All posts by h716a5.icu

Sri Lanka was Russell Domingo’s fact-finding mission and he seems to have discovered how much South Africa has to do to become contenders for the forthcoming ICC tournaments

Firdose Moonda08-Aug-2013Like Russell Domingo, Gary Kirsten lost his first ODI series in charge of South Africa. It was not as dramatic a defeat: 2-1 to Australia at home with AB de Villiers out injured in his first series as captain and Hashim Amla reluctantly leading in his place compared to a 4-1 drubbing courtesy of Sri Lanka away with de Villiers looking as though he cannot handle being captain anymore and senior players such as Graeme Smith and Dale Steyn recovering from niggles.Unlike Domingo, Kirsten was all smiles in the aftermath. He said the series was merely about getting players “game-ready,” ahead of Tests, which was ultimately Kirsten’s major focus. Domingo wore a stern look and issued a surprisingly strong criticism of his team.Sri Lanka was his fact-finding mission and he seems to have discovered how much South Africa has to do to become a team that can realistically challenge for an ICC trophy in Bangladesh next year and Australia and New Zealand in 2015. Before anyone could ask Domingo about what he has learnt, he delivered a soliloquy answering questions about everything from the opening partnership to the inability to take wickets in the middle overs. The seriousness he showed was best-summed up in one simple statement, “We were found wanting in those conditions.”Apart from a brief visit to Sri Lanka for the World T20 last year, South Africa had not toured the island since 2006. The seven-year gap meant the only members of the squad to have played an ODI in the country prior to this tour were Robin Peterson and JP Duminy. Turning tracks, heat and noisy crowds are not new concepts to any cricketers but they were foreign to many of those on this tour and combined with inexperience, they proved intimidating as well.”Sri Lanka is a hell of a tough place to tour. The record shows that more experienced sides have gone there and been turned over,” Domingo said. “And it has highlighted shortcomings in that format that we need to address going forward.”In short: all of them. That would suggest a major overhaul of South Africa’s current structures but Domingo emphasised he did not want to dump his chargers onto the used pile. “All the players that are there are not bad players, they just had a tough tour,” he said. “I can’t see too many drastic, dramatic changes. Unless somebody does what Quinton de Kock did and smashed down the door, I’m happy with the group of players I’ve got.”De Kock caught the national selectors’ eyes with his form at Under-19 level and by finishing in the top five run-scorers in the 2011-12 domestic T20 competition and his ability to also keep wicket saw him fast-tracked into the South African side. While he has showed promise and even improved, it’s likely the “exciting player who is still learning his trade,” may be sent back to the franchise system to hone his skills.The 20-year old was one half of a problematic opening partnership that also rotated between Colin Ingram, Alviro Petersen and Amla in the ODIs and Henry Davids in the T20s. South Africa went the entire eight-match tour without a single first-wicket stand of 50-plus.Domingo identified not having Amla fit for all the ODIs and missing Smith as one cause for that failing. But he also blamed those that were used for not being able to grab their opportunities. “The players who did come in did not cement a place and did not make the impacts we were hoping for,” he admitted. Amla will retain his position there but it seems clear Domingo is hopeful of Smith’s return to add stability.Domingo did bring in a degree of consistency by sticking to a middle order throughout the series which saw JP Duminy at No.3, de Villiers at 4 and Faf du Plessis at 5 throughout the tour. The trio initially struggled for runs with Duminy coming good in both formats, de Villiers scoring a half-century in the final ODI and du Plessis doing the same in the last T20.They lacked fluency together which left the middle order at the mercy of Sri Lanka’s spinners. “It was a massive problem for us and the lack of experience was highlighted. There were times when our middle order was exposed against their quality spinners under those testing conditions,” Domingo said.De Villiers said he “does not have to panic,” about his lack of runs because he “felt in good form,” while du Plessis admitted he was weighed down by his inability to contribute with the bat. “I’m at that stage where I want to performing for South Africa consistently and it was a tough time,” du Plessis said. “We needed to pull each other through the tour.”The bowlers faced exactly the same dilemma. On surfaces which required a different set of skills to what they are used to – slower balls, cutters and spin as opposed to bouncers on spicy surfaces at home – they were unable to find lengths at first, never mind wickets. With 58 wides bowled in the ODIs, Domingo said that was one of the biggest disappointments. “As South Africans, we pride ourselves on being meticulous and in the way we plan. It was unacceptable the way we started.”But he was also concerned that they allowed Sri Lanka’s batsmen to settle in because there was an “inability to take wickets after the new ball had been used.” Domingo bracketed overs 15 to 35 in which South Africa took just ten wickets across the five matches.Their bowling improved in the T20s, with the inclusion of both Wayne Parnell and Imran Tahir and Domingo indicated both have made cases for consideration in other formats. “Wayne is an x-factor player and he is as strong as he has ever been,” he said. He added that the legspinner has “massive value to add.”Many critics questioned why Tahir did not play the ODI series but Domingo explained he had to “be fair.” With Peterson and Aaron Phangiso the most recent spinners to play for South Africa, Domingo said it would have been “grossly unfair,” to allow Tahir to usurp one of them, without giving them a chance to continue in the role first.His decision in that regard shows that under him, the players can always be assured they will get a decent run to prove what they can do but they should also expect a thorough critique of their efforts during their time.

