The left-arm wristspinner talks about his move from Netherlands to New Zealand

Interview by Shashank Kishore10-Jul-2022Earlier this year, when left-arm wristspinner Michael Rippon represented Netherlands in ODIs against New Zealand, he was facing players he trains with all year round at Otago. Last month, the 30-year-old was named in New Zealand’s squad for their limited-overs tour of Ireland. If he plays in the series, which starts today, it could be the latest upturn in a career that began more than 11 years ago in Cape Town. In this chat, Rippon talks about how he went from South Africa to New Zealand via the Netherlands.Different countries, different experiences. It’s been quite a journey for you.
It’s quite cool, isn’t it? I was born and raised in Cape Town but qualified to play for Netherlands thanks to my maternal grandfather, who moved there in the late 1970s. And then in 2017 I left South Africa to move to New Zealand on a short-term contract as a substitute player. I seriously didn’t know then this is where I’d make a life and one day, maybe, play for the Black Caps.How did you happen to start bowling left-arm wristspin?
I started off as a left-arm fast bowler, but I watched Shane Warne and Brad Hogg a lot growing up. It was Jonathan Trott’s dad, Ian, who first told me I could try my hand at left-arm spin. I began with left-arm orthodox, but I felt like bowling left-arm wristspin, and the variations came naturally to me, so at representative cricket at the Under-15s, I made the switch.Related

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How does one thrive as a spinner in New Zealand?
You must make peace with the fact that you won’t always take bucketloads of wickets. You must learn to play a holding role, build pressure on batters. That is where I suppose my variations and left-arm wristspin come into the picture. There’s a novelty factor initially, and just the art is such that there’s always a bit of intrigue to it. If you can get it right, you can do a job across different types of conditions.The drive to learn and better myself in challenging conditions is something I love. I want to make this opportunity count and take it step by step.Devon’s [Conway, also a South African-born New Zealand cricketer] an example of how if you are determined, you can achieve what you want. You saw him start the way he did last year, and the rest’s history. I’m drawing inspiration from him.How did you qualify to play for Netherlands?
Because I had a European passport, I was able to move to the United Kingdom for a county stint with Sussex. That is when word spread that I could qualify to play for Holland too. They asked me if I’d like to play for them, and I thought it was a great opportunity. From 2013 to 2016, I was part of the team’s journey through the World Cricket League Division Two. Since we’d been relegated there, we were trying to qualify for WCL Division One.Earlier this year, you were picked by Netherlands after more than three years.
Since Covid hit and I hadn’t got my New Zealand residency, I couldn’t leave the country [New Zealand], so that thwarted my ambition of playing for Netherlands at the T20 World Cup last year. Also, it clashed with our domestic schedule here. When Netherlands announced a historic tour to New Zealand, it all worked out wonderfully. I was in a lucky position. I had it clear to Netherlands of my ambition to play for New Zealand. They were understanding of it. Playing for them was a great chance to play at the international level.Rippon started playing for Otago in New Zealand’s domestic competitions in early 2017•Joe Allison/Getty ImagesTowards the end of that cycle, Anton Roux, a former Dutch international who was our coach, was taking up the role of assistant coach with Otago Volts. That is when my brush with New Zealand began.I went over initially for just a month as cover for one of Otago’s local players. I got to play and had a couple of good games. Because I enjoyed my time there, I looked at the possibility of staying for longer.You inspired others to come over to New Zealand as well.
(Laughs). Yeah, it was around then I got a call from Devon, who asked me how life was in the country. I spoke glowingly about it, and that is when he too decided to come over. I thought he’d come to Otago, but he went over to Wellington.What have been your takeaways from your Netherlands stint?
Associate cricket is cut-throat. In 2014 we finished outside the top six, so we lost ODI status and funding. I remember sitting in the team hotel after our loss to Kenya wondering what we’d do next. We had to find jobs. Some of the guys were contemplating studies. We didn’t know where our future was. But then, we set ourselves a goal to be the best Associate and we went through a three-year cycle trying to achieve that. Of course, after the 2019 World Cup, the Super League came into being, which allowed us to play the top sides to have a shot at qualifying for the 2023 World Cup. But that’s not going to go forward after the 2023 World Cup, so once again a lot of the players will be left wondering what next.Was cricket your first sport?
I was too small to play rugby, so cricket and tennis were my summer sports and hockey my winter sport. When I was 15, Trott’s dad saw the potential in me and got me playing cricket. I left hockey then and played cricket through the year. When I was 19, I got picked by the Cape Cobras for my first full year of professional cricket.Conway came to New Zealand after you but qualified a lot earlier. How did that happen?
The visa I was on initially only allowed me to work in New Zealand. It was only in 2019 that I was able to switch to a talent visa, which, if you’re on for three years, you’re eligible to apply for residency. This March, my residency was approved, so New Zealand is my home now. I bought a house earlier this year. I’ve seen my career develop by leaps and bounds. The system is great, the people are wonderful, there’s great culture. In terms of my career and my future, it’s firmly planted here.

