Virat Kohli scaled more peaks in the IPL, while Shubman Gill keeps improving his best

Sampath Bandarupalli22-May-20237 Virat Kohli’s hundreds in the IPL, the most by a batter surpassing Chris Gayle (6). Four of Kohli’s seven centuries have come at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the most by a batter at an IPL venue.2 IPL matches with batters in each team scoring a hundred. Heinrich Klaasen and Kohli were the first to do it, when RCB defeated Sunrisers in Hyderabad on Thursday, and Kohli and Shubman Gill did it during the game between RCB and Gujarat Titans in Bengaluru.4 Players with back-to-back IPL hundreds after Kohli and Gill scored centuries on Sunday. Both of them had scored hundreds in their previous game – against Sunrisers. The first batter to score back-to-back IPL tons was Shikhar Dhawan in 2020, and Jos Buttler did it in 2022.198 The target that Titans chased down against RCB, their highest successful chase. Titans have batted second in 17 games across two seasons so far, and won 14 of them.8 Kohli’s T20 hundreds – the joint-third highest, behind Chris Gayle (22) and Babar Azam (9).104* Gill’s score against RCB is the highest for Titans, surpassing his 101 in their previous game against Sunrisers. Gill has four of the top five individual scores for Titans, and three of them have come in their last four league games this season.939 The runs Kohli and Faf du Plessis scored during their partnership this season, the joint most by a pair in the IPL, equalling Kohli’s 939 runs with AB de Villiers in 2016. Kohli and du Plessis had their eighth fifty-plus stand of the season on Sunday, which is also a record.4 Gill’s centuries in T20 cricket and all of them have come in 22 innings since November 2022. Only one player had scored as many T20 tons by the age of 24 – Glenn Phillips.

There was no last-minute panic, no agonising self-destruction, just a straightforward win playing better cricket

Danyal Rasool25-Oct-2021I looked up in disbelief, mortified by how unfair things seemed. Six-year-old me had just been told, in fairly unequivocal terms, that no, I couldn’t be allowed to stay up well past midnight to watch the game right through to the end. It was much too late. That might sound fair enough, but it was June 8, 1999. Pakistan were playing India, and well, Pakistan were going to beat them.Or so I thought when I went to bed that night at the halfway stage, spending the night dreaming of a routine Pakistan win. India had set Pakistan 228; below par, one felt, even in 1999. Besides, aside from an inexplicable loss to Bangladesh in a dead rubber a couple of games before, Pakistan had sailed into the Super Sixes in red-hot form, beating West Indies, New Zealand and Australia in a World Cup classic.Related

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India, meanwhile, had begun the campaign with losses to South Africa and Zimbabwe, and only sneaked into the Super Sixes. Four days earlier, Australia had thumped them by 77 runs. It didn’t feel like they had the runs, or indeed the bowlers, to seriously challenge Pakistan – not to my six-year old self anyway.I checked the score first thing next morning. Apparently, Venkatesh Prasad had done again what I’d been told he’d done three years earlier in a World Cup quarter-final between the sides. Pakistan, who would finish top of the Super Six table, had been hammered by the side that would end up bottom; it was the only match India won against a Super Six side. My introductory experience of Pakistan vs India was perhaps the first time it really began to feel like a jinx.

