All posts by h716a5.icu

Wrexham made it nine matches unbeaten in the Championship but saw all three points stolen away from them at Deepdale as teenager Harrison Armstrong equalised late on for Preston North End. The Red Dragons had led ever since the fourth minute through a simple Kieffer Moore finish, with James McClean clearing off the line and Arthur Okonkwo making a string of top-class saves before Preston equalised to share the spoils in a 1-1 draw between two sides with play-off ambitions.

Getty Images SportTell me more

Wrexham came into the match knowing that a play-off push was within their grasp, just three points outside the top six at the start of play. Their hosts Preston have been in and around the play-off picture for much of the campaign and began the day in fifth, only too aware of Wrexham breathing down their necks.

The visitors made the perfect start as Moore opened the scoring after just four minutes. James McClean put in a teasing delivery from the left, which was not dealt with by goalkeeper Daniel Iversen as the Dane could only palm the ball to the feet of the grateful Welshman, who tapped gleefully into the net.

The hosts came quickly back into the match and showed just why they have been so consistent this season, Lewis Dobbin in particular catching the eye. The 22-year-old Aston Villa loanee drove past several Wrexham defenders on a mazy run which was thwarted by a brilliant defensive block.

Wrexham captain McClean then made a key contribution in his own box just before the half-hour mark, as the 36-year-old used brilliant anticipation to clear an effort by Liam Lindsay off the goal-line. Goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo had battled hard to keep out a host of balls into the box before McClean appeared in the right place at the right time.

Moore threatened to get through on goal once again at the other end after a defensive slip as the conditions affected both sides, while Wrexham defended stoutly to hold onto their lead at the break. Okonkwo made his greatest contribution as the 24-year-old made a double save from Thierry Small in the final minutes of the half to stun the home faithful.

It was more of the same after the break, as Preston drove forward in search of an equaliser and Wrexham held firm. Small struck a volley against the post, while the Red Dragons could have doubled their lead at the other end as Moore and McClean forced a brilliant double save from Iversen. Okonkwo had to be at his best once again to keep out Jordan Storey, before using every inch of his 6ft 6in frame to tip wide a Lindsay header.

But Wrexham hearts were broken as 18-year-old substitute Armstrong stepped forward to equalise, firing in at the near post at the second attempt to get Preston right back into the game. From there on in it was end to end as both sides searched for a late winner, but the two sides had to settle for a point apiece as Wrexham returned to Wales with a share of the spoils.

AdvertisementThe MVP

Though his clean sheet was lost late on, Okonkwo was outstanding for Wrexham as they withstood waves of attack by the home side. Preston have been one of the top sides in the division this season but Okonkwo had the answer for almost everything they threw at him. A first-half double save from Small stood out, as did a late stop from Lindsay, as he made six important saves overall. His handling and bravery when coming out of goal to punch the ball were also admirable, though he will have been disappointed that Armstrong managed to squeeze the ball home from the tightest of angles.

The big loser

Certainly outshone by the performance of his opposite number at the other end, Preston shot-stopper Iversen made a poor mistake for Moore's opening goal and almost cost his side in the end. Though he made up for it somewhat with a double save in the second half, Iversen's early mistake was the only glaring error in a fiercely-contested battle between two sides who were both determined to leave everything on the pitch in search of victory.

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

Getty Images SportMatch rating (out of five): ⭐⭐⭐

Amid all the noise that swirled around him, he produced a 32nd ODI hundred that was as clinical as it was exhilarating

Sidharth Monga09-Feb-20252:49

Manjrekar: ‘Incredible how easily Rohit does it’

Arguably the best cricket song ever written, this is a poignant look at the imminent end of one’s life as possibly one’s life innings. Roy Harper, the singer and writer of the song, apparently riffed on a line he heard from the commentator John Arlott on the radio about an old cricketer approaching retirement. The more prosaic meaning being you never know when an old cricketer has been dismissed for the last time.Related

