The IPL offers a chance for established players to reinvent themselves and fit into new roles

Dustin Silgardo31-Oct-2020The IPL offers a platform for unknown players to establish themselves, but it also allows established players to reinvent themselves and fit into new roles. Here are five names who have done exactly that this season.Suryakumar Yadav
Yadav has been a key player for the Mumbai Indians since 2018, but while he passed the 400-run mark in both 2018 and 2019, he struck at just over 130 in those years, giving him the reputation of an anchor. Yadav’s role was to build the innings steadily and ideally get dismissed before the death overs, allowing Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya to up the scoring rate. This season, Yadav has not just averaged 40.22, he has scored at 155.36. He has counterattacked in the powerplay and also shown an ability to accelerate in the death overs. He has struck at 235 between overs 17 and 20 this season, faster than Pandya and just a shade off Pollard, who has struck at 241.09 at the death. Yadav has all the textbook shots and scores a lot of runs with drives through the off side, but he has also used the lap and ramp shots effectively, scoring nearly half his runs behind the wicket this season. The change in gears is significant for Yadav’s India hopes, as the national side has a stacked top order but needs middle-order batsmen who can score quickly in the middle and death overs.Shikhar Dhawan

With KL Rahul’s stellar form in T20s and upcoming talents such as Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw and Sanju Samson impressing every IPL season, Dhawan might have been worried that he would lose his place in India’s T20I squad. While he has been consistent in the IPL, scoring 350-plus runs every season since 2016, his season strike rates have at best been in the mid-130s. This season was a similar story six games in – his strike rate was 122.22. Then he switched gears, scoring two fifties and two centuries in his next four games, all rapidly, to leave him with a strike rate of 147.64 for the season, his best in IPL history. What has been most impressive is that Dhawan has not adopted the approach he and most other openers usually do, which is to begin cautiously and then accelerate. He has instead attacked in the powerplay, scoring at 154.92 in the first six overs since the Delhi Capitals’ seventh game. Remarkably, he has managed all this without significantly increasing his six count, instead using timing and placement to strike fours.Fading force? Chris Gayle begs to differ•BCCIMohammed Shami
During his time at the Delhi Daredevils, Shami struggled to become a regular member of the playing XI due to a combination of injuries and being seen as a Test and ODI specialist. Since joining the Kings XI Punjab last season, he has changed that perception. Shami finished with 19 wickets last season and already has 20 this season after 13 games. Where he has improved further this season is in his death bowling. He was expensive at the death in 2019 and continued to be so in the early part of this season. However, he turned things around in one Super Over, against the Mumbai Indians. Whereas earlier Shami had relied on short-of-length deliveries and changes of pace at the death, here he bowled six straight yorkers to defend just five runs and force a second Super Over. Since then, he has become more confident in bowling his yorker at the death and has developed into a threat both early and late in the innings.Chris Gayle
This season Gayle has put paid to two caricatures: that he is a fading force and that he cannot succeed anywhere but in the opening position. Once regarded as the world’s best T20 batsman, in recent years an ageing Gayle has shown signs of slowing down. He has not been able to score quickly with the consistency he once did, and his poor fielding and running between the wickets have made sides doubt whether he merits a place in their XIs. In the 2018 auction Gayle received just one bid – and that was after his name came up the third time. While he did average 40-plus for the Kings XI in 2018 and 2019, between the last IPL and this one he had averaged 24.40 in 20 T20s and struck at 137.46. With KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal getting runs at the top this season, it looked unlikely Gayle would get many games. However, in dire need of points, the Kings XI took a gamble on him at No. 3, though Gayle had only played six innings there in his 405-match T20 career. In six innings so far, Gayle has hit three fifties and played a key role in his team’s comeback from the brink of elimination.Ben Stokes
The most expensive player in the 2018 auction, Stokes underwhelmed with the bat that year and in 2019, averaging less than 20, with no fifties. This season, the Royals sprang a surprise by casting Stokes in the role of opener – where he had batted just five times in his 113-match T20 career. Stokes is seen as a finisher in white-ball cricket, but batting in the middle order, he often struggled to get going early against spin. Opening has allowed him to start against pace, and the results have been two match-winning knocks: 107 not out off 60 balls against the Mumbai Indians and 50 off 26 against the Kings XI. Those two innings have kept Rajasthan in the hunt for a playoff spot.

