Third century of series takes batter to record-breaking territory despite series scoreline

Matt Roller24-Jun-2022Daryl Mitchell likened New Zealand’s series in England to a “heavyweight boxing fight” but finds himself on the ropes despite completing a hundred for the third successive Test on the second day at Headingley.Mitchell’s 109 followed scores of 13 and 108 at Lord’s, then 190 and 62 not out at Trent Bridge in the first two Tests of the tour, giving him the highest run-tally for a New Zealander against England in a single series, even with one innings to spare.He had two lives in the third Test, one on each of the first two days. On 8, he was trapped in front by Matthew Potts, but Marais Erasmus was unmoved and Ben Stokes opted against a review which would have overturned the decision. And after adding two runs to his overnight 78, he edged Potts towards Joe Root at slip, only for Ben Foakes to dive in front of him and spill the chance.”It’s an honour and a privilege to represent the Black Caps,” Mitchell said. “I know that it sounds pretty boring, but I love playing Test cricket for my country. Any chance to wear the silver fern is a pretty special moment and for me, it’s just a case of enjoying it.”It took me a few years to get into this position and to get into this Test team, so it’s about making the most of each opportunity, playing with a smile on my face and enjoying being in that changing room because it’s a great bunch of boys. When individual achievements come about it’s up to the work you do, but I’m just really honoured to be a part of this group.”Mitchell arrived in England a week before the first Test, leaving the IPL a few days ahead of schedule after dropping out of Rajasthan Royals’ playing XI, but had not played a red-ball match for four months and would not have played at Lord’s but for Henry Nicholls’ positive Covid-19 test delaying his rehabilitation from a calf injury.”That’s the nature of international cricket now,” he said. “You need to be able to adapt very quickly and be constantly working on different formats while you’re in other ones. It’s just part and parcel of playing all three formats in international cricket these days and it’s a challenge that you’ve got to keep trying to master.”Related

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He added that New Zealand had “probably fully expected” England to play in the ultra-positive, all-guns-blazing manner they have adopted in this series following Brendon McCullum’s appointment as coach, and said that they still felt as though the game was in the balance with three days to go despite Jonny Bairstow’s extraordinary partnership with Jamie Overton.”It’s been a hell of a Test series,” he said. “For us, there were obviously a couple of small moments in those other Tests that we lost which eventually ended up with us losing those matches. Both teams are evenly poised and it will come down to small moments over the next three days as to who is going to win this one.”It’s been the same themes throughout this whole series. As an onlooker on the sides, I reckon it would have been a hell of a game of cricket to be watching today, obviously the ebbs and flows. We linked it [sic] to a heavyweight boxing fight, the way both teams are throwing punches.”That’s the gameplan that they’ve come about with and we probably fully expected it with Baz taking over. I thought our bowlers did a great job there [and] it took a great knock by Jonny to put the pressure back on us.”It was a great partnership but at the same time we’ve still got a lead and we know there’s a lot of cricket still to be played over the next three days. If we can chip out a couple early tomorrow morning, it’s game on again. We’re really looking forward to it.”

The Australia leggie made her international debut relatively late, but she came on to the scene with a bang

Annesha Ghosh14-Jul-2022Alana King didn’t have female cricketers who looked like her as role models when she was growing up.”Women’s cricket wasn’t really televised when I was a kid,” the 26-year-old Australia legspinner, who has been on a roll since her international debut earlier this year, says. “So I watched a lot of men’s cricket … [and] the man who I saw was Andrew Symonds, who was a person of colour.”A first-generation Australian of Anglo-Indian descent, King has been on a tear since her first T20I, in January, taking the most wickets for her country in the three formats combined. Success with Australia in the Ashes and the ODI World Cup led to a maiden central contract, a Hundred deal with Trent Rockets, a trophy-winning campaign in the Women’s T20 Challenge in India, and a place in the squad for this month’s tri-series in Ireland and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.Related

