The batter had remained in Australia since his arrest last November

AAP28-Sep-2023Sri Lanka batter Danushka Gunathilaka has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a Tinder date through the act of “stealthing”.Judge Sarah Huggett acquitted the 32-year-old as he sat at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Thursday listening to the decision. He said he was looking forward to returning to playing after his acquittal.”The evidence establishes that there was no opportunity for the accused to remove the condom during intercourse because that intercourse was continuous,” the judge said in handing down the verdict.Judge Huggett found the complainant, who cannot be legally named, appeared to be an intelligent, calm and responsive witness who did not deliberately give false evidence.However, at times the woman gave the impression she was “motivated by a desire to paint the cricketer in an unfavourable light”, the judge said.”I find that the evidence regarding the complaint far from supports the complainant. Rather it undermines the reliability of her evidence.”The cricketer’s defence team signalled he will apply for the Crown to pay his legal costs of defending the allegation.Outside court, Gunathilaka thanked his lawyers, parents and others who supported him during what he described as a very hard 11 months.”I’m happy my life is normal again,” he said. “I can’t wait to go back and play cricket.”Gunathilaka and the woman matched on the dating app and met for drinks at Opera Bar in November 2022 before having pizza together in the Sydney CBD and then catching a ferry to the woman’s eastern suburbs home.Police initially brought four charges against Gunathilaka, who was arrested at the Hyatt Regency hours before the Sri Lankan cricket team was due to fly out of the country. Prosecutors later dropped three of those charges.In statements to police and the court, the woman accused the batsman of various acts of aggression and violence such as slapping her buttocks, forcefully kissing her and bruising her lips and choking her during sex.There was no suggestion by prosecutors at trial that any of these acts constituted an offence, although the woman in her evidence said the sex was non-consensual.Gunathilaka always maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent relating to the cricketer’s alleged “stealthing”, or removing his condom during sex without the woman’s consent.During the judge-alone trial, defence lawyers questioned the credibility of the complainant, claiming her story shifted over time and that she edited her version of events to paint Gunathilaka as an aggressive person.Judge Huggett also heard evidence from two of the woman’s friends who described her as fragile and distraught the day after the cricketer attended her home.Police officers who spoke to the woman were also questioned about the way they handled the case, including omitting crucial details, throwing out notes and potentially contaminating witnesses.Judge Huggett on Thursday described the conduct of police in prosecuting Gunathilaka as “very concerning” and “far from satisfactory”.Gunathilaka has been on bail during the trial but was unable to play international cricket or return to his hometown of Colombo.

Chelmsford to play host to two fixtures as club seeks to reduce overheads of outgrounds

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Nov-2023Middlesex will play two of their home fixtures in next year’s Vitality Blast at Essex’s home ground of Chelmsford, in a bid to alleviate the growing financial pressures on the club.Middlesex, which leases its primary venue, Lord’s, from MCC, has recently used Radlett Cricket Club and Merchant Taylors’ School near Watford as its preferred outgrounds.However, with the club embroiled in a long-running legal dispute with its former chief executive Richard Goatley, and having been fined £150,000 for financial mismanagement by the ECB in September (£100,000 of which was suspended until October 2025), the current CEO Andrew Cornish has confirmed further cost-cutting measures.”We have gone to lengths to be transparent and open with our members when discussing the financial position the club is in, and moving forwards we need to continue to take every step we can to ensure we remain rigorous in our control of the club’s costs,” Cornish said in a statement on Middlesex’s website.”The cost of setting up the infrastructure of an out-ground venue is a significant liability the club has historically had to factor into our financial model every year – increasingly so in recent seasons with the enhancements we have made to the member experience at out-ground matches.”As a consequence, Middlesex will play home fixtures at Chelmsford against Kent on May 31, and against Gloucestershire on July 18, as well as a third visit to face Essex on June 2, for which they will be the away team. They are due to play one Blast fixture at Radlett against Hampshire on July 6, as well as a brace of One-Day Cup games in August when Lord’s will be in use for the Hundred.”As we continue to scrutinise every cost the club incurs, out-ground set-up costs stand out as an area which we could make a significant positive impact on,” Cornish added.”We have, as a result, been in discussion with our friends at Essex, who have been very receptive to the idea of hosting us at the Cloud County Ground for two of our Blast matches this year.”

