Data collected from umpire-worn cameras will inform English attempts to win 2025-26 Ashes

Vithushan Ehantharajah16-May-2024News of James Anderson’s impending retirement was, in many ways, a starter pistol for England’s bid to reclaim the Ashes. Behind the scenes, however, that race had already begun.The ECB’s performance team are currently in the process of building a “What It Takes To Win” model for the 2025-26 tour to Australia. Its construction will be informed by the knowledge of coaches and players past and present, along with data accrued from previous visits. Once deemed robust enough, it will refine decisions around talent ID and provide selectors all the information required to select a squad capable of a first win Down Under since 2010-11. The aim, ultimately, is to “bring data to life”.Thanks to the ECB’s new iHawk technology, collecting that data has never been easier or more qualitative. Through cameras worn by umpires, each delivery is tracked to provide information such as seam movement, release height, pace and swing. An overlay highlighting the path of the ball is then produced, complete with the above information at the top left of the screen.Related

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A soft launch in 2023 saw 200 matches and over 50,000 balls logged from more than 250 bowlers. Every domestic men’s and women’s match will be covered for the first time this season.There is already a healthy bank of information on the next crop of quicks with the Ashes in mind, outside the contracted Matthew Potts, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, and Josh Tongue, which will be pored over in the coming weeks. A longer-term project is currently in the works to determine the precise difference in behaviour between the Dukes and Kookaburra balls from gleanings during its use in the first two rounds of the County Championship, supplemented by findings when it returns in July and August.With the start of England men’s Test summer two months away, all this will be fed to the selection committee made up of captain Ben Stokes, head coach Brendon McCullum, managing director Rob Key and national selector Luke Wright. Whether for the series against West Indies or Sri Lanka, a scientific punt could be in the offing.”It’s a massive project just started now on what it will take to win the Ashes,” explains Stafford Murray, performance lead at the ECB with a background in analytics in squash and Olympic sports. “Data based, knowledge of coaches, players, current and ex. We’ll synthesise all that into a ‘What It Takes To Win’ model and then we’ll work back from that – what do we need, what type of player do we need, and then we can start delving into selection.”If we’re brave, which I know we will be, we’ll be selecting in series before the Ashes with the Ashes in mind,” says Murray, referencing the fact players best equipped to perform in all conditions will be considered. “It’s a blend and it’s an ongoing, iterative process, working towards a long-term goal. It’s a ‘performance backwards’ approach.”Deliveries are tracked to provide information on seam movement, release height, pace and swing•ECBPrimarily a business model, “performance backwards” is as it sounds; identifying a future goal and working out the route to that point in reverse. England employed it for the recent tour of India, which led to the selection Shoaib Bashir. The Somerset offspinner took 17 wickets across three Tests, having arrived with a first-class average of 67.00 from just six matches.”Shoaib is a really good example [of this],” explains Hannah Jowitt, the lead on the iHawk project as well as analyst and project specialist for the ECB’s pathway and disability programmes. After Stokes spotted Bashir bowling to Alastair Cook on a social media post by the County Championship account, the gears started turning.”One step before that, we analysed what was needed in India. Release height in India was really important. We got data from county cricket. That, combined with scouts’ insights, led to his selection for the UAE [Lions] camp. Coaches and selectors had physical eyes on him there. We got more iHawk data on him, more video [fed directly by Murray to a WhatsApp group featuring