It’s been a mad few days – we’re still making sense of it, or trying to

Andrew Fidel Fernando12-Jul-2022If cricket is art, and art imitates life, then conjuring magic from crisis is Sri Lanka’s medium.The approach to this Test was an untrammelled mess. The first to test positive for Covid in Sri Lanka’s squad was Angelo Mathews, who apparently is so careful he basically wakes up and puts on a mask before he meets his own reflection in the mirror.Mathews was okay to play the second Test having ended his isolation well before its start. But the infection spread. Dhananjaya de Silva, who was the most-recent Sri Lanka batter to have played a match-winning innings in Galle, was ruled out of this match. Left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama also went down with it when he was pretty much a sure thing to play. Asitha Fernando, Sri Lanka’s best bowler from the recent Bangladesh tour, was Covided out too. As was Jeffrey Vandersay.They kept pulling players into the squad as more went down, with Prabath Jayasuriya being the last addition. On the eve of the match, captain Dimuth Karunaratne could not be sure of what his team the next day could be. “We have another Covid test in the squad this evening,” he said. “We don’t know who is going to get ruled out because of that. We don’t know what our team would be.”Related

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They’d also lost the last game in an embarrassingly short space of time (bowled out inside 22 overs in the second innings), seemed to have no earthly notion about how they should play Nathan Lyon, and had a spin attack that could barely keep it on the straight.But that was on the cricket field.Off it, Sri Lanka was in the midst of one of the worst throes of an economic crisis – little fuel to be found, food prohibitively expensive, businesses shutting down, hospitals short of medicines and staff. Which of course had sparked a major political crisis. Which in turn, prompted protests that the state bore down on with its military and police. You don’t have to be anti-government to know that banning spectators from watching the cricket from the fort’s ramparts because you’re afraid of protesters, is a little messed up. (This was one of the Sri Lankan state’s more minor infractions.)A crisis just waiting to have some magic conjured out of it? Let’s go over there. Reach in. Armpit deep into the hat. See what we find. This is what it’s about. This is where Sri Lanka lives right now. Or perhaps always.On the field, it’s mad. While people rush around the ground and reclaim a public space, the team bursts through Australia’s lower-middle order and overwhelms the tail, Jayasuriya running through the batters.Jayasuriya had not only not been in the squad when the series began, he was only called in a couple of days before the game, after Jayawickrama and Vandersay were both ruled out, and Lasith Embuldeniya was cut loose because he was woefully short of form.Two spinners ruled out through illness, another because he’s not very good right now – this is a crisis, right? Which, if we’re buying into this narrative, also means magic. Jayasuriya, getting spectacular flight and dip, turning most deliveries, sending others straight, getting six wickets on debut to have Australia out for a competitive-but-not-commanding 364. Minor magic, maybe. But screw it. Sri Lanka lost the last match inside two days, essentially. We’ll take it.Prabath Jayasuriya takes some mementos after a dream debut•Getty ImagesThen the batting starts. As protest chants ring out through the