The teams, and their support staff, are in place, and the action starts on October 6

Umar Farooq05-Oct-2022What does the league hope to achieve?
“A young apprentice can be moulded into a genius with the right environment, which we intend to create in this format,” Raja had said at the time of launching the tournament. The league is meant not only to identify talent, but to nurture them, and close the gap between the Under-19s level and the highest level of cricket.All this, one might say, is what the higher levels of domestic cricket do. There is a structured pathway for age-group players in most parts of the world, from the Under-15s to the Under-19s. In Pakistan, historically, age-group players come through playing the longer formats of the game – two- and three-day matches, alongside one-dayers. It is then narrowed down and, if all goes well, there is a chance to play the Under-19 ODI World Cup, after which players break into the first-class circuit.Pakistan cricketers have traditionally not been exposed to the T20 format during their development phase. But since the start of the PSL in 2016, where each franchise is required to field at least one emerging player in every game, a few new faces have come to the fore. The PCB is hoping that the PJL will build on that.Wasn’t there something about it being a franchise-based league?
Yes, that’s how the PCB had envisaged it, anticipating a lot of commercial interest. In fact, after an initial tender from the PCB seeking expressions of interest, 24 companies had reached out. But not much came of it, and the PCB has decided to take full ownership of the tournament.To avoid clashing with the PSL eco-system, the PJL has picked other cities with which to associate the teams. The names of as many as 12 cities were released for bidding, out of which six – Bahawalpur (Royals), Gujranwala (Giants), Gwadar (Sharks), Hyderabad (Hunters), Mardan (Warriors) and Rawalpindi (Raiders) have been finalised.Ramiz Raja: “A young apprentice can be moulded into a genius with the right environment, which we intend to create in this format”•AFP/Getty ImagesBut the senior Pakistan team is also playing – will the PJL catch any eyeballs?
It is a concern, isn’t it? In fact, scheduling has been a challenge, as the tournament overlaps with the Pakistan senior team’s tour of New Zealand for a triangular T20I series. Right after that, the first round of the men’s T20 World Cup begins in Australia. The PJL was originally scheduled to run from October 1 to 15, but that would have led to a clash with the last bit of the Pakistan vs England T20I series.What do the teams look like in terms of personnel?
A total of 90 players, including 24 from 11 other countries, have been selected through a draft. The roster has Under-19 players from four Full Members – Afghanistan, England, South Africa and West Indies. Each team must compulsorily have a player from an Associate Member, so there are Charlie Tear and Gabriel Gallmann-Findlay from Scotland, Matthew Tromp from the USA, Kushal Malla from Nepal, Ali Naseer from the UAE, Burhan Niaz from Belgium, Nathan Edwards and Isai Thorne from the West Indies, Archie Lenham, George Thomas, Tom Aspinwall, Danial Ibrahim and Joseph Eckland from England, and Hassan Eisakhil from Afghanistan.Each squad contains 15 players, including four from overseas. Selection was done by the head coaches of the teams, who have all been appointed by the PCB: Gordon Parsons (Bahawalpur), Toby Radford (Rawalpindi), Ijaz Ahmed (Gujranwala), Mushtaq Ahmed (Gwadar), Abdul Razzaq (Hyderabad), and Abdur Rehman (Mardan).Each side can pick a maximum of three and a minimum of two overseas players in their XIs.The PCB has lined up a stellar cast of mentors, one for each side•Getty ImagesAre the players being paid?
They are, which sets it apart from the regular Under-19 circuit. The 15 players in each team are in three different categories: Elite (four players), Premier (five) and X-Factor (six). The salary slabs are US$ 16,000 for Elite, US$ 12,000 for Premier, and US$ 6000 for X-Factor.The PCB will be covering all costs, including the players’ salaries. Its board of governors had approved a PKR 15 billion (US$ 66.33 million approx.) budget for the 2022-23 season, out of which 78% has been allocated for cricket activities. The PJL expenses – logistics, salaries, broadcast – will presumably come from that.Isn’t there a clash with the players’ academic schedules?
The PCB has kept a portion of the day aside to allow the players to join their schools and take tutorials online. In a separate session, PCB-appointed mentors will have discussions with the players on various subjects.Mentors?
Mentors. The PCB has appointed six stars to mentor each side. The line-up is stellar: Imran Tahir (Bahawalpur), Shoaib Malik (Gujranwala), Viv Richards (Gwadar), Daren Sammy (Hyderabad), Shahid Afridi (Mardan), and Colin Munro (Rawalpindi). Separately, as a “roving umbrella mentor”, will be Javed Miandad, helping and assisting everyone.Where does one watch the matches?
In Pakistan, the league will be broadcast on PTV Sports. Matches will start at 6pm local time, with a 1.30pm start on days with two games. Start times have been planned to encourage school children to attend.

