Also: which batting position has the highest average in Tests?

Steven Lynch08-Dec-2020Is it right that Kane Williamson’s 251 was the highest score by a captain against the West Indies? asked Justin Barratt from New Zealand
It’s not quite right: Kane Williamson’s 251 in the first Test in Hamilton was actually the second-highest by a captain against West Indies – it remains behind Peter May’s 285 not out for England at Edgbaston in 1957. There have been only six other double-centuries by captains against West Indies in Tests, as the list shows.Williamson’s innings did set some other records, though. It was New Zealand’s highest Test score at home to West Indies, beating Ross Taylor’s 217 not out in Dunedin in 2013-14; their only higher score against West Indies was Glenn Turner’s 259 in Georgetown in 1971-72. And it was not only the highest Test score at Hamilton’s Seddon Park – previously Joe Root’s 226 for England last December – but the highest score in all first-class cricket there, beating Peter Ingram’s 247 for Central Districts against Northern Districts in 2008-09.I was watching the Kane Williamson masterclass against the Windies, and wondered which batsmen in Test cricket have scored the highest percentage of their team’s runs in Tests during their careers? asked Nick Perry from Australia
It shouldn’t come as a great surprise – especially to an Australian – that the top name on this list is Don Bradman, who scored 24.28% of Australia’s runs in his 52 Tests (and that includes two matches in which he did not bat because of injury). Next on this list, according to Wisden (whose table has a qualification of 20 Tests), come West Indians George Headley (21.38% of their runs in 22 Tests) and Brian Lara (18.87% in 131). The leading current player, in seventh, is Steve Smith (17.49% in 73). Kane Williamson currently sits outside the top ten, with 15.93% after his 251 in Hamilton. He may yet pass the leading New Zealander, Bert Sutcliffe, who lies 12th: he scored 16.87% of their runs in his 42 Tests.Which batting position has the highest average in Tests? I thought the openers had the most opportunities, but actually not many of the leading run scorers are openers… asked Hemant Kher from the United States
The average score for the openers across all 2393 Tests (and half the 2394th, between New Zealand and West Indies in Hamilton) is 35.80 – that’s 36.91 for No. 1, and 34.67 for No. 2. My bet was that No. 3 would be the highest, but even that man, Don Bradman, doing most of his scoring from there only raises the average to 39.78. The winner, if that’s the right word, is No. 4, with an overall Test batting average of 40.92.From there, as you’d probably expect, the averages go down. No. 5 is 38.09, No. 6 32.58, No. 7 27.68, No. 8 21.33, No. 9 15.61, No. 10 11.57, and No. 11 (despite 2957 not-outs) just 8.60. For completeness, we should probably mention No. 12, as three men have gone in there recently after concussion substitutions. The bad news is that none of those three managed a run, so No. 12’s average is 0.00.Lakshan Sandakan has, so far, sent down nearly 180 overs in ODIs without bowling a maiden•BCCIWho has bowled the most in ODI cricket without bowling a single maiden? asked Geetha Krishnan from India
That’s an interesting one, and the answer is a bit of a surprise as it’s a specialist bowler rather than a part-timer: the Sri Lankan left-arm wristspinner Lakshan Sandakan has so far played 24 one-day internationals, taking 20 wickets at 58.05 apiece. He’s sent down 1076 deliveries – the equivalent of 179.2 overs – but hasn’t yet managed a maiden. The second-placed man is probably less of a shock: South Africa’s long-time captain Graeme Smith was never a regular bowler, although he did end up with 18 wickets in his 197 ODIs. He served up 1026 deliveries of fairly straightforward offspin – 171 overs – with not a maiden in sight.For the list, click here.After last week’s question about the fastest hundreds in men’s ODIs, I was wondering what the equivalent women’s record was? asked Lesley Clarke from England
The fastest hundred in women’s one-day internationals was scored by Australia’s Meg Lanning, who got there in just 45 balls against New Zealand in North Sydney in 2012-13. That’s actually quicker than any Australian man, a fact I managed to miss last week. Lanning beat the record held by one of her predecessors as captain, Karen Rolton, who reached three figures in 57 balls against South Africa in Lincoln (New Zealand) during the 2000 World Cup.Next come two centuries by New Zealand in a run-soaked series in Ireland in 2018: Maddy Green got there in 62 balls in the first match, at Claremont Road, while two days later in the second game Sophie Devine needed only 59 at The Vineyard, also in Dublin. Next – and England’s fastest – is Charlotte Edwards’ in 70 balls against New Zealand in Lincoln in 2011-12.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Their two big overseas batters have been left to perform a difficult juggling act: score quickly while also batting deep

