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The Hindu
05-08-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
Tenacity and endurance: ‘Workhorse' Siraj proves he can be India's strike weapon
Fast bowling is a precise art, and a surfeit of it can blunt the skill and its efficacy. Fast bowling is also a taxing vocation, and overindulgence can break the human will and body. But then Mohammed Siraj still bounds in, bowling his 1113th delivery on his 25th day of cricket on a tour lasting a month and a half, and conjures his fifth fastest ball of the entire series, clocked at 143 kmph. It is a full toss, only his second of a match in which he has sent down 279 deliveries, and it flattens the off-stump to give India the narrowest win in its existence as a Test-playing nation. At a time when the exigencies of multiple formats have made managing workloads a priority for pace bowlers, the ever-present Siraj hasn't been earmarked for that luxury. Since his debut in December 2020, no Indian has featured in as many Tests as Siraj's 41. In the recently concluded drawn Test series, no bowler surpassed his gruelling tally of 185.3 overs, and the only other bowler who sent more than 1,000 deliveries—Chris Woakes—wasn't half as effective. His 30.1 overs were the fifth-most by an Indian pacer in the fourth innings of a Test, and Siraj is the only one to have bowled as many since 2013. And yet, there was no let-up in intensity from Siraj until all the drama had been squeezed out of the series, all the gods invoked, and all the fingernails chewed. Siraj whips up an easy hostility at the snap of a finger and plays the pantomime villain from time to time, but there is no element of a supernatural aura, one that hovers around his Jassi bhai [Jasprit Bumrah]—that of India's transcendental figure in India's bowling attack. ALSO READ | IND vs ENG Test series review: Young India proves cricket stops for no one He is the salt of the earth, a 'really nice lad' despite the odd argy-bargy, and in the age of Instagram reels, simply needs a Google search-inspired wallpaper to make him 'believe'. He is a captain's dream who provides maximum output with minimum input, a commodity that often accompanies the 'workhorse' tag that puts quantity over quality. But Siraj is far from just filling in the overs, holding one end up and buying recovery time for the rest of the attack. He elevates the contest and his skill in the absence of Bumrah to emerge as the face of India's charge. During the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series, he picked 16 wickets at 19.81 apiece in the two games Bumrah couldn't play, a significant level up from his seven wickets at an average of 61.28 when the maverick was present. 'When Jassi bhai isn't around, then you get that confidence that you need to shoulder extra responsibility and I enjoy that. I don't take extra pressure and try to keep things simple,' Siraj had said after nabbing four wickets in the first innings at The Oval against England. If Siraj lacks artistry, he makes up for it with tenacity and superhuman endurance. His relentless eight-over spell on the second day at The Oval bears testimony. Making amends for a four-over first spell that went for 32 runs, Siraj pinned Ollie Pope and Joe Root in front with his go-to nip-backer from a good length before trapping Jacob Bethell in front with an in-swinging yorker—the only one he bowled in that spell, which he relished as his favourite scalp. For the glut of overs he has bowled, Siraj's planning and execution is astonishingly accurate. His third yorker of the match saw the ball scuttle through Zak Crawley's defence off the final delivery of the third day and tipped the scales in India's favour. With ball paying homage to bat for the last part of the penultimate day, Siraj once again broke England's resistance by darting the ball into Pope's pads again a good length at the stroke of lunch and then unleashing hell across a 12.1-over spell spread over two days. Siraj stepped up in Bumrah's absence, picking 16 wickets at 19.81 in the two Tests that the latter missed. | Photo Credit: Getty Images A misstep of an inch at the fine-leg boundary, which resulted in Siraj handing centurion Harry Brook a six instead of dismissing him on 19, had threatened to sour an otherwise phenomenal series. But ubiquity is a double-edged sword; as much as it allows room for more error, it also affords chances to make amends. Siraj acknowledged that. He induced so many false shots, 18 off the 25 deliveries, on the final day, that Indian fans wished for a provision that would allow him to steam in from both ends. Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton fell to his unerring ability to generate movement from a good length before he dug deep into his reserves of fortitude to produce that series-levelling nuclear-tipped yorker to castle Atkinson. If elite athletes swear by the adage 'mind over body', it is a curious case of 'body over mind' for Siraj. His bowling has an instinctive feel, his ability to metronomically hit the good length as though the routine is steeped in his muscle memory. As many as 16 of his 23 scalps and 251 of the 283 false shots he has induced in this series were the result of homing in around that good length or just short of it. Siraj seldom strayed full, delivering the second-lowest percentage (11.95) of full-length balls in the series, and second only to Bumrah (11 per cent), who played two matches less and almost 400 balls fewer. Moreover, the eight yorkers he dished out in the whole series yielded four wickets. ALSO READ | Test cricket remains the last bastion of will In the face of a heavy bowling load, Siraj's skills and clarity of thought have remained sharp. He is as much a battering ram as he is a precision strike weapon in India's arsenal, capable of delivering a scene-shifting payload when the pressure mounts. He plies his trade across formats. In the last four years, Siraj has played 43 One-Day Internationals, while no other full-time Indian pacer has even touched 30 matches in the corresponding period. He was a vital cog of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's pace attack from 2021-24, spearheads the battery at Gujarat Titans now and is increasingly in the frame in India's T20I plans. Still, the workload management strictures almost always skip Siraj, as though he is rendered invisible by his omnipresence. There are no calls to 'wrap him in cotton wool'. One must jog the memory to remember when he could afford to rest. With Bumrah's fitness a constant worry, he is still, at best, a stop-gap spearhead. But all of that could, and should, change after the jamboree at The Oval on Monday. If his heroics against Australia at The Gabba in 2021 were the face of an emerging Indian pace powerhouse, Oval 2025 was emblematic of that talent announcing itself as a leader unto himself.
USA Today
03-08-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Watch: Mimi Rhodes banks in an ace off another golf ball at Women's British Open
On Friday, Steph Kyriacou made her first ace on the LPGA at the AIG Women's British Open at Royal Porthcawl on the eighth hole. On Sunday, the Aussie was credited with a rare ace assist. After Kyriacou came within an inch of her second ace of the week on the par-3 fifth, Mimi Rhodes' hit hit a similar shot from 184 yards that ricocheted off Kyriacou's ball and into the cup. The ace moved England's Rhodes, a three-time winner on the LET this season, into the top 10 at 4 under. Kryiacou is even for the championship. She opened with a triple-bogey 7 after hitting her second shot out of bounds.
CTV News
29-07-2025
- Health
- CTV News
‘Time is of the essence': Local mother calls for expanded pediatric services
An Amherstburg mother is hopeful pediatric care in Windsor will expand once the new acute care hospital is built. 'Our area is growing by leaps and bounds,' said Kait Lowe, founder of Parents for Critical Pediatric Care Windsor. 'This is a real opportunity to have a pediatric emergency department, to have a pediatric critical care unit with more surgeons who are here full time, not just visiting surgeons for pediatric surgeries.' Her son, Sully, 4, was diagnosed with Hirschsprung's Disease at two-days old. Baby Sully Windsor pediatric care Baby Sully. (Source: Kait Lowe) 'His disease means that you're born without being able to go to the bathroom properly,' she told CTV News. 'His bowels could rupture at any moment. Time is of the essence.' Sully and his family regularly travel to London for specialized treatment. Lowe has spent the last four years advocating for expanded pediatric services in Windsor-Essex. 'When kids are critical, they sometimes don't have time to make it to London or Toronto,' Lowe explained. Baby Sully Windsor pediatric care Kait Lowe and her son, Sully. (Source: Kait Lowe) Windsor Regional Hospital officials have said in the past specialist pediatric services are not provided because the volume of cases in this area is too low to warrant it. 'As we have said on multiple occasions, WRH is always interested in expanding programs and services, but only where patient volumes would safely support those additions,' Dr. Sajit Augustine, chief of the Department of Pediatrics. 'We will advocate for funding to support expanded or new programs where the volumes warrant. However, there are many specialized cases where, for the safety of the patient, services are better provided where there is expertise and more common clinical practice, such as specialized pediatric care in London.' The hospital does provide a Pediatric Emergency Diversion Service that operates seven days a week. 'The pediatric program has experienced significant growth recently. In the past year, we recruited three new pediatricians and a pediatric oncologist,' said Augustine. 'Over the last three years, we have added eight new pediatricians to our team. Additionally, we are actively working on recruiting a pediatric cardiologist. We have established a Pediatric Virtual Care program with the London Health Sciences Centre, making it the first of its kind in Ontario West.' Augustine added that WRH plans to add the Pediatric Virtual Care program to the emergency department soon. 'Since its inception, our after-hours emergency department diversion program has provided rapid, timely, and specialized pediatric care to over 5,000 children,' he said. 'We remain committed to improving access to pediatric care, expanding our services, and delivering care closer to home.' Lowe hopes the new acute care hospital will bring change. 'It's an opportunity to have a full-time pediatric oncology unit,' she said. 'It's an opportunity to have a pediatric medical unit with more specialist.' Construction on the $2 billion project is expected to begin in 2026 with a completion date of 2031.