India seal series as Rohit roars back into form with 32nd ODI ton

'I really broke it down into pieces' – Rohit reflects on comeback innings

Rohit Sharma is not “old”, but in elite sport, with the amount of batting talent breathing down your neck in a batting-rich country like India, and you volunteer to sit out an international match at the age of 37 years and eight months, you never really know.You begin to wonder whether it is the format and the conditions and the bowling, or if the eye and reactions are going. You begin to wonder if the batter is doubting himself, because which elite cricketer refuses to back themselves when they are the captain of the national side?Then Rohit gets out for 2 in his first ODI in six months, and you forget what a colossal run he has been on in this format, going on for close to three years. In the six months between his last ODI series and this one, Rohit led India to their first home Test series defeat in 12 years – which turned into their first-ever home whitewash – and looked like he couldn’t buy a Test run on a tour where India’s only win came when he hadn’t yet joined the squad. He had already retired from T20Is by then.Now there are reports that the selectors have asked him what his future plans are. It could be time for a reset when the Champions Trophy concludes next month, and time to start planning for the 2027 World Cup, which will take place when Rohit is 39. Then he gets out for 2. You never know whether he’s gone.The shot that brought about Rohit’s downfall in Nagpur brought him his first six in Cuttack•BCCISix overs into India’s chase at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, a floodlight tower goes off. It is unsafe to carry on playing, but Rohit just doesn’t feel like going off. He seems to be asking if the fielding side wants to continue even with that one tower off. The umpires can’t let that happen because they are responsible for the safety of the players.Rohit has been off to a good start, and seems to be wary of the fickleness of the cricketing gods. Batters tend to be. India didn’t train on the eve of the T20 World Cup final that they won in Barbados last year, but Rohit made sure India got the same dressing room they had occupied when they had played and won at Kensington Oval earlier in the tournament.So much can go wrong, and so much is out of your control when you bat, that batters tend to become obsessive. They try to control what they can’t in ways that seem illogical from the outside.It must be a long long time since Rohit has felt this good on a cricket field so it is natural he doesn’t want anything to go wrong. The 29 off 18 that he’s scored so far bring to mind Rohit’s colossal ODI achievements. He has already hit three sixes and gone past Chris Gayle’s 331. He is now behind only Shahid Afridi’s 351. The first of these three sixes is a repeat of the shot that got him out in Nagpur, only executed better this time. The first sign that he’s not yet gone.Rohit has now hit a whopping 94 sixes in 39 innings since his first game as full-time ODI captain in February 2022, and deciding India needed to play in a certain way. The next-highest six-hitter over this period has hit 68 in 55 innings. Rohit is one of only five batters to have scored over 1000 runs in this period at a 50-plus average and 100-plus strike rate. In the 40 matches that Rohit has played as full-time captain, openers have averaged 36.76 and struck at 99.34. Rohit has gone at 50.91 and 118.95.This run features the 2023 ODI World Cup, during which he frequently killed games off in the first powerplay. The same trend followed in the T20I World Cup, in crucial games against Australia and England. In batting in this manner, however, Rohit also went through 38 ODI innings with just two centuries.The word ‘selfless’ had become as much of a millstone around Rohit’s neck as ‘talented’ had earlier in his career•Associated PressLike “talented” early in his career, “selfless” has become a millstone around Rohit’s neck in his time as captain. It started with Rohit inverting his own game to lead a philosophy change in India’s limited-overs batting. Then the word was thrown around trivially, if he even did so much as attend a press conference. The only logical progression was for it to become a pejorative on social media.However, in setting the tone, in reconditioning India’s approach to risk-taking, Rohit has indeed been selfless. From the time that Rohit started to open regularly in 2013 to this floodlight failure, he has been scoring an ODI hundred every five innings. He has used a trusted formula: get yourself in nice and slow and then explode in the second half of the innings. With his numbers, it was tough to argue against his methods, but he felt he needed to lead from the front if there was to be a change in the way India batted.So since February 2022, Rohit has been front-loading without worrying about landmarks and hundreds. His starts have frequently set the base up for monstrous hitting when batting first, and have taken the pressure off other batters in chases.However, in the last ODI series Rohit played, in Sri Lanka back in August 2024, India failed to win a single game even though he had scored 58 off 47, 64 off 44, and 35 off 20, and left them needing 151 in 35.4 overs with eight wickets in hand, 144 in 36.3 with nine in hand, and 196 in 42.5 with eight in hand.There are two reasons, then, for Rohit to tone down his selflessness somewhat in this chase in Cuttack. He needs a big score to calm the voices around him and possibly his own too, and he needs to see the chase through when two quick wickets go down, bringing in a dynamic, young lower middle order prone to the odd collapse. He does this without letting up on the strike-rate. The hitting is pristine. Anything overpitched goes flying. Sometimes he manipulates the length by charging the quicks.This is no hail mary of a desperate batter. This is as clinical as an ODI century at a strike-rate of 132.22 gets. There is a cold deliberation to the way he picks the balls he wants to hit and the ones he wants to tap for singles. He doesn’t show what it means to him personally. He doesn’t even take off his helmet at reaching the century, his first in international cricket since March 2024. In this year he has led India to their first World Cup in 13 years, and also to an unceremonious end to their home Test run. No question is asked about his emotions at the post-match presentation.Rohit gets India close but doesn’t quite take them all the way to the win, which India get to after a brief stumble. In scoring the century, though, Rohit has served a reminder of his ODI form to anyone who needed it. Perhaps to himself too. A reminder that he is not yet gone. Not unless he himself decides to go.

Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal was all sorts of fired up after mowing down Addison Barger for his MLB-leading 171st strikeout of the season—and rightfully so.

Facing a one-out, bases-loaded jam in a 0-0 game against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, Skubal forced catcher Tyler Heineman into a fielder's choice before making light work of the third baseman Barger, taking him down on four pitches—capped by the 101-mph fastball below to end the inning.

Take a look at the pitch here, which includes Skubal's electric reaction:

Unfortunately, Skubal was pulled after his dominant finish to the sixth inning, and Tigers reliever Will Vest gave up two runs in the bottom of the eighth as Toronto took a 2-0 lead.

We'll always have Skubal's reaction, though.

The Blue Jays, winners of their last three, currently hold the best record in MLB at 62-42 while the Tigers—60-45—sit atop the American League Central with an eight-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians.

If the Tampa Bay Rays were disoriented by their forced exile from their Tropicana Field home this offseason, they haven't shown it.

The Rays are 50–47 and 1.5 games out of the American League's final wild-card spot at the All-Star break, despite currently occupying George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa—the New York Yankees' 11,000-seat spring-training home. That's because Hurricane Milton destroyed large parts of Tropicana Field's roof in October.

On Tuesday, commissioner Rob Manfred was asked a question that has suddenly become very pertinent: where will Tampa Bay play home games if it makes the playoffs this year? According to Manfred, the Rays have the green light to host them at Steinbrenner Field.

"Our rule has always been that people play in their home stadiums during the World Series. And I’m not of a mind to change that rule," Manfred told reporters via , presumably ignoring the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. "I understand it’s a unique situation. It’s different, but that’s where they’re playing. That’s where they’re going to play their games."

Tampa Bay is seeking its sixth postseason berth in the past seven seasons, and its seventh winning season in the past eight years.

The relationship between Phillies manager Rob Thomson and outfielder Nick Castellanos doesn't appear to be in a great spot heading into the final stretch of the season.

Castellanos, who once started 236 straight games for Philadelphia, has seen his role diminish into more of a platoon player workload in August and September. Castellanos has started just seven of the Phillies' 17 games this month. But he had a big night Friday, going 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a two-run homer—his 250th career dinger—in Philadelphia's 8-2 win over the Diamondbacks.

Despite the victory, Castellanos sounded off about Thompson in the cluhouse after the game.

"I don't really talk to Rob all that often. I play whenever he tells me to play," Castellanos said. "And I sit whenever he tells me to sit… Communication over the years has been questionable, at least in my experience. But also, I grew up communicating with someone like my father, which is very blunt, direct and consistent."

The issues between Castellanos and Thomson have been bubbling all season long. Back in June, Castellanos was lifted for a defensive replacement in the ninth inning of the Phillies' 5–2 win over the Marlins. The following day, Castellanos was benched for making an "inappropriate comment" to Thomson, marking an end to his 236-game starting streak.

Castellanos and Philadelphia will return to the field Saturday night to continue their series against the Arizona at Chase Field.

