Pakistan had gone to great lengths to take pace and seam movement out of the picture but Seales still found a way

Danyal Rasool17-Jan-2025Jayden Seales knew the deck, quite literally, was stacked against him. Pakistan had spent the last few days working on that deck to make it so, erecting a protective greenhouse and attempting to warm up the Multan surface in frigid conditions using wedding-style heaters. The idea was to dry the pitch out and help the spinners get turn early on. With the 23-year-old the only opposition fast bowler, it would have felt, to him, as if the whole move was simply Operation Stop Jayden Seales.Well, it failed. There’s only so much that can be done when the temperature drops into single digits, and fog encircled the stadium, forcing the game to start four hours late. Seales knew his window to strike was narrow, and he had little time to waste.”We saw from the training sessions that the ball did a little bit when it was new,” he told a press conference after the end of day’s play. “For me, I needed to try and get the best out of the new ball and put the ball in the right areas. And with the cooler conditions this afternoon, it did a bit and it worked out for us.”Related

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Seales had more of an active role in making sure it worked out than he takes credit for. With spin operating right from the outset at the other end, he landed the ball on hard lengths, his height and pace making sure to extract enough bounce. But it was also his guile with the wrists that guaranteed seam movement, particularly in the dismissals of Kamran Ghulam and Babar Azam.Having already dispatched the debutant Mohammad Hurraira, he was shaping it away from Ghulam when he was driven through the off side for four, and when the next one landed around a similar line, Ghulam felt secure enough to shoulder arms. But this one seamed back in and smashed into Ghulam’s thigh, with HawkEye confirming it would have clipped the bails.”I just wanted to build pressure,” he said. “As a fast bowler in Asian countries, you tend to want to make a big impact and you want to do well for the team. Spin obviously dominates in these conditions. So as a fast bowler, I always wanted to get a wicket or be in the game and it so happened that I got the wickets for the team today.”But the dismissal to remove Babar required a delivery to match the quality of the batter, and Seales rose to the challenge. Babar came into this innings, with three successive Test half-centuries amid murmurs he may be returning to form. But before his spell ended, Seales ensured he bowled the delivery to give Pakistan one more bloody punch and leave them staggering.

“As a fast bowler, I always wanted to get a wicket or be in the game and it so happened that I got the wickets for the team today.”Seales after the opening day

He landed it on a length as Babar prepared to get in line and defend. Ball-tracking showed the trajectory was sending it right to the middle of his bat, but he got it to land perfectly on the seam to nip away ever so slightly, and take the outside edge.”I figured that he was watching my hand a bit, so I just tried to deceive him and it so happened that paid off. I think as a bowling unit, we did really well and we’ve just got to back it up again tomorrow. I think going forward in the game the spinners will come into the game a lot more. It may reverse-swing at some point, but I still think that the spinners may dominate in this game moving forward.”But Seales has happy memories against Pakistan, and having long odds against him doesn’t faze him much. It was against this opposition four years ago as a teenager playing his third Test that he secured his breakout performance in Jamaica, taking eight wickets before holding his nerve in a thrilling tenth-wicket stand to secure his side a one-wicket win. He was named the Player of the Match.While he knows his tactics may need to change here, his mentality evidently has not. “I don’t really think of it as pressure or anything like that [being the sole seamer]. For me as a player, [it’s] coming into the game a lot more and lifting my hand up for the team and just trying to do our job every time I’m called upon.”In international cricket, you expect the players to be good and you have to back yourself and match up with players skill for skill and who is the better man on the day will win. And it so happened that today I was the man for the team.”Seales may undersell himself, but, more importantly for West Indies, he finds a way to over-deliver. And in conditions tailor-made to shut him out, few could argue he has not done exactly that.

