The opener batted for more than 11 hours for his unbeaten 264, but for the majority of that time, Sri Lanka were convinced they had bigger problems

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Wellington17-Dec-2018Tom Latham batted for more than 11-and-a-half-hours, and played out 489 balls, but for the majority of that time, and for most of those deliveries, Sri Lanka were convinced they had bigger problems.At the beginning of the New Zealand innings, on day two, it had been Jeet Raval that worried them. Raval who sent the third ball he faced screaming through extra cover. Raval who socked Suranga Lakmal down the ground, and sent another straight drive purring past the feet of bowler Kasun Rajitha. While he skipped along to 30 off 45 balls looking very much like the opener who might drive the New Zealand innings forward, prompting mid-pitch discussions between Dinesh Chandimal and his bowlers, Latham puttered away with a strike rate of roughly 20.Number of fours off Latham’s first 85 deliveries? Just two. Leaves? Blocks? Forward defences? Yes, please.When Kane Williamson is the next man in, the opposition’s attention naturally shifts toward him. When he hits three fours off his first three balls – two of those boundaries sent whistling past point – his batting partners may as well vanish entirely. Sri Lanka fiddled constantly with their fields when Williamson was on strike. They moved point finer and squared gully up. Fielders were forever suggesting to bowlers how they might slow the flow of runs, or how they might lay a trap, or at the very least get him to crack a grimace, all of which is near impossible when Williamson is in full-on batting automation mode.Then Latham came back on strike, and everybody sort of exhaled. Ah, good old Latham. Twenty-eight off 103. Most memorable shot so far? Uh, has he played any? Let’s look at the wagon wheel. Oh yeah, there that leg-side flick.Every batsman who subsequently arrived appeared to be bringing all of the personality. Ross Taylor played both crashing drives and delicate paddle sweeps, ironsmith and artisan within the same innings. Then, as the established left-hander was refusing to produce the pretty strokes, Henry Nicholls took it upon himself to make the Basin Reserve gasp in admiration, a stereotypically graceful leftie’s off drive here, a serene pull shot there, a languid jaunt down the pitch and swish, the spinner spins around on his toes, watches ball sail overhead to the boundary.With Colin de Grandhomme, Sri Lanka went looking for trouble. They stacked the leg side and aimed balls at his nose. Two of those disappeared over fine leg’s head, and another went over deep square.Tom Latham muscles the ball over the leg side•Getty ImagesLatham watched all of this, and thought: “No. I’m happy down this end, away from the spotlight, thank you.” So surreptitious was his advance, that the main reminder he was batting was the constant flashing of his name on the scoreboard, which you looked up to and noticed, oh – he’s added 20 more runs. So unmemorable were huge swathes of this knock, that if this innings had committed a crime, the victim would fail to pick it out from a police line-up.Only on the evening of day three, when Latham’s innings had grown truly gargantuan, and he was charging up the biggest scores for New Zealand list, did this monumental effort give off a sense of personality. Batting with the tail, Latham was suddenly energised seeking out boundaries for the first time in five sessions. Tantalising possibilities had taken shape. How far he will get up the New Zealand list, you wondered. Sixth, as it turned out. Will he carry his bat? Yes, and he became the first New Zealand batsman since 1972 to achieve this.The best statistical nugget from the whole thing, though, serves our hero’s batting character perfectly. Latham’s 264 not out is the highest-ever score from a batsman who has carried his bat, beating the previous record of 244 from none other than Alastair Cook. Which really puts this innings into perspective, doesn’t it? In producing this epically non-descript innings, Latham has out-blanded maybe the greatest purveyor of batting blandery the planet has ever seen.Typically, it was not Latham, but the opposition bowling coach Rumesh Ratnayake, who provided the most colourful summation of the knock:”The beauty of Latham’s innings was that he scored 100 then started leaving the ball again, and didn’t play any rash strokes,” Ramanayake said. “Only when he was 250 did he go over the top. That was a good lesson in itself. He showed maturity and it was an exceptional knock. It wasn’t flamboyant but it was a classy innings.”Ranking by charisma is of course no fair way to judge an innings by a New Zealand opener. For decades, this has been one of the toughest places to face the new ball, and blandness here can often mean excellence. Latham can reflect that he didn’t get out hooking the ball before lunch as Raval did, or slap a nothing-ball to square leg as Williamson had done, or misread the drift as he danced down the pitch to hole out to long-on, like Nicholls.He flew happily under the radar, and while Sri Lanka were firing missiles at the fighter jets and trying to gun down the fancy electronic warfare craft, this old-fashioned, unnoticed B-52 had dropped its massive payload, knocked out their entire infrastructure, and left them on the brink of a giant defeat.