Matt Prior’s up-and-down career makes for a readable story, but the juiciest bits are left out of his new book

Alan Gardner15-Sep-2013Matt Prior has had an interesting year. In fact, he’s had an interesting career. So it’s a shame that his (first) autobiography, released in the slipstream of the Ashes, is something of a disappointment. but this falls some way short of being a bare-knuckle account.The impulse to tell Prior’s story is understandable. He has come to symbolise the spirit within the England team dressing room – the wicketkeeper of the flame, if you like – and the importance of his role was exemplified by his part in the Kevin Pietersen affair of 2012. But his seniority has been hard won. From the perception in his early days as an England player that he was an “uneducated skinhead” who chirped too much and caught too little, Prior’s journey to being ranked among the finest wicketkeeper-batsmen in the world is a compelling one.Prior likens the keeper’s role to that of a drummer in a band, setting the tempo for the team. Using that analogy, when he made his Test debut, against West Indies in 2007, the England position was like playing drums for Spinal Tap – the majority of Alec Stewart’s numerous successors had met with ignominious ends (and one-day candidates are still spontaneously combusting with regularity).Initially, Prior also seemed to be only passing through, and the book begins with “the ultimate nightmare” – being dropped. Hearing the news in early 2008, while on holiday in New York with his fiancée, sent Prior into tumult; the headline-making revelation from is that he considered quitting the game entirely and auditioning to become a Major League slugger. However seriously that idea was entertained, what is perhaps even more remarkable is the extent to which Prior rebuilt himself as a serious international cricketer.The detail of his relationship with Bruce French, the former England wicketkeeper charged with improving Prior’s technique, is revealing. “We did start from scratch,” Prior writes. “I had to learn how to catch the ball.” At the time, he had played ten Tests. Eventually he came to be able to handle the “overload” work so beloved of French. Prior admits he “simply didn’t do enough work” on his keeping before. Now his fastidiousness about kit and appearance extends to fitness and training, too.Prior’s frank, no-excuses outlook endears him to England fans and makes him an interesting, as well as likeable, subject. However, the problem for Prior and his ghostwriter, Steve James, is one inherent in the modern convention of players writing about careers that are as yet unfinished. That is, telling the reader everything they want to know will likely involve compromising the omerta of the dressing room.A case in point is the episode that delineated Prior’s significance within the team to a wider audience (and quite possibly won over a publisher, too). Phoning Pietersen in the wake of his Headingley revelations to try to broker peace demonstrated the responsibility Prior was willing shoulder – not to mention a level of maturity uncommon in elite sportsmen – but, inevitably, he discloses next to nothing about the discussion the two had.There are interesting tidbits. He is honest about how the money on offer during the Stanford 20/20 for 20 farrago was a divisive issue, and describes calling out Allen Stanford over his “bullshit” explanation of how Prior’s wife ended up being bounced on the publicity-hungry soon-to-be-exposed fraudster’s lap as the TV cameras zoomed in. There are also diverting accounts of on-field brouhahas with various Australians – Simon Katich, Andy Bichel, Peter Siddle.But, as with the Pietersen example, team confidences and loyalties act as a filter on potentially tantalising information. It’s one thing not to name who threw jelly beans at Zaheer Khan (I’ll save you the googling: Ian Bell remains No. 1 suspect) but refusing to reveal what the England players’ victory song is seems a little precious. Another irritation is the frequency with which James has to rely on contemporaneous press quotes given by Prior rather than his subject’s retelling of events.The account signs off with Prior’s pugnacious, jaw-jutting, match-saving hundred made in Auckland in March. When he was named England’s Player of the Year for 2012-13 a couple of months later, a bashful Prior commented: “It’s a fickle world, if I punch one on Thursday I’ll be rubbish again.” It is a sentiment echoed in , when he writes: “You always worry that this game of cricket can kick you up the backside, so I tend to be wary of making big comments.” Inevitably, in an age when personality is analysed as closely as performance, most players are cautious about their public pronouncements. But reticence does not a bestselling autobiography make.That Prior has since experienced arguably his worst season with England is an irony that will not be lost on him, and should at some stage demand further personal reflection. Perhaps best to wait until the gloves are off for good.The Gloves are Off: My Life in Cricket
by Matt Prior
Simon & Schuster Ltd
264 pages

Statistical highlights from the sixth ODI between India and Australia in Nagpur, another high-scoring run chase