Can Jupiter take down the Sun, in front of over 100,000 hyper-partisan fans in blue?

Andrew Fidel Fernando18-Nov-20236:59

Moody: Being safe and conservative won’t work against Rohit

Big picture: The team of this tournament vs the team that tends to win these tournaments

It feels a little like we are in the eye of the cyclone. Over the last few weeks, this World Cup had become a furious whirl of irresistible narratives. There was Virat Kohli’s tenacious run to 50 ODI hundreds, Glenn Maxwell’s fastest World Cup hundred, then that manic 201* against Afghanistan, a timed-out dismissal sparking major controversy, New Zealand pushing the big teams close but not quite making it, Pakistan’s exit setting off major reshuffles at home, Sri Lanka nosediving into a deep administrative and cricketing ravine, Bangladesh engaging in some soul-searching of their own, and Afghanistan orchestrating the most captivating campaign of the tournament but disovering there is a ceiling for them still.Sadly some of this has overshadowed the news that umpire Kumar Dharmasena is launching his own perfume.Related

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• How the pieces of the jigsaw fell in place for incredible India

• Australia's road to the final: Problematic preparation and early losses to winning eight in a row

• India vs Australia – Win the powerplay, win the World Cup?

In the cyclone’s eye, because this tournament deserves a dramatic finish, and the stage seems set for one. The final really does feel like the culmination of all the events since October 5. For a start, there can be no doubt these are the best teams of the competition. India have dominated the tournament so far to such an extent that their average winning margin batting first is 175 runs, and on average they have won with 64.4 balls to spare while chasing. Only Australia’s stomping march to the 2007 World Cup final rivals these numbers.Australia had found themselves bottom of the table after two matches, thanks partly to India having eased to victory in these teams’ tournament opener. But they have since put together a sequence of eight victories. Where India have tended to crush their oppositions from the outset, Australia have had major scares to survive (like being 91 for 7 chasing 292 against Afghanistan), white-hot spells to see out (like Tabraiz Shamsi in the semi-final), determined opposition chases to weather (like New Zealand’s in Dharamsala).Rather than being wearied by these intense passages of play, Australia have perhaps been tempered by them. As they had lost series to South Africa and India in the lead-in to this tournament, they had not been favourites on current form, anyway. On top of which theirs has been an imperfect campaign: Mitchell Starc only really came good in the semi-final, Steven Smith has not hit top gear, powerplay wickets have sometimes been in short supply.India have been as close to perfect as you could imagine. Twice they’ve bowled out oppositions for below 80. Of the five times they’ve batted first, they surpassed 350 on three occasions, and got 326 for 5 on another. Their fielding has been exemplary. Four of their top five have hit hundreds over the course of the campaign, and the other – Shubman Gill – still averages 50 and has struck at 108.02.They have also fed off, rather than been overwhelmed by, their roaring home crowds, Virat Kohli directing entire stadiums like an orchestra conductor. In fact, watching India in their grand stadiums in this World Cup has at times felt like a grand, synchronous performance – every instrument in tune, every voice in perfect pitch, all the broader forces acting on the match advancing the march toward’s India’s glory.If there is one team that might not be daunted by more than 100,000 fans in the biggest stadium the sport has, however, it is Australia. Pat Cummins has suggested as much: they will embrace the silence that has tended to fill stadiums when India wickets have fallen, or an opposition has hit a boundary. Many in their team have been part of World Cup finals before, and many have won. Five members of the likely Australia XI were in the 2015 World Cup final, and a few others still won the T20 World Cup in 2021.And perhaps being battle-tested counts for something too. If the game gets close, Australia have had more recent experience in such situations, and have a long-term history in keeping themselves sharp and collected. For all the data that has now swept cricket, this is still a game played by human beings ruled at times by emotion.Still, will India even let Australia get close? So far in this World Cup, India have been like the sun, and Australia like Jupiter – the next-most massive body in the solar system, but dwarfed still by the greater celestial body.

