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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
COLUMN: Cricket has changed dramatically, especially with the bat
I think it's fair to say that cricket has changed dramatically in recent times, especially so with the bat, as so many of our top order batsmen at both county level and international level, play so many more extraordinary shots, that adds that extra ingredient to the game writes Merv Colenutt. Everyone will have their own ideas of how the game has changed and since the introduction of the ramp shot, reverse sweep and increasingly the lofted shot over fine leg, the more technical side of the game has become an added an exciting feature. Advertisement The introduction of helmets, also allow the batsmen to face short pitch bowling with far more confidence and in more recent times, the falling paddle shot, which we will no doubt see more of in the future from the likes of Rishabh Pant and Harry Brook, makes for another legacy, not only in the white ball game, but in test matches as well and to be fair it's another reason why test matches will go on drawing big crowds in the future. Another change could very well come in the coaching of bowlers, in fact it has already happened. In the good old days, you were generally encouraged to run in smoothly as a quick bowler, increasing your pace as you got closer to the wicket and release the ball at pace with a smooth follow through, just like Josh Davey does for Somerset now. You would hope by shining the seam, the ball would move off the pitch or in the air deceiving the batsman into playing down the wrong line, but again the coaching manual appears to have changed, with a quick bowler being encouraged to bowl from a slightly different angle with a more side on approach and deliver, with the batsman not always being able to pick out the ball to play or leave. Advertisement It's a marginal observation, but i feel sure that in some ways has brought the more baseball technique into our game, with increased timing and hand speed. I still firmly believe at almost the halfway stage of the season that Somerset are well placed to challenge for the double once again, there is no doubting they have the ability to remain on course in both the white ball game and the red ball game. What i find impressive as always is the ground fielding, brilliant, surely there is not a safer pair of hands anywhere better than Craig Overton, Riley Meredith might have only played five one-day internationals for Australia, but more are bound to come in the not too distant future, he has been magnificent. Tom Banton opening the batting has asked a few questions whether he should retain that spot, i believe he should, others question whether he should bat lower down the order and bring in Tom Lammonby, that has been questioned by some of the supporters and even Tom Abell has been short of runs, but the one sure factor is that Somerset have unquestionably got a massive array of talent at their disposal and they remain the team to beat in the 2025 season. The big test in the county championship, however will start on Sunday as the league leaders Nottinghamshire are the visitors to the County Ground.
India Today
8 hours ago
- Sport
- India Today
An anti-ageing cream called cricket
The year is 1997. A child is protesting to not wear his maroon sweater, as mandated by his DAV school. It's the end of March, the sun is out, winter has largely receded, but mornings in North India still have a nip. After the unsuccessful agitation, the sweater-clad child walks to the bus stop. He has been following a Test match happening in a different time zone, which ended post his bedtime. There is no mobile internet to check the result, so his eyes are searching for a newspaper at the bus is one. Kept, folded, on a wooden bench, whose owner has excused himself to smoke a beedi. The child skips past all the politics and local crime news, and lands on the second last page - the sports page. He freezes, as he reads the headline "India 81 all out". This is the famous test at Bridgetown, Barbados, where India failed to chase 120. The kid is numb, as he drags his soul-less body onto the bus.I have been watching cricket for 30 years now. As we age, our emotional investment in this game depreciates. Our heroes age, fade away, some get a farewell match, some don't, newer players come. There are some matches you just check the highlights of. Amazed at yourself by the disinterest, you think this is it. You have moved But then, on a random weekday, fifth day of a Test match, two wickets down, 100 odd runs to get, a Shardul Thakur sends Harry Brook back to the pavilion, with a delivery straying down the leg side. Two wickets in two deliveries. You scream "OUT" like that child way back in 1996, who screamed when Venkatesh Prasad uprooted Aamir Sohail's stump. Cricket keeps us young. It is the best anti-aging heartbreaks are core memories. They stay longer than the wins - a product of Darwinian evolution. We are coded to retain the bad outcomes, the threats, so as to learn and survive longer. We cope differently.I remember those Sharjah debacles against Pakistan on Jummah days. I would walk back home (we didn't have cable TV) broken-hearted. And I would look at people on the street, the paani puri wala, the one girl gleefully having the thrilling paani-puri, an uncle negotiating the best rate of potatoes and the numerous other people calmly going about their business. I would wonder if their lives are better off not following cricket, not having to witness Aquib Javed running through the Indian