Prashant Vaidya, the director of VCA’s Cricket Academy, charts Vidarbha’s journey to becoming only the third team in history to defend their Ranji and Irani Cup trophies

Sreshth Shah in Nagpur16-Feb-2019Rome wasn’t built in a day. Some say, it took them nearly three centuries.Vidarbha took their time as well, to become the best domestic team in India. The journey began in 1929 when their cricket association was instituted. For the next 60 years, the farthest they’ve reached is the quarter-finals four times: 1970-71, 1995-96, 2014-15 and 2015-16.In light of Vidarbha’s recent dominance – four championships in the past two seasons – coach Chandrakant Pandit and their experienced professional Wasim Jaffer, have come in for generous and well deserved – praise. But the genesis of Vidarbha’s journey to the summit of Indian domestic cricket dates back to 2009-ish.ALSO READ – Chandrakant Pandit: Less of a general, more of a 12th man
Back then, both Pandit and Jaffer were busy helping Mumbai win the Ranji Trophy for fun and Vidarbha were languishing in the Plate Group – the bottom tier of domestic cricket in the country – when former India and Vidarbha player Prashant Vaidya became the director of VCA’s Cricket Academy.Having retired in 1995-96 after playing four ODIs, Vaidya envisaged a future for the cricketers in the region when no one else was even trying. The team was unfamiliar to winning, and its personnel lacked the self-belief that’s needed to succeed in the top-flight. The state of the game in Vidarbha needed a complete overhaul, and in Vaidya, the VCA found a self-motivated and experienced hand to do so..”The desire was always there – that Vidarbha should have a strong cricketing structure,” Vaidya tells ESPNcricinfo. “Even when I was playing for Vidarbha, and afterwards also, I realised we have the talent, but we were lacking in some departments. Lack of confidence, no habit of winning, the desire, the ambition, the attitude and approach that ‘yes, even we can do it’, that was lacking in the boys.”Even during my time [Vaidya’s first-class career lasted from 1987 to 1996] there were a few talented players in my side, but I’m not sure if they shared the desire. I’ve always felt that everyone who is playing at the first-class level must have ambition, because that drives you to perform better.Wasim Jaffer plays a drive•Getty Images”So in 2009, we started a cricket academy for the age group of 15-19. We had almost 60 boys staying at the hostel of the Old Vidarbha Stadium. We developed an indoor facility too, and that probably brought a new change. We began a professional training pattern and developed a good system. But for those boys to come up to a level – skill-wise, technically or mentally – it took a few years.”Vaidya’s first stint with VCA ended in 2012, but from the foundations he laid, emerged Vidarbha’s current stars. When he returned as vice-president and chairman of VCA’s cricket development committee four years later, he could notice the benefits of instituting those streamlined structures throughout the region.”R Sanjay, Akshay Wadkar, these are the guys who came up from the camps that we had in 2009,” Vaidya says. “In Nagpur, there’s a good cricketing culture, but the districts lacked proper structure. So that’s been a focus for the past five years.”Akshay Karnewar, Aditya Thakare and Atharva Taide are the younger gems we have developed from the districts – almost 50% of the team is from the district. In my time, barely anyone would be from there.

I always knew that Pandit’s way of coaching will suit our boys. I feel that I’ve done my part by getting the boys a good teacher, but I was equally confident that the boys were up to it… to receive the teachings – so it works both ways. For a good teacher to succeed, you need students who want to learn too.

