His T20 powers may be on the wane, but he couldn’t have asked for a better environment than the CSK set-up to reinvigorate his game

Vishal Dikshit in Mumbai05-Apr-20181:56

IPL Lead Up: MS Dhoni

When MS Dhoni last captained in the IPL (in 2016), his side Rising Pune Supergiant finished seventh. When Dhoni should have last played the T20 format in March but was rested, second-choice wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik became an instant hero courtesy a whirlwind knock that helped India beat Bangladesh and clinch the Nidahas Trophy.Now, Dhoni returns to the shortest format as captain of a side that was suspended for the previous two seasons. He hasn’t led a T20 side since August 2016, when India played West Indies in Florida. Will he be rusty as a leader in IPL 2018?His tactical and verbal skills as picked up by the stump mics during the tour of South Africa in January-February suggest that may not be the case. Dhoni did them all: made minute adjustments in the field, advised bowlers on where to pitch the ball and made clear calls while running between the wickets. Even his yelp at a junior team-mate for not being alert enough for an extra run showed the hunger and passion.Now, will he be rusty as a batsman? In four ODI innings in South Africa, he managed to cross 15 only once and ended the series with a strike rate of just over 80. He batted at No. 6 in the three T20Is, coming out in the 15th over or later in two of those. When he got more time in the second T20I by walking out in the 11th over, he faced 28 balls and clubbed 52 unbeaten runs with four fours and three sixes.

Dhoni has all the support and backing of the owners, the management, the dressing room and possibly every Chennai resident who watches cricket

Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming must have been aware of this when he said Dhoni will be promoted up the order this time. “MS will bat relatively high, not necessarily a position with him but a time that we may choose depending on what conditions we see. But he will definitely play a more prominent role as a batter,” Fleming said earlier this week.The numbers back Fleming. When Dhoni has batted at No. 6 in the IPL, his average is 27.50 and strike rate an unimpressive 113.20. At No. 4, the numbers go up to 35.83 and 141.44. But his best position, going by the numbers, is No. 5 where he averages 46.12 and strikes at 147.72.What will give Dhoni a bigger boost is the CSK environment and his camaraderie with his old mates. His fading T20I performances in the last year or so have attracted all the attention from the media and experts, but the IPL now brings him in his territory.There have been calls from some of his former team-mates, most notably VVS Laxman who wanted youngsters to be given a chance in India’s T20 set up. But there was no doubt that Dhoni was going to return as captain of Super Kings upon their re-entry.Dhoni has all the support and backing of the owners, the management, the dressing room and possibly every Chennai resident who watches cricket. He is their undisputed leader.MS Dhoni couldn’t have asked for a better environment than CSK to reinvigorate his game•BCCIWhy else would 20,000-odd people turn up at Chepauk to watch him and the squad play practice matches? Also, Dhoni calls Chennai his second home. So much so that he became teary-eyed while talking about their return to the IPL. This from a man who has barely shown emotions on the field in all these years.Dhoni also ensured they retained the core with Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo. Whether Dhoni makes way for youngsters in the Indian team or not remains to be seen but in the Super Kings squad, he has a team whose average age is 32.The change in setting for him is such that even the media may not criticise him if Super Kings don’t make it big this IPL. Sure, there might be columns if his batting fades, there might be discussions on TV if he is not able to finish games the way he used to, but seeing someone asking him to step down as CSK captain is unlikely. And the credit goes to Dhoni for that.He is the only player to have captained CSK in all these years and has even won back-to-back titles. No other captain has survived in the same role since. CSK have with them the most experienced Indian T20 player as their captain, and the most experienced T20 and IPL captain. He has also led different teams in 11 T20 finals and six IPL finals, the most by any captain.As great as those records are, recent form counts for a lot. What CSK will not want to know is that Dhoni scored under 300 runs in each of his two seasons with Rising Pune. The last time that happened was in 2010. To add to that, he struck under 17 sixes in each of the last two IPL seasons. The last time he did that was in 2012.Dhoni has averaged below 30 in just two seasons: 2012 and 2017. The previous IPL season was particularly harsh on him: he finished with a strike rate of 116, his lowest in IPL history, and took over eight balls on average to strike a boundary.To overcome all this and shake some pressure off, Dhoni could not have found a better place than CSK. To return as captain and lead his team to the playoffs yet another time, he could not have found a better platform than the IPL. And to kick things off, he will face the same team his side beat in the IPL 2010 final in the same city where he lifted that first IPL trophy for him – against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai.

India A and South Africa A will step into a weird universe where personal gains can trump those of the team