The outgoing board director discusses the challenges and rewards of her role during a tumultuous time for the game

Daniel Brettig30-Oct-2020Jacquie Hey joined the Cricket Australia board on the same day as David Peever and Kevin Roberts in October 2012.Eight years later, she is the only member of the trio leaving on her own terms, after Peever was deposed as chairman in the wake of the CA’s cultural review in 2018, and Roberts found himself compelled to resign as chief executive as a series of fractured relationships in the game caught up with him in the time of Covid-19.By contrast, Hey is leaving CA with her reputation enhanced. But the rise of the women’s game on her watch ran parallel to a rise in Australian corporate circles that left her ultimately too busy to become the governing body’s first female chair. Instead, Hey is chair of Bendigo and Adelaide Banks and a director of Qantas, among other Australia Stock Exchange listed companies.There will, then, always be an imponderable about how CA might have fared if Hey had assumed a greater position of leadership in the game instead of Peever or Roberts. Speaking on the occasion of her departure, she offers an explanation of competing priorities and instincts, with an apology on behalf of women in the game that she did not choose to take on the chair.ALSO READ: Indian summer to give true insight into Covid’s ‘new normal’ for Cricket Australia funding”One part of me would’ve loved to be chair of CA, it would’ve been such a privilege, and it is a privilege for anyone who’s held that role, and particularly as a woman, one part of me desperately wanted to do it,” Hey told ESPNcricinfo. “The other, sensible side, said I’m an ASX director on three or four boards and I would’ve had to give them all up to do the job, because it’s a pretty full-on and full-time job.”So it wasn’t that I didn’t want to be, it was just that I also wanted to do everything else I’m doing and it wouldn’t have all fit. So I did go through that, two parts of my brain saying yes do it, but no you have to give up everything else you love doing. So would I love to have done it? I would’ve. Was I prepared to give up everything else that I was doing to do it? No I wasn’t, and there were other really capable candidates to do it. So I felt like that was okay. But on behalf of all women, I’m sorry.”When Hey joined the CA board, it was part of a sweeping reform that ended more than a century of representative governance by as many as 14 directors from CA’s six state association owners. Hey, Peever and Roberts were described as “captains of industry”, and from the top of the organisation she was able to help bring about a seismic shift in the women’s game. By May 2013, CA was unveiling professional contracts for the women’s national team, and the same spirit of bold steps informed the decision to shoot for a standalone T20 World Cup.

The toughest things were the Phil Hughes impact and the press conferences the three players had to give when they returned from South Africa. They were the things that brought me to tears

