Surge overs with the bat.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”My big beef with T20 cricket was that the top three [batsmen] would always win the MVP,” Woodhill told ESPNcricinfo. “They would come out and go nuts and then there’s this whole lull until the last few overs. I think there’s a couple of batters who bat in the top three who have said, we’ve missed that opportunity to go hard in the fifth and sixth overs but they actually weren’t going as hard as they thought.”Jordan Silk has had an unbelievable summer but it’s probably one that he wouldn’t have had without the Power Surge. And that’s no disrespect, but now it’s given him the confidence to be able to do that with five men out as well.”It gives boundary hitters an opportunity, not just your big powerful six hitters. At the back end of the tournament in the BBL, wickets get tired and sometimes batters need some support to get the ball through the field, let alone over the rope.”The Surge has created some accountability for batting groups as well. At times, teams have made a mess of when to take the Surge and there has been no particular blueprint for success. The Thunder often left the Surge late to maximise Cutting and Daniel Sams. Some teams took the Surge immediately in the 11th over after a huge opening partnership only for it to completely derail the innings, like the Scorchers did against the Sixers.”I reckon it’s almost a wickets lost category,” Woodhill said. “If you’ve lost three or four wickets you must take it in the 11th over. Others like the Thunder, they can afford to go a couple of overs out.”But I think if you’re not sure, you must take it. A few teams have thought we’ll leave it and take it the next over and they’ve lost a wicket and lost that momentum. But that’s the beauty of it. You don’t want to be that black and white that there’s a certain over where teams should take it. It varies for each team which is ideal, and it varies for each list which is even better.”Bowling in the Surge has been a different prospect. Of the 23 bowlers who bowled more than four Surge overs in the season, 12 were able to concede less than 10.23 per over. Only four of those were spinners: Adam Zampa, Imad Wasim, Peter Hatzoglou, and Chris Green. Peter Siddle was the standout bowler taking eight wickets with a stand-out economy rate of 7.36. Jhye Richardson also picked up eight wickets and conceded 8.83 per over. The challenge for the quicks has been bowling with only two men out with a softer ball that doesn’t swing or seam like it might inside the first six overs.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”We saw around the wicket into the heels of the batters, which has worked against some batters and others who are really good at picking the ball up have been able to meet that challenge,” Woodhill said.”I like that it’s brought about some different tactics in the bowlers. I think you’ll see some adjustments from the bowlers, especially the quicks around how they move the ball in that period. We’ve seen with Jhye Richardson, he’s been able to move his body around on the crease, where he releases that ball to challenge the batter, which has been really good.”Ben Cutting often exploited the Power Surge•Getty ImagesThe Bash BoostAt the start of the tournament, the Bash Boost was considered somewhat of an afterthought with teams and fans looking at the big picture of winning the game rather than chasing the point for leading at the 10-over mark.In the end, the team with the most Bash Boost points, the Sixers, finished on top, and the team with the second most, the Heat, finished fourth when they had won the same number of games as both the Strikers and the Hurricanes and had an inferior net run-rate.The final game of the season had the added intrigue with the Stars needing to win both the Bash Boost and the game to qualify for finals and they failed to set an adequate 10-over target. The Strikers also cost themselves a home final after missing a Bash Boost point in a win over the Stars. The Strikers needed 10 runs from 12 balls and were just one down at the time but lost 2 for 7 and failed to get the Boost point. They were forced to rebuild to win the game.For the Hurricanes, meanwhile, there was one over in particular in which their lack of attention to detail cost them: the 10th over of their game against the Stars on January 4. They had started slowly in a chase of 184, reaching 1 for 56 after nine overs, but needed only eight runs off the 10th to secure the Bash Boost. Instead of taking the bonus-point target on, Dawid Malan and Ben McDermott took four singles off the over to miss out on the point, and ultimately lost the game. They would end up missing finals by one point.There was no clear statistical trend in terms of score increase or wickets lost in the eighth and ninth over across the season. But one clear pattern emerged this year, which ties in with the Power Surge. Scoring was down significantly in the first four overs of the innings. Teams scored at 7.18 per over in the first four overs this season compared to 7.65 last year. The three teams that went the hardest in the first Powerplay, the Sixers, Thunder, and Scorchers, all benefitted the most.Over-by-over scoring rates in BBL•ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I think at times, especially in the first half of the season, the top three batters put too much emphasis on their own wicket rather than on their own strike-rates,” Woodhill said. I reckon sometimes No. 3 and 4 got themselves in a little bit rather than chasing a better 10-over total. But these are new rules and that’s what happens. It’s who figures them out the quickest and the best.”Woodhill was surprised teams weren’t more adventurous with using a pinch-hitter in overs 6-10. Nathan Coulter-Nile was tried a couple of times for the Stars and Nathan Ellis for the Hurricanes without success. Woodhill believes the next development in the BBL, to maximise the Bash Boost point, could be the use of pinch-hitters and the development of power-hitting among bowlers.

