Super Over 24: IPL, Ashes, World Cup and Sheffield Shield
24 March 2025
Ball 1
The IPL has begun!
Given many Aussie cricket fans are still a bit cynical about it, I had planned to write a piece suggesting they might enjoy following the fortunes of Sunrisers Hyderabad this season - given their explosive batting and that they have three Aussies (Cummins, Head and Zampa) and that Cummins is the only non-Indian captain in this year’s tournament.
But before I had a chance, SRH’s season began - and they picked up where they left off in 2024, making . . . 286!
Yep, 286.
Off 20 overs!
I know that for those already cynical about the IPL this sort of score does not help. I get it - it does sound a bit farcical.
But it is also a lot of fun. And SRH’s huge numbers are not solely due to flat pitches - they really do have an incredible group of batters.
The opening pair of Travis Head and Abishek Sharma were so prolific last season that they started to be known as ‘Travishek’ - a la ‘Brangelina’ (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) and other famous Hollywood couples.
Abishek Sharma in fact is a good demonstration of the power of Indian T20 cricket. He’s only been selected for 17 T20 Internationals - he’s right on the fringe of the Indian side - yet has averaged 33 at a strike rate of 194. And he is a handy left arm orthodox bowler. If he was an Aussie he would be almost the first person I would pick for our T20 side.
For once, last night, Travishek was somewhat outshone - in fact every SRH batter had a strike rate of 200 or more, except for the two who only faced a solitary ball. Poor old Jofra Archer went for 0-76 off his 4 overs: the most expensive figures in IPL history. When SRH came to bowl even Cummins struggled - albeit in a winning side - his 4 overs cost 60!
Rajasthan Royals made a decent effort in the chase, by the way, scoring 6/242. Not often you go at 12 an over and lose by nearly 50!
Last year, SRH did some incredible things with the bat - including making a score of 287 in one game - but were cut down in the final by KKR. They seem like solid early favourites to go one better this year - and adding even more to Cummins’s mystique!
Ball 2
It’s commonplace to state how each season the IPL gets longer, blocking out more and more of a window in the cricket calendar.
I decided to look at the length of each tournament throughout the years and I was a bit surprised. Yes, the trend is for the season length to increase but not as dramatically as I had thought.
(Note that I removed 2020 and 2021, given those seasons were so disrupted by COVID).
These days the tournament tends to last roughly nine weeks. The question is, when is the next jump due?
There is a logical one just waiting to be taken, in my opinion. With 10 teams now in the competition, each team is currently not playing every other team twice. Instead, they are playing five teams twice and four teams only once.
If they decided to switch up to a full home and away season it would take the total number of matches in the league stage from 70 to 90 - which would end up making the season about 80 days long. Watch this space!
Ball 3
With the Ashes on the distant horizon, I saw an article by Tim Whigmore in London’s Daily Telegraph expressing what I have long thought: other countries should think twice before picking spinners in Australia.
In it, he illustrated how poorly England spinners had done in Australia in recent years and said that they would be better served picking all quicks and relying on part-timers for any spinning needs.
I decided to source some figures of my own - and they emphatically backed up Whigmore.
Here is the collective bowling average of English spinners in each Australian Ashes series - stretching all the way back to 1986/87, the second most recent time England have won here.
What a debacle! The only two series in which the spinners have been even respectable were 1986/87 and 2010/11 - the only two winning series in the period. But even in these, the English quicks still did better: in 1986/87 the quicks averaged 32.0 (versus 36.4 for the spinners) and in 2010/11, 27.6 (versus 38.3 for the spinners.
And the most recent three series have been truly awful, with the spinners averaging 72.4, 112.5 and 47.4.
It’s embarrassing, frankly. Unless they have an up and coming Shane Warne they would be mad not to follow Whigmore’s suggestion.
Ball 4
With the regular Sheffield Shield season over, I thought it might be interesting to look at the numbers and see who has dominated - especially with a view to future Australian selection.
First, here is the batting, sorted by average, minimum 300 runs.
It’s a pleasure to see Carey and Inglis on top - more and more I get a good, confident feeling when either walk out to bat for Australia.
Each name on the table is interesting - Patterson, McSweeney and Webster - doing well is heartening - just to pick out a few. Konstas was solid, but no more.
And the bottom four - Harris, Renshaw, Ollie Davies and Bancroft - were disappointing. (Note they weren’t the worst four - below the 15th best, I included selectively based on interest).
Next, the bowling - also sorted by average; minimum 20 wickets.
Boland on top! No surprises there.
Great to see my man Joel Paris in at number two. Injuries have blighted his career but his record is extraordinary. He’s 32 and averages 19.6 with the ball and 21.2 with the bat. If he’d been injury-free and born in New Zealand or England he might have been one of their greatest cricketers of all time.
Another of my favourites - 24-year-old Fergus O’Neill - has done well again. His career average is 20.4 - and 20.8 with the bat. It will be criminal if he doesn’t get a shot at Test cricket soon.
And lastly, Peter Siddle - what a gun: to finish his final season, aged 40, averaging under 20 is quite extraordinary.
Ball 5
It’s a year to the week since the semi finals and final of the 2015 World Cup. I went to Australia’s semi at the SCG and to the final at the MCG - both on a whim, purchasing tickets on the resale market.
As always when it comes to landmarks like this, I cannot believe a decade has flashed by!
It was a fun few days. I was furious at Finch in the semi against India for scoring too slowly. Luckily, Australia was saved by a sparkling Steve Smith hundred.
And then the final in Melbourne - the noise when Starc bowled McCullum was amazing. There was a huge Kiwi presence - and had New Zealand got into the match properly the atmosphere would have risen even more - as it was, it was the third best I have heard for cricket in Australia - behind the Steve Waugh last-ball hundred and Shane Warne’s 700th wicket.
As I said, I got tickets at the last moment - and I am pleased I did. It was well worth it.
Ball 6
Here’s a quick blast from the past - and a reminder how hostile Fleet Street can be.
I’m about to release an episode of my podcast, Dennett on Cricket (please subscribe!) looking back fondly at Mark Taylor’s 1989 Ashes.
In researching it, I was struck by this double page spread in the Daily Mirror attacking England captain David Gower.
Now, many of you will be aware that 1989 ended up becoming one of the worst summers ever for English cricket - so such a headline might not seem out of place. But this was after just one day of the series - and a day that hadn’t really even been all that bad for England.
On a cold, grey, damp morning in Yorkshire, Gower had won the toss - and done the only sensible thing: sent the Aussies in. England bowled a little bit short, there were many plays and misses, a dropped catch or two - and Taylor and Border batted well. In the end, on a rain shortened day, Australia finished at 3/207.
On top - sure - but hardly dominant. A few quick wickets early on day 2 and England would have been right back in it. So for the Mirror (which, as far as I can tell is close to the least sensational of the London tabloids) to have launched Gower like this was incredibly harsh.
As it turned out of course, there was no joy for England on the next day, or indeed, at any time throughout the summer - Australia eventually declared at 7/601 on day 3(!), on their way to a 4-0 series victory. And by the end of the summer, a headline as comparatively like this would have seemed quite gentle!
But still, I thought it was pretty harsh!
Do please consider subscribing to Dennett on Cricket. Podcasts are free and addictive and easy to access - and I reckon you’ll like my Tubby 1989 special.
The return to form of Jason Sangha must be one of the stories of this shield season. If he continues in the same vein next season he will surely be knocking on the door of Australian selection.