“I think it was about five years before that, we decided we would have the standalone women’s final, and then the next thing we were thinking about was where would we have it. Fairly quickly the board came to why wouldn’t we be able to fill the MCG,” she said. “We’ve got five years to think about it, the women’s game is growing, we’ve got great ambassadors playing the game, why not. Then of course the closer it got, the more nervous everyone got about ‘are we going to get there’ and to see that on that night, was just stunning.”To see the support for women’s sport generally and particularly for cricket, it’s hard to not see that as a highlight. The other one is the growth in kids playing cricket and the way they’re playing it, with the shorter pitches and the smaller grounds and the different rules. There’s fun back into it, they’re not being discouraged before they get to understand how great this game is, and that’s both boys and girls. They’re probably my two highlights, but sitting at the MCG on March 8 was pretty fantastic.”As much as those moves, plus the introduction of the WBBL, required decisive thinking, Hey also earned respect among fellow administrators for applying a level of humility to the game that is not always common among its largely male corridors of power. Her salient advice for any would-be directors is to do everything possible to avoid assuming you know what you’re getting into.Jacquie Hey, chair of the review sub-committee, alongside David Peever•Getty Images”I’ve loved cricket all my life, I played cricket, I’ve been to cricket, I’ve hung around at clubs, I’ve played indoor cricket, so I knew all that, but that’s not the extent of what it means to be on a board,” she said. “Being on a board you need to have all that, plus you need to understand the financial aspects of it, you need to understand what are the levers that make kids play cricket, what are the important things for high performance, how does international cricket work, there was a whole lot of learning for me.”So my personal view is anyone joining a board, should join it with a mind that says I need to learn, I need to listen, and I need to contribute, but I need to do all of those things. If anyone’s joining a board thinking they know it all, I’d say that’s a problem”That being said, Hey freely admits that the increasingly corporatised CA board had some harsh lessons of its own, starting with the pay dispute with the Australian Cricketers Association in 2016-17, in which Peever and Roberts pushed to break up the fixed revenue percentage model that underpinned the MoU with the players. Passions unleashed in that episode, as the players went out of contract for more than a month before CA backed down, have stayed in Hey’s mind.”The fantastic thing about being involved in sport is you get to deal with a whole range of people who are incredibly passionate about the subject,” she said. “But with passion comes all sorts of excitement and concerns and opinions and that is slightly, not necessarily absent from ASX boards, but I think when you get to the sporting arena it goes up a notch and that’s really part of the fun of being involved in sport and certainly cricket.”In March 2018, Hey can remember being asleep at the time the Newlands ball tampering scandal began to unfold, but rising early to take her son to junior sport, she had just enough time to take in a few headlines and videos before her phone began to ring incessantly.It did not stop while she chaired the CA subcommittee that oversaw the cultural review and led ultimately to a fiery press conference at the MCG when Hey had to step in numerous times to aid her embattled chairman Peever. Within days he had been removed via the withdrawal of the NSW chairman John Knox’s support. It’s an episode Hey deems “traumatic”, but not as hard as it was to work through the death of Phillip Hughes, or watch the tearful returns of Steven Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner from South Africa.”The toughest things were the Phil Hughes impact and the press conferences the three players had to give when they returned from South Africa. They were the things that brought me to tears. The press conference was a bit traumatising, but it didn’t bring me to tears,” Hey said. “It was something I needed to do, that I wanted to do, and on behalf of cricket we had to do. I didn’t find that as traumatising or tough as some of those other things that really tugged at my heartstrings and made me feel bad.”Jacquie Hey joined CA the same day as David Peever and Kevin Roberts, but she was able to depart on her own terms•Getty ImagesLooking at the outcomes of the review, Hey said that it had equipped CA with better machinery to deal and communicate better with the states and the ACA, but also informed the attitude required behind those relationships and others.”In a federated structure we’re not always going to agree all the time, and that’s healthy too,” she says. “I think we have a much more healthy, open relationship and a much better level of trust and discussion. There are occasional things that are confidential, but they’re a lot of things that are not confidential within the game of cricket and I think we’ve been better about talking about those.”At the time Earl Eddings took up Peever’s post as chairman, Hey was talked up as a viable alternative, but by then was well on the way to chairing Bendigo and Adelaide Banks. Asked whether she thinks Eddings should get another term as chairman next year, Hey sidesteps deftly, leaving it to the board she is leaving behind. But on the subject of Peever and Roberts, she offers hope that they have not lost love for cricket by departing their custodial roles in far less amiable circumstances than she is.”I think when you get a chance to be involved in the game, there’s always the love for it that you had going on and I’m sure when you’re going out,” Hey said. “I’ll leave them to talk about it, but I’m sure they have as deep a love for the game as ever, and that’s important. We do this because we all love the game.”