“It’s all about reaching the grassroots because that’s where the untapped talent lies. But it’s not just the development of players… we’ve had to train coaches across the age groups as well. So our focus isn’t simply on the players. There has to be a cohesive development across the system.”Last year, I got a random call from someone about Saurabh Dubey, who played [the] U-23 [tournament] this year. They sent me his video bowling in a tennis-ball tournament in Wardha, and I asked him to come the next day. Former bowling coach Subroto Banerjee called him, and we realised he has some special talent. And we made him stay in our academy for nearly a year, as he adjusted from tennis-ball bowling to red-ball bowling, and it’s paid off one year later. His six wickets in the quarter-final helped us reach the semi-finals of the U-23 CK Nayudu Trophy. That is what gives youngsters hope that ‘yes, if I’m good I can be picked’, you just don’t have to be part of our U-15 or U-19 teams to become part of the senior system.”Away from the field, we have mental-conditioning experts who work with the boys one-on-one, across the age groups. The psychologist talks to the boys – especially the young boys coming from the districts. They are new to the scene, so they may feel a little lost, and that’s where our mental conditioning camps help us. On the other hand, a boy from the city may score some runs and become complacent, so it helps them come back to earth too.”This system which works on autopilot is what convinced Pandit and Jaffer to eventually make that move to Vidarbha in 2017. Vaidya played a key role in facilitating both those deals.”When I took over in 2016, I luckily met Chandu. We had just lost Paras Mhambrey, because he moved on to India A, and Chandu was released by Mumbai. And since I’ve played with, under and against Chandu – together with his attitude and approach to the game – I was very keen. In fact, I was after him four years back before we signed Sairaj [Bahutule], but I was not part of VCA for some time, and he got a job as a national selector thereafter, but this time I decided I’m not going to miss out on him.”I always knew that his way of coaching will suit our boys. I feel that I’ve done my part by getting the boys a good teacher, but I was equally confident that the boys were up to it… to receive the teachings – so it works both ways. For a good teacher to succeed, you need students who want to learn too.Vidarbha players hoist their head coach Chandrakant Pandit on their shoulders•PTI “Jaffer was looking for a different opportunity because he’s so connected, wants to play the game, so I was confident that his wealth of experience – and approach towards the game – would definitely help our boys in the dressing room, besides being the mainstay in our batting line-up. For us, we just don’t want professionals who can score hundreds or take five-fors, we wanted pros who could guide the youngsters, and both him and Ganesh Satish have done that from the first day they arrived.””My aim is that the young boys learn about cricketing ethics, besides the technical aspects, from the senior statesmen. To learn how cricket should be approached at different stages of one’s game and one’s career. Because that is where youngsters may get lost.”As Vidarbha chugged along towards defending their Irani Cup against a power-packed Rest of India side, Vaidya felt overjoyed at how the team has done in the absence of the injured Jaffer and Umesh Yadav.”With these two men not there, we are still competing very well, that’s a good sign,” Vaidya says. “It shows that the youngsters have learnt from the seniors. Even without the seniors there, they are carrying on and doing as well. That’s been our idea too: develop a bench-strength. And the progress is showing.”That’s a great feeling, but see, we are helping them out because they deserve it. They have the talent and that’s why we are backing them – no other reason. So when you invest in someone and they perform – there’s so much joy there. Before the Irani Cup match, Pandit and I were discussing that Karnewar could be the match-winner. We thought it would be with the ball, but he did it with the bat! All these boys are really good boys, very humble and disciplined boys, so you feel very happy for them.

Akshay Karnewar, Aditya Thakare and Atharva Taide are the younger gems we have developed from the districts – almost 50% of the team is from the district. In my time, barely anyone would be from there

Vaidya also felt that the team could not have dominated Indian cricket had it not been for their captain. Under Faiz Fazal, Vidarbha became only the third team in history to defend their Ranji and Irani Cup trophies.”We are lucky to have a leader like Faiz Fazal, he’s outstanding,” Vaidya says. “I don’t think he’s got his due share of representation in the higher grade, yet he continues with the same focus. The young boys look up to him. He’s not a soft leader, mind you, but he communicates well without being too harsh. At 32, he’s as fit as someone in their 20s. It makes the youngsters think about their own career span: if you have the dedication and mental strength, you will succeed.”With two terrific seasons under his belt, Vaidya hopes when he leaves his duties as the head of development at VCA, he’d have done enough to ensure Vidarbha never goes back to the time when they would be languishing in the backwaters of Indian cricket.”Honestly, what brings me the most satisfaction, if I have to admit, is that we have representation in India’s U-19, U-23, A teams as well as the senior side. So it gives us immense satisfaction. We want our boys to play for the country, and it definitely brings joy.”I want to leave with a set-up that ensures there’s a constant flow of youngsters coming in. The parents of some of these boys back home, in the districts, are very comfortable because of what the boys have achieved on the field. They are not only getting monetarily satisfied, but also satisfied with the journey they have made – they’ve gotten a fair chance to prove themselves.”As long as I can, I would like to contribute in whatever way. I always had the wish to contribute to the game in Vidarbha, and shall continue till the end of my life.”

Praise for Sam Curran, and celebration time for Kings XI Punjab, after that incredible collapse in Mohali

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Apr-2019Chasing 167, Delhi Capitals were cruising at 144 for 3 in 16.3 overs. Then came the capitulation. Kings XI Punjab took seven wickets in 17 balls, leaving Delhi 15 short of their target. Mohammed Shami and Sam Curran were the heroes for Kings XI with their bowling at the death.

Wow
.
Great bowling performance under pressure from @MdShami11 and hatrick to @CurranSM…….skipper was excellent tonight too @ashwinravi99
.@lionsdenkxip #SaddaPunjab #IPL2019

— Mike Hesson (@CoachHesson) April 1, 2019

WOW!!! Into Jaipur & caught the 2nd innings of ‘Mohali Madness’ @lionsdenkxip right royal rippa gents!Sammy Curran hatrick!!! #takeabow #IPL2019

— Danny Morrison (@SteelyDan66) April 1, 2019

Curran, playing only his second IPL game, was the Man of the Match. He scored 20 off 10 balls and took 4 for 11, including a hat-trick, off 2.2 overs.

