Blogs and match analysis for the cricket you actually play
Four writers, thirty-eight cities, and a database of 31,700+ scored matches behind every claim. We cover club leagues, academies, grounds, gear and fantasy research — and we go to the ground before we write about it.
This week
The lead story, the fresh reporting and what everyone is reading
Published Tuesday and Friday mornings, IST. Every data claim links back to the scorecards it came from, and every correction stays on the page.
Across 84 completed chases this season, sides lose 2.3 wickets in that four-over window — nearly double the powerplay rate. The data says it is not nerves. It is field placement, and almost nobody is adjusting. We pulled every ball-tracking entry from the CricLane scorer app, split it by required rate, and found that captains hold a sweeper cover roughly two overs longer than the situation deserves.
The counter-intuitive part: the teams that survive this window are not the ones with the best batters. They are the ones whose No. 5 has faced more than 40 deliveries a season against genuine pace at the death — a number most club sides can fix in the nets on a Wednesday evening.
Zoya Merchant spent three weekends counting ground bookings across Kothrud, Baner and Hadapsar. The waiting list for a Sunday morning slot is now eleven weeks long, and two of the four municipal grounds are double-booked every second weekend.
Delhi Yamuna Kings kept a sweeper cover in place for the last four overs of a game they were winning. Qureshi beat the outside edge 6 times in 21 deliveries. The wagon wheel says the catcher was worth eleven runs and probably the match.
Nandita BoseMatch analysis·6 min read
04Who writes here
The desk
Four full-time writers, no guest columns bought by brands, and no anonymous bylines. If a piece names a club, we called the club.
A ₹90,000 cover set pays for itself in two monsoons if your ground hosts more than eighteen matches a season. Here is the arithmetic, with three real club budgets.
Kochi's opener plays three different sweeps and picks between them off the bowler's wrist. We slowed down 46 of them at the Adyar Turf and asked her to talk us through the choice.
Vikrant Salvi ran the numbers on every CricLane T20 since 2022. The highest-scoring captaincy pick is a role almost nobody selects. Analysis only — CricLane runs no contests and holds no stakes.
Wrist spinners lose roughly 18% of their usual wicket share at the Aravalli Sports Park once the dew arrives. Plan the second innings first — and remember this is research, not betting advice.
Kothrud's biggest academy solved its queue problem with a whiteboard and a stopwatch. The rotation is worth copying, and it costs nothing to try on Saturday.
Jaipur's leg spinner does not hide it especially well. He does not need to — the release is fine, but almost nobody in the Metro League watches the hand at the point of delivery.
We asked the Backwaters Women's Premier Cup organisers to open their books. Umpires, balls, ground rent, physio cover — and what is left over at the end.
Mumbai's keeper moved up to the stumps against medium pace last October. It has cost him four byes a match and won his side 12 stumpings, most of them off a batter's back foot leaving the crease by a boot length.
The Sabarmati Juniors Invitational checks grille gaps at the toss and turns players away. Nine academies grumbled in year one. Nobody has grumbled since, and the ball has hit a grille four times.
Reporting you can check, on grounds we have stood on
Every number in a CricLane article comes out of the same database that powers the live scorecards. If a claim cannot be traced to a scored match, it does not run — and when we get something wrong, the correction stays at the bottom of the piece forever.
0Articles published since 2021Two a week, Tuesday and Friday, 8:00 AM IST
0Scored matches behind the analysisBall-by-ball entries from the free scorer app
0Cities the desk reports fromGround visits, not phone interviews
0Corrections issued and left on the pageDated, explained, never quietly deleted
How we work
Editorial standards
CricLane sells tournament listings and cricket kit. That is exactly why the writing has to be independent of both. These are the rules the desk works to, and they are the ones to hold us to if we slip.
Sponsorship never buys a byline
No brand, organiser or academy can pay for coverage, placement in the most-read rail, or a favourable review. Products in our gear pieces are bought at retail or returned after testing, and we say which in the piece.
Every number traces to a scorecard
Analysis is drawn from matches scored on CricLane. Where a piece uses a sample, we state the sample size, the date range and the competition. Where the sample is small, we say so rather than dressing it up.
Right of reply, before publication
If a piece criticises a club, an organiser or an academy, they hear from us before it runs and their response goes in the article — not in a follow-up nobody reads.
Corrections stay visible
A correction is dated and appended to the bottom of the article. We never silently edit a published claim. 17 corrections since 2021, all still readable.
Minors are named carefully
Age-group players are named only with an academy's and a guardian's consent, and we do not publish school names, home localities or photographs of juniors.
Fantasy writing is research, not betting
The fantasy desk publishes statistical analysis. CricLane runs no contests, accepts no stakes and holds no user money. See the Disclaimer for the full position.
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Reader questions
About the blog
Republish up to 150 words with a link back to the original and the writer's name, without asking. For anything longer, write to the desk and we will usually say yes for non-commercial club and academy use.
Possibly. We prioritise stories that help other organisers — a rule that worked, a budget that balanced, a safety problem worth flagging. Send the details through the contact form and pick "Press & media" so it reaches the desk directly.
From matches scored ball by ball on the CricLane scorer app by club officials, plus the tournament records organisers file with us. We never scrape another platform's scorecards, and we do not use estimated data.
No. Not paid articles, not paid links, not "gifted" gear reviews. Sponsors appear as clearly marked sponsor panels or as tournament partners, never inside editorial copy.
Email info@catalystwebtrendz.com with the article title and what is wrong. We answer every correction request within two working days, and if we were wrong the note goes on the article the same day.
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