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Beyond this tangible progress, the phenomenal start to her international career has also given King a platform to serve a greater purpose, she says: be a role model.”I know in the men’s team they’ve got Usman Khawaja. I’m trying to do the same thing: encourage the subcontinent boys and girls to pick up a bat and ball, and say that there’s always going to be a place for you. If you’re good enough, you’ll represent Australia, if that’s your intention.”King’s parents, who come from the southern Indian city of Chennai, moved to Australia in the 1980s, but race and representation, she says, hardly registered as matters of importance when she was a girl. “My junior-group club really enforced that in the whole club: that we’re here to play cricket, no matter what colour, what age, what gender you are.”Born in the Melbourne suburb of Clarinda, King grew up playing cricket mostly with boys. Though she remembers thinking, ‘”Wow, this is cool” on seeing Mel Jones and Lisa Sthalekar on TV for the first time as a kid, it didn’t really strike her that they were female athletes of colour representing a country where cricket was predominantly a white sport. “I saw them just as cricketers. I was just so naïve that I didn’t really care what colour people were,” she says. “But obviously, as you grow older and learn about what’s happening around the world, you can be like, ‘Oh, okay, maybe people don’t like you because you’re a different colour or a different gender…'”1:52

‘I’m hoping I can be a role model for the subcontinent girls and boys’

Though King says she has never seen herself as different because of her origins, both she and her family have been at the receiving end of racism in the past. One of the most harrowing instances was when her father, Leroy, in his early days as an immigrant in Melbourne, was pulled up by the police at gun point because of his dark hair and beard.”It eventually turned out to be a case of mistaken identity,” King says. “My elder brother, Marc, and I weren’t even born then but now that incident is part of family lore. We share a laugh over it, but yeah, my parents have copped a fair bit of racism and discrimination, had to battle through those things.”I’m grateful to them for making such a brave and big decision in moving from India to Australia to better their lives and to hopefully give a great life to their children – which they have. It would have been very daunting for them, but they did it.”The most successful phase of King’s career yet has coincided with renewed global awareness of racism and discrimination, and increased support for the Black Lives Matter movement. King, who has taken a knee before every game of the WBBL in the last two seasons, often as the sole player doing so, acknowledges the overlap.With her parents, Sharon and Leroy, after her triumphant return from this year’s World Cup•AFP/Getty Images”The past 12-18 months, I’ve become really comfortable in who I am as a player and as a person,” she says of her two stellar WBBL seasons and her ongoing breakout stretch in international cricket. “If I look back [on the decision to take a knee], I wanted to do it because it was important to me because of who I am, what my family have been through, and what I believe in.”

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King’s luminous smile lights her face up on the Zoom call. She describes herself as “a bit energetic, fun-loving, bubbly… maybe sometimes a bit loud.””With me, what you see is what you get. And that’s what’s helped me, I guess, not ‘fit in’ smoothly or ‘fit in’ nicely into the [Australian] team – but when you’re comfortable in your own skin, it just makes things a lot easier.”Her awareness of where she is and where she wants to be speaks of a wisdom born of years of hard grind in a highly competitive domestic set-up. It has also informed some of her career-shaping decisions in the recent past.Two seasons ago, after struggling getting opportunities with her home state, Victoria, King moved to Western Australia to play Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL). In the WBBL, after playing a pivotal role in Melbourne Stars’ run to the 2020-21 final, she signed with Perth Scorchers for the next season, which they won – their first WBBL title.King takes a knee at a WBBL game in November last year. Often, she has been the only member of her side to do so•Mark Brake/Getty ImagesThe national selectors came calling soon after and she was named in the squad for the 2022 multi-format Ashes at home, albeit as a replacement for injured first-choice legspinner Georgia Wareham. In that series, she ended up earning her first caps in T20Is, Tests and ODIs – in that order – in the space of a fortnight, and was soon on the flight across the Tasman for the ODI World Cup.Australia have a reputation for being a conveyor belt for prodigies, which makes King, who debuted at 26, something of an aberration. There are advantages to that, she says. “Although everyone wants to get that opportunity young, having a few more years under my belt has actually done me a world of good. I’m a bit more experienced and I know my game much, much better.”I was just shocked to be included in such a powerhouse team. But when I debuted, the message that I kept getting, whether it was from the support staff, the coaching staff or the leadership, was, ‘Just be yourself. It’s got you here, your skills have got you here, so don’t change just because you’re in a new environment.'”All of 15 appearances old in international cricket, King has made a splash across formats with her attacking bowling. Of her 18 wickets so far for Australia, many have provided breakthroughs in games, none more memorably perhaps than the ripping legbreak that spun sharply from leg past off and had England opener Tammy Beaumont stumped in Australia’s first game in this year’s ODI World Cup.”When that ball came out of my hand, it just was the most beautiful legspin delivery that could come out,” King says. She celebrated the dismissal by emphatically slapping the black armbands she was wearing to pay respect to her role model, Shane Warne, who had died the previous evening, and whom she watched as an 11-year-old take a record 700th Test wicket at the MCG in December 2006.King in her baggy green. She played her first game in each of the three international formats inside of a fortnight•Getty Images”The way it drifted to leg stump and whizzed to off… Warnie was big on that. He made balls drift to outside the leg stump and then hit the top of off,” she says. “And they keep talking about how Ian Healy was behind the stumps [for some of Warne’s most iconic dismissals]. Reflecting on it now, it’s just so fitting that Alyssa [Ian’s niece] was behind the stumps [for the Beaumont stumping].”And it was against England, it was the breakthrough we needed. Everything about it just, hopefully, made him dance upstairs. And hopefully, he’s proud of what me, and plenty of other legspinners, are doing out on the international stage.”