The CSK batter scored 69 in a failed chase, much like Tilak’s struggles against LSG

Omkar Mankame05-Apr-2025 • Updated on 08-Apr-2025R Ashwin 28 (23)RR vs LSG, Wankhede, 2022With murmurs growing louder around the tactical use of retired out in T20 cricket, Ashwin took the conversation from theory to practice. Promoted to No. 6 in the tenth over to shield Riyan Parag for a more favourable entry point later, Ashwin compiled 28 off 23 balls. But with just ten balls left in the innings and Rajasthan Royals (RR) on 135 for 4, he chose to retire out, making way for Parag. RR added 30 runs in the remaining deliveries and later edged home by three runs.Atharva Taide 55 (42)PBKS vs DC, Dharamsala, 2023Punjab Kings were lagging in their 214-run chase, and opener Taide’s strike rate of 131 after facing the equivalent of seven overs wasn’t helping. With five overs to go and the required rate climbing, PBKS made a tactical call of retiring out Taide to bring in Jitesh Sharma, with Shahrukh Khan and Sam Curran next to come. At that point, Kings were 128 for 3, needing 86 to win off 30 balls. The move didn’t quite tilt the game their way, as they eventually fell short by 15 runs.Sai Sudharsan 43 (31)GT vs MI, Qualifier 2, Ahmedabad, 2023It was the Shubman Gill show in Ahmedabad, the opener lighting up Qualifier 2 with a breathtaking 129 off 60 balls. Sudharsan held one end up while Gill did the heavy lifting, but in the slog overs, Gujarat Titans’ momentum dipped – the 18th and 19th overs produced just 16 runs. With one over left, GT retired out Sudharsan. In walked Rashid Khan, who hit his first ball for four. GT finished on 233 for 3 – more than enough to book a spot in their second straight IPL final.Tilak Varma 23 (25)MI vs LSG, Lucknow, 2025Suryakumar’s scintillating 67 off 42 kept Mumbai Indians in the mix during their 204-run chase in Lucknow. But Impact Player Tilak, brought in at No. 5, struggled to shift gears. With MI needing 52 off the last 23 balls. Tilak managed to score eight off his last five balls at the crease – four of them coming via an edged boundary – before he went off as MI grew increasingly desperate. Tilak was retired out when MI needed 24 off seven balls. The move didn’t pay off, as LSG held their nerve to close out a 12-run win.Devon Conway 69(49)PBKS vs CSK, Mullanpur, 2025It was Conway’s second match of the season and he scored a steady fifty after opening the batting alongside Rachin Ravindra. His 89-run partnership with Shivam Dube off just 51 balls kept CSK’s hopes alive. But after Dube fell with CSK needing 69 off 25, Conway could make only 19 off 12 balls after his fifty. In the 18th over, with 49 needed off 13 balls, CSK decided to retire him out with MS Dhoni in the middle, sending in Ravindra Jadeja. CSK eventually went down by 18 runs to suffer four losses in five matches.

Stats highlights from the Champions Trophy semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa in Lahore

ESPNcricinfo stats team05-Mar-20251:51

What makes Ravindra such a standout player?

