Openers dropping anchor, spinners dictating the tempo – the first ODI had old-school energy from the jump

Andrew Fidel Fernando03-Aug-2024The legbreaks dance. The topspinners fizz. There’s chatter around the batter. A slip is in. The run rate is fine, and there are wickets to burn. But you’re still not sure the chasing team will win.Hello. You’re in it now. This is a classic of the ODI genre. Keep your eyes on this thing. We’ve got a low-scoring-dogfight here.Squint and watch the puffs of dust that come off the surface, listen to the pleading lbw appeals, and then hear them turn into a drawn-out chorus. See top players of spin bowling grope for the ball, get both edges beaten, while others fight every impulse in their body to play the slog or the sweep as if decades of batting evolution haven’t occurred. Find yourself transported to the late nineties and early aughts, to a time before ball tracking or real-time snicko, a time when LED stumps were a mere glint in some nerd’s eye.Related

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This game is a hip hop beat with a big bassline, a piano melody, and a snare drum. It’s got old-school energy from the jump. Like when Pathum Nissanka hits five fours in the first ten overs, then pumps the brakes when the field spreads.In most modern matches, you’ve got no business taking 67 balls to score fifty as an opener. A 56 off 75 balls (a proper throwback strike rate of 74.66) is more likely to be described as weird innings than a solid one.An anchor? Ugh. What is that? Take it out and drop it deep in the ocean where it belongs.The standard operating procedure now is to reverse pressure, never let bowlers dictate the play, and if you’re really going to slip into accumulation mode, come down the track and launch one down the ground once in a while, or slap a reverse-sweep past short third, or scoop a seam bowler over your shoulder once just to shake things up a bit.Pathum Nissanka dropped anchor at the top for Sri Lanka•Getty ImagesBut 2024 DMed, and this game left it on read. Look down that Sri Lanka card. Read those strike rates out loud and tell me you don’t feel like you’ve just stepped out of a time machine. There are scores like 14 from 31 from Kusal Mendis, 14 from 21 from Charith Asalanka, and 20 off 26 from Janith Liyanage, a No. 6 batter. These are “tortured” and “laboured” innings by today’s standards. They may have merely been “cautious” in what already feel like the dinosaur times.And glance down through those bowling figures. Only 20 overs of seam bowling, and 30 delivered by spinners, including one over of wonderfully optimistic but mediocre offspin from Shubman Gill. This is as God/the Gods/Mother Cricket/The Universe intended for matches in South Asia between two South Asian teams. Helpfully, this series is unattended by genre-bending freaks such as Jasprit Bumrah, who may have finessed his way to many wickets, and ruined the chance of this match running so close.Even India’s opening combination summoned up the turn-of-century spirit in their partnership. Gill ambled his way to 13 off 25 in the first ten overs like the good old-fashioned straight man to the balls-to-the-wall Sanath Jayasuriya-Virender Sehwag-Adam Gilchrist type, which Rohit Sharma played so beautifully on a tough pitch.Rohit ran down the pitch and smoked Asitha Fernando over midwicket second ball, crashed debutant Mohamed Shiraz for four, four, six in his second over of international cricket, then even when the spinners came on, and were turning it loads, kept hitting out. In a time when powerplays were merely known as “fielding restrictions” these were the gun players. The batters who sent the scoreline screaming out of the starting blocks while the ball – there was only one – was still hard. Who saw opportunity, where others saw danger.Rohit Sharma hit a six second ball of the innings•Associated PressThat the chase twisted, and that Sri Lanka called on 37.5 overs of spin, most of it pretty high quality, but some of it Charith Asalanka, was perfect too. This is not really a jibe at Asalanka, who as a spinner of limited skill operated on a big-spinning surface as he should – largely bowling wicket-to-wicket, and changing up his pace. But in most modern ODIs, he’s not finishing with 3 for 30.You could never fool yourself completely that this was a game happening way back then, of course. Khettarama was way less than half-full for a big international on a Friday. If this had been a T20, you suspect there would be a full house. Of the formats dying in cricket, ODIs feel like they are the dyingest – they don’t have the moral value or the old money of Test cricket, and they don’t have that sweet, sweet eyeballs to advertising to broadcast-revenue capitalist magic that T20s have right now.That this series is even ODIs, rather than the whole tour being six T20s, seems like it might have something to do with the next Champions Trophy being an ODI tournament, which India have obviously qualified for, but Sri Lanka have not. How long till that becomes a T20 affair, though?Perhaps we are in the final stage of bilateral ODIs, which to be honest, feels fine. But though it jarred with the tenor of most modern limited-overs matches, this game at Khettarama was glorious in its own way. Sri Lanka competed like the Sri Lanka of old, throwing tenacious spin at a tough opposition, finding ways to hoist themselves back in the game. India employed more contemporary methods, but the pitch dictated so much it kept pulling them back to the yesteryears as well.The final act was perfect. Sri Lanka’s fourth best spinner Asalanka, darting a ball into India’s 11th best batter Arshdeep Singh, who produced a hoick across the line that harked back to a time when batting coaches barely had time for bowlers, and as a result the tailenders would produce shots that would be described in terms that brought loincloth-wearing farmers to mind – words such as “agricultural”.It’s not anybody’s idea of perfect. Still, there’s fun in occasionally replaying a classic.

All the key numbers from Bangladesh’s epic 10-wicket win in Rawalpindi

S Rajesh25-Aug-20245 – Instances of Pakistan scoring more than 448 in their first innings and going on to lose the Test match, as they did in Rawalpindi. Their highest first-innings total in a defeat also came at the same venue – 579 against England in December 2022. However, four of those five defeats came when they batted second in the Test. When they have batted first, only once have they scored more than 448 and lost: in Galle in 2014, when they made 451 and went on to lose by seven wickets against Sri Lanka.2 – Previous instances of a team losing a Test after a first-innings declaration having lost six or fewer wickets. One of those was under bizarre circumstances in 1976, when India lost five batters to injury against West Indies in Jamaica. The only other instance was in Adelaide in 2006, when England lost after declaring at 551 for 6 in their first innings.Related

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0 – Previous instances of Bangladesh winning a Test after conceding a 400-plus total in the first innings. The previous highest was 374, by Zimbabwe in Chattogram in 2014.ESPNcricinfo Ltd14 – Tests taken by Bangladesh to register their first win against Pakistan. They have now won Tests against nine out of 11 teams; they remain winless only against South Africa (14 Tests, 12 defeats) and India (13 Tests, 11 defeats). They have needed more than 14 Tests to register their first wins against two other teams – Sri Lanka (18 Tests), and New Zealand (16).9 – Home Tests without a win for Pakistan, since the start of 2022. Their last home win was against South Africa in 2021.5 – Losses for Pakistan in those nine home games – three against England, and one each against Australia and Bangladesh. This is the first time they have lost five matches in any nine-game stretch at home; their previous worst was four losses. Pakistan’s longest stretch without a home win is 11 Tests, between 1969 and 1975, but they lost only one of those 11 matches. Nine Tests is their second-longest home sequence without a win.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2 – Successive Tests lost by Pakistan in Rawalpindi despite posting 400-plus totals in their first innings. It is the first instance of this happening to any team at home in consecutive matches at a venue.191 – Mushfiqur Rahim’s score in Bangladesh’s first innings, the sixth-highest score by a Bangladesh batter in Tests. Four of Bangladesh’s top six scores, in fact, are by Mushfiqur.9/245 – The combined bowling figures of Bangladesh’s spinners in the match. Mehidy Hasan Miraz took 5 for 101 and Shakib Al Hasan 4 for 144. In contrast, Pakistan, who went in with four fast bowlers, had to rely on Salman Ali Agha for spin, and he returned figures of none for 145 in 42.3 overs. The fast bowlers from the two teams had similar figures – 9 for 374 for Pakistan, and 7 for 322 for Bangladesh.