Hahaha that was insane! Super proud, what a game @CurranSM

— Tom Curran (@_TC59) April 1, 2019

YESSSSSSSSS, @CurranSM!

— Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) April 1, 2019

For such a young kid @CurranSM has Balls of steel … Another England player lighting up the #IPL2019 #LoveIt

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) April 1, 2019

Wow, what a performance from Sam Curran! Brilliant to see the England lads producing in the IPL! #IPL #Hattrick

— James Taylor (@jamestaylor20) April 1, 2019

IPL riches vindicated!!! Incredible @CurranSM so good watching that spell of bowling @IPL #KXIPvDD #hattrick

— Isa Guha (@isaguha) April 1, 2019

Curran revealed he wasn’t aware that he had taken a hat-trick.

The man of the moment, @CurranSM, takes us through #KXIPvDC | #SaddaPunjab #KXIP #VIVOIPL pic.twitter.com/Dxtx4RYrfe

— Kings XI Punjab (@lionsdenkxip) April 1, 2019

There were celebrations in the Kings XI camp.

Some bhangra moves there, courtesy @realpreityzinta & @CurranSM pic.twitter.com/VAeXq3I07o

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 1, 2019

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Emotions at their highest And the celebrations say it all !! #saddapunjab #ipl #iplt20

A post shared by Mayank Agarwal (@mayankagarawal) on Apr 1, 2019 at 1:01pm PDT

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VICTORY SELFIE #saddapunjab

A post shared by Mohammad Shami (@mdshami.11) on Apr 1, 2019 at 2:01pm PDT

And some puns.

They were cruising, but we 'CAPITAL'-ized in the end! #SaddaPunjab #KXIPvDC #KXIP #VIVOIPL pic.twitter.com/ke1wIhqFGM

— Kings XI Punjab (@lionsdenkxip) April 1, 2019

It was the second straight chase that Delhi Capitals failed to close out. Against Kolkata Knight Riders, though, they went on to win in the Super Over.

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we'll rebuild & we'll come back stronger.

A post shared by Shreyas Iyer (@shreyas41) on Apr 1, 2019 at 9:14pm PDT

There has been no shortage of words written and spoken about Steven Smith’s comeback, but the man himself cares only about batting

Jarrod Kimber in Bristol31-May-2019″I think he’s got a bit more spare time on his hands. He gets bored pretty easy. That is why he is training for hours on end. He doesn’t like it when he is told he can’t train for the day.”That was Aaron Finch, speaking with a smile on his face, on Steven Smith.Not that long ago that Justin Langer was talking about how Smith shadow batted in the shower. Which seems a perfectly fine and normal thing for any cricketer to do. Langer more recently has been talking about how he doesn’t want Smith and Warner to be booed when they play. Which is an extraordinary thing considering Justin Langer also likes to sledge his daughter when they play Uno.ALSO READ: Australia come to the World Cup singing and dancingThere was also Nathan Lyon talking about Smith’s treatment in the warm-up match at Southampton: “They’re ruthless over here. I’ve had two Ashes tours and a one-day series and haven’t experienced anything else. They’re ruthless and don’t show much love. They haven’t changed their lines in 12 months.” The ‘s chief sports writer, Paul Hayward, wrote a column on the English crowd and Smith and Warner: “Somewhere in deepest England, Steve Smith and David Warner are steeling themselves to hear the same gags every minute of every day on a long summer tour.”Everyone has been talking about Smith, but Smith just bats.A few years ago a team-mate of Smith’s suggested privately that it’s actually hard to talk to Smith about anything not cricket. Obsessed is probably an understatement. Many captains find the extra parts that come with the job – video analysis, strategy meetings, keeping on top of everyone’s form and injuries – boring. For Smith it seemed like the perfect use of his time. Now Smith is only an occasional pariah, constant talking point and professional batsman.”There is no question about his batting ability,” Finch said. “So when you are great, you get the game quicker, things just happen quicker, so there is never any issue about how he’ll bounce back.” And as Finch noted, Smith has spent a season in the IPL against many of the best white-ball bowlers in the world, so he’s been plenty prepared.”I suppose, when you are the captain, there is a bit more stuff that occupies your time at various times,” Finch added. “But he’s been brilliant around the boys, he’s been great for me, talking cricket, talking batting, things like that and lessons he’s learnt from being captain and leading the team. I think he’s been really important for me, and just general conversation.”Some players fill their time watching movies, others playing FIFA, Steven Smith does it training, talking and preparing.Australia underwent a light training session on Friday. Most of the bowlers didn’t turn up, neither did the recovering David Warner, nor Glenn Maxwell, nor Usman Khawaja. But Smith was one of the first in the nets. At first in the spin nets, having some trouble with the legspinner Australia have flown in, and later slogging to leg the left-arm wristspinner. Then he went into the throwdown nets and did some hitting there before moving across to the seam-bowling nets. He spent a long time in each.Then when the other batsmen finished their session, he came back to bat alone for close to 40 minutes. First he was taking throwdowns from Ricky Ponting, whose arm seemed to go numb in the long session, before Sridharan Sriram, the team’s spin consultant, had to pick up the slack.During the entire net session he seemed to work on using his feet to spin, then some power hitting. Against the seam bowlers he was moving around the crease – even more than usual for him – to find new places to score. And against the throwdowns at one stage he was batting against the side of the cut strip outside leg stump, to work on – I mean, who knows, but he didn’t get bowled even when the ball was flung to the stumps.After the entire workout, where he’d batted as long as the other players combined, he was standing outside the nets, shadow batting on his own as the tired net bowlers and assistant coaches went for a well-earned drink.This summer, there will always be someone talking about Steve Smith. And while that happens there will be Smith batting in the middle, the nets, his mind and the shower.

