All posts by h716a5.icu

Quinton de Kock and Mahmudullah did their stats no harm with their centuries either

Sampath Bandarupalli24-Oct-20234 – Number of 380-plus totals by South Africa in ODIs in 2023, including three at the ongoing World Cup. These are the joint-most 380-plus totals for a team in a calendar year in men’s ODIs, equalling the four they had in 2015.8 – Number of ODIs won by South Africa with a margin of 100-plus runs in 2023. South Africa won nine and lost only one of the ten matches they batted first in this year. Pakistan, in 1999, are the only other team with as many as eight ODI wins by a margin of 100-plus runs – they batted first in 21 matches that year.ESPNcricinfo Ltd7 – Consecutive 300-plus totals for South Africa while batting first in ODIs, the joint-longest streak for any team. Australia in 2007 and England in 2019 also had a run of seven matches where they crossed the 300-run mark batting first.174 – Quinton de Kock’s score against Bangladesh is the highest by a wicketkeeper in a men’s ODI World Cup match. The previous highest was 149 by Adam Gilchrist against Sri Lanka in the final of the 2007 edition. (Even though de Kock did not keep wickets in this match, the record is against his name since he was the designated wicketkeeper in the team list at the toss.)1 – Number of individual scores higher than de Kock’s 174 for South Africa in the men’s ODI World Cup. Gary Kirsten’s 188* against UAE in 1996 remains the highest, not only at World Cups but overall. De Kock is also the first South Africa player with three centuries in a single edition of the World Cup.ESPNcricinfo Ltd3 – Number of 150-plus scores for de Kock in ODIs, the most by a wicketkeeper. His three 150-plus scores are also the second-highest for South Africa in the format, behind only Hashim Amla’s four.10.58 – South Africa’s scoring rate between the 41st and 50th overs in ODIs in 2023. They scored 100-plus runs in their last ten overs this year in six out of nine innings where they batted the entire 50 overs.It is the highest run rate for any team in a calendar year since 2002 for a minimum of ten innings. The next highest is also South Africa’s – 9.80 in 2015.19 – Sixes hit by the South Africa batters against Bangladesh, the joint-highest by any team against Bangladesh in an ODI innings. West Indies also hit 19 sixes against Bangladesh in 2014.2 – The 19 sixes by South Africa are also the joint-second-highest by any team in a men’s ODI World Cup game, behind England’s 25 against Afghanistan in 2019. Only twice did South Africa hit more sixes in a men’s ODI – 20 against India in 2015, also at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, and against Australia in Centurion earlier this year.3 – Centuries for Mahmudullah in the ODI World Cup, the most for Bangladesh. Shakib Al Hasan (2) and Mushfiqur Rahim (1) are the others to score centuries for Bangladesh at the World Cup, all of those coming in 2019. Mahmudullah’s previous two World Cup centuries came in successive matches in 2015.

Thanks to the Impact Player rule, CSK could be tempted to have him on field for 20 overs, and use him as a batter when his impact can be maximum

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Mar-20244:52

Is this the right time for Gaikwad the captain?

MS Dhoni has done it again. Yet again, he has stepped away from a role without an announcement, forget fanfare. Right from his Test retirement back on December 30, 2014, Dhoni has once again caught everyone by surprise. Nobody outside Chennai Super Kings (CSK) seemed to have an inkling until Ruturaj Gaikwad turned up for the captains’ photoshoot a day before the first match of this edition of IPL: CSK against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).Minutes later, the CSK management confirmed the development with a cursory one-line press release, which chose to omit Dhoni’s role as a player now that he is not captain. Given nothing has been said, it is safe to assume Dhoni will continue playing as a wicketkeeper and occasional batter.It is possibly the Impact Player rule that allows Dhoni to step down from captaincy while still letting him shepherd the new captain into his role. It opens up interesting possibilities for CSK to have him on the field for the whole 20 overs but use him as a batter when his impact can be maximum.It is no secret Dhoni preferred to bat only a few number of deliveries and certain match-ups last year, which happened to be the introductory year for the Impact Player. Now he can almost formalise that arrangement.If CSK bat first, they can start off without Dhoni in the XI. If wickets fall and match-ups allow for it, Dhoni can be substituted in while the batting innings is on. If he is not required at all, he can substitute a batter and keep through the defence.If CSK are chasing, Dhoni can keep through the fielding innings and make way for a batter during the chase. Of course Dhoni could be used as a batter in some games where the match-ups suit him and CSK fancy bringing in an extra bowler for a specialist batter.Whichever way it turns out, Dhoni has opened up a lot of talking points and tactical possibilities right on the eve of what was proving to be an uneventful start to the IPL. And he has done so without warning.

And how many women have scored a hundred in one session of a Test?