“We ebb and flow at times really well,” Carey says of his association with Cameron Green after they put together their latest big partnership

Alex Malcolm28-Dec-2022There was a telling moment when Alex Carey brought up his first Test century.While Carey had his head down, sprinting for the first of three runs after square-driving Marco Jansen, his batting partner Cameron Green had both his arms aloft in celebration. Carey’s own celebration was fairly understated, especially when compared to David Warner’s on day two. But Carey had much to be proud of. He was the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a Test century since 2013 and just the seventh overall.But showmanship and self-adulation are not in Carey’s DNA as a cricketer. He is more likely to boast about his highlights as a one-time professional Australian Rules footballer. Understated is who he is as a cricketer. He has become the drummer in Australia’s band and an incredibly reliable and much-loved one at that.Related

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There were concerns about how Australia would replace Tim Paine ahead of last year’s Ashes. There was even an undercurrent throughout Australian cricket querying whether Carey was the right choice despite being the long-time understudy, given the raw talent of Josh Inglis or the consistency of Jimmy Peirson. And that undercurrent has remained even after a year in the job.But it will have disappeared now after a classy century that has all but put the MCG Test in Australia’s safekeeping. In reference to replacing Paine specifically, for the quality of Paine’s glovework and his performance as leader in a difficult period, Carey always represented a significant upgrade as a batter both in his record at first-class level and his skillset.Carey’s first Test century showcased all those skills. His elegance, power, and wide array of strokes were all on display.Carey unfazed as wickets fall around him
Admittedly, he had the benefit of feasting on a weary South African attack. He had walked out at 363 for 3 in the 85th over at the end of a 37-degree day with Australia leading by 176. But there was a point early on day three where Australia’s innings might have fallen in a heap. Anrich Nortje ripped through Travis Head and David Warner in consecutive balls and then Kagiso Rabada had Pat Cummins caught behind four balls later. Carey was just 16 not out as he watched it all unfold, with Australia 213 in front.But Carey was unperturbed and unfurled one of the shots of the match. It was a part-Gilchrist, part-Lara flashing square drive with anchored feet, off a Nortje rocket at that. From there he produced the full array. There were uppercuts over third, controlled check-drives down the ground, reverse-sweeps and sweeps off Keshav Maharaj, and pulls and cuts galore.He formed a superb partnership with Green, who fought bravely with a fractured finger to post an unbeaten half-century and share a 117-run stand with Carey to demoralise South Africa.Alex Carey celebrates after scoring his first Test century•Getty Images”I actually didn’t think he was going to walk out the race today,” Carey said of Green after play. “But to see him put on a brave face, bat beautifully and allow me at the other end to bat as well… allowed us to put on a really good partnership.”The two complement one another beautifully and it shows. In ten innings together at Test level, they have combined for 511 runs at 51.10 per stand with two century partnerships. It is the perfect blend of yin and yang. A shorter left-hand batter and a tall right-hand batter make them a difficult duo to bowl at. But their personalities and game styles blend very well. Green is a worrier, constantly asking questions of his partner about what the bowlers and the pitch are doing. Carey is the complete opposite, keeping things simple and keeping Green calm. But Green’s attention to detail keeps Carey locked in. Carey’s busyness and intent to rotate and score brings Green out of his shell. The quality and stubbornness of Green’s defence at times reminds Carey to find the right Test-match tempo to his batting and that he doesn’t need to score off every ball.”I think we ebb and flow at times really well,” Carey said. “Today it was probably on me to score a bit (and) more on him to grit through and he did that amazingly. I don’t really know how to explain it. I think just with certain guys, you just have that calmness and confidence. It’s been fun so far, and hopefully a few more big partnerships and no doubt he’ll get his ton.”They produced match-winning stands in Lahore and Galle earlier this year and this, too, while not the defining partnership of the match, is still likely to result in an Australia win.The stroke that took Cameron Green to his half-century•Getty ImagesCarey remains team-first, and the team loves him for it
It is those shared partnerships that led to Green’s spontaneous celebration for his mate’s milestone. But also, there is a recognition of how unselfish Carey has been as a Test batter. People have been quick to point to his average at times as a measure of why Carey’s place as Australia’s wicketkeeper should not be assumed, particularly as there have been critics of his glovework.But Carey’s unselfishness with the bat has not gone unnoticed within the team, even if it has elsewhere. Four times in his first 12 months of Test cricket, he has sacrificed his wicket cheaply trying to advance the game for his team. If you remove those innings from his record, he would average over 40.And his glovework remains his number-one priority. Prior to day three at the MCG, even though he was not out with the bat overnight, he spent the first part of his warm-up doing specific keeping work catching spin in the nets in preparation to keep long periods to Nathan Lyon in the second innings.Carey later took an excellent catch down the legside off Cummins to remove Dean Elgar. But his century now gives Australia options given they are set to lose Green at No. 6 for the Sydney Test.Three of Carey’s first-class centuries have come batting in the top six as has his lone ODI century. He has a first-class century batting at No. 5 for South Australia against a New South Wales attack featuring Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Lyon. Australia haven’t had a wicketkeeper picked specifically to bat at No. 6 since Matthew Wade nearly a decade ago.”Whatever opportunity I get for the Australian cricket team I’ll put my hand up to do,” Carey said.He remains team-first at all times, and his team is grateful for that.