Shane Watson was dropped when he was 33 off 26 balls. Here’s why that was the most significant moment of the game

ESPNcricinfo Stats team23-Apr-2019It was the 2018 IPL final all over again. Sunrisers Hyderabad put up a total in excess of 170. They started their defence well with Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowling a maiden first over to Shane Watson. And they ended it wondering why this keeps happening to them?Watson lucky to survive the first over from Bhuvneshwar in that final. But luck perhaps didn’t have as big a role to play in Watson surviving the first over in this match. It waited until later in the innings.Watson was on 33 off 26 balls when wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow dropped him off Sandeep Sharma. When Bairstow did take his catch later on, Watson had made 96 runs off 53 balls. After he was dropped, Watson scored 63 runs off 27 balls at a strike rate of 233.ESPNcricinfo LtdHad that catch been taken, Sunrisers would have got two wickets in two overs. With 96 runs required off the last ten overs, they would have had two new batsmen to target and things could have panned out differently.ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index estimates that the drop cost them 31 runs. The runs cost is calculated by allotting the deliveries faced by Watson after the reprieve to the batsmen who follow him, and simulating the rest of the innings to estimate how many runs they would have scored off those deliveries. Luck Index estimates that given there were five overs left from Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar, the Super Kings batsmen to follow would have managed only 32 runs off the 27 extra balls that Watson faced.Considering that the match was won only off the penultimate ball, Sunrisers could have ended up on the right side of the result had Bairstow taken the chance.

England have come a long way since the debacle of 2015, and it seems they’re not done yet