The interim chief pitches his vision with eye on permanent Cricket Australia CEO role

Daniel Brettig19-May-2021A little under than a year ago, Nick Hockley cut an understandably stunned figure on the Zoom call to confirm his appointment as the interim Cricket Australia chief executive following the unceremonious departure of Kevin Roberts.Hockley is 11 months older and infinitely wiser now, but retains the understated, even reticent visage – he could, at times, pass for an English rom-com character in the vein of Hugh Grant – implicit in the fact that, for all the work done to pull off the Covid-19 summer of 2020-21, he retains that pesky “interim” before the lofty CEO title.This week, as CA moves into the interview phase of the governing body’s sift through Hockley’s fellow suitors for the permanent gig, he has had to deal with the “bruising” rehash of unanswered questions from the Newlands scandal. It’s been an episode typical of the many other spot-fires Hockley and CA have had to wade through, even as they begin the big picture strategy discussions that will determine Australian cricket’s direction over the next five years or more.Related

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“The fact I’ve been acting in the role has not slowed up any of the work,” Hockley told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s great that the Board is running a thorough process, it’s a very important job and an absolute privilege to do this job. I’ve thrown my hat in the ring and I’ll continue to do it to the best of my ability until I’m told not to.”I’ve been working in Australian cricket for nine years, but certainly the last 11 months has been the most challenging and the most rewarding. I’ve learned more in the last 11 months than I have previously. Certainly I’ve built lots of new relationships, I’ve gained a significant amount of business intelligence, and as an organisation and a broader network, we’ve certainly grown in terms of our problem-solving capability, our agility. Cricket has come together and navigated the situation and I’m excited about the possibilities for the sport.”There is a view, acknowledged both within and without the organisation, that it has been playing a more or less reactive game ever since the fateful Cape Town Test, and that answers to questions about the tenures of Hockley and also the CA chair Earl Eddings are needed to help move onto a more future-focused, proactive footing.It is in this area that Hockley faces his most pointed queries, from the CA Board and those outside its closed meetings, as to whether a seasoned manager of big and successful events has the broader vision and proactive drive necessary to do the sort of job that James Sutherland managed over 18 years, before Roberts held the role for around 18 months.Numerous partners in the game, whether the states, corporate, broadcasting or elsewhere, are growing impatient for greater direction from CA. Overseas nations are wearying of the backlog of postponed tours that have conspired to see the Australian Test team play just 10 matches over a period of two years, with none overseas since the September 2019 conclusion of the previous Ashes series. Numerous staff, too, are pondering whether to continue on under fresh leadership or look for somewhere else.

“I think we’ve made great strides in [being a] sport for women and girls, we need to absolutely maintain that momentum…”Nick Hockley

So, what does Hockley see as cricket’s biggest strategic priorities? Asked about where he saw them, he danced inevitably between growth imperatives and the complications of the Covid-19 pandemic that have occupied more or less Hockley’s every waking moment since June last year.”We’ve been able to work very much more closely together. I think if we can display the agility we have… Covid has brought significant financial pressures,” he said. “The cost of putting on cricket, you only have to think about the multiple touring teams coming in this year and the likelihood they will have to quarantine. So we are in a constrained fiscal environment, but I think what we’ve shown is that we can work really efficiently.”We’re blessed to have fantastic partners, so for me a strategic priority is continuing to work as a united sport and ultimately to put the best players on the park in all formats. I think we’ve made great strides in [being a] sport for women and girls, we need to absolutely maintain that momentum, and deliver up great cricket that our fans want to see.”I also think we’ve got a very big role to play internationally, and certainly supporting world cricket and making sure we deliver on our overseas touring commitments and whether it’s development of international property, whether it’s new ways to deliver great experiences to our fans that we’re working more broadly with world cricket to share things like high performance development, sharing our knowledge and helping strengthen world cricket.”Whether or not this pitch is viewed as substantial enough for CA will be known soon. The CEO question will also answer questions about how Australian cricket’s next big industrial negotiation will play out. Hockley has established decent enough rapport with the new Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Todd Greenberg, but it was difficult not to notice, when they spoke jointly about the return home of the Australian IPL party, the former NRL chief’s greater comfort with a spotlight that Hockley still occasionally blinks at.”I’d like to think we’ve established a great initial relationship, Hockley said. “Certainly some of the challenges we’ve had to work very closely together we’ve worked closely on supporting our IPL contingent.”We’ve been including the ACA in our broader CEOs meetings, and having Todd’s perspective, coming from a different sport but equally he’s very much a cricket person, has been extremely valuable. Our respective management teams met last week, and between the teams there’s a huge amount of talent and we are all vested in the ongoing growth and health of the sport.”Hockley has been a sterling interim. He, and the rest of Australian cricket, deserve an imminent conclusion to what must be considered the most interminable job interview in CA’s history; certainly a longer wait for the resolution than Grant’s perpetual best man, Charles, in .