Coming in at two different times when the hosts looked down and out, they each found a way to counter the Lyon threat and keep the Test alive

Karthik Krishnaswamy18-Feb-20232:15

Axar: ‘Against spinners, the bowler in me tells me how to bat’

February is perhaps the best time of the year to visit Delhi. The bitter cold and toxic smog of winter have been left behind, and there’s still a while to go before the air-fryer conditions of May and June. There’s a nip in the air in the evenings and early mornings, and a pleasing warmth in between.February’s spring weather has seemed to have an interesting effect on the pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. On days one and two of the second Border-Gavaskar Test match, batting has been at its trickiest in the morning session, a time that has happened to coincide, on both days, with the ball being hard and new. It may have something to do with moisture in the topsoil, from dew settling on the pitch during the chilliest time of day as well as overnight sweating under the covers.On day one, India’s spinners derived extra turn and bounce during the first session. On day two, Australia’s spinners got the newish ball shooting quickly off the surface, while attacking the stumps relentlessly. It amplified the danger of every misjudgment from the batters. And every error from India’s top order, it seemed, was ending up as a Nathan Lyon wicket.Related

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Less than a week ago, there were questions over Lyon’s effectiveness on pitches where bowled and lbw dismissals are greater threats than bat-pad catches. In a seeming riposte, Lyon, bowling quick and at the stumps from around the wicket, took out each of India’s top three in the space of ten balls, all three either lbw or bowled. Five overs into his first spell of the match, he had figures of 3 for 8.Not long after, India were 66 for 4, when Peter Handscomb took a freak catch at short leg off the middle of Shreyas Iyer’s bat. They were 66 for 4, trailing Australia’s first-innings total by 197 runs.India turned this situation around, and eventually conceded a first-innings lead of just one run. It happened over two phases, each as crucial as the other.

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Axar Patel is so similar to Ravindra Jadeja in so many ways that it’s possible to treat them as one entity: a two-headed, Gujarati-speaking beast of an allrounder who bats left-handed and bowls fast, accurate left-arm orthodox.There are differences, of course, and one of them may have played a significant role in their batting fates on Saturday.The bulk of India’s batters defend against spin with a long front-foot stride and with bat alongside pad, and while it has been no hindrance to their building highly successful careers, it was a dangerous method on this pitch, and contributed to the lbw dismissals of KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Jadeja.Axar is different – he’s younger, and he’s spent a bigger chunk of his formative years in the DRS era. Where Jadeja tends to take a long stride down the line of the stumps while defending spinners off the front foot, Axar tends not to move his front foot across the stumps unless he can get his pad outside the line of off stump. Otherwise he keeps his pad away from the line of the ball, and uses his height and reach to get his head over the ball and play with his bat in front of his pad.This method has its disadvantages, of course: it can leave you a little more vulnerable against the ball turning away and testing the outside edge, and also to bat-pad catches at short leg. But on this day-two Delhi pitch, you were likelier to be lbw or bowled than have an edge carry to slip.On Saturday, Axar had his outside edge beaten numerous times by Lyon, and on a couple of occasions by Todd Murphy and Travis Head. He even edged Lyon towards slip when he was on 28, but the ball died as it reached Steven Smith, ducked below his fingertips and rolled away for four.