For the third game in a row they had a meltdown, and this time it happened in the most magnificent manner

Andrew Fidel Fernando31-Jul-20244:05

Takeaways – Suryakumar the captain as funky as the batter

At some point, you just have to break into a slow clap and marvel at the sheer enormity of it. The towering heft. The enterprise. The audacity to have gone so big, and yet find it within to go bigger.The Sri Lanka men’s team specialises in crash-and-burn batting, especially against India. This series they had already blessed us with nine wickets going down for 30 runs in the first match, then in the next game, losing seven for 31. They’ve become an Instagram handle that does only one type of content.”You following these guys?””Yeah bro, that’s my favourite collapse account.”Related

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Even by these standards, though, the nosedive in the third T20I against India was a chef’s kiss, weapons-grade, squirt-it-directly-into-your-eyeballs spectacular.Sri Lanka were at one point 110 for 1, chasing 138 for victory. They needed 28 runs off 28 balls and had two set batters in the game. Then they lost seven wickets for 22 runs to tie the game in regular play, and in the Super Over, lost both their wickets for only two runs.It is sometimes jokingly said that when teams fumble at the finish, that they have “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory” which itself is a reversal of the original, and complimentary “snatched victory from the jaws of defeat”.Over the last few years, Sri Lanka’s men’s team has pushed the envelope on batting uselessness so relentlessly, that their performances frequently require never-before-aired descriptions.This was like forming an entire marine expedition crew to search out the shark out of whose jaws they needed to snatch the defeat from, studying maps, poring over weather forecasts, buying all the best equipment, then on the way out of the harbour, crashing into a rock and sinking the ship, such was the incompetence heaped upon incompetence heaped upon incompetence.In the 19th over, India bowled Rinku Singh, an “offspinner” who had never bowled an over in the 22 T20Is he had previously played. Before his over, Sri Lanka needed only nine runs, with six wickets in hand. But to this middle order, Rinku is Shane Warne plus Muttiah Muralitharan plus Anil Kumble plus Jim Laker plus Darth Vader.Rinku, from the one-over sample we have observed in T20Is, bowls darts almost exclusively. To confound expectations, he mixes these up with long hops. He is operating on an extremely spin-friendly track, but there is no subtlety to this bowling – he has not ascended to a plane in which he is drifting the ball just so, reading batters’ next moves, beating them with carefully orchestrated flight, putting enough overspin on the ball to make it dip, dancing it deliciously off the surface.You don’t have to bother with any of that crap when Sri Lanka are in the mood. He gets two wickets and concedes just three runs.A dejected Kusal Perera walks back after Sri Lanka posted just two in the Super Over•Associated PressSuryakumar Yadav watches one of his most talent-bereft spinners bowl a potentially game-changing over, and thinks to himself: “Wow, even I could do that”. So he bowls himself in the 20th and gets two wickets for himself.Sri Lanka are an ice-cream truck with a busted freezer. They are giving the goods away for free right now. In the Super Over, Suryakumar bowls Washington Sundar rather than himself, because, unlike the Sri Lanka batters, he still wishes to be perceived as a human being in some control of mental faculties. Washington gets two Sri Lanka batters caught in the deep off consecutive balls and concedes only two runs. You have to imagine there was some jealousy within the Indian team toward Washington at that point.Suryakumar still gave himself the final act of the game, though. He strode out and faced the first delivery of the Super Over, India needing just three to win. He got a delivery on the pads and swept it hard directly to short fine leg, who should have stopped it, but it burst through his hands and skipped onto the boundary instead.Sri Lanka’s men have now lost 10 matches – across formats – to India in a row. In the dugout, Sanath Jayasuriya watched all this. In his prime, Jayasuriya was such a consistent destroyer that an entire generation of Indian children grew up hearing the rumour that Jayasuriya hid springs inside his bat.Now, he is interim coach, which perhaps is another way of saying he is acting chief of dressing-room bollockings. You can almost imagine him rousing up a furious speech on what it means to represent your nation, and yet also imagine the attempted bollocking becomes a paper-ball cricket game in which another huge batting collapse occurs, such is the aura of incompetence around this team right now.

He only took six wickets in the two Tests against Sri Lanka, at a 30-plus average, but don’t let that fool you

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Dec-2024Exhale. Switch off for a minute. Remind yourself that you need to keep your technique tight. Thank whichever god(s) you believe in that he was too fast for you to edge the balls you poked your bat at in the last over. And pray that that was the last over of his spell.This, roughly, is what would have gone through the mind of any Sri Lanka batter who had had to face a new-ball over from Kagiso Rabada over the past two weeks. He didn’t go hunting for wickets. There was no desperation in his bowling. In the channel outside off stump, on a good length or just short of it, and almost always quicker than 140kph – this is where he lived. And the man never left the house.Related

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The best you can really do is survive him. Other bowlers have weaknesses. Rabada has more than 300 Test wickets at an average of less than 22. He will never stop coming at you. Second spell in the day, his speeds are still up. Third spell, those balls are still zipping through in the channel. They are whizzing away sometimes, jagging back at other times, and you play at your peril.He’s been around for so many years, and is already a grandmaster of his craft. The only reason it feels weird to say this is because hasn’t hit 30.If you looked at his return in this series you might surmise he’d been off the boil a little. He picked up only six wickets at an average of 32.33. Four of those wickets were of Dimuth Karunaratne, whom Rabada took out in every innings. If you didn’t watch a single ball of the series, or know anything about Karunaratne, you might wonder if that stat was a flex or a crutch.But take a look at Rabada’s economy rate of 2.77 – the best for any bowler who took at least one wicket all series. In fact, his economy rate of 2.93 in this World Test Championship cycle is the best among its top 17 wicket-takers. Also, Karunaratne is by far the most prolific opening batter Sri Lanka has produced, and has played nearly 100 Tests. He plays spin much better than he plays fast bowling. But the man has made at least five year-end ICC Test XIs. This is not a soft target.Rabada has the best economy rate among the top 17 wicket-takers in this WTC cycle•AFP/Getty ImagesMarco Jansen and Dane Paterson claimed more wickets than Rabada in this series, and both took five-wicket hauls. Good for them. They bowled well, and deserved their big moments. And yet neither was as relentless or as accurate as Rabada. You look through his spells for the series, and you can’t remember a bad one. There was one occasion in this series when he bowled a six-over spell, conceded 33 runs, and took only one wicket. During that period, he’d had a batter dropped at second slip, and at least two of the fours he gave away came off edges. That was as bad as it got.Some bowlers, it is said, have a high ceiling. Rabada also has a very high floor.”I think it’s just one of those series where I guess the balls that he was bowling were unplayable,” South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said, trying to explain Rabada’s lack of wickets. It’s hard to disagree here; there was no shortage of plays-and-misses against him.”I never know what to really say to KG,” Bavuma admitted. Bavuma is as thoughtful a captain as Test cricket has right now, and he’s hinting at a profound reality. How do you instruct a cricketer of such vast and obvious greatness? “All he wants to know is when is he bowling and how many overs I see him bowling. And the rest, I mean, he reads the game.” To some extent, you envy Bavuma. What a joy it must be to have a bowler this uncomplicated to call on. One of Rabada’s other superpowers, by the way, is that he breaks down infrequently for a quick who bowls as fast as he does.If you are tempted to wonder whether Rabada is losing his gift for taking wickets, please consider that in this World Test Championship cycle, the man averages 17.07 and has a strike rate of 34.8. If South Africa make the WTC final next year, as they seem likely to do now, no player has contributed more to that feat than Rabada. And across Test cricket’s vast history, there has never been a more penetrative great bowler. Among players with more than 150 Test wickets, Rabada has the all-time best strike rate, of 39.1.It may be true what Bavuma says. Rabada is so good that sometimes even the best batters struggle to as much as edge his deliveries.

