How ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary recorded Keshav Maharaj’s brutal hitting

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jan-2020More Root, around the wicket81.1, Root to Maharaj, FOUR runs, swiped to deep midwicket’s right. Full toss on middle stump, gets low, watches that closely, and it’s a nice and controlled sweep81.2, Root to Maharaj, FOUR runs, full and down leg side, gets low again and has a swipe at it. No danger really with that line. Gets it off the under-edge and past Buttler81.3, Root to Maharaj, FOUR runs, and another! Maharaj loves attacking spinners, and right now he’s being fed. Another full one pitching outside leg and once more he’s down quickly to whip this past leg gullyNow he’s over the wicket81.4, Root to Maharaj, SIX runs, boom! That is some hit, whew. Length ball pushed through outside off. Slides into his arc and he wallops it over deep midwicket81.5, Root to Maharaj, SIX runs, and 24! Length outside off again, pushed through again. And slogged cleanly once more. This goes further back in the midwicket direction81.6, Root to Maharaj, 4 byes, and now he beats everyone. This is 99kph/62mph and moves away from the batsman, off the pitch. He’s squared up and Buttler is beaten too as this slides from underneathKarthik: “Please tell me that’s the most expensive over in test match Cricket!” — Joint-highest! Lara v R Peterson (2003-04), Bailey v Anderson (2013-14) the other contests with 28 in an over.

Who has the best chance of progressing to the knockouts, and who needs a miracle? Read all about it

Hemant Brar10-Feb-2020

Elite Groups A and B

Gujarat (29 points) and Saurashtra (28) have enough points already to ensure themselves quarter-finals spots, and even if Andhra (27) lose their last group match, their four wins will be higher than any other side they might end up tied with for the final slot.That means there are only two more slots to be filled up from Elite Groups A and B, combined. And there are seven teams – Bengal, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Vidarbha and Delhi – still in contention. Here’s what each of them needs to do.Bengal (points 26)

A win, or even a draw with a first-innings lead, will seal their place in the quarter-finals. Even if Punjab take the first-innings lead, they should be safe, courtesy their superior quotient (1.537). In fact, they can qualify even if they lose, provided Uttar Pradesh don’t get a bonus point against Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka either lose or concede a first-innings lead in a draw with Baroda.Karnataka (points 25)

Ditto. They either need to win or secure a draw with a first-innings lead to qualify for the knockouts. But if Baroda get the first-innings lead, they will have to hope Bengal beat Punjab, UP don’t win against Himachal, and Tamil Nadu don’t get a bonus point against Saurashtra.If they lose, they can still qualify if Bengal beat Punjab, UP and Tamil Nadu either draw or lose their games, and Vidarbha and Delhi don’t get a bonus point against Hyderabad and Rajasthan respectively.Bengal and Karnataka are the only teams from the combined group that can qualify even if they lose their games.Punjab (points 24)

Punjab’s fate is also in their own hands. If they beat Bengal, they qualify. They can also scrape through if they manage a draw with a first-innings lead. In that case, both Punjab and Bengal will end with 27 points, and there is a scenario where Andhra and UP too can finish with 27 points each. Then the quotient will be the tie-breaker.Uttar Pradesh (points 20)

A bonus-point win against Himachal will take them to 27 points, but even that will not guarantee them a quarter-final berth. Their best chance is if there is an outright result in the Punjab-Bengal game and Karnataka lose to Baroda or at least concede a first-innings lead in a draw.But if Karnataka win or take a first-innings lead, they would want Punjab to take a first-innings lead against Bengal in a drawn game, or Andhra to lose to Gujarat. In both those scenarios, there will be multiple teams tied on 27 points with the quotient being the deciding factor.If UP win without a bonus point, then their best chance is if Bengal beat Punjab, Baroda beat Karnataka and Saurashtra either beat Tamil Nadu or draw with them. In that scenario, they will be through without relying on the quotient. But if Karnataka win and there is an outright winner in the Punjab-Bengal game, UP will be out of the race.Abhinav Mukund marked his 100th Ranji game with a 100•K Sivaraman

Tamil Nadu (points 19)

