Lauren Bell dismissed Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana in the same opening over on May 28, 2026. India were 7 for 2 before the powerplay had started. That one over-explains why Bell matters more to England’s Women’s T20 World Cup campaign than any other bowler in their squad. Sophie Ecclestone will be the spin threat. […]
Lauren Bell dismissed Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana in the same opening over on May 28, 2026. India were 7 for 2 before the powerplay had started. That one over-explains why Bell matters more to England’s Women’s T20 World Cup campaign than any other bowler in their squad. Sophie Ecclestone will be the spin threat. […]
No 15-year-old in IPL history has walked to the crease and done what Vaibhav Sooryavanshi did to powerplay bowling in 2026. Across 16 innings, he scored 521 runs in the first six overs at a strike rate of 233.63, the first batter in the tournament’s history to pass 500 powerplay runs in a single season. […]
Before May 26, 2026, one captain in IPL history had reached finals in both of his first two seasons. Patidar is now the second. Two captaincy seasons, two finals appearances, one title, and the second final still to play. Hardik Pandya achieved the same feat with the Gujarat Titans in 2022 and 2023. Before May […]
The Mumbai Indians have missed the playoffs in four of the last five seasons. In IPL 2026, they sit ninth, eliminated earlier than any other team, with Hardik Pandya having won just 15 of 39 matches as captain, a 38.46% win rate, the worst in franchise history. The question isn’t whether Hardik continues. That’s settled. […]
Virat Kohli’s 2016 IPL season is the gold standard of individual T20 batting. Nine years later, he is doing something more interesting than replicating it. His IPL 2026 strike rate of 164.38 across 15 matches eclipses his 2016 mark of 152.03, 12 points higher, at age 37, with more urgency and less caution than the […]
SRH’s batting philosophy delivers results in the league stage and falls apart in the knockouts. Nine wins from 14 matches in IPL 2026, four batters crossing 560 runs each, third place, and then a 47-run Eliminator defeat to Rajasthan Royals. The pattern stretches across four seasons: 10th in 2023, runners-up in 2024, sixth in 2025, […]
Mohsin Khan is the only bowler in IPL 2026 who completely shut Sooryavanshi down. Across two matches, the Lucknow Super Giants left-arm pacer dismissed him twice and conceded just 2 runs from 12 balls, a strike rate of 16.67. Every other LSG bowler combined went for 99 runs off 37 balls at a strike rate […]
Sooryavanshi didn’t inch past David Warner’s decade-old powerplay record . he cleared it by 23 runs. The 15-year-old Rajasthan Royals opener finished IPL 2026 with 490 powerplay runs across 15 innings, a figure that represents 72% of his total season tally of 680 runs. Warner’s 467 from 2016 had survived ten editions, including Travis Head’s […]
They’re older, they’ve barely played together since winning the 2023 World Cup, and their combined age at the next tournament will be close to 110. Cricket Australia is backing them anyway, and the reasoning is sound. When fit, no pace trio in world cricket matches what Cummins, Starc, and Hazlewood bring to a 50-over campaign. […]
France arrives at this tournament as FIFA’s top-ranked nation and joint betting favourites at +500 alongside Spain. Those numbers alone don’t explain why this squad is different from every previous French generation. The difference is what sits behind the headlines: a reigning Ballon d’Or winner and a Golden Boot-level captain in the same attack, backed […]
Two semi-final exits in two years ended the idea that Australia wins ICC tournaments on autopilot. The 2024 T20 World Cup loss to South Africa and the 2025 ODI World Cup collapse against India didn’t just cost trophies; they exposed a squad caught mid-transition without the tactical tools to adapt under pressure. Molineux’s appointment isn’t […]