S Rajesh and Shiva Jayaraman30-Oct-2013 Virat Kohli has taken 112 innings to hit 17 hundreds in ODIs, 58 fewer than Sourav Ganguly who was the fastest to 17 ODI hundreds before him. Saeed Anwar, the next quickest batsman to 17 ODI hundreds, took 177 innings. Kohli aggregated 1000 runs in ODIs in 2013, when he crossed 82 runs in this innings. This is the third consecutive calendar year in which Kohli has aggregated 1000 or more ODI runs. He became the fourth batsman in ODIs after Sourav Ganguly (1997-2000), Sachin Tendulkar (1996-98) and MS Dhoni (2007-09) to hit 1000 or more ODI runs in three or more consecutive calendar years. Kohli’s 61-ball hundred was India’s third-fastest in ODIs. He came close to bettering Virender Sehwag’s 60-ball hundred for the second time in 15 days. In the second match of this series, Kohli had broken India’s record for the fastest-hundred in ODIs, which was previously held by Sehwag. Kohli scored his 11th hundred in chases and moved to second place, with Chris Gayle, in the list of batsmen with most centuries in chases. Sachin Tendulkar heads the list with 17 hundreds in chases. All of Kohli’s 11 hundreds in chases have resulted in wins. Only Tendulkar, with 14 hundreds in successful chases, has a better record. Five of these hundreds for Kohli have come chasing targets of 300 or more. Kohli is the first batsman to make five successive scores of 50 or more in ODIs on two separate occasions. In his last five innings, he has scores of 68*, 61, 100*, 68 and 115*. Between February 28 and July 21, 2012, he had scored four centuries and a 66 in five consecutive innings. MS Dhoni became the second India batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to aggregate 1000 or more ODI-runs against Australia. Dhoni has taken 29 innings, while Tendulkar took 20. Tendulkar has scored the most runs in ODIs against Australia. Dhoni scored his 34th unbeaten innings in successful chases. He has now moved ahead of Jonty Rhodes as the batsman to remain unbeaten the most number of times in successful chases. The sixth ODI in Nagpur was only the second instance in ODI history that four individual centuries were scored. The first one also involved Australia, against Pakistan at Lahore in 1998. Australia ended up winning on that occasion, though. India’s opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma are by far the most prolific ODI pair of 2013: in 18 innings they’ve added 1068 runs at an average of 62.82. They’ve put together five century stands this year, no other pair has managed more than two. Dhawan’s 100 – his fourth century in ODIs – took his aggregate in the format to 1000 runs. It took him only 24 innings to get there, which makes him the joint-fastest among Indians, with Virat Kohli. Only five batsmen have got there in fewer innings. Bailey’s series aggregate of 474 is the best by any batsman in a bilateral series. With one match still left, he has already gone past the previous record of 467, set by Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza in a five-match series against Kenya in 2009. Bailey is more than 100 runs clear of the next-best aggregate by an Australian in a bilateral series – Andrew Symonds had scored 365 in six innings on the tour to India in 2007. During the course of his 156, Bailey went past 1500 ODI runs in only his 32nd innings. Only Hashim Amla has done it faster, in 30 innings. Bailey has become only the ninth Australian to score 1000 or more ODI runs in a calendar year. In 19 innings this year, he has an aggregate of 1040, at an average of 69.33 and a strike rate of 98.29. Ricky Ponting achieved it six times, while Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Watson, and Mark Waugh did it twice each. Shane Watson and Bailey both scored centuries, the first instance of Australia’s No. 3 and No. 4 batsmen getting hundreds in the same ODI. It was the tenth such instance for any team; the last time it happened was three years ago, in October 2010, by South Africa against Zimbabwe. It was only the third instance of two non-opening batsmen getting hundreds for Australia in an ODI. Ravindra Jadeja, the bowler who finally dismissed Bailey is also the only one who has gone at less than a run a ball against him in the series. Against Jadeja, Bailey has scored 90 off 112 balls (run rate 4.82 per over). All the others have gone at more than six per over, with R Ashwin conceding the most runs – 106 off 86.

BowlerRunsBallsDismissalsRuns per overR Ashwin1068617.39Ravindra Jadeja9011214.82Vinay Kumar474027.05Yuvraj Singh453507.71Ishant Sharma443108.51Bhuvneshwar Kumar3720011.10Amit Mishra332807.07Mohammad Shami2916010.87 Australia’s batsmen have struck 47 sixes in five matches in the series so far. It’s their highest in any bilateral series, and their second-highest in any series: they’d struck 67 sixes in 11 matches in the 2007 World Cup.

A return to the international scene as a coach has allowed Paul Collingwood to see first hand how the game has developed in the few years since he played

George Dobell in Barbados08-Mar-2014It is one of the ironies of England cricket at present that, in attempting to instil a new confidence and exuberance into the team, the management have decided to dispense with the most confident and exuberant player.Now is not the time to get into the rights and wrongs of the sacking of Kevin Pietersen. Lines have been drawn; conclusions reached. Further debate is, like a radio phone-in on capital punishment, superfluous. No-one is going to change their mind at this stage.But what has become apparent over the course of this brief tour is that a new spirit is emerging within this England squad. Without not just Pietersen, but other battle-weary and slightly cynical regular squad members, a sense of enjoyment and wonder has crept back into the set-up. Many of this T20 squad are young men still thrilled with all the travel, all the cricket and all the new experiences. It feels like a fresh start.That is all well and good. But just how deep that recovery is we may discover over the coming weeks. Ultimately this team’s mood will be goverened by its success on the pitch and, after an encouraging start to their new age in Antigua, the competition will become that much harder in Barbados where they face a West Indies team considerably strengthened by the return of Chris Gayle.In the context of their grim winter and the early stages of the rebuilding job with which they are faced, England’s ambitions for the next few weeks should be modest. To win this series and progress to the semi-finals of the World T20 should be considered a considerable success. The more realistic goal is to see improvement: to witness the continued development of players such as Jos Buttler and Alex Hales and see better death bowling. Anyone expecting more has not been watching.The management of expectations has been a reiterated theme of England briefings of late. When Andy Flower said in Sydney that things may get worse before they got better, this is what he meant. The likes of Ben Stokes and, just below the surface, the Overton twins, are prodigiously talented but they are raw and there will be days they make mistakes. Ashley Giles and co. are at the start of a long-term process.But, come triumph or disaster, the England management are also keen to encourage within the new team the retention of positivity and exuberance. They do not want safety-first cricket; they do not want a team that plays the averages or seeks respectability. They know that, to win major T20 events, aggression is required.Certainly that was the message of Paul Collingwood the day before the start of the T20 series against West Indies at the Kensington Oval. Collingwood, captain when England won the World T20 here in 2010, is back at the scene of his greatest victory with the squad as part of a seven-week deal designed to bring new energy not just to the fielding, but also the batting, planning and positivity of the squad.”When we won the World T20, our philosophy was ‘we’ve never won anything being conservative, so we may as well have a go on the other side of the line’,” Collingwood said.”I’m a big believer in straying on the more aggressive side of the line. Not vocally, or anything like that, but how you play your cricket, with a lot more intent. You’ll make mistakes along the way, but hope you come up with more wins than losses.”

