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The Guardian
15-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Electric Archer lights up India classic to justify Test return for England
The electric return of Jofra Archer in England's tight victory against India at Lord's set straight a couple of narratives that arose during his four-year absence from Test cricket. It is often said that a player's stock can rise when they are sat on the sidelines – yet sometimes, in some quarters, the reverse can also be true. Chief among them was a reminder that England possess a special fast bowling talent here, Archer displaying the attributes that set him apart from others. As the man himself confidently put it regarding the 89.6mph beauty to Rishabh Pant that angled in, nipped away and gave the snappers the stumplosion they craved: 'I guess it was just a matter of when, if I kept bowling like that. I can't imagine many left-handers getting away with it.' It is the moments of intensity that Archer can whip up in the middle and the questions he asks beyond simply pace and that shock‑ball of a bouncer. He is not a robot, of course, and small miscalculations can still lead to the odd rush of runs. Take the fourth evening, when he went too full in pursuit of the magical inswinger. But as a fast bowler feeling his way back into the rhythms of red-ball cricket, this was to be expected. Overall, Archer's impact went beyond fine match figures of five for 107 from 39.3 overs. England have never wavered from their belief that days such as these could return, hence repeated contract renewals since his debut in 2019 and despite those repeated stress fractures to his lower back and elbow. The support has been plentiful and the planning meticulous. Strength and conditioning coaches have even flown to Barbados to work with him at the club near his family home in Saint Philip. No expense has been spared. Rob Key, the England team director, deserves credit for insisting on an ultra-cautious schedule; more cautious than just those 18 overs for Sussex suggested and more than the man himself felt necessary. Archer fancied himself to be ready for Test cricket a good while back, having trained to get in the best physical shape of his career. The slow 18-month buildup in the white-ball formats, he said, was like being in 'training wheels'. But at times England's seven‑figure investment has been queried by sections of the support base; eyebrows raised at Archer playing in the Indian Premier League and questions about either his ability or desire (or both) to make it back to Test level. As Archer put it, he has had to battle the negativity of 'keyboard warriors' on social media. Even the BBC made some jokey content this week about Jonathan Agnew betting against the comeback, not realising how this might have sounded to the man himself. 'I never thought about not coming back, that was just you,' Archer deadpanned in response to this. The roar that met Archer's name being read out when he first came on to bowl at Lord's – decibel levels that rose further when he jagged his third ball across Yashasvi Jaiswal and took the wunderkind's outside edge – felt far more instructive, however. As tends to be the case more broadly in life, the mood of the wider public differs to the world online. Archer, World Cup winner and Ashes star six years ago, has far more support out there. And not that Archer should have needed to prove his desire given the work to reach this point but, like pretty much every player on show in this hardcore India series, he put in a serious shift this past week. At the end he was still producing speeds of which most other seamers only dream. Just ask Mohammed Siraj, who suffered a brutish stinger to the upper arm just moments before he was the last man to fall. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion After walking off the field, the 2-1 series lead secured, Archer also sounded desperate to go again at Old Trafford, in the fifth Test at the Oval, and then get on the Ashes tour this winter. 'I can play the other two Tests [against India] if they let me,' he said. 'I told Key that I wanted to play the Test summer and I wanted to play the Ashes. One tick is already there. I will do everything in my power to be on the plane in November.' With respect to India, who are serving up a mighty challenge and not least when it comes to taking 20 wickets, this is where English mouths naturally start to water even more: the prospect of seeing Archer in full flight on Australian surfaces that, in recent times, have been spicier than those witnessed during this home summer. Another cause for optimism is that, in Ben Stokes, Archer has a captain who seems to understand him, not simply as a fellow fast bowler but as another cricketer about whom expectations were raised after that golden summer of 2019. 'I think the mentality under Baz [the head coach Brendon McCullum] suits the way I like to play my cricket,' he said. As has often been trotted out by McCullum these past three years, that mentality is one of staying present; to 'plan as if you'll live forever, but live as if you'll die tomorrow'. When it comes to Archer and thoughts of what is to come, this feels the way to go.