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Over the next two decades, these games – nine of them, to be precise – took on a bizarre, amnesic shade, each World Cup contest hyped and promoted as if the previous one had never happened. It was a marketer’s dream; in Pakistan, the fans were sold hope -which they bought by the crate load. In India, it was another chance to have that sweetest kind of fun – the kind that came at Pakistan’s expense. Tickets sold out in minutes, were scalped and rebought at obscene prices. The day arrived, people tuned in by the hundreds of millions, or even a billion, depending on which ratings metric you chose to believe. India cruised to victory, the cycle continued.The T20 World Cup in 2007 saw this curiously one-sided streak extend to a second format, with a group stage win in a bowl-out – which now feels like one of those science experiments too ludicrous to be allowed to happen – followed by a five-run victory in a gloriously agonising final. Misbah-ul-Haq had looked like he was making amends for the group stage with a heroic one-man counterattack but would end up giving India one of its most iconic moments of sporting triumphalism, and provide the origin myth for the advent of the IPL.It seems a long time ago, and not just because it was 2008, that Sohail Tanvir pulled one through midwicket to win his side the IPL final. At the time, this inclusive, nascent competition promised to usher in a fresh era in Indo-Pak relations. Hindsight would tell you that’s as good as it got for Pakistanis at the IPL. Or, indeed, for Rajastan Royals.Relations soured, and Pakistan found their players locked out of the IPL. The cricketing gulf between the two countries widened, both in terms of administrative power and on-field performance. By now, an Indian win over Pakistan didn’t feel like a jinx so much as it did the right cricketing result.Misery for Misbah: India win the 2007 World T20•Saeed Khan/AFPEven if the pain had been numbed by repeated exposure to it, a bruising semi-final defeat at India’s hands in Mohali stood out. It had its classic Pakistani cast of characters – Wahab Riaz playing the bowling wizard with a five wicket-haul, the highlight of which involved Player of the Tournament Yuvraj Singh being yorked for a golden duck. There was the scapegoat – poor Misbah again for supposedly batting too cautiously in the chase. There were the fielders happily putting down anything Sachin Tendulkar hit right at them. There was the conspiracy theory of Tendulkar’s non-lbw, a rabbithole best avoided here.And above all, of course, there was a Pakistani defeat and an Indian victory that saw MS Dhoni – who might have looked perfectly at home in a Pakistan side of the ’80s – lead his side to a World Cup trophy. Five further World Cup games yielded five heavy Pakistani defeats, with a famously bizarre victory in the 2017 Champions Trophy final the only balm for Pakistan’s psychological wounds.It was that context in which Babar Azam and Virat Kohli’s sides stood side by side for the anthems in Dubai on Sunday. Even when Pakistan won what looked a vital toss and began brilliantly, India’s dominance over this fixture meant it was difficult to really feel comfortable from a Pakistan perspective. Sure, the exhilaration of Shaheen Afridi’s first over was considerable, but that’s more of a universal experience, like a Jasprit Bumrah yorker or a one-legged Rohit Sharma pull. Sure, 151 in Dubai was perhaps a below-par total, but so was 227 in Manchester 22 years ago, remember?I interviewed Babar last month. It was a cordial enough chat, but there was one occasion where he’d allowed irritation to flicker on his face. I’d just asked him if opening alongside Mohammad Rizwan was indeed the most progressive thing Pakistan could do.”Yes, absolutely,” he said, irritated by the audacity of the query. “Look at how well that’s gone, at our performances in the past year, at the records he has broken. The year’s not done yet and he has already scored the most-ever T20I runs in a calendar year. What more do you need, really?”

Two men who weren’t born the first time India beat Pakistan in a World Cup match had helped Pakistan remove a stone from their shoe that had been chafing away for 29 years

If it was any other opposition, or any other tournament, you’d have known six overs into the chase that Babar and Rizwan had an unassailable, vice-like grip on this contest. The target didn’t require explosive hitting, the ball was coming onto the bat nicely, and there were no hiccups at the start. These two are the most prolific T20 opening pair since the start of the year by some distance; in April, they’d put on 197 in under 18 overs at Centurion to help chase down 205. They were in that sort of mood. But India were the opposition, so you couldn’t quite see it just yet.But the runs kept getting knocked off. Bumrah was negotiated with maturity; the whole chase in general was being pursued with a sort of cold ruthlessness completely alien to Pakistan and their supporters. Even as the asking rate was dragged down over by over, it felt as if the game was in a holding pattern; what really mattered was what happened once a wicket fell. Following the game on your smartphone was a different experience altogether, WhatsApp groups abuzz with nightmarish worst case scenarios from Pakistan fans looking to inoculate themselves from the pain when (or was it “if”?) their side found a way to muck up this chase.That, mercifully for Pakistan fans, was a sporting experience they didn’t have to endure. In the 18th over, the excitement levels rising to a crescendo, Rizwan walloped Mohammad Shami for six over fine leg. Four balls later, Babar whipped one through the leg side, called his partner over for two, and that was that. Two men who weren’t born the first time India beat Pakistan in a World Cup match – all the way back in 1992 – had helped Pakistan cricket remove a stone from their shoe that had been chafing away at them for 29 years. There is much that divides Pakistan, but for a few days, the country can bask in a therapeutic moment of harmony, fleeting and illusory as it might be.So how, then, did it feel? Well, somewhat numbing for how it happened. There was no last-minute panic, no agonising self-destruction, no letting the pressure of a nation weigh them down. There was no salvaging of national pride, no one-upmanship in a bitter rivalry. Pakistan had just beaten India in a cricket match in the only way it was possible to do so – by playing better cricket on the day.”What more,” as Babar might put it, “do you need, really?”