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King followed her brother, who played representative cricket, in bowling legspin, just as she had in taking up tennis, which was her first sport of choice. She briefly also played softball in her school team, and later baseball at the Monash University Baseball Club. Having first picked up a tennis racquet at age five, she went on to compete in the Tennis Victoria Pennant, the largest inter-club representative competition in the country, and was even a ball kid in the 2011 Australian Open women’s final, which Kim Clijsters won.But the dream of playing on centre court faded as her growth in cricket proceeded at pace. At 16 she was handed her first rookie contract, with VicSpirit, the Victoria team in the WNCL. Three years later she earned a surprise call-up to Melbourne Stars for the inaugural WBBL, where she made her debut under Australia captain Meg Lanning. King broke into the senior Victoria squad in 2016, and it helped her take strides in upping her legspin game.”Back in Victoria, when I was surrounded by some great Australian players like Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry, I tinkered with my trajectory with them and would tap into their knowledge and feedback from a batting perspective,” she says. “Once they were like, ‘If it gets too loopy, it’s easy to come down [the track, as a batter]. If it’s too flat, it’s easy to pick up, so you’re just trying to find that happy medium.’ That’s what I’ve tried to work on.”Adam Zampa, second from right, is among those King has taken advice from in her attempts to get better at her skill•Scott Barbour/Cricket Australia/Getty ImagesKing has found success avoiding the overly floated deliveries that mark the bowling of some of her counterparts on the international circuit. Relying largely on her wicket-taking instinct, no matter the phase of the innings, has stood her in good stead.”I knew I couldn’t be too loopy because in the domestic set-up in Australia we’re blessed with some of the best batters in the world,” she says. “So when you’re finding it hard to bowl to them, that’s a really good challenge. Similarly, I try not to leave the stumps as much as possible, because it gives me the best chance to bring in all modes of dismissal. I just vary my pace, but my length and line pretty much stay as consistent as I can be.”She attributes part of her understanding of her strengths to Michael Beer, the former Australia left-arm fingerspinner, who was spin coach at Victoria and Melbourne Stars. Beer helped with her alignment too. While in the Victoria set-up, she also benefited from picking the brains of Australia legspinner and T20 journeyman Fawad Ahmed, and honed her skills under Trent Woodhill, Stars’ head coach in the only season when they made the WBBL final. “Trent worked a lot with Adam Zampa [at Stars men’s team] and he gave me a few tips on what Zamps used to do and what made him so successful in white-ball cricket,” King says.Since she moved to Western Australia, she has worked closely with Beau Casson, the former the Australia left-arm wristspinner, who “tinkered just a couple of things to help me get more consistent, which I have”.Among those who have influenced her career, King reserves a special mention for Kirsten Beams. “As a young Victoria legspinner, she was the biggest mentor I had, and someone I looked up to. She was playing for Australia at the time and was my team-mate at Victoria.With new interim coach Shelley Nitschke. “Shell is well and truly fit for the job,” King says•Mark Brake/Getty Images”We were quite different as legspinners. She was very much into the pads, skid on, maybe not as big a turner as I like to be, but I learned so much from Beamsy, so it was special she presented me my baggy green when I made my Australia debut this year.”When Australia take the field next, King, like many of her team-mates, will be without the guidance of someone most of them have played all their careers under: former head coach Matthew Mott. After an era-defining stint that culminated in the 2022 ODI World Cup win, Mott quit in May to take up the England men’s white-ball coach role.”For a head coach to have your back no matter what happens on the field was quite reassuring,” King says of her former “golf buddy” on tour. “When I first came in, Motty knew I was a bit nervous and tentative to be myself. Just being in a new squad when everyone is so established, he made me really be myself.”The relationship he has with his players is just phenomenal. And I applaud him for that. He’s real with everyone. There’s nothing fake about any relationship. He just wants the best for you and you to perform at your best, so I am going to miss him.”Mott’s interim successor for Australia’s Ireland tour and the Commonwealth Games is Shelley Nitschke, whom King first worked with when she was part of the National Performance Squad in 2019, and later at Perth Scorchers.”Shell is well and truly fit enough for the job,” says King. “She’s got so much experience behind her. Not much will change because she and Motty, they work quite similarly when they’re coaching.”King shows her stuff against Bangladesh in the World Cup•Hagen Hopkins/ICC/Getty ImagesIn the days ahead, King is relishing the prospect of adding to her trophy cabinet. The first-ever Commonwealth Games women’s cricket tournament beckons.”We have a big 12 months coming up, and the Commonwealth Games – you grow up watching them as a kid, like you do the Olympics. So I am looking forward to be involved in it, maybe play a match or two and help Australia grab gold, be in the [athletes’] village, and hopefully meet the Australian swim team, who were quite dominant in the pool in the recent Olympic Games.”King’s last few months – “a summer that just kept on giving” – is the kind of thing that kids dream of, she says. And while she lives the dream, she knows that in doing so, she might be empowering others to dream.”My biggest message,” she says, “and it will always be my message as my career goes on, is: no matter what your colour is or your background, if you want something you’ll go out and do it and you’ll work hard for it.””Hopefully, kids can get to see that a bit more, and they can have some someone to relate to, because you can’t be what you can’t see. And the more people see us, the more they can aspire to be the next Usman Khawaja, the next Mel Jones, or Lisa Sthalekar.”