5 Hundreds for Rachin Ravindra in ODIs, all in ICC tournaments: three in the 2023 World Cup and two in this Champions Trophy.No one else has scored their first five ODI hundreds in ICC tournaments. Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah made all his four ODI hundreds at ICC tournaments.67.00 Ravindra’s batting average in ICC ODI tournaments (World Cup and Champions Trophy) – 804 runs in 13 innings with two fifties and five hundreds. It is the highest average among 80 batters with a minimum of 750 runs in these tournaments.362 for 6 New Zealand’s total against South Africa is the highest by any team at the Champions Trophy, surpassing Australia’s 356 for 5 against England, also in Lahore in this tournament. It is also New Zealand’s highest against South Africa in ODIs. And only once have South Africa conceded a higher total in ICC ODI tournaments – 377 for 6 against Australia in the 2007 World Cup.3 Number of totals in ODI knockouts, higher than New Zealand’s 362 for 6. The highest is 397 for 4 by India against New Zealand in the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-final.3 Hundreds for Kane Williamson in his last three ODI innings against South Africa. He is the first player to score a hat-trick of hundreds against South Africa in this format. Williamson had unbeaten hundreds in his previous two innings against them – 106 not out in the 2019 World Cup and 133* in the 2025 tri-series in Pakistan.167.57 Williamson’s strike rate in his last 37 balls in the Champions Trophy semi-final against South Africa. He scored 62 runs with seven fours and two sixes after striking at only 70.18 in his first 57 balls (40 runs with three fours).65 Runs conceded by Keshav Maharaj in his ten overs, the most he has conceded in an ODI since his debut against England in 2017, when he gave away 72 runs.The fast bowlers from both sides took a beating in Lahore•AFP/Getty Images65 Innings since New Zealand last had a century partnership for the opening wicket in ODIs – 106 between Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls against India in February 2020.New Zealand is one of three teams in men’s ODIs without a century opening stand in this period – Canada (20 matches) and Jersey (5) being the others.31.55 New Zealand’s average opening partnership since their last century stand in ODIs, the lowest among the teams in the ongoing Champions Trophy, and the third-lowest among Full-Member teams.7 Wickets for New Zealand’s spinners on Wednesday, the joint-most they have picked up in a men’s ODI, alongside the seven against Bangladesh in 2023. New Zealand bowled 28 overs of spin, while South Africa bowled only 14 overs of spin for zero wickets and an economy rate of 6.28.The South Africa pacers collectively conceded 269 runs in the 36 overs they bowled, with all three specialist pacers going for 70-plus runs. New Zealand’s pacers were also on the receiving end, conceding 7.68 runs an over in the 22 overs they bowled.7 Number of wickets lost by South Africa between the 21st and 40th overs of their innings, during which they scored 116 runs. On the other hand, New Zealand lost only two in that period and scored 139 runs to set themselves up for a strong finish in the death overs.Losing wickets regularly left South Africa with only two wickets in hand for the last ten overs, putting them well behind in the game, despite nearly matching New Zealand’s total in the first 20 overs (113 for 1) by getting to 107 for 1.67 Balls that David Miller needed for his hundred, the fastest by any batter at the Champions Trophy. The previous quickest was off 77 balls by Virender Sehwag in 2002 and Josh Inglis earlier this tournament, both against England.With Miller being the third batter to smash a hundred on Wednesday, the New Zealand-South Africa match became the first at the Champions Trophy to feature three centurions.96.43 Percentage of runs scored by Miller during the 56-run stand with Lungi Ngidi for the tenth wicket. Miller scored 54 runs of those, while Ngidi scored a single, and one more run came off a wide. Miller scored each of the last 54 runs in South Africa’s innings, having faced 25 of their last 26 balls.

He was coming back from injury, but Hazlewood simply blew Punjab Kings away by taking out two of their key players in the space of seven balls

Karthik Krishnaswamy29-May-20250:43

Moody: Hazlewood would have ‘welcomed the New Chandigarh surface’

They call him Hazlegod. Fans of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) call him that, but so do Indian cricket fans of other stripes, for few can elude the grip of awe and terror that this 6’5″ metronome can induce when he does his thing. Seldom does a social-media nickname feel as apt as this one does when a ball delivered by Josh Hazlewood rears at an unsuspecting batter like an instrument of god’s wrath.This is a man who can turn any pitch into a trampoline. Give him one with a bit of bounce in it, and he turns into, well, Hazlegod. Think back to April 24, when he conceded just one run in a double-wicket 19th over that began with RCB’s opponents needing 18 off 12 balls. The Hazlegodliest ball of that over wasn’t even a wicket ball; it was too good to edge, leaping at Wanindu Hasaranga like a ball bowled by the Under-19s’ spearhead to the Under-12s’ wicketkeeper.When Thursday dawned, however, a bit of uncertainty surrounded Hazlewood’s powers. He hadn’t played in more than a month, had come back to India later than most overseas players when IPL 2025 resumed after its mid-tournament suspension, and had only just recovered from a shoulder injury. And there would be no easing in; he was about to be thrust straight into Qualifier 1.Related