Stats highlights after the fourth Test in Ahmedabad

Sampath Bandarupalli06-Mar-20214 All-out totals under 150 for England in this Test series. The last Test series for England with four or more all-out scores under 150 was back in 1909 against Australia.0 Number of players with 30 wickets and a century in a four-match Test series before R Ashwin in this series. Ashwin is also just the fifth player to score a century and claim 30-plus wickets in the same Test series. He also became the first Indian to take 30 or more wickets in a Test series twice.27 Wickets for Axar Patel in this series, the joint-most by an Indian in his debut Test series. Dilip Doshi also claimed 27 wickets during a six-match home series against Australia in 1979.30 Five-wicket hauls for Ashwin in Test cricket, putting him joint-sixth place in Tests. Ashwin equalled James Anderson in the list of most Test five-fors with the five wickets in England’s second innings. Twenty-four of Ashwin’s 30 five-fors have come on Indian soil, the second-most by a player, behind Anil Kumble (25).BCCI7 Five-wicket hauls by Indian bowlers in this series, the joint-most for them in a Test series. Ashwin accounted for three of them while Axar registered the other four 5-fers, becoming the first Indian to pick five-fors in each of his first three Test matches.With five wickets apiece in the second innings, Ashwin and Axar became only the sixth Indian pair to register five-fors in the same Test innings – and the first one since 1981.3 All-time instances of century partnerships for both the seventh and eighth wickets in the same innings. Washington Sundar’s century stands with Rishabh Pant and Axar took India into an elite list that features Australia (Sydney 2008) and England (Sydney 2011).8 Player-of-the-Series awards for Ashwin in Test cricket. Only Muttiah Muralitharan (11) and Jacques Kallis (9) have more series awards than Ashwin in this format. England is the sixth opposition against which Ashwin has won a Player-of-the-Series award inn Test cricket after West Indies, New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa.0 Previous instances of India winning three matches in a Test series after going 0-1 down. India had previously won five series coming from behind in Test cricket, all of them ending with a scoreline of 2-1.

All the stats highlights from a dominant Indian bowling performance in England’s first innings

Sampath Bandarupalli24-Feb-20211 – Instances of visiting teams being all out in the first-innings of a Test against India for a total lower than England’s 112. Bangladesh made only 106 in the first-ever pink-ball Test that took place in India in 2019. The 48.4 overs batted by England is also the second-lowest by a visiting team in the first-innings of a Test in India, behind Bangladesh’s 30.3 overs during their 106 all out in Kolkata.ESPNcricinfo Ltd2 – First-innings totals lower than 112 for England in Tests since 1950, after electing to bat. They were bundled out for 85 against Ireland at Lord’s in 2019, and for 102 against Australia at Headingley in 2009.112 – England’s total in Ahmedabad, their second-lowest in Tests in India. England made 102 in 26.2 overs during the fourth innings of the 1981 Mumbai Test.9 – Wickets by India’s spinners in England’s first innings, the most by spin bowlers in an innings in a day-night Test. The previous best was eight wickets by the West Indies spinners during Pakistan’s second innings in Dubai in 2016, all of them taken by Devendra Bishoo.3 – Indian bowlers with five-wicket hauls in each of their first two Test matches. Axar Patel joined Mohammad Nissar and Narendra Hirwani after taking five-fors at Chepauk and Motera.7.11 – Bowling average of India’s spinners in England’s first innings. That is their best bowling average in the 204 instances when they have taken eight or more wickets in an innings.1 – Instances of an India bowlers conceding fewer runs than Patel (38) for a six-wicket plus hauls for India in the first innings of a Test match. Maninder Singh took 7 for 27 against Pakistan in Bengaluru in 1987.
Only once has an India bowler conceded fewer runs in taking six or more wickets against England: Amar Singh took 6 for 35 at Lord’s 1936. Axar’s figures are exactly the same as Bhagwath Chandrasekhar’s at The Oval in 1971.2 – The number of players who have taken a wicket with their first ball in pink-ball Tests. Axar Patel joined Morne Morkel in doing so. He had struck with the first ball he bowled in day-night Test matches too.