I’m a big believer in straying on the more aggressive side of the line. Not vocally, or anything like that, but how you play your cricket, with a lot more intent. You’ll make mistakes along the way, but hope you come up with more wins than lossesPaul Collingwood on his ‘brand’ of cricket

Losses are inevitable, though. So part of Collingwood and the other coach’s roles is to ensure that, whatever happens over the next few weeks, England continue to play attacking cricket.”I sensed when I first came in a bit of a lack of confidence from what’s happened over the winter,” Collingwood said. “But Graham Thorpe has worked fantastically well with the batsmen, giving the guys a simple plan and backing their ability. They bounced back well from being one-down in Antigua and the way that Joe Root and Jos Buttler played was exceptional. Michael Lumb and Moeen Ali can take a lot of confidence from the way they’ve played, too. It’s amazing how quickly things can turn around.”The Barbados pitch, though nowhere near as quick as the surface on which England won the World T20 in 2010, will bear little comparison to those expected in Bangladesh. Spin is expected to play far less a role here than it did in Antigua or will in Bangladesh, with the threat of Gayle, in particular, likely to dissuade England from the early introduction of a spinner.As a consequence, it is likely that the balance of the England team here will provide no more than a rough pointer to the one expected to play in Bangladesh. So, rather than allowing the likely Bangladesh XI more match practice, England will aim to win these games and hope that the resulting confidence is more beneficial than”It’s going to be difficult to find a strategy that will work here in Barbados and also would work in Bangladesh,” Collingwood agreed. “Looking at the pitch here, spin is one of the things that could be hit a long way. Personally I think confidence is a key thing going into a World T20. If you can go in with a few wins under your belt, that is more crucial than going in with a settled team.”Nor will Collingwood be seeking to replicate the formula that proved successful in 2010. He accepts that the T20 game has evolved and, having recently returned from a coaching assignment with Scotland that saw them qualify for the 2015 World Cup, is admirably candid about his own limitations as a player.”The game has changed a lot in those four years since we won,” he said. “You would think it has got the same principles and the same strategies but they wouldn’t work in this game. The scores that people are getting these days are a lot higher.”Back then we went on a nine-game unbeaten run and the top score was 149 against us. That doesn’t happen these days. The game has changed massively – for the better – and we have to come up with new strategies to overcome these powerful batsmen. It’s no longer a nudge-and-nurdler kind of game.”A lot of it about power and trying to hit the ball 360 degrees. For the bowlers, it’s about execution: you’ve got to come up with different things, whether it be Jade Dernbach with his slower balls or whatever.”There is no chance, absolutely no chance, that I would get into this England side. I wouldn’t get in the Scotland team now. I told them that.”The game’s moved on at a rapid rate. Guys for Scotland were hitting it 100 metres and Afghanistan lost five new balls in the first six overs of a Twenty20 in Sharjah. They went out of the stadium. I’ve never hit a ball out of the stadium.”Collingwood insists he has no intention of taking on a more permanent coaching position within the next six months. He is about to enter what is almost certain to be his final season for Durham and, knowing the club has had to cut its squad for financial reasons, is loathe to leave them in the lurch. As he puts it: “Durham are down to the bare bones in terms of personnel, so to lose a captain would be a bit harsh at the last second. I’m determined to play for Durham this summer.”A future in coaching appears assured, though. And while there might be a certain irony in Giles and Collingwood advocating an attacking approach that was the antitheses of their own playing careers, it would surely take a gruesome set of results over the next few weeks to see the former denied the chance to build a new England and the latter appointed as one of his deputies.

The defending champions got off to a horrendous start, and though they edged into the playoffs the squad lacked the quality and depth of 2013