Steven Lynch09-Jul-2024Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have bowed out of T20Is as the two leading scorers in the format. Which current player is on top now? asked Jason Hewitt from England
You’re right that Rohit Sharma (4231 runs) and Virat Kohli (4188) are currently the leading scorers in men’s T20Is. The only other man over 4000 as I write is Pakistan’s Babar Azam, with 4145 – so he needs only another 87 runs to take over top spot, assuming Rohit and Kohli don’t play again.There’s something of a surprise in fourth place: it’s Ireland’s Paul Stirling, with 3601 runs. There are five other men over 3000, but three of them are no longer playing internationals. Of current batters, Mohammad Rizwan has 3313 runs and Jos Buttler 3264.However, this is one area in which the women currently outrank the men: New Zealand’s Suzie Bates is still playing, and her 43 in the first match against England in Southampton at the weekend took her past Rohit Sharma’s tally.What’s the most centuries scored in a Test and an ODI without someone else making a fifty? asked Vikash Lal Dodani from Pakistan
There have been seven Test matches which featured seven individual centuries (plus two with eight). In one of the instances of seven, there were no other scores between 50 and 99 – in the match between India and South Africa in Kolkata in 2009-10.There were seven hundreds and only one fifty in England’s matches against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1938, and against West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 2008-09. The match between Australia and New Zealand in Perth in 2015-16 featured six hundreds but no fifties.The record for one-day internationals is four hundreds and no individual fifties, in a match between Pakistan and Australia in Lahore in 1998-99.How many people have extended their maiden Test century to 300? asked Peter de Vries from Ireland
Three men have turned their maiden Test century into a triple. The first to do so was the great West Indian Garry Sobers, with 365 not out – the record Test score at the time – against Pakistan in Kingston in 1957-58.Australia’s Bob Simpson waited till his 30th Test before reaching three figures – but made it count when he did, by going on to 311 against England at Old Trafford in 1964. And the latest man to join this exclusive club was India’s Karun Nair, with 303 not out against England in Chennai in 2016-17.Shafali Verma is the only women’s player to score a hundred in a single session of a Test•BCCIShafali Verma scored a hundred between lunch and tea in the recent women’s Test at Eden Gardens. Has anyone else ever scored a hundred in a session in a women’s Test? asked AK Srivastava from India
The Indian opener Shafali Verma had 65 at lunch on the first day of the recent women’s Test against South Africa in Chennai, and made rapid progress to 165 not out at tea. Women’s Tests are not as well documented as most of the men’s, but after looking at the likely contenders I’m reasonably confident in saying this was the first occasion that a woman has scored a hundred or more runs in a session.Verma went on to 205, the tenth double-century in women’s Tests and the second for India, after Mithali Raj’s 214 against England in Taunton in 2002.Verma’s opening partnership of 292 with Smriti Mandhana (149) was another women’s Test record: the previous-best for the first wicket was 241, by Kiran Baluch and 16-year-old Sajjida Shah for Pakistan against West Indies in Karachi in 2003-04. The only higher stand for any wicket is 309 for the third, by Lindsay Reeler and Denise Annetts for Australia against England in Wetherby in 1987.And finally, India’s eventual total of 603 for 6 declared was also a record for a women’s Test, beating Australia’s 575 for 9 declared against South Africa in Perth earlier this year.At the other end of the scale, to answer a different question from Michael Tucker from the West Indies, the unfortunate Delmi Tucker provided the 30th instance of a woman bagging a pair in a Test. England’s Laura Marsh is the only player with two.How often have Zimbabwe beaten India in an official international, as they did the other day? asked Lamela Makonwe from Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s win in a T20 international in Harare at the weekend was their 15th victory over India in all formats, but the first for more than eight years, since another T20 win in Harare in June 2016. It should be acknowledged that this was an entirely different Indian side to the one that won the T20 World Cup final in Bridgetown a week earlier.Zimbabwe have now won three T20 matches against India, to go with ten one-day international victories, including a 50-over World Cup win in Leicester in 1999. They have also come out on top in two Test matches: by 61 runs in Harare in October 1998, and by four wickets in Harare in June 2001.For the full list of Zimbabwe’s victories over India in all three formats, click here. The two countries have not yet met in an official women’s international.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

He has paid SRH back more than the INR 20 lakh they got him for, and is more than likely to get a bigger payday come the next IPL auction

Vishal Dikshit15-May-2024Nitish Kumar Reddy wasn’t expecting to be retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) before the last IPL auction. Can’t blame him – he featured in just two games in IPL 2023 in which he didn’t get to bat and leaked 54 runs in five wicketless overs.”Even I thought no one is going to pick me and suddenly SRH retained me,” Reddy says in a chat with ESPNcricinfo on the sidelines of IPL 2024. “I was like, ‘I have to work a little more’.”While some of the top allrounders earned massive deals in the IPL 2023 auction, Reddy, hardly a big force in the IPL circuit, was signed for his base price of INR 20 lakh, picked primarily as a bowler who can bat a bit.Related

Nitish Reddy flexes his seam-bowling all-round credentials

He displayed his bowling prowess earlier this year for Andhra in a Ranji Trophy game, when his 5 for 64 had Mumbai in trouble at one point. Reddy bowled with a fairly new ball, removed Ajinkya Rahane for a golden duck, swung the ball both ways, and later also dismissed Shreyas Iyer from around the wicket with the old ball.The SRH think-tank would have patted themselves on the back for investing in a teenager who would become Andhra’s top wicket-taker in the last Ranji season with an average of just 18.76. But that’s not all there is to him as we have discovered more recently.Reddy, who calls himself a “genuine allrounder”, got his IPL opportunity of this IPL season when Mayank Agarwal was unwell, against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). In the eight balls he faced in that game, Reddy showed glimpses of his temperament, reverse-sweeping Ravindra Jadeja for four and the completing SRH’s victory with a straight six off Deepak Chahar.A much bigger test, however, awaited Reddy in the next match when the Punjab Kings (PBKS) quicks reduced SRH to 39 for 3 in five overs, the trio of Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Aiden Markram gone.SRH typically want Henrich Klaasen to walk out in the second half of the innings for the big hits, and for that they needed someone to steer the ship for a few more overs. Reddy moved along to 14 off 17 balls, with Rahul Tripathi falling on the way, to rebuild for his team. It was one of those occasions when SRH’s high-risk-high-reward batting approach at the top didn’t work.

“I don’t really feel satisfied when the team scores 270 and I score 50 or 40 runs of those. But when the team really needs me, like when we are 4 for 10 or something like that, and I can go there and take the team till the end or the last over… I want to showcase that because that’s what my role is”