Sidharth Monga17-Apr-20215:10

Manjrekar wants Jadhav in the Sunrisers middle order

Sunrisers Hyderabad must have been put in the mind of Groundhog Day. Three matches, three great positions in chases, all squandered, their worst start to an IPL. A weak middle order leaves their two big overseas batters – whether it be Kane Williamson or Jonny Bairstow playing alongside captain David Warner – too much to juggle: score at a quick tempo but also bat deep. With Williamson injured, one out of Bairstow and Warner has threatened to win each of their three matches, but their dismissal has always been followed by the middle order struggling on the slow Chepauk surface.The Sunrisers’ leadership has called for “smarter cricket”, better manipulation of the field, and for at least one set batter to go deep into the innings. That was Warner’s role in this chase against the Mumbai Indians, but he ran himself out, an event he shrugged off.Related

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“They [150 scores] are very chaseable,” Warner said after the game. “It’s just poor batting. If you get a partnership there and have one guy there at the end… like all the teams batting first have always had one person there at the end. If you’re able to do that you can chase 150 quite easily.”You just need smart cricket in the middle. At the moment we haven’t been able to produce that. I think our bowlers adapted fantastically to this wicket, and this wicket was a lot slower than the previous ones we played on.”VVS Laxman, the Sunrisers’ mentor, echoed Warner’s sentiments.”That’s a very important skill especially on these kind of wickets because it is not easy to hit through the line,” Laxman said. “You can’t rely on just boundaries and sixes. It’s very important to keep the dot-ball percentage low, and the only way you can do it is by manipulating the field by rotating the strike. I think that is one aspect of the game that is very important on these kind of wickets.”Unfortunately we were not able to do that especially when Rahul Chahar was bowling and even when other fast bowlers were bowling in the middle overs. That’s one aspect which is very critical if you have to put the pressure back on the bowlers and the fielding side.”Jonny Bairstow gave the Sunrisers a blistering start against Mumbai•BCCI/IPLLaxman was glad the Sunrisers got the first bit right: score quickly during the Powerplay to bring the asking rate down. “As the ball gets old in the second half of the innings, it is getting tougher to play your natural game, to play the big shots because the ball is just stopping on the wicket and it is two-paced,” Laxman said. “And also the spinners are extracting turn along with bounce. That is one of the aspects we definitely discussed. If you see the way Jonny Bairstow and David Warner capitalised on the powerplay, that will be very important going forward especially when you are playing on slow tracks like what we are seeing in Chennai. To use the new ball, to use the Powerplay restriction, so that you put the other batsmen who are coming in later under less pressure.”Also it is very important that one set batsman plays quite deep into the innings because it is quite difficult for a newcomer to get used to the surface straightaway especially when the asking rate is climbing up. The first 10 overs, the way you show your positive and aggressive intent, will help the second half of the innings.”The Sunrisers have tended to hold Abdul Samad, the one bright spot in a disappointing middle order last year, for the final few overs, but Laxman was asked if there was a temptation to drop the struggling Manish Pandey down the order and give Samad more time in the middle. “We have been flexible with our batting order,” Laxman said. “Even today we made changes, we had Virat Singh and Abhishek Sharma, two left-hand batters, to counter the Mumbai spinners. We have got some days before the next game, and we will definitely go back to the drawing board to work out the strategy to get a win under our belt and we will look at what the best combination and batting order is.”Between now and the next game, Sunrisers will also be looking at their medical team who now have T Natarajan’s sore knee to take care of in addition to Williamson’s elbow. Laxman revealed Natarajan was left out because of a niggle in the knee, but his replacement, Khaleel Ahmed, did a good job with figures of 4-0-24-1.