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But Hazlewood is used to coming back from injury layoffs, and the world is used to seeing him come back, approach the bowling crease with that deceptively effortless run-up, and land his first ball on that exacting length like he has never been away.And so it was on Thursday against Punjab Kings (PBKS). The first ball Hazlewood bowled to Shreyas Iyer was his second ball, so he was sufficiently warmed up, and this ball was a reminder of every other ball he had bowled to the PBKS captain up to that point. Before this game, Hazlewood had bowled 19 balls to Iyer in all T20s, and dismissed him three times while conceding nine runs. It could have been four times in 20 balls; this one straightened from that trademark Hazlewood length and beat the outside edge as Iyer felt for it with an open-faced bat.Soon enough, it was four dismissals in 22 balls, with a stereotypically Hazlewood kind of strike. This is putting it a little crudely, because Hazlewood probably makes dozens of micro-adjustments in every spell, but on the whole, no matter what the format, conditions and opposition may be, all he probably tells himself at the top of his mark is: “I’ll hit a hard length, and we’ll see how it goes.”This was hard length, in the corridor, with a scrambled seam, and it nipped away ever so slightly from the batter. Iyer may have pushed at it with a vertical bat in a longer-format game; here he attempted a cross-bat swipe. Neither response was guaranteed to avoid an edge, and Jitesh Sharma’s gloves, as keepers’ gloves usually do when Hazlewood is bowling, pointed up when he caught this top edge above his left shoulder.2:10

Moody: Iyer totally misread the game situation

It was an ugly-looking dismissal, but you can’t divorce the batter’s shot from the context of the match as it stood. This was the fourth over, and PBKS were two down, but it wasn’t yet clear what a par total on this New Chandigarh pitch would look like. PBKS had come into this game with a line-up of extreme depth, but it had left them light on bowling – it seemed imperative, then, that they continued to back the aggressive style that had brought them this far in the tournament.And instinct, especially when it’s fine-tuned over two months of rigorous, T20-specific training, is hard to fight.The first ball of Hazlewood’s second over needed no putting in context. It was simply a brute. It was short and angled into Josh Inglis’ body, and it sprang off the surface with minimal loss of pace. It grabbed at Inglis’ throat, constricting him severely for room, and the miscued pull ballooned to long leg with the fielder barely needing to move. PBKS were 38 for 4.It was becoming increasingly clear that PBKS weren’t just facing the normal Hazlewood – a hard enough task – but Hazlewood bowling on a pitch with seam movement and inconsistent bounce. They were facing, in short, Hazlegod. There were balls climbing to the throat, and the odd one was going the other way too. Two balls after the Inglis dismissal, Marcus Stoinis bottom-edged an attempted pull off one that kept low, and was lucky not to play on.According to ball-tracking data, there were 0.6 degrees of seam movement during the two powerplays on Thursday, compared to 0.5 degrees on average in IPL 2025. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but couple that with the bounce, and the degree of difficulty becomes apparent: the average bounce during the PBKS innings was 3cm higher than the average bounce on previous New Chandigarh pitches this season. There was even more bounce (5cm more than the venue average) in the second innings, but RCB knew their target, and PBKS had been bowled out well short of setting them a challenging one.And PBKS didn’t know how the surface would play before they went out to bat. They were still finding out by the time Hazlewood came on. Where other bowlers may have given the batters a little more space and time to come to grips with the threat they were dealing with, Hazlewood simply blew them away, taking out two of their key players in the space of seven balls.3:05