Form guide

India WWWWW (last five completed ODIs, most recent first)
Australia WWWWW2:12

Kumble: ‘Don’t see toss being that much of a factor’

In the spotlight

Mohammed Shami has played six matches in this tournament, having only come into the team post Hardik Pandya’s exit. He’s since taken a tournament-high 23 wickets at 9.13, with an economy rate of 5.01. Three times he’s taken five wickets, and once he’s taken four. There are excellent reasons to put Jasprit Bumrah’s name down on the team sheet first, but in terms of wicket-seekers, there has been no bowler better than Shami, constantly coming at the stumps, often muddling batters’ brains to such an extent that they are forced to play wild shots. Shami is also part of the reason why India – who very arguably have the best pace attack of the competition (that they have the best overall attack is more widely accepted) – can prosper on any kind of deck, even the low, slow ones. The Ahmedabad pitch for this game is a used deck. You have to expect Shami wickets.Pat Cummins has the chance to join the Australian pantheon of World-Cup-winning captains, something he will obviously savour. But for the neutral cricket lover, there is a more exclusive, and perhaps more impressive list: fast-bowling World-Cup-winning captains, of whom there are only two – Imran Khan and Kapil Dev.Cummins has had a decent tournament, but perhaps not for the reasons you’d expect. He’s averaged 37 with the ball, with an economy rate of 6.05. His more memorable contributions have been with the bat. He batted out 68 balls against Afghanistan so Maxwell could play innings, and on Thursday, his 14 not out against South Africa was an important contribution in a string of important contributions that saw Australia through to the final. When he has taken wickets, though, they have tended to be important ones – the dismissal of centurion David Miller in that semi-final a case in point.If there is a criticism to be made here, perhaps it’s that he’s occasionally been too rigid with his captaincy. Why not bowl out Josh Hazlewood when he’s had such spectacular first and second spells, against South Africa, for example? Why give Mitchell Starc the vital last over against New Zealand, when Starc had had struggled in that game? And yet also, he has also embodied the resilience his team has shown since going 2-0 down early.

Pitch and conditions

This is the same track that was used for the India-Pakistan match in the second week of the World Cup, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be a low-scoring match. Cummins has said he doesn’t have any issues with it and there is an extended story on the surface here.There may be some dew to contend with, however. With there being an early winter nip in the air in the evenings, the dropping of temperature after sunset may make for a soggy ball, though there is also a chemical sprayed on the grass to mitigate the dew’s effects.There is no rain forecast. The temperature will be in the low 30 degrees celsius range in the hottest parts of the day.

Team news

There has been no indication from either team that their semi-final XIs will need any tinkering with. India, certainly, seem to have their set XI.India (likely): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Mohammed Shami, 9 Jasprit Bumrah, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mohammed Siraj.Australia may think about bringing Marcus Stoinis into the team ahead of Marnus Labuschagne, but against an attack of India’s quality, Labuschagne may be the choice again, as it was in the semi-final.Australia (likely): 1 David Warner, 2 Travis Head, 3 Mitchell Marsh, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Josh Inglis (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins (capt), 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood.

Stats and trivia

• Six of the likely players across the two teams have played in a World Cup final before (Kohli, Warner, Smith, Maxwell, Starc, Hazlewood). They all won their first final.
• Jasprit Bumrah is ranked only joint fifth in terms of wicket-takers this World Cup, with 18 dismissals. But his economy rate is 3.98. To find a better economy rate on the wicket takers’ list, you have to scroll all the way down to 78th, to R Ashwin, who took a single wicket and went at 3.4 runs an over in the one match he played.
• Mitchell Starc is third on the all-time World Cup wicket-takers’ list, with 62 to his name. But he will need six wickets to match Muttiah Muralitharan, the second-highest wicket taker behind Glenn McGrath.
• Mohammed Shami, meanwhile, is already India’s most-successful World Cup wicket taker, and will surpass two bona-fide ODI greats on the list if he takes three wickets. Shami is currently on 54 World Cup dismissals, Wasim Akram (fifth on the overall list) had 55, and Lasith Malinga finished on 56.