stadium, Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis put on 152 for the second wicket. Are they spurred by the chants? Are they distracted by them? Do they wish their cricket wasn’t put in such close proximity to the politics of it all in an article days later? That people supposed to write about cricket would just write about cricket?Who knows. Things happened. It’s been a mad few days. We’re still making sense of it.The 133-run Kamindu Mendis-Dinesh Chandimal stand? Still making sense of that too. Kamindu is playing his first ever Test innings. Chandimal his 123rd. And yet, to watch most of this partnership, you’d think the credentials had been switched. Kamindu is serene, picking casual singles on the offside, cutting Nathan Lyon backward of point, reverse-sweeping Mitchell Swepson through the same area, defending resolutely. Chandimal, pushing with hard hands, block-bashing his way to 50.But then, after lunch on day four, it is Chandimal who is still there, Kamindu’s innings now a distant memory. There are four sixes in the company of the No. 11, all of them spectacular. One is an astonishing cut off Pat Cummins, way over backward point. The rest are towering strikes against Mitchell Starc, the most spectacular was the one that sailed over the sightscreen, past the stadium fence, and on to the road beyond the stadium.At one point a lead of 100 seemed fanciful. Here was Chandimal, playing one of the best innings of his life, pushing it toward 200.Best bowling figures on debut in Tests•ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Australian unraveling in their second innings was almost too smooth to believe. Jayasuriya, now apparently Sri Lanka’s lead spinner, having been magicked out of the domestic system because of Covid reasons and been asked to win a match on the fourth day in Galle, is basically an unthinking devotee rushing through a religious routine, offering batters up at this altar of spin bowling.He’s taken 6 for 59, but through most of this, all the action seems involuntary. Usman Khawaja was out bat-pad, Steven Smith reviews a resplendently plumb lbw, Marnus Labuschagne considered following in the footsteps of his hero but walked off, and then Jayasuriya gobbled up the middle order and the tail.Elsewhere, Maheesh Theekshana takes two wickets, also on debut. And Ramesh Mendis snatches two of his own. This is not an experienced spin attack. Between them, these three spinners have 10 Tests on their ledger.But then this is a country in which a profoundly depressing economic crisis has sparked the kind of popular revolution that’s seen people take over the public-funded residences of top government officials. A place where debutants bowl their side to victory and whole batting line-ups suddenly fire simultaneously.Will it take Sri Lankan cricket to a new era? Who knows? There is crisis. But here’s your medicine. Get some magic down you.

Finch said they were just “tinkering” with the line-up ahead of the T20 World Cup, but was it something more than that?

Alex Malcolm05-Oct-2022When Australia’s team sheet dropped at the toss during the first T20I against West Indies no one could quite believe it.”That must be a mistake,” Mark Waugh said on commentary for Fox Sports.It was no mistake. Six games and less than two weeks out from defending their title on home soil, Australia listed their captain, and their most prolific T20I opener of all-time, Aaron Finch at No.4. Cameron Green, who is not in the World Cup squad, remained at the top of the order alongside the returning David Warner, while Steven Smith was squeezed out of the XI.Related