You might get to see this exciting New Zealander play in this year’s IPL. Here’s what to expect

Deivarayan Muthu27-Mar-20215:07

‘Kevin Pietersen was always someone I loved to watch’

Northern Knights welcome Mitchell Santner back for the 20-over Super Smash after he seals an epic Test win for New Zealand against Pakistan at the Bay Oval. They throw him into the mix in the powerplay, but a certain Wellington Firebirds rookie right-hand opener switches his stance, turns into a left-hander, and monsters New Zealand’s premier T20 spinner into the grass banks beyond midwicket at the Basin Reserve. It is arguably shot of the Super Smash season. The opener treats New Zealand seamers with similar disdain, galloping out of the crease and going over the top like he is casually range-hitting net bowlers. Ask the likes of Matt Henry and Scott Kuggeleijn.Finn Allen’s chart-topping tally of 512 runs in 11 innings at an average of 56.88 and strike rate of 193.93 lights the Firebirds’ run to the title. A day after winning the Super Smash, he is called into the New Zealand T20I squad as a standby player. A few weeks later, he is called into the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad as a replacement player for IPL 2021. A week after that, he gets a gig with Lancashire for the T20 Blast. He is just 13 T20s and 21 years old but there are already signs that Allen could be a white-ball star.A day out of the Super Smash final, Allen said to ESPNcricinfo that he had no expectations of being picked in the IPL, but after Josh Philippe opted out of the upcoming season, RCB’s director of cricket reached out to Allen.Related

