Tottenham Hotspur have reportedly set their sights on Aston Villa forward Morgan Rogers, with Spurs ready to pounce should financial headaches force a sale in the West Midlands. The 23-year-old has become one of the most talked about young attackers in England.

Spurs circle for RogersEmery battling to hold on to starsFinancial rules threaten Villa’s ambitionsFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Rogers, currently in contention for the PFA Young Player of the Year award for 2024-25, has enjoyed a meteoric rise under Emery’s guidance, cementing his reputation as one of Europe’s most exciting talents. According to the Tottenham have been monitoring him closely, viewing him as a potential game-changer in Thomas Frank’s rebuild.

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Despite mounting speculation, Villa remain defiant. Club chiefs insist key figures like Rogers, along with skipper John McGinn, are not for sale at any price this summer. They are preparing to reward Rogers with a lucrative contract extension, aiming to keep him at Villa Park for at least another season. Tottenham are believed to be weighing up whether to make an official bid, even if initial signals from Villa are far from encouraging.

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Villa are wrestling with complex financial challenges. The club only narrowly avoided breaching Premier League spending limits last year by selling Douglas Luiz to Juventus. Just as that issue was resolved, UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules delivered another blow. In July, Villa were slapped with a £9.5 million fine for exceeding UEFA’s spending cap. The punishment came with a stark warning that failing to comply in future seasons could lead to exclusion from European competitions.

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To meet UEFA’s demands, Villa must either slash their wage bill or significantly increase revenue. The sale of a top player would immediately ease the pressure, but Emery knows losing Rogers or McGinn could derail his push for another European qualification campaign. The Spaniard is already working with fine margins after Villa missed out on Champions League football to Newcastle last season on goal difference. They are set to sell Jacob Ramsey to the Magpies before the end of the week.

The ice of Pujara and Rahane could be as big a test for Australia as the India captain’s fire