There are Cy Young Awards and World Series titles. And then there is another kind of meaningful accolade: high praise from Sandy Koufax. The Hall of Fame pitcher saluted Clayton Kershaw on the announcement of his impending retirement by calling his fellow Dodgers lefthander a friend and the kind of person who inspires teammates.

“As great of a pitcher as he is, or was, or whatever the timing is now, that’s as great a person as he is,” Koufax tells . “He’s one of these people who your teammates want to win for. And they think they’re going to win because of you. And that’s a tribute to him as a human being.”

Kershaw announced Thursday he will retire after this season, ending an 18-year career in which he has compiled a record of 222–96 with a 2.54 ERA. He will make his final regular season start at Dodger Stadium Friday night.

Koufax and Kershaw have been friends since February 2010, when Dodgers manager Joe Torre invited Kershaw to join them as they traveled round trip between Arizona and Los Angeles for a program at the Nokia Theatre LA Live to benefit Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation, which he and his wife, Ali, created to end domestic violence through education, counseling and providing safe spaces. Kershaw was about to begin his third major league season.

“On the ride back and forth to Arizona, Clayton and I talked for quite a while,” Koufax says. “Basically, we’re friends. I care about him. I care about his family. There’s not much more to say. He’s a special guy.”

During the 2010 program, Kershaw held his left hand against Koufax’s left hand, palm to palm. Kershaw’s hand practically disappeared behind Koufax’s much bigger hand.

Koufax says the key change in Kershaw’s growth as a pitcher was when he added a slider to complement his curveball and fastball.

“It’s because of the break,” Koufax says, “which makes it hard to hit. Anything that has a vertical break makes it harder to hit. If you look at a bat you know where the difficulty is: up and down.”

Kershaw, 37, and Koufax, 89, rank first and second in strikeouts (3,039 and 2,396) and wins (222 and 165) among Dodgers left-handed pitchers. When asked about Kershaw’s famous competitive streak, especially when pitching through and around injuries in the back half of his career, Koufax says, “Whether he was right or not right, he was going to compete. And, you know, that’s what it boils down to. Everybody has their good days and bad days, so the idea is to try and figure out how you win on the bad days—or not necessarily the bad days, but the less than good days.”

The conclusion of the 2016 County Championship will be forever etched in the memories of those who followed it

Paul Edwards30-Apr-2020Match From the Day.September 22nd 2016
ScorecardSeptember 23rd 2016
ScorecardAmong the many photographs that were taken the day after Somerset had annihilated Nottinghamshire in September 2016 there is a picture of Chris Rogers turning to look at a television. The screen itself is out of shot but we can infer roughly what it shows from the player’s grim and painfully alert expression. Officially Rogers is still Somerset’s skipper but this is also his first day as a former professional cricketer. The previous afternoon he had become only the third player after William Lambert in 1817 and Len Baichan in 1982 to score two hundreds in his final first-class match.But personal achievements are now far from Rogers’ mind; instead, he is wondering if there is any way in which the game between Middlesex and Yorkshire might end in a draw or maybe even a tie. Either outcome would make Somerset champions for the first time in their history. Rogers is sitting in one of the hospitality suites in what is now the Marcus Trescothick Pavilion; he is surrounded by the team-mates with whom he has spent the previous six months. And they are watching their dreams being smashed.The cricketers doing the smashing are playing at Lord’s, an environment ill-suited to vandalism of any sort. But having overseen a three-and-a-half-day arm-wrestle in the game that will decide the title, Middlesex and Yorkshire’s captains, James Franklin and Andrew Gale, have now set up a fourth-innings run-chase. Thus Adam Lyth and Alex Lees are deliberately bowling tripe so that their side will soon be chasing 240 in 40 overs with an agreement they will never halt their pursuit. It will prove too difficult a target on a fourth-day pitch of variable bounce but one can understand Gale’s position. Yorkshire are trying to win a third successive title – it would have been the county’s sixth hat-trick – and across the years there have been scores of skipper who have gambled similarly, especially in dull three-day matches on covered wickets.ALSO READ: Match from the Day: Hutton, Compton and cricket’s 1946 returnAnd Gale’s batsmen make respectable progress before Toby Roland-Jones straightens one up and Tim Bresnan is lbw for 55 when trying to clout the ball into the leg side. The visitors now need 87 off ten overs with five wickets in hand. Middlesex are very warm favourites but nothing prepares the spectators at Lord’s or the viewers at Taunton for the final action of the season. Having dismissed Azeem Rafiq with the last delivery of his twelfth over, Roland-Jones bowls Andy Hodd and Ryan Sidebottom with the first two balls of his next. The summer has ended with a hat-trick very different from the one Yorkshire supporters had envisaged. The Middlesex players and the TV commentators go cheerfully berserk. Some of those watching at home may be thinking four-day county cricket is not supposed to be like this. However, it is possible that assumption has been formed by listening to those who spout about the first-class domestic game without going to the trouble of watching any of it. Such people are still about.As it happened, 21,595 people thought that game at Lord’s sufficiently important to attend in person, 7,408 of them on a final day when they saw perhaps the most gripping conclusion to a season in the Championship’s 130-year history. Among those who watched the whole match was Duncan Hamilton, whose small book chronicles the game in a style which marries the virtues of the journalist to those of the poet. “It is difficult to judge something when it is actually happening,” Hamilton writes in the final pages. “We wait for Time and history to bring proportion and order and rank to events. But I’m certain this match will live beyond its period, the totality of the experience too durable ever to fade.” It is one of those sentences to which one responds, as Philip Larkin did to the music of Sidney Bechet, with “an enormous yes”. And the warmth of one’s salute is deepened by the conviction it is shared with many other people, some of whom, like myself, were at Taunton that late September evening.