Plus, Wanindu Hasaranga slots into second place behind another Sri Lanka spinner on a coveted list

Sampath Bandarupalli01-Nov-20212 Jos Buttler became just the second player to score a century for England at the men’s T20 World Cup. Alex Hales was the first, having scored an unbeaten 116 also against Sri Lanka in 2014. Buttler is also one of the four men with a hundred in T20Is for England and became the second Englishman with 2000+ T20I runs.ESPNcricinfo Ltd1 Buttler became the first player to score a century in all three formats for England in men’s International cricket. He joins Heather Knight as the only players with a hundred for England in all three International formats.61.96 Percentage of England’s total scored by Buttler, the highest proportion of the team’s total for England in a completed innings in men’s T20Is. The previous highest was 51.54% by Liam Livingstone, who scored 103 out of England’s 201 all-out against Pakistan in Nottingham earlier this year.ESPNcricinfo Ltd77 Runs scored by Buttler in the last ten overs of England’s innings. Buttler struck six sixes and four fours in the 37 balls he faced in the second half. He scored only 24 runs in the 30 balls he faced until the end of the tenth over.45 Balls Buttler needed to complete his fifty in this match. Only one player in men’s T20Is has scored a century after taking more balls to score his first fifty runs – 47 balls by Paul Stirling against Zimbabwe in September this year.

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60.50 Buttler’s batting average as an opener in T20Is across 26 innings in which he has scored 1089 runs. Only two openers with 1000+ men’s T20I runs average more than 50 – Mohammad Rizwan (76.92) and Buttler.4 Centuries in men’s T20Is in the UAE, including Buttler’s unbeaten 101 against Sri Lanka. It was also the first hundred in the UAE in a T20I between two Full Member nations – Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s 87 for Afghanistan against Zimbabwe in March this year being the previous highest.112 Partnership runs between Buttler and Morgan for the fourth wicket, the second-highest partnership for England at the men’s T20 World Cup. The highest is 152 between Hales and Morgan for the third wicket against Sri Lanka in 2014. The 112-run stand is also the second-highest for the fourth wicket in the men’s T20 World Cup, behind Pathum Nissanka and Wanindu Hasaranga’s 123 against Ireland earlier this tournament.ESPNcricinfo Ltd50 Hasaranga took his 50th T20I wicket by breaking the Buttler-Morgan partnership. He needed only 660 balls to complete the milestone, becoming the second-quickest to 50 men’s T20I wickets in terms of balls bowled, behind Ajantha Mendis (576 balls). Hasaranga has picked up 14 wickets in the ongoing tournament, the joint second-most in an edition of the men’s T20 World Cup behind Mendis’ 15 wickets in 2012.7 Consecutive wins for England against Sri Lanka in T20Is. England have got the better of Sri Lanka at every meeting in this format since the start of 2016. Sri Lanka’s last T20I win against England was in 2014 at The Oval.