And how many batters have managed a hundred in each Test of a three-match series?

Steven Lynch04-Jul-2022Has anyone scored as many runs as Jonny Bairstow in the New Zealand series at a higher run rate? asked Mike Bullivant from England
In the three Tests against New Zealand, Jonny Bairstow scored 394 runs from 328 balls, a rate of 120.12 per 100 balls. No one has scored more runs in a series more quickly: the nearest is Bairstow’s current captain Ben Stokes, with 109.01 – 411 from 377 balls – in South Africa in 2015-16.The only man known to have scored 300 runs in a Test series at a faster rate is Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi, who hammered 330 off 272 balls – 121.32 per 100 – at home against India in 2005-06. For the full list, click here (note that an asterisk, such as the one against Clive Lloyd’s run-rate figure, means our data is incomplete).I noticed that in a shortish career as opener, John Campbell has been at the crease several times when West Indies have won a Test. Which opener has done this most often? asked Davo Kissoondari from Guyana
The West Indian opener John Campbell may have played only 20 Tests so far, but has now been at the crease six times when the winning hit was made, including both matches against Bangladesh last month. This compares well with a rather more famous Jamaican opener, Chris Gayle, who was also in at the end of a West Indian win on six occasions – but played 103 Tests in all.Only eight openers have been batting at the moment of victory in more Tests, and the fewest matches any of them played was 74 (Michael Slater, who was there for seven wins). Another famous West Indian leads the way by some distance – Desmond Haynes was at the crease at the end of 18 Test victories. Matthew Hayden was there for 11, and Gordon Greenidge for ten.Haynes’ 18 is the most by anyone, opener or not: Ricky Ponting is second with 13, while Jacques Kallis was in at the moment of victory on 12 occasions.Daryl Mitchell scored a century in each match of the England series. How many people have done this? asked Kelly McLeod from New Zealand
New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell was the seventh man to score a century in each match of a three-Test series, following Ken Barrington (England vs Pakistan in 1967), Shoaib Mohammad (Pakistan vs New Zealand in 1990-91), Matthew Hayden (Australia vs South Africa in 2001-02), Mohammad Yousuf (Pakistan vs West Indies in 2006-07), Ross Taylor (New Zealand vs West Indies in 2013-14) and Virat Kohli (India vs Sri Lanka in 2017-18).But two men have scored a century in each match of a four-Test series: Kallis, for South Africa against West Indies in 2003-04, and Steven Smith, for Australia vs India in 2014-15.No one has managed a hundred in each match of a five-Test series: Clyde Walcott did score five centuries for West Indies in the home series against Australia in 1954-55, but two of them came in the second Test in Port-of-Spain.Jacques Kallis made a hundred in each of the four Tests against West Indies in 2003-04•Touchline/Getty ImagesApparently only one Englishman has made two full Ashes tours of Australia and not played a Test there – who is he? asked Norman Davis from England
There’s only one man who fits the bill here – but he isn’t, strictly speaking, an Englishman! The tall Northamptonshire fast bowler David Larter toured down under in 1962-63 and 1965-66, but couldn’t force his way into the Test side on either tour. He was born in Inverness, in Scotland, but his family moved to Suffolk when he was ten.Larter did have some success in the ten Tests he managed between injury problems, taking 37 wickets, with a best of 5 for 57 – and nine in the match – on debut against Pakistan at The Oval in 1962.Northamptonshire wicketkeeper Laurie Johnson