Key, McCullum, Stokes and Wright], which led to his selection for playing in India.”Essentially, iHawk is HawkEye “lite”. The full bells and whistles, which require between four and six cameras, are exclusive to international cricket due to, among other factors, cost.iHawk data influenced England’s selection of Shoaib Bashir in India•BCCISuch are the advances in the space of 12 months that the kit has been streamlined from a camera phone on a “necklace” and a 2kg waistband filled with the necessary hardware to a more secure harness with a GoPro and a mobile phone as a “mini-computer” in an umpire’s back pocket.Though not a real-time system, at its best, information is fed through into each analyst’s coding system and is also available in a central hub in the cloud within three or four balls, depending on Wi-Fi connections. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, that should soon be instantaneous.All counties have access to this hub, which offers a dashboard with a range of filters, including whether they are English-qualified. Pace bowlers can be arranged to see who, for instance, bowls the greater percentage of deliveries above a certain threshold.This season, one bowler, whom the ECB has kept anonymous due to binds on performance data and thus may or may not be English qualified, has delivered 12% above 88mph, with 3% in excess of 90mph. The catch is that they have had only 34 deliveries tracked at the time of writing.For batters, filters can be applied accordingly to show how they fair against “Test-quality deliveries”. The ECB has also devised an “impact metric” by using 2023’s data to devise a specific model to determine a batter’s quality beyond traditional statistics. Essentially, the impact their innings had on the outcome of the match, tied in with factors such as a ground’s scoring history, fielding data and even the weather to give as much context as possible. Zak Crawley’s presence in the Test team before his purple patch was ultimately along these lines – picked on Test potential because of the nature of his skills rather than domestic output.”By looking at the quality of the ball through iHawk, we can measure whether their shot or their ball had a positive or negative impact on the probability of that match,” Murray says. “They might have only got 23, but actually, if you look at his impact, it was greater than someone who scored 40.Anonymised iHawk data on bowler speeds•ECB”A lot of players, particularly in the Champo, both ends, ones that have really good traditional figures, might not have a massive impact. Ones that have bad traditional figures might have a huge impact. It’s a different way of looking at the data with better context.”Umpires, too, are benefiting from iHawk. Its accuracy and perspective from the umpire’s perspective are such that it is being used as a developmental aid.”It’s been a really good learning tool for us,” Surendiran Shanmugam, a member of the ECB’s professional umpires’ team, says. “To go back and look at your decisions, even though we are not being assessed with that, it helps us match what we see on the field and are my decisions still right based on these videos.”The technology’s limitations mean it is not being considered as a watered-down alternative for DRS. Nevertheless, umpires are picking up on emerging trends and even starting to use it to familiarise themselves with the idiosyncrasies of different cricketers. The latter is particularly important given the churn of overseas players in an English summer.”I hope we use it to go really proactive, especially with overseas players coming in and out a lot,” says Hamish Grant, professional umpires’ manager at the ECB. He cites the decision error rate in the Hundred last year, which was similar across the men’s and women’s competitions but for very different reasons.”In the men’s it was left-armers bowling really full and going across off stump, which we just never see. Normally it’s missing leg stump, but that type of bowling, there are a lot of bowlers doing that.”In the women’s game there was a lot of legspinners. We don’t have as many domestically, [but] we had a lot from the southern hemisphere coming over and that provided a really different challenge.”

