Melbourne Renegades crash out of the race, must now win their final match to stand a chance of avoiding the wooden spoon

Tristan Lavalette18-Jan-2022Smart bowling from Hobart Hurricanes helped them clinch the final BBL playoff spot after a thrilling six-run victory over Melbourne Renegades. The result knocked Stars from the playoff race ahead of their clash with Sydney Thunder on Wednesday.Hurricanes had looked in grave danger of failing to defend their 182 at Marvel Stadium with an Aaron Finch-led Renegades cruising at 2 for 161 in the 18th over. But Hurricanes found inspiration with seamer Tom Rogers claiming two wickets in the penultimate over, including Finch for 75, as they hung on to secure victory.The bottom-placed Renegades now need to win their last match, against Thunder, to stand a chance of avoiding a third straight wooden-spoon finish.Hurricanes find a way at the death
Hurricanes looked lifeless against Finch and Shaun Marsh, who combined for a second-wicket century partnership. A vintage Finch appeared to be leading Renegades to victory until Hurricanes clawed back into the contest with their season in the balance.Sandeep Lamichhane, who had earlier taken the wicket of Marsh, was superb in the 18th over with a game-turning dismissal of debutant Unmukt Chand, who had become the first Indian cricketer to play in the BBL.Then Rogers claimed the big wicket of Finch to decisively turn the game the Hurricanes’ way. That eased the pressure on them ahead of their final league-stage game against Melbourne Stars, even though their playoff position is still undecided.In further good news for Hurricanes, they are set to welcome back Ashes cult hero Scott Boland, whose sole BBL game this season was against Perth Scorchers on December 14.Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh put up a 101-run stand•Getty Images

Finch stands tall but Renegades collapse
Renegades could well be wondering how their season might have gone with a fit and firing Finch and Marsh, who both missed large chunks of the tournament with injuries.Marsh turned the clock back with a 38-ball 51 complete with gorgeous strokes around the wicket, but it was Finch who looked best-placed to get Renegades over the line until his dismissal triggered a collapse.Finch appeared to have timed his run to perfection, but Renegades lost 4 for 15 at the end to suffocate under the pressure in a disappointing performance that encapsulated another poor season for them.Hurricanes’ batting packs a punch
After an erratic season, Hurricanes have settled on their batting order and No. 3 Matthew Wade has taken to his new role after a sluggish run mid-season in a major boost for their title hopes. The Hurricanes captain helped his side overcome the early loss of Ben McDermott and showed his intent by smashing a six off spinner Cameron Boyce’s first delivery in the eighth over.Wade fell just short of his second straight half-century – having made just eight runs in four prior innings – but Hurricanes received a late flurry from D’Arcy Short and Tim David with the pair pummelling 51 off just 22 balls.In another welcome boost for Hurricanes, an aggressive Short showed great form with 37 off 22 in his most fluent knock of a difficult season, where he had been demoted from opener to No. 4 and entered the match with a low strike rate of 103.But even he was overshadowed by the big-hitting David, who smashed 46 from 20 balls with four sixes. Hurricanes have had a dilemma all season whether to utilise their designated finisher up the order, and David showed his prowess with his highest score of the season.Matthew Wade fell just short of his second straight half-century but made a great contribution•Getty Images

Evans pulls off a stunner
Without spearhead Kane Richardson, who has had an excellent season, Renegades’ weakened attack needed someone to step up, and youngster Zak Evans did exactly that in his third BBL match of the season.First, he took one of the best catches of the tournament to dismiss McDermott – a one-handed blinder after he ran back 30 metres from the edge of the ring and dived backward.Then the 21-year-old was entrusted to bowl in the power surge and his plan to pitch up worked when he claimed the key wicket of Wade. He couldn’t quite finish the job against a red-hot Short at the death, but it was an encouraging performance from him overall.It was needed for Renegades with frontline spinner Zahir Khan, who started the season superbly, once again wicketless, having taken just five wickets in his last ten matches.

“We may be young in terms of age but being senior or junior shouldn’t be an excuse”

Mohammad Isam27-Feb-2022One of the biggest takeaways for Bangladesh in their ODI series win over Afghanistan has been the contributions from multiple players, not just the seniors. Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Litton Das and Taskin Ahmed all put in decisive match-winning performances in the first two matches, helping Bangladesh take an unassailable 2-0 lead with a game to go.Miraz said that given the opportunity, the younger players now know what they have to do to become matchwinners for Bangladesh. He said that their contributions will only boost the team, particularly when playing alongside a group of seniors who have been quite consistent in the last ten years.Related