To be an ODI regular beyond the Sri Lanka tour, Pandey must go past Iyer, Yadav and Kishan

Varun Shetty16-Jul-2021Manish Pandey’s most memorable innings in Indian colours is probably his unbeaten 104 in Sydney in 2016, when India chased down 331 to avoid a 5-0 series defeat against Australia. It was only his fourth ODI appearance, an opportunity that had come seven years after he became the IPL’s first Indian century-maker in the 2009 edition.It seemed like a breakthrough innings at a time when India had four ODI heavyweights – Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and then captain MS Dhoni – and little else in their batting order, a kind of innings that Dhoni said, “gives you [an] extra 15 games to settle in and start to do what you need to do”.Getting 15 ODIs – numbers will tell you 50 overs is the limited-overs format that suits him more – in a row has remained an unfulfilled dream for Pandey, who has played a total of 26 matches in five stints. But, as unsurprisingly, it is not over for him yet. During the Sri Lanka tour starting this Sunday, Pandey will make another comeback, just months after being omitted from BCCI’s annual contracts’ list, in a year where he missed most of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 50-over tournament because of an injury and returned unremarkable numbers in the IPL.Related

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• 'I can deliver a lot more than what I am right now' – Pandey

Pandey played in India’s next eight games after that Sydney match – his second go with the ODI side. In the three games in Zimbabwe, where India’s top three were so dominant, he only batted two balls all tour. The next gig – five ODIs against New Zealand at home – was his first full series for India. It was India’s penultimate series before the Champions Trophy in 2017.Pandey started the series at No. 4 and made starts on which he didn’t build. In the next three games, he was used between Nos. 5 and 6 and made his highest score of the series – an unbeaten 28 in a chase alongside Virat Kohli in the third ODI – before tapering off and finishing with a duck in the fifth match. That was in October 2016, and he didn’t play another game for almost a year. In the intervening period, Kohli took over as India captain and brought back a 35-year-old Yuvraj Singh, who made a roaring comeback before being left out a series after the Champions Trophy. Pandey was withdrawn with injury, and the two middle-order spots were taken by Singh and Kedar Jadhav.In October 2017, Pandey was back in the Indian squad touring Sri Lanka. He made the XI in the last two matches and struck an unbeaten 42-ball 50 in a partnership of 101 with Dhoni in the fourth ODI, and then scored 36 in a partnership of 99 with Kohli in the final ODI.This resulted in his second full series for India, the five matches against Australia at home. Once again, Pandey began the series at No. 4 and failed, before being pushed down to No. 6, where he made crucial 30s, one in a successful chase, and one where India just fell short.

Pandey’s return, with India’s 25 best players in England, has all the makings of yet another brief fling. It does have a whiff of a lucky break to it. What it doesn’t seem to have is a suggestion of a long-term plan.

In the next month, Pandey found himself out of the XI again for a series against New Zealand, losing his place to Dinesh Karthik, who had originally replaced KL Rahul from the squad that had played Australia. Later in the year, he played all three matches against Sri Lanka at home, batted once, and made 2 during India’s infamous slide to 29 for 7 in Dharamsala.After that series, Pandey has played in four matches for India, three of them early last year against Australia and New Zealand, despite missing out in the race for a World Cup spot in 2019, with the team management preferring batters like Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant at the time. In the year leading up to the 2019 World Cup, India tried seven batters at No. 4, but Pandey wasn’t one of them. He played only a single match during that period, at the Asia Cup.The reason he keeps coming back, perhaps, is that since the start of 2015, he averages 60.28 in 83 List A innings and strikes at 95.93, leaving selectors little choice but to keep him in mind. The pattern is almost set: he becomes undroppable through his performances at domestic and representational level, but misses out on the XI through various reasons, and then makes another case with another bumper domestic season.Is his average of 25.91 in 18 ODI innings since that hundred in Sydney a consequence of that uncertainty or is that uncertainty a result of his performances?Manish Pandey scored a century in Sydney in what was only his third ODI innings•Getty ImagesThere aren’t a lot of Pandey media interactions on the internet. The ones that exist have a general theme of him trying to be mentally strong, not looking too far ahead, and accepting that this is, perhaps, the toughest era to break into an Indian XI in your desired role. During India’s tour of South Africa in 2018, he “half-joked” that he had to see a doctor because of the uncertainty.Trying to understand what has happened, or, indeed, what the plan was, is difficult because India’s selection policy itself has been haphazard, particularly when major tournaments are around. Singh’s return in 2017 is a case in point. It sent a message that they would not mind picking a decent option with experience over an exciting option with potential, but then they went the opposite way with Ambati Rayudu just before the 2019 World Cup. In the time between those two tournaments, batters like Ajinkya Rahane and Suresh Raina found themselves in the mix while IPL performances also started to count for ODI selection.Pandey’s return, with India’s 25 best players in England, has all the makings of yet another brief fling. It does have a whiff of a lucky break to it, one you wouldn’t grudge him given how his career has gone. What it doesn’t seem to have is a suggestion of a long-term plan. To play limited-overs cricket beyond this tour, Pandey will have to go past Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan.Perhaps, this is an endeavour to give him match time in a T20 World Cup year – a format in which current form often trumps long-term planning – but like any other point during the last five years, the uncertainty continues to linger.