The South Africa quick on his injury setbacks, a difficult IPL 2024, turning down a CSA contract, and more

Melinda Farrell19-Jun-2024Anrich Nortje is used to feeling the heat on the field but he’s struggling with Antigua’s sultry days, which crank up the heat until a thunderstorm breaks, offering sweet – if brief – relief, before the sauna steams up once more.A day before South Africa’s first Super Eight match in the men’s T20 World Cup 2024, against USA, he’s staying inside the team hotel, nestled by the pale sands and calm turquoise waters of Antigua’s east coast.”This place is too hot,” he laughs. “There’s optional training and maybe a meeting or two left, but otherwise, maybe a little bit of a swim. But yeah, it’s just very hot so I’m trying to be fresh as possible for tomorrow.”Nortje has the added challenge of trying to keep a baby cool. He’s been joined on this tour by his wife, Michaela, along with his daughter, Amelia, who was born exactly 13 weeks earlier, just days before Nortje left South Africa for the IPL.Related

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In India, he faced heat of another kind, a batting paradise of a tournament where bowlers saw their economy rates balloon, none more so than Nortje. In six matches for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2024, he took seven wickets from 22 overs at an average of 42 and economy of 13.36. But he is circumspect in reflecting on the tournament, which was a major stepping stone in his return from a back injury which sidelined him for more than five months.”It was about finding ways to get better over there,” Nortje said. “And the training after the games was good, working with the coaches there at Delhi, with [bowling coach] James Hopes. I wasn’t worried much about what the scoreboard did at that stage.”Nortje’s cheerful and smiling demeanour is a stark contrast to his reputation as one of the world’s most ferocious fast bowlers, capable of melting speed guns with deliveries in the mid-150kph range. But it kept him grounded when dealing with the latest and most severe of the string of injuries that are a result of pushing his body to the limit.”It’s definitely been tough on everyone, but the time off was great. Starting again was about getting to the right intensity. The medical team did a really good job to assure me that everything was fine with the stress fractures. I played a few games back home, trying to push as much as possible, as soon as possible, and when I was cleared to go ahead, full out.”The lower back stress fractures struck last September, just before South Africa’s ODI World Cup campaign in India. Before he was ruled out of the squad, Nortje was considered one of the team’s key strike weapons, as he had been in all formats since making his international debut in 2019. That year, too, he was also ruled out of the World Cup in England due to a shoulder injury.The times between injuries have been spectacular. From June 2021 to the end of IPL 2023, Nortje took 86 wickets in 61 T20 matches at an average of 18.83, easily the best of 42 fast bowlers to take 75 or more wickets in the same period. If you include spinners, only Wanindu Hasaranga had better returns with 145 wickets at 18.03. His combination of searing pace and venomous late swing made him one of the hottest T20 properties in the world.Nortje took 7 wickets from 22 overs at an average of 42 and economy of 13.36 in IPL 2024•BCCIBut this latest layoff forced Nortje to make a difficult decision, opting to forego the security of a contract with Cricket South Africa (CSA) in order to maintain control over the amount of international cricket he plays. He is keen to make it clear that he had, and has, the support of CSA.”It was my decision. It was just to see how my body goes. I hadn’t had a stress fracture since 2010 and I just had a little bit of ‘nervy’ in the back, so I just wanted to take the time to play when I can, play when I know I’m ready, rather than having to play every series or every whatever is coming up.”So to make that decision on my own according to my body has been good so far. Still happy with the decision, and it’s more just for me to have the calmness and to know that, if I need a break for a week, if I need a break for a month, then I can do that.”The most immediate thing that has a question mark around would probably be the one-dayers, having a Champions Trophy coming up at the start of next year. So that would be the big question mark on how we’re going to go about that. So far, things have been going good, but they’re still chats that I need to have with Cricket South Africa, which I haven’t had. I haven’t really made a decision on what’s going to happen with one-day cricket in the next few months. So we’ll take that as it comes. But for now, it’s obviously focusing on the World Cup and trying to get through this and bring the trophy back home.”Nortje’s impact on South Africa’s success in the T20 World Cup illustrates why CSA is happy to accommodate him. He is their leading wicket-taker of the tournament, and joint second overall, with nine throughout the group stage, conceding just 70 runs at an average of 10.66 and an economy rate of 4.37. The contrast to his returns in the IPL is striking.Nortje pulled his lengths back in the US, where South Africa have played all their matches until now. In fact, 59.38% of his deliveries have been short or short-of-length balls compared to 38.64% at the IPL. Those shorter deliveries have accounted for six of his wickets at an average of 7.83.

“Every game is a big game, but once you start worrying about the next game I think you lose a little bit of focus on what you have to do now. We’re in it to win it”Nortje and South Africa’s focus is crystal clear