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“Hey Finn, Mike Hesson here. Give a message when you’re free for a call,” was the text, Allen says. After hearing the news of his maiden IPL deal with the Royal Challengers, where he will team up with the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell, Allen told reporters that he “nearly cried and genuinely didn’t know how to react”.Such a rapid rise looked like a dream even as recently as the start of the 2020-21 New Zealand domestic season, when Allen was wondering whether he could fit into a robust Wellington set-up, having moved from Auckland in search of more game time. He made his senior debut for Auckland in 2017, but got only a further 21 matches across formats there over the next three years.ESPNcricinfo Ltd”It [the move to Wellington] came about after I spoke to the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association members [to] see if anyone else would be interested in having me,” Allen says. “Wellington showed keen interest straightaway and I got a phone call from Glenn Pocknall [the head coach] the next day.”I didn’t think Wellington would be interested in me at all, given the number of good players they’ve got. I sort of thought: ‘Wow! How am I going to fit into this side?’ He called me and said he thought I was a good player and he was keen to have me at Wellington. I was pretty excited by that and within the next few days Glenn called again to give a ranking and I could see where I stood within the side. I took a bit of time to think, spoke to Auckland, and took the decision a few weeks later.”Just as Allen was getting used to living away from home and finding his way around a new team, he was concussed after being struck on the head while training during the four-day Plunket Shield season. He was sidelined for about five weeks and ended up missing the first four rounds of the 50-over Ford Trophy. He then eased himself back into action with scores of 30 and 6 from No. 4 against Auckland.When Allen ran into his former team again, on Christmas Eve, in the Super Smash, he laid down the marker with a 23-ball 53 in his new role as an opener. It was the first of six half-centuries Allen would hit in the tournament, the highlight being the 16-ball one against the Central Stags. Only Kieran Noema-Barnett (14 balls) and Martin Guptill (15) have struck faster fifties in New Zealand’s domestic T20 competition.Allen puts his barnstorming Super Smash run down to an uncomplicated see-ball-hit-ball approach. “I guess I would say initially it was about having a plan,” he says. “For me, it’s quite simple and then sticking to it. Along with that, I made it a key focus of mine to emphasise watching the ball as hard as I can until the bat and trying to hit the ball hard. Probably the simplicity of it all is what got me going, I guess.”No prizes for guessing who the top run getter in the recent Super Smash season was•Kerry Marshall/Getty ImagesAllen also credits his off-season fitness training amid the coronavirus pandemic and unstinting support from Pocknall for his success. “The winter just was gone with Covid and everything, but I was lucky I had a gym at my home in Auckland. I did a lot of fitness work and running to progress that side of my game,” he says. “Once I came to Wellington, they worked hard and are a very professional unit, and training was very tough – it helped push my game a little bit further.”[Power-hitting] is an effect of being fitter and stronger. I also think the way the coaches have given me the confidence to play how I want to play – be free and express myself – really helped me. I’m someone who is a big confidence player – as most people are, but for me that backing really gets me going. I was told two or three days before the first game against Auckland that I was opening and I was kind of a little bit scared and nervous at first. I sort of thought, ‘Oh my gosh! I don’t think I’m good enough to open, I’m not up to that’, but they really backed me to the hilt and told me that they felt that I was well suited for the role.”Roll back to that stunning switch-hit off Santner. Allen recalls that he had never practised the shot until the lead-up to the game against the Knights.”I usually just use the pace of the bowler and it’s always along the ground,” Allen says. “Leading up to the game against Santner, I thought to myself – he’s pretty hard to hit straight; you see a lot of dismissals straight down the wicket, and I thought: How can I have a different option to combat him?”Switch-hit was one. I only practised it two or three days before the game and I was lucky to face a lot of left-arm spin in the nets. I think I spent one training session batting left-handed the whole time and just getting used to that movement. Fortunately, it came off in the game. I was pretty shocked when it came off the way it did!”There was a bit of Kevin Pietersen in that shot, and perhaps there is a bit of Brendon McCullum when Allen dashes out to the quicks. Allen, whose father is from the UK, says that Pietersen’s aggression has been a major influence.Allen in the 2018 U-19 World Cup, where he averaged over 67 at a strike rate of near 120 – the highest among all players who made at least 200 runs in the tournament•IDI/Getty Images”For me, Kevin Pietersen was always someone that I just loved to watch. I’m sure a lot of people are on the same boat, watching him take it to the opposition and how aggressive he was in his nature of play… That just really excited me and I always thought I want to be like that. Not necessarily look like him or play like him in that way, but just the same intent – the way he goes out there, puffs his chest out, and you know he’s full of confidence and ready to sort of do damage. I suppose if I can mirror any form of that confidence and intent that he has, I’d absolutely love that.”Allen had a stint at Brondesbury in the Middlesex league between two Under-19 World Cups for New Zealand in 2016 and 2018, which he reckons prepared him for the rigours of top-flight cricket, particularly helping him get better against spin. It showed in the second of those World Cups, where he was New Zealand’s highest scorer and fourth-highest overall.”I guess it’s all about playing more and more cricket at a higher level,” Allen says. “My first World Cup, in Bangladesh, was pretty eye-opening. It was pretty cool to be part of it and I didn’t expect to be in the side. The look on my face when my name was read out on the team sheet was probably excited and shocked. The second World Cup [at home] was one that I was more hopeful to make, and I had higher expectations of myself in terms of runs and getting close to winning the World Cup.”The sweep and reverse-sweep were productive shots for him in that second World Cup. Allen puts it down to how he practised it and working with coaches on it during his time in Middlesex. “And yeah, I suppose it’s still working and I’m learning to play on different grounds. I went over [to England] with a Kiwi, Ben Sears, travelling with him was cool and it made things comfortable. The biggest learning was about myself and my game.Allen will be back in the UK later this year, straight after his RCB stint. Before all of that, he is set to make his T20I debut against Bangladesh. It remains to be seen whether he can live up to the early hype in international cricket and big T20 leagues, but his clear sense of perspective will probably stand him in good stead as he tackles those challenges.”I don’t pay too much attention to [outside noise] at all. For me, it’s about contributing to wins for my team and putting scores on the board, and fingers crossed, all that stuff will take care of itself,” he says. “My parents obviously love to read the media and see what they’re saying about me, but for me it’s niggly to be caught up in it, and it can sort of take your focus away from things. Sometimes, it’s not nice either. I try to stay away from that stuff and focus game by game.”

