Steven Smith completes 3000 Ashes runs in 54 innings, becomes quickest to the milestone behind Don Bradman

Sampath Bandarupalli08-Jan-202210 – Test centuries for Khawaja, all since the start of 2015. He is one of ten players to score ten or more Test centuries in this period, that too after missing 30 of the 66 Test matches Australia have played in this period.Khawaja missed 14 Tests in succession before the ongoing Sydney Test, the most consecutive Tests missed by a player before scoring twin centuries in a Test. The previous record was nine Tests for Steven Smith (in 2019), when was serving a ban, followed by Rohit Sharma (three in 2019) and Andy Flower (two in 2001).2 – Batters before Khawaja to score centuries in both innings of a Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Doug Walters scored 242 and 103 against West Indies in 1969 at this venue, while Ricky Ponting scored two centuries against South Africa in 2006, which was also his 100th Test match.ESPNcricinfo Ltd9 – Khawaja is one of only nine batters to score hundreds in both innings of an Ashes Test. The last to achieve the feat was Smith, in 2019, when scored twin 140-plus scores in Birmingham.9 – Players to score centuries in both innings of a Test match while batting at No. 5 or lower before Khawaja in Sydney. Only two others have done it in the Ashes: Denis Compton in Adelaide in 1947, and Steve Waugh in Manchester in 1997.Related

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1 – Number of players older than Khawaja (35y, 18d at the start of this Test) to score two centuries for Australia in a Test match. Donald Bradman was 39 years and 127 days old at the beginning of the 1948 Test against India in Melbourne, when he scored 132 and 127*. Khawaja is also the oldest of the nine players to score centuries in both innings of an Ashes Test.179 – Khawaja’s partnership with Cameron Green, the second-highest fifth-wicket stand in the Ashes after the fall of the first four wickets for less than 100 runs. Matthew Elliott and Ponting added 268 after Australia were four wickets down for 50 runs at Headingley in 1997. The 179 runs scored by the Khawaja-Green pair is also the highest for any wicket in the current series.54 – Innings needed for Smith to complete 3000 runs in the Ashes, the second-quickest in terms of innings. Bradman was the fastest to the milestone, needing only 38 innings. Smith is also one of the eight players with 3000-plus Test runs against a single opponent, and the fifth to achieve it against England.

Australia’s poor NRR could put them in trouble if they don’t win both their remaining games

S Rajesh30-Oct-2021England
England have been in outstanding form so far, winning each of their three matches with plenty to spare, but they aren’t quite assured of a semi-final place yet. If they lose their last two matches – as ridiculous as that sounds – and remain on six points, it is possible for both Australia and South Africa to leapfrog them and finish on eight. One more win should suffice, though: even though they could still be tied on eight with Australia and South Africa, their net run rate should be enough to take them through.South Africa
South Africa have won two and lost one, and one of their remaining games is against the form team of their group. If they beat Bangladesh and lose to England, they will be at the mercy of other results as both England and Australia can move up to eight points. Even with four wins, it could come down to NRR if Australia win their last two, and if England beat Sri Lanka.Australia
Australia’s net run rate has taken a battering after their defeat against England, but despite this huge loss, they are reasonably placed with two wins in three games. Their last two games are against the bottom two teams in the group, but neither can be taken lightly. Australia will want to win both, because it is possible for England and South Africa to get up to eight points.Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka will have to win their last two matches and then hope other results go their way. Their best-case scenario will be if both Australia and South Africa lose their two remaining matches. In that case, England (8 points) and Sri Lanka (6) will qualify, with all the other teams stuck on four. There is a possibility of five teams being on four points each if England finish on 10, but that is not a fight Sri Lanka will want to get into.West Indies
West Indies’ NRR is the worst among the six teams in Group 1, so they will not want any scenarios where run rates come into play (unless they achieve huge wins in their last two games). Like Sri Lanka, their best-case scenario will be if Australia and South Africa lose their two remaining matches and stay on four points. Then, West Indies can qualify with six if they win their two remaining matches.Bangladesh
If England win all their matches and other teams distribute their wins evenly, it is still possible that five teams will be on four points each, fighting for the second semi-final spot. Bangladesh, though, will also have to win big to improve their NRR, which is currently languishing at -1.069.