This was not so much a preconceived plan as it was a response to pitches that offered plentiful assistance off the surface.”So far, the wickets have been sort of try and build your best delivery, with what we’ve had in the last few weeks. It’s obviously been low scores, but still just trying to put the ball in the right place.”It’s just a case of what’s working on the day. We played three games in New York, so I suppose it was probably copy-paste for those three games, but now it’s changing every game again, with different venues most of the time. So you try and find out and see what’s happening in the first few overs, and then try and adapt to that. I’m sure the lengths will be different, but it’s not really about going out before the game and saying, this is the length, or that’s the length, just about finding it.”If South Africa make the semi-final, their unwelcome tag of never yet playing in any men’s World Cup final will inevitably surface, but Nortje is not phased by any historic hoodoo.”We do know that it is a World Cup and it is a big occasion. I don’t think anyone is downplaying that. It’s not just another game. Every game is a big game, but once you start worrying about the next game I think you lose a little bit of focus on what you have to do now. We’re in it to win it. We’re really focused and well prepped to go all the way.”And for Nortje, that means the handbrake is off.”I don’t think there’s any holding back. The stress fracture, all of that from the injury, has been fully healed. I’m very happy with that, and it’s just about what we need to do to win and whatever I have to do to get to that stage, I’ll do it.”

England allrounder on life, love, happiness and an extraordinary run of batting form post-marriage

Vithushan Ehantharajah25-Jun-2024″I didn’t really think at the time it would blow up as much as it did,” Nat Sciver-Brunt says. “It just felt like the normal reaction, I guess.”The allrounder is talking about a photo (below) taken after England’s defeat to Australia in 2022’s ODI World Cup final. As Nat starts to process the loss, physically and emotionally exhausted after almost single-handedly carrying England’s pursuit of a 357-run target with 148 not out, her now-wife, Katherine Sciver-Brunt, teary-eyed, holds her face and consoles her.It is a beautiful shot. There they stand, among a throng in the middle of the Hagley Oval, and somehow alone together. Love and pain in oddly comfortable harmony.”I like the photo,” Nat adds. “Well, I like the photo more for Katherine’s face than what’s gone on in the game.”This intimate shot of England cricket’s first openly same-sex couple went viral on social media. Though the pair don’t really indulge beyond “the odd scroll here and there”, they were aware of the volume of positivity sent their way for being themselves and being so visible while at the peak of their sport. It is something they hear first-hand, too.”You might be signing autographs, and people will say little bits to me and Katherine as well. In that way, it’s quite nice that it’s in-person, and people are able to say directly to us how either we’ve inspired them, or they’re really happy for us.”Those comments reinforce the role cricket can play in the LGBTQ community. This year, England Cricket are celebrating the Rainbow Laces between June 29 and July 7, with professional and recreational clubs marking the campaign at games across the country. An array of representatives from English cricket – beyond simply the ECB – will also march in the Pride in London parade.Katherine Brunt consoles her then-fiancée Nat, after England’s loss in the 2022 World Cup final•ICC/Getty ImagesUnfortunately, Sciver-Brunt has yet to attend a Pride march because of the regular clash with cricket. This year, it’s the second of a three-match ODI series against New Zealand, which begins on Wednesday. “I suppose I have to do my work in other spaces,” she says.”I guess being myself and being free in that is my best way of displaying that. Me and Katherine being who we are, together in public and just being normal about it all, really – that’s our way of being part of Pride. Pride to me is being comfortable enough to be who you are, and not having to hide it. That’s our way of being part of the march.”Achieving that “comfort” has come in stages for Sciver-Brunt.”I’m not really sure if there were any gay people at school,” she says. “There’s something about moving away from home and probably not having the expectations of your family, or living under that roof. You’re sort of left to your own devices and working out your own way of doing things.”Going to uni and not having anyone to tell you what to do or anything like that. People grow up in that phase, don’t they?”Playing for England added an extra dimension. Sciver-Brunt arrived on the scene in 2013, just as women’s cricket was about to undergo a dramatic evolution. The fact that this coincided with her own emergence as one of the sport’s finest allrounders brought its own challenges of fame and interest. She eventually warmed to both, and, in October 2019, Nat and Katherine announced their engagement in an interview with “There was no hiding within the team,” Sciver-Brunt says, when asked about coming out via the engagement. “It was just a matter of timing before doing a few media interviews around it.

