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A disciplined bowling effort from India’s seamers led England to scale back their usual aggressive intent

Matt Roller10-Jul-20251:21

Manjrekar in praise of Root’s batting

Shubman Gill declared the return of “boring Test cricket” but England did not care. They scored uncharacteristically slowly – at just 3.02 runs per over – and ground their way into the ascendancy on their slowest-scoring full day of the Bazball era, as Joe Root reached the close a run short of his 37th Test century and his eighth at Lord’s.”Baz-Baz-Bazball! Come on, I want to see it,” Mohammed Siraj was heard telling Root over the stump microphones, as England put their attacking shots away during a wicketless second session. “No more entertaining cricket, lads,” Gill told his team-mates, after Ollie Pope left the ball alone outside his off stump. “Welcome back to the boring Test cricket.”Boring suited England just fine. The crowd at Lord’s was probably anticipating a very different day when they cheered Ben Stokes’ decision to bat after winning his third consecutive toss, but a sluggish surface and a disciplined bowling effort from India’s seamers – including the returning Jasprit Bumrah – led England to scale back their usual aggressive intent.Related

• Reddy credits Cummins and Morkel for bowling improvement

• For Crawley and Pope, the struggle gets real

• Bumrah and Root show their class on bizarre Bazwalling day

• England sweat on Ben Stokes as spectre of injury looms

• Pant suffers blow to finger, Jurel called up as substitute keeper

But India will be heartened by the fact that after a long day in the field, they have kept England in check. The bowling heroes of their 336-run win at Edgbaston, Siraj and Akash Deep, both went wicketless, but timely scalps for Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and two in an over from Nitish Kumar Reddy ensured that England never got away from them.Root walked in straight after Reddy’s first over, which accounted for both England openers and saw Gill drop a tough chance off Pope in the gully, and quickly got his head down. He put on 109 with Pope for the third wicket, then an unbroken 79 with Stokes for the fifth – though Stokes’ apparent groin issue could become a major worry.India had their own injury problem to worry about: Rishabh Pant tried to grimace through the pain after being struck on the index finger as he tried to gather a rare loose ball from Bumrah, but instead spent the last 49 overs off the field. But Dhruv Jurel proved an able deputy, taking a fine catch to dismiss Pope as Jadeja found his outside edge with the first ball after tea.0:57

What explains England’s ‘Blockball’ approach?

Brendon McCullum ordered a pitch with “plenty of life in it” after England’s heavy defeat at Edgbaston but his plea either arrived too late or fell on deaf ears. It was clear within an over that this was a slow surface, with Ben Duckett edging through to Pant on the half-volley; Bumrah, who replaced Prasidh Krishna, immediately called for the slip cordon to stand closer.Duckett was repeatedly struck on the body in the first hour as Bumrah nipped the new ball off the seam, while Crawley was frenetic. He changed his guard several times and threw his hands at the ball; while he nailed three cover drives, he slashed another over the slips and regularly played and missed at both Akash Deep and Siraj.But it was Reddy, wicketless in Birmingham, who made the breakthroughs. He struck first with perhaps the worst ball of the morning, a long-hop on Duckett’s hip which he under-edged to Pant on the pull, but then dismissed Crawley with one of the best, a wicked outswinger which angled in then shaped away late to take the outside edge.Pope was reprieved by Gill in between those two dismissals and batted as though determined to live up to his tag – coined by Steve James in the – as “the worst starter since prawn cocktail”. But he made it through to lunch unscathed, and dug in alongside Root after the interval; early in the second session, they went 28 consecutive balls without scoring.1:15

Manjrekar: India introduced spin very late

Root, the senior pro, recognised that the best way to play Bumrah was from the non-striker’s end: he faced only two balls of his five-over spell after lunch, pinching singles to give Pope the strike back. They added 70 in a sleepy second session, as India’s seamers hung the ball wide outside off stump and waited for a mistake which didn’t come.It finally arrived straight after tea, as Pope flashed hard at Jadeja and edged through to Jurel. He stood disconsolate, bent over his bat handle in disbelief that he had thrown his wicket away. India had another soon after, as the battle between the ICC’s No. 1-ranked Test batter and bowler ended swiftly: Bumrah nipped one back off the seam to peg Harry Brook’s off stump back.Stokes was underway early with consecutive cuts for four, but looked uncomfortable against spin once more and survived an lbw shout from Reddy via DRS thanks only to the on-field umpire’s call. He was in obvious discomfort after a leave against Reddy, but batted on getting treatment from England’s physio during another long delay.Root, meanwhile, cruised along as he does, only once putting his foot down with a rasping slog-sweep off Jadeja. He was a boundary away from his hundred in the final over of the day but could only manage a two and then a single. History bodes well: the previous 16 men to sleep on 99 in Test cricket have all reached three figures the following morning.