There were lessons, bonhomie and great moments aplenty in two fine games on Sunday night

Mark Nicholas28-Mar-2023The cricket match we had been waiting for came the day before yesterday at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Sure, I was lucky enough to be present at a thriller of a game in South Africa (a little more of that in a while) but the one in Mumbai was the final of the first Women’s Premier League, and the question was, could it live up to the billing. Hurrying back to a Johannesburg hotel room from a breathless Supersport Park – the crowd still dizzy from the home team’s spectacular run chase against West Indies – I settled in front of the televison for the nub of the matter between Delhi Capitals, led by the Australia captain, Meg Lanning, and Mumbai Indians, led by India’s Harmanpreet Kaur.Nat Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet were at the wicket, nervously chipping away at the Delhi total of 131 and meeting mid-pitch for short conversations and little fist-punches, the touchy-feely performance recognition of cricket’s modernism.Lanning was a study of concentration: cool in the deployment of her bowlers and accurate in the positioning of her fielders, each of whose attention and athleticism would likely decide the outcome. These three, alongside Marizanne Kapp, South Africa’s totemic allrounder and Lanning’s go-to game-breaker, are among the game’s greatest players. They fly the flag for nations steeped in the cricket history of men and now telling stories of women who delight and surprise in equal measure.Related

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It was a hard game to call, especially after Alice Capsey whipped off the bails to run-out Harmanpreet, but the suspicion lingered that Sciver-Brunt was not for turning, and therefore Lanning’s war was at the other end. What she cannot have reckoned on was Amelia Kerr’s brazen counterattack. When it got really tight, Kerr simply thumped a few to various boundaries, and suddenly Sciver-Brunt was paddling the winning runs.What happened next was riveting. Mumbai Indians swarmed the field and hugged the hell out of each other – of course they did, this was a big deal. But wait, did I see right? The coach, Charlotte Edwards, stayed boundary-side, wiping the fall of tears from her cheeks. Meanwhile, Lanning – as good and tough a cricketer as Edwards – immersed herself among the Mumbai horde to shake every hand, have a squeeze or two herself, and warmly smile her way through the pain of defeat. She’s a winner, and this sort of thing doesn’t come easy. But the humanity of her actions was rather moving. Lanning saw the big picture for what it was, a canvas on which women’s cricket can be painted alongside any of the existing masterpieces.Australia are the benchmark for women’s cricket. Lanning is the best batter, a great pro and superb captain. Not long back she took time away from the game to recharge and rethink. Since returning she has won the T20 World Cup with her hugely professional and widely gifted team. South Africa gave the Aussies a run in the final – a fabulous occasion at Newlands incidentally – but one team was better than the other. The speed at which women’s cricket is now moving is astonishing. On the field, the power of shot, speed of bowler and agility of fielder has improved beyond measure, even during the past year or so. Off the field, the players are commanding a heady price at auction; Sciver-Brunt cost the Mumbai franchise about US$ 390,000, and she rewarded the faith.

The quality of the bats is a good thing for women, who are now challenging boundaries and frequently hitting amazing shots, giving their natural game of skill and touch another exciting dimension