rated him highly. Interviewed for Larter’s 2021 biography Bowling Fast, he summed up: “It was always interesting keeping to David Larter, as he was different from other quick bowlers in that he could extract bounce from a length. He was a great trier and, on his day, when everything clicked and conditions were in his favour, he could be as quick as Frank Tyson (for whom I used to stand back the full length of the wicket).”Recurring injuries proved too much in the end, at a time when off-field support was less sophisticated than it is now. The unfortunate Larter retired from county cricket in 1967, still only 27. “It was useless trying to carry on,” he wrote. “I played only four games last summer because of a damaged left ankle, and it broke down again in our knockout cup game against Bedfordshire. If I can’t stand up for one match it’s pointless trying to play in three-day games. My ankle will just not stand being jarred.”It didn’t quite happen at Edgbaston, but when was the last time the captain batted at No. 11 in a Test? asked Rajendra Sharma from India
It didn’t happen at Edgbaston because India’s Jasprit Bumrah, in his first match as captain, went in at No. 10 rather than his customary 11 – and did rather well, breaking the record for most runs in an over in a Test.The last captain to go in last in a Test was Sri Lanka’s Suranga Lakmal, against England in Pallekele in 2018-19. The last to do it regularly was Courtney Walsh, on 14 occasions for West Indies in the late 1990s.For the full list, click here (this includes some innings where the captain was injured or did not bat).Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo’s stats team helped with some of the above answers.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions

Such was the impact of his 16-ball 42 that it felt like the innings of the match even though Conway scored an unbeaten 92 off 58

Andrew McGlashan22-Oct-2022When New Zealand were last in Australia for a World Cup match, the first over became famous for Mitchell Starc uprooting Brendon McCullum to the deafening sounds of a packed MCG.Seven years on, and it was a little different this time, albeit the trophy itself was not on the line. Still, it has already been loosened considerably from Australia’s hold. Second ball, Finn Allen cleared mid-on for four, next ball he goes further with the first six of the Super 12s and two deliveries later he leathers one straight down the ground. At the end of the first over, New Zealand were 14 without loss.By the end of the second, that tally was more than doubled. Fellow opener Devon Conway had got in on the act, tucking Josh Hazlewood’s first ball fine, then charging the No. 1 T20I bowler in the world to send him past mid-off. Allen capped the over by dismissing Hazlewood through the covers.Related

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And it didn’t stop there. The third over, Pat Cummins’ first, went for 17. Two more fours and a thunderous six over square leg for Allen. Australia’s big three were being taken apart. When Allen cleared the ropes for a third time, against Marcus Stoinis, New Zealand’s fifty was up in 3.5 overs.”Talking with [head coach Gary Stead] about how we wanted to approach the game, we sort of wanted to throw the first punch and take it with them whether it was with the ball or bat,” Allen said. “For me, looking straight early my innings is really important… It picked up my confidence getting one away early against Starc.”They are an intimidating attack to come up against, so it was [about] just trying to play the ball rather than the bowler. It’s what I try and always do, treat everyone the same in that respect. I guess everyone would agree that when you’re trying to whack it, it’s a bit more fun than blocking it around.”