A deeply scientific analysis comes to a foregone conclusion

Alan Gardner15-Sep-2021Another week, another venerable institution falls victim to cancel culture. But while we lament the latest blow to Test cricket, surely an even greater pang was felt by those readying themselves to ballyhoo India for scaling yet another peak in the game.With the series result in limbo, we may never be able to proclaim India winners in England, backing up their twin successes in Australia to go with an indomitable record at home. The greatness of Virat Kohli’s team is there for all to see, although some people do keep pointing to evidence suggesting they not be the best around. Such as the fact they lost the World Test Championship final to New Zealand. And that they are ranked No. 2 in the world, behind New Zealand. And their only series defeat in the last three years came against… New Zealand.So which of these teams is actually the best? The Light Roller has put together this largely unscientific comparison:Captains
Loveable and humble as he is, Kohli would have to go some to outdo Kane Williamson in the popularity stakes. Even those who pretend to find fault with his “neck beard” can’t avoid wanting a slice of Kane. Plus, he’s in charge of the No. 1-ranked WTC champions (have we mentioned that?) so he must be doing something right.
Verdict: New ZealandCoaches
The reappointment of Ravi Shastri to the India job was undoubtedly a great service to cricket commentary boxes the world over. But we’ll have to give this one to Gary Stead on the basis that he picks from a player pool consisting of the roughly two dozen New Zealanders who don’t like rugby.
Verdict: New ZealandBatting
While it’s possible to make a strong case for Rohit Sharma winning this category all on his own, we’ve got no time for such hipster posturing. According to our sophisticated database, India’s three middle-order musketeers, Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, haven’t made a century since well before anyone had heard of Wuhan. And New Zealand have Devon Conway.
Verdict: New ZealandBowling
India are blessed with such riches that they could probably pick two separate attacks – and R Ashwin might not get in either of them. But can any of that compare to Williamson packing the leg-side field and programming Neil Wagner to run in hour after hour and repeatedly try to hit the batter in the head? Wagner-Ball wins every time.
Verdict: New ZealandStyle
Another no-contest, unfortunately. Both teams wear their abilities well and are comfortable strutting their stuff. But while New Zealand could till recently call on the timeless wonder of Colin de Grandhomme’s mullet, India have to answer for Ravindra Jadeja and his various crimes against denim.
Verdict: New ZealandAnyway, after adding that all up and cross-checking with social media, there’s only one possible conclusion as to who has the best Test team in the world. It is, of course… New Zealand India! Never in doubt.

****

Spare a thought for the ICC (not something we would suggest you do very often), after cricket’s governing body found itself stuck between a rock and the end of a 20-year war. The return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan might well have all sorts of implications for the stability of the region, the fates of innocent people, and a geopolitical landscape that is – to slip into some particularly egregious cricketing parlance – genuinely a bit of a minefield. But it turns out the first thing many people wanted to know about after the fall of Kabul was how far the Afghanistan Cricket Board had got with its women’s programme (answer: not very). Cricket Australia, in particular, is very concerned about this, despite being party to the process of giving Afghanistan Full Membership four years ago – when the country didn’t have a women’s team at all. The put-upon folk at the ICC, meanwhile, can console themselves with the thought that they are already well used to dealing with despotic regimes (insert least-preferred Big Three member here).

****

The resignation of the head coach a month before the start of a global tournament – in the midst of protracted manoeuvring over who will be the new chairman of the board – might just seem like Pakistan doing Pakistan things. And even when you consider that the man doing the resigning was staid, sensible old Misbah-ul-Haq, if you start doing the sums, it quickly adds up. Misbah, of course, was on the committee two years ago that recommended the sacking of Mickey Arthur and then – what luck! – stepped straight in to the fill the vacancy (taking on the role of head selector, for good measure, too). Having bided his time through a largely uninspiring run in charge, you might have assumed he would doggedly occupy the crease until the last – but then you remember that staid, sensible, over-my-dead-body Misbah also scored one of the fastest Test hundreds of all time. In short, we should have seen this coming. Classic tuk-tuk boom.