“Let’s be clear, they’re not the lower order. They have a very long top order, let’s just say that”Nathan Lyon on the Axar-Ashwin partnership

There was far less drama past the inside edge, the ball comfortably on its way down the leg side on the odd occasion when it hit his front pad.This defensive technique played a significant role in Axar scoring 74, and putting on a century stand with R Ashwin after the two came together with India 139 for 7. It was yet another case of India typing in their lower-order cheat code in a home Test.”They’re not the lower order, let’s get that clear,” Lyon said during his end-of-day press conference. “Axar and Ash could easily bat in the top six in a few teams in Test cricket around the world, in my eyes. Let’s be clear, they’re not the lower order. They have a very long top order, let’s just say that.”A lot of work has gone into making Axar look like a top-order batter. Some of it – in an interesting case of T20 preparation contributing to Test-match success – taken place at Delhi Capitals, his IPL team. Speaking at his press conference after the day’s play, Axar detailed how conversations with his India team-mates and with Ricky Ponting, the Capitals head coach, had helped him take his game to the next level.”I felt that whatever I did, I was doing halfway – if I scored runs, I was getting out for 30s and 40s, and at crucial times, I was not able to finish matches when I needed to,” Axar said. “The main thing was mindset – what’s going through your mind.”As an allrounder, sometimes you can feel you’ve taken wickets, you’ve done your job, and you can become a little casual. I wanted to improve that aspect of my batting – my concentration levels after getting to 30, to tell myself that I should carry on and finish this match. This is how I think when I bat now, and this is the difference that’s come into my batting in the last one-and-a-half years.”Among other things the Capitals coaches worked on with Axar was his alignment, to open up his front shoulder and broaden his range. From being too side-on – which hampered his strokeplay down the ground and through the on side, while also leaving him prone to getting cramped by the short ball – he’s now more neutrally aligned and is able to access nearly all areas of the field.One stroke on Saturday was a clear illustration of this, a perfectly balanced, head-over-the-ball, straight-bat punch off Pat Cummins. It was more push than punch, in truth, but it sped unstoppably down the ground, straight of mid-on, a piece of pure timing.There were other shots, too, that made you gasp: two fierce square-cuts off Cummins; a back-foot drive off Matthew Kuhnemann, bisecting deep point and long-off; and best of all a dancing, effortless, inside-out loft over wide mid-off off Murphy. He didn’t reach the pitch of the ball, but it didn’t matter; he simply extended the arms, made the sweetest of connections, and held his pose, watching the ball soar into the stands.Axar Patel used his height and reach to get his head over the ball and play with his bat in front of his pad•Getty Images

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By that point, Axar was making batting look exceedingly simple, but he had also been fortunate to arrive at the crease when the ball was nearly 50 overs old, when the bowlers had all those overs in their legs, and when the day’s early moisture must have mostly left the pitch.”The new ball is skidding a little and leaving the pitch with pace,” Axar said. “As the ball gets older – even the pitch is getting slower – the ball isn’t coming [quickly off the pitch], so you need to vary your pace more – a little quicker, a little slower – and because of this I think the semi-new ball has been getting more wickets, and then it gets a little easier. We’ve seen on both days that batting has become easier in the last two sessions.”The batter he replaced was in large part responsible for the timing of Axar’s arrival. That batter, Kohli, had been the first member of India’s top order to demonstrate a method of surviving a rampant Lyon and scoring runs against him.This method was to go only get on the front foot when he felt he could get close enough to the pitch of the ball to smother it. Otherwise, he went deep in his crease and across his stumps, starting from an open stance so that his front pad was not in the way of his bat coming down straight to defend, or to work the ball into the leg side. On a handful of occasions, when he sensed that the ball had enough hangtime to allow it, he used his feet to skip out of the crease.He made every effort to play Lyon, and Murphy, with the spin – he didn’t attempt a single cover drive against either, and any invitation to play that shot was met instead with a wristy whip that sent the ball rolling down the ground to long-on or deep midwicket.Australia, with the cushion of a 200-plus total, used in-out fields even in the early part of Kohli’s innings, and each single he took was met by a roar from an adoring crowd that had packed the roof-less stands at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.This sort of reception meets Kohli everywhere, but Saturday’s atmosphere had a heightened electricity. Weekend, India batting, Kohli, local boy – each of these ingredients amplified the effect of the previous one.Having a method is one thing. Kohli was showing the exceptional judgment of line and length needed to make it work. Against the offspinners, he was barely ever on the wrong foot, and his head never tipped over to the off side of the ball on all the occasions when he went back and across to them.Batting in the toughest part of the day, when the bowlers were still fresh, he achieved a control percentage of 91. Axar, batting at an easier time, finished with a control percentage of 86.But Kohli’s exhibition of skill and technique would only last 77 balls. And his dismissal left a feeling that while he had mastered the offspinners on the day, he hadn’t quite done the same against the left-arm orthodox spinner – a style of bowling that has troubled him in recent months. He stretched out to Kuhnemann on 44, but failed to get close to the pitch of the ball, allowing natural variation to do its thing.He played for turn, with bat next to pad, and the ball went on straight, squeezed between bat and pad, and hit both. We will probably never know for sure whether it hit bat first or pad, but Nitin Menon gave Kohli out, and it wasn’t within the DRS’s power to reverse the decision. The same thing has happened to Kohli before, against Ajaz Patel in Mumbai.Virat Kohli defends on the front foot during his crucial 44•BCCI