Moody: The occasion muddled PBKS’ thinking

“The bowling unit was obviously back to the unit that bowled for most of the tournament, and again, we knew our roles really well,” Hazlewood said in his post-match press conference. “But a little bit in the wicket to be honest, there was a little bit of seam movement, the bounce was probably a little bit inconsistent, so we sort of utilised that as best as we could.”It became clear when the chase began that PBKS could have made a match of it had they successfully revisited their total they were aiming for – Hazlewood felt 150-160 may have challenged RCB.”Yeah, I think the conditions were… it was great to bowl first, I think, although we saw swing and seam throughout the whole game. Whenever a new ball was bowled there was a bit happening, so you’ve just got to utilise that.”Probably from a Kings point [of view], they probably just had to pull back a little bit and try and get a score on the board, you know, 150-160 would have been a difficult chase potentially. But I think we only let them bat as well as they could have, through our bowling.”Hazlewood exemplified that with his lengths, and it was instructive – of the conditions as well as the self-effacing nature of the man – that he went back to talking about the pitch when he was asked how he handled his return from injury.”On the injury layoff, worked really hard the last few weeks on the shoulder to get back, and got some good overs into it in the last sort of 10 days, and yeah, it’s feeling not too bad. I was happy with tonight, the wicket helped obviously, didn’t have to bowl any fast yorkers or anything like that, so yeah, it’s feeling not too bad.”If this is how Hazlewood bowls when he is feeling not too bad, RCB’s opponents in Tuesday’s final will hope he isn’t feeling any better by then.

Kagiso Rabada’s performance at Lord’s was exactly what is expected of a big player in a big match

Firdose Moonda11-Jun-20251:11

Steyn: Why Rabada proved key to Australia’s collapse

Kagiso Rabada insisted he would not be “Mr I Apologise too much” after his recreational drug ban and showed he has nothing to be sorry about when it comes to his bowling. His performance at Lord’s was exactly what is expected of a big player in a big match: intimidating, incisive, and laced with unplayable deliveries that cut through the opposition.In the immediate aftermath of day one of the WTC final, you may read that line and think it’s more suited to the Australia attack given the way things ended, but save some headspace for a nod on how it started.Rabada set the tone with the very first ball. It jagged away from Usman Khawaja and beat his outside edge. For the next three overs, Khawaja did not even attempt to score a run as Rabada tested him with “pace, bounce and movement”, the three things the man himself says are his best attributes. The trick is not simply having them, it’s “doing those things consistently”, as Rabada put it in the post-match press conference.Related

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He didn’t concede a run until his 20th ball when Marnus Labuschagne managed to tuck him away to square leg. Next ball, Rabada squared Khawaja up, drew his edge, and David Bedingham took a fine catch at first slip. Rabada was away. Three balls later, Cameron Green went the same way and South Africa, through Rabada, were bossing the early exchanges.The wickets are what will get him on the honours board but it was some of the deliveries in between that really wowed. In the second over of his second spell, Rabada bisected Beau Webster with a ball that hit the seam, snuck through his bat-pad gap, and passed just over the top of the middle stump. Then there was the wicket which should have been. Full and fast, Rabada hit Webster, on 4, on the back pad and half-appealed with no support.South Africa must have heard a hard sound, as Webster hit his own pad, and thought it was an inside edge. They didn’t push the issue but replays showed it was plumb.Rabada found out moments later. “Corbin Bosch came down to fine leg and he said it was out and I was like, ‘oh man’. It is a bit annoying,” Rabada said. “He didn’t start off too well there. It looked like he was going to get out any ball, but his positive intent got him through. Cricket’s a funny game.”1:45