“We know it’s not going to work every time. It’s not like we will go hard on opponents all the time, but one bad game, one bad ball, such things happen and we have to be prepared for early wickets,” Reddy says. “You can see at first we scored huge runs and after that we collapsed. So I’ve been thinking at the back of my mind for this situation that if the team is going to collapse, I have to be ready for that situation.”Once Reddy had set his eye in, he figured out that the fast bowlers were getting more out of the fresh pitch in Mullanpur, so it was better to go after spin. He soon laid into Harpreet Brar for a 15-run over that turned the tide of the innings. From 66 for 4 after ten, SRH went on to post 182, despite losing Klaasen for just 9, because Reddy slammed 64 off 37 – including 22 more off Brar in the 15th over. Reddy’s maiden T20 fifty had come in the IPL, that too in a rescue act.”I just love playing these kinds of innings,” he says. “I don’t really feel satisfied when the team scores 270 and I score 50 or 40 runs of those. But when the team really needs me, like when we are 4 for 10 or something like that, and I can go there and take the team till the end or the last over… I want to showcase that because that’s what my role is.”A few games later, SRH were under the pump again. They had lost back-to-back games to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and CSK, and then got to 37 for 2 after six overs, their poorest powerplay of IPL 2024, against Rajasthan Royals (RR), who possess one of the best bowling attacks in the competition.With Head for company, Reddy went back to his template of building a base and then identifying a bowler to take on, no matter how high profile. Once he was on a comfortable 22 off 19, he tore into Yuzvendra Chahal to change the momentum of the innings. Two sixes over the bowler’s head and two fours on the off side meant Reddy had smashed the star legspinner for 20 in an over.He finished on 76 not out in 42 balls. Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the Player-of-the-Match award after SRH’s win for his 3 for 41, but Reddy was ESPNcricinfo’s MVP.Nitish Kumar Reddy has held his own in a team of superstars•AFP/Getty ImagesReddy, however, rues the losses to RCB and CSK before that. In both those games, SRH were chasing 200-plus totals and were 56 for 4 and 40 for 3 respectively within the powerplay. The stage was set, but Reddy couldn’t capitalise on his run-a-ball starts, and SRH slipped down the points table.”I loved the Punjab innings but after that against CSK and RCB, I wanted to take the team till the end,” Reddy says. “I was very disappointed for those two innings, and I was thinking if we have to be on top of the table, I have to take the team till the end when the team collapses. That’s what my role is. So ,when I didn’t do well in those two matches, I felt really bad and I feel winning those [kind of] games will be more satisfying for me; I wasn’t satisfied at all.”Coming back to this game with RR, winning like that with a crucial knock after two early wickets, that knock really boosted me.”While being the SRH crisis man, Reddy has so far scored 239 runs from seven innings while striking at 152.22 and averaging a formidable 47.80, with more sixes (17) than fours (12). The highlight has been his ability to change the course of a game with one big over, even if a big-name bowler is against him.He has scored 23 off ten against Chahal, 21 off eight against R Ashwin, 19 off ten against Avesh Khan, and ten off five against Kuldeep Yadav. Reddy attributes this largely to match awareness and some homework.”I just watch a couple of videos and variations of bowlers before going into the match,” he says. “And, according to the field, you will get to know what ball [the bowler] is going to bowl. It’s just that the starting phase of batting will be a little difficult to get boundaries or to get that opportunity to get the gaps. But once you cross 20-30, you will feel like you know what the bowler is going to do next, and you will have a good idea of what the pitch is also behaving like.3:18

‘Time to start investing in Nitish Reddy the allrounder’

“I would take some time in my innings and after that I accelerate. I will choose a bowler or someone who is good to strike against.”Reddy relies a lot on his base of solid technique to score in the ‘V’ in front and to pull the short balls, options that have helped him score a lot this IPL. He was also aware before the season that he had to raise his batting, especially against spinners, knowing that he would largely bat in the middle overs. One shot he worked a lot on was the reverse sweep, which has earned him 22 runs off just ten balls this IPL.”Spinners mostly keep three fielders around point area [cover point, backward point, and short third] and one sweeper cover, so it’s really hard [to score],” Reddy says about his reverse sweep. “You have to time the ball, otherwise you’ll be out. So I just practice the reverse sweep; it’s easy to score over [the three short fielders off side].”A habit Reddy has developed over time is visualising such situations when in his hotel room, plus shadow batting, which he often does during training sessions at the ground as well. It’s this hunger “to always improve” that has brought him quick success in the IPL, which he wants to build on to become a gun allrounder like his idols Hardik Pandya and Ben Stokes.”I want to take it to the next level, there are not many people like that [proper allrounders],” he says. “Maybe in half a year I might become the allrounder [I want to be]. I guess in bowling I need to be more specific also. Like I know I’m not getting the chances, but I have to read the game. I’m not getting that experience in bowling as of now, I am just bowling one or two overs.

“I feel being an allrounder is a difficult job. At the same time, we are the match-winners. It’s not easy to take the recovery part properly to maintain your body, like you have to make sure you’re in a good space”

“It’s okay, but I can learn something from T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar, they all are doing good so I want to gain that experience through watching them and I want to practice a little more because you can see in India A and B levels there is no impact rule. There I can get my bowling chances and improve.”Reddy admits “it’s really hard” being an allrounder because of the different demands and the toll it takes on the body.”I feel being an allrounder is a difficult job,” he says. “At the same time, we are the match-winners. It’s not easy to take the recovery part properly to maintain your body, like you have to make sure you’re in a good space. So you have to recover, look after your body or maintenance, your fitness so that’s where your performance will be connecting. If you miss even one or two sessions, it will affect you on the ground, so it’s really hard to be an allrounder.”But, as I mentioned, I always love to be a match-winner, so I don’t have any choice. I have to be an allrounder and I will work on my fitness and everything.”Reddy has taken the first few steps towards it.He was named the best cricketer in the Under-16 category by the BCCI at their annual awards function in 2018. Six years on, he has become a vital cog between the hard-hitters at the top and in the lower order for SRH.He probably shouldn’t blame himself if he is not retained by SRH after IPL 2024, as that will be the big one, but if he is let go by them and picked for a much bigger amount than the INR 20 lakh he currently gets, he can claim to have earned it.

Full-time mom, Cricket Scotland administrator and elite sportsperson. She doesn’t want to have any regrets later

Shashank Kishore06-Oct-2024Abbi Aitken-Drummond has a full-time role as the executive assistant to Cricket Scotland’s CEO in her day job. Away from work, she co-parents her 13-month-old daughter. Between these two demanding roles, she plays cricket, and is now, quite incredibly, part of Scotland’s maiden T20 World Cup 2024 squad.Aitken-Drummond, 33, is one of Scotland’s longest-serving players, having first come into the set-up in 2003-04 at the age of 14. She captained from 2008 to 2015 and was more recently the team manager at the 2023 Women’s Under-19 World Cup in South Africa to players she now calls colleagues.”The other day, we were chatting about our journeys and Olivia Bell told me she was one year old when I made my debut,” Aitken-Drummond tells ESPNcricinfo. “I was like, ‘Wow, thanks for making me feel so old’ ().”Related

Powerplay podcast: First impressions from the Women's T20 World Cup

Bryce sisters to lead Scotland at Women's T20 World Cup 2024

For Aitken-Drummond, the World Cup seemed like an afterthought, especially after she had to miss the Qualifiers to be on parental leave. But she made the push when a second shot at being part of a history-making squad presented itself.”I knew it wasn’t a right that I’d be back when available,” she says. “I had to work for it. I played for Scotland A with county teams in England [during the build-up], featured for Scotland in a tri-series with Netherlands and Papua New Guinea. But in my mind, I wasn’t sure I’d done enough.”But upon her return to Edinburgh, when Aitken-Drummond received an unexpected phone call from Cricket Scotland, her heart fluttered. “It was our head of performance to tell me I’d been picked,” she remembers.”When my phone rang, I was actually eager to know which of my phones were ringing: work phone or personal phone. I was kind of hoping it wouldn’t be the work phone () because it would’ve then been some admin-related stuff.”When the phone rang, in my mind I was like ‘this is now or never. Which phone is it?’ And then I saw his name pop up on my personal phone. I kind of knew it was about selection. Had I known we’d get calls that day, I may have been beside the phone, restless all day. It’s a good thing I didn’t know when the squad was being picked.”