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The pair has won the Plunket Shield with Wellington and were training together at Chennai’s Super Kings Academy recently to “learn different parts of our game”

Deivarayan Muthu18-Oct-2024Nick Greenwood and Jesse Tashkoff have traversed contrasting paths to the Wellington team.Greenwood, a batting allrounder, was born in Jersey before his family emigrated to New Zealand when he was two years old. Now 24, he has already had a taste of international cricket with Jersey, his birth island, and aspires to become a Black Cap in the future.Tashkoff, a year younger than Greenwood, is a left-arm fingerspinner who was born and brought up in Lower Hutt in Wellington. Tashkoff’s leadership skills were recognised early when he was appointed New Zealand Under-19s’ captain for the World Cup in South Africa in 2020. Having grown up idolising Daniel Vettori and admiring Mitchell Santner, Tashkoff also dreams of playing for New Zealand.In March earlier this year, Greenwood and Tashkoff won the 2023-24 Plunket Shield with Wellington. Four months later, their paths crossed again in Chennai, where the pair spent the New Zealand winter at the Super Kings Academy (SKA), preparing for the new domestic season, which will kick off with the Ford Trophy on October 20.”Obviously coming from New Zealand, the conditions are a lot different to what they’re like over here,” Tashkoff says. “So it’s nice to come over here and learn different parts of our game that we might not be able to experience back home just with the different pitch conditions and weather. So there are a lot of takeaways that we can grab from our training over here and implement it into our games back home. That’s our main goal coming into such trips here.”

“The change of pace is the biggest and easiest way to adjust but I’ve been also working on the carrom ball, the slider and the arm ball as well. Just need to get more confidence in the nets practicing it before I can bring the carrom ball into a game this season”Jesse Tashkoff

For Greenwood and Tashkoff, it was also an opportunity to reconnect with Sriram Krishnamurthy, their former Wellington Under-19s coach, who is now the head coach at the SKA in Chennai. “We might not get these exact wickets back in New Zealand, but like Sri has been telling us, the basics of playing spin, it’s still the basics he’s trying to instil in, no matter the wicket,” Greenwood says. “There’s a lot of things you can take out of here like your height at the crease – stay nice and low – and keeping side-on and picking the ball out of the hand. All these things you try to pick up and take it into your game in Wellington even though it might not spin as much there.”During the winter, Greenwood had also helped Jersey win the T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Europe Qualifier in Krefeld before picking up his maiden five-wicket haul in List A cricket in the 50-over challenge league for Jersey in Nairobi.It was actually a chance conversation during a club game in Lancashire in 2019 that put Greenwood on the radar of the Jersey cricket team.”Wellington had set me up to play some cricket in the UK and I was playing for a club over there,” Greenwood recalls. “One of the people there [at the club] went to university there with one of Jersey’s players – Ben Stevens – and I got a contact with the coach [Neil MacRae] and a couple of days later had a net session and then, a month later, I was in Abu Dhabi and Dubai playing T20 qualifiers. So it was a pretty cool experience and I’m grateful that they gave me the opportunity [to play international cricket]. We have played some good cricket over the years, but we have kind of slid back to the regional qualifier now. Hopefully, we can keep up with the likes of Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands and stay in touch with that qualifying group.”With Devon Conway knocking back a central contract to become a freelancer and Rachin Ravindra set to be away on international duty for most of the domestic season, Greenwood is likely to open the batting with Tim Robinson – who is fresh off his maiden Caribbean Premier League stint with Guyana Amazon Warriors – in the upcoming domestic season. But having been exposed to different conditions around the world, he is open to batting at any position for Wellington.Nick Greenwood has scored three hundreds and nine fifties in List A cricket•Getty Images”I haven’t done heaps of it [batting in the middle order] last season when Dev and Rach didn’t play much,” Greenwood says. “When guys come back, it’s also an opportunity to learn from them but I like to believe my game hasn’t changed too much. Yes, batting in the powerplay is a bit different, but I’m comfortable playing against spin in that role as well. It’s a thing to my game as well – keep developing it and there’s nothing to stop me saying I can’t bat there [middle order] or bat at the top. Ready to bat anywhere.”Inspired by Liam Livingstone, Greenwood is also working on adding legspin to his regular offspin in his quest to counter right-handers who try to line him up.As for Tashkoff, who is Wellington’s second spinner behind Peter Younghusband, he has also been working behind the scenes to expand his repertoire.”The change of pace is the biggest and easiest way to adjust but I’ve been also working on the carrom ball, the slider and the arm ball as well,” Tashkoff says. “Just need to get more confidence in the nets practicing it before I can bring the carrom ball into a game this season. It’s something I’ve been working on for a while but still not at a stage where I can confidently bring it into a game yet. I’ve watched a lot of footage and seen how bowlers release it, talking to coaches and getting ideas on what’s the best technique. It’s pretty much trial and error for me to find out what works the best for me.”The common goal for both Greenwood and Tashkoff now is to help Wellington win more titles this domestic season.”Last season, we had some team success and winning the Plunket Shield was awesome to experience,” Greenwood says. “There were some new players in the team that hadn’t won before, which was awesome again. We’ll continue to strive for team success, which is a good way to promote yourself to become a better player as well. So we will definitely look to compete for more trophies with Wellington.”