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74. 72. 44. 79.If you’re a Kohli fan, you don’t need dates and venues to know what those numbers are. Those numbers probably leave you with a bittersweet feeling and a sense of life’s unfairness.Kohli hasn’t scored a Test hundred since November 2019. Since that innings, he has an average in the mid-20s. But he’s also played a number of innings – the above four, above all – where he’s not just looked good, but looked incredibly good, compiling technical masterclasses in challenging conditions. But they’ve all been masterclasses in miniature.On Saturday, Kohli played another innings like that, but there’s a chance it could be different from the others in one significant way. The 74, the 72, the 44 and the 79 were all part of India defeats.Thanks to what came after it, Saturday’s 44 may yet leave his fans with a less bittersweet feeling

Left-hand opener and right-arm off-spinner with innate captaincy skills is an allrounder in the truest sense

Valkerie Baynes14-Jan-2023Grace Scrivens made something of a breakthrough in 2021. Her unbeaten 94 off 62 balls as Kent beat Surrey to open their undefeated South East Group season in the Women’s County T20 season cemented her status as one to watch at the age of 17.She had thrown out hints the previous year as Sunrisers’ second-highest run-scorer in the inaugural 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy as women’s domestic cricket in England made its way back from a Covid-wrecked season. But Scrivens believes that knock against Surrey was “the first time I’d properly excelled” giving her huge confidence after working hard on her T20 game. It was voted Women’s Moment of the Year and Scrivens was named Players’ Player of the Year at Kent’s end-of-season awards.But there were those at the county who had been well aware of Scrivens and her immense potential long before that – the sort of potential that sees her preparing to captain England in their opening match of the Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup against Zimbabwe on Sunday. Among them was Dave Hathrill, the Kent Women’s head coach.”It was the way she looks at the game, her awareness of the game, that was so impressive,” Hathrill told ESPNcricinfo. “She saw the game differently to a lot of her peers, which is something that you don’t often get with somebody her age.”She had so much clarity about what she wanted to do when she went out and played and a maturity about her game. She was always looking at how she could influence the game, reading conditions. Even when she wasn’t a captain of the team she was viewing it from a captain’s perspective.”She took that into her batting as well, which meant that she was always one step ahead of the opposition and one step ahead of the bowler… it’s understanding the game from a different perspective, a different lens almost.”Related