Deivarayan Muthu in Bengaluru03-Aug-2018″A lot of these [‘A’ team] tours aren’t necessarily about winning,” India A coach Rahul Dravid had told ESPNcricinfo, after his side secured the one-day tri-series title – involving England Lions and West Indies A – in London. It’s a different universe, where personal gains often trump those of the team. A universe where the second strings seek to catch the eyes of the selectors in order to break into the senior team. A universe where the selectors search for the missing pieces in the jigsaw. A universe which players use to hit form.In July 2015, Virat Kohli requested the selectors to include him in the A side for the second four-day match against Australia A in Chennai. And just like that the game was shifted from the SSN College ground, which is cut off from the city, to the MA Chidambaram Stadium, which is located in the heart of Chennai. For the record, Australia A, ultimately, won by 10 wickets and sewed up the series 1-0. But Kohli got what he wanted: game-time ahead of the Sri Lanka tour. Gurinder Sandhu, who was the top wicket-taker in that series, ditched fast bowling for offspin and even turned the ball sharply. Welcome to this weird universe.India A and South Africa A – led by internationals Shreyas Iyer and Khaya Zondo respectively – will step into this universe, starting with the first of the two four-day matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru from Saturday. This will be followed by a quadrangular one-day series, involving India A, India B, South Africa A and Australia A in Vijayawada. Later in September, India A are set to face Australia A in two four-dayers in Vizag. These A-team series will then lead into a bumper domestic season.Iyer was part of the victorious one-day A team in England, but he managed only 93 runs in five innings, of which 44 came in the title bout. He subsequently did not get a game in the ODI series against England with the senior team. Earlier in the year, he wasn’t awarded a BCCI central contract despite showing flashes of brilliance against Sri Lanka and South Africa in ODIs at home and away. He now makes his way into an A series, having last played red-ball cricket in November 2017.”My approach towards the red-ball game has always been positive,” Iyer said. “I’m very flamboyant in terms of my shot-making and have always backed myself. Regarding selection in the senior team, it’s not in my hands. I will just do my job, keep performing and the rest will follow.”We had two good-quality sessions here [in Bengaluru] and the wickets we batted on had a lot of cracks on them, and not at all easy to play on. So batting in such conditions will make us positive when we play on the centre wicket because it will be considerably better than what we batted on. And obviously, inputs from Rahul sir have helped every individual in the team.”Khaya Zondo at the pre-match press conference•PTI While Iyer has suffered quite a few setbacks recently, he has also grown as a captain. After leading Bandra Blasters to the playoffs in MCA’s inaugural Mumbai T20 league earlier this year, Iyer took over as Delhi Daredevils’ captain following Gautam Gambhir’s resignation. Captaincy can make a young man feel like he’s shouldering the weight of the world – ask South Africa’s Aiden Markram. In his first match as Daredevils’ captain, however, Iyer batted like the world was at his feet, and launched the bottom-placed Daredevils to the second-highest total of the IPL season.”The transition process of captaincy has been really great,” Iyer said. “I think captaincy has changed me mentally and so I’m planning my innings accordingly. You have to take a lot of responsibility as captain and you need to set an example for your team. It not only helps me on the field but also off the field.”Then there’s the curious case of Haryana team-mates Yuzvendra Chahal and Jayant Yadav. Chahal has established himself as a match-winner in limited-overs matches for India and Royal Challengers Bangalore, so much so that his captain in both teams (Virat Kohli), hinted that he could find a place in the Test squad for England. The Test call-up did not happen eventually, and instead, Chahal is now with the A team for his first red-ball match since the Ranji quarter-final against Jharkhand in 2016.As for Jayant, after a stress fracture of the finger sidelined him from the entire 2017-18 Ranji Trophy season, he is now steadily working his way back. He has returned to Bengaluru, where he had spent about three months rehabbing at the NCA with Narendra Hirwani. Could this series be the first step in a return to the national reckoning?Zondo admitted the visitors were also looking at the tour with a similar lens.”A tours, in general, are good experiences, especially for guys who are coming down from the internationals to get some form and get back into the [senior] team or guys who are just trying to make their international careers, coming from professional level and going up,” he said. “And it’s a good stepping stone for the internationals because you come across some really good players who’re playing in this series. So definitely, there will be competitive and good-quality cricket.”At AB de Villiers’ second home’, South Africa will look at possible options to fill the middle-order crater created by his shock retirement and also build towards “Vision 2019”. Zondo himself is a strong candidate, having made a compact half-century against India in Centurion in February. He was particularly fluent against the wristspinners Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, scoring 41 off 51 balls against them.He also started this tour with a fluent half-century against the Indian Board President’s XI in the warm-up game. The likes of Cape Cobras batsman Zubayr Hamza, who averages 51.01 in first-class cricket, CPL-bound Lions batsman Rassie van der Dussen, the top-scorer in South Africa’s 2017-18 first-class season, and wicketkeeper-batsman Rudi Second, who has been a consistent performer for Knights over the last four seasons, will press for higher honours.

Nine teams will contest a total of 27 bilateral series in the inaugural World Test Championship between 2019 to 2021

Nagraj Gollapudi17-May-2018What is this World Test Championship all about?Essentially, it is a league, like the zillions of T20 leagues out there, but this one is for Test cricket. It will be contested over two-year cycles, the first of which starts on August 1 with the opening Ashes Test at Edgbaston. The group phase officially began on July 16, 2019 and will run until March 31, 2021 after which the top two teams will contest a final.How many teams will participate?Nine of the 12 Full Member countries will contest in 27 series during the window. The nine teams are: Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhy has the WTC been brought in?For a long time, there have been attempts to bring additional context to Test cricket beyond the result of individual series. There are the Test rankings where the top team is anointed on April 1 each year, but that is just based a rolling table. The idea of the WTC is to have a Test ‘winner’ every two years – like the World Cups in other formats – creating something else to play for outside of the series result. It is also hoped that it will increase interest in all series within the WTC, regardless of who is playing, because it can have a knock-on effect on other team’s chances of reaching the final.How many series will each team play and do all series count?The teams will play three series each at home and away. Each series will comprise a minimum of two and maximum of five Test matches. Therefore, all the teams do not play each other in the WTC in the two-year cycle. There can also be series played outside the WTC – an example being the New Zealand v England in November which is part of the Future Tours Programme (FTP) but not the Championship.India go into the inaugural Test Championship as the world’s No. 1 team•Getty ImagesWho decided on which series will be played under the WTC?The competing countries. Some of the series already committed in the previous FTP will now be played as part of the WTC with each team playing against some higher-ranked opposition and some lower-ranked opposition.How are points allocated?This is where things get a little complicated because, well, cricket can be complicated. For every series under the WTC, there are 120 points available, distributed evenly over the number of Tests in the series. So, for example, in the Ashes, which is a five-match series, there will be 24 points for each win. In a two-Test series (such as Sri Lanka v New Zealand and West Indies v India which also start in August) there will be 60 points for a win. A draw is worth one-third of the points for a win: so eight in the Ashes scenario above and 20 in a two-Test series. A tie, just in case we need to know, is worth half the points for a win.Ishita Mazumder/ESPNcricinfo LtdAnything else about the points we need to know?Recently the ICC had announced that teams will be docked points in the WTC for slow over-rates. Two points will be deducted for every over a team is behind at the end of a match.How will the finalists be determined and when will it be played?The top two teams on the points table at the end of the league phase will play the final which is scheduled in 2021.ALSO READ: ‘We want every game in the Test championship to count,’ says Geoff Allardice, ICC general manager of cricketWhat will happen if the final ends in a draw or is tied?If the final ends in a tie or a draw, the two teams will be joint champions. Although the playing conditions allow for a reserve day, it can only be used if net playing time is lost during the scheduled five days of the final. Net playing time for every Test amounts to 30 hours of play (six hours per day).The reserve day kicks in only if the time lost during regulation play on each day is not made up on the same day. For example, if you lose an hour of play due to rain and then make it up by the end of the same day, then that is zero net time lost. But if you lose an entire day’s play due to rain and then make up, say, only three hours over the remaining four days, then you are short of net playing time for the match. That is when the reserve day kicks in.What about the other three Test-playing nations?Zimbabwe and the two latest Test nations, Afghanistan and Ireland, are the three who will not be part of the inaugural WTC. Zimbabwe are currently suspended by the ICC till October for government interference into cricket affairs. However, Afghanistan and Ireland will play Test series as part of the FTP, points from which will be considered for the Test rankings, but not the Championship.