One of them has played international cricket already, and the others could be on their way to the highest level soon

Deivarayan Muthu27-Aug-2024

Jewel Andrew (Antigua & Barbuda Falcons)

A prodigy, who had reeled off five successive centuries in a schools’ league and captained the Leeward Islands Under-15 side, Jewel Andrew is arguably the most exciting young talent that will be on show in CPL 2024. Andrew, now 17, could well become the youngest player ever to feature in the CPL (if he makes his debut before the playoffs). Currently, that record belongs to Nicholas Pooran who made his CPL debut at the age of 17 years and 300 days.Earlier this year, Andrew emerged as West Indies’ top scorer at the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa, with 207 runs in four innings at an average of 69.00 and strike rate of 109.52. Prior to the World Cup, he was the second-highest run-getter in the Cool & Smooth T20 tournament in Antigua and Barbuda, with 323 runs in nine innings at an average of 40.38 and a strike rate of 110.62. Andrew can also keep wicket, which could give Antigua & Barbuda Falcons greater flexibility with their combination.Matthew Forde’s trademark celebratory leap, which the world outside the Caribbean is starting to get familiar with•AFP/Getty Images

Matthew Forde (St Lucia Kings)

Forde isn’t quite a rookie like the other four names in this list, having already broken into West Indies’ T20I side and some franchise leagues, including the Lanka Premier League, Pakistan Super League and Global T20 Canada. A strong all-round performance this season could propel him further into being a more regular member of West Indies’ white-ball sides and even on the radar of the IPL teams.Forde shares a birthday with Andre Russell and has modelled his game on the T20 legend. The 22-year-old is rated highly by former West Indies left-arm seamer Pedro Collins, who had originally recommended Forde’s name to coach Daren Sammy at St Lucia Kings. Collins had coached Forde for a while and would often give him a lift to and from training. Forde is also one of the few bowlers in the Caribbean who can genuinely swing the new ball.Nathan Edward has played in two Under-19 World Cups•ICC/Getty Images

Nathan Edward (Trinbago Knight Riders)

A left-arm quick from Sint Maarten, Nathan Edward is perhaps the missing piece in Trinbago Knight Riders’ jigsaw. Knight Riders have been big on left-arm seamers in various other leagues but lacked local bowlers of this variety in the CPL.Edward has played in two U-19 World Cups and more recently won a contract with the Leeward Islands Hurricane franchise team. Edward has had exposure outside of the Caribbean as well, having been part of Bahawalpur Royals’ run to the title in Pakistan Junior League 2022.Having been mentored by Imran Tahir during the league in Lahore, Edward will now go up against Tahir, who had led Guyana Amazon Warriors to their first CPL title last year.Isai Thorne has been tipped to play international cricket soon•ICC via Getty Images