Alagappan Muthu29-May-2014Where they finishedHarbhajan Singh was one of the few bright sparks for Mumbai Indians•BCCIThe Eliminator after finishing fourth, with seven wins from 14 matches.What went rightMumbai Indians were one of two teams to sweep their home games in 2013. This year, their batting was continuously disappointing in the UAE but on their return to the Wankhede Stadium, they toppled Kings XI Punjab, the most dominant team of the season. They dropped only one game at their home ground. Lendl Simmons provided impetus at the top and with his performances, Mumbai managed scores that their bowlers had a proper chance of defending.Harbhajan Singh was the other notable positive. The offspinner was more inclined to toss the ball up and even indulged in a few doosras, something he has mostly avoided in recent years. His 14 wickets came at an economy of 6.47 – second only to Sunil Narine for bowlers who have sent down more than 50 overs. Among the other regulars (besides Lasith Malinga and Zaheer Khan) Jasprit Bumrah was the only one with an economy under 8. Had Harbhajan received more support, Mumbai might have prolonged their season.What went wrongFive successive losses in the UAE. Rohit Sharma was vocal about the pride he felt in his team turning that run around and making the playoffs, but it was hardly the best way to kick off the defence of their only IPL title. A lopsided squad was attributed to poor strategy while retaining players and subsequently at the auction as well. They carried four wicketkeepers, their captain was not in the best of form, their premier finisher was returning from a long injury layoff, they hounded after the flavour of the season, arguably needlessly, and they had no back up for their best bowler when they knew he would have to leave for national duty.Michael Hussey’s struggles in the early season was as good as a poison pill. He had topped the charts for the run-getters list last year and seemed a lock to remedy the losses of Sachin Tendulkar and Dwayne Smith. Instead, Mumbai had to wait 10 matches for their first 50-plus opening partnership, in which time they had already fiddled with seven different combinations at the top. Rohit and Pollard were shuttled up and down to batting order on the basis of which holes needed to be filled the most. Neither of them were consistent and their dilemma over scoring quickly or battening down the hatches contributed to flagging run-rates in the middle overs. There was so much dearth that Aditya Tare (who played only five matches last season) and CM Gautam found a place in the XI quite regularly despite averaging under 20. An injury to Zaheer and Malinga’s departure for England also left the bowling attack starkly depleted.Key statMumbai’s scoring rate was 7.29 until the final league game against Rajasthan Royals. It was the lowest among all teams. They struck the second-lowest number of fours (164) and were third-lowest sixes (65).Best playerLendl Simmons made his IPL debut on May 10th. Since then, the only person who has accumulated more runs has been Robin Uthappa. Simmons’ inclusion, with Malinga on national duty, helped remedy a fragile top order. The average opening partnership before he took the job was 14.57. Since he stepped up, it shot to 50. He doesn’t look particularly elegant, but in getting his front leg out of the way and bashing the ball either side of the wicket, he was quite effective. A century – the only one of the IPL so far – boosted his average to 56.28.Poor performerThe return of the IPL to India coincided with slow-bowling taking greater precedence. Although it has been a heartening season for the quicks, seven of the top-15 wicket-takers were spinners. Mumbai, with a stunted attack, needed Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha to form a profitable partnership. However, Ojha looped the ball too high, allowing batsmen to get underneath him or dragged it too short to sit up for the pull and unlike Harbhajan, he looked toothless once the batsman got on a roll. Ojha had the benefit of 24 Tests under his belt, yet his tally of four wickets in 12 matches at an economy rate of 8.26 placed him well below little-known Karanveer Singh, whose seven wickets required only three matches.Surprise packageCorey Anderson played only three matches during the ODI series against India in January, but he was New Zealand’s highest wicket-taker. Against West Indies, he had struck a career-defining century which tipped him as the best buy of the IPL auction. Mumbai’s interest in him was almost guaranteed, despite having the very same player in Pollard. However, an average of 18.75 twinned with a strike-rate of 118 was not what the owners had bargained for. He struggled coping with high-quality spin, he resorted to slogging at the ball too hard and consequently was dropped for a few matches. His whirlwind at Wankhede was a long time coming and though it propelled them into the knockouts, his own relief at the end of that game revealed how much more had been expected of him.Memorable momentDespite their indifferent season, Mumbai did provide one of the most exhilarating matches in the league’s history, culminating in the most important six Aditya Tare has hit in his career so far. He had just reached the crease. His side had needed 190 off 14.3 overs in the final league game to steal a playoff spot from Rajasthan Royals. They got 189. Wankhede had careened into despair until it was revealed that the net run-rate equation allowed for one final hurrah. If Tare could hit the 14.4th delivery to the boundary, Mumbai could still win well enough to make the eliminator. The rumble began, James Faulkner revved up and Tare was presented with a leg-stump full toss. The next several minutes were a blur of emotion as Tare smashed a resounding six and Wankhede erupted. Rahul Dravid flung his Royals cap into the turf, Tare brandished the Mumbai jersey at the opposition captain and hurtled away to the dugout to be mobbed by his team-mates.Unused playersJosh Hazlewood, Sushant Marathe, Apoorv Wankhade and Jalaj Saxena (withdrawn after injury)

Also, high scores and low averages, most ducks in international cricket, and the 12-year-old Test player