He’s batting as well as ever, but teams are packing the leg side and making him work much harder than ever before

Alex Malcolm21-Mar-2022Something is not quite right with Steven Smith, and yet he’s not playing badly by any stretch.There are a number of players in this series who would gladly sign up for scores of 78, 72, and 59 in three innings. David Warner is chief among them. Marnus Labuschagne, with two inexplicable ducks in four innings, is another, while Travis Head is the only Australia batter on tour who hasn’t passed 30.Related

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Maybe we expect too much of Smith. But it seems he’s no longer Superman, piling up centuries at will, and no one can quite work out why.Smith himself looked bewildered as he trudged off after being trapped lbw in Lahore. He was so plumb he walked before Ahsan Raza had a chance to raise his finger. It was his 7th 50-plus score in his last 14 Test innings without a century. Since the 2019 Ashes, Smith’s opus, he has passed 50 on 10 occasions in 26 innings but has only registered one three-figure score. In total, he has just one century in his last 29 Test innings dating back to his epic 211 in Manchester in 2019.Lahore looked the venue where his 14-innings drought would end. Smith has long been Australia’s man for a crisis, but he has not often entered in a crisis since the emergence of Labuschagne.Here he entered at 8 for 2 after Shaheen Shah Afridi burst through Warner and Labuschagne in the same over to leave Australia reeling after winning the toss. Smith looked like a man on a mission. He caressed three glorious boundaries in his first 15 balls, including two sumptuous off-side drives. The mannerisms were back. The senses were heightened. He even spotted the roving camera moving at deep midwicket while playing a defensive stroke off Hasan Ali.When Smith stroked his third dazzling drive, off Hasan, to move to 19 from 27 balls the headlines were being readied.Smith was lbw off Naseem Shah, with his bat getting stuck behind his back pad•AFP/Getty ImagesBut what happened next was indicative of what has plagued Smith for two-and-a-half years. He stopped scoring. He went 22 balls without a run. That included a dropped catch when he attacked Nauman Ali’s first ball to him. Smith crushed a drive at a catchable height back to the bowler, but it was too hot to handle.Smith broke the shackles by lofting Nauman straight down the ground in the 18th over for his fifth boundary. But that would be the last boundary he would score until the 51st over. He scored just 30 runs from 106 balls in that period. Usman Khawaja, on his way to another outstanding 91, struck seven fours and a six during that time.Run-scoring has become a grind for Smith, even accounting for surfaces as slow as these in Pakistan. Where once he cruised through the middle overs of an opening day, rotating the strike at will and finding the boundary with ease, he has now been made to earn every run and it is taking a toll.Since the 2019 Ashes, Smith has a strike-rate in Test cricket of just 40.80. Up until the end of the 2019 Ashes, his career strike-rate was 56.38. For Smith to score a century at a strike-rate of 40.80, he needs to face 246 deliveries, approximately, whereas previously it took, on average, just 177.Since the 2019 Ashes, he has faced 177 balls or more in six innings, including in the first two Tests of this series, and has just one Test century to show for it. On the previous 27 occasions when he faced 177 balls or more in Tests, he posted 24 centuries, and he added two more hundreds in innings where he faced fewer than 177 deliveries.Teams have become better at containing Smith. They have been smarter with their leg-side fields to cut off his scoring zones. His main batting coaches, Trent Woodhill and Michael Di Venuto, had set him up technically to score heavily from good length balls in the fourth-stump channel. His back-and-across movement and unique grip set him up to pick opponents apart through the leg side as they tried to hit his pads.Teams have become smarter at blocking the leg side, which was previously Smith’s most productive area•AFP/Getty ImagesBut the slowness of the surfaces in this series and the canny field settings have caused Smith’s scoring to grind to a halt. The challenge of facing an extra 69 balls to score the centuries he so desperately craves is taking a mental toll.It’s forcing mistakes Smith would not previously make. In Rawalpindi, he tried to sweep a length ball from outside leg and gloved a catch down the leg side. In Karachi, he tried to force off the back foot through cover point with only minutes remaining in the day, and edged to slip. And today, he got his bat tangled against his back pad while trying to work a ball off middle stump from Naseem Shah and was plumb lbw, having ground his way to 59 from 169 deliveries.”I thought he batted really well today,” Khawaja said. “He was stiff. His bat got stuck in his pad.”You bowl that ball against Steve Smith he’s hitting it 99 out of 100 times.”I’m sure it’s frustrating in some respects. He is in my opinion the greatest batter I’ve seen in my era, averaging 60 throughout pretty much his whole Test career.”It’s so funny. We’re talking about Steve Smith probably not scoring hundreds but he seems to be getting 70, 80 every game and doing it very easily. That’s just the class that Steve Smith has. I’m sure there’s a big score coming and then once he gets a big score there will be more big scores.”The odds say that he’s going to get a big one very soon.”