Tamil Nadu also need many other results to go their way. Their best chance is to beat Saurashtra with a bonus point and hope that Karnataka, Punjab and UP lose their respective games. This way they will be on 26 and could be the fifth team to make the cut.If Tamil Nadu don’t win by a bonus point, they can still qualify if Karnataka, Punjab and UP lose their respective matches. In that case, it will be battle of quotients between them and Karnataka (and Vidarbha, if they beat Hyderabad with a bonus point). Right now, Tamil Nadu (1.319) have a higher quotient than both Karnataka (0.969) and Vidarbha (1.126).Vidarbha (points 18)

The two-time defending champions need a slew of results to go their way. The only positives for them are their decent quotient and that they are playing against Hyderabad, who have lost six out of their seven games. Vidarbha must beat Hyderabad either by an innings or by ten wickets, and then hope Karnataka and Punjab lose their games, and UP and TN don’t win theirs.Delhi (points 18)

Despite having the same number points as Vidarbha, their situation is even worse because of a low quotient. They need to beat Rajasthan with a bonus point and then hope Karnataka and Punjab lose their games, UP and TN at the most draw theirs, and if Vidarbha win, it’s not with a bonus point. Even after all this, they will have to ensure they end with a higher quotient than Karnataka’s. Looks like they need a miracle, right?

Elite Group C

The road to the quarter-finals isn’t any simpler in Elite Group C. Five out of the ten teams in the group are battling for the top-two slots. Here’s what they need to seal them.Parvez Rasool shares some smiles with team-mates after yet another Jammu & Kashmir victory•PTI

Jammu and Kashmir (points 39)

If they win or get a first-innings lead against Haryana, they qualify. But even if they lose, they can still progress to the quarter-finals if one of the following is met: a) Odisha either lose to Jharkhand or at the most get a first-innings, or b) Services don’t get a bonus point against Chhattisgarh.Odisha (points 35)

A victory against Jharkhand will send Odisha through. If they only manage a first-innings lead, they have to hope Services don’t win against Chhattisgarh. If Odisha lose to Jharkhand, they need Services to either lose to Chhattisgarh or at least not get a first-innings lead in a draw.Services (points 33)

If Services beat Chhattisgarh with a bonus point, they will want Jammu and Kashmir to lose to Haryana, or Odisha to not win against Jharkhand. If Services get don’t a bonus point, they can still go through without bringing the quotient into the picture provided Odisha don’t win.In fact, Services can qualify even if they manage just a first-innings lead, but in such a case Odisha will have to lose and Haryana shouldn’t win. In such a case if Odisha manage a draw after a conceding a first-innings lead, or Haryana win without a bonus point, the quotient will become the deciding factor.Haryana (points 30)

Haryana need nothing short of a win to give themselves a chance, and even then they will have to depend on others. Their best bet is to beat Jammu and Kashmir with a bonus point, and hope Services don’t win and Odisha lose or don’t get a first-innings lead in a draw. If Haryana don’t get a bonus point, they need both Odisha and Services to lose, else it will come down to the quotient.Maharashtra (points 28)

Their only – and very bleak – chance is if they beat Uttarakhand by an innings or ten wickets and then Odisha lose to Jharkhand, Services either lose to Chhattisgarh or don’t get a first-innings lead in a draw, and Haryana don’t win against Jammu and Kashmir.

Plate Group

Things are much simpler here as only Goa and Puducherry are in the race for the lone quarter-final spot from Plate Group.Goa (points 43)

If Goa win against Mizoram – with or without a bonus point – they will be the one qualifying. But if they just manage a first-innings lead, they should hope Puducherry don’t win against Nagaland.If Goa end up conceding the first-innings lead, they want Puducherry to do the same. Similarly, if Goa lose, they want Puducherry to lose as well.Puducherry (points 41)

Puducherry’s best chance is if they win and Goa don’t. If they manage only a first-innings lead, Goa should lose or at the most fetch a draw after conceding a first-innings lead. In the latter case, Puducherry would bank on their superior quotient – 2.225 as compared to Goa’s 2.080 – to see them through.

