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Virat Kohli has moved up to No. 4 in the latest T20I rankings for batsmen following his unbeaten 80 in the final T20I against England in Ahmedabad, which helped India clinch the five-match series 3-2.Kohli went past KL Rahul, and now has 762 rating points. Rahul, who had a horror run with the bat with scores of 1, 0, 0 and 14 in the series, has slipped to No. 5.Despite England losing the series, Dawid Malan, who scored a 46-ball 68 in the last game, continued to top the table with 892 rating points. Aaron Finch (No. 2, 830 points) and Babar Azam (No. 3, 801 points) are the others in the top five.In the ODI rankings, Jonny Bairstow climbed four places after his blazing 66-ball 94 in the first ODI against India in Pune. He is now in the seventh spot with 775 rating points.Kohli continued to occupy the No. 1 spot among ODI batsmen, with Azam and Rohit Sharma battling for the second position. With 837 rating points, Azam is No. 2, and Sharma, with one point fewer, is at No. 3.Among bowlers, Adil Rashid gained one spot to be at No. 4 in T20Is, where South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi is at the pole position, with a lead of 14 points over No. 2 Rashid Khan.New Zealand seamer Matt Henry is now ranked eighth among ODI bowlers, having gained three places since the last update, while Trent Boult continued to head the list.

When Somerset’s two captains and their brightest young talent flew to Pakistan in February, their ambitions for the PSL season were clear: to rub shoulders with some of the world’s top players, to experience high-pressure situations in a major competition, and to earn a few rupees while they were at it.Things did not go to plan. Lewis Gregory won the match award in his first game but then suffered a minor injury; Tom Banton was unceremoniously dropped by Quetta Gladiators after two single-digit scores; and Tom Abell couldn’t force his way into a strong Lahore Qalandars’ line-up. And then, as the tournament’s biosecure bubble burst, all three tested positive for Covid-19.”I guess we are all pretty fortunate,” Abell, the club’s red-ball captain, reflected at Somerset’s pre-season media day. “Lewis had a bit of a fever, but very mild, and I didn’t suffer any symptoms. We were all aware of the risks of going abroad and playing in these competitions but it was too good an opportunity to pass up.”We had 10 days [of self-isolation] in the hotel in Pakistan – which wasn’t ideal – then tested negative, and then had another 10 days back at home. It’s obviously a big relief to get back into pre-season here. There will certainly be no excuses – it’s just a question of getting the miles in our legs, but we’ll all have had plenty of preparation leading up to that first game.”It is just as well that they have recovered: if any side in the country can afford to start slowly in the County Championship, it is not Somerset. The pitch prepared for their title decider against Essex in 2019 earned them a points deduction, which has rolled over to the start of this season and been adjusted to fit the rejigged structure – heading into their game against Middlesex at Lord’s next week, their points tally stands at minus eight.Not that the deduction has dampened the enthusiasm around the club ahead of the new season. “We’re a very driven group of players,” Abell said. “We want to achieve, and we want to win. We feel like we’ve been very competitive over the last couple of years but we’re certainly not content with that. The energy around the club is as good as I’ve experienced and the competition within the squad is extreme.”In fact, that competition for places has been sufficiently fierce that three players have left the club in the last 12 months in search of more first-team opportunities: Dom Bess moved to Yorkshire, Jamie Overton to Surrey, and Nathan Gilchrist, a highly-rated young seamer, joined Kent. Marchant de Lange, signed as an overseas player for the full season, is a like-for-like Overton replacement, but the club will promote youngsters to plug any other gaps.”We want to ensure that we’re doing everything we possibly can to retain our players and keep them at the club,” Andy Hurry, the director of cricket, said. “I think we do become victims of our own success: it is a challenge for us because we’ve got significant competition for places. We’re competing for silverware and it’s important that we’re selecting sides that give us the best possible chance of winning games. As a consequence, we can’t always keep everybody happy.”Tom Banton endured a difficult time at the Pakistan Super League•AFP via Getty Images