Match referee Andy Pycroft ruled that the surface provided “almost no assistance to any type of bowler”

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Dec-2022The Rawalpindi pitch has earned a “below average” rating for the second time in 2022. The latest rating follows the first Test between Pakistan and England earlier this month, in which England racked up a record 506 runs on day one to set up an eventual 74-run win.Though the match ended in a decisive result, there was little joy for the bowlers particularly in the first two innings, which produced seven centuries and totals of 657 and 579. England scored at well above a run a ball in both their innings.On day two of the Test match, PCB chairman Ramiz Raja had termed the pitch “embarrassing”, and suggested that the contest it produced was “not a good advert for Test cricket”.Related

• ICC rescinds demerit point for Rawalpindi pitch that hosted Pakistan-England Test

• PCB appeals against ICC's decision to award Rawalpindi pitch demerit point

• Babar Azam: 'We didn't get the pitch we wanted'

• Switch Hit podcast: Pindi-monium

• Why does Ramiz Raja think Pakistan have a problem with their pitches?

ICC match referee Andy Pycroft seemed to agree with him while handing out a “below average” rating and a demerit point on Tuesday.”It was a very flat pitch which gave almost no assistance to any type of bowler,” Pycroft said. “That was the main reason why batters scored very fast and both sides posted huge totals.”The pitch hardly deteriorated during the course of the match. Since there was very little in it for the bowlers, I found the pitch to be ‘below average’ as per the ICC guidelines.”In March, when Rawalpindi hosted the first Test of Australia’s tour of Pakistan, bat dominated ball to the extent that 1187 runs were scored for the loss of only 14 wickets over five days. That pitch had earned a “below average” rating too, with match referee Ranjan Madugalle noting that the Test match did not “represent an even contest between bat and ball”.Rawalpindi has now received demerit points in successive Test matches. Demerit points remain active for a five-year rolling period, and a venue stands to be suspended from hosting international cricket for a period of five years if it accumulates five demerit points. A “below average” rating earns a venue one demerit point, while “poor” and “unfit” ratings earn three and five demerit points, respectively.

West Indies fast bowler will be available for final three games as Durham look to avoid relegation battle

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2024Durham have signed West Indies fast bowler Chemar Holder for their final three games of the County Championship season.Holder, who has played a Test and an ODI for his country, will be available for the round of Championship games starting on Monday, when Durham host Lancashire at Chester-le-Street. He replaces Neil Wagner, the New Zealand left-armer, whose stint was cut short by injury.”We are pleased to welcome Chemar to Durham for the final stages of the season, he is an exciting tall quick bowler who will add a point of difference to our available bowling group,” Marcus North, Durham’s director of cricket, said.”With international call ups and a number of injuries, it was extremely important to bring in an additional seamer and we are pleased to have secured a bowler of Holder’s quality.”Holder won a Test cap in 2020, after impressing in the domestic first-class system, and has also featured for Warwickshire in the County Championship. He spent more than a year out of the game after requiring shoulder surgery but was given a CWI franchise contract earlier this year as West Indies looked to keep him part of their fast-bowling pool.Holder said: “It feels very good to be a part of Durham and to be playing county cricket for a second time.”Once I step on the field, I always put my best foot forward and leave everything out there. I will put my all into the upcoming games and am looking forward to this opportunity. I can’t wait to get started if I am selected this week and give my all for Durham.”Durham are currently seventh in Division One of the Championship, 24 points clear of second-bottom Lancashire.