Batsman happy “mixing electrolyte drinks” if it means he can help England win series

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Mar-2020Keaton Jennings has insisted that he has plenty to offer England after his recall to their squad for the Test tour to Sri Lanka, regardless of whether he can break into the side.Jennings, picked as the back-up top-order batsman in the absence of the injured Rory Burns, won his place on the tour primarily due to his record on the subcontinent: he averages 44.44 in five Tests in Asia, and his two hundreds for England have come in Mumbai and Galle.And while he hopes that his ability against the turning ball can put pressure on incumbent opening pair Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley, Jennings said that he hopes he can use his own experiences in the spotlight to help them through difficult times if necessary.ALSO READ: The Keaton Jennings recall: has the era of batting specialisation arrived?“We’ve got a few guys competing for top-order places but that’s healthy” Jennings told PA. “It’s almost like the old opening batter’s union – only you know the pressure they are feeling and what they are going through.”They [Sibley and Crawley] are two very good blokes and two guys who are working very hard at their game. Whether I get the chance or not, I’m here to help England win the series. If I play, that’s awesome, if I end up mixing electrolyte drinks then I’ll do that.”You cannot underestimate the level of support everyone offers each other in that dressing room. It becomes a family-type unit. You feel your mate’s hurt when he nicks off early doors – it’s hard to see because you have been in that situation and you can double it when you’re playing for England.”Jennings’ struggles at the top of the order in seam-friendly conditions saw him come in for heavy criticism during his second spell in the Test team, with the nadir coming in England’s series at home to India in 2018 when he averaged 18.11 across nine innings.”I’ve had an absolute battering at times,” Jennings said. “The sport section can be hard reading. But there are going to be times when you see things you don’t want to see or hear things in the street… that’s the life I’ve chosen.”I’ve got to make sure I’m big and strong enough to know where my values are. I don’t want to run away from my failures or my shortcomings. I have no issue being open and honest if it lets me put my head on the pillow at night.”If a youngster reads this, sees that someone who plays for England struggles with this stuff, it might help them learn to cope. Maybe that youngster can go on and become the best player in the country.”Even before arriving in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, Jennings has had a busy winter. He travelled to Mumbai for England’s spin camp at the end of 2019 before returning for a Lancashire commercial event in January, and last month captained England Lions to their first-ever victory against an Australia A side at the MCG.”Any Australia side is up for it and always wants to compete, so to captain and to win there definitely makes me very happy,” he said.”It’s something I’ll look back on with a beer in front of my fireplace and be very proud of. There’s potential for some of the guys to go back there in a little while and recall those experiences. You live between Ashes series, that’s the way English cricket works.”

The ECB has suggested the Hundred will bring in £11m for English cricket in its first season