The most prolific bowler in women’s T20Is talks about how she developed her key weapon, and her advocacy for various social issues

Firdose Moonda18-Jan-2025Megan Schutt doesn’t make it sound like she had a lot to work with.She described her pace as “perfect to be hit” and her action as “pretty horrible”. But two decades after she first took to cricket as a self-confessed “late bloomer”, she is the leading wicket-taker in women’s T20Is and has the most wickets in T20 World Cups. None of that happened by chance, but there was some kismet in how Schutt became an inswing bowler.Her cricketing journey started with her as the only girl in a group of boys, then “went a little backward” when she joined an all-girls’ team that played with a soft ball. She was then recruited into the age-group structures. “I bowled probably just straighties,” she says. “I was not so cluey about cricket or how to make the ball swing.” But a stress fracture she suffered at 16 forced her to think about her game.Related

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“I had to change my action a little bit and it changed my wrist somehow and turned me into an inswinger [bowler],” she said at the T20 Women’s World Cup in Dubai last year. “I can’t even tell you how – it was not on purpose, it was not shaped by anyone. I changed a little bit of my jump because I used to jump directly up. I then became a swing bowler.”It didn’t take her too long to see the advantages. “No one really bowled inswing when I was growing up, so it was just nice to be different,” she said. “Because I didn’t have the raw pace, if I didn’t have the swing, it would be very boring, I liked the X factor of how the ball moved and decided I would just rather focus on that than trying to bulk up and bowl fast when everyone was just getting injured anyway, so I stuck to what I knew.”Schutt may not be the biggest fan of her own bowling action but there’s no denying it has been effective•Getty ImagesWithin three years of that, Schutt was called up to Australia’s ODI squad and was given the new ball on debut but went wicketless. After picking up two wickets in her next match, she was included in the squad for the 2013 World Cup, against all expectation,. “My first two games were very average in my opinion, and so when I got the call, I was shocked. Obviously I was also absolutely over the moon, but I just didn’t expect it and I thought I was just going there to serve drinks, but it turned out extremely differently.”Schutt ended up playing every game and was the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, which set the tone for a career of big-tournament success. Looking back more than a decade later, she’s only willing to take some of the credit for that breakthrough performance. “It helps when you’re new and no one knows who you are and what you do and you get a little bit of beginner’s luck,” she said. “I was just lucky to start with a bang.”This may sound a bit like she struggled with imposter syndrome but it was actually complete ignorance of the kind of environment she was stepping into: a team that was way ahead of its time, where professional structures were developed as early as 2008 and a winning culture was well established early.”I was so ill-informed,” Schutt said. “I didn’t know much about the whole cricketing world and probably didn’t know there was an Australian women’s cricket team until I was about 16. I didn’t know they were in their own dominant era and I probably didn’t grasp the concept of what I was a part of until I really appreciated my spot in the side.”I guess that came with the patch of learning, hard work and discipline. I didn’t deserve my position in the XI when I first came, so I definitely earned that eventually, but it took some time.”Rainbow warrior: off the field, Schutt has advocated for gay rights and other causes•Getty ImagesAustralia did not make the final of the next ODI World Cup, in 2017, after also losing in the 2016 T20 World Cup final to West Indies. The 2017 defeat to India in the semi-final had a massive impact because it was seen as an indicator that power dynamics in the women’s game were shifting. At least that is how Schutt would label it. “Everyone talks about the gap [between Australia and the rest]. I hate that. Other teams are building and it’s absolutely amazing because we’re only going to get more and more competitive teams,” she said.The last year underlines that point. Sri Lanka won T20 series in England and South Africa, and Bangladesh won an ODI and a T20 for the first time in South Africa. Among the results that affected Schutt directly, West Indies beat Australia in a T20 in Australia in 2023, and so did South Africa the following year. In two of the upsets of the year, West Indies knocked England out of the T20 World Cup in the group stage; South Africa won the semi-final of that tournament, against Australia; and New Zealand took the title after a string of defeats earlier in the year.Schutt, who had no boundaries scored off her in the first three matches of last year’s T20 World Cup, and had the second-lowest economy rate, will have been disappointed not to end up with the trophy, but secretly she might also have been pleased to see the game grow. “We’re not unbeatable. We would never say that we are, and we definitely want other teams to develop,” she said. “Realistically, you want this to be a 16-team tournament.”As the men’s cricketing world looks to concentrate resources and fixtures around the Big Three and there’s talk of a two-tier Test league, Schutt’s expansionist view makes her refreshingly different but that’s only the half of it. Off the field, she is known for being the most vocal member of the Australia team on a range of social issues.In you go: Schutt swings one through Tammy Beaumont’s defences in a 2023 Ashes game•PA Photos/Getty ImagesIt started with a personal quest: her advocacy for gay marriage when it became a subject of a postal-order survey in Australia in 2017. By then, Schutt and her partner, Jess Holyoake, were in a serious relationship and ready to take the next step. They were initially considering going to New Zealand, where same-sex marriage was legalised in 2013, but decided to wait and see if it would be possible to do it at home, all the while advocating for their rights.”One of my favourite quotes is, if you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married, and it’s as simple as that,” Schutt said. “Jess and I are two very different humans and she was a bit scared to have the pride flag out on the window, but I said, this is exactly the time we need to be showing our flag and making sure we’re all together on this. I was pretty vocal about it.”A little under two-thirds of Australians (61.6%) voted in favour of same-sex marriage, a number that disappointed Schutt because “that’s still 38% that don’t agree with it”, which makes her feel uncomfortable. “There was a lot of misinformation out there and the campaign for the ‘no’ vote was pretty brutal,” she said. “Some of the pamphlets we got when we were living in Brisbane were pretty woeful, and I remember burning a couple of them in the sink of our little unit.”Since then, Schutt has gone on to campaign in the Indigenous Voices Referendum, which sought an alteration to the Australian constitution that would recognise indigenous Australians. And she raises awareness about the plight of Palestinians on her social media platforms. She is particularly moved by the deaths of children there, especially after her own child was born in 2021.Schutt, right, with her partner Jess Holyoake and their daughter Rylee, after the 2022 T20 World Cup win•Getty ImagesRylee now three, is what Schutt describes as a “wild child,” who was born three months prematurely and is autistic. That has given Schutt two other causes to raise awareness for. She is open about the challenges of going through neonatal intensive care and of living with neurodiversity. “Having Rylee early was really scary but it banded us together and it just shifted my whole world. It put cricket into perspective – suddenly that wasn’t the be-all and end-all. I didn’t realise that I probably had it on too much of a pedestal,” she said. “It’s also been the most amazing journey of my emotional side of things and seeing how I’d sometimes shut things off. It makes you do a lot of self-reflecting.”She has now done a “180-degree flip as a person, except for my sense of humour” and described motherhood as a process of finding out “who I am more and who I want to be and breaking some cycles that you know were there and you didn’t realise it as a kid”.Does that mean there’s a potential future as a human-rights campaigner? “I’m still trying to figure that out,” she said. “I want to do something that feels really worthwhile, and I’d like to do a little bit of coaching.”I’d love to teach inswingers around the world. It’s a real niche. I understand the art to it and I understand the game pretty well, and I feel like no one currently in bowling coaching around the world completely understands inswing bowling and the niches of it, and so I’d obviously love to do all kinds of bowling coaching. I’d love to teach inswingers around the world.”And this time, with plenty to work with.