“I know just being part of the 15, whether I play or not, I can provide a lot of support. I’ve been team manager to four of them in the past and I’d like to think my door is always open.”Abbi Aitken-Drummond

Aitken-Drummond isn’t privy to sensitive matters, such as selection, despite being a Cricket Scotland employee. It’s a boundary she has learnt to draw having juggled a career as a player and administrator. Having studied Event Management in university, Aitken-Drummond has loved to apply some of her learnings to “this side of the rope as well as the other side.””Most players tend to go down the coaching path, but my passion lies in the administration,” she says. “Our CEO Trudy Lindblade has been in the role for eight months now. She’s my line manager back home, but over here [in the UAE] she’s like, ‘we’re not speaking work. Focus on your game and enjoy it.’ I’ve been away from my laptop, enjoying being on this side of the fence.”Aitken-Drummond had to put in long days – sometimes they stretch 18 hours – to make this journey possible. The motivation for her daughter to say, “my mum played in Scotland’s first World Cup” and for her partner [Annette Drummond, former Scotland player] to “live a dream she missed out on” pushed her.”It has needed a whole new level of organisation skills,” she says. “I’m at work for 10 hours a day, four days a week – Monday to Thursday from 8am to 6pm. Quite often I’m able to work from home, so that helps being around our daughter. Then I head to the nets for my training. No two days are the same. It’s so much easier when you have a routine, but that’s been challenging.”Sometimes, it’s not possible and then I’d feel that guilt of not training enough. But I also recognise if you’re not able to sleep enough, those gym sessions are unlikely to be productive either. So, I’ve learnt to be flexible about these things. So, most days after dinner, when I’ve put my daughter to sleep, I head over to the gym, try sneak in a session or two indoors. It’s tough to juggle everything, but you try and do as best as you can.”I don’t want to look back and regret these small things later on, they grow up quick. But I’m really grateful to my partner for the support. This wouldn’t be possible without her. She pushed me, saying, ‘I don’t want you to regret later, this is your chance, go get it.'”For the moment, Aitken-Drummond is happy being part of the group, irrespective of her role within the set-up. “If you’d told me 20 years ago Scotland would play in a women’s World Cup, I’d have laughed.”The big goal was to make sure I was here. I know just being part of the 15, whether I play or not, I can provide a lot of support. I’ve been team manager to four of them in the past and I’d like to think my door is always open.”I enjoy one-on-one sessions. If girls are struggling, happy or overwhelmed – just be there for them. Any game I play, I play like it’s my last. Life changes quickly, juggling so many priorities, I don’t want to regret that I could’ve potentially played my last game not having known that. So, I tried each day as it comes.”

Blind risks, calculated calls, trust in personnel and some out-of-the-world performances have ensured South Africa beat the odds

Firdose Moonda31-Dec-2024″It was never meant to be easy,” South Africa’s Test coach Shukri Conrad said when reflecting on his team’s long and winding road to the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s. But was it always meant to be quite so hard?Since August, South Africa have played seven Tests and every one has been a must-win. That’s partly because the paucity of fixtures on their calendar in this cycle (six series of only two Tests each) means every match matters more than if they played more frequently, but it is also their own doing. Losing 2-0 in New Zealand in February with a second-string side because most of the frontline players were contracted to the SA20 was a low point and the most emphatic of the selection dilemmas they faced.In every series, South Africa have been without at least one first-choice player as injuries weaved their way. That South Africa were able to put together XIs that won seven out of their 11 matches, so far, speaks as much to the depth in their system as it does to the willingness of Conrad, who is also the sole selector, to be bold. Some of his choices (from making Temba Bavuma captain ahead of Dean Elgar to picking Corbin Bosch to debut on Boxing Day) raised eyebrows but just about all of them paid off.So much so, that South Africa can truly call what they have done to reach the WTC final a team effort. They have no batter in the top 35 Test run-scorers in this cycle and no bowler in the top 13 wicket-takers. Some of that has to with how little South Africa play but some of it tells the story of how they have benefitted from a range of contributions, each a tile in the mosaic that has become this cycle’s success. Here are some of them.Elgar’s 185 v IndiaTen months after being sidelined as Test captain, Dean Elgar announced the India home series would be his last. Though Elgar initially said his retirement was the result of a mutual discussions, once his contract expired, he told the Afrikaans newspaper Rapport that Conrad was “the reason my career was cut short,” and he felt “stabbed in the back” by Cricket South Africa (CSA).Related

Australia book WTC final date with South Africa at Lord's

Ryan Rickelton, Temba Bavuma centuries drive South Africa's day

Deflated Pakistan look to set record straight in South Africa and level series

'I don't buy this thing about us beating nobody' – Conrad responds to Vaughan's criticism

Mulder: 'I'm here to win games for my country, I'm not here to fill a spot'