“As a batsman, once you get ahead of an opposition and you get ahead of the game…you can start dictating a bit. That’s what happened today. He [Allen] got off to a flier and put us on the back foot”Australia captain Aaron Finch

Though Allen’s innings ended in the fifth over when Hazlewood burst through him with a full delivery, his 16-ball stay may have been one of the most important for New Zealand in recent times.”The way we started up front, think Finn was pretty special,” Conway said. “He put the bowlers under some serious pressure and we just took that momentum throughout the game. It’s a serious effort from him. I’ve seen him perform a number of times like that playing with him at Wellington.”The New Zealand side is in the early stages of transition, and Allen is one of the newer faces in the white-ball teams. It might seem obvious, given his impact on this game, but New Zealand made an important call leading into this tournament by committing to Allen opening the batting ahead of the experienced Martin Guptill – a player who has taken apart many a white-ball attack during his career and averages 35.61 with a strike rate of 144.23 against Australia in T20Is.But in recent times Allen has looked like he should have the role. There had been a hint of it in Cairns last month when, with the ODI series lost, he came into the side for the final game and showed more fluency than any of the top-order batters.”He was fantastic. He came at us hard and took us on,” Australia captain Aaron Finch said of Allen. “We knew that he was going to do that. As a batsman, once you get ahead of an opposition and you get ahead of the game…you can start dictating a bit. That’s what happened today. He got off to a flier and put us on the back foot.”He had already made his mark in T20Is with a series of blistering innings – including 101 off 56 balls against Scotland – although opening against Australia in the first game of a World Cup was a new level of pressure. Not that it showed in the slightest. By the end of this innings, he held the highest strike rate in all men’s T20 for anyone who has faced at least 500 balls, moving ahead of Andre Russell. It’s quite the early marker in a career.2:10

Conway or Allen – who had the bigger impact?

“I certainly have to be okay with failing quite a lot,” Allen said. “The consistency sometimes can go up and down which is often tough at times, but there is where our management and Kane [Williamson] are so good at reassuring me that everything is all good and it’s not always going to come off…they make sure I know everyone backs me and take the positive option.”When asked if he always carries an air of confidence, he replied: “I try to, it’s not the worst mantra for life.”Australia never really recovered from the early onslaught despite managing some control in the middle phase. Such was the impact Allen had, that it still felt like the key innings of the game even though Conway then took over to reach an unbeaten 92 off 58 balls, the second time he had fallen just short of a T20I hundred against Australia. In contrast to the immense power of Allen, Conway uses angles and placement – his work against Adam Zampa was excellent, taking the legspinner for 32 in 17 balls. He now has the extraordinary T20I average of 57.38 but was happy to defer to his team-mate.”I have to give a lot of credit to Finn and the way he played,” he said. “The way he put them under pressure allowed me to get those balls that were slightly looser. In T20 cricket, if you put bowlers under pressure, no matter how good you are, it’s a tough gig. Ball two he hit one to the boundary and we were away.”There will be a few quibbles about Kane Williamson’s innings – a run-a-ball 23 – but making 200 for 3 and winning by 89 runs, with bowling success shared between pace and spin, against the defending champions on their turf does not leave many holes to pick. “For us, it’s close to a perfect game,” Conway said. If they put in some repeat performances, another MCG final may be within reach.