Daniel Brettig19-Nov-2020Eighty-five years ago an Australian team toured South Africa with Vic Richardson as captain while Sir Donald Bradman remained at home.Officially this was to continue his long recovery from illness suffered on the 1934 tour of England, but also to captain South Australia to the Sheffield Shield. Seldom since then can be found any sort of parallel with the news that Virat Kohli will be missing all but one of this summer’s Test matches between Australia and India due to the impending birth of his first child.Then, as now, the player in question is not just the pre-eminent batsman in the game, but also the biggest box-office draw of his or many other eras. Bradman was the unrivalled star of a much smaller cricket universe than the one that Kohli dominates now. Television broadcasting was still more than 20 years away in Australia when Bradman missed that tour, but it’s hard to think of another player who would have got the watermark treatment, his smiling face tattooed onto the top right corner of the television screen, as Kohli has been on Fox Cricket this week.That bit of branding, alongside plenty in News Corp’s newspapers, has a lot to do with the fact that the limited-overs portion of the tour, which Kohli is not missing, is exclusive to the pay TV service, leaving the free-to-air Seven Network with just one Test match from which to extract its pound of Kohli-hype. As far as the broadcasters are concerned, the early exit of India’s megastar captain is tantamount to losing Bradman, and Fox are taking every opportunity to ram home the discrepancy.What should also be remembered about the 1935-36 tour, however, is that in Bradman’s absence and after the retirement of the long-time captain Bill Woodfull, the Australians gelled impressively under the tactically astute and socially outgoing Richardson, winning the series 4-0 while playing an enterprising brand of cricket. The South Africans, though not having to face the batting giant of the age, were attacked from all sides.One advantage India have by comparison to the 1935-36 Australians is that they know far better the capabilities of their likely stand-in captain: Ajinkya Rahane. Through many matches for India A and a handful of occasions with the senior side, Rahane has shown himself to be a sharp and aggressive leader, even if in bearing and outward countenance he and Kohli could not be more different as personalities. In this, he provides some parallels with Kohli’s greatest top-order batting asset, Cheteshwar Pujara, who in 2018-19 simply bored the hosts into defeat.Virat Kohli is pumped up after India’s MCG Test win in 2018•Getty ImagesWhere Kohli brings instant theatre, combative moments and the drama of an elite athlete operating on the edge, Rahane as a captain and Pujara as a batsman offer an almost preternatural calm at times, and much less of an Alpha “contest” for the Australians to get into. For all of Kohli’s pre-eminence as a batsman, recent evidence suggests that Australia quite like locking horns with him, not only for the scope of the challenge but also for the fact they come out on top as often as not.In 2017 in India, Kohli made 46 runs in three Tests before Rahane took over for the deciding match in Dharamsala; two years later, Kohli produced arguably the innings of the summer on a fiery Perth pitch, but was otherwise more or less tamed while averaging 40.28 for the series. Certainly, the energy created by his arrival at the crease has focused the Australians more than it has detracted from their bowling and fielding. Pujara, meanwhile, has stretched Australian patience far more often.”Every batter’s a little bit different, but they’re probably polar opposites,” Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood said. “For me it’s about not really seeing the batsman down the other end, it’s just about seeing the wickets and seeing where I want to pitch the ball and taking the batter out of the equation, whether that’s Virat or Pujara.”That’s the way I go about it, I know everyone’s different and they like to get in the fight with Virat and they think that brings out the best in them as a bowler, but I think it’s just about treating every batsman the same, whether they have a lot of energy or not, that’s the way I go about things.”Most intriguing on the batting front will be the fact that Pujara will be able to focus exclusively on his preparedness to bat for long periods, while Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc must adjust their focus after the suite of white-ball games that will also feature Kohli. All the quicks plus Nathan Lyon are seasoned enough to know that shifting gears from white ball to red requires a greater application of patience, but equally will realise that is easier said than done without the requisite match practice.”Patience is probably the big thing for me, moving from white ball to red ball,” Hazlewood said. “You’ve got 10 overs in a white-ball game ad you’re probably not always looking for wickets, but you know you’ve only got 10 overs and you’ve got to try and make an impact, so when we head back to that red ball it’ll be patience as the key for me and sticking those right areas all day. That’s probably the one thing I set my mind to in that change of format.”When we got [Pujara] at Perth he didn’t hurt us on a bit quicker, bouncier track, so his game’s obviously set up, he’s played the majority of his cricket in India on slower, lower wickets, and he’s hard work on those tracks to find a chink in the armour. The more pace and bounce we can get at a few of the grounds will be helpful, but I think it’s a patience game with him and it’s just about outlasting him and knowing he’s going to face a lot of balls, and not going away from our plan we’ve talked about. Keeping to that as best we can.”Josh Hazlewood on Cheteshwar Pujara: ‘It’s just about outlasting him and knowing he’s going to face a lot of balls’•Getty ImagesAs for Rahane, the likes of Cummins, Lyon, Steven Smith and David Warner will recall how he marshalled India brilliantly in that deciding 2017 Test, particularly in how the Australians were placed under pressure in the third innings when starting only 32 runs behind. Mentally tired at the end of a long and often spiteful series, they cracked for 137, leaving Rahane to help run down a modest fourth innings target and then gracefully allow Kohli the opportunity to lift the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.Nonetheless, Rahane is nowhere near as transcendent a batting talent as Kohli, and the Australians will have the chance to corner him over successive matches on bouncier surfaces than those commonly produced in India. This applies both ways of course: Rather than a one-off with Kohli in the dressing room, Rahane will get three matches in which to assert himself as a leader.”India is very, very lucky to have a stand-in captain like Rahane,” Ian Chappell told ESPNcricinfo in 2017. “I thought he did a fantastic job and it’s not easy to do the job as a fill-in, because you know the full-time captain has got a certain style. What do I do, do I try and copy that style, do I try and captain the same way as him, or do I just be myself, and Rahane did the right thing – he captained in his own way and I thought he did a terrific job. Aggressive in his own quiet way.”You don’t have to be a gung-ho captain to have the whole team behind you, you just need to do a good job, and have the guys having faith in what you’re doing. If you’re making the right moves and the aggressive field-placing moves that Rahane was making, then that creates a belief in the team. The team are looking at your captain and they’re thinking ‘well, the captain thinks we’ve got a real chance here in this game, he thinks we’ve got a chance of getting a wicket’, so that brings the team behind the captain.”So yes, Kohli is a loss to the series, but his absence will not necessarily make Australia’s task an easier one. Well acquainted with Kohli’s fire, Tim Paine’s team will need to find better ways to cope with the ice of Pujara and Rahane.