Three teams vying for two spots, unless Papua New Guinea can pull off a miracle

S Rajesh20-Oct-2021Three teams are battling for two spots in Group B of the T20 World Cup, while Papua New Guinea need a couple of miracles. Here is how the teams stack up going into their final group matches.Scotland
A win will see Scotland top the table. If they lose and Bangladesh win, three teams will be on four points. Then, net run rates will come into play. Given how close Scotland, Oman and Bangladesh are on NRR, there isn’t much leeway on that count: even if Scotland lose by just one run and Bangladesh win by a margin of three runs or more (with the team batting first scoring 150 in both games), then Oman and Bangladesh will go through.Oman
A win by any margin will be enough for Oman to go through. If they lose, though, they can get through only courtesy a Bangladesh defeat at the hands of Papua New Guinea. If Oman lose by 10 runs, Bangladesh need to lose by at least eight for Oman to stay ahead on NRR.Bangladesh
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Bangladesh’s last match is against winless Papua New Guinea. If they win by three runs or more, they will qualify for sure, regardless of the result of the other game: if Scotland win then Oman will be knocked out, while if Oman win even by a run, then Scotland’s NRR will be third in the group.If Oman win by 10 runs, Bangladesh will need to win by 15 or more to top the group.If Bangladesh lose to Papua New Guinea, they will have to hope that Oman lose to Scotland, and slip below Bangladesh on NRR. If Bangladesh lose by 10 runs, for example, then Oman will have to lose by at least 13, for Bangladesh to move ahead on NRR.Papua New Guinea
PNG have lost both matches, and their NRR languishes at -1.867. To have any chance, they need to beat Bangladesh by around 45 runs and hope that Oman lose to Scotland by a similar margin.

Ashwin and Jadeja have been supreme, but since 2016, the quicks have been spectacular too

Sidharth Monga04-Dec-20212:18

Jaffer: Nothing wrong with not enforcing follow-on because of time left in the match

Indian spinners have always been good at home. If they have been as good as the combination of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja or not is not the debate this piece wants to get into. That they have often been better than visiting spinners is a given. There has been one change over the last five-six years, though.

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Far too often, the spinners’ dominance reduced the fast bowlers to playing just as an insurance if they lost the toss and had to bowl on the first morning, to take the shine off in the second innings, and to field at fine leg in third and fourth innings. That one fast bowler would be Kapil Dev followed by Javagal Srinath followed by the flat pitches era where Zaheer Khan’s reverse swing became a crucial part of India’s arsenal.In this era of Indian cricket, though, the fast bowlers are also proving to be a point of difference between India and the visitors, and not just with the reversing ball. India’s fast bowlers running in, bowling high speeds, targeting the stumps, finding swing both reverse and conventional, finding uneven bounce, injuring batters, sending stumps cartwheeling, trapping them in front, is as essential a sight of Test cricket in India as Ashwin and Jadeja displaying their mastery.This is high-adrenalin action. They know they don’t usually have long to set batters up before the ball goes to the spinners only to come back once it starts reversing. There are no elaborate set-ups. This is just direct, visceral, highly attacking fast bowling, full and at the stumps.You merely need to do a video search for Umesh Yadav on Twitter to feel this rush. It is just money shot after money shot after money shot. Although keep this to yourself because it can lead to unnecessary copyright strikes against people who are doing what the BCCI and the broadcasters should themselves be doing.Since 2016, India’s fast bowlers average 24.35 at home; no other travelling team gets into the 30s. This is a supremacy that can’t go unnoticed. It basically disqualifies any talk around the pitches when your fast bowlers and spinners are both doing better than the visitors.So on a pitch that the opposition spinner took 10 wickets, you couldn’t really rule out an India fast bowler having the first say in response. Just like Umesh, Mohammad Siraj is already building up a mighty collection of jaffas. Add two from this Test.Mohammed Siraj leaps in joy after dismissing Will Young•BCCISiraj’s action, his angle, his fields all tell you to keep expecting the inswinger, but he has a mean outswinger that goes late, almost as if seaming off the pitch. The real beauty of it is, it still ends up on the stumps and is skiddy, leaving you no choice but to play at it. You can’t leave it on line or on length.Opener Will Young got it first. He was squared up, but was good enough to edge it to second slip. Although it was so quick, live time it looked like it might have got Young lbw.”The way the spinners were dominating, I knew the most I will get is three or four overs,” Siraj said. “I knew I had to put in a big effort in those overs and try to get a wicket or two.”I just wanted to the end the ball on the stumps. If you are getting swing with those lines, it becomes even more difficult for the batsman. I saw New Zealand bowling, they were bowling outside off, so I decided I had to bowl at the stumps. And once I got the swing, it became dangerous.”To be fair to the New Zealand fast bowlers, they don’t have the luxury that Siraj has, which is knowledge that the spinners will control the game even if they do leak a few runs going for the wickets in those three-four overs. They had to build up to dismissals, Siraj could just rush towards them.If you are Ross Taylor, there is extra reason to expect the inswinger because that is what every bowler looks to do. Siraj was looking to do the same, but hey, he knows the window is small. Especially on this pitch, if the ball goes to the spinners, they will not leave any wickets for the quicks to take. So without a set-up, he just thought he would bowl the same: an outswinger that ends up within the stumps.”For Ross Taylor, we had the field for inswing, because you usually look to hit his pad,” Siraj said. “At the top of my mark, I thought let me bowl an outswinger. And I was in good rhythm so I felt confident about it. I just had to finish it within the stumps. It is a dream ball for a fast bowler.”Taylor’s off stump gone, Siraj had three wickets and two jaffas in just 13 balls. The highlights reel of Indian fast bowlers’ unplayable balls in India keeps on growing.