ESPNcricinfo looks at the most and least profitable auction punts of the season

Shiva Jayaraman29-May-2018The methodology

Both batsmen’s runs and bowlers’ wickets are adjusted by taking into account their relative strike rate or economy (to the season average), respectively. With the season average strike rate of 137.92, if a batsman scored 100 runs at 150.0, his runs are adjusted to give him a credit of 8.7 (100*150/137.92). Similarly, if a bowler has taken 5 wickets at an economy of 7, he is given a credit of 1.37 additional wickets to reward for his superior economy (season average: 8.92).
Batsman collectively scored 19098 runs and bowlers took 662 wickets in this IPL. Teams spent over 551 Crores INR on the players, which meant that each run scored this IPL cost the teams roughly INR 1,44,734 and each wicket INR 41,75,432. Each player generates value based on the adjusted runs he scores or the adjusted wickets he takes.
For example, Sunil Narine scored 357 runs at a strike rate of 189.89 (season average SR – 137.92), so he is credited with more runs than he actually scored, which works out to 478. This multiplied by the value of each run (INR 1,44,734) gives a batting value of INR 6.91 crores. Similarly, Narine took 17 wickets at an economy of 7.65 (season ER – 8.92). So his 17 wickets are weighted up for his better economy and get him returns equivalent to 18.4 wickets. The bowling value he generates is INR 7.67 crores (18.4 multiplied by the value of each wicket, i.e. INR 41,75,432 . The total notional money he generates for his team is the sum of his batting and bowling values – INR 14.69 crores. This minus the price at which Narine was retained by Kolkata Knight Riders give the gains made by the team by investing on him. This figure works out to INR 6.05 crores.

The Indian Premier League this season may well have been the most closely contested in its 11-year history, but it was hardly a photo finish when it came to how the teams fared with the returns they got off their auction punts. While each of the teams had their fair share of hits and misses, some teams ended up doing significantly better than others in terms returns on their buys at the January auction. ESPNcricinfo looks at the best and worst buys of the season based on how the players fared on the field and the money they cost.The price that teams pay for the services of a player may not always depend purely on his potential to perform on the field. His marketability off it and his popularity among local fans to drive gate revenues – among other factors – may also play a role. However, for the purpose of this exercise we look at the season numbers – runs, strike-rate, wickets and economy – to arrive at guesstimates of the that the players generated for their teams and how the teams themselves fared.A number of actions on the field in cricket aren’t easily measurable and would need a much-evolved effort to quantify: how would one quantify MS Dhoni’s instincts as a captain or AB de Villiers’ I-can-fly-too catching effort? To keep it simple, for the reader, and for ourselves, we look at only the easily quantifiable aspects of the game – batting and bowling – in this analysis. To this end, only the runs scored, strike rates, wickets taken, and the economy rates are taken into account to come up with a return on investment value for each player and thereby, for each team.The Marquee-player tag worthiesThese players generated values of over INR 10 Crores and should trigger off a prolonged bidding war in the next auction if this season is anything to go by. Nine of them make the cut with Narine topping the list. He chipped in with returns of 14.59 Crores for KKR through his performances. Rishabh Pant, Rashid Khan, Shane Watson, Andre Russell, Kane Williamson, KL Rahul, Andrew Tye and Hardik Pandya complete the list.Graphic: Sunil Narine’s all-round excellence put him right at the top of the MVP charts in IPL 2018•ESPNcricinfo LtdThe windfall gainsThese were the relatively cheap buys who ended up contributing in a big way for the teams. Among players to play in at least seven matches this season, Mayank Markande was bought at his base price of just INR 20 Lakhs, but generated notional returns of INR 6.37 Crores through his performances. The rest of top-five, incidentally, are all bowlers who were bought cheap but turned in creditable performances: Shreyas Gopal, Prasidh Krishna, Lungi Ngidi and Deepak Chahar.Graphic: Rookie wristspinner Mayank Markande was among the biggest surprise packages in IPL 2018•ESPNcricinfo LtdNot-worth-the-money buysRohit Sharma came at a price tag of INR 15 Crores but could generate returns of only INR 3.88 Crores. His negative return of 74.12% makes his the most over-priced buy of the season when we look at only his batting performances. However, he is excluded from this list as he contributed by leading the Mumbai Indians. Among players who didn’t add value to the team as captains or as wickekeepers, Deepak Hooda was the worst buy of the season. He was bought at a price of INR3.6 Crores by Sunrisers, but could generate returns equivalent to only INR 95.34 Lakhs: a negative return on investment of 73.52%. Yuvraj Singh, Aaron Finch, Manish Pandey and Axar Patel round up the bottom five. Like Rohit, Wriddhiman Saha – whose performances with the bat a created returns of a negative 70.22% – too avoids this club on account of him being a wicketkeeper.

Players with lowest ROIs (min. 7 mats.)

Player Mats Price (INR Cr) Value created (INR Cr) % ROIDeepak Hooda 9 3.60 0.95 -73.51Yuvraj Singh 8 2.00 0.59 -70.47Aaron Finch 10 6.20 1.83 -70.44Manish Pandey 15 11.00 3.34 -69.58Axar Patel 9 6.75 2.18 -67.65Stuart Binny spends some time in reflection•BCCIThe spectators in the XIThese players, well, were just there. No significant performances of note with bat or ball and ended up creating notional value of less than INR 1 Crore. Stuart Binny was bought for INR 50 Lakhs in the auction and he managed to generate just enough to cover his cost for Rajasthan Royals. Among players to play at least seven matches in the season Binny contributed the least in terms of his performances. Yuvraj, Sarfaraz Khan and Deepak Hooda complete this club.

Players with notional value < INR 1 Cr (min. 7 mats.)

Player Mats Price (INR Cr) Value created (INR Cr) Return MultipleStuart Binny 7 0.50 0.50 1.01Yuvraj Singh 8 2.00 0.59 0.29Sarfaraz Khan 7 1.75 0.64 0.36Deepak Hooda 9 3.60 0.95 0.26More-bang-for-the-buck buysThese were value-for-money buys: not necessarily bought for cheap money but turned in performances that justified their price tags and more. Williamson returned his team more bang for the buck than anyone else in the season: he was bought at INR 3 Crores and generated INR 10.65 Crores. The difference of INR 7.65 Crores between his auction price and his notional performance value is the highest for any player this season. Shane Watson, Shakib Al Hasan, Ambati Rayudu and Narine round up the top-five.

Top notional values over auction price (min. 7 mats)

Player Mats Price (INR Cr) Value created (INR Cr) Delta value (INR Cr)Kane Williamson 17 3.00 10.68 7.68Shane Watson 15 4.00 11.06 7.06Shakib Al Hasan 17 2.00 9.00 7.00Ambati Rayudu 16 2.20 9.19 6.99Sunil Narine 16 8.50 14.59 6.09Graphic: The top three sides also got the best returns of investment in IPL 2018•ESPNcricinfo LtdTeam ROIs At the end of the league stage, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab were tied on 12 points with NRR deciding their eventual spot in the table. However, the return on the investment that they generated through their players’ performances were significantly different. Royal Challengers Bangalore spared no expense this season, doling out over INR 2 Crores to as many as 12 players, in addition to spending INR 28 Crores on two of their retentions in Virat Kohli and de Villiers. In comparison, MI and RR had only nine such players (excluding retentions). A forgettable season for the team meant that they were the least profitable team with a return-on-investment of -19.98%. Royals managed to just get across the line to the playoffs this season, but the negative ROI is reflected in their most expensive buys of the season in Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat underperforming. They were the only team with a negative ROI to make it to the playoffs. On the other hand, Delhi Daredevils returned a positive ROI for the season in spite of getting the wooden spoon. It only helped that Chris Morris who was retained at a price of INR 7.1 Crores left midway due to injury driving down their costs.