Markram’s move to the middle order has not only transformed his white-ball game but has also provided South Africa some stability

Firdose Moonda07-Jun-2022Aiden Markram’s move to the South African team’s middle order pushed him to improve his skills against spin, his strike rate and transform his white-ball game. In the last year, only six batters – Alex Hales Jos Buttler, KL Rahul, David Miller, Mitchell Marsh and Harry Brook have scored more runs than Markram while averaging above 35 and a strike rate over 135, putting Markram in elite big-hitting company, which has been his focus since being asked to bat lower down.It was national head coach Mark Boucher’s idea that moving Markram out of the top two would be a smart move, even though he was doing fairly well there. In his first six T20Is, all as an opener, Markram scored 197 runs at 32.83, including three successive fifties. But with South Africa’s squad stacked with opening batters – think Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma and Janneman Malan – it was always going to become a bun fight for who would get into the final XI. Boucher found a way to include (almost) all of them.Related

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“The middle order is where the coach felt he could get the best out of me,” Markram told ESPNcricinfo from India, where he is preparing for South Africa’s five-match T20I series against India.But with his game more suited to playing pacers inside the powerplay, a bit of remodelling was needed.”We worked to try and get my game to suit the middle overs. A lot of it was spin-based – getting used to walking in and facing quality spinners and to still score at a rate that was needed.”Like many South African batters, Markram has had his struggles against spin, albeit in the longest format. The two-Test series in Sri Lanka in 2018, where he returned scores of 0, 19, 7 and 14, was particularly tough. But a marked improvement in his footwork has since resulted in him score a Test century in Pakistan, and a 96 in an ODI in Sri Lanka. Makram also lit up IPL 2022, where he had the highest average of 47.62 among Sunrisers Hyderabad batters, and he was their third-highest run-scorer, with 381 runs in 14 outings.In the last year, across domestic and international T20s, Markram averaged more against spin (44.66) than pace (39.69), and while his strike rate against pace was higher at 140.59, he still managed to score fairly quickly against spin, striking at 129.26. That’s a result of the second part of his new strategy. “You also have to have to develop a power game, because you could potentially end up being at the back end of the innings,” he said. “When you are batting upfront, you don’t always pay attention to that power game.”Markram has adapted his game to suit the middle order well•AFP/Getty ImagesAgain, the last 12 months are a good case study for how Markram has adapted his game to suit the situation. Most of his runs have come in the middle overs, which is to be expected for someone batting at No. 4, but he has also contributed significantly at the end. In 13 overs at the death, Markram has a strike rate of 201.08. He doesn’t pay too much attention to the number and only puts emphasis on being more attacking.”It’s based on the situation of the game,” he said. “If you are chasing a low score, your strike rate will fluctuate. But nowadays T20 cricket is played in a very positive way, and you try to take the game on.”Someone else who has done that through the most recent edition of the IPL is David Miller, who played a key role in Gujarat Titans winning the title in their debut season. The combination of Markram and Miller may provide South Africa with one solution for their – at times soft -middle order, though Markram is happy to play a supporting role to Miller for now.”It’s very exciting to see David’s form,” Markram said. “He has proved that the more time he has got, the more match-winning knocks he can play. I assume that if we get off to a good start, he would potentially end up ahead of me in the line-up, just to give him that time to explode like he does. We will have to be adaptable as a batting unit but we all understand that. We all want the best for the side and we would like to see David at the crease more often than not.”

“In terms of game plans and tactically, Tests are quite different but the one thing you could take across is time at the crease and confidence if you are scoring runs”Aiden Markram

Whether Miller displaces Markram higher up in the order on occasion or not, Markram’s form, and the option he provides as an offspinner, have all but guaranteed him a place in the current T20 squad. However, his role in other formats, specifically Test cricket, is precarious. In the same period as his T20 statistics have sparkled, Markram has the lowest Test batting average for a top-four batter – 16.38 across seven Tests, with only one fifty. He was shifted down the order to bat at No. 3 for the series against New Zealand, in the absence of Keegan Petersen, but then missed the Bangladesh series because of the IPL. ESPNcricinfo has it on good authority that if Markram was available for the Bangladesh matches, he would not have been picked anyway.Whether he will be included in the squad to face England in August remains to be seen and he hopes that, at the least, he can take the belief he has in T20s into his red-ball game.”In terms of game plans and tactically, Tests are quite different but the one thing you could take across is time at the crease and confidence if you are scoring runs,” he said.”Test cricket is completely different in terms of patience and technically you have to be very sound whereas in T20 cricket you can be a bit more out there and flamboyant.”

And how many times have teams played a seven-match T20I series?

