🚨 If you’re an RCB fan, I’d love if you could fill out this survey on how you feel about the franchise this year. I plan to create a graphic story of your answers soon! 🚨
1
The bio-mechanics of a boy wonder
📊 Himanish Ganjoo looks at biomechanics & specialised pace, line and length data to understand how Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has taken to T20 cricket like a duck to water.
“In a recent game against Lucknow Super Giants, Sooryavanshi played out five dot balls from Mohsin Khan. He got out trying to bash the sixth. He told people afterwards that he couldn’t bear the idea of playing a maiden over. Accumulation and survival are the cornerstones of batting; Sooryavanshi has thrown them to the wind. Others merely adopted T20, Sooryavanshi was born in it and moulded by it.”
2
The abrupt end
✍️ Cameron Steel on the sudden realisation that he could no longer play professional cricket after an injury this year.
“In a dream world, my departure from the game would have been a grandiose affair. Announced months in advance, I would have been chaired off at the Oval by Test team-mates, having scored a double century, taken ten wickets in the match and regained the Ashes all at once.
…My actual retirement decision was made on a Tuesday afternoon in April, slouched on a bench beneath a squat rack in a sun-starved gym. Still sore from the 500m of running I’d just completed on the Oval outfield, it was suddenly and unexpectedly obvious that enough was enough.”
3
The best IPL Mega Auctions ever
✍️ Karan Jain looks back at which teams have made the best use of the IPL’s reset clause, and the differing strategies that have led to at least one championship
“Considering the instability and uncertainty surrounding the first auction – and the complete miss on their “franchise” player in Kaif – RR’s 2008 was so successful it overrides a lot of those negatives. This side’s flame may not have burned as long as the others on this list, but it’s hard to argue that any other IPL team has ever burned brighter.”
4
The best of the rest
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“The harrowing of Zak Crawley”
✍️ Jon Hotten on how Bazball ruined Zak Crawley’s career. -
“The PSL’s Fast Fourteen”
📊 Behram Qazi & Varun Chakravarty on the PSL’s better-than-reported talent pool. -
“What prompted Ismail’s u-turn?”
✍️ Firdose Moonda on why Shabnim Ismail is playing for South Africa again. -
“Never Tired of Cricket”
✍️ Giles Wilcock on Wilfred Rhodes, the maverick who took 92 wickets in his debut season in Scotland in 1896-97, and how he constantly reinvented his game to stay dangerous.
5
🏆 Our Best IPL Coverage of the Week 🏆
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“RCB needed Duffy’s 48/0”
📊 Raunak Thakur on RCB’s gamble of Duffy over Shepherd. -
“KKR’s struggles without Chakravarty”
📊 Tarun Pratap on KKR’s reliance on the Chakravarty-Narine middle overs duo. -
“How Bhuvi reinvented his game – again!”
📊 Aadityan Ganesh on how Kumar became an effective wicket-taker again. -
“Krunal can be RCB’s middle order glue”
📊 Tarutr Malhotra on Krunal’s attempt to be RCB’s batting solution.
6
The best videos and podcasts
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“How he coached Murali, Sanga and Ajantha”
📽️ Nicholas Brookes talks to former Sri Lanka coach Paul Farbrace about winning the 2014 T20 World Cup with the island nation. [YouTube] -
“Battles with Broad, Bazball Doubts, & The IPL”
📽️ Stuart Broad & Jos Buttler host AB de Villiers to discuss his career, his time with RCB, & his hilarious membership in the non-walkers club. [YouTube] -
“How is GT so Tactically Strong?”
📽️ AB de Villiers talks to Parthiv Patel about GT’s smart tactics. [YouTube] -
“Does cricket have a cool problem?”
📽️ Machel St Patrick Hewitt has a monologue that’s asked a question I’ve wondered for a long time; is cricket cool, and why does that matter? [YouTube]