Pakistan bring the magic, India the space-age technical developments. Let’s hope it’s worth the popcorn this time

Andrew Fidel Fernando22-Feb-202512:25

Why aren’t Pakistan fiery against India anymore?

It’s getting to the point where, for those of us who do not have a dog in this fight, the most rational response is to deploy the side eye.This is, we should mention up top, a story on India vs Pakistan written by a Sri Lankan. Our team has not qualified for the Champions Trophy for reasons I don’t want to talk about right now. But you remember our place, right? Little island off the tip of the continent, lots of main-character energy in the sense that despite having a fraction of the population of either of South Asia’s biggest nations (our whole country is very slightly more populous than Karachi, and way less populous than the state of Kerala) we make global news pretty often. Either we are having a war, wallowing in economic crises, descending on the streets for one of our mass protests, or overthrowing one of our heads of state.And it may surprise some to learn that there are communities in Sri Lanka that will support India when India play Sri Lanka, and communities that will support Pakistan when Pakistan play Sri Lanka. The reasons for the India support are explained in this story. The Pakistan support in Sri Lanka was once so voracious, that a group of Pakistan fans – who are Sri Lankan – ended up in such a messy fight with Sri Lanka fans in our biggest stadium in Colombo that a Sri Lanka-Pakistan ODI had to be halted for 30 minutes while riot police came in and emptied the entire ground. (Think one of your cops’ baton-charges, but while on steroids.)Related

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The TL;DR, if you don’t want to click on either of those links, is that minority communities on the island have understandably felt so oppressed by our majoritarian politics, that they support other teams in the region, partly as an act of protest.If you are the kind of person who doesn’t enjoy reading about politics on a cricket website, you do you, but also, relax. This is the end of the politics part of the article. The lighter stuff is about to start. But the point, for now, is that Sri Lankans are invested in India vs Pakistan games.Or at least we used to be. Because lately, they don’t quite hit like they used to hit.There was a time, really not long ago, when watching an India vs Pakistan match was like watching a science-fiction vs fantasy genre battle. Pakistan are clearly the fantasy element here. There is a part of Pakistan cricket that feels locked in a magical past, specifically the year of 1992. The Pakistan ODI World Cup story is one of the greatest cricket stories ever. Not as good as Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup story, obviously, but you guys had the “cornered tigers” speech, and the losing-all-the-games-until-you-had-to-win-all-the-games narrative, and honestly, big props – that is some dramatic hustle.India are the science-fiction team. How is it, for example, that your guys’ batters just got better, and better, and better? And better, specifically, at blasting Sri Lanka into oblivion? There was a time when Sanath Jayasuriya – our current head coach, by the way – ended India bowlers’ careers. Now, you do a Statsguru search on who has the best ODI batting average against Sri Lanka, and three of the top five are India batters.Virat Kohli has ten ODI hundreds against Sri Lanka. Ten! (Can you please ask him to stop?)At times in the past ten years, it has felt like Sri Lanka are Ewoks throwing rocks and spears, and India’s batters are racing through our forest moon on their 74-Z speeders, blowing us up with blasters from a thousand years into the future.1:39

Has Pakistan’s pace unit lost its bite?

(In this version of the story, the Ewoks fail to qualify for the Champions Trophy, and Darth Vader and the Emperor rule the galaxy forever.)Where India are “all systems go”, and space-age technical developments, and the IPL’s rapid-fire missiles, Pakistan’s has felt to us an arcane magic. They are the conjurers of reverse swing, considered one of the darkest of cricket’s arts – until the (coughs) cricket powers figured out how to do it, at which point it became just regular art. The doosra also has its origins in Saqlain Mushtaq and Pakistan.And what better analogue for Wasim Akram’s two wicket-taking balls in the middle of England’s innings in that 1992 World Cup final, than the wizard Gandalf standing on the bridge of Khazad-Dum, and bellowing at that Balrog of Morgoth “You shall not pass!” As with Gandalf, Wasim went on to greater things. And yet so much of his legacy also is defined by those glorious moments when he was less powerful than the force he went on to become.Sri Lanka has borrowed from these traditions too, for South Asia at its best is a melting pot of great ideas. Muthiah Muralidaran, Sri Lanka’s greatest bowler, still feels like pure fantasy all these years later. Kumar Sangakkara, our greatest batter, was spectacularly sci-fi.The problem for us neutrals (Sri Lankans are chaotic neutrals, rather than true neutrals, if anyone is wondering) is that sci-fi has been dominating the scene recently. There is no question in the lead-up to this game that India are poised, ready, and powerful. Pakistan are frailer and licking some wounds from the tournament opener.Industrial light and magic: Rohit Sharma’s batting does not require CGI•AFP/Getty ImagesLike with the film franchise, you wish you could experience the Pakistan of decades ago for the first time once again, rather than whatever hashed-together narratives they are spinning out now.India, meanwhile, have not won as many finals as they would like, but having clinched the T20 World Cup last year, they have had a critical smash hit as did with the glorious film. If Wasim is Gandalf, Rohit Sharma is Jyn Erso, instilling bravery into a team whose batting had been excellent and yet too staid for too long. Rebellions are built on hope, and the hope, for us neutrals, is that India batters play the kinds of fun innings that Rohit has lately specialised in, for years and years to come.For now, what needs to happen is for fantasy to make a bit more of a comeback. The sci-fi stuff has been hugely fun, but what is life or cricket without variety? And it is up to Pakistan to provide it. Their having to come to Dubai to play a match feels incongruous, like Gandalf and other Istari being tasked with leading that attack on the Death Star. Neutrals would have preferred this game to have happened in Karachi, which is a kind of Minas Tirith (a deeply-flawed but fascinating big city, worthy of all the love it gets).But the world is the world, and this is the situation we have arrived at: hoping for something astonishingly dramatic, like Vader boarding a rebel ship in badass fashion. Or Gandalf holding the gates.