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Just 24 hours after Finch had declared that there was almost no chance that Green could find his way into the World Cup squad with Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis expected to be fit, suddenly there was further evidence to the contrary.With Marsh unavailable to bowl, and Stoinis ruled out of the T20Is against West Indies, Green had to play to balance the attack. That it was Finch who batted in a position he never had previously in T20I cricket, rather than Green, left more questions than answers about both Australia’s final World Cup 15 and their best XI.Finch played the somewhat foreign role perfectly making 58 off 53 to help guide Australia through a tricky, untidy chase alongside the irrepressible and currently irreplaceable Matthew Wade. It was a match situation tailor-made for Smith, but he instead ran the drinks in a sign that he might be surplus to requirements despite being embedded in the World Cup squad.Finch explained the reasoning at the post-match presentation.”We felt as though with Greeny batting well at the top of the order we might be a little bit light on for experience in that No. 5 and 6 at international level if we went [Tim] David and Greeny together there,” Finch told . “So it was just something different. We’ll probably swap it around again next game and keep trying a few things.”We’re going to keep tinkering with things just to try and make sure that we’ve got all bases covered going into the World Cup.”The structure makes some sense given the injury issues. Green’s bowling is vital without Marsh and Stoinis if Australia are to play seven batters. The importance of the middle-order roles, as Wade continues to prove, and Green’s success opening makes Finch’s move to the middle all the more sound. There are numbers to back it up. Finch has batted at No. 4 or lower 42 times in his T20 career including twice in last season’s BBL. He also has a remarkable record in T20I cricket batting in the middle order, albeit from a small sample size. In six innings batting from Nos. 4-6 he’s made 200 runs and tonight was the first time he had been dismissed. It was his second half-century and he strikes at 151.51.It is the second time this year Finch has moved out of his traditional opening slot to allow Australia to tinker with their structure after Ashton Agar opened in a pair of games against Sri Lanka in February in the midst of Finch’s form slump.Cameron Green has been a valuable addition in the Australia T20I side•AFP/Getty ImagesFinch’s T20I form since then has been solid, scoring 287 runs in eight innings striking at 140 with three half centuries. But his poor ODI form, which led to his retirement from the format, has in some ways created noise around his position ahead of the World Cup.To those on the outside, he still looks like the elephant in the room. But on the inside, that has now become Green. His incredible batting form aside, Australia’s attack looks even stronger with Green in it as he brings a lot more firepower on home surfaces compared to what Marsh and Stoinis can offer, despite his limited experience.It was proven again on Wednesday. Although he was walloped for two stunning sixes, he did deliver eight dots balls in two overs and picked up the wicket of Raymon Reifer with steep bounce, which is an asset Pat Cummins thought would be extremely valuable in the World Cup.”I think especially here if you look around the World Cup venues, big square [boundaries], you’ve got bounce, having a tall fourth quick bowler is I think really beneficial,” Cummins said. “He hasn’t bowled a lot really in T20 so I think he will just keep getting better and better.”Cummins also noted how Green’s presence allowed Finch to spread his resources more evenly across the innings and keep overs up his sleeve for his senior bowlers to bowl at the death without having to over attack with them through the middle.”I think it does,” Cummins said. “He can bowl in the first six and be a real wicket-taking option through the middle if we need someone to be aggressive. He can do that. I think at times we’ve had Stoin [Stoinis] or Mitch Marsh if there’s a swinging ball, maybe bowl one or two upfront. But yeah, it’s a huge asset.”Australia will continue to tinker with their team structure over the next four games against West Indies and England, and Green will remain the elephant in the room with injuries still a concern.What Australia’s team sheet looks like for their opening match of the World Cup remains to be seen.

Danyal Rasool and Matt Roller join Karthik Iyer to look ahead to the big final at the MCG

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2022Do Pakistan trust the process or is it now (the law of nature)? In the latest episode of , Danyal Rasool and Matt Roller join Karthik Iyer to look ahead to an enthralling – and hopefully rain-free – T20 World Cup 2022 final between Pakistan and England at the MCG. Will it be Babar Azam lifting the trophy or will Jos Buttler’s boys prevail?

The Bengal fast bowler stuck with cricket against the odds. At the IPL auction, he got his payoff

Shashank Kishore28-Dec-2022A day after the IPL auction in Kochi, fast bowler Mukesh Kumar, 29, has barely had time to soak up being signed for Rs 5.5 crore (about US$660,000) by Delhi Capitals. He has been on the phone non-stop, receiving congratulatory calls and requests for interviews from the media. Mukesh, who attracted the second-highest bid for an uncapped player at the auction, has been pinching himself to believe if it’s all real.Sitting in a plush hotel room in Bengaluru, where he’s in rehab at the National Cricket Academy for an injury, his heart and mind are in Gopalganj, his home town in rural Bihar.”The farm is my happy place,” he says. “In fact, any open space where you can breathe fresh air. I get the most peace there.”I’m going to be bowling for the first time today after ten days of rehab,” he says. “It gives me a rush. That kind which is hard to explain.”Sunday was the first time Mukesh attracted bids at an IPL auction. He might have missed the big moment if not for frantic calls from a friend.Related