The India captain produced a masterful display with the lower order to haul his team out of trouble and set a high benchmark for the series

Nagraj Gollapudi at Edgbaston02-Aug-20181:58

Kohli turns his good days into great days – Bangar

Virat Kohli walked to the middle at Edgbaston to the sound of boos. Quickly he took guard. The bowler was already waiting for him. Anderson. James Anderson.Three slips and gully waited for the edge. Anderson ran in. The first ball was 83.6mph. Kohli left it alone. It would be the first of many that he would leave alone, and many of those not of his own volition. Anderson was that sharp. That hungry. That cunning.For the next two-and-a-half hours the battle between the two men, broken at the beginning by the lunch break, lived up to its billing. If you were to remove the bias towards the player and the country of allegiance, the combat between Anderson and Kohli was one of the best spectacles witnessed in Test cricket.Test cricket has enjoyed many such battles: Flintoff against Ponting, Lee against Pietersen, Steyn against Tendulkar, Akhtar against Hayden, McGrath against all the best batsmen in modern Test cricket. These are all consuming bouts, part Test cricket’s hall of fame. They draw you in ball by ball, over by over, session by session.The crowd becomes a part of the contest, too. There is pin drop silence for a moment. Next moment the batsman edges and the home fans erupt, just like the Edgbaston faithful each time Anderson beat Kohli’s outside edge and inside edge.Those emotions reflected the gripping contest in the middle. And the best part came in the first hour after lunch. Anderson had bowled nine overs pre-lunch. Kohli could barely lay his bat on the ball. But Kohli had a plan. Unlike four summers ago where he was laid bare by Anderson, Kohli this time stood out of the crease.He had used that method successfully on the 2014-15 tour of Australia, but here in England the reasons for standing out of the crease are clearly different. Part of the plan was to negate the swing. With Kohli’s desire to stay aggressive at all times initially you also felt that by standing a bit in front of the crease he could meet the ball early.However, it also made him vulnerable as Kohli found out facing the first ball of the second over he received from Anderson. It was an away swinger. Kohli went for the drive. The outside edge flew to the left of Jos Buttler at gully. Anderson leaped with both hands in the air like a long jumper at the end of his stride. The ball did not quite carry to Buttler, but touched the fingertips of his outstretched left hand.Kohli farmed the strikes with the tail-enders•ESPNcricinfo LtdThen off the second ball of the first over he bowled after lunch Anderson swung it away, once again from the fifth or sixth stump. Kohli went feeling for the ball. The outside edge fell short off Jonny Bairstow behind the stumps. A wave of emotion swelled in the stands. The next ball was a short-of-length delivery, which Kohli played with soft hands off the outer edge off the top shoulder of his bat. The crowd clapped at his quick response.But Anderson would not leave Kohli alone. An old man (in fast bowling terms) he might be – turning 36 three days ago – but like a good fisherman he dangled the bait and stayed calm, waiting for Kohli to bite. Kohli almost did. Anderson kept pitching on the same spot, maintaining the same sixth stump line, allowing no space for Kohli to escape, allowing not even a single freebie.Eventually Kohli fell into the trap. He edged a delivery that once again shaped away. The ball was travelling straight to Dawid Malan at second slip. Anderson was already mid-leap, waiting for Malan to clasp the gift. But he spilled the ball. Anderson bent into two, placing his hands on the two creaking knees, hiding all that pain. The English fans let out a loud grimace. It was the final ball of Anderson’s spell – 15 overs broken only by Adil Rashid’s single over before lunch.Kohli placed his bat leaning on to his left leg and put his gloved hands clasped behind his back. This move he did frequently between balls to calm him down.That one hour after lunch was the most breathtaking one of the day. Kohli was attacked by Anderson and Ben Stokes. It was also the hour when the cloud cover was prevalent. England becomes a difficult place to bat when it’s overcast. Kohli was not ashamed at being beaten, at not being fluent.Remember the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ bout between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, where the former took heavy, sinking blows to his body before telling the world never ever to call him an underdog? The duel between Kohli and Anderson was similar. The runs were not coming for Kohli. Anderson had once again left him exposed. Yet, remarkably, Kohli did not once show the urge to play aggressively to force Anderson to change the line. Kohli somehow manage to take the ego out of the contest.As India’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar said, the beauty about Kohli’s batting is its vividness. The strength that Kohli possesses, Bangar pointed out, is being flexible in his mind. That helps him stay one step ahead of the opponent, allows him to defeat all the plans of the opposition. And then dominate.That is what Kohli did. And not in the company of the specialist batsmen, the last of whom, R Ashwin, departed with India still 122 runs behind. From there on, Kohli scored 92 runs from 116 balls while the three tailenders scored just eight runs from 37 balls. Malan had dropped Kohli, once again in the slips, this time off Stokes, when he chased a fuller length delivery angled wide. But Kohli did not let that hurt his progress.Kohli outscores his 2014 England tour tally in just one innings of 2018 tour•ESPNcricinfo LtdBatting with the tail allowed Kohli to switch on ODI mode, as if he were chasing a target. He knew the gaps, the areas to score, the bowler to attack. By the time Anderson returned for another burst of six overs, Kohli was in a more confident frame of mind. When Anderson pitched short of length, Kohli finally played the cut for the first time in the day and collected two. When Sam Curran bowled full next over, Kohli flicked to the left of the midwicket fielder to earn an easy four. Next delivery, he would hop and steer another boundary, leaving England captain Joe Root anguished.The hundred now felt inevitable – if he didn’t run out of partners. Of the various emotions Kohli put on display as he reached his maiden Test century in England, one was revealing. Kohli pointed his index finger to his head looking towards the dressing room. To keep his head when Anderson had flattened his ego. To keep his head when his partners were finding ways to get out. To keep his head when has just the tail to bat with, in the face of a growing deficit.One question that will be asked would be: who between Kohli and Anderson was the winner? Both. Both men strived. They set up a contest that has already made this Test and possibly the rest of the series engrossing.If this innings were to be a journey in his life, Kohli evolved a little. He became humble. He became a better Test batsman. En route he scored one of the great centuries in Test cricket.In the end, Virat Kohli walked out head high, with Root and his men joining the standing ovation.

