Sports

Enjoy James Anderson’s skills for one last time

Published

5 years ago

2021/01/24

Rex Clementine at Galle Fort

Spinners dominate in Asia and fast bowlers have their work cut out in unresponsive and flat pitches. There are those of course who are crafty enough to overcome challenges and do their best to the team. James Anderson is one such. He was nicely setting up Sri Lankan batsmen on the opening day of the second Test in Galle that got underway on Friday.

With the new ball, he reduced Sri Lanka to seven for two– accounting for Kusal Perera (6) and Oshada Fernando (0) early in the innings.

Lahiru Thirimanne and Angelo Mathews ensured that there was not a repeat of the first Test – a collapse. Thirimanne was beginning to breathe easy. He added 69 runs for the third wicket with Angelo Mathews and Sri Lanka were 76 for lunch. In the second ball after lunch, Anderson struck again. His line and length were impeccable.

It was hot and humid in Galle. Anderson barely sent down a loose ball. Of his 19 overs on day one, ten were maiden. Such efficiency in Asia is rarely seen by a seamer. The likes of Sir Richard Hadlee, Wasim Akram and Mitchell Starc had done it before. Anderson is doing the job for England and that’s one reason why they have not lost a series in Sri Lanka since 2007.

Fast bowlers last a maximum of a decade and half. Rarely do they go beyond 15 years. Anderson has defied those numbers. Super fit at the age of 38, the Lancastrian is on his 19th year of international cricket and he may stretch it to two decades.

This is Anderson’s fifth tour to Sri Lanka. It is unlikely that he will visit the island again. So we must enjoy his art for one last time. He gets wickets with the new ball with his impeccable line and length and once the ball gets softer, he is deadlier reverse swinging the ball expertly.

Anderson is the world’s fourth highest wicket taker. The top three wicket takers are spinners and he is the leading fast bowler with 606 wickets so far. He has featured in a ‘small number’ of 158 Test matches. No fast bowler has featured in that many games.

When our fast bowlers are breaking down frequently barely lasting a full series, they have a lot to learn from Anderson who has gone onto achieve some remarkable feats.

Let’s enjoy Anderson’s skills for one last time.

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PSL 2026: Iftikhar’s all-round show seals last-ball win for Zalmi

Published

1 hour ago

2026/04/9

Priyan

Iftikhar picked up four wickets earlier [BCB]

Peshawar Zalmi held their nerve to beat Hyderabad Kingsmen off the final ball in a tense four-wicket win in the Pakistan Super League fixture in Karachi. Chasing 146, Zalmi got over the line thanks to an all-round effort from Iftikhar Ahmed, who followed up his four-wicket haul with an unbeaten 15 off 10.

Zalmi were well placed at 116 for 3 in the 14th over, with Babar Azam anchoring the chase with 43. But he fell LBW to Hassan Khan and his dismissal triggered a slowdown as Hyderabad fought back with tight overs and wickets from Mohammad Ali and Hunain Shah, leaving Zalmi needing 14 off the final over.

Iftikhar turned the game with a boundary and then a straight six off Hunain, before pinching a single that sealed the win.

Hyderabad’s 145 had looked unlikely early on after Iftikhar’s 4 for 21 reduced them to 34 for 4 in the Powerplay. Kusal Perera then led a recovery with 58 off 35, adding 82 off 55 balls for the fifth wicket with Marnus Labuschagne, who made 27.

Sufiyan Muqeem broke that stand and picked up 4 for 32, including three in the 17th over, as the last five wickets fell for nine runs.

Brief scores: Hyderabad Kingsmen 145 all out in 18.2 overs (Kusal Perera 58, Marnus Labuschagne 27; Iftikhar Ahmed 4-21, Sufiyan Muqeem 4-32) lost to Peshawar Zalmi 146/6 in 20 overs (Babar Azam 43; Saim Ayub 2-19) by four wickets.

[Cricbuzz]

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BCCI curbs movement of benched IPL players in latest rules

Published

9 hours ago

2026/04/9

Priyan

No more than five fielders can move around the boundary as per the BCCI's latest mandate [Cricbuzz]

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has ruled that all the benched players are not allowed to move around the ground during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match. The extra players are also not permitted to enter the field unless they are among the 16 named by the management in the team sheet. This is the latest addition to the match playing conditions (MPC) that were previously shared with the teams.

The exact reason for the new addendum is not clear, but recently the BCCI and IPL managements have issued instructions to team managers that substitute players, who are not part of the designated 16, cannot enter the field with drinks, bats or to deliver messages.

Additionally not more than five players, wearing bibs, can move around the boundary rope. These five can be either from the nominated 16 or from the rest of the squad but not exceeding five at any given time. Normally, they are seen carrying drinks or returning balls hit to the boundary.

“Instructions have been passed to us only recently that all substitutes cannot move around during the match. They are also not allowed to carry drinks onto the field. Only the 16 named in the team for the match can do so. In addition to that, only five outside the playing XI can move around. The others can sit in the dugout, but cannot move between the boundary line and LED advertising boards ,” said multiple team sources. Normally, a squad has up to 25 players, of whom 16 are named in the team sheet of a match.

The latest ruling is a tightening of a couple of relevant existing clauses in the MPC – 11.5.2 and 24.1.4.

Clause 11.5.2 of the Playing Conditions reads, “An individual player may be given a drink either on the boundary edge or at the fall of a wicket, on the field, provided that no playing time is wasted. No other drinks shall be taken onto the field without the permission of the umpires. Any player taking drinks onto the field shall be dressed in proper cricket attire (subject to the wearing of bibs) – refer to the note in clause.”