Quotes

“The crowd’s obviously going to be very one-sided but it’s also in sport there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us tomorrow.”
Australia captain Pat Cummins on playing in a packed Ahmedabad stadium“We know the expectations, and the pressure, and the criticism. This is not just now, this has been happening since game number one. We have tried to maintain that calmness around the dressing room. Even on the field, when there is a situation where we have been put under pressure, we try to stay calm and just react to that pressure.”
India captain Rohit Sharma on the immense expectation on his team.

“What I hope is we win and my performance is crucial to it”

Danyal Rasool28-Dec-2023Despite a couple of late wickets, Pakistan’s shoulders had dropped by the time stumps were called, but Mir Hamza didn’t let the disappointment of the final session sully memories he will carry for the rest of his career. Coming out just after lunch, he had followed up two strikes from Shaheen Shah Afridi with the wickets of David Warner and Travis Head in successive balls, the latter a near-unplayable inswinging delivery that cleaned Head up for a golden duck.No wonder, then, that his face broke out into the broadest of grins when looking back upon the moment a few hours later.”It was a dream for me to play at the MCG against one of the best teams, and to provide us two breakthroughs in one over,” Hamza said at the post-match press conference after the third day’s play. “I was telling myself I have to prove myself if I want to play international cricket for my country. If you look at my last few matches, I bowled well but didn’t take wickets. So I wanted to change that.Related

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“Since the match started, I tried to keep things simple because there’s something in the pitch for fast bowlers. It’s seaming and swinging. I thought if I can swing the ball, I’ll have a great opportunity because the batter isn’t set at the time. I thought that way and believed Travis Head was waiting for my outswinger, but I brought it back in. It was my favourite Test dismissal.”At the time, Pakistan were riding very high. Australia were reeling at 16 for 4, the lowest total upon which they’ve lost four wickets at home since South Africa had taken the first four for just eight runs in Hobart in 2016. The lead was a precarious 70 at the time, and Pakistan believed they were in with a sniff.And though a mix of poor catching, poor fortune and a sensational counterattack from Mitchell Marsh meant Australia had comfortably reassumed the ascendancy by stumps, Hamza was instrumental in ensuring Pakistan retained a fighting interest in the contest. He was the man to break the 153-run fifth-wicket stand between Marsh and Steven Smith by drawing another outside edge from Marsh that Salman Ali Agha clung on to, before Afridi followed up with Smith’s wicket, with the hosts leading by 241.”We are still in the game, and we think we’ll get stronger,” he said. “The new ball will swing in any conditions – as it did for me – but there is something in the pitch. If you see the body language of our boys, it is very positive. We will try to get wickets as soon as possible. We are in the game.”Part of the reason Mir Hamza has struggled to break in is his lack of pace•Getty Images

Hamza needs to make no apologies for beaming after the day, because he knows how rarely these moments come around, and how hard fought they can be. He played six years of first-class cricket before getting his first opportunity in Test cricket in 2018, only to be dropped after one Test. It was to be another four years before the second chance came knocking around; and another two indifferent games later, he was out of the side once more.Then in the first Test of this Australia tour, Pakistan preferred to give two fast bowlers a debut in Perth rather than give Hamza a run. His three Tests apart, Hamza has played 103 first-class games, and taken 418 wickets across 11 years and nearly 19,500 deliveries.So while it may be an exaggeration to call the two balls that rattled Warner and Head’s stumps one-in-a-million moments, terming them one in ten thousand is no statistical exaggeration. Part of the reason Hamza has struggled to break in is his lack of pace, with Pakistan always likely to prefer high pace when taking selection into account. Here at the MCG, Hamza’s speeds were a constant point of focus, largely registering in the 120ks. Hamza, though, knows what he is.”Bowlers know about their quality. Some bowlers are known for seam and swing, and others for pace,” he said. “What matters is that you disrupt the batter – whether you do it with seam and swing, or whether you do it with swing doesn’t matter. Our aim is to win, and we’ve taken 16 wickets. We’ll try and take 20 as soon as possible, and come out with the win. This will be memorable if we win the Test, and what I hope is we win and my performance is crucial to it.”And while reality may fall somewhat short of that ambition, there’s little doubt that Hamza’s performance has ensured Pakistan can do for one more night what Hamza has done for a decade: keeping a dream alive.