It is always tempting to pickle the distant past in the aspic of nostalgia; to think they don’t make them as they used to. The more persuasive argument is that they make them just as fine

When I insist that one of the most memorable days of county cricket I have seen was one on which no cricket was played, friends shake their heads in glum acknowledgement that the last marbles have left the building. I had arrived at the County Ground early that fourth morning and watched Somerset supporters greet their friends in the Stragglers’ Café or the Colin Atkinson Pavilion. Whatever was going to happen, they had decided to face it together. The players had a room to themselves but some chose to take a walk on the outfield and be alone with their knowledge of cricket’s iron logic. Rogers later admitted that he would have struck exactly the same sort of deal had he been in Gale or Franklin’s position.And as is often the case in such situations one’s thoughts went back to games earlier in the summer, games whose significance seemed great at the time and even greater at the end of the season. There was no doubt at all that Middlesex would be worthy champions, although that was an opinion I kept to myself. They had begun their campaign with six draws, three of them at Lord’s, where the county pitches were often as lively as PhDs on drainage in Grimsby. But in July Middlesex played the finest cricket of the season. At Scarborough they trampled all over Yorkshire on the final day: first Roland-Jones and Tim Murtagh thrashed 107 off 56 deliveries, at one stage hitting half-a-dozen sixes in seven balls, to give their side a first-innings lead of 171; then their attack swept aside Yorkshire’s stunned batsmen for 167. The following morning’s labelled Franklin’s team the best in the country. It was a fair call.A week later Mike Selvey’s “Middle Saxons” consolidated their reputation at Taunton of all places. They were challenged to score 302 in 46 overs and got home with two balls to spare when John Simpson whacked Jim Allenby over deep square leg for six. Each of those victories was worthy of champions and the fact that Middlesex ended the season unbeaten seemed secondary to the manner of their six wins.Composite: scenes from the Middlesex v Yorkshire Championship match, September 2016•Philip BrownAll the same, another close-but-no-pennant year seemed hard on Somerset and their admirable captain. Hard, too, on James Hildreth, whose ankle had been broken by a delivery from Jake Ball early on the first morning of that final game but had gone to make 135 with the help of a runner. At the end of the day Hildreth showed the media his lower leg; it was black. Defeating demoralised and relegated Nottinghamshire was then the most facile of tasks on a Bunsen; but watching their spinners share 15 wickets was the joyful prelude to another disappointment for Somerset supporters. There have been so many near-misses this century that the club could have ties made, black ones with a mournful wyvern on each.In sport it is always very tempting to pickle the distant past in the aspic of nostalgia; to think they don’t make them as they used to in the candle-to-bed era. The more persuasive argument, perhaps, is that they make them just as fine or, at least, so different as to render comparisons hazardous. It is rather hard to think there has been a better Ashes series than 2005; or a more dramatic final day to any Test match than Headingley 2019; or a finer climax to a County Championship season than that we enjoyed in 2016. Have the debates started already? One hopes so. In the meantime let us take comfort from a slightly unlikely literary source. In the opening pages of Evelyn Waugh’s Sebastian Flyte says this:”I should like to bury something precious in every place where I’ve been happy and then, when I was old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember.”Fortunately one does not have to be a vain, alcoholic younger son of dysfunctional Roman Catholic aristocracy to empathise with Flyte’s emotions. During these early months of the first non-cricket season any of us have known we should take comfort from the privileges we have enjoyed; their richness seems even greater in these strange days. Four years have not elapsed since Middlesex won the title but matches like those at Taunton, Scarborough and Lord’s are our buried crocks of gold.Match From the Day

After bowing out on a high in the World Cup final, Liam Plunkett looks back on a rollercoaster career

Interview by Andrew Miller13-Jul-2020It’s the anniversary of your finest hour, the 2019 World Cup final. But it’s clear now that that match was also your last in England colours
I’ve come to terms with it. I knew it was over when I missed the South Africa series last winter. But the initial disappointment ebbed away, and I’ve been able to reflect on the journey that I’ve had, playing in the World Cup final, and winning in such a special way in the Super Over. I took vital wickets, I broke key partnerships. I feel like I was a useful asset in that World Cup squad.All the same, you must have been aggrieved at the manner in which England moved on from you?
Of course you’d be disappointed with the way it was dealt with, you just want someone to reach out and say “This is the way we want to go”. But they’ve made it clear they want to go down the young route, so I’m not going to sit in the corner and be that guy who’s bitter and sour about the situation. Anyone who comes in, I want them to do well. Good on them, I hope they get the fifties and five-fors. To me it feels so long ago now. It is what it is.In the four years leading up to the World Cup, you were the most prolific fast bowler in the world during the middle overs. How did you hit upon that key role?
When I came back into the England Test squad in 2014, they just wanted me to bowl quick. They said you’re different, you’re not a left-armer who can land it on a 1p, or a Jack Brooks, who can bowl as well at the back as he had with the new ball. You bowl rapid, sometimes round the wicket, use the cross seam.I was happy with my action. My pace was consistent, but I didn’t seem to be in England’s white-ball plans. The following winter in Sharjah [November 2015], I said to Eoin Morgan, I’m not sure what I’m doing here, maybe I should retire and focus on red-ball.He was like, don’t make any stupid decisions. Then I played the next T20, my first for nine years, and I got three-for against Pakistan in Dubai, and I bowled rapid. That was the start for me. Morgs and Trevor [Bayliss] saw me and thought “we need to use Liam in that middle period”.Your partnership with Adil Rashid was one of the key aspects of England’s rebirth as a one-day team
Me and Rash thrived in those middle overs. With Morgan’s aggression with his fielding positions, and the backing he gave me, and the clarity I had for smashing the pitch, I grew into that role.And as I got more confident, I started picking up new skills. I didn’t get picked for the tour of South Africa [in 2016] and I sat down with Trevor and asked why not. He said I didn’t have enough variation.So I went away and worked on different balls. In terms of the cross-seam, I can hold it in the tips of my fingers, in the middle of my fingers and way back in my hand, and that’s going to come out at three different paces.I don’t bowl the back-of-the-handers, but I could bowl the legcutter and offcutter. So I got some more tools in my shed and when I got back in I was still consistent, I could still bowl a 90mph bouncer, but I had more subtlety, and I felt I made those middle overs my own.