AB de Villiers and Misbah ul Haq were picked up by Lahore Qalandars and Peshawar Zalmi respectively, but what about Steven Smith?

Danyal Rasool20-Nov-20182:35

‘Hopefully this year Kings will break the jinx’ – Akram

Lahore Qalandars

Squad: Hasan Khan, Rahat Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Yasir Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Anton Devcich, Agha Salman, Sohail Akhtar, AB de Villiers , Mohammad Hafeez, Carlos Brathwaite, Corey Anderson, Sandeep Lamichhane, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Imran, Umair Masood, Brendan Taylor, Gauhar Ali, Aizaz Cheema, Haris RaufIt seems odd there was a debate at all about whether they should go for AB de Villiers or Steven Smith, given the South African’s destructive capabilities are second to none. The decision to appoint Mohammad Hafeez as captain is a sharp walkback from the Brendon McCullum era, which seems to have ended rather coolly.Strengths: Aggression at the top of the order has not been compromised. Fakhar Zaman and Anton Devcich were solid at the top in the second half of last year’s tournament, while with de Villiers and Hafeez to follow, there is a balance that didn’t exist last year.Weaknesses: There is an uncomfortably high reliance on spin bowling, with Sandeep Lamichhane, Yasir Shah, Hasan Khan and Mohammad Hafeez. The best fast bowler Lahore have is Shaheen Afridi, which is a heavy burden for a teenager to bear. Rahat Ali and Sohail Akhtar are the other options, but neither screams world-class.

Islamabad United

Squad: Luke Ronchi, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Asif Ali, Mohammad Sami, Rumman Raees, Hussain Talat, Waqas Maqsood, Sahibzada Farhan, Zafar Gohar, Ian Bell, Samit Patel, Phil Salt, Cameron Delport, Mohammad Musa, Nasir Nawaz, Wayne Parnell, Zahir Khan, Amad Butt, Rizwan HussainIf it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? That seems to be the reigning champions’ philosophy, having retained the maximum allowed number of players from the previous season.Strengths: This is a squad familiar with each other, as well as experienced in how to win this tournament. Ten players from this roster have played – and won – this title before, several of them twice. The keys to their success last season, Shadab Khan, Luke Ronchi, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Sami and Asif Ali will all reprise their roles.Weaknesses: More so than any other format, T20 cricket is unforgiving to those resting on their laurels. And this Islamabad squad doesn’t seem to have improved in a significant way, while most other sides have. The point could be made they did not need to, of course, which is a retort they have every right to make given their impeccable record.Islamabad United players and staff pose with the trophy•Getty Images

Quetta Gladiators

Squad: Sarfraz Ahmed, Sohail Tanvir, Sunil Narine, Umar Akmal, Shane Watson, Mohammad Nawaz, Rilee Rossouw, Anwar Ali, Saud Shakeel, Dwayne Bravo, Fawad Ahmed, Mohammad Asghar, Danish Aziz, Ahsan Ali, Ghulam Mudassar, Naseem Shah, Harry Gurney, Ahmed Shehzad, Azam Khan, Jalat KhanQuetta did most of their exciting business away from the glitz of this draft, when a bumper trade with Lahore Qalandars saw them secure the services of Umar Akmal and Sunil Narine. Fawad Ahmed’s addition is a good story, while with Mohammad Asghar and Jalat Khan, they have two players from the province they represent.Strengths: Dwyane Bravo is guaranteed T20 gold. The man with the most wickets in the format, he has delivered around the world, and is arguably the most intelligent T20 bowler from the generation of players who grew up before this format exploded. There’s a great blend of fast bowlers and spinners, and solid local talent.Weaknesses: The top order batting is a slight concern. Shane Watson will likely open the batting, but there are question marks over who accompanies him and what their pedigree is. They have both Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal, but reliability is not a word you would associate with them.Fans pose next to cut-outs of Hasan Ali and Shahid Afridi ahead of the final•Associated Press

Peshawar Zalmi

Squad: Darren Sammy, Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali, Kamran Akmal, Liam Dawson, Umaid Asif, Khalid Usman, Sameen Gul, Kieron Pollard, Misbah-ul-Haq, Dawid Malan, Umar Amin, Wayne Madsen, Sohaib Maqsood, Jamal Anwar, Nabi Gul, Chris Jordan, Waqar Salamkheil, Ibtisam Sheikh, Samiullah AfridiThe team that perhaps epitomises the joy of the PSL most of all, the biggest news from Peshawar was Misbah-ul-Haq joining. Kieron Pollard also came in, while Darren Sammy, of course, remains captain.Strengths: The fast bowling unit is a dream. Wahab Riaz is a different bowler when in the yellow of this side, while Hasan Ali is a diamond of a player for this format. Even fast bowlers who did not look to have much about them were at their best when playing for Peshawar, most notably Umaid Asif and Sameen Gul.Weaknesses: Misbah? Really? The 44-year old was almost a liability in the line-up for Islamabad last year, and when he played shunted himself down the order. That means Kamran Akmal and Dawid Malan aside, there is a lack of genuine batting quality among Peshawar’s ranks.

Karachi Kings

Squad: Imad Wasim , Colin Munro, Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam, Colin Ingram, Usman Khan Shinwari, Mohammad Rizwan, Ravi Bopara, Sikandar Raza, Awais Zia, Usama Mir, Aaron Summers, Sohail Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Ali Imran, Abrar Ahmed, Aamer Yamin, Ben Dunk, Liam Livingstone, Jaahid AliDespite his reduced stock with Pakistan, Imad Wasim will captain his franchise again. This was another side that retained a number of core players, with Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir and Ravi Bopara prime among them.Strengths: The balance between foreign and local quality is rather impressive. Stellar additions such as Colin Munro and Sikander Raza are complemented by Babar and Amir, while Usman Shinwari and Iftikhar Ahmed have shown enough quality of late to make their mark.Weaknesses: Letting Joe Denly go could hurt them. The England opener was splendid all season earlier this year, his performance in the PSL arguably the catapult to his Man-of-the-Match return to the England T20 side after a decade out. With Imad more of an opening bowler and Raza a part-timer, there seems to be a bit too much pressure on Usama Mir to be the wicket-taking option Karachi will need him to be through the middle overs.Misbah Ul Haq is castled by Shahid Afridi•PCB/PSL

The Sixth Team

Squad: Shoaib Malik, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Shan Masood, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Irfan, Umar Siddiq, Mohammad Junaid, Steven Smith, Shahid Afridi, Joe Denly, Qais Ahmad, Nicolas Pooran, Laurie Evans, Nauman Ali, Mohammad Ilyas, Daniel Christian, Tom Moores, Ali Shafiq, Shakeel AnsarFormerly Multan, this team’s main errand before the tournament begins is to find itself an owner. In the meanwhile, they found a few players, snapping up Smith and Denly.Strengths: Perhaps the most exciting additions at the draft. Steven Smith, should he perform anywhere near the level of his reputation, is a rock through the middle, while Denly is an established player in this league. Even Afridi remains handy with the ball, while the ageless Shoaib Malik and the flawless Mohammad Abbas are ones to watch out for.Weaknesses: There are too many players who have not necessarily made their reputations in this format. The batting looks somewhat devoid of big hitters, with Nicholas Pooran the only obvious candidate. Denly can be as destructive as any, but is more of a classical shot-maker, and Afridi’s batting cannot be relied upon.

