Free Hit
Hat-tricks? Yawn
In T20s this particular feat is often not so much a display of bowling prowess as of batting desperation
Osman Samiuddin
27-Jun-2024
Hat-tricks: like buses, right? Wait so long for one and then a whole bunch come along all at once. At least that's how it seems right now, having watched* three hat-tricks in four** days at the T20 World Cup.
Except, wrong. Chris Jordan's homecoming hat-trick against the USA was the 26th hat-trick in all T20 cricket since January 2023. That's approximately one and a half hat-tricks per month.
In the same time, there have only been five hat-tricks in List A cricket and only one in an ODI. The last hat-trick in an ODI between two Full Members was in December 2019. The last Test hat-trick was three years ago, in St Lucia. There have been 46 hat-tricks in all Test cricket; there have been 47 in T20s since April 2022 alone.
Full postUsama Mir's predicament underlines the need for a Pakistan players' association
The legspinner has been denied an NOC to play in the T20 Blast when he could easily have been given one
Osman Samiuddin
03-Jun-2024
Usama Mir has not been given a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to play for Worcestershire in the T20 Blast, and the only sensible conclusion to draw is that it has never been more urgent for Pakistan cricket to have a players' association.
The facts first. Mir is not part of Pakistan's T20 World Cup squad. He's arguably unlucky, not only given the form of the incumbent leggie, Shadab Khan, but because he was the leading wicket-taker in an irrepressible PSL this season.
The key fact is that he is centrally contracted to the PCB, the terms of which mean that he is allowed to play in two T20 leagues other than the PSL in a contract year. Mir played in the 2023 Hundred and the 2023-24 BBL (albeit curtailed). If he played in the Blast, it would have been a third league in a year. The PCB said no.
Full postDavid Warner is polarising opinion till the very end
As ever through his career, you can't ignore him as he heads into the T20 World Cup, his last goodbye
Andrew McGlashan
16-May-2024
It wouldn't have been part of the David Warner story without a final little twist to the tale. A late dose of debate and intrigue.
His 15-year international career will finish next month with the T20 World Cup. It has not been the smoothest of lead-ins. His IPL season with Delhi Capitals has become somewhat of a forgettable affair, finishing with scores of 18, 10, 8, 1, 1, a damaged hand, and being left out of the final game.
That, though, is only part of it. On its own the form and injury would have been enough to provoke the usual chatter, but a whole other level has been added by the rapid emergence of Jake Fraser-McGurk, who has taken the IPL by storm.
Full postLet us now worship Chamari Athapaththu
She's lording it over cricket like nobody's business at the moment
Andrew Fidel Fernando
14-May-2024
*Knock knock.*
Oh, hello there. Sorry to bother you, but I would like to talk to you about something important.
It won't take long. Your laundry can wait. Those emails don't need to be answered immediately, right? You can still pick your kids up from school tomorrow.
Full postSunil Narine: the perfect T20 cricketer? It's complicated
He has reinvented himself repeatedly to stay ahead of the curve in a game that moves at breathless pace
Osman Samiuddin
07-May-2024
I came to a neat conclusion the other day after watching Sunil Narine bat.
Sunil Narine is the perfect T20 batter because he wasn't a batter and so never had that ingrained sense of the value of a wicket. As such, he now doesn't worry about losing his wicket, which, for a top-order batter in the format, is the game's key cataclysmic event.
And what's more, that makes him the perfect T20 cricketer, because he's understood that bowling in this format is a mug's game and it's better to turn yourself into a batter instead.
Full postAre Pakistan stuck in a T20 time warp?
As records are gutted in the IPL, they continue to be hampered by the fear of losing powerplay wickets
Osman Samiuddin
30-Apr-2024
178.
One hundred and seventy-eight: welcome, Gary Kirsten, to Pakistan's T20 world.
Twice in the recently concluded series with New Zealand, Pakistan scored 178. Once they scored 174. Of those, they lost two and won one. In three of the five T20Is Pakistan played in New Zealand earlier this year, they made 180, 173 and 179. They lost all three.
Full postHow many sixes need to be hit before they lose their magic?
Almost unthinkably, the spectacle of batters hitting the ball into the stands has become routine and predictable
Sambit Bal
27-Apr-2024
Can something feel incredible and inevitable at the same time?
Can you immerse yourself in the thrill of a first-of-a-kind sporting experience and also find emptiness creeping in?
Can you at once exult at an odds-defying shower of six-hitting and also feel benumbed by it?
Full postCricket, like life, is better experienced from the depths of a deckchair
In praise of that quintessential English cricket experience - taking in the goings on while seated in a lounger in the sun
Alan Gardner
26-Apr-2024
It is not quite true to say that every activity in life is better undertaken while reclining in a deckchair. Quite possibly it's not the ideal position from which to tackle a bit of spot welding, or create the perfect Hollandaise sauce (I'm an expert in neither field).
But when it comes to vantage points from which to watch sport, you can't beat it. And when it comes to sports that offer you the deckchair option, cricket - with all due respect to beach volleyball - is in a league of its own.
We're not talking sand and sun-loungers at Kensington Oval, by the way (although that scenario certainly has its merits). Rather, the start of the English summer down at Hove, where the seagulls swoop and the county game comes with an extra dollop of seaside charm. It's a quintessential English cricket experience - and don't just take my word for it, ask the editor of Wisden.
Full postIt's too many runs, somebody make it stop
Batters are smacking the ball around like it has taken away their first-born, and it's not pretty
Andrew Fidel Fernando
24-Apr-2024
Sometimes it's an injury or illness that causes you to confront your own mortality. Other times, it's Travis Head.
Watch him as he ker-thumps his 60th boundary this IPL, in the next innings he plays, probably. The guy has 324 runs so far, off 150 deliveries faced. Both he and Virat Kohli have a century and two fifties each. Jos Buttler has two centuries from seven innings. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Marcus Stoinis, and Rohit Sharma have also hit a hundred apiece. But so has Sunil Narine.
Yet, while many others have contributed, it is Head who has led the ludicrous hitting this season. And Head who has been involved in matches that saw:
Full postSix sixes in an over: still special after all these years
The way batters monster totals in T20, you would think hitting six sixes in an over would be routine. It's not
Osman Samiuddin
16-Apr-2024
This is the second post on a new blog, Free Hit, that features random thoughts, observations and reflections from ESPNcricinfo's writers.
Last week Dipendra Singh Airee of Nepal hit Kamran Khan of Qatar for six sixes in an over at the Al Amerat Ground of Oman. It's a wonderful sentence to be able to write for its cosmopolitan tenor. Cricket is a big sport without a great geographic spread, but it is bigger for this sentence.
Quite likely you did not see the feat live, though the ACC Premier Cup is broadcast live on YouTube. By now you must have come across clips, though, in the same way as watching Sir Garry Sobers do it for the first time on YouTube, the experience is unsatisfying. We're thoroughly spoilt by modern broadcasts.
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