I said to Eoin Morgan, I’m not sure what I’m doing here, maybe I should retire and focus on red-ball. He was like, don’t make any stupid decisions.Plunkett on a crucial conversation in Sharjah in 2015

How quickly did you realise you were part of a potentially world-beating team?
I remember a Lions tour against South Africa in 2015, with J-Roy, Stokesy, Woody, and some others. We got 380-400 against South Africa A, absolutely pummelling it, and a year later, a lot of us were back playing the one-day stuff. So it was a combination of that and Morgan’s vision, and the coach’s vision, and taking the Brendon McCullum route of being aggressive, and playing cricket with a positive intent. It all just came together. Everyone backed each other, everyone got along, and it went from strength to strength.It started with us getting 400 against New Zealand at Edgbaston, and though it didn’t happen overnight, over the course of a year or so, we were getting noticed, and when it came all together, it was a perfect storm. No one ever got complacent or lazy. We just kept pushing each other. We had some days when it didn’t go right. I went for 90 against India [at Cuttack], and we lost to Scotland, but we were never going to hold back. We had to be aggressive and if it’s not your day, so be it.There was a lot of talk ahead of the World Cup about your pace being down. How did you cope with that extra pressure?
Sure, at first I was bowling quicker than I was at the end, but my pace has always been mixed. Sometimes I try to bowl a ball at 90mph and it comes out at 84, and that’s just down to my action. But I use that to my benefit, because if you’re bowling very, very quick and suddenly it comes out at 83 with no change of action, that’s sort of helped me.People said my pace was down but I still got wickets in the build-up against Ireland and Pakistan, and someone recently showed me a clip where I bowled the third or fourth-quickest ball at the World Cup, at 94mph, so I knew my pace was still there.I had the odd day I ran up and bowled quick, the odd day I didn’t, but most of the time I did my thing, ran up and mixed my pace up.Would I have liked to bowl 90mph all the time? Absolutely. But would I have got the same wickets when there are two other bowlers bowling 90mph? Maybe not, because having different options helps the team. But I never doubted myself. I knew I had the variations and the skills to help take wickets for England.Notably, you missed each of England’s three defeats in the group stage, and came back into the side for the make-or-break game against India at Edgbaston. What do you remember of that contest?
We’d had a meeting before that crucial India game. We sat in the room with a sports psychologist, who asked us how we were feeling. And one of my opinions was, “Of course I’m upset, I feel I should be playing, but if I wasn’t upset I shouldn’t be in the squad. It doesn’t mean I don’t want you to get a hundred or you to get the wickets, it’s just because I’m not playing, and you should feel like that if you’re not playing.”Others had different opinions, saying they were feeling the pressure of being No.1 in the world, but it was a great chat to have.Liam Plunkett celebrates a wicket with his teammates, England v Australia, World Cup warm-up, Southampton, May 25, 2019•Getty ImagesThree wickets in that match, and three more in the final. Did you feel an extra sense of pride after seemingly putting England on course for glory?
I bowled well, but without being arrogant I’d done that a lot for England over the four years. It wasn’t something new that I’d picked up three wickets, and a crucial batter or two.It’s something I prided myself on, breaking partnerships and taking wickets. So for me it was like half the job’s done. Let’s sit down and be excited about watching our batsman show what they can do.I never felt as though we’d won the game and I’d put in the matchwinning performance. I felt I’d done my job, nothing more.What did the team make of the target of 242?
It was a medium score, but we knew New Zealand are a fighting team who go about their game with workmanship. They’ve got their superstars, obviously, but they are a bit like us as a team, when they get behind each other they do well.It’s the final, it’s the pressure, you know if you lose a few wickets early it’s going to scare you a bit, that’s the nature of the beast. But we we’d played all round the world, and in English conditions in county cricket. We knew this type of wicket, we knew we could adapt to this, that’s what we were thinking.ALSO READ: ‘Whatever happens will not define you’ – Memories of the Super OverWhat does a bowler go through in those circumstances, knowing they may have a crucial role to play with the bat?
Apart from those first few overs, I felt fairly relaxed. I was enjoying watching the game and it was only towards the end I thought “Oh shit, I should get my pads on here”. I’m actually playing this game, I need to go for a bat.I know my strengths and weaknesses as a batsman. I’ll look to get a single, but if the ball is there I know I can hit it out of the ground, so that was my thing. If I can get off strike I’ll give Stokesy the strike, but otherwise I’m smacking it to the boundaryIdeally I’d have liked to hit two more boundaries, but the way the game went I wouldn’t have changed it. But after taking three-for in the first innings, it was at the back of my mind, “Imagine if I can smack four sixes here and win us the game.”But looking back on the last four years with England, I felt like every single person wanted you to do well, whether they were 12th or 13th man. Everyone wanted the same thing, pushed each other, encouraged each other, everyone was one team.It’s remarkable to think that you played in two World Cups, 12 years apart. How did the 2019 experience compare to 2007?
I was so fresh-faced, I was just happy being involved really. I didn’t say too much, I just cracked on, did what I did, and enjoyed the experience of sitting next to someone like Freddie [Flintoff].The squad was an amazing place. We’d just beaten New Zealand and Australia in the VB Series, but I felt personally I was bowling as well as I ever had. I was swinging the ball and winning games for England. But then we got beaten by New Zealand in the World Cup opener and the whole pedalo incident happened, and that put a dampener on things.Liam Plunkett celebrates after dismissing Henry Nicholls•Getty ImagesYou were such a different bowler around that time. You bowled Adam Gilchrist with an inswinging yorker that doesn’t seem to be in your armoury any more
I watched that yorker again not long ago. I picked up some big wickets in that series. Ponting, Clarke, Gilchrist again. I felt like “I’ve landed here”, to be playing cricket, opening the bowling for England with the white ball.And it’s amazing to think that I was swinging the ball and now that’s something I don’t do, my action has completely changed. I went the other way, down a different avenueI was always fighting with taking the ball away from the right hander, but I remember talking to Shaun Pollock, one of my role models, who said, “Mate, sometimes bringing the ball back at a batsman is the most difficult thing to face. If a new batsman comes in and you’re attacking the stumps, he can’t leave it, so you can look for the lbws and bowleds.”So that put me at ease and I embraced that role. If it’s not swinging it doesn’t matter. If you feel like your wrist is the wrong side and you’re angling it in, just work with it, get used to the feeling. He made me feel it’s okay not to be able to swing it away.You were one of a generation of England quicks – James Anderson among them – whose actions were remodelled by the biomechanical analysts at Loughborough. How much did that affect your development?
When I was first picked under Duncan Fletcher in 2005, I was so young. I just wasn’t thinking about where I was in my career. It was just “Oh wow, I’m playing cricket for England”, just as it had been “Oh wow, I’m playing cricket for Durham academy … second team, first team … England”. In those days, I didn’t think about the action side of things, I just ran up and bowled, it felt a natural thing for me.But there’d always been people wanting to tinker with my action. When I went to the U19 World Cup in 2004, Troy Cooley and some of them guys wanted to change my action, which I’d always thought in the back of my head was more a West Indian style. They were like, you’ve got to become more like Brett Lee. You’re going to get injured, everyone has to bowl like this, with my right arm coming back to my shoulder. And that completely knackered me.I had to go to Loughborough day in, day out, for three or four months, to bowl and bowl with this new action, and I arrived at the U19 World Cup, I was bowling 75mph swingers. It was only when I got back to Durham that Geoff Cook [director of cricket] said, “What’s going on here then, you’re not bowling like that!”So I went back to my old action, but I found that when you move something by a centimetre it feels like a metre, so correcting my arm’s arc felt like an eternity.

