Free Hit
It'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.
Full postWe need to talk about MS Dhoni's hair
Is this the first time ever he's not quite managed to pull a look off?
Osman Samiuddin
09-Apr-2024
This is the first post in a new blog, Free Hit, that will feature random thoughts, observations and reflections from ESPNcricinfo's writers.
I'm sorry, but two weeks into the IPL and someone's got to say it. More than the two bouncers, or the booing of Hardik, or Kohli's strike rate, I'm just not sure that MS Dhoni's new hairstyle is working.
The only plus I see is that he's not gone full mullet, like Mitch Marsh or Adam Zampa, who leave the impression not so much of a style statement as of an exercise in postmodern irony. Hair as a prank, except we're not sure if they are the pranked or the prankster.
Full post