Bumrah's fifer decimates RCB
Bumrah's untouchable, Jio's got too many viewers, the Inter-Zonal champs & how to play long IPL innings.
Bumrah's fifer decimates RCB
Bumrah is a cheat code, Siraj needs a cheat code, & SKY’s back in business.
The Mumbai Indians beat the Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 7 wickets. ESPNcricinfo’s Sidharth Monga writes that MI’s Jasprit Bumrah is a cheat code, after he picked up 5/21 in game that saw 395 runs scored across both innings. How ruthless is he? Bumrah said he was disappointed his last ball was hit for a six. He took FIVE wickets.
On the other end of the spectrum, Cricket.com’s Anirudh Suresh writes about the horror season that RCB’s Mohammad Siraj is enduring, after he got hit for 37 runs in 3 overs.
Cricket.com’s Pramod Ananth reviews Suryakumar Yadav’s explosive return to form with a 19-ball 52, ESPNcricinfo’s Hemant Brar says Gujarat’s Rashid Khan put the league on notice with his all-round performance against Rajasthan this week, and Cricbuzz’s Atif Azam explains how Chennai’s Mustafizur Rahman re-lit his ‘fizz’ this season.
The Print’s Nootan Sharma has an opinion piece on the sadly misogynistic Bhojpuri & Haryanvi IPL commentary on JioCinema. It’s definitely a short one-sided piece, but it’s a fascinating take on the IPL I would’ve never learned about otherwise.
Everyone keeps talking about how the IPL is more popular than ever, but ad sales are stagnating. I was wondering why…
…so I watched a bunch of IPL matches in the last fortnight, and kept an eye on the ads that play full screen between overs. I noticed something interesting - the number of paid ads dropped off pretty drastically during the second innings of every match. It’s almost like 100M viewers is the magic number - once you get past that, paying for ads online becomes too expensive.
By the way, I’ve set up a Twitter and Instagram account under @BestCricStories where I post all these graphs & images, and would appreciate the support if you like them!
A T20 finish to a red ball tournament
East Zone wins the Women’s red ball Inter-Zonal Trophy, the village team with multiple internationals, & Steve Smith goes to America.
Deepti Sharma’s East Zone beat Minnu Mani’s South Zone by 1 wicket to win the first Women’s domestic red ball tournament in India in 6 years. Sportstar’s Lavanya Lakshmi Narayanan has a recap of the nail-biting finish on day three.
Lakshmi Narayanan also has a must-read profile of Arundhati Reddy. She traces her career from the early years at Railways, to her life-changing professional relationship with ex-India coach Biju George, and finally becoming an on-field leader under Meg Lanning at the Delhi Capitals.
Joe Root is set to play county cricket for the first time in a couple of years, as he joins Harry Brook at Yorkshire to help them get out of the second division. On a slightly related note, the BBC’s Joe Dean has a fun story about the village team in England that employs to ex-English internationals, and a BBL champion!
Steve Smith has joined the American bandwagon, as he signs for Ricky Ponting’s Washington Freedom.
The Professional Cricketers Association in England has asked county teams to “practice what they preach” as the ECB announce successful bids for Women’s teams this month. An uncredited Daisy Cutter report talks about the MCC Foundation’s grassroots work in English Women’s cricket.
The value of a long T20 innings
The best way to play a long IPL innings, the loudest IPL atmospheres, & the toughest cricketers ever.
Jarrod Kimber has a great look at how different batters perform when it comes to seeing through long IPL innings. Who goes from ball one, who sticks it out as anchor, who fluctuates between the two depending on the phase. KL Rahul’s numbers a particularly interesting.
Harsha Bhogle reflects on the different atmospheres at different IPL stadiums, as RCB go to the Wankhede for what is usually the loudest night of every season.
Richard Sydenham joins the Stumped crew to talk about his new book, Cricket’s Hard Men, to discuss how he narrowed down the thousands of international cricketers to 22 of the toughest men to have every played the game.
Editor’s Note
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