de Kock has sounded a warning before the playoffs whereas Rinku is gone for now

Sidharth Monga19-May-20223:08

Shastri: The way de Kock played spin was fabulous to watch

Quinton de Kock does not quite have the poker face. Poker face suggests some kind of effort put in to stay neutral and emotionless. Poker face suggests the person is enjoying being there. de Kock is effortless in almost not wanting to be there. It almost feels like having to deal with the rest of the world is, to him, the price he must pay to do what he loves: play cricket.Which is why the show of emotion on reaching the century was rare. He went down on his knees, almost as if in a , and then sort of didn’t know whether to kiss the ground or touch his forehead on it but even there the helmet was in the way. It was just a spontaneous release, the awkward execution evidence that he is not used to any show of emotion.Lucknow Super Giants assistant coach Vijay Dahiya let us in on the possible reason behind that release. It turns out de Kock has been telling Dahiya for the last two-three matches that he has never felt “this good”. “How come I am not scoring runs then?” Dahiya paraphrased de Kock’s conversations with him. “One thing is for sure, the day I get in, a very long innings is due.”Related

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de Kock confirmed that at the post-match presentation. “It was just a bit of frustration that came out,” de Kock told . “The last couple of games, just the way I have been getting out. Obviously I have been feeling very good and nothing has been coming off it. So it was nice to come out and the feeling of actually having done it. Just a bit of a release. I was trying to keep it in but when I let go it just happened.”It was an innings with the de Kock hallmarks but with some initial caution that perhaps had to do with collective nerves around the team still waiting to confirm its progress into the playoffs. Once he started going, though, de Kock didn’t hold back, which is how he is known to play. No match-ups, no seeing off bowlers.The very long innings came but not at the cost of momentum. He could have easily taken it easy against the spinners but he went after them, even Sunil Narine whom nobody goes after these days, despite holding an average record against spin in the IPL. He strikes at 116.37 against spin in the IPL, but here he took 51 off 28 balls from them, including a reverse-swept six off Narine.In the end, though, we got back the de Kock we know: hardly any emotion except perhaps not wanting to be there now that the last ball had been bowled. Another man, though, would have never wanted the night to end. He brought his side desperately close to stay alive – even if for the time being – in the season. In the season that he finally went from being the specialist substitute fielder to a batter everybody is taking note of.Kolkata Knight Riders’ final moments in another inconsistent IPL season will be that of Rinku Singh fighting to save the last night and fight the break of dawn that will come to take him away. Year after year he had been on TV running after balls without getting a chance to actually play. It appeared he would go down as a piece of trivia around Knight Riders’ gamesmanship, the specialist fielder who was a great replacement for a slow bowler who was done with his quota but not good enough to actually get a decent run in the XI.It was a huge ask, but Sunil Narine and Rinku Singh weren’t about to give up•BCCIThis season was no different to begin with. It was only in their eighth match that Knight Riders brought Rinku in. They had lost four matches out of seven by then. They hardly had a middle order to speak of. It looked like a punt.Rinku didn’t immediately set the world alight, but equally apparent was this was no specialist fielder. On the morning of the third match, Rinku doodled “50” on his hand and drew a heart underneath it. In the evening he scored an unbeaten 42 off 23 to help beat Rajasthan Royals. There is a video on Knight Riders’ Twitter handle of coach Brendon McCullum using Nitish Rana as an interpreter when talking to Rinku but there is more that Rinku has communicated to McCullum without actually needing words.”Before the first game that he played, I was lucky enough to spend a little bit of time with him,” McCullum told the Knight Riders website. “He knew for his own self-worth and his own career, he needed to make a statement in this competition. He was able to do it in the first game. He’s such a great team man, a wonderful human being and the real vibe and culture of the group is set by Rinku. His older brother and Nitish Rana as well were out there with him and I think that gave him great confidence. Some players just deserve to have things go their way and Rinku is one of them.”On Wednesday night, in Knight Riders’ last league game, Rinku made that statement. The bigger batters had come and gone, and they still needed 61 off 20 balls to give themselves a chance to hope for some other results to go their way and get them a playoff spot. Nobody knows more than Rinku about that fight for hope. He hit Avesh Khan and Jason Holder for a six each before going four, six and six against Marcus Stoinis in the last over. He wanted to have more of this season, one more chance to show what he is made of because who knows what happens next season.In the ultimate irony, having brought his side to needing three off two balls, Rinku was denied by a sensational fielding effort from Evin Lewis, who has hardly had anything else to do all season.”Good things happen to good people,” McCullum said in his last press conference as Knight Riders coach before he joins with England as their Test coach. “Rinku is just an incredible story. A man who has been around IPL now for five years. He has sat on the sidelines for so long, he has worked so hard, he gives to the team every single day that he has been around. He has had to wait for his opportunity, he got it late in this tournament, and gee he has taken it. He plays the game for all the right reasons. All the reasons that I love as a coach, and as a fan of cricket. He is a guy you really want to do well.”Except that the scorecard doesn’t have space for all this. de Kock is guaranteed a playoffs spot, and a warning has been sounded: he has never felt this good. Rinku is gone for now. As is McCullum.