As for other recruits, Babar Azam looks unlikely to return given the overlap between the T20 Blast and the window for the rescheduled PSL, but Hurry said that the club will “continue to explore” the possibility of bringing someone in for the competition.There has been a significant change off the field, too. Marcus Trescothick, the assistant coach last summer, has ended his long association with the club to take up a full-time role as England’s batting coach, with Jim Troughton – sacked by Warwickshire over the winter – filling the vacancy. Steve Kirby is also back as bowling coach after Stuart Barnes took up a role with Ireland.There are several young players hoping to make an impression. Tom Lammonby was the breakout star of last summer’s Bob Willis Trophy, making three hundreds as an opener, and is sure to be discussed as an England contender before long, while Lewis Goldsworthy and Will Smeed impressed in the Blast. In pre-season, 18-year-old Sonny Baker has caught the eye with some hooping inswingers, but will have to wait his turn given the number of seamers ahead of him in the queue.Banton’s early-season involvement is noteworthy. He made only two Somerset appearances last summer on account of his international commitments, but opted to play the early rounds of the Championship rather than entering the IPL auction and facing the prospect of more time on the bench. After his eye-catching 2019 season, Banton’s stock has fallen in the last 12 months as he has got to grips with life in bio-secure bubbles and failed to nail down an England place.Related

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“When you have a player of his quality coming back, that’s only going to give you a boost,” Abell said. “Bants is a big character in the dressing room and I know he’s excited to be back. He’s a phenomenal talent but he’s human as well and his attitude towards coming back to play red-ball cricket for us has been fantastic. I’m very confident we’ll see the best of him this year.”The biggest question still remains: how can a team that has finished second in the last three seasons go one better this time around? “We’re always looking to make small improvements but we have to trust what we’ve been doing as a group,” Abell said. “We’ve been there and thereabouts for a reason and we don’t want to change too much to chase that elusive Championship. The best thing we can do is start well and our full focus is on doing just that.”

Having just returned to Australia after recovering from Covid-19 that he picked up during his IPL coaching stint in India, former Australia batter Mike Hussey believes the UAE should be looked at as an alternative for the T20 World Cup later in the year.As things stand, India is slated to host the event in October-November this year across nine venues, but doubts have emerged ever since the country was gripped with a serious second wave of infections leading to the IPL being postponed earlier this month.Related

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“I think it’s going to be very difficult in my view to play that tournament in India,” Hussey told upon his return to Sydney, where he is currently at a quarantine facility. He spent two weeks in isolation in India, after being one of three members from the Chennai Super Kings contingent to test positive on May 4.”We’re talking about eight teams in the IPL. I think there are probably similar number, maybe more teams coming in from overseas [for the T20 World Cup], there’d be more venues. As I said earlier, if they’re playing in different cities, that is when the risk goes up.”I think they’ll have to look some pretty big contingency plans, perhaps looking at the UAE or somewhere like that that could host the World T20. I think there will be a lot of cricket boards around the world that’d be pretty nervous about going back to India for a cricket tournament.”While the ICC continues to monitor the situation in India, the UAE, which has been slotted in as a back-up venue, has become a more realistic contender to host the global tournament. The matter will be up for discussion when the ICC Board meets at its annual conference in July.

Joe Root has admitted England were “outplayed in all three departments” after slipping to defeat in the LV=Insurance Test series against New Zealand.The series defeat was England’s first at home since 2014 and Root’s first at home as captain. It was also New Zealand’s first Test series victory in England since 1999.But while Root accepted it had been a “disappointing performance” from his side, he insisted it would “be the wrong time to start panicking and trying to rip up all the hard work we’ve done for such a long period of time.””It’s been a frustrating and disappointing performance this week,” Root said. “I don’t think we’ve given a fair account of ourselves. We’ve been outplayed in all three departments, particularly the batting.”We didn’t get the runs [we should have done] in the first innings. We missed chances in the field and didn’t help our bowlers in that respect. And with the bat [in the second innings] we were poor.”Sometimes in Test cricket you can have a poor session with the ball and you’re still very much in the game. But a session that like can cost you a Test. That’s where we find ourselves. It’s cost us the series and we have some hard lessons to learn.”We have to look at where we can get better individually and collectively. We need to be honest about that. We have to have some hard conversations and move forward.”Related