“I think the Power Surge has been an overwhelming success. I know other leagues are already looking at it. The X-Factor is the one that obviously needs greater discussion and teams need longer to work out how best to utilise it.”Trent Woodhill

“If you’re 2 for 57 in the eighth over, you’re better off sending someone in to chase the point, whether it’s a Jhye Richardson, a Rashid Khan, or even an Andrew Tye,” he said.”Obviously you want to hold someone back for the Power Surge. Where the Thunder were really good, they’ve got Daniel Sams and Ben Cutting, they’ve got two Power Surge specialists, both strong boys in getting the ball over the 30-yard circle. So there are tactics that are going to develop over the course of the next few years to cope with the changes.”Someone like an AJ Tye to me all of a sudden becomes a floater. Because he hits the ball that hard and he gets the ball over that infield. Having only two out would be an advantage for him in a Power Surge but more importantly, leading up to a Bash Boost point he’s got the power to get it over the five on the rope as well.”One concern with the Bash Boost point is the value of it for a team that loses heavily. The Renegades pinched a point in a 96-run defeat to the Scorchers. The Bash Boost also played a part in making some games extraordinarily one-sided when teams recklessly chased one point after conceding a big first innings score. This season saw the two largest run-margins in BBL history and three of the top four and it also produced two of the three lowest team totals in BBL history.The X-FactorIt was arguably the least popular of the three new rules with some teams declaring pre-tournament they would hardly use it. In all, every team used it at least once, although the Scorchers only used when Mitchell Marsh was injured. The Heat were by far the most adventurous with it using it seven times while the Hurricanes used it four times.The Heat have used it in a couple of different ways. The first was naming Chris Lynn as an X-Factor when he was coming back from a hamstring injury, so he only had to field 10 overs and he made a valuable 30 off 16 to set up a win against the Thunder.They have also used Morne Morkel consistently to replace Xavier Bartlett after he bowls the first over of the match, giving the Heat five overs of bowling from the one position in the side with one over from a new-ball bowler who can swing it, in Bartlett, and four from a veteran, Morkel, who can hit hard lengths and bowl in the Surge and death overs.Morne Morkel has been used regularly as an X-Factor•Getty ImagesThe Hurricanes used a similar tactic of selecting a new-ball bowler, Nick Winter, to bowl the first over of the match before bringing in power-hitter Tim David at the 10-over mark. The Hurricanes were forced to adjust in one game when they batted first and were 0 for 91 against the Sixers, with Peter Handscomb volunteering to be subbed out for David.”I really loved the way Hobart used it with Nick Winter bowling with the new ball,” Woodhill said. “Or Jackson Bird bowling with the new ball. If it’s not working, bring in a spinner or utilise your allrounders, the way Hobart have brought in Tim David or Brisbane with James Bazley.”I think it will grow and there’s room to adjust the way it’s done as well. There’s no guarantee that it will stay in its current state. With three overseas players, we’ve seen the depth of the competition grow and with the X-factor as well it gives teams a chance to adjust after a toss which I think is important.”Teams were frustrated by the limiting nature of the X-Factor, with a decision only allowed to be made at the 10-over mark of the first innings. It clearly favoured the team that bowled first more so than the team that batted first and both Woodhill and BBL head Alistair Dobson have noted that the rule will likely evolve. But there is a keenness to ensure it doesn’t just become something that is used at the innings break so that both teams can play 12 and use their best 11 batsmen when batting and simply add an extra bowler when bowling and vice versa.The VerdictThe Power Surge was a clear success with positive reviews from coaches, players, broadcasters, and fans. It could fundamentally change the way T20s are played if it is adopted more widely. The Bash Boost and X-Factor in their current forms will certainly be reviewed by the League ahead of future tournaments.”I think the Power Surge has been an overwhelming success,” Woodhill said. “I know other leagues are already looking at it. The X-Factor is the one that obviously needs greater discussion and teams need longer to work out how best to utilise it, and then the Bash Boost point, that little peak there where teams have got in that ninth or tenth over where that strike-rate has dipped. That’s the challenge to increase that and if it means sacrificing some players around their batting, I reckon that’s what is needed.”