Daily Record
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Rory McIlroy scared me at The Open and it was all I could think about for the last three days
Northern Irish youngster Tom McKibbin was joint leader at one point in the morning before dropping to one-over par Terrified Tom McKibbin reckons Rory McIlroy's terrible first-shot shambles in 2019 put the fear into him ahead of The Open. The Northern Irish kid was joint-leader at one point in the morning before dropping to one-over par. However, in front of his home crowd, McKibbin was just delighted to get his opening tee-shot away without calamity. The LIV star had seen countryman McIlroy pull one out of bounds at the start of the 2019 Open and that put dread into him. McKibbin said: 'I think Rory's made that tee shot a lot scarier. That's all I could probably think about for the last three days. "I wouldn't say I was too nervous. I just didn't really want to hit that bad of a shot. I was very happy to get it sort of under way, a little bit nervous and a little bit scared of hitting that shot.' McKibbin was in the group with Padraig Harrington and he also striped it down the first before finishing at four-over par. The two-time Open champion started the tournament off and was given a rapturous ovation. He laughed about the prospect of welling up as he said: 'Usually when I'm watching a movie on an airplane. Does everybody not well up on airplanes? I think airplanes do that to me. Could be a comedy or something like that. It doesn't have to be that serious! 'I wouldn't say I get too emotional, not like that, no. It it felt like they were there for me, giving me a clap, yeah. I expected the nerves. I didn't expect that. So I did have to adjust myself for that. 'It was very special, I've got to say. It's a great honour to do it. As I said. I really hate the idea of being ceremonial, but I was prepared to take that to do it because it was here. I'm glad I did. 'Just my son was here. He was the only one who managed. I had a few other friends with me, things like that, and just one son. One is enough, I suppose. It was just a nice special moment.'
Irish Examiner
17-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Tom McKibbin and Nicolai Hojgaard take early lead at the Open
Irish golfer Tom McKibbin and Ryder Cup winner Nicolai Hojgaard led from the front on the first day of The Open on a testing morning for scoring at Royal Portrush. The highlight for the 22-year-old McKibbin, who learned his craft at Rory McIlroy's Holywood Golf Club an hour down the road, was an eagle at the par-five seventh after teeing off in the first group at 6.35am. He had slipped to two over after four but two birdies and the eagle took him to the turn in a two-under 34. Dane Hojgaard, in the same group, birdied the two par fives at the second and seventh to also be two under with him and McKibbin two of only eight players under par of the 39 out on the course. Ryder Cup winner Nicolai Hojgaard held an early share of the lead at The Open (Brian Lawless/PA) Two-time Open champion Padraig Harrington, who had been given the honour of getting the championship underway, birdied the first hole, but otherwise struggled on the greens and was two over at the turn. McKibbin was one of a number of LIV golfers performing well. Six-time major winner and 2013 Open champion Phil Mickelson was providing the early entertainment, holing a bunker shot for par at the short third having left his first attempt in the sand to sit one under after six holes. Lee Westwood, back at the Open for the first time since 2022 after coming through qualifying, birdied his second hole to join the left-hander in an early tie for third. Another of his LIV cohorts Dustin Johnson, the two-time major champion who has slipped to 969 in the world following his move to the Saudi breakaway, was level par through four holes. Canadian Taylor Pendrith was the first to find out of bounds down the left on the intimidating first hole. That was a fate which befell McIlroy six years ago when the tournament returned to the Dunluce Links but the Northern Irishman had to wait for his shot at redemption as he was not due to tee off until 3.10pm. Out with Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood and American rival Justin Thomas, he was facing a greater chance of rain, some of it heavy, with winds gusting up to 20mph.