If runs haven’t returned by then, the ODIs against England after T20 World Cup would be the natural point for a new captain to start bedding in

Andrew McGlashan04-Sep-2022It is a decent sign that a player is struggling for form when a single shot is analysed as a potential turning point: will that be the stroke that changes things for them?When Aaron Finch drove Richard Ngarava wide of mid-off in the third over of the third ODI between Australia and Zimbabwe in Townsville, it was, indeed, a very nice stroke. There was a decent stride, his weight came forward into the ball, it found the middle of the bat, and it was timed nicely.But it wasn’t – at least on Saturday – a turning point for the Australia limited-overs captain. Facing Ngarava’s next over, he fenced at a delivery outside off stump and was caught at second slip. It was the third time in the series he had fallen to Ngarava’s left-arm pace after dragging a ball on to his stumps in the opening match, and edging a lifting delivery to slip in the second.Related

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• Watson: Finch's form could make him 'big liability' for T20 World Cup

• McDonald backs Finch to regain form heading towards T20 World Cup

It left Finch with a tally of 21 runs in three innings for the series, and it extended what is increasingly looking like a trend. In 2022, Finch has now made 164 runs in 11 ODI innings – 62 of them in one knock against Sri Lanka – with six single-figure scores in that stretch – a big enough sample size for it to be a legitimate talking point, and a looming problem for Australia.”When I get a bit heavy there, it starts to affect the rest of my game,” Finch had said ahead of the final ODI against Zimbabwe. “I feel as though that’s coming along really well. The rewards will be there very soon; just hasn’t happened just yet.”I know that I’ve got the full support of the players and the coaching and selection staff, so I’m working hard on my game. It just hasn’t quite flowed yet. It just comes down to giving yourself a bit of time, and hopefully getting a big one shortly.”There is no chance of anything dramatic happening in the short term. Australia have named their T20 World Cup squad, which Finch will captain. But it is worthwhile separating the two white-ball formats. While Finch’s ODI returns are in a rut, he has managed to maintain his T20I output at a better level with 247 runs at 30.87 this year, albeit his strike rate of 121.67 is his lowest of any 12-month period.It means there is a crucial week for Finch coming up against New Zealand in Cairns in terms of what might happen after the T20 World Cup. Unsurprisingly, he has had support from across the board – team-mates, national selector and head coach – over his position, but another difficult series will keep the issue bubbling away.It has the makings a tough examination as well, with New Zealand being able to pick a pace attack from Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry.”Across his career, it’s ebbed and flowed. His movement patterns sometimes early in his innings are compromised, whether that’s through perceived pressure that he puts on himself or what the bowler does,” head coach Andrew McDonald told reporters after the Zimbabwe series.”We are working through it. He’s working hard on his game… he’s continuing to work on the same things he always works on. It’s about getting a start and maximising that start. At the moment he hasn’t quite got to that stage but we feel he can, hence he’s still around the group and still a valued member as our captain.”It will be about clearing his mind, clearing his thoughts, going out there and looking to be positive. When he’s positive, his feet move a lot better than potentially when he’s doubting. That’s every batsman’s case when they feel they haven’t got the runs they want.”They search for a little bit more, and sometimes that can take away from just responding to what is coming down… so if we can get a clear mind, I think there’s an opportunity for him to have an impact in that New Zealand series.”Alex Carey could be a contender for the ODI captaincy should Aaron Finch need to be replaced•Associated PressIf runs haven’t returned by then, the ODI series against England after the T20 World Cup – which has nothing much riding on it due to not being part of the Super League – would be the natural point to make a change that would leave time for a new captain to bed in.In that scenario, Finch holding the T20 World Cup aloft on home soil on November 13 would be the ideal way to sign off, although sport offers no promises of a perfect ending.There may be parallels with how Eoin Morgan’s career came to an abrupt end earlier this year after consecutive ducks against Netherlands. Like Finch, Morgan’s captaincy continued to be held in huge regard, and it is unlikely he would have been pushed, but Morgan woke a couple of days before England’s final game in that series and knew his race was run.Whether it plays out that way for Finch remains to be seen.Australia are not short of potential top-order replacements who have made strong cases of late, which may yet be a factor. Travis Head, absent from the Zimbabwe and New Zealand series on paternity leave, has averaged 62 in ODIs this year; Ben McDermott made 55 and 104 against Pakistan; and Marnus Labuschagne looks a better fit as a top-three player than in a middle-order role.However, replacing Finch as captain would be the tougher decision, although Alex Carey and Mitchell Marsh would likely be contenders. But if someone with experience was wanted to get through the World Cup, Steven Smith’s name could be considered too.Finch has turned things around before, not least ahead of the 2019 ODI World Cup, when a run of low scores against India became one of his best years. For now, the final stages of Finch’s outstanding international career remain in his hands, and a big score or two in Cairns will shift the conversation.Another lean series, however, and his path will become a trickier to plot.