Steven Lynch16-Sep-2014What’s the most dismissals made by a wicketkeeper on his Test debut? asked Stuart McMeekin from England
Two wicketkeepers have made eight dismissals in their first Test matches. The first to do it was Australia’s Brian Taber, with seven catches and a stumping against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1966-67. He was followed by Chris Read, who also took seven catches and a stumping on his debut, against New Zealand at Edgbaston in 1999. This list of players who made seven dismissals on Test debut includes five other wicketkeepers… and one outfielder, India’s Yajurvindra Singh, who clasped seven catches against England in Bangalore in 1976-77. For the full list, click here.Of all the batsmen who have scored more than 150 in an ODI innings, does Denesh Ramdin have the lowest average? asked Savo Ceprnich from South Africa
Denesh Ramdin, West Indies’ new captain, qualified for this list by scoring 169 against Bangladesh in St Kitts recently. He currently averages 24.96 in one-day internationals – and there are actually five batsmen who average less than that despite having recorded a score of 150 or more. Charles Coventry of Zimbabwe (highest score 194 not out) averages 24.87, Pakistan’s Imran Nazir (HS 160) 24.61, Kapil Dev of India (HS 175 not out) 23.79, and Zimbabwe’s Craig Wishart (HS 172 not out) 23.22. But easily top (or bottom) of this list is another West Indian, Xavier Marshall, who averaged only 17.85 overall despite a highest score of 157 not out, with a dozen sixes, against Canada in King City in August 2008. In 23 other matches, Marshall made 218 runs at an average of 10.38, with five ducks and a highest score of 35.Waqar Younis took 54% of his ODI wickets either bowled or lbw. Has anyone got a higher proportion? asked Malcolm Maciver from Scotland
I suppose it’s a pretty good indication of how straight (and how fast!) Waqar Younis bowled that 37% of his 416 victims in one-day internationals were bowled, and 17% lbw. Of bowlers with 50 or more wickets in ODIs, only four have a higher percentage of bowled victims, and none of them managed 100 overall; the Pakistan offspinner Tauseef Ahmed (55 wickets) leads the way with 42%. Waqar also took 17% of his victims with lbws. Only two bowlers – both current ones – exceed his overall percentage of 54% bowled or lbw: Mohammad Hafeez of Pakistan has taken 57% of his 122 ODI victims this way, and Abdur Razzak of Bangladesh (207 wickets) 56%.I think Courtney Walsh has bagged the most ducks in Tests. But does he hold the overall record for all international cricket? asked Craig Leatheran from the United States
Courtney Walsh collected a record 43 ducks in Tests, well clear of Chris Martin (36), Glenn McGrath (35) and Shane Warne (34). Next comes Muttiah Muralitharan with 33 – and it’s Murali who is on top of the overall list. He was out for 0 on 33 occasions in Tests, 24 times in one-day internationals (Sanath Jayasuriya leads the way there with 34), and twice in T20s, a grand total of 59 ducks. Next comes Walsh with 54, Jayasuriya with 53, and McGrath with 49. For the full list, click here.Isa Guha made her Test debut for England at the age of 17. Is she still the youngest woman to play in a Test? asked Daryl Montuya from Singapore
Isa Guha’s debut for England came against India in Taunton in 2002, when her first wicket was Mithali Raj for 214. The only younger England player at the time was Charlotte Edwards, now the captain, who was 16 in 1996 – but there have been two younger than Guha since: Sarah Taylor was 17 in 2006, while England’s youngest player remains Holly Colvin, only 15 when called up to play against Australia in Hove in 2005. Overall, though, Colvin is only fourth on the list, and Guha 11th: the youngest from any country to appear in a women’s Test match was 12-year-old Sajjida Shah, for Pakistan against Ireland in Dublin in 2000. For the full list, click here.Both captains kept wicket in the West Indies-Bangladesh Test in St Vincent. Has this ever happened before? asked Ian Hugo from Bangladesh
It’s quite rare for one captain in a Test match to keep wicket too, let alone both. Only 29 captains have kept wicket in Tests in which they skippered, and several of those were only temporary appointments. The double achieved by Denesh Ramdin and Mushfiqur Rahim in St Vincent and St Lucia has been seen before on only five previous occasions. It happened for the first time in a two-Test series in 1995-96, when New Zealand were captained by Lee Germon and Zimbabwe by Andy Flower in Hamilton and in Auckland. And it happened again in 2002-03, first in East London in 2002-03, when South Africa were captained by Mark Boucher and Bangladesh by Khaled Mashud, then later that same season in the two-Test series in Bangladesh, when Mashud was opposed by West Indies’ Ridley Jacobs in Dhaka and in Chittagong.

The profiles of 76 international and domestic stars gathered here charm and inspire, but they leave you yearning for more

Suresh Menon04-Oct-2014For years at the KSCA Stadium in Bangalore during Test matches, I have shared seats with some of the most passionate watchers of the game. Here, anecdotes flow, history is recalled, often whimsy and quirkiness reign, competing fantasies are bandied about (as when picking all-time XIs). Players, past and present, drop in to say hello, journalists clarify doubts.My companions have been Ramachandra Guha, Vedam Jaishankar and Makarand Waingankar; and what the last-named did not know about Mumbai cricket, it was accepted, was not worth knowing. Waingankar wore his love for Mumbai on his sleeve, and once argued with me over the “dropping” of a Mumbai player from an all-time India XI. He took it very personally.”The beauty of Mumbai cricket,” he writes in this collection of pen sketches of players, which first appeared in the , “was that one great era was followed by another greater one.” The 76 players discussed here range from India greats to Ranji heroes to maidan stalwarts.There is the story of Nari Contractor’s mother feeling uneasy and having to drop off at a railway station while travelling to Mumbai to give birth to the future India captain (as an aside, we are told that the engine driver was an uncle of Contractor’s). She didn’t make it to Mumbai but delivered the child in Gujarat. And that was how Contractor was eligible to play for Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy; he made his bow with centuries in each innings on debut.In the days when local players didn’t stay at the teams’ hotel, Budhi Kunderan, the former India wicketkeeper, who “lived in a [tenement] with six siblings” was forced to sleep outside in a garden with the “mosquitos around and the stars above” for company. This on the eve of a Test match against Australia.Waingankar mines a rich vein of such stories to compile an anecdotal history of the players who made Mumbai the team it became. Each essay leaves you with a desire for more, but the format of a newspaper column works against such depth or even range. And since these appeared over a period of time, there is some repetition of thoughts and ideas, which stands out when they are all put together between the covers of a book.Perhaps Waingankar should have told us more about fewer people, or expanded his original columns to suit the narrative of a book. He has also been let down by poor editing.Yet there is something charming, even inspiring, about the many stories told of cricket in Mumbai and those who played it there with a mixture of seriousness and often without any hope of climbing the ladder to the top. Read about the cricketer whose ambition was to be a mathematician, another who hit his first ball in the Ranji Trophy for a six, and the man who played in the Kanga League for 50 years in a row!Often, anecdotes tell us more about a player than statistics.Bombay Boys
Chronicles of Cricketing Heroes
By Makarand Waingankar
Times Group Books
224 pages, Rs 299

Stiaan van Zyl waited a whole day for his turn to bat, survived a few scary moments early on and methodically pushed past them to become the fifth South African to score a century on Test debut