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England’s batting was clearly their biggest issue. James Bracey (with eight runs in three innings), Zak Crawley (with 21 runs in four innings), Ollie Pope (with a top score of 23) and Root himself (who did not pass 42) all struggled despite generally benign batting conditions.But while Root accepted improvements were necessary, he defended the techniques of his players and suggested England must not abandon the investment they had put into these players ahead of major series against India and Australia. And he took responsibility for failing to lead from the front in a young batting line-up.”We have to front up, look to get better and learn some hard lessons sometimes,” he said. “We’ve all underperformed this week.”But we have to be constructive. I think every single one of those guys has proven they can score big Test runs. I think it would be the wrong time to start panicking and trying to rip up all the hard work we’ve done for such a long period of time. It’s something that historically we’ve done going into big tournaments and big Test series and it’s made things even worse.”There’s a huge desire to keep getting better as a team. We know there’s talent and ability in the group. Sometimes you really learn about a group of players, going through a difficult period like this. We have had a poor week, a poor series, and have got to front up to that. But it doesn’t make them bad players.”There’s been a lot of talk about technique and batting. My view is batting is very much an individual thing. There’s no right or wrong way of doing it. Look at the best players in the world: they all have different methods of how they play. How they stand, their bat paths, where they score their runs.”For me it’s more of a metal thing. It’s about clarity in their own game and managing passages of play. Managing different bowlers, different angles and conditions and doing that consistently well over an innings and a series. We can be a little bit smarter on occasions. It’s somewhere that throughout my career I’ve got that horribly wrong on occasions.”As the leading run-scorer within our squad currently I feel like I’ve put a lot of pressure on those guys by not performing myself. As a captain you pride yourself on getting big runs and leading from the front and I’ve not managed to follow through on that. So I’ve probably compounded that situation slightly.”Despite his disappointment, Root refused to blame any sense that his side had been discombobulated by the furore around historic social media posts in the run-up to the game or the absence of those players who had appeared in the IPL”That [the social media issue] would be a bit of an excuse, to be honest,” Root said. “I actually think that once the game came round and the training days came round, we managed to focus solely on the cricket. I don’t think that’s dripped into the way we played.”As we have spoken about so many times, we find ourselves in these Covid times and things aren’t perfect. They are not ideal. Yes, the whole thing is frustrating from time to time. You want your best players available for every Test. At the minute that’s not quite a possibility. That’s part and parcel of the world we live in right now. The sooner it can get back to normal the better for a number of reasons.”We’ve five more Tests to come this summer and I’d like to think for those Tests we’d have our first XI if all fit. And that’s a really exciting prospect as a team and something to look forward to.”

Age, experience and expertise have done little to ease Marizanne Kapp’s nerves ahead of the opening match in the Hundred.Kapp, the 31-year-old veteran of nearly 200 international matches across formats and ranked as the world’s leading ODI allrounder, is part of a formidable three-pronged South African contingent who will turn out for Oval Invincibles against Manchester Originals in the first match of the tournament at the Kia Oval on Wednesday night.”To be honest, I’m really, really nervous,” Kapp told ESPNcricinfo. “We had our first training match yesterday, it’s definitely something to get used to but once you understand it, it’s quite exciting.”I’m usually someone who gets nervous but the quarantine adds to that because obviously now you didn’t really train cricket for two weeks and the uncertainty of the new format just makes you nervous because you want to do well.”Of comfort to Kapp is the fact that she is joined by Shabnim Ismail, with whom she regularly opens the bowling for South Africa, and Dane van Niekerk, Kapp’s wife of three years who captains her country and will also lead Invincibles. But the road hasn’t been the easiest to this tournament, postponed since last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.Following their 4-1 ODI series victory in India in March, the South Africans returned home, then made their way to England via a two-week quarantine period in Croatia, which involved one week confined to their rooms. Another five days’ quarantine once in England whereby they could train but not mingle with their team-mates meant they had to play a practice game on Monday whilst keeping their distance and the first time they will have normal contact with the rest of the team will either be on the eve of the first match or game day itself.During that training match, Kapp found herself bowling at the death with her side behind on over rate and with the resultant penalty of having only three rather than four fielders outside the circle. Combined with having 20 fewer balls to play with, the format poses real conundrums for bowlers, said Kapp, who is also a seasoned franchise player, having featured in the KSL and played six WBBL seasons with Sydney Sixers before signing with Perth Scorchers for the next edition.”It’s really challenging,” she said. “I told one of the coaches yesterday, my preparation is key and I felt so good leaving South Africa because I worked hard and then you go into quarantine and you lose a bit of rhythm.”Now I’m stressed because you didn’t hit enough balls or you didn’t bowl enough balls and it’s a new format and Covid and the quarantines are a massive headache for me.”They just kept on telling me, ‘look you’re so experienced, you’ve been playing so many years, you’ll be fine’. I’m someone who, if I don’t hit 1000 balls or bowl 200 balls then I feel like I’m not prepared but actually, I was decent yesterday, if I can say it that way.”Related