Isai Thorne (Barbados Royals)

An out-and-out fast bowler, Thorne is set for his first CPL stint as a full-time player, with Barbados Royals, after having battled injuries at the age-group level. Thorne, who will turn 20 in September, has already had a brief taste of the CPL, having earned a development scholarship with Amazon Warriors last season. Thorne’s extra pace and zip will complement the slower variations of Obed McCoy, Naveen-ul-Haq and Jason Holder at Royals.In the 2023-24 Super 50 competition, Thorne made his List A debut for Combined Campuses and Colleges, emerging as their joint second-highest wicket-taker, with seven strikes in four matches. Tipped to become a future international, Thorne spent time with the West Indies Test team as a development player under Andre Coley during their tour of England earlier this year.Kelvin Pitman took out Mark Deyal, Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard on CPL debut last season•CPL T20 via Getty Images

Kelvin Pitman (Antigua & Barbuda Falcons)

Along with Thorne, Kelvin Pitman is among the fastest young quicks in the Caribbean. Brought in by Jamaica Tallawahs as a replacement player in CPL 2023, he had a debut to remember, taking out Mark Deyal, Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard, no less, on his way to figures of 3 for 27 in Barbados. In CPL 2024, the 21-year-old will turn out for his home franchise Falcons, having been locked in as a pre-draft signing.After grabbing eyeballs in CPL 2023, Pitman was added to the West Indies Academy team to play against the Ireland Emerging players, both at home and away. In the lead-up to CPL 2024, he worked with Rayad Emrit, former West Indies allrounder and St Kitts & Nevis Patriots captain, and fine-tuned his skills.

They made 263 with Rossouw and Nawaz scoring centuries in the same innings, which was a first for the league

Sampath Bandarupalli07-May-2025263 for 3 Quetta Gladiators’ total against Islamabad United is the highest by any team in the PSL. Gladiators were on the receiving end of the previous highest total – 262 for 3 by Multan Sultans in 2023, also in Rawalpindi. This is also the highest total by any team in men’s T20s in Pakistan.1 Rilee Rossouw and Hasan Nawaz are the first pair to score hundreds in the same innings in the PSL. They are only the tenth pair in men’s T20s to score centuries in the same innings.Two players scored hundreds in a PSL match twice before: Babar Azam for Peshawar Zalmi and Jason Roy for Gladiators in 2023, and Mohammad Rizwan for Sultans and James Vince for Karachi Kings earlier this year.ESPNcricinfo Ltd160 Runs scored by Gladiators in their last ten overs on Wednesday, the joint-most by any team between 11th and 20th overs in a PSL innings. Lahore Qalandars also scored 160 against Zalmi in 2023.88.46 Percentage of runs that Rossouw scored through boundaries, the highest for a centurion in the PSL. The previous highest was 85% by Usman Khan, who scored 120 with 102 runs in boundaries, against Gladiators in 2023.9 Number of sixes hit by Nawaz during his unbeaten 100, the most by any batter for Gladiators in a PSL innings.3 Centuries for Rossouw in the PSL, the joint-most by any batter, alongside Kamran Akmal and Usman Khan. All three hundreds by Rossouw have come in 44 or fewer deliveries.ESPNcricinfo Ltd9 Hundreds for Rossouw in T20 cricket. Only two men have scored more – Chris Gayle (22) and Babar (11), while Virat Kohli also has nine.56 Imad Wasim’s score while batting at No. 9 for United on Wednesday. It is the highest individual score batting at No. 8 or lower in the PSL.3 Number of 250-plus totals in the PSL, all of which have come at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Rawalpindi is one of seven venues to have hosted three 250-plus totals in men’s T20s.4 Consecutive defeats for United, including their record defeat on Wednesday. This is the first instance of them losing four on the trot in the PSL. United started PSL 2025 with five consecutive wins, extending their winning streak to ten matches as they won their last five in 2024. It is the longest winning streak for any team in the league’s history.

