Questions were raised about his lean patch, and he answered them in his trademark style, with a career-best 115-ball 143

Deivarayan Muthu in Mohali10-Mar-20193:39

Dhawan on dealing with scrutiny: I cut down on my negative thoughts

Shikhar Dhawan is a West Delhi boy who lives in Melbourne with his wife and kids. But he’s a proper Punjabi at heart, who can’t resist dancing to the .Dhawan and Virat Kohli – another West Delhi and Punjabi boy – showed off their moves during a tour match against Essex in Chelmsford last year, with men playing the geeing them up further.Punjab’s favourite son Yuvraj Singh once poked fun at Dhawan for wearing flip-flops during a team photo shoot. However, Dhawan replied saying he can turn on the style with slippers too.Questions have been raised about Dhawan’s prolonged lean patch since the Asia Cup, and he answered them in similar style: a career-best 115-ball 143 against Australia in Mohali. His Test career had taken off at this very venue in 2013, when he broke Australia and records.The celebration was back again in Mohali, and so was the smile for Dhawan. Since the Asia Cup, he had managed 377 runs in 16 innings at an average of 25.13 and strike rate of 80.04 until Sunday. Time was running out for him: India had just two ODIs before the World Cup and KL Rahul was breathing down his neck.Dhawan, though, turned it around in signature style. Ninety off his 143 runs (63%) came via boundaries. When the show ended, Dhawan drew a standing ovation from a lively Sunday crowd and a pat on the chest from his incoming captain. The Bharat Army sent him off with chants of “Gabbar! Gabbar! Gabbar!”However, in the early exchanges, Dhawan had struggled against the left-arm angle and swing of Jason Benhrendorff. He scored just one run off the first 10 balls from the left-arm quick, but then laid into the other bowlers after riding out that spell.Whenever Pat Cummins and Jhye Richardson overpitched it, Dhawan leant into punchy drives and pierced the packed off-side infield. Aaron Finch had deployed his men at backward point, cover-point, extra-cover, and mid-off, but Dhawan still found the gaps. That he shuffled from middle stump – as opposed to leg stump – allowed him to reach the pitch of the ball.Shikhar Dhawan acknowledges the applause of the crowd•Getty ImagesAfter seeing the full balls being dispatched to the boundary, Australia’s bowlers pulled their lengths back, but Dhawan was ready with the hook. That the short balls came fairly slow off the pitch and sat up to be hit also worked in his favour.And Australia were missing Nathan Coulter-Nile – the one bowler who could have pounded the deck and extracted something out of this pitch. Coulter-Nile had returned home on the eve of the Ranchi ODI for the birth of his second child.Dhawan motored to his fifty off 44 balls with a front-foot punch down the ground off Richardson. His partner Rohit Sharma started slowly – he was on 8 off 22 balls at one point – but soon settled into his shot-making stride with a majestic lofted straight drive for six off Behrendorff."Both of us couldn’t convert [the starts] in a few matches,” Dhawan told during the innings break. “Today we were communicating a lot, I told him [Rohit] ‘take your time, no worries, we can cover up for the scoring rate later.’ If you saw, both of us were in the 90s at the same time.”Rohit gradually shifted gears and even outscored Dhawan as the opening stand swelled beyond 150. Before the fourth ODI, India’s opening stand had averaged well below 40 in 2019; in the past five years they had averaged more than 40. Rohit and Dhawan remedied that stat and India’s recent top-order wobbles with a stand of 193.”He’s a class batsman,” Dhawan further said of Rohit. “It’s about saying the right things at the right moment. It’s good to see another 150 partnership at the top of the order. That’s been our strength for the past few years. [We] would like to keep it going.”While Rohit missed out on a hundred, holing out in the deep for 95 off 92 balls, Dhawan pressed on to bring up his 16th ODI century – and his first since the Asia Cup last year. After reaching the landmark, Dhawan went berserk, muscling six fours and two sixes within the space of 12 balls, including 14 runs off three consecutive balls off Behrendorff in the 37th over.In the previous ODI at this venue in 2017, Rohit had shellacked a double-century against Sri Lanka. Could Dhawan emulate his opening partner? Nope, he lost his shape while going for a heave and was bowled by Cummins.But a welcome return to form in the lead-up to a global tournament, where Dhawan elevates his game to a different plane, has put (some of) the doubts to rest.