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It’s hard enough on the bowlers, so spare a thought for the captains.”I told Dane last night that I feel sorry for her because she was also in quarantine, so I know how I feel if I didn’t prepare as well as I would have liked, and now you put captaincy on top of that and a new format,” Kapp said. “I don’t know how she does it but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”This whole competition is going to be a challenge because we’re so used to being in our comfort zones and this is the complete opposite… when she’s there, you immediately feel a bit calmer because you know she’s going to get the job done.”Kapp is clear that she feels fortunate to be in the situation she is in – a fact brought home even more powerfully by the ongoing devastation of Covid-19, looting and violence in her home country.”You worry a lot, I’m not going to lie,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking but I’m blessed to be able to be here and continue playing my sport that I love.”Kapp had her own battle with Covid before South Africa’s T20I series with Pakistan in Durban in January and February. She was struck down for weeks with the illness, which prevented her from having a medical procedure for an ongoing heart condition, which forced her to retire hurt from a WBBL match last November.With a hectic schedule leading up to, and beyond, next year’s World Cup, Kapp will now have to continue managing the condition.Kapp suffered an elevated heart rate during a WBBL match•Getty Images

“I ended up not going for the [procedure] because I was really, really sick with Covid,” Kapp said. “It’s just something that I’ve learnt to play with. When it happens, it’s not nice but usually I can get it under control.”When they got me back to training [after Covid], first I had to start walking and just with walking my heart rate was 180, so I really struggled to get back. Throughout that whole Pakistan series I wasn’t 100 percent, especially with the bowling, I really struggled and I was so tired. But I’m fine now.”With the rescheduled World Cup looming in New Zealand in February and March, Kapp believes South Africa, the No. 3-ranked ODI team behind Australia and defending champions England, have a golden opportunity.”The squad we have now is probably the best we’ve ever had and the best we’ll have for the next couple of years so if we don’t do it now we’ll never do it,” she said. “Our team is especially good ODI team at the moment so with this ODI World Cup being pushed back it’s a bit annoying but that’s the ultimate goal for me.”And, even if that goal is achieved, Kapp has no intention of stopping there, with ambitions to play until she’s 35.”Now, for the first time, I know my skill batting and bowling wise,” she said. “If I knew what I know now a few years ago, I’d be so much better. I still have a lot to give, hopefully.”

Big picture

Sri Lanka have lost 13 of their last 14 completed matches. Although this is not India’s main team – and there may be further changes following Krunal Pandya* testing positive for Covid-19 – they are more experienced in the format than Sri Lanka, and won comfortably on Sunday. So how do the hosts turn this series around? With a T20 World Cup coming up late in the year, how do they turn their whole game around?On Sunday’s evidence, it is Sri Lanka’s middle order that needs the most work. With Dasun Shanaka out of form, and Wanindu Hasaranga having so far failed to provide the kinds of innings he produced in England, they have been short of firepower through the middle and late stages. In the first match, only Minod Bhanuka (10 off 7) and Charith Asalanka (44 off 26) struck at more than 120.India, you suspect, will feel as if they didn’t bat particularly well in that first match, and yet, their bowlers were good enough to defend their 164 for 5. Bhuvneshwar Kumar ended up with the most wickets, but as has been the case through the tour, Yuzvendra Chahal has troubled Sri Lanka most – some flat out failing to read him, others yet to work out how to score against him, as he gains substantial turn from the Khettarama surface and varies his pace effectively. On the batting front, each of the top four – Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Sanju Samson, and Suryakumar Yadav – has been in decent touch this tour.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)Sri Lanka LLLLLIndia WWWLW