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“I was watching the auction and then switched to the India-Bangladesh Test when the overseas players had their turn,” he says. “Then I got on the phone with my mother and I kept getting missed-call alerts. My friend kept calling me, so I knew something was happening. He said, ‘Did you see, did you see?'”So I switched back to the auction, but I still couldn’t believe it’s my name, because it has happened so many times earlier – I would be told I have a good chance but then my name doesn’t even come up. Only when I saw my photo next to my name, I could finally believe what was happening.”He pauses several times as he continues. “It’s bittersweet, to be honest,” he says. “God gives you something but takes away something else. I didn’t think I’ll ever see this kind of money in my lifetime, but two very important people in my life – my father and uncle – who I should be sharing this moment with, aren’t with me anymore.”Mukesh lost his father two years ago to a stroke. His – father’s older brother – who supported him financially when he moved to Kolkata full-time in 2012, died in November.”The joy I saw in my father’s eyes when I gave him my daily allowance money after my Ranji debut, I can never forget. I wish I could’ve given him something more then. But now, even if I want to, I can’t. That’s why I’m a little emotional. Money can’t buy you everything.”

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For three years Mukesh prepared for entrance exams to get into the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Bihar police. He finally passed the written exams in 2012 but was rejected on fitness grounds. It was around this time that he decided seriously to make a switch to cricket.In action against New Zealand A in Bengaluru earlier this year. Mukesh took 5 for 86 in the first innings in the first match•Mallikarjuna/KSCABihar wasn’t eligible to feature in India’s premier domestic competitions, which meant Mukesh didn’t have a pathway in his home state. He made his living as a recreational tennis-ball cricket player for hire, featuring in tournaments that offered prize money that gave him enough money for his basic needs. But when he had a bike accident during one such tournament in Bihar, his father, who had run a taxi service in Kolkata since 2003, decided it was time to step in and asked him to move to the city.”He strictly told me, now whatever you do, whether it’s cricket or anything else, it will only be in Kolkata, not anywhere else. He wanted to keep watch on me,” Mukesh says. “I enrolled for graduation through distance learning even though I wasn’t very serious about it. I only wanted to show my father that I was studying.”My father thought, ‘Okay, this guy will play cricket, realise how hard it can be in Kolkata to break through, and give up. And once he completes his graduation, I can try and get him a job somewhere.’ He was wrong, I guess. Because my interest in serious red-ball cricket began to grow.”Mukesh went to the prestigious Kalighat Club first, only to be turned back. A club official told him he would have to run drinks for at least two years before getting a look-in because only “big players play here”. Mukesh then went to Bani Niketan Sports Club, where he met Birendra Singh, who he trained under and who went on to be a mentor to him.”On debut [for Bani Niketan], I picked up six wickets in a second-division league match,” he remembers. “Then the next year I moved to the first-division team. But because my dad’s health had started to deteriorate, I couldn’t play regularly. He was hellbent on me getting a job and becoming more stable. I told him, ‘Give me one more year’ and continued playing.It was around this time, in mid- 2014, that Sourav Ganguly, then secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal, announced his Vision 2020 programme to select talented cricketers to help make Bengal a force in domestic cricket. Waqar Younis, Muthiah Muralidaran and VVS Laxman were roped in for the programme, to help local coaches shortlist a pool of players who could then be nurtured over time. On Birendra’s recommendation, Mukesh was allowed to enter the trials, where he found himself competing with over 300 candidates.Mukesh during his six-for against Karnataka in the 2019-20 Ranji semi-final•PTI “Towards the end of the trials, only four or five bowlers were remaining, but to my bad luck, my name was called when I took a quick toilet break,” Mukesh says. “Because there was no response, my name was struck off. I literally had to plead with Rono [Ranadeb Bose, the former Bengal seamer, who was involved in running the trial] to give me a chance.”I knew I had just four or five balls to make a difference. I found out later in the evening that I had been shortlisted. So the effort of standing all day in the sun paid off, luckily.” It turned out Bose had made Mukesh’s case with Waqar.”When I saw him bowl, I thought there was something [about him],” Bose says. “Waqar was not 100% convinced, but I requested him. ” [Let’s keep him]. He asked, ‘Are you sure?’ And I said, ‘.’ [I like him] He said, ””At the fag end of a long day, maybe even I could have missed him. But I just happened to go behind the nets to have a cup of tea. So I was able to watch him from behind the batter and he seemed impressive.”If getting through the trials was one step, meeting the fitness parameters proved tougher. It was during this period that it came to light that Mukesh had a bone edema (fluid accumulation) in his knees, and that he was anaemic. It meant more time in hospitals and rehab centres, missing three games for every one that he played.”CAB helped a lot during this period, getting me MRIs, taking care of my medical bills, even allowing me to stay in their accommodation,” he says. “Without their help, I don’t think I would have survived. For eight months, between 2014 and 2015, all I did was rehab. It was very tough. At times I thought it might be best to move back to the village. But I wanted to try. If it didn’t work, it didn’t work. The least I could do was try.”In 2015, after he regained fitness and impressed in club tournaments, Mukesh made his Ranji Trophy debut against Haryana in Lahli.Before the game, discontent had been brewing within the Bengal side – about how an injury-prone player, an “outsider”, was being picked over several state regulars. Bose, who was the bowling coach, had the backing of Laxman and Sairaj Bahutule, the head coach, in his support for Mukesh.Mukesh dismissed opener Rahul Dewan and then Virender Sehwag, and picked up five wickets in the game. “He saved my job,” Bose says.Mukesh (left) was called up for the ODI series against South Africa in October, though he didn’t get a game•Saikat Das/BCCIMukesh played four games that season. In 2016-17, he only played two before getting injured, and when he was fit, he lost form, leading to a decision to go back to club cricket. The following season he played just the one match, though he was fit; Bengal had Mohammed Shami and Ashok Dinda in their ranks and it was hard to make it into the side as a fast bowler. In 2018-19, he got five games, in which he took 22 wickets. The season after, he properly become part of a competent pace attack, getting ten games off the back of strong performances in club cricket. It helped that there was a vacancy following Dinda’s departure after a tiff with the team management. Mukesh impressed with 32 wickets and his control and ability to nip the ball around across different surfaces was noted by the national selectors.In the semi-final, against a power-packed Karnataka line-up boasting KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Devdutt Padikkal and Karun Nair among others, Mukesh returned figures of 6 for 61 in the second innings to power Bengal into the title clash.”That season was a turning point, but within two weeks, just when I had been told by the selectors I’d get picked in the Duleep Trophy and Irani Cup, Covid struck. And it was back to square one.”He worked on endurance training in that enforced downtime, and ran cross-country to improve his fitness. “I even completed a 20km run in two hours after watching Ben Stokes and Steven Smith do a charity run,” he says. “Even five years ago, I may have not been able to do that. Today, my fitness is so much better.”Earlier this year, Mukesh broke into the India A squad for the home series against New Zealand A. Earlier this month he was part of the India A squad in Bangladesh, where he picked up 6 for 40 in the second unofficial Test. Between the two stints he earned an ODI call-up for the home series against South Africa. He didn’t play, but that he ended up making a mark of that sort despite having not featured in the IPL yet makes his journey even more special.Mukesh’s biggest improvement over the past three years has been in making the shift from being known just for his red-ball exploits. He wants to build on this at the IPL. But before he gets there, he’s looking forward to a trip home to see his mother.”I want to take her around the country,” he says. “Recently, we’d been to Shirdi. I took her on a temple tour. That makes her happy, and taking her will make me happy.”People have asked, ‘What will you do with so much money?’ See, I don’t have any extravagant dreams. I love the life in the fields, growing crops, doing farming.”I’m that kind of a person who loves sitting on the floor and enjoying a meal with family. That gives me a lot of happiness when I’m not on the field. It’s a simple life.”After cricket, if I want to go back to farming in my village, the money will probably help me realise my dream by making an investment towards that. But all that is for later. Now I just want to be fit and play all the cricket that comes my way.”