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Scrivens, who turned 19 in November, was selected for Kent’s U11 girls’ side as an eight-year-old, meaning she went on to become the first girl to play four seasons with the squad, and was captain for two.While it was her batting that first stood out as a left-handed opener, her leadership qualities and success bowling right-arm off-breaks makes for a talented allrounder, in the truest sense.”She loves being involved in the game,” Hathrill said. “If there’s any way she can have the ball in her hand, the bat in her hand or be in a fielding position where she’s influencing the game… if she could wicket-keep and score and umpire at the same time, I know she would.”And so it was. Having started out as a seam bowler and batter, Scrivens quickly discovered that opening in both disciplines “probably wouldn’t mix that well”. Not wanting to drop her focus on batting, she switched to wicketkeeping for a few years but, at about 5ft10in tall, she realised “keeping wasn’t the best way forward”. She turned to off-spin, learning a few tricks from her brother, and it became an important part of her game.She finished as the third-highest run-scorer and leading wicket-taker in the most recent Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy while ranking among her team’s top performers with bat and ball in the T20 Charlotte Edwards Cup as her Sunrisers team went winless in both competitions. And Hathrill sees Scrivens thriving with bat, ball and as a leader for years to come.”I think she can go all the way, and not just to play for England, I think she’s got the potential to be a future England captain,” Hathrill said. “I think she’s got the potential to be one of the best batters in the world, I really do, because I know her, I know that’s what will be her driving force.”As soon as she’s ticked off one box she’ll be full steam ahead for the next one. I believe in her, and I believe she’s got what it takes to go all the way to the top.”Both Hathrill and Scrivens put her joy and ease in the captaincy role down to having started playing at a very early age. Scrivens describes the beginning of her career as “the standard brother, dad in the garden, you go and join in and try and whack some balls over the fence”. Heading to her local club followed and she remembers playing softball cricket at age “six or seven”, her progress rapid from there.”I started at a pretty early age so I was always sort of the most experienced in the group,” Scrivens told ESPNcricinfo. “When I’m around people that are at a high level I try and absorb as much information as possible and then when it comes to playing… I can just share that knowledge with others, which I really enjoyed.”Niamh Holland and Grace Scrivens walk out to bat in a warm-up match against Indonesia•ECBScrivens could hardly have hoped for a better opportunity to immerse herself in an elite learning environment than last year’s Hundred, where she played all six matches for a London Spirit side missing injured England captain Heather Knight but boasting a formidable line-up including Australia’s Beth Mooney and New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr.”I felt out of my depth at points, being asked to open the batting and being up against the best bowlers in the world, but it’s taught me so much,” Scrivens said. “It’s really given me ideas of how to work on my game more. Playing under that sort of pressure in terms of the big crowds and the best teams also helped me in terms of when it comes to other tournaments and other competitions, I can use that knowledge.”England’s squad contains three other players with experience in last year’s Hundred – seam-bowling allrounder Ryana MacDonald-Gay, who is Scrivens’ vice-captain and Kent team-mate, and left-arm spinner Sophia Smale were part of Oval Invincibles’ title-winning team and legspinner Hannah Baker played for Welsh Fire.”We’ve got a really good team and a very good chance, especially the way we went in our warm-up games,” Scrivens said after England had thumped West Indies and Indonesia in their pre-tournament fixtures.The tournament proper took an intriguing early twist on Saturday when Bangladesh upset Australia by seven wickets in the opening match, leaving the competition looking wide open.”The way we’ve gelled as a team has also helped us a lot, we all back each other, all trust each other,” Scrivens added. “We’re always going to look to take the positive option, which is a real strength of ours. We’re quite a fearless team and that’s how we’re going to try and play our cricket.”We want to be positive role models and put on a show playing in ways that are going to inspire the next generation, so I think that’s also in our mind and we want to show the best side of us.”