George Dobell in Durham03-Jul-2019When an opening pair starts breaking records held by the likes of Greenidge and Haynes, Sachin and Sourav, Hayden and Gilchrist you know they are in territory reserved for the very special.So perhaps it is time to start thinking of Bairstow and Roy – Jonny and Jason, as they may well come to be remembered – in such a category. It’s not just that, in this match, they recorded their third successive century opening stand – no opening pair has made more in a single World Cup campaign – or that they have the best average partnership of any pair with more than 1,000 ODI runs between them in history.No, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of their partnership is that they have achieved all those things while setting a record for the highest strike-rates of any opening batsmen with more than 1,000 runs to their name. “Incredible” was Eoin Morgan’s description; “awesome,” Kane Williamson’s. “I don’t know if there’s an answer to them,” the New Zealand captain added.WATCH on Hotstar (US only) – Match highlightsSo let us acknowledge a slightly uncomfortable truth: England enjoyed some significant luck both in this game and in the defeat over India. It wasn’t just the run-out of Williamson – nobody is pretending that was part of any plan – or the injury that ruled Lockie Ferguson out of the New Zealand side. It wasn’t just the leg before decision won by Chris Woakes against Henry Nicholls or the first ball of the match that defeated Roy but somehow missed the stumps on its way to four byes, either. Roy’s reprieve in the previous game – he would have been out for 21 if India had called for a review – was crucial, too.No, the most significant slice of fortune in this game was winning the toss. As Morgan said after the game “I don’t think I’ve played on a wicket that has changed as dramatically as that” and there is no doubt batting first was a substantial advantage. As Williamson explained, England’s openers were “able to hit through the line nicely” but doing so “became a lot harder to do” as the wicket started to offer purchase to cutters and slower balls. Those deliveries “were a lot less responsive” in the early stages of the England innings, he said.But we cannot keep explaining away the success of the Jonny-Jason partnership as luck. We cannot dismiss their 10 century opening stands in 31 outings as nothing but flat-track gorging and then ignore the fact that everybody else in some of these games struggles to hit the ball off the square. We cannot keep suggesting, as we did on Sunday and again on Wednesday, that the pitch changed suddenly the moment they were out. We cannot dismiss Bairstow’s three successive ODI centuries against New Zealand or Jason Roy’s seven 50-plus scores in eight ODI innings (or three centuries in 10) as luck. It fails to appreciate there is something pretty special developing here.Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow take a single•IDI via Getty ImagesInstead we must acknowledge that they have the audacity and skill to seize the moment. They have the power to intimidate bowling attacks and the ability to rush games away from their opposition before they have had the chance to take stock and adapt. Look at the figures here: they brought up their 100 stand in the 15th over (New Zealand took until the 21st) and, having built a platform whereby England might have been looking at a score of 400 at the 30-over mark (they were 194 for 1), they saw their colleagues add just 111 for the loss of seven wickets in the final 20 overs. It’s an overused expression, but it really did look as if they were playing on a different pitch to everyone else.Did New Zealand bowl poorly or were they forced to bowl poorly in that first half-hour or so? Certainly Tim Southee looked understandably rusty in playing his first ODI since February and Bairstow, who at one stage took him for five fours in nine balls, was merciless. There was a full toss in the first over, bowled by Mitchell Santner, that pretty much every professional player in the world would have hit for four, too.But some of the bowling, from Trent Boult in particular, was pretty much blameless. So fearless was the batting, however, and so well executed, that perfectly reasonable deliveries were hit through or, very often, over the field. Some of the shots looked relatively high risk but, as Baristow kept finding the gap between fielders with precision, it became impossible to believe he was simply in luck. “They put us under a lot of pressure,” Williamson said. “And when they do have momentum, it can be a big challenge, regardless of the surface, to stop them.””Ridiculous” was how Morgan described the stand. “It is incredible, really, the talent they possess and what they can achieve on a consistent basis,” he said. “If their average wasn’t as high, the manner in which they play would still be the most important thing as we bat all the way down.”The two of them are outstanding. One of the things that stands out for me in that it doesn’t happen in normal partnerships, it happens in great partnerships, is that they ebb and flow. So, Jonny got off to a flyer and Jason was quite slow, but then he caught up and Jonny slowed down. It was really brilliant to watch because normally you have two guys competing with each other the whole time, trying to get the strike, trying to be more dominant, whereas as a partnership they are extremely dominant.”The guys in the dressing room are buzzing, laughing, smiling at how ridiculous some of the shots the two guys are playing are. Good balls being hit for four or six. You have to laugh at how difficult to bowl at they are.”Also read: England’s evolving ODI juggernautEngland are a team offering far more than a strong opening pair, though. Already Jofra Archer has taken more wickets than any man to have played in any previous World Cup campaign for England. And Mark Wood is only one wicket behind.Meanwhile England’s batsmen have already scored seven centuries in this campaign; the most they have managed in any previous World Cups is two. They had only scored 11 in the previous 11 tournaments. So whereas New Zealand’s batting looked overly reliant on Williamson and New Zealand’s bowling looked overly reliant on Boult, England have the depth of batting to empower their openers to keep attacking and the variation in bowling to exploit most surfaces. In this tournament, however, it has been noticeable that they have prospered, on the whole, by hitting the pitch as hard as they can and using their variations. At the pace they have – and four England bowlers have registered 90 mph in the this World Cup – and on the pitches we are witnessing, it is proving an effective tactic.Wait there, you may be saying. This time last week England were on the verge of going out of this tournament. They’ve still lost three games. Aren’t they a bit overrated?Maybe. It’s certainly true they have taken the scenic route to the semi-finals. They have lost to two of the sides ranked in the lowest five in the tournament, after all.But they have also beaten three in the top five. And they have now won two high-pressure games, against two high-class teams within the space of a week. And while that may sound run-of-the mill to the supporters of teams from some nations, it is worth remembering that England hadn’t beaten New Zealand in a World Cup match since 1983 or India since 1992. They are now ranked the top side in the world again.If the remainder of the group stage results go to form – notably Australia defeating South Africa on Saturday – England will play India in a semi-final on July 11 at Edgbaston. Whether it’s relevant that England have won their last 10 internationals at that ground – and their last three ODIs against India in England – is debatable. The pitch, two across from the surface on which they met on Sunday (so with a slightly longer boundary to the shorter side), will be new. “If we had a choice of where we play our group games it would be Edgbaston, The Oval and Trent Bridge,” Morgan said. “It’s a place we really like playing.”Perhaps the winner of that game, given just two days to recover before the final, will be at a disadvantage. The winners of the other semi-final will have an extra two days, after all. But there are a few in this England side – not least Chris Woakes, who came through a fitness test ahead of this game, and Archer, who came through one ahead of the last – who will benefit from an extra few days off now. “Our bowlers need a rest,” Morgan admitted.Such issues can wait. For the first time in nearly 30 years, England are in a World Cup semi-final. And for perhaps the first time ever, they have the most destructive opening batsmen and the quickest fast bowlers. They’ve come a long way since the debacle of 2015. And you sense they’re not ready to go home just yet.