Jhulan Goswami, Lisa Sthalekar, Mel Jones and Tushar Arothe share their ideas

Annesha Ghosh19-Feb-2019How many teams should be in action?Jhulan Goswami (India ODI player): There are enough domestic players for four or five teams because in the Elite Group itself [in the inter-state domestic tournaments], every team has three-four good players. And four-five teams will also let you include more domestic players because at the end of the day, the objective is to strengthen Indian women’s cricket at the grass-roots level, right? To include more girls to take up cricket professionally. So unless there’s a big motivation ahead of them, I don’t see them taking that route.Why not check with the IPL franchises if they are willing to start a women’s team of their own. If four teams are willing, we should be starting a women’s IPL with four teams, and involve the best foreign players and our local and international Indian cricketers.Lisa Sthalekar (Former Australia captain, broadcaster): If they are going to keep it to two teams, then I’ll play a series of three-to-five matches and make the squad as big as you want, and expose the young Indian domestic players to international stars.The aim should be to align it with the IPL franchises somehow, and you’ve got to make the franchises buy into it, so the stadiums have the same colour, same vibe. One of the reasons why BBL-WBBL have been successful is because whatever you see on TV is what you see on the ground. The dressing up of the game is the same, and that’s great from a fan-engagement point of view because there’s nothing different between how the two leagues are carried out.Tushar Arothe (Former India women head coach): I am okay with having two quality teams or even three because I think there are good spinners and wicketkeepers in the domestic circuit to start off with three teams, but not enough for a full-fledged six- or eight-team league. I would love to see more Smritis, Harmans, Jhulans and Mithalis in the Indian team, and that can happen when you have more girls playing cricket, for which these exhibition games are going to be very important.Mel Jones (Former Australia player, broadcaster): The first year, if it has to take place in the heat of the day in Mumbai with the IPL going on, getting that kind of traction may not be easy. Having a couple of teams can help focus on what can really help the women’s game grow. Or, if you have three teams, and split the current Indian squad into three sides and have some of the next-best young guns and probably a couple more senior players outside of the squad as well.

The only other way you could have double-headers is if you have weekend games, where the men can play the 4 o’clock game, while the women’s game can start at 7pm, as it happened in the 2010 World T20 finalLISA STHALEKAR

When WBBL started, because they had five years of Big Bash behind it, there was a clear structure path Cricket Australia followed, with the Women in Cricket strategy. Until the BCCI have a similar idea about where they want to take women’s domestic cricket in India, perhaps they may be looking to create an okay product so that the best of women’s cricket is put up on display.How many overseas players should each team have?Goswami: Having four-five overseas players means you can accommodate more uncapped players alongside the current India players.Sthalekar: Instead of cutting it up the same way as the men’s IPL, the women’s teams in these exhibition games could have a couple more overseas players, to ensure it is more competitive and exciting, it could be flexible. Five players in a two-team structure.Arothe: I’d say five is good as it was last year.Jones: Four overseas players in each squad, if you have three teams, but doesn’t mean all have to play in the XI in each game.Where should the matches be played?Jones: I think there’s great potential to build a connection with the local community. A lot of it might be about putting out an expression of interest; to place it out there and see who really wants it. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of cities go, “This would be fantastic to have.” Then you start to build long-term relationships with these cities.Goswami: Take these games out of the metros and try to connect with the smaller towns. If we are playing in stadiums with 30,000 capacity, you’ll barely be able to make it appear full. They better take the games to state associations which do not have IPL teams at the moment, like Vadodara, Lucknow, Vizag and Ranchi, to name a few.Arothe: Ideally, it should be organised in two-three legs if there are three teams. Say, you take the eight league games to two cities – big or small – and the final elsewhere, over a period of two weeks. That will give your uncapped players substantial time to learn and interact with the foreign players or even those in the current Indian squad. But ensuring the smaller cities are given as much or more preference as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, etc will play a big part in how these games are received.Smriti Mandhana and Suzie Bates have a chat during training•Annesha GhoshWhen to play – afternoon or evening?Jones: If you’re trying to get the regular IPL-watchers to follow these games, you’ll have to keep their mindset in mind – they’re all working in the day on weekdays – and do evening games. If you want to model it after the WBBL, their whole marketing campaign is about family, that means weekend games, family-friendly time, and engaging local schools. So there’s good opportunity to look at it as something to drive women’s empowerment or inspiring the next generation of boys and girls in India.Goswami: If there are 2pm starts in April-May summer like last year’s game, I won’t expect too many people to come in. Either do it on the weekends with 5pm starts, or host them on IPL match eve.Double-headers: yay or nay?Goswami: I don’t think double-headers are or will be encouraged in our country anytime soon.Sthalekar: To have double-headers in the afternoon, in that time of the year, it’s not nice to be out and watching cricket. The only other way you could have double-headers is if you have weekend games, where the men can play the 4 o’clock game, while the women’s game can start at 7pm, as it happened in the 2010 World T20 final. What happens is the crowd in the stadium is already there. In the WBBL, too, there was a game in Perth where women played after the men, and there were 17,000 of the 30,000 people from the men’s game watching the women’s.How should the games be promoted?Goswami: Bring in Bollywood and regional movie stars, famous ex-cricketers, just like the IPL did when it started. Hyderabad had involved their local stars, and Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty, Akshay Kumar were all there. Why not try to do the same?Jones: When you have a Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni introduce these players as such and such or the teams, people will automatically want to know more about them and start following these games. So you’re in a way piggybacking on the association to give the competition a leg-up.Arothe: Last year, so many came to watch the India-Australia ODIs because there was a separate event management company that had been employed to publicise these games. Do you remember how many hoardings were put up across the streets? And there were results for everyone to see.Sthalekar: If you buy a ticket for a men’s IPL game, it should certainly have a mention of the women’s game – whether it’s before or after – like in a concert. The supporting act is always mentioned. We should all be educated on what’s happening on that day.