In the spotlight

Like any new captain, Dasun Shanaka wants respect in the dressing room. So far on India’s visit, though, he has not quite found his best form with the bat, failing to produce those explosive, finishing innings. It is India’s wristspin that has usually worked against him – Chahal getting him twice in the ODIs, and Varun Chakravarthy having him stumped on Sunday. If he can overcome this apparent weakness, a boundary-laden innings would do Shanaka, and by extension the team, a world of good.Hardik Pandya made headlines in Sri Lanka, first for giving Chamika Karunaratne (who describes Hardik as a role model) his bat before the first match, and then singing along to the Sri Lankan national anthem. This has been enough to win hearts on the island, but you suspect he is not particularly satisfied with that. His batting form seems to have deserted him, and his bowling has been only marginally better. He also dropped a straightforward catch on Sunday. He is generally a cricketer of such soaring confidence it seems almost unthinkable he could be feeling down about his game. But he’s got only two innings left to rediscover some of that hitting ability.

Pitch and conditions

The surface is likely to be good for batting again, though it will take turn, as all Khettarama tracks do. Colombo has had heavy rain on Monday, and there is a chance of bad weather interrupting the match, but there should be enough play to constitute a match.

Team news

Krunal and eight others identified as his close contacts are now isolating to prevent further spread of the virus. So India’s XI for this game is going to involve a lot of guesswork. Additionally, it is not totally clear whether Shaw and Suryakumar are available, given they have been called up to the Test squad in England. But after the first T20I, Dhawan did say he expected them to be available, so we’ll go with his word.India (possible): 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Ishan Kishan (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 K Gowtham, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Varun ChakravarthyYou would have thought Ashen Bandara batted himself out of the XI with his nine off 19 in the first match, but with Bhanuka Rajapaksa still likely to be out with a finger injury, and Asalanka also doubtful now with a hamstring complaint, Sri Lanka are running out of batters in the squad. Sadeera Samarawickrama may come in.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Avishka Fernando, 2 Minod Bhanuka (wk), 3 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 4 Dhananjaya de Silva, 5 Ashen Bandara, 6 Dasun Shanaka (capt.), 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Chamika Karunaratne, 9 Isuru Udana, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Akila Dananjaya

Stats and trivia

• Despite having played 43 innings in the format, Shanaka’s T20I strike rate is 108.
• India have now won 11 of their last 12 completed T20Is against Sri Lanka.
• Sri Lanka’s three top T20I runscorers since 2016 – Kusal Perera, Thisara Perera, and Danushka Gunathilaka – are all unavailable for this series. Kusal is out through injury, Gunathilaka is suspended, and Thisara retired earlier in the year.

Surrey and former England fast bowler Liam Plunkett will leave English cricket at the end of this season to play Major League Cricket in the United States.Surrey announced on Tuesday that Plunkett would leave the club after three years to join the new T20 competition in America, where he would also play and work as an Academy coach for The Philadelphians, a team in the Eastern Division of Minor League Cricket, recently launched as a level below the major league set-up.The 36-year-old Plunkett was part of England’s victorious World Cup campaign in 2019, claiming 3 for 42 in the final against New Zealand, which was the last of his 89 ODI caps and his final appearance for England.”I would like to thank everyone at Surrey for the support and backing I have received over the last three years,” Plunkett told the Surrey CCC website. “Moving onto the next phase of my career, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join Major League Cricket and focus my attention on helping to grow the sport in the United States.”I’ve enjoyed a fantastic career with England and, after retiring from international cricket, I am delighted to be able to help build the sport in America in both playing and coaching capacities.”In addition, I am looking forward to supporting the team closest to our home in the US by being able to play for The Philadelphians in Minor League Cricket.”Plunkett, whose wife is American, has previously spoken about the possibility of playing in the US if an opportunity arose at the right time.Surrey’s director of cricket, Alec Stewart, said: “On behalf of everyone at the club, we wish Liam the very best with his new challenge in America. Whenever he is in London, he will always be welcomed back to visit the Kia Oval.”