• Miraz, Afif show that Bangladesh's future is in safe hands

• Litton Das thrives on new mindset

“The seniors always want the juniors to perform well, which will help the team,” Miraz said. “They always back us up, talk to us. Litton, Mustafiz [Mustafizur Rahman] and I have been around for the last five-six years. So we have a bit of experience. We want to use it to play good cricket. When we had the opportunity, we tried to put together a partnership by playing normally. When it became a big partnership, we started to think about winning the game. Grabbing this opportunity is going to help us in the future.”We learned from the seniors who have brought big achievements to the country. They have helped Bangladesh take the next step. They have won Bangladesh many matches. When they were doing it, we [the junior members] would think that whenever we get the opportunity we will get the team to that stage too. We had that confidence when we were out there. When we reached our half-centuries, we told each other that if we can’t win the game this fifty would have no value. If we can win the game, it will be an achievement.”Afif and Miraz put together a grand 174-run stand in the first ODI, helping Bangladesh turn around their fortunes after slipping to 45 for 6 chasing 216. In the second game, Litton struck his fifth ODI hundred, while Taskin bowled superbly in the middle overs. While all four have done well for Bangladesh in the past, too – Litton, Miraz and Taskin were part of their historic Test win against New Zealand last month – they have come under scrutiny for not being consistent enough.Bangladesh have waited for a long time for the next crop of cricketers to become consistent performers at the highest level. Sporadic performances, like Miraz’s big haul of wickets in his maiden Test series against England in 2016, have given them the opportunity to gain attention. But only consistency can bring them greater success.”You get to play for the national team on the back of performance,” Miraz said. “We may be young in terms of age but being senior or junior shouldn’t be an excuse. Someone else will take my place if I am not performing. Sooner I can settle myself in international cricket, I can have a long career at this level.”Miraz said that playing on good pitches, like the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium over the last week, will also be helpful for Bangladesh going into major events in the next couple of years.”We have some big events coming up like the Asia Cup and the World Cups, so we have to adopt playing on good wickets. In India, we can expect 300-plus runs in every game, whether batting first or chasing. It was the same case in the 2019 World Cup. There are good wickets in these big events so it is better to have such wickets in our home conditions too. Runs will give confidence to the batters.”

Capitals head coach also says Mitchell Marsh will be ready for selection against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 10

Hemant Brar02-Apr-20221:59

Will bowlers make the difference this season?

South Africa seamer Anrich Nortje is only a couple of spells away from being available for Delhi Capitals at IPL 2022, the franchise’s head coach Ricky Ponting said on Saturday. There has been a lot of mystery around Nortje’s back and hip injury as the seamer hasn’t played competitive cricket since the T20 World Cup last November.Ponting also confirmed that David Warner would be available for Capitals’ next game, and hoped for Mitchell Marsh to be there for the one after that. Warner was rested for Australia’s ongoing limited-overs series in Pakistan but, along with other Cricket Australia-contracted players, was not available to play in the IPL till April 6. Marsh, meanwhile, is nursing a hip strain.Related

• Gill and Ferguson make it two in two for Gujarat Titans

“Nortje bowled at 100% this morning in the warm-ups,” Ponting said after the match against Gujarat Titans. “I think he has to get through another maybe four- or five-over spell at 100% capacity and then if he gets clearance from Cricket South Africa, he should be ready to go. We have got a few more days before our next game [against Lucknow Super Giants on April 7], so hopefully he is available for selection for that one.”I think David Warner has arrived in Mumbai. He left early yesterday morning I believe, so he should be there when we get back to Mumbai tonight. Mitchell Marsh has been in Mumbai for a few days, obviously getting his quarantine done. I think he might be out of quarantine tomorrow actually.”We are hoping that he [Marsh] is gonna be available for the game on 10th [against Kolkata Knight Riders]. He picked up that slight hip flexor strain in Pakistan. So we need to get a lot of treatment work into him and obviously a few good training sessions before he is available for selection. But fingers crossed, Davey should be there for the next game and Mitch Marsh for the game after.”Ponting on Nortje: “I think he has to get through another maybe four or five-over spell at 100% capacity”•BCCI

Talking about the defeat to Titans, Ponting said the early wickets cost them. Chasing 172 at the MCA Stadium in Pune, Capitals fell to 34 for 3 inside five overs. In their opening game against Mumbai Indians as well, they had lost three wickets inside the powerplay but there Lalit Yadav and Axar Patel had helped them pull off a coup.”On this wicket, on this ground, we thought it was a very, very chaseable total,” Ponting said. “Unfortunately for us, for the second game in succession we were behind the eight-ball early. There were a few too many quite soft dismissals from our batsmen tonight.”If you are losing three wickets in the powerplay, it’s really hard to win games from there. We know that, the stats say that, they have said that right through the history of T20 cricket. That’s certainly one area that we got to get better at, getting through that powerplay. None or one down would be a nice start to a run chase.”Despite the early wickets, Capitals were in a comfortable position at the end of 14 overs. They needed 54 runs in the last six overs with Rishabh Pant and Rovman Powell in the middle. Losing from there, Ponting said, was more disappointing.”There probably was a little bit of panic,” he said. “At no stage tonight did the run rate go out of hand and that’s what probably makes it a more disappointing loss than it probably looks on the scoreboard. We went down by 15 [14] runs but the [required] run rate never got above 9.5.Ponting felt there was a “little bit of a panic” in the way Capitals approached their chase against Gujarat Titans•BCCI