The 19-year-old batter’s early coaches talk about the dedication and maturity he brings to his game

Shashank Kishore06-May-2022At 19, Tilak Varma is truly part of the IPL generation.He was five years old when the tournament began, and his love for it grew when his home team, Deccan Chargers, won the title a year later in 2009. For the son of an electrician father and homemaker mother, Varma’s Rs 1.7 crore (US$226,000 approx) contract with Mumbai Indians is the stuff of dreams.Varma wants to build a comfortable house for him family, but his first coach, Salam Bayash only reaffirms one thing to him these days: “Keep learning, don’t stop improving and don’t take anything for granted.”Varma’s journey mirrors the struggle of a typical lower-middle class household in India, but with a dream payoff. His father, Nagaraju, couldn’t afford to send him to a private academy for cricket coaching, and if Bayash – who Nagaraju describes as his son’s godfather – hadn’t insisted on taking care of his fees and equipment needs, Varma may have been lost to the game, like many others in similar circumstances.Related

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Sitting pillion behind Bayash on a scooter, Varma would travel about 80km to and from his home in Chandrayan Gutta, in the Old City in Hyderabad, to the suburb of Lingampally six days a week for coaching.Bayash had been running his cricket academy for a few years when he first came across Varma. What impressed him about the boy, he says, was “the punch in his batting”.”When kids play with the tennis ball, they generally tend to slog, heave, play cross-batted shots. This boy was playing authentic shots. Clean shots.”I asked him if he was being coached. He said, ‘No sir, we have financial constraints.’ His maturity to understand his family’s difficulties was striking for me. That convinced me to speak to his parents. Today, they are so happy with the decision to send him [for coaching].”Varma’s flair and temperament have come in for special praise from former batting greats like Sunil Gavaskar and Matthew Hayden. Against Rajasthan Royals, he reverse swept an in-form R Ashwin for six and then got out trying to sweep him off the next ball.Mumbai Indians scouts happened to watch him multiple times at the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy last November, and were impressed with how Varma played alongside his captain Tanmay Agarwal, scoring a 32-ball 37 in Hyderabad’s successful chase of 171 against Delhi.Salam Bayash with a 14-year-old Varma•Salam BayashIn the quarter-final, against Gujarat, Varma smashed five fours and two sixes in a 50-ball 75 to set up a 30-run win. Mumbai decided then to keep an eye on Varma’s performances, and were one of four franchises to call him for trials ahead of the auction.”Before the auction, scouts always like to know something about a player from coaches,” says Milap Mewada, Hyderabad’s head coach.”They [Mumbai’s scouts] asked me about Tilak. I told them he was a very good kid with a mature head on his shoulders, someone who can be adept at hitting big sixes, convincing sixes.”At the same time, he can knuckle down and play a solid game also if the situation demands. He can put the ball into the second tier effortlessly. The moment he hits the ball, you know if it’ll clear the ropes or not. There are no half-measures.”During the domestic white-ball season, Mewada and Varma worked on having different scoring options for the same kind of delivery, so he could build the ability to access different parts of the ground.”You must have seen him try and ramp bouncers instead of pulling or hooking,” Mewada says. “Or trying to use the angle and pace to pick gaps behind the wicket to wide yorkers as against trying to swing across the line. Those are things we did during the white-ball season.”Another thing I spoke to him about, based on where his game is at currently, was that it would be