Both are exceptional ODI outfits, coming in with a string of wins to their name. Both will also already have one eye on their respective semi-finals, which quickly follow Sunday’s game

Karthik Krishnaswamy01-Mar-20252:19

Kumble: ‘Not in favour of resting players at this stage’

Big picture: Kohli joins 300 club

Scroll down to the form guide section. Actually, no need, because, spoiler warning, both teams have WWWWW next to them going into this match.These are two exceptional ODI outfits in potentially title-winning form, deep and balanced thanks to the allrounders they possess. They are well-suited to conditions at this Champions Trophy – particularly, perhaps, to those in Dubai where this contest will take place – thanks to their spin options and the variety of batting gears in their top orders.There has also been, especially over the last five years and a bit, a lot of history between these two teams.Related

• Phillips confident NZ have the resources to find success in slower Dubai

• KL Rahul plays down India's injury worries ahead of NZ clash

• India wary of keeping bowlers fresh for semi, says ten Doeschate

• Dot-ball 'beast' Bracewell stays under the radar but soars high

• Trial by spin on slow Dubai pitches a key step in Gill's evolution

This should, for all those reasons, be a main-course kind of contest, but it’s an appetiser in the context of where this Champions Trophy stands. India and New Zealand are both through to the semi-finals, and know exactly where and when their respective semi-finals will be played. All that remains to be decided is whom they will face there, and it’s unlikely there’s a “preferred” opponent for either team, given it’s a choice between South Africa and Australia.With that in mind, and the short turnaround before the semi-finals – particularly in the case of India, who only have a one-day gap before their game on March 4 – Sunday night’s contest may not necessarily be played at vein-throbbing intensity. There’s a chance of big names resting, and also – as India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate suggested on Friday – of key bowlers not completing their full ten-over quotas.There’s one man whose intensity is never short of vein-throbbing when he’s on the field, though, and he’s set to play a very special match. Virat Kohli is set to play his 300th ODI, becoming the 22nd player and seventh from India to get to that landmark. Given how infrequently ODIs are now played, and given how far away Kohli’s closest contemporaries are – Mushfiqur Rahim (274) and Rohit Sharma (272) are the only two to have played more than 250 – will he also be the last to get there?Virat Kohli is poised to play his 300th ODI•Alex Davidson/Getty Images

Form guide

India WWWWW
New Zealand WWWWW

In the spotlight: Shreyas Iyer and Kyle Jamieson

India’s batting is yet to face a truly daunting test in this Champions Trophy. They have batted second in both their games so far, and chased down targets of 229 and 242. Whether they bat first or second on Sunday, they are likelier to face a stiffer challenge from New Zealand, particularly from their fingerspinners Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell through the middle overs. It is perhaps in this context that Shreyas Iyer becomes especially important. Where Kohli and KL Rahul have gone at strike rates in the low 80s against spin in the middle overs since the start of 2023, Iyer has struck at 95.24. New Zealand know how dangerous Iyer is against spin – he hit five sixes while scoring 48 off 35 balls against their spinners during his century in the Mumbai World Cup semi-final of 2023.If the Kohli generation is India’s golden generation, it probably peaked around the time of the inaugural World Test Championship of 2019-21. And it’s quite possible that India may have won that trophy had they not happened to run into Kyle Jamieson. This towering and hugely gifted fast-bowling allrounder has gone through a testing time since then, mostly due to injury, and he’s now set to face India for the first time in any format since December 2021. Jamieson hasn’t yet had the same impact in ODIs that he has had in Tests; could the sight of his favourite opponents bring out his best?

Team news: Daryl Mitchell fit, but where does he fit in?

India only have a day’s gap between this match and their semi-final, but had a six-day gap between their previous match, against Pakistan, and this one. Do they believe, then, that their key players are adequately rested for 200 overs over three days? Or do they rest one or two of them? And what of the players on the bench, and their match-readiness should they suddenly be required in a knockout game? Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami went off the field with niggles at various stages during the Pakistan game, but both, according to the team’s press-conference representatives, are fit.India didn’t train on Saturday, but Rishabh Pant had an extended session in the nets on Friday, which suggests he could get a game – he has only played one ODI, back in July 2024, since his return from injuries suffered during his car crash. Given that as many as five left-hand batters could feature in New Zealand’s top eight, there’s a chance India may replace one of their two left-arm fingerspinners with the offspinner Washington Sundar. If Pant plays and adds his left-handedness to India’s top five, it relieves them of the need for Axar Patel as a floater.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Kuldeep Yadav/Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Mohammed Shami/Arshdeep Singh.India, especially, will have a question of balancing workloads to address•Associated Press

Daryl Mitchell is fit again after missing the match against Bangladesh with an illness, and this leaves New Zealand with a major top-order headache. Rachin Ravindra, who was himself returning from injury, replaced Mitchell and scored a match-winning hundred against Bangladesh. Will Young scored a hundred in the tournament-opener against Pakistan. Devon Conway, who had replaced Ravindra at the top of the order, has also been among the runs, scoring 97 against South Africa in the tri-series that preceded the Champions Trophy.New Zealand (probable): 1 Devon Conway, 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Michael Bracewell, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Kyle Jamieson, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Will O’Rourke.