Nasum Ahmed’s pivotal blows in two important phases of New Zealand’s innings amounted to a four-wicket haul, his second in as many T20I series in the last four weeks. It doesn’t necessarily make him an overnight star in the Bangladeshi audience, but it suggests that a few factors are going well within the team.Nasum removed Rachin Ravindra and Finn Allen in his first two overs. Allen’s wicket deprived New Zealand of a fast start. His wickets of Henry Nicholls and Colin de Grandhomme, in the 12th over, ensured Bangladesh wouldn’t be chasing even a moderate total.Nasum, who made his T20I debut earlier this year in New Zealand, isn’t the most celebrated talent of Bangladesh’s cricketing system. He is actually a product of the first-class grind, who somehow caught the selectors’ eye through one or two performances in T20 tournaments. Mostly, he won the race to selection through deduction – Bangladesh lack good young left-arm spinners these days.He struggled in his first series in New Zealand, famously saying the blue sky deterred his teammates from taking catches. But his accuracy seemed to work for the team. He has been seen as a moderate to long-term prospect, with the T20 World Cup in mind. His eight wickets against Australia, at 11.50 bowling average, won him the team’s approval.On Wednesday with the series on the line, Nasum’s job was to mainly contain Allen. The instruction was to bowl slower on this pitch, but seeing Allen take shape of a big reverse-hit – Allen already struck Shakib Al Hasan – Nasum thought otherwise.”I most enjoyed taking the Finn Allen wicket,” Nasum said. “I bowled it much quicker as he tried to play the reverse sweep, which forced him to mistime the ball. I wanted to take his wicket in the previous matches too. He was also my first international wicket.”When Finn Allen was playing the reverse sweep, Riyad bhai was telling me to bowl slower. But I noticed that he was turning quite early when I was approaching to bowl. It prompted me to bowl quicker, which forced the mistiming.”Nasum said that he has long conversations with bowling coach Rangana Herath, who reminded him to bowl slower on this type of pitch. This, he said, he listened to mostly.”I don’t know if I have become an important member of the team or not, but I get a lot of support from the teammates. Especially when the captain and seniors help out, it inspires me. I speak to our coach too, and we have a good understanding.”Yesterday he was telling me that I should bowl a little slower, which is what I exactly tried to do today,” he said.Nasum said that he isn’t given the role of being a wicket-taker with the new-ball, even though he tries to use the hard seam as much as possible. “I hit the seam more (with the new ball). It was a turning wicket, so I tried to bowl in good areas. I bowled a few cross-seam deliveries.”I am also getting used to bowling in the powerplay. I am not told to take wickets, but to stick to what I can do. I try to bowl as many dot balls as possible,” he said.Nasum said that he is developing a spin-bowling partnership with Mahedi Hasan, who is also bowling well off-late, taking 1-21 in the fourth game. “Mahedi and I speak to each other when we are bowling together. We tell each other that we will cover for each other if any of us bowl a bad over. We encourage each other,” he said.Nasum is also aware what awaits him in the T20 World Cup next month. There’s a lot of talk about how the Bangladesh spinners will adjust to conditions in Oman and UAE after getting so much assistance at home. “As far as preparation is concerned, we are winning. It naturally helps with the confidence. I am sure we will go into the T20 World Cup on a high, and do well there.”I must adjust to every condition as a professional cricketer. I have to bowl well on flat and turning wickets, and in every situation,” he said.For cricketers like Nasum, doing well for Bangladesh is sometimes the only route for survival at this level. There’s going to be fewer favours for him in the selection table when form and performance isn’t top-class. There are younger spinners waiting in the wings, but more importantly, his profile isn’t big enough to aid his cause. But when he is doing well, it is important that he makes the best of his form. This was Nasum’s day, and more such days will only make his case stronger.

Three balls of Sunil Narine, with the bat, changed the game, putting Kolkata Knight Riders one step closer to the IPL final.It was tough though. Royal Challengers Bangalore were defending a total of 138 with fearsome spirit.The score was 80 for 3 in the 12th over. The Sharjah slowdown was well and truly on. On this pitch an equation that reads 59 from 51 can be dicey. You can’t leave it too late. Too many variables. So Knight Riders sent in their pinch hitter and he went 6, 6, (wide) and 6.Three balls of Narine changed the game. Twenty-four balls earlier had set it up. Royal Challengers actually had a solid powerplay – 53 for 1 at 8.8. Then he came on and the runs dried up. Only 60 came off the next 11 overs. 60 for 4 at 5.45.Narine Sublime
Virat Kohli. Clean bowled. AB de Villiers. Clean Bowled. Glenn Maxwell. Completely deceived. Most people need a cheat code and a computer screen to pull that off. Narine doesn’t. He imposed video game logic on this real life game and turned it in Knight Riders’ favour.