He provides control with the ball and has the ability to make match-defining runs with the bat

Danyal Rasool05-Feb-2021It would be unfair and absurd to compare Faheem Ashraf to Jacques Kallis, Garry Sobers, Ben Stokes or Andrew Flintoff. So we might as well begin with that.Two of those four have a solid claim to being England’s greatest allrounder, while the other two boast numbers that put him comfortably within GOAT territory. Ashraf, meanwhile, is a man who has never batted above No. 7, taken six of his 16 wickets in one Test, and never entirely convinced former head coach Mickey Arthur that he could score much at all. And yet, in his eighth Test, he top-scored for Pakistan – an unbeaten 78 that put them in charge against South Africa. It was his fourth half-century; none of that quartet considered allrounder royalty crossed 50 more than twice at this stage of their careers.Flippant factoids aside, Ashraf has gone from being a Test reject – shunned from the format for the best part of two years – to the key that balances a side which regularly plays at least one bowler or batsmen short. He has brought solidity to a lower order that comprised as many as three No. 11s for several Tests during his absence, and alleviated pressure off bowlers who found themselves overworked, particularly while Yasir Shah suffered something of a slump in form, as he did lately.Asfraf’s value to the side is evident while the other cogs in the machine function as desired – as they have seemed to for the most part this series. But it was equally useful during Pakistan’s miserable tour of New Zealand, when Ashraf looked to be batting on a different wicket to the side that didn’t collectively reach three-figures till the 66th over in the first Test, smashing a career-best 134-ball 91. And when Mohammad Abbas needed to be given a rest with the ball, he deputised expertly, if not quite as probingly, allowing just 40 runs in 19 overs, and taking the none-too-insignificant wicket of Kane Williamson for good measure.Related