Times of Oman
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Times of Oman
Starc's fiery spell, Boland's hat-trick humiliate West Indies in historic collapse
Kingston: Mitchell Starc produced a sensational five-wicket haul in just 15 deliveries, while Scott Boland claimed a stunning hat-trick as Australia's pace attack ripped through West Indies, dismissing them for just 27 runs in Jamaica. It marked the second-lowest total in Test cricket history, as the visitors delivered a ruthless display of fast bowling in a day that will be remembered for its sheer dominance and jaw-dropping numbers, as per the official website of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Mitchell Starc claimed the fastest ever Test five-wicket haul by balls bowled (15) while passing the 400-wicket milestone, with the unrelenting Scott Boland taking a hat-trick at the other end in the barrage. He has now joined the elite list of Australians (Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Nathan Lyon) to have taken 400 or more Test wickets. Now the left-armer has 402 Test wickets and is placed at the fourth spot among the all-time leading wicket-takers for the Aussies in the longest format of the game. The total of 27 is just one more run than the lowest Test total ever, when England bowled New Zealand out for 26 in 1955. Starc had figures of 3/0 after his first over, and the target of 204 set by Australia looked out of reach when Starc's fifth left the hosts in a hole at 7/5. Starc's 15-ball blitz broke Ernie Toshack's record for the fewest balls to a five-wicket haul set back in 1945, and there was no respite for the West Indies who then faced the wrath of Boland (3/2), who claimed Justin Greaves, Shamar Joseph and Jomel Warrican in successive deliveries. Joseph and Warrican joined five other West Indians with ducks next to their name on the scorecard, with Starc's sixth scalp, clean bowling Jayden Seales, finishing off the job in just 14.3 overs.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
No doubt for Reece Topley that Jasprit Bumrah is greatest Test bowler ever after Headingley display
By Phil Campbell Reece Topley has played with some of the finest bowlers around, but none come close to Jasprit Bumrah, who he describes as the 'greatest ever'. The Indian superstar may have been on the losing side at Headingley during the first Test against England, but Bumrah's first innings showing, with figures of 5-110, was yet another masterclass in fast bowling. Advertisement It is something that England international Topley has seen up close, having played with Bumrah at Mumbai Indians during the most recent edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). And while there is often discussion around the best batters and bowlers of all time, for Topley, when it comes to the latter, there isn't any. 'For me, I don't think it's a debate,' said Topley, speaking at Lord's Taverners' National Table Cricket Finals Day – a fully inclusive, adapted version of the game aimed at young people living with a wide range of learning and physical disabilities played on a table tennis table. 'It's probably the rare occasion in sport where you get a lot of people agreeing on the greatest ever. And we're seeing with Bumrah there's no real caveat that anyone else has thrown into the ring either. Advertisement 'He's in a league of his own in the present day. There are the greats of yesteryear that me, and people my age, never really saw play, but watching some of those players, Bumrah, he's right up there with those people, which is incredible. 'T20 is obviously a different form to Tests, but spending time with him at the IPL, he's humble, he's competitive, he's got it all. He's a superstar in every sense of the word.' Brendon McCullum's outfit took a 1-0 series lead in West Yorkshire on Tuesday after chasing down 371 – England's second-highest successful pursuit in Test cricket. Front and centre of England's charge was opener Ben Duckett, whose brilliant and destructive 149 blunted India's bowling attack and broke the back of their target. Advertisement By the time the Nottinghamshire man departed - caught in the covers trying to dispatch the ball for what would have been his 22nd boundary - his exploits had well and truly swung proceedings in England's favour, with Jamie Smith later clobbering a six to seal victory. It was a second innings assault that not even Bumrah could stop - the quick failing to take a wicket during his 19 overs - and Topley was full of praise for the way England negated his threat. Like all greats, they do have days where they show they're human after all. 'It's incredible that on the last day, he [Bumrah] didn't take a wicket,' Topley continued. Advertisement 'And that in itself is such a rare occurrence. 