Spinner says the delay in being granted his visa made his debut “more memorable”

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Feb-2024Shoaib Bashir, England’s debutant offspinner, has described the dismissal of Rohit Sharma for his first Test wicket in Visakhapatnam as “very, very special” – and said that the lengthy delay in being granted his visa had made his debut “more memorable”.Bashir bowled 28 overs on his first day as a Test cricketer, returning figures of 2 for 100. He dismissed Rohit in his fourth over, caught at leg slip, and had Axar Patel caught at backward point in the final session as India closed the opening day of the second day on 336 for 6.”If you were to tell me that two years ago, I would laugh,” Bashir told , asked about becoming a Test cricketer at the age of 20 with only six previous first-class appearances to his name. “It was a very special moment receiving my Test cap and for me to get Rohit Sharma as my first wicket was very, very special.”He’s a great player of spin as well. I’m just so grateful to God and my family. They’ve supported me through thick and thin. I had a lot of ups and downs in my journey, so I just want to thank them as well.”Bashir only arrived in India on the fourth day of the first Test in Hyderabad after a delay in receiving his visa caused by his parents’ Pakistani heritage. It meant he had to fly back to the UK after England’s training camp in Abu Dhabi.”I always knew I’d get the visa,” he said. “I did have a few troubles with it, but look, we’re here now and I got to make my debut and it’s such a special day. It makes it more memorable, yeah. I had a bit of trouble, bit of hassle with it but to come out to India now and make my Test debut is unbelievable.”Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum told Bashir he was playing at training on Thursday, and Jack Leach, his Somerset team-mate, presented him with his Test cap on the morning of the game. “He had some nice words to say,” Bashir said. “Me and him get on really well.”We’re very tight and he’s the one that saw me on the scene when I was playing for Somerset 2s. He was just talking about how proud everyone is of me, and my family and my journey. It was just so special receiving it from him as well.”Assessing England’s day, Bashir said: “It was a tough pitch to bowl on. It didn’t offer too much, but I thought the way the boys went about it was awesome for us to pick up six wickets… we’ll get again tomorrow, hopefully get a breakthrough and get batting out there.”

Shoaib Bashir is England’s best bowler on the day, which ends with India comfortably ahead by 255 runs with two first-innings wickets in hand

Alan Gardner08-Mar-20241:35

Manjrekar: Rohit had an answer to all of Stokes’ plans

Stumps India took the scenic route to a match-dominating position in the Dharamsala Test, batting throughout the second day to amass a lead of 255 over England with two wickets still standing. There were hundreds for Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, fifties for Sarfaraz Khan and the debutant Devdutt Padikkal, as the India top order all contributed to post an imposing total in the shadow of the Dhauladhars.Even some Ben Stokes magic with the ball could not turn the tide of England’s fortunes. Stokes claimed the wicket of Rohit with his first delivery of the series, having not bowled competitively since the second Test of last year’s Ashes. A sharply seaming ball that hit Rohit’s off stump as he resumed his innings after the lunch break not only ended a 171-run stand for the second wicket, but added to the list of what-might-have-beens for England on this tour.With Stokes back to fulfill his allrounder status after a gap of 251 days, England’s attack plugged away manfully in placid conditions. But they were let down by a few scruffy moments in the field, which included Stokes dropping Sarfaraz in his follow through from a delivery that was subsequently called a no-ball.Shoaib Bashir impressed once again, providing both durability and cutting edge despite still suffering the after-effects of a stomach bug that limited his involvement in the build-up. His 44-over stint matched the first innings in Ranchi for his longest in first-class cricket, and had Zak Crawley not missed a sharp chance at leg slip when Rohit was on 68, Bashir might have been able celebrate a second five-for in only his third Test. Then, in Bashir’s final over of the day, Stokes put down Kuldeep Yadav in the slips as India’s ninth-wicket pair successfully navigated a way to the close.2:52

Would England have benefited with Stokes bowling through the series?