George Dobell06-May-2020Harrison has said the ECB stood to make an £11m profit from the Hundred in its first year. Is that right?What Harrison said, first in an interview with Sky and then to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) inquiry, was: “We can be completely upfront and say the budget [for the Hundred] is £40 million, and the [revenue] this year will be £51 million.” That equates to a profit of £11m. Harrison has also referred to the Hundred as “a profit centre” on several occasions.That sounds great. So what’s the problem?The revenue for the Hundred’s first season was indeed expected to total £51.1m: a combination of UK broadcasting (£36.5m) and international broadcasting (£4m) revenue, sponsorship (£4m), tickets (£6.5m) and some from merchandising. And the “exact budget” is, according to an ECB spokesperson, £38.9m. Which, even though it has increased by more than £3m in recent months – £35.2m was the figure quoted towards the end of 2019 – sounds even better than Harrison suggested.But there is an exclusion here that is quite important: payments of £1.3m to each of the first-class counties and the MCC, which contributes another £24.7m to the costs and takes the overall figure (at this stage, anyway) to £63.6m. If you look at it that way, the Hundred would lose more than £12m in its first year.Why would such sums not be included in the ECB’s costs?Harrison insists the payments should be seen as a dividend not a cost. They are not negotiable; they are not moveable; and they are paid ahead of the tournament regardless of other income. This is what he told the DCMS inquiry: “The £1.3m every year to each county is a dividend and not part of the P&L [profit and loss] of the tournament. It’s is not linked to the P&L.”ALSO READ: Hundred coaches raise player retention questionsSo this is a question of accountancy practice?It is. And there are those in the county game who say the costs are even greater. One county boss, who did not want to be named, estimated the actual figure for the first year should include another £15m to account for set-up costs – such as employing more people in the ECB’s offices and the extensive usage of consultants and focus groups. That would take the overall expenditure to somewhere around £78.6m.”The ECB has always attributed the cost of the £1.3m per county in the P&L, because that was what convinced many to support it,” the source told ESPNcricinfo. “Since then the costs have rocketed. Tom Harrison’s numbers also don’t include set-up costs over the last four years of circa £15m, which have been quietly forgotten. The fact is, this competition will now never be profitable.”Where do the payments come from in the first place?When the new competition was first suggested, many of the counties were hesitant to support it. Without a two-thirds majority, the ECB could not progress. So the 18 counties and the MCC were offered the payment in return for their media rights (the figure was based on a Deloitte report from 2016 that said the competition would produce a surplus of £31.9m). It helped convince the counties to vote in favour.This is how Harrison put it when addressing the DCMS: “That £1.3m payment is part of the deal, if you like, that was done with the counties to give the ECB permission to create a new tournament with all the objectives sitting behind it.”ALSO READ: Where now for the Hundred following ECB postponement?So will the Hundred bring more money into English cricket?Not as a net sum, although the ECB might argue that the “dividend” payments to the counties do count as extra money coming into the game. If you take the opposing view, the competition is not projected to make a profit in its five-year life cycle. But the ECB has always argued the competition is not just to raise money, it is also to raise awareness and popularity of the sport among an audience who are not currently attracted to the game. The Big Bash was an example of a league that did this second point very effectively without necessarily making an immediate financial profit. So it’s entirely reasonable to believe the Hundred may make a financial loss but prove valuable for the ECB.Has the Covid-19 pandemic changed the playing field?Undoubtedly. The ECB went into this year with its reserves having dropped from £73m in 2016 to £11m now, leaving it ill-equipped to deal with such disruption. Although Harrison said at the start of this year that there was “more security in the game than there was for decades” – the ECB had signed a record £1.1 billion broadcast deal, after all – there was not a lot of contingency. The board’s own accounts make note of the dangers posed by the likes of a terrorist attack or a period of national mourning and its own stated policy is to retain the equivalent of 40% of annual turnover in case of such events. That would have meant reserves of around £50m in recent years.

23-year-old allrounder falls short of maiden ton after Bairstow manages only five