The trick now will be to take stock. The development of the professional women’s game has come from a blank sheet of paper and is all the better for it. But the lines on the paper are filling up fast. Burnout is a very real threat to the globetrotters of the day. Sciver-Brunt was another who took time away from the game in the second part of last year to reboot. The highest compliment one can pay her is to recount that while she was at the crease on Sunday, there was an inevitability about the outcome. Richie Benaud used to say that the key to a run chase was to be there at the end. Sciver-Brunt must have been listening. The party began, and how!The scene took me back to the first men’s IPL final, when Chennai Super Kings were outwitted by Rajasthan Royals. It was Shane Warne triumphant against MS Dhoni and Muthiah Muralidaran; Warne inspiring his misfits and igniting Ravindra Jadeja; Warne investing both emotionally and physically in franchise and tournament. Warne being Warne. Royals swarmed then as Mumbai did on Sunday night, and Dhoni warmly congratulated. It was good between the teams, as if they were all on the same mission – the justification of something new that the players saw as opportunity.WPL night was ever so slightly different. Yes, it was something new but it was part of a mission that has defined who we are and what we believe to be right. The communal celebrations were the branches of an olive tree that will, metaphorically, live forever. Women’s cricket is no longer an idea or even a movement. It is an integral part of cricket life. The Indian franchise-league presence is the final piece of the jigsaw. Lanning instinctively knew it and saw that on this glittering night, in front of a full house, the winner was less relevant than the writing on the wall. She lost with dignity, which has not always been said about sportspeople in this angry age, but which seems to be back in fashion – among cricketers anyway.The IPL takes its share of the credit, since players who previously only knew one another from opposite sides of the fence now spend long periods of the year living in each other’s pockets. As must Brendon McCullum, who convinced his New Zealand players to dumb down the histrionics and see cricket for what it is – not trivial but not life and death either. Such was his impact that the generously spirited reaction to cruel defeat in the 2019 World Cup final by his successor Kane Williamson and the whole team will live long in the memory.Johnson Charles and Kyle Mayers put on 135 in 58 balls in the epic Centurion T20I•AFP/Getty ImagesThe women have an unfettered sense of joy in their game – an innocence almost – that suggests both unity and an old-fashioned morality. A well-used piece of footage during the later stages of the WPL had Jemimah Rodrigues in the Delhi Capitals dugout leading some of her team mates though an impromptu and wonderfully fluent dance, after which they all fell about with laughter. It was a reminder that we can take ourselves and the game too seriously. Ben Stokes has worked this one out too but applies his conclusions in a rather different way. Part of England’s recent success comes from upping the fun factor and lowering expectation.There was something of the same at Supersport Park early on Sunday evening as West Indians mingled among South Africans after 517 runs had been scored in 38 overs and five balls. In the television preview to the match, I interviewed Johnson Charles, who said he wasn’t bothered by arriving the day before the first match and that, anyway, he wasn’t the sort of player who studied the pitch and weighed up his options; rather, see ball and hit ball was the message. After which we walked to the middle together and, prophetically, he said we should expect a 245 game on a pitch this good. I can’t say I took him seriously. Duh me. He made 118 of them himself, in 46 balls.The balance between bat and ball is a true essential in the ongoing review of cricket’s health. So yes, these matches are heavily loaded in favour of batters, but on other occasions in other places, the ball has its say. Where possible, boundaries should be pushed back for men, whose physical strength has exponentially increased with the quality and amount of wood in the bats. The problem is how easily the mishit flies over not just the infield but the boundary riders too. This is obviously unfair to bowlers and takes much of the fear out of attacking batting, thus making the task of a big hit under pressure easier on the mind. The quality of the bats is a good thing for women, who are now challenging boundaries and frequently hitting amazing shots, giving their natural game of skill and touch another exciting dimension.The summary of all this is that whenever the critics – and I have been one – bang on about overkill in the short-form space compromising Test cricket, it is easy to forget cricket is in a generally happy place. Aspects of today’s game are not for everyone but then nor are aspects of today’s life. In a worn cliché it is said that cricket reflects life. This may be so, it may not. But as long as the grounds are full of enthusiastic spectators, the rudiments of technique remain – they form the aesthetic – and the contest goes to the wire, there is nothing to do but celebrate. Lanning had her day in the South African sun on February 26th, when her team won the T20 World Cup against South Africa at Newlands. On Sunday it was the turn of Harmanpreet in Mumbai and Lanning was first to applaud her. How the great world spins…

Why the legspinners stood out in a high-scoring game, and how Samson benefited from a dropped catch