Firdose Moonda in Centurion18-Dec-2014In any match that he plays, Stiaan van Zyl is usually padded up when the first ball is bowled. As a No.3 he needs to be. But on Test debut, he did not. Pencilled in at No.6, van Zyl was ready for a morning off when West Indies put South Africa in. But an hour later, the top-order tumbled and van Zyl found himself on the verge of an early entrance onto the international stage. He sat down to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.”Sitting there all day was quite mentally draining,” he said. “I walked around a bit to focus on other stuff.”By tea, the pad rash was no longer a concern. Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach, said van Zyl had joked that he was happy to keep waiting when Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers returned at the interval.He may not have expected to be waiting overnight but when he was, the anxiety kept him up. “I woke up at 1 and then 2:30 and 3:30 but then I had a decent sleep after that,” van Zyl said. “By the morning I was good to go.” And good to wait, luckily not for that long.Little over half-an-hour into the second day, de Villiers was dismissed and van Zyl’s big moment had arrived. His mom, dad and two of his friends from the Cape who had made the trip for the full five days had reason to sit up straighter and look a little closer. What they saw would have stressed them.The first ball van Zyl faced was from Sulieman Benn. There was not much menacing about it, perhaps a tinge of extra bounce and he almost played it to leg gully.”I was very nervous. Before I faced my first ball, my gloves were wet and I was shaking,” van Zyl said.Van Zyl kept his posse waiting for 10 deliveries before he finally managed to clip Benn away for his first international run. However, he had just barely avoided the short leg fielder.”It’s the best run I’ve got in my career. Just to get off that zero, it’s a different feeling, it’s like a house of bricks off your back,” he said. His captain could see the importance of the moment and celebrated the run with his debutant. “I said something like ‘I know it’s just one run but really well done,’ Amla said.Those well-wishes may have seemed premature when 14 balls later, van Zyl’s debut could have ended forgetfully. He turned Benn to leg gully, but Kraigg Brathwaite could not hold on. The let-off shook van Zyl, who realised the magnitude of the challenge he was facing, literally.”Benn is a bit taller than the normal spinners that I face in South Africa. There was a bit of bounce and bit of turn,” he said. “But as the innings went on, it became easier. It’s on the big stage but it’s still a cricket ball that comes to me and I actually just said to myself, if get past 10, I can take it from there and feel my way in.”A few short balls, some width, an invitation to bring out van Zyl’s cover drive and the introduction of Jermaine Blackwood all took him to a half-century before tea and that was when van Zyl began believing. “When I got to fifty, I realised maybe a hundred is on the cards. We chatted at lunch and the guys said we’re looking to bat a certain amount of overs.”Van Zyl had the motivation to score quickly and the right man at the other end – an aggressive South Africa captain with his eye on the big picture – to usher him through. His second fifty came off only 55 balls, as West Indies’ bowlers ran out of ideas and energy. Lethargic fielding even made rotating strike easy.Van Zyl still felt the novelty of seeing numbers change on the scoreboard and admitted that when his partnership with his captain began to blossom, he only cherished it more. “When I saw it get to 150, I wanted to take it to 200,” he said. “We recognise that stuff and it inspires me to go on.”The fifth-wicket stand did not grow to 200, but South Africa’s total scaled 550 and van Zyl became only the fifth person to score a century on debut for this team. He joins Andrew Hudson, Jacques Rudolph, Faf du Plessis and the man he may replace at the top of the order, Alviro Petersen, in that club and he hopes it is the start of something specialBut he knows his chances may be limited in future. “Scoring 100 on debut is a perfect start, a dream,” he said. “If there are changes to be made in the next few matches, maybe I’ve got to be the one that sits out. But if I get opportunity again, I’ll try my best.”

Adam Milne’s stunning boundary catch, Tim Southee’s searing yorker to Moeen Ali, Brendon McCullum’s hitting – there was plenty of action in Wellington

George Dobell and George Binoy in Wellington20-Feb-20151:20

‘Cake Tin defeat take the cake’

The ball
There was little swing and Moeen Ali had just hit three successive boundaries off him, but Tim Southee was not to be denied. After delivering a sharp bouncer to start the over – a little reminder to Moeen that he couldn’t just wait on the front foot – he delivered a perfect yorker two balls later. Swinging late, it punished Moeen for his lack of foot movement – perhaps due to that bouncer – and swung past the edge to hit off stump. It was probably the pick of a spell that also included wonderful deliveries to account for Ian Bell and James Taylor.The field
Brendon McCullum provided warm words towards his “champion” friend, Eoin Morgan, ahead of the match. But when the England captain came to the crease, McCullum went in for the kill. Looking around the field, Morgan would have seen three slips, a gully, a point and a short cover when Trent Boult bowled to him. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t a power-play period, McCullum knew that Morgan was in poor form and sensed a chance to cut deep into England’s middle-order. It was a moment that typifies the aggressive, unconventional approach of McCullum and a far cry from England’s formulaic method.The six
There were arguably more people wearing orange – the Dutch might have felt at home here – than any other colour in the crowd. All of them hoping a six would come their way and that they would catch it one-handed to earn a slice of a million-dollar pie. While England kept them waiting in vain for 33.2 overs, McCullum delivered second ball. With lightning hands he slashed, carving the ball high and far over point. It wasn’t caught one-handed by an orange-wearing fan, though.The save
Daniel Vettori is the old man in this New Zealand side so the sprints across the outfield and the crazy diving that his team-mates perform with nonchalance may not be for him anymore. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t save runs in the field. McCullum had sprinted in from mid-off to short cover and he swung around after picking up to try and run out Joe Root with a stinging throw. He missed, but Vettori was good enough to get to the stumps quickly and solid enough to collect the ball behind his body. England might have got five otherwise.The catch
Morgan had just punched Vettori towards long-on. Only the ball didn’t get that far because McCullum flew from midwicket and stopped the ball after it had already passed him. So Morgan decided to take McCullum out of the equation four deliveries later and lofted the ball straight towards the sight-screen, only to encounter another flying Kiwi. Adam Milne sped to his right from the boundary and timed his full-length dive to perfection to catch the England captain with both hands.The rule
With New Zealand requiring only 12 more runs to win and their batsmen going like a train – they were scoring at 12.44 runs per over – the game stopped for the interval. While common sense – and respect for the paying spectator – cried out fore the game to be played to an immediate conclusion, there is little room for common sense within the playing conditions. Instead the packed house was forced to wait for 45 minutes, by which time many people had gone home and a great deal of the atmosphere built by McCullum’s magnificent stroke-play had dissipated. Only in cricket….There are reasons, of course. In some circumstances it might have rained a few minutes into the break and England might have escaped with a point; Pakistan benefited similarly in the 1992 World Cup. But on a bright day with the weather set fair and the atmosphere building to a peak, it was a frustrating delay for the spectators.