Steven Lynch04-Oct-2022Is it true that Don Bradman played against Frankenstein’s Monster? asked Taimur Mirza from Australia
It sounds improbable – but actually it’s true! Don Bradman went on a tour of North America in 1932 with a private Australian team managed by the former Test legspinner Arthur Mailey and captained by Vic Richardson, the Chappells’ grandfather. It was not long after Bradman’s wedding, and he took his new wife Jessie with him and treated the trip as a type of honeymoon. Although they saw many exotic places, there was an awful lot of cricket to fit in for a touring party with only 12 players – between June 17 and August 28, they played 51 matches, many of them against teams of more than 11 players. Bradman enjoyed himself against outmatched opponents, finishing with 3779 runs at an average of 102 with 18 centuries, while Stan McCabe scored 2361 runs and took 189 wickets in all.The tour concluded with four matches in Hollywood, where the team rubbed shoulders with some famous names. On August 26 the Australians played an 18-man team of British-born film stars that included Boris Karloff, immortal for his portrayal of Frankenstein’s Monster on screen. Karloff’s real name was William Pratt and he was a keen cricketer, who usually kept wicket; in later years he was a familiar sight as a spectator at The Oval. Karloff made 12 that day, only one of four to reach double figures. Top scorer (with 24) was the redoubtable Aubrey Smith, who, before he found fame as an aristocratic Englishman on the silver screen, was a Sussex bowler who captained England in their first official Test against South Africa, in Port Elizabeth in 1888-89. I’m sure several of the other players were well known at the time, but the only name I recognise now is James Finlayson, a Scotsman who played the straight man or villain in several Laurel and Hardy films.Smith and Karloff were instrumental in setting up the Hollywood Cricket Club, and Karloff played for them against the Australians again the next day, scoring 5 this time – he was caught and bowled by McCabe, who was on his way to 8 for 44. Smith, who was 69 by then, did not reappear. Bradman scored 52 not out in the first match, and 18 not out in the second.Nottinghamshire scored 662 against Durham in the last round of Championship games this year, but no one reached 200. What’s the highest first-class total without a double-century? asked Shaun Victor from South Africa
Nottinghamshire’s imposing total of 662 for 5 declared against Durham at Trent Bridge last week included four centuries – but the highest was Matthew Montgomery’s 178, his maiden first-class hundred.However, Nottinghamshire’s 662 is well down the list of the highest first-class totals without a double-century. On top is New South Wales’ 918 against South Australia in Sydney in January 1901, which featured five individual centuries but a highest of 168, by NSW’s captain Syd Gregory.The highest in the County Championship actually came against Nottinghamshire, by Northamptonshire at Wantage Road in 1995, when the highest individual contribution to their county-record total of 781 for 7 declared was Russell Warren’s 154. The Test record is Sri Lanka’s 713 for 9 declared against Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2017-18, when the highest score was 196, by Kusal Mendis.Kusal Mendis made 196 in the highest Test innings total without a double-century – Sri Lanka’s 713 for 9 in Chittagong in February 2018•Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty ImagesI enjoyed the long T20 series between Pakistan and England. I can’t remember any other T20 series that stretched to seven games – have there been any? asked David Ronson from England
The recent exciting series in Pakistan – in which England came from behind to win 4-3 – was an extended one to give both sides practice for the upcoming T20 World Cup. There has actually been only one previous men’s T20I series that stretched to seven matches – and you’re excused if you’d forgotten it, since it took place in Malawi in November 2019: the hosts beat Mozambique 5-1, with one no-result. The same two teams contested a seven-match women’s T20I series at the same time: Malawi won that 4-3.Has any opener carried their bat through a completed innings in a T20 international? asked Geoffrey Stephens from England
The only man to do this in an all-out innings in a T20I is Chris Gayle, who batted throughout West Indies’ 101 against Sri Lanka in the World Cup semi-final at The Oval in 2009, finishing with 63 not out – no one else made double figures.It has also happened three times in women’s T20Is: by Tshepang Khabo (12 out of 49) for Lesotho against Malawi in Gaborone (Botswana) in 2018; Ayesha Hasan (11 out of 52; no one else scored more than 4, but there were 28 extras) on debut for Norway vs Sweden in Kolsva (Sweden) in 2021; and Tharanga Gajayanake (25 out of 43; the next-highest score was 2) for Bahrain against the United Arab Emirates in Al Amerat (Oman) in 2021-22.Has there ever been an ODI in which a team used just five bowlers, who all bowled ten overs and took two wickets each? asked Abhishek Gupta from Singapore
Sadly for those of us who like neat, well-ordered scorecards, this has never happened in a one-day international. There was a very near miss in the 2011 World Cup semi-final in Mohali: five Indian bowlers were used, and they all picked up two wickets, but Zaheer Khan took the last Pakistan wicket with the penultimate ball of the match, so bowled only 9.5 overs while his team-mates all sent down ten.There have been nine other ODI innings in which five men took two wickets apiece, but they all featured one or two other bowlers who failed to strike. The most recent of these was by New Zealand against Sri Lanka in Christchurch during the 2015 World Cup.Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