‘Pretty cool to have it in the home changeroom’ – Rabada on his 5-fer

In the next over, Rabada beat Webster’s inside and outside edges and he’s right in saying it looked as though a nick-off was imminent. It came, but only much later. That Webster survived that spell from Rabada makes his 72 even more deserving and asks questions of whether the change bowlers in South Africa’s attack, especially Lungi Ngidi, backed up their new-ball pair well enough.Ngidi’s eight overs cost 45 runs and he looked rusty. That South Africa picked him over Dane Paterson, who came off an excellent home summer and has 180 wickets at an average of 23 for Nottinghamshire, remains questionable but Rabada was never going to be the one to answer for that. Asked if he’d have any advice for Ngidi, he said he would, “just tell him to have a good night’s sleep, have a nice steak and a nice milkshake, watch a movie and come back tomorrow”.Rabada didn’t say it, but he and Ngidi will hope they don’t have too much to do on the second day. If they do, they will want to do it more like Rabada did.ESPNcricinfo LtdHis final riposte was to run through the Australia tail with precision. He got one to straighten on Pat Cummins, who exposed his off stump and was bowled, removed Webster, and bowled Mitchell Starc to complete his second successive five-for at Lord’s.Rabada was received by former captain Graeme Smith, who is working as a commentator, on the boundary edge and was hugged before he was interviewed. The emotion was obvious. Rabada described his achievement as “really special” and quickly deflected the attention off himself and on to the bigger picture. “It means a lot for me to play for South Africa, I give my all each and every time.”Does it mean more than equalling Allan Donald on South Africa’s Test wicket-takers’ list? Though Rabada called Donald “a legend” when speaking to Smith and said afterwards that he was “inspired by those who’ve come before”, there is a distinct sense that this will mean a lot less if South Africa don’t walk away with something from this game. Especially as they got themselves off to an excellent start and sent hope soaring in what felt like a home crowd.Kagiso Rabada acknowledges the crowd’s support after his five-for•ICC via Getty ImagesWith South Africans filling the stands, Rabada received applause and his own version of the Seven Nation Army chant. Ninety minutes later, there was silence as Wiaan Mulder and Temba Bavuma barely scored a run. That swing in South Africa’s fortunes has already made this Test gripping.”In Test cricket there’s always nerves,” Rabada said. “Dealing with it is about understanding what the bottom line is, and the bottom line is if you’re a bowler, try to bowl a good line and length; as a batter, it’s about keeping the good ball out and scoring off it or scoring off balls that are not quite there and missed executions from the bowler. That’s the bottom line. So everything else is just noise.”South Africa’s bottom line at the end of day one is that even after Rabada did Rabada things, they were 169 runs behind and four of their top five have been dismissed. The captain and the lower-middle order have a massive task on their hands on a surface that is doing a lot, and seemed to do more once the clouds had cleared. All Rabada can do now is look for reasons that might change, for his batters’ sake.”The ball was nipping quite a bit and at times moving off the slope quite a lot, but I still felt like batters could get in,” he said. “If you just bowled well and got more balls in the right area for a long period of time, then that’s when you could create chances. But with this ball getting older, hopefully we can score some runs.”

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli do what was expected of them and more, and will now disappear from view as the focus turns to T20Is again

Alagappan Muthu07-Dec-20253:11

A 10/10 for Kohli, but how did the rest fare?

He’s given that look before. “, and Samaira and Ahaan would have prepared their father for Saturday, when Kuldeep Yadav saw something shiny – Lungi Ngidi’s wicket – and wanted it even though he hadn’t entirely earned it.The ball seemed to be turning too much. To Rohit Sharma, it was just so obvious that for those moments India spent deliberating – which is a kind word – whether or not to review, he stared at Kuldeep like the left-arm wristspinner was one of his toddlers throwing a tantrum. “””Obviously, you know, in DRS, I’m someone who’s very bad and he [Rohit] is someone who keeps pulling my leg all the time” Kuldeep told the host broadcaster between innings. “As a bowler, you feel like every not out is out so you have to have those people around you to just guide you, you know calm down, we only have two reviews.”Related