Foot fracture may delay first-class debut, but Smeed targets trophies after club’s triple near-miss last year

Valkerie Baynes29-Mar-2025Will Smeed’s plans for a first-class debut – three years after his retirement from red-ball cricket – have taken a minor stumble, but that has done nothing to deter him from targeting a major role in Somerset’s Championship campaign this year.A foot fracture suffered in South Africa, where he played four games for Pretoria Capitals in the SA20 at the start of the year, could rule him out of the first match of the Division One season, home to Worcestershire from Friday.”I got it scanned when I got back and I’m just trying to make sure it heals properly before we up the workloads,” Smeed told ESPNcricinfo during Somerset’s pre-season media day. “I should be back playing in no time. I might miss the first week, but it should be fine.”It feels fine. I managed to play on it in South Africa so it’s a case of it would be fine to play on, but they just want to make sure I don’t do any proper damage though.”Related

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Those workloads are indeed set to increase after it was revealed earlier this month that Smeed had backflipped on his fledgling career move to become a white-ball specialist.Smeed announced in 2022 that he would play only white-ball cricket as franchise opportunities beckoned, a move considered groundbreaking given that he had just turned 21 at the time. But after a hamstring injury ruled him out of last year’s Hundred, he found himself playing for Somerset in the Second XI County Championship and enjoyed it which, along with opening the door to more cricket, made a reversal “a bit of a no-brainer”.An explosive batter, who became the first player to score a century in the Hundred three years ago, Smeed doesn’t want to smother that part of his game too much when he finally makes his first-class debut. So far, he has played 105 T20s and just one List A game.Smeed is set for a first-class debut this summer•Getty Images”I definitely think keeping [aggression] as part of your game, but you probably have to be a bit smarter with how you use it and when you use it and obviously then tightening up my defence and things like that,” Smeed said. “A lot of red-ball cricket is about adapting to the ebbs and flows, figuring out when to put your foot down, when to hold back and soak up a bit of pressure. So there needs to be a big learning experience this year, but I’m really looking forward to it.”From a mindset, I’m just more keen to score runs now. I’m just desperate to spend time in the middle and I think that’s why the games at the end of last summer went okay. I think I just put more value on my wicket. I’m still figuring out my game in white-ball stuff, so that’ll be even more prevalent in the red-ball stuff. There might be a technical tweak here or there, but I think a lot of it’s just going to be the way I approach it and the mindset and the options I take and figuring out what works for me.”Somerset came close to a trophy in all three competitions in 2024, but ended up with none. Their loss to Lancashire in the penultimate round of the Championship ensured Surrey finished top of Division One and then Hampshire won their final-round game to seal second place, leaving Somerset in third.On Blast Finals Day, Somerset beat Surrey in the semi-finals but then lost to Gloucestershire in the final, with Smeed scoring a duck and 8 in those games respectively. Somerset also lost the final of the One-Day Cup to Glamorgan.Smeed was the first batter to make a hundred in the Hundred•ECB/Getty ImagesNow, Smeed says his main aim is to win trophies with Somerset, with their 2023 Blast title “still the highlight of my career”, while scoring plenty of runs, with four-day cricket offering ample opportunity for that.”It means I’m here all summer,” Smeed said. “That was a big thing I made clear to Somerset, that I wanted to commit to the whole summer here and I wasn’t going to flip off somewhere if the opportunity came about. I’m here now and it means I can just get stuck into the English summer and really get my head down and try and win some games for Somerset.”The last couple of years with my contract, I’ve been able to take anything that came my way, whereas now, having just fully committed to the summer with Somerset takes that distraction away I guess – or it’s one more decision that I don’t have to make should something come up.”It’s just going to be I’m here with Somerset and that’s me for the summer. Then in the winter hopefully there’s opportunities to go away again and play some stuff overseas.”And if the Blast doesn’t fully satisfy those white-ball urges, there is always the Hundred window in August, when Smeed will return to Birmingham Phoenix, who are still searching for their first title.Having gone all-or-nothing down one career path, perhaps now Smeed really can have it all.