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That side of the game may get a little more focus, particularly when the purple patch he is in with the bat begins to dry up, as (apologies for the negativity) it invariably will. Aside from a Test at the Wanderers where the Pakistan allrounder picked up three wickets in each innings, Ashraf has only once managed more than two in a match, and taken more than one in an innings just twice further. While his contributions to the side as a whole aren’t currently in question, that still might be too little incision for a man who claimed in Friday’s press conference that he “would consider himself a bowling allrounder till the day I retire”. So seriously did he take that tag he brushed aside any sense of disappointment at missing out on three-figures once more.”I started as a bowling allrounder and it’s in that role that I am playing in the side,” Ashraf said. “My batting is my plus point, and I am grateful that I’m performing with the bat, a discipline that I have put a lot of hard work into. I hope I’ll score a hundred one day, but if it’s in my fate, I’ll get a hundred without even noticing it. It’s not something I can control.”But there’s enough Test-cricket class among the 16 wickets he has taken to suggest Ashraf may have what it takes to pack a greater punch than his bowling average and strike rate might, at this nascent stage of his career, suggest. Williamson aside, Ashraf has had the wood over several players currently in the opposition camp, having dismissed each of Aiden Markram, Quinton de Kock, and, as seen today, Faf du Plessis. In addition, Johnny Bairstow has fallen to him twice, which perhaps punctures the narrative of the 27-year old simply serving as a dibbly-dobbler turning his arm over only so ostensibly superior seam bowlers can enjoy a breather. And if opposition batsman view his introduction into the attack as an opportunity to score a quick run, as perhaps du Plessis did with a wild cut shot too close to his body, then Ashraf has the quality to punish them.He may have been included in the XI because of Shadab’s lingering injury, but it’s hard to imagine him being dropped whenever and wherever Pakistan play next, no matter who else might be available. Test sides appear to exist in two states: they’re either searching for a seam-bowling allrounder or wrapping the one they have in cotton wool. The control Ashraf offers with the ball is a luxury no captain would take for granted, while the runs he consistently continues to chip in with have changed the outlook of several Tests for Pakistan, including this one in Rawalpindi.He might not have as many wickets as Pakistan might expect, but we are just eight Tests in for now. And, as we’ve seen with the most elite allrounders, eight Tests is much too early to be making judgment calls.

Offspinner is PCA’s player of the month for May after shouldering heavy workload in Essex attack

Matt Roller03-Jun-2021Simon Harmer has bowled more balls than anyone else in the County Championship this season, and it’s not even close. He’s sent down 386.3 overs for Essex, 126.5 more than anyone else in the country. Only 15 men – Harmer included – managed more than that in the entire 14-match season in 2019 across both divisions, and he still has six four-day fixtures left to play this summer.Unsurprisingly, he is exhausted. “The body is taking a beating,” he laughs, speaking to ESPNcricinfo ahead of a must-win fixture against Nottinghamshire this week. “Most teams have had bye weeks, but our fixture list was nine games on the bounce, which has been pretty relentless. I pride myself on being able to do a job but I’m sure the body would appreciate a break from the workload.”No-one could accuse Harmer of failing to pull his weight. He has not been quite as devastating this summer as in previous seasons, with 34 wickets at an average of 26.41, but his hard graft in the holding role has allowed Essex to rotate their seamers in a four-man attack. Even still, he has managed two 10-wicket hauls, in wins against Durham and Derbyshire, and only three men have taken more wickets.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn fact, his performances in May were enough to earn him a nomination for the PCA’s player of the month award through the Most Valuable Player (MVP) ranking system, which he has won after edging Craig Overton out in a public vote. He has been wicketless in his last two Championship appearances – the first time that has happened in his Essex career – but his match analysis of 12 for 202 against Derbyshire, useful runs from No. 8 and bucket hands in the slips were enough for him to be recognised.”It’s down to the public and their perception as to who they think deserves it,” he says. “I guess it’s a nice little achievement at the start of the season. [Against Derbyshire] the stars aligned – there was bad light on the first evening that they were batting so I had to bowl a lot of overs and then I just picked up where I left off in the morning. When it’s your day, you need to cash in and go big because I knew the wicketless games were around the corner – and they were.”

“I haven’t heard from Cricket South Africa since I signed my Kolpak deal in 2016 – there hasn’t been any conversation. I don’t know what the future holds”Harmer on a possible international comeback