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The 2-0 loss in the Test series had the dressing room wired for this decider. India finally won a toss and KL Rahul was desperate to push home that advantage. He was very particular about which end Prasidh Krishna would bowl from – to take down Aiden Markram and Matthew Breetzke – and eager to have a word with everyone at the start of their spell, ironing out plans. His attention to detail with field placement was also pin-point. Once, he asked Virat Kohli to move to his left at long-on and Marco Jansen hit the next ball straight down that path.But by that 43rd over, with South Africa 252 for 8, all the tension had dissipated. Rohit, in particular, was feeling . The leaner part of him had already been on show. He pulled off a sharp stop to prevent Dewald Brevis from getting a boundary at backward point. Kuldeep woke up the meaner part of him.Rohit, from the 2023 World Cup to the 2025 Champions Trophy, was a violent presence at the top of India’s batting line-up. Only 24% of the shots he attempted in the first ten overs were defensive. Since the Australia ODIs – by which point he had retired from every other form of cricket and was chasing the 2027 World Cup dream – he has been rather more sedate. Forty per cent of his shots in the first ten overs had become defensive.Obviously, that requires context. Conditions in Perth, Adelaide and Sydney weren’t easy and against South Africa, Yashasvi Jaiswal seemed comfortable taking those early risks so that the rest of the batting line-up could focus on and post dew-proof totals batting first. Rohit used to play like this a lot, back when he kept churning out daddy hundreds. Has he reverted to type given where his career is at and the goal he has set for himself?Rohit Sharma checks his bat after falling to the sweep•Associated PressIn the two half-centuries he scored this week, Rohit caught up with the rate in the blink of an eye. He was dismissed for 75 off 73 in Visakhapatnam looking to go big when the required rate was less than five. That doesn’t look like someone preoccupied with their own needs. Rohit left the field looking down at his bat, at the spot that caused the mis-hit, almost unaware of a crowd of over 27,000 applauding him off, who, about midway through, realised they needed to set a different vibe.Kohli was walking in.India had knocked off too much of the target for a hat-trick of centuries to be viable. But just like in 2018, when he was 29 and at his peak scoring 140, 157* and 107, this sequence of 135, 102 and 65* highlighted his problem-solving ability. His understanding of what shots to play and what not to – particularly in Raipur – when conditions weren’t so straightforward to score quickly. His shepherding of his batting partners. His increasing comfort in hitting sixes whether he’s set or not.”I don’t think I’ve played at this level for a good two-three years now and I feel really free in my mind and just the whole game is coming together nicely, [it’s] very exciting to build on,” Kohli said after collecting his Player-of-the-Series award.5:03

Kohli, Kuldeep or toss – who bossed the ODI series?

Except now that India have won this series 2-1, both he and Rohit will disappear into the background. Focus will shift to the T20I team and their preparation for the World Cup. The coaching staff can breathe a sigh of relief. They don’t have to answer questions about whether their two superstars can last the next two years playing as little as they do. It is to their credit they haven’t stuck their fingers in their ears and gone la-la-la-la-la every time they have been asked to gaze into that crystal ball.”They are world-class players in this format and their experience is really important in the dressing room,” Gautam Gambhir said. “And they are doing what they do. They have been doing it for such a long time for Indian cricket. And hopefully they can continue doing the same, which is always going to be important, come the white-ball format and the 50-over format.”Six-hundred-odd days to 2027 is a long time. Too many things can happen – injury, dips in form. Some others need to happen. Kohli and Rohit will be playing domestic cricket again, at the Vijay Hazare Trophy starting January 3 to keep themselves in contention for the ODI side. Then there’s the New Zealand series – again only three matches because we are in the T20 World Cup cycle – and then… and then… and on… and on… almost everything has to go right.And it did here, with Rohit showing the time he still has against fast bowling, the ease with which he throttles up and down, the 360-plus ODI sixes and 20,000-plus international runs, and Kohli bossing all that he sees as soon as he steps up to the crease, including Saturday’s chase. Real life made friends with fairy-tale logic this series.