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Pressure was mounting on Kohli. He had slowed down once again after the powerplay – 24 off 16 and 15 off 17 – and his desperation was apparent. Narine knew that in these situations, batters often forget about the basics and just swing across the line. Even one as good as Kohli was susceptible to this weakness as a straightforward offbreak sneaked through his defences.Taking down the big boys
Doing de Villiers required a bit more subtlety. Royal Challengers’ talisman had come out with a plan. It involved thrusting his front foot outside off stump to eliminate lbw, and playing across it. Narine, though, spotted the smallest gap between bat and pad and he targeted it with missile-like precision. Pace, drift, length and spin – everything came together as de Villiers played all around an offbreak and lost his middle stump.That only left Maxwell. And having to do all the heavy lifting with time running out and the spinners closing in, even those invincible sweep shots of his suddenly looked not quite invincible. Narine got him to top edge one straight into the hands of short third.Knight Riders had saved their mystery spinner for Royal Challengers’ big three. And it worked a treat. Twelve runs. Seventeen balls. And three massive wickets.Virat Kohli desperately wanted this one, but Eoin Morgan wasn’t going to let him have it•BCCI

The fightback
Kohli wanted this one badly. He got in the face of the umpire when he made a poor decision. When the resulting DRS proved how plumb the lbw was he roared like only he can. He had said this would be his last season as captain in the IPL. He would have imagined signing off with that big shiny trophy. So he kept going to his match-winners.Harshal Patel has the honour in 2021 and he responded by knocking out Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer. Those two wickets took his season tally to 32, an IPL record, tied with 2013 Dwayne Bravo.Yuzvendra Chahal has had the honour for pretty much the entire time Royal Challengers have been around. He created the DRS drama.Dan Christian has had the honour in various T20 leagues around the world. Even at 38, he broke into the Australian World Cup squad on the basis of that. But here he missed his areas. Narine pulled a short ball that didn’t rise high enough for six over square leg to start his innings. Then he launched a length ball on leg stump over midwicket. And to top it off, he cleared the long-off boundary with one hand. Just one hand. That brought the required rate down from 6.9 to 4.8.And though Royal Challengers continued to fight – Mohammed Siraj took two wickets in the 18th over to throw the game open again – Eoin Morgan and Shakib Al Hasan harnessed over 600 T20s worth of experience to eventually seal the game.

India’s captain for the Kanpur Test must still have been processing the tight result with India falling one wicket short of what would have been an incredible win on a slow, low surface when his coach Rahul Dravid was being asked about his lack of runs. Ajinkya Rahane now averages 24.39 over his last 16 Tests, including one century in the Boxing Day Test nearly a year ago. With scores of 35 and 4 in this Test, his career average has now dipped below 40. At home he averages 35.73.

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Dravid was asked if he was worried about Rahane’s lack of runs. “I don’t get worried, you don’t get worried,” Dravid said. “Of course you would like more runs from Ajinkya. I am sure he would like a few more runs. He is a quality player. He has done well for India in the past. He is one of those guys who has that quality. He has the experience. Hopefully it’s just a matter of an innings, a matter of a game where he can turn it around. Certainly he would like to score more runs. He knows that. And we know that.”The lack of runs became stark when full-time captain Virat Kohli rested and his replacement Shreyas Iyer responded by becoming the first India player to score a century and a half-century on Test debut. Usually you see the replacement player make way for the one returning, but when there are others struggling in the side, the question is asked: how can you drop a debutant centurion when others are not scoring runs? Dravid was asked, too, if Iyer would be retained in the side.Related

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“We haven’t decided the playing XI for Mumbai,” Dravid said. “It will be too early to talk about it. We have only been thinking about this Test till now. When we get to Bombay, we will look at the conditions, the pitch. We will look at the guys’ fitness. Virat Kohli will also join us so there will be consultation with him. Then we will decide who will be in the playing XI.”Apart from Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara has been short of runs too, having last scored a century in January 2019. Even Kohli has gone two years without a century, but he has played fewer Tests than the duo, missing three Tests in Australia and one now. An interesting first selection awaits the Kohli-Dravid captain-coach team.