West Indian sits atop the run charts and his team occupies the same place on the points table

Aadam Patel30-Nov-2022T10 is brutal. On Tuesday night, Jason Roy played well for an unbeaten 57 off 33 balls but his knock ultimately lacked in short-form cricket’s most important measure. There were zero sixes to his name.Roy’s Deccan Gladiators side put up a total of 108 for 3 that was then chased down by Chennai Brave. He scored more than anyone else in the game but the Player-of-the-Match award instead went to Dan Lawrence for his 40 off 18.In pretty much every form of the game, Roy’s knock would be praised but as it was, he was left out for Wednesday evening’s clash against Bangla Tigers. He may have scored runs but to take up more than half of the innings and not clear the ropes once proved crucial. This is the one format that demands the batter to hit sixes.Against the Tigers, the Gladiators were asked to chase and incidentally their target was exactly the same as they had set the previous night. That was largely thanks to another onslaught from Pakistan’s Iftikhar Ahmed, who carried on from his unbeaten 83 off 30 deliveries on Tuesday, to finish not out on 54 off 21 deliveries.But this time around, the Gladiators won with 23 balls to spare. Half-centuries for both Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Nicholas Pooran helped the reigning champions breeze to a total of 109 in just 37 deliveries.They scored at nearly three runs a ball in what was a statement run-chase by Mushtaq Ahmed’s side. A chase reminiscent of the ruthless manner in which they blasted 159 in last year’s final and ahead of the final this Sunday, they again look like the side to be feared.The chase wasn’t meant to be that simple but Kohler-Cadmore and Pooran put on a show with 11 sixes between them. Pooran was on 20 off 10 before he took on Shakib Al Hasan and hit five sixes in an over to bring up a 16-ball half-century. And Kohler-Cadmore decided he wasn’t missing out either. The next over, he hit Rohan Mustafa for 17 and brought up his half-century off 21 deliveries with then the winning runs too.It was a stunning exhibition of hitting between the two men who stand clear at the top of the Abu Dhabi T10 run charts. Pooran’s 19 fours and 21 sixes across six games puts him at No. 1 with 249 runs at an average of 62.25. Kohler-Cadmore isn’t far behind with 217 runs at an average of 72.33. But perhaps most importantly, the pair are striking at well over 200.”We had a poor game last time so a lot of the talk in the pre-match meeting was just about enjoying ourselves again,” Pooran said post-match. And boy did he enjoy himself. Since stepping down from West Indies captaincy, he has somewhat rediscovered his joy for the game.And you only had to look at the earlier game of Wednesday’s triple-header to appreciate his six-hitting talent. It saw the lowest score of the tournament with Chennai Brave struggling to 71 for 6 against Team Abu Dhabi after losing their entire top order in the first over to Naveen-ul-Haq. The Afghanistan paceman removed Dan Lawrence and Sikandar Raza with his first two deliveries and finished his over by getting David Malan.Remarkably, Team Abu Dhabi got off to a similar start as Alex Hales and James Vince were dismissed in the first over by Patrick Dooley before Sam Cook got Brandon King. But, from 1 for 3, Chris Lynn and Fabian Allen combined to take their side to their target and a third successive win.With two days left in the league phase of the Abu Dhabi T10, the Gladiators sit top of the standings with Team Abu Dhabi one point behind them. And based on current form, they are both set to extend their stay till the weekend for the finals.