After the day started with hosts’ plans thrown into chaos, it could not really have finished much better

Andrew McGlashan16-Dec-2021Things happened quickly before play started on the opening day in Adelaide. Australia needed a replacement captain and fast bowler. For large parts of the day the action in the middle unfolded at a more sedate pace but the hard work put in by David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne, allied with a helping hand from England, set the foundation for Australia’s early stranglehold on another floodlit Test.Whereas the decision at the toss in Brisbane was a tricky one, here there was no doubt what the right thing to do was and the coin fell Steven Smith’s way which was probably a relief after the drama of the preceding few hours. Stuart Broad bowled well to remove Marcus Harris cheaply and caused David Warner some uneasy moments from around the wicket, but from then on England were blunted by the same partnership that thwarted their attempts for early wickets at the Gabba.It took Warner 20 balls to get off the mark; from 25 overs at lunch Australia were 45 for 1; by the second drinks break they were 77 for 1 off 40 overs; Labuschagne’s half-century would take 156 deliveries and despite being on 94 when the new ball was taken he could not reach three figures by the close. But the value of today could be seen tomorrow.”Today felt like I was in the right zone, playing my areas, and creating a bit of length to cut and pull because we were getting nothing,” Warner said. “It was one of those hard, grinding days so I think it was a big tick for us.”Related

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As with four years ago, it felt as though England bowled too short, although assistant coach Graham Thorpe defended their tactics. More than 200 deliveries were logged by ESPNcricinfo as short-of-a-good-length and another 35 were short. The 76 deliveries they did bowl full went at nearly a run a ball – and England’s bowlers often speak about wanting to control the run rate – but by not going full more often they removed a wicket-taking threat.”I felt as a team we bowled well enough in the first hour and a half to pick up three wickets,” Broad said during a drinks-break interview with the host broadcaster.Warner and Labuschagne are forming a formidable partnership. They now average 101.83 per stand – the second-highest for any Australia pairing to have batted at least 10 times together – bolstered by the 361 they added in the day-night Test on this ground against Pakistan in 2019-2020.Warner has grafted for his runs at the start of the series with a strike-rate of 55.10 compared to his career figure of 72.34. He was batting with the pain of his badly bruised ribs and popped some painkillers during his stay having had a local anesthetic before play but came through his reunion with arch nemesis Broad.”I was pretty close [to not playing] but unless I’ve got no leg I’m not not going to walk on the field,” Warner said. “Probably showed that last year [against India]. If I can get out on the park, I’ll do everything I can to do that. I was in a bit of agony… it doesn’t feel great but had a Test to play. There’s a series on the line and wanted to commit to that.”His first delivery created some excitement as Warner shouldered arms and the ball thudded into the pads, but he later explained one of the key differences to facing Broad in Australia was being able to leave on length. He became more expansive as the innings progressed against the older ball but his dismissal, smashing a short delivery to cover, was out of character for the restraint he had shown. However, he felt the short-ball strategy played into Australia’s hands.”Once you get a couple of boundaries away and they start leaking you’ve got to change tactics, but they obviously didn’t do that so could have worked into our plan a little and the ball gets softer,” he said.Labuschagne made England pay for dropping him on 21 when Jos Buttler grassed a simpler chance from a gloved pull than the screamer to remove Harris. A second life came his way on 95 when Buttler shelled a regulation edge off James Anderson. Themes of Australia tours past are rearing their heads.Labuschagne had skipped into double figures off nine balls but then did not add to his tally for the next 37. In that period he, too, was tested by Broad who beat him on four consecutive occasions early in his innings. His scoreless spell was broken by a risky back-cut off Ben Stokes which flew just wide of slip.In the night session, England’s persistence with the short ball nearly worked when Labuschagne got an inside edge onto his shoulder against Stokes but it landed safely and he also took a couple of blows on the arm. He batted himself almost to a standstill as the day drew to a close, and he should not have survived until the end, but it was an exhibition in resilience.Australia know there will be a chance to increase the tempo on the second day, with the temperature set to hit 36 degrees. If things go well they could be in position to exploit the last session with the new ball. After the day started with their plans being thrown into chaos it could not really have finished much better.