'But that's a testament to how well England played him and how well they performed.' There were plenty of other impressive performances throughout the match too. Ollie Pope's first-innings hundred, Harry Brook's destructive 99, Zak Crawley's 65 during his first-wicket partnership of 188 with Duckett second time around and Josh Tongue's match haul of seven wickets to name but a few. And Topley believes the quality on show in Leeds sets the rest of the series up for more absorbing cricket to come. 'Headingley always seems to throw up these amazing chases, and credit has to go to the pitch there, it's famous for its day-five finishes,' he added. Advertisement 'And the cricket that was played on it was second to none. 'It was entertaining from ball one on day one, right the way up until the finish. 'Hopefully it sets up for an amazing series and they'll be a lot more incredible cricket to be played.' On his own return to the international set-up, Topley who last played for England in November 2024 and is currently enjoying a fine run of form with Surrey, said: 'It takes two to tango. 'I definitely know I've got the ability, so we'll have to see.' The Lord's Taverners impacts the lives of young people facing the challenges of inequality. The charity works across the UK and beyond to provide inclusive and impactful cricket programmes, empowering young people with disabilities and from disadvantaged communities – visit
New York Times
01-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Cricket's final frontier: The quest to bowl consistently at 100mph
It is one of cricket's most enthralling and exhilarating spectacles. The sight of a bowler charging in from a long run to hurl a hard ball as fast as humanly possible at the batter. From the moment the 5.5 ounce (156g) ball, measuring just 22.9 centimetres (9in) in circumference and made with a cork core wound with string and then covered in leather, leaves the bowler's hand, the batter has a split second to react, decide on their shot and not only avert dismissal but, almost as importantly, avoid being hit by it on their head or body. Advertisement Throughout cricket's history, it has been the fastest and, invariably, most ferocious fast bowlers who have been the most feared and notorious figures in the sport. From early pioneers of the art including England's Harold Larwood, Frank Tyson and Brian Statham through to Australian giants in Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee in the 1970s, and then the West Indies' four-pronged, equally rapid attacks through the 1980s to the mid-1990s, it is the bowlers with extreme pace who are the most effective and destructive in any team. To be regarded as a proper fast bowler at men's international level, the ball has to be propelled in excess of 90 miles per hour (144kmh), with the speed of the rotating ball measured through the air by modern technology. Only the very best can manage it. The fastest pitch recorded in Major League Baseball is the 105.8mph that Aroldis Chapman summoned for the Cincinnati Reds in September 2010. This weekend, Shohei Ohtani of the LA Dodgers recorded his fastest pitch in the majors when he was clocked at 101.7mph. In cricket only a select few internationals have reached the near-mythical figure of 100mph — the holy grail to any fast bowler worth their salt. Just three men have been clocked at three figures in international cricket history: Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar and Australian pair Shaun Tait and Brett Lee. Shoaib, known as 'The Rawalpindi Express' after his home city, has the honour of bowling the fastest ball ever recorded, 100.2mph to England's Nick Knight during the 2003 World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa. But many believe the fastest of them all could have been Thomson, who, with his unusual, distinctive, slingy action, was clocked at 99.8mph in 1975 by an old-fashioned radar speed gun — but never had the benefit of today's more accurate Hawk-Eye technology, which uses six cameras to record ball speed. It was 'Thommo' who struck fear into an England team, playing without the helmets and modern protective equipment of today's game, on the infamous 1974-75 Ashes tour of Australia, sending opener David Lloyd to hospital by striking him a painful blow in the groin and coining what would become Lloyd's immortal line: 'I told the nurse to stop the pain but keep the swelling.' Advertisement Jofra Archer has returned to the England squad and is likely to play in the third Test against India at Lord's next week — he will add a different dimension to their bowling attack, having regularly been clocked in the mid-90s before his injury problems. But the active cricketer most likely to join the 100mph club is Mark Wood, who bowled the fastest over recorded by an Englishman against the West Indies at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, last July, averaging at 94.47mph across the six deliveries and peaking with one flung down at Mikyle Louis that was timed at 97.1mph. Even that was not Wood's quickest ever ball; he had one clocked at 97.7mph to Australia's David Warner in Melbourne in December 2021. 