He managed to put those feelings aside for a final hurrah at his home ground, SuperSport Park, where he scored a career-best 185 to anchor South Africa’s response to India’s 245 all out. Though South Africa were never in trouble, Elgar’s knock out them in a position of authority from which they could not lose. South Africa took a 163-run first-innings lead and won the match by an innings and 32 runs. They would go on to lose the next Test on an unsatisfactorily rated pitch at Newlands in Elgar’s swansong which only makes the points they took from Boxing Day more important.Enforced but inspired selection The first of Conrad’s crazy picks came out of necessity for the New Zealand series where he put together a group of has-beens, also-rans and newbies to try to defend South Africa’s unbeaten record. They failed, but at least three of them would play important roles in the rest of the cycle: David Bedingham, who saved blushes on the tour with his maiden and to date only Test century, remains firmly installed at No. 5, Dane Paterson (more on that later) and to a slightly lesser extent Dane Piedt.Two other selections worth mentioning are Wiaan Mulder, who was entrusted with the new-ball in Bangladesh and given the role of seam-bowling allrounder. He scored a maiden hundred batting at No. 7 in the second Test and Corbin Bosch, the dream debutant at SuperSport Park. Bosch took a four-fer and scored a crucial 81* off 93 balls to build South Africa’s first-innings lead.Maharaj and Piedt combine in WiAfter rain and a stubborn West Indies effort kept South Africa’s attack at bay in Trinidad, it took a patient bowling performance in Guyana to keep South Africa’s WTC final hopes alive. West Indies were 103 for 4 chasing 263 to win, when Piedt had Alick Athanaze, on 92, caught slog sweeping and South Africa had removed their biggest threat. Between them, Piedt and Keshav Maharaj ran through the rest of the middle and lower order and gave South Africa a 40-run win.Rabada’s subcontinent six-for If there is a superstar in this side, it’s Kagiso Rabada. He took his 300th Test wicket in Mirpur and has the best strike rate among all bowlers to have brought up that landmark.Kyle Verreynne is all smiles after getting to his second Test century•AFP/Getty ImagesWhile his contribution cannot always be measured in numbers – given how often he beats the bat and sets things up for others – he made his most meaningful contribution of the cycle in the first Test against Bangladesh, where South Africa had a 202-run first innings lead and hoped to limit the target. Rabada removed two of Bangladesh’s top three inside three overs, took out Mushfiqur Rahim as he was beginning to look dangerous and then nipped out the tail to leave South Africa with a target of 106. They achieved that to win their first Test in the subcontinent in a decade.The return of VerreynneWhen Conrad first took over, he dropped the incumbent wicket-keeper Kyle Verreynne for Heinrich Klaasen, who felt had “done more.” Klaasen played in two matches, scored 56 runs in four innings, and was promptly replaced by Verreynne, who spent his time out of the Test side, finishing the fifth-leading run-scorer in the first-class competition. These days Verreynne “keeps ribbing me about it when I put him on a sabbatical,” Conrad said. “But he saw the growth in his game.”Since making his comeback, Verreynne has scored two crucial hundreds: in the first Test in Bangladesh when South Africa were 99 for 5 and at St George’s Park, where his 105* off 133 balls propelled South Africa to a first innings total of 358.A quartet of maiden Test tonsVerreynne’s hundred was the first away century for South Africa, and just the fourth of the cycle, and there were concerns over whether the less-experienced batters could make the step up. Chattogram provided the answers. Tony de Zorzi, newly installed as an opener, Tristan Stubbs, newly slotted at No. 3, and Mulder, newly recognised as much as a batter as a bowler, all reached centuries in a dominant performance in Chattogram. South Africa declared on 575 for 6 and were set up for an innings win. There was one more maiden hundred to come: Ryan Rickelton scored an important century at St George’s Park.Bavuma’s redemptionAfter injuring his hamstring last Boxing Day, and missing the New Year’s Test and subsequent tour of New Zealand, Bavuma captained in West Indies and then hurt his elbow so had to miss both matches in Bangladesh. He remained with the squad on tour and had no red-ball match practice before the home summer but scored four fifty-plus scores including a third Test century in the series against Sri Lanka to lead from the front.Bavuma is still struggling with both his elbows, which are protected by heavy strapping on both arms and the niggle is most noticeable when he is playing the hook or pull. Zoom in and you will notice Bavuma is not able to extend the bottom elbow fully and so can’t get enough power behind the shot as he might like. He was out to those shots against Sri Lanka in Durban and Gqeberha but got a six when he tried it at altitude at SuperSport Park. He has also received on-field treatment (mostly painkillers) while batting and has shown no signs that he will miss more matches. In fact, quite the opposite.Marco Jansen and Temba Bavuma bump fists•Getty Images”A couple of months ago (at the ODI World Cup), I was berated and ridiculed for playing in a game (the semi-final) where I was injured, whereas now in the past two series, I’ve been playing with half a decent elbow and I haven’t heard those sentiments” Bavuma said. ” So I guess for me, it’s a learning. Maybe not just for myself, but for people outside of the team.”Conditioned Jansen’s comebackAfter the T20 World Cup, Jansen (and Gerald Coetzee) were put on 12-week conditioning blocks to deal with chronic injuries and work on their strength ahead of a long summer. While Coetzee has since been re-injured, Jansen has come back fitter, faster and more confident than before. His height gives him an obvious advantage and his seven-for to run through Sri Lanka at Kingsmead will be a highlight for years to come. He also took six at SuperSport Park but his big moment came with the bat. Known for his tendency to get nervous in big moments, he held his nerve alongside Rabada to score the runs that gave South Africa a famous win against Pakistan to seal the WTC final spot.Paterson’s five-fors Told you we’d get here, and we have. After Paterson thought he’d play his comeback and final games in New Zealand, Conrad retained him for the rest of the cycle and gave him opportunity on a slow surface in Gqeberha, where his ability to nip the ball around came to the fore. Paterson took a first innings five-for, to ensure South Africa took a slender lead and finished the game with seven wickets. With several quicker bowlers still unavailable, Paterson was retained in the XI against Pakistan at SuperSport Park and took a second successive five-for to make good on Bavuma’s decision to bowl first. At 35, with average speeds in the early 20s, Paterson has labelled himself “not a fan favourite,” especially on social media but he is certainly the one getting the likes.Perspective is everythingAnd so to the match that confirmed South Africa’s spot in the WTC final. You already know how Aiden Markram responded to criticism of his white-ball format with red-ball runs, how Bavuma sulked in the bathroom and Conrad had a puff with Rabada and Jansen to discuss their batting plans, but there was something much more personal going on in South African cricket on December 29.The team found out in the early hours of the morning that their current batting coach, Ashwell Prince’s wife Melissa, a popular and loved figure in cricket circles for over two decades, had passed away. By the time news reached the wider cricketing community, around the time of the lunch break on day four, the Boxing Day Test was two wickets away from being lost. Suddenly, the cricket hardly mattered at all. Hearts broke for Prince and his three young sons, and the victory, while celebrated heartily, also carried a sombre undertone.In South Africa, perhaps more than most places, sport is expected to be an elixir to myriad problems. As much as it has brought immense joy, South Africans also know it can never be the balm to everything. And with that in mind, the show goes on.