It’s been 32 years since Australia have been pinned down so expertly by tourists, and their captain wants clearer plans from his batsmen

Daniel Brettig29-Dec-2020Last time Australia stumbled through an entire home Test match without a single batsman passing 50, against the mighty West Indies at the MCG in 1988, the aftermath went down as a seminal moment in the minds of many members of what was then a developing team.Allan Border had led his men to the 1987 World Cup and a Test series win over New Zealand at home the following summer, but a defeat in Pakistan followed by three consecutive thumpings from Viv Richards’ Caribbean side caused plenty of hurt and no little frustration in the home dressing room.None of Australia’s batsmen could build on their starts•Getty ImagesNot unlike the top six harried repeatedly into error by India’s seamers in Adelaide and Melbourne 32 years later, Australia’s batsmen were playing without confidence or system, allowing the visitors to dictate terms. To see this pattern reach such a point at the MCG where no one was able to hang around long enough to pass 50, the then team manager Ian MacDonald chose his time to let Border’s team know exactly what he thought, something recounted some years ago by the late Dean Jones.”Macca came from an AFL background and he was filthy at our insipid, gutless performance. He then gave us a coach’s address of which the great Ron Dale Barassi would have been proud,” Jones wrote in in 2016. “Macca yelled out: ‘Enough is enough. We need to start to throw some punches against these blokes as they are killing you. They are making you look like a bunch of weak pricks. Listen to them next door, just bloody listen.Related

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‘They are treating you guys like club cricketers. Now we better get together, stick tough and sort out our own issues or this team will be remembered as the worst and most gutless Australian team of all time! Now let’s stick together and start talking how bloody good we are and not how bloody good they are! Let’s draw a line in the sand here as enough is enough!'”Undoubtedly, the dressing room now occupied by Tim Paine’s XI will be feeling similarly low, having failed completely to counter the plans and spells of the Indians, marshalled so expertly by Ajinkya Rahane. They will now be looking eagerly towards the fitness of David Warner, and the recovery from concussion of Will Pucovski, who looms as a potential option either at the top of the order alongside Warner or in the middle.Either way, the opener Joe Burns looks to be on incredibly shaky ground, while the experiment with Matthew Wade has failed to produce the sorts of tempo-building innings that Australia have come to rely upon from Warner. Paine was clear that the hosts needed to find a better balance between attack and defence after India managed to cut down their scoring avenues for the second consecutive Test series.”That’s the game isn’t it, it’s risk/reward, it’s being clear – I think everyone’s going to do it differently,” Paine said. “Matthew Wade looks like he’s going to sweep, some other guys are going to use their feet. Cameron Green didn’t attack overly today but played really nicely.”Everyone’s got to have their own plan, be clear on it and then have the confidence to go out and execute it. We have if anything been slightly tentative in committing to exactly how we want to play the spin or the fast bowling when they’re attacking our stumps and setting really strong leg-side fields.”Paine denied that either Steven Smith or Marnus Labuschagne have been caught out by India’s planning over many long, Covid-19 affected months leading up to this series, even if few can remember seeing Smith’s rotation of the strike so cut back by the posting of two square legs when the pacemen attack the stumps. Instead, he argued that Smith simply needed to get himself established at the crease in one innings to find the metronomic rhythm that has served him so well in the past.