“We had Rishabh in the middle of a really good innings. Rovman Powell had just gone out. If those two had been out to bat together for two-three more overs, I think we would have won the game. But we were not good enough to do it.”Titans’ bowler who dealt Capitals telling blows was Lockie Ferguson. He sent back Prithvi Shaw with his very first ball in the match. In the same over, he dismissed Mandeep Singh, too. Later, he came back to get rid of Pant and Axar in another, decisive double-wicket over.Talking about Shaw, who has been out to the pull shot twice in two games, Ponting said: “I thought he played beautifully in the first game. I think he got 38 off 24 balls and got us off to a good start in the powerplay. He didn’t go on to capitalise as you would have liked but because of that start, we were good enough to go ahead and win that game.”Unfortunately today Ferguson comes into the attack and probably gets Prithvi out exactly the way they would have planned. Unfortunate for him but we will have a good chat with Prithvi. He has been out twice now playing that pull shot, so we might have to do a little bit of work on that with him over the next few days.”

The Sunrisers head coach isn’t in favour of moving the captain down the order

Shashank Kishore08-May-20224:40

What’s going wrong for Sunrisers?

Among all batters to have faced at least 150 deliveries in IPL 2022, Kane Williamson is the only one to have scored his runs at a strike rate of less than 100. He’s also averaging below 20 after 11 innings.On Sunday, Williamson was run out without facing a ball as Sunrisers Hyderabad stuttered up front in their chase of 193 against Royal Challengers Bangalore. They eventually lost by 67 runs to enter do-or-die territory as far as playoffs qualifications is concerned, with three matches remaining of their league campaign.Related

• Interview: Tom Moody on Sunrisers' dream pace attack

• The reasons behind the Sunrisers slump

• Faf du Plessis, Hasaranga crush Sunrisers Hyderabad

How much of a concern is Williamson’s form, and is moving him down the order one potential fix? Tom Moody, the Sunrisers coach, doesn’t think it is, and believes there is still time left in the season for Williamson to make an impact.”We’ve thought about that,” Moody said, when asked if Rahul Tripathi, and not Williamson, should open the innings on current form. “But we felt that Tripathi-[Aiden] Markram-[Nicholas] Pooran at 3-4-5 have been one of our strengths of our batting.”To be fair to Kane, he didn’t even face a ball today, so it’ll be pretty hard to judge his form on today’s outing. We back him, he’s a world-class player, there’s no question of that. He’ll have his moment to stamp his authority on the tournament.”After 11 innings, Kane Williamson averages 19.90 and has a strike rate of 96.13 in IPL 2022•BCCI

Williamson isn’t the only one facing questions over form. Umran Malik has been in the spotlight all season for his bristling pace, and has taken wickets in bursts, but he has been hugely expensive in Sunrisers’ last three games, conceding a combined 125 runs in 10 wicketless overs.Moody called for more patience with Malik as he acclimatises to the sheer volume of top-flight cricket he’s played lately. Between the previous IPL season and this one, he featured in just one first-class game, three List-A matches and seven T20s.”It’s a real learning experience for him,” Moody said. “You have to look at the volume of cricket he has played, which is very minimal, really. This run of games in a row for him is something he’s not used to. He’s not used to playing this regular cricket but the high intensity of cricket the IPL is. He’s on a very steep learning curve. Over the last couple of outings, there’s no question that he hasn’t quite got it right. We’re doing our best to support him and guide him to learn from these experiences.”Reflecting on Sunday’s loss, which puts Sunrisers in a tight position as far as the race for playoffs spots goes, Moody felt they conceded 20-25 more runs than they should have. Two dropped catches – one early in the innings and another one at the end – didn’t help either.Umran Malik has conceded 125 runs in his last 10 overs in the IPL while failing to pick up a wicket•BCCI

Faf du Plessis, who was dropped on 26 by Tripathi in the eighth over, carried his bat through to make 73 not out. Then, Dinesh Karthik was let off in the final over by Tripathi once again, when he was on 8. Apart from the drop being palmed over deep midwicket, the next three balls disappeared for two sixes and a four as the young Afghan debutant Fazalhaq Farooqi conceded 25 off the final over.”I think it’s just the small margins that we didn’t capitalise on,” Moody said. “We shouldn’t have been chasing the total we ended up chasing. We dropped two key catches which sort of out us under pressure. We failed to execute our plans to a couple of players that we’d discussed.”When you’re missing out on those small margins, it makes it difficult for your batting group to chase 20-25 runs more than it should have been. And then you have a situation where you have a run-out in the very first over, which was an interesting outcome for us [Williamson was given out even though replays suggested that some part of the bat may have been over the line], and then losing a wicker straight after that, you’re immediately on the back foot. It did make the run chase a lot bigger than it should have been.”Moody disagreed with the suggestion that the batting had been a letdown. He pointed out that the bowlers – Sunrisers’ stronger suit – had conceded tall totals that had shifted the pressure onto the batters. Sunrisers have conceded scores of 199, 202, 207 and 192 in their last four games.”Most of the season we’ve batted pretty well,” Moody said. “We’ve missed a couple of games where it’s been more about our execution with the ball than the bat and we’ve been asking our batters to chase a bit like today – 20-25 more runs than we should have done.”