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Mar-2019In a match in which the average scoring rate was 10.23, the two bowlers who stood out from either team were Rashid Khan and Shreyas Gopal. The smart numbers of the two legspinners illustrate just how good they were.Rashid finished with figures of 1 for 24 from four, taking the early wicket of Jos Buttler, and then keeping it tight in the middle overs even as the others were leaking runs. He went for seven runs in the ninth after the seventh and eighth overs had gone for 10 each, and then conceded only four in the 13th over after the 10th, 11th, and 12th had each disappeared for 13.ESPNcricinfo LtdGopal had a night to remember as well, taking the key wickets of Jonny Bairstow, Vijay Shankar and Manish Pandey, while conceding only 27. (Had it not been for a Dhawal Kulkarni misfield in Gopal’s first over, he too would have conceded only 24.)Given that he came into the attack when Sunrisers had already galloped to 69 without loss in six, the pressure on Gopal was immense, but he handled it superbly, going for only six runs in his last two overs – the 11th and the 16th. His smart runs conceded did not drop as much, though, by the 16th over the asking rate had already dropped to 6.8, which means the batsmen were in control. Also, his wicket value is slightly lower than three as Shankar was dismissed after he had already done plenty of damage: Sunrisers’ win percentage was still 86.33, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster, after his dismissal.Samson makes the most of his luckSunrisers Hyderabad eventually completed a comfortable victory, but on the field they made it tougher for themselves by missing more than one wicket-taking opportunity. None of them cost them the game, but the dropped chance by Bairstow in the 17th over did allow Sanju Samson to score the first century of IPL 2019.ESPNcricinfo LtdSamson was on 58 off 41 when he was dropped, and he made the most of that opportunity, scoring 44 off the next 14 balls (including the delivery off which he was dropped). In term of cost to the team, that chance allowed Rajasthan Royals to add 27 more runs to their total, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index, which puts a run value to every lucky event in a match. This value is calculated by taking into account the runs that the other Royals batsmen would have scored off those 14 balls, had Samson been dismissed on 58.As it turned out, those extra 27 runs only helped the game go as deep as the 19th over.

A look at the players who could be future stars for Pakistan

Umar Farooq01-Mar-2022Zaman Khan
A right-arm fast bowler, Zaman Khan was the only player from the emerging category to play all the games for his team in the season. He was first spotted in a Multan Sultans camp back in 2018. It led him to play for Pakistan Under-17 before he made a name playing for Rawalakot Hawks in the Kashmir Premier League last year.He was the most sought-after player in the emerging category and Lahore Qalandars picked him at the first opportunity. He didn’t disappoint them and finished third on the wickets tally with 18 scalps, behind only Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shadab Khan. Out of four maiden overs in the whole tournament, he bowled two.Against Islamabad United, with 12 needed for a win, he conceded just three against Asif Ali and Azam Khan. His 4 for 16 against the Karachi Kings and two crucial middle-order wickets in the final against Multan Sultans made him a potential future star for the country.Mohammad Haris
A dashing opener, Mohammad Haris announced himself with a match-winning 49 off 27 balls for Peshawar Zalmi against Kings on his PSL debut. He was drafted into the playing XI after the Karachi leg, replacing Zalmi’s first-choice wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal after he had tested positive for Covid-19. Such was Haris’ impact that even when Akmal returned, Haris stayed in the XI.He hit another match-winning 32-ball 70 against United to further stamp his authority and ended the season with 166 runs at a strike rate of 186.51, the highest by any top-order batter this PSL.Yasir Khan
Yasir Khan, 19, hails from Bannu, a city in the southern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but played cricket in Rawalpindi for five years. He shot into the spotlight for his stint playing Grade-2 cricket for KP 2nd XI after his run-feasts in city cricket for the Bannu region.Opening the batting on his PSL debut he took many by surprise with his 12-ball 30 against Quetta Gladiators. Two games later he struck 35 off 24 balls from No. 3 against United. However, with Akmal returning to the side after recovering from Covid, Yasir got to play only one more game.Salman Irshad is thrilled after knocking over Alex Hales•AFP/Getty ImagesSalman Irshad
Salman Irshad is a product of the Lahore Qalandars development program, having come through their ranks in 2018. Though he made the Qalandars’ squad for the 2020 season after replacing the injured Haris Rauf, he went unpicked in 2021 due to his poor form for Northern, giving away runs at an average of 33 and an economy rate of 9.90.He appeared to be in a bit of a rut until Zalmi picked him ahead of this season, and Irshad repaid their faith in gold. Irshad signed off PSL 2022 with 15 crucial wickets, a strike rate of 12.80, and an average of 17.60. He was the team’s leading wicket-taker, and the second-highest overall, finishing just five scalps behind Shaheen Shah Afridi’s 20.Irshad’s career has followed a zig-zag trajectory so far, but having accounted for several dangerous batters this year like Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Alex Hales and Rilee Rossouw, his star is likely to shine brighter in upcoming seasons.Qasim Akram
One of the most sought-after players from the Under-19 circuit, Qasim Akram, unfortunately, didn’t make many appearances at the PSL this season due to his commitments at the Under-19 World Cup. Qasim, who captains the Pakistan Under-19 side, boasts a T20 strike rate of 152.04, even though he averages only 14.90 from 21 T20s.Qasim was on Islamabad United’s wishlist, and though they tried to get him on board, Kings used the right-to-match option to retain the allrounder. Qasim went on to make an impression in the game against United, scoring an unbeaten fifty to nearly drag Kings to victory. The five games he played this season weren’t nearly enough to showcase his true talent, but the 19-year-old is all set to have more opportunities ahead.