The competition is heating up in the top half of the points table

S Rajesh01-May-2025 • Updated on 05-May-20251:37

Chawla: Bethell’s batting reflects RCB’s own good form

RCB are back on top of the points table with the win against CSK. But with the other top teams notching up wins as well, it’s still possible for five teams to finish on 18 points. That means to be absolutely sure of qualification, RCB need two more wins. However, if other results go their way, they can qualify even with 16 points, without depending on NRR.RCB will also be happy with two home wins in a row, given that they have two more games to go at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. One obvious area of improvement is with the toss: they have lost five in a row in Bengaluru, and they will be hoping for better luck with the coin in their last two home games.1:30

Is Prabhsimran finally living up to his promise?

Punjab Kings
PBKS’ win against Lucknow Super Giants took them to second place with 15 points, consolidating their place in the top four with three games to go. While 17 points may not be enough to guarantee qualification without other results going their way, two more wins will take them into the playoffs. If they lose all their three remaining games, PBKS will be heavily reliant on other results to avoid elimination.3:31

‘Gill is conventional and measured, but not conservative’

Gujarat TitansFourteen points with four games to go and a net run rate second only to that of Mumbai Indians – GT have everything going in their favour to not only qualify, but also look for a top-two finish. To make things even better, two of their three remaining games are at home – where they already have a 4-1 win-loss record – against cellar-dwellers CSK and another team struggling for momentum, LSG.1:43

Chopra: No apparent weaknesses in this MI side

Mumbai Indians
With six wins in a row, the latest being a 100-run thumping that eliminated RR, MI are on course to finish in the top four, and possibly even the top two. Not only do they have momentum on their side, they also have the best NRR among all teams. MI could be among five teams with 18 or more, which is where their net run rate could help them provided they stay ahead on that parameter. They also have two home games in hand, which could be crucial given that they have won four out of five at home so far, the most by any team.3:53

DC’s bowling a concern at Kotla?

Delhi Capitals

The win against RR has kept KKR in contention for a top-four finish. With 11 points from 11 games, however, the maximum they can finish on is 17. It’s possible for five teams to finish on 18 or more points, which means a spot in the playoffs isn’t guaranteed even if KKR win their remaining three games. As with PBKS, 15 points will give KKR a chance, but 13 will eliminate them.2:48

Kumble: Pant needs to get rid of the confusion in his head

Lucknow Super Giants
With their third successive defeat – against PBKS on Sunday – LSG are in seventh place; their chances of finishing in the top four are slim and dependent on other results. Even if they win their remaining three matches – two of which are against teams in the top four – LSG can only get to 16 points, while RCB have already got that many. Their net run rate is also the worst among the seven teams that remain in contention for the playoffs.

Small errors, non-traditional dismissals, another collapse, and India had lost another opportunity to make losing this Test improbable

Sidharth Monga12-Jul-20251:30

Manjrekar: ‘The grind’ a great facet of Jadeja’s batting evolution

For a moment if you forget the last session of the day is always longer, at drinks in the middle session of the Saturday of Lord’s we reached the halfway point of the series. Two Tests, two days and 1.5 sessions in, India had scored 2139 runs and lost 41 wickets, making it an average of 52.17 and scoring rate of 4.17 per over. They had conceded 1903 runs and taken 45 wickets at 42.29 apiece and 4.21 per over. They had kept England in the field for 513 overs and had themselves bowled just 452.5This kind of superiority is usually enough to win Test series. And it can be argued India ought to have been even more superior on these numbers because India had been better on control numbers. India’s bowlers had drawn false shots to 17.76% of the deliveries they had bowled as against England’s 12.45%.Account for regulation amounts of luck going England’s way, but you would still expect India to be ahead of England at the halfway point of the series. Instead, the series scoreline read 1-1, and the first innings of this Test was England 387 all out vs India 290 for 5. Somehow India had contrived to be only just level, playing catch-up really considering they had to bat last on what started as an aged pitch during what is among the hottest Tests played at Lord’s.Related

Big-game Stokes pushes his limits to keep England alive

'Disappointing for both of us' – Rahul says rush for century led to Pant run-out

The wait is Over: Six balls and a lifetime later, Jofra Archer returns with a bang

Rahul, Pant and Jadeja star as Lord's Test turns into second-innings shootout

India's 350-plus streak in Tests, and a rare first-innings tie

The latest slip-up came after India had vowed not to gift wickets in the aftermath of the Headingley defeat where they endured collapses of 7 for 41 and 6 for 31 to bowling that didn’t call for them. They showed the corrections at Edgbaston, kept England in the field for 234 overs and levelled the series.At Lord’s, India batted with similar resolve, got into positions of strength through a 141-run partnership between KL Rahul and the injured Rishabh Pant, but found a new skittish way to let England back in.Rahul, having never scored two centuries in a series, started the last over before lunch on 97, got a short and wide ball, but cut it straight to the sweeper. Just for perspective – and not to suggest it was bothering Rahul – Kumar Sangakkara on air had just finished saying how he hated going into breaks just short of a milestone. He said he would have been looking for a boundary.Rahul’s non-striker, Pant, was more disappointed. He seemed more invested in Rahul’s century. He could be heard on stump mic: “It was a bad ball, deserved four.” Rahul said he did go for it, but found the fielder. The unspoken was spoken now. The two now had the milestone on their mind. Pant looked to manipulate a single off the next two balls, and on the second, the two just looked up at each other and set off.They had survived a whole session of the best England had to throw at them including a bouncer barrage, Rahul serenely, Pant slightly more entertainingly despite having to look after his injured digit. And then a three-way nightmare came together: a milestone jeopardy, a quick single and the Ben Stokes juju. It was such a poorly judged single that Stokes had a choice of ends to go for.Chris Woakes had Ravindra Jadeja caught down the leg side•Getty ImagesIndia had once again found a newer non-traditional way to lose a Test wicket to a Stokes-led piece. They have been doing this since Hyderabad at the start of the home series in 2023-24.Imagine playing the superior cricket through the series, and struggling to avoid trailing in the series halfway into it. When Ravindra Jadeja was joined by Nitish Kumar Reddy, India were 133 behind.Jadeja is just the man you want to see at such a time. Please don’t do a double take. He is the most old-school batter in the Indian line-up. So old-school he hasn’t changed his technique to allow for DRS. He still defends spin with bat beside the pad. He just reacts to what is bowled at him.And still for about the next half hour, India didn’t enjoy the calm Jadeja should bring to the middle. Borne mostly out of Jadeja’s propensity to take two or three steps down the pitch every time his bat touches the ball, it was another spell of skittish and frantic play that could have got India into trouble.Desperately due some luck, India miraculously avoided any run out. Not every lesson has to be as harsh as the Headingley one. Jadeja’s serenity took over. He was only the fourth batter in the Test to be in control of 100 balls or more. At a control rate of 91%, this innings was as good as any played in the match. Coming at the stage that it did, it sent a message if it needed repeating: if you are good enough, in these conditions you can thrive even if you take just what is offered.And then, with ascendency in sight, the juju struck again. There had been a period of wide and dry bowling from England, understandably so, the new ball had been seen off, and just when India might have started to think of forcing the issue, Jadeja tickled one down the leg side. Another non-traditional dismissal, another collapse, and India had lost another opportunity to make losing this Test improbable.At the end of the day’s play, India averaged 48.6 with the bat at 3.97 per over, England 42.33 and 4.19 per over. And yet, England were two ahead with all their second-innings wickets in hand in the third Test and the series 1-1. With temperatures rising both in the air and on the pitch, India will be counting the costs of their small errors here and there.