Hayden Walsh Jr had to choose between a CPL contract and playing for the USA national team. Now, he’s one win away from a trophy

Peter Della Penna12-Oct-2019Picture this: You’re driving to the airport from your home in St Kitts with two plane tickets in your inbox. One ticket will take you to Miami, then on to Los Angeles for a USA national team training camp and potentially a central contract. The other ticket will take you to Miami, then on to Toronto for the Global T20 Canada and a gateway to franchise T20 cricket. What would you do?It was a dilemma faced by 27-year-old Hayden Walsh Jr. one morning in late July. Three months later, he is preparing to play for Barbados Tridents in the CPL final as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which path he wound up taking.”Trust me, it never occurred to me before that I would be in this position,” Walsh Jr. told ESPNcricinfo on Friday from Trinidad ahead of the CPL final against undefeated Guyana Amazon Warriors. “I never would have told you I would be the leading wicket-taker this year. I thought I would have a good year in CPL, but not this great. It was just about trying to get into the starting XI and trying to cement a place but I did more than that.”But, if not for a twist of fate, his incredible tournament for the Tridents might never have happened. By the time he got to the airport and checked in on that July morning in Basseterre, he still wasn’t sure which way he would go.”I left St Kitts with two seats on the plane,” Walsh Jr. said. “When I got to Miami, I had to decide whether I was going to go to the LA gate or the Toronto gate.”***When Walsh Jr. was first drafted into the USA team in November 2018 for WCL Division Three, everything was a breath of fresh air. No longer was he buried in the Barbados franchise set-up behind two West Indies spinners in Jomel Warrican and Ashley Nurse.”Barbados has nine players on the West Indies team and I would literally play three out of ten games a year,” he told is in March while on tour in Dubai with USA to play their maiden T20Is against UAE. Since making himself available for USA, he was getting opportunities not just to bowl but to bat higher up in the middle-order as well and was making the most of those opportunities to became a very dependable player for USA on their march to ODI status at WCL Division Two in Namibia this past April.In February, he had asked to be released from his Barbados first-class contract. As far as he was concerned, he had pushed his stack of chips to the centre of the table and was going all-in with USA. “I’m looking forward to a USA contract once we get ODI status,” Walsh Jr. said. “I’m actually looking forward to a USA contract at the end of Division Two, once we qualify.”

“My wife was like, ‘These people aren’t treating you right. They haven’t been honest’. I needed to be respected more.”Hayden Walsh Jr. struggled with the instability of playing for the USA