It was a performance of ups and downs that further endears you to a cricketer

Vithushan Ehantharajah07-Aug-2023The sun shone throughout the evening in Manchester, and it’s important to put that on the record given the last few weeks here.An entire men’s Ashes was ruined by two days of rain at the end of the fourth Test, followed by a Manchester Originals home opener against London Spirit scuppered in both competitions. The blokes managed to get on for 80 balls, of which Jos Buttler thrilled for 32 of them. Ultimately, it was for nothing.Proximity to such an engaging seven weeks of England and Australia duels means the Hundred needs to thrive more than ever. Even before the parallel men’s and women’s Ashes, there was an understanding at HQ this third season had to harness the power of what was always likely to be a public-enrapturing block of international cricket. And while pockets of the country remain untouched by the harsh, bright hues of the Hundred’s colour palette, the cities exposed to this flash jamboree needed to make it count.Part of that requires attachment. And for the longest time, before the Hundred even got off the ground, you wondered how those in the stands could truly vibe with nebulous concepts. Yet as Emirates Old Trafford welcomed an eventual 11,692 for the men’s portion of this doubleheader, the parochialism from the stands hit you like grapes on Ricky Ponting.The cheers for Buttler’s boundaries were loud. The palpable disdain when replays of the direct hit run out from Moeen Ali showed Buttler might have grounded his bat over the line even louder. They chuntered when Phoenix opener Ben Duckett inadvertently got in the way of a shy at the stumps after popping one into the leg side during the third set of the chase. Moeen, cheered to the rafters here three weeks ago when gliding to a half-century in whites for his country, was jeered off after being trapped by a vicious yorker from local boy Richard Gleeson. They even booed Kane Richardson simply for being Australian.Related

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Usama Mir overshadows England stars with bat and ball to lead Originals win

But it was Usama Mir, one of Originals own as of, well, a few weeks ago, that was the most evocative presence this Monday night. Most of it good, some of it bad, all of it endearing. A performance of ups and downs that further endears you to a cricketer, if it is even possible to have greater admiration for one who fizzes leg spin and smokes boundaries.Uncapped in T20s for Pakistan, and with just six appearances in ODIs, Mir essentially undertook an overseas Vitality Blast gig with Worcestershire with a view to breaking into the Hundred. A route in looked tricky given only domestic players can be Wildcard picks, but 19 wickets in 11 matches at an economy rate of 7.29 impressed Buttler enough to ratify his inclusion after Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga pulled out for the second year in succession.”We had Hasaranga down to come, and Usama Mir was playing for Worcester and doing brilliantly, so bring him in,” said Buttler at stumps, after a 49-run win had been banked thanks to the 27-year-old’s 32 off 14 and 2 for 27.It felt like Originals – and the competition more broadly – fell on their feet when Usama came out at 105 for 6 with 24 balls to go. A tournament that relies on highlight reels has another walking one, it seems.Usama Mir interacts with fans after the game•ECB/Getty ImagesThe wily Benny Howell dipped into his box of tricks and pulled out a slower, length ball he had to go fetch after it was carted over cover. Richardson was then swung over mid off before being short-arm flayed over midwicket for six two deliveries later. Even Adam Milne, who can usually get by on fear of his pace when bowling to the lower half of a batting order, was reverse-ramped twice. At times it looked like Mir had extra joints in his arms, such were the angles created and areas accessed.That feel for the game did not quite carry onto the field, at least not straight away. Will Smeed was shelled on six, after skying a pull around the corner off Josh Little, leading to Mir running back and failing to take over his shoulder. The fall to the ground, as he attempted to clasp it a second time, was comical.The second drop – Jamie Smith on 15 – was even worse, looping to him off a regulation edge after a smart cutter from Paul Walter. An error compounded by the fact Smith had carted Usama’s second and third deliveries for six. But Walter got his man with the very next delivery – caught long on. And when Mir trapped Dan Mousley lbw followed by Shadab Khan, his rival for Pakistan’s leggie allrounder spot, we knew whose day it was. Particularly given Mousley did not review his decision despite impact outside the line after the umpires had made an error in chalking off Phoenix’s review when Moeen’s unsuccessful one came back with an umpire’s call.That review was only reinstated with 25 balls to go, by which point this game was long gone with 75 runs still to get. The deficit would eventually be whittled down to 49 runs, with subdued glee from the Originals “faithful” as Phoenix were dismissed for 111. In a season primarily of rain and tight finishes, we have our second blowout.Ironically, it was one of Lancashire’s own, Liam Livingstone, who was likeliest to make this tighter than it was. It was at this corresponding fixture in the 2021 season – the first Hundred match at Emirates Old Trafford – that Livingstone was booed. This time around, the man who carried the inaugural season on his back managed just 27 off 25, before county team-mate Tom Hartley dismissed him caught-and-bowled. Those cheers carried a genuine sense of a dangerman snared, rather than a pantomime villain vanquished.Through surprise packages and familiar faces, something is brewing among the Originals. It might be that local fans are feeling this new competition. It might be that Manchester just likes its cricket. It might be that it wasn’t raining.The next fixture here is in 13 days (the derby with Northern Supercharges), immediately followed by another three days after versus Southern Brave – the last two fixtures of the group stage. By then, we will know whether Originals are in it to win. And maybe also if this local support is something real.