Essex are top of Group One – albeit Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire both have games in hand – and wins in their final two fixtures should see them qualify for the six-team Division One in September, but after titles in 2017 and 2019, plus a Bob Willis Trophy win last summer, they have not found things so easy this year, with two defeats and three draws in their first eight games. In particular, Harmer points to other teams becoming “smarter”, preparing flatter home pitches that have stymied the effectiveness of their attack.”I’ve found it quite difficult,” he admits. “The wickets have been really flat, so I’ve just been trying to hold up an end. I love taking wickets but I know it’s not always going to be like that, and at the back end of the summer when the wickets are dried and we’re playing on used squares, I’ll come into the game more. I just need to find ways to contribute where I can now: trying my best in the slips and fighting as hard as I can when I come in with the bat.”Teams are getting smarter when we play away from home, because they know what they’re going to get at Chelmsford. It has made life a bit tougher for us but we’ve kind of found ways when the chips have been down. I don’t think we’ve had the start that we wanted to, but we’ve still found ways to win or draw when our backs have been up against the wall.”I don’t think it’s a bad thing that we haven’t got off to the greatest start: it’s meant that the guys have had to really dig deep and work their nuts off to try and make sure we get the performances that we need. Where we are at the moment will bring the best out of the squad; in years gone by, when our backs are against the wall and we’ve got to find ways to win, that’s when we’ve shown our true colours.”Harmer took his second Essex nine-for in May•Getty ImagesHarmer admits, too, that he has found things harder on the road than he is used to: he has 25 wickets at 20.20 at Chelmsford this summer, compared to nine at 43.66 elsewhere. “Teams are trying different formulas against us and against me. When you get onto a wicket and it’s not really turning, there’s only so much I can do, but when it’s turning it’s a completely different dynamic.”If a batter is looking to either block or take you on, you always feel like you’re in with a chance, but against spin, strike rotation is the biggest weapon that a batter has: if you’re going at three or four an over and it’s low-risk cricket for one, that’s where you feel ineffective. There hasn’t been anybody at Chelmsford who has played extremely well against spin; away from home, the hundred that [Rob] Yates scored at Edgbaston was a standout performance.”Harmer has long since given up on the ambitions he once held to play for England, and is now registered as one of Essex’s overseas players alongside Peter Siddle after Kolpak deals were cancelled, meaning he is eligible for South Africa again. But he has been overlooked since he became available, with no contact from the board and no call-up to the squads, and appears to be at peace with the idea that he has played his final international.”If that’s the case, and that’s the way my career pans out, I don’t think there’s a hell of a lot I can do about that,” he says. “I tried to make the best of the situation I was in, and I’ve proved myself in terms of my performances in England and my worth to Essex.”I haven’t heard from Cricket South Africa since I signed my Kolpak deal in 2016 – there hasn’t been any conversation. I don’t know what the future holds. I’ve got to keep my head down and put in performances. The cream always rises to the top. If I’m good enough, I’ll get selected; if not, I’ll keep doing my thing.””[Virdi] gets a lot of revs on the ball and has the potential”•Getty ImagesAs for other county spinners, Harmer thinks that the signs from this Championship season are positive for England. “There’s some competition for spinners now. In the past few years, that might not have been the case – it was only ever really Jack Leach and Dom Bess, whereas now there’s a lot more names flying around. That’s only going to push someone like Leach to be better, with guys breathing down his neck.”I’ve always thought highly of Amar Virdi: he gets a lot of revs on the ball and has the potential to be a really good spinner. I’ve watched Matt Parkinson bowl on streams but we haven’t played against each other – hopefully if both our teams progress I’ll get to see what he’s all about. He does a great job for Lancashire. Jack Carson at Sussex too: I was really impressed when we played against them last year and he’s been doing well for them this year.”But even with young bowlers coming through, what does it say that England have opted not to pick a frontline spinner in the Lord’s Test at New Zealand this week? “It’s a difficult place to bowl spin, and you’d back the English to know their own conditions. I’m pretty sure that The Nut [Leach] will play at Edgbaston but clearly they thought they didn’t need one at Lord’s. If [Mitchell] Santner does well and England haven’t picked a spinner, there are going to be a few red faces.”Ahead of the 2021 season, the PCA reviewed its MVP algorithm, partnering with CricViz and gaining expert insights from the players themselves. The four players with the most points across a month are nominated for Player of the Month, before a public vote decides the winner. For more info, follow @pcaMVP or visit the PCA website.