Sri Lanka’s seamers tend to be modest in foreign conditions, but they put together an impressive stretch of bowling on day two in Christchurch

Andrew Fidel Fernando10-Mar-2023Before we begin, a quick appraisal of the Sri Lanka seam attack:Lahiru Kumara, 26Pros Is rapid. Bowls above 140kph on the good days. Can touch 150kph on his best ones Top inswinger (to the right-hander). Good bouncer Appears to be built like a Toyota HiAceCons Has tended to lack control, relieving pressure that other bowlers have built Maybe a LADA in the shell of a HiAce. In December 2020, he broke down in the middle of a Test. Then did the same in the only Test he started the next year. Then did the same in the only Test he started the year after thatKasun Rajitha, 29Pros Tall, reasonably sharp (mid 130kph range) Has shown good control, across formats From the Suranga Lakmal school of seam movement, in that he is able to move it either wayCons Broke down in that same December 2020 Test that Kumara broke down in, and didn’t play a Test for 17 months Inexperienced, having played only 13 Tests before this one From the Suranga Lakmal school of growing facial hairAsitha Fernando, 25Pros Has a mean yorker The kind of high-effort bowler who can summon life even out of dead pitches Has the best bowling average of the three Sri Lanka frontliners in this game (24.55 before this match)Cons Even less experienced than Rajitha (seven Tests) Looks the least like a fast bowler of the three Sri Lanka frontliners (i.e. the man’s not tall)This is not a bad set of seamers. There is variety here – Lahiru Kumara’s pace, Kasun Rajitha’s movement, Asitha Fernando’s intensity. But it is not a set of seamers you expect wonders from either. They are without a serious spearhead, Lakmal having long since retired. And attacks more promising than this one have gone to New Zealand and failed to keep the hosts in check.There is perhaps less heft and grit to this New Zealand batting order since the likes of Ross Taylor and BJ Watling retired, but there remains some quality. Tom Latham averages over 41. Kane Williamson is almost inarguably their greatest ever. Devon Conway had a rollicking start to his Test career. Daryl Mitchell has perhaps had an even better one.Tom Latham was bowled by a searing Asitha Fernando yorker•Getty ImagesBut aside from the brief period of about 40 minutes after tea, in which Sri Lanka opted to bowl Angelo Mathews and spinner Prabath Jayasuriya in tandem, there was no stretch of day two in which New Zealand’s batters had it easy.In fact, on either side of tea, these seamers put together an impressive stretch of bowling, frequently testing the outside edge, often prompting brave leaves on length, raising lbw appeals, needling relentlessly. New Zealand lost three wickets for nine runs in that period. And that is without Rajitha – the best bowler in that passage – even managing a breakthrough.Mitchell (who was most severely tested by Rajitha) and the set Latham fought through that examination, but just when that partnership appeared to be settling into a comfortable rhythm, Asitha produced the delivery of the day. Coming around the wicket to Latham, he beat the batter in the air, rattling his stumps.Not long after, Rajitha claimed a wicket off the kind of delivery he specialises in – angled in at the right-hander, straightening in the air just a touch, then leaping up off the seam. Tom Blundell (who averages 45, by the way), had to play at that delivery, and had a faint edge collected. New Zealand were 151 for 5 at that stage, then 162 for 5 when play ended.And where two of New Zealand’s four frontline seamers had gone at more than five an over, each of Kumara, Rajitha, and Asitha ended day two having maintained economy rates of less than 2.5.There is a school of fast bowling that is about glory balls, and banana swing, sending stumps cartwheeling, and veins popping out of your face in celebration. Then there is diligence, discipline, and patience. We know which one Sri Lanka’s seamers subscribed to on Friday.A day-two appraisal to finish:Cons Sri Lanka seam attacks tend to be cute, but ultimately modest in foreign conditions, partly because they play there infrequentlyPros On day two, Sri Lanka’s seamers had the better of a pretty good New Zealand top order