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This IPL has seen a few feisty reunions, featuring Warner, Rashid, Kuldeep, Chahal, and others

Yash Jha07-May-2022A player-franchise association of years breaks down every few years. Now with a new home side, a player meets his old friend and turns up big against them. It’s a script that plays out often and with much interest around it. Like in football, the IPL, now that it is a decade-and-a-half into existence, is seeing its own share of feisty reunions, and a fair few players have turned the heat on their past employers this season. We pick the most notable such contributions so far in IPL 2022:David Warner (Delhi Capitals): 92* (58) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Brabourne StadiumDavid Warner scored a match-winning knock against Sunrisers Hyderabad•BCCIIt’s hard to think of a more publicly acrimonious fallout in the IPL than the one between Sunrisers and Warner in 2021: team legend, he led them to the 2016 title, three Orange Caps in six completed seasons alone for Sunrisers, and yet reduced to a reserve.Warner quashed any arguments of how much was left in the tank with a Player-of-the-Tournament medal in Australia’s title win at the T20 World Cup that followed the IPL season last year. Well into this IPL campaign came his chance to take on his team of the previous seven years.He grabbed it with both hands, playing that quintessential Warner knock that had heralded so many Sunrisers victories in the past: cautious to begin with, unaffected by wickets at the other end, upping the gears with ease, and batting it out till the end. He took his time and picked his battles – 15 off 13 balls against Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but 47 off 25 versus Umran Malik and Kartik Tyagi combined – and was the fulcrum of Capitals’ charge to 207 for 3, which proved too good for his old team.Rashid Khan (Gujarat Titans): 31*(11) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Wankhede StadiumRashid Khan finished on 31 in 11 balls•BCCIThe absence of Rashid from Sunrisers’ list of retained players ahead of the 2022 auction sparked off the most blazing debate with many questioning the franchise owners and team management’s logic.It turned out to be an evening to forget for Rashid when he came on to bowl against Sunrisers. It was probably the familiarity that helped Sunrisers’ batters taking Rashid apart: he conceded 40-plus runs for only the third time in the IPL, with Abhishek Sharma smashing him for 34 from just 15 balls.But Titans – who had gleefully lapped Rashid up as one of their three draft picks – would have the final laugh.The tie seemed beyond Titans with 56 needed from the final four overs when Rashid joined Rahul Tewatia in the middle. The equation became 37 off 14 after Rashid hit his first six – a helicopter flick off Bhuvneshwar – and some blows from Tewatia brought it down to 15 off four, with Rashid on strike, facing Marco Jansen. Six, dot, six, six: a stunning sequence left Sunrisers seething, the usually-calm Muthiah Muralidaran fuming, and Titans extending their stay at the top of the table.Wriddhiman Saha (Gujarat Titans): 68 (38) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Wankhede StadiumWriddhiman Saha reached fifty in 28 balls•BCCIThat Titans were still in the hunt in the back-end of that chase was down to another ex-Sunrisers man. Saha got a late entry into the XI after the move to play Matthew Wade at the top didn’t work, and he hadn’t done much in his first two outings (11 off 18 and 25 off 25).But he took the attack to Sunrisers, comfortably outscoring Shubman Gill in a strong start to Titans’ pursuit of 196. The openers faced 18 balls each in the powerplay – Saha scored 39 and Gill 15. Saha brought up a 28-ball fifty and continued to motor on, leaving Titans with 74 to get off 40 balls by the time he was done.Saha was fluent against his former Sunrisers team-mates, taking 10 from seven balls off Bhuvneshwar and 13 off six off T Natarajan, while taking Marco Jansen to the