I was going to bed before a match, and all I could think about was about how embarrassing it’s going to be to play for EnglandOn the pressures of bowling with an unfamiliar action

There were times in your early Test career when you were visibly struggling with the action you’d had imposed on you…
It’s hard looking back on that period when my form dipped. I remember playing in that Test match against West Indies at Old Trafford [in 2007], way back when Peter Moores was in charge. I got dropped for the next Test and I now know why, because I wasn’t good enough at that point.It got to the point that I was going to bed before a match, and all I could think about was about how embarrassing it’s going to be to play for England. The people around you are all saying you’re lucky to play for England, and I totally agree, but I’m also like, “I’m about to embarrass myself with six wides in a row.”All you’re thinking about is your action, bowling down the leg side, watching it going for four. It’s not a great place to be. I’d be thinking about my wrist, and my front arm, and suddenly you’re bowling against yourself, not the batsman. And even on the days when it does go well, if you try and repeat that the day after, you’re not sure how you did it.You played just two one-off ODIs in the next seven years. Did you feel like you’d been forgotten?
It was obviously the right call for me to go back to county cricket, but that just put me under even more pressure, because I was a youngster who’d just been playing for England and I had been getting wickets.I ended up in a spiral where I was going out a bit too much, and just coasting along really. I’d always been a hard trainer, and I still had a work ethic, but it never felt as though I was doing anything specific with my training, I was just relying on my talent and my fitness. It came to a point where I wasn’t performing.So I moved to Yorkshire, and Jason Gillespie saw that my fitness was at its peak, and he just told me to bowl quick, That ignited my fire really, and from there I got better and better. A simple focus on bowling quick pushed me in the right way, and that’s when my Test recall came.I wasn’t thinking about England when I moved to Yorkshire. I would have said it was my ambition, of course, but how much I believed it, I’m not sure.Do you think that the challenge of processing all that information helped you become a better player?
When you think about it, Jimmy [Anderson] is still going after having his action changed, too – he’s one of the best bowlers ever in red-ball cricket, and I am where I am. After going through that period of learning and figuring ourselves out, yeah, it actually could have helped us in the long run.In every walk of life, if you’re not learning you’re staying still and people overtake you. I want to continue on this path, because when you’ve played cricket for so long, you have the foundation stuff, you’re so highly qualified that you can pass on your knowledge to other people.That’s why you go out and get your coaching badges, I’d like to help people out playing cricket, going forward, I’d like to give something back. I feel I could be some sort of an asset for a team, wherever it is.So is that how you’ve been spending your time in lockdown?
Yeah, I’m currently studying for a career as a strength-and-conditioning coach. It pretty much started after the World Cup when I was still involved with England. I went back to Wimbledon where I was living with Morne Morkel, and a couple of weeks later, I started looking into the Training Room, and then got approached to work with them.The course I’m doing is one that I can do in my own time, so there’s no pressure if there are certain days in the season when you couldn’t do stuff. But while I’m studying I’m learning, and it’s helping my body. Putting all that into practice could actually prolong my career.Liam Plunkett works on his bowling action with England’s then-bowling coach, Allan Donald•Getty ImagesSo you are still committed to playing even though your England days are done?
My aim for the next three years is to play for Surrey. I’ll keep doing that for as long as I know I can turn up and help win games. As soon as I can’t do that, I’ll stop playing.But the next step is definitely something I have to start thinking about. I’m 35, and my main focus is still cricket, but while I’m playing I’d be stupid not to use the resources and try to go down different avenues. When I have time, especially in the last few months, I just get my head down in my books and learn something new.Have you always been the studious type?
It’s something I should have done a lot more of when I was younger, but I just wanted to play cricket. The thing I’d advise any professional sportsman is, “Why not get your teeth into something?” Because you actually have so much more spare time than you think.You think you are busy all the time, but you’re really not. You finish practice at 1pm, so you’ve all that time to kill. Why not use an hour or two of your day to educate yourself? You’d be stupid not to, because there are only so many people fortunate enough to get roles in TV when their careers come to a halt. You have to put the work in to have an opportunity after cricket.What about the American connection? What’s behind the rumours that you might play for USA?
My wife is American, we’ve been together 13 and a half years, and we’ve been going back and forth between the UK and Philadelphia. It’s a lifestyle we are used to, so if an opportunity came at the right time, I’d love to get involved in American cricket, but playing for America probably isn’t realistic.I want to play for Surrey for three years, or however long, then after that it’s a three-year qualification, so who knows where American cricket will be by then. They might have a great team and I can’t get in, or I might not be good enough and won’t want to play anymore.If I get my qualifications and an opportunity comes up to work in the States, I might take it, but I might also take an opportunity in South Africa, or Australia, or West Indies, if the right job comes up.Me and the missus are on the same page, I’m not just saying I want to go to America and that’s it. I want to do whatever feels right at the time for me and my wife.