After a serene morning session for India in which they had added 129 without loss, Rohit’s dismissal was followed by Gill having his off stump flattened, James Anderson bagging wicket No. 699 in Tests and giving England something to rally around. The lead at that stage was 61, but any sense of an opportunity for England was scotched by another bright partnership between two batters for the future.Padikkal, at No. 4, initially found the boundary with regularity while Sarfaraz bedded in. Having moved watchfully to 9 off 30 balls, Sarfaraz kicked up through the gears with a flurry of attacking shots to raises his third Test half-century. Mark Wood was dispatched into the crowd before Sarfaraz took on Tom Hartley with the second new ball as India extended their lead beyond 150 at tea.England again struck straight after the interval, Bashir having Sarfaraz caught at slip attempting to cut the first ball back. Padikkal nonchalantly lofted the England offspinner for six over long-on to bring up his maiden fifty but he, too, could not go on as Bashir caught him on the crease with one that turned to hit the top of off stump. Dhruv Jurel holed out to give Bashir his fourth and Hartley then struck twice in the following over, Ravindra Jadeja pinned lbw before R Ashwin played around one that went on with the arm.By that stage, the outline of the day was as clear as the hills in the background, India having cruised into the ascendency without breaking much of a sweat. The overnight pair both went on to record their second hundreds of the series – Rohit’s 12th overall, Gill with his fourth in Tests – as the home side tightened their grip on the match.1:10

Manjrekar on Padikkal’s knock: ‘Great start to his career’

Rohit twice lofted Bashir back over his head in the third over of the morning, before Gill charged Anderson to hit him disdainfully for six, as they added 50 to the score within the first ten overs of play. Gill’s fifty came up from 64 balls as he closed the gap on his captain, who batted on unruffled after seeing an inside edge off Bashir evade Crawley. India’s second consecutive hundred partnership was raised when Rohit flat-batted Wood through extra cover and they moved past England’s total of 218 shortly thereafter, Gill swinging Bashir down the ground for another of his five sixes.Rohit was the first to reach his century, flicking Hartley through the leg side with lunch approaching. Two balls later, Gill slog-swept Bashir for four to bring up three figures, too. Stokes had shot down talk in the build-up about whether he might help balance the attack in more seam-friendly conditions but he immediately produced a “who writes your scripts?” moment after bringing himself on in tandem with Anderson at the start of the afternoon session.Anderson had his revenge on Gill with one that came back through the gate and Padikkal twice edged wide of the slips as England briefly rallied. The false shots were replaced by growing sense of authority, however, as a 97-run stand between Padikkal and Sarfaraz once again shut the door on Stokes and Co. Both batters must have contemplated the opportunity for a first Test hundred, only for Bashir to inspire another belated fightback. But England, having tumbled down a ravine with the bat, were already left facing a mountain to climb.

The duo helped chase down 41 off the last three overs to hand Punjab an unlikely win

Alagappan Muthu04-Apr-2024Punjab Kings only had 9% chance of victory and 18 balls to beat the odds with the guy they seemed to have bought by mistake at the auction. Guess what happened next?Shashank Singh hit 10 of the 29 balls he faced to the boundary. He survived a very close lbw shout off Noor Ahmad when he was 1 off 2, but was soon carting around a bunch of former IPL champions. Rashid Khan, launched over midwicket, Umesh Yadav, helped over fine leg, Noor Ahmad, skewered over long-off, Mohit Sharma, even when he tried to go pace off and into the wicket, ramped over the keeper. These were unbelievable shots because they came from a place where victory was only fantasy.It was less than four months ago that the Kings’ management was huddled around the auction table trying to offload this guy, then sending out a clarification tweet, which Shashank replied to, hoping to shut down the stories that were swirling around. Tonight, in a twist that the IPL should consider trademarking, both the unfancied team and their unfancied purchase came good facing impossible odds in a chase of 200.