Also: how many players have scored a hundred in their last Test?

Steven Lynch29-Apr-2025Delhi Capitals scored 203 the other day without an individual half-century. Was this the highest T20 total without a fifty? asked Deepak Krishnan from India
The match you’re talking about was in Ahmedabad on April 19: Delhi Capitals made 203 for 6, with a highest individual contribution of just 39, from their captain Axar Patel. Gujarat Titans passed them with four balls to spare.There have been four higher innings totals in the IPL that didn’t include an individual half-century. Highest of all is Mumbai Indians’ 234 for 5 against Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium in 2024, when the highest individual contribution was Rohit Sharma’s 49. Punjab Kings made 208 for 5 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Navi Mumbai in 2022 (Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa both made 43); Delhi had 207 for 8 against Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede in 2022 (Rishabh Pant 44); and Kolkata Knight Riders made 206 for 5 against RCB in Bengaluru in 2019 (Andre Russell 48 not out from 13 balls).I was looking at some old scorecards, and noticed that the West Indian captain Gerry Alexander was run out four times running while on tour in India in 1958-59. Was this a record for poor running?! asked Henry Mitchell from England
You’re right that the West Indian captain and wicketkeeper Gerry Alexander was run out four times running during that tour. Two of the dismissals were in Tests; the sequence also included an innings in which he was not out. That turns out to be not quite the worst exhibition of running between the wickets in first-class cricket: the Yorkshire seamer Bob Platt was run out five times running between 1957 and 1959 (his sequence included four not-outs). Six other players have had four successive run-out dismissals.The Test record is three successive run-outs, suffered by England’s John Jameson in 1971, and Guy Whittall of Zimbabwe in 1997-98 (that sequence was punctuated by an innings of 203 not out).Have any Test cricketers been born in Kenya? asked Niranjan Shah from Kenya
It’s one of cricket’s endearing oddities that three Test players have been born in Kenya, and they were all active at around the same time, mainly during the 1980s. The first to make his Test debut was Derek Pringle, in 1982 while still at Cambridge University. Pringle was born in Nairobi in 1958 while his father – who appeared for East Africa in the first men’s World Cup, in 1975 – was working there. Derek went on to play 30 Tests and 44 one-day internationals, including the 1992 World Cup final.Qasim Omar, born in Nairobi in 1957, made his debut for Pakistan in 1982-83 after some high-scoring feats in domestic cricket. In 26 Tests he scored three centuries – two of them doubles – before falling out with Imran Khan.Kenya’s third man was Dipak Patel. Born in Nairobi in 1958, he was a Worcestershire regular at a young age, but eventually became a naturalised New Zealander after spending several northern winters there. He made his Test debut in 1986-87, and eventually played 37 Tests and 75 ODIs, including the World Cups of 1987, 1992 and 1996. His highest Test score was 99 in Christchurch in 1992, an innings ended when he was run out from a return from near the boundary by Pringle.Mahmudullah was the last player to make a hundred in his final Test, in 2021•Getty ImagesHow many men scored a century in their final Test match? asked Anupam Sircar from India
At present there are 47 men who scored a century in their last Test match. That number includes Essex’s Jack Russell, who actually made two, and eight current players who will presumably appear again. First on the list was the Kent wicketkeeper Harry Wood, who made 134 not out in his fourth and final Test for England, against South Africa in Cape Town in 1892.Most of the men concerned were not selected again for various reasons to do with form or sometimes big gaps between matches. A few of them had already announced their intention to retire before bowing out with a hundred, notably Bill Ponsford, Raman Subba Row, Seymour Nurse (who made 258 in his final innings, in Christchurch in 1969), Greg Chappell, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum and Alastair Cook. Both Nasser Hussain and Mahmudullah seem to have decided to retire in the middle of Test matches in which they went on to score hundreds in what they would have known to be their final matches.I noticed that three of this year’s Wisden Cricketers of the Year play for Surrey. Has there ever been a year in which all five came from the same team? asked Michael Broughton from England
You’re right that three of this year’s Wisden Five – Gus Atkinson, Jamie Smith and Dan Worrall – play for Surrey. In case anyone missed last week’s announcement, the other two were Sophie Ecclestone and Liam Dawson (and a reminder that the award, which can be won only once, is based on performances in the previous English season).Three from one county is a rare achievement, but is perhaps not surprising as Surrey completed a hat-trick of County Championship titles last year. It’s not quite the English record: Yorkshire had four of the Five in 1901 – Schofield Haigh, George Hirst, Tom Taylor and John Tunnicliffe. The exception was Reginald “Tip” Foster of Worcestershire, who would soon score a record 287 on Test debut in Sydney in 1903. Surrey also had three in 1907 and 1958.No English side has ever provided all five of the Five, but in 1949 all of them were members of Don Bradman’s “Invincible” touring team the previous summer – Lindsay Hassett, Bill Johnston, Ray Lindwall, Arthur Morris and Don Tallon. The 1962 Almanack also featured five Australians – four from the previous summer’s touring team (Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson, Bill Lawry and Norman O’Neill), plus the 42-year-old Bill Alley, who scored more than 3000 runs that season for Somerset.In addition, in 1997, 2000 and 2002 there were no England-qualified players among the Five. For the full list of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year, click here.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

India have selection dilemmas in all departments as they look to firm up their side for the ODI World Cup

Shashank Kishore15-Jul-2025With a home ODI World Cup looming in September, India have just six matches left to fine-tune their combinations. The upcoming three-match series in England, beginning Wednesday in Southampton, offers a glimpse into the team’s evolving plans.Captain Harmanpreet Kaur believes the growing competition for spots is a “healthy headache” to have, which she attributes to improved depth and balance. Here are some of the tricky decisions the team management may have to make.Rawal vs Deol?
Pratika Rawal may have racked up 638 runs in 11 ODIs at an average of 63.80, including five fifties and a century, but this series holds deeper significance for her with the World Cup looming. The reason? Shafali Verma.Related