England have now won five successive overseas Tests, but face sterner stuff in India

George Dobell25-Jan-2021It perhaps best puts England’s achievement in winning five successive overseas Tests in context by understanding that, the last time they did it – they actually won seven in a row between 1911 and 1914 – Jack Hobbs was in the side, George V was on the throne and Archduke Franz Ferdinand was still thinking ‘this afternoon might be a lovely opportunity for a drive’.There have been long passages in the history of England cricket when to win anywhere – let alone in Asia – was enough to spark national celebrations and MBEs all round. To do so five times in succession? Make no mistake, this is a terrific achievement.We do have to acknowledge that England’s opponents – especially Sri Lanka – have not been at their best. And yes, we probably do have to acknowledge that preparing to face a daunting India side with games against this version of Sri Lanka is a bit like warming up for a bout against Tyson Fury by taking Thora Hird for tea.Related

Jack Leach wants to 'cherish' every moment on first tour of India

Dom Sibley breaks out of slump to help see England home

Sri Lanka's batsmen, and the voice of unreason

Dom Sibley's courage overcomes 'stinker' to seal series with matchwinning fifty

Joe Root – England 'couldn't be in better place' for India challenge

But England have faced substantial challenges of their own in recent months. To come through them and complete these victories does reflect a certain amount of resilience and character. They have now won four successive Test series under their new coach, Chris Silverwood, and established a template based around substantial first-innings totals which has seen them win eight and lose one of their most recent 11 Tests.Don’t forget: England (and, to be fair, Sri Lanka) came into this series without the usual preparation time. They had to make do with just one day of inter-squad cricket on a green surface in Hambantota. They were also without at least four first-choice players in Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Ollie Pope and Rory Burns and one more probable selection in Moeen Ali. They lost the toss in both games, too, which in these conditions is a significant disadvantage.And just because you don’t hear them moaning about the privations of life in the bubble, don’t think it’s not hard. It is lonely, it is dull and it is frustrating. But they’ve all bought into it in the knowledge that English cricket – world cricket, even – needs these tours to take place to prevent financial meltdown. The game owes them plenty.The final day of the series could scarcely have gone better for England had Silverwood scripted it. His under-pressure bowlers took wickets; his under-pressure batsmen (well, most of them) scored runs. They even bowled out Sri Lanka quickly enough – in 35.5 overs – to engineer an extra day on the beach on Tuesday. They couldn’t have reasonably hoped for better.This was an especially big day for England’s spinners. They had struggled to perform the required role in the first innings. It wasn’t just that they finished wicketless – it was the first time since 2001 that seamers had claimed all 10 wickets in a Test innings in Sri Lanka – but that only seven of their 64 overs were maidens. That inability to perform a holding role meant both Mark Wood and James Anderson were obliged to bowl more overs than Dom Bess.In the second innings, they found conditions more helpful. There wasn’t, by any means, vast turn. But there was enough to sow some seeds of doubt in the mind of batsmen who didn’t know which balls would turn and which would go straight on. As a result, Bess and Jack Leach’s skills – which, by the high standards of Test cricket might be described as relatively modest – were brought into play.That’s not meant to sound harsh. Leach, for example, is an admirably consistent bowler. He rarely bowls poorly – yes, there have been some loose balls on this tour, but he did come into it without much cricket over the last 14 months – and, under that everyman exterior, has proved he has more resilience than might immediately be apparent. Illness, injury, a remodeled action: he has come back from plenty.But he doesn’t gain a huge amount of turn. He doesn’t boast deceptive drift or devastating dip. There were times in the first innings when he looked a bit toothless.In conditions providing assistance, however, he really can play a part. You don’t need extravagant turn on such surfaces; you don’t need to be Shane Warne or Murali. Instead, Leach’s ability to put enough balls in the right area, vary his pace and flight a little and gain some natural variation, is enough.This is where bowling in helpful conditions at Taunton has come in handy. Instead of chasing the game, as a more inexperienced bowler might have done, both Leach and Bess were content to bide their time, build spells and trust their own skills and the pitch to do the rest. And for all their limitations, the fact is Bess claimed 12 wickets at 21.25 in these two games and produced an important innings on day three of this game. Yes, that’s flattering. But for a player in development, he keeps finding a way to contribute.There is a chance that, in India, they will be able to replicate such performances on the fourth and fifth days. Generally, though, pitches in India are flat and full of runs for the first three or four days. It would represent a significant tactical error if they present England with the sort of turning surface which might bring England’s spinners into play.We have to acknowledge, too, that some of Sri Lanka’s batting was of a modest standard. The aim on the fourth day, no doubt, was calculated aggression. Instead, they hacked and heaved their way into recklessness. Their 126 here was not quite as poor as their 135 in the first Test – there was almost no assistance in the surface on that occasion – but it was an unusually frenetic, soft display. It’s hard to imagine India selling their wickets so cheaply in the forthcoming series.But this is, very often, the way of modern cricket. When conditions favour bowlers, batsmen invariably attempt to hit their way to safety. It’s a scenario that reflects the predominance of limited-overs cricket, certainly, but also the decline in defensive techniques. Had Sri Lanka’s batsmen trusted their defensive game, they surely would have reacted differently to this situation.As an aside, you wonder if the ECB would have penalised a county side producing a surface like this. A pitch where Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner, Lasith Embuldeniya, opened the bowling and claimed two wickets in his first 19 balls. A pitch where spin claimed 23 of the final 24 wickets to fall in the match, with the other accounted for by a run-out. Some of Somerset’s opponents have bleated like lambs after their experiences in Taunton. But as preparation for Test cricket in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, in particular, they do a decent job. If other counties did the same, England’s pool of spinners – and their pool of batsmen who could play spin bowling – would increase rapidly.This was a big day for Dom Sibley, too. He came into this innings having scored six in three innings in the series so far. With Ben Stokes and, more pertinently, Rory Burns returning to the squad for the India series, his place in the side is likely to be squeezed. He really needed some runs. And England really needed him to score some, too.Sibley’s technique would appear to be in transition at present. He hasn’t worked with Gary Palmer, the coach who advocates an open stance and who revitalised his career a few years ago, for some time. So while he still stands open, he then plonks his front foot down the pitch and ends up playing across it. This negates the purpose of the open stance and leaves him a major leg before risk. Three times here he was the beneficiary of umpire’s call decisions. He has few release shots, either. Rarely did he look comfortable; not for a moment did he look pretty.But he watches the ball hard, he has a strong mind and he has remarkable patience. In playing back more often that he had previously and trusting himself to adapt to the turn, he found a way to prosper. And in seeing his side over the line in the fourth-innings, he did what many more celebrated players have not managed.Dom Sibley overcame a tough start to the tour•Getty ImagesAnd then there was Jos Buttler. Buttler has, upon occasion, batted as well as this. He was excellent on the previous tour of Sri Lanka, for example, and very good in the recently-completed series against Pakistan. Here he produced a couple of fluent innings to take the pressure off his partners.Perhaps more significantly, he has never kept better. Yes, he’s been pretty good standing back to the seamers for a while. But standing up to spin, he had sometimes looked an accident waiting to happen. Here he took the ball cleanly as often as any keeper could hope and looked a far improved player.With that in mind, there will be those calling for him to remain with the squad in India for the entire Test series. But it is right that Buttler heads home after the first Test. He looked more jaded than anyone following their World Cup win and is clearly better when refreshed. Who is to say whether the prospect of a break hasn’t helped him produce his best form here? Such freedom worked wonders for Sir Alastair Cook in his final Test, after all.With Joe Root batting as well as he has in years and Stuart Broad and Anderson showing no signs of decline despite their years, England head to India in as fine fettle as they could possibly have hoped. There will, you suspect, be some mightily tough days in the coming weeks. Nobody is suggesting England are anything but underdogs.But in 107 more years, it’s entirely possible a new generation of supporters will look back on these results and think ‘five in a row; imagine that’. Whatever happens next, this has been an admirable achievement.