'He's got it in the tank,' said England captain Ben Stokes in Nottingham last summer, when asked if Wood could reach 100mph. 'He's been close a couple of times. Maybe one day.' The man himself has no qualms about his desire to hit the hundred. 'I don't know if I truly think I could ever get there, but I'd be a liar if I said I didn't dream of that figure,' Wood tells The Athletic. 'It would be like winning a gold medal at the Olympics or breaking a world record for a sprinter. It's a number every fast bowler wants to reach. If you bowl at 100mph, you will be remembered forever.' To look at Wood, you would not dream he is among the fastest bowlers cricket has ever seen. The 35-year-old stands at around 6ft (183cm) and has nothing of the obvious strength and power in his wiry frame that marks out most of the very best quick men. He had always been quick, bowling off a 51-pace 'stop start' run up, but joined the very quickest after extending that run up at the suggestion of West Indies great Michael Holding to '57 steps with my size nines (a U.S. 10) from the back line of the crease and then a further 10 yards back from where I scuttle to my mark'. From there, it has been calculated that Wood puts seven and a half times his body weight through his left leg every time he bowls. Advertisement Wood is one of the nicest and most good-natured people in the game, an affable and hugely likeable north-easterner with nothing of the mean and nasty traits supposedly inherent in fast bowlers. Put a cricket ball in his hand, however, and he is very different. Absolute savagery from Mark Wood 🤯#EnglandCricket | #ENGvPAK — England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 30, 2024 'I grew up watching Michael Holding and Shoaib Akhtar, along with Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff for England, and I was always inspired to try and bowl fast,' he says. 'Some days, you can feel it. Other days, you feel it's fast and you look up on the screen and it's not as fast as you think. Then, other times, you can be surprised at how quick it comes up. You can feel free and loose and sometimes you get tunnel vision and it happens quite naturally. 'On those days, you feel light, bouncy and free, and all the cogs are working together. You get a surge of energy and when you release the ball, it feels like a sort of medieval catapult. It's like 'whoosh' and it's a great feeling. 'When you bowl at your fastest, you don't even feel strain on your body because you're so loose and free. Some of my best spells have come when I haven't been thinking about it too much. Sometimes, when you try too hard, you can tense up a little bit and force it. 'When it's all working, you feel weightless, and it's an amazing feeling to charge in. You have all this motion inside you that feels so natural.' But fast bowling does put immense strain on the body. None more so than Wood, who has faced a constant battle just to be fit enough to put himself through the strains and rigours of cricket's hardest skill. He has played in just 37 Test matches, the five-day internationals that are the pinnacle of the sport, since his debut 10 years ago. Advertisement 'I've had eight operations,' says Wood, who will miss the bulk — at best — of England's five Test series at home against India this summer after surgery to repair ligament damage in his left knee. 'Three on my ankle, two elbow, two knee, and a hernia. 'The ops are not the biggest shocker. I'm sure (other) athletes have as many as that, but for me it's the 60 or 70 injections I've had that's the bigger number. I don't know if that will affect me in later life but, in the here and now, they seem to do the trick. They allow me to bowl and get back out there. 'You just have to show resilience when you're injured. You always want to get back. You miss it so much when you're out. When you're injured, you just have to believe in yourself, believe you're going to come back better and (that) you can still bowl as quick. As my career has gone on, I've been able to maintain my pace or even bowl quicker, so the injuries haven't reduced my impact. I get fixed and come back a stronger person and bowler. 'What else are you meant to do when you're out? There's nothing you can do about it. I don't want to get injured. I do all the things behind the scenes I have to. I do my training, I don't drink and I don't smoke. If I had a pound for every time someone said to me, 'How's the injury? How are you getting on?', I'd have made a fortune, but it's part and parcel of what I do and who I am. 'At times, it is tough. Certainly around the 2016-18 period, I did think, 'Is this meant to be?'