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Shafali’s ability to dismantle attacks in the powerplay makes her an irresistible asset, even if her high-risk approach can come with bouts of inconsistency. Rawal, by contrast, builds her innings, and accelerates as she settles in. She is also a handy spin option, while Shafali is strictly just part-time.As impressive as Rawal’s initiation has been, the runs have mostly come against Ireland, West Indies, Sri Lanka and a depleted South Africa. This, in a way, will be her first big test in international cricket.A good series for Rawal will make it harder for the selectors to displace her from the opening spot alongside Smriti Mandhana, but her style of play and method of run accumulation could also make her a useful proposition at No. 3 if Shafali’s resurgence in the England T20Is convinces the team management to back her to reclaim her opening spot in ODIs, a format she last played in October 2024.The only problem with that reshuffle could be that Harleen Deol, who has transformed her game and has been in excellent form across formats lately, may have to be benched. Since her comeback from injury in December 2024, Deol has hit 230 runs in six innings, including a maiden ODI century. She also played a sparkling knock in the T20I series opener in England.Deol’s form, Rawal’s run glut and Shafali’s X-factor leaves India with a tough choice to make. The next three games could indicate which way the team management will be inclined towards ahead of the Australia series, their final audition before the World Cup opener on September 30 against Sri Lanka.Who partners Amanjot in the seam department?
Pooja Vastrakar hasn’t played since the T20 World Cup last October. She missed the WPL as well, and there has been no official update from the BCCI or selectors, on her rehab or possible return. In her absence, Amanjot Kaur has emerged as a capable replacement, even if not like-for-like.Arundhati Reddy played in all five T20Is against England•SLCWhile Amanjot lacks Vastrakar’s pace and ability to hustle batters, she brings her own strengths to the table: gentle swing, accuracy, and an ability to stem the flow of runs, as seen in the recent T20I series. She picked up six wickets in two matches in the tri-series against Sri Lanka and South Africa this April.Her batting, too, has come into its own. A prime example was her unbeaten 63 under pressure, rescuing India from 31 for 3 in the second T20I against England in Bristol. This means the tussle for the one remaining seam-bowler’s slot is likely to be between Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Goud and Sayali Satghare. The selectors will also have an opportunity to look at Titas Sadhu, who will be on the A tour to Australia having recovered from injury. There is no update yet on Renuka Singh.Among the contenders, Reddy looks the frontrunner currently, having featured in three games in the tri-series and each of the five T20Is after being dropped for the home series against Ireland and West Indies earlier in the year. Goud brings with her pace, but is largely untested, while Satghare is a swing bowler.The make-up of the spin attack
Deepti Sharma appears to be a lock-in. So the tussle will be between Sneh Rana, N Shree Charani and Radha Yadav for two spots.Rana announced herself in the WPL for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after initially going unsold at the auction. Then, after having not been in the scheme of things for nearly a year-and-a-half, she received a lifeline when she was picked for the ODI tri-series in Sri Lanka.N Shree Charani was the leading wicket-taker in the T20Is against England•Andy Kearns/Getty ImagesThere, she was named Player of the series for her 15 wickets in five games, including a career-best 5 for 43 in a match-winning spell against South Africa. The T20I series in England was her comeback to the shortest format after over two years.Charani, who was also on that tour in Sri Lanka, has been named Player of the series in the England T20Is for her chart-topping 10 wickets. The team management is impressed by her ability to bowl across phases. She also performed exceedingly well in the tri-series, picking up six wickets in five games at an economy of 5.39, and was the perfect spin twin to Rana.The allure of playing two genuine spinners and Deepti could make it tough for the team management to include Radha Yadav, arguably one of the best fielders in the women’s game today. Her improved left-arm spin and ability to wield the willow lower down the order makes her hard to ignore. But such is the competition that there’s only space for two, unless the toss-up boils down to one between Deepti and Rana.India’s likely ODI combination
1 Smriti Mandhana, 2 Pratika Rawal, 3 Harleen Deol, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Jemimah Rodrigues, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Amanjot Kaur, 8 Deepti Sharma, 9 Arundhati Reddy, 10 Sneh Rana/Radha Yadav, 11 N Shree Charani

He needs to tell his players what is expected of them and lay out a game plan for them to follow

Greg Chappell19-Jul-2025Indian tech founder Narayana Murthy says that “clarity of thought and strength of purpose are the essence of leadership”.The best teams aren’t built on talent alone. They are shaped by mindset, unity, and standards that are upheld every day – on and off it.Great teams bat in partnerships. They bowl in partnerships. And they hold each other to high standards – not just technically, but mentally. Great teams are hard to score against because they are relentless in the field; they build pressure with their actions, not their words.The same applies to captains. The best captains don’t just set fields or tinker with bowling changes. They define a mindset. They insist on standards. They give players clarity about their roles and the confidence to execute them. And above all, they support their team – not just when things go well, but especially when things go wrong.As India prepare for the final two Tests of their series in England, the spotlight now shines firmly on their 25-year-old captain Shubman Gill. A bright young talent, he has shown greatness with the bat and glimpses of leadership potential, but this moment will define his trajectory as a Test captain. It’s not an easy environment in which to grow, but it’s the one he’s in – and the stakes couldn’t be higher.After three gripping contests, England lead the five-Test series 2-1. Yet, if you’d watched the bulk of play across those matches without seeing the scorecard, you might assume India were on top. At Headingley, they batted with authority for long periods but couldn’t translate that superiority into a match-winning position.Related

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Then came the stirring win at Edgbaston – a proper team performance that, despite the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, showcased what this Indian team can be when it fires in unison. Gill was outstanding. Rishabh Pant played with freedom and purpose. The bowlers were clinical. Momentum seemed to shift India’s way.But the Lord’s Test reopened old wounds. Bumrah returned and bowled beautifully in the first innings, etching his name onto the honours board. Jofra Archer, back after a long layoff, gave England a significant boost. And yet, despite holding strong positions, India faltered again–especially with the bat, where only Rahul, Pant and Ravindra Jadeja stood tall.The Lord’s Test also provided a telling moment with the way Jadeja was managed late in the match. Left with the tail, Jadeja did what many specialist batters do in that situation: he shielded the tail, farmed the strike, and played conservatively. On the surface, it was a disciplined innings. But was it the right one?The truth is, Jadeja was the only recognised batter left. If India were to chase down the target, he had to take calculated risks. His job wasn’t to leave balls and collect singles – it was to win the match. That clarity should have come from the dressing room, from the captain. He needed to be told directly: “You are the man who has to get this done. The tail’s job is to hang in there with you, but you must go for the win.”We saw exactly that from England’s Ben Stokes against Australia in Leeds in 2019. In a similar situation, he backed himself and produced one of the best innings of the past 50 years. Importantly, Stokes played that innings knowing that, succeed or fail, his team and leadership would have his back. That’s the mindset that needs to be fostered in any great team.

The Old Trafford Test is shaping to be the biggest examination yet for Gill. He must bring composure, clarity, and confidence to a side that desperately needs it. And he must do it now.