More magic at the IPL

Kings only had two batters among their five substitutes in a bowling first XI. It looked a lopsided selection. But the man they chose as the Impact Sub played a massive role in their victory. Ashutosh Sharma, playing his very first IPL game, and only the 15th T20 of his career, looked at an equation that read 41 off 18 balls square in the eye and took it down with brutal precision. He hit three fours in Azmatullah Omarzai’s 18th over. Another six to start the 19th from Mohit. In those 12 balls, the Kings got 34 runs. In those 12 balls, the Kings’ chances of victory rose from 9.23% to 94.56%.This is what happens when two players look for the best boundary option they have with every single ball. But the fact that they were both uncapped, that they had very little experience at this level of the game – Shashank had played 13 matches in the IPL, but batted in just eight of those and had a high score of 25 prior to this – and were coming up with the goods even against bowlers of the calibre of the Titans was incredible.They waited for Mohit and Azmatullah’s variations – whether they were slower balls or short balls – and it wasn’t just that they were looking to slog ’em across the line. Shashank (previously) and Ashutosh (in the death) ramped fours over the keeper. It was nerveless. It was glorious. And by the end of it, Kings had conquered their sixth target of 200 or more, a men’s T20 record.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Rashid’s problems

It is still early – only four matches – but Rashid Khan has an economy rate of 9.06, his worst in an IPL season. In this game, he was lined up twice by Jitesh Sharma, leaking back-to-back sixes in the 16th over. He has already been hit out of the park nine times in IPL 2024. That’s as many sixes as he’d given up across 14 matches in 2021 and 16 matches in 2020. Titans are turning to him a little more often now because they don’t have Mohammed Shami in the powerplay and the death and it seems like he is yet to cope with that extra responsibility. The Kings were in a squeeze at 70 for 4 in the ninth over and then 111 for 5 in the 13th over. Liam Livingstone was injured. Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow and Sam Curran were out. Only Jitesh and some unknowns were left. This match should’ve been done but it wasn’t.

Top-heavy Titans

Six. The total number of boundary attempts made by Wriddhiman Saha and Kane Williamson from a combined 35 balls faced. Titans were a top-heavy line-up with David Miller out injured. That automatically puts pressure on their best batter and Shubman Gill could have cracked if not for the man coming out at No. 4 and flaying at everything that came his way. Sai Sudharsan looked for a boundary off 12 of the 19 balls he faced. He outscored Gill – 33 off 19 vs 20 off 13 – in a 53-run partnership that reset the game.Shubman Gill made his highest individual score of IPL 2024•BCCI

Peak Shubman Gill

Gill faced only 10 balls in the powerplay. Even after 10 overs, he had only been on strike for 19 deliveries. He looked in glorious form but wasn’t getting opportunities to influence the game. External pressure could have made him take a risk too soon and end up back in the hut, but Sudharsan’s innings gave him chance to bat at his tempo, and that was only ever going to spell trouble for the opposition.Gill made 89 off 48 batting well within himself. Even the most jaw-dropping shot of his innings was a simple consequence of seeing a length ball and knowing he can get under it. Kagiso Rabada, who is IPL royalty thanks to his strike rate of 14.8, the best out of everyone who has at least 100 wickets in this tournament, was launched straight down the ground for an effortless six. Gill thrived just by responding to what was coming down because nine times out of 10, he had the perfect one. He was in the zone, striking at 185.42 and combining it with a control percentage of 91.67. That is rare. Typically when you’re looking to go big, you end up with a few more mis-hits. It must feel like pretty small consolation, though, on a night where he watched his team lose from a winning position.