. I was struggling with my ankle and couldn't be the bowler I could potentially be and bowl at the pace I wanted to. 'Trevor Bayliss (then the England coach) sat me down at one stage and said, 'You're sharp but you're not quick-quick'. I never forgot that and thought, 'I'll show you how quick I can be.' So it was all about that burning desire to always come back from an injury or a setback better than I was before. Then I had that conversation with Michael Holding in 2019 and that proved the turning point in my career.' Nobody knows what it is like to face extreme pace better than former England opener Knight, who was on the opposite end of that world-record delivery from Shoaib in 2003. 'The thing to remember is it wasn't just one ball at 100mph and the rest at 85mph,' Knight, now a cricket commentator, tells The Athletic. 'It was a very quick spell, and Shoaib was bowling properly fast for the whole of that World Cup. He had great rhythm and confidence. Advertisement 'He was almost more obsessed by the speed. He would run in and bowl, and over his left shoulder was a screen displaying the speed of each ball. So he'd bowl and almost before it reached the batsman, he'd turn around and see what the speed was. It was like a game within a game. He was trying to get me out, but there was more context to what was going on. He was trying to see what speed he'd get to. But I knew he was going to bowl quick, so I prepared myself before the game started.' Again, a batter has a split second to gauge where the ball will bounce on the less than 22 yards (20m) of grass between them and the bowler once it has left the latter's hand, and work out whether they should play forward, back, or if the delivery requires a shot at all. At that speed, even the slightest misjudgment could cost them their wicket. So, how did Knight adjust? 'I was so far back in my crease I was almost standing on my stumps, and that was purposeful,' he says. 'I'd worked out I wanted to give myself as much chance as possible to play the ball, so I'd gone a lot deeper in my crease than usual. 'I was just trying to make sure all my body weight was forward, with no back-lift (to his shots). People say it doesn't look extremely fast when you watch it now, but I was trying to use the pace and I was in pretty good touch, so I was anticipating the speed before it happened. I wasn't surprised by the pace, and I was ready for it and in tune with it.' And so it was that the left-handed Knight calmly deflected that fastest recorded ball in cricket history off his legs and gently towards square leg for no run. One of the advantages of missing so much cricket through injury is that Wood feels a young 35. He remains integral to England's attack and will be desperately needed — alongside another bowler of extreme pace, the equally injury-hit Archer — if England are to upset the odds and regain the Ashes in Australia come the winter tour starting in November. 'There are not as many miles on the clock as there might have been at my age,' says Wood. 'I was a late developer and I've not racked up the miles. I still hope I've got some good cricket left in me, and I still think I can get quicker and quicker. Advertisement 'I want to push that barrier. Three or four years ago, if you'd told me I would bowl consistently at 90mph and hit 97mph, I'd have said it was a bit of a stretch — so who knows where I can get to?' Only if he reaches the magical 100mph will Wood accept a nickname that seems to go to the very best — like 'The Rawalpindi Express' for Shoaib or Holding's 'Whispering Death'. 'Kevin Shine (England's fast-bowling coach from 2006-19) used to say to me, 'It's fine that you never seem angry. Some bowlers are just smiling assassins. When you know people might be a little bit frightened of you, you just smile away and that's what you want to be,' adds Wood. 'I'm not sure if that's a nickname, though! I know what he means and it's nice, but I haven't earned the right to have a nickname yet. 'Mark Stoneman (Wood's former county team-mate back home at Durham) used to say to me, 'There's already one Ashington Express (Harmison, who's from the same north-east town as Wood and played for England from 2002-09), so you can be the Ashington Choo-Choo.' Maybe I'll stick with that. It has a certain ring to it.' Click here to follow cricket on The Athletic and see more stories like this. (Top photos: Surjeet Yadav, Matt Roberts, Getty; design: Kelsea Petersen/The Athletic)
Telegraph
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Experimental Australia batting line-up exposed – but their bowling attack remains supreme