Paul Edwards at Trent Bridge08-Aug-2020
Jonny Bairstow’s is sometimes so well-concealed that only someone whose eyesight has been sharpened in Barnard Castle can detect it. Nonetheless, even Yorkshire’s sometimes stony-faced wicketkeeper might allow himself a wry smile at the ironies of this game. For one thing, the day on which he had been expected to prove his case for an England recall was instead dominated by one of his country’s finer Test wins, a victory in which Jos Buttler, his rival for the gloves, made 75.And what was even more piquant, any attention paid to Bairstow’s 22-ball five against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge was quickly overshadowed by Jordan Thompson, a 23-year-old from Leeds, who fell two runs short of his maiden first-class century, yet was still responsible for Yorkshire making what seems a competitive 264 on the opening day of their Bob Willis Trophy match. Moreover, any satisfaction Steve Patterson felt near the end of the day’s play was increased when the skipper induced Chris Nash to play on in the final over of the evening session.Instead of the scarred battlefield it normally resembles by early August, Trent Bridge’s square is still largely untrampled lawn but Nottinghamshire still chose to play this game on the pitch they used when losing to Derbyshire by three wickets in a classic four-day match on Tuesday. This was not, as some thought, an attempt to imitate tight Yorkshiremen – “we’re not made of bloody pitches tha’ knows” – but rather, one imagines, an attempt to provide the most suitable surface for Samit Patel and Matt Carter, the two specialist spinners they had selected. Such a strategy would have been further justified by Steven Mullaney winning the toss, something he failed to do. So that, we reckoned, in the manner of Dr Bickleigh in “put paid to their little game”.Nottinghamshire’s side, though, is packed with ambitious cricketers who are hurting after that defeat to Derbyshire on Tuesday and their response to bowling first was to take four wickets in the first session. Not just any wickets either, to use a categorisation the Headingley coaches probably despise, but those of three Test batsmen and an England Lion. The most notable dismissal was that of Bairstow, who returned to four-day cricket with the intention of proving why he should be in the England side but instead showed why he isn’t.Bairstow strode to the wicket in the third over after Adam Lyth’s attempted nudge to leg off Jake Ball had resulted only in his lbw. And then, with more than a few lenses focused upon him… nothing much happened. Bairstow let most of his first 17 balls from Ball and Zak Chappell go by, sometimes investing even that behaviour with a trace of contempt, before cover-driving his 18th for four. Next over, though, Chappell had his man when Bairstow cut a steeply bouncing delivery head-high to Patel. It was a stroke he didn’t need to play and, more culpably, one he couldn’t control.The dismissal prompted much rejoicing among Mullaney’s men and not only because they had removed Bairstow at a cost of five runs. Poor Chappell played six games in three formats for Nottinghamshire’s first team last season without taking a single wicket. Six balls later he had two in 2020 when Dawid Malan flirted with one outside the off stump and edged a catch to Tom Moores. And the home side’s joyous morning was completed half an hour before lunch when Tom Kohler-Cadmore tried to sweep Carter’s offspin but only lobbed a catch off the glove to Mullaney at slip.Yet while international batsmen of various descriptions had been coming and going, Harry Brook was playing with quiet assurance, reinforcing the fine impression made by his innings of 41 and 66 not out at the Riverside in Yorkshire’s previous match. Unbeaten on just five at lunch, Brook hit Chappell for five fours in two overs after lunch, twice pulling him to leg with pleasing violence and straight driving him to the pavilion, a shot for the aesthetes. Mullaney’s response to this assault was to put his trust in spin and 36 of the 63 overs bowled by tea had been delivered by the twirlers.It worked for the Nottinghamshire skipper, too, although not in the way he had envisaged. Jonny Tattersall’s dismissal, lbw to Patel for 31 when sweeping, was conventional enough but Nash’s delight was surely mixed with incredulity when he gated Brook with the first ball of one of those faintly jocular pre-tea overs that can be trusted to either to spinners or occasional bowlers. Nash, of course, is both – this was his fourth wicket in five seasons – and he was even given five more overs after tea until Mullaney decided, rather in the manner of Mr Bennet, that he had entertained everybody long enough.In that time the off-spinner had dismissed Patterson for 11 but also seen Thompson reach his fifty with successive slashed fours through the slips off Chappell. Though we didn’t know it, the fun was still to come.Both Duanne Olivier and Jack Shutt were leg before to the frontline Nottinghamshire twirlers very cheaply and Yorkshire were 232 for 9 when Dominic Leech walked out to play his maiden first-class innings. Realising this was no time for nudged singles the left-handed Thompson twice launched Patel high in the direction of West Bridgford and levied a couple of other boundaries in the same over.Ball replaced Patel and Thompson clipped the England bowler off his hip for a third six, which was followed a few balls later by the mightiest clump of the lot. Now there was some point in a bit of push and run – Leech was defending competently – but the young man tried to reach the landmark in the grand manner… and edged Nash to Mullaney at slip. No doubt Bairstow enjoyed the chutzpah behind the stroke. No doubt he congratulated his young colleague. As ever, tomorrow awaits. There will be more opportunities.

Plus Sussex’s struggles, the Overton twins’ feat and Blast captaincy announcements

Matt Roller12-Aug-2020It would be easy to assume that spinners have been getting more of a go than normal in the Bob Willis Trophy, with baking-hot temperatures around the country this week and the season starting on dry August pitches rather than April’s green mambas.But surprisingly, it has been business as normal for the most part, with almost exactly the same percentage of overs being bowled by spinners this season as last. That said, there are more English spinners in action, with Jeetan Patel, R Ashwin and Keshav Maharaj all contributing significantly to the number of spin overs in the 2019 County Championship.