“I hope that it continues to inspire our country,” says South Africa’s victorious captain

Firdose Moonda14-Jun-20257:27

Bavuma: We’ve wiped all doubts with the way that we’ve played

The current world Test champion team is Temba Bavuma’s and he is owning it.For the first time in his career, possibly even in his life, Bavuma can be “recognised as more than just a black African cricketer,” as he put it in the post-match press conference. He can be seen – really seen, for the person, the leader and the cricketer that he is. All of it can be summed up in the word his batting coach used to describe him on the third evening, when Bavuma batted with a strained hamstring and deep sense of self-belief: tough.Bavuma comes from Langa, a township in Cape Town which is as far from St John’s Wood, economically and geographically, as it gets. He grew up playing street cricket on bits of road named after the famous places he and his team-mates had heard of but never actually thought they’d get to. “I never pictured myself playing here at Lord’s. I could only fantasise about it,” Bavuma said, as he recalled his childhood in the early 90s, a time when everything in South Africa was changing.Within a decade, he was being schooled at some of the country’s top institutions as part of the early waves of children of colour going to elite, formerly all-white schools, and by his late teens, he was in the domestic cricketing system. At 24, he made his Test debut in a team that was ranked No.1 and from that has carried a burden no other batter in the global game has ever had to bear. Bavuma has had to prove, over and over and over again, that black South Africans (because remember there was Richards and Sobers and Lloyd and Greenidge and Lara) can bat.Related

'Together-together' – why South Africa's triumph matters on the long walk to freedom

South Africa revel on Lord's stage as WTC gets showpiece it deserves

Conrad: 'We're the world champions, we create our own reality'

Aiden Markram's long walk off field the calm before a South Africa storm

'Would be great to not have to hear it again' – SA banish chokers tag

His was an unusual position because there had been many black South African batters active in the Apartheid era including some from his own family, but their records were sidelined. Unification came in name only and it took six years before South Africa fielded its first black African cricketer – Mahkaya Ntini – and 22 before Bavuma was capped. Being the first carried the responsibility of being the representative. In Bavuma, South Africa saw the totality of their black African batting talent which magnified his every performance.When he succeeded, as he did with his first century in 2016, it was hailed as a turning point for black cricket. When he failed, it was the entire demographics’ failure. That is a hell of a big thing to carry around with you, often without sympathy from the outside world, who understand little of the nuances of South Africa’s racial realities. When Bavuma was put in charge of the white-ball sides in 2021, despite having only six ODI and eight T20I caps to his name, he was immediately called a quota captain and his poor form in South Africa’s horrendous 2022 T20 World Cup campaign, where they lost to Netherlands, didn’t help. But then things shifted.A new coach, Shukri Conrad, who understands the complexities of South African cricket because he has spent his whole career steeped in them was handed the Test reins. He chose Bavuma as his captain, putting him in control in the format he had performed best in. Bavuma’s opening act under Conrad was a career-best 172 against West Indies at his home ground, the Wanderers. That century was seven years in the making, Bavuma’s second in 57 Tests and the floodgates opened. He scored two more in the last summer and has led South Africa’s current WTC campaign.Because South Africa played (12) fewer Tests than almost anyone else in this cycle, Bavuma is barely spoken of when it comes to the cycle’s top performers but he should be. He was South Africa’s leading run-scorer before this Test (and has since been joined by David Bedingham) and averages 59.25 with two hundreds and five fifties. Those are numbers worth shouting about. They celebrate Bavuma the batter and the way he has led from the front but they don’t tell the story of what it took for him to do that.Temba Bavuma leads South Africa’s celebrations•ICC/Getty ImagesFor that, you had to have been at Lord’s, seen Bavuma pull up with a hamstring strain when he was on 6 and refuse to let it win. This was his third hamstring injury in two years: the first kept him out of the first Test of this cycle and he risked the second to play in the 2023 World Cup semi-final, where he was vilified for his actions. This time, even when the team management told him they did not think he should go back out after tea, he took control of his own destiny.”I didn’t want to think of another option. I didn’t want to consider myself not being there with Aiden (Markram). It was a key moment within the game,” Bavuma said. “I wasn’t at 100% fitness but I felt that I was good enough to still do the job. It was a tough decision. I can’t not think of the 2023 World Cup where it was a similar type of incident. But it was me backing my gut. I went against advice from management and I was willing to take whatever comes with it. It was very much an instinctive call, very much an egotistical call but I was happy to deal with whatever consequence that came with it.”As it turned out, the consequence was becoming the cricketing hero he has always wanted to be. Bavuma’s 66 in a stand of 147 set South Africa up for victory and himself for greatness. He can be spoken about as Bavuma, the cricketer, and the captain of the team that are now champions. He can be sung about, he can be appreciated and he can enjoy it.”It’s not easy being captain of South Africa but all the sacrifices, all the disappointment, feel worth it,” he said. “Giving up is always an option. It’s always there at the back of your mind, but something kind of holds you on. For me, it was that moment there to be recognised as more than just a black African cricketer, but to be seen as someone who’s done something that the country has wanted. That’s something that I’ll definitely walk around with my chest out. And I hope that it continues to inspire our country.”ESPNcricinfo LtdThat Bavuma can now put his name to such a massive achievement is what will come to define him, and it’s been a long time coming. Running parallel to Bavuma’s time at the helm of cricket has been Siya Kolisi’s as captain of the Springboks, South Africa’s national rugby team. Under Kolisi’s leadership, South Africa won two World Cups in the same time as South Africa’s cricket side failed in four.In another world, Bavuma and Kolisi would just be looked at as two people, at the top of their respective professions who happen to have been on opposite sides of the results coin. But because in the South African sporting world, which has a history of those professions being historically and legislatively white-dominated, that they are the first black African captains of their respective codes means comparisons are inevitable albeit unfair.While Kolisi is gregarious and front-facing, Bavuma is pensive and private. Expecting the pair to do the same thing for the country has always seemed a bridge too far but now Bavuma has stepped on it. He has a Kolisi equivalent and he can talk about his team and the Boks in the same breath.”The biggest thing I admire about them [Springboks] is with their success and how they’ve embraced what being South African actually means,” Bavuma said. “We’re unique in a lot of ways. Our present and future is shaped by our past. And the way that they’ve gone about it, to capture the hearts of everyone, has really made us love them. In cricket, that’s something that we’ve spoken about, to really do something special.”The Boks have built their brand on a campaign of doing it for South Africa and of providing hope and inspiration for a nation of dreamers, whose democracy was closely followed by hefty sporting success. In 1995, South Africa hosted and won the Rugby World Cup, with Nelson Mandela in attendance. Cricket nearly had its moment in 1999 and several near-misses in the 26 years since but now, cricket can have something similar. “For the country, it’s a chance for us to rejoice in something, to forget about our issues and really come together,” Bavuma said.In the end, that is what Bavuma has done for South African cricket for more than a decade. In that time, he pushed opinions about who can and can’t play, who can and can’t bat, who can and can’t captain, who can and can’t win apart. And over the last three-and-a-half days, he has pulled them all together for one emphatic statement.Not only can he, but he should and he will and he has. “And though it can be burdensome, it’s still somewhat of a privilege to carry those types of expectations as well as pressure,” he said. “They can’t take it (the success) away having someone who has finally gotten the team over line in a final.”They can’t and they won’t. This was Bavuma’s WTC and he can own it.