best for him to bat at four instead of at the top. He bought into the idea. He didn’t know then that he’d be picked by Mumbai or that he’ll be batting at five for them. But in a way, it has all worked out well.”Varma worked with his Hyderabad coach on playing ramp shot to bouncers during the last domestic season•BCCIBayash remembers Varma’s dedication towards improving his skills. A friend of the coach at the Hyderabad Cricket Association had arranged for Varma to be on ball-boy duties in 2014.”Next day, he came and told me, ‘I want to bat like Suresh Raina. upper shot khelna hai [I want to play the upper shot like Raina].'”He kept practising that inside-out shot over cover,” Bayash remembers. “His father told me how the next day he was up at 4am and shadow-practising that Raina shot. If he sets his eye on something, he’ll ensure he ticks that off and then goes to the next thing.”He’s still a teen but Varma is already a key member of Hyderabad’s set-up across formats. An early initiation into the IPL with the five-time champions only brings with it the promise of bigger things.Bayash and Mewada, who have been in touch with Varma during the IPL, are united in the advice they offer: keep enjoying the game without feeling the pressure of having to live up to expectations now you have got some recognition.It’s what his Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma seems to have told Varma too.”Rohit bhai keeps telling me: ‘Don’t take pressure in any situation,'” Varma said in an interview with the Mumbai Indians website. “‘Keep enjoying and playing the way you do. You’re a youngster, this is the time to enjoy. If you lose that, it [these days] won’t come back.'”He [Rohit] always backs me in everything, whether it’s fielding, bowling, or batting, now and in the future too,” Varma says.Bayash with Varma after the latter was picked in the India squad for the 2020 Under-19 World Cup•Salam Bayash”Mumbai are in a downward phase right now, we’re playing well but falling short due to a few errors. Even in this situation, he keeps telling me not to lose that enjoyment factor, and it feels nice when he tells me that. It’s always on my mind and it’s working well for me.”Those around Varma describe him as a “happy kid” who enjoys spending time with friends when not on the field.”When he’s at the ground, he is always thinking of ways to contribute,” Bayash says.Mewada says Varma’s lively persona has infused positivity and cheer into the Hyderabad team environment. “He’s very soft-spoken off the field and very serious when he’s batting. And sometimes while fielding also, he’ll be so intense about batting that you have to tell him to take it easy,” Mewada says. “But as a person, he’s polite, grounded, coachable. Has a great attitude to learn.”He’ll keep joking, mingles well with seniors and juniors – they’re all fond of him. The seniors will mimic him, and he’ll take [the teasing] sportingly. He’s basically a friend of all.”Two players in the team are like that always: Tilak and Mohammed Siraj. Jolly fellows, very grounded. If he [Varma] stays like this, he’s going to do wonderful things.”

On a two-paced pitch in Tarouba, Karthik crashed West Indies’ party with an unbeaten 19-ball 41

Deivarayan Muthu30-Jul-2022Ravindra Jadeja swipes his bat over the stumps in frustration after carving Alzarri Joseph straight to short third. India are 138 for 6 in 16 overs on a grippy, two-paced pitch in Tarouba. Jason Holder and Co are regularly taking pace off and keeping the ball away from the batters’ reach. West Indies are sensing that they are onto something, with a packed crowd rallying around them.Dinesh Karthik, however, crashes West Indies’ party, in the first international game at the Brian Lara Stadium, with an unbeaten 19-ball 41 that powers India up to 190 for 6. On a tricky surface, where wickets fell in clusters, Karthik is the only Indian batter to strike at over 150.Related