An evening of stellar fast bowling leaves Australia as strong favourites to retain their World Test Championship at Lord's. But Australia needed Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins at their strangling, relentless best, after their batting line-up had displayed more hints of frailty. Last home summer, admittedly against a cocktail of spicy wickets and Jasprit Bumrah, only one Australian Test batsman averaged 35. Such struggles contributed to them reshuffling their top three dramatically for the World Test Championship final. Marnus Labuschagne, the long-term No 3, moved up to open for the first time in a Test match. But for all his doughty defence, here Labuschagne resembled a cricketer who has long mislaid his best form. Over 56 balls, he displayed little of the proactivity that characterised the brilliant start to his Test career – or Steve Smith showed in his supreme 66 at Lord's. Instead, Labuschagne stumbled against terrific new-ball bowling by Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen. When he pushed Jansen behind to fall for 17, it extended his slump. In Labuschagne's first 30 Tests, up to December 2022, he averaged 60.8 and scored 10 hundreds. In his past 28 Tests, he now averages just 30.5, with a solitary century. Although Labuschagne turns only 31 later this month, there is a sense that elevating him to open represents a last chance for him to save his Test career. Yet Labuschagne was only one Australian player batting in a novel position. After returning from injury and his brilliant stint as a specialist batsman at Gloucestershire, paid for by an anonymous benefactor, Cameron Green made his first Test appearance for 17 months. Green walked out at No 3, the highest he has batted in Test cricket. Three balls later, he prodded Rabada to the slips and trudged off for four. There is even some uncertainty about the position of the one man in the top three batting in their usual position. Usman Khawaja has enjoyed a brilliant flourishing after his re-emergence as an opener four years ago. But he is now exhibiting growing vulnerability against high-class pace bowling. He averaged just 20.4 against India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, tormented by Bumrah, though a double-century in Sri Lanka in February showed Khawaja's continued aptitude against spin. His first ball at Lord's, which jagged off a length and beat his groping bat, set the template. Scoreless throughout his first 19 balls, showing no more relish for facing Rabada than he had for Bumrah, Khawaja edged his 20th behind. South Africa get the breakthrough ‼️ — Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) June 11, 2025 The vulnerabilities of Australia's top order should not obscure Rabada's magnificence. Arriving at Lord's after a brief ban for the use of recreational drugs, he saw the Test Championship final as his stage. Rabada has often lamented South Africa 's sparse Test schedule. Nearing 10 full years in the format, during which he has been an automatic pick, this was only his 71st Test. But Rabada's five wickets at Lord's, which took his overall haul to 332, surpassing Allan Donald, emphasised his greatness in the format. Against Australia, his 54 Test wickets have come at a rate of one every 38 balls: the best of anyone who has taken at least 50 wickets against Australia. His method at Lord's was Rabada in excelsis: using wobble seam to move the ball off the pitch both ways at speeds approaching 90mph, with the occasional venomous bouncer thrown in. After snaring Khawaja and Green with the new ball, Rabada then returned to bowl Australia out with the old ball, clean bowling both Cummins and Starc. Yet, not for the first time in his career, Rabada was left lamenting inadequate support from his team-mates. Bowling Australia out for 212 fully vindicated South Africa's decision to field first. Yet captain Temba Bavuma would still feel a pang of regret at Australia's total. When Beau Webster had made eight – Rabada, naturally was the bowler – Bavuma neglected to review an lbw appeal. Had South Africa used the Decision Review System, Webster would have been out; instead, his 72 continued the fine start to his Test career. But, in front of a full house that included thousands wearing the country's cricket or rugby shirts, South Africa's greatest regret from the opening day was predictable. The sight of all-rounder Wiaan Mulder, who has a Test average of 22, walking out at No 3 encapsulated the state of South Africa's batting. Australia's pace trio exhibited their full range of skills – Starc swinging the new ball prodigiously, while Cummins and Hazlewood settled into bowling back of a length with the wobble seam. Facing such excellence, South Africa's struggles were understandable. Yet batsmen could have been more proactive – for instance, taking guard a few inches further forward to force Australia to adjust their lengths. Instead, Mulder took 44 balls over his six runs; Bavuma took until his 31st delivery to get off the mark. Ironic cheers ensued from the Australian contingent in the crowd. South Africa will need to find a new approach if they are to stop more Australian celebrations over the coming days.