tail. Why am I ruining my entire day for a non-material loss? The players, the board of cricket, the sponsors don't even care about my existence. Why should I be so emotionally invested? Why should I be sad over something that has zero bearing on my goals and ambitions in life? And then, a few days later. Sachin would hit a six over the head of Michael Kasprowicz, and we were all back with our cheerleader pom an incredible time warp, and we are all willingly part of it. An emotional roller-coaster we have been riding for decades. Each time we think we are too old for this ride, and we want to get down, it pulls us back in, with miracles like two centuries in the same Test match by Rishabh Pant. And then, on the very next day, presents a fresh heartbreak. India fails to defend 371. Only the second time ever. Each loss plumbs new depths, and each win sets new records.I was in Goa this time on the fifth day, when Stokes and Root were batting with some 50 odd runs to get. I was out for dinner in the immaculate Tanjore tiffin room, polishing off some brown rice with a divine Puli my phone conked off. Panic. I had to rush home. After some anxious moments with the valet, taking his own sweet time, I reached my place, plugged my phone in, waited patiently for it to boot-up, then typed in "Eng vs Ind" on the Google bar, waiting for the score to refresh, hoping to see an increment in the wickets' the buffering circle rotated, it reminded me of that newspaper at the bus stop, 28 years ago. Same child-like anxiety. Same result. Maybe the same intensity of heartbreak. Sigh. Soon, another victory, another moment of magic, will pull us back onto this perennial roller-coaster. Till then, have faith in this anti-ageing cream called cricket.(Abhishek Asthana is the founder of a creative agency – GingerMonkey. He tweets as @GabbbarSingh)- Ends(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)Tune InMust Watch
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
How Ben Duckett went from English cricket's problem child to world-beater
As Ben Duckett stood on the Headingley outfield enjoying the warm glow of his finest performance yet, there were signs everywhere of how far he had come. He was once English cricket's problem child, who looked like being lost to the Test game. Now, he was being awarded a magnum of sparkling wine as man of the match after playing one of England's great fourth-innings knocks, a century of high skill, but also smarts. There were the considered comments afterwards about his strategy that were a window into how he plays such a high-risk game with such precision but also why he is obviously Harry Brook's unofficial vice-captain of England's white-ball teams. But also, stood a few metres away with his fiancee and his father, was his 11-month-old baby, Margot. 'I'm a Dad now,' he said, to conclude his lengthy press engagements. 'I'm looking over at her right now, and just want to give her a cuddle. I've definitely realised there's more to life.' With his duties finally wrapped up, the various Ducketts played on the outfield en famille. Baby Margot saying a big well done to B̶e̶n̶ ̶D̶u̶c̶k̶e̶t̶t̶ Daddy of the Match 🏅 — England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 24, 2025 This is a very different cricketer and man from the one who first played for England aged 21 and even from the one who was recalled as a seasoned pro in 2022. Trouble seemed to follow Duckett around in the early years of his career. He was never a bad kid but a clubbable, giddy nature sometimes erred into waywardness. He was cheeky, a character trait you can still see in his batting today. More than a decade ago, he was sent home from Northamptonshire and England U19s tours for fitness issues and earned himself a drink-driving ban. On his first tour with England in 2016, to Bangladesh and India, he was sick on the head coach Trevor Bayliss on an internal flight, according to the book Bazball. And, most infamously, he was sent home from an England Lions tour in December 2017 for pouring a drink over Jimmy Anderson's head in the Avenue, a Perth nightclub. Amid the tumult of a disastrous Ashes tour which took place in the shadow of Ben Stokes's Bristol ban, the drink-pouring incident was blown out of all proportion. That was in part because it took place in the same venue as another incident that was made to seem something it was not, when Jonny Bairstow allegedly 'headbutted' Cameron Bancroft, who was then a little-known Australian hopeful. Duckett has described being banished as the lowest point of his career and only last year revealed that Anderson actually threw a drink on him first, but it was not seen by team security. Given he came with a reputation and was not even in the Test squad, he proved an easy fall guy for a management that needed to look headmasterly, and send a message. Formidable partnership with Crawley Now 30, there is a maturity to Duckett that was writ large across his innings at Headingley. He has built a formidable record using a unique method, and Michael Vaughan is not the only sound judge calling him the best batsman across all formats in the international game right now. His Test average opening the batting is currently better than Alastair Cook's and his partnership with Zak Crawley averages 45 runs per innings at five runs per over. Cook and Andrew Strauss averaged 41 at three an over. Duckett and Crawley's strength lies in their differences. One is short, the other tall. One is left-handed, the other right. Bowlers struggle to adjust their lengths. As this image illustrates, a ball that lands on the same length can be played dramatically differently by each man. At Headingley he played a freakish innings, featuring a wide variety of reverse-sweeps off Ravindra Jadeja's bowling into the rough outside his off-stump. The quality of Duckett's execution of that incredibly difficult skill was put into context by Stokes's own attempt to mimic him. It felt like Stokes could get out any ball to Jadeja, and eventually he did. Crawley admitted that Duckett managed the conditions so much better than him, that he was just trying to get his partner back on strike. 