“We have been slightly tentative in committing to exactly how we want to play the spin or the fast bowling when they’re attacking our stumps and setting really strong leg-side fields”Australia captain Tim Paine

“India are bowling well, they’ve been extremely disciplined, we haven’t been able to get partnerships together, but from what I’ve seen watching say Marnus and Steve Smith in their Test career, this is not the first time teams have targeted their stumps. That happens every single Test match,” Paine said.”These guys are executing it better and someone like Steve in particular hasn’t been able to get in yet. Once he does he’ll find a way, as he always has, and the rest of us will follow suit and need to improve, there’s no doubt about that. But these aren’t plans that we’re encountering for the first time.”For Smith, the key is that he has not been able to play a single long innings for all of 2020, leading him to the worst two Test matches of his career in terms of runs scored, usurping Edgbaston and Trent Bridge in 2015 where his rapid dismissals set England on the course to regaining the Ashes. “At the moment I’m searching for time in the middle; that’s the most important thing for me,” Smith told SEN Radio before play.”When I look at this year, 64 balls [66, during the first ODI] is the longest I’ve spent in the middle during those one-day games. For me, that’s important. I find a lot of rhythm out in the middle. You can bat as much as you want in the nets, but there’s nothing that can replicate what a game can do, so that for me is what I’m searching for at the moment. That can be tough to do, particularly in a Test match when you’ve got some quality bowlers.”This of course will also be a challenge for Warner if he is deemed fit to return from a groin strain, while Pucovski will know that his recent concussion history is likely to see him facing plenty of short balls should he be included for a Test match debut in either of the two remaining matches.”David looks really good from what I’ve seen,” Paine said. “He’s been training this week in the nets and started running a bit between the wickets, so I think the early signs with him are very good for the third Test, which is awesome for us, and Will Pucovski a similar boat, I think he’s not far away.”There’s some return-to-play protocol that he has or needs to tick off, I’m not across it all, but my conversations with Will are that he’s pretty close to a return. My conversations with him are that he does feel okay and he’s excited to come back inside the bubble and prepare.”Either way, the Australians have the chance to redeem themselves over two more matches within this series. Border’s men 32 years ago had already lost the series, but went on to win the fourth Test and draw the fifth, an outcome that Paine undoubtedly would take right now.

Composure in the midst of controversy epitomises captain’s influence on title-winners