cleaners: 26 off nine balls, laced with four fours and a six.Kuldeep Yadav (Delhi Capitals) : 4 for 35, Brabourne Stadium and 4 for 14, Wankhede Stadium, both vs Kolkata Knight RidersKuldeep Yadav was a thorn in KKR’s side•BCCIFrom 2019 to 2021, Kuldeep Yadav had bowled 270 balls for Knight Riders in the IPL and picked up just five wickets. By the time he bowled his 27th delivery against them this season, the Capitals’ lead spinner had crossed that tally, and he is the second-highest wicket-taker this IPL right now.The first rubber was a high-scoring clash at Brabourne, and Kuldeep had gone wicketless while conceding 28 runs from his first 16 balls – but his last eight deliveries would decisively turn the game in Capitals’ favour. He had Shreyas Iyer stumped for 54 off 33 before dismissing Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine and Umesh Yadav in the space of four balls – the last an excellent caught-and-bowled effort.Kuldeep took it to another level 18 days later. After getting rid of B Indrajith and Narine off consecutive deliveries in his first over, he got the wickets of Shreyas and Andre Russell in his third. It could have been more than a four-for, but Capitals – for some reason – didn’t bowl out Kuldeep’s quota.Yuzvendra Chahal (Rajasthan Royals): 2 for 15 vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Wankhede StadiumYuzvendra Chahal also struck against his former side•BCCIChahal’s exclusion from Royal Challengers’ shortlist was one of the talking points when the retentions were announced ahead of the mega auction. Between 2014 and 2021, Chahal picked up 139 wickets in 113 games for Royal Challengers; no bowler took more wickets in the IPL in that period.That provided enough intrigue as the legspinner lined up against his old unit early in the 2022 season, and although his new team – Royals – couldn’t get the win, Chahal was arguably the best bowler on the night. He returned superlative figures of 2 for 15 from his four overs, accounting for Faf du Plessis and David Willey, and also playing a part in the run out of his former captain Virat Kohli.Rahul Tripathi (Sunrisers Hyderabad): 71 (37) vs Kolkata Knight Riders, Brabourne StadiumRahul Tripathi brought up his half-century in just 21 balls•PTI With 397 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 140, Tripathi was key to Knight Riders’ run to the final last season and second only to Gill on their run-scoring charts. Knight Riders did stay in pursuit of him till the INR 6-crore mark at this year’s auction, before seeing Sunrisers eventually acquire the 31-year-old for INR 8.5 crore (USD 1.1 million approx.).Tripathi walked out early in Sunrisers’ chase of 176, and took the attack to Knight Riders. Sunrisers went from 15 for 1 at the end of the third over to 105 for 2 after 11, with Tripathi flaying 53 of those runs off just 23 balls. He was particularly severe on Varun Chakravarthy, taking 19 runs from six balls off him, including two magnificently-driven sixes on the off side.Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran (Sunrisers Hyderabad) vs Punjab Kings, DY Patil Stadium
Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran took their side home•BCCIMarkram and Pooran had been part of the Punjab Kings line-up that found ways to not finish over the line in 2021. The pair, most notably, was in the middle for that Kartik Tyagi over last year when Kings contrived to lose to Royals in Dubai.So what could be more IPL than the same duo being tasked to finish off a chase against Kings? It wasn’t the most nerve-wracking equation – 75 needed from 57 balls when Pooran joined Markram in the middle – but they assembled knowing there wasn’t a lot to follow for Sunrisers. Shashank Singh, who hadn’t batted in the IPL until then, was slated at No. 6, and J Suchith at No. 7.They took Sunrisers home with little trouble. Markram was fluent in his 41 off 27, Pooran solid in his 30-ball 35, and Sunrisers were over the line with seven balls to spare.

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