But USA’s success suddenly brought just as many problems as solutions. Not long after USA Cricket announced intentions to start a T20 franchise league via a billion-dollar partnership with a group of investors to form American Cricket Enterprises (ACE), the first dominos started to fall. Head coach Pubudu Dassanayake, who had been a driving force in not just getting USA to ODI status but in recruiting Walsh Jr. to come play for USA, jumped before he was pushed out and announced his resignation in the second week of July.The situation around the USA team started to become unstable. After initially being promised large sums and a guaranteed one-year central contract, Walsh Jr. says ACE principal Vijay Srinivasan reneged on their verbal agreement and lowballed him with a revised offer on paper.”When I spoke to the people from ACE, they were promising one-year contracts but then when we actually got it, it wasn’t what we expected,” Walsh Jr. said. “When I actually saw what was sent to me, it didn’t have the right amount. To get to the right amount I had to work towards a bonus and it wasn’t for a year. It was actually for three months. I felt let down and just like they literally went back on their word.”A three-week USA national team training camp was organised in Los Angeles starting on July 22 in preparation for the Americas Regional Final scheduled for Bermuda in August for T20 World Cup Qualifying. Even though Walsh Jr. had already signed his contract to turn out for Vancouver Knights in the GT20 starting on July 25, he says he was still committed to come to the USA national team training camp as a show of good faith. However, Walsh Jr. says he made one request to ACE.”You have got to help me to get out of the Vancouver deal because I have already signed the contract and cannot leave them high and dry just like that just because there’s a camp,” Walsh Jr. said. “If it was national duty [matches], then I would understand. So they agreed, yes, but then the same morning of the flight, [Srinivasan] told me I would have to go and inform Vancouver by myself.””I was texting my wife [Tevelle] and she was like, ‘These people aren’t treating you right. They haven’t been honest. If they really want you, why is it that they can’t hold up their end of the deal properly?’ So those things really made me say I need to be respected more and I’m gonna do what I believe is right for me.”Walsh Jr. had packed his suitcase the night before with nothing but USA training kit. He checked in on both tickets for the flight, but had his bags tagged to go through to Los Angeles. At some point, while he was cruising at 36,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean on his three-hour flight from Basseterre to Miami, he changed his mind. After he got off the plane and collected his bags at US customs clearance in Miami, he took his checked luggage back to the airline check-in desk and asked the baggage to be retagged to go to Toronto as his final destination.***Walsh Jr. started the season on the bench for the Knights’ first three matches but after entering the line-up against Edmonton Royals, he made an immediate impact not just with the ball but in the field. He took the wickets of Canada captain Navneet Dhaliwal and New Zealand allrounder Jimmy Neesham to end with figures of 2 for 20 and also pulled off a run-out in a six-wicket win for the Knights. On USA’s tour of the UAE in March he had pulled off three run-outs in a five-match stretch, including one-time England Test opener Haseeb Hameed in a six-wicket win over Lancashire, and now franchise cricket opposition was getting a taste of his all-round offerings.”I take wickets with my fielding as well”•Randy Brooks – CPL T20 / Getty”I think it’s a very unique package that I offer,” Walsh Jr. said. “I take wickets with my fielding as well, so if you can get a run-out or two in a game then… the person who is just taking 2 for 20 or 3 for 20 whereas I’m taking 2 for 20 with a run-out, it’s a plus.”Walsh Jr. ended with seven wickets in just four matches for the Knights, tied for second on the team, giving them a late-season surge with his bowling as they went to the final before losing in a Super Over to Winnipeg Hawks. Despite skipping the USA squad camp and formally rejecting their central contract offer, he was still keen to play for USA. But the early signs of instability that began with Dassanayake’s departure started to grow more alarming on tour in Bermuda in August. Entering the regional T20 Qualifiers as favorites, USA fell well short of expectations, losing four of six matches – getting swept aside by Bermuda and Canada – to fall short of advancing to the T20 World Cup Qualifier in the UAE.”I personally think that I was bowling well, I didn’t lose my rhythm at all,” Walsh Jr. said. “The thing I think that went wrong was I don’t think there was any clarity in what our plans were or what my role was to do. Going into the game, it was just a free-for-all. I didn’t know what the plans were. Sometimes it was like everyone is looking around to see who is gonna bowl and what’s gonna happen now.””What you’d find happening is someone is shouting from the boundary, ‘Do this!’ Someone is right next to the captain telling him what to do. You’d see three people around the captain telling him, ‘Okay, we’re gonna do this!’ It happened more than once. It just kind of seemed like everything is just not in place, everything is a little flustered and it has a trickle-down effect into the captain, whoever is on strike and whoever has the ball in their hand.”With 14 runs left to defend, Walsh Jr. took the ball for the 19th over in USA’s do-or-die match against Bermuda on day four of the tournament. They had lost to Bermuda and Canada once already, sitting on two points with a win over Cayman Islands. Lose again and they were eliminated with two days to spare, and it would be Bermuda and Canada who would advance to the UAE. Deunte Darrell struck two sixes off Walsh Jr. straight down the ground to clinch the match with seven balls to spare.”I was disappointed for sure,” Walsh Jr. said. “But I don’t think that I put myself down too much because we didn’t start off playing very well so it just summed up the whole tournament.”Two days later, Walsh Jr. wasn’t given the ball at all in a consolation win over Cayman Islands, then bowled just a solitary over on the last day against Canada, taking 1 for 8 in another loss. He says that though it may have looked to outsiders like he was being “punished”, he did not interpret the tactical decision that way saying, “I know I can’t be judged off of one over where I didn’t get the team over the line.”However, the entire atmosphere around the national team structure since Dassanayake left made him reluctant to turn out for USA’s first home ODI series in September in Florida. Three teammates – Xavier Marshall, Aaron Jones and Saurabh Netravalkar – wound up choosing USA over the CPL after receiving central contract offers. But Walsh Jr. and Ali Khan decided to continue keeping their options open.”I wasn’t too happy about the contract situation,” Walsh Jr. said. “Honestly, I felt like I was being underrated and after GT20 I thought that the contracts they were offering me didn’t suit how much I think I was worth. So I just wanted to give myself the best opportunity to show my skills, show the world what I’ve got, and to show [ACE] that I’m worth more than what they’re offering me.”Walsh Jr. made the decision with eyes wide open about his CPL prospects. Unlike Khan, who was a first-choice player in the starting XI during Trinbago Knight Riders’ title-run in 2018, Walsh Jr. spent most of last year at St Kitts & Nevis Patriots sitting behind Sandeep Lamichhane. At this May’s draft, Lamichhane was taken by the Tridents for US$ 70,000 in Round 5 whereas Walsh Jr. was the Tridents final selection in round 17 for US$ 3000. But from the moment he arrived in a Tridents team run by Phil Simmons and captain Jason Holder, Walsh Jr. says he felt far more comfortable than he had around the new USA staff headed by Kiran More and Sunil Joshi.