Vithushan Ehantharajah17-Jul-2022James Fuller dropped to his knees, visibly distraught. Chris Wood looked angry, flinging the stump he had grabbed as a souvenir in the general direction of where he’d ripped it from the ground. Liam Dawson turned away in disbelief, crouching down with his head in his hands, perhaps because he had turned to face the big screen which had “NO BALL” in big block letters staring back at him.All three were representative of the grief among the Hampshire players when television umpire Paul Baldwin called down to the standing Graham Lloyd to let him know Nathan Ellis had overstepped when yorking Richard Gleeson. Suddenly four off one was two off one, with all modes of dismissals aside from a run-out not in play with the free hit. And as Hampshire went into their fielding positions, the smoke from the premature victory fireworks still hanging in the air, they must’ve wondered if that was it. Lancashire were back from the dead and surely could not die again. Just as the feeling of inevitability descended on Edgbaston, James Vince shouted to his players to come meet him at mid-off.”We just had to take our time,” Vince said, sensing at the time that the shell-shock of the no-ball had not worn off. “We weren’t under any time pressure at that stage, so had to take a deep breath, make sure everyone was aware of the situation and just slow the game down a bit, make sure we were re-focused. That was just a moment where we had to regroup.”They did, and after another slower ball from Ellis, a bye and a mess of bodies and regulations that were still trying to be untangled on Sunday, Hampshire had secured a third T20 Blast trophy, and first at Edgbaston, by a single run.The calmness Vince showed is perhaps one of the most under-rated elements of him as a cricketer, and was particularly evident not just with the impromptu huddle but when he ran out Luke Wells with a direct hit off the final ball of the 19th over. A clutch moment, both in getting rid of the last recognised batter, and saving a precious run.Nathan Ellis kept his cool after Vince instigated a break before the final ball, and delivered the T20 Blast trophy•Getty ImagesThe shapes and sounds of Vince’s batting tend to take the headlines, whether prim and middled or loose and edged. It’s consistently been the former in the Blast, as he finished as the outright top run-scorer with 678 runs at 48.42 and a strike-rate of 146.12. But the latter has always been used to extrapolate a flightiness, even unreliability to Vince’s career. Of someone who isn’t that keen on responsibility. Perhaps the average England supporter carries that view off the back of a high-profile Test career of 13 caps and an average of 24. Everyone associated with Hampshire, however, are under no illusions as to his merits. Even the ones who haven’t been there long.”He’s definitely one of the calmer captains I’ve played under,” Ellis said, and that is saying something given the Australian has international, Big Bash League and Indian Premier League experience. “Then on top of that, he’s obviously had an amazing tournament and led from the front with his performances. That’s all you can ask for.”It’s quite a big role with that amount of cricket over here in all formats. I can’t imagine being up and about and being able to lead from the front, day in, day out like he does. I’ve obviously got a small glimpse of it in the Blast. He’s been phenomenal.”Ellis was sitting next to Vince at the time, but was unafraid to big him up late on Saturday evening while Vince looked the most uncomfortable he had all day. “That’s the contract secured for next year,” he joked once Ellis had said his piece.There has always been a belief at Hampshire that they are one of the luckiest counties going. But in Vince they have someone who doubles up as the best batter in domestic cricket and the best captain, and so – with the availability of England players a contentious issue in the latter stages of the Blast, and indeed Finals Day – Vince’s presence throughout the season ranks as something of an unexplainable boost.His absence from international white-ball cricket is bemusing, given he scored a century against Pakistan in his most recent ODI appearance last summer and a fifty in a T20I against West Indies in March, his last appearance in any format. At 31, he has plenty more to offer England, perhaps even in Tests. But while they continue their considerations, Hampshire will continue to benefit handsomely from his quality and nous.ESPNcricinfo LtdA campaign beginning with four straight defeats is usually one to write off altogether. Vince, however, remained steadfast in his belief that outright victory, not just getting out of the South Group, was still on the cards. That spread throughout the group and, 12 wins out of 13 later, he was proved right. As he was the year before, when things had been a little more precarious.Getting into the quarter-finals required a quick win against Glamorgan and results elsewhere to go their way as Hampshire sat sixth into that final group game. They knocked off 185 inside 14.1 overs, as required, and then benefitted from Gloucestershire’s defeat to Somerset to sneak through in fourth by 0.056 on net run rate. In their first knockout game, they defended 125 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge after instigating an improbable collapse.They went on to lose in the first match of that Finals Day, by only two wickets to Somerset who they bested this time around in the second semi. But the experience garnered by a young squad has been carried over, likewise Vince’s appreciation of those around him. He mentioned the 2021 game as a reason for taking the group pause before the final delivery on in 2022. “We said after the game that last year, in the semi-final, we maybe sped up a bit under pressure. So today, in the pressure moments, let’s make sure we take our time and give it some proper thought.”No doubt the controversy around the finish will continue, and there is no reason why it cannot be in conjunction with credit for how a total of 152 for eight was defended so well on a prime batting track. The credit belongs to Dawson and Mason Crane for taking 15 for two between them in a four-over period from 66 for one after seven, which tilted the run-rate against Lancashire. Barring a comical misunderstanding between wicketkeeper Ben McDermott and Brad Wheal at third man that gave Wells a life, the fielding, especially along the ground, was clean. The collective nerve-holding at the death was also noteworthy, both Ellis’ pluck after swapping ends in order to bowl the final over, and Vince’s gut feel to give it to him rather than Chris Wood.Related

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“It’s the resilience and the belief within the group,” Vince explained. “It probably comes through winning. You’ve got to experience those situations to build the belief, not just in T20 but across four-day cricket as well. Now that we’ve been able to lean on a few occasions where we have defended low totals or come back from games we’ve been behind in, that belief grows and grows.”Tonight is another example of where, going forward, we know we’re never out of the game. It would have been easy after the start they got off to sit back and let them cruise to victory, but there was no point just me saying it. The guys had to act it as well and they did brilliantly as they have done all year.”The last slide of Hampshire’s presentation ahead of Finals Day was of former Hampshire legend Shane Warne and his famous words, “Never give up. Just absolutely never give up.” But, for all that a county boosted by Warne paid the late Australian the perfect tribute with a spectacle he would have loved, the team and the performance on the night were very much the product of Vince.

Tom Banton and Joe Clarke embodied a disastrous Hundred campaign

Matt Roller29-Aug-2022It was the £250,000 gamble that defined a season. Welsh Fire finished second-bottom in the inaugural men’s Hundred and with limited availability for leading overseas players, they calculated that rebuilding around two of England’s best young white-ball batters would be the way to go – not just for 2022, but for the seasons beyond.As a result, they used their top two picks in the draft to sign Joe Clarke and Tom Banton for £125,000 each. Neither player seemed an outlandish top-bracket signing at the time: Clarke had been in belligerent form for Nottinghamshire in the Blast for several years and was Melbourne Stars’ player of the season at the BBL, while Banton had just returned to England’s T20I side and shown glimpses of his old form after a lean couple of years.Five months on, Fire’s outlay on Clarke and Banton looks like a monumental waste of money: they managed 185 runs off 190 balls between them, spread across 14 painstaking innings. They were picked to be match-winners for a team that ended up finishing the season with eight defeats from eight.Related