Pitch and conditions: spin to win?

Dubai has been the most spin-friendly of the four Champions Trophy venues, with spinners currently returning an average of 37.07 and an economy rate of 4.36 here. Rawalpindi is second on both counts, at 40.60 and 4.81.This, of course, may also have something do to with the quality of India’s spinners. In any case, the pitches in Dubai, far from being square turners, have tended to be merely slow, with the large outfield also serving as an ally to the slower bowlers.Bangladesh and Pakistan both won the toss against India and chose to bat, reflecting the trend for dew not to be much of a factor at this time of the year. It’s possible that bat-first may still be the way to go, given the tendency for the pitches here to slow down over 100 overs.A clear, pleasant day is expected on Sunday, with a maximum temperature of 24 degrees Celsius.Vital runs aside, Tom Latham now has 100 ODI catches as a keeper to his name•ICC/Getty Images

Stats and trivia

• India and New Zealand have only met once before in the Champions Trophy: the final in 2000 when an unbeaten Chris Cairns century led New Zealand to a four-wicket win.
• India have won each of their last five completed ODIs against New Zealand; New Zealand won five in a row before that stretch.
• Tom Latham’s unbeaten 118 made all the headlines, but he also enjoyed a big moment on the field during New Zealand’s tournament-opener against Pakistan: the catch of Shaheen Shah Afridi, off Matt Henry, was his 100th as wicketkeeper in ODIs.

Quotes

“That’s a lot of ODI games and a lot of international games and yeah, he’s been… I mean, words fall short to express how good a player he’s been, and what a great servant of Indian cricket he’s been.”

“I look forward to the challenge and respect the need for results”

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Sep-2022Mark Boucher has been appointed as the new Mumbai Indians coach, his stint beginning from the 2023 edition of the IPL. The announcement came a day after ESPNcricinfo had reported that Boucher, the head coach of the South Africa men’s national team till the end of their campaign at the upcoming T20 World Cup, was the frontrunner for the position. The vacancy opened up after Mahela Jayawardene was elevated to a more global role within the Mumbai Indians group, which now has teams at the IPL, the SA20 league and the UAE’s ILT20.”Their history and achievements as a franchise clearly put them up there as one of the most successful sporting franchises in all of world sport,” Boucher said of Mumbai Indians in a franchise statement. “I look forward to the challenge and respect the need for results. It’s a strong unit with great leadership and players. I look forward to adding value to this dynamic unit.”Related

• Neighbours out to prove a point in rare World Cup clash

• Boucher's exit after eventful tenure leaves big hole in coaching staff

• Timeline of Boucher's SA stint: success, failure, and drama

Boucher announced earlier this week, immediately after South Africa lost the Test series in England 2-1, that he would be stepping down from the position after the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia.While he might not have extensive experience as a coach on the T20 franchise circuit, Boucher had a run as wicketkeeping coach at Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2016 IPL. Prior to that, he had also played for Knight Riders as well as Royal Challengers Bangalore. Soon after, he moved to take charge as head coach at Titans on the South African domestic circuit before moving to the lead role at the South Africa men’s national team.”The way he [Boucher] has transformed South African white-ball cricket in the last two years, he’s been brilliant, and he is also someone that we felt thinks differently and will contribute in a very positive way to Mumbai Indians,” Jayawardene said in a video released by Mumbai Indians on Twitter. “Especially when we have a group of players with the skillsets that we have, then we have a young group coming through as well. So that transition is something that we need to manage, and we feel that Mark is going to be the best man for that.”Akash Ambani, Mumbai’s owner, said he believed Boucher would add “immense value” to the five-time champions with “proven expertise” as a coach both on and off the field.