A number of Australian players headed overseas for the winter to play in IPL and county cricket. Here is how they fared last week

Alex Malcolm19-Apr-2022
County cricket
Reserve Test opener Marcus Harris made a statement to Australia’s selectors and new coach Andrew McDonald with a superb century in his first appearance for Gloucestershire against Yorkshire in division one of the county championship.Harris made 136 out of his team’s total of 227 on the opening day in Bristol, when the next highest score in his team was 21. He did it against international bowlers in Matthew Fisher, Haris Rauf and Dom Bess, who combined for eight of Yorkshire’s ten wickets. Harris struck 22 fours and one six, and batted over five hours while facing 231 balls.Related

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Matt Renshaw made a vital 45 batting at No. 3 for Somerset in a low-scoring thriller against Essex in Taunton. Peter Siddle tried his best alongside Craig Overton to pull off a miracle for Somerset, claiming three second-innings wickets and five in the match, but Essex scraped home chasing 84 with one wicket in hand.It was the Queenslander Mark Steketee who had to survive three balls batting at No. 11 for Essex to help Adam Rossington hit the winning runs, after he also picked up five wickets in the match.Marnus Labuschagne missed out in his first innings of the season for Glamorgan but made an unbeaten 50 in the second to help guide his side home in a chase of 166 against Nottinghamshire. Glamorgan and Queensland team-mate Michael Neser took four wickets in the game.Aaron Finch smashed 58 off 28 balls against Rajasthan Royals•BCCIIPL
Aaron Finch found some form in the IPL with a blistering half-century for Kolkata Knight Riders against Rajasthan Royals. Finch smashed 58 off 28 balls with nine fours and two sixes. It was his second half-century in three T20 innings after fighting his way out of a slump in the only T20I against Pakistan.What would please Finch and Australia’s selectors the most was that his movement patterns and ball-striking looked in great order after getting out of sync in Pakistan. There were two noteworthy strokes against left-arm pace, thus indicating his balance was back. Finch produced a powerful clip wide of mid-on off a threatening inswinger from Trent Boult, apart from a lofted inside-out drive over long-off against Obed McCoy.Finch’s Knight Riders team-mate Pat Cummins did not have a good night by comparison. He conceded 1 for 50 with the ball, with just four wickets in four games in the IPL so far this season at an alarming economy rate of 12. Cummins was also out for a first-ball duck as the third victim in Yuzvendra Chahal’s hat-trick.Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood hit the ground running for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Maxwell smashed 55 from 34 balls, while Hazlewood took 3 for 28 in a crucial win over Delhi Capitals.In the same match, the opposition opener David Warner continued his fine form with 66 off 38 balls in the chase, including five sixes. But Mitchell Marsh’s first outing for Capitals was far from fluent, making 14 off 24 balls batting at No. 3 as they fell 17 runs short of their target chasing 190.Meanwhile, Matthew Wade was dropped by Gujarat Titans after a lean first five games, although he was unfortunate to be run-out for 12 off six balls against Royals. Elsewhere, Tim David continues to be benched by the struggling Mumbai Indians despite Mumbai losing all four games that he has been left out of.

All hail @marnus3cricket #LVCountyChamp pic.twitter.com/LugzZpNisw

— LV= Insurance County Championship (@CountyChamp) April 14, 2022