Across the years, with his father’s help, Kumar Sangakkara has through tireless refinement, devised one of the most efficient all-format, all-condition techniques of all time

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Hobart10-Mar-2015In the back garden of a colonial home sitting snug against a hill above Kandy, Kshema Sangakkara sends throwdowns at his youngest son. Kumar is in his teens, and has become enamoured again with cricket after stints of badminton and tennis. Kshema doesn’t mind his switching sports. But he is firm that his son excels. So on weekend mornings, he rouses Kumar for hours of technical work and shadow batting. Who could have known then, it would one day come to so much?As Kumar Sangakkara enters the final phase of his career, he may reflect that he has been perhaps the most transformed batsmen of his era. Early-issue Sangakkara was a steady but limited accumulator, wielding an impulsive, imprecise version of that bent-kneed cover drive, and not many other powerful scoring shots to go with it. The livewire that has taken his final World Cup by the collar is a one-day wonder.That cover drive still grounds his attacking game, like a bassline to his rhythm of singles and twos. But the higher end of his range is now extraordinary. The slog sweeps, whip-pulls, slashes, ramps and over-the-shoulder scoops send his innings and his audience soaring. He has made 372 runs at a strike rate of 116.25 in a tournament where No. 3 batsmen have largely sought to hunker down, then cede focus to the hitters in the middle order.As he prepares for his final handful of ODIs, maybe Sangakkara will also know what has allowed him to build his cricket so relentlessly – to pile addition upon addition, a slew of renovations thrown in, all interlocking together to give speed to the whole. He has spent long weeks in the nets, fine-tuning this, redressing that, but all these changes were borne from something older, and much more elemental. Maybe he will reflect that it was on that Kandy hillside, that he acquired the basis for his dizzying success. Because it was not the balls that his father – a modest cricketer himself – threw him, that has made Sangakkara great. It was the words.”My father has been coaching me day in, day out,” Sangakkara said recently. “But he’s always told me: ‘Don’t be afraid of change.’ I think that’s the best thing I’ve been told, and that’s what I’ve been doing throughout my career – change when change was required. I tried to improve, and it’s been the background to my success.”He could hardly have espoused this philosophy more completely. While Mahela Jayawardene and Avishka Gunawardene were blazing through the school cricket system in the mid-1990s, Sangakkara was just a quaint name from the hills: a wicketkeeper-batsman with promise, but no sure thing to progress to national colours. His first spells at the top level were brittle, unsteady. After 35 ODI innings, his average was 21.86. After 75 knocks, it was still languishing in the mid-20s. A strike rate of less than 70 was no saving grace.Kshema has ever been Sangakkara’s first port of advice, and so after each mediocre stretch, after each extended dip in belief, it is his father Sangakkara goes to. The two often don’t agree. Sangakkara has been coached by some of the greatest names in his sport. He routinely plays for TV audiences in the tens of millions. So there are aspects of cricket Kshema does not understand, he feels. The father, meanwhile says the notes the son spurns are the most crucial to his game. There is fuss. There is friction. But there is also abundant fruit.Across the years, with his father’s help, Sangakkara has through tireless refinement, devised one of the most efficient all-format, all-condition techniques of all time. His current trigger movement is unrecognisable from the one he began with. His strokes are all so clean and precise, they could have come shrink-wrapped from the lab. Ask any top coach now which left-hander they model their young players on. Ask a statistician which batsman scores runs with the most control and consistency in every corner of the world. His peers have certainly taken notice.”He’s certainly as good as any player I’ve played against,” Michael Clarke said of Sangakkara last week. “Kumar and Jacques Kallis are two guys I’ve looked up to and think if they played for different countries, they could quite easily be regarded as the best ever. I think he’s batted at No. 3 for a lot of his career, in Test and one day cricket. It’s a really tough position, he’s scored runs all around the world against some very good bowling attacks. He’s been the number one batter in the world for a long, long time.”The match against Scotland could at worst be Sangakkara’s penultimate one-day game. At best it could be his fourth-to-last outing. Across one ocean and a continent, fans in Sangakkara’s island will be waking up to catch every moment of his sunset, because when he is at the crease he makes a nation feel secure. But it was not safety that has brought the man himself this far. Sangakkara has explored and evolved, without end, and without fear, the words of his father ringing in his ears.