Nat Sciver-Brunt hails birth of ‘Jonball’ in seven-wicket rout of West Indies

Valkerie Baynes11-Feb-2023So what to call this new England Women’s approach? The one that saw them romp to victory over an improved West Indies, chasing down 136 in just 87 balls to begin their T20 World Cup campaign in fine style.Bazball? Taken (though, admittedly, not with any great enthusiasm by England Men’s Test team). Nat Sciver-Brunt, Player of the Match, had an idea: “Jonball”, she suggested, in honour of her team’s recently appointed head coach, Jon Lewis. Then, realising there was a danger it could stick, she added: “That’s not a thing, I just made that up.” Which is just as well, really. So, in the absence of any better suggestions, we bring you … the Bazbelles?Either way, they say that in T20 cricket, one moment can turn a match. So can this simple change of mindset alter the course of a team? With substantial evidence already in support of this theory, and at the most critical test yet of England Women’s own approach to “fearless” cricket, the answer appears to be: yes, it can.A resounding seven-wicket victory in Paarl set their T20 World Cup campaign off to the best possible start, especially given that England have started their last two World Cups in defeat. At last year’s 50-over event, they managed to turn a terrible run of results into a runners-up finish but at the T20 edition three years ago, a first-up defeat to South Africa cost them big-time as their semi-final was washed out and India advanced to the final as group leaders.Heather Knight, their captain, knew the importance of starting fast ahead of this game. So did Lewis, who took over from Lisa Keightley at the end of last year on a mission to bring the new, more aggressive approach that had served England Men so well when he worked with them as a pace-bowling coach alongside Brendon McCullum, and Ben Stokes.So both would have been delighted when, after Sophie Ecclestone’s 3 for 23 had restricted West Indies to a potentially competitive 135 for 7, England’s top five batters all set about mowing down the target in the most brutal fashion.Nat Sciver-Brunt, Player of the Match for her unbeaten 40 from 30 balls, said it was as much about being unafraid to fail as being determined to succeed.Sophia Dunkley carves another boundary for England during a forceful run-chase•ICC/Getty Images”We know we weren’t at our best in the whole of the game but that’s the intent and the bravery that we want from our batters, so we were very happy with that,” she said. “As batters you’re always fighting the intent and obviously you want every ball to hit the middle of your bat but it doesn’t always happen,so you’re still fighting with yourself a little bit out there in the middle. But that’s the sort of intensity and bravery that we want.”At the moment the energy and the feel around the group is probably the best that I’ve felt. It feels like we’re in a really, really good place and we’ve found a new way of playing … it’s a new mindset. Everyone’s capable of playing in that way but, allowing ourselves for it to be okay to fail as well, that freedom has really allowed us to switch a little bit.”It’s since Lewy’s come in, he’s really brought that freedom and allowed us to fail for the success to happen. The way that he wants us to play, he believes fully that that can be successful at a T20 World Cup, and all the players have bought into that so we’re excited.”Sophia Dunkley, who showed some stunning touch in the pre-tournament warm-up games, took 17 off one Matthews over, including the most authoritative straight-driven six, so that after three overs, England were 36 without loss.Related

• Jon Lewis on England success in West Indies: 'There's been a real shift in the group'

• Success 'looks different now' for Nat Sciver-Brunt

• Nat Sciver-Brunt leads England home in comfortable chase

Danni Wyatt’s 11 off nine deliveries had a gonna-die-trying vibe as she fell skying to the cover sweeper off Chinelle Henry, while Alice Capsey had just reversed Afy Fletcher’s first ball to the boundary before advancing too far on the next and finding herself stumped for 13 off nine.In the meantime, Dunkley surged ahead with back-to-back fours through long-off and behind square leg so that England were 50 for 1 after just five overs. And it took a stunner from Henry to remove her for an 18-ball 34, thrusting out her right hand on her follow-through to pluck a near-impossible return catch out of nowhere.England were 58 for 2 at the end of the powerplay and Sciver-Brunt carried on, scooping and powering Shakera Selman for four, hauling a Zaida James full-toss over the fence at deep square leg and on it went for seven boundaries in total. Knight, still carrying the signs of a nasty knock to the mouth she suffered while fielding in a practice match on Sunday and which needed six stitches, struck the winning runs with a six off Henry wide of long-off to finish unbeaten with 32 off 22.All this fearlessness appears to be catching.Henry, meanwhile, was mightily proud of her side’s performance, given that West Indies had lost their ODI series in December 3-0 and the T20Is 5-0, with a highest total of 140 for 8 and a lowest of 43 all out.”That’s something that we talked about, fearless cricket,” Henry said. “I think going out there today, the skipper and the coaches were just like, ‘one brilliant anything can change a game.'”Unfortunately for West Indies, her catch did end up being the decisive brilliant moment, but she was happy with the intent the team had shown. “The girls all absolutely know what we want to do and everybody’s willing to put their body on the line for this team,” she said. “So today was basically about going out there, showing up and we definitely did do that today.”As for England, it wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before.”In the Caribbean, they actually were playing the same cricket, the fearless cricket,” Henry added. “Everybody that came out there to bat today, they weren’t afraid of anything. They really came at us and that’s the England we’ve been playing for the past month.”If they can carry on for another two weeks, who knows what the Bazbelles could achieve?

The season has seen unprecedented numbers, with the batters dominating through and through and the trend is likely to continue

S Rajesh10-May-2023Run-scoring quicker than ever beforeThe average run rate this season has been 8.95; the previous highest was 8.64 in IPL 2018. If we talk just about the first innings, the scoring rate has breached the nine runs per over mark for the first time in IPL history (9.07). The chase run rate of 8.83 is the highest too.