And this is where Gill’s leadership challenge becomes very real. He must start setting those expectations – clearly, proactively, and consistently.Gill must define what sort of team he wants India to be. The captain sets the tone – not just with words, but with actions, clarity of purpose, and visible standards. That means demanding discipline in the field. India cannot afford to slip back into being a poor fielding side. The best teams are superb in the field. They don’t give easy runs. They don’t drop chances.The selectors and Gill must pick and stick. He must identify the core group of players he trusts, lay out a clear game plan, and communicate individual roles within it. Every player should know what is expected of them and where they fit in. Too often, in teams that struggle, players are left to work it out for themselves. That can’t be left to chance at this level.Great captains are great communicators. Gill must become one – and quickly. Whether it’s at training, in the middle or in the dressing room during a break – clear, calm communication is essential. His bat can’t always do the talking. He must learn to speak in a way that aligns the group, encourages belief, and creates trust.He also needs to enunciate the right approach. Batters must be told to play positively and bat in partnerships. If a batter gets a start, it is critical to go on and get a big score. Collapses come when players who are set decide that they don’t want to keep working that hard. Bowlers must know that it’s not just about taking wickets but about building pressure: bowling good balls, good overs, and good spells. Pressure creates mistakes. It’s not magic, it’s method.Jasprit Bumrah: will he or won’t he, that is not the question•Getty ImagesEngland have a massive advantage in this department. Stokes has captained his country in 36 Tests and has built a team with a clear identity. The players back each other. They know what’s expected. There’s a shared sense of purpose that has pulled them through tough moments in this series. Players know that a few failures won’t be terminal.India, by contrast, have immense talent but haven’t quite forged that same level of trust and cohesion. It’s not entirely surprising. India are a different environment, where individual competition is fierce and survival at every level requires self-interest. But the job for the captain, especially in such a set-up, is to build unity and a team-first culture that subjugates the individual instinct.The Old Trafford Test is shaping to be the biggest examination yet for Gill – not just as a batter, but as a leader. He’s learning on the job, but the timeline is not generous. He must bring composure, clarity, and confidence to a side that desperately needs it. And he must do it now.That doesn’t mean he can’t show emotion. In fact, his passion on the field at Lord’s was good to see. But actions like getting into Zak Crawley’s face over time-wasting only matter if they are backed up by the hard work done behind the scenes. A captain earns the right to be loud when he’s already done the quiet work of planning, uniting, and inspiring his group.And a word on Bumrah: the obsession with whether he plays or doesn’t is missing the point. India have won plenty of Tests without him recently. The key is not individual brilliance, it’s collective performance. Teams win when everyone does their job. When the captain makes sure each player is clear, confident, and committed to the plan. That’s the formula.If Gill wants to become a great Test captain, this is his moment to stamp his authority. Not just with the bat, but with his leadership. Set the standard. Demand it of others. Pick your team. Back them. And make sure every man knows what is expected and hold them to it.Because in the end, cricket isn’t about heroes. It’s about partnerships. It’s about teams. And it’s about captains who bring the best out of those around them.If Gill can lead with clarity of thought and strength of purpose, he won’t just shape this series, he’ll shape the future of Indian cricket.

The story of a drawn Ashes series in England, series sweeps against Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, being Shamar Josephed in Brisbane, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series win

Andrew McGlashan07-Jun-20251:05

Finch: The way Labuschagne has been playing is ‘concerning’