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In Fire’s final defeat, against Trent Rockets on Monday night, their dismissals summed up their lack of form: Banton was pinned on the pad for 9 off 7 balls by a shin-high full toss from Sam Cook after slashing two boundaries through point, while Clarke walked past Samit Patel’s slow left-arm after hitting a huge six over midwicket but precious little else in his 15 off 14.”We are playing professional sport and it hasn’t been good enough,” Gary Kirsten, Fire’s head coach, said after their defeat to Northern Superchargers in their final home game. “You have to be competitive and look to win, but we’ve struggled. We just haven’t got enough runs on the board because too many batsmen are out of form.”Kirsten’s analysis was sound, but if the Hundred has any sporting integrity as a tournament then he should not be the man in charge of leading their rebuild next year. His side won their first two games last season thanks to Jonny Bairstow half-centuries, and have one win in fourteen since then; it is time for a new coach with fresh ideas.Jonny Bairstow’s late withdrawal was a significant blow•Getty ImagesThey will need to replace their captain, too. Josh Cobb was retained from their 2021 squad on a £30,000 salary, the lowest price point in the tournament, then handed a poisoned chalice when he was asked to be the figurehead of a team featuring young players earning four times more than him. His tactics in the field have been sound, but 45 runs at 6.42 summed up his struggles.Clearly, they were short on luck at times: Bairstow was only ever due to play three games for them but his eleventh-hour withdrawal was clearly a blow; Naseem Shah’s first involvement in Pakistan’s limited-overs teams rendered him unavailable at short notice; David Miller started the year in career-best form and averaged 12.16.But the collective failure of so many talented players hints at a problem that goes beyond on-field personnel and the overall pattern was grim: they failed to reach 150 and while they ran Phoenix close and gave London Spirit a brief scare, six of their defeats were thrashings. The first ball of their final defeat against Rockets, a bottom-edge which squirmed under George Scrimshaw at short third and away for four, seemed to confirm that it is time to rip everything up and start again.Debriefing Fire’s season on Sky Sports, Simon Doull and Dominic Cork suggested that they had suffered a lack of identity after assembling a squad without a single Glamorgan player in it. “That’s my biggest issue with it,” Doull said. “You cannot tell me that Glamorgan don’t have any players that are good enough to play in the Hundred.”But it is hard to make the case that drafting Dan Douthwaite and Prem Sisodiya would have turned their season around. No team has won fewer Blast games than Glamorgan over the last five years and only two of their squad – Timm van der Gugten and the retiring Michael Hogan – are involved in the Hundred at all. Their problems run much deeper than that.Gary Kirsten and Josh Cobb oversaw a winless season•Harry Trump/Getty ImagesInstead, the starting point to the rebuild might be to recruit an overseas batter with full availability for 2023 as captain: Shan Masood, who has led Derbyshire and Multan Sultans with success, would be a strong candidate to deal with the slow pitches at Sophia Gardens, while New Zealand’s clear schedule in the FTP could, in theory, open up Kane Williamson’s involvement.Whatever they decide to do, the only way is up. The ECB’s decision to allocate one of the eight teams to Cardiff rather than Bristol or Taunton was intended to revitalise cricket in Wales but it is hard to see supporters heading back to Sophia Gardens next season if they are expecting more of the same.The beauty about short-form cricket is meant to be that anyone can beat anyone, particularly in tournaments where a strict salary cap and draft mechanism are in place to ensure competitive balance. The men’s Hundred’s biggest issue in 2022 has been a dearth of tight finishes: the tournament cannot afford Welsh Fire to be whipping boys.

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.”

The IPL mini auction, in numbers

Sampath Bandarupalli22-Dec-202216.25 The winning bid for Chris Morris (in INR crore) during the auction for the 2021 season, by Rajasthan Royals. It is the highest-ever bid made for any player at an IPL mini auction. Yuvraj Singh was the most expensive Indian player at a mini auction when Delhi Daredevils secured him for INR 16 crore in the 2015 auction.4 Players to be signed for INR 15 crore or more at an IPL mini auction – Chris Morris (16.25 in 2021), Yuvraj Singh (16 in 2015), Pat Cummins (15.5 in 2020) and Kyle Jamieson (15 in 2021).