The 24.1.4 clause says, “Squad members of the fielding or batting team who are not playing in the match and who are not acting as substitute fielders shall be required to wear a team training bib whilst on the playing area (including the area between the boundary and the perimeter fencing).”

So far 13 of the 74 matches have been played in the IPL 2026. The 14th match will be played on Wednesday in Delhi between Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans.

[Cricbuzz]

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Prasidh trumps Miller in last-ball finish as Gujarat Titans clinch thriller

Published

10 hours ago

2026/04/9

Priyan

David Miller was distraught after Delhi Capitals' defeat[Cricinfo]

Why did David Miller refuse a single off the penultimate delivery with Delhi Capitals needing 2 off 2? It’ll be spoken of for a while, but not inside the Gujarat Titans change room. Because Prasidh Krishna bowled a nerveless slower bouncer off the final delivery that Miller missed, and Jos Buttler then nailed a direct hit with an underarm throw from behind the stumps to run out Kuldeep Yadav, clinching a dramatic first win for GT in IPL 2026.

Despite being adjudged run out on the field, Miller wasn’t in the mood to concede defeat, and reviewed the final ball for a possible wide. But when replays confirmed what he had perhaps known, he was crestfallen. Equally distraught in the dugout was K L Rahul, whose 52-ball 92 set the game up for DC but for one run.

It was GT’s first win of the tournament and the first loss for DC after starting the campaign with two wins in a row.

Thirty-six needed off 12. A bruised finger that didn’t make it easy for him to grip the bat had forced Miller to retire hurt with DC needing 81 off 42. But when Tristan Stubbs was run-out in the 17th over, Miller returned hoping to play second fiddle to Rahul. Instead, he was now expected to deliver a box-office hit with Rahul nicking behind off a full Mohammed Siraj delivery two balls later.

Miller nearly delivered what was expected, as he went 6, 4, 6 off Siraj, repeatedly peppering the short leg-side boundary. At the other end, Vipraj Nigam also ramped four off a short delivery to bring the equation down to a manageable 13 off the final over.

Prasidh was tasked to bowl the final over. His three overs prior to that had been walloped for 41; Rahul, his state mate, had climbed into him earlier in the night. But all that would’ve been forgiven if Prasidh delivered a gun final over. That GT could only have four fielders out due to a slow over rate added to his challenge. And he nearly succumbed.

Nigam made room and swung cleanly to hit the first ball to the long-off fence, but a rush of blood had him swipe the second delivery to Shubman Gill at mid-off. With DC now needing nine off four, Kuldeep gently deflected his first ball to deep third to leave the chase in Miller’s hands.

With the equation down to 8 off 3, Prasidh bowled a slot-ball that Miller walloped over long-off. But with two needed, Miller inexplicably refused a single to take it all upon himself to finish the deal. He couldn’t connect on the final ball, and Prasidh belted a roar. GT had pulled one from under DC’s rug in dramatic circumstances.

After scores of 1 and 0 in his first two games, Rahul announced himself with a 29-ball half-century that was as pleasing as they come for large parts. It was also one that didn’t have the baggage of him playing run-accumulator, like he has tended to in the past while opening the batting. This Rahul was fun, free and fearless and he helped DC overcome a few roadblocks along the way, like when they lost two wickets in two deliveries to Rashid Khan at the halfway mark.

Rahul was particularly menacing against the fast bowlers, and it began with a wristy flick that he sent way back over deep square off Kagiso Rabada. The early jitters out of the way – if he even had some inkling of them – he batted like a man possessed, fearlessly climbing into length balls from Prasidh over cover, and slapping disdainfully over point.

He is good, but where is the Rashid of old, they asked. Turns out he hadn’t gone anywhere. After he conceded just nine in his first two with DC rampant, he returned to dismiss Nitish Rana in his dramatic third over, the 10th of the innings. Having been given out lbw earlier, only for Rana to overturn the decision through DRS, he was out a few balls later when he miscued a googly to Sai Sudharsan at long-off. This was Rana’s third sub-20 score of the season.

This brought the in-form Sameer Rizvi to the middle, and he lasted all of one delivery as Rashid snuck through his inside-edge with a ripping googly to briefly elicit jitters in the DC camp. This is when Miller entered, before briefly exiting with seven overs left. But in the same over, when Rashid had Axar Patel slice one to Glenn Phillips running back from cover, GT started to have an opening.

On any other night, Rashid’s spell would have cracked open the game. The fact that DC were still in it despite these wickets was down to Rahul. It needed the skilful Siraj to dismiss him with DC needing 45 off three overs. By then, the pressure was telling.

That GT were eventually able to get over the line was down to their run cushion, made possible thanks to half-centuries from Jos Buttler, Gill and Washington Sundar. Buttler looked unshackled, hitting four sixes off his first 15 deliveries en route a bruising half-century, while Gill played himself in and then allayed fears of neck spasms during his takedown of Kuldeep with the slog sweep. Then Washington, promoted to No. 4, struck his maiden IPL fifty to shore up the innings.

Even so, GT managed just 49 off the last five. On another day, this may have proved to be costly. It didn’t on Wednesday, and for that, they have Rashid to thank.

Brief scores:
Gujarat Titans 210 for 4 in 20 overs (Sai Sudarshan 12, Shubman Gill 70, Jos Buttler 52, Washington Sundar 55, Glenn Phillips 14*; Mukesh Kumar 2-55, Lungi Ngidi 1-24, Kuldeep Yadav 1-42 ) beat Delhi Capitals 209 for 8 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 41, KL Rahul 92, David Miller 41*, Vipraj Nigam 12; Mohammed Siraj 1-42, Rashid Khan 3-17, Prasidh Krishna 2-52) by one run

[Cricinfo]