Dour application and discipline from MP’s top four kept Siddarth Kaul and co. at bay

Daya Sagar07-Jun-2022The first four overs of the day were all maidens. The first 11 yielded just 14 and not a single boundary. By the time a four was struck in the 30th over, the score had swelled to a grand total of 56 for no loss.In era of T20 cricket, the way Madhya Pradesh went about their batting would probably be classified as “super-slow”. The KSCA stadium in Alur is hosting three quarter finals of the Ranji Trophy, and while they just can’t stop scoring at Mumbai-Uttarakhand, Karnataka-Uttar Pradesh is just producing wickets by the bucketful. Over on the corner ground, there are no such events worth talking about between Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.For the Punjab bowlers, the lack of wickets was not down to lack of effort, but for their opposition, the slow run rate was a clear sign of game awareness and a considered strategy. One that helped them push ahead in the contest in the closing stages of the second day.For Punjab, the experienced new-ball pair of Siddarth Kaul and Baltej Singh started well after their batters had put together 219. There was a generous cloud cover and a breeze blowing cross-field, and Kaul and Baltej kept bowling in a good channel outside off, varying their lengths ever so slightly, to keep Yash Dubey and Himanshu Mantri quiet. A wicket looked imminent at all times. Punjab would have to wait till the 33rd over for their breakthrough, though, as Dubey fell to an injudicious slog-sweep against Mayank Markande.That was half of all the success Punjab would have as a bowling side on the day, with Madhya Pradesh finishing the day at 238, with a handy lead of 19. With eight wickets in hand and three whole days to play, they have the perfect opportunity to put this match beyond the reach of Punjab. While Madhya Pradesh managed a century, an 89 and a pair of round 20s on the day, the manner in which they scored these runs were a throwback to the best traditions of red-ball batting. They left as many balls as possible while it was new, and scored at a fairer clip once the bowlers had tired and the ball had softened. For Chandrakant Pandit’s wards, this was the perfect game-plan given the conditions and the match situation.The right-handed Dubey faced 89 balls for his 20 and didn’t hit a single boundary. He left so many deliveries outside off that it drove the Punjab bowlers to offering some loose balls, which his left-handed partner Mantri pounced on. Mantri was the more enterprising of the two, striking Vinay Choudhary for a couple of sixes in the first session. However, it was only after tea that he exhibited a wider repertoire of cuts, drives, flicks and inside out shots. His 89 was his first half-century in first-class cricket, and he would have been disappointed with his mode of dismissal, when in sight of a century, stumped off Markande.Their best batter of the day was No.3 Shubham Sharma, though, who struck nine fours and a six in a 211-ball 102 which oozed both control and discipline. Shubham had only three centuries in his first eight years since his debut in 2013, but this year he has already struck his third hundred in five innings. Like his predecessors, Shubham wasn’t ‘excessively slow’ in his approach and took full toll of all scoring opportunities at his disposal. Against the quicker bowlers, he was happy to respond with cuts, drives, back-foot punches, pulls and flicks, but used his feet well against the spinners.He was lucky too, with a couple of edges falling short of fielders when he tried to take the attack to the spinners. As they say, fortune favours the brave. Or in the case of the Madhya Pradesh batters on Tuesday, it smiled on the traditional and the disciplined.

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