And what is the highest partnership by a pair of debutants in all formats?

Steven Lynch15-Dec-2020The West Indies team for the second Test appeared to have been selected using a Scrabble set – the batsmen’s surnames all begin with B or C, the wicketkeeper with D, and the bowlers with G, H or J! Has there ever been a Test XI with no one beyond J in the alphabet before? asked Anthony Pritchard from England
The West Indies team against New Zealand in Wellington, with no one’s surname starting later than the tenth letter of the alphabet – Alzarri Joseph comes last in alphabetical order – is unusual. But it’s always dangerous to say that something has never happened before in cricket, and it turns out this has: when West Indies played Pakistan in Sharjah in 2001-02, their last surname in alphabetical order was wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs.But England had already gone better still: against Pakistan in Karachi in 1987-88, all their players’ surnames came from the first seven letters of the alphabet, with Graham Gooch bringing up the rear.This set off a discussion in ESPNcricinfo Towers about the player whose surname would score you the most points in Scrabble. It’s complicated by some subcontinental names – which part do you use? – but Shiva Jayaraman of the stats team was last seen scurrying into a darkened room, coffee in hand, to work it out. My money’s on Rizwan-uz-Zaman!When I tuned in to the Wellington Test, Joshua Da Silva and Chemar Holder were batting together – which made me wonder: what is the highest partnership by a pair of debutants in all formats? asked Roger Sawh from Canada
There have so far been 12 partnerships of 100 or more (plus one of 99) by two Test debutants. Top of the list, by quite a distance, is the opening stand of 249 by Billy Ibadulla (166) and Abdul Kadir (95) for Pakistan against Australia in Karachi in 1964-65. Next comes a sixth-wicket partnership of 165, by Dave Houghton (121) and Andy Flower (59) in Zimbabwe’s first Test, against India in Harare in 1992-93.There has been only one century stand by a pair of debutants in one-day internationals – 118 for the fifth wicket (after being 20 for 4) by Ryan Watson and Neil McCallum for Scotland against Pakistan in Edinburgh in 2006.And the highest stand by debutants in a T20I is an unbroken one of 90, for Mozambique’s sixth wicket against Malawi, by Damiao Couana and Filipe Cossa in Lilongwe in November 2019. How many times has a team scored the highest total of a Test in the fourth innings and still lost? asked Francis Curro from Australia
There have now been 47 Tests in which the fourth-innings total was the highest of the match. Of those, 16 have not been enough to stave off defeat. The highest fourth-innings total that still resulted in a loss was Pakistan’s 450, after being set 490 to win by Australia in Brisbane in 2016-17.Of the rest, 24 have produced wins: the highest such total is West Indies’ 418 for 7 against Australia (who had scored 417 in their second innings) in St John’s, Antigua in 2003-04. And seven times such a score has forced a draw, most notably when England amassed 654 for 5 in the timeless Test in Durban in 1938-39.India almost fielded five players with 100 caps in the 2008 Test in New Delhi – it was VVS Laxman’s 99th Test, while Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble and Ganguly had gone past 100•Getty ImagesWhich Test team contained the most players who had 100 caps? asked Rajiv Radhakrishnan from England
During 2006-07, Australia played five matches with four players who had 100 or more caps to their name. India equalled this late in 2007, and over the next couple of years played several Tests with four centurions in their ranks. In one of these, against Australia in Delhi in 2008-09, they came very close to fielding five, as VVS Laxman was winning his 99th cap. He made it to 100 in the next game. Anil Kumble retired after that Delhi match – his 132nd Test – leaving Laxman alongside Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar.On 13 occasions in the 1990s, Australia fielded a team containing eight players who finished their careers with 100 or more Test caps, although they had not all reached three figures at the time. The World XI that took on Australia in the Super Series Test in Sydney in 2005-06 had nine players who would finish with more than 100 caps.I just noticed that all of the Australian team from the first ODI are still living. What’s the earliest Test side in which all the players are still alive? asked Gary Reid from Australia
I’m always a little nervous about this sort of question, but it’s true to say that as I write all 11 members of Australia’s side in the first official one-day international, in Melbourne in January 1971, are still alive nearly 50 years on. Three of the England players – Colin Cowdrey, Basil D’Oliveira and John Hampshire – have sadly passed away.The oldest Test team from which all 11 members currently survive dates from around 14 months earlier: all 11 of Pakistan’s players who took on New Zealand in Lahore in October 1969 are still alive. They are all over 70 now: the oldest, Intikhab Alam, will be 79 in two weeks’ time.