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• Poor Mitchell form causing 'pressure' as CSK lose again in IPL

  Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming acknowledges there is "pressure" on New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell after his team lost again to Lucknow Super Giants.

  Holders CSK had won four of their first six Indian Premier League matches this season, but consecutive losses to LSG in the space of five days have seen them slip to fifth in the standings.

  Their latest IPL defeat on Tuesday came after CSK had left out Rachin Ravindra, with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ajinkya Rahane opening the batting, with Mitchell coming in at number three.

  While captain Gaikwad scored an impressive unbeaten 108, Rahane managed just one run and Mitchell fell for just 11 off 10 balls.

  LSG then chased down their 211 target for victory with three balls left, inspired by a superb innings of 124 not out by Marcus Stoinis.

  Mitchell was a major acquisition by CSK at the IPL auction, but so far he has managed just 146 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 123.72.

  "There's a lot of pressure obviously," Fleming said when asked about Mitchell's poor form.

  "Getting up the order is more comfortable for him. Me putting him down the order in the hitting role wasn't his best position. So, we've looked to rectify that and get him up the order where he has had his best performances internationally. 

  "That might take a little bit of time, but the top three need to contribute the majority of runs.

  "Ruturaj did that, so hopefully he can continue his form and the others can pick that up."

  CSK are back in action at home against in-form Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday and Fleming accepts there is work to do, but takes comfort from the fact their defeats have not been comprehensive.

  He added: "We are not firing on all cylinders by any means but we are in each game and we are asking teams to play well to beat us. 

  "We just have to make sure we are good enough to win and we have been. Again [versus LSG] we created a chance, so it is not like we are down and out.

  "But we know we could be stronger. We have just got to get a little bit better. It is a mixture of trying to find that [combination at the top of the order] and also form.

  "We are a little bit uncomfortable with some areas, so we are trying to find not a quick fix, but the right combination where players are going to contribute for the back end of this tournament.

  "We have had injuries, we have been a little bit unsettled, but the main thing is getting guys in key areas and in form."

  IPL 2024 continues on Wednesday when Delhi Capitals face Gujarat Titans, with both teams sitting outside the playoff positions as things stand.

• Tape ball programme can help England find unorthodox talent – Richard Gould

  The England and Wales Cricket Board hopes to unearth a new seam of talent beyond the game’s traditional league structure with a national tape ball scheme that allows players to thrive without “whites, willow and leather”.

  The practice of using a soft ball wrapped in electrical tape to aid swing and variable bounce is a common one in Asia, where it has helped produce express pace bowlers like Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi and spinners such as Rashid Khan and Shakib-al-Hasan, but has been slow to enter the mainstream conversation in the United Kingdom.

  The Chance to Shine charity has long pioneered tape ball cricket as part of its engagement hubs and now, with the ECB keen to live up to its lofty aspiration of becoming the most inclusive team sport in the country, it is at the heart of a new core cities programme designed to engage ‘diverse communities in urban areas’.

  Speaking at a launch event where games were hosted in a warehouse space in Birmingham, ECB chief executive Richard Gould was optimistic about reaching out to those with an interest in cricket but limited access to the pavilions and prepared pitches in the club setup.

  “We talk about clubs with picket fences around them. In the past that has been seen as the preserve of the ECB. We’ve missed a complete trick on that,” he said.

  “When we talk about the recreational game we’re not just talking about Premier League clubs and village cricket clubs now. We’re talking about all forms of cricket that take place.

  “You can play the game anywhere, any time, with anybody, in any environment you want. You don’t have to have whites, willow and leather to do it. You can just pick up a bat and a ball and have some fun.”

  As well as fulfilling its remit of reaching out to all comers at a grassroots level, Gould also believes there are benefits to finding cricketers with different styles who have learned the game outside the traditional, private-school heavy pathways.

  “Without doubt there are,” he said. “We have to get out and try to find the talent. More to the point, we have to try and find talent in areas that we haven’t normally looked for it.

  “I do think county pathways will be looking to make sure they don’t miss out on this talent. It’s just about punching through all of our normal procedures and finding ways to both get people in the game and unearthing that talent which may be unorthodox and great.”

• Meg Lanning: Exercise obsession and not enough fuel led to Australia retirement

  Former Australia captain Meg Lanning revealed her “obsession” with exercise and not eating enough precipitated her surprise international retirement late last year.

  Lanning was at the helm of one of the most dominant eras the sport has ever seen but she missed last year’s Ashes for medical reasons and pulled the plug on her Australia career in November.

  She opened up about her hidden health issues on the Howie Games podcast, explaining that running up to 90 kilometres a week coupled with eating two small meals a day led to her dropping from 64kg to 57kg.

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  “I was over-exercising and under-fuelling,” the 32-year-old said. “It wasn’t a physical thing. I’ve always been really physically active and liked that side of it, but it became a bit of an obsession.

  “I’d maybe eat a couple of meals a day if I was lucky but they weren’t significant. Initially it didn’t start off as a deliberate thing, it just became a bit of a new normal.

  “But it slowly crept into conscious decisions because essentially I felt good.

  “I wasn’t getting injured like everybody was telling me I was going to do. It sort of just spiralled and I was in denial, even though everybody kept telling me something wasn’t quite right.

  “I was not in a place to be able to go on tour and play cricket and give the commitment levels that were required for that Ashes series, mentally and physically.”

  Lanning, who led Australia to five World Cup titles in total and Commonwealth Games glory in 2022, said her struggle was not officially diagnosed as an eating disorder.

  “It wasn’t labelled as that but I was exercising a lot and I wasn’t eating enough to fuel that – it was a bit out of whack,” Lanning said.

  “It was a bit of control because I felt very out of control with what my future looked like. I felt like I was in control of that and that made me feel better.”

  Lanning sought help from medical professionals after also struggling with insomnia and continues to play domestically, while she has been signed for London Spirit for The Hundred this year.

  “I dreaded night time because I knew I would go to bed and not be able to sleep,” she said. “That would make me so mad. I would just get more angry with myself. If you can’t sleep, you can’t do anything.

  “I feel like I’m in a good spot now. Cricket is still part of what I do. But I wasn’t cut out for the international touring schedule and what came with all of that.”