They might be stubborn to a fault, but their mantra works: the team making fewer mistakes wins more often than not

Sidharth Monga24-May-20232:13

Tom Moody: CSK’s an example of a perfect high-performance environment

When a batter is struggling the way Devon Conway was, the broadcast cameras turn to the dugout and the dressing room for reactions. Seen as the new Michael Hussey for Chennai Super Kings, Conway seemed unable to hit out or get out even as Ruturaj Gaikwad scored fluently at the other end. It was like he was in quicksand: the harder he tried, the deeper he sank. He was in control of exactly half the deliveries he faced.Yet, no camera could spot a reaction in the dugout, where coach Stephen Fleming sat, or in the dressing room, where MS Dhoni sat. Dhoni has been through this before. He has seen Yuvraj Singh get stuck in the T20 World Cup final in 2014 but with much less luck than Conway, who at least found a few edged boundaries. He has seen Ravindra Jadeja get stuck in a previous T20 World Cup in England, but that has not stopped him from backing Jadeja.Related

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You wonder if Dhoni was reminded of that Dhaka night, but you also had to be certain that not for a second would anyone in that camp have even thought of something as funky as pulling one of their most reliable batters out so that someone else can have a go.CSK don’t believe in anything funky. If a specialist batter of their side is finding it tough out there, they believe there’s every chance the new batter will find it tougher. They are happy as long as the player is showing the right intent and trying to do what he has trained for.When the camera did catch a reaction from Dhoni, it was when the game was done and dusted, as GT needed 31 off eight with one wicket in hand, and Tushar Deshpande tried to bluff Mohammed Shami looking for a wicket. He let out a long “” [whyyyyyyy] and showed Deshpande the number of fielders on the off side when he bowled at Shami’s pads.In the same vein, Dhoni said in the post-match presentation that he has told his fielders that dropping a catch won’t draw a reaction from him but not looking at him all the time – he is a fastidious captain who keeps moving his fielders a couple of feet this way or that often – will not be good for them.The process matters, the results don’t: it sounds good to hear, but in a playoff, when the match is slipping away, when you are aware of what the dew did to your bowlers in the last match at the same venue, there aren’t many leaders other than Dhoni and Fleming who still manage to believe that the team making fewer mistakes wins more often than not.On the night, Hardik Pandya said their side made more “basic errors”. Despite being the best side in the tournament, they were doing all the running: bringing in a player for the first time this IPL, disrupting the batting order that won them the last match without a straightforward reason. Pandya also said they gave up two-three slot balls too many, which was the difference between the two sides.This isn’t to vindicate not improvising. CSK and India under Dhoni have lost matches in the past when they perhaps would have been better off improvising, but CSK are happy to live with those days when the other side wins despite making more errors in a format of cricket that depends heavily on luck. They are happy with 160 and competing rather than going for 180 and risking being bowled out for 140.MS Dhoni is seldom far from a catch, or an IPL final•Getty ImagesThe luck was on CSK’s side. Only the second front-foot no-ball by Gujarat Titans turned out to be the one that got Ruturaj Gaikwad’s wicket, who went on to become the Player of the Match. CSK scored 14 extra runs because of that according to ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index; they won by 15.More importantly, the dew arrived later than the other night and offered them a 45-minute period between the powerplay and the death where Jadeja and Maheesh Theekshana were able to turn the ball at high speed. At such times, the combination of Dhoni and Jadeja is irresistible, and Theekshana is quickly joining the club.Even when a mistake was inevitable, Dhoni had the presence of mind to choose the smaller one. We don’t know what the fitness issue was, but Matheesha Pathirana was off the field for some time after his first over. At the time the 16th over was starting, he still had not served enough time on the field to be able to start his second over. Had he not bowled Pathirana then, Dhoni would have had to do without four overs from his main weapon at the death.Between having to miss out on one Pathirana over and instead bowling a bowler who is cold, and having an extra fielder in the circle for one over, Dhoni picked the obvious lesser evil. He let the clock run until the umpires said Pathirana had served his time, and went ahead without fuss. This was Dhoni’s captaincy version of what he tells his bowlers: if you bowl a bad over, make sure it is 13-14-run bad and not 20-run bad.In an endearing post-match interview, Dhoni was asked if he has reached a stage where he can call the 10th IPL final in 14 attempts just another final. Already a little emotional from the generous reaction from the crowd, Dhoni said that in a tournament as big as IPL there can never be “just another final”. Who knows it could even be the last match he plays for CSK. For four hours on Sunday then, can he and Fleming pretend the results don’t matter and the process does?