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After expertly closing out innings for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, and for India in the T20Is against South Africa at home, Karthik whipped up another finishing act, this time in the Caribbean, strengthening his case for the inclusion in India’s XI at the T20 World Cup, which begins in October later this year in Australia.Since the start of IPL 2022, Karthik has struck at 210.91 at the death overs in T20 cricket. Among those who have played at least ten innings during this period, only Tim David (226.72) and Jimmy Neesham (220.45) have a better strike rate.Sure, Karthik has trained the house down for the finisher’s role, but the conditions and circumstances were stacked against him on Friday. He was on 17 off 12 balls at one stage; there were no proper batting options for India beyond him, and the ball kept stopping at the batters. However, there would be no stopping Karthik.When Holder missed a yorker, Karthik shuffled across and threw everything into a swipe that sailed over midwicket for six. Holder then went around the stumps and angled a length ball across him but Karthik stretched out like Mister Fantastic from the Marvel Universe and scythed it over covers, where there was no protection in the deep, for four. To add to West Indies’ hurt, they could have just four fielders outside the 30-yard circle due to an in-match penalty for their slow over rate.Karthik hurt them even further in the last over by hitting the ball over the infield for two more fours and another six. In that final over, Karthik deployed a higher backlift, pointing towards first slip, AB de Villiers-style to generate extra power against the change-ups of Obed McCoy.ESPNcricinfo LtdAt the other end, Ashwin sat back and gushed: ” [This is good], DK!” Back in the day, Ashwin was among those who used to travel to Chepauk just to watch Karthik bat. Karthik is now at the peak of his powers and has so much role clarity and confidence that he can succeed as a finisher irrespective of conditions.”I’ve been enjoying it [the finisher’s role] a lot; it’s a very interesting role,” Karthik said at the post-match presentation after bagging the Player-of-the-Match award. “It’s not something you can be consistent with, but on the days that you do well, you can make an impact for the team. You need the backing of the captain and the coach that I’ve got in abundance, so that really helps.”What is important is assessing the wicket. On any given day in the last four-five overs when you bat, there are a lot of things you need to be aware of – the shape of the ball, the softness of the ball, [the nature of] the wicket, what kind of shots you can play, and then you need to decide. That comes with a little bit of practice and understanding the various aspects of batting.”Karthik has always been big on practice and game time. Ahead of IPL 2022, he had travelled to Theni, located about 500km from Chennai, to play a T20 tournament for his club India Cements. Ahead of the Caribbean tour, when Karthik needed some game time, he travelled to Coimbatore to play a T20 game for his TNPL side Tiruppur Tamizhans on a sluggish surface.He continues to put all of that preparation into excellent use and prove people wrong, at 37. Speaking on the BeerBiceps podcast, even Karthik’s close confidant Shanker Basu, who is also Royal Challengers’ fitness coach, revealed that he had ruled out an international comeback from Karthik.Karthik has made such a strong comeback that India’s team management is now open to swapping the position of other batters to let him do his thing at the death. He even captained the Indians in two warm-up T20s in England, and after his latest act, he is now a step closer to nailing down the finisher’s spot for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Also, how crucial a role could the toss in Galle play? We take a look at all the key numbers ahead of the series

Gaurav Sundararaman27-Jun-2022Sri Lanka are a Test team in transition. Since the retirement of their batting and bowling superstars, they have not enjoyed the kind of success at home that they had in the first half of this millennium. Since the last time Australia went to Sri Lanka in 2016, they have won eight, lost ten and drawn one Test at home. They were beaten five times by England and three times by India. They also lost once each to Bangladesh and New Zealand. Their successes during this period have come against Zimbabwe, West Indies, Bangladesh and South Africa. Can Australia avenge their 3-0 series defeat in 2016? Here are some of the key aspects to look out for, ahead of the series which starts on June 29.The toss and spin factors in GalleOnly once has a team won the toss and chosen to field in Galle. That was way back in 2001 when Sri Lanka beat India. On 20 other occasions, teams have chosen to bat first here. Teams that have chosen to bat first after winning the toss have lost only three times. Two of those losses came last year when England beat Sri Lanka twice in the same series. When Australia and Sri Lanka meet, the toss becomes even more crucial. Australia have won the toss on eight occasions and have lost just one of those matches, in 1999. They have won five and drawn two.Related

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When Australia lose the toss, they have won just once and lost on three occasions. Among the 14 venues in the world that have hosted at least five games since 2018, Galle is the most favorable for spinners as they strike once every 55 balls and have taken 13 five-wicket hauls. In fact, 78% of the wickets are taken by spinners and 77% of the overs have been bowled by spinners. Batters also average just 26.98 against spin. The average first-innings score in this period is 273. Both teams may be tempted to have as many spin options as possible with toss likely to play a big role especially for Australia.