All the key numbers from South Africa’s dominant 2-0 victory in India

Sampath Bandarupalli26-Nov-20254:35

Philander: ‘Harmer out-bowled the Indian spinners’

408 runs India’s margin of defeat in the second Test in Guwahati – their biggest in terms of runs. It is also South Africa’s second biggest victory in Test cricket.3 Home series in which India have been whitewashed by the visiting side. The previous two were against South Africa in 2000, and against New Zealand last year.394 days between India’s two recent Test series defeats at home – against New Zealand in 2024 and South Africa in 2025. Only once have India suffered two series defeats at home in a shorter time span: 367 days between defeats to West Indies in 1958-59 and Australia in 1959-60.Related

South Africa prove again they can win the hard way, and anywhere

India's Test team – a whole too full of holes

'Just dream a bit' – How South Africa turned hope into history

'Can't take anything for granted' – Pant rues missed chances

Harmer's six-for hands India their biggest Test defeat

South Africa’s extraordinary all-round dominance15.5 South Africa’s bowling average in this series is the second best for any team in a Test series in India (minimum of two matches).It is also the second-best series average for South Africa bowlers, behind the 13.92 in West Indies in 2021.13.04 The difference between South Africa’s batting average and bowling average in the series against India. Only three teams have had a higher difference in series of more than two matches in India, but none in the last 50 years.India’s sorry batting201 India’s first-innings total in Guwahati was the only time they scored more than 200 in this series. It is the second-lowest ‘highest total’ for India in a series with two or more Tests. The lowest is 161 on the tour of New Zealand in 2002.India’s batting average of 16.39 in this series against South Africa is their second lowest in a Test series.58 Yashasvi Jaiswal’s first-innings score in Guwahati was the highest for India in this series – the joint-lowest ‘highest individual score’ for India in a Test series of two-plus matches.Simon Harmer finished the series with 17 wickets at an average of 8.94•BCCISimon Harmer wrecks India8.94 Simon Harmer’s bowling average for 17 wickets in the series – the best average for South Africa in a Test series and the second best for anyone in India for a minimum of 15 wickets.27 Test wickets for Harmer in India, the most for South Africa going past Dale Steyn’s 26 scalps. Harmer’s average in India is 15.03, the best among all players with 25-plus wickets.Harmer now has 69 wickets in 14 Tests, the most by a South Africa spinner in their first 14 Tests, going past Hugh Tayfield’s 67, and the third most overall behind Vernon Philander (78) and Fanie de Villiers (70).Marco Jansen scored 93 in South Africa’s first innings, and took 6 for 48 in India’s first innings in Guwahati•AFP/Getty ImagesMarkram and Jansen break records9 Catches for Aiden Markram in the Guwahati Test – the most by a fielder in a Test match, going past Ajinkya Rahane’s eight against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2015.10 Players with a score of 90 or more and haul of six wickets or more in a men’s Test before Marco Jansen in Guwahati. Jansen is only the third South African to achieve this double, and the first since 1902.11 Test wins as captain for Temba Bavuma, the most by any captain without a defeat. Bavuma has led South Africa in 12 Tests so far – only Ray Illingworth (19), Sunil Gavaskar (18), Mike Brearley (15) and Mike Smith (14) led in more Tests before a loss.The Guwahati Test was Bavuma’s eighth consecutive win as captain, the longest winning streak since Ricky Ponting’s 16 between 2005 and 2008. No other captain won more than six consecutive Tests for South Africa.10.07 B Sai Sudharsan’s strike rate in the fourth innings, where he scored 14 off 139 balls. Only one batter has a slower innings of more than 100 balls in Tests for India – 8.28 by Yashpal Sharma, when he faced 157 balls for 13 against Australia in Adelaide in 1981 (where balls faced data is available).17 Indian wickets lost to catches in Guwahati – equalling the most such dismissals for them in a home Test. All ten wickets in India’s first innings fell to catches; only the fifth such instance at home.