'My mindset personally was a bit different to what it has been over the last couple of years,' Duckett said of the chase at Headingley. 'I was trying to focus on key moments. Pretty obvious, but Jasprit was a big threat of theirs. Potentially a bit of maturity from me kicking in, realising that whenever he came on it was going to be a short, sharp burst. Trying to see him off, and not necessarily playing any big shots, knowing it would get easier. 'I think I'm learning it a bit quicker. Jasprit got me out in the first Test in India. Reverse swing, big drive, bowled. He did the same this week, not reverse swing, but bowled. It's just realising that he's coming back on to do exactly that. Realising, and taking the ego out of things. Knowing I don't need to do that. It's not negative, because I will still try to put the bad ball away when he bowls it, but understanding why he's coming on. It's to get the breakthrough, to get me out.' Duckett added that his own 'failures' were driving his improvement. After the Perth incident, he fought back to international cricket the hard way, moving from Northants to Nottinghamshire and racking up scores in county cricket while remaining committed to the longest format when he could have gone all-in on the franchise scene. Duckett has further challenges to face this year. He has left a few hundreds out there across formats over the last year, including in the first innings at Headingley. And, like all England's batsmen, he will be peppered by the short ball in Australia this winter (he should have been out to one on 97 at Headingley).
Business Upturn
4 days ago
- Sport
- Business Upturn
ENG vs IND 1st Test: Harry Brook creates unwanted record with 99 and golden duck in same Test
Harry Brook etched his name into the record books for an unusual and unwanted feat during the ongoing 1st Test between England and India at Headingley. The English batter became the first player in Test history to be dismissed for 99 in the first innings and follow it up with a golden duck in the […] Harry Brook etched his name into the record books for an unusual and unwanted feat during the ongoing 1st Test between England and India at Headingley. The English batter became the first player in Test history to be dismissed for 99 in the first innings and follow it up with a golden duck in the second. Brook had played a sensational knock in the first innings, falling agonisingly short of a century at 99. But in a dramatic turn of events on Day 5, he was dismissed on the very first ball he faced in the second innings. Trying to tickle a delivery from Shardul Thakur down the leg side, Brook ended up edging it to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, handing India a crucial breakthrough. This rare combination — a 99 followed by a golden duck — highlights the fine margins of Test cricket. From nearly being a centurion to registering a pair of contrasting dismissals, Brook's outing in the match reflects the highs and lows that the format can offer in just a matter of days. His dismissal has reignited India's hopes, especially after Duckett's departure, as England chase 102 more runs with six wickets in hand. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Aditya Bhagchandani serves as the Senior Editor and Writer at Business Upturn, where he leads coverage across the Business, Finance, Corporate, and Stock Market segments. With a keen eye for detail and a commitment to journalistic integrity, he not only contributes insightful articles but also oversees editorial direction for the reporting team.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Pant given demerit point for dissent towards umpires
India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant has been handed a demerit point after he admitted showing dissent towards the umpires during the first Test with 27, was deemed to have committed a level one offence by the International Cricket Council (ICC) under article 2.8 of its code of conduct., externalThe incident occurred in the 61st over of England's first innings on day three of the Test at Headingley, when Harry Brook and Ben Stokes were was seen having a discussion with on-field umpires Paul Reiffel and Chris Gaffaney in relation to the condition of the match the umpires refused to change the ball after they had checked it with the ball gauge, Pant reacted by throwing the ball on the ground in front of Pant admitted the offence, and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Richie Richardson, he was not required to attend a formal ICC statement said: "One demerit point has been added to Pant's disciplinary record, for whom it was the first offence in a 24-month period."When a player reaches four or more demerit points within a two-year time frame, the points are converted into suspension points and a player is suspension points equate to a ban from one Test or two ODIs or two Pant has played a key role for India during the match in became only the second batter to make hundreds in each innings in a Test at Headingley and the second wicketkeeper to do so anywhere.