“That’s driving me… It’s really good competition and it’s good for English white-ball cricket”

Matt Roller14-Aug-2022Will Jacks was on 94 when he decided that he would reach his hundred with a six. Every time he got back on strike in the 90s, the 21,677-strong crowd at the Kia Oval cheered, and Jacks decided they deserved a final flourish. “They were all screaming,” he said. “I thought to myself: I’ve got to get there with a six. For the crowd, I have to do that.”He crashed two singles to boundary-riders off Michael Hogan, and when Rehan Ahmed tossed one up, into his arc, he couldn’t resist: “I just had to go for it,” he said. He nailed the ball over wide long-on and punched the air as his home ground stood to applaud. After a hug with Sam Curran, he took a moment to let it all sink in, before putting his helmet back on and swinging Ahmed for six more to finish the game with 18 balls to spare.It was only four days ago that Will Smeed hit the first-ever Hundred hundred, also against Southern Brave, but Jacks’ innings was even more dominant. He scored just over three-quarters of Oval Invincibles’ 142 runs, 88 of his 108 coming in boundaries; Curran’s 11 not out was the second-highest score. “It was all about one man,” Sam Billings, their captain, said. “It was seriously special.”Related

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Jacks has been part of Surrey’s first team for five seasons, so it is easy to forget that he is still only 23 years old. He had never hit a T20 hundred before Sunday night – “it’s been one of my goals for the last three seasons, so it was nice to finally tick it off” – but has been a relentless run-scorer in the Blast, averaging 33.85 with a strike rate of 152.65 across the last three years.Blast crowds at The Oval are consistently among the best in the country, but Jacks has come into his own playing in the Hundred, relishing the occasions afforded by standalone, televised games: “It’s a great occasion every time you play in the Hundred,” he said. “I was really buzzing for tonight.” He is the third-highest male run-scorer across its one-and-a-half seasons to date, with an unmatched strike rate of 185.63 to boot.His success in Surrey’s Championship side this year suggests his form is sustainable, too, with a strong grounding in the first-class game and an orthodox style: 53 of his runs on Sunday night came in the ‘V’ down the ground, and his most productive shot was his textbook, high-front-elbow off-drive.Jacks started brightly against the swinging ball, twice punching George Garton through the covers before launching him for a huge six towards the gasholder at square leg. Shortly after easing his way to a 27-ball half-century, effortlessly finding gaps in the infield and clearing the ropes on demand, he was hit on the toe, and decided it was time to launch.”It was pretty painful,” Jacks said. “After that, I decided, ‘I’ve got to whack it here,’ because I didn’t really fancy running. I was seeing it cleanly, and was in control of my mind. When you’re in that zone, it doesn’t matter who is bowling.” He was right: he hit each of Brave’s six bowlers for at least two boundaries, and scored at a strike rate of 150+ against all of them.Jacks’ clarity of mind on the pitch is matched by his concision off it. “Like everyone else, I really want to play for England,” he said, straight to the point. “That’s driving me. I’m just really hungry at the moment. There’s a lot of players who are in that spot, guys who are playing well. It’s really good competition and it’s good for English white-ball cricket.Will Jacks played an inspired knock•Getty Images”I’m doing the right things at the moment. There’s so much competition around, and everyone knows that. It’s two innings, and that’s it. Every time, you’ve got to go out there with the mindset that ‘I have to score runs to put my name in that hat.'”There is no shortage of talent at the top of the order, but he is clearly highly regarded. He was part of the Lions squad that thrashed South Africa at Canterbury this week, hitting 34 off 26 from No. 7 – “my strike rate was pretty similar,” he joked – and would have been part of the 50-over squad earlier this summer but for Surrey’s reticence to lose another player from their Championship side.”He’s been knocking on the door for a while now,” Mahela Jayawardene, Brave’s coach, said. “It’s good for the tournament and it’s good for English cricket seeing all the younger guys coming here and showing the skillset that they have. That’s what it’s all about: giving them an opportunity with international cricketers. That exposure will obviously help them.”It is a cruel twist of fate that if selected for England’s tour to Pakistan in September, the man Jacks appears most likely to replace is his opening partner. Jason Roy’s second-ball duck against Brave, cleaned up by a hooping Garton inswinger, was his third in four innings so far in the Hundred. On the back of a grim T20I summer, he desperately needs a score.”Everyone is going to say he’s got another duck, but that was a fantastic ball,” Jacks said, quick to Roy’s defence. “It swung back beautifully and hit the top of middle. He’s an unbelievable player. I’ve stood at the other end from him for the last five years: I know just as well as everyone else what he can do.”He’s one of my good mates and I love batting with him. Everyone hopes he can find form. When he’s on form, nobody wants to bowl to him.”Whether Roy comes good or not over Invincibles’ final four group games, Jacks’ presence alongside him will ensure that no bowler in the competition is relishing the prospect to bowl to Invincibles’ opening pair.