1st Test vs England, Edgbaston: won by two wicketsAustralia secured a thrilling victory through an unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 55 between Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon in what became one of the great Ashes Tests. From the moment Zak Crawley drove the first ball of the series for four, it was edge-of-the-seat viewing. Usman Khawaja’s 321-ball 141 was the counter to Bazball as the first innings ended just about even. After another frenetic innings from England, Australia were set 281 in echoes of the famous 2005 classic. Once the opening stand was broken, England made regular inroads and looked favourites until Ben Stokes couldn’t quite haul in a top edge from Lyon with 37 needed.2nd Test vs England, Lord’s: won by 43 runsA Test that Australia had dominated for large swathes was ignited on the final day with Alex Carey’s stumping of Jonny Bairstow. It lit a fuse under Stokes, who threatened to replicate his Headingley miracle of four years earlier while Stuart Broad played his part amid heated scenes. This time, though, Stokes fell short as Australia prevailed despite the series-ending injury suffered by Lyon on the third day. That had come at a moment where England had a chance to take charge, but they refused to back down from an aggressive approach against Australia’s short-pitched attack and it proved their downfall.Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins celebrate Australia’s thrilling win in the opening Test of their WTC cycle•Getty Images3rd Test vs England, Headingley: lost by three wicketsMark Wood’s belated introduction changed the entire feeling of the series. He bowled at the speed of light on the opening day to rattle Australia, but Mitchell Marsh’s run-a-ball 118 kept honours even. The visitors had the game for the taking before Stokes counter-attacked to draw England nearly level, and then, with the lead growing steadily, Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith handed their wickets to Moeen Ali. Under gloomy skies late on the third day, Australia could only stretch the target to 251. The chase was nip-and-tuck as England scored at one-day pace, led by Harry Brook, before Wood and Chris Woakes sealed the game.4th Test vs England, Old Trafford: Match drawnRain was always forecast to play its part and duly washed out the final day to save Australia from a likely defeat. England had played brilliantly to force the tempo as they racked up 592 at 5.49 an over with Crawley motoring to 189 off 182 balls and Bairstow producing a punchy century. Wood’s pace again had a huge impact but Labuschagne produced a fighting century on a truncated fourth day before Australia happily watched the rain fall as the Ashes were retained.5th Test vs England, The Oval: lost by 49 runsAs in 2019, Australia fell short of being able to win the Ashes. Befitting the series, the match was pulsating viewing from start to finish. The first innings again ended on more or less even terms amid another contrast in tempo, but Australia did well to stay competitive having been 185 for 7. When England were 332 for 4 the game looked theirs, but the last six wickets fell for 63 and then Khawaja and David Warner added 140 for the first wicket. However, a ball change altered the complexion – much to Australia’s frustration – as the new one hooped with Woakes and Wood taking advantage. Still, Australia reached 264 for 3 on the final day with Smith and Travis Head well set. Then Moeen, in his final Test, sparked a collapse of 4 for 11. Broad, who had announced his retirement two days earlier, secured the win with a wicket from the final ball of his career.Mitchell Marsh played the lead role in the Perth win over Pakistan•Getty Images and Cricket Australia1st Test vs Pakistan, Perth: won by 360 runsAustralia dominated throughout on a pitch that became increasingly precarious for batting. Warner’s opening-day 164, at the beginning of his last Test series, set the platform, which was added to by Marsh’s hometown 90. Initially, Australia toiled somewhat for inroads but a collective bowling effort earned a lead of 216. Khawaja’s 90 and more runs from Marsh ensured a target well out of reach for Pakistan as the quicks found considerable assistance from uneven bounce. Pakistan could only muster 89 with Lyon claiming his 500th Test wicket when he trapped Faheem Ashraf lbw.2nd Test vs Pakistan, Melbourne: won by 79 runsAustralia were pushed harder than was expected after events in Perth, and when they were 90 without loss on the opening day. Cummins and Lyon shared nine wickets to earn a lead of 54 but the game was blown wide open as Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mir Hamza reduced the home side to 16 for 4. However, Marsh was spilled on 20 and changed the game with a brilliant 96 while Smith dropped anchor. Set 317, Pakistan had hope at 219 for 5 but Cummins produced another match-seizing spell and the last five wickets fell for 18.David Warner says goodbye to the SCG fans after his last Test innings•Getty Images3rd Test vs Pakistan, Sydney: won by eight wicketsThe final match of Warner’s Test career was a neck-and-neck affair over the first two innings. Aamer Jamal’s feisty 82 lifted Pakistan to 313, then a late Australia collapse of 5 for 10 meant they ended up not quite matching it with Jamal again starring with 6 for 69. However, the home side surged late on the third day as Josh Hazlewood reduced Pakistan to 68 for 7, which effectively decided the contest. Chasing 130, Warner signed off with a half-century but fell with the winning line in sight – but it allowed him to leave the arena to his own ovation.1st Test vs West Indies, Adelaide: won by 10 wicketsThe match was over before lunch on the third day as an inexperienced West Indies were swept aside. Hazlewood and Cummins did the damage initially, but Shamar Joseph’s 36 from No. 11 was a sign of things to come. Australia didn’t have it all their own way with the bat as Shamar struck with his first delivery in Test cricket, having Smith caught in the slips, and it needed Head’s freewheeling 119 off 134 balls to build a useful lead. For a little while, a two-day finish was on the cards as Hazlewood starred again and it needed West Indies’ last-wicket pair to make Australia bat.Shamar Joseph sparked one of the great upsets in Test history•Getty Images2nd Test vs West Indies, Brisbane: lost by 7 runsOne of biggest upsets. West Indies had not beaten Australia in 21 years and when the home side were 113 for 2 chasing 216 that streak did not look like ending. But up stepped Shamar with one of the great spells. Bowling with a broken toe sustained from a Mitchell Starc yorker the previous night, he ripped through the middle order starting with Cameron Green and Head in consecutive deliveries – the latter completing a king pair. Shamar bowled unchanged and, with new opener Smith unbeaten on 91 at the non-striker’s end, speared one into Hazlewood’s off stump to set off wild celebrations.1st Test vs New Zealand, Wellington: won by 172 runsGreen and Lyon produced the defining performances of a Test where, for the most part, bowlers held sway. Green’s unbeaten 174 was the standout innings of the match producing nearly half of Australia’s first-innings 383 after they had wobbled on 89 for 4. A significant proportion came in a record last-wicket stand of 116 with Hazlewood. New Zealand were on the ropes at 29 for 5 and conceded a huge lead. On a surface offering increasing turn, Australia lost 6 for 37 but there were more than enough runs for Lyon to play with as he completed a ten-wicket match haul.The Australian team poses with the series trophy after sweeping New Zealand•Getty Images2nd Test vs New Zealand, Christchurch: won by three wicketsDespite being rolled over for 162 on the opening day, with Hazlewood taking 5 for 31, New Zealand looked favourites to level the series when Australia were 80 for 5 chasing 279. However, Marsh’s golden run continued with a dominant 80 and Carey emerged from an indifferent run of form with a match-winning unbeaten 98. He added 61 with Cummins after debutant Ben Sears had struck twice in consecutive balls to lift New Zealand’s spirits. Having kept Australia’s lead to 94, New Zealand missed an opportunity to set a tougher chase when they slipped from 278 for 3 to 372 all out.1st Test vs India, Perth: lost by 295 runsIt’s rare to see Australia beaten like this at home. And it came after they had dismissed India for 150 on the opening day. Then Jasprit Bumrah produced his first outstanding display of a series he would dominate, including the wickets of Khawaja and Smith in consecutive balls, to earn the visitors an unexpected lead. With some of the early spice out of the wicket, India’s openers, Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul, then added 201 and there was no way back for Australia. Jaiswal made a magnificent 161 and Virat Kohli feasted on a tired attack for an unbeaten 100. Australia were 17 for 4 second time around with only Head’s 89 adding a modicum of respect, but not enough to prevent a 295-run loss.Travis Head’s 141-ball 140 earned him the Player-of-the-Match award in the pink-ball Test•Getty Images2nd Test vs India, Adelaide: won by 10 wicketsAustralia picked themselves up in the day-night format they have so regularly dominated. Starc removed Jaiswal with the first ball of the Test, although India reached 69 for 1 before things fell apart with Scott Boland, replacing the injured Hazlewood, again playing a key role. Starc continued his magnificent pink-ball record with 6 for 48. Head then played another of his match-winning innings, flaying 140 off 141 balls – his dismissal to Mohammed Siraj saw the first significant confrontation of the series. But India could barely make Australia bat again as Cummins took 5 for 57.3rd Test vs India, Brisbane: Match drawnRegular rain interruptions meant this Test never really got going, but Australia dominated for the most part. Head made another stunning hundred (152 off 160 balls) while Smith emerged from a relatively lean period with a hard-working century. Bumrah was again magnificent with 6 for 76 but it was something of a one-man show. This time Starc needed two balls to remove Jaiswal and India were rocking on 74 for 5, but Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja fought hard. Although time would probably have run out, the last-wicket pair of Bumrah and Akash Deep importantly saved the follow-on.Sam Konstas had an extraordinary Test debut, at the end of which he got a chance to celebrate a win with his captain•Getty Images4th Test vs India, Melbourne: won by 184 runsThe margin was big, but this was an epic Test that finished deep in the final session. The early exchanges had all been about Sam Konstas’ extraordinary debut as he took the game to Bumrah in thrilling fashion. Smith’s 140 then carried Australia to a hefty total. With Boland again enjoying himself at the MCG, India were a long way adrift until a gutsy maiden hundred from Nitish Kumar Reddy. Bumrah and Siraj then had Australia 91 for 6 and the game was wide open, but Labuschagne and the lower order pulled the target away. India never attempted the chase, but from 33 for 3 were well-placed to save the game before Rishabh Pant pulled a long hop to deep midwicket after tea on the last day. India’s went on to lose 7 for 34 in front of a record crowd.5th Test vs India, Sydney: won by six wicketsOn a unusually lively, and occasionally uneven, SCG surface, Australia prevailed to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and secure their place in the WTC final. The two first innings ended almost even as the pace bowlers dominated. Beau Webster’s composed 57 on debut helped the hosts recover from a dicey 39 for 4. Pant threatened to turn the game India’s way with 61 off 47 balls before falling to Cummins and Boland claimed 6 for 45 to finish with ten in the match. A target of 162 was not a given, however, and at 58 for 3 – with Smith falling on 9999 career runs – India had a chance. Things might have been different had Bumrah not succumbed to his workload with a back injury.Matt Kuhnemann picked up 16 wickets in the two Tests in Sri Lanka•AFP/Getty Images1st Test vs Sri Lanka, Galle: won by an innings and 242 runsThe spot in the final was secure, but Australia were still desperate for a series win in Sri Lanka. This was as complete a performance as could be witnessed. The tone was set by Head attacking the new ball, and then Khawaja went on to compile a career-best 232 alongside centuries for Smith and Josh Inglis, on debut, with a dazzling 94-ball effort. Sri Lanka crumbled for 165 with Matt Kuhnemann claiming 5 for 63. Following-on, Kuhnemann added four more to his match haul as he and Lyon shared 16 for the match.2nd Test vs Sri Lanka, Galle: won by nine wicketsAnother dominant performance, although at stages it was more of a contest than the first Test. Half-centuries from Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Mendis took Sri Lanka to 257, which looked potentially competitive when Australia were 91 for 3. However, Smith played brilliantly again while Carey compiled a masterful 156, which formed the cornerstone of a handsome lead. Angelo Mathews threatened to enable Sri Lanka to set a tricky target, but he was brilliantly caught by Webster. Lyon and Kuhnemann shared 14 wickets for the match.