His showing against CSK turned out to be the best all-round performance in this IPL so far

ESPNcricinfo Stats Team03-Apr-2019Hardik Pandya’s brilliant all-round performance handed Mumbai Indians’ their 100th victory in the IPL. He smashed 25 off 8 deliveries to boost the total to 170 and then claimed three wickets at economy of 5 with the ball. Pandya was clearly the stand-out player of the match, but ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats puts a number to it, and shows how Pandya’s performance was even more impactful in the context of the game than his already-impressive numbers suggest.Pandya’s Smart Runs were 39, which is 14 more than what he scored. His Smart Strike rate was a whopping 487.50. Smart Stats take into account the quality of the opposition bowlers, the situation of the match and the scoring rate. Pandya arrived when the scoring rate was 6.72 and his team was four-down. His innings boosted the end-of-innings run rate to 8.50. With the ball, Pandya’s Smart Economy was just 1.75 and the Smart Runs conceded were seven, which is 13 runs less than actual 20 he gave. That turns out to be the best all-round performance in this IPL so far.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn terms of contribution to the match, Pandya’s was the highest – 20.1% – followed by Jason Behrendorff’s 14.3% and Suryakumar Yadav 12.5%. The contribution percentages are calculated by combining the batting and bowling efforts of all players in the game. That means a fifth of the total contributions by all the players in the game came from Hardik Pandya. That, in a nutshell, illustrates his impact on the match.

Dhoni, du Plessis and the bowlers were exceptional, but lapses by the likes of Watson and Raina proved costly

Shashank Kishore13-May-2019Where did they finish?Ten playoffs in ten seasons, in the final on eight of those occasions, and they fell two runs short of their fourth IPL crown, a record their conquerors – Mumbai Indians – are now proud owners of.What went right?Their bowling were exceptional. Deepak Chahar was impressive with his Powerplay performances, and on the rare occasions that he was taken apart, like in the final, Shardul Thakur put his hand up.With 26 wickets, Imran Tahir proved he was far from finished at 40. He kept the middle overs quiet, and gave MS Dhoni the control he loves to have on the slow Chepauk tracks. Not far below him were Ravindra Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh, who proved he still has some gas left in the tank at 37.He may have lost the fizz in his delivery and the bounce that once made him as dangerous as Anil Kumble at home, but Harbhajan’s control and guile upfront with the new ball made him Dhoni’s go-to bowler at home.Shane Watson loses his off stump to Sam Curran•BCCIWhat went wrong?The middle order couldn’t deliver. As the tournament progressed, Ambati Rayudu was being reminded of his 3D jibe with every poor outing, Shane Watson kept eating up dot balls in the Powerplay, which reflected in an overall run rate of 6.29 during this passage, the poorest among all sides this season. Suresh Raina was a pale shadow of his former self in the yellow of Chennai, both with the bat and on the field. Because the middle order was misfiring, they had to try and slot in M Vijay and Dhruv Shorey, two top-order batsmen, lower down. This meant Mitchell Santner had to sit out, and this affected team balance.Key numbers

• The 60 wickets the Super Kings spinners picked up are the most by spinners in a single IPL season.
• Dhoni’s 245 runs were the third-most in the death overs, after Andre Russell and Hardik Pandya. He struck them at a strike rate of 185.

Star performersMS Dhoni was back to being his destructive self with the bat, especially at the death. His wicketkeeping reflexes continued to be lightning and no opponent could relax while he was around. He brought dead games back into the realms of possibility, as Royal Challengers Bangalore found out, and was always one up on the opposition with his on-field tactics. There may be murmurs over his international retirement, but there was plenty to suggest Dhoni the Super King still had enough left in him even if he kept everyone guessing with his “hopefully, yes” quip when asked about his return in 2020.Faf du Plessis reinvented the wheel and was chiefly responsible for driving the batting, allowing Dhoni a hint of breathing space before teeing off. Earlier, du Plessis often had to fight for his position or had to miss out if team balance warranted that. This year, however, he was a constant for most parts and he delivered. On the field, he was among the fast movers that stood out amid a number of “safe fielders”, as Dhoni put it.What needs immediate fix?They need to start looking for Dhoni’s successor and slowly groom some youngsters. The team looked helpless on the two occasions Dhoni missed out because of illness. They may also consider looking for strong young Indian middle-order bats who can also bring in a new dimension to the side’s fielding. This article had earlier mentioned Super Kings were seven-time finalists. This has been corrected.

The former opening partner to Tendulkar at the IPL hopes he can bring cricketing glory to Canada, a country that has given him a renewed sense of freedom in somewhat serendipitous fashion

Peter Della Penna in Windhoek20-Apr-2019The World Cricket League, besides being a celebrated bastion for aspiring Associate players looking to climb up the global ladder, has served as a pathway for career rebirths for players who have already had a taste of the big time and are giving the game one more go at their adopted home.Davy Jacobs falls into the latter category. This week, in Namibia, the former Champions League T20 winner with Mumbai Indians who used to open the batting alongside Sachin Tendulkar is hoping that he can be a difference-maker while giving back to Canada, a country that gave him a renewed sense of freedom, not to mention a new lease on cricket in somewhat serendipitous fashion.

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“The honest answer is I really wanted to get my kids out of South Africa,” Jacobs says when asked how he ended up in Mississauga, a western suburb of greater Toronto. “I was looking for a better future. My wife and I would be literally googling on our phones while lying in bed, ‘education, healthcare and safety’.”She was keen on Australia. I wanted to move to Northern Ireland, Belfast. I played a few years of club cricket. This is where I wanted to move… I sent a few emails around because we knew we had to look at all options and my wife said, ‘Check out Canada because we’ve never been there.'”And so the wheels were set in motion for a whirlwind experience. Just months after officially retiring from playing first-class cricket in South Africa for the Warriors franchise, Jacobs was on a plane on June 17, 2015 to meet with Derek Perera of the Ontario Cricket Academy (OCA). He was only supposed to do a few coaching camps and had no intention of staying in Mississauga beyond a few weeks before proceeding with resettlement from Port Elizabeth to Belfast. That all changed when he rocked up with OCA director Perera, a former Canada player, to see who he’d be coaching.”Derek took me to Mavis, the cricket ground there where the academy trains,” Jacobs says. “As I walked up wearing jeans and was tired from the flight, Nikhil Dutta was bowling and Abraash Khan was batting. I just stood there for 5-10 minutes just watching these guys play. I don’t know what I was expecting when I came to Canada. But Derek told me about this Narine-type guy bowling, a Kuwait-born Canadian Narine and I watched Abraash batting, an 18-year-old kid who wants to be a doctor, watching him chuck Nik over extra.”I said to Derek, ‘What is going on here?!’ They were in the WCL Division Three, but I was like, ‘How is this possible?!’ It blew my mind how many good cricketers there are in the world. It took me about a week and I called my wife and said to her, ‘We to move here. It’s done!'”It wasn’t a case of simply snapping his fingers, though. Jacobs had initially come to Canada on a holiday visa but was determined not to leave. While continuing to do a bit of coaching at the OCA, he became a five-month houseguest in the Perera home while waiting for immigration paperwork to be sorted that allowed his wife and two young daughters, ages six and two at the time, to finally leave Port Elizabeth and come to Canada. That wasn’t the only bumpy part of the family’s transition.”The first night my kids got there, I took them for a walk through the neighborhood and my oldest daughter, who was about six, kept pulling my pants,” Jacobs says. “It was like 10 at night. She started crying and said, ‘We have to go inside! It’s dark!'””I just realised she knows South Africa is dangerous. I couldn’t believe that she knew that we can’t be outside because it’s dark because that’s how she grew up. The next day we go grocery shopping and she starts grabbing candles, ‘For the blackouts’. Same thing, there’re no blackouts in Canada. Electricity works.”Davy Jacobs watches as Brendon McCullum plays a reverse sweep•AFPWhile trying to get his day-to-day life in order, Jacobs began an apprenticeship with a construction contractor specialising in commercial and home renovations as a way to pay the bills beyond the limited opportunities in cricket coaching.”I couldn’t even put a screw into a wall,” he recounts of an experience that would help him gain a greater appreciation for life in the Associate world, where players and coaches generally have day jobs to make ends meet beyond pursuing their cricket dreams.Through his first year in Canada, he was only seriously thinking about coaching and not playing. He was appointed Canada head coach on a temporary basis for the 2016 Auty Cup tour of Los Angeles, helping oversee a 2-1 one-day series win over the USA. Playing again was the furthest thing from his mind after a career that went through a sharp ascent during a three-year stretch from 2010-2012 before a series of frustrating lows.