Australia became the first team to lose a T20I match after needing less than 50 runs in the last 10 overs

Sampath Bandarupalli10-Jul-20210 Number of times a team failed to chase less than 50 runs in the final ten overs of a T20I before the St Lucia T20I. The previous fewest target runs unachieved in the last ten overs was 53 by New Zealand, also against West Indies in 2006. The game ended in a tie, but New Zealand went on to win the bowl out.ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 Australia are the first team to lose a T20 match despite the required rate being under five in the last ten overs after scoring 100-plus runs in the first half (where ball-by-ball data is available). Australia raced to 105 for 4 by the end of the tenth over but fell short of the 146-run target.16 Overs batted by Australia, the fewest by any team before getting all out in a T20 chase, inside 20 runs of the target. The previous lowest was 16.2 overs by Tamil Union CAC against Colombo CC in 2015, bowled out for 148 while chasing a target of 165 runs.

Australia had a win probability over 90% until the 13th over! Here's how they went downhill in the chase as per @ESPNcricinfo's Forecaster. #WIvAUS pic.twitter.com/mebOdQScxD

— ESPNcricinfo stats (@ESPNcric_stats) July 10, 2021

2.92 Ratio between the powerplay totals of Australia and West Indies during the first T20I. Australia scored 70 runs during the powerplay phase, while West Indies got only 24 runs. Only one losing team had a higher multiple of the winning team’s powerplay total in T20Is – 3.18 by Netherlands, who scored 54 runs during the powerplay against Scotland in 2017 but lost by seven runs. Scotland, who batted first in that game, had only 17 at the end of the sixth over.ESPNcricinfo Ltd47.9 Percentage of the 146-run target that Australia wiped off by the end of the powerplay. It is the highest proportion of the target any team that achieved inside the powerplay in a T20I chase before going on to lose. The previous highest was also by Australia, who scored 72 in the powerplay while chasing a 158-run target against Sri Lanka in 2011 but ended up with only 149.19 Runs added by Australia while losing the last six wickets, their second-lowest aggregate for the loss of the last six wickets in a T20I game. Australia lost their last six wickets for only ten runs during the 2010 T20 World Cup game against Pakistan, also held in St Lucia.

The allrounder talks about his favourite Scottish drink, and the Pakistani food he’d like his Zimbabwe team-mates to try

As told to Mohammad Isam11-Aug-2021What’s your favourite meal?
My favourite meal when I am home has to be an African braai. We love to do a braai in the house, and Zimbabwean beef is very tasty, so a beef steak is my favourite meal.What meal do you eat most often during the course of a week?
Everything about my food has changed after the two surgeries in two months [to remove a tumour], with the medicines and injections. I think I am usually a very disciplined eater, so I’d be eating grilled food, and most of the time I like to have brown rice and chana dal.Which cricket venue has the best food?
Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore has the best food. I remember every Zimbabwean player found the food to be very nice back when we went in 2015. We had rice, naan and chapatis, mutton, chicken and beef dishes. There was fresh watermelon and orange juice. There was pasta too. It was a massive selection, so I’m sure I’m forgetting some of it.Related

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How do dressing-room meals vary between Tests and T20s?
There isn’t the same variety in a T20 menu as there is in a Test match, and rightly so. It is a 15-minute turnover anyway. Guys shouldn’t be focusing on eating in that little time.What is your favourite snack before or after a workout?
Fruits. [Now] because of the injury, I think I have to add protein shakes as well.When did you implement a structured diet in your lifestyle?
About four years ago. I have a team behind the scenes – my own nutritionist, and a guy who does my body readings, like how much muscle and fat is there. I get in touch with him after I’m back from a tour.Is there something you really love to eat but have removed from your diet as part of a fitness regimen?
There are a lot of things that I’d love to eat but I haven’t had in a long time. I used to love white rice. I haven’t had it in five years. Curries, french fries, a good burger. Soft drinks, at times. I remember pizza being an on-the-go kind of food for me when I was a student.Now I try to stay away from all oily foods. I try to take the masala route instead of the curry route.

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