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A former South Africa Under-19 representative at the 2002 Under-19 World Cup, Jacobs was entrenched in a solid first-class career in South Africa, but rarely on the radar for senior national team selection. However, the advent of the franchise T20 boom, propelled by the formation of the IPL, changed the course of his career.”I was watching one of the first IPL’s and [Sanath] Jayasuriya was walking down the Wankhede to bat with Sachin Tendulkar,” Jacobs recounts.The Champions League came into existence subsequently.”That winter our trainer at Warriors, we just studied like baseball-hitters. I copied a program like that, a cricket one but focusing a lot on hitting. I thought, ‘How are you gonna get into these leagues? You’ve got to hit sixes, bowl 150 or chuck without getting caught! I can’t bowl; I’m a keeper, I bat in the middle-order. So I’m a finisher, I get in and try to hit at the end.”That whole winter, I was superb with discipline, and became really strong. We qualified for the Champions League. Jacques Kallis pulled out. He had to play for RCB in the Champions League. We needed an opener. Russell Domingo was our coach and was like, ‘Why don’t you go open?’ I was the captain at the time and was so comfortable in the middle order, but knew this was my one chance and I have to take this.”At home, during the 2010 Champions League T20 in South Africa, Jacobs and Ashwell Prince opened the batting followed by Colin Ingram at No. 3. The powerful top order clubbed with a bowling unit of Makhaya Ntini, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Rusty Theron and Johan Botha propelled Warriors all the way to the final before falling short against Chennai Super Kings. Jacobs made a massive impression striking three fifties in six innings to end with 286 runs, just eight short of CSK’s M Vijay at the top of the aggregate.The consequence was commanding a US $190,000 bid from Mumbai Indians.But after just 92 runs in six innings with a best of 35, Jacobs found himself on the bench. In 2012, he played only one match for Mumbai and did not come back for 2013. Carrying out a fanatical fitness regime in the pursuit of franchise T20 cricket’s pinnacle competition came at a price far different than the auction bid.Davy Jacobs gave Mumbai a strong start•AFP”It’s difficult to retire because it’s a nice life, it’s easy,” Jacobs says. “So it took me three years to build up the courage to retire. After the IPL, I was done. My body had nothing left because I trained too much. I was training like a triathlete. I felt like I had to be the strongest and fastest. I was dumb like that.”When the Canada guys want to overtrain, I stop people from training and doing too much weights because I know what happens. My body couldn’t take it. I had a massive hip surgery. I had to learn to walk again, took me 9-10 months. I had surgery on my shoulder, ankle, wrist, thumb.”The final breaking point came on February 25, 2015, when looking at himself in the mirror wearing his Warriors training shirt, something clicked in his mind. He called his manager and Warriors officials to say he was retiring. He texted his wife and his dad while sitting at a traffic light on the way to a hastily arranged press conference to say farewell to the franchise where he was the first captain since Kepler Wessels to lead to a domestic title. That was meant to be it for playing cricket.But a year after he had coached Canada in Los Angeles in October 2016, he began playing some casual club matches with OCA. Before long, he was scoring heavy runs again as Perera and others started to point at the calendar to see when he would become eligible for Canada under the ICC’s residency guidelines.”The first time I thought I might take this seriously again was in a night festival in August 2017, the Mississauga Night Festival,” Jacobs says. “Nitish Kumar was in the team, [Ruvindu] Gunasekera, Srimantha Wijeyeratne… In the final we played an all-star team, all the imports who come to Toronto for the summer, mostly West Indian guys. In the final, we had about 100 after 14 overs, and I came in the last six overs and got 90 not out. Afterwards we were sitting having a beer and Derek said to me, ‘Mate, you’ve got to think about this.'”Discussions soon began in earnest with Cricket Canada. Then the ICC trimmed down the residency qualification period in late 2017 from four to three years, opening the door for him to be eligible in October 2018. Not only did he come immediately into the squad, but was also named captain.On his first tour, he finished as the side’s second-highest run-getter in Trinidad & Tobago at the CWI Super50 tournament with 175 at 35.00. Now he’s got his sights set on leading Canada past the heartbreak they experienced last year at WCL Division Two when he was a bystander following the team from afar as they lost off the final ball to Nepal, courtesy an epic 51-run 10th-wicket stand.”It was devastating,” Jacobs says. “I was sitting on my balcony outside with a beer for that final over. I just saw dot, dot, dot, dot. Obviously it happened for a reason. Things they learn from there they’ll take.”One player in particular he feels has come out of the experience better is the bowler of that final over, Cecil Pervez. Jacobs points to the evidence of Pervez defending 14 to beat USA in a Super Over in North Carolina during a 2020 T20 World Cup Qualifier in September last year and says it won’t be the last time Pervez comes through for Canada at the death.”We’re gonna need him to bowl that over again,” Jacobs says. “I don’t know where or when but he will.”Much of the last 14 months has been spent not so much stewing but fuelled with motivation from that devastating loss.”I think that hunger is just there,” Jacobs says. “What happened to Afghanistan and Ireland, I think all the Associate nations now are a little more motivated because we know what might happen. We’re just trying to get Canada to where we used to be. That definitely is a motivation. Losing those games [to Nepal] makes you better for the next one.”